These are photos of human suffering, from war to natural disaster, and mixed in are images of stunning beauty. The result is an emotional rollercoaster and a window to our world. Some photos you’ll recognize from newsstories, others will come as a surprise. It’s like a summing up of some of the most important stories from the past year, through photos and captions.

The current exhibition is almost at the end of its world tour, but you can view all the photos online as well. I highly recommend it, though be prepared that you may find some of the images disturbing.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

Way back when, I posted about the demise of the Polaroid. There are many of us, who were sad to see it go, but in this world of creative people, when one fun thing goes away, another is ready to step up. Meet Poladroid, a cute little application that can transform any photo to something vaguely resembling a Polaroid.

Okay, in reality it doesn’t even come close, but it’s still a fun little program to play with. You grab a photo (full res is better than tiny) and simply drag it onto a small Polaroid camera on your desktop. A tiny frame will pop up and slowly develop into your new image. Once the “development” is done, the new picture is automatically saved to your harddrive. Easy and fun.

The result looks more like a fake cross-process than an actual Polaroid, if you ask me, but I happen to like both. And it’s not like this is meant for commercial use. Though given the right project, it might be useful. Either way, Poladroid is completely free, so bitching is not allowed. At the moment, it is only available for Mac, but according to the site a Windows version is on the way.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

I could’ve used Flickr, and as it is, the blog is launching with some of my favorite shots from my Flickr account. But I use Flickr for everything, including a bunch of personal snapshots, that you might argue waters down my good work. And I thought about posting pictures on my other blog, but that one’s sort of geared for text-heavy posts, and I wanted this to be the exact opposite.

Oh, and I’d had this domain laying around for a while, not knowing exactly what to do with it.

So, without further ado, I invite you to hop on over to Ultra Mega 2000 and take a peek. As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot there yet, but you could subscribe to the RSS-feed, if you want to keep up with future posts.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

Maybe it’s because I wasn’t born and raised in the US, that I find diners so strangely appealing and utterly fascinating. Stepping into a classic diner is like taking a step back in time, or into the Twilight Zone. The food is usually greasy, the decor kitchy and the coffee weak, but nothing says americana quite like a diner. That’s why I’ve picked this group as the second one in my series on Flickr groups.

Perhaps the greatest thing about these groups is, that they are a place to find inspiration for your own photos as well as like-minded enthusiasts. And yet, you don’t have to be some kind of crazy (in this case) diner-maniac. A casual interest is enough. To gauge whether or not there is a huge community within a group, check out its attached discussion boards. A lot of activitiy indicates an active community. This one’s not exactly bustling with activity, but they don’t have to be, to contain interesting photos.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

Case in point: Andrew Zuckerman’s Wisdom Book Project. A very cool idea; asking a bunch of smart, famous people what wisdom is, turning it into a short film and a book. I’m all for it and the short movie is well worth watching a couple of times. But be warned. If you decide to click the link, your browser will be resized to fill your entire screen. The only reason, I did not close this site immediately, was because I love these types of projects. Even so, I had to convince myself to give it a chance.

When I first read about the Wisdom Book, I really wanted to recommend it to everyone, but getting annoyed by the site’s design kept me from it. And as you can see, when I finally did come around to recommending the content, I did so while kvetching about its packaging. And I don’t think, I’m alone in this either. So designers, please stop doing this. Please. I beg you!

Photo credit: CamiloTorres.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

I picked this group, because of the fanatical devotion of its members. And I mean that in a positive way. Out of my 10 most popular photos on flickr, 9 of them are Moleskine related. And it’s not that they’re amazing pictures either. People just go ga-ga for these little books. So do I for that matter.

But even if you’re not crazy for the ’skine, the group is definitely worth checking out. It’s full of imaginative doodles, collages and illustrations. It’s like a window into the collective imagination of people from all over the world, and how can that not be inspiring? And of course it is. So, whether you’re a Moleskine fanatic or not, head on over and take a peek.

Pick an image from your portfolio, that you thought would be a bigger seller than it is, then add as many different three-word captions as you can think of. So long as they match the actual photo. Then take a best-selling photo and do the same. Chances are that the latter will have a longer list than the first one. If it’s the other way around, that would indicate that something is wrong. Perhaps your keywords are off? Perhaps you are just not used to thinking in terms of captions and usefulness? Whatever the reason, this exercise might help you discover holes - or maybe inspire you.

Alternatively, you could take an image that sold more than you were expecting and try it again.

Above is one of my shots, that I’ll throw some captions on. If you’re too lazy to try this on one of your own images, you can start by making a list of captions to go with mine and cross-reference it. Did you get more than me? Awesome! It means my photo has more potential than I imagined. At least that’s how I choose to interpret it.

Without further ado, here is the list of 10 three-word captions. Feel free to add your own.

• Thinking About Her (original title)
• Full of Ideas
• Leaving Stress Behind
• Contentment is King
• The Good Life
• Ah, Those Memories
• It’s Looking Up
• Finding My Inspiration
• Job Well Done
• A Positive Outlook

These are all centered around positivity and good news, but I could have focused on other aspects of the photo as well, from the clothes he is wearing to the implied urban setting (brick walls say city). This challenge can also help you keyword your images.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

Avery, the giant producer of various labels and office templates, has recently partnered with iStockphoto, giving buyers access to the collection. What effect that will have on sales depends on a lot of things, such as how obvious and easy it is for Avery template users to download and attach images, but any way you look at it, it’s good news for all iStockphoto contributors.

Right now, there’s also a T-shirt contest going on. The winning design will be printed on the next iStockphoto tee and the designer will be awarded five hundred bucks.

There is always a ton going on at iStock. Recently, the big Punctum Day Award was handed out in the form of $5,000 prizes to five very talented photographers. On top of that, iStock recently gave all their exclusive contributors 100% royalties for one day and double referral rewards for an entire month. Did I mention the Battle Royale, where designers do Photoshop battles against each other for cash prizes and prestige? So many things are happening, that it’s hard to keep up.

If you’re already signed up, make sure you’re also recieving the newsletter, so you won’t miss out on these and future developments and offers. And if you haven’t signed up yet, now is a good time to do so.

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.

In short, the story is about a mutation of tuberculosis, which is drug resistant and is already killing people in many countries. It’s a story we haven’t heard much about before now, but hopefully this will help shed light on the situation.

I’m not going to go into detail here, but just encourage you to watch the video and make up your own mind. As can be expected, the pictures are hard to watch yet beautiful at the same time.

Last year, Nachtwey won the TED Prize, which includes making a wish. His was to help create awareness about a story, he feels is important to the world. I don’t know what it is yet, but if this man asks me to help, I will. The story breaks on October 3rd.

Watch the video, where Nachtwey describes his journey through many conflicts all over the planet, leading up to his wish. Along the way, we see pictures from the areas he’s been to and are told the story behind them. It is not for the faint hearted, but even they should watch this. It’s that important.