National Geographic’s Top 10 Photos of 2008

National Geographic has revealed its top 10 most viewed photos of 2008, and it’s quite a fascinating gallery. At number 10 is the photo of the “uncontacted” Amazon tribe taken from an airplane. Others on the list include a variety of giant animals – including squid, stingrays and starfish – as well as a leopard in the snow, a deadlock between a frog and a snake and an absolutely amazing capture of a “dirty thunderstorm”, in which a volcanic eruption produces a lightning-laced storm that looks like hell on earth.

From National Geographic:

10. “Uncontacted” Tribe Seen in Amazon

Shown in National Geographic News’s tenth most viewed individual photo of 2008, members of an “uncontacted” Amazon tribe fire arrows at an airplane above the rain forest borderlands of Peru and Brazil in May. The natural dyes covering their bodies probably signal aggression, native-rights experts say.

Later it was revealed that, though this tribe apparently is truly uncontacted, authorities have known about it for decades.

See the rest over at National Geographic.

Link [National Geographic]

National Geographic, Stephen Colbert Among 2008 Webby Awards Winners

“Respected… Trustworthy… Smooth. There’s only one word to describe it: Trustigious.” Stephen Colbert will undoubtedly be making an extra fist-pumping self congratulatory jog around the studio on the set of his Comedy Central show tonight after winning Webby Person of the Year. From The Huffington Post:

As host of cable television’s “The Colbert Report,” Colbert has managed to persuade fans to inject his version of reality into the user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia while getting Web sites to add enough references to him that a Google search for “greatest living American” at one point brought his Colbert Nation Web site to the top.

In naming him Webby Person of the Year, judges recognized his online fan base and credited him with raising more than $250,000 online for an education charity.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Colbert spoke of how instantly he gets feedback from his audience online:

“The Web is essentially improvisational. … The Internet is the shortest, hardest wall against which your voice will echo back,” Colbert said. “It’s a big place, but, boy, you get an echo back really fast.”

National Geographic Online won the Magazine and People’s Choice categories.

Other winners included Stephen Gondry for encouraging people to remake their favorite films in honor of his movie ‘Be Kind Rewind’, will.i.am for his ‘Yes We Can’ video supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama and The Onion for all around awesomeness.

Link [Huffington Post] + [Webby Awards]

Photo credit: AP Photo/Jason DeCrow