[New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took the oath of office during a public inauguration ceremony at City Hall in New York City on Wednesday. Mayor de Blasio, along with his wife Chirlane McCray, and his children Chiara and Dante, took the subway to the ceremony. In his address, he promised to "leave no New Yorker behind." Image by Seth Wenig via AP]

[The ground of New York City's Times Square early New Year's Day was littered with confetti, garbage, and Lord knows what else. In the distance, you can see Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, an exclusive restaurant that sold New Year's Eve party tickets for $679. Photo by Tine Fineberg via AP]

Those of us who write words for Gawker, Jezebel and Deadspin have an unbelievable safety net: The work of art director Jim Cooke and staff artist Sam Woolley, whose disturbingly good and quickly assembled images turn bad ideas and half-baked concepts into classic posts. Here are some of our favorites from 2013.

[Pigeons fly outside the Karti Sakhi shrine in Kabul. Photo by Rahmat Gul via AP]

[During a session with the Dalai Lama on Sunday, one novice monk got distracted. The religious leader has been at the Sera Monastery delivering the ten-day-long series of Jangchup Lamrim teachings since Wednesday. Image by Abhishek N. Chinnappa via AP.]

[A Palestinian man rides a horse on a Gaza beach Saturday evening as the sun sets in Gaza City. Image by Hatem Moussa via AP]

[Britney Spears, 32, began her two-year residency at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas Friday night. While some attendees loved the show featuring a "frequently airborne Spears," others complained Spears hadn't "donned the sexy school girl outfit or the skintight orange jumpsuit she wore in sexier days." Image via AP]

[Above is a stunning aerial shot of an eruption of the Japanese volcano Sakurajima taken this January from the International Space Station. Wired has more of NASA's best photos of 2013.]

[Greenpeace International activist Mannes Ubels of Netherlands jumps holding his passport as he celebrates getting permission to leave Russia yesterday. Russian investigators have dropped charges against all of the 30 crew of a Greenpeace ship, who were accused of hooliganism following a protest outside a Russian oil rig in the Arctic. Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky via AP.]

[A Spanish reveler jumps into the harbor near Las Ramblas for the 104th annual Barcelona Christmas swim. The Copa Nadal, a 200 meter swim, has skipped only three years — when the Spanish Civil War interrupted proceedings between 1936 and 1938. Photo by David Ramos via Getty Images.]

[Australians celebrate Christmas Day as a man named Jesus does a handstand on Bondi Beach in Sydney. Image by Don Arnold via Getty.]

[A diver dressed as Santa Claus surfaces after swimming in the Coral Garden tank at the South East Asia Aquarium of Resorts World Sentosa, a popular tourist attraction in Singapore. Photo by Wong Maye-E via AP]

[A Scottish reindeer caretaker feeds the herd on a snowy Monday. There are about 130 reindeer currently living in the UK, and their number is kept low by tightly-controlled breeding. Photo by Jeff J Mitchell via Getty.]

[Workers of a gas station celebrate with friends and clients after winning the second prize of the Christmas lottery "El Gordo" ("The Fat One") in Spain. Photo by Andres Gutierrez via AP]

[Newlyweds Mikhail and Margarita Nakonechniy share a tender moment in front of barricades on Independence Square, in a gesture of support for pro-Europe activists in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo by Sergei Chuzavkov via AP]

[An Indonesian sulfur miner carries a goat's head in as part of an annual offering ceremony on the Ijen volcano: first they slaughter the goat, then bury the head in the crater of the volcano for good luck. The acidity of the water in the crater is apparently high enough to dissolve clothing. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti via Getty.]

[Cecil Williams, a 61-year-old blind man, was struck by a train after he fainted on the subway platform this morning. His seeing eye dog tried to stop him from falling and barked, alerting passersby. Both Williams and his dog, Orlando, were hit, but escaped serious injuries. "The dog saved my life," Williams said. Photo by John Minchillo via AP.]

[Mount Etna just won't stop erupting. The latest lava spectacle shot up this weekend, spewing ash and shutting down Catania's airport in eastern Sicily. According to NBC, Mt. Etna produces enough lava each year to fill the Willis Tower in Chicago. Photo by Salvatore Allegra via AP.]

[A group of Zulu warriors from KwaZulu Natal watch jets fly over the burial of former South African president Nelson Mandela from a public viewing tent nearby. Photo by Antoine de Ras via AP]