Sea of clouds is seen after a rainfall at the Huangshan Mountain scenic spot on April 10, 2019 in Huangshan, Anhui Province of China. (Photo by Fang Lihua/Qianlong.com/VCG via Getty Images)

Lava crosses the main road to Grindavík and flows on the road leading to the Blue Lagoon, in Grindavík, Iceland, Thursday, February 8, 2024. (Photo by Marco Di Marco/AP Photo)

A Palestinian boy reacts to a sheep at a livestock market ahead of the Eid al-Adha (feast of sacrifice) in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on July 16, 2021. Known as the “big” festival, Eid Al-Adha is celebrated each year by Muslims sacrificing various animals according to religious traditions. (Photo by Mosab Shawer/AFP Photo)

Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, Expedition 40 flight engineer, attired in a Russian Orlan spacesuit, participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA) in support of science and maintenance on the International Space Station on August 18, 2014. During the five-hour, 11-minute spacewalk, Skvortsov and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev (out of frame) deployed a small science satellite, retrieved and installed experiment packages and inspected components on the exterior of the orbital laboratory. (Photo by NASA)

America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually. Fright Nights attendees make a turn through one of four haunted houses at this year's spooking season setup at the South Florida Fairgrounds. This house is named The Smiths and was created by Craig McInnis. (Photo by The Palm Beach Post)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

How sure are you of your geographical knowledge? Buzzfeed recently put Americans’ geographical knowledge to the test with a survey in which participants had to write in countries’ names on a blank European political map. Unfortunately, they didn’t fare too well, but some of their responses are hilarious (or hilariously mis-informed). But don’t be so quick to judge Americans – when Buzzfeed posted a similar survey testing Brits’ knowledge of the 50 United States, they also came up short. On the one hand, knowing a country’s states is different from knowing independent countries, but on the other, some U.S. states are larger than some European nations, and some U.S. states have larger economies than some European nations.

The photo project was done for the organization Fishlove and included some other U.K.-based celebrities posing in the buff with critters ranging from bass fish to sharks. Its goal is to raise awareness of how overfishing is destroying the oceans. The release of Gillian's nearly nude pic, which was snapped by French portrait photographer Denis Rouvre, is timed with a European Parliament vote on banning destructive forms of deep-sea fishing in the Northeast Atlantic. The Fishlove organization is trying to rally voters to sign a petition ending deep-sea trawling – which, according to scientists, is negatively impacting the fish population and their habits – and Gillian solicited signatures in a Twitter post. Photo: “Fish Love” Project by Photographer Denis Rouvre. Gillian Anderson. (Photo by Denis Rouvre)