Terashima Takeshi and Akaishi Kazuya of Japan block a shot from Indonesia during day one of the ISTAF Super Series at Palembang Sport Convention Center on February 23, 2012 in Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo by Nicky Loh/Getty Images for UFA Sports)

Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders perform before the game against the New England Patriots in Arlington, Texas on October 1, 2023. (Photo by Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports)

Members of the Washington Wizards Dancers dance during a timeout against the Utah Jazz in the second quarter at Capital One Arena in Washington, District of Columbia on January 25, 2024. (Photo by Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)

Members of the Brooklynettes dance team perform during the second quarter between the Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors in New York on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Brad Penner/USA Today Sports)

“Cockayne syndrome (also called Weber-Cockayne syndrome, or Neill-Dingwall Syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive congenital disorder characterized by growth failure, impaired development of the nervous system, abnormal sensitivity to sunlight (photosensitivity), and premature aging. Hearing loss and eye abnormalities (pigmentary retinopathy) are other common features, but problems with any or all of the internal organs are possible. It is associated with a group of disorders called leukodystrophies. The underlying disorder is a defect in a DNA repair mechanism. It is named after English physician Edward Alfred Cockayne (1880–1956)”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Mother of 12-year-old Chinese girl Sun Yangyang suffering from Cockayne syndrome, tends her at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University on November 11, 2006 in Changchun of Jilin Province, China. The disease results in the senile appearance of Yangyang and also causes eyesight, hearing weakness and other problems. Doctors failed to cure the girl... (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Dead sperm whales are seen washed up on a beach on Texel Island, The Netherlands, January 13, 2016. The five sperm whales that beached on the Dutch lsland of Texel on Tuesday have died overnight, Dutch media reported. It is extremely unusual for so many whales to be in Dutch waters, a spokesman for the Ecomare marine centre told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. Efforts to get the whales back into open water on Tuesday evening failed and rescuers finally withdrew from the beach at around midnight. The area of beach where the whales are has been closed to the public, to minimise the distress to the animals. (Photo by Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters)

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.

In this photo taken on Thursday, September 6, 2018, a women releases an arrow during an archery competition during the Third Nomad Games, in Cholpon-Ata, 250 kilometers (156 miles) of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan held its biennial Nomad Games to promote and celebrate traditional sports of nomadic people. The week-long competition, which is held in a gorge near the picturesque Lake Issyk-Kul, feature traditional sports of nomad peoples such as horseback wrestling and goat polo. (Photo by Vladimir Voronin/AP Photo)