“The Darwin Beer Can Regatta is an event which has been held annually since 1974 in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia at Mindil Beach. Participants create boats using empty beer cans, soft drink (soda) cans, soft drink bottle and milk cartons. The vessels are not tested for seaworthiness, prior to water events, and those that fall apart are part of the day's entertainment. A great many sundry events go along with the regatta, including concerts, a thong-throwing contest and the "Henley-on-Mindil" competition (named after the Henley-on-Todd Regatta), where participants run their "boats" around like Flintstones cars”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A Darwin Beer Can Boat sails in Darling Harbour on October 31, in Sydney, Australia. Darwin has been named as one of Lonely Planet's top ten cities in the world to visit in it's Best in Travel publication. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images for Tourism NT)

It would seem to be something you'd see only in a cartoon or at a Phish concert, but according to park rangers in New South Wales, Australia, dozens of giant, fluorescent pink slugs have been popping up on a mountaintop there. The eight-inch creatures have been spotted only on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range in northern New South Wales. Scientists believe the eye-catching organisms are survivors from an era when Australia was home to rainforests. A series of volcanoes, millions of years of erosion and other geological changes “have carved a dramatic landscape at Mount Kaputar”, the park service wrote on its Facebook page, and unique arid conditions spared the slugs from extinction. (Photo by Michael Murphy/AFP Photo/NSW Environment Office)

Birds fly over the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan July 29, 2015. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing about 140,000 by the end of the year in a city of 350,000 residents, in the world's first nuclear attack. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Influenced by the shadows scorched into outdoor surfaces by the heat of the blasts 70 years ago, Reuters photographer Issei Kato pays homage to survivors, residents and historic buildings in both cities in a personal project that captures the shadows of today. (Photo by Issei Kato/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.

“Bear Grylls, (born Edward Michael Grylls, 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Man vs. Wild, known as Born Survivor in the United Kingdom. He was the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35”. – Wikipedia

Photos: Passer inspects “Camelot”, a replica camel carcass simulating that used by adventurer Bear Grylls to shelter in the Sahara desert during an episode of the Discovery Channel's “Man Vs. Wild”, in Wynyard Park on March 1, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Discovery Channel via Getty Images)

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.

Youth category winner: Symphony No 5 by Giacomo Redaelli (Italy). (Photo by Giacomo Redaelli/2019 Nature Photographer of the Year)

A woman cries near the flowers, brought to the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, 28 June 2022. At least 18 people died following Russian airstrikes on the crowded shopping mall, the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine said in a Telegram post. The Amstor shopping center one-story building was hit by Russian rockets on 27 June afternoon. (Photo by Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA/EFE)