A devotee of the Chinese shrine of Kathu Shrine, pierces his cheeks with umbrellas during a procession of Vegetarian Festival on October 4, 2011 in Phuket, Thailand. Ritual Vegetarianism in Phuket Island traces it roots back to the early 1800's. The festival begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts for nine days. Participants in the festival perform acts of body piercing as a means of shifting evil spirits from individuals onto themselves and bring the community good luck. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Men work at a makeshift oil refinery site in Marchmarin town, southern countryside of Idlib, Syria December 16, 2015. The refinery site, owned by Yousef Ayoub, 34, has been active for 4 months. Ayoub says that he gets the crude oil from Islamic State-controlled areas in Deir al-Zor province and Iraq. The price for a barrel of crude oil varies and is controlled by the Islamic State, but it is currently at $44 dollars per barrel, he said. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

Tacos of Cochinita Pibil, a popular dish from Yucatan, are seen during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the world's longest taco in Guadalajara February 15, 2015. Guadalajara broke the Guinness record for the longest taco of cochinita pibil, with a length of 2.5 kilometers, as part of the COME gastronomy festival, local media reported. For the preparation of the traditional dish, the chefs used 4 tons of pork, 36,000 tortillas and spices for 325 taco servings. (Photo by Alejandro Acosta/Reuters)

People carrying torches march during the traditional Bonfire Celebrations in Lewes, Britain on November 4, 2017. Lewes holds Britain's largest Bonfire night celebrations. The event marks Guy Fawkes Night and the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and commemorates the memory seventeen Protestant martyrs from the town who were burned at the stake. Thousands gather with flaming torches to march through the street and burn effigies. (Photo by Neil Hall/EPA/EFE)

“Pripyat is a ghost town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, part of Kiev Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A view of empty houses in the deserted town of Pripyat near the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant Ukraine, November 27, 2012. Pripyat, the city of 47,000 had already been evacuated after the April 26, 1986, explosion of Reactor No. 4 (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

Chicago-based illustrator Alex Solis created fat versions of famous pop culture characters in this funny illustration series entitled “Famous Chunkies”.

Monastic dormitories stand on the hillside at the Serthar Wuming Buddhist Study Institute on November 4, 2006 in Serthar County of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. The Wuming Buddhist Study Institute is located in Larung Gar Monastery on an altitude of 3,700 meters (about 12,136 feet). The institute has the largest conglomeration of monks and nuns in Tibetan Areas, with over 40,000 monastics from the Tibet Buddhism Nyingma School, Gelug School, Sakya School and Kagyu School, including more than 10,000 nuns. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)