Local youth representatives dressed a Stormtrooper and Darth Vader (L-in black) from the Star Wars film franchise patrol in a wooden boat around a submerged village to remind residents to stay at home during the enhanced community quarantine in suburban Manila on May 6, 2020, as part of government's efforts to combat the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

Kokeshi dolls these traditional wooden figurines were said to have been originally made as souvenirs to sell to people visiting the local hot springs in Northern Japan. Although there are about 10 different styles, each doll is made with an enlarged head and cylindrical body with no arms or legs.

“Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard (and often referred to by his initials, LRH), was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help system called Dianetics which was first published in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation”. – Wikipedia

Photo: American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, uses his Hubbard Electrometer (patent pending) to determine whether tomatoes experience pain, 1959. His work led him to the conclusion that tomatoes “scream when sliced”. (Photo by Scott Lauder/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A relic hunter dubbed “Indiana Bones” has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe. Art historian Paul Koudounaris has hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments. Photo: Albertus in the church of St George in Burgrain, Germany. Incredibly, some of the skeletons, which took up to five years to decorate, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers. (Photo by Paul Koudounaris/BNPS)

“Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A fireball billows up from a 52-foot tall wooden man as it goes up in flames September 2, 2000 during the15th annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert near Gerlach, Nevada. Despite high winds, dust storms, and a bit of rain, some 27,000 people camped out on a remote desert playa, or dry lake, for the week-long counter-cultural celebration of art and “radical self-expression”. (Photo by David McNew/Newsmakers)

Labourers push wooden boards before carrying them to construct a temporary pontoon bridge over the Ganges river for the upcoming Hindu festival of Magh Mela in Allahabad on November 24, 2019. The Magh Mela is held every year on the banks of Triveni Sangam – the confluence of the three great rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mystical Saraswati – in Allahabad during the Hindu month of Magh which corresponds to mid January – mid February. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A man wears a busho mask and a costume made of sheep pelt while climbing up a ladder outside a barn in Mohacs, Hungary, 20 February 2020, on the first day of carnival. The traditional Busho carnival, which marks the end of winter, dates back to the 16th century. According to local legend, members of an ethnic South Slavic group living in Mohacs at the time dressed up in similar costumes and wore wooden masks to scare away Ottoman invaders, who mistook them for demons. (Photo by Tamas Soki/EPA/EFE)

Daring motorists entertain spectators by dangerously driving cars and motorcycles on a vertical “wall of death” in Manikgonj, Bangladesh on January 17, 2023. Performers travel without any protective gear at speeds of up to 80 km/h so that their vehicles can balance on the 25 feet high wooden plank. (Photo by Syed Mahabubul Kader/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)