Mount Whaleback iron ore mine 23°21’32.3”S, 119°40’40.1”E. The Mount Whaleback Iron Ore Mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Roughly 98% of the world’s mined iron ore is used to make steel and is thus a significant component in the construction of buildings, automobiles, and appliances such as refrigerators. (Photo by Daily Overview/DigitalGlobe, a Maxar Company)

A Palestinian girl watches from the balcony of her house as Israeli soldiers conduct a security operation in the village of Aqraba, east of Nablus in the occupied-West Bank, on May 3, 2021. Suspected Palestinian gunmen carried out a drive-by shooting at a nearby junction the previous, leaving three Israeli civilians wounded, one of them in critical condition, with a manhunt underway. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP Photo)

A general view of the Vintage and Rare Guitars shop on Denmark Street on April 20, 2011 in London, England. Denmark Street, in the Soho area of central London, traces its musical connections back to the 1890s and is famous for its connection to contemporary British music after recording studios started setting up there in the 1960s. Many world-renowned recording artists, including: Jimi Hendrix, The s*x Pistols and Elton John have played and recorded in the street. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album in 1964 at the street's Regent Sounds Studio's. Known as London's 'Tin Pan Alley' Denmark Street is regarded as one of, if not the, best music streets in Europe and contains numerous specialist music shops, with many boasting of a long and prestigious musical history.

“NASA's Pathfinder, Pathfinder Plus, Centurion and Helios Prototype were an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as “atmospheric satellites”, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The solar-electric Helios Prototype flying wing is flies over the Hawaiian islands of Niihau and Lehua during the first solar-powered test flight July 14, 2001 from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, HI. The 18-hour flight was a functional checkout of the aircraft's systems and performance in preparation for an attempt to reach sustained flight at 100,000 feet altitude later in the summer. (Photo Courtesy of NASA/Getty Images)

A woman poses on the flooded St. Mark's square during an acqua-alta (high-water) alert in Venice, on November 19, 2013. (Photo by Andrea Pattaro/AFP Photo)

P.S. All pictures, as usual, are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

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.

Thoughts. They fly through the broad expenses of our mind, floating gracefully in midair, going into the clouds, and then reemerging once again. Some are quick and furtive, others are grand and majestic. We reflect upon them as they enter our minds, and once they leave, they are usually gone for good. However, some thoughts are different. These thoughts resemble a flock of angry birds or a swarm of hungry moths that invade your mind, slowly eating away at your sanity, strength, and desire to live. Such thoughts often plague that minds of people with Obsessive Compulsive disorder. They completely occupy their time; constantly there; ever-present. With his book sculpture, Thomas Wightman was able to accurately convey the way these thoughts consume the mind, slowly building a nest within it, resisting all attempts to drive them away.

Professional wrestlers Helen Charlotte Campbell and Dark Sheik (R) compete during an evening of wrestling entertainment, presented by promoter “TNT Extreme Wrestling'” in Liverpool, northern England, on September 17, 2023. The event pitted UK-based wrestlers representing 'TNT Extreme Wrestling' against US wrestlers from “Game Changer Wrestling” and featured Helen Charlotte Campbell versus Dark Sheik, which is understood to be the first singles wrestling match between binary trans women in the UK. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)