The galactic core of the Milky Way glows brightly in the clear night sky above St Catherine?s Chapel at Abbotsbury in Dorset, UK on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hunt/Alamy Live News)

An aerial view shows a packed parking lot at Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, November 28, 2024, as early Black Friday shoppers arrive at the mall. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

In this photo taken with a long exposure, a person walks a dog past Christmas lights in a park, Sunday, December 15, 2024, in Lenexa, Kan. (Photo by USA Today)

Photographer John Fatkin captured these jaw-dropping images of a rainbow and ferry on the River Tyne, England, with the iconic red-painted Herd Groyne Lighthouse. (Photo by Tom Fatkin/Cover Images)

Two 70 thousand RMB (about 11,310 USD) robots carry dishes and offer service for customers at a robot themed restaurant at Chunxi Road in Chengdu, China, December 11, 2014. The restaurant has 10 robots to serve as waiters. Each robot can carry simple dishes and offer simple greetings. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

Roped up climbers leave the summit of Breithorn at 4,164 metres (13,661 feet) on the ridge marking the border with Switzerland (left) and Italy in the Alpine resort of Zermatt August 4, 2014. Switzerland will vote on November 30 on an initiative from the group Ecopop which proposes a cap on the number of immigrants. The group says it is motivated by concerns about a lack of living space exerting too much pressure on the land and natural resources, rather than by opposition to foreigners. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

The civilised world lies on its knees, a sickness wracking its body. The affliction causes a necrotising of tissues so perfectly uniform in distribution that victims take on the appearance of corpses long before death occurs due to organ failure or secondary infections. ...