An activist kicks the shields of the military police officers during a demonstration in the military zone of the 27th infantry battalion in Iguala, Guerrero, January 12, 2015. Activists and relatives of the 43 missing trainee teachers from Ayotzinapa's teacher training college broke into the military zone, located less than a mile from where the students went missing, in an attempt to look for the missing students.The remains of only one of the 43 students has been identified so far. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)

Catwalks hang over a section of the newly constructed eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during a media tour of the self-anchored suspension span tower on August 29, 2011 in Oakland, California. Contruction crews have erected twelve foot wide catwalks that connect to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge self-anchored suspension span's tower and crews will begin to lay the nearly one mile of main cable beginning in early 2012. The bridge has been under constrution since 2002 with an estimated price tag of $6.3 billion and will have the world's tallest Self-Anchored Suspension (SAS) tower once completed. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/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.

Ebiowei, 48, carries an empty oil container on his head to a place where it would be filled with refined fuel at an illegal refinery site near river Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. Locals in the industry say workers can earn $50 to $60 a day. Thousands of people in Nigeria engage in a practice known locally as “oil bunkering” – hacking into pipelines to steal crude then refining it or selling it abroad. The practice, which leaves oil spewing from pipelines for miles around, managed to lift around a fifth of Nigeria's two million barrel a day production last year according to the finance ministry. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Back dropped by planet Earth the International Space Station (ISS) is seen from NASA space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation May 29, 2011 in space. After 20 years, 25 missions and more than 115 million miles in space, NASA space shuttle Endeavour is on the last leg of its final flight to the International Space Station before being retired and donated to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Capt. Mark E. Kelly, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D-AZ) husband, has lead mission STS-134 as it delivered the Express Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-2) to the International Space Station. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

Spanish runner Francisco Contreras, 77, known as “Super Paco”, runs as he participates in the XVIII 101km international competition in the outskirts of Ronda, southern Spain, May 9, 2015. About 7,000 participants, including runners, mountain bikers and duathletes, run a track of 101 km (63 miles) in less than 24 hours through the “Serrania de Ronda” (Ronda Mountain Range) during this competition organised by the 4th Tercio (Regiment) “Alejandro Farnesio” of the Spanish Legion. The Puente Nuevo is 120 metres (394 feet) high over the gorge of the river that divides the city of Ronda. Picture taken using long exposure. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

This undated photograph shows one of the 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs discovered by a team headed by University of Delhi professor Sathyabhama Das Biju in the jungle mountains of southern India. The study listing the new species brings the number of known Indian dancing frogs to 24 and attempts the first near-complete taxonomic sampling of the single-genus family found exclusively in southern India's lush mountain range called the Western Ghats, which stretches 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) from the west state of Maharashtra down to the country's southern tip. (Photo by Satyabhama Das Biju/AP Photo)

A member of the United States Naval Academy freshman class crawls through trenches at the wet and sandy station during the annual Sea Trials training exercise at the U.S. Naval Academy on May 13, 2014 in Annapolis, Maryland. For 14 hours, the United States Naval Academy freshman class, also known as Plebes, worked as a team to complete many grueling physical and mental challenges that help prepare them for real-world experiences and reinforce leadership, bonds, trust, and teamwork. Of the challenges, they endured: a two-mile regimental run, ground fights, water tactics, aquatics challenges, and survival skills, amongst many others. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)