A partial solar eclipse is seen in a break in the clouds during rush hour in downtown Wichita Kan., Thursday, October 23, 2014. A partial eclipse occurs when the moon covers a portion of the sun as seen from the Earth. (AP Photo/The Wichita Eagle, Travis Heying)

At the end of rice harvesting season, the folks of the Kagawa and Niigata Prefectures in Japan hold a straw festival to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Dried straws cover wooden frames to form larger-than-life sculptures from animals like sharks and gorillas to vessels such as ships and tanks. The family-friendly event invites visitors of all ages to engage, interact, and play on the enormous structures.

An exterior view of Rauceby, an abandoned mental asylum in Lincolnshire, UK. These haunting photos show the collapsing remains of a derelict mental asylum. The pictures show the ruined former hospital building and chapel, now covered in dust and graffiti. Few signs remain that reveal the site as a former home of mentally ill adults and children. (Photo by Simon Robson/Caters News)

From Manhattan and Brooklyn's trendiest neighborhoods to the far-flung edges of theouter boroughs, Will Ellis has spent the last three years photographing and researching the lost and lonely corners of the United States' most populous city. His photo book Abandoned NYC is packed with 150 color images of sixteen of New York's most beautiful and mysterious abandoned spaces, paired with detailed essays on the fascinating history of these forgotten sites. Here: Letchworth Village is located just an hour's drive from NYC in Thiells, NY. It was founded in 1912 to house the city's developmentally disabled as a ”state institution for the epileptic and feeble-minded”. (Photo by Will Ellis)

A 41-year-old man going by the name of Chibatman rides his “Chibatpod” on the road in Chiba, east of Tokyo, August 31, 2014. The man, who dresses up as the comic book superhero Batman, came up with his moniker after adding a prefix of the first three letters of the city name, of which he roams on his three-wheeled motorcycle. However, unlike the hero from the Batman series, he rides around in his machine, designed from inspiration of the “Batpod” from the movies The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, delivering smiles instead of fighting crime. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

We place too much value into something as elusive as time. This is the lesson that Arina Pozdnyak, the creator of Perpetual Calendar, is trying to teach us. Days fly by, and even months are mere speckles of sand in an hourglass of eternity. People do not realize that the time given to us by fate cannot be measured using months or even years. It is measured using emotions and impressions. If a person lives to be 150 years old without experiencing any emotions, he might as well have lived one day, for all it’s worth. On the other hand, a person who lived an exciting, fulfilling life, read countless books and cherished every moment that he had, is actually the one who lived a longer life, even if in reality his flame was snuffed out much too soon. (Photo by Arina Pozdnyak)

“The inspiration for this book came to me one afternoon as I watched my son, Hudson, playing with his toy bus. I was trying to keep pace with his three-year-old mind as he got deeper and deeper into a fantasy involving nothing more than a yellow plastic box and armless figurines. At least that’s what I saw. He saw frantic commuters rushing to catch the 77 local bus to Australia. He jumped in place, mouth open and slapping his knees, joyously reacting to a world I couldn’t see, but one powerfully present for him...”. – Jordan Matter

Photo: “Dancers Among Us”: Macys, NYC – Annmaria Mazzini. (Photo by Jordan Matter)