A Thai security guard stands by a wall of sandbags in front of a factory at the Bangchan Industrial Estate area on the outskirts of the capitol city November 8, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Over seven major industrial parks in Bangkok and, thousands of factories have been closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi with millions of tons of rice damaged. Across the country, the flooding which is now in its third month has affected 25 of Thailand's 64 provinces. Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding in over 50 years which has affected more than nine million people. Over 400 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /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.

James Kerr started his project “Scorpion Dagger” without any real direction, except for the intention to make one GIF everyday(ish) for one year. He had been making collages for some time and “Scorpion Dagger” started out to be a test of discipline and a way for him to learn how to animate. Making GIFs was a logical evolution to him. The project represents many different things to him, the works from which he draws upon are so powerful and inspirational to him, that he is now nearly obsessed with repurposing them to share his vision of the world, and perhaps inspire people to look at art differently. The project is tremendously personal to him, it’s a lot more than the humor that’s at its surface and he is still trying to work out what “Scorpion Dagger” really is.

Chinese women wear protective masks as they are dressed in traditional clothing from the Qing Dynasty era outside a park on March 29, 2020 in Beijing, China. A limited section of the iconic tourist site was re-opened to the public this week allowing a smaller number of visitors to reserve tickets online in advance and to enter after passing health screening. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

“The Zulu are the largest South African ethnic group, with an estimated 10–11 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Small numbers also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. Their language, Zulu, is a Bantu language; more specifically, part of the Nguni subgroup. The Zulu Kingdom played a major role in South African history during the 19th and 20th centuries. Under apartheid, Zulu people were classed as third-class citizens and suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination. They remain today the most numerous ethnic group in South Africa, and now have equal rights along with all other citizens”. – Wikipedia.

Photo: A Zulu woman playing the piano while a group of others sit and listen (to put it briefly, Englishmen scoff over Zulu). South Africa, circa 1925. (Photo by General Photographic Agency)

A boy sits in a canoe in front of a shed built on a raft in the Makoko fishing community on the Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria February 29, 2016. In Makoko, a sprawling slum of Nigeria's megacity Lagos, a floating school capable of holding up to a hundred pupils has since November brought free education to the waterways known as the Venice of Lagos. It offers the chance of social mobility for youngsters who, like most of the city's 21 million inhabitants, lack a reliable electricity and water supply and whose water-based way of life is threatened by climate change as well as rapid urbanisation. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Ruins of a building are seen in the old village of Belchite, in northern Spain, November 13, 2016. Almost 80 years ago Tomas Ortin fled under the cover of night from his home in the small town of Belchite on Spain's northern plains to escape with hundreds of others from one of the bloodiest battles of the country's civil war. At 94 years old, Ortin now lives just across the road from Belchite, which has lain in ruins since Republican forces attacked it, a symbol of the destruction caused by the 1936-1939 war in which an estimated 500,000 people died. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

Dubai is now home to what has been billed as the world’s largest indoor dog park, complete with customised luxury suites, 24/7 webcams, flat screen TVs and orthopedic mattresses. Launched during Easter at Dubai Investment Park, My Second Home already has many takers with 40 of its 200 residential luxury rooms booked for summer. Here: a dog sits on its bed at My Second Home, a newly opened luxury pet resort and spa, in Dubai, April 24, 2015. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)