A Geisha girl pouring a drink for a visitor, circa 1955. (Photo by Fox Photos). P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

Penitentes, or nieves penitentes (Spanish for “penitent-shaped snows”), are a snow formation found at high altitudes. They take the form of tall thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced with the blades oriented towards the general direction of the sun.

Inside the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia’s Danakil desert, camel caravans are used to carry salt. For centuries, the essential mineral has been mined by the Afar people, known for their ability to withstand extremes. The terrain is rugged, travelers are scarce and so are motor vehicles, where the average annual temperature is the highest in the world, and can rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Ziv Koren/Polaris)

A mushroom cloud dwarfs a row of skyscrapers in what looks like a devastating nuclear bomb detonation. But thankfully this is just a spectacular weather-front blasting in from the tempestuous Rocky Mountains near Denver, Colorado, USA. The unbelievable shot is just one of many of the city's skyline taken by photographer Greg Thow. The 49-year-old has also captured equally stunning shots of lightning blasts and arching rainbows – all from the comfort of his balcony. (Photo by Greg Thow/Barcroft Media)

William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

A ballet dancer stretches backstage during Nacho Duato's “The Nutcracker” at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia November 21, 2015. For theatregoers in St Petersburg, Nacho Duato's “The Nutcracker” demonstrates the global appeal of a Christmas classic. When the curtain rises at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, among the oldest opera and ballet houses in Russia, it's the culmination of hundreds of hours of toil and sweat by dancers, costume makers, set designers and musicians playing the famous score by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. (Photo by Grigory Dukor/Reuters)

A police officer reacts to flames during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago, Chile on November 4, 2019. Unrest began in Chile last October 18 with protests against a rise in transport tickets and other austerity measures and descended into vandalism, looting, and clashes between demonstrators and police. Protesters are angry about low salaries and pensions, poor public healthcare and education, and a yawning gap between rich and poor. (Photo by Henry Romero/Reuters)

In this February 22, 2021, file photo, climate activist Disha Ravi, 22, travels in a car as she is taken to a court in New Delhi, India. To her friends, Ravi, was most concerned about her future in a world where temperatures are rising. But her life changed last month as she became a household name in the country, dominating news coverage after police charged her with sedition, a colonial-era law which carries a sentence up to life. Her alleged crime: sharing an online document to help amplify months-long farmer protests in India on Twitter. She was released after 10 days in custody. (Photo by Dinesh Joshi/AP Photo/File)