Bibi rides her bike on the Playa during the Burning Man 2015 “Carnival of Mirrors” arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, August 31, 2015. Approximately 70,000 people from all over the world are gathering at the sold-out festival to spend a week in the remote desert to experience art, music and the unique community that develops. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

There are many types of collections. Some are formed by purposefully collecting certain objects, such as stamps or coins. However, some collections are only a byproduct of an obsession, a quirk of mind. For example, Paul Brockmann got into the habit of buying his girlfriend and later his wife a dress every time they went ballroom dancing. It might seem excessive to some, but it was his way of showing his affection. Overtime, this collection grew to be enormous, counting 55,000 dresses in total. Basic math tells us that either they went ballroom dancing three times per day for every day of their lives, or he bought them in huge bundles every time.

A statue of a man sleepwalking in his underpants is surrounded by snow on the campus of Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Mass., Wednesday, February 5, 2014. The sculpture entitled “Sleepwalker” is part of an exhibit by sculptor Tony Matelli at the college's Davis Museum. (Photo by Steven Senne/AP Photo)

Aina the mother sheep, a 4.5-metre musical sculpture installed in the first decade of July 2023 outside Huddersfield railway station in England as part of Artichoke’s latest project, Herd. She is one of 23 giant handcrafted musical sheep that will appear all over Kirklees this week before joining Aina for a grand finale in Huddersfield on 16 July. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

“The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae now found in the wild only in the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936. It is characterised by its stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A Tasmanian Devil bears it's teeth at a quarantine facility August 31, 2005 in Hobart, Australia. (Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

(L-R) Edmea Pereira, 69, Elsa Rodrigues, 61, and Osmidio Conde, 71, take part in their surf class in Santos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, March 16, 2016. When work is up, surf is up in Brazil, as a group of retired citizens take to the waves in keep-fit, keep-young sessions at a surf school in the city of Santos. The classes are run for free, three times a week at the Cisco Arana school, which aims to prove that age is just a number. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)