Marine One with US President Joe Biden onboard takes off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2024. Biden is travelling to Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Angerer/AFP Photo)

American paratroopers from the the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron take part in training for rescue operations in East Africa in the last decade of April 2024. (Photo by Senior Airman Olivia Gibson/US Air Force/CMA)

A small series by illustration Alex Solis remembering those things that used to rule the world.

A photographer has discovered a spectacular way of keeping warm during winter – using fire to heat up icy locations. Sam Scholes uses long-exposures to capture the movement of fire in front of ice-covered backdrops. After lighting steel wool his friend Scott Stringham swings the flaming object in order to make swirling patterns. The result of this technique – captured at Midway Ice Castles in Utah is a vibrant image with the warm light dancing across the cold scenes. (Photo by Sam Scholes/Caters News)

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)

US Army Parachute Team Golden Knights perform a precision drop to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, above West Potomac Park in Washington, DC, USA, 11 May 2023. The performance is one of many activites being held on the National Mall over three days to honor Vietnam War veterans and their families and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of when the last US combat troops left South Vietnam in 1973. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/EFE)

A “creuseur”, or digger, a plastic lantern on his head, readies to enter a copper and cobalt mine in Kawama, Democratic Republic of Congo on June 8, 2016. Cobalt is used in the batteries for electric cars and mobile phones. Working conditions are dangerous, often with no safety equipment or structural support for the tunnels. The diggers say they are paid on average US$2-3/day. (Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Cardboard cut outs of the faces of three candidates for the Republican nomination for the 2016 US Presidential election (L-R) Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, are seen set up on urinals in a pub in London on March 1, 2016 as part of an informal poll for customers to log which they dislike the most. Part of the satirical television show The Last Leg, customers at the pub are able to choose which urinal to use and then log their poll on a list on the wall afterwards. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP Photo)