It is said that Torajans are people who “live to die”. For this Indonesian ethnic group, funerals are such extravagant events that they sometimes attract tourists. Families can postpone burials years (and the deceased are considered sick and hosted at home until the funeral) until the family can raise enough money and gather as many relatives as possible. And then it’s a jubilant multiday social event with a parade, dances and animal sacrifices. Agung Parameswara photographed these funerary practices when he traveled to South Sulawesi province, where the Torajans live. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/The Washington Post)

Alphajet aircraft draw a heart-shaped message in the sky during the 2010 presentation show of the French aerobatics team Patrouille de France, over the French city of Salon-de-Provence. (Photo by Gerard Julien/AFP Photo)

Children walk amid a mirror installation titled “Sea of Mirrors”, featuring digital images of fish in the ocean during a preview tour the day before the show's public opening at the AquaRio aquarium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

“A dazzling exhibition featuring jewelry made with the world’s largest diamond will be part of the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. The jewelry was made with a 3,106-carat diamond discovered in 1905 at the Cullinan Diamond Mine near Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. The diamond was so large that miners initially thought it was a worthless crystal and almost threw it away”... – Vidya Kauri via News.nationalpost.com

Photo: Caroline de Guitaut, Curator of Royal Collections, holds the Cullinan III and IV Broach and the Cullinan VII Delhi Durbar Necklace and Cullinan Pendant at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace on May 15, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid)

“Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely talented 20th-century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Romain de Tirtoff (Erte) – “Symphony In Black” (please click to enlarge).

Police officers introduce a litter of golden retriever puppies to be trained as police dogs during a ceremony at the National Police Academy in La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, August 16, 2021, the date of the feast day for Saint Roch, considered the patron saint of dogs, among other things. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

A staff member demonstrates how she puts on the helmet of a mock space suit at the C-Space Project Mars simulation base in the Gobi Desert outside Jinchang, Gansu Province, China, April 17, 2019. The facility – comprising several interconnected modules including a greenhouse and a mock decompression chamber – opened its doors to the public. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A man walks along an El Paso road while observing a large ash column from the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, October 4, 2021. (Photo by Borja Suarez/Reuters)