Dried and shrivelled corpses, some fully clothed and some in coffins, line the wall of a vault of the Pantheon Cemetery on the summit of Cerro del Trozado in Mexico. They were removed from the crypts because of non-payment of cemetery fees. The hot dry air stopped the bodies from rotting. Most of them were placed here between the turn of the century and WW I. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1955

An RAF Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon takes off on March 22, 2011 at the Gioia Del Colle airbase in Italy. After last week's UN resolution which voted for a non-fly zone to be enforced over Libya, sorties have continued to be flown by forces representing the UN coalition from Italian military bases. More than 110 missiles have been fired on pro-Gaddafi strongholds in attempt to knock out the Libyan leaders defences.

Afghan children wait as their mothers receive treatment at a USAID-funded health center on September 7, 2011 in Farza, Afghanistan. Almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. government funds some of 500 Afghan health facilities nationwide, most run by non-governmental organizations contracted by the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

An artist has created a homage to cultural and historical figures – by immortalising them as Star Wars characters. Mike Leavitt wanted to “document the pulse of our times” through his sculpture by splicing non-fiction characters with famous faces. He chose the sci-fi trilogy as a basis for what he calls his “pop culture satirical mash-ups”, with many of the pieces hand-carved from wood. The hilarious results include Albert Einstein as R2D2, Michael Jackson as an Ewok and Angelina Jolie in Princess Leia's famous slave girl outfit. Photo: Gandhi as Yoda. (Photo by Mike Leavitt/Rex USA)

Customers take photos of a snake at the Tokyo Snake Center, a snake cafe, in Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district August 14, 2015. The cafe has on display 35 non-venomous snakes of 20 different breeds. Open six days a week, the cafe allows customers to enjoy food and beverages while watching a small snake slither around in a cage on their table for a 1,000 yen (8.04 dollars). By paying an additional fee, customers get to hold and pet the snake. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

If we were to burn NH4Cr2O7 with HgSCN in the Dark Ages in Europe and show it to anyone, it is us who would be burning next on a fiery cross of Inquisition. And it’s no wonder, since this experiment produces a truly marvelous result. At first, as you ignite the mixture of NH4Cr2O7 and HgSCN, all you can see is that it is slowly burning with a reddish flame. After a while, however, a crater is formed in the middle of the burning pile, and then, suddenly, tentacle-like appendages start sprouting from the burning mixture. And you can almost hear the scream of the mad occultist – “Come forth, Kraken! Come forth!” But of course, this is simply a chemical reaction that is called the "Pharoah's Serpent". It was also often sold in firework stores until people realized that it was toxic.

Two of the first six “neighborhood electric vehicles” (NEV) to be leased by the U.S. Army are on display during an introductory ceremony at Fort Myer January 12, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. The Army has leased 800 of the non-tactical NEVs with a goal of 4,000 vehicles by 2011. These NEVs are manufactured by the Global Electric Motorcars division of Chrysler Corporation. With a full eight-hour charge, the NEVs can traverse 30 miles at a top speed of 25-miles-per-hour. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“In honor of Friday’s World Press Freedom Day, the non-governmental organization Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) launched a campaign depicting world-famous dictators giving everyone the finger, or the international equivalent thereof”. – Kay Steiger. (Photo by Vincent Bousserez/Reporters Without Borders)