People inspect a dead whale on the coast of Baracoa, Artemisa province, Cuba, Thursday, October 3, 2024. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

People paly with fireworks during Parrandas de Camajuani, Cuba on March 22, 2025. Two neighborhoods of the city, San Jose, represented by a toad, and Santa Teresa, represented by a goat, fight with carnival shows that involve the whole town in a party with bands, huge floats and fireworks. The Parrandas de Camajuani with more than 130 years, are recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2018. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP Photo)

“Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard (and often referred to by his initials, LRH), was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help system called Dianetics which was first published in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation”. – Wikipedia

Photo: American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, uses his Hubbard Electrometer (patent pending) to determine whether tomatoes experience pain, 1959. His work led him to the conclusion that tomatoes “scream when sliced”. (Photo by Scott Lauder/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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)

Health workers wearing face masks spray disinfectant liquid on sacrificial animals amid concerns over the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the pandemic COVID-19 disease ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha at an animal market in Hyderabad, southern Pakistan, 21 July 2020. (Photo by Nadeem Khawar/EPA/EFE)

People take part in a sunset ceremony on the lower slopes of Glastonbury Tor as they celebrate Samhain at the Glastonbury Dragons Samhain Wild Hunt 2017 in Glastonbury on November 4, 2017 in Somerset, England. To celebrate Samhain, the Glastonbury Dragons, alongside Gwythyr Ap Greidal, the Summer King and the Winter King, (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

In this July 24, 2016 photo, a pilgrim takes a bath in a sacred mud pool during the annual Voodoo celebration in Plaine-du-Nord, Haiti, Saturday, July 23, 2016. Pilgrims come to bathe in the mud and make offerings expecting a miracle. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

African women in their grandmothers' clothes: Joana Choumali’s portraits show modern African women swapping jeans for kente cloth – and diving into the dazzling cultural heritage of their families. (Photo by Joana Choumali/The Guardian)