Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine’s Ralph Morse. Armed with his camera and a case of scotch — to open doors and loosen tongues — Morse compiled a quietly intense record of an icon’s passing.

Some pretty stirring stuff.

Landspeed Record

More →

Right or wrong, the Norwegian Sky Spiral appears to have brought renewed scrutiny to the Department of Defense’s disturbing, ionosphere-boiling HAARP Project. The accompanying gallery of pictures.

Soviet Russia had one too. It’s since been abandoned. Here’s some pictures of that.

Last night, some bizarre swirls appeared in the sky over Norway.

re: The Bhopal gas tragedy

The test site, named the Semipalatinsk Polygon, would go on to host 456 atomic explosions over its 40-year existence. Residents in the surrounding area became unwitting guinea pigs, exposed to the aftereffects of the bombs both intentionally and unintentionally.

The Big Picture blog’s heartbreaking photo essay.

Via Coudal. Photographer Toby de Silva‘s pictures of Aokigahara, an eerie-looking forest at the base of Mount Fuji that also happens to be one of the world’s hottest destinations for suicides.