0 Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Disaster

On the night of Friday, January 13, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, with more than 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members on board, struck a reef, keeled over, and partially sank off Isola del Giglio, Italy. Six people are now confirmed dead, including two French passengers and one Peruvian crew member, apparently after jumping into the chilly Mediterranean waters after the wreck. 

Fourteen more people still remain missing, as search and rescue teams continue their efforts to find survivors. The incident occurred only hours into the cruise, and passengers had not yet undergone any lifeboat drills that plus the severe list of the ship made evacuation chaotic and frightening. Captain Francesco Schettino has been arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. 

Gathered here are surreal and unsettling photos of the massive cruise ship after it capsized off the coast of Italy. As of this writing, 6 people are dead and 14 are still missing.

View of the Costa Concordia taken on January 14, 2012, after the cruise ship ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio. Five passengers drowned and about 15 still remain missing after the Italian ship with some 4,200 people on board ran aground. The Costa Concordia was on a trip around the Mediterranean when it apparently hit a reef near the island of Giglio on Friday, only a few hours into its voyage, as passengers were sitting down for dinner. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images) 

This photo acquired by the Associated Press from a passenger of the luxury ship that ran aground off the coast of Tuscany shows fellow passengers wearing life-vests on board the Costa Concordia as they wait to be evacuated, on Saturday, January 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Courtesy from tourist aboard the ship)  

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0 The Man With Einstein's Brain

Dr. Thomas Harvey (1912 - 2007) was the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Einstein at Princeton Hospital in 1955. The stranger-than-fiction tale of Einstein's brain, which Harvey controversially removed during the autopsy, carefully sliced into sections, and then kept for years for research purposes, and the intrigues long-associated with the famous organ, are far too convoluted to go into here. 

Dr. Thomas Harvey was just a little too naughty because he removed Einstein's brain, which is not completely necessary as Einstein died because of heart failure. Dr. Thomas then sliced it up and kept the pieces for many years after, in order to perform research on to what had made the world famous scientist so genius.

On the day that Einstein died, Ralph Morse (Life Magazine photographer) was able to take a few quick photographs of Dr. Harvey at the hospital. Morse says he's certain that that is not Einstein's brain under Dr. Harvey's knife in this never-before-seen picture. Then, after a pause, Morse qualifies that certainty: "You know, it was fifty-five years ago. Honestly, I don't remember every single detail of the day. So whatever he's cutting there ..." Morse's words hang in the air. Then, mischievously, he laughs.

So, either or not the brain under the knife as shown in the photo above is still a mystery.

Source from LIFE

0 Iran - From Inside You (Probably) Never Seen Before

Iran has appeared in numerous headlines around the world in recent months, usually attached to stories about military exercises and other saber-rattlings, economic sanctions, a suspected nuclear program, and varied political struggles. Iran is a country of more than 75 million people with a diverse history stretching back many thousands of years.

While over 90 percent of Iranians belong to the Shia branch of Islam, the official state religion, Iran is also home to nearly 300,000 Christians, and the largest community of Jews in the Middle East outside Israel. At a time when military and political images seem to dominate the news about Iran, it would be interesting to take a recent look inside the country, to see its people through the lenses of agency photographers.

Keep in mind that foreign media are still subject to Iranian restrictions on reporting.

Iranian grooms, Javad Jafari, left, and his brother, Mehdi, right, pose for photographs with their brides, Maryam Sadeghi, second left, and Zahra Abolghasemi, who wear their formal wedding dresses prior to their wedding in Ghalehsar village, about 220 mi (360 km) northeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, on July 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) 

Iranians Morteza Alavi and Mehdi Hagh Badri fly with a tandem paraglider over northwestern Tehran, on May 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)  

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