Ragg It

"Tendre est le nom du pays ainsi que de ses trois villes capitales. Tendre a un fleuve, Inclination, rejoint à son embouchure par deux rivières, Estime et Reconnaissance. Les trois villes de Tendre, Tendre-sur-Inclination, Tendre-sur-Estime et Tendre-sur-Reconnaissance sont situées sur ces trois cours d’eau différents. Pour aller de Nouvelle-Amitié à Tendre-sur-Estime, il faut passer par le lieu de Grand-Esprit auquel succèdent les agréables villages de Jolis-vers, Billet-galant et Billet-doux. Dans cette sorte de géographie amoureuse, le fleuve Inclination coule tranquillement car il est domestiqué tandis que la Mer est dangereuse car elle représente les passions. La seule Passion positive est celle qui la source de nobles sentiments que l’homme peut éprouver. Le lac d’Indifférence représente l’ennui."

http://jahsonic.tumblr.com/post/330351569/carte-du-tendre-the-carte-de-tendre-map-of

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carte_de_Tendre

The insanity of the human race

"At the end of the cycle the door won't open for a minute or so. There's no water in the machine. Why exactly do we need to be protected from lukewarm damp stationary items of clothing? The mind boggles...."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mntp8vFKVj0

Nick Brandt

http://www.younggalleryphoto.com/photography/brandt/brandt.html

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

http://www.naomiklein.org/main

Elephant intelligence

Elephant altruism

Elephants are thought to be highly altruistic animals that will even aid other species, including humans, in distress. In India, an elephant was helping locals lift logs by following a truck and placing the logs in pre-dug holes when the Mahout (elephant trainer) told him to. At a certain hole, the elephant refused to lower the log. The mahout came to investigate the hold up and noticed a dog sleeping in the hole. The elephant only lowered the log when the dog was gone[19].

Cynthia Moss has often seen elephants going out of their way to avoid hurting or killing a human, even when it was difficult for them (such as having to walk backwards to avoid a person).

Joyce Poole documented an encounter told to her by Colin Francombe on Kuki Gallman’s Laikipia Ranch. A ranch herder was out on his own with camels when he came across a family of elephants. The matriarch charged at him and knocked him over with her trunk, breaking one of his legs. In the evening, when he didn’t return, a search party was sent in a truck to find him . When the party discovered him, he was being guarded by an elephant. The animal charged the truck, so they shot over her and scared her away. The herdsman later told them that when he couldn’t stand up, the elephant used her trunk to lift him under the shade of a tree. She guarded him for the day and would gently touch him with her trunk[10].

Death ritual

Elephants show a keen interest in the bones of their own kind (even unrelated elephants that have died long ago). They are often seen gently investigating the bones with their trunks and feet, and remaining very quiet. They also bury their dead, a behavior demonstrated with no other species, save humans. Sometimes elephants that are completely unrelated to the deceased will still visit their graves[21]. When an elephant is hurt, other elephants (also even if they are unrelated) will aid them[10].

Martin Meredith recalls an occurrence in her book about a typical elephant death ritual that was witnessed by Anthony Martin-Hall, a South African biologist who had studied elephants in Addo, South Africa for over 8 years. The entire family of a dead matriarch, including her young calf were all gently touching her body with their trunks and tried to lift her. The elephant herd were all rumbling loudly. The calf was observed to be weeping and made sounds that sounded like a scream but then the entire herd fell incredibly silent. They then began to throw leaves and dirt over the body and broke off tree branches to cover her. They spent the next 2 days quietly standing over her body. They sometimes had to leave to get water or food, but they would always return[22]. Occurrences of elephants behaving this way around human beings are common through Africa. Why they seem to treat humans the same as their own kind is unknown. On many occasions, they have buried dead or sleeping humans or aided them when they were hurt[10]. Meredith also recalls an event told to her by George Adamson, a Kenyan Game Warden regarding an old Turkana woman who fell asleep under a tree after losing her way home. When she woke up, there was an elephant standing over her, gently touching her. She kept very still because she was very frightened. As other elephants arrived, they began to scream loudly and buried her under branches. She was found the next morning by the local herdsmen, unharmed[22].

George Adamson also recalls when he shot a Bull elephant from a herd that kept breaking into the Government gardens of Northern Kenya. George gave the elephant’s meat to local Turkana Tribesmen and then dragged the rest of the carcass half a mile away. That night, the other elephants found the body and took the shoulder blade and leg bone and returned the bones to the exact spot the elephant was killed[23]. Scientists often argue the extent that elephants feel emotion. A large variety of animals display what appears to be ‘sorrow’ through body language, posture, movement and actions but seeing elephants standing over a body, burying them, refusing to leave and their trunks being observed hanging limp certainly seems evidence that perhaps much deeper and complex emotions are involved[23].

Full Wikipedia article here

Robot sentinella

Samsung's automated killing machines:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xg078_robot-sentinella_tech

Our Earth is not at rest. Why are we moving so fast? What is out there?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080309.html

Private Life of a Cat (1947)

Alexander Hammid's intimate study of a female cat and the birth and maturation of her five kittens:
http://www.archive.org/details/PrivateL1947

An Avalanche on Mars in the Springtime

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080311.html

Blackfoot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfoot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Blackfoot_-_Bear_Bull.jpg

Castor Oil

"In Fascist Italy under the regime of Benito Mussolini, castor oil was one of the tools of the blackshirts. Political dissidents were force-fed large quantities of castor oil by Fascist paramilitary groups. This technique was said to have been originated by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Victims of this treatment would experience severe diarrhea and dehydration, often resulting in death.[44]"

"Sometimes when the blackshirts wished to make sure that the victim would die rather than simply be badly disabled, they would mix gasoline with the castor oil."

Wikipedia article