It’ll be interesting to see what the legal MJ money engenders [via Nina Reznick]

From The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley. Whether through Caribbean rum, Prohibition-era bootlegging or Chinese opium, more than a few American and European fortunes have been alleged to come from unexpected sources:

"On March 17, 1905, one of the most significant weddings in American history took place in a house in New York City at 8 East 76th Street, between Madison and Fifth avenues. At 3:30 p.m., [President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter] Miss Alice Roosevelt -- serving as a bridesmaid dressed in a white veil and holding a bouquet of pink roses -- opened the ceremony as she proceeded down the wide stairs from the third floor to the second-floor salon. The bride -- her cousin Eleanor Roosevelt -- followed, and behind her was President Theodore Roosevelt, who would give his niece away to the bridegroom, his fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"Eleanor wore a pearl necklace and diamonds in her hair, gifts from Franklin's rich Delano relatives. Even though Franklin had never made much money himself, Teddy knew that he would be able to care for his new wife: FDR was heir to the huge Delano opium fortune.


"China opium den, circa 1896"

"Franklin's grandfather Warren Delano had for years skulked around [China's] Pearl River Delta dealing drugs. Delano had run offices in Canton and Hong Kong. During business hours, Chinese criminals would pay him cash and receive an opium chit. At night, Scrambling Crabs -- long, sleek, heavily armed crafts -- rowed out into the Pearl River Delta to Delano's floating warehouses, where they received their Jesus opium under the cover of darkness. The profits were enormous, and at his death Delano left his daughter Sara a fortune that she lavished on her only son.

"The Delanos were not alone. Many of New England's great families made their fortunes dealing drugs in China. The Cabot family of Boston endowed Harvard with opium money, while Yale's famous Skull and Bones society was funded by the biggest American opium dealers of them all -- the Russell family. The most famous landmark on the Columbia University campus is the Low Memorial Library, which honors Abiel Low, a New York boy who made it big in the Pearl River Delta and bankrolled the first cable across the Atlantic. Princeton University's first big benefactor, John Green, sold opium in the Pearl River Delta with Warren Delano.

"The list goes on and on: Boston's John Murray Forbes's opium profits financed the career of transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and bankrolled the Bell Telephone Company. Thomas Perkins founded America's first commercial railroad and funded the Boston Athenaeum. These wealthy and powerful drug¬-dealing families combined to create dynasties."



Take That Call ... [via Pat Francke]

A high school teacher has implemented the following policy in his class:
That should a student's cell phone ring and interrupts the class then, the student has to answer it and put it on speaker.......listen carefully to this call and follow the conversation to the end.


More After and Before ... [via Nina Reznick]


"Au Fil De Loire," Brives Charensac, France

After and Before

 

  

Photorealistic Mural, Glasgow, Scotland

After and Before





Full Moon Hostel, Bristol, UK

After and Before



"Porte Des Lavandières," Aurec Sur Loire, France

After and Before










Ride 'Em Cowboy!!! [via Cacciatore]



In a Walmart parking lot in Eagle Point, Oregon, 28-year-old cowboy Robert Borba stopped a would-be bike thief armed with little more than a lasso. Steve Hartman went "On The Road" to meet the the man who roped in a perpetrator.

After and Before ... [via Nina Reznick]

"Juliette Et Les Esprits," Montpellier, France

After and Before

 

3D Mural In Poznan, Poland

After and Before

  

"Renaissance," Le Puy en Velay, France

After and Before

  

Giant Starling Mural In Berlin, Germany

After and Before

Nika Kramer

Hero whale saves snorkeler from tiger shark in the Pacific Ocean [via Nina Reznick]

The moment a huge humpback whale pushed Nan Hauser around in the water, protecting her from a shark.
The moment a huge humpback whale pushed Nan Hauser around in the water, protecting her from a shark.  (Nan Hauser/Caters) 


Stunning images show the moment that a 50,000-pound humpback whale pushed a snorkeler through the water to protect her from a nearby shark.

The pictures of Nan Hauser, 63, show how the massive sea creature pushed the whale biologist with his head and his mouth, then tucked her under its pectoral fin and even lifted her out of the water on one occasion.

However, lurking near the mammal and Hauser was a 15-foot tiger shark, as well as another whale that was moving its tail to ward off the shark.

he whale biologist told the Daily Mirror that she believes the moment in September reveals the whale’s intuitive instinct to protect another species of animal.

As Hauser returned to the safety of the boat, in the waters off Muri Beach, Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, the whale even came back to check on her.


Read more


Award-winning image shows murmuration of starlings in shape of giant bird


Daniel Biber / SWNS
This is the mesmerising moment a murmuration of starlings took the form of a giant bird while being targeted by a bird of prey.

Daniel Biber, 53, captured the breathtaking snap after observing thousands of birds and scouting locations over a four-day period.

Like clouds in the sky, the giant flocks often take on weird and wonderful - and sometimes graphic - moving forms and shapes.

 And the birds made for a startling spectacle when they assembled over the Costa Brava in northeastern Spain in front of Mr Biber's eyes.

He managed to take a series of images which show the birds merging into the shape of a giant bird when they were targeted by a predator.

And the unique snap has since earned him the top prize in an international photography competition.

But Mr Biber said he only realised his luck once he reviewed the photographs on his computer.

He said: "I was taking pictures of the murmurations over several days.

"Only when I checked the pictures on the computer later, I realised what formation the starlings had created.



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Human Library

What would happen if you sat down and had an open and honest conversation with someone with completely opposing views?

Could it bring you closer together?



The Human Library Organization is counting on it. 

In this day and age, it may seem like getting two people with different views together to discuss them is a recipe for disaster. Just read the comment section on any online post on a heated topic and you're bound to wish you hadn't. Political division and the ability to hide behind a screen and shout your thoughts through your fingertips has encouraged an "I'm right, you're wrong" discourse that seldom opens doors for productive dialogue.

Human Libraries — where actual people are on loan to readers instead of books — are a way to highlight the common ground.



At a Human Library, people volunteer to become "books" and make their experiences open and available. "Readers" are encouraged to ask them questions freely, and they'll get honest answers in return. There's no judgment, and no questions are off-limits.

You won't find people talking over each other. You won't find nasty comments or political agendas, and you won't lose faith in humanity. At the Human Library, you might actually feel better about the world you live in. You might even make a new friend!

The human "books" consist of people who have been marginalized or discriminated by society. 

 

"Certain communities are being pinpointed as the 'bad people' because they believe different, or live different, or eat different, or look different, or have a different color, or ethnic or religious background," said Ronni Abergel, the Human Library Organization's founder.

Abergel has set out to counter that by building a space for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue.

Some of the "books" readers may find at a Human Library include a Muslim, a Jew, a cancer survivor, a recovering alcoholic, a police officer, a refugee, someone living with Alzheimer's, a veteran, a teacher, and the list goes on.


Even better? Human libraries are on the rise globally, including in the United States.

 

The Human Library Organization, originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, just marked its 16th year in service. This year they're as busy as they've ever been.
Allison McFadden-Keesling can vouch for the org's success. When she saw an article about the Human Library in a London newspaper in 2008, she immediately knew she wanted to set up an event for students at Oakland Community College in Michigan. Fast-forward to today, and she's getting ready to host her 11th Human Library event on campus in five years.

"The most pleasantly surprising thing about the Human Library is how close all the human books become to one another," she said. "It has a family reunion feel every time we host as previous human book participants return and others join."

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