Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world’s oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.

A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.

They apparently were getting high too.  full article

Born in the former Soviet Union he lived and worked for several decades in his hometown Kharkov, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself the practice of photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known photographers, who already was actively working in soviet times. His work very much is influenced in the means of Concept-Art and Social-Documentary-Photography. At the end of the 1960s he had his first exhibition. After the KGB found nude-pictures of his wife he was set off his job as an engineer and started to full-time work with photography. He shot a series of everyday-life scenes-documentation. His most famous work during this period (1968-1975) was the “Red Serie”. In these photographs he mainly used the colour red, to picture people, groups and city-life. Red is the color standing for October Revolution, political Party and the social system of soviet society. It is often said, that within those works critical elements toward the existing political circumstances can be found.

Case History – A set of 400 photographs (1999)

examines the consequences of the break down of the Soviet Union for the people living there. Therefore he systematically took pictures of homeless people, who soon started trusting him. More than 500 photographs show the situation of people, who after the break down of the Soviet Union were not able to catch hold in a secured social system. In a very direct way Mikhailov points out his critique against the “mask of beauty” of the uprising post-soviet capitalistic way of life. It’s one of the best works found within social documentary photography.

Can you see me in the back?  What a night!!  Perfect temperature and awesome vibe…positivity abounded

The Wounds (1998)

KICK ASS movie, not only does it give a great look into the life/society of Bosnia especially during the upheaval of the early-mid 90’s, but it does so in a dark/funny way.  Serbian life is presented to you through the lens of people who lived through it, who see it through their eyes…a commentary, an insight, a damnation, a mocking, a sort of documentary…..it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen for some time.

Director:  Srdjan Dragojevic
Language:  Serbo-Croatian (English subtitles) – 1999

New York Times review

An important film that gives a real look into how globalization and the unyielding power of international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank adversely affect Jamaica’s economy and shows the devastating impact that the “white collars” have on its people, farms and ability to live freely.

watch the trailer

I know you never believe everything you read, but still interesting nonetheless. It’s important for people to do what they feel is in their best interest, everyone’s got their own ways of doing things, so more power to you

According to a large study, praying for sick strangers has absolutely no effect on their health. In fact, it found that patients who had undergone heart surgery and knew that people were praying for their recovery had more health complications as a result.

You can read about this study in the American Heart Journal. Researchers wanted to examine the effect prayer might have on the recovery of 1,800 heart bypass patients. The study was made over a ten-year period. The John Templeton Foundation funded the study with $2.4 million in the hope of casting some light on the power of prayer for people who are ill.

Rest of article

Selected as Iran’s submission in the Best Foreign Film category for the 2000 Oscars, The Color of Paradise (Rang-e khoda) is about Mohammed, a blind boy who sees with clarity and his sighted father who is blind to the beauty in his own family. It is a film made from a deeply spiritual point of view, but it never proselytizes, it never preaches. It tells with sophisticated simplicity a not so simple story of faith and unconditional love and the sadness that comes to one who falls short in both.
Storyline

My thoughts: I totally connected with Mohammed and his independent connection to the world around him, his fascination with sounds, smells and the touch of everything, yet there exists his fragile dependence on others. I was blown away by his presence on the screen, just being himself in front of a camera…just a powerful film.

This picture was drawn by Kikuchi Yosai（菊池容斎） who was a painter in Japan.

Ono no Komachi (小野 小町 or おののこまち) (c. 825 — c. 900) was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen — the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She is also numbered as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals.

On such a night as this
When no moon lights your way to me,
I wake, my passion blazing,
My breast a fire raging, exploding flame
While within me my heart chars

More poems
Brief life info

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