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What a great story of family love. Thanks Mr Burns. Fantastic.
 
Ever wondered what our society owes to slavery ? Just reading a review of new book ion the topic,
Fascinating..!!

A World built on Slavery
By Juan Cole | Feb. 24, 2014 |
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(By Greg Grandin)

Many in the United States were outraged by the remarks of conservative evangelical preacher Pat Robertson, who blamed Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake on Haitians for selling their souls to Satan. Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble — as many as 300,000 died — when Robertson went on TV and gave his viewing audience a little history lesson: the Haitians had been “under the heel of the French” but they “got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’”

A supremely callous example of right-wing idiocy? Absolutely. Yet in his own kooky way, Robertson was also onto something. Haitians did, in fact, swear a pact with the devil for their freedom. Only Beelzebub arrived smelling not of sulfur, but of Parisian cologne.

Haitian slaves began to throw off the “heel of the French” in 1791, when they rose up and, after bitter years of fighting, eventually declared themselves free. Their French masters, however, refused to accept Haitian independence. The island, after all, had been an extremely profitable sugar producer, and so Paris offered Haiti a choice: compensate slave owners for lost property — their slaves (that is, themselves) — or face its imperial wrath. The fledgling nation was forced to finance this payout with usurious loans from French banks. As late as 1940, 80% of the government budget was still going to service this debt.
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http://www.juancole.com/2014/02/world-built-slavery.html
 
And if you have ever wanted a few more unusual science facts check out this story.

John McNally's top 10 true or false science facts
Does a Polo mint really light up when broken in half? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction… here are 10 of the best crazy science "facts" – see if you can tell the true from false!

John McNally
theguardian.com, Thursday 27 February 2014 20.00 AEST

My latest book Infinity Drake and the Sons of Scarlatti is the first in a new series of adventure thrillers in which the hero, Finn, gets caught up with his mad scientist uncle in a secret race to destroy an escaped bio-weapon – the Scarlatti Wasp – before it destroys life on earth.

Just another day in the life of an average 12-year-old. But… a pitiless trillionaire terrorist sabotages the project and Finn gets shrunk to 9mm and finds himself way behind enemy lines with a couple of soldiers and bunch of weapons – missing, presumed dead.

The thrill-a-minute consequences contain some stunning action and some stunning science. But how much of that science is fiction and how much fact? Check out my top 10 true or false crazy science "facts" and see how if you know the difference between them!
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http://www.theguardian.com/children...ally-top-10-crazy-science-facts-true-or-false
 
America - land of opportunity

"Give me your tired, your poor, and aggrieved....."

Man sues McDonald’s for $1.5m after only getting one serviette
http://www.news.com.au/world/man-su...ng-one-serviette/story-fndir2ev-1226841810261

A MAN is suing McDonald’s for US$1.5 million after a restaurant in California gave him only one serviette with his meal.

Webster Lucas says staff at the McDonalds in Pacoima only gave him one serviette with his Quarter Pounder deluxe and when he asked for extra ones the manager refused, saying he’d already been given one.

In an email to the store’s general manager Mr Lucas claims the fallout from the serviette incident has left him unable to work because of “undue mental anguish and the intentional infliction of emotional distress”.

TMZ reports Mr Lucas then said “I should have went to eat at the Jack-in-the-Box because I didn’t come here to argue over napkins. I came here to eat.”

Mr Lucas, an African American, alleges the manager was then racist towards him, mumbling something that sounded like “you people”.

He is now seeking US$1.5 million in damages from McDonald’s.



Entitlement is a dirty word.
 
"The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary.

A school dropout from a poor family in southern India has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine they can use to make cheap sanitary pads.

Arunachalam Muruganantham's invention came at great personal cost - he nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society. But he kept his sense of humour. " http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978

Additional comment and context in this article http://www.alternet.org/want-change-world-build-better-maxi-pad
 
artist said:
"The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary.

A school dropout from a poor family in southern India has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine they can use to make cheap sanitary pads.

Arunachalam Muruganantham's invention came at great personal cost - he nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society. But he kept his sense of humour. " http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978

Additional comment and context in this article http://www.alternet.org/want-change-world-build-better-maxi-pad
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What an awesome story Artist, many thanks!!:xyxthumbs
 
Came across a review of a new book on Orvile and Wilber Wright. Seems like there is much to learn from their systematic efforts in creating the first aeroplane

If you check out teh story you will find a gem of a video on their efforts.
Cheers

The Wright Brothers: Even More Badass Than You Thought
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For his new book, The Wright Brothers, *Pulitzer Prize winner David *McCullough pored over newspaper articles, photographs, and more than 1,000 letters to create a gripping account of Wilbur and Orville's quest to fly.

No one paid attention to the Wright brothers when they first started working on their airplane. Why do you think that was?

The fact that they were so ignored is astonishing. Ignored by the press, by serious scientific magazines, by the federal government, and by the newspapers right in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Nobody even bothered to go out and take a look. They did it all themselves. They didn't have any foundation backing them. They didn't have the facilities of some institution or corporation. They didn't have political contacts, or an angel funding their experiments. They were paying for it out of their own relatively meager earnings from a bicycle shop, and giving up a hell of a lot in life in order to do it. They were determined to succeed, and they did.
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http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/interviews/a36152/david-mccullough-wright-brothers/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3beVhDiyio

__________________________________________________________________
PS The previous story on the revolutionary Indian sanitary pad is brilliant.
 
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Finding love later in life. I thought this story was a ripper.
Cheers

'Internet searches reveal only so much': a memoir by Stephanie Wood
When a daggy but twinkly-eyed stranger approached Good Weekend writer Stephanie Wood via her dormant online dating profile, she responded with due diligence and low expectations. Live a little, said her friends. She did. And learnt a lot.


93 reading now
HE LAUGHED when I pointed out the axe. "Well," I said. "That could have ruined my weekend." I joked about axe murderers. "What was I thinking?" I said. "I still have no idea who you are." I considered the concept of me as a headline; something sensational, something like, "Journalist slain in farmhouse love-tryst tragedy."

But by the time we'd found the axe, it was the morning after the evening before and I was a bit loved up. The playlist I'd made had drifted through the night, through Peggy Lee's Fever and April Stevens' Teach Me Tiger. The high anxiety I'd felt about spending a weekend away with a man I barely knew had subsided. It was a crisp, lovely morning in June 2014 and we were brushing close. Easy then, to find comedy value in a horror trope. Besides, this man wasn't an axe murderer. He was daggy and gentle and his green eyes twinkled.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/goo...memoir-by-stephanie-wood-20170426-gvsqnx.html
 
Yes the net is an AMAZING place.. All sorts of rabbit holes to find.
Just came across a particularly noble social welfare site offering male virgins the opportunity to become a man courtesy of a number of good spirited women
So if this is you or you know someone who could benefit from such a noble cause, check it out. Be quick though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stupidslut...the_virgin_challenge_yep_just_like_it_sounds/
 
Came across the life of Peter Freuchen today. The word adventurer just starts to describe his life. One of the most outrageous adventures he endured was digging his way out of a ice bound avalanche by using a chisel he created from his own xhit. When he finally escaped his ice tomb he crawled through the ice/snow for three hours to a hut. Inside the hut he realised his toes had frozen (duh...!) and become gangrenous. Undaunted he amputated them with pliers and a hammer and naturally no anaesthetic.

Naturally there is more to read and in fact his biography is on line.

freuchen1.jpg

Freuchen with his third wife.
His coat is made from the fur of a polar bear that he killed himself.

http://badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=977797832498
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PS He also won the $64,000 question on the American Quiz show..
 
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Not so much a story but a website that takes one all around the Titanic.

Encyclopedia Titanica is a fascinating exploration of every passenger, every crew person, the stories surrounding the disaster. Worth a look. Keep it in mind for your next trivia story.
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/
 
We all "know" that many parts of the USA are in serious trouble. No jobs, drugs, despair ect. This story gives a face to the picture.

'The pill mill of America': where drugs mean there are no good choices, only less awful ones
For six days in Portsmouth, Ohio, I keep trying to fool myself. Eventually, I am unable to just watch and listen


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Kimberly Conley, 19, in Portsmouth, Ohio: ‘There are so many drugs here. I just don’t want to be a part of it.’ Photograph: Chris Arnade

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Chris Arnade

Wednesday 17 May 2017 21.30 AEST Last modified on Thursday 18 May 2017 05.56 AEST

Portsmouth, Ohio, once known for making things (steel, shoes, bricks), is now known for drugs, and labeled by some as the “pill mill of America”. The city peaked at 40,000 people in 1940, and as it emptied of factories and jobs – some made obsolete, some moved away – it also emptied of people and hope.

Now it is a town half the size, filled with despair and filling with drugs.

On my first night in town, a beat-up car parks next to me, positioned in the darkness cast by my van. The passenger, a middle-aged woman, injects the driver in the neck. He stays still, head tilted to expose a vein, as she works the needle in, while two young boys play in the back seat.

Done, they pull away as I try to fool myself into thinking I didn’t see what I saw.

For six days in Portsmouth, over three trips, I keep trying to fool myself. Eventually, I am unable to just watch and listen.


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Portsmouth, Ohio, had 40,000 people in 1940. It had 20,316 people in 2014. Photograph: Chris Arnade
Portsmouth is beautiful. It lies along the intersection of the Ohio and Scioto rivers, ringed by sharp hills. It has plenty of well-kept neighborhoods filled with people doing fine, yet living here also means being constantly reminded that things are not all well.

In a fast food parking lot, a small group is hanging out, smelling of alcohol, sweat, and piss. On the fringe, under the shade of the awning, a man leans against a shopping cart filled with empty cans, blankets and children’s toys. The cart also holds two small children, one boy and one girl.

Stunned, I go inside to collect my thoughts and watch. A woman in dirty clothes and a tiny pink backpack comes in to clean up and buy food. She hands the food to the man and children, before heading to the roadside, where she stands with a cardboard sign saying: “Homeless Hungry Anything Helps”.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/17/drugs-opiod-addiction-epidemic-portsmouth-ohio
 

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