“Object, said to be a toad, stuck with
thorns for witchcraft purposes; found with the heart here exhibited. 1892. E.B.T. coll. d.d. Lady Tylor 1917. 1917-53-601”

This thing literally oozes magic. I’m guessing it’s from the British
Isles, like other pieces from Sir Edward Burnett Tylor’s donation to
the Pitt Rivers Collection (note the onion above the toad, from
Somersetshire, the archaic name of Somerset County). That being said,
nails driven into objects to imbue them with magical power, or activate
that power for good or ill, is a practice that can be seen in various
cultures, from Somerset to the Congo.

I love, because my love is not dependent on the object of love. My love is dependent on my state of being. So whether the other person changes, becomes different, friend turns into a foe, does not matter, because my love was never dependent on the other person. My love is my state of being. I simply love.

Osho

I will always want myself. Always. Darling, I wrote myself a love poem two nights ago. I don’t know where you get this from but I am whole; woman who grows flowers between her teeth. I tend to my garden. I dance myself out of pain. You think women like me crawl for pity? You ever seen the offspring of a lion eat grass? This wanting of myself gets stronger with age. I host myself to myself. I am whole.

Ijeoma Umebinyuo

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen
if you crossed a slug with a leaf, friends, we have your answer right
here. This strange creature that appears to be part leaf, part slug and
part tongue is a Leaf-vein slug (Athoracophorus bitentaculatus),
a species of land slug native to New Zealand. They’re nocturnal and
thought to feed primarily on algae and fungi found on the surface of
plants, which means they don’t damage plants like plenty of other slug
species do.

This particular specimen was photographed by Redditor Aaronlolwtf while they were out trimming some flax last year. To view more examples of this fascinating little creature, click here. (via Reddit)

Genie was born in 1957 in California. Her father determined that
she was mentally disabled and therefore not worthy of his attention or
care. He isolated her from everybody – locking her alone inside a room
until she reached the age of 13. While inside this room, he kept her
strapped to a toilet or enclosed in a crib. Due to her isolation, she
was incapable of communicating or walking when she was finally rescued
by Los Angeles child welfare authorities on 4 November, 1970. Her father
would beat her with a plank wood each time she attempted to communicate
with her family and would bark and growl at her like a dog to
intimidate her – this instilled a severe fear of dogs which continued
after she was freed. He even grew his fingernails; the sole purpose
being so he could scratch at Genie is she ever “misbehaved.” After she
was freed, she was often used as a case study for psychologists,
linguists, and scientists. She was sent into care and while there seemed
to be a series of breakthroughs in the beginning, there were also major
setbacks – she was exploited and also abused by those who were supposed
to be caring for her – she was sent to an extremely religious foster
care home in which she retreated and in 1977, she managed to tell a
children’s hospital that her foster parents had physically punished her
when she had been sick. Following this, her speech never recovered and
nobody knows for sure what became of her other than she was sent to an
institute for the mentally undeveloped in Southern California in 2008.

New Metal-Eating Shrub Species Could Clean Up Toxic Waste Sites Around the World

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A newly described shrub species called Rinorea niccolifera is capable of consuming between 100 to
1000 times the amount of nickel that normal plants can. A team from the
University of the Philippines-Los Baños that described the species in a
new report also found that its ability to ‘eat’ toxic levels of metal could make the shrub a potential antidote to toxic waste sites around the globe.

The plant has evolved to draw up nutrients and water from the soil like normal
plants, but is also able to absorb poisonous nutrients that would kill
most. Known as hyperaccumulators, these plants are able to eat poisonous metals,

New Metal-Eating Shrub Species Could Clean Up Toxic Waste Sites Around the World