Shamans Gather In Siberia's Sayan Mountains For A Spiritual Summer Festival...

A Shaman is a person believed to have
access to and influence in the world of good
and evil spirits.
Such folk will often enter a trance-like state to practice divination and healing.
Photographer Alexander Nikolsky found these Shaman gathered in a recent summer to celebrate the Call Of Thirteen Shamans that was held near the village of Khorum-Dag
in Siberia's Tyva Republic.
The nine day festival attracted the world's
most respected Shaman practitioners.
Hopefully their rousing of the spirits
makes the world a better place...

The Winner Could Be The Biggest Loser...

It was a race to see what would happen first.
Punters often lose their shirts at race meetings but it's a real bummer when a jockey has gear failure and his pants start falling down.
Which is what happened soon after this race started in Canterbury just recently.
Jockey Blake Shinn knew he was being a bit cheeky but couldn't do much about it.
He just cracked up the pace, failing to win
but at least coming second and not
at the bottom of the field...

Texting James Bond In Skyfall Cost Sony Five Million Dollars...

Playing James Bond has been a lucrative venture for Daniel Craig.
He's pocketed thirty one million dollars to star in the two latest 007 movies but when he played Bond in Skyfall, the most financially successful  Bond movie ever, Sony paid him five million for just holding their Xperia mobile
while he received a text.
The text said EWA Flight 226 9pm.
Just imagine what it might of cost to use the phone to talk with.
And before you get on the phone to remind someone of the world's starving millions.
They won't listen, they won't return your call.
This is business art...

Richart Sowa Lives On An Island He Made Himself From 150,000 Plastic Bottles...

No man is an island and very few of us
have one of their own but eco-architect Richart Sowa knowing full well he'd never have the money to buy one, decided to make his own.
Out of 150,000 air-filled recycled plastic bottles, lots of wooden pallets and sand.
He's build a three-storied house that has all the mod-cons he desires and a little ferry raft also made from plastic bottle to ferry himself and his supplies to and from the shore.
Power comes from a land based solar system, he has a composting toilet and the desire to grow his own vegetables and to be self sufficient
Named Joyxee, the island moored off Cancun in Mexico is Richart's third island, his story is here and the British born Robinson Crusoe didn't find his Girl Friday by her footprints in the sand but on a social media site.
How things change but nothing changes...

The New Tiny Nation Of Liberland Is Looking For A Population...

If you're fed up with the country you're living in and feel the need to live in a new, tiny, seven square kilometer, liberty loving country situated on the banks of the Danube between Serbia and Croatia, then get in quick and apply for citizenship of Liberland.
It's the new kid on the block. A new sovereign state situated in the Balkans on an unclaimed piece of no-man's land and it's just declared itself to be a new country.
And it's looking for a population.
Their new flag isn't anything to rave about but the country's motto is Live And Let Live so we'll let the piece of bad design fly without any criticism. The objective of the new state is to build a country where people can prosper without being oppressed by government and it's strict regulations.
Perhaps Mr Vit Jedlicka, the self appointed President of Liberland and politician from the Czech Republic should have got a slightly bigger piece of land. Twenty thousand liberty hungry wanna-be citizens have already applied but the country can only accommodate five thousand.
The only answer may be to grab a piece of land somewhere and create your own country...

We Shall Remember Them...

Today we commemorate ANZAC Day.
One hundred years ago in 1915, thousands of brave young men, boy soldiers, Australians, New Zealander's and Turks died at Gallipoli in what was then called The War To End All Wars.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We shall remember them.
From For The Fallen by Laurence Binyon
Sadly it wasn't the war to end all wars, was it...

You Can Say What You Like...

Freedom of speech is a contentious issue.
It's something millions have died or been incarcerated and ostracised for while
trying to preserve our rights to speak it.
Our friend Leunig seems to sum up the situation with an apt play on words from this version of Voltaire's famous quote, I don't care what you say or how you say it but I'll defend to the death your right to say it...

The Western Grey Whales. Magnificent Mammals That Migrate 14,000 Miles Annually...

These magnificent whales migrate fourteen thousand miles every year just because it's what they do and it's what they've always done.
A study of three Western Grey Whales, each fitted with satellite monitored tags were found by Russian and US researches to have traveled from their primary feeding grounds off Russia's Sakhalin Island, across the Pacific Ocean, down the west coast of California to Baji, Mexico and after not so much as a quick cup of tea, head back home again.
There's thought to be around one hundred and fifty of these wonderful creatures left in the oceans of our world and they've been monitored along with the Eastern Grey Whale since the 1990's. Five have perished in the last decade in Japanese fishing nets and their future remains precarious, having to contend with commercial fishing, shipping and oil and gas fields.
The Western Grey's descendents date back thirty million years. With a bit of luck they'll be around a few million more... 

When You're Serious About Solar For Your Off Grid Home On Wheels...

The Colorado based owner of this once upon a time 1990 Chevrolet school bus was determined to create a vehicle to live in for extended periods of time off grid. It looks like he succeeded.
The fourteen German Sun brand 130 watt panels that are tilted manually, feed eighteen 105amphour Trojan batteries. All that combines with an Outback brand control system.
There's more about this bus here.
With solar, there's no such thing as overkill...

CEO Dan Price Cuts His One Million Dollar Salary To Seventy Thousand Dollars To Ensure His Workers Will Earn The Same...

The cynical will say it's a public relations gesture to get Dan Price's company good press.
But hey, here's a young man who mightn't look like your average CEO who is prepared to do what your average CEO wouldn't even consider.
Dan Price has had the growing income inequality issue on his mind for some time and he's decided to do something about it.
To put his money where his mouth is.
This Dan fellow who drives a twelve year old Audi is the founder and CEO of the Seattle based company Gravity Payments.
He has a staff of 120 who have an average salary of forty eight thousand. Dan's move will double 30 workers salary and within thirtysix months will raise the base salary to seventy thousand dollars.
The average salary for a CEO in the US is
on average, three hundred and fifty times more than their workers.
Dan wants to address the balance.
He wants to invest in his people.
Good on you Dan. I like the talk you're walking...

Tasty Meals On Wheels...

Another take on meals on wheels. fast food, meals to go and movable feasts...

The Environmentally Friendly Colles Des Mees Solar Farm Is The Biggest In France...

Installed in 2011 over two hundred hectares, approximately nine hundred meters above sea level, the photovoltaic park in Les Mees in the Southern Alpes-de-Haute Province is
the largest Solar Farm in France.
The installation has been completed with minimum impact on the land with no concrete foundation so that the land can still be grazed and the grass, continue to grow.
There are nearly one hundred and thirteen thousand panels which produce enough electricity for twelve thousand French homes.
Bravo France, it's the way to go...

Here's An Easy Way To Peel Hard Boiled Eggs In Just A Few Seconds. Or Even Less...

Here's an easy way to peel hard boiled eggs in seconds and get perfect results every time.
Take a glass, half fill it with water, drop in the egg, put your hand over the top of the glass so the water doesn't spill, vigorously shake the glass from left to right or is it right to left, for ten seconds, remove the egg and the shell will be ready to just fall off.
If you don't believe me there's a 28 second video here showing you eggsactly how to do it...

If Four Year Old Jessica Comes To Visit, Don't Let Her Eat Your Furniture Or Your Carpet...

Gorgeous little Jessica Knight has
a very strange food fetish.
She has a rare condition called Pica which causes her to want to eat things like carpet underlay and furniture stuffing.
There's more about the problems she and her parents have trouble swallowing here and here.
When she comes to visiting others for a meal,
it puts a whole new meaning on 'guess who's coming for dinner'. Little Jessica likes nothing better than a bit of sand and the odd rock as an entree prior to the main course and her mother fills a little purse with sponge rubber so she can snack away to her heart's content.
She's literally eating her parents out of house and home and things aren't going to get any better until she's six when doctors will then
be able to treat her.
Until then the furniture's a movable feast.
Will you be having a glass of milk
with that chair Jessica...

White Cop. Black Man. Bang Bang. Three Hundred Dead...

When White Cop Michael Slager shot
and killed yet another Black Man, this time Walter Lamar Scott, Mr Lamar became the three hundredth person to be shot and killed by US law enforcement officers this year. Yes this year. Since January One.
It's now April. Are they going for some sort of world record, trying to see how many people they can kill before December 31.
Britain's police have shot and killed fifty two people since 1920...

Freedom Camping In New Zealand. Morrison's Bush...

Just a bit north of Martinborough which is just a bit north of Wellington, New Zealand's capital, is Morrison's Bush.
It is says my friend Harvey, a simply beautiful twenty acre wood with much Kanuka growing, where peace and quiet are guaranteed.
You drive through the farm, give the friendly farmer a koha and then find a spot to Freedom Camp down by the river or how about over there.
Or what about there.
For a few days. Or even longer...