This is another example of the public not getting involved in accidents due to a pervasive fear of extortion scams. There have been numerous reports of the elderly pretending to be in an accident and when someone helps them up, the “victim” then turns around and sues the good samaritan, saying he pushed them or somehow caused the incident in the first place.
In a 2011 poll by People’s Daily, more than 80 percent of respondents said they would not help a fallen elderly person for fear of getting scammed.
(via Cyclist dies while being ignored by passersby for 50 minutes: Shanghaiist)
Everyday before I went to bed, I forced myself to re-live the life spent in my old home,” he said. “So I wouldn’t forget.”
But the only concrete thing Luo could remember about his hometown were two bridges.
He drew a rough map of his hometown from memory, before posting it on “Bring Lost Babies Home”, a Chinese website devoted to locating missing children through the help of volunteers.
Soon afterwards, a volunteer wrote back with valuable information - a couple from a small town in Sichuan’s Guangan city had lost a son 23 years ago. The time matched Luo’s abduction perfectly.
— Abducted Chinese boy finds his way home with Google Maps, 23 years later
Birds taste better than fish. Perhaps evolution is the process of becoming tastier.
— Kim (from Castaway on the Moon)
Your words help to frame your sense of empowerment and control. Furthermore, the words that you use create a feedback loop in your brain that impacts your future behaviors. For example, every time you tell yourself “I can’t”, you’re creating a feedback loop that is a reminder of your limitations. This terminology indicates that you’re forcing yourself to do something you don’t want to do. In comparison, when you tell yourself “I don’t”, you’re creating a feedback loop that reminds you of your control and power over the situation. It’s a phrase that can propel you towards breaking your bad habits and following your good ones.
“It’s a lion, a tiger and a bear — oh my!” said Allison Hedgecoth of Noah’s Ark. “They live together and they don’t see their differences. They don’t see their color differences.” In a small pen, Baloo (an American black bear), Leo (the lion) and Shere Kahn (a Bengal tiger) cuddle, play ball, chase each other around, eat cookies daily and seem to have forged a friendship for life.
In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you. There just has to be someone who wants to.
— Robert Brault (via larmoyante)
(via martinroell)
Instances of plant communication through the air have been documented, in which chemicals emitted by a damaged plant can be picked up by a neighbour. But below ground, most land plants are connected by fungi called mycorrhizae. The new study, published in Ecology Letters, is the first to demonstrate these fungi also aid in communication.
— BBC News - Fungus network ‘plays role in plant communication’
“Wolbachia are parasites or endosymbionts to many insect species, even some mosquitoes, and in certain cases can protect their hosts from infection by other parasites. This protective feature led researchers to wonder whether Wolbachia might be used to prevent the spread of dangerous human parasites in their insect hosts. Indeed, it was recently shown that establishing a Wolbachia infection in the dengue fever virus-carrying mosquito, Aedes aegypti, made the insects resistant to the virus. Such mosquitoes have now been released into the wild in field trials, and could potentially reduce the incidence of dengue virus infections in people.”
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