perennialphilosophy:

The Bull Who Cried

Reported by “Weekly World News”, in Hong Kong, a group of workers took a bull to the slaughterhouse. They were about to enter the facility when the bull suddenly stopped and knelt on its front paws.

The bull was crying.

Shiu, one of the workers, claims he started to shiver seeing those “scared and sad eyes”, and, as much as they tried to pull the bull inside, it wouldn’t move and just stood there, sobbing like a child.

The workers were not able to slay it, also tearing up at the sight, collecting funds to buy the animal and deliver it to the care of the monks of a nearby temple.

Apparently, when they said they would not kill it, the bull got up and followed them.

i’m already crying….

ikenbot:

China Unveils Astronaut Crew, 1st Female Spaceflyer, for Saturday Launch

China has unveiled the three-person crew for its first manned docking spaceflight set to launch Saturday (June 16) — a mission that will send the country’s first female astronaut into orbit in the process.

The crew of China’s Shenzhou 9 space docking mission met reporters today (June 15) at the country’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center ahead of Saturday’s planned launch at 6:37 p.m. local time (6:37 a.m. EDT or 1037 GMT). The three astronauts, or taikonauts as China’s spaceflyers are known, include male crewmembers Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and the country’s first woman to fly in space: the 34-year-old Liu Yang.

“I am grateful to the motherland and the people,” Liu Yang said in a press conference according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. “I feel honored to fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of female Chinese citizens.”

scinerds:

Nanomedicine Able to Penetrate Bodily Defenses

Tears and a runny nose can be unpleasant on a windy day, but these mucosal secretions play a vital role in protecting the body from viruses and other malicious microbes. Unfortunately, mucus is also adept at washing away medication designed to treat infections and inflammation that occur when an infectious agent is successful in penetrating the body’s defenses.

Knowing that even nanoscale particles of medicine are apt to get caught up in layers of mucus and cleared before they can treat an ailment, a team of Johns Hopkins University scientists has developed specially coated nanoparticles that can penetrate deep into the body’s defenses and remain long enough kill harmful microbes. More specifically, the researchers broke down the herpes-fighting drug acyclovir into nanosize units coated with low–molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG) and applied them to female mice using a vaginal gel.

queercakes:

maxvoluntarist:

systematic racism does not exist.

You are an ignorant mother fucker. Of course you wouldn’t notice systematic racism. You’re white, dipshit. Systematic racism does not negatively affect our lives as white people. In fact, we benefit from it every…

ilnemaimepasdutout:

Aerogel, also know as frozen smoke, is the world’s lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air. If you hold a small piece in your hand, it’s practically impossible to either see or feel. But if you poke it, it’s like styrofoam. It supports up to 4,000 times its own weight and can withstand a direct blast from two pounds of dynamite. It’s also the best insulator in existence.

arielnietzsche:

US soldiers are committing suicide at an alarming rate in 2012, according to new Pentagon statistics reported by the Associated Press. The rate was roughly one per day, with 154 suicides in 155 days. The rate is the highest since the latest round of wars began in 2001.

After hitting a record of 160 for all of 2009, the suicide rate was reportedly “leveling out” in 2010 and 2011. Official studies have struggled to explain the latest rise, attributing it to non-military causes like drug abuse and financial problems.

The military made very public its efforts to get the problem under control, particularly after reports showed that half of the soldiers had sought professional help beforehand, emphasizing programs aimed at eliminating reluctance to seek help. It seems however that those programs have had very little effect.

The soaring rate of deaths actually put the number of US soldiers killed in suicides so far this year slightly ahead of the number killed in the occupation of Afghanistan.

peterleeman:

Some protesters on the front line stated that police officers choked them as they were pushed back, and three women said that some officers deliberately pushed on and grabbed their breasts in the midst of the confrontation. 

3rd eviction defense of the Cruz family home in South Minneapolis. May 29th, 2012.

crankycritic:

anticapitalist:

According to a diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, U.S. troops willfully massacred an Iraqi family in the town of Ishaqi in 2006, handcuffing and then shooting 11 people in the head including a woman in her 70′s and five children ages five and under.

McClatchy is reporting that the soldiers then called in an air strike on the house to cover up evidence of the killings.

This account differs sharply from an official version of the 2006 incident, which indicated that coalition forces captured an al Qaeda in Iraq operative in the house, which was destroyed in a firefight. The WikiLeaks cable, however, corroborates accounts by Ishaqi townspeople and includes questions about the incident by Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The cable is dated twelve days after the incident, which took place March 15, 2006. In it, Alston says that autopsies performed in Tikrit on bodies pulled from the wreckage of the farmhouse indicated that all of the dead had been handcuffed and shot in the head.

If true, this action, although not as egregious as the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, wherein 347-504 unarmed civilians were shot to death by U.S. forces during the Vietnam conflict, still speaks volumes about war and the atrocities committed for war’s sake.

Read the original article (warning: graphic images)

Oh my God.

hugzndrugzz:

lmao new jersey, hey cool