The man who lives without money

Irishman Mark Boyle tried to live life with no income, no bank balance and no spending. Here’s how he finds it. If someone told me seven years ago, in my final year of a business and economics degree, that I’d now be living without money, I’d have probably choked on my microwaved ready meal. The plan back then was to get a ‘good’ job, make as much money as possible, and buy the stuff that would show society I was successful.

-World Observer

Preparing for the Apocalypse: Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Endangered species such humpback whales and rhinoceros often grab the headlines, but plant life is under threat too. Fruits and vegetables that humans have been growing for millennia are dying out as we speak. One study found that out of more than 8,000 crop varieties grown in the US in 1903, only 600 remained by 1983. What will happen in the event of a global nuclear war, an asteroid strike or even catastrophic climate change? Will there by enough species left to restart a civilization? The solution – a Noah's ark for seeds.

-Amusing Planet

codex seraphinianus

In the late 70s italian architect, illustrator and industrial designer luigi serafini made a book, an encyclopedia of unknown, parallel world. it’s about 360-380 pages. it is written in an unknown language, using an unknown alphabet. it took him 30 month to complete that masterpiece that many might call “the strangest book on earth”. codex seraphinianus is divided to 11 chapters and two parts - first one is about nature and the second one is about people.

-LiveJournal

14 Places You Have To Poop At Before You Die

A look at the world’s coolest restrooms.

-BuzzFeed

How Salt and Pepper Became the Yin and Yang of Condiments

They're staples on every American dining table and the requisite ingredients in virtually every European cuisine, so inseparable that polite society dictates they always be passed together. Salt and pepper are the undisputed champions of condiments—but how did they get so popular?

-Gizmodo

How Collecting Opium Antiques Turned Me Into an Opium Addict

You really have to work hard to get hooked on smoking opium. The Victorian-era form of the drug, known as chandu, is rare, and the people who know how to use it aren’t exactly forthcoming. But leave it to an obsessive antiques collector to figure out how to get to addicted to a 19th-century drug.

-CW

10 Incredible GIFs Showing How Aging Changes Our Appearance

It’s always amazing to see childhood photos of old people you know and see how they looked when they were our age (or younger). Sometimes they look almost identical, sometimes they look like 2 different people. Aging is something unpredictable and there is no real way to know how it’s going to affect each face and what is going to be the ‘final result’.

-FS

Is Pornography Adultery?

The marriage of Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook collapsed the old-fashioned way in 2006, when she discovered that he was sleeping with his 18-year-old assistant. But their divorce trial this summer was a distinctly Internet-age affair. Having insisted on keeping the proceedings open to the media, Brinkley and her lawyers served up a long list of juicy allegations about Cook’s taste in online porn: the $3,000 a month he dropped on adult Web sites, the nude photos he posted online, the user names he favored (“happyladdie2002,” for instance, and “wannaseeall”) while surfing swinger sites, even the videos he supposedly made of himself masturbating.

-The Atlantic 

The wildest building in the world: Graffiti artists given free rein in 10-storey Parisian building for just one month before it's demolished

Street artists from across the world have transformed a derelict block in Paris into a jaw-dropping ten-storey art installation with designs covering every surface, inside and out. The tower block, which is planned to be demolished, has been set upon by 100 of the world's best street artists, invited by gallery owner Mehdi Ben Cheikh. The mesmerising array of colourful designs are now finished and the building is open to the public for just one month before its prepared for demolition next spring.

-Mail Online

Les visages du vice dans le Montréal des années 40 (PHOTOS)

On dirait qu'elles ont été arrachées aux pages d'un roman de l'auteur canadien Mordecai Richler.Mais non. Ces visages exprimant tant le défi que le désespoir sont ceux de prostituées et de maquerelles, des visages du passé qui ont marqué les rues de Montréal.

-Huffington Post

 

What is it like to be a model?

Because I'm getting older, my days as a model are numbered – and I'm not sure what to do next.

-aeon

The Elvis Impersonator, the Karate Instructor, a Fridge Full of Severed Heads, and the Plot 2 Kill the President

Remember that crazy story about the dude in Mississippi who mailed ricin to Obama and then tried to frame some other dude in Mississippi for the crime? Well, as Wells Tower discovered when he traveled to Tupelo and started poking around, the story is a thousand times crazier than you thought.


-GQ

Love and Madness in the Jungle

A brilliant American financier and his exotic wife build a lavish mansion in the jungles of Costa Rica, set up a wildlife preserve, and appear to slowly, steadily lose their minds. A spiral of handguns, angry locals, armed guards, uncut diamonds, abduction plots, and a bedroom blazing with 550 Tiffany lamps ends with a body and a compelling mystery: Did John Felix Bender die by his own hand? Or did Ann Bender kill him to escape their crumbling dream?

-Outside

Once Upon a Time in the Middle East

Driving around the Middle East—from Lebanon toward Syria, across the Saudi Arabian desert to Dammam, in a taxi among the refugees of Beirut—quickly becomes the Wild West. Blood money, 14-year-old motorists, and a van full of lost Kuwaitis outside a brothel.

-The Morning News

10 Magical Places on Earth

Wizards, sorcerers, hobbits and goblins. This maybe the stuff of fairy-tales but you can bring magic to life! Visit these breath-taking magical destinations and live out your own travel legend! Travel and make-believe certainly go hand in hand. Whether it’s royal palaces, enchanted forests or magical lagoons, traveling the world can bring your favorite fairy-tales to life! So grab your wand, mount your white horse and take a virtual journey through the 10 magical places on Earth!

-leenks

Has Krokodil, the Flesh-Eating Russian Street Drug, Made Its Way to the UK?

You remember when we first alerted you to the joys of krokodil, right? In case you’d forgotten, it’s a drug from Russia that is just like heroin, except that it eats your flesh alive (NSFW link) because it’s made of painkillers cut with things like gasoline and sulfur. In other words, it’s probably the worst drug in the world. Well, unfortunately, it seems to be spreading. It made headlines last week when reports came through that it was being used in Arizona. And in the UK.

-Vice

Submarine Surfaces in the Middle of a Street

The captain, if I follow him correctly, claims that he was briefly distracted while driving.

-Neatorama

Paradise, Paved. Walmart Slumber Party

There are a few generally accepted principles when it comes to the etiquette of spending the night in a vehicle in a Walmart parking lot. One night only. No chairs or barbecue grills outside an R.V. Shop at the store for gas, food or supplies, if you can, as a way of saying thanks. Walmart, the country’s largest discount retailer, says you’re welcome: its Web site says that R.V. travelers are “among our best customers.” The photographer Nolan Conway has been taking pictures of Walmart’s resident guests at several stores in central Arizona. Sophia Stauffer, a 20-year-old who travels the country in a van with her boyfriend and their dog, describes their lots, which usually feel quiet and safe, as their best option for most nights. “We really don’t want to work or live in a house,” she says.

-NY Times

The real Vietnam: Spectacular images taken by courageous AP war photographers released to remember 50 years since conflict began

The Vietnam War left a deep and lasting impression on not just the soldiers who fought but the whole of America. And the superb photojournalism by the Associated Press' Saigon bureau was largely responsible for sharing the bravery and drama of the conflict with those at home. Half a century on from the beginning of the war, a new book entitled 'Vietnam: The Real War' showcases some 300 of the most historic AP images - from Malcolm Browne's image of the burning monk to Nick Ut's photograph of a 9-year-old running from a napalm attack to Eddie Adams' picture of the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner - that serve as a photographic record of the combat. Writer Pete Hamill gives a moving tribute to the unbelievably brave AP photojournalists who reported from the frontline to share the harrowing truths of war, some paying the ultimate price. The AP earned six Pulitzer Prizes, including four for photography, for its Vietnam War coverage. Across the years of the war in Vietnam, the AP photographers saw more combat than any general,' Hamill explains in his introduction. 'This book shows how good they were... From Vietnam, photographers taught the world how to see the war.


-Mail Online

The German Granddaddy of Crystal Meth

Crystal meth is notorious for being highly addictive and ravaging countless communities. But few know that the drug can be traced back to Nazi Germany, where it first became popular as a way to keep pilots and soldiers alert in battle during World War II.

-Spiegel

Gorgeous Vintage Advertisements for Heroin, Cannabis and Cocaine

Drugs such as cocaine and heroin aren't just glamorous because they're illegal. Even when you could buy them at any pharmacy or grocery store, they still had a certain cool factor. Just look at these fantastic vintage advertisements for opium, coca-laced wine and "medicinal tonics."

-io9