humanrightswatch:

Saudi Arabia is one of only three countries never to have sent a female athlete to the Olympics. The other two, Qatar and Brunei, do not bar women from competitive sports, and both governments have said that they will send women athletes to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Sending women to the London Olympics does not change the fact on the ground in Saudi Arabia that girls and women are effectively excluded from taking part in sport.

(via theatlantic)

(via richpeopleeatmoney)

olio-ataxia:

Iranian grooms, Javad Jafari, left, and his brother, Mehdi, right, pose for photographs with their brides, Maryam Sadeghi, second left, and Zahra Abolghasemi, who wear their formal wedding dresses prior to their wedding in Ghalehsar village, about 220 mi (360 km) northeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, on July 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) #img01

This makes me cry :This picture is from an article called “The Rescuing Hug”. The article details the first week of life of a set of twins. Each were in their respective incubators and one was not expected to live. A hospital nurse fought against the hospital rules and placed the babies in one incubator. When they were placed together, the healthier of the two, threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. The smaller baby’s heart stabilized and temperature rose to normal.

(via vartoughi)

kathtami:

just an amazing photo.

(Source: kathytami)

fragmented-blue:

Sunset at Nanshan Tower, Seoul (by puffy eyes)

(via blacksheepboy-)

1bohemian:

Peasants listening to a radio, 1925. Photo by Arkady Shaikhet.

(Source: zolotoivek)

photojojo:

…anyone wanna go for a ride?

(Photo by Kevin Tadge / Laura Lamp on Flickr)

(via slyest-deactivated20120202)

This right here shows the unbelievable power of music. 

sciencecenter:

Amnesic cellist forgets everything, still remembers how to play his own instrument

This is a pretty incredible story. In 2005, a 62-year-old man was diagnosed with herpes encephalitis, an infection of the brain which destroyed his medial temporal lobes, and with them his explicit memory. He was left with retrograde amnesia (forgetting events in the past) as well as anteretrograde amnesia (losing the ability to form new memories). The really fascinating part comes next, though:

Doctors made their discovery when they tested PM’s ability to recall musical information and found he could identify the scales, rhythms and intervals of pieces they played him. The man went on to score normally on a standard test for musical memory.

But it was later tests that surprised doctors most, when the cellist showed he could learn new pieces of music, even though he failed to remember simple information, such as the layout of his flat, who his doctors were and what medicines he should take.

The scientists conclude that musical memory must be stored elsewhere in the brain. This explanation is boosted by cases of Alzheimer’s- or stroke-induced memory loss in which patients could still recall musical memories.

imbricate:

Mano del Desierto (Hand of the Desert)

Mario Irarrázabal

1992

Atacama Desert, Chile

Ganvié, Benin

(via )