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Picture of the Day

virginia woolf suicide letter

Seventy one years ago, literary icon Virginia Woolf wrote two suicide notes. One was addressed to her sister and the other was addressed to her husband — who was in his study nearby. She then put on her Wellington boots, filled the pockets of her fur coat with rocks, and walked out into the middle of the River Ouse in England.⁠

Her body wasn’t found until three weeks later, at which point her husband had her cremated and buried beneath a tree on their property. To commemorate her, he engraved a stone with the last lines from one of her novels: “Against you I fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death! The waves broke on the shore.”⁠

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Picture of the Day

emma gatewood

This is Emma Gatewood, the first known woman to hike the 2,168 mile (3,489 km) Appalachian Trail solo in just one season. She did it in 1955 at the age of 67, wearing only Keds shoes and carrying an army blanket, a raincoat and a plastic shower curtain. She was also a mother of 11, a grandmother and a great-grandmother.⁣

In the early 1950s, while reading a discarded copy of the August 1949 edition of National Geographic magazine, Gatewood found an article about the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) The description and photographs captivated her and made it sound like something she could do. All that was needed was “normal good health” and “no special skill or training.” She set out in July 1954 at the age of 66 to hike south from Mount Katahdin in Maine. After a few days, she got lost, broke her glasses, and ran out of food. The rangers who found her convinced her to return home, but she decided not to tell anyone about her failure.

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Picture of the Day

Charles the II of Spain

This is the result of 200 years of inbreeding, Charles the II of Spain, at age 4 he could barely walk and was still breastfeeding. At age 9 he couldn’t read or write, he died at age 38 and his death led to the War of the Spanish Succession killing between 400k and 700k people.

“The king is rather short, skinny, but not badly formed, only ugly in the face; he has a long neck, a long face, a long chin and as if it bent upwards; the lower lip typical of the Habsburgs; not very large eyes, turquoise blue and a fine and delicate complexion.

He has a look with melancholy on his face and a little astonished. His hair is blond and long, and it is combed back so that the ears are exposed.

He cannot straighten, unless he leans against a wall, a table or something else.

His body is as weak as his mind. From time to time he shows signs of intelligence, memory and a certain liveliness, but not now; he usually looks slow and indifferent, appearing dumbfounded.

You can do whatever you want with him, since he lacks of own will”

Picture of the Day

Dina Sanichar

Dina Sanichar, the feral boy found after being raised by wolves and was the inspiration for The Jungle Book’s character of Mowgli

Deep in the northern Indian jungle of Uttar Pradesh in 1872, a group of hunters stopped in their tracks, bewildered by what they were seeing. A pack of wolves loped through the forest, followed by a ghostly form: a small child, ambling on all fours. The unlikely pack disappeared into a nearby den. The hunters planted a fire at the opening of the cave and smoked the pack out. As the group reappeared, the hunters killed the wolves and captured the boy.

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Picture of the Day

At 70, Joan MacDonald Was Huffing And Puffing Up Stairs. Now, At 75, She’s In The Best Shape Of Her Life And Inspiring Millions

In 2017, MacDonald began her fitness journey. She was 70 years old, weighed nearly 200 lbs, and had rising blood pressure and kidney troubles. She was also on medication for cholesterol and acid reflux, and her doctor wanted to double the dose.

“I was sick and tired of being sick and tired”

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Picture of the Day

Dick Proenneke

Richard Louis Proenneke was an American self-educated naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who, from the age of about 51, lived alone for nearly thirty years (1969–1999) in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin that he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes.

On May 21, 1968, Proenneke arrived at his new place of retirement at Twin Lakes, Alaska

Proenneke’s cabin is handmade and is notable for its fine craftsmanship as a result of his carpentry and woodworking skills; he also made 8mm films covering its construction.

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Picture of the Day

chen si

This is Chen Si. Every weekend, he stands at the Nanjing Yangtze River bridge, which is home to the world’s highest suicide rate. Then, he stops people from jumping. During his lifetime, he has saved more than 321 people

Every weekend, Chen travels 25 kilometers to get to the bridge, arriving at 7:30 in the morning. He patrols the bridge on bike and on foot. If he meets somebody who wants to jump from the bridge, he talks to them and persuades them not to do it. In case he’s not there when someone needs help, he has also written his number of the bridge for people to call.

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Picture of the Day

86-Year-Old Bodybuilder Breaks Own Record, Becomes Oldest to Ever Compete in Japan

Getting older doesn’t mean we have to stop doing the things that make us feel vital and alive, and Toshisuke Kanazawa is inspiring proof of just that. The 86-year-old Japanese bodybuilder recently competed in the Japan bodybuilding championship, and beat his own record as the oldest person ever to do so in Japan.

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Picture of the Day

mary ann bevan

Mary Ann Bevan, after developing acromegaly, toured the sideshow circuit as “The Ugliest Woman in the World”, November 1919

Mary Ann Webster was born in 1874 in London into a large family and was quite an ordinary girl. Aged 29, she married Thomas Bevan and the couple went on to have four children, but Mary Ann’s appearance was drastically changing due to acromegaly, a disorder caused by the body producing too much growth hormone.

After the death of her husband in 1914, she no longer had the income to support herself and her four children. Bevan decided to capitalize on her appearance and entered a “Ugliest Woman” contest which she won.

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Picture of the Day

In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt retaliated for years of domestic abuse by her husband John by cutting off his penis with a knife while he slept.

Lorena stated in a court hearing that, after coming home that evening, her husband had raped her. After he then went to sleep, she got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. She then grabbed an 8-inch carving knife on the kitchen counter, returned to their bedroom, pulled back the bed sheets and cut off his penis.

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