Edna lorri shipp

A branch that snaps off a willow tree in a storm can become a new tree in two weeks — no nursery, no root ball, no hundred-dollar price tag. Dozens of trees and shrubs grow from nothing but a cutting dropped in water on a windowsill.

- Willow — one of the fastest tree rooters, visible roots in five to seven days, and the cutting releases a natural rooting hormone into the water that helps other plants root faster too
- Elderberry — cut a twelve-inch dormant stem in late winter, strip the lower buds, roots appear in three to four weeks
- Forsythia — snip a six-inch stem of new green growth in spring, roots form in two to three weeks
- Rose — cut an eight-inch stem from a healthy cane, strip the lower leaves and thorns, roots develop in four to six weeks
- Currant — take a ten-inch hardwood cutting in late fall, roots form slowly over winter in water, ready to plant by spring

Honeysuckle, mulberry, privet, dogwood, and crepe myrtle all root the same way — a healthy cutting, a tall glass, and patience measured in weeks instead of dollars.

The most expensive thing at the nursery started out as a stick in someone's glass of water.

A New Language: On Primo Levi’s Translation of Kafka Not only did Kafka create a new language to describe the world, he also invented a new punctuation: he put question marks where there had never been any before. “Why” is the word that k…

The Classic Hero's Journey Home Homer’s great epic of a hero’s journey home—inspiration for the major motion picture by Christopher Nolan—in a bold, contemporary, and refreshingly readable translation.'Wilson’s language is fresh, unpretentious and lean. . . . It is rare to find a translation...

An enormous 11,000-carat ruby has been discovered in Myanmar… and it could be one of the largest gem-quality rubies ever found. 💎🌍

The giant gemstone was uncovered near Mogok — a legendary mining region often called the “Valley of Rubies,” famous for producing some of the rarest and most valuable rubies on Earth.

To understand how massive this find is:

Most rubies used in engagement rings or luxury jewelry weigh just 1–5 carats.
This one weighs over 11,000 carats.

That’s not just a gemstone — it’s a geological time capsule formed under extreme heat and pressure deep inside Earth’s crust over millions of years.

Rubies get their deep red color from traces of chromium inside the mineral corundum, and the rarest stones can become more valuable than diamonds. ✨

A hidden piece of Earth’s history… finally brought to the surface.

David Dalaithngu was born around 1953 in Arnhem Land, Australia — though no one knew exactly when.

Missionaries guessed at a birth date, wrote something down, and moved on. David himself never knew his precise age. But there were other things he knew with absolute certainty.

He knew his country.

He knew his language, his Dreaming, his dance.

Raised within the Mandhalpuyngu clan of the Yolŋu people, David grew up inside one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. He didn’t see a white person until he was eight years old. Before learning English, he already spoke six Aboriginal dialects fluently.

And from the beginning, he could dance.

In 1969, British filmmaker Nicolas Roeg arrived in Maningrida searching for a young Aboriginal performer for a new film. He asked the local elders a simple question: Who is your best dancer?

Every finger pointed toward the same teenager.

Roeg cast the sixteen-year-old David in Walkabout (1971). The film exploded internationally, and the boy who had never acted a day in his life suddenly became a global star.

Years later, people asked him how his performance felt so natural.

David answered simply: “I know how to walk across the land in front of a camera, because I belong there.”

That sense of belonging became the soul of his entire career.

After Walkabout, David traveled the world. He met queens, musicians, fighters, and legends. John Lennon. Bob Marley. Bruce Lee. Muhammad Ali. Jimi Hendrix. He walked red carpets in Paris and New York.

Then he returned home.

Back to a tin shed. Back to country. Back to his people.

“I wandered all over the world,” he once said. “Now I’m back in a tin shed.”

Over the decades, his filmography became inseparable from Australian cinema itself. Storm Boy. The Last Wave. Crocodile Dundee. Rabbit-Proof Fence. The Tracker. Then Ten Canoes in 2006, the first Australian feature made entirely in an Aboriginal language—a project David himself helped bring into existence.

But perhaps nothing captured him more completely than Charlie’s Country in 2013.

David co-wrote the film alongside director Rolf de Heer and played an ageing Aboriginal man trapped between ancient tradition and modern systems that no longer understood him. The performance felt painfully personal.

At Cannes in 2014, he won Best Actor in the Un Certain Regard section—the first Australian ever to receive the honour.

The world was finally catching up to what his people had known all along.

But David’s life was never simple triumph.

Fame brought addiction, alcohol, prison, and years lost to struggle. He spoke openly about the pain. He cried in courtrooms. He admitted his failures without hiding from them.

And still, he kept coming back.

Again and again.

In 2019, already battling terminal lung cancer, he recorded a message after receiving the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Never forget me,” he said softly. “Even though I am gone forever, I will still remember.”

His final film, My Name is Gulpilil (2021), arrived months before his death. It was less a documentary than a farewell spoken directly to the world.

David Dalaithngu died on November 29, 2021, at sixty-eight years old.

But awards and murals only tell part of the story.

Before David, Aboriginal people in Australian cinema were ignored, erased, or played by white actors in blackface. Then he stepped onto the screen and changed everything.

He didn’t learn how to act.

He simply showed the world what it looked like to truly belong.

What Happens When a Whale Is Born? The New Yorker

After almost ten years without being seen, a rare blue hibiscus has finally blossomed again in Hawaiʻi. Its return has drawn notice because genuinely blue hibiscus varieties are exceedingly scarce in nature.

Most hibiscus typically appear in shades of red, pink, yellow, or white, so blue-hued blooms are particularly uncommon and tough to cultivate. This recent flowering highlights the fragile environmental conditions and careful conservation work required to protect these distinctive plants.

Moments like this remind scientists and nature lovers how long nature can take to unveil something extraordinary.

After ten quiet years, this rare blossom has once more revealed the remarkable beauty and patience of the natural world.

Upcoming Doc on 'The Twilight Zone' Creator Rod Serling Wouldn’t Exist Without ‘Big Fan’ Leonardo DiCaprio (Exclusive) Director Jonah Tulis says his upcoming documentary on 'The Twilight Zone' creator Rod Serling came to fruition because of Leonardo DiCaprio. PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at 'Serling' before its SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere.

From The Athletic: How are curling stones made, and why does only one company have the rights to make them? We explored the uninhabited Scottish island that makes one of the most interesting Olympic sports possible. https://nyti.ms/4aPLPIn