The Inhabited Volcanic Island of Aogashima, Japan

Aogashima is a small, tropical volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, under the administration of Tokyo despite being located some 358 kilometers away from the country’s capital. It is the southernmost and the most isolated inhabited island of the Izu archipelago. The island itself is a giant volcanic crater, and within that crater there’s another, smaller volcano. Aogashima is still considered an active Class-C volcano though it last erupted in the 1780′s. When last erupted it killed nearly half of the island’s population and forced the remaining inhabitants to flee. It took just fifty years for the people to return. Today, some 200 brave villagers live on the island.

UNEXPLAINABLE GIFS

These dancing poodles?

Animated Images 161

Religious Thought 129

As the intense fire of the furnace refines gold to brilliancy, so does The burning suffering of austerity purify the soul to resplendence.

- Tirukkural 27:267

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If any recluses or followers do not understand objectively that the enjoyment of sense pleasures is enjoyment, that the unsatisfactoriness of their passing is unsatisfactoriness, and that liberation from their tyranny is liberation--then it's not possible that they will properly understand what the desire for sense pleasures is or that they will be able to bring anyone else to understand it. But if they do understand objectively the arising and ceasing of sense pleasures, their frequent unsatisfactoriness, and the way to freedom from attachment to them, they will be able to instruct other people to that end.

- Majjhima Nikaya

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Mental Test

During a visit to a mental hospital the Chief Minister asked the doctor: "How do you determine if a patient should be admitted to hospital?" Doctor: "Well, we fill a bathtub then give a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him to empty the bathtub." CM: "I understand. A normal would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon and the teacup." Doctor: "No, a normal person would pull the drain plug. Well? Do you want a bed near the window?"

Invisivle Man (Dis)appears Again

The invisible man returns - and he's harder to pick out than ever

• Chinese artist Liu Bolin is back with more jaw-dropping work
• Blends into fruit and veg stall, shelves of soft toys and bus stop
• Artists spend up to 10 hours at a time covering him in paint

Now you see him - now you don't.

Liu Bolin, the Chinese artist who has become world famous through his 'invisible art', is back with some his most jaw-dropping work yet.

His latest exhibition at the Eli Klein Art Gallery in New York shows him melting into backdrops including shelves packed with soft toys, fruit and veg and a magazine rack.

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Seamless: Artists spend hours carefully painting Liu Bolin from head to toe so he can blend in to the background