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The Mediterranean’s Grim Tide

The dead bodies of desperate migrants who were bundled onto overcrowded boats destined for Europe, but capsize killing those on board, are washing up on Libya's beaches. Their bones, half submerged in the sand, will be buried in unmarked graves, their relatives unaware their loved ones have perished.Volunteers from Libyan Red Crescent Society collect the bodies which were swallowed and spat out by the Mediterranean Sea as they risked their lives on the perilous journey from Libya bound for the island of Lampedusa off the Italian coast. 

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 men, women and children who were able to survive treacherous journeys to Europe continued to be rescued off the coasts of Italy and Greece each day.

Photo credit:(all)Mohamed Ben Khalifa

Via The Daily Mail

The last women in China with bound feet

Photographer Jo Farrell tracked down 50 surviving women whose feet had been bound. Many could no longer walk, and kept their disfigurement hidden. Her images reveal the survivors’ strength, determination – and hope. It was a nine-year journey across China, tracking down the last survivors of foot binding. She found just 50 women. Five of them were still completely bound and in hiding, but most had released their binds. All were from impoverished villages in the provinces of Yunnan and Shandong. The oldest, Zhang Yun Ying, was 103.

Foot binding was outlawed in China 103 years ago, following almost 10 decades of the practice. But the last factory producing “lotus shoes” – the triangular embroidered platforms used to showcase the women’s minuscule pointy feet – closed just six years ago.  After foot binding was banned it became taboo, and in 1950 Chairman Mao ordered anti foot-binding inspectors to publicly shame any bound women they found. “It was considered an old tradition that did not reflect modern China and should be stopped,” Farrell tells me from her flat in Hong Kong. “Their binding would be hung in windows so that people would laugh at them.”

Most women were bound at the age of seven. “The first year is particularly excruciating because the girls were made to walk until their toes would break under their weight,” says Farrell. “After that, the toes became numb and now, 50 or 60 years later, they don’t have any pain in their feet. It’s all quite numb.”

Source

You can find Part I here, Part II here and Part III here

Part IV here

The Last Bound Feet in China here

Human Decomposition

The duration it takes for a dead body to decompose depends on various factors, any of which may affect the necessary time it takes to break the body down. If a body is exposed to the elements, the decaying process will be very fast. The most important thing to remember in decomposition is the exposure of the dead body to bacteria. In order to survive, bacteria need oxygen and are found in large concentrations in water. Therefore, if a dead body is exposed to water or air, then it will dramatically decompose. Insects and animals will feed on tissues if a dead body is exposed to them, and this also quickens the decomposing process. 

When a person’s heart stops pumping blood to the body, the cells and tissues are denied oxygen and rapidly start dying.Substantial decomposition mostly occurs in the course of two weeks, and the body’s soft tissues start disintegrating even with preservation. If the body does not get enough protection from the elements, it can even skeletonize in a space of a year. However, the teeth and bones can last even for a hundred years if the soil is not highly acidic and warm.
Five general stages are used to describe the process of decomposition in vertebrate animals: fresh, bloat, active and advanced decay, and dry/remains. The general stages of decomposition are coupled with two stages of chemical decomposition: autolysis and putrefaction. These two stages contribute to the chemical process of decomposition, which breaks down the main components of the body.

I Spy with my Little Eye

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