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Syracuse University professor Sam Van Aken spent nine years growing a single tree.
"The idea is that I could collapse a whole orchard and put it into one tree," he told Business Insider.
Each of the colors in the photo above represents a variety of flowering tree. Collectively, as one plant, they produce 40 different edible stone fruits (ones with pits, like peaches and plums). The tree above is just an artist's rendering, but the trees do exist.
To create his unique tree, Van Aken, a sculptor at SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts, uses a process called "grafting," which is used frequently by orchards and gardeners.
When two plants are grafted together they are cut so their "veins" flow into each other, letting them share a vascular system. These veins, known as the phloem and zylem, transport water, sugar, and minerals between the plant's roots and leaves.

Grafing a plant with a weak root system onto a plant with a strong one can enable the weak plant to grow better. Grafting has been around for centuries. It's actually the reason we still have wine — a disease threatened to kill all the French wines, until a resistant plant was found to serve as a host for grapes of all different varietals.
Though it's used frequently, 40 is an extreme number of plants to graft together. To do so takes years and years.
He'll let a tree grow for about three years, until it shows four or five branches. Then, he'll slice each branch and attach buds from four or five other types of tree on each one, grafting their vascular systems together. At that point, the count stands at about 20 or 25 plants attached to one very strong trunk.
"What you're essentially doing is injuring the tree and then attempting to trick it into believing that the part you placed in it is actually itself," Van Aken explained.


After that, those 20-to-25 varieties grow together for about two years and start to show new branches, to which Van Aken will attach more buds. Any that don't graft properly, he prunes away until about 40 varieties remain within a single tree.
"They all maintain their own genetic variety," Van Aken said. "You can see all the different types of flowers and fruit."
"But the science is almost like a byproduct," he also noted. "It's really, for me, a metaphor."
The amount of labor involved makes the tree fairly impractical for the world of agriculture. But as a work of art, Van Aken sees considerable value. "It definitely won't cure world hunger. But I hope that it could inspire that type of thinking," he said.
Van Aken also created a timeline of sorts to keep track of when the various types of tree will flower. Thus, he can control the color by timing the grafting appropriately.
Syracuse University actually picked the tree as a commemoration of September 11. As such, the institution plans to plant one on the quad.
The number 40 represents "somewhere between finite and infinite," according to Van Aken. Western religion, especially The Bible, popularized 40 as an uncountable number. Think 40 days and 40 nights of rain circa Noah's Ark. Thus, the tree's combined variety represent growth, hope, and renewal, as Van Aken explained — important topics to keep in mind in a post-9/11 era.
While the project seems abstract to some, Van Aken hopes people will see the value. "That day [9/11] was so vivid and tragic for me. I don't think you can make a piece that can adequately represent that tragedy," Van Aken noted. "It's too horrific."
Right now, 14 of Van Aken's stunning trees (not counting the two in his backyard) exist around the country. But come fall, he starts plans for an entire grove in Portland, Maine.
Below, an architect created a rendering of how that might look. In a word — gorgeous.
Story and Pictures by : Business Insider


Popular Pakistani singer Komal Rizvi has become the butt of ridicule and anger on Facebook after she posted on the social networking site a selfie with well- known social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi, who is seriously and under treatment in a hospital.

The selfies showing Rizvi smiling at the camera with a clearly distressed and unwell Edhi lying on the hospital bed has led to netizens lashing out at the singer on social media despite her attempts to defend her action.

Many felt that while it was laudable that Rizvi was in the forefront of charitable causes this Ramadan, her selfie with the sick Edhi was something which had gone too far.

Rizvi recently visited Edhi, who is under treatment and said to be very ill, and took selfies with the ailing man and his wife. She later posted them on Facebook.

She said the 90-year-old had dedicated his entire life to selfless service and charitable causes for this "thankless" nation and continues to do so despite his dialysis.

"I cannot thank Almighty enough for giving me this unforgettable moment and opportunity to meet the most important man in Pakistan," she wrote.

But majority felt otherwise and under different hashtags, the singer's action was taken apart, with one tweet saying: "Apparently #KomalRizvi decided it was more important to take a selfie with Edhi saab than to pray for his health."

"Oh both your kidneys have failed? That's sad. But wait, first let me take a selfie," another tweet said.

Yet another tweet said: "Its not #edhi sahab who is sick...The actual sick person is right beside him taking selfie with pleasure?? #shame on #komalrizvi".

A defiant Rizvi reposted the photos, saying "because I don't think anyone else in pakistan has a greater selfie than this".

"Both Edhi Sahab and I were happy taking it. We were laughing and joking and singing and talking about other celebrity visits and how i can possibly participate in the future with their foundation.

"I am ALSO EXTREMELY disappointed with how nasty, negative, and lazy and hypocritical some people in Pakistan are. To take such an innocent and beautiful thing and turn it into something ugly," she wrote.

At least eight people have died and a number more are missing after heavy rainfall and floods overnight in Georgia.
Heavy rainfall turned the Vere river, which flows through the capital Tbilisi, into a torrent that swept away dozens of buildings and cars.
Animals from the city's zoo, including tigers, lions, bears and wolves, escaped from cages damaged by the rainfall.
Three zoo workers are among the dead, and 10 more people are missing.
An escaped hippopotamus was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquiliser gun.
Some other animals have been located, but it remains unclear how many are on the loose.
Residents are being told to stay inside as zoo workers try to locate them, with helicopters circling the city of around 1.1 million people.
It was not immediately clear if the eight who were killed died as a result of the flooding or animal attacks.
The zoo said one of those who died was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month.
A preliminary estimate has put the damages at $10m (£6.4m), according to Irakly Lekvinadze, vice mayor of Tbilisi.
He said: "Dozens of families remain homeless as their houses were destroyed or damaged in the capital."

Women sometimes were taken away by guards for several days to be used as sex slaves.

KUALA LUMPUR: Muslim Rohingya women who were held at human-trafficking camps in Thailand and Malaysia were subjected to gang rapes by their captors, assaults that left at least two of them pregnant, a Malaysian media report said.

Malaysia’s state-run Bernama news agency quoted a Rohingya survivor of the camps, Nur Khaidha Abdul Shukur, as saying young women would be taken away nightly from the jungle post where she was held near Padang Besar in Thailand.

She passed through the camp last year, according to the report released late Monday. “Every night, two or three young and pretty Rohingya women were taken out from the detention pens by the guards to a clandestine place,” she was quoted saying.

“They would be gang raped by the guards. Two young women at the camp became pregnant after the gang rape.” The report also quoted her husband Nurul Amin Nobi Hussein saying he witnessed similar crimes taking place at nearby camps on the Malaysian side of the border.

The discovery last month of human-trafficking camps — and scores of nearby graves — first in Thailand and then over the border in Malaysia has caused shock and revulsion in Southeast Asia.

Seven camps were uncovered in Thailand beginning in early May and 33 bodies found in mass graves.

In late May, Malaysian police announced they had found 28 camps on their side of the border and 139 graves, which are still being exhumed.

The camps are believed to have been used by people-smuggling syndicates who move large numbers of impoverished Rohingya out of Myanmar, where they face systematic repression, with most heading for Malaysia.

Speaking from the northern Malaysian town of Alor Setarm, Nur Khaidha told Bernama that she entered the country illegally late last year after paying the smugglers to release her from the camp.

She said women sometimes were taken away by guards for several days to be used as sex slaves.

Her husband, who said he transited the Malaysian camps earlier in 2014, told Bernama the same occurred there.

“In the night, several of the guards would go to the pens housing the women and take them to a nearby place,” he said.

“We heard the shrieks and cries of the women because the place they raped them was very close to our pens, but as the incidents were at night, we could not see what was happening.” AFP was not immediately able to confirm the claims with authorities.

Thai police have arrested nearly 50 people, including some local officials, since launching a crackdown in early May.

Malaysia has said 12 of its police officers are among those being investigated for possible involvement in the camps on its side, the Thai crackdown threw the human flow into disarray, causing a humanitarian crisis by trapping thousands of starving migrants on boats at sea.

US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard, who is on a tour through the region to address the migrant issue, told reporters late Monday that she had met some women boat people now in Malaysia and many had endured harrowing experiences.

“It was very clear to me… they had gone through terrible, terrible experiences. They are not in good shape,” she said.

As Donna Forrest puts another photograph into her daughter's memory box, she knows one day it will be all she has to remember her by. Little Lilly-Anna Forrest was born with half a heart, a rare condition which means she is unlikely to reach adulthood. 

The condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, means half little Lilly-Anna's heart does not pump blood to the body, making the right side must work even harder. And since the family was given the devastating diagnosis, Donna, from Preston, Lancashire, has been creating a memory box for her daughter to help explain her condition as she gets older, and remember her daughter when she is gone. 


Former retail worker Donna, 25, said: "At first all I did was cry and cry; now she is here I am positive all the time. "As a new mum you don't think you are going to be talking about funeral plans. "I keep absolutely everything and take photos every day. I want to be able to show her it all when she's older and starts to ask questions. "One day she is going to find out and read up and ask me 'am I going to die?' "I always think 'what will I do when that day comes?' I don't know what I will do." Lilly-Anna was diagnosed with a potential condition at Donna's 12 week scan. At first doctors thought the fluid around her head and neck was because she had Downs Syndrome, but further tests at Manchester Children's Hospital revealed it was problem with her heart. Doctors were ready as soon as Lilly-Anna was born and she was whisked to the special care baby unit. She has already undergone two major operations and had her chest opened eight times. Donna said: "She looks just like a normal baby, he is very happy, always smiling and laughing. "But she won't be able to do things like PE when she goes to school and she will have to have a strict diet. "Initially when she came home she was very blue looking. Now unless you saw the scars you wouldn't be able to tell that she was poorly. "A lady in the supermarket even told me how healthy she looked." Lilly-Anna is being treated at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. She will have to have another operation aged between three and seven. Donna said: "Her condition is so severe I won't leave her side. She could have heart failure or a cardiac arrest in the night. "I have had some training with the hospital so that if something did happen, I would know what to do."] "I have to take each day as it comes because I never know what is around the corner," she continued. "So far we have been lucky though and since she came home from hospital she has only been back as an emergency once. "When we were in Alder Hey there was another baby with the same condition as Lilly-Anna. She did not make it and it made us realise just how lucky we are. "There are so many babies there for different things and all the parents support each other through it." Donna and Lilly-Anna's father, Michael Cottam, 31, a chef, are now fundraising for Alder Hey and the British Heart Foundation, starting with a sponsored walk. Donna said: "It's about raising more awareness. Some of the children with this condition are in pushchairs aged three or four; they can't walk very far. They are very poorly. We want to raise money for research to find a cure."







This kind of bridge is very common in Nepal. In some areas of the country, children must use it to go to class. Handmade, these bridges are so dangerous that many non-governmental organizations have decided to alert the authorities



For some children around the world, going to school is a real challenge

What is the name of this fruit ?

COMMENT BELOW

Amazing stuff.. this Boat  is made of Plastic Recycled Bottles. We don't have to throw the unwanted stuff out but we can use them in our daily lives innovatetively.