Friday, 22 November 2013
Alien-Looking Places on Earth
Socotra Island (Indian Ocean)
This island simply blows away any notion about what is considered “normal” for a landscape on Earth, you’d be inclined to think you were transported to another planet - or traveled to another era of Earth’s history. Socotra Island, which is part of a group of four islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, the island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic. The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high. The trees and plants of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old.
Rio Tinto (Spain)
The giant opencast mines of Rio Tinto create a surreal, almost lunar landscape. Its growth has consumed not only mountains and valleys but even entire villages, whose populations had to be resettled in specially built towns nearby. Named after the river which flows through the region-itself named for the reddish streaks that colour its water-Rio Tinto has become a landscape within a landscape. The river red water is highly acidic (pH 1.7—2.5) and rich in heavy metals. Kliluk, the Spotted Lake (Canada)
In the hot sun of summer, the water of Spotted Lake, located in British Columbia and Washington, evaporates and crystallizes the minerals, forming many white-rimmed circles: shallow pools that reflect the mineral content of the water in shades of blues and greens. It contains one of the worlds highest concentrations of minerals: magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts), calcium and sodium sulphates, plus eight other minerals and traces of four more, including silver and titanium. The Indians soaked away aches and ailments in the healing mud and waters. One story cites a truce in a battle to allow both warring tribes to tend to their wounded in the Spotted Lake, "Kliluk".
Vale da Lua (Brazil)
The Earth Is Not Round
No, no – I'm not a member of the Flat Earth Society. The Earth is a sphere, but due to its gravitational forces it is not a perfect circle. In fact, there is a bulge around the equator because of this. The Earth's Polar radius is 3,949.99 miles, while its Equatorial radius is 3,963.34 miles. That's right: the Earth has love handles. (Link 1 | Link 2)
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Meet The Man Who has not slept for 30 years
Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights. "I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I'm still healthy and can farm normally like others," Ngoc said. Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4km of road to return home every day. His wife said,
"My husband used to sleep well, but these days, even liquor cannot put him down." She said when Ngoc went to Da Nang for a medical examination, doctors gave him a clean bill of health, except a minor decline in liver function. Ngoc currently lives on his 5ha farm at the foot of a mountain busy with farming and taking care of pigs and chickens all day. His six children live at their house in Que Trung. Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to prevent theft, saying he used three months of sleepless nights to dig two large ponds to raise fish.
Japanese Man claims To be Jesus Christ
Matayoshi Mitsuo is an eccentric Japanese politician with the conviction that he is the God and Christ. According to his program, he will do the Last Judgement as the Christ but the way to do this is totally within the current political system and its legitimacy. His first step as the Savior is to be appointed the prime minister of Japan. Then he will reform Japanese society and then the United Nations should offer him the honor of its General Secretary. Then Matayoshi Jesus will reign over the whole world with two legitimate authorities, not only religious but also political.
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Burning 1 mosquito coil worse than 100 Cigarettes
*Burning one mosquito coil would release the same amount of PM(2.5) mass as burning 75-137 cigarettes.
*The emission of formaldehyde from burning one coil can be as high as that released from burning 51 cigarettes.
* Regular use of Mosquito coil may lead to various lung infections and finally become an agent of cancer.
* Under the same combustion conditions, the tested Malaysian mosquito coils generated more measured pollutants than did the tested Chinese mosquito coils.
* In a set of experiments conducted in a room, the result showed the size distribution of particulate matter contained in the coil smoke and found that the particles were ultra fine and fine.
* Result suggest that exposure to the smoke of mosquito coils similar to the tested ones can pose significant acute and chronic health risks.
Share If you Care.
Source: [ US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Did You Know That Michael Jackson’s Death Managed To Shut Down Twitter….
The death of Michael Jackson shocked the whole planet. All of a sudden everyone was on the web searching for more information which would prove the news was wrong. According to various reports Twitter had to shut down temporary because of server overload. Google received so many Michael Jackson related search inquiries that it automatically responded with a Captcha code each time Michael Jackson’s name appeared in the search bar. YouTube experienced massive traffic on the pop singer’s videos. However, the websites didn’t suffer as much damage as Jackson’s fans did. Numerous reports of suicidal kids and elder people all around the globe started appearing on the news. According to the Barcelona Reporter, a young Tunisian girl spent her last day looking at Jackson’s videos before taking her own life. Many other fans were so shaken by the king of pop’s death that they believed their lives have become meaningless as their idol was no longer with them.
Friday, 15 November 2013
5 Of The Most Amazing Extinct Animals
1. Tyrannosaurus Rex (extinct 65 million years ago) [Wiki]
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time,
measuring up to 43.3 feet long, and 16.6 ft tall, with an estimated mass
that goes up to 7 tons. Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a
bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail.
Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs
were small and they retained only two digits.
Fossils of T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the last three million years of the Cretaceous Period at the end of the Maastrichtian stage, approximately 68.5 to 65.5 million years ago; it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. More than 30 specimens of T. rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Some researchers have discovered soft tissue as well. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including life history and biomechanics.
Fossils of T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the last three million years of the Cretaceous Period at the end of the Maastrichtian stage, approximately 68.5 to 65.5 million years ago; it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. More than 30 specimens of T. rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Some researchers have discovered soft tissue as well. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including life history and biomechanics.
2. Quagga: half zebra, half horse (extinct since 1883) [Wiki]
One of Africa's most famous extinct animals, the quagga was a subspecies
of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South
Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State.
It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks
on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes
faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the
hindquarters were a plain brown. The name comes from a Khoikhoi word for
zebra and is onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's call.
The quagga was originally classified as an individual species, Equus quagga, in 1788. Over the next fifty years or so, many other zebras were described by naturalists and explorers. Because of the great variation in coat patterns (no two zebras are alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were true species, which were subspecies, and which were simply natural variants. Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity died on August 12, 1883 at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
Because of the great confusion between different zebra species, particularly among the general public, the quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared to be a separate species. The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable plains zebra.
The quagga was originally classified as an individual species, Equus quagga, in 1788. Over the next fifty years or so, many other zebras were described by naturalists and explorers. Because of the great variation in coat patterns (no two zebras are alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were true species, which were subspecies, and which were simply natural variants. Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity died on August 12, 1883 at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
Because of the great confusion between different zebra species, particularly among the general public, the quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared to be a separate species. The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable plains zebra.
3. Irish Deer: the largest deer that ever lived (extinct about 7,700 years ago) [Wiki - Photo: (c) The Field Museum, CK1T]
The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It
lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late
Pleistocene and early Holocene. The latest known remains of the species
have been carbon dated to about 5,700 BC, or about 7,700 years ago. The
Giant Deer is famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet
tall at the shoulders), and in particular for having the largest
antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip
to tip and weighing up to 90 pounds).
Discussion of the cause of their extinction has still focused on the antlers (rather than on their overall body size), which may be due more to their impact on the observer than any actual property. Some have suggested hunting by man was a contributing factor in the demise of the Irish Elk as it was with many prehistoric megafauna, even assuming that the large antler size restricted the movement of males through forested regions or that it was by some other means a "maladaptation". But evidence for overhunting is equivocal, and as a continental species, it would have co-evolved with humans throughout its existence and presumably have adapted to their
Discussion of the cause of their extinction has still focused on the antlers (rather than on their overall body size), which may be due more to their impact on the observer than any actual property. Some have suggested hunting by man was a contributing factor in the demise of the Irish Elk as it was with many prehistoric megafauna, even assuming that the large antler size restricted the movement of males through forested regions or that it was by some other means a "maladaptation". But evidence for overhunting is equivocal, and as a continental species, it would have co-evolved with humans throughout its existence and presumably have adapted to their
4. Caspian Tiger: the third largest (extinct since 1970) [Wiki]
The Caspian tiger or Persian tiger was the westernmost subspecies of
tiger, found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan,
Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan until it apparently
became extinct in the 1970s. Of all the tigers known to the world, the
Caspian tiger was the third largest.
The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and unusually large claws. The ears were short and small, and gave the appearance of being without hair on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of its fur was long and thick. The colouration resembled that of the Bengal tiger. Male Caspian tigers were very large and weighed 169-240 kg. Females were not as large, weighing 85-135 kg. There are still occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted.
The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and unusually large claws. The ears were short and small, and gave the appearance of being without hair on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of its fur was long and thick. The colouration resembled that of the Bengal tiger. Male Caspian tigers were very large and weighed 169-240 kg. Females were not as large, weighing 85-135 kg. There are still occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted.
5. Aurochs: a very large type of cattle (extinct since 1627) [Wiki]
One of Europe's most famous extinct animals, the aurochs or urus (Bos
primigenius) were a very large type of cattle. Aurochs evolved in India
some two million years ago, migrated into the Middle East and further
into Asia, and reached Europe about 250,000 years ago.
By the 13th century A.D., the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland,
Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania and East Prussia. The right to hunt
large animals on any land was restricted to nobles and gradually to the
royal household. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased
but the royal court still required gamekeepers to provide open fields
for the aurochs to graze in. The gamekeepers were exempted from local
taxes in exchange for their service and a decree made poaching an
aurochs punishable by death. In 1564, the gamekeepers knew of only 38
animals, according to the royal survey. The last recorded live aurochs, a
female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland. The skull was
later taken by the Swedish Army and is now the property of
Livrustkammaren in Stockholm.
In the 1920s two German zookeepers, the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck,
attempted to breed the aurochs back into existence (see breeding back)
from the domestic cattle that were their descendants. Their plan was
based on the conception that a species is not extinct as long as all its
genes are still present in a living population. The result is the breed
called Heck Cattle, 'Recreated Aurochs', or 'Heck Aurochs', which bears
an incomplete resemblance to what is known about the physiology of the
wild aurochs
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Did You Know That In 1922 A German Farmer Was Killed After Finding Mysterious…
Hinterkaifeck is the name of a small farm located in Bavaria,Germany. The farm, situated about 70 km away from Munich, is where one of the most mysterious crimes in Germany took place in 1922 when a family of six members was killed. The crime was never solved. Some days before the murder, the farmer Andreas Gruber discovered strange footprints in the snow that led from the forest to his farm but there were no footprints leading back. Gruber also told his neighbors he had heard steps in the attic and found a newspaper that didn’t belong to him. The keys to the farmhouse had disappeared about a week before the crime. However, none of these incidents had been reported to the local police.The victims of the crime were six people: the farmer and his wife, their daughter and her two children as well as the maid. The neighbors found the bodies several days later. To this day, the crime is still unsolved and remains one of the most ambiguous crimes in the history of Germany.
42 years old Landlord Defiles His...
Police detectives from Igando Police Station in Lagos, have arrested a 42-year old landlord for allegedly defiling a 10-year old daughter of his tenant. The incident occurred on 10 November at 45, Unity Road in Egan, Lagos, and according to P.M.NEWS, the suspect, Taiwo Bakare, an electrician from Oyo State, had lured the girl, (name withheld) to his parlour with sweet where he allegedly committed the act. He thereafter attempted to insert his manhood into the little girl’s private part when he was caught in the act. Another tenant saw him and raised an alarm, which attracted other tenants. Police detectives were invited and they arrested the man and took him to their station. Speaking with P.M.NEWS, the suspect, who claimed to be married and has four children, confessed that he has a high libido. "My wife and children had all gone out when the devil took the better part of me and I had to lure the girl to my parlour in an attempt to have sex with her,” he confessed. A senior police officer at the Igando station confirmed the incident and said the suspect will soon be charged to court.
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