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Monday, December 13, 2010

Amazing Meteor Geminids Strike Earth!



It's that time of the year again when the Earth gets sandblasted by the tiny fragments of an ancient asteroid. Yes, it's the Geminids and tonight is the night when the meteorshower will peak.Last night, at 2am, I went outside in the hope of spotting one or two shooting stars. Fortunately, due to my late-night working habits, I was able to be outside when the meteor "radiant" was pretty much directly above. The radiant is a point in the night sky where the meteors appear to be showering from. This time of the year, that radiant is centered around the constellation of Gemini (hence the "Geminids").

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Amazing Story of A Car that runs 200 miles on compressed Air!.


This five-seater car runs on compressed air, has zero pollution, very low running costs and will cost about $15,000.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Amazing Images of Hubble Telescope Ultra Deep Field 3D

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 3D
What happens when you point the Hubble Space Telescope to a seemingly blank patch of sky? A view that takes you to the edge of the universe!
"Awesome" doesn't begin to describe it. Every galaxy in the image is in its proper distance as viewed from the telescope line of sight.
http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-deep-field.htm

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Amazing Story of New Aurora Pictures: Sky Shows Sparked by Sun Eruption

Sparked by charged particles that had been ejected by the sun three days earlier, an aurora borealis streaks into view in the wee hours of September 15 over Ersfjord, Norway. The same night, similar shows enlivened skies over northern Canada and elsewhere in Europe.

When a charged-particle cloud enters the upper atmosphere of Earth, it smashes into and breaks up gas molecules, creating the northern lights (or in the Southern Hemisphere, the southern lights).
"Like gas inside a neon sign, as the atoms smash together they begin to glow—producing a great light show," Manuel said.
The colors a sky-watcher sees depends on what type of gas is being hit and how high it is. For example, the green aurora pictured was the result of oxygen-atom collisions about 60 to 120 miles (100 to 200 kilometers) up.
(Related: "Light Pillar Pictures: Mysterious Sky Shows Explained.")http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Amazing Story of Life Raft that Makes Drinking Water!

.



Imagine this: Your ship is sinking. You abandon ship with nothing but the clothes on your back, and you're thirsty, really thirsty. Lucky for you, you've arrived on-board the SeaKettle, a life raft that has the ability to desalinate salt water...
The process starts by pumping sea water up to a Gortex covered reservoir, where the water is subject to evaporation. The evaporated water then hits the top canopy and condenses, filling the four pockets around the raft with fresh drinking water. The Gortex cover over the reservoir allows the vapor molecules to escape, but holds in the larger liquid molecules, preventing the pockets of fresh water from becoming contaminated by the sea water. This produces enough water for up to five passengers to stay sufficiently hydrated.
Designer Kim Hoffman got the inspiration for this project from the many stories of people suffering from extreme dehydration or death while being stranded in a life raft at sea. "With water all around, I thought, there's no way this should happen," she says. "There's got to be a way to turn the seemingly endless amount of ocean water into viable drinking water. So, that is what I set out to do."

Amazing Life Raft

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Amazing Story of Perseid Meteor Shower Thursday August 12,2010

Adrian Morrow
Toronto — Globe and Mail Update
Published on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 12:27PM EDT
Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 2:42PM EDT
.One of the year's brightest shows is on Thursday night – and best of all, it's free.
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most spectacular of the year, will be visible all night, as debris from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle falls into the earth's atmosphere.
The meteors are centered on a spot near the Perseus constellation. In the early evening, it will sit low in the northeastern sky. As the night progresses, it will move steadily upward.
The most spectacular point of the shower will happen about 3 or 4 a.m., in the hours before first light.
At the shower's peak, as many as 100 meteors per hour will streak across the sky. Light pollution, however, could mean that far fewer of these objects will be visible to city-dwellers. It will, however, be more visible than last year, as the moon will be smaller.
Ray Jayawardhana, an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said those hoping to see the shower should seek out a dark place.
“I certainly think from the outskirts of the city or perhaps from the roof of a building,” he said.

amazing meteor shower
 
 If the skies are clear enough for good viewing, the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill will hold an open house from 9:30 p.m. ET to midnight. Participants are encouraged to bring a blanket or a lawn chair to lie back and watch the sky. Members of the Royal Astronomical Society will have telescopes set up and will be on hand to answer questions.
The observatory will post a notice on its website around 6 p.m. indicating if the weather will be clear enough for good viewing.

Friday, July 30, 2010

HMS Investigator – Ship Lost 150 Years Found » Right Pundits

HMS Investigator – Ship Lost 150 Years Found » Right Pundits


Amazing, Ship Lost for 150 Years!


Don’t give up the ship, no matter how long it’s been missing! The HMS Investigator, a ship lost over 150 years, was found! Archeologists from Parks Canada located the vessel in 15 minutes thanks to a sonar scan. A merchantman, the HMS Investigation was on it’s second voyage to the high Arctic searching for the lost Franklin expedition. She became trapped in the ice on Banks Island in the Beauford Sea in 1853 and was abandoned. Lost for 157 years, her remains have been located.








Sir John Franklin was an explorer who had mapped two-thirds of the northern coastline of North America. He firmly believed that there was a Northwest Passage to the Orient through the Canadian Arctic. Two ships, the HMS Erebus and Terror were dispatched on May 19, 1845. Equipped with the latest technology, including steam engines and canned food, 24 officers and 110 crewmen set sail for the Arctic.



The ships were last seen by a whaler, the Prince of Wales on July 26, 1845 near Lancaster Sound, in the high Arctic near Baffin Bay. The two ships apparently became trapped in the ice near King William Island around September, 1846. What happened after that is not fully known.



Several rescue expeditions were launched in search of the crews. A note was found telling of how Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847. Sketchy details of possible interaction with local Inuit tribes were reported. Also darker stories of cannibalism. Most of Franklin’s expedition probably died from starvation, the extreme cold and other diseases. More recent theories say they may have succumbed to insanity due to lead poisoning from the crude canned food of the time.



In 1848, the HMS Investigator and Enterprise sailed to search for Franklin’s group. Commanded by Robert McClure, the ship was trapped in the ice in Mercy Bay on June 3, 1853. In 1857, The HMS Resolute found her still stuck, but in fair condition. McClure and his crew did make it back to England. But after time, the exact location of the HMS Investigator became unknown. An account from Inuit stories from 1910 tell of them using the ship as a source for copper and iron. A voyage in 1915 failed to find the vessel.



On July 22, 2010, a team from Parks Canada began their search for the missing vessel. Just three days later, a sonar scan was begun in the Beaufort Sea near Banks Island. In just 15 minutes, the remains of the HMS Investigator, lost for over 150 years, was found! There are no plans to raise the vessel, however a robotic ROV will dive and take pictures. The team will then continue to search for the HMS Erebus and Terror.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Amazing Molecular "Spider" Robots!

Amazing Nano-Robots!
The latest installment in DNA nanotechnology has arrived: A molecular nanorobot dubbed a "spider" and labeled with green dyes traverses a substrate track built upon a DNA origami scaffold. It journeys towards its red-labeled goal by cleaving the visited substrates, thus exhibiting the characteristics of an autonomously moving, behavior-based robot at the molecular scale. Credit: Courtesy of Paul Michelotti




A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

http://www.physorg.com/








Friday, May 7, 2010

Unusual and Offbeat Story of Skateboarding Down Bobsled Track


"I hope I can skate american bobtracks in the future My top speed in bobtracks is 82 km/h so far. Compared to road downhill that´s not so fast but the speed sensation is much more intense because of the tightness of the track," says Danny Strasser on below the YouTube link. He has been using the comment section as a promotion tool and interacting with fans. It's hard to tell if other comments he makes, like these 2 below, are trying to come off as cocky or maybe just a little lost in translation?http://www.push.ca/

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Strange and Unusual April Rainfall in The Arctic!

Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Base reports ‘unheard of’ April rain – A surprise for experienced polar team
The scientists and staff at the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Base in the high Arctic off Ellef Ringnes island in the Canadian High Arctic have reported an abnormal occurrence at the weekend: it rained.
Paul Ramsden, the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Base Manager, reported big raindrops fell during the shower. “I had to look twice. Snow flurries we expect, not rain. It is obviously quite worrying when you are camped out on ice! I felt distinctly nervous for a while because the consequences of getting wet here can be serious – but eventually it stopped and we are all safe” he said.
April rain in more southerly climes may be common, but according to the metrological services at Environment Canada – rain in the high Arctic around 79 degrees North in April is extremely rare. Experienced Arctic explorer Pen Hadow, who is Expedition Director of the project said: “Rain that far north is not at all normal at this time of year. According to the Canadian met services there was also some rain at Borden Camp a hundred miles away. We’re told that southerly winds to the west of a strong high pressure that’s been sitting south of Resolute Bay have been pumping very warm air from way down south up over Borden and Ellef Ringnes Islands for the past week. It is pretty unusual for such a strong southerly to push warm air over this area in April.”

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Unusual and Offbeat News of Leonard Nimoy Visits Vulcan,Alberta




Leonard Nimoy, the actor who immortalized the character Spock on Star Trek, was hailed as a homecoming hero as he led a parade in Vulcan, Alta., celebrating the town's status as "official Star Trek capital of Canada."

"I've been a Vulcan for 44 years. It's about time I came home," Nimoy, 79, said to cheers.


A railway surveyor named the settlement after the Roman god of fire in 1915, but the town shares its name with the birth planet of Spock.

'AMAZING'
LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

 He spoke about how his achievements as an actor far exceeded what he had dreamed of, but told the crowd, "I've never had an experience quite as touching as this and I appreciate it. Thank you."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Amazing and Unusual New Images of The Sun from NASA's New Eye!

http://www.physorg.com/news191090039.html  http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=397321

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth.
Some of the images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.
"These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics.”
"These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research,” said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SDO will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society. This mission will have a huge impact on science, similar to the impact of the Hubble Space Telescope on modern astrophysics.”
REALLY AMAZING AND UNUSUAL PHOTO 
OF THE SUN! 





Monday, April 19, 2010

Unusual and Unique World Architecture Made From Toothpicks!

Stain Monro from New York has quit his job as a TV presenter since 2003 and worked full-time for the job of constructing world architectures with toothpicks. It took him 6 years to set up two breathtaking “toothpicks city” by using 6 millions toothpicks and 170 liter gluewater, including Big Ben in London, London Tower Bridge, Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Empire State Building in New York,Dubai Voyage Sails Hotel etc. more than 50 models of famous landmark structure in the world.
http://www.tektuff.com/world-architectures-toothpicks/

Very Amazing Self-Piloting Flying Car DARPA Project

The Terrafugia Transition is a roadable aircraft that was tested last year. DARPA's plans for the Transformer X call for the vehicle to be capable of flying on autopilot and driving off-road, among other features. Credit: Terrafugia.
http://www.physorg.com/
DARPA wants a prototype that will be ready for ground and flight tests by 2015, and that will cost no more than $43 million to develop. Although the TX is currently just a lofty goal, it has the potential to transform military transportation - and possibly even civilian transportation, if everything goes as planned.

AMAZING FLYING CAR!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

NASA satellite image of Very Strange And Unusual Iceland Volcanic Ash



REYKJAVIK, April 18 (Reuters) - Powerful tremors from an Icelandic volcano that has been a menace for thousands of travellers worldwide rocked the countryside on Sunday as eruptions hurled a steady stream of ash into the sky.
Ash from the volcano drifted southeast towards Europe, sparing the capital Reykjavik and other more populated centres but forcing farmers and their livestock indoors as a blanket of ash fell on the surrounding areas.
Iceland's Meterological Office said tremors from the volcano had grown more intense and had increased from a day ago, but that the column of steam and ash rising from the volcano had eased back to 4-5 km (2.5-3 miles) from as high as 11 km when it started erupting earlier this week.
"We are seeing mixed signals. There are some hints that the eruption will be decreasing, and others that show it is not decreasing," Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the Meteorological Office, told Reuters.http://live.reuters.com/Event/Volcanic_ash_cloud_developments

Very Weird News of Dead Man Elected Mayor In Tennessee!

It’s the voter’s way of sending a message to politicians they have grown tired or

distrustful of, sort of a “Thanks for coming, now get out and don’t let the screen door smack you in the butt.”
The good folks of Tracy City, Tennessee, population 1,679, have just done that to their mayor, and boy did they ever send a message.
On Tuesday they chose Carl Robin Geary Sr. over the incumbent, Mayor Barbara Brook.
What’s truly amazing is Geary died back on March 10.
“I knew he was deceased, I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her,” said Chris Rogers in the Chattanooga Times Free Press
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/ted_woloshyn/


Mr. Geary, an alderman in Tracy City since 2006 and known for always wearing overalls, campaigned on straight talk, according to supporters.
At his funeral exactly one month before the election, someone propped up one of his campaign signs among the floral arrangements.
http://www.timesfreepress.com
http://www.timesfreepress.com/




VERY WEIRD!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Very Amazing Canadian Solar Car sets Ice Road Record

Canadians were behind this past weekend's record-setting ice road drive by a solar-powered vehicle.
Driving the Power of One (XOF1) from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk - a distance of 187 km - Marcelo da Luz and his team managed the world's longest ice road in about nine and a half hours, despite suffering four flat tires from ice cracks along the way.

Amazing Solar Car!
The XOF1 can accelerate from 0 to 85 km/h in just six seconds, and can travel 483 km in the daytim and 200 km at night. Developed by da Luz in 1999, it is the first solar car to function in below zero temperatures.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Unusual and Strange Underwater Volcanic Vents Found!

A British scientific expedition has discovered the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents, known as 'black smokers', 3.1 miles (5000 metres) deep in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. Using a deep-diving vehicle remotely controlled from the Royal Research Ship James Cook, the scientists found slender spires made of copper and iron ores on the seafloor, erupting water hot enough to melt lead, nearly half a mile deeper than anyone has seen before.
Deep-sea vents are undersea springs where superheated water erupts from the ocean floor. They were first seen in the Pacific three decades ago, but most are found between one and two miles deep. Scientists are fascinated by deep-sea vents because the scalding water that gushes from them nourishes lush colonies of deep-sea creatures, which has forced scientists to rewrite the rules of biology. Studying the life-forms that thrive in such unlikely havens is providing insights into patterns of marine life around the world, the possibility of life on other planets, and even how life on Earth began.
"Seeing the world's deepest black-smoker vents looming out of the darkness was awe-inspiring," says Copley, a marine biologist at the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the NOC and leader of the overall research programme. "Superheated water was gushing out of their two-storey high mineral spires, more than three miles deep beneath the waves". He added: "We are proud to show what British underwater technology can achieve in exploring this frontier - the UK subsea technology sector is worth £4 billion per year and employs 40 000 people, which puts it on a par with our space industry."

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Totally Amazing and Unique News- 50% of Babies Will Live to Be 100!

More than half of babies now born in the UK and other wealthy nations will live to 100 years, researchers say.
Data from more than 30 developed countries shows that since 1950 the probability of surviving past 80 years of age has doubled for both sexes.
Professor Kaare Christensen, of the Danish Ageing Research Centre at the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study, said life expectancy had been increasing since 1840 and there was no sign of this trend slowing down.


Four 'ages of man'
The researchers said that man could now be regarded as having four stages of life - child, adult, young old age and old old age.
They said there was no evidence that the old old age group were unhealthier than their younger counterparts, partly because the frailest people died first, leaving the most robust to survive past 85.
And a study of US super-centenarians (age 110 to 119 years) showed that, even at these advanced ages, 40% needed little assistance or were independent.

People are not only living longer than they did previously, but also they are living longer, with less disability and fewer functional limitations .
"Professor Kaare Christensen, University of Southern Denmark"



 

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Totally Amazing and Unusual Giant Space Smokestacks Plumes

If our eyes could see radio waves, the nearby galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) would be one of the biggest and brightest objects in the sky, nearly 20 times the apparent size of a full moon. What we can't see when looking at the galaxy in visible light is that it lies nestled between a pair of giant radio-emitting gas plumes ejected by its supersized black hole. Each plume is nearly a million light-years long.

Amazing Photo Image

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Unusual Dark Matter in NASA's Amazing 3D Map

March 26, 2010 -- Dark matter makes up the majority of mass in our universe. However, we cannot directly measure the stuff as it doesn't interact with electromagnetic radiation (i.e. it doesn't emit or reflect any light), but we can indirectly observe its presence.








In this beautiful multicolored Hubble Space Telescope image, the distribution of mostly dark matter has been calculated and mapped. Basically, the location and density of anything with mass has been plotted in a 3D representation of the cosmos.






But if the majority of matter (i.e. dark matter) cannot be seen, how did Hubble work out its location?







SLIDE SHOW: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped images from the far corners of the known universe. Take a look at our favorite Hubble images of 2009.







Hubble is making use of a characteristic of space-time as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Matter bends space-time -- much like a bowling ball will warp a suspended rubber sheet because it's heavy -- and as light travels through this bent space-time, the light's path will be deflected. This deflection can be directly observed.







For example, if a distant galaxy emits light in our direction, it may be diverted slightly in its otherwise straight path. Like a glass lens being placed in front of a lightbulb, the galactic light will distort from our viewpoint -- the heavier the mass, the greater the distortion.







This distortion is known as "gravitational lensing" and it can be used as a tool to detect things like galaxies, black holes and, you guessed it, dark matter.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

For One Amazing Hour The EARTH Went Dark

LONDON — Europe’s best known landmarks — including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Rome’s Colosseum — fell dark Saturday, following Sydney’s Opera House and Beijing’s Forbidden City in joining a global climate change protest, as lights were switched off across the world to mark the Earth Hour event.




In the United States, the lights went out at the Empire State Building in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, among many other sites in the Eastern time zone.



Millions were expected to turn off lights and appliances for an hour from 8:30 p.m. in a gesture to highlight environmental concerns and to call for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This year’s was the fourth annual Earth Hour, organized by the World Wildlife Fund.



“I think it’s great to see that hundreds of millions of people share this common value of lowering our carbon footprint,” said Dan Forman, a spokesman for WWF in Washington.



Some 4,000 cities in more than 120 countries — starting with the remote Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand — voluntarily switched off Saturday to reduce energy consumption, though traffic lights and other safety features were unaffected, organizers said.



“We have everyone from Casablanca to the safari camps of Namibia and Tanzania taking part,” said Greg Bourne, CEO of WWF in Australia, which started Earth Hour in 2007 in Sydney before it spread to every continent.
By DAVID STRINGER, The Associated Press

Really Amazing!
New York, London and Paris

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Truly Amazing Images From Hubble Space Telescope!

Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Cat's Eye Nebula

In this view of the center of the magnificent barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512, the Hubble telescope reveals a stunning 2,400 light-year-wide circle of infant star clusters.


Source: J. P. Harrington (U. Maryland) & K. J. Borkowski (NCSU) HST, NASA
Astronomers generally believe that the giant bar, which is too faint to be seen in this image, funnels the gas to the inner ring, where massive stars are formed within numerous star clusters. Located 30 million light-years away, NGC 1512 is a neighbor of our Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings were edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring the nearly symmetrical light show at both of the giant planet's poles.



It takes Saturn almost thirty years to orbit the Sun, with the opportunity to image both of its poles occurring only twice during that time.



Really Quite Amazing and Unique Images!
Saturn Rings are very Unusual!

Source: NASA, ESA, and Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)

Monday, March 22, 2010

World's Most Expensive Speeding Ticket: $ 290,000 !

   I found this story very amazing indeed!
If you're going to set the record for the world's most expensive speeding ticket, you may as well do it in style. That seems to be the reasoning behind a Swiss driver who was caught driving his Ferrari Testarossa in a small village at 100 km/h in January 2010. A court in the northeastern Swiss canton of St. Gallen requested the man dip into his over-$23 million fortune to the tune of $290,000. The fine beat a previous Swiss speeding ticket record of more than $100,000, issued to a Porsche driver in Zurich in 2008, after a string of previous traffic offences.

Story by John Leblanc of MSN
 Photo courtesy of Ferrari

Friday, March 19, 2010

Library Book Overdue for 45 Years Finally Returned


                                  Unique  Old Books!

LONDON - It's common to return a library book late - but not by half a century.
Staff at a British library say they were surprised and puzzled when they received a book that was 45 years overdue through their mailbox.


Alison Lawrie, the principal assistant at Dinnington Library, near northern England's Sheffield, says the Penguin first edition copy of "Quatermass and the Pit" by Nigel Kneale was due back on Oct. 15, 1965.

She says the borrower remains a mystery because the library records don't go back that far, and the sender didn't attach a letter or note with the book.
Lawrie said Friday the sender need not worry about a hefty fine.
She says: "If the person who returned the book wants to come forward, we'd love to know the story behind it."


Stock Photography & Copyright by Soren Breiting.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Smallest Town in the USA


Hidden among the cornfields along highway 55 in northwestern Minnesota on some of the flattest land you'll ever see is a little town called Tenney. Having recently discovered that America's smallest town was only three hours away, my curiosity finally got the best of me. So I rose early on Saturday morning and made the three-hour drive in 2 hours and 57 minutes, took some pictures, and then made it back in time for lunch.

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Youngest Girl to Row Across the Atlantic Ocean Alone

Katie Spotz, 22, of Mentor, Ohio, rows as a Guyana Coast Guard escorts from behind upon arrival to shore in Georgetown, Guyana, Sunday, March 14, 2010. Spotz, who set out from Dakar, Senegal on Jan. 3, completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat.

Seventy days without using her legs for anything other than rowing movements, and suddenly, Spotz wondered if this might be the first in more than two months that she would fail.
              
"It was a bit nerve-wracking," Spotz said via phone Sunday night










Amazing Solar
Panels!

Photos by Julie Gibson of Associated Press

Story of Plants That Have Feelings

Most people would find it hard to believe that plants have feelings. Recent studies have proven that plants do have feelings. According to the peer reviewed journal Plant Physiology, plants are capable of identifying danger. Botanist Bill Williams said, “plants not only seem to be aware and feel pain, they can even communicate.” Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird who cowrote of “The Secret Life of Plants” said, “Plants are living, breathing, communicating creatures.”




The fact that “plants have feelings” has been recorded repeatedly in books in China since ancient times. Here is one account that occurred during the Tang Dynasty.



Monk Su of Xing-Shan Temple had some candlenut trees on the grounds that he planted years ago. In the summer months sap from the candlenut trees dripped from the leaves. If it got on your clothing, just like motor oil, it could not be washed off. Many officials from the royal court would come to tour the temple during summer. One time the high officials from the State of Zhao came to the temple for a summer vacation, however they disliked the candlenut trees because of the sap they dripped. They told Monk Su, “Please cut those trees down, and we'll give you a pine tree for every candlenut tree you cut down.”



In the evening, Monk Su jokingly told the trees, “I planted you some twenty years ago, but people dislike you for your sap. Next year, if your sap drips down again, I'll use you as firewood.”



After that, the sap no longer dripped down from these candlenut trees.

Crystal Caves of Mexico

The Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico, is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary crystals. Naica is a lead, zinc and silver mine in which large voids have been found, containing crystals of selenite (gypsum) as large as 4 feet in diameter and 50 feet long. The chamber holding these crystals is known as the Crystal Cave of Giants, and is approximately 1000 feet down in the limestone host rock of the mine. The crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. The cavern was discovered while the miners were drilling through the Naica fault, which they were worried would flood the mine. The Cave of Swords is another chamber in the Naica Mine, containing similar large crystals.


The largest natural crystals on Earth have been discovered in two caves within a silver and zinc mine near Naica, in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to mine officials. Reaching lengths of over 20 feet, the clear, faceted crystals are composed of selenite, a crystalline form of the mineral gypsum.

The Incredible Lendicular Clouds

Lenticular clouds, technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction.




Where stable moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. Lenticular clouds sometimes form at the crests of these waves. Under certain conditions, long strings of lenticular clouds can form, creating a formation known as a wave cloud.



Power pilots tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of the turbulence of the rotor systems that accompany them, but sailplane pilots actively seek them out. This is because the systems of atmospheric standing waves that cause "lennies" (as they are sometimes familiarly called) also involve large vertical air movements, and the precise location of the rising air mass is fairly easy to predict from the orientation of the clouds.



"Wave lift" of this kind is often very smooth and strong, and enables gliders to soar to remarkable altitudes and great distances. The current gliding world records for both distance (over 3,000km) and altitude (14,938m) were set using such lift.



Lenticular clouds have been mistaken for UFOs (or "visual cover" for UFOs) because these clouds have a characteristic lens appearance and smooth saucer-like shape.



The Amazing Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters.




They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty.



Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.



Mysterious Sailing Stones of Death Valley

In an area called the "Racetrack playa" in Death Valley near the western border of Arizona, an amazingly large number of stones, ranging in size from mere pebbles to half ton boulders regularly travel by themselves and no one has ever been able to explain why!

These huge stones move by themselves, leaving miles of zig-zagged, curved and straight tracks and continue to baffle the scientific community. As you can see these photos, the hardened surface of the landscape is marbled with the trails of water rivulets that would make concealing evidence of outside interference impossible. So the big question is, just how DO these mysterious stones move?

Friday, March 12, 2010

BBC To Make Atlantis Movie


A New British movie is to tell the story of the ancient cataclysm that's believed to be the basis for the Atlantis legend.




The BBC has announced the TV film, to be called Atlantis and directed by Primeval's Tony Mitchell, will "tell the dramatic story of the greatest natural disaster to shake the ancient world, a disaster that triggered the downfall of a civilisation and spawned a legend."



The film will be made using the same techniques as Zack Snyder's Spartan war epic 300 and will be accompanied by a documentary looking at the historical evidence.



Around 1620 BC a gigantic volcano in the Aegean Sea stirred from its 19,000-year slumber.



The eruption tore apart the island of Thera, producing massive tsunamis that flooded the nearby island of Crete, the centre of Europe's first great civilisation - the Minoans.



This apocalyptic event, many experts now believe, provided the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. »



- David Bentley

Thursday, March 11, 2010

World's Largest House of Cards

MACAU (Reuters Life!) - Crowds of baccarat-obsessed Chinese punters crammed inside the world's largest casino, the Venetian Macau, witnessed on Wednesday the mega-casino's latest claim to fame as the world's largest "house of cards."




Kneeling at a quiet spot not far from the cavernous gaming floors of the casino, Bryan Berg, an American architect placed the last of 218,792 playing cards onto his paper edifice -- a replica of the Venetian Macau -- to break his own Guinness World Record for the largest house of free-standing playing cards.



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Robotic Hand That Senses Touch



Robotic Hand That Senses Touch (w/ Video)




(PhysOrg.com) -- Developed by researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy, the Smart Hand project has given patient, Robin af Ekenstam (see video) the sense of touch in his new prosthesis hand.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Korean Man Marries Anime Character

In Korea, a man a married his Japanese anime girlfriend!
The anime exists on his dakimaura, a.k.a. body pillow which he married.
They go out to dinner where he orders two dishes of pasta.
He also takes her to a theme park where they ride roller-coasters and a carousel.



Courtesy of The Toronto Sun

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Fish Falling From Sky


In Lajamanu, Australia on Feb. 25th and Feb 26th it rained fish!

"It rained fish" said Christine Balmer; "They fell from the sky everywhere!"

Mrs. Balmer, the aged care co-ordinator at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre said: "I haven't lost my marbles," "Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles!"

Stone Head Of Pharaoh


BlockquoteVery recently a stone head of a Pharaoh was found in Luxor, Egypt.

This head is 3,000 years old! It depicts Amenhotep III, the grandfather of

Tutankhamun. Photo and story courtesy of http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Spontaneous Combustion

This story is from Ottawa, Canada. On Feb. 24th of this year two young women
were saved by the Gatineau fire department. They are quite lucky to be alive after a pile of clothes spontaneously combusted!
"Spontaneous combustion, it does happen," Deputy Fire Chief Edouard LaRocque said.
Story courtesy of http://http//www.torontosun.com/

My First Post!


Hello everyone! This is my brand new blog site! I really hope you all enjoy it a lot!


My first post is the story that took place  the 23rd of February,2010.

In New York the 1938 first Superman comic which originally sold for 10 cents

was sold for a record smashing $1 Million dollars US !!

The previous comic book record was set in 2009 for $317,000 US for the same

No. 1 comic. This first edition Action Comics is considered the Holy Grail of

comic books. Photo and story courtesy of http://http://www.torontosun.com/