SCIENCE & TECH HISTORY IS MYSTERY

1969 Moon Landing

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 12:08:00 +0000

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon. About six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. As he set took his first step, Armstrong
famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The Apollo 11 mission occurred eight years after President John F. Kennedy (1917-63) announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, took place in 1972.

JFK's Pledge Leads to Start of Apollo Program

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins in an appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth."

At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination.

Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

President Richard Nixon spoke with Armstrong and Aldrin via a telephone radio transmission shortly after they planted the American flag on the lunar surface. Nixon considered it the "most historic phone call ever made from the White House."

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968 Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing.

In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. That May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

Timeline of the 1969 Moon Landing

At 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (1930-) aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission.

After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:17 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a now-famous message: "The Eagle has landed."

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation.

At 10:56 p.m., as Armstrong stepped off the ladder and planted his foot on the moon’s powdery surface, he spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface 19 minutes later, and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests and spoke with President Richard Nixon (1913-94) via Houston.

By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon—July 1969 A.D.—We came in peace for all mankind."

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:50 p.m. on July 24.

How Many Times Did the US Land on the Moon?

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13 (whose lunar landing was aborted due to technical difficulties). The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan (1934-) and Harrison Schmitt (1935-) of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.

The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.

Secrets of the Magic Piper

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 05:58:00 +0000

Fairytales, folklore, legends and myths carry the values and beliefs of their culture of origin. within the pre-scientific world, unpredictable natural events Associate in Nursingd inexplicable occurrences were rationalized with an array of malevolent and benign mystical forces; faeries, gods and goddesses, angels and demons, all of that offered reason.

In history, swords were drawn most frequently wherever wheat stalks lapped against the peoples knees most profusely and in Caithness, wherever was noted within the so much north of European nation, between the ninthand twelfth centuries, fierce battles were fought between Celtic and Norse cultures World Health Organization clashed for control over the regions affluent agricultural lands and fish wealthy coastlines.

An enduring Celtic story tells of a piper being seduced by the Queen of the Fairies and getting into a sorcerous seven year contract. at intervals the structure of this story lie a collection of precise astronomical conditions thatbring this people tale firmly into reality.

DC 4 aircraft disappeared in 1955, landed after 37 years

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 06:48:00 +0000

An astonishing data about the sanctioned DC 4 airplane with 57 travelers on board arrived in Caracas, Venezuela in 1992. According to subtleties this plane had showed up again only 37 years after his vanishing in 1955 during a departure from New York to Miami.

Why it conceivable that in under a couple of minutes, the plane took off again an apparition, and vanished into the mists. Declarations and taped radio correspondence between the pilot and control tower are certain verification that this nightmarish landing still was actually. It was the greatest and most recalled instance of extraordinary action.

Indications of authorities control organization of the plane terminal, who saw the scene, the equivalent by and large, said Appointee Priest of Common Aeronautics Ramon Estovar. However, the clincher, agreeing Estovara is a little logbook 1955, which gave the pilot the runway a few minutes before take-off and the evaporating of DC 4 air ship.

I saw the DC 4 flying machine . I heard the voice of the pilot. I even passed on a timetable, yet can't confide in it, - said Juan de la Corte, who clearly watched everything that happened from his post on the apex control flight. - These people on board still derive that now in 1955 and that they had landed in Florida. Regardless, it isn't. God knows where they have been all of these years.

As demonstrated by de la Corte and various executives, they comprehended that there is something remarkable, when the air terminal was out of the blue advanced toward propeller plane that has not appeared on the radar screens.

We saw the DC 4 flying machine with his own specific eyes, yet on the radar were no signs of it, - said de la Corte. - We have mentioned that the pilot call himself, and he radioed us, "Where are we?" His voice was frightened and frustrated, anyway finally he said that assent flight 914 from New York to Miami, with a gathering of 4 people and 57 voyagers. Boss said that after these statements of the pilot in the control room was serene. Everyone was amazed. It was Objective Flight 914 . Miami . 1800 km from Caracas.

I told the pilot: "It Caracas, Venezuela, South America .". By then I asked, "Are you persevering through a disaster?" There was no answer, and I cleared the section for landing. Planting was fabulous. Precisely when I started to feel that everything went well, I heard the pilot told his copilot: "Jesus Christ, Jimmy! What the hell would you say you are? "They looked fly and carried on just as it was a spaceship. According to de la Corte, the pilot communicated that he was reserved to sit at Miami Universal Air terminal at 9.55 am July 2, 1955.

At that point I heard him state, "Something isn't directly here." I radioed the DC 4 air ship: "Boss, this is a worldwide air terminal in Caracas. Today, May 21, 1992. "He just said," Gracious, my God! "I could hear him breathing overwhelmingly. I tried to calm him down, saying that it had sent to the ground group.

As demonstrated by de la Corte, when the ground gathering and pushed toward the tanker flying machine, the pilot hollered over the radio: "No! Do whatever it takes not to go close! We're leaving here! "A short time later, ground advantage masters declared seeing voyagers stand up to crushed against the window. A pilot opened the window of his cab and waved them to take off.

He waved to some envelope - said de la Corte. - Most likely, because of it and fell timetables, which we later found. The pilot started the engines, and the DC 4 flying machine took off. Pioneers of normal flight bound all records of game plans with the heap up, and moreover found a date-book and continue researching the scene.

The Taos Hum

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 06:41:00 +0000

Taos is a community in north-focal New Mexico. To a bystander, it probably won't appear to be such not quite the same as some other calm American town. Listen cautiously however, and you may find that Taos isn't so peaceful all things considered. Since the mid 1990s, a few occupants and guests of Taos have announced hearing a consistent low-recurrence humming or thundering clamor. We present to you the Taos Murmur.

The Taos Murmur has been portrayed as a black out rambling sound, like a diesel motor lingering out yonder. It is a hopeless clamor for those that can hear it. It never stops, meddles with rest, and is increasingly detectable during the evening and inside.

The Murmur turned out to be so annoying to Taos inhabitants that in 1993, local people voiced their worry about it to Congress. An open report was directed to analyze what could be going on. Occupants were met and different sound location instruments were put around the town.

The examination found that just around 2 percent of Taos inhabitants revealed hearing the Murmur. Many influenced occupants could reproduce the sounds they heard, yet no such flag were ever identified. The main uncommon action watched was raised electromagnetic field levels, however this was resolved to be the aftereffect of neighborhood electrical cables. No wellspring of the Murmur was ever recognized.

Murmurs The world over

Taos isn't really extraordinary with regards to unusual, baffling murmuring sounds. There have really been a few comparative cases the world over, a large number of which stay unexplained right up 'til the present time.

During the late-1970s, occupants of Bristol, Britain, were among the primary individuals to report hearing an enduring murmuring sound out there. In 1980, Bristol's ecological wellbeing officials utilized commotion observing gear to attempt to find the source. Despite the fact that it was in the long run accused on car traffic and neighborhood plants, reports of the Murmur proceed right up 'til today, about 40 years after the fact.

The beachfront neighborhood of Bondi in Sydney, Australia, has additionally had a Murmur for quite a long while. As one occupant revealed to Australia's Day by day Transmit, "It sends individuals around here insane, everything you can do is put music on to shut it out. A few people leave fans on."

A couple of years back in Kokomo, Indiana, several inhabitants revealed hearing a Murmur, and the city's civil government authorized an examination to research in 2003. Regardless of closing the Murmur was brought about by adjacent mechanical clamors, reports of the sound proceeded even after commotion confinements were put on the speculated manufacturing plants.

Potential Causes

So what truly is causing this riddle Murmur? Indeed, recall that sound is surrounding us. Its greater part goes unnoticed until we begin focusing on it, and there are effectively several potential clarifications. Most specialists do feel genuinely sure that the Murmur is genuine, however there is no agreement on an immediate reason.

Modern hardware is frequently the primary associated source with the Murmur, similar to the case in Bristol and Kokomo. Other potential clarifications incorporate high-weight gas lines, electrical cables and remote specialized gadgets. There's additionally a hypothesis that the Murmur could be the consequence of low-recurrence electromagnetic radiation which is just perceptible to certain individuals. Other ecological elements have additionally been accused, including seismic action like microseisms, which are black out, low-recurrence tremors that can be created by the activity of sea waves.

Therapeutic Clarifications

Since it's been difficult to confirm natural causes, some have offered therapeutic clarifications for the Murmur. Tinnitus is one potential reason. This is the view of sound when no outer commotion is available. Testing has appeared many Murmur listeners, be that as it may, have typical hearing.

Some have additionally recommended that individuals who can hear the Murmur, similar to those in Taos, may have abnormally solid hearing and can get commotions that most different people can't. It's additionally conceivable the Murmur is essentially a sound-related pipedream. A portion of the Taos Murmur listeners, for instance, have detailed hearing it even after they have moved out of the territory.

Paranoid ideas

Obviously, whenever there is an unexplained wonders in science, paranoid fears are certain to pursue.

Some accept the Murmur is the consequence of military trials or submarine interchanges. The High Recurrence Dynamic Auroral Exploration Program, or HAARP, has likewise been a famous focus of scheme scholars. Some accept this administration office, which behaviors examine on Earth's ionosphere, is leading analyses which make the Murmur (strikingly, connivance scholars likewise guarantee HAARP can control climate).

And afterward there is the deep rooted guilty party for anything unexplained – Outsiders.

The Secret Proceeds

Is an Outsider spaceship floating over Earth the genuine reason for the Murmur? Improbable.

Similarly as with most things in science, since something is unexplained, doesn't mean it never will be. There are different potential reasons for this unusual commotion, and for each situation, there might be various clarifications. Regardless of whether the Taos Murmur is genuine, or only a result of human creative mind, will be best understood by further research down the line.

Until further notice however, the Murmur will remain a riddle.

In thunder, lightning, Gamma beams may caution you of the following hurlyburly

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 06:28:00 +0000

Gamma beams alongside thunderclouds may help anticipate lightning strikes, as indicated by another exploration.

It has been known for quite a while that rainstorms can acquire radiation. There can be feeble gamma-beam sparkles from thunderclouds before lightning jolts and going with gamma-beam flashes in certain conditions

Gamma-beam related with thunderclouds are of two kinds:

Gamma-beam gleams — powerless discharges that last about a moment

Fleeting earthbound gamma-beam flashes (TGFs) — happen as lightning strikes and are more exceptional than sparkles

Wada, an alumni understudy, and his associates set up radiation screens to identify such radiation from sky in Kanazawa of Ishikawa prefecture. The sensors were created utilizing innovation from space-based satellite observatories.

The screens identified a synchronous TGF and lightning strike just as a gamma-beam sparkle in the Kanazawa zone — all in the meantime. The sparkle "suddenly vanished" with the lightning, Wada said. "We can say indisputably the occasions are personally associated and this is the first run through this association has been watched," he included.

In any case, since gamma-beam flashes transmit radiation that is about one-tenth the level from an average medicinal X-beam, the specialists now wannt to estimate whether gamma-beam shines might cause lightning.

"… With adequate sensor information, we might most likely anticipate lightning strikes inside around 10 minutes of them occurring and inside around 2 kilometers of where they occur," Wada guaranteed. The group intends to introduce more sensors for this.

A group of specialists in France are working together on a task to dispatch a committed satellite to identify overall lightning perceptions from space.

"Everlastingly, individuals have seen lightning and heard thunder. These were the manners in which we could encounter this intensity of nature," Wada said.

"With the disclosure of electromagnetism, researchers figured out how to see lightning with radio collectors. However at this point we can watch lightning in gamma beams ionizing radiation. It resembles having four eyes to think about the wonders," Wada included.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:39:00 +0000

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The company was founded by Anji Reddy,

who previously worked in the mentor institute Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited, of Hyderabad, India. Dr. Reddy's manufactures and markets a wide range of pharmaceuticals in India and overseas. The company has over 190 medications, 60 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for drug manufacture, diagnostic kits, critical care, and biotechnology products.

Dr. Reddy's began as a supplier to Indian drug manufacturers, but it soon started exporting to other less-regulated markets that had the advantage of not having to spend time and money on a manufacturing plant that would gain approval from a drug licensing body such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). By the early 1990s, the expanded scale and profitability from these unregulated markets enabled the company to begin focusing on getting approval from drug regulators for their formulations and bulk drug manufacturing plants in more-developed economies. This allowed their movement into regulated markets such as the US and Europe. In 2014, Dr. Reddy Laboratories was listed among 1200 of India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory, a brand analytics company.

By 2007, Dr. Reddy's had six FDA plants producing active pharmaceutical ingredients in India and seven FDA-inspected and ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) certified plants making patient-ready medications – five of them in India and two in the UK.

In 2010, the family-controlled Dr Reddy's denied that it was in talks to sell its generics business in India to US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which had been suing the company for alleged patent infringement after Dr Reddy's announced that it intended to produce a generic version of atorvastatin, marketed by Pfizer as Lipitor, an anti-cholesterol medication.Reddy's was already linked to UK pharmaceuticals multinational Glaxo Smithkline.

Dr. Reddy's originally launched in 1984 producing active pharmaceutical ingredients. In 1986, Reddy's started operations on branded formulations. Within a year Reddy's had launched Norilet, the company's first recognized brand in India. Soon, Dr. Reddy's obtained another success with Omez, its branded omeprazole – ulcer and reflux oesophagitis medication – launched at half the price of other brands on the Indian market at that time.

Within a year, Reddy's became the first Indian company to export the active ingredients for pharmaceuticals to Europe. In 1987, Reddy's started to transform itself from a supplier of pharmaceutical ingredients to other manufacturers into a manufacturer of pharmaceutical products.

The company's first international move took it to Russia in 1992. There, Dr. Reddy's formed a joint venture with the country's biggest pharmaceuticals producer, Biomed. They pulled out in 1995 amid accusations of scandal, involving "a significant material loss due to the activities of Moscow's branch of Reddy's Labs with the help of Biomed's chief executive" Reddy's sold the joint venture to the Kremlin-friendly Sistema group. In 1993, Reddy's entered into a joint venture in the Middle East and created two formulation units there and in Russia. Reddy's exported bulk drugs to these formulation units, which then converted them into finished products. In 1994, Reddy's started targeting the US generic market by building state of art manufacturing facility

Reddy's path into new drug discovery involved targeting speciality generics products in western markets to create a foundation for drug discovery. Development of speciality generics was an important step for the company's growing interest in the development of new chemical entities. The elements involved in creating a speciality generic, such as innovation in the laboratory, developing the compound, and sending the sales team to the market, are also stages in the development of a new specialty drug. Starting with speciality generics allowed the company to gain experience with those steps before moving on to creating brand-new drugs.

Reddy's also invested heavily in establishing R&D labs and is the only Indian company to have significant R&D being undertaken overseas. Dr. Reddy's Research Foundation was established in 1992 and in order to do research in the area of new drug discovery. At first, the foundation's drug research strategy revolved around searching for analogues. Focus has since changed to innovative R&D, hiring new scientists, especially Indian students studying abroad on doctoral and post-doctoral courses. In 2000, the Foundation set up an American laboratory in Atlanta, dedicated to discovery and design of novel therapeutics. The laboratory is called Reddy US Therapeutics Inc (RUSTI) and its main aim is the discovery of next-generation drugs using genomics and proteomics. Reddy's research thrust focused on large niche areas in western markets – anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, cardiovascular and anti-infection drugs.

Reddy's international marketing successes were built on a strong manufacturing base which itself was a result of inorganic growth through acquisition of international and national facilities. Reddy's merged Cheminor Drug Limited (CDL) with the primary aim of supplying active pharmaceutical ingredients to the technically demanding markets of North America and Europe. This merger also gave Reddy's an entry into the value-added generics business in the regulated markets of APIs

Expansion and acquisition

By 1997, Reddy's made the transition from being an API and bulk drug supplier to regulated markets like the USA and the UK, and a branded formulations supplier in unregulated markets like India and Russia, into producing generics, by filing an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) in the USA. The same year, Reddy's out-licensed a molecule for clinical trials to Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company.

It strengthened its Indian manufacturing operations by acquiring American Remedies Ltd. in 1999. This acquisition made Reddy’s the third largest pharmaceutical company in India, after Ranbaxy and Glaxo (I) Ltd., with a full spectrum of pharmaceutical products, which included bulk drugs, intermediates, finished dosages, chemical synthesis, diagnostics and biotechnology

Reddy’s started exploiting Para 4 filing as a strategy in bringing new drugs to the market at a faster pace. In 1999 it submitted a Para 4 application for Omeprazole, the drug that had been the cornerstone of its success in India. In December 2000, Reddy’s had undertaken its first commercial launch of a generic product in the USA., and its first product with market exclusivity was launched there in August 2001. The same year, it also became the first non-Japanese pharmaceutical company from the Asia-Pacific region to obtain a New York Stock Exchange listing, ground-breaking achievements for the Indian pharmaceutical industry

In 2001 Reddy’s became the first Indian company to launch the generic drug, fluoxetine (a generic version of Eli Lilly and Company’s Prozac) with 180-day market exclusivity in the USA. Prozac had sales in excess of $1 billion per year in the late 1990s. Barr Laboratories of the U.S. obtained exclusivity for all of the approved dosage forms (10 mg, 20 mg) except one (40 mg), which was obtained by Reddy’s. Lilly had numerous other patents surrounding the drug compound and had already enjoyed a long period of patent protection. The case to allow generic sales was heard twice by the Federal Circuit Court, and Reddy’s won both hearings. Reddy’s generated nearly $70 million in revenue during the initial six-month exclusivity period. With such high returns at stake, Reddy’s was gambling on the success of the litigation; failure to win the case could have cost them millions of dollars, depending on the length of the trial.

The fluoxetine marketing success was followed by the American launch of Reddy's house-branded ibuprofen tablets in 400, 600 and 800 mg strengths, in January 2003. Direct marketing under the Reddy’s brand name represented a significant step in the company’s efforts to build a strong and sustainable US generic business. It was the first step in building Reddy’s fully-fledged distribution network in the US market

In 2015, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories bought the established brands of Belgian drugmaker UCB SA in South Asia for 8 billion rupees ($128.38 million). Dr. Reddy's Laboratories also signed a licensing pact with XenoPort for their experimental treatment to treat plaque psoriasis. As per the agreement, Dr. Reddy’s will be granted exclusive US rights to develop and commercialize XP23829 for all indications for an upfront payment of $47.5 million

American IPO and expansion into Europe

In 2001 Reddy’s completed its US initial public offering of $132.8 million, secured by American Depositary Receipts. At that time the company also became listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Funds raised from the initial public offering helped Reddy’s move into international production and take over technology-based companies.

In 2002, Reddy’s started its European operations by acquiring two pharmaceutical firms in the United Kingdom. The acquisition of BMS Laboratories and its wholly owned subsidiary, Meridian UK, allowed Reddy’s to expand geographically into the European market. In 2003 Reddy’s also invested $5.25 million (USD) in equity capital into Bio Sciences Ltd.

Auriegene Discovery Technologies, a contract research company, was established as a fully owned subsidiary of Reddy’s in 2002. Auriegene's objective was to gain experience in drug discovery through contract research for other pharmaceutical companies. Reddy’s entered into a venture investment agreement with ICICI Bank, an established Indian banking company. Under the terms of the agreement, ICICI Venture agreed to fund the development, registration and legal costs related to the commercialization of ANDAs on a pre-determined basis. Upon commercialization of these products, Dr. Reddy's pays ICICI Venture royalty on net sales for a period of 5 years.
Global expansion

The company elected to expand globally, and acquired other entities. In March 2002, Dr. Reddy’s acquired BMS Laboratories, Beverley, and its wholly owned subsidiary Meridian Healthcare, for 14.81 million Euros. These companies deal in oral solids, liquids and packaging, with manufacturing facilities in London and Beverley in the UK. Recently, Dr. Reddy’s entered into an R&D and commercialization agreement with Argenta Discovery Ltd., a private drug development company based in the UK, for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr. Reddy’s entered into a 10-year agreement with Rheoscience A/S of Denmark for the joint development and commercialization of Balaglitazone (DRF-2593), a molecule for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. Rheoscience holds this product’s marketing rights for the European Union and China, while the rights for the US and the rest of the world will be held by Dr. Reddy’s. Dr. Reddy’s conducted clinical trials of its cardiovascular drug RUS 3108 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2005. The trials were conducted to study the safety and the pharmacokinetic profiles of the drug, which is intended for the treatment of atherosclerosis, a major cause of cardiovascular disorders.

Dr. Reddy’s entered into a marketing agreement with Eurodrug Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company based in Netherlands, for improving its product portfolio for respiratory diseases. It introduced a second-generation xanthine bronchodilator, Doxofylline, which is used for the treatment of asthma and COPD patients.

In 2004, Reddy’s acquired Trigenesis Therapeutics Inc; a US-based private dermatology company. This acquisition gave Reddy’s access to proprietary products and technologies in the dermatology sector.

Dr. Reddy’s Para 4 application strategy for generic business received a severe setback when Reddy’s lost the patent challenge in the case of Pfizer’s drug Norvasc (amlodipine maleate), a drug indicated for the treatment of hypertension and angina. The cost involved in patent litigation as well as the unexpected loss of the patent challenge affected Reddy’s plans to start speciality business in the US generic markets.

In March 2006, Dr. Reddy’s acquired Betapharm Arzneimittel GmbH from 3i for 480 million Euros. This is one of the largest-ever foreign acquisitions by an Indian pharmaceutical company. Betapharm is Germany’s four

th-largest generics pharmaceutical company, with a 3.5% market share, including 150 active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Reddy’s has promoted India’s first integrated drug development company Perlecan Pharma Pvt Ltd together with ICICI ventures capital fund management company Ltd and Citigroup Venture Capital International growth partnership Mauritius Ltd. The combined entity will undertake clinical development and out-licensing of new chemical entity assets.

Dr. Reddy's is presently licensed by Merck & Co. to sell an authorized generic version of the popular drug simvastatin (Zocor) in the USA. Since Dr. Reddy's has a license from Merck, it was not subject to the exclusivity period on generic simvastatin.

As of 2006, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories exceeded $500 million USD in revenues, flowing from their APIs, branded formulations and generics segments; the former two segments account for almost 75% of revenues. Dr. Reddy's deals in and manages all the processes, from the development of the API to the submission of finished dosage dossiers to the regulatory agencies.
Patient-Centric Initiatives

n September 2016, Dr. Reddy’s launched “Purple Health” in India, a patient centric platform to deliver solutions that address unmet needs of patients Purple Health will address unmet needs of patients involving four segments: awareness, access (access to medication), adherence (adherence to therapy) and experience (simplified medication experience). The first step in this program will be the launch of new patient friendly packaging for its top 25 best-selling brands, which will be rolled-out in a phased manner over the next six months. The packaging has been designed such that blister packs would have extra space for brand name which ensures easy identification at the pharmacy, a tab at the bottom with expiry date clearly mentioned, and a pictorial representation of the time the medicine needs to be taken. In case of bottles, the measuring cup is now easy to read, and neck of the bottle has been modified to ensure minimal spillage Purple Health also includes patient support services. For example, someone taking medicines for an advanced kidney condition would be supported by messages and counselling on diet, medicine and so on.

Drug discovery problems

In September 2005, Dr. Reddy's spun off its drug discovery and research wing into a separate company called Perlecan Pharma Private Limited. At the time, this was hailed as an innovative move, but in 2008, the company had to be wound down due to funding constraints. Dr. Reddy's was the first Indian pharma company to attempt such an effort to de-couple risk of drug discovery from the parent company by creating a separate company with external source of funding. Perlecan Pharma was partially funded by ICICI Venture Capital and Citigroup Venture International, both of which held a 43% stake in Perlecan for an estimated $22.5 million. However, the company was forced to buy back the Perlecan shares from ICICI and Citigroup due to doubts regarding the commercial viability of the drug candidates that were in Perlecan's pipeline. At that point, Perlecan became a wholly owned subsidiary. In the board meeting of 23 October 2008, the company chose to amalgamate/absorb Perlecan, thereby making it an in-house research facility, as it was before 2005.

In 2009, the company did a U-turn and has handed over discovery research and related intellectual property to its Bangalore-based subsidiary, with the possibility of spinning it off as a different entity altogether. "The company may be hoping to find a strategic partner in the future to share the risks and research funding."
2011 recall

In June 2011, certain lots of Dr. Reddy's generic simvastatin tablets were recalled due to tablets having a "musty" or "moldy" smell.

On June 24, 2014, the New York Times published an article "Warning Unheeded, Heart Drugs Are Recalled" in which it said another large Indian manufacturer and "Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, have announced recalls over the past two months totalling more than 100,000 bottles" of "a widely used heart drug, Toprol XL" "because their products were not dissolving properly".
2014 FDA Form 483

In December 2014 the FDA issues a Form 483 letter over concerns discovered during an inspection of its Srikakulam facility. No specific violations were mentioned in the letter.
Key people

As of 31 March 2014 15 board members and senior executives included.
Mr. Satish Reddy - Chairman
Mr. GV Prasad - Co-Chairman & CEO
Mr. Ravi Bhoothalingam - Independent Director
Mr. Anupam Puri - Independent Director
Dr. Omkar Goswami - Independent Director
Dr. J.P. Moreau - Independent Director
Ms. Kalpana Morparia - Independent Director
Dr. Bruce LA Carter - Independent Director
Dr. Ashok Ganguly - Independent Director
Mr. Sridar Iyengar - Independent Director
Key products
Top active pharmaceutical ingredients
Canagliflozin
Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride
Ramipril
T

erbinafine HCI
Ibuprofen
Sertaline Hydrochloride
Ranitidine HCI Form 2
Naproxen Sodium
Naproxen
Atorvastatin
Montelukast
Losartan Potassium
Sparfloxacin
Nizatidine
Fexofenadine
Ranitidine Hydrochloride Form 1
Clopidogrel (Not in US due to 2007 patent case)
Omeprazole
Finasteride
Sumatriptan

G. V. Prasad Dr Reddys Lab

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:31:00 +0000

G. V. Prasad (Telugu: జి.వి. ప్రసాద్) is an Indian business executive, and CEO of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories .
Prasad studied Chemical Engineering at the Alagappa College of Technology. After completing five semesters, he went on to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to complete the three remaining semesters. Prasad followed up the engineering degree with a one-year MBA at Purdue University. He won the 'Outstanding Senior Student' Award from the American Institute of Chemists, Chicago chapter in 1982. He earned his Masters in Industrial Administration from Purdue University a year later.

His first exposure to the world of pharmaceuticals was in 1985 with Benzex Labs, a pharmaceutical enterprise that he co-founded. Benzex was later acquired by Dr. Reddys and Prasad returned to the construction business, only to come back to pharmaceuticals in 1990 – this time as the CEO and MD of Cheminor Drugs Ltd. In 2001, Cheminor Drugs merged with Dr.Reddy's Laboratories and Prasad took over as the vice-chairman and CEO of the merged entity.

Prasad, the second child of Syamala and Harischandra Reddy, did his initial schooling at the Vidyaranya High School in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. He later moved to his hometown, Nellore, where he finished his schooling at VR High School.

After completing his Masters, Prasad returned to India and joined his father's construction business, immersing himself in various projects in Karnataka. In 1985, he co-founded Benzex Labs, an API manufacturing company, which was later acquired by Dr Reddy's. He briefly returned to the construction business before reappearing on the pharma landscape in 1990 as managing director of Cheminor Drugs Ltd. Fueled by a spirit of entrepreneurship, Prasad transformed Cheminor into a world class API and Generics manufacturer, largely through his focus on professionalism, good governance and transparency.
In 2001, Cheminor Drugs merged with Dr.Reddy's Laboratories and Prasad took over as the vice-chairman and CEO of the merged entity. Prasad is widely credited as the architect of Dr. Reddy's successful global generics strategy. He envisioned newer business platforms like the Custom Pharmaceutical business and Specialty pharmaceuticals and is dedicated to building the innovation side of the business.

Michael Dell

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:06:00 +0000

Michael Dell is chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies, a unique family of businesses encompassing Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware. Dell Technologies is an innovator and technology leader providing the essential infrastructure for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important information.

With revenues of $74B and 138,000 team members, Dell Technologies is one of the world’s largest IT companies serving the needs of global corporations and governments to small businesses and consumers. The company's unique structure allows innovative, fast-moving startups to co-exist with, and leverage, the global reach and trusted reputation of the large enterprise.

Michael’s story started when he founded Dell with $1000 in 1984 at the age of 19. Notably quoted as saying that “technology is about enabling human potential,” Michael’s vision of how technology should be designed, manufactured and sold forever changed the IT industry. In 1992, Michael became the youngest CEO ever to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500. Known and admired for his astute business vision and bold moves, Michael took Dell private in 2013, setting the stage to architect the largest technology deal in history with the combination of Dell, EMC and VMware in 2016.

In 1998, Michael formed MSD Capital, and in 1999, he and his wife established the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to provide philanthropic support to a variety of global causes. Michael is an honorary member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum and is an executive committee member of the International Business Council. He is also a member of the Technology CEO Council, the U.S. Business Council and the Business Roundtable. He serves on the governing board of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India and is a board member of Catalyst. Michael also served as the United Nations Foundation's first Global Advocate for Entrepreneurship.

Dell Computer

It was in college that Dell found the niche that would become his boom. The PC world was still young and Dell realized that no company had tried selling directly to customers. Bypassing the middleman and the markups, Dell tapped his savings account for $1,000 and started building and selling computers for people he knew at college. His emphasis, however, wasn't just on good machines, but strong customer support and cheaper prices. Soon, he had accounts outside of school and it wasn't long before Dell dropped out and focused all his efforts on his business.

The numbers proved staggering. In 1984, Dell's first full year in business, he had $6 million in sales. By 2000, Dell was a billionaire and his company had offices in 34 countries and employee count of more than 35,000. The following year, Dell Computer surpassed Compaq Computer as the world's largest PC maker.

Overall, Dell's first 20 years proved to be one of the most successful businesses on the planet, surprising such titans as Wal-Mart and General Electric. Dell's story is so compelling that, in 1999, he published a best-selling book about his success, Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized the Industry.
Philanthropy

Intensely private and notoriously shy, Dell has come out of his shell over the years, say those who know him, thanks to his wife Susan, a Dallas native whom he married in 1989. The couple has four children.

Together, the Dells have shown a willingness to spread their wealth. In 1999, the couple started the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, a large private charity that has doled out millions to causes and people like the tsunami victims in southern Asia. In 2006, the foundation donated $50 million to the University of Texas.

"A bunch of guys sitting around trying to decide what we want to have done with our money after we're dead, that's not a very good idea," he once said, expaling his early entry into philanthropy. "Forget all that. We're going to do this while we're still here and get it right."

In 2004 Dell stepped down as CEO of the company, but he remained chairman of the board. He served on the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum and the executive committee of the International Business Council. He also was on the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and sat on the governing board of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.
Controversy

In recent years, however, not everything has gone right for Michael Dell or his company. Poorly built computers resulted in the company taking a $300 million charge to fix the faulty machines, a huge issue for the company that resulted in Dell losing its top perch atop the industry. In an effort to correct things, Dell returned in 2007 as CEO, but the results have been mixed.

Poor products continued to plague the company, and despite Dell Computer's efforts to play down the issue, documents later revealed that employees were well aware of the issues affecting millions of its computers.

In July 2010, Michael Dell made headlines when he agreed to pay more than $100 million in penalties in order to settle charges of accounting fraud that had been filed by the Security and Exchange Commission. According to the charges, Dell Computer inflated its earning statements by counting rebates from the chip maker Intel that were issued to Dell to encourage the company not to use chips from Advanced Micro Devices in its computers and servers. By padding its statements, investigators claimed, Dell Computer had misled investors about its actual earnings.

In a move to help rebuild the company he founded, Dell announced in February 2013 that he would be taking his business private again. He reached an agreement with Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in technology, and computer software giant Microsoft to launch a buyout of all outstanding shares of Dell. This deal has been valued between $23 billion to more than $24 billion, making it one of the biggest buyouts in recent history.

According a Reuters news report, Michael Dell believes "this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members." Many analysts share some of Dell's enthusiasm, but still think the company is facing serious challenges. Dell has seen its share of the PC market drop in recent years as well as increased competition from tablet and smartphone makers.

History of Cameras

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 11:55:00 +0000

1500

The first pinhole camera (also called the Camera Obscura) was invented by Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham).

1839

The Daguerreotype Camera was announced by the French Academy of Sciences. One of these inventions is now the world’s most expensive cameras.

1840

The first American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.

1859

The panoramic camera patented by Thomas Sutton.

1861

Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.

1888

George Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera. Eastman was a pioneer in photographic films usage. He also started manufacturing paper films in 1885. His first �Kodak� box camera was very simple and very cheap.

1900

First mass-marketed camera – the Brownie � was presented by Eastman. It was on sale until 1960s.

1900

The Raisecamera (travel camera) was invented. Extreme light weight and small dimensions when it is folded made this photo camera the most desirable thing for landscape photographers.

1913/1914

The first 35mm still camera (also called �candid� camera ) developed by Oskar Barnack of German Leica Camera. Later it became the standard for all film cameras.

1948

Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera which could take a picture and print it in about one minute.

1960

EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.
1978

Konica introduces the first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera Konica C35 AF. It was named “Jasupin”.

1981

Sony demonstrates the Sony Mavica – the world’s first digital electronic still camera. Digital photography and television images are related to the same technology, so this camera recorded images into a mini disk and then put them into a video reader. Images could be displayed to a television monitor or color printer.

1986

Fuji introduced the disposable camera. The inventors also call this device “single-use cameras”.
1991

Kodak released the first professional digital camera system (DCS) which was of a great use for photojournalists. It was a modified Nikon F-3 camera with a 1.3 megapixel sensor.

1994-1996

The first digital cameras for the consumer-level market that worked with a home computer via a serial cable were the Apple QuickTake 100 camera (February 17 , 1994), the Kodak DC40 camera (March 28, 1995), the Casio QV-11 (with LCD monitor, late 1995), and Sony’s Cyber-Shot Digital Still Camera (1996).

2000

In Japane Sharp’s J-SH04 introduced the world’s first camera phone.

2005

The Canon EOS 5D is launched. This is first consumer-priced full-frame digital SLR with a 24x36mm CMOS sensor.

We hope that this timeline of cameras was quite interesting for you. You can find other facts about camers here.
Update

One of the more popular articles here at Photodoto is our illustrated timeline of camera history. It’s a nice article hitting all of the highlights and major technological advancements within the history of photography. The timeline stops at the year 2005.

Since it’s been 10 years since then, we decided to take another look at the history of the camera and examine what advances in the technology have been made during the last decade.
Cell Phone Cameras

For some weird reason, someone at Japan’s Sharp Corporation decided to make a cell phone with a camera built in. Despite its seeming randomness, this combination worked well. These days, it’s hard to imagine a cell phone without a camera. They’re everywhere.

So what advances have these tiny cameras made during their short history?

Sony Ericsson S750

photo by Andrew Butko, Wikimedia Commons

By 2005, consumers proved to love having cameras built in to their phones, so manufacturers starting racing against one another to produce the best, smallest cameras they could. Enter the Sony Ericsson S750.

The S750 was the first camera phone to feature autofocus (not counting Samsung’s ridiculous SCH-V770) and a 2MP sensor. This phone helped fuel an arms race of sorts between Sony Ericsson and Nokia, and probably every other cell phone manufacturer at the time.

Samsung M8910

Somewhere along the way during this camera phone war, companies started really upping their games. Samsung launched a major salvo in this war with the release of the M8910. It marked phone camera megapixel counts moving into double-digits with its 12MP sensor. The M8910 was also the first phone to introduce many features found on pro-level digital cameras.

Nokia Lumia 1020

In 2013, Nokia released the camera phone equivalent of a mic drop, the Lumia 1020. This phone features a 41MP sensor, which was larger than any prosumer-level DSLR available. The 1020 also featured a Carl Zeiss lens, image stabilization, and PurView Pro technology, which enables lossless digital zoom.

These cameras didn’t represent the average quality of cameras built into phones during this time, but they have served to motivate manufacturers to improve overall camera quality across the board.
Mirrorless Cameras

If you’re not familiar with mirrorless cameras, you can check out my article on them. They’re typically smaller than a consumer-level DSLR and produce images that compete with DSLRs in quality. And they’re gaining popularity, especially among traveling photographers, street photographers and photography enthusiasts who want great pictures without lugging a giant DSLR around.

photo by Rama, Wikimedia Commons

Technically, the first mirrorless camera, the Epson RD1, made its debut in 2004. But it proved to be ahead of its time, as it would be a few more years before mirrorless cameras gained a foothold in the camera market.

Fujifilm FinePix X100

photo by Darren Stone, Wikimedia Commons

Fujifilm certainly didn’t make the first mirrorless camera, or even the first really popular mirrorless. But Fuji’s FinePix X100 displayed a willingness to cater to niche users: advanced photographers who wanted the aesthetics and controls of vintage film cameras. The X100 featured a wide-angle prime lens and the option to shoot with an in-body rangefinder-like viewfinder.

Sony Alpha 7 Series

In 2013, Sony made a big jump in its mirrorless camera offerings with the Alpha 7 and the Alpha 7R. These were the first mirrorless cameras to feature a full-frame sensor. At this point, mirrorless cameras became full-fledged contenders with prosumer-level DSLRs.
Action Cameras

While action cameras and quad-rotor helicopters are mostly geared toward shooting video, these two advancements bear mentioning, simply because of how much they’ve advanced people’s ability to capture amazing images.

GoPro HD Hero

A surfer named Nick Woodman wanted a way to capture photos while he was surfing, so he began tinkering with 35mm cameras. Woodman continued to improve on his design, and in 2010, his company, GoPro, released the GoPro HD Hero.

The HD Hero marked the first rugged, waterproof camera able to capture video in 1080p. Since then, the Hero line of cameras has become the standard in the now-widespread market of action cameras.
Light-Field Cameras

Lytro introduced the first light-field camera to the general public in 2012. This camera opened up an entire world of new possibilities for photographers and audiences. The technology featured in the Lytro captures information from the subject being photographed that allows the resulting image to be refocused after it’s been taken.

What that means is when you use a Lytro, you can change the focal plane of an image by touching it (on a touchscreen display) or clicking on it with a mouse. While the Lytro and its successor, the Lytro Illum, haven’t become overwhelmingly popular with consumers yet, the technology is becoming more prevalent. Even some smartphone makers are trying to copy this effect.
The End of an Era

Some major advancements have occurred in the last 10 years. But some other technologies and iconic camera equipment have disappeared. I wanted to take a look at two bits of photographic history that have come to an end.

Polaroid Instant Film

In 2008, legendary and ground-breaking company Polaroid stopped producing all of its instant films and cameras. While Polaroid pioneered instant photography, and photography in general, the company couldn’t maintain the public’s interest in instant film photography in an ever-increasing digital age.

Other companies, however, have stepped in to fill the gap. Fujifilm produces two instant cameras: the Instax Mini and the Instax Wide, as well as film to go with them. Fuji also still produces instant sheet film that can be used in older Polaroid cameras.

And then there’s the Impossible Project. This group manufactures film packs for the most popular models of Polaroid cameras. Taylor Swift famously used Impossible Project film for the cover of her album, 1989. You can find more details about getting started with instant film photography, along with other types of film photography, in my guide.

Kodak Kodachrome

For quite some time, Kodak’s Kodachrome color film was the industry standard in photography. It was the go-to film for artists, photojournalists and all other manner of photographer. But processing the film was complicated, which equaled expensive. As such, the ever-practical field of professional photography gradually lost interest in Kodachrome film as digital photography evolved and dropped in price.

So, in 2009, Kodak stopped producing it. The last roll of Kodachrome was shot by Steve McCurry in 2013. You can see his images from the roll here. Goodbye, Kodachrome.

AMERICAN HISTORY Mysteries in American History

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 11:39:00 +0000

Aliens and UFO's

Aliens in Dulce, New Mexico - Dulce Base is an alleged secret alien underground facility under Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado-New Mexico border. Claims of alien activity there first arose in 1979.

Levelland, Texas UFO Sightings - Occurring on November 2–3, 1957 in and around the small town of Levelland, Texas, this case is considered by ufologists to be one of the most impressive in UFO history, because of the large number of witnesses involved over a relatively short period of time.

The Roswell Incident - The hot summer of 1947 brought something new to Roswell, New Mexico, other than it historic contingent of Indians, Spaniards, longhorn cattle, and cowboys. That was the summer that the Roswell skies, as well as the heavens all over America were filled with unidentified flying objects – UFO’s!

UFO in Aztec, New Mexico - in 1948. This crash allegedly Taking place not long after the famous Roswell crash of 1947, another UFO was said to have crashed in Hart Canyon northeast of Aztec, Mexico in March, 1948.

Conspiracies

Victorio Peak Treasure - The Victorio Peak treasure is a cache of gold found inside Victorio Peak in Southern New Mexico. Did the Army take it from its rightful owner?

Creatures & Monsters

Altamaha-ha - Serpent of the Altamaha River, Georgia - Near the mouth of the Altamaha River in southeastern Georgia is said to reside a hissing sea monster. Called Altamaha-ha, for the river, or "Altie" for short, the legend predates British-English colonization and is said to have originated with the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe.

The Beast of Bray Road - Labeled as a werewolf by some witnesses, this creature allegedly seen near Elkhorn, Wisconsin is described as bear-like, as a hairy biped resembling Bigfoot, and an intelligent wolf-like creature which walk on its hind legs.

Boggy Creek Monster - In the area of Fouke, Arkansas in Miller County, southeast of Texarkana, there allegedly lives the Boggy Creek Monster, also referred to as the Fouke Monster, who has been a legend of the area since the 1840’s.

Cryptozoology and Bigfoot - Bigfoot has been sighted throughout the United States, from the 16th Century to present. The first reported sightings were by Native Americans.

Bear Lake Sea Monster, Utah - In addition to its wonderful sporting opportunities for boaters, skiers, and fisherman, Bear Lake, Utah is allegedly called home to a sea monster.

Devil's Hole Cave, Arkansas - A strange and mysterious creature is said to reside within the depths of this seemingly bottomless cave.

El Chupacabra or the Goat Sucker - This is a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail and it takes its name from the fact that it is supposed to attack animals and drink their blood – especially goats.

Jackalopes in Wyoming - Myth or Reality? - The jackalope is said to be an antlered species of rabbit, sometimes rumored to be extinct. One of the rarest animals in the world, it is a cross between a now extinct pygmy-deer and a species of killer-rabbit.

The Jersey Devil - One of America's oldest mysteries, this legendary creature, described as a flying biped with hooves, is said to lurk in the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey.

Minnesota Iceman - In the 1960's, a male, human-like creature was exhibited across America. Described as 6 foot tall, hairy, with large hands and feet, he was promoted as a Neanderthal, Bigfoot or Yeti.

Monsters and Sea Serpents - The remarkable sea serpent has been reported at so many points, and by so many witnesses not addicted to fish tales nor liquor, that there ought to be some reason for him.

Momo the Monster - Local legend in Missouri says that a strange creature, similar to Bigfoot has been sighted in the Show-Me State.

The Moth Man - This legendary creature, described as a man-sized bird, was reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia in the mid 1960's.

Murphrysboro Mud Monster - Prowling Southern Illinois in the 1970's was a huge, wet, hairy, mud-slathered monstrosity.

Mystery of the Thunderbird Photo - A mysterious creature that was said to have been captured near the town of Tombstone, Arizona in 1890.

Phantom Dragoon of the Delaware River - On his first tour of duty the sentry was thrown into great alarm by the appearance of a figure robed from head to foot in white, that rode a horse at a charging gait. A short tale from Charles M. Skinner, 1896.
The White River Monster - "Whitey” as the locals call him, has been sighted frolicking in the White River, outside Newport, Arkansas for more than a century and a half.

Thunderbirds of Illinois - Tales of strange, monster birds with enormous wingspans that are large enough to carry away human victims.

Wendigos of the Northeast - This "monster" is a half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of both the United States and Canada. The creature or spirit could either possess characteristics of a human or a monster that had physically transformed from a person. It is particularly associated with cannibalism.

Disappearances & Mysterious Deaths:

Alcatraz Escape - The June 1962 Alcatraz escape may have been the only successful escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in that facility's history. On the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin and Frank Morris tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via an unused utility corridor, and departed Alcatraz Island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate.

D.B. Cooper - Disappearing Into the Wilderness - D.B. Cooper is an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted to an uncertain fate.

Amelia Earhart's Fateful Flight - There is almost no physical evidence to reveal what happened to Ameila Earhart or her plane.

The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis - Captain Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was only 35 when he died of gunshot wounds sustained along a perilous Tennessee trail called Natchez Trace. Two hundred years later, debate continues over whether the famous explorer committed suicide or was murdered.

The Disappearance of Joseph Force Crater - An allegedly corrupt New York State Supreme Court judge, Crater vanished soon after then Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt named him to the bench. After hailing a cab he was never seen again.

Albert Jennings Fountain - Missing in the Desert - Soldier, lawyer, and politician, the mystery surrounding Albert Jennings Fountain’s disappearance in the deserts of southern New Mexico has puzzled lawmen and historians for more than a century. Also See: The Fountain Murders: Sites Today

Disappeared Into Thin Air - In 1854, Selma, Alabama farmer Orion Williams simply vanished while walking across his property.

The Last Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe - The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious with the circumstances leading up to it uncertain and the cause of death is disputed.

Mary Pinchot Meyer - Assassinated By CIA? - A socialite, painter, former wife of Central Intelligence Agency official Cord Meyer and by some accounts, the mistress of John F. Kennedy, Meyer was shot execution style in broad daylight.

The Riddle of Ambrose Bierce - An editorialist, journalist, and short story writer, Bierce traveled to Mexico in 1913 to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, he disappeared without a trace.

Was John Dillinger Really Killed By the FBI? - Though officially shot by the FBI, John Dillinger who was Public Enemy No. 1 at the time, may have actually not been the man blasted down on July 22, 1834 outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre.

Who Killed Pat Garrett? Controversy still exists over whether Garrett's murder was a conspiracy in order to gain his land or if it was just simply the dispute with an irate enemy.

Mysterious Objects and Places:

Area 51 - What are the mysteries associated with the famous "secret" military base which covers over 80 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada?

The Curse of Dudleytown, Connecticut - Sometimes referred to as the Village of the Damned, Dudley is said to hold the accounts of ghostly tales, demons, unexplained events, and curses within its 400 years of British and American History.

The Devil's Graveyard or the Alaska Triangle - Amid the untouched beauty of Alaska's varying landscape, there is a region where people seem to go missing at an eerily high rate. Planes go down, hikers go missing and Alaskan residents and tourists seem to vanish into the largely untouched backdrop.

Devil's Promenade & the Hornet Spook Light - Bobbing and bouncing along in the Tri-State area of southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma is an orange ball of light. Referred to as the Hornet Spook Light and the Joplin Spook Light, the firelike orb, described as varying from the size of a baseball to a basketball, dances and spins down the center of the road at high speeds, rising and hovering above the treetops, before it retreats and disappears.

The Dighton Rock - A 40-ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts, is noted for its petroglyphs and carved designs of ancient and uncertain origin.

The Grave Creek Stone – Scholars and archaeologists have been arguing about the authenticity of the Grave Creek Stone since it first surfaced in 1838. Discovered during the excavation of the Grave Creek Mound, in West Virginia, the small sandstone disk could provide evidence of a primitive alphabet.

Great Serpent Mound of Ohio - An internationally known National Historic Landmark, Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot-long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound on a plateau along Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Representing a snake with curled tail, it is the largest serpent effigy in the world.

The Hidden City of Death Valley - Mummies -- Giants -- Underground Caverns! So said a San Diego, California newspaper in describing an event in Death Valley in 1947. This story and more telling of a lost race beneath the sands of Death Valley.

Legends of Fort Mountain, Georgia - Legends say that the wall on Fort Mountain, Georgia was built either by the Moon-eyed people according to Cherokee lore or to a Welsh prince who was said to have made his way to America in 1170.

Mel’s Hole - This nine-foot-wide bottomless hole near Manastash Ridge in Washington State is rumored to “reanimate” dead animals.

Mount Shasta - A Cosmic Power Spot - Near Redding, California, Mount Shasta is filled with mysteries including UFO sightings, crystal caves, spontaneous altered states, underground military bases, and even rumored to be the home to Lemurians, surviving members of a sensitive super-race some believe existed 12,000 years ago during the time of Atlantis.

The Moving Stones of Death Valley - In what is called the Racetrack Playa, in Death Valley, large rocks move along the smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention.

Nevada Triangle - In a mysterious area of Nevada and California, thousands of planes have disappeared. Conspiracy theorists have long claimed the these disappearances may be connected to Area 51.

San Francisco's East Bay Walls - Who built these ancient walls, ranging along the hills east of San Francisco Bay? With boulders weighing more than a ton, there is no explanation who, how, or why these walls were built.

Skinwalker Ranch - This 480-acre compound in northeastern Utah is the site of many unexplained—and harrowing—incidents including roaring underground noises, the appearance of menacing blue orbs, attacks by shape-shifting beasts, and evidence of animal mutilations.

The Taos Hum - Nestled deep within the Sangre de Cristo mountain range is Taos, New Mexico. A highly cultural, artistic, and spiritual city, it has a number of mystical qualities, one of which is known as the "Taos Hum."

Mysterious and Unexplained People & Events:

Dahlgren Affair - An incident in the Civil War, which involved a failed Union raid on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia on March 2, 1864. According to mysterious papers found on the body of the raid's commanding officer, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, one of their mission objectives was to assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet.

Did the Romans explore America? - Evidence of contacts with the civilizations of Classical Antiquity, including the Roman Empire, have been found across the Americas, including coins, pottery, inscriptions and more.

Flight 19 Mystery - On December 5, 1945, five U.S. bombers took off from a U.S. Naval Air Base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and subsequently disappeared. Neither the 14 men of Flight 19 nor the 13-man crew of a PBM Mariner sent out to search for them were ever to return.

The Knights of the Golden Circle - A secretive organization created in 1854, proposed to establish a slaveholding empire encompassing the southern United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and parts of Central America.

Livestock Mutilations - Reports of mutilated cattle first surfaced in the United States in the early 1960's. Killed under mysterious circumstances, sheep and horses have also been victims.

Little People & the Pedro Mountain Mummy - Oral traditions of many Native American tribes, including the Arapaho, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow, tell of "little people” who stand from just 20 inches to three feet tall.

Missing Ships Through the Decades - Dozens of American boats and ships have gone missing through the decades, with no sign of the ship or crew ever found.

Spontaneous Human Combustion - Reported for some 300 years, there have been some 200 reported cases worldwide of of people who have burned without an apparent external source of ignition.

TWA Flight 800 Tragedy - On July 17, 1996 TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people on board. Evidence recovered led credibility to the claim that explosives brought down TWA Flight 800. It still remains a mystery.

Unsolved Crimes:

The Axeman of New Orleans - A serial killer who killed at least 11 people in New Orleans, Louisiana and surrounding communities in 1918-1919, he was never caught.

D.B. Cooper - This unidentified man hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and protracted FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or identified.

Gypsy Hill Killings - A group of five unsolved homicides of young women and girls in San Mateo County, California, during early 1976. The killer became known in the media as "the San Mateo slasher."

Mad Gasser of Mattoon - The person believed to be responsible for a series of apparent gas attacks that occurred in Botetourt County, Virginia, during the early 1930s, and in Mattoon, Illinois, during the mid-1940s.

Servant Girl Annihilator - In 1884 and 1885, an unknown serial killer preyed upon the city of Austin, Texas. The murderer killed seven women and one man, and seriously injured six more women and two men, attacking them in their beds at night. He was never caught.

Texas Killing Fields - Described as a perfect place for killing somebody and getting away with it, the Texas Killing Fields is an area bordering the Calder Oil Field, a 25-acre patch of land situated a mile from the stretch of Interstate 45 in southeast Texas.

The Zodiac Killer - One of the great unsolved serial killer mysteries of all time, taking only second place to Jack the Ripper. Even though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case was never officially solved.

Vanished Colonies and Civilizations:

The Lost Clovis Culture - The Clovis were a prehistoric Paleo-Indian people that were thought to have been the first human inhabitants of North America, dating back some 13,500 years.

Mysterious Mound Builders - These indigenuos people of the United States built mounds in a large area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains.

The Vanished Anasazi - In about 700 BC the Anasazi Indians (Ancient Puebloans) established numerous large settlements in the Southwest. However, by the time European explorers arrived, the people were gone.

What happened to the Roanoke Island Colony of North Carolina? Roanoke Island was the site of the 16th-century Roanoke Colony. Three years later, every man, woman and child was gone.

How ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia’s highway network

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:14:00 +0000

The next time you’re driving down a country road in outback Australia, consider there’s a good chance that very route was originally mapped out by Aboriginal people perhaps thousands of years before Europeans came to Australia.

And like today, they turned to the skies to aid their navigation. Except instead of using a GPS network, they used the stars above to help guide their travels.

Aboriginal people have rich astronomical traditions, but we know relatively little about their navigational abilities.

We do know that there was a very well established and extensive network of trade routes in operation before 1788. These were used by Aboriginal people for trading in goods and stories, and the trade routes covered vast distances across the Australian continent.
Star maps

I was researching the astronomical knowledge of the Euahlayi and KamilaroiAboriginal peoples of northwest New South Wales in 2013 when I became aware of “star maps” as a means of teaching navigation outside of one’s own local country.

My teacher of this knowledge was Ghillar Michael Anderson, a Euahlayi Culture Man from Goodooga, near the Queensland border. This is where the western plains and the star-filled night sky meet in a seamless and profound display.

Ghillar Michael Anderson and a possible waypoint. Enlightning Productions, Author provided

One night, sitting under those stars in Goodooga, Michael pointed out a pattern of stars to the southeast, and said that they were used to teach Euahlayi travellers how to navigate outside their own country during the summer travel season.

As an astronomer, I immediately realised that those stars were not in the direction of travel that Michael was describing. And anyway, they wouldn’t be visible in the summer, let alone during the day when people would have been travelling.

Michael said that they weren’t used as a map as such, but were used as a memory aid. And in the Aboriginal manner of teaching, he asked me to research this and come back to see if “I had gotten it”.

I did some research, and looked at a route from Goodooga to the Bunya Mountainsnorthwest of Brisbane, where an Aboriginal Bunya nut festival was held every three years until disrupted by European invasion.

It turned out the pattern of stars showed the “waypoints” on the route. These waypoints were usually waterholes or turning places on the landscape. These waypoints were used in a very similar way to navigating with a GPS, where waypoints are also used as stopping or turning points.

Star map route to the Bunya Mountains. Starry Night Education

Stars to songlines

Further discussion revealed the reasons and methods of this technique. In the winter camp, when the summer travel was being planned in August or September, a person who had travelled the intended route was tasked with teaching others, who had not made this journey, how to navigate to the intended destination.

The pattern of stars (the “star map”) was used as a memory aid in teaching the route and the waypoints to the destination. After more research I asked Michael if the method of teaching and memorising was by song, as I was aware that songs are known to be an effective way of memorising a sequence in the oral transmission of knowledge.

Michael said, “you got it!”, and I then understood that the very process of creating, then teaching, such a route resulted in what is known as a songline. A songline is a story that travels over the landscape, which is then imprinted with the song (Aboriginal people will say that the landscape imprints the song).

I then learned that there were many routes/songlines from Goodooga to destinations as far as 700km away, which might end up in a ceremonial place, or possibly a trade “fair”.

One such route to Quilpie, in Queensland, led to a ceremonial place where Arrerntepeople from north of Alice Springs met the Euahlayi for joint ceremonies.

Their route of travel was more than 1,500km, crossing the Simpson Desert in summer, and I was told that they would have their own star map/songline for learning that route. The implication of this is that the use of star maps for teaching travel may have been common across Australia.

Star map route to the Carnarvon Gorge. Starry Night Education

Parallels

Another surprising result of this knowledge came about when I was looking at the star map routes from Goodooga to the Bunya Mountains and Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland. When the star map routes were overlaid over the modern road map, there was a significant overlap with major roads in use today.

After some reflection, the reason for this became clear. The first explorers in this region, such as Thomas Mitchell, who explored here in 1845-1846, used Aboriginal people as guides and interpreters, who were likely given directions by local Aborigines.

Carnarvon Gorge and Bunya Mts star maps overlaid on road map. Google Earth

These directions would no doubt reflect the easiest routes to traverse, and these were probably routes already established as songlines. Drovers and settlers coming into the region would have used the same routes, and eventually these became tracks and finally highways.

In a sense, the Aboriginal people of Australia had a big part in the layout of the modern Australian road network. And in some cases, such as the Kamilaroi Highway running from the Hunter Valley to Bourke in NSW, this has been recognised in the name.

six science mysteries that might be solved in 2016

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:05:00 +0000

From the origin of life to the fate of the universe, there’s plenty scientists simply don’t know. But they are making progress. 2015 has been a great year for science: we’ve seen the agreement of climate deal, pictures of dwarf planets and evidence of flowing water on Mars.

So what will happen in 2016 – are there any major science mysteries that could be solved? We asked three experts to speculate.
1. What’s beyond the ‘standard model’ of physics?

Will 2016 be the year the LHC revolutionised physics?Image editor/FLickr, CC BY-SA

The Large Hadron Collider has already ticked one thing off the list with the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012. In 2015, the LHC began Run 2 after a couple of years of upgrades, now smashing protons together at almost double the previous energy. This month, the first experiments revealed a hint of a new particle.

This could be the sign of “super symmetry”, a theory

which proposes that there is a heavier super-partner for every particle in the Standard Model (our current best theory of the subatomic world). Super symmetry is important as it could explain many fundamental mysteries of physics, such as what “dark matter” is or the way that the laws of physics appear fine tuned to produce the world around us. However, the new particle could also be a sign of hidden dimensions, a second Higgs boson or – before we get too excited – a false alarm. We will have to wait for more data in 2016 to know for sure.
2. Can we create more elements?

A calcium ion and an americium atom about to collideLawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Since the 1930s, scientists have been creating artificial elements by smashing particles together to create new atoms. We now know about 24 synthetic elements taking the periodic table up to the as-yet unnamed element 118. With the recent synthesis of element 117 and the official recognition of the four most recently discovered elements, the remaining gaps in the known periodic table have now been filled.

Scientists are continuing their attempts to extend the table further, trying to make elements 120 and above, though suggestions that element 122 has been discovered seem misplaced. Most recent advances have used the neutron-rich isotope Calcium-48 as a “nuclear bullet” fired into another heavy nucleus to create the new element. Further successes may involve either using an even heavier atom as the bullet rather than a heavier target atom, though it may also depend on the availability of better nuclear accelerators. It is hoped that – unlike most synthetic elements, which decay rapidly – a group of new heavier elements may exist in an “island of stability”.
3. What is ‘dark matter’?

LUX detector: 4,850 ft underground inside a 70,000 gallon water tank shield. Gigaparsec at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

Dark matter is the mysterious stuff that seems to be everywhere in the universe, and is five times more plentiful than the regular matter that makes up stars, planets and us. Even so, up to now we only have indirect evidence for dark matter through astronomical observations of the gravitational pull it has on stars and galaxies. Until we can make a more direct measurement of it, we won’t know for sure what it is and how it fits in with the standard model of particle physics.

Dedicated experiments such as the Large Underground Xenon experiment (LUX) are reaching new levels of precision as they are trying to directly detect a dark matter candidate known as the “weakly interacting massive particle” as it interacts with ordinary matter on Earth. So 2016 could be the year we finally see this mysterious stuff in the lab.
4. Is there life on Mars (or any other planet)?

Will Enceladus prove home to life? NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

On Earth, wherever we find water – whether in the middle of a desert or in hydrothermal vents in the depths of the ocean – we find life. So, it follows that water on another planet means the potential for life there as well. Recent explorations of Mars have dramatically developed our understanding of the planet, showing that it had a watery past and, more recently, that it has flowing salty water.

Alongside the continuing study of Mars, the Juno probe will, in 2016, study how much water there is on Jupiter. Another of our best bets for finding life may be Enceladus (a moon of Saturn). It has an icy crust but was recently found to have geysers spouting water vapour, making it one of the more likely places in the solar system (outside Earth) to contain life.
5. Do gravitational waves exist?

Northern leg of LIGO interferometer. wikimedia

Just as Maxwell’s equations of electricity and magnetism predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves such as light, Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts gravitational waves – which are ripples in the fabric of space-time. But even though Einstein’s theory celebrated its centenary in 2015, we have still never seen them. This is mainly because they are so tiny: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) looks for these waves causing shifts 10,000 times smaller than a proton (which makes up the atomic nucleus together with neutrons) over a distance of four kilometres.

Like the LHC, the LIGO detector came back online in 2015 after a major upgrade, and within a week rumours were flying about a discovery. No official word yet from LIGO themselves, but 2016 could be the year we find Einstein was right again.
6. Is Bigfoot real?

Amur leopard John/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Advances in technology mean it is now possible to more carefully seek out rumoured or never-before-discovered animals. Trail cameras or camera “traps” are small cameras that are remotely triggered when an infrared beam is broken and can be left at a site for long periods of time without human involvement. They are increasingly being used in wildlife studies to monitor rare or elusive animals such as the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) that was documented in China for the first time in 62 years.

UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) or “drones” are also increasingly being used in wildlife studies to survey inaccessible areas from the sky. For example a Canadian study found that bears are now taking advantage of food sources such as geese and their eggs, possibly as a result of a changing Arctic climate. These UAVs could be flown above a likely habitat of Bigfoot (or any suspected animal) in the hope that we would capture something on camera

Lost Treasure – Red Jack Gang Outlaw Loot

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 30 May 2016 09:01:00 +0000

Red Jack Gang Outlaw Loot:Value of loot: 8,000 cold coins estimated value $900,000
Location: somewhere in the vicinity of Prescott,
Arizona

Stage Coach Robbery, 1911″Red Jack” Almer, also known as Jack Averill, led the Red Jack Gang, preying on Arizona stagecoaches during the early 1880s, particularly along the San Pedro River. On one such occasion the gang held up a stage near Riverside on August 10, 1883. The Wells Fargo guard immediately insisted that the stage was not carrying any gold and when he began to resist the bandits, a female passenger jumped from the stage and called him a liar.
The woman, however, was none other than “Red Jack” Almer disguised as a female. Almer, who had witnessed the gold being placed under a seat, had signaled his men to move on the stagecoach. When the guard went for his gun, Almer pulled one from his long flowing skirts and the next thing you know, the guard laid dead upon the ground. Taking almost $3,000 in currency and gold, the gang fled.
Finally Sheriff Bob Paul organized a strong posse to put an end to Almer’s Gang of robberies.
In their many stagecoach robberies the gang was said to have buried their loot in areas near the Willcox Hideout. Legend has it that about $8,000 in gold coins is buried somewhere in the vicinity of Prescott, Arizona.

The murder mystery of Marjorie Jackson and her missing millions!

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 30 May 2016 08:54:00 +0000

Marjorie Viola O’Connell Jackson’s money came from her husband Chester Jackson, a businessman and shrewd investor who amassed a fortune before his death in 1970.
Chester Jackson’s father, Lafayette Andrew Jackson, founded the Standard Grocery chain that grew to include more than 250 stores in Indianapolis and other cities around the state. Chester Jackson became the company’s president in 1931 after his father was shot and killed during a robbery of the chain’s flagship store in the 400 block of East Washington Street.
Jackson sold the chain in 1947 to the National Tea Co., according to the book “Notorious 92: Indiana’s Most Heinous Murders in All 92 Counties” by Andrew E. Stoner. The account says the sale “allowed (Jackson) to buy $14 million in coal stocks, $5 million in municipal bonds, $1 million in cash and Treasury bills, and other investments.”
“In all,” Stoner wrote, “the Jackson estate was worth more than $25 million.”

Hidden Cash

When Chester Jackson died in 1970, Marjorie Jack
son inherited an estimated $14 million, depositing most of the money in the Indiana National Bank.
What few knew at the time was that Chester Jackson, who didn’t like the IRS, had for years stashed cash at the couple’s home.
By some accounts, it may have been more than $2 million — but that was only a pittance compared to what was to come.
Marjorie Jackson, who was 60 when her husband died, continued to live at the couple’s home. But as the years went by, she became more reclusive and allowed the property to grow up in tall grass and weeds.
In 1976, after a bank employee embezzled $700,000, Jackson began withdrawing her savings. She would show up at the bank and demand $500,0000 to $1 million at a time, taking the stacks of $100 bills home in a suitcase or grocery bags.
Over the course of about four months, Jackson withdrew everything she had in the bank. The total was nearly $8 million.
Over the course of about four months, Jackson withdrew everything she had in the bank. The total was nearly $8 million.
She hid the money all around her home — in closets, toolboxes, garbage cans and vacuum cleaner bags. The money was interspersed with an odd collection of gifts, from wash cloths to cakes to expensive jewelry, scattered around the house. The neatly wrapped packages had tags that read: “To Jesus Christ from Marjorie Jackson” and “To God from Marjorie.”

Robbery and Murder

Several months before she was murdered, two teens burglarized Jackson’s home. They got away with about $800,000, but she refused to prosecute them — even after one of the thieves confessed to a grand jury.
The curious case of the robbery and killing of Jackson began to unfold on May 2, 1977, when an unlikely duo — Howard “Billy Joe” Willard, 38, Mooresville, and Manuel Lee Robinson, 29, Indianapolis — broke into Jackson’s home. The pair left with about $1 million in cash.
Emboldened by the ease of the first burglary — and the lure of the horde of cash they had left behind — the pair returned to Jackson’s home two days later. This time, they were confronted by the widow, and Willard shot her in the stomach with a .22 rifle.
The burglars tried to set the home on fire, but the small blazed smoldered for hours before it was discovered and firefighters were called. Jackson’s body was discovered after the fire was extinguished.
And despite Willard and Robinson making a return trip to the home, hauling out bags of cash — mostly $100 bills — police found they had left millions behind.

Millions of dollars of cash are missing!

Nearly 40 years have passed since millionaire recluse Marjorie Jackson was murdered during a robbery of her home in the 6400 block of Spring Mill Road.
After all that time, questions still linger about the fate of some of the $3 million or more the killers got away with back in 1977 — loot that was part of an unbelievable cache Jackson kept hidden around her home after withdrawing about $8.6 million from the bank in the months before her murder.

“We’ve always thought there was at least $1.6 million that was never accounted for,” said retired Indianapolis police captain Steve Koers, a nephew of Jackson and co-executor of her estate.

“There could be a lot more than that out there. You just don’t know. But the $1.6 million, we know, because of the serial numbers and the amounts she withdrew from the bank.”

300ft mineshaft opens up in Cornwall garden

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 08:40:00 +0000

The deadly drop opened up in the back garden of an unoccupied bungalow while it was being surveyed.
Estimated to be at least 300ft deep, the huge hole was once part of an 18th century tin mine and opened up unexpectedly while surveyors were checking the property for ground stability.

"There was nothing there at all that shows there was a shaft," said Stuart Dann of Mining Eye.

"Both houses nearby are empty, which is a very good job. It is easy to see the woods, fields and houses and assume nothing was there. If you go back to 1750, the area was completely different."

Local man Mark Thomas, who managed to capture some impressive aerial video footage of the mineshaft using a remote-controlled drone (below), described the hole as "truly massive."

"It’s approximately 300 feet to water and god knows how deep from there," he said.

Mystery of the Tully Monster has been solved

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 07:39:00 +0000

This outlandish prehistoric creature had left scientists scratching their heads for over 50 years.
Known as the Tully Monster after collector Francis Tully who originally discovered its remains back in 1958, this peculiar prehistoric denizen, which lived 307 million years ago in a coastal estuary in what is now northeastern Illinois, has remained notoriously difficult to classify for over five decades.

With a long torpedo-shaped body and two eyes set at either end of a horizontal bar attached to its face, the creature's bizarre appearance was unlike anything else known to science. It even had a long trunk-like snout protruding from its head with a teeth-filled claw attached to the end of it.

"I would rank the Tully Monster just about at the top of the scale of weirdness," said paleontologist Victoria McCoy of Britain's University of Leicester.

Now however, over half a century since it was first discovered, researchers have finally been able to determine which family of creatures this bizarre specimen actually belonged to.

"I've always loved detective work, and in paleontology it doesn't get much better than this," said James Lamsdell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Huge flying eyeball heralds new era of drones

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 07:35:00 +0000

A new type of aerial vehicle is capable of flying at low altitudes without any risk of damage or injury.
Known as Skye, the new drone, which has been developed by engineers at Aerotain, combines a large helium-filled balloon with the capabilities of a conventional aerial drone to create a safe and maneuverable platform that companies can use to promote their brand.

According to Aerotain co-founder Daniel Meier, the device is unique because, unlike regular drones, it is safe for people to touch and interact with due to its family-friendly balloon-like exterior.

"There is a computer on board which knows exactly how it's orientated in the world, and then it gives commands to the motors to actually align it to where you want it to be," he said.

"And there are four motors on it which can rotate around their axis and with them you can precisely control it in any environment, basically."

Measuring three meters in diameter, Skye can stay airborne for up to three hours with fully charged batteries and can fly both indoors and outside at altitudes of up to around thirty meters.

How quickly can a vampire drink your blood ?

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 07:29:00 +0000

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.

It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood. It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.

It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.

It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.
It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%.

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.

It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Physics students have calculated just how long it would take for a vampire to drain your body of blood.

It might be near to the top of the list of unlikely ways to die, but if by some peculiar twist of fate you did end up at the receiving end of Dracula's fangs, how long would you last ?

According to physics students from the University of Leicester, the answer is just 17.3 minutes.

The unorthodox research was published just in time to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the famous 1931 Universal movie 'Dracula' which starred Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire.

The students used fluid dynamics to determine how much blood would be lost through a puncture wound in the neck and then worked out from there how long it would take for the person to die.

According to their research, it would take a vampire 6.4 minutes to drain 0.75 liters - that's 15% of a person's blood - with the blood loss becoming fatal when that figure reaches around 40%. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/292733/how-quickly-can-a-vampire-drink-your-blood#sthash.eITZrFvI.dpuf

Chinese Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 05:48:00 +0000

The people of China have a long held belief that they are descendents of the dragon, a tradition that is firmly embedded in their culture and one that is encountered across all aspects of Chinese society and in the minds of its people. Whereas in western cultures the dragon is usually regarded as a symbol of malevolence, in China it is held in high esteem for its dignity and power for good.

From primitive times people have regarded the dragon as an auspicious creature with the power to bless and influence their lives. As tribes fought for domination and came to be united under a common banner the dragon was adopted as a national icon. Such was the mysterious creature's power it was regarded as the god of rain, thunder, the rainbow, and the stars. In a society that was founded upon agriculture and animal husbandry totally reliant upon its natural environment and in particular the climate, the dragon was worshiped as the source of all that was beneficial to communal well being.
This concept has been sustained for thousands of years as more and more deification was bestowed upon the dragon ranging from being a bringer of joy to prophecy and miracles. With the establishment of a feudal society, emperors compared themselves to the dragon thereby making it the exclusive symbol of imperial majesty. Anyone who subsequently used the dragon as a symbol either intentionally or erroneously could be regarded as offending their ruler and condemned to death.

A dragon-shaped lantern

The image of the dragon has undergone a series of changes over the centuries becoming more and more mighty and beautiful. The original illustration on primitive bronze ware portrays it as ferocious and mysterious; in the Han Dynasty (206BC - 220), it became magnificent and unrestrained; while during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), it was personalized as gentle, tamed and graceful. From the Song Dynasty onwards (960 - 1279), the design became delicate and flowery.

There are several different kinds of dragon according to color, which may be yellow, blue, black, white or red. Of these the most highly revered was the yellow one and so each emperor wore a gown decorated with a yellow dragon pattern.

Although there are differences in appearance, the basics are similar. This is because it is a combination of the features of animals with which people were familiar. A dragon has a protruding forehead indicating wisdom and antlers signifying longevity. Its ox's ears denote success in the imperial examination; it has tiger's eyes as a sign of power; eagle's claws showing bravery; while a fish's tail implies flexibility and the horse's teeth are a mark of diligence and so on.

Dragon Dance

The most vibrant and spectacular way of expressing fondness for the dragon is the dragon dance. This has evolved from what was a ritual rain dance into a popular entertainment performed during the period from Spring Festival until the Lantern Festival . The second day of the second lunar month is the Han people's special time - 'Dragon Heads-raising Day'. People could not tonsure their hair from the start of the lunar New Year until then. The activities for celebration are still for a good rain. Other big festivals related to the dragon include the Dragon Boat Festival and those of ethnic groups like Zhuang, Yao, Hani, and so on.

Nine Sons of the Dragon - Culture Mirror
It was said that the dragon had nine sons, each of whom was endowed with a unique supernatural power. These appear in many aspects of art as well as forming part of daily life.

The eldest son appeared as a tortoise, a creature capable of bearing very heavy stone steles. Tortoise statues were erected in ancient temples and courtyards, as people believed that to touch them could bring good luck.

The second son was like a tiger, powerful especially in the courts of justice and its likeness was engraved on the doors of jails to add stateliness.

The third son was just like a lizard but one without a tail. It was thought to forage in dangerous places with the ability to swallow fire. The roofs of palaces were adorned with such dragons as a protection against fire.

Dragon figures on eaves of ancient building

The fourth son, resembling a spiral shell bears a likeness to a closed mouth and would be carved or painted on doors as its closed form symbolized safety.

The fifth son had a great love of music and it is depicted as a yellow dragon upon musical instruments such as the Hu Qin of the Han People, Yue Qin of the Yi ethnic group, and tri-chord qin of the Bai ethnic group.

The sixth son was similar to but smaller than its father. It feared cetaceous creatures such as dolphins or whales and upon seeing a cetacean, it would shout loudly in fear. Thus it became a tradition for people put its likeness on clocks with a carved wooden cetacean as the bell-striker in order to increase the sonority of the toll.

The seventh son appeared like a wolf and people who were greedy would be called 'Tao Tie' which was the name of this son.

The eighth son was like a lion with a propensity to sit and enjoy the aroma of joss sticks. This was introduced into the imagery of Chinese Buddhism and would be depicted on Buddha thrones and incense burners.

The ninth son bore a likeness to a jackal with its taste for killing, thus it often appeared on sword scabbards. Another tradition says that 'Pixiu', a fierce but auspicious beast, was the ninth son. It had a dragon's head, horse's body, kylin's feet, a long beard and wings but no anus, which was its most distinctive feature and symbolized the bringing and accumulation wealth. In the art of Feng Shui, it also functioned to exorcise undesirable influences. For this reason hosts would have a statue of 'Pixiu' on certain furniture; it was believed that Pixiu made of jade were the most effective for such purposes.

A bronze kylin

Other Auspicious Animals
- Phoenix, Tortoise, and Kylin
The dragon, phoenix, tortoise, and kylin are the four most revered animals of ancient China. Of these only the tortoise is real, the others being entirely fictitious; each was a symbol of good fortune and this is why people paid them so much respect.

The phoenix is splendid and regarded as the king of birds. Usually it paired with the dragon and in wedding celebrations it is a wish for a harmonious marriage for the new couple. Once the dragon became a totem of the emperor, the phoenix was accorded a similar significance to empresses. For generations, people have named food, musical instruments, and even girls with the Chinese character 'Feng' (phoenix), in the expectation that they are as splendid as the phoenix.

Tortoise

The tortoise is one of the animals that has endured longest on earth and as such is a symbol of longevity and wealth because it is thought that the tortoise evolved while collecting the nimbus of nature. Consequently it is favorable to present a statue of a tortoise to the senior or breed tortoises in a place that can bring enrichment according to the theory of 'Feng Shui'.

The kylin has a compound appearance with dragon's head, antlers, horse's hoofs, an oxtail, wolf's forehead and a colorful scute. It is lively, intelligent, and gentle, but valorous to ward off devils. It is the custom in some regions for people to believe that the kylin will give them a son. So a common theme in paper-cut works and paintings is for this mythical beast to be shown carrying a plump baby.

DRAGONS

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 05:45:00 +0000

There are many various references to Dragons in ancient texts from the Christian Bible, to a prophetic poem written in the 15th century. According to ancient mythology these Dragons were serpents, could fly, breath fire, had horns, a tail, were usually Red, Green, or White, and they live in caves in the ground.
The Christian Bible says that The Dragon was cast out of the Heavens (sky) to Earth. It also says that The Dragon will cause a great flood, that the woman has to run to the mountains to flee from.
Once you know what a Dragon really is, Revelations starts to make a whole lot more sense.
So…what exactly are Dragons?

The Christian Bible tells us in Revelations 12:9 in plain terms that The Devil, AKA Satan, is a Dragon.
The two main types of Dragons are European Dragons and Chinese Dragons, both of which hold fundamental values in their respective ancient cultures. People feared and respected these Dragons. Chinese dragons can take on a human form, and the five-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors.

The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which in turn comes from Latin draconem (nominative draco) meaning “huge serpent, dragon,” from the Greek word δρακων, drakon (genitive drakontos) “serpent, giant seafish”, which is believed to have come from an earlier stem drak-, a stem of derkesthai, “to see clearly,” from Proto-Indo-European derk- “to see” or “the one with the (deadly) glance.”

Some legends even speak of the dragons being a comet from space and this is definitely another additive to this scenario due to the fact that comets usually accompany fire.
RAJA NAGA is the name of the gigantic serpent in the legends of the Malay people of West Malaysia. The name means “King of the Serpents,” thus this vast being is described as the biggest of all the water dragons in the seas.
The early Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians all had the Dragon in their culture as a potent force, such as Tiamat. A cylindrical seal from Sumer of 4,000 B.C. depicts a Dragon behind the goddess Bau. These may well have been originally derived from the serpent cultures of Aapep and Typhin in ancient Egyptian mythology.
From the ancient Middle East the development of the Dragon concept migrated with different people and metamorphosed in its description east across the Indian subcontinent to the Orient and west through the European cultures. From the association with the early Earth Goddesses and the Serpents of Chaos, the Dragon was regarded as a powerful being whose associations with elements of earth, water, fire, and flight through the air made them either horrific adversaries or supernatural associates.

They were attributed to guarding something, this may very well be golden apples, as in the Greek myths, or hoards of treasure. In the legends of Atlantis there were apples and the gods of Atlantis were also called Dragons.
It should also be noted that the Lydians and Mysians were relatives while the Mysians were connected to the Meosi peoples at the mouth of the Danube, a term that looks like “mushu” = “dragon.”
The golden apples, according to Greek myth, are found in Hesperia/Hesperides, wherefore I would suggest that this “garden” is to be found among the Gwenea-Gwynedd kingdom. I assume that the Gwenea peoples came to Wales to rule Atlantis, and therefore when they settled Erethlyn they settled the very heart of Atlantis…which must also be the apple garden.

Hercules was the only one ever to find the apples of the Hesperides, yet he couldn’t find the apples without the help of Atlas. This clue reveals that the bloodline of Atlas was ruling in Hespera. That no one could find Erethlyn but Hercules means that the “Atlanteans” lived there in peace…until Hercules came to make war with them. We are dealing with western Atlantis here, which was called “Hespera” by Siculus.
Kundalini was said to be the manifestation of the primal Dragon, which they called Neptune on Atlantis. The golden apples were said to represent the secrets of the Kundalini. And the Sons of Lucifer had a symbol that was a dark, wingless Dragon, which represented the lower, unevolved qualities of egoism and control. The wingless Dragon represented the unfolding Kundalini serpent which these sorcerers were not able to move to the crown of the head and unite with Spirit, thereby giving it ‘wings.’ The emblem Solar Brotherhood on Atlantis was a blue, golden or winged Dragon. The symbol of the caduceus which our medical field has used for centuries was another symbol.

Dragon Kings of Atlantis was considered the life force and were considered to be ‘bulls’ themselves, which is where we get the history of the Worldwide Venus Bull Cult.
Baphomet was the archetypical Primal Dragon and the First Son of God, he was the black Dragon image of Neptune-Sanat which had been worshipped on Atlantis before being taken to Egypt and transferred into the “Goat of Mendes.”
Venus is naturally fiery hot, and it’s movement leaves a fiery tail which gave it the appearance of a celestial fire serpent, and for this reason and others, the ancients worshiped Venus as a fiery, celestial Dragon.
Thousands-year old myths about dogons mention ‘humans’ who came to Earth from Sirius. It is said that Nommo whose sacred image dogons worship was the one who brought the aliens to Earth. Nommo is described as a combination of a human and a snake with three couples of flexible extremities and a split tongue. It has a smooth shining body covered with green skin. Legends say that Nommo (meaning “the monitors”) as well as other aliens were living side by side with dogons for a long period of time, shared their knowledge and experience with them and then left for their home star.
China was considered the homeland of dragons at all times. As well as dogons’ legends, Chinese legends also say that dragons came down on this planet from the sky. Old historical scripts say that “the sons of the sky” made up the first calendar and a medicine textbook.

In Peru, people also tell legends about sky messengers. They taught men build irrigation canals and grow corn; women learn to sew and cook from them. As well as Chinese, Peruvians got a precise calendar from these sky messengers.
In Central America, legends telling about Quetzalcoatl, a feathered dragon, appeared about three thousand years ago. Almost all of the tribes inhabiting Central America honored the dragon and believed it was Quetzalcoatl who gave people an accurate calendar, taught them to mine and work precious stones and observe the stars.
Hercules was reputed to have had, and John Leonard certainly had, a third set of teeth. Growing a third set of teeth in ancient times was meant to be a sign of a supernatural hero. As Edward Samson the dental historian has written “… it is probably the tales of Hercules, half-god, half-man, which laid the foundation of the idea that men of more than usual strength would grow more than usual two sets of teeth.” John Leonard was, coincidentally, abnormally large and physically strong, according to the information about him which survived within the family.
The Knights Templar were suppressed in England and France, and they continued in Scotland (hence “the Scottish Rite”; manuscript records of sixteenth-century Scottish lodge meetings survive) and by the seventeenth-century spread back into England again. English Freemasonry likes to pretend that the Masonic Movement was founded in 1717, but that can be proved to be complete nonsense.

Alice Bailey produced many volumes of mystical works supposedly inspired by “Higher Beings”, communicated to her in a trance/channeling. Much of what she wrote concerned a kind of cosmic Freemasonry, She maintained that “the Great White Lodge” of Freemasonry is based at the Sirius System. She wrote:
“Each star in the heavens is a solar system with a light-producing sun and revolving planets. Our solar system in which our Earth exists is one of them. There are millions of stars but, among them all, only the star Sirius has a direct link with the Earth and with humanity. Much was known to the Ancients about Sirius, now largely lost but recoverable… Masonic tradition has it that the first three degrees of our Blue lodge are equivalent to the first degree of Freemasonry on the star Sirius. Pondering upon the implications of this statement is fascinating because it lifts the whole concept of Masonry as a spiritual quest on to a higher plane than ever known before. It gives meaning and depth to the question: Why Masonry? It will be no detriment to Masonry if we use the “as if” technique of philosophy which does not hesitate to deal with that which is yet unproven. More Masons are asking more fundamental questions about Masonry these days… Among such questions is: Where did Masonry originate? Because the star Sirius is older than the Earth Masonry could have existed there long before our Earth Masonry began. By implication there is human life on Sirius… Our solar system receives energy from three main sources. There are three great waves of energy which sweep cyclically through our solar system, on of which comes from Sirius.

There are seven paths of progress open to man when he has learned all that human evolution on Earth can teach him. One is the path to Sirius. He arrives there in consciousness as a perfected human being. It follows that there is therefore a type of life on Sirius which includes the essential of human life on Earth. This includes Masonry and he finds that great spiritual fraternity already there. Life on Sirius is therefore the destiny of the majority of humanity who then, if they are Masons, continue as Masons… Great as Masonry has been in the past, it has before it still more glorious and useful future as it moves from Speculative to Spiritual Masonry. That inevitable change is already dimly seen. It will be more important than the change from Operative to Speculative Masonry. It is towards this end that Masonic Research should direct its efforts.”
I don’t know whether Alice Bailey herself actually wrote that. But she certainly wrote the following:
“One great fact to be borne in mind is that the initiations of the planet or of the solar system are but the preparatory initiations of admission into the greater Lodge on Sirius. …The first four initiations of the solar system prior to the first cosmic initiation. The fifth initiation corresponds to the first cosmic initiation. that of “entered apprentice” of the Lodge Sirius. The sixth initiation is analogous to the second degree in Masonry, whilst the seventh initiation makes the Adept a Master Mason of the Brotherhood of Sirius. A Master, therefore, is one who had taken the seventh planetary initiation, the fifth solar initiation, and the first Sirian or cosmic initiation.”

Alice Bailey also said quite explicitly:
“…in the secret of the sun Sirius are hidden the facts of our cosmic evolution, and incidentally, therefore, of our solar system.” This might almost serve as a motto for my own book! And yet these insights reached Miss Bailey by means of some strange “automatic writing” which she apparently produced, like someone in trance. And I only found out about it after I worked my own way along what might be called by the Hindus “the path of knowledge”; Miss Bailey seems to have taken some kind of short-cut.
Upon researching this subject I came across may pages of many cultures who see these “Dragon” or “Dragon Snakes” on a daily basis and have so many people in the community who have experienced these sightings that they are NOT abnormal but they are VERY scared due to the fact that these Dragon Snakes have injured and killed numerous people and continued to do so.

Oddly enough the Royal Crests contain DRAGONS!

http://www.karenlyster.com/dragonsnake.html

This is a website that identifies the mysteries of the Dragon Snake being experienced by the people on Solomon Islands, but this was all taken from Nextus Magazine, Volume 10, Number 5 (August-Sept 2003) issue. The story is based from a documentary account of a retired RAAF engineer who had recently moved to the islands to enjoy his retirement. The location was from Guadalcanal, Malaita, and the surrounding areas.
He was enjoying his vacation and was going to drink some beer and fish the next day but his friend, Joseph, warned him of the “Dragon Snake, that it came out at night and flies around. They said it had piercing red yes, and have been fears for generations. It was responsible for people going missing and for killing people.
While they were fishing Joseph came out of the water and shouted : “There! There! There! The Dragon Snake! The Dragon Snake! He was pointing to the right, down the beach. About a kilometer away was a very bright, luminous white object flying over the water. Watching it for a few minutes, it submerged itself into the sea. Joseph said wait for 10 minutes and it would be back-which it did!
The location of the submersion was part of the sea that was right in front of the village was where the Allied Forces had encountered a Japanese fleet in a great battle that resulted in the biggest loss of Allied ships during any naval engagement in World War II. This battle included the Australian heavy cruiser, the HMAS Canberra, and the American heavy cruiser, the USS Chicago. UFOs were submerging in exactly the same area where the HMAS Canberra, the USS Chicago and other ships had sunk.

Atlantis Resort Bar called “Dragon”

It must be noted here that the story reveals that the UFO’s didn’t mind being revealed to the locals but upon a ship from elsewhere appearing it cloaked itself.
Seemed the UFO had a habit of appearing at 10:00 pm, or 3:00 am, and they were planning to witness its routine. The expedition was to be filmed and definitely was to be a low-budget documentary, but due to the financial situation he only had a Kodac Instamatic camera at the time.

At 3am, a few nights later, the two friends witnessed a UFO and its path took it directly over theirs and they took off towards its direction.
BACKGROUND INFO
Research showed that expeditions to Malaita in 1996, 1997 and 2002. Contrary to popular belief, NASA – or whoever that mob was – first made contact with the occupants of the subterranean UFO base in central east Malaita in 1961. This is how they began to gain what partial technology they have today. It was through blackmail. This happened because when the great geologist Mr Gropher was doing his few expeditions in the area between 1958 and 1960, he saw these UFOs and then reported back to the UK (the ruling colonial power at the time) about them.
Apparently, in 1961, a white man who claimed to be from NASA came to that part of the island and asked for assistance from his wife’s relatives to take him to the UFO subterranean base entrances, which they did. He was the only white man ever to have married a woman from Kwaio, which is in that area. This NASA guy was gone a week and then returned, asking his wife’s relatives for further assistance to take him back to these places.
There is a 50-metre-diameter, bottomless circular reef in amongst the surrounding 10-metre-deep coral reef a few miles north of Kwoi Island (which is on the border of the Kwaio and Kwara’ae tribes) and south of Namo’ere’ere in central east Malaita. Singalanggu Harbour is slightly further south. UFOs can be seen going in and out of that reef virtually every night.
His friends like fishing down this UFO hole during the daytime because it saved them from having to go out into the danger of the ocean and because there’s a plentiful supply of big ocean-type fish that can be caught in its depths. They have let down over 200 metres of 100-pound line and still haven’t been able to hit the bottom.
On mainland Malaita, about three to four miles directly inland from that circular reef entrance is a lake which has two connected entrances/exits. When the boys are out fishing at night, they see the UFOs going in one entrance and coming out the other. A UFO coming out of this lake at dusk incinerated his good friend’s grandfather, and everyone in the area knows about it. The aliens have instilled fear in these people for generations, and many people have gone missing.

In the Kwaio and Kwara’re areas, there are three entrances in their jungle mountains that he knows of where these “ball of light”-type UFO vehicles can be seen entering and exiting. It is his belief that these entrances are not individual bases but are all connected, making up one big UFO base under the island. He also believe that one of the many reasons why they are there is that, for reasons of their own, they are mining a very rare type of gemstone under this kimberlite rock volcanic island.

The gemstones which his wife’s relatives possess have a far higher specific gravity than that of diamonds, and a refractive index such that when you put the stone in light you see your mirror image in the centre of the stone. He once had a 32.4 carat “ET stone” with these characteristics. There are some old folklore stories supporting the interest in these unique stones.

Furthermore, as there are many remnants of the Ramo civilisation that can be found on top of the island and the aliens underneath, there is every chance there is a connection. And that goes for on Guadalcanal, too.
The waterfall lake UFO base of Small Malaita (south Malaita), where e witnessed their activities, is easy to find. Just ask the locals, but, heading north up the passage with Small Malaita on your right, about three kilometres from Affiou, the main town, and about a kilometre up the jungle mountain is their base entrance, where they can be seen entering and exiting nearly every night and also brazenly and casually flying along the passage.
Many Solomon Islanders have told of flat stingray-type UFOs with big round lights underneath them that hum as they go along. They sometimes see them flying low over the jungle and surfacing out of the sea near where they are fishing. The UFOs have landed near villages, and the (white or black) people who get out of them have strange grey uniforms, not seen anywhere else in the world.
Nevertheless, if there were ever a place that one could call “UFO Headquarters”, it would have to be central Malaita. Goodness knows what else there is in the rest of the Solomon Islands.
——-END OF STORY——-

Ten Scary Spirits Of The Seven Seas

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 05:06:00 +0000

Ghost ships are one of the most enduring legends of the sea, and tales of mysterious ships with missing crews have peppered the accounts of mariners both ancient and modern for hundreds of years. Some ghost ships exist in the realm of rumor, others are real but remain unexplained.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

(images via: Pentagram, Indraz and True/Slant)

English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge penned The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798, where it anchors the dawning of the Romantic Era of literature. This epic poem centers on a wandering seaman, cursed by the Gods for shooting the albatross had guided his ship and crew out from the clutch of chill antarctic waters. It is from Coleridge’s magnum opus that the old maxim “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” originates.

(image via: Neosurrealismart)

After the Ancient Mariner is forced by his crew to wear the albatross he killed around his neck, his ship encounters a ghostly “skeleton ship” crewed by Death and Nightmare Life-in-Death. The two gamble with dice over the lives of the crew and captain; Death claims the crew while the Ancient Mariner is forced to wander the earth, telling his sorry tale to all he encounters. Kinda makes a three-hour cruise seem insignificant, hmm?
The Mary Celeste

(images via: Strangedaze666, Fantastic Fiction and HW.Keren)

One of the most famous actual ghost ships – “ghostly” at least – is the Mary Celeste. A 282-ton brigantine merchantman built in 1861, the Mary Celeste left New York City on November 5, 1872, on what would be her fateful final voyage. Exactly one month later, sailors on the Dei Gratia spied the Mary Celeste in the eastern Atlantic Ocean heading in the direction of the Strait of Gibraltar. Aside from several torn sails and a missing lifeboat, the ship was in relatively good condition… what it was without, was a captain and crew.

(image via: Cruel Kev)

To this day, the exact reason for the disappearance of the Mary Celeste’s compliment is unknown. Theories center on the cargo: 1,701 barrels of commercial alcohol of which 9 barrels were empty. Rumors that hot tea was found in the ship’s galley have been discounted though the Mary Celeste did have a full 6 months worth of food and water aboard when discovered.

Here’s a video showing a segment of a History Channel documentary on the Mary Celeste:
The Flying Dutchman

(images via: DeviantArt, Nourishing Obscurity and Raccun)

Though it sounds like a name a clipper ship might have, the Flying Dutchman is a colloquial contraction of a Dutch warship, or “man of war” in archaic terms. The story goes, a Dutch East India Company ship rounding the treacherous Cape of Good Hope encountered a severe sudden storm. Rather than head for safe harbor, the captain swore he would maintain his heading until Judgment Day, if necessary. The ship vanished into the storm, never to be seen again… or was it?

(image via: Neosurrealismart)

Many have claimed to see the Flying Dutchman, including the future King George V of England while aboard a Royal Navy ship off the coast of Australia in 1881. In describing the unexpected apparition, the young prince noted “A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief.” Seeing the Flying Dutchman is not a good thing: according to sailor’s folklore, the appearance of the legendary clipper is an omen of impending doom.
The Carroll A. Deering

(images via: Bermuda-Triangle.org and Amazon UK)

Think mysterious ghost ships are exclusive to the 19th century? The Carol A. Deering begs to differ. On January 28, 1921, the Cape Lookout Lightship encountered the ship off the North Carolina coast. The large five-masted cargo schooner looked to be in rough shape and had lost both her anchors, according to one of the crewmembers who shouted this information to the lightship. Three days later, the Deering ran aground on Cape Hatteras’ Diamond Shoals with nary a soul aboard.

(image via: Tauy Creek)

Theories ranging from mutiny to piracy to the paranormal effects of the Bermuda Triangle have been put forth to explain the disappearance of the Carrol A. Deering’s captain and crew but almost 90 years later, the ship’s final days remain shrouded in mystery – as do the fate of the captain and crew, none of which were ever heard from again.
One-Eyed Willie’s Ship from The Goonies

(images via: TheFilms.org and Archshrk)

Ghost ships aren’t always mysterious or frightening – just ask The Goonies. One of the best-loved movies of the ’80s, The Goonies featured a group of kids who found an old treasure map and followed it into an amazing adventure full of crooks, treasure and pirates. Especially pirates such as One-Eyed Willie, who guarded his ship and his treasure long after he and his crew had walked the big plank in the sky.

(image via: IMDB)

The climactic scene in The Goonies involves the gang escaping from both the evil Fratellis and One-Eyed Willie’s subterranean, booby-trapped ship… which, thanks to the pirate captain’s ancient engineering, sails itself out into the ocean.
The Octavius

(images via: Gina’s Blogging and Neosurrealismart)

One of the oldest legendary ghost ships is the Octavius. The story goes, the Octavius was set to return to England with a cargo of trade goods from the Far East. The ship’s captain, motivated by greed, decided that the tried & true “round the Horn” route was far too long. His rudimentary maps revealed a more direct route – straight across the fabled Northwest Passage. The key word here is “fabled”.

(image via: TopTenz)

The Octavius wasn’t seen again until October 11th, 1775 when the Herald, and Atlantic whaling ship, came across the Octavius drifting off the coast of Greenland. Sailors from the Herald boarded the Octavius only to find the crew dead and the captain sitting at his desk… frozen solid. The captain was in the midst of writing an entry into the ship’s log dated 1762. Though the Octavius had accomplished the impossible by sailing the Northwest Passage, the captain’s desire for a speedy homecoming was, well, somewhat less successful.
The Baychimo

(images via: The Outlaws, EZine Articles and Mult-Kor)

The Baychimo may not be exactly ghostly but its staying power has been nothing short of supernatural. Built in Sweden in 1914 and boasting a steel hull, the Baychimo was perfectly suited for the iceberg studded arctic waters through which it plied its trade: re-supplying the Hudson Bay Company’s far-flung northern outposts. In 1931, however, the Baychimo’s luck ran out as the arctic icepack moved in, locking the hardy steamer in an icy grip. Fearing the ship would be crushed, the captain and crew abandoned her… but the Baychimo didn’t sink, it stayed afloat season in and season out – for decades.

(image via: Behance.net)

Sightings of the Baychimo were reported at various times and in various places over the years and the ship was even boarded several times in the 1930s. In March of 1962 it was seen drifting in open water along the Beaufort Sea coast and in 1969 it was spotted again, frozen in pack ice. No sightings have been reported since then, so perhaps the Baychimo has finally, as they say, given up the ghost.
Ghost Ship: The Movie

(images via: Esplatter and AllMoviePhoto)

Ghost Ship was a 2002 horror film starring Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies that doesn’t have much to recommend it besides its eerie premise and frightful opening scene (which will not be revealed here). The plot of Ghost Ship, in a nutshell, revolves around an Italian luxury ocean liner that mysteriously vanished in 1962 and, 40 years later, was rediscovered by a commercial salvage ship as it drifted aimlessly in the chilly Bering Sea.

(image via: Wallpapergate)

The Antonia Graza – the doomed liner in the film – nicely updates the traditional ghost ship mythos embodied by wood & canvas sailing ships like the Mary Celeste and the Octavius. If anything, the Graza’s rusted, cavernous bulk is more sinister than any creaking wood-hulled clipper could be.
Kaz II

(images via: Sail-World and Fourth Of ESO)

From ghost ships to the “ghost yacht” – the Kaz II, a 32-ft (9.8 m) catamaran, was discovered drifting 88 nautical miles (160 km) off the northeast coast of Australia on April 18th, 2007. No one was aboard and there were no indications of why the 3-man crew was missing, how they left, or where they might have gone. The mystery of the Kaz II has been compared to that of the Mary Celeste.

(images via: Magonia and Kaorulogia)

The story of the Kaz II doesn’t stop with the disappearance of the crew. When investigators boarded the yacht on April 20th they found the engines were running, a laptop computer was on and the crew’s midday meal had been laid out uneaten. The yacht carried its full complement of life jackets and a small emergency dingy was tied up near the stern. Commented Jon Hall of the Queensland Emergency Management office, “What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal; there was just no sign of the crew.”
The Black Pearl

(images via: CG-Society and Zorex)

Fans of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean film series are quite familiar with The Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow’s black-sailed pirate ship which was raised from the ocean depths by Davey Jones in return for Sparrow’s soul. For many, The Black Pearl is the archetypical ghost ship, usually seen shrouded in night mists and crewed by undead pirates cursed by their theft of gold coins from the Chest of Cortez.

(images via: Micechat, Martin Manley and DL4All)

The Black Pearl was said to be “The only ship as what can outrun the Flying Dutchman”, thus linking it to the long and storied history of the world’s most legendary ghost ships. The film series’ producers also called up other longstanding legends of the sea, such as the monstrous Kraken that swallows Jack Sparrow and sinks The Black Pearl at the climax of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

(image via: Taholtorf)

Will there be more ghost ships, either in fact or fiction? Undoubtedly – the nature of ocean travel hasn’t changed much though the ships have, and both writers and film-makers know the value of a good scary story… especially one anchored in reality.

10 Mysterious Abandoned Sea Vessels

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 05:01:00 +0000

A lot of things can happen at sea – pirates, mutiny, murder and bad weather not to mention (if you’re so inclined) alien abductions, clashes with sea monsters and the mysterious workings of the Bermuda Triangle
. So perhaps it’s no wonder so many ships have turned up without their crew or passengers – but where’s the evidence of a struggle? From an unmanned ghost ship that’s been repeatedly spotted (and boarded) off the Alaskan coast to an apparent British crew kidnapping by a German submarine during World War I, these 10 abandoned vessels all share one thing: strange and seemingly unexplainable secrets.

Mary Celeste

When it comes to describing the discovery of the apparently abandoned Mary Celeste in 1872, words like “spooky” and “unsettling” simply don’t cut it. This brigantine merchant ship was found in the Atlantic Ocean with its cargo and valuables completely untouched, packed with six months’ worth of food and water but not hide nor hair of a single passenger or crew member. Though its contents were wet and it was a bit worse for the wear, the ship was still seaworthy after being out for just a month. The fact that all reasonable explanations – from storms to piracy – seem to have been ruled out has spurred more outrageous theories of alien abduction or sea monster attacks. Today, the fate of the Mary Celeste remains one of history’s most famous and puzzling maritime mysteries – but this is far from the only story of its kind.

Carroll A. Deering

Was it mutiny, piracy, Communists or a bizarre supernatural experience in the Bermuda Triangle that robbed the Carroll A. Deering of her crew? This five-masted commercial schooner was on its way back from delivering a load of coal from Virginia to Rio, and during a supply stop in Barbados, the first mate was arrested for making threats against the supposedly interfering and not-so-sharp-eyed captain but was released on bail and forgiven before the ship moved on toward its destination of Norfolk, Virginia.
The ship was spotted when it hailed the Cape Lookout Lightship in North Carolina and a man with a foreign accent onboard told the lightship’s keeper that the vessel had lost its anchors. But the next time it was seen was when it ran aground in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina – the crew, their belongings, and the lifeboats all missing. The crew was never located, and the U.S. government has never come up with an official explanation, though they did consider foul play by rum runners or Communist pirates set on capturing American ships. Today, conspiracy theorists often use the Deering as an example of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, despite the fact the ship was far away it by the time the crew disappeared.

Bel Amica

When a “classic style” schooner unlike any seen in Italy before was found off the coast of the island of Sardinia with no crew on board, it seemed like a repeat of the Mary Celeste – but this is no seemingly mythical tale from ages past. Spotted by the Italian Coast Guard in 2006, this ghost ship contained a half-eaten meal of Egyptian food, French maps of North African seas, a pile of clothes, a flag of Luxembourg and a wooden plaque bearing the name ‘Bel Amica’. Italian authorities found that the ship had never been registered in any country. Because the ship was misidentified as an antique in the press, a tsunami of public interest surrounded the case – but it was soon revealed to be a modern yacht belonging to a Luxembourg man who likely didn’t register it for tax evasion purposes.

High Aim 6

Murder, mutiny and rotting fish – the story of the High Aim 6 is a strange one. This Taiwanese ship was found drifting in Australian waters without its crew in 2003, though plenty of fuel and provisions remained onboard, along with the crew’s personal belongings and a hold full of stinky seafood. A forensic examination could find no sign of a struggle, and a search of 7,300 nautical miles turned up no clues – but 10 days after the ship was discovered, calls were still being made from Indonesia on the cell phone of the ship’s missing engineer. The only crew member ever tracked down claimed that the captain and engineer were murdered and the crew headed back to their homes, but no reason was ever given.

Jian Seng

A lot of illegal activity goes on in the world’s oceans, from illegal fishing to human trafficking. So, when mysterious ships of unknown origin turn up, they’re automatically suspicious. The Jian Seng is just one such ship, spotted drifting into uncharted waters near Queensland, Australia in 2006, but once Australian Customs officials boarded the ship they couldn’t find evidence of recent human activity at all. In fact, the ship had been stripped, with its name and identifying features painted over, and contained nothing but a large amount of rice. Ultimately, since no owner could be found, the ship was intentionally sunken.

MV Joyita

The MV Joyita may have been an “unsinkable” ship, but she wasn’t immune to other problems. With 25 passengers and crew onboard, the Joyita disappeared in the South Pacific in 1955. Five weeks after the ship was reported overdue, it was spotted off-course partially submerged and missing four tons of cargo including medical supplies, timber, food and empty oil drums. The radio was tuned to the international marine distress channel, the lifeboats were gone and blood-stained bandages were found. Some believe that the captain was injured or killed and that the passengers and crew felt they had no choice but to abandon the ship – but that still doesn’t explain the missing cargo.

Kaz II

(image via: wikimedia commons)

On April 15th, 2007, three men set out on a journey along the coast of Australia – and three days later, their ship turned up drifting toward the Great Barrier Reef with everything perfectly in place. Everything, that is, except for the men themselves, who were missing. Food was set out on the table, a laptop was open and still turned on, all of the boat’s emergency systems were fully functional and life jackets hung neatly on their hooks. Since the seas were choppy and none of the men were wearing a life jacket, it has been hypothesized that one of the men fell overboard and the others perished trying to save him.

Zebrina

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Yet another ship found without its crew was the Zebrina, a 3-masted sailing barge that left a port in Southern England in October 1917 with a cargo hold full of coal bound for Saint-Brieuc, France. When the ship was found in France aground and abandoned but in good shape two days later, it seemed that some kind of conflict related to World War I was to blame – like perhaps the threat of gunfire from a German submarine like the one pictured above. Did the U-boat that threatened the Zebrina force the crew onboard, and then retreat when it spotted an Allied ship nearby? Perhaps – some people believe that this hypothetical submarine was later sunken itself, hence the fact that Zebrina’s crew was never seen again.

Schooner Jenny

(image via: history cooperative)

“May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive.” The captain who wrote this message was still sitting in a chair with a pen in his hand when this message was found in his logbook a full 17 years later. His body, and those of the other 6 people onboard the British schooner ‘Jenny‘, had been preserved by the frigid Antarctic weather which had ensnared the ship in ice and led to their deaths.The crew of the whaling ship that discovered Jenny so long after this disaster buried the passengers – including a dog – at sea.

Baychimo

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Used to trade pelts for provisions in Inuit settlements along the north coast of Canada, the SS Baychimo was no stranger to harsh conditions. This 230-foot cargo steamer had just been freed from pack ice a week earlier when it got stuck even worse on October 8th, 1931, leading over half of its crew to abandon it while 15 remained to wait out the winter nearby in a wooden shelter that they built. When a blizzard struck on November 24, the ship was later found to be missing and assumed sunken… but it turned up three days later, 45 miles away. The crew gathered up the cargo and abandoned the ship, believing it wouldn’t survive the winter, but once again it did not sink. Over the next several decades, sightings of the Baychimo were reported all over the coast, and some people even boarded the ship. It was last seen stuck in ice off the Alaskan Coast in 1969. Did it finally sink? Maybe – or maybe it will turn up once again.

Seismic Waves and Earth's Interior

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 04:26:00 +0000

When you look at a seismogram the wiggles you see are an indication that the ground is being, or was, vibrated by seismic waves. Seismic waves are propagating vibrations that carry energy from the source of the shaking outward in all directions. You can picture this concept by recalling the circular waves that spread over the surface of a pond when a stone is thrown into the water. An earthquake is a more complicated process than a stone splashing into water, and the seismic waves that are set up during an earthquake are more varied than those on the pond.

The are many different seismic waves, but all of basically of four types:
Compressional or P (for primary)
Transverse or S (for secondary)
Love
Rayleigh

An earthquake radiates P and S waves in all directions and the interaction of the P and S waves with Earth's surface and shallow structure produces surface waves.

Near an earthquake the shaking is large and dominated by shear-waves and short-period surface waves. These are the waves that do the most damage to our buildings, highways, etc. Even in large earthquakes the intense shaking generally lasts only a few tens of seconds, but it can last for minutes in the greatest earthquakes. At farther distances the amplitude of the seismic waves decreases as the energy released by the earthquake spreads throughout a larger volume of Earth. Also with increasing distance from the earthquake, the waves are separated apart in time and dispersed because P, S, and surface waves travel at different speeds.

Seismic waves can be distinguished by a number of properties including the speed the waves travel, the direction that the waves move particles as they pass by, where and where they don't propagate. We'll go through each wave type individually to expound upon the differences.

The first two wave types, P and S , are called body waves because they travel or propagate through the body of Earth. The latter two are called surface waves they the travel along Earth's surface and their amplitude decreases with depth into Earth.

Wave Travel Times

Travel times are best conceptualized of with an analogy of an auto trip. If you have to travel 120 miles and you drive 60 mph, you'll get to your destination in two hours, if you are forced to drive at a speed of 30 mph, it will take you twice as long to arrive at your destination. The mathematical formula we use in this problem is driving time = (distance of trip) / (driving speed)

To apply those ideas to earthquake studies, think of the earthquake location as the starting point for the trip and the seismometer as the place where the trip concludes. Faster waves will travel the distance quicker and show up on the seismogram first. travel time = (distance from earthquake to seismometer) / (seismic wave speed)

Travel time is a relative time, it is the number of minutes, seconds, etc. that the wave took to complete its journey. The arrival time is the time when we record the arrival of a wave - it is an absolute time, usually referenced to Universal Coordinated Time (a 24-hour time system used in many sciences). Here's an example to illustrate the difference: if two earthquakes occurred at the same place but exactly 24 hours apart, the wave travel times would be the same but the arrival times would differ by one day.
Seismic Wave Speed

Seismic waves travel fast, on the order of kilometers per second (km/s). The precise speed that a seismic wave travels depends on several factors, most important is the composition of the rock. We are fortunate that the speed depends on the rock type because it allows us to use observations recorded on seismograms to infer the composition or range of compositions of the planet. But the process isn't always simple, because sometimes different rock types have the same seismic-wave velocity, and other factors also affect the speed, particularly temperature and pressure. Temperature tends to lower the speed of seismic waves and pressure tends to increase the speed. Pressure increases with depth in Earth because the weight of the rocks above gets larger with increasing depth. Usually, the effect of pressure is the larger and in regions of uniform composition, the velocity generally increases with depth, despite the fact that the increase of temperature with depth works to lower the wave velocity.

When I describe the different seismic wave types below I'll quote ranges of speed to indicate the range of values we observe in common terrestrial rocks. But you should keep in mind that the specific speed throughout Earth will depend on composition, temperature, and pressure.
Compressional or P-Waves

P-waves are the first waves to arrive on a complete record of ground shaking because they travel the fastest (their name derives from this fact - P is an abbreviation for primary, first wave to arrive). They typically travel at speeds between ~1 and ~14 km/sec. The slower values corresponds to a P-wave traveling in water, the higher number represents the P-wave speed near the base of Earth's mantle.

The velocity of a wave depends on the elastic properties and density of a material. If we let k represent the bulk modulus of a material, m the shear-modulus, and r the density, then the P-wave velocity, which we represent by a, is defined by:

A modulus is a measure of how easy or difficulty it is to deforms a material. For example, the bulk modulus is a measure of how a material changes volume when pressure is applied and is a characteristic of a material. For example, foam rubber has a lower bulk modulus than steel.

P-waves are sound waves, it's just that in seismology we are interested in frequencies that are lower than humans' range of hearing (the speed of sound in air is about 0.3 km/sec). The vibration caused by P waves is a volume change, alternating from compression to expansion in the direction that the wave is traveling. P-waves travel through all types of media - solid, liquid, or gas.

As a P-wave passes the ground is vibrated in the direction that the wave is propagating.

S-Waves

Secondary , or S waves, travel slower than P waves and are also called "shear" waves because they don't change the volume of the material through which they propagate, they shear it. S-waves are transverse waves because they vibrate the ground in a the direction "transverse", or perpendicular, to the direction that the wave is traveling.

As a transverse wave passes the ground perpendicular to the direction that the wave is propagating. S-waves are transverse waves.

The S-wave speed, call it b, depends on the shear modulus and the density

Even though they are slower than P-waves, the S-waves move quickly. Typical S-wave propagation speeds are on the order of 1 to 8 km/sec. The lower value corresponds to the wave speed in loose, unconsolidated sediment, the higher value is near the base of Earth's mantle.

An important distinguishing characteristic of an S-wave is its inability to propagate through a fluid or a gas because a fluids and gasses cannot transmit a shear stress and S-waves are waves that shear the material.

In general, earthquakes generate larger shear waves than compressional waves and much of the damage close to an earthquake is the result of strong shaking caused by shear waves.
Using P and S-waves To Locate Earthquakes

We can use the fact that P and S waves travel at different speeds to locate earthquakes. Assume a seismometer are is far enough from the earthquake that the waves travel roughly horizontally, which is about 50 to 500 km for shallow earthquakes. When an earthquake occurs the P and S waves travel outward from the region of the fault that ruptured and the P waves arrive at the seismometer first, followed by the S-wave. Once the S-wave arrives we can measure the time interval between the onset of P-wave and the onset of S-wave shaking.

The travel time of the P wave is distance from earthquake / (P-wave speed)

The travel time of the S wave is distance from earthquake / (S-wave speed)

The difference in the arrival times of the waves is distance from earthquake / (S-wave speed) - distance from earthquake / (P-wave speed)

which equals distance from earthquake * ( 1/ (S-wave speed) - 1 / (P-wave speed) )

We can measure that difference from a seismogram and if we also know the speed that the waves travel, we could calculate the distance by equating the measured time difference and the expression. For the distance range 50 to 500 km, the S-waves travel about 3.45 km/s and the P-waves around 8 km/s. The value in parentheses is then equal to about (1/3.45 - 1/8) or about 1/8. Thus the simple rule of thumb for earthquakes in this distance range is the distance is about eight times the arrival time of S-wave less the arrival time of the P-wave.

That means that we can estimate the distance an earthquake is from a seismometer. The earthquake can be in any direction, but must be the estimated distance away. Geometrically that means that the earthquake must be located on a circle surrounding the seismometer, and the radius of the circle is about eight times the observed wave travel-time difference (in kilometers).

If we have two other seismometers which recorded the same earthquake, we could make a similar measurement and construct a circle of possible locations for each seismometer. Since the earthquake location since it must lie on each circle centered on a seismometer, if we plot three or more circles on a map we could find that the three circles will intersect at a single location - the earthquake's epicenter.

Using the "S minus P arrival time" to locate an earthquake. You need at least three stations and some idea of the P and S velocities between the earthquake and the seismometers.

In practice we use better estimates of the speed than our simple rule of thumb and solve the problem using algebra instead of geometry. We also can include the earthquake depth and the time that earthquake rupture initiated (called the "origin time") into the problem.
Love Waves

Love waves are transverse waves that vibrate the ground in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the direction that the waves are traveling. They are formed by the interaction of S waves with Earth's surface and shallow structure and are dispersive waves. The speed at which a dispersive wave travels depends on the wave's period. In general, earthquakes generate Love waves over a range of periods from 1000 to a fraction of a second, and each period travels at a different velocity but the typical range of velocities is between 2 and 6 km/second.

Love waves are transverse and restricted to horizontal movement - they are recorded only on seismometers that measure the horizontal ground motion.

Another important characteristic of Love waves is that the amplitude of ground vibration caused by a Love wave decreases with depth - they're surface waves. Like the velocity the rate of amplitude decrease with depth also depends on the period.
Rayleigh Waves

Rayleigh waves are the slowest of all the seismic wave types and in some ways the most complicated. Like Love waves they are dispersive so the particular speed at which they travel depends on the wave period and the near-surface geologic structure, and they also decrease in amplitude with depth. Typical speeds for Rayleigh waves are on the order of 1 to 5 km/s.

Rayleigh waves are similar to water waves in the ocean (before they "break" at the surf line). As a Rayleigh wave passes, a particle moves in an elliptical trajectory that is counterclockwise (if the wave is traveling to your right). The amplitude of Rayleigh-wave shaking decreases with depth.

Seismic Wave Propagation
Waves on a Seismogram

As you might expect, the difference in wave speed has a profound influence on the nature of seismograms. Since the travel time of a wave is equal to the distance the wave has traveled, divided by the average speed the wave moved during the transit, we expect that the fastest waves arrive at a seismometer first. Thus, if we look at a seismogram, we expect to see the first wave to arrive to be a P-wave (the fastest), then the S-wave, and finally, the Love and Rayleigh (the slowest) waves. Although we have neglected differences in the travel path (which correspond to differences in travel distance) and the abundance waves that reverberate within Earth, the overall character is as we have described.

The fact that the waves travel at speeds which depend on the material properties (elastic moduli and density) allows us to use seismic wave observations to investigate the interior structure of the planet. We can look at the travel times, or the travel times and the amplitudes of waves to infer the existence of features within the planet, and this is a active area of seismological research. To understand how we "see" into Earth using vibrations, we must study how waves interact with the rocks that make up Earth.

Several types of interaction between waves and the subsurface geology (i.e. the rocks) are commonly observable on seismograms
Refraction
Reflection
Dispersion
Diffraction
Attenuation

We'll examine the two simplest types of interaction refraction and reflection.
Refraction

As a wave travels through Earth, the path it takes depends on the velocity. Perhaps you recall from high school a principle called Snell's law, which is the mathematical expression that allows us to determine the path a wave takes as it is transmitted from one rock layer into another. The change in direction depends on the ratio of the wave velocities of the two different rocks.

When waves reach a boundary between different rock types, part of the energy is transmitted across the boundary. The transmitted wave travels in a different direction which depends on the ratio of velocities of the two rock types. Part of the energy is also reflected backwards into the region with Rock Type 1, but I haven't shown that on this diagram.

Refraction has an important affect on waves that travel through Earth. In general, the seismic velocity in Earth increases with depth (there are some important exceptions to this trend) and refraction of waves causes the path followed by body waves to curve upward.

The overall increase in seismic wave speed with depth into Earth produces an upward curvature to rays that pass through the mantle. A notable exception is caused by the decrease in velocity from the mantle to the core. This speed decrease bends waves backwards and creates a "P-wave Shadow Zone" between about 100° and 140° distance (1° = 111.19 km).

Reflection

The second wave interaction with variations in rock type is reflection. I am sure that you are familiar with reflected sound waves; we call them echoes. And your reflection in a mirror or pool of water is composed of reflected light waves. In seismology, reflections are used to prospect for petroleum and investigate Earth's internal structure. In some instances reflections from the boundary between the mantle and crust may induce strong shaking that causes damage about 100 km from an earthquake (we call that boundary the "Moho" in honor of Mohorovicic, the scientist who discovered it).

A seismic reflection occurs when a wave impinges on a change in rock type (which usually is accompanied by a change in seismic wave speed). Part of the energy carried by the incident wave is transmitted through the material (that's the refracted wave described above) and part is reflected back into the medium that contained the incident wave.

When a wave encounters a change in material properties (seismic velocities and or density) its energy is split into reflected and refracted waves.

The amplitude of the reflection depends strongly on the angle that the incidence wave makes with the boundary and the contrast in material properties across the boundary. For some angles all the energy can be returned into the medium containing the incident wave.

The actual interaction between a seismic wave and a contrast in rock properties is more complicated because an incident P wave generates transmitted and reflected P- and S-waves and so five waves are involved. Likewise, when an S-wave interacts with a boundary in rock properties, it too generates reflected and refracted P- and S-waves.
Dispersion

I mentioned above that surface waves are dispersive - which means that different periods travel at different velocities. The effects of dispersion become more noticeable with increasing distance because the longer travel distance spreads the energy out (it disperses the energy). Usually, the long periods arrive first since they are sensitive to the speeds deeper in Earth, and the deeper regions are generally faster.

A dispersed Rayleigh wave generated by an earthquake in Alabama near the Gulf coast, and recorded in Missouri.

P-Waves in Earth

The mathematics behind wave propagation is elegant and relatively simple, considering the fact that similar mathematical tools are useful for studying light, sound, and seismic waves. We can solve these equations or an appropriate approximation to them to compute the paths that seismic waves follow in Earth. The diagram below is an example of the paths P-waves generated by an earthquake near Earth's surface would follow.

The paths of P-wave energy for a shallow earthquake located at the top of the diagram. The main chemical shells of Earth are shown by different colors and regions with relatively abrupt velocity changes are shown by dashed lines. The curves show the paths of waves, and the lines crossing the rays show mark the wavefront at one minute intervals.

Note the curvature of the rays in the mantle, the complexities in the upper mantle, and the dramatic impact of the core on the wavefronts. The decrease in velocity from the lower mantle to the outer core casts a "shadow" on the P-waves that extends from about 100° to 140° distance. Other waves such as surface waves and body waves reflecting off the surface are recorded in the "shadow" region, but the P-wave "dies out" near 100°. Since the outer core is fluid, and S-waves cannot travel through a fluid, the "S-wave shadow zone" is even larger, extending from about 100° to 180°.
Earth's Internal Structure

We have already discussed the main elements in Earth's interior, the core, the mantle, and the crust. By studying the propagation characteristics (travel times, reflection amplitudes, dispersion characteristics, etc.) of seismic waves for the last 90 years we have learned much about the detailed nature of Earth's interior. Great progress was made quickly because for the most part Earth's interior is relatively simple, divided into a sphere (the inner core) surrounded by roughly uniform shells of iron and rock. Models that assume the Earth is perfectly symmetric can be used to predict travel times of P-waves that are accurate to a few seconds for a trip all the way across the planet.

The diagram below is a plot of the P- and S-wave velocities and the density as a function of depth into Earth. The top of the Earth is located at 0 km depth, the center of the planet is at 6371 km.

Velocity and density variations within Earth based on seismic observations. The main regions of Earth and important boundaries are labeled. This model was developed in the early 1980's and is called PREM for Preliminary Earth Reference Model.

Several important characteristics of Earth's structure are illustrated in the chart. First note that in several large regions such as in the lower mantle, the outer core, and inner core, the velocity smoothly increases with depth. The increase is a result of the effects of pressure on the seismic wave speed. Although temperature also increases with depth, the pressure increase resulting from the weight of the rocks above has a greater impact and the speed increases smoothly in these regions of uniform composition.

The shallow part of the mantle is different; it contains several important well-established and relatively abrupt velocity changes. In fact, we often divide the mantle into two regions, upper and lower, based on the level of velocity heterogeneity. The region from near 400 to 1000 km depth is called the transition zone and strongly affects body waves that "turn" at this depth and arrive about 20°-30° distant from a shallow earthquake. In this depth range the minerals that make up the mantle silicate rocks are transformed by the increasing pressure. The atoms in these rocks rearrange themselves into compact structures that are stable at the high pressures and the result of the rearrangement is an increase in density and elastic moduli, producing an overall increase in wave speed.
Graphite in "lead" pencils and diamonds are a more common example of atoms rearranging themselves under different conditions - they are both composed of carbon. The different arrangement and bonding of the carbon atoms in the two materials produces dramatically different properties. Diamonds are formed under enormous pressures; all natural diamonds formed at depths of about 150-200 km, and were brought to the surface by volcanic activity. At the high pressures the carbon atoms are squeezed into a tight arrangement that makes them one of the hardest materials. In contrast, the low-pressure arrangement of carbon in graphite creates the slippery, soft character of "lead" that we use for pencils.

The two largest contrasts in material properties in the Earth system are located near the surface and the core-mantle boundary. Both are compositional boundaries and the core-mantle boundary is the larger contrast. Other sharp contrasts are observable, the inner-core outer-core boundary is relatively sharp, and velocities increase from the liquid to the solid.
Models of Earth's Heterogeneity

The PREM model is a useful reference for understanding the main features of Earth. More recent efforts have focused on estimating the lateral variations in wave speed within the shells that make up the reference model. These approaches are often based on seismic tomography, which is a way of mapping out the variations in structure using observations from large numbers of seismograms. The basic idea is to use observed delayed (or early) arrival times (delayed with respect to the reference model) to locate regions of relatively fast and relatively slow seismic wave speed.

The idea is illustrated in the cartoon to the left. Waves are represented by arrows and are traveling from left to right. Those that travel through the slow region are slowed down, and hence will be recorded later on the a seismogram.

The same ideas are used in medical CAT scan imaging of human bodies, but the observed quantity in a CAT scan is not a travel time, but the amount of x-ray absorption. Ultrasound imaging is identical to P-wave tomography, it's just that in seismology we don't have the choice of where are wave sources are located - we just exploit earthquakes.

In the two decades tomography has been applied to Earth studies on many scales, from looking at small regions of Earth's crust that may contain petroleum, to imaging the entire planet. On a global scale, we might expect that the shallow parts of the mantle would correlate with the major structural features we can observe at the surface - the plate boundaries.

In regions where material is rising from the mantle, it should be warmer, and the velocity should be lower, in regions that are old and cold, such as beneath many of the old parts of continents, we would expect to see faster regions (assuming that temperature is the only difference). The actual variations are influenced by both temperature and composition variations, but they agree well with the ideas of plate tectonics, particularly at the divergent boundaries or oceanic spreading ridges.

Map of the variations in seismic shear-wave speed with respect to the value in PREM at 100 km depth. The warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) show regions with slower than normal speeds, the darker regions are faster than normal. Note the correlation with plate boundaries and surface heat flow. (Model S12 WM13, from W.-J. Su, R. L. Woodward and A. M. Dziewonski, Degree-12 Model of Shear Velocity Heterogeneity in the Mantle, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 99(4) 4945-4980, 1994).

The velocities deeper in the Earth have also be imaged. The next map shows the variations at 2,880 km depth , in the mantle just above the core-mantle boundary. The color scale is the same but note how the lower-mantle velocity variations are more subdued than those in the more heterogeneous upper mantle. Also, note that the correlation with surface tectonics is gone, as you would expect for a complex convective system such as Earth's mantle.

Map of the variations in seismic shear-wave speed with respect to the value in PREM at 2,880 km depth, just above the core mantle boundary. The warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) show regions with slower than normal speeds, the darker regions are faster than normal. Note the correlation with plate boundaries and surface heat flow. (Model S12 WM13, from W.-J. Su, R. L. Woodward and A. M. Dziewonski, Degree-12 Model of Shear Velocity Heterogeneity in the Mantle, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 99(4) 4945-4980, 1994).

These variations are actually quite small, on the order of a few percent, so the basic idea of Earth being a spherically stratified planet are well founded. In the crust, the variations are larger and can reach tens of percent. The crust is the material extracted from the mantle over the last 4.5 billion years and it contains a great diversity of structures that are often apparent when you study the rocks exposed at the surface.

A Mystery from Earth's Red-Hot Inner Core

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 04:22:00 +0000

Geologists have long known that Earth's core, some 2,900 kilometers beneath our feet, is a dense, chemically laden ball of iron roughly the size of Mars. Pressures there bear down with the weight of 3.5 million atmospheres, and temperatures reach 5,538 degrees Celsius - as hot as the surface of the Sun. It's a place where iron is a fluid and a solid, and it spirals like liquid confetti.

The heat of Earth's inner core helps animate the tectonic plates above it, to build up mountains and gouge out seabeds. At the same time, the jostling of core iron generates Earth's magnetic field, which blocks dangerous cosmic radiation.

But reporting recently in the journal Nature, Dario Alfe of University College London and his colleagues presented evidence that iron in the outer layers of the core is wasting heat through conduction at two to three times the rate of previous estimates.

The theoretical consequences are far-reaching. The scientists say something else must account for the missing thermal energy in their calculations. They offer these possibilities:

The core holds more radioactive material, like potassium or thorium, than anyone had suspected, and its decay is giving off heat.

The iron of the innermost core is solidifying at a startlingly fast clip and releasing the latent heat of crystallization in the process.

The chemical interactions among the iron alloys of the core and the rocky silicates of the mantle are much fiercer and more energetic than previously believed.

"People are excited" by the report, Dr. Alfe said. "They see there might be a new mechanism going on."

Researchers elsewhere have discovered a host of other anomalies and surprises. They've found indications that the inner core is rotating slightly faster than the rest of the planet.

Miaki Ishii and her colleagues at Harvard University have proposed that within the inner core is a layer they call the innermost core: a structure some 604 kilometers in diameter that may be almost pure iron.

Most of what is known about the core comes from studying seismic waves generated by earthquakes. As John Vidale of the University of Washington explained, most earthquakes originate in the upper 48 kilometers of the globe, and no seismic source has been detected below 805 kilometers. But the quakes' energy waves radiate across the planet, detectably passing through the core.

Dr. Ishii and other researchers have also combed through seismic data from the underground testing of nuclear weapons carried out in the 20th century. The Russian explosions in particular, she said, "are a remarkably telling data set," adding that with bombs, unlike earthquakes, the precise epicenter is known.

"Oh, the things we could learn, if only we had unlimited resources," Dr. Ishii said.

The core does leave faint but readable marks on the surface, by way of the magnetic field that loops out from the vast chthonic geodynamo of swirling iron permeating the planet and reaching thousands of kilometers into space. Magnetic particles trapped in neat alignment in rocks reveal that the field, and presumably the core structures that generate it, has been around for well over 3 billion of Earth's 4.5 billion years.

Every 100,000 to a million years or more, the north-south orientation of the magnetosphere reverses, an event often preceded by an overall weakening of the field.

Earth assumed its basic layered effect as it gravitationally formed from the young solar system, with the heaviest ingredients, like iron and nickel, migrating toward the center and lighter, rocky material bobbing above.

Distinct boundaries distinguish the layers - between the elastic rock of the mantle and the iron liquid of the outer core, and between the liquid outer core and the solid inner core.

The core accounts for one-sixth of the Earth's volume and one-third of its mass, the great bulk of iron maintained in liquid form by the core's heat. Only in the inner core does the iron solidify.

As the hot Earth orbits through frigid space, the core gradually sheds some of its stored heat.

The heat can be conducted straight outward, the way heat travels along a frying pan, or convected out in plumes, the way hot air rises in the atmosphere.

Conduction is a wasted form of energy transfer - heat moves, but the Earth does not. Convection is potentially industrious. Its currents ripple through the mantle and shuffle around the tectonic plates, and convection stokes the geodynamo that yields the switching field.

In their report in Nature, Dr. Alfe and his colleagues used powerful computers and basic considerations of atomic behavior to calculate the properties of iron and iron alloys under the presumed conditions of the core. They concluded that the core was losing two to three times as much heat to conduction as previously believed, which would leave too little thermal energy to account for the convective forces that power the Earth's geodynamo. Hence the need to consider possible sources of additional heat, like stores of radioactive potassium or thorium, or a fast-crystallizing inner core.

Bruce Buffett, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests water on the surface may also help Earth balance its thermal budget - by slightly weakening the rocky plates and making them more readily churned and recycled in a vigorous, sustainable convective stew.

Here Are 7 Unsolved Mysteries That Will Send Chills Down Your Spine. The Twins In #6... BIZARRE.

noreply@blogger.com (sai teja) — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 04:18:00 +0000

It's easy to become obsessed with the unsolved mysteries of this Earth. Most people like to think that anything can be figured out or solved... but that's just not true. Take these 7 mysteries, for example. They have been mysteries for decades (if not longer). No matter how many experts have examined the cases, they are still shrouded in mystery.

1.) The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud

In 1974, this is a wedge-shaped object found 1.2 miles east of Aiud, Romania. It was discovered on the banks of the Mures River. It was reportedly unearthed 35 feet under sand and alongside two mastodon bones. It looks like the head of a hammer and is made of an alloy of aluminum encased in a thin layer of oxide. It’s strange because aluminum was not discovered until 1808 and not produced in quantity until 1885. Since it was found in the same layer as mastodon bones, it would indicate that this wedge was at least 11,000 years old. Many people believe that this wedge is evidence that aliens visited earth, since there is no way that humans created such an alloy so many thousands of years ago.

2.) The Babushka Lady

While people were pouring over the footage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, a mysterious woman was spotted in the film. She was wearing a brown overcoat and a scarf on her head (a “babushka”). She appeared to be holding something in front of her face, like a camera. She appeared many times in the footage and even stayed on the scene after most people left. Shortly after she is seen moving away to the East up Elm Street. The FBI publicly requested that the woman come forward and give them the footage she shot but she never did. Even though frauds have come forward, today no one knows who the Babushka Woman is. We also don’t know why she was present at the shooting or why she refused to give up all of the evidence she was recording.

3.) Cicada3301

For the past three years, each January there is a bizarre, online puzzle game that is hosted by someone who calls themselves “3301.” Their symbol is a cicada. The complex puzzles draw on elements of cryptography, mathematics, literature, hidden messages, data security, and philosophy. Physical clues appear in places as diverse as Poland, Hawaii, Spain, Australia, and Korea. 3301 claims that its puzzles attempt to find “intelligent individuals.” They don’t say why. Many believe these nearly impossible puzzles are a recruitment vehicle for organizations like the CIA or MI6.

4.) The Dighton Rock

The Dighton Rock is a 40-ton boulder located on the shores of the Taunton River in Massachusetts and it is covered in puzzling petroglyphs. For nearly 300 years, people have speculated about its origin and meaning. Investigators have attempted to decode the odd glyphs since an English colonist first described the boulder in 1680, but they have had little success. In 1963, state officials removed the boulder and kept it for preservation. Most scholars think the stone carvings are of Native American origins. Some of the wilder theories have proposed that it was the work of the Portuguese, Chinese, or even the ancient Phoenicians.

5.) The Green Children

The Green Children of Woolpit were two children who appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, UK, in the 12th century. The brother and sister had green colored skin, even though they appeared normal in all other ways. They spoke an unrecognized language and refused to eat anything other than pitch from bean pods. Eventually, their skin lost its green color. After they learned English, they explained that they were from the “Land of St Martin,” which was a dark place because the sun never rose far above the horizon. They claimed that they were tending their father’s herd and followed a river of light when they heard the sounds of bells. Then they arrived in Woolpit. Some of the more unusual theories proposed for the origin of the children are that they were Hollow Earth children, parallel dimension children, or Extraterrestrial children.

6.) The Pollock Twins

In 1957, 11 year-old Joanna and 6 year-old Jacqueline Pollock were tragically killed in a car accident in Northumberland, England. They were sisters. A year later, their mother gave birth to twins Jennifer and Gillian. The younger twin, Jennifer, had birth marks on her body in exactly the same place as Jacqueline had them. The twins then started requesting toys belonging to the deceased girls which they had no prior knowledge of. The twins even asked to go to a park they have never been to before (but their deceased sisters have). A well-respected psychologist at the time, one Dr. Ian Stevenson, studied the case in-depth and concluded it was likely the twins were reincarnations of their departed sisters.

7.) The Zodiac Killings

"I like killing people because it is so much fun." That is how one of the many encrypted letters sent to San Francisco newspapers began, sent by the man who called himself the Zodiac. For most of 1969, a serial killer terrorized Bay Area residents, killing five and possibly more. It started when a couple was shot to death while sitting in a car on a lover's lane on Dec. 20, 1968. Over the next 10 months, the killer would strike again, shooting a couple in a public park, trussing up and stabbing yet another man and woman near a peaceful lake, and shooting a cabdriver in the head. The Zodiac killer toyed with police and reporters the whole time. He called in several of the murders and began to send coded letters to newspapers, using a cross within a circle as his symbol. At one point, he mailed in a piece of bloodied shirt to prove he was who he claimed to be. Another time, he threatened to shoot up a school bus full of children. The investigation went on for years. Several suspects were questioned, but the killer was never caught. Source: Reddit It's impossible to say what happened with any of these mysteries. The only thing we can be sure of is that we just don't know the truth.

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Red Jack Gang Outlaw Loot:Value of loot: 8,000 cold coins estimated value $900,000
Location: somewhere in the vicinity of Prescott,
Arizona