The Answer

Monkey Marriage in INDIA

2011-07-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

India Witnesses Its First Monkey Marriage, Because Why Not?

Gay marriage has gotten its due. Now it's time to pave the way for monkey marriage.

The village of Talwas, deep in the forests of India, seems to be mixed up in some serious monkey business. The tiny Indian village recently became home to two monkeys who tied the knot, a first in the country.

As for the lucky couple, Raju, the groom, was known in his village for eating, sleeping and smoking cigarettes with his owner, Ramesh Saini, who treated him like a son. Chinki, the bride, belonged to a priest in a nearby village.

More info: http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22793

Half male, half female butterfly steals the show at Natural History Museum

2011-07-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

Half male, half female butterfly steals the show at Natural History Museum

A stunning butterfly that emerged from its chrysalis as male on one side, female on the other, has astounded curators at the Natural History Museum in London.

The peculiar nature of the freshly hatched great mormon butterfly was spotted when staff noticed a striking difference between its wing colourings and other features.

The insect, which has a 10cm wingspan, is almost black on its male side, but the female side is much paler, with clearly visible flecks of blue, red and tortoiseshell.

More info:http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/12/half-male-half-female-butterfly

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets

2011-07-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets

A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts , all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts.

The tablets, which were so well sealed that they miraculously survived being under water for more than two millennia, also contain extracts of parsley, nasturtium, radish, yarrow and hibiscus.

More info: http://www.grahamhancock.com

Pre-Colombian Maya statues found at archaeological site in Mexico

2011-07-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

Pre-Colombian Maya statues found at archaeological site in Mexico

Ocosingo - Mexican researchers have found in the archaeological zone of Toniná, State of Chiapas, two stone sculptures representing captive warriors belonging to the allied Maya states of Palenque, Mexico and Copán, Honduras.

Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico reported that the finding took place in May 2011 at the Toniná archaeological site, located in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas. The two stone sculptures have been dated to approximately 1300 years ago and the inscriptions found on them confirm previous knowledge of a war alliance that existed between the rulers of Copán in Honduras, and Palenque, not far from Toniná in the State of Chiapas, in the Southeast of Mexico bordering Guatemala.

More info : http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22784

5,200 year-old rock drawings of earliest Ancient Egyptian

2011-07-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

5,200 year-old rock drawings of earliest Ancient Egyptian celebrations unearthed

CAIRO — Egypt’s Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt’s earliest dynasty.
The ministry says the scenes were part of a series of rock drawings featuring hunting, fighting and celebrations along the banks of the Nile River.

Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement Monday the scenes represent the first unearthing of a complete drawing of a royal festival during Dynasty Zero, when the earliest foundations of Ancient Egyptian culture are believed to have been formed.

More info: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/5200-year-old-rock-drawings-of-earliest-ancient-egyptian-celebrations-unearthed/2011/07/04/gHQAw07kxH_story.html

Last flight of the Space Shuttle: a 30-year retrospective

2011-07-08T17:22:00.000-07:00

Last flight of the Space Shuttle: a 30-year retrospective

The United States has been a space-faring nation for just over 50 years, ever since Alan Shepard's suborbital pop shot aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. In the following eight years the US, and mankind, went from being earthbound to making the first lunar landing.

Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were followed by the longest lull in America's manned space program to date, but starting in 1981 with the maiden flight of Columbia, the space shuttle program became the stalwart backbone of America's manned space flight program. With the final planned shuttle mission only hours from its scheduled launch, we take a moment to look back at over 30 years of history, achievements, and tragic failures.

More info:http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/07/30-years-of-manned-space-flight-the-last-flight-of-the-space-shuttle.ars

Human Sacrifice Found in Maya City Sinkhole

2011-07-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

Human Sacrifice Found in Maya City Sinkhole

Maya Underworld

Photograph courtesy Tamara Thomsen

The bones of six humans—including two children—jade beads, shells, and stone tools are among the Maya "treasures" recently found in a water-filled cave off a sinkhole at the famous archaeological site of Chichén Itzá (picture) in Mexico, archaeologists say.
The ancient objects are most likely related to a ritual human sacrifice during a time when water levels were lower, sometime between A.D. 850 and 1250, the researchers say.
It's "very improbable" that the remains and artifacts were "just tossed" into the sinkhole, known as a cenote, expedition leader Guillermo Anda told National Geographic News in an email. Rather, he said, they were likely placed there during a ceremony to appease the Maya rain god, Chaak.
Extending from what is now southern Mexico through Guatemala and into northern Belize, the Maya Empire is noted for having the only known written language in Mesoamerica, as well as for its elaborate works of art and architecture. Chichén Itzá was one of the greatest Maya cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. (See an interactive map of key Maya sites.)
The discovery of a human sacrifice deep in one the region's cenotes supports the idea that, for the Maya, the sinkholes "represented thresholds of communication with the spiritual and sacred world that lay under the surface of the Earth," said Anda, a professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán.

More info: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/pictures/110706-human-sacrifice-bones-maya-chichen-itza-ancient-science-mexico-cenote/

New Comet Found; May Be Visible From Earth in 2013

2011-07-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

New Comet Found; May Be Visible From Earth in 2013

There's a newfound comet closing in on the sun, and when it gets here in 2013, you may be able to see it with your naked eye.

Astronomers stumbled upon the icy interloper on June 5 while searching for potentially hazardous asteroids.
Equipped with the world's largest digital camera—1,400 megapixels—the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS team snagged a faint image of the odd object while it was more than 700 million miles (1.1 billion kilometers) away, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. (Explore an interactive solar system.)
"Almost everything we find is an asteroid, but this object was suspicious," said Richard Wainscoat, co-discoverer of the comet and an astronomer at the University of Hawaii.
"Unlike asteroids, which appear point-like in images, the telltale sign that gave it away was its fuzzy appearance."
(Related: "Weird Asteroid Really a Crusty Old Comet?")
By March 2013 the comet, named C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), is expected to come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of the sun—closer even than the innermost planet, Mercury.
When the comet makes its closest approach to the sun, more of its ices will vaporize, adding to its hazy envelope of gas and dust and producing the familiar tail.
This denser envelope, or coma, should boost the comet to peak brightness, making it potentially visible to the naked eye low in the western horizon just after sunset.
Comet a Runaway From the South
While there is no danger of collision with Earth, preliminary calculations of the comet's orbit show that this may be its first and final trip through the solar system.
"It may be coming around the sun for the first and only time, only to be ejected from the solar system, never to return," Wainscoat said.
"Since we don't have a lot of data on it, we really don't know the orbit well enough right now, and it will take up to two months of observations to find out."
Astronomers believe C/2011 L4 may be a runaway from the Oort cloud, a reservoir of billions of hibernating comets that orbits about 100,000 times farther than the distance between Earth and the sun.
"The current path of the comet is typical of those thought to be originating from the Oort cloud, showing it coming up from the south—underneath the Earth—going up the back side of the sun and into the north sky, very nearly perpendicular to the plane of the solar system," Wainscoat said.
The fact that it's going around the back of the sun from our point of view may ultimately affect the comet's visibility, but a lot will depend on how close the body actually gets to the sun.

More info: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110622-new-comet-found-2013-visible-space-science/

World's first 'live' video feed of Earth from space

2011-07-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

World's first 'live' video feed of Earth from space

(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's first high definition streaming video camera to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) has been announced by David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science at the UK Space Conference on 4 July. The project is a joint venture between Canada, Russia and the UK.

The high resolution camera will offer a video image with a resolution that is comparable to much of Google Earth. This will give users the unique opportunity to see man-made objects and groups of people and to search for videos of particular locations. It will be possible to zoom in and out, virtually steer the camera from side to side, rewind and fast forward as they investigate areas of interest on Earth. The web platform also gives users the capability to constantly track the location of the ISS anticipating the exact time when it will pass over a particular geographic location.
Canadian company UrtheCast (pronounced 'Earth cast') will supply video data and imagery of Earth, collected by two high definition cameras on the Russian module of the ISS. The two cameras, one medium resolution and one high resolution, will be designed, built and tested by STFC's RAL Space, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The data and imagery collected from the cameras will be down-linked to ground stations around the world and then displayed in near real time on the UrtheCast web platform.
President of UrtheCast, Scott Larson said "UrtheCast is excited to be working with RAL Space on this project. We feel that the ability to show people what earth looks like from space, in a near-real time environment, will provide for a significant educational opportunity. At the same time, showing people how close we are all connected and responsible for earth, is obviously something that we continually need to be reminded about".

More info: http://www.physorg.com

Space exploration priority

2011-07-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Space exploration priority, NASA chief says

WASHINGTON — The United States will continue to lead in space exploration despite the end of the space shuttle program, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Friday during an appearance at the National Press Club.

The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch for the last time July 8. After that U.S. astronauts will ride to and from the International Space Station in the Russian's Soyuz capsule. Commercial space companies will deliver supplies to the space station on unmanned rockets.

The United States needs to cede its low-earth orbit missions, such as the space shuttle, to the private sector so it can free up resources to explore deep space, Bolden said. President Obama has directed NASA to work toward sending manned spacecraft to an asteroid and to Mars.

"American leadership in space will continue for at least the next half-century because we have laid the foundation for success," Bolden said. "We are not ending human spaceflight. We are recommitting ourselves to it and taking the necessary and difficult steps today to ensure America's pre-eminence in human spaceflight for years to come."

For the next decade, as new programs come on line, the space station will serve as a "centerpiece" for scientific research and as a base to explore deep space, he said.

"It's really an exciting time for science on the space station," said astronaut Mark Kelly, who commanded the Endeavour mission to the space station in May and joined Bolden for the speech. He helped install a spectrometer he says will "revolutionize particle physics."

More info: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-07-01-NASA-shuttle-space_n.htm

The man that killed 2 alien greys

2011-07-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

The man that killed 2 alien greys

Philip Schneider claimed to be an ex-government structural engineer who was involved in building underground military bases around the United States , and to be one of only three people to survive an incident that occurred in 1979 between Grey aliens and U.S. military forces at the Dulce underground base .
For the last two years of his life, Schneider gave lectures about government cover-ups, black budgets, and UFOs. Schneider was never able or willing to prove his allegations (e.g. showing the entrance to Dulce Base). His claims received little mainstream notice, but caused quite a buzz in UFO enthusiast circles.

Woman’s skeleton found at Sedgeford dig sheds light on Norfolk 4,000 years ago

2011-07-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Woman’s skeleton found at Sedgeford dig sheds light on Norfolk 4,000 years ago

Archaeologists confirmed the significance of the discovery yesterday as work got under way for the summer season at Sedgeford, near Heacham.

The 4,000-year-old woman's skeleton found by the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) last year.

Martin Hatton, curator of human remains at the site, was staking out an area of chalk down close to where the find was made last summer, ready for this year’s eagerly-awaited dig to begin.
“It was a total surprise to us,” he said. “You don’t bury people anywhere other than near where they live, so what we can say is that people were farming the land here 4,000 years ago.”
Fifteen years ago, a community dig began to uncover the secrets of the village’s Saxon graveyard. Since then, each summer has shed more light on the past.

"You don’t bury people anywhere other than near where they live, so what we can say is that people were farming the land here 4,000 years ago."

More info : http://www.edp24.co.uk

Mexican Archaeologists Find Probable Prehispanic Maya Cemetery

2011-07-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Mexican Archaeologists Find Probable Prehispanic Maya Cemetery in State of Tabasco

MEXICO CITY.- In the surroundings of Comalcalco Archaeological Zone, Tabasco, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found 116 burials that are more than 1,000 years old; 66 of them were deposited in funerary urns while the other 50 were placed around them. The finding represents the greatest skeleton sample found in this Maya region, suggesting it could be a Prehispanic Maya cemetery.

Funerary deposits were located under 3 soil monticules worn out by agricultural activities. “It is possible that skeletons found in the urns, 66, correspond to members of the Maya elite, while the other 50, placed in different positions around the pots, were their companions”, commented archaeologist Ricardo Armijo, coordinator of archaeological salvage at Comalcalco, Tabasco.

Associated with the burials, ceramic whistles and rattles representing animals and splendidly attired men and women; dozens of flint and obsidian knives and their debris; multiple metate (grinder) fragments, as well as more than 70,000 ceramic fragments were also found.

“Preliminary analysis of material suggests burials to be between 1,161 and 1,200 years old, corresponding to the Late Classic period (750-850 AD); still, we need to perform exhaustive studies to confirm it”, declared archaeologist Armijo.

The INAH researcher manifested that due to the considerable amount of human bone remains found in a single deposit, it is supposed that monticules served funerary purposes as a Prehispanic burial ground.

This is the largest skeleton sample recovered in the northwestern Maya area until now, if we consider that other burials have been found isolated.

Ancient Aliens The Mission

2011-07-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

Amazing Show on The History Channel - Ancient Aliens The Mission

UFO - Ancient Aliens The Mission.

The serie presents theories of ancient astronauts and proposes that historical texts, archaeology and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial contact. This episode posits that extraterrestrials have a mission plan for Earth and mankind, and cites as evidence, Sumerian tablets that allegedly describe the Anunnaki as a race of creatures that came to Earth to mine gold; the purpose of cattle mutilations; the mile-long "band of holes" near Pisco, Peru; Egyptian hieroglyphs that are said to depict hybrid creatures that are part man/part animal; and crystal skulls and crop circles that are said to contain messages from aliens.

CIA Agents find eachother in retirement

2011-07-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Decades after duty in the OSS and CIA, “spy girls” find each other in retirement

To her, it looked like a harmless piece of coal, about the size of her fist. She remembers passing it to a Chinese secret agent. She remembers later learning about the train, the bridge, the explosion. Sometimes she thinks she has suppressed many wartime memories, but even after almost 70 years, they can creep back.
Betty McIntosh, 96, says that is part of being a spy: the doubts about whether you did the right thing, and hearing about those who died because of what you did, and whether you had alternatives. But it was a war.

Her friend Doris Bohrer would understand, but even so, McIntosh still hasn’t divulged everything about every World War II mission. Even though it turns out that Bohrer, 88, was an operative in the war, too: OSS, then CIA, just like McIntosh.
To most other residents of the retirement community in Northern Virginia, these two elegant, well-coiffed widows, Betty and Doris to everyone, are just part of the anonymous parade of aged men and women who play mixed bridge and talk about the brand-new heart and vascular center down the road, the day’s menu at the dining hall, and their pets.
What a curious resolution to it all: that although their paths never crossed during their undercover careers, McIntosh and Bohrer would find each other here, neighbors on the same street in the Westminster at Lake Ridge seniors village in Prince William County. Two women who wear the wedding rings of their dead husbands. Two women who laugh like girls when they reminisce, who are nearly inseparable.
McIntosh says she calls Bohrer almost every morning, just to make sure she’s still alive. Bohrer, for her part, can still drive and runs errands for her friend, who is, after all, eight years older and finds it less easy to get around.
“How’s it doing today, Betty?” Bohrer asks one recent weekday, stepping inside McIntosh’s living room, where paintings by a Japanese prisoner of war hang on the wall. Bohrer was bringing some medication for McIntosh, who had just had two teeth pulled.
“You’ve got the temperature setting in here at ‘off.’ You need it on ‘cool,’ ” Bohrer instructs McIntosh. “I’ve done that. Easy to do.” She adjusts the thermostat.

More info: http://www.washingtonpost.com

SIZE DOESN'T MATTER!!!

2011-07-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Size doesn't matter: Tiny insect that sings with its penis is loudest creature on Earth

A tiny insect has proved that size really doesn't matter - by using its penis to become the loudest creature on Earth.

Most would think the 2mm long water boatman would not have much to shout about, seeing as its private parts are thinner than a human hair.
But its looks have proved deceiving as it can reach an ear-splitting 99.2 decibels by rubbing its penis against its abdomen - which, relative to its body size, makes it the most boisterous bug on the planet.

Loud and proud: The water boatman is, pound for pound, the noisiest animal on the planet

The water boatman, or Micronecta scholtzi, has been dubbed 'the singing penis' for the way it serenades potential mates.
Found all over Europe, the male tries to seduce prospective partners by rubbing its member against its abdomen, while underwater, in a process known as stridulation.

It is so loud that humans walking along a river bank can hear the noise coming from the bottom of the water.
But as 99 per cent of the sound is lost when transferring from water to air, it means there is no risk of deafening passers-by.

Their average song reaches 78.9 decibels, the same as a passing freight train.
Blue whales are the loudest animals when they sing at 188db, while the rumbling calls of elephants' clock up an impressive 117db.
But at just 2mm long, the water boatman is the noisiest animal on Earth - once body size is taken into account.
French and Scottish scientists made the startling discovery.
Researcher Jerome Sueur, from Paris' National Museum of Natural History, was analysing the biodiversity of French streams when he heard the distinctive underwater call.

At first he believed a much larger insect was responsible for the racket, but when he caught them they did not make the same sound.
Further investigation revealed it was a particular type of water boatman that was 'singing' its heart out.
James Windmill, of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, said: 'We were very surprised. We first thought the sound was coming from larger aquatic species.
'When we identified without any doubt the sound source, we spent a lot of time making absolutely sure that our recordings of the sounds were calibrated correctly.
'If you scale the sound level they produce against their body size, then they are the loudest animals on Earth.'

TOP 10 NOISIEST ANIMALS

1. Blue Whale

2. Howler Monkey
3. Grey Wolf

4. Elephant
5. Hyena

6. Lion
7. Bulldog bat

8. Kakapo bird
9. Elephant Seal

10. U.S. Bullfrog

Skype on Facebook?

2011-07-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

Is Facebook about to launch Skype-powered video chat? Zuckerberg promises to unveil 'something awesome' this week

Facebook is rumoured to be preparing to launch a new video chat feature in partnership with Skype.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that the world's biggest social networking website will 'launch something awesome' on Wednesday.

His comments have led to speculation that the site will announce a new feature powered by the Microsoft-owned video calling service.

Currently people using Facebook can only communicate using instant message text chat, but the two companies are reported to have agreed for Skype video chat to be integrated into the site.

The reports have been strengthened by the emergence of invitations for the event, which feature the picture of a face inside a speech bubble.

The move could dramatically increase the use of Skype, which currently has 170 million active users compared to Facebook’s 750 million

The partnership would bring Facebook closer to Microsoft, which is one of its shareholders and bought Skype for $8.5 billion in May.

Mr Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook's Seattle office on Wednesday that the company has an imminent launch, but revealed scant details.

'Something awesome': Mark Zuckerberg has promised Facebook will stage an exciting launch next week

He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook's only major engineering centre outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters.
There has been speculation in technology blogs in recent weeks about various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple's iPad and a specialised app for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

A software sheds light on the Bible

2011-06-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

An Israeli algorithm sheds light on the Bible

Software developed by an Israeli team is giving intriguing new hints about what researchers believe to be the multiple hands that wrote the Bible. The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book.

More info: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-israeli-algorithm-bible.html

Elixir of life discovered on Easter Island

2011-06-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

Elixir of life discovered on Easter Island

Rapamycin, which has been nicknamed the forever young drug, was created from a chemical found in the soil on Easter Island, one of the most remote places on Earth and 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile.

It was used in experiments on children suffering from Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), a rare genetic condition in which ageing is hyper-accelerated and sufferers die of gold age at around 12 years.

HGPS causes a dangerous process whereby a protein called progerin builds up in every cell of the body, causing them to age prematurely.

Rapamycin cleaned the cells of progerin, which swept away the defects and left healthy cells.

More info:

http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22608

Ryedale Windy Pits skeletons were 'sacrificial'

2011-06-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ryedale Windy Pits skeletons were 'sacrificial'

A new investigation has revealed that human skeletons discovered in caves on the North York Moors were likely to have been the victims of ritual sacrifice 2,000 years ago.

A forensic examination of their bones, for the BBC's History Cold Case series, has revealed evidence that at least one of them had been scalped.

Human remains were first discovered in the series of caves, known as the Ryedale Windy Pits, in the 19th Century and further excavations took place in the 1950s.

While it has always been clear the bones had experienced some kind of trauma it has taken a new forensic investigation to reveal more about how these people might have met their deaths.

Evidence suggests the caves were used by people from the late Neolithic period, about 4,500 years ago, until the late Romano-British period in the fourth and fifth centuries AD.

Tangle of bones

Historians have long believed that people during this period participated in human sacrifice.

The BBC's History Cold Case programme features a team from the Centre of Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee.

The bones revealed signs that the victims did not die naturally

Their investigation focused in particular on a tangle of 2,000 year-old bones, possibly those of a family, found in Slip Gill Windy Pit in the 1950s.

It was a trauma in the jaw bone of one of the skulls which could have only been made with a sharp instrument and led to the first conclusion that the victims did not die naturally.

Professor Sue Black said: "The archaeologists tells us that there's a distinct possibility that there's a ritualistic element to the way in which these individuals have landed up in these caves."

To confirm that theory the team looked at bones found in neighbouring pits.

Ritual 'first'

Those too showed signs of blunt force trauma, confirming inter-personal violence as well as a shin bone which had markings that were consistent with the removal of flesh from bone.

Further examination of one of the skulls from Slip Gill showed similar markings, parallel cut marks, leading to the conclusion that at least one of the victims was probably scalped.

The cutting marks on the skull are the final piece of evidence that at least one of the Slip Gill skeletons was almost certainly ritually killed.

Professor Black concludes: "We've added a dimension to this that we never anticipated we were going to and in fact it's a first for me.

"I have never been involved in something with this sort of a ritual. At the end of the day the bones have the evidence and the evidence speaks for itself."

More info:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-13904504

ANCIENT BEER FOUND!!!!

2011-06-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ancient beer from shipwreck too salty to drink

Finnish scientists have cracked open a cold one a 170-year-old cold one, that is. The bottle of beer, salvaged last summer from the wreckage of a ship that sank near the Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea, was thought to be the oldest drinkable beer ever found.

Unfortunately, the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) reported June 27, the first bottle opened did not withstand the stresses of time. Seawater made it into the bottle, contaminating the brew.

More info:

http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22588

100 Years Ago, a Chunk of Mars Hit Egypt

2011-06-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

100 Years Ago, a Chunk of Mars Hit Egypt

Exactly a century ago, on June 28, 1911, an explosion shook the Nakhla region of Alexandria in Egypt at 9 a.m. Soon after, around 40 chunks of meteorite debris from the high altitude blast rained down. 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of the bolide were recovered by witnesses of this cosmic event.

The Smithsonian received two samples of the Nakhla meteorite the following August and then acquired a larger 480 gram (one pound) piece in 1962 (pictured top). By the 1970's, the Smithsonian had collected 650 grams (1.4 pounds) of the meteorite.

More info:
http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22590

Mummy Stash Found in Italian Church

2011-06-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

June 28, 2011 -- Hundreds of bodies stacked one of top of the other emerged during restoration work in the church of Roccapelago, a remote mountain village in north-central Italy. About one-third of the mass grave, consisting of 281 bodies of adults, infants and children, turned out to be mummies. "We found about 100 mummies. We can say that an entire community, who lived here from the mid-16th to the 18th centuries, has been naturally mummified. This is quite unique," Donato Labate and colleagues from the Archaeological Superintendency of Emilia Romagna said.

More info: http://news.discovery.com/history/mummy-discovery-italian-church-110628.html#mkcpgn=emnws1

Photos: http://news.discovery.com/history/mummy-discovery-italian-church-110628.html#mkcpgn=emnws1

WEST EDMONTON MALL

2011-06-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Amazing story on the eight wonder of the world and The Brothers Behind it...

Broadcast Date: Nov. 10, 1985
Once promoted as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," West Edmonton Mall is one of Alberta's primary tourist attractions. The men responsible for the monster size mall are the four Ghermezian brothers, who emmigrated from Iran in the 1960s. This colossal monument to conspicuous consumption has seen its share of controversy but the brothers stand behind their mall.

"When I walk through the centre here in Edmonton... 10 to 15 people, they jump at me, hug me, thank me for what I did and some of them even kiss me... people are happy," says Nader Ghermezian in this clip.

most Amazing and Bizarre Deep Sea Creatures

2011-06-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Most Amazing And Bizarre Deep Sea Creatures

Part 1

Part 2

Have a great Sunday every one...

More info: http://youtu.be/KeCSQvTuN7A