Mysterious Baltic Sea Object

Mysterious Baltic Sea Object

A feature on the floor of the Baltic Sea that was discovered last summer by Swedish treasure hunters is making headlines once again.

The latest media coverage draws upon an hour-long radio interview with Peter Lindberg, head of the Ocean X Team (which made the "discovery"), in which Lindberg delivers a string of cryptic and titillating statements about the "strange" and "mysterious" seafloor object his team has been exploring for a year.

Lindberg discusses various possibilities for what the object might be: "It has these very strange stair formations, and if it is constructed, it must be constructed tens of thousands of years ago before the Ice Age," he said in the radio interview. (The peak of the most recent Ice Age occurred some 20,000 years ago.)

"If this is Atlantis, that would be quite amazing," he said. Atlantis is a mythical underwater city referred to in ancient legends.

Lindberg acknowledges that the object could instead be a natural formation, such as a meteorite that penetrated the ice during the Ice Age, or an underwater volcano; however, he gives the impression that scientists are baffled by it.

(Source)

 

Skipper finds bottle with message nearly a century old

Skipper finds bottle with message nearly a century old

A Scottish skipper has hauled in what could be his most unusual catch - a bottle containing a message written 98 years ago.

Andrew Leaper was pulling in his nets when the bottle appeared.

To his amazement, he discovered on opening it that it contained a message asking the finder to record the date and location of where it was found and return it to director of the Scotland Fishery Board to collect a sixpence reward.

Further investigation revealed that the bottle - 646B - had been set adrift as part of 1,890 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.

It was designed to sink and float close to the seabed to monitor currents.

Only 315 of the bottles have ever been found.

(Source)

Ancient Roman road found in Greece

Ancient Roman road found in Greece

Archaeologists in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-metre section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was city's main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

The marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki's new subway system, which is due to be completed in four years. Several of the large marble paving stones were etched with children's board games, while others were marked by horse-drawn cart wheels. Also discovered at the site were remains of tools and lamps, as well as the bases of marble columns.

About seven metres below ground in the center of the city, the ancient road follows in roughly the same direction as the city's modern Egnatia Avenue.

(Source)

Whole trees covered with spiders’ web

Trees covered in ghostlike cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where 2010's massive floods drove millions of spiders and possibly other insects into the trees to spin their webs.

Beginning July 2010, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years' worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country's rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside.

Locals said that they’d never seen anything like it before. It was said to be a slow motion type of disaster. Spiders and other insects sought refuge in the trees. There were so many that entire trees became massive cocoons for them. They spun webs that covered the trees as a whole. People standing under the trees had lots of little spiders falling down on their heads.

(Source)

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life located in Bahrain is approximately 400 year-old 32 feet or 9.75 meter high. The tree is of Prosopis cineraria genus is located 1.2 miles or 2 kilometers from Jebel Dukhan or Mountain of Smoke, which is a famous hill in Bahrain that is the highest point of the country. The tree stands on top of a 25-foot or 7.6-meter high sandy hill.

The tree is a local tourist attraction, as it is the only major tree growing in the area. The tree is visited by approximately 50,000 tourists every year and the tree often is damaged by graffiti carvings. It is also believed to be the site for cults practicing ancient rites.

Trees and shrubs of Prosopis genus are extremely well adapted to arid environments with one of the deepest known root systems

(Source)

The real name of Bangkok

Full name of Bangkok, written in front of

Bangkok Administrative Building

Bangkok is the capital of Thailand and the largest city in the country. But it is typically only called Bangkok in English. In Thai, it is often called Krung Thep Maka Nakhon, or just Krung Thep.

This ceremonial name or full name uses two ancient Indian languages, Pāli and Sanskrit, initiated with the only original Thai word Krung which means "capital". It can actually be written as Krung-dēvamahānagara amararatanakosindra mahindrāyudhyā mahātilakabhava navaratanarājadhānī purīramya uttamarājanivēsana mahāsthāna amaravimāna avatārasthitya shakrasdattiya vishnukarmaprasiddhi.

It translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma".

(Source)

Length of The Great Wall of China

A new archaeological study, which started in 2007 and took five years to complete, has measured the Great Wall of China at 21,196.18km long - that is well over twice as long as the previous mark of 8,850km.

It seems the discrepancy in the original distance is down to the fact the previous mark of 8,850km was largely based on historical records.

The Great Wall was originally built more than 2,200 years ago to protect China's north border from foreign invaders.

Camouflage Homes

Ever wish you could just disappear? Well, a camouflage home may be the answer! These noticeable or unnoticeable homes are the examples of amazing architectural skills. From modern estates to funky little mud huts built by hand.

                             Wood House, Hilversum, Netherlands

This mini-dwelling is disguised as a pile of wood that's been stacked for the winter. In actuality, the building is a pre-fab structure made of steel and plastic. The log-like appearance was achieved by applying a wood veneer.

                            Casa do Penedo, Fafe Mountains, Portugal

What looks like left-over boulders from the Stone Age is actually a house. Casa do Penedo or the 'House of Stone', was built in 1974 with four different boulders.

 

                            Leaf Box, San Francisco, California

This modern cube, which stands behind a San Francisco row house, is actually an art studio. The verdant plant life that grows on its walls was introduced to make the boxy building blend into the property's adjacent parkland.

 

                            Dune Home, Atlantic Beach, Florida

Carved into the dunes of Atlantic Beach, Florida, these two psychedelic apartments are pure 1970s. Native landscaping on the exterior ensures comfortable 70-degree temperatures indoors. Created by architect William Morgan, they were constructed using technology that was devised to create unite swimming pools.

Dragon Rock, Garrison, New York

 Industrial designer Russell Wright designed this retreat, called Dragon Rock, in the 1960s. Nestled into a rocky hillside among 75 acres of trees and woodland gardens, the house and studio overlook a quarry pond.

  

(Source)

Sun Mirror at Viganella

Viganella is a small town in Italy whose inhabitants dread arrival of the winter season. The reason being that each year for 84 days in a row, the sun would not shine in the town as it went behind the 1,600-Meter high mountain that covered the town. The 197 inhabitants were plunged into a near darkness and just waited for the 84 days to pass so that they can once again feel the heat of the sun. With the sun not shining in the town the inhabitants lived a depressed life a scenario which docs call the 'Seasonal Affective Disorder' or SAD.

But finally their pain has been heard of and the authorities have just installed a 8-meter wide and 5-meter tall mirror that has been installed on a mountain so that it can reflect the sun's light on to the town for approximately 8 hours every day. The gargantuan sun mirror is made of an eight-by-five meter (26x16ft) sheet of steel and positioned above a nearby peak to reflect sun rays onto Viganella's main square. This enormous mirror is completely operated by a computer that regularly tracks sun's path. The result is that starting in 2006, the town was able to celebrate the first winter sun in 800 years!

(Source)

Hello Kitty themed hospital

A Hello Kitty-themed maternity and pediatric hospital has opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan.

It is hoped that the white cat will ease the pain and fear associated with childbirth and being admitted into hospital. It will help the mothers to recover faster.

Hello Kitty is one of the most recognizable cartoons in the world.

(Source)

Canada Clicks

A spellbinding view of the Deer Valley Golf and Estates in Canada's Saskatchewan province.

Watch out more beautiful pictures of Canada.

Towns that “died for France”

Sign indicating the site of the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont

During the First World War, many villages in the French département of Meuse were destroyed by the fighting. After the war, it was decided that the land previously occupied by the destroyed villages would not be incorporated into other communes, as a testament to these villages which had “died for France”, as they were declared, and to preserve their memory. While three of the villages were subsequently rebuilt and are governed as normal communes, the other six are entirely unpopulated and are managed by a council of three members, appointed by the prefect of Meuse.

(Source)

Russians reach hidden Antarctic lake

Microorganisms have been found
 in the lake's frozen water

Opening a scientific frontier kilometers under the Antarctic ice, Russian experts have drilled down and finally reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake, an achievement the mission chief likened to placing a man on the moon.

Lake Vostok could hold living organisms that have been locked in icy darkness for some 20 million years, as well as clues to the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.

Touching the surface of the lake, the largest of nearly 400 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, came after more than two decades of drilling, and was a major achievement avidly anticipated by scientists around the world.

The Russian team made contact with the lake water at a depth of 3769m, about 1300km from the South Pole in the central part of the continent.

Scientists hope the lake might allow a glimpse into microbial life forms that existed before the Ice Age and are not visible to the naked eye. Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake despite its high pressure and constant cold - conditions similar to those believed to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Read more.

The Smurfs Village

(AP Photo/Sergio Torres) Source: AP

The inhabitants of a Spanish village which was painted entirely blue for the filming of box-office smash hit The Smurfs movie voted to keep their houses a vivid shade of azure, instead of returning to traditional white.

The 221 residents of Juzcar, in southern Spain, were promised by Sony Pictures six months ago that their homes would be returned to their former dazzling white state but found The Smurfs animated movie brought them an unexpected lifeline in tough economic times.

Juzcar became the world's first official Smurf Village and, whereas 300 tourists a year would pass through, an estimated 80,000 have been to see "Smurftown" in the past six months.

The village put it to a vote and the inhabitants overwhelmingly decided - 141 in favour to 33 against - that their homes should stay painted entirely in that unique hue, Smurf blue.

The village has eagerly embraced its new role, holding events such as a Smurf moonlight fun run, Smurf painting competitions and permanently running Smurf trade fairs. There are even Smurf-themed weddings to keep fans of the squeaky little blue folk coming.

Read more.

Shower system turned blond residents to have green hair

Source: Getty Images

Several blond residents of a southern Swedish town were left with green hair after an unusual reaction between the water supply and the shower system of a number of new homes.

Authorities began investigating when a number of inhabitants of Anderslov complained that their hair suddenly turned green. They tested the water supply in several homes to see if there was a high level of copper - known to turn hair green - but recorded only normal levels of the metal.

However, when hot water was left in the houses' water systems overnight, the amount of copper in it was found to increase to five or 10 times the normal amount.

Investigators concluded that the hot water must have peeled copper from the pipes and water heaters. The copper then was absorbed into the water, causing the shock hair colour change when residents showered.

Read more.

Second Paris built towards end of First World War to fool Germans

Photo: London news

A second Paris, complete with a Champs-Elysées and Gard Du Nord, was built towards the end of the First World War to fool German bombers.

According to archives unearthed by Le Figaro newspaper, military planners believed German pilots could be fooled into destroying the dummy city rather than the real one.

It was situated on the northern outskirts of Paris and featured sham streets lined with electric lights, replica buildings and even a copy of the Gare du Nord – the station from which high-speed trains now travel to and from London.

(Source)

Poland's Mysterious Crooked Forest

In a tiny corner of western Poland a forest of about 400 pine trees grow with a 90 degree bend at the base of their trunks - all bent northward. Surrounded by a larger forest of straight growing pine trees this collection of curved trees, or "Crooked Forest," is a mystery.

(Source)

Underground river discovered beneath the Amazon

Covering more than 7 million square kilometers in South America, the Amazon basin is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin – around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider.

Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km.

The underground river starts in the Acre region under the Andes and flows through the Solimões, Amazonas and Marajó basins before opening out directly into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more.

Funeral strippers

People in Taiwan have come up with a new way to honour the dead - they call strippers to dance for the deceased at funerals.

For a modest fee, the scantily-clad women arrive on an Electric Flower Car, to gyrate erotically in front of the departed and their mourners.

This Taiwanese phenomenon has been labelled as scandalous by some, but many hail it as an important part of the grieving process - and the perfect way of sending off their loved ones with a smile.

(Source)

World’s longest cross sea bridge

The world’s longest cross-sea bridge, spanning 36.48 kilometres across the mouth of the Jiaozhou Bay in China’s eastern Shandong province, was opened to traffic on July1,2011, four years after construction started.

The bridge, connecting urban Qingdao with the city’s less-developed district of Huangdao, cost about 14.8 billion yuan (USD 2.3 billion).

Authorities expect the project to boost the development of an industrial zone in Huangdao and to facilitate the rise of foreign trade by increasing the port''s handling capacity.

The business community have been complaining of the inconvenience of the current, less-efficient sea transport, whose operation is at the mercy of the weather.

The bridge will shorten the route between Huangdao and urban Qingdao by 30 km, cutting the travel time down from over 40 minutes to around 20 minutes.

Complete news.