Mind-blowing sand sculptures around the world

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Sculptures made of sand inspired by fairy-tale are seen at the Annual Sea Sculpture Festival on June 28, 2008 in Middelkerke, Belgium.

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A sand sculpture entitled "Alice and the Caterpillar" carved by Christina Mija from Australia is seen at the Creepy Crawlies Sandsculpting Exhibition on the Frankston waterfront on December 26, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. International sand sculpture artists from around the world teamed up with their Australian counterparts to create the insect themed exhibition that will be open to the public until April, 2011.

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South African man wakes after 21 hours in morgue fridge

A South African man awoke to find himself in a morgue fridge, nearly a day after his family thought he had died.

The man awoke Sunday afternoon, 21 hours after his family called in an undertaker who sent him to the morgue after an asthma attack.

Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo said he thought the man was around 80 years old.

"When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," Maqolo told the Associated Press.

But a day after staff put the body into a locked refrigerated compartment, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost, the morgue owner said.

"I couldn't believe it!" Maqolo said. "I was also scared. But they are my employees and I had to show them I wasn't scared, so I called the police."

After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together.

"I was glad they had their firearms, in case something wanted to fight with us," Maqolo said.

He said the man was pale when they pulled him out.

"He asked, 'How did I get here?'" Maqolo said.

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Baby boy with 34 fingers and toes

Akshat, a baby boy over the age of one, registered his name in the Guinness world records for having a total of 34 fingers and toes.

He has set the record for having the highest number of fingers and toes and hails from the Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh.

Doctors attending to the child said that it was a rare phenomenon and diagnosed it as polydactyly. It is due to certain defects in the bone development of the uterus. The reason behind this defect can be either developmental congenital formation or chromosomal anomalies, which is due to maternal infection or drugs,

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Borneo toad spotted for 1st time in 87 years



This photo, taken June 13, 2011 and released by
Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation,
shows an adult female Bornean Rainbow Toad.

Scientists scouring the mountains of Borneo spotted a species of toads last seen by European explorers in 1924, providing the world with the first photographs of the colourful, spindly legged creature.

In recent years, the Washington-based Conservation International placed the Sambas Stream Toad, also known as the Bornean Rainbow Toad, on a list of the world's "Top 10 Most Wanted Lost Frogs" and voiced fears that it might be extinct.

Researchers found three of the slender-limbed toads living on trees during a night search last month in a remote mountainous region of Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state in Borneo.

The toads found on three separate trees measured up to 2 inches (5.1 centimetres) in size and comprised an adult male, an adult female and a juvenile.

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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)

Hitler ordered sex dolls for Nazi troops

Adolf Hitler ordered the Nazis to develop sex dolls for his soldiers so that they would not be affected with diseases after having sex with prostitutes, says a new book.

The synthetic sex dolls - that were smaller than life-size and called 'gynoids' - were made from silicone and designed to prevent soldiers from being hit by diseases like syphilis.

Hungarian actress Kathe von Nagy was reportedly asked if the doll could be modelled on her but she refused.

The doll was later 'left bland' with only blonde hair and blue eyes so that 'soldiers could apply their own fantasy', the book said.

Author Graeme Donald uncovered the sex doll 'Borghild Project' while researching the history of the Barbie doll.

He wrote the sex doll story in his book, 'Mussolini's Barber', a compilation of bizarre tales.

The doll project began in 1940 after Hitler's SS chief Henrich Himmler wrote: 'The greatest danger in Paris is the widespread and uncontrolled presence of whores, picking up clients in bars, dance halls, and other places. It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health just for the sake of a quick adventure.'

(Source)

Toilet paper wedding dress

For most people, toilet paper serves one purpose. But for a few inventive women, the potential is limitless. The Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest, now in its seventh year, announced the best dress creation today. Sponsored by the website Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com, readers are asked to put their DIY skills to work for the chance to win $1000. That's about the cost of your average bridal confection, but these creative contestants (not all them brides) prove all you need are a few bucks, or even a coupon, to create a look that's worth marrying for.

NASA finds new life

NASA has discovered a new life form, a bacteria called GFAJ-1 that is unlike anything currently living in planet Earth. It's capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes. This changes everything.

NASA is saying that this is "life as we do not know it". The reason is that all life on Earth is made of six components: Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. Every being, from the smallest amoeba to the largest whale, share the same life stream. Our DNA blocks are all the same.

In a surprising revelation, NASA scientist Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her team have found a bacteria whose DNA is completely alien to what we know today, working differently than the rest of the organisms in the planet. Instead of using phosphorus, the newly discovered microorganism—called GFAJ-1 and found in Mono Lake, California—uses the poisonous arsenic for its building blocks. Arsenic is an element poisonous to every other living creature in the planet except for a few specialized microscopic creatures.

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All about tigers

Tigers love water

While most cats despise water, tigers love taking baths to help keep themselves cool during the hottest parts of the day. They’ll submerge themselves in nearby lakes and streams, soaking for up to an hour, but neck deep only. Tigers don’t like getting water in their eyes, to the point that they’ll actually enter the water backwards to prevent this from happening.

Once they return to dry land, the combination of the wetness and the wind has a pleasant cooling effect on the tiger’s body and if it starts to wear off, no problem – they just repeat the process. And thanks to their webbed feet, tigers are also powerful swimmers, and have been known to cover up to 20 miles in a single outing!

Tigers can play a serious game of hide and seek

Tigers live in several types of environments, including forests, wetlands, and grasslands, but regardless of their surroundings, they use their stripes as the ultimate camouflage. Normally dark brown or black, these markings cover tigers from head to toe and allow them to become nearly invisible when hunting and stalking their prey.

Like fingerprints, each set of stripes is unique and no two tigers have the same pattern. The look is not just cosmetic and superficial either – even if you were to shave all of its fur off, a tiger would still have its stripes!

Interested in knowing what all tigers can do! Checkit out here.

Magnet Boy

An 11-year-old boy has become a real attraction after discovering that metal objects cling to his skin.

Knives, forks, spoons, scissors and even large saucepans all stick to Paulo David Amorim, a Brazilian boy who claims to have magnet-type qualities.

His friends in Rio Grande do Norte state have nicknamed him "Magnet Boy," while his doctor Dix-Sept Rosado Sobrinho says he has never seen anything like it in 30 years as a physician.

Paolo David first discovered that his body appears to behave like a magnet when his dad asked him to fetch a knife and fork. "Much to my surprise, they stuck," said Junior, Paolo's father.

With no medical explanation for boy's magnetic ability, doctors have admitted they are stumped as to why the metal objects are attracted to Paolo David's body.

The Amorim family doctor Dix-Sept Rosado Sobrinho told that he had never seen anything like the "Magnet Boy" case in his 30 years in medicine, but added that the schoolboy's health was not thought to be at risk.

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Giant wombat skeleton found

Scientists in Australia have found the skeleton of a "giant wombat" which lived some two million years ago.

The plant-eating marsupial would have been the size of a four-wheel drive car and weighed three tonnes. Its bones were found on a farm in north-eastern Australia's Queensland state.

The find is one of Australia's most significant pre-historic discoveries ever because the skeleton is complete.

It is the first time a complete skeleton of a Diprotodon optatum has been uncovered.

The animal was widespread across Australia about 50,000 years ago, when it is believed the first indigenous people lived.

The discovery is extraordinary as it is the most gigantic marsupial ever known.

It is like a gigantic wombat on steroids.

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Scientist sees ageing cured

If Aubrey de Grey's predictions are right, the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less than 20 years younger.

A biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research, de Grey reckons that within his own lifetime doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" ageing -- banishing diseases that come with it and extending life indefinitely.

"I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing ageing under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so," de Grey said in an interview before delivering a lecture at Britain's Royal Institution academy of science.

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The Malay word for water is ‘air’!

The Indonesian word for water is ‘air’!

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“Galaxy” means “milky circle”

The word galaxy derives from the Greek term for our own galaxy, galaxias (γαλαξίας), or kyklos galaktikos, meaning "milky circle" for its appearance in the sky. In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera's breast while she is asleep so that the baby will drink her divine milk and will thus become immortal. Hera wakes up while breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing an unknown baby: she pushes the baby away and a jet of her milk sprays the night sky, producing the faint band of light known as the Milky Way.

In the astronomical literature, the capitalized word 'Galaxy' is used to refer to our galaxy, the Milky Way, to distinguish it from the billions of other galaxies. The term Milky Way first appeared in the English language in a story by Chaucer.

"See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë
Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
For hit is whyt."

—Geoffrey Chaucer. The House of Fame, c. 1380.

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Octopus can kill a human

The blue-ringed octopuses live in tide pools in the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Australia. They are currently recognized as one of the world's most venomous marine animals. Despite their small size and relatively docile nature, they can prove a danger to humans. They can be recognized by their characteristic blue and black rings and yellowish skin. When the octopus is agitated, the brown patches darken dramatically, and iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear and pulsate within the maculae. Typically 50-60 blue rings cover the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the mantle. They hunt small crabs, hermit crabs, and shrimp, and may bite attackers, including humans, if provoked.

The blue-ringed octopus is 12 to 20 cm (5 to 8 inches), but its venom is powerful enough to kill humans. There is no blue-ringed octopus antivenom available.

The octopus produces venom that contains tetrodotoxin that is 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide. Tetrodotoxin blocks sodium channels, causing motor paralysis and respiratory arrest within minutes of exposure, leading to cardiac arrest due to a lack of oxygen. The toxin is produced by bacteria in the salivary glands of the octopus.

First aid treatment is pressure on the wound and artificial respiration once the paralysis has disabled the victim's respiratory muscles, which often occurs within minutes of being bitten.

(Source)

World’s most expensive dog

A Red Tibetan Mastiff puppy has become the world's most expensive dog after being sold for almost £1 million. Tibetan

Mastiffs are huge and fierce guard dogs that have stood watch over nomad camps and monasteries on the Tibetan plateau for centuries.

They are thought to be one of the world's oldest breeds, and legend has it that both Genghis Khan and Lord Buddha kept them.

More recently, however, they have become highly-prized status symbols for China's new rich. The dogs are thought to be a pure "Chinese" breed and they are rarely found outside Tibet, giving them an exclusivity that other breeds cannot match.

Accordingly, prices have risen from around 5,000 yuan a puppy five years ago to the hundreds of thousands and even millions.

Big Splash, or "Hong Dong" in Chinese, is 11-months-old but already stands nearly three-feet-high at the shoulder and weighs more than 180lbs, according to his breeder, Lu Liang. It has been purchased by a multi-millionaire coal baron from the north of China for 10 million yuan (£945,000).

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Flower that smells like chocolate

Cosmos atrosanguineus, aka chocolate cosmos, is a plant from Mexico that can grow up to about 24 inches high and has a maroon-colour flower. It’s famous for its chocolate-y scent. No part of this plant is edible. This plant is not actually fertile, so it produces no viable seeds. It is extinct in the wild. They currently only propagate by the division of tubers.

 (Source)

Disabled woman given mermaid tail to help her swim

A woman who lost both her legs as a child has been turned into a mermaid by the Lord of the Rings special effects team so she can go swimming.

Nadya Vessey was born with a condition that meant her legs would never develop properly and by the time she was 16 she had both her legs amputated.

Now in her fifties, with false legs, she was approached by a little boy who asked her what had happened to her legs, so she told him she was a mermaid.

The idea grew on her and so she wrote to Oscar winning Weta Workshop, which was also behind the stunning visuals in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'King Kong', and asked them to make her a tail.

To her surprise they agreed, creating a prosthetic tail from wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds.

Miss Vessey, from Auckland, New Zealand, said: "I never had a fantasy to be a mermaid. I am still getting used to it because it requires you to swim in a different kind of way.

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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.

NASA envisions alien worlds



                                           

                                            Out of the Dust, a Planet is Born

In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing, detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by the Spitzer Space Telescope, in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. The possible planet is theorized to be at least as massive as Jupiter, and may have a similar appearance to what the giant planets in our own solar system looked like billions of years ago.

Check out some moreinteresting pictures.

The creepiest trees on earth

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Expect to meet aliens by 2031

Russian scientists expect humanity to encounter alien civilizations within the next two decades.

"The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms... Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years," Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, Finkelstein said 10 percent of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth.

If water can be found there, then so can life, he said, adding that aliens would most likely resemble humans with two arms, two legs and a head.

"They may have different colour skin, but even we have that," he said.

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Woman dies at her own funeral

A woman who was falsely declared dead has died at her own funeral from the shock of waking up in a coffin.

The Daily Mail reports Russian woman Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, had wrongly been declared deceased by doctors.

After hearing mourners praying for her, Mrs Mukhametzyanov woke up in her open coffin and began screaming.

Her husband Fagili Mukhametzyanov, 51, was reportedly told by doctors his wife had died from a heart attack at home after she collapsed suffering from chest pains.

The shock came when his wife woke up in her casket.

"Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but... she died," he said.

"I am very angry and want answers.

"She wasn't dead when they said she was and they could have saved her."

An investigation is continuing.

(Source)