Sep 29, 2010

Queen Nefertiti bust may have had a facelift


An ancient Egyptian queen who was been hailed for thousands of years as the perfect example of beauty may not have been such a looker after all, researchers have claimed.

The 3,300-year-old carved bust of Queen Nerfititi with her aquiline nose and high cheek bones has won her admiring fans around the world.

But a delicately carved face in the limestone core of the famous bust suggests the royal sculptor at the time may have smoothed creases around the mouth and fixed a bumpy nose to depict the 'Beauty of the Nile' in a better light.

TV Historian Bettany Hughes was part of a team that made the discovery which is supported by earlier research from German scientists who studied the 20 inch bust of Nefretiti whose name means 'the beautiful one has come'.

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Sep 28, 2010

Goat gives birth to a 'human'; a faun

The community of Lower Gweru and its surroundings in the Midlands Province was left shell-shocked when a goat gave birth to human-like creature that had the combined features of a man and a goat. A report in The Chronicle newspaper said the goat gave birth to the 'creature' on Sunday morning in Maboleni area. The creature had a human head, face, nose, shoulders and human-like skin that had very scanty furs. It had goat features from the “shoulders” to the legs. Its sagging stomach prevented curious villagers from determining whether it had human or animal sex organs as it protruded covering the front part.

Villagers said the end product was so scary that even dogs were afraid to move close to the goat. “Normally, dogs like to play around a goat when it has just given birth. This time the dogs kept their distance. This is indeed a miracle that has never been witnessed anywhere,” said one elderly villager, Themba Moyo. The owner of the goat who gave his name as Mr Nyoni said the incident left him shocked and he decided to contact the police and the local leadership.

“It’s the first time that my goat did this. I have 15 goats and it’s this goat that gave me birth to most of them. My goats often give birth to sets of twins,” he said. His wife, Mrs Nyoni, said she never bothered to check when she learnt from her daughter that her goat had given birth. She said she was busy with her laundry and she only learnt from her brother-in-law that the goat had given birth to an unusual creature. “By that time the ‘thing’ had died. My brother-in-law then decided that we inform the community and the leadership about this unusual incident,” she said.

Midlands Governor and Resident Minister Jason Machaya, police and the media visited Maboleni area to have first-hand information. Governor Machaya said it was disgracing that a man can stoop so low opting for animal company in a world full of women. “This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing. The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control,” he said.

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Sep 24, 2010

Mystery Pyramid Built by Newfound Ancient Culture?

Several stone sculptures recently found in central Mexico point to a previously unknown culture that likely built a mysterious pyramid in the region, archaeologists say.

Archaeologists first found the objects about 15 years ago in the valley of Tulancingo, a major canyon that drops off into Mexico's Gulf Coast.

Most of the 41 artifacts "do not fit into any of the known cultures of the Valley of Tulancingo, or the highlands of central Mexico," said Carlos Hernández, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History in the central state of Hidalgo. Many of the figures are depicted in a sitting position, with their hands placed on their knees.

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Sep 23, 2010

Akhenaten

Akhenaten (often alt: Akhnaten, or rarely Ikhnaton) meaning 'Effective spirit of Aten', first known as Amenhotep IV (sometimes read as Amenophis IV and meaning 'Amun is Satisfied') before his first year (died 1336 BC or 1334 BC), was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this.
He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was their younger son.

Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose. Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a short coregency lasting between either 1 to 2 years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to the debates surrounding Egyptian chronology) are from 1353 BC-1336 BC or 1351 BC­1334 BC.

Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, made world-famous by the discovery of her exquisitely moulded and painted bust, now displayed in the Altes Museum of Berlin, and among the most recognised works of art surviving from the ancient world.

Sep 18, 2010

Banshee - Warning of Death - Unsolved Mysteries

The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaghs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.
Whatever her origins, the banshee chiefly appears in one of three guises: a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic goddess of war and death, namely Badhbh, Macha and Mor-Rioghain.)

The Banshee She usually wears either a grey, hooded cloak or the winding sheet or grave robe of the unshriven dead. She may also appear as a washer-woman, and is seen apparently washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. In this guise she is known as the bean-nighe (washing woman).

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Sep 17, 2010

Colossal 'sea monster' unearthed

The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast. The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up to 16m in length.

The fossil, which was found by a local collector, has been purchased by Dorset County Council. It was bought with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then put on public display at Dorset County Museum.


Palaeontologist Richard Forrest told the BBC: "I had heard rumours that something big was turning up. But seeing this thing in the flesh, so to speak, is just jaw dropping. It is simply enormous." Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that dominated the seas around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

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Sep 16, 2010

Piri Reis Map

In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century.

His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople.

The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.

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Sep 14, 2010

Bahariya Oasis - Valley of the Golden Mummies

The Valley of the Golden Mummies is a huge burial site at Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, discovered in 1996. Dr. Zahi Hawass, with his Egyptian team, have found around 250 mummies dating to several different periods in history. The site dates to Greco-Roman Egypt, where the ruin of a temple to Alexander the Great can be found. It is believed by some Egyptologists that the Greek conqueror passed through Bahariya while returning from the oracle of Ammon at Siwa Oasis. Excavations of the Greco-Roman necropolis, known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies began in 1996. Approximately thirty-four tombs have been excavated from this area so far. Hawass estimates more than 10,000 will be uncovered.

Set in a depression covering over 2000 sq. km., Bahariya Oasis is surrounded by black hills made up of ferruginous quartzite and dolorite. Most of the villages and cultivated land can be viewed from the top of the 50-meter-high Jebel al-Mi'ysrah, together with the massive dunes which threaten to engulf some of the older settlements. The Oasis was a major agricultural center during the Pharaonic era, and has been famous for its wine as far back as the Middle Kingdom. During the fourth century, the absence of Roman rule and violent tribes in the area caused a decline as some of the oasis was reclaimed by the sand. Wildlife is plentiful, especially birds such as wheatears; crops (which only cover a small percentage of the total area) include dates, olives, apricots, rice and corn.

Over time, the Bahariya Oasis has had a number of different names. It has been called the Northern Oasis, the Little Oasis, Zeszes, Oassis Parva and the especially during the Christian era, the Oasis of al-Bahnasa, along with various other names. At one time, the Bahariya Oasis, as well as most of the rest of what is today referred to as the Western (or Libyan) Desert, was the floor of an immense ocean. Yet from about 3000 BC until the present, almost no rainfall graces this part of the world, so groundwater is its life blood.

Remains of stone tools found in the Bahariya oasis evidence the existence of settlements in the area as early as the Paleolithic Period. In fact, we are told that anyone with a trained eye, walking about the oasis, can spot prehistoric stone knives and and axes simply lying upon the surface of the sand.


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'Blood' runs from image of Christ

Thousands of pilgrims have overwhelmed a small church in Argentina after blood was said to be oozing down the face of an image of Jesus Christ. A red substance was photographed running from the forehead of Jesus and down his cheek in a church depiction of the Last Supper.

Local priest Father Jorge Gandur said the 'ooze comes from one of the wounds on the left side of the forehead of Christ produced by the crown of thorns'. The stains were first noticed on Friday by two men who had entered the Oratory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Yerba Buena, Tucuman province.

The pair reported the substance to Father Gandur, who took samples of the substance to be scientifically tested to see if it was human blood. After local media were tipped off that the men had seen Christ weeping 'tears of blood' the streets surrounding the church became jammed pilgrims wanting to see the phenomenon for themselves.


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Sep 13, 2010

The Lost Treasure of King Juba

Juba II was the monarch of a North African kingdom known as Mauretania, comprising most of modern Morocco and western Algeria. After Emperor Caligula murdered his son in A.D. 39, the Romans invaded Mauretania to seize his golden fortune. But they never found it. Nearly 2,000 years later, a buried treasure surrounded by Roman-era artifacts came to light in the American Midwest. Could this apparently ancient trove have been the lost exchequer of King Juba, concealed nearly fifteen centuries before Columbus landed on America continent?

In the extreme northeast corner of Richland County, in southern Illinois, bends an elbow of the River Embarras, branching from its bigger sister, the Wabash. An infrequently visited site, certainly unknown outside its immediate vicinity, was hardly more than a hole in the ground. But the opening, about ten feet wide and eight feet from ceiling to roof, was large enough for infrequent local visitors to stoop through a kind of natural corridor running about 15 feet into the side of a hill perhaps three-quarters of a mile from the south bank of the Embarras.

On April 2, 1982, a 47-year-old “caver” entered its dark recesses outfitted with flashlight, pick-hammer and knapsack. Nineteen years later, Russell Burrows publicly presented a detailed description of the events of April 2 before an international archaeology conference in the Vienna Art Center, Austria. “The cave itself is 535 feet deep to its terminal breakdown,” he said. The down-angle is six degrees. The artifacts which he recovered were located in the silt on the most part. However, some were recovered from niches and shelves along the walls. Also to be seen are lamps cut out of knobs of rock on the walls. There are several of these lamps, since they seem to be positioned every fifteen or twenty feet. The area above these lamps is blackened by smoke from the lamps, which most likely burned animal fat or oil of some kind.

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The Kraken Monster

Kraken are mythical sea monsters of gargantuan size, said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the beasts have made them common ocean-dwelling monsters in various fictional works . The legend may actually have originated from sightings of real giant squid that are variously estimated to grow to 13–15 m (40–50 ft) in length, including the tentacles. These creatures normally live at great depths, but have been sighted at the surface and have reportedly attacked ships.

Kraken is the definite article form of krake, a Scandinavian word designating an unhealthy animal, or something twisted. In modern German, Krake (plural and declined singular: Kraken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kraken.

The Kraken is the fabled sea monster said to have been sighted frequently off the coast of Norway; it was apparently quite capable of dragging the largest ships to the bottom and simply by submerging itself it could suck a vessel to its doom by means of the whirlpool it thereby created. Brewer says that the Kraken was first described by Erik Pontoppidan in his Natural History of Norway (1752; Pontoppidan, 1698–1764, was bishop of Bergen at the time). “Kraken” is probably from the Old Swedish kraken and the Danish krage, stump or stem of a tree, from a claimed resemblance to the infamous and decidedly uncouth monster. Pontopiddan described this creature as “a mile and a half wide.” Clearly, even allowing for regional variations in what constituted a proper Christian mile, this was a beast of no mean proportions.

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The Woman with Babushka

If you ever watched a recording assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963, note in the right corner of the tape. There was a woman wearing the veil babushka (scarf made in Russia) who appeared to record the incident.

The woman was believed to be the people who have an important role in uncovering cases of assassination of John F. Kennedy because he was in a position very close to the victim when the incident occurred. In the tape, see the woman holding the camera, and record the event.

Surprisingly, the woman could not be found. The FBI has asked her to hand over the tape to help the FBI find the murderer President of America. But the woman never showed up. Who is she? How she could stand so close to the car the President? Nobody knows until this day.

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The Amityville House

Did you ever watch Amityville House movie? The movie of the novel written by George and Kathy Lutz is a very creepy horror movie. Did you know that the movie is a true story? Many people believed that the authors are the couple who experienced the incident.

The story of the haunted house was revealed in 1975 when the couple moved into a house in Amityville, New York. This new couple did not know that at 13 years ago in this house, dreadful massacre ever happened. Son of the homeowner shot and killed all his family (total 6 person). When arrested, he confessed he killed all his family because of a buzzing sound in his head told him to do it.

But strangely, the six victims were found face down in their beds. They seem to sleep calmly, there is no sign that they were previously taking tranquilizers. This is indeed a strange mystery. While the murderer, Ronald DeFeo stayed in jail until the end of his life.

Back to the matter of the new family that moved into the house of horror. During 28 days there, a lot of mysterious and terrible things experienced by these couples. Not just about the stench, or noise, but also physical attacks that they didn’t know who was responsible. In fact, one of the family member seeing visions of sinister figure with glowing red eyes. Kathy discovered a small room, the dog did not want to get closer to there. Strange isn’t it?

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Sep 10, 2010

Comte de Saint Germain

The Count of St. Germain (allegedly died February 27, 1784) was a courtier, adventurer, inventor, amateur scientist, violinist, amateur composer, and a mysterious gentleman; he also displayed some skills with the practice of alchemy.

He was known as ‘Der Wundermann’ — ‘The Wonderman’. He was a man whose origin was unknown and who disappeared without leaving a trace.

Since his death, various occult organizations have adopted him as a model figure or even as a powerful deity. In recent years several people have claimed to be the Count of St. Germain. (Note that St Germain was never regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church – the “st.” before his name refers to his alleged home).

Black Dahlia

In 1947 the body of 22 year old Elizabeth Short was found in two pieces in a parking lot in Los Angeles. According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname “Black Dahlia” at a Long Beach drugstore in the summer of 1946, as a play on the then-current movie The Blue Dahlia.

However, Los Angeles County district attorney investigators’ reports state the nickname was invented by newspaper reporters covering the murder. In either case, Short was not generally known as the “Black Dahlia” during her lifetime.

Many rumours and tales have spread about the Black Dahlia, and the investigation (one of the largest in LA history) never found the killer.

Sep 9, 2010

The Taos Hum

The Taos Hum is a low-frequency humming noise that occurs frequently in Taos, New Mexico. Similar hums like the Taos Hum have been reported all over the world and have been attributed to sounds caused by machines or other industrial-related things.



The thing that makes the Taos Hum so special that it deserves a spot on this list is that no one has ever found the source of the hum, and what’s even more interesting is that the sound is often intensified and much louder in buildings but is only heard by around 2 percent of the population.

Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous human combustion is probably the most controversial natural phenomenon. Spontaneous combustion has been known to occur in other animals and such incidents have been observed and recorded.

Spontaneous combustion is defined as the burning of the human body without an external source of ignition, in other words, you explode for no reason whatsoever.

Evidence for this strange occurrence includes shrunken organs of the human body with clothing still attached, and several theories have been created. One theory is the “wick effect,” which states that your clothing can absorb melted human fats and thus can act like the wick of a candle. Scary, huh?

Sep 8, 2010

GIANT CHIMPS OF THE MAGIC FOREST

Legend goes that, deep in the Congolese jungle, is a magic forest. In this fabled land live a band of apes that, according to local accounts, passed down over the generations, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon.

Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla. Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists.

Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest. One set of speculation concludes that the apes may be some yeti-like new species or a chimp/gorilla hybrid. Another view is that they are actually a population of super-sized chimps with a unique culture - and it seems, a taste for big cat flesh.

Some expeditions have started venturing into the Congolese jungles in an attempt to track down these legendary creatures. Hopefully they will return – with news of unimaginable discoveries!

Cleopatra died of drug-spiked cocktail, not snakebite says a German scientist

Cleopatra died from drinking a lethal drug cocktail that included opium and hemlock and not a snakebite, says a German scientist. Christoph Schaefer, a historian and professor at the University of Trier, has presented evidence on a TV show that aims to prove drugs and not the reptile were the cause of the Egyptian beauty's death.

"Queen Cleopatra was famous for her beauty and was unlikely to have subjected herself to a long and disfiguring death," The Scotsman quoted Schaefer as saying. He is also the author of a best-selling book in Germany titled 'Cleopatra'.

"It was this aspect, her beauty which she cherished so much, which made me journey with other experts to Alexandria, Egypt, where we consulted ancient medical texts and snake experts. Cleopatra wanted to remain beautiful in her death to maintain her myth," Schaefer said.

"We consulted zoologists and toxicologists; a snake bite would have been too uncertain and taken too long," he added. The Adventure Science programme, titled 'Cleopatra's Death', displays ancient texts that record the potion as being a popular method of suicide - and assassination - at the time she lived.

Sep 5, 2010

Ogopogo or Naitaka

Ogopogo or Naitaka the name given to a cryptid lake monster reported to live in Okanagan Lake, in British Columbia, Canada. Ogopogo has been seen by Native Americans since the 19th century.

The most common description of Ogopogo is a forty- to fifty-foot-long (12 to 15 m) sea serpent. It has supposedly been photographed and even been caught on tape.

Proponents of the Ogopogo's existence claim that the first documented sightings of the monster date back to around 1872, and occurred as the area was being colonized by European settlers.The earliest mention of the Ogopogo was the story of a man in 1860 leading horses that were swimming across the lake near Rattlesnake Island.

The Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption

Limnic eruptions are one of the strangest natural disasters known. The criteria required for one to occur make them very uncommon. Lake Nyos is located in a very remote area of the Cameroonian jungle. Though it is not very large, only 1.2 miles by 0.75 miles, it is quite deep, 682 feet.

Below the bed, a magma chamber is leaking carbon dioxide into the water. This transforms the water into carbonic acid. Since Carbon dioxide is 1.5 times denser than air, it will not rise from the bottom of a lake, unless pushed up by another force. There are only three such lakes known on whole Earth.

On August 21, 1986, the carbon dioxide underneath the lake suddenly erupted all at once, 1.6 million tons of it, and freed a cloud of carbon dioxide from the lake. This cloud, being heavier than air, clasped the ground contours, and blew out of the lake at 60 mph, went downhill throughout the area at up to 30 mph, and displaced all the oxygen in several small villages, suffocating between 1,700 and 1,800 people, excluding their livestock.

The force of the gas discharge also blew out the lake water itself, in an 80 ft high tsunami that stripped the trees, shrubs, and soil off one side of the shore.

Sep 1, 2010

Double meteorite strike 'killed dinosaurs' ?

A new study has suggested that the dinosaurs were wiped out by not one but two massive meteorite impacts.

The discovery of a huge impact site in the Gulf of Mexico has been joined by that of a second site in Ukraine with the possibility of further impacts that together would have spelled the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago by at least two meteorite impacts, rather than a single strike, a new study suggests. Previously, scientists had identified a huge impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico as the event that spelled doom for the dinosaurs.

Bizarre elongated crater is a Martian mystery

A peculiar elongated crater on the surface of Mars that doesn't fit with standard models has left astronomers baffled.

Known as Orcus Patera the crater is not quite as long as the Grand Canyon but is five times as wide, one possible explanation is that it started out as a standard crater but was later changed by shifting tectonic plates.

This crater, known as Orcus Patera, is a strange, elliptical crater located near Mars's equator. Roughly 240 miles long by 90 miles wide, its elongated shape doesn't fit with standard models of crater formation, leaving astronomers with a baffling mystery.