History Channel :)

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/417303_255045341245820_2044840117_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]Titanic Sunk by "Supermoon" and Celestial Alignment?[/color]

[color=#333333]Just weeks before the Titanic shipwreck's hundredth anniversary, scientists have a brand-new theory as to what might have helped spur modern history's most famous maritime disaster. (See pictures of Titanic's rediscovery in 1985.)[/color]

[color=#333333]An ultrarare alignment of the sun, the full moon, and Earth, they say, may have set the April 14, 1912, tragedy in[/color][color=#333333] motion, according to a new report.

R.M.S. Titanic went down on a moonless night, but the iceberg that sank the luxury liner may have been launched in part by a full moon that occurred three and a half months earlier, scientists say.

That full moon, on January 4, 1912, may have created unusually strong tides that sent a flotilla of icebergs southward—just in time for Titanic's maiden voyage, said astronomer Donald Olson of Texas State University-San Marcos.

Blame It on the Moon?

Even at the time, spring 1912 was considered an unusually bad season for icebergs. But figuring out why this happened has been a mystery.

Olson believes the iceberg boom was the result of a rare combination of celestial phenomena, including a "supermoon": when the moon is full during its closest monthly approach to the Earth. (See supermoon pictures.)

During new and full moons, the sun, Earth, and the moon are arranged in a straight line, with the sun and moon intensifying each other's gravitational pull on the planet. The result: Low tides are lower than usual, and high tides are higher—a phenomenon called a spring tide.

What's more, on the January 4, 1912, the full moon—and therefore the spring-tide alignment—ended just six minutes before the moon made an unusually close swing by Earth.

It was the closest lunar approach, in fact, since A.D. 796, and Earth won't see its like again until 2257. That combination of a very close moon and the celestial alignment added up to an especially strong gravitational pull on the Earth and therefore very high tides.

Tidal Waves and Titanic

How would high tides hinder Titanic?

For starters, they could have flexed the tongues of glaciers extending out to sea in Greenlandic fjords, cracking off a bumper crop of southbound icebergs.

But icebergs don't travel that fast. By April 14 new ones formed in that manner wouldn't have gotten far enough to get in the Titanic's way, Olson's team concluded.

Rather, he said, the tides may have affected older icebergs that had run aground in shallow waters off Labrador and Newfoundland (map) in Canada (Titanic wreck-site map).

Often these icebergs are stranded until they melt enough to float again. But a high tide, Olson said, can refloat them.

And the unusually strong spring tide created on January 4 could have refloated a great many of them at once, sending a swarm of icebergs southward and into Titanic's path, he said.

Against the Tide

It's an interesting theory, but not everyone is convinced.

Astronomer Geza Gyuk, for example, doubts the January 4, 1912, spring tide was especially powerful.

Full and new moons coincide with the moon's closest monthly approach of Earth every few years, with little effect on iceberg creation, said Gyuk, director of the Department of Astronomy at Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum.

Furthermore, in terms of tide-enhancing gravitational pull, it doesn't make much difference whether a spring-tide alignment occurs within six minutes or a couple days of the moon's closest approach, or perigee.

"A full moon anytime during the day preceding or following the perigee will have very close to the same tidal force," Gyuk said by email.

Also, he said, the moon on January 4, 1912, came only about 4,000 miles (6,200 kilometers) closer than its average perigee.

"The difference in tidal force between [the January 1912] perigee and an average perigee is only about 5 percent," he said.

Report co-author Olson doesn't dispute any of this. Rather, he said, it doesn't take a hugely stronger tide to refloat an iceberg.

"Suppose you pull a rowboat to a beach" at high tide and leave the boat when it first runs aground, he said. "It doesn't have to be much of a higher tide to refloat the rowboat."

In addition, Olson said, "we have found several stories about record tides ... around the world in January 1912."[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/426161_255074994576188_1876483461_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]Man Proposes to Girlfriend with Dress Made from 9,999 Red Roses[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/428143_255623891187965_1062285622_n.jpg[/img]


[color=#333333]The Tsar Tank was an unusual Russian armored vehicle developed in 1916–1917[/color]

[color=#333333]During world war I the Russian leader Tsar wanted big war machines the tank was a new addition to the warfare at that time, he wanted engineers to build a large tank. So they built a large tank called the Tsar tank also called as Lebedenko.[/color]

[color=#333333]It had wheels 9 meters in diameter so that it could over come any obstacle, whe[/color][color=#333333]n it was used for testing its ability it destroyed a small forest but due to its heavy weight (ca 60 tons) it got stuck.

The Lebedenko stood there, bogged down, for the rest of the war, but was finally scrapped in 1923.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/423241_260184554065232_1024398443_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]1883 Eruption of Krakatoa[/color]

[color=#333333]The worlds most famous and extraordinary disaster that ever occurred. More fascinating and powerful than even the tsunamis that have occurred recently[/color]
[color=#333333]if you thought the tsunamis were powerful than wait till you read this.[/color]

[color=#333333]Island of Krakatoa was thought to be a series of small harmless volcano's considered harmless to the nearby cities on the cost one day Eruptions started again around 16 June, when loud explosions were heard and a thick black cloud covered the islands for five days. On 24 June an east wind blew this cloud away and two ash columns were seen issuing from Krakatoa. The new seat of the eruption is believed to have been a new vent or vents which formed between Perbuatan and Danan, near the location of the volcanic cone of Anak Krakatau. The violence of the eruption caused tides in the vicinity to be unusually high, and ships at anchor had to be moored with chains as a result. Earthquake shocks began to be felt at Anyer (Java), and large pumice masses started to be reported by ships in the Indian Ocean to the west.geologist in the nearby cities claimed nothing would happen but hours later with a big bang disaster struck the ocean sucked into a hole was drawn away from the nearby coast and within seconds a huge wave destroyed them the same waters crashed and pulverised the cities ... large chunks of rocks shot into the air and landed in the Indian ocean and cost of Africa.

Ships as far away as South Africa rocked as tsunamis hit them, and the bodies of victims were found floating in the ocean for weeks after the event. The tsunamis which accompanied the eruption are believed to have been caused by gigantic pyroclastic flows entering the sea; each of the four great explosions was accompanied by a massive pyroclastic flow resulting from the gravitational collapse of the eruption column. This caused several cubic kilometers of material to enter the sea, displacing an equally huge volume of seawater
The pressure wave generated by the colossal final explosion radiated from Krakatoa at 1,086 km/h (675 mph). It was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors on ships in the Sunda Strait and caused a spike of more than two and half inches of mercury (ca 85 hPa) in pressure gauges attached to gasometers in the Jakarta gasworks, sending them off the scale. The pressure wave radiated across the globe and was recorded on barographs all over the world, which continued to register it up to 5 days after the explosion. Barograph recordings show that the shockwave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe 7 times in total. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (50 mi).and most shockin g of all this final explosion destroyed the island !!!! today agin the island continues to grow the volcano has actually been reborn and history will repeat itself and the locals claimed this had happened before .

The eruptions diminished rapidly after that point, and by the morning of August 28 Krakatoa was silent. Small eruptions, mostly of mud, continued through October, 1883The eruption darkened the sky worldwide for years afterwards, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months

In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F). Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. The eruption injected an unusually large amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas high into the stratosphere which was subsequently transported by high-level winds all over the planet. This led to a global increase in sulphurous acid (H2SO3) concentration in high-level cirrus clouds. The resulting increase in cloud reflectivity (or albedo) would reflect more incoming light from the sun than usual, and cool the entire planet until the suspended sulfur fell to the ground as acid precipitation[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/558952_264444010305953_822734462_n.jpg[/img]


[color=#333333]A river in Thailand randomly shoots red fireballs into the air. No one knows why. [/color]

[color=#333333]About 70 - 100 km downstream from Vientiane, capital of Laos, the Mekong River does something really strange. At night, the river produces red fireballs that rise up into the air and disappear without making any noise. The balls are usually small, but some have been observed to be the size of basketballs. While it [/color][color=#333333]might seem mysterious and remote to most of us, the area along the river is heavily populated with homes and roads, and people have gotten used to it.

People from the area confirm to witnessing the fireballs their whole life and that their parents and grandparents did too. So far there is no scientific explanation for the phenomenon. There are, however, myths about the fireballs have been formed over the years. The most famous is of a naga, dragon or snake, which crawled through the mountains where the Mekong is now. The naga continues to pass through the area, but now underwater, and like a good dragon it spits fireballs into the air from the river bottom.

At the end of every October, a festival is held in celebration of the mysterious fireballs. Tens of thousands show up every year, but the balls are random and some years aren’t even witnessed during the festival. [/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/564250_270571993026488_1237785015_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]Incredible Nature [/color]

[color=#333333]An amazing spectacle was seen in Japan. Surf washed up on shore thousands of jellyfish that normally live at great depths, and only during the breeding are lifted to the surface. These jellyfish has its feature – they glow. Its very nice.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/545101_271233646293656_388282343_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]World's Largest Bird Was a Glider[/color]

[color=#333333]Image: Dr. Kenneth E. Campbell, (one of the discoverers) in front of the 25 ft. wingspan Argentavis magnificens. Display from the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles. The feather size from such a bird is estimated to have been 1.5 meters long (60 inches); and 20 centimeters wide (8 inches).[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/536350_273117119438642_2071446773_n.jpg[/img]


[color=#333333]There’s a bridge in Scotland that’s famous for dog suicides![/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399008_292598524157168_1069469603_n.jpg[/img]


[color=#333333]James Harrison - The man with the golden arm[/color]

[color=#333333]An Australian man who has been donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years has saved the lives of more than two million babies.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/485685_294069187343435_465905593_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]It's really hard to fathom, but a woman in Russia gave birth to 69 children in the 1700s. She holds the record for the largest number of children born to one mother. The Unnamed wife of Feodor Vassilyev gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets between 1725 and 1765. 67 of them survived infancy.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/74748_295222880561399_1738973333_n.jpg[/img]


[color=#333333]The Bridge Of Immortals[/color]

[color=#333333]The world’s highest bridge, The Bridge Of Immortals, is situated in the Yellow Mountains, also known as Huangshan. From the bridge you will have a breathtaking view, and see how the clouds are touching mountainsides beneath you.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/531419_296402740443413_433028540_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]Man claims to have had no food or drink for 70 years.[/color]

[color=#333333]Prahlad Jani is being held in isolation in a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gurjarat, where he is being closely monitored by India's defence research organization, who believe he may have a genuine quality which could help save lives.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/559635_297008980382789_1779208437_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]In 2004, The New York Times wrote an article about the loneliest whale in the world. Scientists have been tracking her since 1992 and they discovered the problem:[/color]

[color=#333333]She isn’t like any other baleen whale. Unlike all other whales, she doesn’t have friends. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn’t belong to any tribe, pack or gang. She doesn’t have a lover. She never had one. Her songs come in groups of[/color][color=#333333] two to six calls, lasting for five to six seconds each. But her voice is unlike any other baleen whale. It is unique—while the rest of her kind communicate between 12 and 25hz, she sings at 52hz. You see, that’s precisely the problem. No other whales can hear her. Every one of her desperate calls to communicate remains unanswered. Each cry ignored. And, with every lonely song, she becomes sadder and more frustrated, her notes going deeper in despair as the years go by.

Just imagine that massive mammal, floating alone and singing—too big to connect with any of the beings it passes, feeling paradoxically small in the vast stretches of empty, open ocean.[/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/578150_299610343455986_502552431_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]A bolt of lightning killed an entire soccer team during a game in 1998! [/color]

[color=#333333]In October of 1998 a bolt of lightning killed an entire 11-man soccer team from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The opposing team was completely unharmed. Thirty more people had burn injuries.[/color]

[color=#333333]Some people thought the team had been cursed and that was what caused the lightning to strike them. The game was a draw at 1-1 whe[/color][color=#333333]n the lightning struck the visiting team in the province of Kasai in the eastern region of the DRC.

Incidentally, a similar situation happened the following weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa. A Premier League soccer match was suddenly stopped when lightning struck the field.

Half of the players from both teams, the Jomo Cosmos and the Moroka Swallows, fell to the ground. Several of the players writhed on the ground holding their ears and eyes in pain. Luckily, no one was killed in that incident. [/color]

[papacha]

[img]https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/484178_302666243150396_1214139909_n.jpg[/img]

[color=#333333]A doctor in Brazil uses "HIV-infected" needles to protect her house from burglars!![/color]

[color=#333333]A female doctor was fed up with burglars jumping over her fence and stealing her belongings. They had already stolen her lawnmower, hair dryer and photo camera when she decided to put an end to the trespassing by taping dozens of HIV-infected syringes atop her metal fence and hanging a sign saying “ Wall with HIV"[/color]