Mysterious Fairy Circles Are 'Alive' | Wired Science. Fairy circles stand out against the grass after seasonal rains in Namibia’s Jagkop region. Image: Mike and Ann Scott/Namib Rand Nature Reserve By Rachel Nuwer, ScienceNOW Walter Tschinkel may not have solved the mystery of the fairy circles, but he can tell you that they’re alive. Tens of thousands of the formations — bare patches of soil, 2 to 12 meters in diameter — freckle grasslands from southern Angola to northern South Africa, their perimeters often marked by a tall fringe of grass. Locals say they’re the footprints of the gods. Scientists have thrown their hands up in the air.
Tschinkel first encountered fairy circles in 2005 on a vacation to the NamibRand Nature Reserve, a private nature park dedicated to conserving the local ecology and wildlife in southwestern Namibia, where his local guide introduced him to the strange land forms. So Tschinkel turned to satellite images. To confirm his results, Tschinkel crunched data collected from the NamibRand Nature Reserve.
June 30, 1908: The Tunguska Event | History of Geology. “It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws.” “The Colour Out of Space“, by H.P. Lovecraft (1927) In the morning of June, 30 1908 eyewitnesses reported a large fireball crossing the sky above the taiga of the Stony Tunguska (PodkamennayaTunguska) in Siberia.
A series of explosions was heard even in the 1.200km distant village of Achajewskoje. Various meteorological stations in Europe recorded seismic and pressure waves and in the following days strange atmospheric phenomena were observed, silvery glowing clouds, colourful sunsets and strange luminescence in the night. Russian newspapers reported about a meteorite impact based on the eyewitness accounts and the hypothesis of Dr. Arkady Voznesensky (1864-1936), director of the Meteorological Observatory at Irkutsk from 1895 to 1917.
Fig.1. In 1934 Sowjet scientists proposed a variation of the meteorite-hypothesis. Bibliography: Photographic Evidence: The Grossest Things | Life's Little Mysteries. Remy Melina, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer | November 30, 2010 11:49am ET To determine just what is the grossest sight, Valerie Curtis, the director of the Hygiene Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine devised a truly gruesome experiment. Curtis and a team of researchers presented 20 images of things perceived as repulsive to more than 80,000 individuals from 172 countries during a web-based survey. Below are some of the images they used, with the top grossest one at the very bottom. Be warned: The graphic photo won first place for a very, very good reason. [Click for the full story ] Tanganyika laughter epidemic.
The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria – or mass psychogenic illness (MPI) – rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika) near the border of Kenya.[1] The laughter epidemic began on January 30, 1962, at a mission-run boarding school for girls in Kashasha.
The laughter started with three girls and spread haphazardly throughout the school, affecting 95 of the 159 pupils, aged 12–18.[2][3] Symptoms lasted from a few hours to 16 days in those affected. The teaching staff were not affected but reported that students were unable to concentrate on their lessons. The school was forced to close down on March 18, 1962.[4] The school from which the epidemic sprang was sued; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area.
See also[edit] References[edit] Jump up ^ Jeffries, Stuart (November 21, 2007). External links[edit] Sailing stones. Sailing stones, sliding rocks, and moving rocks all refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. Tracks from these sliding rocks have been observed and studied in various locations, including Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada,[1] and most notably Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, where the number and length of tracks are notable.
At Racetrack Playa, these tracks have been studied since the early 1900s, yet the origins of stone movement are not confirmed[2] and remain the subject of research for which several hypotheses[3] exist. The stones move only every two or three years and most tracks develop over three or four years. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks while those with smooth bottoms tend to wander. Stones sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different track in the stone's wake. Description[edit] ice floes. Charles Bonnet syndrome. Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is the experience of complex visual hallucinations in patients with visual loss. First described by Charles Bonnet in 1760,[1][2] it was first introduced into English-speaking psychiatry in 1982.[3] Characteristics[edit] Sufferers, who are mentally healthy people with often significant visual loss, have vivid, complex recurrent visual hallucinations (fictive visual percepts).
One characteristic of these hallucinations is that they usually are "lilliputian" (hallucinations in which the characters or objects are smaller than normal). People suffering from CBS may experience a wide variety of hallucinations. Causes[edit] CBS predominantly affects people with visual impairments due to old age or damage to the eyes or optic pathways. Prognosis[edit] There is no treatment of proven effectiveness for CBS. Treatment[edit] History[edit] The disease is named after the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet, who described the condition in 1760. Society and culture[edit] Voynich manuscript. The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance.[1][2] The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.[3] Some of the pages are missing, but about 240 remain.
The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams. The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.[4] No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The Voynich manuscript was donated by Hans P. Description[edit] Codicology[edit] The binding and covers are not original to the book, but date to during its possession by the Collegio Romano.[8] Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (ORSA).
MRSA is any strain of Staphylococcus aureus that has developed, through the process of natural selection, resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics, which include the penicillins (methicillin, dicloxacillin, nafcillin, oxacillin, etc.) and the cephalosporins. Strains unable to resist these antibiotics are classified as methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, or MSSA.
The evolution of such resistance does not cause the organism to be more intrinsically virulent than strains of Staphylococcus aureus that have no antibiotic resistance, but resistance does make MRSA infection more difficult to treat with standard types of antibiotics and thus more dangerous. Signs and symptoms[edit] In most patients, MRSA can be detected by swabbing the nostrils and isolating the bacteria found inside. Alien hand syndrome. Alien hand syndrome (AHS), is a rare neurological disorder that causes hand movement without the person being aware of what is happening or having control over the action. The afflicted person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the healthy hand to restrain the alien hand.[1] Alien hand syndrome is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy.
It also occurs in some cases after brain surgery, stroke, infection, tumor, aneurysm and specific degenerative brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.[2] Other areas of the brain that are associated with alien hand syndrome are the frontal, occipital and parietal lobes.[3][4] Anarchic hand syndrome and alien hand syndrome are two similar but separate disorders. Symptoms[edit] Subtypes[edit] Phaistos Disc. The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the Greek island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). It is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture, remain disputed, making it one of the most famous mysteries of archaeology. This unique object is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.
The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling toward the disc's center. Discovery Tablet PH-1 It was found in the main cell of an underground "temple depository". Authenticity Dating Typography Signs.
Raymond Robinson (Green Man) Raymond "Ray" Robinson (October 29, 1910 – June 11, 1985) was a severely disfigured man whose years of nighttime walks made him into a figure of urban legend in western Pennsylvania. Robinson was so badly injured in a childhood electrical accident that he could not go out in public without fear of creating a panic, so he went for long walks at night. Local residents, who would drive along his road in hopes of meeting him, called him The Green Man or Charlie No-Face. They passed on tales about him to their children and grandchildren, and people raised on these tales are sometimes surprised to discover that he was a real person who was liked by his family and neighbors.[1] Robinson was eight years old when he was injured by an electrical line on the Morado Bridge, outside of Beaver Falls, while attempting to view a bird's nest. Robinson became a local myth in the Pittsburgh area, and his real story was obscured by urban legend.
Things That Generate Space-related Hoaxes | Mystery Missiles & Weather Balloons, UFO’s & Aliens | Life's Little Mysteries. It doesn't take much to convince people that they've seen an experimental missile or a UFO. A funny-looking cloud or an exceptionally bright planet will usually do the trick. Here, our top 7 things that drive space-related hoaxes. Mystery UFO halo in clouds over Moscow? Oct 7 2009. Medical Mystery: How Can Some People Hear Their Own Eyeballs Move? Spiders in Pakistan encase whole trees in webs. Even the elders in Pakistan's Sindh province admit they've never seen anything like it: whole trees encased in webs by millions of invading spiders. The mysterious phenomenon may be an unexpected result of the devastating floods that swept over Sindh, reports Wired. According to scientists, the spiders likely collected in the trees after fleeing from the rising floodwaters. At their height, the floods covered as much as a fifth of the country and displaced as many as 20 million people.
One unexpected blessing from the bizarre post-flood event is that the hungry spiders seem to be significantly reducing mosquito populations. Malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases became a serious concern in the region after the floods receded and left the landscape blanketed in stagnant water. It's a strange fix for such a pervasive problem, but nature has an odd way of striking a balance. More photos, courtesy of the U.K.' Seeing in the Dark. Credit: cliff1066tm. Patient TN was, by his own account, completely blind.
Two consecutive strokes had destroyed the visual cortex of his brain, and consequently, his ability to see. It is not uncommon for stroke patients to suffer brain damage, but the case of TN — referenced by his initials, the general practice in such studies — was peculiar. His first stroke had injured only one hemisphere of his visual cortex. About five weeks later, a second stroke damaged the other hemisphere. Known as selective bilateral occipital damage, TN’s unusual injury made him the subject of much interest while recovering at a hospital in Geneva.
To further test the extent of TN’s abilities, researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands devised a simple yet decisive experiment: an obstacle course. TN’s rare condition is known as blindsight. The researchers explained that TN’s success indicates that “humans can sustain sophisticated visuo-spacial skills in the absence of perceptual awareness.” Behind the Secret of the Naga's Fire. It was dusk when the first fireball burst from the Mekong. A glowing pink orb hovered over the chocolaty waters for a split second then accelerated noiselessly skyward, winking out some 100 meters above. Minutes later, another soared from the roiling river. Then some way downstream, a string of four burst into a bruised sky that was looking angrier by the moment. Each tiny eruption was greeted with a jubilant roar, like a kickboxing crowd hailing a series of withering knee strikes. The lights looked a bit like exploding flares, though there was no hiss or smoke, no sparkling arc back...
Subscribe Now Get TIME the way you want it One Week Digital Pass — $4.99 Monthly Pay-As-You-Go DIGITAL ACCESS — $2.99 One Year ALL ACCESS — Just $30! Mistaken Identity. 2011 November 8 - Jumping Sundogs Over Thunderclouds. "Crown Flash" and Leaping Sundogs Meteorological Phenomenon: parhelia altered by thunderstorm e-fields.
Mysterious Crop Circles | Crop Circle Images Throughout the World. Freaky Fractal Fingers, Fingers, Fingers. History's Most Overlooked Mysteries. Is Spontaneous Human Combustion Real? | Irishman Dies of Spontaneous Human Combustion | Paranormal Mysteries. Video - How to Shrink a Head | Piers Gibbon Explains How Amazonian Tribes Make Shrunken Heads | Life's Little Mysteries.
How to Shrink a Human Head. Mysterious Symbols in China Desert Are Spy Satellite Targets, Expert Says.