background preloader

Strange/Mysterious

Facebook Twitter

Living Root Bridges in India. In the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren’t built – they’re grown.

Living Root Bridges in India

The living bridges of Cherrapunji, India are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. This tree produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves. Cherrapunji is credited with being the wettest place on earth, and The War-Khasis, a tribe in Meghalaya, long ago noticed this tree and saw in its powerful roots an opportunity to easily cross the area’s many rivers. Now, whenever and wherever the need arises, they simply grow their bridges.

In order to make a rubber tree’s roots grow in the right direction – say, over a river – the Khasis use betel nut trunks, sliced down the middle and hollowed out, to create root-guidance systems. All the credit for this post goes to Atlas Obscura’s Wonderful Post on living root bridges Did you like this? Signal or Noise: 8 Mysterious Unsolved Sounds. Signal or Noise: 8 Mysterious Unsolved Sounds Article by Steph, filed under Vintage & Retro in the Technology category.

(images via: darkf666, qaz2008, paulboutros) Did aliens try to send us a message in 1977? Is some mythical, nightmarish sea monster responsible for the bizarre ocean sound known as ‘The Bloop’? Could an enigmatic Russian radio signal be transmitting encoded messages to spies? The Bloop Several times during 1997, a sound reverberated through the Pacific Ocean that has been a mystery to science ever since. The NOAA says there’s no way the sound was man-made, and while it does sort of resemble a sound made by a living creature, there’s no whale in the world that’s large enough to produce a sound of such volume – not even gigantic blue whales. The Hum All over the world in places like Hawaii, New Mexico and England, every now and then people turn to each other and say, “What’s that humming sound?” Places of the Dead: 8 Extraordinary Burial Sites. 6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain. We like to feel superior to the people who lived centuries ago, what with their shitty mud huts and curing colds by drilling a hole in their skulls.

6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain

But we have to give them credit: They left behind some artifacts that have left the smartest of modern scientists scratching their heads. For instance, you have the following enigmas that we believe were created for no other purpose than to fuck with future generations. The Voynich Manuscript The Mystery: The Voynich manuscript is an ancient book that has thwarted all attempts at deciphering its contents. It appears to be a real language--just one that nobody has seen before. Translation: "...and when you get her to put the tennis racket in her mouth, have her stand in a fountain for a while. There is not even a consensus on who wrote it, or even when it was written. Why Can't They Solve It?

Could you? Don't even try. As you can imagine, proposed solutions have been all over the board, from reasonable to completely clownshit. Our Guess: Top 10 Lesser Known Mysteries. Mysteries It was Einstein that said ‘The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

Top 10 Lesser Known Mysteries

It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.’ For me, mystery is the fabric of Life, and since I discovered Listverse a few years ago I have noticed it’s a sentiment many people share. I have tried to avoid the usual topics of ghosts, ufo’s etc., and tried to opt for the niches and gems of the unexplained genre. The Brentford area of London is a peculiar place in terms of the names. There have been no other sightings since, and the Legendary Griffin has drifted into local folklore.

Amphibians in Ancient Iraq In ancient Mesopotamia, the world’s first academically ratified, fully functioning civilizations of Babylon, Sumer and Akkadia emerged. Those who saw the animal dismissed claims it was a Hyena, due to its large hind legs. “Sign that parchment!