Black Hole Seen in Closest Look Ever

A supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way has wound up in the crosshairs of a virtual telescope spanning 2,800 miles (4,506 kilometers).

Ground-based radio telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California aimed at Sagittarius A*—also called A-star—obtained the image (above, a previous picture of the black hole).

The star is believed to mark the position of a atramentous aperture four actor times the sun's mass.

Though unproven, there is strong evidence for the existence of black holes.

The black hole companion of Sagittarius A may be shunning the limelight now, but Shep Doeleman, an astronomer at MITs Haystack Observatory who led a recent study on the object, said it can't hide much longer.

Doeleman and his team say the source of the radiation is apparently a deejay of amount bouncing against the black hole, or a accelerated jet of amount actuality ejected from it.

"Now that we've shown it can be done, it's just a matter of time before we'll have very detailed information about what happens as matter is drawn near to the black hole and disappears forever," Doeleman said.

Face of death

On this photo a 18-year old young man who died in one of hospitals of Oman. The corpse of the boy has been dug out from a tomb in 3 hours after his funeral under the insisting of his father. The boy died in hospital and has been buried under the Islamic law and on the same day after obligatory ablution of the body. However after funeral the father has doubted of the diagnosis of doctors and wanted to identify the true reason of his death.

Relatives and his friends shocked when they saw the corpse. He was completely different within 3 hours. He turned grey as the very old man, with traces of obvious tortures and the most severe beating, with the broken bones of hands and legs, with the edges broken and pressed into a body. All His body and face were full of bruise. The open eyes-showed hopeless fear and pain. The blood obviously attributes that the boy has been subjected to the most severe torture.

Close relatives of the dead man have addressed to Islamic scientists who have unequivocally declared that it is available results of tomb torture which the Allah (s.w.t) and in the Hadis of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) have warned. The shocked father of the boy has admitted that his son was spoilt, did not do Solat, and had a carefree way of life, having involved in different sins. Each died person comes across tests in the tomb for exception Shahids who died in Jihad on the way of Allah. This is first terrible test which the person comes across before the Doomsday.

In Hadis of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) :
- After the death the spirit of died person will return to a body then two Angels will come, Munkar and Nakir, and will ask: "Who is your Lord?" he will answer: "my Lord - Allah ". Then they will ask: "What is your religion?" he will answer: "My religion - Islam". Then they will ask him: "Who that person who has been sent to you?" he will answer: "He is the Prophet of Allah ". Then they will ask him: "How do you know?" He will answer: "I read the Book of Allah and trusted Him.
And then from heavens the voice will come: " My Slave has told the truth, lay it to bed from Paradise and open the Gate of Paradise " - then it will be full of pleasure and he begins to feel paradise pleasure, and his tomb becomes spacious, that eyes can reach.

The Prophet of Allah Muhammad (s.a.w) said about the sinners. After the death the spirit of died person will return to the body then two Angels will come and ask, "Who is your Lord?" he will answer: "I do not know". Then they will ask: " Who that person who has been sent to you?" he again will answer: I "do not know" - and then from the sky the voice will come: "he told a lie, Put him into a box from fire and open before it the Gate of a hell! "-then it will be captured with heat of the hell, and his tomb becomes narrow and the edges will be compressed.

In Hadis it is also said, that Angels will severely beat the sinners during interrogation in the tomb and this torture will be awful. It is informed also, that our Messenger (s.a.w) supplicated to Allah to protect Him from tortures of a tomb and asked other people to do so.

The history of 18-year old young men is a sign for believers and this is only next fairy tale for whom hearts are sealed by Allah. They look and do not see, listen and do not hear?

Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica

A lost world has been found in Antarctica, preserved just the way it was when it was frozen in time some 14 million years ago.

The fossils of plants and animals high in the mountains is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also gives a glimpse of a what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms.

A team working in an ice-free region has discovered the trove of ancient life in what must have been the last traces of tundra on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began to drop relentlessly.

An abrupt and dramatic climate cooling of 8°C in 200,000 years forced the extinction of tundra plants and insects and brought interior Antarctica into a perpetual deep-freeze from which it has never emerged, though may do again as a result of climate change.

An international team led by Prof David Marchant, at Boston University and Profs Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis, at North Dakota State University, combined evidence from glaciers, from the preserved ecology, volcanic ashes and modelling to reveal the full extent of the big freeze in a part of Antarctica called the Dry Valleys.

The new insight in the understanding of Antarctica's climatic history, which saw it change from a climate like that of South Georgia to one similar to that seen today in Mars, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We've documented the timing and the magnitude of a tremendous change in Antarctic climate," said Prof Marchant.

"The fossil finds allow us to examine Antarctica as it existed just prior to climate cooling at 13.9 million years ago. It is a unique window into the past. To study these deposits is akin to strolling across the Dry Valleys 14.1 million years ago."

The discovery of the lake deposits with perfectly preserved fossils of mosses, diatoms and minute crustacea called ostracods is particularly exciting, noted Prof Lewis. "They are the first to be found even though scientific expeditions have been visiting the Dry Valleys since their discovery during the first Scott expedition in 1902-1903," he said.

"If we can understand how we got into this relatively cold climate phase, then that can help predict how global warming might push us back out of this phase. For the vast majority of the history of the Earth, there was no permanent ice is like today at the poles and even the tropics at high elevation. There's been a progressive cooling going on for 50 million years to get us into this permanent-ice mode; the formation of a permanent ice sheet on Antarctica plays a big role in that cooling.

"Studies like ours that establish when and how climate thresholds were crossed along the way can be used to predict climate thresholds going the opposite direction, from cool to warm.

"Although, to be fair, we're looking at one that is very far away; warming would have to be greater than what is predicted for the next one or two centuries to cause a melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The west Antarctic Ice Sheet is much more vulnerable.

Prof Ashworth is impressed by the way diatoms and mosses are indistinguishable from living organisms. Today, they are all over the world - with the exception of Antarctica.

"To be able to identify living species amongst the fossils is phenomenal. To think that modern counterparts have survived 14 million years on Earth without any significant changes in the details of their appearances is striking. It must mean that these organisms are so well-adapted to their habitats that in spite of repeated climate changes and isolation of populations for millions of years they have not become extinct but have survived."

What caused the big freeze is not known, although there are also theories and phenomena as varied as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and tectonic shifts, the ocean circulation affected.

Diamonds show how Earth is recycled

Tiny minerals found inside diamonds have provided us with a rare glimpse of the Earth’s deepest secrets. This exciting new research by a team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, is reported today (30 July) in Nature.

The Earth’s crust that underlies our oceans is constantly being made at mid-oceanic ridges which run down the centre of our oceans. There, magma derived from the mantle (the layer beneath the crust) is injected between diverging tectonic plates, pushing them apart. On the other side of each plate, old oceanic crust is finally recycled by returning to the mantle at subduction zones, huge ditches, diving deep beneath the continents.

Dr Michael Walter, from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, and lead author on the paper, said: “Exactly what happens to subducted oceanic crust is a long-standing question in Earth Sciences. Seismic imaging of subducted slabs has provided strong evidence that it can be taken to great depths, possibly even to the core-mantle boundary some 2,900 km below the Earth’s surface. There it can remain for billions of years in a kind of crustal graveyard. Its ultimate fate, however, remains uncertain.”

Dr Walter added: “There is also strong geochemical evidence that after stewing in the mantle for a very long time, say a billion years or so, oceanic crust acquires an isotopic ‘flavouring’ that is very different from the surrounding mantle. If this crust somehow makes its way into the regions of the mantle to a melting, the new magmas will betray the ‘scent’ of ancient oceanic crust.”

But many questions remain as to exactly how oceanic crust yields its unique signature to magmas. Does solid crust waft around in the mantle forming a sort of marble cake that can then be melted? Or does the crust melt at great depth within the mantle and react with mantle rocks to form some sort of hybrid source rock?

Given the depths these rocks are taken to, neither of these possibilities seemed likely, since the pressures would be too high for rocks to melt at those depths. But the team has found evidence of tiny Mineral inclusions in diamonds suggests that the oceanic crust may melt deep in the mantle and in this way of scents lend his coat in surrounding rocks.

The rock that is erupted on the ocean floor (basalt) spends most of its life (hundreds of millions of years) exposed to seawater. Consequently, some portion of it reacts with the seawater to form carbonate minerals. The team speculated that the presence of these minerals in oceanic crust has the effect of lowering its melting point to temperatures much lower than that of the surrounding mantle.

Although there is not much carbonate in oceanic crust so only a little melt can be formed, this small-degree melt will be loaded with elements that carry a chemical signature of the crust. Subsequent melting of mantle rocks that contain these small carbonate melts (carbonatites) would then yield magmas that also carry the crustal signature. But how to prove this?

Diamonds require high pressures to form. As such, they provide clues to the Earth’s deep interior, well beyond the depths that can be directly accessed by drilling. As the carbonate-rich liquids ascend through the mantle, diamonds crystallise en route, trapping other minerals (inclusions) as they form. The team therefore studied diamonds from the Juina area in Brazil, a location famous for yielding diamonds with inclusions derived from the deep mantle.

After performing a large number of experiments, measurements and calculations, the researchers were able to show that the diamonds and their inclusions had indeed crystallized from very small-degree, carbonatite melts in the mantle. Furthermore, they speculate, such melts may be pervasive throughout the mantle and may have been imparting a crustal ‘stain’ on mantle rocks for a very long time.

Citation: Primary carbonatite melt from deeply subducted oceanic crust by M. Walter, G. Bulanova, L. Armstrong, S. Keshav, J. Blundy, G. Gudfinnsson, O. Lord, A. Lennie, S.M. Clark, C. Smith, and L. Gobbo. Nature, 31 July 2008.

Provided by University of Bristol

8 Natural Wonders Added to UN Heritage List

The island of Surtsey, found 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the southern coast of Iceland, was formed by volcanic eruptions during the 1960s.

Named this week as a new World Heritage site, the island provides scientists with a unique laboratory to study the process of colonization by plant and animal life. Borne by ocean currents, the first seeds arrived in 1964. Molds, bacteria, and fungi arrived the following year. Plants and invertebrates are now relatively abundant, as are bird species—89 and counting.

Chosen by a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage Sites describe natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity.

This week officials added 27 new sites to the UNESCO list of 878 areas (679 cultural, 174 natural) worthy of preservation and protection.

Socotra Archipelago, Yemen

Dragon's blood trees grow in the archipelago, which consists of four islands and islets two rocky path for the 150 miles (250 km) from the Horn of Africa.

"The site is of universal importance because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna: 37 percent of Socotra's 825 plant species, 90 percent of its reptile species, and 95 percent of its land snail species do not occur anywhere else in the world," the UNESCO World Heritage Committee said in a press statement on July 8, 2008.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Canada

Full old fossils dating as far back as 354 million years ago, this 9 miles (14.7 km) tract of coastal states cliffs in Nova Scotia is to add eight new natural wonders in July 2008 at the United Nations list of World Heritage sites .

Once a rain forest teeming with life, the cliffs hold fossils from 148 ancient species and 20 groups of fossil footprints.


Lagoons of New Caledonia (France), Pacific Ocean

Part of a French-controlled island cluster located about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Australia, the lagoons of New Caledonia, including those around the small island in the picture above form the third largest coral reef structure in the world.

The healthy, intact marine ecosystems are home to threatened fish species, turtles, and the world's third largest population of dugongs, large vegetarian mammals related to manatees.

The lagoons were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2008.

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Every year, millions if not billions, of Monarch butterflies as the above-winter in densely forested mountains 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City.

"In the spring these butterflies begin an eight-month migration that takes them all the way to Eastern Canada and back, during which time four successive generations are born and die," the World Heritage Committee said in a written statement upon announcing new sites in July 2008.

Mount Sanqingshan National Park, China

Ribboned with forests, waterfalls, white rainbow and fantastically shaped rocks granite peaks and pillars resemble that animal and human silhouettes, this 56,710-hectare (22950 acres) National Park Huaiyu over the mountain chain in the Chinese province of Jiangxi.

The park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2008.


Saryarka Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan

Split between the Naurzum and Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserves, the wetlands that grace this 1.1 million acre (450,344 hectare) region provide a key stopover on the Central Asia flyway for migratory water birds from Africa, Europe, and South Asia.

The steppe and lakes in this region were mostly dry on the UN list of World Natural Heritage sites in July 2008.

Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, Switzerland

A textbook example of mountain building through continental collision, this mountainous area in northeast Switzerland has been studied by geologists since the 1700s.

The area was a UNESCO World Heritage on 8 July 2008.

Astronomy/Current Unsolved Mysteries

Dark Matter

Dark Matter is invisible, but has been postulated from its apparent influence on normal matter. It is one explanation for the lack of gravity needed to hold our universe together. (The current estimations of the total mass in the universe wouldn't support the observations and given the current numbers; our star systems would simply fall apart.) The dark matter theory states there is matter that doesn't radiate and therefore we cannot observe, as all of our methods rely on picking up electromagnetic waves of some sort.

This is the observation that has thrown everyone off guard. There is a certain type of supernova called type Ia. The nice thing about type Ia supernova is that they all seem to have the same brightness (no one knows why they all should have the same brightness, but that's a small detail (It is useful to point out that supernovae all have relatively the same brightness because it requires a certain amount of mass to make a star go supernova. It is the distance to them that changes the apparent brightness). Because they all have the same brightness, they are very good for measuring distances, and are called standard candles because of this and Doppler shift must be taken into account given the large distances. The thing that has everyone confused is that it seems that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing. This suggests that there is some sort of dark energy in space. As space expands, this energy comes out and makes space expand some more. Right now, one of the major research efforts is to get data on fainter supernova in order to have more points on the expansion curve line. The goal is to hopefully get a more exact idea of how the universe is expanding so that we have some idea of what is causing the acceleration.

This is still confusing people. One of the problems is that we have some pretty strong arguments as to what dark matter isn't. It's probably not regular matter made of protons and neutrons. The reason why, is that if it were ordinary matter, then when you calculate you get too little deuterium in the universe. Another problem is that the "clumpiness" of the galaxies and the cosmic background radiation just doesn't look right. If you go through the properties of dark matter, it turns out that it doesn't correspond to any known particle.

Some other theories explaining dark matter deal directly with our way of thinking about gravity. There is speculation that there is another large-scale force that is keeping our universe together. Another possible explanation is to think of space as a gas-and-space solid. If you place two objects apart from each other then pressurize the area the two objects will be forced towards each other. This is reversing our current ideas of gravity from an object having a pull on other object, to an object being pushed from all directions. (An object alone has no movement, but two objects create an uneven pressure pushing the objects together.)

An estimated 23% of the matter in the universe is dark matter. Ordinary matter only makes up 4% of the universe. The remaining 73% is an even more mysterious, repulsive "dark vacuum energy".

The most popular theory right now is that the repulsive force is actually a property of space itself: it is caused by waves of energy, created by particles and anti-particles popping into existence and then annihilating each other. Early in the universe's life, when there wasn't much space, the effect was small compared to gravity. But as the galaxies moved apart, the effect became greater.

Reionization

The cosmic background radiation was formed when protons and electrons combined to form atoms. The trouble is that we know that the matter between galaxies today is ionized (i.e. it's separate protons and electrons) with clumps of hydrogen atoms. We know this because when we look at all but the most distant galaxies, we don't see the spectra lines of hydrogen. So at some point the hydrogen in the universe reionized. The notion was that starlight caused the hydrogen in the universe to reionize, but the latest observations seem to indicate that this reionization occured before the first stars were there.

Galaxy Formation

The idea is that galaxies started from tiny fluctuations in density that formed after the big bang. By assuming that the universe consists mainly of cold dark matter, you can almost get the clumpliness that you see with the current galaxies. But there are still puzzles. There is an annoying lack of tiny galaxies, and the rotation curve that cold dark matter predicts, isn't quite the one that we see.

Before the Big Bang

Now to get really speculative, there have been some papers written recently that try to figure out what happened before the Big Bang. One of the strange ideas is that the universe is merely one plane in a multidimensional space, and that what happened was that two membranes in a multidimensional space collided causing a massive expansion in three of the dimensions. This is all really speculative, but the weird thing is that it isn't totally disconnected from observation. The idea is that you can use this model to predict the initial expansion of the universe, and this might have some effects on the ripples that you see in the cosmic microwave background.

With all of these puzzles, its not clear what is going to happen next. There is a lot of data coming in, and it may be that with new data, it will be possible to make our models of the universe work with minor tweaks here and there, and we can go on in the mode of what Kuhn calls "normal science." It's also possible that one day there will be some observation which is like Galileo seeing the phases of Venus. Some observation that makes absolutely no sense in the current paradigm of things, and this will force people to fundamentally change how we view the universe.

From : Wikipedia

Ghosts Paranormal Video

NASA Scientists Identify Smallest Known Black Hole

With a new technique, two NASA scientists have determined the lightest known black hole. With a mass only about 3.8 times larger than our sun and a diameter of only 15 miles, the black hole is very close to the minimum size predicted that black holes come from dying stars.

"This black hole is truly at the borders. For many years, the astronomers wanted to know the smallest possible size of a black hole, and this little guy is a big step toward answering this question," says Nikolai Shaposhnikov lead author of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Goddard Shaposhnikov and Lev Titarchuk his colleagues presented their results at the American Astronomical Society's High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting in Los Angeles, Calif. Titarchuk also works at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC .

The tiny black hole is in a binary system, Milky Way known as XTE J1650-500, named after its celestial coordinates in the southern constellation Ara. NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite detected the scheme in 2001. Astronomers realized J1650 soon after the discovery that it holds a normal star and a relatively small black hole. But the black hole of mass had never been measured at high precision.

The method used by Shaposhnikov and Titarchuk has been described in several papers in the Astrophysical Journal. It uses a relationship between black holes and the inner part of their surrounding disks, where gas spirals inward before making the fatal plunge. When the feeding frenzy reaches a moderate rate, hot gas piles up near the black hole and radiates a torrent of X-rays. The X-ray intensity varies in a pattern that repeats itself over a nearly regular interval. This signal is called a quasi-periodic oscillation, or QPO.

Astronomers have long suspected that a QPO's frequency depends on the black hole's mass. In 1998, Titarchuk realized that the congestion zone lies close in for small black holes, so the QPO clock ticks quickly. As black holes increase in mass, the congestion zone is pushed farther out, so the QPO clock ticks slower and slower. To measure the black hole masses, Shaposhnikov and Titarchuk use archival data from RXTE, which has made exquisitely precise measurements of QPO frequencies in at least 15 black holes.

Last year, Shaposhnikov and Titarchuk applied their QPO method to three black holes whose masses had been measured by other techniques. In their new paper, they extend their result to seven other black holes, three of which have well-determined masses. "In every case, our measurement agrees with the other methods," says Titarchuk. "We know our technique works because it has passed every test with flying colors."

If Shaposhnikov and Titarchuk application of their method on XTE J1650-500, they calculated a mass of 3.8 Suns, with a margin of uncertainty of only half a sun. This figure is well below the previous record holder black hole with a reliable mass measurement, Gro 1655-40, tips the scales at about 6.3 Suns.

Here are some unknown critical threshold, a dying star, a neutron star instead of a black hole. Astronomers think the boundary between black holes and neutron stars is somewhere from 1.7 to 2.7 solar masses. Knowledge of this dividing line is important for basic research in physics, because they say scientists about the behavior of matter if it is scrunched conditions for the extremely high density.

Despite the small size of the new record holder, future space transportation systems, travelers had better watch out. Smaller black holes as in J1650 exercise tidal forces stronger than the much larger black holes in the centers of galaxies, the young guys more dangerous to approach. "If you ventured too close to J1650-black hole, whose gravity would tidally stretch your body into a strand of spaghetti," says Shaposhnikov.

Shaposhnikov adds that RXTE is the only instrument that high-precision timing observations made for this line of research. "RXTE is absolutely crucial for this black hole mass measurements," he says.

The Earth's Magnetic Field

Why did the earth a magnetic field? The electrical conductivity of molten plasma of the Earth's Core should be able to damp the current magnetic field only in thousands of years. But our five billion years old earth clearly causes magnets, to (defined) to the north. The secret is not known yet, but thought recently, in connection with earth movements in the liquid outer core. In particular, as parts of the outer core cool and fall inwards, oceans of liquid iron-rich magma to the outside world, forced to filter a helical motion by the spin of the earth. This movement, many geologists now believe that regenerates Earth's magnetism. In the picture above, a computer simulation shows the resulting magnetic field lines out to two Earth radii, with blue lines directed inwards and yellow lines directed to the outside world.

Leonids vs. The Moon

Beautiful and bright, the 2002 Leonid meteors fought against blatant moonlight. This victory example from Tuesday morning skies above Laughlin, Nevada, USA, a fearless Leonid strokes between the familiar constellation of Orion (left) and a full moon overexposed. As expected, the Leonid shower packed a double punch on 19 November with the planet Earth fall by two thick clouds of meteroids, dusty debris left by the passage of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. Some European observers reported 10 or so meteors per minute in the first peak in the vicinity of 4:00 Universal Time, while North American skygazers witnessed slightly lower rates in the vicinity of the second peak at 10:30 UT. Overall, observed rates were much lower than last year Leonid meteor storm, but for many the sky was still filled with a rewarding spectacle of bright meteors. And this performance can be a fond farewell for the coming years. The annual Leonid meteor shower is not likely to approach these rates again until the end of this century.

The Sharpest View of the Sun

This stunning picture shows remarkable and mysterious details in the vicinity of the central dark region of a planet-sized sunspot in one of the sharpest views ever from the surface of the sun. Just released, the picture was taken with the Swedish solar telescope now in its first year of operation on the Canary island of La Palma. In addition to the functions described as hair and dark channels are visible in the bright cores threads that are in the sunspot, which hitherto unknown and unexplored solar phenomena. The filaments "new, dark seeds are visible at that thousands of kilometres long, but only about 100 km wide. The solution offers 100 km wide or less is a milestone in astronomy and solar technology has been achieved here using sophisticated adaptive optics, digital image processing stacks, and processing techniques to combat the effects of atmospheric blurring. At optical wavelengths, these images are even sharper than current space-based observatories can produce solar. Incorporated on July 15, 2002, the sunspot shown, is the largest the group of sunspots cataloged as solar active region AR 10030

The Twilight Zone: The Lost Episode

In the Twilight Zone Andrew is at least twenty years old, with the mind of a six year old child. He has lived within the same room his entire life never having the oppertunity to interact with the world outside. All he knows is what hes been taught by a mysterious voice from behind the door which has become his adoptive mother. When one day he becomes a bit over curious, and we
all know what happened to that cat..

Voynich manuscript

The Voynich manuscript is a medieval document written in an unknown script and in an unknown language. For more than a hundred years repeatedly tried the code, not avail. The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript suggests that it is meant to serve as Pharmacopoeia or to cover issues in the Middle Ages or the beginning of modern medicine. However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the origin of the book, the contents of the text, and the purpose for which it was intended.

The document contains illustrations, indicating that the book is divided into six parts: herbs, astronomy, biological, cosmological, Pharmaceutical, and recipes.

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – ca. January 15, 1947) was an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia, Short was found severely mutilated, with her body severed, on January 15, 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. The murder, which remains unsolved, has been the source of widespread speculation as well as several books and film adaptations.

Biography

Elizabeth Short was born in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. She grew up in Medford, by her mother, Phoebe Mae, after her father, Cleo Short, leaving her and her four sisters in October 1930.

Troubled by asthma, Short spent the summer and winter in Medford in Florida. At the age of 19, she went to Vallejo, California to live with her father. The two moved to Los Angeles early 1943, but after an argument, they abflog to get a job at a post exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc. Zog them to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on 23 September 1943 to underage drinking and was returned to Medford juvenile delinquency authorities. In the few years after they lived in different cities in Florida, with occasional trips back to Massachusetts to earn money mostly as a waitress.

In Florida, Short met Major Matthew M. Gordon Jr., was part of the 2nd Air Commandos and training for use in China Burma India theater of operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote a letter from India suggested that during the marriage, by a plane crash he suffered in the attempt to rescue a downed pilots. (He was, according to his obituary in Pueblo, Colorado newspaper, with a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with 15 oak leaf clusters, and Purple Heart). It accepted his proposal, but he died in a crash on 10 August 1945, before he could return that the U.S. later embellished the story and said that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air commands confirm that Gordon and Short were committed, his family later denied any connection after a short's Murder.

Short returned to Southern California in July 1946 to see an old friend she met in Florida during the war, Lt. Gordon Fick Ling, who was stationed in Long Beach. For the six months before her death, she remained in Southern California, especially in Los Angeles. During this time she lived in several hotels, apartment houses, rooming houses and private homes, never stay anywhere for more than a few weeks.

Death

The body of Elizabeth Short was found on 15 January 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, severely mutilated, halved and drained of blood. Her face was slash the corners of her mouth to their ears.

Rumors and popular misconceptions

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.

A number of people, none of whom knew Short in life, contacted police and the newspapers, claiming to have seen her during her so-called "missing week" between the time of her disappearance January 9 and the time her body was found on January 15. Police and district attorney investigators ruled out each of these alleged sightings, sometimes identifying other women that witnesses had mistaken for Short.

Many "true crime" books claim that Short lived in or visited Los Angeles at various times in the mid-1940s; these claims have never been substantiated, and are refuted by the findings of law enforcement officers who investigated the case. A document in the Los Angeles County district attorney's files titled "Movements of Elizabeth Short Prior to June 1, 1946" states that Short was in Florida and Massachusetts from September 1943 through the early months of 1946, and gives a detailed account of her living and working arrangements during this period.

Although popular belief as well as many "true" crime books portrayed Short as a call girl, a report by the district attorney's grand jury states that she was not a prostitute.

Another widely circulated rumor holds that Short was unable to have sexual intercourse because of some genetic defect that left her with "infantile genitalia." Los Angeles County district attorney's files state the investigators had questioned three men with whom Short had sex, including a Chicago police officer who was a suspect in the case. The FBI files on the case also contain a statement from one of Short's lovers. According to the Los Angeles Police Department's summary of the case, in the district attorney's files, the autopsy describes Short's reproductive organs as anatomically normal. The autopsy also states that Short was not and had never been pregnant, contrary to what is sometimes claimed.

The D.A.'s files contain the following:—

Doctor Schwartz last stated that he studied surgery and that victim was on the make for him but that she was the patient of Doctor Arthur McGinnis Faught who was treating victim for trouble with her bartholin gland and that he wanted nothing to do with her. He stated that the bartholin gland was the lubricating gland in the vagina and that Doctor Faught had lanced it on several occasions and it could account for the fact that she had not been having intercourse with men.

Suspects

The Black Dahlia murder investigation by the LAPD is the largest since the murder of Marian Parker in 1927, and involved hundreds of officers borrowed from other agencies of law enforcement. Because of the complexity of the case, the original investigators treated every person who knew that short a suspect who had to be eliminated. Hundreds of people were considered suspects and thousands of people were questioned by police. Sensational and sometimes inaccurate press coverage, and the nature of the crime, brought public attention to this matter. About 60 people have confessed to the murder, mostly men, and a few women. As the case continues to public attention, many others have been proposed as the killer court.

No theory is universally accepted, and none has been proven.

Possible related murders

Some crime writers have speculated on a link between the Short murder and the Cleveland Torso killings, also known as the Kingsbury Run murders, which took place in Cleveland from 1934 to 1938. The original LAPD investigators examined this case in 1947 and discounted any link between the two, as they did with a large number of killings, before and after, until well into the 1950s.

Other crime writers have suggested a link between the murder and short the 1945 murder of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan in Chicago; Degnan was also fragmented (and Short's body was discovered in the vicinity of Degnan Boulevard in Los Angeles). However serial killer William Heirens Degnan confessed to the murder and was in jail when Short's body was discovered. Steve Hodel, the claims of his father, George Hodel committed The Black Dahlia Murder, claims his father may have murdered as well Degnan.

Pictures

Unsolved Mysteries~Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste (sometimes incorrectly spelt Marie Celeste) was a brigantine discovered in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and under full sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar in 1872. The fate of the crew is the subject of much speculation; theories range from alcoholic fumes to underwater earthquakes, along with a large number of fictional accounts. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship.

Mary Celeste was in Nova Scotia in 1860. Their original name was "Amazon". She was 103 m total of 280 tons and displacing half Brigg. Over the next 10 years she worked at several accidents on the lake and through a series of owners. Finally, she turned to an auction in New York salvage, where she was purchased for 3000 dollars. After extensive repairs, she was under American registry and renamed "Mary Celeste".

On November 5, 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship picked up a cargo of industrial alcohol shipped by Meissner Ackermann & Co and set sail from Staten Island, New York to Genoa, Italy. In addition to the captain and a crew of seven, she carried two passengers, the captain's wife, Sarah E. Briggs (maiden name Cobb), and their two-year-old daughter, Sophia Matilda, making 10 people in total.

On December 4, 1872 (some reports give December 5, due to a lack of standard time zones in the 19th century), the Mary Celeste was sighted by the Dei Gratia, commanded by Captain David Reed Morehouse, who knew Captain Briggs. The Dei Gratia had left New York harbour only seven days after the Mary Celeste. Dei Gratia's crew observed her for two hours, under full sail and heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. They concluded that she was drifting, though she was flying no distress signals.

Oliver Deveau, the chief mate of the Dei Gratia, led a party in a small boat to board the Mary Celeste. He found the ship in generally good condition, though he reported that "the whole ship was a thoroughly wet mess". There was only one operational pump, with a lot of water between decks and three-and-a-half feet (1.1 m) of water in the hold. The forehatch and the lazarette were both open, the clock was not functioning and the compass was destroyed. The sextant and marine chronometer were missing, and the only lifeboat appeared to have been intentionally launched rather than torn away, suggesting the ship had been deliberately abandoned. Popular stories of untouched breakfasts with cups of tea on the cabin table, washing hung out to dry, a cat found asleep on top of the gallery locker and a bowl of a half-eaten apple pie are wholly without substance.

The cargo of 1701 barrels of alcohol was intact, even if it was finally discharged in Genoa, nine barrels were empty. A six-month supply of food and water on board. All papers of the vessel, with the exception of the master log, were missing. The last entry was on 24 November and put them 100 miles (160 km) west of the Portuguese islands of the Azores. The last entry in the ship's slate showed her how have reached the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on 25 November.

Crewmen from the Dei Gratia sailed the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar where, during a hearing, the judge praised them for their courage and skill. However, admiralty court officer Frederick Solly Flood turned the hearings from a simple salvage claim into a de facto trial of the men of the Dei Gratia, whom Flood suspected of foul play. In the end, the court did award prize money to the crew, but the sum was much less than it should have been, as "punishment" for suspected, but unproved, wrongdoing. Captain Morehouse was awarded one fifth of the ship and cargo.

None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers has been found. It is unlikely that the events leading to their disappearance will ever be known with certainty.

In the spring of 1873, two small wooden rafts made of wood lashed together offshore were sighted by fishermen from Spain. One contained a body wrapped in an American flag, and the other four bodies. It has been suggested that these are remains of the crew of the Mary Celeste. However, the corpses were buried in a grave without positively identified

The recovered ship was used for 12 years by a variety of owners.

During January 1885, she was loaded with an over-insured cargo of scrap, including boots and cat food, by her last captain who attempted to sink her to claim insurance money. The plan did not work as the ship refused to sink after having been run up on the Rochelois Reef in Haiti and an insurance investigation revealed the fraud.

On August 9, 2001, an expedition headed by author Clive Cussler (representing the National Underwater and Marine Agency) and Canadian film producer John Davis announced that they had found the remains of the brigantine off the Isle de Gonave in Haiti. Archaeologist James P. Delgado identified the wreck as Mary Celeste based on a survey of the large bay and by analyzing vessel fastenings, ballast, timber, and evidence of the fire that burned the stranded hulk. This evidence matched the wreck with historical accounts of Mary Celeste. Other researchers have, however, disputed this claim. Scott St George of the Geological Survey of Canada and the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona analyzed samples from wood fragments recovered from the site in an effort to reconstruct sufficient tree ring data for dating. Based on this, St. George felt that the wood was cut from trees still living at least a decade after the ship sank, as cited in The Independent of January 23, 2005

Dozens of theories have been proposed to explain the mystery, ranging from the mundane and plausible to the fantastic.

The most plausible theories are based on the barrels of alcohol. Briggs hauled had never such a dangerous cargo before and not trust. Nine leaking barrel would be an accumulation of steam in the handle. The historian Conrad Byers believed that Captain Briggs ordered keep that open, resulting in a heavy rush of smoke and steam. Faith, was the ship to explode, Briggs ordered everyone in the lifeboat, not in a hurry to properly secure the vessel with a strong towline. The wind picked up and blew the ship away from them. The inhabitants of the lifeboat either drowned or drifted on the sea to die of hunger, thirst and exposure.

First put forth by the ship's owner, James Winchester, this theory is perhaps the most widely accepted explanation for the disappearance. Even paranormally-inclined writers like Richard Winer and Colin Wilson consider this the most likely solution to the Celeste mystery.

A refinement of this theory was proposed in 2005 by German historian Eigel Wiese. At his suggestion, scientists at University College London created a crude reconstruction of the ship's hold to test the theory of the alcohol vapor's ignition. Using butane as the fuel and paper cubes as the barrels, the hold was sealed and the vapor ignited. The force of the explosion blew the hold doors open and shook the scale model, which was about the size of a coffin. Ethanol burns at a relatively low temperature with a flash point of 13°C or 55.4°F. A minimal spark is needed, for example from two metal objects rubbing together. None of the paper cubes was damaged, nor even left with scorch marks. This theory may explain the remaining cargo being found intact and the fracture on the ship's rail, possibly by one of the hold doors. This burning in the hold would have been violent and perhaps enough to scare the crew into lowering the boat, but the flames would not have been hot enough to have left burn marks. A frayed rope trailing in the water behind the ship is suggested to be evidence that the crew remained attached to the ship hoping that the emergency would pass. The ship was abandoned while under full sail and a storm was recorded shortly after. It is possible that the rope to the lifeboat parted because of the force from the ship under full sail. A small boat in a storm would not have fared as well as the Mary Celeste.

Some people theorize that the alcohol was to blame, but for a different reason. They believe that the crew tried to break into the hold to drink the alcohol, murdered Captain Briggs in the process, and later stole a lifeboat.


Another theory has proposed, there was a mutiny among the crew murdered, a tyrannical Briggs and his family, then fled into the rescue boat. However, Briggs had no history, he suggest the kind of captain to provoke his crew to mutiny. First Mate Albert Richardson and the rest of the crew also had an excellent reputation.

An alternate scenario has the ship encountering a waterspout, a tornado-like storm with a funnel cloud that occurs at sea. In such a case, it is suggested, the water surrounding the ship may, in being sucked upwards, have given the impression that the Mary Celeste was sinking. It would explain why the Mary Celeste was soaking wet when discovered by the crew of the Dei Gratia, and a mass panic among the crew during such an occasion would probably explain the scratched railing, and the broken compass, as well as the missing lifeboat. A further theory offered by Captain David Williams is that a seaquake erupted below the ship and jarred open nine barrels of alcohol (~450 gallons), which leaked into the bilge. The earthquake also dislodged the flue for the hot stove on deck and caused embers from the fire to drift into the rigging. Smelling the alcohol in full view of the burning embers caused the crew to panic and abandon the ship. The ship sailed on alone without the crew. The crew then decided to try to catch the ship and sail off after her in the small sailing dingy, but they never caught up with the Mary Celeste and died at sea.

Yet another theory posits a case of ergotism derived from bread aboard the ship which could have led all its occupants to throw themselves overboard. However, the sailors from the Dei Gratia were not affected.

Brian Hicks and Stanley Spicer in recent books revived the theory that Captain Briggs opened the hold to ventilate it while becalmed. The release of noxious alcoholic fumes from the hold might have panicked the captain and crew into abandoning ship for the yawl, tied to the halyard by an inadequate rope. If this broke with a weather change and consequent wind, then it could easily have explained the sudden and mysterious exit from the ship.

Hicks claims in the Real Life Media documentary that the cargo was the more toxic methanol, although there is no evidence to support this.

A recent investigation Smithsonian postulated that the captain thought close to the Azores in a bad storm, and with a pump inoperable, abandoned ship for the island. But he was 100 miles.

Youngest planet

An embryonic planets outside our solar system discovered a system could be less than 2000 years old, say astronomers.

The ball of dust and gas that is in the process of transforming into a giant Jupiter, it was found around the star Tau HL, by a British team.

Research leader Dr. Jane Greaves, said the planet `s growth in May were kickstarted when another young stars to the system 1600 years.

Details were presented at the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.

The scientists studied a disk of gas and rocky particles to HL Tau, which is 520 light years away in the constellation Taurus and thought to less than 100000 years old.

The disc is unusually massive and bright, making it an excellent place to search for evidence of planets in the process of formation.

The researchers say their image belongs to a proto-planetary still embedded in his birth.

Dr. Greaves of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, said the discovery of a planet around the formation of such a young star was a big surprise.

"It was not really what we were looking for. And we were surprised when we found it," she said BBC News.

"The next planet confirmed youngest is 10 million years old."

When the proto-Earth is assumed that the same age as the star it orbits, which would be several hundred times less than the previous record holder.

`` Record holder The growth of the planet But it is an interesting suggestion that the gas giant, which is about 14 times as big as our Jupiter, could even younger.

With the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in the USA, the researchers studied the system on emission wavelengths specially selected to the search for rocky particles approximately the size of pebbles. The presence of these pebbles is a clue that rocky material gradually clump together to form planets.

In the United Kingdom, researchers used the Merlin radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire study on the same system at longer wavelengths. This allowed them to confirm the emissions were from rocks, and not from other sources such as hot gas.

In addition to the detection of super-large dust in the disc to HL Tau, she was also an extra bright "clump" of the material.

This confirms a so-called "nebulosity" seen a few years earlier in the same position, by a team led by Dr. Jack Welch of the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array, USA.

Formation Theories

Dr. Ken Rice, from the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh, said the discovery throw new light on theories of planet formation.

Following a model that planets form from the bottom up. Under this scenario, particles of rocky material collide and "stick" to one another, a larger object.

But he says that the proto-Earth and HL Tau formed relatively quickly, if a region of the disc collapsed into a self-contained. This can occur because of the gravitational instability in the disk.

Dr. Rice said his computer simulations were like a good fit for the observation that it seemed, could the mechanism really in the nature.

Surprisingly other young star in the same region XZ Tau May, a narrow pass of HL Tau about 1600 years ago.

Although not required for planetary formation, it is possible that this summary surprised the disc, making it unstable. This would be a very recent event in astronomical terms.

"It` s possible, it was a "yank" on one side of the disc to HL Tau, making it unstable, and this was a "trigger" for the planet, "said Dr. Greaves.

"If the planets formed in the last 1600 years, that would be incredibly young."

The Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2008 continues through Friday at Queen's University in Belfast.

Gamma-Ray Burst Visible to Naked Eye

Scientists have found an interstellar explosion so bright that he briefly with the naked eye-from 7.5 billion light years away.

Viewers looking for the right patch of the night sky on Wednesday had seen several afterglows from the massive gamma-ray burst, somewhat brighter than the faintest stars visible.

NASA Swift satellite recorded the unprecedented spectacle with its X-Ray Telescope (left) and optical / UV telescope (right). The burst GRB 080319B was named because it was the second of four bursts detected that the first day for Swift.

GRB 080319B, is more than half in the entire visible universe, crushed the previous record holder for the most distant object visible without the help of three orders of magnitude. That would be the galaxy M33, only 2.9 million light years from Earth.

"That was a stunner burst," Swift Principal Investigator Neil Gehrels of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. "It blows away every gamma-ray burst so far we have seen."

Gamma-ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of fuel and collapse, casting, fast huge quantities of radiation and high energy particles. Acting as high-power cosmic blowtorches, particle jets can also heat interstellar clouds to create bright afterglows, according to scientists.

The bursts are the most brilliant occurrences in the universe after the Big Bang. GRB 080319B the afterglows, for example, seemed to 2.5 million times stronger than the brightest supernova on record.

Researchers are still unsure why GRB 080319B was so bright. Some theories originating a star with an unusual mass, spin, or magnetic field or a particularly concentrated energy jet.

Scientists "see" ghosts

The reason that appearances, enemy images, and like phantoms lurking in the shadows May by scientists.

A team from University College London found that when we look around in a poorly lit context, it can fool our brains in things that are not really there.

Although no one has done a systematic study of the ghost, neuroscientists are convinced they are all in the mind ", and in the light of the new work, it seems not so surprising that they seem most likely to see in" spooky "scanty - Lit circumstances

The journal PLoS Computational Biology, Prof. Li Zhao Ping and her colleagues say that the surrounding context of what we see, everything is important - sometimes overwhelming evidence gathered by our eyes and we even imagine things.

They were surprised when they find that a vague background context has more influence on what we see, as someone who is bright and well defined, and speculate that this may explain the power of abstract art and the reason why we can see vivid details in the vague brush strokes from impressionist paintings.

"The paintings are vague in the details, but I speculate that perhaps because of this vagueness viewers are free to live their imagination to fill in the details," said Prof. Zhao Ping, takes her first name as her pen scientific name - Li Is such a common name, it can lead to an identity crisis for Chinese scientists.

"Everything we see is a hallucination caused by the virtual-reality machine in our head," commented Professor Mike Morgan from the City University in London.

"Normally, these hallucinations veto by the information coming through our senses, so we can call perception" controlled hallucination ".

"But if the input is not clear can be all sorts of things, like the faces de Quincy saw in the clouds and carpets. There are hundreds of faces hidden in the soil of structured platforms at subway station Euston, if you look for . "

To the power of the urgent context, 18 observers were from the UCL team to concentrate on the center of a black screen. Each time a buzzer sounded they pressed one of two buttons to record or not, whether they just saw a small, dark, grey 'target' rectangle in the middle of the screen. It seems not every time, but when it appears, for which only 80 milliseconds (80 one-thousandth of a second).

"People saw the target much more often if it appeared in the middle of a vertical line of similar-looking, grey rectangles, in comparison to when it appears in the middle of a pattern of bright, white rectangles. Yourself registered" see "the target If it is not really there, "says Prof. Zhao Ping.

"This is because the people psychologically better prepared to see a bit vague, when the surrounding context is also vague. It made sense for them to see - so that what happened. If the objective is not with the Expectations that the surrounding context, you saw it much less frequently.

"Illusionists were alive to this phenomenon for years," Prof. Zhao Ping "If you see, they throw a ball into the air, followed by a second ball, and then a third ball, the" magic "disappears, you ask, how they did it.

"In truth, there is often no third ball - it is not only our brain is fooled by the context, tell us that we really see three balls in the air launched one after the other."

"Contrary to what one might expect, it is a rather vague as a bright and clearly visible context strong that most of our convictions to allow the evidence and fill in the blanks."

This may also be why more monsters lurking in the shadows. "In the shadow of a lot of things are vague seen (and not as clear), that is more of the filling-in," says Prof. Zhao Ping.

Haunted Lighthouses - Seguin Island Light

Way up in the northeastern corner of the U.S, perched high on its own little barren island made of rock, sits Sequin Island Lighthouse. This lighthouse, located at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Georgetown, Maine, is the second lighthouse that was ever built in Maine and is one of the oldest in the U.S. The little island of rock, located in an area that is frequently shrouded in fog -- an average of 2,734 hours of fog every year -- and hammered with cold, high winds, seemed almost designed by nature to harbor a lighthouse.

Merchants submitted the petition for the lighthouse in 1786, but the government didn't order the lighthouse built until 1795. Once President George Washington gave the order, the lighthouse construction began and the project was completed in 1797 at a cost of $6,300.

Sequins Lighthouse holds the title as the highest elevated lighthouse in Maine, standing just over 180 meters above the sea level. The fixed, non-flashing light is visible, as far as the ships 40 miles. Due to the high incidence of fog in this area, the light, the house is equipped with one of the most powerful fog horns that have ever been made. The original structure was replaced in 1820, then again in 1857, than in the current structure was built. The light has continued to be monitored manually until it was fully automated in 1985.

The history of Seguin Island Light Station is filled with strange and tragic stories.
One is that of the first lightkeeper who died penniless and boatless on the island. Some say his ghost has haunted the keepers who came after him. There have been sightings of a ghost who has been named the "Old Captain". He is usally seen climbing the staircase of the tower as if heading upstairs to tend to the light.

One night the old furnishings were being removed from the premesis. Apparently the man in charge of the crew moving the furniture was awakened in the middle of the night by the "Old Captain" who asked him not to take the furniture and to leave his home alone. The man didn't grant the request and the next day after the furniture had been loaded onto a boat and was being lowered into the water, the cable mysteriously snapped. The boat and everything in it fell onto the rocks below and were smashed into pieces. It appears the "Old Captain" got his way afterall.

Another frequent sighting is that of a young girl running up and down the stairs and waving to those who see her. She has also been heard laughing and bouncing a ball in a room upstairs. History shows that a young girl died on the island and was buried near the lighthouse.

Perhaps the most tragic incident that occured on the island is that of a former caretaker in the mid 1800's who was driven insane and murdered his wife, then took his own life. Legend states the caretaker brought his wife to live with him at the lighthouse shortly after they were married. As time went by, she became depressed and sullen and he bought her a piano to help cheer her up.

Unfortunately, she didn't memorize music and had to play from sheet music. Since she had only had one piece of sheet music on the island, she played the same song over and over until her husband finally took an axe to the piano and to her, and then killed himself.

Passing ships have reported that the sound of faint piano music coming from the island can be heard floating out over the waves on still, calm evenings.

Additional accounts of the paranormal include doors opening and closing by themselves, mysterous cold spots, coats being thrown onto the floor, tools disappearing and reappearing at random, and coughing from an unseen source.

The Sequin Island Lighthouse is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and is accessible by boat from Bath, Popham Beach, or Boothbay Harbor.

Curvature of Space

A hallmark of gravity is that is causes the same acceleration no matter what the mass of the object. For example, a baseball and a cannon ball have very different masses, but if you drop them side-by-side, they accelerate downward at exactly the same rate. To explain this, Einstein envisioned gravity as being caused by a curvature of space. In fact, his general theory of relativity describes gravity entirely in terms of the geometry of both space and time. Far from a source of gravity, like a planet or a star, space is "flat" and clocks tick at their normal rate. Closer to a source of gravity, however, clocks slow down and space is curved. A useful analogy is to imagine that the space near a massive object such as the Sun becomes curved like a surface in figure.

Imagine a ball rolling along this surface. Far from the "well" that represents the Sun, the ball would move in straight line since the surface is fairly flat. If it passes the well, however, it would curve in toward the well. If it is moving at an appropriate speed with respect to the well, it might move in an orbit aroundthe sides of the well.In this analogy,it is the curvatureof the surface that makes the ball follow a curved path near the well. The curvature has the same effect on a ball of any size, which explains why gravity produces the same acceleration on objects of different mass.

Mysterious Pyramid Complex Discovered in Peru

The remnants of at least ten pyramids have been discovered on the coast of Peru, marking what could be a vast ceremonial site of an ancient, little-known culture, archaeologists say.

In January construction crews working in the province of Piura discovered several truncated pyramids and a large adobe platform.

Officials from Peru's National Institute of Culture (INC) were inspected after the discovery.

Last week announced that the complex, 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1 miles (1.6 km) wide, belonged to the old Vicús culture, and was likely to be either a religious center and a cemetery for nobility.

The Vicús was a pre-Hispanic culture flourished in Peru, the northern coastal desert from 200 BC to 300 AD, and is known for its ceramics decorated.

Experts say little is known about the culture, because their sites were heavily looted over the years.

"We have found several partially pyramids, at least ten," said César Sánchez Santos, chief archaeologist for the INC's Piura Division.

"We also have a large adobe platform, which we speculate, had for the burial rituals. But we can not know, without further examination."

Skull Fragments

The platform, measuring 82 feet (25 meters) by 98 feet (30 meters), was found alongside one of the larger pyramids in the complex.

Another of the larger pyramids contained some artifacts as well as bone fragments from a human skull.

The fact that the skull fragments were found several meters below the surface, indicating a deep grave that took much time to dig, prompted researchers to theorize that the individual buried there had high social status.

Santos added that the complex is surrounded by four large hills: Pilán, Vicús, Chanchape, and Tongo.

"We think that because of its geographic location the complex could have been a place of strategic value," Santos said.

The area containing the pyramids is surrounded by a cemetery that has been looted by grave robbers.

"But the complex itself is intact," Santos said...

Who Were the Vicús?

"The Vicús are very interesting, but so poorly understood, given the fact that most of what we know about them is through looted ceramic art," said Steve Bourget, an archaeologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

"This could be an important find because it is one of the few with monumental architecture. But it is still too early to say."

Experts say that the ceramic Vicús style resembles in some respects to those of the Moche, a fact that led the research on the relationship between the two cultures.

The Moche civilization flourished in the areas south of the Vicús from around 100 to 750 AD, the production elaborately painted pottery and gold ornaments, irrigation systems, and monuments.

The two cultures thrived within a relatively short distance of each other-less than the between Los Angeles and San Francisco experts point out.

"It is possible that the Vicús for a part of its history was closely associated with the Moche culture," said Joanne Pillsbury, an archaeologist at Washington, DC-based Dumbarton Oaks, a research institute associated with Harvard University.

The discovery of the pyramids Vicús comes as perceptions about the Moche have shifted, she added.

"It was once believed that it is a single monolithic Moche state, but the people do not believe that it is more true," said Pillsbury.

"It was probably a number of regional or multi-valley kingdoms divided that a wider culture. Vicús And was probably part of this sphere of interaction."

TWO GHOSTS CLOSE-UP!

Ghostly These photos were in our files, and we have decided to share them here for Ghost Study spectators. They are especially unusual and convincing. Some have probably been floating around the Web and for the time in one form or another.

Decide for yourself their authenticity.

*The first photo is a haunted room with a solemn meditation spectre

*The second image is what appears to be a ghost peering up window. Not by us believe is authentic.

fROM : http://ghoststudy.com/galleria/jan08/ghost_box1002.htm

Surprise Egypt Tombs Yield Ornate Coffins, Dog Mummies

Four ancient tombs containing well-preserved mummies, ornate painted coffins, and mummified dogs have been unearthed in El Faiyum, an oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo.

A female mummy was found wearing a gold mask, a rare treasure on the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat. The funeral complex is a frequent target for the current grave robbers and had been thought plundered its riches.

"An important point is that these mummies are almost unaffected," said Galina A. Belova, a Russian Egyptologist, led the excavation.

"There are not so many [good condition] mummies in El Faiyum at this moment. They are very rare."

In a separate grave, discovered the first excavator completely intact mummy ever found in the necropolis.

The team of American and Russian archaeologists stumbled upon the burials as part of the routine work in a section of the cemetery, which was used from the early fourth century BC In the seventh century AD

Some 150 other tombs from different eras and dozens of poorly-preserved mummies have been excavated, although most of the tombs were plundered during a rash of robberies in the 20th Century.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, that some of the newly discovered ruins are still the best, from the Ptolemaic period, the range of Greek domination began shortly after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC

"A mummy was beautiful gold, and another is in very good condition," said Hawass, which is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-residence. "They show some of the best examples of mummies from that time." (The National Geographic Society has National Geographic News.)

Archaeologists also found a strange funeral at the edge of the area with the nonmummified remains of a child and a group of mummified dogs, a grave unlike any other so far in Egypt.

The four best preserved and largest of the newfound tombs contained human-shaped coffins that were mostly intact.

Some showed slight damage near the feet, probably the result of ancient robbers rummaging for riches, experts said.

The coffins' exteriors were inscribed with verses and pictures from the old Egytpian Book of the Dead, the Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said that was standard decoration "to help you get out of this world in the next. "

Three of the coffins were made of wood and were parallel. A smaller fourth coffin probability of a child-was made of papyrus or a similar material, and was at a slightly different angle.

The joint funeral have belonged to a single family, experts said, adding that it is rare to find coffins at different orientations in the region.

Inside two of the coffins, mummies were in the head and legs with colorful papier-cardboard material as often plastered mummified body and decorated.

One of the mummies bore a painted cartonnage mask in gold, as a symbol of eternity.

"It was a very sweet little mask," said Ikram, the X-ray mummies after the discovery.

In a grave nearby, archaeologists found a completely intact mummified woman-the first ever major generations of treasure hunters here.

The archaeologists that they plan to do more research, including facial reconstructions of the mummies to determine their origin.

Robbers

Thievery has damaged almost all the tombs in Deir el-Banat, making it hard for experts to know what the graves looked like in antiquity.

"The robbers come in regularly, so it is quite unusual to get intact burials," said Ikram of AUC.

As a measure of how widespread the crime is, the excavations even turned up some contemporary digging tools, which were probably stashed away by frightened thieves who left hastily.

The shallowness of the tombs—some of which are no more than a meter below the surface—makes them particularly attractive for looters.

"Robbers have always investigated cemeteries since the ancient times," Belova, the Russian archaeologist, said. "We have a lot of robbers who want to have a lot of gold."

The newly unearthed tombs may have been spared because of their relatively simple exteriors. Belova said her team had to rapidly document and remove the items because of security concerns.

She also said she hoped the discovery would change Deir el-Banat's reputation as a site that has been looted clean.

"It looks like a robbed area, but robbers cannot do a systematic study of a cemetery," she said. "That's why we still have a lot of chances to find something new here."

Mummified Dogs

One of the strangest discoveries made at the site was the nonmummified body of a child buried with several mummified dogs.

The human remains, which were naturally mummified by the arid climate, were partially covered in a sack, its lower half surrounded by crudely mummified canines ranging from puppies to fully mature animals.

"They are put in any which way, with no real sense of orientation," said AUC's Ikram, an animal mummy expert.

Ancient Egyptians were known to keep domesticated pets and sometimes were buried with them.

Other animals were included in burials as part of a religious ritual, but this find is unlike any that has been documented, he said.

"The kind of deposit [of animals] you have here is neither like a sacred deposit [nor] like a pet deposit," Ikram said.

"It really is a very interesting new page in the archaeology of humans and animals in Egypt."

Spirit, Mind & Body : No Self

A key component of the New Age which many people prescribe to is the belief that our planet and its population are literally moving into a New Age. This New Age is one of awakened consciousness where people give up their limited third-dimensional survival mode of existence and awaken to a higher, more enlightened world.
This coming New Age is an era of harmony, progress, knowing, and enlightenment.

Andrew Lutts

Introduction: basic concepts

* Spirit
Animation or a key principle kept to life physical organisms, or the intangible intelligent sentient part of a person

*Soul
The intangible nature, animating principle, or cause the exercise of an individual life, the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe

*Mind
The element or complex elements in the view that an individual perceives, thinks, wants, and above all, for reasons the conscious mental events and functions in the organism, which organized conscious and unconscious mental activity an adaptive organism

*Holistic
About or complexes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis, treatment, or cutting into parts (holistic medicine attempts to both the mind and the body)

The New Age Movement

The New Age movement means different things for different people.
But almost all the New Age topics have a basic underlying theme:
Personal spiritual development. Every day there are thousands and thousands of people around the world who are waking up to the knowledge, understanding and recognition of who they really are, where they came from and why they are here. This collective transformation of individuals can be described as the New Age movement. As a whole, the New Age movement is dynamic, fast growing and gaining momentum. The New Age movement is the framework and the tools to help people with their own personal growth and spiritual development.

The New Age movement itself is a little paradoxical, because the organization in a kind of "movement" could serve as contrary to the principles of individual spiritual development. Therefore, there is some confusion about the meaning of the New Age, because it may mean that different things to people. But that's okay. It is important that each individual starting gun for their own way of learning, adventure and discovery.

New Age and metaphysics

The New Age is closely linked with some of the concepts defined in the branch of philosophy commonly known as metaphysics. Although the academic branch of metaphysics is very concerned about the nature of ultimate reality, popular themes often metaphysical discussion and analysis of issues beyond the physical third dimension. Some examples of the metaphysical topics include: energy, the experience of the body, UFOs, psychic phenomenon, alternative healing, and other issues that our conventional science find difficult to explain.
New Age and religion

While it may be spiritual, the New Age is far from a formal religion. In fact, many New Agers rather shy away from the structure and traditional religious practices. But at the same time, the New Age and can be intensely spiritual. The New Age person often prefer a direct spiritual experience and not as an organized religion.

All religions are essentially cultural institutions, which the cultures, which are manifest. This growth in the number of people exploring New Age topics would suggest that as individuals and as a society, we are prepared to alternative explanations of who we are. The New Age is simply a way to choose the path of spiritual growth. It plays a role that small label, we are on the way, because at the end of all paths eventually converge at the same location. Everyone is in search of the eternal truths of life on some of the most difficult issues, it is simply the way that people will choose to have their own search, which is different. One reason the New Age Trail is popular is that there is more to the ultimate truth itself, rather than the process, as they come.

Common New Age beliefs

Here is an unofficial list of the conviction that some people in New Age May have in common:

1 Create your own reality and destiny. This is a planet of free choice, and you have your own free will.

2 They have some challenges to face in this life to be overcome. If you do not learn your lessons, this time, you'll get them again.

3 There is no such thing as coincidence.

4 There is more to life than meets the eye, much more.

5 Nothing really counts in this life, unless it is done for the benefit of others.

6 We are not alone.

7 We are multidimensional beings with a human experience.

8 We are all more help, as we know, angels, spirit guides, rose masters, and others.

9 We can heal ourselves, our society and our world.

10 The ultimate transformation for humanity is Ascension.

New Age Tools

A study of the instruments of the New Ager can help to the task in hand. A person may also crystals, candles, incense, tarot, runes, spherical, body work, meditation, muscle building and chants, drums and more. These tools can help a person on whom in various states of consciousness, and ultimately help a person in itself to watch for in the understanding and awareness. One reason that there are so many different tools to support the New Ager is that different people have different values in each instrument. For many, the tarot works well. Others, such as crystals. Others meditate or channel. It plays a role in how to achieve something greater understanding and wisdom. What is the most important thing is that an attempt is made to overcome our limitations and try to a higher good.

Free will versus Destiny

This philosophical question is one of the more curious contradictions in the study of metaphysics and free will:

Metaphysicians Some would argue that a rational universe is always based on cause and effect. This means that any effect is a cause, all the way back to the first cause, namely God or the Divine.

On the other hand, the act of pure, genuine and free will not cause is somehow to deny the divine rational order and make the universe appear irrational.

My interpretation: Although some things may occur in one's life that may destiny, we have free will. This is important. And as time goes by, our ability to things and situations manifest will be accelerated so fast that we see that we can create and manifest results quickly and easily. For me, if we can make such changes, which means that we have, in fact, the free will.

New Age and science

Many people feel that the new era is simply not thinking rationally. Traditional models often include scientific observation, analysis, test and measurement technology. Often, these things are not easy to metaphysical and paranormal phenomena. So how can anyone believe in something they can not even see, measure, quantify and analyze?

It is a question of faith, and often a deep inner knowledge. It is intuition and trust. They are listening. It is a whole series of things that are not currently within the scope of accepted scientific thought.

The important thing to remember is that the new era of faith not reject science. Modern science has tremendous good to our society in many ways. New age beliefs extend beyond simply accepted thinking in the exploration and search for life's eternal truths.

Source: Andrew Lutts