The Pearl of Lao Tzu

Linked to multiple legends, the Pearl of Lao Tzu is the largest known pearl in the world, measuring 9.45 inches (24 centimeters) in diameter and weighing 14.1 pounds (6.4 kilograms). Reportedly extracted from a giant clam off the coast of the Philippines in 1934, the pearl has been labeled "The Pearl of Allah" by some who believe it resembles the face of Muhammad and has also been connected to a legend involving the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Jade Burial Suits

Considered a mere myth by archaeologists for years, the use of jade burial suits among wealthy Han Dynasty nobles was proved in 1968 with the discovery of two complete suits in tombs in China's northern province of Hebei. Belonging to Chinese prince Liu Sheng and his wife Dou Wan, the ceremonial burial suits were constructed using 2,498 plates of solid jade and 2.5 lb (1.1 kg) of gold wire. Experts now believe the practice was fairly common.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Autostereograms

Autostereograms are optical illusions of depth that are designed to trick the brain into perceiving a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional image. The simplest type, known as a wallpaper autostereogram, consists of horizontally repeating patterns that appear to float in the air above the background. In order to perceive the 3D shapes, the brain must overcome the normally automatic coordination between focusing and convergence.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Klezmer

Klezmer is a form of instrumental Jewish folk music that had its beginnings in the Middle Ages. Its name is a Yiddishized version of the Hebrew klei zemir, meaning "instruments of song," that until the mid-20th century referred to the musicians rather than the music. Largely based on cantorial singing and the folk music of Eastern Europe, klezmer has a distinctive sound that is reminiscent of the human voice.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Robot Combat

Though no longer the televised spectacle it was around the turn of the century, robot combat continues to be the focus of numerous tournaments in which two or more radio-controlled machines are pitted against one another and directed to destroy or disable their opponents. Such robots range from tiny "fleaweight" devices to sophisticated contraptions weighing more than 300 pounds and equipped with weapons such as rammers, flippers, and overhead axes.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

The Cluttered Lives of the Collyer Brothers

American brothers Homer and Langley Collyer lived as hermits in their New York City home before being found dead in 1947, surrounded by more than 100 tons of rubbish amassed over several decades. Their uncontrolled collecting is often cited as a prime example of the hoarding behavior associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Among the clutter were 14 pianos, pickled human organs, and the chassis of an old car, with booby-traps set up to protect against intruders.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Bruxism

Derived from the Greek word meaning "gnashing of teeth," bruxism is the habitual, involuntary grinding or clenching of the teeth. Sometimes associated with stress, bruxism is caused by the activation of the reflex portion of the chewing mechanism at a time when higher brain control remains inactive, usually during sleep. Though common and generally harmless, bruxism can cause damage in the form of cracked teeth, indentations, and wear.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

The Q Document

In the 19th century, New Testament scholars noted that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which display similarity in word choice and event placement, share material not found in their generally recognized common source, the Gospel of Mark. Accordingly, some theorized that, independently of one another, the authors used the Gospel of Mark along with a hypothetical second source, dubbed the Q document, when composing their manuscripts.

additional information

Q document

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

House cleaner in nuclear clean-up

The household product being applied to steel work
The £1.99 household product Cillit Bang is being used to help clean plutonium stains at the defunct Dounreay nuclear power plant in Caithness.

Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said it would help reduce the £2.6bn cost of dismantling the site.

The cleaner's use has also drawn interest from operators of other nuclear sites in the UK.

A different domestic product has already been applied in the cleaning of contaminated glass tubes.

Randall Bargelt, of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns Dounreay, said such innovative thinking would save taxpayers, who are funding the cost of the dismantling project.

Plastic suits

Staff at Sellafield in Cumbria were among those monitoring the use of Cillit Bang in Dounreay's experimental chemical plant.

One of the clean-up team suggested trying the product after the fluid normally used was deemed to be slowing down the operation.

The cleaner was found to markedly reduce levels of radioactive contamination.

Project manager David Manson said: "The normal decontamination agents we would use on steel and glass need time to dry and this slowed us down.

"The acids that had been used years ago also created problems. It meant we had to think carefully about the most effective way to wipe the plutonium from the steelwork before we could cut it up."

He added: "It was at one of our regular toolbox talks that one of the guys suggested Cillit Bang.

"He remembered seeing it dissolve the grime on a 2p coin in an advert on TV and thought it was worth looking at. I'm very glad we did. We tested it and found it to be very effective."

The 15-strong clean-up team wear whole-body plastic suits with their own oxygen supply and often need four or five layers of gloves to protect them from radiation.

Previously, Mr Muscle has been used along with a glass cleaning agent to decontaminate glass columns at the plant's reprocessing laboratory.

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Legal case against God dismissed

The plaintiff argued an omniscient God would know of the lawsuit
A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served.

The suit was launched by Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who said he might appeal against the ruling.

He sought a permanent injunction to prevent the "death, destruction and terrorisation" caused by God.

Judge Marlon Polk said in his ruling that a plaintiff must have access to the defendant for a case to proceed.

"Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Judge Polk wrote in his ruling.

Mr Chambers cannot refile the suit but may appeal.

'God knows everything'

Mr Chambers sued God last year. He said God had threatened him and the people of Nebraska and had inflicted "widespread death, destruction and terrorisation of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants".

He said he would carefully consider Judge Polk's ruling before deciding whether to appeal.

The court, Mr Chambers said, had acknowledged the existence of God and "a consequence of that acknowledgement is a recognition of God's omniscience".

"Since God knows everything," he reasoned, "God has notice of this lawsuit."

Mr Chambers, a state senator for 38 years, said he filed the suit to make the point that "anyone can sue anyone else, even God".

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Fake Dutch 'moon rock' revealed
The lump of 'moon rock' had been on display for decades
A treasured piece at the Dutch national museum - a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing - is nothing more than petrified wood, curators say.

It was given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill tour by the three Apollo-11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission in 1969.

When Mr Drees died, the rock went on display at the Amsterdam museum.

At one point it was insured for around $500,000 (£308,000), but tests have proved it was not the genuine article.

The Rijksmuseum, which is perhaps better known for paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, says it will keep the piece as a curiosity.

"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

"We can laugh about it."

The "rock" had originally been been vetted through a phone call to Nasa, she added.

The US agency gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries following lunar missions in the 1970s.

US officials said they had no explanation for the Dutch discovery.


Ummm red faces all round????

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Fake Dutch 'moon rock' revealed
The lump of 'moon rock' had been on display for decades
A treasured piece at the Dutch national museum - a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing - is nothing more than petrified wood, curators say.

It was given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill tour by the three Apollo-11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission in 1969.

When Mr Drees died, the rock went on display at the Amsterdam museum.

At one point it was insured for around $500,000 (£308,000), but tests have proved it was not the genuine article.

The Rijksmuseum, which is perhaps better known for paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, says it will keep the piece as a curiosity.

"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

"We can laugh about it."

The "rock" had originally been been vetted through a phone call to Nasa, she added.

The US agency gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries following lunar missions in the 1970s.

US officials said they had no explanation for the Dutch discovery.


Ummm red faces all round????

Makes one think what other fake moon rocks are presented are real?

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Considered a masterpiece of British art, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump is a 1768 oil-on-canvas painting by Joseph Wright. Portraying a scientific subject in the reverential manner formerly reserved for historical or religious scenes, the painting depicts a natural philosopher—a forerunner of the modern scientist—recreating an experiment in which a bird is deprived of oxygen before a group of onlookers.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Quintuplet puppy birth confusion

The announcement of Kate Pong's puppies did not say they were dogs
A dog that gave birth to five puppies became the target of newspaper interest when she was mistaken for a human.

An announcement in the births section of The Times newspaper said Kate Pong had had "beautiful" quintuplets called Beyonce, Tyra, Bobbi, Barrack and Earl.

Kate's owner, Fiona Wallace, from Newport, in Shropshire, said a friend had placed the advert but failed to mention that they were dogs.

She said the "bizarre" incident had not intended to mislead.

Kate Pong is a two-and-a-half-year-old chocolate Labrador.

'Honestly done'

When Kate gave birth to five puppies, a friend decided to spread the word by placing an announcement in the Births, Deaths and Marriages section of The Times on 1 September.


Ms Wallace said they never thought the announcement would cause such a stir
Ms Wallace, 34, said there was no reference to the fact they were dogs: "She didn't say they were human, she just didn't say they were dogs."

When the announcement was published, Ms Wallace said it prompted a newspaper columnist to comment on the infants' strange names.

She said she also had inquiries from a number of newspapers including The Sun and The Daily Mail.

She said: "It's a little bizarre. We think it's great.

"It was honestly done just to let people know and it's just snowballed from there."

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

On the Internet nobody knows you are a dog.
Tullio

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Namaste

One of the few Sanskrit words commonly recognized by non-Hindi speakers, namaste is an Indian gesture, greeting, and parting phrase. Derived from a Sanskrit phrase literally meaning "I bow to you," namaste is universally accepted in India and Nepal by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. When said to another person, it is commonly accompanied by a slight bow made with the hands held together in front of the chest.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

The Tunguska Event

In 1908, a massive aerial explosion near Siberia's Stony Tunguska River flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 sq km) of forest—felling an estimated 80 million trees over 830 sq mi (2,150 sq km) and producing a shockwave that shattered windows hundreds of miles away. Known as the Tunguska event, the explosion is thought to have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale, with an estimated energy 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

The P-51 Mustang

A single-seat, single-engine monoplane produced for Britain's Royal Air Force and later adopted by the US Air Force, the P-51 Mustang was a fighter aircraft that played a significant part in defeating the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Originally equipped with eight machine guns and a camera for reconnaissance, the P-51 was a superb long-range fighter with a maximum speed of 390 mph (630 km/h).

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

The First Fatality in the Age of Flight

US Army First Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was the first person killed in a powered airplane. The accident that caused his death occurred during a demonstration of the Wright Flyer for the US Army in September 1908. After a few successful circuits around Virginia's Fort Myer, the craft's right propeller broke, causing it to nose-dive into the ground. Selfridge, a passenger on the flight, sustained major head injuries and died that night

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Shock and Awe Doctrine

The shock and awe doctrine is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming force, dominant maneuvers, and staggering displays of power to control an adversary's perception of the battlefield and quickly destroy its will to fight. Though the doctrine recognizes the need to minimize civilian casualties, it relies on the disruption of water supplies, food production, and other aspects of infrastructure.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010