New Book Claims It Was Admiral Zheng He Not Christopher Columbus That Discovered AmericaAs we get ready to celebrate Columbus Day on October 14th, here is some food for thought. What if it was not Christopher Columbus, but Chinese Admiral Zheng He that discovered the new world almost seven decades before the Spanish explorer set foot on the island in the Bahamas that we now call San Salvador? That, is something that amateur British historian Gavin Menzies has been asserting for years and he now has new evidence to prove it....
اقرأ المقالTwenty Months After The Tragedy, The Costa Concordia Saga Is Finally OverWhen luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia struck a rock in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the shore of Italy's Tuscan Archipelago and collapsed on its side on January 13th, 2012, salvage engineers knew that they had a nightmare on their hands because a rescue operation of a ship this size, had never been done before. To make matters worse, the liner lay right in the midst of the Pelagos Sanctuary, an environmentally protected area of the Mediterranean, which meant that even a small misstep could turn into a disaster....
اقرأ المقالThe Pinocchio Lizard Is Alive And Well - And That, Is No Lie!For decades scientists lamented about the demise of the gorgeous Pinocchio lizard. Now it turns out that the reptile, while still rare, is very much around in the cloud forests of South America, an area known for its stunning flora and fauna....
اقرأ المقالWill 'Recycled Island' Finally Become A Reality?For many years now, Dutch architect Ramon Knoester has been harboring a dream - To recycle the plastic that is polluting our oceans and transform it into a beautiful inhabitable island. He began his work in earnest in 2010, after receiving a grant from the Netherlands government. While it has taken a few years, and he has had to make some tweaks to his original plan, it seems as though this rather impossible sounding idea may actually become a reality, in the very near future....
اقرأ المقالAviation Navigation Has Sure Come A Long Way Since These Giant Concrete ArrowsLiving in an era when airplanes can run on autopilot with no humans at helm, it is hard to imagine that there was once a time not too long ago, when pilots in the USA had to navigate their way across cities using rudimentary aviation maps and . . . ginormous arrows!...
اقرأ المقالWingsuit Daredevil Jeb Corliss Completes Another Heart-Stopping 'Flight'Over his short illustrious career, base jumper Jeb Corliss has completed over 2,000 stunts including leaping off France's Eiffel Tower, zooming through a waterfall in the Swiss Alps and even, flying across the Tianmen Cave, a 100ft-wide water eroded slit, in China's Tianmen Mountain. However, the stunt he pulled recently was so dangerous that it scared the daredevil himself....
اقرأ المقالAlways Wanted To Star In A Manga Comic Book? Now You Can!Here's some good news for Manga comic book lovers that have always wished to see themselves in one. Japan's Shirai Labs has figured out an almost instant way to insert them in - All the aspiring star has to do, is pose!...
اقرأ المقالDallas Zoo Gorilla Gets Booted For Bad BehaviorPatrick a 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla has been a fixture at the Dallas Zoo since 1995. And while the gregarious male seems to love humans, his attitude toward his fellow gorillas especially females, has left much to be desired, leaving officials with no choice but to ship him off to a new home....
اقرأ المقالSkyCall May Be The Coolest Campus Guide You Will Ever EncounterGoing to a new school is tough - Not only does one have to seek out new friends but also be able to navigate around an unknown campus which can be a harrowing task depending on how big it is. Most schools assign seniors to help the newcomers, which is great, but wouldn't it be more fun if the campus guide was not human but a drone helicopter? Welcome to SkyCall....
اقرأ المقالGet Paid To Lounge In Bed? Sweet!Imagine a scenario where you get to lounge in bed all day and watch as much television, play as many video games or read as many books as you want. If that is not awesome enough, here is the icing on the cake - You even get paid for doing that and not just a tiny amount amount, but an astounding $18,000 USD, for the duration of the fifteen week study!...
اقرأ المقال'No Pets Left Behind' In Colorado Flood Rescue Efforts!They say that when it rains, it pours - This is something Colorado residents can relate to quite literally, given the recent torrential rains that began with just an inch in Boulder on September 1st and then quickly escalated to a record 9.08 inches on September 12th, nearly double the city's previous one-day record and about half of what it gets annually!...
اقرأ المقالCluster Balloonist Jonathan Trappe Attempts To 'Fly' Across The AtlanticNorth Carolina resident Jonathan Trappe has a fun hobby - He 'flies' around the skies seated in an office chair that is attached to a cluster of helium balloons. In 2012, at the Leon International Balloon Festival in Mexico, he even 'pulled' a Carl Fredericksen by flying a replica of the house that was featured in 'Up'....
اقرأ المقالOrangutans Plan Their Days And Publicize Them Just Like HumansJust as we humans are feeling all smug about our abilities to broadcast our daily schedule and plans via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, comes news that we are no pioneers - Male orangutans have been doing it for years, without requiring computers or sophisticated technology....
اقرأ المقالSouth Korea's Tower Infinity Aspires To Be World's First 'Invisible' TowerFor the last few decades, countries all over the world have been trying to outdo each other at building the world's tallest structures. Now South Korea wants to raise the stakes further with Tower Infinity, which at a height of 1,476 feet (450 meters) will not only be the sixth tallest, but also, the world's first 'invisible' tower....
اقرأ المقالTiny Frog Hears with its Mouth! While we humans need every organ of our body, animals seem to adapt and even thrive when they are missing body parts that we consider crucial to survive - There is the Borneo frog that breathes without lungs, the ice fish that has no hemoglobin and now, an earless frog that can hear perfectly....
اقرأ المقالJ.K. Rowling Returns - This Time With Some Magical Creatures!Here is some awesome news for all you wizard fans - The Harry Potter series may have concluded, but its author J.K. Rowling is nowhere near done telling stories about its magical world. This time around she is heading to tinsel town as screenwriter for a new film series that is based on a textbook that may ring a bell to the most avid Harry Potter fans - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a required reading for the young wizard when he entered Hogwarts....
اقرأ المقالThe World's Happiest Nations Are . . .Just like beauty, happiness is very subjective - What makes one person happy does not necessarily work for another. Yet there are various agencies that attempt to gauge the happiness of entire nations using disparate criteria. The most recent 'World Happiness Report' was released by the United Nations on September 9th and without further ado, here are the results . . ....
اقرأ المقالUh-Oh! It's Friday The 13th!While to most of us 13 is just a number, there are some people that consider it to be a bad omen. This is the reason office and residential towers often skip having a 13th floor altogether. However when the 13th happens to fall on a Friday, the fear factor escalates to a whole new level! Today happens to be the first of the two fearful 'Friday the 13th's' that we will have to encounter in 2013!...
اقرأ المقالLooking For An Exotic Classroom Pet? Professor Bechtel May Be Able To Help!How cool would it be if instead of learning about exotic animals like Patagonian maras (large rodents that resemble rabbits) and bearded dragons from textbooks you could do it by touching, feeling and maybe even breeding them? That is how the students fortunate enough to be taught by Michael Bechtel at Saydel High School in Des Moines, Iowa experienced biology for many years....
اقرأ المقالThousands Apply For A One-Way (All Expenses Paid) Voyage To MarsIf you are a space buff, visiting Mars is probably at the top of your list. It is therefore no wonder that when the Mars One Foundation announced that they were seeking four qualified applicants to send on an all expenses paid trip to the Red Planet, over 200,000 people from 140 countries expressed their interest. The only catch? It will be a one-way trip because their mission will be to establish the first human settlement on Mars!...
اقرأ المقالDallas Zoo Baby Cheetahs Get An Unusual Cage MateTwo eight-week old male cheetahs are about to start their new life at the Dallas Zoo with an unusual cage mate - An eight-week-old male black Labrador retriever puppy named Amani....
اقرأ المقالHow Legalizing Egg Poaching Has Helped The Population Of Ancient Sea Turtles In Costa RicaEvery year four of the world's seven species of marine turtles arrive on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica to nest. Among them is the Olive Ridley, an ancient turtle that has been around for more that 100,000,000 years and was at one time amongst the most prolific and abundant of all turtle species....
اقرأ المقالAre Coral Reefs Adapting to Climate Change?A few weeks ago, scientists reported that climate change might actually be helping California's ancient redwoods thrive. Now there seems to be more positive news - This time about the coral in our oceans whose population has been severely impacted in last few decades by rising temperatures and ocean acidification, disease and human carelessness....
اقرأ المقالLondon's Dazzling 'Walkie Talkie' Skyscraper is Sizzling Hot - Literally!With its distinctive shape, large public viewing deck and three floors of sky gardens as well as prime Central London location, 20 Fenchurch street, a 37-story commercial skyscraper affectionately called 'walkie talkie', was destined to be the pride and joy of the city when completed in 2014. However, a slight design snafu has turned the building into a heat-trapping magnet or as the public now like to call it, a 'walkie scorchie'....
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