 |
|
We actually do not see with our eyes - we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain. One-quarter of the brain is used to control the eyes. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Builder discovers "priceless" Tolkien postcard
Reads: 182 |
Posted by Isis on Saturday, July 12, 2008 (CDT)
 A demolition man stripping a fireplace from the former home of "The Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien stumbled across a postcard to the writer dated 1968, and hopes to sell it for a small fortune. Stephen Malton, who runs Prodem Demolition in Bournemouth on the south English coast, was working in the house in the nearby town of Poole before it was bulldozed to make way for a new construction project.
"Before we demolish a house we do an internal strip out," Malton said Tuesday. "One of the main features was a fireplace, and upon removing that we came across three postcards. The third one was a postcard dated 1968 and addressed to J.R.R. Tolkien." Malton said research on the Internet suggested that the carved wooden fireplace with marble inlay, a feature of the house when Tolkien lived there from 1968 to 1972, was already worth up to $250,000.
"To tie in both the fireplace and the postcard, we are talking about a price of around $500,000 for the combined pair," the 42-year-old told Reuters by telephone. He contacted the Tolkien Estate, which manages the author's copyrights, and said that they had given him the all clear to sell the fireplace and postcard. The estate could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Read More... World Events & Current affairs | Word Count: 523 | comments? | Score: 0) |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Germany opens Nazi crimes archive to public
Reads: 219 |
Posted by Isis on Friday, May 02, 2008 (CDT)
 Germany has opened the world's largest collection of documents on Nazi crimes and their victims to the public. The International Tracing Service (ITS) in the western town of Bad Arolsen contains about 50 million records on some 17 million victims of Hitler's Nazi regime. The paperwork, which includes imprisonment orders, death registers and Gestapo notes, reveals details about people who were murdered in the Holocaust, concentration camp survivors and millions of forced labourers and displaced people.
It contains the names of people on "Schindler's List" — hundreds of Jews saved by businessman Oskar Schindler — which was the subject of a Steven Spielberg film. Until Wednesday, the centre allowed only Nazi victims and their relations access.
ITS director Reto Meister said the opening marked the start of a new chapter for the archives more than 60 years after the end of World War Two. "The opening will contribute to keep alive the memory of the monstrous crimes of the Nazi era," said Meister at the opening ceremony.
(Read More... World Events & Current affairs | Word Count: 352 | comments? | Score: 0) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DNA tests may solve mystery of Anastasia
Reads: 332 |
Posted by Thoth on Sunday, April 06, 2008 (CDT)
 Answers to the mystery of what befell the heirs of the last czar of Russia nearly a century ago may rest behind locked laboratory doors in Moscow and New England. DNA test results to be announced within months on bone fragments found in Russia last year could prove that none of Czar Nicholas II's family escaped execution in the Bolshevik Revolution — not even Anastasia, the teenage princess whose identity various women have claimed over the decades.
Evgeny Rogaev, who heads a genetic research team working in Moscow and at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, is not immune to the effect his work could have on how his fellow Russian citizens view that turbulent chapter in their history. He keeps pictures of the royal family carefully tucked inside a folder near charts of DNA sequences, but does not display them. Likewise, he shields any sight of the remains from everyone except the other researchers, out of respect for whomever the remains represent.
"Murders occurred. Children were murdered," he said this week, choosing his words carefully. "I will not make a show of it. That is my ethics."
(Read More... World Events & Current affairs | Word Count: 1200 | comments? | Score: 0) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Treasure Hunters Dig for Nazi Riches
Reads: 394 |
Posted by Thoth on Saturday, March 01, 2008 (CST)
 German treasure hunters dug deeper Wednesday into a hillside near the Czech border in search of what they claim to be a man-made cavern laden with Nazi loot. While a second day of drilling for the suspected cavern brought no immediate results, Mayor Hans-Peter Haustein said he continued to be "100 percent (certain) that treasures from the Nazi time are buried here."
"We just don't know exactly where they are," he said. Haustein has been working with Christian Hanisch, who found a notebook among the belongings of his father, a former Luftwaffe radio operator who died last year. Hanisch came to Haustein after discovering that the book indicated treasure might be buried near the area.
Haustein suggested Wednesday that a cavern the treasure hunters are looking for might hold objects brought from the hunting lodge of Hermann Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, the Nazi regime's air force. Hanisch said he believed his father helped move "small but heavy boxes" from Schorfheide, north of Berlin, where Goering's lodge was located, to an airstrip near Deutschneudorf, the area where the search is being conducted.
(Read More... World Events & Current affairs | Word Count: 439 | comments? | Score: 0) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The history of New Year's celebration
Reads: 317 |
Posted by Thoth on Monday, December 31, 2008 (CST)
 "Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in modern America was not always Jan. 1.
The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring). The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. Jan. 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.
The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for 11 days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.
(Read More... World Events & Current affairs | Word Count: 1231 | comments? | Score: 4.66) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our Media Library contains over 600 Paranormal Audio and Video Clips. Click here to view.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
