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Friday, March 19, 2010

Library Book Overdue for 45 Years Finally Returned


                                  Unique  Old Books!

LONDON - It's common to return a library book late - but not by half a century.
Staff at a British library say they were surprised and puzzled when they received a book that was 45 years overdue through their mailbox.


Alison Lawrie, the principal assistant at Dinnington Library, near northern England's Sheffield, says the Penguin first edition copy of "Quatermass and the Pit" by Nigel Kneale was due back on Oct. 15, 1965.

She says the borrower remains a mystery because the library records don't go back that far, and the sender didn't attach a letter or note with the book.
Lawrie said Friday the sender need not worry about a hefty fine.
She says: "If the person who returned the book wants to come forward, we'd love to know the story behind it."


Stock Photography & Copyright by Soren Breiting.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Smallest Town in the USA


Hidden among the cornfields along highway 55 in northwestern Minnesota on some of the flattest land you'll ever see is a little town called Tenney. Having recently discovered that America's smallest town was only three hours away, my curiosity finally got the best of me. So I rose early on Saturday morning and made the three-hour drive in 2 hours and 57 minutes, took some pictures, and then made it back in time for lunch.

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Youngest Girl to Row Across the Atlantic Ocean Alone

Katie Spotz, 22, of Mentor, Ohio, rows as a Guyana Coast Guard escorts from behind upon arrival to shore in Georgetown, Guyana, Sunday, March 14, 2010. Spotz, who set out from Dakar, Senegal on Jan. 3, completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat.

Seventy days without using her legs for anything other than rowing movements, and suddenly, Spotz wondered if this might be the first in more than two months that she would fail.
              
"It was a bit nerve-wracking," Spotz said via phone Sunday night










Amazing Solar
Panels!

Photos by Julie Gibson of Associated Press

Story of Plants That Have Feelings

Most people would find it hard to believe that plants have feelings. Recent studies have proven that plants do have feelings. According to the peer reviewed journal Plant Physiology, plants are capable of identifying danger. Botanist Bill Williams said, “plants not only seem to be aware and feel pain, they can even communicate.” Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird who cowrote of “The Secret Life of Plants” said, “Plants are living, breathing, communicating creatures.”




The fact that “plants have feelings” has been recorded repeatedly in books in China since ancient times. Here is one account that occurred during the Tang Dynasty.



Monk Su of Xing-Shan Temple had some candlenut trees on the grounds that he planted years ago. In the summer months sap from the candlenut trees dripped from the leaves. If it got on your clothing, just like motor oil, it could not be washed off. Many officials from the royal court would come to tour the temple during summer. One time the high officials from the State of Zhao came to the temple for a summer vacation, however they disliked the candlenut trees because of the sap they dripped. They told Monk Su, “Please cut those trees down, and we'll give you a pine tree for every candlenut tree you cut down.”



In the evening, Monk Su jokingly told the trees, “I planted you some twenty years ago, but people dislike you for your sap. Next year, if your sap drips down again, I'll use you as firewood.”



After that, the sap no longer dripped down from these candlenut trees.

Crystal Caves of Mexico

The Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico, is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary crystals. Naica is a lead, zinc and silver mine in which large voids have been found, containing crystals of selenite (gypsum) as large as 4 feet in diameter and 50 feet long. The chamber holding these crystals is known as the Crystal Cave of Giants, and is approximately 1000 feet down in the limestone host rock of the mine. The crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. The cavern was discovered while the miners were drilling through the Naica fault, which they were worried would flood the mine. The Cave of Swords is another chamber in the Naica Mine, containing similar large crystals.


The largest natural crystals on Earth have been discovered in two caves within a silver and zinc mine near Naica, in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to mine officials. Reaching lengths of over 20 feet, the clear, faceted crystals are composed of selenite, a crystalline form of the mineral gypsum.

The Incredible Lendicular Clouds

Lenticular clouds, technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction.




Where stable moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. Lenticular clouds sometimes form at the crests of these waves. Under certain conditions, long strings of lenticular clouds can form, creating a formation known as a wave cloud.



Power pilots tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of the turbulence of the rotor systems that accompany them, but sailplane pilots actively seek them out. This is because the systems of atmospheric standing waves that cause "lennies" (as they are sometimes familiarly called) also involve large vertical air movements, and the precise location of the rising air mass is fairly easy to predict from the orientation of the clouds.



"Wave lift" of this kind is often very smooth and strong, and enables gliders to soar to remarkable altitudes and great distances. The current gliding world records for both distance (over 3,000km) and altitude (14,938m) were set using such lift.



Lenticular clouds have been mistaken for UFOs (or "visual cover" for UFOs) because these clouds have a characteristic lens appearance and smooth saucer-like shape.



The Amazing Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters.




They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty.



Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.



Mysterious Sailing Stones of Death Valley

In an area called the "Racetrack playa" in Death Valley near the western border of Arizona, an amazingly large number of stones, ranging in size from mere pebbles to half ton boulders regularly travel by themselves and no one has ever been able to explain why!

These huge stones move by themselves, leaving miles of zig-zagged, curved and straight tracks and continue to baffle the scientific community. As you can see these photos, the hardened surface of the landscape is marbled with the trails of water rivulets that would make concealing evidence of outside interference impossible. So the big question is, just how DO these mysterious stones move?
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