John Paul II For Sainthood? God Says No!

Ex-Pope John Paul II is up for canonisation this weekend, while his former spokesman plays down his role in covering-up, or ignoring, child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

A 30 metre high crucifix statue in Italy dedicated to John Paul II fell over today, killing a tourist.

 If smears on glass windows that kind of vaguely resemble the shape of a woman are hailed as signs of the Virgin Mary, what the hell does a giant crucifix dedicated to John Paul II crashing down just before he is canonised signify?

Frothy Dog

Cappuccino art is getting pretty out there:

Otters: The Dark Side

Oh, yes, sleeping baby otters are incredibly cute:

And yes, adult otters do hold hands when they're sleeping so they don't drift away from each other.

But otters are also brutal rapists, and one was even observed raping a baby seal, to death:

A weaned harbor seal pup was resting onshore when an untagged male sea otter approached it, grasped it with its teeth and forepaws, bit it on the nose, and flipped it over. The harbor seal moved toward the water with the sea otter following closely. Once in the water, the sea otter gripped the harbor seal’s head with its forepaws and repeatedly bit it on the nose, causing a deep laceration. The sea otter and pup rolled violently in the water for approximately 15 min, while the pup struggled to free itself from the sea otter’s grasp.

Finally, the sea otter positioned itself dorsal to the pup’s smaller body while grasping it by the head and holding it underwater in a position typical of mating sea otters. As the sea otter thrust his pelvis, his penis was extruded and intromission was observed.

At 105 min into the encounter, the sea otter released the pup, now dead, and began grooming.

The rest of this shocking Dark Side Of Otters Story Is Here

Icenami

'Ice shove' from a Minnesota lake in 2013 "consumed" homes

A mix of currents across Mille Lac Lake, in Minnesota, temperature differences and powerful winds force chunks of ice up onto the land, and into peoples' homes. A kind of instant, fast moving glacier. Just incredible video:

Beautiful mutation

Usually grey, this is a pink Katydid, a 1 in 500 mutation, so fairly common.

Look At Me! Look At Me!

This is just showing off:

 Pic from here

Ice Balls!

Ice balls, or ice boulders, a fascinating natural phenom recorded during the US Polar Vortex last week:

Explanation:

The incredible basketball sized - and bigger - 'ice balls' have been captured on film at Glen Arbor Township, Michigan, were they  cover the entire shoreline.

Despite appearing as unnatural creations, the boulders are a regular feature of Lake Michigan when temperatures drop below freezing, and are formed by ice clumping together in a similar way to snowballs.

Meteorologist Joe Charlevoix explains: "[When] the water temperature on the Lake Michigan is just a little bit below freezing, so you get a small piece of ice that forms in the water and as waves move back and forth it adds additional water and freezes in layers.

"It gets bigger and bigger, and eventually you get big balls of ice, that are pushed to the shore by the wind."

100,000 Bats Rain Down Over Queensland

Had no idea bats can't stand the heat. They were thriving in Kakadu when I visited in the mid-90s, then again, it wasn't as hot as parts of Queensland have been in recent weeks.

About 100,000 bats have fallen from the sky and died during a heatwave in Australia that has left the trees and earth littered with dead creatures.

In scenes likened to "an Alfred Hitchock thought bubble", a heatwave across the north-east state of Queensland in recent days caused mass deaths of flying foxes from an estimated 25 colonies.

"It's a horrible, cruel way to die," a conservation worker, Louise Saunders, told The Courier Mail.

"Anything over 43 degrees [Celsius, 109F] and they just fall. We're just picking up those that are just not coping and are humanely euthanising what we can."

Venus Flower Basket Sponge Will Blow Your Fcking Mind

David Attenborough has seen nature at its most beautiful, and most brutal, its most simple and most complex. So what really impresses him? According to a Q &A on Reddit, the Venus Flower Basket Sponge pretty much blows his mind. And it will blow your mind, too. Go to 54:30 -



Wow!

Conjoined Whales Thrived For Years

We still know so little about life beneath our oceans that conjoined whales may be more common than we think. This one grew to 4 metres before dying near the Baja Peninsula, so they clearly managed to survive for many years.

More here

The War From Space

Natural events? Or something of extraterrestrial origin?

Live feed from NASA which excited many into claiming they'd captured footage of untold extraterrestrial spacecraft :



An extraterrestrial attack on Fort Worth, Texas? Or blowing power generators?




We're being invaded!

Plenty Of Signs Of Life In China's "Ghost Cities"

One of the many remarkable public parks under construction in China's "Ghost Cities"

By Darryl Mason
 
Western media loves to do stories on what they call China's "Ghost Cities." What they are referring to is the brand new cities springing up across China to deal with the planned shift of more than 400 million Chinese from rural living to city living over the next two decades.

Obviously you need to build cities for all these people to move into, and they're not going to fill up overnight (what city ever has?).

But just how empty are these so-called "Ghost Cities"? Well, when you take a close look at satellite images that often accompany western smirking at China's pre-planning, they're not so empty after all, and they're often teeming with signs of life, and massive construction projects. Even traffic jams.



SBS Dateline has now done two interesting stories on China's "Chost Cities" in two years, collectively clocking up millions of online views. But do they tell the full story of what's going on in these cities, still under construction?

Here's a selection of screengrabs from Googe Earth views of the cities of Tianducheng, Dongguan and Ordos, so famous now as a "Ghost City" it is pulling in tourists.

 

 

Chinese Displays Of Extreme Wealth Now Totally In-Your-Face

A jewellery store in China claims this is the world's "biggest pure gold mascot," containing 24,928 grams of gold.
 

Story Here

Sea Creature "With Horns" Found On Spanish Beach

Amazing looking "sea beast" but more than likely the spine from the corpse of a big shark.

Experts and residents are struggling to determine what the remains are, with guesses ranging from everything from a relative of the Loch Ness Monster, a dinosaur or sea monster, or an oarfish.

"It’s hard to know what we are dealing with," PROMAR Sea Life Defence Program spokesman Paco Toledano told Ideal Ameria.

"It’s very decomposed and we cannot identify what it is."

Sinkhole!

An incredible piece of video of a sinkhole opening beneath a lake.

Humans, Weirder Than Fiction

From the Sydney Morning Herald: 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND SYNDROME

Also called micropsia, this condition distorts visual perception so that objects that are close appear disproportionately tiny, as though viewed through the wrong end of a telescope. It owes its name to Lewis Carroll's fictional protagonist, Alice, who perceived things as too small or too big after taking magical medicines. Usually temporary in nature, the syndrome is associated with migraines. Carroll suffered migraines, so perhaps he was describing his own experiences.


ONDINE'S CURSE

A wonderful name for a nasty problem, this is a sleep disorder resulting from a malfunctioning autonomic nervous system. Its victims are unable to breathe spontaneously but must consciously will each breath, so will suffocate if they fall asleep. Respirators may help. Also known as congenital central alveolar hypoventilation syndrome, Ondine's Curse derives its name from the legend of a water nymph, Ondine, who fell in love with a human, thereby forfeiting her immortality. Though he had pledged his undying love, Ondine discovered him snoring in the arms of another woman. She cursed him, declaring that as he had pledged his love with every waking breath, he would die the moment he fell asleep.

POLYDACTYLISM

Still on the subject of hands, polydactylism is a congenital abnormality involving being born with too many digits, ranging from rudimentary nubbins to fully formed fingers or toes. While rare, polydactylism is prevalent among communities given to intermarriage, such as Philadelphia's Old Order Amish. Notables with the condition have included Henry VIII's ill-fated second wife Anne Boleyn (whose extra pinky sparked rumours of her being a witch), war photographer Robert Capa and cricketer Garry Sobers. According to The Guinness Book of Records, the record for extra digits goes to Indian brothers Tribhuwan and Triloki Yadav, who boast 20 fingers, four thumbs and 24 toes between them.

CAPGRAS SYNDROME

A loved one has been stolen by a doppelganger; sounds like a movie about alien abduction. But for sufferers of Capgras Syndrome, the action occurs only in their brains, not outer space. This syndrome involves the delusion that a significant other, such as a parent, spouse or other relative, is being impersonated by an imposter. Sufferers sometimes attack the supposed double. The delusion can also extend even to oneself, with the person convinced that the reflection in the mirror is that of an imposter. While extremely rare, it is linked with brain damage, psychotic disorders and various neurological problems that somehow interfere with normal face recognition abilities. The syndrome owes its name to the French psychiatrist who first described it.

HYPERTRICHOSIS

People with hypertrichosis, a congenital condition involving hair growing all over the body - including eyelids and even ears, which can sprout long curls - have always attracted enormous interest, especially as sideshow stars. Probably the most famous was JoJo the Dog-Faced Boy (aka Fedor Jeftichew, a Russian recruited by showman P.T. Barnum), who toured widely during the latter half of the 19th century. There are different forms of hypertrichosis, distinguished by varying hair type, quantity and distribution. Some cases also have a little hairy appendage called a faun tail.

PENIS PANIC

Koro is one of a number of names for a hysterical condition known medically as Genital Retraction Syndrome, whose victims become convinced that their genitals are disappearing into their bodies. It can be contagious, sparking off "penis panics", such as the one that overtook Singapore in 1967 in which thousands of men became convinced that their penises were being stolen; it was contained by a complete media blackout on the condition. Often blamed on witchcraft, Koro typically strikes in less developed parts of the world, including Africa and Asia, where belief in sorcery remains strong. It's thought to be an extreme overreaction to normal genital shrinking from cold or other causes. Koro can be treated with medical reassurance and anti-anxiety medications.

PROTEUS SYNDROME

Named after Proteus, the Greek god famous for changing his shape, this is a progressive disorder causing disfiguring tumours and abnormal bone development. It's extremely rare, with just over 100 cases confirmed since it was first identified in 1979. Its most celebrated victim was Joseph Merrick, aka "The Elephant Man", a grotesquely deformed man befriended by Dr Frederick Treves, a physician at London Hospital. At first, Merrick was believed to have suffered from the nerve disorder neurofibromatosis, but in 2003 DNA testing on his remains showed that he in fact had Proteus Syndrome. His story inspired the 1980 film The Elephant Man, starring John Hurt as Merrick.


Plenty More Here

Do Clouds Get Drunk?

From National Geographic.

More Evidence For The Ancient Mickey Mouse Theory

There is no actual Theory Of Ancient Mickey Mouse, I just made it up. But maybe there is something in such absurdity. Can this really be just a coincidence?

First, an ancient statue thousands of years old is unearthed:

And now NASA reveals a 'natural' feature on the surface of Mecury that seems very familiar indeed.
























I will explore the Ancient Mickey Mouse Theory further as more evidence comes to hand. Perhaps Walt Disney himself was "one of them."

If this was the 1970s, I could write a book about Ancient Mickey Theory and make a bundle. But not now. Damn internet with its fast and easy fact-checking. Spoilsports.

The Monsters In The Mona Lisa

An artist claims he has found 'animal faces' unnoticed for over 500 years in the most famous painting in the world. Here's one of them :



From the UK Sun :

Ron found another hidden image — the crocodile or snake — by following instructions in another part of da Vinci's writings suggesting to tip the painting at a 45 degree angle. This was supposedly where the angle of the light was best and led to the least amount of reflection.

The instructions also called for the viewer to put their eyes on the same level as the horizon in the painting.

From this he was able to make sense of the line in the passage about how to paint envy which reads: "Make her heart gnawed by a swelling serpent", as there is such a creature emerging from her right breast.

You might need a handful of magic mushrooms to find them without da Vinci's instructions.

Pug Life

Tiny high-definition cameras are giving us amazing point-of-views from the daily lives of not only animals in the wild, but our urban animal friends as well :

Don't They Mean Humans Exhibit Ape-Like Behaviour?

How strange it is that apes can show "human-like behaviour" when they were running around this planet for millions of years before humans came along. Maybe they taught us to use tools...



Do apes have access to genetic memories of previous generations? Did these torture lab apes know the sun existed for the 3 decades they were held against their will? They can scarcely believe what they are seeing, but they're not afraid. They're delighted, and laughing. It's like they're hugging each other saying, "We made it! We're finally free!"



We were told for most of the 20th century that apes were not like humans, they had no sense of self. The arrogance in believing that we were alone of all the animals in knowing what we are is beyond belief and seems an incredibly primitive way for such a supposedly advanced species to think :

A bridge climb that will make your toes tingle and your stomach lurch. Even on YouTube, it kicks in the adrenalin :

The World's Fastest, Tallest, Steepest, Wildest, Most Airtime Rollercoasters

Kingda Ka in New Jersey, USA, claims to have the world's highest drop of 456 feet, and is also one of the fastest :



Superman Ride Of Steel, Six Flags, New England, USA, with up to 10 periods of weightlessness, or "airtime" :



Takabisha, Japan is, for the moment, the world's steepest rollercoaster, with 121 degree incline :



Formula Rossa, in Abu Dhabi, claims to be the world's fastest, accelerating to more than 250kmh in four seconds :



Expedition GeForce, Germany, provides seven, brief periods of airtime :



Eejanaika in Fuji highlands, Japan, is simply the world's wildest rollercoaster :

You will believe that a man can fly :

There are not many physical things that humans can do that no other creatures of the animal world are incapable of replicating, but these incredible feats surely must be some of them. In particular, watch from 4:35 and 5:13. Great music, too :

Volcanoes blowing 'smoke rings' of steam and gas are not unusual, but it sure is a beautiful event.

An unexplained piece of roadkill found in Minnesota. A mutant badger, maybe....




Full Story Is Here

Maybe we learned to keep dogs as pets, hundreds of thousands of years ago, by watching our hairier relatives :

That's one damn impressive cloud face :



You can see the face forming in the storm front at about 1.15m :

Nobody is born a racist :

Whatever it is, it's quite pretty, and no doubt it utterly entranced and brought magnificent excitement to those who witnessed it, and caught these clips :

You can jump out of a plane without a parachute, and survive :

A huge, fast-spreading sinkhole opens up in Texas :

Everything looks spectacular at 1000 frames a second :

Do You Get The Feeling Humans Are Not Supposed To Know Cats Can Do This?