I like optical illusion, and I'll post more of them in the future. This is one I had never seen before. Very well done, I think.
Residents on the shores of Loch Ness are having their sleep disturbed by a mystery humming noise similar to that which sparked a spate of calls to a council in Suffolk.
Mikko Takala, who lives in a cottage overlooking the loch near Drumnadrochit where he runs a webcam site tracking the elusive Loch Ness Monster, has been having sleepless nights for weeks.
His mother, who lives with him, and a near neighbour have also been woken in the wee sma' hours by the same strange humming noise, which one blue blooded Suffolk resident, Lord Philips of Sudbury, said could be mistaken for a spacecraft landing.
Inquiries by Babergh District Council have so far failed to pin down a source of the noise, while Highland Council environmental health staff are about to begin their own inquiries into the lochside disturbance.
"I thought at first the noise could be coming from some old bearings in the Foyers Hydro Station across the loch," said Mikko.
"But when I went out of the house I couldn't hear anything at all."
A Scottish and Southern Energy spokeswoman confirmed they have been having no problems with the machinery at the hydro station and the noise would not be from their plant.
Mikko said he would be contacting other utility companies as a process of elimination to try to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"I have to confess it's bizarre. It get's into your head and is like a buzzing sound, vibrating like an empty football. I think its a resonance frequency. Putting your fingers in ears doesn't help. I've heard it start at 2am and it would carry on until 8am. My mother has heard it too."
Mikko said he had gone outside to listen and focus on where it was coming from but couldn't hear anything.
"It's a complete mystery because you only seem to hear it from indoors and its exactly the same as what is being experienced in Suffolk."
Babergh District Council received 50 complaints from residents and council staff there are still trying to identify the source.
Locals have failed to pin it down and Lord Philips of Sudbury commented: "If someone had said to me a spacecraft had landed on the meadows I would have said, 'well I heard it'."
Other locals in Sudbury have described the noise as a high hum and a high pitched drone.
Highland Council's environmental health staff confirmed they had received a report about the noise and they would be investigating.
"We have had reports of a low humming noise which is loud enough to wake local residents.
"We will investigate this but it will be very much a process of elimination to try and identify a noise source.
"That can involve switching off all power sources to the property to ensure there is not a problem with a motor in the house."
His mother, who lives with him, and a near neighbour have also been woken in the wee sma' hours by the same strange humming noise, which one blue blooded Suffolk resident, Lord Philips of Sudbury, said could be mistaken for a spacecraft landing.
Inquiries by Babergh District Council have so far failed to pin down a source of the noise, while Highland Council environmental health staff are about to begin their own inquiries into the lochside disturbance.
"I thought at first the noise could be coming from some old bearings in the Foyers Hydro Station across the loch," said Mikko.
"But when I went out of the house I couldn't hear anything at all."
A Scottish and Southern Energy spokeswoman confirmed they have been having no problems with the machinery at the hydro station and the noise would not be from their plant.
Mikko said he would be contacting other utility companies as a process of elimination to try to get to the bottom of the mystery.
"I have to confess it's bizarre. It get's into your head and is like a buzzing sound, vibrating like an empty football. I think its a resonance frequency. Putting your fingers in ears doesn't help. I've heard it start at 2am and it would carry on until 8am. My mother has heard it too."
Mikko said he had gone outside to listen and focus on where it was coming from but couldn't hear anything.
"It's a complete mystery because you only seem to hear it from indoors and its exactly the same as what is being experienced in Suffolk."
Babergh District Council received 50 complaints from residents and council staff there are still trying to identify the source.
Locals have failed to pin it down and Lord Philips of Sudbury commented: "If someone had said to me a spacecraft had landed on the meadows I would have said, 'well I heard it'."
Other locals in Sudbury have described the noise as a high hum and a high pitched drone.
Highland Council's environmental health staff confirmed they had received a report about the noise and they would be investigating.
"We have had reports of a low humming noise which is loud enough to wake local residents.
"We will investigate this but it will be very much a process of elimination to try and identify a noise source.
"That can involve switching off all power sources to the property to ensure there is not a problem with a motor in the house."
Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.
Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.
According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site, said on Thursday.
The souls of the dead followed a mythical dog who could see at night, de Anda said.
Excavations over the past five months in the Yucatan caves revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead.
Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.
According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site, said on Thursday.
The souls of the dead followed a mythical dog who could see at night, de Anda said.
Excavations over the past five months in the Yucatan caves revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead.
A powerful cosmic particle accelerator has been pinpointed in the Crab Nebula: a doughnut-shaped magnetic field surrounding the stellar corpse at the nebula's heart. The finding is based on a tricky measurement showing that high-energy radiation near the star is polarised, with its electric field lining up neatly with the star's spin axis.
The Crab Nebula is the expanding remnant of a supernova that was observed by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054 CE. When the star exploded, it left behind a dense corpse called a pulsar.
The pulsar spins about 30 times per second, but is gradually slowing down as it emits a wind of particles and electromagnetic fields.
Some of these particles – mainly electrons – emit high-energy radiation, in the form of X-rays and gamma rays, when they are accelerated by magnetic fields in the region. But it has been unclear where this acceleration is taking place.
Now, researchers led by Tony Dean of the University of Southampton in the UK say it is occurring quite close to the pulsar.
The Crab Nebula is the expanding remnant of a supernova that was observed by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054 CE. When the star exploded, it left behind a dense corpse called a pulsar.
The pulsar spins about 30 times per second, but is gradually slowing down as it emits a wind of particles and electromagnetic fields.
Some of these particles – mainly electrons – emit high-energy radiation, in the form of X-rays and gamma rays, when they are accelerated by magnetic fields in the region. But it has been unclear where this acceleration is taking place.
Now, researchers led by Tony Dean of the University of Southampton in the UK say it is occurring quite close to the pulsar.
The stunning grandeur of one of the most expensive hotels ever built demands ultra-luxury offerings for its guests, including unrivalled facilities and incredible tailor made designer packages. The Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, exceeds all expectations with its latest…a fantastic once in a lifetime all-out package with a hefty value of 1,000,000 US Dollars !
This package incarnates pure opulence and includes the following for 2 guests:
- First class return trip from any international destination serviced by Etihad Airlines to Abu Dhabi
- Seven night stay in a 680 sqm Palace Suite at Emirates Palace on an all-inclusive basis.
- Chauffeur driven Maybach at your disposal daily during your stay in Abu Dhabi
- Daily spa treatment in the Anantara Spa
- Day trip in private jet to Iran to create your own Persian carpet from the most exclusive and well-renowned hand-maker
- Day trip in private jet to the Dead Sea Jordan to experience the famous sea and an afternoon Anantara spa treatment in the Kempinski Hotel Ishtar
- Day trip to Bahrain in private jet for a pearl deep sea experience. Your pearl will then be hand designed with jewellery settings
- Royal Golf experience at Abu Dhabi Golf Club
- Make your own perfume with experts from YAS Perfume
- Deep sea fishing trip
- Gifts including champagne sunset and desert island tour.
- Gifts including the rarest pearls in the world from Robert Wang and a selection from Holland & Holland Sporting Guns
Now you know where to spend your next holidays...
Great Britain's spookiest cities have been pinpointed in a new survey of supernatural shenanigans.
Ghost expert Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe looked at how many sightings had been recorded per 10,000 population in each place. Derby’s 14 per 10,000, 315 in total since records began, turned out to be the phantoms’ favourite.
The Sun brings you hair-raising highlights from the ten creepiest corners of the country.
Ghost expert Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe looked at how many sightings had been recorded per 10,000 population in each place. Derby’s 14 per 10,000, 315 in total since records began, turned out to be the phantoms’ favourite.
The Sun brings you hair-raising highlights from the ten creepiest corners of the country.
What really happened to Russia's missing cosmonauts? An incredible tale of space hacking, espionage and death in the lonely reaches of space.dnight, 19 May 1961. A crisp frost had descended on Turin’s city centre which was deserted and deathly silent. Well, almost. Two brothers, aged 20 and 23, raced through the grid-like streets (that would later be made famous by the film The Italian Job) in a tiny Fiat 600, which screamed in protest as they bounced across one cobbled piazza after another at top speed.
The Fiat was loaded with dozens of iron pipes and aluminium sheets which poked out of windows and were strapped to the roof. The car screeched to a halt outside the city’s tallest block of flats. Grabbing their assorted pipes, along with a large toolbox, the two brothers ran up the stairs to the rooftop. Moments later, the city’s silence was rudely broken once more as they set to work: a concerto of hammering, clattering, sawing and shouting.
Suddenly, an angry voice rang out; the man who lived on the floor below leant out of the window and screamed: “Will you stop that racket, I’m trying to sleep!”
One of the young men shouted back “Sorry sir; the Soviets have launched a satellite and we’re trying to intercept it!”
Suddenly, an angry voice rang out; the man who lived on the floor below leant out of the window and screamed: “Will you stop that racket, I’m trying to sleep!”
One of the young men shouted back “Sorry sir; the Soviets have launched a satellite and we’re trying to intercept it!”
Germany and Denmark have agreed to build an 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) bridge across the Baltic Sea between the two countries. The link will cut travel times between Scandinavia and central Europe as well as being one of the largest infrastructure projects undertaken in Europe. The bridge will link the two countries by road and rail across the Fehmarn strait.
The bridge will have a total length of approximately 19 km (12 mi) and will be constructed as a triple-span cable-stayed bridge with each of the three spans being 724 metres (2,375 ft) long. The four pillars carrying the bridge will be approximately 280 m (919 ft) tall. The vertical clearance will be 65 m (213 ft) allowing sea traffic to and from the Baltic Sea to go beneath it.
The design involves four road lanes and two rail tracks. The latest cost estimate is DKK 42 bn (EUR 5 bn) including EUR 1.5 bn for other improvements such as electrifying and rebuilding 160 km (99 mi) of railway from single to double track and new bridges at Fehmarn Sound (1 km) and Storstrøm (above 3 km/about 2 miles).
The bridge will shorten the rail journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen from 4¾ to 3½ hours.
The bridge will have a total length of approximately 19 km (12 mi) and will be constructed as a triple-span cable-stayed bridge with each of the three spans being 724 metres (2,375 ft) long. The four pillars carrying the bridge will be approximately 280 m (919 ft) tall. The vertical clearance will be 65 m (213 ft) allowing sea traffic to and from the Baltic Sea to go beneath it.
The design involves four road lanes and two rail tracks. The latest cost estimate is DKK 42 bn (EUR 5 bn) including EUR 1.5 bn for other improvements such as electrifying and rebuilding 160 km (99 mi) of railway from single to double track and new bridges at Fehmarn Sound (1 km) and Storstrøm (above 3 km/about 2 miles).
The bridge will shorten the rail journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen from 4¾ to 3½ hours.
A virus designed to swipe passwords from online gamers has inexplicably popped up in some laptop computers aboard the International Space Station.
The low-risk virus was detected on July 25, but did not infect the space station's command and control computers and poses no threat to the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials said.
"This is basically a nuisance," NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
According to a NASA planning document obtained by SPACE.com, the worm was identified as W32.Gammima.AG. The California-based retail anti-virus software manufacturer Symantec describes it as a Windows-based worm which spreads by copying itself onto removable media. It is capable of stealing passwords for online games and is classified as a very low risk, according to Symantec's Web site.
Humphries said that while NASA security protocols prohibit discussing details of the virus and efforts to combat it, a search is under way to find out how it got on board the space station more than 200 miles (321 km) above Earth.
"We'll do our best to track down how it got there and close that gateway," Humphries said. "This is not a frequent occurrence but we have had viruses that have made their way on board before."
New flash memory cards due to launch to the station aboard a Russian cargo ship next month have been screened for the virus, the NASA document stated. Not all of the 71 laptop computers currently aboard the station run Windows, and those that do and are vulnerable to viruses could be updated, it went on.
The space station is currently home to three astronauts: Russian cosmonaut commander Sergei Volkov, cosmonaut flight engineer Oleg Kononenko and NASA flight engineer Greg Chamitoff. Volkov and Kononenko are due to return to Earth in October, while Chamitoff is slated to stay until his replacement arrives during NASA's planned November space shuttle mission.
The low-risk virus was detected on July 25, but did not infect the space station's command and control computers and poses no threat to the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials said.
"This is basically a nuisance," NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told SPACE.com from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
According to a NASA planning document obtained by SPACE.com, the worm was identified as W32.Gammima.AG. The California-based retail anti-virus software manufacturer Symantec describes it as a Windows-based worm which spreads by copying itself onto removable media. It is capable of stealing passwords for online games and is classified as a very low risk, according to Symantec's Web site.
Humphries said that while NASA security protocols prohibit discussing details of the virus and efforts to combat it, a search is under way to find out how it got on board the space station more than 200 miles (321 km) above Earth.
"We'll do our best to track down how it got there and close that gateway," Humphries said. "This is not a frequent occurrence but we have had viruses that have made their way on board before."
New flash memory cards due to launch to the station aboard a Russian cargo ship next month have been screened for the virus, the NASA document stated. Not all of the 71 laptop computers currently aboard the station run Windows, and those that do and are vulnerable to viruses could be updated, it went on.
The space station is currently home to three astronauts: Russian cosmonaut commander Sergei Volkov, cosmonaut flight engineer Oleg Kononenko and NASA flight engineer Greg Chamitoff. Volkov and Kononenko are due to return to Earth in October, while Chamitoff is slated to stay until his replacement arrives during NASA's planned November space shuttle mission.
A lost world has been found in Antarctica, preserved just the way it was when it was frozen in time some 14 million years ago.
The fossils of plants and animals high in the mountains is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also gives a glimpse of a what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms.
A team working in an ice-free region has discovered the trove of ancient life in what must have been the last traces of tundra on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began to drop relentlessly. An abrupt and dramatic climate cooling of 8°C in 200,000 years forced the extinction of tundra plants and insects and brought interior Antarctica into a perpetual deep-freeze from which it has never emerged, though may do again as a result of climate change.
An international team led by Prof David Marchant, at Boston University and Profs Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis, at North Dakota State University, combined evidence from glaciers, from the preserved ecology, volcanic ashes and modelling to reveal the full extent of the big freeze in a part of Antarctica called the Dry Valleys.
The new insight in the understanding of Antarctica's climatic history, which saw it change from a climate like that of South Georgia to one similar to that seen today in Mars, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An international team led by Prof David Marchant, at Boston University and Profs Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis, at North Dakota State University, combined evidence from glaciers, from the preserved ecology, volcanic ashes and modelling to reveal the full extent of the big freeze in a part of Antarctica called the Dry Valleys.
The new insight in the understanding of Antarctica's climatic history, which saw it change from a climate like that of South Georgia to one similar to that seen today in Mars, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An Indian reported to be the world's oldest man has died in the western city of Jaipur, his family said.
Habib Miyan, who died Monday, claimed to be 138 years old and was listed as the country's oldest man in India's Limca Book of Records.
But without a birth certificate giving formal proof of his age, Habib Miyan, who played clarinet in a maharaja's band before retiring 70 years ago, could not prove his longevity.
However, his pension book showed his birth date as May 20, 1879 — which would make him 129.
The oldest living person according to the Guinness World Records is 115-year-old Edna Parker, who lives in an Indiana nursing home. Japanese woman Yone Minagawa died last year at 114.
Thousands of people thronged Habib Miyan's funeral on Tuesday in Jaipur, 340km from Jodhpur, following a bout of fever and dysentery, his niece Munni told AFP.
"If you treat your body well, the body will treat you well," Habib Miyan would tell anyone who asked him the secret of his long life, another relative Mehmood Khan, told the Calcutta Telegraph.
Habib Miyan made international headlines in 2004 when he fulfilled a long-cherished ambition of visiting the Muslim holy city of Mecca, becoming one of the oldest people to complete the pilgrimage.
Habib Miyan, whose wife died around 70 years ago, lived in a Muslim quarter of Jaipur, a popular tourist hub in the western state of Rajasthan.
He retired in 1938 from the court of then Jaipur king, Raja Man Singh, where he played clarinet in the royal orchestra.
He had been blind for more than half a century and his mobility was limited in recent years but he underwent hip replacement surgery last year, according to media reports.
He spent most of his time in his house, praying and telling stories to his vast extended family of 140 people.
On Monday, Habib Miyan called Rajesh Nagpal, a bank clerk who had made public his longevity, over to the house where generations of his family had lived and told him: "I am going to go now," the Telegraph reported.
He died soon after.
Nagpal was working in a bank in Jaipur in 1998 when he noticed the old man who would come to collect his pension and dug out his records.
The chance discovery changed Habib Miyan's life and the media started flocking to his doorstep to hear his memories.
Habib Miyan, who died Monday, claimed to be 138 years old and was listed as the country's oldest man in India's Limca Book of Records.
But without a birth certificate giving formal proof of his age, Habib Miyan, who played clarinet in a maharaja's band before retiring 70 years ago, could not prove his longevity.
However, his pension book showed his birth date as May 20, 1879 — which would make him 129.
The oldest living person according to the Guinness World Records is 115-year-old Edna Parker, who lives in an Indiana nursing home. Japanese woman Yone Minagawa died last year at 114.
Thousands of people thronged Habib Miyan's funeral on Tuesday in Jaipur, 340km from Jodhpur, following a bout of fever and dysentery, his niece Munni told AFP.
"If you treat your body well, the body will treat you well," Habib Miyan would tell anyone who asked him the secret of his long life, another relative Mehmood Khan, told the Calcutta Telegraph.
Habib Miyan made international headlines in 2004 when he fulfilled a long-cherished ambition of visiting the Muslim holy city of Mecca, becoming one of the oldest people to complete the pilgrimage.
Habib Miyan, whose wife died around 70 years ago, lived in a Muslim quarter of Jaipur, a popular tourist hub in the western state of Rajasthan.
He retired in 1938 from the court of then Jaipur king, Raja Man Singh, where he played clarinet in the royal orchestra.
He had been blind for more than half a century and his mobility was limited in recent years but he underwent hip replacement surgery last year, according to media reports.
He spent most of his time in his house, praying and telling stories to his vast extended family of 140 people.
On Monday, Habib Miyan called Rajesh Nagpal, a bank clerk who had made public his longevity, over to the house where generations of his family had lived and told him: "I am going to go now," the Telegraph reported.
He died soon after.
Nagpal was working in a bank in Jaipur in 1998 when he noticed the old man who would come to collect his pension and dug out his records.
The chance discovery changed Habib Miyan's life and the media started flocking to his doorstep to hear his memories.
