Nikola Tesla Predicted the Cell Phone in 1909

Spencer – In this article written in the New York Times in 1909 and published in Popular Mechanic, Nikola Tesla speaks of a device that “will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument no bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles.” And that “””It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world.”

Sounds a bit familiar now, doesn’t it?

via Nikola Tesla Predicted the Cell Phone in 1909.

UK schools doing UFO crash drills

Lounge Daddy – There seems to be a growing trend among schools to stage a UFO crash, and then teach students how to react, as well as to “properly” investigate and report on the incident.

It sounds like a lot of fun, and a great way to fire up a student’s imagination as well as writing skills. …

Are UFO drills becoming something of a routine part of the curriculum in the UK? It’s certainly becoming more and more of a common event. Each time, it’s a joint exercise put in place by the school and local law enforcement.

A similar drill took place in Feb of 2009 when Lanchester Endowed Parochial Primary, in County Durham, staged a surprise “crash” behind the school. In Sept 2008 “children from an Edgware school were made to believe aliens had landed in their playground by teachers and police.” Again, each time it was conducted by the school system and police — teaching children what to do in event of a UFO event. Afterward, the kids are asked to write about their experience. …

via UK schools doing UFO crash drills – Dateline Zero.

Jaw of Awe: Guinness Honors World’s Most Elastic Mouth

Meet a real-life elastic man — a man with a mouth so rubbery it’s more than half a foot long.

In fact, Francisco Domingo Joaquim’s 6.69-inch-long elasti-mouth has earned him a prestigious place in what his local newspaper called the “world’s most desired book”: Guinness World Records.

Joaquim, also known as Chiquinho, is like a real-life version of Jim Carrey’s cartoony “Mask” character. His mouth is so wide he can fit an entire can of soda inside it — sideways.And if that’s not impressive enough, the 20-year-old Angolan Jaw of Awe was recently featured on an Italian TV show where he was able to pop that soda can in and out of his mouth 14 times in one minute.

That’s also a record — but don’t try breaking that one at home. Some of us put our foot in out mouths figuratively … but he’s the only one who might be able to do it for real.

via Jaw of Awe: Guinness Honors World’s Most Elastic Mouth.

Nocturnal cow attacks car

A cow left to wander on a cold night attacked a car while walking along a country road near the town of Heimbach in North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday night.According to the police report, the cow had decided to cross the road, forcing two cars to stop. Suddenly confronted, the cow went on the attack, running past one car before jumping half on to the second.

Once it had successfully smashed the hood of the vehicle with its front hooves, the cow fled into a nearby forest.

Despite an immediate attempt to capture the animal, the cow evaded the police until Sunday morning, when it was returned to its owner.

The 36-year-old driver of the car escaped unharmed, though shaken.

via Nocturnal cow attacks car – The Local.

Could ‘time traveller’ caught on film in The Circus mean Future Day has arrived?

This week, the makers of Back To The Future kicked off celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the release of the original movie starring Michael J Fox.

In the same week, an Irish independent filmmaker has gone public with what he says is footage of a time traveller caught walking through a scene on a recent DVD release of Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 film, The Circus.

“I believe I’m the first person to find something quite unusual from a bit of film footage from 1928,” Mr Clarke says.

The scene can be found in the extras menu in Documents, under The Hollywood Premiere.

It’s not in the movie – it’s real footage and it features real members of the public in 1928.

Or does it, asks Mr Clarke, who spotted a mysteriously dressed stranger walking past the camera talking into what he says can only be a mobile phone.

“The only conclusion I can come to – which sounds absolutely ridiculous I’m sure, to some people – is it’s a time traveller,” he says.

“When you’re looking at a bit of 1928 footage with an old woman … on a mobile phone, it’s kind of strange. You can’t explain it.”

Now the YouTube footage has passed the half-a-million mark, plenty have tried.

YouTube user “Barnwash” claims Australian police tested the first true two-way radio in 1928 and that maybe the woman was security in disguise.

Others claim it was a type of hearing aid. …

via Could ‘time traveller’ caught on film in The Circus mean Future Day has arrived? | News.com.au.

Could this be Golda Meir? She was born 1898, so she would have been 30 years old at the time this was filmed. Was she in the USA? According to one site: “1932 – Golda travels to the United States to get medical treatment for daughter Sarah’s kidney illness.” Still, four years too late.  Also, compare the two photos I found of her profile below. The shadows could be playing tricks, but it seems to me that Meir’s nose is bigger, rounder and higher than the mystery person’s.

Spanish prostitutes ordered to wear reflective vests for their own safety

Fiona Govan – Women touting for customers on a rural highway outside Els Alamus near Lleida in Catalonia have been told to don the yellow fluorescent bibs or pay fines of 40 euros (£36) under road traffic laws.

Police claim the sex workers on the LL-11 road are not being specifically targeted because of what they do but because they posed a danger to drivers.

The prostitutes are in breach of 2004 law which states pedestrians on major highways and hard shoulders must wear the high visibility garments.

A spokesman for the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra said: “In the past couple of months the prostitutes have been fined for two reasons: for not wearing the reflective jacket and for creating danger on the public highway.”

The move follows recent legislation introduced by Els Alamus town hall to ban prostitutes from offering sex for sale in public urban areas. The mayor Josep Maria Bea has been accused of mounting a campaign to drive the sex workers out of the area.

An estimated 300,000 women work as prostitutes in Spain where prostitution is not illegal but profiting from the sale of sex by another is.

Women wearing very little clothing and standing on roadsides outside towns and cities are a common sight across Spain. A recent survey found one in four Spanish men admitted to having paid for sex. …

via Spanish prostitutes ordered to wear reflective vests for their own safety – Telegraph.

A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour – just feet from a family home.

Phil Major and his son Chris with the rocket at his farm

A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour — just 12 feet from a family home.

The blue, finned, 12ft probe was programmed to split in two with each section parachuting gently to earth, but something went wrong and the rear end came hurtling down without a parachute.

Shocked villager Martin Corkish, of Clewer, near Wedmore, said: “I was working on the extension to our home when I heard a whistling sound in the air and seven feet of rocket landed in my garden, missing myself and our house, where my wife and young children aged two years and nine months were inside, by 12 feet. Four feet of the missile is embedded in my garden.”

Meanwhile, half a mile away at Glencot Cottage, Wedmore, farmer’s wife Wendy Major and son Chris, 16, were amazed when the other half of the rocket parachuted into their field of cows.

The remains were bleeping and spilling out wire. Mrs Major, 45, then carried it 100 yards across the field to the farmyard.

Mr Major, 45, said yesterday: “When I came back from milking there was this rocket in the middle of the yard.

“I said ‘it’s bleeping, has anybody phoned the police?’ Someone phoned the police and they said it was not an explosive and had a tracking device and had been traced to a man from Canterbury. Surely questions should be asked about national security if these things can be fired off like this?” …

via A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour – just feet from a family home..

Kung fu sisters stage combat tournament to find men to date

Marital arts experts Xiao Lin, 22, and little sister Yin, 21, are to stage a three day fighting festival in Foushan, south east China, where only the toughest suitors stand a chance of getting through.

First contestants must show off their archery skills, then they must carry a heavy weight over sharpened bamboo spears, and finally they have to defeat one of the sisters in full contact combat.

Only then will contestants earn the right to remove the girls’ masks and propose to them.

‘They can chose open hand or any weapon they wish but we won’t be holding back. If they can’t beat us they aren’t worthy,” explained Lin.

‘We tried dating agencies but the men we met were all to weak. We could beat them easily,’ said Yin.

‘So we went back to ancient ways called Bi Wu Zhao Qin – which was the way warrior princesses would find their men.’

But so far, only a trickle of brave contestants has come forward.

‘I’m a very good martial artist – but I think I’d want to see them with the masks off before I decided whether I wanted to fight for them,’ said one doubtful suitor.

via Kung fu sisters stage combat tournament to find men to date | Metro.co.uk.

Indonesia hit by twin disasters hours apart: Volcano death toll hits 25, 10-foot tsunami kills 113+

The death toll following the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano has risen to 25, officials say, amid fears of fresh eruptions.

Experts told the BBC that the ash levels had subsided a little, but that their readings suggested there would be more volcanic activity soon.

Thousands fled their homes on Tuesday as ash spewed out of the volcano, turning the landscape white.

But many people refused to leave, and rescuers fear the death toll may rise.

One rescuer, Christian Awuy, told the BBC that he feared up to 50 could have been killed.

He said although 10,000 people had been evacuated, many had stayed behind.

The AFP news agency reported local officials as saying the man known as the volcano’s spiritual gatekeeper, Mbah or grandfather Marijan, was among the dead. For many Javanese, Merapi is a sacred site.

The agency said he was found dead in his house about 4km (2.5 miles) from the summit, but this has not been independently confirmed.

A cameraman for Reuters was quoted as saying: “Several houses and cattle have been burned by the hot cloud from the mountain. All the houses are blanketed in ash, completely white. The leaves have been burned off the trees.”

Endita Sri Andiyanti, a spokeswoman at the main local hospital, said 25 people were dead and more than a dozen others were being treated for injuries. …

“We heard three explosions around 1800 (1100 GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5km (one mile) and sending heat clouds down the slopes,” government vulcanologist Surono told AFP.

He said this eruption was more powerful than the volcano’s last blast, in 2006, which killed two people.

In 1930 another powerful eruption wiped out 13 villages, killing more than 1,000 people. …

via BBC News – Indonesia volcano eruption death toll hits 25.

Meanwhile, off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles west of the volcano, rescuers battled rough seas to reach the remote Mentawai islands, where a 10-foot tsunami triggered by an earthquake Monday night swept away hundreds of homes, killing at least 113 villagers, said Mujiharto of the Health Ministry’s crisis center. Up to 500 others are missing.

The twin disasters happened hours apart in one of the most seismically active regions on the planet.

Scientists have warned that pressure building beneath Merapi’s lava dome could trigger its most powerful explosion in years. …

via FoxNews

Even during its most tranquil periods, Mount Merapi, on the island of Java, smolders. Smoke ominously floats from its mouth, 10,000 feet in the sky. “Fire Mountain,” as its name translates to English, has erupted about 60 times in the past five centuries, most recently in 2006. Before that, a 1994 eruption sent forth a lethal cloud of scalding hot gas, which burned 60 people to death. In 1930, more than 1000 people died when Merapi spewed lava over 8 square miles around its base, the high death toll being the result of too many people living too close.

In spite of this volatile history, approximately 200,000 villagers reside within 4 miles of the volcano. But Merapi is just one example of Javans tempting fate in the proximity of active volcanoes—it’s estimated that 120 million of the island’s residents live at the foot of 22 active volcanoes.

via PopularMechanics, 8 Most Dangerous Places to Live, Sept 1, 2009

Ancient bugs found in 50-million-year-old Indian amber

Most of the found species are completely new to science – We have complete, three-dimensionally preserved specimens that are 52 million years old and you can handle them almost like living ones”

More than 700 new species of ancient insect have been discovered in 50-million-year-old amber.

The discoveries come from some 150kg of amber produced by an ancient rainforest in India.

Scientists say in the journal PNAS that many insects are related to species from far-away corners of the world.

This means that, despite millions of years in isolation in the ocean, the region was a lot more biologically diverse than previously believed.

The amber, dubbed Cambay amber, was found in lignite mines in the Cambay Shale of the Indian state of Gujarat.

Jes Rust from the University of Bonn in Germany led an international team of researchers from India, Germany and the US. ….

Most of the recently discovered bugs also show links to modern insects as well as those that lived millions of years ago in different parts of the world, including Asia, Australia, and even South America. …

Unlike other types of amber found in deposits in the north, the Indian amber is much softer. This unique property allowed the scientists to completely dissolve the amber using solvents – toluene and chloroform – and extract the ancient insects, plants and fungi.

via BBC News – Ancient bugs found in 50-million-year-old Indian amber.

 

A collection of beautifully preserved bees, ants, spiders and other small prehistoric creatures that lived 50 million years ago have been unearthed in a huge amber deposit in India.

Scientists said that the fossilised globules of tree resin have entombed a spectacular menagerie of insects that had survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and were living at a time before mammals had evolved.

The amber deposit is the first to be found in India and may be larger than the Baltic deposits – in Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Germany – which are the biggest in the world and have proved a rich source of the semi-precious gemstone for more than 200 years.

… “This is really outstanding. It’s like getting a complete dinosaur out of the amber and being able to put it under the microscope,” Professor Rust said. …

The story of a prehistoric mosquito that had just dined on the blood of a dinosaur before being trapped in tree resin formed part of the 1993 film Jurassic Park, based on the book of the same name by Michael Crichton, where dinosaur DNA is recovered from the insect and used to bring the giant creatures back to life. However, Professor Rust said that the possibility of getting any genetic material from the insects trapped in the Indian amber is next to zero.

“You will never find ancient DNA in amber. It is completely destroyed and deteriorates after a couple of hundred thousand years. Jurassic Park is wonderful science fiction,” he said.

Nevertheless, the scientists have already found more than 700 specimens trapped in the Indian amber. They are mostly insects, such as ants, bees and termites, but they also include spiders, mites and parts of plants. One species of ant belongs to a genus that is only found alive today in Australia. …

via Independent

… Some animals that get trapped in amber include flies, ants, beetles, moths, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, termites, mayflies, lice, mites, gnats, bees, wasps, scorpions, cockroaches, grasshoppers, damselflies, butterflies, and fleas. Flies (order Diptera) are the most common inclusion in amber, making up 54% of all finds. Non-insect finds in amber include plants such as fir, cypress, juniper, pine, spruce, oaks, beech, maple, chestnut, magnolia, and cinnamon, palms, ferns, and mosses.

Some of the rarest finds in amber are inclusions that are neither plant nor insect: lizards, worms, spiders, frogs, crustaceans, mushrooms, mammal bones, feathers, and mammal hair. Larger animals, such as most mammals, are too big to get trapped in tree resin, easily stepping out of it even if they are stuck momentarily. Sometimes the resin makes contact with water before it forms into amber, and will be filled with inclusions of marine crustaceans. Altogether, about 1000 species of animals have been found in amber. …

via wisegeek