Have You Heard About the Doomsday Vault?

Located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (more commonly known as the Doomsday Vault) is a global seed vault that serves as a massive backup storage facility. The vault safeguards seeds from any country of the world (even North Korea) and duplicates seed samples to protect them from environmental disasters, catastrophic wars, and any other danger that would clear the plant’s species from existence.

This massive storage facility has a capacity to store 4.5 million varieties of crops. Each seed variety contains an average of 500 seeds, and so a maximum of 2.5 billion seeds can be stored inside the vault. The vault holds the most diverse collection of food crop seeds in the world, that ranges from food staples from Africa and Asia like maize and rice, to European and South American varieties like potatoes and lettuce.

Source: Croptrust.org

The typical temperature of the vault is -18ºC, and each seed variety are stored and sealed with custom made three-ply foil packages. Each package is stored on a shelve, and each shelf is carefully labeled and coded according to variety. With the low temperature and low moisture levels inside the vault, it ensures that no metabolic activity will happen in order to keep the seeds viable for decades. Even if the vault goes without power, the arctic permafrost and thick rock encoded outside the fault makes sure the seed samples will remain frozen.

However, last month the Seed Vault was faced with a warning that this permafrost leaked into the vault’s entrance tunnel.

With the risk of having further leakage that could put the seeds at risk, the seed bank is now receiving a multimillion dollar revamp.

The new renovation will improve the vault’s alternative access tunnels, drainage ditches, and will increase the security surveillance around the vault. The Norwegian government will fund its $9 million dollar construction bill.

Source: croptrust.org

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is actually one of the most heavily guarded places in the world. By just looking at its entrance, one can be fooled for how large this facility actually is. What you see from the outside is built just for looks, and doesn’t look like much, but in actuality the vault is built 150 meters deep into a mountain. Once you enter, there is a long 430 ft tunnel for trolleys to carry seeds to the main chamber. The main chamber contains three vault rooms, and currently only the middle room is filled with seeds.

Source: croptrust.org

The vault has already had some success even though it has only been functioning since 2008. In 2015 the war in Syria destroyed plant varieties that caused them to request seeds from the vault for revival of plant varieties. This was the first time any seed has been taken out of the vault. After the breeding program and its revival success, the seeds were able to be returned to the bank.

Hell Found At the Bottom of Deepest Hole on Earth

With the amount of explorations humankind has undergone to find out what is going on outside our planet, it's interesting to note that we know even less of what is below our feet. That’s pretty much saying “we know nothing about our Earth”. If we haven’t even discovered enough of our own planet yet, why are we trying to fly out and invade others? On the brighter side of things, one discovery HAS given us a glimpse of what lies beneath our crusty earth. In Russia, on the Kola Peninsula, there is a 7.5 miles deep hole that’s deeper than the deepest point in the ocean, which, to put into perspective, is 6.8 miles deep. This hole is called the Kola Borehole and is, if you can believe it, a man-made hole.

Image credit:  World's Deepest Hole Barely Scratches the Surface. - Rosie Research

So why did people suddenly think that digging a super deep hole towards the center of the earth was going to be a good idea? Well, to put it into one word: competition. We all know that the US and USSR have been trying to compete with each other for ages, especially during the space race in which both nations tried to outdo one another in terms of space exploration supremacy. But little do people know that the space race wasn’t the only thing the US and USSR were rivals over.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, while competing who could explore outer space the quickest, Americans and Soviets were also competing for who could explore WITHIN the earth the quickest. As a result, both nations planned separate efforts to drill into the Earth’s crust, each with the goal of drilling the deepest hole in the world.

The American drilling project was called “Project Mohole” and was executed in the spring of 1961. The goal of the project was the drill into the Mohorovicic discontinuity, better known as the Moho, which is the boundary between the Earth’s crust and the mantle. The project wasn’t so successful though, because just five years later it was cut short due to lack of funding. After that, they kind of just gave up and let the Soviets win the drill-race. The Soviets started their digging process in 1970, and with the help of the Interderpartmental Scientific Council for the Study of the Earth’s Interior and Superdeep Drilling, they were able to be much more successful and drill the deepest hole in the world, the Kola Superdeep Borehole. By digging more than 7.5 miles downwards, they were able to make some breaking discoveries

Project Mohole

One of the benefits of digging so deep into the earth was that the Soviets were able to put geological theories to the tests. One discovery made was that there ISN’T actually a transition from granite to basalt between 3 and 6 kilometers beneath the surface as many scientists had originally thought. The basalt actually extended beyond the 12 kilometer point, which made scientists rethink their original theories about seismic-reflection results. In other words, the Kola borehole led to the discovery that an entire layer of the Earth’s crust doesn’t actually exist.

What’s more, at around 4.3 miles down the hole, cracks in rocks were found to contain water. This was an amazing discovery because no one expected water to exist at such great depths. It made researchers realize that the water inside the rock cracks were probably caused by

Hydrogen and oxygen atoms squeezed out and then retained below the surface because of the impermeable rock above.

Finally, one of the most amazing discoveries made through the project was the detection of life in the form of microscopic fossils found in rocks that were more than two billion years old. From the fossils, researchers were able to find the remains of 25 different species of plankton.  The discovery was very surprising because the fossils were surround by organic compounds that were tough against the pressure and temperature of the surroundings.

Sadly, the Kola Superdeep Borehole project was halted in 1994 because of a variety of reasons. One reason was because it was just getting way too hot down there. The temperature at the bottom of the hole was a scorching 356 degrees F, which is the temperature where food (or people) get cooked. This was such a huge difference from the expected 212 F that it was almost unbearable for people to continue further. Not only that rock density increased the deeper the hole was dug, resulting in greater porosity and permeability. In other words, it was like drilling through plastic rather than solid which made it very a difficult operation.

Kola Borehole Location

There are other hypotheses that are a bit more far fetched though. After the discovery of water within the hole, people started to believe that the hole was associated with the tale of Noah’s flood. According to text, it was believed that after the massive flood, all the water drained into subterranean sinkholes. Scientists previously questioned how the flood could have possibly existed if rocks weren’t porous and that they didn’t know where the water went, but this could be the answer. Now many believe that this additional proof that Noah’s flood story was not merely a tall tale.

Not only were people associating the hole with Noah’s flood, there were even persistent rumors of scientists getting scared that they would ‘drill through hell’ and that they ‘heard screaming from tortured souls’ The idea that the hole could be a passageway to satan’s lair could be another reason as to why the hole is now closed down and no longer in labor.

The hole is now bolted shut

Yes, you won’t be able to access the 7.5 mile deep hole anymore because it is now bolted shut and completely inaccessible. In fact, the whole area surrounding the whole is completely out of use. But you know what is really crazy? Although the hole seems to be extremely deep, if you look at it from another perspective, the hole’s entire depth is only deep enough to cover around .002% of the distance to the center of earth. So that means there could be a whole different world right under our feet. And even if we COULD tread to the center of the earth, do we really want to? Who knows what we’ll find there: alien-warded facilities, five-headed monsters, and maybe even hell itself?

100 Million Year Old baby Bird Found Trapped in Amber

You know, ancient insects were not the only things trapped in amber back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. In fact just this year we found bird wings, dinosaur feathers and now this...a nearly intact baby bird from around 100 million years ago, in fact, the most complete prehistoric bird we have ever found.

 Scientists found the amber in Myanmar and inside you can see bird’s head, tail, neck and especially the wings and feet. It's really incredible because the tree resin perfectly preserved even the feathers, flesh and claws.

"It's the most complete and detailed view we've ever had," one of the team behind the discovery, Ryan McKellar from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, told New Scientist. “Seeing something this complete is amazing. It’s just stunning.” He said.

This bird belonged to a group known as enantiornithes or opposite birds, which went extinct about 65 million years ago at the end of the cretaceous period along with the dinosaurs.

These birds appear to look like birds of today but according to new scientist  they had a socket-and-ball joint in their shoulders where modern birds have a ball-and-socket joint – hence the name. They also had claws on their wings, and jaws and teeth rather than beaks.

It is still a mystery why these birds died off while other ancestors of modern birds did not. Researchers think this might have something to do with the fact that these birds’ were lousy parents and often just left the babies to fend for themselves. Also researchers believed that these birds were actually hatched on the ground and then climbed up into the trees, which might explain why these birds were so easily stuck in tree sap.

The amber was Mined in the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. Amber found in this region contain some of the largest variety of life from the cretaceous period which was from 145 to 65 million years ago.

And if you are already thinking a Jurassic Park scenario in your head, you’re probably not alone. Unfortunately there really is not much DNA left, as the flesh has already turned into unusable carbon.

5 Signs a Person is Lying To You

Why do people lie? It's human nature. We do it to protect ourselves, or someone else. We lie to avoid conflict, or to escape punishment. There are also those who do it out of pride, or to manipulate the situation and we well say we hate liars, but the truth is, we just hate it when we're the ones being lied to.

Although the reasons why people lie varies, the signs of lying are somewhat universal. In general, there are two basic types of lies. The first and the more common is the "white lie" We all do it once in a while to save face or to prevent someone from getting hurt – like saying your girlfriend looks good in her dress even though it’s a little too revealing for the first meeting with your family.

But there are also strategic lies – deceptions meant to mislead other people or to put the blame on someone else. These lies are less common, but definitely more destructive. Fortunately, a recent research from the University of California suggests that humans have pre-set instincts in detecting liars, although these are often outweighed by our conscious minds.  

The following are tips we have gathered from several experts who have mastered the science of lying.

1. Establish a baseline. Know how a person typically behaves.

If you're not familiar with how they act when they're telling the truth, there's a lower chance of you identifying uncharacteristic expressions when they're lying.  Meaning, it is much easier to detect lies from a relative or a friend, as compared to a complete stranger. 

But that doesn't mean you have no means of finding out if an unfamiliar person is indeed lying. The key is to ask a few questions that have safe and typical answers - such as what their name is and where they live. That way, you will be able to identify the changes in their behavior when you start asking more challenging questions. 

2. Pay attention to their body language.

One thing you'll immediately notice is that they stand very still. A person who's lying will try to pull his arms and legs in toward his body. Studies say that this could be a sign that the body is preparing for a possible confrontation. 

In a normal conversation, it is natural for us to move in a relaxed and subtle manner, which is for the most part unconscious. When someone is holding a very rigid stance, that almost always means that something is off.  

The same goes for the total opposite - when a person fidgets a lot, a tell-tale sign that he is nervous. He will repeatedly touch his nose, rub his lips, or tug on his clothes. When a person is lying, he would be too uncomfortable to stay in one position for a long time. So bottom line, a liar could either be too tight or too loose. If he has nothing to hide, he'll be able to act comfortably and naturally. 

3. Watch for facial movements and expressions. 

When a person is lying, you will find a lot of clues in his face. First up, the eyes. According to multiple scientific studies, a person who's recalling an actual visual or auditory memory tends to look to the right.

For example, someone who's trying to remember what he had for lunch will unconsciously look to the right to picture that salad. While a person who's still constructing answers and imagery tends to look to the left, like when you're imagining what you want to have for dinner. 

It is important to note though that the contrary is to be observed from a left-handed person - who will tend to look to the right when he's lying, and to the left when he's recalling real events. 

One more thing to observe in the eyes is whether a person is trying to avoid your gaze. For someone who deems lying as wrong, looking at another person in the eyes takes too much toll on one's emotional and cognitive energy and could overload one's senses. And so we try to reduce our guilt by not holding eye-contact.

But if a person is a proud liar, he will not be ashamed to look you straight in the eye while he tells his lies. A practiced liar will maintain an uncomfortable eye contact, that could last up to 70% of your conversation. Studies say maintaining eye contact 50% of the time is considered normal. An expert con-man will even use a cold and steady gaze to try to intimidate and take control of the situation.

A person who's telling the truth will not be afraid to look you in the eye once in a while, but will also naturally shift his eyes around and look away from time to time.  From the eyes, look down to the lips. A highly stressful situation often causes the mouth to dry out. If the person is excessively licking his lips, there's a great chance that the lie is stressing him out. 

Also, when a person of good morals lies, he will touch his nose when he says the lie. Studies show that a person touches his nose when he believes something bad has happened. When a person gets a negative feeling, the blood capillaries in the nose contract, making him feel the need to touch or scratch it. Note that this particular sign applies only to people who consider lying as wrong. 

4. Observe language and speech patterns.

Stuttering and stammering are the two most common evidence that a person is lying, especially if he was caught in the act. But if he was given the time to calm down before being questioned, take note of hardline pauses. This is a telltale sign that a person is still constructing his story, and is pausing to think of what to say next.

You will also notice that the person will start talking slower. While a liar is thinking hard to get the facts straight in his head, the brain will subconsciously slow down his speech patterns. Repetitive throat-clearing and hard-swallowing may also mean that a person is being untruthful. Scientific studies say this is our body’s fight or flight stress response, which causes the moisture usually in our throat to reroute to our skin in the form of sweat, and we sweat a lot during stressful situations. So watch out for that too.

Be mindful of changes in the tone and voice as well. A liar would typically answer denials in a high pitched voice, as compared to a calm tone when he absolutely has no idea what you’re talking about.

5. Listen to what the person is actually saying.

Mainly, a liar would have an answer to everything.  We all have a lot going on in our lives, that it's so easy to forget what we even had for dinner last night, much less what we did at 3:00PM last Wednesday.

If a person has an answer to everything you ask, then that only means he has anticipated your questions and have prepared a corresponding answer to cover up his tracks. When a person has zero hesitation when answering a question, that's already a dead giveaway.

Liars think that being more specific gives you less chance to see holes in the story. They will embellish on details, even those that are not necessary – like the color of the car they used, or the amount of cheese put in their burrito. A liar would drone on and on, and answer questions even before you ask them.

The good thing is that you can actually use this to your advantage by scrutinizing every single detail, and analyze if the story does check out. You can also ask the person to repeat the whole story. Or better yet, backwards. If he’s lying, he should drop a few details or add information that was not previously mentioned.

Any deviation from the original story may mean this person is lying. Another thing to note is that a liar would be very repetitive in his answers. A study says there are three possible reasons why a liar does this.

One, and the most obvious - to convince the other person that what he’s saying is true. He believes that insisting he didn’t eat the last donut, even though there were only two of you in the room, might make you think that it was the dog that did it.

Two - to validate the lie in their minds and eventually convince even themselves that the lie did happen.

And three - to buy time while trying to gather their thoughts and invent a story. Saying "it wasn't me" 10 times would indeed give you enough time to think of an excuse.

Most commonly, a liar would repeatedly say the words "honestly"; & "to tell you the truth"; and their many variations.  Also observe the shift in the use of pronouns. You will notice that a liar will try to communicate with lesser personal pronouns, and talk in a strangely impersonal manner.

He is less likely to use the words "I" & "me" or "mine" in an attempt to distance himself from the actual events. A liar would rather use third-person pronouns like "she & "he" or "they" to try and shift the blame on other people. He would keep it simple, in able to repeat the story if necessary.  

Using only one method will not help you detect a lie. And even doing all five could guarantee you only 90% accuracy. But even so, these should provide you with much-needed initial defense against deception. Remember that despite fully understanding the signs, nothing beats a concrete evidence to dispute a lie. Otherwise, you might be creating unnecessary rift with possibly innocent people.

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Sources:

http://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/10-signs-someone-is-lying
http://www.psychologium.com/11-body-signs-showing-that-someone-is-lying-to-you/
http://www.businessinsider.com/11-signs-someone-is-lying-2014-4?op=1/#they-change-their-head-position-quickly-1
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-ways-tell-someone-lying-you.html
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/mental-health/how-to-tell-if-someone-is-lying
https://www.2knowmyself.com/body_language/body_language_lying
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-markman-phd/the-language-of-lies_b_1133779.html
http://www.rd.com/advice/relationships/how-to-spot-a-liar/

New Fossil Discovery in Morocco Will rewrite Human History

Well, time to change the text books…

Until now, researchers believed that the first ever modern humans or Homo sapiens, came out of East Africa about 200,000 years ago. But in Jebel Irhoud a remote region of Morocco in what was once a cave. A team of European and Moroccan scientists has found five fossil remains that dates back to about 315,000 years ago, which would make them the oldest modern humans ever found.

This is a huge breakthrough because it would mean our species evolved across africa more than 100,000 years earlier.

Shannon McPherron/Nature

According to a report in the Journal Nature, The international team of researchers led by Jean-Jacques Hublin who directs the department of human evolution at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology uncovered a skull, bones along with some stone tools.

In a statement Hublin said: "This material represents the very root of our species, the oldest Homo sapiens ever found in Africa or elsewhere,"

“We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200, 000 years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300,000 years ago,” he explains

He added “Until now, the common wisdom was that our species emerged probably rather quickly somewhere in a ‘Garden of Eden’ that was located most likely in sub-Saharan Africa,”

“Long before the out-of-Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens, there was dispersal within Africa,” says Hublin.

The fossils found were surrounded by gazelle and other animal bones and scientists believe that these homo sapiens mainly hunted for their food. The fossil also shows that although our ancestors brains functioned differently they did have similar faces as our own.

The discovery of the site was not new, a few pieces of skull and flint blades were found by moroccan miners at the Jebel Irhoud site in 1961, but the horrendous dating techniques used back then estimated the remains to be only 40,000 years old. It wasn't until the 1980s when Jean-Jacques Hublin took a closer look at one jawbone that he realized something didn’t add up.

Hublin said although the teeth was similar to modern humans, the shape seemed very primitive. Thus starting in 2004 Dr. Hublin and his team started to excavate Jebel Irhoud once again and found more fossils, including five skull bones and burnt flint blades. Scientists used  a method called thermoluminescence to estimate how long it has been since the blades were burned and estimated the blades to be around 300,000 years old.

Of course a claim so big could not be without its detractors.

John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin said that it was a plausible idea, but that recent discoveries of fossils from the same era raise the possibility that they were used by other hominins. The only way to resolve the question will be to find more hominin fossils from the time when our species emerged.

The Mysterious Black-Eyed Children

It’s late at night, you’re all alone in your home and it’s very dark outside. While you’re nestled in the warmth of your own home as you read a book to get yourself to sleep, you suddenly get startled by a sharp knock at the door. You stand up, head for the door, pull back the curtain of your window. Outside, you see a pair of trendily-dressed, olive-skinned teenagers. At first, you feel annoyed that some kids were disturbing you on a peaceful night, but you take a second look at them and realize that they are not the average, ordinary teenagers that live in your hometown. These two adolescents have something horribly wrong with them – their eyes. The creatures standing on your front porch have no white corneas, no colorful irises. All they have were just a pair of big, black and shark-like eyes, which sent chills down your spine as soon as you saw them.

At first, you may think that these bizarre teenagers are just dropping by to give you a scare before going on their way, but to your horror, they insist that you help them. And as they stare piercingly at you with their dull black eyes, they demand that you let them into your house. Despite a hypnotic temptation to give in to their demand and let them in, you actively resist in doing their bidding, and chose to keep them out of your home.

What just happened? What are those creatures that tried to convince you to let them into your home? And why did they have such terrifying blackened eyes?

What Are the Black-Eyed People?

Modern mythology has always been riddled with unexplained phenomenon, and among them are these legendary creatures known as the “Black-Eyed People.” They are also often referred to as “Black-Eyed Kids” or “Black-Eyed Beings,” but what they really are is a complete and total mystery.

Most encounters with the Black-Eyed People usually follow the same patterns. In most cases, a human-looking entity with pure black eyes – including the sclera or the white part of the eye – will approach a person at their home or their car, asking to be let in. They usually have a very dull or dry personality, as if they possess no personality at all - that is until they are told that they can’t come in. At this point, they get very agitated and those who encountered these creatures firsthand report a feeling of intense dread and fear when in the presence of these Black-Eyed Beings, even if they can’t exactly explain why.

The Black-Eyed People usually have very pale or sickly-looking skin and very dark hair. The clothes they wear vary but some describe them to be wearing all-black or very dark clothes. These creatures are more well-known as the “Black-Eyed Kids,” a term which is used very often to generalize this phenomenon since a high number of reported cases involve children with black eyes. In many cases, there will be one or two children between ages 6 and 16 and they are reportedly seen hitchhiking or panhandling, or are encountered on doorsteps of residential homes. They often wear no shoes, and they also look dirty and disheveled. Much like their older counterparts, these children are devoid of personality until they get aggravated when denied entry into your home or your car.

Origins of the Myth/Legend of the Black-Eyed People

The exact origin or primary source of the phenomenon of the Black-Eyed People is very difficult to pinpoint. The stories about these terrifying creatures slowly began to surface back in the mid- to late- 1990s through various internet message boards – the Facebook of that decade. However, one source of the phenomenon might have been the story of Brian Bethel in 1998.

According to Bethel, two boys approached him while he was sitting in his parked car, and they asked him for a ride home. He was tempted to let the boys into his vehicle but he claimed that he was also overwhelmed by a “fight-or-flight” response. And so, he resisted the urge to grant their request, which as a result, only agitated the boys and they grew even more insistent that they be let into the car. It was only then that Bethel noticed that the boys had “cloak black” eyes, and he felt momentarily paralyzed with fear. When Bethel collected himself, he promptly exited the scene.

When Bethel shared this personal experience in a ghost hunter forum, it unleashed the legend of the Black-Eyed People onto the online world. Since then, cases and personal experiences of other people have been reported from all across the globe, with only few variances among different accounts.

Paranormal Explanations for the Black-Eyed People

Are the Black-Eyed People real? Or were the increased sightings and alleged encounters with these unusual creatures simply a paranoid overreaction to everyday events? The evidence is not clear either way, but paranormal and supernatural explanations have been presented in support of their existence.

Many encounters with the Black-Eyed Beings consist of youthful, and usually dapper young men who use hypnotic voices and mesmerizing black eyes to convince and coerce their “victims” into doing their bidding. They also display an evident inability to enter someone’s property without first being invited. And while, to date, attempted blood consumption has not figured into any reported encounters with these creatures, some believe that the attributes of the Black-Eyed People are very vampire-like.

There are also suggestions that Black-Eyed Beings might be the result of a strange synthesis of human and extraterrestrial DNA. This particular speculation originates from the vague reference of alleged female alien abductees having encountered half-human, half-alien babies that were supposedly created from these abductees’ extracted unfertilized eggs. Many of these women have claimed to have come into contact with humanoid babies, which they described to have olive-shaded skin and jet-black and almond-shaped eyes.

Some have considered these Black-Eyed Beings as merely the lost spirits of the departed children who are sorrowfully wandering the mortal world seeking help from the living. However, given that most eyewitnesses report feeling an almost overpowering rush of fear when they encountered these beings, some believe that it is more likely that these Black-Eyed creatures are dangerous predators in disguise. And so, while this theory is no more or less reasonable than the others we have just presented, those predisposed to believing in the existence of angels and demons are more inclined to consider the fact that the Black-Eyed People might be old-fashioned, shape-shifting critters from the bowels of hell.

Scientific, Medical & Psychological Explanations for the Black-Eyed People

As exciting as paranormal explanations to the Black-Eyed People phenomenon may be, there has never been a shred of physical evidence to suggest that these creatures are physically present in any way or if they actually exist. So, if we cannot say that the Black-Eyed People are real due to this lack of evidence supporting their existence, what else could they possibly be?

Psychology and medical science present several interesting possibilities. In psychology, the first explanation is people’s overreaction on a particular event they had been mentally prepared for. This preparation is called “priming.” In priming, pre-suggestion has already been placed into the mind and only an activator stimulus that is appropriately vague under the right conditions sets off the connection between the knowledge in the brain and the senses. A false connection is then made between the two, leading people to a flawed conclusion that is not supported by actual evidence.

Priming is tied to pareidolia – the unification of sensory data into a familiar subject based on the perception of complex lines, patterns, gradations, sounds, or random colors. Our perceptions of the everyday world work the exact same way, and frame of reference and context mean everything when it comes to putting things in perspective. For example, if you visit an old house in the middle of the day and you hear stories about it being haunted, you probably won’t be scared at all. However, if you visit the same place in the middle of the night or during an intense thunderstorm, your perceptions of the situation will change drastically.

In short, priming, pareidolia, frame of reference and context all play important roles in how people perceive events, experiences, and even other people. All of these factors combine together to create a terrifying experience, even if we would ordinarily dismiss such scary ideas for their absurdity.

Medical causes combined with psychological factors and environmental parameters could also lead people to think that a particular experience is an encounter with the Black-Eyed People.

The dilation of the pupil in the human eye is called mydriasis, and the terms is used to refer to pupil dilation that is not the result of physiological causes, like drugs, illness or injury. There are several conditions that can cause a pupil to expand beyond what most people have typically observed. A blown pupil, for example, refers to a condition where the pupils are dilated beyond the normal limits due to a possible increase in intercranial pressure or brain hemorrhaging. Drugs, traumatic damage to the iris, third cranial nerve palsy, and pharmacological dilation among many others may also bring about a similar effect.  

None of these medical causes could lead to a fully black-eyed entity, but if combined with the right atmospheric parameters and/or primed conditioning, it may influence the brain to make a connection between confusing and unknown sensory data and information held in long term memory. And so, an encounter with a supposed Black-Eyed Being is created in our minds, where there really isn’t one.  

The internet is an invaluable tool for the distribution of information, but it is also just as easily a medium abused by people in disseminating hearsay, rumors and outright lies. Every paranormal event is riddled with scores of pranks and copycat reports, and so it may very well be that the mystery behind the Black-Eyed People is nothing more than an urban legend that has taken on a life of its own ever since it was introduced to the rest of the world. While this phenomenon could be true even if it is also considered an urban legend, the evidence proving the existence of the Black-Eyed People remains elusive until now, and will probably never be found.

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_children
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/mystery-of-the-black-eyed-people-why-are-they-so-different-from-the-rest-of-us/
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/04/black-eyed-kids-insidious-threat-or-myth-in-the-making/
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4410
http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/black-eyed-people.html
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/blackeyed.asp
https://www.thoughtco.com/black-eyed-kids-horror-or-hoax-2594476

US Company to Start Trials Reawakening the dead

Bringing people back from the dead may seem like something you’d only see in horror movies and these attempts usually result in something less than holy, remember this kid? But later this year researchers from Bioquark, a company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hope to do just that.

Although their process does not involve any dark magic spells, vampire blood or a pet cemetery, the study is still extremely controversial. Because this isn’t Final Fantasy and using a Phoenix Down type potion to bring people back from the dead is generally frowned upon. In a nutshell, the trial will begin by injecting stem cells into the spinal cords of people who are declared brain dead as well as deploy lasers and nerve stimulation techniques with the hopes that new neurons will grow and connect to each other thus restart the brain and bring the patient back from the dead.

Researchers believe the stems cells may be able to start up the brain again based on their surrounding tissue. Which is the same process used by some species of lizards to regrow a lost limb.

Something else to keep in mind is that the definition of death has changed in the past few decades. Before, you were declared dead when your heart stopped beating but nowadays, in many countries, to be officially declared dead means there has to be a complete loss of brain function or “brain dead” but according to Bioquark CEO Ira Pastor, brain death is not completely irreversible.

“This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime. Said Dr. Ira Pastor of Bioquark CEO of Bioquark

"To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness.

This is actually Bioquark’s second attempt at launching this study, the first trial launched in Rudrapur India in 2016 but it didn’t get any patients and the study was eventually shut down several months later. Now the company is set to begin a second trial in a new location, which is said to be an unidentified country somewhere in Latin America.

The new trial will attempt to enroll 20 patients who have been declared dead and only kept alive through life support. The patients will first receive an injection of stem cells harvested from their own blood, then a peptide formula is injected into the spinal cord which will hopefully create new neurons, then lasers will be used to help stimulate the neurons to form connections. During this time the patients will be monitored with MRI scans to look for signs of regeneration, especially in the lowest region of the brain stem which is responsible for independent breathing and heartbeat.

This may all sound good in theory but there are a lot of problems. First of all, if a patient is technically dead, how will he or she give consent? Because I’m sure none of us would actually want to come back like the night of the living dead, but probably never made what wish generally known while alive. Also like I mentioned earlier, this trial is really just all conjecture. No one is 100% sure this could actually work.

According to an editorial written in 2016 by Neurologist Dr. Ariane Lewis and bioethicist Arthur Caplan, they called this study “borders on quackery,” “has no scientific foundation,” and gave families “a cruel, false hope for recovery.”

Dr. Charles Cox, a pediatric surgeon who has studied the same type of stem cells being used in this trial also said.  “it’s not the absolute craziest thing I’ve ever heard, but I think the probability of that working is next to zero,”

“I think [someone reviving] would technically be a miracle,” he said. “I think the pope would technically call that a miracle.”

But Pastor thinks Bioquark’s protocol will work. “I give us a pretty good chance,” he said. “I just think it’s a matter of putting it all together and getting the right people and the right minds on it.

5 Superweapons of The Ancient World

Throughout recorded history – and perhaps ever before that – warfare has always been a significant part of the human condition. War tactics, strategies and weaponry have gone a long way since the ancient times, but it cannot be denied how much the ingenuity of ancient civilizations have plenty to do with the way modern warfare has been molded into what it is now.

For our purpose of exploring this fascinating subset of human history, here are five (5) ancient superweapons of the ancient world.

1. Claw of Archimedes

Also known as the “Iron Hand,” the Claw of Archimedes was an ancient weapon which is believed to have been used prominently during the Second Punic War in 214 BC, when the Roman Republic attacked Syracuse with a fleet of 60 quinqueremes – which were heavy warships extensively used during the Hellenistic era – under Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Archimedes designed several units of this machine to defend the seaward portion of Syracuse’s city wall against amphibious assault.

Though its exact nature remains unclear, the accounts of ancient historians describe it as a sort of crane equipped with a grappling hook that was able to lift an attacking ship partly out of the water, which then either suddenly dropped the ship or caused it to capsize. These machines were deployed when the Roman fleet approached the city walls of Syracuse at night, and they managed to sink many ships and throw the attack into confusion. Historians like Livy attributed heavy Roman losses to these “claw” machines devised by Archimedes.

2. Helepolis

The helepolis, which translates in English as the “Taker of Cities” is the Greek name for a movable siege tower. It was essentially a large tapered tower – with each side measuring about 130 feet or 41.1 meters high, and 65 feet or 20.6 meters wide – and was manually pushed into battle. It rested on eight wheels, each of them measured 15 feet or 4.6 meters high and was equipped with casters which allowed direct and lateral movements. The machine weighed heavy at 160 tons and required 3,400 men working in relays to move it.

The most famous helepolis was invented by Polyidus of Thessaly and was improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens for the Siege of Rhodes in 305 BC. The siege tower they created was supposedly the greatest and most remarkable engine of its kind that was ever erected. However, when the siege failed, the Helepolis along with other siege engines were abandoned, and the people of Rhodes melted them down to build a statue of their patron god, Helios. This statue came to be known as the “Colossus of Rhodes” and was among the ancient Seven Wonders of the World.

3. Hwacha

The Hwacha may be best described as a type of early multiple rocket launcher developed in Korea, and was primarily used as a defensive weapon by its army to protect its borders but was also utilized in the field of battle. This weapon consists of a two-wheeled cart, and a mounted board with several holes. Each of these holes was field with a singijeon which roughly translates to “magical machine arrows.” These arrows were propelled by a tube of gunpowder attached onto its shaft. Its earliest versions were capable of firing up to 100 arrows each time it was ignited, but the design was later improved to allow up to 200 arrows to be fired in each round.

During the last decade of the 16th century AD, the Korean peninsula was threatened by Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan, and the Japanese invaded Korea with the intention of conquering the entire peninsula. One of the greatest victories achieved by the Koreans during the Imjin War was the Battle of Haengju, which took place on Feb. 12, 1593. According to historical records, the battle involved 3,000 Koreans defending a hilltop fortress against an army of 30,000 Japanese soldiers. Despite the staggering numerical odds, the Koreans managed to emerge victorious, and became one of the first major Korean triumphs during this war. Their success is largely attributed to the use of around 40 units of the Hwacha.

4. Archimedes’ Death Ray

Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in the Second Punic War, Archimedes also constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships which were anchored within bow and arrow range on fire. This “Death Ray” allegedly worked by focusing the rays of the sun using mirrors, similar to the Nazi’s take on the death ray concept more than 2000 years later.

The weapon is believed to have consisted of several highly-polished mirrors held by troops along the city walls, which focused the sun’s rays on oncoming Roman ships. By focusing these rays, they were able to create a point of intense heat that set these ships on fire. An alternate version of this weapon was a single, large parabolic mirror, which is similar to the modern concept of a laser gun, incinerating whatever it was aimed at.   

The story of Archimedes’ Death Ray has been heavily debated and a number of attempts to recreate it have been made over the years. TV’s MythBusters attempted to replicate the feat and failed to do so, dismissing the ancient superweapon as nothing more than a myth. However, there were some attempts that have apparently been successful, such as the 1973 experiment by a Greek engineer that caused a mock-up ship 160 feet away to burst into flames within seconds, and MIT’s 2005 experiment which used mirrors in parabolic arrangement to set a replica of a Roman ship on fire.

5. Greek Fire

Also known as “Sea Fire,” Greek Fire, as mentioned in literature, was a weapon invented in the 7th century AD by the Byzantine Empire. According to the historian Theophanes, it was invented by the Greek architect Kallinikos, a former resident of Heliopolis who resided in Baalbeck. However, this claim is still very much debated, with some historians believing that Greek Fire was actually discovered in Constantinople by a group of chemists from an Alexandrian school.

This superweapon was some kind of special sticky liquid that was used in land battles during sieges and naval battles. Soldiers would use a firing tube to spray the liquid that would engulf their target in flames. Greek fire was also so potent that it could even burn on water. Once Greek fire set its target ablaze, it was very difficult to extinguish. This potent weapon gave the Byzantines an edge over their enemies in warfare, and was a closely guarded secret of the empire.  However, it was also a kind of double-edged weapon: if they used it correctly, the Byzantines managed to turn the tide of many battles with it; but if they weren’t careful, they could also end up burning their own troops with the flames.

The exact Byzantine formula of Greek Fire had been lost long ago along with the fall of the empire, though copies were created by others over the centuries but failed to completely replicate it. According to many historians and experts, the original Greek Fire probably contained ingredients such as crude oil, bitumen, naphtha, resin and sulfur. Its use required great caution and technical skill that only selected soldiers specially trained to handle the liquid were allowed to use them during battles.

In the olden times, there was no limit to the genius and ruthlessness the ancient people infused in their creation of diabolical and destructive weapons of war. These five ancient superweapons we have mentioned along with many others that were not enumerated in this list are still heralded as remarkable tools for warfare which serve as a reminder of their creators’ genius and whose legacies have reverberated even in the 21st century.

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Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/ten-diabolical-weapons-and-strategies-war-ancient-world-004241?nopaging=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claw_of_Archimedes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helepolis
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/helepolis-e506240
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Helepolis.html
http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology/powerful-hwacha-early-korean-rocket-launcher-005759
http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/deathray/10_ArchimedesResult.html
http://www.hexapolis.com/2015/07/07/4-remarkable-inventions-of-archimedes-that-still-baffle-us/
http://www.oddlyhistorical.com/2014/03/11/legend-archimedes-death-ray-fact-fiction/
http://neobyzantium.com/greek-fire-the-byzantine-secret-weapon/
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/greek-fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

Berenstein Bears proof of Parallel Universes? Mandela Effect Explained

The Mandela Effect

Human memory is truly a peculiar thing. We are astonished by its scope and power, but we also recognize its dismaying fallibility. For years, scientists and researchers in the field of cognitive psychology and neuroscience have been studying extensively how memory works, but while they have taken great strides in gaining a better understanding of it, much of human memory remains a mystery. One thing about it remains certain though – memory isn’t perfect at all. And proof of this imperfection is the phenomenon of false memories – erroneous or unconsciously fabricated recollections of past events that seemingly feel so real and true that those who experience them often refuse to accept any evidence contrary to what they think they know or recall.

While the topic of errors in human memory in general is a fascinating subject matter that has gained the interest of curious men and women of science, one type of glitch in human memory has generated a lot of buzz in in recent years, and people of the Internet refer to it as the “Mandela Effect.”

What is the Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is essentially defined as a collective misremembering of a fact or event. It refers to a phenomenon where a group of people all misremember the same detail, event or physicality.

The term was coined by self-described “paranormal consultant” Fiona Broome who claims to have become aware of the phenomenon after discovering that she shared a particular false memory with several other people. This memory was their incorrect knowledge that South American human rights activist and president Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s when in reality, he passed away more recently in 2013. Beyond this particular memory she allegedly shared with other people, she also began to notice other examples of the phenomenon, leading her to believe that these instances are not simply errors in memory. They exceed the normal range of forgetfulness because for some reason that remains unclear, other people seem to have identical memories of something that supposedly never came to be in our reality.

Examples of the Mandela Effect

One particular example of the Mandela Effect that has generated a very loud online buzz involves the children’s book series and animated TV show “The Berenstain Bears.” As it turns out, a good number of people who grew up knowing the series apparently remember its title to be “The Berenstein Bears,” with the name ending in “ein” instead of “ain.” Some of those who recall this false memory even go so far as to claim that the fictional bears’ surname was changed along the way to make the series seem “less Jewish.”

Another example of the Mandela Effect is the recollection of many people that the United States has 51 or 52 states, and not 50. At present, the United States of America is composed of 50 states, with Washington D.C. considered as a federal district. But the US also has several unincorporated territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa, which could be the reason why some people have the erroneous notion that there are more than 50 states considered to be a part of the Union. While this misconception is generally expected to have come from non-US residents, there are U.S. citizens that allegedly claim that 51 or 52 states was what they recall they were taught by their educators at school in their younger years.

A last example of the Mandela Effect that we will briefly discuss involves HBO’s popular TV series “Sex and the City.” According to some people, the series was originally named as “Sex in the City” until the network censors decided to make it less overtly suggestive of people engaging in sexual activities. Many people remember that for the first season, the show’s title was originally “Sex in the City,” while some maintain this to be the real title for its entire run. But as far as our current reality is concerned, the title of this classic cable TV show had been nothing else but “Sex AND the City.”

Explanations for the Mandela Effect

How do we explain the fact that many people share the same false memory? Because of the popularity of the Mandela Effect as a phenomenon in recent years, the discussion about the topic has sparked an intense debate that has trapped the issue in a tug of war between two sides – the side of logic and mainstream science against the side of paranormal territory and fringe science.

One far-out theory based on the principles of quantum mechanics argue that those who have personally experienced the Mandela Effect may have actually “slid” between parallel realities. According to this theory, those who grew up in a universe where “Berenstein” Bears is spelled with an “ein” found themselves waking up one day in an alternate universe where the title of the children’s book is spelled as “Berenstain” Bears with an “ain.”

Another far-fetched theory posits that unbeknownst to ourselves, we are actually within a virtual reality the provides us with a manufactured human experience. And according to this theory, this virtual world is prone to “glitches,” which in turn, cause inconsistences in our perception of reality.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of wild speculation, these theories bordering on science fiction yield no practical explanation or testable hypotheses. And from a logical and scientific standpoint, nor are they necessary, since some experts don’t consider the Mandela Effect as a phenomenon at all that deserves to be distinguished from existing types of false memories already well-established in the field of psychology.

A leading psychological theory sees memory as constructive and not reproductive – which means the brain “creates” memories out of various bits and pieces of information it was fed with as opposed to just accurately playing them back like a recording. Memories are not pure; they are fallible. And there are several psychological and social factors that can disrupt and distort the recollection of a particular memory, which include but are not limited to bias, association, imagination and expectations.

From a psychological standpoint, it is generally agreed on that there is normally an identifiable solution and explanation to most cases of the Mandela Effect, and many of these theories or key factors have nothing to do with parallel universes and virtual realities.

One key psychological factor in many cases of the Mandela Effect is what is referred to as the “misinformation effect.” Misinformation affects people’s reports of their own memory. This happens when information presented at a later time interferes with the ability to retain the previous information gathered for a particular memory. In essence, the new information received works backwards in time to distort a person’s memory of the original event. Misinformation Effect reflects two of the cardinal sins of memory: suggestibility – or the influence of other’s expectations on our own memory – and misattribution – or information attributed to an incorrect source. Studies about this phenomenon has raised issues over the reliability and permanence of human memory.

Confirmation bias is also one of the factors that could help explain the Mandela Effect. This type of bias is described as a person’s tendency to search for, interpret, or recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs and hypotheses. Those who are seeking cases supporting the Mandela Effect will often be more easily persuaded by other claims that supposedly validate the phenomenon. And just as they are so easily inclined to agree with such claims supporting the Mandela Effect, these people are also just as prone to discarding any evidence or claim that is contrary to their belief in the phenomenon’s existence.

But out of the many existing psychological concepts and theories about the frailties of human memory that have been raised over decades of research, perhaps the psychological concept that is most similar with the Mandela Effect is what psychologists refer to as “confabulation.” Confabulation is a clinical term used to refer to memory defects experienced by patients with brain damage, but it also describes a common phenomenon that involves the embellishment of truth when recounting events, and the non-deliberate and rarely-conscious invention of facts to fill in gaps in memory. People who have this type of memory disturbance produce incorrect memories from the most trivial details – which is often the case in the Mandela Effect – up to the more complex fabrications as well. Those who produce such misinterpreted memories typically resist any contradictory evidence to what they recall.

Although it might be very tempting to believe that the Mandela Effect is evidence of the existence of parallel realities or proof that our universe is nothing more than glitchy simulation, these kinds of speculations have yet to pass the requirements established by mainstream science that will allow them to be recognized as real theories worthy of consideration. And in light of known and widely-accepted cognitive phenomena that can give rise to shared false memories, most of us are more inclined to believe that well-known cognitive errors sufficiently explain the Mandela Effect and that there is no need to introduce concepts like parallel dimensions or alternate realities to explain the fallibility of human memory. And had Fiona Broome been a cognitive psychologist instead of a psychic ghost hunter, perhaps the term Mandela Effect might have never existed at all.

Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that the Mandela Effect is still a fascinating topic of interest regarding the quirks of human memory, while also serving as an example that human truth can actually be much stranger than fiction.

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Sources:

http://www.snopes.com/2016/07/24/the-mandela-effect/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory
http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/mandela-effect-introduction/
http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/category/mandela-effects/
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4560
http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/common-explanations/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_effect
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/02/16/mandela-effect-false-memories/#.WSDZh2iGPb0

9 Strange Acts of Nature Science still Can't Explain

Nature is beautiful but it's also a cruel mistress that can be scary, completely unpredictable and in some cases defy explanation. Although we get why the sky is blue, how the Grand Canyon formed and why birds poop on our heads (they hate us) here are some events of nature that continue to elude explanation.

1.    Animal Migration

I’ll admit, I love road trips but I’m really bad at them. I tend to get lost a lot and I get sleepy 30 minutes in. I’ve splashed water on myself, I've stuck my head out the window like a dog, nothing works. Although I still can't figure out how to stay alert on long trips in the car I am very thankful for GPS, but now I feel that I’m too reliant on them. Once I followed my GPS through a college campus, another time the GPS took me through a cemetery in nowheresville Pennsylvania at night, and that’s where I draw the line. I mean, take me through a college campus I may get a ticket, take me through a graveyard in the middle of the night? that’s some silent hill stuff! My point is I NEED a GPS especially on long trips, but have you ever noticed that many animals migrate thousands of miles across land and sea, and they never have a Garmin attached to their necks.

So How do animals make these long treks without getting lost? No one really knows, though there are many theories. For example, an article in The Independent that focused on pigeon migration, mentioned that the birds navigate the Earth using visual landmarks or their sense of smell to determine their location. More bizarre-sounding theories include the concept that pigeons use magnetism to determine if they’re north or south of home; another is that the pigeons use morphic resonance, a theory by Rupert Sheldrake, to refer to what he calls the "the basis of memory in nature basically the idea that there are collective memories that are shared within species.

2.     The Naga Fireballs

Every year, around late autumn on the night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent going back as far as anyone can remember. Hundreds of fireballs explode randomly out of Thailand’s Mekong River. This phenomenon is known as “Naga fireballs,”  Locals believe the balls come from the breath of Naga, a mythical serpent that haunts the river. Many scientists believe that the fireballs are nothing more than pockets of methane bubbling up from the river, others argue that whatever is sailing through the air has mass, and "must have been propelled physically. So the question is, what is propelling these fireballs. You guys ever hear of a watermelon seed spitting contest? maybe the river serpents gather together every year for the annual Mekong River Fireball Spitting Contest.

3.    The Tunguska Event

A ball of fire exploded in a remote area of Russia In June 1908, the explosion was so powerful it shook the ground and instantly flattening 770 square miles of forest. The blast reached 15 megatons of energy, about a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Because this event occurred near a river called Tunguska, it was Known as the Tunguska event. 

Researchers suggests that a meteor was to blame because there is a lake nearby and scientists believe that it was created by a meteor. But others say the lake was there before the event, so if not a meteor, then what cause the most powerful natural explosion in recent history.

4.    Earthquake Lights

Earthquake lights are white or bluish flashes that occur right before a large earthquake and last for several seconds. These lights have been documented for hundreds of years, but it wasn't until the 1960s, when people took pictures of this phenomenon during the Matsushiro earthquakes, that scientists started to take it seriously.

There are many theories for the origin of the lights, such as piezoelectric and frictional heating to gas emissions and electrokinetics. Recently scientists believe that the lights are caused by the natural electrical charge of rocks which are awakened by pre-earthquake elements.

5. Blue Jets and Red Sprites

Blue Jets and Red Sprits occur above clouds during a lightning storm and are only visible from space or an airplane. They basically looks like fireworks falling from the sky. Sprites are red most of the time and happen as high as 50 miles off the surface of the ground, while jets shoot directly out of the tops of storm clouds, sometimes traveling as far as 30 miles up into the Ionosphere.

Scientists think the phenomena has something to do with whatever is causing the lightning we see in every storm and that is basically all they know. The sprites seem to occur as a result of a lightning strike on the ground, but the jets seem to occur randomly.

6. Raining Animals

Throughout history random things has been documented raining from the sky including Frogs, Fish, Worms, and even blood. The prevailing theory is that waterspouts or tornadoes scoop random things up like a whole lot of fish and then transport them sometimes hundreds of miles in the sky then rain them down.

But this theory does not explain why often only a single species is in the rain. Like if a waterspout sucked things up from a lake, it should not just be raining fish, it should be raining fish, turtles, frogs, lake monsters.

7. Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC means just that, it refers to when a person bursts into flame for no apparent reason.

The first known accounts of spontaneous human combustion date all the way back to 1641. More recently, cases of SHC have been suspected when officials have found corpses burned to ashes but the furniture surrounding them were completely undamaged. For example, an Irish coroner ruled that spontaneous combustion caused the 2010 death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, whose badly burned body was discovered near a fireplace in a room with virtually no fire damage.

Many scientists dismiss the theory, because of course the human body is composed mostly of water and they argue that an undetected flame source such as a match or cigarette is the real culprit in suspected cases. Others claim that because it takes a temperature of around 570 degrees to burn a body to ashes, it’s impossible that the body would be the only thing that burns.

There are many theories of course that try to explain this phenomenon. Some say the victims are alcoholics and consumed so much alcohol that their blood became flammable, other say the combustion is caused by gamma rays. 

8.    Fairy circles:

Fairy circles are strange formations of grass-less earth surrounded by grass. Almost perfect circles and researchers have no idea what causes them. What’s also strange is that these circles start off small and grow large and the circles lie regularly spaced from one another forming the same pattern across the landscape.. They are commonly found in Namibia and parts of South Africa. Fairy circles vary 7 and 49 ft in diameter and since the 1970s, when researchers first started investigating the phenomenon, there has been no viable theory that was able to satisfy the scientific community.

There are some guesses that involve termites and patterns that arose naturally from competition between grasses. There is also the local belief that the fairy circles are footprints of the gods or made by a dragon that lives within the earth and I'm gonna go ahead and throw Colosseum arenas for little fairies into the discussion. 

9.     The Marfa Lights

The Marfa lights are mysterious glowing orbs that appear in the desert outside the West Texas town of Marfa.

The lights, which are roughly the size of basketballs and vary in color. reportedly hover, merge, split, twinkle, float or quickly dart around. There seems to be no way to predict when the lights will appear; they're seen in various weather conditions, but only a dozen or so nights a year.  and of course no one has been able to figure out what these lights are.

The first mention of the lights comes from 1883, when a cowhand Robert Reed Ellison claimed to have seen flickering lights one evening while driving a herd of cattle near Mitchell Flat. During World War II, pilots from nearby Midland Army Air Field tried to locate the source of the mysterious lights, but were unable to discover anything.

Possible causes of the lights has been attributed to cars, optical illusions, ghosts and of course aliens.