A TSUNAMI

A Tsunami : is a series of waves that is created when a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean, is rapidly displaced. The Japanese term is literally translated into "(great) harbor wave."
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (detonations of nuclear devices at sea), landslides, bolide impacts, and other mass movements above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Due to the immense volumes of water and energy involved, the effects of tsunamis can be devastating.
The Greek historian Thucydides was the first to relate tsunami to submarine quakes, but understanding of the nature of tsunami remained slim until the 20th century and is the subject of ongoing research.
Many early geological, geographical, and oceanographic texts refer to tsunamis as "seismic sea waves."
Some meteorological storm conditions such as deep depressions causing cyclones, hurricanes, can generate a storm surge which can be several metres above normal tide levels. This is due to the low atmospheric pressure within the centre of the depression. As these storm surges come ashore, they may resemble (though are not) tsunamis, inundating vast areas of land. Such a storm surge inundated Burma (Myanmar) in May 2008.

Causes
A tsunami can be generated when converging or destructive plate boundaries abruptly move and vertically displace the overlying water. It is very unlikely that they can form at divergent (constructive) or conservative plate boundaries. This is because constructive or conservative boundaries do not generally disturb the vertical displacement of the water column. Subduction zone related earthquakes generate the majority of all tsunamis.
Tsunamis have a small amplitude (wave height) offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometers long), which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 300 mm above the normal sea surface. They grow in height when they reach shallower water, in a "shoaling" process described below. A tsunami can occur at any state of the tide and even at low tide will still inundate coastal areas if the incoming waves surge high enough.
On April 1, 1946 a Magnitude 7.8 (Richter Scale) earthquake occurred near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. It generated a tsunami which inundated Hilo on the island of Hawai'i with a 14 m high surge. The area where the earthquake occurred is where the Pacific Ocean floor is subducting (or being pushed downwards) under Alaska.
Examples of tsunami being generated at locations away from convergent boundaries include Storegga during the Neolithic era, Grand Banks 1929, Papua New Guinea 1998 (Tappin, 2001). In the case of the Grand Banks and Papua New Guinea tsunamis an earthquake caused sediments to become unstable and subsequently fail. These slumped and as they flowed down slope a tsunami was generated. These tsunami did not travel transoceanic distances.
It is not known what caused the Storegga sediments to fail. It may have been due to overloading of the sediments causing them to become unstable and they then failed solely as a result of being overloaded. It is also possible that an earthquake caused the sediments to become unstable and then fail. Another theory is that a release of gas hydrates (methane etc.,) caused the slump.
The "Great Chilean earthquake" (19:11 hrs UTC) May 22, 1960 (9.5 Mw), the March 27, 1964 "Good Friday earthquake" Alaska 1964 (9.2 Mw), and the "Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake" (00:58:53 UTC) December 26, 2004 (9.2 Mw), are recent examples of powerful megathrust earthquakes that generated a tsunami that was able to cross oceans. Smaller (4.2 Mw) earthquakes in Japan can trigger tsunami that can devastate nearby coasts within 15 minutes or less.
In the 1950s it was hypothesised that larger tsunamis than had previously been believed possible may be caused by landslides, explosive volcanic action e.g., Santorini, Krakatau, and impact events when they contact water. These phenomena rapidly displace large volumes of water, as energy from falling debris or expansion is transferred to the water into which the debris falls at a rate faster than the ocean water can absorb it. They have been named by the media as "mega-tsunami."
Tsunami caused by these mechanisms, unlike the trans-oceanic tsunami caused by some earthquakes, may dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source due to the small area of sea affected. These events can give rise to much larger local shock waves (solitons), such as the landslide at the head of Lituya Bay 1958, which produced a wave with an initial surge estimated at 524 m. However, an extremely large gravitational landslide might generate a so called "mega-tsunami" that may have the ability to travel trans-oceanic distances. This though is strongly debated and there is no actual geological evidence to support this hypothesis.

Characteristics

A devastated Marina beach in Chennai after the Indian Ocean Tsunami
While everyday wind waves have a wavelength (from crest to crest) of about 100 metres (330 ft) and a height of roughly 2 metres (6.6 ft), a tsunami in the deep ocean has a wavelength of about 200 kilometres (120 mi). This wave travels at well over 800 kilometres per hour (500 mph), but due to the enormous wavelength the wave oscillation at any given point takes 20 or 30 minutes to complete a cycle and has an amplitude of only about 1 metre (3.3 ft).[citation needed] This makes tsunamis difficult to detect over deep water. Their passage usually goes unnoticed by ships.
As the tsunami approaches the coast and the waters become shallow, the wave is compressed due to wave shoaling and its forward travel slows below 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). Its wavelength diminishes to less than 20 kilometres (12 mi) and its amplitude grows enormously, producing a distinctly visible wave. Since the wave still has a wavelength on the order of several km (a few miles), the tsunami may take minutes to ramp up to full height, with victims seeing a massive deluge of rising ocean rather than a cataclysmic wall of water. Open bays and coastlines adjacent to very deep water may shape the tsunami further into a step-like wave with a steep breaking front.

Signs of an approaching tsunami

The monument to the victims of tsunami at Laupahoehoe, Hawaii
There is often no advance warning of an approaching tsunami. However, since earthquakes are often a cause of tsunami, any earthquake occurring near a body of water may generate a tsunami if it occurs at shallow depth, is of moderate or high magnitude, and the water volume and depth is sufficient.
If the first part of a tsunami to reach land is a trough (draw back) rather than a crest of the wave, the water along the shoreline may recede dramatically, exposing areas that are normally always submerged. This can serve as an advance warning of the approaching tsunami which will rush in faster than it is possible to run. If a person is in a coastal area where the sea suddenly draws back (many survivors report an accompanying sucking sound), their only real chance of survival is to run for high ground or seek the high floors of high rise buildings. This occurred in Phuket Thailand, at Maikhao beach. Ten-year old Tilly Smith of Surrey, England, was on the beach with her parents and sister, and having learned about tsunamis recently in school, was able to warn her family that a tsunami might be imminent. Her parents warned others on the beach and the hotel staff minutes before the tsunami hit. Ms. Smith is credited with saving dozens of lives as a result of her recent geography lesson. She gave credit to her geography teacher, Mr. Andrew Kearney.
In the 2004 tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean drawback was not reported on the African coast or any other eastern coasts it inundated, when the tsunami approached from the east. This was because of the nature of the wave—it moved downwards on the eastern side of the fault line and upwards on the western side. It was the western pulse that inundated coastal areas of Africa and other western areas.
About 80% of all tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean, but are possible wherever large bodies of water are found, including inland lakes.[citation needed] They may be caused by landslides, volcanic explosions, bolides and seismic activity.
According to an article in "Geographical" magazine (April 2008), the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 was not the worst that the region could expect. Professor Costas Synolakis of the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California co-authored a paper in "Geophysical Journal International" which suggests that a future tsunami in the Indian Ocean basin could affect locations such as Madagascar, Singapore, Somalia, Western Australia and many others. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed over 300,000 people with many bodies either being lost to the sea or unidentified. Some unofficial estimates have claimed that approximately 1 million people may have died directly or indirectly solely as a result of the tsunami.

Warnings and prevention

Tsunami hazard sign at Bamfield, British Columbia

Tsunami wall at Tsu, Japan
A tsunami cannot be prevented or precisely predicted—even if the right magnitude of an earthquake occurs in the right location. Geologists, oceanographers, and seismologists analyse each earthquake and based upon many factors may or may not issue a tsunami warning. However, there are some warning signs of an impending tsunami, and there are many systems being developed and in use to reduce the damage from tsunami. One of the most important systems that is used and constantly monitored are bottom pressure sensors. These are anchored and attached to buoys. Sensors on the equipment constantly monitor the pressure of the overlying water column. This is deduced through the calculation:

P= pgh

whereP = the overlying pressure in Newtons per metre square, ρ = the density of the seawater= 1.1 x 103 kg/m3,g = the acceleration due to gravity= 9.8 m/s2 and h = the height of the water column in metres.

In instances where the leading edge of the tsunami wave is the trough, the sea will recede from the coast half of the wave's period before the wave's arrival. If the slope of the coastal seabed is shallow, this recession can exceed many hundreds of meters. People unaware of the danger may remain at or near the shore out of curiosity, or for collecting fish from the exposed seabed. During the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, the sea withdrew and many people then went onto the exposed sea bed to investigate. Pictures taken show people on the normally submerged areas with the advancing wave in the background. Most people who were on the beach were unable to escape to high ground and died.

Tsunami warning sign on seawall in Kamakura, Japan, 2004. In the Muromachi period, a tsunami struck Kamakura, destroying the wooden building that housed the colossal statue of Amida Buddha at Kotokuin. Since that time, the statue has been outdoors.
Regions with a high risk of tsunami may use tsunami warning systems to detect tsunami and warn the general population before the wave reaches land. On the west coast of the United States, which is prone to Pacific Ocean tsunami, warning signs advise people of evacuation routes.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning System is based in Honolulu. It monitors all sesimic activity that occurs anywhere within the Pacific. Based up the magnitude and other information a tsunami warning may be issued. It is important to note that the subduction zones around the Pacific are seismically active, but not all earthquakes generate tsunami and for this reason computers are used as a tool to assist in analysing the risk of tsunami generation of each and every earthquake that occurs in the Pacific Ocean and the adjoining land masses.
As a direct result of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a re-appraisal of the tsunami threat of all coastal areas is being undertaken by national governments and the United Nations Disaster Mitigation Committee. A tsunami warning system is currently being installed in the Indian Ocean.
Computer models can predict tsunami arrival—observations have shown that predicted arrival times are usually within minutes of the actual time. Bottom pressure sensors are able to relay information in real time and based upon the readings and other information about the seismic event that triggered it and the shape of the seafloor (bathymetry) and coastal land (topography), it is possible to estimate the amplitude and therefore the surge height, of the approaching tsunami. All the countries that border the Pacific Ocean collaborate in the Tsunami Warning System and most regularly practice evacuation and other procedures to prepare people for the inevitable tsunami. In Japan such preparation is a mandatory requirement of government, local authorities, emergency services and the population.

Tsunami Evacuation Route signage along U.S. Route 101, in Washington
Some zoologists hypothesise that animals may have an ability to sense subsonic Rayleigh waves from an earthquake or a tsunami. Some animals seem to have the ability to detect natural phenomena and if correct, careful observation and monitoring could possibly provide advance warning of earthquakes, tsunami etc. However, the evidence is controversial and has not been proven scientifically. There are some unsubstantiated claims that animals before the Lisbon quake were restless and moved away from low lying areas to higher ground. Yet many other animals in the same areas drowned. The phenomenon was also noted by media sources in Sri Lanka in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.It is possible that certain animals (e.g., elephants) may have heard the sounds of the tsunami as it approached the coast. The elephants reaction was to move away from the approaching noise—inland. Some humans, on the other hand, went to the shore to investigate and many drowned as a result.
It is not possible to prevent a tsunami. However, in some tsunami-prone countries some earthquake engineering measures have been taken to reduce the damage caused on shore. Japan has implemented an extensive programme of building tsunami walls of up to 4.5 m (13.5 ft) high in front of populated coastal areas. Other localities have built floodgates and channels to redirect the water from incoming tsunami. However, their effectiveness has been questioned, as tsunami often surge higher than the barriers. For instance, the Okushiri, Hokkaidō tsunami which struck Okushiri Island of Hokkaidō within two to five minutes of the earthquake on July 12, 1993 created waves as much as 30 m (100 ft) tall—as high as a 10-story building. The port town of Aonae was completely surrounded by a tsunami wall, but the waves washed right over the wall and destroyed all the wood-framed structures in the area. The wall may have succeeded in slowing down and moderating the height of the tsunami, but it did not prevent major destruction and loss of life.
The effects of a tsunami may be mitigated by natural factors such as tree cover on the shoreline. Some locations in the path of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami escaped almost unscathed as a result of the tsunami's energy being absorbed by trees such as coconut palms and mangroves. In one striking example, the village of Naluvedapathy in India's Tamil Nadu region suffered minimal damage and few deaths as the wave broke up on a forest of 80,244 trees planted along the shoreline in 2002 in a bid to enter the Guinness Book of Records. Environmentalists have suggested tree planting along stretches of seacoast which are prone to tsunami risks. It would take some years for the trees to grow to a useful size, but such plantations could offer a much cheaper and longer-lasting means of tsunami mitigation than the construction of artificial barriers.

THE CROSS BETWEEN LION AND TIGER:

The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris), hence has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all cats and extant felines.
The history of ligers dates to at least the early 19th century in Asia. In 1799, Geoffrey St Hilaire (1772–1844) made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and a tiger.
In 1825, G.B. Whittaker made an engraving of liger cubs born in 1824. The parents and their three liger offspring are also depicted with their trainer in a 19th Century painting in the naïve style.
Two liger cubs which had been born in 1837 were exhibited to William IV and to his successor Victoria. On 14 December 1900 and on 31 May 1901, Carl Hagenbeck wrote to zoologist James Cossar Ewart with details and photographs of ligers born at the Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg in 1897.
In Animal Life and the World of Nature (1902–1903), A.H. Bryden described Hagenbeck's "lion-tiger" hybrids:
It has remained for one of the most enterprising collectors and naturalists of our time, Mr Carl Hagenbeck, not only to breed, but to bring successfully to a healthy maturity, specimens of this rare alliance between those two great and formidable felidae, the lion and tiger. The illustrations will indicate sufficiently how fortunate Mr Hagenbeck has been in his efforts to produce these hybrids. The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born on the 11th May, 1897. This fine beast, now more than five years old, equals and even excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring as he does from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, and standing only three inches less than 4 ft at the shoulder. A good big lion will weigh about 400 lb the hybrid in question, weighing as it does no less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior of the most well-grown lions, whether wild-bred or born in a menagerie. This animal shows faint striping and mottling, and, in its characteristics, exhibits strong traces of both its parents. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the tail is more like that of a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand, it has no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast.
In 1935, four ligers from two litters were reared in the Zoological Gardens of Bloemfontein, South Africa. Three of them, a male and two females, were still living in 1953. The male weighed 750 lb. and stood a foot and a half taller than a full grown male lion at the shoulder.
Although ligers are more commonly found than tigons today, in At Home In The Zoo (1961), Gerald Iles wrote "For the record I must say that I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They seem to be even rarer than tigons."

SIZE AND GROWTH:
Imprinted genes may be a factor contributing to huge liger size.These are genes that may or may not be expressed on the parent they are inherited from, and that occasionally play a role in issues of hybrid growth. For example, in some dog breed crosses, genes that are expressed only when maternally-inherited cause the young to grow larger than is typical for either parent breed. This growth is not seen in the paternal breeds, as such genes are normally "counteracted" by genes inherited from the female of the appropriate breed.
The tiger produces a hormone that sets the fetal liger on a pattern of growth that does not end throughout its life. The hormonal hypothesis is that the cause of the male liger's growth is its sterility — essentially, the male liger remains in the pre-pubertal growth phase. Male ligers also have the same levels of testosterone on average as an adult male lion. In addition, female ligers also attain great size, weighing approximately 700 lb (320 kg) and reaching 10 feet (3.05 m) long on average, and are often fertile. In contrast, pumapards (hybrids between pumas and leopards) tend to exhibit dwarfism.

Hercules the liger and his trainer

HERCULES AND SINBAD:
Jungle Island in Miami

is home to a liger named Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, who is recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest cat on Earth, weighing in at 900 lbs.Hercules was also featured on the today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Inside Edition and in a Maxim magazine article in 2005, when he was only 3 years old and already weighed 408.25 kg (900 lb) at the time. Hercules seems completely healthy and is expected to live a long life. The cat's breeding is said to have been a complete accident. Sinbad, another Liger, was shown on the National Geographic Channel. Sinbad was reported to have the exact weight of Hercules. Hercules and Sinbad belong to the T.I.G.E.R.s. family of animal ambassadors, who put on the "Wild Encounters."`

LONGEVITY
Shasta, a ligress (female liger) was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on May 14, 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24. The 1973 Guinness world records reported an 18-year-old, 798-kg (1,756 lb) male liger living at Bloemfontein zoological gardens, South Africa, in 1888. Valley of the Kings animal sanctuary in Wisconsin had a male liger named Nook who weighed around 550 kg (1,210 lb), and died in 2007, at 21 years old.

FERTILITY:
The fertility of hybrid big cat females is well-documented across a number of different hybrids. This is in accordance with Haldane's rule: in hybrids of animals whose sex is determined by sex chromosomes, if one sex is absent, rare or sterile, it is the heterogametic sex (the one with two different sex chromosomes e.g. X and Y).
According to Wild Cats of the World (1975) by C. A. W. Guggisberg, ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile: In 1943, however, a fifteen-year-old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, although of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.
COLORS
Ligers have a tiger-like striping pattern on a lion-like tawny background. In addition they may inherit rosettes from the lion parent (lion cubs are rosetted and some adults retain faint markings). These markings may be black, dark brown or sandy. The background color may be correspondingly tawny, sandy or golden. In common with tigers, their underparts are pale. The actual pattern and color depends on which subspecies the parents were and on the way in which the genes interact in the offspring.
White tigers have been crossed with lions to produce "white" (actually pale golden) ligers. In theory white tigers could be crossed with white lions to produce white, very pale or even stripeless ligers. A black liger does not actually exist. Very few melanistic tigers have ever been recorded, most being due to excessive markings (pseudo-melanism or abundism) rather than true melanism. No reports of black lions have ever been substantiated. The blue or Maltese Tiger is now unlikely to exist, making gray or blue ligers an impossibility. It is not impossible for a liger to be white, but it is very rare.
ZOO POLICIES
Keeping the two species separate has always been standard procedure.However, ligers have occurred and do occur by accident in captivity. Several AZA zoos are reported to have ligers.
In October 2008 a liger attacked its volunteer handler at an animal sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The handler subsequently died from his injuries.
In 1995 nineteen lions, tigers and ligers were killed near Lava Hot Spring Idaho after escaping from a dilapidated game farm where they had been bred. Several additional animals, including three ligers, were captured by Idaho Fish and Game and were transported to other facilities. The game farm, called Ligertown, became the inspiration for Napoleon Dynamite's affinity for the animal in the popular movie which was filmed in nearby Preston, Idaho.

A BABY WITH TWO HEAD

An Egyptian girl who had an operation more than a year ago to remove the head of her underdeveloped twin has died following an infection in her brain, her doctor said on Sunday.
Egyptian doctors operated on Manar Maged in February 2005, when she was 10 months old, to remove the second head which was capable of smiling and blinking but not independent life.
"She was admitted to hospital in a very bad way ... She died at 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Saturday," said Abla el-Alfy, a consultant in paediatric intensive care.
"She had a very severe infection in the brain and she wasn't able to fight it," added Alfy, who was part of the team that operated on Manar last year in a hospital north of Cairo.
Manar's condition, known as craniopagus parasiticus, is one of the rarest forms of birth defects and occurs when an embryo begins to split into twins but does not complete the process. One of the conjoined twins then fails to fully develop.
Doctors had said surviving the complicated 13-hour operation was a big achievement.
Manar's condition improved in the months after the operation to remove her underdeveloped twin but Alfy said she had suffered from repeated infections since then.

WORLD BIGGEST ARM :

Gregg Valentino is one of the most controversial yet popular bodybuilding icons. He started bodybuilding at the age of 13. After over 23 years of training naturally Gregg decided to experiment with steroids. During this time his arms grew from an impressive 100% natural 21" to an in-human 28". But after years of steroids injections, his body finally fought back: his bicep "exploded," as the video below explains:
NOTE: our reader Joe explained: "Gregg Valentino did not abuse steroids to get those freakish arms, he literally injected oil, or synthol into his muscle, filled it with liquid. That is why they are disproportionate." --thanks Joe!

FATTEST KID ONE THE WORLD:

The child eats 10,000 calories a day, she cannot walk or bear physical strain and his cardiovascular system is at risk.
Seven-year-old Jessica Gaude differs greatly from her pals. With 222 kilograms, she is the fattest child in the world.
She eats 10,000 calories each day in Coca-Colas, 15 hamburgers with fries and several kilograms of chocolate. What she eats in one day some children eat in half a year. Her breakfast consists of white bread, potato chips and two litres of coke. And she wants more.
When she last visited the doctor four years ago she had 110 kilograms. Unfortunately, she can no longer run and instead of walking she drags herself on the floor. Under such bodily weight her bones have already become distorted.
Mother Carolyn gives her daughter whatever the child wants. In the first week after she was born, when the baby cried because of stomach pains, the mother calmed her by feeding her with a bottle because she thought the child was hungry. “I gave her the bottle and she wanted more and more. It was not enough for her and she was constantly hungry”, Jessica’s mother says.
The doctors warn that the child’s health is already dangerously at risk and could die if not treated.
Unfortulately, Jessica’s mother does not understand medicine, her child is prescious to her and continues to feed her sweets.

WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO 18TH CHILDREN IN VARZEA PAULISTA

SÃO PAULO - Claudia Maria da Silva, a 40 years old, resident of Várzea Paulista, a city 67 kilometers from Sao Paulo, gave birth at University Hospital in Jundiaí, the 18 child. A letter of Justice ruled the execution of a laqueadura, which is a permanent method of contraception.
Of the 18 children who had, in its 12 live in Alagoas, four live with her in Várzea Paulista and two are in the judicial process of adoption. The case of the woman, who is unemployed, draws attention to the control of birth. It confirms that he knew the methods to prevent pregnancy, but not protected.
She was the first child to 11 years in Palmeiras of Indians in Alagoas. Agora, aos 40, decidiu pedir ajuda à juíza da cidade. Now, the 40, decided to seek help judge the city. Given the situation determined that the hospital would make a laqueadura. She is unemployed. The father of the youngest child is 15 years old boy, friend of Marias one son. The couple does not know how it will sustain the family.

WORLD`S LONGEST TONGUE:

German schoolgirl Annika Irmler has licked her way into the Guinness Book of Records with her whopping seven centimetre tongue. The twelve-year-old from Tangstedt, near Hamburg, can lick the ice cream from the bottom of a cornet - while her friends have to use their fingers.

FURTHEST EYEBALL POPPER:

CLAUDIO PINTO

KIM GOODMAN
This is one of the entries from the Guinness World Records book. The record is held by Kim Goodman, a woman who is able to pop her eyes out of her eye sockets. She discovered her talent when she was hit on the head with a hockey mask and her eyeballs popped out. Ever since she can do this when yawning or voluntarily - “I sort of squint, pull my eyelid back and out it comes,” Goodman explained.
On June 13, 1998 being on the set of the television show Guinness World Records, she had her popped eyeballs measured, having a length of 11 mm (0.43 in). It seems that she has perfect vision and has never seen a doctor about her condition.
Before establishing the world record, Kim Goodman auditioned for David Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks and made the witnesses scream, when they saw what she can accomplish. This got her on the Late Show with David Letterman Video Special III, where she was introduced as an act “you will talk about until the day you die.”
Below is a short movie from a Turkish television channel where you can see how Kim Goodman is popping her eyes out of their sockets.

However it seems is not that easy to keep this record. Apparently other people have this talent and Claudio Paulo Pinto from Brazil is one of them.Paulo can pop his eyeballs out of their sockets at least 7 millimeters (0.3 inches), that’s 95% out of their sockets.

Claudio suffers from globe luxation and from what he tells it doesn’t hurt a bit. The medical explanation is that blood vessels and nerves are strained between the eyes and the head. You can see better in the movie, however this might not be so pleasant for some of you.

THE WORLD LONGEST HAIR:

There are a number of women (and men) who have some pretty long hair, but there is only one who currently holds the record for the longest hair in the world! According to Guinness World Records, the current world recorder holder for the longest hair is Xie Qiuping (China). Ms. Qiuping's hair measures 5.627 m (18 ft 5.54 in). Details below:
Name:
Xie Qiuping
Length:
18 ft. 5.54 inches (5.627 cm)
Measured:
Guangxi Province, China
Date of Record:
May 8, 2004
Xie started growing her hair when she was 13 (1973). She keeps her long hair clean and looking beautiful. Her hair is so long, she has an assistant to help carry it when she walks. Do you have the patience and time to grow your hair out for over 30 years? If so, you could be the next record holder for the world's longest hair.
The record holder for the longest hair in the men's category is Tran Van Hay. Mr. Hay hasn't cut his hair for over 42 years and while his is not as silky and beautiful as Xie Quiping's, he definitely has an interesting style!

HAZRAT ALI AND MATHEMATICS:

Here are some Mathematical problems that Hazrat Ali (A.S.) solved,while he was Khalifa. He was known for his mathematical genius. Enjoy reading them: >One Day a person came to Ali (A.S.), thinking that since Ali (A.S.) thinks he is too smart, I'll ask him such a tough question that he won't be able to answer it and I'll have the chance to embarrass him in front of all the Arabs. He asked "Ali, tell me a number, that if we divide it by any number from 1-10 the answer will always come in the form of a whole number and not as a fraction." Ali Looked back at him and said, "Take the number of days in a year and multiply it with the number of days in a week and you will have your answer." The person got astonished but as he was a Mushrik he still didn't believe Ali (A.S.). He calculated the answer Ali (AS) gave him. To his amazement he came across the following results: >The number of Days in a Year = 360 (in Arabic Calendar) >The Number of Days in a Week = 7 >The product of the two numbers = 2520 >Now ... 2520 ?= 2520 >2520 ?= 1260 >2520 ?= 840 >2520 ?= 630 >2520 ?= 504 >2520 ?= 420 >2520 ?= 360 >2520 ?= 315 >2520 ?= 280 >2520 ?= 252 .A person was about to die, and before dying he wrote his Will which went as follows ... >"I have 17 Camels, and I have three sons. Divide my Camels in >such a way, that My eldest son gets half of them, the second >one gets 1/3rd of the total and my youngest son gets 1/9th of >the total number of Camels"After his death when the relatives read his will they got extremely perplexed and said to each other that how can we divide 17 camels like this. So after a long hard thought they decided that there was only one man in Arabia who could help them: "Ali Ibne Abi Taalib(A.S.)." So they all came to the door of Ali ((A.S.) and put forward their problem. Ali ((A.S.) said, "Ok. I will divide the camels as per the man's will." Ali (A.S.) said, "I will lend one of my camels to the total which makes it >18 (17+1=18), now lets divide as per his will" >The Eldest gets 1/2 of 18 = 9 >The second one gets 1/3 of 18 = 6 >and The Youngest gets 1/9 of 18 = 2 >Now the total number of camels = 17 >.....Then Ali (A.S.) said, "Now I will take my Camel back ".......

THE HISTORY OF MALCOM X:

Malcolm X (born May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz[1] (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز ‎), was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence.He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was 13, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. His childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance and his own experiences concerning race, played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in the criminal underworld in Boston and New York. In 1945, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcom X's departure from the organization in March 1964.
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York.

MEETING CASTRO AND OTHER WORLD LEADER
In September 1960, Fidel Castro arrived in New York to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Malcolm X was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of community leaders who met with Castro.Castro was so impressed by Malcolm X that he requested a private meeting with him.During the General Assembly meeting, Malcolm X was also invited to many official embassy functions sponsored by African nations, where he met heads of state and other leaders, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress.

NOKIA E 75

It was announced earlier this year, words said that Nokia is going to release the E75 business phone this month. The E75 is a first device to ship with the new email user interface, offering full desktop email functionality, and complete integration of Nokia’s email and messaging services. It has both QWERTY and numeric keypad and also the first Eseries that support Nokia’s game service N-Gage. Check out the full specifications after the break.
Nokia E75 Specifications
• System: WCDMA 850/1900/2100
• WCDMA 900/1900/2100
• GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
• User Interface: S60 platform
• Dimensions: 111.8 mm x 50 mm x 14.4 mm
• Weight: 139 g
• Standby time: Up to 11 days (GSM), 11 days (WCDMA)
• Talk time: Up to 5.4hours (GSM), 4.2 hours (WCDMA)
• Main display: 2.4” QVGA (320×240), up to 16 million colors
• Battery: BL-4U, 1000 mAh, Li-Po
• Memory: Up to 50 MB internal memory, 4 GB card on board, support for up to 16 GB microSD memory card
• Camera 3.2 megapixels (2048 x 1536 pixels)
• Video capture: Video recording in VGA quality
• HSDPA class 6 up to 3.6Mbits
• 384 kbps uplink
• WLAN (IEEE 802.11b/g)
• EGPRS multislot class 32, max download 296 kbps; upload 177.6 kbps
• High-Speed micro USB 2.0 which supports charging
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR)
• 3.5 mm AV connector

WATER BRIDGE OVER RIVER:

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration. To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists. Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?Answer: It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water! Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

HISTORICAL MEETING:

On September, 16th the historical meeting of the smallest of the man He Pingping with longest legs Girl Svetlana Pankratovoj. Svetlana is 16 years old and Pinpina is 36 years old he is 73 centimeters tall.
The meeting of two champions of the Book of records passed in London

THE MASTER OF EGGS

AMAZING ANIMAL FRIENDSHIP:

DINOSOUR

Dinosaurs, one of the most successful groups of animals (in terms of longevity) that have ever lived, evolved into many diverse sizes and shapes, with many equally diverse modes of living. The term "Dinosauria" was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to describe these "fearfully great reptiles," specifically Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus, the only three dinosaurs known at the time. The creatures that we normally think of as dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era, from late in the Triassic period (about 225 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (about 65 million years ago). But we now know that they actually live on today as the birds.

Some things to keep in mind about dinosaurs:
• Not everything big and dead is a dinosaur. All too often, books written (or movies made) for a popular audience include animals such as mammoths, mastodons, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and the sail-backed Dimetrodon. Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs. Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Mammoths and mastodons are mammals and did not appear until many millions of years after the close of the Cretaceous period. Dimetrodon is neither a reptile nor a mammal, but a basal synapsid, i.e., an early relative of the ancestors of mammals.
• Not all dinosaurs lived at the same time. Different dinosaurs lived at different times. Despite the portrayals in movies like King Kong and Jurassic Park, no Stegosaurus ever saw a Tyrannosaurus, because Tyrannosaurus didn't appear on the scene until 80 or so million years following the extinction of stegosaurs. The same goes for Apatosaurus ("Brontosaurus") — it's bones were already well-fossilized by the time T. rex came along.
• Dinosaurs are not extinct. Technically. Based on features of the skeleton, most people studying dinosaurs consider birds to be dinosaurs. This shocking realization makes even the smallest hummingbird a legitimate dinosaur. So rather than refer to "dinosaurs" and birds as discrete, separate groups, it is best to refer to the traditional, extinct animals as "non-avian dinosaurs" and birds as, well, birds, or "avian dinosaurs." It is incorrect to say that dinosaurs are extinct, because they have left living descendants in the form of cockatoos, cassowaries, and their pals — just like modern vertebrates are still vertebrates even though their Cambrian ancestors are long extinct.

ICE AGE:

Over the Earth's long history, there have been a number of times when much of the northern hemisphere was covered by vast sheets of ice and snow. Such periods are known as ice ages. During ice ages, huge masses of slowly moving glacial ice—up to two kilometres (one mile) thick—scoured the land like cosmic bulldozers. At the peak of the last glaciation, about 20 000 years ago, approximately 97% of Canada was covered by ice.
It may seem hard to believe, but an ice age can occur if the average daily temperature drops by only a few degrees Celsius for an extensive period. Ice ages include colder and warmer fluctuations. During colder intervals, called glacial periods, glaciers and ice sheets grow and advance. (As the snow gets deeper and deeper, the lower portion turns to ice and its incredible weight makes the ice sheet flow across the land). In warmer intervals, known as interglacial periods, glaciers and ice sheets shrink and retreat.
The Earth is in an ice age now. It started about 2 million years ago and is known as the Quaternary Period. Despite the many warm periods since then, we identify the entire time as one ice age because of the continuous existence of at least one large ice sheet—the one over Antarctica. (The glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet are also of long standing, but they are more recent). We are currently enjoying a warm interval: our climate represents an interglacial period that began about 10 000 years ago. The preceding glacial period lasted about 80 000 years.
At least seven ice ages have been recognized. At least four of them are considered significant because of the extent of their glaciation or because they lasted for an extremely long time:
about 2 million years ago to the present—the Quaternary Ice Age
350 to 250 million years ago—the Karoo Ice Age
800 to 600 million years ago—the Cryogenian (or Sturtian-Varangian) Ice Age
2400 to 2100 million years ago—the Huronian Ice Age.
Some regions escaped glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Ice Age because they were too dry for enough snow to fall to form glaciers. Other regions were too high in elevation for the ice to cover them, or they were farther south than the glaciers advanced. Glacier-free zones are called refugia, and the plants and animals that survived there repopulated the land once the glaciers melted. During the Pleistocene, the distribution and kinds of plants and animals were greatly affected.
In Canada, the richest stores of Pleistocene bones are in Yukon's Old Crow Basin—part of the Eastern Beringian refugium. There, thousands of fossils have been collected that demonstrate the existence of a remarkable fauna, including woolly mammoths, bison, mastodons, giant beavers, small horses, camels, cow-sized ground sloths, American scimitar cats and lions. These species became extinct toward the close of the Pleistocene—perhaps due to a combination of rapidly changing climate and human hunting. However, wolves, caribou, muskoxen, moose and other animals survived.