Halloween Event: Festival Of The Dead History, Photos and Videos

From their earliest beginnings, humans have had to face the great mystery of death. Over time, the wise learned to understand and honor this most profound of the rites of passage, guiding their peoples to understand these mysteries. They knew that even in the brightest of life’s moments, Death’s face would be peering from just beyond the shadows, waiting to leave his calling card. Death is humankind’s great lover, who courts and pursues us with a conviction no mortal lover is capable of.

Throughout history, humans have been led in a dance with death that is both fearful and romantic. Digging through the tomes of religion, myth, anthropology, folklore, and literature, we find the grim examples of death’s shadows cast over all cultures like the shrouds within dusty sepultures. Read more …

Real Dragon Fossils on Display in China

Some fossils, named the “China dragon fossils”, were recently exhibited in the Xinwei Ancient Life Fossils Museum in Anshun, Guizhou. When archeologists first stripped the clay off the fossil, they found the dragon had a pair of horns above its head and the shape of the dragon was very like the legendary animal often described in books and stories.

Dragons have often appeared in Chinese legends. The dragon with two horns on its head is regarded as a totem. The totem was first invented by Chinese ancestors and worshipped by the Chinese people. Therefore Chinese people are also called the “descendents of the dragon”. For a long time, scientists thought that the dragon was a fictional animal existing only in stories. Read more …

All Men are from Mars… and Women …

Author Heather Couper believes Martian meteorites may have seeded life on Earth billions of years ago.

She said: “Mars is closer to the solar system’s asteroid belt than us and must have been hit by many more impacts. Some collisions blasted bits of Mars into space which circled the sun and fell to Earth as meteorites.

“So it is possible life began on Mars and spread to Earth thanks to cosmic collisions. It means we could all be Martians.” Read more …

Car Exhaust Fumes Cause Lightning Strikes

Commuter car exhaust doesn’t just warm the globe - it can also increase lightning strikes for miles around.

During the working week, air pollution rises because of all the vehicles on the road.

This effect has been shown to modify rainfall patterns both at the weekend and during the week by creating stronger updrafts of air and bigger clouds.

Now it seems weekday pollution can bring lightning as well as rain.

Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and colleagues, counted strikes recorded across the US by the ground-based National Lightning Detection Network in June to August, from 1998 to 2008.

Tusk Find Offers Clues to Fate of Pygmy Mammoths

The discovery of what appears to be a full mammoth tusk on Santa Cruz Island has excited scientists and may offer a glimpse of California beach life during prehistoric times.

Scientists believe 14-foot-tall mammoths swam out to the Channel Islands from the mainland nearly 20,000 years ago, possibly lured by the sweet smell of island grassland for grazing. Later stranded by rising sea levels, the animals shrank over time to a dwarf version.

If the find is confirmed, researchers hope it will yield further clues about the evolution and eventual extinction of the pony-sized pygmy mammoths.

The Rare Mekong River Dolphin

MSN Environment takes a closer look at the plight of the Mekong river dolphin whose population has declined to less than 100 - the brink of extinction.

Pollution in the Mekong River in Cambodia and Loas has pushed the local population of river dolphins to the brink of extinction, according to a new report. Researchers from WWF found toxic levels of pesticides and environmental contaminants after studying dead dolphin calves.

“Analysis identified a bacterial disease as the cause of many of the calf deaths,” says Rob Shore, WWF-UK freshwater programmes manager. “This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin’s immune systems were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental contaminants.” Read more …

Mysteries of the Mystic Lamb

Patrick Bernauw: The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Mystic Lamb, was completed in 1432 by Flemish Primitive Jan Van Eyck. The painting is surrounded by mysteries concerning, possibly, the Holy Blood(line) of Christ… This also is the reason why the panel of the Just Judges got stolen, the thiefs got killed and the Nazi’s were very interested in the mystic masterpiece…

The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed in 1432 by the Van Eyck Brothers (Hubert & Jan), is a large and complex polyptych, originally made for the Joost Vyd Chapel in Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. In the eighties, for security reasons, it was removed to another chapel in the cathedral. The Mystic Lamb is regarded as a true artistic highlight of Christianity and of Western civilisation. Read more …