Army Looks to Strike Foes with Lightning Weapon

Today's military lasers can blind spy satellites or burn enemy vehicles, but tomorrow's could guide lightning bolts to strike and destroy battlefield targets.

A U.S. Army lab is testing how lasers can create an energized plasma channel in the air — an invisible pathway for electricity to follow. The laser-guided lightning weapon could precisely hit targets such as enemy tanks or unexploded roadside bombs, because such targets represent better conductors for electricity than the ground. The weapon idea mimics the way that lightning leaps from thunderclouds to strike the ground — the electricity follows the path of least resistance.

Army researchers used an "ultra-short-pulse laser of modest energy" that keeps the laser beam focused through its own intensity. The laser's electro-magnetic field can harvest electrons from air molecules to create the plasma pathway for electricity to follow.
Microwave pulses have already become weapons in Air Force missiles used to burn out the electronic systems of air defense centers, military jets or drones.

Army soldiers may not get to target enemies with Zeus-like lightning bolts anytime soon — the technology remains a lab prototype. But the idea joins a growing arsenal of possible futuristic weapons such as the Navy's railgun superweapon capable of hurling hypersonic projectiles over 50 to 100 miles, or the Army's hypersonic weapon for striking targets anywhere on Earth within an hour.

Full story on InnovationNewsDaily

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Mysterious African 'Fairy Circles'

In the sandy desert grasslands of Namibia in southern Africa, mysterious bare spots known as "fairy circles" will form and then disappear years later for no reason anyone can determine. A new look at these strange patterns doesn't solve the wistful mystery but at least reveals that the largest of the circles can linger for a lifetime.

When it rains substantially, a thick carpet of grass covers the sand. But this green down is punctuated by bare red soil circular patches, which appear as though drawn by a compass. And there’s not just one or two of them but thousands. These mysterious sand circles appear at around 60 to 120 kilometres inland from the coast from South Africa to Angola, at an altitude of between 500 and 1000 metres. To humans, they make no sense at all. To animals, they’re a source of succulent grass in an arid no man’s land between savannah and sand dunes.

Small fairy circles stick around an average of 24 years, while larger ones can exist as long as 75 years, according to research detailed today (June 27) in the journal PLoS ONE.

Walter Tschinkel may not have solved the mystery of the fairy circles, but he can tell you that they're alive. Tens of thousands of the formations—bare patches of soil, 2 to 12 meters in diameter—freckle grasslands from southern Angola to northern South Africa, their perimeters often marked by a tall fringe of grass. Locals say they're the footprints of the gods. Scientists have thrown their hands up in the air. But now Tschinkel, a biologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee, has discovered something no one else has.
Tschinkel grew interested in fairy circles during a 2005 safari to NamibRand Nature Reserve in southwest Namibia, in the Namib Desert. It was his first experience with the round clearings, tens of thousands of which expose the red sandy soil in the area. A short time after the circles form, a tall ring of grass grows around the border, highlighting the bare area.
By comparing satellite images from 2004 and 2008, Tschinkel found that circles are quite stable, popping up at nearly their full size, or at least growing quickly once they get started. Here, the circles are shown dotting the landscape of Jagkop, Namibia, after a rain.

Few researchers have studied fairy circles, in part because of their remoteness, 111 miles (180 km) from the nearest village, and their work is usually based on opportunistic experiments done on quick trips, Tschinkel says. "There's no program really focused on trying to figure this out."

Over the past 10 years, the park has sold fairy circles to ecotourists for about $50 each. The buyers don't actually get the land; they just adopt it—kind of like people who "purchase" stars. Each circle the reserve sells is marked with the date of sale, and new owners are given the latitude and longitude so they can check up on their purchase on Google Earth.

Did these shallow craters come from space? Are they the work of termites or are they caused by particular mineral compounds in the ground? They’re here in their hundreds of thousands and they’re called “Fairy Circles” -- for want of a better name. And all we know is Namibia’s Fairy Circles are neither a fraud nor a joke, but they’re one of Africa’s most mysterious natural wonders.

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Ancient coins worth $15 million found by amateur treasure hunters after 30 year search

Thirty years ago, a farmer found a few Iron Age coins on his property on the island of Jersey, off the coast of Normandy. For the next three decades, a pair of amateur treasure hunters combed the soil with metal detectors in search of more treasure. They found it!

Two amateur treasure hunters have unearthed a mass of celtic coins that are over 2,000 years and old and estimated to be worth a total of $15 million.

Reg Mead and Richard Miles found the stash using a high powered metal detector called a deepseeker. What they discovered was a large block of clay containing 30,000 to 50,000 gold and silver coins dating from the 1st Century BC.

The coins—which could have been buried to prevent Roman troops from getting them during Julius Caesar's invasion of the British Islands—come from Armorica, modern day Brittany and Normandy. They have been buried for more than 2,000 years.
Each Roman or Celtic coin is said to be worth between 100 to 200 British Pounds ($156 to $311), according to Dr. Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University. He believes the haul is “extremely exciting and very significant.”

After finding the small batch of coins, the two amateur treasure hunters from the island of St. Clement, Jersey off the shores of France were inspired to strengthen their search to try and find the source of the coins.

Conservator Neil Mahrer of the Jersey Heritage Museum says the discovery is the largest of its kind: "This is the biggest Celtic coin hoard ever found which is tremendously exciting."
Earlier this year, Mead and Miles found a much-smaller stash of 61 coins, 60 of them silver. The pair will continue to dig for more.
The States of Jersey must now determine who actually owns the treasure.

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Tweet your message into space!

Twitter’s bringing the world together in 140 characters or less. But can it bind together life forms from across the universe?

There are currently not one, but two projects on this topic!

1. #tweetsinspace

A project that aims to send tweets to a distant planet capable of sustaining life is in the process of being funded, and your tweets could potentially be picked up by extraterrestrial life forms.
Tweets in Space beams Twitter discussions from participants worldwide towards GJ667Cc – an exoplanet 20 light years away that might support extraterrestrial life. Simply add #tweetsinspace to your texts between 8:30 and 9PM Mountain Time on September 21st 2012, as part of the International Symposium on Electronic Art in New Mexico.

2. #ChasingUFOs

The Wow! signal, a mysterious radio transmission detected in 1977 that may or may not have come from extraterrestrials, is finally getting a response from humanity. Anyone can contribute his or her two cents — or 140 characters, to be exact — to the cosmic reply via Twitter.

All tweets composed between 8 p.m. EDT Friday (June 29) and 3 a.m. EDT Saturday (June 30) tagged with the hashtag #ChasingUFOs will be rolled into a single message, according to the National Geographic Channel, which is timing the Twitter event to coincide with the premiere of the channel's new series, "Chasing UFOs."
Then on Aug. 15, exactly 35 years after the Wow! signal was detected, humanity's crowdsourced message will be beamed into space in the direction from which the perplexing signal originated.

Come on people, now is your chance. Be creative, come up with some interesting tweet and send it into space!

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See How Sharks Devour a Whale

Incredible footage has been made on the shores of Northwestern Australia.

About a 100 sharks has eating the remains of a dead whale on a beach in Australia as one of the swimmers recorded and put on Vimeo.
In the footage identified several species including tiger sharks and reef sharks, and some were and up to four meters long.

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This is the Mugly - the New World's Ugliest Dog

Mugly Wins World's Ugliest Dog Title

Mugly, the eight year old Chinese crested dog, took the title of ugliest dog in the world for 2012. year.
And now lets look at some other competitors: 

Mugly beat 29 dogs in the competition and won the $ 1,000 annual food supply.
Ugliest dog competition held every year in the town of Petaluma, California.

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Whale making rainbow

Rainbow occurs after rain, and with a little effort yourself can make it - it takes a little more water drops and sunlight at a right angle.

Look how easy it is for this whale to make a rainbow!

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Python for dinner? Why not!

Python, wild boar and lion fish will be on the menu this weekend in Miami.

Three local chefs will participate Saturday night in a cook-off competition using the invasive species as key ingredients. With no natural predators, these invasive species disrupt the local ecology. The goal is to raise awareness about how the animals impact South Florida's ecology - and perhaps even generate an appetite for them.

Todd Erickson, executive chef of Haven Gastro-Lounge; Bradley Herron, chef de cuisine of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink, and Timon Balloo, executive chef of Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill will compete for the title of “Best Invasivore Chef.” The cooking fest will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday at Villa 221, at 221 NE 17th St., Miami. “I think this will be fun and I’m very excited to see what Timon and Bradley do,” Erickson said. “Some good food is going to come out of it.”

Funds will also be raised for Fertile Earth Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to promoting environmental awareness.

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Unknown Creature in Kanas Lake

Kanas Lake, which means "beautiful, mysterious lake" in Mongolian, is tucked away in Xinjiang and China's far North Western corner. The scenery here is more like Kazakstan or Russia than China with the 24km long and up to 2km wide lake flanked by birch and larch forest. The lake is 1,374 meters above sea level and covers an area of 45.73 square kilometers with the deepest point of 196 meters. The famous legend about "Kanas Monster" adds another air of mystery to the lake. If the stunning, Siberian-like scenery wasn't enough there is some mystery thrown in regarding what is known as China's Nessie - the Kanas Lake Monster! According to the legend, huge monsters dwell in the lake's depths and often dragged horses and camels drinking into the water before swallowing them.

Some scientists believe, however, that the monsters may be taimen trout, one of the world's largest and most ferocious freshwater fish which can grow as long as 10 meters.

This footage was filmed in China, where lake monster sightings have been popping up around a Kanas lake. Usually, lake monster “sightings” are later discovered to be common animals such as otters or eels. According to CCTV, about 15 of the unknown creature was found in Kanas Lake in China's Xinjiang Province on the 5th of July.

Not just one, but more than a dozen huge creatures can be seen churning across Lake Kanas in remote western China, leaving a foamy wake more like an enormous motorboat than a big fish.
The tourists saw the lake monster in the lake at the foot of a mountain more than 2,000 meters away. The lake monster, four or five meters long, appeared in the lake with the huge wave, revealing its white belly.

This video recording is the latest sighting of the creature captured in June 2012, by a local worker Wang.



The tale about this monster has been spread for thousands of years in the Kanas area of China, which is about the creature engulf cattle and horses in one swallow and then dive down into the deep bottom of the cold Kanas Lake.

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10 Unique Beaches

Refrigerated Beach, Dubai

The Palazzo Versace Dubai property development is now 80 percent complete, according to the Emirates Sunland Group, the developer behind the £400 million project. As a world premier, the hotel will have the first ever refrigerated beach which will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat.  

Hot Water Beach, New Zealand

Hot Water Beach is a popular geothermal attraction in New Zealand. This unusual beach attracts 130,000 visitors each year. The hot water can reach 64ºC (147ºF), but you'll have to dig a hole to enjoy it. These underground water reservoirs are formed by volcanoes as it reaches the surface. It's just the perfect location for a nice hot bath. Don't forget to bring some digging instruments and a bucket. 

Inland Beach, Spain

Gulpiyuri beach is near Llanes in Spain. Gulpiyuri's name isn't its only bizarre facet: this beach is found completely inland in a gorgeous little cove which looks like something out of a fantasy. The Cantabrian Sea bored through the earth to create this sandy spot, and though you can't see the ocean, its waves to lap the shore just like any beach — it's odd, like a magical wave pool.

Bowling Ball Beach, California

On the Californian coast is a town called Mendocino. Nearby is a coastal feature called Schooner Gulch, and this is where you can feast your eyes on what has become known as the 'Bowling Ball Beach'. Thousands of rocks appear to have gathered together to defy the tides like an army of small boulders. The weird thing is that these boulders are uniform in size and shape, as well as in their spacing, though man has nothing to do with it.
The explanation is simple and purely geological in nature. Technically called concretions, these hard spheres are composed of materials far more resilient than the Cenozoic mudstone that once surrounded them. Over millions of years, this has eroded away under the constant onslaught of the Pacific Ocean, forming the cliffs that line the shore behind the beach and leaving the tougher 'bowling balls' behind.

Glass Beach, California

Glass Beach is a section of coastline in MacKerricher State Park in California. After World War II, it was used as a public dump for two decades until local officials halted the practice. Since that time, the waves have worn smooth the glass shards disposed on the shore. However sad the original cause, the result is quite pretty.

Airport Beach, Scotland

Barra Airport is probably the only airport in the world where planes land on the beach. BRR is situated in on the wide beach of Traigh Mhor, on Barra island, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. If you want to fly here commercially you will want to book with British Airways, which flies to Barra from Glasgow and Benbecula.
The airport is literally washed away by the tide once a day, and if you arrive on a late afternoon flight, you may notice a couple of cars in the parking lot with their lights on, which provides pilots some added visibility, since the airport is naturally lit. Needless to say you probably don't want to hang out at Barra Airport beach, unless you are a aviation junkie, in which case Barra Airport has a fool proof system, as sign that reads: "Keep off the beach. When the windsock is flying and the airport is active."

Red Sand Beach, Hana Bay

The beach is located south of Hana Bay and it's also known as the Red Sand Beach. The trail leading to the beach is on a cliff edge and visitors should be very careful. Water shoes are recommended. The red color of the sand is given by a nearby cinder cone hill surrounding the bay. Swimming here is a different experience from everything you've tried before, just be aware of currents and don't swim behind the lava sea wall. Because the beach is so secluded, nudism is not uncommon.

World's Whitest Sand Beach, NSW South Coast

There's a quiet spot on the NSW South Coast that deserves loud acclamation, Tony Grantham discovers. At first glance, Jervis Bay is not the sort of place to inspire thoughts of world records and extravagant claims. But for a quiet spot it has big tickets on itself, though to be fair, the claims are fully justified. It has an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as having the whitest sand in the world (officially at Hyams Beach, though many others around there are similarly blessed) and the astonishing fact that the bay is at least six times bigger in volume and four times bigger in area than Sydney Harbour.

Green Sand Beach, South Point

Papakolea Beach is a green sand beach located at South Point, in the Kau district of the Island of Hawaii. One of only two green sand beaches in the world, the other being in Guam, the beach gets distinctive coloring from olivine crystals found in a nearby cinder cone. 

World's Most Crowded Beach, China

Reputed to be the largest sandy beach in Asia, world's probably number one bathing beach is situated on Huiquan Bay in Qingdao, Shandong Province. Also called Huiquan Bathing Beach, this beach is noted for its clear water, mild waves and soft sand. Even in winter this place is crowded with keen swimmers. 

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