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Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Most Awesome Mysteries of The World

Our World, no-doubt, is Wonderful and in parts Extreme in every sense.  It's full of object, places, phenomenon and stories that make us feel the emotions that are positive and it's full of almost equal objects, stories and places that make us feel negative. In this post I'm going to focus on just one thing. The objects, places, stories and/or phenomena which are mysterious. They make us wonder. There are many stories and objects that majority of the population is familiar with. Then there are local stories that each city & country has.

You can also do a quick Google search and get loads of list full of mysteries. There are Mysteries like The Zodiac Killer, Nazca Lines, Easter Island heads, Loch-ness Monster and hundreds more. I'm going to list just Five in this post. After reading the list if you feel any other story should have been on the list, the only two possible reasons for that story not being here is that either I'm not aware of that story or I feel these stories are more Awesome. In both the cases I'd love to hear from you.

So Here are The Five Most Awesome Mysterious of The World:

      #1 : UFOS, Aliens on Earth & Conspiracy Theories
This is the Most wide spread Mystery on Our Planet. UFOs have been reported all over the Globe. And there are So So Many Conspiracy Theories that I could post dozens of post with list of these theories and I'll still be left with more to list. By definition an unidentified flying object, or UFO is any flying object in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of Aliens and/or government-related conspiracy theories; Although the term UFO was coined in 1953 but unidentified objects in sky have been mentioned throughout the history. The oldest is mention of a ship that "shone forth from the sky" can be found in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita Libri, is a monumental history of ancient Rome
Celestial phenomenon over the German city of Nuremberg
on April 14, 1561 as printed in an illustrated news notice
in the same month

Here's a Comprehensive list of all the major UFO sightings throughout the history.

The Most prevalent Theories are Ancient Alien Theory and what I like to call The Man in Black Theory.

As per The Ancient Alien theory, there are many recorded instances of Alien contact & visits that have been either misinterpreted or been covered-up. Believers of these theories believe that proof of these theories are written in all the major religious books. As per them, history and religious books are filled with stories and proof of aliens who were technologically superior and hence were taken as Gods by ancient humans. 

They claim the reason many gods have been defined to be different from humans and/or part animal, living away from humans and having super-powers is because they were aliens.

The most quoted "Proofs" by believers of Ancient Alien Theory are here:

* Ships mentioned in Bible in Book of Ezekiel mostly called The Spaceships of Ezekiel
* Flying vehicles mentioned in many Hindu scriptures,  
* "Helicopter hieroglyphs", at Abydos, Egypt, which are argued to depict flying craft
* Story of Anunnaki (inhabitants of the planet Nibiru) mentioned in ancient Sumerian texts

This theory was made famous, most notably, by Eric Von Deniken in his book Chariots of Gods.
There are others who believe Aliens still visit Earth and are in contact with Many Government, They claim there are secret organizations such as Majestic 12 who are responsible for covering up incidents of Alien/UFO sightings. They quote Rosewell Incident and UFO sightings as an example. Few other examples of UFO sightings are "The Phoenix Lights" of Arizona and 1976 Tehran UFO incidents.

Just an example that shows how deep these theories have penetrated the population, In the U.S., an opinion poll conducted in 1997 suggested that 80% of Americans believed the U.S. government was withholding such information.

    #2 Kryptos
Unlike other Mysteries that are unanswered, this has slight exceptions. This is One Mystery It's 100% Man-Made and intentionally designed to be a Mystery. I came to know about it when I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

As per the Wikipedia description: 

Kryptos is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn that is located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. Of the four messages, three have been solved, while the fourth remains as one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world.



The name Kryptos is taken from a Greek word which means Hidden. Yes! The name itself means Hidden. 

The most prominent feature is a large vertical s-shaped copper screen resembling a scroll, or piece of paper emerging from a computer printer, half of which consists of encrypted text. The characters are all found within the 26 letters of the standard Latin alphabet, along with question marks, and are cut out of the copper. The main sculpture contains four separate enigmatic messages, three of which have been deciphered.The Three solutions are:

Solution One:
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION

Solution Two:
IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO

Solution Three:

SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q ?

The Fourth message is yet to be deciphered. I'm personally waiting for the day when it is deciphered. Until then it will stay one hell of an Awesome Mystery for the world.

      #3 Voynich Manuscript
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The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system.  Some of the pages are missing, with around 240 still remaining. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams. The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II, but No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography.

Much of the early history of the book is unknown, though the text and illustrations are all characteristically European. In 2009, University of Arizona researchers performed radiocarbon dating on the manuscript's vellum. The vellum has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and it may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance.

Around 1912, the Collegio Romano was short of money and decided to sell some of its holdings discreetly. Wilfrid Voynich acquired 30 manuscripts, among them the manuscript that now bears his name. He spent the next seven years attempting to interest scholars in deciphering the script while he worked to determine the origins of the manuscript.

Many books and articles have been written about the manuscript. The manuscript has also inspired several works of fiction. Most noticeably it was used in Assassin’s Creed games.

In the game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the player can collect pages of the Voynich Manuscript as they traverse the game's world. In the game it's revealed that the manuscript was written by the Precursor Race, a species of highly advanced humanoids that created the human race before being destroyed by an apocalypse.

In its sequel Assassin's Creed: Rogue, it is revealed that the manuscript is the key to activate a powerful artifact known as Precursor Box, which shows a map that details the location of temples made by the Precursor Race. 

The "Book" has texts and illustrations.  Because the text cannot be read the illustrations are conventionally used to divide most of the manuscript into six different sections. Each section is typified by illustrations with different styles and supposed subject matter, except for the last section, in which the only drawings are small stars in the margin.

The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript is that it was meant to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine. However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the book's origins, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended. However, the purpose and meaning of this manuscript is a long way from being understood. 

      #4 The Wow Signal
The Wow Signal is perhaps "THE" closest proof we have of a possible ET Intelligence and yet it's still a mystery. one of the most awesome mysteries of course. 

The so-called "Wow Signal" was a radio signal that was received in 1977 by Radio Astronomer Jerry R. Ehman while working on a SETI project at the now defunct Big Ear radio telescope, operated by Ohio State University. 

While working on the radio telescope je spotted a surprising vertical column with the alphanumerical sequence “6EQUJ5” that had been recorded at 22:16 EST. With a red marker, he wrote "Wow!" in the margin of the printout and encircled the sequence. From that time on this signal is called "The Wow Signal". 


In words of an article published by National Geographic Magazine:

More than three decades later, the Wow Signal, as it has come to be known to SETI researchers, remains both the first and best potential evidence of communication from extraterrestrials, and one of the most perplexing mysteries in science.  Over the years, Ehman and colleagues worked to rule out other explanations—such as satellites, aircraft or ground-based transmitters on Earth. But by the same token, researchers have yet to prove that it actually is message from space. “It’s an open question.” Ehman told the Columbus Dispatch in 2010. Or as the late science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once put it in a 1997 interview with New Scientist magazine, “God only knows what it was.”

The original printout of the Wow! signal, complete with Jerry Ehman's famous exclamation, is preserved by the Ohio Historical Society.

      #5 SS Ourang Medan


The SS Ourang Medan was a ship which, according to various sources, became a shipwreck in Indonesian waters after its entire crew had died under suspicious circumstances. Skepticism exists about the truthfulness of the story, suggesting that the ship may have never actually existed, but has become something of a legend.

According to stories, which have become something of a Legend, two American vessels navigating the Strait of Malacca, City of Baltimore and Silver Star, among others, picked up distress messages from Dutch merchant ship Ourang Medan.

A radio operator aboard the troubled vessel sent the following Morse code message: "S.O.S. from Ourang Medan * * * we float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *." A few confused dots and dashes later two words came through clearly. They were "I die." Then, nothing more. 

When Silver Star crew located and boarded the apparently undamaged Ourang Medan in a rescue attempt, the ship was found littered with corpses (including the carcass of a dog) "[s]prawled on their backs, the frozen faces upturned to the sun with mouths gaping open and eyes staring, the dead bodies resembled horrible caricatures", with no survivors and no visible signs of injuries on the dead bodies. A fire then broke out in the ship's No. 4 cargo hold, forcing the boarding parties to evacuate the Dutch freighter, thus preventing any further investigation. Soon after, Ourang Medan was observed to explode and sink.

There are Three Main Theories about what happened.

Many believe unsecure hazardous cargo, such as potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin or even wartime stocks of nerve agents was  being smuggled in the ship which somehow came in contact with Sea-water. which then caused the crew to succumb to asphyxia and/or poisoning. Later, the sea water would have reacted with the nitroglycerin, causing the reported fire and explosion.

Others believe undetected smoldering fire or malfunction in the ship's boiler system might have been responsible for the shipwreck. Escaping carbon monoxide would have caused the deaths of all aboard, with the fire slowly getting out of control, leading to the vessel's ultimate destruction.

And lastly, majority of Mystery hunters believe the ship may have, for some reasons, been attacked by UFOs or Ghosts.

There’s a possibility that accounts of, among others, the date, location, names of the ships involved, and circumstances of the accident might have been inaccurate or exaggerated, or that the story might be completely fictitious. But no doubt it is one of The Most Awesome Mysteries of the World.
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So Here you have it!

Five of The Most Awesome Mysteries in The World!

No doubt there are hundreds of more mysteries around the world that are equally if not more mind-blowing. But personally these are The most awesome ones as per Me. There's a fair chance I may not be aware of a few. If you are aware of a few other Unsolved Mysteries that you feel deserve to be termed Awesome, please do let Me know and I will be more than happy to amend the list for you.

Hope you enjoy reading it. 

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Questions No one can answer!!


Are We or Are We Not Alone in This unfathomably huge Universe?

And This Unfathomably huge Universe itself, is it Alone?

If You are a Thinking kind of person like us, We are sure you have pondered over One of  These or many other similar questions that take us beyond the edge of knowledge we have.

We May not be able to answer these questions no matter how much we think. But the time spend thinking about these questions, is not being wasted. That time gives us The feeling of Wonder, Mystery and make us understand the opportunities We have to explore.

Here's a TED video, that won't answer these questions, but. Will at least give Scientific voice to your thoughts.



Don't feel bad if you never had these questions. Watch this video and these ideas will haunt you, like they haunt us.


And if you had these or similar questions in our minds, we'll, the questions will remain unanswered still. But, you will be able to better understand the questions. 


If nothing else, These questions at the least give you a reason to stop for a minute, take a break from your lives for a minute and think about our place. 
And while we are on this topic, I'd like to end my post with this Simple yet So Deep and Powerful message shared by a simple comic strip. 

     Calvin and Hobbes Look Out Into the Stars and Ponder Infinity.

Calvin: If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.
Hobbes: How so?
Calvin: Well, when you look into infinity, you realize that there are more important things than what        people do all day.

Monday, January 11, 2016

2016! The Year of Movies!


2015 was, without a sliver of doubt, A Huge year for Movies! We, the fans, got a lot of good movies to watch and the Moviemakers made bucket loads of money. How much money? Well, A LOT of Money. Think about it, For the first time in history, Five Movies grossed more than A Billion Dollars in a single year! The Last Movie of 2015 to cross the Billion-Dollar Mark, also was the one that earned the most.

Now as 2015 has gone and we have just entered 2016, it’s very likely that we have entered a year that could very well prove to be “THE BEST” year for the movies. Having said that, I must also state that When I say best year, I’m not saying in terms of the artistic achievement and breakthroughs. It’s purely based on the fact that this year will, for sure, be a year that will keep coming at us with One Blockbuster after Another. And fans of every single Genres can be assured that they will have something to enjoy.


If you look at the release calendar of the year and make a list of all the movies that are most awaited and are set to set the Box-Off you will see one common thing, We Know Them! Yes! One way or another we know their stories or their ideas. Think about it, We Know Man of Steel who will face our Dark Night. We know our Captain America. We even know Dory and how she forgets. And the ones that are new, we know either know the fictional world/universe they come from or what they are.

Take for example the fact that We don’t know how will Jared Leto’s Joker will be. But we know he is Joker after all, and that is sufficient in itself. You can say we don’t know Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but we know Hogwarts and all their Houses will be there to help us. We don’t know who the hell Rouge one is but we know they will for sure be in a Galaxy Far Far Away.



For the sake of simplicity The Major movies of the year can be categorized in Three categories. Below are the Categories and My picks from each of them.

1 : Movies based on Comic Characters:

These are basically Marvel & DC Movies.  Coincidently or not, both of the studies will have their Superheroes fighting against each other in their Main Ventures. As we all know Batman will face off Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Captain America will be doing the same with Mr Stark in Captain America: Civil War.

While Marvel & DC are busy pitting their heroes against each other, 20th Century FOX has decided to pit their heroes against the First Mutant in X-Men: Apocalypse. Judging by the trailers this one as well as Deadpool seems to be Awesome. We’ll also meet Gambit, Suicide Squad and Doctor Strange.
On a little lighter side we’ll have The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun



2. Reboots, Sequels & Prequels :

Hollywood has never shied away from any opportunity to cash-in on a by making sequels/prequels and reboots. The only way this year is different is in the way that studios are more aggressive. This year we’ll have sequels, prequels and reboots everywhere. The first name that should be on this list is no doubts Ben-Hur, the Legendary classic. Aftre this list is very long. Ghostbusters, Jumanji, Independence Day: Resurgence, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Kung Fu Panda 3. The list goes on and one on and on.

My Pick : Ben-Hur


And the Last Category : Adaptation: 

After achieving success in their own forms, many characters and stories are set to hit silver screen.  Adapting Books and Games into movies is not new, but this year for the first time a Movie will hit the theaters based on a mobile game! Yes The Angry Birds will hit theater this year. Also we’ll see Professor Langdon solve his way out the Inferno.
Also jumping out of Gaming consoles would be Assassin's Creed and Warcraft

Not to miss girls will be going mad for Fifty Shades of Black

My Pick : Inferno




So, in a nutshell, This year is gonna be heavy on Our pockets J

If you want to know about every Movie that is going to come out it Here’s the link for you