The Mary Celeste (often incorrectly referred to as Marie Celeste) was a brigantine merchant ship notably discovered in December 1872 in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned, despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time.
The fate of her crew has been the subject of much speculation. Theories range from alcoholic fumes, to underwater earthquakes, to waterspouts, to paranormal explanations involving hypothetical extraterrestrial, unidentified flying objects, sea monsters, and the hypothetical phenomena of the Bermuda Triangle, although the Mary Celeste is not known to have sailed through the Bermuda Triangle area. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym in British culture for similar occurrences.
!THEORIES !
Piracy
One reporter suggested that the Mary Celeste may have fallen victim to an act of piracy, the crew murdered and thrown overboard, as Ottoman pirates had been known to operate in the area.
This is extremely unlikely. There had been no reports of piracy in the waters around the Azores or the Straits of Gibraltar for decades, most likely due to Britain's Royal Navy station at Gibraltar. No piracy attacks were reported in the area at the time. Moreover, there were no signs of violence on the Mary Celeste and only common navigation equipment was missing; it is unlikely that pirates would fail to remove the cargo or the crew's valuables after killing the crew.
The crew of the Dei Gratia as suspects
Some writers suggest that the crew of the Dei Gratia murdered those on board and then fabricated the story of the ghost ship to secure the salvage rights. However, once again there was no sign of struggle and nothing of value had been taken. When the Dei Gratia presented the Mary Celeste to the British authorities in Gibraltar, the ship was intact and her manifests and inventories full and accounted for.
Further, the captain of the Dei Gratia was an old friend of Captain Briggs, which makes his murdering Briggs, his wife and their two-year-old daughter unlikely. The Mary Celeste sailed one week before the Dei Gratia and Moorehead would not have been able to overtake the Mary Celeste. The Court Inquiry praised the crew of the Dei Gratia for their courage and seamanship in effecting the salvage.
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud has been cited as a possible explanation. This requires that Briggs and Morehouse colluded and that Captain Briggs assumed a new identity. However, the insurance premium to be paid was not a great amount of money. Moreover, the ship belonged mainly to James Winchester, not Benjamin Briggs. A staged incident would have required much risk for a very modest profit.
Storm
The Mary Celeste may have encountered a storm. Perhaps water began to flood the ship and the crew left in the lifeboat, thinking the Mary Celeste was sinking. When she was discovered, two of her three water pumps had been disassembled. She was sailing with a much larger quantity of water in the bilge than usual, but it was hardly enough to make Briggs order evacuation, although it could be argued that the presence of his wife and daughter made him unusually cautious.
Unfortunately for this theory, no storms were reported in the area at the time, only mildly choppy weather. The waters were calm when the Mary Celeste was discovered. A storm did hit later, when the Dei Gratia was sailing to Gibraltar, and there is a possibility that the Mary Celeste was hit by freak weather conditions.
Seaquake
An explanation offered by a modern sailor, Captain David Williams, who encountered earthquakes at sea, is that a seaquake erupted below the ship and jarred open nine barrels of alcohol (~450 gallons) which leaked into the bilge. The earthquake also dislodged the fuel for the hot stove on deck and caused embers from the fire to drift into the rigging. Williams suggests this caused the crew to panic and abandon the ship and the Mary Celeste sailed on without the crew. The crew then decided to try to catch her in the small sailing dingy, but did not succeed and died at sea. Seismic activity is indeed common in the area, and this theory has been cited frequently.Notwithstanding, the log made no mention of underwater rumblings, nor did the crew of the Dei Gratia report any tremors or aftershocks, nor did any other vessel in the area. Most importantly, the inhabitants of the nearby Portuguese islands of the Azores did not report any rumblings.
Tidal Wave
Another theory is that a tidal wave was caused by an earthquake or perhaps a landslide in the Canary Islands or the Azores. The crew may have been washed overboard or a giant oncoming wave may have scared them into evacuation. This would have explained why the Mary Celeste had taken on so much water. Again, no tidal wave, earthquake or landslide was reported either on land or at sea. Tidal waves are relatively unnoticeable in deep water and do not present a threat to shipping, and only become dangerous as they approach the shoreline. This theory would also require passengers and crew to have been on deck at the time. However, a rogue wave might be a plausible explanation.
Waterspout
A similar scenario is that the ship encountered a waterspout, a tornado-like storm with a funnel cloud that occurs at sea. The water surrounding the ship may, in being sucked upwards, have given the impression that the Mary Celeste was sinking.[citation needed] This would explain why the Mary Celeste was soaking wet when discovered by the crew of the Dei Gratia. A mass panic among the crew would probably explain the scratched railing and the broken compass, as well as the missing lifeboat.
Lower air pressure resulting from a waterspout might have thrown off measurements of how deep the water level was in the ship's hull. A dipstick-like device was used to monitor water levels in the bilge. Low pressure could pull water up the tube around the stick, creating the impression of a sinking vessel. This explanation was first put forth by Dr. James H. Kimble and author Gersholm Bradford. Although unlikely, it is still one of the most logical theories put forward.
Ergotamine
Yet another theory claims that ergotamine sometimes found in ergot fungus from possibly contaminated flour aboard the ship and had serious effects of ergotism on the crew. Ergotamine in large quantities can have similar hallucinogenic effects to LSD, and can also cause immense pain in instances of both convulsive symptoms and gangrenous symptoms, ultimately resulting in them perhaps losing their sanity and murder, or them throwing themselves overboard. Mania, delusions, psychosis and suicidal tendencies can be caused by eating such fungus. However, this theory seems very unlikely since high doses are usually needed and usually over some time. Most importantly, the flour aboard the Mary Celeste was not stated as being contaminated; in fact, quite the opposite, it was said to be fine, and the sailors from the Dei Gratia were not affected after eating it.
Mutiny
Another theory has suggested there was a mutiny among the crew who murdered a tyrannical Briggs and his family, then escaped in the lifeboat. This theory is strongly discredited by the fact Briggs had no "tyrannical" history to suggest he was the type of captain to provoke his crew to mutiny. By all accounts, he was well respected, fair and able. First Mate Albert Richardson and the rest of the crew also had excellent reputations and were experienced, loyal seamen.
Drunkenness amongst the crew
After the admiralty court proceeding, Solly-Flood QC proposed that the crew, after consuming the alcohol from the kegs that were recovered empty, murdered the Briggs family in a drunken stupor. The mutinous crew are then presumed to have deliberately damaged the vessel to give the illusion of having been forced to abandon it, then they would have left in lifeboats.
However, the captain was a believer in abstinence and unlikely to tolerate drinking on board or a crew inclined to drink alcohol. Besides, in the raw form in which the alcohol was transported, consumption without proper preparations would have caused irreparable physical damage to its consumers instead of intoxicating them. Finally, there was no trace of struggle or violence aboard the vessel, and the crew had good records. But still, theri dissapearance remains an unsolved mystery.
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The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring into literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers. The connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the Grail legend dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain; building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and that in Britain he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe. The quest for the Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de Troyes. The legend may combine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.
The development of the Grail legend has been traced in detail by cultural historians: It is a legend which first came together in the form of written romances, deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian folklore hints, in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The early Grail romances centered on Percival and were woven into the more general Arthurian fabric. Some of the Grail legend is interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice.
The Grail was considered a bowl or dish when first described by Chrétien de Troyes. Hélinand of Froidmont described a grail as a "wide and deep saucer" (scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda). Other authors had their own ideas: Robert de Boron portrayed it as the vessel of the Last Supper; and Peredur had no Grail per se, presenting the hero instead with a platter containing his kinsman's bloody, severed head. In Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach, citing the authority of a certain (probably fictional) Kyot the Provençal, claimed the Grail was a stone that fell from Heaven (called lapsit exillis), and had been the sanctuary of the Neutral Angels who took neither side during Lucifer's rebellion. The authors of the Vulgate Cycle used the Grail as a symbol of divine grace. Galahad, illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine, the world's greatest knight and the Grail Bearer at the castle of Corbenic, is destined to achieve the Grail, his spiritual purity making him a greater warrior than even his illustrious father. Galahad and the interpretation of the Grail involving him were picked up in the 15th century by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d'Arthur, and remain popular today
Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, which, like Holy Blood, Holy Grail, is based on the idea that the real Grail is not a cup but the womb and later the earthly remains of Mary Magdalene (again cast as Jesus' wife), plus a set of ancient documents telling the "true" story of Jesus, his teachings and descendants. In Brown's novel, it is hinted that Jesus was merely a mortal man with strong ideals, and that the Grail was long buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, but that in recent decades its guardians had it relocated to a secret chamber embedded in the floor beneath the Inverted Pyramid near the Louvre Museum. The latter location, like Rosslyn Chapel, has never been mentioned in real Grail lore
Read more on: http://en.wikipedia.org/
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Ghost, nonmaterial embodiment or essence of an organism, especially of a human being. The term is sometimes used virtually as a synonym for soul or spirit, and in the Christian religion, in the form Holy Ghost (now, more often, Holy Spirit), it has a specialized meaning.
More frequently, however, the term ghost is applied to an apparition, usually of a dead person, that varies in apparent solidity from a mere foglike mass to a perfect replica of the person. A wraith, in contrast, is the visible spirit of someone still alive.
A doppelgänger is a special form of wraith that makes its appearance at a time when the physical body of the subject is observed at some distant place.
In many religions, and particularly in primitive faiths, the belief exists that the spirit wanders away from the body during periods of unconsciousness such as sleep. Such religions also teach that after death the spirit lingers near the body of the dead person. A common practice of groups holding such beliefs is to propitiate the ghosts of the dead by offerings of food, clothing, and other objects that the ghosts may find useful in the spirit world. In many primitive civilizations the personal possessions of a dead man, including his weapons, his pets, and sometimes even his wife, are buried or burned with his body. The practice of ancestor worship, as well as the mourning rites of many modern civilizations, probably originated in the belief in ghosts.
Did you see a ghost?
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D. B. Cooper is the name attributed to a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the United States on 24 November 1971, received US $ 200,000 in ransom, and parachuted from the plane. The name he used to board the plane was Dan Cooper, but through a later press miscommunication, he became known as "D. B. Cooper". Despite hundreds of leads through the years, no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts, and the bulk of the money has never been recovered. Several theories offer competing explanations of what happened after his famed jump, but the FBI believes he did not survive.
The nature of Cooper's escape and the uncertainty of his fate continue to intrigue people. The Cooper case (code-named "Norjak" by the FBI) is the only unsolved U.S. aircraft hijacking, and one of the few such cases anywhere in the world, along with Malaysia Airlines Flight 653.
The Cooper case has baffled government and private investigators for decades, with countless leads turning into dead ends. As late as March 2008, the FBI thought it might have had a breakthrough when children unearthed a parachute within the bounds of Cooper's probable jump site near the town of Amboy, Washington. Experts later determined that it did not belong to the hijacker.
Despite the case's enduring lack of evidence, a few significant clues have arisen. In late 1978 a placard containing instructions on how to lower the aft stairs of a 727, later confirmed to be from the rear stairway of the plane from which Cooper jumped, was found just a few flying minutes north of Cooper's projected drop zone. In February 1980 on the banks of the Columbia River, eight-year-old Brian Ingram found $5,880 in decaying $20 bills, which proved to be part of the original ransom.
In October 2007, the FBI claimed that it had obtained a partial DNA profile of Cooper from the tie he left on the hijacked plane. On December 31, 2007, the FBI revived the unclosed case by publishing never-before-seen composite sketches and fact sheets online in an attempt to trigger memories that could possibly identify Cooper. In a press release, the FBI reiterated that it does not believe Cooper survived the jump, but expressed an interest in ascertaining his identity.
Any clues about D.B.Cooper? post them bellow this post.
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This is probably one of the most well known and controversial of mysteries known to man at the moment. The basic mystery is where did we come from? Many people believe we were created by some kind of God, others believe were naturally came into being through the process of evolution, and some even believe we were put onto earth by aliens. Because there is no conclusive evidence for either argument, this subject remains our greatest mystery.
The concept of evolution states that through a series of adaptations and mutations from generation to generation, a creature can change dramatically over time. There are many arguments against evolution, mostly (in the West) from fundamentalist Christian bodies. The head of the largest Christian Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has recently said that evolution is not contrary to the teachings of the Church or a belief in God as long as it does not exclude God as the primary mover and organiser of the process.
The concept of creationism states that God made the Universe in the form in which it exists today. It attempts to explain away potential theological problems like dinosaurs, carbon dating, and the fossil record in general. Creationists generally believe the earth to be several thousand years old.
ISLAM TEACHINGS
The descriptions of creation in the Qur'an are not intended as dry historical accounts, but rather to engage the reader in contemplating the lessons to be learned from it. The act of creation, therefore, is frequently spoken of as a way of drawing the reader into thinking about the order in all things, and the All-Knowing Creator Who is behind it all. For example:
"Verily in the heavens and the earth are signs for those who believe. And in the creation of yourselves, and the fact that animals are scattered (through the earth), are signs for those of assured faith. And in the alternation of night and day, and that fact that Allah sends down sustenance from the sky, and revives therewith the earth after its death, and in the change of the winds, are signs for those who are wise" (45:3-5).
Big Bang?
When describing the creation of the "heavens and the earth," the Qur'an does not discount the theory of a "Big Bang" explosion at the start of it all. In fact, the Qur'an says that "the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before We clove them asunder" (21:30). Following this big explosion, Allah "turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.' They said: 'We come (together) in willing obedience'" (41:11). Thus the elements and what was to become the planets and stars began to cool, come together, and form into shape, following the natural laws that Allah established in the universe.
The Qur'an further states that Allah created the sun, the moon, and the planets, each with their own individual courses or orbits. "It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course" (21:33).
Expansion of Universe
The Qur'an also does not rule out the idea that the universe is continuing to expand. "The heavens, We have built them with power. And verily, We are expanding it" (51:47). There has been some historical debate among Muslim scholars about the precise meaning of this verse, since knowledge of the universe's expansion was only recently discovered.
Six Days?
The Qur'an states that "Allah created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days" (7:54). While on the surface this might seem similar to the account related in the Bible, there are some important distinctions.
The verses that mention "six days" use the Arabic word "youm" (day). This word appears several other times in the Qur'an, each denoting a different measurement of time. In one case, the measure of a day is equated with 50,000 years (70:4), whereas another verse states that "a day in the sight of your Lord is like 1,000 years of your reckoning" (22:47). The word "youm" is thus understood, within the Qur'an, to be a long period of time -- an era or eon. Therefore, Muslims interpret the description of a "six day" creation as six distinct periods or eons. The length of these periods is not precisely defined, nor are the specific developments that took place during each period.
After completing the Creation, the Qur'an describes that Allah "settled Himself upon the Throne" (57:4) to oversee His work. A distinct point is made to counter the Biblical idea of a day of rest: "We created the heavens and the earth adn all that is between them in six days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us" (50:38).
Allah is never "done" with His work, because the process of creation is ongoing. Each new child who is born, every seed that sprouts into a sapling, every new species that appears on earth, is part of the ongoing process of Allah's creation. "He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then established Himself on the Throne. He knows what enters within the heart of the earth, and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from heaven, and what mounts up to it. And He is with you wherever you may be. And Allah sees well all that you do" (57:4).
**information gathered from islam.about.com
Who created the human kind? Any ideas? post them bellow this post!
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Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), any object or light, reportedly sighted in the sky, that cannot be immediately explained by the observer. Sightings of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times, but UFOs (sometimes called flying saucers) became widely discussed only after the first widely publicized U.S. sighting in 1947. Many thousands of such observations have since been reported worldwide. At least 90 percent of UFO sightings can be identified as conventional objects, although time-consuming investigations are often necessary for such identification. The objects most often mistaken for UFOs are bright planets and stars, aircraft, birds, balloons, kites, aerial flares, peculiar clouds, meteors, and satellites.
The remaining sightings most likely can be attributed to other mistaken sightings or to inaccurate reporting, hoaxes, or delusions,
although to disprove all claims made about UFOs is impossible.
From 1947 to 1969 the U.S. Air Force investigated UFOs as a possible threat to national security. A total of 12,618 reports was received, of which 701 reports, or 5.6 percent, were listed as unexplained. The air force concluded that “no UFO reported investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security.” Since 1969 no agency of the U.S. government has had any active program of UFO investigation.
In 1997 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) admitted that the U.S. military had deceived the American public in an effort to hide information about high-altitude spy planes. These planes, the Lockheed U-2A and the Lockheed SR-71, accounted for over half of the UFO reports during the late 1950s and 1960s.
Some persons nevertheless believe that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft, even though no scientifically valid evidence supports that belief. The possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations is not the stumbling block; most scientists grant that intelligent life may well exist elsewhere in the universe.
A fully convincing UFO photograph of a craftlike object has yet to be taken, however, and the scientific method requires that highly speculative explanations should not be adopted unless all of the more ordinary explanations can be ruled out. UFO enthusiasts persist, however, and some persons even claim to have been abducted and taken aboard UFOs. (A close encounter of the third kind is UFO terminology for an alleged encounter between humans and visitors from outer space.) No one has produced scientifically acceptable proof of these claims.
*Did you see any UFOs?
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Why Stonehenge was constructed remains a mystery. Most scholars agree that it must have been a sacred place of relogious rituals or ceremonies. Many have speculated that Stonehenge was built by Sun workshipers. The axis of Stonehenge, which divides the sarsen horseshoe and aligns with the monument’s entrance, is oriented broadly toward the direction of the midsummer sunrise.
In nearby Ireland the celebrated megalithic monument Newgrange, built approximately at the same time as Stonehenge, was oriented toward the midwinter sunrise.
In the early 1960s American astronomer Gerald S. Hawkins theorized that Stonehenge was an astronomical observatory and calendar of surprising complexity. Hawkins suggested that ancient peoples used the monument to anticipate a wide range of astronomical phenomena, including the summer and winter solstices and eclipses of both the Sun and the Moon. The astronomical interpretation of Stonehenge remains popular today, despite many uncertainties. Some scholars are doubtful that the peoples who constructed Stonehenge and other sites of the era possessed the mathematical sophistication necessary to predict many of the events that Hawkins theorized.
They note that Stonehenge’s architects may have been aware of the subtle movements of the Sun, Moon, and other heavenly bodies without having an analytically advanced understanding of astronomy.
The true purpose of Stonehenge is an enduring mystery. Modern observers can only speculate about what it meant to its builders and what compelling impulse drove them to invest so much labor and care in creating it.
*Why Stonehenge was build remains a mystery. Got any ideas? post them bellow this post.
*note: This subject has more parts, this is the first one. More parts will follow. Stay tunned, as they say!
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