GOOD NEWS!!NO DOOMSDAY IN 2012!!

For all those 2012 Mayan Prophecy believers out there, I have bad news. There is going to be no doomsday event in 2012, and here’s why…



The Mayan Calendar

So what is the Mayan Calendar? The calendar was constructed by an advanced civilization called the Mayans around 250-900 AD. Evidence for the Maya empire stretches around most parts of the southern states of Mexico and reaches down to the current geological locations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and some of Honduras. The people living in Mayan society exhibited very advanced written skills and had an amazing ability when constructing cities and urban planning. The Mayans are probably most famous for their pyramids and other intricate and grand buildings. The people of Maya had a huge impact on Central American culture, not just within their civilization, but with other indigenous populations in the region. Significant numbers of Mayans still live today, continuing their age-old traditions.

The Mayans used many different calendars and viewed time as a meshing of spiritual cycles. While the calendars had practical uses, such as social, agricultural, commercial and administrative tasks, there was a very heavy religious element. Each day had a patron spirit, signifying that each day had specific use. This contrasts greatly with our modern Gregorian calendar which primarily sets the administrative, social and economic dates.

Venus Express observation of Venus (ESA)

Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk’in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab’ approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk’in and the Haab’ to form the “Calendar Round”, a cycle lasting 52 Haab’s (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle). Obviously, this system would only be of use when considering the 18,980 unique days over the course of 52 years. In addition to these systems, the Mayans also had the “Venus Cycle”. Being keen and highly accurate astronomers they formed a calendar based on the location of Venus in the night sky. It’s also possible they did the same with the other planets in the Solar System.

Using the Calendar Round is great if you simply wanted to remember the date of your birthday or significant religious periods, but what about recording history? There was no way to record a date older than 52 years.

The end of the Long Count = the end of the Earth?

The Mayans had a solution. Using an innovative method, they were able to expand on the 52 year Calendar Round. Up to this point, the Mayan Calendar may have sounded a little archaic - after all, it was possibly based on religious belief, the menstrual cycle, mathematical calculations using the numbers 13 and 20 as the base units and a heavy mix of astrological myth. The only principal correlation with the modern calendar is the Haab’ that recognised there were 365 days in one solar year (it’s not clear whether the Mayans accounted for leap years). The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the “Long Count”, a calendar lasting 5126 years.

I’m personally very impressed with this dating system. For starters, it is numerically predictable and it can accurately pinpoint historical dates. However, it depends on a base unit of 20 (where modern calendars use a base unit of 10). So how does this work?

The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at “0.0.0.0.0″. Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we’ll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we’ll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.

This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.

Doomsday

When something ends (even something as innocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it. A brief scan of the internet will pull up the most popular to some very weird ways that we will, with little logical thought, be wiped off the face of the planet. Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn’t actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister.

Myths are abound and seem to be fuelling movie storylines. It looks like the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is even based around the Mayan myth that 13 crystal skulls can save humanity from certain doom. This myth says that if the 13 ancient skulls are not brought together at the right time, the Earth will be knocked off its axis. This might be a great plotline for blockbuster movies, but it also highlights the hype that can be stirred, lighting up religious, scientific and not-so-scientific ideas that the world is doomed.

Could an asteroid wipe out the Earth? (NASA)

Some of the most popular space-based threats to the Earth and mankind focus on Planet X wiping most life off the planet, meteorite impacts, black holes, killer solar flares, Gamma Ray Bursts from star systems, a rapid ice age and a polar (magnetic) shift. There is so much evidence against these things happening in 2012, it’s shocking just how much of a following they have generated. Each of the above “threats” needs their own devoted article as to why there is no hard evidence to support the hype.

But the fact remains, the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy is purely based on a calendar which we believe hasn’t been designed to calculate dates beyond 2012. Mayan archaeo-astronomers are even in debate as to whether the Long Count is designed to be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or whether the calendar simply continues to 20.0.0.0.0 (approximately 8000 AD) and then reset. As Karl Kruszelnicki brilliantly writes:

“…when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 - or good-ol’ 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas.” - Excerpt from Dr Karl’s “Great Moments in Science“.

Air France Plane Missing: Another Victim of the Bermuda Triangle?

An Air France plane is missing. The Agence France-Presse reported that an Air France Airbus A330-200 wide-body jet carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared off of the radar screens Monday somewhere off of Brazil's Atlantic coast.
According to the Mirror, Air France reported that the plane had radioed in that they were going through turbulence. They also reported that a message, "signalling electrical circuit malfunction," was received before it disappeared.
Some have speculated that lightning may have caused the Airbus to crash, but aernautics experts believe the scenario unlikely for a modern aircraft.

A search for the missing plane is being conducted by the Brazilian air force. Two squadrons are currently involved. A spokesman for the air force told CNN that the search area was approximately 225 miles off the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

The French are also involved in the search. The French ambassador to Senegal announced that French aircraft are searching off of the coast of Senegal near Cape Vert (Cape Green).
"Airbus regrets to confirm that an Airbus A330-200 operated by Air France has been lost about 3.5 hours after departure. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service...

"In line with ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus has offered full technical assistance to the investigation board. The investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant board and it would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the causes of the accident..."

According to CNN, the CEO of Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, citing the aforementioned electrical problems and turbulence, said that the Airbus most likely was the victim of a "huge catastrophe."
Air France told Brazilian authorities the last information they heard was that automated message reporting a technical problem before the plane reached a monitoring station near the Cape Verde islands.

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said seven aircraft had been deployed to search the area far off the northeastern Brazilian coast.

"We want to try to reach the last point where the aircraft made contact, which is about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) northeast of Natal," Amaral told Globo TV.

Meteorologists said tropical storms are much more violent than thunderstorms in the United States and elsewhere.

"Tropical thunderstorms ... can tower up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters). At the altitude it was flying, it's possible that the Air France plane flew directly into the most charged part of the storm _ the top," Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, said in a statement.

Brazil's Navy said it was sending three ships to search waters about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from Natal.

Portuguese air control authorities say the missing plane did not make contact with controllers in Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores Islands nor, as far as they know, with other Atlantic air traffic controllers in Cape Verde, Casablanca, or the Canary islands.

In Washington, a Pentagon official said he'd seen no indication that terrorism or foul play was involved. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject.

Sobbing relatives of people aboard the plane arrived at an airport in Sao Paulo to fly on to Rio de Janeiro, where Air France was assisting relatives. Andres Fernandes, his eyes tearing up, said a relative "was supposed to be on the flight, but we need to confirm it," Globo TV reported.

At the Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris, family members who had arrived to meet passengers refused to speak to reporters and were brought to a cordoned-off crisis center.

Air France said it expressed "its sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members" aboard Flight 447. The airline did not explicitly say there were no survivors, but allowed Sarkozy address the issue for them.

Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, at a news conference, said the plane's pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft.

Experts said the absence of a mayday call meant something happened very quickly.

"The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion," Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press. "Potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call."

But aviation experts said the risk the plane was brought down by lightning was slim.

"Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it's easier to avoid thunderstorms," said Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va.

He said planes have specific measures built in to help dissipate electricity along the aircraft's skin, and are tested for resistance to big electromagnetic shocks and equipped to resist them. He said the plane should be found, because it has backup locators that should continue to function even in deep water.

If all 228 people were killed, it would be the deadliest commercial airline disaster since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines jetliner crashed in the New York City borough of Queens during a flight to the Dominican Republic, killing 265 people. On Feb. 19, 2003, 275 people were killed in the crash of an Iranian military plane carrying members of the Revolutionary Guards as it prepared to land at Kerman airport in Iran.

The worst single-plane disaster was in 1985 when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountainside after losing part of its tail fin, killing 520 people.

Airbus would not further comment until more details emerged.

"Our thoughts are with the passengers and with the families of the passengers," said Airbus spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma.

She said it was the first fatal accident of a A330-200 since a test flight in 1994 went wrong, killing seven people in Toulouse.

The Airbus A330-200 is a twin-engine, long-haul, medium-capacity passenger jet that is 190 feet (58.8 meters) long. It is a shortened version of the standard A330, and can hold up to 253 passengers. There are 341 in use worldwide today. It can fly up to 7,760 miles (12,500 kilometers).

Rick Kennedy, a spokesman for GE Aviation, expressed doubt that the engine was at fault. He said the CF6-80E engine that powered the Air France plane "is the most popular and reliable engine that we have for big airplanes in the world." He said there are more than 15,000 airplanes flying in the world with that engine design.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed by Air France and Brazilian military that the missing Air France flight has crashed into the Atlantic. Rescue efforts are underway.

This accident reminds us of the old "BERMUDA TRIANGLE MISTERY".The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels are alleged to have disappeared in mysterious circumstances which fall beyond the boundaries of human error, piracy, equipment failure, or natural disasters. Popular culture has attributed some of these disappearances to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings.[1]

While a substantial body of documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating that the number and nature of disappearances is similar to any other area of ocean, many incidents (see below) remain unexplained despite considerable investigation.

The Triangle area

The area of the Triangle varies by author

The boundaries of the triangle cover the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores; others[who?] add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.

The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.

WAS AIRBUS FRANCE 330-200 THE LATEST VICTIM OF THE INFAMOUS BERMUDA TRIANGLE MISTERY?ONLY HEAVEN KNOWS..

MISTERI TRAGEDI SITU GINTUNG

Bencana yg menimpa Situ Gintung memang bencana yg memilukan hati jutaan orang..Banyak korban berjatuhan dan dikuburkan scr massal..Bagaimana perasaan org2 yg kehilangan anggota keluarganya dan masih hrs memikirkan kemana mrk akan berteduh krn rumahnya telah rata dgn tanah?

Di balik tragedi Situ Gintung yang menewaskan puluhan orang, banyak cerita misteri yang mengiringi danau seluas 21 Ha tersebut. Seminggu sebelum tanggul jebol, ada informasi kalau sang penunggu, Nyi Mas Melati menampakkan diri dengan berpakaian serba putih di tengah Situ Gintung, Cirendeu, Ciputat.

Kejadian ini termasuk langka dan jarang terjadi terlebih setelah adanya ‘Pulau Bergeser’ di Situ Gintung tahun 1986. Saat itu, menurut Abah Nur, 76, tokoh masyarakat yang yang tinggal sejak tahun 1965, ada cerita munculnya ular besar yang berdiameter sebatang pohon kelapa.

“Setelah munculnya ular raksasa di tengah situ, tiba-tiba timbul gundukan tanah atau yang disebut sebagai pulau kecil di dalam Situ Gintung yang bergeser ke tengah-tengah setu. “Pulau itu terlihat saat air setu menyusut atau kering. Tapi kalau meluap tak terlihat sama sekali,” kata Abah Nur, Jumat (27/3).

Aroma mistik tersebut kembali muncul seminggu lalu, saat sejumlah warga yang sedang memancing sekitar Pk. 18:30 melihat munculnya sinar terang di tengah situ. Sinar itu menggambarkan wanita berparas cantik yang lebih dikenal warga sekitar sebagai Nyi Mas Melati, sang penunggu situ yang dibangun pada tahun 1933 oleh Belanda.

Menurut dia, sejak munculnya penunggu situ, membuat beberapa warga merasa khawatir akan adanya bencana alam. “Namun kami tak menyangka, ternyata bencana tersebut berupa ambrolnya situ yang minta tumbal nyawa,” ujarnya.

BUAYA PUTIH
Cerita mistik dari kawasan Situ Gintung tak hanya penunggu wanita cantik saja, namun warga yang hobi mancing sering melihat ada buaya putih kerap menampakkan diri di malam-malam tertentu.

“Banyak yang sudah melihat buaya putih itu. Mereka cerita kepada warga hingga berkembang sampai sekarang. Apalagi sebelum kawasan di sekitar situ belum banyak dibangun rumah mewah, sering kali dijumpai hal-hal berbau mistik,” kata Muhamad Piong alias Cing Muhamad, 72, juru kunci Situ Gintung.

Menurut Cing Muhamad, dirinya merupakan keturunan keempat dari juru kunci Situ Gintung. “Dahulu situ ini dipegang kakak kandung ibu saya yakni Ma Enong. Ma Enong ini merupakan juru kunci situ pertama yang diteruskan ke Obri, saudara saya. Terakhir saya dipercaya. Namun saat ini sudah tidak aktif lagi,” katanya.

HAWA SIO (DINGIN)
Keangkeran Situ Gintung, diakui H.Nun, 67, kerabat dari H.Koko, pengelola Restoran Situ Gintung. “Dahulu kala penunggu situ, titip kepada bapaknya, Soenhaji agar merawat danau dengan baik. Akhirnya danau itu dibangun restoran dan berbagai fasilitas sampai sekarang,” kata H.Nun.

Ia menambahkan, mungkin terjadi salah pengelolaan di sekitar Situ Gintung hingga membuat penunggunya marah. “Namun terlepas dari itu semua, saya tetap meyakini semua musibah datangnya dari Allah SWT sebagai ujian kepada hambanya,” tukasnya.

Warga setempat, Ny.Maria, 47, mengakui angkernya Situ Gintung karena hawanya sio (dingin). “Lokasinya memang indah dan enak dikunjungi sebagai tempat rekreasi. Namun, kalau di sana rasanya aneh dan hawanya dingin. Tanpa sebab apa-apa, bisa saja ada pengunjung atau warga yang meninggal. Seperti minta tumbal yang terjadi hampir setiap tahun.

KEAJABAN TUHAN

Namun, terdapat suatu keganjilan yg nyata..Di saat semua bangunan telah porak poranda dan banyak kendaraan yg rusak binasa, terdapat satu MASJID yg berdiri dgn kokohnya: MaSJID JABAHUL RAHMA..

Mengapa mesjid ini bisa bertahan setelah banyak bangunan yg lebih kokoh rontok?Apakah ini suatu peringatan dari Tuhan untuk tidak melakukan perbuatan maksiat??Spt diketahui khalayak ramai, Situ Gintung sering digunakan oleh muda-mudi untuk berbuat maksiat dan bahkan dijadikan lokasi prostitusi..Sebagai pembanding, pada sat Tsunami di Aceh bbrp thn silam, bbrp masjidpun masih berdiri kokoh..

Rasa rasanya kita tidak perlu berpikir dua kali bhw selain memang tanggul ini memang sudah memerlukan perawatan ekstara krn sudah tua, namun memang peringatan Tuhan pun sudah sangat nyata..Mungkin sudah terlalu banyak dosa2 yg dilakukan penduduk negara ini yg harus ditebus..Sudah waktunya untuk para politisi dan pemerintah untuk tidak memikirkan kekuasaan dan kekayaannya saja dan lebih memperhatikan nasib orang kecil..Salah satunya yg tinggal di sekitar Situ Gintung..

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE MISTERY

The great airplane tragedies that happen lately in Indonesia reminds me of missing airplanes that happened in the past..Some planes/ships were lost in the region known as the "Bermuda Triangle"..

The Bermuda Triangle (sometimes also referred to as the Devil's Triangle) is a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean bordered by a line from Florida to the islands of Bermuda, to Puerto Rico and then back to Florida. It is one of the biggest mysteries of our time - that perhaps isn't really a mystery.

The Bermuda Triangle is a strange and mysterious place in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is roughly the shape of a triangle and it is said to have sucked planes and boats into its dark and murky waters. No one knows what happened to the planes and boats. When some enter the waters of the triangle they disappear forever.


Why do ships and planes seem to go missing in the region? Some authors suggested it may be due to a strange magnetic anomaly that affects compass readings (in fact they claim Columbus noted this when he sailed through the area in 1492). Others theorize that methane eruptions from the ocean floor may suddenly be turning the sea into a froth that can't support a ship's weight so it sinks (though there is no evidence of this type of thing happening in the Triangle for the past 15,000 years). Several books have gone as far as conjecturing that the disappearances are due to an intelligent, technologically advanced race living in space or under the sea.

Kusche's Theory

In 1975 Larry Kusche, a librarian at Arizona State University, reached a totally different conclusion. Kusche decided to investigate the claims made by these articles and books. What he found he published in his own book entitled The Bermuda Triangle Mystery-Solved. Kusche had carefully dug into records other writers had neglected. He found that many of the strange accidents were not so strange after all. Often a Triangle writer had noted a ship or plane had disappeared in "calms seas" when the record showed a raging storm had been in progress. Others said ships had "mysteriously vanished" when their remains had actually been found and the cause of their sinking explained. In one case a ship listed missing in the Triangle actually had disappeared in the Pacific Ocean some 3,000 miles away! The author had confused the name of the Pacific port the ship had left with a city of the same name on the Atlantic coast.



More significantly, a check of Lloyd's of London's accident records by the editor of Fate in 1975 showed that the Triangle was no more dangerous than any other part of the ocean. U.S. Coast Guard records confirmed this and since that time no good arguments have ever been made to refute those statistics. So many argue that the Bermuda Triangle mystery has disappeared, in the same way many of its supposed victims vanished.

Even though the Bermuda Triangle isn't a true mystery, this region of the sea certainly has had its share of marine tragedy. This region is one of the heaviest traveled areas of ocean in the world. Both small boats and commercial ships ply its waters along with airliners, military aircraft and private planes as they come to and from both the islands and more distant ports in Europe, South America and Africa. The weather in this region can make traveling hazardous also. The summer brings hurricanes while the warm waters of the Gulf Stream promote sudden storms. With this much activity in a relatively small region it isn't surprising that a large number of accidents occur. Some of the ones commonly connected to the Triangle story are:

The USS Cyclops Sinking

One of the first stories connected to the Triangle legend and the most famous ship lost in the region was the USS Cyclops which disappeared in 1918. The 542 foot long Cyclops was launched in 1910 and served as a collier ( a ship that carries coal) for the U.S. Navy during World War I. The vessel was on its way from Bahia, Salvador, to Baltimore, Maryland, but never arrived. After it had made an unscheduled stop at Barbados on March 3rd and 4th to take on additional supplies, it disappeared without a trace. No wreckage from the ship was ever found and no distress signal was received. The deaths of the 306 crew and passengers of the USS Cyclops remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat.

While the sinking of the Cyclops remains a mystery, the incident could have happened anywhere between Barbados and Baltimore, not necessarily in the Bermuda Triangle. Proponents of the Bermuda Triangle theory point to the lack of a distress call as evidence of a paranormal end for the vessel, but the truth is that wireless communications in 1918 were unreliable and it would not have been unusual for a rapidly-sinking vessel to not have had a chance to send a successful distress call before going under.

SS Marine Sulphur Queen Vanishes

The SS Marine Sulphur Queen, a tanker ship carrying molten sulphur, disappeared off the southern coast of Florida in 1963. The crew of 39 was all lost and no wreckage from the tanker was ever found. While the disappearance of the ship is mentioned in several books about the Triangle, authors don't always include that the Coast Guard concluded that the vessel was in deplorable shape and should have never gone to sea at all. Fires erupted with regularity on the ship. Also, this class of vessel was known to have a "weak back", which means the keel would split when weakened by corrosion causing the ship to break in two. The ship's structure had been further compromised by a conversion from its original mission as an oil tanker to carrying molten sulphur. The conversion had left the vessel with an extremely high center of gravity, increasing the chance that it would capsize. The SS Marine Sulphur Queen was all-in-all a disaster waiting to happen and it seems unfair to blame its demise on the Bermuda Triangle.

The Disappearance of NC16002

NC16002 was a DC-3 passenger plane that vanished on the night of December 28, 1948, during a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida. The weather was fine with high visibility and the flight was, according to the pilot, within 50 miles of Miami when it disappeared with its three crew members and twenty-nine passengers. Though no probable cause for the loss was determined by the official investigation, it is known that the plane's batteries were not fully charged on takeoff and this may have interfered with communications during the flight. A message from Miami to the plane that the direction of the wind had changed may have not been received by the pilot, causing him to fly up to fifty miles off course.

The Fate of Flight 19

The tale of Flight 19 started on December 5th, 1945. Five Avenger torpedo bombers lifted into the air from the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 2:10 in the afternoon. It was a routine practice mission and the flight was composed of all students except for the Commander, a Lt. Charles Taylor.

The mission called for Taylor and his group of 13 men to fly due east 56 miles to Hens and Chicken Shoals to conduct practice bombing runs. When they had completed that objective, the flight plan called for them to fly an additional 67 miles east, and then turn north for 73 miles and finally straight back to base, a distance of 120 miles. This course would take them on a triangular path over the sea.

About an hour and a half after the flight had left, Lt. Robert Cox at the base picked up a radio transmission from Taylor. Taylor indicated that his compasses were not working, but he believed himself to be somewhere over the Florida Keys (the Keys are a long chain of islands south of the Florida mainland). Cox urged him to fly north toward Miami; if Taylor was sure the flight was over the Keys.

Planes today have a number of ways that they can check their current position including listening to a set of GPS (Global Positioning Satellites) in orbit around the earth. It is almost impossible for a pilot to get lost if he has the right equipment and uses it properly. In 1945, though, planes flying over water had to depend on knowing their starting point, how long and fast they had flown, and in what direction. If a pilot made a mistake with any of these figures, he was lost. Over the ocean there were no landmarks to set him right.

Navigational Confusion

Apparently Taylor had become confused at some point in the flight. He was an experienced pilot, but hadn't spent a lot of time flying east toward the Bahamas which was where he was going on that day. For some reason Taylor apparently thought the flight had started out in the wrong direction and had headed south toward the Keys, instead of east. This thought was to color his decisions throughout the rest of the flight with deadly results.

The more Taylor took his flight north to try to get out of the Keys, the further out to sea the Avengers actually traveled. As time went on, snatches of transmissions were picked up on the mainland indicating the other Flight 19 pilots were trying to get Taylor to change course. "If we would just fly west," one student told another, "we would get home." He was right


By 4:45 P.M. it was obvious to the people on the ground that Taylor was hopelessly lost. He was urged to turn control of the flight over to one of his students, but apparently he didn't. As it grew dark, communications deteriorated. From the few words that did get through it was apparent Taylor was still flying north and east, the wrong direction.

At 5:50 P.M. the ComGulf Sea Frontier Evaluation Center managed get a fix on Flight 19's weakening signals. It was apparently east of New Smyrna Beach, Florida. By then communications were so poor that this information could not be passed to the lost planes.

At 6:20 a Dumbo flying boat was dispatched to try and find Flight 19 and guide it back. Within the hour two more planes, Martin Mariners, joined the search. Hope was rapidly fading for Flight 19 by then. The weather was getting rough and the Avengers were very low on fuel.

Two Martin Mariners were supposed to rendezvous at the search zone. The second one, designated Training 49, never showed up, joining the 5 Avengers as "missing."

The last transmission from Flight 19 was heard at 7:04 P.M. Planes searched the area through the night and the next day. There was no sign of the Avengers.

Nor did the authorities really expect to find much. The Avengers, crashing when their fuel was exhausted, would have been sent to the bottom in seconds by the 50 foot waves of the storm. As one of Taylor's colleagues noted, "...they didn't call those planes 'Iron Birds' for nothing. They weighed 14,000 pounds empty. So when they ditched, they went down pretty fast."



What happened to the missing Martin Mariner? Well, the crew of the SS Gaines Mill observed an explosion over the water shortly after the Mariner had taken off. They headed toward the site and there they saw what looked like oil and airplane debris floating on the surface. None of it was recovered because of the bad weather, but there seems little doubt this was the remains of the Mariner. The plane had a reputation as being a "flying bomb" which would burst into flame from even a single, small spark. Speculation is that one of 22 men on board, unaware that the unpressurized cabin contained gas fumes, lit a cigarette, causing the explosion.

Missing Avengers become the Triangle's "Lost Squadron"

So how did this tragedy turn into a Bermuda Triangle mystery? The Navy's original investigation concluded the accident had been caused by Taylor's navigational confusion. According to those that knew him he was a good pilot, but often navigated "flying by the seat of his pants" and had gotten lost in the past. Taylor's mother refused to accept that and finally got the Navy to change the report to read that the disaster was for "causes or reasons unknown." This may have spared the woman's feelings, but blurred the actual facts.

The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle. Vincent Gaddis put the tale into the same Argosy magazine article where he coined the term "Bermuda Triangle" in 1964 and thetwo have been connected ever since. The planes and their pilots even found their way into the science fiction film classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Where is Flight 19 now? Well, in 1991 five Avengers were found in 750 feet of water off the coast of Florida by the salvage ship Deep Sea. Examination of the plane's ID numbers, however, showed that they were not from Flight 19 (as many as 139 Avengers were thought to have gone into the water off the coast of Florida during the war). It seems the final resting place of the lost squadron and their crews is still a real Bermuda Triangle mystery.

Taiwan's Penghu Islang: Asia's Bermuda Triangle??

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The two-seat Taiwanese fighter jet disappeared last week during a routine training mission over the Taiwan Strait. Debris and body parts were found the next day, but authorities are at a loss to explain what happened.

The Oct. 20 crash revived decades-old speculation: Are Taiwan's Penghu islands the Bermuda Triangle of Asia?

"The Bermuda terror," boomed a headline in the United Evening News, a Taiwanese newspaper. "Three hundred dead or missing in 40 years over here."

Cable news stations aired grisly images of earlier plane crashes in the area, sparking debate in Internet chat rooms.type:bold,italic;

The reports prompted Penghu officials to issue a statement disputing the Bermuda Triangle comparison, which they fear might scare away investors in a casino resort and other projects.

Most experts dismiss the idea and speculation that an irregular magnetic field disrupts navigation instruments. Scientists have found nothing abnormal in the area, says geologist Chen Wen-shan at National Taiwan University.

The pristine waters around the Penghu islands, a popular beach destination 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the Taiwanese mainland, have seen their share of crashes.

Government records show at least three commercial planes, one civilian helicopter and five fighter jets have crashed in the area in the past two decades.

Earlier, several spy planes reportedly went down or missing while flying missions to mainland China during the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s. The military refuses to confirm the reports, saying most of the documents remain classified.

The deadliest accident came in May 2002, when a China Airlines flight to Hong Kong broke into four parts over seas north of Penghu, killing all 225 aboard. Seven months later, a cargo plane crashed in the same area.

The back-to-back crashes bolstered the Bermuda Triangle speculation so much, that tourists all but shunned Penghu in the following months.

So far, the recent fighter jet crash has not rekindled as many jitterstype; among the public, much to the relief of local officials.

Penghu County Chief Wang Chien-fa blames the crashes on the high volume of air traffic, saying most of the mishaps have been shown to be the result of either human or mechanical failure.

"With so many aircraft flying over our air space everyday, the chances of crashes are proportionally higher, and that's all," he said in a telephone interview.

Yuan Hsiao-feng, an aviation expert at National Chengkung University, points to the high risks of military training flights.

Ending a summer season that drew thousands of swimmers to its beaches, the island chain of 90,000 people is now getting ready to welcome windsurfers.

Tourism officials also hope that Penghu will benefit from a recent relaxing of travel restrictions for mainland Chinese who want to visit Taiwan.

The islands, first settled by shipwrecked Chinese sailors 700 years ago, have an undersea ancient wall and other ruins. They also are an attraction because they were once at the forefront of the bitter Taiwan-China military standoff, said tourism official Hong Tung-lin.

The Chinese have long seen the islands as mysterious, because of their inaccessibility and a past history of shipwrecks, he said.

South of Penghu, an area called the "Ditch of Black Waters" is a graveyard for numerous boats, said to have capsized in swirling seas during the height of Chinese immigration to Taiwan two to three centuries ago.

Japanese pilots and sailors are said to have tried to avoid the rough seas off Penghu, known to them as the "devil's sea" during Japan's 50-year rule of Taiwan that ended in 1945.

Today, trawlers and cargo ships sail through the region safely.

"The mystic perception is fine but we hope people will not associate this area with danger," Hong said.

MICKEY ROURKE HAD TOO MUCH PLASTIC SURGERY??

Mickey Rourke is back on the news lately with his widely acclaimed acting in The Wrestler. However, people are questioning how much he has changed over the years since his heyday in 1990s..He was rumored to have cheek and chin implants in the past as well as other surgical procedures and obviosly they have taken their tolls on the once very handsome sex symbol.

These are some of the list of plastic surgeries that he might have had
. Facelift - You can almost make out the scars in front of his ears. Also, notice how his sideburns are no longer present in the 2005 photo. This can occur when poorly planned facelifts are performed in men.
2. Upper eyelid lifts (blepharoplasty) - His upper lids are more open in the 2005 photo when compared with the younger photo.
3. Hair transplant - This procedure appears to have been performed between 2005 and 2008. Notice how his sideburns have reappeared and his hairline has been moved forward. The "wispy" hair of his new hairline is not as thick as in the young photo. This is how hair transplanted in micrografts (one to two hairs at a time) often appears. This is in contrast to old-fashioned hair plugs, which make the hair look like a toy doll's patchy hair.


These days people are more concerned with improving their appearances. This is the result of watching too much television and reading fashion magazines. These two media almost always feature beautiful people on their covers and pages.When you see the faces of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie almost everyday you start to compare yourself to them and wish that you could look more like these two drop-dead gorgeous people!!

The top five most popular invasive procedures reported by AACS members for 2007 were liposuction, sclerotherapy, eyelid surgery, breast augmentation, and hair transplantation and restoration.

The pics above are some BEFORE and AFTER plastic surgery treatments;
facelift, pectoral implants for men, botox, chin augmentation and eyelid imrovement.

Personally, I think that people should ONLY have plastic surgery under the following conditions:

1). Corrective surgery after accidents.For instance, burnt facial skin.

2). There is an unusually abnormal looking feature in a person's face or body such as hairy neck or an extreme lack of chin.But they MUST be considerably HAPPIER after the results.If they still remain unhappy after the operation it means that the problem doesn't lie in their appearances, but only in their mental picture.Some people have very LOW SELF-ESTEEM that they feel unattractive , when sometimes it's only in their minds..

3). If you are involved in show biz, whether in movies, music or modelling since the industry usually seeks the most perfect faces and body to hire.But if you have REAL talents, then you don't have to look perfect!!Barbra Streisand, who's famous for her "prominent" nose is no Marilyn Monroe, but still she has achieved enormous success as an actress, singer and producer.Whoopie Golberg is definitely no Giselle Bundchen, but who can doubt her talents in comedy??Oprah Winfrey never feels secure about her looks and her-on-and-off weight problem yet she still heads the list of the richest woman in show biz!!

So, folks, do you think you have enough cause for going under the knive??

TOP TEN SITES - GLOBAL PAGE RANK!!

1. Yahoo.com

Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.
www.yahoo.com


2. Google.com

Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology.


3. Youtube.com

YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!

4. Live.com

Search engine from Microsoft.

5. Msn.com

Dialup access and content provider.

6. Myspace.com

Social Networking Site.

7. Wikipedia.org

An online collaborative encyclopedia.

8. Facebook.com

A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.

9. Blogger.com

Free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via FTP.

10. Yahoo.co.jp

有料審査制のディレクトリ。ウェブサービスの形でAPIを公開。

SOURCE: ALEXA

BLACKBERRY - PENTING GAK SEH???

"Temen2, PIN BB aku 96##, tolong diadd yah.."Demikianlah pesan yang kerap kali muncul di homepage Facebook setiap hari. Selalu saja ada yg install Blackberry application for Facebook di status Facebook mereka seakan2 mereka ingin pamer bhw :Gw punya BB loh!!:)

Memang, selain dari facebook, 1 hal yang sedang jadi perbincangan di mana-mana ada lah BlackBerry.Smartphone yg dipasarkan oleh E-Motion ini memang sedang jadi trend di kalangan esmud, artis-artis, pejabat bahkan ABG. Rasa2nya tidak lengkap penampilan yg keren kalau belum pegang BB (Istilah populer BlackBery)ini.

Blackberry pertama kali diperkenalkan pada tahun 1997 oleh perusahaan Kanada, Research In Motion (RIM). Kemampuannya menyampaikan informasi melalui jaringan data nirkabel dari layanan perusahaan telepon genggam mengejutkan dunia.

Blackberry pertama kali diperkenalkan di Indonesia pada pertengahan Desember 2004 oleh operator Indosat dan perusahaan Starhub. Perusahaan Starhub merupakan pengejewantahan dari RIM yang merupakan rekan utama Blackberry. Di Indonesia, Starhub menjadi bagian dari layanan dalam segala hal teknis mengenai instalasi Blackberry melalui operator Indosat. Indosat menyediakan layanan Blackberry Internet Service dan Blackberry Enterprise Server Pasar Blackberry kemudian diramaikan oleh dua operator besar lainnya di tanah air yakni Excelkom dan Telkomsel. Excelkom menyediakan dua pilihan layanan yaitu Blackberry Internet Service dan Blackberry Enterprise Server+ (BES+). BES+ adalah layanan gabungan dari BES dan BIS, ditujukan bagi pelanggan korporasi sehingga pelanggan dapat menerima dan mengirim email kantor yang berbasis Microsoft Exchange, Novel Wise, Lotus Domino dan 10 akun e-mail berbasis POP3/IMAP melalui telepon genggam. Sementara, operator Telkomsel hanya menyediakan Blackberry sebagai bagian dari layanan korporasi dengan Blackberry Enterprise Server. Pada awalnya, layanan Blackberry hanya bisa diakses melalui smartphone Blackberry saja. Tetapi seiring dengan berjalannya waktu, ketiga operator ini telah menyediakan fasilitas Blackberry Connect yang memungkinkan Blackberry Internet Solution diakses melalui smartphone jenis lain seperti Nokia (N-9500, N-9300, N-9300i, E61), Sony Ericsson P910i, M600i, Palm Treo, Dopod, dan lainnya. Sejauh ini, fasilitas Blackberry memang baru dimanfaatkan oleh para pengguna pribadi dan korporasi, belum merambah hingga bidang pemerintahan dan intelijen seperti di negara-negara lain.

Produk unggulan Blackberry

Produk yang menjadi andalan utama dan membuat Blackberry digemari di pasar adalah surat-e gegas (push e-mail). Produk ini mendapat sebutan surat-e gegas karena seluruh surat-e baru, daftar kontak, dan informasi jadwal (calendar) “didorong” masuk ke dalam Blackberry secara otomatis.

Seperti yang telah disebutkan di atas mengenai keunggulan dari Blackberry, yaitu push e-mail. Dengan push e-mail semua e-mail masuk dapat diteruskan langsung ke ponsel. E-mail juga sudah mengalami proses kompresi dan scan di server Blackberry sehingga aman dari virus. Lampiran file berupa dokumen Microsoft office dan PDF dapat dibuka dengan mudah. sebuah e-mail berukuran 1 MB, jika diterima melalui push e-mail dapat menjadi 10 kb dengan isi yang tetap. (RBA4762)

Pengguna tidak perlu mengakses internet terlebih dulu dan membuka satu persatu surat-e yang masuk, atau pemeriksaan surat-e baru. Hal ini dimungkinkan karena pengguna akan terhubung secara terus-menerus dengan dunia maya melalui jaringan telepon seluler yang tersedia. Alat penyimpanan juga memungkinkan para pengguna untuk mengakses data yang sampai ketika berada di luar layanan jangkauan nirkabel. Begitu pengguna terhubung lagi, Blackberry Enterprise Server akan menyampaikan data terbaru yang masuk.

Kelebihan lainya adalah kemampuan Blackberry yang dapat menampung e-mail hingga puluhan ribu tanpa ada resiko hang, asalkan masih ada memory tersisa.

Blackberry juga bisa digunakan untuk chatting. Mirip dengan Yahoo Messenger, namun dilakukan melalui jaringan Blackberry dengan memasukan nomor identitas.

Semua layanan Blackberry ini dikenal sangat aman baik e-mail, chatting, maupun browsing. untuk browsing internet data-data dari website sudah dikompresi sehingga lebih cepat dibuka.

Fasilitas lain yang menjadi andalan Blackberry adalah pesan instan. Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk dan Skype kini telah menjadi rekanan dengan Blackberry. Teknologi terkini memang memungkinkan kita untuk “mengobrol” (chatting) di internet melalui telepon genggam dan Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Tetapi yang berbeda pada Blackberry adalah proses instalasi lengkap yang bisa dilakukan nya melalui jaringan nirkabel.

Keunggulan lain juga hadir melalui teknologi kompresi yang menyebabkan biaya akses menjadi murah dan pemberitahuan jawaban pesan melalui tanda getar pada Blackberry.

Penggunaan Blackberry semakin meluas dengan hadirnya fasilitas koneksi Blackberry (Blackberry Connect). Dengan Blackberry Connect, pengguna tidak lagi harus menggunakan perangkat genggam Blackberry untuk memanfaatkan Blackberry Internet Solution. Pengguna hanya perlu menginstalasi Blackberry Connect pada smartphone merek apapun yang dimiliki, kita bisa memanfaatkan Blackberry Internet Solution.

Sistem Operasi

RIM menyediakan sistem operasi multi-tugas (multi-tasking operating system - OS) bagi Blackberry yang memungkinkan penggunaan secara intens dari sebuah alat . OS menyediakan dukungan bagi MIDP 1.0 dan WAP 1.2. Versi sebelumnya memungkinkan sinkronisasi nirkabel melalui e-mail dan kalendar Microsoft Exchange Server, dan juga e-mail Lotus Domino. Sementara OS 4 yang terbaru merupakan pelengkap dari MIDP 2.0, dan memungkinkan aktivasi nirkabel lengkap dan sinkronisasi dengan e-mail, kalendar, daftar tugas, catatan dan buku telepon, serta tambahan dukungan bagi Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.

Model Awal : 850, 857, 950, 957 Model Monokrom berbasis Java : seri 5000 dan seri 6000 Model Warna : seri 7200, seri 7500 dan seri 7700 Model dengan kemudahan mengetik : seri 7100 Model Blackberry Modern : seri Huron (8800), termasuk BlackBerry Pearl (8100) dan BlackBerry Curve (8300) Model Terkini (2008- ..) : Seri Bold (9000), Pearl Flip (8220), Storm, Javeline


Umumnya Blackberry dijual sepaket dengan nomor operator GSM seperti XL, Indosat, dan Telkomsel. Dengan demikian unit Blackberry dikunci dengan tiga operator. Namun ada juga unit Blackberry sebagai unit yang terpisah, alias sudah di-unlock sehingga bisa dipakai oleh seluruh operator. Blackberry seperti ini berasal dari luar negeri. (RBA4762)

Saat ini ada banyak tipe Blackberry yang ada di Indonesia. Tipe lama seperti 7290, 7730, dan tipe baru misalnya 81xx series, 83xx series, 88xx series, dan 87xx series. Yang terbaru adalah Blackberry 9000 alias Blackberry Bold.

Blackberry 83xx series (curve) yang ada di pasaran, misalnya Blackberry 8300, 8310, dan 8320. Blackberry 8300 hanya mempunyai kamera saja tanpa fitur tambahan lain. Blackberry 8310 memiliki kamera dan GPS. Sedangkan Blackberry 8320, yang merupakan tipe terlaris dari 83xx series, memiliki kamera dan WiFi.

Series selanjutnya adalah Blackberry 88xx series atau Huron. Dengan varian Blackberry 8800 dengan fitur GPS, dan 8820 dengan GPS dan WiFi.

Blackberry 81xx series atau Pearl memiliki varian 8100, 8110, dan 8120.

Model-model baru Blackberry adalah 87xx series. Terdiri dari Blackberry 8700 dan 8707. Tipe ini adalah Blackberry 3G yang pertama.

Produk ini MEMANG punya banyak keunggulan, terutama dari segi ACCESS TO E-MAIL dan CHATTING.Tapi jika Anda type orang yg narsis, dalam artian suka bikin foto-foto pake HP di manapun atau merekam video gebetan Anda yg terbaru, saya menganjurkan agar TIDAK BELI BLACKBERRY, karena camera dan videonya SANGAT BURUK, gelap dan sangat tidak fokus!!Inilah yg membuat saya ingin menjual BB Curve 8320 yg baru saya beli 5 hari yg lalu dan baru dipakai selama 1 jam untuk browsing fitur2 BB saja.Setelah mencoba fitur kamera dan videonya sayapun langsung memutuskan untuk tidak menyukai BB, jadi kalau ada yg interest utk membeli BB Curve 8320 yg masih sangat gress, walaupun sudah buka segel jgn ragu2 utk kontak saya di facebook saya: geraldo2409@gmail.com OR alangeraldV@yahoo.com!!

FACEBOOK FEVER!!

DO YOU HAVE FACEBOOK? That's the question people ask these days when they meet a new acquaintance or an old friend. These days EVERYBODY has facebook!!If you don't have one, than you must be living in Timbuktu or the North Pole!!Now,let's analize this new internet mega phenomenon that goes by the name of FACEBOOK.

Facebook, formerly The Facebook, is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.What's exciting about facebook is that people can upload photos and videos, publish poems or tell stories on the "Write a note" application and these actions can be viewed by other members. It appeals to people's narcissism and need for attention and affection, The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 175 million active users worldwide.[5]

Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria and Iran. Apparently some women in these countries used it as a tool to meet guys and some people were afraid that this will lead to free sex and other abuses .It has also been banned at many places of work to increase productivity. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. It is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's former classmates, who claim that Facebook had stolen their source code and other intellectual property.

Lotsa celebrites have joined facebook: musicians, singers, actors/actresses, athletes, and even politicians!Some of the names you find on facebook are: Aston Kutcher, Ivanka Trump, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Madonna, Robert Pattinson, Michael Phelps, Brandon Routh and so on (All of the above names are on MY friend list except for Madonna, Tom Cruise and Michael Phelps.Bill Gates was once a member but since he received too many friend requests (some 8,000!), he decided to leave the social website.Famous Indonesian figures are also on Facebook, namely: Nicholas Saputra, Dian Sastro, Nadine Chandrawinata, Catherine Wilson, Julie Estelle, Doni Tata, Rakhee Punjabi, Mike Lewis, Tamara Bleszynsky, Sophia Latjuba, 3 Diva, Mariana Renata, Farhat Abbas and even senior actress Christine Hakim!! (Btw, all of these names are on MY facebook friend list :p)

Some of the celebrities used facebook to make announcement, for instance, to promote their new movie (Notably Nicholas Saputra for 3 Doa 3 Cinta), to announce their weddings (Dewi Dee Lestari and Reza Gunawan).Overseas, Michael Phelps uploaded his pic sipping marijuana through a bong 3 montrhs after he won 8 gold medals in Beijing olympics. This created a RIOT and Phelps was hugely criticized for his action.Later on he announced a public apology, not through television, but through facebook!!The apology was responded positively by his ever adoring fans.Michael Phelps' fan page has 1,9 million members, ranked fourth in America in terms of number of fans. Number one is occupied by Dr.House, one of the most popular character in the most popular series in the USA currently.

The popularity of facebook goes hand in hand with that of BLACKBERRY, a smart phone that can browse the net and enables the user to access all messages addressed to him/her directly, whether through emails or facebook.BlackBerry is most favoured by office workers who don't have enough time to meet their friends, on line or real, and are banned by their bosses to access facebook so as not to disrupt their work.BlackBerry is used as a status symbol, especially in Indonesia so that even kids and teenagers have it although they don't have enough intelligence or know how to use it!!

Some famous figures use it to publish fan pages of themselves, notably Dian Sastro, Luna Maya and Budi Anduk!!Du you know the Indonesian artist who has the biggest fan base in Indonesia?It's none other than Jeng Kelin, the famous comedy character in Prime Time. She has 108.379 fans, much exceeding the fans of overseas figures such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Uma Thurman, Daniel Radcliffe, Shah Rukh Khan and Simon Cowell!!

Facebook according to ALEXA, a trusted page ranker, has reached No. 8 as one of the most favourite websites in the world and has an estimated 150 million users, leaving MySpace (117.6 million users) and Friendster ( 100 million users)behind. Indonesian active users has grown fronm 700,000 users to 1, 2 million(!) users currently.However, in the United States, it has only 36 million users compared to MySpace's 73 million.

Sony Pictures, and The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, have confirmed they are in the process of developing a movie "about the founders of social networking site Facebook." Sorkin has set up his own account on the site, stating, "I honestly don't know how this works, which is why I'm here." The film so far, is untitled, and will be produced by Scott Rudin.[93] According to the Telegraph, the film is expected to focus on Zuckerberg, and 2,500 Facebook users have joined the movies group associated with Sorkin's film, suggesting "plot pointers, offering to help or even asking for a role in the film."[94] Sony was quick to refute suggestions that the film is a hoax (especially after musings that it might be a fake Sorkin account of which there are a number already),[93] with Steve Elzer saying, "We are developing the film that has been reported".[95] However, a spokesperson for Facebook said that, "We are routinely approached by writers and filmmakers interested in telling the Facebook story... At this point, we have not agreed to cooperate with any film project, but we are flattered by the interest.

Facebook received its first investment of US$500,000 in June 2004 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[24] This was followed a year later by $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners, and then $27.5 million more from Greylock Partners.[24][25] A leaked cash flow statement showed that during the 2005 fiscal year, Facebook had a net loss of $3.63 million.[26]

n September 2006, serious talks between Facebook and Yahoo! took place concerning acquisition of Facebook, with prices reaching as high as $1 billion.[30] Thiel, by then a board member of Facebook, indicated that Facebook's internal valuation was around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1 billion by 2015, comparable to Viacom's MTV brand, a company with a shared target demographic audience.[31]

On July 17, 2007, Zuckerberg said that selling Facebook was unlikely because he wanted to keep it independent, saying "We're not really looking to sell the company. ... We're not looking to IPO anytime soon. It's just not the core focus of the company."[32]

In September 2007, Microsoft approached Facebook, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the company, offering an estimated $300–500 million.[33] That month, other companies, including Google, expressed interest in buying a portion of Facebook.[34]

On October 24, 2007 Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. However, Microsoft bought preferred stock that carried special rights, such as "liquidation preferences" that meant Microsoft would get paid before common stockholders if the company is sold. Microsoft's purchase also included rights to place international ads on Facebook.

In November 2007, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $60 million in Facebook.

In August 2008, BusinessWeek reported that private sales by employees, as well as purchases by venture capital firms, had and were being done at share prices that put the company's total valuation at between $3.75 billion and $5 billion.

In October 2008, Zuckerberg said "I don't think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. ... In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today."

So, DO YOU HAVE A FACEBOOK??Add me up at alangeraldV@yahoo.com OR geraldo2409@gmail.com!!C u der!!

3 STUDENTS FOUND NEW PLANET!!

Munich, Dec 06: Three undergraduate students, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have discovered a unique extrasolar planet, which is about five times as massive as Jupiter.

The students, Meta de Hoon, Remco van der Burg, and Francis Vuijsje, were testing a method of investigating the light fluctuations of thousands of stars in the OGLE database in an automated way.

The brightness of one of the stars was found to decrease for two hours every 2.5 days by about one percent.

Follow-up observations, taken with ESO's (European Southern Observatory's) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, confirmed that this phenomenon is caused by a planet passing in front of the star, blocking part of the starlight at regular intervals.

The planet, which is about five times as massive as Jupiter, circles its host star in about 2.5 days.

It lies at only three percent of the Earth-Sun distance from its star, making it very hot and much larger than normal planets. According to Ignas Snellen, supervisor of the research project, the discovery was a complete surprise.

"The project was actually meant to teach the students how to develop search algorithms. But they did so well that there was time to test their algorithm on a so far unexplored database. At some point they came into my office and showed me this light curve. I was completely taken aback!" he said.

This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star.

"It is exciting not just to find a planet, but to find one as unusual as this one. It turns out to be the first planet discovered around a fast rotating star, and it's also the hottest star found with a planet," said Meta.

The planet has been given the prosaic name OGLE2-TR-L9b. "But amongst ourselves we call it ReMeFra-1, after Remco, Meta, and myself," said Francis. The planet was discovered by looking at the brightness variations of about 15 700 stars, which had been observed by the OGLE survey once or twice per night for about four years between 1997 and 2000.

"But to make sure it was a planet and not a brown dwarf or a small star that was causing the brightness variations, we needed to resort to spectroscopy, and for this, we were glad we could use ESO's Very Large Telescope," said Snellen.

The spectroscopy also showed that the star is pretty hot - almost 7000 degrees, or 1200 degrees hotter than the Sun. In fact, it is the hottest star with a planet ever discovered, and it is rotating very fast.

PLANET X - NIBIRU?

Belakangan ini manusia dihebohkan dengan desas desus ttg kehadiran planet X atau yg disebut dgn NIBIRU.Yg ditakutkan adalah planet ini datang setiap 3600 thn.Diramalkan bhw planet ini akan menabrak bumi pada tgl 21 Desember 2012. Berikut ini kajian secara ilmiah beserta videonya untuk meredakan keresehan kita.

Bagian luar Tata Surya masih memiliki banyak planet-planet minor yang belum ditemukan. Sejak pencarian Planet X dimulai pada awal abad ke 20, kemungkinan akan adanya planet hipotetis yang mengorbit Matahari di balik Sabuk Kuiper telah membakar teori-teori Kiamat dan spekulasi bahwa Planet X sebenarnya merupakan saudara Matahari kita yang telah lama “hilang”. Tetapi, mengapa kita harus cemas duluan akan Planet X/Teori Kiamat ini? Planet X kan tidak lain hanya merupakan obyek hipotetis yang tidak diketahui?

Teori-teori ini didorong pula dengan adanya ramalan suku Maya akan kiamat dunia pada tahun 2012 (Mayan Prophecy) dan cerita mistis Bangsa Sumeria tentang Planet Nibiru, dan akhirnya kini memanas sebagai “ramalan kiamat” 21 Desember 2012. Namun, bukti-bukti astronomis yang digunakan untuk teori-teori ini benar-benar melenceng.

Pada 18 Juni kemarin, peneliti-peneliti Jepang mengumumkan berita bahwa pencarian teoretis mereka untuk sebuah massa besar di luar Tata Surya kita telah membuahkan hasil. Dari perhitungan mereka, mungkin saja terdapat sebuah planet yang sedikit lebih besar daripada sebuah objek Plutoid atau planet kerdil, tetapi tentu lebih kecil dari Bumi, yang mengorbit Matahari dengan jarak lebih dari 100 SA. Tetapi, sebelum kita terhanyut pada penemuan ini, planet ini bukan Nibiru, dan bukan pula bukti akan berakhirnya dunia ini pada 2012. Penemuan ini adalah penemuan baru dan merupakan perkembangan yang sangat menarik dalam pencarian planet-planet minor di balik Sabuk Kuiper.

Dalam simulasi teoretis, dua orang peneliti Jepang telah menyimpulkan bahwa bagian paling luar dari Tata Surya kita mungkin mengandung planet yang belum ditemukan. Patryk Lykawa dan Tadashi Mukai dari Universitas Kobe telah mempublikasikan paper mereka dalam Astrophysical Journal. Paper mereka menjelaskan tentang planet minor yang mereka yakini berinteraksi dengan Sabuk Kuiper yang misterius itu.

Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)
Sedna, salah satu objek di Sabuk Kuipert. Kredit : NASA
Sedna, salah satu objek di Sabuk Kuipert. Kredit : NASA
Sabuk Kuiper menempati wilayah yang sangat luas di Tata Surya kita, kira-kira 30-50 SA dari Matahari, dan mengandung sejumlah besar objek-objek batuan dan metalik. Objek terbesar yang diketahui adalah planet kerdil (Plutoid) Eris. Telah lama diketahui, Sabuk Kuiper memiliki karakteristik yang aneh, yang mungkin menandakan keberadaan sebuah benda (planet) besar yang mengorbit Matahari dibalik Sabuk Kuiper. Salah satu karakterikstik tersebut adalah yang disebut dengan “Kuiper Cliff” atau Jurang Kuiper yang terdapat pada jarak 50 SA. Ini merupakan akhir dari Sabuk Kuiper yang tiba-tiba, dan sangat sedikit objek Sabuk Kuiper yang telah dapat diamati di balik titik ini. Jurang ini tidak dapat dihubungkan terhadap resonansi orbital dengan planet-planet masif seperti Neptunus, dan tampaknya tidak terjadi kesalahan (error) pengamatan. Banyak ahli astronomi percaya bahwa akhir yang tiba-tiba dalam populasi Sabuk Kuiper tersebut dapat disebabkan oleh planet yang belum ditemukan, yang mungkin sebesar Bumi. Objek inilah yang diyakini Lykawka dan Mukai, dan telah mereka perhitungkan keberadaannya.

Para peneliti Jepang ini memprediksikan sebuah objek besar, yang massanya 30-70 % massa Bumi, mengorbit Matahari pada jarak 100-200 SA. Objek ini mungkin juga dapat membantu menjelaskan mengapa sebagian objek Sabuk Kuiper dan objek Trans-Neptunian (TNO) memiliki beberapa karakteristik orbital yang aneh, contohnya Sedna.
Objek-objek trans Neptunian. Kredit : NASA
Objek-objek trans Neptunian. Kredit : NASA
Sejak ditemukannya Pluto pada tahun 1930, para astronom telah mencari objek lain yang lebih masif, yang dapat menjelaskan gangguan orbital yang diamati pada orbit Neptunus dan Uranus. Pencarian ini dikenal sebagai “Pencarian Planet X”, yang diartikan secara harfiah sebagai “pencarian planet yang belum teridentifikasi”. Pada tahun 1980an gangguan orbital ini dianggap sebagai kesalahan (error) pengamatan. Oleh karena itu, pencarian ilmiah akan Planet X dewasa ini adalah pencarian untuk objek Sabuk Kuiper yang besar, atau pencarian planet minor. Meskipun Planet X mungkin tidak akan sebesar massa Bumi, para peneliti masih akan tetap tertarik untuk mencari objek-objek Kuiper lain, yang mungkin seukuran Plutoid, mungkin juga sedikit lebih besar, tetapi tidak terlalu besar.

“The interesting thing for me is the suggestion of the kinds of very interesting objects that may yet await discovery in the outer solar system. We are still scratching the edges of that region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us with the future deeper surveys.” - Mark Sykes, Direktur Planetary Science Institute (PSI) di Arizona.

Planet X Tidaklah Menakutkan
Jadi, dari mana Nibiru ini berasal? Pada tahun 1976, sebuah buku kontroversial berjudul The Twelfth Planet atau Planet Kedua belas ditulis oleh Zecharian Sitchin. Sitchin telah menerjemahkan tulisan-tulisan kuno Sumeria yang berbentuk baji (bentuk tulisan yang diketahui paling kuno). Tulisan berumur 6.000 tahun ini mengungkapkan bahwa ras alien yang dikenal sebagai Anunnaki dari planet yang disebut Nibiru, mendarat di Bumi. Ringkas cerita, Anunnaki memodifikasi gen primata di Bumi untuk menciptakan homo sapiens sebagai budak mereka.

Ketika Anunnaki meninggalkan Bumi, mereka membiarkan kita memerintah Bumi ini hingga saatnya mereka kembali nanti. Semua ini mungkin tampak sedikit fantastis, dan mungkin juga sedikit terlalu detail jika mengingat semua ini merupakan terjemahan harfiah dari suatu tulisan kuno berusia 6.000 tahun. Pekerjaan Sitchin ini telah diabaikan oleh komunitas ilmiah sebagaimana metode interpretasinya dianggap imajinatif. Meskipun demikian, banyak juga yang mendengar Sitchin, dan meyakini bahwa Nibiru (dengan orbitnya yang sangat eksentrik dalam mengelilingi Matahari) akan kembali, mungkin pada tahun 2012 untuk menyebabkan semua kehancuran dan terror-teror di Bumi ini. Dari “penemuan” astronomis yang meragukan inilah hipotesis Kiamat 2012 Planet X didasarkan. Lalu, bagaimanakah Planet X dianggap sebagai perwujudan dari Nibiru?

Kemudian terdapat juga “penemuan katai coklat di luar Tata Surya kita” dari IRAS pada tahun 1984 dan “pengumuman NASA akan planet bermassa 4-8 massa Bumi yang sedang menuju Bumi” pada tahun 1933. Para pendukung hipotesis kiamat ini bergantung pada penemuan astronomis tersebut, sebagai bukti bahwa Nibiru sebenarnya adalah Planet X yang telah lama dicari para astronom selama abad ini. Tidak hanya itu, dengan memanipulasi fakta-fakta tentang penelitian-penelitian ilmiah, mereka “membuktikan” bahwa Nibiru sedang menuju kita (Bumi), dan pada tahun 2012, benda masif ini akan memasuki bagian dalam Tata Surya kita, menyebabkan gangguan gravitasi.

Dalam pendefinisian yang paling murni, Planet X adalah planet yang belum diketahui, yang mungkin secara teoretis mengorbit Matahari jauh di balik Sabuk Kuiper. Jika penemuan beberapa hari lalu memang akhirnya mengarah pada pengamatan sebuah planet atau Plutoid, maka hal ini akan menjadi penemuan luar biasa yang membantu kita memahami evolusi dan karakteristik misterius bagian luar Tata Surya kita.

Sumerian Planet X Nibiru - The funniest videos are a click away

THE NOISE FROM HELL??

Does hell actually exist BENEATH earth?Are there tormented souls down there as we speak?? The video below narrates the incidence of Siberian geologists who apparently digged just a LITTLE too deep into the earth and heard some weird, creepy noise from underneath..Is this the noise from hell??

While drilling the world's deepest hole in Siberia, the geologists noticed the drill bit began to rotate abnormally, among other strange happenings, when they reached a depth of ten miles. They measured temperatures up to 2000 degrees at the deepest part, and then lowered a microphone into the pit.

After hearing the sounds of all the suffering souls in hell, they stopped the project in the hope that what is down there will stay down there.

Below is the NOISE FROM HELL!!!If any of you has a faint heart please refrain from viewing the video!!

PONARI - THE CHILD SHAMAN, BACK ON TRACK??

Ponari, the miracle boy from Jombang, east java, Indonesia is back to doing his usual routine- be a shaman/dukun/witchdoctor!!

The 10 year old kid was believed to be strucked by lightning, and eversince, never been the same boy he used to be.He owns a "magic stone" that he uses to heal his patients coming from all over the country..

What the kid does is dip the "sacred stone" onto the water in containers that the patients bring to his house. The patient will drink the water and will subsequently, be "Healed" from his illness. If the patient can not bring themselves to the place, his family/friend would bring his/her ID card placed in water containers where Ponari would dip his stone onto.

The practice was shut by the local police since there were THOUSANDS of people coming and disrupt the local activities. There were many controversies regarding this since the kid is only 10 years old and already a very busy worker,People are concerned that he doesn't enjoy his childhood and do the usual things that kid his age would do like playing with his friends and having fun.The kid and his dad made a promise to Kak Seto (Prominent figure for child's rights) that he would go back to school and quit his practice.

However, as of today, the kid is back to serving his ever-adoring patients in his hometown..Well, I guess no one can resist the sweet temptation of MONEY!Can you BLAME the kid??