How Do Astronauts Scratch and Itch When In Their Space Suits?

Without the use of their hands, astronauts have to rely on other means to scratch various itches. For any itch outside of the face, retired astronaut Clayton Anderson explained, “You shake, rattle and roll, baby!  That’s the only thing really that you can do to alleviate that itch. Hopefully, between the incredibly bulky and stiff suit itself and the liquid cooling garment you are wearing beneath the suit, you can wiggle your body enough to effectively scratch that itch!”
Itches on the face can be a bit more tricky, but there are things within reach. For instance, under the helmet astronauts wear what is sometimes referred to as a Snoopy Cap that is equipped with earphones and a microphone. If an itch presents itself on the lower half of the face, the microphone is one commonly used scratching post. The downfall of this method is that the action sometimes moves the microphone out of position, interfering a little with the sound quality in communications.
Another option astronauts use is the valsalva device, which is a foam piece attached to the bottom interior of the spacesuit helmet. The purpose of the valsalva device is to allow an astronaut to block up their nostrils and blow to equalize pressure in the ears when necessary. Beyond its intended purpose, the foam block is a handy device for scratching an itch.
Of course, you could potentially get a little snot rubbed on the itchy spot if you’ve previously used the humps on the valsalva to stopper your nose, but desperate times and all that…
A third option to address facial itches is a strategically placed piece of Velcro. This was particularly used during the Apollo missions. (And, note, contrary to popular belief, Velcro was not invented by NASA, nor specifically for use in the space program.) The astronauts would typically place the Velcro on the little feed port flap that is held closed via the pressure in the suit when out in space. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt noted, “Everybody seemed to agree that you needed that [Velcro]…”
If an itch pops up where nothing sufficiently abrasive can be rubbed against it, the astronaut simply has to endure, generally using the distraction tactic until the itch fades. This is easier than in some other settings. A typical spacewalk lasts between five and eight hours and being out there working is incredibly laborious due to how stiff the space suit gets when in the near vacuum of space (even just flexing your fingers to grip things is relatively difficult). Between the straining and extreme focus needed to complete some of the tasks the astronauts are out there for, not to mention the absolutely beautiful view and the knowledge that there is very little between you and the near vacuum of space, there’s plenty to get caught up in and forget all about the itch.
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Bonus Facts:

• Beyond having to deal with itches that are sometimes impossible to scratch, astronauts out space walking also have to potentially deal with having to go to the bathroom. The solution here is simple- essentially, an adult diaper specially designed for maximum absorption. Now just think that those space suits are re-used by other astronauts…  One can imagine space walking flatulence also isn’t terribly pleasant.  (And if you’re curious, see: Why Other People’s Farts Smell Worse).
• The term “astronaut” is derived from the Greek words astron, meaning “star,” and nautes, meaning “sailor” -so, essentially “star sailor”.
• In the free-fall state astronauts orbiting the Earth find themselves in, sweat and tears do not flow downward and instead cling to surfaces and blob together. This can become a major vision problem when sweat and tears form bubbles in the eyes or on eye lashes.
• Even worse is a potential coolant water leak during a space walk. This happened to astronaut Luca Parmitano, resulting in his space walk abruptly terminated as his helmet began to fill up with a giant glob of water.  Towards the end as he was waiting for the pressure to equalize on the hatch, with the water in the helmet continuing to increase, he was beginning to have trouble seeing, hearing, and even talking. The bigger concern, of course, was that he might accidentally suck up some of the glob of water as he was trying to breathe around it. This would have resulted in him coughing uncontrollable, only making the situation worse and potentially causing him to drown in the suit. As Flight Director David Korth said of the event, “You can imagine, you’re in a fishbowl… That’s not anything you take lightly.”  It was later discovered that one of the suit’s coolant line filters got clogged, causing water to leak out and into his helmet.  In total, the coolant system contains a little over a gallon of water and is essential to keep the astronaut from overheating in the suit.
• Before an astronaut ventures into space, the interior of the face shield is treated with an anti-fogging chemical to ensure body heat and sweat don’t fog it up. However, in 2011 astronaut Andrew Feustel went out on a spacewalk and ended up getting a droplet of the anti-fogger solution in his eye. The substance caused major irritation and his eye started to burn and tear up. Without the ability to use his hands, he was forced to use the valsalva device to try and reduce the stinging and get the tears to stop clinging to his eye so he could see from it again.
• Sneezing in space also presents problems and astronauts learn how to sneeze in the suits during training. Astronaut Dave Wold states that the trick is to have good aim– “Aim low, off the windshield, because it can mess up your view and there’s no way to clear it…”

What Happened to Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s Parents?

In 1934 Walt Disney introduced the world to Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse’s lovable ill-tempered friend. Donald was an instant success, becoming one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time. Three short years after his creation, comic artist Al Taliaferro got the idea to create three nephews for Donald: Huey, Dewey and Louie. In the trio’s comic debut on October 17, 1937, Donald received a letter from his cousin, Della, just before the boys arrived:

“Dear Donald:
I am sending your angel nephews Louie, Huey and Dewey, to stay with you while their father is in the hospital. A giant firecracker exploded under his chair. The little darlings are so playful. I hope you enjoy them.
Your cousin,
Della”

With open arms and a willing heart, Donald welcomed his nephews into his home. Of course, he soon realized that the “angels” and “little darlings” that Della referred to were rebellious, destructive monsters.
So what happened to their dad? As Della’s letter touched upon, their dear old dad was sent to the hospital after a firework exploded under his chair- a firework placed there by his own sons: Huey, Dewey, and Louie (or perhaps it was their phantom brother, Phooey!- the mysterious fourth nephew who appeared at random times in various comic panels).
This is the last we really hear about their dad. On one version of the Duck family tree, the triplets’ dad is nothing more than an obscured duck with no first name and a big question mark on his head. On other depictions of the family tree, their dad is seen as a nameless face beside his wife. His appearance on the Duck family tree is the only visual of Della’s husband.
Drawing from what little information is available, Daddy Duck either died in the hospital or abandoned his kids and fled as far away as possible to avoid any more of their high jinks.
So what about Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s mom? Dumbella Duck, aka Della, is a bit more complicated of a case. In her aforementioned letter, you may have noticed that it was signed, “Your cousin” not “Your sister.” She also explicitly states the three kids in question are Donald’s nephews. This would imply that Della was not their mother given she is Donald’s cousin here, unless the boys’ father was supposed to be Donald’s brother and we simply have a case of cousin marriage- not totally uncommon in this era (see: The Surprising Truth About Cousins and Marriage). Another possibility is that she is somehow Donald’s cousin and sister, but we’re not going to go there…
If the “Donald’s brother was their father” scenario isn’t correct, given that Della was seemingly caring for the children while their father was in the hospital, it would seem to indicate that their real mother was out of the picture at this point.
However, when a similar letter is read in the 1938 cartoon, Donald’s Nephews, the letter and story are modified slightly,

Dear Brother-
I am sending your angel nephews to visit you -Sister, Dumbella

To make things more confusing, when Carl Barks released his version of the Duck family tree in the 1950s, he refers to the triplets’ mom as Thelma Duck (perhaps going back to the original comic book story where Della was a cousin). On this line thinking, some fans have suggested that Dumbella, Della, and Thelma are different characters, while others argue that Della is just short for Dumbella. Since the name Thelma is never used in the comics or theatrical shorts, and her name changed back to Della Duck with Don Rosa’s 1993 revised version of the Duck family tree, Thelma seems to be null and void and simply a mistake in Barks’ work.
Given later story lines, it would appear the “Della and Dumbella are the same duck” theory is correct. For instance, in the comic book series, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, written in the mid-1990s, Donald and Della were shown wearing identical sailor outfits as kids and depicted not only as siblings, but as twins.
Thus, it would seem that when Della was originally introduced as Donald’s cousin, her character (and the boys’ backstory) was not given much of any thought as Huey, Dewey, and Louie at this point were only supposed to be around for a short visit- just a convenient plot device for an issue of the comic.  However, when they put the boys in the cartoon, they decided to explain where the characters came from in a way that made a little more sense; so Donald ended with a sister, instead of a cousin, sending him his nephews.
This brings us back to what happened to Della Duck.  It turns out that in the Donald Duck comics and cartoons, aside from the aforementioned letter, neither parent was ever heard from again. So did they die or just abandon Huey, Dewey, and Louie?
According to the Duck family tree, Della and Donald are equal in terms of their familial relationship with Scrooge McDuck, yet Donald is always the one referred to as Scrooge’s closest living relative. This strongly suggests that she died, perhaps along with her husband. Or, as others have speculated, they simply faked their deaths and went into hiding to avoid having to take back their children. (Donald himself would later abandon the children for a while, leaving them in the care of their great uncle Scrooge while he went off and joined the navy.)
That said, while Scrooge’s frequent assertions about Donald seem to indicate Della was a dead duck, in the comic strip, Amen!, the triplets are depicted saying prayers for their mom and dad, which may indicate that they are still alive and well…somewhere. Or maybe no one bothered to tell them their parents had died.
Whatever the case, in the 1942 cartoon, The New Spirit, it stated that Donald had officially adopted the triplets. As mentioned, the parents were never heard from again.
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Bonus Facts:

• Donald Fauntleroy Duck was first thought up after Walt Disney overheard Clarence Nash doing his now famous duck voice. Disney decided to hire Nash to do the voice of a duck character that would take over the role of some of the negative attributes that Mickey used to portray, but now with Mickey being a role model, could no longer do. Donald made his debut in The Wise Little Hen where he and Peter Pig tried various means to get out of doing work, such as faking stomach aches. Nash continued to do the voice of Donald for nearly a half century until he died of leukemia in 1985.  Other voices done by Nash included: Daisy Duck; Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and the bullfrog in Bambi.
• Like any set of identical triplets, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are difficult to tell apart. Originally they were created as “one” character split into three, as was evident by the way they flawlessly finished each other’s sentences, as if they were operating off the same brain. Only when they appeared in DuckTales, and then later, Quack Pack, did they really start to exhibit individual characteristics. The only way to tell them apart was by the colors of shirts and hats they wore. However, prior to the 1980s, when they weren’t dressed identically, colors for each nephew were chosen at random and rarely consistent. Once they established signature colors for each brother, Huey was dressed in red, Dewey in blue, and Louie in green. Dave Smith, Disney’s archivist said, “Note that the brightest hue of the three is red (Huey), the color of water, dew, is blue (Dewey), and that leaves Louie, and leaves are green.” This is not to say the triplets didn’t switch it up every once in awhile or appear in colors deviating from their “signature” color.  Not that it would have mattered to Donald necessarily. In the wartime short, Donald Gets Drafted, Donald Duck is shown to be colorblind, though it isn’t clear what type of colorblindness he suffers from.
• As if the triplet’s identities aren’t complicated enough, enter Phooey. Phooey is Donald’s phantom fourth nephew who has appeared in at least seven comic book panels over the years as a result of artistic errors not caught in time prior to publication.
• Huey, Dewey, and Louie joined the scouting organization, Junior Woodchucks, when they were 11 years old. Their involvement in this group is often attributed to bringing about the change in their behavior, going from rebellious monsters to fairly respectable individuals interested in helping their Uncles Donald and Scrooge in their adventures.
• Huey and Dewey were named after two political figures, Huey Long of Louisiana, and Admiral George Dewey of the Spanish-American War. Louis was named after Louie Schmitt, one of Disney’s animators. Their full names are Huebert, Deuteronomy, and Louis.

Why There Is No E in the A-F Grading Scale

Some schools do hand out E letter grades instead of an F, but they are in the minority. A majority of schools in the United States, particularly beyond primary age, give grades of A, B, C, D, or F.
Rather than a failure on the part of academic institutions to know the alphabet, the simple answer is that “F” stands for “fail.” The other four grades are more or less considered “passing” (though in some districts a D is also a failing grade), which is why they go in alphabetical order. The F is considered separate as it denotes a failing grade, and does not need to go in alphabetical order. It just so happens that “fail” starts with a letter that skips one letter alphabetically on the scale.
That said, E was used at one point. The first college in the United States to use a grading scale similar to the one we know today was Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s university in Massachusetts.
Before that, Yale used a ranking system in 1785 where “optimi” was the highest mark, followed by second optimi, inferiore (“lower”), and pejores (“worse”). William and Mary ranked students by number, where No. 1 was the first in their class and No. 2 students were “orderly, correct and attentive.”
For a while, Harvard had a numerical grading system where students were graded on a scale from 1-200 (except for math and philosophy classes, which were 1-100). Yale had a four-point scale in 1813, switched to a nine-point scale somewhere down the track, and back to a four-point scale in 1832.
In 1883, there’s a single reference to a student earning a “B” at Harvard, but historians haven’t found additional documentation to back up the idea that a letter grade system was actually in place at that point. It is known that just a few years later, Harvard had a system of Classes in place—students were either Class I, II, III, IV, or V, with V being failing.
That brings us back to the 1887 Mount Holyoke system, which looked something like this:

• A: excellent, 95-100%
• B: good, 85-94%
• C: fair, 76-84%
• D: barely passed, 75%
• E: failed, below 75%

A year later, Mount Holyoke modified their grading scale. “B” became anything from 90-94%, “C” was 85-89%, “D” was 80-84%, and “E” was 75-79%. Below that, they added in the dreaded “F.”
Over the years, the letter grading scale became popular across colleges and high schools alike. A lot of schools skipped E and went straight to F. Apparently, some teachers were concerned that students and parents thought E stood for “excellent,” though there is no evidence suggesting that they thought A stood for “awful,” so it’s possible that schools were just trying to simplify the scale. After World War II, some schools—many in the Midwest—decided to go back to E, getting rid of F.
In truth, any letter could stand in for E or F and still mean the same thing. Some schools use “U” for “unsatisfactory” or N for “no credit.” Educators could use just about any letter and it would amount to the same thing. It is simply an indicator of a non-passing grade.
The grading scale itself has been marked with an F (or E, or U, or N) by some people who believe it is no longer a relevant way to judge students’ work. For one thing, there are variations across institutions. Some schools use + and -; some don’t. Some say an A is 90% and up, or 93% and up, or 95% and up. Some consider a D to be a failing grade rather than a passing one.
Critics of the grading scale believe a written analysis of students’ work would be more effective in terms of feedback, but they recognize that students and parents probably wouldn’t read them and teachers, who are often overworked as it is, don’t have time to write them anyway. Letter grades are just an easy way to generalize a student’s performance; so despite the discrepancies between schools, they’ll probably be around for a long time.
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Bonus Facts:

• Finland had one of the highest-ranked education system in the world for many years, but they lost out in 2013 to Japan.  The UK rang in at #3 in 2013; Canada #7; and the United States #18, out of 200 countries considered.  Surprisingly, Japan only spends and average of $10,596 per student and Finland just $10,157.  In contrast, the U.S. spends $15,172 per student, the highest of any country.  That’s about 2.5 times more per student than the #17 ranked Estonia, which is one ahead of the United States.
• According to the National Center for Education and Statistics, around 50.1 million children were attending U.S. public schools; 5.2 million were in private schools; over 1.5 million were homeschooled; and 21.8 million people were attending university.
• With record numbers of students attending university, around 2 million high school students took 3.7 million Advanced Placement exams in 2012, trying to earn college credit. Advance Placement exams are graded on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the best. The minimum score to earn college credit is a 3, with many universities requiring a 4 or 5 on individual exams. When taking an AP exam, correct answers obviously count toward your score, but wrong answers will knock points off your score, while answers left blank do nothing.
• Two major standardized tests that U.S. high school students take in order to get into college are the ACT and SAT. Colleges usually accept one or the other. The first is scored out of 36, while the latter is scored out of 2400. In some states, these standardized tests have been integrated into state standardized testing.
• In the UK, the dreaded E grade is much more common than the F. Again, they both mean you probably should have studied more, so there isn’t much difference between them except for preference.
• 14% of adults in the U.S. are illiterate, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. A further 29% demonstrated only a “basic” reading level.

Humans Have a Lot More Than Five Senses

humans have a lot more than five senses.  It turns out, there are at least nine senses and most researchers think there are more like twenty-one or so. Just for reference, the commonly held definition of a “sense” is “any system that consists of a group of sensory cell types that respond to a specific physical phenomenon and that corresponds to a particular group of regions within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted.
The commonly held human senses are as follows:

• Sight:  This technically is two senses given the two distinct types of receptors present, one for color (cones) and one for brightness (rods).
• Taste:  This is sometimes argued to be five senses by itself due to the differing types of taste receptors (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami), but generally is just referred to as one sense.  For those who don’t know, umami receptors detect the amino acid glutamate, which is a taste generally found in meat and some artificial flavoring.  The taste sense, unlike sight, is a sense based off of a chemical reaction
• Touch:  This has been found to be distinct from pressure, temperature, pain, and even itch sensors.
• Pressure: Obvious sense is obvious.
• Itch:  Surprisingly, this is a distinct sensor system from other touch-related senses.
• Thermoception:  Ability to sense heat and cold.  This also is thought of as more than one sense.  This is not just because of the two hot/cold receptors, but also because there is a completely different type of thermoceptor, in terms of the mechanism for detection, in the brain.  These thermoceptors in the brain are used for monitoring internal body temperature.
• Sound:  Detecting vibrations along some medium, such as air or water that is in contact with your ear drums.
• Smell:  Yet another of the sensors that work off of a chemical reaction.  This sense combines with taste to produce flavors.
• Proprioception:  This sense gives you the ability to tell where your body parts are, relative to other body parts.  This sense is one of the things police officers test when they pull over someone who they think is driving drunk.  The “close your eyes and touch your nose” test is testing this sense.  This sense is used all the time in little ways, such as when you scratch an itch on your foot, but never once look at your foot to see where your hand is relative to your foot.
• Tension Sensors:  These are found in such places as your muscles and allow the brain the ability to monitor muscle tension.
• Nociception:  In a word, pain.  This was once thought to simply be the result of overloading other senses, such as “touch”, but this has been found not to be the case and instead, it is its own unique sensory system.  There are three distinct types of pain receptors: cutaneous (skin), somatic (bones and joints), and visceral (body organs).
• Equilibrioception:   The sense that allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes.  This sense also allows for perceiving gravity.  The sensory system for this is found in your inner ears and is called the vestibular labyrinthine system.  Anyone who’s ever had this sense go out on them on occasion knows how important this is.  When it’s not working or malfunctioning, you literally can’t tell up from down and moving from one location to another without aid is nearly impossible.
• Stretch Receptors:  These are found in such places as the lungs, bladder, stomach, and the gastrointestinal tract.  A type of stretch receptor, that senses dilation of blood vessels, is also often involved in headaches.
• Chemoreceptors:  These trigger an area of the medulla in the brain that is involved in detecting blood born hormones and drugs.  It also is involved in the vomiting reflex.
• Thirst:  This system more or less allows your body to monitor its hydration level and so your body knows when it should tell you to drink.
• Hunger:  This system allows your body to detect when you need to eat something.
• Magnetoception:  This is the ability to detect magnetic fields, which is principally useful in providing a sense of direction when detecting the Earth’s magnetic field.  Unlike most birds, humans do not have a strong magentoception, however, experiments have demonstrated that we do tend to have some sense of magnetic fields.  The mechanism for this is not completely understood; it is theorized that this has something to do with deposits of ferric iron in our noses.  This would make sense if that is correct as humans who are given magnetic implants have been shown to have a much stronger magnetoception than humans without.
• Time:  This one is debated as no singular mechanism has been found that allows people to perceive time.  However, experimental data has conclusively shown humans have a startling accurate sense of time, particularly when younger. The mechanism we use for this seems to be a distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia.  Long term time keeping seems to be monitored by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (responsible for the circadian rhythm).  Short term time keeping is handled by other cell systems.

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• How the Blind Dream
• Robins Can See Magnetic Fields, But Only In One Eye

Bonus Facts:

• The traditional “five senses” model (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste) is credited to Aristotle
• One such method for testing whether humans have magnetoception is by placing a strong magnetic field near a person and then disorienting them.  Results have shown that people in this scenario perform significantly worse at being able to re-orient themselves in terms of the cardinal points than people who are not near a strong magnetic field.  More conclusive evidence has been demonstrated by examining subject’s brains when magnetic fields are produced near a person.  It has been shown that these magnetic fields will evoke a response in the brain’s activity.
• Numerous experiments have demonstrated that people do have the ability to detect accurately the passage of time.  One experiment showed that, without consciously counting or anything of the like, a group of 19 to 24 year olds were able, on average, to tell when 3 minutes was up within a 3 second margin of error.  Interestingly, the age group of 60-80 tended to average perceiving 3 minutes pass at around 3 minutes and 40 seconds consistently within the test group.  This would seem to indicate whatever mechanism we use to sense time slows as we age and thus as we get older time seems to pass faster to us.
• People with Parkinson’s disease and ADD have severely impaired sense of time passage compared to “normal” people.
• The vestibular labyrinthine system (equilibrioception) works by sensing the motion of fluid in three canals in your inner ear, as well as sensing the weight of small crystals of calcium carbonite on tiny hair-like sensory receptors.
• Proprioception (sense of relative position of body parts) comes from the Latin “proprius”, meaning “one’s own”.
• There exists a type of bacteria, called magnetotactic bacteria, that build magnets inside themselves in order to orient themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field.  They also migrate and form chains of themselves along magnetic field lines.
• Many avian life forms posses a region of their bodies that contain a biological magnetite, generally in their beaks.  It is believed this gives them a strong magnetoception and thus allows them to sense direction accurately.  More recently, it has been shown that certain birds have the ability to see magnetic fields.  How this works is the Earth’s magnetic field effects how long a certain molecule, cryptochrome, in their photoreceptor cells stays in the active state.  This then affects the light sensitivity of the bird’s retinal neurons.  The net effect is the birds can perceive magnetic fields with their eyes.   The biological magnate and ability to perceive magnetic fields with their eyes are thought to combine to form a very accurate mapping and directional system in the birds.
• Sharks, stringrays, and chimeara all possess an electroreceptive organ called an ampullae of Lorenzini.  This organ gives them the ability to detect even small variations in electric potential.  They can use this to detect magnetic fields, among other things.
• Cattle tend to align themselves north-south, which leads some researchers to believe they have a strong magnetoception sense.
• Some people experience something called synesthesia where they may perceive some sound and think of it as a color.  So a dog barking may be “red” to them or the like.  This condition does not generally occur naturally, though it can; it usually manifests itself when people are under the influence of hallucinogens.

The History of French Fries

Exactly who introduced these golden strips of goodness to the world isn’t entirely known.  Among the various theories, it’s generally accepted that the French fry was invented by either the Belgians or the French.
Potatoes were first introduced to Europe not through the French or Belgians, but through the Spanish.  In 1537, Jimenez de Quesada and his Spanish forces encountered a village in Colombia where all the natives had fled.  Among other things, they found in the native’s food stuffs potatoes, which the Spanish initially called “truffles”.
Around 20 years later, potatoes were brought back to Spain and also introduced to Italy.  At this time, the potatoes were still quite small and bitter and didn’t grow well in either Spain or Italy.  However, over time, larger and less bitter versions of the plant were cultivated and the plant gradually caught on elsewhere in Europe, though it was initially met with quite a bit of resistance (for more on that, see the bonus facts at the bottom).
In any event, historical accounts indicate that the Belgians were possibly frying up thin strips of potatoes as early as the late 17th century (though some claim it wasn’t until the late 18th century) in the Meuse Valley between Dinant and Liège, in Belgium.  How they supposedly came up with the idea was that, in this area, it was very common for the people to fry up small fish as a staple for their meals.  However, when the rivers froze up thick enough, it tended to make it somewhat difficult to get fish.  So instead of frying up fish in these times, they would cut up potatoes in long thin slices, and fry them up as they did the fish.
Giving some credence to this story is that the Spanish controlled much of what is now modern day Belgium at the time the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe.  So, at least, the Belgians probably were among the first to have a crack at the potato, in terms of thinking up ways to prepare food from potatoes.
Now to the French argument: the popularity of the potato in France is largely credited to a French army medical officer named Antoine-Augustine Parmentier, who very famously championed the potato throughout France and parts of Europe. During the Seven Years War, Parmentier was taken captive and, as a part of his prison rations, was given potatoes.
At this time, the French had previously used potatoes only for hog feed and never ate them.  The reason being that they thought potatoes caused various diseases.  In fact, in 1748, the French Parliament even banned cultivation of potatoes as they were convinced potatoes caused leprosy.  However, while in prison in Prussia, Parmentier was forced to cultivate and eat potatoes and found the French notions about the potato just weren’t true.
When he came back to France, Parmentier began championing the potato as a potential food source.  Finally, in 1772, the Paris Faculty of Medicine proclaimed that potatoes were edible for humans, though Parmentier still encountered significant resistance and wasn’t even allowed to grow potatoes in his garden at the Invalides hospital where he worked as a pharmacist.
Parmentier then began a more aggressive campaign to promote the potato in France, hosting dinners featuring potatoes with such notable dignitaries as Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier, King Louis XVI, and Queen Marie Antoinette.  He also would hire armed guards to surround his potato patch, to try to convince people that what was in the patch was very valuable.  He would then tell the guards to accept any bribes they were offered by people and let them “steal” the potatoes.  In the end though, it took a famine in 1785 for the potato to become popular in France.
Once the French accepted the potato though, its popularity skyrocketed in France. By 1795, potatoes were being grown on a very large scale in France, including at the royal gardens at Tuileries, where the gardens were converted into potato fields.  Within that span of time, the French either invented or learned to make fries.  Once discovered/invented French fries became extremely popular in France, particularly in Paris, where they were sold by push-cart vendors on the streets and called “frites”.
Now, it should be noted that this all happened in the late 18th century, which was as much as 100 years after some people say the Belgians were supposedly already making “French” fries. But by other arguments, this all happened around the same time for both the French and the Belgians. So who knows?
It should also be noted that, shortly before the potato became popular in France, the Franco-Austrian war was going on (also known as the War of Austrian Succession), much of which took place around modern day Belgium.  So it’s possible that the French soldiers were introduced to fries by the Belgians at this time and, a couple decades later when the potato became popular in France, these former soldiers then introduced the preparation method to the rest of France.  Or it’s possible the French came up with the idea on their own and spread them to Belgium around the same time; or that both came up with the idea independently.
Whatever the case, it was the French who seem to be the ones that spread fries to America and Britain and it, in turn, was the Americans, through fast food chains, that eventually popularly introduced them to the rest of the non-European world as “French fries”.  Ironically, because of this latter spread by American fast food chains, in many parts of the non-European world, “French fries” are more often than not known as “American fries”.
Bonus Facts:

• While the Belgians may or may not have invented the French fry, today, they do consume the most French fries per capita of any country in Europe.
• In most of the English speaking world, thin cut and thick cut fries are called two different things, fries and chips, respectively.  In North America, it is typical  to simply call them all French fries and, when they are distinguished, it is usually just by adding an adjective, rather than using a completely different word: i.e. steak fries (chips), French fries, curly fries, etc.
• In 1802, Thomas Jefferson had the White House chef, Frenchman Honoré Julien, prepare “potatoes served in the French manner” for a dinner party.  He described these as “Potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings”.  (French fries at a White House state dinner….  classy.)  This is one of the earliest references to fried potato strips being referred to as “French”.
• Steak fries, or chips, actually tend to have lower fat content than normal French fries, due to the lower surface to volume ratio.
• Burger King’s French fries (and probably McDonald’s too) are sprayed with a sugar solution just before being packaged and shipped to the various franchise locations.  This produces the golden color through caramelization of the sugar when it is fried.  Without this, the fries would end up having about the same outside color as inside after being fried.
• McDonalds is known to fry their fries twice, the combined time taking about 15 to 20 minutes.  Once for cooking the insides and once for making them extra crispy on the outside.
• Popular condiments to dip French fries in varies quite a bit from country to country.  In America, ketchup is typically the dip of choice for French fries.  In certain parts of Europe, mayonnaise is king.  The British tend to favor malt vinegar for dipping their fries.  The French themselves tend to just eat the fries straight as often as not.  I personally prefer Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing with highly salted French fries.
• Belgians, who are the world’s connoisseurs when it comes to French fries, occasionally will serve French fries with egg as a topping.  The raw egg is cracked over the French fries immediately after the fries have been pulled from the fryer.  This tends to mostly cook the egg, but leaves the yoke somewhat runny for dipping the fries in.
• Cultivation of potatoes is thought to have started around the same time as the start of the Common Era, around 2000 years ago in Peru and Bolivia.  It gradually spread from there throughout South America. These early forms of the plant were fairly bitter and tuber-like.
• The word “potato” comes from the Haitian word “batata”, which was their name for a sweet potato.  This later came to Spanish as “patata” and eventually into English as “potato”.
• The slang term for potato, “spud”, comes from the spade-like tool that is used to harvest the potatoes.
• When the potato was first introduced to Ireland and Scotland, it was met with quite a bit of resistance from Protestants there, due to the fact that the potato wasn’t mention anywhere in the Bible; thus, it wasn’t clear whether it was acceptable to eat, so they refused to plant them at first.  The Catholics, on the other hand, chose to sprinkle them with holy water before planting, thus making them acceptable to plant and eat.
• Potatoes also met with resistance when first introduced to Europe as a whole, due to the fact that the Europeans were convinced potatoes caused a variety of diseases and were also thought to be poisonous.  Tomatoes also were thought to be poisonous by many, when first introduced to Europe from the new world.
• Parmentier not only championed the potato, but he also was responsible for the first mandatory smallpox vaccination in France in 1805, when he was the Inspector-General of the Health Service under Napoleon.
• Parmentier was also the one who invented the French dish, Hachis Parmentier, a variation of which is also sometimes called “Shepperd’s Pie”.  Hachis Parmentier is basically ground beef topped with mashed potatoes and cheese.  Variations on this dish include adding gravy, corn, or other vegetables.
• In addition to the above, Parmentier also founded a school of bread making; was a pioneer in methods for extracting sugar from sugar beets; and heavily researched food preservation methods, including refrigeration.
• During the 19th century, Ireland was almost completely dependent on the potato as the primary food source for most of its citizens.  This lead to the catastrophic potato famine of the 1840s when a certain strain of fungus almost completely wiped out the potato in Ireland.
• “To French”, in cooking, now commonly refers to cutting any food into long thin strips.  The origins of this phrase comes from the late 19th century, so well after the term “French fried potato” was common.
• The French term “frite”, for fries, indicates deep frying, whereas, in English, “fried” could mean deep frying, sautéing, or pan-frying.  Probably for this reason, “French fried”, has come to mean “deep-fried” in English, regardless of what is being fried.
• According to many of the “Belgian origin” supporters, French fries are called French fries because, during WWI, American soldiers were introduced to fries by the Belgians.  At the time, the Belgian Army spoke French.  The fries were called “Les frites” (which is French) by the Belgians and so the American soldiers took to calling them “French fries”.  This theory is incorrect, for a couple of reasons. First, as mentioned, in the 1800s, Thomas Jefferson referred to fried potato strips as “frying potatoes in the French manner”. In addition to this, there is an American cookbook from the 1850s that specifically uses the term “French Fried Potatoes” to describe French fries; there are also numerous other references to “French Fried Potatoes” from the 1850s on, in the United States; these all obviously pre-date WWI.
• Between the 1850s and 1930s, French fries were known more illustratively as “French fried potatoes” in America.  Around the 1930s, everybody dropped the “potatoes” on the end and just called them French fries.

Our Real National Treasure: The Declaration of Independence (the front side

Many Americans have viewed the recent film, National Treasure, wherein some sought a treasure-room filled with gold and silver artifacts left intact from the early days of our nation. It was supposedly only to be found by interpreting the invisible codes inscribed on the back side of the Declaration of Independence.

While such a movie is entertaining, one who is acquainted with the real works of the Founders cannot help but exclaim: Our real national treasure is on the front side. It is in plain view. It is as clear as words can be. It contains concepts and principles which were defended and preserved by brave men and women who gave their lives and their fortunes-more than any roomful of metallic treasures. And what’s more, the truths contained therein are not hidden or encoded. They are there for all to read and ponder. They are timeless truths which the writers called self-evident and endowed by the Creator. They form the very foundation of all our liberties. They are the real treasures that good men and women have yearned to have throughout the history of the world. If men were to be half as anxious to rediscover these national treasures, America would fulfill the dream of the Founders to be a light to the world and a city set on a hill.

John Adams Independence Day Prediction

Because of what these principles would do for future Americans and the world, one of the committee members assigned to write the document, John Adams, later penned this prophetic insight about how future generations would honor this document:

"I am apt to believe that it [Independence Day] will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore."

As we approach another July 4th celebration, it seems an appropriate time, as we have done in the past, to review the principles of liberty, the basic beliefs, and the principles of independence which are contained in this marvelous document of freedom. Surely, if Americans really knew and held to what was contained in the Declaration of Independence, it would be held up reverently as our most priceless National Treasure.

The Declaration of Independence Part of American Law

Professor John Eidsmoe writes:

"The role of the Declaration of Independence in American law is often misconstrued. Some believe the Declaration is simply a statement of ideas that has no legal force whatsoever today. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Declaration has been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the fundamental law of the United States of America.

"The United States Code Annotated includes the Declaration of Independence under the heading 'The Organic Laws of the United States of America' along with the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Northwest Ordinance. Enabling acts frequently require states to adhere to the principles of the Declaration; in the Enabling Act of June 16, 1906, Congress authorized Oklahoma Territory to take steps to become a state. Section 3 provides that the Oklahoma Constitution 'shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence.' (Christianity and the Constitution, pp. 360-361)

Jefferson had already studied the "Ancient Principles"

Dr. Skousen tells us of the scholarly work Jefferson had done prior to writing the Declaration as though in preparation for it.

"While studying the history of ancient Israel, Jefferson made a significant discovery. He saw that at one time the Israelites had practiced the earliest and most efficient form of representative government. As long as the Israelites followed their fixed pattern of constitutional principles, they flourished. When they drifted from it, disaster overtook them. Jefferson thereafter referred to this constitutional pattern as the 'ancient principles.'

"Jefferson was also surprised to find that the Anglo-Saxons somehow got hold of some of these 'ancient principles' and followed a pattern almost identical to that of the Israelites, until around the eighth century AD. It is interesting that when Jefferson was writing his drafts for the Virginia constitution he was already emphasizing the need to return to the 'ancient principles.'" (The Making of America, pp. 27-28)

The Writing of the Declaration of Independence

We recall that the Declaration begins with two paragraphs, followed by a long list of grievances and charges against King George, then is concluded by one paragraph followed by the signatures. Altogether it took Jefferson seventeen days to complete the assignment. Actually the list of charges takes up most of the space but probably took Jefferson only one day to write it. This is because he had already drafted the charges in a document he had previously composed so it was only a matter of copying them. This leaves sixteen days to write the two first paragraphs and an ending one! Some of our students have asked why it would take him that long to write a few paragraphs. It appears that he spent most of the time trying to structure into the first paragraphs some of the "ancient principles" which he had come to admire.

Identifying the "Ancient Principles"

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

By adopting this Declaration, the Founders were saying there are certain facts that are so obvious they don't need further proof or even any further discussion. This would certainly surprise some in academic circles today who love to philosophize for endless hours about the existence of a Creator, the equality of man, and the endowment of rights by the Creator. Here is the declaration in American law of the simple, fundamental belief in a Supreme Creator! And, they said, this is the only basis for sound government!

“…all men are created equal…”

If we believe in a Supreme Creator and that He created us, then we must be His children and we must all be brothers and sisters. As such, no one has an inherent right to rule over any one else. This is a our personal declaration of independence not only from the King of England but also from our own fellow citizens who might attempt to force control upon us in the form of regulation or licensing. Why should I need to gain my neighbor's permission (or his agent, the government's permission) in order to go into a particular business or occupation? Anytime we set up someone to give permission to another, we have basically said we are unequal. Of course, this does not preclude having rules in society for the enjoyment of jointly owned property such as roads, public buildings, etc.

This phrase presupposes, as a self-evident truth, that the Creator made human beings equal in their rights, equal before the bar of justice, and equal in his sight. Of course, individual attributes and personal circumstances in life vary widely. Is there room here for classes of people, each with certain rights? No. When we begin to classify people, as rulers and dictators must always do for control, we deny the very equality we claim to have.

“…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

These are the three great natural rights of all mankind. An unalienable right is one which was given by the Creator and cannot be taken away by man. If man does violate these rights or take them from us, the offender will surely come under the judgment and wrath of the Creator because it interferes with the Creator's plan of happiness for His children. It is interesting to note that the Creator requires government, which is set up to protect man's rights, to punish individuals who attempt to take another's rights from him. The punishment always involves one or more of these three unalienable rights: life (capital punishment), liberty (confinement), or pursuit of happiness (taking property in the form of fines)

Because we have combined our resources into communities and states, we have also had to make certain rules for the orderly operation and use of these jointly owned facilities (roads, parks, utilities, courts, etc.) The rights to use these things are called vested rights because they do not come from the Creator and can be changed by the people. Vested rights are created to protect the three great unalienable rights of the people.

“….That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The purpose of government is to protect the rights of the people. When people join together to hire a policemen or a fireman, they have created government. But where does a policeman get his authority? From the only place where all authority is - from the people themselves. It is interesting to note that there is only authority in individuals not in groups. Groups are only empowered as individuals come together into groups and delegate to the group some of their authority. Even then, groups of people in cities or states or nations can only do what individuals can do. This is an idea which is seldom understood. Somehow most Americans have the idea that groups take on additional authority just because they are a group. All we have to ask is, "From where does the additional authority come?" If an act is wrong for an individual to do it (like taking money from one person and giving it to another) then it is wrong for two people to do it or for a whole community or nation to do it.

If we could just get our legislatures to understand and agree to abide by just this one principle, our legislative sessions would be cut to just a few weeks and the American people would be spared the burden of hundreds of new laws each year.

Another interesting part of this ancient principle is that no agency of government has any right to exist except with the consent of the people. The people have consented to what is written in the Constitution, but where in the Constitution (or the plan of government) have the people given permission for the hundreds of offices of government which are overwhelming our people? It is true that Congress has created them, but where did Congress get the authority from the people? We must answer - nowhere.

“...That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Here is the wish of billions of people since man began to be on this earth!--To be able to peacefully change a repressive government and to replace it with one that will work according to the wishes of the governed. Peaceful self-repair! Even the Founders didn't have that.

Just think of it. Every two years we can change every legislator in nearly every state in this union! Every two years we can change the whole House of Representatives in Washington! We can change one-third of the Senate! Every four years we can change the president and most governors in the land and another one-third of the Senate! We have the system in place which most people have just dreamed about. It takes no riots, no rebellions, no assassinations, no battles. We just have to want it badly enough!

A few have used the Founders' example as justification for suggesting we take up arms and use force to bring about change. They say, "But the Founders were in a minority and they used force to bring about change." The Founders held closely to the principle that only a majority of the people have authority to change the government. So they waited until they had a majority - it actually turned our to be unanimous among the states.

Acceptance of the Declaration of Independence is Acceptance of God as Our King

The true spirit of the Declaration is the spirit of liberty. It severs all ties to any earthly authority, except those whom the people choose for the protection of their unalienable rights. The Declaration of Independence is a declaration of individual liberty. It is a declaration of our individual belief that God is our one and only King.

When we reject the Declaration or let it fall into oblivion by our ignorance of it, it seems we are putting ourselves into the same position ancient Israel did when the people asked for a king. In other words, we willingly give up our independence. Samuel was the last great judge of Israel. The Israelites seemed to fall for the one-world philosophy and began to ask for a king so they could be like their neighbors. Samuel pleaded with them to stay free and independent of the rest of the world and of a king, but they refused to listen. When he went to the Lord, Samuel was told, "they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." (1 Samuel 8:7)

Benjamin Franklin described the plight of ancient Israel, which is the fate America seems to be experiencing as we reject the freedom saving principles of our precious Declaration of Independence. Said he: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." In other words, they lose their independence.

With all our celebrations this Fourth of July, perhaps we can take a few minutes with our families and friends and review our real national treasure contained on the front side of the Declaration of Independence.

Top 12 Unsolved Mysteries of the World

The world is full of unsolved mysteries, but there are some that stand above others. So intriguing, perplexing and unexplainable, these 12 unsolved mysteries of the world continue to confound experts, conspiracy theorists and casual observers alike.

1

Nazca Lines

On an isolated, arid plateau in southern Peru, the wind almost never blows. In this place, around the year 400 to 650 AD, the people of the Nazca culture began to remove the red stones covering the ground, leaving the white earth beneath visible. The art they created is phenomenal. Whilst some of the designs are simple lines, over 70 of the “Nazca lines” are detailed animals such as llamas, monkeys, fish or birds, with the largest designs over 200 m across. How did a primitive civilization achieve such precision artwork on such a grand scale, when they had no way of viewing their accomplishments from the air?

2

Beale Ciphers

There is a legend that in the 1820’s, someone buried in Bedford County, Virginia, a treasure worth over $63 million dollars. The legend originates from a series of three ciphertexts that Thomas Beale entrusted to a friend before disappearing and never to be seen again. The first ciphertext has never been solved, but it is purported to contain the location of the treasure, whilst the second which has been solved details the contents of the treasure. The third ciphertext, also unsolved, supposedly lists the names of the treasures owners as well as their next of kin. Perhaps you can challenge this one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the world and see if that is really a treasure.

3

Mary Celeste

On December 5^th, 1872, the Mary Celeste, a British merchant ship, was found adrift in the Atlantic Ocean with all passengers and crew missing. The ship contained no sign of a struggle, had plenty of food and water, was still seaworthy and contained an almost untouched cargo. The only anomaly was that a single lifeboat was missing. Despite a lengthy investigation, none of the passengers or crew were ever seen or heard from again and this great unsolved maritime mystery led to theories of water spouts, piracy, deadly fumes and underwater earthquakes.

4

Jack the Ripper

In 1888, in the impoverished area of Whitechapel, London, a sadistic serial killer began to murder prostitutes. Whilst it was not unusual for street walkers in this particular part of town to “disappear”, the gruesome mutilations carried out on the bodies, as well as sensational letters sent to the local press from “Jack the Ripper”, caused widespread panic throughout the city. The fact that the murders were never solved led to countless conspiracy theories as to who was “The Ripper”, with suspects including a barrister, a convicted wife killer, a doctor and an agent of the Russian secret police. But it’s still unknown that who is exactly guilty for the series of murders.

5

Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the world, a section of ocean in the western North Atlantic where ships and aircrafts have disappeared under deeply suspicious circumstances. Included in this list is the infamous “Flight 19”, a group of 5 bombers who went on a routine training exercise in 1945 and never returned, as well as the search and rescue plane that went looking for them the same day. There is also the case of the USSCyclops, a US Navy boat that disappeared in 1918 with all 309 crew on board as well as the Connemara IV, a pleasure yacht, found adrift in 1955 with all the crew missing.

6

The Loch Ness Monster

This is another world wide famous unsolved mystery of the world. On December 6, 1933, the Daily Express published a photo of a “monster” that was apparently lurking in Scotland’s Loch Ness. Since that time there have been police investigations, scientific studies, calls of a hoax and countless reported sightings of a “creature” swimming within the dark waters of the Loch. Described as having a long serpentine neck, “Nessie” (as she is affectionately known by locals) is theorized to be the last in a long line of surviving plesiosaurs, but no solid evidence to verify this has ever been uncovered.

7

The Zodiac Letters

Many of the unsolved mysteries of the world are actually murder mysteries with one of the most infamous cases being that of the "Zodiac Killer". A serial killer operating in California in the 1960’s and 70’s, he sent a series of taunting letters to the local press, referring to himself as “Zodiac” and including a total of four crytograms. In the decades since, only one of these ciphers has ever been decoded. Numerous suspects have been investigated, but despite the enormous man hours that went into the investigation, both the murders and the letters remain unsolved.

8

Kryptos

On November 3, 1990, a new sculpture was dedicated on the grounds of the CIA in Langley, Virginia. The sculpture was composed of four encrypted messages and entitles “Kryptos” by its creator, Jim Sanborn. In the 25 years since its dedication, three of these encrypted messages have been deciphered, but the fourth remains a mystery. Now known as one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world, the “Kryptos” is a fascinating lure for both amateur and professional cryptanalysts who, despite several clues from the sculptor, have been unable to crack the code.

9

Taos Hum

In the early 1990’s, in the small town of Taos in New Mexico, numerous residents began to claim they could hear a droning whir, humming or buzzing sound. Research conducted by a professor at the University of New Mexico found that as many as 2% of the population could hear the noise, but further research could not determine what the noise was. Sensitive equipment was set up in numerous areas of the town to try and reveal the source of this “hum”, but despite the expensive scientific paraphernalia, no unusual sounds were ever recorded, leaving the Taos Hum as one of the unsolved mysteries of the world.

10

Area 51

Officially, Area 51 is a remote facility used by the United States Air Force. Unofficially, it is a hotbed of rumors and conspiracy theories, mostly relating to UFO sightings. The remote location in Nevada, coupled with its intense level of secrecy (all research relating to Area 51 has been classified “Top Secret”) and its close proximity to the “Extraterrestrial Highway” (location of countless UFO sightings) have all combined to make the public deeply suspicious of what really goes on behind the gates of Area 51.

11

Big Foot

Also known as the “Sasquatch”, Big Foot is reported to be a half human/half ape creature that resides in the forests of northwest North America. Described as large (over 2 m tall), hairy and weighing over 200 kgs, Big Foot was known as “Ts’emekwes” by the native Lummi population, long before modern accounts of his existence began to circulate. Although discounted as a myth by most scientists, there have been countless reported sighting of gigantic footprints, roars in the night and fuzzy photographs showing giant beast like creatures.

12

Big Cats in Australia

The last one of the unsolved mysteries of the world in our list is the big cats in Australia. For the last 100 years, there have been semi-regular sightings of what appear to be exotic big cats roaming the bush in Australia. Theories as to how they got there include stories of circus train crashes, US Airmen keeping them as mascots during WWII then releasing them into the wild, as well as feral domestic cats growing to unheard of proportions out in the bush. The most famous is the “Gippsland Phantom Cat”, which was shot by a local hunter in 2005. Although DNA testing confirmed it was a feral cat, the creature was verified as being the size of a panther.

Airplane passenger takes pictures of 'UFO'

A passenger captured the images during a flight from California to Texas
Claims he saw 'blinding light' near Luning and Gabbs in the Nevada desert 
Unnamed man said he saw a disc on the ground near Area 51 military base 
Sceptics say suggested a simple explanation for the bizarre sighting 

An airline passenger claims to have captured images of a UFO giving off 'bright lights and orbs' on the ground near the top-secret Area 51 military base.

The witness was on an American Airlines flight from San Jose, California to Houston, Texas, when he took a series of pictures of a giant metallic disc in the Nevada desert.

He said the plane was flying near Luning and Gabbs on October 30 when he noticed 'blinding bright light' in the desert below.

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An airline passenger claims to have captured these images of a UFO giving off 'bright lights and orbs' on the ground near the top-secret Area 51 military base

The witness was on an American Airlines flight from San Jose, California to Houston, Texas, when he took six pictures of a giant metallic disc in the Nevada desert

The unnamed man reported his sighting to the Mutual UFO Network which investigates UFO sightings in the US.

But all may not be as it seems with some pointing out that it could actually be a giant solar farm near the site.

He told the organisation: ‘I was on an American Airlines flight from San Jose, Ca to Houston, TX on October 30, 2015 when I noticed a blinding bright light in the desert near Luning and Gabbs, NV.

‘I saw a large silver disc that appeared to be in the middle of the desert. This disc was shooting orb like lights into the air. 

'The disc itself had multiple lights that were blinding to the eyes. I pulled out my phone and took pictures until my phone died.

‘No other passengers seem to notice the disc or comment on it. Upon my return home; I asked multiple Air Force employees if they have ever seen anything like this and all replied never. Initially I thought it was a satellite but now leave it up to your interpretation. What the hell did I witness?’ 

The unnamed man said the plane was flying near Luning and Gabbs on October 30 when he noticed 'blinding bright light' in the desert that was 'shooting orb like lights' into the sky

The witness said neither the captain nor fellow passengers said anything and the plane carried on until the disc was out of sight

The United States government only acknowledged the existence of the off-limits military base in the southern Nevada desert for the first time in 2013

Some have pointed out that the UFO may in fact have been the giant Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (pictured) in the Nevada desert

He said neither the captain nor fellow passengers said anything and the plane carried on until the disc was out of sight.  

The United States government only acknowledged the existence of the off-limits military base in the southern Nevada desert for the first time in 2013.

Scott C Waring, editor of UFO Sightings Daily is quoted by the Express as saying: 'This disc formation on the ground does have the appearance of a landed UFO on the ground.

'Gabby is about 140 miles south west of Area 51. The person caught a cloaked (hidden) UFO in the area. The metallic of the UFO is partly exposed and I'm sure it wasn't for long.

'This UFO is partly cloaked to look like the surrounding area. Some cloaks make UFOs appear as clouds, others invisible, this one...is trying to blend in with the surroundings.'

The Mutual UFO Network has reportedly classified the sighting as 'unresolved'.

9 Popular Theories Solving the Mystery of Bermuda Triangle

It depends on whose views you are reading whether there is something fishy or not. Though there are some weird indications that had been seen by victims like storms, compass failure, hurricanes, lack of radio on board, and structural weakness. And due to these theories Bermuda triangle has several names like "Devil's Triangle" or "Isle of devils".
Popular Theories solving the mystery of Bermuda Triangle
It is claimed that more than 50 ships and 20 planes have disappeared in the Bermuda triangle within the last century and around 1000 in the past 500 years. It is still a mystery, where these aircrafts and water crafts disappeared. What actually happened with all? There is not a single theory which can explain all these disappearances. Several theories have given by many people, but not a single theory is universally accepted as the real cause of such incidents. Some of the most popular theories are given here


1. Methane Gas Theory

The methane gas theory was given in 1998 by Dr. Ben Clennell of Leads University, England. He stated that large amount of methane gas releases due to landslides under the water floors of ocean. And because of these landslides, related area gets converted into very low water density due to which the water crafts sink. And because of the high inflammable quality it is also explosive which may cause aircrafts to catch fire.
Many studies have been done on this subsequently and it has been found that there is large amount of methane hydrates in ocean in frozen condition at below zero temperature. And large amount of methane gas releases as the result of decomposition of these hydrates. Because of methane, water heats up which causes water crafts to sink due to less float-ability. The air-crafts also crash as methane causes saturated air atmosphere to get stormy.
Even this theory could not clearly define and justify the disappearance of water-crafts and air-crafts because methane reserves are situated at a big distance from Bermuda triangle but there not even a single case like this has happened. And for any ship to sink, it takes time, therefore meanwhile any message could be sent.


2. Gulf Stream

Gulf stream is nothing but the ocean current which originates in the gulf of Mexico and passes through Bermuda triangle via straits of Florida, North Atlantic. It forms itself like a river in a ocean that can easily waft the floating objects like ships and other water-crafts with it. And even an aircraft which is flying near the water level can be affected.


3. Compass Variation

The magnetic north and absolute geographical north has a variation. It means the north which is shown by a compass is not actual north which is North Pole. This variation is approx 1500 miles. If we keep follow the compass shown north, then we will be reaching Prince of Wales Island of Canada, which is about 1,500 miles away from the North Pole. It shows a 20-degree variation. So ships and other water-crafts make an adjustment to get the right direction. But in Bermuda triangle there is a place where these two become same. It means compass shows the direction as north is actual North Pole. And this compass variation causes a big problem to determine the actual direction which leads to an accident.
This theory was also unable to define the mystery of Bermuda Triangle completely, because there were many pilots and captains who were having in-depth knowledge of atmospheric conditions, directions and compass variation, even then they were trapped in Bermuda Triangle.


4. Electronic Fog: A Hutchison Effect

This theory was given by a Canadian scientist John Hutchison, who demonstrated an electromagnetic fog in his laboratory in 1979. He demonstrated it when different electromagnetic waves interplay with each-other. Which leads to some strange happening like objects rise in air, water swirling in a cup or some objects shooting in a high speed.
Electromagnetic field is generated by metallic wire's coils. When a current is passed through these wires, it generates electromagnetic current or field and this is called electromagnetism. Hutchison demonstrated this strange behavior of objects in electromagnetic field more than 750 times and proved that it is due to interplay of electromagnetic field. And said a strange brown colored fog is formed which leads to such occurrences.
Although this effect has been proven but still there is no exact prediction when it will occur, because in 99 percentage cases it didn't happen at all.


5. The Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is located in North Atlantic which is 700 miles wide and 2000 miles long and has no shores. It is bounded by sea currents from all sides. This whole area is covered by long dense seaweeds on its surface which looks like a mat. Its name is Sargassum by which the ocean name is also derived from.
Bermuda is located on its western fringes. There are lots of mysterious incidents have been happening in this area since long time. In many cases the ships which were lost, were found floating here without a single soul on it. Many ships were lost while traveling from here and reappeared without any person.


6. Strange Weather & Hurricanes

Lots of storms are raised in Bermuda Triangle very often and very quickly. These storms are so quick that even a satellite doesn't predict such storms. And if a ship is moving through that area, there is always a chance to sink.
Hurricanes are also very powerful storms which rise from South Eastern Atlantic and pass through the Bermuda triangle. These hurricanes also cause loss and extreme damage in that particular area. Mostly these originate in the months of June to November.


7. Human Errors

Human errors also could not be neglected for such accidents. As Bermuda Triangle area is very vast and has lots of identical islands. So it is very often that they move towards wrong direction. And after realizing the errors, it is quite late to return and refuel the ship because after covering such a long way, ship runs out of fuel.


8. Supernatural Theories

There are several stories related to Bermuda Triangle. The most popular story is the lost city of Atlantis. Some people believe that there used to be a city named Atlantis which is now under water. There are rock formations near Biminis Island near the Bahamas. These rock formations are well arranged and look like manmade road and walls. They say that Atlantis is dependent upon a powerful energy crystal which produces large amount of energy and navigates the ships near to the area. And sometimes it destroys them because of excess amount of energy.
Some other supernatural stories are related to aliens. People believe that ships and aircrafts are trapped by aliens, who often come there by UFOs. But it still remains to be proved.


9. Skeptics Theory

Like every other controversial topic, Bermuda Triangle also debated by some other views. Critics believe that there is nothing uncommon here. It is a vast area and the main area to connect the Europe, Caribbean Islands & US Coast. They say that authors wrote many fake and imaginary stories to get easy publicity and media supports them because such kinds of books are highly demanded in the market. As this area is very much affected by Hurricanes, it is very common to meet with such accidents.

The True Story Series 1

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean is a phenomenon. All four films have been huge hits - the third in the series is now the third top grossing movie of all time. They tell the story of a group of pirates on board the ship the Black Pearl.
Many of the story lines are pure fiction, but the characters themselves are based on the real-life pirates who sailed the seas around the Caribbean at the time the movie is set. Barbossa was based on the fearsome Blackbeard and James Norrington was based on the dandy Henry Morgan.
The recent excavation of the underwater wreck of Blackbeard’s ship, the inspiration for the Black Pearl, reveals just what an impressive war machine it was.  And newly discovered secret coves reveal just how strategic the pirates were in their maritime attacks.
What remains unexplained is the secret of their huge success.

The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October, starring Sir Sean Connery, tells the seemingly-incredible story of a Russian submarine captain who attempts to defect to the West. In fact, the Tom Clancy blockbuster on which the film is based, was inspired by an extraordinary real-life incident during the Cold War.
The True Story recreates that thrilling real story, in which idealistic political officer Valery Sablin started a 1975 mutiny on The Storozhevoy, or Sentry, one of the Soviet Union’s state of the art Krivak class destroyers. He and his crew headed out into the Baltic Sea in a bid to start a second people’s revolution. Terrified that Sablin was defecting to the West with a ship full of secrets, the Brezhnev regime mobilized Air Force bombers and Navy warships to try to stop it in.
Using interviews with sailors and officers on the ship and her Soviet military pursuers, we investigate this amazing high-stakes chase across the Baltic, culminating in an air attack. We also reveal the actual radar footage of the incident, which was recorded on Swedish radar but kept secret for many years.

Gladiator

Gladiator tells the story of an accomplished General, Maximus. who is unexpectedly handed the Emperorship of Rome by the outgoing dying emperor - instead of the Emperor’s own son, Commodus. Maximus escapes being murdered by Commodus, is found half-dead by some slave-traders who sell him to a gladiator trainer. He is a natural fighter, and finds his way to the Coliseum, where he wows the crowds, culminating in gladiatorial combat with his arch nemesis Commodus, where both men fight to the death.
This documentary reveals that so many of the characters from the movie are based on real-life individuals from history: the dying Emperor; the vicious Commodus; his seductive sister Lucilla. And an archaeological investigation in Rome revealed a perfectly preserved tomb of the man believed to be the inspiration for Maximus himself.
Using extensive location filming, forensic science, leading  experts and drama recon, we tell the remarkable real story behind Gladiator.

Jaws

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is one of the most successful movies of all time. According to the author of the novel behind the movie, the story is based on a spate of shark attacks off the cost of New Jersey in 1916, which left four people dead. The savageness of the attacks dramatically altered the scientific view of Great Whites. And Jaws cemented their reputation as terrifying man-eaters.
More recently however, new evidence shows that the Great White may have been unfairly blamed for the 1916 attacks.
This documentary conducts new scientific tests using handwritten descriptions of the wounds of the 1916 victims. And, returning to the scenes of the attacks, it explores whether a Great White could really have come so close to land, finally revealing the identity of the real culprit.

The Amityville Horror

On 13 November 1974, police discovered six members of the De Feo family shot dead; the father, mother and four of the five children, at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Attention turned to Ronald, the only child to survive the ordeal. He was soon declared guilty of the murders, his motivation supposedly being that he did not get on with his father and saw the killings as retribution for the years of hell his Dad had put him through.
After the trial, a newly wed couple in search of their dream home bought the house. But one month later their dream had turned into a nightmare. The couple fled from the house claiming it was possessed with demonic spirits. 
They organised for two psychics to enter the house and carry out a séance. The supposed ghosts they identified were those of Native American Indians. The piece of land where the house had been built had formerly been a place where sick and insane members of the tribe were isolated until they died.  This revelation became a national story. It wasn’t long before the book Amityville Horror shot to the top of the best seller list and a blockbuster movie followed.
This alone is an intriguing story. But the next chapter – not commonly known – is a remarkable twist. Two paranormal investigators weren’t satisfied with the published version of events, and began delving into the case. They eventually revealed that the hautings were an elaborate hoax – concocted as a money making con.
In this episode of The True Story, we meet the key people behind this amazing story.

Titanic

Titanic is one of the top grossing movies of all time. Apart from the love story, most of the background events are accurate – with great attention to detail.
But the culmination of a three year research project has revealed a new discovery.  Another ship steamed to within five miles of the stricken liner and could have saved all aboard. Instead, on the orders of its fearful captain, it turned back, leaving the passengers to drown. Survivors of the wreck recalled seeing a “mystery ship” which refused to come to their aid. For decades the wrong man, Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian, bore the blame.
Now, for the first time on television, we set the record straight, cross-referencing eye witness testimony from 1912, with Bob Ballard’s discovery of where the Titanic sank. We draw on archive footage, and present an astonishing voice recording that Captain Lord made in 1961, in which he reveals the identity of the man who abandoned the drowning passengers.

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park tells the story of billionaire John Hammond creating a theme park where the main attractions are dinosaurs. He invites Alan Grant, an eminent palaeontologist, and other scientists to the island to share his vision. They are in awe of what he has achieved, but things go wrong when there is a security breach and the dinosaurs escape. The visitors become the hunted as the dinosaurs pick off the visitors one by one. Finally, the remaining four survivors make a desperate escape from the island via helicopter.
This documentary reveals the science behind Jurassic Park is based on rigorous scientific research and that the key character at the centre of the film is inspired by a real life individual. The vision of how dinosaurs could be bought back to life has now been shown to be impossible. But this documentary will feature recent remarkable breakthroughs in biology that would allow dinosaurs to walk again. Using cutting edge evolutionary biology, scientists are getting closer to bringing the dinosaur back to life.
With extensive location filming, expert interviews, forensic science and drama recon we bring the real story of Jurassic Park to life.

Escape from Alcatraz

Alcatraz was the world’s most impregnable prison: insurmountable walls, one guard for every three prisoners, a gun gallery at the end of every cell block, frequent inmate counts, constant search lights and the freezing waters of San Francisco Bay. But three prisoners believed they could achieve the impossible.
The brains behind the escape bid was Frank Lee Morris, known to have a very impressive IQ (played in the movie by Clint Eastwood). From the moment he arrived in Alcrataz, he began plotting his escape. Two and a half years later, three prisoners removed the grids in the rear of their cells, carefully replacing them with papier-mâché replicas. After many manoeuvres the men scaled a 15-foot fence, and hurried down to the island shore where they inflated rafts and life vests and ventured out into the Bay waters.
Back at the cell house, during the routine morning count, a guard probed his club into one of the inmates' cells, and the dummy head rolled off the bed and onto the floor.  The alarm was raised. But despite the authorities’ strenuous efforts to track them down, none of the escapees have ever been found. For years the FBI continued to try to find them, but to no avail. So did the men escape?
Bits of raft, life preservers and wooden paddles were later found in the bay.
In this episode of The True Story, we use remnants of the raft, and the knowledge of what materials were available to the prisoners at the time to recreate their escape. Placing three men on board who would have been the same weight as the escapes, will the raft survive the choppy waters? Will the men make it ashore? Or will they have to admit defeat and be picked up by the support boat?
Amongst various key interviewees, we speak with a fellow inmate, Darwin Coon, who was in Alcatraz during the time of the escape and helped provide the materials for it. We also speak to the wardens who were foiled by the escape and the FBI agents who tried to tack down the prisoners.

Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones was inspired by the mysterious life of one man, Otto Rahn. Like his onscreen legend, Rahn had an unstinting desire to find ancient sacred relics, spending much of his life trying to locate the Holy Grail. He also possessed a love of ancient maps to help solve the mystery of where treasures were located and a spirit for intrepid adventure. In one instance, he found himself crawling through caves looking for the Holy Grail when he was hit by a torrent of water and nearly drowned, a scene later depicted in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.
Indeed, Rahn even had a complicated relationship with the Nazis, who were always breathing down his neck. Desperate to find the Holy Grail because they believed it would help their quest for world domination, Otto Rahn helped the Nazis as a strategic means to continue his search. But he was never a Nazi supporter, not least because he was a practicing homosexual.
Explore the story of Rahn’s remarkable life in this episode of The True Story. Using photographs, personal testimony, surviving records, recorded interviews, and reconstruction, we follow in the footsteps of the explorer in his quest for the Holy Grail.  We also try to solve the mystery of how Rahn died; Was he murdered by the Nazis? Was it suicide? Or simply natural causes?

James Bond

Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly was a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service. He was debonair, spoke many languages and was said to be as charismatic as he was brilliant. He was a compulsive womaniser (married four times – without ever divorcing); he loved the high-life, casinos, and fast cars. His missions took him, amongst other places, to Russia to help bring the Czar back to power after the Revolution, and to Japan where he was involved in smuggling secret documents. Sharing a mutual friend with Ian Flemming, he was to become the basis for James Bond.
Along with Sidney Reilly there are a number of other factors included in the films that have also been taken from real life. Many of the gadgets are based on new technology, some of which we have access to and will dust down and demonstrate. Some of the Bond Girls are also based on real people. Vesper Lynd, from Casino Royale, is believed to be based on Christine Granville, a real-life agent in the British Secret Service, who had an affair with Ian Flemming. Some of the villains are even inspired by reality. The real Scaramanga was two years below Fleming and was known to be an intimidating character.
Using photos, film footage, personal affects, dramatic reconstruction and clips from the Bond movies, we bring Reilly to life and reveal the origins of some of the key Bond girls and Bond villains.

Al Capone and The Untouchables

Al Capone and his Mafia chiefs ruled over Chicago for years through corruption and fear. If they had been allowed to continue, there was a distinct danger that the rot would have spread and spead. Drastic measures were therefore needed to defeat Capone and the Mafia. Many had tried and failed. But against all odds, ten men, who came to be known as the Untouchables, brought down the hitherto invincible Capone and his henchmen. So remarkable was this story that it has subsequently been immortalised in blockbuster movie of the same name, starring Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery.
The man given this unenviable task was Eliot Ness. Ness launched an attack on Capone’s stills. As his alcohol empire began to crumble, Capone became desperate. He tried to bribe Ness, and when unsuccessful, tried to bump him off by planting dynamite in his car. Eventually Ness outwitted Capone and he was found guilty of twenty one counts of tax evasion. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail.
The dramatised story of the Untouchables is similar to real life events. But there is one major error. The assumption throughout is that Al Capone was the main man. We reveal in this documentary, using Capone’s biographer, Laurence Bergreen, that Capone was not the true boss of Chicago Mafia. He was merely a front. The real power was a group known as the Outfit. They kept a deliberately low profile – and it was they who gave Capone his orders. Their insistence on anonymity meant that while Eliot Ness was in constant pursuit of Al Capone, they were free to run the Chicago underworld.
We interview surviving Mafia bosses about the role of Capone and the Outfit to demonstrate the nature of this relationship. We hear how the Outfit rewarded the Capone family generously, in return for their silence about the identity of the real power of the Chicago underworld. Using interviews, footage and dramatic reconstruction, we will tell the remarkable story of how Ness courted Al Capone, but how ultimately it was the Mafia who had the last laugh.

The Bourne Identity

Jason Bourne is the ultimate CIA operative, brainwashed into performing assassinations for a secret cell within the Agency. As far-fetched as it sounds, in this episode of The True Story, we reveal that many aspects of Robert Ludlum’s original books, and the subsequent Bourne movie franchise, are rooted in fact.
In a rare interview, Bourne Identity director Doug Liman describes how the Iran-Contra case, in which his father was the Chief Prosecutor, provided the real-life inspiration for the fictional secret cell ‘Treadstone’. He also reveals how his incredible meetings with a real assassin helped to create Bourne’s on-screen persona.
We also explore the bizarre, secret mind control programme called MK Ultra, aimed at creating a brainwashed ‘Manchurian Candidate’, and reveal the tragic story of a woman who claims she was drugged and given electric shock treatments in unsanctioned MK Ultra experiments. Finally, we explore the training in weapons, combat and advanced driving that the real-life Bournes of the Special Activities Division undergo today.

Casino

Explore the real-life battle between the Law and the Mob for control of Las Vegas that inspired Martin Scorsese’s classic movie Casino.
In the Seventies, the Mob illegally controlled nearly all the major Las Vegas casinos, making the city one of their largest sources of cash.
Now, we tell the true story of the most crucial chapter in the city’s history, when the authorities set out to end the criminal reign of terror by Mob enforcer Tony Spilotro - played by Joe Pesci in the film - and to close down the Mob’s Vegas operation. Members of the crack FBI team, some speaking for the first time, describe how they were sent in undercover to find evidence that the Mob was skimming a million dollars a month from the famous Stardust casino.
We reveal the wiretaps, the operation to catch Spilotro’s gang red-handed in a jewellery heist, and the unorthodox task one FBI agent was given - to lose thousands of US taxpayer dollars on the gaming tables…

Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs tells the story of a young ambitious FBI profiler Clarice Starling as she pursues the serial killer Buffalo Bill with the help of convicted psychopath Hannibal Lecter.
While researching the book on which the film was based, author Thomas Harris spent days with the FBI’s pioneering Behavioural Science Unit, questioning criminal profilers and immersed in the case-files of serial killers.
Now, we reveal the movie’s real-life inspirations: serial killer Ted Bundy who, like psychiatrist Lecter, evaded capture with his charming, young lawyer persona; Ed Gein, whose sickening crimes echo the movie exploits of Buffalo Bill; and a young female FBI agent who helped Harris create Agent Starling.
We also explore how Silence of the Lambs revolutionised the make-up of the profession, inspiring many women to become profilers, and reveal chilling footage of one such female entrant interviewing Gary Ridgway, considered America’s most prolific serial killer.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist was one of the most successful horror movies of all time, grossing almost half a billion dollars at the box office. It was based on a real-life exorcism in 1949 in Maryland, USA, in which a priest claimed to have exorcised a demon from a thirteen-year-old boy whose family reported poltergeist activity. The ordeal lasted almost four months, with various priests reporting that the boy spoke in Latin, claimed to be a demon, and displayed ‘superhuman’ strength.
Using the diary kept by one of the priests, we investigate the disturbing ordeal the young boy went through.
The documentary also explores the increase in exorcisms following the film’s release, using actual footage of a modern day exorcism, and explores the work of a leading neuroscientist who has used magnetic field technology to reproduce the sensation of ‘possession’ in normal people.