Month: April 2020

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Enjoy Lovely Photos Of A Belgian Forest Carpeted by Bluebell Flowers

There are many places in the world to be explored, marveled at, and adored. I’d never heard of Hallerbos (Halle Forest in Dutch), but after seeing these pictures, I definitely am putting it on my life for when I someday make it to Belgium.

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Point Me ↠ Travel Experience Hallerbos, Belgium . During spring ?and only for a few days it is possible to admire this floral blue carpet. The flowering of the bluebells makes the Halle Forest?very attractive to photographers and curious explorers. If you are in Belgium ??, drop by! . . . Durante la primavera ? e solamente per pochi giorni è possibile ammirare un floreale tappeto blu. La fioritura del Giacinto di bosco rende la foresta di Halle ? molto attraente a fotografi e curiosi esploratori. Se vi trovate in Belgio ?? fateci un salto! . #pointme#heart_imprint #planet_earth_shots #bestsunsets #sunsetgram #unlimitedsunset #earthescope#bluebells#hallerbos#halleforest#wearenature #igtones5k #earthspirit #visitbrussels #allaboutadventure #earthonlocation #thatpnwlife #lightroompresets #bruxellesmabelle#bxlove #worldshotz #theworldshotz #pixel_ig#wood#appreciatenature #globewanderer #nature_brilliance #belgium#instaflowers

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It looks like something straight out of a fairytale, with a dense carpet of bright bluebells, shady trees, and streaks of sunlight hitting the forest floor.

Bluebells thrive and bloom in the spring and early summer, announcing the end of winter in bright hues of blue and purple.

Hallerbos is not a well-kept secret in Belgium, and the forest attracts tourists and photographers by the truckload while the flowers are blooming.

My favorite images are definitely the ones taken on foggy mornings, when the woods look mysterious, ghostly, and downright otherworldly.

See what I mean?

Dense blooms of bluebells (and other flowers) on a forest floor usually indicates the woods are quite old.

The trees could be younger, but there’s a good chance the area has been consistently wooded for around 400 years.

I cannot think of a more ethereal place on earth – though I saw a park in New Zealand that certainly could give it a run for its money.

What’s the most unbelievably beautiful place you’ve ever visited? Have you been to Hallerbos?

I want to hear about both things in the comments!

Please and thank you!

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14 Wild Facts About ‘Tiger King’

Tiger King has it all – it’s got a gay, gun-loving tiger breeder from Oklahoma, a cult leader with multiple wives, and the craziest cat lady that every lived.

And guys, that’s just the beginning.

If you’re obsessed with the show, just getting into it, or preparing to dive in, there’s no denying that Joe Exotic’s story gets crazier by the minute. Every minute. For seven episodes.

So when we say these wild facts are worthy of the show, that should give you some idea what’s coming.

14. The TV studio wasn’t the only thing that caught fire.

Producer Rick Kirkham’s Texas home also burned down, about six months afterward.

13. Joe Exotic neither wrote nor performed his own country music songs.

He did sing quietly over a few of the tracks, which in his mind, probably means they’re his.

12. Rick Kirkham was a dancer on American Bandstand.

Yes, that one, with Dick Clark. He was 16.

11. Before his current career (?), Joe was a Chief of Police in Texas.

It was a rather small town, and he was only 19. But he’s also kind of the Chief of Police now, it seems to me.

10. At least one of the directors has spoken out about what she really saw.

Rebecca Chaiklin has said that most of the tigers “were subjected to abject cruelty.”

9. Joe was married to two men on the show, but he’d been married before, too.

No word on how many times, but we know that one of his exes, JC Hartpence, served time in prison for molesting a young girl, and is now serving a life sentence for murder.

8. Jeff Lowe is allegedly trying to open the park in a new location.

Reports say he’s trying to get money from Shaquille O’Neal to make it happen.

7. Joe’s current legal entanglements may be up for debate, but he’s been arrested in the past.

He was transporting a bunch of emus, and when they escaped, he shot them.

6. Carole’s Big Cat Rescue is still going strong.

In fact, they’re trying to tempt Kim Kardashian West for a visit.

5. Another of Joe’s husbands (now an ex), is engaged to a woman.

John Finlay left Joe for a woman on the show, but his fiancee is someone different.

4. Bhagavan “Doc” Antle isn’t his real name.

You’re shocked, I know – at school, people called him Kevin.

3. You can see many of Joe Exotic’s cats in an Oklahoma museum.

Their bones, anyway – they reside in the skeleton museum.

2. The tigers often dined on horse meat.

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I am the #tigerking

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The horses were donated to Joe Exotic alive, and he shot them himself to feed his cats.

1. One of the show’s directors is kind of a big deal.

Eric Goode owns several bars, one of which was regularly mentioned in the original Sex and the City columns.

I’m not finished with this show, y’all, but I cannot stop thinking about it. So I’m definitely going to finish it, but I’m also definitely going to regret it in the end.

Have you watched the show? What did you think of our facts? Tell us – and give us all of your theories – in the comments!

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Sightings of UFOs Rose 75% in 2019

UFO sightings have been around forever. People in the ancient world saw mysterious things in the sky, and that has never changed.

There was a spike back in the 60s, when Area 51 became a thing, but things have leveled off in recent years.

In 2018, in fact, there were “only” 3395 reported sightings of UFO’s in the United States and Canada.

Image Credit: Pixabay

At least, that was the number reported to the National UFO Reporting Center (that’s a thing).

In 2019, 5971 people reported seeing Unidentified Flying Objects overhead – particularly in California, Florida, and Washington. Nevada, where Area 51 is located, only reported 70 sightings for the year, compared to 485 in California.

Peter Davenport, who runs the Washington-based reporting organization, told ABC News he didn’t have any insight into way the number jumped around 76% in only a year.

Image Credit: Pixabay

“One of the mysteries of ufology is there is a fluctuation in the number of reports over the years. Some years it’s been low, but it’s gotten higher recently.”

American Astronomical Society spokesman Rick Fienberg did have a few guesses on the phenomenon, though, and it has to to with science and astronomy and stuff – both Jupiter and Venus were extra visible in 2019, and SpaceX also ramped up their programs, launching 180 new satellites.

Photo Credit: iStock

The NationalUFO Reporting Center catalogs reports but doesn’t investigate them, meaning that most of the sightings could easily have been identifiable flying objects like planets, satellites, or other things, but we’ll never know now.

Feinberg pointed out,

“If you’re not keeping up with the news and not familiar with the skyline, you might mistakenly see an unidentified flying object.

It may be unidentified to you, but known to others.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

I mean, it’s not necessarily not that aliens have stopped caring whether or not we see them flying overhead, but without some investigating, we really only know for sure that we haven’t identified the objects in the reports, only that we haven’t tried.

We’re going to need those UFO people to put in some legwork, because the rest of us need to know!

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Researchers Found the World’s Smallest Known Dinosaur in a 99-Million-Year-Old Piece of Amber

I’m not sure what it is about these creatures who roamed an earth devoid of people and died a horrible mass death, but kids, adults, scientists, and everyone else just seem to love everything to do with dinosaurs.

Which is perhaps why this teeny, tiny skull encased in amber is so freaking fascinating.

Scientists discovered the skull of the bird-like dinosaur in a lump of 99-million-year-old amber in northern Myanmar, meaning that the tiny creature lived during the Mesozoic – a period when giant dinosaurs like brachiosaurus, stegosaurus, and allosaurus all evolved. It’s only 7.1mm long (2.25 inches), making it the smallest bird in existence.

It’s rare to find small fossils because layers of silt and rock typically destroy the delicate tissue, but amber preserves them intact (Jurassic Park definitely got that part right).

The paleontologists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, who discovered the specimen, wrote that because the jaws contained more than 100 teeth, the small bird was likely a predator. Unlike others, though, its eye sockets rested on the sides of its face and it had small pupils, indicating it likely hunted during the day and didn’t have the depth perception of larger predators.

Researchers are calling the specimen Oculudentavis khaungraae because of its defining eyes and teeth, and for it being discovered in amber.

Jingmai O’Connor, lead on the dig, says he’s happy to bring to light more facts about the tiniest dinosaurs in existence, since “people focus on how big dinosaurs were,” and believes amber is the best way to find them.

“When you have an animal preserved in amber, it looks like it just died yesterday.

All of the soft tissue in place, trapped in this little window into an ancient time.”

The full study of the tiny bird-dinosaur are publishing in the science journal Nature, but O’Connor knows this is just the tip of the iceberg.

From O’Connor:

“This paper is just scratching the surface of the information preserved.

Is the skull petrified or is it the original material unaltered, preserved in the amber? Mummified, if you will?

What color was it, and can we use isotopes to figure out exactly what it ate; can we reconstruct the brain better?

We need the young, tech-savvy generation to develop new methods for extracting data from amber specimens in a non-destructive manner to get at these questions.”

Did you hear that, Post-Millennials?

We know you love dinosaurs as much as the rest of us do, so get on it!

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6 of the Most Terrifying and Deadly Viruses in History

I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about viruses or how we’re all going to die until about 5 or 6 years ago, when I read The Hot Zone. Before that, I had a fleeting fascination with pandemic stories, but nothing stuck. However, The Hot Zone did stick. A lot. And thus began a borderline obsession that I harbor until this day.

Of course, having educated myself, I no longer think Ebola is the way we’re all going to die. It’s definitely going to be a mutated flu. Or that’s my guess. Don’t quote me on that.

If you, like me, can’t get enough of this topic, here’s a list of some of the most terrifying viruses to ever come in contact with human beings (and infect them).

6. Dengue

This mosquito-born virus is still the leading cause of death in the tropics and subtropics. It causes a high fever, severe headache, and in severe cases, hemorrhaging.

It’s not contagious and it’s treatable, though there is no vaccine. The fact that it’s transferred through mosquito bite puts about 3 billion people at risk – 400 million of whom, according to the CDC, contract it every year.

Use bug spray!

5. Ebola

Ah, the virus with symptoms that will scare the crap out of you – and if you get it, other stuff will be rolling out of you, as well. Mostly your blood. Out of every orifice.

There are five known strands of Ebola, four of while cause the disease in humans that has killed thousands of people in Africa since it was discovered in 1976.

The CDC classifies Ebola at Biosafety Level 4, making it one of the most dangerous pathogens on the planet, and with an average mortality rate of around 50% (some strains are higher), you definitely don’t want to catch it.

The first symptoms are a headache and sore throat that progresses to major internal bleeding and multiple organ failure.

There is currently no known cure.

4. Influenza

You might think you know about the flu and we’re all going to be fine, but listen – there are so many strains of flu, and so many ways it’s currently mutating, that pegging this as the next worldwide epidemic is almost a no-brainer.

The Spanish flu, which we know now was H1N1, wiped out 50 million people around the world in the span of just two years. The most recent H1N1 epidemic, in 2009, caused up to 400,000 deaths worldwide.

Flu vaccines exist, and the majority of people survive infections from the current mutations. It is, however, highly infectious and airborne, which means the right (wrong) strain, the right (wrong) mutation, and it will be 1918 all over again.

3. Marburg

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Next up, and the first hemorrhagic fever we’ll cover, is Marburg virus disease: caused by a filovirus hosted by bats, named after a German city, and nobody’s idea of a fun weekend. (Nope, we’re still not doing #covid19). #Repost @niaid with @make_repost ・・・ #dyk fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be natural hosts of the Marburg virus? This colorized transmission electron #micrograph shows Marburg virus particles (blue) harvested from an infected VERO E6 cell supernatant. This image was captured and color enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland. See more of our #microscopy images on the NIAID Flickr account. #nih #niaid #research #science #SciArt #marburgvirus #filoviridae #verocell #fruitbat

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A group of lab monkeys in Frankfurt, Germany, passed a new hemorrhagic fever to a group of lab workers in 1967. It came to be known as Marburg, and it has an up to 90% fatality rate.

Safe to say that it’s also classified as a Biosafety Level 4. It’s spread through close contact, begins with a headache, fever, and rash before killing you the same way Ebola does – internal bleeding and organ failure. There is no cure, and we haven’t seen any confirmed cases since 2014.

Rest assured that it’s still out there, though.

2. Rabies

Rabies is straight up terrifying, and there’s no way to cure it once neurological symptoms set in. Records of the disease date back to 2300 BCE, with Babylonians recording how people went mad and died after being bitten by dogs.

We do have a vaccine, but it must be administered immediately. If left untreated, rabies attacks the central nervous system with symptoms like delirium, hallucinations, raging, and violent behavior that almost always end in death.

Basically, this is how we get zombies. If it ever becomes airborne, get ready.

1. Hantavirus

Hantavirus is already airborne, and different strains are carried by rodents. It’s known to cause different types of illness in people, most commonly hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

Its mortality rate is a paltry 1%-15% (sarcasm), but in the case of pulmonary symptoms, that can rise to around 38%.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m off to wash my hands again.

I’m wishing you plenty warm water, soap, and hand sanitizer now and in the future!

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A Man Brought a Llama to Sister’s Wedding, Fulfilled a Hilarious Promise

Mendl Weinstock made an usual promise to his sister. When she got married, he would bring a llama to her wedding.

That was 5 years ago.

And, it happened.

First, though, here’s how it started. During a roadtrip from Indiana to their home in Ohio, Weinstock’s sister Riva was 17 years old and was annoying her brother with her prattle about her wedding plans.

For the record, she didn’t even have a boyfriend, but planning a wedding was top of mind for her during those hours riding in the car.

So, big brother that he is, he told her he wasn’t coming to the wedding.

Photo Credit: Publicdomainpictures.net

Offended, Riva insisted that YES, he was coming to her WEDDING. Like, WTH Mendl??

Weinstock agreed that he would come to this prematurely planned event, EXCEPT he would be accompanied by a llama.

After some tough back and forth, Riva relented and said something like, “Okay bring the damn llama. Whatever. I don’t even care anymore.”

Photo Credit: Pxfuel

Weinstock kept his llama promise in his heart and waited for the magical moment.

Then, the big day arrived.

Weinstock found plenty of farms in Ohio with fine selections of llamas from which to choose. He was able to procure an animal named Shocky for the day, and a coworker made him his own tuxedo and yarmulke.

Photo Credit: Raw Pexel

Riva knew this was coming, but she was still surprised to see Shocky in his wedding finery waiting outside for her for a photo op. She thought the whole thing was pretty cute and posed for a few shots with her special guest.

The regular human guests liked him too.

Weinstock posted one of the pictures on Reddit and watched the upvotes pile up throughout the reception. When the image hit 100,000 he let his sister know. It’s up to 166,000 now.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Riva wasn’t super happy a llama was crashing her elegant wedding (one she’d been planning for 5 years and before she even knew who she was marrying), but she had to admit, it made a great memory.

As for Weinstock, he has the pleasure of waiting for Riva’s revenge. It may be tomorrow. It may be 5 years from now. He just needs to be ready.

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