Epecuen: The Town That Spent 25 Years Underwater

Once a lake country spa town south of Buenos Aires, Epecuen is a lagoon with a salinity level only topped by the Dead Sea. For decades, tourists visited to take its waters believing they were good for one's health.

Everything came crashing down in 1985 when a long period of heavy rains sent the lagoon bursting over its banks, and it swept over a busy small town.

A town of about 40 square blocks, Epecuen was submerged beneath 10 meters (30 feet) of water.

Even when the waters eventually receded, the country town, 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of the capital, was never rebuilt. Its welcoming little hotels seem frozen in time, rot and rust, glistening with the salt in which they were steeped.

Visitors pick up on Epecuen's spooky vibe eyeing abandoned beds from a former old folks home; dozens of stranded, toppled night tables from local hotels; and upended materials visitors and businessmen tried to pry out of the rubble to reuse as construction materials.

The town's surreal silvery cast has inspired filmmakers including Roland Joffe who in 2009 filmed the Spanish civil war-drama "There Be Dragons" here; and Argentina's Pino Solana who filmed scenes of his "El viaje" ("The Journey") locally.

Source www.asiaone.com

Idina Sackville - The woman who scandalised 1920s Society

Known for having more lovers than anyone could count, Idina Sackville hosted wife-swapping parties in Africa at which she would allocate bedroom keys over a throw of the dice or the turn of a card. She couldn’t be left alone in a room with a man without igniting gossip that they were having an affair.

When Sir William Orpen, the World War I artist and incorrigible womaniser, painted her portrait in 1915, rumours flared about a liaison.

Nearly a century on, the electricity between sitter and artist is palpable. Her wide, blue eyes are limpid and vulnerable and a low-cut black dress by Edward Molyneux, the most fashionable couturier of the day, is draped around her slender frame. Via

Kadykchan – A Ghost Town of Chukotka

Kadykchan was built by the hands of GULAG's prisoners during World War II. Later it accommodated miners of a few local coal mines which supplied Arkagalinskaya electric power station. The depth of mines was about 400 meters (1,300 ft) what at some point along with the dropped demand for coal after the dissolution of the Soviet Union made the mining pointless. Moreover, there was an explosion at the mine when six people were killed in 1996, which lead to a decision to close the mines altogether. As of 2010, the settlement is completely depopulated.

Source: EnglishRussia.com

Green Fireball Phenomenon

Green fireballs are a type of unidentified flying object which have been sighted in the sky since the late 1940s. Early sightings primarily occurred in the southwestern United States, particularly in New Mexico. They were once of notable concern to the US government because they were often clustered around sensitive research and military installations, such as Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratory, then Sandia base.
Meteor expert Dr. Lincoln LaPaz headed much of the investigation into the fireballs on behalf of the military. LaPaz's conclusion was that the objects displayed too many anomalous characteristics to be a type of meteor and instead were artificial, perhaps secret Russian spy devices. The green fireballs were seen by many people of high repute including LaPaz, distinguished Los Alamos scientists, Kirtland AFB intelligence officers and Air Command Defense personnel. A February 1949 Los Alamos conference attended by aforementioned sighters, Project Sign, world renowned upper atmosphere physicist Dr. Joseph Kaplan, H-bomb scientist Dr. Edward Teller, other scientists and military brass concluded, though far from unanimously, that green fireballs were natural phenomena. To the conference attendees, only the green fire ball source was unknown, their existence was unquestioned. Secret conferences were convened at Los Alamos to study the phenomenon[citation needed] and in Washington by the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.

In December 1949 Project Twinkle, a network of green fireball observation and photographic stations, was established but never fully implemented. It was discontinued two years later, with the official conclusion that the phenomenon was probably natural in origin.
Green fireballs have been given natural, man-made, and extraterrestrial origins and have become associated with both the Cold War and ufology. Because of the extensive government paper trail on the phenomenon, many ufologists consider the green fireballs to be among the best documented examples of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

Photos by environmentalgraffiti.com

Lake Retba - the pink lake

Lake Retba or Lac Rose lies north of the Cap Vert peninsula of Senegal, north east of Dakar.
It is so named for its pink waters, caused by Dunaliella salina in the water. The color is particularly visible during the dry season. The lake is also known for its high salt content, which, like that of the Dead Sea, allows people to float easily. The lake also has a small salt collecting industry and is often the finishing point of the Dakar Rally.


Many salt collectors work 6–7 hours a day in the lake, which has a salt content close to 40%. In order to protect their skin, they rub their skin with "Beurre de Karité" (shea butter, produced from shea nuts obtained from the Shea nut tree), which is an emollient used to avoid tissue damage.

This lake was used on a task of the Amazing Race 6 in which teams had to collect salt in a basket from the bottom of the lake floor.

Evolutionary Mystery: New Fish species discovered in Vietnam with Penis on its Head

A new species of fish with a penis on its head has been identified in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, researchers said.

Phallostethus Cuu Long is the newest member of the Phallostethidae family small fish found in Southeast Asian waters that are distinguished primarily by the positioning of the male sexual organ.

Male phallostethids have a copulatory organ, termed the priapium, under the throat for holding or clasping onto females and fertilising their eggs internally, according to conservationists.

"We have scientifically identified a new penis-head fish in Vietnam," researcher Tran Dac Dinh from Can Tho University told.

The fish was known to Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta but had not been described scientifically before a team identified the species last year, he said.