The Death of Lord Darnley

Mysterious Death of Henry Stuart – Lord Darnley

The mysterious death of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley has perplexed Scottish history researchers till date. Darnley belonged to a family which gave him claims to the Scottish as well as English thrones through family bonds with James II of Scotland and Henry VII of England.

 When Darnley was young, he enjoyed his childhood which was bestowed to the few privileged during the 16th century. At the age of 20, in February of 1565, he had travelled to Scotland and had the opportunity of meeting QueenMary who was besotted with him. According to one chronicler it is said that `she took well with him and said that he was the lustiest and best proportioned long man that she had seen’. They were married that July and Darnley became King of the Scots.

Very soon it became obvious that he could not handle himself royally and became foes due to his bad temper, drunkenness and arrogant manner. Mary herself got tired of his company and the couple were often separated though they seemed to get along well to have a son, James who later would rule Scotland as well as England. Their unsteady marriage seemed to continue since Mary was a Roman Catholic and divorce was not permitted. She may have resorted to an alternative solution.

Huge Explosion at Kirk o’Field

The couple had been staying at Kirk o’Field a large church house in Edinburgh in February 1567 when in the early hours of the 10th were heard two huge explosions that were heard for miles around the place. The Kirk had been almost destroyed.

Later on it had been determined that two barrels of gunpowder had been placed secretly beneath the bedroom of Darnley, where he had been recovering from smallpox, which according to other sources was syphilis.Many had come over to witness the devastation. However, the body of Darnley was not traceable and after some superficial searching by the people, a soldier had located the remains of Darnley together with a servant on the grounds of the Kirk.

On examination, it had been obvious that the death wounds inflicted on Darnley and his servant had not been from the explosion. It seemed that the two of them had been strangled after the gunpowder had done its task. Suspicion increased and the noble families of Scotland needed answers to their queries.

Death of Lord Darnley Remained a Mystery

Mary who had been living at the Kirk with Darnley was not there or could have been away at a wedding on that critical night. However the facts could not be overlooked. Someone had placed the gunpowder under Darnley’s room which had exploded thereafter.

 Darnley perhaps had learned of the danger and had fled into the night with only his nightshirt on, where his body had been found. It was observed that someone had overpowered and strangled him to death. Those guilty could have been from the Scottish nobles, probably with the Queen being party to the murder who disapproved of the power Darnley exercised or maybe disliked him.

Mary too had her own problems when she escaped to England only to be imprisoned and ultimately executed in 1587 by Elizabeth I and whatever information she had regarding the death of her husband went down with her in the grave.

Weight of the Human Soul is 21 grams

Experiment to Prove Human Soul has Mass – Can be Measured

A rare experiment had been conducted on April 10, 1901 in Dorchester, Massachusetts by Dr Duncan MacDougall to prove that the human soul had mass and hence could be measured. Dr MacDougall a respected physician of Haverhill as well as the head of the Research Society had been performing work in this field for around six years before the experiment.

 Though his experiment presently would be taken as unethical, it tends to be a peculiarity with plenty of disapproval ranging from methodology utilised in different religious implication. Dr MacDougall performed this experiment on six dying patients who had been placed on specially provided Fairbanks weight scales just before their death. His purpose was to weigh each body before and after death in order to determine any differences by the delicate scales.

The patients had been selected depending of their looming death. Two of the patients had been suffering from tuberculosis, one was a woman and 5 were men. Together with a team of four doctors, Dr MacDougall measured the weight of his first patient cautiously before his death. When the patient died he noticed an interesting thing. He observed that suddenly, coincident with death, the beam end dropped with an audible stroke hitting against the lower limiting bar and remaining there with no rebound.

Loss – Ascertained to Three-Fourths of an Ounce

The loss had been ascertained to be three-fourths of an ounce. The experiment was also conducted on the next patient with the same results. Dr MacDougall sensed that had struck something strange. The following is a quote from the New York Times articles of 11 March 1907 capturing the historical moment : `The instant life ceased the opposite scale pan fell with a suddenness that was astonishing – as if something had been suddenly lifted from the body.

Immediately all the usual deductions were made for physical loss of weight and it was discovered that there was still a full ounce of weight unaccounted for’.Each of the five doctors had taken their own measurements, comparing their results. Though all the patients had not lost the same weight, they did lose something which could be accounted. The results of only four of the six patients could be accounted for owing to mechanical failures or the patients dying before the test equipment were in place.

Consistent Weight Loss - Query

However the consistent weight loss posed a query. Everything from the air in the lungs to bodily fluids had been taken in consideration but there did not seem to be any explanation to this query. However on the third patient, an interesting variation took place, who had maintained the same weight immediately after his death though one minute thereafter he had lost around an ounce of weight.

Dr MacDougall had clarified this discrepancy as - `I believe that in this case, that a phlegmatic man slow of though and action, that the soul remained suspended in the body after death, during the minute that elapsed before its freedom. There is no other way of accounting for it and it is what might be expected to happen in a man of the subject’s temperament’.

After the experiment and in consultation with the other members of the team, it had been certain that the average weight loss of a person was three-fourth of an ounce and the conclusion drawn by Dr MacDougall was that a human soul weighed 21 grams.

French Female Astronaut Screamed Warning about Aliens before Attempting Suicide

Disturbing Video – Earth Must Be Warned’

A disturbing video has portrayed the first French female astronaut who seemed to have screamed stating `Earth must be warned’ before she attempted suicide. Claudie Haignere – 59 is said to have been restrained after she had been screaming the eerie caution before going into a coma. Towards December 2008, it was reported that Claudie had been hospitalised due to overdose of sleeping pills.

It was revealed that she had been found conscious though had to be restrained while screaming before going into a coma.Claudie had held responsible the incident on `burnout syndrome and is presently the director of the Cite des Sciences et de l’Industries which is the largest science museum in Europe.

But alien fanatics were of the belief that was making attempts in warning the Earth regarding life in the outer space and the video on YouTube that is narrated by a voice of a robot is said to be a conspiracy which is a mixture of fact and fiction.

Duration of six minute YouTube conspiracy film by UFOmania had come emerged recently investigating her story which had been watched almost a million times. Scientist Claudie had been a backup crew member for the 1993 Mir Altair mission that had included Jean-Pierre Haignere, her future husband.

Asteriod 135267 Named after Claudie & Husband

In 1996 she managed to make it to the Mir space station as a part of the Russian French Cassiopee mission and became the first European woman to visit the International Space Station in 2001. Asteroid 135268 Haignere has been named after Claudie and her husband. Claudie had entered French politics after retiring from space work and had worked as minister delegate for research as well as new technologies between 2002 and 2004 and from 2004 to 2005, ministered delegate for European affairs.

However in spite of her great efforts, the budgets for scientific research were censored.She worked in a biology lab at the Pasteur Institute on leaving politics. It is said that Claudie attempted suicide in 2008 and the rest is said to be made up and constantly seems to reappear on conspiracy forums as on David Icke’s website.

 Besides this, her laboratory where she had been working at the forefront of human/alien DNA research had been destroyed by fire. The video tends to utilise quotes from real reports by news agency AFP though they have been taken out of context with more information.

Mysterious Death of Conspiracy Theorist

There has not been anything like human/alien DNA research since they had not encountered any aliens. Whenever anything tends to occur to a prominent UFO expert, Claudie story frequently pops up and the mysterious death of Max Spiers, a conspiracy theorist in October could have generated the latest interest. Spiers had been found dead at his friend’s house in Poland on a sofa after several days of warning his mother to `investigate’ if anything tends to happen to him.

 Friends state that he had vomited a black liquid just before his death. In another alien news, a supermoon stargazer in Surprise Arizona is said to have caught UFOs on camera wherein the cameraman claims to have seen two objects that moved by the supermoon, seem to be of alien origin. The cameraman of the video which had been uploaded by the Rondomon YouTube channel stated that `after zooming in on the moon, he walked away and sure enough, UFOs began flying by. The UFO seemed to have distortion all around them probably bending light’.

Geologists Find Evidence of China’s Great Flood

Chines Civilization – Great Flood

Chinese civilization as per legend had started with Great Flood which had covered the plains of northern and the central area of China for around 22 years, till the rule of Yu who had led a great dredging project that had brought the river to its original channel. The gods had rewarded Yu with a divine decree to rule China and had found the Xia, its first imperial dynasty.

 The story of the Great Flood and the founding of Chinese civilization by Yu, for 1000 years had been handed down as oral history before eventually coming into written record in the first millennium BCE. However, with no solid proof of Xia or the flood, scholars have been debating whether these events really took place or were it the substance of legend.

 It seems that the Great Flood could have been a real natural disaster which struck the Yellow River valley in around 1920 BCE. A group of geologists headed by Wu Qinglong of Nanjing Normal University had located the remains of a landslide which had dammed up the Yellow River, 1000 of years ago where it had flowed through Jishi Gorge in northern China’s Qinghai Province.

Sediments – Upstream of Dam

The dimension of the natural dam could be between the size of the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Hoover Dam in the U.S. which had blocked the river totally and the water which had built up behind it finally formed a lake 650 feet deep. The researchers found sediments, upstream of the dam, which seemed to match with what would gather on the bottom of a dammed lake.

These were mostly fragments of purple-brown mud-rock and green schist that were washed in the lower Jishi Gorge and downstream into the Guanting Basin.They had mentioned in the paper published in Science that at the mouth of the gorge, where the Yellow River enters Guanting Basin, the sediments had reached 20m thickness, including boulders up to 2m in diameter.

The sediments assisted in outlining the size of the dammed lake as well as the area covered by the flood. Centred on those areas, the researchers calculated that when the landslide dam eventually gave way, it had unleashed a torrent of 300,000 to 500,000 cubic meters of water per second.

The Flood – Breaking Point

The flood has been the breaking point in a rough year for the Oija villages towards this stretch of the Yellow River which had begun with an earthquake that had devastated a settlement on a bend in the river on the Guanting Basin, a few miles south of the Jishi Gorge.

 The locals had abandoned the site after the earthquake, which is presently Lajia and had left behind the bodies of almost five victims trapped in their shrunken homes. Those who survived in the area downstream of the gorge, the flood could have come as an awful shock.

This was not a mere local calamity. Wu Qinglong together with his team had estimated that the floodwaters could have travelled more than 1,000 mils down the Yellow River and probably even more ahead. The flood could have breached through the river’s natural level and could have also crossed the banks carving a new course through the plains of northern China.

New Theory: How Earth Got Its Moon

Origin of Moon – Impact Theory

The moon is extremely important to the Earth that provides the source for several calendars which tends to affect the tides of ocean. Many have been questioning on how it got there. A team of scientists have now utilised complex modelling in order to propose a new theory which involves violent collision that tends to vaporize much of the planet. Lead researcher, Matija Cuk had mentioned in a news release that in spite of smart people working on this issue for 50 years; they have still been discovering the basic things regarding the earliest history of the world.

The results published in the journal Nature had been co-authorised by scientist at the University of California, Davis, Harvard University, the University of Maryland and the SETI Institute, an organization which is recognized better for its attempt in locating alien life and where Cuk is said to be a researcher.

The origin of moon, had been the `impact theory’ for decades as one of the leading explanations, It is said that billions of years ago, Earth and Mars sized protoplanet known as Theia had collided. The wreckage had formed a ring round the equator of the Earth and had been ultimately drawn together by gravity thus forming the moon.

Debris of Theia

The moon could have been developed much nearer to Earth and ultimately moved farther away. According to Davis, senior author Sarah Stewart, professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, had informed CBC News that this idea had come around before computers could do detailed simulations of planet formation. Computer simulations now portray that the impact could have developed the moon mainly out of the debris of Theia though scientists are of the opinion that the Earth and moon tend to have unusually identical chemical makeups. Stewart states that it really puts a brake on the giant impact hypotheses.

Moreover, if the moon had been formed from the debris surrounding the equator, presently we would expect it to circle alongside the equator and the fact is, its orbit is tilted five degrees. Astronomer and co-author Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland had mentioned in a statement that this large tilt seems to be very unusual and till now there has not been a good explanation for the same. However it can be understood if the Earth had a more dramatic early history than suspected earlier.

Higher Energy Effect

The collision, under the new, tweaked theory could have taken place at a much sharper angle and could have been more powerful. Stewart commented that it takes a lot of energy to change an orbit. The latest model recommends a much higher energy effect which could have been much more violent that it vaporised not only Theia but the Earth also.Molten and vapour material may have shaped a huge cloud, about 500 times the extent of the present Earth.

Some of the material may have cooled and could have fallen back to Earth and the remaining may have designed the moon. The bigger collision could have been much more powerful and at that angle that it could have hit the rotational axis of the Earth between 60 and 80 degrees causing the planet to spin speedily that days could last only two hours.

Jacuzzi of Despair That Kills Almost Anything That Swims Into It

Jacuzzi of Death – Massive Brine Pool – Gulf of Mexico

One of the oldest places on the planet is said to be the `Jacuzzi of death’ which had first been found in 2014, as a massive brine pool beneath the Gulf of Mexico by utilising a robosub. They have now returned to develop the first resolutions map of the location stating that it could hold the key in locating life on the other planets.

According to Discovery News after an earlier visit to the location, the researchers had mentioned in Oceanography that they had focused on a larger brine pool on the last leg of the seafloor hydrocarbon community studies with regards to its warm temperature together with high salt content which could be deadly to several macro fauna unfortunate to fall in.

They had come across large dead isopods as well as crab which had been preserved along the edge of the brine pool. They informed that the crater-like circular, brine-filled pool rose about 3 m above the surrounding seafloor, and brine had been spilling out on one side in a spectacular waterfall. Erik Cordes, associate professor of biology at Temple University who had located the site together with many other colleagues stated that it had been one of the most amazing things in the deep sea.

Technology Development in Deep Sea – Applied to Worlds Beyond

They stated that one goes down to the bottom of the ocean and seems to be looking at a lake or a river flowing and feels like you are not on this world. Cordes who has been studying deep sea coral together with the others had first discovered the formations in 2014 by utilising remotely operated underwater robot known as Hercules.

The following year, they had returned with the three-person research sub Alvin in order to get a closer look. Their latest research has now been published and the team retrieved some of the samples of microbial life which are improved in handling the high salinity together with the low oxygen intensities of the brine pool.

Cordes is also of the belief that these creatures may be similar to life on planets in the solar system or even beyond. In May, he informed Seeker that there are many people looking at these dangerous habitats on Earth as replicas for what could be discovered when they go to other planets. The technology development in the deep sea will certainly be applied to the worlds beyond our own.

Brine Pool Saturated with Methane

The main reason of revisiting the brine pool was intended to conduct a high resolution mapping survey of the location. The team mentioned that the top layer of the brine pool seemed to have very high salinity with a temperature of 7.8 degree Cent. Beneath the layer they discovered dense, hydrocarbon charged fluidized mud with a temperature of 19 degree Cent.

They further informed that the sampling line as well as the CTD had been lowered to ~19 m in the pool though it did not reach a hard bottom, providing new insight on the nature of these bottomless brine pools. The initial analyses confirmed that the brine pool had been saturated with methane. The team are now hoping to return with the expectation of creating 3D maps.

Instinct a Complex Behavior

Instinct – Inclination of Creatures, Complex Behavior

Innate behavior or instinct is the inclination of a living creature towards a complex behavior and stimulus. It is behavior which is inherited rather than learned and the simplest example of an instinct in behavior is FAP or fixed action pattern wherein a small to medium length sequence of action minus variation can be carried out in response to a clear define stimulus.

We could say that when a person tends to fight often, he seems to be having an aggressive instinct while the person may not be born with the inclination to fight. An instinct is inherited when an inborn pattern of behavior which is characteristic of species tends to response to specific environmental stimuli. Instinct could also be defined from a reflex that could be a response of an organism to a certain stimulus like the contraction of the pupil when faced with bright light or spasmodic movement of the lower leg when tapped at the knee.

They are the inborn complex reactions to behavior which may exist in members of the species though the absence of volitional capacity should not be mixed with an incapability to modify fixed action pattern. Some examples could be used wherein people may be capable of modifying a stimulated fixed action pattern by recognizing consciously the point of its activation and tend to stop doing it while animals with the absence of strong volitional capacity would not refrain from their fixed action patterns once they are activated.

Behavior Instinctive – Expression of Innate Biological Factors

Behavior could be instinctive if the same is performed without being connected with prior experience and can be an expression of innate biological factors.Instinct is innate which means that instinctive behaviors together with responses are present and complete in individuals at birth. The individual need not go through a series of experience in order to learn such behaviors.

A simple example could be taken from fish that has the innate ability to swim while most of the mammals need to learn how to walk. It is easy to identify innate behavior when animals portray it at birth though in some cases this behavior may show up later on in life. In these circumstances, improvement in the creatures’ ability to carry out an innate behavior may show that the creature is learning though another process is being done. When someone acts instinctively, we say his act is done without deliberation or thought but on an impulse.

Knowing/Believing/Feeling – Instinct

Knowing, believing or feeling something instinctively is something that we do not recall of having learned or even been instructed but it is the knowledge, belief or just feeling that came up within us. When someone that has an instinct for stage direction or mathematics means that they are by nature good in performing in that sphere of action. A maternal or creative instinct is referred to behavior which seems to be the expression of a deep characteristically human urge.

When a person acts out of an instinct of revenge, it is his revenge which becomes his motive. When some person acted blindly without any explanation of why they could have acted in a certain way or what was the purpose of the action, that type of a behavior is said to be done by instinct.

Christ's Burial Place Exposed for First Time in Centuries

Burial Place of Jesus Christ – Revealed

Restoring work in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Israel has revealed stone slab venerated as the place of rest of Jesus Christ. For the first time in centuries, it has been disclosed by scientists regarding the original surface considered traditionally as the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Situated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, the tomb is said to be covered by cladding of marble since around 1555 A.D and probably centuries earlier. Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and a partner in the restoration project commented that the marble covering of the tomb had been pulled back and they were surprised by the amount of fill material below it.

 It would be a long scientific analysis though they will eventually be capable of seeing the original rock surface on which as per tradition, the body of Christ had been laid. The body of Jesus Christ, as per Christian tradition, had been laid on a shelf or burial bed carved from the side of a limestone cave after he had been crucified by the Romans in A.D. 30 or 33.

 Christian believe that Christ resurrected after death and Mary Magdalene who had anointed his body three days before his death had reported that his grave was empty when she had visited his tomb.

Inner Tomb Under Restoration

The burial shelf is said to be enclosed now by a small structure which is known as the Edicule-from the Latin aedicule or little house, which had been reconstructed last in 1808 -1810 after it had been damaged in a fire. The Edicule and the inner tomb presently are under restoration by a team of scientists from the National Technical University of Athens under the guidance of the Chief Scientific supervisor Professor Antonia Moropoulou.

The discovery of the burial bed has been providing researchers with an unprecedented opportunity of studying the original surface of the most sacred site in Christianity. An examination of the original rock may permit them to comprehend much better not only the earlier form of the tomb chamber but also on how it progressed as the focal point of veneration from the time it had initially been identified by Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, in A.D. 326.

Under Charge of Six Christian Sects

Moropoulou had stated that they are at the critical moment of rehabilitating the Edicule and the techniques which were being utilised to document this unique monument would enable the world to study their findings as if they themselves had been in the tomb of Christ.

The interior of the tomb which normally glows with faint constellation of wax candles, together with bright construction lighting, illuminated the small cell, exposing minute details which seemed to be usually overlooked. The marble slab which tends to cover the holy bench by around 3 by 5 feet, carved from creamy marble had been pulled away from the wall.

Below it, was a grey beige stone which a conservator has enquired and had received an unclear reply. The Church of the Holy Sepulchres is presently under the charge of six Christian sects. Three major groups, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Armenian Orthodox Church tend to maintain main control over it while the Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox and Syriac communities also tend to have a presence there.