The Secrets of Coral Castle

Image Source: en.wikipedia.org

Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida, is one of the most amazing structures ever built. In terms of accomplishment, it's been compared to Stonehenge, ancient Greek temples, and even the great pyramids of Egypt. It is amazing - some even say miraculous - because it was quarried, fashioned, transported, and constructed by one man: Edward Leedskalnin, a 5-ft. tall, 100-lb. Latvian immigrant.

Many men have single-handedly built their own homes, but Leedskalnin's choice of building materials is what makes his undertaking so incredible. He used huge blocks of coral rock, some weighing as much as 30 tons, and somehow was able to move them and set them in place without assistance or the use of modern machinery. And therein lies the mystery. How did he do it?

It's estimated that 1,000 tons of coral rock were used in construction of the walls and towers, and an additional 100 tons of it were carved into furniture and art objects:

• An obelisk he raised weighs 28 tons.
• The wall surrounding Coral Castle stands 8 ft. tall and consists of large blocks each weighing several tons.
• Large stone crescents are perched atop 20-ft.-high walls.
• A 9-ton swinging gate that moves at the touch of a finger guards the eastern wall.
• The largest rock on the property weighs an estimated 35 tons.
• Some stones are twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Working alone, Leedskalnin labored for 20 years - from 1920 to 1940 - to build the home he originally called "Rock Gate Park" in Florida City. The story goes that he built it after being jilted by his fiancée, who changed her mind about marrying him because he was too old and too poor. After wandering around the U.S. and Canada for several years, Leedskalnin settled in Florida City for health reasons; he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. He began building his coral home in 1920. Then in 1936, when a planned new subdivision of homes threatened his privacy, Leedskalnin moved his entire home 10 miles to Homestead, where he completed it, and where it still stands as a tourist attraction.

How Leedskalnin managed this feat of engineering has remained a mystery all these years because, incredibly, no one saw him do it. A secretive man, Leedskalnin often worked at night by lantern light. And so there are no credible witnesses to how the small, frail man was able to move the huge blocks of rock. Even when he moved the entire structure to Homestead, neighbors saw the coral blocks being transported on a borrowed truck, but no one seems to know how Leedskalnin got them on and off the vehicle.

Source: http://paranormal.about.com/od/moremadscience/a/coral-castle-secrets.htm

Turkey’s 1500-Year-Old, $28M Bible Linked to Gospel of Barnabas?

Image Source: turkishnews.com

The Vatican has made an official request to gain access to a 1500-year-old Bible worth $28 million currently held by the Turkish government in Ankara, Turkey. There is speculation that the Bible may be a copy of the Gospel of Barnabas – a telling of Jesus’ ministry Muslims believe is part of the original Gospels.

Photocopies of the holy book’s pages are reportedly worth about $1.7 million, but the relic isn’t so extremely valuable just because of its age, but also because of its construction and its contents. The Bible is handwritten in gold lettering on loosely strung together animal hide and written in Syriac. Syriac is a dialect of Aramic – Jesus’ native language. Aramaic itself is rarely present in today’s society, as it is now only spoken in a small village near Damascus.

There is some speculation that this Bible is a copy of the Gospel of Barnabas – a Gospel version Muslims believe is part of the original Gospels. The Gospel of Barnabas is not included in the New Testament along side Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and in fact Barnabas opposes the New Testament and rather has clear similarities to the Muslim interpretation of Jesus. Barnabas even contains a story in which Jesus predicts the coming of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe this original gospel has been suppressed.

However, theology professor Ömer Faruk Harman told Today Zaman, “Muslims may be disappointed to see that this copy does not include things they would like to see and it might have no relation with the content of the Gospel of Barnabas.”

The Turkish government gained possession of the Bible back in 2000 when they caught a band of thieves and smugglers cutting through Turkey with the bible as well as other antiques, illegal excavations, and explosives.

The tome has been kept at the courthouse until recently, and is set to make its way, under heavy security, to Turkey’s Ankara Ethnography Museum. But before it settles there the Vatican is hoping to get a chance to study and investigate the extremely valuable Bible.

Source: http://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2012/02/24/turkeys-1500-year-old-28m-bible-linked-to-gospel-of-barnabas/

Why do some people find it so difficult to relax?

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Workaholics tend to see time off as time wasted. They typically feel that every minute has to be devoted to attaining the goals they have set for themselves. They may be corporate presidents or college students, but they share an inability to relax.

An excessive and compulsive drive for achievement may be based on a distortion of a deeply ingrained work ethic. Counselors have found that one way to persuade workaholics to relax is to convince them that time off will improve their productivity, that giving themselves time to refuel will enable them to perform twice as well.

For many, taking it easy is something they must actually learn to do. They have to consult "leisure counselors," who may advise them to try to discover the hidden benefits of leisure by seeking out activities as far removed as possible from the daily routines of the job. A counselor might also recommend that dedicated workaholics join a leisure-oriented club or make a list of things they have always secretly wanted to do.

Do people with different personalities have different brains?

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Although science is a long way from connecting every human trait to a telltale wrinkle in brain tissue, researchers have discovered fascinating links between brain structure and the ways different people behave. The British psychologist Hans Eysenck has proposed that a key to the difference between the extroverted and introverted personality - one outgoing, the other reserved - lies in the cerebral cortex, a part of the brain much involved in learning, reasoning, and planning. Activity here can be viewed in brain scans. In the extrovert, the cortex is quiet and seems to welcome noisy, exciting situations that arouse it. The introvert's level of cortical arousal, in contrast, is already high, so the introverted personality does not need much outside stimulation and seems to prefer peace and quiet.

Some support for Eysenck's theory can be found in our daily experience. Extroverts can fall asleep quickly and introverts can't, suggesting that the extrovert's cortex slips easily into a quiet state. Furthermore, the fact that extroverts tend to be less sensitive to pain seems to indicate that their cerebral cortexes are harder to arouse.

Why do smells create some of our strongest memories?

One of  the memory centers of the brain, the hippocampus, is closely connected with the sense of smell. Smell signals make just once stop - in the olfactory bulbs - before making their way straight to the brain.

This nearly direct connection may account for the sometimes surprisingly vivid memories that can be stirred by odors. If you were upset by your first day in school on a long-ago autumn day, the smell of fallen leaves can bring back the experience in excruciating detail. If the smell of blooming honey suckle accompanied your first kiss, the same smell, even a lifetime later, may take you back in time and place. When the painter Marc Chagall returned to Russia, his original homeland, for the first time in half a century, it was the overpowering scent of wild violets that brought back to him most vividly memories of his youth. Holding two wilted bouquets, he said; Smell, smell. No other flowers have that smell. I haven't known it in 50 years."

Smell and memory play a more direct role in what foods you like to eat,. If a certain food once made you sick, the mere whiff of it can make your stomach queasy. On the happier side, a certain kind of food can be irresistible because of your pleasant associations with it in the past.