Has the lost treasure of the Tsars been found at the bottom of the world's deepest lake?

Lost Tsarist gold worth billions of pounds may have been discovered at
the bottom of the world's deepest freshwater lake.
In the past few days the crew of a mini submarine carrying out a
mapping exercise in Lake Baikal spotted some 'shiny metal objects'
some 1,200ft down in the murky depths.
Legend has it that 1,600 tons of gold was lost when White Army
commander Admiral Alexander Kolchak's train derailed and plunged into
the Siberian lake.
Another version has it that troops retreating on foot and
horsecarriage across Baikal's icy surface froze to death as
temperatures hit -60C (minus 76F) in the winter of 1919-20.

When the spring thaw arrived, they and the sacks of Imperial gold sank
to the bottom of the massive lake

Last year remnants of a train and ammunition boxes were found in the
lake but in recent days the Mir-2 submersible made this new discovery
1,200 feet below the surface at Cape Tolsty.
'Deep-sea vehicles found rectangular blocks with a metallic gleam,
like gold, 400 metres below the surface,' said one source.
Moscow News reported the story with the headline 'Lost gold of the
Whites found in Baikal'.

Explorers attempted to grab hold of the shiny objects with the
mini-sub's manipulator arm but failed due to the loose gravel on the
lake's floor.

Sources say that the submariners know the exact spot and are planning
a new mission to determine if they have found the gold, and if so to
bring a sample to the surface.
Last year, Inna Kyrlova, the deputy director of the Fund for the
Protection of Lake Baikal, one of the bodies funding the research,
acknowledged that the submarines were exploring locations reputed to
be linked to Kolchak's gold.
But she added: 'Our expedition's primary interest is the flora, fauna
and geology of Baikal and monitoring current conditions in the lake.'
Kolchak was a hero in the First World War who later led the
pro-Tsarist White Army against the Bolsheviks after the 1917 October
Revolution.

He had a few early successes but was eventually arrested by Lenin's
henchmen and executed by firing squad in January 1920.
The Russians reneged on a promise to hand him over to the British
military mission in Irkutsk.

His body was hidden by revolutionaries under the ice of the Angara
River which flows out of Baikal.

Had he escaped, it is likely he would have sought exile in London -
bringing the gold with him.
If the alleged treasure has been found, it could spark an ugly
scramble between the Russian state, descendants of the last Tsar
Nicholas the Second, and countries - possibly including Britain - that
could argue they are owed outstanding debts by the fallen Romanov
regime.
In 2008, historian Sean McMeekin outlined how the Bolsheviks seized
the Tsar's gold bullion - which was Europe's largest strategic gold
reserve - then sold it off to help pay for the revolution.

In his book History's Greatest Heist, McMeekin claimed Lenin's
henchmen secretly auctioned off the treasure abroad.

The mini-sub team - currently conducting a mapping exercise in the
lake - have not said when they will return to the scene.
The vast Lake Baikal contains 20 per cent of the world's fresh water.

For treasure, end of an odyssey

TAMPA - A half-billion-dollar treasure, found off the coast of
Portugal and brought to the Bay Area, is airborne on one final, but
still controversial, journey.

Thousands of silver and gold coins pulled from the wreck of the
Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes are now headed back to Spain after a
U.S. judge decided that's who really owns them.

Seventeen tons of coins were trucked from a Sarasota warehouse to
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa yesterday. As a Spanish admiral looked
on, they were loaded up onto Spanish military cargo planes ahead of
their flight across the Atlantic today.

"This is not money. This is historical heritage," Spanish ambassador
Jorge Dezcallar de Mazarredo insisted as the planes prepared to
depart.

The treasure was found and recovered by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine,
but the Spanish government took to the courts, demanding its return. A
final ruling in their favor came a week ago, leaving Odyssey no choice
but to hand the treasure over.

"The United States government has supported Spain in this case all
along, against interests of Odyssey, a publicly-traded company, with
American taxpayers and American employees for political reasons, so it
really gives new meaning to the phrase, 'You can't fight City Hall,' "
Odyssey's attorney, Melinda MacConnel, told FOX 13 earlier this week.

The two Spanish C-130 cargo planes rumbled down the runway at MacDill
just after noon, headed back to their homeland.

The coins' flight back to Spain will complete a journey that started
over 200 years ago. The Mercedes was carrying gold from Peru back to
Spain when it was sunk by the British back in 1804.

It wasn't until 2007 when Odyssey announced that it had recovered
treasure from a site it code-named 'Black Swan,' but the company did
not initially identify the exact shipwreck.

Subsequent court rulings concluded the site was most likely the
Mercedes, and that the usual laws of salvage rights did not apply
because the ship was a military vessel.

Spain has said the treasure will be cleaned up and put on public
display after its return.

"These will go to museums," de Mazarredo added. "These are not going
to be melted down, not going to be exchanged for money. According to
Spanish law, it cannot be sold so it will go to museums, probably in
Spain and maybe in other places around the world too."

Shipwrecked silver begins voyage back to Spain

A 17-ton haul of silver coins, lost for two centuries in the wreck of
a sunken Spanish galleon, began its journey back to its home country
on Friday after the deep-sea explorers who lifted it to the surface
lost their claim to ownership.
Two massive cargo planes - Spanish military C-130s - took off just
after noon from a Florida Air Force base with 594,000 silver coins and
other artifacts aboard. They were packed into the same white plastic
buckets in which they were brought to the U.S. by Tampa, Fla.-based
Odyssey Marine Exploration in May 2007.
"These are emotional and moving moments for me and all my colleagues
behind me," Spain's ambassador to the United States, Jorge Dezcallar
de Mazar, said Friday. He stood on the windy tarmac at MacDill Air
Force base behind the hulking gray planes, flanked by an entourage of
more than two dozen Spanish officials and others.
"History will make us who we are, and today we are witnessing a
journey that started 200 years ago," he said. "This is not money. This
is historical heritage."
The C-130s lifted off into a clear sky minutes apart from a MacDill
runway as a bank of news cameras and a group of reporters observed
from the tarmac. Inside, the buckets of coins were secured to pallets
with plastic wrap and strapped into the rear cargo holds. Before their
departure, the planes were guarded by armed American service members.
The planes were set to land in about 22 to 24 hours at one of two air
force bases in Madrid, and were set to make two refueling stops during
the high-security operation, the ambassador said.
Odyssey made an international splash when it discovered the wreck,
believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, off Portugal's
Atlantic coast near the Straits of Gibraltar. At the time, the coins
were estimated to be worth as much as $500 million to collectors,
which would have made it the richest shipwreck haul in history.
The Mercedes was believed to have had 200 people aboard when it was sunk.
Spain went ahead with transporting the treasure despite a last-ditch,
longshot claim to the treasure by Peru.
On Thursday, the Peruvian government made an emergency appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block transfer of the treasure to give
that nation more time to make arguments in federal court about its
claim to being the rightful owner. But that appeal was denied Friday
by Justice Clarence Thomas.
Peru had argued the gold and silver was mined, refined and minted in
that country, which at the time was part of the Spanish empire.
U.S. courts had previously rejected claims by descendants of the
Peruvian merchants who had owned the coins aboard the Mercedes.
Odyssey - which uses a remote-controlled submersible to explore the
depths and bring the tiniest of items to the surface - had previously
argued that as the finder it was entitled to all or most of the
treasure. The Spanish government filed a claim in U.S. District Court
soon after the coins were flown back to Tampa, contending that it
never relinquished ownership of the ship or its contents. A federal
district court first ruled in 2009 that the U.S. courts didn't have
jurisdiction, and ordered the treasure returned.
Odyssey had argued that the wreck was never positively identified as
the Mercedes. And if it was that vessel, the company contended, then
the ship was on a commercial trade trip - not a sovereign mission - at
the time it sank, meaning Spain would have no firm claim to the cargo.
International treaties generally hold that warships sunk in battle are
protected from treasure seekers.
Odyssey lost every round in federal courts trying to hold on to the
treasure, as the Spanish government painted them as modern-day pirates
plundering the nation's cultural heritage. In a court hearing Feb. 17,
the company was ordered by a federal judge to give Spain access to the
treasure this week to ready it for transport. Odyssey said it would no
longer oppose Spain's claims. Meanwhile, the court also ordered that
Odyssey had to turn over some coins and other artifacts that are still
in Gibraltar.
The company has blamed politics for the courts' decisions since the
U.S. government publicly backed Spain's efforts to get the treasure
returned. In several projects since then, Odyssey has worked with the
British government on efforts to salvage that nation's sunken ships,
with agreements to share what it recovers. Company officials said the
ruling against them may lead to other deep-sea explorers refusing to
share information about their claims with governments. They declined
to comment further Friday,
Odyssey has said in earnings statements that it has spent $2.6 million
salvaging, transporting, storing and conserving the treasure. But it
is not expected to receive any compensation from the Spanish
government for recovering it because the European nation has
maintained that the company should not have tried to do so in the
first place.
"I would expect that the companies would respect historical heritage
and respect the law of the sea," Dezcallar de Mazar said. "And the law
of the sea states that no matter how (much) times goes by, a sunken
man-of-war belongs to the flag."
In Madrid, the Spanish Culture Ministry recently said the coins are
classified as national heritage and - as such - must stay inside that
country, where they will be exhibited in one or more Spanish museums.
It ruled out the idea of the treasure being sold to ease Spain's
national debt in a country grappling with a 23 percent jobless rate
and a stagnant economy.

Read more here:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/02/23/2038428/peru-makes-long-shot-bid-for-spanish.html#storylink=cpy

Spain sends planes to bring back 19th-century treasure from US

Madrid - Two Spanish military planes took off Tuesday for the US state
of Florida, from where they will bring back nearly 600,000 silver and
gold coins that were retrieved from a 19th-century galleon, Spanish
Defence Ministry sources said.

A federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, had previously ordered the
deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration to return to
Spain the treasure it retrieved from a sunken ship off the Portuguese
coast in 2007.

Experts identified the ship as the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de
las Mercedes, which went down in 1804. The coins on board, which weigh
nearly 16 tons and are estimated to be worth more than 350 million
euros (464 million dollars), had been minted in Peru in 1796.

Odyssey took the coins to an undisclosed destination and fought a
five-year legal battle to keep them.

But the court in Atlanta sided with Spain and a judge in Tampa,
Florida, on Friday ordered Odyssey to give Spain access to the
treasure by Tuesday. It is to be handed over three days later,
according to the ruling seen by dpa.

At the same time, judge Mark Pizzo rejected a request from Odyssey
that Spain compensate it for taking care of the coins.

Spanish paramilitary police were due to guard the coins, which would
then be distributed among several museums

Peru makes last-minute claim to Spanish booty of the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes

The company removed the booty — valued at a half billion dollars,
which would make it the richest sunken treasure ever to be salvaged —
from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes
in 2007 but had repeatedly failed in legal efforts to prevent Spain
from claiming it, according to the AP. The wreck was found near
Portugal and the Strait of Gibraltar.

The news agency said Peru's last-ditch appeal, which was directed to
Justice Clarence Thomas, called on the US high court to delay the
transfer of the treasure while the Peruvian government developed legal
arguments in favor of a claim to the booty.

While Peruvian officials did not answer requests for comment, the
Peruvian government has claimed in the past the gold in cargo of the
Nuestra Señora was mined, refined and minted in Peru, then part of the
Spanish empire, according to the AP, which said similar Peruvian
claims had been rejected in the past by US courts.

The AP did not indicate whether tomorrow's scheduled transfer of the
treasure would occur but said Justice Thomas did not indicate when he
might respond to the Peruvian motion.

The Nuestra Señora was sunk by the British navy in 1804 with 200 hands aboard.

97-year-old man searching for 4,000 tons of gold (part 1)

Last October, Mr. Tran Van Tiep, 97, paid VND500 million ($25,000) as
deposit for exploring a "gold treasure" in Tau Mount in Tuy Phong
district, Binh Thuan province. Below is the sensational story about
the old man who has kept searching for the "4,000 ton gold" for dozens
of years.

"He was very happy recently because the state permitted him to explore
the treasure in Tau Mountain," an assistant to Mr. Tiep said.

Tiep said that in the late 1950s, he had collected accurate
information about this "treasure."

"During the two wars against French and American, I had to keep secret
the information. After the country's unification, I did not find out
anyone who could join me to search for the gold warehouse until I met
Mr. Tam Hien (Le Van Hien, former member of the Vietnam Communist
Party Central Committee, Party Secretary of Binh Thuan province, who
died in 2010,) my plan became reality," Tiep said.

According to this man, in late World War II (around 1943), after
surrendering to the Allies, Japanese general Yamashita led a fleet of
84 warships carrying gold to Ca Na Bay (between Binh Thuan and Ninh
Thuan provinces in central Vietnam). The Japanese army hid around
4,000 tons of gold at a mount near the sea.

However, 66 Japanese warships were scuttled by the Allies in Ca Na
Bay. The remaining 18 ships ran away. There was a ship which
completely sank in the bay in 1945.

After the World War II, Japanese went to Vietnam many times to search
for this huge warehouse of gold but they failed. Tiep confirm: "The
Japanese army buried gold near the sea of Binh Thuan because transport
convenience in this area, which has a sea route, road and railway.
Moreover, the Japanese gold warehouse is near another gold warehouse
left by a Champa King."

Before getting Binh Thuan authorities' permission to explore in the
eastern Tau mountain, Tiep and his assistants showed many material
evidences, which Tiep said that he had collected from surveys on Tau
Mount.

With negligible information, Tiep has pursued the so-called "The
treasure on Tau Mountain" for over five decades. He has spent his life
and hundreds of taels of gold (equivalent to millions of USD) to only
one job: searching for the treasure. Despite failure, the old man has
not lost his heart for this job. His trust on the treasure on Tau
Mountain is also burning.

"These antiques are undeniable proofs of the presence of the treasure
on the Tau Mountain," Tiep insisted, showing an old Japanese sword and
sheath, a 10,000 yen coin, a broken metal-made pipe, two black dragon
logos, and some other things.

For the first time, he disclosed a map of the "treasure". Tiep said
that only he and the top official of Binh Thuan province could see the
map.

The trust on the treasure was strongly enhanced on the 97-year-old man
when some local people gave him some more information: men who worked
as coolies for the Japanese army told their descendants that before
withdrawing, Japanese had hidden gold in cellars in the Tau Mountain.

10 years on Tau Mount

On October 16, 1993, Binh Thuan province's Chairman Dang Van Hai
licensed Tie to "search for metal" on Tau Mountain. Tiep hired a
geological engineer named Hoang Van Truong, who is also a "telepath"
from the northern province of Phu Tho to help him find gold.

Since early 1994, Tiep hired bulldozers and excavators to explore the
eastern part of Tau Mountain. After three months using mechanical
vehicles, Tiep thought that he "approached" the cellar door.

After digging 3m deep into the rock, workers reported to him about the
cellar door of 24m in width, and 80m in length, made by rock. Rocks
are stuck together by a layer of lime. The information was similar to
the information that he got in 1969. According to Tiep, the treasure
is possibly 40m deep under the eastern rock layer of Tau Mountain.

To approach the treasure, Tiep paid billion of dong to hire workers
and equipment to dig the mountain from 1993 to 2003.

Tiep has become very familiar to local people. They call him "The son
of Tau Mount."

However, the man has not found out the treasure yet.

Tub of lard found fit to eat after 64 years

Tub of lard found fit to eat after 64 years

 

Published: 1 Feb 12 15:52 CET

Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120201-40487.html

A 64-year-old tub of American lard has been deemed fit for human consumption by food safety authorities in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

 

Millions of tins of "Swift's Bland Lard" – a pig fat which was used as a spread similar to butter or as a cooking fat – were distributed by US soldiers to West Germans after World War II in care packages that included other essentials like powdered milk, cheese and sugar.

 

Some of those made their way to communist East Germany, including one to Hans Feldmeier, a pharmacist from the Baltic Sea town of Warnemünde who never opened the can.

 

Worried that the lard had passed its expiration date, the 87-year-old recently decided to turn it over to the state for a comprehensive inspection.

 

The response was surprisingly positive.

 

"Overall, the product has a degree of freshness and material composition necessary to be assessed to be satisfactory after 64 years," according to the State Office for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Security.

 

The authorities did, however, find minor deficiencies in the lard's smell and taste, discovering that it was slightly gritty and appeared old, meaning it could not compete with the quality of a fresh sample. Still, it appeared to be fit for human consumption, they said.

 

The office credited the air-tight US can and preservatives for maintaining the lard in such pristine condition over the years.

 

Feldmeier promptly asked for his tin of lard back, calling it "beautiful" and saying he couldn't imagine parting with it.

 

So the authorities sent it back to him – empty.

WWII veteran's group laughs over ‘Private Snafu”

WWII veteran's group laughs over 'Private Snafu"

 

SNAFU is the military acronym for "Situation Normal, All Fouled Up." Each Private Snafu cartoon lasts about three minutes and depicts a goofy G.I. named Snafu, who can't seem to keep from getting in trouble. Contributed photo

 

By Emily McCrary

StarNews Correspondent

incrdible matchsticks fleet

This is going to totally blow you away!!!

 

79-year-old Phil Warren from the UK spent 62 years to build this incredible fleet of 432 ships. All vessels are built entirely of matchsticks and boxes of wooden matches. The collection includes nearly 370 American and 60 British ships.

 

Although now he has now reached 79 years of age, he began creating his first boat in 1948, when he was only 17. This uses a razor blade, tweezers and sandpaper to carve the pieces and boxes, then sticks with balsa wood glue. In total more than 650,000 used matchsticks to create an amazing collection of 1:300 scale models. Even 1,200 aircraft made ​ ​even more realistic appearance to dress the decks of aircraft carriers.

 

The Real Captain Jack

In 1984, Barry Clifford discovered the Whydah -- the only
authenticated pirate ship ever found in U.S. waters -- off the coast
of Cape Cod, where it sunk in a storm in 1717. After decades of
salvage work, more than 200 artifacts from the ship have gone on tour
in an exhibit called "Real Pirates," which opens Saturday at the
Science Museum of Minnesota.

"This is the only pirate treasure that's ever been discovered and
documented," Clifford said. "It's like having the only Tyrannosaurus
rex."

He talked last week about the historical significance of the Whydah
(pronounced "whih-dah"), which was a slave-trading vessel before it
was captured by genuine pirates of the Caribbean.

Q: What first got you interested in pirates?

A: As a boy growing up on Cape Cod I had heard all these stories about
the legendary pirate ship that was supposed to have wrecked in this
place called "The Graveyard," where there were hundreds of other ships
that wrecked over the years.

Q: For visitors who may not be interested in pirates, what other
significance do the boat's artifacts have?

A: A third of the crew were of African origin, most of whom were
former slaves. This was never clear to me in any of the books I had
read about pirates. In fact, many Native Americans were pirates, as
well, many of whom had been slaves who escaped.

Q: Do you have a favorite artifact from the Whydah?

A: Well, we have the oldest reliably dated collection of arcane
jewelry from the Ashanti tribes. Not only coins, but there was a
tremendous amount of gold, much of which was African gold that hadn't
been melted down yet. We also have three Freemason symbols. The
symbols predate the official start of Freemasonry.

Q: For fans of "Pirates of the Caribbean," how would this exhibit
broaden their horizons in terms of pirate culture?

A: Well, Bellamy [the pirate captain] was quoted as saying, "I am a
free prince, and I have as much right to declare war as any king with
100,000 men in the field. This my conscience tells me." So here's this
pirate talking about conscience, and he's talking about egalitarian
theories he had on socialism and democracy where the whole crew would
be equal and would share equally. There were thousands and thousands
of pirates who infiltrated back into colonial culture with lots of
money in their pocket. How that influenced others in years to come is
interesting to me.
•Jesse Mandell-McClinton is a University of Minnesota student on
assignment for the Star Tribune

Material that Vanishes when Shot with Microwave Energy

It's not quite the Invisible Man, but researchers say they have gotten
a step closer to creating a "three-dimensional cloak" that would
render objects invisible.

Scientists at the University of Texas in Austin today said they have
hidden a cylinder from microwaves, demonstrating cloaking of an object
in free space, rather than a two-dimensional image. The group has not
been able to scatter visible light, but it expects that cloaking small
objects is possible.

"Cloaking small objects may be exciting for a variety of applications.
For instance, we are currently investigating the application of these
concepts to cloak a microscope tip at optical frequencies. This may
greatly benefit biomedical and optical near-field measurements," said
University of Texas assistant professor Andrea Alu in a statement. He
is co-author of a paper published today in the Institute of Physics
and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics.

Researchers for years have been designing synthetic materials to coat
an object and make it appear transparent. In its experiment, the
University of Texas group covered a cylinder with a shell coated with
a nanometer-sized plasmonic material that scatters light and other
electromagnetic waves.
When we see an object, our eyes receive the reflection of light rays
off that object and our brain processes that visual information. At
certain frequencies, plasmonic materials can excite electron
oscillations that make the light waves scatter in a way that
counteracts the normal reflection, according to the University of
Texas. The effect is to make it appear transparent.

The paper says that the plasmonic materials work regardless of the
shape of the object and, in principle, could work on a broader range
of frequencies, including visible light. But there appear to be some
limitations on what sorts of materials it will work on. The experiment
worked on a dielectric object but not on metals, according to a
description from the University of Texas.

In the future, though, portions of aircraft could be covered or
optical instruments could use the material to correct effects. "We
believe that our results pave the way to realistic, practical
applications of 3D stand-alone cloaks for radar evasion and
non-invasive radio frequency probing," according to the paper.

Odyssey fails to block release of treasure to Spain

The US Supreme Court has rejected an emergency application by Odyssey
Marine Exploration to block the return of a $500m treasure it
recovered in the Atlantic while its ships were based in Gibraltar in
2007.

It is the latest development in a courtroom wrangle between Spain and
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration over the plight of the most
valuable treasure ever recovered from the seabed.

The emergency application followed a decision by a US Appeal Court
last week upholding an earlier ruling that will lead to an order for
it to hand the 17 tons of gold and silver coins to Spain.

Odyssey has appealed the first ruling before the Supreme Court but the
company fears it will be forced to hand the treasure over before
appeal is heard.

The emergency application sought to secure a stay from the Supreme
Court stopping any order to hand over the treasure.

But Justice Clarence Thomas rejected the application without any
comment, making this the latest in a string of courtroom defeats for
the US treasure hunters.

Odyssey is concerned that once it hands the coins to Spain, it will
have little remedy in the event that the Supreme Court upholds its
appeal and overturns the first decision.

The coins are believed to come from the Nuestra Señora de las
Mercedes, a 19th century Spanish galleon which sank of the coast of
Portugal. The Florida-based company found the treasure in 2007 and
flew it to the US from Gibraltar, sparking controversy and a
convoluted legal challenge that is still working its way through the
US courts. Spain's position, upheld by the lower courts, is that the
coins came from a sovereign ship that is not subject to the
jurisdiction of the US courts.

Spain: U.S. court orders sunken treasure returned to Madrid

Odyssey had found 500,000 coins on sunken ship

MADRID, FEBRUARY 10 - Treasure found at sea in 2007 on board a sunken
ship, the "Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes", which sank in 1804 off the
coast of Portugal in a battle with the English fleet, has been ordered
to be returned to the Spanish government according to a ruling by the
U.S. Supreme Court. The highest court of appeals in the U.S. rejected
the latest appeal by Odyssey Marine Exploration, a company
specialising in 'treasure hunting', report sources from the Spanish
Culture Ministry today cited by Europa Press. With the decision, the
high court ordered the company that recovered the treasure, which
included 15 tonnes of gold and silver coins, to return it to the
Spanish government within 10 days, starting from the time in which the
Atlanta court of appeals officially communicates its rejection of the
appeal made to the Court of Tampa, where the case was heard. Sources
in the ministry expressed "great satisfaction" over the ruling and
underlined how "Odyssey's arguments had been rejected in all legal"
venues.

The decision by the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the
treasure-hunting company. The ruling stated that the Spanish ship from
which the treasure of 500,000 ancient gold and silver coins was
extracted was a ship owned by the state and not a merchant vessel,
making it the property of its state of origin. The precious treasure
was recovered by Odyssey on May 18 2007 in the Atlantic Ocean off the
coast of Spain and taken to the United States on a private airplane.
The North American treasure hunters renamed the sunken ship 'Black
swan', stating that the ship was not on a military mission when it
sunk. But an investigation opened by the Spanish government in
collaboration with Armada, the national archaeological museum, the
Royal Historical Academy and other institutions, allowed for it to be
established that the sunken ship was the 'Nuestra Senora de la
Mercedes', which was part of the Spanish fleet and that it was found
in Spanish territorial waters.

Reno teen shows anti-terrorism invention to President Obama

WASHINGTON -- At the White House Science Fair on Tuesday, President
Barack Obama joked that 17-year-old Taylor Wilson of Reno must have
one of the most radioactive garages in the nation.

Taylor, a senior at the prestigious Davidson Academy of Reno, has been
studying nuclear science since he was 10 years old and got a chance to
show Obama his patented invention to help detect highly enriched
uranium and weapons grade plutonium.

"He asked what my parents thought about the nuclear material in my
garage," Taylor said after meeting the president.

But, all joking aside, Obama also told Taylor that his invention could
help protect the United States from terrorists. In a roomful with a
marshmallow-shooting air cannon and robots, Taylor's invention stood
out for its seriousness.

The teenager said his detection system could be used as a monitor at
U.S. ports to scan cargo containers for dangerous radioactive
materials that terrorists may try to smuggle into the country. He said
his device would cost less than $100.

Taylor has met with officials of the Homeland Security and Energy
Departments to discuss his invention, and Obama urged other members of
his administration to talk to the young scientist.

"I've been doing nuclear science since I was 10 years old," Taylor
said. "I'm going to use my work to fight terrorism."

Taylor was among more than 100 students from throughout the country —
and the only one from Nevada — to have their inventions and
discoveries featured at the second White House Science Fair. The event
celebrates student winners of a broad range of science, technology,
engineering and math competitions from across the nation.

Taylor's invention earned him the 2011 Intel Foundation Young
Scientist Award, which included a cash prize of $50,000. He also won
the contest's Best of Category in physics.

"We've got to emphasize how important this is and recognize these
incredible young people who are doing things that I couldn't even
imagine thinking about at fifth grade or eighth grade or in high
school," Obama said in a speech after he toured the White House fair.

Obama used the occasion to announce steps that his administration is
taking to prepare 100,000 math and science teachers to train one
million additional science and math graduates over the next decade.

"The young people I met today — you guys inspire me," Obama said.
"You're making sure we'll always be home to the most creative
entrepreneurs, the most advanced science labs and universities. You're
making sure America will win the race to the future. "

In addition to taking on terrorists, Taylor is working on a way to
dramatically cut the cost of using radioactive isotopes in medical
diagnostic tests.

When he explains his inventions to adults, Taylor said he often sees
the same reaction.

"I get a lot of shocked faces," he said.

Record Prices for World's Oldest Champagne

Two bottles of the world's oldest champagne were auctioned Friday in
the capital of the Finnish Åland Islands, Mariehamn. The bottles are
two of an intact cache of 145 discovered by divers in an early 19th
century shipwreck last summer.

The tipples fetched record prices - the first bottle going for 24,000
euros, while the second sold for about 30,000 euros.

Veuve Cliquot champagne distillers also offered rare vintages for sale
at the same auction. Friday's sale was said to be the world's only
auction for solely for champagnes.

Proceeds from the sale are to be used by the provincial government for
public ventures, such as the restoration of the Baltic Sea.

Cognac treasure ship found near Åland?

Divers say they have found the wreck of a ship carrying a valuable
load of cognac and liqueurs that sank during the First World War
between Finland and Sweden.

A team of divers from the west-coast town of Rauma announced on
Thursday that they had found the ship in the Gulf of Bothnia, north of
the Åland Islands and west of Rauma. The group, Raumanmeren
Hylky-Team, have not revealed a more exact location.

The hulk lies at a depth of around 80 metres.

The 220-tonne Swedish steamship Kyros was carrying hundreds of bottles
of cognac and liqueurs when it was torpedoed by a German u-boat on May
19, 1917 -- apparently one of nine Swedish vessels sunk that same day.

According to some reports, it was carrying a mixed cargo including
steel products and as many as 1000 bottles of cognac and 300 bottles
of liqueur.

Diving teams have been searching for the elusive vessel for years. In
the late 1990s a Swedish group of treasure-hunters believed they had
found it, but the object turned out to be a rock outcropping.

Finders, keepers?

The divers say the vessel has remain quite intact. They will decide
whether to try to raise the contents after closer examination.

"It's extremely difficult to operate down there," diver Pasi Rytkönen
told YLE. "The ship is intact, although it has begun to slowly fall
apart and there's lots of sediment. You can't just go down there and
just bring up whatever."

Rytkönen's team plans to continue diving with a larger robot, but what
will happen after that remains murky. No owner of the ship or its
cargo has been identified. According to Rytkönen, the situation is
therefore clear: "Finders, keepers!"

In 2010, Finnish divers made worldwide headlines when they raised a
valuable cargo of antique champagne bottles from a shipwreck near
Åland.

Mystery code in the solar wind

TAGS:Religion, Space, SciTech, Thrills&Spills, Physics



When astronomers discovered a pulsar for the first time, they thought the regular signal coming from the star was a call from aliens. A similar story happened in Russia, although it is far less-known to the public.

It started in 1938, when famous polar explorer Ivan Papanin and his team returned from the world’s first-ever drifting ice station expedition. Among the numerous meteorological, oceanographical, hydrobiological and other materials, the brave explorers brought with them films with photos of a rare kind of aurora borealis.

The films had been shelved for several years and narrowly escaped a fire, when an incendiary bomb hit the Institute of Oceanography during a Nazi German bombing raid on Moscow.

In 1949, the photos were shown by a fellow scientist to Igor Tamm, a famous physicist and future Nobel Prize winner. Tamm, who was researching high energy particles at the time, was greatly agitated, after noticing that patterns in the luminosity of the aurora were similar to those he had seen in his lab.


TAGS:Religion, Space, SciTech, Thrills&Spills, PhysicsWhen astronomers discovered a pulsar for the first time, they thought the regular signal coming from the star was a call from aliens. A similar story happened in Russia, although it is far less-known to the public.It started in 1938, when famous polar explorer Ivan Papanin and his team returned from the world’s first-ever drifting ice station expedition. Among the numerous meteorological, oceanographical, hydrobiological and other materials, the brave explorers brought with them films with photos of a rare kind of aurora borealis.The films had been shelved for several years and narrowly escaped a fire, when an incendiary bomb hit the Institute of Oceanography during a Nazi German bombing raid on Moscow.In 1949, the photos were shown by a fellow scientist to Igor Tamm, a famous physicist and future Nobel Prize winner. Tamm, who was researching high energy particles at the time, was greatly agitated, after noticing that patterns in the luminosity of the aurora were similar to those he had seen in his lab.Tamm consulted Ernst Krenkel, Papanin’s radioman, and came up with the theory that aurora borealis could be used as a communication medium if a powerful electromagnetic radiation is applied to the solar wind, which causes the northern lights. He called the phenomenon “chromatically modulated transmission” and submitted a secret memorandum directly to Joseph Stalin, requesting finances and access to top secret equipment to put the theory to the test.The letter was reviewed by the Kremlin’s inner circle and the result was unlike anything Tamm expected. He was accused of being an American spy, and it took seven months and a lot of political maneuvering from his influential colleagues to get his name cleared. Tamm’s idea was buried for two decades.It was in 1986, when the research of the strange aurora was actually carried out on the direct order of Mikhail Gorbachev. It is not clear how he ever got the information on Tamm’s theory in the first place, but some researchers suggest a link through physicist and human rights activist Andrey Sakharov, who used to work with Tamm on a project of thermonuclear power plant.A small and top-secret research institution was opened in the northern port city of Murmansk, which closely monitored auroras. In August 1991, a breakthrough happened – cryptologists working on three records of suspected communication signals finally came up with proof that the northern lights really contained information embedded it their colors.A report was sent to Gorbachev, but on the next day, several officials and generals launched a coup d’etat. On that same day, a stolen fighter jet of the Finnish Air Force crossed the border and crashed into the research facility in Murmansk, killing 16 people and destroying most of their records.Three days later, chief of the aliens, who secretly rule the world, ordered the replacement of the transmitter on the dark side of the moon, which caused interference with aurora borealis.Click to enlargeOf course, the whole story has nothing to do with reality. Skeptically-minded readers probably have felt it from the very beginning, while those with a taste for mystery may have made it almost to the end without feeling that it is bogus. The point is that, to a certain point, people will not doubt what they are told, as long as it is in tune with their gut feeling of how the world works.It is not that bad actually. Our imagination, curiosity and desire for a miracle distinguish us from machines and animals. Somehow we need to believe in UFOs, or in the “love conquers all” motto, or in special value of Apple products. It probably helps us believe in other stupid illusions like fairness, family values and the importance of human life.And happy World UFO Day to those celebrating it!

Tamm consulted Ernst Krenkel, Papanin’s radioman, and came up with the theory that aurora borealis could be used as a communication medium if a powerful electromagnetic radiation is applied to the solar wind, which causes the northern lights. He called the phenomenon “chromatically modulated transmission” and submitted a secret memorandum directly to Joseph Stalin, requesting finances and access to top secret equipment to put the theory to the test.

The letter was reviewed by the Kremlin’s inner circle and the result was unlike anything Tamm expected. He was accused of being an American spy, and it took seven months and a lot of political maneuvering from his influential colleagues to get his name cleared. Tamm’s idea was buried for two decades.

It was in 1986, when the research of the strange aurora was actually carried out on the direct order of Mikhail Gorbachev. It is not clear how he ever got the information on Tamm’s theory in the first place, but some researchers suggest a link through physicist and human rights activist Andrey Sakharov, who used to work with Tamm on a project of thermonuclear power plant.

A small and top-secret research institution was opened in the northern port city of Murmansk, which closely monitored auroras. In August 1991, a breakthrough happened – cryptologists working on three records of suspected communication signals finally came up with proof that the northern lights really contained information embedded it their colors.

A report was sent to Gorbachev, but on the next day, several officials and generals launched a coup d’etat. On that same day, a stolen fighter jet of the Finnish Air Force crossed the border and crashed into the research facility in Murmansk, killing 16 people and destroying most of their records.

Three days later, chief of the aliens, who secretly rule the world, ordered the replacement of the transmitter on the dark side of the moon, which caused interference with aurora borealis.



Click to enlarge
Of course, the whole story has nothing to do with reality. Skeptically-minded readers probably have felt it from the very beginning, while those with a taste for mystery may have made it almost to the end without feeling that it is bogus. The point is that, to a certain point, people will not doubt what they are told, as long as it is in tune with their gut feeling of how the world works.
It is not that bad actually. Our imagination, curiosity and desire for a miracle distinguish us from machines and animals. Somehow we need to believe in UFOs, or in the “love conquers all” motto, or in special value of Apple products. It probably helps us believe in other stupid illusions like fairness, family values and the importance of human life.

And happy World UFO Day to those celebrating it!

Storm-sunken “treasure ship” found in Ukraine

TAGS:Ukraine, SciTech, Thrills&Spills, HistoryRemains of the British frigate “Prince”, which was sunk by a heavy storm in 1854 during the Crimean War, have been discovered in the Black Sea. The vessel is rumored to have a cargo solid gold.HMS "Prince" was a storeship hired by the Royal Navy among some 200 private vessels to be used for delivering supplies. On November 8, 1854, it anchored in the sea off the town of Balaklava in Crimea.Five days later, a mighty storm hit the area, sinking four ships of the allied British-French fleet, including the Prince, and killing more than 500 men. But by the end of the war a rumor spread that, in addition to sleeping bags and woolen socks, the vessel had something much more interesting – barrels of gold intended as payment for the troops.The treasure legend lured hunters of different nationalities to try to discover the sunken freighter and its allegedly-valuable cargo. As the maritime gold rush unfolded, reports of the prize waiting for brave adventurers also grew in size, reaching 6 million pounds sterling in some reports.Numerous failures to find the treasure among the wreckages dotting the seabed of Balaklava Bay did not discourage would-be bounty hunters, and only the start of World War II put the search on hold.Now Ukrainian media report that a diving expedition has found the Prince, a century-and-a-half after its sinking. They have lifted a plate from the seabed with the logo of the owner of the Prince on it. Since the company had only two ships near Balaklava during the 1854 storm, and the other one survived it, researchers say their find must be from the legendary vessel. The divers have also discovered cannon balls and medical supplies.The expedition however is not expecting to discover any gold now, as most historians now believe that the Prince had none on board. The treasure rumor was apparently instigated by the similarity of the Prince’s name with another British vessel, the steamer “Black Prince”, which was indeed used to transport payment for troops. The sunken freighter had been referred to as Black Prince by many authors in both historical books and numerous works of fiction.Above all, if there had been gold on the Prince when it left Britain, it would have been unloaded in Istanbul, where the British Chief Quartermaster’s headquarters were located.

Treasure hunt on an international scale

TAGS:Asia, Russia, SciTech, Thrills&Spills, HistoryRussian parliamentarians and historians have a new lead in the search for the legendary gold of the Tsar's family. According to the new discovery, the whole treasure, or part of it, may be in Japan.Since the end of the First World War, the mystery of the Tsar’s gold has been consuming the minds of many. Legend has it that Admiral Kolchak was the last known keeper of the Tsar’s treasure. As the most prominent commander of the anti-Bolshevik forces, Kolchak was given charge of the Tsar’s gold reserves, which he passionately protected. It is believed the Russian admiral traveled abroad with the precious metal and funded his army with some of the gold. But when he was captured and killed, the secret of the gold’s location died with him.And after nearly 100 years, enthusiasts, as well as government officials, are still searching for the lost treasure. The enigma of the Tsar’s gold has split Russian society in two parts. The vanished amount of gold is valued at approximately US$80 billion. Some historians believe it could not have disappeared without trace. But others claim there are documents relating to how the gold was spent, so the money some politicians hope to find abroad does not exist.After World War II, the Soviet Union never formerly signed a peace treaty with Japan, mainly over territorial disputes in the Kuril Islands, but there are speculations that the legend of Kolchak’s gold may also share in the blame. Representatives of the Duma suggest they have found a paper trail that proves Japan may have a significant amount of the legendary treasure and that a comprehensive treaty should address both the issues of territory and the prompt return of the missing gold.Igor Dyakov, a writer and State Duma Deputy, asserts the existence of the Tsar’s gold as an undeniable fact, referring to the official documents, dated 1946:“A report was prepared for the minister of finances, Zverev, about the state of Russian gold taken abroad in 1919 on Kolchak’s orders. I can not disclose the inside sources that were studying the issue and conducting negotiations in Japan. There is no doubt that this gold exists. It is a fact.”The doubters also believe a thorough record accounting for the gold exists, but that it tells a different story. “The leaders of Russian immigration were very diligent in their reports about spending the money. So we have written records of everything. So no one owes us anything,” says historian Vladimir Buldakov.

US sea explorer finds Soviet platinum

An American sea explorer has found the remains of a World War IImerchant ship along with a cargo of platinum bars worth an estimated$3 billion.

The precious metals are thought to have belonged to the USSR and theUK, who were going to use them to pay back the US for aid. If this iscorrect, it is the world's most valuable find of its kind.

"We were working off the coast back in 2007 when one of ourresearchers came across recently declassified documents from Moscowand the US Treasury department that led us into a new search," GregBrooks, a treasure hunter from Sub-Sea Research, told RT.

As it turned out, the USSR had shipped these goods to Great Britainand then to the US as payment for the lend-lease program.

The search was far from easy thanks to the weather and conditions.

"It's an extremely hazardous area we were working in," Brooks said."The currents out there were anywhere from two knots to six knots.We've had some severe weather this past season. The equipment wasgoing down over 700 feet trying to enter the wreck."

Last but not least, it took the crew an immense effort to find the ship.

"The US Navy documents said the ship went down off Cape Cod and thatwas where we started to look," Brook recalled. "But it wasn't anywherenear. We had to cover 150 square miles before we actually found thewreck."

At first they were worried that someone would come and take theirtreasure but, luckily for them, this did not happen.

"Right now, we are facing no competition," Brooks told RT. "We have aUS Admiralty claim on the vessel and no one has come forward up tothis day. In early 2009 we filed legal notices in all the majornewspapers, the Wall Street journal, the New York Times, the Globeetc, in accordance with maritime law."

‘Atlantis’ in Google Earth Eliminated by New Data

When Google Ocean was added to the vast image database of Google Earth
in 2009, the Internet lit up. Here was a real treasure trove — the
floor of the world's seas in remarkable detail, free for use by
scientists, teachers, shipping companies, and anyone else with a
spirit of curiosity.

There was, as well, a spot about 600 miles off the coast of northern
Africa with a curious matrix of lines (see picture, left). A British
tabloid ran a boldfaced headline: "Is This Atlantis?" and quoted an
aeronautical engineer as saying, "It must be man-made."

At Google — as well as NASA, NOAA, the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, and other agencies that collected the sea floor data —
one could almost hear a collective gnashing of teeth. They report
Google Ocean has now been updated after three years of painstaking
work, and "Atlantis" (see upper right) is all but gone.

The grid in the original image was very man-made, said Google in 2009
— it was essentially a computing error. "Bathymetric [or sea floor
terrain] data is often collected from boats using sonar to take
measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat
as it gathers the data."

Now, new data have been added to the layers that went into creating
the ocean images. About 15 percent is now from sonar readings by
ships; much is from satellites measuring minute variations in Earth's
gravity as they go over mountains or ocean trenches. The different
data sources (Scripps alone sent ships on 287 sonar expeditions) had
to be pieced together by computer, and much of the work was done at
the University of California, San Diego, where the Scripps Institution
is headquartered. The scientists say the 2012 version is more precise
than the 2009 original, and the known errors have been corrected.

"The problem is very simple," said David Sandwell, a Scripps
geophysicist who worked on the project, in an email to ABC News. "When
you measure seafloor depth you actually measure the two-way travel
time of a sonar echo. The ship sends it, it bounces off the bottom,
and returns to the ship. To convert the time to depth you need a
velocity. If the velocity used in the conversion is a bit too high,
the depth from that cruise will be greater than all the surrounding
cruises. The particular cruise that created the 'Atlantis' problem was
a systematic mow-the-lawn type survey in a regular grid pattern, so
the resulting depth errors looked like a regular grid."

Atlantis was mentioned by Plato around 360 B.C., a city that "in a
single day and night of misfortune … disappeared into the depths of
the sea." It has been the stuff of legend ever since. Did it ever
really exist? Will Scripps' updated data do anything to settle the
matter?

"I see this as like the 'Face on Mars,'" said Sandwell. "Of course it
is nonsense, but in a way brings public attention to the deep ocean."

Treasure hunter claims $3 billion find – but is it his? And is there really platinum on the sea bed?

A haul of wartime platinum has reportedly been found on the sea floor
off the Atlantic coast of US – but is this treasure really fair game?

Treasure hunter claims $3 billion find – but is it his? And is there
really platinum on the sea bed?
A haul of wartime platinum has reportedly been found on the sea floor
off the Atlantic coast of US – but is this treasure really fair game?

Sunken ship, though not the treasure ship in question. Photo credit:
The Gearys, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gearys/122852408/
A delight for any would-be Indiana Jones, Greg Brooks, a treasure
seeker from Maine, has announced the discovery of a WW2-era shipwreck
said to be filled with a cargo of platinum, gold and industrial
diamonds reportedly worth $3 billion (£1.9 billion).

Brooks, of research firm Sub Sea Research, claimed that the wreck
sitting 50 miles off the Atlantic coast is the SS Port Nicholson, a
British merchant ship sunk by the Nazis in 1942, in a torpedo attack
that killed six people. It is reported that the wreck was first
discovered in 2008, using sonar technology and remotely operated
vehicles, but was kept secret while Brooks tried to secure salvage
rights. The UK's Daily Telegraph reports that the rich cargo was
reportedly accompanied by two Soviet envoys who survived the German
attack, only to suffer a mysterious fate on US soil. It is also said
that the USSR reimbursed the US Government for the lost payment.

Doubts have, however, been expressed whether the wreck actually holds
platinum ingots. Brooks's claim appears to be based on a US Treasury
Department ledger which shows that platinum bars were on board as part
payment from the USSR to the US for war supplies under Roosevelt's
"Lend Lease" programme. Sub Sea Research has indicated that underwater
video footage revealed the existence of a platinum bar on board but no
treasure has yet been raised to verify the claim. A US attorney,
Anthony Shusta, reportedly acting for the UK government, is also on
record as saying that it is not clear that the ship ever carried
platinum and that initial research has indicated that the vessel
carried machinery and military stores.

Although ownership rights are as yet unsettled, Brooks has announced
his desire to claim any treasure and promising, "I'm going to get it,
one way or another, even if I have to lift the ship out of the water."
If confirmed, this haul would be one of the biggest treasure troves
found on the sea bed.

The vessel is (probably) not a military vessel and the UK government
does not automatically have title to the wreck or its contents. Given
its relative youth as a wreck and its situation off the US coast the
Port Nicholson, its contents will not be covered by UNESCO's
Underwater Cultural Heritage Convention. If and when its treasure is
raised, the already murky legal position of the Port Nicholson will
become even less clear. It must be assumed that the UK government
would challenge any claim to a $3 billion dollar haul if there are any
grounds on which it may do so.

It might be open to the UK government to broker a deal with Sub Sea
Research on the lines of its two-year contract with marine recovery
firm Odyssey Marine, salvor of the SS Gairsoppa, a vessel located in
September 2011, on the basis of which Brooks could have the lion's
share of the spoils. Brooks has, however, few reasons to compromise at
present.

In any salvage operation a delicate balance must be struck between the
need to reward, on one hand, the risks and costs incurred by a salvor
and the requirement, on the other, to safeguard cultural heritage for
future generations, particularly where, as here, a wreck is also a
gravesite. It has to be hoped that the actors in this chapter of the
Port Nicholson's story won't be blinded by the lure of a £3 billion
haul alone.