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.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
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
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?
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.
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Latest Invention: Mind-Controlled TV Concept
CES 2012. Dubbed the "Brain Wave TV", the device features a 58-inch
display and it can be seen at the company's booth. This is just a
prototype that the company is currently working on.
To be able to control the futuristic television set, the user only
needs to put on an EEG headpiece (on the image you can see the right
position of the device that reads your brain).
However, the company did not show any TV interface. Instead it decided
to demonstrate its innovation on a mini-game in which the player
should try to make a barrel explode by focusing on it very hard.
Basically, the headpiece reads the electrical activity on the user's
scalp. Still due to the fact that currently it only has one main
sensor, the device didn't really show good results, though the whole
idea is worth appreciating.
According to Haier, in the near future it plans to equip its EEG
headpiece with functions that will allow the user to use their brain
to adjust the volume and switch channels.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Zazzle print from Art Nation
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