The Door to Hell

The burning hole in this video is located in Turkmenistan (contrary to popular belief that it's in Uzbekistan), found near the village of Darweze (turkish for "The Gate", also known as Darvaza). People call this natural wonder as the "Door to Hell", but of course, you can't find Satan in this hole, unless you're hallucinating or high on hallucinogenic drugs.

The Darweze area is said to be rich in natural gas. It's discovery was in 1971, when Soviet geologists accidentally tapped into a cavern filled with natural gas. The ground beneath the drilling rig collapsed, leaving a large hole with a diameter of 70 meters (230 ft.). To avoid poisonous gas discharge, it was decided to burn it off. Geologists had hoped the fire would use all the fuel in a matter of days, but the gas is still burning up to this day. Locals have called the cavern "The Door to Hell" since then.

Next to capturing the gas, flaring is safer and friendlier to the environment than releasing the methane into the atmosphere, as methane is a relatively potent greenhouse gas and considered to have a high global warming potential of 72 (averaged over 20 years) or 25 (averaged over 100 years).

In April 2010, the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow visited the site and ordered that the hole should be closed, or other measures be taken to limit its influence on the development of other natural gas fields in the area.

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A "Baby Making" Application

While browsing the Internet looking for some cool apps, I suddenly stumble upon a baby making application. Well, it's not actually new. Baby Making applications had been popular since the social media sites' rise but I'm here to share it anyways, at least, to those who hadn't heard of it yet.

There are plenty of baby making or baby maker apps on the net, though you can rarely find a good one. Most of these apps are either broken, or fake. Some may be sold for a prize, but there were also those which were offered for free yet pretty good as well, and one of those sites that offer such service is makemebabies.com.

I tried the app myself and tested it, and so far so good. The app allows you to make babies out of uploaded photos. In Makemebabies, you have the option to upload your photo, pick a partner, and select the desired baby gender as well as select a skin tone for the baby. You can also set the gender to random, and allow the app to decide for the baby's skin tone - which is based on the photos brightness. What's more is that you also have the option to select from among the list of celebrity photos stored in the sites' database. For the final steps, you are asked to choose a frame from the list and name the baby. The site will process the information you provided and release the result after a few seconds or minutes (depending on the photo), but rest assured it won't take 9 months to complete. Finally, the site also gives you the privilege to save the resulting baby's photo in the site for later access, though you have to register on the site to do this. Fortunately, the site does not even charge a penny, though you are going to see some ads. But don't worry, the ads won't hinder you from accessing the service.

For better results, you have to crop the photos and limit it to the face as this is where the site's logic is based. Also make sure it's a frontal view. The cropping feature comes along with the service so don't worry about it. However, failure to crop the photo seems to make the processing take longer as the app will have to analyze the photo carefully to retrieve the face. If you upload a photo that's not human, you'll also get weird results.

Makemebabies is a great site, and is worth the promotion here on my blog. For parent wannabes out there, you should check this site out.

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Iran threatens U.S. Navy as sanctions hit their economy

Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74)
transits the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran threatened the U.S. on Tuesday to take action if the U.S. Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf. This has been Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of saber-rattling as new U.S. and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy.

The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector in a serious way for the first time has hit Iran's rial currency, which reached a record low on Tuesday and has fallen by 40 percent against the dollar in the past month. Queues formed at Tehran banks and some currency exchange offices shut their doors as Iranians scrambled to buy dollars to protect their savings. On world markets, oil prices soared.

Army chief Ataollah Salehi said the United States had moved an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf because of Iran's naval exercises, and Iran would take action if the ship returned.

"Iran will not repeat its warning... the enemy's carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," he said.

"I advise, recommend and warn them over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once."

The U.S. military brushed off the threat: "The deployment of U.S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades," said spokesman Commander Bill Speaks.

"The U.S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce."

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis leads a U.S. Navy task force in the region. It is now outside the Gulf in the Arabian Sea, providing air support for the war in Afghanistan, said Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet.

The carrier left the Gulf on December 27 on a planned routine transit through the Strait of Hormuz, she said.

Forty percent of the world's traded oil flows through that narrow straight - which Iran threatened last month to shut if sanctions halted its oil exports.

Brent crude futures were up more than $4 in late Tuesday afternoon trade in London, pushing above $111 a barrel.

Tehran's latest threat comes at a time when sanctions are having an impact on its economy, and the country faces political uncertainty with an election in March, its first since a 2009 vote that triggered countrywide demonstrations.

The West has imposed the increasingly tight sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is strictly peaceful but Western countries believe aims to build an atomic bomb.

After years of measures that had little impact, the new sanctions are the first that could have a serious effect on Iran's oil trade, 60 percent of its economy.

Sanctions signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve would cut financial institutions that work with Iran's central bank off from the U.S. financial system, blocking the main path for Iran to receive payments for its crude.

The EU is expected to impose new sanctions by the end of this month, possibly including a ban on oil imports and a freeze of central bank assets.

Even Iran's top trading partner China - which has refused to back new global sanctions against Iran - is demanding discounts to buy Iranian oil as Tehran's options narrow. Beijing has cut its imports of Iranian crude by more than half for January.

Threats

Iran has responded to the tighter measures with belligerent rhetoric, spooling oil markets briefly when it announced last month it could prevent shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

It then held 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf, test firing missiles that could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East. Tuesday's apparent threat to take action against the U.S. Navy in international waters takes the rhetoric to a new level.

Experts still say they do not expect Tehran to charge headlong into an act of war - the U.S. Navy is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's sea forces - but Iran is running out of diplomatic room to avert a confrontation.

"I think we should be very worried because the diplomacy that should accompany this rise in tension seems to be lacking on both sides," said Richard Dalton, former British ambassador to Iran and now an associate fellow at Chatham House think tank.

"I don't believe either side wants a war to start. I think the Iranians will be aware that if they block the Strait or attack a U.S. ship, they will be the losers. Nor do I think that the U.S. wants to use its military might other than as a means of pressure. However, in a state of heightened emotion on both sides, we are in a dangerous situation."

Henry Wilkinson at Janusian Risk Advisory consultants said the threats might be a bid by Iran to remind countries contemplating sanctions of the cost of havoc on oil markets.

"Such threats can cause market confidence in the global oil supply to wobble and can push up oil prices and shipping insurance prices. For the EU powers debating new sanctions, this could be quite a pinch in the current economic climate."

The new U.S. sanctions law, if implemented fully; would make it impossible for many refineries to pay Iran for crude. It takes effect gradually and lets Obama grant waivers to prevent an oil price shock, so its precise impact is hard to gauge.

The European Union is expected to consider new measures by the end of this month. A blockade would halt purchase of Iranian oil by EU members such as crisis hit Greece, which has relied on easy financing terms offered by Tehran to buy crude.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris wants new measures taken by January 30, when EU foreign ministers meet. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Berlin was in talks with other EU states on "qualitatively new sanctions."

Greek government sources said that Athens, thought of as a possible veto-wielding holdout, was ready to support sanctions. One official told Reuters: "If the European Union decides to impose the sanctions, Greece will join them."

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said member states would discuss the issue this week in the hope of agreeing on new steps before the January 30 meeting. "The ball is still in the Iranians' court," he said.

Iran has written to Ashton asking to restart talks over its nuclear program that collapsed a year ago. The EU says it does not want talks unless Iran is prepared to discuss serious steps, such as halting its enrichment of uranium.

China cuts Iran oil imports

Although China, India and other countries are unlikely to sign up to any oil embargo, tighter Western sanctions mean such customers will be able to insist on deeper discounts for Iranian oil, reducing Tehran's income.

Beijing has already been driving a hard bargain. China, which brought 11 percent of its oil from Iran during the first 11 months of last year, has cut its January purchase by about 285,000 barrels per day, more than half of the close to 550,000 bpd that it bought through a 2011 contract.

The impact of falling government income from oil sales can be felt on the streets in Iran in soaring prices for state subsidized goods and a collapse of the rial currency.

"The rate is changing every second... We are not taking in any rials to change to dollars or any other foreign currency," said Hamid Bakshi at an exchange office in central Tehran.

Housewife Zohreh Ghobadi, in a long line at a bank, said she was trying to withdraw her savings and change it into dollars.

Iranian authorities played down any link between the souring exchange rate and the new sanctions.

"The new American sanctions have not materialized yet," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

The economic impact is being felt ahead of a nationwide parliamentary election on March 2, the first vote since a disputed 2009 presidential election that brought tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators into the streets.

Iran's rulers put those protests down by force, but since then the Arab Spring revolts have show that authoritarian governments in the region are vulnerable to street unrest.

In a sign of political tension among Iran's elite, a court jailed the daughter of powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday for "anti-state propaganda."

Rafsanjani sided with reformists during the 2009 protests. Daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani went on trial last month on charges of "campaigning against the Islamic establishment."



Source Yahoo News

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Monkey gets electrocuted while monkeying around High-Voltage Cables

In this video, a monkey climbs onto the high-voltage electric cables while authorities try to capture it. The monkey unknowingly endangers itself while monkeying around the deadly cables. Unfortunately, the authorities failed to capture it and the expected happened.

I cannot confirm the place where this event took place. If we could only understand what the reporter's language in this video is, then perhaps we can pinpoint the location. Some unverified sources say it's in Mexico, while some says the language is Portuguese. I am not sure though.

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Declassified Nuclear Detonation

Ever wondered what does a real nuclear detonation looks like? Of course, we've seen so many on books, and movies, but I bet you've never seen a live footage of an actual nuclear test.

A nuclear explosion is incredibly bright, as a matter of fact, it can blind your eyesight. Thus, a direct view is not possible. The US military on the other hand manage to capture one of their previous nuclear tests on video. The usual clips available for viewing are short, but this one from the military is quite long. It will give you a horizontal view of the explosion, including the details of how a huge fireball glows out of it, and how the so-called mushroom cloud forms.

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Top 100 sexy women for 2011 according to FHM Philippines

Let's reminiscent the past 2011, this time, let's cast our eyes into the most sexy women in the Philippines of the past year. The video above shows FHM Philippine's list of Top 100 sexy women for 2011. I'm not sure how they pick their candidates, but I presume someone must had nominated them then were presented to the public to cast votes on. So far, these are the Filipinos' most favorite women of 2011.

Don't be surprised if Maria Ozawa, Megan Fox, and some other foreign women were included in the list. They were definitely some of those whom Filipinos like.

Now, let's see some curves... Presenting, FHM Philippine's Top 100 most sexy women...

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The Chinese Zodiacs and their meanings

Happy New Year everyone! It's the year of the Dragon! Well, not actually, as the Chinese Zodiac is based on Chinese calendar, and Chinese New Year is yet to be celebrated. Anyways, I would like to celebrate the day with a post about Chinese astrology. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not promoting Astrology here; it's not part of this site's theme - it's not even Science. However, just for the sake of fun and entertainment, I have created a list of the Chinese Zodiac signs and their meanings.

To give an idea of the difference between the Chinese Zodiacs and the common Zodiac signs is that instead of celestial beings and creatures, the Chinese use animals (except for the Dragon, which is a mythical creature). And instead of basing the zodiac sign on the month of birth, the Chinese astrology base their zodiacs on year of birth.

List of Chinese Zodiacs

Years: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020

RAT

According to astrologer Richard Giles, rats are intelligent, charming, ambitious, and often successful in business.

They are quick to spot potential and put their creative, clever ideas into effect. At times they may appear stubborn, selfish and greedy, as they approach things wholeheartedly.

They are energetic and great organizers. They are suited to careers in shop keeping, sales, buying and selling, or accountancy. Rats shine in managerial positions. In partnership, Rats are faithful if their partner provides the security and love they need.

Years: 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016

MONKEY

Richard Giles said that these are the active signs of the zodiac. People born in these years have an inner spirit of lightning energy. They have a mental gift of being intelligent and are able to learn quickly. They come up with new ideas and like to learn new things. They love playing games and are often ready to tease or play tricks. Their fast moving energy makes them sometimes appear insensitive to others so often for this reason they find it hard to settle with one person. Monkeys often find themselves born into families that support them well. They can be very ambitious and adaptable. In career they are good at design, media management, public relations and planning.

Years: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017

ROOSTER

These people are very courageous, brave and wise, according to Giles.

They enjoy singing and music and can be very creative. Often have very powerful imaginations.

They have a strength of persistence and often exhibit strong personal power usually knowing what they want.

They are very good talkers and can persuade others. In relationships, they frequently yearn for companionship or friendship and make astute observers of what happens in a partnership. In career, they can be adept in politics, public relations, arts, creative work, and scientific endeavors.

Years: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018

DOG

According to Giles, this is the honest, friendly and sincere sign of the zodiac. People born under the Dog always seem to be ready for action and this quality brings respect from others around them. They can be brave and courageous and rarely withdraw from a commitment or betray a confidence. Their inner power and physical vigor makes them good people to have on a team. They are very loyal and reliable and in relationships settle with someone who supports them. They are devoted to the welfare of others and are often wonderful listeners. They can be very faithful to their partners and to others around them. The careers they approach include teaching, social work, counseling, medicine, research, public campaigning and law.

Years: 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

PIG

Pigs are tolerant and generous, virtuous and peaceful, says Richard Giles. They are well liked for their honesty and warm natures. They aim to find the best in people and allow others plenty of freedom of expression. They are often imbued with the energy of wealth and the support of others though they are not concerned with accumulating wealth. They can be content with modest means. They rarely criticize others and are not vengeful and thus have few enemies.

The pig accepts the existing richness of life and doesn't demand more. They enjoy simple and earthy pleasures. In relationships they give love and affection and trust that they will receive the same. They possess considerable determination and if they set their minds on something, they will pursue and attain it.

Good careers are in music, food, writing, social work, gardening and looking after others.

Years: 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011

RABBIT

They are usually generous, friendly and tranquil by nature.

Rabbits like everything to be low key and even tempered and are anxious if forced to take risks. They enjoy paying attention to detail to create an ambiance in their lives. Rabbits most often prefer the easy road.

Their ideal partner is loving and kind hearted and always fulfills their partner's desires.

Rabbits are suited to careers in literature, art, design, public relations, counseling, advisory occupations and law. They also make good secretaries.

Years: 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013

SNAKES

Giles says Snakes like to always be in control, are charming and captivating, yet calculating and often conservative. They are often enduring characters who can keep going in adversity. They have the alertness of the snake and often exhibit uncanny perception. Companionship, moral support and love are important to a Snake in intimate relationships. Their partners must like cozy surroundings and intimacy. They are brilliant at laying in wait and may patiently observe for months or years, then strike at the right moment. Their careers are in public relations, archaeology, astrology, philosophy, catering or the law.

Years: 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012

DRAGON

Their personality is energetic, enthusiastic and self-confident. Dragons are good at creating an impression.

Dragons are interested in the world around them, full of energy and are comfortable with being the center of attention. In difficult situations, Dragons can judge well, stepping in at the right moment to resolve things. They can be decisive, lucky and capable yet quiet serious and dignified. They can also be brave and charismatic and have a wholehearted approach to life. They see themselves as protectors. In partnerships they look for someone who will give them space and at the same time satisfy their romantic nature. They can often be disappointed at what they see as weakness in others. Their careers can be in acting, law, religion, management and the arts. Enjoying responsibility, they will not tolerate being trapped in poor jobs or being at the mercy of others.

Years: 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014

HORSE

Giles says that horses are independent, confident, full of strength and ambitious. They are also very honest and loyal. They set out to achieve recognition for their skills. They often turn out to be totally devoted to their work, family or home. Even in the face of crises, Horses have a tendency to go forward which is a sign of their tremendous inner confidence. They are willing to do their very best and are usually devoted to whatever they focus on. They are often very devoted to their tasks and need a partner who will take care of them but will also leave them free to pursue their own adventures if needed. In careers, they will make good politicians, explorers and artists.

Years: 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015

GOAT

Goat are considered patient and like to exercise moderation and caution in all aspects of their lives, says Giles. They can bear great pressure and remain stable. They can be very hard workers, accomplishing much and can easily take on more than their load. They will often remain in the background of an endeavor, not needing to hog the limelight. They are also good team workers.

Their steadfastness makes them very reliable.

In love, they tend towards a partner who will protect them and give them space for their creativity. They can have careers in the arts, research, outdoor work, emergency relief work, in libraries or in design.

Years:  1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022

TIGER

Tigers are determined, enthusiastic and positive with a sense of superiority. They explore the potential in unlikely situations. They like to see everything settled, rarely abandon projects and will become self centered and obstinate if they fail to achieve.

Tigers tend to place themselves in leadership or radical roles. They may become aggressive if trapped.

In love, they need a steady consistent partner who quietly gets on with their own life.

They are born leaders, are suited to travel, designing, advertising, politics or the military, according to Giles.

Years: 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021

OX

According to Giles, they are steady, honest, gentle and reliable. The Ox builds plans and ideas on firm ground. Patience and hard work being success to the Ox. They need peace and quiet to work through their ideas and are best left alone to work as they can become hotheaded, inflexible and stubborn when pushed.

They are logical and find it hard to forgive if deceived. They prefer a truthful, loyal and committed partner.

They work well in careers that does with the earth, visual arts, farming, estate management, cooking, religion and medicine. They are often very skilled with their hands.

So there you have it. Those were Richard Giles' interpretations. By the way, Giles is a writer, astrologer, geomancer and Feng Shui consultant. Once again, might I remind everyone that this is simply something for fun, please don't take it so seriously. Of course, everyone can have any of the zodiacs' characteristics. Being born on a specific year does not necessarily mean, you are like that.

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