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Weird Isn’t It?

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Myself  .By T.V. Antony Raj

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The above video posted by Jordan on YouTube has evoked a variety of hilarious comments from the viewers. Here are some:

Eloisa Costal Bonadio: “What is it?!? English please!!“

Athis Coquillon: “Chinese Instant roman noodles.”

Malcom Rosenthal: “Whatever it is, keep that over there.

Darren Zachary Munoz: “What everyone wishes their marijuana could do.”

Jason P Conyers: “Whatever that is, pour gasoline in with it, lite it up and walk away from it.” (sic)

Chantelle Leanne Bruce: “This incredible desert plant often is referred to as rose of Jericho. In its dried state, it is already a great decoration of desert type terrariums …”

Lisa Cagle: “It’s a rubber band ball.”

Fatima Sano: “How is that a rubber band ball that is able to regrow and regurgitate itself and that is hard as tree bark… Please stop I don’t think so! that was nasty and I still got the hibby gibbies from watching that #Yuck” (sic)

Brandon Bullock: “Whatever it is, I’m sure someone will blame Obama.”

 Lisa Cagle guess is correct. It is a rubber band ball.

Jordan built this elastic band ball together with his father. They bought bags of elastic bands and added them onto the ball for a year. As the ball grew, they found it quite difficult to find elastic bands, that could still make it all the way round. After a year, they got bored and stopped growing the ball. They left it under a table for another year. After a while, the elastic on the outer layers frayed and started snapping. Every day they found snapped elastic bands on the floor. Then, they decided to get rid of it.

Jordan suggested cutting the rubber band ball in half. He started sawing the ball. After about 10-15 minutes, weird stuff started happening. Jordan decided to film it. He handed the saw to his father and got his camera and filmed the bizarre.

At the time I saw this video it had been viewed 6,329,151 times.

Rubber band balls are a lot of fun to make, and the record for the largest one ever made used 700,000 elastic bands and weighed 4,097 kilograms (9,032 lb).

Bizarre, Books, Christmas & New Year, English, Food for Thought, Ghosts, Literature, Superstitions, This is Life, tvaraj

“A Christmas Carol ” by Charles Dickens Revived the Spirit of Christmas

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Myself 

By T. V. Antony Raj.

“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that–as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.” – Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
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Here is the preface written by Charles Dickens for the memorable Christmas story of all time, “A Christmas Carol” published on December 17, 1843:

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.

Through this novella, Charles Dickens was the first person to introduce the phrase “Merry Christmas” to English. This masterpiece also added the name “Scrooge” and the exclamation “Bah! Humbug!” to the English vernacular.

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Charles Dickens by Frith (1859)
Charles Dickens by Frith (1859)

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Charles Dickens (born Charles John Huffam Dickens, February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870), an English writer and social critic rose from a downtrodden family background. His early experience of a life of poverty and deprivation helped him create some of the most memorable characters of all time.

During his later life, Charles Dickens enjoyed unprecedented fame through his works, and by the twentieth century, he was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars as a literary genius. Even now, readers consider Dickens as one of the greatest writers of the Victorian Period. His novels and short stories are still widely popular. His works include A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Hard Times, and many more.

Charles Dickens concerned about poor children wanted to publish a pamphlet titled “An Appeal to the People of England, on Behalf of the Poor Man’s Child,”  to draw the attention of workers and employers to the plight of poor children. Instead, he wrote A Christmas Carol, for he thought that an irresistible Christmas story with a plot that highlighted the struggles of the poor would have a better and broader appeal.

Dickens started writing A Christmas Carol in October 1843 and finished it by the end of November, in time to be published for Christmas. The book was illustrated by John Leech.

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Title page of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (First edition 1843)
Title page of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (First edition 1843)

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It was published in early Victorian Era Britain, a period when people longed for the old nostalgic Christmas traditions. It was at this time that new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards were introduced.

Dickens’ sources for the powerful, impressive, and enduring tale appear to be many and varied. He leaned on Washington Irving’s essays on Christmas published in his Sketch Book in 1820, describing the traditional old English Christmas; various Christmas stories, fairy tales and nursery stories; as well as satirical essays and religious tracts. However, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, the plight of the poor and their children during the boom decades of the 1830s and 1840s, impelled him to write the book.

The book’s first run of 6,000 copies sold out before Christmas Eve, and by the following May seven editions sold out. However, it did not produce a windfall for Dickens, who paid the original production costs due to a dispute with his publisher.

A Christmas Carol tells the story of the bitter old miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from supernatural visits by Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Past, Present, and Yet to Come Christmases. The novella was an instant success and received wide critical acclaim. It became the most popular Christmas tale ever to be written. Dickens never anticipated that his characterization of Tiny Tim, the embodiment of England’s poor children, and the personification of Scrooge modeled after his estranged father, would receive such an accolade from his readers.

Many have credited A Christmas Carol with reviving the spirit of Christmas celebration, after a period of sobriety and sombreness, as one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America.

A Christmas Carol has been adapted in numerous plays, operas, ballets and films. It is in its 24th edition. It is estimated that about five billion copies have been sold to date.

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A Christmas Carol - Wall Paper

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Disgusting: 40-Year-Old Mother and Her 23-Year-Old Son Produce a Son/Grandson Combo Pack

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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Incest - mother and son

A mother and her son have fallen in love with each other. They intend to get married because the mother is six months pregnant and is expecting her son’s first child.

Betty Mbreko, a 40-year-old widow from Mwenezi in Masvingo, Zimbabwe has shared her bed with her 23-Year-Old Son Farai Mbereko for the past three years. Her husband died 12 years ago. Now, she is pregnant with the seed of her son.

Last week, Betty Mbreko stunned a village court when she said that she did not want to marry any of her late husband’s younger brothers who are coveting her and started the affair with her son three years earlier. She confirmed that she is six months pregnant and intends to marry her son even though the authorities accused their affair as something wrong.

She said that she struggled alone after her husband’s death and spent a lot of money to educate her son and no one helped her; and now that her son is working she felt she had a right to his money than any other woman and wanted the authorities to let her enjoy the rewards of her sweat.

Betty’s late husband had died without paying the lobola, the bride price, to her parents for her hand in marriage. Her son Farai said he was more than ready to marry his mother and pay the lobola his father had left unpaid to his grandparents. He added: “It is better to publicize what is happening because people should know that I am the one who made my mother pregnant. Otherwise, they will accuse her of promiscuity.”

However, Nathan Muputirwa, the local headman said: “We cannot allow this to happen in our village, this is a bad omen indeed. In the past they would have to be killed, but today we cannot do it because we are afraid of the police.” He then warned the mother and son to break off their affair or leave the village immediately.

The incestuous couple chose to leave the village, and now, no one knows their whereabouts.

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Feodor Vassilyev: The Russian Who Sired 87 Children in 35 Births

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.Myself . 

By T.V. Antony Raj

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On July 26, 2012, I posted an article titled “News: A woman gave birth to 11 baby boys in Surat, India.” Yesterday, Gurdip Singh Suri, a reader, commented:

“IT is nothing as per news over internet file Mr Vassilyev and his first wife, holds the record for most children a couple has parented. She gave birth to a total of 69 children. She gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 births. 67 of the 69 children born are said to have survived infancy.” (sic)

In an article titled “Feodor Vassilyev and Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalances” posted on November 13, 2011, in zerogeography.net, Mark Graham says:

Two papers in particular demonstrated the gender imbalances not only exist, but also significantly influence the types of information that exist in Wikipedia (the papers were titled ‘An Exploration of Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance’ and ‘Gender Differences in Wikipedia Editing’.

Perhaps the most interesting discussion of these imbalances came during a talk by Jen Lowe when she brought up the Wikipedia article on Feodor Vassilyev.

Feodor is apparently notable enough for a Wikipedia article because his wife sets the record for the most children birthed by a single woman. Just to reiterate, it is Mr. Vassilyev and not Mrs. Vassilyev who is deemed notable enough to have a Wikipedia article here!

This prompted me to learn more about this uncanny phenomenon.

The first published account about Feodor Vassilyev and his children appeared in the September 1783 issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume 53, Part 2, p.753, published in London that features a letter written by a person who has signed his name as X.Y.

Here is a facsimile of that letter:

69 children - 1

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69 children - 3

The writer concludes:

“The above relation, however astonishing, may be depended upon, as it came directly from an English merchant in St Petersburg to his relatives in England, who added that the peasant was to be introduced to the Empress. A few such subjects would remove the great deficit of population in her extensive dominions.”

In 1989, in Quadruples and Higher Multiple Births, on pages 96-97 under the heading “Feodor Vassilyev: a case of remarkable fecundity” Marie M. Clay wrote:

Feodor Vassilyev - A case of remarkable fecundity - 1

Feodor Vassilyev - A case of remarkable fecundity - 2

Marie Clay notes: “Sadly, this evasion of proper investigation seems, in retrospect, to have dealt a terminal blow to our chances of ever establishing the true detail of this extraordinary case”.

In Saint Petersburg Panorama, Bashutski, 1834, the author notes that:

“In the day of 27 February 1782, the list from Nikolskiy monastery came to Moscow containing the information that a peasant of the Shuya district, Feodor Vassilyev, married twice, had 87 children. His first wife in 27 confinements gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. His second wife in eight confinements gave birth to six pairs of twins and two sets of triplets. F. Vassilyev was 75 at that time with 82 of his children alive.”

Many have raised doubts about the truth of these claims. In 1933, Julia Bell, M.A., M.R.C.P., published an article titled “PLURAL BIRTHS WITH A NEW PEDIGREE” in Biometrika, states that a 1790 book Statistische Schilderung von Rutsland written by B. F. J. Hermann provided the claims about the children of Feodor Vassilyev, but “with a caution”. Bell also states that in 1878, The Lancet reported this case in an article about the study of twins. This article states that the French Academy of Sciences attempted to verify the claims about Vassilyev’s children and contacted M. Khanikoff of the Imperial Academy of St Petersburg for advice as to the means they should pursue. Khanikoff told that all investigation were superfluous, and the members of the family still lived in Moscow and that they had been the object of favours from the Government.

However, here is the story.

Feodor Vassilyev a peasant from Shuya, Russia was born around 1707 and died in 1782. Between 1725 and 1765, his first wife Valentina gave birth to a total of 69 children: 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets in a total of 27 births. Out of the 69 children born, 67 survived infancy.

His second wife gave birth to six pairs of twins and two sets of triplets totalling 18 children in eight births.

So, Feodor Vassilyev sired 87 children in 35 births.
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Politically Motivated Activists Bring Shame to Tamils of Tamilnadu

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Here is the news that appeared in the Deccan Chronicle on March 17, 2013.
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Lankan monk roughed up in Thanjavur temple

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Student Monk from Sti Lanka roughed up at Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India.
Student Monk from Sti Lanka roughed up at Brahadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, India. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)

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Thanjavur: A Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, currently pursuing archaeological studies in Delhi University, was rou­ghed up by some activists of pro-Tamil Eelam outfits at the world renowned Big Temple here on Saturday.

The Lankan had come here as part of a 20-member team, comprising students of postgraduate diploma in archaeology in Delhi University, on a study tour to the 1,000-year-old Brahadeeswarar temple.

As the students were going around Big Temple, a group of activists belonging to various outfits, including the MDMK and Naam Tamizhar Katchi, singled out the Sri Lankan national, clad in saffron robes, and beat him up, the police said. The attackers also raised slogans demanding that he leave Tamil Nadu immediately.

Besides the lone Sri Lan­kan, four Myanmaris were also part of the team while others were Indians, sour­ces said.

The monk was escorted safely to the local archaeological office from where the students left in a van to Tiruchy en route to Chennai. But, when the van was nearing Tiruchy, some unidentified persons pelted stones and slippers on it near Ariyamangalam. Though the van was damaged, the occupants escaped unhurt.

The police escorted the visiting students to the airport. Later, the Sri Lankan national left for Chennai by flight.

Twelve activists were taken into custody in connection with the incident.

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Video – Here is a video clip posted on Nakkheeran Web TV:

 

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Deccan Chronicle – Monday, March 18, 2013

Attack on Mahabodhi society warded off

Police personnel deployed in front of Mahabodhi society in Egmore after a group of men tried to attack the building. (Photo - Deccan Chronicle)
Police personnel deployed in front of Mahabodhi society in Egmore after a group of men tried to attack the building. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle)

Chennai: In yet another attack on Sri Lanka-linked establishments in Tamil Nadu, a group of men tried to vandalise the Mahabodhi society in Egmore on Sunday.

The police arrested 18 cadres of Naam Tamilar Katchi in connection with the attempt to break into the society office in Kennet Lane opposite the city police commissioner’s office. Anticipating trouble, city police had deployed a small team of armed police to guard the society.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of around 20 people reached Kennet Lane around noon and broke open the lock of a gate of the society.

“There were three only policemen who, however, prevented the protesters from doing further damage even as they sought additional personnel to handle the situation. Over 50 policemen were rushed to the spot.

The agitators were picked up before they could enter the society building where a number of visiting Sri Lankans, mostly Buddhist monks, stay on their visits to the city,” the police said. All arrested were remanded to judicial custody.

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Bizarre, NASA, Post A Day 2012, Re-posted, This is Life, United States

“Mysterious bright flash in sky reported across Texas” by Marjorie Owens

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By Marjorie Owens 

December 7, 2012

Bright lights over Texas
KHOU 11 News viewer Mary Bush took this photo about two minutes after the flash.

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DALLAS – From McKinney to the White Rock Lake area and all the way south to Houston, a bright flash reported in the sky Friday morning captured the attention of many across the Lone Star State.

While early reports indicated it was likely a meteor, the National Weather Service in Houston reported Friday afternoon that it may have been debris from the Russian Satellite Cosmos 2251 as it reentered the atmosphere.

In 2009, the Cosmos 2251 satellite, which was not in working condition at the time, collided with Iridium 33, a United States communication satellite, in 2009 as they orbited Earth over Siberia.

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Meanwhile, Bill Cooke, who heads the Meteoroid Environment Office for NASA, told KRLD that the object was actually a meteor, and was likely the size of a basketball.

As researchers continue to investigate the source of the flash, reports of sightings continue to grow across Texas.

One McKinney woman reported seeing what appeared to be a comet streaking across the sky in a bright flash around 6:42 a.m. near Stonebridge Shopping Center.

Justin Wagoner, who lives in the White Rock Lake area, said he saw a green trail and heard a large “sonic boom” around the same time. Others reported seeing white and orange colors. The sight only lasted a few seconds before vanishing in the sky.

According to Dr. James Roberts, a University of North Texas astronomer who talked to WBAP early Friday morning,  the mysterious object in the sky was likely a burned up meteor. A KHOU meteorologist in Houston said it may have been part of the Geminids meteor shower, which takes place in December. The meteorites often appear to be slow moving and are usually best seen at its peak on December 13 and 14.

However, Mike Hankey, the operations manager with the American Meteor Society, said later in the morning he believed the meteor was likely a fireball, a meteor brighter than Venus, and not a part of the Geminid shower.

“For those not familiar with meteors and fireballs, a fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal,” read a report on the American Meteor Society’s online site. “Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere.”

Seeing a fireball is something not everyone gets a chance to do in their lifetime, according to Hankey.

“While fireballs are actually pretty common across the globe, they happen every night, to actually see one in your area is very rare,” he said. “If you see one once in your life, you are very lucky.”

The loud boom heard by some could be explained by what happens when a large fireball breaks apart, Hankey went on to explain.

Bolide
Bolide (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Really big fireballs that break apart and cause a sonic boom are called ‘bolides,” Hankey said. “Bolides usually drop meteorites to the ground. It is still not known if this was a bolide or just a fireball.”

Since some reported hearing a loud noise, Hankey said that leaves open the possibility that the meteor may have been a bolide.

“Sonic boom means there are meteorites on the ground,” he went on to explain. “Why? Because the meteor would have had to penetrate the atmosphere deep enough to make a sonic boom, When it gets that deep, there’s practically no chance of it vaporizing in the air. Most meteors vaporize in the upper atmosphere, but when they make it low enough to cause a sonic boom, they are generally big enough to leave meteorites.”

While Hankey said the meteor was likely not associated with the Geminids as they are usually dimmer and move at a faster pace, he said the organization is looking further into the case to determine the exact type of meteor that was sighted.

METEOR TERMINOLOGY AS DEFINED BY AMS:

  • Meteoroid: Object floating in space
  • Meteor: Light effect caused by meteoroid hitting the earth
  • Fireball: Meteor brighter than Venus
  • Bolide: Fireball that explodes / fragments into many parts (and usually leaves meteorites)
  • Meteorite: A space rock / meteoroid that survives entry into the atmosphere and hits the ground

Source: WFAA

KHOU contributed to this report

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Five States Across the U.S. Reported Trembling Ground and Unexplained Booms

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But now the plate movements and spreading Atlantic have positioned the N American continent for what we have long described. A diagonal tear in the New Madrid, a bowing of the continent around San Diego so that Mexico is too far West, an adjustment up the West Coast to relieve the bow. Meanwhile, the entire continent has stress of some kind as this process has already begun but has not manifested in large adjustments, quakes, as yet. It soon will! – ZetaTalk

Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

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Mystery Booms Heard Across the U.S. Within 24 Hours

Five states across the U.S., from Arizona to Rhode Island reported simultaneous series of unexplained booms and trembling ground. It started near midnight on December 4th, and reports say the phenomenon is still occurring in Georgia. It might be due to the diagonal stress asserted across North America.

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CBS 5 News first received reports of the explosion-like noises shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday and began checking with law enforcement and government sources.

Mystery Booms Heard Across the US

In the past major media outlets in the US have reported several unexplained booms:

  • Pensacola, Florida January 13, 2003
  • Charleston, South Carolina August 1, 2003
  • Winston-Salem, North Carolina March 5, 2005
  • Wilmington, North Carolina December 20, 2005
  • Mobile, Alabama January 19, 2009
  • Somerset County, Maine February, 2009
  • San Diego, California Tuesday April 4, 2006
  • Orange County, California 9:15 pm Tuesday March 3, 2009
    Bob Dollar of the USGS told the Register that Caltech scientists reviewed seismograms from Tuesday night’s event in Orange County. “These data are consistent with a sonic event coming onshore near Dana Point and traveling northward inland,” Dollar said. “The energy traveled across our seismic sensor network at the velocity of a compressional wave in air rather than the velocity of a similar wave through the ground, which is much faster,” Dollar said.
  • Santa Cruz, California 9:15 am Wednesday March 4, 2009
  • Westchester County, New York 12:24 am, Saturday March 7, 2009
  • Rockland County, New York 5:15 am, Monday March 9, 2009
  • Staten Island, New York 8 pm, Monday March 16, 2009
  • Schenectady, New York 11:55 pm, Friday, October 29, 2010
  • Wilmington, North Carolina 8 pm, Sunday November 7, 2010
  • Carroll County, Georgia 9:45 pm, Friday November 26, 2010
  • Lebanon, Missouri 11 am, Tuesday, September 27, 2011
  • Ocean Pines, Maryland Friday October 14, 2011
  • Wilmington, North Carolina 10 am, Tuesday, February 28, 2012
  • Glynn County, Georgia 8:30 am, Tuesday, March 15, 2012
  • Clintonville, Wisconsin, 12 am, Monday, March 19, 2012
  • San Diego, California, 8:38 am, Friday, April 13, 2012
    A weather forecaster stated that the sound could have been caused by military aircraft doing a maneuver in which chaff was released.
  • San Diego, California, 12:45 pm, Friday, June 29, 2012

Do you have a theory about the unexplained noise? If you do, please comment below.

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Real or Hoax?

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Myself . By T.V. Antony Raj

 

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3 headed cobra

Is this real or Photoshop-ped? Something is wrong here…

I use Photoshop once in a way. However, I have my reservations towards digital manipulations to hoodwink the gullible masses. For example, look at this photograph of a cobra.

Cobra - original
Cobra – original

A clever hoaxer has digitally altered the above image of the cobra to one with three heads.

The above photo is now viral on the net propagated through email and social media websites such as Facebook.

Recently, I came across another digitally manipulated image of this same photograph. Now it has metamorphosed into a cobra with seven heads. It’s a bit far-fetched isn’t it?

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Moral:

  1. Never believe anything fantastic because it WAS or IS printed.
  2. Whatever that appear in social media websites such as Facebook are never 100% true.
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