Mysterious Earth

- The Hope Diamond -

The famous blue Hope Diamond, weighing 44.52 carats, is reputed to be unlucky for its owner. It is named after a former owner, Henry Philip Hope. The Hope Diamond is on permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution.
The Legend behind the Hope Diamond

This great blue diamond is perharps the most notorious gem in history.
It has left behind it a trail of so many unlucky owners that it has been popularly supposed to be cursed.
The 112-carat gem was mined in India and brought to France in 1668.
It was said that a curse rested on it, for a priest was reputed to have stolen the diamond from the eye of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita, wife of Rama. The priest was tortured to death.
Tavernier, a French merchant traveller brought the gem from India to France and sold it to Louis XIV, who had it cut into a 67-carat heart-shaped stone and named it the Blue Diamond of the Crown.
Tavernier is said to have been killed by wild dogs on his next trip to India in search of a second fortune.
The gem then vanished in September 1792 during the French Revolution.
In 1830, there appeared in London a 44.5-carat deep blue oval-cut diamond the gem experts agree was the French Blue recut to conceal its identity. Henry Hope bought it, and since then it has been known as the Hope diamond but it had also caused his nephew's grandson, Lord Francis Hope to go bankrupt shortly after its inheritance of the gem.
The Hope moved on. An Eastern European prince gave it to an actress of the Folies Bergere and later shot her. A Greek owner and his family plunged to their death over a precipice in an automobile accident. The Turkish sultan Abdul-Hamid II had owned the gem only a few months when an army revolt toppled him from his throne in 1909.
Edward Beale McLean, a wealthy and eccentric American social figure, bought the Hope diamond for his wife in 1912. Her son was killed in an automobile accident, her husband died in a mental hospital, and her daughter died in 1946 of an overdose of sleeping pills.
After Mrs. McLean’s death in 1947, New York jeweler Harry Winston purchased his jewels, including the Hope from the McLEan estate. He gave the gem to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in 1958, no doubt with a certain sense of relief.
The walnut-sized Hope diamond and its accompanying gem-studded necklance, valued at US$100 million, are now kept in a special safe, apparently powerless to cause further harm.
Coincidence or not, the diamond seems to have brought enormous troubles in its train.

- Mysterious Statues -

Statues that drank milk

In 21 September 1995 Thursday, a most unusual phenomena happened at a Hindu temple in New Delhi.

This was the season of pitr baksh, when devout worshippers place an

offering of milk for their ancestors' souls in front of a white marble statue of the elephant-headed god Ganesha.

To the amazement of the worshippers, the statue suddenly began to drink the milk, imbibing it through its trunk!

Word of this miracle spreaded and before long, reports of milk-drinking effigies emerged from Hindu temples all over the world.

However, it seems that Ganesha was not the only one, reports were that even the Hindu gods, Krishna, Brahma and Shash Naag had also began to drink milk.

There were reports that a single small silver statue of Ganesha had somehow managed to consume 20 litres of milk! Yet, the miracle ended as swiftly as it began.

On 22 September 1995, most of the idols worldwide stopped drinking any milk.

Even as worshippers see this as a miracle, scientists pointed out that in some cases, when liquids appear to be absorbed by the marble , what is happening is actually that molecules in the marble's rough surface creates a channel which sucks in droplets quite rapidly.

However, it seems that there is no explanation for the milk-drinking by metal statues.

- Mona Lisa -

The Mysterious Smile

Many people think that Leonardo da Vinci's "The Mona Lisa", is just a potrait of the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine merchant.

But certain reserachers claim that her enigmatic smile hides some startling surprise.

Why is this painting so alluring ???

Dr Leopold Bellak, a psychology professor at New York University, has analysed her face using the Zone System, whereby each sides of the face are studied independently.

Bellak concludes that her full cheeks suggest sensual indulgence and her weak chin implies a lack of self-control.

However, American computer artist Lillian Schwartz and Maudsley Hospital registrar Dr Digby Quested believe that the painting is actually a mirror image of Leonardo da Vinci's own face.

When the picture was X-rayed to check its authenticity after it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, it was found that Mona Lisa had apparently possessed a beard at one time, which was later painted over.

Another shock came when Dr Kenneth Keale, a consultant at Ashford Hospital, Middlesex, analysed the painting and concluded that the person depicted in this painting is heavily pregnant!

In the opinion of Japanese heart specialist Dr Haruo Nakamura, noting the yellow pigmentation in the corner of her left eye, the person posing for this picture possessed high cholesterol levels and could suffer a heart attack at any moment.

After seeing so many speculations, what do You think ???

- Cats With Wings -

The Manchester's Winged Cat

In 1975, the Manchester Evening News published a photograph of a cat that lived in a builder's yard at Trafford Park several years previously.

What is so special about this cat is that it had a pair of long fluffy wings

projecting from its back as U can see in the photograph.

According to the men that worked in the yard, the cat is actually able to raise these "wings" of hers.

However, it was actually an obscure genetically based skin disorder that gave the cat its "wings".

But these wings can also be "peeled" off easily but without causing bleeding.

Well, so much for "winged-cats".

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