"...they illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th, 2006)After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the "final frontier" it was perusing.Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful." Hubble telescope's top ten greatest space photographs:
The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.
The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy b et ween 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.
In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of com et -shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.
At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula
The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.
In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million r et urn trips to the Moon).
The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.
Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.
The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.
The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.
( amazing news )Merkel is growing increasingly comfortable with using her clout. She recently urged China to respect the rules of international trade during a three-day trip to the country, a visit that sought to improve trade ties between the world's third and fourth largest economies. Merkel said she raised the issues of human rights, trade, environmental protection and China's rampant copyright piracy. During her second G-8 summit, Merkel got the disparate parties to stick to the agenda: combating climate change and poverty. As rotating head of the European Union, Merkel lead the way in forging a new European treaty to govern the often-unruly 27-member bloc. Domestically, despite raising taxes (at a time when countries increasingly enact pro-growth flat taxes), Merkel recently captured a 75% approval rating, partly due to a five-year low in unemployment and annual GDP growth at a still healthy 3%. Lately Merkel displayed a bit of protectionist fervor when she backed Germany's plans to block takeovers of German companies by foreign government investors, a bid to stave off cash-rich Russia and China (which says it has at least $200 billion in reserves to invest worldwide). The secret to her success: "I tend not to jump to quick conclusions," she told Evelyn Roll, her biographer. "I prefer to go over things carefully to see where the traps could be lurking."—Tatiana Serafin
With its fastest annual growth in more than a decade, China is set to displace Germany as the world's third largest economy. All this has got vice premier Wu increasingly expanding her power—and having to deal with a growing host of problems. As China's lead official in recent economic talks with the U.S., Wu stared down her U.S. counterpart, Henry Paulson, U.S. treasury secretary, refusing to yield on the revaluation of the yuan and any curbing of China's $232 billion trade surplus with the U.S., among other items. U.S. critics have contended for years that China purposely keeps the yuan artificially low to make its exports cheaper and to stall imports. Some in Congress demand a new 27.5% tariff on Chinese goods. Wu though notes that U.S. exports to China have nearly doubled since 2001, making China the fourth largest destination for U.S. goods last year. And Wu has said that American exporters in 24 U.S. states have netted $33 billion in new orders from Chinese companies, on top of the $8 billion that China has given the U.S. for nuclear gear. The U.S. should "adopt effective measures to curb the increasingly serious trend of trade protectionism," Wu has warned. Still, Wu faces enormous challenges improving China's rickety social, legal, and economic infrastructure, challenges that are getting more attention as the Middle Kingdom rolls out the red carpet for the 2008 Olympics. They include unsafe products, copyright violations, dirt-cheap labor-costs that hurt the country's increasingly restless poor, and an environmental dystopia, with dangerous air and water pollution. Wu will need her diplomatic skills, as she inks agreements with neighboring countries and makes frequent inspection visits to regions throughout China. Expect Wu to fight to keep the upper hand until she is slated to retire in March 2008.—Tatiana Serafin
#3 Ho Ching 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chief executive, Temasek Holdings Singapore
Although she is the wife of the prime minister of Singapore and chief executive of the country's state-owned investment company, Ho Ching is rarely seen or heard from. But increasingly she is a force to be reckoned with, as her dealmaking ambitions span the globe. Ho Ching has been credited with converting Temasek from a Singapore-focused firm to a leading investor in Asia, making investments in Indian and Chinese companies, primarily in the telecom and banking sectors. Thanks to Ho Ching's dealmaking, the net value of Temasek's portfolio grew 27% to $108 billion from $80 billion the previous year. "This is the first time that Temasek's portfolio has crossed the US$100 billion mark," the company said in a statement. Temasek recently announced plans to invest in Barclays to support the British bank's attempted takeover of ABN Amro, the Netherlands' largest bank. However, Temasek's tax-free takeover of Shin Corp., one of Thailand's biggest telecom companies, sparked a wave of protests. The tax-free deal, along with allegations of corruption, eventually led to the overthrow of Thailand's prime minister. Moreover, the $3.8 billion Shin takeover helped hurt Temasek's profits, as an impairment charge for the deal and other associated companies caused its earnings to fall 29% this year. Ho Ching earned a master's degree in control engineering at Stanford University and held a number of top positions in both public and private entities in Singapore, before being named to her current position.—Megha Bahree
#4 Condoleezza Rice 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Secretary of State U.S.
Rice sits at the center of the negative reaction worldwide to the Bush administration's policies. Though she still routinely polls higher than her boss, that isn't hard to do, given that the president's ratings hover around freezing, as one pundit put it (though Congress recently polled even lower at 18%). A number of reasons: the war in Iraq, including poor post-war planning; her difficulty in admitting to Congress the Bush administration's failure to pay proper attention to warnings about terrorism pre-9/11; awkard results of the administration's democracy agenda in the Middle East (think Palestine and Lebanon). But Rice continues to sally forth in regions riven by the worst political and religious pathologies. That includes tackling the nuclear aspirations of Iran and North Korea; helping to broker the ceasefire in the war between Israel and Lebanon; and her shuttle diplomacy in the ceaseless turmoil between Palestine and Israel. Highly visible, Rice is at the same time curiously inscrutable. Known for her almost chilly, unwavering self-discipline, Rice has historically exhibited an iron faith in her own beliefs. But recently she has shown some flexibility. After initially siding with the neoconservatives who disdained talking to the U.S.'s enemies, Rice seemed to be returning to her realist roots, advocating talks with Iran and Syria.—Tatiana Serafin
#5 Indra K. Nooyi 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chairman, chief executive, PepsiCo U.S.
Nooyi has been steadily consolidating her power at PepsiCo, one of the largest companies in the world with $35 billion in annual revenue and a $105 billion market capitalization. Last February Nooyi added the title of chairman to her chief executive position at the food-and-beverage giant, maker of Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods; a whopping 17 PepsiCo brands each generate $1 billion or more in annual sales. Nooyi recommended spinning off Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, arguing PepsiCo couldn't bring enough value to the fast food industry. As a result, she was integral in starting Tricon, which is currently known as Yum! Brands, the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with over 34,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. Among the restaurants Yum! houses are Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. In an effort to offset slowing business in the Gatorade division, Nooyi advocates vitamin and energy-infused water drinks. Nooyi was born in Southern India, and went on to obtain degrees in chemistry, physics and math and master's degrees from Calcutta's Indian Institute of Management and Yale University. She came to the U.S. from India in 1978. Prior to joining PepsiCo in 1994, Nooyi did stints at the Boston Consulting Group and Motorola. "Being a woman, being foreign-born, you've got to be smarter than anyone else," she has said. In April, PepsiCo made the largest corporate purchase of renewable energy certificates (similar to carbon credits) to date—three billion kilowatt hours.—Erika Brown
#6 Sonia Gandhi 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET President, National Congress Party India
Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of India's most powerful political party, the Indian National Congress Party, has come far since entering politics in the 1990s. Lawmakers recently elected Gandhi's choice for president, Pratibha Patil, in a historic vote seen as a step forward for India's women and girls who endure daily discrimination. The vote, however, saw angry allegations leveled against Patil, over purported corruption and criminal activity in her family. Though the position is largely ceremonial, Patil is now India's first female president, and her victory is a sign that the role of women in the country's often male-dominated political scene may improve. "This is a special moment for women across the country," Gandhi said. "It shows India is committed to women." Gandhi is widely revered by her fellow countrymen, especially among India's poor as well as its vast agricultural population. Gandhi is continuously concerned that India's rapid economic growth is leaving the poor behind, and that her country is not doing enough to help its farmers. She has opposed a government plan to introduce special economic zones to encourage foreign investment in the country. Recently Gandhi stood up to politically powerful opponents in blocking their attempt to nullify an anti-corruption law meant to curb corruption among the country's massive bureaucracy.—Heidi Brown
#7 Cynthia Carroll 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chief executive, Anglo American U.K.
Courtesy Anglo American
Though Carroll is little known on the world stage, she is a powerhouse in the world of commodities, a sector crucial to the world's economy. And within the corridors of world governments, she is a force to be reckoned with. As head of one of the world's largest mining conglomerates, with historical roots in South Africa, Carroll is the first chief executive to come from the outside in the company's 90-year history, its first female leader, and its first non-South African chief exec. Carroll oversees a growing company, with interests in platinum, coal, gold, industrial minerals and diamonds. Her company owns a 45% stake in diamond company DeBeers, a 49% stake in MMX Minas-Rio, a Brazilian iron ore concern, and a 41.8% interest in AngloGold Ashanti, a gold concern. Lately AngloGold Ashanti has given Carroll headaches, as AngloGold has been hit with accusations by the anti-poverty non-profit War on Want that it makes its earnings from the abuse of people in the developing countries in which it has operations, namely Colombia, where it alleges there have been "murders of trade union and community leaders who oppose the company's activities in the region." Anglo American calls the assertions "inaccurate or disingenuous in its presentation of numerous material facts" and states "AngloGold Ashanti is only conducting exploration in Colombia and has no mining operations there." Separately, the company has disclosed in its most recent annual earnings release unacceptable safety performance in its platinum mines, and that it has taken "immediate measures" to address safety concerns. Carroll spent 18 years in the aluminum industry with Alcan and six years in gas and oil exploration.—Suzanne Hoppough
#8 Patricia A. Woertz 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chairman, Archer Daniels Midland U.S.
Courtesy of Archer Daniels Midland
Sitting in the corner office at the largest producer of ethanol in the country has Woertz smack in the middle of the alternative energy debate. The corn-based fuel has given a huge boost to profits at the $37 billion agribusiness giant, and demand will only climb as refiners face federal mandates. Competitors, like Cargill, complain that ethanol production is ratcheting up food prices and could cause a corn shortage. Woertz dismisses these concerns amid reports from the U.S. government that farmers will sow 19% more acres of corn this year, possibly helping to keep corn prices down. Woertz has promised that her company will make cellulosic ethanol from grasses, farm waste and corn hulls within two years. Woertz took over the position of chairman from G. Allen Andreas in February, having succeeded him as chief executive and president last year. Thanks to a 29-year career at Chevron, Woertz comes well versed in energy issues, having run Chevron's $194 billion downstream division. A few ways Woertz is making her mark at ADM: the company is getting set to enter the sugar-cane ethanol business in Brazil, and is exploring possibly building local sugar cane mills and ethanol plants. Internally, Woertz also hosts an annual company town hall, where she answers questions from employees around the world.—Claire Cain Miller
#9 Irene Rosenfeld 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chairman, chief executive, Kraft Foods U.S.
Rosenfeld's first full year as head of the world's second largest food company was marked by plenty of tumult. Former parent Altria Group spun off the $34 billion food giant as an independent company, and Kraft traded under the symbol KFT for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange in early April. However, the maker of Velveeta Cheese and Oscar Mayer hot dogs has lately been at war with activist investors who want the company to better leverage its dominant positions in big brand, packaged products and want faster change, potentially including divestitures. In July, uber-investor Warren Buffett bought a stake in the company, joining veteran Wall Street raiders Carl Icahn and Nelson Peltz, reports indicate. Rosenfeld says the company will dump businesses "that don't fit with our growth plans," though divestitures are tough because Kraft faces big tax hits when it sells units. Instead, Rosenfeld plans on introducing new products, and says that Maxwell House will get more support, including a higher quality coffee with 100% Arabica beans. In June, Rosenfeld did the unthinkable: she changed the shape of the Oreo, the first time the iconic cookie has altered its circular shape in its 95 years of existence. To be sure, it's for a limited time, and only in Canada, but the move highlights Rosenfeld's penchant for risk taking when it comes to marketing. Rosenfeld, who added the title of chairman to her resume in March, returned to Kraft after a three-year stint as chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo's Frito-Lay unit. Previously she had worked at Kraft for 22 years, eventually becoming president of Kraft Foods North America. Rosenfeld sits on the board of trustees at Cornell University and participates in The Economic Club of Chicago.—Ryan Derousseau
#10 Patricia Russo 08.30.07, 6:00 PM ET Chief executive, Alcatel-Lucent U.S.
Russo has certainly seen a world of change in her career. She was the chief executive of Lucent when the company merged with Alcatel, forming the giant telecom equipment maker, Alcatel-Lucent, in a $10.7 billion deal late last year. Now Russo is overseeing a painful restructuring, but she's got the career bona fides to steer the merger through rough waters. The combined company was supposed to take aim at grabbing market share from competitors such as Ericsson AB, but Ericsson claims that instead it is taking market share in emerging markets. Russo has reaffirmed Alcatel-Lucent's forecast of $819.5 million in pretax cost savings in 2007, in line with its target of $2.32 billion within three years. Russo also cites as a point of progress the fact that the company to date already has cut 30% of its targeted 12,500 jobs over three years. Prior to Alcatel-Lucent, Russo did a brief stint as the president and chief executive of Eastman Kodak before returning to Lucent, where she had previously worked, in 2002. Russo was widely credited with returning Lucent to profitability in 2004, after three years of red ink, due to a strict regimen of cost-cutting. Russo also focused Lucent on sales of wireless equipment.—Helen Coster
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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Twice a year, between the months of February and March, the Atlantic Ocean waters roll up the Amazon river, in Brazil, generating the longest wave on the Earth. The phenomenon, known as the Pororoca, is caused by the tides of the Atlantic Ocean wich meet the mouth of the river. This tidal bore generates waves up to 12 feet high which can last for over half an hour.
The name "Pororoca" comes from the indigenous Tupi language, where it translates into "great destructive noise". The wave can be heard about 30 minutes before its arrival, and it's so powerful that it can destroy anything, including trees, local houses and all kind of animals.
The wave has become popular with surfers. Since 1999, an annual championship has been held in São Domingos do Capim. However, surfing the Pororoca is especially dangerous, as the water contains a significant amount of debris from the margins of the river (often, entire trees). The record that we could find for surfing the longest distance on the Pororoca was set by Picuruta Salazar, a brazilian surfer who, in 2003, managed to ride the wave for 37 minutes and travel 12.5 kilometers. A surfer's dream: riding an almost never-ending wave.
Tyrannosaurus Rex (extinct 65 million years ago) [Wiki]
Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time, measuring up to 43.3 feet long, and 16.6 ft tall, with an estimated mass that goes up to 7 tons. Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs were small and they retained only two digits.
Fossils of T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the last three million years of the Cretaceous Period at the end of the Maastrichtian stage, approximately 68.5 to 65.5 million years ago; it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. More than 30 specimens of T. rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Some researchers have discovered soft tissue as well. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including life history and biomechanics.
Quagga: half zebra, half horse (extinct since 1883) [Wiki]
One of Africa's most famous extinct animals, the quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the hindquarters were a plain brown. The name comes from a Khoikhoi word for zebra and is onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's call.
The quagga was originally classified as an individual species, Equus quagga, in 1788. Over the next fifty years or so, many other zebras were described by naturalists and explorers. Because of the great variation in coat patterns (no two zebras are alike), taxonomists were left with a great number of described "species", and no easy way to tell which of these were true species, which were subspecies, and which were simply natural variants. Long before this confusion was sorted out, the quagga had been hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated stock. The last wild quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, and the last specimen in captivity died on August 12, 1883 at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
Because of the great confusion between different zebra species, particularly among the general public, the quagga had become extinct before it was realized that it appeared to be a separate species. The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable plains zebra.
Thylacine: the Tasmanian Tiger (extinct since 1936) [Wiki]
The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Native to Australia and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (due to its striped back), and also known as the Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) Tiger or simply the Tiger. It was the last extant member of its genus, Thylacinus, although a number of related species have been found in the fossil record dating back to the early Miocene.
The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland thousands of years before European settlement of the continent, but survived on the island of Tasmania along with a number of other endemic species such as the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributory factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite being officially classified as extinct, sightings are still reported.
Steller's Sea Cow: the defenseless beast (extinct since 1768) [Wiki]
Formerly found near the Asiatic coast of the Bering Sea, it was discovered in in 1741 by the naturalist Georg Steller, who was traveling with the explorer Vitus Bering. The sea cow grew up to 7.9 meters (25.9 ft) long and weighed up to three tons, much larger than the manatee or dugong. It looked somewhat like a large seal, but had two stout forelimbs and a whale-like tail. According to Steller, "The animal never comes out on shore, but always lives in the water. Its skin is black and thick, like the bark of an old oak..., its head in proportion to the body is small..., it has no teeth, but only two flat white bones—one above, the other below". It was completely tame, according to Steller. Fossils indicate that Steller's Sea Cow was formerly widespread along the North Pacific coast, reaching south to Japan and California. Given the rapidity with which its last population was eliminated, it is likely that the arrival of humans in the area was the cause of its extinction elsewhere as well. There are still sporadic reports of sea cow-like animals from the Bering area and Greenland, so it has been suggested that small populations of the animal may have survived to the present day. This remains so far unproven.
Irish Deer: the largest deer that ever lived (extinct about 7,700 years ago) [Wiki]
The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 5,700 BC, or about 7,700 years ago. The Giant Deer is famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet tall at the shoulders), and in particular for having the largest antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip to tip and weighing up to 90 pounds).
Discussion of the cause of their extinction has still focused on the antlers (rather than on their overall body size), which may be due more to their impact on the observer than any actual property. Some have suggested hunting by man was a contributing factor in the demise of the Irish Elk as it was with many prehistoric megafauna, even assuming that the large antler size restricted the movement of males through forested regions or that it was by some other means a "maladaptation". But evidence for overhunting is equivocal, and as a continental species, it would have co-evolved with humans throughout its existence and presumably have adapted to their presence.
Caspian Tiger: the third largest (extinct since 1970) [Wiki]
The Caspian tiger or Persian tiger was the westernmost subspecies of tiger, found in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan until it apparently became extinct in the 1970s. Of all the tigers known to the world, the Caspian tiger was the third largest.
The body of this subspecies was quite stocky and elongated with strong legs, big wide paws and unusually large claws. The ears were short and small, and gave the appearance of being without hair on the tips. Around the cheeks the Caspian tiger was generously furred and the rest of its fur was long and thick. The colouration resembled that of the Bengal tiger. Male Caspian tigers were very large and weighed 169-240 kg. Females were not as large, weighing 85-135 kg. There are still occasional claims of the Caspian tiger being sighted.
Aurochs: a very large type of cattle (extinct since 1627) [Wiki]
One of Europe's most famous extinct animals, the aurochs or urus (Bos primigenius) were a very large type of cattle. Aurochs evolved in India some two million years ago, migrated into the Middle East and further into Asia, and reached Europe about 250,000 years ago.
By the 13th century A.D., the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania and East Prussia. The right to hunt large animals on any land was restricted to nobles and gradually to the royal household. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased but the royal court still required gamekeepers to provide open fields for the aurochs to graze in. The gamekeepers were exempted from local taxes in exchange for their service and a decree made poaching an aurochs punishable by death. In 1564, the gamekeepers knew of only 38 animals, according to the royal survey. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland. The skull was later taken by the Swedish Army and is now the property of Livrustkammaren in Stockholm.
In the 1920s two German zookeepers, the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, attempted to breed the aurochs back into existence (see breeding back) from the domestic cattle that were their descendants. Their plan was based on the conception that a species is not extinct as long as all its genes are still present in a living population. The result is the breed called Heck Cattle, 'Recreated Aurochs', or 'Heck Aurochs', which bears an incomplete resemblance to what is known about the physiology of the wild aurochs
Great Auk: largest of all auks (extinct since 1844) [Wiki]
The Great Auk was the only species in the genus Pinguinus, flightless giant auks from the Atlantic, to survive until recent times, but is extinct today. It was also known as garefowl, or penguin.
Standing about 75 centimetres or 30-34 inches high and weighing around 5 kg, the flightless Great Auk was the largest of the auks. It had white and glossy black feathers. In the past, the Great Auk was found in great numbers on islands off eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain, but it was eventually hunted to extinction. Remains found in Floridan middens suggest that at least occasionally, birds ventured that far south in winter as recently as in the 14th century.
Cave Lion: one of the largest lions ever (extinct 2,000 years ago) [Wiki]
The cave lion, also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossils and a wide variety of prehistoric art. This subspecies was one of the largest lions. An adult male, which was found in 1985 near Siegsdorf (Germany), had a shoulder height of around 1.2 m and a length of 2.1 m without a tail, which is about the same size as a very big modern lion. This male was even exceeded by other specimens of this subspecies. Therefore this cat may have been around 5-10% bigger than modern lions. It apparently went extinct about 10,000 years ago, during the Würm glaciation, though there are some indications it may have existed as recently as 2,000 years ago, in the Balkans.
Dodo: the archetype of extinct species (extinct since late 17th century) [Wiki]
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall (three feet), lived on fruit and nested on the ground. The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. The adjective phrase "as dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead. The verb phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.
The title of this post is actually 50 Best photos in History, going through them, I have not found one picture that is not sad, hence came up with the title. These fifty pictures are a testimony to the tragedy caused by humankind to the same. Compiling these photos and adding the captions to them was as painful as looking at these pictures, if you are going through, please be aware that you might have seen a few of the pictures in this collection, but there could be many more that you might not have seen. Please read the captions as each image is associated with a tragic, path breaking and historic story. November 16, 1985 FRANK Fournier, France, CONTACT Press Images. The girl 12 years, Omayra Sanchez, caught between the remnants caused by the eruption of the volcano Nevado del Ruiz, in Armero, Colombia. The girl, after 60 hours of fighting, lost consciousness and died. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September, 1958 STANISLAV TEREBA, Czechoslovakia, VECERNIK Praha. Championship football teams between Prague and Bratislava. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
October 12, 1960 YASUCHI Nagao, Japan, Mainichi Shimbun. The rightist student killed the president of Socialist Party Inejiro Asanuma during a speech in Tokyo. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June 4, 1962 Hector Rondon Lovera, Venezuela, daily La Republica. One soldier was killed by a sniper embraces the chaplain of the armed Luis Padillo in the Venezuelan naval base of Puerto Capello. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June 11, 1963 MALCOLM W. Brown, USA, The Associated Press. The Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc autoinmola was set on fire in Saigon in protest against religious persecution government sudvietnamita. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
April, 1964 DONALD MCCOLLIN, UK, The Observer, QUICK, life. A woman cries in Turkish Cyprus by the death of her husband, a victim of the Greek civil war. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September, 1965 KYOICHI Sawa, Japan, United Press International. A mother with her children crosses a river in Binh Dinht (South Vietnam) to escape U.S. bombing. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
February 24, 1966 KYOICHI Sawa, Japan, United Press International. The U.S. troops dragged the body of a soldier in Viet Cong Tan Bihh, South Vietnam. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
May, 1967 CO RENTMEESTER, Netherlands, life. The commander of an M48 tank from 7 th Cavalry in the so-called 'iron triangle' of South Vietnam. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
February 1, 1968 Eddie Adams, USA, The Associated Press. The police chief sudvietnamita Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong suspect in Saigon. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
May, 1969 Hanns-Jörg ANDERS, Germany. A young Catholic during a clash with troops británcias in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
December 29, 1971 Wolfgang Peter Gelles, Germany. Exchange of fire between police and some bank robbers, in Saarbrücken, Germany. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June 8, 1972 (NICK) CONG UT Huynh, VIETNAM, The Associated Press. Phan Thi Kim Phuc, center, runs from the scene where the planes of troops have launched sudvietnamitas Napalm, Trangbang, South Vietnam. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
ANONYMOUS, The New York Times. The democratic president of Chile, Salvador Allende, moments before his death during the coup, in the Moneda presidential palace in the capital Santiago de Chile. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
July, 1974 OVI Carter, USA, Chicago Tribune. Child victims of drought in Kao, Niger. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
July 22, 1975 STANLEY Forman, USA, THE BOSTON HERALD. A woman and a girl are launched by the window to escape the incedio his home in an apartment building in Boston, USA. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
January, 1976 François DEMULDER, France, Gamma. Palestinian refugees took refuge in the district of La Quarantine Beirut, Lebanon. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
August, 1977 Leslie HAMMOND, South Africa, The Argus. The police evicted the ghetto with canisters of tear Modderdam, Cape Town, South Africa, where its inhabitants are protesting against the demolition of their houses. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
March 26, 1978 SADAYUKI MIKAMI, Japan, The Associated Press. Protests against the construction of Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
April, 1980 MICHAEL Wells, United Kingdom. A missionary grabs the hand of a child about to die of hunger in Karamoja, Uganda. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
February 23, 1981 BARRIOPEDRO Manuel Perez, Spain, Reuters. Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero Molina and several members of the Guardia Civil and military police attacked the parliament of Spain in Madrid in an attempt foiled coup. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September 18, 1982 ROBIN Moya, USA, BLACK STAR for time. Slaughter of Palestinians by the forces perpetada falangistas Cristina in the refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut, Lebanon. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
October 30, 1983 Mustafa BOZDEMIR, Turkey, Hürriyet GAZETESI. Kezban Özer found the corpses of their sons 5 after being buried alive after a devastating earthquake in Koyunoren, east of Turkey. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
December, 1984 Pablo Bartholomew, India, Gamma. Child killed by poison gas after the explosion at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
December 18, 1987 Anthony Suau, USA, BLACK STAR. One mother, in Kuro, implores on the coat of police after her son has been arrested for accusing the government of fraud in the presidential elections in South Korea. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
December, 1988 David TURNLEY, USA, BLACK STAR / Detroit Free Press. Boris Abgarzian is aflije of sorrow for the death of her son, aged 17, victim of an earthquake in Armenia in the former Soviet Union. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June 4, 1989 Charlie Cole, USA, Newsweek. A protester faces a column of tanks from the Chinese government during the protests of Tiananmen Square, Beijing, calling for democratic reform. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
January 28, 1990 George MERILLON, France, Gamma. Nogovac. Women crying at the deathbed of Elshani Nashim, 27, who was killed during protests against the decision of the former Yugoslavia to abolish the autonomy of Kosovo. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
February, 1991 David TURNLEY, USA, BLACK STAR / Detroit Free Press. Sergeant Ken Kozakiewicz crying in Iraq the death of his partner Andy Alaniz, victim-fire friend on the last day of the Gulf War. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
November, 1962 James NACKTWEY, USA, Magnum Photos, USA for Liberation, France. Mother holding the body of her son, victim of hunger, before being buried in Bardera, Somalia. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
March, 1993 LARRY TOWEL, Canada, Magnum Photos. Palestinians raise their children toy guns in a defiant gesture, in Gaza City, Palestine. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June, 1994 James Nachtwey, USA, Magnum Photos for Time. A Hutu man maimed by Hutu militias, suspected of sympathizing with the Tutsi rebels in Rwanda. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
May, 1995 Lucio PERKINS, USA, The Washington Post. A child rests on the rear glass of a bus packed with Palestinian refugees fleeing fighting between Russian troops and Chechen separatists in Shali, Chechnya. The bus was forced to return to Grozny. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
1996 Zizola French, Italian, Agenzia Contrasto. Victims of landmines in Kuito, Angola, a nation where many people were killed and injured during the civil war. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September 23, 1997 Hocine, Algeria, Agence France Presse. A woman cries outside the hospital Zmirli, Algeria, following a slaughter took place in Bentalha. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
November 6, 1998 Dayna Smith, USA, The Washington Post. Druante a funeral, relatives and friends comfort to the widow of a soldier of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who was shot while patrolling the previous day. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
April, 1999 BJORN Claus Larsen, Denmark, Berlingske Tidende. A Kosovar Albanian wounded walks through the streets of Kukës, in Albania, one of the major points of arrival for ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing violence in Kosovo. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
2000 Lara JO Regan, USA, for life. In Texas, USA, the mother of a Mexican immigrant family prepares piñatas to make ends meet. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June, 2001 ERIK REFNER, Denmark, Berlingske Tidende FOR. The body of an Afghan refugee child is ready to be buried. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
June 23, 2002 Eric Grigorian, Armenia / USA, Polaris Images. Surrounded by people and soldiers that Cape graves for earthquake victims, a child subject pants from his father died, squatting beside the place where he will be buried. Qazvin, Iran. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
March 31, 2003 JEAN-MARC BOUJU, France, The Associated Press. An Iraqi comforted her son in a centre for prisoners of An Najaf, Iraq, during the war. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org Detect language » English Translate
December 28, 2004 Arko Datta, India, Reuters. A woman mourning the death of a family member victim of the tsunami in Cuddalore, India. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
August 1, 2005 Finbarr O'REILLY, Canada, Reuters. A mother and her child in a centre for international help in Tahoua, Niger. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
August 15, 2006 Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images. Young Lebanese drive through the devastated southern suburbs of Beirut. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September 16, 2007 TIM Hetherington, UK, FOR VANITY FAIR. A single U.S. rests in the bunker 'Restrepo', named in honor of a soldier recently killed by insurgents. Source and copyright www.worldpressphoto.org
September 4, 1957 Douglas MOARTIN, USA, The Associated Press. Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students to enter the new institute interracial Harry Harding High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA).
1956 Helmuth PIRATH, Germany, KEYSTONTE PRESS. A German taken prisoner by the Soviets in World War II meets with his daughter in Germany.
August 28, 1955 Mogens VON Haven, Denmark. One competitor falls from his motorcycle during a tournament in Randers, Denmark.
The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.
The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy b et ween 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.
In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of com et -shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.
At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula
The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.
In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million r et urn trips to the Moon).
The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.
Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.
The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.
The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.
Tyrannosaurus Rex (extinct 65 million years ago) [
Quagga: half zebra, half horse (extinct since 1883) [
Thylacine: the Tasmanian Tiger (extinct since 1936) [
The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Native to Australia and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (due to its striped back), and also known as the Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) Tiger or simply the Tiger. It was the last extant member of its genus, Thylacinus, although a number of related species have been found in the fossil record dating back to the early Miocene.
Steller's Sea Cow: the defenseless beast (extinct since 1768) [
Irish Deer: the largest deer that ever lived (extinct about 7,700 years ago) [
Caspian Tiger: the third largest (extinct since 1970) [
Aurochs: a very large type of cattle (extinct since 1627) [
Great Auk: largest of all auks (extinct since 1844) [
Cave Lion: one of the largest lions ever (extinct 2,000 years ago) [
Dodo: the archetype of extinct species (extinct since late 17th century) [
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall (three feet), lived on fruit and nested on the ground. The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity. The adjective phrase "as dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead. The verb phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.
