A Man Found Two Bear Cubs Beside Their Dead Mother. Words Can’t Describe What Followed.

A naturalist named Casey Anderson stumbled across two grizzly bear cubs nestled beside their dead mother in the wild mountains of Alaska. Casey couldn’t just leave these little guys to die in the wilderness, so he made the brave decision to take them with him. He trains animals for a living, so he knew he would be able to give these cubs a real shot. That simple decision, borne out of grief, turned into one of the most unique and adorable rehabilitation stories we have ever laid eyes on.
Warning: you’ll want to adopt a bear after this. You probably shouldn’t.

This is Casey and the little cubs. Unfortunately, only one survived and he decided to adopt him.

He named him Brutus.

Brutus grew up as part of the family, albeit a very fuzzy part.

It was Casey’s job to train animals, so raising and training Brutus was normal for him.

Over the years, they became close friends and brothers.

And Brutus got the run of the pool.

Brutus grew to be so close to Casey, he was even his best man (bear) at the wedding.

It may have made the bride a little nervous…

But she was probably glad Brutus wasn’t capable of taking him to a strip club (no thumbs).

Brutus also gets a place of honor at the Thanksgiving table.

Life is good for this not-so-average bear.

SUP?

You’ll be hard pressed to find a situation cooler than being best friends with a killer grizzly bear.

If Casey and Brutus made you smile, then you should probably spread the joy and share this.

Source

Science of the Heart

The human heart emits the strongest electromagnetic field in our body. This electromagnetic field envelops the entire body extending out in all directions, and it can be measured up to several feet outside of the body. Research from the Institute of HeartMath shows that this emotional information is encoded in this energetic field. HeartMath researchers have also seen that as we consciously focus on feeling a positive emotion - such as care, appreciation, compassion or love - it has a beneficial effect on our own health and well-being, and can have a positive affect on those around us.

Take Two ‘Normal’ People, Add Money To Just One Of Them, And Watch What Happens Next

In a series of startling studies, psychologists at the University of California at Berkeley have found that “upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals.” Ongoing research is trying to find out what it is about wealth — or lack of it — that makes people behave they way they do.

10 Civilizations You’ve Never Heard Of

Lost languages and mysterious disappearances are just some of the interesting things about these 10 lesser known civilizations. Thanks to Alltime10s!

Autistic boy,12, with higher IQ than Einstein develops his own theory of relativity

A 12-year-old child prodigy has astounded university professors after grappling with some of the most advanced concepts in mathematics.

Jacob Barnett has an IQ of 170 - higher than Albert Einstein - and is now so far advanced in his Indiana university studies that professors are lining him up for a PHD research role.

The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week, is now tutoring fellow college classmates after hours.

And now Jake has embarked on his most ambitious project yet - his own 'expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity'.

His mother, not sure if her child was talking nonsense or genius, sent a video of his theory to the renowned Institute for Advanced Study near Princeton University.

According to the Indiana Star, Institute astrophysics professor Scott Tremaine  -himself a world renowned expert - confirmed the authenticity of Jake's theory.

In an email to the family, Tremaine wrote: 'I'm impressed by his interest in physics and the amount that he has learned so far.

'The theory that he's working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics.

'Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.'

But for his mother Kristine Barnett, 36, and the rest of the family, maths remains a tricky subject.

Speaking to the paper, Mrs Barnett said: 'I flunked math. I know this did not come from me.'

And it hasn't gone un-noticed by Jake, who added: 'Whenever I try talking about math with anyone in my family they just stare blankly.'

Jake was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, a mild form of autism, from an early age.

His parents were worried when he didn't talk until the age of two, suspecting he was educationally abnormal.

It was only as he began to grow up that they realised just how special his gift was.

He would fill up note pads of paper with drawings of complex geometrical shapes and calculations, before picking up felt tip pens and writing equations on windows.

By the age of three he was solving 5,000-piece puzzles and he even studied a state road map, reciting every highway and license plate prefix from memory.

By the age of eight he had left high school and was attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis advanced astrophysics classes.

His classroom presence is quite unnerving for many of the 18-plus year old students at his IPIU lectures.

Speaking to the Indy Star, Wanda Anderson, a biochemistry major said: 'When I first walked in and saw him, I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to school with Doogie Howser.'

She added: 'A lot of people come to him for help when they don't understand a physics problem.

'People come up to him all the time and say, 'Hey Jake, can you help me'.

'A lot of people think a genius is hard to talk to, but Jake explains things that would still be over their head.'

And his Professor John Ross said his performance in lectures had been 'outstanding'.

'When he asks a question, he is always two steps ahead of the lecture.

'Everyone in the class gets quiet. Poor kid. . . . He sits right in the front row, and they all just look at him.

'He will come to see me during office hours and ask even more detailed questions. And you can tell he's been thinking these things through.

'Kids his age would normally have problems adding fractions, and he is helping out some of his fellow students.'

According to his parents Jake has trouble sleeping at night as he constantly sees numbers in his head.

But far from complaining, Jake has turned the sleepless nights to his advantage - debunking the big bang theory.

The next step, according to professor Ross, is for Jake to leave class altogether and take up a paid research role.

[Source]

5 Shockingly Advanced Ancient Buildings That Shouldn’t Exist

The achievements of ancient cultures tend to be woefully unappreciated -- we think of the people as loincloth-wearing savages, and when we're proven wrong by some impressive feat of engineering, we just make a bunch of documentaries about aliens. But the engineers of times past were nothing to sneer at, and some of their accomplishments make ours seem slightly embarrassing.

#5. Derinkuyu's Massive, Ancient Underground City

Bjorn Christian Torrissen

Derinkuyu's underground city was discovered in the 1960s in Turkey, when a modern house above ground was being renovated. Much to the relief of everyone present, the 18-story underground city was abandoned and not swarming with mole people.

Master Tourism
"Do you want to flood it again, just to be sure?"

Hidden for centuries right under everyone's noses, Derinkuyu is just the largest of hundreds of underground complexes built by we're-not-sure-who-exactly around the eighth century B.C. To understand just what's so phenomenal about this feat of engineering, imagine someone handing you a hammer and chisel and telling you to go dig out a system of underground chambers capable of sustaining 20,000 people. And not one of those fancy modern chisels, either -- we're talking about something dug with whatever excavating tools they had 2,800 years ago.

Dutch Art Institute
"Get the Jim-digger. He still has some fingernails."

The city was probably used as a giant bunker to protect its inhabitants from either war or natural disaster, but its architects were clearly determined to make it the most comfortable doomsday bunker ever. It had access to fresh flowing water -- the wells were not connected with the surface to prevent poisoning by crafty land dwellers. It also has individual quarters, shops, communal rooms, tombs, arsenals, livestock, and escape routes. There's even a school, complete with a study room.

The Straits Times
And doodles of boobs on the desks of the study room.

Even now, the site hasn't been fully excavated, so we haven't found the golf course or the football stadium yet.

#4. Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni Has Bizarre Acoustic Properties

Wikipedia

On the island of Malta is a prehistoric underground megalithic structure known awesomely as the Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni, which sounds like the title of Terry Gilliam's next movie. It was discovered by accident in 1902 when some workers were digging a hole and broke through the ceiling. Oh, and they also found about 7,000 skeletons all clustered near the entrance. So, that's creepy.
Since most humans inherently lack common sense, the workers decided to take a look around, instead of fleeing from whatever it was that 7,000 people clearly died trying to escape. Luckily, rather than having their faces melted off by some Indiana Jones MacGuffin, they found something truly astonishing.

The Malta Experience
"Holy shit, there's a Waffle House down here!"

The three-level underground structure is made entirely out of megalithic stones, and was built who knows when. What surprised people even more was when they found out that male voices could reverberate throughout the entire complex if the person was standing in a certain spot. But here's the kicker -- the effect only worked if the speaking voice was in the 95 to 120 Hz range, so women's voices don't usually generate the same effect. Whoever built the Hypogeum actually invented sexist architecture.
It gets weirder: If you're a man chanting at roughly the 110 Hz frequency, the entire temple complex turns into this bizarre trance-inducing room that seems able to stimulate the creative center of the human brain.

The Malta Experience
And if you really want to mess with people, just chant "rhubarb."

Simply put, by merely standing inside that temple complex while someone was chanting in the proper location, you actually enhanced your religious experience. And that's all we really know about this place. We have no idea who built it or how they pulled it off. All we know for certain is that they had a knowledge of acoustics that is still baffling scientists to this very day. Our modern attempts at recreating the effect in our own basement have varied in success, depending on how much whiskey we've consumed beforehand.

#3. The Ancient Marib Dam Worked for 1,000 Years

Bernard Gagnon

Yemen is a country rich in dust and poor in water, which is why in ancient times the empire that controlled it, the Sabaens, built a great dam in 750 B.C. Because subjugating a populace is thirsty work.

Kelly Mecham/Panoramio
Which, coincidentally, is also the slogan of the failed sports drink Stalinade.

The dam, which was cheated out of being one of the "official" Seven Wonders of the World, was nevertheless regarded one of the greatest feats of engineering of the pre-industrial age. After all, building a dam isn't like putting a bunch of stone monoliths in a big circle. You have to have canals, gates, sluices, and spillways, and the whole thing has to be waterproof, or else everybody living on the wrong side of it might wake up drowned one morning.
The Sabaens managed all this before the existence of concrete, and their dam stood for over 1,000 years. In comparison, modern dams built with our advanced technology last for around 50 years, or 100 if they're really something.

Nabataean Travel & Trade
Even with the Best Buy extended warranty, it's just not worth it.

The Great Dam of Marib was about 2,000 feet long (almost twice as long as the puny Hoover Dam), and while it stood, it converted ancient Yemen into a fertile oasis, what was then known as the kingdom of Sheba (of "Queen of Sheba" fame). Because everything has to fall down eventually, the dam finally burst around A.D. 600, bringing down much of the agriculture system and converting the area into the sandy fun park it is today.

#2. Pumapunku Is Made of Bizarrely Complex Interlocking Stones

Brattard

Pumapunku is a city built by the Tiwanaku people of ancient Bolivia. What sets it apart from just any old ancient city is the almost weird precision of the stonework that would make modern builders envious. Look at this shit:

World Mysteries
Herbert Eisengruber/paleoseti.com
Worst box of Alpha-Bits ever.

Using crude technology, they pioneered a kind of construction that used hundreds of large, identical building blocks to make buildings like you and I would make a house out of LEGO. To make cuts as straight and precise today, we'd reach for some kind of laser cutter. They used chisels and rulers.

Janikorpi
No word on whether they had interchangeable snap-on hair.

To keep the buildings structurally sound, they even used a form of metal I-cramps similar to what we would use today to keep the giant blocks in place in case of an earthquake.

Pumapunku
Or really rough sex.

These aren't just little cinder blocks, either. The largest of the stones is 25 feet long and 17 feet wide, and has been estimated to weigh around 130 tons (for comparison, that's only around 20 or so standard semi trailers). Yet somehow, with no technologies like wheels, cranes, or even a writing system, the Tiwanaku people moved these giant rocks to the Pumapunku site and shaped them into perfect, complex forms.
Like all good mystery civilizations, the Tiwanaku eventually vanished, but their work was so impressive that the next empire to come along, the Inca, thought they were gods and that Pumapunku was the center of the world. It's a shame we can't ask them what they think of America.

#1. Gobekli Tepe Was Built Before Humans Knew How to Grow Food

Berthold Steinhilber/Smithsonian Magazine

Back in the 1960s, surveyors in Turkey found an ancient buried complex composed of huge stone pillars arranged in a circle like Stonehenge, some of them 30 feet tall. What really knocked the monocles out of their eyes, however, was that this was much older than Stonehenge ... 6,000 years older.

Teomancimit
The hieroglyphics translate to "First!"

So those massive, ornate limestone pillars were carefully carved from a nearby quarry using hunks of flint rock and their bare hands.
Having been dated to around 9000 B.C., Gobekli Tepe is thought to be the oldest human construction. That's further back than any of the ancient sites you learned about in history class. In fact, it's in the Stone Age, where the only things we knew how to build were likely to fall over in a stiff breeze.

Teomancimit
It was truly the golden age for Big Bad Wolves.

In fact, the site even predates agriculture, which means that the people who built it were still chasing mammoths rather than planting crops. Discovering that this complex of massive stone pillars was actually built by Encino Man, as National Geographic puts it, "was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-Acto knife."

Wikipedia
While riding a unicycle.

And this doesn't make much sense, because conventional knowledge has always been that humans didn't start building things until after we learned how to farm. You know, because we were finally able to settle down in one place and suddenly had a hell of a lot of free time.
Given that excavations turned up a whole lot of bones at the site, probably from animal sacrifices, archaeologists are pretty sure that it was a religious site, which seems to indicate that it was religion, not agriculture, that first inspired people to build giant shit. And given that they did all this before they even had metal tools, they must have been pretty scared of those gods. We just hope none of the archaeologists are dumb enough to go reading aloud any ancient inscriptions about awakening the Great Old Ones.


[Source]

Beards Keep You Young, Healthy & Handsome, Says Science

Gentlemen, they’re not just for hipsters and the homeless any more. While both dead sexy and totally awesome, beards are also a boon to your overall health. Researchers discovered that men with beards and moustaches actually enjoy numerous benefits including, but not limited to, instant handsomeness.



A study from the University of Southern Queensland, published in the Radiation Protection Dosimetry journal, found that beards block 90 to 95 percent of UV rays, thereby slowing the aging process and reducing the risk of skin cancer. Got asthma? Pollens and dust simply get stuck in that lustrous facial hair. Additionally, all that hair retains moisture and protects against the wind, keeping you looking young and fresh-faced. What’s more, shaving is usually the cause of ingrown hairs and bacterial infections that lead to acne.

Have you tossed your razor in the trash yet?

To conduct the study, researchers left bearded mannequins, along with less attractive, follically-challenged ones, in the blistering sun of the Australian outback and then compared the amount of radiation absorbed by each.

But don’t forget to take care of those blessed follicles; beards can also spread infection if not properly cared for and make consumption of certain foods (e.g. cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, falafel sandwiches—anything with hummus actually, bagel ‘n’ schmear, syrupy pancakes) rather laborious. Fuzzy-faced men would be wise to take advantage of beard wash and beard oil, essential tools for looking and feeling your beardy best.


[source]

Germany Smashes Solar Power World Record

Germany’s solar power plants produced a record 22 gigawatts of energy one day in 2012, equivalent to the output of 20 nuclear plants. The country is already a world-leader in solar power and hopes to be free of nuclear energy by 2022.

The director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, northeast Germany, said the solar power delivered to the national grid on Saturday met 50 per cent of the nation’s energy quota.

“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity. Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over,” Norbert Allnoch told Reuters news agency.

The German government decided to turn its back on nuclear energy last year after the Fukushima disaster and plans to be nuclear-free by 2022. Critics have rounded on the initiative, skeptical that renewable sources can meet the nation’s growing energy needs.

“This shows Germany is capable of meeting a large share of its electricity needs with solar power. It also shows Germany can do with fewer coal-burning power plants, gas-burning plants and nuclear plants,” stressed Allmoch.

Merkel’s government has invested large amounts of money in restructuring the nation’s energy infrastructure and weaning it off atomic energy. It has almost as much solar power energy units as the rest of the world combined and currently generates four per cent of its annual energy needs from the Sun.

Utilities and consumer groups have complained that increased use of solar energy will push up the price of electricity in Germany.

German tax payers currently shell out around $5 billion annually for solar energy, an Environmental Ministry report says. Chancellor Merkel has tried to slash prices but has been blocked by the German parliament.

Panels with photovoltaic cells of German company Bosch Solar Engery are pictured during the inauguration of the company’s new plant in Arndstadt near Erfurt, eastern Germany. (AFP Photo / Johannes Eisele)

Stumbling blocks on the path to ‘a greener future’
Germany is also planning to ratchet up its use of other renewable forms of energy in an attempt to compensate for its nuclear shortfall.

The government will capitalize on wind, solar and bio-mass as well as increased use of coal power stations to produce its power.

However, in spite of increased investment, Bundesnetzagentur, the country’s new energy regulator, has predicted widespread power cuts as the power grid is put under extra pressure this winter.

Bundesnetzagentur has said Germany will have an energy capacity gap of approximately 10 Gigawatts, equivalent to the output of 15 power stations.

In addition, critics have voiced fears that increased use of unreliable energy resources such as wind power and solar energy will put a lot of strain on the national grid because of fluctuations in output, making it very unstable.

Although Germany faces significant hurdles in its race towards a nuclear-free future, it still remains a world-leader in renewable energies.

source: RT

5 Reasons Why Uruguay’s President Is Cooler Than Your President

The tiny South American country of Uruguay has been making international news lately due to their latest history-making legalization of marijuana.  What hasn’t been reported is all the other amazing stuff Uruguay’s president has been quietly doing to help his people while in office.

While other world leaders take advantage of their position of power to enrich their friends and enjoy the perks of the job, President Jose Mujica has been on a one-man mission to tackle the problems of his people. How refreshing.

This article was originally posted on: I Acknowledge
1. His “retirement plan” includes adopting 30 to 40 impoverished children

Many presidents spend their retirement years giving expensive lectures and dedicating buildings to themselves. After serving his term, President Mujica has announced that he plans on taking poor kids off the street and letting them live at his home.

“I have the goal of getting together 30 or 40 poor kids and bringing them to live with me,” he said Friday night at a business diner, according to the El Observador newspaper. [source]

2. He donates almost his entire presidential salary to social programs

Mujica has no interest in becoming wealthy while in office. He’d much rather see his money go towards the people he serves. That is why, since taking office in 2010, he has donated nearly 90% of his salary to social programs. Deferring a paycheck has earned him the title as “the poorest president in the world.” A distinction he pays little attention to.

El presidente explained he receives $12,500 a month but keeps only $1,250. The public servant told the newspaper, “I do fine with that amount; I have to do fine because there are many Uruguayans who live with much less.” [source]

That self-induced low pay means he makes around $15,000 a year. For reference, President Obama brings in around $400,000 a year. If ever there was a leader who could say he knows what it is like to get by on less, it’s Mujica.

3. He refuses to live in the Presidential Mansion, instead living with his wife at their family farm

Customarily, the Uruguayan president is entitled to a luxurious mansion provided by the state, but Mujica insists on remaining at his family farm, where he keeps his two most prized possessions: his three-legged dog named Manuela and his old Volkswagen Beetle.

Turning down the invitation to live at a luxurious grace and favour residence owned by the state, he instead continues to reside at his ramshackle farm situated a few miles away from the country’s capital city of Montevideo.

The only sign the country’s leader is at home are the pair of police officers who stand guard at the end of his heavily tractor-rutted dirt track. [source]

4. He insists on treating drug users with compassion not criminalization

Many countries, including the United States, treat drug users as criminals but Mujica has tried a different approach. He realized that greatest damage being done was not by an ordinary person smoking a joint, but the drug dealers who profit on the fact that drugs are illegal and have offered the service on the black market – oftentimes bringing with it, violence and exploitation.

Speaking about his reasoning behind legalizing marijuana, Mujica said:

“We’ve given this market as a gift to the drug traffickers,” the 78-year-old Jose Mujica said, “and that is more destructive socially than the drug itself, because it rots the whole of society.”

His plan was to give the drugs over to the people and take it out of the hands of the drug dealers. To this end, he has proposed not just legalizing the use of marijuana (as other countries have done), but go further. He has legalized every aspect of what was once the drug trade. Citizens are allowed to grow, distribute, and smoke the plant without fear of being labeled a criminal. He also plans to offer the drug at state-run dispensaries for as little as $1 a gram, further undercutting the illegal drug trade in the country.

5. He brought the legalization of gay marriage to Uruguay

Uruguayans celebrate after gay marriage law is signed.

While many countries continue to adopt gay marriage rights only slowly (and some have even regressed), Uruguay spent this summer becoming the 2nd country in South America to legalize gay marriage (and only the 12th in the world). Uruguay, a largely Catholic country, would not be considered an obvious choice to lead the way in gay rights, but under Mujica and his liberal allies in government, the country managed to pass the law with hardly a fuss. Since then Uruguayan gay couples have been flocking to government offices to get marriage licenses.