Saddam Hussein facts

( 2003-12-14 20:06) (Agencies)

Here is a brief list of facts about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein:
Name: Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
Birth: April 28, 1937 near Tikrit, Iraq
Parents: The son of peasants. Raised by both his widowed mother and her second husband and Hussein's uncle, Khairallah Talfah, an army officer
Official family: Married to his first cousin, Sajida Khairallah Talfah, since 1963. Children: Two sons, Uday and Qusay (both deceased), and three daughters
Unofficial family: Second wife, Samira al Shahbandar. Her son, Mohammed Saffi, by her first husband was deported from the U.S. in July 2002 for being in the country without a visa
Religion: Sunni Muslim
Education:
al-Karkh secondary school, Baghdad, 1955-?
al-Qasr al-Aini secondary school, Cairo, 1960-1961
University of Cairo Law School, 1962-?
al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, 1963-?
Life events and timeline:
1950s - While a student, Saddam becomes involved in the nationalist movement, which aims to over throw the British controlled Iraqi monarchy.
1956 - Saddam takes part in an unsuccessful coup to overthrow King Faisal II and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said.
1957 - Saddam formally joins the Baath Socialist Party.
July 14, 1958 - King Faisal is killed in a coup led by Abdul Karim Kassem.
October 1959 - Saddam and others attack the motorcade of Abdul Karim Kassem. The assassination attempt fails and most of the attackers are killed. Saddam escapes and flees to Syria. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser hears of Saddam's exploits and arranges for him to travel to Cairo.
February 8, 1963 - Kassem is overthrown and executed. The Baath Party assumes control of the government. Saddam returns from Cairo. The new Baath government is overthrown before the end of the year.
November 1964 - Saddam is arrested in Syria and sent to prison.
1967- Saddam escapes from prison.
July 17, 1968 - In a bloodless coup, Major General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Baath party becomes Iraq's new president. Saddam becomes secretary and acting deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.
February 1972 - Saddam visits Moscow.
October 1973 - Iraq fights against Israel in the Yom Kippur war.
1973 - Saddam is given the rank of lieutenant general.
March 6, 1975 - Saddam and Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi of Iran sign a treaty. Iraq gives up claims to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, while Iran agrees to end its support of the independence seeking Kurds.
1976 - Saddam is given the rank of general.
October 1978 - At the Shah's insistence, Saddam expels Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini from Iraq, where he has been in exile for 13 years.
February 1979 - The Ayatollah returns to Iran to lead the country, after the ouster of the Shah in January.
July 16, 1979 - Saddam Hussein takes over as president of Iraq.
1979 - In response to the Ayatollah's call for the overthrow of the Baathist regime, comprised mostly of Sunni Muslims, Saddam expels 40,000 Shiite Muslims. Saddam also orders the execution of Ayatollah Mohammed al-Bakr Sadr, an ally of Ayatollah Khomeini.
September 22, 1980 - Iraq launches an air attack against Iran, beginning the Persian Gulf War. In 1984 and 1986 Iraq is accused of using mustard gas and other chemical weapons against Iran. The war ends in a stalemate in 1988.
March 16, 1988 - Iraq uses poison gas against the Kurds in Halabja in Northern Iraq.
August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait.
January 17, 1991 - Operation Desert Storm begins.
February 28, 1991 - A ceasefire in the Gulf War takes effect.
August 8, 1995 - Saddam's two oldest daughters, Raghad and Rana, along with their husbands Lt. General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and Lt. Colonel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, defect to Jordan. Hussein Kamel had headed Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program since 1987. Saddam Kamel had headed the presidential security forces.
October 15, 1995 - Saddam is reelected president.
February 23, 1996 - Saddam's sons-in-law, Lt. General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and Lt. Colonel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, are killed in a shootout, three days after returning to Iraq.
December 12, 1996 - Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son and possible successor, is shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.
December 16, 1998 - Great Britain and the United States launch air strikes against Iraq. The attack, called Operation Desert Fox, is in response to Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors.
March 27, 2000 - Uday Hussein is elected to the National Assembly.
August 2000 - Baghdad Airport reopens, but only for humanitarian flights. Domestic air travel resumes in October.
September 30, 2000 - Iran and Iraq hold talks in Venezuela. They reaffirm their 1975 agreement, which had been in abeyance since 1980.
May 2001 - Qusay Hussein, Saddam's younger son, is elected to the leadership of the Baath Party.
September 16, 2002 - Facing the threat of U.S. airstrikes, Iraq agrees unconditionally to the return of inspectors.
September 19, 2002 - Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri delivers a letter to the UN from Saddam Hussein stating that Iraq has no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons.
October 15, 2002 - Re-elected to a seven-year term with 100 percent of the Iraqi vote, according to the Iraqi government.
November 8, 2002 - U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441, outlining strict new weapons inspections and threatening "serious consequences" if Iraq failed to comply.
November 13, 2002 - Iraq agrees to comply with Resolution 1441.
November 27, 2002 - Inspectors begin work in Iraq.
December 7, 2002 - Iraq submits to the U.N. a 12,000-page declaration of former weapons programs and civilian industries with military applications.
February 26, 2003 - CBS's airs Dan Rather's interview with Saddam on "60 Minutes II." Rather last interviewed Saddam in 1990. Saddam extended an offer to debate President Bush on a live global satellite broadcast.
March 19, 2003 - Iraq war begins when U.S. forces launched a "decapitation attack" aimed at the Iraqi president and other top members of the country's leadership. Hours later, a defiant Saddam wearing a military uniform appeared on Iraqi television to denounce the U.S.-led military campaign as "criminal" and to say his countrymen would be victorious.
April 1 & 4, 2003 - Statements from Saddam read out on television by the information minister, Mohamed Saeed al-Sahaf.
April 18, 2003 - Abu Dhabi TV broadcasts videotape showing what it says was Saddam in Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. troops. In the tape, a man who appears to be Saddam climbs on the hood of a car and waves to a crowd of supporters. Saddam's son, Qusay, is also visible in the tape, Abu Dhabi TV says.
July 22, 2003 - Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay -- also on the coalition's most wanted list -- were killed in July, after U.S. forces stormed their hideout in Mosul.
July 29, 2003 - Saddam releases audio tape, denouncing strike on sons. He says, "Even if Saddam Hussein has 100 sons other than Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein would offer them the same path. Duty and right deserve that ... That is the hope of every fighter for God's sake, as another group of noble souls of the martyrs has ascended to their creator."
August - November, 2003 - Various audio tapes believed to have been recorded by Saddam released and broadcast on Arab media. The last audio tape was released on Nov. 16, and the CIA said the tape is "of such poor quality that the analysis is inconclusive" on whether it really is the voice of the former Iraqi leader

Saddam Hussein’s Interesting Secrets – Weapons Of Gold

Saddam Hussein is no longer in this world, but he left behind a lot of interesting secrets.
A huge collection of weapons made of pure gold and silver was found.
There are grenade launchers, and pistols and assault rifles. have a look…
                                   

 

Interesting Facts about George W. Bush

George W. Bush served as the president of the United States from 2001-2008. He was considered to be one of the most charismatic presidents of the United States. Surrounded by mystery, gossip, and rumors, the life of George W. Bush has many interesting facts and anecdotes....

George Walker Bush served as the 43rd president of the United States. He was elected and served two consecutive terms as president, from 2001 to 2008. Prior to becoming the president, he served as the Governor of Texas for 6 years. George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946 in Newhaven, Connecticut to George H. Bush (41st US president) and Barbara Bush.

Facts about George W. Bush

• Bush is the oldest of 6 siblings. His younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, at the age of three.
• Texas is where Bush got his elementary education. For higher studies, he was sent to Yale University.
• Bush headed the cheerleading team at school, and was the head of the fraternity in his sophomore years. Like his grandfather, he also headed the Yale University 'Skulls and Bones' team.
• George Bush's father, George H. Bush served as the 41st US president, from 1989 to 1993.
• Unlike his father, Bush was an average student at school. He graduated from Yale University with a low C average. Nobody thought he would become the president. However, he always had leadership capabilities and stood out in that aspect.
• George W. Bush followed his father as president. He is the first son to do so since John Quincy Adams followed John Adams in the early 1800s.
• After Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Bush was the first presidential candidate to win the electoral college vote, but lose the popular vote.
• He had a nickname: "Dubya". Mexican cuisine is his favorite and not the southern beef steaks from Texas. He only drinks diet soda and his favorite ice cream flavor is Pralines and cream.
• Bush enjoys fishing and is passionate about baseball.
• In his early twenties, he got addicted to alcohol and was even arrested for drunk driving, in Kennebunkport, Maine (1976).
• He joined the Texas Air National Guard (1968-1973) and was trained as an air force fighter pilot.
• In 1975, he bought an oil company in Midland, Texas. Since he couldn't find any oil in Texas he sold his stock. Shortly after that the company went bankrupt.
• He bought part of the Texas Rangers baseball team and became the first managing general partner of a Major League Baseball team to become president.
• Bush and Laura Welch were married in 1977. He was introduced to Laura, a schoolteacher and librarian, at a backyard barbecue. He proposed to her after a three months courtship. The couple settled down in Midland, Texas and have twin girls: Jenna and Barbara Pierce Bush. Laura was a positive influence on Bush. He quit alcohol in 1998.
• Christian Methodist by religion, Bush is the third well-known Methodist to hold the highest office in the US, after William McKinley and his father.
• Bush's viewpoints differed from the Methodist Church. The Church opposed capital punishment and the possession of hand guns. However, Bush supported both. He said that the entire country was not Methodist to make decisions in accordance with Church feelings.
• Bush granted funds for projects he did not support and believe in. For example, he granted funds for stem cell and embryonic research even though he did not support it.
• Bush's popularity scale features extreme statistics. His popularity increased after September 11 attacks, however, plummeted after failure to react during the Hurricane Katrina and the slump in US economy.
• Bush was nearly assassinated in 2005, while visiting the Soviet State of Georgia. A man named Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live grenade at him; fortunately it failed to explode.

George Bush started well, but ended on a bad note. He is succeeded by President Barack Obama.

Interesting Facts About Japan

1. Raw horse meat is a popular food in Japan.
2. Sometimes the trains are so crowded railway staff are employed to cram passengers inside.
3. For many Japanese couples Christmas is celebrated like Valentine's Day in the western world.
4. Poorly written English can be found everywhere, including T-shirts and other fashion items.
5. More than 70% of Japan consists of mountains, including more than 200 volcanoes.
6. Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, is an active volcano.
7. Religion does not play a big role in the lives of most Japanese and many do not understand the difference between Shintoism and Buddhism.
8. A nice musk melon, similar to a cantaloupe, may sell for over $300US.
9. There are four different writing systems in Japan, romaji, katakana, hiragana, and kanji.
10. Coffee is very popular and Japan imports approximately 85% of Jamaica's annual coffee production.
11. Japan's literacy rate is almost 100%.
12. Sumo is Japan's national sport, although baseball is also very popular.
13. Sumo wrestlers eat a stew called Chankonabe to fatten up. Many restaurants in the Ryogoku district of Tokyo serve this nabe (Japanese word for stew).
14. Many of the western style toilets in Japan have a built-in bidet system for spraying your backside.
15. When you use the restroom in some one's home, you may need to put on special bathroom slippers so as not to contaminate the rest of the home.
16. Noodles, especially soba (buckwheat), are slurped loudly when eaten. It is often said slurping symbolizes the food is delicious, but the slurping also serves to cool down the hot noodles for eating.
17. Japan is the world’s largest consumer of Amazon rain forest timber.
18. Vending machines in Japan sell beer, hot and cold canned coffee, cigarettes, and other items.
19. When moving into an apartment it is often required to give the landlord a "gift" of money equal to two months' rent.
20. There are around 1,500 earthquakes every year in Japan.
21. In Japan it is not uncommon to eat rice at every meal, including breakfast.
22. Average life expectancy in Japan is one of the highest in the world. Japanese people live an average of 4 years longer than Americans.
23. Japan is the largest automobile producer in the world.
24. The Japanese language has thousands of foreign loan words, known as gairaigo. These words are often truncated, e.g. personal computer = paso kon. The number of foreign loan words is steadily increasing.
25. Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the world's largest fish market.
26. Although whaling is banned by the IWC, Japan still hunts whales under the premise of research.  The harvested whale meat ends up in restaurants and supermarkets.
27. In the past men might shave their heads to apologize.
28. In the past women in Japan might cut their hair after breaking up with a boyfriend.
29. Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.
30. The first novel, The Tale of Genji, was written in 1007 by a Japanese noble woman, Murasaki Shikibu.
31. The term karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese.
32. In a Sumo training "stable" the junior rikishi Sumo wrestlers must wash and bathe their senior sumo wrestlers and make sure their hard to reach places are clean.
33. Contrary to popular belief, whale meat is not a delicacy in Japan. Many Japanese dislike the taste and older Japanese are reminded of the post-World War II period when whale meat was one of the few economical sources of protein.
34. Rampant inbreeding of dogs has resulted in one of the highest rate of genetic defects in the world for canines.
35. Raised floors help indicate when to take off shoes or slippers. At the entrance to a home in Japan, the floor will usually be raised about 6 inches indicating you should take off your shoes and put on slippers. If the house has a tatami mat room its floor may be rasied 1-2 inches indicating you should to take off your slippers.
36. Ramen noodles are a popular food in Japan and it is widely believed extensive training is required to make a delicious soup broth. This is the subject of the movies Tampopo (1985) and The Ramen Girl (2008).
37. On average, it takes about 7-10 years of intensive training to become a fugu (blowfish) chef. This training may not be needed in the future as some fish farms in Japan are producing non-poisonous fugu.
38. Ovens are not nearly as commonplace as rice cookers in Japanese households.
39. Geisha means "person of the arts" and the first geisha were actually men.
40. It was customary in ancient Japan for women to blacken their teeth with dye as white teeth were considered ugly. This practice persisted until the late 1800's.
41. In ancient Japan, small eyes, a round puffy face, and plump body were considered attractive features.
42. Some traditional Japanese companies conduct a morning exercise session for the workers to prepare them for the day's work.
43. In Japan non-smoking areas are difficult to find in restaurants, including family restaurants. Many of Japan's politicians have interest in the tobacco industry so anti-smoking laws are almost non-existent.  If you are planning a trip to Japan you may want to think twice if you are sensitive to cigarette smoke.

Interesting Facts About U.S. Presidential Elections

Shane Hall(contributor)

Shane Hall is a writer and research analyst with more than 20 years of experience. His work has appeared in "Brookings Papers on Education Policy," "Population and Development" and various Texas newspapers. Hall has a Doctor of Philosophy in political economy and is a former college instructor of economics and political science.

By Shane Hall, 

The presidential election, held every four years, is the most closely watched and widely publicized of all U.S. elections. It is the one truly national election in American politics. History was made in 2008, with the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president, but as the following piece demonstrates, American presidential elections are full of interesting facts and trivia.

1. Misconceptions

   • When voters cast their ballots in the presidential election, they are not voting directly for their preferred candidate but for a slate of their state's electors to vote for that candidate. The electoral vote, held about a month after the November election, decides the presidential race.

   History

   • If no presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House of Representatives decides the election. This has happened twice in American history: in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson won, and again in 1824, when John Quincy Adams was election.
   • • World's Best Accounting Software is Now in India. Get a Free Trail Now!

   Significance

   • It is possible for a candidate to win the most popular votes and still lose the electoral vote. Just ask Al Gore, who won the largest share of the popular vote in 2000, but still lost to George W. Bush.

   Fun Fact

   • James Buchanan, elected in 1856, is the nation's only bachelor president to date. No word, however, on whether he left his socks and underwear on the floor of the presidential mansion.

   Identification

   • In 2008, Barack Obama was elected the nation's 44th president. However, only 43 individuals have held the office. Grover Cleveland was elected twice to nonconsecutive terms; first as the 22nd president and later as the 24th.

Hitler Facts

34 Facts About Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler opens Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) ceremonies with an address.

(Picture from the USHMM, courtesy of Richard Freimark)

Hitler's Family

• Despite becoming the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not born there. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889.
• Hitler's parents were Alois (1837-1903) and Klara (1860-1908) Hitler.
• Hitler had only one sibling that survived childhood, Paula (1896-1960).
• However, Hitler also had four other siblings that died in childhood: Gustav (1885-1887), Ida (1886-1888), Otto (1887), and Edmund (1894-1900).
• In addition to his sister Paula, Hitler had one step-brother, Alois (b. 1882) and one step-sister, Angela (1883-1949), both from his father's previous marriage.
• Hitler was known as "Adi" in his youth.
• Hitler's father, Alois, was in his third marriage and 51 years old when Hitler was born. He was known as a strict man who retired from the civil service when Hitler was only six. Alois died when Hitler was 13.

Artist and Anti-Semite

• Throughout his youth, Hitler dreamed of becoming an artist. He applied twice to the Vienna Academy of Art (once in 1907 and again in 1908) but was denied entrance both times.
• At the end of 1908, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer.
• After his mother's death, Hitler spent four years living on the streets of Vienna, selling postcards of his artwork to make a little money.
• No one is quite sure where or how Hitler picked up his virulent antisemitism. Some say it was because of the questionable identity of his grandfather (was Hitler's grandfather Jewish?). Others say Hitler was furious at a Jewish doctor that let his mother die. However, it is just as likely that Hitler picked up a hatred for Jews while living on the streets of Vienna, a city known at the time for its antisemitism.

Hitler as a Soldier in World War I

• Although Hitler attempted to avoid Austrian military service by moving to Munich, Germany in May 1913, Hitler volunteered to serve in the German army once World War I began.
• Hitler endured and survived four years of World War I. During this time, he was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery.
• Hitler sustained two major injuries during the war. The first occurred in October 1916 when he was wounded by a grenade splinter. The other was on October 13, 1918, when a gas attack caused Hitler to go temporarily blind.
• It was while Hitler was recovering from the gas attack that the armistice (i.e. the end of the fighting) was announced. Hitler was furious that Germany had surrendered and felt strongly that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leaders.

Hitler Enters Politics

• Furious at Germany's surrender, Hitler returned to Munich after the end of World War I, determined to enter politics.
• In 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of a small antisemitic party called the German Worker's Party.
• Hitler soon became the party's leader, created a 25-point platform for the party, and established a bold red background with a white circle and swastika in the middle as the party's symbol. In 1920, the party's name was changed to National Socialist German Worker's Party (i.e. the Nazi Party).
• Over the next several years, Hitler often gave public speeches that gained him attention, followers, and financial support.
• In November 1923, Hitler spearheaded an attempt to take over the German government through a putsch (a coup), called the Beer Hall Putsch.
• When the coup failed, Hitler was caught and sentenced to five years in prison.
• It was while in Landsberg prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
• After only nine months, Hitler was released from prison.
• After getting out of prison, Hitler was determined to build up the Nazi Party in order to take over the German government using legal means.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor

• In 1932, Hitler was granted German citizenship.
• In the July 1932 elections, the Nazi Party obtained 37.3 percent of the vote for the Reichstag (Germany's parliament), making it the controlling political party in Germany.
• On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Hitler then used this high-ranking position to gain absolute power over Germany. This finally happened when Germany's president, Paul von Hindenburg, died in office on August 2, 1934.
• Hitler took the title of Führer and Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor).

Hitler as Führer

• As dictator of Germany, Hitler wanted to increase and strengthen the German army as well as expand Germany's territory. Although these things broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the treaty that officially ended World War I, other countries allowed him to do so. Since the terms of the Versailles Treaty had been harsh, other countries found it easier to be lenient than risk another bloody European war.
• In March 1938, Hitler was able to annex Austria into Germany (called the Anschluss) without firing a single shot.
• When Nazi Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, the other European nations could no longer stand idly by. World War II began.
• On July 20, 1944, Hitler barely survived an assassination attempt. One of his top military officers had placed a suitcase bomb under the table during a conference meeting at Hitler's Wolf's Lair. Because the table leg blocked much of the blast, Hitler survived with only injuries to his arm and some hearing loss. Not everyone in the room was so lucky.
• On April 29, 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun.
• The following day, April 30, 1945, Hitler and Eva committed suicide together.

 

10 Explanations for the Bermuda Triangle

The classic borders of the Bermuda Triangle are from Bermuda to Miami, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most of the mysterious disasters have occurred in its southern region from the Florida straits into the Bahamas. Well over a hundred sea and aircraft have vanished or been destroyed in the area, taking with them over a thousand men, women, and children, and no one yet knows why.

10

Plain Old Human Error

Because it isn’t exactly a dramatic revelation, human error makes only 10th place (they get more interesting). In terms of probability, those who have no interest in the supernatural — or as yet misunderstood science — will usually stop with all the ships and planes wrecking in the Triangle as a result solely of human error.
Humans make a lot of them. Even the most well trained, seasoned pilot’s concentration can momentarily lapse, and that is sometimes all it takes for disaster. The most famous plane wreck of the Triangle’s storied history is that of Flight 19, on 5 December 1945. The flight leader was Lieutenant Charles Taylor, a Naval Air Corps flight instructor. This story in particular will never let the Triangle’s mystique die, because Taylor was no rookie at the controls. They were supposed to practice dry bombing runs over the Florida keys, south of Florida, but somehow became so disoriented on the way home that they flew out over the Bahamas. Then all 14 airmen crashed into the open sea well northeast of Florida and were never heard from again.
A rescue party of 13 in a PBM Mariner was dispatched to search, but this plane is thought to have blown up in mid-air from an unknown cause. Extremely strange occurrences for professional military airmen, but it can always happen. Taylor’s radio transmissions have been preserved and indicate that his compass malfunctioned (see #5). Because he could no longer find magnetic North, he and his crew attempted to return West to the Florida coast by keeping the afternoon sun in front of them. This still did not succeed and the military’s explanation for the flight bewilderment is that Taylor mistook outline of the Bahama islands for the coastline of Florida.

9

The Gulf Stream

In explaining why no wreckage of various ships and downed planes has ever been found in the fairly shallow waters, the Gulf Stream is typically blamed. It is, in effect, a saltwater river on the surface of the ocean, with a warmer temperature than the surrounding seawater, causing it to flow northward along the east coast of the U. S. The current itself is in most place along the coast about 60 miles wide, and 2500 to 4000 feet deep, flowing on the surface at about 8 feet per second, with more than sufficient strength to drive enough hydroelectric plants to power all of North America. The Stream is nowhere stronger or faster on the surface than in the Triangle.
When ships sink or planes impact the water, they float momentarily, up to several hours depending on the severity of the vessel’s damage. During that time, the wreckage is carried northward by the Stream until sinks below the Stream, and finally to the bottom of the sea. Thus, a vessel could encounter disaster at one location and reach its final resting place in another. When rescuers reach the scene of last communication, they may find only the ocean, and may search a radius of several hundred square miles without finding a shred of anything. This doesn’t explain why so many ships and planes go down in the Triangle, but it can explain why almost immediate rescue efforts and subsequent deep-sea salvage operations turn up nothing at all.

8

Rogue Waves

Rogue waves were only theorised by science for centuries, until proof was established on 1 January 1995, at the Draupner oil rig off Norway. In rough seas with average waves of 39 feet, the oil rig was too high to be touched, until a single wave of at least 85 feet slammed across the underside, causing minor damage. It was recorded on sensors and proved what superstitious sailors had been swearing to in the same drunken tales of sea monsters.
The waves are possibly the most terrifying occurrences on the ocean. There can be no prior warning of them, no mathematical computation involving where and when they might occur. They are simply several dozen waves of average height for the conditions that suddenly merge into one and climb and climb. Their maximum limits are not known. An 85 footer is quite small. A 157 footer struck Fastnet Lighthouse, Ireland, in 1985. Such gigantic, nearly vertical walls of water are easily capable of flipping super tankers and sinking them in seconds. The largest ever ship was the Knock Nevis or Seawise Giant, at 1503 feet long. Titanic was only 882.5 feet. The Knock Nevis would have had to turn straight into a rogue wave and surf it in order not to turn over and founder, and even then, a 157 footer might still sink it.
Rogue waves are not caused by any one factor, but high winds and strong currents routinely cause waves to merge. They are still rare, occurring only about once every 200,000 waves. They are somewhat more prevalent in the Triangle than in calm areas of the world’s oceans, because of hurricanes and the Gulf Stream itself. A 157 foot high wave can utterly immerse and knock down any low-flying airplane or helicopter, especially those of the Coast Guard rescue, which fly low to search for shipwrecks and their survivors.

7

Methane Hydrates

These are more properly called “methane clathrates,” which in water environments are hydrates. How many are present around the world, and how large they are is unknown. A methane hydrate deposit is methane gas trapped in a natural lattice structure of crystallised water, similar to ice. Such deposits lie under the seafloor at almost any depth, some only inches beneath the water. Depending on their size, they can possess colossal potential energy, and when released all at once, the eruption can be sufficient to cause oil well blowouts. It was a methane hydrate that caused the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in 2010. The oil drill finally struck the hydrate deposit submerged in the ocean of oil beneath the seabed, and the methane destroyed the entire rig, sinking it a mile to the bottom.
It is quite plausible that a methane hydrate could erupt from under the seabed, expelling methane gas hundreds of feet to several miles all the way to the surface, and at the surface, a passing ship of any size could find itself centered over the escaping gas. If this occurs, the methane gas would turn the area around the ship to froth, severely decreasing the water’s buoyancy, and cause any ship, from a wood rowboat to a super tanker to sink in less than 10 seconds. No one on board would be able to abandon ship fast enough. The ocean itself would, in effect, swallow the vessel whole.

6

Hurricanes

The Bermuda Triangle stares down both barrels of Hurricane Alley each year. It’s rather easy to avoid one at sea, since any able seafarer will pay close attention to weather reports of it and have a week or more of prior warning to get out of the area. But that’s the case with modern technology. The Triangle’s mysterious disappearances date back to the Spanish and Portuguese conquistador era.
The most unpredictable, and thus most dangerous, by-product of a hurricane is a microburst, a sudden downdraft caused by the storm’s rotation sucking air down from high altitude. When this air reaches the surface of the ground or water, it spreads outward at speeds over 170 mph, regardless of the Hurricane’s category strength, more than sufficient to snap full-grown oak trees, or flip over any ship in the world. Airplanes are at risk of being forced into a stall and nosedive. Well trained pilots and helmsmen routinely fall prey to microbursts, and once they sink, the phrase “without a trace” is redundant given the Gulf Stream and the size of the ocean.

5/An Electromagnetic Aberration

Popularly thought of as a hole in Earth’s electromagnetic field. There are multiple places on Earth where a compass will not point North. Of course, compasses point to magnetic north, and as a compass travels across Earth’s surface, the needle will be seen to move in relation to the magnetic pole, and is quite incorrect in pointing to true North. Nevertheless, compasses behave very strangely in some places around the world.
At either magnetic pole, the needle will spin. At the actual North or South Pole, the needle will point to magnetic North, and thus be incorrect. In the Gobi Desert, some of the Altai Mountains are made of naturally magnetic stone, and within 100 miles of them, compasses will spin if surrounded, or simply follow the mountains as they pass by.
Compasses also behave erratically in the Bermuda Triangle. If you pass through any of its three borders, the aberrations will not cease instantaneously, but these reported electromagnetic aberrations can be plotted on a map with a center squarely in the Triangle. One or two mariners over the centuries could be referred to entry #10, but several thousand maritime travellers, in vehicles from small boats to large ships and airplanes, have complained of being unable to rely on their compasses during sections of their journeys through the Triangle.
It is open ocean, and no submerged anomalies have ever been reported. The sea floor has been completely mapped with sonar. Shipwrecks and plane wrecks are not magnetic, and have no bearing on compasses. Whatever causes the electromagnetic disturbances affects compasses very rarely, but there are many reports of needles intermittently spinning or spiking. It’s easy enough to navigate via the sun or stars, provided they’re visible, but the aberrant behaviour of compasses remains a mystery, and a likely cause of at least some of the disasters.

4

Positive Gravitational Mascon

“Mascon” is short for “mass concentration,” in this case of gravity. Gravitational mascons were theorised once the space age reached full gear, but they were, until the 1970s, only thought to exist in extremely massive celestial bodies, such as the Sun. Today, we know better. There are positive and negative mascons under every single square inch of every celestial body in the Universe. No one knows exactly what causes them, but nowhere in the known Universe are they more pronounced than on the Moon.
Astronauts from the 1960s on recorded noticeable dips in the orbits of satellites around the Moon, both manned and unmanned. These dips usually coincided with the Moon’s “seas,” such as the Sea of Tranquility, as well as the largest impact craters. It was found that the soil of the seas is made of basalt, which is why they are dark-colorer, and basalt is extremely dense compared to the lighter-colorer soil and rock around it. When an orbiting object passes over one of these seas, the denser material yanks on it with much more gravity than the Moon’s average pull. If Earth is said to have a gravitational pull of 1, the Moon is about 1/6th. Jupiter is 2.53, and a neutron star is 10 to the 11th power, or about enough gravitational pull to overpower 33% of the speed of light. The basalt of the Moon’s seas does not, however, explain the above average gravity centered in its impact craters. The Moon’s mascons are so powerful that no satellite can maintain an orbit for longer than about 4 years without being corrected. Left uncorrected, the satellite passes over multiple mascons until they finally yank it into free fall.
You are currently sitting on a mascon, whether negative or positive, but it is so microscopic in size and/or density that you cannot feel it. Nevertheless, gravity pulls slightly less in the Swiss Alps than in Paris, France. Such gravitational discrepancies are present everywhere around us. It is very possible that there are minute, yet unbelievably dense and powerful, positive mascons peppered under the seafloor throughout the Triangle. They may or may not be sufficient to affect seagoing vessels, but combined with a vessel traveling downward in a trough between two waves in rough seas, a mascon may be able to yank a ship underwater in 3 seconds or less, and continue pulling it all the way to the bottom. Since air is a much thinner medium than water, a mascon’s effect is even greater on aircraft, as evident with satellites.

3

Aliens

Easy enough to explain, given that they’re still pure science fiction. You could supply your own text to this entry, really. In general, all stories of aliens causing bizarre disappearances in the Triangle center on abductions. Remember, once you say “aliens” anything goes. The aliens are evidently curious about humans and periodically snatch a few from the Triangle for who-knows-what. Spielberg used this theory in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” depicting the airmen of Flight 19 stepping off the mothership at the end.
This theory has been put forth to explain the Mary Celeste, though it sailed a few hundred miles north of Bermuda, not through the Triangle. One of the most mysterious ship disappearances is that of the USS Cyclops, an armed Navy bulk cargo ship transporting 11,000 tons of raw manganese for use in munitions. Raw manganese ore is not flammable, so if there was an explosion, the manganese did not cause it. A boiler might have exploded, and that could easily sink even a huge ship, but if so, the wooden parts of the ship scattered across the water would not have sunk, and the Gulf Stream would have carried them northward along the East Coast, likely washing up on Bermuda’s beaches.
The Cyclops left Rio de Janeiro on 16 February 1918 for Baltimore, Maryland. It stopped in Bahia, Brazil on schedule on 20 February, then stopped in Barbados for a check to see if it was overloaded. It was deemed secure and seaworthy and departed on 4 March, north through the center of the Triangle, and was never seen again. Stories like this one have given rise to the theory of aliens beaming entire ships and planes into spaceships.

2

Rip in the Spacetime Continuum

Even less probable than alien adbuctions, but then, how much do we fully understand about Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity? He theorised that space and time combine to form one entity, and that everything in the Universe sits on this space-time, which, in effect, acts and reacts like a fabric suspended at the ends. A very massive object like the Sun rests on and indents this fabric more deeply than a less massive object like Earth. Black holes are just that, holes in the fabric of space-time. What’s on the other side? Today’s mathematics hit a brick wall at that point. No one knows.
A rip in the space-time continuum is not necessarily a black hole. Many are called Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or more popularly, wormholes. The shortest distance between two points is, in this case, not a straight line, but zero. The wormhole effectively teleports anything that enters it from Point A to B instantly, regardless of the distance, and Points A and B are not necessarily different physical locations, but could be the same location in different time periods. So you can travel from Earth to some planet in the Upsilon Andromedae star system instantly, rather than spending 44 years traveling at the speed of light. According to General Relativity, superluminal (faster than light) travel is impossible unless the laws of physics are first discarded. It also theorises that the laws of physics cease to exist inside a wormhole.
Because a full mathematical description of wormholes has not yet been formulated, it is, at least for now, possible (just not feasible) that a wormhole exists in the Triangle, though not at all times, that this wormhole instantly transports anything entering it to another location in the Universe, or to another time in the same location. Possible credence for this theory centers on Carolyn Cascio, who was mentioned in detail on another list.
In brief, she was a veteran pilot who chartered vacations in the Bahamas. On 7 June 1964, she flew from Nassau for Grand Turk Island, the largest of the Turks Islands, and densely populated. It has lots of houses, condos, hotel resorts, an airport, and many other signs that it is inhabited, but when Cascio reached Grand Turk, she radioed ahead that she thought she was lost. She stated that the island was the same shape and size of Grand Turk, but was utterly bereft of any sign of human habitation. It had nothing but woods and beaches on it.
Her radio transmissions were received by Grand Turk airport, which radioed back that she was at the right island, and could land anytime, but she didn’t. She radioed that she could not find the airport, even though she was flying directly over it. She circled it over a dozen times, being radioed frantically from the tower, but never responded. Her transmissions indicated that her radio was not receiving, though the airport received hers, and though in full view of it for 30 minutes, she finally flew off back the way she had come, and neither she, nor her passenger, nor her plane was ever seen again. The above story is true.
The mathematical theories involved with how wormholes work are not yet fully described, so until the possibility of a wormhole in the Bermuda Triangle is proven or disproven, it must be construed as possible for Cascio to have entered one at Point A sometime during her trip to Grand Turk and exited at the same location in a time, Point B, before humans had inhabited Grand Turk. She was, then, unable to fly back through the same rip in the space-time continuum.

1

Submerged Island of Atlantis

This theory is argued based on the evidence of apparently man-made structures in 15 to 20 feet of water, just off the northwest coast of North Bimini Island, about 50 miles east of Miami, Florida. These structures have come to be called the Bimini Road, and they were only discovered by a scuba diver on 2 September 1968. They are limestone rocks, fairly rectangular for the most part, and all roughly but neatly fitted together as a pavement about half a mile long. There are two other similar structures between this road and the island’s beach, also of limestone blocks. The blocks range in size from 6 feet to 13 feet wide. The other two roads are about 150 feet and 200 feet long, comprised of smaller blocks.
The rectangular shape of most of the blocks, as well as their orderly arrangement in straight lines of up to half a mile lead many to surmise that they are man-made, cut from limestone quarries and set up as either a road or wall. The longer road is arranged as if it were a section of wall surrounding North Bimini Island. It may be possible that the Bimini Road is the only remnant of the sunken Island of Atlantis shallow enough to have been discovered.
Plato theorised that Atlantis flourished about 9,600 BC, and had been far advanced technologically, artistically, and politically beyond his Ancient Greece, the most advanced society in the world at the time. He described it as having lain “in front of the Pillars of Heracles,” which are the Strait of Gibraltar, and that because of a horrible cataclysm, perhaps a volcanic eruption, “in one single day and night of misfortune, the Island of Atlas vanished from the face of the earth.”
It is no secret that there may have been such an island; the Atlantic Ocean is named after the same root, Atlas. If Atlantis is there at the bottom of the ocean, perhaps its civilisation was so technologically advanced as to survive submerging to an average Bermuda Triangle depth of about 3.8 miles. Sonar bathymetry maps do not show any anomalous underwater features in the Atlantic Ocean other than the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but Atlantis could have been a very flat Island that would not register on sonar equipment.
The Atlanteans’ technology could have been so far beyond even ours today that they could protect themselves from the pressure of 4 miles of water on top of them, and their descendants continue to live at least partly beneath the Triangle. Their civilization could have the power to disrupt the electromagnetic field, sink ships, down aircraft, and salvage sunken wreckage.

 

Top 10 Most Overrated Novels

[COMPETITION: This list includes a competition.] There are many titles given to great literary works, and many awards to recognize truly great literature. This list wants to concentrate on the other side of the board: those books that are considered “classics,” but are in fact heavily overrated. These could be wildly popular books that were best sellers, but just weren’t that good, or books that are considered “among the best ever” by academics but fail as being readable or good literature beyond some fancy literary trick. In at least one case (see #10), this list also includes good books that are fun reads, but are rated way above the actual quality of writing. Here is the list of ten of the most overrated novels:

10

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

J.R.R. Tolkien

What better way to start a list than with controversy? “The Lord of the Rings” remains a cornerstone of the fantasy adventure genre, and the story is certainly epic. That being said, Tolkien was more of a professor and creative inventor than a writer, and that shows in these books. “The Hobbit” was by far and away the best written of all his works, and while the story from “The Lord of the Rings” is excellent and ambitious, the writing itself leaves a lot to be desired. There are the wandering plots, the many pages of details that are completely superfluous, and the often occurrence of “dues ex machine” to keep the plot moving. The story may be good, but for a series often considered one of the best of all time, the writing itself won’t measure up to that lofty praise.
Buy at Amazon: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition

9

A Passage to India

E.M. Forster

“A Passage to India,” is widely considered E.M. Forster’s best novel, and is still popular in academe. It is often hailed as an early radical work on race relations that was shocking at the time. Modern critics point out that as opposed to Hemingway, Joyce, Huxley, Sinclair Lewis, or other authors whose works are still popular outside of academic study, Forster’s characters sound like wooden caricatures. The writing is dated and slow, the “social commentary” questionable, and the Indian natives in this novel don’t seem that much different than the Brits, dulling it of the impact that the writers of the Harlem Renaissance had. These critics all have very valid points.
Buy at Amazon: A Passage to India (Penguin Classics)

8

White Noise & Underworld

Don Delillo

This is a two for one deal. Don Delillo is absolutely adored by many English professors. His works are equally despised by many grad students and other English professors. These works seem to find the far majority of their fans among professors, while the common readers aren’t biting. Add the fact that just as many professors seem indifferent to these works, and Delillo can be considered badly overrated.
Buy at Amazon: White Noise (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

7

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand might be the most divisive author not named L. Ron Hubbard. There’s also the chance she is just as divisive. While often pointed out as one of Rand’s “epic” works, “Atlas Shrugged” is a slow paced, thinly veiled, political and moral treatise whose hype is so far beyond the quality of the story that there was no way this book could avoid this list – even if it was generally considered a quality read by the majority of readers. [JFrater: you can't say we don't allow different opinions to have a voice on this site: this is one of my favorite books!]
Buy at Amazon: Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)

6

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

“A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking was nicknamed “The unread best seller,” by many critics who noted it was a best seller, but very few people actually read past the first few chapters. “100 Years” is the fictional equivalent. This is considered a genius work that is incredibly complex and ushered in magical realism as a genre, but when you need cliff notes as extensive as the book itself to kind of understand the plot, and this book is kept alive mostly by being taught in colleges, you have a problem. For a book that is almost a lock to be on any “100 best books ever” list, it is amazingly unreadable if you need to actually understand what’s going on.
Buy at Amazon: One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.)

5,The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown

This is a book loved by the masses, and isn’t thought of well at all by literature majors or professors. A lot of basic facts are wrong, the writing is poor and amateurish, the narrator mixes with the main character’s point of view, and there’s a lot of thinly veiled social opinions pushed forward as facts. Why is this novel not the most overrated of all time? Because a lot of readers already recognize this for what it is: a story with enough controversial elements and a good marketing gig to hit the best seller list, but a work that was not very well written at all, and a story with a ton of holes in it.
Buy at Amazon: The Da Vinci Code

4

Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

The story behind this novel is fascinating: the author commits suicide after failing to find a publisher and ten years later the novel is published and wins the Pulitzer Prize. This is a story that is a somewhat modern and Americanized “Don Quixote.” The writing is fairly good, but this is a “funny” story that does enough to get an occasional smirk, but also throws out thirty jokes that just don’t do it. Following that, this book breaks one of the cardinal rules of literature: if you’re following one character as the ‘hero,’ he has to be someone the reader likes, or can at least sympathize with. This book is an acceptable read, but its reputation now grossly exceeds its actual quality.
Buy at Amazon: A Confederacy of Dunces

3

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

This book went out of print for nearly three decades. Yeah, Fitzgerald was that important. Then almost thirty years after the rest of the world moved on, two professors wrote a ton of academic papers about Fitzgerald’s “brilliance” in the 1960′s and this book was put back into print to be taught in every high school in the nation. You can almost hear the recurring groans of every student who has ever wondered how this lame rehashed soap opera was ever brought out of printing banishment.
Buy at Amazon: The Great Gatsby

2

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte

This book is a classic because… well… there doesn’t seem to be much explanation for that. This was a highly ambitious book, and the Brontes did make a name for women authors, but just because a book was ground breaking at the time doesn’t mean it should remain a classic. Some books are horribly dated, badly structured, and not even all ground breaking books are well written. Many argue that “Wuthering Heights” is guilty of all three literary sins, and this novel’s extremely high place in the literary canon makes it number two on the overrated list.
Buy at Amazon: Wuthering Heights (Penguin Popular Classics)

1

Emma

Jane Austen

Say what you will, but any book where pretty much nothing happens for 400 pages before the naïve girl suddenly matures and marries the much older man named “Mr. Knightly” (and lives happily ever after) should not be considered the greatest book ever. Through colleges and grad schools, many students have heard this book repeatedly called the perfect novel, the perfect plot, and the best novel ever written. It may have been ground breaking at the time, but it is now the equivalent of chick lit with a very basic plot that is heavily dated. It might be light summer reading for teenage girls, but it is not the best novel ever written by a long shot, making this the most overrated novel of all time.
Buy at Amazon: Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)