The Lost City Of Nan Madol Is The Only Known Ancient City Ever Built On Top Of A Coral Reef

Off the shores of a tiny island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean are the ruins of an ancient civilization. The remains of Nan Madol are the only standing monument of a civilization built entirely over open water, on a coral reef.

The eerie abandoned stone structures are said to have inspired science-fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft to create a similar sunken city that was home to the monster Cthulhu, says Atlas Obscura.

In reality, Nan Madol was once home to the Saudeleur, who ruled the island of Pohnpei for more than a millennium, reported Smithsonian Magazine. The 92 artificial islands of Nan Madol are thought to have been constructed over the course of several centuries, and then eventually abandoned after 1,000 years of habitation.

Rufino Mauricio, Pohnpei’s only archaeologist, has dedicated his life to studying and preserving the ruins, which are built of 750,000 tons of black basaltic rock.

“We don’t know how they brought the columns here and we don’t know how they lifted them up to build the walls. Most Pohnpeians are content to believe they used magic to fly them,” Mauricio told Smithsonian.

He added that given the size of Pohnpei’s population at the time — fewer than 30,000 people — the construction of Nan Madol is an even larger and more remarkable effort than the Great Pyramids were for the ancient Egyptians.

Although Mauricio would like to clear out all the brush that now covers the small islands, preservation has become a complicated issue because of the ownership of Nan Madol. Although it belongs to the state of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, the traditional leader of the municipality where Nan Madol is located doesn’t want to relinquish control, making protection from UNESCO difficult to achieve.

Ex-State Dept. spokesman: Military parade ‘is beneath us as a nation’

A former State Department spokesman and retired Navy rear admiral on Wednesday ripped President Trump’s request for the Pentagon to organize a military parade, calling it a “tremendously bad idea.”

"This is not about showcasing our military. This is about the president showing off. This is all about his ego,” John Kirby said on CNN’s “New Day.”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday night that Trump has asked military officials to explore holding a celebration for Americans to show their appreciation for the armed forces. 

The White House has confirmed that Trump directed the Department of Defense to look into creating such an event.

Officials told The Washington Post that the concept is still in its early stages, but that the parade could cost millions of dollars.

Kirby, who served as State Department spokesman from 2015 to 2017, argued Wednesday that the event would be a waste of money and that the resources for a parade could be better spent elsewhere. He suggested spending money on operations, military training and spouse education programs instead.

“This is just beneath us as a nation,” Kirby said. “We are the most powerful military on earth. We’re very proud of that and rightly so. We don’t need to be parading our military hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue to show that to anybody.”

Mystery Website Attacking City-Run Broadband Was Run by a Telecom Company

Analysis Cable biz Fidelity Communications has been forced to admit it was behind an astroturfing campaign against a city-run fiber network in America's Midwest.

The campaign, titled Stop City-Funded Internet, started last month with a website and accompanying social media handles, and has been a persistent critic of efforts by West Plains, Missouri, to expand its homegrown broadband network to include more businesses and even residential customers.

Who exactly is behind the campaign has been the subject of intense interest with the campaign's main website revealing only that it was funded by "a collection of fiscally conservative Missourians."

However one enterprising local – videographer Isaac Protiva – was able to uncover the truth: cable company Fidelity Communications, which offers internet access in five states including Missouri, and boasts 115,000 customers. The ISP had paid a marketing outfit based in Arizona to carry out the campaign.

How did he figure it out? The marketing company screwed up when it named materials on stopcityfundedinternet.com. Specifically, two images on the site were spotted revealing Fidelity as a client. Incredibly, one was the site's main header image, called Fidelity_SCFI_Website_V2.jpg. The second image was on a privacy page, and was hosted on a server called fidelity.dmwebtest.com. Talk about a smoking gun.

The server domain revealed the company behind the campaign was DM Web Dev Group, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and owned by marketing veterans Martin Lakin and David Ammerman.

So, about that...

Protiva documented his findings in a YouTube video at the end of January, and incredibly it prompted a formal response a few days later from Fidelity to the campaign's Facebook page – although there remains no mention of the corporate funding on the campaign website nor Fidelity's own website. The images have since been replaced to remove any mention of Fidelity.

"There has been a tremendous amount of conversation about the ownership of this page," the post declared, with this letter attached. "Today we offer what we hope will provide some clarity via an official statement from Fidelity Communications about their support of our efforts in promoting a conversation about city owned Internet in West Plains."

The unsigned letter began, "We would like to take this opportunity to respond to question we have received about our stance on the City of West Plains’ launch of internet services as a ‘public utility'," before launching in a rundown of how the company feels it has been badly treated by the city of West Plains.

It argued, using the Citizens United Supreme Court logic, that "first and foremost, we are a citizen of West Plains, and we, like each of you, want West Plains, its residents and businesses to grow and prosper."

But it waited until the last paragraph to admit that the cable company is behind the campaign. It read: "In an effort to reach out to the public and to tell the other side of the story, we have engaged a third party to launch and maintain a 'Stop City-Funded Internet' Facebook page and related stopcityfundedinternet.com website."

Responding to the letter on his own Facebook page, Protiva noted: "My job here is done."

Not new

This is far from the first time a cable company has run an astroturf campaign against potential competitors. However, the the risk of exposure from doing so has prompted many to go a different route, and use lobbyists to reach lawmakers to kick start legislation that makes it much harder for municipal networks to get up and running.

In the case of West Plains, however, the ISP was up against city administrator Tom Stehn, who appears to have played things by the book and was savvy enough to have enlisted congressional support for his city's broadband plans. Stehn is also an engineer, which may explain why the municipal network has not run into some of the same problems similar projects in other cities across the nation have encountered.

Back in December 2015, the city decided to build its own municipal fiber network after a survey of local businesses revealed that they were unhappy at the quality and cost of their internet connections. Some firms were paying three times the amount for similar connectivity available in nearby cities.

The letter from Fidelity Communications referenced that disquiet, and noted that "the city and the Broadband Study Group expressed concern that we weren’t providing service in a few areas, we weren’t offering one Gig service… and that we were charging special construction charges to reach certain businesses."

It argued: "We acknowledged and addressed those concerns. We agreed to serve any business within the city limits without charging any special construction costs. We have also increased speeds to all of our business customers several times, without charging additional fees. Moreover, we upgraded our equipment and facilities to provide one Gig service throughout the entire city limits."

It went on: "In December of 2016, we met with the city and asked if there was anything else we could be doing? They said 'No,' and indicated they were satisfied with our services."

Donald Trump eyes large-scale military parade to showcase American muscle

US President Donald Trump has asked for a large-scale military parade, the White House said Tuesday, an unconventional move that would showcase American muscle and underscore his role as commander-in-chief.

Trump -- who has toyed with the idea of a parade in Washington since before being sworn in -- has made the request to top officers, who are looking for a date.

"President Trump is incredibly supportive of America`s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.


"He has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation."

The Pentagon confirmed it was "in the process of determining specific details."

Trump`s new request, first reported by The Washington Post, immediately fueled comparisons to similar events in more autocratic countries.


"What an absurd waste of money! Trump acts more like dictator than president. Americans deserve better," said Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern.

The idea has had a long gestation period. When Trump visited Paris last July for Bastille Day, he made no secret of his awe for the pomp and ceremony of the occasion.

Sitting on the Champs-Elysees, the American president marveled at the Republican Guard on horseback and jets flying overhead, and greeted President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in an open-topped camouflaged military jeep.


Months after that meeting, Trump publicly remarked: "So we`re actually thinking about Fourth of July, Pennsylvania Avenue, having a really great parade to show our military strength."

But even before becoming president, aides reported that Trump had considered a military parade to mark his inauguration. The idea was eventually scrapped.Trump has already prompted fears about his respect for democratic freedoms once this week by suggesting Democrats were "un-American" and "treasonous" for not applauding his State of the Union address.

The White House claimed Trump was joking.


"The president was clearly joking with his comments, but what isn`t a joke is that Democrats refuse to celebrate the accomplishments of last year that have helped all Americans," Sanders said.

But the quip did not go down well with lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats.

"I have seen the president`s most ardent defenders use the now-weary argument that the president`s comments were meant as a joke, just sarcasm, only tongue in cheek," said Republican Senator Jeff Flake.


"But treason is not a punchline, Mr President."

Military veteran and Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth also fired back at Trump, while lampooning his deferments from medical military service during the Vietnam War.

"We don`t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy," she said.


"I swore an oath -- in the military and in the Senate -- to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap."

Strongest magnetic field ever measured directly observed on Sun's surface

Magnetism plays a critical role in various solar phenomena such as flares, mass ejections, flux ropes, and coronal heating.

The sun is an enigmatic entity that has long since intrigued scientists and understanding the largest star in our solar system has been one of their main priorities.


Space agencies have time and again released videos and images of the luminous body spewing solar material and oozing plasma on its surface, which makes one wonder what other secrets the gigantic ball of fire may be holding.

Solar observatories are forever at work trying to decipher the ball of fire's smallest of flares.


Now, using the HINODE spacecraft, Japanese astronomers have observed the strongest magnetic field ever directly measured on the surface of the Sun.

The researchers determined that the field was generated as a result of gas outflow from one sunspot pushing against another sunspot.

"HINODE's continuous high-resolution data allowed us to analyse the sunspots in detail to investigate the distribution and time evolution of the strong magnetic field and also the surrounding environment," said Joten Okamoto from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).


"Finally, the longtime mystery of the formation mechanism of a stronger field outside an umbra than in the umbra has been solved," Okamoto said.

Magnetism plays a critical role in various solar phenomena such as flares, mass ejections, flux ropes, and coronal heating.

Sunspots are areas of concentrated magnetic fields. A sunspot usually consists of a circular dark core (the umbra) with a vertical magnetic field and radially-elongated fine threads (the penumbra) with a horizontal field.


The penumbra harbours an outward flow of gas along the horizontal threads.

The darkness of the umbrae is generally correlated with the magnetic field strength. Hence, the strongest magnetic field in each sunspot is located in the umbra in most cases.

Okamoto and Takashi Sakurai from NAOJ were analysing data taken by the Solar Optical Telescope onboard HINODE when they noticed the signature of strongly magnetised iron atoms in a sunspot.


Surprisingly the data indicated a magnetic field strength of 6,250 gauss. This is more than double the 3,000 gauss field found around most sunspots, researchers said.

Previously, magnetic fields this strong on the Sun had only been inferred indirectly.

More surprisingly, the strongest field was not in the dark part of the umbra, as would be expected, but was actually located in a bright region between two umbrae.

When astronauts tossed the shuttle: First badminton match played in outer space

While Roscosmos didn't specify the final score, they said that 'Friendship won', which in Russian terms normally means that the match was a draw.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), for the first time in history, indulged in a game of badminton in space on Tuesday.


The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos released a video of the cosmonauts and astronauts from Russia, the United States and Japan playing the first ever badminton match in outer space.

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov played against their US peer Mark Vande Hei and Japanese Norishige Kanai in the first set, a Roscosmos statement said.


In the second set, NASA's Joseph Acaba replaced Vande Hei, Xinhua news agency reported.

While Roscosmos didn't specify the final score, they said that 'Friendship won', which in Russian terms normally means that the match was a draw.

The ISS commander, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, said for him, playing a game in the orbit was "tantamount to placing a flag on Mars."


"In the future, in ships that will carry us to other worlds, it is necessary to provide a separate module for such a game since it is very useful from the point of view of psychological relaxation and strengthening of friendly relations in a team," NASA's Vande Hei commented.

Surreal Illustrations With Hidden Meaning Show The Darker Side Of Modern Society (39 Pics)

Polish illustrator Igor Morski is one of the best artists when it comes to get his message across through his art in a concealed but understandable manner.