Beaumont children disappearance

It was 1966, a gorgeous Australia Day in the suburbs of Adelaide, when nine-year-old Jane Beaumont and her siblings, seven-year-old Arnna and four-year-old Grant vanished seemingly into thin air. The kids hopped a bus for what should have been a five-minute ride to Glenelg Beach, a popular spot they visited often. Hours later, they failed to return home, setting into motion one of Australia's most sensational mysteries — and even today, one of its most prominent cold cases.

Witnesses claimed to have seen the siblings on the beach playing with a tall, thin, blonde man. Jane Beaumont was spotted buying snacks (including a meat pie, which the children had never purchased before) with money she did not have when she left the house that day. A mail carrier who knew the family saw the kids walking in the direction of their home a few hours later ... but they never made it. Where did the children go? Who was the tall man? Though the case has continued to generate leads and wild theories (religious cults, a madman who may have turned the kids into a human centipede of sorts via "experimental surgery"), it remains unsolved. Needless to say, parents in Australia became a lot more protective and paranoid in the wake of this case.

Source:  http://io9.com/

China’s Dwarf Village

Villages in general are not strange. Villages in China are also not strange. There are many remote ones in this country, but one stands out from the others. Scientists and experts are extremely interested in the inhabitants of Yangsi, situated in the Sichuan Province. The reason? Not only are there only 80 residents in the village, but almost half of them are dwarfs. Rumor has it, according to those who live in Yangsi, that a mysterious disease befell the little village more than 60 years ago. Young children between the ages of five and seven were most affected, and the disease caused them to simply stop growing. Experts now know that stunted growth is only likely to appear in 1 in 20,000 people, so what happened in Yangsi is something very much out of the ordinary. Especially considering that historic sightings of the dwarfs claim that several hundred of them were residing in the Sichuan region at one point.As if the mystery affliction wasn’t bad enough, some of the children struck by it started suffering from a variety of disabilities. As adults, some of the afflicted gave birth to children who also only grew to around 1 meter (3 ft) in height. The Chinese government has never allowed visitors to the village, inevitably opening up the story to a host of urban legends. It has been said that the citizens felt dark forces had invaded their homes and started believing that they were cursed due to their ancestors’ anger over improper burials. Others apparently believe a turtle to be the source of the problem. Some of the villages cooked and ate a black turtle and, soon after, the strange disease hit Yangsi. After all this time, however, it seems that the residents are growing out of the disease. The younger generation has seemingly been spared.

Source :http://listverse.com/

Galapagos Islands Facts

Enjoy our fun Galapagos Islands facts for kids. Understand what makes these Islands so special with our range of interesting information and trivia.

Learn about the amazing and unique animals, birds and creatures that live in the islands, where the Galapagos Islands are, how Charles Darwin's visit to the islands helped evolutionary thought and much more.

• The Galapagos are an archipelago of volcanic islands that span across the equator line.
• The Galapagos Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean, 926 km (575 mi) west of Ecuador, South America, and are an offshore territory of Ecuador.
• The islands are home to over 25,000 people clustered in small towns, the capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
• The Archipelago group consists of 7,880 km² (3,040 mi²) of land spread over 45,000 km² (17,000 mi²) of ocean.
• The group consists of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 islets or rocks. The largest of the islands is Isabela which makes up nearly three-quarters of the total land area of the Galapagos islands at 5,827 km² (2,250 mi²).
• The highest point in the Galapagos Islands is Volcán Wolf on Isabela which is 1,707 m (5,600 ft) above sea level.
• The islands sit above the Galapagos hotspot where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, which creates volcanoes. The oldest of the islands, more then 4 million years old, are slowly disappearing back below sea level. The youngest islands Isabela and Fernandina are still in the process of being formed with 13 volcanic eruptions in the archipelago over the last 100 years.
• Five ocean currents converge at the Galapagos islands. The Equatorial, Cromwell, Humboldt, and Panama currents create variable water temperatures and unpredictable tides in the area resulting in a unique marine ecology.
• The Galapagos islands became a national park in 1959. The islands were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. In 1986, the surrounding ocean was declared a biological marine reserve and in 1990 the area became a whale sanctuary.
• Charles Darwin famously visited the Galapagos islands for 5 weeks in 1835 on the ship HMS Beagle. During his observations and collections he noted that mockingbirds, Darwin finches and tortoises differed over the various islands. These facts contributed to the development of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection presented in his book 'The Origin of Species'.
• Due to the uniqueness of the islands and ocean waters there are vast numbers of endemic species including: Galapagos land iguanas, marine iguana (the only iguana that feed in the sea), sea cucumbers, flightless cormorant, blue-footed booby, Galapagos mockingbirds, Galapagos Penguin, Galapagos sea lions, Galapagos hawk, great Frigatebird, waved Albatross, and over 50 species of fish.
• The most famous of the endemic Galapagos creatures are the tortoises that the islands were named after. The giant tortoises have slightly differing physical features depending on which island they come from.
• Unfortunately, whalers and fur-seal traders in the 18th-19th centuries killed and captured thousands of the Galapagos tortoises to extract their fat. Because they can survive for months without food or water the tortoises could be kept on board ships as a means of providing of fresh protein. Some entire species of tortoises were lost to this practise and others were on the verge of extinction.
• The most famous resident of the Galapagos islands was Lonesome George, who was the only surviving giant Pinta Island tortoise left on Earth. He was known as the rarest creature in the world and served as a symbol for conservation. Lonesome George died on the 24th June 2012 at the age of 100.

Source :http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/