The Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated species of South American camelid. It resembles a small llama in superficial appearance.
Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of Ecuador, southern Peru, northern Bolivia, and northern Chile at an altitude of 3500 to 5000 meters above sea-level, throughout the year. Alpacas are considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike llamas, alpacas are not used as beasts of burden but are valued only for their fiber. Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, much as sheep’s wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States. Alpacas and llamas differ in that alpacas have straight ears and llamas have banana-shaped ears. Aside from these differences, llamas are on average 1-2 feet taller and proportionally bigger than alpacas.
In the textile industry, “alpaca” primarily refers to the hair of Peruvian alpacas, but more broadly it refers to a style of fabric originally made from alpaca hair but now often made from similar fibers, such as mohair, Icelandic sheep wool, or even high-quality English wool. In trade, distinctions are made between alpacas and the several styles of mohair and luster.

The Angora rabbit is a variety of domestic rabbit bred for its long, soft hair. The Angora is one of the oldest types of domestic rabbit, originating in Ankara, Turkey, along with the Angora cat and Angora goat. The rabbits were popular pets with French royalty in the mid 1700s, and spread to other parts of Europe by the end of the century. They first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s. They are bred largely for their long angora wool, which may be removed by shearing, Combing, or plucking (gently pulling loose wool).
There are many individual breeds of Angora rabbits, four of which are ARBA recognized. Such breeds include French, German, Giant, English, Satin, Chinese, Swiss and Finnish, to name a few.

The Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is the best-known of the Mexican neotenic mole salamanders belonging to the Tiger Salamander complex. Larvae of this species fail to undergo metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species originates from the lake underlying Mexico City. Axolotls, also known as ajolote (ajolote is incorrect) are used extensively in scientific research due to their ability to regenerate most body parts, ease of breeding, and large embryos. They are commonly kept as pets in the United States, Great Britain (under the spelling axlotl), Australia, Japan (where they are sold under the name wooper rooper (ウーパールーパー, Ūpā Rūpā^?), and other countries.
Axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum and Ambystoma mavortium), which is widespread in much of North America which also occasionally become neotenic, nor with mudpuppies (Necturus spp.), fully-aquatic salamanders which are unrelated to the axolotl but which bear a superficial resemblance.

The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the world’s largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out.
Daubentonia is the only genus in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. The Aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus (although it is currently an endangered species); a second species, Daubentonia robusta, appears to have become extinct at some point within the last 1000 years.

The Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, it is rarely seen by humans.
Blobfish are found at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. The relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front of it. It is often caught by bottom trawling with nets.

The octopuses of the genus Grimpoteuthis are also known as “Dumbo octopuses” from the ear-like fins protruding from the top of their head-like bodies, resembling the ears of Walt Disney’s flying elephant. They are benthic creatures, living at extreme depths: 300-400 meters, and are some of the rarest of the Octopoda species. They can flush the transparent layer of their skin at will, and are pelagic animals, as with all other cirrate octopuses, and unlike many other incirrate octopuses.
They hover above the sea floor, searching for worms, bivalves, pelagic copepods, and other crustaceans. They move by pulsing their arms, shooting water through their funnel, or by waving their ear-like fins. They can use each of these techniques separately or all simultaneously. The males and females are different in their size and sucker patterns. The females lay eggs consistently, with no distinct breeding season.

The Emperor Tamarin

The Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator) is a tamarin allegedly named for its resemblance to the German emperor Wilhelm II. It lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the west Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas.

The fur of the Emperor Tamarin is predominantly grey colored, with yellowish speckles on its chest. The hands and feet are black and the tail is brown. Outstanding is its long, white mustache, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. The animal reaches a length of 24 to 26 cm (9 1/2 to 10 1/4 in), plus a 35 cm (13 3/4 in) long tail. It weighs approximately 300 to 400 g (10 1/2 to 14 oz).

This primate inhabits tropical rain forests, living deep in the forest and also in open tree-covered areas. This diurnal species walks or runs quadrupedally through the forest, spending the majority of its days in the trees with quick, safe movements and broad jumps among the limbs.

The Emperor Tamarin lives together in groups of two to eight animals. The oldest female leads the group above several mature males. Mutual grooming plays an important role for bonding and socializing. The Emperor Tamarin is known to form mixed-species associations with the Brown-mantled Tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis). It has various cries which help them to promptly recognize interlopers.
The diet of the Emperor Tamarin is similar to that of other tamarins. It is an omnivore, primarily eating fruits, insects and sap. When feeding on sap, the Emperor Tamarin latches on to the tree vertically with its claws dug into the bark of the tree. It also eats bird eggs and small vertebrates (such as tree frogs). Due to its small weight it can reach food at the far end of branches, which are not accessible to heavier animals.
The Emperor Tamarin lives a polyandrous life, i.e. the mature female mates with all of the males of her harem. Gestation is 140 to 145 days, and births are typically twins (although triplets happen on occasion) as is typical of tamarins. All the males, father or not, help with the birth, care, and support of the young, carrying them and bringing them to the mother to nurse. At approximately three months they are weaned, and toward the end of the second year they are fully mature. The Emperor Tamarin’s life expectancy is over 15 years. Very little is known about the population of Emperor Tamarin in the wild.

The Frill-necked Lizard

The Frill-necked Lizard, or Frilled Lizard also known as the Frilled Dragon, (Chlamydosaurus kingii) is so called because of the large ruff of skin which usually lies folded back against its head and neck. The neck frill is supported by long spines of cartilage, and when the lizard is frightened, it gapes its mouth showing a bright pink or yellow lining, and the frill flares out, displaying bright orange and red scales. The frill may also aid in thermoregulation.

Hagfish

Hagfish are marine craniates of the class Myxini, also known as Hyperotreti. Myxini is the only class in the clade Craniata that does not also belong to the subphylum Vertebrata. That is, they are the only animals which have a skull but not a vertebral column.
Despite their name, there is some debate about whether they are strictly fish (as there is for lampreys), since they belong to a much more primitive lineage than any other group that is commonly defined fish (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes). Their unusual feeding habits and slime-producing capabilities have led members of the scientific and popular media to dub the hagfish as the most “disgusting” of all sea creatures. Although hagfish are sometimes called “slime eels,” they are not eels at all.

The Komondor dog

The Komondor (lat. Canis familiaris pastorialis villosus hungaricus) is a livestock guardian dog breed originally from Hungary. The plural is in Hungarian “Komondorok”

The origin of the Komondor is debated. Some believe the Komondor were a dog of the Magyars, while others believe it to be a dog of the Sumerians. According to the most probable explanation, Komondors were brought to Hungary by Cumans, the Turkish speaking, nomadic people who settled Hungary during the 12th and 13th century. The name “quman-dur” means “belonging to the Cumans” or “the dog of the Cumans,” thus distinguishing it from a similar Hungarian sheepdog breed which later merged with the Komondor. The name Komondor is found for the first time written in 1544 in the History of King Astiagis by Kákonyi Péter, in Hungarian. Later in 1673 Amos Comenius mentions the Komondor in one of his works.

The unique dreadlock appearance gives a hint of common origin with the Puli and the Bergamasco. There might also be a link between the Komondor and the big, white Russian livestock dogs, the South Russian Ovcharka. The dreadlock coat must have developed under a dry and extreme temperature climate as it provides superb protection against cold and hot weather, but is not too comfortable in wet weather.
The Komondor is built for livestock guarding. It is big, strong, and armored with a thick coat. The coat provides protection against wild animals and the weather and vegetation, the coat of the dog looks similar to that of a sheep so it can easily blend into a flock and camouflage itself giving it an advantage when predators such as wolves attack. The coat is the trademark of the breed.

Today the Komondor is a fairly common breed in Hungary, its country of origin. Many Komondors were killed during World War II and local stories say that this is because when the Germans (and then the Russians) invaded, they had to kill the dog before they could capture a farm or house that it guarded.

The Narwhal

The Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is an Arctic species of cetacean. It is a creature rarely found south of latitude 70°N. It is one of two species of white whale in the Monodontidae family (the other is the Beluga whale).

The most conspicuous characteristic of the male narwhal is its single, extraordinarily long tusk. It is an incisor tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw and forms a left-handed helix. The tusk can be up to three metres (nearly 10 ft) long (compared with a body length of 4-6 m [13-16 ft]) and weigh up to 10 kg (22 lbs). About one in 500 males has two tusks, which occurs when the right incisor, normally small, also grows out. A female narwhal may also produce a tusk, and there is a single recorded case of a female with dual tusks.
The purpose of the tusk is unknown, though various explanations have been proposed. One explanation suggested that the tusk was used to pierce the ice covering the narwhal’s Arctic Sea habitat.Another suggested the tusk was used in echolocation. Other hypothesized uses include courting females, defense, and foraging for food. In yet another theory, the tusk is primarily used for showmanship and for dominance: males with larger tusks are more likely to successfully attract a mate. This hypothesis was suggested by the activity of “tusking”, in which two males rub tusks).
However, recent work by a research team suggests that the tusk may in fact be a sensory organ. Electron micrographs of tusks revealed ten million tiny, deep tubules extending from the tusk’s surface, apparently connecting to the narwhal’s nervous system. While such tubules are present in the teeth of many species, they do not typically extend to the surface of healthy teeth. The exact sensory purpose of the tusk remains unknown, but scientists now hypothesize that it may detect temperature, salinity, pressure, or particulate makeup of the water environment.
Male narwhals weigh up to 1,600 kg (3,500 lb), and the females weigh around 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Most of the body is pale with brown speckles in color, though the neck, head and edges of the flippers and fluke are nearly black. Older animals are usually more brightly colored than younger animals.

The Pink Fairy Armadillo

The Pink Fairy Armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) or Pichiciago is the smallest species of armadillo (mammals of the family Dasypodidae, mostly known for having a bony armor shell). It is approximately 90-115 mm (3½-4½”) long excluding the tail, and is pale rose or pink in color. It is found in central Argentina where it inhabits dry grasslands and sandy plains with thorn bushes and cacti. It has the ability to bury itself completely in a matter of seconds if frightened.
The Pink Fairy Armadillo burrows small holes near ant colonies in dry dirt. It feeds mainly on ants and ant larvae near its burrow. Occasionally it feeds on worms, snails, insects and larvae, or various plant and root material.

The Proboscis Monkey

The Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), also known as the Monyet Belanda (in Malay), the Bangkatan (in Indonesian) or simply the Long-nosed Monkey, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey that is endemic to the south-east Asian island of Borneo. It belongs in the monotypic genus Nasalis, although the Pig-tailed Langur traditionally also has been included in this genus - a treatment still preferred by some.

A distinctive trait of this monkey is the male’s large protruding nose, from which it takes its name. The nose is thought to be used in mating and is unique to the males of the species, reaching up to 7 inches in length. Besides attracting mates, the nose serves as a resonating chamber and works by amplifying their warning calls. When the animal becomes agitated its nose swells with blood, making warning calls louder and more intense.
Males are much larger than females, reaching 72 cm (28 inches) in length, with an up to 75 cm tail, and weighing up to 24 kg (53 pounds). Females are up to 60 cm long, weighing up to 12 kg (26 lb). This large sexual dimorphic difference is greater than in any other primate.
The Proboscis Monkey also has a large belly, as a result of its diet. Its digestive system is divided into compartments, with bacteria that digest cellulose and neutralize toxins from certain leaves. This lets the monkey eat leaves and remain in the forest canopy. The contents of their stomach weigh about a quarter of their whole body. A side-effect of this unique digestive system is that it is unable to digest ripe fruit, unlike most other simians. The diet consists mainly of seeds, leaves, mangrove shoots and unripe fruit.

The Red Panda, Firefox

The Red Panda, Firefox, Fire Cat, or Lesser Panda , “or Ailurus fulgens (”shining cat”), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat (40 - 60 cm long, 3 - 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, southern China, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. Red Panda is the state animal in the Indian state of Sikkim. It is also the mascot of the Darjeeling international festivals. There is an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation.

Red Pandas are native to southeastern Asia, along a crescent formed by the Himalaya Mountain foothills from western Nepal, southern Tibet, Bhutan, and Northeast India, then east into the highlands of Burma (or Myanmar), the Gongshan Mountains of Yunnan province in China, and the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan province in China. The latter area is thought to have been a refuge for Red Pandas, as well as many other animals, during the last (Pleistocene) period of glaciation. The gorge of the Brahmaputra River, as it loops around the eastern end of the Himalayas, is considered a natural division between the two subspecies, although some suggest the A. f. fulgens range extends more eastwardly into Yunnan China. Red pandas used to have a broader distribution farther northeast into China and farther southwest into India.
Red Pandas inhabit climates of moderate temperature (10-25 °C) with little annual fluctuation and prefer forested mountainous areas at elevations of 1,800-4,800 m,or 5000-15,700 ft, particularly temperate deciduous-coniferous forests with an understory of rhododendron and, of course, bamboo. They share habitat with another bamboo specialist, the Giant Panda, in China (Wolong Preserve). Red Pandas are cavity nesters, using rock dens and old hollow trees. They often spend the day drooped over a branch high in the trees, feeding more actively at dawn and dusk. There are also several captive red panda populations living in zoos around the world. The North American captive population is maintained under the Species Survival Plan (SSP), and contained 45 animals as of May 2008. The Toronto Zoo’s Red Panda is shown being trained in episodes of Zoo Diaries.

The Shoebill

The Shoebill, Balaeniceps rex, also known as Whalehead, is a very large bird related to the storks. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.
The Shoebill is a very large bird. The adult is 115-150 cm (45-59 in) tall, 100-140 cm (40-55 in) long, 230-260 cm (91-103 in) across the wings and weighs 4 to 7 kg (8.8-15.5 lbs).The adult is mainly grey while the juveniles are browner. It lives in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia.
This species was only discovered in the 19th century when some skins were brought to Europe. It was not until years later that live specimens reached the scientific community. However, the bird was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs. There are Egyptian images depicting the Shoebill, while the Arabs referred to the bird as abu markub, which means one with a shoe, a reference to the bird’s distinctive bill.
Shoebills feed in muddy waters, preying on lungfish and similar fish. They nest on the ground and lay 2 eggs.
The population is estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 individuals, the majority of which live in Sudan. BirdLife International have classified it as Vulnerable with the main threats being habitat destruction, disturbance and hunting.
The Shoebill is one of the bird taxa whose taxonomic treatment is murky. Traditionally allied with the storks (Ciconiiformes), it was retained there in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy which lumped a massive number of unrelated taxa into their “Ciconiiformes”. More recently, the shoebill has been considered to be closer to the pelicans (based on anatomical comparisons; May, 2003) or the herons (based on biochemical evidence; Hagey et al., 2002). The fossil record does not shed much light on the issue, as usual when dealing with birds. So far, two fossil relatives of the shoebill have been described: Goliathia from the early Oligocene of Egypt and Paludavis from the Early Miocene of the same country. It has been suggested that the enigmatic African fossil bird Eremopezus was a relative too, but the evidence for that is very spurious indeed. All that is known of Eremopezus is that it was a very large, probably flightless bird with a flexible foot, allowing it to handle either vegetation or prey.
World’s first Shoebill in captivity was born in July 2008 at Parc Paradisio in Belgium.

The Star-nosed Mole

The Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata) is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States. It is the only member of the tribe Condylurini and the genus Condylura.

The Star-nosed Mole lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks. It is a good swimmer and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. Like other moles, this animal digs shallow surface tunnels for foraging; often, these tunnels exit underwater. It is active day and night and remains active in winter, when it has been observed tunnelling through the snow and swimming in ice-covered streams. Little is known about the social behavior of the species, but it is suspected that it is colonial.
The Star-nosed Mole is covered in thick blackish brown water-repellent fur and has large scaled feet and a long thick tail, which appears to function as a fat storage reserve for the spring breeding season. Adults are 15 to 20 cm in length, weigh about 55 g, and have 44 teeth. The mole’s most distinctive feature is a circle of 22 mobile, pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of the snout. These are used to identify food by touch, such as worms, insects and crustaceans.
The Star-nosed Mole mates in late winter or early spring, and the female has one litter of typically 4 or 5 young in late spring or early summer.
Predators include the Red-tailed Hawk, Great Horned Owl, various skunks and mustelids, and even large fish.
The incredibly sensitive nasal tentacles are covered with almost one hundred thousand minute touch receptors known as Eimer’s organs. These were first described in the European Mole in 1871 by German zoologist Theodor Eimer. Other mole species also possess Eimer’s organs, though they are not as specialized or numerous as in the Star-nosed Mole. Because the Star-nosed Mole is functionally blind, it had long been suspected that the snout was used to detect electrical activity in prey animals, though there is little, if any, empirical support for this contention. It appears the nasal star and dentition of this species are primarily adapted to exploit extremely small prey items. A report in the journal Nature gives this animal the title of fastest-eating mammal, taking as short as 120 milliseconds (average: 227 milliseconds) to identify and consume individual food items. Its brain decides in the ultra short time of 8 ms if a prey is comestible or not. This speed is at the limit of the speed of neurons. They also possess the ability to smell underwater. It is done by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry the smell back through the nose.
The star of tentacles is formed in a unique way so far not seen other places in the animal world. Instead of growing in the same way fingers grow outward on a hand, they start as swellings on the face around the nose, and some days after birth they break free and move forward in the same way a banana is peeled.

Sucker-footed Bat

The Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat, Old World Sucker-footed Bat, or simply Sucker-footed Bat (Myzopoda aurita) is a species of bat in the family Myzopodidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss.
It is named for the presence of small suction cups on its wrists and ankles. They roost inside the rolled leaves of palm trees, using their suckers to attach themselves to the smooth surface.

The Sun Bear

The Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. Its Malay and Indonesian name is Beruang Madu (”Honey Bear”).

The Sun Bear stands approximately 1.2 m (4 ft) in length, making it the smallest member in the bear family. It has a 5 cm (2 in) tail and usually weighs less than 65 kg (145 lb). Males tend to be 10-45% larger than females; the former normally weigh between 30 and 60 kg (66-132 lb), the latter between 20 and 40 kg (44-88 lb). The Sun Bear possesses sickle-shaped claws that are relatively light in weight. It has large paws with naked soles, probably to assist in climbing. Its inward-turned feet make the bear’s walk pigeon-toed, but it is an excellent climber. It has small, round ears and a stout snout. The tail is 1.2-2.8 inches (3 to 7 cm) long. Despite its small size, the Sun Bear possesses a very long, slender tongue, ranging from 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) in length. The bear uses it to extract honey from beehives.
Unlike other bears, the Sun Bear’s fur is short and sleek. This adaptation is probably due to the lowland climates it inhabits. Dark black or brown-black fur covers its body, except on the chest, where there is a pale orange-yellow marking in the shape of a horseshoe. Similar colored fur can be found around the muzzle and the eyes. This distinct marking gives the sun bear its name.

Tapir

Tapirs are large browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. All four species of tapir are classified as endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, including horses and rhinoceroses.

The ET Tarsier

The Philippine Tarsier (Tarsius syrichta), known locally as the Mawmag in Cebuano/Visayan, is an endangered tarsier species endemic to the Philippines. It is found in the southeastern part of the archipelago, particularly in the islands of Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. Its name is derived from its elongated “tarsus” or ankle bone.
Its geographic range also includes Maripipi Island, Siargao Island, Basilan Island and Dinagat Island.Tarsiers have also been reported in Sarangani, although they may be different subspecies. Being a member of a family that is about 45 million years old, it was only introduced to western biologists in the 18th century.

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PARIS (AFP) - A bird that swooped over the waters covering what is now southeast England had wings that spanned five metres (16.25 feet) tip to tip and had bony teeth with which to grab its food, a study published on Friday said.

The extraordinary beast has been identified thanks to a well-preserved skull unearthed on the Isle of Sheppey, east of London. Named Dasornis emuinus, it has been dated to 50 million years ago.

Gerald Mayr of Germany’s Senckenberg Research Institute said Dasornis was “like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane.”

“By today’s standards, these were pretty bizarre animals, but perhaps the strangest thing about them is that they had sharp, tooth-like projections along the cutting edges of the beak,” he said.

Like all birds, Dasornis did not have real teeth, which are made of enamel and dentine.

Instead, it had bony “pseudo-teeth,” a feature unique to a group of now-extinct giant birds called Pelagornithids.

The spikes were handy for Dasornis, enabling it to snap up fish and squid while it swooped over the sea, suggests Mayr.

“With only an ordinary beak, these would have been difficult to keep hold of, and the pseudo-teeth evolved to prevent meals slipping away.”

The find is reported in a British journal, Palaeontology, published by the Palaeontological Association.

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Chinese researchers claim they’ve confirmed the theory behind an “impossible” space drive, and are proceeding to build a demonstration version. If they’re right, this might transform the economics of satellites, open up new possibilities for space exploration - and give the Chinese a decisive military advantage in space. To say that the “Emdrive” (short for “electromagnetic drive”) concept is controversial would be an understatement. According to Roger Shawyer, the British scientist who developed the concept, the drive converts electrical energy into thrust via microwaves, without violating any laws of physics. Many researchers believe otherwise. An article about the Emdrive in New Scientist magazine drew a massive volley of criticism. Scientists not only argued that Shawyer’s work was blatantly impossible, and that his reasoning was flawed. They also said the article should never have been published. “It is well known that Roger Shawyer’s ‘electromagnetic relativity drive’ violates the law of conservation of momentum, making it simply the latest in a long line of ‘perpetuum mobiles’ that have been proposed and disproved for centuries,” wrote John Costella, an Australian physicist. “His analysis is rubbish and his ‘drive’ impossible.” Shawyer stands by his theoretical work. His company, Satellite Propulsion Research (SPR), has constructed demonstration engines, which he says produce thrust using a tapering resonant cavity filled with microwaves. He is adamant that this is not a perpetual motion machine, and does not violate the law of conservation of momentum because different reference frames apply to the drive and the waves within it.

Shawyer’s big challenge, he says, has been getting people who will actually look into his claims rather than simply dismissing them. Such extravagant claims are usually associated with self-taught, backyard inventors claiming Einstein got it all wrong. But Shawyer is a scientist who has worked with radar and communication systems and was a program manager at European space company EADS Astrium; his work rests entirely on Einstein being right.

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Did you ever wonder if Ghosts do exist? Do you think every Ghost Video you see is fake?

Then watch this one and become a believer !

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President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. And questions encircling the assassination arose directly. Was Booth alone responsible for the assassination? Or was he just a instrument in a much Bigger conspiracy?
The vice president’s function in the whole mystery story is unclear to say the least. About seven hours earlier the assassination of the president, Booth checked at the Washington hotel, residency of Andrew Johnson, the vice president. Learning that neither Johnson nor his personal secretary were present, Booth wrote the following notation: “Don’t wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth.” Johnson’s private secretary proved to the fact that he discovered the note later on in the afternoon.
So from this can we presume that Johnson and Booth knew each other?
Many people believed that Johnson was involved with the assassination, and a specific Assassination Committee was founded to investigate any prove linking him to Abraham Lincoln’s death. Nothing questionable was ever discovered by the Commission, yet a belief that he was in some way involved continued for a lot of years. It certainly appears suspicious that Booth should have sought him out so shortly before the assassination.

Of course, rather than having been operated by someone else, Booth himself could have been in command of a number of conspirators who were then either hanged or imprisoned at Ft. Jefferson. Booth could have been defending Southern values of slaveholding and racial discrimination. The assassination could have been a rather more spectacular solution than was at first intended. Booth may have designated merely to abduct the president and to demand prisoners of war reciprocally.
The assassination could have been a simple-minded step further when the kidnapping plans foundered.
It would appear, agreeing to a series of letters found in Booth’s possession, that he knew of a secret plan to blow up the White House. Certainly if this was the case, if the plot had Decomposed, more venturous and radical preparation would have been essential in order to accomplish the original targets of the conspirators. In this sense, perhaps the master plot was far humbler in scale and the whole thing was a reckless reconsideration when original plans failed.
Abraham Lincoln had made himself a appreciable number of enemies as a result of his fiscal policies. His Civil War Attempts had eaten into his financial resources but he had rejected high-interest offers of loans from European bankers led by the Rothschilds and had determined other ways to fund the warfare. More significantly, British bankers opposed Abraham Lincoln* protectionist policies. Some Englishmen in the 1860s considered that “the British free trade, industrial monopoly and human slavery move collectively.” Lincoln was thus viewed as a menace to the established order of matters and was maybe assassinated as a result.

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The Institution of Freemasonry, or Masonry (for these terms are applied arbitrarily), is founded on the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man: it. therefore, necessarily teaches Morality, Brotherly Love, and Charity: its formula of teaching is mainly by symbols: it has many forms and ceremonials, but these are all meant to teach and impress on the mind the great Rules of the foundation: its votaries are seeking after Truth, symbolised by Light.
A Provincial Grand Lodge was conceived in Massachusetts under the authorization of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1733; and another, under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Scotand, in 1769: during the revolution, these Bodies declared themselves autonomous of their Mother Grand Lodges and in 1792, both combined as the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The first lodge in Maine PORTLAND) was engaged by the English Provincial Grand Lodge; the second (WARREN) by the Scottish Provincial Grand Lodge; and the third (LINCOLN) by the United Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
When Maine became an autonomous State in 1820, the Lodges, thirtyone in number, settled the Grand Lodge of Maine, in accordance with the wellsettled principle of masonic law, that the lodges in every main State are of right entitled to build a Grand Lodge for that State. The Grand Lodge of Maine exercises exclusive masonic legal power in this State, and any lodge, Coordinated by any other authority, is illegitimate and clandestine, with which, or with whose members, no masonic relation can be held.

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• Photos of a Masonic handbook from 1920 called King Solomon…

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The Prieure du Notre Dame du Sion, or Priory of Zion, is said to be the conspiracy behind many of the events that happened at Rennes-le-Chateau. According to the Prieure’s own documents, its history consists and convolved. Its soonest roots are in some sort of tight or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have accommodated paganism and Christendom. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the Middle Ages. In 1070, a group of monks from Calabria, Italy, guided by one Prince Ursus, founded the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes.
These monks are supposed to have formed the basis for the Order de Sion, into which they were folded in 1099 by Godfroi de Bouillion. For about 100 years, the Order of the Temple - Knights Templar - and Sion were obviously united under one leadership, though they are said to have separated at the cutting of the elm at Gisors in 1188. (The Templar order was then destructed by King Phillipe Le Bel of France, in 1307.) Sion appears to have been at the nexus of two French antimonarchical campaigns, the Compagnie du St.-Sacrament of the 17th century - acting on behalf on the Guise-Lorraine family line - and the Fronde of the 18th, as well as behind an effort to make the Hapsburgs emperors of all Europe in the 19th - the Hieron du Val d’Or. It seems that there are huge Associations between Sion and a lot of sociocultural levels in European thought - Roscicrucianism, Freemasonry, Arthurian and Grail legends, Arcadianism, Catharism, chivalry, etc.

Yet this occult secret society brought itself to light in 1956 and is listed with the French directory of formations under the subtitle chivalry of Catholic Rules and Institutions of the Independent and conservative Union, which in French abbreviates to ‘circuit’ - the name of the magazine circulated internally among members. Depending on what statutes one believes, Sion either has 9,841 members in 9 grades, or 1,093 members in 7, with the sovereign member, the Nautonnier or Grand Master of the Order being, till 1963, Jean Cocteau.

While it’s thought the head has been Pierre Plantard de St.-Clair up until recent times, he claims to have left that post in 1984, so it is not clear who runs the organization at this time. But whoever he is, he has had famous predecessors: Jacques DeMolay, Leonardo de Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Claude Debussy, among others! Plantard, in any case, appears to have delighted the ear of many influential persons in contemporaneous French politics - deGaulle, Marcel Lefebvre, Francois Ducaud-Bourget, Andre Malraux, and Alain Poher, and others, many of whom seem to know him from his campaigns with the Resistance during the Vichy occupation. Despite its registry, however, the formation remains untraceable, its given address and number leading to dead ends - which could lead one to wonder why the government never bothered to affirm the information.

Some interesting things have come to light about the Prieure recently. One is that the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina (GLA), the highest body of the Swiss Freemasonry (related to the Grand Lodge of England), could have been the enrolling body for the Prieure. But the GLA is also stated by some to be the forum of the Gnomes of Zurich who are said to be the Power Elite of the Swiss bankers and international moneymen. The GLA is stated by David Yallop to be the body which commanded the P2 Masonic Lodge in Italy.(P2 controlled the Italian secret police force in the 1970s, took money from the Central Intelligence Agency and Soviet KGB, may have had a hand in the abducting of Aldo Moro by the Brigate Rosse, had 900 agents in other forks of the Italian government and the highest positions of the Vatican Palace, bombed a railroad station and tried to blame it on the Communists, used the Vatican Bank to wash Sicilian Mafia drug money, fomented fascistic coups in South America, and is most likely associated to the arch-conservative Knights of Malta and Opus Dei in the Vatican Palace.) P2’s Lucio Gelli may have had a function in the death of John Paul I, and maybe even the assassination attempt on John Paul II.

One of the most exciting people to write about the Prieure may be Michael Lamy. He claims that Jules Verne was a member of both the Prieure and the Illuminati. Further, he maintains that the Prieure’s politics must be interpreted as Orleanist, which he describes as aristocratical, anarchistic, and Nietzchean. Perhaps it all becomes most clear when Lamy brings out to the reader that the true secret of the village of Rennes-le-Chateau is that the extinct volcano Mount Bugarach leads down into the hollow earth to a realm of supermen.

Ean Begg feels it is connected with many of the Black Virgin sites all over Europe. Certainly, if the organization’s full name is the Prieure de Notre Dame du Sion, and if it is site of Orval is affiliated to the idolize of the bear-goddess Arduina, venerated by the Sicambrian Franks of the region and their Merovingian kings, then this may be the case. There are hints, of course, that Notre Dame is not the mother of Christ, but Mary of Bethany AKA Magdalene a princess of the tribe of Benjamin, which is itself infamous for an outbreak of goddess-idolatry in the period of the Judges. That Mary may also be the one also known to the Gypsies of the south of France as among the three Maries-de-la-Mer, whom they call Sarah the Egyptian, the sunburned one - Sailing and Grailing Across the Atlantic Ocean.

The most bizarre chapter in the story of Rennes-le-Chateau may have to do with the Money Pit mystery on Oak Island just off Nova Scotia.  According to Michael Bradley, some of the keepers of the Holy Grail may have come to the New World long before Christopher Columbus. He believes that some of the Knight Templar may have fled to Canada after the breakup of their order, carrying the Holy Grail. The Money  it has more often been affiliated with pirates’ hidden treasure, but as many know, the Jolly Roger flag’s skull-and-crossbones icon has long been linked up with Masonic and Knight Templar legend.

The supposed Venetian Zeno Map of the 15th century shows a knight with a sword standing where Nova Scotia is. (The Sinclairs of Scotland are ancestral lords of Rosslyn Chapel and are said to be derived from the Scots Guards, a clique loyal to the Stuart dynasty, which in turn are believed to have incorporated converted members of the Knight Templar Order who fought with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn, and to have supplied the basis of Freemasonry.) In the Money Pit on Oak Island, a mysterious stone inscription was found: 40 feet below - two million punds are buried. Every company that has tried to locate this treasure has failed. Along with the supposed visits of Prince Madoc of Wales and St. Brendan of Eire, Prince Henry the Navigator’s trip to the New World with the Zeno brothers makes it one of numerous European pre-Columbian voyages. The Zeno map, along with those culled by Viking travellers, may have even helped Columbus make his way over the Atlantic. Recently, a flying saucer contactee in Canada who calls himself only Guardian speculated wildly about some Brotherhood of the Grail being functional there for centuries.

Geographically speaking, there are in fact two Oak Islands, surrounding a central river, at the confluence of which is a mysterious ruin, which seems to be a fort or old castle. It does seem that there may be strands connecting Rennes-le-Chateau and the New World. Ultimately, the Rosicrucian thoughts behind the American experiment (as documented by Manly Palmer Hall) may have deeper Arcadian bases. Bradley hints, but does not come out and say, that what is below the Money Pit may be the Holy Grail.

It is not the only weird trail in the Rennes mystery. One investigator insists that the discoverer Barnes Wallis was one of the latest Grand Masters of Sion. Yet another feels it is worth following the origins of the Cajun people of Louisiana. Others have even found associations to the questionable Baconian hypothesis, which proposes that Sir Francis Bacon authored Shakespeare’s plays. Bacon’s works suggest a Rosicrucian experiment going on in the New World.

Fanthorpe seems to believe that ultimately Rennes-le-Chateau may be a doorway unto the invisible - a gateway to other dimensions, through the Emerald Tablet which he speculates may have been a tesseract (3-dimensional representation of a 4-dimensional figure).

Other hypotheses - Lincoln and his co-authors fashioned a theory that Jesus Christ had descendants who legged it to the south of France where they intermarried with the royal Franks to found what eventually became the mysterious Merovingian Dynasty. Ergo, the real mission of the Knight Templar and Priory of Zion: to guard not only the treasure of the Crusades, but to save the Grail, which appeared in medieval texts as ‘Sangraal’ or ‘Sangreal’, and which Lincoln et al.. translated to mean sang real, or ‘royal blood’. In other words: the dynastic legacy of Jesus Christ, literally. The Merovingians were considered in their day to be quasi-mystical warrior-kings vested with occult powers. The Merovingians traced their ancestry back to the Benjamites who, according to legend, has fled from Israel to Arcadia in Greece.

Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair [was] obviously the source behind much of the recent literature devoted to the hilltown and its enigmatic priest. Shepherded to Paris’s Bibliotheque Nationale, our trio of historical investigators discovered there a genealogy purporting to link Pierre Plantard to King Dagobert II and the Merovingian dynasty.
Throughout these dossiers secrets at Paris’s national library were tantalising historical references to a mysterious and ancient secret Order called Prieure de Sion, or Priory of Zion.
Lincoln and company checked with the French authorities and discovered that there was indeed a contemporary organization calling itself Priory of Zion. And who do you think was registered as the group’s secretary-general but none other than Pierre Plantard.
The earliest roots of the Prieure de Sion are in some sort of Hermetic or Gnostic society led by a man named Ormus. This individual is said to have reconciled pagan religion and Christianity. The story of Sion only comes into focus in the midst Ages. In 1070, a group of monastics from Calabria, Italy, led by one Prince Ursus, established the Abbey of Orval in France near Stenay, in the Ardennes. These monks are supposed to have formed the base for the the Order de Sion, into which they were ‘folded’ in 1099 by Godfroi de Bouillion.
The Order of Sion was established in the 1090’s by Godfroide Bouillon, one of the leaders of the 1st Crusade who had retook Jerusalem. They claim that it was this Order that lay behind Hugues of Champagne and the founding of the Knight Templar.
From - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The avowed and announced objective of the Prieure de Sion is the return of the Merovingian dynasty and blood line - to the throne not only of France, but to the thrones of other European countries too. By dint of dynastic coalitions and inmarriages, this line came to include Godfroi de Bouillion, who captured Jerusalem in 1099, and assorted other noble and royal families, past and present.
Godfroi was, by legend, a extremity of the Holy Grail Family, and by ancestry a Merovingian and apparently, lawful King of Jerusalem by his Ancestry from David. It is clear that he was knowing of this. When he left for the first crusade, he traded all of his property. He  intended to stay in Jerusalem. Godfroi was close to de Payen and the count of Champagne, and Baudoin [his brother] was integral to the founding of the Knight Templar.
One might consequently term Godfroi de Bouillon as a sort of ‘king of kings’, or at least a Creator of kings, since he founded the Order of Sion that could crown Kings of Jerusalem.
To the south of Jerusalem hovers the ‘high hill’ of Mount Sion. By 1099 an abbey had been built upon the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica at the express command of Godfroi de Buoillon. According to one chronicler, writing in 1172, it was highly well fortified, with its own walls, towers and battlements. And this construction was called the Abbey of Notre Dame du Mont de Sion.

In 1979, M. Plantard had said to us, quite unconditionally, that the Prieure was in ownership of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem, despoiled by the Romans during the revolt of A.D. 66 and subsequently carried to the south of France, in the locality of Rennes-le-Chateau. The treasure, M. Plantard stated, would be returned to Israel ‘when the time is right.’
At some point, according to Lincoln and others., the treasure had passed from the Merovingians to the Priory of Zion–> Knight Templar took the treasure from the Holy Land to the French Cathars, who, on the eve of their destruction by the Christian church, squirreled the lucre away in the Pyrenees.

Related articles on the Web:

• ‘No mystery here’ say the Knights of Malta
• Knights Templar to Vatican: Give us back our assets
• Vatican Publishes Knights Templar Papers
• The Vatican and the Knights Templar
• Long-lost text lifts cloud from Knights Templar

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