11 Caves That Could Be Your Last Exploration
BOTTOMLESS
in the ice caves of Mount rineer in the United States vibrant blues and whites form breathtaking ice sculptures that sparkle like precious gems but don't get too close these delicate formations are constantly at risk of collapse as temperatures rise ice chunks and flakes some the size of a small car break loose and fall from the cave ceiling explorers also face the risk of hypothermia with freezing air inside and even colder melt water flowing from the snow field the volume of melt water increases as the day heats up making the caves even riskier in the afternoon if you dive into this strange pond in Norway known as plura and swim around for around 13 of a mile you will emerge into a long colorful cave where Limestone and marble formations form narrow and edgy passageways if you are an okay diver who does it just for fun you can end your exploration there but this cave system is the deepest in northern Europe so highly trained and experienced divers can continue exploring the course which quickly plunges much deeper through pitch black ice cold water becoming narrow and difficult in winter temperatures drop to around 36° F sadly tragic incidents have marked this Cave's history as lost divers have faced perilous retrieval efforts Jacobs Well in Texas looks like a calm 12T swimming hole inviting and refreshing yet What Lies Beneath is a treacherous sink hole leading to a hidden underwater cave system the dark secretive depths beneath the Placid water descend vertically for about 30 ft then continue downward at an angle through a series of silted Chambers separated by narrow restrictions finally reaching an average depth of 120 ft which is about the height of a ferris wheel despite its pretty appearance the well- claimed Nine Lives between the 1960s and the 1980s but some people speculate that the actual number could be higher this is why these dark secretive depths are still known as some of the most dangerous diving locations in the United States as we dive deeper into the Earth we find ourselves in vovnik cave in Georgia known for being the deepest cave in the world it is over 7,000 ft deep plunging into the unknown where there is a real risk of deadly floods from underground sources at the deepest level you can reach there's a stunning turquoise Lake surrounded by jet black Limestone it is described as a beautiful yet Eerie spot that can quickly turn into a scenario where you need to fight for survival When Storms and thunder hit the roar inside the cave is almost deafening and the water floods rise really fast when this happens explorers can not afford to wait they must find a way out immediately the thing is caves and storms together are a seriously dangerous mix take for example the event that occurred in 2018 that had the whole world glued to the News 12 boys from a junior soccer team went exploring in Thailand's Chang Rai province with their coach they raced their bicycles up into the forested hills to reach the Tam long cave in High Spirits they clambered into the cave with just their t Tes planning to stay for only about an hour but they didn't emerge until 2 weeks later that's because right after they entered there heavy rainfall began partially flooding the cave system blocking their way out and trapping them deep inside this is how the world learned about the real dangers of the Tam long cave the kidum caves located in Mount Elon National Park in Kenya is considered one of the most dangerous caves in the world the cavern walls are cover in scuffs and marks that appear to have been made by miners searching for gems or gold but later it was discovered that those strange marks were actually made by elephants that go inside and mine The Rock seeking its sodium Rich salts although it is interesting that's not the reason the cave is so frightening it turns out these caves have a long history of being a breeding ground for some of the most fatal viruses in human history just to be safe it's best to stay far away from there in Mexico the Nika mine offers a jaw-dropping spectacle of gigantic crystals towering over visitors this otherworldly landscape is more than just a visual Marvel it's also bathed in extreme heat with temperatures Rising as high as 136° F Additionally the air in the cave has 90 to 99% humidity making the environment feel even more unbearably hot but before you start making travel plans to visit this amazing natural site keep in mind that this cave is completely off limits to tourists only scientists with special permission can enter and they must wear protective gear our next stop is in New Zealand where you can find the Cathedral Cave which is actually two connected Limestone sea caves located on weati beach with 600 ft of tunnels reaching impressive Heights of 98 ft these caves are among the most remarkable sea cave complexes in the world and they were formed after waves hit the same spot over thousands of years the caves earned their name thanks to their Acoustics which are so good that they remind of those in a cathedral however you cannot test your singing skills at just any time as it's only safe to visit during low tide to avoid danger visitors are only allowed when weather seawell and tides are favorable if you're not a fan of bats you should definitely stay far away from Bracken cave located in Texas during the summer this dark hole becomes home to the largest colony of bats in the world I'm talking about around 20 million Mexican freet tailed bats roosting there from March to October those people who are brave enough to approach say it's like watching a ballet as millions of bats emerge from the cave in synchronized waves never once bumping into one another if you listen closely you can hear their wings flapping which people describe as sounding like steady gently falling rain now we arrive at qu de Loos which is known for an enigma that has intrigued explorers for decades located in the andian jungle of Southeastern Ecuador this cave can only be assessed through a narrow 230t vertical drop known as the chimney inside explorers find a labyrinth world of Chambers the size of large buildings connected by narrow Galleries and impressive Halls some of which are pierced by Jagged stalactites and stalagmites if that isn't enough to make your a heart race wait qua de losos is rumored to contain ancient artifacts and secrets from civilizations long past some say it holds a metal library with Golden Plates engraved with a previously unknown history of humankind others believe that the tunnels are too perfect to be natural suggesting they must have been created by ancient people possibly with the help of extraterrestrial technology these rumors have spurred many expeditions to the cave including one led by Neil Armstrong yes that Neil Armstrong who sought to uncover its Mysteries to this day however the cave has kept its secrets well hidden just like qua de los Taos the fin cave on our list isn't particularly dangerous but it'll certainly send chills down your spine I mean look at this stone wall completely covered by hand shapes what seems like something out of a horror movie is actually the quad delos Manos in Argentina the name means Cave of the hands in English and getting to these prehistoric hand paintings made about 13,000 years ago is no small feat the most adventurous Travelers take a one and a half hour hike through rugged terrain to reach it but the moment explorers step inside they are greeted by this incredible artwork from ancient times it is believed that there are around 800 hands inside this cave with Palms of various sizes some small others long and thin indicating that in addition to men the prints belong to women and children their authenticity is unquestionable which makes it all much more interesting
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Our Universe Has Scars, and They Might Unlock Time Travel
guess what the universe can get actual scars just like when you fall off a bike well here's why before the Big Bang the universe was extremely hot dense and full of energy and it seemed like everything was going well until that all changed about 13.8 billion years ago then the universe exploded after the blast it expanded incredibly quickly our human brain can't even perceive how fast that expansion was sometime later the universe started cooling down as it did giant terrifying scars cutting through SpaceTime appeared all over the place and if we study these scars well we can even get insight into time travel these days we call these scars cosmic strings they're like stretch marks that appear when the skin expands too quickly or we could also compare them to cracks that form in the ice when it freezes these strings are likely very thin about the size of a proton a positively charged subatomic particle yes subatomic means smaller than an atom the strings are also extremely dense and can stretch for light years now imagine these Cosmic scars floating through space not interacting much with their surroundings when two cosmic strings pass each other they could warp SpaceTime in such a way that it creates a time machine if you were to travel along a certain path around these strings you would end up returning to your starting point at an earlier time which is traveling back in time now let's admit it this idea sounds like something from science fiction but it's supported by Cosmic string theory and the math behind it seems to work unfortunately no one has observed cosmic strings yet so for now it's still a theory in 1991 one physicist proposed an idea for how cosmic strings could enable time travel if two two infinite cosmic strings pass each other in parallel they would warp space time creating a Time Loop this Loop would allow someone to travel back in time even better this idea doesn't contradict Einstein's theory of general relativity which suggests that large objects can bend space and time these bends in space time could allow a shortcut through time his now well-known concept of closed time Loops also helps explain how wormholes might work so a wormhole is basically a theoretical tunnel connecting one place in space to another some people believe that by using such tunnels we could create shortcuts for incredibly long Journeys through the universe which would allow us to visit other star systems and galaxies so let's say you manag to create a wormhole and even accelerate one of its ends to near the speed of light and then you send it back to where it came from well at that moment those two ends are not synced anymore one is in the past while the other is in the future and if you somehow manage to walk between them you'd be time traveling you could do something similar by placing one end of the Wormhole near a powerful gravitational field like a black hole and keeping the other side near a weaker gravitational force this way according to the theory of relativity time would pass more slowly nearer to the strong gravity side and it would allow a part or another chunk of Mass to remain in the past relative to the other side of the Wormhole at the same time if you decided to create a wormhole you'd have to keep in mind that they are super dangerous they might collapse all of a sudden they're likely to be highly radioactive or you could come into contact with toxic exotic matter inside but let's get back to the math behind the cosmic string time machine idea admittedly it is solid but it doesn't mean such a Time machine is possible yet to use this way of time travel we'd need to reach near light speed and it might be impossible according to Einstein's relativity the faster an object travels the more energy it needs to continue speeding up in other words we don't yet have the technology or energy sources to accelerate a spacecraft to these speeds the idea of two infinite cosmic strings is also questionable because we can't create something something that's infinitely long so while this time travel model is mathematically sound the infinite nature of the strings would make this exact model impractical at the same time some scientists still believe that cosmic strings are a better possibility than most other models like wormholes in any case before we can start considering time travel we need to discover cosmic strings luckily there's a group of astronomers working to detect low frequency gravitational Waves by measuring signals from a type of star called a pulsar now pulsars send out regular pulses of radio waves and by measuring small changes in the timing of these pulses scientists can detect subtle shifts in space time those changes are caused by gravitational waves which are ripples in SpaceTime now so far we've only detected gravitational waves coming from black holes but in 2020 there was one strange signal that didn't look like it came from black holes it could be coming from cosmic strings and here we need to mention String Theory according to it the universe is made up of more than just the four dimensions of SpaceTime there are additional Dimensions that are hidden from us plus the basic building blocks of the universe aren't particles but tiny vibrating strings these strings can vibrate at different frequencies to create different fundamental particles these strings from String Theory could have stretched out during the early universe and become the very cosmic strings we've discussed in the coming years we might get more information about them from a space-based gravitational wave telescope called Lisa it's supposed to launch in 2035 but if the signals picked up in 2020 really came from cosmic strings it could mean a huge breakthrough in physics in this case String Theory would become the right framework for understanding the universe it would completely change the way we think about the building blocks of our reality on the other hand even if the signals don't turn out to be from cosmic strings this discovery would still be important it would give scientists more information on what Cosmic string signals might look like in the future and while we're not yet at the point of time travel the discovery of cosmic strings could take us one step closer to understanding the mysteries of the universe and maybe even the possibility of traveling through time now time travel is a popular theme in science fiction but in fact moving forward in time happens naturally right now you are traveling into the future at a steady rate of 1 second per second however scientists have discovered that this rate can change depending on speed and gravity Einstein's special theory of relativity explains that time slows down as an object moves faster the closer you get to the speed of light the more slowly time passes for you compared to someone who isn't moving at all the general theory of relativity adds another Factor Gravity the stronger the gravitational pull the more slowly time moves near massive objects such as the surface of a neutron star black hole or even Earth time runs more slowly than it does far away from these space objects if someone were to stay near the edge of a black hole where gravity is incredibly strong only a few hours might pass for them while thousands of years would go by for people on Earth if they returned they would have effectively traveled into the future this is a real and scientifically proven effect a real life example of time travel though on a tiny scale can be witnessed in space missions for example this Cosmonaut spent a total of 748 days aboard the space station Mir during three separate missions because was moving at high speeds relative to Earth it experienced time dilation as a result he aged hunds of a second less than had he stayed on the ground now this difference may seem tiny but it shows that time moves differently depending on speed and location but while traveling to the future is scientifically possible traveling to the past is much more complicated and controversial and leads to logical paradoxes imagine you throw a billiard ball into a time machine it travels to the past and collides with its earlier self this prevents the ball from ever entering the time machine in the first place a contradiction.
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Storm Goretti Wreaks Havoc Across the UK — As It Happened
The United Kingdom faced one of its most disruptive winter storms in recent years as Storm Goretti swept across the nation, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, and freezing conditions. From northern Scotland to southern England, communities grappled with transport chaos, power outages, and warnings from authorities urging people to stay indoors. Here’s a detailed look at the storm’s impact as it unfolded.
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Inside Trump's $11 Billion Health Plan to Replace “Neo-Colonial” USAID
In the landscape of global health aid, few proposals have stirred as much debate as former President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to restructure American assistance abroad. Dubbed an $11 billion health initiative aimed at replacing USAID’s current framework, the plan seeks to pivot away from what Trump and his allies have criticized as the “neo-colonial” approach of U.S. foreign aid. While the plan promises greater efficiency and impact, experts are split on whether it is a practical solution or a politically driven gamble. Trump’s Critique of USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long been a central pillar of American foreign assistance, distributing billions in aid annually to address health crises, food insecurity, and development challenges worldwide. However, Trump’s administration and its supporters have often described USAID’s approach as bureaucratic, inefficient, and reflective of a “neo-colonial” mindset. In public statements, Trump argued that the U.S. was spending taxpayer dollars on programs that benefited foreign governments or contractors more than the intended local communities. Critics of the plan say that while USAID has flaws—as any large bureaucracy does—its extensive networks and decades of experience provide an unmatched capacity to deliver aid efficiently and safely. The Core of the $11 Billion Proposal At the heart of Trump’s proposal is an $11 billion fund designed to consolidate, modernize, and streamline U.S. health aid. Unlike the traditional USAID model, which relies heavily on long-term partnerships with governments and NGOs, the new plan emphasizes: Direct Impact Funding: Allocating resources to frontline health workers and local initiatives rather than intermediaries. Data-Driven Investments: Using real-time health data to target outbreaks and crises more efficiently. Private Sector Partnerships: Leveraging U.S. pharmaceutical companies, tech firms, and healthcare startups to deliver vaccines, treatments, and medical infrastructure. Shorter Program Cycles: Moving away from multi-year funding commitments in favor of more flexible, results-oriented programs. Proponents argue that this approach could reduce bureaucratic overhead and ensure U.S. aid reaches communities faster. By “cutting out the middlemen,” Trump supporters claim, America can avoid the pitfalls of slow-moving aid programs that sometimes fail to adapt to crises. Reactions from the Global Health Community Global health experts, however, have expressed concern about both the logistics and philosophy of the plan. Dr. Melissa Ortega, a senior researcher at the Global Health Policy Institute, explained, “The idea of bypassing established structures like USAID may sound appealing on paper, but in practice, it risks undermining decades of institutional knowledge. Health systems are complex, and short-term projects cannot replace long-term capacity building.” Some critics have also questioned the characterization of USAID as “neo-colonial.” While U.S. foreign aid has historically been tied to geopolitical interests, many programs today are designed collaboratively with recipient countries and local organizations. Reducing oversight could unintentionally increase the risk of misuse, corruption, or health inequities. On the other hand, supporters of Trump’s plan point to examples of inefficiency in USAID programs, citing cases where aid was delayed or mismanaged. By introducing more direct funding models, they argue, U.S. taxpayer dollars could achieve a higher “return on health outcomes.” Political Implications Trump’s health aid overhaul proposal is not just about international development—it is also deeply political. Framing USAID as a “neo-colonial” institution resonates with a populist narrative that America should prioritize its own citizens and assert greater control over how taxpayer money is spent abroad. Domestically, the $11 billion plan faces scrutiny from Congress. Lawmakers from both parties have questioned whether dismantling USAID’s systems could destabilize ongoing health programs in countries where the U.S. has long-term commitments. The potential impact on global health security—including the fight against pandemics like COVID-19—adds another layer of concern. Internationally, U.S. allies and partner nations are watching closely. Sudden shifts in aid delivery could disrupt health programs in low- and middle-income countries, many of which rely on predictable funding cycles to maintain vaccination campaigns, maternal health services, and disease surveillance. Possible Benefits and Risks If executed carefully, the Trump-backed model could bring several benefits: Faster Response Times: Direct funding could accelerate delivery of vaccines, treatments, and emergency support. Innovation Boost: By partnering with private sector companies, the plan could accelerate development of new health technologies. Accountability: With performance-based metrics, the plan may better measure the impact of U.S. aid. However, the risks are equally significant: Disruption of Existing Programs: Abrupt changes could destabilize ongoing health projects. Loss of Expertise: USAID’s decades of experience in navigating local governance, supply chains, and community engagement may be hard to replace. Geopolitical Fallout: Allies accustomed to collaborating with USAID might see the move as destabilizing, reducing cooperation on global health initiatives. Looking Ahead As Trump and his allies continue to advocate for this $11 billion overhaul, the debate over the future of U.S. health aid is intensifying. Proponents view it as a necessary modernization of an outdated system, while critics fear it could undercut decades of carefully built infrastructure and global partnerships. Ultimately, the success of this plan will hinge on its ability to balance efficiency with stability, innovation with oversight, and political objectives with humanitarian needs. For now, the proposal remains controversial, representing a dramatic departure from traditional approaches to U.S. foreign aid. Whether it will reshape global health for the better—or simply create more uncertainty—remains to be seen. In the end, the Trump health plan is as much about ideology as it is about dollars. It challenges the conventional wisdom of international development and asks whether a more streamlined, results-focused approach can truly replace a system built over decades. As the world watches, the stakes could not be higher: the future of U.S. global health aid—and the lives it touches—hangs in the balance.
By Muhammad Hassanabout 7 hours ago in Earth
Violence Begets
"Any last words, cowboy?" "None you'd understand, sodbuster." "Funny. That's Marshall Sodbuster to you. But I meant some last nugget that would help us in the adjudication of the myriad offenses counted against you and your gang. I wasn't asking for penitence."
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