Stranger World | Luxury Hotel | Optical Illusions

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Riana van sharing her bed with eleven big cats

Sharing your bed with common pets like cats or dogs is so last year. Right now it’s all about big cats, and lots of them.

Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen thought she should do her part in saving cheetahs from extinction, so she bought one back in 2006. The 46-year-old South African left her job at the department of justice and found some temporary employment on a game ranch, where she could raise Fiela.

Now, Riana runs Fiela Funds Cheetah Breeding Project, a non-profit that fights to ensure the survival of cheetahs in their own ecosystem. Along the way, she also took in another 10 big cats, with which she often shares her bed.

Her four cheetahs, five white lions and two tigers are a handful, but Riana loves every one of them and puts up with all their naughtiness. Her 2 dogs have also grown quite fond of the felines and don’t mind snuggling up to them.

Riana van sharing her bed with eleven big cats

Photos by John Liebenberg/BARCROFT MEDIA.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Worlds deepest underground lab at 4,850 feet

The stage is set for the worlds deepest underground lab at the Homestake Gold Mine . This lab is reported to be built at 4,850 feet under the ground, which is equivalent to more than six empire state buildings. The Homestake Gold Mine was in use for 125 years, until it was shut down in 2001. This site has been a shrine to physicist and researchers alike and was once the site of Nobel Prize-winning physics research.

worlds deepest underground lab

Ray Davis Jr. used it in the 1960s to demonstrate the existence of particles called solar neutrinos. Davis and a colleague named John Bahcall wnet on to win a share of the 2002 Nobel Prize for physics for their work.. This site is ideal for experiments because its location is largely shielded from cosmic rays that could interfere with efforts to prove the existence of dark matter, which is thought to make up nearly a quarter of the mass of the universe. This lab will certainly help scientist set up the first dark matter experiment called the Large Underground Xenon detector experiment (LUX), which will get them a greater insight into the Big Bang explosion believed to have formed the universe. After its completion, this lab will be a site for many such groundbreaking experiments and currently work is on to stabilize the tunnels and install new infrastructure at an estimated cost of $550 million.

Worlds deepest underground lab at 4,850 feet