Internet Facts: Internet Statistics

Let's face it, the Internet is an integral part of our daily lives. But how many of us are aware of the many Internet facts and Internet statistics that have all combined to bring the Internet to where it is today. Read ahead, these Internet facts and statistics are sure gonna intrigue you.

If you have reached this page, I need not say that you already know what the Internet is and how it is used. But there are millions of us who use the Internet and are so very unaware of the amazing Internet facts and Internet statistics that lie hidden behind this awesome medium. So brace yourselves, rest back on that easy chair, sip a drink, and enjoy reading the mind-blowing Internet facts and statistics that would amaze you.

Dotcom (.com) Facts
The dotcom has turned 25 this year, and was actually a short form for commerce as it was initially set up for the use of e-commerce websites.
There are 11.9 million e-commerce and online business websites, 4.3 million entertainment sites, 3.1 million finance-related sites, and 1.8 million sports sites.
The first dotcom company was Symbolics.
Initially, .cor was decided, but later .com was finalized to be used.
As we speak, there are about 250 million websites, out of which 80 million are .com.
All through the 1980s, just around a 100 dotcoms were registered, while in the 90s around 20 million came into existence. In the last 10 years, nearly 60 million dotcoms have been registered.
http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com is the longest website name online.
The world's most expensive dotcom is insure.com which was sold for $16 million.
53 billion requests for websites including dotcoms are logged every day.
The most popular word used in domain names is 'home' (1.2 million & counting).
The dotcom domain is now a stage for a $400 billion annual economic activity.
There are nearly 4 million domain names that are registered each month.
Internet Statistics by Country/Continent

Continent Usage
Asia 38%
Europe 29%
North America 21%
South America 8%
Africa 3%
Australia 1%

Country Population Total Users Penetration % of World Users
China 1.34 bn 360 mn 30% 21%
United States 307 mn 228 mn 75% 13%
Japan 127 mn 96 mn 76% 5.5%
India 1.15 bn 81 mn 7% 4.7%
Brazil 199 mn 67 mn 34% 3.9%
Germany 82 mn 54 mn 66% 3.1%
United Kingdom 61 mn 47 mn 77% 2.7%
Russia 140 mn 45 mn 32% 2.6%
France 62 mn 43 mn 69% 2.5%
South Korea 48 mn 37 mn 77% 2.2%

Internet Statistics: United States

In the United States, 228 million out of the 307 million population use the Internet. That means that 3 out of every 4 people use this medium, and are connected. The United State accounts for around 13% of the world's Internet usage, and as we all know, is the place where the Internet actually started.

Internet Facts for Kids

4 out of every 6 kid's parents have little or no idea what their kid surfs on the Internet.
Kids who use the net do so for an average for an hour everyday.
87% of kids aged 12 to 17 use the Internet in the United States.
40% teenagers receive a request online for personal information.
Over 15% children in the United States are confronted by a stranger online, for some reason or the other.
Do read on Internet safety tips for kids.

Interesting Internet Facts
The Internet is more than 40 years old.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee coined the phrase 'World Wide Web' (www).
Mosaic, the first web browser arrived in 1993.
18 countries still do not have Internet access.
Less than 20% of the world's population surf the Internet.
70% of Internet users are men while 30% are women.
Roughly, there are around 15 billion devices connected to the Internet.
Every 10 seconds there is a cybercrime committed.
The late 80s experienced the first Internet worms that crippled thousands of computers.
The first advertising banner on the Internet was put up in 1994.
The first speech recognition software called 'Hearsay' was developed in 1971 in India.
Current microprocessors contain about 10 million transistors.
1,693,000 terabytes of information is created and stored every year.
The first hard disk drive could hold just 5MB worth of data.
Fun Internet Facts
Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress has the most popular blog in the world.
80% of the pictures on the Internet are of naked women.
The QWERTY keyboard layout is around 130 years old.
The first mouse was made of wood.
It took www 4 years to reach an audience of 50 million, the same milestone was achieved by TV and radio in 13 and 38 years respectively.
Your cellphone that you use to connect to the Internet now, is a million times cheaper, a hundred times smaller, and a thousand times more powerful than a computer 40 years back (read: Internet Turns 40).
An Internet user blinks less than 10 times a minute, 20 being the average for a normal person.
And here is something that we all should take note of. It is believed that nearly 2% of the worldwide Internet users are depressed and suffer from the Signs of Internet Addiction Disorder. Now it has still not been established whether they are addicted to the Internet because they are depressed, or it is the other way round. Research on Internet addiction has a long way to go.

Read more on:
History of the Internet
When was the Internet Invented
How Does the Internet Work
Who Invented the Internet
The Internet facts and Internet Statistics are mind boggling and never ending. One could go on and on for days writing about them, but I have tried to list the most important and fun ones. We have a comments column here, so do feel free to add your comments about any noteworthy fact that I may have overlooked mentioning here.

Happy Internetting. Cheers!!!
By Clifford AGA
Published: 3/23/2010

3 Ways You Could Recover Your Lost Files If You Accidentally Damage Your USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives are wonderful little things! They are small enough to fit into your pocket and you can take them with you anywhere you want and anywhere in the world. But they do have a bad side to! They are pretty easy to damage.

There are lots and lots of ways that you can damage your portable pen drive, you could leave them in your jeans pocket and then make the mistake of running your jeans through the wash (I have been guilty of this myself but luckily no harm came to my USB drive!) or you could drop it down the toilet,or even accidentally bend or break them. Lets face it these USB flash devices are great little things, but you do have to wrap them in cotton wool if you want your files or photos to be safe!

If you have damaged your USB flash device and desperately want to get your files recovered then there are a few options out there that just might be able to do the job, of course with damaged flash drives there are no guarantees that you will be able to recover your lost files, but anyway here are the three things you can do to recover your lost data.

1) Use USB data recovery freeware software

2) Buy a professional USB data recovery software

3) Pay for a USB data recovery service

Those are your three options above, the freeware option is probably the best to start out with just in case you are able to recover your documents without having to spend money on professional software! If that does not work then you could go down the paid software route, but if that does not work and the files are important to you then the only alternative is to use a USB data recovery service to recover your lost files for you.

Web 3.0 Applications

What will be the web 3.0 applications be like? The Internet world took a massive step when it shifted over from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Well now it's the time to look at the Web 3.0 concept. How will the Web 3.0 technology change the search engines? Let's take a look at the general ideas of the Web 3.0 applications in this article.We can just imagine or wonder how the Web 3.0 applications will be like. The drastic changes that Web 2.0 brought over to the world of Internet, leaves us dumbfounded on imagining what will be the changes in Web 3.0. Will the focus of the change mainly lie on the code or is it the applications or the interface part which will again be targeted. Before starting off our explanation on Web 3.0 concept, let us try to understand, what were the changes that the Web 2.0 technology brought in. This will help us in getting a clearer idea of the Web 3.0 concept.

Transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

Web 1.0 was the age of static pages. You can compare it to a library which contains a lot of information, but you can just absorb it. There was no way in which the information you wanted to lend out, you could pass on to the world. HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was the order of the day then. The basic language on which all web pages were designed. It left very little scope or no scope for the user to put in his input in the websites. This triggered the thought of Web 2.0. How about having websites, where users could contribute. After all the people who are the main assets to the world of Internet, then how can they be left out, when the websites are designed. HTML pages consisted of meta tags. This was what let the Internet search engines decide the relevancy of a web page with the searched keyword in an Internet Search Engine. But the keywords meta tags was exploited by the porn sites webmasters to such an extent, that it caused the search engines to question the relevancy of the meta keyword. They had to use complex algorithms to decide what should the search results be.

The focus was mainly on the source code or the language of the websites. The application part was left out. Then there was the advent of Web 2.0. New ways to search information and most importantly, the user contribution part. The world wide web, network of people, by people and for people. How could it grow endlessly without the contribution of its users. Social networking sites showed up. The easiest way for users to share their thoughts and to communicate. Users were now able to actually get into the cyber-space and expand their network. Next were blogs. The easiest way how users could share information with others. Even that small comments box, that you see at the bottom of this web page too, is one of the applications of Web 2.0. The APIs for the Web 2.0 applications were designed such. Search Engines like Google search engine, allowed new ways of Search Engine Optimization and brought in more and more relevant results. Wikis allowed new ways for users to share their own content on different subjects on the Web. Websites like Picassa and Flickr brought in new ways for users to share their pictures. The list of new applications were simply unending.

It was dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001, which brought in the advent of Web 2.0. What people considered as a flaw in the web world had actually brought in new dimensions to the world wide web. Then there were the banner ads. The banner ads allowed two websites to interconnect. Web development languages like PHP, Javascript, AJAX, etc. became the trend of the day for web sites developer. Websites were connected to each other. A link in one website could just let you travel to another website. However, another aspect of the same was that websites needed to be more secure. This caused the designing of websites to be cumbersome task. You could just not merely learn some HTML tags and create a website of your own.

Web 3.0 Concept

What was just explained was just a glimpse of the amount of changes that the Web 2.0 had brought in to the world of Internet. If this was the amount of changes that a dot com bubble could trigger, what would be the changes that the advent of Web 3.0 be like. What will the Web 3.0 applications mainly target on? The most important assets, the users are already a part of the Internet. What else can be the changes that Web 3.0 technology can bring in. Let's start off with the search engine part. Experts believe that the Web 3.0 technology will cause or make search engines, which are much more smarter than the recent search engines.

Artificial Intelligence will be the order of the day. Some assume that the search engines will be such that you enter a complex query in a very much human way of talking and get just one precise output. Let's take an example. Suppose you are looking for the nearest spot near your city to go for a trekking, but you also want certain special amenities that should be nearby. May be you are also looking for a trek party who are going on the same day and you want to ask if you want to join them. The search engines may allow you to type in a query like "I want to go for a trekking not very far away from my city. If there are any more people going in for trek on the same day, it would be better if I could join them and it would be really cool if I get some place after the trek to grab a couple of beers." The search engines may simply answer you by typing you a one line answer to a place where you can go for trekking, name and address of other people who are going for trek on the same day and also the address of the bar where you can go for the trek. Now the question is, where does the intelligence part arise. Well, here you did not mention the name of the city you are staying in, but the search results are still popping up. The search engine determines the place where you are staying. The other trek parties who are going in for trek may have searched for some other information, but the search engine simply keeps their records too and associates them with yours to give some relevant results. It may sound amazing, but many people would definitely consider it as a breach into their privacy.

But then again, these Web 3.0 applications that we are talking of are simply concepts. There is no proper justification or known fact that it is exactly going to take up this form. Some people however contradict that Web 3.0 will again focus on the code part or the language part. Needless to say, business is the main priority of all the web based applications. Companies build websites, store heavy amount of data on their servers and most of the times, when they have to make a major changes in their websites, they need to go offline. The Web 3.0 applications are considered to allow more security and allow companies to make changes into their websites, while not having to go offline. The concept is basically that Internet Search Engines will be able to read web pages as clearly as humans do. Thus, the result will be more and more relevant results.

All these Web 3.0 applications or rather Web 3.0 concepts that have been discussed here may or may not come exactly like what has been described. It may happen that we are not even being able to imagine the changes it will bring. The most important question will be if the change will be on the application part or on the coding part. Well, we have to just wait and watch for probably, when will technology experts finally give their verdict that Web 3.0 is on.
By Shah Newaz Alam

Radioactivity Uses

Radioactivity uses can be as varied as medicines to scientific research to agriculture. Read this article to enhance your knowledge on different uses of radioactivity.Radioactivity can be defined as a physical process where the elements with unstable nuclei gets disintegrated to form smaller nuclei. During this process, three different types of rays are emitted. They are: alpha (α), beta (β) and gamma (γ) rays. Some commonly found elements that show radioactive properties are uranium, thorium, radium, polonium, etc. When we are talking about radioactivity uses, we mean usage of the radiations that are transmitted by the radioisotopes of various elements. Learn more on what is radioactivity?

How is Radioactivity Used in Medicine?

When the rays of radioactivity is used for the treatment of various diseases, it is termed as radiotherapy. It is an effective treatment for various forms of cancer. Here, a high dose of gamma rays are penetrated through the immature cancerous cells that are growing at a rapid pace in order to destroy them. Thus it will kill the malignant cells without affecting the normal ones. Similar kind of treatment is carried out for the elimination of tumors as well. It is also used for the diagnosis of several diseases. Radioactive pills are used to check if the organs of the body are functioning normally. It helps in the detection of exact location of a tumor or a blood clot in various parts of the body. Radioactive iodine-123 is popularly used for the diagnosis of thyroid problems. Cobalt-67 is useful for diagnosing pernicious anemia. Another important radioactivity uses in medicines is in the sterilization of medical instruments. Know more on radioactive isotopes in medicine.

How is Radioactivity Used to Date Rocks?

The rocks contain traces of carbon-14, which is slightly radioactive in nature. Over a period of time, the unstable nucleus of the radioisotope undergo radioactive decay to form sable isotopes. The original unstable isotope is referred to as parent isotope and the stable isotope product is referred to as the daughter isotope. Comparing the ratio of the quantities of these two isotopes present in the collected sample of the rock, the exact date of the rock is determined. The older the age of the rock, the lesser will be the amount of carbon-14 present in it. Find more on carbon dating accuracy.

What are the Other Radioactivity Uses?

Nuclear reactor is a device that helps to produce radiation in a controlled manner. The huge amount of energy generated during a nuclear fission reaction inside a nuclear reactor is further utilized for production of electrical energy. New useful fission products are also obtained in the process. Radioactivity is widely used for the research and analysis of various physical, chemical and biological processes. Radioactivity has a wide range of uses in various manufacturing industries all across the world. It is used to test the integrity of the manufactured products including pipeline welds, aircraft parts, boilers, etc.

It has various uses in the agriculture research studies. Phosphorus-32 is added to phosphate fertilizer to determine the exact quantity of phosphorus being absorbed by the plants from the fertilizer. Cobalt-60 is used to improve the production of crops both in terms of quality as well as quantity. Radioactivity is used for the sterilization of food. For this, concentrated beams are passed through the food products so that the microorganisms that causes contamination of the food can be killed effectively. This is an absolute safe method and does not cause any radiation poisoning. To know more, refer to radioactive isotope uses.

In this article you have learned about some important radioactivity uses. However, it has to be used in a very controlled manner, as these radiations have potential dangers associated with them. If human body is exposed to excess amount of radiation, it can cause cancer and genetic mutation.
By Bidisha Mukherjee

Navy Builds Amphibious Assault Ship from World Trade Center Steel

The Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship, the USS New York, is being built with scrap steel salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center terrorist bombings.By Linda Orlando

The USS New York has already made history twice, and it hasn’t even touched the water yet. The ship is being built from 24 tons of scrap steel that used to be the World Trade Center, and the 684-foot vessel survived Hurricane Katrina unscathed. The New York is the fifth in a new class of warship the Navy is building, designed specifically for missions that will entail special operations against terrorists. The ship is about 45% complete and should be ready in just over a year. Its crew complement will include 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines who can be transported ashore by assault craft and helicopters.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA, to cast the bow section of the USS New York on Sept. 9, 2003. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there" when the molten steel was poured into the molds, according to Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing. "Those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence." The foundry operations manager, Junior Chavers, said that when the Trade Center steel first arrived at the foundry, he touched it with his hand and the hair on his neck stood up. "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back."

When the World Trade Center was demolished and nearly 2,800 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, the plans for the $700 ship were already in the works but it had not yet been assigned a name. Several months after the attack, New York Gov. George Pataki petitioned the Navy to commemorate the tragedy by naming the ship USS New York since its primary role would include fighting terrorism. Navy Secretary Gordon England, in announcing the decision to name the ship, said that the New York would "project American power to the far corners of the Earth and support the cause of freedom well into the 21st century." Other similar warships scheduled for construction include the USS Arlington, named for the location of the Pentagon, also struck by a hijacked jetliner on Sept. 11, and the USS Somerset, named for the county in Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed after its passengers fought off the terrorists who had hijacked the plane.

At the shipyard in Avondale, LA, near New Orleans, Northrop Grumman used to employ 6,500 people. About 5,500 have returned to the job to work on the USS New York and three other ships. "Their dedication and devotion to duty has been, to say the least, epic," said Philip Teel, head of the ship systems division for Northrop Grumman. About 500 people are working on the New York, and most of them were back on the job two weeks after Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast last summer.

Tony Quaglino, a 66-year old crane superintendent, purposely postponed his retirement because he wanted to take part in constructing the warship. "I think Katrina made us more aware of the tragedy in New York, said Quaglino. "One was manmade, one was natural, but they’re both a common bond." Glenn Clement, a paint foreman, believes that he and his coworkers are building a gift for bin Laden. "It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure that bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out," said Clement. "He came in through the back door and knocked our towers down and [the New York] is coming right through the front door, and we want them to know that."

Many of the shipyard workers lost their homes during the hurricane, and more than 200 people are now living at the shipyard, some on a Navy barge and others in bunk-style housing. "It sounds trite, but I saw it in their eyes," Teel told reporters. "These are very patriotic people, and the fact that the ship has steel from the trade center is a source of great pride. They view it as something incredibly special. They’re building it for the nation."
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 4/5/2006

America's Flying Aircraft Carriers

The Navy's dream of fighters launched from giant airships came to a tragic end.
Enlarge ImageImagine a fleet of warships able to cruise at 100 knots, out of reach of marauding submarines and surface craft. Consider further these same vessels launching waves of bombers and fighter planes from her massive bowels, striking unsuspecting foes before they can react. Such was the expectations of the US Navy’s fleet of rigid airships in the 1920’s and 30’s, as instigated by America’s "Father of Naval Aviation" Admiral William Moffet.

Despite having lost two giant airships to tragic accidents, including the mighty SHENANDOAH, the Navy forged ahead with her plans for "flying aircraft carriers". The new ships were the ZRS-4 and ZRS-5, more famously remembered as AKRON and MACON. Before they were ready, aircraft hook-on experiments were conducted by the fleet’s sole remaining airship, LOS ANGELES, made on July 3 1929. Success was achieved by using a "trapeze" apparatus to catch the planes inflight, a practice which soon became routine. The first planes so utilized were Vought UO-1s, soon followed by NSY-1 trainers and Curtiss Sparrowhawk fighters.

With the premise of flying aircraft carriers proven, the first vessel with a hangar was received. The AKRON (built in Akron, Ohio) was christened on August 8, 1931. At 785 feet long, she was the largest airship in the world, though she could carry only two aircraft in hangar plus a third on the trapeze. Trials with the Sparrowhawk in June 1932 proved unsatisfactory; the plane was replaced by an improved version. Throughout that year, AKRON conducted a strenuous series of exercises proving the value of aircraft from airships for scouting purposes. MACON joined the aerial fleet in 1933 (hangar-less LOS ANGLELES was soon retired), as Admiral Moffet’s concept seemed assured.

So confident was the Admiral in his ships that he took off with AKRON in a dense fog, for a cruise up the New England coast. Caught in a storm, the giant vessel crashed in the sea, with only three crewmembers surviving. William Moffet was not one of these. With the airship’s primary backer gone, their future was in doubt. All hope rested on MACON.

The new ship was much the same as lost AKRON, save for being faster and carrying double the aircraft. She was commissioned on April 23, 1933 by future World War 2 Navy Chief Admiral Ernest King. Home base became Sunnyvale California, in the newly named Moffet Field. Like her predecessors, MACON’s early years were utilized in practicing with her Sparrowhawks, as well as conducting operations with the fleet. On one such exercise over the Pacific, she made a surprise attack on a group Navy cruisers, including the HOUSTON with President Franklin Roosevelt onboard. Her planes accurately "bombed" the ship with magazines and newspapers, to the astonishment of the sailors. MACON’s captain received a slap on the wrist by his superiors for the unscheduled attack, and a "job well done" from the President.

MACON’s star was on the rise as she continued to astound the public and the fleet with her versatility. As always however, just when things were going well for the airships, disaster struck. This occured soon after the flying carrier let Moffet field on February 11, 1935. An earlier accident had weakened the great ship’s superstructure, unknown to her crew, and the old wound came back to haunt her. Returning home after a rigorous training exercise in which her fighters located and tracked fleet units, the aft section suddenly ruptured. MACON hit the water tail first, with most of the crew escaping in lift rafts. Only two perished, but with them went the dream of flying aircraft carriers.

The basic premise as devised by Moffet and others had been sound, as the launch and recovery of Sparrowhawk fighters in fleet trials proved. Their majestic appearance at air shows and media fascination may have kept the idea alive longer than it should. It was the inherent instability of rigid airships and their vulnerability in almost any adverse weather, which finally doomed them, plus taking the life of their most ardent supporter. Navy Review
A quarterly newsletter of naval history, biography, and little known sea facts. Free subscription.
By Mike Burleson

Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda triangle is also known as Devil’s triangle. It is called so because of people’s superstitious beliefs. They believed that devil was at play on this stretch of ocean gobbling up anything that travels on it. For many years several hundred ships and planes have been vanishing in this area.

It is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, which is noted for unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft. During the past century more than 50 ships and 20 aircraft sailed in this area and they disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to these ships and aircraft because they used to disappear without any trace.

The apexes of the Devil’s triangle are generally accepted to be Bermuda, Miani, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. A man named Vincent H. Gaddis came with the phrase "Bermuda Triangle". There is some inexplicable force within this area that caused ships and planes to vanish.

There are countless theories which attempted to explain these disappearances. The majority of disappearances might be due to the area's unique environmental features.

Many claim that Christopher Columbus bore witness to the Bermuda Triangle’s weirdness. First, on the "Devil's Triangle", the Columbus’s compass or the magnetic compass points towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the earth. If this compass variation or error is not compensated, navigator could find himself in deep trouble.

Another factor is the character of the Gulf Stream. It is extremely swift and turbulent .The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic weather pattern also plays its role. Sudden thunder storms and water spouts often causes disaster to pilots and mariners.

The Bermuda Triangle became famous with the mysterious disappearance of Naval Air Flight 19. On December 5, 1945 five Avenger torpedo bombers left the Naval Air Station at Fort Lauderdale.They never returned home. No known wreckage of Flight 19 has been recovered. The Avenger bombers contained 14 men, 13 of those were trainees in the last stage of their training along with Lt. Charles Taylor. Lt. Taylor had no knowledge of flying over Bahamas which was the direction Flight 19 was headed in. Their mission on that day was to practice bombing at hens and chicken shoals fifty six miles away. Once that was accomplished, the Avengers were to continue eastward for another sixty seven miles, then head north seventy three miles. Then they would turn southwest and head for home. In other words they were flying through a triangular flight path, what would be called the Bermuda Triangle. They performed the operation as planned but were unknown to the danger they are going to face. They were totally horrified with whatever started happening with them in the Devil’s Land (Bermuda Triangle). They had no absolute idea where they were and where they were heading for. The communication with the base stations was totally lost and no frequency was helping them to re-establish the communication. Even the rescue aircraft which were sent in search for it were also lost.

The information about the mariner and the Flight 19’s disappearance soon began in the early 50’s. Stories about " a mysterious place where ships and planes disappeared into" and a " limbo of lost" caught the publics interest immediately, the legend of Bermuda Triangle began and is still carried on this day. It is believed that a person who started his journey having to traverse through this area could never reach his/her destination.

There are many stories of strange disappearances of both ships and planes either somewhere near or inside the Bermuda triangle. Even though it is believed that everything disappears within the imaginary boundaries of triangular area, the fact is that half the time the incidences occurred distance away from it but somehow got their disappearance linked with the Triangle. People came out with some weird theories that the triangle must have some kind of mysterious ocean powers which sucks down everything that comes over it. There have been many theories about the Bermuda Triangle, for example: waterspout, whirlpool, tornado, tidal wave, UFOs, quicksand, giant octopuses', etc.
For many years Bermuda Triangle has been successful in attracting people’s attention in such a way that it has been advertised in many articles, books, television series and movies and always portrayed as a very real and mysterious thing. It seems as if this is only a myth which has been over exaggerated. I guess with today’s advanced technologies, it might be possible to solve the mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, and people will come to know the true reason behind the mishaps.
By Shalaka Bhosale

Bermuda Triangle - The Devil’s Triangle

If we look at Bermuda triangle with a cool eye, there is one obvious fact: many stories ... but only stories. No real secrecy about the place but a money-making mystery. One of the greatest mysteries of our world today is the Bermuda Triangle or as some people call it, "the Devil’s Triangle", this is the place where countless ships and airplanes have mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again.

Theories as to what causes these disappearances abound; some think that it is nothing more then human error that has led to so many tragedies, others think that it is underground volcanoes and other forces of nature that have brought down so many ships and planes, and still others think that it is extraterrestrials that are out to get us, and for some mysterious reason they chose the Bermuda Triangle.

Over the years, it has been proven that accounts and reports have been greatly embellished by different authors, but the fact still remains that a great number of ships have been lost in the area.

There are no real set boundaries for the Bermuda triangle because every author had his own ideas as to where it is exactly and how far it stretches, but most agree that the Bermuda Triangle stenches from the Straits of Florida, to part of the Gulf of Mexico and the island of Bermuda. Traffic in the area is very heavy due to the location, hundreds of ships regularly pass through the area, not to mention planes that are on their way to South America and the islands in the area, take all that and take it to a time that navigational instruments and tools were not developed, add the fact that sudden storms are a regular occurrence in the area and you will have a deadly combination that is sure to take its toll on human lives.

Not surprisingly, it was Christopher Columbus that first noticed and documented strange things happening in the area, they saw dancing lights in the horizon, flames shooting down from the sky and weird compass bearings, it freaked his crew out so much that they almost mutinied.

It sounds kind of weird to hear about it now, that so many years ago, these kinds of things were documented, but scholars think that the strange lights in the sky were the cooking fires of Indians, the shooting flames were nothing more then meteors, and the strange compass readings were just miscalculations of the stars. It is strange how something that appears so weird to some people, so out of this world, can be perfectly explained in a logical way by others.

But the question is this, is there any truth to the claims that the Bermuda Triangle is a supernatural gateway, that unnatural things happen there, are there really aliens coming all the way to earth just to pick on some passing ships? Where did the legend start anyway? How did it start?

It all started on September 16, 1950, in a newspaper. They started writing about the Bermuda Triangle and soon they were joined by many authors each with his own fantastic story to tell, each author had a different idea as to how big the Triangle was, and each and every author had his own theories as to what was causing the disappearances.

Later on, when the books that these people had written were verified, they found out that facts had been distorted, or made up altogether, important clues as to what really happened had been left out, and reports of the ships that had gone missing had never been changed when those same ships showed up at port. There was one author; it has been said about him that if he writes that the bicycle is red, then you can be certain that it is some other color.

These are the kind of people that have made the Bermuda mystery into what it is today, it sells books and makes people money, but talk to any person with some good common sense, that knows what he is talking about, and he will tell you that it is nothing more then the sea taking its toll on the most traveled shipping lane in the world, in the place that just happens to have the most unpredictable weather.

The Bermuda Triangle is no real mystery, it is a money-making mystery.
By Claudia Miclaus

Mysterious Disappearances In The Bermuda Triangle

Enlarge ImageWe like to consider ourselves the superior race, and we are. We are emphatic to know more and more, we actually live in "the information age". Everyday we face new challenges, new questions arise and new answers are given. Our human vanity makes us believe that we have to, we really have to know everything! Surprisingly, we do not have this capacity. The question "what is happening in the Bermuda Triangle?" is the very proof that we are not omniscient.

After decades of investigations and assumptions, the world’s scientists did not reach an indisputable explanation to the events occurred in this famous, magic, disastrous place. Where is it located? In the West Atlantic Ocean, East from Florida, U.S.A. Considered to be a cursed location, the imaginable triangle is situated between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Over 100 ships and planes simply disappeared in the deep waters, a reason why it was called the Devil’s triangle or the Atlantic cemetery.

Queer incidents
Five T.B.M. Avenger of the U.S.A air fleet took off the military airport in Florida, in December the 5th 1945. Responsible for this mission was the colonel Charles Taylor and it was only a simple exercise, a flight with the aim of recognition. They were scheduled to take off at 2p.m. and return in 20 minutes. The sky was clear.
At 3.30 p.m., Charles Taylor was transmitting a message through radio to the control tower of Ford Lauderdale base:
Taylor: We are outside the route parameters. We see no ground.
Operator: What is your position?
Taylor: We can’t determine it…it seems we are lost.
Operator: Move 2 degrees to West.
Taylor: We don’t know where is the West. I can’t identify our position…weird, even the ocean looks different…
After this, the conversation was interrupted. No one could ever find that plane again.

Furthermore, some other disappearances took place: in 1947, the American C54 plane simply vanishes at 100 miles from Bermuda; at 80 miles, the Star Tiger plane disappears in 1948. Many hypotheses were stated in order to explain the bizarre events. In spite of these attempts, the mystery of Bermuda , the death triangle, is not cleared. Some specialists say that tornadoes or navigation mistakes can be the cause of it. Can be, but these theories do not answer all the questions. Some people get to say that maybe aliens are involved in it. More earthly assumptions were recently made:

• strong marine streams
• emanation of methane gas, which leads to a reduction of the water’s density, making the ships, planes go rapidly to the bottom of the ocean

The marine geologist Alan Judd, professor at the Sunderland British University, says that the odds that the sea accidents occur because of the methane gas are one to 10.000. Anyway, in such conditions, any ship located above the place where the gas reaches the surface goes straight to the bottom of the sea. He says he knows sailors who went through this type of experience and because the emanation was not too strong, the ship only went down 2 meters under the sea lever.

Even Columbus had trouble in Bermuda. The legend says that his first accounts were about the odd happenings encountered there: "the waters are changing their colors" and "compasses are going wild".

In addition, other frenetic scientists relate the happening with Einstein’ s theory, speculating that the missing ships and planes are …translated to another dimension of space and time, taking them in an invisible, parallel world. Another explanation can be found in the best-seller book "The Bermuda Triangle" of the famous Charles Berlitz.

These events are out of normal limits and because we do not have an answer to satisfy our questions related to this topic, we are covered by intrigue, fear and excitement at the same time. Together with other enigmatic occurrences from all over the world, like the great Pyramids or the Black Stone from Mecca, the mystery from the Bermuda remains unsolved. Because of the thousands of hypotheses emitted every year, we are looking forward to the one that will stand still in front of all the questions. Alternatively, we will just have to wait to go to Heaven and ask the One who made it. That answer will surely be a satisfying one!
By Claudia Miclaus

The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

One of the greatest mysteries that the world faces - The Bermuda Triangle. It seemingly has an endless appetite for aircrafts and ships. How does this happen?Ships, airplanes, helicopters and men – they have all been sucked into the Bermuda Triangle at some point of time or the other. None of them have ever returned. It is impossible to provide details of the first such disappearance because of erratic record keeping over the years, but it was the U.S. Navy that first brought the Bermuda Triangle mystery into the limelight.

On 5 December 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers of the US Navy took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine training flight over the Atlantic. They did not return. A large Mariner flying boat sent to search for the missing aircraft also failed to return. No trace has ever been found of the six planes or the 27-crew members. As a result of this incident, it was discovered that quite a few ships and aircraft had also been lost, apparently without explanation in the triangular area off the south-east coast of the United States bounded by Bermuda, Puerto-Rico and Florida.

Every investigator worth his salt has postulated a number of theories that attempt to satisfactorily explain the mysterious happenings at the Bermuda triangle. Some of the more bizarre explanations include extra-terrestrials, the presence of a huge magnet, the position of the moon, sudden appearing of giant waves, time/space warps, electrostatic charges, and the return of the inhabitants of the lost city Atlanta. There have been innumerable books that have been written regarding the unusual phenomenon which take place in this area.

One of the problems faced by those documenting the missing ships and aircrafts is the fact that there is lack of reliable data. Insurance companies seldom insure smaller aircrafts and ships. This area comes under the aegis of the U.S. Navy but the US Coast Guard SAR (Search and Rescue) publishes yearly statistics for calls of assistance, causes of accidents, weather, deaths, and conditions. But missing vessels are not included. However it is generally believed that around 20 aircrafts and 50 vessels have gone missing over the years. In 1492, shortly after leaving the Canary Islands, Christopher Columbus recorded in his ship's log that he and his crew had observed a large ball of fire fall into the sea and that the ship's compass showed erratic readings while in the Sargasso Sea and Triangle.

One of the more credible theories seems to belong to Dr Richard McIver, who centers his explanation on the presence of methane hydrate. Methane hydrate was first encountered in the 1920s and 1930s in the early days of the American and Soviet gas industries. Natural gases (a mixture of flammable gases found in the Earth’s crust, methane, ethane, butane and propane) were being piped across the Atlantic but occasionally the pipes would become mysteriously plugged up.

All gases except for helium, hydrogen and neon can form hydrates if enough gas and water are present, if the pressure is high enough and if the temperature is low enough. These conditions can be found naturally occurring on earth, and methane hydrate has been found to exist in huge quantities in many parts of the sea floor and is concentrated in some places on continental slopes such as the Bermuda Triangle. The structure of the molecule of methane hydrate is such that it facilitates the capturing of a large amount of gas. If this were to break-up, then even a small area could cause a large gas release.

Sediment piles on continental slopes have the tendency to accumulate on the slopes of the edge of continental plates. But it is unstable and can tumble down. When this happens, it can cause the removal of the hydrate layer, releasing the methane gas trapped below. Methane gas bubbling up through the sea will cause an area of decreased density; ships will lie lower in the water and will be swamped by the least wave; also methane gas when mixed with air in the correct proportions is highly explosive. This could account for the mysterious disappearances of both ships and aircraft.

All this activity on the sea bed occurs at the edges of tectonic plates, where there is constant activity as a result of the pressures beneath the earth’s crust; any wreckage sinking to the bottom would be lost forever beneath the moving plates.

The latest myth that is doing the rounds is that there have been disappearances in the Indian and Pacific oceans, this means that the Bermuda Triangle is widening in scope.
By Anish Chandy

Is Bermuda Triangle Real

The disappearances of objects ranging from aircraft's to ships in a region near Bermuda has lent credence to the question is Bermuda triangle real? The Bermuda triangle mystery has been hyped so much, that people have even gone to the extent of fabricating accidents to support this myth.Bermuda triangle, also referred to as the Devil's triangle, is a region in the Atlantic Ocean, renowned as a mysterious place owing to the disappearances of a number of aircraft's and vessels traveling through this part. The demarcated triangle is located off the Bermuda coast, from which it derives the name 'Bermuda triangle'. Although, there are no concrete evidences supporting the Bermuda triangle mystery, many people have imputed the alleged disappearances to paranormal phenomena as well as extraterrestrial activities. That brings us to one of the most intricate questions asked - is the Bermuda triangle real, or is it just another myth?

Bermuda Triangle Theories
So what exactly is Bermuda triangle? Are these disappearances really caused by paranormal forces or is it the handiwork of some extraterrestrial beings? In short, is Bermuda triangle real or not? Hundreds of individuals have over a hundred explanations for these so called supernatural mysteries in Bermuda triangle. Some of the most popular ones are given below:
According to some, the area sports abnormal gravity patterns, such that any aircraft or surface vessels passing through the region is pulled down into a watery grave.
This may sound funny, but some people do think that extraterrestrial beings or aliens have decided to experiment on the life form on our planet, and they use the devil's triangle as the 'spot' to pick human specimen for further lab tests.
There are some who even argue that the triangle in itself is a portal to another world, and all the ships and aircraft's that have disappeared have reached that 'other world'.
Some believe that this region has rich stores of methane gas, and the huge gas bubbles originating from the ocean floor sink the vessels, and blow down the aircraft.
The latest claim is that it's a secret base for the United States, where the US army is testing its deadly weapons. And the whole negative publicity is sparked by the army itself, so that the entire world doesn't come to know about their evil intentions.
These are just some of the various theories of Bermuda triangle disappearances. What we realize after reading these theories is that people do have creativity in abundance, but what they lack is critical thinking.

Bermuda Triangle and Critical Thinking
The theories mentioned above have some or the other loopholes in them, but they can be noticed only when you try to analyze them critically. For instance, the Bermuda triangle methane gas bubbles theory was put forth by a researcher from Monash University and published in the American Journal of Physics. These sources were enough for people to blindly believe that the theory was really applicable for Bermuda triangle disappearances. Not many people tried to find out about the other places with high methane concentrations. If anyone would have taken efforts, they would have realized that the demarcated triangle is not actually the place with the largest concentration of methane. There are several other places, such as off the Carolina coast, where methane concentration is much more higher. Methane gas does tamper the density of water, which may in turn cause a ship to sink, but the process is not so fast that the crew can't send signals nor does the ship disappear without any trace. Like the methane gas theory, all the other theories which claim that the Bermuda triangle mystery is real are nothing but baseless assumptions made by self proclaimed Bermuda triangle experts, of the likes of Charles Berlitz.

Is Bermuda Triangle Real?
Of course not! And there are many evidences to prove that the so called Bermuda triangle mystery is just a hoax created by some limelight hogging frauds. What the mystery of the Bermuda triangle banks on is exaggeration of facts, but before we move on to this exaggeration part, lets take a look at some of the most renowned incidents of the Bermuda triangle fraud.

Flight 19 Incident: Birth of Bermuda Triangle
It all started on December 5, 1945, when a group of US fighter planes - Flight 19, suddenly disappeared in this area. Surprisingly, the aircraft which went on the search mission also followed the same fate. It was the moment the Bermuda triangle mystery was born. One could have termed it as a mystery then as no one really knew what happened to all the aircrafts. But investigations that followed revealed the reasons behind the allegedly mysterious disappearances, and thus, the mystery was solved. Flight 19 was actually a group of trainee pilots on a routine training session. In the process of training, the leader of the squad misinterpreted his position. As the entire group was supposed to follow the squad leader, all of them lost the way, hovered in the sky till their fuel was over and then crashed into the sea. In such fighter plane formations, all the fighter planes are expected to coordinate with the leader and follow him. This may sound absurd, but lets not forget that the pilots were trainees and the aircrafts were not sophisticated as they are today. The army sources confirmed that the aircraft which went as a part of rescue mission had a technical snag, which led to fume emission in its cockpit. The end result was an explosion and a tragic end to the rescue mission.

Extraterrestrial Beings and UFOs
People who claim that the Bermuda triangle is a handiwork of extraterrestrial beings, are most often the ones who misinterpret various phenomenons in the sky. For instance, meteors become UFOs when they are sighted by these people. Even Christopher Columbus mentions in his accounts that he ans his crew witnessed a ball of fire in the sky, which traveled some distance before going down into the sea. During the era of Columbus, some person mistaking a meteor for unidentified flying object was not surprising, but when some person does it now it is not just surprising, but absurd as well. Maybe it's an effect of the hordes of ET movies we get to see these days. There have been cases wherein fire at the oil rigs has been misinterpreted to be a UFO by the pilots of various aircrafts.

Exaggerated Facts About the Bermuda Triangle
When we talk about exaggeration of facts, we refer to various false claims made to support a mystery which doesn't exist. One such example is the number of accidents in the demarcated Bermuda triangle. The large number of accidents that reportedly took place in this demarcated area are enough for a person to believe that there is indeed something extraordinary about this area. However, a bit of critical thinking and you can save yourself the horror. The fact is that, a large number of these accidents which are said to have happened in the demarcated Bermuda triangle area, didn't happen here at all. The demarcated triangle lies between the coasts of Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, and many of the accidents or disappearances that are alleged to have happened in this area, have actually happened miles away in some other part of the ocean. In fact, some ships which never left the dock and some aircrafts which never took off also find a place in the Bermuda triangle casualty list. This was the handiwork of sensationalism on the part of media and false claims by self proclaimed Bermuda triangle experts. The Bermuda triangle mystery reached an all time high with the release of Charles Berlitz's book - The Bermuda Triangle. When asked about the lack of statistical evidences to support his claims, Berlitz had a standard answer "the government, the navy in particular are conspiring to keep these disappearances a secret." Read more on the Bermuda triangle: location, map, mystery and recent disappearances.

So What is Bermuda Triangle Mystery All About?
This part of the ocean is familiar to 3 way water currents - the jet streams, the easterlies and the gulf stream. Tropical storms are quite common in this area, and hence, ships fighting a storm and ending up in a watery grave is not at all mysterious. As far as aircrafts are concerned, fog is the main culprit, with some aid from the pilot being inexperienced. As we all know, it's not easy to find something that disappears in the vast ocean. And lastly, exaggerated numbers also play a vital role in creating the aura of mysteriousness in this area.

Ascertaining whether the Bermuda triangle is real, is not at all a difficult task, if you analyze the facts about Devil's triangle. However, it's a normal human tendency to attribute anything that doesn't have a logical explanation to the supernatural. The same is the case with the Bermuda triangle disappearances, which never happened in the very first place. These Bermuda triangle facts are enough to prove that the Bermuda triangle is a myth, which has been created out of sheer foolishness on the part of the believers, some shrewdness on the part of the creators and some sensationalism and irresponsible attitude on the part of the media.
By Abhijit Naik
Published: 1/22/2010