Triple rainbows do exist (and so do quadruples!)

Few people have ever claimed to see three rainbows arcing through the sky at once. In fact, scientific reports of these phenomena, called tertiary rainbows, were so rare -- only five in 250 years -- that until now many scientists believed sightings were as fanciful as Leprechaun's gold at a rainbow's end. These legendary optical rarities, caused by three reflections of each light ray within a raindrop, have finally been confirmed, thanks to photographic perseverance and a new meteorological model that provides the scientific underpinnings to find them.

Image: Double rainbow with reflected rainbow, as seen from Stuart Island on July 22, 2012. (Photo: Chris Teren)

Via: sciencedaily.com; komonews.com

An amazing story of a blind man who taught himself to see!

Daniel Kish who has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark.

Kish was born with an aggressive form of cancer called retinoblastoma, which attacks the retinas. To save his life, both of his eyes were removed by the time he was 13 months old. Since his infancy – Kish is now 44 – he has been adapting to his blindness in such remarkable ways that some people have wondered if he's playing a grand practical joke. But Kish is completely blind.

Kish learned echolocation and trained himself in such a precised manner that he can hear the slight echoes and interpret their meaning. Daniel Kish use echolocation just like Bats and Beluga whales do. He is so accomplished at echolocation that he's able to pedal his mountain bike through streets heavy with traffic and on precipitous dirt trails. He climbs trees. He camps out, by himself, deep in the wilderness. He's lived for weeks at a time in a tiny cabin a two-mile hike from the nearest road. He travels around the globe. He's a skilled cook, an avid swimmer, a fluid dance partner.

Kish has given a name to what he does – he calls it "FlashSonar" – but it's more commonly known by its scientific term, echolocation.

Kish's work has inspired a number of scientific studies related to human echolocation. In a 2009 study at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, ten sighted subjects were taught basic navigation skills within a few days. The study aimed to analyze various sounds which can be used to echo-locate and evaluate which were most effective. In another study, MRI brain scans were taken of Kish and another echolocation expert to identify the parts of the brain involved in echolocation, with readings suggesting "that brain structures that process visual information in sighted people process echo information in blind echolocation experts."

George Lippert - The man with three legs and two hearts.

He was born in Germany in 1844. In addition to being born with three legs, he was also born with two functioning hearts although that condition was unknown until is autopsy in 1906.

His third leg was fully formed and even possessed an extra toe, giving Lippert a total of sixteen. The leg was not functional. Lippert claimed that his leg had been fully functional until it sustained a fracture. Whether this is a fact or not remains a mystery, but during his career the leg hung motionless.

Early in his career George was billed as the ‘only Three Legged Man on Earth’ and he proved to be quite an attraction. Lippert even worked an exhibit with P. T. Barnum. However evidence indicates that he may not have been the easiest person to do business with. The pitch card above shows only a painting of Lippert and remains the only pitch card ever used by Lippert. Considering that his career spanned decades and coincided with a great boom in sideshow photography, this is highly unusual and raises several red flags.

http://thehumanmarvels.com/62/george-lippert-three-legs-two-hearts/parasitic-twins

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this article.

THE ORIGIN OF SIDEBURNS

Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are patches of facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to below the ears and worn with an unbearded chin. The term sideburns is a 19th-century corruption of the original burnsides, named after American Civil War general AMBROSE BURNSIDE, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a moustache, but left the chin clean-shaven. "Burnsides" became "sideburns" because of their location on the face and for the somewhat incompetent Burnside's tendency to "get things the wrong way 'round'".

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator. As a Union Army general in the American Civil War, he conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina and East Tennessee but was defeated in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg and Battle of the Crater.

- The Muthaphukkin' Pooch (@StunningFactsPH)

Disclaimer: I don't own this article.