Historical handshake: Queens meets Martin McGuinness

The British Queen performed an astonishing act of forgiveness today in the name of peace when she shook hands with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness - twice.

The historical handshake: British Queen shakes hand with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein [Photo: PA / Daily Mail]

Her Majesty somehow even found it within her to smile as she met the man who once headed the terror network responsible for killing Lord Mountbatten - the treasured cousin she knew as 'Uncle Dickie'.

Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in 1979 along with his young grandson in a bomb blast during a boating trip off Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo. It was an atrocity that sent shockwaves through the Royal Family.

Yet today, in a Jubilee year full of surprises, the Queen spent five minutes with Mr McGuinness behind closed doors in a room within the city's Lyric Theatre, and then the pair shook hands again publicly outside in full view of the world's cameras.

Read more / see more photos and details of Queen's visit to Ireland: Daily Mail

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Dinosaur flatulence may have warmed Earth

In a major new climate finding, researchers have calculated that dinosaur flatulence could have put enough methane into the atmosphere to warm the planet during the hot, wet Mesozoic era.

Like gigantic, long-necked, prehistoric cows, sauropod dinosaurs roamed widely around the Earth 150 million years ago, scientists reported in the journal Current Biology on Monday.

And just like big cows, their plant digestion was aided by methane-producing microbes.

“A simple mathematical model suggests that the microbes living in sauropod dinosaurs may have produced enough methane to have an important effect on the Mesozoic climate,” researcher Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University said in a statement.

Read details: Express Tribune

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100 Years of Mexico with USA in 100 Photographs

[ via LA Times ] 

6 January marks the 100th year of merger of Mexico with the USA. It was January 6, 1912 when Mexico became the 47th state of USA. 

A few of the 100 photos

To commemorate the centennial of the day,   Christopher Reynolds  of the LA Times has pulled together 100 images: napping nomads in Truth or Consequences; a working artist in Santa Fe; a native gathering in Albuquerque; an idle biker in Grants; and a slate-gray sky, about to dump a monsoon on the highway near Hillsboro. 

Watch all 100 photographs at: LA Times
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First resurface since 1932 to close Sydney Harbour Bridge January 2012

Full Story: 702 ABC Sydney 11 November 2011

Sydney Harbour Bridge - opened 80 years ago in 1932

The road surface on the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be replaced next year for the first time since its opening in 1932. The work means the bridge will be closed to motorists for at least two weekends in January 2012.

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Seize the moment: It is 11:11:11:11:11:11 AM

It is 11:11:11:11:11:11 AM at the time of writing this post. The second 11:11:11:11:11:11 will occur exactly after twelve hours at night. Seize this moment as it would take another 100 years to come again

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People lived in Europe more than 40,000 years ago

Full Story / Photo: CNN 2 November 2011

This baby tooth appears to have come from a human who lived more than 40,000 years ago.

A child's tooth wonders scientists as he may have lived 40,000 years ago. This discovery nullifies earlier revaluations, as none could predict human presence in Europe 40,000 years or even beyond.

One of the scientist Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford involved in the discover/research says:

"These humans may have had darker skin than modern Europeans, more like today's Africans, and perhaps more robust facial characteristics, but were otherwise quite physically similar."

Read ful story for details 

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