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That’s no movie monster–that’s an artist’s impression of a real pliosaur. Make it bigger.

Yesterday, we swam with a great white shark. Today, we’ve discovered an even bigger marine predator–one so big and so bad it’s being called the “T-rex of the sea,” or, simply, “The Monster.” Unlike great white sharks, monsters like this one–called pliosaurs–died out millions of years ago. But that doesn’t make them any less amazing.

Measure the Monster

Norwegian scientists unearthed The Monster’s skeleton last year, on a remote archipelago not far from the North Pole. This week, they announced that the monstrous fossil represents the largest pliosaur ever discovered–and one of the largest known of all marine reptiles, too.

How big was the beast? Think of it this way. To pull its tear-shaped, 50-foot (15-meter) body through the water, it used 10-foot (3-meter) flippers. And, with a head 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and bone-crushing teeth the size of cucumbers, The Monster was big enough to swallow you whole.

The Monster was no gentle giant, either. Experts estimate that its jaws packed enough punch to bite a small car in half. And it likely lunched on dolphin-like ichthyosaurs that were 10 feet long, weighed 500 pounds (225 kg) or more, and sported sharp teeth of their own. Simply put, next to The Monster, a great white would have been shark bait.

Meet the Monster’s Family

Scientists say pliosaurs like The Monster were top marine predators during the Jurassic Period, which lasted from around 200 million to around 145 million years ago. Technically, they weren’t dinosaurs, the terrestrial titans of the time. Rather, pliosaurs were part of the large family of carnivorous aquatic reptiles known as plesiosaurs.

Never heard of plesiosaurs? Surely you’ve heard of their legendary descendent “Nessie,” the Loch Ness monster. Typically, plesiosaurs had long, highly flexible necks and mouths filled with very sharp teeth.

Pliosaurs like The Monster had shorter, stouter necks and may have used their powerful flippers to launch surprise attacks on unsuspecting prey. In fact, experts say that pliosaurs may have sometimes eaten their long-necked plesiosaur cousins. Nessie wouldn’t stand a chance.

That’s no movie robot– that’s a real great white shark

An Austrian man died this week after being bitten by a shark not far from the Bahamas–in waters that had been baited to make it more likely that he and other divers would come face to face with sharks.

The incident launched a worldwide debate among divers, conservationists, underwater photographers, and other shark enthusiasts about whether such “uncaged” dives with sharks should be allowed. While they debated the pros and cons of close encounters with ocean predators, we decided to learn more about the scariest shark of them all: the great white.

Feel the Fear

Known to scientists as Carcharodon carcharias, the great white shark is one of the most feared predators on Earth. Spanning up to 20 feet (6 meters) and weighing up to 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg), it is built to kill.

It primarily likes seals, sea lions, turtles, smaller sharks, and other fine-flavored denizens of the deep. If you’re an animal on that list and a great white gets a whiff of your succulent aroma, you’re in a sea of trouble.

A Nose for Trouble

Great whites have a highly acute sense of smell. Their nostrils, called nares, aren’t used for breathing–that’s what gills are for. Instead, white sharks use their nares to sniff the water, picking up scents at a distance of a quarter-mile (0.4 km) or more, and then tracking them to their source.

A big part of every great white’s brain is dedicated to sniffing. If you’re a prey animal and you’re bleeding, don’t bother looking for a Band-Aid. A great white can smell extremely small amounts of blood in the water from a long way off–and it figures wounded prey is easy prey.

An Eye for the Fishies

The great white’s eyesight is also excellent for hunting. Like cats, great whites come equipped with a tapetum lucidum (literally, “bright carpet”), a special reflective layer behind the retina that magnifies light and enables the shark to hunt in the dark. This adaptation makes shark eyes several times more light-sensitive than human ones.

Great whites even have extra shark-senses to help them zero in on dinner. Their snouts are dotted with small pits, called ampullae of Lorenzini, that detect the electrical fields of fish and other creatures. And, running in a “lateral line” down each side of their bodies are motion sensors. Great whites can still sense what they can’t see.

The Better to Eat You With, My Dear

Still, the great white’s real weapon of bass destruction is a terrifying set of teeth, which can grow to a length of three inches (8 cm). Shaped like triangular, serrated blades, they’re arranged in six rows of around 26 teeth each, though these numbers can vary from specimen to specimen. A great white sheds and regrows its teeth throughout its life, ensuring a fresh and healthy supply for every feeding frenzy.

A great white’s bite packs tremendous power, and in the case of larger and potentially dangerous prey, it typically takes one bite, retreats, and waits for the animal to bleed to death before settling down to dinner. They’re fearsome predators, no doubt. But they’re more into ambush attacks than epic battles between creatures at sea.

Scary as they are, we probably have less to fear from great whites than they have to fear from us. They’re now protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Meanwhile, shark attacks on humans are rare. Statistics say you’re more likely to get zapped by lightning–or killed by a deer crashing into your car–than you are to be mercilessly hunted by a shark.

And the winner isn’t . . .

Hollywood’s hottest will gather for the 80th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday. Whoever gets the Oscars, you can bet that fans of unrewarded flicks will argue that Academy voters ignored a classic work of art. And it won’t be the first time.

Arguments over Oscar-winning movies are endless (Patton: modern masterpiece or inconsequential piece of fluff?). But it is inarguable that many enduring classics were sadly overlooked by the Academy voters of their day. So today, KnowledgeNews honors the dishonored with our list of the Top 5 Most Snubbed Motion Pictures, Oscars Edition.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

The Academy Awards celebrate artistry in motion pictures, but you’d never have guessed that on Oscar Night 1942, when How Green Was My Valley beat Citizen Kane for best picture. Orson Welles’s difficult masterpiece garnered nominations aplenty: best picture, best actor, best director, and more. But at the end of the day, the only award the film received was for best original screenplay. Welles’s consolation was that later generations would celebrate Kane as perhaps the greatest motion picture of all time.

2. Chinatown (1974)

If you think that being nominated for an Oscar is what’s important, then Roman Polanski’s seminal detective drama–starring Jack Nicholson with a band-aid on his schnoz–did just fine. It was nominated for 11 awards, including best picture, best actor and actress, and best director. Luckily, it was also nominated for best screenplay, because that was the only award it won. The Godfather Part II was also in the running that year, and Chinatown couldn’t keep pace.

3. Double Indemnity (1944)

Billy Wilder would have been happy to share Polanski’s fate. His film–which many call the greatest of all film noirs–was also nominated for many awards, including best picture, best actress, and best director. But it didn’t win even one. The alleged best picture this time out was Going My Way, a feel-good musical starring Bing Crosby as the new priest in a troubled Catholic parish. Perhaps wartime America found it easier to celebrate sentiment over cynicism. A month after the awards ceremony, Allied forces took Berlin.

4. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but you could probably forgive co-directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen if they were a touch bitter after seeing their picture–arguably the best musical of all time–receive just two nominations (for best supporting actress and best musical score) and no awards. A Cecil B. DeMille circus extravaganza, The Greatest Show on Earth, somehow managed to bag the award for best picture that year, while classics like Singin’ in the Rain, High Noon, and The Quiet Man went down to defeat. Perhaps the sight of Charlton Heston in tights addled the voters’ minds.

5. Some Like It Hot (1959)

Is winning that much better than losing if all you can win is a relatively trivial award? Billy Wilder’s manic comedy garnered some respectable nominations (like best actor, best director, and best screenplay), but all it won was the award for best costume design. Apparently, Jack Lemmon really looked good in that dress. The big winner that year was Ben-Hur, meaning that the Academy thought a costume drama was better than Some Like It Hot in everything except costumes.

Special Lifetime Snub Award

And the special Lifetime Snub Award goes to . . .

Alfred Hitchcock.

In his day, Hitchcock was dismissed as an intellectual lightweight, pandering to the public in a series of shallow suspense films. The Academy was at the forefront of the anti-Hitch movement and bestowed a grand total of zero awards on three of his best films: Rear Window (1954), North By Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).

It’s true: Hitchcock gave the people what they wanted–and what they wanted were stylish, intelligent, well-made movies with strong characters and an absorbing story. Not surprisingly, Hitchcock’s movies have survived the test of time, while his more-honored contemporaries have fallen into obscurity. So when you watch this year’s Academy Awards, keep one thing in mind: today’s Oscar also-rans might prove to be tomorrow’s timeless classics.

–Mark Diller

“What’s the status of that ceasefire?”

Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will announce on Friday whether the Mahdi Army will continue to observe the unilateral ceasefire he declared last summer. Since then, violence in Iraq has decreased, even as al-Sadr has reportedly worked to improve the Mahdi Army’s image among everyday Iraqis and to assert more control over the group.

Despite those efforts, and despite his obvious influence over the recent ceasefire, al-Sadr has always insisted that the Mahdi Army isn’t simply his to command. Instead, he says, it “belongs to the Mahdi.” The Mahdi? Who’s the Mahdi?

Islam’s Redeemer

The Mahdi–Arabic for “divinely guided one”–is the redeemer who’s supposed to straighten things out at the end of time. Along with the prophet Isa, Islam’s version of Jesus, the Mahdi is supposed to usher in a golden age here on Earth, just after the defeat of the Antichrist and just before the Final Judgment. (Yes, many Muslims believe that Jesus will one day return–though their view of the Second Coming is pretty different from the Christian one.)

Belief in the messianic Mahdi is common among both Sunnis and Shi’ites. But they disagree about the particulars of his story. And that disagreement ties in with the history of the Sunni-Shi’ite split, which basically began as an argument over who should lead all Muslims after Muhammad’s death in 632.

Infallible Imams

Shi’ites believe Muhammad clearly made Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, successor. But a group of Muslim elders gathered and selected Muhammad’s father-in-law instead. For a time, Ali stayed out of the public eye, but a small community of shi’a (Arabic for “followers”) soon surrounded him and deferred to him as their imam, or guide. These shi’a eventually became the “Shi’ites,” and they developed unique ideas about the nature of Imams–and about the Mahdi, too.

In Sunni usage, an “imam” is generally just the person who leads each mosque in prayer. But for Shi’ites, the Imam is a sort of sinless saint, specially connected to God and set apart from the rest of humanity as an infallible guide. Every such Imam is directly descended from Muhammad, through Ali and his wife Fatima. According to Twelver Shi’ism (the dominant Shi’ite branch), a succession of twelve infallible Imams ended in the 9th century, when the final one, Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Hujjah, disappeared.

But he didn’t die. Rather, they say, he was concealed, or “occulted,” by God and will reappear as the Mahdi when the End Time comes. Other Shi’ite sects recognize fewer legitimate Imams, and so say different things about the Mahdi. Sunni tradition doesn’t recognize any infallible Imams, and tends to put less emphasis on the Mahdi.

Apocalypse Now?

But don’t tell any of that to Muqtada al-Sadr. The young Shi’ite cleric says the Madhi is back and America knows it. In fact, al-Sadr has repeatedly suggested that the real goal of the Iraq invasion was to capture and kill the Mahdi, on whom U.S. forces supposedly keep a detailed file. The Mahdi Army says it has to fight–to help bring Allah’s kingdom to Earth.

Not surprisingly, al-Sadr isn’t the first Muslim leader to call upon the Mahdi in a time of crisis. In fact, Mahdi-centered movements have cropped up throughout Muslim history, from the Spanish reconquest of Spain in the Middle Ages to the British invasion of Sudan in the late 19th century. But the world hasn’t ended yet.

–Steve Sampson

It used to be part of Yugoslavia. Now it wants independence from Serbia.

Kosovo declared its independence on Sunday. Depending on whom you ask, it is now either a new nation in the Balkans or a renegade province that belongs within Serbia. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France were quick to recognize Kosovo as a country. Serbia, Russia, and China were quick to deny that it’s any such thing. Clearly, it’s time for us to ask some Kosovo questions.

A provisional government handles many of Kosovo’s daily affairs (and proclaimed its independence). But the region has been under UN administration since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian security forces out. Those forces had been battling an armed revolutionary group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), since 1996.

While NATO’s bombs ended the Kosovo War, they didn’t resolve the underlying issue. Ethnic Albanians–the vast majority of Kosovo’s population–want independence from Serbia. The Serbs, however, insist that the Kosovars can’t just carve up Serbia to start their own country.

The news often says that Kosovo is “culturally important” to the Serbs. Why it that?

Eight centuries ago, Kosovo was the center of a Serbian empire–the heart of Serbia during what many Serbs consider a golden age. Ever since, the region has been home to important Serbian Orthodox religious sites, including the Decani Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Still, for most of the intervening years, Kosovo was not a part of Serbia. In 1389, the Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbs and their allies at the “Battle of Kosovo.” Serbia did not retake Kosovo from the Ottomans until 1912.

How did the heart of an old Serbian empire become a home for mainly ethnic Albanians?

During the Ottoman era, ethnic Albanians–who are mainly Muslim but not Turks–began to migrate into Kosovo. As they moved in, many ethnic Serbs moved out.

Over the years, there was a good deal of ethnic ebb and flow, especially after Serbia retook Kosovo. Yet the overall demographic trend, even after 1912, saw the local Albanian population continue to grow. Today, ethnic Albanians account for about 90 percent of Kosovo’s people.

What’s Yugoslavia got to do with it?

At the end of World War II, many ethnic Albanian Kosovars wanted to unite with Albania. Instead, a new Balkan nation, the “Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” absorbed Serbia and compelled Kosovo to remain within it as an “autonomous province.” The new nation didn’t last 50 years. In 1991, Yugoslavia began to disintegrate into its constituent republics (all the colorful states on the map above).

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo again called for separation. But they crashed headlong into a tide of Serbian nationalism. Before long, the KLA formed and went to war against Serbian forces. Serb reprisals led to charges of ethnic cleansing and to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians. Eventually, NATO intervened, and after 11 weeks of bombing, Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo.

What’s Russia got to do with it?

In addition to being a longtime ally of the Serbs, Russia is worried about the example an independent Kosovo might set for secessionists across the former Soviet Union–including the ones in Chechnya. It isn’t alone in this fear, either. Along with China, other countries facing separatist movements have also come out against Kosovo’s declaration of independence, including NATO members Spain and Greece.

Hezbollah’s base is where Lebanon meets Israel

One of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday. An early leader of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, Mughniyeh stood accused of directing a long list of terrorist attacks–including the devastating attack on the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983.

Hezbollah blamed its old enemy, Israel, for Mughniyeh’s death. Israel denied any involvement. The U.S. State Department responded unequivocally, saying “the world is a better place without this man in it.”

So, if Mughniyeh was a terrorist, then just what is the group he helped lead? We’ll tell you. Hezbollah–Arabic for “Party of God”–was born out of the Arab-Israeli conflict, in Lebanon, with help from Iran. Today, some of its members officially serve in Lebanon’s government, while others charitably serve the fractured country’s Shi’ite community. But its military wing has never laid down its arms.

Hezbollah’s Roots

In the early 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) established bases in southern Lebanon–a region bordering Israel that is occupied by large numbers of Palestinian refugees. From there, it launched operations against targets within Israel. So, in 1978 and again in 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon, intending to root out the PLO.

Israel succeeded in driving the PLO out–but at a cost. In 1979, the Islamic revolution in Iran brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. In 1982, he sent Iranian military advisors to Lebanon to help organize its Shi’ite people. As the Israeli occupation dragged on, the opposition gained strength. Ultimately, Hezbollah–a Shi’ite paramilitary organization–was founded to fight Israel and promote the goal of turning Lebanon into an Islamic republic like Iran.

Israel occupied parts of Lebanon for another 18 years, during which Hezbollah waged a violent campaign against the Israelis and their allies–a campaign that included kidnappings, hijackings, and car bombings. In 1983, Hezbollah sponsored a suicide bombing on the American embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people. That same year, a truck bomb devastated a U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, killing 241.

Not all of Hezbollah’s attacks were in Lebanon. The group sponsored two attacks, in 1992 and 1994, on Jewish targets in Argentina–bombing the Israeli embassy and killing 29, and bombing a Jewish community center and killing 85. And in July 2006, Hezbollah militants seized two Israeli soldiers in northern Israel, sparking a month-long “Lebanon War.”

Hezbollah’s Branches

Israel, the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands all call Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The United Kingdom and Australia classify Hezbollah’s “external security organization” as “terrorist.” In the Arab world, though, polls show that Hezbollah is widely viewed as a legitimate resistance group.

Its civilian wing provides a variety of social services for Lebanese Shi’ites. It publishes a newspaper and monthly magazine, operates radio and TV stations, and runs hospitals, schools, and orphanages. And since 1992, the group’s political arm has put up candidates in parliamentary elections. In 2005, the “Party of God” hit an all-time political high, winning 14 of the Lebanese parliament’s 128 seats

Baby, it’s cold outside!

Old Man Winter has hit America hard this week. Today, he even knocked out your friendly KnowledgeNews correspondent–with an ice storm that cut power for hours. Still, we’ve got no cause to complain. Earlier this week, the temperature in International Falls, Minnesota, fell to -40 degrees Fahrenheit (which is -40 degrees Celsius, too).

No question, that’s cold. But no matter how cold it gets this winter, old-timers will say it could be worse. And they’re right. It could be colder–a lot colder. It could be absolute zero, with no heat at all.

Turning Off the Heat

What we call temperature is just an easy way to measure thermal energy. Everything in the universe has thermal energy, which exists in the form of vibrations in atoms and molecules. If you add thermal energy to an object, its atoms and molecules vibrate more, and it warms up. If you remove thermal energy, its atoms and molecules vibrate less, and it gets colder.

How cold can it get? We’ll use your car as our experimental chamber (hope you don’t mind). We’ll start at a nice warm temperature, say 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius). You only need to wear a shirt and shorts, and you might even want a cold drink. Except that now, you’re starting to feel a little chill in the air. The temperature is dropping to 45 degrees F (7 degrees C). You’d better grab a coat and long pants. Don’t worry about the heat–we’ve turned that off.

Ice, Ice, Baby

A few more minutes, and we’re at 32 degrees F (0 degrees C). You need a hat and gloves, and you can see your breath in the air as the water vapor from your lungs condenses in the cold, fogging up your windshield. Another moment, and we reach 0 degrees F (-18 degrees C). Your body is shivering, using muscular energy to generate heat to keep you warm. And your cold drink has frozen solid (not that you’d want it now).

A little longer, and we’ve reached -44 degrees F (-42 degrees C). Time to switch to the Kelvin scale, where it’s a balmy 231. Regular thermometers don’t work anymore–their mercury has frozen solid. You’ve probably never felt cold like this. You’re numb, and your extremities are frostbitten. As the temperature drops further, substances that were once pliable become brittle. Your leather seat begins to crack and crumble under your weight, and a rubber tire wouldn’t bounce on the floor–it would shatter.

Your Last Drink of Air

Our next stop is 184 K (-129 degrees F or -89 degrees C), the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth. Now things really get strange. The air itself starts to condense. First, carbon dioxide condenses, forming tiny frost-like crystals. Then, at around 90 K (-298 degrees F or -183 degrees C), oxygen condenses. Pretty soon, the air that once filled your car is a pool of liquid on the floor. But don’t worry about that. You’re no longer breathing anyway. Even the warmest parka in the world couldn’t save you at this temperature.

There is some good news, though. Your car’s electric system just improved. Usually, even really conductive materials like copper wire lose energy because of electrical resistance. But at about 133 K (-220 degrees F or -140 degrees C), as vibrating molecules slow down, certain metal-oxide ceramics lose their resistance, becoming superconductive. At even lower temperatures, metals like lead and tin become superconductive, too.

Eventually, the inside of your car reaches the temperature of the darkest parts of space: about 3 K (-454 degrees F or -270 degrees C). This is as cold as the universe gets. There’s just enough ambient thermal energy bouncing around to keep us from ever shedding those last three degrees. Naturally, at least. In the lab, scientists have managed to drop the temperature below 3 K–down to just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero (0 K or -460 degrees F).

–Christopher Call

http://www.mediafire.com/?8wiytzy2wwb

Judah Ben-Hur knew which sport was super

Tens of millions of viewers tuned in last night to watch the Super Bowl–the biggest “big game” on America’s sports calendar. Amid all the bone-crushing competition and superfluous spectacle, we couldn’t help but think about the most brutal and popular game in ancient Rome.

If you’re thinking gladiatorial contests, we have a surprise for you. Yes, the gladiators were popular, but the real action was down the road–in the Circus Maximus. That’s right. The Romans’ biggest “big game” was chariot racing.

ast Times at the CircusRoman chariots raced on tracks called “circuses” (because of their oval shape). The greatest of these, the Circus Maximus, started out simply as a flat space between two hills on which spectators sat. Eventually, it was ringed with bleachers–first of wood, then of stone. Admission was free, and there were seats for as many as 250,000 people. By comparison, the Colosseum sat no more than 50,000.

Most races featured quadriga teams–four horses yoked to each chariot. Up to twelve chariots per race took off from an elaborate starting gate, then sped along a sandy track. The chariots were lightly constructed of wood and, with four horses pulling together, they moved like lightning. But there were seven laps in a race (totaling three or four miles), and the corners were tight, so drivers had to rein their teams just right if they hoped to win–or even live to race another day.

Death Before Defeat

High-ranking Romans weren’t allowed to race in the Circus, so drivers tended to be low born–most were former slaves. With a cash purse riding on every contest, chariot racing was a way for talented men to make a lot of money and climb the social ladder.

Chasing wealth and glory, drivers often threw caution to the horse-sped wind. They wore helmets and wrapped leather around their chests for safety. But they also tied the reins around their waists to free their hands, and that could spell trouble. If a chariot capsized and a driver found himself dragged behind his team, his only chance was to cut the reins with a special curved dagger he wore for that purpose.

With so many teams taking tight turns at high speeds, it wasn’t unusual to see a driver get hurt. The Roman poet Martial wrote a verse in honor of the charioteer Scorpus, who won more than 2,000 races. His career ended abruptly when he took a turn too fast, flipped his chariot, and died.

Curse You, Ben-Hur!

Now, what could make chariot racing even more thrilling? Try team rivalries. Every chariot driver in the Circus Maximus belonged to one of four stables, known by their colors: red, green, white, and blue. Each stable had a star driver, and his teammates worked hard to make sure he won.

Fans identified strongly with favorite teams, and did what they could to cheer its star to victory (or heckle a hated rival to defeat). Archaeologists have even found ancient curse tablets in which fans tried to sabotage their favorite team’s rivals by means of the dark arts.

With so much passion invested in the sport, it’s no wonder that politicians found a way to exploit it. The famous phrase “bread and circuses” refers to the Roman method of distracting disaffected folk with free food and spectacular races at public expense. Better to pay for racing than put down revolt.