10 of the world's biggest unsolved mysteries

Source: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/photos/10-of-the-worlds-biggest-unsolved-mysteries/voynich-manuscript

1. Voynich Manuscript

Named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912, the Voynich Manuscript is a detailed 240-page book written in a language or script that is completely unknown. Its pages are also filled with colorful drawings of strange diagrams, odd events and plants that do not seem to match any known species, adding to the intrigue of the document and the difficulty of deciphering it. The original author of the manuscript remains unknown, but carbon dating has revealed that its pages were made sometime between 1404 and 1438. It has been called "the world's most mysterious manuscript."

Theories abound about the origin and nature of the manuscript. Some believe it was meant to be a pharmacopoeia, to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine. Many of the pictures of herbs and plants hint that it many have been some kind of textbook for an alchemist. The fact that many diagrams appear to be of astronomical origin, combined with the unidentifiable biological drawings, has even led some fanciful theorists to propose that the book may have an alien origin.

One thing most theorists agree on is that the book is unlikely to be a hoax, given the amount of time, money and detail that would have been required to make it.

2. Kryptos

Kryptos is a mysterious encrypted sculpture designed by artist Jim Sanborn which sits right outside the headquarters of the CIA in Langley, Va. It's so mysterious, in fact, that not even the CIA has completely cracked the code.

The sculpture contains four inscriptions, and although three of them have been cracked, the fourth remains elusive (Read what the first three inscriptions say here). In 2006 Sanborn let slip that there are clues in the first inscriptions to the last one, and in 2010 he released another clue: the Letters 64-69 NYPVTT in part 4 encode the text BERLIN.

Think you have what it takes to solve it?

3. Beale Ciphers

The Beale Ciphers are a set of three ciphertexts that supposedly reveal the location of one of the grandest buried treasures in U.S. history: thousands of pounds of gold, silver and jewels. The treasure was originally obtained by a mysterious man named Thomas Jefferson Beale in 1818 while prospecting in Colorado.

Of the three ciphertexts, only the second one has been cracked. Interestingly, the U.S. Declaration of Independence turned out to be the key — a curious fact given that Beale shares his name with the author of the Declaration of Independence.

The cracked text does reveal the county where the treasure was buried: Bedford County, Va., but its exact location is likely encrypted in one of the other uncracked ciphers. To this day, treasure hunters scour the Bedford County hillsides digging (often illegally) for the loot.

4. Phaistos Disc

The mystery of the Phaistos Disc is a story that sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Discovered by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, the disc is made of fired clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphics. It is believed that it was designed sometime in the second millennium BC.

Some scholars believe that the hieroglyphs resemble symbols of Linear A and Linear B, scripts once used in ancient Crete. The only problem? Linear A also eludes decipherment.

Today the disc remains one of the most famous puzzles of archaeology.

5. Shugborough inscription

Look from afar at the 18th-century Shepherd's Monument in Staffordshire, England, and you might take it as nothing more than a sculpted re-creation of Nicolas Poussin's famous painting, “Arcadian Shepherds.” Look closer, though, and you'll notice a curious sequence of letters: DOUOSVAVVM — a code that has eluded decipherment for over 250 years.

Though the identity of the code carver remains a mystery, some have speculated that the code could be a clue left behind by the Knights of Templar about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.

Many of the world's greatest minds have tried to crack the code and failed, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.

6. Tamam Shud case

Considered to be one of Australia's most profound mysteries, the Tamam Shud Case revolves around an unidentified man found dead in December 1948 on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia. Aside from the fact that the man could never be identified, the mystery deepened after a tiny piece of paper with the words "Tamam Shud" was found in a hidden pocket sewn within the dead man's trousers. (It is also referred to as "Taman Shud.")

The phrase translates as "ended" or "finished" and is a phrase used on the last page of a collection of poems called “The Rubaiyat” of Omar Khayyam. Adding to the mystery, a copy of Khayyam's collection was later found that contained a scribbled code in it believed to have been left by the dead man himself.

Due to the content of the Khayyam poem, many have come to believe that the message may represent a suicide note of sorts, but it remains uncracked, as does the case.

7. The Wow! Signal

One summer night in 1977, Jerry Ehman, a volunteer for SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, may have become the first man ever to receive an intentional message from an alien world. Ehman was scanning radio waves from deep space, hoping to randomly come across a signal that bore the hallmarks of one that might be sent by intelligent aliens, when he saw his measurements spike.

The signal lasted for 72 seconds, the longest period of time it could possibly be measured by the array that Ehman was using. It was loud and appeared to have been transmitted from a place no human has gone before: in the constellation Sagittarius near a star called Tau Sagittarii, 120 light-years away.

Ehman wrote the words "Wow!" on the original printout of the signal, thus its title as the "Wow! Signal."

All attempts to locate the signal again have failed, leading to much controversy and mystery about its origins and its meaning.

 8. Zodiac letters

The Zodiac letters are a series of four encrypted messages believed to have been written by the famous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized residents of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The letters were likely written as a way to taunt journalists and police, and though one of the messages has been deciphered, the three others remain uncracked.

The identity of the Zodiac Killer also remains a mystery, though no Zodiac murders have been identified since 1970.

9. Georgia Guidestones

The Georgia Guidestones, sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge," is a granite monument erected in Elbert County, Ga., in 1979. The stones are engraved in eight languages — English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian — each relaying 10 "new" commandments for "an Age of Reason." The stones also line up with certain astronomical features.

Though the monument contains no encrypted messages, its purpose and origin remain shrouded in mystery. They were commissioned by a man who has yet to be properly identified, who went by the pseudonym of R.C. Christian.

Of the 10 commandments, the first one is perhaps the most controversial: "Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature." Many have taken it to be a license to cull the human population down to the specified number, and critics of the stones have called for them to be destroyed. Some conspiracy theorists even believe they may have been designed by a "Luciferian secret society" calling for a new world order.



10. Rongorongo

Rongorongo is a system of mysterious glyphs discovered written on various artifacts on Easter Island. Many believe they represent a lost system of writing or proto-writing and could be one of just three or four independent inventions of writing in human history.

The glyphs remain undecipherable, and their true messages — which some believe could offer hints about the perplexing collapse of the statue-building Easter Island civilization — may be lost forever.

On what makes a person awesome

Suppose you're applying for a job. Suppose it’s not just a regular job but something you really want. Suppose in order to get the job, you have to convince the company that you’re awesome. How will you do it?

I’d been dwelling on this thought for some time now. There is a job out there that requires a video of applicants talking about themselves and what makes them awesome. It is a great challenge. I think it's purpose is to determine if applicants will be able to sell themselves. I understood it as: "if you can sell your flaws and make yourself the perfect package despite those flaws, then it’s a good reflection that you can sell anything."

I have trouble selling myself. I find it difficult to sell myself without bragging or sounding cocky. Others may have executed theirs and were still able to sound nice but looking at the many clips I prepared, I puked at the thought of it ever coming out.

You see, I was raised by conservative parents that value humility and respect. I was raised thinking that whatever makes me special is unique to me and just because I have attributes that cannot be found on others don’t necessarily mean I’m a much better person. It just so happen that my forte is different, period.

I admit that after a few days of self-reflection, I managed to come up with a video that is a little haphazard to my taste. It’s not my best work but what I liked about it is that I didn’t sound cocky. Maybe it has something to do that I said very little and let the music and text to do the talking. I didn’t entirely answer the part of what makes me awesome in the video. I have photos of me doing numerous tasks under the passion part of the video but other than that, I should have sell myself more and expounded more – and I should have sold them humility and my other values that I think make me awesome.

Yes.  Perhaps, I should have done that.

Perhaps, I should have pointed out that sometimes, it’s not just the technical skills or a person’s passion or interests that make them awesome.

Sometimes, to be awesome, one only needs to stick true to what s/he believes.  At least for me, that is awesome enough.  And perhaps, it might have been good enough for them as well.

One cold Sunday morning

When I was in elementary, I got into an accident. It was a cold Sunday morning and I just attended the worship service a couple of hours earlier. My mom was three or four months pregnant at that time. She reminded me not to do anything stupid. But she was at home, I was with my friends. We went to a park to play basketball.

We did silly children stuffs. The one I did was the most cowardly but the stupidest. I stood on this giant platform where the scoreboard was. From it, I jumped and I fell lying on the ground. The whole platform followed me and a part of the platform landed on my leg. It broke my femur. It was the first time I knew what it was to lose consciousness.

Prior to losing consciousness, I tried standing up smiling while everyone rushed to help me. I successfully stood up but the pain jolted to every part of my body and I fell down back to the ground.

Because we don't have medical insurance, I was taken to our town's version of a chiropractor/medicinal doctor. He was our neighbor. I begged not to be taken home, I was more afraid of getting beaten by my father than the throbbing pain in my leg. It was days later than I learned that someone scooped me up. He was a nutcase who happened to know my father.  He got me into a motorcycle with his buddy and they drove me home.

I awoke and was conscious the whole time I was being diagnosed. I thought the whole town was in my neighbor's living room. I was a spectacle, the hard-headed son of the village's kindest woman. My mother was all tears while my father was nowhere to be found. I was glad he wasn't there. I worried for my mother though. The stress would have its toll on the baby. I tried telling her I'm okay but my mom wouldn't hear anything I would have to say.

Lolo Telyong, the chiro neighbor, told my mother that my femur was broken. It was a clean cut but it did not guarantee that the bone would heal. He can certainly try but recommended that I be taken to a doctor. He knew though that the cost would be too much for my parents to afford. So it was all up to him.

I stayed at his home for more than two months. For a cast, Lolo Telyong used two pieces of hard cardboard. Instead of medicines, he used plant leaves. He aligned the bones first. Fixing the bones and aligning them is like having your insides taken one by one without anesthesia (I assumed that would be excruciatingly painful). Back then, I wished I were dead. I screamed and begged and cried but the pain only got worst.

The first two weeks were tormenting. My thigh had swollen so red and huge that any small movement caused unbearable pain.

Every day, for the next six weeks, Lolo Telyong reminded me that I may not be able to walk but that everything was still up to me. He said I was young and the bones would heal but the pain would be remembered not by me but by my body and that is something that I have to overcome.

I missed school. But as per my teacher, I've earned enough credits to pass to the next grade. For the next six weeks, I remained bedridden. Every night, I prayed. Every night, I wished. Every night, I imagined the future. I saw myself walking with crutches and it scared the hell out of me.

After two months, the redness and the swelling subsided. The pain became bearable. Lolo Telyong encouraged me to try walking. I was too scared to fall and break my leg again.

Then one day, he brought a pair of crutches. He wanted me to try them and see if its height is good enough for me. It hit me hard. I can't live my whole life walking on crutches.

So every day, while everyone was away, I forced myself to walk. I used chairs and tables as my guide. I never used the crutches. They are a painful reminder of what my possible future would be. I didn't ask for anyone's help and I strived hard to learn to walk on my own.

The next school opening, I enrolled myself to Grade 4 (equivalent of K6 or K7). I was walking crutches free. I also stopped asking help from my parents and began figuring things out on my own. I've learned that the mind is a powerful tool. I've learned that hope is a great thing. I also learned that growing up is not a matter of age and so is taking responsibility.

I also realized that our past, even if they are accidents, is a big factor of how we become in our futures.

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