MFS - Strange But True - Places 17

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The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune.
The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, a former charitable almshouse of the XVth century that is now a museum, is located in Beaune in Burgundy.
The Hospices de Beaune is a charitable institution in Beaune, France. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, as a hospital for the poor and needy. The original hospital building, the Hôtel-Dieu, one of the finest examples of French fifteenth-century architecture, is now a museum visited by more the 400'000 tourists every year. Services for patients are now provided in modern hospital buildings.
An important charity wine auction is held in November each year (formerly in the great hall of the Hôtel-Dieu).The hospice possesses many artistic treasures, among them the mural paintings of the 17th century in the Salle St Hugues and an altarpiece, the Last Judgment, painted by Rogier van der Weyden.
Read more about this remarkable place on MFS,with 2 videoclips.

MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 20

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The Turtle ship a.k.a. Geobukseon or Kobukson.

The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon or Kobukson, was a type of large warship belonging to the Panokseon class in Korea that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon Dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century.
The first references to older, first generation turtle ships, known as Gwiseon , come from 1413 and 1415 records in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which mention a mock battle between a gwiseon and a Japanese warship. However, these early turtle ships soon fell out of use as Korea’s naval preparedness decreased during a long period of relative peace.
Turtle ships participated in numerous victories against Japanese naval forces that supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempts to conquer Korea from 1592-1598, inflicting heavy losses. However, their historical role may have been exaggerated since "the entire Korean fleet probably did not have more than half a dozen turtleboats in action at any one time". Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin is credited with designing the ship while one of his lieutenants, Na Dae Yong, was in charge of building it. His turtle ships were equipped with at least five different types of cannon. Their most distinguishable feature was a fully covered deck that was shielded to deflect cannon fire, and with iron spikes to discourage enemy men from attempting to board the ship.Read more about these vessels on MFS,with 3 videoclips.

MFS - Strange But True - Creatures / Animals 14

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The narwhal .
The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. One of two species of whale in the Monodontidae family, along with the Beluga whale, the narwhal males are distinguished by a characteristic long, straight, helical tusk extending from their upper left jaw. Found primarily in Canadian Arctic and Greenlandic waters rarely south of 65°N latitude, the narwhal is a uniquely specialized Arctic predator. In the winter, it feeds on benthic prey, mostly flatfish, at depths of up to 1500 m under dense pack ice. Narwhal have been harvested for over a thousand years by Inuit people in Northern Canada and Greenland for meat and ivory and a regulated subsistence hunt continues to this day. While populations appear stable, the narwhal has been deemed particularly vulnerable to climate change due to a narrow geographical range and specialized diet.Read more about them on MFS,with 3 videoclips.

MFS - Strange But True - Creatures / Animals 14

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The Dumbo Octopus.
The octopuses of the genus Grimpoteuthis are also known as "Dumbo octopuses" from the ear-like fins protruding from the top of their head-like bodies, resembling the ears of Walt Disney's flying elephant. They are bathyal creatures, living at extreme depths: 3000-4000 meters, and are some of the rarest of the Octopoda species. There are fourteen types of Grimpoteuthis and little is known about most of them. Members of the species are found in both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
They can flush the transparent layer of their skin at will, and are pelagic animals, as with all other cirrate octopuses.
They hover above the sea floor, searching for worms, bivalves, pelagic copepods, and other crustaceans. They move by pulsing their arms, shooting water through their funnel, or by waving their ear-like fins. They can use each of these techniques separately or all simultaneously. The males and females are different in their size and sucker patterns. The females lay eggs consistently, with no distinct breeding season.Also they are without enlarged sucker fields on the arms of males.Read more aboutthem on MFS,with 1 videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 19

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The SS America.
The SS America was an ocean liner built in 1940 for the United States Lines and designed by the noted naval architect William Francis Gibbs. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SS America (carrying this name three different times during her career), the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the SS Italis, the SS Noga, the SS Alferdoss, and the SS American Star. She served most notably in passenger service as the SS America, and as the Greek-flagged SS Australis for Chandris. In 1941, she carried two Nazi spies from the Duquesne Spy Ring in her crew: Erwin Wilhelm Siegler and Franz Joseph Stigler. Both men were charged by the FBI with espionage and sentenced to 10 years and 16 years' imprisonment, respectively.Read more about her fantastic life on MFS,with videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - Creatures / Animals 4

The owner holding the new 2010 largest horse in the world Big Jake.

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - Creatures / Animals 4.
Big Jake the largest horse in the World,read more about him on MFS.

MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 17

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 17.
The technique of Chinese Foot Binding.Warning : content contains graffic images wich some viewers may find offensive.
Foot binding (simplified Chinese: 缠足; traditional Chinese: 纏足; pinyin: chánzú, literally "bound feet") was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.
Foot-binding resulted in lifelong disabilities for most of its victims, though as the practice waned in the early 20th century, according to a study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, "some girls' feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities." However, some effects of foot-binding were permanent, especially if a girl's arches or toes had been broken or other drastic measures taken in order to achieve the desired smallness. In the 1990s and early 2000s, some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.Read more about it on MFS,with 1 videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - Places 16

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The Mount Roraima.

Mount Roraima (also known as Roraima Tepui or Cerro Roraima in Spanish, and Monte Roraima in Portuguese), is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepui plateau in South America. First described by the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596, its 31 km² summit area is defended by 400 metre (1,300 ft) tall cliffs on all sides. The mountain includes the triple border point of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.

Mount Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000 km² Canaima National Park forming the highest peak of Guyana's Highland Range. The tabletop mountains of the park are considered some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back to some two billion years ago in the Precambrian Era.
The highest point in Guyana and the highest point of the Brazilian state of Roraima both lie on the plateau, but Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains. The triple border point is at 5°12'08N, 60°44'07W, but the mountain's highest point is Maverick Rock, 2,810 m, at the south end of the plateau and wholly within Venezuela.Read more about this place on MFS,with 1 videoclip narrated by Sir David Attenborough.