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Nowadays, Bloody Sunday refers to an incident in 1972 when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Northern Ireland. But before this, Bloody Sunday chiefly referred to the riot of January 22, 1905, that acted as one of the triggers of the Russian Revolution. With the serf emancipation of 1861 came a new working class that was part of Russia’s industrialization. After abuse in the form of dangerous working conditions, long hours, and low wages, the new working class went on strike. On January 22, they staged a massive protest with anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 participants, depending on the source. It was meant to be a peaceful demonstration—protesters would march on the Tsar’s Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and deliver their petition. However, the army opened fire without provocation and killed between 100 (official sources) and 4,000 people (anti-government sources). Among the victims was the leader of the movement, father Georgy Gapon. As a direct r...

All gemstones are rare; some are just harder to find than others. In fact, there is no consensus on what is the rarest mineral or the rarest gemstone because there is no consensus on the definition of "rarity," according to the Gemological Institute of America. However, many of the stones in this series come from only one or two localities in the entire world, so in that sense, they are scarce. Pink Star Diamond In the image above, model Annabeth Murphy-Thomas poses with the Pink Star diamond at Sotheby's auction house in central London. The diamond was put up for auction in Geneva on Nov. 13, 2013, at $60 million, an already record price for a gemstone, and sold for $83 million. Diamond cutter Isaac Wolf of New York purchased the Pink Star diamond ring, and renamed it the Pink Dream. The diamond measures 1.06 inches by 0.81 inches (2.69cm by 2.06cm). You might already know that the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But you might be surprised t...

It dont mean a thing if it aint got that swing, Rex Lewis-Clack croons, his head joyfully bobbing in time with the Duke Ellington standard. The 20-year-old musician accompanies himself on a grand piano, deftly striking the keys with a dexterity reminiscent of the Duke himself. Then he segues into an exquisitely executed rendition of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu. Lewis-Clack has the sweet-faced, blonde good looks of a teen heartthrob. But the haunting melody that seems to flow from his fingertips is masterful. It fills the high-ceilinged living room of the Los Angeles beachfront condo he shares with his mother, Cathleen Lewis. After the last strains echo through the apartment, he rocks back and forth on the piano bench and flaps his hands in excitement, seemingly elated, and flashes a wide, triumphant smile. This cherubic young man was born blind, due to a congenital condition called septo-optic dysplasia. He had serious cognitive disabilities as a child, and severe s...

In the wake of David Bowie’s death, his last album, “Blackstar”, is his swan song, an enigmatic conclusion to a career punctuated by otherworldly alter-egos and esoteric symbolism. We’ll look at the meaning of “Blackstar” in the context of David Bowie’s career. Very few artists can boast the longevity of David Bowie in the music industry, as his career spanned over five decades and produced 28 albums. Throughout the decades, Bowie migrated from one musical genre to another, and even from one persona to another, but a constant remained: He was surrounded by an otherworldly aura. Through his work, Bowie turned himself into a musical ‘ascended master’, a Gnostic Christ-like figure who achieved a high level of illumination and who sought to communicate a cryptic message to humanity. While many of Bowie’s eccentricities could be attributed to drugs and rock and roll, one cannot paint a complete picture of this artist without mentioning his most endurin...

Using radio-echo sounding data researchers are exploring one of the most enigmatic continents on our planet. While nearly every single day, we have the pleasure to receive images from other planets and moons thanks to our spacecraft and satellites exploring the cosmos, there are perhaps the equal amount of mysteries still here on Earth. While many believe we have already explored everything here on our planet, the truth is that we still have very little knowledge about our planet and everything located on it. According to experts investigating the frozen continent, the landscape that lies hidden beneath thick layers of ice was carved out by water in the distant past. Researchers suggest that the landscape is in fact so ancient, that it probably existed before the Antarctic ice sheet covered the area. According to a new study on Antarctica, there is a vast canyon system that lies beneath the ice present in East Antarctica. When researchers confirm this discovery, the froze...

For the first time, scientists have spotted large patches of water ice on the surface of a comet, thanks to instruments aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter. The finding, published Wednesday in Nature, solves a long-standing mystery about water ice in comets. Scientists already knew that the coma "the expansive cloud of gas surrounding the comet's nucleus" is dominated by water molecules. They also knew that water ice is one of the main components of the nucleus. But until now, traces of water ice on the surface of the comet had been difficult to detect. "First, not finding ice was a surprise; now, finding it is a surprise," said Murthy Gudipati a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge and an author on the paper. "It is exciting because now we are starting to understand the upper dynamic layers of the comet and how they evolved." The surface of comet 67P, like most comets, is primari...

Unique Olivia Farnsworth stunned medics when they discovered she has a rare chromosome condition stopping her from feeling hunger, fatigue or pain. It is thought she could be the only person in the world to exhibit the three symptoms together. When she was diagnosed, the consultant geneticist told mum Niki Trepak, 32, she had never seen the disorder before which allows the youngster to go THREE DAYS without sleeping. Olivia's mum knew her daughter was different from around nine months Little Olivia's condition is described as chromosome 6 deletion but the mix of super-human abilities has never been reported before. People with chromosome disorders suffer from missing or re-arranged genetic material - one common disorder being Down’s Syndrome. Mum-of-five Ms Trepak, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, said: "Doctors have called her the bionic girl, she's made of steel. She's got no sense of danger. "She was dragged about 10 car lengths down the road...