Early U.S. bank notes found in mint condition in a banker's drawer to sell for 1,700 times their face value

In the late 1800s $3,500 was equivalent to about $80,000 in today's money.

Dustin Johnston, director of rare currency at Heritage Auctions, said: ‘This 1882 $500 gold certificate is one of the earliest gold certificates printed.

‘They were very strictly controlled and were printed in very low quantities so survivors are few and far between.

‘The only other one in the world is in the Smithsonian museum as part of the Federal Reserve collection.

‘It is so historically valuable that I would say it is one of the top 10 greatest currency notes of all time.

‘Amazingly it has come from the estate of a deceased turn-of-the-century US banker along with three very scarce $1,000 notes.

‘It is very interesting that they were kept for that long. In 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt outlawed the possession of gold to combat the depression he also demonetized gold certificates. It was the first time the US had taken currency and made it worthless. 

‘It had to have been a complete oversight of the banker that owned these notes to sit on them during the recession.

‘$3,500 was a tremendous amount money back - the average salary was about $2,500.
‘We can only guess the banker forgot about the notes because they were only discovered much later by the banker's family in a drawer.

‘It is an absolute trophy find. Maybe once in a generation a note of this magnitude shows up - and four turned up all at once.

‘The odds of survival are so low we didn't ever expect to see these notes again - we thought they were gone for good.

‘These notes are so sought after they could well go beyond our estimates.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531235/Early-U-S-bank-notes-mint-condition-bankers-drawer-sell-1-700-times-face-value.html#ixzz2ozGReIz7 

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Research: How rocks move when no one is watching

At Racetrack Playa in the Death Valley National Park, California, strange forces are at work. Forces capable of pushing heavy rocks across the flat surface of a dried-out lake while no one is looking. 

Scientists have scratched their heads over the trails left by these sliding stones since early in the 20th Century. In the 1960s, Californian geologists started a rock monitoring programme. 

They tracked 30 stones, weighing up to 25kg, 28 of which moved during a seven-year period - some more than 200m. Analysis of the stones’ trails suggested speeds of 1m per second. In most cases, the stones travelled in winter. In the decades that followed, theories about ice and wind gained support. Others involved algal slime and seismic vibrations.

So what’s happening? Are the stones sliding around in bad weather? 'We think so,' says Dr Gunther Kletetschka, of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic and Charles University in Prague, who led a 2013 study on the stones.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2528351/From-Costa-Ricas-great-balls-wandering-rocks-Death-Valley-The-10-natural-phenomenon-modern-science-explain.html#ixzz2oJW0lj00 

Vast Freshwater Reserves Found Beneath the Oceans

Scientists have discovered huge reserves of freshwater beneath the oceans kilometres out to sea, providing new opportunities to stave off a looming global water crisis.

A new study, published December 5 in the international scientific journal Nature, reveals that an estimated half a million cubic kilometres of low-salinity water are buried beneath the seabed on continental shelves around the world.

The water, which could perhaps be used to eke out supplies to the world's burgeoning coastal cities, has been located off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.

"The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900," says lead author Dr Vincent Post (pictured) of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and the School of the Environment at Flinders University.

"Knowing about these reserves is great news because this volume of water could sustain some regions for decades."

Dr Post says that groundwater scientists knew of freshwater under the seafloor, but thought it only occurred under rare and special conditions.

"Our research shows that fresh and brackish aquifers below the seabed are actually quite a common phenomenon," he says.

These reserves were formed over the past hundreds of thousands of years when on average the sea level was much lower than it is today, and when the coastline was further out, Dr Post explains.
"So when it rained, the water would infiltrate into the ground and fill up the water table in areas that are nowadays under the sea.

"It happened all around the world, and when the sea level rose when ice caps started melting some 20,000 years ago, these areas were covered by the ocean.

"Many aquifers were -- and are still -- protected from seawater by layers of clay and sediment that sit on top of them."

The aquifers are similar to the ones below land, which much of the world relies on for drinking water, and their salinity is low enough for them to be turned into potable water, Dr Post says.
"There are two ways to access this water -- build a platform out at sea and drill into the seabed, or drill from the mainland or islands close to the aquifers."

read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131208085304.htm

Study: Experiencing hardship is GOOD for you: People who have pulled through hard times are happier in the long-run

The most painful experiences in life may come with an eventual upside, by promoting the ability to appreciate life’s small pleasures, scientists have said.

A new study suggests that people who have gone through divorce and coped with the death of a loved one, are better equipped to enjoy the little things in everyday life in the long-run.

A total of 14,986 adults were studied to see whether their exposure to life’s hardships affected their ability to enjoy positive experiences.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia and Barcelona School of Management, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, first determined participants’ exposure to painful experiences, including bereavement and divorce.

Individuals were asked to indicate whether they had experienced these events and, if so, to specify whether they felt they had emotionally dealt with the negative event or were still struggling with it.
They then presented the adults with six positive scenarios, which included going on a hike or looking at a waterfall, to see how if their past disrupted their enjoyment of present pleasures.

The study, which was published in the Social Psychological and Personality Science journal, found people who have previously dealt with pain are more able to enjoy transient pleasures.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2520698/Experiencing-hardship-GOOD-People-pulled-hard-times-happier-long-run.html#ixzz2mzepPQG7