Eye on the World

You don't see this every day -- Los Angeles was enveloped on Tuesday by a blob that oozed out of the ground:

"dozens of firefighters worked throughout the day to identify what was first deemed 'a black tarry substance' and later morphed into a 'watery mud.' ... there was a gooey substance, a tarry-type substance, coming out the underground electrical vaults, out of manhole covers in the street, through the sidewalks and possibly in one older apartment building ... Sidewalks were as hot as Jacuzzis. And a pressurized liquid shot from every street orifice"

-- http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3529716

After extensive testing, it is an unknown substance of unknown origin.

Sounds like the tar pits are returning. The Los Angeles types may be going the way of the dinosaur before long.

Did Admiral Zheng He circumnavigate the world 100 years before Magellan even started his voyage in 1519?

A controversial book published in 2003, 1421 The Year China Discovered the World, claims he did. There has even been talk that Columbus and other European explorers used Chinese maps of the world to plan their voyages, although none of those maps have ever been found.

Until now.

Here is the mysterious world map: Old Chinese Map of the World

This is a good article about it: Old map found in a Shanghai shop may rewrite history's voyages of discovery