Long-eared owl chicks sit on a spruce branch in a park near St Petersburg, Russia on March 3, 2025. (Photo by Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A devotee participates in Bonalu festival in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, June 22, 2023. Bonalu is a month-long Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Beatriz Hatz of the United States competes in the women's T62 long jump final during the 2020 Paralympics at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Saturday, August 28, 2021. (Photo by Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)

“The Tibetan Mastiff also known as Do-khyi (variously translated as “home guard”, “door guard”, “dog which may be tied”, “dog which may be kept”), reflects its use as a guardian of herds, flocks, tents, villages, monasteries, and palaces, much as the old English ban-dog (also meaning tied dog) was a dog tied outside the home as a guardian. However, in nomad camps and in villages, the Do-khyi is traditionally allowed to run loose at night and woe be unto the stranger who walks abroad after dark”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man displays a Tibetan Mastiff he raised during the Tibetan Mastiff exposition on April 7, 2007 in Langfang of Hebei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

If we were to burn NH4Cr2O7 with HgSCN in the Dark Ages in Europe and show it to anyone, it is us who would be burning next on a fiery cross of Inquisition. And it’s no wonder, since this experiment produces a truly marvelous result. At first, as you ignite the mixture of NH4Cr2O7 and HgSCN, all you can see is that it is slowly burning with a reddish flame. After a while, however, a crater is formed in the middle of the burning pile, and then, suddenly, tentacle-like appendages start sprouting from the burning mixture. And you can almost hear the scream of the mad occultist – “Come forth, Kraken! Come forth!” But of course, this is simply a chemical reaction that is called the "Pharoah's Serpent". It was also often sold in firework stores until people realized that it was toxic.

A general view of Stonehenge during the annual Perseid meteor shower in the night sky in Salisbury Plain, southern England August 13, 2013. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure. (Photo by Kieran Doherty/Reuters)

American free climber Dean Potter walks on a 41-meter-long and two-centimeter-wide slackline over Enshi Grand Canyon at an altitude of 1,800m on April 22, 2012 in Enshi, Hubei Province of China. Potter successfully finished the lone slackline walk in about three minutes without taking any protective measures. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress)