Theres something uniquely appealing about the prospect of a lost city at the bottom of the sea. We know nearly as much about the moon as we do the depths of our own oceans, and tall tales about the kraken and sea monsters survive because we dont know enough to fully disprove them.

But you neednt rely on your imagination for the mysteries of the deep, because theres enough reality beneath the waves to boggle most minds. These submerged settlements arent Atlantis, but they might as well be

1. Port Royal, Jamaica

Once nicknamed the Sodom of the New World, Port Royal was as close as there has ever been to a genuine pirate city. Awash with privateers and prostitutes and an infamously potent strain of rum the citys reputation for wickedness was known throughout the Caribbean, and notorious buccaneer Henry Morgan called Port Royal his home.

The debauchery continued unchecked until 1692, when, as if by divine justice, an earthquake levelled the city, plunging its brothels and taverns beneath the waves. Today Port Royal is one of the worlds most important underwater sites, and the ruins have sat undisturbed for centuries beneath the sea.

2. The Sunken City of Baia, Italy

Another famous den of hedonism, Baia was a playground for urban aristocrats in ancient Roman times. The city was described by philosopher Seneca as a harbour of vice, and entertained its clientele with free-flowing alcohol, limitless beach parties, and venues devoted to earthly pleasures, all with the understanding that the scandal would never reach Rome.

Eventually the city went the same way as Port Royal, though its fate was much less abrupt. Volcanic activity deep below ground saw the lower part of the city sink into the sea, and today divers can peruse crumbling columns, intricate statues, and elegant mosaics.

3. Reschensee, Italy(iStock/PA)

Reschensee differs from our other entrants in two important ways first, it was submerged deliberately, and second, its around 200 kilometres inland.

Known as the Atlantis of the Mountains, the Italian village of Reschen was flooded in 1950 to unify three lakes behind a large dam, despite the protestations of residents. Today only the church steeple remains, proudly protruding from the water like it was the most normal thing in the world. In winter the lake freezes over, and visitors can walk right up to the spire.

4. Ancient Alexandria, Egypt

Once one of the gems of civilisation, complete with a library said to contain hundreds of thousands of scrolls, the city founded by Alexander the Great remains one of the largest in North Africa, but its archaeological treasures were long thought lost to time.

In the last few decades wet-suited researchers have proved otherwise by meticulously probing the harbour floor. Since mapping began in the early-Nineties scientists have tagged dozens of columns, more than 30 sphinxes and five obelisks, as well as the submerged sister city of Heracleion. Best of all, French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered a submerged palace with marble floors, which may well once have housed Cleopatra.

5. Pavlopetri, Greece

Pavlopetri is not among the worlds most visually impressive sites, but thats because its very, veryvery old. Dating back 5,000 years, this Mycenaean, Minoan, and late Bronze Age settlement is thought to have decayed beneath the waves since around 1000BC, and was only rediscovered in 1967.

Though heavily eroded, the town layout is exactly as it was, and researchers are using it as a guinea pig for 3D modelling techniques that should yield a digital reconstruction.

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5 extraordinary submerged sites that will make you believe Atlantis is real - BreakingNews.ie

Stans have broken the internet at the singers disco-infused new drop.

The morale has been low. Spirits have been dampened. And dancefloors have remained bitterly empty and untrampled. But beloved queen Kylie Minogue is here to remind us that a time is coming a time of hedonism and body-shaking debauchery a less socially distanced future, when we will dance blissfully until the AM again.

Yes, Kylie has returned, and we have been blessed with a new album DISCO, which she put finishing touches to during lockdown slated for a 6 November release as well as pulsating lead track Say Something, out today. In honour of the new release, Kylie also joined TikTok. Our hearts!

There is no music video in sight yet, but we wait, entranced and not so patiently. The internet has obviously lost its mind at the euphoric news here are the best reactions.

Double Disco = Kylie Minogue + Jessie Ware albums

We live for an Eastenders crossover

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Kylie Minogue Fans Have Broken The Internet At "Say Something" - Wonderland Magazine

Before COVID-19, Purdue University English professor Dorsey Armstrong was well known in a way that only other enthusiasts of medieval literature and culture might appreciate.

That is to say, she once got a discount on a replica of an Anglo-Saxon drinking horn - made from an actual cattle horn - because a guy at a conference recognized her.

"That's the only time I felt famous," said Armstrong, an expert in medieval studies who heads the English department at Purdue. "I got a really cool drinking horn. And whenever I teach 'Beowulf,' I bring it out and I pass it around."

But since the start of the pandemic, Armstrong, 49, has gained a whole new level of acclaim for her Old World expertise. She's the narrator of "The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague," a video series that became must-see TV this spring when it aired on Amazon Prime, just as stuck-at-home 21st-century humans were reeling from the coronavirus crisis.

In 24 episodes, Armstrong introduced the devastation of the mid-14th century to doom-obsessed modern viewers. The flea-driven plague, also known as the "Great Mortality," overran Eurasia and North Africa from 1347 to 1353, killing tens of millions of people and wiping out half of Europe's population.

The series was filmed before the coronavirus pandemic, in 2016, as part of The Great Courses, a compendium of college-level audio and video lectures. But "The Black Death" has spurred a broad cult following for Armstrong, even as it underscores the dismaying parallels between the great plague and the deadly disease now circling the globe.

"I just wish that the course were not quite so relevant at the moment," said Armstrong, whose parents and siblings are among those who have contracted COVID-19 and recovered.

Since March, she has received a stream of daily emails from people who binge-watched "The Black Death," all wanting to know whether things are as bad now as they were back then.

The answer, thankfully, is no, Armstrong said. Though COVID-19 has infected more than 14.5 million people and killed at least 600,000 worldwide, the proportion of deaths doesn't compare with the devastation caused by the "Great Mortality."

The ferocious pandemic was dubbed the bubonic plague, reflecting the painful and (at the time) mysterious swellings, known as buboes, that developed in the lymph nodes of the neck, armpits and groin of those infected. The swellings oozed blood and pus, even as the unfortunate patients suffered other terrible symptoms: fever, chills, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea - often followed quickly by death.

As Armstrong notes, the disease could take other grisly forms: pneumonic plague, which infects the lungs, and septicemic plague, where the infection spreads to the blood, often causing skin on the fingers, toes and nose to blacken and die.

The Black Death originated in China and spread along trade routes, turning the Silk Road into a superhighway of infection. It arrived in many places via trading ships, long believed to be carried by the fleas on rats that coexisted closely with humans. A more recent theory contends that fleas and lice on humans themselves helped spread the disease widely. As deaths mounted, populations in region after region struggled vainly to understand its cause or cure.

"The good news is that, all things considered, we are in a much better position than those poor people who had to survive the Black Death," Armstrong said. "The mortality rate for the Black Death, for those who contracted it, was something like 80%. And we're still in single digits."

The modern world also has the advantage of seven centuries of scientific discovery that can root the current pandemic in a rogue coronavirus and target a treatment - and ultimately a cure - based on that understanding.

By contrast, humans suffering through the Black Death blamed an unfavorable conjunction of planets, "bad air," earthquakes and God's wrath. It wasn't until 1894 that Swiss scientist Alexandre Yersin discovered the bacillus that caused the plague: Yersinia pestis, named in his honor.

"During the Black Death, what was really terrifying about that is they really had no idea at all what it was," Armstrong said. "They had no good science to help them figure out how to cope with it."

Still, there are some unsettling similarities between societal responses to the plague and COVID-19. In both cases, some officials tried to downplay the severity of the outbreak and the far-reaching economic and social effects. In Florence, Italy, for instance, members of the elite ruling class, decimated by the plague, faced a rebellion from the newly powerful working class, Armstrong said.

Many people, from ordinary peasants to local religious leaders, took the plague seriously and tried to carry out their normal duties. Clergy members were called to the homes of the ill to provide last rites, often contracting the disease in the process. Others, however, ignored the calamity, turning to hedonism and debauchery, "figuring that if they were going to die, they might as well enjoy themselves," Armstrong said.

"What I would say is that people are the same then as now," Armstrong observed. "Humans, when they're together in a large group, often do dumb things. And it's frustrating that so many people don't seem to be learning lessons from the past."

It has been "particularly horrifying," Armstrong said, to see Asian Americans targeted as the presumed cause of the COVID-19 crisis. During the plague, Jews were scapegoated - and killed - as the possible source of the scourge.

"To think that anyone thinks you can call it 'kung flu,' which is so racist," Armstrong said, referring to President Donald Trump's characterization of COVID-19. "It's really distressing. We have international travel. Wherever it originated, it would have spread around the globe."

Amazon Prime officials wouldn't say how many people have viewed the series since March. But Cale Pritchett, vice president of marketing for The Great Courses, said tens of thousands of viewers have watched the show each month for the past four years. "It has been a constant in our top 10," he said. "For a while, it was No. 1."

Armstrong's clear mastery of the subject - her doctorate is in medieval literature - and her easygoing teaching style make for engaging TV. The show is set in an office decorated with replicas of skulls, bones and a distinctive beaked doctor's mask that was filled with sweet-smelling flowers to ward off the plague. Prop rats migrate around the set.

Armstrong, who favors brightly colored blazers, stands to talk through the 12 hours of lectures, striding back and forth across an ornate woven rug. She leavens the often-grisly subject matter with dark humor, reminding viewers, for instance, that the bodies of plague victims have been described as being layered in mass graves the way cheese is layered in lasagna.

In the more than 300 reviews of the series online, viewers note her approachable style. "She doesn't come across as an intellectual snob," one wrote. "I wish I would have had her as a professor when I was in college."

Because of her familiarity with the plague, Armstrong was alarmed this year when early reports emerged of an unknown virus spreading through China.

"I'm always worried about pandemic," said Armstrong, the mother of 13-year-old twin daughters. "I have peanut butter and toilet paper and water in a cabinet in the basement, even when there is no threat of a pandemic, because that is the situation that is the scariest. Especially if it's a novel virus, which is what this is."

In recent months, Armstrong's fears were realized as four family members - her parents in Seattle, her brother in New York and her sister in the San Francisco Bay area - contracted COVID-19. They've all since recovered, though her mother was hospitalized and received the antiviral drug remdesivir to aid her healing.

If there's one strong parallel between the Black Death and the current pandemic, it's the social upheaval spurred by both, Armstrong said. The 14th-century plague upended the rigid social structure of the era, which had confined people to narrow roles of clergy, nobility and peasant.

"Humanity came back after that," Armstrong said. "And some people would argue that it was that external pressure that changed society so radically that gave us eventually things like the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation that all have their roots in that major event."

Perhaps current protests and calls for political, economic and social change may also have lasting impact.

"My hope is that we get something good out of this," Armstrong said.

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Purdue prof attracts cult following as expert on 'The Black Death' - Purdue Exponent

Claudio Grass (CG): In such a vast and incredibly diverse country like India, can top-down measures and centralized policies like affirmative action or caste-based economic incentives effectively force social change and economic equality? Or can they be seen as merely symbolic moves, or perhaps just political maneuvers?(Note: Click here to read Part I of this interview)

Jayant Bhandari (JB):The government should get completely out of the business of social engineering. Even under a purely meritocratic system, India would be desperately short of leaders and competent bureaucrats. For example, India needs good doctors. Today, the best doctors emigrate, the second-best work for the Indian private sector, and those who knownothing, who usually get a certificate because of affirmative action policies, work for the public health system. This predicament is the reason why even the most impoverished Indians prefer to go to private hospitals, where their treatment costs might end up being more than what they earn in a year. Those who make, say, $50 a month, still find a way to send their children to private schools. The same dynamics are reflected in all institutions and all sectors. These policies have caused unimaginable destruction in the economy and in society at large.

You cannot elevate people, make them proud, self-respecting, and honorable by giving them free stuff and handouts. That way, you merely normalize begging and make it socially acceptable, thereby disincentivizing work and creating a permanent underclass. Decades of these policies have proven that you cannot force change from above, nor can you dismantle the caste system with a top-down approach. You can, however, make it lot worse and create new problems on top of the old ones, which is what the Indian government actually achieved. Today, free food, free electricity, and affirmative action in jobs, promotions, and university admissions have become such an integral part of the Indian state that they cannot be scaled back under Indias democratic setup.

So, what can be done about the caste system? As I said, tribalism afflicts the whole of Indian society, of which the caste system is only a part. Tribalism can go away only through an awakening in society. And that brings us to an extremely uncomfortable question: how to awaken people?

I returned to India in the early 90s, after my studies in the UK, hoping to participate in the Indian growth story. While I had a very successful career financially, and I contributed to bringing some well-paying jobs, I must admit that I failed to change the thinking of any Indian. How do you change people who are entrenched in materialism and hedonism? They have no interest in philosophy, in improving themselves, and in becoming a better member of society.

In this regard, the British were a blessing for India. Christian missionaries worked very hard, in challenging circumstances, to help awaken Indians, who were wallowing in magical thinking, superstition, the deeply entrenched caste system, and extremely backward social norms and customs, including the savage treatment of women in following the sati practice, i.e. the ceremonial burning of widows in the funeral pyre of their husbands.

A massive social shift happened in India under British guidance, mainly what is known as the Bengal Renaissance, which managed to make the sati system illegal, challenged the caste system, and encouraged great cultural, intellectual and artistic growth. Today, unfortunately, Bengal has erased all this progress and reverted to being a backwater, stagnant and regressive, mostly run by Marxist ideology.

Without the values the British brought and the work of the missionaries, the budding enlightenment fizzled out. I guess, even if the British had stayed put in India, there was a limit to which India could have been enlightened. Enlightening a society is not an easy job. It cannot be done in a couple of generations or even a couple of centuries. Europeans achieved very little cultural change in more than 300 years of their stay in India.

There is no moral and rational force present in the country today that can get rid of its tribalism. The vilest elements of India now run its institutions. It is this no wonder that tribalism is getting worse and all signs point to continuing degradation, eventually dragging India all the way back to its pre-British tribal dark ages.

If I had to make a recommendation, it would be to end all state-driven affirmative action policies in India altogether. The job of the government is to ensure law and order, not to force top-down social changes. The moral and legal boundaries set by a rational state, as was the case during the British times, would provide the right incentives and the structure for social awakening. But this is a utopian expectation, for how can you find good people and how can they reach positions of power, in a country where everyone votes on a tribal basis?

CG: In the Western world, were currently facing an extremely charged political climate, with protests, riots, and demands for change. Many of these demands are focused on the idea of different social and economic policies for different groups and on dividing society based on race, gender and other characteristics that one is simply born with and had no power over. Do you see a parallel there with the caste system?

JB:There certainly are a lot of parallels, except that the caste system in India is real, whereas racism in the US is very different from what it is made out to be. We simply cannot realistically compare the problems and the lack of opportunity one faces in US, no matter what the color of their skin might be, with the challenges that the majority of Indians face on a daily basis. BLM, Antifa and their ilk are idiotic movements run by losers who have no purpose in life, no skills, and who seek the thrill of destruction and abuse of others. Unable to build anything themselves, they derive a feeling of accomplishment by destroying civilization and its accumulated capital.

The radical Left has massively restricted freedom of speech in the US and the rest of the West. Anyone who does not go along with them is branded as racist and can expect to lose his job and social relationships. As a result, reasonable, sane people are afraid to speak up, to express their views or even to explore the validity of the claims made by BLM and similar groups, for they immediately risk getting doxxed, ostracized, and becoming a victim of cancel culture.

BLM, Antifa, and the radical Left are simply anti-civilization. Their members, by themselves, would have been ignored as nobodies and their ideas dismissed as lunatic. However, collectively, they managed to instill a climate of fear and intimidation and get tacit support from a sizeable part of the US population.

America is the greatest country on the planet. Life there is not perfect, but people who move to the US still see it as the land of opportunity. And it is. It is the most generous and open-minded country. Regardless of your skin color or your gender, you are very likely to get equal, or even preferential, treatment everywhere in the West, and particularly in the US. I have benefited hugely from this, and so have many people of color I have known.

The West is as good as it gets. I wasted many years of my life planning, and sometimes scheming, to get to the West. I can hardly think of anyone from Africa, Latin America, or the Indian sub-continent who would not sell himself into slavery or sell a kidney or two (if the latter were possible) just to get to the US.

Having lived in many different parts of the West over the last thirty years, I still cannot shake off the feeling of how much I could have achieved in life had I been born in the West. I feel sad for those who were extraordinarily lucky to have been born in the West, but still wasted their youth whining and fixating on its real or imagined failures to achieve total, utopian perfection, as if that is a realistic expectation.

As I mentioned earlier, affirmative action policies in India have achieved precisely the opposite of their stated goals. We see a parallel here with the situation in the US. The destruction of black families and incarceration among blacks has increased very significantly since the same sort of policies took hold there too, and since the adoption of a culture of low expectations from blacks and other people of color. Indeed, the worst kind of racism I have ever experienced is precisely this deeply offensive prejudice and this condescending assumption that I could not and should not be held to the same standards as everyone else. I find this attitude truly repulsive and I consider those who adopt it as hypocrites of the lowest order, as they like to cloak their racism in good intentions.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that there is likely no European today whose parents or grandparents did not suffer during the two great wars. Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians were interned during WW-II. Japan, as a country, was flattened by the US at the same time. So was Germany. How many Japanese do you know who live in the US or Japan who still blame the US for what they did? Proud people move on, develop competencies, outgrow limitations set by other people, and emerge victorious. They certainly dont blame their failures on the real or imagined sufferings of their ancestors.

CG: You are in the rare position to have experienced the reality on the ground and the problems in both the Indian and western society. In your estimation, what are the biggest problems facing the US, Canadian or European society? Is it inequity and discrimination, or do we have other challenges that are perhaps being ignored?

JB:41% of Canadians and 49% of Australians are first- or second-generation immigrants. 46% of Americans are of non-European origin. A vast majority of ethnically non-Europeans tend to vote for the Left and for the nanny state, with its promises of free stuff and control over the lives of other people. Many simply fail to understand in their hearts what western civilization is. They are merely interested in the fruits of western prosperity. But without the roots, the tree that bears the fruit will eventually disappear.

I cannot see how the US can avoid a civil war once Trump is gone. In fact, it might have already started. What is, even today, the best country in the world will take a sharp turn to the Left once Trump is gone. The best-case scenario would be that the red states will revolt and secede. This will, of course, not be the end of the problem, as the blue states, being non-productive and dependent, will still ask for reparations and tributes. As for Canada, I cannot see how it can stand on its own feet without the support of the US.

Over in Europe, there is still some hope that people may wake up and realize the political and economic implications of the disastrous immigration policy of the last few years. Of course, I am not suggesting that they should not help out refugees, but this must be done rationally, with a realistic plan and with an understanding that even refugees who have suffered hugely from oppressive regimes can still bring that same virus of totalitarianism and intolerance with them. Once these toxic ideas enter the body politic and achieve a critical mass in a democratic system, they can present a very serious threat to the western culture, its values and its moral foundations.

CG: In our last conversation, you mentioned that youre more optimistic about East Asia, rather than the West, in your long-term view. What is the reasoning behind this position and what are the advantages you see there, especially from an investment point of view?

JB:East Asians have the highest average IQ in the world, they have an impressively strong work ethic, while civility and respect for others are ingrained in the culture and this is very clearly seen in everyday life. In Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, if your child is out by himself late at night, it is not a problem. Crime is virtually non-existent. In Singapore, for example, women leave their purses on the food court table to reserve their places while they go to pick up their order. These societies are incredibly polite, safe and respectful.

Social conformism is a part of their culture, but then, they are not busy-bodies. Their governments, quite in contrast to a wrongly held belief in the West, are largely non-intrusive. Overall, people there want to avoid confrontation and picking a fight as much as they can. No wonder I often feel freer in East Asia than I do in the West.

Also, technologically, East Asia is more advanced than the West. Hard work is a virtue, which is strongly encouraged, while begging is looked down upon. Complaining and expecting free stuff is seen as a sign of a lower culture, as it should be.

Although East Asians havent necessarily imported the philosophical values of the West, a lot of whats good in the region, especially in a more practical sense, is a direct import from the classical western civilization. Ideas around work, productivity, personal responsibility, law and order, respect for other people and their property, all formed a solid foundation that has produced healthy societies and economies, and this is why I consider East Asia to be the safest and most productive home for my money.

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Is The West Repeating India's Mistakes? Interview (Part II) - Eurasia Review