Mythical creatures unleashed
Your biggest nightmares

You know I wasn't really in hiding last week. While your favorite TGND was handling the little devils (you'd think she knew better as to pick on someone her own size) I was taking it on with the Big Guns of monster world. They are your biggest nightmares and for thousands of years they have perpetually proven that size does matter. But unfortunately this article won't be like the gargantuan beasts it will feature. The descriptions here are pretty short and we can only hope to spark a bit of keenness in your mind about the subject. If you want to know all about these creatures then I suggest you prepare yourself a flask of strong coffee and read about them for long hours in a resourceful library. So enough gabbing for now and let us proceed with the monsters.

Trolls
Trolls are myths originally from Scandinavian folklore. Scandinavia is the name of the collective of the countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Trolls are lumbering giants who are ugly and vicious and only tend to harm humankind. According to Scandinavian folklore Trolls live in forests and mountain caves. They kill anyone who trespasses on their turf and on the rare occasions they do come to human localities they wreck mindless havoc. They are also in famous for stealing babies and seducing wives.

It is said that trolls are the distant cousins of goblins and elves and goblins are actually dwarflike trolls. The classification of trolls depends on where they live. For instance, there are mountain trolls, jungle trolls, sea trolls and so on. Scandinavians believe trolls can be evaded with mistletoes, byre and bonfires. Trolls are also vulnerable to loud sounds and under the sunlight a troll turns into stone. A troll's lunch menu includes humans and goats. These vulgar species show no mercy when they hunt down their preys. Trolls were once greatly feared by the Scandinavians, but now times have changed. And the outdated myths have made way for the new Christian myths like the Incubus. Trolls are now a big part of promoting Scandinavian tourism. They are small and cute wearing bright and colorful costumes. People just love them. Trolls also made it big in recent RPG games and fantasy fictions. But these trolls are much unlike the original ones.

Ogres
Ogres are the Northern European counterparts of the trolls. Ogres represent huge humanlike monsters that have little or no intellect at all. An ogre closely resembles fairytale giants. The giant in the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk could be an ogre, since he was gigantic in size with coarse manner and a taste for human flesh. You can't blame him really. Jack was a damn thief who just got lucky. There are also stories of ogres and ogresses attacking village people and abducting princesses and locking them away in tall towers in old fables. Unlike trolls ogres like to live in castles where they collect and protect vast amounts of treasures. They really have a good taste for life. Modern fairytale ogres include the refined monster, our beloved Shrek. The giants described in J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter books are actually ogres.

Giants
I am talking about the Greek mythical Gods, not 7 feet tall humans who get stared at unjustly every time they go out on the streets. They were the evil Gods of Greek mythology and were the sworn enemies of the Olympians (the good Gods). All of the Giants, who were also known as the Titans, were the children of Chaos (creator of the universe). That makes them the siblings of Zeus (King of the Olympians). Each Titan possessed the power of an element, like the earth, wind, sea and fire. It would take up a long space to describe each Titan God individually. So I'll leave the rest up to you to discover.

The Yeti or The Abominable Snowman
Contrasting from the other monsters presented here the Abominable Snowman or the Yeti belongs to the group of modern myths. It is said that the Yeti is like a 7 to 10 feet tall man, hirsute and savage living in the mountains of the Himalayas. It looks like a primitive human with long arms and big feet. Some resort to the Yeti as an angry mountain spirit. There have been many sightings, most of which are by Sherpas, but none has been confirmed yet. It could be that these are an ancient race of savage humans who live in the cold mountains of the Himalayas and thus has evolved this way. But no one is for sure. But it still doesn't explain why they are so camera shy. The only yeti I know who got over this shyness complex of his is Wendigo from Marvel comics. As far as I can recall Wendigo was a Yeti from Scandinavian mythology. Some Scandinavian folklore also included the Yeti.

The Sasquatch or Bigfoot
The Sasquatch and the Yeti are of the same species. The Sasquatch lives in the Northern parts of America. Like its Asian cousin the Sasquatch is also camera shy and actual photographic evidence is rare. Although there are some off focus blurry pictures of the Sasquatch none of them were proven genuine evidence. There have been lots of Bigfoot sightings in America. Many of the eyewitnesses were later on convinced that what they actually saw was a grizzly bear standing on its hind legs. However footprints were discovered. These footprints were 4 inches wide and 11 inches long and also had epidermal curves. Some people said it was real while others said that it's impossible. If they are ancient beings and they have hidden themselves from us for so long then maybe we never will find out the truth about the Sasquatch.

I'll end it here this week. Join me next week for the grand finale of the series, when come back with more malicious monsters. Until next time.
Next Week: Half human, half beast and absolute monstrosities: Archaic Evil Emerges.
[Note: Queries and comments directed towards the author can be sent to the following e-mail address: voldemort2099@yahoo.com.]

By Knafice-Man

Time and the universe

What is the relation between time and our universe? Many scientists have come up with many answers. Some scientists are exclaiming that the universe exists without changing with time. Some are defining that time is flowing due to expansion of the universe. The answers given may be distinctive but they are also mystical.

Our understanding of the universe has increased over the past few decades. The subject has been taken as a great challenge by many scientists, and they are working hard to complete their mission. But before we move in to the quest of "describing the time", we need have to had a modest knowledge about the Big Bang (the birth of the universe)

Big Bang (It sure was big)
We certainly know that our universe exists, however, this facts alone has not satisfied mankind's quest for further understanding. Our curiosity has led us to question our place in this universe and furthermore, the place of the universe itself. How did our universe begin? How old is our universe? How did matter come to exist? Obviously, these are not simple questions and throughout our brief history on this planet much time and effort has been spent looking for some clue. Yet, after all this energy has been expended, much of what we know is still only speculation.

About 15 billion years ago, a tremendous explosion started the beginning of our universe. That explosion is defined as the Big Bang. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe.

However, since the explosion, the universe is expanding, and the expansion is finite. And as the universe expands, a flow (indefinable) is formed. Scientist Thomas Gold described that flow as an arrow, which can be also considered as time.

The universe got its own creation of time. In Earth, we describe the time as one revolution of the mother Earth in 24 hours. But when someone would move outside the planet Earth, then flow of time would be different for him.

Like Thomas described, time could have a negative value, if the universe contracts. For example when I was writing the article, my cup felt from the table and it broke, but the broken cup never re-assembled itself spontaneously. This is because of the arrow (quantity of time) which is flowing with the expansion of the universe. But if, the universe suddenly starts to contract, then things would change and the arrow of time would be reverse, and the broken cup would be re-assembling themselves.

Is Time Travel Possible?
People in this age believe that it is only a dream, which will never be true. Some religious foundations are strictly against time travel (possibly because they don't understand anything about it). But the modern scientists have realized that according to the equations of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity (the best theory of time and space we have: E=mc2), there is nothing in the laws of physics to prevent time travel. It may be extremely difficult to put into practice; but it is not impossible.

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, if an object has to travel from one universe to another universe, it would have to move faster than light at some stage of the journey. And if any object travels at the speed of light, then its mass would be negligible. Then the case would be same as black hole, whose gravity is so strong that light can not move out from it. So there is also a relation between black hole and time travel.

Einstein had considered time as fourth dimension though some scientists do not agree with it. But in case of time travel, there must be a way, through which the object would travel, but not in a three dimensional nature, but in the fifth dimensional way, which would directly follow a displacement, from a universe to the other.

The time machine now belongs only to the works of science fiction, but scientists are trying to make it a reality. It's sad that I had to skip a lot of information because of the limited space.

By Asif Rayhan Rasha
Although in this short article it will be impossible to tackle all of the questions concerning the creation of everything with respect to time, the summery relation between time and the universe has been well defined. If you want to know more, then don't forget to mail me at [asifrayhanisyours@gmail.com].