Travel (General/Chat)

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  • CHECHEN MUJAHIDIN FISHING (UNEDITED)

    12/11/2009 4:33:55 PM PST · by Cindy · 14 replies · 367+ views
    Video via YouTube ^ | Added December 10, 2009 | n/a
    www.youtube.com/user/AsSarabMedia "CHECHEN MUJAHIDIN FISHING (UNEDITED)"
  • Will Climate Change Concerns Affect Your Vacation Plans? (POLL)

    12/11/2009 11:58:30 AM PST · by Lucky9teen · 12 replies · 228+ views
    If the U.S. fulfills its pledge to shrink greenhouse gas emission, the carbon dioxide reductions are sure to force big cuts and higher prices and taxes in the travel and tourism industry. Are concerns about climate change making you rethink or change your 2010 vacation and travel plans?
  • Ancient Tablets Decoded; Shed Light on Assyrian Empire

    12/11/2009 4:28:20 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 540+ views
    National Geographic News ^ | December 9, 2009 | Brian Handwerk
    Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey... A team led by University of Akron archaeologist Timothy Matney has been excavating the massive mud brick palace, once inhabited by the governor of the empire's Tushhan Province, for more than a decade. The palace is located in Ziyaret...
  • Archaeological study of ostrich eggshell beads collected from SDG site

    12/10/2009 7:24:42 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 177+ views
    PhysOrg Mobile (as in PDA) ^ | Sunday, December 6, 2009 | Gao Xing et al
    Ostrich eggshell (OES) beads from SDG site reflect primordial art and a kind of symbolic behavior of modern humans. Two different manufacturing pathways are usually used in the manufacture of OES beads in Upper Paleolithic. Pathway 1 is identified from these collections; blanks are drilled prior to being trimmed to rough discs. Based on stratigraphic data and OSL dating, these ostrich eggshell beads are probably in Early Holocene (? 10 ka BP)... According to previous observation and study systems of Western scholars and the specific characters of OES beads from SDG site, this study found that the two pathways of...
  • Disappearing Car Door

    12/09/2009 9:34:53 PM PST · by Dallas59 · 28 replies · 695+ views
    Youtube ^ | 12/09/2009 | Youtube
    Video Linky
  • Tiger Woods and wife Elin 'leaving the country'

    12/09/2009 12:53:09 PM PST · by JoeProBono · 51 replies · 1,934+ views
    news ^ | December 10, 2009
    TIGER Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren have avoided contact with the public by hiding out in their family home in a Florida gated community since news of Woods' alleged affairs broke two weeks ago. Now a source close to Nordegren's family tells Fox News that the two are considering putting even more distance between themselves and Tiger's cheating scandal. The insider says the couple is planning to leave the United States “very soon”. “Elin and Tiger are planning to temporarily move closer to Sweden, possibly to a private island, to get away from it all,” the insider said. Meanwhile...
  • Runestone Fakery [from 2002]

    12/07/2009 7:43:37 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 492+ views
    Archaeological Institute of America ^ | January/February 2002 | Eric A. Powell
    When Minneapolis artist Janey Westin first came across the runes near the town of Kensington, she assumed they were left behind by the same Norse explorers who created the so-called Kensington Runestone, found nearby in 1898. The infamous 200-pound rock is covered with runes that describe the travails of a party of Scandinavians beset by Indians in 1362. Though most scholars doubt the stone's authenticity, it continues to fuel debate about a Norse presence in the Midwest. Excited by the new find, the Kensington Runestone Museum paid for archaeological testing at the site, which yielded only a few Native American...
  • The Beringer Hoax [Archaeology's Hoaxes, Fakes, and Strange Sites]

    12/07/2009 7:25:30 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 418+ views
    Archaeological Institute of America ^ | December 2009 | editors
    Single-minded and with a high opinion of his scholarly abilities, Beringer was wide open for a simple, but devastating hoax... Beringer "wholly, publicly committed himself to the belief that fossils were merely the capricious fabrications of God, hidden in the earth by Him for some inscrutable purpose; possibly, thought Beringer, merely for His own pleasure; possibly as a test for human faith" and proceeded to write a book on them... historians Melvin E. Jahn and Daniel J. Woolf, who in 1963 produced the first English translation of Beringer's book, showed the truth behind the tale lies not in farcical student...
  • Ice Age skull of giant sloth unearthed in Southern California [1.8 million yrs old]

    12/07/2009 7:19:50 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 42 replies · 699+ views
    Digital Journal ^ | Sunday, December 6, 2009 | Sandy Sand
    Many archaeological finds are accidentally unearthed by construction crews, as was the discovery of a 1.8 million-year-old skull of a giant ground sloth in Southern California. Buried in the ground since the Ice Age, the skull was found by a construction crew and could be on its way to be displayed at the San Bernardino County Museum. Work on a new site for a Southern California Edison sub-station was immediately halted when the ancient bones were discovered while earthmovers were flattening out a hilly area west of Beaumont, which is a few miles from the low desert community of Palm...
  • Crofter finds a 'Viking' anchor on the Isle of Skye

    12/07/2009 7:08:33 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 43 replies · 705+ views
    BBC ^ | Thursday, December 3, 2009 | unattributed
    A crofter... Graeme Mackenzie, 47, made the find after hiring an excavator to open the drain on rough pastureland 50yds (48m) from his home near Sleat. Rain had partly washed away the bottom of the drain and exposed a corroded 4in (10cm) iron spike. Mr Mackenzie levered it out and was "stunned" as the ancient anchor gradually emerged. The Treasure Trove Unit at the National Museums of Scotland said the anchor will probably be claimed by the Crown. Measuring 4ft high and a similar distance from tip to tip, the artefact is undergoing dating and metallurgical testing. Preliminary results...
  • Ownership of Adena tablet in dispute

    12/07/2009 7:04:04 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 304+ views
    Columbus Dispatch ^ | Pearl Harbor Day, Monday, December 7, 2009 | Alan Johnson
    At no point, Low says, did he sign an agreement to sell or give the tablet to the historical society. He always considered it a loan. "I never intended for them to keep it," he said. "I told them it's not for sale." Low said the artifact has great sentimental value for him, not only because he found it as a child, but also because he has American Indian ancestors who could be related to the ancient Adena people who made the carving. Two years ago, Low decided he wanted to get the tablet back so he could donate it...
  • Virgin Galactic to unveil commercial spaceship

    12/07/2009 10:38:48 AM PST · by BenLurkin · 6 replies · 275+ views
    AP) ^ | Dec 7, 4:57 AM (ET) | ALICIA CHANG
    After five years of secret construction, the cloak is coming off a privately funded spacecraft designed to fly well-heeled tourists into space. The long-awaited glimpse of SpaceShipTwo, slated for rollout Monday in the Mojave Desert, could not come sooner for the scores of wannabe astronauts who have forked over part of their disposable income for the chance to float in zero gravity. "We've all been patiently waiting to see exactly what the vehicle is going to look like," said Peter Cheney, a 63-year-old potential space tourist from Seattle who was among the first to sign up for suborbital space rides...
  • NO VISA REQUIREMENT FOR TRAVEL FROM TURKEY TO JORDAN

    12/06/2009 7:09:15 PM PST · by Cindy · 2 replies · 153+ views
    Quote: NO VISA REQUIREMENT FOR TRAVEL FROM TURKEY TO JORDAN I'm pretty sure the brothers think they can use this to their advantage... Posted on 06 December 2009 @ 13:17
  • Massachusetts Woman's Bag Gets Stuck in Moving Subway Train

    12/06/2009 10:28:02 AM PST · by sodpoodle · 12 replies · 734+ views
    MyFoxBoston ^ | December 4, 2009 | Fox Boston
    A 34 year-old Quincy woman was trying to board a Red Line train at South Station when the doors closed on her pocketbook. The train began to move away with her bag wedged in the doors. The woman ran alongside the moving train shouting for help. At the last minute, she let go prior to going off the end of the platform but she collided with a wall.
  • Busy street, beaver don't mix

    12/06/2009 3:19:25 AM PST · by Daffynition · 19 replies · 433+ views
    The Press-Enterprise ^ | December 4, 2009 | SARAH BURGE
    A wayward beaver has met an untimely end, apparently run down by a car as it ambled on a Murrieta city street. The beaver, found on a densely populated stretch of Murrieta Hot Springs Road early Thursday morning, appears to have recently re-colonized Warm Springs Creek flood channel, which runs through nearby Pond Park. Time will tell if the large rodent was a lone ranger or is survived by others, but there were signs at the park that several small trees in the creek bed had been gnawed to the ground. Officer Jan Bratten, of Animal Friends of the Valleys,...
  • Obama shifts Copenhagen visit to boost deal [Longer version of article with revealing info]

    12/05/2009 5:15:51 PM PST · by starczar66 · 35 replies · 664+ views
    AP ^ | 12/04/09 | BEN FELLER
    Revealing info that most versions of this story omit: "Obama had said that he would travel to the Copenhagen conference if his appearance would help clinch a deal." "The White House now says Obama, after talks this week with European leaders, has come up with an "emerging consensus" on how much money - $10 billion a year - polluting rich countries should pay by 2012 to poorer countries, which are more often the victim of global warming." "Gibbs said the U.S. would pay its "fair share" of the $10 billion amount but did not identify what that was or from...
  • Bronze Age wild cow skull found in quarry [~5600 BC]

    12/04/2009 7:02:39 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 458+ views
    Hexham Courant ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | Ruth Lognonne
    Machine operator John Rutherford is used to digging objects out of the ground, but he was shocked when he came face-to-face with an 8,000-year-old beast. For the Thompsons of Prudhoe employee has unearthed a complete auroch's skull -- a species of large wild cow that became extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age... The quarry is located on land, owned by Nunwick Estates, on a bend in the North Tyne river. The skull has been identified by a Durham University expert as a large elderly male auroch, which was possibly cast out of its herd before dying in secluded wetland....
  • Ancient city of Pompeii added to Google Street View

    12/04/2009 6:52:20 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 25 replies · 602+ views
    BBC ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | unattributed
    Google has added Pompeii to its Street View application, allowing internet users to take a 360-degree virtual tour of the ancient Roman city. Italy's culture ministry says it hopes the move will boost tourism to the site, state news agency Ansa reports. Among the ruins visible on the search engine's free mapping service are the town's statues, temples and theatres. The city was buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and was not discovered until the 18th Century. The volcanic debris preserved many of the city's buildings, frescos, silverware, mosaics and other artefacts. "Giving people a chance to...
  • Even Babies Have "Accents," Crying Study Finds

    12/04/2009 6:46:16 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 288+ views
    National Geographic News ^ | Saturday, December 5, 2009 | Matt Kaplan
    Newborn babies start learning language in the womb -- and are born with what you might call accents, a new study of crying babies says. That fetuses hear and become accustomed to language is nothing new. Several studies have shown that, when exposed to different languages shortly after birth, a baby will typically indicate a preference for the language closest to the one he or she would've heard during gestation... For the new study, a team led by Kathleen Wermke at the Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders at Würzburg University in Germany studied the cry "melodies" of 60...
  • Libya: Ancient Roman city found off coast

    12/04/2009 6:35:43 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies · 661+ views
    Adnkronos International ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | AKI
    Italian archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient Roman city submerged off the coast of Libya. The remains of the city date back to the 2nd century A.D. and were found by archaeologists and experts from Sicily and the University Suor Orsola Benincasa of Naples, involved in the ArCoLibia archaeology project. The discovery took place on the Cape of Ras Eteen on the western side of Libya's Gulf of Bumbah, as archaeologists were searching the area for shipwrecks and the remains of ancient ports. Archaeologists instead found walls, streets, and the remains of buildings and ancient tombs. After a...
  • Were Dinosaurs Warm or Cold Blooded?

    12/04/2009 1:44:34 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 48 replies · 464+ views
    Discovery News ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas
    New research has heated up the debate over whether dinosaurs were ectothermic (cold-blooded) or endothermic (warm-blooded like us). The topic is addressed in this week's Johns Hopkins News-Letter and a recent PLoS One paper. The prevailing view for decades was that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, as reptiles, fish and amphibians are today. Now support is leaning toward the warm-blooded dinosaur theory, which opens up a slew of intriguing questions: Did dinosaurs sweat? Were they able to live in very cold regions? Did they have to eat a lot to fuel their lifestyle? and more. Herman Pontzer at Washington University in St....
  • Excavations in Ancient Tegea

    12/04/2009 1:40:02 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 213+ views
    ana-mpa.gr ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | unattributed
    The first stage of a five-year (2009-2013) excavation project in Ancient Tegea, near Tripolis, has been completed by an international team of archaeologists led by the Norwegian Institute in Athens in Collaboration with the Greek culture ministry's 38th Ephoria for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and 25th Ephoria of Byzantine Antiquities. The area of excavation is a field located to the west of the theatre and the Basilica of Thyrsos, where magnetometer survey 2003-2004 documented the probable location of a major north-south street and a stoa bordering the agora... Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a...
  • Remains of Roman tower discovered during City Walls repair project in Chester

    12/04/2009 1:35:23 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 20 replies · 433+ views
    Chester Chronicle ^ | December 2, 2009 | unattributed
    The well-preserved remains of a Roman tower used by guards patrolling Chester’s City Walls has been discovered by archaeologists repairing a section which collapsed near the Eastgate Clock. Interval towers were placed regularly every 65m or so along the rear of the main fortress wall and acted as lookout points and as bases for roman artillery. The tower has been found beneath the foundation of the city wall... Restoration specialist Maysand is undertaking the work to repair the Walls section, joined by a team of specialists from Giffords, English Heritage, Chester Renaissance and Cheshire West and Chester Council... The webcam...
  • Settlement Site Hints at Mass Cannibalism [Germany 7,000 years ago]

    12/04/2009 1:19:44 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 40 replies · 609+ views
    Discovery News ^ | Friday, December 4, 2009 | Bruce Bower, Science News
    At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests. Cannibalism at the village, now called Herxheim, may have occurred during ceremonies in which people from near and far brought slaves, war prisoners or other dependents for ritual sacrifice, propose anthropologist Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux... A social and political crisis in central Europe at that time triggered various forms of violence, the...
  • Health Department says Cody, the store Labrador, must go

    12/04/2009 2:59:35 AM PST · by Daffynition · 101 replies · 1,495+ views
    The St Petersburg Times ^ | Dec 03, 2009 | Dominick Tao
    Cody, a chocolate Labrador, has for months greeted customers at the Clearwater BP gas station and convenience store at U.S. 19 and Nursery Road. A St. Petersburg Times story introduced thousands more to the jovial pup. But Thursday morning, a state health inspector stopped by and issued a warning to Karim Mansour, the store's owner: Remove the dog or the Health Department would declare all of Mansour's food products — mostly bottled sodas, Slim Jims and candy bars — unfit for consumption. Mansour, who adopted 6-year-old Cody three years ago, had no choice but sign the warning. His primary violation:...
  • Ancient Mummies Show Signs of Heart Disease

    12/03/2009 8:40:40 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 267+ views
    Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | Marilynn Marchione
    [no excerpt, the miserable curs at AP, who digitized Sarah's entire book and published large chunks of it, claiming "fair use", don't like to be hoist on their own petard, whatever. The gist of the original AP story is, the Jews start all wars.]
  • Bad Teeth Tormented Ancient Egyptians

    12/03/2009 8:34:23 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 41 replies · 638+ views
    Discovery News ^ | Thursday, December 3, 2009 | Rossella Lorenzi
    Worn teeth, periodontal diseases, abscesses and cavities tormented the ancient Egyptians, according to the first systematic review of all studies performed on Egyptian mummies in the past 30 years. After examining research of more than 3,000 mummies, anatomists and paleopathologists at the University of Zurich concluded that 18 percent of all mummies in case reports showed a nightmare array of dental diseases... Published in the Journal of Comparative Human Biology (HOMO), the review takes into consideration all studies published since 1977, when computed tomography was first applied to ancient Egyptian mummies. CT imaging revealed an impressive collection of diseases, including...
  • Portland has 19th worst traffic (Seattle is worst, LA #2 according to TomTom report)

    12/03/2009 3:21:09 PM PST · by Stoat · 77 replies · 918+ views
    Portland Business Journal ^ | December 3, 2009
    Portland has the 19th worst traffic congestion in the country, with 23 percent of the city’s roads having “heavy delays,” according to a report released Wednesday.Seattle’s road woes are the worst, followed by Los Angeles at No. 2, with 38 percent of its roads having heavy delays, followed by Chicago (37 percent), San Francisco (35 percent) and New York City (31 percent), according to global positioning system (GPS) company TomTom of Concord, Mass.The company ranked cities as most to least congested according to how fast cars could travel on the street network. Traffic was defined as congested if drivers...
  • Jumbo jet-setter: The airline passenger so obese, he's a safety hazard

    12/03/2009 3:04:06 PM PST · by Fenhalls555 · 8 replies · 628+ views
    Daily Mail ^ | 03rd December 2009 | Daily Mail Reporter
    Economy class flights are cramped at the best of times, so imagine being stuck next to someone so large they take up half the aisle, too. This image was captured by an air stewardess who wanted to demonstrate to her boss exactly why obese passengers should be made to buy an extra seat. The photograph has since appeared on web forums used by flight attendants, where many appeared to agree with the crew member. One user posted the comment: 'Sympathise with the guy or not, he's a major safety hazard in an evacuation and a gross inconvenience for the cabin...
  • Bridge sells for $1.7m

    12/03/2009 1:54:26 PM PST · by george76 · 21 replies · 455+ views
    Herald and Weekly Times ^ | December 04, 2009
    AN ancient bridge over the River Thames in England has sold for nearly $1.7 million at auction. The high price tag ... is down to a special act of Parliament which means the new owner can collect a tax free toll from those crossing the river. There is one drawback. Local people want to scrap the toll, saying it amounts to 'highway robbery'.
  • New Photo Brings Flying Overweight Debate Back

    12/03/2009 1:46:28 PM PST · by thefactor · 74 replies · 1,552+ views
    The Gothamist ^ | 12/3/09 | Jen Carlson
    There's been much debate about how to handle overweight passengers on flights. While some airlines may charge for an extra seat, not all do — and now a flight attendant allegedly snapped a photo on an American Airlines flight (destination and take-off point unknown), which of course has been leaked to the press. A Flight Global blog got a hold of the photo, which they say the attendant took to "show her manager what was happening on the aircraft and why she was unhappy about it. Seems the guy paid for only one seat and the gate staff let him...
  • What Really Happened on AirTrans Flight 297?

    12/03/2009 7:15:46 AM PST · by Sequoyah101 · 123 replies · 4,511+ views
    KHOU News Houston ^ | November 18, 2009 | AP
    This squib appeared on the KHOU website on November 18 but is seems to be only a fraction of the story. Read the comments below the story please. ATLANTA -- AirTran Airways says a flight from Atlanta to Houston with more than 70 passengers on board was delayed when a passenger refused to end a cell phone call. ... Flight 297, a Boeing 717, was taxiing on the runway in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon when a crew member asked a passenger to turn off his phone. ... after several failed attempts by the crew member to end the conversation, the captain...
  • Hungarian divers find 17th-century Dutch ship near Brazil

    12/02/2009 10:27:17 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 432+ views
    MTI ^ | Wednesday, December 2, 2009 | unattributed
    A team of Hungarian marine archaeologists has found the wreckage of a Dutch cargo ship which sank near the Brazilian coast over three centuries ago. Voetboog was a three-mast flyboat, which left the port of Batavia (now Jakarta) for The Netherlands with a 109-member crew on board, the expedition leader Attila K. Szaloky told MTI. Owned by the Dutch East India Company, the Fluyt ship carried silk, spices, tea, Japanese and Chinese porcelain as well as nearly 180,000 pieces of Dutch golden ducats. The estimated value of the wreckage is about 1 billion dollars, he said. Sailing on the Atlantic,...
  • 2 wilderness rescues for family not ready for cold ( Alaska Global Warming )

    12/02/2009 9:23:44 AM PST · by george76 · 34 replies · 1,033+ views
    adn ^ | November 24th, 2009
    A family that planned to spend winter in a woodstove-heated wall tent ...near Talkeetna with a dozen dogs gave up over the weekend, a few days after the mother was evacuated with severely frostbitten hands. The father and a teenager walked 7 miles out to civilization on Saturday, the son also suffering from frostbite. Then, authorities had to mount another difficult operation to rescue a dozen dogs ...
  • 1,500-year-old girl is reconstructed [Gaya Kingdom, Korea]

    12/01/2009 4:34:02 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 45 replies · 1,058+ views
    Joongang Daily ^ | November 26, 2009 | Kim Hyung-eun
    She was probably 16 years old and had a wide, flat Asian face, a long neck and a slim figure. The girl died 1,500 years ago. But now she's reborn -- well, partially, at least. The restoration is the result of two years of interdisciplinary work that brought together experts in archaeology, forensic medicine, anatomy, genetics, chemistry and other fields -- a notable step forward in Korean archaeology. In December 2007, archaeologists discovered the complete remains of the girl and partial remains of three others in a tomb in Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang... The work revealed that the four...
  • Obese Air Passenger In Economy Seat Has Picture Taken

    11/30/2009 10:41:58 PM PST · by Steelfish · 61 replies · 2,477+ views
    Telegraph(UK) ^ | November 30th 2009
    <p>Obese Air Passenger In Economy Seat Has Picture Taken An image of an obese passenger squeezed into an economy airline seat has reopened a debate about how airlines deal with growing numbers of oversized passengers.</p> <p>The picture, posted on an aviation blog, was reportedly taken by a flight attendant to illustrate to airline managers the difficulty of dealing with passengers who cannot fit into seats. It is unclear if the man was aware his picture was being taken or whether the flight, on US carrier American Airlines, took off with the passenger spilling out of his seat.</p>
  • PHILIPPINES [Travel Alert]

    11/30/2009 3:20:24 PM PST · by Cindy · 3 replies · 124+ views
    Travel.State.Gov - TRAVEL ALERT ^ | November 24, 2009 | n/a
    Note: The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs This information is current as of today, Mon Nov 30 2009 15:16:56 GMT-0800 (PST). Philippines November 24, 2009 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to the southern Philippine islands of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago and urges extreme caution if traveling there. This Travel Alert reflects the recent acts of violence in the Mindanao province of Maguindanao and is supplemental to our September 17, 2009 Travel Warning to the Philippines. This Travel Alert expires on January 6, 2010....
  • Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World

    11/30/2009 11:43:57 AM PST · by mikelets456 · 33 replies · 1,505+ views
    Youtube ^ | 11/25/2009 | Youtube
    Maybe we could learn something from this? Did thinking like this make your enemies think twice?
  • Man had to choose: save wife or son

    11/29/2009 2:24:55 PM PST · by Daffynition · 61 replies · 2,411+ views
    YahooNews ^ | November 30, 2009 | staff reporter
    A man had to make the terrible choice of rescuing his wife or teenage son when their car plunged into a river at the weekend. Stacey Horton saved his wife, Vanessa, and their 13-year-old son Silva drowned in the Whanganui River. Mid-Central police communications manager Kim Perks said today it was a very tough call for Mr Horton. "I would certainly not have wanted to be in his shoes." Mrs Horton, 35, was driving Silva, his best friend, Robert Palmer, 14, and the family dog when her Mazda MPV stationwagon went off Somme Parade in Wanganui and plunged down a...
  • British ancient forests were patchy

    11/28/2009 6:53:51 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 584+ views
    Planet Earth Online ^ | Thursday, November 26, 2009 | Sara Coelho
    Scientists have long debated the nature of Europe's ancient landscape and hesitated between a nightmarish, close-canopied forest and a pasture woodland of oak and hazel trees, similar to the modern New Forest, which is kept open by grazing animals... Together with Dr David Smith, a specialist on environmental archaeology at the University of Birmingham, Whitehouse decided to look for clues in an overlooked source: ancient beetle remains... Whitehouse and Smith looked at 26 beetle assemblages from different parts of Britain, from Thorne Moors in Yorkshire to Silbury in Hampshire, and looked at how beetle communities changed over 7000 years,...
  • 12 Prisoners Break Out of Afghanistan Jail After Digging Tunnel Through Cell

    11/28/2009 2:31:14 PM PST · by Daffynition · 7 replies · 234+ views
    Fox News/AP ^ | November 28, 2009 | staff reporter
    KABUL — A dozen prisoners escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the outside in western Afghanistan, police said Saturday. Afghan police arrested three men for the shooting death of an Afghan Red Crescent official in northern Afghanistan. The shooting Friday was an apparent attempt to settle a long-standing dispute. In the prison escape, the inmates included low-level Taliban militants, drug-dealers and other minor criminals, said Farah province police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar. A 13th prisoner arrested during his attempted escape said the tunnel took 10 days to dig and the plan was to slowly...
  • Totally Insane...RollerMan comes down mountain

    Jean-Yves Blondeau (Aix les Bains, 1970 - ), also known as "Rollerman", is a French designer who is best known for creating the 31-wheel roller suit (Buggy Rollin'). This suit places a number of rollers (similar to those found on rollerblades) on most of the major joints, the torso, and the back. The wearer can ride in a variety of positions (rollerblade, on back, on torso, on all fours, etc.) at speeds of up to 60 mph (96 km/h). He has been featured on television shows in several countries.
  • How seat fit for a king has cast new light on Scotland's dark ages

    11/27/2009 12:03:59 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 36 replies · 1,040+ views
    The Scotsman (sleeping, strong and handsome built) ^ | Friday, November 27, 2009 | Tim Cornwell
    The first Pictish throne to be built for a millennium has been unveiled by researchers investigating the lives of Scotland's most mysterious tribal people. The team spent a year crafting the oak of five Scottish trees into a design modelled on ancient carvings in a project that cost around £10,000. Raised thrones were important symbols of Pictish power for church leaders and kings, but none survive. The project at the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) is part of a three-year research programme, sponsored by the Glenmorangie whisky company, and aims to improve understanding of Scottish history from 300AD to 900AD......
  • A Feast for the Senses...and the Soul

    11/27/2009 11:17:40 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 248+ views
    BAR -- Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | November 2009 | Dorothy D. Resig
    Few activities in life are as seemingly mundane yet vitally important as eating... Ritual feasts and banquets in the Biblical world and beyond were particularly important occasions for showing devotion to a deity, solidifying social relationships and ranks, as well as teaching lessons. In antiquity, even the gods had to eat. Temple officials in ancient Babylon and Egypt were tasked with the daily feeding of their deities. The statues of these deities were more than just depictions for their worshipers; they were themselves divine, and they needed to be fed, bathed, clothed and cared for. An elaborate ritual known as...
  • Mural reveals ancient connection to Uzbekistan [7th century Korean envoys?]

    11/27/2009 11:00:59 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 360+ views
    JoongAng Daily ^ | Friday, November 27, 2009 | Yim Seung-hye
    In 1965, a mural was discovered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, when local authorities decided to build a road in the middle of the Afrasiab tepe. A tepe is a mound marking an ancient site, in this case pre-Mongol Samarkand. When it was found, the mural was weathered and its images obscured. But those who discovered it had the foresight to make a drawing of it, from which replicas have been made. A replica of this mural is now being shown as part of the exhibit "The Crossroads of Civilizations: The Asian Culture of Uzbekistan" until September of next year at the...
  • Cavemen Roasted Birds, Too [Homo heidelbergensis]

    11/27/2009 10:55:00 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 43 replies · 650+ views
    Discovery News ^ | Wednesday, November 25, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas
    Early modern humans and their predecessors in Europe were mostly big game hunters, but a pile of well-nibbled bird bones suggests that at least some prehistoric European cavemen enjoyed small prey too, according to a new study. The 202 bones, belonging to the Aythya genus of diving ducks, were found at Bolomor Cave near the town of Tavernes in Valencia, Spain. The ducks date to around 150,000 years ago, and were not eaten daintily. "The birds were de-fleshed using both stone tools and teeth," co-author Ruth Blasco told Discovery News, noting that some of the ducks may have even been...
  • Palace of Balhae Era Unearthed by Archeologists

    11/27/2009 10:49:35 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 231+ views
    Russia IC dot com ^ | November 26, 2009 | unattributed
    A joint expedition of Russian and Korean archeologists studying a site of Balhae Era resulted in finding evidences that prove existence of a big administrative centre in the Primorye Territory in the 9th-11th centuries. "We have found a building in the shape of a palace, well-known to us from diggings of capital cities of Balhae in China. Nothing of the kind had been found in the Primorye before. The discovery confirms the supposition that Primorye was not just a periphery of the Balhae state, but an administrative centre once existed there. We are going to find out what it was...
  • Climate conference sex boom

    11/26/2009 5:49:34 PM PST · by george76 · 30 replies · 1,132+ views
    politiken ^ | 27. maj 2009 | Julian Isherwood
    Copenhagen’s sex trade did brisk business during the recent business climate conference. The global climate challenge may have been on the daytime agenda during the recent World Business Summit climate conference in Copenhagen, but in the evenings many businessmen, politicians and civil servants are reported to have availed themselves of the capital’s prostitutes. “We’ve been extremely busy. Politicians also need to relax after a long day,” says ‘Miss Dina’, herself a prostitute.
  • Pack your car and leave the driving to Auto Train

    11/26/2009 7:17:01 AM PST · by Willie Green · 39 replies · 806+ views
    Boston Herald ^ | Thursday, November 26, 2009 | Associated Press
    ABOARD AMTRAK AUTO TRAIN 52 TO WASHINGTON - All aboard on this train doesn’t mean just people. It means minivans, cars and motorcycles, too. To board you have to be packing some serious luggage: Every traveler must also be transporting a vehicle. Amtrak’s Auto Train, the only one like it in the nation, has only two stops: one near Orlando, Fla., and the other in Virginia near Washington, D.C. For more than 25 years, it has carried vacationers and their vehicles, and a new $10 million station expected to open in Florida in 2010 may mean even more passengers. ~~~SNIP~~~...
  • Hunting for the home of Indonesia's Java Man

    11/26/2009 6:47:45 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 420+ views
    BBC ^ | Saturday, November 21, 2009 | not named ("from our own correspondent")
    This year has seen the discovery in Ethiopia of Ardi, the fossil skeleton believed to be the oldest human relative. But long before Ardi came Java Man, who was unearthed in the Indonesian village of Sangiran 120 years ago. Christine Finn has been on a quest to find the origins of this paleo-celebrity... Java Man. The name sounds like a 1970s men's aftershave. One possibly not much used because the face, lovingly reconstructed by the palaeontologists, suggested he was no great shaver. He also had small, deep-set eyes and an enormous jaw. But Java Man was still a hero when...