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University of New South Wales Australia-led research on limestone formations in a remote Scottish cave has produced a unique 3000-year-long record of climatic variations that may have influenced historical events including the fall of the Roman Empire and the Viking Age of expansion. The study of five stalagmites in Roaring Cave north of Ullapool in north-west Scotland is the first to use a compilation of cave measurements to track changes in a climate phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation. 'Our results also provide the longest annual record of this important phenomenon, which has a big impact on the climate in...

Scientists in the Russian Far East have carried out a post-mortem examination of the remains of the only mummified dog ever found in the world. Found sealed inside permafrost during a hunt for traces of woolly mammoths, the perfectly-preserved body is 12,450 years old. The dog, believed to be a three-month-old female, was unearthed in 2011 on the Syallakh River in the Ust-Yana region of Yakutia, also known as the Sakha Republic. Experts spent the past four years analysing the body – which included not just bones but also its heart, lungs and stomach – but only carried out the...

The more oil and gas companies pump their saltwater waste into the ground, and the faster they do it, the more they have triggered earthquakes in the central United States, a massive new study found. An unprecedented recent jump in quakes in America’s heartland can be traced to the stepped up rate that drilling wastewater is injected deep below the surface, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science that looked at 187,570 injection wells over four decades. It’s not so much the average-sized injection wells, but the supercharged ones that are causing the ground to shake. Wells that pumped...

We've got a secret the rental car companies would prefer you didn't know. people camping in RV More The Cheapest Way to Roadtrip Might Surprise You 3 Ways to Avoid Costly Rental Car Insurance These Are the Most Hated Fees in America This won’t come as news to commuters and frequent road trippers, but drivers are encountering more and more toll roads, as well as higher and higher tolls on the existing ones. The latest example is I-10 in Texas, where plans called for the maximum toll during peak travel hours to shoot from $7 to $10 as of May...

In what Prof. Barkai describes as a "time capsule," the analysed calculus revealed three major findings: charcoal from indoor fires; evidence for the ingestion of essential plant-based dietary components; and fibers that might have been used to clean teeth or were remnants of raw materials. "Prof. Karen Hardy published outstanding research on the dental calculus of Neanderthals from El Sidron cave in Spain, but these dated back just 40,000-50,000 years—we are talking far earlier than this," said Prof. Barkai. "This is the first evidence that the world's first indoor BBQs had health-related consequences," said Prof. Barkai. "The people who lived...

In November 2014, Mahsa Vahabi, an Archeology student serendipitously discovered in the dug soil in Mowlavi St., of Tehran Water and Wastewater Company some pottery. Her discovery of simple earthen material drew attentions from her fellow archeologist and a study team addressed the place on Mowlavi St. Further excavations uncovered from under the soil bones and skeleton, reportedly and supposedly belonging to a women from 7,000 years ago. Soon archeology researchers carried out research to find out more about its characteristics. A 3D documentation method was carried out on the skeleton by Mohammad Reza Rokni, an expert in Archeology Research...

Arsonists in northern Israel torched two storerooms filled with artifacts found at a nearby salvage excavation at Tel Kishon on Monday. Some of the antiquities were over 4,000 years old. The blaze inflicted irreparable damage to the antiquities, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement Tuesday morning. The authority lodged a report with the police, who opened an investigation into the incident. The excavations at Tel Kishon were being conducted to prevent damage to artifacts during roadwork on Route 65, near Mount Tabor in the Galilee. Among the antiquities found, and damaged in the blaze, were Bronze Age pottery...

The archaeological sites of the ancient Roman Empire constitute without rival the most prolific array of ancient architecture and artifacts that can be attributed to any single civilization or culture. Its remains pockmark the Old World landscape from North Africa and Egypt to Hadrian’s Wall in Britain. The artifacts populate museums the world over. But comparatively rarely does one find the preserved footprint of an ancient Roman citizen. That is why excavators and archaeologists got excited when, while digging at the site of Hippos-Sussita (an ancient Hellenistic-Roman site just east of the Sea of Galilee in Israel), they came across...

credit: Heather Humphries (Twitter feed)

John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s top science and technology advisor, said at a White House summit on clean energy on Tuesday that a “global low-carbon economy” by the year 2050 means that “cars, trucks and planes” will be powered by “electricity, biofuels or hydrogen.” “As we all know, a global low-carbon economy in 2050 is going to have to meet the energy needs of 9 or 10 billion people using technologies that will have to be more advanced than the technologies that are in place today,” he said. “Buildings, agriculture, machines must be dramatically more energy-efficient.” “Cars, trucks and planes...

Researchers in Peru have discovered a trio of statuettes they believe were created by the ancient Caral civilization some 3,800 years ago, the culture ministry said Tuesday. The mud statuettes were found inside a reed basket in a building at the ancient city of Vichama in northern Peru, which is today an important archaeological site. The ministry said they were probably used in religious rituals performed before breaking ground on a new building. Two of the figures, a naked man and woman painted in white, black and red, are believed to represent political authorities. The third, a women with 28...

Living the good life. Tell me again how this is not a career driven endeavor for them. Being anti-gun pays pretty well, doesn’t it Mark?

When it comes to restaurants, bars and unlimited evening entertainment options, cities like New York and London immediately spring to mind. But for people who actually live in such a major metropolis, the story may be a bit different. When it comes to cities where people have a truely high quality of life, a recent survey has found Tokyo, Japan, to be the top choice.

Originally Purchased in Georgia several days ago.

Six scientists who were living under a dome on the slopes of a dormant Hawaii volcano for eight months to simulate life on Mars have emerged from isolation. The crew stepped outside the dome that's 8,000 feet (2,400 metres) up the slopes of Mauna Loa to feel fresh air on their skin on Saturday. It was the first time they left without donning a space suit. The scientists are part of a human performance study funded by Nasa that tracked how they worked together as a team. They have been monitored by surveillance cameras, body movement trackers and electronic surveys....

The design, power, and cockpit foot heaters that make the 747 feel like home to pilots. The 747 has foot heaters. The frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean looks better—everything looks better—when your feet are warm.

United Technologies Corp. has announced it will separate its Connecticut-based Sikorksy Aircraft business as it exits the helicopter business. The Hartford conglomerate says it will focus on high-technology systems and services to the aerospace and building industries. It says a decision on selling or spinning off Sikorsky will be made by the end of the third quarter. …

The mayor of this small beach town halted all incoming traffic from a major roadway for several hours on Sunday after it became too jammed with tourists. Mayor Matt Doherty announced in a tweet shortly after 3 p.m. that all traffic into Belmar from Route 35 would be shut down immediately. He said in the tweet that the town had “reached its capacity.” […] The 1.6 square mile beach town has an estimated population of approximately 6,000 people, but that number swells to more than 60,000 in the summer. He said a “perfect storm of good things” led to an...

Two Russian brothers were charged Sunday in the bizarre shooting at a fancy wedding party at the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel over the weekend. The lavish affair turned bloody Saturday evening when Vladimir Gotlibovsky’s gun accidentally went off and the bullet grazed the head of a female guest, officials said. Maya Rafailovich, who was grazed by a bullet at the Waldorf Astoria, is taken away in a gurney. Three other guests were struck in their legs by flying marble, tile and glass from the ricocheting bullet, authorities said.

On his last full day in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Terry Virts at last captured a truly iconic shot of one of the “Seven Wonders of the World” – the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. Virts snapped the exquisitely sharp view of the Egyptian pyramids at Giza on June 10 looking out from the stations windows, just hours before entering the Soyuz return spaceship and closing the hatches behind him for his planned plummet back to Earth. He proudly posted the spectacular photo on his twitter social media account from space while serving as...