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· Saturday, January 16, 2010 · 40 topics · 2428272 to 2424956 · 736 members · |
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Saturday |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #287 Saturday, January 16, 2010 |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Men not so primitive: Study shows macho Y chromosome evolving faster than rest of genetic code |
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· 01/13/2010 7:43:49 PM PST · · Posted by Fractal Trader · · 24 replies · 602+ views · · Canadian Press via Google News · · 13 January 2010 · · Seth Borenstein · |
Women may think of men as primitive, but new research indicates that the Y chromosome - the thing that makes a man male - is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code. A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 per cent different. That is far greater than the 2 per cent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp's, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature. These changes occurred in the last... |
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| Neandertals / Neanderthals | |
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| Neanderthal 'make-up' containers discovered |
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· 01/11/2010 5:09:49 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 32 replies · 524+ views · · BBC · · Jan 9, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Did Neanderthals wear make-up? Scientists claim to have the first persuasive evidence that Neanderthals wore "body paint" 50,000 years ago.The team report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that shells containing pigment residues were Neanderthal make-up containers. Scientists unearthed the shells at two archaeological sites in the Murcia province of southern Spain. The team says its find buries "the view of Neanderthals as half-wits" and shows they were capable of symbolic thinking. Professor Joao Zilhao, the archaeologist from Bristol University in the UK, who led the study, said that he and his team had examined shells that... |
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| Because they were worth it? Research finds Neanderthals enjoyed makeup |
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· 01/11/2010 4:50:51 PM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 13 replies · 321+ views · · guardian.co.uk · · Jan. 11, 2010 · · Sam Jones · |
For decades, our low-browed Neanderthal cousins have been portrayed as dim savages whose idea of seduction was a whispered "ug" and a blow to the cranium. But analysis of pierced, hand-coloured shells and lumps of pigment from two caves in south-east Spain suggests the cavepeople who stomped around Europe 50,000 years ago were far more intelligent -- and cosmetically minded -- than previously thought. In 1985, archaeologists excavating the Cueva de los Aviones in Murcia found cockle shells perforated as if to be hung on a necklace and an oyster shell containing mineral pigments, hinting that the cave's Neanderthal residents... |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| Ancient hominids may have been seafarers |
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· 01/14/2010 4:18:11 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · 300+ views · · Science News · · Friday, January 8th, 2010 · · Bruce Bower · |
Human ancestors that left Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago to see the rest of the world were no landlubbers. Stone hand axes unearthed on the Mediterranean island of Crete indicate that an ancient Homo species -- perhaps Homo erectus -- had used rafts or other seagoing vessels to cross from northern Africa to Europe via at least some of the larger islands in between, says archaeologist Thomas Strasser of Providence College in Rhode Island. Several hundred double-edged cutting implements discovered at nine sites in southwestern Crete date to at least 130,000 years ago and probably much earlier, Strasser... |
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| Navigation | |
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| Sailing into antiquity: BU archeologist unearths clues about ancient Egypt's sea trade |
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· 01/14/2010 7:20:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 261+ views · · Boston Globe · · Monday, January 11, 2010 · · Colin Nickerson · |
...Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt... the team led by Bard and an Italian archeologist, Rodolfo Fattovich, started uncovering maritime storerooms in 2004, putting hard timber and rugged rigging to the notion of pharaonic deepwater prowess. In the most recent discovery, on Dec. 29, they located the eighth in a series of lost chambers at Wadi Gawasis after shoveling through cubic meters of rock rubble and wind-blown sand... The reconnaissance of the room and its... |
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| The Vikings | |
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| On a mission to crack the Norse code [ Orkney ] |
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· 01/14/2010 7:37:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · 392+ views · · Scot Herald · · Monday, January 11, 2010 · · Gavin Francis · |
The guide's voice began to conjure other shadows from the past. The neolithic people crept away as she switched on her torch and began to tell us about the runic writing on the walls, now known to have been written by Norse inhabitants of Orkney some time in the 12th century. The tension dissolved and laughter broke out as she translated: "Ingibjorg the fair widow; many a woman has had to lower herself to come in here, despite her airs and graces." "I bedded Thorni. By Helgi." And then some boasting about how well-travelled these Norsemen were: "These runes were... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Palestinians find ancient coin hoard in Gaza |
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· 01/14/2010 7:13:26 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · 311+ views · · Google hosted news · · Tuesday, January 12, 2010 · · AFP · |
The Hamas-run ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza on Monday announced the discovery of ancient artifacts near the Egyptian border town of Rafah. "The most important of the findings are 1,300 antique silver coins, both large and small," said Mohammed al-Agha, tourism and antiquities minister in the Islamist-run government. He said archaeologists had also uncovered a black basalt grinder, a coin with a cross etched on it, and the remains of walls and arches believed to have been built in 320 BC. They also discovered a "mysterious" underground compartment with a blocked entrance that appeared to be a tomb,... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves |
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· 01/10/2010 6:35:05 PM PST · · Posted by jerry557 · · 30 replies · 701+ views · · Reuters via Yahoo! · · 01/10/2010 · · Marwa Awad · |
CAIRO (Reuters) -- New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday. Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts. "These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement. "If they were slaves, they would... |
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| The Lost Tribes | |
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| Are the Taliban Descended From One of Ten Lost Tribes of Israel? |
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· 01/09/2010 7:56:47 PM PST · · Posted by Shellybenoit · · 46 replies · 846+ views · · The Lid/jpost · · 1/9/09 · · The Lid · |
Every Friday night observant Jews bless their sons by saying, "may you be like Manasseh and Ephraim," the two sons of the biblical Joseph, who were the first Jews, born outside of the Holy Land. The blessing expresses the hope that, just like Joseph's sons, today's Jewish sons will hold fast to their religion despite the fact they live in the diaspora. Manasseh and Ephraim are two of the famous lost ten tribes, who were carted away into exile more than 2,500 years ago. Descendants of the tribe of Manasseh have been found living in India, and many of them... |
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| Taliban may be descended from Jews (Tribe of Ephraim?- DNA testing) |
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· 01/13/2010 10:10:49 AM PST · · Posted by skaro · · 74 replies · 1,250+ views · · Telegraph UK · · 1-11-10 · · Dean Nelson · |
Experts at Mumbai's National Institute of Immunohaematology believe Pashtuns could be one of the ten "Lost Tribes of Israel".According to legend, they are descended from the Ephraim tribe which was driven out of Israel by the Assyrian invasion in around 700BC. The Israeli government is funding a genetic study to establish if there is any proof of the link. An Indian geneticist has taken blood samples from the Pashtun Afridi tribe in Lucknow, Northern India, to Israel where she will spend the next 12 months comparing DNA with samples with those of Israeli Jews. |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Prehistoric building found in modern Israeli city |
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· 01/11/2010 4:23:12 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 32 replies · 494+ views · · Associated Press · · Jan 11, 2009 · · IAN DEITCH · |
JERUSALEM -- Archaeologists have uncovered remains of an 8,000-year-old prehistoric building as well as ancient flint tools in the modern city of Tel Aviv, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Monday. The building is the earliest structure ever found in Tel Aviv and changes what archaeologists previously believed about the area in ancient times. "This discovery is both important and surprising to researchers of the period," said Ayelet Dayan, the archaeologist who led the excavation. "For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region 8,000 years ago," she said. |
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| Biblical Archaeology | |
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| When Was the Bible Really Written? |
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· 01/09/2010 5:55:26 PM PST · · Posted by driftdiver · · 28 replies · 799+ views · · Foxnews · · Jan 9, 2010 · · foxnews · |
By decoding the inscription on a 3,000-year-old piece of pottery, an Israeli professor has concluded that parts of the bible were written hundreds of years earlier than suspected. The pottery shard was discovered at excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Elah valley in Israel -- about 18 miles west of Jerusalem. Carbon-dating places it in the 10th century BC, making the shard about 1,000 years older than the Dead Sea scrolls. ...... English translation of the deciphered text: 1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord]. 2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an] 3'... |
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| Deciphered etching sheds new light on Bible's origin |
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· 01/10/2010 10:16:56 AM PST · · Posted by NYer · · 62 replies · 1,258+ views · · Haaretz · · January 8, 2010 · · Fadi Eyadat · |
Did the writing of the Bible begin as far back as the 10th century B.C.E., during the time of King David? That is four centuries earlier than Biblical scholars currently believe - but an inscription recently deciphered by a scholar at Haifa University indicates that for at least some books of the Bible, the answer may be yes. The inscription, written in ink on clay, is the earliest yet found in Hebrew. It was discovered about 18 months ago in a dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa, near Emek Ha'ela. While it was quickly dated, its language remained uncertain until Prof. Gershon... |
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| Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Text Suggests |
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· 01/15/2010 10:56:30 AM PST · · Posted by My Favorite Headache · · 88 replies · 1,195+ views · · Yahoo News/Live Science · · 1-15-10 · |
Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign. The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible's Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.) Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month. "It... |
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| Greece | |
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| Syria's mysterious Dead Cities |
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· 01/14/2010 7:09:52 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · 482+ views · · The Guardian · · Saturday January 9, 2010 · · Kevin Rushby · |
The stone window ledge has two rows of seven shallow depressions cut into it, and I am sitting next to them, trying to remember where on earth I've seen this pattern before. Far away, beyond the massive fortifications and the moat, are the white-capped mountains of Lebanon. I had not expected to see so much snow around, but then Syria throws up surprises all the time. Even this 12th-century crusader castle, Krak des Chevaliers, a fabulous place long picked over by archaeologists and historians, is full of mysteries. Like the timeworn inscription I found tucked away in a corner: "Ceso:... |
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| Sunken Civilizations | |
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| Rediscovery of Ancient Bathonea |
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· 01/14/2010 3:36:43 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · 493+ views · · www.en400.com · · August 25, 2009 · · Jerry Kelly · |
Imagine sailing across a lake, looking down, and seeing the top of a tower coming up towards you. That's what villagers have been doing for centuries at Lake Kçkçekmece in what is now Turkey. They told archaeologists from Kocaeli University and the Istanbul Prehistoric Research Project that they thought it was the minaret of a sunken mosque. The archaeologists sent divers down and found an ancient lighthouse at the edge of a sunken city. Using documents written by geographers centuries ago, the archaeologists have now identified the city as the ancient Byzantine port of Bathonea. 1600 years ago, the port... |
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| Malta | |
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| Gozo rock holds ancient wine presses [ Malta ] |
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· 01/14/2010 7:33:31 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · 157+ views · · Times of Malta · · January 12, 2010 · · Claudia Calleja · |
Centuries ago, come September, galleys would be rowed into Mg'arr ix-Xini harbour and loaded with amphorae filled with wine that had been pressed in the valley. Winemakers would fill shallow basins with grapes and, once pressed, the juice would flow through holes and channels into a deeper collecting holder, all carved into the rock. These wine presses, said to date back to 500 BC, can still be seen embedded in the Gozitan valley and are being studied and documented in a project carried out by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Sannat and Xewkija local councils with the support... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| Aboriginal folklore leads to meteorite crater |
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· 01/12/2010 9:59:26 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 17 replies · 588+ views · · COSMOS · · 07 Jan 2010 · · Aaron Cook · |
SYDNEY: An Australian Aboriginal 'Dreaming' story has helped experts uncover a meteorite impact crater in the outback of the Northern Territory. Duane Hamacher, an astrophysicist studying Aboriginal astronomy at Sydney's Macquarie University, used Google Maps to search for the signs of impact craters in areas related to Aboriginal stories of stars or stones falling from the sky. One story, from the folklore of the Arrernte people, is about a star falling to Earth at a site called Puka. This led to a search on Google Maps of Palm Valley, about 130 km southwest of Alice Springs. Here Hamacher discovered what... |
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| China | |
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| On this rare map, China is the center of the world |
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· 01/12/2010 9:30:36 AM PST · · Posted by stainlessbanner · · 10 replies · 1,049+ views · · AP via yahoo · · 12 January 2010 · · BRETT ZONGKER · |
WASHINGTON -- A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world went on display Tuesday at the Library of Congress.The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.Ricci's map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa... |
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| Scotland Yet | |
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| Lost Capital Of Scotland Uncovered |
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· 07/06/2002 4:49:47 PM PDT · · Posted by blam · · 38 replies · 775+ views · · Sunday Herald · · Jennifer Johnston · |
Lost capital of Scotland uncovered Dark Age fort found near Wallace Monument proves Stirling was home of Scottish warlords By Jenifer Johnston Workers laying cables to floodlight the National Wallace Monument have uncovered a 1500-year-old citadel which confirms the site of Scotland's lost capital. Archaeologists believe the ruins establish a much earlier time of sophisticated battles near Stirling. An archaeological report published yesterday reveals that the cliff-top fortification on the volcanic Abbey Craig was a 'Dark Age citadel' occupied between 500 and 780AD. The discovery of entrances, stone walls and timber ramparts provides the first evidence that Stirling was one... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Snow and an ancient Sussex church |
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· 01/08/2010 8:11:47 AM PST · · Posted by sussex · · 25 replies · 927+ views · · theagedp.com/ · · 08/01/10 · · The Aged P · |
Unlike many parts of the USA heavy winter snow is a comparatively rare event in our part of England so the last few days have made quite an impact. Fortunately we are both retired and are still relatively well stocked with food -- and gin -- so there is no need to risk the cars on the untreated side roads or our bottoms on the icy pavements. However, to avoid a complete outbreak of stir craziness, we ventured out for a brief airing a couple of times -- hence the pics (taken by The Lovely Mrs P, much more creative... |
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| Farty Shades of Green | |
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| Much of the early methane rise can be attributed to the spreading of northern peatlands |
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· 01/14/2010 6:29:38 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 19 replies · 208+ views · · University of Helsinki · · Jan 14, 2010 · · Unknown · |
The surprising increase in methane concentrations millennia ago, identified in continental glacier studies, has puzzled researchers for a long time. According to a strong theory, this would have resulted from the commencement of rice cultivation in East Asia. However, a study conducted at the University of Helsinki's Department of Environmental Sciences and the Department of Geosciences and Geography shows that the massive expanse of the northern peatlands occurred around 5000 years ago, coincident with rising atmospheric methane levels. After water vapour and carbon dioxide, methane is the most significant greenhouse gas, resulting in about one fifth of atmospheric warming caused... |
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| Climate | |
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| Bering Strait influenced ice age climate patterns worldwide |
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· 01/10/2010 10:33:28 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 27 replies · 492+ views · · National Center for Atmospheric Research/ University Corporation for Atmospheric Research · · Jan 10, 2010 · · Unknown · |
BOULDER--In a vivid example of how a small geographic feature can have far-reaching impacts on climate, new research shows that water levels in the Bering Strait helped drive global climate patterns during ice age episodes dating back more than 100,000 years. The international study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), found that the repeated opening and closing of the narrow strait due to fluctuating sea levels affected currents that transported heat and salinity in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As a result, summer temperatures in parts of North America and Greenland oscillated between warmer and... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| Evidence of Ancient Amazon Civilization Uncovered |
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· 01/09/2010 5:52:40 PM PST · · Posted by fishhound · · 30 replies · 1,370+ views · · The Sphere/AOL · · 1/09/2010 · · David Knowles · |
(Jan. 8) -- As a result of the deforestation of the Amazon basin, a startling discovery has been made. Hidden from view for centuries, the vast archaeological remains of an unknown, ancient civilization have been found. A study published in Antiquity, a British archaeological journal, details how satellite imagery was used to discern the footprint of the buildings and roads of a settlement, located in what is now Brazil and believed to span a region of more than 150 miles across. "The combination of land cleared of its rain forest for grazing and satellite survey have revealed a sophisticated pre-Columbian... |
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| "Lost" Amazon Complex Found; Shapes Seen by Satellite |
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· 01/10/2010 10:10:20 AM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 32 replies · 1,182+ views · · nationalgeographic · · January 4, 2010 · · John Roach · |
Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers). Now researchers estimate that nearly ten times as many such structures -- of unknown purpose -- may exist undetected under the Amazon's forest cover. At least one of the sites has been dated to around A.D. 1283, although others may date as far back as A.D. 200 to 300, said study co-author Denise Schaan, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Par· in BelÈm, Brazil. The discovery adds to evidence that the hinterlands of the Amazon once teemed... |
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| Hope and Change | |
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| Another Bad Idea: ''Diversifying'' Science Faculties: "Science should look like the population" |
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· 01/12/2010 3:56:09 PM PST · · Posted by skaro · · 50 replies · 507+ views · · Minding the Campus · · 1-7-10 · · Roger Clegg · |
Should universities weigh race and ethnicity in deciding whom to hire for their science departments? The American Association for the Advancement of Science thinks so, according to a recent National Journal article. "Science and engineering should look like the rest of the population," says AAAS's Daryl Chubin." The National Journal article says that it wants to "allocate additional slots to U.S. racial and ethnic minorities" and to protect universities from "likely lawsuits by groups seeking color-blind admissions policies." |
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| MIT lags in hiring, promoting black, Hispanic faculty, internal report says |
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· 01/14/2010 9:45:58 AM PST · · Posted by reaganaut1 · · 51 replies · 811+ views · · Boston Globe · · January 14, 2010 · · Tracy Jan · |
MIT must do a better job recruiting and retaining black and Hispanic faculty, who have a significantly more difficult time getting promoted than white and Asian colleagues, according to a frank internal study released today by the university. In some departments, such as chemistry, mathematics, and nuclear science and engineering, no minorities have been hired in the last two decades, according to the report, which was more than two years in the making. MIT's first comprehensive study of faculty racial diversity and the experiences of underrepresented minority professors highlights a national problem across academia: the need to improve the pipeline... |
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| Early America | |
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| A super bowl that eluded patriots |
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· 01/14/2010 12:29:02 PM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 17 replies · 360+ views · · Boston Globe · · January 14, 2010 · · Samuel G. Allis · |
Now 300 years old, the Loring Bowl, as it is known, will be the star of the show at Sotheby's auction of early American silver in New York on Jan. 22. It is, by far, the biggest bowl of its kind and period that Sotheby's has ever handled. Now 300 years old, the Loring Bowl, as it is known, will be the star of the show at Sotheby's auction of early American silver in New York on Jan. 22. It is, by far, the biggest bowl of its kind and period that Sotheby's has ever handled. (Southeby's) Fearing for his... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Battle of Guilford Courthouse gets its due |
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· 01/10/2010 12:08:49 PM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 71 replies · 718+ views · · News Record (Greensboro, NC) · · January 10, 2010 · · Eddie Huffman · |
From Hollywood to the history shelf, the Civil War was a widescreen epic, while the American Revolution has too often been a footnote. One of the most important battles of the Revolution happened in what is now Greensboro on March 15, 1781, but, over the past century, Americans have treated that war as an afterthought. The Civil War was "Gone with the Wind," "Glory" and 11 hours by Ken Burns. The Revolution, by contrast, was little more than a few forgettable movies, an occasional special on The History Channel and a handful of books (or more often booklets) sold at... |
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| This Day In History, January 14, 1784, The Treaty of Paris was Ratified |
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· 01/14/2010 5:51:46 PM PST · · Posted by mdittmar · · 6 replies · 145+ views · · various · · 1/14/10 · · various · |
Ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on 14 January 1784, the treaty that formally ended the Revolutionary War gave formal recognition to the United States. The three American negotiators, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, proved themselves to be masters of the game, outmaneuvering their counterparts and clinging fiercely to the points of national interest that guaranteed a future for the United States. Two crucial provisions of the treaty were British recognition of U.S. independence and the delineation of boundaries that would allow for American western expansion. The treaty is named for the city in which it was negotiated and... |
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| Test Your Knowledge on the American Revolution and Its Enduring Legacy |
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· 01/13/2010 8:47:26 AM PST · · Posted by Lucky9teen · · 52 replies · 763+ views · · americanrevolutioncenter.org · |
National Survey The American Revolution Center commissioned the first national survey to assess adult knowledge of the American Revolution. The results show that an alarming 83 percent of Americans failed a basic test on knowledge of the American Revolution and the principles that have united all Americans. Results also revealed that 90 percent of Americans think that knowledge of the American Revolution and its principles is very important, and that 89 percent of Americans expected to pass a test on basic knowledge of the American Revolution, but scored an average of 44 percent. The survey questions addressed issues related to... |
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| What's Your Constitution I.Q.? |
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· 01/13/2010 10:28:27 AM PST · · Posted by Lucky9teen · · 30 replies · 712+ views · · constitutionfacts.com · |
Welcome to ConstitutionFacts.com where you'll see the entire text of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence - and much more! You'll find interesting insights into the men who wrote the Constitution, how it was created, and how the Supreme Court has interpreted the United States Constitution in the two centuries since its creation. The Constitution is certainly the most influential legal document in existence. Since its creation some two hundred years ago, over one hundred countries around the world have used it as a model for their own. And it is a living document. It... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Civil War flags losing state budget battles |
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· 01/09/2010 6:27:28 PM PST · · Posted by HokieMom · · 13 replies · 383+ views · · The Washington Times · · January 6, 2010 · · AP · |
ALBANY, N.Y. · · They made it through Shiloh, Antietam and Gettysburg, but many of the Civil War battle flags sitting in the nation's state-owned collections might not survive the budget battles being waged in some statehouses. In New York, home to the nation's largest state-owned collection of Civil War battle flags, money for a preservation project is being cut from Gov. David A. Paterson's proposed budget. Indiana's funding for flag conservation has been returned to the state's general fund. Ohio hasn't provided government funding for its 400-plus Civil War battles flags in nearly a decade... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| Lexington, Virginia, Made a Pact with the Devil |
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· 01/14/2010 10:36:21 PM PST · · Posted by Brian_Baldwin · · 1 replies · 238+ views · · unknown · |
Shocking revelations into historical folktales of Virginia reveal that a long time ago, Lexington was given over in a Pact with the Devil by a blacksmith just prior to the Civil War. It is called folktale, but there are many who can vouch for the historical side of Wicked John and the Devil. As for Wicked John whom you have no doubt heard of if you know anything about the Wiley ways of the Red Demon, can say of John "that critter's so mean the buzzards wouldn't claim him", "Too bad for heaven, too mean for hell". One of those... |
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| Biology | |
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| Unlocking the mystery of the duck-billed platypus' venom (Australia) |
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· 01/13/2010 12:57:24 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 71 replies · 945+ views · · American Chemical Society · · Jan 13, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Abandon any notion that the duck-billed platypus is a soft and cuddly creature -- maybe like Perry the Platypus in the Phineas and Ferb cartoon. This platypus, renowned as one of the few mammals that lay eggs, also is one of only a few venomous mammals. The males can deliver a mega-sting that causes immediate, excruciating pain, like hundreds of hornet stings, leaving victims incapacitated for weeks. Now scientists are reporting an advance toward deciphering the chemical composition of the venom, with the first identification of a dozen protein building blocks. Their study is in the Journal of the American... |
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| Cryptobiology | |
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| Half-Plant, Half-Animal ... Really |
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· 01/13/2010 3:52:51 PM PST · · Posted by lorddoctor · · 32 replies · 640+ views · · Fox News · · 1-13-10 · |
A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It's the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll. The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they've eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis -- the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. "They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything," said Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Pierce has been studying the unique creatures, officially called Elysia chlorotica, for about 20 years. He |
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| Don't Drink, Don't Smoke, What Do You Do? | |
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| Ant Has Given Up Sex Completely, Researchers Confirm |
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· 01/09/2010 11:04:07 AM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 21 replies · 893+ views · · sciencedaily · · Jan. 9, 2010 · |
The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers. Most social insects -- the wasps, ants and bees -- are relatively used to daily life without males. Their colonies are well run by swarms of sterile sisters lorded over by an egg-laying queen. But, eventually, all social insect species have the ability to produce a crop of males who go forth in the world to fertilize new queens and propagate. Queens of the ant Mycocepurus smithii reproduce without fertilization and... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Oldest footprints reveal when sea creatures took their first steps on land |
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· 01/10/2010 11:31:50 AM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 27 replies · 527+ views · · dailymail.co.uk · · Jan. 7, 2010 · · Daily Mail Reporter · |
The earliest footprints made by Earth's first four-legged creatures have been unearthed by scientists. The fossilized tracks were left 395 million years ago by several primitive animals up to eight feet long. They are being hailed as a 'missing link' in one of evolution's most spectacular transitions - the shift from water to land. The findings have stunned scientists because the footprints date to 18 million years before four-limbed vertebrates known as tetrapods were known to have existed. The tracks were found in the Holy Cross Mountains in south-eastern Poland, one of the oldest ranges in Europe, and have distinctive 'hand' and... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Alligator Breathing Sheds Light on Rise of Dinosaurs |
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· 01/14/2010 5:23:32 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 19 replies · 277+ views · · Live Science · · Jan 14, 2009 · · Andrea Thompson · |
Alligators breathe like birds, scientists have discovered. "They cannot argue with this data," she said. "I have three lines of evidence. If they don't believe it, they need to get an alligator and make their own measurements." |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Origin of the Species, From an Alien View: WHERE did humankind come from? [ Sitchin ] |
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· 01/13/2010 3:22:05 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 35 replies · 617+ views · · New York Times · · January 8, 2010 · · Corey Kilgannon · |
If you're going to ask Zecharia Sitchin, be ready for a "Planet of the Apes" scenario: spaceships and hieroglyphics, genetic mutations and mutinous space aliens in gold mines. It sounds like science fiction, but Mr. Sitchin is sure this is how it all went down hundreds of thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia. Humans were genetically engineered by extraterrestrials, he said, pointing to ancient texts to prove it... He is an apparently sane, sharp, University of London-educated 89-year-old who has spent his life arguing that people evolved with a little genetic intervention from ancient astronauts who came to Earth and... |
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| end of digest #287 20100116 | |
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· Saturday, January 16, 2010 · 40 topics · 2428272 to 2424956 · 736 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 287th issue. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #288 Saturday, January 23, 2010 |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Mayan Calender Includes Image of Obama ?? |
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· 01/16/2010 9:30:01 PM PST · · Posted by MrDaddyLongLegs · · 21 replies · 1,530+ views · · mrdaddylonglegs · · 16/1/2010 · · mrdaddylonglegs · |
Is that a caricature of President Obama featured in the apocalyptic Mayan calender ? |
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| Hope and Change | |
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| Is Teaching American History Unconstitutional? |
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· 01/17/2010 6:36:21 AM PST · · Posted by RightSideNews · · 39 replies · 1,029+ views · · Right Side News · · January 17, 2010 · · David Barton · |
writing teams of Texas teachers drafted the 2010 proposed standards...The writing teams had recommended the removal of Nathan Hale, Daniel Boone, and General George Patton; they eradicated Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Christmas (but they did add Diwali as a holiday). They also declared that to say there was "an American love of individualism, inventiveness, and freedom" was to express inappropriate "value language," and they also rejected the concept of identifying specific beliefs that contributed to ou "national identity." |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Mysterious Jamestown Tablet an American Rosetta Stone ? |
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· 01/17/2010 6:07:31 PM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 26 replies · 988+ views · · nationalgeographic · · January 13, 2010 · · Paula Neely · |
Slate may show early colonist efforts to communicate with Indians. With the help of enhanced imagery and an expert in Elizabethan script, archaeologists are beginning to unravel the meaning of mysterious text and images etched into a rare 400-year-old slate tablet discovered this past summer at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Digitally enhanced images of the slate are helping to isolate inscriptions and illuminate fine details on the slate -- the first with extensive inscriptions discovered at any early American colonial site, said William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at the 17th-century Historic Jamestowne site. With the... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Experts may have found bones of 10th-century English princess |
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· 01/20/2010 3:15:37 PM PST · · Posted by Tennessee Nana · · 24 replies · 795+ views · · ChattanoogaTimesFreePress · · January 20, 2010 · · RAPHAEL G. SATTER · |
LONDON -- She was a beautiful English princess who married one of Europe's most powerful monarchs and dazzled subjects with her charity and charm. Now an international team of scientists say they think they've found the body of Princess Eadgyth (pronounced Edith) -- a 10th-century noblewoman who has been compared to Princess Diana. "She was a very, very popular person," said Mark Horton, an archaeology professor at Bristol University in western England. "She was sort of the Diana of her day if you like -- pretty and full of good works." Horton is one of a team of experts working... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Ancient Roam [ s/b "Ancient Rome" and c/b "Ancient Roman Statue Used as Garden Gnome"] |
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· 01/18/2010 11:54:42 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · 265+ views · · Croatian Times · · Thursday, January 14, 2010 · · Austrian Times · |
A priceless ancient Roman statue has been discovered being used to decorate a flower bed in a housing estate. The headless sculpture of an emperor is believed to have been stolen some time in the 1930s and then used during the construction of a posh private square in Naples, Italy. It is thought to date back to the 2nd century BC and may once have stood in the grand gardens of a local palace. Police have now restored the statue to the city's archaeological museum after a race against time to beat the Mafia to the treasure. "We knew... |
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| Macedonia | |
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| Laminated Linen Protected Alexander the Great |
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· 01/16/2010 8:09:03 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 36 replies · 1,060+ views · · Discovery News · · 11 Jan 2010 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
Alexander's men wore linothorax, a highly effective type of body armor created by laminating together layers of linen, research finds. A Kevlar-like armor might have helped Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) conquer nearly the entirety of the known world in little more than two decades, according to new reconstructive archaeology research. Presented at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Anaheim, Calif., the study suggests that Alexander and his soldiers protected themselves with linothorax, a type of body armor made by laminating together layers of linen. "While we know quite a lot about ancient armor made from... |
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| Greece | |
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| Akrotiri Peninsula Excavations |
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· 01/18/2010 10:29:25 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · 154+ views · · Cyprus News Agency · · January 11, 2010 · · News in English editor · |
The completion of the... third season of systematic excavations..., conducted at the site of Katalymmata ton Plakoton, of the Akrotiri peninsula, on the south coast, under the directions of the Senior Archaeological Officer of the Department Eleni Procopiou. During this season the excavation of the rest of the western part of what was most probably the narthex of a very important ecclesiastical building of the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century A.D., which began in 2007, was completed. The narthex has a total length of 14m on an E-W axis and a width of 36m... |
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| Here, Kitty Kitty | |
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| Egypt announces find of ancient cat goddess temple |
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· 01/19/2010 5:04:39 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 49 replies · 683+ views · · Associated Press · · Jan 19, 2010 · · HAMZA HENDAWI · |
CAIRO - Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday. The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C. The city was the seat of the Greek-speaking Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt for 300 years until the suicide of Queen Cleopatra. The statement said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled... |
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| Living Image | |
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| Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx |
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· 01/22/2010 7:48:57 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 17 replies · 896+ views · · Smithsonian Mag · · Feb 2010 · · Evan Hadingham · |
After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late 1960s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century. In 1971, Lehner, a bored sophomore at the University of North Dakota, wasn't planning to... |
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| Too Tightly Wrapped | |
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| Did King Tut's Discoverer Steal from the Tomb? |
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· 01/19/2010 10:57:55 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 7 replies · 682+ views · · Spiegel Online · · 15 Jan 2010 · · Matthias Schulz · |
Howard Carter, the British explorer who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, will forever be associated with the greatest trove of artifacts from ancient Egypt. But was he also a thief? Dawn was breaking as Howard Carter took up a crowbar to pry open the sealed tomb door in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. With shaking hands, he held a candle to the fissure, now wafting out 3,300-year-old air. What did he see, those behind him wanted to know. The archaeologist could do no more than stammer, "Wonderful things!" This scene from Thebes in November, 1922, is considered archaeology's... |
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| Egypt | |
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| The Sacred Bird Of Egypt |
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· 10/25/2009 12:07:35 PM PDT · · Posted by SWAMPSNIPER · · 16 replies · 692+ views · · self · · October 25, 2009 · · swampsniper · |
The Ibis was so venerated in ancient Eygpt that they were even mummified and placed in royal tombs. I think there is a reason. If you are trying to grow crops in a river bottom, in a warm climate, you will be plagued with grubs and bugs and other pests, all trying to eat your veggies. The Ibis is eager to help, they love to eat the pests. Egypt owes a major debt to the Ibis clan. |
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| Hunt for bird mummy in Conn. comes up empty |
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· 01/18/2010 11:11:31 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · 126+ views · · PhysOrg · · Sunday, January 17, 2010 · · AP · |
Researchers who examined an Egyptian mummy with the latest imaging technology found no evidence that a packet inside her was an offering to the gods of the ancient world... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Neglect of the Sanhedrin Tombs in Jerusalem |
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· 01/18/2010 10:36:41 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · 176+ views · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · Friday, January 15, 2010 · · unattributed · |
The conservation and maintenance of the tombs of ancient Israel's highest court members, the Great Sanhedrin, located in Jerusalem has been stirring up quite a debate recently. The Second Temple-period tombs have not been officially maintained but locals, some not even followers of Judaism, have taken it upon themselves to step in and clean the area. The municipality of Jerusalem will not help with their efforts but rather have put restrictions on the local residents' attempts to preserve the site. Debate over who has responsibility for maintaining the site is an issue between the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem... |
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| Dead Sea Scrolls | |
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| Dead Sea Scroll dating now possible |
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· 01/20/2010 4:23:29 AM PST · · Posted by Schnucki · · 13 replies · 590+ views · · Politiken (Denmark) · · January 20, 2010 · |
After a decade of intense laboratory tests, a Danish archaeochemist has found a way to enable scientists to precisely date the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ownership of which is currently a bone of contention between Israel and Jordan, according to videnskab.dk. The Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient documents were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves near the Qumran Wadi northwest of the Dead Sea. Treatment of the rolls has included them being spread out using plant oil, which in turn made precise carbon dating of the scrolls almost impossible. A Danish archaeochemist and an international team of researchers,... |
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| Religion of Peace | |
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| Iraq To Build Massive Mosque Over The Tomb Of The Prophet Ezekiel |
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· 01/05/2010 7:47:26 PM PST · · Posted by Tamar Rush · · 60 replies · 1,356+ views · · The Last Crusade · · Jan. 05, 2010 · · Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. · |
DESECRETAION OF SACRED SITE PROMPTS LITTLE ATTENTION by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org The Iraqi government plans to convert the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel, one of the most sacred sites for Christians and Jews, into a massive new mosque. What's more, the Iraqis intend to erase all Jewish markings from the tomb so that no indication of its historic significance will remain for future generations. The plan to transform the ancient burial site into a mosque was reported this week by Ur News, the Iraqi news agency, and Shelomo Alfassa, Director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries.... |
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| Iraq Reclaims A Jewish History It Once Shunned [actually the stuff, not the Jews or history] |
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· 01/17/2010 7:25:06 AM PST · · Posted by SJackson · · 14 replies · 347+ views · · WYFF4 · · 1-17-10 · · REBECCA SANTANA · |
BAGHDAD -- It was seized from Jewish families and wound up soaking in sewage water in the basement of a secret police building. Rescued from the chaos that engulfed Baghdad as Saddam Hussein was toppled, it now sits in safekeeping in an office near Washington, D.C. Like this country's once great Jewish community, the Iraqi Jewish Archive of books, manuscripts, records and other materials has gone through turbulent times. Now another twist may be in store: Iraq wants it back. Iraqi officials say they will go to the U.S., possibly next month, to assess the materials found by U.S. troops... |
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| Phoenicians | |
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| Treasure Found Off La Manga [ Phoenician treasure ship ] |
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· 01/18/2010 11:59:53 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · 550+ views · · The Leader · · Friday, January 15, 2010 · · Sally Bengtsson · |
Buried beneath shells, rocks and sand, for 2,600 years, ...a treasure of incalculable value has lain just off La Manga...The find appears to be the cargo of a commercial ship carrying ivory from African elephants, amber and lots of ceramic objects. The find has been kept secret for the past three years by the team of divers led by the Spaniard Juan Pinedo Reyes and the American Mark Edward Polzer. The recovery project is being financed by National Geographic, who have reached an agreement with the Spanish Minister of Culture, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the University A&M of... |
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| Lixus | |
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| Chemical analyses uncover secrets of an ancient amphora |
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· 01/20/2010 7:36:26 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 6 replies · 293+ views · · FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology · · Jan 20, 2010 · · Unknown · |
A team of chemists from the University of Valencia (UV) has confirmed that the substance used to hermetically seal an amphora found among remains at Lixus, in Morocco, was pine resin. The scientists also studied the metallic fragments inside the 2,000-year-old vessel, which could be fragments of material used for iron-working. In 2005, a group of archaeologists from the UV discovered a sealed amphora among the remains at Lixus, an ancient settlement founded by the Phoenicians near Larache, in Morocco. Since then, researchers from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at this university have been carrying out various studies into it... |
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| Navigation | |
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| The battle over Hawaii's history |
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· 01/20/2010 9:24:29 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 14 replies · 565+ views · · LA Times · · 18 Jan 2010 · · Alana Semuels · |
Amateur historian Rick Rogers just knows Europeans visited the islands two centuries before Captain Cook landed in 1778. Trying to prove it and convince professionals, that's another story. In the clear blue water 150 feet down, off Palemano Point on Hawaii's Big Island, Captain Rick Rogers swam along the ocean floor, concentrating on the light white swirls of staghorn reef below him. As tiny bubbles of air escaped from his tank, his black flippers propelled him above the coral, next to schools of reddish mempache and juicy turquoise uhu fish. The scene was breathtaking, but Rogers didn't care about nature.... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| Lost Spanish colony may be found |
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· 01/20/2010 11:12:31 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 16 replies · 453+ views · · The St. Augustine Record · · 19 Jan 2010 · · PETER GUINTA · |
Pottery in St. Augustine may provide clues Three years after St. Augustine was founded, Alvara de Mendana, nephew of the governor of Peru, set out with two ships and 150 soldiers and sailed west to find gold and a new trade route to China. Mendana's 1568 voyage found nothing, so he returned to Peru. But a relentless lust for gold pushed the Spanish to dispatch more colonizing fleets. And one founded a colony somewhere in the Solomon Islands, northeast of Australia. No one knows its exact location or why the colony disappeared, but Martin Gibbs of the University of Sydney's... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| Cave reveals Southwest's abrupt climate swings during Ice Age |
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· 01/20/2010 2:11:19 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 22 replies · 639+ views · · University of Arizona · · Jan 20, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Ice Age climate records from an Arizona stalagmite link the Southwest's winter precipitation to temperatures in the North Atlantic, according to new research. The finding is the first to document that the abrupt changes in Ice Age climate known from Greenland also occurred in the southwestern U.S., said co-author Julia E. Cole of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "It's a new picture of the climate in the Southwest during the last Ice Age," said Cole, a UA professor of geosciences. "When it was cold in Greenland, it was wet here, and when it was warm in Greenland, it was... |
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| Dendrochronology | |
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| Radiocarbon Daters Tune Up Their Time Machine |
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· 01/18/2010 1:32:41 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · 461+ views · · ScienceNow · · Friday, January 15, 2010 · · Michael Balter · |
The basic principle of radiocarbon dating is fairly simple. Plants and animals absorb trace amounts of radioactive carbon-14 from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere while they are alive but stop doing so when they die... Most experts consider the technical limit of radiocarbon dating to be about 50,000 years, after which there is too little carbon-14 left to measure accurately. ...The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere varies with fluctuations in solar activity and Earth's magnetic field, and "raw" radiocarbon dates have to be corrected with a calibration curve that takes these fluctuations into account. ...To calibrate the period... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Alpine ice man may have been childless outcast |
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· 02/03/2006 6:43:25 PM PST · · Posted by presidio9 · · 66 replies · 1,373+ views · · Reuters · · Fri Feb 3, 2006 · · Sophie Hardach · |
Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps some 5,300 years after he was murdered under mysterious circumstances may have been a childless social outcast, a new study showed. Italian anthropologist Franco Rollo studied fragments of the DNA belonging to Oetzi, as the mummy has come to be known, and found two typical mutations common among men with reduced sperm mobility, the museum that stores the "iceman" said. A high percentage of men with such a condition are sterile. "Insofar as the 'iceman' was found to possess both mutations, the possibility that he was unable to father offspring cannot be... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Europe's conquering heroes? Likely farmers: study |
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· 01/19/2010 3:44:16 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 15 replies · 253+ views · · Reuters · · Jan 19, 2010 · · Reporting by Maggie Fox · · Editing by JoAnne Allen · |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conquerors who spread their seed across Europe in ancient times were prosperous farmers who imported their skills from the Middle East, researchers reported on Tuesday. A study of the Y chromosome -- passed down with very little change from father to son -- suggests that the men of Europe are descended from populations that moved into Europe 10,000 years ago from the "Fertile Crescent", which stretches from Egypt across the Middle East into present-day Iraq. "Maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer," Dr. Patricia Balaresque of Britain's University of Leicester said in... |
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| Bottlenecks | |
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| Genome Study Provides a Census of Early Humans |
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· 01/19/2010 4:21:03 AM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 41 replies · 435+ views · · NY Times (Science Times) · · January 18, 2010 · · NICHOLAS WADE · |
From the composition of just two human genomes, geneticists have computed the size of the human population 1.2 million years ago from which everyone in the world is descended. They put the number at 18,500 people, but this refers only to breeding individuals, the "effective" population. The actual population would have been about three times as large, or 55,500. Comparable estimates for other primates then are 21,000 for chimpanzees and 25,000 for gorillas. In biological terms, it seems, humans were not a very successful species, and the strategy of investing in larger brains than those of their fellow apes had... |
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry | |
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| Giant cattle to be bred back from extinction |
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· 01/18/2010 6:38:36 PM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 54 replies · 1,417+ views · · telegraph.co.uk · · Jan. 18, 2010 · · Nick Squires · |
Aurochs were immortalised in prehistoric cave paintings and admired for their brute strength and "elephantine" size by Julius Caesar. But despite their having gone the way of the dodo and the woolly mammoth, there are plans to bring the giant animals back to life. The huge cattle with sweeping horns which once roamed the forests of Europe have not been seen for nearly 400 years. Now Italian scientists are hoping to use genetic expertise and selective breeding of modern-day wild cattle to recreate the fearsome beasts which weighed around 2,200lb and stood 6.5 feet at the shoulder. Breeds of large... |
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| Art History | |
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| Full-Figured Statuette, 35,000 Years Old, Provides New Clues to How Art Evolved |
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· 05/14/2009 10:11:11 AM PDT · · Posted by ETL · · 41 replies · 1,799+ views · · New York Times · · May 13, 2009 · · JOHN NOBLE WILFORD · |
No one would mistake the Stone Age ivory carving for a Venus de Milo. The voluptuous woman depicted is, to say the least, earthier, with huge, projecting breasts and sexually explicit genitals. Nicholas J. Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, who found the small carving in a cave last year, said it was at least 35,000 years old, "one of the oldest known examples of figurative art" in the world. It is about 5,000 years older than some other so-called Venus artifacts made by early populations of Homo sapiens in Europe. Another archaeologist, Paul Mellars of... |
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| Neandertals / Neanderthals | |
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| Neanderthals Enjoyed Surf and Turf Meals |
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· 01/18/2010 1:38:03 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 41 replies · 443+ views · · Discovery News · · Tuesday, January 12, 2010 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
Recently at Discovery News I told you about Neanderthal-made shell jewelry that suggests these hominids were as smart and creative as modern humans were at the time the jewelry was made, 50,000 years ago. University of Bristol archaeologist Joao Zilhao, who led the project, told me about some other interesting discoveries he and his team made about Neanderthals. One concerns how they harvested shellfish for consumption... Note that the Neanderthals didn't wear their dinner discards, just as we don't today. (Or usually don't. Maybe someone out there has made a necklace out of last night's oyster or lobster remains.) The... |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| Feet hold the key to human hand evolution [ make sure your fire insurance is up to date ] |
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· 01/18/2010 12:06:35 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · 340+ views · · BBC News · · Monday, January 18, 2010 · · Victoria Gill · |
Scientists may have solved the mystery of how human hands became nimble enough to make and manipulate stone tools. The team reports in the journal Evolution that changes in our hands and fingers were a side-effect of changes in the shape of our feet. This, they say, shows that the capacity to stand and walk on two feet is intrinsically linked to the emergence of stone tool technology. The scientists used a mathematical model to simulate the changes. Other researchers, though, have questioned this approach. Campbell Rolian, a scientist from the University of Calgary in Canada who led the study,... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| New theory on the origin of primates |
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· 01/19/2010 11:33:29 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 26 replies · 442+ views · · Buffalo Museum of Science · · Jan 19, 2010 · · Unknown · |
A new model for primate origins is presented in Zoologica Scripta, published by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The paper argues that the distributions of the major primate groups are correlated with Mesozoic tectonic features and that their respective ranges are congruent with each evolving locally from a widespread ancestor on the supercontinent of Pangea about 185 million years ago. Michael Heads, a Research Associate of the Buffalo Museum of Science, arrived at these conclusions by incorporating, for the first time, spatial patterns of primate diversity and distribution as historical evidence... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Early Water on Earth |
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· 02/09/2003 4:22:57 PM PST · · Posted by CalConservative · · 44 replies · 706+ views · · Geotimes · · February 2003 · · Salma Monani · |
Geologists have long thought that Earth's first 500 million years were as hot as Hades, dubbing this time frame the Hadean. The high temperatures would have prevented liquid water from condensing on the surface. But new findings on zircon grains, Earth's oldest known terrestrial materials, suggest that the Hadean might have hosted liquid water. Recovered from the metamorphosed sediments of the Jack Hills in western Australia, the zircon grains are dated to be more than 4 billion years old and are the only geological evidence available to provide insight into the first 500 million years... |
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| Age of Sail | |
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| ..Unlocking the bloody history of the ship made famous by Turner, the Fighting Temeraire |
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· 01/22/2010 11:19:48 AM PST · · Posted by C19fan · · 19 replies · 693+ views · · Daily Mail · · January 22, 2010 · · Sam Willis · |
Struggling to breathe in mouthfuls of air rank with choking gunsmoke, hundreds of men and boys crouched low on the gun decks of His Majesty's Ship Temeraire. In that cramped space, where shouted orders competed with the screams of the injured, blood ran freely through a hull hewn from English oaks. Already the sails high above were riddled with chain shot from the French warships, but it was there, on the crowded gundecks that a brutal slaughter was unfolding. In the hellish tempest of the Battle of Trafalgar, in an act of almost suicidal valour, the Temeraire's captain chose to... |
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| Scotland Yet | |
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| Team drills for century-old Scotch whiskey in Antarctica |
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· 11/16/2009 8:36:45 AM PST · · Posted by buccaneer81 · · 22 replies · 1,511+ views · · The Columbus Dispatch · · November 16, 2009 · · NA · |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago. The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whiskey that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition. |
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| Pages | |
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| Most harmful books of the 19th & 20th centuries |
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· 01/20/2010 7:26:23 AM PST · · Posted by Responsibility2nd · · 78 replies · 1,120+ views · · San Antonio Express-News · · 01/14/2010 · · Human Events · |
1. "The Communist Manifesto" (Marx and Engels) 2. "Mein Kampf" (Hitler) 3. "Quotations from Chairman Mao" (Mao) 4. "The Kinsey Report" (Kinsey) 5. "Democracy and Education" (Dewey) 6. "Das Kapital" (Marx) 7. "The Feminine Mystique" (Friedan) 8. "The Course of Positive Philosophy" (Comte) 9. "Beyond Good and Evil" (Nietzsche) 10. "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" (Keynes) |
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| Climate | |
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| Melting Himalayan Glaciers Another Fraud by AGW Proponents |
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· 01/18/2010 12:41:54 PM PST · · Posted by ezfindit · · 19 replies · 540+ views · · TimesOnline · · 1/17/2010 · · Jonathan Leake · |
A warning that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based... |
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| Flakey Idea | |
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| First ever snowflake photos go on sale |
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· 01/21/2010 8:35:27 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 20 replies · 1,116+ views · · The Telegraph · · 1/21/2010 · |
Photographs by Wilson A. Bentley, the first person to capture the image of a single snowflake with a camera in 1885, are to be auctioned in New York. The farmer from Vermont became known as Snowman Bentley and The Snowflake Man for his pioneering 19th century images of thousands of jewel-like snowflakes. A four-day sale of his work begins on Thursday, with 26 of his images to be auctioned at the American Antiques Show. Ten of the images are of snowflakes, which he called snow crystals, and are priced at $4,800 (£3,000) each. The others show winter scenes. They are... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Auto on Back of $10 Note is a Composite |
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· 01/20/2010 1:22:25 PM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 48 replies · 961+ views · · Numismaster · · January 19, 2010 · · Alan Herbert · |
What kind of car is pictured on the back of the $10 note? The question of the make and model of the automobile on the back of the U.S. $10 notes has been a regular one virtually ever since the notes first were printed, in 1928. A considerable amount of misinformation has found its way into reference works along with the facts, which are these: The $10 notes in the series 1928 Gold Certificates, 1928 and later Federal Reserve Notes, 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Notes, and 1933, 1934, 1934A, 1934B, 1934C, 1934D and 1953 Silver Certificates all bear the same... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Edgar Allen Poe traditional birthday grave site visit ended last night. |
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· 01/19/2010 3:15:36 PM PST · · Posted by Freakdog · · 44 replies · 965+ views · · wbal.com · |
The traditional visit by an unknown shadowy figure who has left 3 roses and a half bottle of cognac on Edgar Allen Poes grave,failed to show up last night. |
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| end of digest #288 20100123 | |
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