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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #289 Saturday, January 30, 2010 |
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| Africa | |
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| Magnificence on Cave Walls |
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· 01/25/2010 9:46:02 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 11 replies · 622+ views · · WSJ · · 23 Jan 2010 · · Michael Fitzgerald · |
Inanke's prehistoric paintings are a celebration of life The trail to the great cave of Inanke in southern Zimbabwe begins confidently with arrows painted on bare patches of granite and soon vanishes into four miles of often pathless wandering through fields of shoulder-high grass, dense scrub forests and formidable thorn bushes. Without the direction of our guide, the archaeologist Paul Hubbard, our group would never have found this cave containing some of the most magnificent prehistoric paintings in the world. But reach the approximately 30-foot-long frieze of intricately varied paintings and you will find it free of the man-made barriers,... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Solomon & Sheba, Inc. -- New inscription confirms trade relations between "towns of Judah" and... |
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· 01/24/2010 3:50:06 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · 433+ views · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · January/February 2010 · · Andre Lemaire · |
Southern Arabia is 1,200 miles south of Israel. Naturally, skepticism about the reality of trade between South Arabia and Israel in ancient times seems justified. Yet the Bible documents this trade quite extensively -- most famously in the supposed affair between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And the land of Sheba is referred to two dozen times in the Hebrew Bible. Without addressing the historicity of the personal relations between Solomon and the queen of this South Arabian kingdom (or queendom?), I think it can be shown that the international trade between Judah and southern Arabia very probably... |
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| Art History | |
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| Early copy of the Gospel of Mark is a forgery |
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· 01/28/2010 10:49:09 AM PST · · Posted by NYer · · 15 replies · 683+ views · · The Art Newspaper · · January 27, 2010 · · Emily Sharpe · |
Not what it appears to be: the Archaic Mark LONDON. A clever bit of detective work by US scholars and scientists has proven that one of the jewels of the University of Chicago's manuscript collection is, in fact, a skilled late 19th- or early 20th-century forgery. Although speculation as to the authenticity of the Archaic Mark codex has been rife for more than 60 years, prior to this definitive research many believed it was an early record (possibly as early as the 14th century) of the Gospel of Mark and the closest of any extant manuscript to the world's oldest... |
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| She Was A Sister Who Really Cooked | |
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| Joan of Arc 'Relics' Confirmed to Be Fake |
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· 01/26/2010 6:24:55 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · 469+ views · · Discovery News · · Wednesday, January 20, 2010 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
The bottle containing the bones first surfaced at a pharmacy in 1867. Its label read: "Remains found under the pyre of Joan of Arc, maiden of Orleans." Different techniques, including DNA analysis, several forms of microscopy, chemical analysis and carbon dating, were used to examine the bottle's contents. A few years ago, Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincare Hospital in Garches, France, and his team first determined that the bottle contained an approximately 4-inch-long human rib covered with a black coating. It also housed part of a cat femur covered with the same coating, three fragments of "charcoal"... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Two thousand year old Roman aqueduct discovered |
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· 01/25/2010 3:39:35 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 57 replies · 1,255+ views · · The Telegraph · · 1/25/2008 · · Nick Squires in Rome · |
Pair of British amateur archaeologists believe they have found the hidden source of a Roman aqueduct 1,900 years after it was inaugurated by the Emperor Trajan. The underground spring lies behind a concealed door beneath an abandoned 13th century church on the shores of Lake Bracciano, 35 miles north of Rome. Exploration of the site has shown that water percolating through volcanic bedrock was collected in underground grottoes and chambers and fed into a subterranean aqueduct, the Aqua Traiana, which took it all the way to the imperial capital. Prof. Lorenzo Quilici in the Aqua Traiana Centuries later, it provided... |
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| Climate | |
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| The sea level has been rising and falling over the last 2,500 years |
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· 01/26/2010 6:55:04 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 16 replies · 407+ views · · University of Haifa · · Jan 26, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Templar Palace in AcreCaption: Rising and falling sea levels over relatively short periods do not indicate long-term trends. An assessment of hundreds and thousands of years shows that what seems an irregular phenomenon today is in fact nothing new," explains Dr. Dorit Sivan, who supervised the research. The Templar palace in Acre, seen here, is one of the sites where this study was carried out. Credit: Amir Yurman, Director of the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies Maritime Workshop at the University of Haifa; Courtesy of the University of Haifa Usage Restrictions: The image may only be used with the... |
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| The Hobbit | |
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| Human Evolution; Is the Hobbit's brain unfeasibly small? |
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· 01/28/2010 1:12:23 PM PST · · Posted by EnderWiggins · · 24 replies · 295+ views · · ScienceDaily · · 1/28/2010 · · EnderWiggins · |
Homo floresiensis, a pygmy-sized small-brained hominin popularly known as 'the Hobbit' was discovered five years ago, but controversy continues over whether the small brain is actually due to a pathological condition. How can its tiny brain size be explained? The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at Cambridge and Durham. Their work helps solve the mystery of whether Homo floresiensis -- dubbed the Hobbit due to its diminutive stature -- was a separate human species or a diseased individual. The team combined previously published... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Scientist: Alien life could already be on Earth |
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· 01/26/2010 10:34:14 AM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 39 replies · 744+ views · · Associated Press · · Jan. 26, 2010 · · RAPHAEL G. SATTER · |
LONDON (AP) - For the past 50 years, scientists have scoured the skies for radio signals from beyond our planet, hoping for some sign of extraterrestrial life. But one physicist says there's no reason alien life couldn't already be lurking among us -- or maybe even in us. Paul Davies, an award-winning Arizona State University physicist known for his popular science writing said Tuesday that life may have developed on Earth not once but several times. Davies said the variant life forms -- most likely tiny microbes -- could still be hanging around "right under or noses -- or even in our noses." |
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| That Sucks | |
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| Why Human Blood Drives Mosquitoes Wild |
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· 01/24/2010 4:43:53 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 25 replies · 745+ views · · Live Science · · Jan 24, 2010 · · Marlene Cimons · |
This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. When the time came for chemical ecologist Walter Leal to test whether humans make a natural odor that attracts mosquitoes, Leal himself was the first to volunteer. "I measured my own levels," Leal said. "I thought I would set a good example. If you do it first, then others won't be scared." In truth, there was little if any reason to be frightened. The scientists were looking only for the substance itself, not trying to find out whether the compound would lure the insects... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Dinosaur Species Vanish! |
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· 01/24/2010 10:47:33 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 24 replies · 772+ views · · Smithsonian · · 1/20/2010 · · Amanda Bensen, Abby Callard · |
from left: Dracorex hogwartsia, Stygimoloch spinifer and Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis Dinosaur Species Vanish! The dinosaurs above have been considered three species. But a new analysis of fossil skulls led by the University of Montana suggests they're different life stages of P. wyomingensis, whose horns disappear and dome head grows over time. The find fuels speculation that up to a third of recognized dinosaur species are in fact juvenile forms of other specicies. |
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| Dinosaur True Colors Revealed for First Time |
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· 01/28/2010 3:58:33 PM PST · · Posted by Nachum · · 18 replies · 774+ views · · National Geographic · · 1/28/10 · · Chris Sloan · |
"Dino fuzz" pigment discovery in feathers may strengthen dinosaur-bird link. Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments -- sometimes called dino fuzz -- are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. (Pictures: Dinosaur True Colors Revealed by Feather Find.) The finding may also open up a new world of prehistoric color, illuminating the role of color in dinosaur behavior and allowing the first accurately colored dinosaur re-creations, according to the study team, led by Fucheng Zhang of China's Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology. The team... |
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| All Eggs One Basket | |
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| Ostriches gave up flying when dinosaurs died out |
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· 01/23/2010 12:06:39 PM PST · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 40 replies · 505+ views · · Telegraph · · 1/23/10 · |
Emus and ostriches became fat, flightless birds after dinosaurs died out and were no longer around to chase them, scientists believe.An abundance of food and lack of predators following the mass extinction 65 million years saw previously flighted birds put on so much weight that they had to walk instead, according to research by Australian National University. A molecular dating study revealed that the African ostrich, Australasian emu, South American rhea and New Zealand moa became flightless independently following the disappearance of dinosaurs. |
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| Feathered Dinosaurs Could Glide |
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· 01/27/2010 5:41:25 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 12 replies · 264+ views · · Discovery News · · Tuesday, January 26, 2010 · · Associated Press · |
In an effort to determine the flight abilities of the animals, researchers built models of these early birds and launched them into the air. [University of Kansas] |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Iraq launches project to renovate Ezekiel's shrine |
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· 05/04/2009 4:12:23 PM PDT · · Posted by forkinsocket · · 2 replies · 220+ views · · The Jerusalem Post · · May 1, 2009 · · Staff · |
The Iraqi government has launched a project to renovate the interior of the prophet Ezekiel's shrine in the small town of Kifl, south of Baghdad, and the country's Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities says it hopes to eventually repair and renovate other Jewish sites across the country. "The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion," ministry spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani told AFP. "The present plans do not include the synagogues in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Fallujah and other places because of lack of funding, but I think they will be included... |
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| Erasing Ezekiel's Jewish identity [aka let's build a Mosque on Ezekiel's tomb!] |
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· 01/29/2010 3:14:10 PM PST · · Posted by SJackson · · 27 replies · 327+ views · · Jerusalem Post · · 1-20-10 · · KSENIA SVETLOVA · |
Iraq removing Hebrew inscriptions from tomb, mosque to be built on grave. For centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims came to Al-Kifl, a small town south of Baghdad, to visit the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel and pray. The distinctive Jewish character of the Al-Kifl shrine, namely the Hebrew inscriptions and the Torah Ark, never bothered the gentile worshipers. In the 14th century a minaret was built next to the shrine, but the interior design remained Jewish. The vast majority of Iraq's Jewish community left some 60 years ago, but Shi'ites took good care of the holy site. Until now. Recently... |
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| Religion of Peace | |
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| Afghans love to get their (headless) goat in national sport of buzkashi (Olympic sport?) |
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· 01/24/2010 6:59:24 AM PST · · Posted by Libloather · · 31 replies · 623+ views · · LA Times · · 1/03/10 · · Tony Perry · |
Afghans love to get their goat in national sport of buzkashiThe sport, in which players on horseback vie for a headless goat carcass to much crowd enthusiasm, is back in force since the Taliban's overthrow. Some dream of it being in the Olympics. January 03, 2010|By Tony Perry Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan -- Leaning far off his horse like a polo player, amid a chaotic-looking scrum of other riders doing the same, the rider snatched the decapitated goat by a foreleg and galloped off. He whipped his heavy-breathing horse for more speed while the others raced in pursuit. As they... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| 1000-Year-Old Monument with Image of Mayan Ruler Found |
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· 01/24/2010 3:33:23 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · 689+ views · · Art Daily · · Sunday, January 24, 2010 · · EFE · |
A 1000-year-old stele with the sculpted image of a Mayan ruler was found in the archaeological area of Lagartero in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said. In the bas-relief sculpture the Mayan ruler rises above an individual who lies at his feet, "a scene representing the seizing of power by one Maya group from another," INAH said, adding that the archaeological area of Lagartero will be open to the public this year. INAH experts found the stone monument in late 2009 at the 10th section of Pyramid 4 in Lagartero, the... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Leonardo da Vinci's bones to be dug up by Italian scientists |
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· 01/23/2010 8:36:00 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 59 replies · 960+ views · · The Times · · 1/24/2008 · · John Follain · |
Scientists seeking permission to exhume the remains of Leonardo da Vinci plan to reconstruct his face to discover whether his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is a disguised self-portrait. A team from Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage, a leading association of scientists and art historians, has asked to open the tomb in which the Renaissance painter and polymath is believed to lie at Amboise castle, in the Loire valley, where he died in 1519, aged 67. Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist, said the project could throw new light on Leonardo's most famous work. "If we manage to find his skull, we... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II |
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· 01/17/2010 1:21:58 AM PST · · Posted by Lucius Cornelius Sulla · · 9 replies · 412+ views · · The Wall Street Journal · · JANUARY 14, 2010 · · A.N. Wilson · |
The travellers trotted on, and as the sun began to sink towards the White Downs far away on the western horizon they came to Bywater by its wide pool, and there they had their first really painful shock. This was Frodo and Sam's own country, and they found out now that they cared about it more than any other place in the world. Many of the houses that they had known were missing. Some seemed to have been burned down. The pleasant row of old hobbit-holes in the bank in the north side of the Pool were deserted,... |
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| Pages | |
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| What Are You Reading Now? (My Quarterly Survey) |
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· 01/12/2010 7:17:29 PM PST · · Posted by MplsSteve · · 279 replies · 2,400+ views · · 1/12/10 · |
OK, it's time for my quarterly What Are You Reading Now? survey. I do this because I like to gauge what Freepers are reading. I believe that the Freeper community are one of the more well-read on the Internet. What are you reading? It can be anything...a classic novel, a NY Times bestseller, a technical journal, a trashy pulp novel - in short, anything. Please do not defile this thread by replying "I'm Reading This Thread". It became unfunny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm reading "Pickett's Charge: A Microstudy" by George R Stewart. It was written in 1959... |
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| Obituaries | |
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| 'People's History' author Howard Zinn dies at 87 |
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· 01/27/2010 6:12:33 PM PST · · Posted by takbodan · · 24 replies · 638+ views · · AP · · 1/27/10 · · Hillel Italie · |
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" sold a million copies and became an alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87. Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass. Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" was -- fittingly -- a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1... |
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| Hope and Change | |
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| Students Face a Class Struggle at State Colleges |
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· 01/24/2010 4:21:10 AM PST · · Posted by reaganaut1 · · 26 replies · 758+ views · · New York Times · · January 23, 2010 · · Katharine Mieszkowski · |
... Mr. Macias is just one of more than 26,000 students at San Francisco State, and now educational opportunities cost more and are harder to grasp and even harder to hold onto than ever before. Mr. Macias's experience of truncated offerings, furloughed professors and crowded classrooms is typical. ... Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a [higher education] trade association, confirmed that higher education in California has become akin to navigating an obstacle course. ... In 1960, he added, the state created "the gold standard in high-quality, low-cost public higher education. This year, the... |
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| The Framers | |
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| Madison's Gift to America |
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· 01/26/2010 4:16:12 PM PST · · Posted by Lorianne · · 3 replies · 87+ views · · City Journal · · 15 January 2010 · · Richard M. Reinsch (reviewer) · |
A new study points to the Virginian's emphasis on civic virtue. A book review of: James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, by Colleen A. Sheehan (Cambridge University Press, 204pp.) In her excellent new study, Colleen A. Sheehan argues that James Madison is preeminent among the Founders in his insistence on the civic cultivation of public opinion. Madison's purposes, seemingly inconsistent at different points of his political career, ultimately cohere, she believes, in his quest to secure republican self-government in the infant nation. She begins with a Madison whose faith in self-government had been shaken after American independence, thanks... |
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| Early America | |
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| Coffin's Emblem Defies Certainty |
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· 01/27/2010 10:03:20 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 9 replies · 582+ views · · The New York Times · · 26 Jan 2010 · · SEWELL CHAN · |
When the remains of hundreds of colonial-era Africans were uncovered during a building excavation in Lower Manhattan in 1991, one coffin in particular stood out. Nailed into its wooden lid were iron tacks, 51 of which formed an enigmatic, heart-shaped design. The pattern was soon identified as the sankofa -- a symbol printed on funereal garments in West Africa -- and it captured the imagination of scholars, preservationists and designers. Ultimately, it was embraced by many African-Americans as a remarkable example of the survival of African customs in the face of violent subjugation in early America. The sankofa was widely... |
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry | |
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| Canned Beer Turns 75 |
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· 01/24/2010 12:03:46 PM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 61 replies · 1,271+ views · · livescience · · 23 January 2010 · · Heather Whipps · |
Be sure to crack open a cold one on Jan. 24, the day canned beer celebrates its 75th birthday. New Jersey's Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company churned out the world's first beer can in 1935, stocking select shelves in Richmond, Va., as a market test. The experiment took off and American drinkers haven't looked back since, nowadays choosing cans over bottles for the majority of the 22 gallons of beer they each drink per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Canned brewskies may have only hit shelves in 1935, but the drink's history goes back much further -- at least... |
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| Peaked Too Soon | |
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| Could a Frozen Camera Dethrone Hillary and Norgay as the First to Summit Everest? |
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· 01/28/2010 10:24:39 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 25 replies · 1,027+ views · · Scientific American · · 26 Jan 2010 · · Larry Greenemeier · |
Photo detective work could solve an enigma nearly nine decades old. But will it vindicate Hillary's historic climb or rewrite the record books? On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their camp less than a kilometer from the summit of Mount Everest on a mission to be the first mountaineers to ascend the world's highest peak (8,850 meters). They were never to be heard from again. Whether either man reached the summit -- almost three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic 1953 climb -- has been an open question for nearly 86 years. Although more than half a... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| This is the 24th anniversary of the Challenger disaster |
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· 01/28/2010 12:50:25 PM PST · · Posted by free1977free · · 69 replies · 874+ views · · examiner.com · · January 28 · · Jennifer Ellis May · |
Where were you on January 28th, 1986? Were you in a classroom watching the first teacher go into space? Do you remember how you felt when you saw the Challenger explode soon after it left the earth? CNN reports that about 17% of Americans were watching when the disaster occurred. One hour later, 85% had heard the news. It is estimated that 48% of 9-13 year-olds were watching. Teacher Christa Macauliffe was supposed to be the first teacher in space, but she never made it. She died in the explosion along with the six astronauts accompanying her. Most of today's... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Hillary Clinton's ET book discovered |
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· 01/28/2010 7:50:50 PM PST · · Posted by Liberty Tree Surgeon · · 2 replies · 415+ views · · Openminds.tv · · Jan 15, 2010 · · Alejandro Rojas · |
In the 1990's Laurance Rockefeller became interested in paranormal phenomena, especially with UFOs and Extraterrestrial visitation. He funded scientific investigations and organized and funded a briefing document to record the best evidence (Open Minds journalist, Antonio Huneeus was a key contributor to this document). Rockefeller also conferred with the Clintons regarding the release of files by President Bill Clinton. In these famous pictures of Hillary and Rockefeller walking on a wooded path during the visit, Hilary is holding a book. For years researchers have been trying to figure out which book she is holding, to find out if it... |
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| end of digest #289 20100130 | |
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· Saturday, January 30, 2010 · 27 topics · 2244126 to 2435927 · 737 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 288th issue. No idea why, but Scythian has bade us all adieu. No response yet, but I think I'll just drop S from this ping list, and any others if applicable. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #290 Saturday, February 6, 2010 |
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| Trojan War | |
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| Could museum's gold be from ancient Troy? |
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· 02/02/2010 8:50:18 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · 374+ views · · Philadelphia Inquirer · · Sunday, January 31, 2010 · · Tom Avril · |
The scientist had traveled from Germany to examine the ancient items that lay before him on the University of Pennsylvania laboratory table, and he was dazzled. Earrings with cascades of golden leaves. Brooches adorned with tightly coiled spirals. A necklace strung with hundreds of gold ringlets and beads. The jewelry bore a striking resemblance to objects from one of the world's great collections - a controversial treasure unearthed long ago from the fabled city of Troy... The 24 pieces had been purchased from a Philadelphia antiquities dealer more than 40 years ago, and came with no documentation of their origin.... |
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| Egypt | |
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| The most sacred of cities -- review of David O'Connor's "Abydos: Egypt's First Pharaohs and the... |
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· 02/03/2010 4:20:03 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · 186+ views · · Al-Ahram Weekly · · 28 January - 3 February 2010, issue #983 · · Jill Kamil · |
Abydos is situated on the western bank of the Nile about seven kilometres west of the town of Balyana in Middle Egypt. It made its debut on the stage of Egypt's ancient history even before the dynastic period, and it retained its aura of sanctity longer than any other site in Egypt. It houses the tombs and mortuary cult enclosures of the rulers of the First Dynasty. It was the cult centre of Osiris, Egypt's most beloved hero and the central figure of the country's most popular myth. And it is an archaeological site that casts light on the origins... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| An ancient Roman temple, discovered in the chancel of the church of Sant Feliu Girona |
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· 02/02/2010 9:00:54 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · 213+ views · · Barcelona Reporter · · February 2010 · · unattributed · |
An ancient Roman temple, discovered following the first excavations in the chancel of the church of Sant Feliu Girona. The temple, with cross-shaped plan, apse, three naves and two side chapels, and several tombs from the sixth and seventh centuries, have appeared. This intervention is part of the European project "Sopra e sotto. Euopea La Città", the culture program involving the City of Brindisi (Italy) as main organizer, with participation as members of L'Ecole Nationale Superiore d ' Architetture of Toulouse (France), the University and the city of Girona. The work that has lasted three weeks have also brought to... |
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| The Non-DaVinci Code | |
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| Lost Roman law code discovered in London [ Codex Gregorianus ] |
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· 01/31/2010 7:36:52 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · 655+ views · · Eurekalert · · Tuesday, January 26, 2010 · · Dave Weston, University College London · |
Part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever has been discovered by researchers at UCL's Department of History. Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment. The fragments were being studied at UCL as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded "Projet Volterra" -- a ten year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context. Corcoran and Salway found that the text belonged to the Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, a collection of laws by emperors from Hadrian (AD 117-138)... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| World's first Swiss Army knife revealed - made 1800 years before today's version (Pics) |
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· 01/30/2010 1:23:35 AM PST · · Posted by bogusname · · 48 replies · 1,750+ views · · Daily Mail · · January 30, 2010 · · Daily Mail Reporter · |
The world's first Swiss Army knife' has been revealed - made 1,800 years before its modern counterpart. An intricately designed Roman implement, which dates back to 200AD, it is made from silver but has an iron blade. It features a spoon, fork as well as a retractable spike, spatula and small tooth-pick. Experts believe the spike may have been used by the Romans to extract meat from snails. |
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| British Isles | |
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| Silver coin dating to 211 BC is oldest piece of Roman money ever found in Britain |
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· 02/02/2010 9:15:34 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · 566+ views · · Daily Mail · · Friday, January 29th, 2010 · · Daily Mail Reporter · |
Dating from 211 BC and found near the Leicestershire village of Hallaton, the coin was uncovered with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and a decorated bowl. Unearthed in 2000 by a metal detectorist, staff at the nearby Harborough Museum have only just realised its significance. One side of the coin depicts the goddess Roma wearing her characteristic helmet while mythical twins Castor and Pollux sit astride galloping horses on the reverse. David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for communities and well-being said: 'Leicestershire boasts the largest number of Iron Age coins ever professionally excavated in Britain. 'To also have... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Astronomy Picture of the Day |
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· 01/31/2010 5:41:54 AM PST · · Posted by sig226 · · 37 replies · 912+ views · · NASA · · 1/31/10 · · Yale University, B. E. Schaefer (LSU) · |
The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript Credit: Yale University ; Digital Copyright: B. E. Schaefer (LSU) Explanation: The ancient text has no known title, no known author, and is written in no known language: what does it say and why does it have many astronomy illustrations? The mysterious book was once bought by an emperor, forgotten on a library shelf, sold for thousands of dollars, and later donated to Yale. Possibly written in the 15th century, the over 200-page volume is known most recently as the Voynich Manuscript, after its (re-)discoverer in 1912. Pictured above is an illustration from the book... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Giant Meteorites Slammed Earth Around A.D. 500? |
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· 02/05/2010 7:31:57 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 21 replies · 563+ views · · National Geographic News · · 03 Feb 2010 · · Richard A. Lovett · |
Double impact may have caused tsunami, global cooling Pieces of a giant asteroid or comet that broke apart over Earth may have crashed off Australia about 1,500 years ago, says a scientist who has found evidence of the possible impact craters. Satellite measurements of the Gulf of Carpentaria (see map) revealed tiny changes in sea level that are signs of impact craters on the seabed below, according to new research by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott. Based on the satellite data, one crater should be about 11 miles (18 kilometers) wide, while the other should be 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) wide.... |
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| Plato? Socrates? Aristotle? Morons. | |
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| Ancient and modern: First science academy is 350 years old |
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· 01/31/2010 3:49:10 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 12 replies · 271+ views · · AFP · · Jan 31, 2010 · · Richard Ingham · |
Handout photo provided by the Royal Society shows Isaac Newton's 'Death Mask'. The Royal Society, the world's oldest science academy founded on November 20, 1660, celebrates its 350 years throughtout the year. (AFP/Royal Society/Richard Valencia) LONDON (AFP) -- From its classical pillars and porticoed entrance to its oil paintings of great men and women and archives that include the death mask of Sir Isaac Newton, history sits grandly on the Royal Society. Scientists who visit its headquarters overlooking the tree-lined avenue that runs from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace tend to enter the building with the hushed awe of a... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Saving Endangered Languages from Being Forgotten [Siberian Ob-Ugrian languages Mansi and Khanti] |
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· 01/31/2010 7:24:31 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · 296+ views · · ScienceDaily · · Thursday, January 28, 2010 · · University of Vienna, via AlphaGalileo · |
With only 3.000 speakers in Northwest Siberia the Ob-Ugrian language Mansi is on the verge of extinction. Predictions say it will be extinct in ten to twenty years at the latest. The same holds true for Khanti, a member of the same language family. It is for this reason that extensive documentation is so important. Johanna Laakso, professor for Finno-Ugrian Studies at the University of Vienna concerns herself with the documentation of this and other minority languages in the framework of an FWF project and the EU project ELDIA... The documentation of the languages Mansi and Khanti is additionally of... |
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| Early America | |
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| In 1790, Philly "had a fever", today, not so much |
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· 02/03/2010 2:25:19 PM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 4 replies · 270+ views · · wattsupwiththat.com · · Feb. 3, 2010 · |
Steve Goddard reminded me that we've had "220 Years of Global Warming in Philadelphia." Starting in 1790, a prominent Philadelphia resident named Charles Pierce started keeping detailed records of the weather and climate, which has been archived on Google Books. His report from January, 1790 is below: JANUARY. 1790. The average or medium temperature of this month was 44 degrees. This is the mildest month of January on record. Fogs prevailed very much in the morning, but a hot sun soon dispersed them, and the mercury often ran up to 70 in the shade, at mid-day. Boys were often seen... |
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| Climate | |
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| Maine: Do rings of Herbie the elm have age, climate data? |
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· 01/31/2010 2:55:38 PM PST · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 19 replies · 477+ views · · AP on Yahoo · · 1/31/10 · · David Sharp - ap · |
YARMOUTH, Maine -- Herbie, the giant American elm tree, is giving his trunk over to science. Since the tree was felled two weeks ago, scientists from Columbia University, the University of Maine and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have contacted the Maine Forest Service about examining Herbie's trunk to see what can be learned about the tree's age and about the climate over the years. Peter Lammert of the Maine Forest Service said his computer has been clogged with e-mails from scientists interested in the stories that Herbie's growth rings might tell. In particular, Herbie's demise is bringing out... |
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| Greece | |
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| Greece: New Underwater Archaeological Site Designated Off Polyaigos Island |
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· 02/02/2010 8:53:40 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · 228+ views · · Balkan Travellers · · Monday, February 1, 2010 · |
A shipwreck located off the small uninhabited Cycladic island of Polyaigos in the central Aegean will be designated as an "underwater archaeological site" by Greece's Culture Ministry, the institution's representatives announced recently. The shipwreck, first spotted in 2004, was initially explored by underwater archaeologists in the fall of 2009, the Athens News Agency reported today. These excavations resulted in the discovery of valuable archaeological objects, including amphorae, ceramic vases and fragments of the vessel's anchor. In addition, the shipwreck was photographed and filmed in detail, which allowed the creation of a high-definition photo-mosaic, while procedures have been set in motion... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Aznalcóllar disaster compared with Cretaceous mass extinction |
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· 02/02/2010 6:52:10 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 10 replies · 249+ views · · FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology · · Feb 2, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have compared the disaster caused by the Aznalcóllar spillage in the Doñana National Park in Andalusia 11 years ago with the biggest species extinction known to date. What do these two disasters have in common? The scientists say that carrying out comparisons of this kind will make it possible to find out how ecosystems recover following mass extinctions. Until now, scientists used to study the fossil record in order to analyse how organisms responded to major environmental changes in the past, such as the mass extinction of species during the Cretaceous period (65... |
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| Glaciation | |
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| Seabed Scratches Show Icebergs Reached The Tropics |
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· 06/09/2008 12:24:13 PM PDT · · Posted by blam · · 20 replies · 758+ views · · New Scientist · |
Seabed scratches show icebergs reached the tropics 09 June 2008 NewScientist.com news service ICEBERGS often etch out messages on the shallow ocean floor. Now a newly discovered set of scratches suggests bergs from the icy north drifted further south than we thought after the last ice age. The meltdown of North American ice sheets about 15,000 years ago released a flotilla of icebergs into the Atlantic. Gouges left by bergs on the ocean bed have previously been found off New Jersey, close to the southernmost edge of the ice sheet, but it had been thought that looping currents would have... |
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| Practicing without a License | |
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| Stone Age amputee proves Neolithic medics more advanced than previously thought |
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· 01/31/2010 7:01:48 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 26 replies · 678+ views · · Telegraph · · Monday, January 25, 2010 · · By Heidi Blake · |
Early Neolithic surgeons used a sharpened flint stone and rudimentary anaesthetics to amputate the elderly man's left forearm, and treated the wound in sterile conditions, experts believe. Evidence of the early surgery was unearthed by CÈcile Buquet-Marcon and Anaick Samzun, both archaeologists, and Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist, during work on a tomb discovered at Buthiers-Boulancourt, about 40 miles south of Paris... Tests showed that the humerus bone had been severed above the elbow in what scientists described as "an intentional and successful amputation". The patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, is thought likely to have damaged... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| Polish scientists say 3 Neanderthal teeth found |
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· 02/02/2010 8:56:00 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · 197+ views · · Ledger-Enquirer · · Monday, February 1, 2010 · · Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer · |
Mikolaj Urbanowski, an archaeologist with Szczecin University and the project's lead researcher... said the teeth were unearthed in the Stajnia Cave, north of the Carpathian Mountains, along with flint tools and the bones of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, both extinct Ice Age species. |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| Fight, Fight, Fight: The History of Human Aggression |
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· 02/02/2010 11:44:40 PM PST · · Posted by neverdem · · 23 replies · 407+ views · · LiveScience · · January 2010 · · Charles Q. Choi · |
The use of weapons may date back well before the rise of humanity, given evidence that even our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, can use spears to hunt other primates. To see how fighting evolved from hand-to-hand combat to world war, here are 10 major innovations that revolutionized combat. |
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| Forensics is Ten | |
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| Novel studies of decomposition shed new light on our earliest fossil ancestry |
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· 01/31/2010 2:22:45 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 6 replies · 274+ views · · University of Leicester · · Jan 31, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Revelations of rotting fish provide scientists with clearer picture of early life -- Decaying corpses are usually the domain of forensic scientists, but palaeontologists have discovered that studying rotting fish sheds new light on our earliest ancestry. The researchers, from the Department of Geology at the University of Leicester, devised a new method for extracting information from 500 million year old fossils -they studied the way fish decompose to gain a clearer picture of how our ancient fish-like ancestors would have looked. Their results indicate that some of the earliest fossils from our part of the tree of life may have been... |
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| Descended from Beagles | |
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| Horizontal and vertical: The evolution of evolution |
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· 02/01/2010 4:24:31 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 41 replies · 525+ views · · New Scientist · · Jan 26, 2010 · · Mark Buchanan · |
JUST suppose that Darwin's ideas were only a part of the story of evolution. Suppose that a process he never wrote about, and never even imagined, has been controlling the evolution of life throughout most of the Earth's history. It may sound preposterous, but this is exactly what microbiologist Carl Woese and physicist Nigel Goldenfeld, both at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believe. Darwin's explanation of evolution, they argue, even in its sophisticated modern form, applies only to a recent phase of life on Earth. At the root of this idea is overwhelming recent evidence for horizontal gene transfer... |
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| Africa | |
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| Hippy apes caught cannibalising their young |
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· 02/01/2010 7:09:36 PM PST · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 19 replies · 580+ views · · newscientist.com · · Feb. 1, 2010 · · Ewen Callaway · |
So much for the "hippy chimp". Bonobos, known for their peaceable ways and casual sex, have been caught in the act of cannibalism. An account of a group of wild bonobos consuming a dead infant, published last month, is the first report of cannibalism in these animals -- making the species the last of the great apes to reveal a taste for the flesh of their own kind. The account comes from a group of primatologists led by Gottfried Hohmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The team has studied bonobos in the wild at... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| New research rejects 80-year theory of 'primordial soup' as the origin of life |
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· 02/02/2010 6:40:58 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 37 replies · 632+ views · · Wiley-Blackwell · · Feb 2, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Earth's chemical energy powered early life through 'the most revolutionary idea in biology since Darwin'For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a 'primordial soup' of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the 'soup' theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper in BioEssays which claims it was the Earth's chemical energy, from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which kick-started early life. "Textbooks have it that life arose from organic soup and that the first cells grew by fermenting these organics to generate energy in the form... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Skeleton of Western man found in ancient Mongolian tomb |
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· 02/01/2010 8:42:29 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · 569+ views · · Science News · · Friday, January 29th, 2010 · · Bruce Bower · |
Heading East Excavations several years ago at an ancient cemetery in Mongolia uncovered a man's skeleton, including this skull, that has yielded genetic evidence of Indo-Europeans reaching eastern Asia at least 2,000 years ago.Kim, et al. Dead men can indeed tell tales, but they speak in a whispered double helix... DNA extracted from this man's bones pegs him as a descendant of Europeans or western Asians. Yet he still assumed a prominent position in ancient Mongolia's Xiongnu Empire, say geneticist Kyung-Yong Kim of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues... the Xiongnu Empire -- which ruled a vast... |
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| DNA testing on 2,000-year-old bones in Italy reveal East Asian ancestry |
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· 02/01/2010 2:28:11 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 14 replies · 432+ views · · McMaster University · · Jan 1, 2010 · · Unknown · |
HAMILTON, ON, February 1, 2010 -- Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery made a surprising discovery when they extracted ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the skeletons buried at the site: the 2,000-year-old bones revealed a maternal East Asian ancestry. The results will be presented at the Roman Archeology Conference at Oxford, England, in March, and published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology. According to Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, and the lead author on the study, the isotopic evidence indicates that about 20% of the sample analyzed to-date was not born in the area around Vagnari. The mtDNA is... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Mammoth Achievement: Researchers at the forefront of molecular biology |
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· 02/05/2010 1:47:18 PM PST · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 3 replies · 227+ views · · Physorg · · January 26, 2010 · · David Pacchioli · |
Forget Jurassic Park. By successfully sequencing the DNA of a long-extinct species, Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller have helped push back the boundaries of molecular biology. Stephan Schuster was never all that interested in ancient DNA. As a young genomicist at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in his native Germany, his forte had always been bacteria. By deciphering and comparing the genomes -- the genetic blueprints -- of various microbial species, he sought to unlock the secrets of these ubiquitous creatures: how they evolve and interact with the organisms that play them host. Schuster's early work had attracted... |
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| Full House Beats a Flush | |
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| Is Rice Domestication to Blame for Red-Faced Asians? |
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· 02/04/2010 6:31:23 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 37 replies · 601+ views · · ScienceNOW Daily News · · January 20, 2010 · · Michael Balter · |
If your face turns red after drinking just one glass of wine, blame ancient Chinese farmers. Researchers are reporting that the "Asian Flush" mutation cropped up just as rice was first being domesticated, and it may have protected early farmers from the harms of drinking too much. But some other scientists urge caution, saying that the dates may not match up. When you drink, enzymes in the liver known as alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) convert alcohol to an organic compound called acetaldehyde; another enzyme then converts acetaldehyde to acetic acid. But about 50% of Asians and 5% of Europeans have mutations... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Long lost theory on Silbury Hill is uncovered |
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· 02/02/2010 8:46:49 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · 320+ views · · Nigel Kerton · · Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 · · Gazette-Herald (UK) · |
Letters that lay undiscovered in national archives for more than 230 years suggest that Silbury Hill, the enigmatic man-made mound that stands between Marlborough and Beckhampton, may have originally be constructed around some sort of totem pole... A separate excavation found fragments of oak timber within the cavity leading historians to believe that the mound was built around the pole dating from around 2,400 BC... The 18th century letters, written from Edward Drax to Lord Rivers... Drax, a wealthy landowner who lived in Bath, had hired a team of miners to dig a shaft from the top of Silbury Hill,... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| UA archaelogist backtracks on claim about Oxford stone mound |
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· 02/02/2010 9:03:59 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · 194+ views · · The Anniston Star, via WHNT · · January 27, 2010 · · Associated Press · |
A University of Alabama archaeologist has contradicted a report he signed last year claiming a stone mound in Oxford was likely made by humans about 1,000 years ago. The Anniston Star reports that Robert Clouse told the Oxford city council Tuesday that erosion and other natural forces likely created the mound. Clouse heads the Office of Archaeological Research at the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama Museums. Clouse was answering questions about the mound behind the Oxford Exchange and the apparent removal of another mound at the historic Davis Farm site. Clouse last year signed a report on... |
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry | |
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| Native Americans First Tamed Turkeys 2,000 Years Ago |
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· 02/02/2010 8:42:58 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 12 replies · 188+ views · · Discovery News · · Monday, February 1, 2010 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
Native Americans first domesticated turkeys around 800 B.C. Turkeys weren't initially used for their meat, but rather their feathers. Native American groups may have shared turkey-raising tips... domesticated turkeys twice: first in south-central Mexico at around 800 B.C. and again in what is now the southwestern U.S. at about 200 B.C., according to a new study. The two instances of domestication appear to have been separate, based on DNA analysis of ancient turkey remains. However, the different Native American groups could have been in contact with each other, sharing turkey-raising tips... The scientists combined their efforts for the study, which... |
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| Hope and Change | |
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| Schools: U.S. History Out, Environment In |
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· 02/03/2010 3:51:04 PM PST · · Posted by khnyny · · 45 replies · 856+ views · · Fox News · · February 3, 2010 · · Lee Ross · |
Change often leads to controversy and that is certainly the case in North Carolina where an effort to revamp the state's education system has some people outraged that high school students will not learn enough American history. The formula for teaching American history has been pretty simple. Start at the beginning and go forward. But a new proposal under review in North Carolina threatens to disrupt that standard teaching philosophy. "If our students don't know what happened in world history, and if they don't know what happened in U.S. history from George Washington's presidency all the way up through the... |
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| N.C High Schools to Remove Pre-1877 U.S. History? |
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· 02/03/2010 7:09:53 PM PST · · Posted by phi11yguy19 · · 112 replies · 4,083+ views · · FoxNews.com · · February 3, 2010 · · Molly Henneberg · |
He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. |
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| N.C. high schools to replace U.S. History with environmental issues |
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· 02/04/2010 7:14:55 AM PST · · Posted by aquapub · · 23 replies · 730+ views · · Conservative Examiner · · 2-4-10 · · Robert Moon · |
North Carolina public high schools are trying to erase all early U.S. history from the curriculum, ranging from the Founding Fathers to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War -- in exchange for things like environmental issues... |
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| Modernization or Memory Hole |
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· 02/05/2010 7:14:43 AM PST · · Posted by bs9021 · · 10 replies · 141+ views · · AIA-FL Blog · · February 5, 2010 · · Malcolm A. Kline · |
Modernizing history may be the ultimate oxymoron. "He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877," Molly Henneberg reports on Fox News. "State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth." It may but here's a few chaps such an approach would leave out:... |
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| Abraham Lincoln | |
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| Honest, Abe? |
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· 02/01/2010 9:16:30 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 12 replies · 262+ views · · Charlotte Observer · · 01 Feb 2010 · · John Bordsen · |
Local folklore has it that this overgrown N.C. hilltop is the real birthplace of Lincoln BOSTIC Note to aspiring saints and office-holders: You'll know you've achieved "legendary" status when whispered tales are attached to your life story with question marks. The higher you rise, the more there are. Consider Abraham Lincoln. There are tales about him in Washington, where the 16th president saved the Union and was assassinated. Likewise in Springfield, Ill., the closest to a normal "home" the self-made Lincoln had. Likewise in this Rutherford County crossroads where some say he was born atop Lincoln Hill, just east of... |
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| Looking for Lincoln |
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· 01/31/2010 9:02:10 AM PST · · Posted by 9422WMR · · 17 replies · 292+ views · · PBS · · 01/29/10 · · Henry Louis Gates · |
Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s quest to piece together Abraham Lincoln's complex life takes him from Illinois to Gettysburg to Washington, D.C., and face-to-face with people who live with Lincoln every day -- relic hunters, re-enactors, and others for whom the study of Lincoln is a passion. |
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| Currency Events | |
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| 15 Things You Never Noticed on a Dollar. |
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· 01/31/2010 5:26:20 PM PST · · Posted by GSP.FAN · · 37 replies · 2,090+ views · · Grandparents.com · · Jan 24 10 · · Grandparents.com · |
We're serious. Did you know a dollar bill has hidden pictures, flecks of color, and mysterious symbols? And that's just the beginning. What do all those seemingly random letters and Latin phrases mean, anyway? |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Our Universal Civilization |
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· 02/04/2010 9:59:38 PM PST · · Posted by Lorianne · · 14 replies · 165+ views · · City Journal · · Summer 1991 · · Sir V.S. Naipaul · |
On October 30, 1990, V S. Naipaul, considered by many to be the greatest living English language novelist, delivered the fourth annual Walter B. Wriston lecture in Public Policy, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute. Mr. Naipaul takes as his subject the "universal civilization" to which the Western values of tolerance, individualism, equality, and personal liberty have given birth. He describes the personal and philosophical turmoil of those who find themselves torn between their native civilizations and the valued of universal civilization. The universal civilization has been a long time in the making. It wasn't always universal; it wasn't always... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| For 30 minutes, former WWII pilot flies back in time |
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· 01/30/2010 3:47:08 PM PST · · Posted by greatdefender · · 40 replies · 1,081+ views · · St. Petersburg Times · · January 30, 2010 · · Bill Stevens · |
Lt. Nick Radosevich had his orders. Soon he would ship out to England and begin bombing targets deep inside Nazi territory. He sought an edge, a good-luck charm. He met a girl. They had some drinks and dinner. Her cocker spaniel had recently delivered puppies. "That's it,'' the handsome 26-year-old pilot said. He picked out a jet black female and named her Penelope -- Penny for short. He attached a small metal cylinder to her collar that contained contact information in case Penny should get lost. 2/Lt. Nick Radosevich, 734th Squadron, 453rd Bomb Group. For the long trip from March... |
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| The Framers | |
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| Early draft of the Constitution found in Phila. |
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· 02/02/2010 6:20:33 AM PST · · Posted by Danae · · 47 replies · 985+ views · · Philly.com · · Feb 2, 2010 · · Edward Colimore · |
Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: "We The People. . . ." They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution's framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing. |
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| Patriot's History | |
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| Thanks for all your comments: PHUSA at #19 (and climbing?) |
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· 01/30/2010 5:15:30 PM PST · · Posted by LS · · 26 replies · 507+ views · · Patriot's History of the United States · · 1/30/2010 · · LS · |
Thanks to all for your comments about the Glenn Beck show. I couldn't respond to every single person, but I read them all and am honored that you watched. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror was #19 on Amazon last I looked, second only to Zinn. It perhaps is fitting that he passed away this week, and maybe this means a changing of the guard. [ Civ's note -- Amazon sez: "#134 in Books... Popular in these categories:.. #2 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines, #2 in Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Political, #8 in Books > History > Americas" ] |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Ronald Reagan elected 30 years ago ... |
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· 02/05/2010 3:02:34 PM PST · · Posted by opineapple · · 15 replies · 267+ views · · American Thinker · · February 04, 2010 · · Phil Boehmke · |
Saturday, Feb 6, would have marked President Reagan's 99th birthday. And being that it was 30 years ago he was elected president, now -- in the age of THE ONE -- would it not be a good time to reflect on that historic event? Ronald Reagan believed in American exceptionalism. Ronald Reagan believed in the American people who are the wellspring of that exceptionalism. Ronald Reagan unapologetically, unswervingly and unconditionally loved America. In these troubled times there are so many reasons for pessimism. The current administration and their congressional allies have taken our nation down... |
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| end of digest #290 20100206 | |
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