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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #291 Saturday, February 13, 2010 |
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| Hope and Change | |
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| Memory Hole Gets Crowded |
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· 02/09/2010 6:31:28 AM PST · · Posted by bs9021 · · 12 replies · 468+ views · · Accuracy in Academia · · February 9, 2010 · · Malcolm A. Kline · |
Marxists believe that he who controls the past controls the future. It's hard not to see that philosophy at work in the actions of various state boards of education around the country. Nevertheless, whether by accident or design, students who have not been taught, for example, the Constitution, will find it difficult to label anything unconstitutional. When my stepson was in high school, he was assigned the task of writing his own constitution. I suggested that he cut and paste the original to see if the teacher would notice. He... |
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| Look what they're erasing from U.S. history! |
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· 02/11/2010 7:11:23 AM PST · · Posted by Britt0n · · 278 replies · 4,102+ views · · www.wnd.com · · February 11, 2010 · · Chelsea Schilling · |
A state board of only 15 people will vote on whether to revise U.S. textbooks to omit references to Daniel Boone, Gen. George Patton, Nathan Hale, Columbus Day and Christmas. The Texas State Board of Education will also vote on a proposal to substitute the term "American" with "global citizen." Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, is warning Americans to speak up before only eight people, with a majority vote, have a chance to literally rewrite American history. He appeared on the "Huckabee Show" to explain why the board's vote matters to the rest of America. Staver said... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies |
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· 02/05/2010 1:17:19 AM PST · · Posted by cold start · · 34 replies · 1,101+ views · · Guardian.co.uk · · 4 Feb 2010 · · Jonathan Watts · |
Death of Boa Sr, last person fluent in the Bo language of the Andaman Islands, breaks link with 65,000-year-old culture The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world's oldest cultures. Boa Sr, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo. Taking its name from a now-extinct tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to pre-Neolithic human... |
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| Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies |
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· 02/05/2010 7:30:14 PM PST · · Posted by rdl6989 · · 41 replies · 580+ views · · Yahoo News/Reuters · · Feb 5, 2010 · · Sanjib Kumar Roy · |
PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) -- One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island. Boa Sr, the 85-year-old last speaker of "Bo," was the oldest member of the Great Andamanese tribe, R.C. Kar, deputy director of Tribal Health in Andaman, told Reuters on Friday. She died last week in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which were hit by a devastating tsunami in 2004. "With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction... |
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| Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe dies, taking one of world's earliest languages to the grave |
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· 02/06/2010 4:06:39 AM PST · · Posted by SkyPilot · · 39 replies · 819+ views · · Mail Online · · 5 Feb 2010 · · Anny Shaw · |
The last member of a 65,000-year-old tribe has died, taking one of the world's earliest languages to the grave. Boa Sr, who died last week aged about 85, was the last native of the Andaman Islands who was fluent in Bo. Named after the tribe, Bo is one of the 10 Great Andamanese languages, which are thought to date back to the pre-Neolithic period when the earliest humans walked out of Africa.Boa Sr, who died last week aged about 85, was the last native of the Andaman Islands who was fluent in Bo. |
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| Fertile Crescent | |
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| Archaeological Findings: Cuneiform tablets, Seals and Tombs Unearthed in Syria |
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· 02/07/2010 9:33:18 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · 406+ views · · Global Arab Network · · Saturday, February 6, 2010 · · Ruaa AL-Jazaeri · |
According to Syrian media, archaeological expeditions working at North-eastern Syria (Hasaka Province) have discovered several collective tombs and parts of seals with different shapes in addition to 27 cuneiform tablets dating back to 2500 BC. Director of Hasska Antiquities Department Abdul-Masih Baghdo... added that the expedition also studied several archaeological findings to find out the location of the buildings dating back to the Babylonian and Mitanni periods. Three... tombs were also unearthed at the site of Tal Majnuna, dating back to the period between 3600 to 3800 BC. The Japanese expedition working at the site of Tal Siker al-Ehmir discovered... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Ancient tooth enamel defects linked with premature death [ Dentistry.co.uk ] |
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· 02/07/2010 9:38:28 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · 209+ views · · Dentistry.co.uk · · 5th Feb 2010 · · Evolutionary Anthropology · |
A study reveals ancient human teeth showing evidence that stressful events during early development are linked to shorter lifespans. Anthropologist George Armelagos led a systematic review of defects in teeth enamel and early mortality. He said: 'Prehistoric remains are providing strong, physical evidence that people who acquired tooth enamel defects while in the womb or early childhood tended to die earlier. During prehistory, the stresses of infectious disease, poor nutrition and psychological trauma were likely extreme. The teeth show the impact.' His paper is the first summary of prehistoric evidence for the Barker hypothesis -- the idea that many adult... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Ben Hur in Colchester? Race is on to save UK's only Roman chariot racetrack |
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· 02/08/2010 4:39:18 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · 311+ views · · Guardian~ · · Sunday, February 7, 2010 · · Maev Kennedy · |
When the white handkerchief dropped, the Ben Hurs of Colchester would have set off down Circular Road North, past the banked tiers of seats, turning left at Napier Road, their iron tyres gouging a deep rut in the track,and back up past St John's gatehouse towards the water-spouting dolphin marking the end of the first lap. Colchester, it seems, was the Formula One track of Roman Britain, with the only chariot racing circus ever found on the island, and the first found in northern Europe for 20 years... The racetrack is still buried under roads, gardens and old army buildings,... |
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| Currency Events | |
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| Staffordshire hoard comes home: 'It's a dream come true' |
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· 02/10/2010 8:12:41 AM PST · · Posted by pillut48 · · 8 replies · 413+ views · · Guardian.co.uk · · Wednesday 10 February 2010 · · Christopher Thomond and Shehani Fernando · |
Video: Deb Klemperer, head of collections at Stoke's Potteries Museum, describes the thrill of striking Anglo-Saxon gold -- and explains why keeping the treasure on Staffordshire soil requires visitors, too, to dig deep |
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| British Isles | |
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| History of England starts at 1700, says university |
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· 02/11/2010 3:19:42 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 59 replies · 963+ views · · The Telegraph · · 2/11/2010 · · Graeme Paton · |
Academics have attacked a decision by a top university to scrap research into English history before 1700. It was claimed that the move by Sussex University risked jeopardising the nation's understanding of the subject and "entrenching the ignorance of the present". Under plans, research and in-depth teaching into periods such as the Tudors, the Middle-Ages, Norman Britain, the Viking invasion and the Anglo-Saxons will be scrapped, along with the Civil Wars. The university will also end research into the history of continental Europe pre-1900, affecting the study of the Napoleonic wars and the Roman Empire. The university said it was... |
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| Butter, No Guns | |
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| Century-old butter found in Scott's Antarctic hut |
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· 12/16/2009 5:43:33 PM PST · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 28 replies · 1,184+ views · · AFP on Yahoo · · 12/16/09 · · AFP · |
WELLINGTON (AFP) -- Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said. Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica. The extreme cold of the polar region has preserved the hut and expedition equipment inside, but recent signs of deterioration had prompted the Antarctic Heritage Trust to launch a preservation project. The trust's Lizzie Meek said the butter... |
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| Whiskey, No Tobacco | |
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| Explorers' century-old whisky found in Antarctic |
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· 02/05/2010 5:57:24 PM PST · · Posted by Redcitizen · · 32 replies · 802+ views · · Associated Press · · Fri Feb 5, 4:49 am ET · · unknown · |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- This Scotch has been on the rocks for a century. Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ice cracked some of the bottles that had been left there in 1909, but the restorers said Friday they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles "given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved." |
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| Shackleton's whisky recovered |
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· 02/05/2010 7:52:41 PM PST · · Posted by Pan_Yan · · 20 replies · 683+ views · · Guardian.co.uk · · February 2010 12.20 GMT · · Rick Peters · |
That's the spirit! Cases of Mackinlay's 'Rare Old' scotch whisky have been recovered from the ice outside Shackleton's Antarctic hut. What will it taste like? After some hype and anticipation news has emerged that the crates of whisky long suspected to have been entombed by ice outside Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic hut have finally been recovered. A team from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust have managed to extract five cases, three of Chas Mackinlay & Co's whisky and two containing brandy made by the Hunter Valley Distillery Limited, Allandale (Australia), which were abandoned by the expedition in 1909 as... |
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| Scotch Whisky Meant To Warm Antarctic Explorers Retrieved After Century Locked In Ice |
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· 02/06/2010 9:26:13 AM PST · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 30 replies · 924+ views · · StarTribune.com · · February 5, 2010 · · AP · |
Scotch whisky meant to warm Antarctic explorers retrieved after century locked in ice Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand - This Scotch has been on the rocks for a century. Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ice cracked some of the bottles that had been left there in 1909, but the restorers said Friday they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles "given liquid can be heard when the crates are moved." New Zealand Antarctic... |
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| Whisky on (Antarctic) ice: Ernest Shackleton...left a stash at the bottom of the world. |
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· 10/26/2009 6:07:49 PM PDT · · Posted by xzins · · 45 replies · 2,661+ views · · Global Post · · October 26, 2009 · · Emily Stone · |
CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica -- This spit of black volcanic rock that juts out along the coast of Antarctica is an inhospitable place. Temperatures drop below 50° Fahrenheit and high winds cause blinding snowstorms... But if you happen upon the small wooden hut that sits at Cape Royds and wriggled yourself underneath, you'd find a surprise stashed in the foot and a half of space beneath the floorboards. Tucked in the shadows and frozen to the ground are two cases of Scotch whisky left behind 100 years ago by Sir Ernest Shackleton after a failed attempt at the South Pole. Conservators... |
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| Farty Shades of Green | |
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| Bronze brooch rises from the ashes [ medieval Ireland ] |
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· 02/08/2010 4:52:02 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · 622+ views · · Irish Times · · Thursday, February 4, 2010 · · Anne Lucey · |
A 1,400-year-old brooch dating from the early Christian period has been discovered in the remnants of a turf fire in a range in north Kerry. It is believed the brooch fastened the cloak of a clergyman and was dropped, probably on a forest road which later became bog. It ended up in a sod of turf in the range of Sheila and Pat Joe Edgeworth at Martara, Ballylongford, near the Shannon estuary. Lands alongside the Shannon are chequered with early Christian ruins and holy wells. The bronze brooch was found shortly before Christmas by Ms Edgeworth when she was cleaning... |
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| Abraham Lincoln | |
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| Happy 201st birthday to Abe Lincoln |
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· 02/12/2010 4:40:20 PM PST · · Posted by La Enchiladita · · 14 replies · 149+ views · · KHQA · · Feb. 12, 2010 · · Staff · |
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - It's Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and Illinois is celebrating by sealing up a time capsule and taking pictures of life across the state. Lincoln would have turned 201 today. To mark the occasion, officials are preparing a time capsule that will be stored at the Lincoln Presidential Library. It will include items such as birthday cards, photos and documents from the celebration of his 200th birthday. The time capsule is supposed to be opened in 2109. The Associated Professional Photographers of Illinois will also help celebrate. They're shooting Lincoln-themed pictures around the state today and will post... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| The Untold History of Nullification: Resisting Slavery |
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· 02/11/2010 5:14:36 PM PST · · Posted by ForGod'sSake · · 43 replies · 624+ views · · Tenth Amendment Center · · Feb 10, 2010 · · Derek Sheriff · |
The Untold History of Nullification: Resisting Slavery by Derek SheriffLast December, when Tennessee Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, said she would introduce legislation which would declare null and void any federal law the state deems unconstitutional, some people were horrified. Rep. Lynn was specifically targeting the health-care reform legislation that was pending at that time. But the reaction that many people had to her language was not an expression of their support for Obamacare.Too many Americans hear the terms "states' rights" or the word "nullification" and immediately think of racial prejudice, Jim Crow laws and school segregation. Honestly, if all... |
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| The Framers | |
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| The Education of John Jay - America's indispensable diplomat |
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· 02/08/2010 12:37:57 AM PST · · Posted by neverdem · · 42 replies · 877+ views · · City Journal · · Winter 2010 · · Myron Magnet · |
Few could fathom why 55-year-old John Jay turned down President Adams's nomination to rejoin the Supreme Court when his two terms as New York's governor ended. What would lead him, in the hale prime of life, to retire instead to the plain yellow house he'd just built on a hilltop at the remote northern edge of Westchester County, two days' ride from Manhattan, where visitors were few and the mail and newspapers came but once a week? After 27 years at the forge of the new nation's founding, why would so lavishly talented a man give up his vital role... |
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| Early America | |
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| Bergen's unsung Founding Father (NJ) |
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· 02/11/2010 8:58:52 AM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 12 replies · 197+ views · · Bergen (NJ) Record · · February 11, 2010 · · JIM WRIGHT · |
Jim Wright, a former staff writer for The Record, wrote an essay on John Fell's prison diary for the recently published book "Revolutionary Bergen County: The Road to Independence" (The History Press.) "Last night I was taken prisoner from my house by 25 armed menÖ" THUS BEGINS the Revolutionary War prison diary of John Fell of Allendale, the leader of the Bergen County insurgency against the king of England and his local sympathizers. Fell's 16-page diary, written in secret in the Provost Jail in Lower Manhattan from April 1777 to January 1778, is one of the most significant documents chronicling... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| Reformation and the Salem Witch Trials |
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· 10/31/2002 10:05:55 PM PST · · Posted by ppaul · · 28 replies · 1,691+ views · · VisionForum e-mail · · 10/31/02 · · Douglas Phillips · |
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, October 31, 2002 - In the New England town of Salem, once considered the city of peace for the New World and the gateway to a glorious Christian commonwealth, the community prepares for the annual Halloween celebration, viewed by many as a triumph over the narrow-mindedness of Christianity. More than three hundred years after the now-infamous witch trials of 1692, Salem has become a Mecca for witches, as covens and practitioners of the occult arts gather from around the nation each October 31 to glory in paganism and identify with the city whose name has become synonymous with... |
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| The Great War | |
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| Last U.S. veteran of World War I turns 109 |
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· 02/01/2010 2:22:40 PM PST · · Posted by Daffynition · · 19 replies · 501+ views · · CNN · · February 1, 2010 · · Paul Courson · |
Washington (CNN) -- The last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, former Cpl. Frank Buckles, turns 109 on Monday and is still hoping for a national memorial in Washington for his comrades. Buckles is expected to deliver remarks during a quiet celebration Monday afternoon at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia. But the old "Doughboy" -- as World War I American infantry troops were called -- has already been outspoken in recent years, urging congressional lawmakers to give federal recognition and a facelift to a run-down District of Columbia memorial in an overgrown, wooded area along the National... |
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| Winter of '42 | |
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| 60th Anniversary of Japanese Internment by FDR - Executive Order 9066 |
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· 02/18/2002 11:18:08 AM PST · · Posted by CounterCounterCulture · · 10 replies · 3,924+ views · · FDR Executive Order No. 9066, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, University of Arizona Library · · 1942; 1995; 2002 · · FDR et al. · |
Executive Order 9066 Japanese American Internment Order of WWII February 19, 1942 This order from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enabled the establishment of "internment camps" for 110,000 Japanese Americans and others deemed "enemy aliens". EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 9066 The President EXECUTIVE ORDER AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO PRESCRIBE MILlTARY AREAS WHEREAS the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities as defined in Section 4, Act of April 20, 1918, 40 Stat. 533, as amended by the Act ... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Crumpled map solves mystery of German gun behind D-Day massacre |
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· 01/04/2008 10:08:40 AM PST · · Posted by Stoat · · 94 replies · 2,222+ views · · The Daily Mail (U.K.) · · January 4, 2008 · |
A baffling mystery of the D-Day landings was solved by an amateur historian - after he found a crumpled map at a fair in Stockport. Experts have long disputed the location of the main Nazi gun battery which caused carnage on Omaha Beach, in terrible scenes which were recreated for the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan. The Germans had built a decoy gun emplacement overlooking the area while the location of the real guns which blasted the beach, where 2,000 men lost their... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| The fall of Spain, the first global superpower, and the fall of the US |
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· 02/09/2010 8:47:02 AM PST · · Posted by GeorgeSaden · · 41 replies · 802+ views · · American Economic Alert · |
It may be hard for most people to imagine, but Spain was the first global Superpower. It gained this status as the defender of Europe against Muslim armies and by leading the West's exploration of America. In 1492, the same year that Spanish-financed Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, the last Muslim stronghold of Granada was ceded to Ferdinand and Isabella to complete the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula... It controlled rich parts of Italy through Naples and Milan, and Central Europe from the Netherlands through the Holy Roman Empire to Austria. In the 16th century it added the... |
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| Patriot's History | |
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| Beck Sends Freeper LS to #1 on Amazon |
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· 02/08/2010 5:07:26 PM PST · · Posted by LS · · 163 replies · 2,673+ views · · Glenn Beck Show/Amazon · · 2/8/2010 · · LS · |
Truly amazing: the power of Glenn Beck. He mentioned A Patriot's History of the United States today on his radio show, then again on the TV show, and lo and behold, #1. Big stuff happening. Can't tell all yet, but watch our web pages, www.patriotshistoryusa.com and www.rockinthewall.com. Oh, and if anyone knows how to do a screen saver, I'd like to bronze this one. |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| John F. Kennedy's corrupt ascent to power |
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· 02/06/2010 5:19:17 AM PST · · Posted by reaganaut1 · · 22 replies · 978+ views · · A History of the American People · · 1997 · · Paul Johnson · |
The other main area of lying [besides health] centered on [John F. Kennedy's] curriculum vitae. In 1940 his thesis was written for him by a number of people, including Arthur Krock of the New York Times, and Joe's personal speechwriter, who described it as a 'very sloppy job, mostly magazine and newspaper clippings stuck together.' But, processed, it not only allowed Jack to graduate cum laude but also appeared in book form as Why England Slept. Old Joe and his men turned it into a 'bestseller,' partly by using influence with publishers such as Henry Luce, partly by buying 30,000-40,000... |
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| Plato? Socrates? Aristotle? Morons. | |
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| British researcher asks: How many friends can you have? The magic number is 150 |
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· 02/06/2010 4:46:23 AM PST · · Posted by One_Upmanship · · 21 replies · 419+ views · · the star · · Feb 05 2010 · · Debra Black · |
British anthropologist Robin Dunbar says human beings can have no more than 150 friends -- that's the upper limit the brain can absorb. His conclusion comes from studying the social group size of monkeys and apes and how that size might relate to the brain. Initially Dunbar was examining why primates groom each other. If the reason involved sexual bonding, it should correspond to "the social brain hypothesis" that the reason primates have a large brain is because of their social complexity. In other words, you need a large brain to keep track of your relationships. Humans, he says, are... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Armed stake-out for big cats (in Wales) |
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· 01/08/2003 5:45:53 PM PST · · Posted by gd124 · · 42 replies · 20,479+ views · · BBC · · Tuesday, January 7, 2003 · |
Armed police are continuing to stake out the farm where at least one big cat is thought to have killed a dog. Dyfed-Powys Police sharpshooters have been drafted in to hunt two puma-like animals which struck at the farm at Llangadog, near Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, on Sunday evening. The force is warning the public and farmers not to search for the puma-like cat which attacked the dog within sight of its owner and was then joined by what could have been its cub. Officers armed with high-powered rifles are watching the site of the attack from hides and if the... |
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| Contemporary African Pterodactyls? |
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· 01/21/2003 3:31:15 PM PST · · Posted by vannrox · · 34 replies · 2,310+ views · · Strange ARK · · FR Post 1-20-03 · · M.D.W. Jeffreys, M.A., Ph.D. · |
In September, 1939, the West African Review contained an article "Living Monster or Fabulous.Animal?" Readers will recollect that some years earlier there had been a type of "Challenger Expedition" into Central Africa to search the Iruwuni forests of the Belgian Congo for a huge, mysterious, antedeluvian monster. "Is the Brontosauros still alive in the morasses of the Congo?" were the headlines in some of the London papers. No report of the traces of any such monsters ever appeared, and I was not surprised. I had been... |
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| Sweden's Loch Ness monster possibly caught on camera |
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· 08/29/2008 11:50:50 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 23 replies · 535+ views · · AFP · · 29 Aug 2008 · · AFP · |
Sweden's own version of the Loch Ness monster, the Storsjoe or Great Lake monster, has been caught on film by surveillance videos, an association that installed the cameras said Friday. The legend of the Swedish beast has swirled for nearly four centuries, with some 200 sightings reported in the lake in central Sweden. "On Thursday at 12:21 pm, we filmed the movements of a live being. And it was not a pike, nor a perch, we're sure of that," Gunnar Nilsson, the head of a shopkeepers' association in Svenstavik, told AFP. The association, together with the Jaemtland province and local... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| True-Color Dinosaur Pictures: First Full-Body Rendering - Dino-pecker? |
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· 02/06/2010 11:44:42 AM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 23 replies · 1,321+ views · · nationalgeographic · |
For the first time, scientists have decoded the full-body color patterns of a dinosaur -- the 155-million-year-old Anchiornis huxleyi (pictured) -- a new study in the journal Science says. That may sound familiar, given last week's announcement of the first scientifically verified dinosaur color scheme. But the previous research, published in Nature, had found pigments only on a few isolated parts of dinosaurs (see pictures) -- and had used less rigorous methods for assigning colors to the fossilized, filament-like "protofeathers" found on some dinosaur specimens, say authors of the new report. |
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| Paleontology | |
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| World's Biggest Snake Lived in 1st "Modern" Rain Forest |
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· 10/14/2009 4:43:44 PM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 3 replies · 4,410+ views · · nationalgeographic · · October 13, 2009 · · Ker Than · |
If it were still alive today, the largest snake ever known to have lived would feel right at home in South America's tropical rain forests. That's because the modern ecosystem contains many of the same plants that grew in the massive serpent's home turf some 60 million years ago, according to a new study detailing the earliest known "modern" rain forest. The study is based on more than 2,000 fossil leaves recently discovered in Colombia's Cerrejón coal mine -- the same place where scientists had found fossils of Titanoboa cerrejonesis earlier this year. Many of the newfound plant fossils are of palm,... |
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| Prehistoric titanic-snake jungles laughed at global warming |
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· 10/20/2009 7:12:58 AM PDT · · Posted by snarkpup · · 11 replies · 764+ views · · The Register · · 13th October 2009 12:35 GMT · · Lewis Page · |
Fossil boffins say that dense triple-canopy rainforests, home among other things to gigantic one-tonne boa constrictors, flourished millions of years ago in temperatures 3-5°C warmer than those seen today - as hot as some of the more dire global-warming projections.The new fossil evidence comes from the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, previously the location where the remains of the gigantic 40-foot Titanoboa cerrejonensis were discovered. The snake's discoverers attracted flak from global-warming worriers at the time for saying that the cold-blooded creature would only have been able to survive in jungles a good... |
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| BIGGEST SNAKE PHOTOS: Prehistoric Giant Discovered |
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· 02/07/2010 7:29:08 AM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 43 replies · 2,093+ views · · nationalgeographic · · February 4, 2009- · |
Found in a Colombian coal mine, a vertebra from a 45-foot (14-meter) Titanoboa cerrejones dwarfs a similar bone from a 17-foot (5.2-meter) anaconda--currently the world's biggest, if not longest, snake species. (View anaconda pictures and facts.) The ancient snake's giant size suggests that mean year-round temperatures in the tropics were several degrees warmer than they are today, according to a study that analyzed the relationships among a snake's body size, its metabolism, and the outside temperature. "We were able to use the snake, if you will, as a giant fossil thermometer," said biologist Jason Head, lead author of the new... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| We May Soon Be Able to Clone Neanderthals. But Should We? |
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· 02/11/2010 12:18:13 AM PST · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 53 replies · 773+ views · · Discover Magazine · · February 10, 2010 · · Andrew Moseman · |
Last year DISCOVER asked the question, "Did We Mate With Neanderthals, or Did We Murder Them?" Now, Zach Zorich at Archaeology magazine is asking another big question about our hominid siblings: Should we bring them back? Thanks to a slew of recent advances, the possibility is getting closer. 80beats reported a year ago that researchers had published the rough draft of the Neanderthal genome. However, that's likely to contain many errors because it's so difficult to reconstruct ancient DNA. Within hours of death, cells begin to break down in a process called apoptosis. The dying cells release enzymes that chop... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Frozen Hair Yields First Ancient Human Genome |
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· 02/10/2010 12:57:13 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 59 replies · 769+ views · · Live Science · · Feb 10, 2010 · · Andrea Thompson · |
A few tufts of hair frozen in the permafrost of Greenland for more than 4,000 years have allowed scientists to sequence the genome of an ancient human for the first time. The hairs belonged to a member of the ancient Saqqaq culture of Greenland, the first humans known to inhabit the icy island. Scientists have long wondered where the Saqqaq came from and whether or not they were the ancestors of today's modern Inuit and Greenlanders. The new findings, detailed in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Nature, have helped to settle that question. The hairs also tell about... |
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| Analysis of hair DNA reveals ancient human's face |
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· 02/10/2010 1:31:13 PM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 25 replies · 716+ views · · bbc. · · 10 February 2010 · |
DNA analysis of human hair preserved in Greenland's permafrost has given clues as to what the owner looked like. A study, published in the journal Nature, says the individual's genome is the oldest to have been sequenced from a modern human. The researchers say the man, who lived 4,000 years ago, had brown eyes and thick dark hair, although he would have been prone to baldness. They say the genome also shows that his ancestors migrated from Siberia. The man has been named Inuk, which means "human" in the Greenlandic language. |
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| Ancient Greenland gene map has a surprise |
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· 02/11/2010 8:24:26 AM PST · · Posted by FredJake · · 37 replies · 1,119+ views · · Yahoo News · · 2/11/10 · · Maggie Fox · |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Scientists have sequenced the DNA from four frozen hairs of a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago in a study they say takes genetic technology into several new realms. Surprisingly, the long-dead man appears to have originated in Siberia and is unrelated to modern Greenlanders, Morten Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues found. "This provides evidence for a migration from Siberia into the New World some 5,500 years ago, independent of that giving rise to the modern Native Americans and Inuit," the researchers wrote in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Not only can... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Rush for iron spurred Inuit ancestors to sprint across Arctic, book contends |
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· 02/10/2010 4:03:00 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 36 replies · 348+ views · · Vancouver Sun · · February 8, 2010 · · Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service · |
One of Canada's top archeologists argues in a new book that the prehistoric ancestors of this country's 55,000 Inuit probably migrated rapidly from Alaska clear across the Canadian North in just a few years -- not gradually over centuries as traditionally assumed -- after they learned about a rich supply of iron from a massive meteorite strike on Greenland's west coast. The startling theory, tentatively floated two decades ago by Canadian Museum of Civilization curator emeritus Robert McGhee, has been bolstered by recent research indicating a later and faster migration of the ancient Thule Inuit across North America's polar frontier... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| Extinct Ethnic Group Vestiges Discovered in Chihuahua |
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· 02/08/2010 4:43:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · 257+ views · · Art Daily · · February 2010 · · unattributed · |
More than a dozen dwelling, ritual and funerary sites, some of them more than 1,000 years old, were located inside shallow caves at Barranca de la Sinforosa (Sinforosa Gully), Chihuahua. According to preliminary studies, vestiges could correspond to Tubar people, an indigenous group that isolated in Tarahumara Mountain Range during Colonial times to avoid evangelization, and extinguished in late 19th century. Nine dwelling sites, 2 ceremonial and 2 of funerary character were found in Ohuivo, Chorogue, Zapuri and G¸erachi localities of Guachochi municipality in Chihuahua... 3 types of sites were identified, which, according to architecture, burial system and regional research... |
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| Mayans | |
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| Wall with Maya Seignior Glyphs Discovered at Archaeological Zone |
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· 02/07/2010 9:46:03 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · 222+ views · · Art Daily · |
A wall with a rich glyphic text that includes the complete name of the ruler that founded one of the most important Maya military seigniories was discovered in Tonina Archaeological Zone, in Chiapas. Epigraphists point out that the finding will bring in new information regarding Maya grammar, since it shows linguistic features yet to be deciphered. The discovery adds up to the sarcophagus recently uncovered by specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The wall dated in 708 AD was detected at El Palacio; a stucco portrait of K'inich B'aaknal Chaahk, the most powerful seignior of the... |
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| Leafing Las Vegas | |
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| A Tree Carving in California: Ancient Astronomers? |
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· 02/09/2010 11:24:31 AM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 40 replies · 1,092+ views · · Time · · 09 Feb 2010 · · Matt Kettmann · |
Though local lore held that the so-called "scorpion tree" had been the work of cowboys, paleontologist Rex Saint Onge immediately knew that the tree was carved by Indians when he stumbled upon it in the fall of 2006. Located in a shady grove atop the Santa Lucia Mountains in San Luis Obispo County, the centuries-old gnarled oak had the image of a six-legged, lizard-like being meticulously scrawled into its trunk, the nearly three-foot-tall beast topped with a rectangular crown and two large spheres. "I was really the first one to come across it who understood that it was a Chumash... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Scholar examines reports of solar eclipses in the Middle Ages |
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· 02/09/2010 8:54:25 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · 221+ views · · Medieval News 'blog · · Sunday, February 07, 2010 · · medieval news blogger (duh) · |
Hundreds of solar eclipses were recorded by medieval chroniclers, offering historians of astronomy with some vital information about how people in the Middle Ages reacted to this phenomenon. The latest research into this subject has just been published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy. In his article, "Investigation of Medieval European Records of Solar Eclipses," F. Richard Stephenson states he wants to provide "an intriguing insight into the effects of solar eclipses over a wide range of magnitudes on largely untrained and unsuspecting observers." Using chronicles mainly from England, France, Germany and Italy, Stephenson finds hundreds of accounts.... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Stonehenge's secret: archaeologist uncovers evidence of encircling hedges |
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· 02/07/2010 9:58:47 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · 732+ views · · Guardian · · Thursday, February 4, 2010 · · Maev Kennedy · |
Inevitably dubbed Stonehedge, the evidence from a new survey of the Stonehenge landscape suggests that 4,000 years ago the world's most famous prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges, planted on low concentric banks. The best guess of the archaeologists from English Heritage, who carried out the first detailed survey of the landscape of the monument since the Ordnance Survey maps of 1919, is that the hedges could have served as screens keeping even more secret from the crowd the ceremonies carried out by the elite allowed inside the stone circle... If the early Bronze Age date is correct,... |
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| Forensics is Ten | |
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| Bog woman given a face |
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· 02/10/2010 6:25:22 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 37 replies · 1,426+ views · · Copenhagen Post · · January 29, 2010 · · Unattributed · |
The female known as the Auning Woman, found in a northeastern Jutland bog 1886, and housed at the Museum for Culture and History in Randers, has finally got a face. Reasonably well-preserved when she popped up from the bog, the woman's 2000-year-old skull was broken into several pieces. But sculptor Björn Skaarup and medical examiner Niels Lynnerup from the Panum Institute in Copenhagen have now reconstructed the Auning Woman's face, using the common forensic clay method first developed by Russian anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov. The finished product was put on display today at the museum. And although the results have shown... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Hey, that mummy is a daddy |
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· 06/25/2009 5:15:52 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 21 replies · 1,305+ views · · 6-23-2009 · · BY ERIK BADIA · |
Egyptologists from the Brooklyn Museum and doctors from North Shore University Hospital learned Tuesday through a CT scan that a 2,500-year-old mummy previously thought to be a woman - and named Lady Hor - actually was a man. Dr. Jesse Chusid said that while the mummy's body wrap of linen covered in plaster, called cartonnage, bore the shape of a woman, the body within had the anatomy of a man. |
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| Africa | |
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| Archaeologists stumble on 8,000-year-old skeleton in Kenyir Lake [Malaysia] |
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· 02/07/2010 9:52:18 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 415+ views · · Daily Star (Burma) · · Saturday February 6, 2010 · · Bernama · |
Archaeologists have stumbled upon human skeletal remains believed to be from the Mesolithic Age in the Bewah Cave in the Kenyir Lake area, according to a university professor. The remains, believed to be those of a youth, are estimated to be between 8,000 and 11,000 years old, said Prof Datuk Dr Nik Hasan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, deputy director of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation (ATMA) of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The remains were uncovered by archaeologists from UKM, the Museums Department and the Terengganu Museum Board at a depth of 65 to 70 centimetres, he told... |
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| Australia & the Pacific | |
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| Maori canoe unearthed on New Zealand beach |
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· 02/09/2010 9:37:23 PM PST · · Posted by Fred Nerks · · 2 replies · 204+ views · · ablogabout history · · February 9, 2010 · · u/a · |
A canoe used for fishing and river travel, the waka tikai was discovered at the southern end of the beach. It took a couple of days to plan its excavation so that the seven-metre waka would not be damaged. Finding the whole length of a waka is fairly rare, as usually only sections are found, such as the prow or stern. Auckland Regional Council parks staff and locals carefully moved the waka on to a truck, which took it to a temporary home at the regional council depot. "It's difficult to date the waka because it may have been created... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Islam's golden age comes to life (Major hurl alert) |
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· 12/23/2006 4:44:36 AM PST · · Posted by radar101 · · 76 replies · 1,432+ views · · SacBee · · December 23, 2006 · · Stephen Magagnini · |
Poets and philosophers, merchants and mathematicians, artisans and astronomers re-enacted the Golden Age of Islam at the Al-Arqam Islamic School in south Sacramento on Friday. The artistry, story-telling and role-playing was a creation of 233 students from kindergarten through ninth grade who brought to life the sights, tastes and smells of an Islamic empire that spanned three continents from the eighth to the 13th centuries. From incense to Turkish coffee, dates to oranges, minarets to miniature mosques and castles -- you could find it all at The Islamic Civilization Exhibit and Festival in the school's multipurpose room. Pageantry was accompanied... |
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| Self-Defense | |
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| The Crusades: When Christendom Pushed Back |
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· 02/06/2010 6:37:51 AM PST · · Posted by Paladins Prayer · · 52 replies · 1,133+ views · · The New American · · 2/5/10 · · Selwyn Duke · |
The year is 732 A.D., and Europe is under assault. Islam, born a mere 110 years earlier, is already in its adolescence, and the Muslim Moors are on the march. Growing in leaps and bounds, the Caliphate, as the Islamic realm is known, has thus far subdued much of Christendom, conquering the old Christian lands of the Mideast and North Africa in short order. Syria and Iraq fell in 636; Palestine in 638; and Egypt, which was not even an Arab land, fell in 642. North Africa, also not Arab, was under Muslim control by 709. Then came the year... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Israeli Rabbis Hope to Search Vatican |
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· 01/15/2004 5:26:25 PM PST · · Posted by Alouette · · 150 replies · 14,874+ views · · Associated Press · · Jan. 15, 2004 · · Gavin Rabinowitz · |
JERUSALEM - Israel's chief rabbis, who will meet the pope Friday, said they hope to get permission to search Vatican storerooms for artifacts such as the huge golden menorah that stood in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Vatican officials confirmed the meeting would take place but declined comment on the rabbis' request. Yehuda Metzger and Shlomo Amar are to have an audience with Pope John Paul II, the first by Israel's chief rabbis in the Vatican. The pope met Israel's previous chief rabbis in the Holy Land during his visit in 2000. Amar, spiritual leader of Israel's... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Israelite priests hold first gathering since Temple era |
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· 07/19/2007 3:59:10 PM PDT · · Posted by Squidpup · · 63 replies · 1,895+ views · · Israel Today · · July 15, 2007 · · staff writer · |
Israelite priests hold first gathering since Temple era Jews belonging to the Tribe of Levi, and particularly the Kohen clan, came together for a mass gathering in Jerusalem on Sunday. It was the first large-scale gathering of biblically-mandated Israelite priests since the time of the Second Temple. The gathering included lectures and seminars on the history and future of the Temple, and culminated with all of the participants declaring the priestly blessing over Israel from the Western Wall. Genetic research over the past several decades has succeeded in isolating a particular DNA signature shared by all members of the Tribe... |
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| Archaeologists find early depiction of a menorah |
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· 09/11/2009 5:04:55 PM PDT · · Posted by madison10 · · 12 replies · 818+ views · · AP on Yahoo · · Sept. 11, 2009 · · Amy Teibel · |
JERUSALEM -- Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee. Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority. |
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| Court rules against residents near archaeological dig |
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· 10/24/2009 5:05:59 PM PDT · · Posted by Fred Nerks · · 11 replies · 597+ views · · Jewish Tribune · · Tuesday, 20 October 2009 · · U/A · |
JERUSALEM-TORONTO -- The Archaeological Research currently taking place in the "Walls Around the Old City' national park at the City of David in Jerusalem is in the public's best interests, according to an Israeli Supreme Court decision regarding two recent petitions against the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The petitions were submitted by residents living near the excavation site. According to a press release issued by Yaen Vered, the IAA representative in Canada, it is the IAA's opinion that "these residents are being incited by other factors whose considerations are political and improbable." In a telephone conversation with the Jewish Tribune,... |
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| Time Magazine Digging Up Trouble in Jerusalem |
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· 02/11/2010 1:13:47 PM PST · · Posted by Tigen · · 7 replies · 842+ views · · INN · · 2-11-10 · · Hana Levi Julian · |
(IsraelNN.com) The United States-based Time Magazine complained this week that the archaeological activities of the City of David Foundation, also known as "Ir David" or "Elad," are making life difficult for President Barack Obama. |
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| Archaeology in Jerusalem: Digging Up Trouble |
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· 02/12/2010 5:46:50 AM PST · · Posted by SJackson · · 6 replies · 418+ views · · TIME/Arutz Sheva · · 2-12-10 · · Tim McGirk · |
The Jerusalem syndrome is a psychological disorder in which a visit to the holy city triggers delusional and obsessive religious fantasies. In its extreme variety, people wander the lanes of the Old City believing they are biblical characters; John the Baptist, say, or a brawny Samson, sprung back to life. Archaeologists in the Holy Land like to joke that their profession is vulnerable to a milder form of the syndrome. When scientists find a cracked, oversize skull in the Valley of Elah, it can be hard to resist the thought that it might have belonged to Goliath, or to imagine,... |
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| Excavation uncovers evidence supporting mosaic Jerusalem map |
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· 02/12/2010 5:47:58 AM PST · · Posted by SJackson · · 13 replies · 460+ views · · Jerusalem Post · · 2-12-10 · · MARK REBACZ · |
The map, from the Byzantine period, is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Land of Israel. For the first time the main road of Jerusalem, dated 1,500 years ago, has been discovered. An Israel Antiquities Authority archeological excavation in the heart of Jerusalem's old city confirms a description of the road on the Madaba Map -- an ancient mosaic map from the sixth century CE, measuring eight by 16 meters, and located in a church in Madaba, Jordan. The map, from the Byzantine period, is the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Land of Israel. What is... |
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| The Exodus | |
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| Sinai in Arabia |
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· 02/12/2010 8:03:38 AM PST · · Posted by Zionist Conspirator · · 10 replies · 264+ views · · Beliefnet · · 2/11/'10 · · David Klinghoffer · |
Where is Mt. Sinai? And does it matter? The second question is easier to answer than the first. If God's giving the Ten Commandments to Moses there is a historical event then yes, wanting to attach a genuine geographical location to the mountain makes sense. But finding Mt. Sinai presents a problem different from locating the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Unlike those two holy sites, Mt. Sinai's exact location isn't attested by any clear tradition among the people you would expect to be most likely to remember -- that is, the people... |
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| Greece | |
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| Under the Influence: Hellenism in ancient Jewish life |
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· 02/07/2010 9:17:14 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · 244+ views · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · Jan/Feb 2010 · · Martin Goodman · |
From the time of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E., Jews lived in a world in which Greek culture carried a certain prestige and offered a route to political influence, first within the Hellenistic kingdoms that succeeded Alexander in the third to first centuries B.C.E., and thereafter within the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. During this period -- when Alexander's empire was divided between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, and later when the Romans dominated both the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East -- Greek was the language of government and administration. Native... |
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| Which Greek City-State -- Sparta or Athens |
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· 11/15/2002 7:47:20 PM PST · · Posted by F_L_A · · 12 replies · 918+ views · |
Pick which one you think is right. I'm interested in hear what you think. |
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| Radiometric Dating | |
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| Queen's helps produce archaeological 'time machine' |
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· 02/11/2010 8:35:46 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 4 replies · 192+ views · · Queen's University Belfast · · Feb 11, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Caption: Professor Gerry McCormac and Dr Paula Reimer pictured in the 14 Chrono Centre at Queen's University Belfast. Staff at the Centre have been involved in the creation of a new calibration curve, which extends back 50,000 years. Credit: Queen's University Belfast Usage Restrictions: Only to be used with full caption and reference to Queen's University Belfast. Researchers at Queen's University have helped produce a new archaeological tool which could answer key questions in human evolution. The new calibration curve, which extends back 50,000 years is a major landmark in radiocarbon dating-- the method used by archaeologists and geoscientists to... |
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| end of digest #291 20100213 | |
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· Saturday, February 13, 2010 · 62 topics · 2449834 to 2445539 · 740 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 291st issue. I'm in a bit of a rush. It's about 10 AM here, and my plan is to whip it out (the Digest I mean), read and post nothing else, and amscray. Instead of putting in line breaks on some too-long titles, I chopped off some parentheticals, or in one case just edited them back into English (ahem). |
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