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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #297 Saturday, March 27, 2010 |
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| The Revolution | |
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| How Apropos - Obama Signs ObamaCare On 235th Anniv. Of Henry's "Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death" |
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· 03/23/2010 10:58:31 AM PDT · · Posted by Starman417 · · 31 replies · 338+ views · · Flopping Aces · · 03-23-10 · · Aye Chihuahu · |
I find it appropriate, though certainly and unintentionally ironic, that this date was chosen for the signing of the health care reform bill which will, over both the short and long haul, forge chains with which the American People will be bound. What's the irony you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, on this date in 1775 Patrick Henry delivered what is one of the most often quoted lines ever delivered: "Give me Liberty, or give me Death." Patrick Henry's speech served to urge the American People to shed the chains of Britain. The irony continues if... |
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| This Day in History: The Stamp Act is Passed! |
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· 03/22/2010 8:00:32 AM PDT · · Posted by McBuff · · 32 replies · 1,068+ views · · Vanity · · 3/22/2010 · · McBuff · |
George Santayana said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeating history. Today marks the 245 anniversary of the passing of The Stamp Act. It was repealed one year later, however the spark of the American Revolution was ignited. In this most timely hour, let us learn from our history, let us learn from the ways of the sons of liberty, let us be heartened by their example. A spark has been ignited and a new revolution is underway! |
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| "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary..." |
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· 03/20/2010 5:41:03 PM PDT · · Posted by SE Mom · · 85 replies · 2,015+ views · · The Pennsylvania Packet · · 4 July, 1776 · · Hancock,Adams,Paine et al · |
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,... |
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| Headed for Auction: Back-Channel Gloom on Revolutionary War |
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· 03/23/2010 6:18:29 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 32 replies · 617+ views · · NY Times · · March 22, 2010 · · SAM ROBERTS · |
Letters to and from Henry Strachey, secretary to the British commanders in chief, are being auctioned as the Copley Library sells its collection. Despite King George's boast that "once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit," back-channel messages from British generals and diplomatic officials in America during the Revolutionary War, some of them previously unpublished, turn out to have been decidedly more pessimistic. As early as June 1775, after the Battle of Bunker Hill -- which the Redcoats technically won -- Gen. John Burgoyne pronounced British military prospects in America "gloomy" in what he called "a crisis... |
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| Early America | |
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| Scotch Irish Settlement of the Shenandoah Valley |
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· 03/20/2010 8:00:24 AM PDT · · Posted by jay1949 · · 43 replies · 562+ views · · Backcountry Notes · · MArch 20, 2010 · · Jay Henderson · |
"These [Scotch Irish settlers] were the right sort of people to found a commonwealth that should stand the wear and tear of a hundred ages." -- Henry Ruffner, President of Washington College (1836-1848). Ruffner's "Early History of Washington College" recounts the settling and development of the Valley of Virginia. An excerpt from "Early History" was printed in Henry Howe, "Historical Collections of Virginia" (1852), which fortunately is more available than the original. Reproduced here are Howe's introduction and the engaging Ruffner excerpt. |
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| Remains near bridge site may be old fort [18 c French fort in Vermont] |
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· 03/24/2010 6:30:48 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · 275+ views · · Press Republican · · March 23, 2010 · · Lohr McKinstry · |
Part of a stone foundation discovered next to one of the old Champlain Bridge pillars could be from a small French fort built in 1731. The foundation is about a foot and a half from the side of a pillar on the Vermont shore, but archeologists don't know if it's from the fort or an early house. The Champlain Bridge closed Oct. 16, 2009, and was destroyed by controlled explosives Dec. 28. A new bridge is scheduled to be constructed nearby starting this spring... The foundation is about a foot below the surface of the ground and was discovered during... |
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| Navigation | |
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| Shipwreck may be oldest off North Carolina coast |
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· 03/24/2010 6:09:50 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · 530+ views · · Reflector · · Wednesday, March 24, 2010 · · Associated Press · |
Wooden pegs rather than iron spikes held this ship together, like other English ships at the time, Henry said. The wood appears to be live oak, an indicator it could have come from an early Virginia colony, he said. |
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| The Civil War | |
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| The American Minute: Rufus King, Anti-Slavery Efforts - Supreme Court Justices - Repubs |
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· 03/24/2010 3:22:34 AM PDT · · Posted by Freedom'sWorthIt · · 6 replies · 119+ views · · The American Minute · · March 24, 2010 · · William J Federer · |
American Minute for March 24th: William Jay, son of the First Supreme Court Chief Justice, helped found New York City's Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. His son, John Jay, was manager of New York Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story helped establish the illegality of the slave trade in the 1844 Amistad case. Salmon P. Chase, appointed Chief Justice by Lincoln, defended so many escaped slaves in his career he was nicknamed "Attorney-General of Fugitive Slaves." Cassius Marcellus Clay, diplomat to Russia for Lincoln and Grant, founded the anti-slavery journal True American in 1845 and helped... |
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| Civil War History Meets Twitter @Discovercivwar |
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· 03/23/2010 9:17:07 PM PDT · · Posted by stainlessbanner · · 19 replies · 317+ views · · Archives · · March 23, 2010 · |
Civil War History Meets Twitter @Discovercivwar Follow the National Archives' Upcoming Civil War Exhibit on Twitter Washington, DC -- You can now follow the National Archives' exhibition marking the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, Discovering the Civil War on Twitter [http://twitter.com/discovercivwar]. Followers can discover the Civil War for themselves through tweets highlighting the people and stories of the Civil War linking to images of items that will be featured in the exhibition such as letters, diaries, photos, maps, petitions, receipts, patents, amendments, and proclamations. @discovercivwar will also alert the public to exciting, free programs related to the exhibition that will be held... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Faith in History: Islam in America's History - William J Federer |
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· 03/23/2010 4:02:34 AM PDT · · Posted by Freedom'sWorthIt · · 20 replies · 432+ views · · Faith in History · · March 23, 2010 · · William J Federer · |
William J Federer's great work: Faith in History - program that can be viewed on TCT TV - or online at TCT.TV website, Video on Demand, Click on the "Faith in History Icon... Today's "lesson" on the Christian Faith and its impact on our history - begins with a quotation from Obama to the effect that America owes much to Islam. William Federer goes through the History of how Islam has indeed impacted our nation...perhaps not in the context that Obama tried to suggest. |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| America's architectural heritage: Native American mortuary temples |
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· 03/24/2010 6:05:59 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · 156+ views · · Richard Thornton · · Wednesday, March 24, 2010 · · Architecture & Design Examiner · |
Archaeologists believe that many Native American cultures were obsessed with death and the hereafter. The most obvious evidence is the abundance of burial mounds containing human remains with grave openings. However, certain cultures not only built burial mounds, but also earthen complexes contain burial mounds, geometric patterns and mounds, which did not contain burials. North of the Southern Highlands, these ceremonial complexes contain few or no houses. This means that people traveled to these sites from distant villages in order build, worship, trade and socialize. There is evidence that some cultures even brought the remains of their love ones to... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Greenland Vikings 'had Celtic blood' |
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· 03/23/2010 8:28:05 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 55 replies · 712+ views · · cphpost.dk · · Friday, March 19, 2010 · · RC News · |
An analysis of DNA from a Viking gravesite near a 1000 year-old church in southern Greenland shows that those buried there had strong Celtic bloodlines... The analysis -- performed by Danish researchers on bones from skeletons found during excavations in south Greenland -- revealed that the settlers' Nordic blood was mixed with Celtic blood, probably originating from the British Isles. Danish archaeologists are currently conducting the first regional study of southern Greenland's original settlers, whose colonies date back to the year 985. The skeletons disinterred outside the old church also date back to just a few years after that period... |
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| Ancient glyphs and a Celtic connection theory |
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· 03/24/2010 1:55:24 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 14 replies · 543+ views · · Blue Mountains Courier Herald · · 16 Mar 2010 · · Erika Engel · |
A local man is out to change history. Or, more specifically, suggest that there might be some changes required in Canada's history books, and give us more reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Robert Burcher, a photographer and enquiring mind living in Slabtown, has recently finished the manuscript for a book that represents 16 years of research, a basement full of resources and several trips around Ontario and Ireland. His research was born in the Peterborough Petroglyphs. A vast expanse of rock carvings surrounded by conflicting interpretations and curious spectators. Burcher was most intrigued by what looked like the image... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| New ancestor? Scientists ponder DNA from Siberia |
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· 03/24/2010 12:16:23 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 19 replies · 391+ views · · Associated Press · · Mar 24, 2010 · · MALCOLM RITTER · |
NEW YORK -- In the latest use of DNA to investigate the story of humankind, scientists have decoded genetic material from an unidentified human ancestor that lived in Siberia and concluded it might be a new member of the human family tree. The DNA doesn't match modern humans or Neanderthals, two species that lived in that area around the same time -- 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. But "the human family tree has got a lot of branchings. It's entirely plausible there are a lot of branches out there we don't know about." |
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| DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman' |
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· 03/24/2010 1:38:44 PM PDT · · Posted by smokingfrog · · 33 replies · 823+ views · · BBC · · 3-24-10 · · Paul Rincon · |
Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave. The extinct "hominin" (human like creature) lived in Central Asia between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago. An international team has sequenced genetic material from the fossil showing that it is distinct from that of Neanderthals and modern humans. Details of the find, dubbed "X-woman", have been published in Nature journal. Ornaments were found in the same ground layer as the finger bone, including a bracelet. Professor Chris Stringer, human origins researcher at London's Natural History Museum, called... |
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| Possible new human ancestor found in Siberia |
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· 03/24/2010 4:05:58 PM PDT · · Posted by edcoil · · 33 replies · 675+ views · · reuters · · 3-24-10 · · edcoil · |
Genetic material pulled from a pinky finger bone found in a Siberian cave shows a new and unknown type of pre-human lived alongside modern humans and Neanderthals, scientists reported on Wednesday. |
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| Gene research reveals fourth human species |
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· 03/24/2010 7:40:24 PM PDT · · Posted by dangerdoc · · 22 replies · 561+ views · · Financial Times · · 3/24/10 · · Clive Cookson · |
A fourth type of hominid, besides Neanderthals, modern humans and the tiny "hobbit", was living as recently as 40,000 years ago, according to research published in the journal Nature. The discovery by Svante P‰‰bo and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is based on DNA sequences from a finger bone fragment discovered in a Siberian cave. EDITOR'S CHOICE Science briefing: Biofuel breakthrough - Feb-26 Public losing faith in science - Feb-22 Science briefing: Tracking cancer changes - Feb-19 Scientists discover the secret of ageing - Feb-15 Genome of balding Arctic ancestor decoded - Feb-10... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Human ancestors walked comfortably upright 3.6 million years ago, new footprint study says [Laetoli] |
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· 03/23/2010 8:20:49 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 31 replies · 408+ views · · Scientific American · · March 20, 2010 · · Katherine Harmon · |
A comparison of ancient and contemporary footprints reveals that our ancestors were strolling much like we do some 3.6 million years ago, a time when they were still quite comfortable spending time in trees, according to a study which will be published in the March 22 issue of the journal PLoS ONE... Although some researchers have argued that the 4.4 million-year-old ancient human Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi") described in October 2009 was adept at walking on her hind legs, many disagree... Likely left by Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as "Lucy," these prints show an upright gait, but it has remained... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Biology May Not Be So Complex After All, Physicist Finds |
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· 03/20/2010 10:10:30 PM PDT · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 18 replies · 542+ views · · ScienceDaily · · 3/19/10 · |
ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2010) -- Centuries ago, scientists began reducing the physics of the universe into a few, key laws described by a handful of parameters. Such simple descriptions have remained elusive for complex biological systems -- until now.Emory biophysicist Ilya Nemenman has identified parameters for several biochemical networks that distill the entire behavior of these systems into simple equivalent dynamics. The discovery may hold the potential to streamline the development of drugs and diagnostic tools, by simplifying the research models. |
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| Why everything you've been told about evolution is wrong (now this is weird) |
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· 03/19/2010 4:56:11 PM PDT · · Posted by chessplayer · · 578 replies · 4,079+ views · · Guardian (UK) · |
What if Darwin's theory of natural selection is inaccurate? What if the way you live now affects the life expectancy of your descendants? |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| Onions Made Pre-Human Ancestors Cry Too, Study Suggests |
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· 03/24/2010 7:10:29 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · 211+ views · · LiveScience · · Friday, March 19, 2010 · · Staff · |
During the Cambrian Period, which lasted from 543 million to 490 million years ago, life forms included primitive marine organisms, such as echinoderms (a group that now includes sea stars and sea cucumbers), annelid worms and sponge-like organisms. Garrity and his colleagues reconstructed TRPA1's family tree back some 700 million years using a variety of bioinformatic methods (bioinformactics applies computer programs and statistic techniques to study biological data). For instance, the researchers compared the TRPA1 protein from different organisms to see how similar they were. They then used several computer programs to figure out how the proteins would relate to... |
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| What's the Frequency, Kenneth? | |
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| New Method Could Revolutionize Dating of Ancient Treasures |
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· 03/24/2010 5:54:06 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 26 replies · 351+ views · · Eurekalert! · · Tuesday, March 23, 2010 · · Michael Bernstein · |
In conventional dating methods, scientists remove a small sample from an object, such as a cloth or bone fragment. Then they treat the sample with a strong acid and a strong base and finally burn the sample in a small glass chamber to produce carbon dioxide gas to analyze its C-14 content. Rowe's new method, called "non-destructive carbon dating," eliminates sampling, the destructive acid-base washes, and burning. In the new method, scientists place an entire artifact in a special chamber with a plasma, an electrically charged gas similar to gases used in big-screen plasma television displays. The gas slowly and... |
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| India | |
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| New research cuts into origins of iron and steel in India |
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· 03/22/2010 9:55:08 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 8 replies · 318+ views · · University of Exeter · · Mar 22, 2010 · · Unknown · |
A small but intrepid team of Exeter staff and students have returned from a six-week archaeological research expedition to a remote region of rural Andhra Pradesh in India. The team, led by Dr Gill Juleff of the University of Exeter's Department of Archaeology, formed one half of a project to study the origins of high carbon steel-making in the southern Indian sub-continent. Funded by UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), the 'Pioneering Metallurgy' project is a joint venture between Exeter and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore. Setting out at 7.00 every morning from their base camp... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs |
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· 03/24/2010 6:51:18 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 455+ views · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · Mar/Apr 2010 · · Orly Goldwasser · |
By the beginning of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (a few years after 2000 B.C.E.), the pressure of immigrants on the eastern Delta was so strong that the Egyptian authorities built a series of forts at strategic points to "repel the Asiatics," as the story of Sinuhe tells us.1 More than a century later, however, Egyptian policy toward the Asiatics changed. Instead of trying to prevent them from coming in, the Egyptians cultivated close relations with strong Canaanite city-states on the Mediterranean coast and allowed select Asiatic populations to settle in the eastern Delta. The last of the great pharaohs of... |
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| Mesopotamia | |
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| After Years of War and Abuse, New Hope for Ancient Babylon |
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· 03/24/2010 6:22:24 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · 266+ views · · New York Times · · March 22, 2010 · · John Noble Wilford · |
A current study, known as the Future of Babylon project, documents the damage from water mainly associated with the Euphrates River and irrigation systems nearby. The ground is saturated just below the surface at sites of the Ishtar Gate and the long-gone Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders. Bricks are crumbling, temples collapsing. The Tower of Babel, long since reduced to rubble, is surrounded by standing water. Leaders of the international project, describing their findings in interviews and at a meeting this month in New York, said that any plan for reclaiming Babylon as a tourist attraction and a... |
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| Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran | |
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| Parthian Bistun Will Be Excavated |
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· 03/24/2010 5:50:06 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · 134+ views · · Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies · · Tuesday, March 23, 2010 · · unattributed · |
With regard to the discovery of the Parthian site, Daneshian explained: "The slope is mostly situated within the boundary of Bistun's World registered heritage site, near the [historical] hillside and the Achaemenid inscription, which is confirmed to be a settlement dating back to Arsacid dynasty. A current survey as well as the previous research and recovered artefacts points out to the importance of the settlement during the Arsacids dynastic period in this part of the country." The ancient site of Bistun has suffered extensively since 1979 and the rise of the clerical regime to power in Iran. Bistun like hundreds... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| Happy Norooz! |
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· 03/20/2010 12:32:43 PM PDT · · Posted by sionnsar · · 70 replies · 905+ views · · FarsiNet · · 3/20/2010 · |
Nowruz 2569 (1389) will begin on... |
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| China | |
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| Ruins of 2,000-year-old city found in China |
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· 03/24/2010 6:08:19 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · 186+ views · · Times of India · · Wednesday, March 24, 2010 · · unattributed · |
BEIJING: Archaeologists in China have found the ruins of a 2,000-year-old city dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, a report said Wednesday. The site, located near Fujiacun village in Fengcheng city in Jiangxi province, covers about 18,000 square metres and is surrounded by a moat, Xinhua news agency reported. About 30 metres of the wall surrounding the ancient city was still standing on its west and pieces of broken tiles were found scattered on the ground, it said. Villagers said they had seen stone implements at the site in the past, but none was found during a field trip... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Back in business: Pompeii snack bar re-opens... nearly 2000 years after it was destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius |
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· 03/20/2010 12:08:05 PM PDT · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 47 replies · 895+ views · · dailymail.co.uk · · March 20, 2010 · · Rhianna King · |
In AD79 it was Pompeii's most popular hang out, where locals would stop off to meet friends and partake in a snack of baked cheese smothered in honey. Now, nearly 2000 years after the Italian city was buried under ash and rubble by the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius, its favourite snack bar has re-opened. For the first time the thermopolium, as it is called in Italy, will be open to tourists after having undergone and excavation and restoration process over the past few months. Tomorrow 300 VIPs selected at random will attend an advance opening of the snack bar... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Even Though Obama Doesn't, The Ancient Greeks Recognized Jerusalem as Jewish Capital |
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· 03/27/2010 8:17:53 PM PDT · · Posted by Shellybenoit · · 16 replies · 244+ views · · the Lid/Jerusalem Post · · 3/27/2010 · · The Lid · |
Monday Night Jews across the world will be sitting down with family and friends to begin the first Passover Seder. Passover is a holiday where we celebrate our freedom as a nation. at the beginning of each Seder we say the following words This year we are here, next year in the land of Israel; this year we are slaves, next year, we will be free men. You see, we don't begin the Seder with a prayer. We begin with a confident statement of fact: This year we are here; but next year we will be in Jerusalem. This year... |
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| Transcript of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's AIPAC speech |
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· 03/22/2010 11:00:59 PM PDT · · Posted by beagleone · · 135 replies · 2,262+ views · · Politico · · 23/22/2010 · · Binyamin Netanyahu · |
Members of the Obama Administration, Senators, Members of Congress, Ambassadors, Leaders of AIPAC, Ladies and Gentlemen, As the world faces monumental challenges, I know that Israel and America will face them together. We stand together because we are fired by the same ideals and inspired by the same dream the dream of achieving security, prosperity and peace. This dream seemed impossible to many Jews a century ago. This month, my father celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. When he was born, the Czars ruled Russia, the British Empire spanned the globe and the Ottomans ruled the Middle East. During his lifetime, all... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Jews Barred from Cairo's Maimonides Synagogue |
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· 03/28/2010 7:11:53 AM PDT · · Posted by SJackson · · 11 replies · 249+ views · · Arutz Sheva · · Hana Levi Julian · |
(IsraelNN.com) The Egyptian government has announced that it will not allow Jews to pray in Cairo's newly-restored Maimonides Synagogue, in retaliation for Israel's security response to Arab rioting on the Temple Mount. "The Al-Aqsa Mosque is part of the heritage of the Palestinian Arabs and Israel is not entitled to block them from it," said Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. A Qatari newspaper quoted Hawass in a telephone interview late last week as saying the Maimonides Synagogue would be treated an an Egyptian antiquity, not a Jewish house of worship. Nor will he allow the... |
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| Climate | |
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| 'science's dirtiest secret: The "scientific method" of testing hypotheses by statistical analysis stands on a flimsy foundation.' |
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· 03/21/2010 9:37:39 AM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 24 replies · 499+ views · · Wattsupwiththat.com · · March 20 , 2010 · · Anthony Watts · |
'science's dirtiest secret: The "scientific method" of testing hypotheses by statistical analysis stands on a flimsy foundation.' The quote in the headline is direct from this article in Science News for which I've posted an excerpt below. I found this article interesting for two reasons. 1- It challenges use of statistical methods that have come into question in climate science recently, such as Mann's tree ring proxy hockey stick and the Steig et al statistical assertion that Antarctica is warming. 2- It pulls no punches in pointing out an over-reliance on statistical methods can produce competing results from the same... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| New Dinosaur: "Exquisite" Raptor Found |
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· 03/20/2010 9:11:31 AM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 23 replies · 1,124+ views · · nationalgeographic · · March 19, 2010 · |
Like a zombie clawing its way out of the grave, a new dinosaur species was discovered when scientists spotted a hand bone protruding from a cliff in the Gobi desert of Inner Mongolia, paleontologists have announced. Called Linheraptor exquisitus, the new dinosaur is a raptor, a type of two-legged meat-eater, that lived during the late Cretaceous period in what is now northeastern China "We were looking at these very tall red sandstone walls that were all abraded by the wind, and I saw this claw sticking out of the side of the cliff," recalls Jonah Choiniere, a grad student at... |
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| Dinosaur Buried Alive By Collapsing Sand Dune [this didn't just happen] |
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· 03/24/2010 7:19:40 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 40 replies · 1,018+ views · · LiveScience · · March 23, 2010 · · Jeanna Bryner · |
A plant-eating dinosaur might have been swallowed up by a collapsing sand dune some 185 million years ago in what are now Utah's red rocks. The desert disaster likely plopped the dinosaur onto its head, where it remained until being discovered by a local historian and artist in 2004... in the Comb Ridge area near Bluff, Utah, when he spotted the bony fossil protruding from the multicolored cliffs of the Navajo Sandstone, which represents the remains of a huge sand dune desert as large as the modern-day Sahara Desert. As such, the dinosaur has been named Seitaad ruessi, derived from... |
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| First tyrannosaur fossil from Southern Hemisphere |
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· 03/25/2010 11:34:11 AM PDT · · Posted by cajuncow · · 14 replies · 252+ views · · yahoo news · · 3-25-10 · · Randolph E. Schmid, AP · |
WASHINGTON -- A foot-long piece of bone unearthed in Australia is the first evidence that ancestors of the mighty T. rex once lived in the Southern Hemisphere. The remains are from an animal much smaller than the famed predator, but add to the knowledge of how this type of dinosaur evolved. The discovery is reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Roger B. J. Benson of the department of earth science at England's University of Cambridge. |
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| Scientists unearth Australian T rex |
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· 03/27/2010 7:44:04 PM PDT · · Posted by myknowledge · · 5 replies · 174+ views · · Australian Broadcasting Corporation · · March 26, 2010 · · Dani Cooper · |
Australian scientists say they have discovered the first evidence that an ancestor of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex once roamed across Australia. The finding, published today in the journal Science, fills a major gap in the evolutionary history of T rex and overturns the theory the giant predator was a purely northern hemisphere animal. It also puts a dampener on hopes of finding a unique Australian dinosaur, says Museum Victoria curator of vertebrate palaeontology Dr Tom Rich. The discovery is based on a pubic bone found about 20 years ago at Dinosaur Cove, 220 kilometres west of Melbourne in Victoria. It... |
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| British Isles | |
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| The antique chair that gives an eye-popping insight into Edward VII's debauched youth |
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· 03/22/2010 7:02:40 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 40 replies · 2,777+ views · · Daily Mail · · March 22, 2010 · · Eugene Costello · |
Among the bordellos of Victorian Paris, Le Chabanais was the most exquisite, and the most lavish. Over the years this "maison de tolerance' -- the word "brothel' was considered too tawdry -- saw visitors as illustrious as Humphrey Bogart, Mae West and Cary Grant. But in the 1880s, one of its principal clients was the future King Edward VII, then known to everyone as "Bertie', the playboy Prince of Wales. Each of the establishment's 30 rooms had its own theme, such as Moorish, Louis XIV and ancient Roman -- but Bertie's favourite was the Hindu room. |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Swine Flu Pandemic Reincarnates 1918 Virus |
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· 03/24/2010 5:42:49 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 40 replies · 684+ views · · ScienceNOW · · March 24, 2010 · · Jon Cohen · |
Enlarge Image Crystal ball. The 2009 pandemic virus has the same amino acids at the tip of its HA as the 1918 strain shown here bound to an antibody (red and yellow ribbons) taken from a survivor of the 1918 pandemic. Credit: R. Xu et al., Science (Advanced Online Edition) Researchers have found that the H1N1 swine influenza virus that last year caused the first human pandemic in 4 decades shares an important surface protein with the virus responsible for the 1918 flu, the deadliest in human history. This newfound similarity answers many mysteries about the 2009 pandemic, including... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Buy a Texas town! - The Grove, Tx - April 23, 24,25, 2010 |
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· 03/20/2010 1:25:52 PM PDT · · Posted by deport · · 36 replies · 931+ views · · Beaumont Enterprise · · 3-20-2010 · · The Bayou Blog · |
Next Month you can buy a Texas Town. He's tried. For two years, Moody Anderson has attempted to sell the Texas "ghost town," The Groves. Even had it up on eBay. There were no takers. Fickle bunch, those eBay folks. The Groves is a made up of five buildings, each containing hundreds of collector's items. We'll let Texas Escapes give a proper description: "This is a very well preserved 1860's museum town full of authentic, articles and artifacts from that era. There is also written documentation of The Grove's birth to its desertion in the 40's when TxDOT re-routed... |
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| end of digest #297 20100327 | |
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· Saturday, March 27, 2010 · 40 topics · 2481635 to 2475048 · 747 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 297th issue which is dated the 27th and is number 37 of volume, uh, six. This issue is actually going out on the 28th because the entire editorial staff was out of town. Lots of topics, fewer headers. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #298 Saturday, April 4, 2010 |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Biblical plagues really happened say scientists [ Thera, global warming, yada yada yada ] |
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· 03/30/2010 7:07:11 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 32 replies · 409+ views · · Telegraph · · March 27, 2010 · · Richard Gray · |
The Biblical plagues that devastated Ancient Egypt in the Old Testament were the result of global warming and a volcanic eruption, scientists have claimed. Researchers believe they have found evidence of real natural disasters on which the ten plagues of Egypt, which led to Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, were based. But rather than explaining them as the wrathful act of a vengeful God, the scientists claim the plagues can be attributed to a chain of natural phenomena triggered by changes in the climate and environmental disasters that happened hundreds of... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Colin Blakemore: how the human brain got bigger by accident and not through evolution |
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· 03/30/2010 7:39:45 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 31 replies · 522+ views · · Guardian · · Sunday, March 28, 2010 · · Robin McKie, The Observer · |
According to Woody Allen, it is his second favourite organ and it absorbs more than 25% of the energy that our bodies generate. But why? For what purposes did the human brain evolve and why does it take so much of our physiological resources? Such questions have absorbed scientists for decades and have now been given an expected answer by Colin Blakemore. In a recent lecture, the Oxford neurobiologist argued that a mutation in the brain of a single human being 200,000 years ago turned intellectually able apemen into a super-intelligent species that would conquer the world. In short, Homo... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| Neanderthal may not be the oldest Dutchman [ 370,000 years B.P. ] |
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· 03/30/2010 7:29:01 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · 284+ views · · Radio Netherlands Worldwide · · Friday, March 26, 2010 · · Henk-Sjoerd Oosterhoff · |
People may well have been roaming the land we now call the Netherlands for far longer than was assumed until recently. There is evidence to suggest that the country was home to the forebears of the Neanderthals. Amateur archaeologist Pieter Stoel found materials used by the oldest inhabitants in the central town of Woerden. These artefacts were shown to be at least 370,000 years old, which takes us back to long before the time of the Neanderthals. Our ancient forebears are often described as cavemen but that is not entirely accurate. There were no caves in this environment, explains Pieter... |
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| Climate | |
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| Mega-flood triggered cooling 13,000 years ago: scientists |
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· 03/31/2010 11:05:52 AM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 48 replies · 1,131+ views · · Reuters on Yahoo · · 3/31/10 · · David Fogarty · |
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Scientists say they have found the trigger of a sharp cooling 13,000 years ago that plunged Europe into a mini ice age. Mark Bateman from the University of Sheffield in England said a catastrophic flood unleashed from a giant North American lake dumped large amounts of freshwater into the Arctic Ocean. This led to the shutting down of the Gulf Stream ocean circulation pattern that brings warmth to Europe. "We're talking about a lake the size of the UK emptying very quickly," Bateman told Reuters by telephone. "We don't know the exact period of time but we're... |
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| Hour-long hailstorm may have caused 1,000-year freeze, say scientists |
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· 04/02/2010 4:06:27 AM PDT · · Posted by TigerLikesRooster · · 70 replies · 1,348+ views · · Telegraph · · 04/02/10 · |
Hour-long hailstorm may have caused 1,000-year freeze, say scientists An hour-long hailstorm from space may have changed the climate of the Earth in 11,000 BC, leading to a freeze lasting more than 1,000 years, scientists say. Published: 8:00AM BST 02 Apr 2010 An hour-long hailstorm from space may have changed the climate of the Earth in 11,000 BC, leading to a freeze lasting more than 1,000 years, scientists say. A comet may well have caused the earth to freeze for over 1,000 years Photo: GETTY The catastrophe, caused by a disintegrating comet, wiped out large numbers of animal species and... |
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| Comet trail may have caused last ice age - UPI.com |
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· 04/03/2010 6:58:36 AM PDT · · Posted by Paul Pierett · · 16 replies · 499+ views · · www.upi.com, Science News · · April 4, 2010 · · UPI · |
CARDIFF, England, April 2 (UPI) -- A thousand-year freeze that began in 11,000 B.C. may have been caused by thousands of atomic-force chunks from a disintegrating comet, a British scientist said. The fragments, each hitting with the force of a 1-megaton nuclear bomb, triggered fires that covered whole continents and filled the atmosphere with smoke and soot that blotted out the sun, said Bill Napier, a professor at Cardiff University Astrobiology Center. Napier said Earth may have strayed into a dense trail of fragments being shed by a large comet.†The resulting freeze caused glaciers to advance, disrupted human cultures... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| Neptune may have eaten a planet and stolen its moon |
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· 04/03/2010 9:16:58 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 12 replies · 130+ views · · New Scientist · · March 22, 2010 · · David Shiga · |
Neptune's own existence was a puzzle until recently. The dusty cloud that gave birth to the planets probably thinned out further from the sun. With building material so scarce, it is hard to understand how Uranus and Neptune, the two outermost planets, managed to get so big. But what if they formed closer in? In 2005, a team of scientists proposed that the giant planets shifted positions in an early upheaval (New Scientist, 25 November 2006, p 40). In this scenario, Uranus and Neptune formed much closer to the sun and migrated outwards, possibly swapping places in the process. That... |
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| Southeast Asia | |
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| Did climate influence Angkor's collapse? |
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· 03/29/2010 2:52:20 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 13 replies · 283+ views · · Earth Institute at Columbia Univ · · Mar 29, 2010 · · Unknown · |
Evidence suggests changing environment can bring down a civilizationDecades of drought, interspersed with intense monsoon rains, may have helped bring about the fall of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago, according to an analysis of tree rings, archeological remains and other evidence. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may also shed light on what drives -- and disrupts -- the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's population. Historians have offered various explanations for the fall of an empire that stretched across much of... |
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| Mystery of Great Civilization's Destruction Revealed |
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· 03/30/2010 7:56:55 PM PDT · · Posted by cajuncow · · 18 replies · 374+ views · · livescience · · 3-30-10 · · livescience staff · |
Climate change might have helped bring about the fall of the ancient Khmer civilization in Angkor, Cambodia, nearly 600 years ago, new research suggests. Historians have given various explanations for the fall of the empire that stretched across much of Southeast Asia between the ninth and 14th centuries (801 to 1400), from land overexploitation to conflict with rival kingdoms. But the new study offers strong evidence that two severe droughts, punctuated by bouts of heavy monsoon rain, could have weakened the empire by shrinking water supplies for drinking and agriculture, and damaging Angkor's vast irrigation system, which was central to... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Farmer Discovers Fossil of Ant-Eating Dinosaur |
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· 03/31/2010 3:13:36 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · 287+ views · · LiveScience · · Tuesday, March 30, 2010 · · Charles Q. Choi · |
One of the smallest known dinosaurs, Xixianykus zhangi was built for quick running. A shorter upper leg relative to its lower leg helped the dinosaur carry its weight more efficiently. A newfound ant-eating dinosaur was one of the smallest known and also one of the best adapted for running, scientists revealed... lived in a warm, temperate forested environment watered by rivers and lakes alongside duck-billed dinosaurs and likely sail-backed predators known as spinosaurs roughly 89 million to 83 million years ago. Scientists aren't sure how the dinosaur perished, but the fossil is fairly intact compared with many, so another creature... |
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| Did feathered dinosaurs exist? |
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· 10/10/2005 3:58:29 AM PDT · · Posted by PatrickHenry · · 90 replies · 2,948+ views · · EurekAlert (AAAS) · · 10 October 2005 · · David Greenberg · |
Biologists examining evidence for the claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs have reached some surprising new conclusions. However, they caution that "the problem of avian origins is far from being resolved." Their analysis is published online October 10, 2005 in the Journal of Morphology, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and available via Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/morphology). Dinosaurs have long captured the imagination while their relationships have eluded full explanation. Innovative research and a comprehensive consideration of the old can also inspire new interpretations, as researchers recently found when examining the evidence supporting the current theory about feather origins and... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Religious beliefs are the basis of the origins of Palaeolithic art |
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· 03/31/2010 6:33:04 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 269+ views · · Eurekalert · · Friday, March 26, 2010 · · FECYT & SINC · |
This statement isn't new, but for years anthropologists, archaeologists and historians of art understood these artistic manifestations as purely aesthetic and decorative motives. Eduardo Palacio-PÈrez, researcher at the University of Cantabria (UC), now reveals the origins of a theory that remains nowadays/lasts into our days. "This theory is does not originate with the prehistorians, in other words, those who started to develop the idea that the art of primitive peoples was linked with beliefs of a symbolic-religious nature were the anthropologists"... This idea appeared at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. Up until... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Egyptian Tomb Holds Door to Afterlife |
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· 03/29/2010 10:09:27 AM PDT · · Posted by cajuncow · · 38 replies · 777+ views · · fox news · · 3-29-10 · · Associated Press · |
CAIRO -- Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities authority said Monday. These recessed niches found in nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs were meant to take the spirits of the dead to and from the afterworld. The nearly six-foot- tall slab of pink granite was covered with religious texts. |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Pyramid of Mystery Pharaoh Possibly Located [ Userkare ] |
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· 03/31/2010 6:36:58 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 547+ views · · Discovery News · · Monday, March 29, 2010 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
The missing pyramid of an obscure pharaoh that ruled Egypt some 4,300 years ago could lie at the intersection of a series of invisible lines in South Saqqara, according to new astronomical and topographical research. Connecting the funerary complexes raised by the kings of the 6th Dynasty between 2,322 B.C. and 2,151 B.C., these lines would have governed the sacred space of the Saqqara area, in accordance with a number of criteria such as dynastic lineage, religion and astronomical alignment. "We are talking of meridian and diagonal alignments, with pyramids raised at their intersections. The only missing piece in this... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Ancient Blind Snakes Hitched Ride on Drifting Continents |
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· 03/31/2010 3:20:50 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · 291+ views · · LiveScience · · Tuesday, March 30, 2010 · · Jeanna Bryner · |
Blind snakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke from India about 100 million years ago, according to a new genetic study. Blind snakes are small worm-like creatures that likely feel their way through underground homes by sensing chemicals through their skin. It turns out, these organisms have been around since 150 million years ago, when the supercontinent called Gondwana was just breaking up, according to new genetic research. The study suggests that when Madagascar broke off of India, the blind snakes hitched a ride aboard the... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| 'Lough Ness Monster' devours ducks at popular lake |
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· 03/31/2010 5:10:27 PM PDT · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 32 replies · 671+ views · · telegraph.co.uk · · March 30, 2010 · · Matthew Moore · |
A mysterious predator which devours adult ducks by pulling them beneath the water at a popular beauty spot has been nicknamed the "Lough Ness Monster" by locals. The creature is believed to have killed at least three fully-grown birds at the lake, leaving only a smattering of feathers as evidence of the crimes. Witnesses have so far been unable to identify the perpetrator, although pike, catfish and even mink have been suggested as possible culprits. Local councillors are now warning schoolchildren not to go paddling at the site, and dog owners have been being asked not to let smaller animals... |
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| Bugology | |
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| Monster bug? It's no joke! (30"-long isopod) |
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· 03/31/2010 3:34:19 PM PDT · · Posted by OldDeckHand · · 35 replies · 1,710+ views · · MSNBC.com · · 03/31/10 · · Alan Boyle · |
It may look like a creepy-crawly April Fool's joke - but an expert on deep-sea species says the bizarre giant bug shown in pictures circulating on the Internet is the real deal. "I've seen the pictures, and they are real, and they really do get that big," Craig McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina, told me today. McClain specializes in deep-sea biological systems and covers the subject on his Weblog, Deep Sea News. So he was the go-to guy when pictures of the bug, reportedly hauled up aboard a remotely operated vehicle... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| Shining a light on the past |
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· 03/31/2010 4:52:45 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · 250+ views · · The Economist · · Mar 25th 2010 · · unattributed · |
Look at an ancient coin under ordinary light and the chances are that its features, worn down by its passage from hand to hand, will be hard to make out. Point a spotlight at it, though, so that the face of the coin is illuminated from an acute angle, and the resulting shadows will emphasise any minor details. This is the basic principle behind a novel technique that is helping archaeologists reveal previously invisible clues hidden in the worn or damaged surfaces of any objects they uncover. From wall paintings in Herculaneum to Scandinavian stone tools to rock art... |
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| What's the Frequency, Kenneth? | |
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| Scientists discover moral compass in the brain which can be controlled by magnets |
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· 03/31/2010 1:47:34 PM PDT · · Posted by llevrok · · 51 replies · 1,023+ views · · The Daily Mail (UK) · · 30th March 2010 · · David Derbyshire · |
Scientists have discovered a real-life 'moral compass' in the brain that controls how we judge other people's behaviour. The region, which lies just behind the right ear, becomes more active when we think about other people's misdemeanours or good works. In an extraordinary experiment, researchers were able to use powerful magnets to disrupt this area of the brain and make people temporarily less moral. The study highlights how our sense of right and wrong isn't just based on upbringing, religion or philosophy - but by the biology of our brains. Dr Liane Young, who led the study, said: 'You think... |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| Men owe women for 'creating beer' claims academic |
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· 03/30/2010 7:17:37 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 73 replies · 959+ views · · Telegraph · · Tuesday, March 30, 2010 · · Nick Britten · |
One of man's great pleasures might be a pint of beer at the local -- but an academic has claimed it would never have existed without the entrepreneurial skills of women. Jane Peyton, 48, and author and historian, said women created beer and for thousands of years it was only they who were allowed to operate breweries and drink beer. The drink is now almost exclusively marketed to men -- with television characters such as Homer Simpson the epitome of the beer-loving male. Yet Miss Peyton said that up until 200 years ago, beer was considered a food and fell... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| An archaeological mystery in a half-ton lead coffin |
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· 03/29/2010 12:52:22 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 71 replies · 2,218+ views · · University of Michigan · · Mar. 29, 2010 · · Unknown · |
The lead coffin archaeologists found in the abandoned ancient city of Gabii, Italy could contain a gladiator or bishop. ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In the ruins of a city that was once Rome's neighbor, archaeologists last summer found a 1,000-pound lead coffin. Who or what is inside is still a mystery, said Nicola Terrenato, the University of Michigan professor of classical studies who leads the project -- the largest American dig in Italy in the past 50 years. The sarcophagus will soon be transported to the American Academy in Rome, where engineers will use heating techniques and tiny cameras in an effort to gain... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Public Invited to Seek Temple-Time Artifacts |
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· 03/29/2010 5:25:03 AM PDT · · Posted by SJackson · · 6 replies · 355+ views · · Arutz Sheva · · 3-29-10 · · Maayana Miskin · |
(IsraelNN.com) Jewish community leaders from the "City of David" (Ir David) in Jerusalem are inviting the general public to take part in a unique Passover activity -- searching for ancient artifacts in rubble removed from the Temple Mount. "City of David" spokesman Udi Ragones discussed the project with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service. "This is rubble removed from the Temple Mount itself; it is filled with archaeology," Ragones said. The dirt was removed by the Islamic Wakf, which has done construction on the Temple Mount despite the presence of ancient artifacts at the site. The artifacts, along with surrounding earth... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Shakespeare and the Geneva Bible: The Biblical Presence in Shakespeare |
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· 03/26/2010 1:08:30 PM PDT · · Posted by CondoleezzaProtege · · 8 replies · 226+ views · · Reformation 21 · · Leland Ryken · |
While mainstream Shakespeare scholarship has marginalized the biblical presence in Shakespeare, scholars who pay attention to the data know better. One scholar speaks of biblical phrases and images as "an echo-chamber of the imagination" for Shakespeare. [8] Another speaks of how a lifetime of acquaintance with the Bible provided rhythms and phrases for Shakespeare "in accordance with laws of association too subtle for description;" this same scholar adds, "Of course, the Bible was the . . . most discussed book of the day: it was of all books the best seller, especially the Genevan Bible," forming the "most constant and... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| The Radicalism of the American Revolution |
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· 03/30/2010 6:30:16 PM PDT · · Posted by gusopol3 · · 16 replies · 317+ views · · 1991 · · Gordon S. Wood · |
The great social antagonists of the American Revolution were not poor vs rich, workers vs employers or even democrats vs aristocrats. They were patriots vs courtiers-- categories appropriate to the monarchical world in which the colonists had been reared. Courtiers were persons whose position or rank came artificially from above-- from heredity or personal connections that ultimately came from the crown or court. Courtiers, said John Adams, were those who applied themselves " to the Passions and Prejudices, the Follies and Vices of Great Men in order to obtain their Smiles, Esteem, and Patronage and consequently their favors and Preferments."... |
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| Virginia Resolution of 1798 |
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· 03/19/2010 8:43:00 AM PDT · · Posted by MichiganConservative · · 20 replies · 335+ views · · Constitution Society · · December 24, 1798 · · James Madison and Thomas Jefferson · |
Virginia Resolution of 1798 RESOLVED, That the General Assembly of Virginia, doth unequivocably express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of this State, against every aggression either foreign or domestic, and that they will support the government of the United States in all measures warranted by the former. That this assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the Union of the States, to maintain which it pledges all its powers; and that for this end, it is their duty to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles... |
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| Early America | |
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| Sarkozy gives Obama a Benjamin Franklin gift |
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· 03/31/2010 1:47:17 AM PDT · · Posted by Cincinna · · 27 replies · 855+ views · · AsiaOne.com Singapore · · Wed, Mar 31, 2010 · · staff · |
The gift was an 18th century document accrediting Benjamin Franklin as ambassador to France. Wed, Mar 31, 2010 WASHINGTON - French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave President Barack Obama the gift of an 18th century document accrediting Benjamin Franklin as ambassador to France, a French diplomatic source said Tuesday. The US statesman and inventor presented the document when he became the first US ambassador to France from 1778-1785, the French diplomat said ahead of Sarkozy's visit to the White House. The US president and his wife Michelle hosted Sarkozy and his wife, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at a private White House dinner... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| La Amistad: How the AP Commonly Muffs American History |
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· 03/31/2010 9:53:50 AM PDT · · Posted by Mobile Vulgus · · 6 replies · 392+ views · · Publius Forum · · 03/31/10 · · Warner Todd Huston · |
The Associated Press has a famous book on grammar and style that its news writers use to govern their work, a book that is also popular with the whole American news industry. It has served as a standard for many years. The AP, however, seems to have no style or rule for reporting history. Or rather, perhaps it does and the rule is to purposefully garble American history, always skewing it. The APs recent report on a re-creation of the famous 19th century, two-masted schooner La Amistad, famous for its connection to America's slave trade history, is a case in... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Missing U.S. WW II sub found by film crew |
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· 03/30/2010 10:42:49 PM PDT · · Posted by sonofstrangelove · · 34 replies · 1,166+ views · · UPI · · 3/30/2010 · · UPI · |
Toronto television production company says it has located the wreckage of a missing U.S. submarine that was sunk in 1944 in the South China Sea. In a news release, yap films said the U.S. Navy had confirmed the wreck they found was the World War II submarine USS Flier (SS 25) that sank and was lost since Aug. 13, 1944. The Flier was a 1,525-ton Gato class submarine built at Groton, Conn., and went into service in October 1943. Of the 86 men aboard when the vessel hit a mine, 14 escaped, but only eight survived the swim to Palawan... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Incredible pictures of giant ice sculptures carved by sea water and polar winds |
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· 03/25/2010 10:46:38 AM PDT · · Posted by waus · · 22 replies · 1,759+ views · · Mail Online · · 3-25-10 · · waus · |
Humans may have spent thousands of years trying to master the art of the perfect sculpture, but these incredible photographs of icebergs show they are no match for nature's grand design. Pictured off the Western Antarctic Peninsula, these colossal ice carvings have been whittled away by biting polar winds, freezing water and sub-zero temperatures to form incredible mega structures that take the breath away. |
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| end of digest #298 20100403 | |
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