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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #381 Saturday, November 05, 2011 |
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| The Vikings | |
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| Icelandic rocks could have steered Vikings |
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· 11/01/2011 · · 8:00:07 PM PDT · · by decimon · · 19 replies · · BBC · · November 1, 2011 · · Jennifer Carpenter · |
Vikings used rocks from Iceland to navigate the high seas, suggests a new study. In Norse legends, sunstones are said to have guided seafarers to North America. Now an international team of scientists report in the journal the Proceedings of the Royal Society A that the Icelandic spars behave like mythical sunstones and polarise light. By holding the stones aloft, voyaging Vikings could have used them to find the sun in the sky. The Vikings were skilled navigators and travelled thousand of kilometres between Northern Europe and North America. But without a magnetic compass, which was not invented until the... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Israeli archaeologists: tiny Christian relic found |
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· 10/30/2011 · · 1:11:49 PM PDT · · by markomalley · · 38 replies · · AP/Yahoo · · 30 Oct 2011 · · Matti Friedman · |
A tiny, exquisitely made box found on an excavated street in Jerusalem is a token of Christian faith from 1,400 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said Sunday. The box, carved from the bone of a cow, horse or camel, decorated with a cross on the lid and measuring only 0.8 inches by 0.6 inches (2 centimeter by 1.5 centimeter), was likely carried by a Christian believer around the end of the 6th century A.D, according to Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the directors of the dig where the box was found. When the lid is removed, the... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Early humans' route out of Africa 'confirmed' |
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· 11/02/2011 · · 7:32:23 PM PDT · · by decimon · · 31 replies · · BBC · · November 2, 2011 · |
A six-year effort to map the genetic patterns of humankind appears to confirm that early people first left Africa by crossing into Arabia. Ancestors of modern people in Europe, Asia and Oceania migrated along a southern route, not a nothern route through Egypt as some had supposed. The results from the Genographic Project are published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. It suggests an important role for South Asia in the peopling of the world. The ancestors of present-day non-African people left their ancestral homeland some 70,000 years ago. The researchers found that Indian populations had more genetic diversity... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| 'Sabre-toothed squirrel': First known mammalian skull from Late Cretaceous ... |
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· 11/03/2011 · · 1:42:52 PM PDT · · by Red Badger · · 29 replies · · PhysOrg · · November 03, 2011 · · U of Louisville · |
Paleontologist Guillermo Rougier, Ph.D., professor of anatomical sciences and neurobiology at the University of Louisville, and his team have reported their discovery of two skulls from the first known mammal of the early Late Cretaceous period of South America. The fossils break a roughly 60 million-year gap in the currently known mammalian record of the continent and provide new clues on the early evolution of mammals. Details of their find will be published Nov. 3 in Nature. Co-authors are Sebastian Apestegula of Argentina's Universidad Maim√›nides and doctoral student Leandro C. Gaetano. The new critter, named "Cronopio dentiacutus" by the paleontologists,... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Did Dinosaurs Flirt? |
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· 11/04/2011 · · 3:28:50 PM PDT · · by Winstons Julia · · 30 replies · · History · · 11/4/11 · · staff · |
Oviraptor tails were also extremely muscular, and, according to fossil impressions, had a fan of feathers at the end. In Persons' view, oviraptors could very well have used their muscular, flexible tails to wave their feathers in order to impress potential mates, just as peacocks use their magnificent jewel-toned feathers in courtship displays today. |
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| Dinosaur-Bird Flap Ruffles Feathers |
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· 10/11/2005 · · 4:07:11 AM PDT · · by mlc9852 · · 329 replies · · 11,486+ views · · Yahoo!News · · October 10, 2005 · · E.J. Mundell · |
(HealthDay News) -- Head to the American Museum of Natural History's Web site, and you'll see the major draw this fall is a splashy exhibit on dinosaurs. And not just any dinosaurs, but two-legged carnivorous, feathered "theropods" like the 30-inch-tall Bambiraptor -- somewhat less cuddly than its namesake. The heyday of the theropods, which included scaly terrors like T. rex and velociraptor, stretched from the late Triassic (220 million years ago) to the late Cretaceous (65 million years ago) periods. |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe |
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· 10/30/2011 · · 5:42:26 PM PDT · · by Flavius · · 18 replies · · science daily · · 10/26/11 · · science daily · |
Astronomers report in the journal Nature that organic compounds of unexpected complexity exist throughout the Universe. The results suggest that complex organic compounds are not the sole domain of life but can be made naturally by stars. |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Scientific consensus fails again: Start of "Anthropocene" pushed back to Late Pleistocene,...... |
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· 11/03/2011 · · 9:59:14 PM PDT · · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 12 replies · · watts up with that? · · November 2, 2011 · · by David Middleton · |
Seattle (AP) -- It's not unusual for an archaeologist to get stuck in the past, but Carl Gustafson may be the only one consumed by events on the Olympic Peninsula in 1977. That summer, while sifting through earth in Sequim, the young Gustafson uncovered something extraordinary -- a mastodon bone with a shaft jammed in it. This appeared to be a weapon that had been thrust into the beast's ribs, a sign that humans had been around and hunting far earlier than anyone suspected.Unfortunately for Gustafson, few scientists agreed. He was challenging orthodoxy with... |
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| Mammoth Told Me... | |
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| How Mammoths Lost The Extinction Lottery |
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· 11/04/2011 · · 7:25:31 PM PDT · · by SunkenCiv · · 34 replies · · Nature · · November 2, 2011 · · Ewen Callaway · |
Woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos and other large animals driven to extinction since the last ice age each succumbed to a different lethal mix of circumstances... Researchers who studied the fate of six species of 'megafauna' over the past 50,000 years found that climate change and habitat loss were involved in many of the extinctions, with humans playing a part in some cases but not others. But there was no clear pattern to explain why the animals died off, and it proved impossible to predict from habitat or genetic diversity which species would go extinct and which would survive. "It almost... |
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| Climate | |
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| UA scientists find evidence of Roman period megadrought (in US, not Rome) |
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· 11/04/2011 · · 4:02:52 PM PDT · · by decimon · · 19 replies · · University of Arizona · · November 4, 2011 · |
A new study at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research has revealed a previously unknown multi-decade drought period in the second century A.D.Almost nine hundred years ago, in the mid-12th century, the southwestern U.S. was in the middle of a multi-decade megadrought. It was the most recent extended period of severe drought known for this region. But it was not the first. The second century A.D. saw an extended dry period of more than 100 years characterized by a multi-decade drought lasting nearly 50 years, says a new study from scientists at the University of Arizona. UA geoscientists... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire? |
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· 11/02/2011 · · 8:30:47 PM PDT · · by DogByte6RER · · 175 replies · · Popular Mechanics · · October 31, 2011 · · Alyson Sheppard · |
It was a hypothetical question that became a long online discussion and now a movie in development: Could a small group of heavily armed modern-day Marines take down the Roman Empire at its height? We talked about the debate with James Erwin, the man who scored a movie writing contract based on his online response, and ran the ideas by Roman history expert Adrian Goldsworthy. James Erwin was browsing reddit.com on his lunch break when a thread piqued his interest. A user called The_Quiet_Earth had posed the question:... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Conquistador Was Deep in U.S.: "Stunning" Jewelry Find Redraws Route? |
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· 11/04/2011 · · 4:45:15 AM PDT · · by Renfield · · 51 replies · · National Geographic · · 11-1-2011 · · Ker Than · |
Under a former Native American village in Georgia, deep inside what's now the U.S., archaeologists say they've found 16th-century jewelry and other Spanish artifacts. The discovery suggests an expedition led by conquistador Hernando de Soto ventured far off its presumed course -- which took the men from Florida to Missouri -- and engaged in ceremonies in a thatched, pyramid-like temple. The discovery could redraw the map of de Soto's 1539-41 march into North America, where he hoped to replicate Spain's overthrow of the Inca Empire in South America. There, the conquistador had served at the side of leader Francisco Pizarro... |
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| Africa | |
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| Experts shed light on David Livingstone massacre diary |
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· 11/02/2011 · · 6:11:39 AM PDT · · by decimon · · 6 replies · · BBC · · November 1, 2011 · |
A diary written 140 years ago by Scots explorer David Livingstone can now be read for the first time after experts shed new light on the badly-faded text. Scientists used spectral imaging to recover the account of the massacre of 400 slaves, which had been written on old newspaper with makeshift ink. The manuscript, written in central Africa, deteriorated rapidly and is now virtually invisible to the naked eye. It has gone on show at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. An international team of experts took part in the 18-month project to uncover Livingstone's personal account of the... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Was Jack the Ripper a prominent London abortionist? Well, maybe |
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· 11/03/2011 · · 9:45:21 PM PDT · · by ReformationFan · · 17 replies · · LifeSiteNews · · 11-3-11 · · John Jalsevac · |
It's one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in history: who was Jack the Ripper, the Victorian serial killer who surgically disemboweled five prostitutes in the fall of 1888? According to claims that are currently getting a great deal of media attention in Britain, he may be none other than prominent surgeon Sir John Williams -- who, in addition to serving as Queen Victoria's surgeon in London, was also a well-known abortionist. In a new book, Sir John's great-great-great-great nephew, Tony Williams, presents evidence for Sir John's guilt, including his discovery of a six-inch surgical knife among his ancestor's possessions... |
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| end of digest #381 20111105 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #382 Saturday, November 12, 2011 |
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| Africa | |
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| Fall of Gaddafi opens a new era for the Sahara's lost civilisation [ Garamantes ] |
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· 11/06/2011 4:30:31 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Guardian UK · · Saturday, November 5, 2011 · · Peter Beaumont · |
researchers into the Garamantes --- a "lost" Saharan civilisation that flourished long before the Islamic era --- are hoping that Libya's new government can restore the warrior culture, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories, to its rightful place in Libya's history. For while the impressive Roman ruins at Sabratha and Leptis Magna --- both world heritage sites --- are rightly famous, Libya's other cultural heritage, one that coexisted with its Roman settlers, has been largely forgotten. It has been prompted by new research --- including through the use of satellite imaging --- which suggests that the Garamantes built more extensively... |
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| Lost Civilization Discovered in Sahara Desert |
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· 11/08/2011 5:37:12 PM PST · · Posted by Pan_Yan · · 26 replies · · Fox News · · November 08, 2011 · · LiveScience · |
New evidence of a lost civilization in an area of the Sahara in Libya has emerged from images taken by satellites. Using satellites and air photographs to identify the remains in one of the most inhospitable parts of the desert, a team from the University of Leicester in England has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating between AD 1 to 500. "It is like someone coming to England and suddenly discovering all the medieval castles. These settlements had been unremarked and unrecorded under the Gadhafi regime," said project leader David... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Homo sapiens arrived earlier in Europe than previously known |
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· 11/02/2011 11:38:28 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 37 replies · · University of Vienna · · November 2, 2011 · |
Virtual anthropology allows new identification of first modern humans -- Members of our species (Homo sapiens) arrived in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought. At this conclusion a team of researchers, led by the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, arrived after re-analyses of two ancient deciduous teeth. These teeth were discovered 1964 in the "Grotta del Cavallo", a prehistoric cave in southern Italy. Since their discovery they have been attributed to Neanderthals, but this new study suggests they belong to anatomically modern humans. Chronometric analysis, carried out by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford, shows that... |
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| Couldn't Drag Me Away | |
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| Prehistoric Cave Paintings of Horses Were Spot-On, Say Scientists |
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· 11/08/2011 6:42:22 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · Popular Archaeology · · Monday, November 07, 2011 · · unattributed · |
Long thought by many as possible abstract or symbolic expressions as opposed to representations of real animals, the famous paleolithic horse paintings found in caves such as Lascaux and Chauvet in France likely reflect what the prehistoric humans actually saw in their natural environment, suggests researchers who conducted a recent DNA study. To reach this conclusion, scientists constituting an international team of researchers in the UK, Germany, USA, Spain, Russia and Mexico genotyped and analyzed nine coat-color types in 31 pre-domestic (wild) horses dating as far back as 35,000 years ago from bone specimens in 15 different locations spread across... |
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| PICTURES: Prehistoric European Cave Artists Were Female |
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· 06/30/2009 7:34:59 AM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 34 replies · · 1,303+ views · · nationalgeographic · · June 16, 2009 · |
Inside France's 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave, hand stencils surround the famed "Spotted Horses" mural. For about as long as humans have created works of art, they've also left behind handprints. People began stenciling, painting, or chipping imprints of their hands onto rock walls at least 30,000 years ago. Until recently, most scientists assumed these prehistoric handprints were male. But "even a superficial examination of published photos suggested to me that there were lots of female hands there," Pennsylvania State University archaeologist Dean Snow said of European cave art. By measuring and analyzing the Pech Merle hand stencils, Snow found that... |
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| Climate | |
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| Humans ventured as far as Torquay more than 40,000 years ago [ Kents Cavern, Devon ] |
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· 11/06/2011 4:23:51 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 29 replies · · Guardian UK · · Wednesday, November 2, 2011 · · Ian Sample · |
A fragment of human jaw unearthed in a prehistoric cave in Torquay is the earliest evidence of modern humans in north-west Europe, scientists say. The tiny piece of upper jaw was excavated from Kents Cave on the town's border in the 1920s but its significance was not fully realised until scientists checked its age with advanced techniques that have only now become available. The fresh analysis at Oxford University dated the bone and three teeth to a period between 44,200 and 41,500 years ago, when a temporary warm spell lasting perhaps only a thousand years, made Britain habitable. The age... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Smirking face of the Devil discovered in Giotto fresco |
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· 11/06/2011 5:02:34 PM PST · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 57 replies · · The Telegraph · · 11/6/2011 · · Nick Squires, Rome · |
The smirking face of the Devil has been discovered hidden in a fresco by the Italian medieval artist Giotto after remaining undetected for more than 700 years in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. The Satanic image went unnoticed until now because it is artfully hidden in the folds of a cloud and is invisible from ground level. The discovery of the face, in a fresco which depicts the death of St Francis, was made by Chiara Frugoni, a medievalist and an expert on the saint. "It's a powerful portrait, with a hooked nose, sunken eyes and two dark... |
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| British Isles | |
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| Britain's oldest family business opened when Henry VIII ruled |
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· 11/04/2011 9:29:26 AM PDT · · DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis · · 35 replies · · Telegraph · · 11-4-11 · |
RJ Balson and Sons, a butchers based in Bridport, Dorset, boasts an astonishing history that is almost 500 years old. Experts have traced the businesses roots back through 25 generations to when founder John Balson opened a stall in the town's market on South Street in 1535. Since then dozens of family members have worked as butchers in the market town, passing their skills down the generations. And 476 years later, the shop remains a thriving business and has been named Britain's oldest family run retailer. At that time Henry VIII was still married to Anne Boleyn, the first complete... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Greeks claim having found Alexander the Great's tomb, Ark of the Covenant |
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· 11/09/2011 5:11:12 PM PST · · Posted by Winstons Julia · · 90 replies · · Focus · · 09/11/11 · · staff · |
Athens. It is believed that the tomb of Alexander the Great and the Ark of the Covenant have been found on the Greek Island of Thasos, announced Russian Grekomania.ru, which is information partner of the Greek Minister of Culture and Tourism. |
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| Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran | |
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| Beer & Bullets to Go: Ancient 'Takeout' Window Discovered [Godin Tepe] |
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· 11/07/2011 6:09:54 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 74 replies · · LiveScience · · October 28, 2011 · · Owen Jarus · |
Some 5,200 years ago, in the mountains of western Iran, people may have used takeout windows to get food and weapons, newly presented research suggests. But rather than the greasy hamburgers and fries, it appears the inhabitants of the site ordered up goat, grain and even bullets, among other items. The find was made at Godin Tepe, an archaeological site that was excavated in the 1960s and 1970s by a team led by T. Cuyler Young Jr., a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, who died in 2006... The idea that they were used as takeout windows... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Rachel's Tomb |
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· 11/10/2011 5:13:53 AM PST · · Posted by SJackson · · 21 replies · · Jerusalem Post · · 11/10/2011 · · Lenny Ben-David · |
JPost special feature: A Library of Congress collection of photographs that document Israel before the creation of the state. The Library of Congress has recently digitalized a collection of over 10,000 photographs, taken by the "American Colony" in Jerusalem, a group of Christian utopians who lived in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s. The photographers returned to the US, and bequeathed their massive collection to the Library of Congress in 1978. The collection includes Winston Churchill's visit to Jerusalem, Jewish expulsions from the Old City during Arab riots, and the building of Tel Aviv. Tens of thousands of Jews --... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Lost Syriac Text Gives Magi's View of the Christmas Story |
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· 11/07/2011 7:10:10 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 32 replies · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · Nov/Dec 2011 · · unattributed · |
The Bible tells us very little about the magi. Their story appears but once, in the Gospel of Matthew (2:1-12), where they are described as mysterious visitors "from the east" who come to Jerusalem looking for the child whose star they observed "at its rising." After meeting with King Herod, who feigns an intention to worship the child but actually plans to destroy him, the magi follow the same star to Bethlehem. There, upon seeing the baby Jesus and his mother Mary, the magi kneel down and worship him, presenting him with their three famous gifts --- gold, frankincense and... |
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| Cells for Questioning | |
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| Giant one-celled organisms discovered over six miles below the ocean's surface |
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· 11/05/2011 2:55:33 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 47 replies · · mongabay.com · · October 23, 2011 · · Jeremy Hance · |
PDF version Imagine a one-celled organism the size of a mango. It's not science fiction, but fact: scientists have cataloged dozens of giant one-celled creatures, around 4 inches (10 centimeters), in the deep abysses of the world's oceans. But recent exploration of the Mariana Trench has uncovered the deepest record yet of the one-celled behemoths, known as xenophyophores. Found at 6.6 miles beneath the ocean's surface, the xenophyophores beats the previous record by nearly two miles. The Mariana Trench xenophyophores were discovered by dropcams, developed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and National Geographic, which are unmanned HD cameras 'dropped'... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| First Long-Necked Dinosaur Fossil Found In Antarctica |
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· 11/07/2011 11:15:17 PM PST · · Posted by Altariel · · 12 replies · · LiveScience.com · · November 4, 2011 · · Stephanie Pappas · |
It's official, long-necked sauropod dinosaurs once roamed every continent on Earth --- including now-frigid Antarctica. The discovery of a single sauropod vertebra on James Ross Island in Antarctica reveals that these behemoths, which included Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus, lived on the continent in the upper Cretaceous Period about 100 million years ago. |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| World's largest dino dung -- |
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· 09/07/2003 4:36:54 PM PDT · · Posted by UnklGene · · 47 replies · · 2,385+ views · · Ottawa Citizen · · September 6, 2003 · · Jacob Berkowitz · |
World's largest dino dung T. rex left an ancient calling card, writes Jacob Berkowitz. Jacob Berkowitz The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, September 07, 2003 Mountains, beavers and the Maple leaf. And with a recent paleontological discovery Canada could soon gain international recognition for another natural wonder --- tyrannosaurid turds. A team of Canadian and American scientists recently identified an Albertan fossil as the world's largest dinosaur dropping, stealing the title from a T. rex turd found in Saskatchewan in 1995. While stool size is notable, what's really exciting scientists about this latest find is what it contains: Incredibly well-preserved dinosaur muscle... |
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| Dung Reveals Dinosaurs Ate Grass |
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· 11/17/2005 4:01:41 PM PST · · Posted by Nasty McPhilthy · · 74 replies · · 1,255+ views · · LiveScience/Yahoo · · 11/17/05 · · Bjorn Carey · |
Grass existed on Earth at least 10 million years earlier than was known, based on a new discovery in fossilized dinosaur dung. It's also the first solid evidence that some dinosaurs ate grass. While dissecting fossilized droppings, known as coprolites, researchers found tiny silica structures called phytoliths. They are short, rigid cells that provide support to a plant. This type is found exclusively in grasses. The discovery shows that five types of grass related to modern varieties were present in the Gondwana region of the Indian subcontinent during the late Cretaceous period about 71 to 65 million years ago. Museum... |
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| Dinosaurs in India may have fed on grass |
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· 11/18/2005 1:24:59 PM PST · · Posted by glow-worm005 · · 17 replies · · 591+ views · · newkerala.com · · Nov 18 · |
Washington, Nov 18 : Fossilized dinosaur droppings found in central India show sauropod dinosaurs may have fed on grass between 65 million and 71 million years ago, refuting the theory that grasses emerged long after the dinosaur era, a study said Friday. An international team of researchers, including Vandana Prasad of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, India, studied the dinosaur coprolites, or fossilized droppings, of 65 million years ago. The researchers sent some photographs and samples to Caroline Stromberg of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, who spotted tiny particles of silica called phytoliths that have come... |
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| Dinosaur poop shows grass is older than it seems |
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· 12/06/2005 9:03:21 AM PST · · Posted by flevit · · 34 replies · · 1,248+ views · · seattlepi.com · · Friday, November 18, 2005 · · by Lauran Neergaard · |
It's a big surprise for scientists, who had never really looked for evidence of grass in dinosaur diets before. After all, grass fossils aside, those sauropods --- the behemoths with the long necks and tails and small heads --- didn't have the special kind of teeth needed to grind up abrasive blades. "Most people would not have fathomed that they would eat grasses," noted lead researcher Caroline Stromberg of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. |
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| India | |
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| The only living master of a dying martial art |
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· 11/07/2011 6:03:09 AM PST · · Posted by Renfield · · 31 replies · · BBC News · · 10-29-2011 · · Stephanie Hegarty · |
A former factory worker from the British Midlands may be the last living master of the centuries-old Sikh battlefield art of shastar vidya. The father of four is now engaged in a full-time search for a successor. The basis of shastar vidya, the "science of weapons" is a five-step movement: advance on the opponent, hit his flank, deflect incoming blows, take a commanding position and strike. It was developed by Sikhs in the 17th Century as the young religion came under attack from hostile Muslim and Hindu neighbours, and has been known to a dwindling band since the British forced... |
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| Not-so-Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Doctor turned serial killer in World War II Paris |
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· 11/10/2011 7:34:12 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 16 replies · · Reuters · · November 9, 2011 · · Elaine Lies · |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nazi-occupied Paris was a terrible place to be in the waning days of World War II, with Jews, Resistance fighters and ordinary citizens all hoping to escape. Disappearances became so common they often weren't followed up. And one man used the lawlessness for his own terrible purposes, killing perhaps as many as 150 people. Yet it wasn't until thick black smoke seeped into buildings in a fashionable part of the city that firefighters and police were called to an elegant townhouse where they found body parts scattered around --- setting off a manhunt that led them, eventually,... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| World War II in Photos - A Retrospective in 20 Parts |
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· 11/05/2011 10:19:11 AM PDT · · Posted by bigbob · · 32 replies · · The Atlantic · · June 19, 2011 · · Alan Taylor · |
World War II is the story of the 20th Century. The war officially lasted from 1939 until 1945, but the causes of the conflict and its horrible aftermath reverberated for decades in either direction. While feats of bravery and technological breakthroughs still inspire awe today, the majority of the war was dominated by unimaginable misery and destruction. In the late 1930s, the world's population was approximately 2 billion. In less than a decade, the war between the nations of the Axis Powers and the Allies resulted in some 80 million deaths --- killing off about 4 percent of the whole... |
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| Central Asia | |
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| Kyrgyzstan: Germans Fading Away on Central Asian Steppe |
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· 11/10/2011 2:28:11 AM PST · · Posted by cunning_fish · · 7 replies · · Eurasianet · · November 8, 2011 · · Nate Schenkkan · |
Amid commemorations marking 70 years since the 1941 deportation of the Russian Germans to Central Asia, there is a palpable sense that the community is disappearing. In Bishkek, roughly 30 people gather each Sunday to pray at the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Empty seats are abundant in a room that once was routinely filled to overflowing. Although the pastor is from Germany, services for the past 10 years have been held in Russian. Congregants say perhaps one-third of the worshippers have any German heritage, and only a handful can speak the language. According to the German Language Center in Bishkek, a... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| University of Michigan rediscovers rare Chinese art collection |
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· 11/06/2011 3:32:40 PM PST · · Posted by cripplecreek · · 18 replies · · Ann Arbor.com · · Nov 6, 2011 · · Associated Press · |
Link only due to the fact that its an AP story. Basically propaganda pieces from the Chinese Cultural Revolution were recently discovered in a storeroom at University of Michigan. |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| WATERGATE: Nixon Warned Grand Jury on Pentagon Spy Ring |
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· 11/10/2011 9:20:39 PM PST · · Posted by Hunton Peck · · 23 replies · · FoxNews.com · · November 10, 2011 · · James Rosen · |
Newly unsealed grand jury testimony by ex-President Richard Nixon shows he warned prosecutors and grand jurors not to probe an episode from 1971, when he discovered that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been spying on him and national security adviser Henry Kissinger. "Don't open that can of worms," Nixon told his interrogators in June 1975, when he spent roughly eleven hours over two days' time fielding --- and sometimes deflecting --- questions put to him by lawyers for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and two grand jurors flown in from Washington. *** And he confided what his predecessor in... |
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| Cryptobiology | |
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| Canada's Loch Ness Monster Caught on Tape? |
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· 11/11/2011 12:45:24 AM PST · · Posted by Berlin_Freeper · · 52 replies · · ABC News Blogs · · 11/11/11 · · ABC News · |
A possible sighting of Canada's version of the Loch Ness monster at a lake in British Columbia has stirred up the legend of the sea creature long-rumored to reside there. A man visiting British Colombia's Lake Okanagan claims he filmed video of what could only be the elusive monster, known to locals as Ogopogo. The 30-second video shows two long ripples in the water in a seemingly deserted area of the lake. "It was not going with the waves," Richard Huls, who captured the scene on camera during a visit to a local winery, told the Vancouver Sun. "It was... |
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| end of digest #382 20111112 | |
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