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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #419 · v 9 · n 3 Saturday, July 28, 2012 |
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39 topics |
39 topics?!? Clearly, you've all been working too hard this week. Keep it up! And many thanks from me and on behalf of all. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #419 Saturday, July 28, 2012 |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Polar bears' ancient roots pushed way back |
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· 07/25/2012 6:22:06 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 28 replies · · Science News · · Monday, July 23rd, 2012 · · Devin Powell · |
...A new analysis of its DNA suggests that Ursus maritimus split from the brown bear between 4 million and 5 million years ago -- around the same time when, some scientists believe, the Arctic's thick sea ice first formed. With such old origins, the creature must have weathered extreme shifts in climate, researchers report online July 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Simulations of how the DNA changed over time suggest that polar bear populations rose and fell with the temperature. After thriving during cooler times between 800,000 and 600,000 years ago, the bears seem to... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Little animals spread sperm for smelly mosses |
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· 07/25/2012 4:05:46 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · · Science News · · Friday, July 20th, 2012 · · Susan Milius · |
Male moss plants don't make pollen, but instead send sperm off to try to swim through dew to find a female moss. Earlier research in dry lab containers showed that the sperm can hitchhike on mites and little arthropods called springtails... Now, lab tests with two moss species show that in more natural, dewy conditions, springtails increased moss fertilization. With water alone, sperm found female moss in roughly a third of moss test clumps, but water plus springtails raised the number to almost half, Eppley and her colleagues report online July 18 in Nature. The new paper improves the case... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, & PreClovis | |
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| Utah dig unearths large Fremont Indian structure |
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· 07/25/2012 1:04:12 PM PDT · · Posted by ApplegateRanch · · 12 replies · · AP via Indian Country News · · July, 2012 · · unlisted · |
Source is AP story, so only able to post a short excerpt; much more at the link.Archaeologists have struck gold at a dig near the town of Goshen about 35 miles south of Provo: the largest Fremont Indian structure ever found. Jim Allison, anthropology professor at Brigham Young University, said the 850-square-foot structure is unique because it served as a communal area that brought the entire village together. It's several times larger than typical Fremont structures, which average between 80 and 90 square feet. |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Prehistoric human remains found along Hwy 99 (Harris County in Texas) |
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· 07/26/2012 4:53:28 PM PDT · · Posted by a fool in paradise · · 24 replies · · ABC News KTRK Channel 13 Houston · · July 26, 2012 · · Deborah Wrigley · |
Work crews clearing the land for the Grand Parkway expansion have made a surprising discovery -- human remains which are being described as 'prehistoric.' The remains were found in the stretch of land known as Grand Parkway segment E. The Grand Parkway segment between I-10 and Highway 290 has been under construction for nearly a year. Last month, in advance of bulldozers moving in, a state archeologist working on the project found something not unexpected for those who seek out the past -- a handful of bones dating back to prehistory. "I know it's a rare find, but knowing this... |
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| Hills in Them Thar Gold | |
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| Stylized Figure Pendant, 5th-7th century Panama; International Style Gold |
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· 07/25/2012 10:18:23 AM PDT · · Posted by muawiyah · · 15 replies · · metropolitan museum of art · · 1977 · · Alice K. Bache · |
Cast in gold over a core, this stylized anthropomorphic figure fluidly integrates human and animal traits. A realistic human face capped by a sweeping headdress extends forward from the abstract body. The generalized depictions of crouching legs, outspread wings, and notched fishtail may connote earth, sky, and sea. The pendant is part of a group of ornaments of uniform style and technology. Both the puzzling combination of elements from different creatures and the superbly finished surfaces set the pendants in the group apart from other Central American goldwork. The group is widely distributed -- they are known from Colombia in the south... |
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| The Mayans | |
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| "Dramatic" New Maya Temple Found, Covered With Giant Faces [ El Zotz ] |
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· 07/22/2012 8:12:13 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 81 replies · · National Geographic News · · Friday, July 20, 2012 · · Ker Than · |
Some 1,600 years ago, the Temple of the Night Sun was a blood-red beacon visible for miles and adorned with giant masks of the Maya sun god as a shark, blood drinker, and jaguar. Long since lost to the Guatemalan jungle, the temple is finally showing its faces to archaeologists, and revealing new clues about the rivalrous kingdoms of the Maya. Unlike the relatively centralized Aztec and Inca empires, the Maya civilization -- which spanned much of what are now Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico's Yucatan region (Maya map) -- was a loose aggregation of city-states. "This has been a growing... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Ancient Poop Gives Clues to Modern Diabetes Epidemic |
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· 07/25/2012 9:13:27 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 35 replies · · Live Science · · 7-24-2012 · · Stephanie Pappas · |
The ancient Native Americans of the desert Southwest subsisted on a fiber-filled diet of prickly pear, yucca and flour ground from plant seeds, finds a new analysis of fossilized feces that may explain why modern Native Americans are so susceptible to Type II diabetes. Thousands of years of incredibly fibrous foods, 20 to 30 times more fibrous than today's typical diet, with low impact on the blood sugar likely left this group vulnerable to the illness when richer Anglo foods made their way to North America, said study researcher Karl Reinhard, a professor of forensic sciences at the University of... |
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| Climate | |
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| Greenland Ice Melt every 150 years is "right on time' |
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· 07/24/2012 7:44:35 PM PDT · · Posted by Rocky · · 14 replies · · Watts Up With That? · · July 24, 2012 · · Anthony Watts · |
"Ice cores from Summit show that melting events of this type occur about once every 150 years on average. With the last one happening in 1889, this event is right on time," says Lora Koenig, a Goddard glaciologist and a member of the research team analyzing the satellite data. I covered this over the weekend when Bill McKibben started wailing about the albedo going off the charts. I thought it might be soot related. The PR below and quote above is from NASA Goddard. I had to laugh at the title of their press release, where they cite "Unprecedented... |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| Tree-rings prove climate was WARMER in Roman and Medieval times than it is now |
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· 07/21/2012 8:40:01 PM PDT · · Posted by dennisw · · 30 replies · · dailymail. · · 11 July 2012 · · Science Reporter · |
How did the Romans grow grapes in northern England? Perhaps because it was warmer than we thought. A study suggests the Britain of 2,000 years ago experienced a lengthy period of hotter summers than today. German researchers used data from tree rings -- a key indicator of past climate -- to claim the world has been on a "long-term cooling trend' for two millennia until the global warming of the twentieth century. This cooling was punctuated by a couple of warm spells. These are the Medieval Warm Period, which is well known, but also a period during the toga-wearing Roman... |
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| Vesuvius, 79 AD | |
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| House of the Telephus Relief: raising the roof on Roman real estate |
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· 07/27/2012 7:47:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Guardian UK · · Monday 23 July 2012 · · John Hooper in Ercolano · |
With several dozen rooms, the House of the Telephus Relief was "top-level Roman real estate", said Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, the director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP). It was more of a palace or mansion, thought to have been built for Marcus Nonius Balbus, the Roman governor of Crete and part of modern-day Libya, whose ostentatious tomb was found nearby. The most lavishly decorated part of the immense residence was a three-storey tower. On the top floor was a nine-metre high dining room with a coloured marble floor and walls, a suspended ceiling and a wrap-around terrace... ...the wind changed direction... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| 10 Civilizations That Disappeared Under Mysterious Circumstances |
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· 07/24/2012 7:54:00 PM PDT · · Posted by Sir Napsalot · · 51 replies · · io9 · · 7-23-2012 · · Annalee Newitz · |
For almost as long as we've had civilization, we've lost it. There are records going back hundreds of years of explorers discovering huge temples encrusted with jungle, or giant pits full of treasure that were once grand palaces. Why did people abandon these once-thriving cities, agricultural centers, and trade routes? Often, the answer is unknown. Here are ten great civilizations whose demise remains a mystery. 1. The Maya The Maya are perhaps the classic example of a civilization that was completely lost, its great monuments, cities and roads swallowed up by the central American jungles, and its peoples scattered to... |
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| Were The Dark Ages Really Dark? |
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· 12/10/2002 11:12:37 AM PST · · Posted by Mike Darancette · · 18 replies · · tripod · · September, 1999 · · Greg Bryant · |
.... snip ... Physical Aspects Of The Dark Ages Let's first look at the onset of "the" Dark Ages in the sixth century AD. The Roman Empire was finished, nothing was happening in the sciences, and worse was happening in nature. The Italian historian Flavius Cassiodorus wrote about conditions that he experienced during the year AD 536 : "The Sun...seems to have lost its wonted light, and appears of a bluish colour. We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty vigour of the Sun's heat wasted into feebleness, and the phenomena which accompany... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Discovery of early medieval royal stronghold in southwest Scotland [ the Picts ] |
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· 07/27/2012 9:55:32 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · · Past Horizons · · Thursday, July 26, 2012 · · unattributed · |
Trusty's Hill, near Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, is best known for the Pictish Symbols carved into a natural rock outcrop at the fort's entrance. However, in recent years, many historians have begun to doubt whether these carvings were genuine, some even suggesting that the carvings are forgeries... As well as an abundance of domestic waste, including animal bones, stone and metal tools and a spindle whorl, from 'dark soil' occupation deposits sealed by the collapsed ramparts of the fort, the excavators recovered numerous crucible and clay mould fragments, metalworking debris and a variety of iron pins and... |
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| Farty Shades of Green | |
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| Kerry island structure may be due to tsunami waves in medieval times |
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· 07/26/2012 8:31:59 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Irish Central · · Thursday, July 26, 2012 · · Patrick Counihan · |
Alan E Hayden, the director of more than 200 medieval excavations in Ireland, believes the grouping of islands off the Kerry coast suggests earthquake and tsunami wave style damage... The Times report adds: "A folk tale collected by a teacher in the early part of the last century offers an explanation for local place names connected to a road that ran from Dolus Head through the islands to Skellig. "The road, a pre-medieval structure, is called Bothar na Scairte, or road of the cataclysm, and it is traceable for some distance on Valentia. In the folk tale the road and... |
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| Middle Ages & the Renaissance | |
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| Mona Lisa's Skeleton Found? |
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· 07/22/2012 1:11:04 PM PDT · · Posted by BenLurkin · · 20 replies · · Discovery News · · Wed Jul 18, 2012 01:01 PM ET · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
Archaeologists say they have found a complete skeleton buried beneath the floor of an abandoned nunnery in Florence, Italy, which might belong to Lisa Gherardini, the woman believed to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The bones were found beneath the remains of an altar in the church of the now derelict Convent of St. Orsola. "That altar was certainly in use at Lisa Gherardini's time," said Valeria D'Aquino, an archaeologist at the Tuscan Superintendency |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Archaeologists uncover Palaeolithic ceramic art |
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· 07/27/2012 5:43:10 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · Phys.org · · Wednesday, July 25, 2012 · · U of Cambridge · |
Evidence of a community of prehistoric artists and craftspeople who "invented" ceramics during the last Ice Age -- thousands of years before pottery became commonplace -- has been found in modern-day Croatia. The finds consist of 36 fragments, most of them apparently the broken-off remnants of modelled animals, and come from a site called Vela Spila on the Adriatic coast. Archaeologists believe that they were the products of an artistic culture which sprang up in the region about 17,500 years ago. Their ceramic art flourished for about 2,500 years, but then disappeared... Most histories of the technology begin with the... |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| 6,500 year old hunting trophy found in eastern Croatia |
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· 07/27/2012 7:52:49 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · · Croatian Times · · Wednesday, July 25, 2012 · · unattributed · |
Archaeologists in Bapska, eastern Croatia have stumbled across 6,500 year old deer antlers. The hunting trophy was found hanging on the wall of prehistoric house along with valuable items of jewellery, writes website dalje.com. "We have the oldest deer hunting trophy in Croatia," said Marcel Buric, the head researcher at the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. According to Buric, local hunters from Bapska have estimated that the deer, where the antlers trophy has come from, would have weighed between 220 and 250 kilograms and would have been extremely strong due to its 12 antlers.... |
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| Egypt | |
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| First Dynasty funerary boat discovered at Egypt's Abu Rawash |
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· 07/27/2012 7:34:39 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · Ahram Online · · Wednesday, July 25, 2012 · · unattributed · |
During routine excavation works at the Archaic period cemetery located at Abu Rawash area northeast of the Giza Plateau, a French archaeological mission from the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO) stumbled on what is believed to be a funerary boat of the First Dynasty King Den (dating from around 3000BC). The funerary boat was buried with royalty, as ancient Egyptians believed it would transfer the king's soul to the afterlife for eternity. Unearthed in the northern area of Mastaba number six (a flat-roofed burial structure) at the archaeological site, boat consists of 11 large wooden planks reaching... |
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| Pharaoh's playground revealed by missing fractals |
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· 07/27/2012 7:37:52 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · New Scientist · · Friday, July 20, 2012 · · Colin Barras · |
The Dahshur royal necropolis in Egypt was once a dazzling sight. Some 30 kilometres south of Cairo, it provided King Sneferu with a playground to hone his pyramid-building skills -- expertise that helped his son, Khufu, build the Great Pyramid of Giza. But most signs of what went on around Dahshur have been wiped away by 4500 years of neglect and decay. To help work out what has been lost, archaeologists have turned to fractals. All around the world, river networks carve fractal patterns in the land that persist long after the rivers have moved on (see picture). "You can... |
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| Alexander the Great | |
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| Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes |
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· 07/25/2012 9:39:37 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 31 replies · · BBC · · 7-14-2012 · · Ali Ansari · |
Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective. Any visitor to the spectacular ruins of Persepolis -- the site of the ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Achaemenid empire, will be told three facts: it was built by Darius the Great, embellished by his son Xerxes, and destroyed by that man, Alexander. ~~~snip~~~ He razed Persepolis to the ground following a night of drunken excess at the goading of a Greek courtesan, ostensibly in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis... |
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| The Trojan War | |
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| 'Myths' Are More Plausible than Fiction |
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· 07/24/2012 8:31:13 PM PDT · · Posted by rjbemsha · · 16 replies · · Daily Telegraph via Europhysics Letters · · 25 July 2012 · · Nick Collins · |
[Research] "findings support historians' belief that ancient myths ... may be based, at least in part, on real communities and people." Researchers from Coventry University analysed the texts of three ancient stories and compared the complex web of characters' relationships with the type of "social networks" that occur in real life. The results showed that the societies depicted in the stories strongly mirrored real social networks that had been mapped out by others. But modern fiction differed from the ancient myths, as well as from real social networks, in telltale ways. |
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| Early America | |
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| Ohio's Mysteries: The Old Stone Fort |
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· 07/24/2012 5:51:29 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 90 replies · · nbc4i.com · · July 23, 2012 · · Anon · |
It's believed to be the oldest building in Ohio, and possibly the Midwest. But the mystery remains: who built it and why? COSHOCTON, Ohio -- It's believed to be the oldest building in Ohio, and possibly the Midwest -- built nearly a century before the American Revolution. But the mystery remains: who built the Old Stone Fort and why? On an ordinary plot of farm land on County Road 254 in eastern Coshocton County sits what is arguably one of the most important buildings in Ohio history. It is believed that the Old Stone Fort was built sometime around... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Did any Hessian troops imprisoned in Reading [PA] stay in America after the Revolutionary War? |
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· 07/26/2012 5:42:40 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 31 replies · · Reading Eagle · · 7-26-12 · · Ron Devlin · |
Ask Ron Devlin: Country they fought against became home Reading Eagle: Tim Leedy The state historical marker for Hessian Camp on Mineral Spring Road. Dorothy Johnston, who grew up near Hessian Camp in Reading, wondered what happened to the German mercenaries imprisoned in Reading during the Revolutionary War. First, some background. Faced with open revolt in its American Colonies, Britain arranged with the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, the Duke of Brunswick and other German nobles to send troops to the Colonies. By some estimates, 30,000 German mercenaries, including those called Hessians, were sent to help the British squelch the rebellion. After... |
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| Princeton: Battlefield group appeals Planning Board finding |
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· 07/25/2012 9:38:25 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 12 replies · · Princeton Packet · · July 24, 2012 · · Jennifer Bradley · |
The Princeton Battlefield Society has filed an appeal of the Princeton Regional Planning Board's decision to allow the Institute for Advanced Study to build faculty housing on a part of the battlefield known as Maxwell's Field on Friday, and is also seeking funds to support the society's fight. According to the society, the proposed development area of the battlefield is believed to be the site of a winning counterattack lead by George Washington during the Battle of Princeton. The appeal includes 12 counts that challenge the Planning Board's decision. "The Planning Board failed numerous times to properly support its decision... |
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| Underwater Archaeology | |
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| Button is clue to sunken ship's history |
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· 07/24/2012 6:03:20 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 2 replies · · The St. Augustine Record · · July 23, 2012 · · Marcia Lane · |
A ship's bell from a wreck found off St. Augustine has yielded another clue to the possible identify of the ship that may date from the American Revolution. The clue: a button found in the concretion still attached to the bronze bell that was discovered in 2010 by archaeologists with the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program. "It's in rough shape," Sam Turner, director of archaeology at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, said of the button. Even so, the top part of a crown can be seen on the button and similar crowns are found on Royal Provincial buttons plus the... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| Remarkable photos capture life in besieged Washington during the Civil War |
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· 07/26/2012 6:07:43 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 15 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · July 26, 2012 · · Staff · |
These are the striking black-and-white images which capture America on the cusp of monumental change during the Civil War. But instead of portraying dramatic events such as the bloody Battle of Antietam or Abraham Lincoln's historic address at Gettysburg, the images reveal day-to-day life for those caught during wartime in Washington DC. Defending the nation's capital, which was ripe for invasion by Confederate forces that had set their sights on the city, became a top priority for the U.S. government. |
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| Before the Airplane | |
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| America steams ahead: Incredible black-and-white pictures capture how railroads and steamboats helped forge its future at the turn of the 20th century |
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· 07/20/2012 6:29:52 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 23 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · July 19, 2012 · · Staff · |
They are images of a nation in motion -- of a country building its future with expanding railroads and industrial opportunities. These glorious black-and-white photographs, which have been released by the Library of Congress, reveal America reveling in its new-found productivity, at a time when steam engines and steamboats were forging the nation ahead. The images, taken between 1870 and 1920, capture the determination with which America tackled the new century -- and how the country also began enjoying the fruits of the 19th century's industrial labour, in what was termed the Gilded Age. |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Latest Amelia Earhart search falls short |
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· 07/23/2012 11:52:52 PM PDT · · Posted by iowamark · · 16 replies · · CBS News · · July 24, 2012 · · AP · |
A $2.2 million expedition that hoped to find wreckage from famed aviator Amelia Earhart's final flight is on its way back to Hawaii without the dramatic, conclusive plane images searchers were hoping to attain. But the group leading the search, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, still believes Earhart and her navigator crashed onto a reef off a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 75 years ago this month, its president told The Associated Press on Monday. "This is just sort of the way things are in this world," TIGHAR president Pat Thrasher said. "It's not like an Indiana... |
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| Two Submarines | |
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| Search team returning to Churchill River after release of sonar images showing suspected Nazi submarine |
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· 07/27/2012 6:48:39 AM PDT · · Posted by Squawk 8888 · · 10 replies · · National Post · · July 26, 2012 · · Jake Edmiston · |
Until this week, proof of a sunken Nazi submarine in Labrador was confined to old rumours of dark shadows in the Churchill River. The stories go back decades, suggesting that German U-boats had snaked along the river bottom and deep into Labrador. Now newly released sonar images depicting a mysterious submerged shape near Happy Valley-Goose Bay have generated excitement among those who believe the old tales and skepticism among those who don't. |
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| German U-boat Found 100 Kilometers Inland in Labrador |
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· 07/27/2012 8:01:04 AM PDT · · Posted by JerseyanExile · · 36 replies · · Canadian Broadcasting Corporation · · July 25, 2012 · · CBC News · |
An important piece of history from the Second World War may be sitting in a river in Labrador. Searchers believe they've found a German U-boat buried in the sand on the bottom of the Churchill River. The discovery has yet to be authenticated. Two years ago, searchers scoured the bottom of the Churchill River with side-scanning sonar. They were looking for three men lost over Muskrat Falls. When they reviewed the footage from that search, they made an unexpected discovery. "We were looking for something completely different, not a submarine, not a U-boat -- I mean, no one would ever... |
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| Explorers find downed German U-Boat off Mass. |
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· 07/27/2012 4:03:08 PM PDT · · Posted by robowombat · · 39 replies · · Associated Press · · Jul 27, 5:22 PM EDT · · Jay Lindsay · |
BOSTON (AP) -- Divers have discovered a World War II-era German submarine nearly 70 years after it sank under withering U.S. attack in waters off Nantucket. The U-550 was found Monday by a privately funded group organized by New Jersey lawyer Joe Mazraani. It was the second trip in two years to the site by the team, some of whom had been searching for the lost U-boat for two decades. Using side-scan sonar, the seven-man team located the wreck listing to its side in deep water about 70 miles south of Nantucket. Sonar operator Garry Kozak said he spotted the... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Doolittle Raiders share memories of their exploits at EAA |
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· 07/25/2012 2:30:04 PM PDT · · Posted by GOP_Party_Animal · · 15 replies · · Milwaukee Journal Sentinal · · 7-25-2012 · · Meg Jones · |
Oshkosh -- As they flew over Tokyo, Richard Cole and David Thatcher realized with relief that Japanese anti-aircraft gunners had never before fired at enemy planes. As the first Americans to strike Japan's home islands during World War II, Cole and Thatcher found that the ack-ack-ack of the flak guns did little damage to the 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers that achieved fame as the Doolittle Raiders. It was only four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and Japanese military commanders had promised their nation that it was invulnerable. The American crews lost all their planes and their... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Fundamentally Freund: Jewish unity and Joseph's Tomb |
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· 07/25/2012 7:41:13 PM PDT · · Posted by Former Fetus · · 5 replies · · The Jerusalem Post · · 7/25/2012 · · MICHAEL FREUND · |
Last week, in the most unlikely of places, I came face to face with the power of Jewish unity. It was well after midnight when the convoy of heavily-guarded Israeli cars and buses began the short drive through the deserted streets of Shechem (Nablus). Posted along the way were young men in IDF uniforms, keeping a watchful eye on the hundreds of Jews who were braving the late hour and our hostile neighbors to visit an ancient Jewish holy site in the heart of Palestinian-controlled territory. For years, I had wanted to visit Joseph's Tomb, the burial place of one... |
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| Bytes of Reality | |
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| Researchers Produce First Complete Computer Model of an Organism |
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· 07/21/2012 9:27:35 AM PDT · · Posted by onedoug · · 22 replies · · Science Daily · · 21 JULY 2012 · · Max McClure, Stanford University · |
In a breakthrough effort for computational biology, the world's first complete computer model of an organism has been completed, Stanford researchers reported last week in the journal Cell. A team led by Markus Covert, assistant professor of bioengineering, used data from more than 900 scientific papers to account for every molecular interaction that takes place in the life cycle of Mycoplasma genitalium, the world's smallest free-living bacterium. .... |
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| Panspermia | |
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| SETI and Intelligent Design |
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· 12/02/2005 8:35:59 AM PST · · Posted by ckilmer · · 213 replies · · space.com · · posted: 01 December 2005 · · Seth Shostak · |
SETI and Intelligent Design By Seth ShostakSETI Instituteposted: 01 December 200506:37 am ET If you're an inveterate tube-o-phile, you may remember the episode of "Cheers" in which Cliff, the postman who's stayed by neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night from his appointed rounds of beer, exclaims to Norm that he's found a potato that looks like Richard Nixon's head.This could be an astonishing attempt by taters to express their political views, but Norm is unimpressed. Finding evidence of complexity (the Nixon physiognomy) in a natural setting (the spud), and inferring some deliberate, magical mechanism behind it all,... |
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| Didn't Get the Memo? Fiction Has To Make Sense | |
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| 1987 Time Capsule of Predictions on 2012 by Sci-Fi Authors |
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· 07/25/2012 10:09:45 AM PDT · · Posted by JerseyanExile · · 61 replies · · Writers of the Future · |
ISAAC ASIMOVAssuming we haven't destroyed ourselves in a nuclear war, there will be 8-10 billion of us on this planet -- and widespread hunger. These troubles can be traced back to President Ronald Reagan who smiled and waved too much. GREGORY BENFORD YOUR FUTURE AND WELCOME TO IT -- 25 years from now. World population stands at nearly 8 billion. The Dow-Jones Industrial Average stands at 8,400, but the dollar is worth a third of today's. Oil is running out, but shale-extracted oil is getting cheaper. The real shortage in much of the world is water. Most Americans are barely literate, think in... |
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| Africa | |
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| Massive Underground Water Supply Found In Desert African Country (Supply could last 400 years) |
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· 07/21/2012 12:25:47 PM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 51 replies · · Business Insider · · 07/21/2012 · · Michael Kelley · |
A newly discovered water source could supply half of Africa's driest sub-Saharan country with 400 years of water, reports Matt McGrath of BBC. The new aquifer -- called Ohangwena II -- flows under the border between Angola and Namibia, covering an area of about 43 miles by 25 miles on Namibia's side. The water is up to 10,000 years old and cleaner to drink than many modern sources. Project manager Martin Quinger told BBC that the stored water could last 400 years based on current rates of consumption. Currently the 800,000 people living in the northern part of the country... |
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| Primatology | |
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| Gorillas filmed performing amazing feat of intellectual ability |
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· 07/24/2012 7:44:59 PM PDT · · Posted by Engraved-on-His-hands · · 28 replies · · PhysOrg · · July 23, 2012 · · Bob Yirka · |
Researchers working in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda have filmed gorillas dismantling snares set by poachers to catch smaller game. Previously, anecdotal evidence had suggested that silverback gorillas had been seen dismantling snares. In this instance it was two young blackback, mountain gorillas that were involved. The team, part of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center, filmed first a silverback motioning towards the snare. Next, two young male blackbacks arrived on the scene, surveyed the situation, then proceeded to take apart the snare, avoiding being caught in it in the process. |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Buddha tree alive and healthy at age 2,500 |
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· 07/22/2012 6:21:13 PM PDT · · Posted by TigerLikesRooster · · 33 replies · · UPI · · 07/20/12 · |
Published: July 20, 2012 at 5:54 PM BODH GAYA, India, July 20 (UPI) -- The 2,500-year-old tree under which Gautama Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment is alive and healthy, Indian scientists said Thursday. The Bodhi tree, a large Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa,) is in Bodh Gaya in India's eastern state of Bihar, about 60 miles from the state capital of Patna. "The Bodhi tree is fully healthy," Subhash Nautiyal of the Forest Research Institute in India's northern state of Uttarakhand said. Nautiyal and colleagues examined the tree after removing the cement slabs around its base, China's Xinhua News... |
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| end of digest #419 20120728 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #419 · v 9 · n 3 Saturday, July 28, 2012 |
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39 topics |
39 topics?!? Clearly, you've all been working too hard this week. Keep it up! And many thanks from me and on behalf of all. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #420 Saturday, August 4, 2012 |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Palm trees 'grew on Antarctica' (in the early Eocene period, about 53 million years ago.) |
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· 08/02/2012 1:05:45 PM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 23 replies · · BBC News · · 8/2/12 · · Jason Palmer · |
Scientists drilling deep into the edge of modern Antarctica have pulled up proof that palm trees once grew there. Analyses of pollen and spores and the remains of tiny creatures have given a climatic picture of the early Eocene period, about 53 million years ago. The study in Nature suggests Antarctic winter temperatures exceeded 10C, while summers may have reached 25C. Better knowledge of past "greenhouse" conditions will enhance guesses about the effects of increasing CO2 today. The early Eocene -- often referred to as the Eocene greenhouse -- has been a subject of increasing interest in recent years as... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Archeologists unearth extraordinary human sculpture in Turkey [ Suppiluliuma ] |
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· 07/30/2012 8:19:59 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 60 replies · · Eurekalert · · Monday, July 30, 2012 · · Kim Luke, U of Toronto · |
The head and torso of the human figure, intact to just above its waist, stands approximately 1.5 meters in height, suggesting a total body length of 3.5 to four meters. The figure's face is bearded, with beautifully preserved inlaid eyes made of white and black stone, and its hair has been coiffed in an elaborate series of curls aligned in linear rows. Both arms are extended forward from the elbow, each with two arm bracelets decorated with lion heads. The figure's right hand holds a spear, and in its left is a shaft of wheat. A crescent-shaped pectoral adorns... |
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| Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
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| Archeologists find 3,300-year-old burnt wheat |
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· 07/28/2012 7:32:50 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · · Jerusalem Post · · Tuesday, July 24, 2012 · · Sharon Udasin · |
A team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) uncovered 14 large pithoi-style bulk storage jugs filled with the wheat inside what was a storage room in a monumental, palace-like building from the Canaanite period (2,000-3,000 BCE), the INPA said on Monday. After the jars are fully exposed the researchers will transfer them to conservation and restoration laboratories. Afterwards, the palace will be covered up again until the next excavation season. Archeological excavations at Hatzor have been conducted by Hebrew University in cooperation with the INPA for the past couple of decades. In... |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| Luxury food and pampered pooches in Iron Age Britain |
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· 08/01/2012 4:00:00 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 2 replies · · Past Horizons · · 7/2012 · · University of Reading · |
University of Reading archaeologists have found evidence that Iron Age people in Britain were spicing up meals with foods and seasoning imported from around the Mediterranean. Previously it had been assumed that prior to the Roman occupation of Britain, only liquid products such as olive oil and wine were imported from across the Channel. However archaeologists working at Silchester Roman Town in Hampshire have discovered that people of that time were importing Mediterranean seasoning as well as whole olives themselves.... |
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| Silchester Iron Age finds reveal secrets of pre-Roman Britain |
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· 08/01/2012 4:06:23 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 3 replies · · Past Horizons · · 7-31-2012 · · Maev Kennedy · |
...The banal seeds are astonishing because many came from a level dating to a century before the Romans. More evidence is emerging every day, and it is clear that from around 50BC the Iron Age Atrebates tribe, whose name survived in the Latin Calleva Atrebatum, the wooded place of the Atrebates, enjoyed a lifestyle that would have been completely familiar to the Romans when they arrived in AD43. Their diet would also be quite familiar to many in 21st-century Britain. The people ate shellfish -- previously thought to have been eaten only in coastal settlements -- as well as cows,... |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| 'Perplexing' find at Alderney Roman dig |
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· 07/29/2012 4:45:13 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · · BBC · · Saturday, July 28, 2012 · · unattributed · |
Archaeologists have found something "interesting" and "perplexing" at a Roman dig in Alderney. A team from the island, the UK and Guernsey are excavating land at the fort of the nunnery at Longy Common. The dig is focusing on a gateway and wall but the team said they were "not expecting" the way it was laid out. Dr Jason Monaghan said: "We've found something interesting, but we don't actually know what it is until we take a bit more dirt out." Dr Monaghan, Director of Guernsey Museums, said the team had dug a trench to examine the gateway. "It's a... |
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| Middle Ages & the Renaissance | |
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| Archaeology: Serbia, 31 early Christian tombs discovered |
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· 07/28/2012 7:53:56 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · ANSA · · Friday, July 27, 2012 · · ANSAmed · |
The remains of 31 early Christian tombs have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Nis, Serbia's third largest city in the southern part of the country. "These are the most important excavations carried out so far on the site of the early Christian necropolis of Jagodin-mala", said Toni Cerskov, who heads the team of 45 archaeologists, architects, anthropologists, photographers and workers at the site. The tombs are located under the former textile factory Niteks, the Tanjug news agency reports. Cerskov said the tombs are among the most important findings regarding the early Christian period and can be compared to the... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Does this coin found near Jerusalem prove that Samson lived? |
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· 07/31/2012 9:12:13 AM PDT · · Posted by the scotsman · · 34 replies · · Daily Mail · · 31st July 2012 · · Leon Watson · |
'A tiny seal has been uncovered that could be the first archaeological evidence of Samson, the Biblical slayer of Philistines. Archaeologists discovered the ancient artifact while excavating the tell of Beit Shemesh in the Judaean Hills near Jerusalem, Israel. It appears to depict the Old Testament story of Samson, whose might was undone by his lust for the temptress Delilah, and his fight with a lion. The seal, which measures less than an inch in diameter, shows a large animal with a feline tail attacking a human figure. The seal was discovered at a level of excavation that dates it... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Ancient Burial Box Linked to Priest Who Played Part in Christ's Crucifixion |
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· 08/03/2012 2:44:21 PM PDT · · Posted by NYer · · 27 replies · · Christian Post · · August 30, 2012 · · Nicola Menzie · |
Yosef bar Caifa Scientists at a university in Israel believe they have discovered an ancient burial box belonging to the family of the high priest who played a part in the crucifixion of Jesus as described in the Bible. The burial box, or ossuary, was recovered from looters three years ago by the Israel Antiquities Authority. On close examination the ossuary was found to have a rare inscription mentioning the names "Miriam," "Yeshua," and "Caiaphus. "Once the inscription was authenticated, archaeologists were astounded by what they had found. According to researchers, the Caiaphus mentioned in the carved-in inscription may very well be the same... |
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| Early America | |
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| 500 year old rum? Archaeologists search for the real Captain Morgan |
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· 07/29/2012 2:13:05 PM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 13 replies · · FoxNews.com · · July 26, 2012 · · FoxNews.com · |
To life, love and a legendary privateer's lost fleet. U.S. archaeologists are continuing their search for real-life buccaneer Captain Henry Morgan's lost fleet after the discovery of six cannons, a 17th century wooden shipwreck and even a barrel that may very well contain rum. Yo, ho ho indeed. Aptly backed by the Captain Morgan rum brand, a team of leading archaeologists led by Frederick "Fritz" Hanselmann of Texas State University hope to unlock the myth and mysteries of one of history's most iconic sea captains. "We're interested in telling the true story of Henry Morgan," Hanselmann, who is a director... |
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| Obituaries | |
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| Sir John Keegan -- RIP |
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· 08/03/2012 5:16:17 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 16 replies · · Daily Telegraph · · August 2, 2012 · · Staff · |
He had been on the teaching staff of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, for 25 years in 1986 when Max Hastings announced his recruitment to the paper the day he took over the editor's chair. Keegan proved an unrivalled asset as the Soviet empire crumbled and collapsed, the government demanded a "peace dividend" in the form of cutbacks to the Armed Forces and a series of military actions flared up in the Middle East and the Balkans. |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| You write potato, I write ghoughpteighbteau |
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· 08/21/2008 4:42:07 PM PDT · · Posted by forkinsocket · · 31 replies · · The Economist · · Aug 14th 2008 · · Staff · |
GHOTI and tchoghs may not immediately strike readers as staples of the British diet; and even those most enamoured of written English's idiosyncrasies may wince at this tendentious rendering of "fish and chips". Yet the spelling, easily derived from other words*, highlights the shortcomings of English orthography. This has long bamboozled foreigners and natives alike, and may underlie the national test results released on August 12th which revealed that almost a third of English 14-year-olds cannot read properly. One solution, suggested recently by Ken Smith of the Buckinghamshire New University, is to accept the most common misspellings as variants rather... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Human cycles: History as science (new wave of violence predicted for US) |
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· 08/02/2012 5:27:33 PM PDT · · Posted by rjbemsha · · 25 replies · · Nature · · 1 Aug 2012 · · Laura Spinney · |
Researcher Peter Turchin sees two cycles driving political instability. The secular cycle, lasting two to three centuries, starts with a relatively egalitarian society (supply and demand for labour roughly balance). But over time, population grows, labour supply outstrips demand, elites form and the living standards of the poorest fall. Then the society becomes top-heavy with elites, who start fighting for power. Political instability ensues, leading to collapse, and the cycle begins again. The shorter fathers-and-sons cycle, spanning 50 years or two generations, interacts with the longer cycle. Turchin sees this cycle peaking around 1870 (ethnic strife, class resentment), 1920 (race... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Liberal profs admit they'd discriminate against conservatives in hiring, advancement |
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· 08/02/2012 2:03:10 PM PDT · · Posted by Cincinatus' Wife · · 40 replies · · The Washington Times · · August 1, 2012 · · Emily Esfahani Smith · |
Psychologists Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammers, based at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, surveyed a roughly representative sample of academics and scholars in social psychology and found that "In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists admit that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues." This finding surprised the researchers. The survey questions "were so blatant that I thought we'd get a much lower rate of agreement," Mr. Inbar said. "Usually you have to be pretty tricky to get people to say they'd discriminate against minorities." One question, according to the researchers, "asked whether, in... |
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| end of digest #420 20120804 | |
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