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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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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #420 · v 9 · n 4 Saturday, August 4, 2012 |
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39 topics |
This week GGG took a bit of a breather with a mere 14 topics. Again, some were left on deck, but I was busy with real life and/or stranded on dialup, or worse yet, having to use wintel. A couple of nights I konked out by 10 pm. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #421 Saturday, August 11, 2012 |
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| Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
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| How did the wolf become dog ? |
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· 08/05/2012 10:18:13 AM PDT · · Posted by djone · · 31 replies · · salon.com · · Mark Derr · |
Derr acknowledges that the story of the dog's emergence (as distinct from its evolutionary forebear, the wolf) cannot be "neatly distilled." Different estimates place the first appearance of dog-like creatures anywhere from 12,000 to 135,000 years ago. But Derr argues that the dog itself was an "evolutionary inevitability." He suggests that dogs and humans -- similar animals who "simply took to traveling with each other" tens of thousands of years ago, "and never stopped" -- |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| Brewing Stone Age beer |
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· 08/05/2012 7:33:03 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 50 replies · · sciencenordic.com · · 7-20-2012 · · Asle Rønning · |
Beer enthusiasts are using a barn in Norway's Akershus County to brew a special ale which has scientific pretensions and roots back to the dawn of human culture. The beer is made from einkorn wheat, a single-grain species that has followed humankind since we first started tilling the soil, but which has been neglected for the last 2,500 years. "This is fun -- really thrilling. It's hard to say whether this has ever been tried before in Norway," says Jørn Kragtorp. He started brewing as a hobby four years ago. He represents the fourth generation on the family farm of... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Researchers find evidence of ritual use of 'black drink' at Cahokia |
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· 08/08/2012 5:53:39 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 44 replies · · Heritage Daily · · 8-7-2012 · |
People living 700 to 900 years ago in Cahokia, a massive settlement near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, ritually used a caffeinated brew made from the leaves of a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away, researchers report. The discovery -- made by analyzing plant residues in pottery beakers from Cahokia and its surroundings -- is the earliest known use of this "black drink" in North America. It pushes back the date by at least 500 years, and adds to the evidence that a broad cultural and trade network thrived in the Midwest and southeastern U.S.... |
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| Middle Ages & the Renaissance | |
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| For Indians, ax marked first chapter of disaster |
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· 08/07/2012 6:48:33 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · Columbus Dispatch · · Sunday July 29, 2012 8:04 AM · · Bradley T. Lepper · |
The ax is significant because it predates the documented arrival of European explorers in the region by a century or more. It likely was brought to America by Basque whalers or fishermen who traded it to some coastal-dwelling Indian for animal furs. It then must have been passed from one tribe to another until it was eventually acquired by a resident of the Mantle site. European artifacts also have been found at the late prehistoric Madisonville site in Hamilton County in southwestern Ohio. Although large by Ohio standards, it wouldn't have compared to the Mantle site. Archaeologist Penelope Drooker estimated... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| What Vikings really looked like |
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· 08/05/2012 6:28:12 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 45 replies · · ScienceNordic · · 7-29-2012 · · Irene Berg Sørensen · |
There's no shortage of myths about the appearance of our notorious Viking ancestors. To find out more about these myths, ScienceNordic's Danish partner site, videnskab.dk, asked its Facebook readers to list their favourite myths about what the Vikings looked like. We have picked out five myths from the resulting debate and asked researchers to help us confirm or bust these myths. Armed with this information, our graphic designer then took a shot at drawing some examples of our infamous forefathers, which you can see in our picture gallery... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Medieval silver treasure found on Gotland |
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· 08/05/2012 5:12:02 AM PDT · · Posted by csvset · · 4 replies · · The Local · · 4 Aug 12 · · Clara Guibourg · |
A silver treasure from the 12th century has been found on the Baltic island Gotland, where over 600 pieces of silver coins have been unearthed, according to reports in local media. "This is an amazing find. It's unbelievable that treasures of this scale exist here on Gotland," Marie Louise Hellquist of Gotland's County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) told local newspaper Hela Gotland. The medieval treasure was uncovered last Monday, as the landowner was moving soil. Some 500 pieces of coin were discovered in the field, and following further searches conducted once archaeologists arrived on Wednesday, that figure has swollen considerably. "In... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe |
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· 08/05/2012 5:20:32 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 34 replies · · The Guardian (UK) · · 8-4-2012 · · Dalya Alberge · |
When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation -- a cataclysmic volcano that had erupted a century earlier, thousands of miles away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons. Scientific evidence -- including radiocarbon dating of the bones and geological data from across the globe -- shows for the first time that mass fatalities in the 13th century were caused by one... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| The Roots of Jewishness |
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· 08/09/2012 6:34:33 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 27 replies · · ScienceNOW · · 6 August 2012 · · Gisela Telis · |
Family ties. Most Jewish populations share a genetic connection, but some groups, such as Ethiopian Jews (pictured here, sharing unleavened bread ahead of Passover), stand alone. Credit: Eliana Aponte/Reuters Scholars of all kinds have long debated one seemingly simple question: What is "Jewishness?" Is it defined by genetics, culture, or religion? Recent findings have revealed genetic ties that suggest a biological basis for Jewishness, but this research didn't include data from North African, Ethiopian, or other Jewish communities. Now a new study fills in the genetic mapâ?"and paints a more complex picture of what it means to... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Susita Site Yields Surprises |
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· 08/07/2012 2:19:00 PM PDT · · Posted by Eleutheria5 · · 19 replies · · Arutz Sheva · · 7/8/12 · · Gil Ronen · |
The 13th year of Haifa University's archeological digs at the Susita site just east of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) has yielded several surprises, including what experts believe is a portrait of a local man from the 3rd century CE, carved into a basalt gravestone. Susita -- as it is known in the Aramaic version -- was originally known by the Latin name Hippos. Both names refer to horses, although the reason for this name is not known. It was destroyed by the earthquake of 749 CE. Archeologist Dr. Michael Eisenberg explained that the "Susita man" rock was found in... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| First Person: Should Israel Return the Tablets of the Law to Egypt? [ hypothetically ] |
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· 08/08/2012 6:52:49 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · BAR 38:05, Sep/Oct 2012 · · Hershel Shanks · |
In 1969, barely two years after the 1967 Six-Day War, a team of Israeli archaeologists made an exploratory excavation at the base of one of the numerous sites in the Sinai Peninsula proposed as Biblical Mt. Sinai. It was not long before a member of the team exposed a piece of rock with a single Hebrew letter on it. This naturally led to more intensive excavation in this area, as a result of which additional, larger pieces of inscribed stones were recovered. They were taken to Israel for further study. When examined by paleographers, experts in dating inscriptions by the... |
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| Climate | |
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| Scafetta's new paper attempts to link climate cycles to planetary motion ( March 2012) |
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· 08/08/2012 12:52:53 PM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 14 replies · · March 21, 2012 · · Anthony Watts · |
Nicola Scafetta sent me this paper yesterday, and I read it with interest, but I have a number of reservations about it, not the least of which is that it is partially based on the work of Landscheidt and the whole barycentric thing which gets certain people into shouting matches. Figure 9 looks to be interesting, but note that it is in generic units, not temperature, so has no predictive value by itself.Fig. 9. Proposed solar harmonic reconstructions based on four beat frequencies. (Top) Average beat envelope function of the model (Eq. (18)) and (Bottom) the version modulated with a... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Ancient records shed light on Italian earthquakes (Aquila area) |
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· 08/10/2012 4:03:44 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · PhysOrg · · Friday, August 3, 2012 · · Seismological Society of America · |
The rich recorded history of settlement in the area, along with oral traditions, archaeological excavations, inscriptions and medieval texts, and offer insight into how often the region might expect destructive earthquakes. But according to a new study by Emanuela Guidoboni and colleagues, the historical record on ancient and medieval earthquakes comes with its own shortcomings that must be addressed before the seismic history of L'Aquila can be useful in assessing the current seismic hazard in this area... ...the researchers combed through written records and information from archaeological excavations, covering the period from ancient Roman occupation in the first century A.D.... |
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| Italian 'Super Volcano' May Threaten Millions: Scientists plan to drill deep below Romans'... |
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· 08/06/2012 7:54:17 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 35 replies · · Newser · · Monday, August 06, 2012 · · Rob Quinn · |
A hidden "super volcano" near Pompeii threatens an eruption that could make Vesuvius look like a picnic, scientists warn. The Phlegraean Fields zone of intense seismic activity -- which the ancient Romans believed was the gateway to hell -- could doom millions of people in the Naples area if it erupts, Reuters reports. Scientists plan to drill more than two miles below its surface to monitor any signs of a pending eruption in the huge chamber of molten rock, but some experts fear that the drilling itself could trigger an earthquake or eruption. Areas like the Phlegraean fields "can give... |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck that is so well preserved even the FOOD is intact |
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· 08/09/2012 8:38:47 AM PDT · · Posted by Kartographer · · 38 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · 8/9/12 · · Mark Prigg · |
The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was located at a depth of about 200 feet after a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was used to scour the seabed. A search for the shipwreck was launched after local fisherman revealed they kept finding pieces of pottery in their nets. The divers found the wreck so well preserved even the food, still sealed in over 200 pots, is intact. |
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| Egypt | |
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| Possible Egyptian pyramids found using Google Earth |
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· 08/10/2012 3:40:45 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 34 replies · · Archaeology News Network · · Monday, August 6, 2012 · · Posted by TANN · |
One of the complex sites contains a distinct, four-sided, truncated, pyramidal shape that is approximately 140 feet in width. This site contains three smaller mounds in a very clear formation, similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids. The second possible site contains four mounds with a larger, triangular-shaped plateau. The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 250 feet in width, with two smaller mounds approximately 100 feet in width. This site complex is arranged in a very clear formation with the large plateau, or butte, nearby in a triangular shape with a width of approximately... |
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| Early America | |
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| Wreck thought to be famous 19th-century pirate ship that sank with hold full of treasure |
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· 08/09/2012 9:30:21 AM PDT · · Posted by wildbill · · 21 replies · · Mailonline · · 8/9/2012 · · Emma Reynolds · |
A shipwreck discovered in Tonga is thought to be a famous pirate vessel that sank in the 19th century with a hold full of treasure. Legend has it that the Port-au-Prince was attacked by warriors near the South Pacific archipelago in 1806 and most of its British crew massacred on the orders of King Finau 'Ulukalala II. The British had captured the ship from the French and made into a privateer -- meaning it had permission to attack and plunder boats belonging to rivals Spain and France. |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Ceremony held to remember the Battle of Oriskany [235 year anniversary] |
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· 08/08/2012 7:13:57 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 18 replies · · Rome (NY) Observer · · August 07, 2012 · · RACHEL MURPHY · |
ORISKANY -- Nearly 200 people gathered Monday to remember the 235th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles during the Revolutionary War at The Battle of Oriskany. It was a commemorative ceremony held by members of the Oneida Nation and representatives from the National Parks Service at Fort Stanwix. During the ceremony flags were lowered to half-staff, wreaths were placed at the monument, and men wore military costumes while firing off muskets. "There were hundreds of people who lost their lives here in this battle and it's really important to remember those people who gave their lives for our freedom today," said... |
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| Schooled | |
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| Three smart history podcasts |
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· 08/09/2012 12:57:00 PM PDT · · Posted by iowamark · · 4 replies · · Sacramento Bee · · August 8, 2012 · · Pete Basofin · |
The Internet Age is a golden age for history buffs. Think of the sheer quantity of material -- lectures, conferences, books, articles, photographs, paintings, maps, census records, historic audio and video clips, all kinds of of primary and secondary resources -- available at the click of a mouse. There are also podcasts devoted to history. Podcasts (for the uninitiated) are audio or video series produced by amateurs or professional outlets on every imaginable topic... BackStory with the American History Guys. Hosted by three experts representing the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, BackStory aims to bring a "historical perspective to the... |
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| Olympiads | |
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| The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been the Strangest Ever |
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· 08/08/2012 10:13:31 AM PDT · · Posted by afraidfortherepublic · · 35 replies · · The Smithsonian · · 8-7-12 · |
America's first Olympics may have been its worst, or at least its most bizarre. Held in 1904 in St. Louis, the games were tied to that year's World's Fair, which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase while advancing, as did all such turn-of-the-century expositions, the notion of American imperialism. Although there were moments of surprising and genuine triumph (gymnast George Eyser earned six medals, including three gold, despite his wooden leg), the games were largely overshadowed by the fair, which offered its own roster of sporting events, including the controversial Anthropology Days, in which a group of "savages" recruited... |
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| The Great War | |
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| Letter to Winston Churchill May Contain First Known Use of 'OMG' |
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· 08/08/2012 3:55:45 PM PDT · · Posted by TurboZamboni · · 17 replies · · NY Magazine · · 8-7-12 · · Brett Smiley · |
Letters of Note curator Shaun Usher has pointed out what might be the first known usage of O.M.G., in a September 1917 missive from British admiral John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher (or Lord Fisher) to Sir Winston Churchill. In a letter to Churchill about some "utterly [upsetting]" World War I-era newspaper headlines, Fisher wrote, "I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis -- O.M.G (Oh! My! God!) -- Shower it on the Admiralty!!" To which we assume Churchill replied, "Oh Dear Fisher! I am laughing heartily out loud!!" |
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| The Only Face of Socialism | |
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| Seventy-Five Years After Stalin's Great "Operation Kulak" Reign of Terror |
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· 08/05/2012 3:06:12 PM PDT · · Posted by ReformationFan · · 18 replies · · The New American · · August 5, 2012 · · Bruce Walker · |
Seventy-five years ago, on August 5, 1937, one of the most horrific -- and most ignored -- episodes in human history began. "Operation Kulak" ("kulak" meaning rich peasants) was the Soviet Union's effort to repress those farmers who had a little more than other farmers (according, at least, to the definitions of the Communist Party), and who resisted collectivization. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (pictured) had begun the development of "Operation Kulak" the previous month, when he contacted all the regional Party leaders as well as the NKVD (roughly the Soviet equivalent of the Gestapo and SS in Nazi Germany), asking... |
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| Obituaries | |
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| Last Polish soldier of WWII opening battle dies (Westerplatte) |
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· 08/06/2012 12:40:15 PM PDT · · Posted by dfwgator · · 21 replies · · Associated Press · · · |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Maj. Ignacy Skowron, the last known survivor of World War II's Battle of Westerplatte, has died. He was 97. Family friend Zofia Nowak said Monday that Skowron died at his grandson's home in Kielce, in southern Poland on Sunday after suffering circulatory, liver and pancreas problems. |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| 10 Things You Don't Know About Guadalcanal |
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· 08/07/2012 3:18:37 AM PDT · · Posted by PJ-Comix · · 90 replies · · 10 Things You Don't Know About · · August 7, 2012 · · PJ-Comix · |
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the first offensive land operation taken by the United States in World War II. On August 7, 1942, the U.S. Marines landed at Guadalcanal. The general outlines of that battle which lasted which lasted 6 months until February 9, 1943 are known by many but here are 19 things about Guadalcanal that you might not know. This is the first of my regular "20 Things You Don't Know" posts that I hope will encourage the History Channel to bring back that series. You can read my full mission statement about this in my... |
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| Pages | |
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| Book review- Bending the Twig: The Revolution in Education and Its Effect on Our Children |
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· 08/09/2012 6:52:43 AM PDT · · Posted by ProgressingAmerica · · 16 replies · · PGA Weblog · · · |
'Tis education forms the common mind Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined -- Alexander Pope Progressive education.... what is it? Where does it come from? Is America the only place it's ever been tried? I've made my own attempts to dig into progressive education, but I can only use the internet for my queries. This book titled "Bending the twig; the revolution in education and its effect on our children" is a genuine inquiry based on thoughtful research into the topic using sources I'd probably never have access to. The review for this book comes from a... |
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| The Tragedy Europe Forgot (Expulsions of Germans From East of the Oder) |
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· 08/10/2012 7:02:19 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 9 replies · · Wall Street Journal · · August 9, 2012 · · Andrew Stuttaford · |
By the late spring of 1945, Germany had lost a war, its honor and millions of dead. There was more to come. The Allies had decided that the country's east should be carved up between Poland and the Soviet Union and that its German inhabitants should be moved to the truncated Reich. There they would encounter Sudeten Germans, Czechoslovakia's second largest ethnic group, now also scheduled for deportation. In August 1945, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed at Potsdam that these transfers, which had in any case already begun, should be "orderly and humane." |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan was Unavoidable |
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· 08/05/2012 1:27:24 PM PDT · · Posted by Retain Mike · · 46 replies · · class="attrib">Self · · August 5, 2012 · · Self · |
Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan Unavoidable We now mark the 67th anniversary of dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WW II. Once again we must listen to the contra-factual analysis of revisionists as they expound on what a needless, tragic and profoundly immoral decision the United States had made. In support of dropping the atomic bombs historians often cite the inevitability of horrifying casualties, if troops had landed on the home islands. They extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese losses on Okinawa to estimates of 500,000 American and millions of Japanese casualties for mainland invasions. However,... |
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| Palontology | |
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| Dinosaur Boom Linked to Rise of Rocky Mountains |
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· 08/05/2012 5:26:49 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 22 replies · · Live Science · · 8-3-2012 · · Charles Choi · |
The evolution of new dinosaur species may have surged due to the rise of the Rocky Mountains and the emergence of a prehistoric inner sea in North America, researchers say. Duck-billed and horned dinosaurs flourished in North America, reaching a peak about 75 million years ago, a time known as the Campanian. For instance, one Campanian region known as the Dinosaur Park formation in what is now Canada saw seven different duck-billed dinosaur species and five horned dinosaur species emerge. A comparable region known as the Hell Creek formation in the United States from the Maastrichtian, the time that led... |
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| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
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| Has the Loch Ness Monster Finally Been Caught on Camera? |
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· 08/04/2012 6:49:40 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 65 replies · · The Telegraph · · 08/03/2012 · |
A monster hunter who has spent 26 years searching for the Loch Ness Monster claims to have taken the "best picture ever" of the beast, after dedicating 60 hours a week to his quest.Nessie hunter George Edwards waited 26 years for this moment -- and he now believes he has the best picture ever taken of the Loch Ness monster. He spends his life on the loch -- around 60 hours a week -- taking tourists out on his boat Nessie Hunter IV, and has led numerous Nessie hunts over the years. But this image is the one that's convinced... |
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| end of digest #421 20120811 | |
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