Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #254
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
The Evolution of House Cats [genetic research about cat breeding]
· 05/27/2009 2:49:52 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 31 replies · 706+ views ·
Scientific American | June 2009 | Carlos A. Driscoll, Juliet Clutton-Brock, Andrew C. Kitchener and Stephen J. O'Brien
...In the genetic analysis, published in 2007, Driscoll, another of us (O'Brien) and their colleagues focused on two kinds of DNA that molecular biologists traditionally examine to differentiate subgroups of mammal species: DNA from mitochondria, which is inherited exclusively from the mother, and short, repetitive sequences of nuclear DNA known as microsatellites. Using established computer routines, they assessed the ancestry of each of the 979 individuals sampled based on their genetic signatures. Specifically, they measured how similar each cat's DNA was to that of all the other cats and grouped the animals having similar DNA together. They then asked whether...
Epigraphy and Language
A Human Language Gene Changes the Sound of Mouse Squeaks
· 05/29/2009 12:24:46 AM PDT · Posted by LibWhacker · 16 replies · 458+ views ·
NY Times | 5/28/09 | Nicholas Wade
People have a deep desire to communicate with animals, as is evident from the way they converse with their dogs, enjoy myths about talking animals or devote lifetimes to teaching chimpanzees how to speak. A delicate, if tiny, step has now been taken toward the real thing: the creation of a mouse with a human gene for language.
Biology and Cryptobiology
Fossil Of 'Giant' Shrew Nearly One Million Years Old Found In Spain
· 05/28/2009 1:09:46 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 60 replies · 731+ views ·
ScienceDaily | May 18, 2009 | Adapted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC
Researchers from the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) have discovered fossils in the TD4, TD5 and TD6 levels of the Gran Dolina deposit in Burgos that date to between 780,000 and 900,000 years ago, and have shown that these belong to a new genus and species of shrew (Dolinasorex glyphodon), from the Soricidae family (small insect-eating mammals)... The morphometric and phylogenetic studies of the new species reveal a close link with the species of eastern Asia... In addition, analyses of jawbones and individual teeth of Dolinasorex glyphodon, collected between 1991 and 2007 in Atapuerca, have enabled the scientists to develop paleoecological...
Species Discovered This Millennium
· 01/29/2008 11:51:20 PM PST · Posted by Exton1 · 29 replies · 44+ views ·
world press | 2007 | Unk
Liberals say we are destroying the planet and destroying species. Yet, just about everyday something new is discovered. Maybe this earth is bigger than we think. Discovery New Tribe Spotted in Peruvian Amazon! Found: Giant Lobster Species! New Genus! Australian Truffles! New Species of Orchid Flirts With Wasps Squid Body + Octopus Legs = New Species? What'll They Do Next- Revive the Dodo? uh..no- really? 9 July, 2007 From an article by Kate RaviliousNational Geographic News July 3, 2007 Adventurers exploring a cave on an island in the Indian Ocean have discovered the most complete and well-preserved dodo skeleton ever found, scientists reported yesterday. Researchers...
Paleontology
Toothy sharks once ruled Tuscany
· 05/28/2009 5:22:08 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 17 replies · 282+ views ·
Discovery | May 28, 2009 | Rossella Lorenzi
Some three million years ago, eel-like sharks snaked through the region that now supports Tuscany's finest vineyards, suggest fossils recently found in the clay soil of the Chianti region. Hundreds of fossilized teeth belonging to primitive shark-like creatures have been uncovered by amateur paleontologists near the village of Castelnuovo Berardenga, not far from Siena.
Sumatran Rhinos Are Living Fossils
· 09/13/2006 10:29:03 PM PDT · Posted by restornu · 11 replies · 727+ views ·
Cryptomundo | Sept 12, 2006 | Darren Naish
Zoologist Darren Naish has written a thoughtful essay on "Are Sumatran Rhinos Really Living Fossil?" His blog is in response to my comments on the "living fossil" issue, discussed here. I disagree with Naish's restrictive parameters, of course, as I see this more an issue of educational semantics influenced by zoology, not ruled by it. Darren Naish's approach is worthy of your attention and he has every right to his very informed point of view. Needless to say, in this case, I was employing the "living fossil" definition that this rhino species is "a living species/clade with many "primitive' characteristics...
Small Prehistoric Whale Was Vicious Hunter
· 08/31/2006 4:57:28 AM PDT · Posted by Alex1977 · 5 replies · 640+ views ·
Live Science | 30 August 2006 | Abigail W. Leonard
Paleontologists have uncovered a 25-million-year-old whale fossil with a monstrous set of teeth and enormous eyes on the coast of Australia.The discovery has researchers rethinking whales' evolutionary history.Scientists were surprised to find that the vicious-looking specimen is an ancestor of modern baleen whales, gentle giants of today's seas. The fossil suggests a creature that grew to a little more than 11 feet with teeth about an inch-and-a-half long. Baleen whales, which include the blue and humpback, feed by filtering plankton and small fish from seawater through hair-like fibers in their jaws. Their ferocious forebears, on the other hand, appear to...
Dinosaurs
Huge dinosaur discovery in China: state media (including the remains of an enormous "platypus")
· 12/30/2008 10:26:06 AM PST · Posted by NormsRevenge · 31 replies · 1,096+ views ·
AFP on Yahoo | 12/30/08 | AFP
BEIJING (AFP) -- Paleontologists in east China have dug up what they believe is one of the world's largest group of dinosaur fossils including the remains of an enormous "platypus", state press said Tuesday. Paleontologists have discovered 15 areas near Zhucheng city in Shandong province that contain thousands of dinosaur bones, the Beijing News reported. "This group of fossilised dinosaurs is currently the largest ever discovered in the world... in terms of area," the paper cited paleontologist Zhao Xijin of the China Academy of Sciences as saying. In one area measuring 300 metres (990 feet) by 10 metres, more than...
Newfound Reptile Swam in Dinosaur Era (Umoonasaurus - 'Killer whales of the Jurassic')
· 07/07/2006 12:57:16 PM PDT · Posted by NormsRevenge · 27 replies · 617+ views ·
LiveScience.com on yahoo | 7/7/06 | Ker Than
Scientists have identified a new species of ancient aquatic reptile that swam the seas when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth. Dubbed Umoonasaurus, the creature lived in waters off the coast of what is now Australia 115 million years ago, when the continent was located much closer to Antarctica than it is now. Plesiosaurs were large marine reptiles that had stocky, barrel-shaped bodies, short tails and paddle-like limbs. Some had long, slender necks, while others had short, squat ones. What made Umoonasaurus stand out from other plesiosaurs were a series of high, thin crests on its head and numerous fused vertebrae...
Australia and the Pacific
Cave Painting Depicts Extinct Marsupial Lion
· 05/25/2009 3:32:12 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 854+ views ·
Natural History Magazine, via LiveScience | May 9th, 2009 | Stephan Reebs
Modern Australia lacks big land predators, but until about 30,000 years ago, the continent was ruled by Thylacoleo carnifex, the marsupial "lion." Several well-preserved skeletons of the leopard-size beast have been found. Now, a newly discovered cave painting offers a glimpse of the animal's external appearance. In June 2008, Tim Willing, a naturalist and tour guide, photographed an ancient painting on a rockshelter wall near the shore of northwestern Australia. Kim Akerman, an independent anthropologist based in Tasmania, says the painting unmistakably depicts a marsupial lion. It shows the requisite catlike muzzle, large forelimbs, and heavily clawed front paws. And...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Coin Discovery Thrills Archaeologists (Norway)
· 07/13/2007 8:54:21 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 25 replies · 1,102+ views ·
AftenPosten | 7-12-2007
Coin discovery thrills archaeologists Archaeologists monitoring some digging by the City of Oslo's waterworks department made a sensational discovery this week.Gunhild Høvik Hansen spotted the special coin while digging herself. PHOTO: ANNE-STINE JOHNSBRÅTEN The discovery was made while archaeologists were monitoring replacement of new waterlines in the oldest part of Oslo. PHOTO: ANNE-STINE JOHNSBRÅTEN The archaeologists have been following excavations done by city workers who are replacing underground water pipes in the oldest part of Oslo, called Gamlebyen. That's the neighbourhood east of today's downtown area where Oslo's first known settlements were established more than a thousand years ago....
Climate
Ocean's History Being Unlocked By Researchers
· 05/26/2009 4:01:13 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 299+ views ·
Red Orbit | Monday, May 25, 2009 | redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
According to a recent study, medieval fishermen first took to the sea around AD 1,000 in search of food after a sharp decline in freshwater fish. The decline was likely caused by rising population and pollution levels... Piecing the information together required looking at fish bones to determine their species, and what time period they came from. One hypothesis says that freshwater fish were no longer able to satisfy demand. "At the end of the first millennium AD there is this wholesale shift in emphasis from reliance on freshwater fish towards marine species," said Barrett. "It is not rocket science,...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
China volcano may have caused mass extinction
· 05/28/2009 12:16:30 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 23 replies · 343+ views ·
Associated Press | May 28, 2009 | Randolph E. Schmid
A mass extinction some 260 million years ago may have been caused by volcanic eruptions in what is now China, new research suggests.
Honeydrippers Rock Out
Giant blob found deep beneath Nevada
· 05/26/2009 8:01:59 PM PDT · Posted by Kimmers · 56 replies · 1,806+ views ·
MSNBC | May 26,2009 | Jeanna Bryner
The blob, which drips like honey, is between 15 and 20 million years old By Jeanna Bryner LiveScience updated 5:34 p.m. CT, Tues., May 26, 2009 Hidden beneath the U.S. West's Great Basin, scientists have spied a giant blob of rocky material dripping like honey. The Great Basin consists of small mountain ranges separated by valleys and includes most of Nevada, the western half of Utah and portions of other nearby states. While studying the area, John West of Arizona State University and his colleagues found evidence of a large cylindrical blob of cold material far below the surface of...
Diet and Cuisine
Do hunter-gatherers have it right?
· 05/24/2009 2:54:08 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 42 replies · 838+ views ·
BBC | May 19, 2009 | Tom Feilden
Listening to Tom Standage talking about his new book, An Edible History of Humanity this morning I was reminded of a paper written by the anthropologist and author Jared Diamond in the late 1980's. Diamond described agriculture as, "the worst mistake in the history of the human race". Farming was, he argued, a catastrophe from which we have never quite recovered. With agriculture came "the social and sexual inequality, disease and despotism, that curse our existence".
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Ancient teeth hint that right-handedness is nothing new
· 05/24/2009 5:51:13 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 31 replies · 423+ views ·
New Scientist | May 23, 2009 | Ewen Callaway
Ancient bones suggest "lefties" have been coping with a right-handed world for more than half a million years. A study of Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor of Neanderthals, seems to show that the ancient humans were predominately right-handed. "Finding that a hominin species as old as Homo heidelbergensis is already right-handed helps to trace back the chain of modernity concerning hand laterality," says Marina Mosquera, a paleoanthropologist at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, who was involved in the study. Humans are the only animal believed to show a strong preference for performing tasks with one hand or the other....
Prehistory and Origins
Bronze Age man inhabited water-logged north
· 05/25/2009 2:10:19 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 224+ views ·
Radio Netherlands [RNW Translation (mw)] | May 13, 2009 | by Robert Chesal
New Bronze Age finds -- Skeletal remains of a young man, dogs' skulls and pottery. Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old remains near Enkhuizen, a long-established city to the north of Amsterdam, in a dig that has been going on since January. Until now, experts thought no one could have lived in the area during the Bronze Age because it was too water-logged. They have now been proved wrong.Water managementAround 1,000 BC, water-logged land was a major problem for human settlements in this region in the north of the Netherlands. However, even at this early date, people were taking measures to deal with the...
British Isles
Archaeology: Bronze Age road found in UK
· 05/25/2009 12:24:34 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 289+ views ·
Newspost Online | Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | ANI, Posted by newspostraj
Archaeologists have discovered a road below Swansea's shifting foreshore that is said to be from the early Bronze Age. Brian Price, a member of the Swansea Metal Detecting Club, reported the discovery opposite the Brynmill area to the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust. The track was woven from narrow branches of oak and alder. It was covered in a thin layer of brushwood to provide a level walking-surface. It was found in March when it was uncovered by storms but has since disappeared back under the marine clay. Scientists sent a sample to the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Laboratory in Florida, which dated...
Asia
Mystery footprints restore warring scene
· 05/25/2009 1:47:14 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 228+ views ·
China.org | Friday, May 22, 2009 | Xinhua News Agency
Newly discovered footprints of different sizes, apparently left by men, women and children, on an ancient military route, have helped recreate a war scene that occurred at least 2,000 years ago, an archaeologist said Friday. The footprints, the smallest of which were believed to belong to children around six years old, were found last week along vehicle tracks on China's first interprovincial road, a 700-km dirt road built under the reign of the "First Emperor", said Zhang Zaiming, a researcher with Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology, based in the ancient capital Xi'an. "We also found an arrowhead close to the...
Near East
Babylonian heritage--Iraq's last Jews
· 05/28/2009 7:46:06 AM PDT · Posted by SJackson · 8 replies · 287+ views ·
Jerusalem Post | 5-28-09 | ZVI GABAY
Iraq's Last Jews - Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval and Escape from Modern Babylon Edited by Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha and Robert Shasha Introduction by Prof. Shmuel Moreh Palgrave-Macmillan 211 pp., $75.99 (hardcover) How does one explain the reason why a prosperous community of 140,000 people, with a history and heritage of 2,600 years, uproots itself en masse, and leaves Iraq, the country which it helped modernize in all areas - government and politics, economy, medicine, education, literature, poetry and music? An explanation for this extraordinary historical phenomenon is found in Iraq's Last Jews. This book includes testimonies of 19...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Jewish Yad Avshalom Revealed As A Christian Shrine From Byzantine Era
· 07/22/2003 6:27:03 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 10 replies · 398+ views ·
Haaretz.com | 7-22-2003 | Amiram Barkat
Jewish Yad Avshalom revealed as a Christian shrine from Byzantine era By Amiram Barkat The historic Yad Avshalom monument in Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, revered for centuries as a Jewish shrine, was also a Christian holy place in the fourth century, new evidence has revealed. A fourth-century inscription on one of the walls near the monument, recently uncovered by chance, marks the site as the burial place of the Temple priest Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. Scholars believe the monument was built in the first century, making it possible that figures holy to Christians could be...
Egypt
U.S. and Polish archaeologists successful at Berenike
· 05/25/2009 1:54:55 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 166+ views ·
Polish Press Agency | May 20, 2009 | AT / Polish Academy of Sciences
Fragments of pottery with inscriptions in one of pre-Islamic languages have been found by a U.S-Polish team of archaeologists near Berenike, a Greco-Roman harbour on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. The finds confirm that Berenike was the most active Red Sea port during Hellenistic and Roman times. Inscriptions and other written materials found in Berenike have been written in 12 different languages. This attests to the cosmopolitan mix of people who lived in or passed through the town. Berenike was founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 285-246 B.C. The international team of archaeologists led by professor Steven Sidebotham of the...
Diet and Cuisine
Sardinian scientists believe they've traced the roots of the 'death-defying' sardonic grin...
· 05/25/2009 2:18:14 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 23 replies · 565+ views ·
ANSA | May 15, 2009 | unattributed
Sardinian scientists believe they've traced the roots of the 'death-defying' sardonic grin to a water plant commonly found on the Italian island. Greek poet Homer first used the word, an adaptation of the ancient word for Sardininan, to describe a defiant smile or laugh in the face of death. He was believed to have coined it because of the belief that the Punic people who settled Sardinia gave condemned men a potion that made them smile before dying. The association with Sardinia has often been disputed, but Cagliari University botanists think they've settled the case - and the plant in...
Vesuvius
UK to 'unroll' papyrus scrolls buried by Vesuvius [Kentucky prof has non-invasive scanning technique
· 05/24/2009 5:28:13 AM PDT · Posted by Mike Fieschko · 28 replies · 688+ views ·
Lexington Herald-Leader | Tuesday, May. 19, 2009 | Jim Warren
On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Italy's Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii under tons of super-heated ash, rock and debris in one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. Thousands died. But somehow, hundreds of papyrus scrolls survived -- sort of -- in a villa at Herculaneum thought to have been owned at one time by Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The scrolls contained ancient philosophical and learned writings. But they were so badly damaged -- literally turned to carbon by the volcanic heat -- that they crumbled when scholars first tried to open them centuries...
Rome and Italy
Emperor Trajan's Palace discovered in southwestern Romania
· 05/25/2009 3:47:01 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 17 replies · 485+ views ·
Chinaview | May 15, 2009 | Xinhua (editor Mu Xuequan)
Romanian archaeologists has discovered, in southeastern county of Caras-Severin, a complex structure estimated to be 2,000 years old belonging to the Roman culture, local media reported on Thursday. The archaeological discovery has a special importance because it was built very early, probably in the autumn of 101 during the first Dacian-Roman War of 101-102, before the actual Roman conquest of Dacia, the Carpathian-Danube region, modern day Romania. The discovery will bring the village of Zavoi in Caras-Severin County to the attention of history researchers and archaeologists from around the world following the digging up of the ruins of a Roman...
Macedonia
Archaeology Exhibition of Prehistoric Women from Macedonia Displayed in Montenegro
· 05/27/2009 6:37:49 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 27 replies · 527+ views ·
BalkanTravellers.com | Wednesday, May 27, 2009 | unattributed
Almost 100 figurines, constituting the "Prehistoric Women from Macedonia" exhibition, will be displayed in Montenegro's capital starting today. The 94 figurines are dated between the sixth and the middle of the third millennium BC -- from the Neolithic, the Eneolithic and the Bronze periods. The exhibition will be presented to admirers of miniature sculpture and archaeology by Irena Kolishtrkoska-Nasteva, the exhibition's curator, the Vecer newspaper wrote today. According to the exhibition's description published by the Museum of Macedonia in Skopje, where it was on display in 2007, the original and hand-made figurines were discovered during archaeological excavations, always inside the...
Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Southwest's earliest known irrigation system unearthed in Arizona (Except for other earliest)
· 05/23/2009 6:31:21 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 10 replies · 328+ views ·
Los Angeles Times | May 23, 2009 | Thomas H. Maugh II
"These are not the earliest canals known in southern Arizona, but they are the most extensive and sophisticated engineering [from the period] that we have identified to date," said archaeologist James M. Vint of Desert Archaeology Inc. in Tucson. The site, called Las Capas, or "The Layers," sits at the confluence of Cañada del Oro, Rillito Creek and the Santa Cruz River. The name derives from the repeated layers of silt that buried the site until nothing was visible from the surface. The evidence indicates that the region suffered a huge flood about 800 BC, which buried the...
Archaeological Discovery In Ohio River
· 09/29/2007 5:03:24 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 34 replies · 399+ views ·
WSAZ News | 9-27-2007
Archeological Discovery in Ohio River September 27, 2007 It's like a discovery channel special, a living history lesson and a heated border war all rolled into one. A recent river recovery of an eight ton treasure was followed by angry claims of archeological thievery. This sandstone scratching is far from another face in the crowd. After years of planning and weeks of effort, a Portsmouth, Ohio Volunteer Recovery Team pulled the prehistoric, legendary Indian's Head Rock off the mighty Ohio River's bottom. "It was tough to get straps around it," recovery team diver Dave Vetter said. In the 18 and...
Navigation
Nicola, jazz fest partner to sponsor replica ships in Lewes May 29-June 1 [Nina, Pinta]
· 05/27/2009 6:27:02 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 115+ views ·
Delaware's Cape Gazette | Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | unattributed
The Pinta and the Nina, replicas of Columbus's ships, will visit Lewes Friday, May 29. The ships will be docked at the City Dock on Front Street until their early morning departure Monday, June 1... The Nina was built by hand and without the use of power tools. She was called "the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built," by Archaeology magazine. Craftmanship of construction and the details in the rigging make it a fascinating visit back to the Age of Discovery. The Nina was used in the production of the film, "1492," starring Gerard Depardieu. "It's an educational vessel...
Early America
After Jefferson, a Question About Washington and a Young Slave
· 05/28/2009 5:25:39 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 447+ views ·
New York Times | July 7, 1999 | Nicholas Wade
Three descendants of Venus' son, who was called West Ford, say that according to a family tradition two centuries old, George Washington was West Ford's father. They hope to develop DNA evidence from Washington family descendants and his hair samples to bolster their case... There is, however, reason to believe that if the child's father was not Washington, it might have been someone closely related to him. The cousins' claim has several elements of truth, enough to set up a historical mystery as to the identity of West Ford's father and to add a new strand to the emerging links...
The Framers
the 15th Amendment
· 05/28/2009 12:30:02 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 218+ views ·
Constitution of the United States, via FindLaw et al | ratified on February 3, 1870 | The Framers et al
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The Civil War
Obama Remembers U.S. War Dead, Including Civil War Rebels
· 05/25/2009 2:47:18 PM PDT · Posted by kristinn · 99 replies · 1,704+ views ·
Reuters | Monday, May 25, 2009 | Doug Palmer
President Barack Obama sent a wreath Monday to a memorial for soldiers who fought on the side of slavery during the Civil War, continuing a 90-year-old Memorial Day tradition despite being urged by historians to "break this chain of racism." The first black U.S. president also started a new tradition by sending a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington honoring the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for Union forces in America's bloodiest conflict. "We ask you to break this chain of racism stretching back to Woodrow Wilson and not send a wreath or other token of...
The Jewish Soldier at Andersonville
· 05/25/2009 6:48:18 AM PDT · Posted by Alouette · 11 replies · 337+ views ·
Jewish-American History on the Web | December, 1888 | Alice Hyneman Rhine
Unlike the mass of war literature of the period, the following sketch in place of treating of the generals in command is simply a chronicle of passages in the war record of the "rank and file." A humble sergeant, who among the many generous high-spirited young men volunteered in "61" to fight for the perpetuation of the Union, and who through a self-negation equal to Sidney's heroic act, suffered captivity and death in the prison pen at Andersonville. Elias Leon Hyneman, one of the martyrs of our Civil war, was the son of Rebekah Hyneman, a poetess whose position in...
World War Eleven
Remains are lost in race for relics(WWII MIA's and their planes)
· 05/25/2009 4:54:20 AM PDT · Posted by GQuagmire · 27 replies · 709+ views ·
Boston Globe | May 25, 2009 | Kevin Baron and Bryan Bender
ALBION PARK, Australia - To the US military, Carter Lutes, a pilot who vanished in Papua New Guinea in April 1944, is one of the lost heroes of World War II. The Pentagon still hopes to recover him. Until then, it considers his jungle crash site a sacred place - and the last known clue to finding him........Now, as the US military invests hundreds of millions of dollars to recover the remains of World War II pilots, it is in a race against relic hunters. In recent years the Pentagon has found nearly 500 missing soldiers from World War II,...
Vintage Mystery
A Mystery in an Old Wine Bottle (Is it Hitler's Wine)
· 05/27/2009 11:23:05 AM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 4 replies · 420+ views ·
New York Times | MAY 27, 2009 | CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Alexander Autographs A bottle of wine from Adolf Hitler's personal wine cellar at his mountain retreat, the Berghof. It was supposed to be a straightforward news story: an auction house was finding that items believed to have belonged to Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were in high demand, even in a recession. But a coincidence along the way led to a mystery. It all began when the auctioneer, Alexander Autographs, in Stamford, Conn., announced the sale of possessions from the respected collector John K. Lattimer. Building on connections made during his time working at the Nuremburg war tribunals, Dr. Lattimer...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Machu Picchu 'ransacked 40 years before its discovery'
· 06/03/2008 12:01:08 PM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 17 replies · 90+ views ·
Telegraph | 02 June 2008 | Kate Devlin
Machu Picchu, the crown of the Inca trail, was ransacked 40 years before its discovery by an American explorer in the early 20th Century, new research claims. One of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, the citadel, hidden by clouds 8,000 feet above sea level, has become a pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of travellers every year. Historians have always thought that it lay undiscovered for centuries after the fall of the Incan Empire in the 1530s, until being brought to the attention of the modern world by an American explorer, Hiram Bingham, in 1911. But a research...
Faith and Philosophy
The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself
· 05/25/2009 1:29:44 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 20 replies · 425+ views ·
Discover magazine | May 1, 2009 | Robert Lanza and Bob Berman
Three hundred years ago, the Irish empiricist George Berkeley contributed a particularly prescient observation: The only thing we can perceive are our perceptions. In other words, consciousness is the matrix upon which the cosmos is apprehended. Color, sound, temperature, and the like exist only as perceptions in our head, not as absolute essences. In the broadest sense, we cannot be sure of an outside universe at all. For centuries, scientists regarded Berkeley's argument as a philosophical sideshow and continued to build physical models based on the assumption of a separate universe "out there" into which we have each individually arrived....
Origins of Time, The Ancients, and Future Civilizations.
· 05/25/2009 11:32:54 AM PDT · Posted by jxb7076 · 14 replies · 292+ views ·
hubpages | 5/25/09 | JXB7076
Time is a component of a measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining time in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time) At the point in history when Homo sapiens became socially aware, time was considered to be cyclical, or a matter of day and night. The seasons were a matter of birth and death, and calendars were based on...
The Evolution of Religion
· 05/25/2009 6:03:43 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 21 replies · 460+ views ·
LiveScience | May 12, 2009 | Robert Roy Britt
One idea is that religion is related to evolution, in that belief confers some survival advantage. Another idea is that as with other supernatural beliefs, religion is appealing because it offers answers to things that otherwise seem inexplicable (and before modern science, a lot of things were inexplicable, from the stars in the sky to stormy weather to human illness and death). But throughout history, just feeling better by having an explanation for things would not necessarily confer much of a survival advantage. As James Dow at Oakland University in Michigan sees things: "Religious people talk about things that cannot...
Facilitated variation: a new paradigm emerges in biology (say buh-bye to neo-Darwinism)
· 05/25/2009 5:48:24 PM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 99 replies · 1,075+ views ·
Journal of Creation | Alex Williams
Facilitated variation: a new paradigm emerges in biology Alex Williams Facilitated variation is the first comprehensive theory of how life works at the molecular level, published in 2005 by systems biologists Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart in their book The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. It is a very powerful theory, is supported by a great deal of evidence, and the authors have made it easy to understand. It identifies two basic components of heredity: (a) conserved core processes of cellular structure, function and body plan organization; and (b) modular regulatory mechanisms that are built in special ways that...
Oh So Mysteriouso
The Lost Tomb of Jesus: The Review (w/Ted Koppel)
· 03/04/2007 8:37:23 PM PST · Posted by Reaganesque · 43 replies · 1,781+ views ·
vanity | 3/4/07 | Reaganesque
The Lost Tomb of Jesus on the Discovery Channel was followed up by a panel discussion moderated by Ted Koppel. Koppel and two professors who are not affiliated with the documentary totally eviscerated the director of the film and one of his consultants. Koppel seemed particularly offended by the film maker's claims of being a journalist. If you get the chance to see this review of the documentary, watch it. It is very funny.
end of digest #254 20090530
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Welcome to the 254th issue. Huge issue. The end of year five of the Digest draws ever nearer. I'd like to publicly thank everyone who has been sending such kind remarks in FReepmail, and all the extra pings I've been getting. Both of those acts make this little hobby quite a bit easier. |
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· Saturday, Jun 6, 2009 · 56 topics · 2265664 to 2260924 · 717 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 255th issue. Today is the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the Normandy invasion. A civilian salute to all our D-Day veterans, living and fallen; to all our veterans of WWII; to all our veterans. On a lesser note, a week or so ago I saw "The Big Red One" for the first time, the restored version, two disk set, cost next to nothing. I loved it. "Saving Private Ryan" my ass. |
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