Free Republic

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:An Australian scientist says probabilities are the leading cause of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. And he’s not the only one.Add in suspect weather, and iffy plane and boat piloting, and Karl Kruszelnicki believes there’s no reason to believe in the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon.While the conspiracy of the Bermuda Triangle has existed for decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and Lloyd’s of London has long championed the same ideas.Pick any one of the more than 50 ships or 20 planes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in the last century. Each...

"The Spaniards were much impressed with the productivity of manioc in Arawak agriculture in the Greater Antilles," historian Jonathan Sauer recounts in his history of crop plants. "[A Spanish historian] calculated that 20 persons working 6 hours a day for a month could plant enough yuca to provide cassava bread for a village of 300 persons for 2 years." By all accounts, the Taíno were prosperous -- "a well-nourished population of over a million people," according to Sauer. And yet... lacked the monumental architecture of the Maya or the mathematical knowledge of the Aztec. And most importantly, they were not organized in...