An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in history & archaeology on May 31st, 2007
From Live Science: Secrets of Ancient Pompeii Households Revealed in Ruins.
Residents of Pompeii ate their meals on the run, just like many Americans do today, according to a new archaeological study of how households functioned in the ancient Roman city buried by volcanic ash.
Completely destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., Pompeii [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 31st, 2007
From the Egyptian Tourism Society site: Italian mission announce discovery of first hall for practicing a game similar to (Bowling) sport back to Ptolemy era.
The Italian mission operating at Kom Mady area, Fayoum governorate discovered the first hall for practicing “"Bowling" game in the world. The discovery was an open building dates back to Ptolemy [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 31st, 2007
From Haaretz.com: How did fish reach Jerusalem?.
Jerusalem’s ancient water system, which excavations over the past decade are gradually uncovering, included a large pool hewn into rock. The pool, next to the Gihon Spring in the City of David, ceased to be used and dried up in the late eighth century B.C.E., after King Hezekiah of [...]
Posted in books & lit, history & archaeology on May 29th, 2007
From the International Herald Tribune: Modern techniques seek some secrets from ancient Irish manuscript.
For a manuscript written 1,200 years ago and revered as a wonder of the Western world practically ever since, little is known about the Book of Kells and its splendidly illustrated Gospels in Latin. But the book may be about to surrender [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on May 28th, 2007
So some guy in Israel woke up to find a leopard in his bed. Can you imagine?
Posted in history & archaeology on May 28th, 2007
From the Middle East Times: Ancient wine-presses found on Greek island
Greek archaeologists have discovered a complex of ancient farmhouses and large wine-presses on the northern Aegean island of Thassos dating from before the Roman period until late Byzantine times, the culture ministry said Wednesday.
Built with walls of stone over a meter (three feet) high and [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 27th, 2007
From the International Herald Tribune: Giant Viking longship to sail across North Sea to Ireland.
ROSKILDE, Denmark: On the skipper’s command, deckhands hauled in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splashed into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pulled with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord.
A thousand years [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 25th, 2007
From Bloomberg.com: 1,600-Year-Old Roman Man May Offer New Clues to London’s Past.
The remains of a wealthy Roman man, buried 1,600 years ago near London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, is providing clues for archaeologists trying to understand a little-known period in the city’s history.
The remains of the man, who was in his early 40s when he died [...]
From TheAge.com.au: Researchers tinker with bacteria to store data.
These days, data get stored on disks, computer chips, hard drives and good old-fashioned paper. Scientists in Japan see something far smaller but more durable — bacteria.
The four characters — T, C, A and G — that represent the genetic coding in DNA work much like digital [...]
Posted in unusual musical instruments on May 22nd, 2007
From HenryLim.org: Lego Harpsichord.
With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts–the keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand are all built out of interlocking ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic bricks and related pieces.
And [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 22nd, 2007
From Stanford News: In the Alps, hunting for Hannibal’s trail.
When Hannibal led his army across the Alps, he sought to conquer the Roman Empire and define the path of Western civilization.
He failed.
But the Carthaginian general achieved everlasting fame in another way, by spurring a question that has fascinated historians for over two millennia: How did [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 21st, 2007
From National Geographic: Alexander the Great Conquered City via Sunken Sandbar.
Changing sea levels and shifting sands helped Alexander the Great conquer the ancient island city of Tyre in one of his most famous military victories, new research shows.
In 332 B.C. the Greek military commander invaded the island just off the coast of modern-day Lebanon, then [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 18th, 2007
From the Beeb: Record wreck ‘found off Cornwall’
A record haul of half a million silver and gold coins from a 17th Century shipwreck may have been found just 40 miles from Land’s End, an expert said.
US treasure hunters said the coins, worth an estimated $500m (£253m), were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. [continue]
Posted in art on May 18th, 2007
From The Times: How Monet lost his colour vision and invented a new way of seeing.
They are among the greatest wonders of 20th century art: eight vast, sensual and semi-abstract paintings of a water-lily pond at different times of day.
Claude Monet’s Nympheas, displayed as he stipulated in two oval rooms at the Orangerie in Paris, [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 18th, 2007
From the Beeb: Chinese writing ‘8,000 years old’.
Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought.
State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country.
They say many of these [...]
Posted in BC on May 17th, 2007
Do any of you know what kind of crab this is? I’ve seen two of them on the beach within the last week, and never before that.
I’ve noodled around on the web, looking for photos of the sorts of crabs one can expect on the coast in southwest BC. No matches. I tried the [...]
Posted in DNA, books & lit, history & archaeology, science on May 17th, 2007
From the Jerusalem Post: How goat skin DNA solved Dead Sea scrolls mystery.
Scientists at the Hebrew University’s Koret School for Veterinary Science near Rishon Lezion are helping to piece together some of the 10,000 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls found decades ago in Qumran by examining the DNA profiles of the goats whose skin was [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 17th, 2007
From the Times Online: Builders dig up lost pleasure garden of the ancient Romans.
Mosaics from the fabled Gardens of Lucullus, one of the pioneering influences on gardening, have been brought to light after 2,000 years by archaeologists in Rome.
The vast terraced gardens, or Horti, covered what is now the built-up area above the Spanish Steps. [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 17th, 2007
From the Guardian: Holocaust Hero Faces Belated Celebrity.
The pilgrims keep coming, seeking out the fragile 97-year-old woman in her tiny nursing home room filled with pictures and flowers.
The attention tires Irena Sendler sometimes. She never sought credit for smuggling 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto anyway. Not for risking execution to save other [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on May 17th, 2007
From the BBC:: Antarctic ‘treasure trove’ found.
An extraordinarily diverse array of marine life has been discovered in the deep, dark waters around Antarctica.
Scientists have found more than 700 new species of marine creatures in seas once thought too hostile to sustain such rich biodiversity.
Groups of carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans and molluscs were collected. [continue, [...]
Posted in food, history & archaeology on May 17th, 2007
From sciencemag.org: The Secret History of the Potato.
For a simple, brown tuber, potatoes have a long and storied history. Ancient Incans worshipped them; the Irish blamed them for a famine. Today, they are the fourth largest food crop in the world. Now, scientists have shed new light on just where these tubers came from. A [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 17th, 2007
From LiveScience.com: Divers Discover Oldest Wooden Anchor.
The world’s oldest wooden anchor has been discovered embedded in muck on the sea floor of an ancient Turkish port off the Aegean Sea.
Dating from the end of the 7th century B.C., the anchor likely detached from a ship traveling to or from the Greek colony of Klazomenai, near [...]
Posted in miscellaneous on May 16th, 2007
It’s time to tell you about Kiva, which has quikly become one of my favourite websites ever. Kiva is a "do good in the world" kind of site, and wow! do they ever make it easy.
Here’s how it works. Some struggling farmer in Samoa (or baker in Nicaragua, or farmer in Tajikistan) needs a loan [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on May 16th, 2007
From National Geographic: Ancient "Royal Temple" Discovered in Path of Ireland Highway.
The discovery of a major prehistoric site where experts believe an open-air royal temple once stood has stalled construction of a controversial four-lane highway in Ireland.
A large circular enclosure estimated to be at least 2,000 years old was exposed at Lismullin in County Meath, [...]
Posted in Italy, history & archaeology on May 15th, 2007
From the BBC: Cracks threaten Rome’s majesty.
The Emperor Augustus said he found Rome a city of brick – and he left it a city of marble.
But 2,000 years on, the cracks in his legacy are beginning to show.
The Forum, the Colosseum and the palaces of the Palatine Hill still stand as proud testament to the [...]