An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 31st, 2008
From The Telegraph: Stonehenge ‘was hidden from lower classes.
The wooden construction extended nearly two miles across Salisbury Plain more than 5,000 years ago, and would have served to shield the sacred site from the prying eyes of ordinary lower-class locals.
Trenches have been dug around the monument, tracing the course of the fence which meanders around [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Aug 31st, 2008
We walked in the rain the other day, through the forest and out to the bluff. When the rain stopped the world sparkled, and this dragonfly stood out like some kind of gem.
The full size photo is way too large to put here, but, oh, the level of detail is lovely. See?
I took dozens of [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 31st, 2008
From Science News: Honey of a Discovery.
The Bible refers to ancient Israel as the "land flowing with milk and honey," so it’s fitting that one of its towns milked honey for all it was worth. Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large-scale beekeeping operation at a nearly 3,000-year-old Israeli site, which dates to the [...]
Posted in Norway, history & archaeology on Aug 29th, 2008
Well, goodness! Nine ships and two half-ships have been burried under the Oslo mud since 1600 or so. Now they’ve been found, thanks to a highway tunnel project. They’re well preserved, partly because they’ve been in fresh water clay and not on the bottom of the sea somewhere. The biggest ship is 17 metres [...]
Posted in books & lit, language, privacy on Aug 29th, 2008
From the BBC: The secret code of diaries.
The 300,000-word journal of Charles Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist movement, which was written in an obscure shorthand, has been solved and the diary transcribed. It has taken nine years.
It appears that the shorthand was used not for speed, but for security. What was so important that [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 28th, 2008
From Ananova: World’s first sat nav — from 1920.
It doesn’t speak to you or give live traffic updates, but this is the world’s first sat nav — invented in the 1920s.
The Plus Fours Routefinder was designed to be worn on the wrist — relying on good old-fashioned paper maps wound around wooden rollers, which the [...]
Posted in religion on Aug 28th, 2008
The Times offers its list of the Top 20 items of religious kitsch.
I’ll come clean and admit that we actually own one of the items in the list, thanks to my brother-in-law and his twisted sense of humour. If he comes for Christmas I might just wrap the thing up and give it back to [...]
Posted in food on Aug 28th, 2008
From epicurious: Food Words That Ought to Exist But Don’t.
Flopcorn (flop’ korn) — n. The unpopped kernels at the bottom of the cooker. (…)
Lactomangulation — n. Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side. [continue]
There are a few good words in the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 28th, 2008
From National Geographic: Ancient Urban Network Mapped in Amazon Forests.
Dozens of densely packed, pre-Columbian towns, villages, and hamlets arranged in an organized pattern have been mapped in the Brazilian Amazon, anthropologists announced today.
The finding suggests that vast swathes of "pristine" rain forest may actually have been sophisticated urban landscapes prior to the arrival of European [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 28th, 2008
You mustn’t miss this Time article from 1945: Ursula and the Naked Nagas.
"Are wa ittai nan dai?" (What on earth is that?) cried a startled Japanese officer as a burst of elephant-gun fire whistled past his ears and a troop of half-naked Nagas leaped out of the bushes. He found out, but [continue]
Posted in outdoors on Aug 28th, 2008
Wow. Link found at The Presurfer.
Posted in environment on Aug 28th, 2008
From the Guardian: To Greece, by car, on grease.
A group of British eco-enthusiasts have just pulled off the greenest and grubbiest car rally ever, driving from London to Athens in vehicles powered exclusively on waste vegetable oil.
The team motored with unexpected ease across Europe on the proceeds of the grease thrown away by restaurants and [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 28th, 2008
From Science News: Little Big People.
People who inhabited Palau in western Micronesia nearly 3,000 years ago have achieved new and disputed heights. Contrary to an earlier report that these ancient islanders had unusually small bodies, human remains recently excavated in a Palau cave come from individuals who physically measured up to people today, according to [...]
Posted in books & lit, history & archaeology on Aug 27th, 2008
From The Guardian: From papyrus to cyberspace: Israel to make Dead Sea Scrolls available online.
Scientists and scholars in Jerusalem have begun a programme to take the first high-resolution, digital photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls so they can be made available to the public on the internet.
The Israel Antiquities Authority this week ends a pilot [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Aug 27th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Nails, copper scraps first evidence of Franklin’s doomed ships.
A few scraps of copper and a handful of nails are the tantalizing first fruits of the latest search for the ships of the doomed Franklin expedition.
While heavy Arctic winds have hindered crews on the waters where the 19th-century British ships are [...]
Posted in health, technology on Aug 27th, 2008
From the Beeb: Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk.
A robotic suit is helping people paralysed from the waist down do what was previously considered impossible – stand, walk and climb stairs.
ReWalk users wear a backpack device and braces on their legs and select the activity they want from a remote control wrist band.
Leaning forwards activates body sensors [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 27th, 2008
From Red Orbit: Mummy Discovered In Peru.
A mummy was unearthed Tuesday in Peru’s Huaca Pucllana ruins, by archeologists who think the findings may have originated with the ancient Wari culture that flourished before the Incas.
The tomb also contained the remains of two other adults and a child-who researchers believe was sacrificed.
Researchers say the discovery is [...]
Posted in language, technology on Aug 26th, 2008
From the University of Washington: ‘Can you see me now?’ Sign language over cell phones comes to United States.
A group at the University of Washington has developed software that for the first time enables deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to use sign language over a mobile phone. UW engineers got the phones working together this spring, [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Aug 26th, 2008
From the BBC: Cattle shown to align north-south.
Have you ever noticed that herds of grazing animals all face the same way?
No, actually. They do?
Images from Google Earth have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction.
Wild deer also display this behaviour — a phenomenon that has apparently gone unnoticed by herdsmen [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 26th, 2008
From This is London: Divers discover amazingly preserved shipwreck of HMS London on bottom of Thames.
The largest-ever post-war salvage operation on the Thames has discovered seven shipwrecks up to 350 years old.
They include a warship that was blown up in 1665, a yacht converted to a Second World War gunboat, and a mystery wreck in [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 26th, 2008
From sciencemag.org: Did Rumbling Give Rise to Rome?
Looking for a recipe for a great civilization? How about: Take people, add water, and shake very, very vigorously. Earthquake-prone areas along the edges of tectonic plates were far more likely to give birth to great ancient civilizations than less dynamic landscapes, according to a new study. Researchers [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Aug 26th, 2008
From The Times: Ritual horns do not predate Jewish expulsion.
Radiocarbon dating of two Jewish ritual instruments found in London a century and a half ago has dashed hopes that they date from the period before the Jewish community was expelled in 1290. They are postmedieval and one of them may never have been finished or [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Aug 26th, 2008
From The Guardian: Neanderthals: not stupid, just different.
The established view of Neanderthals as backward, primitive, ape-like creatures is challenged today by new research showing they used stone tools as successfully as early humans.
A team from the University of Exeter, Southern Methodist University, Texas State University and the Think Tank Corporation spent three years producing stone [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, science on Aug 26th, 2008
From Science Daily: Tahitian Vanilla Originated In Maya Forests, Says Botanist.
The origin of the Tahitian vanilla orchid, whose cured fruit is the source of the rare and highly esteemed gourmet French Polynesian spice, has long eluded botanists. Known by the scientific name Vanilla tahitensis, Tahitian vanilla is found to exist only in cultivation; natural, wild [...]
Posted in environment, outdoors on Aug 25th, 2008
From the National Post: Smokey got it wrong.
Splashed with drops of burning fuel gel, trailing from a helicopter concealed by a roiling column of smoke overhead, the giant pines of Mount Nestor fire up like roman candles. A few kilometres away, on the eastern slope of Mount Nestor, Kevin Topolnicki’s team unleashes a necklace of [...]