An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 27th, 2008
From the BBC: Photos reveal Hadrian’s history.
Archaeologists have uncovered 2,700 previously unrecorded historic features along the length of Hadrian’s Wall by studying thousands of aerial pictures.
The English Heritage experts found ancient burial mounds, medieval sheep farms and 19th Century lead mines.
They were working from more than 30,500 pictures taken during the past 60 years as [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 22nd, 2008
From The Telegraph: Hadrian’s wall boosted economy for ancient Britons, archaeologists discover.
Far from being a hated symbol of military occupation, Hadrian’s Wall was the business opportunity of a lifetime for ancient Britons, archaeologists have discovered.
The 73-mile long Roman wall, built in AD 122 to defend the Roman Empire from hostile Celtic tribes, created a thriving [...]
Posted in blogging on Nov 20th, 2008
You know about the Myers Briggs Personality Test? Well, now there’s a version of that for blogs. Hop on over to Typealyzer.com, plug in the URL of your blog, and see what you get. Apparently Mirabilis.ca is an ENTP. The blurb says:
ENTP – The Visionaries
The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 20th, 2008
From Were Neanderthals stoned to death by modern humans?.
Human aerial bombardments might have pushed Neanderthals to extinction, suggests new research. Changes in bone shape left by a life of overhand throwing hint that Stone Age humans regularly threw heavy objects, such as stones or spears, while Neanderthals did not.
"The anatomically modern humans would have this [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 20th, 2008
From AFP: Two-century hunt for tomb of astrologer (sic) Copernicus is over.
Studies on two strands of hair and a tooth have ended a centuries old hunt for the tomb Nicolas Copernicus, the 16th century astronomer who shocked the world by declaring that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe, experts said Thursday.
The tests [...]
From abcnews.go.com: Ecuadorean Dwarfs May Unlock Cancer Clues.
Twenty years ago, when Guevara began treating and studying the dwarfs of southern Ecuador, it was because he wanted to help them. But an interesting and quirky pattern started to emerge. He realized that there has never been a single incidence of cancer or diabetes among them.
"I start [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 20th, 2008
From The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: New excavations strengthen identification of Herod’s grave at Herodium.
Analysis of newly revealed items found at the site of the mausoleum of King Herod at Herodium (Herodion in Greek) have provided Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeological researchers with further assurances that this was indeed the site of the famed ruler’s [...]
Posted in DNA, animals, birds, insects, etc, history & archaeology on Nov 20th, 2008
From the New York Times: Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million.
Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million.
The same technology could be [...]
A Globe and Mail article explains that Queen’s University has hired conversation cops to interrupt conversations that aren’t up to politically correct standards.
Your friend’s new fuchsia fedora might be hideous. But don’t call it gay, or you might get a language lesson from the conversation cops. [continue].
The end of the article includes "a sampling of [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Nov 18th, 2008
From the Jerusalem Post: Was the Aksa Mosque built over the remains of a Byzantine church?.
The photo archives of a British archeologist who carried out the only archeological excavation ever undertaken at the Temple Mount’s Aksa Mosque show a Byzantine mosaic floor underneath the mosque that was likely the remains of a church or a [...]
Posted in food on Nov 18th, 2008
From the New York Times: 12-Year-Old’s a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It.
Everyone’s a critic, and apparently it’s never too soon to start.
That’s why David Fishman, an Upper West Sider who turned 12 last month, decided to take himself out for dinner one night last week. His parents had called him at home to [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Nov 18th, 2008
From discovery.com: First Islamic Inscription May Solve Qur’an Question.
An Arabic traveler who engraved his name on a block of red sandstone over 1,300 years ago may help solve a question about the Qur’an that has vexed historians for hundreds of years: Why was the text seemingly written without diacritical marks?
Diacritical marks, which include accent marks, [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 17th, 2008
From the Guardian: Colossus of Rhodes to be rebuilt as giant light sculpture.
It may not straddle the port as its predecessor once did, but in terms of sheer luminosity and eye-catching height the new Colossus of Rhodes will not disappoint. Nor will it fall short of the symbolism that once imbued the ancient monument.
Twenty-three centuries [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 15th, 2008
From the Ottawa Citizen: Musketeer D’Artagnan’s grave in Netherlands, historian says.
A five-year quest to locate the tomb of d’Artagnan — the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Three Musketeers — has led to a small Dutch church where new research suggests the swashbuckling hero is buried.
Charles de Batz de Castelmore d’Artagnan died during the Siege [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 15th, 2008
From National Geographic: Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?
A sealed space in Egypt’s Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?
The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside [...]
Posted in religion on Nov 15th, 2008
From the Wall Street Journal: Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt.
Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.
So it came [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 15th, 2008
From The Telegraph: Mary Rose sunk by French cannonball.
For almost 500 years, the sinking of the Mary Rose has been blamed on poor seamanship and the fateful intervention of a freak gust of wind which combined to topple her over.
Now, academics believe the vessel, the pride of Henry VIII’s fleet, was actually sunk by a [...]
Posted in food on Nov 14th, 2008
OK, who has a microwave oven? I don’t, so I’m relying on you to test this recipe and let me know how it goes. From howto.wired.com: Make cake in a mug.
You’re working at home and your mind starts to wander to snack possibilities. There are probably some prepackaged, good-until-the-next-millennium baked items in your cabinet, but [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, internet on Nov 14th, 2008
From Times Online: Ancient Rome lives again on Google Earth.
The glory that was Rome is to rise again. Visitors will once more be able to visit the Colosseum and the Forum of Rome as they were in 320 AD, this time on a computer screen in 3D.
The realisation of the ancient city in Google Earth [...]
Posted in miscellaneous on Nov 13th, 2008
From The Times Online: 8,000 Beduin stake their claim as the lost tribe of Barack Obama.
He has a host of relatives in exotic locations from Hawaii to Kenya, and during his run for the American presidency he discovered that he had an aunt living in Boston.
Now Barack Obama is being claimed by not one but [...]
Posted in internet on Nov 13th, 2008
From the New York Times: A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence.
It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog [...]
Posted in environment on Nov 12th, 2008
From The Guardian: The woman with a tiny carbon footprint.
We all know we are meant to be reducing our carbon footprint, but I suspect that many people wouldn’t be prepared to go as far as Joan Pick. She hasn’t driven a car since 1973 and has only been in a petrol-guzzling vehicle twice since then [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 12th, 2008
From Wales Online: Iron Age ‘town in the sky’ is revealed.
From the air, its hidden tree-covered slopes give little clue to the settlement that existed there 3,000 years ago.
And its position in one of the quietest corners of the nation may seem a million miles away from the bustle of today’s towns and cities.
But historians [...]
From the Globe and Mail: A copyright call to arms.
In the era of peer-to-peer file sharing, on-demand television and easy copying of video games and movies, Canadians often take for granted the availability and ease of using digital media. It’s hard not to: the sheer amount of digital content available online is astonishing. For many, [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 11th, 2008
From Chinese emperor’s lavish quarters are restored.
In between dispatching armies to secure the empire and building China into the richest country in the world, the Qianlong Emperor commissioned a retirement home for himself in the Forbidden City palace.
Never intended as a simple hideaway, the garden quarters built in the 1770s by the fifth emperor in [...]