An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in health on Jan 29th, 2009
From the New York Times: Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You.
"What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment," Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, "Why Dirt Is Good" (Kaplan). "Not only does this [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 29th, 2009
From National Geographic: Lost "Sleeping Beauty" Mummy Formula Found.
She’s one of the world’s best-preserved bodies: Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old Sicilian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. “Sleeping Beauty,” as she’s known, appears to be merely dozing beneath the glass front of her coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.
Now an Italian biological anthropologist, [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Jan 23rd, 2009
From the CBC: Ottawa boy’s invisible invention warns birds about deadly windows.
Eighth grader Charlie Sobcov wants to stop birds from dying in collisions with windows, but he doesn’t want to ruin anybody’s view.
For his latest school science fair project he has invented painted, plastic decals that can be placed — discreetly — right in the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jan 21st, 2009
From the Jerusalem Post: Lost & found.
Dotted across villages on the slopes of mountains that make up the lower Himalayan ranges in northeast India, thousands of Indians are adopting and practicing Jewish traditions in the hope of one day officially converting to Judaism and immigrating to Israel. In the states of Mizoram, Assam, Manipur and [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jan 20th, 2009
From scotsman.com: How Mary Queen of Scots wrote of her fears for strife-torn nation.
Deep in an archive, more than two dozen letters written by Mary, Queen of Scots, lie largely unseen for centuries.
Many are written in a secret code as Mary fought to preserve and protect the Catholic faith in Scotland after the 1560 Reformation [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 18th, 2009
From Science Centric: Medieval walls in Spain contain bits of bone.
In a macabre discovery fit for Indiana Jones, archaeologists in Spain unearthed a 14th century brick oven with a unique role — to bake bones. Scientists report that the animal bones were burnt in the oven and mixed with other materials to produce a protective [...]
Posted in books & lit on Jan 18th, 2009
From the Guardian: How do you get a girl? Ask this boy of nine.
A book of pithy dating advice written by a nine-year-old American boy is to hit British bookstores in time for Saint Valentine’s Day.
A publishing sensation, Alec Greven’s How to Talk to Girls started as a pamphlet sold at his school fair in [...]
Posted in DNA, books & lit, history & archaeology on Jan 18th, 2009
From Science Daily: DNA Testing May Unlock Secrets Of Medieval Manuscripts.
Thousands of painstakingly handwritten books produced in medieval Europe still exist today, but scholars have long struggled with questions about when and where the majority of these works originated. Now a researcher from North Carolina State University is using modern advances in genetics to develop [...]
Posted in environment on Jan 17th, 2009
From the Vancouver Sun: Commercial Drive banners gain second life as bags.
In an age when showing up at the grocery store without a reusable bag is akin to showing up at a dinner party without your pants, the type of bag you carry can say a lot about you.
One bag — it’s been so popular [...]
Posted in art on Jan 16th, 2009
From The Times: Czech sculptor David Cerny admits £350,000 EU art hoax.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time: what better way to celebrate the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union than a giant art installation, with input from every member state, showing what we really feel about our place in Europe?
True, [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 16th, 2009
From discovery.com: Neanderthal Weaponry Lacked Projectile Advantage.
A trio of new studies on prehistoric weapons suggests Neanderthals made sophisticated weapons and tools — possibly including the first sticky adhesive — but they lacked the projectile weapons possessed by early humans.
The missing technology, along with climate change and competition with arrow-shooting humans, may have contributed to the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 12th, 2009
From the Beeb: Istanbul’s ancient past unearthed.
Digging through thick mud and an ancient swamp of black clay, archaeologists in Istanbul have discovered a grave that proves the city is 6,000 years older than they previously thought.
The skeletons of two adults and two children lie curled-up, perhaps to save space. Alongside them are pots: gifts placed [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 12th, 2009
From Science News: Early chemical warfare comes to light.
Roman soldiers defending a Middle Eastern garrison from attack nearly 2,000 years ago met the horrors of war in a most unusual place. Inside a cramped tunnel beneath the site’s massive front wall, enemy fighters stacked up nearly two dozen dead or dying Romans and set them [...]
Posted in blogging on Jan 10th, 2009
You used to be able to post any opinion at all on your blog, and the only commenters would be your regular readers.
Then it became possible for people to monitor the web for blog posts on a specific topic — anything about a particular product, say — and that changed things somewhat. Folks who [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Jan 8th, 2009
From The Telegraph: Ancient Greeks ‘loved a good night in’ say researchers .
A new analysis of archaeological remains could explain why evidence of ancient Greek bar rooms is so elusive.
In classical Greek plays there are many descriptions of lively drinking dens, but no remains have ever been discovered.
Clare Kelly Blazeby, from the University of Leeds, [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Jan 6th, 2009
From the Boston Globe: Hungry seal hits bonanza at fish hatchery.
Looking for a stellar seafood place on the Cape, with locally raised fare and no wait? A brazen young harbor seal found just that today after she sneaked into a state fish hatchery in Sandwich and dined on an all-you-can-eat trout buffet before being nabbed [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc, environment on Jan 5th, 2009
From Newsweek: It’s Survival of the Weak and Scrawny.
Ram Mountain in Alberta, Canada, is home to a population of bighorn sheep, whose most vulnerable individuals are males with thick, curving horns that give them a regal, Princess Leia look. In the course of 30 years of study, biologist Marco Festa-Bianchet of the University of Sherbrooke [...]
Posted in health on Jan 1st, 2009
From The Guardian: Professor pioneers DIY adjustable glasses that do not need an optician.
Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to [...]
From Time.com: Vertical Farming.
Dickson Despommier became the guru of vertical farming because his students were bummed out. A professor of environmental health at Columbia University in New York City, Despommier teaches about parasitism, environmental disruption and other assorted happy topics. Eventually his students complained; they wanted to work on something optimistic. So the class began [...]
Posted in environment on Jan 1st, 2009
From the Huffington Post: New Zealand’s Biofuel Plane Uses 50-50 Blend.
Air New Zealand has tested a passenger jet powered partially with oil from a plum-sized fruit known as jatropha, in efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its fuel bill.
With its test flight Tuesday, the airline became the latest carrier experiment with alternative fuels, [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Jan 1st, 2009
To start the year off right, I know you need to see astonishing clothes made of flowers and leaves. Off you go, then, to visit Nicole Dextras’ weedrobes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. And then reflect on the boring state of your own wardrobe.