Posted on 12/26/2010 9:06:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv
...the Garamantes - a mysterious desert people of Greco-Roman date (broadly 500 BC AD 500)... Inhabiting a region that had already been for several thousand years a hyper-arid desert environment, with negligible rainfall, elevated summer temperatures and blistering expanses of barren sand and rock... have long been an enigma. They were depicted by Roman sources as ungovernable nomadic barbarians, who raided the settled agricultural zone and cities of the Mediterranean littoral. Following up earlier work by Daniels, the current project allows a different picture of the Garamantes to be drawn. Archaeological evidence shows them to have been a complex and urbanised society, with a strong emphasis on oasis agriculture a picture far removed from the shiftless nomads of our ancient sources...
With over 500 Garamantian sites now recorded, and many susceptible to dating for the first time, a reappraisal of this early Libyan state can be made on the basis of concrete evidence. The picture that emerges is of a powerful Saharan polity, employing a wide range of material culture and architectural styles to reinforce a pronounced social hierarchy. Faunal analysis shows that there were animals in the diet, notably sheep/goat, but it is clear that pastoralism lagged far behind sedentary agriculture in this desert kingdom... the very scale of Garamantian irrigated agriculture may have had a long-term impact on the aquifer they were tapping into... by the later middle ages all the foggaras appear to have been abandoned in favour of small-scale garden cultivation based on wells.
(Excerpt) Read more at le.ac.uk ...
It could work even better offshore — a sort of cell structure, like a beehive, brine would sink, heat would exchange, fresher water would rise, sun’s rays would evaporate it, and the part of this floating flexi plastic that rode high would be continuously evacuated by blowers, carrying the hot vapor-laden air to shore, up one or more black rigid tubes getting that last bit of solar heat, then plunge through the tank wall, across the water that was already collected, there to condense. Simpler, maybe even cheaper, probably easier to operate, and unlimited size. Also would have the virtue of not consuming the shoreline, which would then be (trickle-) irrigated for agriculture as well as general refoliation.
Wow!
well water is still cheaper than desalinized water by a long shot.
However, in the next decade or less— likely the
cost of desalinized water will drop below well water.
But I don’t think that’s generally known.
There’s right now a growing fund of money world wide going into desalination research—as cheap desalinized water will be one of the keystone technologies of the 21st century.
well water is still cheaper than desalinized water by a long shot.
However, in the next decade or less— likely the
cost of desalinized water will drop below well water.
But I don’t think that’s generally known.
There’s right now a growing fund of money world wide going into desalination research—as cheap desalinized water will be one of the keystone technologies of the 21st century.
Moammar Gadhafi owns it now.
I saw the movie “Sole Survivor”. This was an excellent movie (made for TV), though haunting based on the “Lady Be Good” .
“Wait, the climate was changing back then too?? How is that possible??”
Why, it was those evil, ancient SUV’s, of course. Don’t you know ANYTHING?
The "Lady Be Good" Stained Glass Window from the Wheelus Air Force Base Chapel is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
The fueslage of the Lady Be Good, found in the desert seventeen years after the crash
In a souvenir photograph taken shortly before the crash, the crewmen of the Lady Be Good clown for the camera. From left:Staff Sergeant Vernon L. Moore, Second Lieutenant Hays, Second Lieutenant John S. Woravka, Staff Sergeant Guy E. Shelley, and Technical Sergeant Harold J. Ripslinger.
Not to belabor the obvious, but during WW2 there were thousands of missing planes which have never been found.
My great uncle was bombardier on such a plane lost over Ploesti in the first daylight raids by the USAA.
The people who are related to the crew of the “Lady Be Good” at least now know what happened to their loved ones.
God Bless ALL of their souls and those of their families.
AMEN.
2nd Lt. David R. Kingsley Born at Portland, Oregon, June 27, 1918, he earned the Medal of Honor during World War II, where he served as a bombardier on a B-17 on a raid into Romania on June 23, 1944. During the mission the aircraft was badly damaged by enemy fire and forced to drop out of the formation. The pilot continued on to the target, the Ploesti Oil Fields, and there he dropped his bombs, severely damaging the installation. The aircraft was unable to keep up with the formation on the return trip and was attacked by enemy aircraft, during which the plane was further damaged and the tail gunner badly wounded. Kingsley gave aid to the gunner and then went to give aid to the ball gunner who had also been wounded. The pilot gave the order to bail out but Kingsley found that the tail gunner's parachute was missing. He placed his own chute on the wounded man and then he helped the wounded men bail out of the burning plane. The last sight of him was as he stood on the bomb bay catwalk while the plane flew on auto pilot until it crashed a few minutes later.
“A brave man dies once, a coward dies a thousand times.”
My great uncle’s name was David Milliken, he is still MIA presumed dead.
Lord have mercy on them all.
AMEN.
Not that recently, but it was at one time. I've seen some cave-drawings there depicting big game, trees, etc.
I’ve had a very minor part in that project.... inspecting the fiber optic cable prior to export. It is called The Great Man Made River Project.
I think of them as similar to the Nabataeans, though on a lesser scale, due to the location; there was a good north-south trade route in their area, and it was their “run.” Next best thing to a river.
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