[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #199 Saturday, May 10, 2008
Let's Have Jerusalem
Archaeologists find Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia
	05/08/2008 6:33:17 PM PDT · Posted by HAL9000 · 35 replies · 801+ views Deutsche Presse-Agentur | May 7, 2008 Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months. The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible. Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone...
Neanderthal / Neandertal
Neanderthals Were Seperate Species, Says New Human Family Tree
	05/05/2008 11:38:41 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 85 replies · 1,834+ views Physorg | 5-4-2008 A wax figure representing a Neanderthal man on display at a museum. A new, simplified family tree of humanity has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. A new, simplified family tree of humanity, published on Sunday, has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. Neanderthals were a separate species to Homo sapiens, as anatomically modern humans are known, rather than offshoots of the same species, the new organigram...
Climate
Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millennia, Study Says
	05/08/2008 7:08:12 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 24 replies · 677+ views National Geographic News | 5-8-2008 | James Owen The grassy prehistoric Sahara turned into Earth's largest hot desert more slowly than previously thought, a new report says -- and some say global warming may turn the desert green once again. The new research is based on deposits from a unique desert lake in remote northern Chad. Lake Yoa, sustained by prehistoric groundwater, has survived for millennia despite constant drought and searing heat. The body of water contains an unbroken climate record going back at least 6,000 years, said study lead author Stefan Kropelin of...
Solar Minima and Maxima
New Data on Sea Ice Contradicts Media Climate Change Reporting
	05/06/2008 7:53:13 AM PDT · Posted by Rufus2007 · 46 replies · 1,158+ views Newsbusters.org | May 6, 2008 | Jeff Poor If the Earth has a fever, as former Vice President Al Gore suggests, it's not showing signs of it. According to Climateaudit.org's Steve McIntyre, global sea ice has actually increased. "On a global basis, world sea ice in April 2008 reached levels that were "unprecedented' for the month of April in over 25 years," Steve McIntyre wrote on Climateaudit.org on May 4. "Levels are the third highest (for April) since the commencement of records in 1979, exceeded only by levels in 1979 and 1982." That data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Snow and Ice Data Center...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Did Comets Cause Ancient American Extinctions?
	05/07/2008 6:40:10 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 29 replies · 529+ views National Geographic News | 5-6-2008 | Anne Casselman Debate has heated up over a controversial theory that suggests huge comet impacts wiped out North America's large mammals nearly 13,000 years ago. The hypothesis, first presented in May 2007, proposes that an onslaught of extraterrestrial bodies caused the mass extinction known as the Younger Dryas event and triggered a period of climatic cooling. The theory has been debated widely since it was introduced, but it drew new scrutiny in March at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Stuart...
Paleontology
Dinosaur killer may have struck oil
	05/08/2008 12:11:16 PM PDT · Posted by Berlin_Freeper · 44 replies · 856+ views Australian Broadcasting Corporation | May 07, 2008 | Larry O'Hanlon The dinosaur-killing Chicxulub meteor might have ignited an oilfield rather than forests when it slammed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago, say geologists. Smoke-related particles found in sediments formed at the time of the impact are strikingly similar to those created by modern high-temperature coal and oil burning, as opposed to forest fires, says Professor Simon Brassell of Indiana University. He and colleagues from Italy and the UK publish their report on the discovery in the May issue of the journal Geology. ...What he and his colleagues have found instead are particles called cenospheres, which resemble the...
Diet, Nutrition, Health
First Americans Thrived On Seaweed
	05/08/2008 2:07:20 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 33 replies · 412+ views New Scientist | 5-8-2008 | Jeff Hecht How times have changed. Instead of large amounts of meat and spuds, some of the first Americans enjoyed healthy doses of seaweed. The evidence comes from 27 litres of material collected from the Monte Verde site in southern Chile, widely accepted as the oldest settlement in the Americas. Nine species of seaweed, carbon dated at 13,980 to 14,220 years old, played a major role in a diet that included land plants and animals. Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, argues that the seaweeds were...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Modern Subdivision Is Home To Ancient Village
	05/09/2008 3:41:00 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 15 replies · 169+ views Cleveland Daily Banner | 5-8-2008 | David Davis Upon entering Princeton Hills subdivision off Freewill Road, visitor's see a wide expanse of green space bordered by a circular drive. Large, expensive homes surround the green, grassy mound in an arrangement akin to a prehistoric village. In a sense, that is exactly what the mound represents. It is the five-acre site of the Candies Creek Village Archaeological Preserve owned by the Archaeological Conservancy. It contains the remains of houses, human burials and pit features. Developer Jim Sharp sold the site to the Conservancy in 2001...
Navigation
45-Foot Ancient Canoe Stuck In Muck Of Weedon Island (Tampa Bay)
	05/06/2008 10:48:16 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 53 replies · 1,442+ views MSNBC - Tampa Tribune | 5-5-2008 | KEITH MORELLI Stuck somewhere in the muck of Weedon Island is a significant piece of history. A 45-foot canoe, buried for more than a thousand years and used by a long-dead culture of Native Americans, worked its way to the surface, and now authorities are trying to figure out how best to preserve it. The vessel is carved out of a single pine tree, and archaeologists say it was used to...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Jiroft Is Ancient City Of Marhashi: US Scholar
	05/08/2008 6:25:35 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 10 replies · 267+ views Tehran Times | 5-7-2008 Piotr Steinkeller, professor of Assyriology in Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University, believes that the prehistoric site of Jiroft is the lost ancient city of Marhashi. He developed the theory in his paper during the first round of the International Conference on Jiroft Civilization, which was held in Tehran on May 5 and 6. Marhashi, (in earlier sources Warahshe) was a 3rd millennium BC polity situated east of Elam,...
Rome and Italy
Italian Builders Uncover (27) 2,000 year Old Tombs (Etruscans)
	05/08/2008 1:54:01 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 13 replies · 448+ views The Scotsman | 5-7-2008 Archaeologists were yesterday celebrating the discovery of 27 2,000-year-old tombs in Italy's "Valley of the Dead". The tombs, some dating back to the 7th century BC, were found by chance while builders carried out work. The whole area was sealed off yesterday and put under police guard to prevent anyone from trying to steal artefacts inside the burial chambers. Grave robbers, or tombaroli as they are known in Italy, make a lucrative living from selling such objects to museums or private collectors. Archaeologists say there is also a "good chance" that there may well be...
Prehistory and Origins
Our Celtic Roots Lie In Spain And Portugal
	05/06/2008 8:59:53 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 29 replies · 953+ views IC Wales - Western Mail | 5-5-2008 | Darren Devine The Welsh have more in common with sun-kissed glamour pusses like actress Penelope Cruz and footballer Christiano Ronaldo than pale- faced Germans like Helmet Kohl, according to an academic. Professor John Koch suggests the Welsh can trace their ancestry back to Portugal and Spain, debunking the century-old received wisdom that our forebears came from Iron Age Germany and Austria. His radical work on Celtic origins flatly contradicts the writing of Sir John Rhys, who in the late 19th century established the idea that we...
British Isles
Irish Viking Trade Centre Unearthed
	05/07/2008 6:48:40 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 23 replies · 542+ views BBC | 5-7-2008 Almost 6,000 artefacts and a Viking chieftain's grave have been discovered -- One of the Vikings' most important trading centres has been discovered in Ireland. The settlement at Woodstown in County Waterford is estimated to be about 1,200 years old. It was discovered during archaeological excavations for a road by-pass for Waterford city, which was founded by the Vikings. The Irish government said the settlement was one of the most important early Viking age trading centres discovered in the country. Its working group, which includes archaeologists from Ireland's museum and monuments service, said it was of...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Dive Team To Scour Danube For Queen Mary's Lost Belongings
	05/08/2008 1:59:42 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 13 replies · 433+ views All Hungarian News | 5-8-2008 The legend goes something like this: after the disastrous Battle of Mohacs in 1526, the twenty-one-year-old Queen Mary of Hungary fled the encroaching Ottoman army on a caravan of ships headed to Vienna. But, on her way up the Danube a few ships sank along with their valuable cargo. It is said that to this day they remain hidden in the murky depths of the river. Soon, any truth to this story may soon be discovered, or disproved. According to inforadio.hu, a team of...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Some Diabetics Don't Have What They Thought They Had
	05/05/2008 10:31:25 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 14 replies · 1,413+ views NY Times | May 6, 2008 | ANDREW POLLACK Ryan Collins of Aldie, Va., was only 10 weeks old when doctors made the diagnosis: Type 1 diabetes. That meant up to eight insulin shots per day, a big burden on him and his family. "He couldn't be anywhere unless there was someone around to give a shot," said his mother, Dana Collins. "Everything had to be planned. There was no impromptu anything." Until last month, that is, when Ryan, now almost 7, stopped needing shots. Ryan, it turns out, does not have Type 1 diabetes after all. He has a rare form of diabetes, not yet discovered when he...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Sorry, but family history really is bunk
	05/08/2008 3:18:15 PM PDT · Posted by forkinsocket · 142 replies · 1,601+ views The Spectator | 30th April 2008 | Leo McKinstry Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain's fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...
Longer Perspectives
Is everything we know about American history wrong?
	05/09/2008 6:05:00 PM PDT · Posted by indcons · 18 replies Salon | May 9, 2008 | Louis Bayard Empire building isn't for sissies. Just ask the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century. Before attacking Indian settlements, they were required to read a summons called the Requerimiento, which spelled out the consequences of resistance: "I assure you that, with the help of God, I will attack you mightily. I will make war against you everywhere and in every way ... I will take your wives and children, and I will make them slaves ... I will take their property. I will do all the harm and damage to you that I can ... I declare that the deaths and...
Oh So Mysterioso
Save Water To Avoid Eating Your Neighbor
	05/07/2008 6:28:29 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 31 replies · 500+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 5-2-2008 | Chris Turney It's easy to get hung up on the tag 'global warming'. There's no doubt it's a useful catchphrase for describing the challenges we face, but there's always the risk that our predicament is just seen as warming. Temperature is of course an important facet of the climate, but it's not our only concern. Downpours in the future are likely to vary around the world and throughout the year. The combined effect of changing rainfall and increasing temperature will mean that some regions will get wetter,...
The Civil War
Civil War Cannonball Kills Relic Collector
	05/02/2008 8:39:16 PM PDT · Posted by fishhound · 69 replies · 2,197+ views Aol, AP | May 2,2008 | STEVE SZKOTAK, Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics -- weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway. More than 140...
Ancient Cannon Ball Explodes
	05/05/2008 9:46:50 AM PDT · Posted by Abathar · 41 replies · 1,222+ views strategypage.com | 05/05/08 | Unknown May 5, 2008: The U.S. Civil War continues to kill. Sam White, a Virginia based collector of Civil War munitions, died recently while cleaning up a nine inch, 75 pound, cannon ball. White had previously restored or examined over 1,500 of these shells. But the one that killed him was different. It was fired from a ship board gun, and was designed to be more waterproof than shells used by land based artillery. This kept the fuze, and black powder explosive charge, dry and viable after 150 years. Mister White was using metal tools to clean up the shell, which...
The World War
Canadian WW1 vet to become a Canadian citizen
	05/09/2008 8:14:35 PM PDT · Posted by NormsRevenge · 6 replies Reuters on Yahoo | 5/9/08 | Allan Dowd Canada's last known surviving veteran of World War One is becoming a Canadian citizen, the government said on Friday. John Babcock, 107, was born in Canada but became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and had to give up his status as a British subject - as Canadians were designated before Canada's own citizenship act came into force a year later. Canadian officials recently visited Babcock at his home in Spokane, Washington, to give him an award, and he told them he was interested in being granted citizenship in his birth country. "This means the last...
Peking Duck
Ancient bird is missing link to Archaeopteryx (rational caucus)
	05/06/2008 5:27:49 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 32 replies · 412+ views The New Scientist | 02 May 2008 | Jeff Hecht A spectacularly preserved new Chinese fossil reveals a previously unseen stage in the early evolution of flight. Called Eoconfuciusornis, it is a missing link between the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx, and more advanced birds that have been discovered in the Yixian geological formation in China. The Yixian deposits have yielded remarkably diverse fauna that have revolutionised avian palaeontology, but they are limited to a period from 125 to 120 million years ago -- too narrow a time span to show much evidence of evolution within bird lineages
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
LA Democrat Legislator Who Called Civil Rights Activist "Buckwheat" Loses Her Job
	11/18/2007 3:38:49 PM PST · Posted by DogByte6RER · 73 replies · 185+ views WWLTV.com | WWLTV.com State Representative District 51 40 of 40 Precincts 100% Joe Harrison 4,338 57% Carla Dartez (I) 3,276 43% (I) denotes incumbent candidate
end of digest #199 20080510

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #199 20080510 · Saturday, May 10, 2008 · 23 topics · 2013793 to 2012243 · 686 members ·
	Saturday May 10 2008 v 4 n 43 view this issue	Welcome to the 199th issue. I'm sure we'd all love some kind of special observance for next week's gala 200th issue, but somehow I just don't see that happening. We got a slow start this week, with the first topic not appearing until the 6th. I had to dig a little to verify that. Topics came in bunches thereafter, and I added a few oldies which just came to my attention. As usual, hardworking FReeper Blam contributed most of the new stuff, while playing YouTubeD rock videos in another window. Guess I'd better start pulling my weight. The new header last week, "Pages", to spotlight books which look worth reading, doesn't appear this week. Need I say, "oops"? Check out FReeper Foxhole for military history topics. Also, < Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR. Defeat Hillary -- first for the White House, then for reelection to the Senate. Her victory in Indiana was too thin as she lost as expected in North Carolina, and each seemed to dissipate her recent momentum. As long as Hillary hangs in there, the convention will still be a mess -- I hope. I do think she will bail, perhaps as soon as the end of May, but otherwise shortly after the final primaries / caucuses in early June. Mitigating against that possible outcome is her having loaned her campaign over six million bucks of what was euphemistically referred to as her own money. Obama referred to the 57 states, which is a pretty small gaffe on the scale of all gaffe-ness, but does show what fatigue will do to you -- y'know, fatigue, that ages one prematurely after four or eight years serving as President of the United States, and getting six hours of sleep on average. I need a new job.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #200 Saturday, May 17, 2008
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Al Goodyear And The Secrets Of Ancient Americans
	05/15/2008 3:25:21 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 27 replies · 646+ views Free Times | 5-14/20-2008 | Ron Aiken It was the summer of 1998, and University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear had a problem on his hands. Fourteen years of digging at an ancient chert quarry outside Allendale had begun to bear fruit: At a site called Big Pine Tree, Goodyear was well on his way to establishing that a substantial Clovis population lived here. If you'll recall your history lessons from high school, the Clovis people -- named such because the first evidence of them was found...
Columbia
1,000 Ancient Tombs, Unique Remains Found (Colombia)
	05/10/2008 10:55:01 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 8 replies · 162+ views National Geographic News | 5-9-2008 | Colombia | Jose Orozco Builders clearing land for a housing project in Colombia have uncovered an ancient burial site containing nearly a thousand tombs linked to two little-known civilizations. The site covers some 12 acres (5 hectares) in the impoverished Usme district in southeast Bogot· (see map) and includes one set of remains that some researchers believe could be a victim of human sacrifice. The possible victim is a young woman who seems to have been buried alive, said Ana Maria Groot, one of the lead anthropologists...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Giant bacterium carries thousands of genomes - Why does it bother?
	05/10/2008 7:50:45 AM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 54 replies · 277+ views Nature News | 8 May 2008 | Heidi Ledford It seems like a peculiar case of genomic overkill: a single-celled bacterium has been found that keeps tens of thousands of copies of its genome. The finding sets a record for most genomes per cell, but also poses an obvious question: what could be the advantage of stashing away as much as 200,000 copies of your genome? The number of genome copies in each cell varies by species. Many bacteria have only one copy; most cells in the human body contain two. Plants are notorious for being genomically promiscuous, picking up extra genomes then losing them again in a cycle...
Prehistory and Origins
Long Lost Sisters (humanity was genetically divided for as much as 100,000 years)
	05/15/2008 12:49:19 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 19 replies · 789+ views American Friends of Tel Aviv University | May 15, 2008 | Unknown The human race was divided into two separate groups within Africa for as much as half of its existence, says a Tel Aviv University mathematician. Climate change, reduction in populations and harsh conditions may have caused and maintained the separation. Dr. Saharon Rosset, from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Tel Aviv University, worked with team leader Doron Behar from the Rambam Medical Center to analyze African DNA. Their goal was to study obscure population patterns from hundreds of thousands of years ago. Rosset, who crunched numbers and...
Neanderthal / Neandertal
Clash of the Cavemen
	05/16/2008 6:14:42 AM PDT · Posted by chessplayer · 35 replies · 796+ views http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=295752 25,000 B.C. In Europe, arctic glaciers reach as far south as London. Massive predators are on the prowl. Across the continent, two species of primitive man struggle to survive. The Neanderthals are natural hunters, built for brute strength and well-adapted to the cold. However, they lack the understanding of technology and ability to speak in abstract terms that our species has. The Cro-Magnon, Homo sapiens are smarter but more fragile. With exciting new research in anthropology, archaeology and genetics, follow these early humans through a season of survival.
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Ancient DNA Reveals Neandertals With Red Hair, Fair Complexions
	10/28/2007 4:03:27 PM PDT · Posted by Lessismore · 47 replies · 82+ views Science Magazine | 2007-10-26 | Elizabeth Culotta What would it have been like to meet a Neandertal? Researchers have hypothesized answers for decades, seeking to put flesh on ancient bones. But fossils are silent on many traits, from hair and skin color to speech and personality. Personality will have to wait, but in a paper published online in Science this week (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1147417), an international team announces that it has extracted a pigmentation gene, mc1r, from the bones of two Neandertals. The researchers conclude that at least some Neandertals had pale skin and red hair, similar to some of the Homo sapiens who today inhabit their European homeland....
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Silbury gives up its final secret
	05/16/2008 3:42:40 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 346+ views Guardian | Monday May 12, 2008 | Maev Kennedy Jim Leary, the archaeological director for English Heritage throughout the work, thinks he has solved a riddle which archaeologists have fretted over for centuries: why thousands of people piled up 35 million baskets of chalk into the largest artificial hill in Europe, now part of the Stonehenge World Heritage site. It wasn't the final structure, but the staggering contribution of work which was important, he now believes, marking a site of immense but only guessable significance to the hunters and farmers of Bronze Age Wiltshire... the archaeologists and engineers are convinced there is no secret chamber, prehistoric passage or treasure...
Climate
NC State researcher finds El Nino may have been factor in Magellan's Pacific voyage
	05/15/2008 3:34:21 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 6 replies · 128+ views North Carolina State University | May 15, 2008 | Unknown A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions -- including what we now know as El Nino -- which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination. Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with hopes of claiming the wealth of the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, for the Spanish. Two years later the explorer claimed the first European contact with a Pacific island culture when he...
Longer Perspectives
Rapid Acceleration in Human Evolution Described
	12/11/2007 12:34:37 AM PST · Posted by anymouse · 63 replies · 178+ views Reuters | Dec 10, 2007 | Will Dunham Human evolution has been moving at breakneck speed in the past several thousand years, far from plodding along as some scientists had thought, researchers said on Monday. In fact, people today are genetically more different from people living 5,000 years ago than those humans were different from the Neanderthals who vanished 30,000 years ago, according to anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin. The genetic changes have related to numerous different human characteristics, the researchers said. Many of the recent genetic changes reflect differences in the human diet brought on by agriculture, as well as resistance to epidemic diseases...
Humans Are Still Evolving - And It's Happening Faster Than Ever
	12/11/2007 4:00:09 AM PST · Posted by JACKRUSSELL · 16 replies · 39+ views The Guardian Unlimited / Reuters | December 11, 2007 | By Ian Sample Humans are evolving more quickly than at any time in history, researchers say. In the past 5,000 years, humans have evolved up to 100 times more quickly than any time since the split with the ancestors of modern chimpanzees 6m years ago, a team from the University of Wisconsin found. The study also suggests that human races in different parts of the world are becoming more genetically distinct, although this is likely to reverse in future as populations become more mixed. "The widespread assumption that human evolution has slowed down because it's easier to live and we've conquered nature is...
Human Evolution Seems to Be Accelerating (Jews evolved from "financing!")
	12/11/2007 8:28:45 AM PST · Posted by squireofgothos · 144 replies · 95+ views AP via Fox News | 12-11-07 above-average intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews -- those of northern European heritage -- resulted from natural selection in medieval Europe, where they were pressured into jobs as financiers, traders, managers and tax collectors. Those who were smarter succeeded, grew wealthy and had bigger families to pass on their genes, they suggested. That evolution also is linked to genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Gaucher in Jews. The new study was funded by the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the Unz Foundation, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin.
Is human evolution speeding up?
	12/12/2007 7:22:02 AM PST · Posted by Renfield · 41 replies · 63+ views MSNBC | 12-10-07 | Randolph E. Schmid Residents of various continents becoming increasingly different ~~~snip~~~ If evolution had been proceeding steadily at the current rate since humans and chimps separated 6 million years ago, there should be 160 times more differences than the researchers found. That indicates that human evolution had been slower in the distant past, Harpending explained. "Rapid population growth has been coupled with vast changes in cultures and ecology, creating new opportunities for adaptation," the study says. "The past 10,000 years have seen rapid skeletal and dental evolution in human populations, as well as the appearance of many new genetic responses to diet and...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Death toll in China earthquake rises to 8,533 [Photos]
	05/12/2008 8:47:42 AM PDT · Posted by charles m · 82 replies · 3,234+ views Yahoo! AP | 5/12/2008 A rescuer searches for victims after an earthquake in Chongqing municipality May 12, 2008. Water and mud flow on a street after an earthquake broke an underground pipe in Chengdu, Sichuan province CHONGQING, China - Chinese state media says more than 8,500 have died in Sichuan province alone from a massive earthquake. The official Xinhua News Agency said that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in one of the province's counties after the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday. Nearly 900 students were trapped after their school collapsed about 60 miles from the quake's epicenter. Xinhua reported students also were buried...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Gene trawl shows Druze are living "gene sanctuary"
	05/10/2008 2:13:58 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 29 replies · 222+ views Yahoo! | Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | Maggie Fox, ed by Julie Steenhuysen and Xavier Briand The Druze people of Israel are a genetic sanctuary of ancient lineages of DNA, researchers reported on Wednesday... The researchers looked at mitochondrial DNA, a type of genetic material that is passed down virtually unchanged from mother to daughter. It can provide a kind of snapshot of the ancestry of a person... The mitochondrial DNA backed up the legendary origin of this close-knit religious group, believed to number 1 million or fewer. For instance, Skorecki's team discovered an unusually high frequency of a haplogroup, or a distinct collection of genetic markers, called haplogroup X. Haplogroup X is rare but is...
Oh So Mysterioso
LU Lab Called On Again To Check Ancient DNA (Jesus's DNA?)
	05/12/2008 12:13:55 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 21 replies · 864+ views The Chronicle Journal | 5-6-2008 | LINDSAY LAFRAUGH Kathryn Reuseh uses a pipette during the first day of the Paleo DNA ancient DNA training program Monday at Lakehead University. A Thunder Bay DNA expert was in New York City on Monday to discuss findings that could help researchers prove that Jesus did marry Mary Magdalene and that they had children. Lakehead University's Paleo DNA Laboratory operations supervisor Renee Fratpietro joined English filmmaker Bruce Burgess in the Big Apple to discuss his film "Bloodline", which follows a three-year investigation led by Burgess and his American...
Pages
Norman Levitt on Nadia Abu el Haj and "Science Studies"
	05/13/2008 9:36:04 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 205+ views The Volokh Conspiracy | May 13, 2008 | David Bernstein (Professor Levitt) I think that it was shameful of Barnard to retain her as a tenured faculty member, but that her political views, as well as those of her opponents, are not especially relevant to the issue... Abu el Haj tries to engage with archaeology on the basis of the assumptions and theories that are regnant in "science studies"... the attitude that knowledge claims are, perforce, political claims, that "objective knowledge" is an oxymoron, and that modern science, in particular, is a repressive ideological edifice designed to bolster the hegemony of western capitalist patriarchal societies, not least by demeaning and...
Buried in Tomb's Grant
Radiocarbon Dating of Malibu Artifacts Confirms Importance of Farpoint Site
	05/15/2008 4:01:32 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 17 replies · 345+ views Malibu Surfside News | 5-14-2008 | ANNE SOBLE Archaeologist Gary Stickel announced at a recent lecture at the Malibu Public Library that a stone spearhead, or point, found at a local construction site by a Native American project monitor in 2005 has been established as an artifact from the oldest archaeological find in the City of Malibu. Radiocarbon dating of mussel shell fragments from the site that was provided gratis by the National Science...
Rome and Italy
Divers find Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C.
	05/13/2008 6:41:24 PM PDT · Posted by NormsRevenge · 86 replies · 1,866+ views AP on Yahoo | 5/13/08 | AP Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Caesar in the Rhone River that France's Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known. The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles -- founded by Caesar. Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 5.9 foot marble statue of Neptune, dated to the first decade of the third century after...
Early America
Shipwreck's Coins Are Very Rare
	05/14/2008 10:43:27 PM PDT · Posted by fishhound · 32 replies · 1,260+ views AOL/AP | 2008-05-14 | ALAN SAYRE, A steamship that sank off the Louisiana coast during an 1846 storm has produced a trove of rare gold coins, including some produced at two largely forgotten U.S. Mints in the South, coin experts say. Last year, four Louisiana residents salvaged hundreds of gold coins and thousands of silver coins from the wreckage of the SS New York in about 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, said David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack's Rare Coins. "Some of these are in uncirculated or mint condition," Bowers said, predicting the best could bring...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Works added to National Recording Registry (spoken word as well as music)
	05/15/2008 11:21:50 AM PDT · Posted by weegee · 3 replies · 97+ views By The Associated Press (via yahoo) | Wed May 14, 10:31 AM ET | no byline The 25 recordings added Wednesday to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress: 1. The first trans-Atlantic broadcast (March 14, 1925) 2. "Allons a Lafayette," Joseph Falcon (1928) 3. "Casta Diva," from Bellini's "Norma"; Rosa Ponselle, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Giulio Setti. (recorded December 31, 1928, and January 30, 1929) 4. "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again," Thomas A. Dorsey (1934) 5. "Sweet Lorraine," Art Tatum (February 22, 1940) 6. Fibber's Closet Opens for the First Time, "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio program (March 4, 1940) 7. Wings Over Jordan,...
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