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Each spring across Australia, its native golden wattle plants (Acacia pycnantha Benth.) burst into bloom in a riot of puffy, bright yellow flowers.A member of the genus acacia—or as Australians refer to these types of flowering shrubs, “wattles”—the plant’s distinctive yellow blossoms and green leaves evoke the Australian national colors. Sprigs of wattle have been used to represent Australia for decades, notably decorating the colonial-era Commonwealth Coat of Arms. The plant was officially declared the national floral emblem in 1988...Working with representatives from the Martu people, an Australian Indigenous group and the traditional owners of the land, UWA archaeologist Chae...

Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Maritime Spice Route Between India, Egypt Archaeologists from UCLA and the University of Delaware have unearthed the most extensive remains to date from sea trade between India and Egypt during the Roman Empire, adding to mounting evidence that spices and other exotic cargo traveled into Europe over sea as well as land. "These findings go a long way toward improving our understanding of the way in which a whole range of exotic cargo moved into Europe during antiquity," said Willeke Wendrich, an assistant professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and co-director of the project....

In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt and wrote of unusual river boats on the Nile. Twenty-three lines of his Historia, the ancient world’s first great narrative history, are devoted to the intricate description of the construction of a “baris”. For centuries, scholars have argued over his account because there was no archaeological evidence that such ships ever existed. Now there is. A “fabulously preserved” wreck in the waters around the sunken port city of Thonis-Heracleion has revealed just how accurate the historian was.

A wreck discovered in the Nile suggests the ancient Greek historian’s description was spot on. by Jonathan CareyMarch 19, 2019 Found: A Ship Once Described By Herodotus The wooden hull of ship 17. Christoph Gerigk@Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation Herodotus is known as the father of history, but some of his writings have created more questions than answers. In his account of a fifth-century B.C. trip to Egypt, included in his most important work The Histories, the ancient Greek historian describes seeing unusual boats called baris sailing down the Nile. However, no physical evidence was discovered of the ships until now.A team...

Seeds 200 years old breathe again By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website The unknown acacia species is now half a metre tall Seeds which have been stored away since the time of George III have been persuaded into new life. Scientists from the Millennium Seed Bank, operated by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, have induced seeds from three species to germinate. They had been brought to Britain from South Africa by a Dutch merchant in 1803, and were found in a notebook stored in the National Archives. Given this history, the team said it was surprised by...

Bicycles instead of cars? Dense apartment clusters instead of single homes? Community rituals instead of churches? "Human rights" instead of religious freedom? The UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) which met June 3-14 [1996]in Istanbul, painted an alarming picture of the 21st century community. The American ways-free speech, individualism, travel, and Christianity-are out. A new set of economic, environmental, and social guidelines are in. Citizenship, democracy, and education have been redefined. Handpicked civil leaders will implement UN "laws", bypassing state and national representatives to work directly with the UN. And politically correct "tolerance"-meaning "the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism"...

IMAGINE being able to set up a tollbooth on the Internet. Now imagine collecting a small fee every time anyone in the United States clicked on the Web to watch a video of a car advertisement, to listen to an audio clip of a garage band or to review an updated credit card statement. Sound far-fetched? Acacia Research Corporation, an obscure but well-financed company in Newport Beach, Calif., has a portfolio of patents that, it claims, allows it to do exactly that. Acacia holds five patents covering streaming video and audio. The earliest one, numbered 5,132,992, was issued in 1992....

[Q NOTE: This section--8--IS ABOUT WHY the Bible Code Scholars believe some of the shorter, not necessarily statistically significant phrases/codes/ELSs ARE significant in Isaiah because of their proximity and deeply connected meaning related to the surface text--as well as to common Biblical and cultural metaphor. . . my interpretation anyway. . . . This section 8 is not per se a statistical section. It can be argued that it is opinion. However, much of science is expert opinion based on experienced and learned observation as has been stated elsewhere in this document. And I think the rationale is well laid...