Fathers Of The Zodiac Tracked Down

Nature ^ | 6-1-2007 | Geoff Brumfiel

[null and void]

You write well.

VERY well.

[patton]

Thank you.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, but sending a general distribution, because I'm a Gemini and we're *volatile* as all get out. But seriously, there's been a break in the Zodiac Killer case, which the old-timers like me will remember, and I found this interesting topic while checking for that. :') To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Monkey Face]

So did I!

[jimtorr]

Ever notice how our infrastructure is getting smaller? Some countries don’t even bother with phone wires anymore - they go straight to cell towers.

Since you started it (nearly two years ago), a smaller, less robust infrastructure makes it easier to destroy, and harder to rebuild.

Look at Larry Niven's "Ring World". That world had a power failure caused by a bug eating the organic control wiring, and they were unable to recover.

[Eaker]

You write well.

To think that I knew Patton from his early days of writing bodice rippers!

;<)

[Free Vulcan]

that is really cool.

[patton]

Read it one day in high school, between math classes.

[patton]

I never write bodice-rippers. I write love stories, that get me in trouble.

[patton]

Thank you - typos on the internet never die...LOL.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

The amazing part is the precession cycle is almost 26,000 years, but they figured it out with very short observation time. No civilization lasted anywhere near long enough to observe very much of the precession arc. I wonder if they had....help?

I've often wondered about this, as well. Even the 19-year Metonic cycle calls for a lot of careful record-keeping by settled people. However, they didn't need thousands of years to observe the effects of precession.

It was understood, or at least recognized, by the 1st century BC, I am told, though the ancients probably did not attribute it to any wobbling in their earth's spin.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

The ancients seemed to think that their times were degenerate, compared to earlier times.

If you doubt it, study language. Look at the complexity of Sanskrit and ask yourself why they even needed such an elaborate tongue, in their simpler times; and see how crude our modern languages are, in comparison.

[ApplegateRanch]

a smaller, less robust infrastructure

It's what one would expect with a shrinking world population.

Just 2 generations ago, there were still enough people around to support such infrastructure easily.

Every year, more and more of our ancestors die, leaving fewer and fewer people. Simple powers of 2 regression:

Everyone has 2 parents; and 4 grandparents, etc. At that rate, it doesn't take long to see that it wasn't all that long ago that we had 100,000,000,000+ population.

Given the shear numbers, it's no wonder they were able to hand stack piles of rock that we can't even begin to duplicate with machinery.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 668 - Neighbor of the Beast and ApplegateRanch.

[SunkenCiv]

World’s oldest telescope? [ Assyrian telescope? ]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1879740/posts