From the BBC:
Archaeologists have found evidence of mass cannibalism at a 7,000-year-old human burial site in south-west Germany, the journal Antiquity reports.
Continue reading about Ancient site reveals signs of mass cannibalism
From the Venus Project:
The Venus Project presents a bold, direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, technological unemployment, over-population and the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems. As you will see, The Venus Project is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.
Designing the Future by Jacque Fresco of the Venus Project [PDF]
Venus Project FAQ
Continue reading about The start of civilization: redefining our culture, designing the future
Solar Impulse, the solar-powered plane, took its first runway test, and eventually the plane is expected to take a 20 to 25 day trip around the world. [source: inhabitat.com]
Continue reading about Solar-powered plane makes runway debut
From National Geographic:
During the 2009 Leonid meteor shower, you may see anywhere from 30 to 300 shooting stars an hour, depending on whether you’re in the right place to see the showy peak on November 17, experts predict.
With the highest number of meteors streaking across the skies around 4:45 p.m. ET, the Leonids peak will be effectively invisible for viewers in North America and Europe. In those regions, sky-watchers are advised to venture out away from bright city lights between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on the 17th, when they should see 30 to 50 meteors an hour. [source: National Geographic]
Continue reading about 2009 Leonid meteor shower, 30 to 300 shooting stars
From the NYT:
There is water on the Moon, scientists stated unequivocally on Friday, and considerable amounts of it.
An Indian space mission claims to have found water on the moon, raising hopes that a manned base could be established there within the next two decades.
It has been widely believed that the moon was dry, but data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission allegedly found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.
What’s more, water appears to still be forming, advancing the possibility that human life could be sustained there. Scientists hope that astronauts could one day not only drink the water but extract oxygen from it to breathe and hydrogen to use as fuel.
From NASA:
[caption id="attachment_410" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="In this spectacular image, observations using infrared light and X-ray light see through the obscuring dust and reveal the intense activity near the galactic core. Note that the center of the galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. The entire image width covers about one-half a degree, about the same angular width as the full moon. Credit: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI"]
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A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy [was unveiled by] NASA on Nov. 10. This event [commemorated] the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.
In celebration of this International Year of Astronomy, NASA is releasing images of the galactic center region as seen by its Great Observatories to more than 150 planetariums, museums, nature centers, libraries and schools across the country.
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From Universe Today:
A previously undiscovered asteroid came within 14,000 km of Earth last week, and astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before closest approach. On Nov. 6 at around 16:30 EST a 7 meter asteroid, now called 2009 VA, came only about 2 Earth radii from impacting our home planet. This is the third-closest known non-impacting Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid.
Early on Nov. 6 the asteroid was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey and was quickly identified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge MA as an object that would soon pass very close to the Earth. JPL’s Near-Earth Object Program Office also computed an orbit solution for this object, and determined that it was not headed for an impact.
Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’m willing to be taken out if this makes another go-around and lands on the NYS legislature.
Continue reading about Unknown asteroid almost impacted Earth
From the Examiner:
It seems that a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment happened decades before the Project Ozma occurred in 1960. The historians at the blog Letters of Note have uncovered a telegram sent in 1924 by then Chief of Naval Operations Edward W. Eberle instructing the United States Navy to listen for radio transmissions from the planet Mars.
The telegram read:
“NAVY DESIRES COOPERATE ASTRONOMERS WHO BELIEVE POSSIBLE THAT MARS MAY ATTEMPT COMMUNICATION BY RADIO WAVES WITH THIS PLANET WHILE THEY ARE NEAR TOGETHER THIS END ALL SHORE RADIO STATIONS WILL ESPECIALLY NOTE AND REPORT ANY ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON UNUSUAL CHARACTER AND WILL COVER AS WIDE BAND FREQUENCIES AS POSSIBLE FROM 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FIRST TO 2400 AUGUST TWENTY FOURTH WITHOUT INTERFERRING WITH TRAFFIC”
Continue reading about US Navy Ordered to Listen for Martian Radio Broadcasts in 1924
Now that the hysteria has propagated from Western interpretations and distortions of the Mayan calendar, NASA has begun to debunk the Y2K12 madness.
Initial theories set the disaster for May 2003, but when nothing happened the date was moved forward to the winter solstice in 2012 to coincide with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar.
But NASA insisted the Mayan calendar in fact does not end on December 21, 2012, as another period begins immediately afterward. And it said there are no planetary alignments on the horizon for the next few decades.
And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our planet would be “negligible,” NASA said.
Among the other theories NASA has set out to debunk are that geomagnetic storms, a pole reversal or unsteadiness in the Earth’s crustal plates might befall the planet.
See also: Mayan Calendar and the End of the World?
As someone addicted to sci-fi, apocalyptic disaster flicks, and amazing special effects, I can’t wait to see the ‘2012′ film this Friday.
Continue reading about NASA crusades to debunk 2012 apocalypse myth
From The Age (Australia):
It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan’s space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.
The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades.
With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But Japan’s boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming,” researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report.
“The sun’s rays abound in space.”
Read the rest of this excellent article here.
Continue reading about Japan eyes solar station in space as new energy source
From Ojibwa at DailyKos:
There has been a lot of media coverage on the misconception that the ancient Maya calendar is somehow predicting the end of the world (worse case scenario) or at least some major catastrophe in 2012. Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of concepts of time which differ from those held by European cultures.
Let’s start with some background. The ancient Maya were a civilization composed of many different autonomous city states in Mesoamerica (this includes present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras). Maya civilization reached its apex during a period that archaeologists call Classic Maya: a period which begins about 200 CE and lasts until 909 CE.
Classic Maya civilization is characterized by cities, pyramids, kings, and elaborate ceremonies. Above all the Maya were obsessed with sophisticated timekeeping systems. Their painted-bark books, or codices, clearly show that their astronomers had the capacity to predict celestial events, such as eclipses, accurately.
A few hundred years before the beginning of Classic Maya, Maya rulers made a fundamental revision to their calendar that would connect the rise of Maya states with their own origin myths. They invented a mountain of a time cycle—the Long Count. This was a brilliant innovation and connected the Maya and their kings all the way back to creation.
Read the rest of this excellent piece here.
Continue reading about Mayan Calendar & the End of the World?
From Rocheshter U:
In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.
Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.
Continue reading about African Desert Rift Confirmed as New Ocean in the Making
Food for thought (pun intended) — V. S. Ramachandran on the Uniqueness of Human Consciousness:
From the Economist:
THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Meanwhile, around a fifth of the world’s population suffers from a shortage of drinking water and that fraction is expected to grow. One answer is desalination—but it is an expensive answer because it requires a lot of energy. Now, though, a pair of Canadian engineers have come up with an ingenious way of using the heat of the sun to drive the process. Such heat, in many places that have a shortage of fresh water, is one thing that is in abundant supply.
Read the rest of the article here.
Continue reading about Cheaper desalination, fresh drinking water for the poor
From Science Daily:
A new report appearing in The Journal of Leukocyte Biology argues that human missions to Mars, as well as all other long-term space flights might be compromised by microbial hitchhikers, such as bacteria. That’s because long-term space travel packs a one-two punch to astronauts: first it appears to weaken their immune systems; and second, it increases the virulence and growth of microbes.
From Renaissance Universal:
A look at how social ecologists picture the ideal society.
by Kenn Kassman
Social Ecologist theory maintains that only through the creation of a just and participatory society can a healthy and benign relationship to the natural world be developed. Presupposing that the domination of humans by humans preceded the domination of nature by humans, the Social Ecologist future is structured to eliminate all hierarchy and delegitimate all forms of discrimination. Every person is viewed as valuable to the community and worthy of community respect and mutual support. Social Ecologists argue that harmony can then be applied to ecological relationships.
From the AP:
Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.
But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes “predictions” from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: “Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?”
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or “Planet X.” But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.
One of them is Monument Six.
Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn’t survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.
It’s unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.
However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.
Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico’s National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, “He will descend from the sky.”
Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.
And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.
“If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea,” said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. “That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”
Ardi, shown here in an artist’s sketch, is a recently discovered ancestor of humans which lived 4.4 million years ago in African woodland.
An artist’s rendition of what the multiverse looks like:
HuffPo has some stunning photos of an unprecedented dust storm:
Continue reading about Stunning Yet Ominous Photos from Sydney Dust Storm
