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Thursday, March 14, 2013
Today in History
| 1629 | A Royal charter is granted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. | |
| 1743 | First American town meeting is held at Boston's Faneuil Hall. | |
| 1757 | British Admiral John Byng is executed by a firing squad on board HMS Monarch for neglect of duty. | |
| 1794 | Inventor Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin. | |
| 1900 | United States currency goes on the gold standard. | |
| 1903 | The Senate ratifies the Hay-Herran Treaty, guaranteeing the United states the right to build a canal in Panama. | |
| 1912 | An anarchist named Antonio Dalba unsuccessfully attempts to kill Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III in Rome. | |
| 1915 | The British Navy sinks the German battleship Dresden off the Chilean coast. | |
| 1918 | An all-Russian Congress of Soviets ratifies a peace treaty with the Central Powers. | |
| 1923 | President Warren G. Harding becomes the first U.S. President to file an income tax report. | |
| 1936 | Adolf Hitler tells a crowd of 300,000 that Germany's only judge is God and itself. | |
| 1939 | The Nazis dissolve the republic of Czechoslovakia. | |
| 1943 | The Germans reoccupy Kharkov in the Soviet Union. | |
| 1947 | The United States signs a 99-year lease on naval bases in the Philippines. | |
| 1951 | U.N. forces recapture Seoul for the second time during the Korean War. | |
| 1954 | The Viet Minh launch an assault against the French Colonial Forces at Dien Bien Phu. | |
| 1964 | A Dallas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of the murder of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. | |
| 1967 | John F. Kennedy's body is moved from a temporary grave to a permanent one in Arlington Cemetery. | |
| 1978 | An Israeli force of 22,000 invades south Lebanon, hitting the PLO bases. | |
| 1990 | Mikhail S. Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress. | |
| 1991 | The "Birmingham Six," imprisoned for 16 years for their alleged part in an IRA pub bombing, are set free after a court agrees that the police fabricated evidence. |
What Is the Answer to That Stupid Math Problem on Facebook?
This math equation has been passed around on Facebook precisely because people argue about it. Having not taken a math class in 40 years or so, I only got halfway through it before I became stuck. Sure, if it were a mortgage amortization or a sale on beans, I would be able to figure out what I want to know, but the way problems are presented in math class are beyond my long-term memory. The problem is in the way it is written. Tara Haelle at Slate explains:
Some of you are already insisting in your head that 6 ÷ 2(1+2) has only one right answer, but hear me out. The problem isn’t the mathematical operations. It’s knowing what operations the author of the problem wants you to do, and in what order. Simple, right? We use an “order of operations” rule we memorized in childhood: “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally,” or PEMDAS, which stands for Parentheses Exponents Multiplication Division Addition Subtraction.* This handy acronym should settle any debate—except it doesn’t, because it’s not a rule at all. It’s a convention, a customary way of doing things we’ve developed only recently, and like other customs, it has evolved over time. (And even math teachers argue over order of operations.)
“In earlier times, the conventions didn’t seem as rigid and people were supposed to just figure it out if they were mathematically competent,” says Judy Grabiner, a historian of mathematics at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. Mathematicians generally began their written work with a list of the conventions they were using, but the rise of mass math education and the textbook industry, as well as the subsequent development of computer programming languages, required something more codified. That codification occurred somewhere around the turn of the last century. The first reference to PEMDAS is hard to pin down. Even a short list of what different early algebra texts taught reveals how inconsistently the order of operations was applied.That cleared up nothing at all for me, because where I was stuck was in a much siller place. I had to read the entire article before I figured out what to do. See if you can come up with an answer before you read the rest. More
Did you know ...
That more and more workers are demanding paid sick days
That a drunk man w/concealed carry permit accidentally shoots wife
That very, very privileged people want to cut spending on everybody else
That a drunk man w/concealed carry permit accidentally shoots wife
That very, very privileged people want to cut spending on everybody else
Sit on Your Ass and Watch Democracy Pass: People Need to Act Not Just Talk
The goal of the cuckoo right-wing lower chamber is to block all constituent-friendly Democratic initiatives and replace them with pre-ordained wrecking ball legislation. All written in large measure by lobbyists for billionaires. Of course none of this crap has a snowball in hell chance of passing, but the bills do serve as precursors to what could happen should the repugican’s maintain control of the house and capture the Senate and White House in 2014. Right now, it’s a government of tasteless trade-offs and gridlock.
Sectors threatened with annihilation sooner or later are Health Care, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education and the Environment with other agencies and departments targeted by the Tea Party not far behind. The latest Ryan budget is a Weapon of Mass legislative Destruction aimed at expunging the federal government of virtually all non-military funding, influence and power.
Where are the voices in opposition? Where is the progressive body politic? I don’t mean just the occasional vocalized despair of well-intentioned Senators like Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren or a decent Jim Clyburn-type Democratic Representative voice in the wilderness; I mean citizen voices en masse.
I go back to an era where voices were HEARD along with the determined pitter-patter of as many as hundreds of thousands of little, medium and big feet. There were dozens of high-profile leaders of opposition groups including the iconic Dr. Martin Luther King and Julian Bond. Broadcaster and civil rights leader, Reverend Al Sharpton marched anywhere there was a civil rights demonstration as ded Jessie Jackson. We remember and admire women’s rights ground-breakers Gloria Steinem, still as sharp and impressive as ever at age 78 and her feminist colleague, the late Betty Freidan. Who will ever forget life-long anti-Nuk and anti-war activist, Dr. Benjamin Spock (who was still bitching into his 80′s and 90′s).
There were the hell-raising, anti-Vietnam war Priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan. From the 60′s Weather Underground emerged Mark Rudd. Abbie Hoffman occupied Wall Street in the 1967 before there was an “Occupy Wall Street” movement. He and David Derringer and 5 others were part of the Chicago 7 that raised havoc at the Democratic National Convention in ’68. A little over 20 years later, the bipolar Hoffman was to commit suicide. Ironically, “Yippie” founder, Jerry Rubin, another Chicago 7 member, went on to work on Wall Street. He also died a violent, premature death after being struck by a car. Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver were the public faces of the Black Panthers. The late Tupac Shakur’s parents were members. The Panther’s initiated many needed projects in the African American community such as education, tenant rights and self-determination, but regrettably, their party became most noted for shootouts with law enforcement. Former Panther Bobby Rush is a 20-year U.S. Representative for Chicago’s South Side.
Those are just a few of the fiery voices of the 60′s and 70′s and, unlike today, they could turn out the crowds. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of demonstrators yelling, carrying signs and shaking fists against the Vietnam war and racism and for women’s equality were routine in the era of political push-back.
Even as late as 1995, there remained hope for the public message carriers. The Million Man March didn’t quite reach the number in its title, but attendance in Washington DC was impressive. ABC carefully calculated the crowd at 835,000 give or take 20% either way. The National Park Service had halved that number obviously aware of a repugican Congress that controlled their funding. The controversial Louis Farrakhan was the featured keynoter. That didn’t bother me at the time figuring any port in a racist storm.
Fast forward to recent years. I recall a Saturday, November 12 repugican Presidential televised Primary debate at Spartanburg, South Carolina’s Wofford College featuring the slate of the moderate Jon Huntsman and the 7 mental Dwarfs. Local Democrats arranged for a demonstration carrying signs pointing out the extreme positions of most of the participants. About a dozen people showed up. Some 50 signs were stacked up against a nearby tree. Ron Paul’s herd was out in force.
Later, in support of the Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s 4th District House seat, an outdoor gathering was organized by the party. About a half-dozen of us showed up standing by a busy street waving signs around, our miniscule numbers undoubtedly encouraging the opponent. A year ago I went to join a protest against a local Walmart’s employee practices. There were 7 or 8 of us. A union beef against a major phone company drew a dozen (but lots of supportive horn-honkers).
A contemporary movement of promise is “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS). Its greatest accomplishment so far has been adding the phraseology of the “top 1% and the remaining 99%” to the political lexicon of the generation. The vital demographic of youth signed on and it spread to chapters nationwide. Occupy Wall Street was indeed willing to Occupy Wall Street or at least the immediate environs on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park to be exact. The occupation grew from an initial few hundred souls to thousands over time. Media started swarming. OWS was THE lead story in all print and on all electronic venues that mattered. This was a welcome progressive revival of the earlier public demonstrations of prior decades.
About a month after Zuccotti, a “Day of Rage” primarily aimed at financial institutions and large corporations, drew massive crowds (probably totaling in the millions) in 80 countries. You don’t hear nearly as much from the movement these days. In some ways it’s become mired in the minutiae of the social terminology and definition of ‘blocks’, consensus (unanimous, modified?) majority voting and other administrative distractions stealing attention away from OWS’s real purpose.
Hopefully OWS has shitcanned the bickering. There’s huge potential here, but nobody wants to risk losing the momentum over essentially administrative issues. And Democrats, if they want to save their country need to start wearing out some shoe leather. There should be pro-ACA demonstrations in front of every State Capital and/or hospital or City Hall in the country. And further actions in front of every Republican and Democratic Congressional office in every Congressional District in the U.S. Appoint spokespeople, wave homemade signs and “ALERT THE MEDIA.”
OWS, NOW, Teacher’s Union’s, State and County Democratic Parties are just some of the sources of ready personnel depending on the issue. Put together your own group; “Okies for Obamacare” or during the 2014 elections; “Save Lives; Vote for (fill in Democratic candidate)!!!” Call the local media. If they don’t show up, picket, cancel subscriptions and call sponsors. They’ll be there next time.
There’s your template. Use it or lose it (our democracy)!
Bernie Sanders Files the Constitutional Amendment to Undo Citizens United
The amendment contains three sections. Section I states, “Section I. Whereas the right to vote in public elections belongs only to natural persons as citizens of the United States, so shall the ability to make contributions and expenditures to influence the outcomes of public elections belong only to natural persons in accordance with this Article.”
In plain English, this section overturns Citizens United by barring any entity that doesn’t have the right to vote from donating to campaigns.
Section II states, “Section II.Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to restrict the power of Congress and the States to protect the integrity and fairness of the electoral process, limit the corrupting influence of private wealth in public elections, and guarantee the dependence of elected officials on the people alone by taking actions which may include the establishment of systems of public financing for elections, the imposition of requirements to ensure the disclosure of contributions and expenditures made to influence the outcome of a public election by candidates, individuals, and associations of individuals, and the imposition of content neutral limitations on all such contributions and expenditures.”
This section gives Congress and states the power set up a publicly funded electoral system. This section also undoes the Buckley v. Valeo (1976) decision that ruled money is speech, and gave individuals the right to spend unlimited sums of money independent of candidates.
The final section of the amendment makes ensures that nothing in the amendment infringes on the freedom of the press.
In a statement, Sen. Sanders said, “What the Supreme Court did in Citizens United is to tell billionaires like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson, ‘You own and control Wall Street. You own and control coal companies. You own and control oil companies. Now, for a very small percentage of your wealth, we’re going to give you the opportunity to own and control the United States government.’ That is the essence of what Citizens United is all about. That is why this disastrous decision must be reversed.”
The amendment requires a 2/3 majority in both the House and the Senate for passage. If it would pass both bodies with the required majority, it would then move on to the states, where a 3/4 majority is required for ratification.
There is absolutely zero chance that this amendment will make it out of Congress, but the importance of the gesture is that it brings attention to the Citizens United decision. While the media is obsessed with whatever partisan battle has distracted it like a jangling keys in front of a baby, our electoral process is still being hijacked.
The easiest way to get rid of Citizens United would be to replace one of the conservative justices with an Obama appointee, but that is not a certainty. People who care about the health of our representative democracy have to make their voices heard. If this issue gets pushed into the darkness the corporations, special interests, and billionaires win.
The billionaires have the money, but the people have the numbers. Money can never be allowed to purchase liberty. The people must stand tall, and speak loudly until Citizens United has been undone.
The repugican Florida Lt Gov Jennifer Carroll Resigns Amid Racketeering Probe
Carroll’s resignation was first reported by The Florida Times-Union:
Rick Scott tapped Carroll, a Navy veteran, to be his running mate during a 2010 news conference outside Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Allied Veterans is accused of money laundering, using money from a nonprofit for personal gain and misrepresenting the amount donated to charities. Authorities say the group donated just 2 percent of its $290 million in proceeds to charities over about five years. They also say the former president received more than $1.5 million and the national commander got $250,000 from the organization. A firm Carroll owned, 3N & JC, did consulting work for Allied Veterans, and she starred in a commercial for the nonprofit in 2010. …Knowledge of how to defraud the government that repugicans claim to hate so much may be a résumé requirement in the Scott administration.
In 2011, the Times-Union reported that Carroll used falsified documents to make her firm eligible for a Jacksonville program that offers grants to minority-owned companies. Her firm was located in Clay County, but relied, in part, on falsified lease documents to appear based in Jacksonville, which was a program requirement. Additionally, former Carroll aide Carletha Cole was arrested after being charged with giving a reporter a recording of a secret conversation between her and Carroll’s chief-of-staff. The case has brought a lot of unwanted attention to the Scott administration. In court filings, Cole has accused Carroll of having an inappropriate relationship with another female staff member.
The Miami Herald explained the investigation into Allied Veterans:
Investigators said that Allied Veterans tried to scheme and defraud the public and governmental agencies by misrepresenting how much of its proceeds were donated to charities affiliated with Veterans Administration.Carroll was nominated by Gov. Jeb Bush to run Florida’s Department of Veterans Affairs and served as one of the national chairpersons for Mitt Romney’s “Black Leadership Council”.
She served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2003-2010, and during that time was paid by Allied Veterans for her consulting work. She also proposed legislation to legalize the gambling games Allied Veterans was running in Florida Internet cafes, but later withdrew the bill claiming her staffer had “erroneously” proposed it.
Read her resignation letter here.
The American People Are Being Punished Because repugicans Refused Pay Their Debts
The repugicans became debt and deficit sensitive in January 2009 just as President Obama was being inaugurated, and they embroiled the entire country in their single-minded reduce the deficit mission. However, repugicans exempted those who benefitted from the debt of any repayment, and are attempting to rob Americans’ health and retirement accounts, domestic programs, and government services to repay the debt and give more “free stuff” to the debt creators. It is important to note that the people who caused Great Recession were bailed out by taxpayers, and are reaping 93% of the recovery and if repugicans have their way they will give more to those responsible for the Recession.
If Americans understood what repugicans are doing with this debt and deficit hoax, and that they are willing victims of the greatest scam on the people in the nation’s history, they would riot in the streets and dismantle Wall Street brick by brick. First, repugicans gave the defense industry, the wealthy, and pharmaceutical industry borrowed money that racked up the deficit, and demand the people repay the debt with domestic cuts, Medicare, and soon, Social Security. That is bad enough, but those responsible for the Great Recession; banks, financial institutions, and Wall Street are clamoring for more “debt and deficit” reduction paid for by the people after the people bailed them out and while they are reaping profits from the Recession they created.
The 2011 debt ceiling crisis that jeopardized the full faith and credit of the United States perfectly illustrates the outrageous scam repugicans are perpetrating on the American people. To raise the debt limit to pay for repugicans’ two wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and prescription plan that benefitted big pharma, repugicans demanded spending cuts equal to the amount needed to repay their war, tax cut, and pharmaceutical debt all while refusing to raise taxes on the debt creators. For the third straight year, Paul Ryan is proposing a budget that cuts spending on programs for the people, ends Medicare, and takes food from the poor, children, and seniors to pay down the debt Halliburton, the defense industry, and wealthy incurred and profited from.
The greatest outrage should be at the financial sector that crashed the economy, was bailed out by the people, reaped nearly all the recovery, and then calls for raising the Medicare and Social Security retirement age because as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says, “we just can’t afford it–people will just have to work longer to help pay down the deficit.” First, Social Security has no effect on the debt or deficit, and people being told to pay Wall Streets’ debt gained absolutely nothing after they crashed the economy and killed millions of Americans’ jobs. Blankfein’s company, Goldman Sachs, helped crash the economy, was bailed out with $12.9 billion plus $5.5 billion from AIG, gave executives $11 billion in bonuses, and is reaping huge rewards as the economy recovers; now Blankfein says “we” cannot afford Medicare and Social Security and the people have to pay down the deficit. Through their repugican facilitators, corporations and Wall Street have the temerity to demand the people repay their debt and it begs the question; why are Republicans (and some Democrats) not demanding Wall Street and corporations repay their own debt? Many of the largest corporations and Wall Street firms pay nothing in federal taxes that contributes to the debt, and yet repugicans fight to reduce their tax rates even more.
Americans received nothing for the repugican debt except more cuts, fewer services, and thousands of soldiers killed and tens-of-thousands more wounded in two costly wars. This year, about 700,000 Americans will lose their jobs, children will lose school lunches, seniors will lose Meals on Wheels, and mothers will lose healthcare for their children as a result of sequestration cuts enacted to pay down repugicans’ debt. The repugicans talk about personal responsibility, but their corporate and Wall Street donors’ debt is the sole responsibility of the American people and their deficit repayment scheme is infecting all of Washington with reduction fever.
There is talk of a grand deficit reduction bargain that President Obama insists is balanced with spending cuts and revenue, and rumored to include Social Security cuts in the form of chained-CPI, but naturally, repugicans only accept spending cuts. The Grand Bargain to reduce the debt should be a fair bargain that follows debt rules every American follows; the people that create and benefit from debt repay the debt. It is a simple premise that banks, credit card companies, loan institutions, and businesses adhere to and courts regularly enforce. However, this is America, and there is a different standard when corporations, the financial sector, and repugicans create debt; the people always pay.
Americans have paid for the rich, corporations, financial sector, and repugicans’ debt for too long and it has to stop. Democrats have fallen into the repugican debt-repayment trap and use terms like “everybody has to pay their fair share,” and “we’re all in this together” and they are nice words, but the people end up paying all the debt so repugicans can give more to debt creators. The people can hardly pay more, and they already paid a lot more for repugicans’ wars, tax cuts, oil subsidies, and Wall Street bailouts. As budget talks ramp up this week to keep the government running, there will be great emphasis on debt and deficit reduction, and as sure as the Sun rises in the East, the people will bear the brunt of the spending cuts so repugicans can give more to the people that created and benefitted from the debt.
The real tragedy is that Americans are in proverbial debtor’s prison when they received nothing for repugicans’ debt. It is true the deficit needs to be addressed, but not in a recovering economy and not by cutting Medicare and Social Security, safety nets, social programs, or education, law enforcement, and Veteran’s benefits. However, repugicans won the debt game by enlisting Democrats in their deficit cutting madness that Wall Street, corporations, the Koch brothers, and ALEC masterminded and cretins in the teabagger movement wildly applaud. The sad truth is that on some level, we are all in this together, and we will all go to the bank together, take out hard-earned money together, and pay down the debt Republicans, Wall Street, defense industry, and corporations racked up while they take what is left out of the economy, Medicare, and Social Security. And while repugicans and their donors laugh on the way to their offshore accounts, Democrats will applaud a Grand Bargain of spending cuts, Social Security and Medicare cuts, corporate tax cuts, and perpetual oil subsidies, and as an extra concession to Boehner and Koch brothers, approval of the KeystoneXL pipeline. What a country, and what stupid people to end up in debtor’s prison for rich people’s debt.
Using clips from Ed Sullivan in Jersey Boys found to be fair use
Judges award costs to deter future "chilling" copyright lawsuits
A Ninth Circuit Appeals Court has ruled that the producers of the musical "Jersey Boys" did not violate copyright law by using a clip from the Ed Sullivan Show in their production. They'd been sued by SOFA Entertainment, who holds the Sullivan Show rights. The judges awarded costs to the Jersey Boys production company, so SOFA will have to pay $155,000 in attorneys' fees and costs -- an award that the judges specifically stated was intended to "deter future lawsuits that might chill the creative endeavors of others."
Appellant SOFA Entertainment, Inc. claimed Dodger infringed its copyright in the clip and could not justify its unlicensed use of the clip as "fair use."
"SOFA is mistaken," said Circuit Judge Stephen S. Trott. "The defendants used the clip in Jersey Boys, their musical about the Four Seasons, to mark a historical point in the band's career. The panel held that this was a fair use because by using the clip for its historical significance, the defendants had imbued it with new meaning and had done so without usurping whatever demand there was for the original clip."
The district court viewed SOFA's infringement claim as "objectively unreasonable and determined that awarding fees would deter future lawsuits that might chill the creative endeavors of others."
Proposed Maryland anti-zero-tolerance law would tell schools to stop suspending kids who point their fingers at each other and say "bang"
Maryland State Senator J.B. Jennings (r) has introduced Senate Bill 1058, The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013,
which is aimed at ending the incredibly stupid "zero tolerance"
policies that result in kids being suspended or expelled for pointing a
stick at another kid and saying "bang!" Here's the preamble:
Lenore "Free Range Kids" Skenazy sums up some of the incidents that inspired the bill: "the Hello Kitty bubble gun, and the Lego gun, and the imaginary grenade throw in a game of imaginary save-the-world, and last but not least the terrifying pastry gun." Zero-tolerance is the same thing as zero-intelligence. You don't need human beings to enforce zero-tolerance systems -- if you want to run schools on the basis of "zero-tolerance," you could fire all the teachers and replace them with Commodore PET personal computers running very short BASIC programs.FOR the purpose of prohibiting a principal from suspending or expelling a student who brings to school or possesses on school property a picture of a gun, a computer image of a gun, a facsimile of a gun, or any other object that resembles a gun but serves another purpose; prohibiting a principal from suspending or expelling a student who makes a hand shape or gesture resembling a gun…
Students Find Out What Teachers Really Think of Them
The
Yitzhak Rabin High School in Kfar Saba, Israel, collected information
from teachers on junior class students, supposedly to identify
troublemakers ahead of a field trip to Poland. The teacher collating the
information on a spreadsheet accidentally emailed the internal document
to the students who signed up for the trip.Though some students were described as "pleasant" and "quiet," many others were given insulting labels such as "big baby," "sicko," and "not too bright."Israel's Ministry of Education is launching an investigation into the incident. More
One student was said to "have a voice like a 4-year-old girl," while another was flagged for having "a thing" for boys.
Students showed up at the school this morning with their individual put-downs taped to their shirts.
One of the students who found themselves on the infamous spreadsheet said she would have a hard time looking her teachers in the eye after this. "We are very angry," she told YNet.
Bedouin "solar mamas" can't get backing for solarizing their village in Jordan
“We are still not working and the training has not started either,” Rafea told The Jordan Times in an interview on Saturday.
They came with hope, she said, but this hope is fading away. The government, NGOs and international organisations are showing little or no interest, according to FES officials, leaving the project stranded in the desert.
“Now even our fellow villagers have started to make fun of us because they see nothing is happening on the ground,” said Rafea, who with her aunt were received with festive firing and an “official” ceremony upon their arrival from India.
The situation took a dramatic turn for both Rafea and Um Bader. Although they provided solar energy to 80 houses in the village, they are now facing the darkness of personal problems that have plighted them since they completed their training in India.
Leonardo Da Vinci Was Right All Along
The project, which will be unveiled at the Edinburgh International Festival in August, compares the work directly for the very first time, unveiling the minute details recorded by the artist. The comparison is intended to show just how accurate da Vinci was, despite his limited technology and lack of contemporary medical knowledge.
'Medieval knight' unearthed in Edinburgh parking lot dig
The remains of a medieval knight or nobleman found underneath a car park are to be moved to make way for a university building.
The grave and evidence of a 13th Century monastery were
uncovered when archaeologists were called to an Edinburgh Old Town
building site.An elaborate sandstone slab, with carvings of a Calvary Cross and ornate sword, marked the grave.
Richard Lewis Edinburgh Council culture convener"This find has the potential to be one of the most significant and exciting archaeological discoveries in the city for many years”
The car park was cleared to build a new Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation.
As part of low carbon measures for the University of
Edinburgh scheme, work was being carried out in the former car park to
create a rainwater harvesting tank for the new building.It was already known the area had been the site of the 18th Century Old High School, the 16th Century Royal High School and the 13th Century Blackfriars Monastery.
Along with the knight or nobleman's grave and skeleton, the excavation has revealed the exact location of the monastery, which was founded in 1230 by Alexander II (King of Scotland 1214-49) and destroyed during the Protestant Reformation in 1558.
Richard Lewis, the City of Edinburgh council culture convener, said it was hoped more would be found out about the remains, but the grave had already been dated to the 13th Century.
"This find has the potential to be one of the most significant and exciting archaeological discoveries in the city for many years, providing us with yet more clues as to what life was like in Medieval Edinburgh," he added.
The project's archaeological services have been provided by Edinburgh-based Headland Archaeology.
The archaeologist who found the grave, Ross Murray, had studied at the University of Edinburgh on a site only yards from where the find was made.
Mr Murray said: "We obviously knew the history of the High School Yards site while we were studying here but I never imagined I would be back here to make such an incredible discovery."
Mummies had a form of chronic cardiovascular disease
Atherosclerosis is what happens when your arteries fill up with
layers of fat and white blood cells. It's a disease of chronic
inflammation that increases your risk of stroke and heart attack. It's
also a disease we tend to associate with the modern era — commonly cited
risk factors include cigarette smoking, obesity, and stress. But there
are some signs that we may not have a great handle on what actually
causes atherosclerosis. That's because ancient mummies, from all over the world, have shown signs of the disease.
It's unclear what this means at this point — for instance, just because
ancient people didn't light up a Marlboro from time to time doesn't
mean they weren't exposed to smoke and particulate matter from indoor
cooking fires. But it's fascinating to see a disease of modernity
affecting the past.
Neanderthal Demise
Neanderthal big eyes 'caused demise'
A study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they became extinct because they had larger eyes than our species.
Sound Garden
Sound is so fundamental to life that some scientists now
think there's a kernel of truth to folklore that holds humans can
commune with plants.
An Ancient forest off the coast of Alabama
Sixty feet under the Gulf of Mexico lie the remains of an 50,000-year-old forest.
Diver and photographer Ben Raines took some amazing photos of the site
and sent samples of the trees — which still look like trees — to the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating. You can
see sap in a cross-section of the wood and, when it's cut, Raines says
it still smells like fresh cypress.
NASA: in Martian soil, Mars rover finds conditions once suited for ancient life
These images compare rocks seen by NASA's Opportunity rover and
Curiosity rover at two different parts of Mars. On the left is " Wopmay"
rock, in Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planum, as studied by the
Opportunity rover. On the right are the rocks of the "Sheepbed" unit in
Yellowknife Bay, in Gale Crater, as seen by Curiosity. Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/MSSS
Big news from NASA JPL the other day:
An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month. "A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."More at the MSL mission website. [NASA]
The 12 Longest Caves In The World
Here are the twelve longest caves in the world.
Soviet killer dolphins on the loose in the Black Sea
Eleven Crazy Bigfoot Conspiracy Theories
Where
does Bigfoot come from? What does he do with his time? Ask a silly
question… and someone will come up with an answer. For example:4. Bigfoot is really an alien.Possibly the craziest thing about these theories is that they all require the belief that Sasquatch is real. Read all 11 at The Week.
Two conspiracies for the price of one! In 1973, Pennsylvanian UFO researcher Stan Gordon said he noticed an increase in sightings of Sasquatches entering and exiting extraterrestrial vessels. Fascinated by the possibility that the mysterious primates may actually hail from another planet, Gordon quickly set up a "UFO-Bigfoot Hotline" that still runs to this day.
5. Bigfoot is really a giant ground sloth.While most "experts" believe the Sasquatch to be some form of shaggy primate, a few have opined that these beasts are actually surviving giant ground sloths. For more on these fascinating prehistoric mammals, do go here.
Does the Loneliest Whale really exist?
The 52 Hertz Whale
is the cetacean equivalent of a pop-culture phenomenon — a strange
creature, known only through recording of whale songs picked up in the
Pacific Ocean, who seems to not be a part of any identifiable whale
group. Also known as The Loneliest Whale in the World it is a source of
pity and fascination among the general public. At PLOS Blogs, Hannah
Cheng has a three-part feature on what we do and don't know about the
Loneliest Whale. Why, despite 20 years of tracking this thing in sound recordings, do we not have any direct observation of the Loneliest Whale? She's got the answers.
Red Tide Slaughtering Florida Manatees
Toxic algae kill 174 manatees and counting off Florida's Gulf coast this year, a new record.
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