Sunday, October 21, 2012
A shaman's "aarnguat"
The first unusual thing we noticed were holes in the figurine’s head, chest, and pelvis. We were uncertain why these modifications, carefully created using a bow drill, had been made to an otherwise typical Inuit female figurine, so we examined the associated skeleton. We discovered skeletal abnormalities in locations corresponding with the holes in the figurine, the most obvious being a jaw lesion that was probably cancerous. While we can’t determine what kind of cancer the woman may have had, lung and salivary gland cancer (once known as Eskimoma because it is common in Inuit populations) are possibilities. The chest and pelvic perforations may relate to these soft tissue cancers or other skeletal problems. For instance, her pelvis was asymmetrical, suggesting misaligned bones that could have produced chronic pain in the buttocks.From the September/October 2010 issue of Archaeology.
Traditional Inuit religion conceived of everything—people, animals, objects, and places—as possessing an inua, or resident soul, and Inuit shamans sometimes made figurines called aarnguat (“object with powers”) to host an inua. We believe that this aarnguat was specifically made for the woman’s inua so that it could act as a proxy for her during a shamanic “surgery,” represented by the three drilled holes, to remove her illnesses. It is the first definitive archaeological evidence for shamanistic healing in the Canadian Arctic.
The Achaemenid Empire (4th century B.C.)
By ensuring peace and promoting trade, the Achaemenids ushered in an unprecedented period of prosperity in a vast area half a millennium before Rome reached the apex of its power. At its peak, the empire covered three million square miles—more than that of either Rome or the Chinese Han Dynasty at their largest in the first century A.D.From the September/October 2011 issue of Archaeology [online is not fulltext], via the author's website. [which is fulltext with photos].
The taxes gathered from conquered peoples allowed the Achaemenids to create monumental cities, build dependable roads stretching from Anatolia to Afghanistan, and construct caravan stops to protect and encourage merchants, as well as to ensure royal couriers could travel quickly across long distances. The Royal Road, from Sardis in today’s Turkey to Susa in today’s Iran, provided regular way stations through territory “free from danger,” says the fifth-century b.c. Greek historian Herodotus.
And this from the Wikipedia entry:
In 480 BCE, it is estimated that 50 million people lived in the Achaemenid Empire or about 44% of the world's population at the time, making it the largest empire by population percentage.
First Human Ancestor Looked Like A Squirrel
The fossils, described in a presentation at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's 72nd Annual Meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, are the first known below-the-head bones for Purgatorius. Previously, only teeth revealed its existence.
here's further evidence that dinosaurs were not ectothermic (cold-blooded).
Dinosaur cold-blood theory in doubt
One of the strongest lines of evidence that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like modern reptiles, has been knocked down.
Prior studies of dinosaur bones uncovered what are known as "lines of arrested growth".The creatures were presumed to be cold-blooded because modern cold-blooded animals show these same lines.
But scientists reporting in Nature have studied the bones of 41 modern mammal species from around the world, finding every one had these lines as well.
The idea that dinosaurs are cold-blooded, or ectothermic, goes back to the 19th Century. But a number of discoveries 1960s have been challenging that notion.
Because soft tissues such as organs and skin are not preserved (with a few notable exceptions), much of what is known about dinosaurs must be inferred from their bones, and comparisons made with modern animals that can be studied in greater detail.
Lagging behind Lines of arrested growth, or Lags, occur because organisms tend to suspend their growth and rally their resources during seasonal periods of environmental stress such as cold or dry conditions.
This forms a boundary from one season to the next as growth resumes when conditions are more favourable.
Lags have also been found in the bones of reptiles and amphibians and have until now been assumed to be limited to ectotherms - cold-blooded animals - that are more subject to the whims of harsh environments.
Meike Koehler of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona and her colleagues were therefore surprised by what they found.
"Originally this was not a paper that we aimed to do," Dr Koehler told BBC News.
"We were very curious to know how environmental conditions and changes affect bone growth in fossil and extant mammals, to get a good idea about... how they may have coped with these changes in the past."
As the team studied the thigh bones of animals from all over the world - ranging from the Svalbard reindeer in the Arctic to muntjac deer species from South Asia - Lags showed up in every one.
"These lines of arrested growth have been used a lot in dinosaurs, but nobody has ever had a really deep look at mammals," Dr Koehler explained.
"I think most (palaeontologists) regard dinosaurs as being [warm-blooded] but there's a lot of waffling in the data that appeared before that wasn't conclusive," he told BBC News.
"It's about time we have a connection between the modern bone histology and fossil bone histology, through a very nice ecological and metabolic comparison."
While Prof Weishampel considers it a closed case, Dr Koehler herself is more reserved about the result.
"I don't think that this debate is really settled," she said. "But this is the first time that you can say that Lags do not say anything about warm- or cold-bloodedness."
She and her team will go on and put the Lags to use in studies of modern animals instead.
"It's like dendrochronology - the rings in trees. You can do skeletal chronology in bones and infer things like longevity, age at maturity, juvenile states - traits which are very, very important to get an idea about the health of a population and whether it is vulnerable.
"It is very good to know now that mammals do show these Lags and we can use them in the same way that we do in amphibians and reptiles to understand the situation of a population."
Blood Ivory
Despite a global ban on the ivory trade, elephants are still being killed just for their tusks. In most developed countries, the use of ivory (outside of antiques) is about as chic as clubbing a baby seal. So who is buying ivory these days? Bryan Christy of National Geographic looks for answers in the Philippines.
My goal in meeting Garcia is to understand his country’s ivory trade and possibly get a lead on who was behind 5.4 tons of illegal ivory seized by customs agents in Manila in 2009, 7.7 tons seized there in 2005, and 6.1 tons bound for the Philippines seized by Taiwan in 2006. Assuming an average of 22 pounds of ivory per elephant, these seizures represent about 1,745 elephants. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the treaty organization that sets international wildlife trade policy, the Philippines is merely a transit country for ivory headed to China. But CITES has limited resources. Until last year it employed just one enforcement officer to police more than 30,000 animal and plant species. Its assessment of the Philippines doesn’t square with what Jose Yuchongco, chief of the Philippine customs police, told a Manila newspaper not long after making a major seizure in 2009: “The Philippines is a favorite destination of these smuggled elephant tusks, maybe because Filipino Catholics are fond of images of saints that are made of ivory.” On Cebu the link between ivory and the church is so strong that the word for ivory, garing, has a second meaning: “religious statue.”But it's not just the Philippines. Read more about the continuing global ivory trade at NatGeo.
Zookeepers perform mouth to snout resuscitation to save newborn tapir
Staff at Denver Zoo saved the life of a Malayan tapir calf when they
took extraordinary efforts during a recent birth. Rinny, the zoo's
female tapir, was having trouble while giving birth to a calf last month
and a staffer freed the newborn from the mother's amniotic sac. After
successfully helping to extract the calf, zoo members aided the newborn by performing "mouth to snout rescue breaths," the zoo has said.
The staff helped the calf get liquid out of his lungs and breathe. "It's always a little scary when something like this happens, but thankfully we all have great resources and training," said Rebecca McCloskey, an assistant curator with the zoo. McCloskey, along with staff veterinarian Gwen Jankowski, took the life-saving measures during the difficult birth on Sept. 3.
Now the male tapir named Dumadi is doing fine, walking and swimming as he grows at the zoo. Rinny is also doing well after the birth, which the first tapir birth for at Denver Zoo. Adult Malayan tapirs have a distinctive color pattern that resembles an Oreo cookie, with black front and back parts separated by a white or grey midsection, the release said. The coloring provides excellent camouflage that breaks up a tapir's outline in forest shadows.
Young tapirs have color patterns that more resemble brown watermelons with spots and stripes, which help them blend into the dappled sunlight and leaf shadows of the forest, protecting them from predators. Malayan tapirs are the only tapir native to Asia. Once found throughout Southeast Asia, they now inhabit only the rainforests of the Indochinese peninsula and Sumatra. With a wild population of less than 2,000, they're classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The staff helped the calf get liquid out of his lungs and breathe. "It's always a little scary when something like this happens, but thankfully we all have great resources and training," said Rebecca McCloskey, an assistant curator with the zoo. McCloskey, along with staff veterinarian Gwen Jankowski, took the life-saving measures during the difficult birth on Sept. 3.
Now the male tapir named Dumadi is doing fine, walking and swimming as he grows at the zoo. Rinny is also doing well after the birth, which the first tapir birth for at Denver Zoo. Adult Malayan tapirs have a distinctive color pattern that resembles an Oreo cookie, with black front and back parts separated by a white or grey midsection, the release said. The coloring provides excellent camouflage that breaks up a tapir's outline in forest shadows.
Young tapirs have color patterns that more resemble brown watermelons with spots and stripes, which help them blend into the dappled sunlight and leaf shadows of the forest, protecting them from predators. Malayan tapirs are the only tapir native to Asia. Once found throughout Southeast Asia, they now inhabit only the rainforests of the Indochinese peninsula and Sumatra. With a wild population of less than 2,000, they're classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Great apes, small numbers
Sumatran
orangutans have undergone a substantial recent population decline,
according to a new genetic study, but the same research revealed ...
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Daily Drift
The eye of the eagle ...
Some of our readers today have been in:
Minsk, Belarus
Doha, Qatar
Kuching, Malaysia
Lima, Peru
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
George Town, Malaysia
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Reykjavik, Iceland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cairo, Egypt
Lahore, Pakistan
Seremban, Malaysia
Manila, Philippines
Caracas, Venezuela
Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
Zagreb, Croatia
Sampaloc, Philippines
Miri, Malaysia
Karachi, Pakistan
Bucharest, Romania
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Velikiy Novgorod, Russia
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Klang, Malaysia
Bangkok, Thailand
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Ampang, Malaysia
Osijek, Croatia
Today in History
| 480 BC | Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis. | |
| 1587 | In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse's larger Catholic force at Coutras. | |
| 1709 | Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands. | |
| 1714 | George I of England crowned. | |
| 1805 | Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon's army at the battle of Ulm. | |
| 1818 | The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States. | |
| 1870 | The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force. | |
| 1903 | The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain's, which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska. | |
| 1904 | Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes Chile's possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast. | |
| 1924 | Baseball's first 'colored World Series' is held in Kansas City, Mo. | |
| 1938 | Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews. | |
| 1941 | German troops reach the approaches to Moscow. | |
| 1944 | U.S. troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur's pledge "I shall return." | |
| 1945 | Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. | |
| 1947 | The House Un-American Activities Committee opens public hearings on alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist. | |
| 1968 | Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis. | |
| 1973 | Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war. |
Remember when Mitt said working on his campaign was like fighting in Iraq?
Oh yes he did.
I was just googling around for more information on Mrs. Romney’s odd comment the other day that doing a Mormon mission abroad, to convert people to Mormonism, was similar to serving your country in wartime.
So, I’m googling, and what do I see? A story from the last presidential campaign in which Mitt Romney explains that working on his presidential campaign is similar “service to country” as risking your life as a US service member in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By the way, it’s interesting how the Romneys have had a pat answer to this question for years, but the answer keeps changing. First it was working on Mitt’s presidential campaign was just like serving in the military, and now it’s going abroad to convert Catholics in Paris to Mormonism is just like being drafted in Vietnam.
Here’s Mitt:
Why is the Romney solution to every problem to simply leave America(ns) behind?
I was just googling around for more information on Mrs. Romney’s odd comment the other day that doing a Mormon mission abroad, to convert people to Mormonism, was similar to serving your country in wartime.
”[W]e find different ways of serving, and my five boys and husband did serve missions.”I’ve never done a Mormon mission, nor have I served in a war, but I’m pretty confident in saying that Mitt Romney living in a palace in Paris for a year with a butler and a busboy making his daily meals was a slightly different experience than the men and women of the US armed forces who have risked their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone Vietnam (a war Romney avoided by going to Paris, but was more than happy to protest in favor of).
So, I’m googling, and what do I see? A story from the last presidential campaign in which Mitt Romney explains that working on his presidential campaign is similar “service to country” as risking your life as a US service member in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By the way, it’s interesting how the Romneys have had a pat answer to this question for years, but the answer keeps changing. First it was working on Mitt’s presidential campaign was just like serving in the military, and now it’s going abroad to convert Catholics in Paris to Mormonism is just like being drafted in Vietnam.
Here’s Mitt:
“The good news is that we have a volunteer Army and that’s the way we’re going to keep it,” Romney told some 200 people gathered in an abbey near the Mississippi River that had been converted into a hotel. “My sons are all adults and they’ve made decisions about their careers and they’ve chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard.” He added: “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”Yeah, the same way Mitt Romney showed support for our nation during Vietnam. He joined protests in favor of the war, then skipped the country for a few years to avoid it. Not unlike what his ancestors did in abandoning America for Mexico in order to get around those pesky US anti-polygamy laws. And not unlike the way that Mitt Romney today shelters his money abroad in order to avoid those pesky US tax laws.
Why is the Romney solution to every problem to simply leave America(ns) behind?
First they expose a CIA agent ...
... now "car thief" Darrell Issa exposes and put in danger people who are helping us overseas. Have the repugicans no shame?
Issa posted 166 pages of sensitive but unclassified state department communications related to Libya on the committee's website afternoon as part of his effort to investigate security failures and expose contradictions in the administration's statements regarding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi that resulted in the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
... but Issa didn't bother to redact the names of Libyan civilians and local leaders mentioned in the cables, and just as with the Wikileaks dump of state department cables last year, the administration says that Issa has done damage to U.S. efforts to work with those Libyans and exposed them to physical danger from the very groups that had an interest in attacking the U.S. consulate. - More
Libyans Mark Anniversary of Gadhafi's Death, Ex-Spokesman Arrested
Libyan government forces have captured Moammar Gadhafi's ex-spokesman
outside a besieged town, the prime minister's office said Saturday as
Libyans marked the anniversary of the ousted dictator's death.Man dies after taking diet-aid drug
DNP is used to help burn fat but can have side-effects such as
extreme body temperatures leading to brain damage A man has died after
taking a performance-enhancing drug used by bodybuilders to help burn
off fat, according to police.
Banana Boat Sunscreen Recalled After People Burst Into Flames
Most
people use sunscreen to prevent burns, but unfortunately, that's exactly
what some people get after applying a line of Banana Boat spray-on sunscreen:
they burst into flames!From CBS News:
After applying Banana Boat Sport Performance spray-on sunscreen before barbecuing, Brett Sigworth's body caught on fire.Now, Energizer Holdings, the maker of the Banana Boat sunscreen, is recalling 23 varieties of the spray-on sunscreen products: More
"I sprayed on the spray-on sunscreen, and then rubbed it on for a few seconds. I walked over to my grill, took one of the holders to move some of the charcoal briquettes around and all of a sudden it just went up my arm," Brett Sigworth of Stow, Mass., told CBS Boston.
"I went into complete panic mode and screamed," he said. "I've never experienced pain like that in my life."
The Demanding World of High-End Competitive Horseshoe Throwing
At
the highest level of every sport, you will find completely dedicated
athletes. Brian Simmons is the one of them. He's the greatest horseshoe
thrower in the world:This is what Simmons is thinking about as he stares down a 14-inch tall stake. He is thinking about the slippery clay, and how he might adjust his release point, and as these thoughts slip into his brain, he has lost without even pitching the shoe.
“This whole game is mental,” Simmons says. “It’s all upstairs. It’s a mind game.” [...]
For Simmons, he wants to think about one thing and one thing only. Making sure his eyes are locked onto his right hand as he releases the shoe. He does not look at the stake, at least not at the most important part of his throw. He starts by looking at the stake, but then his eyes let go of that target and start looking for his right hand, which should end up right in his line of sight at the exact moment the shoe leaves his hand.
And now he’s moving his hand around to compensate for the fact the shoe is slipping out of his gloved hand. Pitching horseshoes is a mind game, and for what seems like the first time in his life, it’s getting to him.
The Fork in the Road is Taken
(Image credit: Jim Grant)
(Image credit: Jim Grant)Ancient Tomb Found Near Sweden's 'Stonehenge'
- The 5,500-year-old site is located near Ale's Stones, a megalithic monument where the legendary King Ale allegedly lies buried. Read more
Huge Abandoned Island Fortress In Florida
The City Abandoned At the Worlds End
Three days by car to Oslo, three hours by plane to Svalbard, Norway, five hours by an Arctic ship with a romantic name "Polar Girl" and you find yourself in the northernmost abandoned city: you are in Pyramiden. More
Poetry in Motion: Rare Polar Ring Galaxy Captured in New Image
When the lamp is shattered, The light in the dust lies dead. When the cloud is scattered, The rainbow’s glory ...Grand Canyon In The Kazakh Way
Charyn canyon is 200 km (124 miles) to the east from Almaty not far from the border with China and is included into the territory of the Charyn national park. It is a natural monument which formed from sedimentary rocks whose age is about 12 million years. More
Science News
No life found in Antarctica's buried Lake Vostok
A first analysis of ice pulled from the largest body of water buried beneath Antarctica has yielded nothing but pristine water. Read more
What Makes Earth So Perfect for Life?
There are a few key ingredients that scientists often agree are needed for life to exist — but much debate remains as to what limits there actually might be on life. Read more
Old Dams Hold a Toxic Legacy
Tens of thousands of old dams in the eastern U.S. no longer power machinery, but they still hold a toxic legacy. Read more
Sea Monster 'Predator X' Gets Official Name
It's official: A giant, marine reptile that roamed the seas roughly 150 million years ago is a newly named species. Read more
Could you build a city in an underground cave?
Are there any caves on Earth that are large enough to actually contain a real, functional city? Read more
Astrononical News
A streaking fireball lit up California skies and stunned stargazers, and professional observers say more meteors are on the way.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has dug up a mini-mystery for scientists:
an odd white fleck that sticks out like a beacon in the reddish soil.
How Long Would It Take To Get To Alpha Centauri?
The Alpha Centauri system is much farther away from us than the sun. There's a lot of empty space between us and this nearest star. In fact Alpha Centauri is trillions of miles away from Earth. Its distance of 4.3 light-years equals 25.6 trillion miles away - nearly 300,000 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. How long would it take to get to Alpha Centauri?
‘Housework’ cuts the life span of female Komodo Dragons
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo Dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly ...
Dog poisoned and buried alive survives
A Jack Russell terrier has survived after being poisoned and buried alive - and he can thank the man who saw the ground wiggle.
Pet Couture
Not Just A Horse In Striped Pajamas
Upping the Cute Factor
OMG, baby octopodes!
National Geographic's Enric Sala took this photo during an expedition
in Gabon. He and another researcher were using a remote operated
vehicle to explore the ocean off the coast of that country's Loango
National Park.When we picked up the shell from the ROV’s arm, to our surprise, a small octopus came out of the shell. It was a female that laid her eggs inside the shell. We put shell and octopus in a tank with seawater, and after one minute thousands of octopus larvae started to stream out of the shell. The octopus eggs were hatching! That was the first time we had observed such a magnificent show. The larvae were changing coloration from transparent with dark spots to brown, and swimming like squid – although on a millimeter scale.
Animal News
First Human Ancestor Looked Like a Squirrel
This tree-dwelling animal saw the dawn of an era when mammals would come to dominate the planet. Read more
Prehistoric Flamingo Nest with Eggs Discovered
Five fossilized flamingo eggs from some 18 million years ago are found in Spain. Read more
Jaws vs. Frankie Valli
Sharks inspire fear from most of the human population, but they're more vulnerable to us than we are to them. Read more
How Dolphins Stay Awake for Two Weeks
Unlike land mammals, dolphins sleep with only part of their brains at any time. Read more
Dome-Headed Dinos Battled With Their Heads
Signs of injuries detected in pachycephalosaurs' skulls offer evidence the animals head-butted in violent battles. Read more
Eight-Eyed Spiders Watch Videos and People
Eight-eyed jumping spiders have a near 360-degree view of the world and can be captivated by humans and nature videos. Read more
Primates at Risk
A new UN report has named 25 primates most at risk. See each one and learn why each is threatened. Read more
Shrimp Vomits to Escape Predators
The Grandaddy of Daddy Longlegs
Surprisingly, it's actually not the record holder of its species. That distinction belongs to a species of harvestmen from South America: More
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