Animal News

Thanksgiving Pumpkins Game for Wolves

Wolves, coyotes and foxes at the Wolf Park in Battle Creek, Indiana dined on pumpkins stuffed with canine delicacies at the sanctuary.

Mysteriously Intact T. Rex Tissue Finally Explained

The amazingly preserved flesh of a T. Rex has baffled science for years.

Why Seahorses Are Shaped Like Horses

Even though seahorses are some of the slowest swimmers, they can catch fast-swimming crustaceans because of the shape of their heads, scientists have found.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Just so you know ....

Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
 

Dance while you can ... !

Today is - Turkey Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Byward Market, Saint John's, Mississauga, Lansing, Montreal, Ottawa, Blainville, Pikangikum and Vancouver, Canada

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Rosario, San Isidro and Buenos Aires, Argentina

Caguas and San Juan, Puerto Rico

Curitiba, Rio De Janeiro and Campinas, Brazil

Tijuana, Mexico

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Raritan, Dekalb, Massillon, Yonkers, Delano and Gurnee, United States

Europe 

Gistrup and Copenhagen, Denmak

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Salon-De-Provence, Coutances, Cherbourg-Octeville, Oulins and Boulogne-Billancourt, France

Rome, Pisa, Cavallino and Ivera, Italy

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Ryazin, Moscow, Russia

London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester and Guilford, England

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Asia

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Africa

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Manouiba, Tunisia

Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

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Pacific

Homebush, Australia

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Mandaluyong City and Manila, Philippines

Today in History

1520		Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan, having discovered a strait at the tip of South America, enters the Pacific.
1729		Natchez Indians massacre most of the 300 French settlers and soldiers at Fort Rosalie, Louisiana.
1861		The Confederate Congress admits Missouri to the Confederacy, although Missouri has not yet seceded from the Union.
1868		Mt. Etna in Sicily violently erupts.
1872		The Modoc War of 1872-73 begins in northern California when fighting breaks out between Modoc Chief Captain Jack and a cavalry detail led by Captain James Jackson.
1899		The British are victorious over the Boers at Modder River.
1919		Lady Astor is elected the first woman in Parliament.
1925		The forerunner of the Grand Ole Opry, called the WSM Barn Dance, opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
1935		The German Reich declares all men ages 18 to 45 as army reservists.
1937		Spanish leader Francisco Franco blockades the Spanish coast.
1939		The Soviet Union scraps its nonaggression pact with Finland.
1941		The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise departs from Pearl Harbor to deliver F4F Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. This mission saves the carrier from destruction when the Japanese attack.
1943		Sir Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at Tehran, Iran, to hammer out war aims.
1944		The first shipment of supplies reach Antwerp by convoy, a new route for the Allies.
1948		Dr. Edwin Land's first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.
1950		In Korea, 200,000 Communist troops launch attack on UN forces.
1961		Ernie Davis becomes the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
1963		Cape Canaveral is renamed Cape Kennedy.
1971		The Anglican Church ordains the first two women as priests.
1975		East Timor declares independence from Portugal.
1980		Operation Morvarid (Iran-Iraq War); Iranian Navy destroys over 70% of Iraqi Navy.
1984		Republican Robert Dole is elected Senate majority leader.
1989		Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power.
1991		South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
2002		Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

Non Sequitur

World Record Christmas Lights

David and Janean Richards of Canberra, Australia, have set another record for the number of Christmas lights on their home. They first held the record in 2011, but then were eclipsed by an American home in 2012. This year, the Richards set up 502,165 Christmas lights to regain the title. That brings bragging rights, and an electric bill that's over two grand a month! Luckily, the bill is subsidized by ActewAGL’s Greenchoice renewable energy company. The 331,038 lights lights the family displayed in 2011 raised $78,000 for their favorite charity, SIDS and Kids ACT. They hope this year will bring in even more funds.

Having sworn to never again undertake such a labour-intensive record attempt, in 2012 David discovered his record had been broken by the Gay family from Lagrangeville, New York, with 346,283 lights.

“Suddenly I had twice the drive,” David says. “I’d be raising more money for SIDS and Kids and winning back our record at the same time.

The display is open to the public from 7:30 to 10:30 each night through Boxing Day, and even later close to Christmas. The curious thing is that the tradition of putting up decorative lights for Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Tet, solstice, and other occasions is because it's winter and the nights are long and colorless. However, Christmas comes in summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so in Australia you have to stay late to see the full effect! Read more, and see a video, about the Richards' display at the Guinness site.

Did you know ...

That it's time to kill the notion that cutting taxes on the rich grows the economy

That almost half of the CIA's employees are women

That wal-mart asks employees to donate food to needy co-workers

Workers Hit Walmart Where It Hurts By Going On Strike Before Thanksgiving

 

Workers in Washington, DC are hitting Walmart where it hurts by walking off the job in protest of illegal treatment and low wages just days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
According to Our Walmart, “Walmart workers walked off the job at three Washington DC area stores today, calling on Walmart to end its illegal retaliation against workers calling for better wages and full-time work. Many earning less than $25,000 a year at the country’s largest employer, these workers are risking their livelihoods by striking against an employer that aggressively, and illegally, fires and disciplines workers for speaking out for better jobs.”
Walmart worker Tiffany Beroid said, “I’m speaking out today because Walmart can afford to do better by its workers. We want to work full time, and earn above the poverty level. And we are taking action today because Walmart needs to publicly commit to ending illegal retaliation against workers and better wages.”
Beroid has worked at Walmart for two years, and said her low pay has made it necessary for her family to depend on food stamps in the past.
13 year Walmart associate Cynthia Murray said, “Associates around the country have been retaliated against and fired for speaking out about how it is to work at Walmart. Associates shouldn’t have to fear for our jobs when we are simply asking to be treated with respect, for talking about it. We won’t back down until the company commits to end all retaliation against workers who speak out, and pay all associates a minimum of $25,000 for full-time work.”
The risk that these low wage employees are taking by standing up for their rights is enormous. Walmart is already being prosecuted by the federal government for illegally firing and retaliating against 117 employees. Walmart is a modern day robber baron. They treat labor laws as if they do not apply to them. Walmart has been mistreating their employees for years, but with the gap between rich and poor at an all time high, employees are fighting back.
A one day strike/protest on Black Friday is a nice time event to bring attention to the issue of income inequality and the plight of Walmart workers, but strikes like the one in DC today are key to bringing about real change.
Workers have to hit Walmart where it hurts. These strikes and actions all bring attention to the idea that Walmart isn’t a desirable place to work. If workers in the free market decide that they no longer want to put up with abuse, mistreatment, and poor pay, Walmart will be forced to change their ways.
Happy Thanksgiving, Walmart. The bad publicity isn’t going away and the demand for a living wage grows stronger each day.

John Boehner Protects Cokehead Trey Radel While Florida repugican cabal Wants Him to Resign

 

The Florida repugican cabal and repugican county leaders have higher standards than John Boehner, who will justify and excuse any behavior in order to keep Trey Radel in the U.S. House. The Florida state cabal and county leaders are calling for Radel to resign after he plead guilty to buying an 8 ball from undercover officers.
With the support of repugican cabal of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry, county leaders called emergency meetings to prepare statements calling for Radel to step down.
They say Radel’s “actions clearly disqualify the pursuit of another term and if he should run for re-election, he would not enjoy our support,” and that he has “violated the trust of those whom he was elected to represent and fall short of the standards for an elected official,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The repugicans told the Miami Herald that repugicans have a sense that “that his rehabilitation at a pricey Naples facility wasn’t genuine and that he wasn’t honest with them.”

Two repugicans, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of disclosing private repugican cabal talks, said Radel was reaching out to fellow repugicans to shore up support and talk politics while he was in rehab — instead of focusing on getting well.
“That left a bad taste,” a source said.

The repugicans are also not digging the comparisons to crack smoking Rob Ford and the way Radel has become a national joke.
Contrast the state and county repugican cabal’s standards with national repugicans in the U.S. House, who all jumped on board the “this is personal” bandwagon, even playing the god card in order to excuse a freshman lawmaker who breaks the law keeping his seat:
“He is a hard-working, good legislator and I hope that he makes the right decision for him, for his family and his district,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (r-FLA) said. “I don’t presume what is best for him. Other members have gotten in trouble. There but for the grace of god go all of us – perfect only god. I’m careful not to cast stones, because I live in a glass house as all of us do.”
Apparently repugicans still believe they’re the righteous cabal that can claim moral authority whenever they need it, because even worse were the reactions of repugican leadership. Remember that the repugican cabal used to proudly run on the “tough on crime” position as the “law and order” party. But now, repugican House leadership Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy are falling over themselves to excuse a freshman lawmaker who bought cocaine on more than one occasion, while voting to drug test food stamp recipients.
If you didn’t know any better, you’d think this statement came from the repugican idea of the “hippies” of the 1960′s:Aides said that this was an “an unfortunate time for congressman Radel and his family… He’s admitted he has done wrong and is seeking treatment.”
These radical repugican hippies will excuse anything with feelings and god. He just needs therapy…
How far the mighty have fallen. The repugicans are becoming everything they accuse Democrats of being. But don’t tell them, because repugicans are forever stuck in the 1950s and 60s.
The repugicans can’t see that their desperation is turning them into national jokes who now have a Congress full of “sinners”, post-abandoners, cheaters, campaign law violators, grifters, con artists, and full on crazies. These aren’t the fringe of the party. Oh, no. Leadership approves.

Karl Rove’s SuperPAC Gets Busted for Filing ‘Bullshit’ Documents with IRS

Just as we predicted with the phony IRS scandal, Karl Rove's Crossroads group spent more money than it said it did on politics ...

As we speculated in May, “repugicans Are Using the IRS Scandal to Hide Their Koch Fueled Shady Activities .”
Busted. Karl Rove’s SuperPAC Crossroads GPS spent more money than it said it did on politics, according to a new tax return procured by Kim Barker at ProPublica.
Examining the Crossroads tax documents at the request of ProPublica, Marcus Owens – the former head of the IRS’ Exempt Organization division – definitively declared, “That’s called bullshit with a serving of horseshit on the side.”
It looks as if Rove’s group is playing a shell game with non-profit grants in order to qualify for “social welfare” status. ProPublica got their hands on Crossroads GPS’ 2012 tax return — “signed under penalty of perjury” they remind us — in which Crossroads cited grants of $35 million to nonprofits.
The return “specified that the grants would be used for social welfare purposes, ‘and not for political expenditures, consistent with the organization’s tax-exempt mission.’ But that’s not what happened,” per Barker.
According to new tax documents, at least $11.2 million was spent on political activity, and when this number is added to their 2012 total, it means that Crossroads spent about 45% of its total expenditures on politics. However, in order to qualify for tax exempt status, their primary purpose must be social welfare.
Or, as Owens put it, “bullshit with a serving of horseshit on the side.”
Of course, just because Kim Barker did all of the hard work to bust Crossroads and an expert agrees doesn’t mean the deliberately neutered IRS will touch them.
Senator Dick Durbin was on to Rove’s scam in May of this year, during the heat of the fake IRS scandal meant to do exactly what it did – force the IRS to back off wingnut groups out of fear of looking like they were targeting them, when in truth the IRS targeted both liberal and tea party groups.
Fox was outraged that Durbin mentioned Rove’s Crossroads. So Durbin explained to Fox News in May (my bold), “Citizens United really unleashed hundreds, if not thousands, of organizations seeking tax-exempt statuses to play in political campaigns. The law we wrote as Congress said that they had to exclusively be engaged in social welfare and not politics and campaigning. And so, here is the IRS trying to decide whether or not these organizations really comply with the law. Crossroads was exhibit A. They were boastful about how much the money they were going to raise and beat Democrats… what we basically need to say is all groups need to have the law applied to them equally.”
The fictional IRS scandal did indeed cause the IRS to back off of wingnut groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads. Back in May the New York Times reported, “Some election lawyers said they believed a wave of lawsuits against the I.R.S. and intensifying Congressional criticism of its handling of applications were intended in part to derail those audits, giving political nonprofit organizations a freer hand during the 2014 campaign.”
The real IRS scandal is the influx of dark money courtesy of Citizens United, and the right’s widespread abuse of 501(c)(4). And that’s a big old side helping of “horseshit”, Karl Rove style.
Between the government shutdown squeezing the IRS so that they are sending letters out to almost every taxpayer in America asking for documents they already have but lost and the ginned up “IRS targeting wingnuts” fake scandal, the IRS has been preemptively and deliberately neutered — just like the media. However, it’s their choice to be neutered. They could refuse to be manipulated in such clear and obvious ways. It’s called blind justice– applying the law without deference to shoddy media coverage of repugican deception.
The laws should apply to everyone, not just the little guys.

NSA spied on non-terrorist "radicalizers"' porn use in order to discredit them

A new Snowden leak reveals that the NSA targeted "radicalizers" of Muslim faith, mining their Internet connections for pornography usage. They compiled lists of targets who could be blackmailed, discredited and compromised by targeted leaks of this information, and circulated the lists to officials in the Departments of Justice and Commerce and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Only one percent of the targets of this program are alleged to have any connection to terrorists; the rest were targeted because of their political beliefs.

Instead, the NSA believes the targeted individuals radicalize people through the expression of controversial ideas via YouTube, Facebook and other social media websites. Their audience, both English and Arabic speakers, "includes individuals who do not yet hold extremist views but who are susceptible to the extremist message,” the document states. The NSA says the speeches and writings of the six individuals resonate most in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Kenya, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.
The NSA possesses embarrassing sexually explicit information about at least two of the targets by virtue of electronic surveillance of their online activity. The report states that some of the data was gleaned through FBI surveillance programs carried out under the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act. The document adds, "Information herein is based largely on Sunni extremist communications." It further states that "the SIGINT information is from primary sources with direct access and is generally considered reliable."
According to the document, the NSA believes that exploiting electronic surveillance to publicly reveal online sexual activities can make it harder for these “radicalizers” to maintain their credibility. "Focusing on access reveals potential vulnerabilities that could be even more effectively exploited when used in combination with vulnerabilities of character or credibility, or both, of the message in order to shape the perception of the messenger as well as that of his followers," the document argues.

Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers' 

Man trespassed in home to climb stairs that reminded him of India

Police in Ocala, Florida arrested a man on Sunday morning after they say he trespassed in a home to climb stairs that reminded him of India. 27-year-old Tushar Patel, from India, is being charged with trespassing in an occupied home in Fore Ranch.
Ocala police said they found Patel in a resident's bathroom because Patel claimed the attic stairs he found reminded him of steps in India, so he went up. Police said homeowner Michael Herbert discovered Patel in his bathroom, holding the door knob to the bathroom door to keep it from opening.

Patel seemed to be speaking another language. After the door was opened and Patel handcuffed, they utilised the language line to find a translator; Patel seemed to be speaking Hindi. It was then translated that Patel claimed to be walking and saw the garage door to the home open and the attic door open too.

The steps to the attic reminded him of steps in India, so he ascended them. Police said Patel laid down to rest in the attic, getting up to use the restroom when Herbert's wife discovered him in the bathroom and went to get her husband. Patel was taken to Marion County Jail, where his bond was set at $1,000.

Six Real Heists More Badass Than Any Movie

Real-life robberies are often the subject of our "dumb criminal" posts, but every once in a while, thieves pull off a caper that is so brazen, clever, or just plain huge that you mentally compare it to a Hollywood film. Some of these real-life scripts would be rejected because they're "not believable." Of course, the most impressive robberies are those that are successful. Consider the case of the 2012 jewelry heist at Fraser Hart jewelers at a mall in London. A half-dozen guys dressed in black on motorcycles roared up to the second floor and smashed jewelry cases with axes!

Within a matter of minutes, the raiders had snatched up more than $3.1 million in Cartier and Rolex watches, loose diamonds, and an undisclosed number of those Jane Seymour "Forever Heart" pendants. Then they leaped back onto their doom cycles and thundered off, screaming at random bystanders and dropping loot like cartoon bandits in their wake.

Mall security sprang into action and locked down the entire mall just in time to prevent the bikers from returning and stealing anything else and keep the panicked, terrorized throngs of mid-morning shoppers trapped inside. Investigators found three stolen motorbikes dumped at a nearby golf course, but the trail of jewels apparently didn't lead any further than that, because the riders themselves remain shrouded in mystery.

That's just one of the 6 Real Heists More Badass Than Any Movie you can read about at Cracked.

Giant spinning ice circle discovered in North Dakota’s Sheyenne River

Retired engineer videotapes event he describes as 'an amazing wonder'; disc measured 50 feet in diameter

by Pete Thomas

North Dakota’s giant spinning ice circle

Just about everyone has heard of crop circles, but ice circles?
A retired engineer this week discovered an enormous circle of ice spinning slowly down North Dakota’s Sheyenne River (video posted below).
George Loegering described the rare phenomenon as “an amazing wonder” and can be heard in the video saying that the perfectly round, alien-like disc measured about 50 feet in diameter.
These ice circles, or ice discs, are believed to be formed by eddy currents, and are found only in slow-moving water. Rotational sheer is a scientific explanation of the event. (Picture a large chunk of surface ice breaking free atop a whirlpool eddy, and venturing downstream.)

While the phenomenon is considered rare, ice discs have been documented several times in recent years, in such locations as England, Russia, and the northern United States.
Most of those, however, were small by comparison.
According to Science Frontiers, a spinning ice disc with a diameter of 160 feet was discovered in Sweden’s Pite River in 1987.
The publication stated: “The fringe literature has made much of the huge, slowly spinning discs of ice seen on some rivers in northern climes. UFOs are connected somehow. Or, more recently, they must be associated with the infamous crop circles!”
Presumably, there is no UFO connection to ice circles. But they’re pretty mysterious-looking.

Interesting Causeways From Around The World

A causeway is a road or railway route across a broad body of water or wetland raised up on an embankment. Some causeways may only be usable at low tide and the distinction between causeways and viaducts can become blurred when flood-relief culverts are incorporated in the structure.

A causeway is however primarily supported on earth or stone, whereas a bridge or viaduct is mainly supported by free-standing columns or arches.

What is Sea Level?

(YouTube link)

We intuitively understand the concept of sea level, but how can it be measured in places that are far from the ocean? The Earth isn't even a regular sphere, so the sea level is different at different places. And then there's the fact that the ocean bulges out more at the equator due to centrifugal force. Add in the question of where would sea level be if there were no land masses -does that enter the equation at all? The technical definition of where sea level is for different places is pretty complicated, but Minute Physics does their best to give us an overview. Aren't you glad there are people dedicated to figuring these things out?

Why We Can't Tickle Ourselves

Why We Can't Tickle Ourselves

Ever try to tickle yourself? It doesn't work! Anthony explains how tickling works and why it's something you can't do alone

The Expansion of the Universe and Your Waistline

The universe is gradually expanding over time, growing larger and larger with each passing moment. You may have noticed that your own body is expanding, too. This is not a coincidence. When your body expands, acquiring additional volume and mass, it’s because of a basic, inescapable physical phenomenon.
Don’t blame yourself—or blame anything else. What’s happening to you is a natural process, as Cyanide & Happiness explains.

Ziggy

New clues about human sacrifices at ancient Peruvian temple

Human-sacrifice rituals at an ancient Moche temple in Peru likely featured the killing of war captives from distant valleys, according to an analysis of bones and teeth at the site.

The sacrificial victims were killed, displayed, and later swept into pits
[Credit: Dr. John Verano]

The human remains—mutilated, dismembered, and buried in pits—help explain territorial struggles among the Moche, who ruled Peru's arid coast from around 100 A.D. to 850 A.D.

Debate among scholars over Moche human sacrifices has centered on the question of whether they were ritual killings of elites or of war prisoners, says archaeologist John Verano of Tulane University in New Orleans, one of the authors of the report, available online and in an upcoming issue of Journal of Archaeological Science.

"They look like war captives," Verano concludes, pointing to the study's bone chemistry results, which suggest that sacrifice victims came from far away in the late days of the Moche empire.

Appeasing the Gods

The Moche left behind distinctive pottery, irrigation works, and giant adobe mounds, some adorned with murals depicting war captives.

Among the largest-known Moche ruins is the brick mound site of Huacas de Moche, located near the modern-day city of Trujillo, Peru. The mound consists of three platforms connected by corridors, plazas, and temples.

Roughly 70 sacrifice victims have been found there so far—an indication of frequent human offerings. That alone suggests the slaughter of captured warriors rather than rare killings of elites to appease the gods in religious rituals, Verano says. The victims were killed, displayed, and later swept into pits.

"You don't deny a proper burial, deflesh, mutilate, and turn your elites' bones into trophies as they did [at Huacas de Moche]," says Verano, whose work has been partly supported by National Geographic Society grants. "You don't make a drinking mug out of your elite [ruler's] skull."

Sacrifice ceremonies are depicted in Moche artwork, often showing the killing of bound, naked men. Priests and priestesses are portrayed offering goblets filled with the victims' blood to supernatural beings.

The sacrifice victims' bones were then left for vultures.

Victims From Far Away

The new report is the result of work on the remains of 34 people, some buried in neatly ordered graves and others in burial pits, the latter including young men with their throats slit and bones dismembered.

The chief author of the report, J. Marla Toyne of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, led efforts to analyze oxygen isotopes in the remains of the dead.

The water that people drink leaves specific oxygen traces in bones and teeth, which can help determine where victims lived, both in infancy and in the last decade of their lives. In the case of the Huaca de Moche burials, the male elite—buried in neat graves—were all locals who drank the local river water.

A Long-Term Shift

In the heyday of Huacas de Moche, around 600 A.D., perhaps 25,000 people lived there. Two large temples, the Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon) and the Huaca del Sol (Temple of the Sun), sat atop the mound.

"Who you are choosing to kill, who you are choosing to sacrifice, says a lot about how you see other people," Toyne says. "We are seeing a long-term shift in the origins of sacrifice victims to farther and farther away."

For the past two decades, archaeologists have suspected that some Moche states pursued empire-building along the Andean coast, says Peruvian Ministry of Culture archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, who was not part of the study team.

"The Southern Moche, based in the Huacas de Moche, seem to have been the truly expansionist ones," he wrote by email. "Marla Toyne's research proves this with isotopic information."

Game of Thrones

When Huacas de Moche was first discovered 50 years ago, archaeologists thought that it was the capital of a long-standing Moche empire rather than a city that had expanded its geographic dominance over time.

The new study suggests that Moche centers vied with each other for power and resources, which likely led to warfare. The battles led to the taking of captives, and it seems that captives were slain in sacrifice ceremonies.

Another intriguing result of the bone analysis is that elite women buried at the temples also appear to have largely come from elsewhere.

That points to a "patrilocal" system for the Moche, suggesting that they traded "princess brides" between centers, Verano says. "Not so different from now in some places."

Overall, the findings are updating the view of the enigmatic Moche, who didn't leave behind records as detailed as those of contemporaries such as the Maya of Central America.

"We have to do a lot of careful detective work, still," says Verano, who has been part of excavation work at Huaca de Moches for more than a decade.