Science & Technology

Unusual 17th-Century Dutch Horse Burial Site Found

Toby Sterling
The Associated Press
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:00 UTC

Archeologists have uncovered a mass grave with the complete skeletons of 51 horses buried side-by-side, probably the long-forgotten equine victims of a 17th century battle over a strategic Dutch river.

It was the largest known equine burial ground in Europe, although chief archaeologist Angela Simons said Wednesday that many such sites have probably existed and have been plowed up over the centuries by unwitting farmers.

The archaeological team had been looking for evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the area when they came across the unexpected find.

"From the first shovel, it was horses, horses and more horses," said Angela Simons, of the Hazenberg company, which was employed by the Dutch government to survey the ground ahead of a construction project.

Egypt Finds Evidence of Unfinished Ancient Tomb

The Associated Press
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:00 UTC

© AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities
Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass is seen inside an unfinished 570-foot long tunnel (174 meters) in Luxor, Egypt.

Egyptian archaeologists who have completed excavations on an unfinished ancient tunnel believe it was meant to connect a 3,300-year-old pharaoh's tomb with a secret burial site, the antiquities department said Wednesday.

Egyptian chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said it has taken three years to excavate the 570-foot (174 meter) long tunnel in Pharaoh Seti I's ornate tomb in southern Egypt's Valley of the Kings. The pharaoh died before the project was finished.

First discovered in 1960, the tunnel has only now been completely cleared and archaeologists discovered ancient figurines, shards of pottery and instructions left by the architect for the workmen.

"Move the door jamb up and make the passage wider," read an inscription on a decorative false door in the passage. It was written in hieratic, a simplified cursive version of hieroglyphics.

Elsewhere in the tunnel there were preliminary sketches of planned decorations, said Hawass.

Facebook Says It Disabled "Boycott BP" Page in Error

CNN
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:15 UTC

Facebook is embroiled in another controversy after the popular social networking site on Monday temporarily disabled a page that calls for a boycott of oil giant BP.

Facebook officials said Tuesday the site was removed in error through a technological glitch and has been restored.

The Boycott BP page aims to organize a worldwide boycott of BP stations and all its brands in response to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It urges visitors to "Boycott BP stations until the spill is cleaned up." In addition to the station boycott, it advocates boycotting Castrol, Arco, Aral, Amoco, am/pm and even the Wild Bean Cafe.

The group said it has more than 700,000 members.

The site went down Monday, with visitors redirected to Facebook's home page.

Tesla IPO successful: Stock up 40% on day one

Lewis Page
The Register
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:16 UTC

Market bets that gov-backed Model S can wipe out past

Famous electric car firm Tesla Motors, which has now delivered over a thousand li-ion powered $100k Roadster sportscars, has had a successful IPO. The company's stock, after a slight initial dip, climbed by 40 per cent during its first day listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

Initially priced at $17, Tesla stock closed at $23.89, bucking the day's trend as the NASDAQ overall fell by nearly four per cent. The market itself was plainly pleased to have some good news to offset the gloom, taking out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal to "welcome Tesla".

Tesla may have been helped in the IPO by its very high profile and the fact that it has secured a $465m federal loan facility for the purpose of developing its next car, the "mass market" $50k four-seater Model S.

Galactic monster mystery solved

Stuart Gary
ABC Science Online
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:35 UTC

Scientists have come up with a possible explanation for a weird monstrous-looking bright green gas cloud floating in intergalactic space.

The mysterious cloud was discovered in 2007, by Dutch school teacher Hanny van Arkel while combing though images for the Galaxy Zoo galactic classification project.

Located near the spiral galaxy IC 2497 some 700 million light years away in the constellation Leo Minor, it is known as Hanny's Voorwerp, which is Dutch for Hanny's object.

What makes Hanny's Voorwerp astounding is that it is so unusual - a monstrous green blob with a huge central hole some 16,000 light years across.

Although galactic in scale, it is clearly not a galaxy because it does not contain stars.

Spectrographic readings confirmed it is a giant gas cloud.

But astronomers could not explain why it was glowing an unusual bright green colour.

Last year scientists proposed that some 10,000 years ago, IC 2497 suddenly underwent a dramatic outburst of quasar-like radiation and then became quiet. What we see today is simply a reflection of that outburst.

In other words, Hanny's Voorwerp is a quasar light echo.

"Galactic Archaeologists" Find Origin of Milky Way's Ancient Stars

ScienceDaily
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:00 UTC

© Andrew Cooper/John Helly/Durham University
This simulation shows a Milky Way-like galaxy around five billion years ago when most satellite galaxy collisions were happening.

Many of the Milky Way's ancient stars are remnants of other smaller galaxies torn apart by violent galactic collisions around five billion years ago, according to researchers at Durham University.

Scientists at Durham's Institute for Computational Cosmology and their collaborators at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, in Germany, and Groningen University, in Holland, ran huge computer simulations to recreate the beginnings of our galaxy.

The simulations revealed that the ancient stars, found in a stellar halo of debris surrounding the Milky Way, had been ripped from smaller galaxies by the gravity generated by colliding galaxies.

Cosmologists predict that the early Universe was full of small galaxies which led short and violent lives. These galaxies collided with each other leaving behind debris which eventually settled into more familiar looking galaxies like the Milky Way.

Obama okays spectrum auction

Bill Ray
The Register
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:41 UTC

Nothing comes for free, see

President Obama has nodded through the spectrum auction proposed by the National Broadband Plan, knocking back the idea of any freebies in favour for revenue-generating auctions.

Following best-practice PR, the 500MHz to be put on the auction block is being billed as a new initiative to open up the airwaves, but in fact it's all part of the plan that was proposed by the FCC back in March, but that was before Obama put his magic fingers on it.

"The President's plan will nearly double the amount of commercial spectrum available to unleash the innovative potential of wireless broadband", says Larry Summers, director of Obama's National Economic Council, commenting on the president appending his signature to the idea.

Secret ancient code, basis of all modern civilisation, cracked

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:14 UTC

'As big as Jesus' diary' claims ex IT-guy prof

A former IT type, nowadays a part-time professor of scientific philosophy, says he has cracked a "hidden mathematical musical code" in the works of the famous ancient Greek savant Plato.

According to Dr Jay Kennedy, a visiting scholar at Manchester uni, his discovery "shows us how to combine science and religion", perhaps putting an end to "today's culture wars" between irritable god-botherers and strident atheists. Indeed Kennedy says his work will "revolutionise the history of the birth of Western thought".

Flying car gets helpful road-kit weight exemption from feds

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:09 UTC

Terrafugia gets headroom for airbags, crumple zones etc

The Terrafugia Transition, closest thing to a flying car yet built, has received a unique exemption from the US government allowing production models to be 110 pounds heavier than a normal "light sport aircraft". This will permit the car/plane combo to satisfy safety requirements when driving on roads.

The Transition has been under development by startup firm Terrafugia, founded by flying-enthusiast MIT engineers, since 2006. It is basically a normal light single-engined plane with folding wings and a more substantial, four-wheeled undercarriage.

With wings folded a Transition can be driven on roads at normal highway speeds. On reaching an airport - or a suitable bit of private land, with the owner's permission - it can extend the wings and make a normal rolling takeoff to cruise the skies at 115mph.

Biggest thing in farming for 10,000 years on horizon

Lewis Page
The Register
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:16 UTC

Dirtboffins argue for lawn-style perennial grainfields

Agro-boffins in America say that mankind could be on the verge of the "biggest agricultural breakthrough in 10,000 years", as researchers close in on "perennial grains".

At the moment, most grain grown around the world has to be replanted after every crop. Farming so-called "annual" grain of this sort consumes a lot of resources and is hard on the land, which is especially worrying as half the world's population lives off farmland which could easily be rendered unproductive by intensive annual grain harvests.

"People talk about food security," says soil science prof John Reganold. "That's only half the issue. We need to talk about both food and ecosystem security."

What mandate? There still is no "mandate" [Link]

Tsidkenu

Set up a vaccine clinic in your front yard this Halloween [Link]

Tsidkenu

.. .. 2031? Hope this Comet "BB" hits on the 1st anniversary of Agenda 2030 during their annual vaxx parade

Jibrish

Were I in the U.S., and those three monkeys were my choices for leader, I would vote DeSantis because he appears to be the lesser of three evils....

Baybars

RT's goin' after a protected species? Of course not.

Jibrish

Science & Technology

Unusual 17th-Century Dutch Horse Burial Site Found

Egypt Finds Evidence of Unfinished Ancient Tomb

Facebook Says It Disabled "Boycott BP" Page in Error

Tesla IPO successful: Stock up 40% on day one

Galactic monster mystery solved

"Galactic Archaeologists" Find Origin of Milky Way's Ancient Stars

Obama okays spectrum auction

Secret ancient code, basis of all modern civilisation, cracked

Flying car gets helpful road-kit weight exemption from feds

Biggest thing in farming for 10,000 years on horizon

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