April 15, 2008
Bikini Atoll Coral 'A OK.' Coconuts Still Atomic, Though
Three islands of Bikini Atoll were vapourised by the Bravo hydrogen bomb in 1954, which shook islands 200 kilometres away. Instead of finding a bare underwater moonscape, ecologists who have dived it have given the 2-kilometre-wide crater a clean bill of health."It was fascinating – I’ve never seen corals growing like trees outside of the Marshall Islands," says Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.
The ecologists think the nearby Rongelap Atoll is seeding the Bikini Atoll, and the lack of human disturbance is helping its recovery. Although the ambient radiation is low, people have remained at bay.
This does not prove that we(humans) can do anything to the Earth and still survive. This proves that nature finds a way to survive. A disaster of this proportion, or greater, will very likely turn us into Hideous Mutant Freeks thirsting for the blood of everything.
Don't ever doubt that.
(via digg, newscientist)
Posted by Groonk at 01:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science
April 01, 2008
You Need a Lesson. You Dig?
Don't be a drag, man.
(via skyelab)
Posted by Groonk at 07:37 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Digital Share, Grammar, History, Tutorials
February 28, 2008
Geek Networking of the 1990s was Quaint, Televised, Canadian
Explore the origins of Sci Fi fandom. See how little Neil Gaiman has changed in 15 years. Recoil at the (usual) curtness of Harlan Ellison. Be amazed by the teenaged Garth Ennis.
Chuckle at 90s TV graphics. I could probably do a rather long essay on how internet graphics changed the visual design landscape of television. I'll save that for another obsession.
(via neil gaiman, Prisoners of gravity: Fans, a response to neil gaiman's sharing of the Fans You Tube by the creator of Fans)
Posted by Groonk at 03:17 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, Comics, Culture, Documentary, History, Tee Vee
February 02, 2008
Nikola Tesla. He Saw Machines Swirling in His Head
The Groonk Nation admires most things Tesla, mad genius that he was. Others are talking about him now. Others are writing books with detailed history.
Studio 360 is podcasting about it all.
(via coilhouse)
Posted by Groonk at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Podcast, Streamed Goodness, Technology, Tesla, The Future
January 29, 2008
Man Sells North American History to Pay Bills
There is a special hell for you, sir.
A state archivist was charged Monday with stealing hundreds of artifacts — documents representing "the heritage of all Americans," according to the history buff who found some of them on eBay — to pay his household bills.Daniel Lorello, 54, is accused of taking the rare items from the New York State Library, including Davy Crockett Almanacs, Currier and Ives lithographs and the 1865 railroad timetable for Abraham Lincoln's funeral train. Authorities believe he hawked them for tens of thousands of dollars, using much of that to pay off his daughter's credit card debt.
"This crime is especially repugnant, because it's dealing with historic documents," state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. "It's literally stealing the legacy of the state of New York page by page."
[...]
In a handwritten statement released by Cuomo's office, Lorello said he took "more than 300 or 400 items in 2007 alone."
He said he "particularly liked" artifacts associated with the Revolutionary, Civil and Mexican wars, World War I, black Americana and "anything related to the Roosevelts and Jewish items."
Officials found hundreds of documents and artifacts in Lorello's home over the weekend. Authorities believe the theft goes back to 2002, although it accelerated in 2007.
"I took things on an as-needed basis to pay family bills, such as house renovations, car bills, tuition and my daughter's credit card problem," Lorello wrote.
He said he took many items last year because his daughter "unexpectedly ran up a $10,000 credit card bill."
Incompetence runs in the family. Surprise.
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 08:03 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, USA
January 24, 2008
Ring Gun: Small. Stylish. Old. Deadly?
Also, it won't pass through Airport Security.
Duh.
Also of interest:
Watch Gun
Crucifix Gun
a fucking Hand Canon!
(via curio&antik, gizmodo)
Posted by Groonk at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Religion, Research, Technology, USA
January 14, 2008
Television History Site has First 75 Years of TV
I took a pass through Television During World War-II to learn that nearly all broadcasting worldwide was halted during the war.
Television History - The First 75 Years
That technically makes TV a part of the Greatest Generation, yes?
(via tv history site )
Posted by Groonk at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
December 14, 2007
Captain Kidd's Ship Found in the Most Obvious Place
The underwater archaeology team, from Indiana University, says they have found the remains of Quedagh Merchant, actively sought by treasure hunters for years.Charles Beeker of IU said his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and convert the site into an underwater preserve for the public.
It is remarkable that the wreck has remained undiscovered all these years given its location, just 70 feet off the coast of Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic in less than 10 feet of seawater.
Amazingly, it hasn't been looted.
(via yahoo, livescience)
Posted by Groonk at 01:57 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
December 06, 2007
Son of a Bitch. Look What they Dug Up.
It's the damnedest thing.
I didn't know there was a Max Headroom pirating incident in 1987.
Sumbitch.
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 06:43 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, Tee Vee, The Future
December 03, 2007
Tesla's Missing Papers. About 6 of them.
One of the more controversial topics involving Nikola Tesla is what became of many of his technical and scientific papers after he died in 1943. Just before his death at the height of World War II, he claimed that he had perfected his so-called "death beam." So it was natural that the FBI and other U.S. Government agencies would be interested in any scientific ideas involving weaponry. Some were concerned that Tesla's papers might fall into the hands of the Axis powers or the Soviets.The morning after the inventor's death, his nephew Sava Kosanovic´ hurried to his uncle's room at the Hotel New Yorker. He was an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the communist party in his country. By the time he arrived, Tesla's body had already been removed, and Kosanovic´ suspected that someone had already gone through his uncle's effects. Technical papers were missing as well as a black notebook he knew Tesla kept—a notebook with several hundred pages, some of which were marked "Government."
There are samples of the papers on the PBS site. Six documents in all.
Lovely mental steak for newly indoctrined Tesla geeks like myself.
Posted by Groonk at 06:04 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science, Tesla, USA
November 14, 2007
What Ever Did People Do with 5 KB of RAM?
A strange museum where facts on old computers live.
(random find)
Posted by Groonk at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, Technology
October 22, 2007
Unique Hitler Items Found in SLC
The hell?
(via msnbc)
Posted by Groonk at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, History, USA, WorldWarII
October 18, 2007
The Nomadic Aborigine Myth Debunked
Dwellings were constructed in various styles, depending on the climate. Most common were dome-like structures made of cane reeds with roofs thatched with palm leaves.Some of the houses were interconnected, allowing native people to interact during long periods spent indoors during the wet season.
The findings, by the anthropologist and architect Dr Paul Memmot, of the University of Queensland, discredits a commonly held view in Australia that Aborigines were completely nomadic before the arrival of Europeans 200 years ago.
The belief was part of the argument used by white settlers to claim that Australia was terra nullius - the Latin term for land that belonged to nobody.
Dr Memmott said the myth that indigenous Australians were constantly on the move had come about because early explorers made their observations in good weather, when indigenous people were more mobile than at other times.
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 12:55 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, History, Myth, Research, Science
October 16, 2007
Oh BTW: Huntsville's Fully Haunted
The Halloween spirit is finally taking hold of me.
Huntsville - The Carter Mansion - is haunted by the ghost of Sally Carter who died a violent death at 16 year old and is buried on the Carter Estate. She has been sited walking the grounds. Some say she is responsible for toppling her headstone on occasion.Huntsville - Crybaby Hollow - Ghost of a baby wails through the trees on cold nights and will sometimes scratch on the bottoms of cars that park there. Mysterious breathing sounds sometimes heard as well.
Huntsville - Dead Children's Playground (next to Maple Hill Cemetery) - The ghosts of children often are seen swinging in swing sets or sometimes the swings are moving as if someone were in them. The children are seen very late at night or early the next day like from 11:00pm to 3:00am, too late for children to be out.
Huntsville - Hell's Gates (Green Mountain) - There are a set a big black gates that stand about a mile from the bottom of the mountain that guard some huge mansion on this mountain. If you go and sit in front of the gates for a little while a car will come down the mountain and chase you until you get to the bottom and the car will suddenly vanish...its no myth.
Huntsville - Heritage Bible College - WHBC Frat House - Late at night you can hear the Ghost of former youth minister Anthony Stephens walking through the house flushing the toilet. His now deceased brethren Robert Ekisbus and Adam Cooper follow him around making noises that almost sounds like the word "cheese".
Huntsville - Huntsville High School - People have claimed to here foot steps and laughing of teenagers through the halls at night after late softball or basketball practices.
Huntsville - Kent Robertson park - A young boy died there one summer day. They named the park after him and made a memory stone. He still is heard in the park at night and the hunt club-woods behind it.
Huntsville - Maple Hill Cemetery - An old lady passed away and was put in the family burial house. Her family placed her antique rocking chair in the crypt with her because it was a prized possession to her. Most anytime when you stand outside the burial house, you can hear the rocking chair moving back and forth.
Huntsville - Old Dallas Mill Site - The Dallas Mill was built in 1891 and burned down in 1992. Haunted by a man died while cleaning the smoke stacks shortly after the mill was built, and a homeless person who lived there after the mill burned down. People have reported seeing him wandering around the ruins.
Huntsville - Space Camp - Space camp counselors tell the story there about a man who was working on the sleeping quarters at the facility. One day they were using explosives to make large holes in the ground for the below ground quarters. The explosives went off early and he was buried alive by dirt and rubble. Until this day in the halls and in some rooms there they can still here his cries for help echoing through the halls and large moans late at night.
(via shadowlands haunted places index)
Posted by Groonk at 04:45 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Holiday, Myth
Cemetery to Kill "Dead Children's Playground"
This is a bit of local(Huntsville, AL) folklore that's about to make way for more dead people. A place to bury the dead apparently means more money for the city.
An e-mail last week from Huntsville cemetery Director Brenda Webb - who was out of the office Wednesday for medical reasons and could not be reached - to the City Council and other officials addressed a proposition to turn the park into an area for burial spaces and crypts."It is hardly ever used for much except vandals, drug deals, lovers and employees hiding out from their employers," Webb wrote. "It is thought too dangerous for most children to play in."
Some folks are calling shennanigans.
"For the past 10 or 11 years, we've gone to the park regularly on weekends with our dog, and we've seen families playing on the playground," Lattanzi said. "And there was a great baseball field with a backstop."Saturday morning, it was all still there. When we went back on Sunday, it was all gone."
Lattanzi doesn't approve of voting on the proposal the week of fall break, when he said many of the families who might like to protest the park's closure are out of town.
"They say illegal activities are going on, but I've never felt anything but safe at that park," he said. "And anything illegal that was going on probably had nothing to do with playground equipment.
"I don't see how expanding a cemetery is going to fix that."
Parks and Recreation Director Greg Patterson said he doesn't love the idea of losing park space, but he said it is an under-utilized area that has security problems.
I'm oddly sad to see it go.
(via huntsville LJ and al.com)
(photo credit to beepboop's livejournal and flickr)
Update: Looks like the ghosts will live.
"It was poorly handled," Mayor Loretta Spencer said Tuesday after meeting with department heads involved in the equipment removal decisions.Spencer said she will yank the cemetery expansion ordinance from the City Council agenda and restore the park. "I am pulling this from the agenda and I have ordered new playground equipment," she said. Spencer said the equipment will be paid from a $50,000 line item in the budget for recreational equipment. It should be installed within a month, she said.
"That's wonderful. That's what we needed in there all along. I think it will be a real benefit for the neighborhood," reacted Blossomwood resident Nancy Grayson Van Valkenburg, who joined other residents last week in begging the council to protect the park.
City workers on Tuesday began repainting a pavilion and reinstalling picnic tables and benches. Spencer said she has instructed her city landscaping director to remove overgrowth to enhance the park's safety.
The park resurrection comes on the heels of public outcry at last week's City Council meeting over the dismantling of the park with no advance notice. Council President Glenn Watson apologized to residents for the way it was handled.
Posted by Groonk at 03:59 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Myth
September 15, 2007
WWII Tank Vet Reunites with Holocaust Survivors
On Friday, the now 86-year-old retired state Supreme Court judge reunited with three of the survivors of the Nazi death train his unit found near Magdeburg, about 50 miles southwest of Berlin. The train was on its way to another concentration camp.[...]
The reunion has its roots in a class project launched by Matthew Rozell, a history teacher at Hudson Falls High School. In the early 1990s, he created an elective course for seniors to collect stories from local veterans and post them on a Web site.
One of Rozell's students was Walsh's grandson, who told the teacher about his grandfather's wartime service. Several years ago, Rozell interviewed Walsh and George Gross, a fellow tank commander from Spring Valley, Calif.
Their account of the train liberation was posted on the project's Web site, along with black-and-white photographs taken that day by the major leading their patrol.
That's where some of the child survivors of the Nazi train, now in their 60s and 70s, found their story.
Learn about: A Train Near Magdeburg
Main Link: The World War Two Living History Project (WW2LHP)
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 08:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, WorldWarII
September 10, 2007
Viking Queen Raised from Her Rest
Archaeologists exhumed the body of a Viking queen on Monday, hoping to solve a riddle about whether a woman buried with her 1,200 years ago was a servant killed to be a companion into the afterlife.As a less gruesome alternative, the two women in the grass-covered Oseberg mound in south Norway might be a royal mother and daughter who died of the same disease and were buried together in 834.
"We will do DNA tests to try to find out. I don't know of any Viking skeletons that have been analyzed as we plan to do," Egil Mikkelsen, director of Oslo's Museum of Cultural History, told Reuters at the graveside.
[...]
Mikkelsen said he saw no ethical objections to opening the grave, partly because the two were buried so long ago and no one even knew their names.
Posted by Groonk at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research
August 07, 2007
Alexander was Second to Alexandria
History is a quirky bird.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Alexander the Great founded Alexandria to immortalize his name amid his quest to conquer the world - but his was apparently not the first city on the famed site on Egypt's Mediterranean coast.[...]
"This was proof that there was significant metallurgy and human activity going on back 1,000 years B.C.," Stanley said. "Alexandria did not just grow out from a barren desert, but was built atop an active town.
"We had five well defined components that fit - and we had the story. And the story was that Alexander the Great did not come first to set up Alexandria, there was already something there."
Stanley could not say exactly how big the community was, only that it appeared more developed than a small fishing village.
Posted by Groonk at 03:48 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
August 06, 2007
Today it Rained Fire Half a World Away
Thus ending a war that cost countless lives in battle and would have had an even bloodier invasion had the Allies traditionally attacked Japan.
Aug. 6, 1945: 'I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds'1945: The United States becomes the first (and remains the only) country ever to use an atomic weapon in warfare, obliterating the Japanese city of Hiroshima and instantly killing 70,000 people. (Many thousands more would die later from the effects of radiation poisoning.) Three days later, the port city of Nagasaki is destroyed by a second atom bomb with the ultimate loss of 140,000 lives. Japan surrenders shortly thereafter, ending World War II.
Several countries, including Nazi Germany, had pursued the development of an atomic weapon but none matched the U.S. Manhattan Project in terms of the resources, energy or scientific manpower devoted to making the bomb a reality.
Such dates should be remembered.
(via digg)
Posted by Groonk at 02:53 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, WorldWarII
July 12, 2007
The Internet Circa 1994. And Oh Boy, was it Going Places.
(via ponzu, download squad, old school youtube)
Posted by Groonk at 06:25 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Video
July 05, 2007
The Zazou: The French Might be Re-writing their History Again
whether or not the Zazou were real, I can’t say. French recollections of collective resistance seem to be exaggerated wishful fantasies to disguise the fact that they basically just rolled over. But of all the possibly imaginary demarcations of the French Resistance, the Zazou are the ones I most hope to have been real.The Nazis description of the average Zazounian: ““Here is the specimen of Ultra Swing 1941: hair hanging down to the neck, teased up into an untidy quiff, little moustache a la Clark Gable… shoes with too-thick soles, syncopated walk.” An armada of listless youths, taking to the streets in their zoot suit uniforms, swaggering and swinging their pocket watches on their chains, to fight the fascists with the power off le jazz hot!
Digging deeper: 1940-1945: The Zazous | grow-a-brain
(via the marvelous new blog Ectoplasmosis)
Posted by Groonk at 06:04 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, On the French, WorldWarII
June 02, 2007
40 Years Ago...
The Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, the Fray and other popular rock groups have joined to record songs from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in honor of Friday's 40th anniversary of the Beatles' epochal album.During the special recording session, which airs on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday, musicians and audio engineer Geoff Emerick will work with the same equipment the Beatles used for their album.
(via ontd)
Posted by Groonk at 04:53 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Albums, History, Music
May 30, 2007
Who's Dead Again?*
No time to watch "Human, All Too Human," a documentary about Frederick Nietzsche. Dropping it here for later review.
(via smashing telly)
Posted by Groonk at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Movies, Video
May 03, 2007
Ancient Buddhist Paintings Found in Nepal's Caves
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Explorers have discovered a series of caves decorated with ancient Buddhist paintings, set in sheer cliffs in Nepal's remote Himalayan north, leaving archaeologists excited and puzzled.An international team of scholars, archaeologists, climbers and explorers examined at least 12 cave complexes at 14,000 feet (4,300 metres) near Lo Manthang, a mediaeval walled city in Nepal's Mustang district, about 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Kathmandu.
"Who lived in those caves? When were they there, when were (the caves) first excavated and how did the residents access them, perched as they are on vertical cliffs?" asked Broughton Coburn, an American member of the survey team.
"It's a compelling, marvellous mystery."
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science
April 25, 2007
Alabama to Apologize for Being Bass Ackward
Oh my stars and garters.
Alabama is ready to apologize for slavery.Proponents of resolutions to make an apology said votes in both the Senate and the House prove just that.
The state House of Representatives and Senate passed separate resolutions Tuesday issuing a state apology for slavery.
The resolutions now go to opposite chambers. If either version passes both houses, it goes to Gov. Bob Riley, who has said he will sign such an apology into law.
[...]
Some senators were concerned that Sanders' resolution would make the state vulnerable to lawsuits, particularly lawsuits involving slavery reparations. The resolution he presented Tuesday added language that said it cannot be used in any litigation. Moore's resolution in the House included a similar provision.
[...]
Rep. Jay Love, R-Montgomery, wanted to amend the resolution to replace the word "apologize" with "regret."
"What I have a problem with is apologizing for something I didn't do," said Love, who is white.
All the senators opposing the resolution were Republican, as were those who abstained.
Voting against the resolution were Scott Beason (R-Gardendale), Charles Bishop (R-Jasper), Larry Dixon (R-Montgomery), Hank Erwin (R-Pelham), Rusty Glover (R-Semmes), Harri Anne Smith (R-Slocomb), and Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills). Abstaining were Ben Brooks (R-Mobile), Bradley Byrne (R-Mobile), Del Marsh (R-Anniston), Steve French (R-Birmingham), Arthur Orr (R-Decatur).
Apologies are best if you rip them off fast like band aids or farts.
"Ididn'tknowitwasyoursister!"
"Ididn'tputyourfavoriteshoesinthedryeronhighheat."
"TherewereatleasttenbeersinthefridgewhenIgotmine."
No-Prizes to all who take the time to read those.
(via montgomery advertiser)
Posted by Groonk at 08:39 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Politics
April 12, 2007
More Unfortunate Comic Panels
Aunt May takes up a new profession
This has become habit forming.
(more @ YesButNoButYes; via geekologie)
Posted by Groonk at 05:11 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, History
April 11, 2007
Always Remember, Comics were Often Stupid
Also, back then, they were exclusively for kids.
Matt Fraction assembled some tragic and unfortunate panels from old DOOM PATROL's.
(via mattfraction)
Posted by Groonk at 07:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, Funny, History, Weird
March 28, 2007
Tuskegee Airmen to get Congressional Gold Medal
President George W. Bush will honor the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress, at a ceremony on Thursday at the U.S. Capitol.The airmen helped lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement and influenced President Harry Truman's decision to desegregate the army in 1948.
[...]
In all, about 1,000 pilots were trained, and also ground crew. Fewer than a third of the pilots are still alive to receive the medal.
"We had the feeling that the program was designed to fail," said one of the pilots, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charles Dryden, who graduated from the school in 1942.
"Our mantra was that we dared not fail because if we did, the doors of future aviation would be closed to black people forever," he said in an interview at his home in Atlanta.
Dryden, 86, who stayed in the Air Force after World War Two, recalled the "horrible discrimination" he faced and said he decided to stay away from whites in Alabama as far as possible to avoid breaking the racial mores of the south.
[...]
"I had a deep feeling of fear," he said of his first combat encounter. "It wasn't about the enemy, it was about myself ... But the first time I saw the enemy I ran (flew) toward him and I knew that I was a tiger and not a pussy cat."
On graduating from the flying school, he rode the train back to New York wearing his uniform.
"As I was proudly preening my way through the terminal a little white lady said: 'Here Boy. Carry my bags."' The remark angered him but taught him a lesson. "It humbled me. It taught me: It's not the uniform that counts, it's what's inside."
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 01:11 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, WorldWarII
February 09, 2007
Ancient Skeletons Found in Final Embrace
Happy Valentine's Day, bitches.
Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed two skeletons thought to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old, locked in an embrace.
The pair from the Neolithic period were discovered outside Mantua, about 40km (25 miles) south of Verona.
The pair, almost certainly a man and a woman, are thought to have died young as their teeth were mostly intact, said chief archaeologist Elena Menotti.
The burial site was discovered on Monday during construction work for a factory building.
"It's an extraordinary case," said Ms Menotti. "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging - and they really are hugging," she told Reuters news agency.
Flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, were also found alongside the couple.
(via bbc news and boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 10:10 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Holiday, Science
January 23, 2007
Amateur archaeologist Uncovers Earliest Evidence of New World Heavy Industry
RICHMOND, Va. - The ruins of a 17th century iron blast furnace found in Chesterfield County is believed to be the first ironworks in English North America and the earliest known evidence of heavy industry in the New World, county officials said Friday. County public utilities employee Ralph Lovern, an amateur archaeologist who often searches the area for Indian artifacts, uncovered the furnace along the banks of Falling Creek.Historians say the furnace was built around 1619 by the Virginia Company of England.
Archaeologists and historians have known for years that an ironworks operated in the area. Heavy rains late last year caused flooding that cut a new channel along the creek's banks that exposed the ruins.
(via yahoo news, timesdispatch.com)
Posted by Groonk at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, USA
January 17, 2007
Stone Henge was Not Alone
I'm gathering a decent bit of Stone Henge news over the years.
Recent excavations of Salisbury Plain in southern England have revealed at least two other large stone formations close by the world-famous prehistoric monument.One of the megalithic finds is a sandstone formation that marked a ritual burial mound; the other, a group of stones at the site of an ancient timber circle.
(via national geographic)
Posted by Groonk at 08:14 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research
January 10, 2007
80s Endings Fill Your Cup with Awesome
I can't tell you the memories of John Hughes films that washed over my Members Only brain.
(via ponzu and the long missed atomfilms)
Posted by Groonk at 01:26 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Just Freaking Neat, Movies, Video
Albert Goodyear will Challenge all You Believe True
This land WAS their land.
Archaeologist Albert Goodyear is working on the find of his life.Not everyone is convinced, but Goodyear believes further excavation and testing at the South Carolina location, known as the Topper site, will confirm his findings.
(via warren ellis and neighborhoodtimes)
Posted by Groonk at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science
December 14, 2006
Petrified Dino Eggs Perserved Mid-Split
The first fossils of half-billion-year-old clusters of soft-shelled eggs have been found preserved in a strange new way in south China — some of the eggs were even caught in the act of dividing.The three-dimensional clusters of petrified eggs from invertebrate animals that lived in a sea 501 million to 510 million years ago are preserved in silica — glass essentially. Jih-Pai Lin, an Ohio State University paleontologist, explained this is a totally unexpected way for soft eggs to fossilize and survive for eons.
Lin is the lead author of a report on the egg clusters published in the December issue of the journal Geology.
(via discovery news)
Posted by Groonk at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, History, Science
December 07, 2006
The Ancient Computer Reveals more Secrets
I've read the articles and watched documentaries on this and other items like it for quite some time now. The more I learn about ancient civilizations and cultures, the more I realize they did have technology to be reckoned with. It's easy for us to think of them as simple people with simple desires but that's really a limited view. They had desires and the technology just as we do.
It's funny that the average American history class skims over all the good stuff and only does it's best to turn you into a living recorder. They make you spit out dates and times like that is what's important. And that couldn't be furthest from the true.
Or maybe I just had a shitty public school experience. I am one of legions no doubt.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Imagine tossing a top-notch laptop into the sea, leaving scientists from a foreign culture to scratch their heads over its corroded remains centuries later. A Roman shipmaster inadvertently did something just like it 2,000 years ago off southern Greece, experts said late Thursday.
They claim to have identified a handful of puzzling metal scraps found in the wreck as the earliest known mechanical computing device that pinpointed astronomical events.
Only the first clockwork devices appeared more than a thousand years later in western Europe.
"It was a pocket calculator of the time," said astronomer John Seiradakis.
(via myways news and 7d)
Posted by Groonk at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, Technology
October 30, 2006
Nazi Home Movie Found in Church
A 10-minute home movie made by Nazi officers during World War II has been found in a church in rural Devon.It shows members of the SS running a slave labour camp in southern Russia. In the footage, troops force prisoners to work and officers are seen relaxing.
No one is sure how the film came to be stored at Cullompton Baptist Church but historians say it is unique.
[...]
"It looks very much like this is something somebody shot to show where they are working to take home to show the wife and kids."
Fuck zombies, werewolves, aliens and all that noise. People are the scariest monsters on Earth.
(via bbc news and warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 12:37 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Religion, WorldWarII
September 15, 2006
Earliest Stone Writing for Western Hemisphere
It's more than idle doodling and the meaning is unclear. But there's one thing researchers are sure of: The insect, ear of corn, inverted fish and other symbols inscribed on an ancient stone slab is the earliest known writing in the Western Hemisphere.
The arrangement and pattern of the symbols suggest the ancient Olmec civilization was using written language roughly three centuries earlier than previously proposed.
"We are dealing with the first, clear evidence of writing in the New World," said Stephen Houston, a Brown University anthropologist. Houston and his U.S. and Mexican colleagues detail the tablet's discovery and analysis in a study appearing this week in the journal Science.
[...]
Villagers in the Mexican state of Veracruz discovered the tablet sometime before 1999, while quarrying an ancient Olmec mound for road-building material. News of the discovery slowly trickled out, and the study's authors traveled to the site earlier this year to examine and photograph the block.
Based on other materials, including pottery shards, believed found with the slab, team concluded it is roughly 2,900 years old. Isolated signs similar to those inscribed on the block also appear on even older figurines found elsewhere in Mexico.
(via discovery)
Posted by Groonk at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science
August 28, 2006
A Scholar Says Iliad and Odyssey was Penned by a Woman
Andrew Dalby, author of Rediscovering Homer, argues that the attribution of the poems to Homer was founded on a falsehood.
]...]
Dalby explained to Discovery News that the earliest references to Homer by writers such as Herodotus and the Greek poet Pindar indicate the poet lived around 800 B.C.
But based on geographical references in the poems, Dalby believes the Iliad was composed in 650 B.C., while the Odyssey was written in 630 B.C., well after Homer’s supposed lifetime.
Aside from the poems themselves, no concrete clues exist to identify their author, but Dalby builds a case that the person probably was a woman.
Dalby explained that women throughout the ancient world were "often the last and most skillful exponents of an oral tradition."
For example, the world’s first named poet was a Sumerian woman named Enheduanna, who lived from around 2285-2250 B.C. Dalby said women also saved the ancient oral poetry of the northern Japanese, many Irish traditions, and numerous English folk ballads.
If the poet was a woman, Dalby believes her name is probably lost to history.
"I would guess that Sappho (a female Greek poet) and her contemporary, the male poet Alkaios, probably knew the name, but they did not mention it in their own poetry," Dalby said.
(via discovery news)
Posted by Groonk at 02:41 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, History, Just Freaking Neat, Research
August 25, 2006
Found: City of Caer Caradoc at Mynydd y Gaer, Glamorgan
And now, a small team of dedicated researchers working with historians Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett, say they have been able to pinpoint the location of this site. "It is great news for the local, regional and national economy," said Alan Wilson today. "We have been making these discoveries for many years and with the Electrum Cross discovered at nearby St. Peter's in 1990, it looks like a boost for jobs is likely."
[...]
"What we have is a clearly-defined walled city in exactly the place the records tell us it should be. The Welsh manuscripts and supporting records are always precise and allow us to make major progress in terms of identifying royal burial mounds, tombs, artefacts and more," said Wilson.
Aerial photographs obtained by the research team via Google Earth are available for viewing on the Internet via, realhistoryradio.blogspot.com
A Caer is a fortress and Caers were major fortress cities and towns for example: Caer Lllundain (London), Caerdydd (Cardiff) Caergrant (Cambridge) and Caer Loyw (Gloucester).
[...]
A third reference is that of the "Uthyr Pendragon" , King Meurig/Maurice, who lies buried at the giant circle at Caer Caradoc. There is, at this location, a gigantic ditch and mound shaped like a boat, next to St. Peter's Church ruin. In this 180 yards by 70 yards wide earth mound and ditch feature there is the huge grave mound of Meurig.
Posted by Groonk at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
Pluto Officially Dumped from Plantetdom
IAU says, "it's not you, it's...actually it is you."
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn't — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.
[...]
For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.
In other news, people are rallying to save Pluto's planet-ness.
-Warren Ellis will fight you
-Michael Peterson's campaigning for a planet designated Pluto
-Worth1000 has an amusing photoshop intervention. My favorite being this one.
It warms my heart to see science in the news, even if it is being treated as a fluff piece. I'd rather see that than skanky plastic retro hoochies talking about "hotness" levels.
(via discovery channel)
Posted by Groonk at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science
July 26, 2006
A Miracle was Found in an Irish Bog
Archeologists in Ireland are treating the finding of an ancient book of psalms unearthed from bogland as a miracle.
The book was discovered by a man digging peat from the bog with a backhoe.
"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration.
He is one of a team of manuscript experts who spoke about the discovery on Tuesday.
"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out," said Wallace. "First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."
The book has about 20 pages and experts believe it was written by monks between 800 and 1000 AD.
Posted by Groonk at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Religion
June 26, 2006
"The Turk" Totally Owned Napoleon in Chess
Yes. The Napoleon Bonaparte. The same French ruler that fought Russians in the dead of winter on their own land.
[...]
In 1809 the Turk defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Schonbrunn, during the Wagram campaign.
For being a famous hoax, I sure never heard of The Turk. Not until I did some reading up on a favorite recent Doctor Who episode by the name of "The Girl in the Fireplace." Writer Steven Moffat, your skills are too awesome for words. Which is a feat in itself since your skills are words.
And Sophia Myles, my god, woman, call me. I can't give you Paris but I can give you a quaint little eatery by name of Cheeburger Cheeburger. You haven't lived until you've had one of those.
Posted by Groonk at 02:47 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Robots
June 08, 2006
Hitler had Nuclear Weapons?
Of the tactical variety, it seems.
Rainer Karlsch said that new research in Soviet and also Western archives, along with measurements carried out at one of the test sites, provided evidence for the existence of the weapon.
"The important thing in my book is the finding that the Germans had an atomic reactor near Berlin which was running for a short while, perhaps some days or weeks," he told the BBC.
"The second important finding was the atomic tests carried out in Thuringia and on the Baltic Sea."
Mr Karlsch describes what the Germans had as a "hybrid tactical nuclear weapon" much smaller than those dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
He said the last test, carried out in Thuringia on 3 March 1945, destroyed an area of about 500 sq m - killing several hundred prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates.
Modern day Germans remain skeptical. While the Seoul Times has taken it upon themselves to post every Hitler picture they have in their archives. It's like the History Channel threw up all over their web page.
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 01:53 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, World, WorldWarII
Europasaurus holgeri the tiny "Terrible Lizard"
DESPITE their giant reputation as the largest dinosaurs and largest land animals ever - sauropods actually came in all sizes, as a newly discovered 6-metre-long dwarf species proves.
The first fossil evidence for dwarf dinosaurs was unearthed at the end of the 19th century, but no one was quite sure whether the fossils were dwarf adults or merely juveniles of normal-size dinosaurs. Now, an analysis of fossilised bones from 11 individuals of this new species (Europasaurus holgeri) shows conclusively that they were adults.
"It's the first time we've really proven [that the fossils are from a dwarf species]," says Martin Sander, a palaeontologist at the University of Bonn, Germany, and one of the team who described the new species.
(via new scientist)
Posted by Groonk at 01:27 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, History, Science
May 27, 2006
X-Men Comic History is Weighted and Measured
IGN counted down The 25 Greatest Moments in X-Men History. Although I haven't read all the ones mentioned, I have read more than the average joe. I'll be damned if I can't find fault with any of their choices.
All IGN really did was make me want to hunt down a few more trade paper backs.
Of those that I have read, these stand out:
I would include the Colossal Bar Brawl with Juggernaut but that was just before my time.
(via ign.com)
Posted by Groonk at 03:39 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, History
May 26, 2006
"Dracorex hogwartsia" is a Silly Name
boingboing says:
A dragon-like dinosaur unearthed in South Dakota has been named "Dracorex hogwartsia" (Dragon King of Hogwarts) with the help of a group of kids at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The name has received the blessing of JK Rowling, who says it will give her more cred with her "science-loving family."
discovery.com says:
The newly described horny-headed dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia lived about 66 million years ago in South Dakota, just a million years short of the extinction of all dinosaurs. But its flat, almost storybook-style dragon head has overturned everything paleontologists thought they knew about the dome-head dinos called pachycephalosaurs.
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 01:02 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, History
May 20, 2006
Cuba shares over 20K Hemingway papers with US
The move is part of a deal on restoring Hemingway's legacy that, correspondents say, has united the usually feuding governments of Havana and Washington.
Hemingway spent much of his time living in Cuba between 1939 and 1960.
[...]
The documents sent include copies of letters in which Hemingway outlines his stance on World War Two and the Spanish Civil War.
(via bbc news)
Posted by Groonk at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, History
May 18, 2006
The Sinking of the Big O
Navy divers detonated 500 pounds of explosives aboard the rusting ship yesterday to send it on a 212-foot plunge.
The Wiki site has loads of info on the history of the Oriskany.
(via al.com)
Posted by Groonk at 01:59 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Science, War
April 16, 2006
The "Dark Miracle" is here
Not long ago an article in net-funded journalism is born.
Joshua Ellis had an idea...an experiment. The Trinity test site in New Mexico was about to open to the public, the one of 2 times it does that a year, and he decdied to journey there and write a 2,500 word essay about teh experience. The only thing was, he didn't had the funds for such a trip. So he asked people on the net to donate, via BitPass, the money necessary to make the trip and write the article.
His minimum goal was $500 and he reported soon after this post that he more than passed that goal.
A little while later -- the "Dark Miracle" article was released into the web.
The teaser:
"Dark Miracle"by Joshua Ellis
There's an old story that in the hours before dawn on July 16th, 1945, a young woman named Georgia Green was being driven back to school at the University of New Mexico by her sister Margaret and her brother-in-law Joe. Suddenly, she saw a bright flash of light, and she gripped Joe's arm hard enough to make him swerve the car. "What's that light?" she asked.
The thing is, Georgia Green was blind.
At that moment, some fifty miles away, a tall, gaunt man in a porkpie hat was also staring at the light, through a pair of darkened welder's glasses. He was the architect of Georgia Green's dark miracle, and he was very, very tired -- as tired, perhaps, as anyone can be and still move and breathe. It had been a long road coming out to this empty desert spot, which he called Trinity. It had been a long war.
Some of the men around him cheered. Some of them wept. A few, mostly scientists, were quietly sick in the sand beyond the dim lights of their camp. But he just stood and watched the great glowing mushroom cloud that rose in the darkness like a judgment from one angry god or another.
I am become Death, thought Robert Oppenheimer, remembering an ancient Hindu text. I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
The rest can be read here.
The pictures here.
(via zenarchery)
Posted by Groonk at 04:15 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, History, USA
April 06, 2006
1,500 yr old Pyramid discovered outside Mexico City
The religious celebration is attended by as many as one million devotees.
[...]
Iztapalapa hillside, known as Hill of the Star, overlooks one of Mexico City's poorest and most dangerous neighbourhoods.
Local people began re-enacting the Passion of Christ there in 1833, to give thanks for divine protection during a cholera epidemic - a ritual which now draws as many as a million spectators every year.
The site will not be fully explored because it is now considered a religious centre in its own right, said Mr Sanchez of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
"Both the pre-Hispanic structure and the Holy Week rituals are part of our cultural legacy, so we have to look for a way to protect both cultural values."
No matter how hard you may try, you can't please everybody all the time.
Just sayin'.
(via bbcnews)
Posted by Groonk at 02:15 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
January 13, 2006
The History of Computing Project
Another straight forward project.
They plot from video games all the way back to cuneiform clay tablet calculating.
They're also cite worthy for research papers and shut.
Posted by Groonk at 07:36 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
November 04, 2005
Rows of Fokkers
MedicMike found loads of Fokker Dr1 Flight Lines.
Posted by Groonk at 04:50 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, War
November 02, 2005
Goodbye and Farewell, Rosa Parks 1913 - 2005
Clinton once presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called Parks a "heroic warrior for equality."
"Her greatness lay in doing what everybody could do but doesn't," Granholm said. "She was unexpected. She was untitled. ... (She was) an improbable warrior that was leading an unlikely army of waitresses and street sweepers and shopkeepers and auto mechanics."
-------------------------------------------------
Rosa Parks resided in Detroit until she died at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005, at about 19:00 hours EDT, at her apartment in a nursing home on the east side. She was diagnosed with progressive dementia in 2004.
The United States Senate passed a resolution on October 27 to honor Parks by allowing her remains to lie in honor (also known as "lying in state") in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives approved the resolution on October 28. Parks became the 31st person so honored since the practice began in 1852, the first woman to ever lie in state in the Rotunda, the first American who was not previously a government official, and the second non-government official after the remains of Frenchman Pierre L'Enfant were brought to the capitol in 1909. She was also the second black person, after Jacob J. Chestnut, one of the two United States Capitol Police officers who were fatally shot in 1998. Prior to Parks, the most recent person to lie in state was former President Ronald Reagan in 2004.
Posted by Groonk at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, History, People Who Died, USA
October 17, 2005
2000 Year Ancient Battery
(via strange aritfacts)
Posted by Groonk at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research
October 08, 2005
Archimedes Death ray not a "Busted" Myth?
MIT geeks do have their uses:
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.
TV's MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.
Intrigued by the idea and an intuitive belief that it could work, MIT's 2.009ers decided to apply the early product development ‘sketch or soft modeling’ process to the problem.
Our goal was not to make a decision on the myth—we just wanted to assess if it was at least possible, and have some fun in the process. Jumping ahead, you can see the result… but let’s start at the beginning of the process.
Also of interest, the mini-solar death ray.
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth, Science
October 06, 2005
Voices from the past
Online audio recordings of historic speeches including Franklin Delano roosevelt, Richard "tricky Dick" Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr.
Text copies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speeches.
Transcript of Franklin D. Roosevelt's The Four Freedoms.
Posted by Groonk at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Digital Share, History
October 04, 2005
Gypsy Jazz
Django Reinhardt & Doktor Jazz
On Django Reinhardt:
Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt (January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Gypsy jazz musician. He was the very first important jazz musician who was born in Europe. His most renowned tunes include Minor Swing, Tears, Belleville and Nuages. Django is pronounced zhane-go (with a long 'a').
[...]
Reinhardt survived World War II unscathed, unlike many other gypsies who perished in the concentration death camps of the Nazis. He had the help of a Luftwaffe official named Dietrich Schultz-Kohn, a.k.a. Doktor Jazz, who deeply admired his music. In 1943 he married Sophie Ziegler, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt, who went on to become a respected guitarist in his own right.
After the war, Reinhardt rejoined Grappelli in the UK, and went on to tour the United States, opening for Duke Ellington, and playing at Carnegie Hall, as well as making more recordings.
Django Reinhardt was then among the first people in France to appreciate and understand the music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (he sought after them when he first arrived in New York). He integrated some elements of their music, still never compromising his own musical visions.
Jazz Against Nazi Germany
In Different Drummers, Michael Kater--a distinguished historian and himself a jazz musician--explores the underground history of jazz in Hitler's Germany. He offers a frightening and fascinating look at life and popular culture during the Third Reich, showing that for the Nazis, jazz was an especially threatening form of expression. Not only were its creators at the very bottom of the Nazi racial hierarchy, but the very essence of jazz--spontaneity, improvisation, and, above all, individuality--represented a direct challenge to the repetitive, simple, uniform pulse of German march music and indeed everyday life. The fact that many of the most talented European jazz artists were Jewish only made the music more objectionable. In tracing the growth of what would become a bold and eloquent form of social protest, Kater mines a trove of previously untapped archival records and assembles interviews with surviving witnesses as he brings to life a little-known aspect of wartime Germany. He introduces us to groups such as the Weintraub Syncopators, Germany's best indigenous jazz band; the Harlem Club of Frankfurt, whose male members wore their hair long in defiance of Nazi conventions; and the Hamburg Swings--the most daring radicals of all--who openly challenged the Gestapo with a series of mass dance rallies.» Jazz Research: Here we find a "list current research projects - scholarly studies as well as discographical or biographical book projects or ongoing dissertation projects from different fields concerned in some way with jazz research." It's constantly being updated.
» The Django Reinhardt Swing Page
» Tribute to Gainsbourg (sucker's in french)
» Jazz Guitar Licks : Django Reinhardt
» GYPSY The life of Django Reinhardt: A review of this book by The New Yorker
(a ponzu inspired bit of research)
Posted by Groonk at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, History, Music, Research, WorldWarII
September 19, 2005
Jean Lafitte: The Gentleman Pirate Privateer
He has been called "The Corsair," "The Buccaneer," "The King of Barataria," "The Terror of the Gulf," "The Hero of New Orleans". At three separate times, U.S. presidents have condemned, exonerated and again condemned his actions. He is known for his piracy in the Gulf of Mexico, and lauded for his heroism in the Battle of New Orleans. Each personae seems to balance the other. He hated being called "pirate," for, as he saw it, he was a "privateer" serving an economic purpose in an economically frugal time in a new country that needed to economize. When he at last sailed away from American shores, he felt betrayed by a country that didn’t understand the difference.
From the Gulf of Mexico through a vast uncharted maze of waterways to New Orleans, his name was legend even in his day. Entrepreneur and astute diplomat, he took an island-full of bloodied seafarers, rovers and fishermen and turned them into an organization of buccaneers, smugglers and wholesalers. From the ships they plundered off the Caribbean Coast and in the Atlantic he and his "crew of a thousand men" kept a constant cargo of black-marketed and very necessary provisions (including Negro slaves, a very important "commodity" to the early South) moving through the Mississippi Delta to help feed and clothe a part of the nation that the government overlooked. As a result, he won the praise of the local rich and poor alike.
So he used the misfortunate to help the misfortunate. That's rather fucked-up.
(via ponzu)
Posted by Groonk at 02:46 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History
August 31, 2005
Damage Control
There will be a "total evacuation of the city. We have to. The city will not be functional for two or three months," Nagin said. And he said people will not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two.
Nagin estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people remained in New Orleans, a city of nearly half a million. He said 14,000 to 15,000 a day could be evacuated.
The
Pentagon, meanwhile, began mounting one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in U.S. history, sending four Navy ships with drinking water and other emergency supplies, along with the hospital ship USNS Comfort, search helicopters and elite SEAL water-rescue teams.
American Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated region in the agency's biggest-ever relief operation.
[...]
With the streets awash and looters brazenly cleaning out stores with law enforcement officers too busy to do anything about it, authorities planned to move at least 25,000 of New Orleans' storm refugees to the Astrodome in a vast, two-day caravan of some 475 buses.
Many of the city's refugees — 15,000 to 20,000 people — were in the Superdome, which had become hot and stuffy, with broken toilets and nowhere for anyone to bathe. "It can no longer operate as a shelter of last resort," the mayor said.
Posted by Groonk at 04:50 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Research, USA
August 30, 2005
Katrina: She Meant Business
Al.com has a Storm Central blog up containing news and information on how Katrina is affecting Alabama.
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 02:19 PM | Comments (2) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Research, USA
August 25, 2005
Ancient Shoe-Wearers
Yes, let's blame Nike for our weak little toes.
Humans' small toes became weaker during this time, says physical anthropologist Erik Trinkaus, who has studied scores of early human foot bones.
He attributes this anatomical change to the invention of rugged shoes, that reduced our need for strong, flexible toes to grip and balance.
The research is presented in the Journal of Archaeological Sc