Posts Tagged found

Moment of Who: 2 Missing Doctor Who Episodes Found! Returned to BBC Archive.

Posted by mistergroonk in History, Television on December 12, 2011

In the old days, the BBC had a habit of recording over their older programs in order to save some cash. A lot of British TV culture was lost because of this policy. More than a few Dr Who’s were lost this way. It seems parts of the lost episodes have been found and returned to the BFI archives. Now if they can manage to keep their money-saving fingers off of these shows Whovians can relax a bit.

Here’s how they were found:

“Through me,” says Ralph Montagu, Radio Times’s head of heritage and a lifelong Doctor Who fan. “I occasionally meet up with a group of film collectors and retired TV engineers at a café in Hampshire.

“A few months ago I spoke to Terry Burnett, who used to be an engineer at TVS [the former ITV franchise based in Southampton]. Somehow Doctor Who was mentioned in passing, and Terry said, ‘Oh, actually I think I’ve got an old episode.’

“I thought it was bound to be something we’ve got already,” says Ralph. “I tried not to get too excited, but he came back the next day and brought this spool with him. It had no label, so I had a look at the film leader and it said ‘Air Lock’. I thought, ‘What’s that?’ I checked online and saw that Air Lock was an episode of Galaxy 4 – a missing Hartnell serial. So then I got very excited.”

Ralph met Terry again a couple of weeks later, “And he said, ‘Guess what I’ve got.’ It was another episode of Doctor Who! Again not labelled on the can, but it turned out to be The Underwater Menace part two.”

A list of other Dr Who episodes still filed under ‘lost’ can be found here.

Clips from episodes “Galaxy 4” and “The Underwater Menace” featuring the 1st Doctor (William Hartnell) and the 2nd Doctor(Patrick Troughton) are featured below.

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Found: Skeleton of Roman Lovers Buried Holding Hands.This is How Love Ends.

Posted by mistergroonk in History, People Who Died on November 28, 2011

Take from it what you will. This is not the first time we’ve noted past humans sharing death’s embrace.

Together for eternity: The skeletons of Roman lovers buried together holding hands

The pair are believed to have been buried together 1,500 years ago in a joint tomb inside the palace walls in Modena, indicating some sort of nobility towards the dying days of the Roman empire.

Observers say the woman seems to be looking lovingly at what scientists believe is her partner.

via daily mail

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Found: Ardnamurchan Viking Boat Burial, Fully Intact & Shipwreck of Kublai Khan’s Lost Feet, Possibly

Posted by mistergroonk in Only in Japan, People Who Died, Science on November 11, 2011

First, the viking:

The term “fully-intact”, used to describe the find, means the remains of the body along with objects buried with it and evidence of the boat used were found and recovered.

The Ardnamurchan Viking was found buried with an axe, a sword with a decorated hilt, a spear, a shield boss and a bronze ring pin.

About 200 rivets – the remains of the boat he was laid in – were also found.

Previously, boat burials in such a condition have been excavated at sites on Orkney.

Now, the shipwreck:

In Japanese legend they are known as The Kamikaze — the divine winds — a reference to two mighty typhoons placed providentially seven years apart which, in the 13th century, destroyed two separate Mongol invasion fleets so large they were not eclipsed until the D-Day landings of World War II.

Marine archaeologists now say they have uncovered the remains of a ship from the second fleet in 1281 — believed to have comprised 4,400 vessels — a meter below the seabed, in 25 meters of water off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.

via guardian, bbcnews, cnn

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Astronomers Locate Geidi Prime, House Atredies Put on Alert

Posted by mistergroonk in Art, Science, Space on August 29, 2011

The Jupiter-sized gas giant named TrES-2b was found using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which has the capacity to measure light, even in extremely distant objects. However, TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of light shined upon it, making it the darkest planet or moon ever discovered thus far.

“TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it’s truly an alien world,” said lead author and astronomer David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

TrES-2b is heated up to temperatures greater than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit by its star, which it orbits from a mere distance of 3 million miles. This planet is unique as it does not have any clouds similar to planets like Jupiter, cloaked by clouds of ammonia. Rather, high temperatures prohibit any clouds from forming, causing a mystery as to why the planet is so dark and unreflective.

What said astronomers forgot to mention, it’s Giedi Prime. All of you who haven’t read or watched DUNE(David Lynch or SyFy miniseries style) need to get caught up on this.

In the meantime, science has found House Harkonnen lurking in The Black. This means, we’ve got to get on that traveling without moving business and bring the rain to Arrakis.*

*This post is heavily saturated in nerd references. Follow those links if you feel confused.

via IBT, IPOD

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Found: Buried Alive! 34,000-Year-Old Organisms. Resurrected for Science

Posted by mistergroonk in Animals, Science on February 3, 2011

photo credit Michael Timofeeff

“It was actually a very big surprise to me,” said Brian Schubert, who discovered ancient bacteria living within tiny, fluid-filled chambers inside the salt crystals.

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Schubert, now an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii, said the bacteria – a salt-loving sort still found on Earth today – were shrunken and small, and suspended in a kind of hibernation state.
“They’re alive, but they’re not using any energy to swim around, they’re not reproducing,” Schubert told OurAmazingPlanet. “They’re not doing anything at all except maintaining themselves.“

This sounds more like Groonkus sapiens than an ancient bacteria.

via yahoo news

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Davey Jones Relents Lost Treasure, The Sword of Blackbeard the Pirate Found

Posted by mistergroonk in History, USA on February 3, 2011

This man, Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard…

…was the master of dramatic presentation. Seriously, he could give Batman lessons.

Blackbeard cultivated a ferocious appearance to seem even more menacing: a long dark beard, numerous knives, swords and pistols strapped to his chest — even lighted fuses in his hair.

Now we have the remnants of his sword.

It’s one of the latest finds aboard the remains of the ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, known at one time to be the flagship of Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard. The vessel ran aground on a North Carolina sandbar in 1718 and was abandoned; modern archaeologists have been excavating the shipwreck for more than a decade. The design and ornamentation of this newest discovery have led the researchers to believe it likely belonged to the notorious pirate himself.

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Found: 1970s Interview with Rod Serling. Talks Science Fiction. Inspiring.

Posted by mistergroonk in History, Interviews, Just Freaking Neat, Television on August 31, 2010

In the following University of Kansas professor James Gunn interviewed Rod Serling about science fiction in literature. It is incredible and inspiring to hear a creator show true humility and deference to the works of science fiction.

I think the networks have traditionally and almost ritualistically short-changed the science fiction audience both qualitatively and quantitatively. I don’t think…they’ve given the proper respect to science fiction as a legitimate area of literary attempt. Number one, I think, first of all, it’s a high level literary form and number two I think it’s much more than a small coterie of loyal viewers who’ve read Amazing Stories and want to go on.

I think it’s a sizable group, particular amongst the young. Because we live in a society which is so technologically improved and which is so scientifically orientated now that indeed this is simply a reflection of the time around us now. –Rod Serling

It is refreshing to see a creator genuinely interested in making good stories and being brutally honest about his own work. This is such a stark contrast to the bulk of creators popular today that seem to believe the sun rises and sets on their “awesome film-making abilities.”

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve placed the interview above the cut and combined them into a playlist for easy viewing.

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Found: New Structure at Stonehenge…The Underhenge? The Pandorica?!

Posted by mistergroonk in History, Science, World on July 22, 2010

Sadly, it’s not The Pandorica. Maybe a better word would be ‘luckily.’ All you non-Dr Who fans will have to wait a tick for the real science to kick in while we reflect one more time on the 11th Doctor’s recent series finale.

A finale that involved Romans, just about every alien who’s had their plans vanquished by The Doctor, and Stonehenge. The plot takes place under Stonehenge to be exact. The Underhenge.

And inside that henge, The Pandorica(seen below in concept art).

But that’s not what they found.

Enough geeking out over what couldn’t possibly exist.(or could it?). Let’s move on to hard fact.

Using radar, the archaeologists found a circular ditch less than one kilometer away from the iconic stone circle, which is thought to date back to the Neolithic period 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.

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The ditch has internal pits about a meter wide which could have held timber posts. It measures 25 meters (82 ft) in diameter, just five meters less than Stonehenge.

“From the general shape, we would guess it dates backs to about the time when Stonehenge was emerging at its most complex,” Gaffney said.

“This is probably the first major ceremonial monument that has been found in the past 50 years or so.

Maybe our memory is playing tricks cause we’re almost certain a wooden henge was found years ago. Or what it just supposition then?

via news daily

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The Flatfish Missing Link was Found, Good on Them

Posted by mistergroonk in Admin, Science on July 10, 2008

I’m not so much tracking that they have a “missing link” but of where this “lost” information was found. Sitting happily and unknown in a museum’s drawers. A certain dinosaur comes to mind.

“They don’t know what they’ve got there.”

Indeed they don’t, Indy.

Some odd-looking fish fossils discovered in the bowels of several European museums may help solve a lingering question about evolutionary theory, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The 50 million-year-old fossils — which have one eye near the top of their heads — help explain how flatfish such as flounder, sole and halibut developed the strange but useful trait of having both eyes on one side.

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