Clipmarks | invictus's clips

Stonehenge 'older than believed'

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:25:25 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Say goodbye to "conventional" 2300 BCE date. Every evidence backs the "older" theories which suggested a construction date well before 3000 BCE.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

New findings at Stonehenge suggest its stones were erected much earlier than thought, challenging the site's conventional history.

A new excavation puts the stones' arrival at 3000 BC - almost 500 years earlier than originally thought - and suggests it was mainly a burial site.

The latest results are from a dig by the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

It is in conflict with recent research dating construction to 2300 BC and suggesting it was a healing centre.

The 2300 BC date was arrived at by carbon dating and was the major finding from an excavation inside the henge by professors Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright.

That dig was the subject of a BBC Timewatch documentary.

The team suggests the 2300 BC date relates to the time when the stones were moved from the outer pits to the centre of the site.

Professor Parker-Pearson said: "It's very exciting that we have evidence for stones right from its beginnings around 3000 BC.

Tags: archaeology, britain, stonehenge

Obama Ahead by Double Digits

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:23:36 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

William Kristol was becoming apoplectic, Hillary Clinton was sounding optimistic, and the McCain campaign was being perhaps a tad unrealistic—or so read Monday’s political barometer as an ABC/Washington Post poll indicated that the Obama campaign had taken a 10-point lead in the presidential race.

Tags: elections, polls, united states, barack obama

The World's Oldest Temple - 12,000 year-old Gobekli Tepe

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:51:24 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: From Archaeology Magazine's November/December 2008 issue...

The press here is fond of calling the site "the Turkish Stonehenge," but the comparison hardly does justice to this 25-acre arrangement of at least seven stone circles. The first structures at Göbekli Tepe were built as early as 10,000 B.C., predating their famous British counterpart by about 7,000 years.

Clip Source: www.archaeology.org

The oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered, Göbekli Tepe is "one of the most important monuments in the world," says Hassan Karabulut, associate curator of the nearby Urfa Museum. He and archaeologist Zerrin Ekdogan of the Turkish Ministry of Culture guide me around the site. Their enthusiasm for the ancient temple is palpable.

Before the discovery of Göbekli Tepe, archaeologists believed that societies in the early Neolithic were organized into small bands of hunter-gatherers and that the first complex religious practices were developed by groups that had already mastered agriculture. Scholars thought that the earliest monumental architecture was possible only after agriculture provided Neolithic people with food surpluses, freeing them from a constant focus on day-to-day survival. A site of unbelievable artistry and intricate detail, Göbekli Tepe has turned this theory on its head.

Tags: gobekli tepe, turkey, prehistory, neolithic, archaeology, science

Can Genetic Information Be Controlled By Light?

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:33:15 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

It has been known for many years that the individual bases that code the genetic information contained in DNA show a high degree of photostability, as the energy that they take up from UV radiation is immediately released again. Surprisingly, however, it is found that in DNA, which consists of many bases, those mechanisms are ineffective or only partially effective. It seems that the deactivation of UV-excited DNA molecules must instead occur by some completely different mechanisms specific to DNA, which are not yet understood.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — DNA, the molecule that acts as the carrier of genetic information in all forms of life, is highly resistant against alteration by ultraviolet light, but understanding the mechanism for its photostability presents some puzzling problems. A key aspect is the interaction between the four chemical bases that make up the DNA molecule. Researchers at Kiel University have succeeded in showing that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences.

Tags: dna, genetics, light, photostability, science

'Virgin Birth' By Shark Confirmed: Second Case Ever

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:27:54 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: The "Jaws Messiah"?

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — Scientists have confirmed the second-ever case of a “virgin birth” in a shark, indicating once again that female sharks can reproduce without mating and raising the possibility that many female sharks have this incredible capacity.

Tags: biology, genetics, marine life, sharks, virgin birth, science

High-Speed Crash Makes Hot, 'Sterile' Galaxies

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:37:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Oct. 9, 2008 -- A new wider view of two very well-known galaxies has revealed a big surprise: They are connected by faint, starless filaments of hydrogen gas which trace back to a very high-speed intergalactic collision.

The smash-up between galaxies M86 and NGC4438 not been suspected before, and may explain why M86, which is visible to the naked eye, is unable to give birth to new stars.

Tags: space, universe, galaxies, science

Hundreds of New Marine Species Found

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:35:43 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Oct. 8, 2008 -- Hundreds of new marine species and previously uncharted undersea mountains and canyons have been discovered in the depths of the Southern Ocean, Australian scientists said Wednesday.

A total of 274 species of fish, ancient corals, mollusks, crustaceans and sponges new to science were found in icy waters up to 9,800 feet deep among extinct volcanoes, they said.

Tags: biology, oceans, marine life, science

Egalitarian revolution in the Pleistocene?

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:28:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

In humans, a secondary transition from egalitarian societies to hierarchical states took place as the first civilizations were emerging. How can it be understood in terms of the model discussed? One can speculate that technological and cultural advances made the coalition size much less important in controlling the outcome of a conflict than the individuals' ability to directly control and use resources (e.g. weapons, information, food) that strongly influence the outcomes of conflicts.

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Although anthropologists and evolutionary biologists are still debating this question, a new study, published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, supports the view that the first egalitarian societies may have appeared tens of thousands of years before the French Revolution, Marx, and Lenin. These societies emerged rapidly through intense power struggle and their origin had dramatic implications for humanity. In many mammals living in groups, including hyenas, meerkats, and dolphins, group members form coalitions and alliances that allow them to increase their dominance status and their access to mates and other resources. Alliances are especially common in great apes, some of whom have very intense social life, where they are constantly engaged in a political maneuvering as vividly described in Frans de Waal's "Chimpanzee politics".

Tags: anthropology, humans, egalitarian, community, sociology, prehistory, science

Strongest tropical cyclones get more extreme

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:17:20 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

THE most ferocious tropical cyclones are spinning faster than ever thanks to ocean warming, with the North Atlantic and the northern Indian Ocean suffering some of the greatest increases.

James Elsner of Florida State University and colleagues used satellite data to study cyclone wind speeds between 1981 and 2006. Previous studies have looked for changes in the mean wind speed of all cyclones, but Elsner singled out the strongest cyclones - with wind speeds in the top 30 per cent.

Barring the South Pacific basin, they found that the average wind speed of these cyclones has increased by 7.8 metres per second, pushing up the average number of extreme cyclones per year from 13 to 17 (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07234).

Tags: climate, tropical storms, hurricanes, ocean warming, science

Octoshape: High quality TV and Radio channels

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:02:47 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: About a dozen high quality streaming TV channels and more than 20 radio stations. Just install the small plugin (both for IE and Firefox) and go. (No English channels yet but Spanish and German speaking clippers will probably like it.) Visit the source site.

Clip Source: www.octoshape.com

Watch and Listen to Octoshape TV and radio

Streaming Events

Video Channels

RTVE Todo lo que ocurre en España y en el Mundo, en directo, 24 horas al día. 450 kbps ES RTVE

ExtremaduraTV Canal Público Extremeño Internacional 400 kbps ES extremaduratv.es CARTV 250 kbps ES Aragón Televisión Canal Català Television in Catalan 450 kbps ES www.canalcatala.cat

Deutsche Welle DW - News and more from Germany and Europe 600 kbps DE Deutsche Welle HR 600 kbps DE HR Fernsehen

RTV Slovenija TV Slovenija 1 700 kbps SI RTV Slovenija RTV Slovenija TV Slovenija 2 700 kbps SI RTV Slovenija TVP SA iTVP Arts & Entertainment 700/500 kbps PL iTVP TV Ciencia Science Television 750 kbps PT TV Ciencia

Radio Channels

Tags: online tv, radio, streaming, broadcast, internet

Kundalini, The Mother of the Universe

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:32:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: An interesting book from Sacred-Texts.com. Especially those who are into yoga and Kundalini discipline would love to browse it.

Clip Source: www.sacred-texts.com

Kundalini, The Mother of the Universe

by Rishi Singh Gherwal

Contents Start Reading Page Index Text [Zipped]

This little self-published work could be most charitably described as an anthology of material on Kundalini Yoga. Very little of this book was actually written by Gherwal; the majority of the material here consists of long quotes from other authors, notably Arthur Avalon.

Tags: hinduism, kundalini, goddess, yoga, culture, india

Kiowa Pochoir Prints

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:13:53 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Amazing Kiowa art from BibliOdyssey.

Clip Source: bibliodyssey.blogspot.com

"The Kiowa Five were a group of painters who earned national and international acclaim during the early twentieth century. The group actually consisted of six individuals, Spencer Asah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Monroe Tsatoke, Lois Smoky, and James Auchiah.

Pochoir Prints of Ledger Drawings by the Kiowa Five, 1929 from the National Anthropological Archives, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS). [click on 'Pochoir prints of ledger drawings by the Kiowa Five, 1929.'] The above sampling (spot cleaned) represents about half of the prints available.

Tags: native americans, native art, kiowas, kiowa five, arts, america

Milky Way ringed by 'missing galaxies'

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:06:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

SYDNEY: The Milky Way could be surrounded by up to 2,000 small galaxies, too faint to be seen with current technology, say astrophysicists.

Their research has implications for understanding how galaxies form and the nature of dark matter – the invisible matter that pervades and surrounds all galaxies, including our own.

Astronomers know of 24 satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, including the two bright Magellanic Clouds, which on dark nights are visible just to the side of the wide band of the Milky Way.

But the U.S. researchers, led by astrophysicist Erik Tollerud from the University of California, Irvine, say there are at least 400 and as many as 2,000 more satellite galaxies – we just haven't spotted them yet because they are so faint.

Tags: galaxies, milky way, astronomy, science

Hadron Collider halted for months

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:02:23 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Mmm... Looks like the "experiment of the century" has already created a black hole on CERN's budget.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be out of action for at least two months, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) says.

Part of the giant physics experiment was turned off for the weekend while engineers probed a magnet failure.

But a Cern spokesman said damage to the £3.6bn ($6.6bn) particle accelerator was worse than anticipated.

The LHC is built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

Tags: large hadron collider, lhc, cern, physics, big bang, science

Decoding Neanderthals

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:53:41 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: New NGC documentary on Sunday.

Clip Source: www.archaeology.org

Research into the lives of Neanderthals is progressing at such a pace that National Geographic could probably produce a new documentary like "The Neanderthal Code" (airing Sunday, September 21, at 9:00 pm ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel) every couple of years and still fill it with new breakthroughs. This program covers a vast amount of science, both old and new, and serves as a thorough and entertaining summary of the latest interpretations and data on our species's closest fossilized relatives. The show addresses several important questions: Did Neanderthal's make art? Were they tougher than professional bull-riders? Did they have religion? If so, were they such a bunch of Puritans that they wouldn't mate with the Homo sapiens who invaded their territory in Europe roughly 40,000 years ago?