The melting ice near Yellowstone National Park in Colorado has yielded a piece of the past. In 2007, researchers found a 10,000-year-old hunting weapon, a spear-like wooden dart preserved in the ice. The discovery was kept under wraps until June 29, 2010 when it was announced by the University of Colorado.
University of Colorado research associate Craig Lee said the birch dart was frozen in a sheet of ice for 10,000 years and became bowed as the ice melted. It resembles a bent tree branch. He attributed the melting to increased global temperatures. The melting has caused the release of artifacts, plant material and even animal carcasses.
Read this article to see a photo of the spear.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Ten-Thousand Year-Old Spear Found in Melting Ice
The melting ice near Yellowstone National Park in Colorado has yielded a piece of the past. In 2007, researchers found a 10,000-year-old hunting weapon, a spear-like wooden dart preserved in the ice. The discovery was kept under wraps until June 29, 2010 when it was announced by the University of Colorado.
University of Colorado research associate Craig Lee said the birch dart was frozen in a sheet of ice for 10,000 years and became bowed as the ice melted. It resembles a bent tree branch. He attributed the melting to increased global temperatures. The melting has caused the release of artifacts, plant material and even animal carcasses.
Read this article to see a photo of the spear.
University of Colorado research associate Craig Lee said the birch dart was frozen in a sheet of ice for 10,000 years and became bowed as the ice melted. It resembles a bent tree branch. He attributed the melting to increased global temperatures. The melting has caused the release of artifacts, plant material and even animal carcasses.
Read this article to see a photo of the spear.
Cleopatra's Death Not From an Asp Bite?
Christoph Schäfer, a German historian and professor at the University of Trier, the last ancient Egyptian queen, Cleopatra didn't die from the bite of a poisonous asp, an Egyptian cobra, as we have believed for centuries. Instead, she died from a drug overdose.
Schäfer's book, Cleopatra is the product of his search through historic writings in an attempt to disprove the theory of Cleopatra having died from the bite of an asp. The German channel ZDF is also going to air a program featuring his research on the Egyptian queen.
According to Schäfer, Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, wrote some 200 years after Cleopatra's suicide that she died a quiet and painless death. Schäfer states that the death from the asp's venom would not have been painless. German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs confirms that death by asp venom would have in fact been painful and unpleasant.
Schäfer also cites the ancient texts stating that Cleopatra's two handmaidens died with her. Had she died from an asp bite, that would have been unlikely. According to Schäfer, a snake bite is unpredictable because of the amount of venom a snake may or may not release during the bite. Also, he says that at the time Cleopatra died, in August of 30 B.C., the temperatures in Egypt would have been too high for an asp to stay still long enough to bite.
Schäfer states that ancient Egyptian papyri prove the Egyptians knew about poisons and that one papyrus says Cleopatra actually tested them having observed the deaths of condemned prisoners from a variety of poisons including snake venom.
Both Schäfer and Dietrich Mebs believe she died from a mixture of opium, wolfsbane and hemlock rather than snake venom.
Alain Touwaide, an international authority on ancient medicinal plants at the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions in Washington D.C. believes the only way to finally solve the mystery of how Cleopatra died would be for her body to be found and to apply forensic methods of testing to it.
Are Schäfer's findings truly a breakthrough or is he just putting old theories into new packaging?
For more information, please refer to this article: Cleopatra Killed by Drug Cocktail?
Schäfer's book, Cleopatra is the product of his search through historic writings in an attempt to disprove the theory of Cleopatra having died from the bite of an asp. The German channel ZDF is also going to air a program featuring his research on the Egyptian queen.
According to Schäfer, Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, wrote some 200 years after Cleopatra's suicide that she died a quiet and painless death. Schäfer states that the death from the asp's venom would not have been painless. German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs confirms that death by asp venom would have in fact been painful and unpleasant.
Schäfer also cites the ancient texts stating that Cleopatra's two handmaidens died with her. Had she died from an asp bite, that would have been unlikely. According to Schäfer, a snake bite is unpredictable because of the amount of venom a snake may or may not release during the bite. Also, he says that at the time Cleopatra died, in August of 30 B.C., the temperatures in Egypt would have been too high for an asp to stay still long enough to bite.
Schäfer states that ancient Egyptian papyri prove the Egyptians knew about poisons and that one papyrus says Cleopatra actually tested them having observed the deaths of condemned prisoners from a variety of poisons including snake venom.
Both Schäfer and Dietrich Mebs believe she died from a mixture of opium, wolfsbane and hemlock rather than snake venom.
Alain Touwaide, an international authority on ancient medicinal plants at the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions in Washington D.C. believes the only way to finally solve the mystery of how Cleopatra died would be for her body to be found and to apply forensic methods of testing to it.
Are Schäfer's findings truly a breakthrough or is he just putting old theories into new packaging?
For more information, please refer to this article: Cleopatra Killed by Drug Cocktail?
Cleopatra's Death Not From an Asp Bite?
Christoph Schäfer, a German historian and professor at the University of Trier, the last ancient Egyptian queen, Cleopatra didn't die from the bite of a poisonous asp, an Egyptian cobra, as we have believed for centuries. Instead, she died from a drug overdose.
Schäfer's book, Cleopatra is the product of his search through historic writings in an attempt to disprove the theory of Cleopatra having died from the bite of an asp. The German channel ZDF is also going to air a program featuring his research on the Egyptian queen.
According to Schäfer, Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, wrote some 200 years after Cleopatra's suicide that she died a quiet and painless death. Schäfer states that the death from the asp's venom would not have been painless. German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs confirms that death by asp venom would have in fact been painful and unpleasant.
Schäfer also cites the ancient texts stating that Cleopatra's two handmaidens died with her. Had she died from an asp bite, that would have been unlikely. According to Schäfer, a snake bite is unpredictable because of the amount of venom a snake may or may not release during the bite. Also, he says that at the time Cleopatra died, in August of 30 B.C., the temperatures in Egypt would have been too high for an asp to stay still long enough to bite.
Schäfer states that ancient Egyptian papyri prove the Egyptians knew about poisons and that one papyrus says Cleopatra actually tested them having observed the deaths of condemned prisoners from a variety of poisons including snake venom.
Both Schäfer and Dietrich Mebs believe she died from a mixture of opium, wolfsbane and hemlock rather than snake venom.
Alain Touwaide, an international authority on ancient medicinal plants at the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions in Washington D.C. believes the only way to finally solve the mystery of how Cleopatra died would be for her body to be found and to apply forensic methods of testing to it.
Are Schäfer's findings truly a breakthrough or is he just putting old theories into new packaging?
For more information, please refer to this article: Cleopatra Killed by Drug Cocktail?
Schäfer's book, Cleopatra is the product of his search through historic writings in an attempt to disprove the theory of Cleopatra having died from the bite of an asp. The German channel ZDF is also going to air a program featuring his research on the Egyptian queen.
According to Schäfer, Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, wrote some 200 years after Cleopatra's suicide that she died a quiet and painless death. Schäfer states that the death from the asp's venom would not have been painless. German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs confirms that death by asp venom would have in fact been painful and unpleasant.
Schäfer also cites the ancient texts stating that Cleopatra's two handmaidens died with her. Had she died from an asp bite, that would have been unlikely. According to Schäfer, a snake bite is unpredictable because of the amount of venom a snake may or may not release during the bite. Also, he says that at the time Cleopatra died, in August of 30 B.C., the temperatures in Egypt would have been too high for an asp to stay still long enough to bite.
Schäfer states that ancient Egyptian papyri prove the Egyptians knew about poisons and that one papyrus says Cleopatra actually tested them having observed the deaths of condemned prisoners from a variety of poisons including snake venom.
Both Schäfer and Dietrich Mebs believe she died from a mixture of opium, wolfsbane and hemlock rather than snake venom.
Alain Touwaide, an international authority on ancient medicinal plants at the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions in Washington D.C. believes the only way to finally solve the mystery of how Cleopatra died would be for her body to be found and to apply forensic methods of testing to it.
Are Schäfer's findings truly a breakthrough or is he just putting old theories into new packaging?
For more information, please refer to this article: Cleopatra Killed by Drug Cocktail?
Ian Somerhalder "Shaken" By Lack of Hollywood Support for Gulf Region
I just came across this article this morning or I most definitely would have shared it by now.
Actor Ian Somerhalder ("Damon", The Vampire Diaries & "Boone" Lost) has made two trips to the environmentally devastated Gulf region in recent weeks. On his most recent visit, Somerhalder slept in his rental car, what he called the "Prius cabana suite" because there was no where else to stay due to all the people who have flocked to the Gulf region to try and help tame "the beast" as he calls it. "The Beast", of course, being the BP oil spill.
Despite all the help in the Gulf, Somerhalder, a Covington, Louisiana native, notices there's something missing: his Hollywood peers.
"Coming from the entertainment world, I'm really shaken by how quiet Hollywood is", admits Somerhalder. While he assures his statements are made with the utmost respect for his peers and colleagues, he questions why there hasn't been a larger effort from Hollywood to raise funds to assist with the clean up.
Hollywood is usually always right there to lend a hand, and some big names, when something bad happens. But, I agree with Mr. Somerhalder, Hollywood has been surprisingly quiet on this whole issue. There have been some celebrities who are admittedly trying to do whatever they can such as Kevin Costner. But where have all the others been?
I applaud Mr. Costner and Mr. Somerhalder for their efforts and for standing up and doing what is right by putting themselves out there to help with this disaster. I truly hope some of their colleagues in Hollywood take a page from their book and jump in to lend a hand or lend their name to the efforts in the Gulf. The Gulf needs all the help it can get.
For more information, refer to the entire article including a video about Mr. Somerhalder's most recent trip to the Gulf.
Actor Ian Somerhalder ("Damon", The Vampire Diaries & "Boone" Lost) has made two trips to the environmentally devastated Gulf region in recent weeks. On his most recent visit, Somerhalder slept in his rental car, what he called the "Prius cabana suite" because there was no where else to stay due to all the people who have flocked to the Gulf region to try and help tame "the beast" as he calls it. "The Beast", of course, being the BP oil spill.
Despite all the help in the Gulf, Somerhalder, a Covington, Louisiana native, notices there's something missing: his Hollywood peers.
"Coming from the entertainment world, I'm really shaken by how quiet Hollywood is", admits Somerhalder. While he assures his statements are made with the utmost respect for his peers and colleagues, he questions why there hasn't been a larger effort from Hollywood to raise funds to assist with the clean up.
Hollywood is usually always right there to lend a hand, and some big names, when something bad happens. But, I agree with Mr. Somerhalder, Hollywood has been surprisingly quiet on this whole issue. There have been some celebrities who are admittedly trying to do whatever they can such as Kevin Costner. But where have all the others been?
I applaud Mr. Costner and Mr. Somerhalder for their efforts and for standing up and doing what is right by putting themselves out there to help with this disaster. I truly hope some of their colleagues in Hollywood take a page from their book and jump in to lend a hand or lend their name to the efforts in the Gulf. The Gulf needs all the help it can get.
For more information, refer to the entire article including a video about Mr. Somerhalder's most recent trip to the Gulf.
Ian Somerhalder "Shaken" By Lack of Hollywood Support for Gulf Region
I just came across this article this morning or I most definitely would have shared it by now.
Actor Ian Somerhalder ("Damon", The Vampire Diaries & "Boone" Lost) has made two trips to the environmentally devastated Gulf region in recent weeks. On his most recent visit, Somerhalder slept in his rental car, what he called the "Prius cabana suite" because there was no where else to stay due to all the people who have flocked to the Gulf region to try and help tame "the beast" as he calls it. "The Beast", of course, being the BP oil spill.
Despite all the help in the Gulf, Somerhalder, a Covington, Louisiana native, notices there's something missing: his Hollywood peers.
"Coming from the entertainment world, I'm really shaken by how quiet Hollywood is", admits Somerhalder. While he assures his statements are made with the utmost respect for his peers and colleagues, he questions why there hasn't been a larger effort from Hollywood to raise funds to assist with the clean up.
Hollywood is usually always right there to lend a hand, and some big names, when something bad happens. But, I agree with Mr. Somerhalder, Hollywood has been surprisingly quiet on this whole issue. There have been some celebrities who are admittedly trying to do whatever they can such as Kevin Costner. But where have all the others been?
I applaud Mr. Costner and Mr. Somerhalder for their efforts and for standing up and doing what is right by putting themselves out there to help with this disaster. I truly hope some of their colleagues in Hollywood take a page from their book and jump in to lend a hand or lend their name to the efforts in the Gulf. The Gulf needs all the help it can get.
For more information, refer to the entire article including a video about Mr. Somerhalder's most recent trip to the Gulf.
Actor Ian Somerhalder ("Damon", The Vampire Diaries & "Boone" Lost) has made two trips to the environmentally devastated Gulf region in recent weeks. On his most recent visit, Somerhalder slept in his rental car, what he called the "Prius cabana suite" because there was no where else to stay due to all the people who have flocked to the Gulf region to try and help tame "the beast" as he calls it. "The Beast", of course, being the BP oil spill.
Despite all the help in the Gulf, Somerhalder, a Covington, Louisiana native, notices there's something missing: his Hollywood peers.
"Coming from the entertainment world, I'm really shaken by how quiet Hollywood is", admits Somerhalder. While he assures his statements are made with the utmost respect for his peers and colleagues, he questions why there hasn't been a larger effort from Hollywood to raise funds to assist with the clean up.
Hollywood is usually always right there to lend a hand, and some big names, when something bad happens. But, I agree with Mr. Somerhalder, Hollywood has been surprisingly quiet on this whole issue. There have been some celebrities who are admittedly trying to do whatever they can such as Kevin Costner. But where have all the others been?
I applaud Mr. Costner and Mr. Somerhalder for their efforts and for standing up and doing what is right by putting themselves out there to help with this disaster. I truly hope some of their colleagues in Hollywood take a page from their book and jump in to lend a hand or lend their name to the efforts in the Gulf. The Gulf needs all the help it can get.
For more information, refer to the entire article including a video about Mr. Somerhalder's most recent trip to the Gulf.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Giant Whale-Eating Whale Discovered
In a coastal desert of Peru the massive skull and jaw of a 13-million-year-old sperm whale has been discovered. The whale is the extinct distant cousin of the modern sperm whale although, this this whale is a very different beast according to Olivier Lambert of the Museum National d'Historie Naturelle in Paris, France. Lambert led a team that located the massive fossil.
The whale, Leviathan melvillei has a 3-meter (10 foot) skull with teeth in the top and bottom jaws that are each up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length. Modern sperm whales only have teeth in the lower jaw and feed on giant squid. It is believed the fossil sperm whales are to have eaten by actually taking huge bites out of their prey instead of swallowing it whole as modern sperm whales do.
A large hole in the skull that accommodated a large jaw muscle further strengthens this belief. The fossil most likely fed on baleen whales and lived in the same waters as Charcharocles megalodon, the now-famous monster-sized ancestor of the Great White shark.
Researchers are focusing in on the teeth of the animal to learn more about its eating habits. Horizontal wear lines suggest it swallowed prey like modern sperm whales. Vertical wear lines suggest it bit into prey.
For more information and to see an artists rendition of what Leviathan melvillei might have looked like, you can read this article.
The whale, Leviathan melvillei has a 3-meter (10 foot) skull with teeth in the top and bottom jaws that are each up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length. Modern sperm whales only have teeth in the lower jaw and feed on giant squid. It is believed the fossil sperm whales are to have eaten by actually taking huge bites out of their prey instead of swallowing it whole as modern sperm whales do.
A large hole in the skull that accommodated a large jaw muscle further strengthens this belief. The fossil most likely fed on baleen whales and lived in the same waters as Charcharocles megalodon, the now-famous monster-sized ancestor of the Great White shark.
Researchers are focusing in on the teeth of the animal to learn more about its eating habits. Horizontal wear lines suggest it swallowed prey like modern sperm whales. Vertical wear lines suggest it bit into prey.
For more information and to see an artists rendition of what Leviathan melvillei might have looked like, you can read this article.
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