Nanodiamonds or No, No diamonds?

Mammoth killing space blast off the hook 
August, 31 2010
BBC
The theory that the great beasts living in North America 13,000 years ago were killed off by a space impact can now be discounted, a new study claims.
Mammoths, giant bears, big cats and the like disappeared rapidly from the fossil record, and a comet or asteroid strike was seen as a possible culprit.
But tiny diamonds said to have been created in the collision have been misinterpreted, a US-UK team says.
without these diamonds, the theory falls, the group tells PNAS journal.
"This was really the last pillar for this theory and I think it's time now everyone moved on," said co-author Professor Andrew Scott, from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, told BBC News.
Case built
It has been one of the big palaeo-debates of recent years: what caused the extinction of the creatures and human settlers living across North America at the start of a millennium-long climate cooling event known as the Younger Dryas?
The traditional theory had been that a sudden release of fresh water from a giant glacial lake into the North Atlantic had upset the ocean's circulation and sent temperatures plummeting in just a few years.
But then a group of scientists started to challenge this position by pointing to what they said were tell-tale signs in the sediments at archaeological sites of an ancient impact from space.
These 12,900-year-old sediments were claimed to hold exotic materials: tiny carbon spheres, ultra-small specks of diamond - called nanodiamond - and amounts of the rare element iridium that are too high to have occurred naturally on Earth.
The sediments were also said to contain a layer of charcoal deposited by the colossal fire that would have swept the continent after the event.
No crater has ever been identified, but the proponents say the impactor may simply have broken up in the atmosphere as it came in; and as proof they have produced mammoth tusks that appear to have meteoritic shrapnel embedded in them.
Carbon clues
But detractors believe they have now unpicked much of this evidence, and in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they say they have demolished the theory's best, last hope - the nanodiamonds.
These nano-sized, hexagonal bits of diamond, called lonsdaleite, can be good tracers for impacts; they're created in the intense pressure and heat of a space collision.
But having examined closely the carbon spherules purported to contain nanodiamonds in this case, Tyrone Daulton, Nicholas Pinter and Andrew Scott say there has been a misinterpretation.
"We looked for these diamonds and we couldn't find them," said Professor Scott. "But not only that, [the proponents of the theory] have misinterpreted what are really just aggregations of carbon.
"There were frequent low-temperature fires all through this period - this is no big deal. And what happens is that the carbon in molecules gets re-ordered and this happens in very small domains, less than micron-sized areas.
"It's not a high-temperature phenomenon; it happens at low temperatures. Obviously, what they've done is take that material and identified these domains as diamonds when they're not."
Under pressure
Even before this latest study, one of the world's leading experts on impacts - Dr Jay Melosh of Purdue University, US - had shown that an airburst was not capable of producing the shock pressures necessary to make nanodiamonds.
The proponents of the impact theory are not prepared to let go of their ideas just yet, however.
Dr Douglas Kennett of the University of Oregon, Eugene, US, told Science Magazine that the research featured in PNAS had been looking in the wrong places.
"The Daulton et al claim that we have misidentified diamonds is false and misleading," he said.
And geoscience consultant Allen West added that Daulton and colleagues had not followed the same protocols and therefore it was no surprise they had came up with a blank.
"They looked at charcoal but we never mentioned that we ever found diamonds in the charcoal," he told BBC News.
"They did say that they looked in some carbon spherules but we looked at 10-15 per layer and specified that in our methodology, and they only looked at 'one to several' - that's their quote. They didn't understand what they were supposed to be looking for."
Allen West said further nanodiamond evidence in support of the impact theory would be published in the coming weeks.

Househint # 27: do NOT make your own flamethrower

A story about a homemade flame thrower:

A HUSBAND suffered nasty burns — after he tried to get rid of a spider lurking in his toilet with a makeshift flame thrower.

Chris Welding, 28, was left with his hands in bandages after he tried to remove the creepy crawly which had frightened his wife, 20, last night.

She begged him to destroy the eight-legged beast after she saw it lurking behind their toilet in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

Chris used a can of deodorant and a lighter as a makeshift flamethrower to barbecue the critter — but his plan backfired.

The flames came bursting out from behind the u-bend and blew back in his face.

IT engineer Chris, who has two children aged four and two, said: "It was about 10.30pm last night. My wife was getting ready for bed and suddenly she let out a scream.

"She said there was a spider in the bathroom and asked me to get rid of it — neither she or the kids would go in there.

"The spider had crawled into the recess behind the loo and there was no way I could get to it.

"Stupid as it is, I grabbed a can of deodorant and a lighter and sprayed it behind the loo. The flame shot out and went round the back of the toilet and came back out at me. It was a bit of a shock."

Chris jumped into the shower to cool his injuries with cold water while his wife called for help.

Two fire crews and an ambulance came to the house and Chris was taken to Colchester General Hospital.

He said: "I've got two burned fingers and a burned knuckle. I wasn't badly injured but they wanted to check I hadn't inhaled any of the fumes.

"They let me come back the same night."

By the time the crews arrived the blaze was out , but there was no trace of the spider.

A spokesman for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said: "It appears the wife had spotted the creepy crawly in the bathroom and asked her husband to capture it.

"There was an almighty explosion which blew the man back into his hallway and lifted the hatch on the loft.

"He did exactly the right thing by jumping into the shower and cooling his burns with cold water while his wife raised the alarm."

Nazca lines may point to desert water

This is to an article about the ideas of David Johnson, about, quoting the article

The Nasca Lines, ... have been the focus of debate for over 70 years, [and] consist of giant geometric forms (triangles, trapezoids, parallel lines) as well as biomorphs (birds, plants, and mammals) etched into the surface of the desert of southern Peru, especially in the drainage of the Rio Grande de Nasca.

Johnson has been researching these ground drawings since the 1990s, publishing some books about his theory. Some of them are: "The Relationship Between the Lines of Nasca and Water Resources," 1997. "The water lines of Nasca," 1998, "The Correlation Between the Lines of Nasca and Subterranean Water Resources," 1999.

In 2002, together with Donald Proulx and Stephen Mabee, he wrote "The Correlation Between Geoglyphs and Subterranean Water Resources in the Río Grande de Nazca Drainage."

Johnson says that the Nazca lines were a code to tell the inhabitants where the water resources, in an arid region, were. Interesting, and why, is this being written up now, since he has publicized his ideas starting over ten years ago.

http://www.archaeologydaily.com/news/201008304946/Nasca-Lines-may-be-giant-map-of-underground-water-sources.html

Largest Emerald Found in North America Found

This Aug 17, 2009 photo provided by Terry Ledford shows the Carolina Emperor emerald prior to cutting, with a U.S. 25-cent coin in the foreground. Gem experts say an emerald yielded at a North Carolina farm may be the biggest ever uncovered in North America. The 65-carat emerald nicknamed the Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm in the rural community of Hiddenite, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Charlotte. (AP Photo/Courtesy Terry Ledford)

By Emery P. Dalesio

Associated Press Writer / August 30, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C.—An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

• The nearly 65-carat emerald its finders are marketing by the name Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples of the green stones. After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a U.S. quarter and about as heavy as a AA battery.

The emerald compares in size and quality to one surrounded by diamonds in a brooch once owned by Catherine the Great, who was empress in the 18th century, that Christie's auction house in New York sold in April for $1.65 million, said C.R. "Cap" Beesley, a New York gemologist who examined the stone.

While big, uncut crystals and even notable gem-quality emeralds have come from the community 50 miles northwest of Charlotte called Hiddenite, there has never been one so big it's worthy of an imperial treasury, Beesley said.

"It is the largest cut emerald ever to be found in North America," Beesley said in a telephone interview from Myanmar, an Asian country rich in precious gems.

The discovery is a rarity for emeralds found not in the rich veins of South America and Asia but in North America, said Robert Simon, owner of Windsor Jewelers in Winston-Salem.

"Most of the stones that have come out have not been gem-quality that I would mount in jewelry," said Simon, who was part owner of a 7.85-carat, dime-sized emerald found in the same community in 1998 that has since been set in jewelry and sold to a private owner.

Terry Ledford, 53, found the roughly 2-inch-square chunk rimmed with spots of iron a year ago on a 200-acre farm owned by business partner Renn Adams, 90, and his siblings. The rural community of Hiddenite is named for a paler stone that resembles emerald.

"It was so dark in color that holding it up to the sun you couldn't even get the light to come through it," a quality that ensured an intense green hue once the stone was cut with facets that allowed light into the gem's core, Ledford said.

The North Carolina stone was cut to imitate the royal emerald, Ledford said. A museum and some private collectors interested in buying the emerald have been in contact, Ledford said.

Modeling an empress's emerald is likely to have less influence on the North Carolina stone's sale price than its clarity, color and cut, said Douglas Hucker, CEO of the American Gem Trade Association, a Dallas, Texas-based trade association for dealers in colored gems.

"A 65-carat cut emerald from North Carolina is a big, big stone," he said. But "once an emerald is cut, it's subject to the same type of market conditions that any emerald would be."

Emeralds are part of North Carolina's mineral claim to fame, though other places in the U.S. also are rich in gems. Maine mines have yielded aquamarine and amethyst, Montana bears sapphires, Idaho is known for star garnets, and Arkansas has diamonds.

It's not fully known why small, subterranean cavities containing emeralds formed in central North Carolina, said geologist Michael Wise of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, who has studied the underground world around Hiddenite for years.

Emeralds are produced where a superheated fluid carrying the element beryllium migrated through rocks that contain chromium, Wise said.

"This doesn't happen frequently," Wise said. "The conditions have to be just right to make an emerald. ... It happens to be the case at this particular place."

Adams said decades ago when his parents owned the farm, they allowed anyone with a shovel to dig for emeralds on the property for $3 a day. Virtually all of it was too full of flaws to be cut into precious stones and was mostly sold to mineral collectors, Adams said.

Ledford said they don't plan to quit after pocketing the profits from their big find, Ledford said.

"We'll definitely keep on mining," he said. "It would be good to know you don't have to go and could do it for pleasure. You feel like you've got to find something to survive but since we found this emerald, once we get it sold, there will be less stress."

Oetzi may have been treated with acupuncture during his life 5300 years ago

This article about the 5300 year mummified remain we have named Oetzi discusses the possibilities that during his life Oetzi was treated with acupncture.

Oetzi Iceman's Tattoos Came from Fireplace
July, 19 2009

Discovery News

The 57 tattoos sported by Oetzi, the 5300-year-old Tyrolean iceman mummy, were made from fireplace soot that contained glittering, colorful precious stone crystals, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The determination supports prior research that the tattoos were associated with acupuncture treatments for chronic ailments suffered by the iceman, whose frozen body was found remarkably well preserved in the Similaun Glacier of the Alps in 1991.

The findings also suggest how prehistoric people were tattooed in the days before commercial inks and electric tattooing machines.


"I can imagine that they used some pointed material, maybe thorns, and dipped it into the soot and then pierced into the skin, or made scars and put the soot into the wound after insertion, allowing the wound to heal so that the colored material stayed there," lead author Maria Anna Pabst told Discovery News.

Using optical microscopy and various powerful electron microscopy techniques, Pabst, a professor in the Institute of Cell Biology at the Medical University of Graz, and her colleagues analyzed several of Otzi's tattoos. Tattoos chosen for this study consist of line markings, as well as a distinctive cross-shaped tattoo on the iceman's right knee.

Magnification of the skin designs revealed the tattoos consisted of soot, likely raked out of a fireplace, along with different silicate crystals, such as quartz and almandine, a type of purple garnet.

"As there are only a few tiny crystals between the soot particles, I think that when the ancients took the soot from the stones of the fireplace, they got some crystals," Pabst said, explaining that the crystals likely were just naturally in either the dirt or the fireplace structure itself, and not intentionally added for their sparkle, color and value.

"The tattoos have a dark blue color, deriving from the soot," she added. "There are groups of one, two, three, four and seven tattoo lines parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body, and so they're parallel to Chinese acupuncture meridians."

The cross-shaped tattoo on his knee, and another one on his left ankle, also lay over Chinese acupuncture "trigger points," the researchers believe. Strengthening their argument is the fact that the soot-made markings are located on parts of the iceman's body not typical for tattoo displays, diminishing the notion that they served a more ornamental, aesthetic function.

Prior research shows Oetzi did suffer from a variety of ailments that might have benefited from acupuncture. These included a bad back, degeneration of the hip, knee and ankle, and "severe abdominal disorders," primarily caused by whip worm, an intestinal parasite that can cause diarrhea.

Before the more recent studies on this mummy, historians believed the earliest acupuncture took place in China around 3,000 years ago. Since the iceman is much older, Pabst and her colleagues now think this therapeutic technique may have been independently discovered by many different prehistoric European and Asian cultures.

It's also still possible that tattooing and acupuncture originated in East Asia, with the knowledge of this practice spreading to the Alps region well before the iceman's lifetime.

Frank Bahr, president of the German Academy of Acupuncture, first made the tattoo-acupuncture connection on the iceman after studying a drawing of the tattoos and their placement on Oetzi's body.

Bahr told Discovery News, "The most interesting thing about the whole iceman story is that even today I would treat a patient with about 90 percent of the same points as the tattoos on the iceman, if this patient were to have the same diseases."

Glamour In the Dump

Thousands Of Glamour Issues Ruined In Big Rig Accident

By Alex Alvarez on Aug 27, 2010 01:41 PM

Sad news for many Glamour fans: a collision on I-80 involving two big rigs has resulted in the destruction of thousands of issues of the magazine. Traffic was slowed due to another accident, and one of the truck drivers was not paying attention to the road and ended up crashing.

A forklift was needed to shovel some 48,000 pounds of ruined Glamour's October issues into dumpsters.

New language and new numbering system found in Peru

"Unearthed 400 year old document shows how Peruvian natives used numbers " That's the headline in an archeology newsletter. The article, itself a reprint, has a picture of the clues.
August, 25 2010.
PhysOrg

In the early 1600s in northern Peru, a curious Spaniard jotted down some notes on the back of a letter. Four hundred years later, archaeologists dug up and studied the paper, revealing what appear to be the first traces of a lost language.

"It's a little piece of paper with a big story to tell," said Jeffrey Quilter, who has conducted investigations in Peru for more than three decades.

Quilter is deputy director for curatorial affairs at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, as well as director of the archaeological project at Magdalena de Cao Viejo in the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, where the paper was excavated two years ago.

The writing is a set of translations from Spanish names of numbers (uno, dos, and tres) and Arabic numerals (4-10, 21, 30, 100, and 200) into the unknown language. Some of the translated numbers have never been seen before, while others may have been borrowed from Quechua or a related local language. Quechua is still spoken today in Peru, but in the early 17th century many other languages were spoken in the region, such as Quingnam and Pescadora.

Information about them today is limited. Even so, the archaeologists were able to deduce that speakers of the lost language used a decimal system like our own.

Quilter said that this simple list offers "a glimpse of the peoples of ancient and early colonial Peru who spoke a language lost to us until this discovery."

"The find is significant because it offers the first glimpse of a previously unknown language and number system," said Quilter. "It also points to the great diversity of Peru's cultural heritage in the early colonial period. The interactions between natives and Spanish were far more complex than previously thought."

The name of the lost language is still a mystery. The American-Peruvian research team was able to determine it was not Mochica, spoken on the north coast into the colonial period but now extinct, and pointed to Quingnam and Pescadora as possible candidates. Neither Quingnam nor Pescadora, however, have been documented beyond their names. There is even a possibility that Quingnam and Pescadora are the same language but they were identified as separate tongues in early colonial Spanish writings, ...

The research is detailed in the Aug. 23 edition of American Anthropologist.

Thera's Volcanic Eruption Challenged Bronze Age Beliefs

The darkness after the eruption disrupted weather, crops, for 20-25 years according to this article. The latest theory is that the Nebra sky disk and Stonehenge were both abandoned as a result of this event. Either the old beliefs were abandoned, or the disk was buried to placate the gods.  The Stonehenge abandonment was not the real point of the article, and you would not think abandoning it would placate the gods, but anyway the researchers seem to think the volcanic eruption explains the abandonment of Stonehenge, too. The eruption happened 3600 years ago.  This is given in the article as both the date the disk was made, and abandoned, which makes no sense. Still the pictures of the Nebra sky disk, and the ideas about it are fascinating. It is the earliest surviving picture of the sky, that has been found.

The imagination of money

Mohamed Fayed burned Harrods' Royal warrants.
Mohamed Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, has disclosed that he burned the Royal warrants after they were removed from the four corners of the London department store.

By Richard Eden Published: 7:00AM BST 22 Aug 2010

The Egyptian tycoon, who steps down as honorary chairman of Harrods in November after selling the company to the Qatari royal family for £1.5 billion, claimed that the warrants had put a "curse" on the shop.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, he writes: "I ordered their removal. Later, I had them burned. They were a curse and business tripled following their removal."
The warrants – from the Queen; the Duke of Edinburgh; the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother; and the Prince of Wales – were taken down in 2000.
They had been displayed since the late Queen Elizabeth first gave her approval in 1938.
The Duke had written to the businessman five months earlier to inform him that he would not be renewing his warrant after 40 years because he no longer patronised the shop in Knightsbridge.
He had been accused by Mr Fayed in court of masterminding the deaths of the tycoon's son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in 1997.
In his letter, Mr Fayed, 77, also calls for the store's new owners, who enjoy close links to the British Royal family, to retain the two memorials that he erected to the memory of his son and the late Princess.
This newspaper's Mandrake column reported last weekend that the Qataris were considering their removal.
"Unless and until this country gives the Princess the thanks and devotion she deserves in the form of fitting public memorial, this statue, Innocent Victims, should remain to remind the world of what was lost when two young people, on the brink of happiness together, were killed," he writes.
The tycoon did not say whether he had been given any reassurances by the Qataris about the future of the bronze statue, which was erected in 2005 and depicts the pair raising their hands to a seagull.
He claims, however: "I believe the new owners of Harrods regard it with the same reverence as the thousands who visit it every week."
He adds: "It is the only memorial to the Princess in the country, if one discounts the misconceived municipal water works in Hyde Park that every year causes casualties among the children who slip over when paddling in it."
The second Harrods memorial, which was unveiled in 1998, consists of photographs of the pair behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from the Princess's last dinner, as well as a ring Mr Fayed's son purchased for her the day before they died during a visit to Paris.
Helen Bowman, of English Heritage, said that although Harrods was housed in a listed building, the memorials could legally be removed.
She said: "These are temporary structures, and, as such, were not part of the original assessment of the building's architectural and historic merit. We appreciate, however, that there may be affection for them."
A spokesman for Harrods said no decision about the future of the memorials had been made
.

Plants can make chlorophyll with light outside visible range

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/infrared-chlorophyl/

To scam is human, in fact, we are all scammed by our own thoughts

Roamer’s return: Denise Morgan holds Ginger, who apparently responded to ‘healing vibes’ Pictures: Cascade

Ginger appears to have responded to a radio appeal – not by returning home, but by turning up in the back garden of the broadcaster herself.

Three-year-old Ginger disappeared from owner Denise Morgan’s home and she became so desperate to find him that she asked Bolton FM’s Sunday night psychic, Janet Crawford, to appeal for information. 

Mrs Crawford then sent out some ‘healing vibes’. 

But she didn’t expect to return home and find the cat in her back garden a few hours after her radio show ended. 

It took her a couple of days to lure him by leaving out food. She then contacted Miss Morgan, from Bolton, via Facebook and reunited them. ‘The way I see it, it must have been drawn to the energies I was sending out and followed them,’ said Mrs Crawford. 

‘Animals are much more attuned to energies than humans, and I’m quite attuned to animals.’ 

Mrs Crawford, 50, claims to have been psychic all her life and honed her skills with a spiritualist church. 

Miss Morgan, 30, remains sceptical about the supposed magical powers.
‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw Ginger, it was very strange,’ she said. ‘I’m really cynical but what else can you believe? 

‘I can’t explain it, so Janet’s explanation is the only explanation.’

My conclusion that the above is an outright scam is not lessened by finding another article, same story except a different cat


http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/bizarre/Reunited+cat-52811.html

Reunited cat

Thursday 19th August 2010 - 16:35:11

A missing cat has been reunited with his owner by a psychic DJ.

Three-year-old Ginger disappeared from his house and in a desperate bid to find him, Denise Morgan asked Bolton FM's Sunday night psychic, Janet Crawford, to appeal for information and she sent out some "healing vibes".

After the appeal the cat turned up in Janet's back garden and after a few days of luring him with food she managed to reunite him with a relieved Denise.

Animals are much more attuned to energies than humans, and I'm quite attuned to animals.

Janet said: "The way I see it, it must have been drawn to the energies I was sending out and followed them.To scam is 

"Animals are much more attuned to energies than humans, and I'm quite attuned to animals."

Theme Park of Bureacracy

It would be so much fun to visit Bulgaria, not least because it seems to be a theme park of democracy. Not a park IN a democracy, but a park where the various aspects of bureaucracy, academe, and politics, typical of the western world, are exhibited in an educational and entertaining manner. This editorial is from the Bulgarian press.

At the end of July, Bulgarian archaeologistKazimir Popkonstantinov discovered what are believed to be the relics of Saint John the Baptist on the Saint Ivan Island near the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

Pieces of bone from the arm and skull and a tooth of St. John, one of the founders of Christianity, were discovered in a marble sarcophagus reliquary within the ancient church.

Diaspora Minister and renowned historianBozhidar Dimitrov confirmed the authenticity of the findings with absolute certainty, and they were transferred fromarchaeologists to the St. George Church in Sozopol during a ceremony last week.

Dimitrov’s confirmation was based solely on an inscription on the marble sarcophagus. “It is very seldom that one would find an inscription, and in archaeology the inscription is considered the most authentic proof,” stated Dimitrov.

Popkonstantinov also stated “It is important to understand one thing – this is the first time ever in the world archaeological practice that relics of St. John are found together with an inscription which just literally nails the conclusion and leaves no doubts. There are no speculations here.”

The affirmation of origin and the official ceremony both came before any tests were done to provide further evidence that the relics are in fact those of St. John.

Criticism became rampant in archaeological circles. Not necessarily about the authenticity of the relics, but about the haste to confirm it - before actual tests were run.

However, some archaeologists have pointed out that the bones can only be dated but that there is no way of actually proving that they belonged to one of the founders of Christianity.

Nonetheless, the scientific doubts have resulted in a heated exchange of insults betweenarchaeologists and Dimitrov.

Dimitrov accused the archaeologists who voiced skepticism of being jealous of Popkonstantinov’s findings. He even suggested that one of Bulgaria’s most well knownarchaeologists Nikolay Ovcharov was envious.

This comes as no surprise, since Ovcharov and Dimtrov have been involved in a war of discrediting each other’s work for the past two years. Ovcharov was just an easy target and a way to get the ball rolling for Dimitrov.

Archaeologists who were stunned by Dimitrov’s harsh words must take his comments with a grain of salt. At a time when relics from a founder of Christianity are said to be discovered - the archaeological community as a whole will be thrilled - but envy amongst somearchaeologists is bound to ensue. It’s natural.

On the other hand, Dimitrov’s accusation is unjustified. As a former historian and scholar, it is shocking he is unwilling to endorse further confirmation, for which the archaeological community, including Ovcharov, is asking, such as carbon dating, to prove the relics are original.

His critics are also professionals and it is not unreasonable for the scientific community to expect deeper investigation into such a unique discovery.

Trying to prove the authenticity of St. John’s relics, even if to find it is impossible, is also advisable because Dimitrov and the Bulgarian government now hope to turn Sozopol into a pilgrimage tourist destination. As it also owns a piece of the Holy Cross and relics of St. Andrew, Dimitrov went as as far as suggesting Sozopol could become the “Second Jerusalem!”

If the holy relics appear to be fraudulent, Dimitrov will be to blame as he was the one, not Popkonstantinov, who disregarded requests for further investigation and testing of therelics. What is more, the reputation of Bulgarian archaeology will be tarnished, and any prospects for pilgrimage tourism will be discredited.

The archaeological community tied the media frenzy over the discoveries to economic projects.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time Dimitrov is the engine of a media campaign whose goal goes beyond the promotion of an archaeological discovery,” said Totko Stoyanov, head of the Bulgarian Archaeologists' Association.

No doubt, Dimitrov has made his excitement over complementing sea tourism in Sozopolwith pilgrimage tourism very clear. Dimitrov’s and the government’s actions since the discoveries have been made, such as immediately funding the restoration of the church housing the relics at a moment when the money for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has been reduced significantly, are obviously strategic ways to bring people into the buzz and foster tourism.

I don’t blame him. This is a great opportunity for the Bulgarian economy to grow, as pilgrimage tourism makes up about 30% of revenues from the tourism industry. These historic, spiritual artifacts in Sozopol may also allow Bulgaria to add to its list of nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites - the recognition alone attracts visitors.

In fact, several Bulgarian ministers will soon begin working on the drafting of a National Strategy for the development of cultural and historical tourism.

Nevertheless, as a government official, Dimitrov has presented Bulgaria, yet again, in a negative light on the international stage, creating more work to be done to make Bulgaria an attractive destination.

Also, Dimitrov’s lude comments against archaeologists and Bulgarian women (whom he deemed indecent or “naked” when entering the church to view the relics) whether strategic or not, have only stolen attention from the importance of the discovery.

Proving the authenticity of the holy artifacts should be the focus of Dimitrov and the archaeological community not only because economic benefits will be realized for bothSozopol and the entire country, but because proving their originality will be a historical milestone.

Coyote story part 5, now at bottom of articles about coyotes attacking children

The capture of a coyote possibly involved in the attacks on children near Rye, New York, has morphed into a story of social media and government transparency. The following article is included in the interests of an ongoing narrative that caught my attention. It is pleasant to reflect that not everyone wants the coyotes destroyed. The link above has a picture of the coyote captured.

After coyotes attacked children playing in yards, the Westchester suburb of Rye embarked on an aggressive program to patrol the area for more creatures. One male coyote was caught near the the location of the second attack last weekend, but the city did not disclose the capture. The Journal News reports that it "learned of the catch from the Facebook page of the trapper's company, Quality Pro Pest and Wildlife Services." One day, local government will realize that social media will force them to be transparent!

The News adds, "When first asked about the capture Friday afternoon, Rye Mayor Doug French referred a reporter to Police Commissioner William Connors. When pressed, French acknowledged the city had nabbed the animal July 31." Conners explained the lack of notice about the capture, "My understanding was that we were waiting to get a few more in that location." The News says that the coyote was euthanized because it was acting aggressive, but Quality Pro Pest and Wildlife Services said on Facebook, "well The Journal News Gets it all Wrong Again!!they said that I killed the Coyote. when in Fact I did not." Update: The News further explains that the coyote was euthanized, but at state direction.
The trapper, Jim Horton, did tell the News it was unclear whether this coyote attacked either of the two victims, who were both young girls, because no coyote DNA was taken from the girls after the attacks. He also discussed a trap-and-capture program in Rye Brook, saying that any coyotes captured will be relocated if they are healthy, "Me catching them and handling them and putting them in a cage and everything — that's just going to instill fear of humans into the coyote. So when we bring it up north and release it, it'll stay clear of people." 


Sept. 6, 2010 update on this story, kind of.

2 coyote attacks in 1 hour in NYC suburb; tot hurt

(AP) – 4 hours ago

RYE BROOK, N.Y. — A teen and a toddler have come face-to-face with a coyote in two separate incidents within about an hour in a New York City suburb. The toddler's father took her to get medical care, but the teen was unhurt.

Authorities say a coyote lunged at the teen boy shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday in Rye Brook. About an hour later, the 2-year-old girl was attacked near her home about two miles away.

In June, the town of Rye — about 3 miles from Rye Brook — had two coyote attacks within four days.

A 3-year-old girl playing in her backyard was jumped from behind by a coyote, and a 6-year-old girl was mauled by two coyotes.

After those attacks, authorities in Rye urged parents to keep their kids inside on summer evenings.

Rye Brook is about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan.

Information from: The Journal News, http://www.lohud.com

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


PART 5
Okay, here's another relevant link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28coyotes.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1285693256-4oNWDPmPkqJvsR54WFy9gw&pagewanted=all


and relevant in this collection of articles about coyotes attacking children because it points out that there is DNA evudence now that what we call coyotes now have wolf and even pet dog DNA in their genetic make up. This might explain the change in behavior (to attacking people) although there are other reasons you could put forward for this----like the Times article points out how variable in prey selection the coyote is. And on this topic, the coyotes in Chicago have been observed not just eating Canada goose eggs (better than shooting the geese I think) but burying goose eggs when the hunters are full, so they can come back later. Which gives me an idea for a fairy tale, not about an ugly ducking, but a baby goose that manages to hatch, into a different world than the one its parents expected. But I am rambling. Read the Times article.

Is Arithmetic Broken? an article from New Scientist

Is Arithmetic Broken?  Here is the setup from an article in New Scientist magazine:


...are the rules of arithmetic, the basic logical premises underlying things like long division, unsound? Implausible, you might think. After all, human error aside, our number system delivers pretty reliable results. Yet the closer mathematicians peer beneath the hood of arithmetic, the more they are becoming convinced that something about numbers doesn't quite add up. The motor might be still running, but some essential parts seem to be missing- and we're not sure where to find the spares.

How they found the book thief

Cambridge graduate sentenced for rare books theft

By Wesley Johnson, Press Association

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

A tome raider who stole antique books worth £40,000 from a world-famous library was jailed for three-and-a-half years today.

Cambridge University graduate William Jacques, who stole £1 million of rare books in the late 1990s, drew up a "thief's shopping list" as he continued his life of crime.

He used a false name to sign in to the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library in London before stuffing valuable books under his tweed jacket and fleeing, Southwark Crown Court in London was told.

Recorder Michael Holland QC told Jacques: "You have absolutely no intention of turning away from what seems to you to be an extremely lucrative and easy crime."

Such crimes "undermine and destroy parts of the cultural heritage that's contained within these libraries", the judge said.

The judge, who said Jacques had no mitigation, told him: "You are a Cambridge graduate and should know better, I suppose."

He went on: "This was a systematic and carefully-planned theft and you had prepared what, in my view, was a target list, from your research at that library, of books that were worth stealing.

"This was a theft in progress and the list referred to books worth tens of thousands of pounds more.

"Your entire motivation was commercial and you intended to make whatever money you could from the theft of these books despite their cultural value.

"The effect of your criminality was to undermine and destroy parts of the cultural heritage that's contained within these libraries and make it more difficult for those who have a legitimate interest in these books to gain access to them because libraries have to take inconvenient and expensive steps to stop thefts of this kind."

Jacques was "relying on the reluctance of library staff to challenge people" when they were used to dealing with members of the public whom they could trust, the judge said.

Jacques, 41, previously plundered more than £1 million of historic books from the UK's leading libraries in the biggest haul of its kind in British legal history.

The serial book thief, who escaped with some 500 extremely rare antiquarian books, hid behind a "shabby cloak of respectability" as he went on to sell them at auction houses in the late 1990s, judge Derek Inman said in May 2002.

Motivated by arrogance, greed and an obsession with money, the loner raided the nation's libraries, devastating their collections and damaging valuable works in an attempt to disguise their origins.

Even a four-year jail sentence, imposed by Judge Inman at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court for 21 counts of theft, could not stop him.

In the latest case, the jury heard that Jacques would regularly visit the Lindley Library in Vincent Square, central London, which holds books, journals, pictures and art on practical gardening, garden history, plants and design dating back to 1514.

The rare volumes of Nouvelle Iconographies des Camellias by Ambroise Verschaffelt were taken some time between June 2004 - when an audit of the books was last undertaken - and March 2007, the court was told.

Gino Connor, for the prosecution, said the crime was a "systematic, carefully planned theft committed by a man who knew precisely what he was doing".

"We are not dealing with Penguin books, we are dealing with very valuable books," he said.

Jacques, highly intelligent with an understanding of rare and valuable books, studied at Cambridge University and was a member of both the British Library and the London Library.

But staff started to become suspicious after noticing he would always wear the same clothes - a tweed jacket and glasses - on visits to the library.

Mr Connor said that, on one occasion, the defendant "was seen to place something inside his jacket and walk away with his left arm stiff against his jacket as if holding something".

"It was rather crude, but it was effective," Mr Connor said.

He told the jury that Jacques always signed in when visiting the library, when he had both arms free. But he never signed out.

Staff called police to the library on April 2, 2007 after noticing Jacques in the building, the court heard.

On being challenged by officers and staff, he said: "I do not know nothing (sic)about this", before adding: "Do you have any evidence?"

Jacques also had a card for London's Senate House library in the name of "Santoro" with him, the same name he used to sign in to the Lindley Library.

Police also found an A4 piece of paper with the names of 70 volumes of rare books, all kept at the library, which were listed in sequential order as to where they could be found.

The document amounted to a "thief's shopping list", Mr Connor said.

Notes were also made as to their valuation and whether they included maps and plates - which could be removed and sold separately, the court was told.

"This tends to suggest that there was a great deal of pre-planning," Mr Connor said.

Jacques, of no fixed address, was found guilty of theft, relating to the 13 volumes missing from the library, by a majority of 11-1.

The jury of seven women and five men, who deliberated for five hours and 40 minutes, also unanimously found Jacques guilty of going equipped with the Senate House card to commit theft.

Inside Google Books: Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you.

Inside Google Books: Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you.

Burns expert finds Burns family letter in thrift store

BBC article from Jan, 2010. Link linked to below:


A letter written by the widow of Robert Burns in the years following his death is set to be handed over to the National Library of Scotland.

Dated 1804, Jean Armour writes about the death of two of her children and how she remains in the home she shared with the poet before his death in 1796.

The page was discovered in a New York junk shop last year.

It is thought the letter was intended for Maria Riddell, a woman from a local landed family, who lived in Dumfries.

It was found by American scholar Dr Nancy Groce who by coincidence had recently produced a symposium on Robert Burns at the Library of Congress.

She paid $75 for the letter, one of the few written by Jean Armour.

In the letter, the poet's wife begins by thanking "Madam" for her "kind inquiry after my famaly [sic] and that you wished to know what was become of Mr Burns children".

She also writes about the death of her sons Francis Wallace, who is thought to have died in his early teens, and Maxwell Burns, who died two years after Burns.

Speaking ahead of the hand-over, Dr Groce said: "I am delighted that this significant letter will be going to a good home.

"I hope its availability will increase public awareness of Jean Armour Burns, a remarkable and frequently underappreciated woman whose understanding and support assisted Robert Burns to pursue his art."

The guy who stole a Shakespeare folio gets prison time.

The guy who stole a Shakespeare folio gets prison time.  Not quite sure where this guy fits in, or what his mistake was, but it makes an interesting story. This article has pictures. He is described as a fantasist, and an alcoholic. There is a contradiction with these adjectives. The judge criticized him for thinking he could match wits with experts. Gotta think about this story because it is not adding up. It doesn't take much to match wits with experts (see A. J. P. Taylor and the Hitler diaries hoax.) This is the first time I read the guy was an alcoholic, and that seems to me to be at odds with the planning, and sensible goals (see the pictures) he was after. Fantasist? The dreams we are all after in a way, dreaming the impossible dream is considered a plus and in fact functions in human evolution for the general good. He did badly miscalculate how to turn the manuscript into cash, but that could be a matter of not studying up on the world of rare manuscripts. If he is a fantasist, beyond the amount we all are, then what was the fantasy. Yeah, he was a crook, yeah he was a cultural bore, but this describes many of those successful in industry.  You could say he was trying to think his way through a problem,  and came up with an original solution. But not a good solution.  There is something to be gleaned here, but I haven't gotten it yet.... Though the inability of the print media to think outside the lines is one point to take home.  Apparently he has a long record of stealing stuff.  Is he incompetent? I hate to say he is stupid, in view of his big dreams, and concrete steps to accomplish the dreams. File under," not sure what to think."