Madame Butterfly
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Posts posted by Madame Butterfly
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World Oldest Fishing Boat Unearthed
An unprecedented excavation was made in the southern part of the peninsula, where archaeologists unearthed a fishing boat believed to be the world's oldest, dating back to 6,000 B.C.
A fishing boat, presumed to be 8000 years old, has been dug out of the ground at Changnyeong County in South Gyeongsang Province. Archaeologists believe the boat, made of pine trees, is the oldest of its kind ever discovered in the world. The Gimhae National Museum has been digging in this area since November last year.
Archaeologists were pleasantly surprised this June to discover a large quantity of earthenware decorated with animal drawings at the excavation site. Three more months into the digging and they unearthed the New Stone Age fishing boat from layers of sediment two meters below the current sea-level.
What remains of the boat is 3 meters long and 60 centimeters wide, whereas the original ship is thought to have been at least 4 meters long.
Until now, only boats built during the united Shilla or Koryo era have been found, meaning they were less than 1000 years old. The boat found today is likely to be more than 8000 years old.
Officials at the state museum said it was a miracle for a boat to be so carefully built during the New Stone Age, an era in which ironware did not exist.
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Martian volcanoes 'may be active'
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter, Cambridge
Mars Express looks across the surface with a cone in the foreground and top-left
Fields of volcanic cones discovered at the North Pole of Mars suggest the Red Planet could still be geologically active, scientists have said.
The cones, seen in images from Europe's Mars Express probe, have no blemishes from impact craters.
This suggests the volcanoes erupted very recently and that the sites could have ongoing volcanism.
Mars Express scientist Gerhard Neukum presented the results at a conference in Cambridge.
"Mars is a planet that was very recently active - maybe one, or two, or three million years ago. And in some areas, I have the impression it is really ongoing," said Dr Neukum, of the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
Future eruptions
But what cannot be determined is when, if at all, some of these volcanoes might erupt again: "It could be a million years from now, it could be tomorrow," he added.
Mars is a planet that was very recently active - maybe one, or two, or three million years ago
Dr Gerhard Neukum, Free University
Dr Neukum acts as the principal investigator for the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, which took the images in which the cones were discovered.
There may be 50-100 of the volcanic cones covering a flank of the North Pole about one million square kilometres in area. They are between 300m (980ft) and 600m (1,970ft) tall, said Dr Neukum.
In addition to the North Pole, other regions with recent - and possibly ongoing - activity on Mars include parts of Tharsis - home to the volcano Olympus Mons - parts of Elysium and the so-called highland-lowland boundary.
By counting the number of craters on the surfaces of Solar System objects, scientists can estimate the age of those surfaces.
If they are heavily cratered, they are deemed older, while smoother surfaces are considered younger. This assumes a constant cratering rate since the heavy bombardment that terrestrial planets underwent about four billion years ago.
Fresh cones
The cones appear to be fresh with no discernible evidence of cratering. Dr Neukum admitted it was possible the cones could be ancient features that have been eroded by wind, but added that this was unlikely.
"I don't see any wind-related features in the region. We should see it and we should see the remains of craters somewhere. But we don't," he told the BBC News website.
Volcanic activity appeared to have peaked on Mars at around 1.5 billion years ago, Dr Neukum said, adding: "Mars is still active within certain limits; it's still not dead."
Dr Neukum thinks that volcanic activity strongly influences glacial activity on Mars. This is because on the Red Planet, eruptions also mobilise water.
In some cases, this water freezes and forms glaciers, says Dr Neukum. But other scientists believe glacial activity on the planet is more strongly influenced by the inclination of Mars in its orbit around the Sun.
The Mars Express results were presented at the American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Cambridge, UK.
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Large Solar Flare Reported
Communication Disruptions Possible, Officials Say
WASHINGTON (Sept. 7) - A large solar flare was reported Wednesday and forecasters warned of potential electrical and communications disruptions.
AP
Solar flares like this one photographed on July 1, 2002 can cause problems for electrical utilities and orbiting spacecraft.
The flare was reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo.
Significant solar eruptions are possible in the coming days and there could be disruptions in spacecraft operations, electric power systems, high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems, the agency said.
"This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as the ... sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the sun," said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the center.
The flare has affected some high-frequency communications on the sunlit side of Earth, NOAA reported.
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You could be right, but I think I have a situation where I hear what has been deflected, or stopped, so I have made sure to be prepared.
I even have DNA kits for everyone in the house, which includes hair samples in special tins, finger print charts, and recent photograph and video of them.
They are in water tight containers and are in an easy spot to grab in case of any emergency
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I was always taught to have extra food in the home, for emergencies.
My mother can remember my grandmother showing her with pride, how she had at least two months of food stocked away. The depression did that to people.
But since 9/11, I'm even more prepared than ever.
I have a storage area in my basement that is nothing but emergency items, based on the red cross list.
I also keep the camping equipment in that area.
I'm more prone to be "damaged" by a tornado though, than a hurricane.
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daydreaming about a neck rub, well "crack" really
Wondering what my tum will tolerate for dinner tonight.
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I simply love cats.
I have a dog, and I really went through the details to make sure he is the best companion for me.
But my cats will always be my fav's, as cats are like people. And I love their personality.
It also doesn't help the dogs that when I was about 7 I got attacked by a pack of dogs, and the little tiny frickin' yippee ones were the ones that bit the worst. :lol:
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Checking mail and messages, listening to the various people in the house being ill, or recouping from this bug that took us all out yesterday.
Just finished playing Windwaker on the GameCube.
Drinking some ginger ale, and eating dry cheerios.
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Not feeling so hot
trying to keep my mind off the not feeling so hot :lol:
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And that reason would be, because we are above the average intelligence level in this country, and refuse to let others think for us?
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The press is pathetic in this country.
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Getting sick and tired of the local and state governments in Louisiana for not taking responsibility for the things they failed to do to protect their citizens.
Who decided to send citizens to the Superdome?
Who made that the place for everyone to go and yet, had nothing there or authorities there to help them?
Who should have co-ordinated that with the National Guard, the Red Cross, and so many more agencies.
If that was the evacuation point, and the local and state government set it up, then why weren't their port a johns taken there? Why wasn't water there, or cots set up?
This isn't just a federal level thing, and yet I've not heard one of those people on a more local level of government take responsibility.
That's the trouble with this country, no one takes responsibility. No one says "the buck stops with me, and I'm ultimately responsible"
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Chatting with some friends on IM
Working on computer skins
Talking to some sick room mates
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Just finished talking to my Mom and sister on the phone.
Looking over some specifications for some halloween costumes
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I think people can't be truly happy until they've learned to be truly happy within themselves. Accepting their less sterling qualities/attributes as well as those they feel pride in.
Things that make me happy:
A babies attempt at talking, love that rambling
Being perfectly understood by someone, and not being judged at the same time
Gardening, quiet gardening
painting
getting lost in a really good book
Laughing with those I love
Walking in the rain
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Web sites help lost loved ones find each other
Desperate for information, concerned friends and families look online
The message boards of Nola.com are crammed with people looking for friends and family.
KATRINA MISSING PERSONS SITES
• MSNBC.com's Reconnect database
• Craigslist: New Orleans Lost & Found
• Biloxi Sun Herald | Looking | I'm safe
• Nola.com's forums
• WWL-TV's forums
• WDSU-TV's message board
• Hurricane Katrina Survivors
• N.O. Pundit bulletin boards
• Now Public's missing persons board
• Salvation Army information request form
• Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog
• U.S. Next of Kin Registry
• Hurricane Katrina message boards
• Katrina Family and Friends
• The Sun Herald "Reach loved ones"
• Hurricane Katrina Survivor Locator
• The Weather Channel message boards
• Pearl River County Katrina survivors
• Katrina Survivors
• GCN Survivor-Connector DataBase (alt1) (alt2)
• Hurricane Katrina Connection
• Pensacola News Journal forums
• Katrina Lost
• Katrina Finder
• Houston Chronicle
• Katrina Messages
• Homeport (U.S. Homeland Security)
• WLOX (Biloxi) Hurricane Katrina
• Full Circle
• Call Home - Text America
MSNBC
Updated: 11:47 a.m. ET Sept. 2, 2005
"SHE'S ONLY 2," the message reads. "If any information on Veronique Verrett is known please contact us." A long series of phone numbers and other contact information follows in this note posted Tuesday to the message boards of the Nola.com Web site.
Veronique is Jakouri Williams' goddaughter. He says he last talked to the girl's mother — his cousin — at 3 p.m. central time on Sunday, as Hurricane Katrina drew near. His cousin had decided to ride out the storm with other family in East New Orleans, and at that point, regretted the choice.
But that's all Williams knows. Since then, the telephone has been useless, and Williams has no idea what became of his family. So like thousands of other people around the country, Williams has turned to the Internet for help. But so far, he hasn't heard anything.
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Ancient and modern man lived side by side -study By Jeremy Lovell
Wed Aug 31, 1:01 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Did Neanderthals and the first ancestors of modern man ever meet? The argument has raged among archaeologists and paleontologists for decades.
Now a group of scientists claim to have proof -- based on radiocarbon dating of artefact finds in France -- that the two distinct groups did indeed share the same space at the same time some 38,000 years ago.
"These data strongly support the chronological coexistence -- and therefore potential demographic and cultural interactions -- between the last Neanderthal and the earliest anatomically and behaviourally modern human populations in western Europe," they wrote in the latest edition of the science journal Nature.
Some scientists have argued that Neanderthals and the first ancestors of modern man existed at the same time -- at least for a while -- but in different places, while others have argued that Neanderthals died out before modern man came along.
Others still have suggested that they not only met but may even have interbred.
The arguments have ebbed and flowed for generations -- fueled from time to time by new artefact finds, mainly from Kenya's Rift Valley.
But the team of scientists writing in Thursday's edition of Nature believe they may have settled the dispute with analysis of tools discovered at different depths in the cave of the Grotte des Fees at Chatelperron in central France.
In the cave a layer of tools from the later so-called Aurignacian culture -- named after Aurignac near Spain where they were first discovered -- were found sandwiched between two layers of tools attributed to earlier Neanderthals.
Aurignacian tools are more sophisticated and deemed to have been made by the first modern humans.
The scientists, led by Paul Mellars from Cambridge University, said the layers suggested that not only had the two groups been around at the same time but that they must have shared the same space -- at least for a while.
Radiocarbon dating of some of the bone fragments from the different layers confirmed the observational conclusions.
The scientists suggested that encroaching cold may have made the Aurignacians move toward the warmer coast from central Europe and at the same time encouraged the Neanderthals to move even further south where it would have been even warmer.
When the weather warmed again in later generations the population flow was reversed -- suggesting that the ancestors of modern man may have been better equipped to deal with colder climates than the last groups of Neanderthals, they said.
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Getting ready for work.
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Talking to some friends on msn
enjoying some quiet in the house
enjoying the breeze through my window while I talk online
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Just took some antibiotics
Thinking about blow drying my hair
Creating some skins for the masquerade site I made for someone.
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yes
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Eldest
The 7 spiritual laws of yoga
Vitamins for the Soul
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Downloading some music
Missing my Beloved
Listening to the roar of the crowd at the football game up the street.
:lol:
Martian Dunes Hide Water Secret
in Science & Technology
Posted
Martian dunes hide water secret
By Olivia Johnson
BBC News, Dublin
One of the dunes, called Kaiser Dune, which spans 6.5km and rises 475m above the Martian surface, is among the largest in the Solar System.
The icy dunes could be a valuable resource for any future manned missions to the planet, said Dr Mary Bourke.
The researcher presented her results to a science conference in Dublin.
"If you're looking for a source of water for any future landers," said Dr Bourke, "I am advocating that you march up to your nearest sand dune.
"Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to find a reservoir that can be used to produce fuel and to help the survival of humans," she told the British Association's Festival of Science.
Earth parallels
The Gamma Ray Spectrometer aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft returned the first definitive detection of solid water on Mars in 2002.
Data from this mission allowed scientists to construct a rough map of the water content in the Martian soil. Mars' polar ice caps were found to contain up to 70% water by mass.
Dr Bourke, of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, US, first identified sand dunes as another possibly important reservoir of water-ice by overlaying this water content map on detailed geologic maps of Mars.
She found that the regions containing sand dunes in the planet's northern hemisphere contained perhaps 40-50% water by mass.
"It came as quite a surprise to us to realise that there could be some frozen water in these sand dunes," Dr Burke explained.
"On Earth, you do find snow and ice within sand dunes, but they're not well understood or even studied. They are reported as an oddity."
Because the resolution of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer data was not high enough to confirm the water was associated with the dunes themselves, Dr Bourke looked to more detailed satellite imagery.
Examining aerial photographs of sand dunes in Earth's polar regions allowed her to identify distinctive signatures of icy dunes which are visible from above.
Youthful features
"We were keen to identify what sand dunes look like from satellites in Antarctica," Dr Bourke explained, "because all we have for regions on Mars is satellite data."
Earth dunes containing solid water are seen to have overhanging cornices, jagged steps, and exposed ridges which result from the ice and snow binding the sand grains together and strengthening them against erosion.
That similar features are observed in the Martian dunes suggests that they, too, are strengthened by water-ice.
Even stronger evidence comes from signatures of melting, according to Dr Bourke. In regions where ice warms and seeps through the sand, dunes develop cracks and fan-shaped depressions.
Both features have been found in the Martian dunes. One fan-shaped basin seen on Mars spans over 400m, suggesting it has lost an extremely high fraction of water.
Mars' largest dune, Kaiser Dune, may contain over 500 cubic metres of water alone.
While the icy dunes on Mars cannot yet be accurately dated, the lack of cratering from asteroid impacts indicates they are relatively recent.
Dr Bourke speculates they may result from Martian snowfalls occurring in the last 100,000 years, and suggests they may eventually allow investigation of the changing Martian climate.
The dunes may also provide a new venue for the search for life on Mars, as methods have already been developed for studying biological life in similar regions on Earth.
The ability to associate water-ice with surface features as discrete, and as common, as sand dunes may be of significant practical value to any future manned mission to Mars which will need a supply of local water to survive on the planet.