The French time bomb

A rather terrifying article about the forsaken zones that now surround virtually all French cities.
The wonder of it all is that so many Europeans still look upon America as the home of crime and alienation. You get comments all the time about our crazy "gun culture", but it's in the heart of civilized Europe (in particular, France) where you have armored cars routinely robbed with machine guns and RPGs.

Ancient Irish finds at the Hill of Tara

Advanced ground-scanning techniques have revealed vast numbers of new monuments at one of Ireland's most important ancient sites. The current survey has discovered around 60 structures dating back as far as 4000 BC. Perhaps the most striking find has been an enormous oval enclosure dating to around 2500 BC.

The entire archeological complex, however, is under active threat by plans to build a major motorway directly through the area.

Tiny but massive strange quarks passing through the Earth

A group of researchers have identified two seismic events that they think provide the first evidence of a previously undetected form of matter passing through the Earth. The so-called strange quark matter is so dense that a piece the size of a human cell would weigh a tonne.

Such a piece, traveling through the Earth at 400 km/second, would release energy equivalent to that of a 50 kiloton bomb -- though the release would be spread out over the entirely of its track through the planet. Still, probably wouldn't want one to pass through your bedroom.

Andrew Lloyd Weber selling William Morris Aeneid manuscript

Perhaps the most significant Pre-Raphaelite illuminated manuscript in private hands is coming up for sale at Christie's, London, next week. The volume incorporates twelve elaborate miniatures by Edward Burne-Jones; the estimated price is £1.5M-plus.

UPDATE: No sale, didn't make reserve.

Garbage then and now

Interesting article in today's NY Times about how much garbage New Yorkers have been generating over the past century. The story's hook is that garbage per capita, by weight, was much greater back in the 1920s and '30s, hitting its peak in 1940 at a level over twice that of the present day. In fact, once one makes allowance for coal ash, the graph flattens out considerably, showing remarkably little change over 100 years. The overall pattern, though, is clear:

The big economic drivers of the 20th century — improved transportation and refrigeration, the transformation of consumer convenience, the pressure on businesses to cut costs — all moved in one direction: toward less waste, not more.
"Everything relates to two principal factors — one is reducing costs, making things lighter and easier to transport, and the other is making them more convenient to the consumer," Dr. Walsh said. "And that often means making them lighter, also. I see this pattern throughout the century."

Although the findings immediately recall Bjorn Lomborg's statistics, they also reminded me of another (and rather more entertaining) book: an oldie but goodie, titled The Good Old Days -- They Were Terrible!

NOTE: The full study of the New York garbage records is in Environmental Science and Technology.

Buried by cookies

Hadn't updated Windows for a while, so finally got caught up on critical patches last night. Was running out of drive space so had to do some housekeeping, and lo, what do I find? No less than 7965 cookies clogging up the Temp Internet Files folder! Took nearly five minutes just to delete them all.

Harvard's re-invitation of Tom Paulin

Charles Johnson has been covering this story, concluding his most recent post:

And meanwhile, exhibiting a hypocritical double standard so blatant it would induce cognitive dissonance in a Buddhist monk, Harvard Law School is considering a ban on offensive speech.

In fact, the typical university is a collection of semiautonomous fiefs, not a centralized state. What is done by the English department has very little to do with what is done in Law. Nonetheless, one is tempted to imagine that this not a double standard, but all one big plot: Paulin is to be invited to speak, so he can be prosecuted for what he says. Hmmmm.

Text message broadcast tested as antikidnap measure

A pilot program is under way in Sussex, enabling mobile phone users to be notified en masse in case a child is abducted. Notification will be by area, based upon the subscriber's postcode. It will also be possible for phone owners to register multiple postcodes, such as for work, home, or school.

Despite all the publicity given crimes against children, it is likely that the text message warning system, if widely implemented, will prove most useful as a civil defense measure. The value of being able to deliver emergency directions almost instantly to a given area is obvious, and it is to be hoped that something similar will eventually be adopted here in the USA (even if text messaging is still not very popular here, unlike in the UK and Europe).

John Fleming, columnist, on the Paulin question

I've long admired John V. Fleming's work as a medievalist (his From Bonaventure To Bellini was the inspiration for my first PhD dissertation topic; don't ask about "first" -- that's a story for another day). It was a pleasant surprise to discover that he is equally adept as a columnist. Thanks to Instapundit for the reference to his Daily Princetonian column on the Harvard Paulin flap. One notable line among many:

Secular European intellectuals of Paulin's stripe vehemently deny anti-Semitism, but they can speak its language without accent.

Early human spear use: throwing vs thrusting

New Scientist is reporting on a study of Neanderthal and early homo sapiens spear technique, based upon a comparative examination of arm bones. Early arm bones are always much thicker on one side, which has been interpreted as an indication of spear-throwing. But it seems the thickening pattern does not match that of bones from documented spear-throwing peoples.
Volunteers were then asked to thrust a wired-up spear into a target; wielding the spear with two hands yielded stress on the arms consistent with the observed thickening of the ancient bones.

Uffizi and Accademia threatened with shutdown over late utility bills

Italian power company Enel has been threatening to cut off electricity to the Uffizi if the museum does not pay back bills of some 280,000 Euros. The Accademia has apparently been served with the same threat.
The problems seem to have originated in recent moves to give regional museums greater autonomy, which have left many struggling to pay their bills -- even though, as in Florence, there may be government funds allocated, but not accessible.

Industrial time capsule preservation fight

The Mechanicville Hydroelectric Station north of Albany, New York generated electricity for the region up until 1997. Now preservationists are trying to reopen the plant as a museum. It appears that the machinery is little changed since the plant was set up in 1897.

The James ossuary: new statistical analysis offered

A new study commissioned by the controversial ossuary's owner, Oded Golan, argues that the combination of names in its inscription would likely have occurred only some 2.6 times in the period in which the ossuary was made, correcting for age and ability to afford such a burial.

9th Crusade graffiti found in Gargano

Archeologists based in Foggia have found 13th-century graffiti as well as some frescoes depicting the knights of the 9th Crusade in the church of Santa Maria di Monte D'Evio, built around 1100. The area, lying between the lakes of Lesina and Varano, appears to have been a bridgehead for the 9th Crusade.
The graffiti also depict a design of three concentric rectangles with a cross inside, an apparent symbolic representation of the Triple Holy Girdle, which may have served as an emblem for the crusaders.

Elephant Man's descendant

DNA testing of a granddaughter of "Elephant Man" Joseph Merrick may finally determine what caused his grotesque deformities.

CORRECTION: That should read, "granddaughter of an uncle of" (per Ray Girvan's kind comment).

Stim mobiles & Baby Mozart aren't enough

The search for new ways to jump-start infant development never seems to stop. The New York Times now reports that the next fad is likely to be velcro mittens, which enable infants to pick up fuzzy toys before being able to grasp them on their own.

UPDATE: Looks like this was originally reported back in September and October, but look for the NYT writeup to really get things rolling.

"Breaker" Morant no martyr

Historian Craig Wilcox's new book, Australia's Boer War: The War in South Africa 1899-1902, has been heralded by the Australian War Memorial as authoritative. Though but a part of the book, Blainey's assertion that Harry "Breaker" Morant was no innocent scapegoat has drawn much attention Down Under.

NOTE: Apologies for mistakenly crediting the book to Geoffrey Blainey; the post has been corrected. The original link now seems to have expired, but more information may be found here, while the book is listed here.

Finds at Teotihuacan shows Mayan links to Aztecs

Excavation at the Pyramid of the Moon has revealed burials in Mayan style, with jade objects of distinctively Mayan appearance.

Dr. Saburo Sugiyama, an archaeologist at Aichi Prefectural University in Japan and the co-director of the excavations, said the jade objects were intriguing because they were like those that were often used as symbols of rulers or royal family members in Maya societies.
"We have to study the objects and bones further, but the offerings strongly suggest a direct relation between the Teotihuacan ruling group and the Maya royal families," Dr. Sugiyama said.

Jewish Revolt artifacts found in Judaean cave

A cave survey in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, near the Dead Sea, has uncovered a cache of objects dating to the 2nd century, including a number of scrolls.

Rappelling into a cave, archaeologists found the papyrus scrolls as well as coins bearing the name "Shimon," a reference to Bar Kochba, the leader of a 132-135 rebellion, the parks authority said. Archeologists also found a dozen wooden arrows and metal arrowheads, and scraps of cloth.

It is to be hoped that the scrolls will be published with all reasonable speed.

eBay rant

Just got back from the post office this morning, picking up some recent eBay purchases. Two good, one bad -- pretty much par for the course lately. It still leaves me wondering, though, how so many sellers can be so (willfully?) blind. It doesn't take any specialized knowledge to figure out that cracks, gouges, and missing or broken parts are defects that buyers would rather know about. On the other hand, buyers are now adjusting their bids to compensate for rampant overgrading, so that one can sometimes get a real deal when something is in fact honestly described.

Nazis on speed

Better soldiering through pharmacology? A new report discusses the Third Reich's attempt to develop a drug for military use.

Codenamed D-IX by Nazi scientists, it was intended to help German soldiers fight with almost unlimited endurance. . . respected Hamburg historian and criminologist Wolf Kemper, whose report is entitled Nazis on Speed - Drugs in the Third Reich, says it was tested on prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp, near Berlin

Canada charges veterans to replace lost medals

Canada's Department of Veterans Affairs is coming under fire for demanding CA$150 (US$95) from an 87-year-old combat veteran to replace medals he was given for service during WW2. Much ado about nothing, it would seem, as the replacement medals are apparently being sold at cost (which might even be waived in this instance, since the original medals were lost in a house fire).
And then the voice of reason:

Jack Granatstein, a leading Canadian military historian, said it makes sense to charge veterans for replacement medals to stop people from accumulating additional sets and selling them to collectors.
"I think you probably need some sort of rule like this, given the market in medals," he said. "And there is a substantial collectors market in medals."

Former Scout claims credit for D-Day dummies

Inflatable dummy paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines to sow confusion during the D-Day landings. Who came up with the idea?

Medieval kitchen to be uncovered?

The city of Coventry has proposed restoration of the medieval kitchen at St. Mary's Guildhall. The kitchen's interior was covered up and subdivided in the 1940s in order to accommodate a modern kitchen.

Arm of St. Giles found in Edinburgh?

What may be a long-lost relic of Edinburgh's patron saint has been found hidden in the loft of St. Giles' Cathedral.
An arm bone of St. Giles was donated to the cathedral in 1454, but appears to have gone missing during the Reformation.

Privy-digging: bottle hunters vs archeologists

Bottle-hunters have been digging up the sites of old outhouses and garbage dumps for a long, long time. Now that more archeologists are taking an interest in investigating the lives of ordinary people, however, conflicts over those sites are bound to increase.

MORE on a planned dig in Michigan, at the site of a former governor's mansion.

Ice Age forest found off Key West

This summer, divers working in about 40 feet of water stumbled across something unusual:

Pine cones, tree branches and charred limbs -- thought to be about 8,400 years old -- were an unexpected and intriguing treasure awaiting archaeologist Corey Malcom, who spent much of the summer underwater in search of the remains of the Henrietta Marie, a British slave ship that sank 35 miles off Key West in 1700.

NYC preschool admission follies

The New York Times has been on this story for a few days now: questions are being raised about a seemingly irregular $1M donation from Citicorp being the price of admission for well-connected twins into the 92nd Street Y preschool -- a story that now seems to have been confirmed (scroll down). The twins' father not only pulled strings, hard, but also altered stock recommendations to grease the skids. The SEC is interested.