The Meaning of 2012 - Graham Hancock speaks on BBC Radio 4
Graham Hancock was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 on the meaning of 2012. Documentary airs tonight at 8pm UK time and will be available from tomorrow for free download worldwide at www.bbc.co.uk. A snippet from the same interview was also run by the BBC yesterday and is available for free download here. He's on between 16 mins 40 and 22 mins 47.
Wall collapse sparks fresh worries about ancient Pompeii
ROME — Part of the wall of a house in the ancient city of Pompeii collapsed on Friday, raising fresh concerns about the state of one of the world's most treasured archaeological sites.
Officials said the wall was part of a 2,000-year-old house on the Vicolo del Modesto, in a section of the site that had already been declared off limits to the public for safety reasons.
About two square meters (yards) of the wall were involved in the collapse, which occurred after heavy rainstorms swept over most of southern Italy.
Officials said the wall was part of a 2,000-year-old house on the Vicolo del Modesto, in a section of the site that had already been declared off limits to the public for safety reasons.
About two square meters (yards) of the wall were involved in the collapse, which occurred after heavy rainstorms swept over most of southern Italy.
Satellite Could Find Hidden Archaeological Sites by Remote Sensing
SAN FRANCISCO – Light reflected by the Amazon rainforest’s vegetation could help an orbiting satellite find the elusive fertile patches of soil known as terra preta — or ‘black earth’ — that mark archaeological sites where pre-Columbian populations settled.
Finding these rich patches of earth has been a challenge. They’re sprinkled throughout the enormous Amazon basin, hidden beneath an impenetrable forest, and embedded in a land with few roads. So a team of scientists is testing whether satellite measurements of the light reflected by tree canopies could help researchers panning for black soil gold, a team of scientists reported here Dec. 3 at the American Geophysical Union conference. |  |
NASA to Launch New Mars Rover in 2020
SAN FRANCISCO — NASA will launch a new Mars rover in 2020, agency officials announced today (Dec. 4).
The unmanned rover's chassis and landing system will be based heavily on NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover, which has been tooling around the Red Planet since August of this year, said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science. "We have a whole new Mars mission, and I'm very excited about that," Grunsfeld said here today at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. |  |
Is the "Superfuel" Thorium Riskier Than We Thought?
Imagine a cheap, plentiful source of energy that could provide safe, emissions-free power for hundreds of years without refueling and without any risk of nuclear proliferation. The fuel is thorium, and it has been trumpeted by proponents as a "superfuel" that eludes many of the pitfalls of today’s nuclear energy. But now, as a number of countries including China, India, and the United States explore the potential use of thorium for nuclear power, researchers say one of the biggest claims made about the fuel—its proliferation resistance—doesn’t add up.
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To the moon? Firm hopes to sell $1.5 billion trips
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attention wealthy nations and billionaires: A team of former NASA executives will fly you to the moon in an out-of-this-world commercial venture combining the wizardry of Apollo and the marketing of Apple.
For a mere $1.5 billion, the business is offering countries the chance to send two people to the moon and back, either for research or national prestige. And if you are an individual with that kind of money to spare, you too can go the moon for a couple days. |  |
Even Planets With Thin Atmospheres Could Host Life
SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists have grown bacteria in a very low-atmospheric-pressure environment, similar to the surface of Mars.
When searching for life in the universe, it makes sense to look for conditions roughly similar to our own planet. We have only one example of life, and it happens to exist on an Earth-sized planet with water and a thick atmosphere. Previous studies have shown that microbes were unable to grow when the atmospheric pressure was too low, but a new experiment seems to contradict this finding. “Just because the planet doesn’t have a large atmosphere, we don’t have to dismiss it right away as non-habitable,” said Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center here at the American Geophysical Union conference on Dec. 3. |  |
Russian premier jokes about secret files on aliens
MOSCOW (AP) — "Men in Black" agents K and J may be about to recruit a new Russian assistant: Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev has spoken about top secret files on aliens that may have landed in Russia.
In footage recorded Friday after a television interview, the former president joked that each Russian leader gets two folders with information about extraterrestrials that visited our planet — and stayed here.
Medvedev has spoken about top secret files on aliens that may have landed in Russia.
In footage recorded Friday after a television interview, the former president joked that each Russian leader gets two folders with information about extraterrestrials that visited our planet — and stayed here.
UFO hacker won't be tried in Britain for U.S. crimes
LONDON (Reuters) - A British hacker whose extradition to face charges of accessing nearly 100 U.S. government computers in a quest for UFOs was halted on grounds he might harm himself will not be tried in Britain, the prosecution office said on Friday.
Gary McKinnon, 46, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, has admitted hacking into Pentagon and NASA computers under the pseudonym "Solo", saying he was looking for evidence of flying saucers and other extraterrestrial activity. |  |
Former Nazi guard appeals to immigration board in Virginia
A former Nazi concentration camp guard who has lived quietly in western Pennsylvania for more than 50 years took his fight against deportation to the nation's highest immigration court Thursday, arguing that he shouldn't be punished because he served in Hitler's army against his will.
The Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church heard the appeal from 88-year-old Anton Geiser of Sharon, Pa., who acknowledges serving in the Nazi SS as a guard in the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. A federal judge ordered him deported in 2010.
The Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church heard the appeal from 88-year-old Anton Geiser of Sharon, Pa., who acknowledges serving in the Nazi SS as a guard in the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. A federal judge ordered him deported in 2010.
Extending Einstein: Researchers demonstrate a new kind of quantum entanglement
Physicists at the University of Calgary and at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo have published new research in Nature Physics which builds on the original ideas of Einstein and adds a new ingredient: a third entangled particle.
Quantum entanglement is one of the central principles of quantum physics, which is the science of sub-atomic particles. Multiple particles, such as photons, are connected with each other even when they are very far apart and what happens to one particle can have an effect on the other one at the same moment, even though these effects can not be used to send information faster than light.
Quantum entanglement is one of the central principles of quantum physics, which is the science of sub-atomic particles. Multiple particles, such as photons, are connected with each other even when they are very far apart and what happens to one particle can have an effect on the other one at the same moment, even though these effects can not be used to send information faster than light.
Researchers turn harmful greenhouse gas into a tool for making pharmaceuticals
A team of chemists at USC has developed a way to transform a hitherto useless ozone-destroying greenhouse gas that is the byproduct of Teflon manufacture and transform it into reagents for producing pharmaceuticals.
The team will publish their discovery in a paper entitled "Taming of Fluoroform (CF3H): Direct Nucleophilic Trifluoromethylation of Si, B, S and C Centers," in the Dec. 7 issue of Science.
The team will publish their discovery in a paper entitled "Taming of Fluoroform (CF3H): Direct Nucleophilic Trifluoromethylation of Si, B, S and C Centers," in the Dec. 7 issue of Science.
Wild Horses Are Running Out of Room, On and Off Range
CAÑON CITY, Colo. — The herd of wild horses clopped cautiously toward the strangers in their pen. A chestnut mustang leaned in for a closer look, sniffing and snorting curiously. Another inched backward, her black eyes flashing with fear.
For many, this would be their first human contact, beyond the workers who feed them at this 80-acre holding center, 100 miles southwest of Denver. “They have all their needs met here. Except their freedom,” said Fran Ackley, who oversees the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program in Colorado. “I can’t say if they want it or not.” |  |
Africa's Homo sapiens were the first techies
The search for the origin of modern human behaviour and technological advancement among our ancestors in southern Africa some 70 000 years ago, has taken a step closer to firmly establishing Africa, and especially South Africa, as the primary centre for the early development of human behaviour.
A new research paper by renowned Wits University archaeologist, Prof. Christopher Henshilwood, is the first detailed summary of the time periods he and a group of international researchers have been studying in South Africa: namely the Still Bay techno-traditions (c. 75 000 – 70 000 years) and the Howiesons Poort techno-tradition (c. 65 000 – 60 000 years). |  |
Largest ever Egyptian sarcophagus identified
The largest ancient Egyptian sarcophagus has been identified in a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, say archaeologists who are re-assembling the giant box that was reduced to fragments more than 3,000 years ago.
Made of red granite, the royal sarcophagus was built for Merneptah, an Egyptian pharaoh who lived more than 3,200 years ago. A warrior king, he defeated the Libyans and a group called the "Sea Peoples" in a great battle.
Made of red granite, the royal sarcophagus was built for Merneptah, an Egyptian pharaoh who lived more than 3,200 years ago. A warrior king, he defeated the Libyans and a group called the "Sea Peoples" in a great battle.
Mystery of Mass Squid 'Suicides' Possibly Solved
Thousands of jumbo squid have beached themselves on central California shores this week, committing mass "suicide." But despite decades of study into the phenomenon in which the squid essentially fling themselves onto shore, the cause of these mass beachings have been a mystery.
But a few intriguing clues suggest poisonous algae that form so-called red tides may be intoxicating the Humboldt squid and causing the disoriented animals to swim ashore in Monterey Bay, said William Gilly, a marine biologist at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif. |  |
Disability history month: Was Tamerlane disabled?
Tamerlane - derived from his nickname Timur the Lame - rose from obscurity to become a 14th Century conqueror of nations, who piled high the skulls of his enemies. It was quite a feat at a time when physical prowess was prized, writes Justin Marozzi.
Think of the greatest conquerors of all time and chances are you'll quickly list Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. It is rather less likely, unless you come from Central Asia or the Muslim world more widely, that you'd spare a thought for Tamerlane. Yet in many ways this Tartar warlord, born near Samarkand in 1336 in what is now Uzbekistan, outshone both the Macedonian king and the Mongol warlord. |  |
Cicadas' Cycles Control Their Predators
Periodical cicadas have such a strange life cycle that some have argued they can count, and have a particular affinity for prime numbers. That's because their broods emerge after lengthy periods of time; in North America, they appear en masse from underground every 13 or 17 years. Now, two researchers argue that the cicadas' cycles are timed to "engineer" the numbers of a mortal enemy—predatory birds. Contrary to what one might expect, these birds' populations drop significantly the year cicadas emerge in all their buzzing glory, the scientists report in the current issue of The American Naturalist.
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