IMAGE HOSTING AT FLICKR.
As always, I render consternation over events I can't control manageable by taking stock of advancements in science, human progress, and the risible behavior of my fellow primates. Here are some things I noticed in the news:
ADVANCEMENTS.
RESEARCHERS IN MEXICO DISCOVER SCULPTURE. Researchers have discovered one of the oldest calendar sculptures ever discovered in Meso-America. [quote from article begins]
[quote begins from article at PhysOrg.com]
The monolithic design depicts two decapitated women. Markings on top of the figures appear to depict an entry from, or part of, a 13-month lunar calendar, said archaeologist Guillermo Ahuja, who led the excavation of the monument....
The lunar calendar has frequently been associated with female figures. The site where the stone was found was also a sacred area and burial ground occupied by the graves of 14 females, whose pottery offerings depicted women.
This suggest that women played very important roles, not only as priestesses, but politically as well," Ahuja said.
Luciano Cedillo, director of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History - which employs Ahuja - called the find "important and surprising."
[quote ends]
ACCORDING TO THIS ARTICLE, US SCIENTISTS WANT TO PUSH FOR A PRO-SCIENCE PRESIDENT.
A HEADCOUNT OF BLACK HOLES. NASA scientists have completed the first census of active black holes. .
ORIGIN OF PLANETS CONFIRMED. I was surprised by this, because I actually believed they already knew this. I certainly thought that I did. It's what I was taught in my science classes back in the Seventies:
[quote begins from Cosmos Online, "Origin of Planets Confirmed"]
It's official: planets are formed from the debris swirling around a young star, astronomers have confimed, more than 250 years after the idea was first proposed.
In 1755, the philosopher Emmanuel Kant first proposed that planets are born from discs of dust and gas orbiting their home stars. Though astronomers have detected more than 200 extrasolar planets and have seen many debris disks around young stars, they had never observed a planet and a debris disc around the same star. Now, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with ground-based observatories, has at last confirmed what Kant and scientists have long predicted.
The results, due to appear in the November issue of the Astronomical Journal, found that an object orbiting the nearby Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani in a disc of dust was definitely a planet....
Epsilon Eridani is located 10.5 light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus. The star is familiar to Star Trek fans as the solar system of the planet Vulcan, home world of the character, Mr Spock.
[quote ends]
So...I'm glad we got that settled. Now, if we can only make contact with the Vulcans. I hear they are crazy rational.
THE CONSOLATION OF MOCKERY.
Thank you, The Huffington Post, for calling my attention to these:
Donald Trump doesn't find Angelina Jolie attractive. I hope she can live with this knowledge.
Katie Couric grills Mel Gibson about his little meltdown a few weeks back and about his anti-semitic remarks. I won't be watching, but it should be an interesting interview. Sadly, poor KC's ratings are apparently dropping.
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