During the reign of the pharaoh Menkaure, thought to be between 2532 and 2503 BC, Egypt was run from a city on low ground near the Giza plateau. Known as Heit el-Ghurab, this was a large administrative centre surrounded by houses, workshops and bread ovens. After decades of occupation, it was abandoned and buried under [...]
British scientists have provided evidence that ancient Egyptians used meteorite iron to make accessories as early as 3,300 BC. The evidence comes from strings of iron beads which were excavated in 1911 at the Gerzeh cemetery, about 44 miles south of Cairo.
Dating from 3350 to 3600 BC, thousands of years before Egypt’s Iron Age, the [...]
Mini-Lego versions of Abu Simbel and the Sphinx:
Source: Kristi “McWii,” Lego Abu Simbel, flickr (Feb. 7, 2013); Kristi “McWii,” Lego Sphinx, flickr (Feb. 7, 2013).
With their “Green the Capitol” initiative, the Democrats planned to make the [Capitol] building a model of sustainability and an example to us all. They replaced light bulbs and bathroom fixtures, but perhaps most significantly, they took the step of greening the congressional cafeteria. Cost was no object. Good thing, too.
The problem, as they saw [...]
Ars Technica has had a couple of very nice articles on exoplanet detection in the last week:
Matthew Francis, Tiny Exoplanet Is Smaller Than Mercury (And Probably Hotter, Too), Ars Technica (Feb. 20, 2013) (”[R]esearchers may have found the smallest exoplanet yet, a world with a diameter about 80 percent of Mercury’s. This planet candidate, named [...]
Source: Rosemary Mosco, Attenborough, Bird and Moon (Jan. 2013).
An Italian archaeological mission has accidently [sic] uncovered a collection of five private rock-hewn Third Intermediate Period tombs while brushing sand from parts of King Amenhotep II’s temple, located on the northern side of the Serapaeum on Luxor’s west bank.
Each tomb includes a deep shaft leading to a burial chamber containing a [...]
Forget the fact that it isn’t testable, this is the true tragedy of the multiverse:
Source: Benjamin Dewey, Tragedy No. 151, Tragedy Series (Nov. 9, 2012)
Was this an attempt to avoid the prior art effect of author’s paper on a patent application(s):
We regret to inform that the published paper included a few parts that disclosed confidential information which should have been protected under patent law. We admit that the request for retraction is due to the indiscretion of the authors, [...]
I would love to go, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it this Friday:
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 21, 2012, space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to visit northern California with a low-level flyover of NASA Ames Research Center before flying to Los Angeles to be permanently installed at [...]