THEE STRANGER NEWS
A Liberated Zone on the FM, to enhance alternative culture and cognitive freedom!
Broadcast Thursdays at 89.5 FM KZCT in Vallejo, California, to a worldwide audience. Tune-in online [http://tunein.com/popout/player/s130679].
Convened by Dr.G., a Renegade Illuminati, convening Thee Temple [link], for knowledge, whimsy, and inspiration. Everything is true, nothing is forbidden!
Introductory track: Covenant - Ritual Noise [youtube.com/watch?v=dnlGEQ1NUsk]
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Futurism & Strange Science
* "Concepts for the development of German quantum computers" (2021-07-08, dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2021/03/20210708_concepts-for-the-development-of-german-quantum-computers.html) [archive.is/sEbMl]
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* "In major step, UCSF scientists translate unspoken words of paralyzed man into writing" (2021-07-14, sfchronicle.com/health/article/In-major-step-UCSF-scientists-translate-unspoken-16315132.php) [archive.is/Bq8bb]
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* "Plasma tech could replace one of world's rarest materials; Technology is low-cost, sustainable, readily available; New plasma coating technology could see the phase-out of rare earth metal indium that is used in smartphone glass and dimmable windows, which is predicted to run out in 10 years" (2021-07-20, sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2021/07/20/plasma-tech-could-replace-one-of-world-s-rarest-materials.html) [archive.is/atWXa]
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* "Scientists created several samples of glasses for protection against nuclear radiation Bismuth borate glasses were shown outperformance while compared with the commercial ones" (2021-07-14, urfu.ru, via eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/ufu-scs071421.php) [archive.is/0ybdQ]
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* "China develops refrigerator to realize ultra-low temperature" (2021-07-14, news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-14/China-develops-refrigerator-to-realize-ultra-low-temperature-11SIM7GUorm/index.html) [archive.is/5IkCN]
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* "A Sneak Peek into Test Chamber for X-59" (2021-07-15, nasa.gov/aeroresearch/image-feature/a-sneak-peek-into-test-chamber-for-x-59) [archive.is/3FuT2]
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* "Custom-made MIT tool probes materials at the nanoscale" (2021-07-13, physics.mit.edu/news/custom-made-mit-tool-probes-materials-at-the-nanoscale/) [archive.is/Fv7AP]
* "Condensed Matter Experiment" (retrieved 2021-07-18, physics.mit.edu/research-areas/condensed-matter-experiment/) [archive.is/StgA8]
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* (jetpackaviation.com/) [archive.is/bNBiW]
* "JetPack Aviation completes initial Speeder VTOL trials" (2021-07-19, jetpackaviation.com/, via spacedaily.com/reports/JetPack_Aviation_completes_initial_Speeder_VTOL_trials_999.html) [archive.is/cRZ2U]
* "Jet turbine-powered flying motorcycle which can travel 300 mph and has a price tag of $380,000 completes first flight testing; Jetpack Aviation tested a prototype of its VTOL Speeder in Southern California; It can reach an altitude of up to 15,000 feet and produce a maximum thrust of 1,200 pounds; It can be adapted as a pleasure craft or for medical teams and fire and rescue; Small enough to be transported in a trailer, it runs on diesel or kerosene and doesn't need charging before taking off; It'll carry heavier loads than a jetpack and support up to two passengers" (2021-07-19, dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9803373/Flying-motorcycle-costs-380-000-travel-300-mph-completes-flight-test.html) [archive.is/Cvksg]
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* "Fastest Train: China rolls out first high-speed maglev train" (2021-07-20, news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-20/VHJhbnNjcmlwdDU2NjQ3/index.html) [archive.is/NhBLl]
* "Is there a future for Maglev trains?" (2021-07-22, by Djoomart Otorbaev, former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, and distinguished professor of the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, via news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-22/Is-there-a-future-for-Maglev-trains--126yDiRSDqU/index.html) [archive.is/4os79]
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* "Israelis could have personal electric flying vehicles within years; CEO of AIR, a startup working on making aircraft as common as cars, says this would 'blaze the path towards a new era of air mobility accessible to everyone' " (2021-07-22, israelhayom.com/2021/07/22/israeli-could-finally-get-personal-electric-flying-vehicles/) [archive.is/2pQLj]
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Space News
"NASA Administrator: Alien Life Is More Likely Than We Thought" (2019, futurism.com) [archive.is/d6n46]
* "Project launched to look for extraterrestrial visitors to our Solar System" (2021-07-26, sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/project-launched-look-extraterrestrial-visitors-our-solar-system) [archive.is/LCrGf]
Space News
"NASA Administrator: Alien Life Is More Likely Than We Thought" (2019, futurism.com) [archive.is/d6n46]
* "Project launched to look for extraterrestrial visitors to our Solar System" (2021-07-26, sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/project-launched-look-extraterrestrial-visitors-our-solar-system) [archive.is/LCrGf]
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* "Location of Earth" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_of_Earth) [archive.is/cpUcA], map (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Extended_logarithmic_universe_illustration.png)
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* "NASA warns moon’s ‘wobble,’ sea rise will cause massive flooding" (2021-07-15, fox13memphis.com/news/trending/nasa-warns-moons-wobble-sea-rise-will-cause-massive-flooding/YEDRIWEMQZG2XALZIS6DFWKVDY/) [archive.is/AwOg0]
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* "New research suggests explosive volcanic activity on Venus" (2021-07-12, phys.org/news/2021-07-explosive-volcanic-venus.html) [archive.is/IZw8L]
* "Venus: Could it really harbour life? New study springs a surprise" (2020-09-15, via phys.org/news/2020-09-venus-harbour-life.html) [archive.is/qHgk7]
* "Hints of life on Venus: Scientists detect phosphine molecules in high cloud decks" (2020-09-14, by Royal Astronomical Society, via phys.org/news/2020-09-hints-life-venus-scientists-phosphine.html) [archive.is/u1IUe]
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* "The mystery of what causes Jupiter’s X-ray auroras is solved" (2021-07-09, esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/The_mystery_of_what_causes_Jupiter_s_X-ray_auroras_is_solved) [archive.is/3ZKs4]
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* "NASA’s Juno Tunes Into Jovian Radio Triggered by Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io; The Juno Waves instrument “listened” to the radio emissions from Jupiter’s immense magnetic field to find their precise locations" (2021-07-15, jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-tunes-into-jovian-radio-triggered-by-jupiters-volcanic-moon-io) [archive.is/UOIqX]
- image caption: This processed image of Io by New Horizons shows the 290-kilometer-high (180-mile-high) plume of the volcano Tvashtar near Io’s north pole. Also visible is the Prometheus volcano’s much smaller plume in the 9 o’clock direction. The top of the Masubi volcano’s plume appears as an irregular bright patch near the bottom.
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* "Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa Churned by Small Impacts" (2021-07-12, nasa.gov/feature/jpl/surface-of-jupiter-s-moon-europa-churned-by-small-impacts) [archive.is/jPP8f] [begin excerpt]: New research and modeling estimate how far down that surface is disturbed by the process called “impact gardening.” The work, published July 12 in Nature Astronomy, estimates that the surface of Europa has been churned by small impacts to an average depth of about 12 inches (30 centimeters) over tens of millions of years. And any molecules that might qualify as potential biosignatures, which include chemical signs of life, could be affected at that depth.
That’s because the impacts would churn some material to the surface, where radiation would likely break the bonds of any potential large, delicate molecules generated by biology. Meanwhile, some material on the surface would be pushed downward, where it could mix with the subsurface.
“If we hope to find pristine, chemical biosignatures, we will have to look below the zone where impacts have been gardening,” said lead author Emily Costello, a planetary research scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Chemical biosignatures in areas shallower than that zone may have been exposed to destructive radiation.” [end excerpt]
- image caption: In this zoomed-in image of Europa’s surface, captured by NASA’s Galileo mission, the thin, bright layer, visible atop a cliff in the center shows the kind of areas churned by impact gardening.
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* "NASA’s TESS Discovers Stellar Siblings Host ‘Teenage’ Exoplanets" (2021-07-12, nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-s-tess-discovers-stellar-siblings-host-teenage-exoplanets) [archive.is/jaHio]
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* "Four newly found exoplanets may offer insights into Earth's teenage years" (2021-07-13, upi.com/Science_News/2021/07/13/britain-four-teenage-exoplanets/7331626181143/) [archive.is/i5UbU]
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* "Haziness of exoplanet atmospheres depends on properties of aerosol particles" (2021-07-12, University of California - Santa Cruz, via sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210712122153.htm) [archive.is/65X13]
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* "Aliens Might Already Be Watching Us; A new star map reveals more than 2,000 stars, some with their own planets, that have a direct view of our planetary presence" (2021-07-01, scientificamerican.com/article/aliens-might-already-be-watching-us/) [archive.is/yFioL]
---NEO Watch
B612 Foundation [b612foundation.org] to protect Earth from asteroid impacts.
* "How Newspapers Helped Crowdsource a Scientific Discovery: The 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm" (2020-09-02, blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2020/09/how-newspapers-helped-crowdsource-a-scientific-discovery-the-1833-leonid-meteor-storm/) [archive.is/Bx3ms]
- [comment]: On November 12, 1833, about 100,000 meteorites illuminated the night sky, and many thought it was the end of the world, and then artist Adolf Vlemi painted this historic event in a painting.
Would have been the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks around November 17th.
In 1833, city lights were dim, the night sky would have been brilliant with stars. Every meteorite would have been visible. Must have been terrifying to most people.
Approximately every 33 years, the Leonid shower produces a meteor storm, peaking at rates of thousands of meteors per hour.
The term "meteor shower" was actually coined as a result of this 1833 event.
Larger Leonids which are about 10 mm across have a mass of half a gram and are known for generating bright (apparent magnitude −1.5) meteors. An annual Leonid shower may deposit 12 or 13 tons of particles across the entire planet.
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Ancient News
* "Egypt-French archeological mission uncovers remains of military vessel, funerary complex in Alexandria" (2021-07-19, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/20/c_1310071019.htm) [archive.is/o9dec]
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* "Archaeologists uncover remains of Jerusalem's wall destroyed 2,600 years ago" (2021-07-14, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/14/c_1310061463.htm) [archive.is/5J5H2]
* "Oink Vey! Pig Skeleton Discovered in First Temple-period Jerusalem; Remains of piglet from 2,700 years ago support the theory that ancient Israelites occasionally did eat pork, and the biblical taboo on this animal was only first observed in Second Temple era, Israeli archaeologists say" (2021-07-15, haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-oink-vey-pig-skeleton-discovered-in-first-temple-period-jerusalem-1.9906708) [archive.is/bTi1R]
* "Ancient coins could upend theories about what followed Roman sack of Jerusalem; Archaeological survey in northeast part of the Binyamin Regional Council reveals two coins that could indicate that Jews continued to live in the area for decades after the destruction of the Second Temple" (2021-07-16, israelhayom.com/2021/07/13/ancient-coins-could-upend-theories-about-what-followed-the-roman-sack-of-jerusalem/) [archive.is/V4ZdD]
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* " ‘No parallels’: 2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded Unesco world heritage status; Chankillo in Peru features 13 stone towers built in 250 to 200 BC that functioned as a calendar by marking the rising and setting arcs of the sun" (2021-07-27, theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/chankillo-oldest-solar-observatory-in-the-americas-awarded-unesco-world-heritage-status) [archive.is/AS6uX]
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* "Evidence Of Ancient Advanced Machining Technology At Abu Sir In Egypt" (2021-07-22, by Brien Foerster, via youtube.com/watch?v=lqnRXYEJfjw) [archive.is/7nt7D]
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* "Divers identify rare find at site of ancient Egyptian sunken city; Marine archaeologists find remains of a military vessel and a funerary complex where Egypt's largest Mediterranean port once stood" (2021-07-20, israelhayom.com/2021/07/20/divers-identify-rare-find-at-site-of-ancient-egyptian-sunken-city/) [archive.is/61HF4]
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* "The College Student Who Decoded the Data Hidden in Inca Knots; Manny Medrano cut loose on spring break by analyzing a set of khipus" (2017-12-14, atlasobscura.com/articles/khipus-inca-empire-harvard-university-colonialism) [archive.is/j3D6O]
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* "World Heritage Committee praises Great Wall protection in China" (2021-07-23, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/24/c_1310081387.htm) [archive.is/4MTDi]
* "Great Wall Sections" (travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/) [archive.is/dIvkx]
* "Shandan Great Wall in Danger; TCG Survey Group to Great Wall in Shandan County, Gansu Province" (travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/wallprotection/shandan.htm) [archive.is/W1U9r]
* "Great Wall rejuvenation efforts bear fruit" (2021-07-24, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/24/c_1310082755.htm) [archive.is/bZMRy] [begin excerpt]: The Shandan section of the Great Wall is set amid the vast Gobi Desert in northwest China's Gansu Province, its crumbling, sand-colored structure looming over the ancient village of Xiakou.
Unlike the famous Badaling Great Wall in Beijing, which is built of solid rectangular rampart bricks, the Shandan section is made of rammed earth and is seriously eroded in places.
However, the scene of parched decay is relieved by large swathes of apricot orchard, planted on either side of the wall by local residents over the past several years. It is one sign of ongoing efforts to rejuvenate this age-old site -- and they are finally bearing fruit.
Since 2014, over 770 hectares of apricot trees have been planted by the villagers of Xiakou in Shandan County, in the city of Zhangye, to protect the wall, which was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). [end excerpt]
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* "Ancient precious lections of Tibetan Buddhism to be gathered, examined" (2003-11-14, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-11/14/content_1179489.htm) [archive.is/88vMk]:
Chinese scholars will soon have collected and cleaned up all the ancient lections of Sagya, one of the four leading sects of Tibetan Buddhism, as part of an effort to protect and learn more about the precious cultural legacy in the area.
All the lections were piled up in a huge wall that is 60 meterslong and 10 meters high at the Sagya Monastery in Sagya county, roughly 400 kilometers from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwestern China.
It is said that as many as 84,000 scrolls of the ancient holy writings were stored in the wall. Nevertheless, no one knows any further details about them since they remained in place untouched for the past hundreds of years.
Buddhism scholars believe that the majority of the huge collection may be mainly Buddhism scripture and probably also covers a wide variety of realms including literature, history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics and art.
Experts with the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences is expectedto check and categorize for the first time the lections, which will provide a chance to learn more about the whole collection, said Cewang Junmei, president of the academy, on Friday.
The Sagya Monastery, a divine site of the sect from the very beginning, is made up of two parts: the northern part was built in 1073 and the southern part in 1268, according to Bandian Toinyu, director with the management committee of the monastery.
The monastery is also on the list of the cultural heritages to be repaired. The entire restoration project will cost approximately 80 million yuan (9.6 million US dollars) and so far 12.3 million yuan (1.5 million U.S. dollars) has been materialized.
* " ‘Monastery of Sakia, Library Found in Tibet Containing 84,000 Secret Manuscripts’ " (2021-04-19, truthorfiction.com/monastery-of-sakia-library-found-in-tibet-containing-84000-secret-manuscripts/) [archive.is/iPbWV]
- A version of the shared story (retrieved 2021-07-23, via facebook.com): Library found in Tibet containing 84,000 secret manuscripts (books), including history of mankind for over 1000 years. Sakya Monastery Perhaps the largest library in the world in the distant history of the planet. It was discovered behind a huge wall. It is 60m long and 10m high
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* "Quanzhou added to UNESCO World Heritage List" (2021-07-25, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310084985.htm) [archive.is/Pfn3e]
* "Ancient Chinese ceramics in Philippine museum witnesses Quanzhou's glory along Maritime Silk Road" (2021-07-25, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310084880.htm) [archive.is/YV4dP]
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* "Hima Cultural Area in Saudi Arabia inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage Site list" (2021-07-24, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487.htm) [archive.is/gGCnz], photoset:
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_2.htm) [archive.is/tcDJm]
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_3.htm) [archive.is/itix4]
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_4.htm) [archive.is/UVh96]
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_5.htm) [archive.is/8MCnt]
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_6.htm) [archive.is/bUBpy]
- (xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083487_7.htm) [archive.is/dZVqW]
* "Five cultural sites in Saudi Arabia, Europe inscribed on UNESCO's world heritage list" (2021-07-24, xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/25/c_1310083399.htm) [archive.is/QB46e]
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* "Koushk Art Garden; a lens into Iran's ancient art and culture" (2021-07-25, presstv.ir/Detail/2021/07/25/662977/Koushk-Art-Garden-lens--Iran-ancient-art-and-culture) [archive.is/ycWS5], (https://preview.presstv.ir/ptv///newsroom/20210725/tehran_yj.mp4) [http://web.archive.org/web/20210726025039/https://preview.presstv.ir/ptv///newsroom/20210725/tehran_yj.mp4]
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* "The Last Viking, part 3: Three Steps Back" (spirasolaris.ca/sbb4g1bv2.html) [archive.is/xKYJz] [begin excerpt]:
THE MYSTERIOUS END OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM.
It would seem that the end of the First Millennium was not only noteworthy for the establishment of the first Viking Settlements on the west coast of Greenland, it was also around this time that the Arctic Dorset peoples mysteriously disappeared and the Thule peoples simultaneously emerged to take their place. Who were the replacements? According to the prevailing view, they were whale-hunting Inuit who originated in Alaska, but moved right through the Arctic Archipelago, on into Hudson Bay, then further east and north to Baffin Island, Devon Island, the eastern coast of Ellsmere Island and ultimately reached Thule on the northwest coast of Greenland. This is in fact how the name "Thule" culture originated, largely from the researches carried out in the early 1920's by Danish archaeologist Therkel Matthiassen at both Naujan (near Repulse Bay in the Canadian Central Arctic) and the Greenland Thule site itself. But just before this, as James D. Keyser reported in INDIAN ROCK ART OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU (Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1992:127):
"Between 19I9 and 1927, a heated debate appeared in the pages of the Spokane Chronicle and Spokesman Review newspapers concerning the origin of Columbia Plateau rock art. No fewer than two dozen published articles expounded the views of Professor Oluf Opsjon, who argued vigorously that the carvings and paintings were runes documenting the exploration and colonization of the Plateau by Vikings at about A.D. 1000."
while during the Fifth Thule Expedition (1921-1924) it was established that:
"The archaeological site known as Naujan (called auyat by local people) is one of the most important of its time period. Here in 1922 Therkel Matthiassen, a member of the Danish Fifth Thule Expedition, conducted the first scientific archaeological investigations in the Canadian Arctic. He excavated twelve of the twenty house ruins and defined the culture of the people who had lived in them... The ancient occupants of these shelters are known as the Thule (pronounced Too-lee) people. Ancestors of the modern Inuit, they had migrated eastward across the Canadian Arctic from Alaska about 1000 years ago. They settled at Naujan around A.D. 1200, and were hunters of the great bowhead whales." (The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center: Naujan: Repulse Bay, pwnhc.learnnet.nt.ca/exhibits/nv/naujan.htm) [archive.is/CYnfM]
Twelve out of twenty house ruins? What became of the rest, and was this sort of data and that obtained from other Thule sites (e.g., Nunguvik) sufficient justification to define a new culture in the Arctic? Apparently it was, for Mathiassen's 1920's Thule-Alaskan concept was happily embraced thereafter with the Northwest Passage effectively sealed shut by the accompanying west-to-east incursions of the "Thule" peoples. Moreover, all subsequent settlements have also been explained in terms of this same Thule culture. But even so there are a number of problems with the suggested influx of Alaskan Inuit whalers into the Eastern Arctic. Firstly, Peter Schlederman (1981:594) has pointed out that the notion of Whaling as a primary Thule activity is not necessarily supported by the available evidence, at least on Ellesmere and Skraeling Islands:
"Although some of our later discoveries on Skraeling Island confirm the practice of whaling, I believe that its importance has been exaggerated. Baleen and whalebone are durable items, and they were obviously reused in Thule house construction. I estimate that all the whalebone in the Bache Peninsula represents a total of no more than 30 or 40 whales. Since the Thule culture flourished on Ellesmere Island on and off for about seven centuries, whaling hardly seems to have been a mainstay of the economy." (Peter Schlederman, "Eskimo and Viking Finds in the High Arctic," National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 159, No. 5, May 1981:594)
Secondly, the notion of large scale Inuit movement over such vast distances - literally thousands of miles from Alaska to Greenland - is at odds with the knowledge and experience necessary to survive in these harsh and unforgiving regions. It is not by chance that the Inuit refer to themselves in terms of a predominant activity, or people of a specific area, i.e., Netsillingmiut - "People of the Seal" as explained by Rachel Qitsualik, who lists more than 60 such groups in her Inuit Map of Nunuvut and the Northwest Territories (jimmymacdonald.com/inuitmap.html) [archive.is/8JxWq]. These specialized and localized names reinforce the realization that it is would be a major undertaking to leave a known ecological niche with well-established seasonal rounds for an entirely new one. Yet for the Alaskan Inuit to have reached the west coast of Greenland this would have to have taken place each time they moved, and in each instance there would still be the ever-present necessity of having to prepare and provide for the long arctic winters. Nor should this be confused with traditional local movements between summer and winter camps in known environments. So perhaps a few Alaskan Whale hunters moved east from time to time, but that far and in sufficient numbers to replace the Dorset peoples in the Eastern Arctic? Hardly likely. So what did happen?
MAP 1b. THE SHORT-HAUL ROUTES TO NORTH AMERICA
Referring to Map1b, it seems probable that there never was such a thing as a "Thule Culture" per se, or a full-blown influx of Alaskan Inuit into the Eastern Arctic around the turn of the First Millennium. It is more reasonable and more logical to explain the so-called Thule culture as the natural progression of Thule-Vikings moving westwards into the Arctic regions, then across the Arctic Archipelago and eventually further west again. And the Dorset? Unless they were decimated by European diseases (an unfortunate possibility), they neither faded away nor disappeared without a trace, they simply changed by adopting improved methodology obtained from the Vikings as they passed through and perhaps from time to time also stayed. And here a Viking presence would perhaps be difficult to differentiate. At times the Vikings might well have occupied or even co-existed on some of the choicer Dorset sites - a reasonable assumption given that most sites would have been favourably located with some form of ready-made (if rudimentary) habitation. Perhaps some sites were abandoned completely, while others eventually reverted back to their original Inuit users, further masking signs of a Viking presence. Then again, there is the obvious corollary: if Inuit hunters from Alaska could reach Greenland in skin covered boats, what was there to stop the Vikings from proceeding at least as far in the opposite direction, i.e., journeying from Greenland to Alaska and beyond? Lack of arctic knowhow? Hardly, given that the Vikings had already managed to survive on the northwest coast of Greenland. Then there is the supposition that whale hunting in the Eastern Arctic was exclusively an Inuit practice. Here again, in light of their own needs and requirements the Vikings can hardly be excluded. Also, given the dearth of construction materials in the Arctic, the same argument likely applies - in some instances at least - to the "Thule" sites that featured whalebone in their construction. Here - isolated occurrences and/or cooperative ventures alike - small Viking ships would surely be useful, as would be the available manpower and Viking maritime expertise itself.So what is more likely to have taken place in the Eastern Arctic around the turn of the First Millennium? That the Alaskan Inuit in their skin-covered boats traveled thousands of miles across the Arctic Archipelago as far as Thule on the northwest coast of Greenland, or that the Vikings - already settled lower down the Greenland coast, with their superb ships, superior tools and their penchant for exploration, simply moved up the coast to Thule as a natural progression? And after that, sailed a short distance cross the top of Baffin Bay to Ellsmere Island (a scant 25 miles) and progressively extended their westward exploration to include other "Thule" sites along the way. [...]
As it happened, excavations on the west side of Ungava Bay carried out in the 1950s and 1960s by Canadian archaeologist Thomas Lee did indeed suggest a Norse presence in the region (see Map 2a and Lee's published research in the bibliography). But although Lee's investigations preceded Helge Ingstad's1961 discovery of the Viking settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland and also continued parallel with it, no great interest appears to have been developed concerning the possible presence of the Norse in either northern Labrador or the Ungava region. While it cannot be said that Lee's material was suppressed per se, it hardly seems to have been entirely welcome either, and even now it appears to be largely ignored. In fact it seems likely that it would have remained that way-- detailed inclusion in James Robert Enterline's VIKING AMERICA (1972) notwithstanding--had it not been for Farley Mowat and his recent book: The Farfarers (Seal Books, Toronto,1999) which in effect made Lee's findings and conclusions available to all.
Then there is the major site at Native Point on Southampton Island to be considered--a place that would have been a logical continuance for Vikings westbound across the top of Hudson Bay from the Ungava Region. Major site? It would seem so, and a major oddity into the bargain in terms of its limited excavation and subsequent position in the general scheme of things. [...]
Naturally enough, in pursuing his thesis concerning the western side of Ungava Bay Enterline paid due attention to archaeologist Thomas Lee's findings there. Furthermore, in pursuit of the suggested westward expansion of the Norse across the Canadian arctic he also covered a further contentious issue--the possibility of inter-marriage between the Norse and the Inuit, noting the controversy such suggestions had generated in the past:
A subject that goes hand in hand with the question of mutual interaction of the Norse and Eskimo cultures after a hypothetical permanent move to the central Arctic is the question of interracial mixing. Ever since Viking times the Norsemen have left their genes behind at places they visited, and the question is not one of whether or not mixing took place. Rather, the question is whether it took place to such an extent that the ultimate disappearance of the Norsemen can be attributed to their complete absorption into the Eskimo race. When two different races occupy the same territory they tend to maintain their racial separateness so long as they maintain their cultural and economic separateness. But once the different cultures have become amalgamated, many of the taboos against intermixing disappear. In 1942 Knud Fischer-Moller reported the finding in a Greenland church graveyard of two skeletons having features that prove that mixing was not unheard of even in the settlements. The political infusion of Germanic studies during the second quarter of the twentieth century may have prevented some Teutonic scholars from considering this question rationally, but before that time there were many adherents to the theory that the Norsemen had been completely absorbed into the Eskimo race. As early as 1776, an Icelandic scholar propounded the theory of racial absorption, and around the turn of the twentieth century this came to be known as the Nansen Theory. The trouble with this theory was that it was based primarily upon inductive speculation rather than upon much explicit evidence. Then in the early 1900s a discovery by the adventurer Klengenberg and investigations by the anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson brought to light the apparent presence of European genes among a small group of Eskimos who had previously been isolated from all contact with modern white man. This tribe, known as the Haneragmiut, lived at the heart of the region I have just been discussing, in southwest Victoria Island. Entries in Stefansson's diary include descriptions such as:
' There are three men here whose beards are almost the color of mine, and who look like typical Scandinavians . . . men with abundant three-inch-long beards...The faces and proportions of the body remind of "stocky," sunburned, but naturally fair Scandinavians ...One woman, of twenty, has the delicate features one sees in some Scandinavian girls, and that I have seen in only one of the half-white girls to the westward (Mackenzie River), and in her to a less degree than here.'
That such copy would be overplayed by newspapers is completely understandable, and these people were immediately dubbed the "Blond" Eskimos. Soon Stefansson was being confronted with accusations of fraud no less vehement than those that met Stanley when he announced his finding of Livingston. [...] (James Robert Enterline, VIKING AMERICA, Garden City, 1972:135-138)
Enterline's ameliorating closure notwithstanding, the critics still seem to have had their way, with the subject rarely broached or even acknowledged up to the present day. Perhaps it is still a polarized issue, but even if Stefansson's original material is bought into question it remains difficult to dismiss the reports of atypical (if not European) featured Inuit encountered by many early arctic explorers. This aspect was in fact well exemplified by Major General A.W. Greely in a 1912 paper entitled: "Stefansson's Blond Eskimos" (National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XXIII, No.12 December 1912:1225-1238). The title may have been a trifle unfortunate, but the quotations themselves seem stark enough, and it is hard to imagine that the principal recorders--many of whom left their names across the Canadian Arctic--would have had any reason to be untruthful about what they saw and recorded; e.g.,
1821 Sir Edward Parry on the shores of Lyon Inlet
1821 Dr. Alexander Fisher, surgeon of Parry's expedition
1824 Capt. G. F. Lyon, near Cape Pembroke, Southampton Island.
1833 Capt. John Ross in his journey to Back River.
1821 Sir John Franklin, near the mouth of the Coppermine River.
1837 Thomas Simpson, west of the Mackenzie River.
1838 John Dease on the lower Coppermine River.
1838 Thomas Simpson near the mouth of the Coppermine River.
1848 Dr. Richardson during his "boat journey through Rupert Land."
1849 Dr. John Rae.
1825-1827 Sir John Franklin in the Cape Bathurst region.
1851-1852 Capt. R. Collinson, in Walker Bay, Prince Albert Sound.
1865 Pere Emile Petitot, Cape Bathurst.
1868 Pere Emile Petitot, Fort MacPherson (on the Peel River).
Dr. Alexander Armstrong, surgeon of McClure's ship Investigator, who found that:
"the Eskimo of Wollaston land were living under the same conditions as when visited by Stefansson."
Noteworthy here are the references to Coppermine and Prince Albert Sound, i.e., those regions originally associated with Stefansson's "Blonde Eskimos" as shown below in Map 5a-- a wide range of locations that extends from the east coast of Greenland, through the Northwest Passage and Canadian Arctic Archipelago almost as far West as the Yukon coast:
Map 5a. The Distribution of the Blond Eskimo (after Greely 1912)
[end excerpt]
* "View From Space Hints at a New Viking Site in North America" (2016-03-31, nytimes.com/2016/04/01/science/vikings-archaeology-north-america-newfoundland.html) [archive.is/Bqf4h]
* "Archaeologists Closer to Finding Lost Viking Settlement" (2018-03-06, livescience.com/61937-lost-viking-settlement-search.html) [archive.is/L9Bfz]
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Miscellany & Errata
* "Oration on the Dignity of Man" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oration_on_the_Dignity_of_Man) [archive.is/vLgXH] [begin excerpt]: The Oration on the Dignity of Man (De hominis dignitate) is a famous public discourse composed in 1486 by Pico della Mirandola, an Italian scholar and philosopher of the Renaissance. It remained unpublished until 1496. The Pico Project, a collaboration between University of Bologna, Italy, and Brown University, United States, dedicated to the Oration, and others have called it the "Manifesto of the Renaissance".
Pico, who belonged to the family that had long dwelt in the Castle of Mirandola, left his share of the ancestral principality to his two brothers to devote himself wholly to study. In his fourteenth year, 1477, he went to Bologna accompanied by his mother to study canon law and fit himself for the ecclesiastical career. Following his mother's death in 1478, Pico in 1479 requested from the Marquess of Mantua a free passage to Ferrara, where he would devote himself to the study of philosophy and theology. He spent the following seven years variously in Ferrara, Padua, Florence and Paris, studying Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic at the chief universities of Italy and France. [end excerpt]
* "The Cabalist Friar Of Venice Francesco Giorgi" (2020-12-16, spellsandmagic.org/inspired-melancholy/the-cabalist-friar-of-venice-francesco-giorgi.html) [archive.is/a4h0y]
* "Speculum Cabalae mysticae" (1653, Athanasius Kircher, via medienarchiv.zhdk.ch/entries/socospa_diagram_2127) [archive.is/W0W3m], full-size image (medienarchiv.zhdk.ch/media/6cb9f209-547e-4000-939b-fb0fbe7359db) [archive.is/Z8V5r]
* "Fantastically Wrong: The Legend of the Kraken, a Monster That Hunts With Its Own Poop" (2014-09-10, wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-legend-of-the-kraken/) [archive.is/hhV3h]
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Behold, the Truth about The Flat Earth! Published in a magazine a long time ago! It's True!
Curiata
* "Thinking without a brain; Studies in brainless slime molds reveal that they use physical cues to decide where to grow" (2021-07-15, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, via sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210715090841.htm) [archive.is/U8YnQ], summary: If you didn't have a brain, could you still navigate your surroundings? Thanks to new research on slime molds, the answer may be 'yes.' Scientists discovered that the brainless Physarum polycephalum uses its body to sense mechanical cues in its environment, and decides where to grow based on that information. This finding provides a model for understanding different types of cognition, including our own.
* "Brainless slime mould makes decisions like humans" (2010-08-11, discovermagazine.com/mind/brainless-slime-mould-makes-decisions-like-humans) [archive.is/CXPem]
* "Slime Mold Grows Network Just Like Tokyo Rail System" (2010-01-22, wired.com/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/) [archive.is/wo1gZ]
* "The Nasty Slime That Can Tell Time And Build Computers" (2013-10-15, knowledgenuts.com/2013/10/15/the-nasty-slime-that-can-tell-time-and-build-computers/) [archive.is/51RJ9]
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* "Glass octopus with transparent skin captured on camera in rare footage; Researchers explore more than 30,000 square kilometres of seafloor in month-long expedition" (2021-07-13, independent.co.uk/news/science/glass-octopus-transparent-pacific-ocean-b1882903.html) [archive.is/Y89Vi]
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Point Nemo
(Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility,
also hypothetical location of R'lyeh)
The point and the areas around it have attracted literary and cultural attention. It is known as Point Nemo, Nemo being Latin for "no one" and also a reference to Jules Verne's Captain Nemo.
The general area plays a major role in the 1928 short story
The Call of Cthulhu
by H. P. Lovecraft, as holding the location of the fictional city of R'lyeh, although this story was written 66 years before the official discovery of Point Nemo.
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility (48°52.5′S 123°23.6′W) is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. It lies in the South Pacific Ocean, 2,688 km (1,670 mi) from the nearest lands: Ducie Island (part of the Pitcairn Islands) to the north, Motu Nui (part of the Easter Islands) to the northeast, and Maher Island (near the larger Siple Island, off the coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica) to the south. The area is so remote that—as with any location more than 400 kilometres (about 250 miles) from an inhabited area—sometimes the closest human beings are astronauts aboard the International Space Station when it passes overhead.
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* "Ocean microbes team up brilliantly to gather food when it's scarce" (2021-07-19, Marine Biological Laboratory, via sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210719143359.htm) [archive.is/zxAGU], summary: What's a hungry marine microbe to do when the pickings are slim? It must capture nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, or iron - to survive, yet in vast expanses of the ocean, nutrients are extremely scarce.
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* "Water fleas demonstrate rapid evolution in response to predation" (2021-07-14, upi.com/Science_News/2021/07/14/britain-water-fleas-rapid-evolution/3421626287486/) [archive.is/bzz7B]
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* "Social ties among spotted hyenas passed down from generation to generation" (2021-07-15, upi.com/Science_News/2021/07/15/spotted-hyenas-social-relations-inherited/1441626372981/) [archive.is/EDCDo]
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