Science Special News

[Rasputin]

Ancient civilization unearthed in Syria

An excavation project on the Syrian-Iraqi border has uncovered an ancient settlement wiped out by invaders 5,500 years ago. Discovered in northeastern Syria, the ruined city of Hamoukar appears to have been a large city by 4,500 B.C., said archaeologists Clemens Reichel and Salam al-Quntar, who co-directed Syrian-American excavations on the site.Reichel, a research associate at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and al-Quntar, of the Syrian Department of Antiquities, jointly announced their discoveries on Thursday.They said Hamoukar was a flourishing urban center at a time when cities were thought to be relegated hundreds of miles to the south.The site is in the upper edges of the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys, near the Iraq border. Reichel said it may have been settled as long as 8,000 years ago.Scholars had long believed that urbanized societies started and were isolated in Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia. But excavations that started in 1999 at Hamoukar and at other sites in central Syria led to new ideas about the how urban culture spread in the region. Ancient Mesopotamia was a region that includes Iraq and parts of Syria.

This year, the Syrian-American excavations discovered evidence of the battle that toppled and burned Hamoukar's walls and ended the city's independence. Researchers found that invaders likely hurled more than 1,200 sling-fired bullets at Hamoukar and more than 100 heavy, 4-inch clay balls."The whole area of our most recent excavation was a war zone," Reichel said.The ruins have preserved not only local pottery and artifacts, but also vast amounts of Uruk pottery."The picture is compelling," Reichel said. "If the Uruk people weren't the ones firing the sling bullets, they certainly benefited from it. They took over this place right after its destruction."

[Rasputin]

UFO sightings in Russia - Wrap up for 2005

Russian intelligence agencies have repeatedly stated that no UFOs have ever been spotted over Russian territory. However, witnesses from the general public continue to contradict these reports with stories of their personal encounters with the paranormal. Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has put together the most reliable of these reports and come up with a list of UFO sightings in Russia and other post-Soviet countries for 2005.Crop Circles: This year 18 cases of crop circles have been reported in Russia’s regions — this is six cases more than last year and almost twice the number for 2003. Mysterious signs were seen in all parts of the country — as far afield as the Komi Republic and the Far East, and as close to Moscow as the Voronezh and Novgorod regions. But just like last year, the southern Krasnodar region has had more crop circles than any other region.Meanwhile, local people are not too thrilled by the unexplainable phenomena. In fact they are more troubled by ufologists who put up their tents in the fields, hoping to catch the unknown artists red-handed.

UFO Caught on Film at the Yenisei River: “This May I took visiting relatives out to see an ice drift on the Yenisei,” nurse Raisa ***eyeva from the town of Igarka says. “We stopped at the bank, I was speaking and gesturing and my son was taking pictures. We neither heard nor saw anything suspicious or unusual, so we were totally shocked to see some object hanging in the air over my head when we had the photographs printed.”The woman took the picture and the negative to the Eternal Frost Museum,At first the experts were skeptical about the photograph... “We’ve had so many of them.” But after an examination they had to admit the strange object in the picture was neither a fake nor faulty film.“We checked all the negatives,” the director of the Eternal Frost Museum’s department in Igarka, Alexander Toshchev, said. “But even when we magnified the image many times, the ’saucer’ remained very distinct.”

[jsmith]

man asheghe science beedam, makhsoosan dar USA ke dar lab hashoon hameye azmayesh haro anjam midim bar axe iran, va moallema asheghe kareshoonan va hal vakonan, masalan yadame ke ye bar teacher kelase physics man gas He ro ghooort dad va sedash avaz shod ke faghat be man neshoon bede ke che farghi dashte beeed, man az khodam lezzat dar vakonam

[Rasputin]

Visiting the home of Mothman

West Virginia has played host to two famous monsters, both within a span of a dozen years. In 1955, a 12-foot-tall space creature landed in a flying saucer and terrified the town of Flatwoods. And in 1966-67, a monster nicknamed "Mothman" performed a similar frightfest on the citizens of Point Pleasant.But today, the Flatwoods monster -- it never got a name -- is almost invisible on the vacation landscape. All that the town of Flatwoods offers are some monster replicas for sale ($25) in the gas station next to the Shoney's.In contrast, Point Pleasant is keenly attuned to the needs of the modern monster tourist. It has a very cool Mothman statue. It has a Mothman museum. It sells lots of Mothman merchandise.Why the difference? Mothman was made into a Hollywood movie in 2001 and thus is more than a monster -- he's a celebrity.

Mothman arrived in Point Pleasant in November 1966 in classic style, scaring couples in parked cars and eating farmers' dogs. He was described as seven feet tall with a barrel chest and a piercing shriek. His most memorable features were his ten-foot batlike wings and his huge, red, glowing eyes. And unlike the Flatwoods monster, Mothman didn't spook and run. He hung around for over a year, building an impressive roster of over 100 fear-struck locals who claimed to have encountered him. Fortean researcher John Keel heard the stories and came to Point Pleasant to see what was happening. He compiled what he found in a 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies, which was later turned into that 2001 Richard Gere film.

[Rasputin]

Beagle 2 found on Mars ?

The scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface. Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked, but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth. He thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars. This may have damaged onboard instruments, preventing the call home. The Beagle 2 lead scientist has been painstakingly studying images of the landing site in search of his spacecraft ever since it was lost on Christmas Day two years ago. Now, he says, specially processed pictures from the camera on the US space agency's (Nasa) Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show that it came down in a crater close to the planned landing site. The robotic laboratory was designed to search Mars for signs of past or present life.

The last contact was an image of Beagle taken by its mothership, the Mars Express orbiter, on 19 December 2003. The £45m lander was scheduled to put down in a near-equatorial region of the planet known as Isidis Planitia. But despite many attempts to locate it - using overflying spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes - no sign of it, not even any wreckage, has been detected. Professor Pillinger accepts the sceptics will say Beagle 2 is too small to be seen from space.

[Rasputin]

New way of reading minds discovered

Scientists have developed a way of reading minds. Using brain scanners, they found people dredge up old memories by recreating the same pattern of activity as when the memory was laid down. By looking at which areas of the brain "lit-up" while people were retrieving a memory, neuroscientists were able to predict what people were thinking about, before they even knew themselves. This understanding could eventually help people with memory disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. Sean Polyn, from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, asked people to remember 90 different things, ranging from famous places such as the Taj Mahal, to celebrities such as Halle Berry and everyday objects such as tweezers. As each picture was presented the scientists asked a question about it (such as 'Do you like Halle Berry?') and recorded the activity in the person's brain as they thought about that person, object or place. Following this exercise Dr Poyln and his colleagues used a computer program to analyse these brain snapshots. For all nine subjects certain areas of the brain always showed an increase in activity. But the program was able to pick out differences in the way people thought. Finally the scientists asked people to recall as many of the 90 things as possible.

Using the previous brain scans and the computer program Dr Polyn and his colleagues matched up the original brain activity with the new brain activity, as people sifted through their memories. "We were able to see the re-surfacing of people's thoughts," said Ken Norman of the University of Princeton, another author on the paper. When people recalled the Taj Mahal their brain showed a similar pattern of activity to the moment they were first presented the picture. As people changed from thinking about a location to an object, or a celebrity the researchers could see different parts of the brain become activated seconds before the person had retrieved the memory.

[Rasputin]

Retired colonel recalls Roswell

Say the name ''Roswell'' and some people immediately think of gray-skinned space aliens with oval-shaped heads and shadowy government agents in black suits. Walter Klinikowski, a Catasauqua native and retired Air Force colonel, is not one of those people. Klinikowski was stationed at the New Mexico Air Force base in summer 1947 when the military recovered a flying disc in the desert. Many people believe they found — and have subsequently covered up — an alien spacecraft. Klinikowski has another theory.''The thing looked to me like the reflector off a weather balloon,'' Klinikowski said last week.

Even without a connection to America's most famous UFO, Klinikowski has lived what most people would consider a fascinating life.He received the Army's Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944, the same year he served as lead navigator for a 3,000-plane Christmas Day bombing raid — the day he turned 23 — described as one of the few perfectly executed missions of World War II.He played piano in a band backing Gypsy Rose Lee when the famous burlesque performer appeared at Allentown's Lyric Theater.

[Rasputin]

Communion twenty years on

Whitley Strieber: Twenty years ago tonight, at approximately three thirty in the morning on December 26, 1985, I heard odd noises and felt as if I had fallen out of bed. I opened my eyes to a scene of such extraordinary horror that I am still suffering from the effects of that moment, two decades later. What I saw before me was a small room like the interior of a tent, populated by enormous insects. These insects were at once strange, distant-seeming creatures, totally unlike me and not communicating any sense of the human at all, and yet at the same time aware of me in a way that eloquently and terrifyingly signaled intelligence. Immediately, I was seized from behind and there was a swooping rush around me. An odd, machine-like voice commenced repeating again and again the phrase 'what can we do to help you stop screaming?' The terror was beyond words, beyond imagining. They were rough with me, pressing a needle into my head and raping me with a device that I now know is called an electrostimulator. In those days, such devices were used to induce erections in sex clinics, and they are still used to gather semen in animal husbandry. I am not a prude, but I am a modest man and quite shy physically. I was appalled at finding myself naked with these creatures. I can remember trying and trying to wake up, to somehow find my bed around me again, to embrace my wife. But my wife was not there. I was alone in the night with these things and I had no idea what might happen to me next. This experience has left me with a disease called post-traumatic stress disorder. The last time I awakened with my heard practically slamming out of my chest, my breath coming short and so frightened that I literally dared not move a muscle was last night.

In fact, for at least five out of seven nights since the event happened, I have been waking up in terror between three and four in the morning. I have tried many treatments for this, ranging from conventional psychiatry and psychotherapy to every sort of esoteric treatment you can imagine, to no avail. The disorder that began on that night will, I believe, remain with me until the day I die. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Because, on that night, the woman whose portrait is on the cover of the book Communion said to me, 'you're the luckiest of the lucky.' She was precisely correct. Yes, it has been hard and it has shattered me on the deepest possible levels. The public reaction has pained me as much as it has inspired me. But I have had a truly remarkable opportunity offered to me, and I have taken as full advantage of it as has been in my ability.

[Rasputin]

2005: The year in the solar system

In 2005, scientists pieced together more clues in our understanding of the mysteries of the solar system. And the year yielded some exciting discoveries on Earth’s astronomical doorstep.The Cassini spacecraft has been a workhorse, gathering reams of data from Saturn and its moons and rings. The Huygens probe landed on the moon Titan in January and Cassini spotted what might be a volcano and methane downpours there too. Also that month, Cassini spotted an unusual ridge on the moon of Iapetus, giving it a walnut shape. Then in November, the moon Enceladus was found to show active volcanism and be a major source of Saturn's icy E-ring. Closer to Earth, NASA's Deep Impact probe crashed into Comet Tempel 1, producing a cloud of dust and ice. Because of the cloud and a camera that would not focus properly, the spacecraft could not see the resulting crater. The impact left a trail of clay and carbonates, which form in liquid water. Astronomers were also excited by the discovery of a possible 10th planet larger than Pluto, by Mike Brown at Caltech, US, which he nicknamed Xena. Later in the year, the team found a moon orbiting Xena, and dubbed it Gabrielle.

Another large Kuiper Belt Object, this one about 70% the size of Pluto, was also discovered this year. But it is unclear who will get the credit for discovering it – both Brown and Jose-Luis Ortiz at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain claim to have observed the object. The finds also reinvigorated the debate over what constitutes a planet.Another area of uncertainty concerned the asteroid Apophis. Observations in late 2004 indicated that the 300-metre-wide object had a 1 in 38 chance of crashing into Earth in 2029. Follow-up observations this year showed that a 2029 hit was unlikely, but that pass might result in the asteroid's orbit being altered enough that it could slam into the planet in 2034 or beyond.

[Rasputin]

The paranormal community unveiled

When one visits a paranormal website, what they first see is the overall quality of the site; the various discussions, articles, photographs and other evidence can be quite educational. Yet, what is hardly ever seen is what goes on behind the scenes, especially among the various paranormal groups in the community. In fact, despite the many individuals or groups that work in conjunction with one another and strive for understanding of the paranormal, there are just as many groups and individuals that do just the opposite; wasting both precious time and energy attacking other paranormal groups or individuals, their ideas, and ideals.Before we begin to examine the prevalent dissension within the paranormal community it is extremely important to recognize that the following examination is not an attack on any member of the paranormal community, nor it is accusation in any way. Moreover, this examination is not an attempt to single out, abuse, or otherwise offend any member of the paranormal community. Further, the act of examining the atmosphere that exists within the paranormal community is an attempt at identifying the issues that often arise and disrupt the ability to effectively communicate and share ideas. Finally, in the identification of such issues, it is hoped that change can be induced; a change that will finely free the paranormal community from the chains that bind it to worn out ideas and perceptions.The freedom of speech and the freedom of expression is, indeed, a double-edged sword: this idea— in conjunction with the speed in which various forms of media allow all individuals to communicate, can produce devastating results. In one sense, it is truly a wonderful age when people that believe in the existence of paranormal activities can share ideas, techniques of study and/or results without the fear of repercussions.

Yet, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression also open the doors to the possibility of expressed hostility or even, persecution.Seeds of discord lie hidden behind the paranormal community. In fact, the seeds of discord are planted by individuals who are members of the paranormal community as well those individuals who are not. Further, such seeds can erupt into anything from inter-group dissension to dissension between separate paranormal groups. Further, such dissension has, in the past, and continues to display itself in myriad ways—from hate mail to forum postings; from complete websites devoted to demeaning other individuals to radio interviews or television shows verbally debasing other paranormal groups or individuals. Why does this sometimes hidden hostility exist? The reasons are many.

[Rasputin]

The quest for immortality

How’s this for an offer you can’t refuse: how would you like to live say, 400 or 500 years, or even more and all of them in perfect health? It’s both a Utopian and a nightmare scenario but there are those who say it is well within the realm of possibility. Though we live longer and healthier lives than our grandparents, 100 is more or less the outer limit because, catastrophic disease aside, we just plain wear out. But 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer talked to one scientist who says that’s old-fashioned thinking, that sometime in the next 20 to 30 years or so we’ll be able to recondition ourselves for the first steps towards immortality. We begin our journey to the outer limits with a gentle trip down the River Cam, floating by that center of British learning, Cambridge University. Our guide and helmsman: Dr. Aubrey de Grey. He ponders while he punts. "When I was a student, I bought my own punt, a secondhand one for a few hundred pounds. And I used it in the summer to do what's called chauffeur punting," says de Grey. "People come along, tourists, and you tell them lies for money." Today he’s pondering his favorite premise: eternal youth. While most scientists talk about increasing longevity by a few years, de Grey says he is talking about the "indefinite extension of longevity." "Average life spans would be in the region of 1,000 years," he says. "Seriously."

De Grey and his wife Adelaide are fixtures around Cambridge. She’s a researcher in genetics; he’s an academic maverick. While still in his early 30s he published groundbreaking work in theoretical biology and earned an international reputation. His day job is managing a fruit fly database. But the work that consumes him involves larger game – humans. And he does his best thinking in the same 17th century pub where Watson and Crick refreshed themselves while unlocking the mysteries of DNA. De Grey believes he has unlocked the mysteries of immortality. "The aging process is really a buildup of side effects of being alive in the first place," he says. De Grey has identified the biological processes he thinks are responsible for aging, including the mutations that cause cancer and the gradual buildup of useless, toxic junk.

[jsmith]

chera bazi vaghti ke ye chizi ke mibinid va bad mifahmid ke oono ghablan dar khab didin, vali chera oon ghesmate mohemmesho ke mikhahid be yad avarid ke tooo khab chi shod, chera yadetoon nemiad?????

[Rasputin]

NASA team observe explosion on the Moon

Nasa scientists have witnessed a rare explosion on the Moon, caused by a meteoroid slamming into it. The blast was equal in energy to about 70kg of TNT and was seen near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains). The object that hit the Moon was probably part of a shower of "taurids" which peppered Earth in late October and early November. Understanding lunar impacts could help protect astronauts when Nasa sends humans back to the Moon. Meteoroids are small rocky or metallic objects in orbit around the Sun, or another star. One of the astronomers who observed the impact estimates that it gouged a crater 3m wide and 0.4m deep. Rob Suggs of Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, US, was testing a new 10-in telescope and video camera assembled to monitor the Moon for space strikes. On 7 November, his first night using the telescope, he observed one. Renewed interest "People just do not look at the Moon anymore," said Dr Suggs, of Marshall's engineering directorate. "We tend to think of it as a known quantity; but there is knowledge still to be gained here." Dr Suggs used commercial software to study the video he took, and spotted a very bright flash.

[nanakhafan]

wOoOoOoOw thx redwine joooooooon

[Rasputin]

Stigmatics: saints or insane ?

For over 750 years already some Christians have stigmata on their bodies as symbols of Christ's sufferingsThe hands and legs of the Savior were punched through with nails. The crown of thorns on his head scratched the forehead and the skull. One of the Roman legionaries deeply wounded the Savior with his spear right in the chest. For over 750 years already some Christians have stigmata on their bodies as symbols of Christ's sufferings. The Greek word 'stigma' means 'wound.' Stigmata may look like bleeding wounds on palms or on feet as if people were nailed down. Some people having stigmata have wounds on their foreheads resembling scratches left by a crown of thorns. Others have bloody wales on their backs as if traces of flagellation. Saint Francis of Assisi is believed the first man who ever had stigma. It was in 1224 that stigma appeared on the man during the holiday of Exaltation of the Cross.

A legend says that Saint Francis had a vision of an angel who excised the stigmata on the saint's hands and legs with five rays of light.However, some experts insist that the first evidence of stigma belongs to an earlier epoch, the first years of Christianity. One of Saint Paul's messages mentions that after the crucifixion of Christ Saint Paul got wounds like those that Christ had. The statement can be interpreted either literally or metaphorically. But it is true that no more evidence of stigma appeared within about a thousand of years afterwards. There are some versions explaining why stigmata began to appear at the beginning of the current century. The first version says stigma appeared because of the intensified theological disputes in the 11-12th centuries.