Archaeologists have discovered evidence of what they believe was a second Stonehenge located a little more than a mile away from the world-famous prehistoric monument, says The Guardian. The outer henge around the stones was built about 2400BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier.
It should also show whether the newly discovered circle's stones were removed by Neolithic people and dragged along the route of the avenue to Stonehenge, to be incorporated within its major rebuilding about 2500BC. After that date Stonehenge consisted of about 80 Welsh stones and 83 local sarsen stones.
Read more.
Even more.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
CNN: Students launch camera to edge of space, snap pics of Earth
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
2012: New Y2K, Dark Ages 2.0, Global Reboot or Mayans` Last Laugh?
Even if History as We Know It doesn’t actually end on Dec. 21, 2012, as prophesied by the ancients, IT and business are hardly home free, according to a growing number of non-kooky scientists.
Really, I’m not looking to create extra work or agita for you. But have you heard about this whole 2012 business?
I'm not talking about the New Age/Mayan/Egyptian/Nostradamus/Bible Code/Hopi/IChing/Edgar Cayce prophecies about the End of The World as We Know It on Dec. 21, 2012. For better or worse, chances are growing you’ll encounter the media trumpeting of the cosmic gloom/doom/re-bloom foreseen by various ancients, notably a new History Channel program, coverage in Newsweek and a new movie from Sony starring, among others, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover as President Wilson, scheduled for release this fall. If these predictions come to pass, keeping the routers powered up or distributing the latest Windows patch (a last valiant gesture, perhaps, against the inevitable “Quetzalcoatl Worm”) will be the least of our concerns.
No, I’m talking about a related, slightly less dramatic, less discussed possibility—one that could make life, should it persist, so awful that we’ll wish the dawning of the Age of Aquarius really had swooshed us off into the cosmos. Namely, a decade of major solar storms forecasted to peak in late 2012, which more and more non-kooky scientists—including NASA, NOAA and The National Academies of Science (part of the U.S. Congress)—say could wipe out the world’s electrical grids as well as all satellite, Internet, network and wireless communications for years.
Sounds far-fetched, I know. I’m sure if it doesn’t already have one, Gartner will soon issue an advisory on this matter, so we can see exactly what degree of risk we’re facing here. (Probability the Power Grid Destroyer will resemble the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man: .76)
Until then, it’s probably not a bad idea to get a basic grasp of this, perhaps the way-biggest, granddaddy/grandmommy of risk management/business continuity challenges in recorded history. If nothing else, it could be a boost to you career if, post harmonic convergence, such a thing still exists. (Yeah, I was into the whole Y2K12 mitigation thing back in like, I don’t know, mid-2009. Yeah, really ...) Also, acting now could help you avoid the inevitable last-minute rush at your favorite supplier of backup generators or ammo.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Timeline of the universe, according to Robert Matthews
10^-43 seconds
Known as the Planck Era, this is the closest that current physics can get to the absolute beginning of time. At this moment, the universe is thought to be incredibly hot, dense and turbulent, with the very fabric of space and time turned into a roiling morass. All the fundamental forces currently at work in the universe - gravity, electromagnetism and the so-called strong and weak nuclear forces - are thought to have been unified during this stage into a single "superforce".
10^-35 seconds
The so-called Grand Unification Era, at the end of which the superforce begins to break apart into the constituent forces we see today. Around this time so-called inflationary energy triggers a dramatic burst of expansion, expanding the universe from far smaller than a subatomic particle to far larger than the cosmic volume we can see today. In the process, the primordial wrinkles in space-time are smoothed out.
10^-32 seconds
The energy dumped into the universe by the end of inflation leads to the appearance of particles of matter via Einstein's celebrated equation E=mc^2. Initially a mix of matter and antimatter, most of the particles annihilate each other in a burst of radiation, leaving behind randomly scattered pockets of matter.
10^-11 seconds
The so-called Electroweak Era, when the last two fundamental forces still unified with one another - electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force - finally split, leaving the universe with the four separate forces we observe today.
10^-6 seconds
As the universe continues to expand, it becomes cool enough to allow the familiar particles of today's matter, protons and neutrons, to form from their constituents, known as quarks.
200 seconds
At a temperature of one billion degrees celsius, protons and neutrons start to come together to form nuclei, the charged cores of atoms. Within 20 minutes, the temperature of the universe has become too cold to drive the process, which ceases with the formation of the nuclei of hydrogen and helium, the simplest and most common chemical elements in the universe. The formation of all the other elements - including the carbon, oxygen and nitrogen needed for life - will emerge with the first massive stars millions of years later.
300,000 years
The universe has cooled to about 1,000C - cool enough for electrons to pair up with nuclei to form the first atoms. By the end of this so-called Recombination Era, the universe consists of about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. With the electrons now bound to atoms, the universe finally becomes transparent to light - making this the earliest epoch observable today.
200m years
Small, dense regions of cosmic gas start to collapse under their own gravity, becoming hot enough to trigger nuclear fusion reactions between hydrogen atoms. These are the very first stars to light up the universe.
0.5bn - 1bn years
The force of gravity starts to pull together huge regions of relatively dense cosmic gas, forming the vast, swirling collections of stars we call galaxies. These in turn start to form clusters, of which one - the so-called Local Group - contains our own Milky Way galaxy.
9bn years
The force of gravity trying to slow the cosmic expansion begins to lose out to the anti-gravitational effect of "dark energy", a mysterious force which has been accelerating the cosmic expansion ever since.
9.1bn years
A region of gas and dust from exploding stars in the Milky Way galaxy starts to collapse under its own gravity, forming a small star surrounded by a disk of rocky material and gas. Swarms of giant chunks of debris form within the disc, collide and merge - forming the Earth, moon and other planets.
Known as the Planck Era, this is the closest that current physics can get to the absolute beginning of time. At this moment, the universe is thought to be incredibly hot, dense and turbulent, with the very fabric of space and time turned into a roiling morass. All the fundamental forces currently at work in the universe - gravity, electromagnetism and the so-called strong and weak nuclear forces - are thought to have been unified during this stage into a single "superforce".
10^-35 seconds
The so-called Grand Unification Era, at the end of which the superforce begins to break apart into the constituent forces we see today. Around this time so-called inflationary energy triggers a dramatic burst of expansion, expanding the universe from far smaller than a subatomic particle to far larger than the cosmic volume we can see today. In the process, the primordial wrinkles in space-time are smoothed out.
10^-32 seconds
The energy dumped into the universe by the end of inflation leads to the appearance of particles of matter via Einstein's celebrated equation E=mc^2. Initially a mix of matter and antimatter, most of the particles annihilate each other in a burst of radiation, leaving behind randomly scattered pockets of matter.
10^-11 seconds
The so-called Electroweak Era, when the last two fundamental forces still unified with one another - electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force - finally split, leaving the universe with the four separate forces we observe today.
10^-6 seconds
As the universe continues to expand, it becomes cool enough to allow the familiar particles of today's matter, protons and neutrons, to form from their constituents, known as quarks.
200 seconds
At a temperature of one billion degrees celsius, protons and neutrons start to come together to form nuclei, the charged cores of atoms. Within 20 minutes, the temperature of the universe has become too cold to drive the process, which ceases with the formation of the nuclei of hydrogen and helium, the simplest and most common chemical elements in the universe. The formation of all the other elements - including the carbon, oxygen and nitrogen needed for life - will emerge with the first massive stars millions of years later.
300,000 years
The universe has cooled to about 1,000C - cool enough for electrons to pair up with nuclei to form the first atoms. By the end of this so-called Recombination Era, the universe consists of about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. With the electrons now bound to atoms, the universe finally becomes transparent to light - making this the earliest epoch observable today.
200m years
Small, dense regions of cosmic gas start to collapse under their own gravity, becoming hot enough to trigger nuclear fusion reactions between hydrogen atoms. These are the very first stars to light up the universe.
0.5bn - 1bn years
The force of gravity starts to pull together huge regions of relatively dense cosmic gas, forming the vast, swirling collections of stars we call galaxies. These in turn start to form clusters, of which one - the so-called Local Group - contains our own Milky Way galaxy.
9bn years
The force of gravity trying to slow the cosmic expansion begins to lose out to the anti-gravitational effect of "dark energy", a mysterious force which has been accelerating the cosmic expansion ever since.
9.1bn years
A region of gas and dust from exploding stars in the Milky Way galaxy starts to collapse under its own gravity, forming a small star surrounded by a disk of rocky material and gas. Swarms of giant chunks of debris form within the disc, collide and merge - forming the Earth, moon and other planets.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Stephen Hawking: Aliens probably exist
I read in The Telegraph that according to Stephen Hawking, lurk elsewhere in the cosmos, but that they probably are not very smart. Why has humanity not stumbled onto alien broadcasts, maybe something like "alien quiz shows?"
One option is that there likely is no life elsewhere. Or maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere, but when it gets smart enough to send signals into space, it also is smart enough to make destructive nuclear weapons.
He concludes: "Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare," but adds: "Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth." So should people worry about aliens? Alien abduction claims come from "weirdos" and are unlikely.
However, because alien life might not have DNA like earthlings, Prof Hawking warned: "Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance."
Writing only a few weeks ago in the Telegraph, he said: "At the moment we have nowhere else to go, but in the long run the human race should not have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. I just hope we can avoid dropping the basket until then."
The scientist, who did pioneering work on black holes and on a theory of everything, compares people who do not want to spend money on human space exploration to those who opposed the journey of Christopher Columbus.
"In a way, the situation is like Europe before 1492. People might well have argued that it was a waste of money to send Columbus on a wild goose chase."
"Yet the discovery of the new world made profound difference to the old. Just think, we would not have a Big Mac or KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)," he added referring to the ubiquitous US fast food outlets.
"Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all," added the 66-year-old.
Hawking envisages a long-term space exploration project that would include building an experimental base on the moon within 30 years, and devising a new propulsion system to take us on a planetary hunt outside our solar system in 200-500 years.
"It will not solve any of our immediate problems on planet Earth," he said, "but it will give us a new perspective on them and... hopefully, it will unite us to face a common challenge."
"Going into space will not be cheap, but it will take only a small portion of world resources," he added.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
New Big Bang Theory
Recently Prof Stephen Hawking and Prof Thomas Hertog have come up with a new idea to explain why the Big Bang of creation led to the vast cosmos that we can see today.
In this theory, the early universe can be described by a mathematical object called a wave function and, in a similar way to the light particle, the team proposed two years ago that this means that there was no unique origin to the cosmos: instead the wave function of the universe embraced a multitude of means to develop.
But, like any new idea, there were problems. The professors found that they could not explain the rapid expansion - inflation - of the universe, evidence of which is left behind all around us in what is called the cosmic microwave background, in effect the echo of the big bang, a relic of creation that can be measured with experiments on balloons and on space probes.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Once Upon A Time...
Two thousand years ago Roman Emperor Hadrian built what we know today as Hadrian's Wall, a fortification meant to defend Britannia against Picts (ancient Scots) attacks. Among those who built and guarded the structure were several units of Dacian soldiers. Those 1,000 Dacians were part of the first wave of Roman settlers who civilised the actual England.
What was their contribution to the future Britain? Well, firstly, the English word dagger comes from daca, a Dacian knife, and it also may be related with the medieval Romanian word daga, a kind of knife with three blades, used only for assassination.
Then, the sica. Sica was the weapon of choice of the Dacians, and can be seen all over Trajan's Column in their hands. It was originally depicted as a curved sword, with a blade about 16-18 inches long. Roman Emperor Trajan built the column to celebrate his victory against his most fierceful adversay, the Dacian King Decebal. Anyway, the sica became sickle in English.
And lastly, but most importantly, the draco. A draco was a military standard (flag) borne by a draconarius. Originated with the Dacians, it took the form of a gaping dragon's head and mouth formed from cast metal, to the end of which was attached a 'body' of cloth or silk fabric in the form of a windsock. When charging, the body would billow out behind the head. It is also thought that the draco was sometimes fitted with a whistle of some form, since there are descriptions of it making a howling sound when borne into battle. Sounds familiar? What other armies borrowed this flag in the Middle Ages?
So, my ancestors were among those who brought civilization to the savage tribes of barbarians that inhabited the actual British territory. Unfortunately their influence was not strong enough to remain in the history books...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Evening Flight
Last month The Guardian presented an interesting article on the timeline of the universe. How about the micro-universe? Our inner, tiny world is still full of mysteries. Have you ever wondered how the fetus' heart starts? The heart forms and then what? Bang, it just starts to beat or what? What switch starts that 'life engine"? As long as we can't create life, we are not entitled to take life. I'll tell you what Mr. Darwin, the probability that life appeared from void had the same chances as a hurricane that stormed a wrecking yard and gave birth to an assembled car.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Reaching Out, Touching You
'Non-communication is impossible', says one of the communication theory's postulates. However, considering that the fourth most important element of the communication process is (can you believe it?) the noise, let's try to apply the Shannon-Hartley theorem to the almighty Internet. The entropy of English text is between 1.0 and 1.5 bits per letter,[1] or as low as 0.6 to 1.3 bits per letter, according to estimates by Shannon based on human experiments[2](one bit being equal with a fair coin). If we take into account the fact that the channel codes appear to multiply following (say) geometric progression, then we will soon (50 years) face a "deafening" entropy. In other words, we will move from a directory centric communication to a user centric one. Just think of the millions of blogs with less then 5-10 readers. You start to feel the frozen breath of the Big Crunch on your back?...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Ruined props
Twenty years ago a Romanian sci-fi author came with the idea that humans might very well be extras left behind a gigantic production "filmed" millenniums ago. Other writers, such as Heinlein, Frank Herbert or even Asimov (in "The End of Eternity") flirted with the same concept in one way or another. But there were the Wachowskis who put that subject in the spotlight, using America's ultimate propaganda weapon, the Hollywood. However, there was nothing new under the sun, as The Matrix was inspired by other films, books, myths and philosophy including Messianism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Existentialism, Nihilism, Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism, Yoga Vashishta Hinduism and Sikhism. As Wikipedia mentioned, the film's premise resembled Plato's Allegory of the cave, René Descartes's evil genius, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, and the brain in a vat thought experiment, while Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation. After all, the question still remains... How can you tell how real is your world?
Monday, February 4, 2008
18 Wheels Of Destiny
David Lynch's masterpiece Twin Peaks was all about symbols. The first of them, shown right from the opening credits was the wheel. His daughter, Jennifer, a movie director as well, recalled that the Vedic mythology inspired Lynch on most of the symbols (including the Wheel of Life). Other symbols could be found here and thanks to Mr. Eco anyone could find an explanation for them. And speaking of Vedas and sanskrit, Coppola just launched his latest movie based on a novella by Mircea Eliade, a.k.a. the Godfather of the history of religions. Anyway, getting back to the graphic...how many wheels can you see there?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Afternoon Delight
The reminiscences of a dull afternoon, ironed by the silver sun of the Black Sea. What was that book next to me? Proust, maybe... I forgot. But was it Debussy's Faun rumbling in the back of my ear? I'm flat...
First Takeoff
What's worse than a wave-less morning?... What's bluer than homesickness?... Maybe the moment you start to wake up and see the rednecks...
Moon Glass
The white wolf used to wander around most nights, ruminating on his own reflection in the Raven's Lake, and sometimes even indulging in optimistic thoughts about his mortality...
Earthy Brekkie
One morning, you'll have to have my little Earth as breakfast... on an optimistically-pink plate, next to a greenly-fresh mug. Laid on a Renaissance table. The rest of the temple is silenced...
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Astro Golf
When was the last time you dreamed you played God? Or was it... golf? What would be the par for putting the Sun into a space-station hole...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Stairs To Hellven
What if we are all just preprogrammed interconnected boxes?... There is one way to find out... "Careful with that axe, Eugene!" Stay away from that light...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Stardoor
OK, things start to get serious. And obsessive. I wonder when I'll be able to escape from this sci-fi environment...
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Unexpected Landing
The second one took me a lot more to finish because I put more effort in every detail. The same sphere playing the role of an alien space ship forced to land on Earth.
Star Warzzz
That was my first 3D graphic designed in Bryce 5.5. A test, actually. As you can see it is very simple, few lines, a skyscraper that looks like a Start Wars ship and a sphere that resembles the Death Star...RSS...really simple shapes.
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