New geologic map of Tule Springs published

Kathleen Springer, Senior Curator of Geological Sciences for the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, is the co-author of a new geologic map of Tule Springs area.

On the eve of a scientific celebration fifty years in the making, geologists working in the deserts north of Las Vegas have published the most detailed geological map of the region ever created. Funded though the Las Vegas Office of the Bureau of Land Management and released through the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, the map of the upper Las Vegas wash — including the famous Tule Springs paleontological site, where excavations half a century ago first established the geologic context of Ice Age fossils found there — is the culmination of more than a decade of careful fieldwork and laboratory analysis.

Insula Păsărilor

Efesul are un farmec aparte, pe care nu stiu cat de bine l-am putut surprinde in poze. Vizitarea lui ofera o senzatie indescriptibila, pe care sper sa o traiti si voi intr-un viitor apropiat.

Prin fata ochilor ti se revarsa farame din istorie -Templul lui Hadrian, Biblioteca Celsus, Templul lui Domitian,  Odeonul- pe care fiecare incearca sa si le imagineze in adevarata lor maretie. Dar inainte de Efes am fost sa vizitam Casa Fecioarei Maria, loc de pelerinaj crestin si musulman. Legenda spune ca Fecioara Maria, insotita de Sf. Ioan, si-a trait ultimii ani din viata acolo, dar nu exista dovezi ca ar fi fost inmormantata in imprejurimi.

Prometheus in Greek Mythology

Prometheus is famous for a couple of seemingly unrelated stories: (1) the gift of fire to mankind and (2) being chained to a rock where every day an eagle came to eat his liver. There is a connection, however, and one that shows why Prometheus, the father of the Greek Noah, was called the benefactor of mankind.

Prometheus - Gift of Fire to Mankind

Zeus sent most of the Titans to Tartarus [see Hades' Realm] to punish them for fighting against him in the Titanomachy, but since second-generation Titan Prometheus had not sided with his aunts, uncles, and brother Atlas, Zeus spared him. Zeus then assigned Prometheus the task of forming man from water and earth, which Prometheus did, but in the process, became fonder of men than Zeus had anticipated. 

Strange Accounts: The World of Hyperborea

Less well-known than Atlantis, the continent of Hyperborea was even more ancient and fantastic. As with Atlantis, Hyperborea was first mentioned by the ancient Greek philosophers. For them, the place was real, not legend, and since that time many researchers have joined in the quest for this lost land.

The oldest mention of Atlantis is found in the Epigones, an epic history of ancient Greece. Although the author has been forgotten, we do know it was written in the 8th Century B.C. Hyperborea is also mentioned in another work of the same period, this one by the celebrated poet Hesiod.

Titanomachy and Gigantomachy

What happened immediately after [Kronos regurgitated his children] is not clear, but the war between the gods and Titans - the Titanomachy - soon begins. Unfortunately the epic poem of that name, which would have told us much, is lost. The first complete account we have is in Apollodorus (which was probably written in the 1st century A.D.).

Some of the children of the other Titans - such as Iapetos' son Menoetius - fought alongside their forebears. Others - including Iapetos' other children Prometheus and Epimetheus - did not.

Ninive

NINIVE. Un oraş foarte important care a fost ultima capitală a Asiriei. Ruinele se văd şi astăzi pe malul Tigrului vis-a-vis de oraşul Mosul din partea de N a Iraqului şi sunt sub forma unor ridicaturi de pământ numite Kuyunjik şi Nabi Yunus.

I. Numele

Cuvântul ebr. nineweh (în gr. Nineue; iar în gr. clasică Ninos) este traducerea cuvântului de origine asiriană Ninua (în babiloniana veche Ninuwa), o transliterare a cuvântului sumerian Nina, care este şi mai vechi. Acesta este numele zeiţei Iştar, care se scria sub forma unui peşte încadrat. În ciuda comparaţiei pe care o fac unii cu cele ce s-au întâmplat cu Iona, după toate probabilităţile nu există nici o legătură între acest nume şi cuvântui ebraic nun, „peşte".

The Presocratic Philosophers - Pythagoras of Samos

Who Was Pythagoras?

Pythagoras, born on the Aegean island of Samos in the 6th century B.C. and active in southern Italy, was an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician best known for a theorem in geometry that was named for him.

Pythagoras is credited with founding a philosophical school that deviated from the male-dominated Greek norms by allowing women to participate equally. The teachings of the school aren't strictly what we think of as philosophical. They also include rules on living and what to eat. 

Constelația Boötes

Boötes o  conține pe Arcturus  (Alpha Bootis), a patra cea mai strălucitoare stea pe cerul nopții. Este cea mai strălucitoare stea aflată la nord de ecuatorul ceresc. Odată descoperită pe cer, putem trasa imaginar forma de zmeu a constelației Boötes.

Constelația Boötes este situată între constelațiile Draco, Ursa Major și Virgo și a fost cartografiată pentru prima dată de către astronomul grec Ptolomeu în secolul al II-lea.

A trustworthy guide to black hole astronomy

Black holes are some of the most bizarre objects predicted by theoretical physics that actually exist in the cosmos. While many of the more exotic ideas about black holes coming from string theory and other quantum gravity models are far from testable, the existence of astrophysical black holes is uncontroversial. Even if you insist on separating out the observed black holes from the theoretical black hole properties (including everything that lies inside the event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing can escape), we still have reason to believe they are the same thing. Black holes are real.

In Caleb Scharf's forthcoming book, Gravity's Engines, the focus is on the observed and observable properties of astrophysical black holes. The subtitle—How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos—may be a trifle grandiose, but the book itself is an excellent overview of the state of black hole research. In fact, to explain why black holes are so important, Scharf provides a tour of much of modern astronomy and cosmology along with some requisite history, an impressive feat for such a relatively short book.

Milky Way still recovering from mysterious impact, scientists say

For those of you worried about the nearby Andromeda galaxy colliding with our own Milky Way in the distant future, here’s a little perspective: Turns out our spiral galaxy is still reeling from a hard knock it suffered as recently as 100 million years ago  -- but it’s likely to recover just as quickly, say researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.

Fermilab scientists looked at about 300,000 stars cataloged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – which has mapped a full 35% of the sky using an optical telescope in New Mexico – and noticed something strange: Some nearby stars north and south of the Milky Way’s plane were out of sync relative to one another.