The World News--contributions welcome, the story behind the story Options

[babu]

Mexican capital legalizes abortion, defies church

Tue Apr 24, 2007 - MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican capital legalized abortion on Tuesday, defying the church but delighting feminists in the world's second-largest Roman Catholic country....

even though the provision for abortion is going into effect, pope benedict is making special provision for these aborted fetuses to gain entrance into heaven

AP
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has reversed centuries of traditional Catholic teaching on limbo, saying that unbaptized babies may be getting into heaven.

Catholics have long believed that children who die without being baptized are with original sin and thus excluded from heaven.

Benedict approved the findings of the International Theological Commission, a Vatican advisory panel, which said it was reassessing traditional teaching on limbo in light of "pressing" pastoral needs - primarily the growing number of abortions and infants born to nonbelievers who die without being baptized.

[Gerard]

Kryptonite discovered in mine

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.

Obama in Metropolis, IL.,

[Gerard]

Poland: 'Tinky Winky's too gay'
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tinky Winky gay?

Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen on Monday, taking aim at Tinky Winky and the other Teletubbies.

Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children's show promoted homosexuality.

She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.

In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late U.S. evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy."

"At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."

Poland's rightist government has upset human rights groups and drawn criticism within the European Union by apparent discrimination against homosexuals.

[Dhyana]

There was a short article about it in a Swedish daily. Another thing this lady apparently said was that the program might be harmful to the children's mental health because one couldn't tell the characters' gender!

In the light of this, her comment (also quoted in the article) about Tinky Winky's red purse having homosexual undertones, is absurd. If she cannot tell Tinky's gender, how can she possibly tell Tinky is gay??

[Tapati]

The (blessedly late) Jerry Falwell got there first. I personally hope his heaven is populated with gay teletubbies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell

In February 1999 an unattributed National Liberty Journal article[41] claimed that Tinky Winky, a Teletubby, was intended as a gay role model. (NLJ was not the first source to make this association; a 1998 Salon.com article had previously noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon.[42]) The immensely popular UK show was aimed at pre-school children but the article stated "he is purple - the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol." Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the NLJ article said was a purse. Falwell added "role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children." In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the Teletubbies in the US, said "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive."

[Gerard]

The Da Vinci chapel echoes to sound of Saturn

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent
29th May 2007

As if there were not enough mysteries involving the medieval chapel that featured in The Da Vinci Code, the plot thickened further yesterday.

Rosslyn Chapel has, at one time or another, been suggested as the resting place of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and even the mummified head of Christ.
Now cosmology has been added to this rich brew after the ornate symbols on its walls were likened to giant cloud formations photographed on Saturn.
The link was made by Stuart Mitchell, 41, a composer, who with his father Thomas, 75, a former RAF codebreaker, deciphered a musical score they believe was hidden in the 13 angel musicians and 213 cube-like shapes carved on the chapel arches.
After 27 years of research they cracked their code and, at the weekend, they staged the first public performance of the medieval music they found hidden in the carvings.
The piece, known as the Rosslyn Motet, is based on the deciphering of cube and hexagon-shaped symbols using an ancient musical system called cymatics, in which patterns are formed by sound waves at specific pitches.
The shapes appear when a note is used to vibrate a sheet of metal, or a sheet of glass covered in powder. Different frequencies produce patterns such as flowers, diamonds and hexagons. The hexagon features prominently in the chapel carvings.
Mr Mitchell and his father believe the tune was encrypted in the 15th century chapel outside Edinburgh because knowledge of music may have been considered heretical at the time.
Earlier this week, Mr Mitchell was preparing for the first performance when a Mexican astronomer telephoned him and told about the same hexagonal shape on Saturn.
The coincidence suggests a universal significance for the musical score, according to Mr Mitchell, even if the hexagon above Saturn is 15,000 miles across while the carvings are measured in inches.

In musical terms, both shapes represent a B natural, suggesting to some that the planets may have their own musical score to be cracked.
"The shape matches right down to the detail," said Mr Mitchell. "The shape represents the B natural pattern in our code, and that is the first note of the Rosslyn Motet.
"Now we are starting to see that these symbols that everybody found so magical and unique are around us in a vast way. What we are seeing on our plane of existence we can now also see on a cosmic scale. It is one of the most amazing developments in this story.
"If the geometric figure in Rosslyn Chapel is produced by the same principles as is happening on Saturn - vibration and sound - then Saturn is literally singing a piece of music to us."
Mr Mitchell said that the shape on Saturn was like a humpback whale singing in the darkness of space. He added: "I find it propitious that the sudden interest in the Saturn Hex phenomenon should be at a time when my father and I have realised a composition we believe was 'set in stone' using this same science."
The hexagon above Saturn was detected 26 years ago, but was captured in its complete form for the first time earlier this year by Nasa's Cassini Orbiter. A spokesman at the space agency said at the time that it was a "very strange feature".
Since it featured in The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, visitor numbers at the chapel have rocketed. Stargazers may now be about to join those throngs of religious conspiracy theorists.



source with video: Telegraph

[Chanahari]

If she cannot tell Tinky's gender, how can she possibly tell Tinky is gay??

I guess that genderless beings are by default gay if they are in love with each other...

[Dhyana]

If she cannot tell Tinky's gender, how can she possibly tell Tinky is gay??

I guess that genderless beings are by default gay if they are in love with each other...

Just see. There goes the "man as the rule, woman as an exception" notion rearing up its ugly head again!

[Chanahari]

trying to explain away my male chauvinistic tendencies...

It's just language differences at work. My first language don't have a separate word for gays and lesbians... (and we don't have grammatical gender either, so we are a very very PC language. )

So we don't get disturbed if we are to speak about genderless homosexual beings - they are "gay", just like the male and female homos. You Indo-Europeans are stuck in your paradigms.

[Gerard]

BBC, June 8th 2007:

CIA jails in E Europe 'confirmed'

A Council of Europe investigator says he has evidence to prove the CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate "war on terror" suspects.
Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, has been investigating CIA operations on behalf of the European human rights body.
In his new report, released on Friday, Mr Marty says secret CIA prisons "did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania".
The governments of both countries have strongly denied any involvement.
Mr Marty says he drew on multiple sources and used his own intelligence methods to investigate the CIA's "extraordinary renditions", the process under which terror suspects were transported around the world for interrogation.

"Some European governments have obstructed the search for the truth and are continuing to do so by invoking the concept of 'state secrets'.... This criticism applies to Germany and Italy, in particular," he said.
His report came as the first criminal trial over the CIA "extraordinary renditions" opened in Italy. Twenty-five CIA agents and a US Air Force colonel are on trial in their absence, accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.
Unnamed CIA sources quoted by Mr Marty said Poland was the "black site" where eight "high-value detainees (HVDs)" were interrogated, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 - and Abu Zubaydah, a suspected top al-Qaeda operative.
The report says Romania "was developed into a site to which more detainees were transferred only as the HVD programme expanded".
"The secret detention facilities in Europe were run directly and exclusively by the CIA. To our knowledge, the local staff had no meaningful contact with the prisoners and performed purely logistical duties," the report continues.
But it adds: "the highest state authorities were aware of the CIA's illegal activities on their territories".
US President George Bush admitted in September that terror suspects had been held in CIA-run prisons overseas, but he did not say where the prisons were located.

Mistreatment

Mr Marty says there is evidence that the CIA operations took place in line with Nato authorisations agreed on 4 October 2001, "some of which are public and some of which remain secret".
Some detainees were held in secret for several years and subjected to "degrading treatment and so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (essentially a euphemism for a kind of torture)," Mr Marty says.
In a preliminary report last year Mr Marty said the CIA ran a "global spider's web" of secret flights.
In comments published in the French daily Le Figaro on Friday, Mr Marty said "suspected terrorists" were also "kidnapped then tortured and detained illegally in rogue states like Syria, where there is no civilian law or law governing the rules of war".
In January a European Parliament committee approved a report which said EU states knew of secret CIA flights over Europe.
The report said the governments also knew of the abduction of terror suspects by US agents and the US's use of clandestine detention centres.
A BBC investigation last year revealed that a well-known CIA Gulfstream plane, the N379P, had made several landings at Szymany airport in northern Poland in 2003.
The airport's flight log also showed that a Boeing 737 had flown direct from Kabul to the airport, which is not far from a Polish intelligence base in the village of Stare Kiejkuty.

[Gerard]

35,000-Year-Old Mammoth Sculpture Found in Germany

In southwestern Germany, an American archaeologist and his German colleagues have found the oldest mammoth-ivory carving known to modern science. And even at 35,000 years old, it's still intact.

Archaeologists at the University of Tübingen have recovered the first entirely intact woolly mammoth figurine from the Swabian Jura, a plateau in the state of Baden-Württemberg, thought to have been made by the first modern humans some 35,000 years ago. It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found. "You can be sure," Tübingen archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "that there has been art in Swabia for over 35,000 years."

In total, five mammoth-ivory figurines from the Ice Age were newly discovered at the site of the Vogelherd Cave in southwestern Germany, a site known to contain primitive artefacts since it was excavated in 1931 by the Tübingen archaeologist Gustav Reik. Over 7,000 sacks of sediment later, archaeologists were again invigorated by the discoveries.

Among the new finds are well-preserved remains of a lion figurine, fragments of a mammoth figurine and two as-yet-unidentified representations. These, the University of Tübingen Web site explains, "count among the oldest and most impressive examples of figurative artworks from the Ice Age."

Conard said that "the excitement and thrill were immense." He and his colleagues Michael Lingnau and Maria Malina in the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology reported their findings in the journal Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg.

The figure of the woolly mammoth is tiny, measuring just 3.7 cm long and weighing a mere 7.5 grams, and displays skilfully detailed carvings. It is unique in its slim form, pointed tail, powerful legs and dynamically arched trunk. It is decorated with six short incisions, and the soles of the pachyderm's feet show a crosshatch pattern. The miniature lion is 5.6 cm long, has a extended torso and outstretched neck. It is decorated with approximately 30 finely incised crosses on its spine.

The geological context of the discoveries and radiocarbon dating indicate that the figurines belong to the Aurignacian culture, which refers to an area of southern France and is associated with the arrival of the first modern humans in Europe. Multiple radiocarbon dates from sediment in the Vogelherd Cave yielded ages between 30,000 and 36,000 years ago, the University of Tübingen reports. Some methods give an even older date.

The preliminary results from the excavation will be presented in a special exhibit at the Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren from June 24, 2007 to January 13, 2008. In 2009, the figurines will be displayed in a major state exhibition in Stuttgart entitled "Cultures and Art of the Ice Age."

[metamorphosis]

35,000-Year-Old Mammoth Sculpture Found in Germany

In southwestern Germany, an American archaeologist and his German colleagues have found the oldest mammoth-ivory carving known to modern science. And even at 35,000 years old, it's still intact.

"REMAINS OF TERRESTRIAL MAMMALIA IN ALLUVIUM"

"...the elephant from Mt. Holly"
Text taken from page 176 of the Report on the Geology of Vermont: Descriptive, Theoretical, Economical, and Scenographical; Vol. I by E. Hitchcock, LL.D., A.D. Hager, A.M., E. Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., and C. H. Hitchcock, A.M., 1861.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"REMAINS OF TERRESTRIAL MAMMALIA IN ALLUVIUM"


"The most important mammalian fossil of this kind is the elephant from Mt. Holly. We give Professor Thompson's description of it:

"Elephas primogenius, Blumenbach. It is a remarkable fact, that in making the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, which extends from Burlington to Bellows Falls, two of the most interesting fossils ever found in New England were brought to light. These were the remains of an elephant and a whale. The former were found in Mt. Holly, in 1848, and the latter in Charlotte, in 1849.

[Gerard]

The Rock that Whispers

New evidence of the earliest known ritual behaviour
Text: Paul Devereux April 2007

Evidence for possibly the earliest known ritual activity has been uncovered in Ngamiland, Botswana. Archæologists investigating the Tsodilo Hills there found a secluded cave, the “Rhino Cave”, next to a rock resembling a python’s head. Hundreds of man-made indentations peppered the rock, known to the San (Bushmen) as the “Rock that Whispers”.
A test pit dug in front of the python simulacrum revealed many stones that had been used to make the indentations. Together with these tools, some of which were over 70,000 years old, more than 13,000 artefacts were unearthed, including burnt spearheads and possible ritual articles. The rock’s natural pythonesque appearance had been enhanced by human carving and grinding – the python is a key figure in San mythology.
Lead archæologist Sheila Coulson also found a secret chamber behind the python rock. Parts of the entrance to this small chamber were worn smooth, indicating extensive usage over the ages. “The shaman could have kept himself hidden in that secret chamber,” Coulson suggested. “When he spoke from his hiding place, it could have seemed as if the voice came from the snake [rock] itself.”

[Tapati]

"Govt turns to Wiccan queen to save girls"

by Bappa Majumdar (Reuters, July 2, 2007)

Kolkata, India - The government has enlisted the follower of a global pagan witchcraft movement to help curb the country's high female infanticide rate and end the neglect of the girl child, officials said on Monday.

Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, a Wiccan and social activist, has been nominated by the government's National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) to head a panel tasked with improving the status of young girls, they said.

Around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents over the last 20 years, the government says, as female infanticide and foeticide, although illegal, are still prevalent with boys preferred to girls as breadwinners.

http://wwrn.org/article.php?idd=25543

[angrezi]

Beer Makers Losing Money on Missing Kegs

By EMILY FREDRIX


MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Tap it, don't scrap it. With metal prices rising, beer makers say they expect to lose hundreds of thousands of kegs and millions of dollars this year as those stainless steel holders of brew are stolen and sold for scrap.

The beer industry is coupling with the scrap metal recycling industry to let metal buyers know they can't accept kegs unless they're sold by the breweries that own them. They're also pushing for legislation that would require scrap metal recyclers to ask for identification and proof of ownership from would-be sellers.

The beer industry's main trade group, the Beer Institute, noticed the problem in the past few years as it saw more brewers reporting missing kegs, resulting in an industrywide loss of up to $50 million a year, said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute.

"It really got people's attention because that's a significant flow of our kegs that we'll never see again," Becker said. "We know some of it's very innocent but some of it's not."

The theft problem is twofold, he said. Some average keg-buying customers opt to forgo their deposits, which can sometimes range from $10 to $30, because they can cover that expense, and then some, if they sell to scrap dealers.

He could not say how much kegs go for, because prices change locally. But given prices metal trading prices in the past year, a keg could fetch from $15 to $55 or more at scrap yards.

But he said thieves know metal prices are on the rise and are on the prowl for kegs. They often find empty kegs unsecured - in alleys and anywhere else restaurants, bars or distributors might store them - and sell them at scrap yards.

While only about 12 percent of the nation's beer is sold in kegs each year, it costs brewers as much as $150 to replace each keg, so the thefts have a big impact. In the past few years, breweries have collectively lost about 300,000 kegs a year, Becker said, out of an estimated 10.7 million in circulation.

The Fourth of July, when many Americans rent kegs for their parties, is the nation's biggest beer-drinking holiday, ahead of Memorial Day, Labor Day and Super Bowl Sunday, the Beer Institute reports.

Craft brewers are anxious to solve the theft problem because as much as 40 percent of their business is tied up in keg sales, triple the industry average, said Ken Grossman, founder and owner of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

His company, based in Chico, Calif., expects to lose at least 3 percent of its kegs each year and often must wait months for replacements because it orders in smaller batches.

The thefts couldn't come at a worse time because the craft beer segment has outpaced growth in the domestic market, he said.

"If you can't meet the need, you're not going to grow much anymore," Grossman said.

Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co. said it has millions invested in kegs, which typically last 20 years. Wholesalers and distributors are being encouraged to let their customers know to keep their kegs in more secure areas, said spokesman Julian Green.

"We've heard there are people out there that will drive around just to look for kegs," he said.

Molson Coors Brewing Co. is studying its thefts and working with distributors to keep better track of kegs, said Al Timothy, vice president for government affairs. The Denver-based brewer saw its keg losses double from 2005 to last year. The company has about 800,000 kegs in circulation at any time and did not want to say how many kegs it expects to lose this year.

"The bottom line is it's a big problem," Timothy said.

Metal prices are high across the world now, partially because of increased demand caused by a spike in construction in growing economies, said Chuck Carr, spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc., a trade group whose members run about 3,000 facilities in the U.S.

The price scrap yards pay for stainless steel has steadily grown for a year, peaking at about $1.50 to $1.70 a pound last month, said Marty Forman, president of Forman Metal Co. in Milwaukee. But that has dropped to about 50 to 70 cents a pound recently, which could provide some relief to frustrated brewers, he said.

Most empty barrels weigh about 30 pounds.

Still, Forman has heard from upset brewers like Lakefront Brewery Inc., asking what can be done to prevent disappearing kegs.

Russ Klisch, president of the Milwaukee-based craft brewer, said it sometimes takes years before brewers know that a keg has been lost.

"You never really know who has them or where they're going," he said. "But I heard a lot of them were ending up at different scrap yards."

The scrap industry's Carr said they're in the process of reminding dealers not to accept stolen goods, including kegs. Dealers have an easier time figuring out who owns kegs, he said, because brewers' named are stamped right on them. Buyers, he said, should know if something doesn't add up.

The Beer Institute supports legislation in states that require, for example, scrap metal buyers to ask for identification from would-be sellers of kegs, among other items. Ten states so far this year have passed such laws, including Colorado, Indiana, Kansas and Virginia.

Another option is to raise keg deposits, which are set by either states, brewers, or distributors and wholesalers. Brewers charge their own deposits when they sell kegs to distributors and wholesalers, sometimes as small as $10. Then customers pay their own deposit for kegs. Michigan recently tripled its keg deposit to $30 for the average keg-buyer after getting pressure from brewers upset by the thefts.

But Becker said raising deposits is a last resort, because it could deter drinkers. They hope to curb thefts through awareness.

"We don't want to point fingers. We want to make it reasonable for people but at the same time, we want it stop," he said.

---

On the Net:

Beer Institute: http://www.beerinstitute.org

[angrezi]

Its almost like here:




Sharp practice of melting coins
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Guwahati

Coins for sale in Guwahati
Coins are much sought-after in India's north-east (Photos: Subhamoy Bhattacharjee)
Millions of Indian coins are being smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh and turned into razor blades. And that's creating an acute shortage of coins in many parts of India, officials say.

Police in Calcutta say that the recent arrest of a grocer highlights the extent of the problem. They seized what they said was a huge coin-melting unit which he was operating in a run-down shack.

The grocer confessed to melting down tens of thousands of Indian coins into razor blades which were then smuggled into Bangladesh, police said.

"Our one rupee coin is in fact worth 35 rupees, because we make five to seven blades out of them," the grocer allegedly told the police. "Bangladeshi smugglers take delivery of the blades at regular intervals."

Out of circulation

Police say that initially the smugglers took coins into Bangladesh and then melted them down, but as the scale of the operation has increased, more and more criminals in India are melting them down first, and then selling them as razor blades.

To deal with the coin shortage, some tea gardens in the north-eastern state of Assam have resorted to issuing cardboard coin-slips to their workers.

The denomination is marked on these slips and they are used for buying and selling within the gardens.

Bartering for coins in Guwahati
Notes are more common than coins in Guwahati

The cardboard coins are the same size as the real ones and their value is marked on them.

"We will commit an offence if these cardboard slips go out, but we have to use them in our gardens because there are hardly any Indian coins in circulation here," said a manager of a tea garden in northern Assam.

He is not willing to be named because the disclosure could cause legal complications for the estate.

'Do our best'

Indian revenue intelligence officials say millions of coins are finding their way into Bangladesh.

They say they have alerted the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) - which is deployed on the India-Bangladesh border - to check the smuggling.

Coins 'for sale' in Guwahati
Coins can even be seen 'for sale' in Guwahati market stalls

"We are aware of our coins going across the border in some quantities and we will do our best to stop it," senior BSF official SK Datta told the BBC.

Revenue intelligence officials, who do not wish to be named, say criminals can make five to six blades from a five-rupee coin.

"We are investigating this closely," said one official posted in north-eastern India.

Earlier, Indian coins were being melted in huge quantities in places like Calcutta.

The mints took corrective action - scaling down the metal content of the coins - but that has not stopped the shortages.

Distributing coins

The authorities have taken various steps to deal with the problem.

In Calcutta alone, India's central bank - the Reserve Bank of India - has distributed coins worth nearly six million rupees ($150,000) to overcome the shortage in the last two weeks, bank treasurer Nilanjan Saha said.


We have to accept very soiled notes of one or five rupees, so soiled that the banks will not change it
Agartala resident Sushil Choudhury

Long queues form outside the bank's regional office in the city centre every time this happens.

Unscrupulous touts set up makeshift shops and collect as many of the coins as they can, only to sell them later at a premium.

"We stand in long queues but the coins are finished within no time. Those in front pick them up and we can see some of them later selling the coins at a big margin," complained small trader Nitai Banik, who needs a lot of coins for his retail trade in small garments.

Begging coins

Shopkeepers ask customers to buy more to make it a round figure so that small change does not have to be given out.

"The shopkeepers give us toffees or cigarettes to make it a round figure," said student Debolina Sen.

In desperation, some shopkeepers have even turned to beggars to maintain their coin supplies.

The beggars get given coins by passers-by and then sell them on at a profit.

Coins in Guwahati
They are worth more melted down as razor blades

"They charge a smaller premium, much less compared to the touts outside the Reserve Bank," says businessman Tarun Jain.

The coin shortage is most acute in the north-eastern frontier town of Agartala, right on the border with Bangladesh and believed to be a major centre for contraband trade with Bangladesh.

Here, rickshaw pullers tell you that they cannot provide any coins in change because they have none left.

"So we have to accept very soiled notes of one or five rupees, so soiled that the banks will not change it," says Agartala resident Sushil Choudhury.

In Guwahati, Assam's capital and the business hub of India's northeast, small coins like 50 paisa have completely dropped out of circulation.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6766563.stm

[Gerard]

Ice chunks fall in U.S. neighbourhood

DUBUQUE (IOWA): Large chunks of ice, one of them reportedly weighing about 50 pounds (22.5 kg), fell from the sky in Iowa, smashing through a roof and tearing through nearby trees.

Authorities said they were unsure of the ice’s origin but theorised that the chunks either fell from an airplane or naturally accumulated high in the atmosphere — both rare occurrences.

“It sounded like a bomb,” said Jan Kenkel, 78. She said she was standing in her kitchen when an ice chunk crashed through her roof on Thursday morning. “I jumped about a foot!”

She discovered a messy pile of insulation, bits of ceiling, splintered wood and about 50 pounds (22.5 kg) of solid ice.

Neighbours Karle and Mary Beth Wigginton said they heard a loud “whoosh” coming through the trees, discovering several large chunks of ice in front of their home in this city in northwestern Iowa in the country’s Midwest.

Elizabeth Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said investigators would to try to determine the source of the ice. “It is very uncommon for something like this to come from an aircraft,” she said. “That is really unusual if it is pure white ice, especially at this time of year.”

Occasionally, aircraft latrines discharge contents at altitude, resulting in chunks of descending ice. Airplanes also sometimes accumulate ice on their edges in certain atmospheric conditions, including high altitude and extreme moisture, said pilot Robert Grierson, manager of the Dubuque Regional Airport.

The moisture involved in such a scenario could have come from the tops of strong thunderstorms. However, Dubuque had clear skies at the time the ice fell, said Andy Ervin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport.
A megacryometeor?

David Travis, a professor of geography and geology and an associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, said it was possible the ice could have been a megacryometeor, “similar to a hailstone, but without the thunderstorm.”

Professor Travis is part of a research team that has documented more than 50 possible megacryometeor cases during the past five years. Some involve ice chunks the size of microwave ovens.

“It is hard to keep something like that suspended in air without a thunderstorm,” he said. Most megacryometeor sightings have occurred in coastal areas, where atmospheric turbulence helps keep ice suspended long enough to grow into large chunks. Professor Travis’ research team speculated the phenomenon could be linked to global warming. — AP

[Kalisurfer]

Bargarh (Orissa), Aug 21 (IANS) If you think goats are vegetarian, you haven't yet met Mantu - a male goat here that eats meat and drinks liquor.

A goat that eats meat and drinks too!

[Gerard]

Lost city 'could rewrite history'

The city is believed to predate the Harappan civilisation
By BBC News Online's Tom Housden, 19th January 2002

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history.

Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old.

The vast city - which is five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.


The site was discovered by chance last year by oceanographers from India's National Institute of Ocean Technology conducting a survey of pollution.

Using sidescan sonar - which sends a beam of sound waves down to the bottom of the ocean they identified huge geometrical structures at a depth of 120ft.

Debris recovered from the site - including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture and human bones and teeth has been carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old.

Lost civilisation

The city is believed to be even older than the ancient Harappan civilisation, which dates back around 4,000 years.

Marine archaeologists have used a technique known as sub-bottom profiling to show that the buildings remains stand on enormous foundations.


The whole model of the origins of civilisation will have to be remade from scratch

Graham Hancock

Author and film-maker Graham Hancock - who has written extensively on the uncovering of ancient civilisations - told BBC News Online that the evidence was compelling:

"The [oceanographers] found that they were dealing with two large blocks of apparently man made structures.

"Cities on this scale are not known in the archaeological record until roughly 4,500 years ago when the first big cities begin to appear in Mesopotamia.

"Nothing else on the scale of the underwater cities of Cambay is known. The first cities of the historical period are as far away from these cities as we are today from the pyramids of Egypt," he said.

Chronological problem

This, Mr Hancock told BBC News Online, could have massive repercussions for our view of the ancient world.

"There's a huge chronological problem in this discovery. It means that the whole model of the origins of civilisation with which archaeologists have been working will have to be remade from scratch," he said.

However, archaeologist Justin Morris from the British Museum said more work would need to be undertaken before the site could be categorically said to belong to a 9,000 year old civilisation.

"Culturally speaking, in that part of the world there were no civilisations prior to about 2,500 BC. What's happening before then mainly consisted of small, village settlements," he told BBC News Online.

Dr Morris added that artefacts from the site would need to be very carefully analysed, and pointed out that the C14 carbon dating process is not without its error margins.

It is believed that the area was submerged as ice caps melted at the end of the last ice age 9-10,000 years ago

Although the first signs of a significant find came eight months ago, exploring the area has been extremely difficult because the remains lie in highly treacherous waters, with strong currents and rip tides.

The Indian Minister for Human Resources and ocean development said a group had been formed to oversee further studies in the area.

"We have to find out what happened then ... where and how this civilisation vanished," he said.

[Gerard]

The US wants to develop a new type of nuclear weapon: The Bunker Buster.