Monkey Marriage in INDIA

India Witnesses Its First Monkey Marriage, Because Why Not?

 

 

 

Gay marriage has gotten its due. Now it's time to pave the way for monkey marriage.

The village of Talwas, deep in the forests of India, seems to be mixed up in some serious monkey business. The tiny Indian village recently became home to two monkeys who tied the knot, a first in the country.

As for the lucky couple, Raju, the groom, was known in his village for eating, sleeping and smoking cigarettes with his owner, Ramesh Saini, who treated him like a son. Chinki, the bride, belonged to a priest in a nearby village.

More info: http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22793

Half male, half female butterfly steals the show at Natural History Museum

Half male, half female butterfly steals the show at Natural History Museum

 

 

 

A stunning butterfly that emerged from its chrysalis as male on one side, female on the other, has astounded curators at the Natural History Museum in London.

The peculiar nature of the freshly hatched great mormon butterfly was spotted when staff noticed a striking difference between its wing colourings and other features.

The insect, which has a 10cm wingspan, is almost black on its male side, but the female side is much paler, with clearly visible flecks of blue, red and tortoiseshell.

More info:http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/12/half-male-half-female-butterfly

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets

 

 A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts , all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts.

The tablets, which were so well sealed that they miraculously survived being under water for more than two millennia, also contain extracts of parsley, nasturtium, radish, yarrow and hibiscus.

 

More info: http://www.grahamhancock.com

Pre-Colombian Maya statues found at archaeological site in Mexico

Pre-Colombian Maya statues found at archaeological site in Mexico

 

 

Ocosingo - Mexican researchers have found in the archaeological zone of Toniná, State of Chiapas, two stone sculptures representing captive warriors belonging to the allied Maya states of Palenque, Mexico and Copán, Honduras.

Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico reported that the finding took place in May 2011 at the Toniná archaeological site, located in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas. The two stone sculptures have been dated to approximately 1300 years ago and the inscriptions found on them confirm previous knowledge of a war alliance that existed between the rulers of Copán in Honduras, and Palenque, not far from Toniná in the State of Chiapas, in the Southeast of Mexico bordering Guatemala.

More info : http://www.grahamhancock.com/news/index.php?node=22784

5,200 year-old rock drawings of earliest Ancient Egyptian

5,200 year-old rock drawings of earliest Ancient Egyptian celebrations unearthed

 

 

CAIRO — Egypt’s Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have unearthed a 5,200-year-old rock drawing depicting a royal festival during Ancient Egypt’s earliest dynasty.
The ministry says the scenes were part of a series of rock drawings featuring hunting, fighting and celebrations along the banks of the Nile River.

Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement Monday the scenes represent the first unearthing of a complete drawing of a royal festival during Dynasty Zero, when the earliest foundations of Ancient Egyptian culture are believed to have been formed.

More info: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/5200-year-old-rock-drawings-of-earliest-ancient-egyptian-celebrations-unearthed/2011/07/04/gHQAw07kxH_story.html

Last flight of the Space Shuttle: a 30-year retrospective

Last flight of the Space Shuttle: a 30-year retrospective

 

 

The United States has been a space-faring nation for just over 50 years, ever since Alan Shepard's suborbital pop shot aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. In the following eight years the US, and mankind, went from being earthbound to making the first lunar landing.

Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were followed by the longest lull in America's manned space program to date, but starting in 1981 with the maiden flight of Columbia, the space shuttle program became the stalwart backbone of America's manned space flight program. With the final planned shuttle mission only hours from its scheduled launch, we take a moment to look back at over 30 years of history, achievements, and tragic failures.

More info:http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/07/30-years-of-manned-space-flight-the-last-flight-of-the-space-shuttle.ars

Human Sacrifice Found in Maya City Sinkhole

 

Maya Underworld

 

Photograph courtesy Tamara Thomsen

The bones of six humans—including two children—jade beads, shells, and stone tools are among the Maya "treasures" recently found in a water-filled cave off a sinkhole at the famous archaeological site of Chichén Itzá (picture) in Mexico, archaeologists say.
The ancient objects are most likely related to a ritual human sacrifice during a time when water levels were lower, sometime between A.D. 850 and 1250, the researchers say.
It's "very improbable" that the remains and artifacts were "just tossed" into the sinkhole, known as a cenote, expedition leader Guillermo Anda told National Geographic News in an email. Rather, he said, they were likely placed there during a ceremony to appease the Maya rain god, Chaak.
Extending from what is now southern Mexico through Guatemala and into northern Belize, the Maya Empire is noted for having the only known written language in Mesoamerica, as well as for its elaborate works of art and architecture. Chichén Itzá was one of the greatest Maya cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. (See an interactive map of key Maya sites.)
The discovery of a human sacrifice deep in one the region's cenotes supports the idea that, for the Maya, the sinkholes "represented thresholds of communication with the spiritual and sacred world that lay under the surface of the Earth," said Anda, a professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán.

More info: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/pictures/110706-human-sacrifice-bones-maya-chichen-itza-ancient-science-mexico-cenote/