Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history

Its a stunning achievement. My only gripe is that I wish they would go a bit further afield however- if you look at all the rover landing sites they are all in the same area of Mars- theres a whole planet up there to pick from.

One small step at a time

More pictures from curiosity.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html

How long does a chicken live after having its head chopped off.

Bird with the biggest smile.

That headless chicken thing is just WEIRD!!

This from the BBC science pages:

'Researchers studying fossils from northern Kenya have identified a new species of human that lived two million years ago.
The discoveries suggests that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa.
The research adds to a growing body of evidence that runs counter to the popular perception that there was a linear evolution from early primates to modern humans.'



Not sure whats more worrying about that chart- how short a time our particular branch of the family has been about for how much longer than us Homo Erectus was about for before going extinct? Makes you think!

Maybe the stories of humans being put on earth by aliens are true

The new Mars Rovers first panoramic picture- low res as the high res pics take ages to get here. And they say apart from joining all the pics together they havent been retouched- the colours are as the Rover saw them.

Looks like my back yard

As always when I see pics like this I am convinced just out of shot either side are some bloody cheeky aliens having a laugh.

Never mind the face on mars what about the Americian Indian (compete with headress) in the desert! A trick of shadows, landscape and angle. Pretty amazing though.

This is cool (I think) using infrared and satellitte they have discovered the footprints of entire ancient cities!
This is Tanis in Egypt, once the capital.



It was pretty packed place by the looks of it- but pretty amazing that you can basically see a street plan here that has been long buired.
They have also identified 4 new lost pyramids.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Never mind the face on mars what about the Americian Indian (compete with headress) in the desert! A trick of shadows, landscape and angle. Pretty amazing though.

From the road I assume this ain't Mars. Where is it though?

wow thats amazing Petty, we need the Time Team to get digging.

Sorry Halfwise it has slipped my mind exactly which desert but it is an American one.

Mrs Figg- sadly I doubt channel 4's budget stretches to Egypt (and Hawass wouldnt let them anyway!-incidentally is he still in charge of all things ancient in Egypt? He always seemed quite close to the old overthrown regime).

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Never mind the face on mars what about the Americian Indian (compete with headress) in the desert! A trick of shadows, landscape and angle. Pretty amazing though.

Now that is cool! And look, he's got an iPod.

that Hawass bloke is scary, and I dont trust his methods. Being a restorer I sometimes wince when I see him handling artifacts, he goes in boots first. and thank god he has been removed from a position of power.

You really don't like Hawass? I always enjoyed him as being a bit of a character with flair, but I know I tend to resent similar characters in my own field. They bring in money and sway public opinion, but they seem to be doing junky work while getting all the recognition.

I seem to remember he resigned because he said things were getting too much out of control with the revolution and he couldn't stand to be in charge when artifacts could not be decently protected. But I don't doubt there was likely a lot more going on behind his public statements.

I always thought Hawass was abit over protective, not letting people explore what seemed genuine things of interest such as the passages in the Kings Chamber inside the Great Pyramid, the one they sent the little robot up that had the tiny door in it. He stopped that, he blocked access and all sorts, I still dont think they ever got to finish or explore the other shaft.

I dont like his methods, they are reckless and self promoting, he is a kind of Indiana Jones and everything seems to revolve round his cult of personality. I dont have issue with other aspects, such as promoting history and culture. although there have been allegations of corruption and being in Mubaracks pocket. Its the fact that he went into tombs and what have you, without due care and basically was cack handed with artifacts, damage has been done, also it appears that shaft drilling thing was a fake. He is a showman, and has monopolized the scene for far too long.

I agree Mrs Figg- he often seemed more a hindrence to archeology than its protector- if his name and face werent front and centre it didnt get to go ahead.

Not sure where to put this but here will do- we need a cool shit thread!

Anyway- ever wanted to zooom across Tatooine in a hovver vechicle- well its getting closer (except the Tatooine bit).

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/virals/4499736/Real-life-hover-bike-zooms-over-the-desert.html#ooid=J1b3ZvNTr8mv70tKVcwFYFAR9Tm8b2Oc

Mmm its got an embed option but doesnt seem to work here. How annoying.

Mars landing.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/videos/index.cfm?v=81

'Researchers have used a video game projected into a fish tank to study the behaviour of predatory bluegill sunfish.
Senior researcher Dr Iain Couzin is from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.
"By creating immersive video game for the fish we were able to have complete control over the parameters," he told BBC News.
He said it was important that the game had been coded so that the movement of the dots did not become predictable.
"In any computer game if you have one type of enemy it's easy to learn," said Mr Couzin.
"It would be fascinating to understand whether the fish learned to play the game better over time."

Next step- selling you video games for your pets to play!