Finally someone new has gone to China to check out the pyramids, and then written a report:

If the pyramid existed, it would surely show up on the freely available satellite photos from Space Imaging. I proceeded to spend several days downloading dozens of detailed satellite images and overlaying them upon a map of the region. Using satellite photos taken of the pyramids at Giza for size comparison, I sought pyramidal forms from the target region in China. What I found was quite startling. Spread across the landscape were scores of pyramids of varying size. One in particular seemed to closely match the size of the Egyptian pyramids, at least in its perimeter. There was just one problem. These pyramids were in the wrong place. The pyramids I had located lay several miles northwest of Xi'an near the city of Xianyang. Furthermore, none of them appeared in the mountainous territory south of Xi'an. They all lay out in the open upon seemingly flat ground. I believed I had located the pyramid from the famous photo, but its location did not remotely match the description given by Sheehan. ....Enamored by the mystery, I determined to visit China myself and attempt to reconcile some of these conflicting stories. ....As the plane descended low through the clouds I searched the smooth green landscape below and to my utter surprise I could make out pyramids already! ....Our first stop was the largest pyramid I had identified from the satellite photos and is known locally as Maoling Mausoleum. Its shape is now somewhat obscured by a covering of young trees, yet the structure still makes for an impressive sight. Photo in hand, I quickly identified the burial mound before me as the same one depicted in the black and white photo from 1947. Making the steep climb to the summit, I surveyed my surroundings. Both near and far were smaller burial mounds of differing shapes and configurations. The view was impressive, but I was struck most of all by the fact that I had made it. I had finally arrived at this place I had spent over a year researching and examining in satellite photos. After all the talk of forbidden zones and inaccessible valleys, here it lay out in the open for anyone to admire.

Source: UnexplainedEarth

It isn't hard to explain... remnants of a former advanced civilization, spread throughout the world after a cataclysm, still remembered the basic techniques for making alcoholic drinks.

Chemical tests on ancient fragments of broken pottery show that Chinese villagers were brewing alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC. That beats the previous record for the oldest evidence of brewing, found in Iran and dated at about 5400 BC. Why brewing developed nearly simultaneously in east Asia and the middle east is something “we haven't resolved yet", McGovern told New Scientist. "The expanse of central Asia in between would seem to preclude any direct connection," he says, but more research may show links - or a common origin.td>

Source: New Scientist

A whale with a mysterious singing voice that matches no other has been spotted cruising the ocean alone every autumn and winter since 1992, singing at a frequency of 52 hertz. Other whales sing at between 15 and 20 hertz. The routes taken by the mammal also do not match migration patterns of other species. But US marine biologist Mary Anne Daher said the calls were clearly that of a baleen, the family that includes blue and humpback whales. She doubts the whale belongs to a new species, although no similar call has been anywhere else, New Scientist reported.

I thought this was interesting for the frequency/migration difference and whether it has anything to do with the magnetic field changes

A tomb filled with decapitated bodies suggests Mexico's 2000 year-old "Pyramid of the Moon" may have been the site of horrifically gory sacrifices, archaeologists said today. The tomb at Teotihuacan... also held the bound carcasses of eagles, dogs and other animals Of the 12 human bodies found, 10 were decapitated and then tossed, rather than arranged, on one side of the burial site. The two other bodies were richly ornamented with beads and a necklace made of imitation human jaws

As usual, the archaeologists are convinced that "it is most likely that the ceremony created a horrible scene of bloodshed"

Source: The Australian

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Next March or April the US Army will have some of these robots operating in Iraq:

It is a black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling on twin treads, with an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip. Basically it is the same Talon robot they currently use for bomb-disposal duties.

Four cameras and a pair of night-vision binoculars allow the robot to operate at all times of the day. It has a range of about a half-mile in urban areas, more in the open desert. And with the ability to carry four 66-mm rockets or six 40-mm grenades, as well as an M240 or M249 machine gun

Source: Wired

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It's an official announcement, so I would expect it to happen as planned:

The robot experiment inside Cheops Pyramid in Giza will be repeated next year but this time by a different institution, said Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawas. The University of Singapore is currently designing a robot to reach beyond the door which blocked the route of the robot used by the US National Geographic in September 2003, said Hawas in statements on Saturday. The new experiment will be conducted in October 2005, added the SCA head.

I can't see how they will get past the second door without breaking something. If they do start to break things, that's great news, for it will speed up discovery!

Source: Egyptian State Information Service

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If one goes off nearby (not expected by scientists, but they've only been observing them for a short while...) - this alert service might give you time to make it to a bunker!

World-wide, several detectors currently running or nearing completion are sensitive to a core collapse supernova neutrino signal in the Galaxy. The neutrino signal emerges promptly from a supernova's core, whereas it may take hours for the first photons to be visible. Therefore, the detection of the neutrino burst from the next Galactic supernova can provide an early warning for astronomers. Putting several detectors in coincidence can provide the astronomical community with a very high confidence early warning of the supernova's occurrence.

Sign up today!

Source: SNEWS

Evidence of who built ancient effigy mounds in southeastern Wisconsin could be unveiled soon.

This summer's discovery of "a substantial campsite" just a stone's throw from the park's animal-shaped and conical effigy mounds offers a rare opportunity to dig into the lives of builders of these ancient earthworks, said John Richards, an associate scientist in UW-Milwaukee's Anthropology Department.

Source: JS Online

Of course, as is always the case, the "evidence" is not provided in the news items. You can guarantee that in a few months the images will be not terribly convincing...

American researchers claim to have found convincing evidence that locates the site of the lost kingdom of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus. The team spent six days scanning the Mediterranean sea bed between Cyprus and Syria using sonar technology. They believe they found evidence of massive, manmade structures beneath the ocean floor, including two straight, 2-km (1.25 mile) long walls on a hill. Team leader Robert Sarmast ...intends to use the sonar data to make a three-dimensional computer image of the site, 1.5km below sea level, before returning for further research."

Source: BBC

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Wednesday 03 November 2004 A new scientific study says the Arctic ice cover will disappear in summer by the end of this century unless carbon dioxide emissions are significantly reduced. The study, to be released next week, says the Arctic ice melt will cause sea levels to rise and could lead to the extinction of some species such as polar bears. "The melt has begun," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the Climate Change Campaign for the environmental organisation WWF, which published excerpts of the upcoming Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report. Commissioned by the Arctic Council and compiled by more than 250 scientists, the report concludes that climate change is happening in the Arctic and that it will get worse unless emissions of carbon dioxide are cut. Grim predictions The report presents several potential scenarios which would occur if the Arctic ice were to disappear in summertime by the end of the 21st century. It said sea levels could rise by one metre, noting that there are currently 17 million people living less than one metre above sea level in Bangladesh. It said places such as Florida and Louisiana in the United States and the Asian cities of Bangkok, Calcutta, Dhaka and Manila were also at risk. However, on the positive side, rising sea levels could create a northern passage for shipping between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and would open up new areas for fishing, mining and oil and gas exploration. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which is expected to take hundreds of years, could ultimately lead to a seven-metre rise in sea levels, the report said. Threatened bears "Polar bears could become extinct by the end of this century. They are unlikely to survive if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea ice cover," the WWF said. Polar bears feed mainly on seals living under the ice, which the large mammals break to catch their prey. The ACIA report is to be published in its entirety on 8 November. The WWF welcomed the report, but stressed the hypocrisy of the eight members of the Arctic Council - the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway -which sponsored it, noting that they emit more than 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

States argue as Arctic thaw quickens Global warming is set to accelerate in the Arctic and bring drastic change for people and wildlife in coming decades. But the alarming findings of new study have divided countries in the region about how to slow down the thaw. "(The) Arctic climate is warming rapidly now and much larger changes are projected," according to the conclusions of the international study, compiled by 600 experts and due for release at a conference in Iceland in November. Rising temperatures will disrupt life for people, bringing more storms and destabilising everything from homes to oil pipelines. Melting glaciers could raise global sea levels and spoil habitats for creatures like polar bears, it says.

Greenhouse gases The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world partly because sea water and dark ground, once exposed, trap far more heat than ice and snow which reflect the sun's rays. The report's draft summary says the rise in temperatures is being stoked by human emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants. Arctic temperatures could surge by 4-7 Celsius or roughly double the rate predicted by UN studies for the planet as a whole by 2100, it says. But nations in the Arctic region - the United States, Russia, Canada and Nordic countries - are sharply divided about how to act on the scientists' conclusions, with Washington opposed to any major initiatives, diplomatic sources say. US reluctance Nordic countries see the study as alarming evidence that the world should act to cap emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. But US President George Bush is an opponent of caps and pulled out of the UN's stalled Kyoto protocol in 2001, the main global plan for limiting emissions. He said Kyoto would be too costly and wrongly excluded developing nations. Ministers from Arctic nations are to meet in Iceland in November, after the report is issued, to agree recommendations. Global effect Among conclusions, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) says the warming in the Arctic will "have worldwide implications". Run-off from melting glaciers and the Greenland icecap could raise global sea levels and disrupt ocean circulation, it says. And biodiversity elsewhere could be affected because some migratory species breed in the Arctic. The report also says "Arctic vegetation zones are projected to shift, bringing wide-ranging impacts" and that "animal species' diversity, ranges and distributions will change, some dramatically.”

And indigenous peoples would face major economic and cultural impacts, it says. Ultraviolet radiation - known to cause skin cancer and immune system disorders in humans - would also rise sharply.

According to Anthropologist John Moore from University of Florida, the ideal number for a "space colony" is 160.

The "magic number" of people needed to create a viable population for multi-generational space travel has been calculated by researchers. It is about the size of a small village - 160. But with some social engineering it might even be possible to halve this to 80. For a space trip of 200 years, perhaps eight to 10 generations, his calculations suggest a minimum number of 160 people are needed to maintain a stable population. This would produce around 10 potential marriage partners per person, he says, and if this seems a small number, "think about how many people you dated before you got married". "The decrease in genetic variation is actually quite small and less than found in some successful small populations on Earth," he says. "[Inbreeding] would not be a significant factor as long as the space travellers come home or interact with other humans at the end of the 200 year period."

Sounds to me like the ideal number of participants for a survival colony here on Earth. Either 160 people with 100% survival rate, or 320 people with a 60% survival rate, or.... I think we'll be lucky if any number of people prepare for 2012.

Sources: & Google Answers

(current author's comment) Was it Augustine that said "knowledge is the enemy of faith"...my point being that when information is controlled it allows a possibly mistaken belief to persist. In this case it would be that industrialization (as it is currently practiced) can be in harmony with ecology. Global warming evidence suggests that current practice must be modified radically. Costly to implement and cheaper to resist. (current author's comment)

NASA Scientist: Bush Stifles Global Warming Evidence By Chuck Schoffner Associated Press posted: 27 October 2004 12:53 pm ET

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Bush administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming in an effort to keep the public uninformed, a NASA scientist said Tuesday night.

"In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now," James E. Hansen told a University of Iowa audience.

Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and has twice briefed a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney on global warming.

Hansen said the administration wants to hear only scientific results that "fit predetermined, inflexible positions." Evidence that would raise concerns about the dangers of climate change is often dismissed as not being of sufficient interest to the public.

"This, I believe, is a recipe for environmental disaster."

Hansen said the scientific community generally agrees that temperatures on Earth are rising because of the greenhouse effect — emissions of carbon dioxide and other materials into the atmosphere that trap heat.

These rising temperatures, scientists believe, could cause sea levels to rise and trigger severe environmental consequences, he said.

Hansen said such warnings are consistently suppressed, while studies that cast doubt on such interpretations receive favorable treatment from the administration.

He also said reports that outline potential dangers of global warming are edited to make the problem appear less serious. "This process is in direct opposition to the most fundamental precepts of science," he said.

White House science adviser John H. Marburger III has denied charges that the administration refuses to accept the reality of climate change, noting that President Bush pointed out in a 2001 speech that greenhouse gases have increased substantially in the past 200 years.

Last December, the administration said it was planning a five-year program to research global warming and climate change.

Hansen said he was speaking as a private citizen, not as a government employee, and paid his own way for the Iowa appearance. He described himself as moderately conservative, but said he will vote for John Kerry in the presidential election.

"He certainly is not in denial of the existence of climate change problems," Hansen said.

An article at Astronomy Answers points out that there is nothing astronomically special about the Mayan calendar end-date - and I agree wholeheartedly. Not only are there no special or unusual alignments happening in our galaxy, even if there were, I doubt they could affect anything.

They state that following are all false:

The Sun is then in conjunction with the intersection of the ecliptic and the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years. The Sun is then in conjunction with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years. The vernal equinox then crosses the center line of the Milky Way for the first time in 26,000 years. These conjunctions happen at sunrise. The planets are then in remarkable positions. We cross the plane of the Milky Way to the other side then. The Mayas knew the precession of the equinoxes and knew that five times the period of 13 baktuns of the Long Count was equal to the period of the precession of the equinoxes. The Mayas designed their calendar just so that the Long Count would restart on 21 December 2012, because they knew that that would be a special day. The Mayas used amazingly accurate astronomical knowledge to make their calendar, and that is why even nowadays special things happen in the sky when the date in their calendar is round.

The only part of the article I disagree with is:

To predict the date of the southern solstice accurately 2367 years into the future, the Central-Americans of the 4th century BC must have had records of accurate observations of solstices and equinoxes, but there are no indications whatsoever for this. I therefore think that the fact that the beginning of a new period in the Long Count in 2012 falls on the day of a solstice is a coincidence.

In my opinion, it is the year 2012 that is important, but they deliberately used the Winter Solstice date - the most grim day of the year - to let us know that something bad will occur.

Source: Astronomy Answers

The actual title of the news item is: Exploding star 'helped humans evolve'

...although the angle of the scientists is that cosmic rays heated the Earth (as they would have done), which in turn helped humans evolve. My take is that the cosmic rays had a more direct role, that of mutating humans.

Stardust found deep beneath the Pacific Ocean has led to a theory that a supernova explosion three million years ago may have helped cause human evolution. Debris from an exploding supernova, which could have changed the climate on Earth when man's ancestors first began to walk, has been discovered by a Munich scientific team. Gunther Korschinek and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich reported in Physical Review Letters that depending on how far away the supernova was, it might have caused an increase in cosmic rays for about 300,000 years that, in turn, could have heated up the Earth. The timing of the star explosion coincides with a change in the climate in Africa, when drier conditions caused forests to retreat and the savannah to emerge. Anthropologists believe this change brought early hominids out of the trees. "The African climate shifted towards more arid conditions about 2.8 million years ago," Dr Korschinek and team wrote. "Some of the major events in early hominid evolution appear to be coeval (of the period) with the African climate changes."

Source: Melbourne Herald Sun

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Humans once came in many flavours, and further evidence has been found on Flores Island. This is the same island where pygmy elephants recently lived, and Komodo dragons still do.

Perhaps it was a zoo of some sort?

The remains of a tiny and hitherto unknown species of human that lived as recently as 13,000 years ago have been discovered... The skull and bones of one adult female, and fragments from up to six other specimens, were found in the Liang Bua limestone caves on Flores Island, which lies at the eastern tip of Java. The female skeleton, known as LB1 - or by the nickname "Ebu" - has been assigned to a new species within the genus Homo - Homo floresiensis. Examination of the remains shows members of the species stood just 1 metre tall and had a brain no bigger than a grapefruit. A handful of stone tools from the same period were also found in the caves, along with the bones and teeth of several dwarf stegodons, an ancestor of the modern elephant. Other animal remains, including rats, bats and fish, show signs that they were cooked around the time H. floresiensis inhabited in the caves. ...What caused the demise of H. floresiensis is unknown. It is possible that they were out-competed for food and other resources by H. sapiens or that they were wiped out by a volcanic eruption about 12,000 years ago.

Or perhaps the global cataclysm of approx 10,000 BC was the thing that wiped them out? Dr Tim Flannery, in an interview with Australia's ABC says:

TIM FLANNERY: I'm rather sceptical about the volcanic eruption causing the extinctions as well, and wonder what it could have been.

Source: New Scientist

The Sixth World by Margaret Evans

"The Sixth World" (thesixthworld.com) is a fictional page-turner based on popular beliefs of two California archaeologists who have discovered Maya readying for the new age when they will again rule the world.

It's all expected to happen on Dec. 22, 2012 based on actual Mayan predictions of the new age involving the Earth’s ongoing reverse magnetic energy, sunspots and solar flares. These estimates are backed by many popular websites like 2near.com, 12-12-12.org and timewavezero.com.

"The one thing I continually learn is the more we find out about this culture, the deeper the mysteries seem to grow," Evans said. "While I’m not sure what will happen on December 22, 2012, I think we will all be in for a surprise of some kind.

"The previous five Aztec/Mayan ages were marked with worldwide/cosmic events jibing pretty closely with our own scientific/historic theories, such as asteroids hitting the earth and killing off the dinosaurs. I guess I just can’t get past the Maya being such an intelligent, talented people who could predict planetary and astral movements without the aid of telescopes and machines. What they knew was phenomenal. How they knew it is unknown. That’s my fascination."

Source: Survive 2012: Fiction Books

Yet another prediction by Einstein's general theory of relativity seems to be holding true: a rotating body, such as Earth, should slightly twist the space in which it is embedded. Two physicists who have been tracking satellites orbiting Earth claim to have made the first reliable measurement of this effect.

Source: Sky & Telescope

A robot fighting contest that draws huge crowds in Japan each year has highlighted sophisticated technological trends in robotics, experts say. The 2004 Robo-One contest, held in Kawasaki, central Japan on 8 August, drew hundreds of spectators. The event is inspired by the sport K-1, a combination of kick-boxing other martial arts that is popular in Japan. But the contestants are remote controlled robots constructed and operated by robotics enthusiasts and experts. Robots battle it out one-on-one for the title of overall Robot-One champion. In each bout a winner is declared if a robot is unable to stand within ten seconds of falling over, or if one freezes up or falls from the fighting platform. The competition also includes a frenetic multi-robot brawl known simply as "The Rumble". Eight robots scrap it out with the last one standing declared the winner.

Follow the link below if you want to see video footage of the robot fighting!

Source: New Scientist

A team of international archaeologists have set sail from Mexico to seek a sunken city that has been dubbed the "Mayan Atlantis", press reports said on Monday. Quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenio, team leader Paulina Zelintzky, a Russian archaeologist, said sonar equipment had given indications there could be ancient structures on the ocean floor between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba. According to Milenio, resonances showed geometric images similar to pyramids and round structures. The archaeologists will search the area using a mini-submarine known as "Deep Worker". Signs there could be Mayan remains on the seabed first surfaced in 2000 when the area next to Cuba's westernmost tip was being explored for petroleum. Before beginning their project, the archaeologists had to raise $2-million (about R13-million). They set sail from the port of Progreso in eastern Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. -

Source: IOL

SACRED COSMOLOGY: Precolumbian Mesoamerican Symbolism "The study of Indian traditional symbols contributed to [the author's] understanding of universal symbols, and the knowledge of these universal symbols enabled him to comprehend certain elements of the thought and cosmogony of the Precolumbians" www.geocities.com

MAYA CIVILIZATION AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST: Skepticism and rebellion - doubting God's word "Ambivalent Maya attitudes towards the spiritual world, expressed in their art, science and literature, incited anti-colonial rebellion." www.ccwu.edu