Having worked for 25 years at fragile archaeological sites in Peru, UCLA archaeologist Charles ‘Chip’ Stanish held his breath when the online auction house eBay launched more than a decade ago. ‘My greatest fear was that the Internet would democratize antiquities trafficking, which previously had been a wealthy person’s vice, and lead to widespread looting,’ said the UCLA professor of anthropology, who directs the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Indeed, eBay has drastically altered the transporting and selling of illegal artifacts, Stanish writes in an article in the May/June issue of Archaeology, but not in the way he and other archaeologists had feared. By improving access to a worldwide market, eBay has inadvertently created a vast market for copies of antiquities, diverting whole villages from looting to producing fake artifacts, Stanish writes. The proliferation of these copies also has added new risks to buying objects billed as artifacts, which in turn has worked to depress the market for these items, further reducing incentives to loot. ‘For most of us, the Web has forever distorted the antiquities trafficking market in a positive way,’ Stanish said. Looting, which is illegal, is widely recognized as destructive to cultural […]
Sharks, barracuda and other large predatory fishes disappear on Caribbean coral reefs as human populations rise, endangering the region’s marine food web and ultimately its reefs and fisheries, according to a sweeping study by researcher Chris Stallings of The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory. While other scientists working in the Caribbean have observed the declines of large predators for decades, the comprehensive work by Stallings documents the ominous patterns in far more detail at a much greater geographic scale than any other research to date. His article on the study, ‘Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities,’ is published in the May 6, 2009 issue of the journal PLoS One (www.plosone.org/). ‘Seeing evidence of this ecological and economic travesty played out across the entire Caribbean is truly sobering,’ said Associate Professor John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who served as the PLoS One academic editor for Stallings’ paper. ‘I examined 20 species of predators, including sharks, groupers, snappers, jacks, trumpetfish and barracuda, from 22 Caribbean nations, said Stallings, a postdoctoral associate at the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory. ‘I found that nations with […]
With the new movie ‘Star Trek’ opening in theaters across the nation, one thing movie goers will undoubtedly see is the Starship Enterprise racing across the galaxy at the speed of light. But can traveling at warp speed ever become a reality? Two Baylor University physicists believe they have an idea that can turn traveling at the speed of light from science fiction to science, and their idea does not break any laws of physics. Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at Baylor, and Dr. Richard Obousy, a Baylor post-doctoral student, theorize that by manipulating the space-time dimensions around the spaceship with a massive amount of energy, it would create a ‘bubble’ that could push the ship faster than the speed of light. To create this bubble, the Baylor physicists believe manipulating the 11-dimension would create dark energy. Cleaver said positive dark energy is responsible for speeding up the universe as time moves on, just like it did after the Big Bang, when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light. ‘Think of it like a surfer riding a wave,’ said Cleaver, who co-authored the paper with Obousy about the new method. ‘The ship would […]
A new faith-based advocacy group founded by Hillary Clinton’s former religious outreach director is airing a radio spot that takes a distinctly Christian perspective in pressuring Congress to pass a climate change bill. Listen to the ad here. Sponsored by the American Values Network, the ad is airing in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, and Ohio. The group is also promoting legislation to combat climate change through 5.3 million E-mails to evangelicals and Roman Catholics in some of those states. And it’s pressuring members of Congress with a new poll that suggests most Catholics and evangelicals support attempts to combat global warming . (That jars somewhat with another recent Pew poll that found skepticism among evangelicals and Catholics about human-created climate change). American Values Network is doing the kind of faith-based organizing that was once the exclusive province of the religious right. Here’s the script for the ad, read by centrist evangelical minister Joel Hunter: This is Rev. Joel Hunter. As our seas rise, crops wither, and rivers run dry, God’s creation cries out for relief. The failure to answer the calling to be […]
WASHINGTON — Leading health industry groups, including hospitals, drugmakers, insurers and doctors, have agreed in a letter to President Barack Obama on ways to slow the explosive growth of health-care spending, according to administration officials and others knowledgeable about the agreement. The letter, which the president is to tout at the White House on Monday, embraces savings strategies being pushed by policymakers, such as simplifying billing, restructuring the way hospitals are paid and improving information technology. Their plan lacks detail about how the estimated $2 trillion in savings over the next decade would be realized. Nor does it outline any commitments by the industries to accept specific reductions in their revenues. Still, the agreement shepherded by the Service Employees International Union signals continued engagement by powerful health-care interests in the Obama administration’s push to overhaul the nation’s system. Several industry groups — including insurers, whose lobbying group signed the letter — have played central roles in defeating prior efforts to reshape the system, including the 1990s Clinton administration push. In addition to the SEIU, signatories include the American Medical Association; the American Hospital Association; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; the Advanced Medical Technology […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
