From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Tue May 2 02:49:50 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Tue May 2 02:50:57 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] (no subject) Message-ID: Testing the newsletter list From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon May 8 14:05:11 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Mon May 8 14:35:37 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] Museum Newsletters 1998 - 2005 Message-ID: Newsletters from 1998-2005 can be found at http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/index.htm From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon May 8 15:52:20 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Mon May 8 19:46:11 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *New Carnivore Found - Researchers from the World Wildlife Fund are setting traps on the island of Borneo hoping to capture a mysterious new species of carnivore that so far has only been seen in photographs. The animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, is thought to live in the densely forested mountains of that Indonesian island. The unknown mammal appears to be slightly larger than a cat with red fur and a long tail. It has been photographed twice by an automatic camera. If researchers can establish that it is a new species, it will be the first time in a over a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on that island. *Japanese Monkeys may have Accent - Human beings aren't the only species that have accents according to a study released in the German scientific journal Etholog. Researchers found that two groups of Japanese Yakushima macaque monkeys, the first located on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, and the other group relocated to Mount Ohira in 1956, had developed slightly different calls. The island group's calls had a tone about 110 hertz higher on average than the group in central Japan. Scientists believe that this is due to the higher trees on the island which block lower tones. This causes the scientists to speculate that the differences in voice tones are not just caused by genes, and may lead to a clues to the origin of human language. *Voyager Saved from Budget Cut - NASA has decided to continue funding the monitoring of the Voyager spacecraft. The program had been one of those slated to be terminated to help NASA with budget problems. The Voyager 1 & 2 probes were launched from Earth almost 30 years ago and Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to reach the heliosheath which is the final layer between our solar system and interstellar space. "It will be our first sample of material that is non-solar system in origin," said Tom Krimigis, a Voyager investigator with Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. It costs NASA between $4 million and $5 million a year to operate the spacecraft and fund the science teams. *Date of Moon Birth Established - Scientists using new techniques to study the rocks brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts, say that they show the surface of the moon became solid more than 4.5 billion years ago. If this is accurate it would put the formation of the moon at about the same time as the solidification of the Earth's crust. This would booster the theory that the moon was created as the result of a collision of a Mars-sized body with early Earth in which a part of the Earth's crust was flung into orbit and later coalesced into the moon. *Mass Extinction Theory - An article in the December issue of journal Geology suggests that the mass extinction of life at the end of the Permian era, 250 million years ago, was caused by a massive volcanic eruption in what is now Siberia. The eruption released gas that depleted earth's protective ozone layer, made the land and sea more acidic, and killed all the land plants. The death of the land plants led to massive soil erosion which clouded the sea and disrupted the ecosystem there. If the theory is right this led to the worst mass extinction in the Earth's history. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Watch Out! Quicksand! - Being sucked into quicksand is a staple of many 'B' movies, but is this phenomenon of nature really as dangerous as it is portrayed? > http://www.unmuseum.org/quicksand.htm *Chapter Four of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World - Follow the expedition members in our graphic novel version as they try to avoid being eaten by hungry dinosaurs while finding a way to get home. > http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/index.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Suspended Animation - Is it possible to deep-freeze your body (brain, heart, etc. ) and restore your body in a later time? For example a person freezes and wakes up 1,000 years later - Rowell The idea of cryogenically preserving by a person and thawing them out later - sort of like a frozen dinner - has long been a staple of science fiction, but so far scientists have not figured out how to make it work. The reason is ice. Most of the human body is water and water expands when it freezes. This is the reason the pipes in your house will crack open if they are filled with water and your heater fails in freezing temperatures. The expansion of the water in a human body systems wrecks the delicate structure of cell tissue throughout the body. Scientists have tried to counteract this by mixing substances like glycerol in with body fluids to act as sort of a biological antifreeze, but the results have not yet been fully successful. If such a system could be developed it could, in theory, be used to freeze a human indefinitely. Another, perhaps more promising approach, to the problem is not to literally "freeze" a person, but to put them into hibernation. Many animals, including bears, hibernate by lowering their body temperature and metabolism. Just recently scientists have demonstrated the ability to put mice into a state of "suspended animation" by having them breath air laced with hydrogen sulfide. While high concentrations of this gas would be fatal, just the right amount seems to put the mice to sleep and their metabolic rates dropped by 90%. They were revived by simply returning the air they were breathing to normal. As metabolism is not stopped with this method, but just slowed, it could not be used to preserve humans indefinitely. There would be many uses for such a state of suspended animation. Currently trips to other planets in our solar system, or beyond, could take many months or years and the trip would be made much simpler - less food, drink and psychological stress - if the astronauts slept most of the way. The technique could also be used to preserve organs for transplantation or have critical patients hibernate through operations or recovery. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Strange Encounter on the Slopes - It was in the afternoon on January 7, 1970 that two skiers in Finland reported they encountered a strange red fog. As they approached it they noticed that the fog seemed to be created by a domed, hovering disc at the center of the cloud. Standing under this object appeared to be a three-foot high man with pale skin and no eyes. The fog suddenly thickened and when it dissipated the disc and the creature were gone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Meteor Shower - The Quadrantid Meteors are hard to see, but fascinating if you can catch them. The meteor shower is short and you will have to be looking near the bright star Arcturus in the constellation of Bootes right before sunrise on the 3rd of November (North America) to see them. Most are very faint and have a distinctly blue color. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Roswell Incident Figure Dies - Former Army lieutenant Walter Haut, who was responsible for putting out the news release that started the rumors of a crashed flying saucer near the tiny town of Roswell, NM, died last month at the age of 83. It was his actions as a spokesman for the Roswell Army Air Field that set off a controversy about what happened there that still continues today. Haut released a story that was carried in the local newspaper under the title of "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region." Later that same day the Army retracted the story saying what they found was only the wreckage of a weather balloon. The incident converted Haut into a believer, however, and he went on to found the International UFO Museum in Roswell in 1991. Due in part to his influence the even town boasts an annual UFO Festival -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - The Mummy Who Would Be King - Could a mummy exhibited for 140 years at an obscure museum in Niagara Falls be the remains of a long-lost Egyptian pharaoh? On the PBS: January 3 at 8 pm ET/PT *Fireballs From Space - Asteroids and comets roar across the solar system threatening to smash into distant planets and occasionally the Earth. Probes like Deep Impact are watching these dangerous space rocks. Some probes are attempting to land on these alien terrains. On the Science Channel: JAN 15 @ 10:00 PM; JAN 16 @ 01:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 05:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 11:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 03:00 PM; JAN 22 @ 09:00 AM ET/PT *Einstein's Beautiful Equation - Scientific genius can change the world, but at what price? Albert Einstein's theory E=mc2 ultimately led to creation of a weapon of mass destruction. He considered the atomic bomb his biggest blunder and spent years promoting disarmament and peace. On the Science Channel: JAN 08 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 09 @ 12:00 AM JAN 09 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 09 @ 10:00 AM; JAN 09 @ 02:00 PM; JAN 14 @ 09:00 AM ET/PT *Valley of the T-Rex - In the arid badlands of Montana, paleontologist Jack Horner found five T-Rex dinosaurs in a single summer, exposing clues to a lost world. Unearthed is a 90 percent complete, never before seen, juvenile tyrannosaur, called Daspletasaurus. On The Science Channel: JAN 09 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 10 @ 12:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 10:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 02:00 PM; JAN 14 @ 05:00 PM ET/PT. *Killer Waves - Recent disappearances of huge cargo vessels at sea have breathed new life into an old mariner's tale of single, massive waves capable of sinking a ship in one hit. Investigate evidence that suggests these towering waves really are out there. On The Science Channel: JAN 26 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 27 @ 12:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 10:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 02:00 PM; JAN 28 @ 02:00 PM; ET/PT. *Killer Ants - Over 8,000 species of ants cover the planet. Most are harmless, but some have a violent streak. African driver ants have eaten a horse in a day and suffocated a human, and the army ants of South and Central America can wipe out entire ecosystems. On The Discovery Channel: JAN 19 @ 10:00 PM; JAN 20 @ 02:00 AM ET/PT. *Egypt Untold: Secrets of the Rosetta Stone - Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 ignited the rediscovery of an ancient civilization shrouded in mystery. Europe was astounded by what they found. Jean-François Champollion deciphered the inscriptions which held the secrets of ancient Egypt. On The Discovery Channel: JAN 13 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 14 @ 01:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 12:00 PM ET/PT. *Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery - In one of magic history's rarest events, a private collector auctioned off the largest collection of personally-owned Harry Houdini artifacts and memorabilia, providing an unprecedented peek behind the curtain at the world's great showman and magician. In a 2-hour special, hosted by renowned magician Lance Burton, we explore the life and magic of the great escape artist through his most prized possessions: the Chinese Water Torture Cell, the Milkcan, his straitjackets and handcuffs, and lockpicks that were "key" to his handcuff escapes, revealed to the public for the first time. We also unlock secrets of the man--brash showman, fierce competitor, loyal son and husband. With expert commentary, including a great-nephew and the last surviving member of his magic troop. On History Channel: January 2 @ 8pm ET/PT. *Giganto: The Real King Kong - An exploration of the Giganto (King Kong) legend using modern science, technology, and historic eyewitness accounts. Gigantopithecus (the Latin term for "Giant Ape") is believed to have existed 9 to 5-million years ago and supposedly was around 10-feet tall. Some fossil evidence shows that it may have lived in China or India. Scientists of varying fields will attempt to genetically connect Giganto to modern-day creatures from around the world. Could Bigfoot be a relative? Forensic testing, extensive scientific research, 3-D animation, and body reconstruction will help determine the true mystery behind this prehistoric ape. On History Channel: January 8 @ 6pm, ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon May 8 19:45:02 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Mon May 8 19:46:11 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for February 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for February 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Chinese Map at Center of Debate - Controversy swirls around a map that is allegedly an 18th century copy of another map almost 600 years old showing that the Chinese beat Columbus to discovering America by 74 years. The map, which shows the North and South American coasts in detail, was bought in 2001 by Chinese lawyer and art collector Liu Gang. He says it is evidence supporting that Chinese explorer Zheng He's seventh voyage in 1418 took him to the west coast of the new world. Gang says he realized the maps significance after reading Gavin Menzies' bestseller "1421: the Year China Discovered America." Critics of the map believe it may be a fake and highlight a number of inconsistencies with it including language that does not fit the style of Ming China. Historical records do show that from 1405 to 1433, Zheng, during the Ming period, led China's imperial Star Fleet on seven epic voyages that took him as far as the east coast of Africa. *Stardust Returned Safely - Last month a mission some seven years in the making was successfully completed when a capsule containing particles from a comet safely landed in the Utah desert. The "Stardust" spacecraft, which was launched in 1999, used a tennis racket-sized collector to catch the dust particles from a comet known as Wild 2. While the mother ship remains in space, the capsule carried the collector back to Earth where it was opened by NASA scientists. Samples are to be shipped to laboratories all over the world for analysis. Researchers hope that the samples will yield clues to how the solar system formed as they are thought to be leftovers from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. The return of the capsule safely was an important success for NASA whose Genesis space probe, on a similar mission, carrying back solar wind samples, crashed when its parachutes failed to deploy back in 2004. *Pluto's Moon an Icy Rock - Scientists using the European Southern Observatory have taken a close look at the Pluto's moon, Charon, and determined it is basically an icy rock with no atmosphere. Researchers achieved this observation by watching Charon as it passed in front of a star in July of 2005. Using this method they were also able to determine the density of the moon which is about 1.71 of that of water. The density is similar to that of Pluto's, which lends weight to theories that the planet was hit by another object, which caused a section of it to break off and eventually be trapped as a satellite. The occultation also allowed an accurate measurement of Charon's size which is between 753.75 and 757.5 miles in diameter *Eary Air Raids - Researchers think they have solved the mystery of a death that took place some 2 million years ago in Southern Africa. In 1924 the skull of possible human ancestor known as the Taung child was found. The child, part of species designated australopethicus africanus, was originally though to have been killed by leopard or saber-toothed cat. Lee Berger, a paleo-anthropologist at Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand and fellow researcher Ron Clarke have advanced the theory that the child was killed by a large predatory bird. An examination of the skull shows there are ragged cuts in the shallow bones behind the eye sockets. A survey of thousands of monkey remains kill by bird attacks showed a pattern of damage consistent with those found on the australopethicus africanus skull. The bird would swoop down, pierce monkey skulls with their thumb-like back talons, then hover until the animal died. This leads researchers to think that human ancestors did just have to worry about attacks from land animals, but from the skies too. *Ball Robots May Explore Mars - Two scientists are working on robots the shape and size of tennis balls that may someday explore Mars. Penelope Boston, associate professor at New Mexico Tech, and professor Steven Dubowsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are designing the devices so that they are relatively cheap and redundant. That way hundreds could be deployed for the same weight of a single rover and they could be used to explore areas, such as caves, that would be too difficult or dangerous for a traditional rover to go. If a few of the many robots were damaged in exploration they would be replaced by one of the many others that had been deployed. Each robot would have a set of sensing capabilities that might include testing air quality, temperature, humidity, or the ability to look for chemical or biological signatures. The devices would move by "hopping" about the surface. The scientists think that the robots could be deployed on mission to the moon or Mars within the next one or two decades. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone - Part I: - A little more than a century ago the history and culture of Ancient Egypt was a closed book. Nobody could understand the strange pictorial script that these people had left behind all over their fantastic monuments. What would finally provide the key to understanding this language and who figure out how to use it? (http://www.unmuseum.org/rosetta1.htm) *Chapter Five of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" - Follow the expedition members in our graphic novel version as they try to avoid being eaten by hungry dinosaurs while finding a way to get home. (http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/index.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *High Speed Hijinks - I have several questions concerning the speed of light and the speed of sound that my dad and I were discussing: 1: If you're in a car at night traveling the speed of light and you turn the headlights on will the headlights shine out in front of the car or will they just glow? 2: Let's say me and another guy are in an airplane traveling the speed of sound...one man in front of plane the other in back....the man in the back says hello. Will the man in the front hear him? Or say that both men stick their heads out the airplane (let's say it doesn't snap their heads off)....will the man in the front hear the man in the back if he says hello? Thanks - Shannon An interesting set of questions! Let's talk about them in reverse order. First, the men with their heads leaning out the window of the plane going faster than the speed of sound: Sound waves are vibrations that move through a medium. The medium can be almost anything, but it has to exist (sound does not travel through a vacuum like you would find in outer space). Different mediums have different speeds that sound will travel through them. For air at sea level this speed is roughly 12 miles a minute. That's why if you see a flash of lightning (The speed of light is so high we can say that the flash of the light reached you almost instantaneously) and then count three seconds - a twelfth of a minute - till the thunder arrives, you know that the strike occurred about a mile away. If you made a sound while traveling through a medium faster than the speed of sound for that medium, it will only be heard behind you. A real life example is an airplane traveling faster than the speed of sound. You cannot hear it approach because it is traveling faster than the sound waves it is making. Because it is moving faster than sound, the waves tend to "pile up" on the plane and come off as a powerful shock wave streaming behind the plane. This shock wave is what we call a "sonic boom." For this reason a man sticking his head outside the back of a plane would not be heard by a man with his head out the front of the plane. They are moving too fast for the sound waves to overtake the front of the plane. For the two men inside the plane conditions are completely different. In this case, the plane is filled with a medium - air - that is traveling the same velocity as the plane. Since the air is not moving relative to the plane or the men, it's exactly the same as if the plane was parked on the ground. The sound moves from one man to the other (it doesn't matter front to back or back to front) at the speed of sound. The final one we will tackle is the headlights at the speed of light. Technically we can't get a car, spaceship or any object with mass going at the speed of light. It simply requires more energy than there is available in the universe. However, we can talk about a headlight as it approaches the speed of light and such a situation should shed light your question. Light is unlike sound it that it needs no medium to travel though. That's why we can see stars through the vacuum of space (Before Einstein(http://www.unmuseum.org/einstein.htm) came out with his Special Theory scientists did speculated that there was a medium needed for light which they called "ether"). Light is special in that it travels through vacuum at a particular speed (about 186,000 miles per second) that that speed does not change no matter how fast the source of the light it traveling. Since there is no medium, the speed of the medium is irrelevant. If a stationary observer were to watch a car speeding by at near 90 percent of the speed of light, they would see the light traveling away from the front of the head lights at just 10 percent faster. The weird part is what the driver of the car would see. From his point of view the light would appear to be speeding away from him at the full speed of light (186,000 mps). How is this possible? Time slows down as you pick up speed. Time would have slowed enough for the driver that when he measures the light speeding away from him it seems to go ten times farther than for the stationary observer, because the clock the driver is using to measure time is going only one tenth as fast. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *The Mermaids of Papua New Guinea - For years people had claimed that mermaids lived off the coast of Papua New Guinea. These merfolk were said to look like people down to their hips and below have a tail ending in a horizontal fin. In February of 1985 an expedition to the area solved the mystery. Underwater photographs of a "mermaid" showed a creature called a dugong. Dugong's are the smallest members of the order Sirenia and relatives of the manatee. These aquatic mammals grow to no more than nine feet in length. Although such creatures don't look much like merfolk when seen by underwater cameras, water and and atmospheric conditions may have altered the creatures appearances from the surface at times making the look more human. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Orion Guides - Feburary is an excellent time of year to let the constellation Orion, the Hunter, guide you to some night time stars. Orion is easilly recongnized by the three bright stars that form his belt. If you follow a line created by the belt to the SE you will run into Sirius, the brightest nighttime star. Follow the belt in the opposite direction and you will get to Aldebaran, eye of Taurus the Bull. Betelgeuse is the star that makes up Orion's shoulder and Rigel is the brighter of his feet. Observed: *Authorities Looking for Malaysian "Bigfoot" - Wildlife authorities in Malaysia are looking for a "Bigfoot" type creature in their southern jungles. The excitement started back in December when some fish farm workers claimed to have spotted three of the ape-like beasts on the edge of a forest in southern Johor state. Shortly after that a member of the indigenous tribe Orang Asli also claimed that he had seen one of the almost mythical ape-men. He described the creature as being hairy and brownish in color and about 12 feet in height. The authorities are taking the claims seriously enough to think about setting up camera traps to capture images of anything roaming the jungles. There has also been a telephone hotline created so members of the public can report encounters they may have had with the animals. Reports of such beasts in Malaysia jungles go back for several decades -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - The Perfect Corpse - Forensic investigators tease secrets from the well-preserved bodies of people buried long ago in peat bogs. On the PBS: February 7 at 8 pm ET/PT *Disappearance of the PX-15 - In 1969, as astronauts walked on the moon, a second mission, the PX-15 Ben Franklin, launched six aquanauts on an historic 30-day drift dive of the gulf stream. Eclipsed by the moonwalk, the story of the earthbound mission is told for the first time. On the Science Channel: FEB 23 @ 09:00 PM; FEB 24 @ 12:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 04:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 10:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 02:00 PM; FEB 25 @ 02:00 PM; ET/PT *Wild and Weird Rockets - The largest amateur rocket competition blasts off in Kansas -- with a chance to break world records and put some of the most unusual rockets into the atmosphere. Can the Aurora hit Mach 2? And can an outhouse really fly? On the Science Channel: FEB 22; @ 10:00 PM FEB 23 @ 01:00 AM; FEB 23 @ 05:00 AM; FEB 23 @ 11:00 AM; FEB 23 @ 03:00 PM; FEB 26 @ 03:00 PM; ET/PT *Mastodon In Your Backyard - The Ultimate Guide - Learn how the mastodon evolved, migrated out of Africa, and survived in the North American forests for roughly 3.7 million years and dozens of climate changes. Explore the controversy among theories explaining how and why this species disappeared. On The Science Channel: FEB 13 @ 08:00 PM FEB 13 @ 11:00 PM; FEB 14 @ 03:00 AM; FEB 14 @ 09:00 AM; FEB 14 @ 01:00 PM; FEB 18 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Parallel Universe - The strange notion of parallel universes is gaining strength in the scientific community and may solve our most basic questions about the universe, including the origins of the Big Bang itself. On The Science Channel: FEB 07 @ 10:00 PM; FEB 08 @ 01:00 AM; FEB 08 @ 05:00 AM; FEB 08 @ 11:00 AM; FEB 08 @ 03:00 PM; FEB 12 @ 06:00 PM ET/PT. *The Real Da Vinci Code - 'The Da Vinci Code' has been a phenomenal success with millions of readers hooked, but what do historians think of the book? Discover the facts about the Holy Grail and cut through the thicket of mystery that surrounds the subject. On The Discovery Channel: FEB 05 @ 08:00 PM; FEB 05 @ 11:00 PM; FEB 06 @ 04:00 AM; FEB 06 @ 07:00 AM; FEB 06 @ 12:00 PM; FEB 06 @ 03:00 PM ET/PT. *Traveling Sideshow: Shocked and Amazed - From turn of the century dime museums to present day circuses and carnival midways, the sideshow has provided a bounty of remarkable sights and tales. Hear the stories of sideshow performers, including fire eaters and sword swallowers. On The Discovery Channel: JAN 26 @ 07:00 PM; JAN 27 @ 03:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 11:00 AM; FEB 23 @ 10:00 PM; FEB 24 @ 01:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 06:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 09:00 AM; FEB 24 @ 02:00 PM; FEB 24 @ 05:00 PM ET/PT. *Deep Sea UFOs - Join us for a detailed examination of the little-known phenomenon of USOs, or "Unidentified Submerged Objects", an advanced type of UFO that can operate just as efficiently in water as in the atmosphere. These supposed otherworldly vessels have been reported, some believe, as far back as ancient Egypt. Others believe that USOs were reported by Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus, and might even involve the lost city of Atlantis. Highlights include the 1967 "Shag Harbour Incident", a government-documented USO crash off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, and a trip to the area around Laguna Cartegena in Puerto Rico, a reported hotbed of USO activity. On History Channel: February 3 @ 6pm ET/PT. *Digging for the Truth: America's Pyramids. - In 1539, Hernando de Soto's Conquistadors landed in Florida in search of new lands and treasure for the Spanish Crown. Three years later, they were run off the continent by Native American warriors that lived on enormous, earthen pyramids along the Mississippi River. Who were these people? And how did they defeat one of the world's most powerful armies? Follow Josh Bernstein as he paddles down the bayous; builds his own earthen pyramid with modern equipment; and scuba-dives the cold, dark waters of Wisconsin to solve the mystery of America's pyramid builders On History Channel: February 5 @ 7pm, ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Tue May 9 17:06:12 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Tue May 9 17:10:01 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *New Prehistoric Reptile Found in Basement - Two scientists examining holdings in basement of a museum have discovered a new species of prehistoric reptile. The researchers found the remains of a toothless, two-legged ancestor of the crocodiles that walked upright, in storage at American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The animal had been dug up in 1947 or 1948 and was thought to have been a specimen of Coelophysis, a small, carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 210 million years ago. A new examination by museum curator Mark Norell and graduate student Sterling Nesbitt showed that the creature was instead a type of reptile called an archosaur. They have named this particular species Effigia okeeffeae. Okeeffeae lived at the same time as Coelophysis, but was not a dinosaur. The animal is interesting, according to the scientists, because it closely resembles a completely unrelated dinosaur called an ostrich dinosaur that lived 80 million years later. *King Tut Killed By Infection - A new study suggests that perhaps King Tutankhamun, the mysterious pharaoh whose remains were unearthed in 1922, died of an infection to the knee. A CT scan of the mummy has revealed that King Tut's kneecap was broken, as well as his left foot, and embalming fluid had entered the spaces within the knee indicating the pharaoh was mummified when the wounds were still open. Also tiny bits of gold leaf found in the wound apparently were driven in there when armor around the knee area was struck by something, perhaps a sword. Experts think that, soon after, an infection set in, killing the "boy king" at the age of around 19. Scientists have long speculated that King Tut was murdered based on X-rays of the mummy taken in 1968 showing a fragment of bone inside the skull. The most recent examination, though, suggests that this damage was caused by the process of mummification. *NASA Considers a "Gravitational Tractor" - NASA astronauts Edward Lu and Stanley Love have come up with a novel way to change the course of an asteroid if one threatens earth with a catastrophic collision. The plan calls for a special spaceship called a "gravitational tractor" that would hover near the asteroid for an extended length of time. Just the small gravitational force exerted on the asteroid by the spaceship's presence should be enough to pull it into a slightly different orbit, avoiding a collision with Earth. To deflect a 700-foot asteroid a 20-ton nuclear-powered spacecraft shaped like a pendulum would be needed. "It's like changing the angle of a bank shot in pool," Love says. "A little change early on has a large effect down the line." Their plan avoids problems associated with deflecting asteroids using nuclear missiles or robotic impactors that might split the object into several pieces that could still strike Earth. *Historic Papyrus Recovered from Mummy - Scientists have recovered part of a lost ancient Greek document on map making and a sketchbook for ancient artists from a first- century B.C. mummy's wrappings. The papyrus was found in fragments in a shell-like coffin of paper and glue used for mummies. Before being turned into mummy wrap, the paper was first used around the mid-first century B.C., in Alexandria, Egypt, when a copyist transcribed a book by Greek geographer Artemidorus. When the copyist made an error the papyrus was ruined and later blank spaces were used as a catalog of drawings for mosaics and frescos. The papyrus was eventually sold as pulp paper, and was buried with the mummy for some 1,800 years. According to Claudio Gallazzi, a professor of Papirology at the University of Milan, the document "helps write new pages of Greek literature, cartography and art history. One might wonder how a single papyrus can conceal such a big treasure. Well, it was used at different times, for different purposes, and by different people." *"Lost World" Found - An international expedition to the Foja Mountains western part of the island of New Guinea has found a virtual "lost world" of new animal species, giant flowers, and rare mammals. Experts discovered species that had never been seen before, including frogs, butterflies, plants and the first new bird discovered on the island in more than 60 years. A spokesman for the expedition said," It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth." The finds have led scientists to conclude that more than 750,000 acres of old-growth tropical forest in the Foja Mountains remain virtually untouched by man. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone - Part II: - Jacques-Joseph Champollion was working in his office at the Institute of France on September 14 of 1822 and worrying about his little brother. The younger Champollion, Jean-Francios, had been working night and day on his obsession: deciphering the strange little drawings, known as hieroglyphics, left by the ancient Egyptians. Suddenly the elder Champollion's door burst open and Jean-Francios rushed in and in frenzy shouted, "I've done it! I've done it!" He started to tell his brother what he had done, but before he got very far he fell to the floor as if he were dead... >(http://www.unmuseum.org/rosetta2.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Foggy Notion - Why does a hot liquid poured on cold ground produce steam? - Anonymous First let's note that if the ground is cold, then most likely the air directly above is cold also. This is important to our explanation. When warm water hits the ground it starts to spread out and some of the warmth is transferred to the air immediately above the water. Warm air always holds more moisture than cold air, so this promotes the evaporation of the water. As the warm water vapor rises, however, it soon gets to a layer of air that has not been warmed. As cold air does not hold as much moisture as warm air, some of the water vapor is condensed out as a steam or fog. This is the same effect you get when warm rain hits the cold ground and ground fog forms. It is also similar to the "steam" fog the forms over lakes when cold, dry air sweeps over warm water. The rising water vapor hits and layer of air colder than the layer it was in and condenses out as fog. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *19th Century Airship - An article in the Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican for March 29, 1880 is the first known reference to a mysterious "airship" in the press. Though the end of the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth , there would be periodic bursts of reports of airships appearing in the skies over the United States. The most famous of these "flaps" started late in 1896 and ran though the first half of 1897. What were people seeing in the skies? They reported blimp-like objects piloted by humans, not extraterrestrial craft. Could there been some mysterious inventors exploring aviation secretly? It seems an very unlikely, but intriguing possibility. For more information check out The Mysterious Airship of 1896 (http://www.unmuseum.org/airship.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Zodiacal Light - If you can get away from city lights sometime from March 16th though the end of the month you might have a chance of observing Zodiacal Light. It will appear as a luminous cone of light tapering upward from the western horizon. It is caused by sunlight reflected off dust particles in the inner solar system. The light roughtly follows the plane of the Earth's orbit, which this time of year extends from the western horizon upward toward the Pleiades and Mars. The end of this month there are moonless twlights and with the zodiac is steeply inclined to the horizon you have the best chance to see this phenomenon. Look for it just after sunset. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Top Ten List for Extraterrestrials - Margaret Turnbull of the Carnegie Institution of Washington released a "top 10" list of locations that should be searched for extraterrestrial life. These will be the first targets of a future space telescope system, NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder, with parts scheduled for launch in 2014 and 2020. The list of stars includes only those that could have planets with liquid water and stars not so bright that they would obscure their planets. Variable stars, with wide temperatures changes have been eliminated from the list. Also not on the list are gassy stars that could not have created planets like Earth, which contain a lot of metal. No stars with massive companions were put on the list as this can create unstable conditions on any associated planets. The list currently includes 51 Pegasus, 18 Sco in the Scorpio constellation, epsilon Indi A; and alpha Centauri B. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - The Great Robot Race - High-tech, driverless cars compete in a Pentagon-sponsored race across a 130-mile desert course. On the PBS: March 28 at 8 pm ET/PT *World's Strangest UFO Stories: The Great Alien Conspiracy - In an age of conspiracy, paranoia surrounds almost all facets of life from government to royalty, to big business and the media. There's one conspiracy that makes all the others seem like child's play; our every day lives are being run by aliens. On The Discovery Channel: MAR 02 2006 @ 09:00 PM, MAR 03 2006 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT *Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science - The legend of a North American Ape species known as Sasquatch, Bigfoot and Yeti has been around since recorded time. Even today, sighting and physical evidence are gathered on a regular basis. Is this creature fact or fiction? On The Discovery Channel: MAR 02 2006 @ 11:00 PM; ET/PT *The Mystery of the Human Hobbit - It was the most striking scientific discovery of last year. An entirely new species of mini-human found on an island in Indonesia. Is the hobbit a new species that transforms our view of evolution, or is it simply a very small, modern human being? On The Discovery Channel: MAR 04 2006 @ 08:00, PM MAR 05 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Search for the Loch Ness Monster - Steve Leonard leaves no stone unturned in his hunt for the elusive prehistoric creature, Nessie. He travels to the wetlands of Northern Australia to test the awesome bite of the monster's closest living relative - the Australian salt-water crocodile. On The Discovery Channel: MAR 09 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 10 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Inside Area 51 - The mysterious place of secret aircraft, covert military bases that don't exist on any maps and strange conspiracy theories. Follow the accusations of closed-door alien autopsies and other covert operations. On The Discovery Channel: MAR 16 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 17 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Are Aliens Invading Scotland? - According to Ufologists there are certain places around the world where UFOs congregate. The really big question though is, why would aliens who've travelled half way across the universe be so keen on visiting a small area of Scotland? On The Discovery Channel: MAR 23 2006 @ 10:00 PM, MAR 24 2006 @ 02:00 AM; ET/PT. *Rise of the Feathered Dragon - Follow the work of paleontologists in remote northwestern China as they search for fossil evidence to the origins of modern birds. On The Science Channel: MAR 12 2006 @ 10:00 PM, MAR 13 2006 @ 01:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 05:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 11:00 AM, MAR 13 2006 @ 03:00 PM, MAR 19 2006 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT. *When Dinosaurs Roamed America - Follow dinosaur evolution. State of the art computer animation, live-action backgrounds and the latest scientific finds show how dinosaurs lived and died in our backyards. Go inside dinosaurs to see the latest known about their anatomy and physiology. On the Science Channel: MAR 20 2006 @ 08:00 PM, MAR 20 2006 @ 11:00 PM, MAR 21 2006 @ 03:00 AM, MAR 21 2006 @ 09:00 AM, MAR 21 2006 @ 01:00 PM, MAR 25 2006 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Ancient Marvels: Cities of the Underworld - Istanbul is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world. Once the capital city of three of the world's most powerful empires--The Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman--its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to rise, fall...and rise again. Today Istanbul's residents are walking on top of remnants of these fallen civilizations...literally. Taxis drive over parts of Constantine's Lost Great Palace; children play on cobblestone streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon; a high school sits on a 3rd century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman Hippodrome; and basement's of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels and secret cisterns. Join host Eric Geller as he leaves the buzz of the city streets behind and follows the pull of the past. Teamed with leading archeologists and experts, Eric peels back the layers of the past--to reveal a hidden history that hasn't seen the light of day for ages. On History Channel: March 2 @ 8pm, ET/PT. *Digging for the Truth: Secrets of the Nasca Lines. - Etched into the driest desert in the world, the mysterious lines and figures of Nasca in Southern Peru are invisible from the ground. Thought to have been made by the Nasca people, who flourished between 200 BC and 600 AD, in fact, these huge drawings were not discovered until the 1930s--and only then by commercial airline pilots who happened to over-fly them. Ever since, they have intrigued the world. Who built them, and why? Host, explorer, and survival expert Josh Bernstein takes on the secrets of the Nasca Lines, while flying micro-lites and powered para-gliders, clambering through thousand-year old irrigation tunnels, and even recreating rituals with contemporary Native Americans. On History Channel: March 3 @ 6pm, ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Tue May 9 17:08:21 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Tue May 9 17:10:10 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for April 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for April 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Not as Extinct as Originally Thought - Scientists have discovered a squirrel-like rodent that was thought to be extinct for almost 11 million years. The Laonastes aenigmamus, or Laotian rock rat, which is from a family that had thought to have died out during the early Oligocene to late Miocene eras, is a nocturnal mammal that inhabits a remote Laotian jungle. According to a report in the journal Science, Scientists had originally thought that the animal was simply a new species until they compared it with skeleton of extinct creatures. Researchers have yet to observe a living Laonastes aenigmamus and have only been able to examine a dead specimen killed by local hunters. *Enceladus May be Best Hope of Life - Scientists are excited by the discovery of what appears to "geyser" of water coming off the surface of Saturn's frozen moon Enceladus. The geyser appears to be associated with an unexplained "hot spot" on the surface of the planet. Since the existence of liquid water, along with a heat source and organic chemicals, are considered essential for the existence life as we know it, researchers suspect that the Enceladus may be the best candidate for life in out solar system beyond Earth. The hotspot and geysers were observed by the Cassini probe when it passed close to the moon last year and the result of those observations have been published in the Journal Science last month. Scientists hope that it may be possible to extend the Cassini mission past its planned end date of 2008 and bring it back to pass within 50 kilometers of Enceladus and directly though the geyser. *Sarcophagus Sports Iliad Pictures - Construction workers found a limestone coffin in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, Cyprus, last month that is covered with colorful painting depicting scenes from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The stories were very popular with the Greeks. The scenes depicted on the sarcophagus include the escape from the blinded Cyclop's cave by hiding under the bellies of a flock of sheep and the battle between Greeks and Trojans at Troy. While the decorations of this 500 B.C. coffin are not unusual, the subject matter of the images and the vivid colors used are unlike most others that have been found. Archeologists think that the inclusion of these scenes means that the owner of the coffin was somebody important. Perhaps, scientist speculate, the occupant was a famous warrior. *More Dangerous than Originally Thought - Mount Vesuvius, the Italian volcano that buried Pompeii, has the potential to do much more damage than during that famous 79 A.D. disaster, according to U.S. and Italian scientists. The scientists examined the remains of an eruption some 4,000 years ago and discovered that the volcano apparently has the ability to create a pyroclastic surge would cause total devastation to a distance of over 6 miles. "Now we know that Pompeii doesn't represent the worst- case scenario anymore," said one researcher. It was thought that an eruption of the volcano might threaten 600,000 lives and 18 towns located in the four mile stretch between the volcano and the sea. This new evidence, however, indicates that least three million people live in the surrounding area could be endangered by a large Vesuvius eruption. *Sperm Whales Steal Lunch - Scientists studying Sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska have come to realize that the whales are zeroing in on the sound of fishing trawler engines to locate the boats and steal their catch. According to the researchers, the whales listen for the sound of the boats motors being turned on and off as fishermen haul in their longlines. They then swim in and eat the sablefish caught on those lines. Estimates suggest there are some 90 Sperm whale in the Gulf engaged in the practice of fish stealing and some have been at it for twenty years. Scientist have some suggestions for the fishermen wanting to avoid the losses. They think it may be necessary to fish earlier or later in the season, haul in the lines without changing engine speed, or make decoy noises to draw the animals away from the boats. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Lost Continent: Atlantis (Updated Page) - The idea of a lost, but highly advanced civilization has captured the interest of people for centuries. Perhaps the most compelling of these tales is the story of Atlantis. The story appears again and again in books, television shows and movies. Where did the story originate and is any of it true? > (http://www.unmuseum.org/atlantis.htm) *Chapter Six of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World - Follow the expedition members in our graphic novel as they find themselves caught in a bizarre war between ape and man. > (http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/index.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Floating Cannonballs - A person in a cannon-ball position (arms and legs tucked in a circle) will sink to the bottom of a swimming pool, but will float effortlessly back to the top when she extends her arms and legs in a vertical position. Are you aware of any objects (the heavier, the better) I can use in an experiment to demonstrate that an object in one position will sink in water, but by merely changing its position (not adding any air), will float back to the top? - Anonymous I wish I could help you, but the problem is that the position of an object doesn't change its buoyancy. Buoyancy is controlled by the density (that is the mass and volume it takes up) of the object. If the object has a higher density than water, it sinks. If it has a lower density, it floats. These states are called positive and negative buoyancy. The human body is mostly H2O so it has a density very close to that of water. The amount of air in your lungs usually is enough to tip the balance to above or below. If you cannonball into a pool with your lungs full of air, the initial momentum of the fall will carry to the bottom, but as long as you don't exhale you will rise back up whether you spread your limbs out or not. Usually people like to come back up to the surface face first, however, so they can breath, so they manipulate their arms and legs to bring them up in that position. If you remained in the cannonball orientation you would float back up, but you'd find yourself with your back out of the water and your face below because in that position your lungs, which are filled with air, would be closest to the surface. This position would be very similar to the "dead man's float" or "survival float." One might try to argue that in the case of an opened topped container, like a boat, position does matter. Obviously a boat if turned on its side will take on water until it sinks. As the water pours into the boat, however, it is displacing, or removing, the air making the boat denser. When enough water is displaced the total boat would have a density greater than water and would sink. This would be the same as pushing the air out of your lungs which would give your body negative buoyancy so you would sink. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Nessie's Less Famous Cousin - Loch Ness isn't the only Scottish lake with a monster. On April 3rd, 1971, Ewen Gillies, a local resident, spotted a strange creature at Loch Morar located about seventy miles to the southwest of Loch Ness. The creature was a half mile distance and appeared to be about thirty feet long with a neck sticking out of the water three or four feet. The animal appeared to have black shiny skin with two or three humps and moved over the water with an up and down motion. Gillies attempted to take to take pictures, but they did not turn out. Reports of the Loch Morar monster , nick-named Morag, has a history running back into the 19th century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *3-D Saturn - If you have a telescope this might be an ideal time to take a look at the planet Saturn. In early April, Saturn's rings are tipped 20 degrees from edge-on, giving you an extremely good view that won't be duplicated for many years. Because of the Earths position relative to Saturn, sunlight will be striking it from a side angle causing the planet to cast a shadow on its rings giving them a 3-D effect. During the first few weeks of this month Saturn can be found high in the SSE sky. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Whales Sing With Syntax - According to a study published last month in the "Journal of the Acoustical Society of America" the songs of the humpback whale contain elements similar to that of human language. "For example, a text consists of paragraphs; a paragraph consists of sentences, a sentence consists of clauses, etc.," said Ryuji Suzuki, lead researcher for the study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They are at different levels of hierarchy, or layers. In terms of humpback songs, a song session consists of songs; a song consists of themes; a theme consists of phrases; a phrase consists of units." While scientists do not think that whales have their own language, they seem to have something like a syntax. Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words within sentences. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - Voyage to the Mystery Moon - NASA and the European Space Agency dispatch a two-part mission to study Saturn and its enigmatic satellite, Titan.. On the PBS: April 4 at 8 pm ET/PT *NOVA - Hunt for the Supertwister - Tornado-chasing scientists with an eye to better forecasting risk their lives to plumb the secrets of nature's most terrifying killer On the PBS: April 11 at 8 pm ET/PT *America's Tsunami: Are We Next - On December 26, 2004 the world's deadliest Tsunami hit the coast of Thailand. Now a team of leading scientists investigates what happened as they search for clues to discover if this massive wave will strike the same place twice or hit closer to home. On The Discovery Channel: APR 06 @ 09:00 PM; APR 07 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT *America's Volcanoes: Sitting on a Powder Keg Mount St. Helens - On May 18th, 1980 the most active volcano in the continental United States exploded. Journey into the past to experience one of nature's most memorable natural disasters and find out whether recent activity means another explosion is in the near future. On The Discovery Channel: APR 09 @ 08:00 PM; APR 10 @ 12:00 AM; APR 13 @ 09:00 PM; APR 14 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT *The Mystery of the Parthenon - Dominating the skyline of Athens is the ancient Acropolis—once the center of the Greek civilization. Trace the history of the Temple of the Parthenon, from its history of design and construction, to the men involved in its destruction. On The Science Channel: APR 29 @ 10:00 PM; APR 30 @ 01:00 AM; APR 30 @ 05:00 AM; APR 30 @ 12:00 PM; ET/PT. *Lost Civilization of the Amazon - In 1542, Spanish conquistador Francisco de Orellana claimed to have found farming villages and huge walled cities along the Rio Negro river in the Amazon basin. No evidence was ever found of these civilizations until recently, in Bolivia's Mojos Plains. On The Science Channel: APR 10 @ 10:00 PM; APR 11 @ 01:00 AM; APR 11 @ 05:00 AM; APR 11 @ 11:00 AM; APR 11 @ 03:00 PM; APR 15 @ 06:00 PM; ET/PT. *Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt - The ancient Egyptians showed the world how boundless ambition and vast quantities of human labor could transform rock and stone into the most incredible monuments ever created. Meet the pharaohs, engineers and laborers who built the wonders of Egypt. On The Science Channel: APR 09 @ 10:00 PM; APR 10 @ 01:00 AM; APR 10 @ 05:00 AM; APR 10 @ 11:00 AM; APR 10 @ 03:00 PM; APR 16 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT. *Tomb Builders: Secrets of the Valley of the Kings - Over twenty Pharaoh tombs rest in this famous funerary valley. Follow the work of Dr. Kent Weeks as he maps the entire valley of dynastic tombs, profiles each of the Pharaohs, and tells the story of how each tomb was constructed. On The Science Channel: APR 09 @ 09:00 PM; APR 10 @ 12:00 AM; APR 10 @ 04:00 AM; APR 10 @ 10:00 AM; APR 10 @ 02:00 PM; APR 15 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT. *Comets: Prophets of Doom - Comets--these celestial travelers have forever filled us with fear and wonder. Lurking in the furthest reaches of our solar system, they come close to Earth as they orbit our Sun. Could something as destructive as comets hold the key to life? Are the building blocks of carbon-based life forms frozen inside? Might they contain information about the creation of our solar system? At the conclusion of two spectacular NASA missions that sent spaceships to rendezvous with these mysterious objects, we examine the scientific and historical record of comets, including man's reaction to them. Did a comet lead the Wise Men to Bethlehem? Did they foretell the death of kings, the destruction of civilizations? How did Halley's Comet provide Isaac Newton with the clues for his theories of gravity? Finally, what comprises this "dirty snowball" and how can we protect ourselves if headed on a collision-course with one? On History Channel: April 5 @ 8pm, ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Tue May 9 18:00:57 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Wed May 10 08:09:54 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for May 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for May 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Cave Art Was Graffiti? - A new theory suggests that the famous pre-historic cave art found in locations like Lascaux, France, are actually the equivalent of today's graffiti drawn by teenage boys. "Today, boys draw the testosterone subjects of a hot automobile, fighter jet, Jedi armor, sports, direct missile hit, etc.- all of the things they associate with the adrenalin of success," said R. Dale Guthrie, author of The Nature of Paleolithic Art. Back in the Stone Age such exciting subjects would have included bison and deer hunts. Guthrie notes that much of the material is rather graphic showing speared animals with blood coming from their noises and mouths. He also notes that male figures shown in the scenes are drawn rather rudimentary while female figures are much more detailed and full-figured leading him to suppose that artists were younger males. Hand prints found on the wall of the caves tend to support this theory too. This runs counter to earlier thinking in which most of the drawings were made by tribal shaman. *Bacteria Make the Strongest Glue - Scientists have discovered that harmless bacteria found in rivers produces super glue stronger than any other known type. According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the microorganism C. crescentus attaches to surfaces with three to four times the strength of commercial superglue. The bacteria uses the biological glue to adhere itself to surfaces with a stalk-like appendage. Tests show that the amount of bacteria that fits onto a quarter could withstand a pulling force of four to five tons, which is about the weight of an adult elephant. Scientists hope that this research will lead to new, stronger, synthetic adhesives. *Big Meat Eater Hunted in Packs - Mapusaurus roseae- a gigantic dinosaur whose remains have been found in Patagonia, Argentina, now holds the record for the longest meat eating dinosaur so far found. Mapusaurus was over 41 feet in length. A cousin from the same region, Giganotosaurus, however, still holds the record for the largest land carnivore because it was wider and heavier. According to Don Lessem, one of the paleontologists that participated in the dig that found Mapusaurus, this creature was unique among large meat-eaters because it apparently hunted in packs. A number of the creatures bones were found together apparently having died in some ancient catastrophe. These carnivores hunting in packs would have been able to even bring down the largest dinosaur ever found, the 125 foot-long, plant-eating Argentinosaurus. Argentinosaurus weighed as much as 10 times more than Mapusaurus. *Optical SETI - A team of scientists are now looking for extraterrestrial signals using optical telescopes. In the past such searches were conducted using radio receivers, but Paul Horowitz, a physics and electrical engineering professor from Harvard University, thinks that aliens using light waves to communicate may make more sense. "Sending laser signals across the cosmos would be a very logical way for ET to reach out, but until now, we have been ill-equipped to receive any such signal." The team is using a 72-inch telescope to look for flashes in the sky lasting as short as one-billionth of a second. Optical light, unlike radio, can form tight, powerful, focused beams. A device like a laser can be thousands of times brighter than a star for a brief moment, but such a signal would have to be directed at a particular location. *Viruses May Create Super Batteries - Scientists hope to use genetically manipulated viruses to create batteries that pack two or three times the energy of traditional electrical storage cells. By using viruses to build the batteries researchers hope to harness biology's knack for organizing microscopic structures. This could lead to batteries which are smaller and lighter, or more powerful because less of the weight and volume would be dedicated to packaging, and more to the storage of the electrical charge. To make the viruses able to conduct electricity, the scientists genetically altered the organisms so that proteins on their surfaces would be attracted to metal particles, including cobalt and gold, according to a study published in a recent issue of the journal Science. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Giant Sloth (Updated Page) - An hamster the size of an elephant? During the Pleistocene period, ten-thousand years ago, these creatures roamed the Earth. Now they're all gone. Or so we think...(http://www.unmuseum.org/sloth.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Tesla Power - I would like to know what the word Tesla means. I think it has something to do with electricity. - Anonymous I have a very weird game known as Red Alert. It mentions something called Tesla technology. I only know it has something to do with electricity. I've asked several people and they don't seem to know. - Frank Nikola Tesla was an inventor who lived about a hundred years ago. He was perhaps the foremost electrical genius of his time. Everybody remembers Edison better, but the truth is that Tesla was probably the smarter man. While he has been forgotten, his inventions are all around us. The AM radio you listen to when driving to work? Tesla. The alternating current (AC) electrical system that you plug things into at your house? Not possible without a host of inventions from Tesla. The fluorescent lighting in your office? Tesla helped develop them. The toy radio controlled boat you play with on Saturdays? Tesla built the first one. He even laid out a design for radar decades before the first one was built. One his best remembered inventions was the "Tesla Coil." He actually designed a number of different versions of these devices which are used take electricity and increase the frequency and voltage. Tesla had several ideas about how the coil could be used that included radio signals and wireless power transmission. When a Tesla coil is running it can produce impressive electrical show with sparks, and corona discharges. A giant coil built at Tesla's Colorado laboratory was capable of creating sparks 135 feet in length. As Tesla aged his inventions seem to become less and less practical. One of Tesla's last ideas was a charged particle beam. Such as "death ray," if built, would have been capable of downing airplanes or destroying objects at a distance. Though no death ray was ever built during Tesla's lifetime, both the U.S. and the USSR spent quit a bit of money trying to get it to work during the cold war. For more information check our biography of Nikola Tesla (http://www.unmuseum.org/tesla.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *China's Wildman - North America has its Bigfoot. The Himalayas have the Yeti. Australia has its Yowie. How about China? There you will find legends of the "Wildman:" a hairy ape-like creature inhabiting the remote mountains. Does the creature really exist? In May of 1957 a small version of one of these animals was killed and a local biology teacher preserved the hands and feet. Later on a scientist examined the remains. Was it an unknown animal? Not in this particular case. The creature turned out to be a stump-tailed macaque. Proof of the existence of the Chinese "Wildman" still is yet to be found. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Sirius Mystery - May is a good time to see if you can find the night's brightest star: Sirius. Look low in the WSW during evening twilight. Sirius is the center of a mystery involving the Dogon people of Southern Africa. Their legends that extend back hundreds of years claim that the Earth was visited by aleins from Sirius a millenium ago. What makes the story so odd is that their legends tell much about the star that wasn't known until recent times. For more details check out "The Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B" (http://www.unmuseum.org/siriusb.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *What's Your Sign? Maybe it Doesn't Matter - A scientific study has failed to find any validity to astrological star signs, such as Aries, Taurus, Libra, etc. These signs supposedly predict the characteristics of people born at a certain time of the year. "When considering the current scientific standing with respect to sun signs, it becomes clear that there is little or no truth in sun signs," said Peter Hartmann, leader of the study, which was published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal. The scientists used computer analysis to try to examine the astrological signs and compare them to the character of some 15,000 individuals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA: Hitler's Sunken Secret - An expedition to the bottom of Norway's Lake Tinn illuminates Nazi Germany's nuclear ambitions. On the PBS: May 9 at 8 pm ET/PT Da Vinci's Lost Code - Was a painting bought some 25 years ago for a relatively small sum really painted by Leonardo da Vinci? Find out what secrets this painting holds. Go inside a world where science and art collide to break the code and reveal the secrets of the genius. On The Discovery Channel: MAY 14 @ 10:00 PM, MAY 15 @ 02:00 AM, MAY 18 @ 10:00 PM, MAY 19 @ 02:00 AM, MAY 21 @ 07:00 PM, MAY 21 @ 11:00 PM, MAY 22 @ 11:00 AM; ET/PT *Noah's Ark: The True Story - Search for the truth behind the story of Noah and his ark. Find out how Noah could have built such a structure and whether or not a great flood took place on the earth. The search for remains of the ark continues today. On The Discovery Channel: MAY 18 @ 08:00 PM, MAY 19 @ 12:00 AM, MAY 21 @ 09:00 PM, MAY 22 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT *Secret Towers of the Himalayas - A French explorer travels to the remote valleys of Tibet to study and film the mysterious Towers of Tibet. An estimated 600 stone towers, some as high as 150 feet, date from the time of the Mongol invasion of China. On The Science Channel: MAY 22 @ 10:00 PM, MAY 23 @ 01:00 AM, MAY 23 @ 05:00 AM, MAY 23 @ 11:00 AM, MAY 23 @ 03:00 PM, MAY 27 @ 06:00 PM;; ET/PT. *Black Sky: Winning the X Prize - After a successful flight into space on September 29, 2004, Burt Rutan and his team prepare to make history by winning the X Prize competition. Follow the final preparations for the X2 flight by SpaceShipOne and ultimate victory in the competition. On The Science Channel: MAY 16 @ 10:00 PM, MAY 17 @ 01:00 AM, MAY 17 @ 05:00 AM, MAY 17 @ 11:00 AM, MAY 17 @ 03:00 PM, MAY 21 @ 06:00 PM; ET/PT. *What The Ancients Knew: India - Long before the Western world was known, India provided the world with its riches. However, India’s invaluable contributions to science and technology have all too often been overlooked. Few know how profoundly India has shaped the modern world. On The Science Channel:MAY 08 @ 09:00 PM, MAY 09 @ 12:00 AM, MAY 09 @ 04:00 AM, MAY 09 @ 10:00 AM, MAY 09 @ 02:00 PM, MAY 13 @ 05:00 PM, MAY 22 @ 06:00 PM; ET/PT. *What Really Killed the Dinosaurs - Until recently, most scientists thought they knew what killed off the dinosaurs - a giant meteorite crashing into Earth. But a small and vociferous group of scientists believes there is increasing evidence that the 'impact' theory could be wrong. On The Science Channel: MAY 01 @ 08:00 PM, MAY 01 @ 11:00 PM, MAY 02 @ 03:00 AM, MAY 02 @ 09:00 AM,MAY 02 @ 01:00 PM,MAY 06 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Ancient Marvels: Cities of the Underworld. - Istanbul is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world. Once the capital city of three of the world's most powerful empires--The Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman--its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to rise, fall...and rise again. Today Istanbul's residents are walking on top of remnants of these fallen civilizations...literally. Taxis drive over parts of Constantine's Lost Great Palace; children play on cobblestone streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon; a high school sits on a 3rd century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman Hippodrome; and basement's of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels and secret cisterns. Join host Eric Geller as he leaves the buzz of the city streets behind and follows the pull of the past. Teamed with leading archeologists and experts, Eric peels back the layers of the past--to reveal a hidden history that hasn't seen the light of day for ages. On The History Channel: May 5 @ 6pm, ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Thu Jun 1 13:58:57 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Thu Jun 1 14:01:21 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for June 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for June 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Dolphins Use Names - A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name. If so, they are the only other species besides man capable of recognizing each other by a moniker. To make sure that the marine mammals just weren't responding to the calls of close relatives, researchers used computers to synthesize the calls removing inflections and other vocal cues. In addition to responding to their own names, scientists found that two dolphins may refer to a third's name during their communications. While the researchers are now sure that the animals use these "signature whistles" to refer to each other, they stop short of saying that dolphins have a human-like language. *Geronimo's Skull at Yale? - Did members of the Yale's secret skull and crossbones society steal the famous Native American leader Geronimo's skull? This has long been a legend around Yale University, but was given little credence until recently when a professor discovered a letter written by alumni in 1918. "The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club... is now safe inside the (Tomb)…" the letter, written by Winter Mead, says. The remains of Geronimo were supposed to have been buried at Fort Sill in 1909. Some scholars are skeptical of this claim, but Harlyn Geronimo, a descendent for the famous warrior, is seeking to sue the U.S. army for holding the remains and letting them be removed. *Find May be Alchemy Tool - Scientists excavating at the remains of a British Cistercian abbey have found a cone shaped container 8 inches tall and 6 inches across at the base. It is thought that the container might have been used by alchemists in an attempt to turn base metal into gold. The device, known as an alembic, had a pipe running out of its top and down to a condenser. Alchemy is considered by many researchers as the forerunner to the science of chemistry. According to the theories of Aristotle it was possible to convert cheaper metals to the desirable gold by the process of "transmutation." It had been thought that certain Cistercians, as with other monks, did experiments in alchemy. Though there are no traces of chemicals left on the alembic to prove that it was used in an attempt to make gold, the fact that it was found near a urinal may support the idea. Urine and quicksilver were considered important ingredients for alchemy. *Remains of Cook's Endeavour Found? - Scientists think they may have found the remains of the ship of one of the most well-known explorers in the world: Captain James Cook. Cook, considered by historians as one of the greatest navigators of all time, took an epic journey sailing the Pacific Ocean and mapping the coasts of New Zealand and eastern Australia in the late 1700's. His ship the "Endeavour" was later renamed "Lord Sandwich" and was sunk on purpose along with 12 other British ships in an attempt to close Newport Harbor in 1778 during the Revolutionary War. Researchers with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project have found the remains of four of those ships at the bottom of Narragansett Bay, but they cannot be positive which one, if any of them, are the Endeavour. They are now trying to determine where the other ships are and if there is any way to tie one of them to Captain Cook's voyage. *Man Not Responsible for Missing Mammoths - A study published in the journal Nature indicates that humans were not responsible for the extinction of the great mammoths as had been suggested (http://www.unmuseum.org/missingm.htm). Scientists radiocarbon dated over 600 bones from bison, wapiti, moose, humans, wild horses, and mammoths that had been recovered from Alaska and the Yukon Territory. The results indicate that certain species had already died out, or were in decline, before humans arrived in North America. The study cites climate change as the most likely culprit for the deaths of the large animals. Samples of preserved pollen show that sedge, upon which these animals fed, disappeared as the climate warmed and was replaced by grasses which is a food more useful to wapiti and bison, which then became the dominant species. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *UnMuseum Library - Our newst hall leads you to our free on-line graphic novels and some links to classic literature across the web . >(http://www.unmuseum.org/unlib.htm) *The Lost World: Chapter Seven - The conclusion to our graphic novel presentation of the Aurthur Conan Doyle classic. >(http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/cover.htm) *From The Curator's Office: A Close Encounter of the Snake Kind - Would somebody be road kill today? >(http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/snake.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Making Gold - How is gold formed and why does gold turn up on turbine blades? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Regards - Diana After the big bang the universe consisted of lot of hydrogen and helium. No gold. No lead. In fact, no metals of any kind. It was only when the first generation of stars were born that metals began to form deep within their fusion furnaces. Under the intense pressure and heat caused by the gravity of a star the light hydrogen atoms are fused together to form heavier helium. If the star is of medium size (such as our sun) or larger, the fusion can also create heavier elements including heavy metals like gold and lead. The lighter atoms in a fusion reaction have slightly more mass then the resulting heavier atoms and the mass that is lost is turned into energy according to Einstein's famous formula E=mc2. This energy is what makes a star give off heat and light and is the same process at the heart of a Hydrogen Bomb. This means that almost everything you see around you - your watch, the computer you're are reading this on, the gold ring you're are wearing, and even yourself - were formed in some distant past in the depth of a star. As the late Dr. Carl Sagan was found of saying, we are all "star stuff." Eventually this material was scattered about the galaxy and became part of new stars and solar systems. Rocky planets like our own Earth are formed mostly of these heavier materials. Gold is one of the more uncommon metals that was generated in the stars. Although it is scattered widely throughout the planet and can be found almost anywhere, it is almost never concentrated enough to make it worth recovering. For example, it is estimated that a cubic kilometer of sea water contains 6 kilograms of pure gold, but nobody has figured out an economic way of getting at it. Sometimes by natural processes gold is concentrated into "seams" or "veins" and this is what miners are looking for. Because gold is highly soluble compared to other minerals it is almost always the last to crystallize out as water disappears and the first to dissolve when water returns. This has a concentrating effect. The vein a miner finds is usually the remains of an underground flow of water that carried a highly concentrated solution of gold. As the water disappeared the material crystallized into nearly pure gold. As to the appearance of gold on turbine blades: I have been unable to find any reference to this, however, since gold is so highly soluble in water, it could be that turbine blades operating a river, or ocean or with steam, could somehow cause the some of the gold in solution to be deposited on the blades. A similar issue happens with copper deposits and certain types of power plants if there is copper present in the water being used. What the mechanism for this effect is I don't know, but perhaps one of our knowledgeable readers can help us out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Eagle Abduction - Can an eagle carry away a child? Legends and folklore are full of such tales, though modern science says that it is impossible. One such story occurred in June of 1932 when Svanhild Hansen, a 42 pound, five year-old little girl from Leka, Norway, was supposedly abducted by an Eagle that carried her more than a mile to a high ledge. The girl, with the exception of a few scratches was unharmed. Zoologist Hartvig Huitfeldt-Kass, who investigated the story at the time, decided it was "completely reliable." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Finding Mercury - Early in June is a great time to observe the solar system's innermost plant: Mercury. Find a location with a clear view of the west-northwestern horizon and watch where the sun sets. Come back with binoculars 30 to 45 minutes and look for a peach-colored dot in the twilight sky just above where the sun went down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *British Government Says "There Are No Aliens" - The British Ministry of Defense will release a secret report from 2000 stating there is no credible evidence that "UFOs" are anything but natural phenomena like meteors or unusual atmospheric conditions. "No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces," the report said, according to quotes from the BBC. The 400-page commentary, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region," is being released under freedom of information laws and will be available on the Ministry of Defense (MOD) website. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - Kaboom! - Explore the science of explosions—from fireworks to building demolitions. On the PBS: June 6 at 8 pm ET/PT *Mount St. Helen's: Forecast for Disaster - Scientists are using new robotic probes to monitor the core of Mount St. Helen's. Over the past several months the volcano has emitted smoke plumes and spewed molten lava. With the probes scientists hope to predict the next eruption before it strikes. On the Science Channel: JUN 05 @ 09:00 PM; JUN 06 @ 12:00 AM; JUN 06 @ 04:00 AM; JUN 06 @ 10:00 AM; JUN 06 @ 02:00 PM; JUN 10 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT *When Yellowstone Erupts - A super volcano lies beneath the beauty of Yellowstone Park. Scientists are challenged with predicting when the next super-eruption might take place and describing what will happen if this cataclysmic event occurs. On the Science Channel: JUN 05 @ 08:00 PM; JUN 05 @ 11:00 PM; JUN 06 @ 03:00 AM; JUN 06 @ 09:00 AM; JUN 06 @ 01:00 PM; JUN 10 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT *Most of Our Universe is Missing - We can only account for four percent of our universe. Join us as we visit the worlds most powerful telescopes, fly through outer space, and travel inside the deepest mines to find the other 96% of what makes the universe home. On The Science Channel: JUN 13 @ 09:00 PM; JUN 14 @ 12:00 AM; JUN 14 @ 04:00 AM; JUN 14 @ 10:00 AM; JUN 14 @ 02:00 PM; JUN 18 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT. *Coolest Science Museums - Coolest Science Museums explores the coolest exhibits at five of the top science centers in the United States. On The Science Channel: JUN 23 @ 09:00 PM; JUN 24 @ 12:00 AM; JUN 24 @ 04:00 AM; JUN 24 @ 11:00 AM; ET/PT. *Egypt's New Tomb Revealed - A new tomb is found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, with 28 jars and 7 coffins and only Discovery is inside. What lies sealed inside the jars? Are there mummies in the coffins? And, if so, are they tied to King Tut's tomb? The answer may change history... On The Discovery Channel: JUN 22 @ 09:00 PM; JUN 23 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT. *Building the Great Pyramid - Of the many myths surrounding the construction of the Great Pyramid, none is more difficult to eradicate than the belief that it was built by slaves. Find out the truth as to how and why this extraordinary human monument was made. On The Discovery Channel: JUN 04 @ 08:00 PM; JUN 05 @ 12:00 AM; JUN 22 @ 08:00 PM; JUN 23 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Secret Allied Aircraft of WWII - At WWII's outset, US and UK military aircraft designs were woefully behind Germany's and Japan's technologically superior planes. But the genius and ingenuity of innovators on both sides of the Atlantic closed the gap. For America, it was a handful of visionaries and their teams; for Great Britain, a creative and thoughtful spirit emanated from the top leadership on down. In this hour, we recount the untold stories of their cutting-edge designs and solutions, some of which proved decades ahead of their time. On History Channel: June 2 @ 6pm ET/PT. *UFO Files: Russian Roswell - Welcome to the remote, top-secret military base Kapustin Yar, the Soviet "Area 51"--where the wreckage from no fewer than eight UFO crash incidents and their occupants were transported and studied between 1945 and `91. We expose this never-before-seen installation through interviews, on-camera tours, dramatic reenactments, and extensive recreations. We also explore the many Russian UFO crashes over the decades and show the ways in which Soviet UFO research scientists at Kapustin Yar used and processed the wreckage...and the alien bodies. Join us as we investigate the facts and myths surrounding Kapustin Yar, as well as the many UFO crashes that still circulate in the lore and consciousness of the Russian people. On History Channel: June 5 @ 8pm ET/PT. *Ancient Marvels Japan's Mysterious Pyramids - Most historians and archaeologists maintain that civilization as we know it began about 5,000 years ago with the emergence of the earliest Egyptian dynasty. But, a small yet persuasive number of scientists believes that a highly advanced civilization, nearly twice as old, flourished during the last Ice Age. Solid evidence of this 10,000-year-old civilization is difficult to produce, but some feel a recent discovery off the coast of a tiny Japanese island, Yonaguni, may be the proof they seek. On History Channel: June 8 @ 8pm ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Sat Jul 1 16:12:14 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Sat Jul 1 16:19:06 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter July 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for July 2006. Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Ancient Temple/Calendar Unearthed - Archaeologists in Peru have discovered what is thought to be the oldest known calendar device in the Western Hemisphere. The calendar, part of the Temple of the Fox located in Buena Vista, is an enormous circle formed of prehistoric sculptures. The circle is positioned so that celestial alignments can be used to tell the beginning of different parts of the year. The 4,000 year-old structure would have been a fantastic sight during it heyday with its huge sculptures, made of mud plaster covered with clay, that were painted bright yellow and red. There are indications that different parts of the temple were used for sacrificial offerings, though no human sacrifices are evident. The temples most striking object is a gigantic disc carved as a frowning face. The disc faces the sun on June 21, the traditional start of the harvest. *Shrunken Dinosaurs - Researchers have found the remains of a species of dwarf sauropod dinosaurs. Europasaurus holgeri, lived 154 million years ago in what is now northern Germany, and was a close relative of the giant Camarasaurus which measured some 59 feet in length. Europasaurus, in contrast, was 20 feet long and weighed only a ton. German scientist P. Martin Sander, a paleontologist at the University of Bonn in Germany, was the lead author of a report on the animals that appeared in last month's issue of the journal Nature. He believes the relatively small size of Europasaurus was due to an effect called "island dwarfism." The researchers think that animals who find themselves in an environment with limited resources - like an island - evolve smaller bodies over time because it allows them to be more efficient. Europasaurus apparently lived on an island at a time in which that portion of Germany was covered by shallow seas. Initially the scientists who studied the bones of these dinosaurs thought they were from juvenile animals, but as they took a closer look at the structure of these bones they realized that they came from adults. *When Storms Collide - Scientists are anxiously watching to see what happens when the Great Red Spot, a massive storm on Jupiter twice as wide as the Earth, comes in close contact with a smaller storm wandering across the planet's surface. Both storms have wind speeds in excess of 350 miles per hour, faster than any hurricane on our planet. Scientists are curious to see if the collision will weaken either of the storms or cause the smaller one to lose its spin. Astronomers speculate that the Great Red Spot storm, which has been raging for centuries, pulls up material from the depths of Jupiter, to give it the reddish color. Recently the smaller storm started to show signs of turning red also, which may be an indication that it is getting stronger. The storms are estimated to make their closest approach on July 4th. *Where is Mr. Ed when You Need Him? - Scientists are trying to figure out how horses talk. The Equine Vocalization Project is compiling a database of horse sounds and behaviors that they hope to be able to match up with their stress levels. Horses can produce a number of different sounds in a wide range of methods, unlike other animals such as cows, goats, and sheep. So far the scientists have focused on the whinny as it can be produced in a wide variety of ways. Researchers hope they will be able to identify a particular type of whinny for a particular situation. The results of the study could help veterinarians, behaviorists, breeders or other handlers understand how to take care of the animals. The study may also enlighten scientists about the communication methods of other equines, such as donkeys and zebras. *Small Asteroids Not as Dangerous - Results from the Japanese Hayabusa space probe, which visited the Itokawa asteroid, show that smaller asteroids may pose less of a threat to earth than originally thought. Data from the probe shows that the 2,300-foot object is a loose collection of material barely held together by its gravity. If this is generally true of smaller asteroids then it means that they are more likely to break into smaller, pieces and burn up when they enter the earth's atmosphere without doing damage on the surface. These asteriods would also be easier to deflect or destroy with weapons. Itokawa is thought to be typical of the many small asteroids floating between Earth and the inner rings of the asteroid belt beyond Mars. Some of these asteroids are considered dangerous to Earth because they cross our planet's orbit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Pirate Room: As long as there have been ships and trading the seas have been plagued with scoundrels ready to steal cargo. (http://www.unmuseum.org/pirateroom.htm) *The Littlest Pirate: In the remains of a wrecked pirate ship on the bottom near the dangerous shoals of Cape Cod, scientists have found the remains of John King, the youngest pirate ever known. (http://www.unmuseum.org/piratelittle.htm) *From The Curator's Office: Fun with 50's SciFi Movie Posters - Computer wallpaper from the past's future (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/poster50s.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Will Space Exploration Effect Earth's Orbit? - How much of earth's mass would need to be lost to space by means of man's explorations in order for the orbit of earth to be affected? - Dan S. This reminds me of story from Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (the original BBC production, not the recent movie). There was a planet so beautiful that it attracted billions of visitors each year. Soon the government there began to worry about the cumulative effect of erosion as each of these visitors took bits of the planet back home with them on their clothes, etc., so they instituted a law that the net difference between what a visitor ate and secreted while on the planet would be surgically removed from the visitor's body before he left (And, of course from then on it became imperative if you where a tourist there to get a receipt whenever you visited a rest room). Could we be facing this kind of planetary erosion because we are sending so much stuff out to explore space? Fortunately, of all the terrible things we may be doing to mother earth these days, giving her anorexia by launching space probes and the like is not something we need to be concerned about. The Earth is big. Really big. On the order of 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons. Now that doesn't begin to measure up in size to the Sun or even the planet Jupiter, but from a human point of view it is still pretty gargantuan. What's more our ability to send things into space is terribly puny. Most space probes weigh a few hundred pounds - remember we are only counting the amount of the rocket that makes it into space, not the lower stages that fall back to earth. Even if we launched a probe a day, and each probe weighed a fairly massive one ton, that's only 365 tons a year. What's more, most of that material goes into earth orbit. This means it will, sooner or later, likely fall back to the planet Skylab style. The probes that we send into deep space and never come back, like Viking or Voyager, are actually pretty rare. So the amount we send into space compared to the size of the planet is, and will be for some time, negligible. But wait, there's more. As the earth proceeds along its orbital path it operates like a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up dust, meteorites and even the occasional comet or asteroid. This all adds to the earth's mass. Though estimates vary, it seems at least 100 tons of debris is added to Earth's bulk everyday. At this point we are in no way able to even send enough stuff into space to keep up with the incoming material, let alone make planet any lighter. Just one more note. The planet also loses mass by way of hydrogen escaping from the atmosphere and the decay of radioactive materials. It is hard to say just how large that figure is, however. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Lots of Sharp Teeth - Lake Monsters appear in some of the most unlikely places. In 1892 two boys were fishing along the south shore of Lake Geneva when they suddenly saw the head of a serpent-like creature appear out of the lake. The monster, which rose out of the water some about seventy feet from them, started swimming toward them with its gigantic mouth open showing several rows of sharp teeth. For whatever reason the creature turned before it got to them and headed out into the middle of the lake. As they watched the boys estimated the monster was near a hundred feet in length. Is the story a hoax? Perhaps so. The boys report is extremely unusual as Lake Geneva is not known for sightings of lake monsters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Jupiter and Meteors - This is a good month to observe the planet Jupiter which sits low in the evening sky giving off a peach shaded glow. If that isn't enough excitement for you, might try to observing the South Delta Aquarids. This meteor shower occurs on July 29th and runs through the 31st. >From the northern hemisphere the meteors will appear in the SSE sky. The shower is more easily visible in the southern hemisphere looking east. Best viewing is after midnight local time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Alien Head Fetches $9,600 - The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, CA, auctioned off on Ebay an x-ray of a duck stomach that resembled an alien's face and got $9,600. Jay Holcomb, Director of International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC), stated, "Proceeds from the sale of this one-of-a-kind x-ray will go towards funding our continuing efforts to rescue and rehabilitate oiled, orphaned and injured waterfowl and aquatic birds." The x-ray first came to the center staff's attention on Sunday, May 21st, when an adult male mallard was brought to the IBRRC, with what appeared to be a broken wing. Marie Travers, assistant manager of the center, radiographed the mallard and was immediately shocked by what was revealed on the x-ray. A very clear image of what appeared to be the face, or head, of an extraterrestrial alien was in the bird's stomach. Despite the efforts of the staff at IBRRC, the bird died, but the center intends to use the cash from the auction to further their work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - The Elegant Universe: Einstein's Dream - Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made out of strings. It's not science fiction, it's string theory. On the PBS: July 11 at 8 pm ET/PT *Hunt for the U.S.S. Alligator: U.S. Navy's First Sub - The hunt has begun for a lost piece of American Civial War history. The Alligator, the first military submarine commissioned by the U.S. Navy, disappeared somewhere of the coast of the Carolinas. Can a team of top ocean scientists find her? On the Science Channel: JUL 06 2006 @ 09:00 PM JUL 07 2006 @ 12:00 AM, JUL 07 2006 @ 04:00 AM, JUL 07 2006 @ 10:00, AM JUL 07 2006 @ 02:00 PM, JUL 08 2006 @ 02:00 PM; ET/PT *Alien Planet - A futuristic mission to search the galaxy for planets able to support life. Darwin IV is a planet 6.5 light years from Earth, with two suns and 60% gravity. An unmanned fleet is deployed to assess this planet for the possibility of life. On the Science Channel: JUL 04 2006 @ 09:00, PM JUL 05 2006 @ 12:00 AM, JUL 05 2006 @ 04:00 AM, JUL 05 2006 @ 10:00 AM, JUL 05 2006 @ 02:00 PM, JUL 09 2006 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT *Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt - The ancient Egyptians showed the world how boundless ambition and vast quantities of human labor could transform rock and stone into the most incredible monuments ever created. Meet the pharaohs, engineers and laborers who built the wonders of Egypt. On The Science Channel: JUL 17 2006 @ 09:00 PM, JUL 18 2006 @ 12:00 AM, JUL 18 2006 @ 04:00 AM, JUL 18 2006 @ 10:00 AM, JUL 18 2006 @ 02:00 PM, JUL 22 2006 @ 05:00 PM ; ET/PT. *Jane: Mystery Dinosaur - Sometimes a discovery forever changes what we think we know, altering our perspective and re-writing history. This is the story of a mystery dinosaur called Jane, that affled the greatest minds in paleontology from the moment she was unearthed On The Science Channel: JUL 24 2006 @ 09:00 PM, JUL 25 2006 @ 12:00 AM, JUL 25 2006 @ 04:00 AM, JUL 25 2006 @ 10:00 AM, JUL 25 2006 @ 02:00 PM, JUL 29 2006 @ 05:00 PM ; ET/PT. *Tomb Builders: Secrets of the Valley of the Kings - More than 20 pharaoh tombs rest in this famous funerary valley. Follow the work of Dr. Kent Weeks as he maps the entire valley of dynastic tombs, profiles each of the pharaohs, and tells the story of how each tomb was constructed. On The Discovery Channel: JUN 22 2006 @ 10:00 PM, JUN 23 2006 @ 02:00 AM, JUL 08 2006 @ 09:00 PM, JUL 09 2006 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT. *UFO Files Texas' Roswell - In April 1897--50 years before the alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico--a mysterious airship crash rocked the small town of Aurora, Texas...or at least, that's how the legend goes! The tale includes the wreckage from the ship, a funeral for the dead "alien" pilot, and thousands of witnesses from across the country. And the Aurora crash allegedly took place five years before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, so whatever was in the air was not manmade. Eyewitness accounts of the crash, mysterious metal found at the site, and the hunt for the only known alien graveyard are all combined into a story that has even the most adamant debunkers baffled. Is this the case that finally proves that UFOs are real? Join us as we separate fact from fiction. On History Channel: July 3 @ 8pm ET/PT. *Ancient Marvels Cities of the Underworld - Istanbul is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and exotic cities in the world. Once the capital city of three of the world's most powerful empires--The Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman--its strategic location made it the perfect spot for empires to rise, fall...and rise again. Today Istanbul's residents are walking on top of remnants of these fallen civilizations...literally. Taxis drive over parts of Constantine's Lost Great Palace; children play on cobblestone streets concealing a massive Byzantine dungeon; a high school sits on a 3rd century wall leading to the bowels of a 100,000 seat ancient Roman Hippodrome; and basement's of old Ottoman homes lead to subterranean tunnels and secret cisterns. Join host Eric Geller as he leaves the buzz of the city streets behind and follows the pull of the past. Teamed with leading archeologists and experts, Eric peels back the layers of the past--to reveal a hidden history that hasn't seen the light of day for ages.On History Channel: July 6 @ 8p ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon Jul 31 20:14:15 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Mon Jul 31 20:20:01 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for August 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for August 2006 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Mammoths: Blond, Brunette or Redhead? - Researchers have extracted DNA from a 43,000-year-old bone that leads them to believe that mammoths may have come in various hair colors, including red and blond. The gene, "Mc1r", codes for a protein that affects hair color in mammals. Reduced activity of that gene produces red hair in humans and yellow hair in such animals as mice, horses and dogs. The research was lead by Holger Roempler of the University of Leipzig in Germany *Cosmic Close Call - Early in July a half-mile wide asteroid zipped by the planet Earth, missing it by about the distance of the moon. While this might seem a huge margin to some, scientists note that it astronomical terms the asteroid, designated 2004 XP14, was the largest object to pass this close to the our planet in the last few years. The space rock was visible as a small moving dot to amateur astronomers with telescopes in North America. 2004XP14 will have other encounters with Earth this century, but according to scientists, none will be a threat for collision. Estimates show that a typical asteroid of this size would create a fireball six miles wide and a crater 7 miles in diameter from a 100,000 megaton explosion if it hit earth. *Carnivorous Kangaroos Surprise Scientists - Kangaroos are usually thought of as cute, pleasant and somewhat unusual animals, that lope across the Australian outback. That wasn't the case in prehistoric times. Paleontologists have found the remains of a much more scary meat eating version of kangaroo that lived between 10 and 20 million years ago. The animal had fangs similar to those of a modern wolf. The species found at the excavation had "well muscled-in teeth, not for grazing. These things had slicing crests that could have crunched through bone and sliced off flesh", said vertebrate paleontologist Sue Hand, a member of the research team. The scientists also found a large duck-like bird that may also have been carnivorous. The scientists jokingly refer this specimen by the name of the "demon duck of doom." *Inflatable Space Station Test Successful - Last month a private commercial space company managed to put an experimental satellite, named Genesis I, into orbit to test the possibility of building a space station using inflatable modules. Real estate magnate Robert Bigelow is bankrolling the project. Bigelow has committed $500 million toward building the station and so far, $75 million has been spent. The object of this recent flight was to see if the test module could successfully inflate in orbit and indications are that the test was a success. Unlike the rigid aluminum construction of the international space station, the test module consists of a flexible outer shell built with such tough materials such as kevlar, which is found in bulletproof vests. *Bacteria has Midas Touch - Scientists have identified a bacteria that seems to be able to create solid gold. Ralstonia metallidurans has been found on gold nuggets in widely separate locations and scientists think that this bacteria takes gold in its dissolved form and converts it into less toxic, solid form. Since heavy metals are toxic to most microorganisms, being able to detoxify its immediate environment gives Ralstonia metallidurans a metabolic advantage. This research is the strongest evidence so far that bacteria could play an important role in creating solid gold, although how this actually works is not yet known. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Comet Halley: Harbinger of Death?: Man has always found comets a bit scary, so when Comet Halley flew past the earth in 1910 leaving a trail of poisonous gas, people got just a little nervous... > (http://www.unmuseum.org/halleycomet.htm) *The Lost World (Remix) - Our graphic novel version formatted as a book so you can can download and print it out at home.> (http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/lostworld.pdf) *From The Curator's Office: The LAN Party - Pour in eight teenage boys, mix with a room full of powerful computers and let bake all night... > (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/lanparty.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Thai Water Elephant - I saw this being talked about on the web and wondered if you knew anything about this "legend" and cryptid. Have you ever heard of it? I've read volumes of stuff on Cryptozoology, but I've never heard of this one. It is supposedly a "Thai Water Elephant" - Anonymous I have to admit that this was so obscure I couldn't find anything about it in any of my regular cryptozoological resources. However, snooping around the web I seem to have found out that this creature falls into the same category as the "jackolope:" a quite normal creature in life that has been altered by taxidermy to be something quite unusual in death. In the case of the jackolope, a deceased rabbit is altered by giving it the antlers of a deer. In the case of the "Thai Water Elephant" it sounds like the perpetrators have started with a shrew. A shrew is a small mouse-like mammal with a long pointed snout, making it already vaguely elephant shaped. The taxidermist does his work removing and adding bones and flesh in different places (for example, apparently the front legs bones below the knees are removed and shaped into the tusks). In the end the hoaxer has something that looks like a tiny elephant. These can then be sold in the tourist trade as novelties. Although several have shown up on Ebay with prices running in the thousands, apparently they can be acquired from street vendors in Burma for a reasonable price. The story of the water elephant goes back at least to the 1800's. It is said that they spend their lives in the water and that their tusks carry venom that can kill a man (this part of the story might have some basis in fact as the shrew is one of the few mammal that are poisonous). Only experienced hunters are able to capture them, which is why they are so rare and expensive (at least that is how the story is told by the curiosity shop owner that wishes to sell you one). It is not clear whether the story of a water elephant has any place in traditional folklore, or if it was simply invented after the first hoaxer discovered he could turn a dead, worthless shrew into a rare, valuable water elephant and need a story to go along with it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Moon Hoax - In August of 1835 The New York Sun newspaper published a series of stories reporting that astronomers had observed creatures on the moon that were four feet in height, covered with glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings on their backs. Though the articles were supposed to be a reprint from the Edinburgh Journal of Science (which was nonexistent) the material was actually written by Sun reporter Richard Adams Locke. The series became known as the "Moon Hoax." Locke said his motives for writing the story were satirical as he wanted to poke fun at the idea there could be life on other planets. The "Moon Hoax" remains one of the best examples of 18th century hoax journalism (http://www.unmuseum.org/jourhoax.htm), a widespread practice at that time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Perseid Meteor Shower - The peak of this shower will occur on August 12th between midnight and first light. Look for the shooting stars to appear anywhere in the sky, but traveling from the direction of the constellation of Cassiopeia. These meteors are dust left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. As the earth moves though the comet's path these tiny particles hit our atmosphere and make spectacular streaks across the night sky as they burn up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Bigfoot Dispute Hits Court - According to a story in the Mercury News, a lawsuit has broken out between C. Thomas Biscardi, a self described Bigfoot expert, and Carole Rubin and Robert Shorey, president and vice president of the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization. According to Biscardi's lawyer, Biscardi was hired by the group for $250,000 to act as a consultant and guide for expeditions. As a part of the deal Biscardi would also allow the group to use his library which includes plaster footprints, films, photos and sound recordings of the beast. Biscardi's lawyer says the group only paid him $65,000 and will not return his collection. Biscardi's lawyer says he is willing to drop the suit if the Organization will return his library collection. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA - Who Killed the Red Baron? - Forensic experts investigate the most famous aviation mystery of World War I. On the PBS: August 22 at 8 pm ET/PT *Europa: Mystery of the Ice Moon - Does life exist on one of Jupiter's moons? Europa, the planet's fourth largest moon, may hold the answer. Scientists have found evidence that water exists there, and they are probing to see if Europa's oceans could, or did at one time sustain life. On the Science Channel: AUG 01 2006 @ 10:00 PM; AUG 02 2006 @ 01:00 AM; AUG 02 2006 @ 05:00 AM; AUG 02 2006 @ 11:00 AM; AUG 02 2006 @ 03:00 PM; AUG 06 2006 @ 06:00 PM; ET/PT *Prophets Of Science Fiction - Examine the strange lives of the visionaries of science fiction. The secrets of their uncanny ability to foretell the future are revealed. On the Science Channel: AUG 06 2006 @ 10:00 PM, AUG 07 2006 @ 01:00 AM, AUG 07 2006 @ 05:00 AM, AUG 07 2006 @ 11:00 AM, AUG 07 2006 @ 03:00 PM, AUG 13 2006 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT *The Mystery of the Jurassic - A remote plateau in Patagonia, Argentina reveals an incredible dinosaur graveyard that scientists believe could be the most significant find ever. This area reveals fossils from the Middle Jurassic, the most mysterious period in dinosaur history. On The Science Channel: AUG 21 2006 @ 08:00 PM, AUG 21 2006 @ 11:00 PM, AUG 22 2006 @ 03:00 AM, AUG 22 2006 @ 09:00 AM, AUG 22 2006 @ 01:00 PM, AUG 26 2006 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Shark Week! - Discovery Channel does their annual Shark Week starting August 1st. Some featured shows will be Sharks: Are They Hunting Us? AUG 02 2006 @ 09:00 PM, AUG 03 2006 @ 01:00 AM, AUG 05 2006 @ 04:00 PM; Shark Rebellion AUG 03 2006 @ 09:00 PM, AUG 04 2006 @ 01:00 AM, AUG 05 2006 @ 05:00 PM; and MythBusters - Jaws Special AUG 02 2006 @ 10:00 PM. On The Discovery Channel. *Triassic Giant - Ichthyosaurs were swimming, air breathing creatures that resembled whales and dolphins. A team excavates the giant fossil from a riverbank in British Columbia that is believed to be the largest Triassic ichthyosaur ever found. On The Discovery Channel: AUG 05 2006 @ 09:00 PM, AUG 06 2006 @ 01:00 AM ; ET/PT. *The Real Tomb Hunters: Snakes, Curses, and Booby Traps - Fighting Nazis; grabbing golden treasure; fleeing angry natives; dodging pitfalls in a booby-trapped temple--we all know how fictional explorers and archaeologists spend their days. But does real life compare? We follow some of the most daring archaeologists and take on the dangers they face--Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass steps into a booby-trapped tomb; American Arthur Demarest fights looters in the jungles of Cancuen; and in Chiapas, angry villagers kidnap Australian-born Peter Mathews. We also examine stories of past explorers who helped shape the "Indiana Jones" stereotype--paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews battled venomous snakes and Mongol bandits in the Gobi Desert; John Pendlebury, the British archaeologist, fought Nazis on Crete; and Sylvanus Morley, who was the first American archaeologist/spy. There are no special effects, no stuntmen, and no retakes...and for these real-life archaeologists, no guarantee they'll survive for a sequel.On History Channel: August 5 @ 5pm ET/PT ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Sep 1 00:03:48 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Fri Sep 1 00:25:52 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for September 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for September 2006 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *The Eight Planets - Last month the International Astronomical Union created a definition of a planet that has excluded Pluto, one of the traditional nine, from the list. Up to this point there had been no official definition for planet, but the discovery of several objects, including one nicknamed "Xena" that is larger than Pluto, forced the Union to create a set of criteria. Until the last minute is seemed likely that the group would vote to include the smaller bodies and increase the number of planets to twelve, with more likely to be found in the near future. Instead the definition was changed to include spherical bodies large enough to "sweep" their orbits clean of small objects like asteroids. Scientists are now calling objects like Pluto, and "Xena," "dwarf" planets. *The Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes - Scientists have discovered two new species of prehistoric marine reptiles belonging to the group of animals call plesiosaurs. Umoonasaurus was the "killer whale equivalent of the Jurassic" period with a relatively small length of 8 feet and distinguished by three crest-like ridges on its skull. "Imagine a compact body with four flippers, a reasonably long neck, small head and short tail much like a reptilian seal," said paleontologist Benjamin Kear, a member of the team that identified the creatures. The other, Opallionectes was about 20 feet long and had many fine, needle-like teeth for trapping small fish and squid. Both lived in the freezing polar waters that covered Australia 115 million years ago, when the continent was located closer to Antarctica. The team published their finding in the journal Paleontology and also the online edition of Biology Letters, a periodical from the prestigious Royal Society of London. *"One Space Step" Tapes Missing - The U.S. government has misplaced the original historic recordings of man's first walk on the moon along with other data tapes from the Apollo space missions. Approximately seven hundred boxes of the material, mostly data tapes, have disappeared. The data tapes were held by the National Archives but returned to NASA sometime in the late 1970s and it is not known what has become of them. A NASA spokesman assured reporters that all the data that is missing is still available to the space agency in a different form, though the quality of some of the material, such as the television pictures, may not be of as high a quality as the originals. *Too Much Deuterium Around - Scientists have been surprised to find a lot more deuterium lurking around in the universe than expected, according to a study published in the Astrophysical Journal last month. Deuterium is form of hydrogen with a neutron in its nucleus that was created just moments after the "big bang." According to current theories much of it should have turned into regular hydrogen since then as it was recycled through stars. Results from the NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, satellite, show that the amount of deuterium around, however, has only declined 15% from the big bang, less then half of what was expected. "This implies that either significantly less material has been converted to helium and heavier elements in stars or that much more primordial gas has rained down onto the galaxy over its lifetime than had been thought," said Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado, who led the study. "In either case, our models of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way will have to be revised significantly to explain this important new result." *Scientists Take a Closer Look at Dangerous Comets and Asteroids - International Astronomical Union, last month, established a special task force charged with taking a close look at the threat of collision with "near-Earth objects" like asteroids that might cause a global cataclysm. "The goal is to discover these killer asteroids before they discover us," said Nick Kaiser of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. There are an estimated 1,100 comets and asteroids in the inner solar system at least a half-mile across and could cause planet wide destruction should they hit Earth. Scientists hope to chart the paths of possibly dangerous objects. If given a decade of warning it is possible that a specially designed spacecraft could be used to "nudge" the object out of the way and into a different orbit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Lost City of Petra - An ancient city of stone hides deep in the mountains of Jordan. What mysteries are hidden there? (http://www.unmuseum.org/petra.htm) *The Kraken - Our popular page on this legendary creature updated. (http://www.unmuseum.org/kraken.htm) *From The Curator's Office: The B9 Builders Club - What more could you want than a plastic pal that's fun to be with? (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/b9builders.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Moving Target in Space - I understand that the Universe is constantly expanding, which means that we, on Earth, including our solar system, are in a new area of space at any time, constantly moving away. Why is that we never see or encounter anything in the new spaces we pass through? What is the speed of this expansion? Thank you, Victor B. The expansion of the universe is thought to have started with the "Big Bang" some 11.2 billion to 20 billion years ago. Since all matter and energy in the universe were at one time together in one location, the expansion, or some use the term "inflation," of the universe has the effect of spreading things out so it actually reduces the density of material in the universe overall making things farther apart the longer time goes on. Imagine putting three dots on a balloon with a marker, then blowing air into the balloon. The inflation of the balloon causes the dots move apart. The rate of expansion looks different based on how far away an object is from you. A galaxy that is a megaparsec (3.2 million light years) away from us moves at a speed of approximately 72 kilometers per second (Kps). A galaxy two megaparsecs away moves at a speed of 144 Kps and so on (If this doesn't make sense, put three dots on a balloon in a row and label them A, B and C, then blow it up. The distance from A to C will increase about twice as fast as that from A to B). Now on a smaller scale, gravity in the universe does cause material to clump together to form things like stars, solar systems and galaxies. Because of the effects of gravity they stay relatively the same distance from each other in respect to the expansion of the universe. Even so, they are also moving. Our sun, along with billions of other stars in our Milky Way galaxy, rotate around a central point (probably a massive black hole). The speed of rotation varies, with the stars closer to the center going slower and those farther out going faster. The Sun is about 2/3s of the way out from the center and moves at a speed of 250 Kps. Since the sun is moving along with most of the stars in this area of the galaxy in the same general direction, our distance in respect to these stars doesn't change much. However scientists have recently found evidence of "rebel" stars that seem to be moving either out from the galactic center or in toward it. Our next encounter with such a star will occur in about 1.4 million years from now when Gliese 710 will pass within a light year of us. To sum it all up, we are always moving, but the distances in space are so vast things only go by us rarely and when they do they are still very far away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *The Last Tasmanian Tiger - On September 7, 1936, the last thylacine, also known as the "Tasmanian tiger," died in captivity in the Hobart Domain Zoo in Tasmania. The thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial, had been eradicated in the wild by the Australian government six years before as they saw them as a pest that endangered livestock. Occasionally reports that the "tiger" is still alive somewhere in the deep forests of Tasmania have been heard, but so far no convincing evidence has come to light. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Month of the Moon - Check out the full moon on September 7th as it rises just after sunset. When the moon is low in the sky like that you can observe the "Moon Illusion:" The moon appears to be much bigger than normal, though an actual measurements shows that it is really a tiny bit bigger when directly overhead. For a more detailed explanation of this illusion goto http://www.unmuseum.org/exmoon.htm. The moon also comes to our attention on September 21st. While the lunar orbital path is almost circular, there are times when it is slightly farther from Earth than others. This point is called the apogee. On that day the moon reaches its furthest apogee of the year, at a distance of 252,587 miles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *The Mystery Beast of Maine - Residents of Maine are scratching their heads about a strange animal that appeared out of nowhere on a secluded highway and was hit fatally by a car. The bizarre looking creature was thought to be living in the forest in the area possibly attacking animals. Since the incident several residents of the neighborhood have come forward to speak of a mystery monster that roams the woods. "It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," recounted Michelle O'Donnell to the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I've lived in Maine my whole life and I've never seen anything like it." Some have suggested the creature is a goat-sheep hybrid or even a Tasmanian devil or dingo. Others have wondered if it had extraterrestrial origins. Author and cryptozoologist Loren Coleman examined the body and suspects it was a feral dog. Samples have been taken from the body by the Sun Journal newspaper to be sent to a lab so the species can be identified though DNA testing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *T-Rex: Warrior or Wimp? - Since the discovery of the first T-Rex skeleton in 1905, this famous dinosaur has been billed a supreme predator, a six-ton Tyrant Lizard King. The dinosaur’s mouth, filled with huge spiky teeth, led scientists to conclude it must have been a killer. On the Science Channel: SEP 03 2006 @ 10:00 PM, SEP 04 2006 @ 01:00 AM, SEP 04 2006 @ 05:00 AM; ET/PT *Exploring Einstein: Life of a Genius - Albert Einstein's physics theories led to the creation of the nuclear bomb, space travel, and an understanding of our universe. In the later part of his life Einstein tried to disprove his theories as they clashed with his personal beliefs. On the Science Channel: SEP 10 2006 @ 10:00 PM, SEP 11 2006 @ 01:00 AM, SEP 11 2006 @ 05:00 AM, SEP 11 2006 @ 11:00 AM, SEP 11 2006 @ 03:00 PM, SEP 17 2006 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT *When Yellowstone Erupts - A super volcano lies beneath the beauty of Yellowstone Park. Scientists are challenged with predicting when the next super-eruption might take place and describing what will happen if this cataclysmic event occurs. On The Science Channel: SEP 17 2006 @ 09:00 PM, SEP 18 2006 @ 12:00 AM, SEP 18 2006 @ 04:00 AM, SEP 18 2006 @ 10:00 AM, SEP 18 2006 @ 02:00 PM, SEP 23 2006 @ 09:00 AM; ET/PT. *Big Science: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs - Until recently, most scientists thought they knew what killed off the dinosaurs - a giant meteorite crashing into Earth. But a small and vociferous group of scientists believes there is increasing evidence that the 'impact' theory could be wrong. On The Discovery Channel: SEP 02 2006 @ 08:00 PM, SEP 03 2006 @ 12:00 AM ; ET/PT. *Comet Collision! - NASA's brilliant but risky mission is designed to collide with a comet and in the process, reveal what lies in the heart of those blazing voyagers of the solar system. Filmmakers use state-of-the-art spacecraft animation and stunning location photography. On The Discovery Channel: SEP 30 2006 @ 08:00 PM, OCT 01 2006 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Tsunami 2004: Waves of Death - The 2004 Tsunami, centered in the Indian Ocean, was caused by a 9.3 earthquake--the second strongest quake on record. Join us for a minute-by-minute look at nature's fury at its worst, when the tsunami kills more than 200,000 people in 14 countries. In this special, we examine the tsunami as it moves from coast to coast through the eyes of people who lived through it and scientists now studying its path of devastation. Drawing on the extraordinary volume of amateur video that recorded the disaster, we take viewers inside the world's deadliest tsunami. On History Channel: August 28 @ 8pm ET/PT. *Lost Worlds Knights Templar - They defended the Holy Land through bloodshed and prayer. Founded in the 12th century, these Christian warrior monks reigned supreme for nearly 200 years before suffering a spectacular fall from grace. Tried for heresy, they were disbanded and their Grand Master burned at the stake. We'll search behind the legend for their lost world. We recreate the city they knew as Tortosa--now hidden among modern homes in the Syrian city of Tartus. We reveal secrets of their headquarters at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, with magnificent underground vaults that could stable 1,000 horses. And we visit the circular church in London built to resemble the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the site of the Templar's mysterious initiation rites. We bring to life the hilltop fortress that Lawrence of Arabia called "the finest castle in the world", and return to the Mediterranean island where the Knights Templars made their last stand against Moslem enemies. On History Channel: September 3 @ 8pm ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Sat Sep 30 21:33:49 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Sat Sep 30 21:44:45 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter October 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for October 2006 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Telepathy Between Friends? - A scientist claims he has evidence that people can telepathically predict who is calling them before their phone actually rings. Rupert Sheldrake of Trinity College, Cambridge ran an experiment in which friends and relatives of a subject would randomly be asked to call the subject. The subject had to identify who the call was coming from before they picked up the phone. The subjects were successful 45% of the time, well above the 25% that might be expected by chance. Sheldrake reported similar results with an experiment involving email. Critics his study point out that the small sample size (only 63 for phone experiment and 50 for email) may be affecting his results. Sheldrake, who believes in telepathy within an interconnected social group, plans to do a similar study for text messaging. *Chimps Use "Crossing Guards" - Scientists report that wild chimps use "crossing guards" when a band of them transverses a busy human road. The research, published last month in Current Biology, analyzes 19 cases where a group of chimpanzees crossed two roads in their territory near Bossou, Guinea, West Africa. Video tapes show the "alpha" male scanning the highway both left and right before signaling the group to cross in an orderly line. An adult male would also wait at the end of the line to assist younger chimps in making the crossing. The results of these studies are surprising given the studies of chimpanzees in laboratory situations where they seem to be indifferent to the welfare of others in their group. Scientists say this underscores the need to study the behaviors of animals in their natural habitat, not in a deprived laboratory environment. *"Hot Jupiter" May Help "Earths" Form - A computer study suggests that earth-like, habitable planets may be able to form in planetary systems were a large gas giant planet is in close orbit around a star. Scientists had speculated that such systems with "hot Jupiters," which are so much unlike our own solar system where gas giants located farther out, might not spawn places hospitable to life. This new study indicates gas giants may not only help rocky planets form close to the suns, but also may help pull in icy bodies, like comets, that deliver water to them. If so, this may increase the chances of life as we know it in other solar systems. *Find is Oldest American Writing - An ancient slab covered with symbols that was found in Mexico has been identified as the oldest known example of writing in the Western Hemisphere. Scientists think that the ancient Olmec civilization probably produced the stone around 900 B.C.. That would make it three centuries older than any other previous example of writing in the Americas. According to an article in the journal Science, the symbols on the slab show all the signs of being part of a true language, including syntax and language-specific word order. Experts hold out little hope of being able to decipher the meaning of the 2,900 year-old lost text, however. Villagers in the Mexican state of Veracruz found the slab in the 1990's, while digging for road-building material. Scientists only heard about it recently and traveled to the site to examine the find earlier this year. *Last Refuge of Neanderthals Found - According to article on the website of the journal Science, scientists think they have found one of the last known sites in the world occupied by Neanderthals. Neanderthals were stocky, muscular humans who first appeared about 200,000 years ago. The article claims radiocarbon dating of charcoal found with Neanderthal remains at a massive cave near the southern tip of Spain, show that Neanderthals were living there as recently as 25,000 years ago. This occupation would be would be 5,000 years more recent than any other known location. Other researchers dispute this, saying the evidence may actually show that the site was occupied 30,000 ago, contemporary with other places. They acknowledge, however, that even if this is true, the location is still significant was as one of the final refuges for this vanishing group. Scientists have long been fascinated by Neanderthals because they lived at the same time as modern humans. Researchers wonder if the two groups had any contact and, if so, did this contact lead to the demise of the Neanderthals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Witches of Salem: The Events of 1692 - The word spread quickly through the tiny community of Salem Village: "There are witches among us." (http://www.unmuseum.org/salemwitch1.htm) *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Remix) - Our graphic novel version formatted as a book so you can can download and print it out at home. (http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/tlus.pdf) *From The Curator's Office: The Witches of Fifth Grade - Double, double toil and trouble; Cauldron burn, and fire bubble! (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/witches.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Where Have All the Mustangs Gone? - Why do all the horses in the old photographs I saw at the museums and on the history web sites look nothing at all like the horses on TV shows or movies about Cowboys Indians and Mountain Man Explorers? Are they all new breed horses just playing the real old western horses? Is the breed that they really used back then extinct now? If so - how sad is that? My granddad says the horses back then were half as big and twice as tough as any of the ones we have now. The closest we have today is mustangs but now even they are now just modern breed runaways, throwaways and calls. He said that if we still had those horses we would have the genes that could save the big modern horses from diseases someday. There are groups saving the chickens and cows and even the pigs we had back then. Why didn't they save those horses too?! - Ann E. The history of horse breeding is complex to say the least and I can't say that I'm an expert on the subject. However, with some research and some information from some authorities I hope I can answer your question. No horse in North America today is technically a "wild" horse. All wild horses died off at the end of the last Ice Age, possibly due to climate change or hunting by native peoples. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1500's they brought horses with them that escaped or were released into the wild (which makes them "feral" animals, not wild). This is the root of the mustang population in North America today. The mustangs of the west quickly grew to be tough animals as they had to survive on limited vegetation and water in a hot climate. This seems to have favored a smaller horse, perhaps because their smaller bodies needed less water and food to survive. When the Europeans arrived in the west they found that some of the breeds of horses they brought with them were not suited to the harsh climate. They either switched to catching and using the smaller mustangs, or crossbred the horses they brought with them to the mustangs to create new line that had some of the features of each. This means that when you see the smaller horses in the old pictures, you may be looking at tamed mustangs, or a cross between the two lines that resulted in a smaller horse. Today with less limited resources, people who own horses are able use breeds that have traits which suit the purpose for which the horse is to be used and are not so concerned about how it would survive in the wild. This may be part of the trend to larger horses. Some of the increases in horse size may also be due to the increase in rider size: people are taller and heavier than they were a century ago. Your Granddad may be right about modern horses being more susceptible to certain illnesses. Whenever a population is heavily inbred, genetic weaknesses can occur. Mustangs are currently protected under U.S. law. There are a number of separate herds each with unique genetic traits. Many of the herds show a mixed background that includes the original Spanish breeding and later imports from other locations. However, there are a few small herds, such as the Kiger and Cerat, in very isolated locations which have been shown in DNA testing to be almost directly descended from the horses that came over with the Conquistadors. Steps have been taken to preserve these bloodlines as apart of our unique American Heritage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Lightning Strikes Again - On October 8th, 1919, the Monthly Weather Review reported that a ball of fire as large as a "washtub" floated into a downtown intersection of Salina in Kansas. It struck a building, tearing out bricks and destroying a second story window. It then exploded with a bang and send smaller fire balls off in all directions and causing a power failure. This was probably the work of that most startling of all anomalies, ball lightning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Earthlight - At trip outside in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday October 18th will yield an interesting and beautiful sight. At first it will appear that the moon's face is merely a crescent lit by the sun. A closer look will show you that rest of the disc illuminated by earthlight (the reflection of the light off the Earth). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Couple Sees "Loch Ness-Type" Monster in British Lake - A couple claim they observed a "Loch Ness-type" monster in Lake Windermere, in Britain according to Ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk. "It was like a giant eel. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I just stood there and couldn't believe what I was looking at" said Steve Burnip, after he and his wife observed the creature which appeared to be between 15 to 20 feet in length. Ian Winfield, a fish ecologist at Lancaster University, believes the Burnips may have seen a Wels catfish. This giant fish, which was introduced into Britain from mainland Europe, can grow up over 15 feet long. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA: The Viking Deception - Is the Vinland map a priceless depiction of the New World made before Columbus's voyage or a 20th-century fake? On PBS: October 10 at 8 pm; ET/PT *KAPOW! Superhero Science - Celebrate the science behind the superpowers and gadgetry of comic book super heroes and heroines. Investigate real-life cases of super-strength, x-ray vision and speed, and discover the scientific feasibility of high-tech superpowers. On the Science Channel: OCT 04 2006 @ 08:00 PM; OCT 04 2006 @ 11:00 PM; OCT 05 2006 @ 03:00 AM; OCT 05 2006 @ 09:00 AM; OCT 05 2006 @ 01:00 PM; OCT 08 2006 @ 01:00 PM; ET/PT *Egypt's New Tomb Revealed - A new tomb was found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, with 28 jars and seven coffins. Discover what is sealed inside the jars and what connection the mummies in the coffins may have to King Tut's tomb. On The Science Channel: OCT 09 2006 @ 09:00 PM; OCT 10 2006 @ 12:00 AM; OCT 10 2006 @ 04:00 AM; OCT 10 2006 @ 10:00 AM; OCT 10 2006 @ 02:00 PM; OCT 14 2006 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT. *The Riddle of Pompeii - Explore life and society in Ancient Rome through recent archaeological excavations and cutting edge science. Discover what really happened during the eruption in AD 79 that destroyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. On The Science Channel: OCT 16 2006 @ 09:00 PM; OCT 17 2006 @ 12:00 AM; OCT 17 2006 @ 04:00 AM; OCT 17 2006 @ 10:00 AM; OCT 17 2006 @ 02:00 PM; OCT 21 2006 @ 05:00 PM ; ET/PT. *MythBusters: Mind Control - Adam and Jamie attempt to blow open a home improvement myth with dynamite. The 3 Mythkateers tackle mind control by manipulating someone's mind remotely. On The Discovery Channel: OCT 04 2006 @ 09:00 PM; OCT 05 2006 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT. *Lost Worlds: The Pagans - In the late Stone Age, the pagan people of the British Isles constructed some of the greatest monuments of the ancient world. Fabulous constructions of wood, earth, and stone arose. In this hour, we enter the world of their builders. We travel from the ancient stone villages of the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, to Stonehenge, in Southern England. We reveal a startling new theory about the role this extraordinary structure played in the lives of the pagans. With computer animation, we reconstruct the monument as it appeared to them. We then trace a forgotten ancient pathway to Stonehenge's lost twin--Woodhenge, explore the secrets of Silbury Hill, the world's largest man-made mound, and visit Maiden Castle, a fortress that witnessed the pagan world's end. On History Channel: October 1st @ 10pm ET/PT. *Digging For The Truth: Giants of Patagonia - Many explorers throughout the centuries, including the great Ferdinand Magellan, visited the region in South America now known as Patagonia and reported sighting giants. From these accounts we get the name "Patagonia"--Land of the Big Feet. But what exactly did these explorers see? Now, some experts suggest that the giant, upright-walking ground sloth, once widespread throughout Patagonia, could have been the source of these stories. Josh Bernstein accompanies paleontologists, naturalists, and crypto-zoologists on a search to determine whether the ground sloth could have lived into the era of human habitation. He treks across the glaciers of Patagonia, descends deep in the mountain caves, accompanies a band of gauchos on horseback, and joins a modern-day paleontology dig to try to discover evidence that the ground sloth still exists today. On History Channel: October 2nd @ 10pm ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Thu Nov 2 01:16:45 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (unmuseum_newsletter@unmuseum.org) Date: Thu Nov 2 01:17:46 2006 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newletter for November 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for November 2006 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Mars Rover Gets Ready for New Challenge - The Mars rover Opportunity has is about to embark on a new exploration. The rover, which has already outlasted its expected life by over 10 times, has made it to the edge of a massive impact crater named Victoria. The rover will start a descent as soon as possible. Scientists are concerned that the rover, because of its age, could have a fatal system failure at anytime. Researchers hope that if the robot is able to get to the bottom of the crater it might be able to examine rock layers billions of years old. These old rocks might have been soaked in water sometime in the planet's distant past and show traces of life, if it had ever taken hold there. Opportunity will be guided on its journey by the new NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which has just arrived at the red planet. The orbiter has camera so powerful that they not only can show details of the crater needed to guide the rover, but it has spotted the rover itself standing on the rim. *Oxygen Rich World Explains Big Insects - A new study shows that dragonflies, millipedes and other insects that lived 300 million years ago grew to gigantic sizes because of a rich oxygen atmosphere. This explains why fossils of 4-foot-long millipedes, 4-inch cockroaches and dragonflies with 2 1/2-foot wingspans have been found in the Paleozoic period. The study's conclusion was that in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of those ancient times, insects needed less air to meet their oxygen needs and could afford smaller trachea (the tubes that transport air throughout the bugs) than modern insects. Though these insects had the same basic body structure as modern versions, their maximum size could be larger because the smaller trachea left additional room for the other body parts. *Scientists Recover Rare Meteorite - A wheat field in Kansas had yielded a rare meteorite thanks to new ground penetrating radar. The space rock, a pallasite meteorite, has crystals embedded in iron. Scientists estimate that only 1 percent of meteorites that fall to earth of this unusual type. A careful investigation shows that the meteorite landed about 10,000 years ago and Native Americans may have seen it land. There is evidence that they traded the pieces as jewelry and ceremonial artifacts. Scientists have found pieces of the shower as far away as the Indian mounds in Ohio. This meteorite, the second largest of this type ever found, was probably part of a larger meteor that shattered and more than 15,000 pounds of material have been recovered from this location, a third of them just in the last year. *Real Tomb Raiders - Tomb Robbers have led officials to the site of some previously unknown tombs deep in the desert of Egypt. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters, that the thieves had started an illegal excavation on three tombs last summer. One of the tombs was sealed with a curse declaring that a violator would be eaten by crocodile and a snake, according to Hawass. The tombs, near the Step Pyramid of King Djoser, were meant to honor Egypt's chief dentists, Kem Msw and Sekhem Ka who treated the pharaohs and their families. Hawass said that archeologists have the thieves, who are now in jail, to thank for the discovery. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Witches of Salem Part II: Threories and Speculations- In the year 1692 a number of young girls started to show bizarre behaviors in the quiet village of Salem. Why? http://www.unmuseum.org/salemwitch2.htm *From The Curator's Office: Whatever Happened to the Monorail? - It was the wave for the future, but so far it hasn't hit the beach. http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/monorail.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Reversed Gravity - I was wondering if you could help me to track down a hill I remember reading about as a young boy. In the article it mentioned that you could roll a vehicle up the hill without any mechanical assistance. - Ian W. There are a number of these locations throughout the world going under names like "Gravity Hill," "Mystery Hill," "Confusion Hill," "Magnetic Hill," "Spook Hill," etc.. Some are just locations along the road. Others have become commercialized. Basically they all work the same way: They are natural optical illusions. The horizon in these places is obscured, or partly obscured so that it can't provide a reference to your eyes about what is level. The objects in the area the might tell you want is straight up or down (like trees) are slightly off-kilter giving you a false impression. While your inner-ears gives you some clues to what is level, they are not very exacting and can be fooled if what your eyes see convinces you otherwise. Because you can't really tell what level is, the hill appears to be going up hill, when it is really going down, so your car looks like it is rolling up, while it is actually moving downhill. Some of these have gotten reputations as places where there is a gravity anomaly or some paranormal energy, but in truth they are just really cool natural illusions. For more information and a list of locations check out this webpage: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Great Ball of Fire - The crew of the British steamer Siberian reported that on November 12, 1887, they saw an enormous "large ball of fire" rise out of the water to a height of fifty feet, approach the ship moving against the wind, and then fly away. No explanation for this event has ever been found. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Leonid Show is Weak - Leonid meteor shower, usually a crowd pleaser, will be sparse in North America this year, but may be very visible in Europe and Africa. The shower is a trail of dust released by Comet Tempel-Tuttle that crosses earth orbit. What can be seen from North America will be best observed at 11:45PM on November 18th by looking into the ENE sky. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Museum Buys Chupacbra - The Lost World Museum in Phoenix, N.Y. (http://www.lostworldmuseum.com) have bought the remains of what some people claim is a Chupacabra. The Chupacabra (roughly translated as "goat sucker") has been a semi-mythical creature rumored to live in Puerto Rico and parts of South America. In the last 10 years, however, it has been occasionally reported in North America. The body the museum purchased was from an animal shot in New York near the town of Berkshire. Individuals who tracked and shot the creature claim that the animal was indeed a Chupacabra, though experts from Cornell University identified it as a mutated fox with mange. The creature will go on display at the Lost World Museum when it opens in the spring of 2007. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA: Wings of Madness - The flamboyant rise and tragic death of aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont On PBS: November 7 at 8 pm; ET/PT *Einstein's Beautiful Equation - Scientific genius can change the world, but at what price? Albert Einstein's theory E=mc2 ultimately led to creation of a weapon of mass destruction. He considered the atomic bomb his biggest blunder and spent years promoting disarmament and peace. On the Science Channel: NOV 05 2006 @ 10:00 PM NOV 06 2006 @ 01:00 AM NOV 06 2006 @ 05:00 AM NOV 06 2006 @ 11:00 AM NOV 06 2006 @ 03:00 PM; ET/PT *Parallel Universe - The strange notion of parallel universes is gaining strength in the scientific community and may solve our most basic questions about the universe, including the origins of the Big Bang itself. On The Science Channel: NOV 12 2006 @ 10:00 PM NOV 13 2006 @ 01:00 AM NOV 13 2006 @ 05:00 AM NOV 13 2006 @ 11:00 AM NOV 13 2006 @ 03:00 PM; ET/PT. *T-Rex: New Science, New Beast - For the first time ever, we'll travel into the past and re-write the history of T. rex, we'll turn over every little child’s imagination and introduce the world to The Real T. rex! On The Science Channel: NOV 26 2006 @ 09:00 PM NOV 27 2006 @ 12:00 AM NOV 27 2006 @ 04:00 AM NOV 27 2006 @ 10:00 AM NOV 27 2006 @ 02:00 PM ; ET/PT. *MythBusters: Explosive Decompression - Jamie and Adam shoot a bullet hole into the shell of an aircraft to see if that single shot will cause explosive decompression and destroy the aircraft. Find out if two hunters could use a loaded .22 gun cartridge as a car ignition fuse. On The Discovery Channel: NOV 15 2006 @ 09:00 PM NOV 16 2006 @ 01:00 AM NOV 18 2006 @ 07:00 PM ; ET/PT. *Before the Dinosaur - Welcome to Earth -- before the dinosaurs. The creatures may look strange, but they mark the beginning of life as we know it. Learn how some of the characteristics that helped them survive millions of years ago make humans what they are today. On The Discovery Channel: NOV 25 2006 @ 08:00 PM NOV 26 2006 @ 12:00 AM ; ET/PT. *Hangar 18: The UFO Warehouse - What happens when a UFO crashes? Some experts claim that the UFO wreckage and even the pilots are transported to a top-secret facility in Dayton, Ohio called "Hangar 18" located on Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Declassified Government documents prove that the "disk" from the famous Roswell event and fragments of other mysterious crashes were shipped to Wright Patterson. Hear stories involving elected officials, UFO researchers, and former base employees, some of whom are going on the record regarding "Hangar 18." They spin a tale of flying saucer debris, alien bodies, cryogenic chambers and a vast underground network that may hold the secrets to the UFO mystery. Is there a conspiracy to hide UFO evidence from the highest branches in the U.S. Government, or is it all just a myth? On History Channel: Monday, November 06 08:00 PM Tuesday, November 07 12:00 AM Sunday, November 19 06:00 PM ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Dec 1 22:48:23 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 03:48:23 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2006 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2006 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Leonardo's Finger Points to Middle-East - Researchers at the University of Chieti have extracted the fingerprint of the great artist and scientist, Leonardo da Vinci, from his works. According to anthropologist Luigi Capasso, leader of the team, this fingerprint is the only known physical remains of the artist and suggests he had a middle-eastern heritage. The project began in 2002 when it was discovered that many of Leonardo's papers had fingerprints on them. Since some the prints could have belonged to assistants and others who handled the materials, the team examined 52 of his papers and some of his paintings looking for consistent prints. The team put together several partial prints to construct an entire fingertip, which they believe belongs to the artist's left forefinger. According to Capasso, "The fingerprint features patterns such as the central whorl that are dominant in the Middle East. About 60 percent of the Middle Eastern population display the same dermatoglyphic structure found in the fingerprint." This would support the idea that Leonardo's mother was not a local peasant girl as was previously assumed, but might have been a Middle Eastern slave. *Yacht Discovers New Island - The crew of the Maiken, a yacht sailing near the Tongan islands group, has reported discovering a new volcanic island which has just risen from the sea. The ship first noticed "pumice rafts"- light, porous volcanic stone floating in the water - while sailing toward Fiji. "We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a couple of hundred meters into this surreal floating stone field before we realized that we had to turn back," wrote a crewman in the ship's web log. The crew reported seeing the island itself the next day. "One mile in diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes," said a crewmember, adding, "I think we're the first ones out here." *Recycling Space Probes - Scientists at NASA are working on recycling old space probes and giving them new missions. The agency has approved two new missions for the Deep Impact probe which blasted a hole in comet Tempel-1 back in July of 2005 and one mission for Stardust, a probe which returned samples of Comet Wild-2 earlier this year. The reuse of these existing probes allows scientists to conduct new science at a fraction of the cost of building and launching another probe. Deep Impact will do a fly-by of a comet named Boethin to get a closer look. Scientists are very interested in comets and the part they may have played in depositing water on early Earth. On the way to Boethin, Deep Impact's cameras will also be used to look for Earth-like planets around stars in other solar systems. Stardust will be redirected to Deep Impact's original target, Tempel-1, to see what it looks like after it was hit by Deep Impact's projectile. *Spacecraft Observes Hurricane - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered a storm about two-thirds the diameter of Earth across Saturn's southern pole. The probe clocked its winds in the storm at speeds of 350 mph. "It looks like a hurricane, but it doesn't behave like a hurricane," said Andrew Ingersoll, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Scientists estimate that the clouds tower 20- to 45 miles above the center of the storm. That's several times higher than the clouds that surround the eye of a hurricane on Earth. Scientists believe the storm can grow much taller because the planet's hydrogen-helium atmosphere is much less dense than Earth's at comparable pressures. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *From The Curator's Office: Santa Tracking - What is the real reason the U.S. Government is interested in keeping tabs on the jolly old elf? (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/santatracking.htm) *AKA Santa Claus - Every December 24th millions of people are visited by a short, fat guy in a red suit. Where did he come from, why does he do it, and how does he accomplish this seemingly impossible task? (An encore of our popular feature) (http://www.unmuseum.org/santa.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Can Light Slow Down? - I heard that light never stops or slows down. The beam from your flashlight only seems to dim in the distance because the light waves are spreading out so you can't see them as well. If that is true, couldn't you "fill up" a sealed room with light. If the light waves just keep bouncing around the room and you keep adding more from a bulb, wouldn't the room just get brighter and brighter or where would the light go? - Wick W. In a vacuum, like out in space, light always travels at approximately 186,000 miles a second. However, if light travels through some other medium it can slow down. You can see this with a lens, a prism or a glass of water. When light hits a denser medium at an angle, part of it slows down sooner than the rest. This causes the light to change direction. This property, called refraction, allows a lens to focus light to a point. Because different wavelengths also travel at slightly different speeds in a medium like glass, a prism can be used to change the angle of each color differently allowing normal white light to be split up into is component colors. If you put a straw in a glass filled with drinking water it will look as if the straw is bent because as the light passes into the water it slows down and bends making the straw look out of position. In addition to just slowing it down, scientists have even managed to stop light completely in recent experiments where they channeled light through special materials. They hope to harness this capability to make ultra-fast quantum computers. While a beam of light will get faint in the distance because the light is spreading out, it also loses strength because it is being absorbed and reflected by dust, water vapor and other materials floating in the air. In fact, the only reason you can see a light beam in the air is because part of it is reflected off of material floating in the air back to you. In a perfect vacuum light is invisible. Putting a flashlight in a sealed "clean" room empty of air and dust would remove that problem, but the walls of the room would still absorb much of the light as the beam bounced against them. You could replace the walls with mirrors so that the light would be reflected and bounced around the room, but no mirror is perfect and a little light would still be absorbed with each reflection so the room would never "fill" with light. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Lucky Escape - The day after Christmas, 1950, a Scottish man driving his car near Dumbarton had a brush with death when a mass of ice, estimated to weigh 112 pounds, fell out of the sky nearly hitting him. This was just one of several incidents of unexplained ice falls in Great Britain at that time. No explanation has ever been found for the event. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Three Close Planets - In the early morning hours of Sunday December 10th you will be able to see the most compact gathering of three naked-eye planets since 1925. Jupiter, Mercury and Mars will be low on the ESE horizon just one hour before sunrise. Three naked-eye planets will not be this close togeather again until 2053. If you are busy Sunday morning, the view is still pretty good the day before or after. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *UFO Movie Hoax Causes Confusion - "The Top Secret UFO Project," is filmmaker R. J. Thomas' mockrumentary of UFO TV shows that has caused some confusion among flying saucer enthusiasts. Some have apparently believed that the parody of cheesy UFO documentaries of the 70's like "Overlords of the UFO," and of TV programs like "In Search Of" was for real. The program chronicles the UFO-related events experienced by Jasper, a tiny Colorado hamlet some 75 miles south of Denver. According to the film, the town dealt with one unusual event after another in the summer of 1956. After a farmer spotted a flying saucer zipping over his property, scientists rushed into Jasper to investigate, reporters rushed in looking for stories, and government officials rushed in to keep it a secret from the world. "I've received phone calls. I've received e-mails. Bloggers are arguing about whether it's a fake or not," Mr. Thomas said. Despite this Thomas contents people should not really be fooled. "I don't think anybody's going to walk away from this movie thinking that it is real," Mr. Thomas said. "It's a joke, a spoof, a parody. It is told with a straight face, but it's just meant to be entertaining. Even the folks who are dead serious about UFOs can get a laugh out of this." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *Wave That Shook the World - Experts reconstruct the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in an effort to prepare for the next big one. On PBS: December 19 at 8 pm; ET/PT *The Mystery of the Jurassic - A remote plateau in Patagonia, Argentina reveals an incredible dinosaur graveyard that scientists believe could be the most significant find ever. This area reveals fossils from the Middle Jurassic, the most mysterious period in dinosaur history. On The Science Channel: DEC 04 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 04 2006 @ 11:00 PM DEC 05 2006 @ 03:00 AM DEC 05 2006 @ 09:00 AM DEC 05 2006 @ 01:00 PM DEC 09 2006 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *The Search for Khan's Tomb - Legend has it that after Genghis Khan's funeral, 2,000 servants were killed by 800 soldiers, who were in turn killed by a handful of generals to preserve the secrecy of the tomb site. Now, archaeologists believe they have discovered this hidden treasure. On The Science Channel: DEC 11 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 11 2006 @ 11:00 PM DEC 12 2006 @ 03:00 AM DEC 12 2006 @ 09:00 AM DEC 12 2006 @ 01:00 PM DEC 16 2006 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Big Science: Giant Squid: Caught on Camera - The first photographs ever of the giant squid - one of the world's largest and most mysterious sea creatures. On the Discovery Channel: DEC 10 2006 @ 10:00 PM DEC 11 2006 @ 02:00 AM; *Extreme Engineering Space Tower - The tallest skyscraper in Spain is under construction! The 700 foot tall Torre del Espacio (Space Tower) is unlike any other tall building. Danny will ascend to dizzying heights to join the crew in a week-long struggle to repair one level of the building. On The Discovery Channel: DEC 27 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 28 2006 @ 12:00 AM DEC 30 2006 @ 02:00 PM; ET/PT. *Seven Wonders -The Great Pyramid of Giza, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Colossus of Rhodes, Temple of Artemis, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Pharos of Alexandria. Of the Seven Wonders, only the Great Pyramid remains. Why did ancient scholars select these sites? What can the crumbled remains say about those who built them? On History Channel: Thursday, December 07 09:00 PM Friday, December 08 01:00 AM ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Sun Dec 31 00:10:13 2006 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 05:10:13 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Fish has Really Big Bite - A new study shows that Dunkleosteus terreli, a fish living 360 million years ago in the Late Devonian period, had a biting power twice that of a modern great white shark. Scientists have built a computer model of the ancient creature and have found it could generate at least a force of 5,300 newtons at its rear dental plates. The animal, about the length of a small bus and covered with thick armored plates could snap its jaws shut with surprising speed: as little as a fiftieth of a second. This probably was accompanied by a huge suction force that drew the prey into the creature's mouth. "This bite force capability is the greatest of all living or fossil fishes and is among the most powerful bites in animals," according to a report by Philip Anderson of the University of Chicago and Mark Westneat of the Field Museum of Natural History. "The only reports of higher bite forces are those found in some extremely large alligators and dinosaurs." The study has been published in a recent Biology Letters from the British Royal Society. *Seahorse Aphrodisiac - Indian scientists are trying to put together a study to find out if seahorses are really an aphrodisiac. Eating seahorses has been a traditional way of improving ones romantic potential in many cultures for thousands of years. The researchers hope to be able to prove, or disprove, the effect of the tiny animal, which has become an endangered species. If they can show that there is no effect, they hope that the market for seahorses will decline. If they can show an effect, they believe this will encourage the development of seahorse hatcheries which will also remove pressure from natural populations. It is estimated 20 million seahorses are bought and sold around the world each year. The group is looking for a grant of five million rupees ($111,000) to start the research. *Scientists Nab First Film of Live Giant - A Japanese research team has filmed a live giant squid off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo. They attempted to capture the squid, which measured about 24-feet long, but it died while being aboard brought the research vessel. The animal was caught using a smaller, different type of squid as bait. The scientists only managed to pull the monster aboard their boat "after putting up quite a fight," Tsunemi Kubodera, head of the research team, remarked. The animal, a young female, was not large by giant squid standards. Kubodera said giant squids have been reported to be as long as 60 feet in length. It is believed that the scientists' film is the first ever of a live giant squid. Photographs taken by the same team several years ago are also thought to be first still images of a live squid. *A Komodo Dragon and a Virgin Birth - A Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England has become pregnant even though she has never mated or been around a male dragon. Apparently the dragon, named Flora, fertilized all the eggs herself. Scientists were aware that this process, parthenogenesis, could occur in other lizards, but were unaware that the world's largest lizards, the Komodo Dragons, were also capable of this trick of nature. Scientists verified that there was no father by doing a set of tests on both Flora and her eggs. "Those genetic tests confirmed absolutely that Flora was both the mother and the father of the embryos. It completely blew us away because it [parthenogenesis] has never been seen in such a large species," said Kevin Buley, a member of the Zoo's staff. "?It is nature finding a way." *New Robot to Explore Egyptian Pyramid - Scientists are preparing to send a robot into the great pyramid's "air shafts" to find out what is behind two mysterious doors. This is a follow up on an attempt in 2002 to use a robot to explore the shafts leading from the Queen's Chamber. The original robot found itself blocked about 65 yards into the trip by a stone wall or door with handles. In February researchers from Egypt and Singapore and a team from Britain and Hong Kong plan to insert the new robot inside the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, near to Cairo, to see if they can find out more about the doors and the space beyond them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Mysterious Winchester Mansion - This spooky, rambling Californian mansion remains a testament to one eccentric, rich woman's unearthly fears. (http://www.unmuseum.org/winchester.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: New Year's Irresolutions- Why do we put ourselves though this excercise in frustration each year? (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/resolution.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Faster than the Speed of Light? - I read somewhere that they found a star that's traveling faster than the speed of light (because of its red shift.) Is this true? If it is, then it contradicts' Einstein's theory. - Rowell Actually there are whole galaxies (collections of billions of stars) moving away from us faster than the speed of light. As amazing as it sounds, this does not really contradict Einstein's theories. Let's start at the beginning. If you stand along a road and listen to a car zoom by you will hear the pitch of the sound it makes suddenly drop as it passes you. This is because the pitch of the sound is based on how many sound waves per second reach your ear. When the car is traveling toward you, the waves come by you faster than normal because the speed of the car is added to their normal speed. The sound becomes lower when the car passes by because then the speed of the car moving away increases the time it takes each wave to pass you by. This is called the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect works with sound, radio (you may have heard of Doppler radar) and light waves. As a lighted object moves away from you the light is pushed to a lower frequency (toward the red end of the spectrum therefore scientists say it is "red shifted"). Using this red shift is one important way of measuring how fast an object is moving away from us in space. The famed astronomer, Edwin Hubble, also noticed that, in astronomical terms, the speed an object moving away from us will also tell us how distant the object is from us. Why? Because apparently the universe is undergoing an expansion and had been for the last 13.7 billion years starting with the "Big Bang." The best way to imagine this expansion is to picture a balloon with too marks drawn on it. As the balloon inflates the marks are pushed farther apart. Now replace those marks with galaxies and the balloon with the universe. As the universe expands it carries the galaxies father apart. In fact, if the galaxies are far enough separated, they will move apart at a speed faster than the speed of light. This can be confirmed by looking and seeing how much a galaxy's light has been "red shifted." Einstein's probation on faster-than-light travel isn't broken; however, because the galaxies were not accelerated to those speeds like a rocket ship, they are simply being carried along by the inflation of the universe. In fact, if you were sitting in that distant galaxy it would seem to you like you weren't moving at all (Our galaxy would seem to be the one speeding away). Many galaxies are in this position relative to ours. In fact, any galaxy father away than a distance of 4,200 mega parsecs would be moving away from us at the speed of light or faster. Eventually, over billions of years, as these galaxies get far enough away they will first appear to freeze, then fade, as the light from them can no longer out run the movement of their galaxy away from us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Chupacabra Flap - On the 26th of January, 1996, the New York Times took note of the stories of Chupacabras - "goat suckers" coming from Latin America. For several years reports of strange gargoyle-like creatures that attacked livestock had been appearing in places like Puerto Rico, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean. No credible pictures or evidence of the animal was ever brought forth and the Chupacabra "flap" ended by the middle of that year. Since then stories featuring the animal have emerged sporadically, but most researchers think the beast is made more of the human imagination than flesh and blood. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Pleiades Star Cluster - Around January 17th take a look almost straight up in the sky about three hours after sunset (North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia) to see the Pleiades star cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters) at its highest point in the sky. The Pleiades is called an open star cluster and is probably the closest of these to Earth and certainly the most striking to view. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *UFO Turns Out to Be Christmas Light - A disc-like UFO seen skimming through the skies of Swindom, England, turned out to be Christmas party lights. According to the Swindon Advertiser, Swindon residents have been reporting a bright, silvery object scooting over the town. However, Simon Maddison, the director of Planet Pursuits, a company that manages party events, says that the object is actually a very powerful spotlight that has been used to direct visitors to Christmas activities at the local Steam Museum. "We were holding a theme party for 20 days in this workshop and had a light outside that radiates a massive beam," Maddison said. "That's what people thought the UFO was. I saw the report in the paper and thought it was quite funny - that's our light' I thought." He continued, "I'm not surprised people thought it was a UFO, it emits 10 different beams and moves across the sky." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations. *NOVA: The Mummy Who Would be King - Could a mummy exhibited for 140 years at an obscure museum in Niagara Falls be the remains of a long-lost Egyptian pharaoh? On PBS: January 2 at 8 pm; ET/PT *Dive to Bermuda Triangle - The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has spawned theories from aliens to time warps. Hundreds of boats and planes have disappeared without a trace. Most of these can be explained, but a few still remain a genuine mystery. On The Science Channel: JAN 04 2007 @ 09:00 PM JAN 05 2007 @ 12:00 AM JAN 05 2007 @ 04:00 AM JAN 05 2007 @ 10:00 AM JAN 06 2007 @ 01:00 PM JAN 18 2007 @ 02:00 PM JAN 18 2007 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT. *Hitler's Last Deadly Secret: The Hunt For U-864 - Deep in the icy waters off of Norway lies one of the last great secrets of the Second World War. In February 1945, the German submarine U-864 disappeared without trace during its clandestine journey to Japan. On The Science Channel: JAN 18 2007 @ 10:00 PM JAN 19 2007 @ 01:00 AM JAN 19 2007 @ 05:00 AM JAN 19 2007 @ 11:00 AM JAN 20 2007 @ 02:00 PM ET/PT. *Supervolcano - Amidst the stunning wilderness of America's most famous National Park, steam and hot water bubble and hiss from thousands of colorful, mineral-encrusted springs and vents. These geothermal phenomena make Yellowstone a time-bomb that could spell disaster. On The Science Channel: JAN 25 2007 @ 08:00 PM JAN 25 2007 @ 11:00 PM JAN 26 2007 @ 03:00 AM JAN 26 2007 @ 09:00 AM JAN 27 2007 @ 12:00 PM, ET/PT. *MythBusters: Pirate Special - Arggghhh me hearties? Jamie and Adam have plundered the seven seas in search of pirate parables and maritime myths and the result is this 2-hour spectacular. And with four stories of hi-jinks on the high seas the action is thick and fast. On the Discovery Channel: JAN 17 2007 @ 09:00 PM JAN 18 2007 @ 01:00 AM JAN 20 2007 @ 08:00 PM JAN 21 2007 @ 12:00 AM; *Big Science: Giant Squid - Caught on Camera - The first photographs ever of the giant squid - one of the world's largest and most mysterious sea creatures. On The Discovery Channel: JAN 13 2007 @ 08:00 PM JAN 14 2007 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Strange Egypt - We all know the Egypt of the pyramids and King Tut's tomb. But there's much, much more. The daily life of ancient Egyptians was filled with magic, mystery, and sex. We'll take a closer look at the beliefs and habits of one of the world's oldest cultures. There was incest in the royal palace, divine cats, and an entire industry devoted to ushering the dead into the next world. Spells, potions, and incantations ruled every aspect of life. Yet even in these unusual customs, we'll find the human face of the ancient people of Egypt. On History Channel: Sunday, January 07 09:00 PM Monday, January 08 01:00 AM ET/PT. *The Pacific Bermuda Triangle. - While the Bermuda Triangle is a well-known area of strange phenomenon in the Atlantic, there is another, more treacherous triangle in the Pacific off the coast of Japan known as the "Dragon's Triangle". This dangerous ocean triangle has reportedly claimed hundreds if not thousands of ships, airplanes, and submarines since the first written reports in the 13th century. Could these lost vessels be the result of bad oceanic conditions or possibly something more mysterious? We'll get to the bottom of this unsolved world mystery. Interviews include Dr. Joann Stock, Caltech; Joseph Nagy, UCLA; Takuji Wasda, University of Tokyo; and Japanese UFO experts Junichiro Nirasawa and Junichi Yaoi. On History Channel: Tuesday, January 02 08:00 PM Wednesday, January 03 12:00 AM Sunday, January 14 09:00 AM ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm) Copyright Lee Krystek, 2007.