Mystery lead coffin unearthed in the whereabouts of Rome

While doing an archaeology dig-up sort of thing in an ancient abandoned city near Rome, digger-uppers discovered a lead coffin weighing in the area of one thousand pounds.

Speculation puts the inhabitant as something akin to a bishop or a gladiator, as using this much metal was extremely costly...but we all know better than this, don't we?

That's what I'm getting at...you know it.

Anyway.  The University of Michigan digging team plans on utilizing minimally invasive techniques to take peeks inside.  Lead coffins are effective for keeping things extremely well-preserved, so they want to take as much care as possible in the process.  Directly opening it up might lead to damaged goods, so other methods, such as thermography and endoscopy, are being considered primarily.

Full article: buried here

Sitting a lot. It's bad for you.

AND IT WILL KILL YOU.

Probly with something like this.

Well.  Maybe not exactly in that fashion.  But it will shorten your life significantly.

We'll become an entire nation of short people.  And songs will be written about us.  And our platform shoes on our nasty little feet.

Yes...a scientific study was done on sitting.  If you do it too much, it is unhealthy.  Unhealthy enough to shave years off your life.  Significantly more if you're a woman rather than a man.

Perhaps you sit so much because of preexisting conditions...

Or perhaps not...

Either way, there's a link.  And this link is of worthy note.  So you should sit less.  Move.  Jump around.  Jump up, jump up, and get down.

That is all.

Full article can be found: sitting on its ass

Rawr rawr dinosaurs! And they might be warm-blooded, too.

Recently scientists have figured out how to determine the temperature of dinosaurs: those long-disappeared large creature things native to Jurassic Park and the like that dreams are made of.

Yes, this place right here.

Some dealy investigating their teeth and whatnot.  Maybe dentures, seeing as how they're quite old.  You know the score.  But yes, they investigated the teeth and determined that dinosaurs possessed body temperatures at a human level of warmth and upwards!

Check it and see.

And this completely destroys the worldview of hundreds, if not thousands, of children taught that dinosaurs are real and their bones aren't a diabolical plot by Satan.  And something with being coldblooded like lizards.

I'm watching you sleep.

It could be because they were just so large and retained so much heat in their bodies...chubbies.  Eh.  And not that it's because they had high metabolism and were extremely active.  Either or.  The teeth finding indicates that they had warm body temperatures either way.  Very interesting!

Full article to be archaeologically excavated at: this pile of bones

Cloud watching, or inherited survival technique?

Cloud gazing is an awesome past-time for just about everybody at one point or another.  Whether relaxing and picking out casual shapes, or searching intently for obscure forms, it offers a distraction for all sorts of people.  What's often not thought of is why we see forms in the sky, and/or how.

Evolution has designed us that way. When our hunter-gatherer ancestors walked through dense forests with random noises and shapes everywhere, it was important to spot a lion, see a snake as quickly as possible. Same for people's faces. A glimpse of eye, a snatch of mouth, (smiling? threatening? friend? foe?), you want to know right away if you want to live.

In this article, the how and why of cloud gazing is explored and explained.  Something most people consider lighthearted entertainment has its roots deep in our genes.  It's not just a distraction, it's survival!  The clouds are going to attack, watch your back.

There's a lil bit of a quiz at the end of the article, also.  They were rough until I checked the clues...

Full article can be found at: Up in the sky!

Europe Space Freigther Destroyed In Planned Crash

This is a very interesting look at the current and future states of space exploration.  From remotely shipping supplies to the International Space Station to departing with refuse and burning up in the atmosphere to laying the roadwork for novel manned vessels exploring "beyond the space station, to the Moon, asteroids and Mars."

'"I don't want to beat about the bush - I think it would be fantastic if there would be a mission going beyond low-Earth orbit for this barter. But once again we need to understand the technical details," said Thomas Reiter, the former German astronaut now in charge of Esa's human spaceflight programme.'

Hopeful for the future of space travel!

Full article can be found at: Europe's ATV space freighter burns up

Howdy!

This is my first go around for this sort of thing! 

What I'd like to...try to do is keep track of regular occurrences in the global science community; a sort of ongoing history of sorts; something to peruse and say "ahh, I remember the days before sliced bread!" 

For significant scientific things and insignificant, just anything interesting really.

Cheers!