Obsession with Naked Women Dates Back 35,000 Years

If human culture seems obsessed with sex lately, it’s nothing new. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known artistic representation of a woman – a carved ivory statue of a naked female, dating from 35,000 years ago.

The figurine, unearthed in September 2008 in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, may be the oldest known example of figurative art, meaning art that is supposed to represent and resemble a real person, animal or object. The discovery could help scientists understand the origins of art and the advent of symbolic thinking, including complicated language.

“If there’s one conclusion you want to draw from this, it’s that an obsession with sex goes back at least 35,000 years,” University of Cambridge anthropologist Paul Mellars told LiveScience. He was not involved in the new finding. “But if humans hadn’t been largely obsessed with sex they wouldn’t have survived for the first 2 million years. None of this is at all surprising.”

The fixation wasn’t just for naked women, though. Early carvings of phalluses appeared in Europe at about the same time.

Little ‘Venus’

The tiny statue is carved out of the tusk of a woolly mammoth and is less than 2.5 inches (60 millimeters) long. Instead of a head, it has a ring that scientists think meant it was worn as a pendant looped through string. Paleoanthropologist Nicholas Conard of Germany’s Tubingen University reported the discovery in the May 14 issue of the journal Nature.

The oldest human art dates back much further, to between 75,000 and 95,000 years ago in Africa. But that art was abstract, and consisted of geometrical designs engraved on pieces of red iron oxide. This is the first known art to represent a woman, and possibly the first art to represent anything real at all.

via Obsession with Naked Women Dates Back 35,000 Years.

Rare blue diamond sells for record $9.5 million

A flawless vivid blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats sold on Tuesday for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs (6.2 million pounds), the highest price paid per carat for any gemstone at auction, Sotheby’s said.

The rectangular-shaped blue stone, the rarest to enter the international market this year, went to an anonymous buyer bidding by telephone after hectic bidding see-sawed between two callers for 15 minutes.

It was the centrepiece of its semi-annual sale in Geneva, conducted by David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s jewellery department in Europe and the Middle East, who said the results showed the market’s resilience despite the economic downturn.

“This is already a new world record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a new world record per carat for any gemstone (at auction),” Bennett told reporters.

“It is fantastic in this market and shows that these rare things are very much in demand,” he said.

The final price includes a commission paid by the buyer to the auction house. The stone sets a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction of $1,349,752 per carat,(890, 275 pounds) Sotheby’s said.

The previous record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond was $7.9 million, including commission, for a stone weighing 6.04 carats at sale in Hong Kong in October 2007, also by Sotheby’s.

The new owner will have the right to name the stone, which is mounted in a platinum ring. The pre-sale catalogue estimate was 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission. The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.

via Rare blue diamond sells for record $9.5 million.

Motorist: 500-pound moose ‘fell out of the sky’

Police said a 500-pound moose fell 18 feet to its death when it apparently leaped a guardrail on an Interstate 95 overpass and landed on Hinckley Road. Officials learned of the incident when a motorist called the town office shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday and told assistant town clerk Shirley Bailey that “a moose just fell out of the sky.”

Bailey said the driver, who was under the bridge when he spotted the falling moose, was “pretty excited about it.”

via Motorist: 500-pound moose ‘fell out of the sky’.

The Truth Is Out There, and the Nation’s Maddest Scientists Are After It

Jessica Cohen published this interesting review of today’s most promising paranormal research on 4/20/2009 on wired.com

Paranormal phenomena aren’t just for Fox Mulder, Melinda Gordon, and Rod Serling. Even top academics can’t resist a good ghost story. And maybe that’s for the better: Brilliant ideas often seem crazy at first. Scientific American dubbed the Wright Brothers “the Lying Brothers” despite test flights witnessed by trainloads of startled onlookers. More obscure findings can fare worse: Germs, quarks, black holes, and continental drift were all once considered laughable. Still, impeccably credentialed scientists persist, as Lewis Carroll’s White Queen says, in trying to believe a few impossible things before breakfast—or after they’ve received tenure.

Daryl Bem

Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Cornell University

Object of Study
Precognition

It’s dèjé vu in advance: In conventional psychological tests, subjects recall words they’ve had a chance to study better than words they’ve seen only briefly. Bem reversed the usual order of events and found that his subjects were significantly more likely to recall words they would study later than words they wouldn’t study at all. Extroverts show the most precognition.

Edward Kelly

Research Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
University of Virginia

Object of Study
Disembodied consciousness

Can people visit faraway places without leaving their living rooms? Kelly aims to find out. In an upcoming experiment, he plans to wire EEG and MRI devices to test subjects who report disembodied experiences to measure brain functions as they “travel” to designated places. Extra points if they can confirm their visits by identifying unique markers at the sites in question.

Eric Lerner

President,
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics

Object of Study
Origin of the cosmos

Big bang deniers are a growing force, with Lerner at the head of the pack. The majority of astronomers believe the cosmos is expanding in the aftermath of an initial cataclysm. Lerner, whose focus now is fusion energy, claims that his analysis of data from the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that galaxies are not receding at all. This is just one of several holes, he says, in the big bang theory.

Rollin McCraty

Executive Vice President and Director of Research,
Institute of HeartMath

Object of Study
Atmospheric effects on physiology

Sure, a rainy day can get you down, but do storms in the ionosphere affect human well-being? Building on research that has correlated shifts in Earth’s magnetic field with rates of traffic accidents and hospital admissions, McCraty is adding ionospheric measurements to the mix. His next round of experiments will attempt to link moods to atmospheric shifts.

Garret Moddel

Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering,
University of Colorado at Boulder

Object of Study
Telekinesis

Aiming a beam of light at a glass slide in 2006 and 2007, Moddel asked test subjects to use their brainpower to increase the amount of reflected light. Expected reflection: 8 percent. Measured reflection: 8.005 percent. This represents a tiny but significant demonstration of mind over matter, Moddel says. Asked to decrease the amount of reflected light, subjects had similar success.

Peter Sturrock

Emeritus Professor of Applied Physics,
Stanford University

Object of Study
UFOs

Alongside a sterling career in astrophysics, Sturrock has pursued the mystery of UFOs. He surveyed the American Astronomical Society; 6 percent of members reported experience with UFO-type sightings. More to the point, he sifted through such evidence as chemical analysis of purported landing sites and concluded that reports of alien spacecraft deserve serious study.

via Wired | The Truth Is Out There, and the Nation’s Maddest Scientists Are After It.

Seeing double: the village in deepest Kerala where twins have taken over

It is the village of the doppelganger. Turn a corner in Kodinhi in rural Kerala, one of India’s greenest and richest states, and if you have seen one child you will probably run into its double soon after. In this community of 2,000 families there are 250 sets of twins. In 2008 alone, of the 300 families who had children, 15 pairs were born, a rate at least six times higher than the average for the country. India has one of the lowest twinning rates in the world, but Kodinhi is close to the top of the global twinning league.

Krishnan Sribiju, a doctor at the Tirurangadi Taluk hospital, just outside the village, said the number of twins born was increasing year by year. In the past five years, up to 60 pairs had been born, and the 250 pairs who had been registered understated the true total. The high number of children with indistinguishable features makes life difficult for teachers. Abhi, 16, standing beside his brother, said: “I comb my hair to the right and he combs his hair to the left. I also have a mark on my neck. Apart from these differences there is nothing else.”

Dr Sribiju, a dermatologist and public health specialist who has been studying the high twinning rate for nine years, said the cause remained a mystery. In a telephone interview yesterday, he said: “We are working on a hypothesis that it is something in nature, or in the water or the sand. We do not think it is something in the food because they don’t have something particular that they eat. There are thousands of heavy metals that could be in the water and affecting the people but it takes a long time to work out. It is very difficult.”

He dismissed suggestions that the cause could be the high rate of intermarriage among the predominantly Muslim population. “It is not limited to Muslim families. It is also seen in Hindus and Christians and it does not affect Muslim communities elsewhere. Families that move to the area are also affected after living there for a few years. This is a very small geographical area measuring three to four kilometres. It is likely to be something external not genetic.”

Dr Sribiju said he believed most of the twins were non-identical. That meant, he said, that something was affecting the mothers causing them to produce extra eggs. Identical twins develop from a single embryo that splits soon after fertilisation while non-identical twins are the product of separate eggs that have been fertilised at the same time.

via Seeing double: the village in deepest Kerala where twins have taken over – Science, News – The Independent.

Mylow gets all-magnet-motor running using off-the-shelf parts

Why is Mylow’s brother reluctant to let go at the end? Why does it  seem to start spinning again after being stopped the last time when far from the pushing magnets?  The video seems to cut short when it is about to show acceleration.

I have some magnets. Now I want to find an old turntable so I can verify for myself that this does not work.

He did it!

Mylow got his next iteration of his all-magnet motor running — using only one set of six magnets on the rotor — something modern physics would say is “impossible,” just as their models of known science predict that a bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly — something the bumble bees haven’t let stop them, any more than the rules of science have stopped Mylow from successfully replicating what Howard Johnson — his hero — is said to have accomplished back in 1978, receiving several patents for his design.

What is remarkable about this version is that it uses magnets readily available in the marketplace today. (See magnet specs in right column.)

In all his previous working motors, the components he was using were not readily available. The 1/2 x 1/2 x 2-inch bar magnets he was using, for example, are ones he picked up thirty years ago from Radio Shack, who long ago stopped carrying them. And in the Stonehenge version that preceded the bar-magnet motor version, his rotor magnets came from Science and Surplus in Chicago, and are no longer available. This has made replicating his effect more difficult that we would have thought.

Because other people don’t seem to have the same gift he has to get the spacing right on a new set of magnets, no one else has been able yet to replicate his effect since he first started posting videos on March 17; and he’s posted around seven different videos showing his motor turning from a stop, accelerating, then reaching an equilibrium speed. Most recently, he posted two videos showing his bar-magnet motor running on top of a glass table.

But despite all that evidence, the replicators have been frustrated in their attempts to copy what he’s been sharing openly, because they’ve not been working with the same set of tools.

However, that will be changing over the next few hours, because not only are the magnets in his most recent version readily available, but there are quite a few people trying to replicate this who already have those very magnets. All they need is a photo or video to see how Mylow arranged his magnets, so they can get a template, and they will be good to go. I wouldn’t be surprised if by this time tomorrow night there are a dozen successful replications from around the planet.

via More Mylow videos, more witnesses, pilgrimage under way.

Google unveils new search tools

Google said in its quest to create the perfect search engine, it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

The company’s comments came at an event billed as a “state of the union” on search as it unveiled new products that aim to push search in a new direction.

Google has over 63% of the US market compared to rival Yahoo with 20%.

“The race in search is far from over and innovation and continued improvement is absolutely pivotal,” said Google’s Marissa Mayer.

“I’ve said this many times but search is still in its infancy. Our engineers are worried about what is the next big thing in search and how are they going to find it,” said Ms Mayer who is the vice president of search products and user experience.

…

Google Squared

During the “Searchology” event at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, Ms Mayer and her team showcased four new products that she said would give users a “different way to look at the web.”

Google Squared is still experimental and far from perfect said the company

One of the more experimental was called Google Squared which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in “split seconds,” something Ms Mayer said would normally take someone a half a day to do.

During the demonstration, a query for “small dog” was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.

… Ms Mayer described this product as “transformative” … “What they are basically doing is looking for structures on the web that seem to imply facts. Like something ‘is’ something.

“Different tables, different structures, and then corroborating the evidence around whether or not something is a fact by looking at whether that fact occurs across pages.

“This is all in the secret sauce of what we are doing and it takes an incredible amount of compute power to create those squares,” said Ms Mayer.

via BBC NEWS | Technology | Google unveils new search tools.

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Hit Record for Second Straight Month

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose to a record for the second consecutive month in April as banks increased efforts to seize homes from delinquent borrowers.

A total of 342,038 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California, said today in a statement. One in 374 households got a filing, the highest monthly rate since the property data service began issuing such reports in 2005.

“What you’re seeing is the inevitable result of severe job losses,” Nicolas Retsinas, director of housing studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “Until we stem the job losses, we can expect to see continuing foreclosures.”

Unemployment is hampering the housing market as property prices fall. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in more than a quarter century, the Labor Department said May 9. Home prices fell the most on record in the first quarter to a median $169,000 amid sales of foreclosure properties, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.

Foreclosure filings jumped 32 percent from the year-earlier period, RealtyTrac said. Filings were little changed from March as some states delayed seizures. Ten states accounted for three- quarters of all foreclosures in April, with California leading the nation.

Declines Slowing?

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday there are signs the real estate market is recovering.

“Since January we’ve seen both home sales moving up and down around a relatively stable number and we are seeing the first signs that the rapid decline in home prices is starting to abate,” Donovan said at an NAR conference in Washington.

March prices fell less than in February and 17 states showed sales increases, yesterday’s NAR report showed, as buyers took advantage of mortgage rates below 5 percent. The Federal Reserve is purchasing mortgage-backed securities to spur lower rates.

While price declines are slowing, it’s likely bank seizures will increase in the coming months, RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said.

“Lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria,” Saccacio said.

California was No. 1 in April with 96,560 filings, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier, RealtyTrac reported. Florida climbed 75 percent to 64,588, Nevada rose 111 percent to 16,266 and Arizona rose 40 percent to 16,245.

via U.S. Foreclosure Filings Hit Record for Second Straight Month – Bloomberg.com.

Biotechnology: Engineered Moss Can Produce Human Proteins

ETH Zurich researchers have shown that mosses and humans share unexpected common characteristics. These evolutionary relics could be useful in the production of therapeutic proteins.At first glance, mosses and human beings have little in common. The moss Physcomitrella patens is small, pale green, immobile, and uses sunlight as its energy source.

Humans are large, mobile, and need to obtain energy by eating vegetable or animal foods.This made the result of the experiments carried out by researchers in the group led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Chemical and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich, all the more astonishing. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, the PhD student Marc Gitzinger carried out tests to see what happens when unmodified human or mammalian genes are inserted into the moss genome. …

The process used by the moss to produce its proteins is less sophisticated than in “higher” organisms. In contrast to the moss, these latter organisms underwent major further developments and specializations over the course of 450 million years. On the other hand, the moss clearly retained – for millions of years – the ability to read foreign genes such as those from mammals and thus also from humans, and to translate them into proteins, probably without ever having made any use of this capability during these 450 million years. …

A cost-effective alternative to mammalian cells

Today, the moss Physcomitrella patens and its ability to manufacture mammalian proteins could help to satisfy the large worldwide demand for therapeutic proteins. One well-known example is insulin, which enables diabetics to control their blood sugar level.

Nowadays, therapeutic proteins are mainly manufactured in mammalian cells, which are very expensive to culture. They need to be maintained at body temperature with a continuous supply of nutrients and oxygen, and the production process is costly. At present, global production capacity cannot match the demand. Because of the difficulties involved in handling them, production is possible only in industrialized countries.

In contrast, the moss Physcomitrella patens is comparatively undemanding. It needs water, a couple of nutrient salts and some light to allow it to flourish and produce proteins.

via Biotechnology: Engineered Moss Can Produce Human Proteins.

Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts

Apply directly to the forehead.

If you’ve ever wanted to swap sweat with a partial alopecian, you’ve never had a better opportunity than visiting this test booth at the CeBIT communications conference going on in Hanover.

It may not look like it, but the fella at the left is controlling the computer game…with his mind.

That little band around his forehead isn’t some CosPlay garment. It’s a USB powered Neural Impulse Actuator. Like the interface described in earlier Convergence posts, this little device, predicted to be on the market in one form or another by Xmas ’08, uses brainwaves to control mouse arrows, avatars, and other objects on the screen.

via TheblanketStatement

Related story:

Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts

Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface (BCI) technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone.

The technology, which was demonstrated at CeBIT in Hannover in March, provides an innovative way of controlling the interconnected electronic devices that will populate the smart homes of the future, granting increased autonomy to people with physical disabilities as well as pleasing TV channel-surfing couch potatoes.

“The BCI lets people turn on lights, change channels on the TV or open doors just by thinking about it,” explains Christoph Guger, the CEO of Austrian medical engineering company g.tec that developed the application. …

Electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment is used to monitor electrical activity in a user’s brain via electrodes attached to their scalp. After a period of training, the system learns to identify the distinctive patterns of neuronal activity produced when they imagine walking forwards, flicking on a light switch or turning up the radio …

via Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts.