Telescope optics set to aid gravitational detection

"A British team is designing the optics for a telescope that will be able to detect the gravitational effects of violent cosmic events, such as when two black holes collide.
The €790m (£688m) Einstein Telescope should be completed by 2025, by which time it will be capable of detecting gravitational waves around 100 orders of magnitude fainter than current devices can."

Telescope optics set to aid gravitational detection News The Engineer

Historiadores y cronistas de las misiones

Historiadores y cronistas de las misiones
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/historiadores-y-cronistas-de-las-misiones--0/#I_60_

Mike Ruggieri's News

Mike Ruggeri’s Ancient Andean Archaeology News

April 13, 2011

"Oldest Textiles in South America
Textiles and rope fragments that were found 30 years ago in Guitarrero Cave in the Andes have now been dated to 10,000 BCE, making them the oldest textiles ever found in South America. ... Textile weaving took place in these caves showing that women were probably amo

ng the first to live at these altitudes in the area. The article will appear in the current issue of Current Anthropology."
http://web.me.com/michaelruggeri/Mike_Ruggeris_Ancient_Andean_Archaeology_News/Mike_Ruggeris_Ancient_Andean_Archaeology_News.html

Guaman Poma

Da Wikipedia.
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, conosciuto anche come Guaman Poma (San Cristóbal de Suntuntu, località della provincia di Lucanas nella regione di Ayacucho, 1550 ca. – dopo il 1615), è stato un cronista indigeno del Perù durante la conquista dell'America.
 « Questo è il nostro paese, perché Dio ce lo ha dato »
Era il figlio di Guaman Mallqui e Juana Cori Ocllo Coya (ultima figlia del sovrano Túpac Yupanqui)...
Nel 1908, nella Biblioteca Reale di Copenaghen (Danimarca), fu riscoperto un antico manoscritto di 1179 pagine: la Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno di Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, di cui non si avevano più notizie da circa 300 anni. ...
Questa opera, di altissimo valore storico, aveva in origine un obiettivo concreto: ritrarre la realtà andina e sollecitare la corona spagnola ad effettuare una riforma del governo coloniale per salvare le popolazioni andine dallo sfruttamento e dai maltrattamenti. La relazione, infatti, era dedicata al re Filippo III di Spagna, ma andò smarrita durante il viaggio verso la penisola iberica. Oggi si conserva nella Biblioteca Reale di Copenaghen e si può consultare on-line.
http://www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/poma/info/en/frontpage.htm

Fossilised spider in amber

Scientists have used X-ray computed tomography to produce 3D images of a 49 million-year-old spider trapped inside an opaque piece of fossilised amber resin.
Scientists get a 3D view of ancient fossilised spider | News | The Engineer

Yale Papyrus Collection

"The Yale papyrus collection began in 1889 with a gift of papyri from W. M. F. Petrie's excavations at Hawara, the archeological site in Ancient Egypt. In the following decades, Yale received a number of papyri, many of them from the discoveries at Oxyrhynchus, the ancient city west of the Nile River, by two young British excavators, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt."Yale Papyrus Collection

Voynich Manuscript

Written in Central Europe,  the Voynich Manuscript—named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller, Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912—are still being debated as vigorously as its puzzling drawings and undeciphered text. It is considered as a magical or a scientific text, nearly every page contains botanical, figurative, and scientific drawings.
A new radiocarbon dating determined that the manuscript was penned on 15th-century pages.

http://news.discovery.com/history/voynich-manuscript-mystery-age-110211.html

You can see the manuscript at

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/voynich.html
http://www.archive.org/details/TheVoynichManuscript

Unbound planets could abound in the universe

"Ten planets that appear to be drifting in interstellar space have been spotted by an international team of astronomers. The planets are so far from any host stars that they may not orbit a star at all, and could be drifting unbound through space. The team believes that such rogue planets could outnumber normal stars almost 2:1 and their existence could confirm computer simulations of solar-system formation."
Unbound planets could abound in the universe - physicsworld.com

Il Guardiano del Nord

Vaishravana, il Guardiano del Nord e dio della ricchezza
Legno laccato, dorato e dipinto, h. cm 38
Arte sino-tibetana, XVII secolo

Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Il Re Guardiano del Nord è uno dei Re Celesti e siede sul dorso di un leone delle nevi,
reso in questa scultura secondo gli schemi della tradizione cinese. Vaishravana è ornato da una grande tiara, da orecchini ricadenti sulle spalle e dal gioiello pettorale del “nodo senza fine”, uno degli otto simboli auspiciosi del Buddhismo. La mano destra atteggiata nella tarjani mudra, il gesto per allontanare gli spiriti maligni, trattiene un gioiello fra il pollice e il medio, mentre il braccio sinistro sostiene una mangusta sputa-gioielli. L'animale è simbolo della caratteristica del dio, quale divinita' che dona ricchezza e dominatore dei serpenti che regnano nel sottosuolo.

Mudra, http://www.cultor.org/Orient/Iconography/Mudras/Mudras.html

Vaishravana, also known as Jambhala in Tibet and Bishamonten in Japan is the name of the chief of the Four Heavenly Kings and an important figure in Buddhist mythology.
In Japan, Bishamonten, or just Bishamon, is thought of as an armor-clad god of warfare or warriors and a punisher of evildoers. Bishamon is portrayed holding a spear in one hand and a small pagoda in the other hand, the latter symbolizing the divine treasure house, whose contents he both guards and gives away. He is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. Bishamon is also called Tamon-ten, meaning

"listening to many teachings".

Adam's Calendar

"A 75,000 year-old stone calendar - In the cradle of humankind.

A new discovery of an ancient circular monolithic stone calendar site in Mpumalanga has proven to be at least 75,000 years old, pre-dating any other structure found to date. Southern Africa holds some of the deepest mysteries in all of human history... at around 60,000 years ago the early humans migrated from Africa and populated the rest of the world.... Modern historians have been speculating about the origins of these ruins, often calling them ‘cattle kraal of little historic importance’. The truth of the matter is that closer scientific inspection shows that we actually know very little about these spectacular ancient ruins. ...Adam’s Calendar is the flagship among these ruins because we can date this monolithic calendar with relative certainty to at least 75,000 years of age based on a number of scientific evaluations."

http://www.adamscalendar.com/