Profiles - Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph (1840 – 1904) was the chief of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.

From Wiki

Joseph the Younger succeeded his father as chief in 1871. Before his death, the latter counseled his son:

"My son, my body is returning to my mother earth, and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother." Chief Joseph commented "I clasped my father's hand and promised to do as he asked. A man who would not defend his father's grave is worse than a wild beast."

...

Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of the Montana Territory, less than 40 miles south of Canada in a place close to the present-day Chinook in Blaine County. The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Chief Joseph at the formal surrender:
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

The image shows Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Chief Joseph at the Nez Percé Lapwai Reservation in Idaho, where Fletcher arrived in 1889. The image is adapted from the original photograph by Jane Gay. This image is in the public domain due to its age.

Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838 - 1923) was an American ethnologist who studied and documented American Indian culture. More  Wiki and also http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/fletcher/ (this web page has an image archive with original stereoscopic pictures).

Caligula's Tomb

"Hallan la tumba de Calígula", Tras dos milenios de su muerte, hallaron la tumba del emperador Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, más conocido como Calígula, de quien se decía que era promiscuo, depravado, cruel y demente, en el sur de Roma. El lugar fue detectado cuando la policía descubrió a un hombre que trataba de contrabandear una estatua del emperador robada del sitio, de dos metros y medio de alto. Calígula murió a los 28 años, cuando sus propios guardaespaldas acabaron con su vida en el año 41 A.C. Una de las locuras más célebres de Calígula fue nombrar consejero y sacerdote a su caballo favorito, Incitatus. http://connuestroperu.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14915&Itemid=1

"Caligula's tomb found after police arrest man trying to smuggle statue"
Police arrest tomb raider loading part of 2.5 metre statue into lorry near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, where Caligula had a villa. The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/17/caligula-tomb-found-police-statue   The lost tomb of Caligula has been found, according to Italian police, after the arrest of a man trying to smuggle abroad a statue of the notorious Roman emperor recovered from the site. ...  The emperor had a villa there, as well as a floating temple and a floating palace on the Lake Nemi.

La tomba perduta di Caligola è stata trovata, secondo la polizia italiana, dopo l'arresto di un uomo che cercava di contrabbandare all'estero una statua dell'imperatore romano famigerato recuperata dal sito.

Emperor Caligula, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. (courtesy, Louis le Grand)

Caligula's Floating Palaces

"Caligula was a man of many passions, and he indulged nearly all of them, including his passions for chariot racing, theatrical performances, gladiatorial games, and ships. During his brief rule from A.D. 37 to 41, he had two enormous ships--a sailing ship and an oared galley--built and anchored on Lake Nemi as pleasure craft. Pillaged and deliberately sunk later in the first century, they were recovered in a feat of engineering sponsored by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s, but destroyed during a German retreat in 1944."  http://www.archaeology.org/0205/abstracts/caligula.html

Here an interesting description, written by Colonel Maceroni, in 1838.

A very singular piece of antiquity exists in the lake of Nemi, of which I have never seen any mention made by travellers. On the north-east side of the lake, in about forty feet water, lie the ruins of a large floating palace constructed by the Emperor Claudius or by Nero (in fact, Caligula). The lakes of Albano and Nemi are the craters of extinct volcanos, from which, at the time when they were covered by the sea, has proceeded all that vast quantity of tuffo and puzzolana which covers the Campagna di Roma. The high, steep banks of these circular lakes, covered with most beautiful trees and villas, cause one side of the water below to be constantly sheltered from the wind. Hence a floating habitation will give the choice of shade and shelter, or sunshine as the season may require. The way in which I became acquainted with this sunken palace was quite accidental. Being one evening in my punt about to lay some eel lines, the fisherman whom I employed told me, that the best place in that vicinity was "about the old palace". I stared and looked about. "What palace?" said I. I see plenty of houses and cottages, and ruins, on the hills around, but they are not even quite at the water's edge. My man rejoined : "I mean about the wooden palace under water in which the Emperor Claudius used to live." Delighted and excited by this announcement more than I should have been by the capture of a thousand eels as big as the mast of a ship, I hastened to the spot, but the declining sun had sunk below the high crater wood-clothed margin of the lake, and looking down into the limpid waters, all seemed dark and blue, and nothing could be seen but the hills and trees, and my own anxious physiognomy reflected in the watery mirror. However, I laid my lines, the hooks being baited with the thighs of frogs, and next morning I found fourteen eels, all about a pound a piece, and some of three pounds weight. Moreover, a brilliant sunshine enabled me to see the sunken palace, which appeared to be about one hundred feet square and fifteen to twenty feet high. How did I then regret not having the command of a diving-bell! What most curious and precious objects of antiquity might not be found in the interior of this construction? But this discovery I must leave to some future traveller, who may have the means of causing a diving-bell to be constructed at Rome, and know how to use it. As for myself, I mentioned the discovery to General Miolis, the imperial locum tenens, or Governor of Rome, and also to the learned antiquary, Mr. Norviuse de Monbreton, but nothing was done.

From the MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI. LATE AlDE-DE'-CAMP to JOACHIM MURAT, King of NAPLES etc.
LONDON, JOHN MACRONE, ST. JAMES' SQUARE, MDCCCXXXVIII

Star and Stripes - Geoglyphs Titicaca

A geoglyph of Titicaca - As seen by Google Maps

Coordinates -15.544474,-70.03443

Note that this structure is superimposed to an older one. Is it an incongruent restoration?

More at https://sites.google.com/site/geoglyphssatelliteimagery/

The star viewed from the ground (Courtesy, Gary Mariscal Herrera, Director Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Peru)

Manidhara-Nagaraja

Un grande frammento, forse parte dell’alone luminoso di una statua, è esposto al Museo d'Arte Orientale ed è una tipica produzione degli artigiani Newar operanti in Tibet alla metà del secolo XV.  Un vegetale rampicante disegna le volute al cui interno si collocano le figure di un Nagaraja (re dei serpenti e protettore dei tesori contenuti nelle profondità delle acque) e di Manidhara (il Portatore del Gioiello). Manidhara e Nagaraja insieme rimandano al mito di Nagarjuna (Acharya Nāgārjuna,  150-250 AD, filosofo indiano, fondatore di una scuola buddista) che portò agli iuomini il gioiello della Prajñaparamita (La perfezione della saggezza trascedente) ricevuto dal re dei Naga.

Arte tibetana, Museo Arte Orientale, Torino

Gandhara

Gandhāra is the name of an ancient kingdom in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. This Kingdom lasted from early 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD. It attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Buddhist Kushan Kings. Gandhāra is known for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandhāran style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th century. It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.
By the time Gandhara had been absorbed into the empire of Mahmud of Ghazni, around 1000 AD, Buddhist buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara art had been forgotten. In the 19th century, British soldiers and administrators started taking interest in the ancient history of the Indian Subcontinent. In the 1830s very old coins were discovered and decipherment of some  Chinese records provided locations of Buddhists shrines. Along with the discovery of coins, these records provided necessary clues to piece together the history of Gandhara. In 1848 Gandhara sculptures have been discovered north of Peshawar. From then on a large number of Buddhist statues have been discovered in the Peshawar valley.

Se all details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhara

Headless Standing Buddha, II Century AD, Museo Arte orientale, Torino

Human, All Too Human - 4 - Lifespan

"A new study by a Washington University in St. Louis suggests life expectancy was probably the same for early modern and late archaic humans and did not factor in the extinction of Neanderthals. Our species, Homo sapiens, is the only surviving lineage of the genus Homo. Still, there once were many others, all of whom could also be called human. One puzzle was the lack of elderly individuals. It was therefore suggested that early hominins might have had a shorter life expectancy than early modern humans, with our lineage ultimately outnumbering Neanderthals, contributing to their demise." But  Neanderthals and early modern humans had same lifespan.

Read more http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/01/2011/longevity-unlikely-to-have-aided-early-modern-humans

Pella in Giordania

"Pella is located in the eastern foothills of the north Jordan valley, around five kilometres east of the Jordan River in the modern-day Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It overlooks the north/south road that runs up the Jordan Valley, as well as the east/west trade route west down the Jezreel Valley to the coast at Haifa...The high cone-shaped largely natural hill of Tell Husn dominates the southern approaches to the site....The landscape surrounding the main mound is rich in archaeological remains stretching back deep into the Palaeolithic period. The first trace of hominid occupation dates from the Lower Palaeolithic, around 250,000 years ago. Survey and excavation in the Wadi Hammeh, five kilometres north of the main mound, have recorded a long sequence of Middle (80,000-40,000) and Upper (35,000-20,000) Palaeolithic campsites in the hills surrounding Pella." Read more http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/11/2010/exploring-pella-bronze-age-temple-complex

The 'millicrab'

"One of the most studied objects in the sky, the Crab Nebula is the remnant of an exploded star 6500 light-years away from Earth. At its core is a neutron star that spins 30 times per second, driving processes that are responsible for it X-ray and gamma-ray emissions. Until recently the X-ray intensity of the Crab was considered to be so stable that it is used as a "standard candle" to judge the relative brightness of other objects in the sky. Indeed, X-ray brightness is often expressed in units of "millicrab"." X-ray astronomers have for decades calibrated their detectors using the Crab Nebula, but now an international team of astronomers has discovered that the X-ray output of the Crab has dropped by 7% in the last two years.
Astronomers say goodbye to the 'millicrab' - physicsworld.com

Gulf Stream edging northwards along Canadian coast

The Gulf Stream off eastern Canada appears to have advanced northward of its historical position in recent decades, possibly in response to anthropogenic climate change. That is according to researchers in North America and Switzerland who say that the changes could have some profound implications for marine life off the coast of Canada.

Gulf Stream edging northwards along Canadian coast - physicsworld.com

Acoustic archaeology

Acoustic archaeology is an emerging field that melds acoustical analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting. Ancient people created fun house-like temples that featured scary sound effects. More http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/acoustic-archaeology-chavin-mayan.html

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/conch-ancient-trumpet-sounds.html
and also "Scientists analyze tunes from 3,000-year-old conch-shell instruments for insight into pre-Inca civilization"
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65784/title/Ancient_trumpets_played_eerie_notes

The Fourth Dimension of Space

"For a moment the Canterville ghost stood quite motionless in natural indignation; then, dashing the bottle violently upon the polished floor, he fled down the corridor, uttering hollow groans, and emitting a ghastly green light. Just, however, as he reached the top of the great oak staircase, a door was flung open, two little white-robed figures appeared, and a large pillow whizzed past his head! There was evidently no time to be lost, so, hastily adopting the Fourth Dimension of Space as a means of escape, he vanished through the wainscoting, and the house became quite quiet." Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Canterville_Ghost/Chapter_I
Curioso richiamo alla quarta dimensione.

Venus

A hemispheric view of Venus was created using more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, and is centered on the planet's North Pole. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of the planet Venus and a mosaic of the Magellan images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base.
The image in full resolution http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/508439main_PIA00007_full.jpg

Molecular motors

"Inside cells there are proteins that convert chemical energy into useful work. For example, kinesins and dyneins haul cargo around the cell. Myosin molecules can bind to actin filaments and exert forces, which is how our muscles work. Other molecules rotate, such as the protein that creates the molecules that are the prime fuel of our cells. The general method by which these molecular motors operate is through a Brownian ratchet mechanism. However, whereas the classic Brownian ratchet does not actually work, molecular motors harness molecular binding energies to satisfy the second law of thermodynamics. Typically, binding of an ion or molecule (such as ATP) to the motor leads to a conformational change in the protein. This conformational change can act like a power-stroke in the motor. Hydrolysis of ATP or release of the bound ion then returns the motor to its original state, thereby completing a cycle (or, in the case of rotational motors, a binding and release event typically only produces a substep of a complete rotation)." from  Does cell biology need physicists?, by
Charles W. Wolgemuth, http://physics.aps.org/articles/v4/4

"The busy life in living cells involves a great deal of transport activities and mechanical tasks, which are undertaken by motor proteins* —molecular machines that convert chemical energy into mechanical work. In recent years, these remarkable machines have inspired artificial devices that deliver mechanical work  or propel themselves in a viscous environment. We do not yet understand the mechanism behind the complex mechanochemical coupling in motor proteins. Standard rules used in macroscale engineering do not work at the nanoscale. New strategies are needed for the development of artificial nanoscale machines." http://physics.aps.org/articles/v3/108

*Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that are able to move along the surface of a suitable substrate. They are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP and convert chemical energy into mechanical work. more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_protein

Carbon nanotubes spin a yarn

Researchers in US are the first to produce electrically conducting yarns from webs of carbon nanotubes and various powders and nanofibres. The yarns, made by a technique called biscrolling, are very strong and can be woven, sewn, knitted and braided into a variety of structures. They could find applications in energy storage and harvesting, structural composites, photocatalysis and intelligent textiles. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/44733