Artifacts from the Labyrinth

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Hesperocyoninae/ Paraenhydrocyon/Caedocyon/

Amphicyon!

Big cat-like predator-

"During the absence of Cats in North America in the early Miocene Period, they filled the predatory niche."

http://www.fossil-treasures-of-flori.../bear-dog.html

"Tasmanian tiger"

Extinct Australian thylacine hunted like a big cat

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13270381

Got niche ?

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From a whatzit that is not a cat, not a dog, not a bear, not a weasel-
to another whatzit

Since its discovery in Patagonia in 1891, Necrolestes has been an enigma-

"Necrolestes is one of those animals in the textbooks that would appear with a
picture and a footnote, and the footnote would say 'we don't know what it is,"
says co-author John Wible, Carnegie Museum of Natural History mammalogist
and member of the discovery team that also includes researchers from
Australia and Argentina.

As recently as a few years ago, Necrolestes still could not be definitively classified in a mammal group.

A CAT scan of the ear region in 2008 led to another research team's hypothesis that Necrolestes was a marsupial.

Rougier uncovered characteristics of the skull anatomy that had previously gone unnoted. Based on these newly revealed
features, the research team came to the groundbreaking realization that Necrolestes belonged to neither the marsupial nor
placental lineages to which it had historically been linked.

Rather, Necrolestes actually belonged in a completely unexpected branch of the evolutionary tree which was thought
to have died out 45 million years earlier than the time of Necrolestes.

Discovered by co-author Rougier in South America, Necrolestes belongs to the Meridiolestida, a little-known group of extinct mammals
found in the Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene (100 million years ago) of South America.

Necrolestes was neither a marsupial nor a placental mammal, and was in fact the last remaining member of the Meridiolestida lineage,
thought to have gone extinct 45 million years earlier.

"Necrolestes's survival for 45 million years longer than expected challenges more than a century of scientific thought on the effects
of the Late Cretaceous extinction event in South America, and shows how scientific thought is constantly changing based on new
evidence."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1119151318.htm

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The world finds the whatzit worth noticing-

Mystery Molelike Mammal Survived Dino Extinction

http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-moleli...123155007.html

Necrolestes patagonensis, whose name translates in part to "grave robber," was among the mammals that lived through the
dinosaur mass extinction. The new study finds that the creature lived 45 million years longer than paleontologists realized.

Necrolestes' subterranean lifestyle may explain its lucky fate, the researchers reported Monday (Nov. 19) in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"There's no other mammal in the Tertiary of South America that even approaches its ability to dig, tunnel, and
live in the ground," Wible said. "It must have been on the edges, in an ecological niche that allowed it to survive."

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This is neither an impact crater nor a volcano. It is a perfect circular intrusion, about 10 km in diameter with
a topographic ridge up to 600 m high. The Kondyor Massif is located in Eastern Siberia, Russia, north of the city
of Khabarovsk. It is a rare form of igneous intrusion called alkaline-ultrabasic massif and it is full of rare minerals.

The river flowing out of it forms placer mineral deposits. Last year 4 tons of platinum were mined there.
A remarkable and very unusual mineralogical feature of the deposit is the presence of coarse crystals of
Pt-Fe alloy, coated with gold. This 3-D perspective view was created by draping a simulated natural color
ASTER composite over an ASTER-derived digital elevation model. The image was acquired on June 10, 2006,
and is located at 57.6 degrees north latitude, 134.6 degrees east longitude.

http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery...p?name=kondyor

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The New Jersey, USA tunnels made for Joseph Bonaparte, were large enough, and tall enough to ride through, on horseback.

Much time has passed since Joseph lived there. The tunnels are now mostly at ground level. Were they buried ?
There are manhole covers, that mask the shafts that provided fresh air for the tunnels.

"For his daughter Zénaïde and her husband, Bonaparte built a three-story house beside the lake,
with an underground passage to the mansion to use in inclement weather.

http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_r..._joseph_us.asp

The large estate built for him at Point Breeze NJ, worthy of an Emperor. Financed by the jewels that he brought, and the money
buried in Switzerland ?

Joseph had purchased the Chateau of Prangins on the lake of Geneva.

The Château de Prangins was built in the 18th century by Louis Guiguer, a Swiss banker living in Paris.

Château de Prangins, Purchased in 1814 by Napoleon’s elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

"Three museums – the National Museum Zurich, the Castle of Prangins and the Forum of Swiss History Schwyz –
as well as the collections centre in Affoltern am Albis – are united under the umbrella of the Swiss National Museum."
(SNM).

http://www.musee-suisse.ch/e/index.php

video-

Exposition "Noblesse oblige!" - Pierre et patrimoine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjh5p65TvHE

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Retired New Scotland Yard Detective Finds Original Hound of The Baskervilles and Sherlock Holmes Police Files

August 31, 2010

It was at an obscure Exeter (Devon, England) auction house that Freeburn discovered the dusty folio
containing the police notes including the autopsy reports and detective notes.

"I immediately knew I had come across something really special," says Freeburn. "All detectives naturally
know a lot about the Sherlock Holmes cases - especially The Hound. The detectives notes are particularly
fascinating as you can see the differences in procedure coupled with similar investigative techniques.
You can see straight away what a brilliant mind Holmes had."

http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4441064.htm

Why did Scotland Yard distrust Holmes ?

Posted by Kieron Freeburn on August 24, 2010 at 8:47am in The BSI Weekend
View Discussions

Let me set the scene for you. New Scotland Yard in Victorian London, the Criminal Investigation Department
was in its infancy, investigations carried out to rigid protocols, forms filled and boxes ticked, manuscripts
prepared in 'copperplate' handwriting.

Detectives themselves were mistrusted by uniform colleagues and viewed with greater suspicion by superiors
as they developed their craft and their sources by mixing in London's seedy underbelly.

Imagine the reaction to Mr Sherlock Holmes - an 'unqualified' 'consulting' detective - in their eyes a self publicist
and showman, 'solving' cases by the powers of deduction with no regard to the rules of evidence. Some senior
officers even ventured the suggestion that Holmes might be complicit in some of the crimes he professed to solve -
so complex were they that only someone with some involvement in the case could know the answer.

This is the working environment Mr Holmes had to endure.

http://sherlockholmes.ning.com/forum...-yard-distrust

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The origin of Litster's blurt thread - Ancient graffiti from the 1st C ?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...heology-photo/

[GoFuckYourself]

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November 25, 2011

Those who love classical music in Florence held their breath over the past year during talk
of closing the Teatro della Pergola.

What would become of the space itself, the oldest opera house in Italy and the first to be built
in true Italian style, with rising tiers of boxes replacing the old Roman semicircular seating?
(commissioned in 1651 by Cardinal Giancarlo de' Medici and designed by architect Ferdinando Tacca)

It has been agonizing to imagine the frescoes and sumptuous red curtains of this theatre being
stripped away and the backstage dressing rooms of the artists, which are actually formed from
remains of the city's seventeenth-century streets, demolished.

http://www.theflorentine.net/article...ssuetocId=7329

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First time in almost 3,000 years!

A full size Bronze Age style sea-going boat has been launched in Britain.
(Full size 16-metre-long replica Bronze Age sewn-plank boat, based on the oldest remains ever found in Europe.)

"Volunteers have poured everything into transforming three oak trees into what we have seen and achieved today.”
( Using replica methods and tools, such as bronze headed axes! Not to mention, acquiring fibres from the branches of yew trees.)

The replica Bronze Age craft has been built, mainly by volunteers, under the direction of professional shipwright,
Brian Cumby, at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth – in collaboration with prehistorian Professor
Van de Noort.

The project has been funded predominantly by a £177,000 grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

http://www.nmmc.co.uk/index.php?/wha...y_in_cornwall/

"I could turn her easily and it was more seaworthy than I expected."
- Professor Van de Noort

Nice pics!

https://www.facebook.com/2012BCBronz...CBronzeAgeBoat

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Boston Public Garden

On Oct. 16, 1846, Dr. John Collins Warren and a dentist named Thomas A. Morton administered ether
to a 20-year-old patient at Massachusetts General Hospital before painlessly removing a tumor from
his neck. The Ether Monument commemorates a public demonstration of the power of anesthesia.

It was dedicated in 1868. September 27, 06 Doctors and public officials held a re-dedication after
an almost 20-year restoration effort. The granite has been cleaned and the antiquated plumbing
has been replaced so water is once again flowing from the four fountain heads.

The 40-foot tower is topped by a sculpture representing the parable of the Good Samaritan in the
Gospel of Luke. An older man holds a younger man who has been overcome by an illness --
"an allegory of mercy and good will."
-Dr. Rafael Ortega, author of "Written in Stone: An illustrated history of the Ether Monument"

The figures rest on marble columns atop a square pedestal adorned with four marble reliefs. One of
the panels represents the triumph of science with a woman sitting atop of throne of test tubes and
other medical equipment. Two of the other carvings show the use of ether during the Civil War. The
fourth frieze depicts the angel of mercy descending to a man stricken with disease.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/cit...rlds_only.html

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25 July 2012

amphioxus

50 million years ago, something unusual happened

Researchers have been able to compare the human genome to the recently decoded genetic sequence of the invertebrate amphioxus,
a tiny creature still found in our seas and which can be regarded as a 'distant cousin' to our species.

http://rsob.royalsocietypublishing.org/

"We suggest a conceptual model for intracellular regulation involving protein families whose evolution into signal multiplexing systems
was facilitated by 14-3-3 dimer binding to lynchpins, which gave freedom for other regulatory sites to evolve."

"While increased signalling complexity was needed for vertebrate life, these systems also generate vulnerability to genetic disorders."

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Lighthouses and homes, are moved to different locations, for one reason or another-

John "Jack" Jouett's Ride

"Only after warning Jefferson, and being thanked by the then-governor with some "fine Madeira," did Jouett ride to
Charlottesville. Once in town, he immediately went to the Swan Tavern, owned by his father, to alert legislators
staying there of the approaching danger."

http://www.dailyprogress.com/lifesty...9bb30f31a.html

"When the story about the Shanty appeared in The Progress on July 6, 1938, it already was gone."