The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Internet : New crater in Sudan discovered using Google Maps

"Software scientists have discovered a 10 kilometre wide crater like structure in the Bayuda Desert of Sudan using Google Maps...

Amelia Sparavigna from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy said she got the idea from Italian researcher Vincenzo de Micheles who identified an impact crater in the remote desert of southern Egypt by 2008 using Google Earth. Located between the fourth and sixth cataract, the area is characterised by basaltic rocks from ancient volcanoes. Sparavigna noticed “a non-perfect round shape about 40 kilometres in diameter” on the eastern bank of river Nile. She then processed the original Google Maps satellite image with an astronomical image-processing program. “Aerial photography is expensive and satellite imagery doesn’t always have good enough resolution. But in this case they have been able to generate some interesting images which have been further enhanced,” ABC Science quoted Professor David Cohen, a geologist, as saying."

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Internet : New crater in Sudan discovered using Google Maps

Tanis map

This image is showing the ruins of the ancient city of Tanis (an archeological site in Egypt, well-known from the Indiana Jones' movie). The image has been obtained from the original image from Google Maps, with a certain image processing. The following is the original image from Google. 

You can use GIMP and IRIS program to enhance the details, and obtain the following image. 

Or you can use AstroFracTool and Gimp

For more details see

http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.1590

Picaflores que llegan hasta el sol

"El otro principio fue el de considerar siempre el Perú como una fuente infinita para la creación. Perfeccionar los medios de entender este país infinito mediante el conocimiento de todo cuanto se descubre en otros mundos. No, no hay país más diverso, más múltiple en variedad terrena y humana; todos los grados de calor y color, de amor y odio, de urdimbres y sutilezas, de símbolos utilizados e inspiradores. No por gusto, como diría la gente llamada común, se formaron aquí Pachacamac y Pachacutec, Huamán Poma, Cieza y el Inca Garcilaso, Túpac Amaru y Vallejo, Mariátegui y Eguren, la fiesta de Qoyllur Riti y la del Señor de los Milagros; los yungas de la costa y de la sierra; la agricultura a 4000 metros; patos que hablan en lagos de altura donde todos los insectos de Europa se ahogarían; picaflores que llegan hasta el sol para beberle su fuego y llamear sobre las flores del mundo. Imitar desde aquí a alguien resulta algo escandaloso. En técnica nos superarán y dominarán, no sabemos hasta qué tiempos, pero en arte podemos ya obligarlos a que aprendan de nosotros y lo podemos hacer incluso sin movernos de aquí mismo. Ojalá no haya habido mucho de soberbia en lo que he tenido que hablar; les agradezco y les ruego dispensarme."
JOSE MARÍA ARGUEDAS ALTAMIRANO
Palabras en el acto de entrega del premio “Inca Garcilaso de la Vega”
Lima, Octubre de 1968.http://cinosargo.bligoo.com/content/view/231404/NO-SOY-UN-ACULTURADO-por-JOSE-MARIA-ARGUEDAS.html

Quake coincides with sky 'anomalies'?

"A preliminary analysis of the atmosphere and ionosphere over Japan in March reveals infrared and electron anomalies coincident with the Tohoku earthquake, researchers in the US and Russia claim. The anomalies are the latest evidence for a possible link between seismic activity and changes in the atmosphere or ionosphere, although sceptics believe they are unrelated."

Tohoku quake coincided with sky 'anomalies' - physicsworld.com

Snake venom gets into the groove

"A few snakes do inject their venom, the rattlesnake being a well-known example. A rattlesnake's fangs are like hypodermic needles, shooting venom into prey at high pressure from a poison gland in the snake's head. But many venomous snakes and other reptiles do not have tubes in their fangs, and so cannot deliver pressurized venom. Often their fangs just have a single groove, running top to bottom."

Snake venom gets into the groove - physicsworld.com

Fermi Telescope and the dark matte- physicsworld.com

"New results from NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope appear to confirm a larger-than-expected rate of high-energy positrons reaching the Earth from outer space. This anomaly in the cosmic-ray flux was first observed by the Italian-led PAMELA spacecraft in 2008 and suggests the existence of annihilating dark-matter particles. Physicists believe that about 80% of the mass in the universe is in the form of a mysterious substance known as dark matter. ... researchers are attempting to find direct evidence of it on Earth using either heavily shielded underground detectors or with particle accelerators. But they also have a third, less direct, option – using satellites or balloon-based instruments to detect the particles that some theories predict are created in space when two dark-matter particles collide and annihilate."

Has Fermi glimpsed dark matter? - physicsworld.com

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".