Reconstructing history

Two interesting pieces of news that I found read yesterday.

1) A research team including a British scientist believes that Machu-Pichu, the lost city of the Incas, was "discovered" by a German adventurer, who looted the site with the help of the Peruvian government, more than four decades before its discovery in 1991 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham.

Oh... so now we're debating who looted it first? (I say this because, as wikipedia enlightens us:

Peru has long sought the return of the estimated 40,000 artifacts, including mummies, ceramics and bones, Bingham had removed from the Machu Picchu site. On 14 September, 2007, an agreement was made between Yale University and the Peruvian government for the return of the objects.[1] though on April 12, 2008, the Peruvian government stated that they had revised previous estimates of 4,000 pieces up to 40,000.^[3]

Earlier this year:
Sacred ruins older than Incas found in Peru
No more room on the Inca Trail (Also, this related older news from 2001: Lost city of the Incas in peril from landslide)


2) The Stasi jigsaw puzzle:

In the dying days of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Stasi officers were ordered to destroy their reports by shredding and then burning them. So numerous were the reports, that shredding machines stopped working, and officers were forced to tear the documents by hand. A problem with transport meant that the estimated 45 million A4 sheets of paper were not burned. Since 1991, a team of 30 workers has been carrying out the painstaking task of reconstructing the documents, revealing new information on the activities of the Stasi and its collaborators. The team has now reconstructed the contents of 350 sacks, but with over 16,000 remaining, the task would require a further 400 to 800 years to complete by hand.

Now new technology developed by the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Facilities and Construction Technology (IPK) could complete the work in a fraction of the time. The E-Puzzler, the world's most sophisticated pattern-recognition machine, was completed in 2003, and has now received Government funding for a pilot project to reconstruct the contents of 44 sacks.

Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it, says I. So, this project should be a real fascinating one!

Door to hell

Check this out!!

A burning crater near Darvaza, Turkmenistan, is called “The Door to Hell” by the locals. Decades ago, geologists were drilling for gas when they hit an underground cavern filled with gas. The drilling rig and camp collapsed into the cave and ignited the gas, which has been burning ever since!

Check out a few other videos of this amazing place.
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 1/6
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 2/6
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 3/6
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 4/6
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 5/6
Flaming Crater, Darvaza Turkmenistan 6/6

Wikipedia gives a few more tidbits about the raging fire -- its been raging since 1971!

In 1971 during a drilling, geologists accidentally found an underground cavern filled with natural gas. The ground on which the drilling rig was placed collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed with a diameter of about 50-100 meters. To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decided to let the gases burn. As of 2008, gases in the underground cavern are still burning without interruption.

Some more incredible pictures here. Apparently, Turkmenistan has the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas.

The Sark-opera

Early criticism of Sarkozy that he was ignoring the country and spending too much time romancing changed soon thereafter into adulation for some (and quiet indifference for others), who lapped up the scoops put out by paparazzi besotted with the Sarkozy-Bruni romance.

And by her own admission, Carla Sarkozy's was clearly having the time of her life, from strumming a guitar to xxxxing Nicolas to meeting the Queen.

"It's all been a bit of a surprise," said Carla Sarkozy, formerly Bruni, formerly Bruni-Sarkozy, at yesterday's women-only charity lunch at Lancaster House, in London. "There I was, last year, on October 13, strumming my guitar." She mimed the strumming. "And then I met Nicolas. And now I've met the Queen!"

Well.. for those interested in more details of her whirlwind romance with the French president, there's now a book! And not one written by a gossip-gorged tabloid writer but by Carla herself!!

How Sarko seduced me
It's time for another episode in the Sark-opera. The first well-informed book on President Sarkozy's speed romance and marriage with Carla Bruni, the Italian supermodel-singer, is out tomorrow. There are no bombshells but a few tasty anecdotes in Carla et Nicolas, La Véritable Histoire. Bruni talked to the two authors, Valérie Benaim and Yves Azéroual. She covers some past lovers, her career and her coup de foudre for the newly divorced president when they met on a blind date at a dinner party last November. Interesting dirt is dished against Rachida Dati, the Justice Minister and Sarko protégée, whom the authors depict as jealous of Bruni's arrival (more later).

Ok. Enough said. Quiet indifference would have been a better response from me to this non-news but how would we have our WTF_how-do-I-care moments for the day without our "celebrities" and their shenanigans.

Divorce(s) in India

Amit Verma wrote an article recently on the rise of divorces in India, which I read with great interest since he's made some very well-made and not too obvious (to many) points.

On a somewhat related note, here is a curious incident.

A happily married couple in northern India got the shock of their lives when they learnt they had divorced 10 years ago, the Times of India reported on Tuesday.

The world's screaming for a book titled ' The curious incident of the divorce last decade' :)

Note: Its actually not a funny tale. Seemingly fraudulent documents created by kins has led to this chaos. But after reading the headline at the above link - Couple "divorced without knowledge" - it seemed to me like someone woke up one morning and found they had, without their own volition, turned into a ....er...sorry..that's a different novel. ;))

The price of untethered ambition

The NYT Book Review asked a handful of writers to recommend books for the presidential candidates. Their suggestions are here.

Loved this one :)

For Clinton: “Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare. The timeless tale of how untethered ambition and early predictions may carry a large price tag.

Also this hilarious post (a spoof) from the Best of Craigslist yesterday.

In the year 2100

Conan O'Brien used to have a recurring snippet on his show in the pre-Y2K doom-n-gloom days called "In the year 2000." That 'apocalypse' called the Y2K did not quite pan out as many had feared at the end of the previous century... but maybe some of the fears for the end of this century might be a little less misplaced?

You be the judge.... I am not going to pontificate on this subject as firstly, I believe I am biased in favor of arguments made supporting the deleterious effects of climate change and secondly, I do not have the time or the inclination to delve deeper into the research behind this rather slickly put together imagery.

Google Apocalpyse: The Year 2100
...... click on this link (assuming you have the most recent version of Google Earth.)

The link is to a KMZ file created by the U.K. government's Met Office, and it'll show you exactly what climate scientists are seeing. They've loaded a Google Earth skin with medium-range, accepted climate data. It shows some pretty significant increases right now. But the real scare happens after you click "play."

Play on!

Rock on, Diddley

RIP, Bob Diddley, the undisputed heavyweight champion of rock.

Diddley's gonna play on in heaven (if there is one), and he'll live on in our memories through his music.




And here's Bo in 1955 on the Ed Sullivan Show, where, as wikipedia enlightens:

...he infuriated the host. "I did two songs and he got mad," Bo Diddley later recalled. "Ed Sullivan said that I was one of the first colored boys to ever double-cross him. Said that I wouldn't last six months". The show had requested that he sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons", but, when he appeared on stage, he sang "Bo Diddley" instead. This substitution resulted in his being banned from further appearances.

and here's Bo Diddley in 1966.



Thanks to the Guardian, they've compiled some YouTube clips of Bo Diddley here.