Jupiter Impact Points Us To Mars

ESA Science & Technology: Hubble views new dark spot on Jupiter

Over the past few days, spectacular images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope have shown the scene of a vast impact - roughly twice the length of Europe - which has scarred the surface of Jupiter, making this the second time in 15 years that such an event has taken place there. Spotted by Anthony Wesley, a '44-year-old computer programmer from a village north of Canberra', the impact of what is thought to have been a block of ice or small comet, left a 5,000 mile gash in the gaseous surface, described elsewhere as a massive black eye.

When Comet P Shoemaker-Levy 9 blasted its fragmentary self into the Jovian atmosphere between July 16th and 22nd, 1994, the world witnessed a shattering impact hundreds of millions of miles away that would surely have destroyed much of the biosphere including our civilisation had it occurred on here on Earth. Although such events were considered rare, the fact that almost 15 years to the day there has been a similar and completely unexpected impact, implies that not only that such occurrences are more frequent, but that we are vulnerable to even a small strike - the object that recently hit Jupiter is described as being 'twice the size of several football pitches', and the resulting explosion was thousands of times more powerful than the object that is thought to have exploded over Tunguska on June 30th, 1908.

Jupiter has in the past been described as acting as a cosmic shield for Earth, because its massive size and gravitational strength are thought to pull in large objects that might instead travel further into the solar system, where we currently reside. However, we cannot sit idly by and hope that Jupiter will catch everything hurtling through space on a trajectory with Earth, and there will certainly come a day when as in 1770, Jupiter actually diverts a comet in our direction, and quite possibly, directly at us.

By a fortuitous coincidence, this latest impact comes in the same month that Apollo astronauts have called for a manned mission to Mars, whilst President Obama has called for a rethink at NASA, and Tom Wolfe has commented on how the original plans to put humans on Mars have continually been put on hold over the past 40 years and Rand Simberg looks at the way in which NASA might change policy direction.

Apart from the fact that exploration of Mars by humans in the near future is not only technologically already possible (and would be of great interest to us all) it is becoming crystal clear that we need to have at least back-up system of human and other life somewhere away from this planet, and at the moment, by far the best candidate is Mars.

As far as we know, we are the only sentient beings alive in the Universe today - granted, many believe that the sheer scale and numbers of other galaxies makes it very likely that complex and intelligent life abounds across the Universe, but until we encounter it, we're on our own.

Elsewhere comes news of technologies which could be developed that would allow for a 39-day trip to Mars, significantly shorter than the marathon 6 months it would take using conventional hardware that's currently available.

It remains to be seen which space agency spearheads a manned mission to Mars, there is the distinct possibility that ESA and NASA will join forces and send a joint expedition - not only would such a venture help to share costs, but underline the importance of sending various nationalities into space, to at least give the impression that this is an effort on behalf of humantiy in general rather than one nation in particular.

image from Wired

A Blog is Born: NickG Productions: To whom it may concern..

NickG Productions: To whom it may concern..

A quick heads-up to a new blog written by NickG, who is technically, or at least biologically part of the remote central stable of writers, so this is to wish him all good luck in what I hope will be a long and very successful blogging career.

Although I suggested he start his own blog, everything will be written by him with no creative or editorial input from me, although my sub-editor genes will doubtless prompt me to point out occasional typos etc.

Basketry Of The Present And Prehistory - Video Short "Kachina Imagery and Hopi Basketry"

Arizona Public Media :: Video Short "Kachina Imagery"





In a recent post I briefly alluded to the manufacture and use of basketry in prehistory, and having also read a report in Science Daily which discussed the possible connection between basketry and humans' ability to count, it seems worthwhile compiling a short post on the subject, prefaced by this video promoting a recent exhibition at Arizona State Museum, 'Circles of Life' in which traditional Hopi basketry is both illustrated and discussed, (there is also a book) whilst at the same time offering an insight into a practice that can be securely dated back at least 10,000 years to Spirit Cave in America, quite possibly well into the Gravettian era of the European Upper Palaeolithic, and maybe long before then.

But before heading off into the distant past, this excellent video short from Arizona Public Media offers a very good illustration of how basketry in North America continues to play an important part in the lives and economy of modern day
Hopi, who occupy an arid region of Arizona, namely the First, Second and Third Mesas, all of which extend from Black Mesa.

Third Mesa is associated with 'wicker basketry, weaving, kachina doll carving and silversmithing', Second Mesa 'coiled basketry', whilst First Mesa is renowned for its pottery.

The Hopi are described as the oldest continuously surviving indigenous people in the US. In the latter part of the 19th century, the outside world began to take an interest in acquiring kachina dolls, which might more accurately be described as religious icons, as suggested here.

The kachina doll tradition traces its roots to the idea that the kachina are supernatural beings in the guise of spirit helpers, mediating between this world and that of the spirits, bringing with them valuable gifts for the Hopi, not the least of which was considered to be rain, crucial for ensuring their survival in the barren landscapes of their domain. These icons were originally given as gifts within the communities, a process which included the passing on of knowledge regarding the numerous attributes and gifts of the numerous kachina spirits.

It was only with the advent of interest from the outside world that Hopi basketry and pottery began to incorporate kachina imagery, when it became apparent in the 1870s that there was a great deal of demand from an eager public living in the industrialised US. As a result, there has been a brisk trade ever since, and in the ensuing years there has been a marked development of style in kachina basketry production, as is made clear in the video.

Although the exhibition at Arizona State Museum has now ended, it is described as a travelling event, having been featured at the Grace Hudson Museum, California, back in 2006, so it's quite possible that other venues have been slated for future shows. (image: Grace Hudson Museum)

However as will presently be apparent, there's a great deal more to basketry, both in scope and application, prompting researchers elsewhere to embark on a full-scale project which seeks to examine the subject in great depth.

'Beyond Text', is an ongoing exploration into basketry from the University of East Anglia in the UK, and moves far beyond the territories of the Hopi in the Four Corners region, to consider basketry in its global context:

"Basketry has been practised for millennia and is one of the oldest human technologies. Its immediate importance lies in the provision of mats, containers, traps and barriers, all of which have been central to culture, whether nomadic or sedentary and whether based on an economy of hunting and gathering or herding and cultivation.

Beyond its practical uses, basketry has arguably been even more influential on our lives, since it relies on the relationship of number, pattern and structure. It thus provides a paradigm for disciplines such as mathematics and engineering and for the organisation of social and political life.

The research explores the development of basketry in human culture over ten thousand years, and focuses on various parts of the world both in the past but particularly on the anthropological records relating to recent and current production in Amazonia, Central Africa and Papua New Guinea." (image from 'Beyond Text')

As mentioned earlier, I think there's circumstantial evidence to suggest that this technology might extend back further than 10,000 years; as we see from this study,'Upper Paleolithic fibre Technology: Interlaced Woven Finds From Pavlo I, Czech Republic, c. 26,000 years ago.' by James Adovasio, Olga Soffer et al.

In another paper at Current Anthropology, namely 'Recovering Perishable Technologies through Use Wear on Tools: Preliminary Evidence for Upper Paleolithic Weaving and Net Making', Olga Soffer states the following:

Recent research on textile impressions conducted in collaboration with Czech, German, and Russian scholars has documented that a wide range of plant‐based perishable items was produced in Upper Paleolithic Europe by a number of additive methods (Adovasio et al. 1998, 1999, 2001; Soffer, Adovasio, and Hyland 2002). Similar evidence has also been recovered from Late Pleistocene sites in the New World, including both North and South America (Adovasio et al. 1998 with references).

The Eurasian inventory includes diverse cordage, knotted netting, plaited wicker‐style basketry, and textiles, including simple and diagonal twined pieces and plain woven and twilled objects. Furthermore, some of these pieces show conjoining of two pieces of fabric by a whipping stitch to produce a seam, or sewing. The widespread use of this production technology is confirmed by the appearance and proliferation of eyed needles as well as by the reconstruction of tailored clothing on the basis of evidence from funerary contexts (Soffer, Adovasio, and Hyland 2002 with references). (image from Don's Maps)

We first identified these previously unrecognized technologies in Moravia, the Czech Republic, where groups that occupied such sites as Dolní Věstonice I, II, and Pavlov I used local loess, mixed with water, to fashion animal and female figurines that they fired in hearths and kilns (Vandiver et al. 1989) and used wetted loess as daub on mammoth bones as well as to fashion what Pamela Vandiver and I have identified as “structural ceramics” (Soffer and Vandiver 1994, 1997; Soffer 2000).

This extensive manipulation of plastic materials inevitably, intentionally or otherwise, led to the clay body’s coming in contact with cordage and textile items, which became impressed on the clay and preserved through firing. Subsequent research extended the evidence for these perishable technologies to France, Germany, and Russia (Soffer et al. 2000). The diversity and sophistication of the documented weaving led us to argue that the evidence we saw for it at Upper Paleolithic sites dating as far back as some 27,000 b.p. (at Dolní Věstonice I, for example) was clearly not its point of origin and to hypothesize that these technologies went considerably farther back in time. The textiles, basketry, and cordage specimens represented in the impressions were clearly made of plant rather than animal fibers, though at present an explicit identification of the species used is impossible.

Pollen analyses from the sites indicate a predominantly open landscape with bast‐bearing and other plants (Adovasio et al. 1998, 1999, 2001). A number of these, such as the alder (Alnus sp.) and yew (Taxus sp.), with their fibrous bark, were suitable for construction material. The herbaceous flora at the Moravian and Russian sites also included both milkweed (Asclepias sp.) and nettle (Urtica sp.). All of these have well‐documented ethnographic and prehistoric uses as perishable production media.

If it seems likely that people in the mid Upper Palaeolithic era of the Gravettian had the cognitive capacity and manual dexterity to weave textiles, and as we have seen recently from sites like Hohle Fels, Aurignacian people living a good 10,000 years before that had the wherewithal to design and construct figurines and flutes from difficult materials like mammoth ivory. Whereas it had previously been thought that such artefacts were first made in the Gravettian, it now appears that Aurignacian people might have been the originators of these traditions in Upper Palaeolithic Europe.

Obviously, the ability to construct flutes and carve figurines nearly 40,000 years ago doesn't exactly equate to creating textiles at 26 kya BP, or to manufacturing items of basketry in the terms referred to in 'Beyond Text', but I think it's worth at least considering that basketry may represent a type of invisible archaeology which masks the true abilities of early AMH.

At the top of this post I referred to a news item at Science Daily, and next I'll refer back to that, and specifically to project leader Professor Sandy Heslop of the School of World Art and Museology at UEA, who states:

“Basketry is a worldwide technology and is the interaction between human ingenuity and the environment. It tends to make use of, and therefore has to be adapted to, local conditions in terms of resources and environment.
“Without basketry there would be no civilisations. You can’t bring thousands of people together unless you can supply them, you can’t bring in supplies to feed populations without containers. In the early days of civilisations these containers were basketry.
“We may think of baskets as humble, but other people and cultures don’t. They have been used for storage, for important religious and ceremonial processes, even for bodies in the form of coffins.”

The emphasis here is clearly more on the Neolithic and the origins of agriculture, commonly held to have begun around 11,000-12,000 years ago, but as we know from Ohalo II on Lake Galilee, people were cultivating foods as far back as 22,000 years ago, and moreover living in huts, which I would assume would have required that the builders had at least some basketry skills. Again, this episode took place in the Upper Palaeolithic, just a few thousand years later than putative textile makers of Pavlo 1, referred to above. (image from Hecht Museum)

A final and even wilder speculation tempts me to suggest that although current opinion holds that Upper Palaeolithic symbolic creativity was expressed mainly in cave painting and portable art such as figurines, or engraved bone and antler, beads and pendants, there may have been people back then who not only made basketry items for practical and cultural reasons, but who on occasion also wove in their own chosen colours or patterns as a way of enhancing the results of their precocious ingenuity.

Naturally, the availability or absence of suitable plant materials in a deteriorating Eurasian climate would dictate whether this suggested ability could have existed, but as there is good evidence from Algeria and Israel dating back at least 100,000 years that coloured ochres were used, and finely produced shell beads manufactured, there seems little doubt that humans were exhibiting technical and cultural attributes that might easily have allowed for the production of basketry, in the form of mats or containers, on a practical level at the very least.

Whether it's feasible to imply that archaic forebears like the Neanderthals or their predecessors were similarly enabled is more uncertain still - but if we further consider that Neanderthals may have been wearing tailored clothing, albeit without the aid of an eyed needle, at 125,000 years ago, it seems reasonable to assume that they too might have been able to come to grips with the fundamentals of weaving and twining plant materials, perhaps in ways similar to Ötzi, whose 5,300 year-old frozen corpse was wearing a cloak made from woven grass.

If it seems like a simple enough process, and given available resources and materials in suitable climates, combined with the practical benefits that basketry would have offered, there could be a case for asking whether there is an entire technological and cultural episode in human creativity that has become all but invisible in the archaeological record, as organic materials from which such items could have been made, would long ago have withered and disintegrated, leaving no direct evidence that they ever existed.

This post was made possible by whoever re-posted the video at the top of this article - it briefly disappeared as the exhibition at Arizona State Museum ended, leaving me in the temporary position of being unable to post this article with the good illustrative film I wanted to use as the introduction, so my grateful thanks go to that person.

N.B. This post was originally intended for Anthropology.net, but as I was unable to embed the video with Wordpress, I've published it here at remote central, in amongst the cycling news from this year's TdF.

References:

Recovering Perishable Technologies through Use Wear on Tools: Preliminary Evidence for Upper Paleolithic Weaving and Net Making' by Olga Soffer, Current Anthropology Volume 45, Number 3, June 2004.

Upper Paleolithic Fibre Technology: Interlaced Woven Finds From Pavlo I, Czech Republic, c. 26,000 years ago, by James M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer, Bohuslav Klima, Antiquity, 09/01/96

Tour de France 2009 - Astana Turn On The Power To Take Stage 4 Team Time Trial

Tour de France - Astana take team time-trial - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Another day of drama at the Tour, although today the action was centred more on - and in some cases, off - the roads round Montpellier, rather than the back-alley politics that have been causing unrest within the Astana camp. But for today at least, they put internal disputes aside to turn in an excellent performance over the 38 km, which saw them cross the line, led by Alberto Contador, 18 seconds ahead of US team Garmin-Slipstream to win the stage convincingly, leaving four Astana riders in the top five places of General Classification (GC). Here's a brief video clip in which we hear from a relieved Cancellara and an upbeat Armstrong:



Earlier in the day, Astana boss Johan Bruyneel had stated that he'd rather his team win the 4th stage than take yellow, presumably mindful of the potential rifts that might appear should Armstrong become race leader, and as it transpired Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara of Saxo Bank held on to yellow by less than a second, having seen his 40-second advantage shredded by the first five Astana riders to cross the line.

For his part, Armstrong has impressed those who watched him earlier in the year on the Tour of California, when he looked a little out of shape, and then broke his collarbone in March in the Vuelta, at which point many were questioning whether he'd even be able to participate in, let alone finish or win in July. But he has somehow managed to look at least as fit and healthy as in any of his previous Tours, and as we saw above, seems relaxed and optimistic after four days back in the saddle, and once again competing in what was at one stage tagged the Tour de Lance, such was his dominance in previous years.

The team time trial today involved each of the 20 teams setting off at 7 minute intervals on a 38 km trip beginning and ending in Montpellier, passing through three outlying villages, each outfit with their full complement of 9 riders, and with the requirement that not only must 5 riders from each team finish, but that all teams must finish within 25% of the fastest time, or face elimination from the Tour. Everyone got home, despite many dropped riders along the way, although for some teams like Columbia and Rabobank today was one they'd prefer to forget, and instead turn their thoughts to the days ahead, especially with the Pyrenees mountain stages looming large at the end of the week.

True to earlier predictions, the course proved to be a very tricky winding ride, as in some parts of the course it was almost necessary to ride single file, with little chance of teams being able to rotate riders to and from the front. Added to that was a pot-holed and bumpy track, gusting cross-winds coming in off the Med, and a hot, sultry afternoon, all of which conspired to cause some of the riders no small amount of misery. Poor Denis Menchov in particular will no doubt be regretting these two early time trials that have cost him so dear, and a lack of confidence was blamed when he came off early in his team's trial - commentator Sean Kelly related how Menchov was the only rider he'd ever seen falling off a bike while engaged in a hill climb, a feat which seems almost unimaginable.

Various other riders fell at the same corner as Menchov, while the BBOX team managed to have four riders come off the road together out in the countryside, but as far as I can tell, there were no serious injuries to any of those who fell, and all rose from the dust, brushed themselves off and rode on, suffering little more than dented pride and lost seconds, rather than serious cuts and bruises.

It was interesting to note that rather than complain about the poor state of the roads today, most of the riders took a stoical view, reasoning that the conditions were the same for everyone, and that there had been ample opportunity beforehand to analyse the course and spot the more hazardous places along the route. As some will recall from this year's Giro, all the riders refused to race through the streets of Milan, quite correctly citing the atrocious state of the roads there, and by comparison, today's route was a picnic in the afternoon sun.

Euskaltel-Euskadi put in a good strong performance today, finishing 10th overall, with team director Igor González de Galdeano delighted that a great deal of training had paid off - he went on to say:

"El equipo esta funcionando como una piña y estoy muy orgulloso de su comportamiento y rendimiento."

Which (very) roughly translates to "the team is performing like a pineapple/doing great, and I'm very proud of them for achieving this result."

At the end of the week, the Tour comes briefly to Spain, or Catalonia to be more precise, when Barcelona will mark the end of Stage 6 and the beginning of Stage 7, but before that we have tomorrow's Stage 5 when the riders depart from Le Cap d’Agde along a 196.5 km route to Perpignan, with a couple of steep climbs to negotiate along the way, before a relatively flat second part of the stage.

Today's team results can be viewed here at Bikeradar.com, whilst Eurosport have more news and videos, as does the Tour de France official site.

Tour de France 2009 - Sprint King Cavendish Wins Stage 3

Tour de France - Sprint king Cavendish doubles up - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Following his blistering finish in yesterday's Stage 2, Green Jersey holder Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia again triumphed in a sprint finish to the line, and as good an achievement that was, the real news of the day featured the ongoing rivalry between Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, both members of the Astana team, from where persistent rumblings of unrest have been heard to issue forth, more of which later. First up, here's the finish of the 196.5 km race that began in Marseille and ended at La Grande-Motte:



Although he cut it finer than yesterday, Cavendish had enough left in the tank to stave off the challenge of Thor Hushovd of CTT, but the real work towards this victory began about 30km out, when Team Columbia took advantage of the cross-winds of the Carmargue and a reluctance of the other teams to take them on, and broke clear of the main pack - the aim was apparently to support Cavendish, but it was only after finding himself doing all the work at the front that the team began to function more coherently, rallying around to ensure he was in a good position to go for a final sprint finish to the line.

When Columbia-HTC made their move, Contador was left an entire minute off the pace, but more worrying for him was the fact that Armstrong was 20 seconds ahead, in stark contrast to the expected priority that had been indicated at the weekend when Astana declared Contador as their preferred leader - news to Armstrong, who by all accounts wasn't overly amused. By the end of the day, Armstrong had moved from 10th to 3rd in the General Classification, albeit still 40 seconds behind overall race leader Fabian Cancellara of Saxo Bank - there are however, still major doubts amongst the race organisers regarding Armstrong's authenticity when it comes to the vexed question as to whether the 7-times winner of the Tour is as clean as he has fervently maintained over the years.

No less a figure than France's Minister for Sport, Roselyne Bachelot, announced earlier in the day that Armstrong "will be particularly, particularly, particularly monitored", just in case we were in any doubt about their doubts.

In an otherwise uneventful day's racing, it was another quiet day for the Euskaltel-Euskadi boys - although Ruben Perez was in the initial group of four riders who made an early break from the peloton, few of the riders made much of an impression. Indeed I learned during the day that the vast majority of the Basque riders are mountain specialists, and as today was largely a flat race, it's no great surprise that there were no real contenders for a highly placed finish. Hopefully they'll aim to win a stage or two in the Pyrenees or Alps, but as tomorrow is a team time trial day, and a particularly difficult and technical one at that, it may be a while before we see the orange and black strip in prominence.

As for Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov, both of whom were thought to be in with a shout this year, it appears that their chances of taking the podium in Paris are disappearing faster than a mountain descent at full-tilt, although we are promised that tomorrow's time trial will further shake up the current order of riders.

Interesting site of the day was Arles, an old Roman town (visited by Van Gogh) that still has the original amphitheatre in operation. It's used for what is termed bull-fighting, but unlike the Spanish version, there is no attempt to injure or kill the bull. Instead, a piece of red cloth or ribbon is tied between its horns, and it's the job of the people in the ring to not only dodge the charging bull, but claim the ribbon as a trophy.

Moreover, as certain bulls become well known, they attract fans and devotees, much in the way that a local soccer star might be fêted - indeed, when a famous bull dies, it is buried standing up, with its head pointing towards the sea.

Today's race finished at Grande-Motte, a most extraordinary looking resort, and nicknamed by the commentary team as Moon Base Alpha.

For details of Stage 4, which takes place in Montpellier, just click this link, for today's finishing results click here, and General Classification here.

If you're planning on watching Eurosport online to catch the TdF, coverage begins every afternoon at 14.15 CET, with highlights of the day's events at about 22.30 CET.

Tour de France 2009 | Le Tour de France Route - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Tour de France 2009 | Le Tour de France Route - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

This year's Tour de France gets under way later today, with the first stage, known as the prologue, comprising a 15.5 km time trial in Monaco, and one that will be a lot more technical than the normal flat road to which riders are more accustomed, as we see from this clip:



Of course the big news ahead of this year's race is the return after a four-year absence of Lance Armstrong, who now rides for the Astana team - having won the Tour no less than 7 times, it remains to be seen whether he can win an 8th title - he'll be up against riders like team-mate Alberto Contador, winner in 2007 but banned in 2008 for doping offences, as well as Denis Menchov riding for Rabobank, who recently won the Giro d'Italia, competing for the first time in this year's Tour. Armstrong took a bad tumble back in March whilst competing in the Vuelta Castille y Lyon, but came back to put in a strong performance in the Giro d'Italia in May. I for one will be hoping the Tour doesn't become a parade by the end of the first week, with everyone else riding for runners-up places as Armstrong powers his way into an unassailable lead,

The Tour has become noted this past few years for the amount of riders caught cheating, with teams like Discovery and T-Mobile disbanding their teams and withdrawing their considerable financial clout from the event. Although it would be great to think that there will be no riders topping up on the EPO this time round, past experience almost dictates that one or two riders, and possibly their teams, will face disqualification. Indeed, the Silence team announced Wednesday, that one of their riders, Dutchman Thomas Dekker, has been withdrawn after testing positive for EPO.

The team I'll be rooting for is Euskaltel, the Basque outfit, and the station I'll be watching is online via Eurosport, who for many years have provided outstanding coverage of the world's premier cycling event. If you live outside the UK for example, a monthly or annual subscription to Eurosport is pretty cheap, and allows a number of language options.

Four Stone Hearth Volume 70 : Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution, and Science

Four Stone Hearth Volume 70 @ Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution, and Science

The latest edition of the anthropology blog carnival, Four Stone Hearth has been published by Afarensis, who has compiled a number of outstanding and very informative posts, covering everything from anti-depressants to orangutans, and ancient spear-points in the garden to archaeology tweeting, plus a great deal more besides.

The next edition of Four Stone Hearth will be hosted at Neuroanthropology on July 15th, which conveniently allows me to point readers in the direction of the excellent video describing Daniel Lende's community oriented work, also included in the current edition of 4SH.

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