[Jawlist] Weekly Science Report 8-28-09

[Steve Detwiler]

Good Afternoon,
 
Below is this week's edition.  Enjoy!
 
Steve Detwiler
 
 
 
Weekly Science Report
August 28, 2009
 
“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”
Winston Churchill
 
News Articles
 
Paleontology, Evolution and Prehistoric Studies
 
For Early Man, It Wasn't Easier Being Green
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112124572&ft=1&f=1007
 
Face to face with the 5,000-year-old 'first Scot'
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Face-to-face-with-the.5575575.jp
 
Early Life Didn’t Just Divide, It United
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/protoprokaryote/
 
Ice Age probe is off to Italy
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/4561116.Ice_Age_probe_is_off_to_Italy/?ref=rss
 
War's end opens up Angolan 'Jurassic Park'
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/08/24/2664981.htm?topic=ancient
 
With evolution, scientists must watch out for unexpected twists and turns
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/08/24/with-evolution-scientists-must-watch-out-for-unexpected-twists-and-turns/
 
Fossils for All: Science Suffers by Hoarding
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fossils-for-all
 
Brain changes may have led to Stone Age tools
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/26/MNHK19AS41.DTL&type=science#ixzz0PXccIc5J
 
Australia discovers new dinosaur 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8224279.stm
 
Iridescence found in 40-million-year-old fossil bird feather
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/nsf-ifi082609.php
 
Milk drinking started around 7,500 years ago in central Europe
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/ucl-mds082609.php
 
Spectacular Fossil Discovery: 100 Years Later
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090820-fossil-find.html
 
More ‘Evidence’ of Intelligent Design Shot Down by Science
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/reduciblecomplexity/
 
CT Scans Show Dinosaur Tail Was a Bone Crusher
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/dinotails/
 
Human mutation rate revealed
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090827/full/news.2009.864.html
 
Set Your CT Scanner to "Kill" and Look Inside Some Fossils
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/26-set-ct-scanner-kill-look-inside-some-fossils/
 
 
 
 
 


Ancient and General History
 
Families for Owens, Long take in long jump final
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_sp_ot/ath_worlds_hitler_s_box
 
Hunt on for explorer's lost plane 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8214237.stm
 
Laboratory to Decipher Zapoteca Writing will be Created
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32839
 
China's founding legend may not be true
http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2009/08/chinas-founding-legend-may-not-be-true.html
 
FIRST IRANIANS WHO LIVED ON THE IRANIAN PLATEAU
http://www.iranian.com/main/node/77969
 
Aug. 24, A.D. 79: Vesuvius Buries Pompeii
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/0824-vesuvius-pompeii-pliny/
 
Dying languages archived for future generations
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6081874/Dying-languages-archived-for-future-generations.html
 
Prof: Brazos part of thriving hub prior to European presence
http://www.theeagle.com/local/Prof--Brazos-part-of-thriving-hub-prior-to-European-presence
 
American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, convicted in FBI agent deaths, denied parole
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-peltier-parole,0,1411297.story
 
70 years later, we still feel the echoes of ‘Oz’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32541960/ns/entertainment-movies/
 
Poland marks 65th Lodz ghetto anniversary
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32585164/ns/world_news-europe/
 
Israel's Netanyahu given Holocaust plans in Berlin
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090827/wl_nm/us_israel_germany
 
Aug. 26, 1346: First Cannon Fired in Battle, Maybe
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/0826crecy_cannon/
 
The Origin of Zero
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=history-of-zero
 
 
 
 
 
 
Glorious History (or Myths) Behind FBI's U.S. Flags
By John Kelly
Sunday, August 23, 2009 
 
On the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building fly 12 American flags. They sure are a great, bright and attractive addition to the massive architecture of the building! But I digress. Some of the flags appear to be current or former official U.S. flags. I am not sure that the others are or were official; for example, one has the stars arranged in a circle, and another has a "76" in the star field. Is there a story as to why these flags were selected and are flown on the FBI building? 
 
-- Brooks Bowen, Potomac 
The flags illustrate the evolution of the U.S. flag, from before there was a United States up to the present day. 
 
Not all of the flags were ever "official." Most of them weren't. 
 
The westernmost flag flying in front of FBI HQ is known among vexillologists (flag historians) as the Continental Colors, the flag of the Continental Army. Raised during the siege of Boston in 1775-1776, it featured the 13 familiar red and white stripes, but instead of a blue field -- or canton -- in the upper left, there is a Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom. This was a bit of a problem, since the flag was mistaken by the British as a sign of submission. 
 
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Act. It stipulated that "the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." 
 
You will note that nowhere does the act stipulate the size of the stars or how they are to be arranged. That's why you get such flags as the one the FBI calls on its Web site "the Betsy Ross Flag." Its 13 stars are in a circle. 
 
Ross probably didn't have anything to do with it. "Every historian who's studied it has found no credible evidence that Betsy Ross made the first American flag, much less designed it," said Middleburg's Marc Leepson, author of "Flag: An American Biography." 
 
"America didn't even know the name Betsy Ross until 1870, when her grandson held a press conference at the historical society in Philadelphia and announced that his grandmother made the first flag," Leepson said. 
 
Most experts credit Francis Hopkinson with designing the U.S. flag. (He's misidentified as "Hopkins" on the FBI site.) Hopkinson, a New Jersey lawyer and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, worked for the Treasury. In 1780, he petitioned Congress to be paid for his design. His request was denied, because it was felt that civil servants shouldn't profit from regular responsibilities. 
 
Another old-style flag in front of the building features 13 six-pointed stars and the number "76" in the canton. The agency calls it the "Bennington Flag" and says it was flown by the Vermont militia during a battle on Aug. 16, 1777. Most experts discount this, maintaining that the Bennington Flag was made in the 1820s, possibly for the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
The rest of the flags have various numbers of stars, added when new states joined the Union. There's a 34-star flag from when Abraham Lincoln was president and a 48-star flag of the sort Marines raised on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. 
 
Why the display at the FBI building? Because officials wanted to illustrate the development of the flag and display it on a major parade route -- Pennsylvania Avenue. 
 
Answer Man's favorite flag has 20 stars arranged to form a single big star. It was designed by U.S. Navy Capt. Samuel Chester Reid at the request of New York congressman Peter Wendover. It was Reid and Wendover who came up with the idea to add a new star for every new state, a practice adopted in the third Flag Act, passed in 1818. Reid designed several flags, and while his ideas might have made flagmakers happy, they weren't very practical. He recommended that government vessels fly a different flag from merchant ships and that Americans raise yet another flag on "gala days." 
 
Of all his inventions, Reid was fondest of his star-of-stars design, what is now called the "Grand Luminary." He thought it nicely embodied "E Pluribus Unum": Out of many, one -- new stars forming a new constellation. 
 
Answer Man had his own question as he stood in front of the FBI building: What did the "J." in "J. Edgar Hoover" stand for? Turns out it was "John." Why ever would anyone abbreviate that? 
 
 
 
 
 


Archaeology
 
Rare tiles unearthed at palace 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/8215926.stm
 
Archaeologists go house hunting for historic Brazos plantation
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-plantation_23tex.ART.State.Edition1.4c09ed3.html
 
New York University Digs in Cyprus Show Worship of God Apollo
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601120&sid=axRLVOI3zlyU
 
Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover Unique Medieval Byzantine Seal
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=107016
 
Prehistoric sites in danger
http://www.costa-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3564&Itemid=119
 
Portuguese archeologists unearth General Wellington’s command post
http://www.the-news.net/cgi-bin/google.pl?id=1024-10
 
Ancient remains found in Kivalina
http://www.thearcticsounder.com/news/show/6972
 
Maya Altar Found in Highway Work Zone was Dismantled
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32811
 
The Worrisome Status of Achaemenid Sites in Bushehr
http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:the-worrisome-status-of-achaemenid-sites-in-bushehr-&catid=34
 
German Archaeologists Labor to Solve Mystery of the Nok
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,642521,00.html
 
'Pot hunters' hit Acadian village
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1138568.html
 
Ancient skeletons could help solve mystery of rare disease
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ancient-skeletons-could-help--solve-mystery-of-rare-disease-1867610.html
 
Spear tip sheds light on ancient people
http://sahuaritasun.com/articles/2009/08/22/news/32spear823.txt
 
Mughal Emperor's Kashmir coin discovered
http://www.kashmirwatch.com/showheadlines.php?subaction=showfull&id=1251090293&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&var0news=value0news
 
Scottish laser pioneers lead way in preserving world heritage treasures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/23/mount-rushmore-conservation-historic-scotland
 
Slain Che Guevara Soldiers Found?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090821-che-guevara-find-video-ap.html
 

Human Lifespans Nearly Constant for 2,000 Years
http://www.livescience.com/health/090821-human-lifespans.html
 
Ancient dial solves time riddle 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8214948.stm
 
3 Mysterious Builds: How Ancient Peoples Moved Monoliths
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4328400.html?nav=RSS20&src=syn&dom=yah_buzz&mag=pop
 
Greek Wildfire Spares Marathon Archaeological Sites Near Athens
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a6eSPxr7zhvg
 
Gold-plated Roman horse head found
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32581452/ns/technology_and_science-science/
 
TN Govt documenting 25,000 Tamil inscriptions for posterity
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/21780/tn-govt-documenting-25000-tamil.html
 
Swedish archaeologists uncover 7th century ship
http://www.thelocal.se/21716/20090827/
 
2,000-year-old skeleton found in Mongolia
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/08/28/200908280007.asp
 
Heating System Confirms Ancient Kingdom Was Korean
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/08/25/2005082561008.html
 
Shackles found in River Thames hold ghoulish tale
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE57P3WA20090826
 
Destruction of the Parthian Kuh-e Khajeh is on the Increase
http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72:destruction-of-the-parthian-kuh-e-khajeh-is-on-the-increase&catid=34
 
Digging up the Saudi past: some would rather not
http://www.newsday.com/digging-up-the-saudi-past-some-would-rather-not-1.1396398
 
Sacred sites or something else? Structures not unique to Oxford, but questions remain over origins
http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Sacred+sites+or+something+else-+Structures+not+unique+to+Oxford-+but+questions+remain+over+origins%20&id=3244334
 
Israeli dig finds ancient gemstone
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/26/Israeli-dig-finds-ancient-gemstone/UPI-17211251283463/
 
Archaeologists uncover large Roman statue of Augustus
http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20090825-21467.html
 
Dig begins at buried Roman town 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/8219620.stm
 
Alternatives to the world's worst tourist traps
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6811050.ece
 
Early music discovered on carving 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8222727.stm
 
Exhuming a violent event
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/46630/description/Exhuming_a_violent_event_
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Egyptology
 
Queen of Egypt's heart
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/961/he1.htm
 
Stanford scientists scan 2,500-year-old mummy
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1728134,stanford-scan-ancient-mummy-082109.article
 
Touring the New York City Obelisks
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/obelisk_tour/
 
Laser Scanning the Sphinx
http://www.drhawass.com/node/295
 
 

 
 
 
 
General Science
 
The Future of Billboards: Bendy and See-Through?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/08/21/the-future-of-billboards-bendy-and-see-through/
 
Robot with bones moves like you do
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327223.900-robot-with-bones-moves-like-you-do.html
 
A Portable Device for Frying Electronics
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/portable-device-frying-electronics
 
Researchers Hope to Mass-Produce Robots on a Chip
http://www.physorg.com/news170678733.html
 
3 New Farm Bots Programmed to Pick, Plant and Drive
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/robotics/4328685.html
 
 

 
 
 


Physics, Earth and Space Sciences
 
Still waiting to bag the big one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/2009/08/spacetime-hasnt-moved-for-me-y.shtml
 
Researchers propose new way to reproduce a black hole
http://www.physorg.com/news170081334.html
 
Aug. 21, 1989: Voyager 2 Reaches Triton
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/dayintech_0821/
 
Rocket propellant goes green
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/science/Rocket-propellant-goes-green-/articleshow/4928225.cms
 
Autonomous underwater robot reduces ship fuel consumption (w/ Video)
http://www.physorg.com/news170352387.html
 
Rewriting general relativity? Putting a new model of quantum gravity under the microscope
http://www.physorg.com/news170333445.html
 
Second robot deployed to help free stuck Mars rover
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17673-second-robot-deployed-to-help-free-stuck-mars-rover.html
 
Calling All Amateur Astronomers: Help Solve a Mystery
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/citizensky/
 
Hammers, Water, Lasers Make Deep Drilling Easier
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/17-09/st_drills
 
Europe looks to buy Soyuz craft
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8226309.stm
 
Is Jupiter's Bizarre Moon Our Best Hope for Finding Extraterrestrial Life?
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/sep/28-is-this-bizarre-moon-our-best-hope-finding-extraterrestrial-life
 
China, U.S. may cooperate on world's biggest telescope
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090828/sc_nm/us_china_usa_telescope
 
Why future astronauts may be sent to 'gravity holes'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17713-why-future-astronauts-may-be-sent-to-gravity-holes.html
 
Balmy water once bathed Mars rock claimed to host life
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17712-balmy-water-once-bathed-mars-rock-claimed-to-host-life.html
 
NASA’s Most Awesomely Weird Mission Patches
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/nasas-most-awesomely-weird-mission-patches/
 
Moon Mission Accidentally Burns Up Fuel Reserves
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/lcross/
 
Making Babies in Space May Be Harder Than It Sounds
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/spacebabies/
 
 
 
 
 


Environment, Climate Change and Alternative Energy Sources
 
Snorkel rice could feed millions 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8208411.stm
 
Plastic Is More Biodegradable Than We Thought. (That’s Bad.)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/08/21/plastic-is-more-biodegradable-than-we-thought-thats-bad/
 
Cheap solar power kits to aid students during power cuts
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/science/Cheap-solar-power-kits-to-aid-students-during-power-cuts-/articleshow/4924935.cms
 
Beer makers turn waste into fuel
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32508781/ns/technology_and_science-green_innovation/
 
Hydrogen-rich Material Promises Advances in Energy Transmission, Fuel Storage
http://www.physorg.com/news170007996.html
 
Gigantic jets blast electricity into upper atmosphere
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17664-gigantic-jets-blast-electricity-into-upper-atmosphere.html
 
How a Solar-Hydrogen Economy Could Supply the World's Energy Needs
http://www.physorg.com/news170326193.html
 
Scientists announce unique acacia tree's promise to revive African soils
http://www.physorg.com/news170352102.html
 
U.S. Crop Yields Could Wilt in Heat
http://www.physorg.com/news170350697.html
 
Warmer seas mean more food for fish
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17670-warmer-seas-mean-more-food-for-fish.html
 
Global Warming Computer Is Major Polluter
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/27/tech/main5269610.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines
 
To harvest Sun, spray on solar cells
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Science/To-harvest-Sun-spray-on-solar-cells/articleshow/4938431.cms
 
Drink shower water, thanks to a natural filter
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Science/Drink-shower-water-thanks-to-a-natural-filter/articleshow/4938428.cms
 
43 percent: New solar power world record
http://www.physorg.com/news170610803.html
 
Solar Panels Built Into Roads Could Be the Future of Energy
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/solar-panels-built-roads-could-be-future-energy
 
Geoengineering: Visions of Fake Plastic Trees and Algae Tanks on Every Roof
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/geoengineering-visions-fake-plastic-trees-and-rooftop-algae-tanks
 
 

 
 
 
Biological, Genetics and Medical Sciences
 
Lightning helps create artificial blood vessels
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32509657/ns/technology_and_science-science/
 
Tech: Engineering Tissue (Video)
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/tech-engineering-tissue.html
 
Encyclopedia of Life grows; clues on ageing, pests
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090823/sc_nm/us_encylopedia_life
 
Gene swap experiment makes altering bugs easier
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090820/sc_nm/us_microbe_genes
 
New Injection-Needle Patch Lends Credence to the Promise: "This Won't Hurt a Bit"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=painless-patch-hypodermic-needles-flu-vaccine
 
Universal vaccine could put an end to all flu
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327220.100-universal-vaccine-could-put-an-end-to-all-flu.html?full=true
 
7 Next-Gen Bandages That Help Heal Wounds
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health_medicine/4328266.html
 
New clue found to disappearing honey bees
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32541662/ns/technology_and_science-science/
 
Broken hearts mend with 'patch' 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8218077.stm
 
CDC Officials Consider Promoting Circumcision to Prevent HIV’s Spread
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/08/24/cdc-officials-consider-promoting-circumcision-to-prevent-hivs-spread/
 
National Academy as National Enquirer? PNAS Publishes Theory That Caterpillars Originated from Interspecies Sex
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=national-academy-as-national-enquirer
 
Stem cell spinal injury trial put on hold
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17669-stem-cell-spinal-injury-trial-put-on-hold.html
 
Biotech Co: First Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial Hit Small Speed Bump
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/08/28/biotech-co-first-human-embryonic-stem-cell-trial-hit-small-speed-bump/
 
Canadian scientist aims to turn chickens into dinosaurs
http://www.physorg.com/news170426405.html
 
Tick saliva could hold cancer cure: Brazilian scientists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090828/ts_afp/sciencecancerbrazilanimalticks_20090828210631
 
One-gene method makes safer human stem cells
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17708-onegene-method-makes-safer-human-stem-cells.html
 
 
 
 
 
 


Other
 
Single molecule's stunning image
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8225491.stm
 
Science fiction breaks free from fantasy 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8221009.stm
 
Singularity University Grads Plan to Help a Billion People in 10 Years
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/singularity-u-grads-plan-help-billion-people-10-years
 
 
 
'Dean' of UFO Studies Devoted Life to Seeking Others Beyond Earth
By Rick Rojas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 23, 2009 
 
Richard H. Hall was never abducted by aliens and never saw a UFO with his own eyes. Yet his life became a quest to delve into the unending, mysterious universe and find life beyond Earth. 
"I am, in the legitimate sense, in the philosophical sense, a skeptic," Mr. Hall said in a 1997 CNN interview. "I think there is evidence of something. I am critical about it. I am open-minded, [and] I am trying to find out." 
 
Mr. Hall, who was 78 when he died July 17 at his home in Brentwood of colon cancer, was "the last of a breed," said John B. Carlson, a University of Maryland astronomer. Carlson said that Mr. Hall's generation of UFO enthusiasts approached questions of the universe using the scientific method, not as believers in an intergalactic phantasm. "He was scientific, careful," he said. "He was a researcher." 
 
Mr. Hall's pursuit began as a boy growing up near Hartford, Conn., with a simple mention by his mother that she had seen something strange in the night sky. 
 
"Could there be something out there?" he asked himself at the time, according to his friend Susan Swiatek, who is Virginia director for the Mutual UFO Network. The Colorado-based group, of which Mr. Hall was once a board member, is an organization of UFO enthusiasts and ufologists -- those who study unidentified flying objects. 
 
As a young man, Mr. Hall indeed thought there was something out there, and that prompted his lifelong investigation into who piloted UFOs and why they would come to Earth. 
 
Mr. Hall became a leading figure in the field of ufology and wrote widely in the subject. He edited the book "The UFO Evidence" (1964) and a second volume in 2001. He also had a stint as a columnist for UFO Magazine and wrote essays for niche publications. And he was a proponent of what's known in ufology jargon as the "Extraterrestrial Hypothesis." He believed that UFOs, in fact, carried alien life-forms in spacecrafts that visited Earth. 
 
Mr. Hall started his career as a student of extraterrestrial life at the beginning of the space race, when the American public was eyeing the heavens and wondering whether anyone else might share our universe. The study of UFOs was in its infancy when he came to Washington in 1958 to work for the new National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), a privately funded organization that sought to persuade the Air Force to investigate UFO sightings. Its director was Donald Keyhoe, a former Marine Corps aviator who wrote such books as "The Flying Saucers Are Real" and became an oft-quoted expert on extraterrestrials. 
 
Mr. Hall wrote of learning about NICAP while studying mathematics at Tulane University in New Orleans. As a scholarship student, his duties included opening, sorting and delivering the mail. Keyhoe had written a letter to the university's "one-man astronomy department" asking for scientific support for the UFO organization. Mr. Hall, a fan of Keyhoe's book, said he immediately offered his services to NICAP after graduating. 
 
Mr. Hall became an assistant to Keyhoe, but life as a ufologist wasn't lucrative. He left the organization in the late 1960s because of his impending marriage, which soon ended in divorce. He worked as an abstracter and editor for the Congressional Information Service in Bethesda, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Columbia Telecommunications and the National Council on Aging. 
 
Mr. Hall continued to write about UFOs and serve with many organizations that investigated UFO sightings and phenomena. The larger scientific community has often dismissed ufology because of a lack of empirical data to support the research. "There are tens of thousands of reports of UFO sightings, but all you need is one good one to prove it," said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. 
 
"The bottom line: Ninety percent can be explained as something prosaic," Shostak said. "Ten percent, you don't know what it was, and ufologists say that's the margin in which there are aliens. The fact that we don't know 10 percent is not evidence." 
 
Carlson said his mentor, Mr. Hall, came to be regarded as the "dean of ufology." As a researcher, Mr. Hall looked for evidence to understand what kind of extraterrestrials existed and what their purpose was. 
 
In later years, his reputation suffered a reversal among many younger UFO enthusiasts who wanted to believe the story lines of science fiction to be true, Carlson said. 
 
According to Carlson, Mr. Hall eschewed this growing "ding-a-ling fringe . . . who approach this more as a belief system or a faith." 
 
Those notions, in Mr. Hall's view, diminished the credibility of his writings and research. The younger generation came to regard the "Extraterrestrial Hypothesis" as an old school of thought. The younger factions dismissed his hypothesis as though he believed the world was flat. 
Outside his studies of UFOs, Mr. Hall had a keen interest in female soldiers, particularly those who fought incognito during the Civil War, and wrote several books and papers about them. 
But his greatest influence as a researcher came from dedicating his life to the search for the unknown. 
 
"Ninety-seven percent of the nibbles a fisherman feels on his line may be caused by his line snagging on rocks or seaweed, or by wave motion," Mr. Hall wrote in a 1966 paper. "This doesn't prove there are no fish in the ocean." 
 
 
 

 
Additional Informational
 
The Army of the Kings of Ur: The Textual Evidence
http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2009/cdlj2009_005.html
 
The Universe's Most Powerful Magnets
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/20-the-universes-most-powerful-magnets/
 
“Who shall be our Sustainer?”: Sacred Myth and the Spoken Word
http://penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/51-1/Christenson.pdf
 
Out of the Past and into the Night: Ancient Mythical Dwarfs in Modern Yucatan
http://penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/51-1/Storniolo.pdf
 
NEW FOSSIL PHOTOS: "Graceful Weasel," Jewel Bug, More
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/photogalleries/new-fossils-messel-pit-pictures/index.html
 
Mysterious Origins: 8 Phenomena That Defy Explanation [Slide Show]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mysterious-origins-8-phen
 
Failure to launch: abandoned NASA projects
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/abandoned-nasa-projects
 
Ripped From the Journals: The Biggest Discoveries of the Week
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/08/21/ripped-from-the-journals-the-biggest-discoveries-of-the-week-2/
 
The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals- Video
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=video-the-mysterious-down
 
Paris Catacombs "Dense in Death"- Video
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090825-catacombs-video-ap.html
 
Beyond space and time: Fractals, hyperspace and more
http://www.newscientist.com/special/beyond-space-and-time
 


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.jawest.net/pipermail/jawlist-jawest.net/attachments/20090829/6f4dde98/attachment-0004.htm>