Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us here at Querencia blog!

Steve’s Return

Steve writes that he is safely back home from Turkey and in his words, “…ALMOST un- jet lagged.” He warns that blogging will be light for a while due to his continuing computer issues. He says, “Meanwhile 106 Turkish photos of all manner of things– dogs,domestic pigeons, landscape, ibises, flint cores– are in the big …

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Another Set of Prehistoric Footprints

Archaeologists in Australia have discovered a set of prehistoric footprints that date to the late Pleistocene (19,000 – 23,000 BP) on a lakeshore in New South Wales. There are over 450 footprints, another “frozen moment” in the past. They sound very interesting, ”We see children running between the tracks of their parents; the children running …

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Mommie Deepest

Marine biologists have discovered that contrary to their earlier assumptions, some species of squid are actually careful and attentive mothers. Sorry, but I saw “mommie deepest” in the photo caption and had to use it.

The New Madrid Earthquakes and Archaeology

One of the events that has fallen into the “memory hole” of American history is the sequence of earthquakes from December 1811 to March 1812 that occurred in the central Mississippi River valley. These quakes (and the fault that caused them), named after the Missouri town of New Madrid, were the most powerful in continental …

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Kangaroo: It’s What’s for Dinner

If you see medallions of australus on the menu, you’ll know that they’re serving ‘roo. Australus is the winner of a contest for a new name for kangaroo meat. Somehow I don’t think the aborigines will care.

Frozen Mammoth Genetic Studies

This news release talks about two separate genetic analyses carried out on a 28,000 year-old Siberian mammoth preserved in permafrost. One studied mitochondrial DNA while the other studied DNA from the cell nucleus. The researchers using mitochondrial DNA found that “…the woolly mammoth was more closely related to the Asian than the African elephant, but …

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Historic Wall in New York City

The Los Angeles Times notes as does the New York Times, the discovery of a wall unearthed in construction near Battery Park in New York City. It was found 10 feet under the present ground surface and artifacts associated with it seem to indicate its construction in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries. It …

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“On The Road” Manuscript Displayed

The San Francisco Public Library is going to display the manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” this spring – at least a portion of it. This book has always been a sort of literary legend as it was written on a continuous 120 foot-long roll of paper fed through a typewriter in a three-week …

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