TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Observatory: From a Desert Plant, a Scented Cry for Help When plants are damaged, they emit a fragrance. But in the case of at least one type of wild tobacco plant found in the Great Basin desert of Southwest Utah, it’s an actual distress call. feeds.nytimes.com |
Hadrian's Wall child murder: estimated time of death pre-367AD Gaul legionnaires seen as main suspects after skeleton of girl is found buried under Roman barracks at VindolandaThe murderous reputation of one of Britain's best-known Roman towns has been raised by the discovery of a child's hastily buried skeleton under a barrack room floor.Archaeologists at Vindolanda fort near Hadrian's Wall are preparing for a repeat of a celebrated coroner's inquest in the 1930s that concluded two other corpses unearthed near the site were "victims of murder by persons unknown shortly before 367AD".The latest discovery at the frontier settlement in Northumberland is thought to be the remains of a girl aged between eight and 10 who may have been tied up before she died.Her burial place is reckoned to be almost certain evidence of a crime, according to specialists at the Vindolanda Trust, which has made thousands of finds at the town and its associated fort since the 1920s.Human burials were strictly forbidden within built-up areas in Roman times, and Vindolanda followed regulations requiring cemeteries to be laid out on the settlement's outskirts. The bones, initially thought to have been those of a large dog, were in a shallow pit dug in a corner of the garrison's living quarters at the heart of the fort.Patricia Birley, director of the Vindolanda Trust, said: "This definitely looks like a case of foul play. It has been very sad to find a child in this shallow grave under the barrack floor."It would have been very difficult to get a body out of the barracks, through the wider fort and out of the gate, but we may never know if the burial took place with or without the collusion of the men who shared the barracks."The skeleton was identified by Dr Trudy Buck, a biological anthropologist at Durham university, who will now carry out a full autopsy in the hope of establishing a cause of death. This was relatively easy in the 1930s case, when one of the two skeletons found hidden under the floor of a civilian home in Vindolanda's sister-fort of Housesteads had a knife blade slotted between its ribs.Punishment for any child murder at Vindolanda is obviously impossible, but the guilty party could conceivably be traced in due course. The trust's excavations have produced the earliest and best-preserved written records from the Roman empire, and the unit stationed in the fort at the suspected time of the death – the mid-third century AD – is known to have been the Fourth Cohort of Gauls.ArchaeologyMartin Wainwrightguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Video: Bill Maher interviews brother of Afghanistan 'hero' Pat Tillman | GrrlScientist Pat Tillman gave up a career in professional football to fight and die in Afghanistan. This very disturbing video is Bill Maher's interview of Pat's brother, RichardPat Tillman passed up a lucrative career playing professional football to fight and die in George "The W" Bush's senseless Afghanistan war. Named an American "hero", the circumstances surrounding his death remain suspicious and mysterious. This very disturbing video is Bill Maher's 25 September 2010 interview with Richard Tillman, Pat's younger brother. The least disturbing part of this interview was Richard's courageous response (captured on video) to religious comments made by Maria Shriver, wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona senator John McCain as part of the eulogy delivered at his brother's funeral. "He's not with God, he's fucking dead," asserted Mr Tillman. "Thanks for your thoughts but he's fucking dead." Mr Tillman, who has a low tolerance for lies was clearly offended by the sentiments, stating that his deceased brother "was not religious."GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Index shows global hunger growing Close to a billion people in the world are undernourished, with child malnutrition cited as the biggest cause, according to a new report. bbc.co.uk |
US envoy: Climate deal still possible in Mexico By 2010-10-22T10:57:45ZBEIJING (AP) -- A global agreement to curb carbon emissions is possible at an upcoming U.N. climate conference but hinges on the efforts and political will of countries, the U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said Friday in Beijing.... hosted.ap.org |