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POPSThe Gold of Varna Prehistoric Necropolis "There are crouched and extended inhumations. Some graves do not contain a skeleton, but grave gifts (cenotaphs). Interestingly, the symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold artifacts. 3000 gold artifacts were found, with a weight of approximately 6 kilograms. Grave 43 (photo) contained more gold than has been found in the entire rest of the world for that epoch. Three symbolic graves contained masks of unburnt clay. The findings showed that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands (possibly including the lower Volga and the Cyclades), perhaps exporting metal goods and salt from the Provadiya rock salt mine. The copper ore used in the artifacts originated from a Sredna Gora mine near Stara Zagora, and Mediterranean Spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency." The text above from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_Necropolis
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POPSBulldoze then claim Ancient Village never existed! In 2003 all the townships ranked among the eight poorest areas of Israel. But of the newly built communities around Beer Sheva, with their predominantly Jewish populations, two were in the top five wealthiest areas of the country. However, the seven townships to which it wants the Bedouin to move are already overcrowded and have poor living conditions - in stark contrast to the new communities being built nearby for Israelis relocating to the Negev.
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POPSIndex of Answers to Creationist Claims (Talk.Origins)
It's futile to spend too much time answering the creationist/ID claims that pop up here from time to time when all of them have already been addressed and debunked by the scientific community in overwhelming detail. This continually updated index addresses every single creationist/ID claim that has been made to date with short responses and hyperlinks to papers and references with detailed responses. (Most claims go back decades, if not centuries...there is very little new in the way of creationist claims any more. ID so far has made no new claims that creationists hadn't already made in the 60s/70s with different terminology.) While this a handy resource for debates on origins, its primary worth is as a doorway to education in the entire field of modern science and the scientific process, with a focus on the historical fields of evolution, anthropology, biology, and geology...with a healthy dose of religion and philosophy of science thrown in as well.
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POPSWhat Is A Romantic Friendship? "Recent critics have opted for a wide range of terminology to describe the poet's relationship with Sue, some calling it a "romantic friendship," others outing her outright. The prevalence of both hetero- and homoerotic imagery in her writings suggests that Dickinson was bisexual, but did she regard herself as such? And, if she did, how are we to know?"
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POPSAsian Americans Are People, We Get Offended! A list of Asian American terminology, both bad and acceptable ones, as well as a couple of things to keep in mind. I would personally add that you should not immediately come to the conclusion that we are all Chinese, but that's just me.
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POPSFoundations of Mathematics-Proofs The site is an 'Extensive Mathematics resource.' I have clipped a section on proofs, with is intriguing, but there are detailed descriptions, of other strands of mathematics, as seen in the link at the top of the clip
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POPS20 Signs You May Be About to Die I recall reading about an obscure native culture in which the concept of death is fluid rather than fixed. You might be “dead” (somewhat sick), “very dead” (extremely ill) or “completely dead” (actually deceased) according to their terminology. The following 20 funny photos have been organized by these darkly funny and fatalistic categories!
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POPSConservatives Do Not Have A Monopoly On Religion
These days the Christian Conservatives have worked really really hard to portray the left as secular enemies of the faith, and spread the myth that one cannot be a good Christian and a political liberal, that the left-wing agenda of using the government to care for the needy, defend freedoms and protect the weak is somehow in fundamental conflict with the teachings of Jesus. Now, I normally don't like to tell Christians how they should interpret their faith, and I'm not going to start now, but I think any Christian should seriously consider the following question: What in the teachings of Jesus would condone discrimination against social pariahs (like gays)? What in the anecdotes in the New Testament would encourage the savage me-first capitalism of Bush's Republican Party? As an outsider, I don't see the connection. Actually, I'd have a sincere interest in how Christianity has become so conflated with conservativism, so if anyone cares to explain their side, I'm all ears.
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POPSPlutons: Geologists are mad at astronomers In the old days when I worked in the Canadian nuclear industry, people working on nuclear waste disposal couldn't talk about depositing wastes in plutons. We had to call the formations batholiths, which sounds less scary. Why don't American geologists do that too?
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POPSNew 'Surge' in Iraqi Deaths in February I thought the "surge" meant the US sending more troops and it now seems to be something else - more Iraqis stood still for too long. I f more camels go missing next month, will that be another surge?
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POPSThe Myth that Image DPI Is Relevant To Web Images The source site, emdpi.com, seems to be a great site for clearing up common misconceptions about basic graphics terminology and definitions. For example, it also mentions that the "em" is -not- "a square the size of the letter M" (I'd seen that one before), and explains that in Windows, an inch as defined by Microsoft might not be an actual physical inch - and why.