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- Thread starter Johnny West
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Johnny West
Well-known member
Luckytrim
Grill Master
High in the icy silence of the Ötztal Alps, a man lay frozen in time — hidden under snow and glacier for more than 5,000 years. When hikers discovered his body in 1991, they had no idea they had stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological finds in modern history.
He would come to be known as Ötzi, the Iceman — a Copper Age traveler who died around 3400–3100 BCE. But he didn’t die quietly. An arrow pierced his shoulder, shattering bone and blood vessels. He suffered a head injury. And his hand bore the mark of a fight, just days earlier.
Beside him were his tools: a copper axe, flint knife, and a long wooden stick — later confirmed to be a bow. His quiver still held arrows, some finished, some half-made. He wore a coat, leggings, a belt, and a loincloth, all crafted from animal hide, and a bearskin cap to shield him from the cold. Even his shoes were stuffed with grass for warmth. Near him lay a broken frame — likely the remains of a backpack.
tzi also carried birch-bark containers, one of which held charcoal and maple leaves — clues to fire-making or medicine. His stomach, miraculously preserved, still held his final meal: meat, fruit, grains, and plants — a diet as practical as it was telling.
But perhaps the most haunting discovery? 61 tattoos, made by cutting the skin and rubbing in charcoal — likely for pain relief, marking the earliest known form of therapeutic tattooing.
Today, Ötzi rests in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy, still dressed in the clothes he died in. Through science and time, he whispers from a world long gone — reminding us how much we can learn from those who walked before us.
He would come to be known as Ötzi, the Iceman — a Copper Age traveler who died around 3400–3100 BCE. But he didn’t die quietly. An arrow pierced his shoulder, shattering bone and blood vessels. He suffered a head injury. And his hand bore the mark of a fight, just days earlier.
Beside him were his tools: a copper axe, flint knife, and a long wooden stick — later confirmed to be a bow. His quiver still held arrows, some finished, some half-made. He wore a coat, leggings, a belt, and a loincloth, all crafted from animal hide, and a bearskin cap to shield him from the cold. Even his shoes were stuffed with grass for warmth. Near him lay a broken frame — likely the remains of a backpack.
tzi also carried birch-bark containers, one of which held charcoal and maple leaves — clues to fire-making or medicine. His stomach, miraculously preserved, still held his final meal: meat, fruit, grains, and plants — a diet as practical as it was telling.
But perhaps the most haunting discovery? 61 tattoos, made by cutting the skin and rubbing in charcoal — likely for pain relief, marking the earliest known form of therapeutic tattooing.
Today, Ötzi rests in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy, still dressed in the clothes he died in. Through science and time, he whispers from a world long gone — reminding us how much we can learn from those who walked before us.
I had this whole thing about the history of the Kentucky Derby and this years winner, and it's no longer in my bookmarks.
No idea how that happened.
Grrr
No idea how that happened.
Grrr
Johnny West
Well-known member
I Googled it.
It's true.
It's true.
Johnny West
Well-known member
Luckytrim
Grill Master
It’s common knowledge that the English alphabet contains 26 letters. However few people know that when the printing press came into existence in the fifteenth century, the alphabet used to contain one more letter that came after Z. It’s considered to be a symbol more than a letter these days but everyone who knows the English language recognizes it as ‘&’.
The ‘&’ symbol is called ampersand and it has an interesting history. The origin of the symbol can be dated back to ancient Rome, one of the earliest civilizations in which writing was used extensively. The Latin word for ‘and’ was ‘et’ and the two letters were combined into one. This is also known as a ligature. Instances of ligatures are widespread among various cultures. Perhaps the most popular one is the combination of ‘a’ and ‘e’ to make ae as a single letter with a unique phoneme.
So ‘et’ together in Latin meant ‘and’ and over the years, the way these two words were written changed. Cursive writing played an important role in making these two letters look like the ampersand. Till the time the printing press was invented, ‘&’ was considered an independent letter.
The ‘&’ symbol is called ampersand and it has an interesting history. The origin of the symbol can be dated back to ancient Rome, one of the earliest civilizations in which writing was used extensively. The Latin word for ‘and’ was ‘et’ and the two letters were combined into one. This is also known as a ligature. Instances of ligatures are widespread among various cultures. Perhaps the most popular one is the combination of ‘a’ and ‘e’ to make ae as a single letter with a unique phoneme.
So ‘et’ together in Latin meant ‘and’ and over the years, the way these two words were written changed. Cursive writing played an important role in making these two letters look like the ampersand. Till the time the printing press was invented, ‘&’ was considered an independent letter.
LOL I'm a few hours to late. I found the same graphic with the following details about Voyager. Very interesting.
Voyager 1 will barely travel the galaxy – even in 1 million years
Voyager 1 has been racing through the cosmos for nearly 47 years, and it’s now more than 15.4 billion miles (24.8 billion km) from Earth – farther than any human-made object has ever traveled. It officially entered interstellar space in 2012, crossing beyond the heliopause – the boundary where the solar wind meets the interstellar medium.
But this image shows just how staggering galactic distances really are. The red line represents how far Voyager 1 will travel in 1 million years – a tiny scratch on the vast canvas of the Milky Way.
Even moving at ~38,000 mph (17 km/s), it will take Voyager ~40,000 years to pass near another star (likely Gliese 445) and over 400 million years to orbit the galaxy just once.
For context, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across, and our Sun orbits the galactic center once every 225–250 million years. Voyager 1 is currently moving through the Orion Spur, a minor arm of our spiral galaxy between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms – and even after a million years, it will still be within this region.
Despite its distance, Voyager 1 continues to send back data – powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). But that power is fading. NASA expects we’ll lose contact with it sometime around 2025-2030, ending direct communication with our first interstellar messenger.
And yet… it will keep going. For millions of years. Carrying the Golden Record – a time capsule of Earth’s sounds, languages, and music – into the deep unknown.
Voyager 1 will barely travel the galaxy – even in 1 million years
Voyager 1 has been racing through the cosmos for nearly 47 years, and it’s now more than 15.4 billion miles (24.8 billion km) from Earth – farther than any human-made object has ever traveled. It officially entered interstellar space in 2012, crossing beyond the heliopause – the boundary where the solar wind meets the interstellar medium.
But this image shows just how staggering galactic distances really are. The red line represents how far Voyager 1 will travel in 1 million years – a tiny scratch on the vast canvas of the Milky Way.
Even moving at ~38,000 mph (17 km/s), it will take Voyager ~40,000 years to pass near another star (likely Gliese 445) and over 400 million years to orbit the galaxy just once.
For context, the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across, and our Sun orbits the galactic center once every 225–250 million years. Voyager 1 is currently moving through the Orion Spur, a minor arm of our spiral galaxy between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms – and even after a million years, it will still be within this region.
Despite its distance, Voyager 1 continues to send back data – powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). But that power is fading. NASA expects we’ll lose contact with it sometime around 2025-2030, ending direct communication with our first interstellar messenger.
And yet… it will keep going. For millions of years. Carrying the Golden Record – a time capsule of Earth’s sounds, languages, and music – into the deep unknown.
Luckytrim
Grill Master
If the Black Sea were to be drained, what would be uncovered is a vast and cavernous depression, strikingly reminiscent of a massive, man-made quarry. While conventional science attributes the formation of the Black Sea to the slow, natural movements of tectonic plates over millions of years, the seafloor’s appearance raises intriguing questions. Its sharp contours, steep drops, and unusual depth contrasts don’t always align with what we’d expect from typical natural erosion or sedimentation processes. From above, the topography of the sea floor looks almost too structured—too geometric—to have formed solely through natural forces. Some have even speculated that its shape might suggest artificial intervention or catastrophic events that we’ve yet to fully comprehend. Though no concrete evidence supports these alternative theories, the scale and almost deliberate design of the basin continue to spark curiosity. Whether the result of tectonic forces or something more mysterious, the Black Sea remains one of Earth's most fascinating and enigmatic bodies of water, with its depths possibly holding secrets of both geological shifts and long-forgotten civilizations.
Johnny West
Well-known member
Johnny West
Well-known member
Johnny West
Well-known member
Johnny West
Well-known member