| Gutenberg and western printing: 1439 - 1457 |
||
| The name of Gutenberg first appears, in connection with printing, in
a law case in Strasbourg in 1439. He is being sued by two of his
business partners. Witnesses, asked about Gutenberg's stock, describe a
press and a supply of metal type. It sounds as though he is already
capable of printing small items of text from movable type, and it seems
likely that he must have done so in Strasbourg. But nothing from this
period survives. | ||
Friday, 22 August 2014
The use of tools 3
The use of tools 2
| Rotary power: c.200 BC |
||
| The turning of a drum by pressure on projecting arms (the principle
of the capstan or windlass) is a necessary part of any rotary machine,
such as a screw press. The same principle makes it possible to grind
corn between millstones.
The manual grinding of grain, together with the baking of bread, go back at least 8000 years to settled communities such as Catal Huyuk. Early forms of grinding involve rubbing one hard surface against another by hand (the pestle and mortar is one such method). Rotary mills, turned by slaves or animals, are known from at least the 2nd century BC. | ||
The use of tools
| It
is a commonplace that humans are distinguished from other creatures by a
technological ability, and man has often been described as a tool-using
animal. The distinction is not entirely valid. Some animals do use
tools. Chimpanzees are the most often quoted example, stripping a twig
to plunge it into an anthill and then eating the tasty termites which
cling to the end of it. A more modern example of tool-using is that of crows living in a walnut avenue in the Japanese town of Sendai. The walnuts are too hard to crack. So the crows have taken to dropping them on a pedestrian crossing where they are crushed by the passing traffic. When it is the pedestrians' turn, the crows fly in to bear |
6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain
#6. The Voynich Manuscript
The Voynich manuscript is an ancient book that has thwarted all attempts at deciphering its contents. And it's not like some idiot just scribbled a bunch of nonsense on paper and went, "Figure THIS out, fuckwads." It is actually an organized book with a consistent script, discernible organization and detailed illustrations.
Computer chip can think like a human brain
IBM has developed a sophisticated new chip that works by simulating the neurons inside the human brain.
The concept of creating a 'thinking' computer has been the dream of computer engineers and futurists for years and while this latest development doesn't quite achieve that goal it does open up the door to a whole new way of performing complex tasks using computers.
The size of a postage stamp, the new chip contains 5.4 billion transistors and is capable of simulating 1 million neurons and 256 million neural connections.
The concept of creating a 'thinking' computer has been the dream of computer engineers and futurists for years and while this latest development doesn't quite achieve that goal it does open up the door to a whole new way of performing complex tasks using computers.
The size of a postage stamp, the new chip contains 5.4 billion transistors and is capable of simulating 1 million neurons and 256 million neural connections.
Life found half a mile below Antarctic ice
Researchers in Antarctica have revealed the discovery of a whole ecosystem living beneath the pack ice.
It seems a long time since scientists first started to drill down through the ice to sample the waters of one of Antarctica's many subglacial lakes, bodies of water that have remained completely isolated from the outside world as far as half a mile under the surface where by all rights nothing should be able to survive.
This week however the research team finally confirmed that this cold, dark environment is indeed home to some remarkable forms of life and may offer hope for finding life on other worlds as well.
It seems a long time since scientists first started to drill down through the ice to sample the waters of one of Antarctica's many subglacial lakes, bodies of water that have remained completely isolated from the outside world as far as half a mile under the surface where by all rights nothing should be able to survive.
This week however the research team finally confirmed that this cold, dark environment is indeed home to some remarkable forms of life and may offer hope for finding life on other worlds as well.
Where is Genghis Khan buried?
According to legend, his burial party killed anyone who saw the procession. The slaves and soldiers who attended the funeral were also killed. Horses then trampled evidence of the burial, and a river was diverted to flow over the grave, which is thought to
ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM
This
curious mechanical device is often described as the World’s first
analogue computer was retrieved by sponge divers off the coast of
Antikythera in or around 1900AD. Scientists all agree that it is real
and that it dates from some time during the 2nd century BC making it
well over 2,000 years old. It comprises of a complex system of dials,
gears and cogs of extraordinary precision. Experts agree that it
represents a standard of production that would not be seen again until
the rise of complex clocks and clockwork in the 18th century.
After many
years of research the current thinking is that it was used as an
astronomy calculator to predict and measure the movement and cycle of
the planets in relationship to the Sun, Earth and the Moon. For decades
after its original discovery the importance of the find was overlooked
until archaeologists and modern scientist began to appreciate the
significance of such early mechanical sophistication. Since then it has
been x-rayed many times using evermore advanced equipment. Working
reconstructions have been made and entire research groups established to
unlock the secrets of its manufacture and its purpose. Its existence
has challenged many preconceived ideas regarding the technological
abilities of the ancient civilisations
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Map of human genetic history: An ancient mystery answered, maybe
I was intrigued by a report
by geneticists at Oxford University, University College London and the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. Their
report, "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History," is an analysis of
the blending of people in human populations around the world. They noted
historical events in our own and our ancestors' DNA. They used DNA to
characterize significant historical blending events, and identified 100
historical events of human contact over the last 4,000 years.
In the first paragraph of their report, they said, among the events encrypted in our genetic mutations are the "genetic impacts of the Mongol empire, Arab slave trade, Bantu expansion, first millennium CE migrations in Eastern Europe, and European colonialism, as well as unrecorded events." Interestingly, four of the six events identified in these introductory sentences of their report have a direct bearing on my ancestors. They say historians can now research ancestral mixtures using the genetic information about how different people interblended with each other.
I wish they had also said genealogists can also use this DNA information and the interactive chart in the report, because genealogists have been using it. I used this research to identify the various groups, large and small, powerful and powerless, aggressors and defenders, on my ancestral tree.
As an amateur genealogist, I researched and wrote about the ancestral historical events and blending of my African and European ancestors, revealing the specific story of the colonizing of my African ancestors in medieval Africa, in colonial America and in the Caribbean in trans-Atlantic slavery Trade. I found records of the nobles related to the kings and queens of Scotland and England who participated in the trade and had children with the people they enslaved. I knew the stories of the European nobles on my tree, and the African farmers in villages in Akuapem, Ghana. In mountain villages, on the coasts and on slave ships, the farmers and village soldiers in Akan Fante asafo military groups rebelled and resisted. They were rebels. I researched the origin and the thousands of years of migration of the African ancestors revealed in my DNA. I researched the contact of my African and Middle Eastern ancestors during the Arab slave trade, and other historical events the geneticists term, "unrecorded events."
My historical research uncovered hidden details because my African American ancestors were Maroons who organized and rebelled against slavery in Jamaica in the Caribbean. They left records of their African names, folklore and cultural artifacts. I traced them to a Stone Age ancestor in Africa by following the trails of a nickname that survived in my ancient West African ancestors' language and culture. The name pointed to places and historical events from thousands of years ago.
Because my ancestors blended on three continents, and because my DNA map revealed numerous groups and genetic mutations over a 60,000-year period, there are several other previously unknown historical events I cover in researching the blending of my ancestors. But one event was so mysterious, I had to ask the geneticists for more research.
In 1999, when I traced my family's Caribbean nicknames to African surnames in Ghana, population research geneticists Dr. Michael Hammer and Elizabeth Wood in the Division of Biotechnology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Anthropology at the University of Arizona compared my father's DNA to Ghanaians and identified the matches. In 2000, when I traced my maternal DNA with Roots for Real, a London DNA company that uses Cambridge University's database, I found my main ancestors, Ghana's Akan's Ashanti and Fante in Akuapem villages, and dozens of additional matches: one in Europe, dozens in Africa and one in the Middle East. My Middle Eastern ancestors were the most mysterious, so I asked the geneticists if they can pinpoint the timeline of the contact between the Middle Eastern Mozabite in my DNA with my various African ancestors from West, East, Central and Southern Africa.
My maternal DNA showed Mozabite matches. The Mozabites trace their ancestry to the Moabites, descendants of one of Lot's daughters, and to Lot on the ancestral tree of Lot's uncle, Abram. They are relatives of Abrams' descendants' Ruth, David, Moses, Solomon and Jesus. In my previous research, I used nicknames, history, genealogy and folklore to trace the contact between my European and African ancestors in Africa, in the Caribbean and in America, so I had dates and timelines, but I did not have a date for the contact of my African ancestors with slave traders in the Middle East.
Were they ancient from Biblical days, and are my genetic markers from the days of the black people noted in the Old Testament? Were they from a later ancient period, thousands of years ago in Africa, or from medieval times, a millennium ago? Were they ancient like my Akan ancestors I traced to the hills and villages of Ghana? I asked my father, a Baptist minister and he started naming the Biblical people who begat whom, and the black people who were at the cross, so I asked him to send me the information. He sent a list of the ancestral tree from the Old Testament's Abraham (Abram) to his nephew Lot to Ruth to David, Solomon and on to the New Testament to Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
I wrote and asked the geneticists, when did the Mozabite in Damascus, Syria, Israeli Palestine and Algeria, a reclusive group of Middle Eastern traders who show in my DNA, blend with my other ancestors? I knew who the other Africans were; they were noted in my DNA as the West African Akans of Ghana; Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba of Nigeria; Cabinda of Angola; Papel, Manjaco, Djola, Felupes of Guniea-Bisseau; Wolof of Senegal, or the East African Kikuyu of Kenya; Yao, Chopi, Shangaan of Mozambique, or the Central African Bamileke, Ewondo, Chadic-speaking Masa of Cameroon, or the Southern African Khoi, Vasikela !Kung San people of Botswana-Namibia, all of whom show in my maternal DNA.
The recent research that geneticist revealed in the interactive map, "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History," gave me an answer. When I clicked on the interactive map, I saw that a small percentage of Yorubans (7.3) blended with Morocans (86.2) and Tunisians (5.5) around 1334, between 1250 to 1418. This is a timeline for contact between my ancient African mothers and Middle Eastern traders. Tunisians have a percentage of Africans, Yoruba (5.3), Mandenka (1.0) and Mbuti Pygmy (0.6) in their DNA.
We know from geneticists, anthropologists and historians that the Yoruba on my ancestral tree is ancient as is Mandenka (Mandingo), and Mbuti Pygmy is most ancient, the second most ancient human group behind the 60,000 to 100,000 year-old southern African Khoi and San people. So when did they blend with the Middle Easterners whose DNA trace to a few thousand years ago? The Yorubas of Nigeria are in my maternal DNA, but they did not appear in my father's DNA, so it is the women, my ancient mothers who were traded in the Arab slave trade, according to these findings. Dr. Hammer has done research, which shows that the earliest ancient slaves were women of all backgrounds.
In their report, the geneticists float a theory that because the two groups, the Morocan and the Tunisian traders, who created the Mozabites had settled in North Africa more than 1,000 years before the Mozabite group was formed, the group's DNA marker, showing black African women, is from the Arab slave trade. They said seventeen Mediterranean groups show African mixtures, and the mixtures are from the Arab slave trade, which started in the seventh century. But they said their results also imply an "earlier sub-Saharan gene flow" and mixing of these groups. I like the story of Abraham (Abram) and the lady of color, Hagar, and their black child Ishmael. I like the story of how Abraham's various descendants separated, blended, fought, reconciled, but knew they were related. I continue to ask the geneticist to check the timeline on my Mozabite DNA matches, which show Yorubans of Nigeria, Mandenka of West Africa and Mbuti Pgymy of Central Africa mixing with Middle Eastern traders in my DNA. This is a mystery I hope geneticists can solve.
Another mystery in my DNA is, my most ancient ancestral group, my haplogroup, traces not to the traditional maternal haplogroups of the majority of Africans, L1 and L2, but to a small group of humans, L3, who migrated in-and-out of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago.
About the author - Pearl Duncan
Pearl Duncan is completing a book about her African American DNA, ancestry and genealogy from three continents from modern times to the Stone Age. She traced an ancient name which survived.
In the first paragraph of their report, they said, among the events encrypted in our genetic mutations are the "genetic impacts of the Mongol empire, Arab slave trade, Bantu expansion, first millennium CE migrations in Eastern Europe, and European colonialism, as well as unrecorded events." Interestingly, four of the six events identified in these introductory sentences of their report have a direct bearing on my ancestors. They say historians can now research ancestral mixtures using the genetic information about how different people interblended with each other.
I wish they had also said genealogists can also use this DNA information and the interactive chart in the report, because genealogists have been using it. I used this research to identify the various groups, large and small, powerful and powerless, aggressors and defenders, on my ancestral tree.
As an amateur genealogist, I researched and wrote about the ancestral historical events and blending of my African and European ancestors, revealing the specific story of the colonizing of my African ancestors in medieval Africa, in colonial America and in the Caribbean in trans-Atlantic slavery Trade. I found records of the nobles related to the kings and queens of Scotland and England who participated in the trade and had children with the people they enslaved. I knew the stories of the European nobles on my tree, and the African farmers in villages in Akuapem, Ghana. In mountain villages, on the coasts and on slave ships, the farmers and village soldiers in Akan Fante asafo military groups rebelled and resisted. They were rebels. I researched the origin and the thousands of years of migration of the African ancestors revealed in my DNA. I researched the contact of my African and Middle Eastern ancestors during the Arab slave trade, and other historical events the geneticists term, "unrecorded events."
My historical research uncovered hidden details because my African American ancestors were Maroons who organized and rebelled against slavery in Jamaica in the Caribbean. They left records of their African names, folklore and cultural artifacts. I traced them to a Stone Age ancestor in Africa by following the trails of a nickname that survived in my ancient West African ancestors' language and culture. The name pointed to places and historical events from thousands of years ago.
Because my ancestors blended on three continents, and because my DNA map revealed numerous groups and genetic mutations over a 60,000-year period, there are several other previously unknown historical events I cover in researching the blending of my ancestors. But one event was so mysterious, I had to ask the geneticists for more research.
In 1999, when I traced my family's Caribbean nicknames to African surnames in Ghana, population research geneticists Dr. Michael Hammer and Elizabeth Wood in the Division of Biotechnology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Anthropology at the University of Arizona compared my father's DNA to Ghanaians and identified the matches. In 2000, when I traced my maternal DNA with Roots for Real, a London DNA company that uses Cambridge University's database, I found my main ancestors, Ghana's Akan's Ashanti and Fante in Akuapem villages, and dozens of additional matches: one in Europe, dozens in Africa and one in the Middle East. My Middle Eastern ancestors were the most mysterious, so I asked the geneticists if they can pinpoint the timeline of the contact between the Middle Eastern Mozabite in my DNA with my various African ancestors from West, East, Central and Southern Africa.
My maternal DNA showed Mozabite matches. The Mozabites trace their ancestry to the Moabites, descendants of one of Lot's daughters, and to Lot on the ancestral tree of Lot's uncle, Abram. They are relatives of Abrams' descendants' Ruth, David, Moses, Solomon and Jesus. In my previous research, I used nicknames, history, genealogy and folklore to trace the contact between my European and African ancestors in Africa, in the Caribbean and in America, so I had dates and timelines, but I did not have a date for the contact of my African ancestors with slave traders in the Middle East.
Were they ancient from Biblical days, and are my genetic markers from the days of the black people noted in the Old Testament? Were they from a later ancient period, thousands of years ago in Africa, or from medieval times, a millennium ago? Were they ancient like my Akan ancestors I traced to the hills and villages of Ghana? I asked my father, a Baptist minister and he started naming the Biblical people who begat whom, and the black people who were at the cross, so I asked him to send me the information. He sent a list of the ancestral tree from the Old Testament's Abraham (Abram) to his nephew Lot to Ruth to David, Solomon and on to the New Testament to Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
I wrote and asked the geneticists, when did the Mozabite in Damascus, Syria, Israeli Palestine and Algeria, a reclusive group of Middle Eastern traders who show in my DNA, blend with my other ancestors? I knew who the other Africans were; they were noted in my DNA as the West African Akans of Ghana; Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba of Nigeria; Cabinda of Angola; Papel, Manjaco, Djola, Felupes of Guniea-Bisseau; Wolof of Senegal, or the East African Kikuyu of Kenya; Yao, Chopi, Shangaan of Mozambique, or the Central African Bamileke, Ewondo, Chadic-speaking Masa of Cameroon, or the Southern African Khoi, Vasikela !Kung San people of Botswana-Namibia, all of whom show in my maternal DNA.
The recent research that geneticist revealed in the interactive map, "A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History," gave me an answer. When I clicked on the interactive map, I saw that a small percentage of Yorubans (7.3) blended with Morocans (86.2) and Tunisians (5.5) around 1334, between 1250 to 1418. This is a timeline for contact between my ancient African mothers and Middle Eastern traders. Tunisians have a percentage of Africans, Yoruba (5.3), Mandenka (1.0) and Mbuti Pygmy (0.6) in their DNA.
We know from geneticists, anthropologists and historians that the Yoruba on my ancestral tree is ancient as is Mandenka (Mandingo), and Mbuti Pygmy is most ancient, the second most ancient human group behind the 60,000 to 100,000 year-old southern African Khoi and San people. So when did they blend with the Middle Easterners whose DNA trace to a few thousand years ago? The Yorubas of Nigeria are in my maternal DNA, but they did not appear in my father's DNA, so it is the women, my ancient mothers who were traded in the Arab slave trade, according to these findings. Dr. Hammer has done research, which shows that the earliest ancient slaves were women of all backgrounds.
In their report, the geneticists float a theory that because the two groups, the Morocan and the Tunisian traders, who created the Mozabites had settled in North Africa more than 1,000 years before the Mozabite group was formed, the group's DNA marker, showing black African women, is from the Arab slave trade. They said seventeen Mediterranean groups show African mixtures, and the mixtures are from the Arab slave trade, which started in the seventh century. But they said their results also imply an "earlier sub-Saharan gene flow" and mixing of these groups. I like the story of Abraham (Abram) and the lady of color, Hagar, and their black child Ishmael. I like the story of how Abraham's various descendants separated, blended, fought, reconciled, but knew they were related. I continue to ask the geneticist to check the timeline on my Mozabite DNA matches, which show Yorubans of Nigeria, Mandenka of West Africa and Mbuti Pgymy of Central Africa mixing with Middle Eastern traders in my DNA. This is a mystery I hope geneticists can solve.
Another mystery in my DNA is, my most ancient ancestral group, my haplogroup, traces not to the traditional maternal haplogroups of the majority of Africans, L1 and L2, but to a small group of humans, L3, who migrated in-and-out of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago.
About the author - Pearl Duncan
Pearl Duncan is completing a book about her African American DNA, ancestry and genealogy from three continents from modern times to the Stone Age. She traced an ancient name which survived.
Friday, 28 February 2014
Desert whale graveyard mystery solved
Scientists think they have figured out how a trove of ancient marine mammal fossils ended up in a Chilean desert 40 metres above sea level.
The fossils were found at Cerro Ballena — Spanish for "whale hill" — in Chile's Atacama desert in 2010 by crews who were expanding the Pan-American Highway from two to four lanes.
"It's the richest site for fossil marine mammals in the world," said Nick Pyenson, a paleobiologist with the Smithsonian Institution in an interview with CBC's As It Happens.
The fossils include almost complete skeletons, many of them overlapping, for 40 large whales, along with dolphins, seals, large fish related to swordfish or marlins, and extinct species such as aquatic sloths and dolphins with walrus-like faces that lived six million to nine million years ago.
At first glance, the grouping looks like some of the mass strandings today in which dozens of whales or dolphins wash up on beaches around the world. Most of them die within a few days.
Nick
Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy
Nicholas Pyenson)
"The best explanation we have is toxins from harmful algal blooms likely caused the sudden death of all the marine organisms that we see at this site," he said. "And they were buried on a tidal flat that then became Cerro Ballena."
Similar events today can also cause the sudden mass deaths of marine mammals, he added.
"What's really interesting is that this didn't just happen once [at Cerro Ballena]. It happened four times," Pyenson said, adding that the fossil site has at least four layers.
Over time, overlapping tectonic plates pushed the former shoreline high up above sea level, where it is now a desert less than a kilometre from the modern-day coastline.
Most
of the whales were found belly-up, suggesting they were already dead
when they arrived on shore. (James F. Parham/California State
University, Fullerton)
Pyenson said a key clue was that most of the whales were buried belly up.
"Now, a whale doesn't strand belly up unless it arrives dead to the shoreline…. What we see at Cerro Ballena is actually a graveyard, not a murder site."
The fact that similar events happened repeatedly also pointed to toxic algae as the cause.
The fossils impeding the road construction were dug up by paleontologists and now reside in museums, allowing the highway expansion to go ahead. but the researchers think up to several hundred skeletons may remain undiscovered on either side of the highway.
"You can go there today and look on either side of road cut, and there are still whale skulls going into the cliff face," Pyenson said.
The researchers hope their new results will inspire enough interest that their Chilean colleagues can establish a field station at the site and preserve and study the remaining fossils.
Sunday, 26 January 2014
The Art of Hiding Technology
Home electronics should integrate seamlessly into a home's design and décor. This course reviews the three-pronged approach to hiding technology-advance planning, design philosophy, and product selection-which are available for minimizing the visual impact of electronics without compromising performance. Specific challenges and recommendations related to hiding video displays, projectors, speakers, controls, cameras, and equipment racks-among others-will be addressed. This course speaks to innovative and creative ways to lessen the visual impact of electronics by making them low-profile, hidden or camouflaged, or even invisible! Attendees will also walk away with an understanding of how to properly engage a trained home technology professional in their next project.- Review different residential systems and technologies and determine how different installed options relate to the health, safety, and welfare of the client
- Discuss how advance planning, design philosophy, and product selection affect the proper functionality of the installed products without compromising design integrity and aesthetics
- Discuss methods and strategies for hiding technology in safe, convenient, and secure methods
- Identify preferred timeline for engaging an electronic systems professional in the project
Continuing Education Credit Values:
| Association: | AIA | AIBC | AIBD | IDCEC* | NAHB | NARI |
| Credit: | 1.0 LU | 1.0 Core LU | 1.0 CEU | 0.1 CEU | 1.0 Cr Hr | 1.0 CEU |
| Course Number: | CIO023 | CIO023 | CIO023 | 100966 | CIO023 | CIO023 |
| Subject Code: | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2.2 | N/A | N/A |
| Designation(s): | Health, Safety, and Welfare | Core LU | N/A | General Knowledge | Multiple | All |
SAN FRANCISCO — A mysterious four-story barge floating near Treasure Island here has people wondering what Google is up to.
A local TV station and CNET offer two theories behind the contents of the boat, which is stacked with shipping containers.
CBS-affiliate KPIX, citing an unnamed source close to the project, says Google is constructing an Apple Store-like marketing center for Google Glass.
CNET says it might be a water-based data center, citing a patent filed by Google for such a thing in 2007.
Google had no comment.
A barge similar to the one in San Francisco is in the waters off Portland, Maine.
The search giant plans to have the barge towed to San Francisco's nearby Fort Mason, where it will be open to the public, the unnamed source told KPIX.
CNET, quoting an anonymous source identified as an independent marine engineer, says Google wants to build a backup data center in the event of a natural disaster. The barge in San Francisco would be one of a dozen data centers worldwide, the source said.
A local TV station and CNET offer two theories behind the contents of the boat, which is stacked with shipping containers.
CBS-affiliate KPIX, citing an unnamed source close to the project, says Google is constructing an Apple Store-like marketing center for Google Glass.
CNET says it might be a water-based data center, citing a patent filed by Google for such a thing in 2007.
Google had no comment.
A barge similar to the one in San Francisco is in the waters off Portland, Maine.
The search giant plans to have the barge towed to San Francisco's nearby Fort Mason, where it will be open to the public, the unnamed source told KPIX.
CNET, quoting an anonymous source identified as an independent marine engineer, says Google wants to build a backup data center in the event of a natural disaster. The barge in San Francisco would be one of a dozen data centers worldwide, the source said.
26 Places Google Doesn't Want You To See
Space Research Facility
Why is the European Space Research and Technology Centre
(ESTEC), which is part of the European Space Agency, blocked in such a
dramatic way on Google Maps? It even has a visitor's center open to the
public, so it's not like we aren't supposed to know it's there...
Russian Missile Site
Not much is known about this mysterious locale, but Wikipedia
says it's "possibly a Russian ICBM Complex, near town Egvekinot, Russia,
officially claimed as gold-mining facility Kanchalano-Amguemskaya
Square."
Baker Lake, NU, the Inuit nation in northern Canada
A man indentified as "Dr. Boylan" believes that the blacked out
area seen above and those found in several other locations are blocking
the locations of extraterrestrial beacons.
Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany
This NATO air force hub is a retreat for the Operation Iraqi
Freedom forces, and as such could definitely be considered a terrorist
target. That could explain why the facility is partially blanked out on
Google Maps.
Pacific Northwest, USA
Here's one that gives us chills. What exactly are we not seeing
here? The site is close to the Washington-Oregon border and is rumored
to have something to do with FEMA, HAARP or, really, anything at all.
Prison Planet readers inspected the site in person and could find no
identifying details other than an ominous fence and unmarked entrance.
Szazhalombatta Oil Refinery, Hungary
One of the strangest acts of alleged "censorship" is this
Hungarian oil facility, which is simply rendered green. That's right —
the grounds are deleted, the buildings are missing, and what you have
left is flat grass.
Huis Ten Bosch Palace, Netherlands
You wouldn't think the Dutch Royal Family would be a prime
target for madmen, but the Huis Ten Bosch Palace remains heavily
pixilated on Google Maps no matter the angle. (The surrounding area and
trees therein, on the other hand, come in crystal clear at close range.)
Unknown area, Russia
Another one that is so mysterious, no one has a clue what it
is. One commenter on the website Siberian Light speculates it's either
"a radar station or missile interceptor," while another notes that the
image of the surrounding area appears to have been copy-pasted from
another part of the country.
Mobil Oil Corporation, Buffalo, NY, USA
Some have criticized Mobil of Buffalo, NY for blurring their
facilities, saying the oil corporation doesn't have much of a case for
being a terrorist target (terrorists hate snow, you know.) On the other
hand, we can't be sure what their reasoning is.
North Korea
You've no doubt heard about this country, one of the members of
the supposed "Axis of Evil," but few have ever visited. You won't see
it on Google Maps, either, as the entire country exists in images but
without highway markers, street names, or any other identifying details.
Reims Airbase, France
Why is the Reims Airbase in France blocked out? Perhaps it
emits a particularly foul body odor. (Just kidding, we love the French.)
Indian Point Power Plant, New York, USA
Everyone from Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo to former
Republican Congresswoman Sue Kelly has called for the Indian Point Power
Plant to be shut down. On top of environmental concerns, the upstate
New York structure is, according to experts in the energy field, not
strong enough to withstand an earthquake like the one that recently
devastated Japan.
Volkel Airbase, Netherlands
It's pretty ridiculous how blatantly blurred this one is, but
then again, WikiLeaks did publish a diplomatic cable that confirmed the
presence of nuclear warheads at this base.
HAARP Site, Gakona, Alaska, USA
HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is one
of the most controversial operations currently active in the United
States. The Gakona, AK site and its ionospheric testing is believed by
some conspiracy theorists to be the cause of everything from floods to
earthquakes, although the evidence of this is very minimal.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Salinas, CA, USA
Here's the strangest bit of censorship on Google Maps: the
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. It's heavily whited
out, in fact, as if an angry hand did the trick. The weirdest part is
the facility is just what it sounds like: a seemingly-harmless racetrack
Babylon, Iraq
While the surrounding area (including its surprisingly rich
farmland) is visible, the city of Babylon, Iraq itself is all blurry.
You can bet it has something to do with the insurgents there...
Tantauco National Park in Chile
Why is this refuge for Endangered Species completely washed
over on Google? Mashable, which seems to have discovered the strange
censorship, doesn't have a clue.
"The Hill" aka Elmira Correctional Facility
This maximum security prison in upstate New York is
understandably blacked out... we guess. After the Attica Prison Riots
and several incidents worldwide of uprisings and mass escapes, officials
could be worried about a possible helicopter-led breakout.
This Russian Guy's House
What? Some rich guy's personal paradise is blurred on Google?
According to Wikipedia, what you're seeing here is "a private palace of
the Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller." Why is he given preference over the rest
of us? Perhaps we just aren't powerful enough to convince Google to
blur our own homes.
Colonel Sanders
Here's the strangest of them all: Col. Sanders, the face of
Kentucky Fried Chicken, appears in exactly zero Google Street View
images. That's because, as a Google spokesperson notes, Sanders was a
real person and everyone is supposed to be blurred on Google sites...
The Faroe Islands, Denmark
This is a rumored military installation in a country we previously thought as "harmless." Wonder what they're really planning...
Hungarian Oil Refinery
The Sz�zhalombatta Oil refinery in Hungary... and that's all we know.
NATO Headquarters, Portugal
This one would be hilarious if it weren't so sinister. Whoever
doctored the image of the Portuguese HQ for NATO simply copy-pasted
another piece of Google Earth over the actual layout of the building.
Weird.
Seabrook Nuclear facility, New Hampshire
This is believed to be the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in
the northeast corner of the United States. Are you as fearful of nuclear
power as we are?
Missile silo, Spain
According to a researcher with WikiMedia, "On this lot there is
a small building with something almost like a silo in the middle. This
location is not blocked in Yahoo! Maps. There is no image for this
location in Virtual Earth yet."
Atomic site, France
We're not sure what "The Marcoule site of the Commissariat �
l'�nergie Atomique" means, but we're pretty sure the word "atomique" is
the keyword here.
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