Truly bored readers must have noticed my posts trailing off this summer, just like last year. But knowledge waits for no man — even if he is on the beach with a beer. So here are a few intriguing subjects that are barking in the dog days:
Another purported ancient Mega-Tsunami is claimed by a reputable archaeologist to have swept into Ireland, this wave in Medieval times. The news article (thin gruel as usual) suggests the event preceded the 7th century. Perhaps it was in a Baillie Year, say, 535 AD? I have requested the publication and I will post as I receive it.
More recently, in the New World, Jay Huebner, a curious physicist in Jacksonville, Florida is investigating a curious circular marsh that may be physical evidence of an intense but localized cosmic event in August, 1564. The impact was recorded separately by Spanish mariners at sea and from the land by early French colonists. Huebner is seeking funding for further investigation via science crowd funding site petridish.com. (Hmmmm….might the YDB team also use petridish.com to raise funds?) UPDATE: Bob Kobres provides relevant commentary and links here
And finally, dipping back into deeper history — and our favorite period — an absolutely fascinating and high profile investigation has located previously “impossible” natural “quasicrystals” in a carbonaceous chondrite suspected to have fallen sometime after 15,000 ybp. The material was derived by processing a layer of “blue-green clay” from the original site of the find deep in Russian Siberia. [Don’t miss that last link but here is an interesting paper]
Stay cool.