- Jul 2024
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en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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The table below lists the general categories of bodies and objects by their location or structure.
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- Apr 2024
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snarfed.org snarfed.org
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Whether ActivityPub or ATProto or webmention, the underlying technical protocol a community uses to interact online is a poor way to judge who they are and whether you might like them.
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- Sep 2023
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Hamacher, Duane, Patrick Nunn, Michelle Gantevoort, Rebe Taylor, Greg Lehman, Ka Hei Andrew Law, and Mel Miles. “The Archaeology of Orality: Dating Tasmanian Aboriginal Oral Traditions to the Late Pleistocene.” Journal of Archaeological Science, August 10, 2023, 45pp.
Pre-print.
See also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323000997
Annotation url: urn:x-pdf:d4ccd0952073ac59932f4638381e6b69
Popular press coverage: https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2023/august/tasmanian-aboriginal-oral-traditions-among-the-oldest-recorded-narratives
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- Mar 2023
- Feb 2023
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No new physics and no new mathematics was discovered by the AI. The AI did however deduce something from the existing math and physics, that no one else had yet seen. Skynet is not coming for us yet.
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Zugubal Mabaig (astronomers - literally translated to “Star Man“ or “ConstellationMan”
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the cosmos and Islanders’ cultural identity is the reason a star is featured at the centre ofthe Torres Strait Islander flag, designed by Bernard Namok in 1992.
The close connection between
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Traditions about Usal and the Zugubals are based on the story of Thoegay, a fiercewarrior, Zogo Le, and skilled navigator who commanded a ship crew of thirteen: a firstmate named Kang and a crew of twelve men, called the Zugubals. The group embarkedon a long expedition at sea on a hot day. Before long, the crew began consuming theirrations in zest. They were warned by Kang to conserve their supplies, but before longthey had consumed the water for the entire trip, including Thoegay’s. When Thoegayrealised this, he flew into a fit of rage and killed the 12 men. Because the Zugubals werealso spiritual beings, they could not die, so Thoegay cast them into the sky as two groupsof six stars: Usal (the six brightest stars of the Pleiades) and Utimal (the six brightest starsof Orion’s belt and scabbard). Thoegay then ascended into the opposite side of the sky,taking Kang and his canoe with him. He can be seen as a large constellation holding aspear in his left hand (the Southern Cross) and a Eugenia fruit in his right hand (theconstellation Corvus), standing at the bow of his celestial canoe (Scorpius) with Kang(Antares; Alpha Scorpii) sitting at the stern (Robinson 2016a).
This is a great story, but interestingly, without the appropriate art to explicitly map the idea onto, it's much harder to remember or to help those unaccustomed to these ideas. Presumably the audience of this book doesn't/wouldn't.
A simple drawing here or an overlay onto an existing image would be immensely helpful. Perhaps the Robinson reference has one? (it doesn't)
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The story on canvassymbolises the importance of traditional law, explains the transmutation of the Moon,and exposes the raw power of human emotion. T
Notice how in the story of Garnkiny, the Moon Man, and Dawool, that the power of emotion is used as a means of strengthening not only the story, but the memory of the other associated elements.
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As in any science class, you learn how tointerpret and apply what you observe. Elders refer to this process as “reading the stars.”
This idea is closely related to "talking rocks" and seems a very apt parallel.
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And yes, it is also very pretty.
understated quote of the day
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Hamacher, Duane W. “The Art of Star Knowledge.” In 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, edited by Judith Ryan and Marcia Langton. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne Press, 2023. https://www.academia.edu/96537139/The_Art_of_Star_Knowledge.
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- Usal
- Thoegay
- folklore
- Indigenous pedagogy
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- indigenous knowledge
- 1992
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- Torres Strait Islanders
- Garnkiny
- reading practices
- talking rocks
- cultural anthropology
- Indigenous astronomy
- Zugubal Mabaig
- translations
- Kang
- associative memory
- identity
- constellations
- reading the stars
- Zugubals
- references
- Indigenous art
- quotes
- Utimal
- Dawool
- Bernard Namok
- illustrations
- art
- astronomers
- memory and emotion
Annotators
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- Jan 2023
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laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com
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Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, "Brief Mention," American Journal of Philology 20.1 (1899) 108-113 (at 108): With all our advance in scientific astronomy, the average modern man is not so familiar with the sky as was his antique brother, and some of the blunders in modern works of fiction that are scored from time to time in scientific journals would hardly have been possible for a ploughman of antiquity, not to say a sailor. The world needs every now and then a reminder that the modern head holds different things from the ancient brain-pan, not necessarily more.
How painfully true this may have been in 1899, it's now much worse in 2023!
Specialization of knowledge tends to fit the lifeways of the people who hold and maintain it. Changing lifeways means one must lose one or more domains and begin using or curating different domains of knowledge.
In a global world of specialization, humans who specialize are forced to rely more heavily on the experience and veracity of those around them who have also specialized. One may be able to have a Ph.D. in astrophysics, but their knowledge of the state of the art in anthropology or economic policy may be therefore utterly undeveloped. As a result they will need to rely on the knowledge and help of others in maintaining those domains.
This knowledge specialization means that politicians will need to be more open about what they think and say, yet instead politicians seem to be some of the least knowledge about almost anything.
This is just the start of a somewhat well-formed thesis I've developed elsewhere, but not previously written out... more to come...
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www.npr.org www.npr.org
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Spaces in both language, text, and music help to create the texture of what is being communicated (and/or not).
Link to Edward Tufte's latest book in section entitled "Spacing enhances complex meaning, encourages slow, thoughtful reading":
<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>KevinMarks</span> in #meta 2023-01-19 (<time class='dt-published'>01/19/2023 11:32:19</time>)</cite></small>
Link to Indigenous astronomy example of negative spaces (like the Great Emu)
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.comCGP Grey1
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Thanks to its shortest orbit time, Mercury is the "mostest" closest planet to all the planets that orbits the sun
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500ish.com 500ish.com
- Dec 2022
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benlog.com benlog.com
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we need to consider how the architecture might make the UX suck.
Architecture can make UX suck.
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my strong sense is that we’re currently papering over major UX problems that are linked to core architectural properties.
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en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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The intercalary month or epagomenal days[1] of the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Ethiopian calendars are a period of five days in common years and six days in leap years in addition to those calendars' 12 standard months, sometimes reckoned as their thirteenth month. They originated as a periodic measure to ensure that the heliacal rising of Sirius would occur in the 12th month of the Egyptian lunar calendar but became a regular feature of the civil calendar and its descendants. Coptic and Ethiopian leap days occur in the year preceding Julian and Gregorian leap years.
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important works like Galen’s On Demonstration, Theophrastus’ OnMines and Aristarchus’ treatise on heliocentric theory (which mighthave changed the course of astronomy dramatically if it hadsurvived) all slipped through the cracks of time.
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- Oct 2022
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news.ycombinator.com news.ycombinator.com
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A bit tangential, but here we go.A place where there's daytime all the time, except every once in a while is quite close to us. It's the Moon.If you live on the near side of the Moon, then you always see the Earth hanging there in the sky in the same spot every day. It does not rise and it does not set, it just stays in place. But it goes through phases. New Earth, Crescent Earth, Half Earth, etc.The Sun does rise and set. A "day" on the moon is half a month long. When the Sun is in the sky, the Earth is at most in "half Earth" phase. When it's nighttime though, the Earth is at least "half Earth".And seen from the Moon, the Earth is big. Very big. Just take the Andromeda in the picture, and make it a disk. That's how big. (Actually about 15% bigger).The Earth is also bright. Much brighter than we see the Moon on a bright night. Earth's albedo is about 3 times higher than Moon's. All in all, at "full Earth", you would receive about 40 times more light that we get here from the Moon when it's full.In other words, when the Sun is not in the sky, you get enough light from the Earth to see around. The closer to "midnight" the more light you get, because the Earth is closer to "full Earth" phase.Of course, when you have a solar eclipse, you stop seeing light from either the Sun or the Earth. Here on Earth, solar eclipses are quite short. The moment of full eclipse is fleeting, generally it's 3 minutes or less. On the Moon, because the Earth is so much bigger in the sky, the eclipse is long. Of course, we knew that from here: when it's a solar eclipse on the Moon, it's a lunar eclipse on Earth, and that takes hours.It's not completely dark on the Moon when there's a solar eclipse.It's not completely dark here either. Because of the Sun's corona. The apparent diameter of the sun is virtually identical with the diameter of the Moon as seen from the Earth, but the Sun's corona extends a bit further, so we get to see it during total eclipse.But on the Moon, the Earth is so large that the Sun and the corona are fully obscured during total solar eclipse. What you will see instead is the Earth atmosphere. Very thin, impossibly thin, you will not be able to perceive its thikness. It will just look like a one-dimensional line. A part of it will be very, very bright. And very red. It will be a very bright, very large and very red circle in the sky.You will also see the inner planets, Mercury and Venus. Normally you can't see them on the Moon, but during a full solar eclipse they'll be quite close to that bright circle, and they'll be very bright themselves.And what a glory the Milky Way will be at that time. And if you are lucky, you'll see that very oblong shape that's the Andromeda. Somewhat faint, but still, much brighter than any of us here on Earth would perceive it.
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- Sep 2022
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www.livescience.com www.livescience.com
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In 1991, the earliest known roundel was found in Germany, also corresponding to the Stroked Pottery culture. Called the Goseck Circle, it is 246 feet (75 m) in diameter and had a double wooden palisade and three entrances. Because two of the entrances correspond with sunrise and sunset during the winter and summer solstices, one interpretation of the Goseck Circle is that it functioned as an observatory or calendar of sorts, according to a 2012 study in the journal Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (opens in new tab).
Sounds like this shares many of the potential features of Stonehenge, stone and timber circles, and menhirs that fit into Lynne Kelly's thesis on mnemonic devices.
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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one of the things that's worked the best the last three or 00:10:05 four hundred years is you get simplicity by finding a slightly more sophisticated building block to build your theories out of its when you go for a simple building block that anybody can 00:10:18 understand through common sense that is when you start screwing yourself right and left because it just might not be able to ramify through the degrees of freedom and scaling you have to go through and it's this 00:10:31 inability to fix the building blocks that is one of the largest problems that computing has today in large organizations people just won't do it
!- example : simplicity - astronomy example is perfect - paradigm shift to go to slightly more complex fundamental building block that CAN scale
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- Jul 2022
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johnedchristensen.github.io johnedchristensen.github.io
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https://johnedchristensen.github.io/WebbCompare/
Cool web slider to compare the Hubble Space Telescope with the James Webb Telescope
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- Jun 2022
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en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Gall's Law is a rule of thumb for systems design from Gall's book Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail. It states: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.
This feels like an underlying and underpinning principle of how the IndieWeb which focuses on working real world examples which are able to build up more complex systems instead of theoretical architecture astronomy which goes no where.
Reference: John Gall (1975) Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail p. 71
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- May 2022
- Apr 2022
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forum.artofmemory.com forum.artofmemory.com
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Last night while watching a video related to The First Astronomers, I came across a clip in which Australian elder Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson indicates that indigenous dendroglyphs (markings on trees) or petroglyphs (markings on stone in the stony territories) are the libraries of the Indigenous peoples who always relate (associate) their stories from the markings back up to the sky (stars, constellations).
These markings remind me of some of those found on carved stone balls in neolithic European contexts described by Dr. @LynneKelly in The Memory Code and Memory Craft and carvings on coolamon in Knowledge and Power.
Using the broad idea of the lukasa and abstract designs, I recently bought a small scale version of the Aberlemno Pictish Cross as a small manual/portable memory palace, which is also an artwork that I can hang on the wall, to use to associate memories to the designs and animals which are delineated in 18 broad areas on the sculpture. (Part of me wonders if the communities around these crosses used them for mnemonic purposes as well?)
Is anyone else using abstract designs or artwork like this for their memory practice?
Anyone know of other clever decorative artworks one could use and display in their homes/offices for these purposes?
For those interested in the archeological research on dendroglyphs in Australia: - The Western Yalanji dendroglyph: The life and death of an Aboriginal carved tree - Review: The Dendroglyphs or ‘Carved Trees’ of New South Wales by Robert Etheridge (Content warning: historical erasure of Indigenous culture)
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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same with our with the with the dendrites we will always tell you the story tell the story to the juvenile who's coming through the novices who's coming through the ceremony will tell them so as they 00:47:47 get to a certain age or a certain time or a certain experience in the ceremony we will then pass that knowledge onto him and we'll take it to him so these hieroglyphs and 00:47:58 petroglyphs and the etchings on the rocks and the paintings on there on the cave walls that's our library that is our library
The dendroglyphs (markings on trees) or the petroglyphs (markings on stone in the stony territories) are the libraries of the indigenous peoples who always relate their stories from the markings back up to the sky.
via Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson
Can this be linked to the practices of the Druids who may have had similar methods? How about linking the petroglyphs in the Celtic (English) countryside?
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and within that within that area then you have on one on the light side with on the eastern side of the milky way all of those people there have a 00:39:56 relationship to each other all the tribes and all the clans and so and then you come on to the west side exactly the same thing again so on the east side those stars on the 00:40:10 bright side we are not allowed if you've got a totemic system that belongs to the east side you cannot marry your children into any one of them you must marry across the river so 00:40:23 you've got to go across the river which is that milky way and so the light side's going to go across the dark side to find their wives and so the old people understood who the people were and 00:40:35 and so they understood that genealogical background of every family every child and so they made sure that that when you made a promise to a child you 00:40:49 make sure that there are at least five generation removed from the people you want to marry them back into genetics was very important to us even though we didn't know it was genetics at 00:41:01 the time but it was maintaining the purity of the people
There's a light side (East) and a dark side (West) of the Milky Way (seen as a river) which is mirrored into the moieties of the people. Dark people must go across the river to marry those on the light side. The elders kept track of all the genealogy in the totemic system of every family and every child and made their promises such that there were at least five generations removed from their family to maintain the purity (in the sense of genetic soundness, not genetic purity from a "racial" perspective) of the people.
via Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson
Tags
- dendroglyphs
- archaeoastronomy
- Indigenous science
- libraries
- Celts
- N'arweet Dr. Carolyn Briggs
- indigenous knowledge
- Duane Hamacher
- Indigenous astronomy
- Uncle Ghillar Michael Anderson
- The First Astronomers
- Milky Way
- origin stories
- philosophy
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- moieties
- orality and memory
- material culture
- petroglyphs
- watch
Annotators
URL
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- Mar 2022
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjf0hCKOCE
The sky is a textbook. The sky is a lawbook. The sky is a science book. —Duane Hamacher, (1:24)
Hamacher uses the Western description "method of loci" rather than an Indigenous word or translated word.
The words "myth", "legend", "magic", "ritual", and "religion" in both colloquial English and even anthropology are highly loaded terms.
Words like "narrative" and "story" are better used instead for describing portions of the Indigenous cultures which we have long ignored and written off for their seeming simplicity.
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The ecliptic is tilted towards the north in the southern hemisphere,and towards the south in the northern hemisphere. Many people inthe southern hemisphere prefer housing with north-facing windowsand balconies and that take advantage of the light and warmth of theSun. Venture north of the equator, and that preference is for south-facing properties. First Peoples of the world follow the samepreference, with homes, villages and cities constructed to takeadvantage of the Sun.
Many cultures in the world face their windows, balconies, and other architecture to take advantage of the sun (for light and warmth). Because the ecliptic is tilted towards the north in the southern hemisphere and towards the south in the northern hemisphere, people in the north of the equator prefer south-facing properties and people south of the equator prefer north-facing properties.
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The movements of the Sun serve as a timepiece that functions ondifferent scales: daily, seasonally and annually.
The movements of the sun throughout the year function as a timepiece at various scales to indicate days, seasons, and years.
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As the Earth rotates from west to east, celestial objectsappear to move from east to west, a term Western astronomers calldiurnal motion.
What is the term for the appearance of motion from east to west of celestial objects? :: diurnal motion
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These are theconstellations you will see in the direction of the Sun on the horizonafter sunset or before sunrise.
Just before sunrise or just after sunset, in the direction of the Sun on the horizon one will see the constellations of the zodiac.
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The path of the Sun is called the ecliptic in Western astronomysince it is along this path that eclipses occur.
What is the path of the sun called? :: the ecliptic
Eclipses occur on the path of which heavenly body? :: the sun
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The idea that ‘everything onEarth is reflected in the sky’ and of ‘reading the stars’ to understandyour environment are two of the most common and widespreadthemes in Indigenous astronomy.
Hidden in the phrase that "everything on Earth is reflected in the sky" or the idea of "reading the stars to understand one's environment" is the idea of associative memory. If you know one thing, you necessarily know another. Don't let this subtle idea of the words 'reflect' or 'read' hide what is going on.
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Lakota Elder Arvol Looking Horse explains that ‘Star knowledge islike a mirror. The stars are up there, and we have the stars down
here.’ This philosophical standpoint is understood in the Lakota/Dakota language with one word: Kapemni—‘As is above, so is below: What is in the stars is on Earth; and what is on Earth is in the stars.’
The Lakota/Dakota language word Kapemni captures the idea that what is in the stars mirrors what is on Earth.
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Indigenous astronomy focuses on the empirical, scientificlayers of this knowledge, and Traditions refer to the social practices,cultural activities, and methods of transmitting and applying thisknowledge.
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Who were the world’s first astronomers? The answer typicallyincludes scientists such as Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, or ancientcivilisations that gave birth to what we consider Western science,such as Sumer in Mesopotamia.
Given the predominantly non-literate civilizations that comprised the ancient Near East, I've been wondering about how they may have actually been closer to Indigenous cultures than they are to more modern, literate Western culture.
Perhaps he shouldn't dismiss them so readily here, but rather tie them more directly into his broader thesis.
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Peter Eseli of Mabuiag Island (known locally as Mabuyag)in the western Torres Strait began writing down traditional knowledgein the Kala Lagau Ya language in the early twentieth century. By1939, Eseli had amassed a 77-page manuscript, complete withdrawings, songs and genealogies as well as a wealth of starknowledge, some of which is included in this book. He continuedadding to it until his death in 1958. His manuscript was latertranslated into English.
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Professor Mātāmua’s 2017 book, Matariki: The star of the year.
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In 1898, Māori man Te Kōkau and his son, Rāwairi Te Kōkau,began recording traditional star knowledge in the Māori language.After 35 years, they had amassed a 400-page manuscript that
contained over a thousand star names. Rāwairi passed the manuscript to his grandson, Timi Rāwairi. In 1995, Timi’s own grandson asked him about Matariki, a celebration that kicks off the Māori new year, heralded by the dawn rising of the Pleiades star cluster. Timi went to a cupboard, pulled out the manuscript and handed it to his grandson, Rangi Mātāmua.
Was it partially coincidence that this knowledge was written down and passed on within the family or because of the primacy of the knowledge within the culture that helped to save in spanning from orality into literacy?
What other examples might exist along these lines to provide evidence for the passing of knowledge at the border of orality and literacy?
Link this to ideas about the border of orality and literacy in Welsh and Irish.
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Given the importance of star knowledge to the survivalof people and the thriving of culture, the role of an astronomer isgenerally considered one of the most prestigious and sacred roles inIndigenous societies.
Star knowledge can be some of the most important social knowledge with respect to Indigenous peoples and as a result astronomers are some of the most prestigious and sacred roles in these societies.
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Guardianship of starknowledge is also a family affair in Lakota cultures of the northernMidwest of the United States. Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota Elderand spiritual leader, teaches that sacred star medicine is maintainedby family lineages bearing the name Lúta.
Star knowledge is guarded by family lineages in the Lakota cultures with the name Lúta.
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In Tonga, astronomers are called Tiaborau and are members ofnavigator families that hold chiefly ranks.
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In the western Torres Strait, an astronomer is called a ZugubauMabaig, which literally translates as ‘star person’.
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In FirstNations, astronomers are the keepers of knowledge that informsnearly every facet of life and culture.
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The stars also give meaning to our existence. The sky is a canvasof sparkling dots that we connect to form familiar patterns, to whichwe assign narratives about their formation and meaning. Across thesky, ancestors, heroic figures, animals, landscapes and fantasticbeasts tell stories of the human experience. They speak of braveryand deceit, war and peace, sex and violence, punishment andreward. It is fascinating to find striking similarities in stories about thestars across vastly different cultures, with even more similarities in theways they are utilised.
Are these graphic and memorable stories strikingly similar because of the underlying packages of orality and memory used in these cultures?
This is one of my primary motivations for reading this text.
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when the nose of theshark touches the horizon at sunset, it is supposed to signify thatsharks are breeding and are considered dangerous as they swimclose to shore.
The Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major, appears upside down in the southern Hemisphere and is associated with the shape of a shark in the Torres Strait. When its "nose" touches the horizon at sunset, it's associated with breeding of nearby sharks who swim in shallow waters.
Notice the variety of associations of time (both of year, sunset, and breeding) with an animal (in both the water and in the sky) along with a specific location (Torres Strait).
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ISBN 978 1 76087 720 0
Hamacher, Duane. The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars. Allen & Unwin, 2022, https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/cultural-studies/The-First-Astronomers-Duane-Hamacher-with-Elders-and-Knowledge-Holders-9781760877200.
Tags
- sharks
- Indigenous science
- hierarchies
- indigenous peoples
- Duane Hamacher
- fc
- as above so below
- Big dipper
- associative memory
- astrology
- Mesopotamia
- Tonga
- ancient Near East
- Sumeria
- astronomy
- light
- hermeticism
- science
- references
- warmth
- diurnal motion
- definitions
- eclipses
- architecture
- Lúta
- family histories
- Western culture
- want to read
- Kapemni
- indigenous knowledge
- traditions
- Emerald Tablet
- anthropology
- Indigenous astronomy
- zodiac
- Torres Strait
- ecliptic
- indigenous cultures
- navigation
- examples
- time
- orality and memory
- sun
- orality vs. literacy
- orality on the border of literacy
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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archaea what strata me which looked at how ancient civilizations understood
archaeoastronomy : the study of ancient or traditional astronomies in their cultural context, utilizing archaeological and anthropological evidence.
sometimes also spelled archeoastronomy
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www.haaretz.com www.haaretz.com
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Cities in Israel named after Semitic gods of the ancient Near East.
Jerusalem was likely originally Ir Shalem ('The City of Shalem') because the central shrine was dedicated to the Canaanite god Shalem, aka Salem, the personification of the Evening Star.
Shahar, the twin brother of Shalem, was the personification of the Morning Star and was presumably the tutelary god of Zareth-Shahar. This town is in modern day central Jordan and was mentioned in Joshua 13:19.
While the original Zareth-Shahar didn't survive into modernity, another town dedicated to the same god may have existed on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee at a site known by the Arabic name for the morning star. A kibbutz named Ayelet HaShachar was built there after 1915. Ayelet HaShachar is a poetic biblical term for the Morning Star (Psalms 22:1).
Jericho may have taken it's name from the tutelary god Yareakh, the moon god.
Similarly the site Beit Yarekh may attest to that moon god being worshiped there as well.
The sun god Shemesh may have created the eponymous names for cities Beth-Shemesh ('House of Shemesh', Joshua 15:10), En-Shemesh ('Spring of Shemesh", Joshua 15:7), and Ir-Shemesh ('City of Shemesh", Joshua 19:41). The modern day city Beit Shemesh was established in 1950 at a site with the Arabic place name 'Ain Shems which was believed to be the site of the ancient city Beth-Shemesh.
The storm god Baal is the root of cities including Kiryat Baal (Joshua 18:14), Baal Perazim (II Samuel 5:17), Gur Baal (II Chronicles 26:7), Baal-Gad (Joshua 11:17), Baal-Hermon (Judges 3:3), and Baal-Hazor (II Samuel 13:23). There are also cities Baal-Peor (Numbers 23:28) and Ball Shalishah (II Kings 4:42).
Canaanite god El was the tutelary god of the town Bethel mentioned frequently in the Old Testament including in Genesis 12:8. The Palestinian town Beitin is thought to be the site of the ancient Bethel. Beit El, an Israeli settlement, was created near it in 1977.
Dagon was the namesake of Beth Dagon (Joshua 15:41). It continued until 1948 when the Palestinian town Bayt Dajan was depopulated leading up to the Israeli War of Independence. The site is now an Israeli town called Beit Dagan.
Reshef, an ancient Semitic god from Elba and later identified with Apollo lent his name to the todays Arsuf, which is also known as Apollonia. During the Persian period, the Phoenicians had named a town there for Reshef.
Horon, possibly a desert god with power over animals and snakes, is the inspiration of Beth Horon (I Chronicles 7:24). A modern settlement Beit Horon was founded in 1977.
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twitter.com twitter.com
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dark constellations
Dark constellations are dark patches amidst brighter portions of the Milky Way in the night sky which are visible to the naked eye.
Historically they were viewed by Indigenous peoples of Australia as well as Incans.
The emu in the sky is an example from the southern hemisphere. Its 'body' is outlined by Scorpius and Sagittarius and its 'head' is known as as the Coalsack Nebula.
Another example is the Great Rift.
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www.sciencefriday.com www.sciencefriday.com
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Christie Taylor (2019). ‘Relearning the star stories of Indigenous peoples’. Science Friday. 6 September 2019. www.sciencefriday.com/articles/indigenous-peoples-astronomy/
Referenced in chapter 1 notes from Hamacher, Duane. The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars. Allen & Unwin, 2022. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/cultural-studies/The-First-Astronomers-Duane-Hamacher-with-Elders-and-Knowledge-Holders-9781760877200.
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www.haaretz.com www.haaretz.com
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The constellations’ positions in the night sky on significant dates, such as solstices and equinoxes, are mirrored in the alignments of the main structures at the compound, he found. Steles were “carefully placed within the temenos to mark the rising, zenith, or setting of the stars over the horizon,” he writes.
Phoenicians use of steles and local environment in conjunction with their astronomy fits the pattern of other uses of Indigenous orality and memory.
Link this example to other examples delineated by Lynne Kelly and others I've found in the ancient Near East.
How does this example potentially fit into the broader framework provided by Lynne Kelly? Are there differences?
Her thesis fits into a few particular cultural time periods, but what sorts of evidence should we expect to see culturally, socially, and economically when the initial conditions she set forth evolve beyond their original context? What should we expect to see in these cases and how to they relate to examples I've been finding in the ancient Near East?
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But crucially, he believes the pool at the center of the complex may have also served as a surface to observe and map the stars. The water surface would have mirrored the sky, as water does – none other than Leonardo da Vinci pointed out the attributes of inert standing water when studying the night sky. For one thing, the stars were adored by the Phoenicians, whether as gods or deceased ancestors; and the position of the constellations was of keen interest to the sailors among them for navigation purposes, Nigro points out.
Lorenzo Nigro indicates that the "kothon" of Motya in southern Sicily was a pool of Baal whose surface may have been used to observe and map the stars. He also indicates that the Phoenicians adored the stars potentially as gods or deceased ancestors. This is an example of a potentially false assumption often seen in archaeology of Western practitioners misconstruing Indigenous practices based on modern ideas of religion and culture.
I might posit that this sort of practice is more akin to that of the science of Indigenous peoples who used oral and mnemonic methods in combination with remembering their histories and ancestors.
Cross reference this with coming reading in The First Astronomers (to come) which may treat this in more depth.
Leonardo da Vinci documented the attributes of standing water for studying the night sky.
Where was this and what did it actually entail?
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www.amazon.com www.amazon.com
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www.allenandunwin.com www.allenandunwin.com
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The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders read the stars by Duane Hamacher, with Elders and Knowledge Holders
<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'>LynneKelly</span> in Un-Stupiding Myself - a Memory Training Journal - Memory Training Journals - Art of Memory Forum (<time class='dt-published'>03/14/2022 18:43:38</time>)</cite></small>
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www.thehindu.com www.thehindu.com
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gravitational míreming woh* This text was recognized by the built-in Ocrad engine. A better transcription may be attained by right clicking on the selection and changing the OCR engine to "Tesseract" (under the "Language" menu). This message can be removed in the future by unchecking "OCR Disclaimer" (under the Options menu). More info: http://projectnaptha.com/ocrad
Gravitational microlensing
- gravitational wave approaching the earth is interrupted by blackhole, signal gets modified
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- Feb 2022
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www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com
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Overview and history of the Antikythera mechanism and the current state of research surrounding it.
Antikythera mechanism found in diving expedition in 1900 by Elias Stadiatis. It was later dated between 60 and 70 BCE, but evidence suggests it may have been made around 205 BCE.
Functions
One of the primary purposes of the device was to predict the positions of the planets along the ecliptic, the plane of the solar system.
The device was also used to track the positions of the sun and moon. This included the moon's phase, position and age (the number of days from a new moon). It also included the predictions of eclipses.
Used to track the motions of the 5 known planets including 289 synodic cycles in 462 years for Venus and 427 synodic cycles in 442 years for Saturn.
Risings and settings of stars indexed to a zodiac dial
Definitions
metonic cycle, a 19-year period over which 235 moon phases recur; named after Greek astronomer Meton, but discovered much earlier by the Babylonians. The Greeks refined it to a 76 year period.
saros cycle, the 223 month lunar cycle which was used by the Babylonians to predict eclipses. A dial on the Antikythera mechanism was used to predict the dates of the solar and lunar eclipses using this cycle.
synodic events: conjunctions with the sun and its stationary points
People
Archimedes - potentially the designer of an early version of the Antikythera mechanism
Elias Stadiatis - diver who discovered the Antikythera mechanism
Albert Rehm - German philologist who the numbers 19, 76 and 223 inscribed on fragments of the device in the early 1900s
Derek J. de Solla Price, published Gears from the Greeks in 1974. Identified the gear train and developed a complete model of the gearing.
Michael Wright - 3D x-ray study in 1990 using linear tomography; identified tooth counts of the gears and understood the upper dial on the back of the device
Tony Freeth - author of article and researcher whose made recent discoveries.
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It was not until the 14th century that scientists created the first sophisticated astronomical clocks.
The first sophisticated astronomical clocks were not created until the 14th century.
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the first precision-geared mechanism known is a relatively simple—yet impressive for the time—geared sundial and calendar of Byzantine origin dating to about C.E. 600.
The first known precision-geared mechanism is a sundial and calendar of Byzantine origin dating to circa 600 C.E.
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We added a mechanism for the variable motion of the sun and an epicyclic mechanism for calculating the “nodes” of the moon—the points at which the moon’s orbit cuts through the plane of the ecliptic, making an eclipse possible. Eclipses happen only when the sun is close to one of these nodes during a full or new moon. Medieval and renaissance astronomers called a double-ended pointer for the nodes of the moon a “dragon hand.” The epicyclic gearing for this dragon hand also exactly explained a prominent bearing on one of the spokes that had previously appeared to have no function.
The nodes of the moon are the points at which the moon's orbit cuts through the plane of the ecliptic. These nodes make an eclipse possible and they happen only when the sun is close to one of these nodes during either a full or a new moon.
Medieval and renaissance astronomers called a double-ended pointer for the nodes of the moon a "dragon hand".
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the customary cosmological order of the celestial bodies—moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
In antiquity, the customary cosmological order of the celestial bodies was: moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
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Eventually we found a process, developed by philosopher Parmenides of Elea (sixth to fifth century B.C.E.) and reported by Plato (fifth to fourth century B.C.E.), for combining known period relations to get better ones.
Parmenides of Elea developed a process reported by Plato for combining the known period relations of planets to get better ones.
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the moon has variable motion because it has an elliptical orbit: when it is farther from Earth, it moves more slowly against the stars; when it is closer, it moves more quickly. The moon’s orbit, however, is not fixed in space: the whole orbit rotates in a period of just under nine years.
Tags
- Antikythera mechanism
- Derek J. de Solla Price
- Parmenides
- antiquity
- mechanical engineering
- moon
- astronomical clocks
- metonic cycle
- cosmologies
- Plato
- Babylonia
- ancient Greece
- mechanical computing
- dragon hand
- clocks
- ecliptic
- archaeology
- geometry
- precision-gearing
- Byzantine
- read
- Archimedes
- saros cycle
- astronomy
- planets
- sundials
- nodes of the moon
- elliptical orbits
- Meton
- calendars
- eclipses
- sun
- Michael Wright
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- Dec 2021
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blogs.dickinson.edu blogs.dickinson.edu
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eye
The another spherical image in the poem
Each eye, which is able to be interpreted as each hemisphere, is really a perfect world because, though they are not combined into one, when facing each other, contains both lovers (the one who is reflected and one who reflects is in unity in the eye).
Source: The Visual Paradigm of 'The Good-Morrow': Donne's Cosmographical Glasse (1986)
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Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one
The one world either wants to possess is the world of the other and the possession makes them one.
Due to the harmonious internal rhymes and confident tone of conviction, we might not sense the disturbance of the line at first. Nevertheless, as we look closely analyze the line, it is not as straightforward as it first seemed.
Donne is exploiting the ambiguity of the word world to confuse the readers. The world can either mean the whole planet, earth, or the hemispheres that need to be combined from the spherical earth. Each of the lovers belongs (or themselves are) to each hemisphere, and they can possess a more wholesome world by uniting together. However, there is a dilemma in constructing full spherical earth: each hemisphere should face the opposite direction to form a sphere seamlessly. Though they are now one, they cannot meet each other anymore.
However, this dilemma is somewhat resolved in the following stanza.
Source
- Book: Redpath, The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne (1956)
- Book: John Donne, The Complete English Poet (1971)
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maps
chart of the heavens
In addition to sea and land exploration, astronomy was another interest of the intellectual of Donne's Era.
Source: Redpath, The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne (1956)
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- Jul 2021
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iep.utm.edu iep.utm.edu
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These observations were made with the naked eye and with the help of some simple instruments as the gnomon. The Babylonians, in particular, were rather advanced observers. Archeologists have found an abundance of cuneiform texts on astronomical observations. In contrast, there exists only one report of an observation made by Anaximander, which concerns the date on which the Pleiades set in the morning. This is no coincidence, for Anaximander’s merits do not lie in the field of observational astronomy, unlike the Babylonians and the Egyptians, but in that of speculative astronomy. We may discern three of his astronomical speculations: (1) that the celestial bodies make full circles and pass also beneath the earth, (2) that the earth floats free and unsupported in space, and (3) that the celestial bodies lie behind one another. Notwithstanding their rather primitive outlook, these three propositions, which make up the core of Anaximander’s astronomy, meant a tremendous jump forward and constitute the origin of our Western concept of the universe.
Anaximander practiced speculative astronomy instead of just observational astronomy and in so doing, he dramatically changed the cosmological outlook of Western culture.
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esahubble.org esahubble.org
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worldwidetelescope.org worldwidetelescope.org
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astropix.ipac.caltech.edu astropix.ipac.caltech.eduAstropix1
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- May 2021
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forum.artofmemory.com forum.artofmemory.com
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Perhaps you could memorize all the constellations and potentially see if they could serve as double duty?
I've found The Stars: A New Way to See Them by H.A Rey (yes, the creator of Curious George) to be a comprehensive list with a tremendous number of pictures, charts, useful stories, mythology, etc. for memorizing all the major constellations and many of the common star names and related data. It's ostensibly aimed at a novice audience, but one might also think he was targeting the mnemonists among us as well.
Should it help in your researching image formation, the phenomenon you mentioned is called pareidolia.
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- Mar 2021
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In 1931, a radio engineer and Bell Laboratories employee named Karl Jansky was trying to uncover the source of static that was interfering with radio waves … and found it had an extraterrestrial source, particularly at the center in the Milky Way galaxy.
In 1931, a radio engineer in Bell Laboratories Karl Jansky discovered the radio source at the center of our galaxy, bu could pursue it further cause he was just an engineer!
After World War II ended, others eventually did pursue radio astronomy.
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Fight for the Commons(in specturm) against commercialization.
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- Aug 2020
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meaningness.com meaningness.com
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Cells, for example, are a central category, but there’s no definite criterion for what counts as a cell. If you attempt to find one, you rapidly bog down in a maze of exceptions. You might start with something like “a self-reproducing living unit carrying a single copy of the organism’s DNA within a membrane.” But red blood cells don’t self-reproduce and have no DNA. Mitochondria are not cells, but they self-reproduce using their own DNA within a membrane. Muscle cells have multiple nuclei, each with a separate complete copy of the DNA. Some algae have life stages in which they have no cell membranes. And so on indefinitely.8
I'm not an expert in biology or anything, but perhaps the moral there is we should rethink this 'cell' idea? IIRC astronomers continue to talk about 'planets' even though the longer you examine the concept the more incoherent it becomes. (For an extended example, see the infamous Discourse about whether "Pluto is a planet", which led to hilarious goal post stretching where people kept trying to find a definition of 'planet' that exactly fit the traditional celestial objects we classify as planets without having to include any new ones or exclude existing ones)
There is obviously no rule that says the categorizations we come up with for stuff when a field is young should be expected to have infinite inferential reach as that field of knowledge expands.
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- Mar 2020
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www.esa.int www.esa.int
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If you’re planning on flying a robotic or even human mission in the near future to the Moon, an asteroid or even Mars, one indispensable requirement you’ll face is the need for at least one deep-space tracking dish to communicate with your craft.
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- May 2019
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www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
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Well, it’s exactly the approach that I took. I approached this with a scientific mind, like I approach any other problem in astronomy or science that I work on. The point is that we follow the evidence, and the evidence in this particular case is that there are six peculiar facts. And one of these facts is that it deviated from an orbit shaped by gravity while not showing any of the telltale signs of cometary outgassing activity. So we don’t see the gas around it, we don’t see the cometary tail. It has an extreme shape that we have never seen before in either asteroids or comets. We know that we couldn’t detect any heat from it and that it’s much more shiny, by a factor of ten, than a typical asteroid or comet. All of these are facts. I am following the facts.
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- Oct 2018
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www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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www.sciencechannel.com www.sciencechannel.com
- Jun 2018
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ktakahata.github.io ktakahata.github.iopage 951
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dog-star
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- Mar 2018
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www.mspaintadventures.com www.mspaintadventures.com
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SOLLUX CAPTOR
yall know the drill by now
Sollux rather transparently divides into "sol-lux", the Latin words for "sun" and "light", respectively. As such, his name would literally mean 'Sunlight Catcher'.
If one would switch the S and P in his name it becomes "Pollux Castor." Pollux and Castor are the two brightest stars in the constellation of Gemini. It is also worth noting that Pollux is a red giant, while Castor is bluish white, complementing the red/blue duality theme. Castor and Pollux were famous mythological twins, which is where Gemini - Latin for "twins" - gets its name. Pollux and Castor were also the names of two characters in the movie Face/Off, a Nicolas Cage flick that came out the same year as Con Air and one that John Egbert has a poster of in his room.
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- Dec 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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Of another parcel of 153 acres near the former, and including a considerable eminence very favorable for the erection of a future observatory.
This excerpt is very interesting as the reservation of land for the specific purpose of constructing an observatory seems to be very peculiar when considering the primary plans for the University. However, its inclusion is very relevant, as such reservations lead to the construction of the Leander McCormick Observatory, which currently sits on the summit of Mount Jefferson, commonly referred to as Observatory Hill. Though it took nearly 70 years for such plans to be carried out, the implementation of the McCormick Observatory has proved to be a prominent addition to the University, as it has helped enhance the education and has also served as a platform for astronomical research within the Astronomy Department.
Link: http://astronomy.as.virginia.edu/research/observatories/mccormick
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- Oct 2017
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www.newscientist.com www.newscientist.com
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You have probably heard about the hunt for dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to permeate the universe, the effects of which we can see through its gravitational pull. But our models of the universe also say there should be about twice as much ordinary matter out there, compared with what we have observed so far.
Two separate teams found the missing matter – made of particles called baryons rather than dark matter – linking galaxies together through filaments of hot, diffuse gas.
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- Feb 2016
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www.bigstory.ap.org www.bigstory.ap.org
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An all-star international team of astrophysicists used an exquisitely sensitive, $1.1 billion set of twin instruments known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, to detect a gravitational wave generated by the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light-years from Earth.
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- Jan 2016
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www.muslimheritage.com www.muslimheritage.com
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Site on pre-Renaissance Muslim contributions to knowledge. https://twitter.com/HeritageMuslim
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- Nov 2014
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arxiv.org arxiv.org
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Astronomical data take on a multitude of forms
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Blender
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aas.org aas.org
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manuscript
Does the term "manuscript" still work for born digital and fully digital documents? Remember, there are no print editions of AAS journals as of 2015!
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I'm doing a collaborative annotation of this page to see if a) people want to give feedback on the utility of these instructions and b) to see if anyone wants to collaboratively annotate a document.
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Online-only Figures Online-only figures are intended to provide supplementary information that is not critical to the scientific content of the paper but that provides additional useful information for the reader. They are not allowed when the figures are an integral part of the paper, or simply to limit page charges. Such materials will carry a nominal publication charge depending on the number and size of the figure files, but again this will be a small fraction of the cost of printing the same volume of material. Note that online-only materials are subject to the same peer-review standards as the rest of the manuscript, and their inclusion should be justified on scientific grounds.
This entire section has to be re-written because
- everything is an "online-only"figure.
- there is no printing.
- we now use "quanta" not "page charges"
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In the printed paper, the placement of tables will be determined by their first mention in the text.
There is no printed version...
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