Archäologie Lagen

Río Bec ist eine maya Lage auf Campeche. Sie hatte für sienen falchen Turm gewusst.



















Phnom Bakheng ist eine khmer Lage auf Angkor. Sie ist eine pyramide.

Arsenic Wells

Via the Phnom Penh Post

High amounts of Arsenic in well water are afflicting as much as 150.000 rural Cambodians.

Chhiev Kimlorn, the village chief, said that 10 of the community’s 26 wells had
been tested. According to a document she was given by UNICEF, seven of them were
found to contain elevated arsenic levels.

Three were found to contain
arsenic levels as high as 500 parts per billion – more than 50 times the limit
considered safe by the World Health Organisation, and more than 10 times the
limit considered safe by the Ministry of Rural Development.

This is why I'm a big fan of environmental government policies. The individual villages aren't capable of fixing it on their own. They need the government to regulate and protect their water supply. Tap water can do only so much for these villager before they run out.

Random Model

Romance of the Scienceblog

If you guys haven't been keeping up, or if you're not scienceblog follower then let me summarize the fallowing to you: It's the fucking Three Kingdoms over there except with out the three kingdoms. Okay more like the disintegration of the Easter Han in general. When Zimmer and Yong left to Discoverblog, it's like the individual territories that ceded themselves to outside forces. We can consider the intrusion of Pepsi to be like the Yellow Turban rebellion, weakening the power of SB. The railing of this intrusion is like the campaign against the Yellow Turbans. Finally after SB quails the Pepsi incident, like the Han, the individual bloggers begin to make their own way and break away from SB. Superbug, Zuska, Speakeasy Science, PalMD, Grrlscientist, Laelaps, and Bora are some of such bloggers that chose to break away from the seemingly inept SEED media. PZ and Laden are in strike. A number of other scientist like Orac are considering their resignation as well. Yet like the Han, there are a few bloggers, like Brayton, Tetrapod, and Klemetti, are still there and functional. But like the last Han Emperor, SB has been unable (or perhaps unwilling) to fix the situation.

Well, at least the fallout isn't because they were caught sockpuppeting. That event was just aggravating. At the same time though it was unexpected. SB's fallout was a storm we could see coming. Complaints about the ads, the paycheck, and the commenting system had been there for awhile. Pepsi just broke the back of the all the bloggers there.

The consequence of this is quite clear: A great lost of readership. People like to read stable blogs and not have to change so abruptly. For PZ, I know already that his announced strike has caused a great deal of his readership to move on.

So what's left today? In the end of the day a blogger does whatever he or she wants regardless of the readership. I blog but still have virtually no one reading it. PZ could equally do the same and yet some how he'll have followers. Blogging isn't as simple as finding a domain in which to host it. If the conditions is wrong, no matter how much a blogger wants to write, they will refrain from doing so.

กุหลาบเวียงพิงค์

Parasitic Wasp - Now there's a Farmville idea!

Via the Phnom Penh Post

Khmer farmers are awaiting the import of Apoanagyrus Lopezi, a parasitic wasp that will help farmers alleviate mealybugs infestation, from Thailand.

Thai farmers have already use the wasp as a natural pest control. It's much cheaper and overall healthier than pesticides, but could become an invasive species like the cane toads of Australia.

If you've ever seen parasitic wasp, it's like something from the Alien movies. The will lay their eggs in a host. When the egg hatch it will eat away at the host until it matures.

San Diego LGBT Pride - Observations

San Diego is a beautiful city. Hillcrest is a beautifual. Balboa is a beautiful park. All of it has horrendous parking. On the other hand, it's a sign of how many people were there to support Pride. I parked nearly thirty minutes from the destination and I could see the wide range of people who chose to attend. I myself came from Riverside, which was a good idea since I didn't want spend anymore time in the Inland Empire's desert heat. People from Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino were there too. Of course you have people from even further there: I over heard to Serbians, and a Russian.

The local business showed their support with rainbow flags displayed infront of their shops. They were all opened, especially the cafés, the resturants, the bars, and the clubs. I was very astonish to see all the ethnic shops there, from Phở to Thai food, there was niche for almost anyone.

Wide ranges of the people was also a positive sight. I want to especailly note the numbers of families that chosed to attend. Patriarchal zealot organizations like the American Family Association and the Focus on the Family are always saying how "anti-family" LGBT events are. So why was there so many families there? Both straight and gay families were there enjoying themselves and having fun. Children were everywhere. For something supposedly "anti-family" a lot of family were having a good time. Ethnicity and minorities were also well represented. It seems to me that minorities better understand eachothers because of our similar expriences with the dominate society.

San Diego LGBT Pride - Personal

Personally, Pride in San Diego was a series of up and down due to issues with my shyness and my friends. I really hate being shy. I also hate coming out in a community lacking LGBT representation. I knew almost no one there. I spent my time being awkward. I've tried going to my University's LGBT resource center but I'm way too shy and too afraid to make much use of the community there. Essentially, I've caused myself to miss out on so many opportunity to integrate in the community.

So there I was spending 4 hours waiting for my friend who was one of the few other gay people I knew. Yeah, I was piss and was about to throw a fit. Eventually, he came and I calm down and began to enjoy the remainder of the day. It was my first going to a club. I manage to trance myself in the dance and totally forgot that I promised to be home by midnight. It was also the first time I got hit on by a guy: after I left the club, a really cute guy said hi and ask me if I enjoyed the night. All I did was give a surprised smiled and one of those dazed out Psyduck looks. He smiled back and said I must really be a shy guy. OMG, I'm still giggling like a high school student over it.

Then things got scary. I drove home from San Diego at around 2-3 am. I just passed Temecula going 80 miles per hour when one of my wheels burs ted. I pulled over to check but since it was dark I didn't see anything wrong. I spent the rest of way back to Riverside with a horrible grinding noise and fearing that I might die. I got home, went to bed, and woke up later in the after noon to check my car. There was no wheel on the back right side. Dad tells me I was lucky that the car didn't blow up on the way. It's the second time I've had this problem, but the first was not nearly as scary because it was bright out and I was in a parking lot.

Teabaggers death threats to the NAACP

Here, listen to it yourself. It's NSFW of course, but this is a testaments to the overt racism that is an integral part of the Tea Party movement.

Viola

Viola Tricolor, also known as Johny Jump Up and heartease, is a small annual plant that now grows wildly after it's introduction in the America's by settlers. You can often find them sold in home improvement stores and nurseries. The grow similarly to weeds in cultivated fields.

Viola Tricolor is a wild ancestor of the Pansy, which is a hybrid form of the Viola Tricolor. Like many domesticated plants, tricolor stated as a weed that would grow when the ground is disturbed during cultivation. People, however, noted how beautiful this weed is and began domesticating it. The result is the mass production of pansy plant. (Photos courtesy of Chris Ford )

Textbook Ban in Cambodia

Via The Phnom Penh Post

The Education Ministry recently decided to pull out text book that deals with sensitive issues in Cambodia. The books poised questions about such issues as human rights and democracy in Cambodia. People opposing the ban feels that the are being cheated out of vital knowledge.

Pulling out textbooks and revising them for political means of course is hardly just a Cambodian problem. Here in the United States, we have the Texas Board of Education trying to turn textbooks in to creationist, right-winged propaganda and peddle it off to millions of American students. We have creationist constantly trying to ban textbook that reveals scientific facts that opposes their mythology. In the early 2000 Japan was notorious for what was considered "white washing" of Japanese atrocities committed in the late 19th early 20th century. Turkey omits the Armani an genocide in it's textbook.

Argentina Wins Equal Marriage

Marriage Equality for Argentina

Republican are more likely to have sex scandals (with gay men)

Via Science Duck,

Methods: the number of sex scandals for politicians (both state/local and
national) for the past 10 years was tallied from the list of political scandals provided on Wikipedia. Each
scandal was scored as to if it involved a Republican or Democrat, if it involved
a gay or straight affair, and whether or not the victim/participant was
underage.
Results: Republicans were involved in 61% of sex scandals in the
past 10 years, whereas Democrats were involved in just 39%. Moreover, 34% of the
total number of scandals were gay scandals (i.e, involving an ostensibly
straight politician and a same-sex partner), with Republicans accounting for
78.5% of all gay scandals. Republicans were also involved in 66% of the underage
scandals.
Conclusion: If a sex scandal is going on in Washington, there is a
2 in 3 chance it will involve a Republican. And If it’s a gay scandal, it’s
almost a sure bet that it involves a Republican.

And of course, they (the GOP) are the ones preaching about "family values" and "anti-gay". "Family Value" almost certainly means that they want the patriarchy to do what ever it wants. As for them being anti-gay, the evidence points to them being self-haters, poisoned by their need to be "normal". The hypocrisy of the GOP is so overwhelming, it's a wonder that their bigoted ass hasn't fallen flat on the ground yet.

I'm joking about wondering of course. It's a fact that the Republican party is supported by an inane idea that you can do everything just as long as it helps the patriarchy.

Random Model: JP Calderon

Dieser Mann ist sehr lecker. :)

More Evictions in Cambodia

Via the Phnom Penh Post,


Hok Bunnat, president of Newspaper Distribution Association, sales her books and magazines in front of her house because the government has yet to compensate her and other vendors with new vending areas after evicting them from Borei Keila.

In the wake of Cambodia's economic development, it's abitious government is often criticized for not caring about the well being of it's citizens over attracting business and companies.

Cyber Bobanpak

Here is a screenshot of a Secondlife recreation of the murals at Bonampak. Yes it's for all you folks who either can't visit the real Bonampak, or just to lazy to visit the real Bonampak.

Note the distinct and permanent Mayan Blue.

What are you looking at?

Phidippus regius
Jumping Spider

The Harada House

It's actually a rather plain looking house. If it weren't for the historical marker on the ground, you wouldn't know what it was. Passing by it often, I always thought it was a haunted house.

But now, I love that house. Not because it's spectacular. The old Victorian house in Riverside are far more aesthetically pleasing. The Harada House represent for me the power of determination and righteousness in the face of a hegemonistic society. From it's founding by a Japanese American family, who fought alien land laws, to it's abandonment due to the racist policy of internment, and subsequently to it being an icon of the Asian American experience, the Harada House stand in it's simplicity as a testament of the human will and the power of questioning authority.

Steamed Meat Buns!

Manapua

Bánh bao

Nikuman

Siopao

Bāozi