Mystics in sights of Taliban PESHAWAR — Sufi worshippers still flock to the grave of Rahman Baba, a Muslim mystic revered by millions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But they now pray at a mound of rubble and twisted steel — all that remains of his tomb since militants bombed it. More>>
A team of researchers unveiled an almost perfectly intact fossil of a 47 million-year-old primate they say represents the long-sought "missing link" between humans and apes. Officially known as Darwinius masillae, the fossil of the lemur-like creature dubbed "Ida" shows it had opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws.
A team of amateur fossil hunters discovered the near-perfect remains inside a mile-wide crater outside of Frankfurt in 1983. Experts believe the pit was a volcanic caldera where scores of animals from the Eocene epoch died by breathing noxious volcanic fumes that kept their remains remarkably well-preserved.
Though the pit has been a bountiful source of other fossils, the inexperienced archaeologists did not realize the value of their find. Years later, the University of Oslo bought the 95%-intact fossil, and Hurum studied it in secret for two years. "We're not dealing with our grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," Jens Franzen said.
The unveiling of the Ida fossil came as part of a carefully-orchestrated publicity campaign unusual for scientific discoveries.
A discovery of a 47 million-year-old fossil primate that is said to be a human ancestor was announced Tuesday at a press conference in New York City.
Known as "Ida," the nearly complete transitional fossil is 20 times older than most fossils that provide evidence for human evolution.
It shows characteristics from the very primitive non-human evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but is more related to the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes and humans), said Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum. More>>
Human Search for Missing Link
The problem with understanding human origins has been a shortage of fossil evidence -- until now.
Billions of humans and humanlike creatures have lived on this planet, but our knowledge of human pre-history is based on only about 5,000 individuals. And these finds have been scattered randomly through time, sometimes with gaps of hundreds of thousands of years -- and none of them look much like any of the others. Scientists say our own relatively short-lived civilization would be extremely unlikely to yield any fossil record at all. More>>
WQ with Nico PetromacChakra Dhyana: concentration on the energy centers of the subtle body (2:32)
The chakras (literally, "wheels") are the nexus points of nerve fibers in the body. There importance is astral, as part of the subtle or spiritual body not normally seen by the eyes. They are visible to the Divine Eye (DibbaCakkhu). They are each associated with a particular vibration -- manifesting as a color (light vibration) and a "seed sound" (bija mantra, or sound vibration). Click on each wheel to hear the latter vibrations. In descending order the seven cerebrospinal points and their corresponding features are:
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Two wild ideas excite Web
Mystics in sights of Taliban PESHAWAR — Sufi worshippers still flock to the grave of Rahman Baba, a Muslim mystic revered by millions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But they now pray at a mound of rubble and twisted steel — all that remains of his tomb since militants bombed it. More>>
