Great White

French dude swims with Great White Sharks.
It seems more crazy than it actually is.
But the clip is still worth watching.

Archaeology

I was just considering today the importance of archaeology.
To me it just seemed cool to find what people used in the past and how they lived, but now I'm starting to realize that archaeology is a salvage method of retaining all the lost knowledge of those who came before us. Craig Ratzat has opened my eyes to what an actual technology and science stone tool making is.

He was virtually self-taught but had to go through trial and error for about 30 years to be an expert in stone tool making. He's traveled around the country and even into Europe talking to people on the subject and learning different techniques on how other people have taught themselves to overcome similar obstacles.

But the thing that is the hardest to comprehend is how difficult it is to make a complete hunting tool. Making a stone tool requires tools. First to get off a spall you need a giant hammerstone. From there your hammerstone can me more manageable. To remove smaller flakes one must have a hard pointy object like an antler tine.

To create the shaft of an arrow you need wood that can be straightened. This is usually done with water or wood or both. Fletching requires feathers which somehow need to be acquired. Hafting the arrowhead to the shaft requires some sort of string which needs to be made from a fiber. The creation of string in itself is a process and stone tools are used to make the string.
Then a gluing agent may be necessary to adhere the point to the shaft.

The process is infinitely long and that's only the beginning since you now need to rely on your abilities to hunt an animal. And if you have happened to make an arrow, then you're also in need of a bow. In the case that your point is made into a dart, then you still might need an atlatl.

The problem is, is that if all of our modern tools were taken away from us in the blink of an eye. Even survival at the level of making stone tools would be virtually impossible without people trying to revitalize the science. If it took 30 years to get it down, it seems a shame if it was to all be lost and we were stuck once again with re-inventing the wheel.

The best part about learning the trade is that you also learn the functionality of what you find in the earth. Things people once thought were spear points wind up being only functional as knives when you create and use them yourself.

Craig Ratzat should have an honorary degree and be teaching at schools across the nation. He knows more about the stone tool technology than many professors. Stone tools are his life.

Atlatls

I'm taking a lithics course teaching me how to make stone tools.
One of the guys in the class has come up with a method to attach stone tools to a wood shaft during freezing temperatures. Ice glue. Here's a report on how well it worked.

For more go to Paleoplanet.

Conservapedia

Why use Wikipedia when there's Conservapedia?
note commandment #1: Everything you post must be true and verifiable.

I know you've been asking yourself, "Where do kangaroos come from?
Check out their origins on Conservapedia!

"There is debate whether this migration happened over land^[2] -- as Australia was still for a time connected to Europe by a land bridge similar to the one that connected Asia to America^[3] -- or if they rafted on mats of vegetation torn up by the receding flood waters.^[2] Another theory is that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there."

It's ok. It came from an accredited website:
"How did animals get from the Ark to isolated places, such as Australia?", ChristianAnswers.net.

My favorite is my job description.
Check out Archaeology.

Trade Routes

With global warming and the breaking up of ice in the arctic, countries who border these areas are considering opening trade routes that would be more cost effective and less time consuming.

New sea routes
"But reductions in sea ice coverage are creating new opportunities for Arctic sea routes. The eight Arctic nations are discussing Arctic shipping and future shipping policies — both the United States and the State of Alaska need to decide on policies for the use of ports for Arctic trading routes, Treadwell said.

A sea route between Europe and Asia around the northern Russian coast would be about 40 percent shorter than the traditional route through the Suez Canal. And there’s now a possibility of shipping goods to and from Canada through Hudson’s Bay, Treadwell said."

shark and eel

holy crap.
i was diving in waters with 14'-long sharks?

oh. btw, it's dead now.

also. i always thought wolf eels were one of the scariest looking things around.
one of those things you fear...

some guys in some tropical area seem to have befriended a moray eel.
but i guess they played too long...