Strange but true!!!

Chinese archaeologists believe they have discovered a 2,400 year-old bowl of soup….and it’s still in liquid form! The culinary find was dug up from a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian. Sealed in a three-legged bronze cooking pot, the culinary find is 8 inches high and 10 inches in diameter and would have been used for cooking and serving meat.

Archaeologists said the soup, which contained several bones, was still liquid in form but had turned green due to the oxidization of the bronze.

Read the full story below:

It’s most likely past its sell-by date but Chinese archaeologists believe they have discovered a 2,400-year-old bowl of soup. Sealed in a three-legged bronze cooking pot, the culinary find was dug up from a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian. It is 8in high and 10in in diameter and would have been used for cooking and serving meat.

Archaeologists said the soup, which contained several bones, was still liquid but had turned green due to the oxidisation of the bronze. It is because the tomb was so tightly sealed that the liquid did not evaporate. Liu Daiyun, of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said: ‘”t’s the first discovery of bone soup in Chinese archaeological history. The discovery will play an important role in studying the eating habits and culture of the Warring States Period.”

That period ran from 475 to 221BC and was a time when warlords took over small states to build up their power base. The pot has now been resealed and sent away so that researchers can analyse its contents. A separate bronze vessel that contained an odourless liquid, believed to be wine, was also found in the tomb. It is thought that it could have belonged to either a member of the land-owning class or a military officer.

Xian, a city that served as China’s ancient capital for over 1,100 years, is famed for the terracotta army at the burial site of Qin Shihuang. It was Qin who presided over the unification of China in 221BC and declared himself the first emperor. The bronze pot and vessel were found in a tomb being excavated to make way for the extension of the airport in Xian.

However, this is not the oldest pot found with food in it. Five years ago a 4,000-year-old pot containing noodles was found in 2005 at a site near the Yellow River.

Amazing!

Cheers,

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is worried about the new Barbie Video Girl made by Mattel as the doll is equipped with camera lens in her necklace and video screen on her back.

So, what’s the problem with that?

According to the FBI memo (PDF) taken from Huffington Post, the toy could become ‘a possible child pornography production method’ because the new doll can capture 30 minutes of footage which is downloadable to a computer.

But special representative Steve Dupre said the warning is “not meant to be like a consumer safety warning, where someone’s going to get hurt if they use the doll. It’s for law enforcement officers to simply be aware that the doll could contain evidence when investigating child pornography cases.”

The fashion doll is no stranger to controversy. Over the years, Barbie has been criticized to everything from promoting an unrealistic body image to uttering that “Math class is tough.”

But should the parents be really concerned about the warning?

What do you think?

Cheers,

Photo Credit: Lipstick Alley

I know it is weird but I always have a fascination with Friday the 13th.

Why? As we all know, Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck.  On this year, the phenomenon will only happen this month of August then, the next Friday the 13th will happen again in May 2011.

Are you also enthralled with this rare phenomenon like I do? Listed below are the 13 facts researched by Live Science regarding the infamous day:

1. The British Navy is said to have built a ship named Friday the 13th, or the HMS Friday, which on its maiden voyage left dock on a Friday the 13th, and was never heard from again. As LiveScience readers pointed out, however, this story seems to be a legend. The Royal Navy Museum states on its web site that this story, which has been told before, is a hoax. “There has never been a Royal Navy ship named HMS Friday – or after any other day of the week for that matter,” the museum states.

2. The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date’s digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, however.

3. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor.

4. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

5. Quarterback Dan Marino wore No. 13 throughout his career with the Miami Dolphins. Despite being a superb quarterback (some call him one of the best ever), he got to the Super Bowl just once, in 1985, and was trounced 38-16 by the San Francisco 49ers and Joe Montana (who wore No. 16 and won all four Super Bowls he played in).

6. Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.

7. Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13, 1926.

8. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

9. Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

10. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. “It was bad luck,” Twain later told the friend. “They only had food for 12.”

11. Woodrow Wilson considered 13 his lucky number, though his experience didn’t support such faith. He arrived in Normandy, France on Friday, Dec. 13, 1918, for peace talks, only to return with a treaty he couldn’t get Congress to sign. (The ship’s crew wanted to dock the next day due to superstitions, Fernsler said.) He toured the United States to rally support for the treaty, and while traveling, suffered a near-fatal stroke.

12. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

13. The seals on the back of a dollar bill include 13 steps on the pyramid, 13 stars above the eagle’s head, 13 war arrows in the eagle’s claw and 13 leaves on the olive branch. So far there’s been no evidence tying these long-ago design decisions to the present economic situation.

So, what are your plans today, Friday the 13th?

As for me, I will read an awesome creepy stories to my kid before his nap this afternoon. Cool isn’t it?

Cheers,

Photo Credit: Google Image Search

No more strong typhoon, please!

Photo Credit: Reesie

Typhoon Ondoy (International Name: Typhoon Ketsana) has literally swept the Metro Manila area and the neighboring provinces last week (September 26-27) when the typhoon submerged the country into waters. This deadly typhoon killed almost 300 people and has also damaged P5 billion properties.

Ondoy’s wrath is not the first ever and would probably not the last. Listed below are the most destructive typhoons experienced by the Philippines:

• Storm: Thelma/Uring (1991)
  Dates of impact: November 2 to 7, 1991
  Deaths: 5,101 – 8,000
  Damage: P1.045 billion

• Storm: Angela/Rosing (1995)
  Dates of impact: October 30 to November 4, 1995
  Deaths: 936
  Damage: P10.829 billion

• Storm: Mike/Ruping (1990)
  Dates of impact: November 10 to 14, 1990
  Deaths: 748
  Damage: P10.846 billion

• Storm: Joan/Sening (1970)
  Dates of impact: October 11 to 15, 1970
  Deaths: 768
  Damage: P1.89 billion

• Storm: Agnes/Undang (1984)
  Dates of impact: November 3 to 6
  Deaths: 895
  Damage: P1.9 billion

• Storm: Babs/Loleng (1998)
  Dates of impact: October 15 to 24, 1998
  Deaths: 303
  Damage: P6.787 billion

• Storm: Nina/Sisang (1987)
  Dates of impact: November 23 to 27, 1987
  Deaths: 979
  Damage: P1.119 billion

• Storm: Flo/Kadiang (1993)
  Dates of impact: September 30 to October 7, 1993
  Deaths: 576
  Damage: P8.752 billion

• Storm: Amy (1951)
  Dates of impact: December 6 to 19, 1951
  Deaths: 991
  Damage: P0.7 billion

There you have it folks, the details above sums up the list of the most destructive typhoons in the Philippines to date. I just hope that there will be no more storms but from the looks of it – the Philippine islands will still be likely hit by more storms in the future as the country is located within the typhoon belt of the Western Pacific.

God help us.

Photo Credit: Azrael

Two years ago, Janette Toral of Digital Filipino initiated a ‘Writing Project’ about the first ever Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in the world wide web. Just like this year, the 2007 candidates for the writing project is not only exclusive to the  Philippine blogosphere but from all over the world.

The aim of the writing project is pretty simple. The top 10 nomination coming from the fellow bloggers must identify blogs that inspire them and could provide something worthy to the readers.

So, have they lived up to the expectations?

Let’s see…

Top 1:  Tied on the top spot were:

An Apple A Day by Aileen Apolo

Aileen Apolo’s blog currently have 140 feedburner readers and 909 twitter followers. Her blog is still rocking steady as she have ‘captive readers’ with her daily musings about everything. I think she is worthy of the title because the journal life approach give readers a feel that she really enjoys sharing her life in the blogosphere.

The Philosophical Bastard by Paolo Mendoza

Lo and behold, this top influential blog of 2007 is no longer accessible to the public eye! Yep, even the domain name is for sale!

I guess the blogger behind this great blog will no longer let us read his humor and philosophy in life as he also decided followers to read  his blog entries via invitation. Hmmm, what could have happened along the way?

Too bad really as I have a glimpse of his blogs in social networking Blog Catalog and the entries are worth reading.

Top 2:  The D Spot by Dine Racoma

Dine Racoma‘s blog still continue to gain readers as she shares her life and parenting experiences in the world wide web. Racoma’s blog currently have 175 feedburner subscribers so I believe she will stay solid in the blogosphere and will continue to give insights on every issues that matter.

Top 3:  CokskiBlue

CokskiBlue (now named ThisisCoy.net)  is owned by Coy, a Pinoy video blogger who has collection of video which covers just about anything – from travel, events and various reviews. He is also an avid supporter of the Filipino vloggers. Interestingly, Coy is again nominated this year (Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2009) for his vlog, Video Chops Dot Com.

So what differentiate Video Chops from Cokskiblue? Coy pointed out that the new vlog is not just another blog about video blogging but rather a QUICK CHOP on his unused video clips and footages which make it downloadable to the viewing public for free! Oh well, see for yourselves and check it out…

Top 4:  Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old

Carl Ocab is probably one of the most successful teenage bloggers on the blogosphere at this moment. Carl, now age 15, is a truly one of a kind as this internet celebrity holds a remarkable position of being on the top spot in Google for the keyword “Make Money Online” after only seven months of optimization. He also deserved the accolades as he was been featured on the national newspaper twice, been interviewed by some of the top notch internet marketers in the blogging block like Joel Christopher, Jack Humphrey, Rosalind Gardner and Nick Marks!

So, what can I say about Carl? Whoa, you are definitely one influential kiddo! Kudos to you and keep up the good work!

Top 5: Tied on the fifth spot were Culture Shiok! and Utakgago

Culture Shiok! is a blog of an Overseas Filipino Worker in Singapore. So, what happened to this influential blog?

The blog which currently hosted at Blogger/Blogspot is noticeably not up to date. Sadly, the last entry from this blog was March 2008 with an astonishing total blog entries of 4 in the same year.

Was it the end of this blog?

Well, I don’t know – but from the looks it, the blogger still has no intention of updating his bloggy soon.

Utak Gago

The domain is currently parked because the Swedish host of his former website has been pulled off without any notice. Anyway, blogger Kevin hasn’t stopped blogging ever since as he still continue to let subscribers read his impressive writing skills to this url link (http://seriouslie.wordpress.com/).

Kudos to you Kevin for not getting frustrated with what happened to your original blog!

Top 6:  Kubiertos

Kubiertos is a blog of ApplesH a food enthusiasts. She blogs about food, eating, recipes, dining and restaurants in the Philippines. The blog currently has 249 feedburner subscribers and still making waves in the Philippine blogosphere when it comes to food blogging.

Top 7: Tied on the seventh spot were FruityOaty and PinoyBlogero

FruityOaty

FruityOaty is a blog of  Massa P, a Filipino-Canadian who writes about her views and reviews of life, food, current events, blogging, gadgets, and technology. Unfortunately, this award-winning blog is also on a hibernate mode as the owner posted her last blog entry in January 30, 2009. What happened? *puzzled* Darn, it was an uber good blog!!!

Oh well, she could have been very busy or…

I guess she is really not on her ‘blogging mode’ up to this point!

PinoyBlogero

Juan Karlo Licudine, the author behind PinoyBlogero is undeniably still active in the blogosphere nowadays. The blog which boasts of his impressive artwork before will now be reinvented to a more personal journal pretty soon.

I guess this ‘personal move’ was to make way of his new blog, BlogComics.net as he actively updates comic fillers there more often.

Top 7: Tied on the eight spot were The Dork Factory and The Anitokid Chronikos

The Dork Factory

Unfortunately, I can not access this blog as of this writing. The url site: http://jhed.asteeg.net/ is giving me a ‘problem loading page’ message so I can not say much about this influential blog of 2007.

The Anitokid Chronikos

This influential blog of 2007 ‘blogging heart’ is all about the Philippine pool scene but it also has diverse thoughts oil and gas, financial services, information technology industries, electronic gadgets and motorcycling. What a diverse insights, huh?

The blog currently have an extensive interview of Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes on Probe Profiles  and it’s definitely worth the read!

Top 9: Gibbs Cadiz

Gibbs Cadiz is a personal blog of a man regarding travel, movies, books and mostly about theater. The blog has good niche because I haven’t seen bloggers passionately writing about theater so no wonder it has 344 feedburner subscribers.

Top 10: Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic

Based on my research, Jake the Miserable, the blogger behind the ‘Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic’ is no longer active in the blogosphere nowadays. Hmmm, again – I wonder what happened? Sayang naman…

I mean, with a blog title just like that – I bet he can still make a buzz in the blogosphere should he want to resurrect his blogging career.

So, what can I say???

To those still active: Congrats to all of you for giving us an inspiration to blog! You are already ‘experienced’ in blogging so we really appreciate the fact that ‘newbies’ are given a chance to showcase our stuffs.

To those ‘inactive influential bloggers’: I can understand you perfectly kasi hindi naman talaga madaling mag-blog eh! Bloggers like us are supposed to be giving informative and interesting entry in every single posts so it is no wonder you suddenly take ‘a blogging holiday’ for now or forever.

And to those who will win this 2009:

May you continue to light up the torch in inspiring fellow bloggers and make a positive change in our blogosphere.

Related posts:

• My Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2009
• A big ‘Thank You’ to all who have nominated Dear Bloggery!

A new book entitled ‘Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath’ was launched by authors Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman in America.

The Normans, who are husband and wife, interviewed hundreds of American, Filipino and Japanese combatants. The book was reportedly took 10 years to finish.

Associated Press’ Richard Pyle described the book as:

…an extremely detailed and thoroughly chilling treatment that, given the passage of time and thinning of ranks, could serve as popular history’s final say on the subject.

Even the celebrity kids are hot commodities in Hollywood!

Forbes has named Suri Cruise as the most powerful kid in Hollywood. Forbes.com, which ranked celebrity children under 5 years old, has proclaimed Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes little girl as the most influential tot in Hollywood.

Suri -  known for fashionable clothes and cute haircut, was a clear winner because she garnered more news articles and blog among her celebrity peers in Hollywood. The research poll is based on the media attention and parent’s popularity. Second spot goes Brad and Angelina’s biological daughter, Shiloh Nouvell Jolie-Pitt. While her sister and brother, Zahara and Pax ranked in 3rd and 4th place respectively.

Here is the complete list of the 2nd annual Hollywood’s 10 Hottest Tots:”

1. Suri Cruise (daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise)

2. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt (daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)

3. Zahara Jolie-Pitt (daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)

4. Pax Jolie-Pitt (son of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)

5. Sam Alexis Woods (daughter of Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin)

6. Cruz Beckham (son of David and Victoria Beckham)

7. Matilda Rose Ledger (daughter of Michelle Williams and the late Heath Ledger)

8. David Banda (son of Madonna and Guy Ritchie)

9. Sean Preston Federline (son of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline)

10. Sam Sheen (daughter of Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen)

So, is this an indication that we are going to see these kids as the superstar of the future like their famous parents?

Let’s watch and see…

In one of the biggest breakthrough in astronomy, a team of American, British and Canadian astronomers and physicists at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Library have snapped pictures of four recently discovered planets orbiting the same star and the other circling another sun.

Below is the artist’s concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed. A ring of debris appears to surround Fomalhaut as well. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the 200-million-year-old star every 872 years. Credit: ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI)

This visible-light image below from the Hubble shows the newly discovered planet, Fomalhaut b, orbiting its parent star. Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, and E. Kite (UCB), M. Clampin (GSFC), M. Fitzgerald (LLNL), K. Stapelfeldt, J. Krist (JPL)

Ground-based image showing Fomalhaut’s location. Credit: A. Fujii, NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)

Ground-based image showing Fomalhaut’s location. Credit: A. Fujii, NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI)

This is Fomalhaut b’s path around its star. The red dot represents the planet, the white dot represents the star, and the brown ring represents the debris disk. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

The report also indicated that none of the four extrasolar giant gaseous planets are remotely habitable but they raise the possibility of other more hospitable worlds being discovered.

Anyway, who knows? There could be another ‘earth’ out there to explore, right? And maybe, just maybe – earthlings like us could not be the only species living in the universe! What do you think, guys and gals?

]]> http://dearbloggery.com/2008/11/15/4-new-planets-discovered-outside-solar-system/feed/ 4 http://dearbloggery.com/2008/10/31/red-alert-men-find-women-attractive-in-red/ http://dearbloggery.com/2008/10/31/red-alert-men-find-women-attractive-in-red/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:54:44 +0000 Snow http://dearbloggery.com/?p=310

Looks like the song “Lady In Red” has a real meaning after all…

In a recent study conducted by a team of researchers in the University of Rochester – men were shown  pictures of women that were identical except that some versions of the shirt were made in red, blue and others. And along with that, men were also asked a series of questions ranging from how much will they spend for a date to the ratings of the women’s attractiveness.

Study showed that the woman wearing the ‘red shirt’ is found to be more attractive by most of the men in the survey. The same goes to the pictures which were bordered in red than in any other color. However, it was mind-boggling to know that men can’t possibly identify what shaped their opinions.

Hmmm, fascinating indeed. I guess the single girls out there should be buying more red clothes to catch a man’s attention. What do you think, guys?

*photo courtesy of NrllAless