What a weird place.

Pyramids were a big signal to tell grave robbers where the pharaoh’s treasure was hidden. That’s why, by Tutankhamun’s time, pharaohs were buried underground.

Some people believe the young Tutankhamun was murdered by his uncle, Ay, who went on to take the throne. But in 2005 the mummy was given an X-ray, and they found he had a broken leg, which probably led to his death.

Tombs held everything a God would need in the next life, including a toilet. Even the pharaoh’s cats were mummified to keep him company.

There’s lot’s more interesting stuff. Read the rest here.

Some of these images might send chills up your spine. The magnitude of some of the world’s tombs is unbelievable in some instances.

Throughout the history of human civilization, different cultures mourn and treat the dead differently. Some, like Tibetan Buddhists, have no use for burials as they dispose the dead by feeding corpses to vultures or by burning them in funeral pyres. Most cultures, however, show their respect by burying the dead, sometimes in complex and ornate tombs, crypts, and catacombs.

Read the rest here, plenty of pictures and good reading.

From the giant stone balls of Costa Rica to the Baghdad battery, this is a pretty nice list of puzzling artifacts left behind by ancient folks.

The Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve just a few thousand years ago, by some fundamentalist interpretations. Science informs us that this is mere fiction and that man is a few million years old, and that civilization just tens of thousands of years old. Could it be, however, that conventional science is just as mistaken as the Bible stories? There is a great deal of archeological evidence that the history of life on earth might be far different than what current geological and anthropological texts tell us. Consider these astonishing finds

Read the rest here.

Think about it.

In his bestselling book, “1421: The Year China Discovered America,” British amateur historian Gavin Menzies turns the story of the Europeans’ discovery of America on its ear with a startling idea: Chinese sailors beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas by more than 70 years. The book has generated controversy within the halls of scholarship.

Read the rest here.

I like this one:

A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it.

– Einstein

Are you clever or are you wise?

Some great quotes from Ichiro, commenting on various events over the course of the 2007 MLB season:

No one in baseball puts thoughts into words more eloquently than the one, the only Ichiro Suzuki. The evidence please:

• Third prize: On whether he thought, after his team’s 14th loss in 16 games, that his teammates were pressing: “I don’t even comprehend that word. … If someone did 100 sprints before games, then maybe he’d be pressing, but there’s no such idiots on this team.”

• Second prize: On the Mariners’ crazy schedule, which caused them to make three first-half trips to Cleveland because of a four-game April snowout: “If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.”

• First prize: On the prospect of facing his countryman, Daisuke Matsuzaka, for the first time in the big leagues: “I hope he arouses the fire that’s dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.”

This excerpt is from the Stark: 2007 MLB Season in Review. It’s actually a really great read that pretty much sums up the season that has just been wrapped up. I recommend it to anybody who follows Major League Baseball.