La Casa Azteca

Weekend events in the DFW area
This Weekend

Grapevine Main Street Days Festival, May 16-18, http://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/FestivalsAndEvents/MainStreetDaysFestival/tabid/226/Default.aspx
Dallas/Fort Worth Bead Renaissance Show, May 16-18 -- 1209 S. Main St., a short drive or a bit of a walk away from the Grapevine festival, http://www.beadshow.com/shows/index.htm
The British Emporium's Annual Main Street Days British Carshow, May 18, a short walk from the Grapevine festival, http://www.british-emporium.com/index.php?tag=events

Greater Fort Worth Herb Society Herb Festival, Fort Worth, May 17, http://www.gfwhs.org/fest.htm

Indyfest and Collectibles Swap Meet, Grand Prairie, May 17, http://www.scotomaevents.blogspot.com
Guests include Peter Mayhew (Star Wars), Burton Gilliam (Blazing Saddles) and James Hampton (Teen Wolf)

From Logs to Riches, Log Cabin Village, Fort Worth, May 17, http://www.logcabinvillage.org/events.htm
Can you tell a wickiup from a grass hut? Do you know what “half dovetail notch” means? Have you ever used the phrase “central hall construction”...and meant it? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then this day is for you. Learn about the types of homes that Texans built in the 1800s, see log hewing demonstrations, and build your own craft to take home.

11th Annual Cajun Festival, Grand Prairie, May 17-18, http://www.tradersvillage.com/en/grandprairie/festivals

Etsy.com's first annual Beer-B-Q, Dallas, May 18, http://etsydallas.com/News___Events.html

Next Week

Fort Worth Gem, Mineral, Fossil, Bead & Jewelery Show, May 24-25, http://www.fortworthgemandmineralclub.com/SHOWINFO.html

42nd Annual National Polka Festival, Ennis, May 23-25, http://www.nationalpolkafestival.com

More events

Baby, don't you fly my car.
From http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=255680724&p=z5568y43x

Musician Paul McCartney was reportedly enraged after his new eco-friendly car was delivered by jet.

The former Beatle was expecting his new $168,000 (€105,562) Lexus limousine to be delivered to his native Britain by ship, but was reportedly reeling in anger after the green car was jetted over from Japan.

Transporting the car by air meant the delivery created a carbon-footprint nearly 100 times larger than if it was shipped to the UK - and McCartney was fuming about the manufacturer's actions.

Annual convention of the National Railway Historical Society in DFW this year
From http://www.nrhs.com/nrhsconv

From prominent guest speakers to local area tours to spectacular rail excursions, there's enjoyment for everyone at an NRHS Convention (June 16-22), including non-rail activities.

(Registration for non-members is $50)

Also go to http://www.lonestarrails2008.com/default.aspx to see more info.

Pilgrims Paddle To Cozumel
From http://thisiscozumel.com/content/view/681/2

Following last year's success, the second annual 'Sacred Mayan Crossing' will take place at the end of the month.

Thirty 26-foot canoes, each with a crew of four to six, will paddle from the mainland to Cozumel and back.

The 3 day event re-creates ancient ritual pilgrimages undertaken by the original inhabitants of Yucatán to Polé (Xcaret) and then on by canoe to Cuzamil (Cozumel).

This year, the celebration will begin with a pilgrimage to Xcaret. All night long, guests will participate in rituals and supplications to the goddess Ix Chel, as they wait for the first rays of dawn, when they will send the canoes off to Cozumel.

In Cozumel, offerings will be made to the goddess, who will once more send a message back to the inhabitants of Mayan lands.

The canoes will then paddle to Playa del Carmen on the mainland, bringing with them the goddess' omens of good fortune.

For the Maya, this journey was a mystical undertaking in which they were profoundly affected by their intimate contact with the forces of nature.

Give the froggie a name
From http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080515/20080514006605.html?.v=1&printer=1

Amphibian Ark Announces ''Walking Frog'' Naming Auction

Amphibian Ark, a global conservation organization formed in an effort to help save the world’s amphibians from mass extinction, is announcing its first frog naming rights auction, beginning immediately. The highest bid made on www.CharityBuzz.com will win the naming rights to a newly discovered species in the genus Osornophryne, an endangered “walking frog” indigenous to the remote Andes Mountains in Ecuador.

From one-third to one-half of the planet’s 6,000 amphibian species – frogs and toads, salamanders and newts, and caecilians – are in danger of extinction and the walking frog is no exception. The causes for these declines and extinctions come in different forms, including habitat loss, climate change, emerging diseases, pollution, and over-collection for food and pets.

“After thriving for 360 million years, frogs are in harm’s way,” said Jean-Michel Cousteau, supporter of Amphibian Ark and founder of the Oceans Future Society. “Because amphibians are the first to feel the effects of environmental stressors that could ultimately harm humans, the time to act is now.”

Walking frogs are known for having no tadpoles; instead hatched eggs release froglets. And, instead of jumping, they walk slowly along the forests of the Andes.

The winning bidder’s selected name will be published in a scientific journal. Arrangements can also be made to tour the conservation facilities in Ecuador that will protect the species, and see other endangered amphibians in their natural habitat.

EPA Blog Question of the Week: Why Are You or Aren't You Biking to Work?
From http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2008/05/12/qotwbikingtowork/

To bike or not to bike - that is the question… It’s National Bike Week! Biking is healthy, it prevents air pollution, and it can even save you money (filled your tank recently?). So why aren’t you biking to work? Need more bike paths? Different policies from your employer? Government sponsorship or policies? Or are you just a couch potato?

I'd love to, but it's just too far to get to the office.

Mexican Wrestler Name Generator
Because I'm bored.

http://gangstaname.com/mexican_wrestler_name.php

La Azteca gives me "Chile Muerto"

My IRL name gives me "Zorro Guapo"

Teenage Wasteland?
Former child stars and teen heartthrobs to appear at Crod Con in Arlington.

Guests scheduled to appear include: Corey Feldman (tentative), Robin Lively, William Zabka, Jason Lively, Bart Johnson, and more to be announced.

More info at http://www.crodcon.com.

Where's your head at?
From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_en_mo/crystal_skull_stolen

Indiana Jones better get his alibi ready.

A large crystal skull similar to those at the center of the upcoming Harrison Ford movie was recently stolen from a New Age store, puzzling employees in part because of the laid-back nature of shop regulars.

"We have zero shoplifting in here, and I have no idea why anyone would take something as lovely as that," said Persis Newland, owner of Kindred Spirits in Claremont, about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The skull, named Solar Ray by owner Don Marr, had been on loan at Kindred Spirits for about four months and went missing about two weeks ago. It had sat on an altar in the store's classroom area and was considered one of the shop's prized objects.

"He was on an altar, and he just enjoyed being here," said employee Kristen Nestor, who supervises the store's weekly crystal-reading classes. "He participated in our classes.

Nestor said she believes the skull is as old as 500 years.

"He likes to travel and things like that," Nestor said. "He was here for about four months, just enjoying everyone who comes through here."

Interested in some pre-columbian archaeology this summer?
From http://www.columbia.edu/itc/anthropology/v1007/PAP_PUBLIC/public_access.html

Pambamarca Archaeological Project

Join us in the Ecuadorian Andes for a five-week archaeological field program. Discover with us the beauty of Ecuador as we continue our investigation of the landscapes surrounding the Pre-Columbian fortresses of Pambamarca. Live with us and other project members high in the Northern Ecuadorian Andes. Work on all aspects of the research project, including archaeological survey and excavation and community development activities.

Archaeologist Uses Satellite Imagery to Explore Ancient Mexico
From ascribe.org

Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help archeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

"If you ask someone off the street about Mexican archeology, they'll say Aztec, Maya. Sometimes they'll also say Inca, which is the wrong continent, but you'll almost never hear anyone talk about the Zapotecs," says Middleton, acting chair of the Department of Material Culture Sciences and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology. "They had the first writing system, the first state society, the first cities. And they controlled a fairly large territory at their zenith - 250 B.C. to 750 A.D."

National Geographic article on the ancient Columbian tombs
From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080509-colombia-tombs.html

Builders clearing land for a housing project in Colombia have uncovered an ancient burial site containing nearly a thousand tombs linked to two little-known civilizations. (See photos.)

The site covers some 12 acres (5 hectares) in the impoverished Usme district in southeast Bogotá (see map) and includes one set of remains that some researchers believe could be a victim of human sacrifice.

'Can feces save the species?'
From http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/ci-cfs051108.php

It’s a tough job, but somebody, or at least some dogs, have to do it.

In the Cerrado region of Brazil, four dogs trained to detect animal feces by scent are helping researchers monitor rare and threatened wildlife such as jaguar, tapir, giant anteater and maned wolf in and around Emas National Park, a protected area with the largest concentration of threatened species in Brazil.

The researchers analyze feces found by the dogs to learn about where and how the threatened mammals live. Data such as numbers, range, diet, hormonal stress, parasites and even genetic identity contribute to a study of how the mammals use environments inside and outside the park, especially on privately owned lands of the region.

The information helps develop conservation and development strategies that meet the needs of both the animals and local farmers.

Another article on scat-sniffing dogs: http://www.wildlifeconservation.org/wcm-home/wcm-article/7193623

Also see http://www.workingdogsforconservation.org/index.shtml for more information on scat-detecting dogs.

New publication on funerary practices at el Templo Mayor, Mexico City
From inah.gov.mx

Ante la dificultad que representaba su análisis, por muchos años, los restos cremados localizados en contextos mortuorios prehispánicos fueron desdeñados como fuente de información, sin embargo, la arqueóloga Ximena Chávez Balderas expone en su libro Rituales funerarios en el Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan, la complejidad que guardaba el tratamiento pos mortem en el recinto sagrado de los mexicas.

Dominica rejects legislating intermarriage to save tribe
From http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hP9zUSrxAQh4Vhua83YqEHU4nCUgD90IH6PO0

The leader of the last remaining pre-Columbian tribe in the eastern Caribbean says outlawing marriage to outsiders can save Dominica's dwindling indigenous population, but legislators are balking at deciding who can marry whom.

Chief Charles Williams has proposed a law requiring ethnic Kalinagos to marry only each other for self-preservation. He also requested that foreigners be barred from living on the tribe's 3,800-acre reserve.

"We would like as many Kalinago people to respond and pair off so that we can multiply and protect the race," Williams said during a recent news conference.

NPR article on looting of archaeological sites
(The article is a year old, but I posted it especially for the DFW folk)

From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10416454

At the famed Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, you can sit in the cafe, have a slice of basil pesto quiche, and gaze up at stunning evidence of the looting of the ancient world.

The dining room is dominated by an 8-foot-tall carved limestone monument, or stela, of a Mayan king.

"He's shown in all his regalia, with an elaborate headdress, various ornaments hanging from his belt and jade belt pendants," says Timothy Potts, the Oxford-educated director of the Kimbell. "It's so rich. It's so lively. It's a tapestry; every square inch is covered with something."

Despite his obvious admiration for the stela, Potts says that it was likely looted from its original site in the 1960s, taken out of Guatemala and sold.

So how did this stela get from the jungles of Central America to a Forth Worth art museum?
( more )

Spain launches legal war on US 'pirates'
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3897032.ece

Spain demanded the return of sunken treasure worth an estimated half a billion dollars yesterday, accusing Odyssey, the deep-sea exploration company that discovered it, of looting its shipwrecks.

Spanish archaeologists said that they had determined “with complete certainty” that the record haul had come from the Spanish colonial-era galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by a British fleet off the southern coast of Portugal in 1804.

“The mystery is over,” said James Goold, a Washington-based lawyer for the Spanish Government. The treasure “belongs to the Spanish Armada”. Since announcing in May 2007 that it had found 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere “in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean”, Odyssey has fought hard to keep details of the haul under wraps.

Hmm...and I wonder where that gold came from in the first place?

Spanish experts said yesterday that the coins, held at an undisclosed location in Florida, included gold doubloons, or “pieces of eight”, minted in 1803 in Peru — then the financial centre of Spain’s Latin American colonies. That raises the possibility that the Peruvian state may want to make a claim of its own.

'New evidence from earliest known human settlement in the Americas'
From http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/vu-nef050208.php

New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.

The study was conducted by a team of anthropologists, geologists and botanists headed by Vanderbilt University’s Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Tom Dillehay and was reported in the May 9 issue of the journal Science.

The paper, which includes the first new data reported from the site in 10 years, includes the identification of nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 to 13,980 years ago, confirming that the upper layer of the site, labeled Monte Verde II, was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas.

...A multimedia version of this story is available on Exploration, Vanderbilt's online research magazine, at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/monteverde.html

Also see a Christian Science Monitor article on this and Oregon findings as well as America's Clovis vs Pre-Clovis Controversy.

CD-ROM containing descriptions, hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egyptian elite tombs
From http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_7DZB9W_Eng

A number of elite tombs from Ancient Egypt are now accessible to all thanks to the launch of the Mastabase. The Mastabase is a CD-ROM containing descriptions and hieroglyphic inscriptions of scenes of daily life from 337 Mastaba tombs. This resource will make research into these elite tombs a lot easier. On 13 May 2008, Dutch Egyptologist René van Walsem will officially present the MastaBase in Leiden.

A Mastaba is an elite tomb from the Memphite area in Ancient Egypt (2600-2150 BC). The tombs contain scenes depicting daily life, often accompanied by inscriptions. Elite tombs are extremely complex works of art. They contain various main themes, which are further divided into sub-themes. Main themes are, for example, scenes depicting offerings, farming, fishing, et cetera. The theme fishing, for instance, can then be broken down into various sub-themes, such as fishing with a dragnet or seine, the transportation of fish and the processing of fish.

Humankind now has the ultimate weapon to fend off alien hostile takeovers
Attorneys specializing in space law.

From http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/540528

Law student Michael Dodge earns a special distinction this weekend at the University of Mississippi when he is awarded the juris doctor degree. Dodge, of Long Beach, becomes the first graduate to also receive a special space law certificate, the only one of its kind in the country.

Dodge is to be awarded the space law certificate through the law school’s National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law.

“For me the certificate provides both a tremendous sense of achievement, and also a potential enticement for employers,” Dodge said, adding that no where else could he have gained such a comprehensive education in space, air and remote sensing law.

...Established in 1999, the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law is a source for research, education, outreach activities and information exchange among academic, government and commercial organizations related to the legal aspects of human activities using aerospace technologies.

For more information, go to http://www.law.olemiss.edu