Steve Lekson is an archaeologist at the University of Colorado. And he's got a controversial theory: ancient settlements in the American Southwest were organized along the 108th meridian of longitude (also called the "Chaco meridian"). He theorizes that the many large, abandoned settlements along that line point to a pattern of north-south-north-south migration that may have arisen from political, cultural, or environmental changes in the distant past. Other archaeologists think Lekson is, to use the... READ ON

Remember Bob Ballard? He's the geophysicist who discovered the wrecks of the Titanic, Bismarck, Yorktown, and JFK's PT-109 (among other interesting deep-sea explorations). When I was a kid, I was way into Ballard's JASON Project, a distance-education program in which students participated in videoconferences with Ballard and his crew, learning about scientific exploration through the lens of Ballard's various undersea adventures. In 2008, Ballard gave an impassioned TED Talk about exploring the... READ ON

It's a lazy Thursday afternoon...wouldn't you like to know how globes are made at the globe factory*? I thought you might. So have a look. Representative quote: "One false move, and they could lose parts of Japan." * = Specifically, this is from the Replogle Globes, Inc. factory in Chicago. There's more cool stuff on Youtube from The Chicago History Museum. (Via... READ ON

In 1941, Winston Churchill delivered his "Great Declaration," a famous speech about the Nazi threat. He said (in part, and with emphasis added): What tragedies, what horrors, what crimes has Hitler and all that Hitler stands for brought upon Europe and the world! The ruins of Warsaw, of Rotterdam, of Belgrade are monuments which will long recall to future generations the outrage of unopposed air bombing applied with calculated scientific cruelty to helpless populations. Here in London and throughout... READ ON