"Human blood, organs, and a surprising virus detected in ancient pottery"

Science:

Sometime between 600 and 450 B.C.E., a high-status individual in what is today Germany developed some disturbing symptoms: large bruises, bleeding from the nose and gums, and bloody diarrhea and urine. His fellow villagers, shocked—or perhaps intrigued—by his condition, stored his blood and organs in pottery vessels after he died, and interred them in a burial mound. Now, using a novel technique based on analyzing ancient proteins, archaeologists have reconstructed the contents of these vessels

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“The [amber] mines are extremely dangerous, so foreigners can hardly get there.”

Finding a feathered dinosaur tail trapped in amber:

So, where does the paleontological reconnaissance come in? Burmese amber markets happen to be fed by amber mines in Hukawng Valley, located in the Kachin State of northern Myanmar. This region is currently under the control of the insurgent Kachin Independence Army, which has a long history of conflict with the Burmese government.

“Resellers buy scraps from amber miners and sell them on the markets,” Xing explained. “The mines are extremely dangerous, so foreigners can hardly get there.”

Xing decided to go undercover. “I disguised myself as a Burmese man with a face painted with Thanaka,” he told me. (Thanaka is a popular cosmetic paste in Myanmar, yellowish-white in color, made from finely ground tree bark.)

Stealthily camouflaged and armed with a fake ID, Xing snuck into the region. He met the prospector responsible for excavating the dinosaur tail, who guided Xing through the mines and showed him new geological samples. “We are very lucky,” he said of the escapade.

New NHL team, "The Vegas Golden Knights’ trademark application was denied weeks after being unveiled"

"The reason for the denied request? The Vegas mark shares too many similarities with The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights."

"Kip Winger has a contemporary classical album? The hard-rock guitarist discusses his Grammy nod"

LAT:

You’re listed on the album under the name C.F. Kip Winger. Can you talk about the initials?

I added the name because my name is Charles Frederick Winger, and when I started writing classical music, I thought, “Should I be Kip Winger? Or should I be Charles Winger?” I actually tried Charles Winger, and got told, “But you’re Kip Winger.”

OK, I’m Kip Winger, but it’s a different brand. It’s a different thing. And so looking back in history and I saw some guys with initials and stuff. “You know what? I’m just going to put my initials on the front of my name for my solo work, just as a notice that, hey, this is different.”

...

Does this feel like artistic vindication?

Yes, it does, to be quite frank. We took a lot of heat. I personally took a lot of heat in the music business with MTV and all that stuff. The irony of my life was that my whole thing is like, there’s two things I want to do in life: study music and write music. So being kind of a musicologist geek that I am, it was ironic to become known as a poseur-y ’80s figure.

"Universal Studios Hollywood has removed the 3-D special effect from its Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride only eight months after the attraction opened as the centerpiece of the park’s most expensive expansion"

"Theme park officials were tight-lipped about the change"

Judge Doom

By Chad Waters.