This is very cool -- via Cronaca comes this report of some findings about pre-Columbian civilization in the Amazon:
Now Michael Heckenberger, of the University of Florida in Gainesville, and his colleagues have excavated and mapped 19 villages, roads, trenches, bridges, agriculture, open parklands and working forests in the Upper Xingu region of central Brazil. "The folks who lived there were clearly not simple," says Heckenberger.
The archaeologists used satellite imaging and global positioning technology to map the traces of the settlements.
Steve H. is bummed out for various reasons, among which is illness-induced feelings of depression. That reminded me of the time I had a flu-caused depression/anxiety attack that was bad enough that the doctor decided to put me on tranquilizers for a week. And then I remembered something else: a news report I heard on the teevee (I was doing something in the kitchen and was only listening) about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I never thought that had anything to do with my problems, because I always perk up in the winter months (such as we have in Florida), and then the guy said something about the fact that some sufferers got depressed in the summer instead of the winter. And that, as I explained to Steve, sure does seem to explain my entire life.
PS: I am working on a new, more personal webdiary blog site thingage, which will be password-protected, where I will be shunting off this me stuff to. Then I can return TMTD to its regular schedule of fluff and geekitude and trollbait and whatever else this site was supposed to be.
Life in the hellish, primitive United States goes on: U.S. Life Expectancy Tops 77 Years. The nefarious plan to use up most of the earth's resources continues! Bwahahaahaaa!
(Via Scott Chaffin.)