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21:11, Wednesday, 7 May 2025

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Pottery from Guandimiao

Guandimiao is a Chinese archaeological site in Xingyang, Henan. It is the site of a small Late Shang village, inhabited by around 100 people at its peak, and occupied from c. 1250 to 1100 BCE. It likely exported ceramics (example pictured) and cattle, while importing mass-produced goods such as arrowheads and hairpins from the Shang capital at Yinxu, 200 km (120 mi) to the north. The villagers practiced rituals such as pyromancy using locally produced oracle bones and the sacrifice of cattle—as well as, more rarely, pigs and humans. Burials at the site have been noted for the almost complete absence of grave goods beyond occasional cowrie shells and sacrificed dogs. It was first excavated from 2006 to 2008 during preparations for the South–North Water Transfer Project; work at the site has significantly broadened scholars' understanding of rural Shang economies and rituals, as well as the layout of rural villages, which have received relatively little attention in comparison to urban centers. (Full article...)

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In The News

Friedrich Merz

Friedrich Merz (pictured) is elected Chancellor of Germany and sworn in alongside his coalition government.
India conducts missile strikes on Pakistani targets, and Pakistan retaliates.
Zhao Xintong defeats Mark Williams to win the World Snooker Championship.
In the Singaporean general election, the People's Action Party retains a supermajority of seats.

Picture Of The Day

The Sumatran ground cuckoo (Carpococcyx viridis) is a large, terrestrial species of cuckoo. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it is found exclusively on the island of Sumatra. Its favoured habitat is believed to be foothills and primary montane rainforest. The Sumatran ground cuckoo is a large bird, adults having an average length of 55 cm, with a long, full tail. Much of its body is green and brown with cinammon-buff underparts, glossy and greenish-black wings and tail, and green, lilac and blue bare skin around the eyes. Due to ongoing habitat loss and small population size, the Sumatran ground cuckoo is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. This Sumatran ground cuckoo was photographed in the western part of the Sumatran province of Jambi, near Mount Kunyit.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

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On This Day

May 7

Maximilien Robespierre

1487 – Granada War: Forces of Aragon and Castile began a siege of Málaga, a Muslim city in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre (pictured) established the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
1798 – War of the First Coalition: A British garrison repelled a French attack on the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the Normandy coast, inflicting heavy losses.
1937 – Employees at Fleischer Studios in New York City went on strike in the animation industry's first major labor strike.
1946 – Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded the telecommunications corporation Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, later renamed Sony.

Mary of Modena (d. 1718)
Tore Wretman (b. 1916)
Willard Boyle (d. 2011)

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The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is one of the Nebula Awards, presented each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association for science fiction or fantasy game writing. The Nebula Awards have been described as one of "the most important of the American science fiction awards" and "the science-fiction and fantasy equivalent" of the Emmy Awards. The Game Writing category is the newest category of the Nebulas, which were originally awarded in 1966 solely for printed fiction. The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing has been awarded annually since 2019. During the seven nomination years, 41 games by 121 writers have been nominated. These have primarily been video games, but also include eight books for role-playing game systems and an interactive film. Eleven writers have been nominated more than once, with Kate Heartfield, and Natalia Theodoridou having three nominations each. Interactive fiction developer Choice of Games has had the most games nominated with a total of nine over six years. (Full list...)

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Did You Know?

Sachertorte

... that there was a legal battle over whether Sachertorte (pictured) should have one or two layers of sponge?
... that a Nevada radio station once had a show that played Tongan music?
... that the seat of Muchipara in the 1952 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was won by just nine votes?
... that queen parasitic ants can lay their own eggs inside of a host's colony?
... that Jim Aldred, with nothing to do after the beach season ended, developed ice hockey in Portugal?
... that the Bernard Schwartz House was built after Schwartz saw a plan by Frank Lloyd Wright in Life magazine?
... that Peter Sprenger was the first Liechtensteiner to summit Mount Everest?
... that the 2nd-century BC Aramaic inscription of Yanouh is the first attested use of Aramaic as a public language in Mount Lebanon?
... that an Italian adage says that a fat pope follows a thin one?