Tag Archives: Black Death

Black Death skeletons unearthed at rail site

March 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Workers building a new railway in London have unearthed 13 skeletons thought to be victims of the Black Death plague that swept through Europe in the 14th century, archaeologists said on Friday.

The remains were dug up at Charterhouse Square in central London during excavation work for the city’s £15 billion ($22.7 billion, 17.4 billion euro) Crossrail project.

Archaeologists believe the site could be the location of a plague cemetery described in medieval records, where up to 50,000 victims of the Black Death were buried. The plague wiped out a third of Europe‘s population between 1348 and 1353.

“The depth of burials, the pottery found with the skeletons and the way the skeletons have been set out all point towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist….

Source:

Archaeology News Network

Source URL:

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2013/03/black-death-skeletons-unearthed-at-rail.html#.UUcxuhns8k0

Date:

3-15-13

Movies & TV

Six New Kick-Ass 2 Character Posters Leaked

March 18, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Hot on the heels of the first Kick-Ass 2 trailer which hit the internet last week, six new character posters for the forthcoming superhero sequel have been unearthed by Argentinian film poster blog cine1.com.ar.

Showcasing the returning heroes Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, the posters also give us our first proper look at Mother Russia, one of the films new villains, as well as Night-Bitch, Black Death, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as… well, you all know his new name from the last trailer…

Check all the posters out below, thanks to Total Film.

Health

The Plague Still A Risk In UK

March 16, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Just yesterday archaeologists found a grave from the “Black Death” in London that had over 12 skeletons of people who died due to the plague. The victims are believed to have died during the 14th century and experts think they will find more graves as they continue to dig up the site… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Medical News Today

Science & Technology

Scientists test skeletons for Black Death bacteria

March 15, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

(AP)—Scientists digging a new railway in London have uncovered 13 skeletons that will be tested to see if they died from the Black Death plague in the 14th century. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org

Video Gaming

Don't Fear The Reaper: Introducing Death Inc.

February 20, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

Who says death has to be depressing?

That’s the perspective of Death Inc., a macabrely charming Kickstarter project brought to you by some folks who used to work at Media Molecule, Lionhead, and Criterion, amongst others.

The endeavour is being described as a “pungent reimagining” of the Black Death – yes, the devastating pandemic that laid waste to Europe in the seventeenth century. As you can probably tell already, the game doesn’t treat death as some great mystery or taboo – the country from which no traveller returns – but as a rather banal, bureaucratic process. Or at least initially. This is how we find the game’s main character, Grim T. Livingstone; as an employee of the Ministry of Mortality he has become disillusioned by it all – the repetition of dealing out death with grinding efficiency. Where’s the flair? The sense of individuality? So he strikes out on his own, forming Death Inc. – a startup run out of the basement of his grandmother’s cottage.

Automobiles

The Da Vinci Road: U.S. Patents Reveal Automakers’ Dreams for Future Tech

February 14, 2013 Bartle Doo Leave a comment

By Justin Berkowitz

From the March 2013 issue of CAR and DRIVER magazine

While most of Europe was illiterate and still recovering from the Black Death in the late 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci was brainstorming helicopters and scuba gear on his sketch pad. Though automotive suppliers do a lot of today’s in-car innovating, da Vinci’s spirit lives on in car companies, where in-house engineers dream up the next generation of technologies and apply for patents to protect the most promising breakthroughs. We’ve sifted through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) records for a look at what might be the automotive future—or might turn out to be nothing more than entertainment for future historians.

On-Board Driver’s Ed. Company: Ferrari Official USPTO Name: Method for assisting high-performance driving of a vehicle What It’ll Do: Using the nav system and an estimate of the driver’s reaction time, the car will coach its driver on the best way through upcoming corners. It will tell him when to start braking, when to turn in, when to reapply the throttle, and when to shift. Reality Check: It would almost certainly need to be limited to track use, and could be reserved exclusively for Ferrari’s 458-series track cars. But it could be a logical extension of the multi-stepped stability-control program already employed in those cars. Status: Filed in 2009; patent pending.

The Missing Linkage Company: BMW Official USPTO Name: Vehicle having a transmission and a selection element for shifting gears What It’ll Do: Replace the physical connection between a manual shifter and a transmission with actuators that mimic the feeling of a physical connection. It sounds crazy, but BMW says it could be used on manuals with as many as eight gears to keep the shift pattern compact. The computer also could lock out certain gates, preventing a driver who’s lost in such a large pattern from grabbing the wrong gear. The system could readily be applied to automatics, too. Reality Check: Bet on it. With Nissan and Porsche offering automated rev-matched downshifts—and the latter with a seven-speed manual—our favorite transmission type is in a rare era of innovation. Besides, BMW has shown an unending desire to toy with everything on the center console. Status: …read more Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

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