The Penguin Bar

Ancient Mesoamerican peoples manufactured rubber from latex some 3,500 years before the modern invention of vulcanization and even compounded it for different applications, says new research from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team.

According to archaeology professor Dorothy Hosler and technical instructor Michael Tarkanian of MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, pre-Hispanic peoples not only invented rubber, but they perfected a system of chemical processing to enhance rubber’s properties.

The result was strong, wear-resistant rubber for sandal soles, resilient, bouncy rubber for game balls, and rubber optimized for resilience and strength for wide bands used to attach handles to axe heads.

via Mesoamericans Were The First Polymer Scientists : Discovery News.

Egyptian archeologists said Sunday that they have discovered a 3,300-year-old tomb that belongs to a high-profile army commander in south Cairo.

The tomb dating back to Egypt's 19th Dynasty (about 1,320 B.C. – 1,200 B.C.) was unearthed during excavation work by a Cairo University archeological team in the cemetery of dignitaries in Saqqara necropolis, south Cairo, a statement by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said.

SCA chief Zahi Hawwas said the team has discovered a number of patios and chambers attached to the 70-meter-long cemetery which extends from east to west.

Ola el-Egaizi, head of the team, told Xinhua that the team has also found a number of murals, including one that features tomb owner Ptahmes praying to the Trinity of Thebes (God Amun, his wife Goddess Mut and their son God Khonsu.)

The mission is still carrying out excavations in the area to discover the tomb's main well which, she said, might lead the team to the burial chamber of the army commander and his spouse where their caskets could be found.

Ahmed Said, deputy head of the team, said the archeological team has also discovered several parts of statues belonging to Ptahmes and his spouse. The discovered artifacts also included pottery, amulets, statues of goddesses made of semi-precious stones and an offering table.

via 3,300 year-old tomb of army chief discovered in Egypt.

The actions of BP are causing the oil to remain invisible, which is helpful both to BP and the US government, because it obscures the size of the problem.

Remember, only one below-surface slick is 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick. There are many of them.

And the oil continues to flow at around 70 -80,000 bbls per day. All BPs attempts to date have failed.

Their disperants are hiding the problem. And huge dead zones will appear where the under water dispersant-oil mixture lingers, killing all in its path.

The tragedy is no less horrible than everyone has been saying. It is just that much of it will be invisible due to the US EPA-approved science experiment taking place 5000 feet below the surface of the sea, where BP continues to inject massive quantities of disperants with full government approval.

via Daily Kos: Vast Undersea Pollution – BP’s (invisible) Disaster.