ikenbot:

Oldest Mayan Astronomical Calendar Discovered

The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest.

The hieroglyphs, painted in black and red, along with a colorful mural of a king and his mysterious attendants, seem to have been a sort of handy reference chart for court scribes in A.D. 800 — the astronomers and mathematicians of their day. Contrary to popular myth, this calendar isn’t a countdown to the end of the world in December 2012, the study researchers said.

“The Mayan calendar is going to keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future,” said archaeologist David Stuart of the University of Texas, who worked to decipher the glyphs. “Numbers we can’t even wrap our heads around.”

Continue..

the-star-stuff:

‘Supermoon’ Alert: Biggest Full Moon of 2012 Occurs This Week

The moon will officially become full Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.

And not only does the moon’s perigee coincide with full moon this month, but this perigee will be the nearest to Earth of any this year, as the distance of the moon’s close approach varies by about 3 percent, according to meteorologist Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s skywatching columnist. This happens because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular.

CREDIT: Tim McCord

auzubillah:

“Palestinian and foreign activists protest against Israeli Jewish settlers moving into the house of Palestinian Khaled Natshe on April 27, 2012 which was handed over to the Jewish settlers, in the Israeli annexed Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina. Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family of 14 people from their two houses in Beit Hanina On April 18.”

Team Palestina 

auzubillah:

Bahrain, 23/04/2012.

The funeral of the martyr Salah Abbas 

Photo: Bahrain’s Protest of Art & Photography | مسيرة البحرين للتصميم و التصوير  

(via ashestoember)

auzubillah:

Bahrain, 20/04/2012.

Bahrain’s Protest of Art & Photography | مسيرة البحرين للتصميم و التصوير  

frommadon:

Zainab al-Khawaja protesting alone in the streets of Bahrain against the arrest and detention of her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja—a revered human rights defender—who entered the seventieth-day of his hunger strike. She was arrested by Bahraini security forces shortly after this photo was taken. 

More on Abdulhadi al-Khawaja

(via auzubillah)

reuters:

Cocoa is a 3-year-old Alpine Pygmy mixed goat who lives with its owner Fakroddin in Summit, New Jersey. They frequently take trips into Manhattan to enjoy the city. Fakroddin raised Cocoa since she was 2 months old and treats her like a human. “She doesn’t like goats, she doesn’t like farms, she likes the people and the city.” Fakroddin said. Pictures taken April 7, 2012. [REUTERS/Allison Joyce]

MORE PHOTOS: Goat on the town in New York City

auzubillah:

A picture shows graffiti against holding the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain reading in the village of Barbar, west of Manama, on April 9, 2012. [Press TV]