Lost Peoples, Vol. 2: Ancient Civilization Lost in Deluge of the Persian Gulf?

At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said.

"Where before there had been but a handful of scattered hunting camps, suddenly, over 60 new archaeological sites appear virtually overnight," Rose said. "These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world."

Lost Peoples, Vol. 1: Tiny People Devoured by Race of Giant Birds?

The fossil remains of what may have been a hobbit-like species of human were discovered in 2003 at the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. In that cave, scientists also unearthed a large number of bird fossils — including 20,000- to 50,000-year-old wing and leg bones from what appears to have been a stork nearly 6 feet tall (1.8 meters).

We can only presume that they hunted the hobbit people to extinction at the ruthless direction of Tsathoggua, because that would be awesome.

One Word

Tintin

Brown Jenkins

"At an estimated 13 pounds — bigger than most house cats — it was bigger than any other rat ever known."

And with strange aeons even death may die

"Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters.  'We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion,' says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute."

Immortal jellyfish

Lovecraftian art exhibition

Via Boing Boing:

"A Love Craft," an art exhibition of works celebrating HP Lovecraft, opens June 11 at The Observatory in Brooklyn. Curated by former BB guestblogger Dylan "Atlas Obscura" Thuras, the show features more than a dozen artists "inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft, and the themes of monsters, madness and mythos." The exhibition runs until July 23. A Love Craft: Art Inspired by Monsters, Madness and Mythos.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Sinkhole in Guatemala City:

"This astonishingly unnerving photograph was posted today on the Flickr.com feed of the Guatemalan goverment and shows a seemingly bottomless sinkhole that opened up on Sunday in Guatemala City as a swath of Central America was drenched by tropical storm Agatha."

Blood Falls

Glacier "Bleeds" Proof of Million-Year-Old Life-Forms.

The Bloodiest Glacier on Earth
Somewhere around two million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath 1,300 feet of ice – a body of water that contained an ancient community of microbes. A microbe is a living thing, or organism that is too tiny to be seen without the aid of a microscope. Most, but not all, are single-celled organisms.

[From Boing Boing]

"Project Serpent" (video)

"Three-foot nemertean worms and carnivorous sea stars prowl the Antarctic in search of flesh..."

Giant deep sea jellyfish filmed in Gulf of Mexico

Be quiet, try not to be noticed...

"He explained: 'We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.'"

Stephen Hawking Warns over Making Contact with Aliens

HPLPotD: Zoth Ommog

The Big Picture: Bobtail

Notice how different the two heads look!

HPLPotD: The Great Race of Yith

Pictures: Hard-to-See Sea Creatures Revealed

The Bloop

"The array has since been used to track many fascinating undersea events, such as whale migrations, earthquakes, ocean currents, volcanic activity , and the shifting of Antarctic ice. But one sound captured by the sensitive SOSUS hydrophones has scientists puzzled. It fits the profile of a living creature, but for a creature to create this sound it would have to be significantly larger than a blue whale, which is believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived."

The Call of the Bloop

Humanity is Not Ready to Know

"Kepler, the NASA mission manoeuvring to spot the first Earth-like extrasolar planet, is supposed to publicly release data in June for the 156,000 stars at which the orbiting telescope stares. But on Monday a NASA advisory panel recommended that Kepler be allowed to censor 400 'objects of interest'..."

NASA panel agrees to Kepler team request to withhold key observations.

Remnants of the Elder Things

"Pulled out of a briny, sulfurous hellhole 3.5 kilometers below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, the newfound creatures look like tiny cups with tentacles sticking out."

Multicelled animals may live oxygen-free

Cthulhu Tempura

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/31/cthulhoid-snack-food.html

Tcho-Tcho remains discovered

DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8583254.stm

Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave.

"Certain enigmatic Asian fossils dated between 250,000-650,000 years ago such as Narmada (in India), and Yunxian, Dali and Jinniushan (in China) have been considered as possible Asian derivatives of Homo heidelbergensis, so they are also potential candidates for this mystery non-erectus lineage," said Prof Stringer.

Administrivia #1

It would be kind of cool if you could make "Administrative" posts for consumption of blog editors only...

I'll take a stab at a better layout later, and recommendations or offers to do a better job that me welcomed.

A thought: maybe we should categorize based on an appropriate story, where possible? At least label them thus.

HPLPOTD (H. P. Lovecraft Picture of the Day)

Clearly a taxonomic holdover from the time of the Elder Things:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5954/840

NASA Discovers Life Hidden 600 Feet Below Antarctic Ice

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/16/nasa-discovers-life-hidden-600-feet-below-antarctic-ice/

Admittedly not the most dramatic first entry, but the project needs to start somewhere.