Friday Night Miscellany

My old desktop upstairs has got an issue - I think it's called something like a repeating loop and I cannot get the home page to open up (yahoo.com).  It started two nights ago but eventually I was able to get it to the New York Times and after that I was able to get back to yahoo and everything was fine.  I did the same thing last night but tonight I could not get to any alternate url no matter what I tried.  So I have to cut this short and do some googling to find out what the heck I can do to fix the problem. 

Archaeologically, Peru is an amazing country.  There is not a month that goes by without some new discovery coming out of Peru.  It was the site of Caral, which was as old as some of the settlements in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia and Egypt.  I have done lots of blog posts about discoveries in Peru.  So it doesn't surprise me that its residents approximately 8,000 years ago were getting high on coca leaves!
1 December 2010 Last updated at 21:20 ET
Coca leaves first chewed 8,000 years ago, says research

Another ancient site plundered in Iran and the government does the same old, same old "What site?  There is no site.  What pictures?  What farmer?  What complaint?  And by the way, any archaeologist who talks to the press will lose his job and be barred from working again in Iran.  And we'll get your little dog, too..."
From the CAIS (Circle of Iranian Studies) site
Smugglers discovered and plundered a Parthian Dynastic site in Masjed-Soleiman
Friday, 03 December 2010 13:07
LONDON, (CAIS) -- Smugglers in search of treasures in an area known as Shanzdah-Maylee (Šānzdah-Māylē / sixteen-mile) have discovered and plundered an ancient tappeh (archaeological mound) in a depth of four meters, according to a recent report by the Persian service of Mehr News Agency.

Archaeological vandals aren't limited to the Old World, they're here in force in the New World, too.
Entertainment
2,300-Year-old Maya ruins destroyed for pastureland
Published December 03, 2010
| EFE
Mexico City – An ancient Mayan residential complex some 2,300 years old was destroyed by heavy machinery in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucutan to clear the land for pasture on a private ranch, officials told Efe.

According to experts at the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, the Maya site near the town of Chicxulub dates to the 300 B.C. Preclassical Period and is registered as No. 15 in the Yucutan archaeological catalog.

"The presence of remains were previously known in the area and for that reason INAH will act quickly," the communications chief of the public institute, Julio Castrejon, said.

Yeah, right - and what are you going to do now? The site is GONE, dude.

Okay, got to go.  Need to get the desktop upstairs moving again so I can work on Chess Femme News - they'll be games to report from the Women's World Chess Championship tomorrow.