The Kensington Runestone

The Kensington Runestone is a slab of sandstone with a runic inscription on it. It was found in 1898. The inscription:

8 Geats and 22 Norwegians on [??] acquisition expedition from Vinland far west. We had traps by 2 shelters one day's travel to the north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home, found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM [Ave Maria] Deliver from evils.

[I] have 10 men at the inland sea to look after our ship 14 days travel from this wealth/property. Year [of our Lord] 1362

The Geats were from what is now southern Sweden. They found some dead dudes and were totally spooked. Oh yeah and Vinland is the Norse name for North America. And the runestone says it was written in 1362. Oh yeah and the runestone was found in Kensington, Minnesota!!

So basically, Vikings made it to Minnesota before Columbus was even born!!

Unfortunately, it's possible it's a hoax. The only witnesses to the unearthing were the family of Olof Öhman when he found it on his land, tangled in the roots of a tree. However, later witnesses say the roots did appear flattened, as if a 200 lb stone had been lying on them.

Linguists both in America and Scandinavia have declared it to be a fraud. Reasons included creation of a "J" rune, the language being a more modern form of Swedish, the lack of cases (accusative, dative, genitive, nominative, present in Old Norse and modern German), the use of umlauts, and the use of numerals.

However, Richard Nielsen, an amateur linguist, has refuted all of the above citing other 14th century examples.

Further, there was no evidence Öhman ever tried to make money from the stone. Tales of his admission of forgery were started by a jealous peer.

In 2000, a physical analysis of the stone was done. Scott Wolter, a geologist, and Barry Hanson, a chemist, presented "indisputable evidence" that the runes were authentic. They showed that the in-ground weathering process took a minimum of about 200 years. Therefore the carvings were made significantly before 1898. It is unclear how long the carvings were exposed to the air before going underground for 200 years. My guess would be about 350 years.

To come: other runestones in the US.

Triton

Triton is possibly the most awesome moon evar!

It's the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. Only it doesn't fuck around. It has a retrograde orbit!

"Retrograde orbit" means the moon moves in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.

There are extreme seasonal changes every Neptunian year because its two poles take turns pointing directly at the sun.

Oh, did I mention its orbit is degrading? That means it will fucking crash into Neptune!! Or break apart and become rings around the planet.

Yeah, so that's about it...

...EXCEPT FOR THE CRYOVOLCANOES!!!! Cryovolcanoes are basically volcanoes that spew ice. There is a translucent layer of frozen nitrogen, which creates a "solid greenhouse" effect, which warms layers below. The liquids below the frozen nitrogen erupt and freeze when they exit the cryovolcano!


Awesome!

Bad Penalties

Last night the (still undefeated) Puck Hogs played the Wings. We tied, making us 8-0-1 for the season.

This was the chippiest team we've ever played. The refs called the game relatively fairly until the end of the game. In the second period, Ryan and I had a two on one, racing towards their goal when one of their defensemen hooked me and took me out. He was called for roughing*. Good call.
*The guy who roughed me was checked in open ice later in the period. It's a non-checking league. Our man got 2 for roughing of course. In the third the same guy from our team got in a fight that wasn't entirely his fault and was ejected. In one game he managed to get the most penalty minutes of anyone on the team.

In the third period, though, the puck went against the boards and I went after it, pushing one of their guys into the boards, which is perfectly legal. no one had control of the puck, so I kept the guy tied up when one of their guys dropped his stick, BEAR HUGGED ME from behind, and fell backwards, causing me to land on top of him. That is all kinds of illegal. The refs decided we both deserved penalties. I didn't even realize I was being called too. The other guy was on his way to the box because he knows he's a fucking failure, but when the ref came over to me and said "let's go" I couldn't believe it. As I was skating to the box, I asked the ref what the penalty was. He said "roughing I think." What the hell!

Of my 6 penalty minutes this season (though the website says I have 4 PIMS) I only deserve two of them. First, my other penalty that I didn't deserve: I took the puck into their zone (I forget which team) when one of their guys took me down. He didn't get called. As I was getting up I realized my stick was stuck. I looked down and the guy had let go of his stick and had both hands on my stick. I yanked on it and said something like "let of of my fucking stick motherfucker." He had the deer-in-headlights look in his eyes. The ref called me for cross-checking. Does he even know what cross-checking is??

The one penalty I deserved happened a couple weeks ago. I was against the boards when one of their guys tripped me. Again, no call. As I'm trying to get up, one of their guys grabs my helmet and pushed my head into the boards. Still no call. As the guy stepped over me I grabbed one of his skates and yanked. He went face first into the ice. Two minutes for tripping on me. Excellent call, but where were the other calls??

The HNA refs need to call the games both ways. It gets very frustrating how many liberties they let the other team take with us. I assume it has something to do with us being undefeated, but who knows?

Rio Rancho, NM

This is nowhere near as interesting as California City, CA, but there's sort of the same thing going on in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Basically they built all the roads but the population didn't increase as expected.

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Montréal Canadiens 100 Year Anniversary

The Montréal Canadiens are playing their official Centennial Game tonight against the Boston Bruins.

I'd summarize their history for you, but Puck Daddy does a fantastic job in Our begrudging tribute to 100 years of Canadiens hockey.

California City, CA

I was inspired by this blog about California City.

There's a city in the Mojave Desert called California City, CA, incorporated in 1965. Real estate developer Nat Mendelsohn purchased 320 square kilometers* in 1958, envisioning a city that would one day rival Los Angeles. He was wrong, of course.
*The city now has a total area of 527 square km.

The city is the third largest city in CA by land area, but only has 8,000 people in it. For comparison, Rockville, MD has 60,000 people in it.

The downtown area sits around a central park with an artificial lake and looks relatively normal:

Warning: many embedded Google Maps lie beyond!