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Cover of the essay collection

Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication is a collection of essays about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), edited by Douglas Vakoch and published by NASA in 2014. Each of its four sections explores a different topic: (1) the history of SETI as a field; (2) archaeological comparisons for human–alien communication, such as the difficulties of translating ancient languages; (3) the inferential gap between humans and aliens, and the consequences this would have for communication and trade; and (4) the potential nature of alien intelligences. Upon its release, the book received widespread media coverage and generally positive reviews. It was at the center of controversy when publications such as TheBlaze, The Huffington Post, and Artnet misreported a quote about ancient stone carvings from one of its essays, which rhetorically stated that the carvings "might have been made by aliens" for all that they were understood by modern anthropologists. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Thomas Carlyle

... that Thomas Carlyle (pictured) was the first writer to use the expression "meaning of life" in English?
... that T Express is the tallest, tenth-fastest and third-longest wooden roller coaster in the world?
... that John Bunker was inspired to propagate old apple tree varieties after encountering Black Oxford apples while managing the food co-op in Belfast, Maine?
... that The Science of Dune contains a scientific analysis of the fictional concepts from the Dune franchise, such as sandworms, stillsuits, and the fictional drug melange?
... that the NCAA placed Yale University athletics on probation for two years after basketball player Jack Langer played in the 1969 Maccabiah Games?
... that The Wicked Prince by Hans Christian Andersen, published in 1840, depicts powered and steerable flight twelve years before the first successful airship flight?
... that on 9 August 1673 a Dutch naval squadron reconquered New York from the English?
... that South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp told Jalin Hyatt: "Man, you're fast, but you need to eat more peanut butter"?

In the news

Fernando Villavicencio

Wildfires in Hawaii kill at least 36 people and destroy much of Lahaina on the island of Maui.
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio (pictured) is assassinated in Quito, eleven days before the general election.
The Hazara Express train derails in Sindh, Pakistan, killing 30 people.
In cricket, the Ashes concludes with Australia retaining the trophy, drawing the series against England.

On this day

August 10: Torch Festival in China (2023)

Louvre Pyramid

1270 – Yekuno Amlak deposed the last Zagwe king and seized the imperial throne of Ethiopia, beginning the reign of the Solomonic dynasty, which would last for more than 700 years.
1793 – The Louvre (pyramid pictured) in Paris, today the world's most-visited museum, opened with an exhibition of 537 paintings and 184 objets d'art.
1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdrew its forces from Operation Camargue against the Việt Minh in central modern-day Vietnam.
1988 – The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 became law, authorizing reparations to surviving Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
2019 – Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.

Therese Forster (b. 1786)
Eric Harrison (b. 1886)
Aletta Jacobs (d. 1929)
Casey Donovan (d. 1987)

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Today's featured picture

The Young Sabot Maker is an oil-on-canvas painting made by the American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1895. It was accepted for the 1895 Paris Salon, and was Tanner's second painting entered for the Salon. The painting follows a theme Tanner used for his genre paintings, "age instructing youth", which can also be seen in The Bagpipe Lesson and The Banjo Lesson. It depicts an older man proudly watching a boy push with his weight against the crossbar handle of a sawhorse to carve a sabot, or wooden shoe. The two figures stand within the sabot maker's workshop, with wood shavings scattered around them on the floor. The painting was purchased by a group of donors and sponsors and given to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1995.

Painting credit: Henry Ossawa Tanner

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