Bob and Doug McMoquegua


The Wari abandoned Cerro Baúl and all their other cultural sites about AD 1000. Why they chose to leave Cerro Baúl remains a mystery, but they left ample evidence of a planned, if destructive, departure. They cleaned out functional buildings, but ritually destroyed ceremonial buildings, including the palace, temple and brewery.

Final ceremonies, such as a feast at the palace, ended with igniting the combustible parts of the structure. Later, the stone walls collapsed, covering and protecting the remains for a thousand years.

The brewery preserved the most intriguing evidence. Shawl clips found in the ruins showed that elite women were the brewers. In Inca times, Ryan Williams at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, notes that noble women called “virgins of the Sun” are known to have brewed beer…

More at the New Scientist about this now-departed ancient people and their awesome 64-ouncers of beer, shown above.

A place for fiends

From : the 18-year-old PA murder/kidnap suspect is a myspace kid, as is the 14-year-old girl he kidnapped/fled with after offing her parents.

One of a number of tragicomic punchlines to this story is that not only did the star-crossed couple not meet on Myspace, they didn’t even meet at a school or some local teen danger hangout. They met through the homeschooling group in which her religiously conservative parents had placed her. Good thing we avoided the public schools with all that secular situational ethics that corrupts the morals.

It’s all about the sneetches

  1. jactitation returned from Japan with some great pictures of MONKEYS IN THE MIST!
  2. Defensetech reports that Honeywell is building a Star Wars Droid, no joke. (PDF file at last link.) Also that Drudge totally got the story wrong, surprise.
  3. AdJab reports that one of those dumb promo “throw the ball in this difficult way and win $1 million” things was won, and by a no-doubt impoverished combat veteran who now won’t have to live in a box. I cannot stop saying the name of the thing he won: “Bi-Lo Healthy Choice Pigskin Challenge”.
  4. NASA has an amazing gallery of photos-of-the-day from the MODIS satellite imaging system.
  5. Again from AdJab, the Seattle Times has an article about eating in cars that shows that the whole country is turning into Southern California as usual. Best quote:

    “The Crunchy Taco is the No. 1 seller. But we hear from consumers that it is difficult to eat in the car because it’s open on three sides,” says Laurie Schalow, Taco Bell spokeswoman in Irvine, Calif., who says the goal is to make drive-through service “faster and friendlier” without encouraging unsafe driving.

  6. Milk: it does a body good, but could it be madcowing your brain?
  7. Bookslut reports that the hellbound founder of BzzAgent, the company that gives you free stuff in exchange for you lying to your friends about how cool it is, deployed his army of zombie consumer whores to pimp out his own book on Amazon. People, if you’re going to sell out, at least take the trouble to get paid properly for it. This is sad.
  8. Apropos of nothing, because I was just talking to hydrozoa about this: I want to have a talk show where people who have written whiny books about how their particular upper middle class suburban childhood was worse than yours and how their particular neurosis is special and perfect are invited on TV to talk about their books. And just as they get into the self-important whining, the security guards, who are like the ones on Jerry Springer, come on stage and beat the shit out of them while the audience cheers. It will be called “SHUT UP, AMERICA!” Folks, that kind of talk is for livejournal and not for 250 pages hardback published by Alfred A. Knopf and dumped in a pyramid at the entrance to the Barnes & Noble. Oprah delenda est.
  9. Microsoft Korea has a song for you to sing! Thanks to the exploding aardvark. Developers developers developers developers…
  10. The Federal Government wants their Blackberry so much they’re intervening in a patent lawsuit to keep it from going away. What wouldn’t I give to have access to Karl Rove’s Crackberry…

Salutations Without Borders

I’m in the process of donating some cash to Doctors Without Borders and filling out my personal info. I have to choose a “Title”, meaning my salutation. The number of possible salutations in the drop-down menu is insane. Shall I be Mr. and Mrs. Rabbi? Sheik? Sergeant-at-Arms? Reverend Mother?

— please make a selection — Abbot Admiral Admiral & Mrs. Admiral & Mr. Admiral (Retired) Alderman Ambassador & Mrs. Ambassador & Mr. Assemblyman Assemblywoman Attorney Attorney & Mrs. Attorney & Mr. Bishop Bishop & Mrs. Board of Directors of Brigadier General Brigadier General & Mrs. Brigadier General & Mr. Brother Cantor Cantor & Mrs. Cantor & Mr. Captain Captain & Mrs. Captain & Mr. Captain (Retired) Cardinal Commander Commander & Mrs. Commander & Mr. Chaplain Chaplain & Mrs. Chaplain & Mr. Chief Colonel Colonel & Mrs. Colonel & Mr. Colonel (Retired) Committee Committee to Re-Elect Commodore Commodore & Mrs. Commodore & Mr. Congressman Congressman & Mrs. Congresswoman Congresswoman & Mr. Corporal Corporal & Mrs. Corporal & Mr. Countess Co-Workers at Co-Workers in Co-Workers of Dame Dr. and Mrs. Deacon DEACONESS Deacon & Mrs. Deacon & Mr. Dean Dean & Mrs. Dean & Mr. Director The Duke & Duchess of Dr. Dr. and Dr. Doctor & Doctor Dr. & Mrs. Doctor & Mr. Doctor & Ms. Doctor & Reverend The Duke & Duchess of Duchess Duke The Emperor & Empress of Emperor Empress Ensign Ensign & Mrs. Ensign & Mr. The Estate of Friends & Associates at Faculty at Faculty & Staff First Lieutenant Foreign Ambassador Friends & Neighbors at the Friends & Classmates Friends & Co-Workers of Fleet Admiral Fleet Admiral & Mrs. Fleet Admiral & Mr. Priest Friends at FRAU Friends in Friends of From the General General & Mrs. General & Mr. “General, Retired” Governor Governor & Mrs. Governor & Mr. The Honorable The Honorable & Mrs. The Honorable & Mr. The Honorable Judge Judge & Mrs. Judge & Mr. Justice Lady Lord Lord & Lady Lieutenant Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant Commander & Mrs. Lieutenant Colonel & Mrs. Lieutenant Colonel & Mr. Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Lieutenant General Lieutenant General & Mrs. Lieutenant & Mrs. Lieutenant & Mr. Mrs. Madam Major Major & Mrs. Major & Mr. Mr. and Mrs. Master Mayor & Mrs. Mayor & Mr. Mayor Members of Messrs. Major General Major General & Mrs. Major General & Mr. Miss Misses Mademoiselle Madame Master Sergeant Master Sergeant & Mrs. Master Sergeant & Mr. Mother Monsignor Most Reverend Mister Mr. and Dr. Mr. & Dr. Mr. & Mrs. Mr. & Mr. Mr. and Ms. Mrs. Mrs. & Mr. Mrs. & Mrs. Mrs. & Ms. Ms. Ms.’s Officers of Parents of Pastor Private First Class Petty Officer Prince and Princess President President & Mrs. President & Mr. Prince Princess Professor Professor & Mrs. Professor & Mr. Private Private & Mrs. Private & Mr. Queen Rabbi Rabbi & Mrs. Rabbi & Mr. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral & Mrs. Rear Admiral & Mr. Representative Representative & Mrs. Representative & Mr. Reverend Reverend Doctor Reverend Doctor & Mrs. Reverend Doctor and Mr. Reverend & Mrs. Reverend Mother Reverend & Mr. The Right Reverend (Episcopal Bishop) The Right Reverend & Mrs. The Right Reverend & Mr. Senator Senator & Mrs. Senator & Mr. Senora Sergeant Sergeant & Mrs. Sergeant Major Sergeant Major & Mrs. Sergeant Major & Mr. Sergeant & Mr. Sheik Sheriff Sheriff & Mrs. Sheriff & Mr. Sir Sir & Lady Sister Speaker of the House Speaker & Mrs. Speaker & Mr. Staff Sergeant The Staff at The Staff of The Family of Trust of Vice Admiral Vice Admiral & Mrs. Vice Admiral & Mr. Vice President Vice President & Mrs. Vice President & Mr. Your friends at

cause I gotta misdirection

  1. For salome_st_john and other panda fanatics, the Knorr food people in England have a bizarre meat sauce-loving Brit panda as their spokespanda. (Put “panda”) in the search field at the site he links you to, or “knorr”.
  2. The next generation of cars may well use the Flexray network protocol to manage their real-time electronics like suspension damping and stability control, etc. Autoblog reports that BMW is using it on their next X series. Do any network wonks here know about Flexray? Is it a good standard? Will the cars keep getting problems in their switching protocols and forgetting to brake? I’m suspicious.
  3. Epod has an incredible photo of a mirage today. I didn’t know you could capture that kind of thing properly on film at all.
  4. Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day, to commemorate the end of the War to End All Wars, also known as the Worst Thing Ever in Europe. The Aftermath of World War One is devoted to the time after that war. Europe lost an entire generation and no one was untouched; it’s something we in the U.S. haven’t experienced and should learn more of.
  5. changeng toy piano alert: 3hive has mp3 downloads of Twink‘s toypianomania.

teen maenad mall rampage flashback

In 1997 I had a very close call. I was living in Kansas City at the time. I went to the mall to get something you get at malls like underwear or light bulbs, and when I came out of a store I noticed lots of security guys and roadies, and something being set up that looked like a big stage. I asked what was going on and they said that current teen sensation “Hanson” was playing. I fled, and noticed as I peeled out of the parking lot that there was a mass of > 1000 teenagers being held in a sort of feeding pen in one corner of the parking lot about to be loosed into the mall. It would have been as bad as this disaster, I bet. I would have been turned into Chick Fil-A in moments.