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“They are trying to steamroll us,’’ said Brian Rainville, 36, a high school government and civics teacher whose grandfather bought the farm in 1946 and whose parents and two brothers run it now. “We have a buyer holding a gun to our head saying you have to sell or else.’’

FRANKLIN, Vt. — The red brick house sits unassumingly on a sleepy back road where the lush farmlands of northern Vermont roll quietly into Canada. This is the Morses Line border crossing, a point of entry into the United States where more than three cars an hour constitute heavy traffic.

The bucolic setting of silos and sugar maples has become the focus of a bitter dispute that pits one of America’s most revered traditions — the family-owned farm — against the post-9/11 reality of terror attacks on US soil.

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In the middle of downtown Miami is one of the greatest mysteries of North America: A perfect circle, likely 2,000 years old, cut into the bedrock of the city, and stuffed with ancient teeth, weapons, and bones.

According to Atlas Obscura:

Property developer Michael Bauman was in for a real surprise when he purchased a plot of land in downtown Miami in 1998. Bauman’s plans for the land were seemingly simple: demolish a 1950-era apartment complex and build a luxury condominium in its place.

During a routine archaeological survey of the site, however, hundreds of mysterious holes were discovered in a layer of Oolitic limestone bedrock and Bauman’s development plans immediately came to a halt. Through further investigation, twenty-four of the largest holes comprised a perfect circle, 38 feet (12 m) in diameter, and excavation results found a variety of artifacts ranging from human teeth to ancient tools.

Included in the artifacts were pieces of burnt wood which, after being tested for radiocarbon dating, are believed to be 1800-2000 years old. To date, Miami Circle is the only known evidence in the United States of a prehistoric structure built into bedrock. Evidence from this mysterious prehistoric “footprint” predates other known settlements along the East Coast.

Among these tools were two axe-heads made from basalt, a hard stone that is not indigenous to Florida. The finding of these tools contradicts the theory that the site was occupied by the Tequesta, however, as the volcanic rock is believed to have been from a location in Macon, Georgia - some 600 miles (970 km) away from the site.

The site is now owned by the State of Florida, and has been protected (so far) from development. Nobody is sure what the origin or the function of the site might have been, but it has certainly given rise to some interesting conspiracy theories.

Source.

Port Fourchon, Louisiana (CNN) — It sounds like a Hollywood movie. An impending disaster — think the disabled spacecraft in “Apollo 13″ or the asteroid hurtling toward Earth in “Armageddon” — prompts a daring intervention by engineers to save the day.

This time, the threat is oil gushing from a broken well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that could destroy livelihoods and irreplaceable coastal wetlands.

Equally real is the attempted engineering marvel — a four-story metal container that will be lowered onto the leaking pipe to try to suck in the flowing oil.

Officials of BP, the oil giant that owns the leaking well, said Monday they plan to try the unprecedented effort this week.

If successful, they say, the “pollution containment chamber” could reduce the underwater gusher by more than 80 percent and provide the first success in industry and government efforts to control the spill that began April 20 with an explosion and fire on an offshore rig.

“Everyone’s committed to getting this stopped so we can just focus on a cleanup,” said Doug Suttles, the BP chief operating officer.

KATC: Gulf shrimp season to temporarily close

THE FULL STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE

A ROVER found on the moon last week has delivered joy to the Soviets who lost it 40 years ago and evidence to any that still needed it that man did indeed once land there.

The Soviet rover Lunokhod 1 was the first successful lunar rover, landing on the moon on November 17, 1970, a full 24 years before Sojourner was successfully rolled out on the surface of Mars.

Lunokhod 1 wheeled around for the better part of a year before its signal was lost.

Its main mission was to collect soil composition and topography data, but its discovery by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has given Lunokhod 1 a new lease on life.

A reflector onboard was added by the Russians so they could bounce a laser off the rover and take readings about the moon’s orbit to within a millimetre’s accuracy, according to National Geographic.

The Full Story Can Be Found Here.

Delaware is making a step in the right direction ‘imho’

Legal Medical Pot
A bill that would make it legal for Delaware doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients with serious diseases was voted out of a Senate committee June 3 and is expected to reach the floor of that chamber in the coming weeks.
Before voting the Senate Health and Social Services Committee listened to 90 minutes of testimony in support of Senate Bill 94, authored by Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, who also chairs the committee. No one spoke in opposition to the bill.
If passed, the legislation would allow individuals with diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma to use marijuana as part of their treatment with the consent of a doctor.     Approved patients would be issued identification cards and could lawfully posses up to six ounces of the substance at a time and cultivate up to 12 plants for their own use.
The bill would also establish a network of dispensaries, known as “Compassionate Care Centers,” which would be authorized to grow a larger crop of marijuana and distribute it to authorized individuals.
The hearing drew a wide range of participants — from individuals who have used marijuana to treat epilepsy, bi-polar disorder, cancer and HIV, to representatives from the Hemp Education Awareness League and the Delaware Medical Society.
Newark resident Brian Larson told the committee that he suffers from severe pain as the result of a back injury, and that marijuana is the best way for him to deal with the pain and live a productive life.
Larson said prescription pain medications leave him feeling weak and lethargic, but marijuana relieves the pain and allows him to stay active.
“With Oxycontin, you just feel like a vegetable,” he said. “With marijuana you can still go out. I can run, I can hike or bike.”
If it becomes law, the bill would take a heavy load off those who are using marijuana to treat disease even though it is illegal, Larson added.
“It’s a matter of not making people feel like criminals,” he said. “If grown adults choose to medicate themselves in this way, then they should be able to freely.”
Bob Byrd, who spoke on behalf of the medical society, said the society’s member physicians engaged in a lengthy debate over the bill, but decided in the end to remain neutral and offer neither support nor opposition.
Byrd said many ophthalmologists argued that glaucoma should be taken out of the bill, since the condition, once a poster disease for medical marijuana, can be treated more effectively with new drugs that have been developed in recent years.
But other doctors said marijuana would be an effective treatment and far less costly than many prescription drugs, Byrd added.
“There were very articulate doctors on both sides of the bill,” he said.
Committee member Sen. Patricia M. Blevins, D-Elsmere, questioned the scope of the bill, since it lists several specific diseases as well as a myriad of individual symptoms for which marijuana can be used a treatment.
“I’m concerned about making it so broad that is won’t pass muster in the General Assembly,” she said. “We’re starting out so broadly that we might have a problem getting relief to those who need [marijuana] or are already using it illegally.”
Smyrna Clayton Sun Times Delaware