Walker Goes on Hike of Capitol Peak, Unprepared for What Find at the Summit
In 2023, day hiking emerged as the most-popular outdoor activity in the United States, accounting for 20 percent of all participants, according to data compiled by global research firm Statista. Fishing was the second-most-common activity.
Draper said that determining the significance of such carvings, like the ones in the Reddit post, requires assessing multiple factors, including the rock's surroundings and method of marking. Observing how the stones have been shaped, whether it was carved, chipped, tumbled, or worn by natural processes such as wind, water, or glaciation, is also important, Draper said, adding that "a truly ancient carving would exhibit a consistent degree of wear."
The Reddit images showed a relatively isolated stone or group of stones, with no broader decorative or ritualistic context, which Draper said is atypical for ancient symbols. "Early writing and symbolic systems often make use of available surfaces more fully. Ancient inscriptions and symbols are typically part of a broader communicative or decorative system used to track possessions, recount stories, mark time, perform rituals, or even display graffiti," he said.
He compared the Capitol Peak find with rare anomalies such as the Phaistos Disc, a clay artifact discovered on the island of Crete, which is marked with unknown symbols and dates to around 1700 BCE. But Draper was quick to point out that, in this case, "a small, isolated inscription with no supporting context or stylistic precedent is very unusual."
Draper added that the markings don't appear to match those used by indigenous cultures in the region. "We must ask if the symbols or forms present align with those known from local Indigenous groups, such as the Ancestral Puebloans, Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, or Apache. In the case you're referencing [in the Reddit post], there appear to be no known traditional symbols associated with these cultures that resemble the markings in question," he said.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via the Reddit messaging system.
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National Geographic
8 hours ago
- National Geographic
High Cost of Cheap Coal: The Coal Paradox
A coal train rumbling across Montana is a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) long yet carries barely a day's fuel for a large power plant. The U.S. burns more than a billion tons of coal a year. Photograph by William Campbell/Corbis Learn about the high cost of cheap coal, including pollution and global warming. On a scorching August day in southwestern Indiana, the giant Gibson generating station is running flat out. Its five 180-foot-high (54.9-meter-high) boilers are gulping 25 tons (22.7 metric tons) of coal each minute, sending thousand-degree steam blasting through turbines that churn out more than 3,000 megawatts of electric power, 50 percent more than Hoover Dam. The plant's cooling system is struggling to keep up, and in the control room warnings chirp as the exhaust temperature rises. But there's no backing off on a day like this, with air conditioners humming across the Midwest and electricity demand close to record levels. Gibson, one of the biggest power plants in the country, is a mainstay of the region's electricity supply, pumping enough power into the grid for three million people. Stepping from the sweltering plant into the air-conditioned offices, Angeline Protogere of Cinergy, the Cincinnati-based utility that owns Gibson, says gratefully, "This is why we're making all that power." Next time you turn up the AC or pop in a DVD, spare a thought for places like Gibson and for the grimy fuel it devours at the rate of three 100-car trainloads a day. Coal-burning power plants like this one supply the United States with half its electricity. They also emit a stew of damaging substances, including sulfur dioxide—a major cause of acid rain—and mercury. And they gush as much climate-warming carbon dioxide as America's cars, trucks, buses, and planes combined. Here and there, in small demonstration projects, engineers are exploring technologies that could turn coal into power without these environmental costs. Yet unless utilities start building such plants soon—and lots of them—the future is likely to hold many more traditional stations like Gibson. Last summer's voracious electricity use was just a preview. Americans' taste for bigger houses, along with population growth in the West and air-conditioning-dependent Southeast, will help push up the U.S. appetite for power by a third over the next 20 years, according to the Department of Energy. And in the developing world, especially China, electricity needs will rise even faster as factories burgeon and hundreds of millions of people buy their first refrigerators and TVs. Much of that demand is likely to be met with coal. For the past 15 years U.S. utilities needing to add power have mainly built plants that burn natural gas, a relatively clean fuel. 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Newsweek
13 hours ago
- Newsweek
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. People in some U.S. states are more likely to be diagnosed with HPV-associated cancers than in others—with this discrepancy likely linked to awareness of the risk from the virus. Overall, one in three adults nationally are unaware of the connection between HPV and cancer, reveals a study from the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center in South Carolina. HPV, or the human papillomavirus, is spread by skin-to-skin contact and has been linked to the onset of six different types of cancer. It is responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancers, causes the majority of throat or 'oropharyngeal' cancers and can cause anal, penile, vaginal and vulvar cancers. 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New York Post
18 hours ago
- New York Post
I'm a microplastics expert — 3 ways I reduce exposure, including only buying these types of clothes
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