Forwarded to me by Stewart Brand is an amazing article from Archaology Magazine on the construction of the Great Pyramids. After analyzing a 25 year old micro-gravimetric study that showed a spiraling sub structure, it was determined that the pyramids were built with a spiraling ramp as part of the internal structure. A microgravimetry survey…  Read More

Welcome to the newly released Long Now Web-log. This is where you will find Stewart Brand’s Seminar wrap ups, as well as stories and musings relevant to long term thinking and updates on various Long Now projects. The contributors and editors of this blog include members of the Long Now Foundation’s board (primarily Kevin Kelly),…  Read More

The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900 ran a very brave list of predictions by one John Elfreth Watkins. Some are quite accurate, some wrong, and many are plain odd. Although grouped into 25 predictions, each one is a collection of not entirely related ideas. Some samples: Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000…  Read More

There’s a very short but very telling story in Business Week on the demise of the longest-living company, based in Japan. After 14 centuries (!), this Buddhist temple construction company is going of out business. A few quotes: The world’s oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo…  Read More

On January 2nd of 02007 Stewart Brand and I stepped into the cool deep past and unknown future of who begat who. (picture: the granite genealogical vaults) Since I began working on the 10,000 Year Clock project, and associated Library projects here at Long Now almost a decade ago, I have heard cryptic references to…  Read More

One long-term project for the inhabitants of earth is to arm our planet against asteroid impacts. Knowing what is out there is a big part of that protection. This wide web page is one small illustration of the larger bodies in our solar system. It depicts any body larger than 200 miles. There’s far more…  Read More

Forwarded to me by Danielle here at Long Now… Complete article can be found here. German experts on Thursday hailed Europe’s oldest astronomical observatory, discovered in Saxony-Anhalt last year, a “milestone in archaeological research” after the details of the sensational find were made public. On Thursday, German experts toasted the discovery as a “milestone in…  Read More

Found via Kircher Society   This past September the French army installed 600 one meter square reflective panels in the shape of Roman numerals on the sands of Mont Saint-Michel, a small rocky island off the coast of Normandy. The island’s 150-foot abbey spire cast a shadow three quarters of a mile long that swept…  Read More

This is a very short article on how economists are using prediction markets to predict weather at least as good as meteorologists, which is not very good. Penn State Researchers Testing Futures Markets For Weather Forecasting UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (March 21, 2007) – Economists at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and College of Earth…  Read More

An update to this post about the Society of American Archivists disappearing their listserv archives, as posted on the Archivist’s Listerv: To: A&A List From: Elizabeth Adkins, SAA PresidentSubject: Appraisal of A&A List (1993-2006) The SAA Council convened via conference call last night to review the feedback on our previously announced decision to dispose of…  Read More