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Caleb Strom

Caleb Strom is currently a graduate student studying planetary science. He considers himself a writer, scientist, and all-around story teller. His interests include planetary geology, astrobiology, paleontology, archaeology, history, space archaeology, and SETI.

History

Member for: 7 years 5 months

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Posts

Tongan warriors or Tongan athletes getting ready to play kasivaki underwater rugby in Tonga. Source: Tonga Rugby Union

6 December, 2021 - 17:57 Caleb Strom

Kasivaki: An Ancient Tongan Game That Was More Than Underwater Rugby

When most people think of the sport rugby, Tonga is not at the top of the list of competitors. But the island nation of the south Pacific appears to have had its own ancient version of the game with...

11 November, 2021 - 00:50 Caleb Strom

David and Jonathan: A Secret Biblical Bromance?

The deep, emotional relationship that bonded David and Jonathan is related in the books of Samuel. The two are said to have formed a covenant of friendship, even though their situation essentially...

Balaam and the Angel, who is said to be the evil angel or Jewish Satan Mastema, by the painter Gustav Jaeger. Source: Gustav Jäger/ Public domain

2 November, 2021 - 18:00 Caleb Strom

The Jewish Satan Mastema and the Cosmic War Against God

The earliest Jewish accounts did not have a clear Satan figure, but one of the earliest to be named was Mastema. Mastema is portrayed as the adversary of God. Mastema has his origin in the Jewish...

1 October, 2021 - 02:03 Caleb Strom

Ancient Advanced Technology: 2,400-Year-Old Yakhchals Kept Ice in the Desert

The ancients were cleverer than some people today assume. They didn’t have rockets or electricity, at least no indisputable proof has been found of such technologies, but they did come up with...

A namazu or catfish motif earthquake art (by an unknown artist), entitled Shin Yoshiwara ōnamazu yurai or "The cause of the great catfish at Shin Yoshiwara." The work shows women of the Edo pleasure quarters blaming the catfish for the earthquake, but the catfish is delighted to have these ladies press flesh with him and threatens to squirm again to cause an aftershock.

13 September, 2021 - 14:59 Caleb Strom

Namazu Catfish: Earthquakes, Cosmic Justice, and Helper Of the Poor

All cultures have traditional explanations for natural disasters that pre-date scientific explanations. In Japanese culture, at least since the 15th century, earthquakes have been associated with...

28 July, 2021 - 14:29 Caleb Strom

Panspermia – The Idea That Life Came From The Stars

The astronomer Carl Sagan once said that the question of the nature of life on Earth and the question of whether life can be found beyond Earth are two sides of the same question. In the case of...

8 June, 2021 - 18:48 Caleb Strom

How did the Greeks Measure the Earth’s Circumference?

It is considered obvious today that Earth is roughly a sphere and that it can be measured like any spherical object. Scientists technically call it an oblate spheroid, but it is still sphere-like in...

The Kaskians defied the great Hittite empire at the peak of their power

9 May, 2021 - 19:09 Caleb Strom

Bronze Age Kaska – The World’s First Guerrillas?

The Hittites established one of the earliest great empires in human history. Between 1750 BC and 1200 BC, the Hittite empire was a regional superpower in the Middle East, stretching across modern-day...

The Statue of Socrates at the Academy of Athens. Work of Leonidas Drosis (d. 1880). (C messier/CC BY SA 4.0) Background: This NASA image shows Earth from space. The image is a combination of data from two satellites.

30 April, 2021 - 15:01 Caleb Strom

Was Socrates in Space? A Question of Ancient Spaceflight

The ancient Greeks are credited with having made many early advancements in science and mathematics which influenced later western civilization. Aristarchus of Samos proposed an essentially...

The so-called dinosaur carving at Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia.

23 April, 2021 - 02:29 Caleb Strom

Does Ta Prohm Temple Depict a ‘Domestic’ Dinosaur?

Mainstream paleontologists say that dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years before the evolution of modern humans. This, however, has not stopped the suggestion that some dinosaurs may have survived...

Papua New Guinean. There has been an increase in recent years in attacks aimed against Papua New Guinea witchcraft.

14 April, 2021 - 15:44 Caleb Strom

Papua New Guinea Witchcraft: Ancient Spirits and Deadly Modern Witch Hunts Live On

Papua New Guinea is one of the few places in the world where literal witch hunts still take place on a regular basis. Witch hunts continue to be practiced, even though engaging in a witch hunt was...

The Hoia Forest in Romania has become connected to paranormal activity in local legends and is said to be haunted by unfriendly spirits.

26 March, 2021 - 14:02 Caleb Strom

Romania’s Bermuda Triangle: The Creepy Hoia Forest of Transylvania

Outside of Romania , especially in the English-speaking world, Transylvania is a land associated with vampires. Inside Romania, where Vlad Dracul , or Vlad the Impaler , is a national hero, the story...

One of the Junapani stone circles in Maharashtra, India, which are now increasingly viewed as astronomically aligned burial sites. Source: Ganesh Dhamodkar, CC BY-SA 3.0

18 February, 2021 - 13:53 Caleb Strom

Junapani Stone Circles: India’s Astronomical Megalithic Tombs

India has a rich historical and archaeological record. Something that may be less known about the Indian subcontinent is its many megalithic sites. Many of these sites are found across India. The...

19 January, 2021 - 20:23 Caleb Strom

Is This the Real Reason Why Pirates Wore Eyepatches?

Between 1700 and 1725, the Caribbean was a relatively lawless place with numerous merchant ships traversing the high seas with no authorities to protect them. These factors helped to make this period...

7 January, 2021 - 21:16 Caleb Strom

Stepping Back in Time at Skara Brae: A Neolithic Settlement in the Heart of Prehistoric Orkney

In 1850, a fierce storm hit the Bay o’ Skaill on the main island of the Orkney island archipelago. In doing so, it ripped grass from a hill, then known as Skerrabra, to reveal the remnants of an...

30 December, 2020 - 13:45 Caleb Strom

Finding the Grave of Nicolaus Copernicus - Heretic Turned National Hero

Today, Nicolaus Copernicus is hailed by many historians as the originator of heliocentrism, one of the first steps towards modern cosmology and away from the Aristotelian cosmology which had...