Tag Archives: reviews

~ Culture & History

World’s Oldest Shoe Discovered, Dates Back 5,500 Years


world's oldest shoe brown sheep dung lace-up stuffedYou won’t find this style on Zappos! The world’s oldest shoe dates back 5,500 years. Photo: AP Photo/Department of Archaeology University College Cork
Looks like our ancestors had a little trouble watching their step.

Researchers excavating an Armenian cave have discovered the world’s oldest shoe — a cowhide lace-up encased in a pile of sheep dung, The New York Times reports.

(Ew. We suspect even Imelda Marcos might give this one a pass.)

Tanned in oils from a plant or vegetable and bearing leather eyelets for its laces, the right shoe reportedly pre-dates Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids and Joan Rivers.

“These were probably quite expensive shoes, made of leather, very high quality,” Gregory Areshian of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, a lead scientist on the project, told the paper.

The shoe is estimated to date back to the Copper Age, around 3653 to 3627 B.C., and would fit a woman (or petite man) with a size 7 foot, according to The New York Times.

Scientists told the source that the shoe appears to have been deliberately preserved, with grass stuffing and yellow clay lining keeping its shape intact. (Nice to know ancient gals were as shoe-obsessed as we are.)

“You can see the imprints of the big toe,” another team leader, Ron Pinhasi of Ireland’s University College Cork, told the paper.

“As the person was wearing and lacing it, some of the eyelets had been torn and repaired.”

The discovery was reportedly made after the National Geographic Society-funded researchers found other artifacts, including horns, pottery, and something doctoral student Diana Zardaryan thought felt like “an ear of a cow.”

“But when I took it out, I thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s a shoe,'” she told the paper. “To find a shoe has always been my dream.”

Ah — a woman after our own hearts!

So who was this Copper Age Carrie Bradshaw? We may never know… but it makes for one heck of a good, old-school Cinderella story.

In other shoe news, read about this government-funded “Sexy Heels in the City” college course.

by Erin Donnelly

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A better tomorrow means less Tea in Congress


In March of 2010, a Gallup Poll report stated that if a vote from We the People for Congress were taken right now it would result in 47% voting for Democrats and 44% Republicans. My response, if this is true, organizers definitely need to get prepared for November 2010.  That the numbers were this close because the Democrats have not gone big bold and progressive as most of us want. Well, we all know what happened and granted the process of changing policy and or making better laws are not easy or pleasant but it should not be the reason for changing your attitude or your vote solely for hating the process.  The bills that are being considered or waiting in the Senate, could improve the lives of the many rather than a select few and we need to get beyond the status quo Republicans seem to have claimed as the best way to gain back Congress. I don’t know about you but what I hear and see just makes it clear that Republicans like Speaker Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell do not represent America… period.  We need Senator Reid to find the will not only be tough but remember this is not just a historic moment for everyone it is the opportunity to move America into the 21st Century. The people spoke in 2008 and again in 2012 with 53% voting for Barack Obama for a 2nd term. Now,  it’s time for Congress to stop acting out earn their pay and do the right thing.

The fact is while Congress ignores passing legislation the Sequester is moving into the living rooms of families all over the country … invisible to those on tv from commentary reporters or journos offering entertainment judgments advice as well as conservative politicians who we call public servants seemingly acting extreme … are bad actors

The Media continues to speculate or re-enforce the negative and mocking President Obama’s so-called improbable agenda of climate change, immigration overhaul as well as stating that Democrats are wavering on a vote that could quite possibly bring all that is Democratic down.   It is at this moment that the Democratic Party should be willing to create change that has been needed for quite some time and like the President has stated…

My question for you voters is … if not now when, because we may never get this chance for a long time if ever.

~ my 2cents ...

Reality TV …

3 Comments

is it me or is Reality Tv slowly on its way out? im thinkin it’s wishful

i admit i have watched my share of  reality tv, and felt no guilt until the ugliness of the Kate+8 came out,won’t even mention the husband’s name,it’s a situation where neither seems grown up enough to take themselves off the air waves, it’s obvious to make ends meet, kate will need to write another book, gotta say listening to her say she has done enough tv to do movies? i was rooting for her til that and her need for a 8diamond ring? wtf Kate … is she really qualified?

another character… the ex-miss or the fallen miss Cali should have known if you make a sex tape, it will get out, how clueless is she, her behavior was offensive  and if this is what conservatism is then we are all in for an America that excludes and discriminates. I don’t feel this is what the majority of Americans want. i also question if  this is really what she feels conservative family values are all about? just asking

Anyone, supposedly 21 and slightly older on the hills,  the city, planet or state are very strange to watch.  As a person of colour, the black hills offended me but then so did these other shows claiming to highlight the fashion industry, the city and businesses in their States were definitely one-sided …the fashion district HAS got to have more ppl of colour to offer the show than just the bootlegger right?

and housewives in any state should wrap their shows up and end them, these shows are clearly harmful to the reality families themselves as several are getting evicted from their homes?, dating each others spouse or exes,  jail time and several divorces have popped up and out, who wants to see this stuff, really tell me.