Queen Closing in on Top Spot

Well, this could well be one of the reasons that the Queen is still on the throne, relegating Charles to the longest-heir-in-waiting status to which he just ascended (and the only thing to which he is likely to ascend for some time yet): Elizabeth II has now become the second-longest reigning British monarch ever. First, of course, is Victoria (no need to put a number after her name because everybody knows there was only one). Queen Victoria was on the throne for 63 years and seven months. Elizabeth II has now been queen for a mere 59 years. Obviously, she has some catching up to do. But really, she has only to hang on until September 2015, when becomes Number 1. She's only 85 now, so she doesn't even have to make it to 90 before ascending to the top of the pantheon.

She's just past "Mad" King George III, who might or might not have been a bit looney in his later years. He ruled long after the American colonies convinced him to give them up. In fact, those top three (Victoria, Elizabeth II, and George III) are far and away the longest-serving monarchs in Britain/the UK. George V, is a distant fourth with 25 years logged in as head of state.

Of course, we're talking rulers of the United KIngdom here. The Acts of Union, passed in 1800, gave the framework for the U.K. Other rulers, such as the first Elizabeth, certainly served longer than did George V.

Only Thailand's king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, has served a longer term among current rulers. He became king in 1946, six years before Elizabeth became queen.

Royal sources estimate some astounding numbers for the current queen:

• more than 25,000 official engagements
• 400,000 honors and awards bestowed on the rich and famous and the not-so-rich and/or not-so-famous
• a full 1 million garden parties as hostesss
• an estimated 430 engagements a year (remembering that a year has 365 days).

Charles has no chance of succeeding her in anything but hereditary lineage.

Gouge in Fossil Jawbone Suggests War Wound: Scientists

So I wonder whether the midden-searchers of a thousand years from now will encounter this sort of thing with boxers and think, "Hmmm … wonder if they were involved in a knock-down, drag-out?"

Archaeologists have reported finding the remains of an ichthyosaur in Australia. No big deal, right? They find things like this all the time. Well, here's the kicker: This big beastie had a big gouge in its jaw, leading the archaeologists to speculate that the creature had been in a fight during which the creature had sustained a reptilian roundhouse to the mouth, specifically the lower jaw.

The remains were in good enough condition that the researchers were able to determine that the reptile did not die from the wound; rather, the not-so-wee beastie survived and even thrived, with a callus growing over the wound, its body's way of protecting against a repeat performance.

Now, this is fossils we're talking bout this point, since the ichthyosaur was swimming and running around about 120 million years ago, so the wound is definitely on the jawbone. The wound is not of the puncture variety, so the researchers don't think that a predator was behind the gouge. Given that, the researchers' current speculation is that the wound came from a reptile much similar to the one for which they have the remains — and that the fight was over the usual thing(s) — food, land, family.

Double Honors for Astronaut Alan Shepard

Alan Shepard, the first American in space, is getting twin honors posthumously.

Shepard, who rocketed to fame on May 5, 1961, aboard Freedom 7, will be on the face of a Forever stamp issued on May 5, 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of his momentous spaceflight. Forever stamps do not show an amount, so they are good for first-class mail in perpetuity.

Some family members of Shepard have already accepted another award on his behalf. On April 28, NASA named Shepard the winner of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his Freedom 7 flight and for his role in the Apollo missions that landed on the Moon. Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the Moon as part of Apollo 14, of which Shepard was the commander and which lasted form January 31 to February 9 in 1971. The award is a particularly striking piece of crystal that surrounds a lunar fragment, a piece of rock brought by the crew of Apollo 16. NASA has earmarked Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury astronauts as recipients of this award. (The fragments are small enough that they won't cut significantly into the 842-pound stash of Moon rocks that the Apollo astronauts brought back.)

The U.S. stamp featuring Shepard is part of a two-stamp set. The other one celebrates the Messenger mission, which was the first to orbit Mercury.

Television networks carried Shepard's Freedom 7 flight live, and he was feted as a hero when he returned, with parades in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. He was soon named the first commander of a new manned space program, Gemini.

His in-space career was put on hold, however, when doctors diagnosed him with Meniere's disease, a condition that causes fluid buildup in the inner ear, which can be cause extreme symptoms in astronauts in space, who routinely suffer from dizziness and disorientation because of the intense stresses put on them. Shepard accepted the post of Chief of the Astronaut Office and watched as other men walked on the Moon.

After a few years, he was cleared for a slot on an Apollo mission, and he was, at age 47, named the commander of Apollo 14. Among his more famous lunar exploits was an "experiment" in which he struck a golf ball and attempted to track its distance (using only one hand, because of the stiffness of his spacesuit and the thickness of his gloves). He was a skilled pilot, however, and his landing on the Moon was the most accurate of the entire Apollo program. This was also the first mission to send live color TV pictures back to Earth.

Once he was back on Earth, Shepard returned to being Chief of the Astronaut Office, serving for another three years before retiring, in 1974. Among his retirement activities were a stint as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly and roles on the boards of several corporations. Among his numerous honors were a Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the Langley Award (the Smithsonian Institution's highest honor), and induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Alan Shepard died in 1998, of leukemia. He left behind a large family, a bestselling book (Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon), and a legacy that included all manner of things named after him, among them:

• the post office in Derry, N.H., the town of his birth
• a Navy supply ship
• a geodesic dome
• countless streets and parts of several interstate highways
• schools and school buildings in several states
• a Technology in Education award
• and a Discovery Center in Concord, N.H., also named after Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe.

Poland Looking to Restore Lost Glory in Castles

Once upon a time, Poland was a superpower, ruling vast swathes of land throughout Europe. Today's Poles are taking action to ensure that others in Europe don't think of that time only as a fairy tale.

A concerted effort is under way in a few towns across the country to refurbish, rebuild, or modernize medieval castles so that today's visitors can see the glory that was Poland in the Middle Ages. Inside will be conference centers, museums, or hotels, catering to the curious or serious tourist.

The rebuilding has been a long time coming and wasn't helped any at all by the communist governments that ran the country in the 20th Century. In those decades, the buildings were left to rot, since being symbols of feudalism and/or capitalism, they were seen as improper symbols of power and wealth.

Today's developers are skipping that era altogether and reaching back centuries to the time of King Casimir III "the Great" — who "found Poland built of wood and left her built of stone." — and the great land barons of the 16th and 17th Centuries.

One such place is an already reconstructed castle in Bobolice. A sign out front warns of the story within, of a legend saying that the castle is haunted by the ghost of a girl killed in its dungeon. If that doesn't bring in the crowds, well …

Back Yard Hoard Yields Medieval Treasures

Wish this one would happen to me.

So this Austrian guy goes out into his back yard and is digging around and finds a bunch of jewels and belt buckles and plats and stuff that are 650 years old. They're still in good condition, and he turns them into the local authorities, and he's sure to get some good money for it — he found the stuff on his property, after all.

It wasn't just a handful of things, either. No, this guy found more than 200 rings, brooches, plates, pearls, and other bits of a hoard that must have been there undisturbed for many generations.

The guy, who lives in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, initially posted photos of his find on the Internet, and alert collectors told him to go public with the hoard.

The case is still with the Federal Office for Memorials at the moment. Officials there are certainly excited by the find, although they haven't come out with a money value yet. Presumably, the guy won't be getting the things back, either. He should be getting a lot of money, though, if other recent payouts are anything to go by.

Filling the Gap Between Dinosaur Timelines

Scientists are frequently looking to fill in gaps in the historical record, especially the record of ancient history. Since the Internet wasn't around back then, they have had to guess a lot of the time.

Such is the case with a new discovery of a "gap-filling" dinosaur-like creature the fossil of which has been found in a New Mexico dig site knowingly named Ghost Ranch. Scientists have discovered other dinosaur fossils there, so they probably weren't surprised to find Daemonosaurus chauliodus, a creature the size of a tall dog that had slanting front teeth underneath a short snout and some neck features that are strongly reminiscent of dinosaurs.

The name certainly suggests a dinosaur: Daimon means "evil spirit," and sauros means, of course, "lizard." Those big teeth help with the second name because chauliodus comes from a Greek word meaning "buck-toothed."

It's all Greek to me, but the sense of it, I think, is that this was a feared lizard capable of rending great gaps in the hide of prey. The fossils found suggest a super-predator, which probably explains why the name begins with the Greek equivalent of "demon."

The snout is a little less pronounced than archaeologists would like it to be, which is probably why they haven't called this thing a full-blown dinosaur. Still, it is something more than earlier dinosaurs and something less than T-Rex and its Triassic ilk, so there's something. And the wide open spaces of the area have been lovingly represented in more than one George O'Keefe landscape.

You can read more about Daemonosaurus chauliodus and the fine folks who discovered its skull and neck here.

Nazi Bomber Found Intact Off British Coast

This Nazi bomber probably isn't a threat to the British mainland.

A Dornier 17 that was shot down in 1940 has been identified as nearly intact despite being in the shifting sands underneath the English Channel for 70-plus years. And now, British officials want to bring the plane to the surface.

The bomb bay doors are open, so the bombs might well have found their targets and the plane was on its way home when it was struck down, landing upside down in the Goodwin Sands, off the coast of Kent.

Port of London Authority high-tech sonar scans revealed the near totality of the plane. Archaeologists have since become very excited. Their budget doesn't match their enthusiasm, however. The RAF Museum, where the plane would rest if if were brought up from the water, has begun a fundraising effort to help with the operation.

The scientists are so excited because the plane was an iconic instrument of death, capable of outracing most other planes in the sky, mainly because its sleek one-piece design, a retrofitted passenger plane plan, contained 100 percent aluminum.

As for the people flying the plane, we know what happened to them. Two of the four escaped the watery grave and were captured and made prisoners of war. They were alive when the war ended. The other two crew members died on impact.