A Hodgepodge Of Everything

20/08/2026

Pandu Rajar Dhibi (King Pandu's Mound) is a Chalcolithic archaeological site in West Bengal. Excavations from 1962 to the early 1980s have unearthed a complex cultural semi-urban centre.

Dated to the 2nd millennium BCE, it revealed house floors, copper smelting, red and black-ware pottery, and one of the earliest pieces of evidence of rice cultivation in Eastern India.

Houses were constructed of mud and perishable materials, with thatched roofs, suggesting adaptability to the humid riverine ecology of Bengal.

While not directly related to the Sindhu-Saraswati Civilization, Pandu Rajar Dhibi is proof that complex agricultural semi-urban societies existed elsewhere during the later part of the Harappan period.

The site has been closed now after excavations stopped in the 1980s, and it is now covered under layers of soil and grass. Only an enclosure and ASI plaques mark its presence.

05/08/2026

Carrots for good night-sight? Yes, but not quite.
Read about the propaganda: https://shorturl.at/09vgP

14/02/2026

Betting On Rain - Unusual Mode of Gambling:
"The nearest racetrack is miles away, and most of it is off-limits for the common rabble gathered here. The people here are playing dice with the weather gods. They are betting on rain."


https://tinyurl.com/29wxyymy

26/01/2026

In conflict-ridden Sarajevo, a group of high-paying clientele engaged in a safari that pushed boundaries of sa**sm. Read on...
https://hodgepodgeofeverything.substack.com/p/sniper-tourism-in-sarajevo

When War was a Playground for the Rich

25/12/2025

Are the Aravallis in danger?

Read: https://tinyurl.com/5nku8rfj

Are India’s Oldest Mountains in Danger?

10/12/2025

Read the article at the link in bio.

09/12/2025

Some human cells, as it turns out, can defeat death. Read my new post in the link below.

https://t.co/HnkGHg67Of

22/11/2025

Is this the world’s oldest Kali shrine?

From Baghor’s enigmatic stone platform to the surprising archaeological clues, this deep dive uncovers how a 10000-year-old site may rewrite the history of Kali worship.

https://hodgepodgeofeverything.substack.com/p/the-oldest-kali-shrine-in-the-world

19/10/2025

Circle of Life in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

The Okavango Delta or Okavango Grassland is a vast inland delta in Botswana formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an elevation of 930–1,000 m (3,050–3,280 ft) in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari Desert.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the few interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea or ocean, with a largely intact wetland system. All the water reaching the delta is ultimately evaporated and transpired. Each year, about 11 km3 (2.6 cu mi) of water spreads over the 6,000–15,000 km2 (2,300–5,800 sq mi) area. Some flood waters drain into Lake Ngami. The area was once part of Lake Makgadikgadi, an ancient lake that had mostly dried up by the early Holocene.

The Okavango Delta or Okavango Grassland is a vast inland delta in Botswana formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an elevation of 930–...

14/09/2025

Life On Mars:

The now-famous Chevaya Falls Rock in Jezero crater, discovered by the Perseverance rover, is the strongest evidence yet of a biosignature of Mars. However, in light of these revelations, historical data need to be studied more closely. Curiosity rover previously detected a seasonal cycle of atmospheric methane. Although no conclusive evidence of a biosignature was found, microbes like methanogens could have initiated such a cycle. Since the 2003 discovery of methane in the atmosphere, scientists have been designing models and in vitro experiments testing the growth of methanogenic bacteria on simulated Martian soil, where all methanogen strains tested produced substantial levels of methane. Research at the University of Arkansas presented in June 2015 suggested that some methanogens could survive in Mars's low pressure. Four species of methanogens survived low-pressure conditions that were similar to a subsurface liquid aquifer on Mars. The Insight Lander, through analysis of seismic data, found large subsurface water bodies on Mars.
Coupled with the experiment mentioned above, it is a definite possibility of subsurface biological activity on Mars. The oldest detection of a possible biosignature might have been the Viking Labelled Release experiment from 1976. The Labelled Release experiment mixed small samples of Martian soil with drops of water containing a nutrient solution and some radioactive carbon. If it detected radioactive carbon, then microorganisms in the soil must have metabolised the nutrients and released the carbon. Air around a control version, in contrast, heated up to temperatures thought to kill microbes, should not have any radioactive carbon. But investigators detected radioactive carbon in the Viking experiment; however, no other organic compounds were detected in the sample. The results of these experiments have been inconclusive and divisive ever since. In light of the recent analysis by Perseverance, all these previous results need to be looked at through a new lens. We might be standing at the precipice of a truly groundbreaking discovery.