Viking Update

Remember the vikings?

So this is NOT a viking ship, it's made of eucalyptus and reeds.

It will be helmed by a German former middle-school teacher. He believes that indigenous peoples made it to America on these things. He's going to prove it by piloting the thing across the Atlantic.

Key Quotes:

Gorlitz maintains that the discovery of traces of tobacco and cocaine in the tomb containing the mummy of the pharaoh Ramses II in Egypt is evidence that there was trade between the Old World and New World.

"There's this 99.9 percent certainty that it didn't happen because we don't have evidence that it happened," said Kenneth L. Feder, an anthropology professor at Central Connecticut State University and author of "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology."

Gorlitz is looking for more volunteers to sail with him in July and is trying to raise about $538,000 (€399,911) for the trip. He does not have a sailing license, but nevertheless plans to steer the vessel himself.
"It's like kung fu....The less you know, the better," Gorlitz said.

The construction engineer for the craft who will make the journey does not know how to swim. That's why the engineer decided to double the thickness of the ship's hull.
Gorlitz was not happy about the development. And according to Feder, the mixture of materials and various historical periods of time mean that the resulting trip will have little scientific value.

Yeah, so that was much of the article. But they're classic quotes!