Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
11-04-2020
NASA funds vast radio telescope concept on far side of the Moon
NASA funds vast radio telescope concept on far side of the Moon
Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay's concept of a Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Far-Side of the Moon. Image: Bandyopadhyay/NASA
NASA’s incubator programme which funds the development of far reaching, long term advanced concepts that “think outside the box,” has awarded a grant for research into turning a huge crater on the far side of the Moon into a giant radio telescope.
NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is a platform that each year nurtures visionary ideas that have the potential to create breakthrough technologies for possible future space missions, by funding projects still in the early stages of development.
For 2020, the US space agency has selected 23 potentially revolutionary concepts with a total award value of $7 million; recipients of Phase I awards receive $125,000 to advance their concept over a nine-month period.
One of the new successful applicants is Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, a robotics technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Bandyopadhyay’s idea is to turn a suitable existing lunar crater, one to 50 kilometres in diameter, on the far-side of the Moon into a spherical reflecting dish and use it as a radio telescope.
Called the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), the dish would be able to observe the Universe in the 5 –100 metre wavelength band, a region of the electromagnetic spectrum rarely utilised in astronomy.
The radio telescope, which would have “tremendous advantages compared to Earth-based telescopes,” according to Bandyopadhyay’s description of his radical concept, could “potentially make tremendous scientific discoveries in fields of cosmology and extrasolar planets.”
An added advantage is that as it will be tucked away out of sight from Earth, the Moon will act as a physical shield that isolates the telescope from the radio interference and noises coming from our planet.
To create the LCRT, Bandyopadhyay suggests using wallclimbing DuAxel robots to drape a deployable wire-mesh one kilometre in diameter on the inside of a large lunar crater.
This would require only a few robots from Earth thereby significantly reducing launch weight and cost compared to all previous lunar-surface telescope mission concepts, says Bandyopadhyay.
If the concept ever came to fruition, then the LCRT would be the largest filled-aperture radio telescope in the Solar System.
Furthermore, the concept idea specifies that the robots could then go onto create a network of LCRTs that would facilitate in lunar Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) astronomy.
VLBI is already a technique used on Earth to perform very high angular resolution observations of cosmic radio sources. It works by linking together antennas that are spread thousands of kilometres apart around the globe.
When connected, they act as a virtual planet-size dish, giving astronomers exceptional resolving power; for example VBLI observations were used by the Event Horizon Telescope last year to make the first ever photograph of a black hole.
A feat that the LCRT's creator is hoping to emulate. “We envisage that this concept would unlock the potential for ground-breaking scientific discoveries in radio astronomy,” concludes Bandyopadhyay.
In addition to Bandyopadhyay’s concept, NASA also awarded a Phase III grant to Slava Turyshev, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to continue his design for imaging Earth-like planets outside of the solar system.
Turyshev will receive a $2 million grant to further mature the concept and related technologies of his solar gravity lens; a probe located 80.4 billion kilometres (50 billion miles) from Earth that uses multiple small spacecraft and solar sail technology to propel the lens to its target destination.
Turyshev’s idea is only the third study selected for Phase III funding in the history of the program said NIAC Program Executive Jason Derleth.
“We’re excited by its potential to bring us closer to imaging an exoplanet in detail, at a resolution comparable to the well-known Apollo 8 Earthrise photo,” Derleth said.
“The trailer has arrived for Greenland, a movie that probably won’t do much to help you relax during this particular period. Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin star in this disaster thriller, which follows a family’s fight to get to Greenland bunkers as comet fragments – preceding a big mofo – collide with the Earth. Roger Dale Floyd and Scott Glenn also star.”
At this point, most announcements of the release of the trailer for the upcoming comet disaster movie “Greenland” inserted a YouTube video of it and clickers watched it … for a day. Latecomers got this message instead: “Video unavailable. This video has been removed by the uploader.” (Try it yourself here.) What happened?
“They got it all wrong. There’s a ton of fragments! Planet killers…”
That 10-second ‘elevator pitch’ describes the plot of “Greenland,” which stars Gerard Butler (Angel Has Fallen) and is directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Felon, Shot Caller). A planet-killing comet is breaking up and threatening Earth, the media reports are inconsistent, panic ensues, humanity shows its best and worst sides as government breaks down and laws are ignored and people search for a safe place.
Does any of this sound eerily familiar?
“The trailer has some eerie similarities to what’s been happening in our real world, as many of us looked at those early reports of COVID-19 with little concern and the subsequent media info has been frustratingly inconsistent.”
Firstshowing.net gives one clue as to why the trailer may have been pulled. That reason can easily hide behind the obvious other coronavirus-related one – the June U.S. premier will be delayed by the lockdown. However, Ufohotspot.com gives another possibility:
“Talking about a comet breaking into pieces, according to the latest information from astronomers around the world, comet Atlas discovered on December 28, 2019 and it’s close approach to Earth on May 23, 2020 might be breaking apart and is starting to fade.”
As of this writing, the interstellar comet Borisov is breaking apart and may not make it out of the solar system at all. At the same time, the highly-hyped “supercomet” Atlas — whose icy center is only kilometers wide but whose atmosphere measures five times the size of Jupiter and is being misleadingly described by many sites as “planet-sized” – is also breaking up and may not light up the sky and be visible to the naked eye as predicted. While these comets are too far away for any of their pieces to strike the Earth, the already terrified and confused world doesn’t need much to push it completely over the apocalyptic edge to suspecting their government is hiding the truth about these two comets in addition to the coronavirus – it doesn’t take many connected dots to see this picture forming.
Speaking of pictures and trailers, the Watchtower.org website has a foreign version of the trailer (at least as of this writing) that can be viewed here.
Cover-up? Coincidence? Coronavirus? Comets? Conspiracy? Cinematic conjecture? (Today’s story was brought to you by the letter ‘C’.)
So far as can be determined, the menacing Chupacabrafirst surfaced in March 1995, twenty-five years ago. That was when numerous animals – mainly goats – were found dead in the towns of Morovis (located in central Puerto Rico) and Orocovis, which is situated within the La Cordillera Central mountain range. Locals were plunged into states of near-hysteria by the attacks, which reportedly left animals dead, with strange marks on their necks, and a distinct lack of blood in their corpses. At least, that was the rumor. Since many of the early attacks were on goats, the term, “Chupacabra,” was created. It translates as “goat-sucker.” Matters really began in August 1995. That was when a woman named Madelyne Tolentino – who lived in Canovanas, which is close to the northeast coast of Puerto Rico – changed everything. Madelyne’s description of the creature she encountered, close to her mother’s home, was disturbing, to say the very least. It was a description eagerly embraced by the island’s media and by investigators of monsters and mysteries.
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Madelyne told journalists and researchers that the creature was around three feet in height, bipedal, ran in a weird, hopping fashion, had large black eyes, bony fingers on each hand, overly long arms and legs, and a kind of feathery line running down its back. Or, it appeared to Tolentino to be a feathery line: a young boy employed by Tolentino’s husband claimed that he saw the beast up close and personal and maintained that the feathers were, in reality, sharp spines. The boy also said that the creature possessed a mouthful of vicious-looking fangs. Not only did the people know of the chupacabra and its attacks, they also now knew what it looked like: something straight out of their worst nightmares. A legend was born. Some would say that a legend is all it is.
As someone with a big interest in the field of cryptozoology, I sat up and took notice when the stories of the Chupacabra began to surface in 1995. Indeed, of all the things I investigate, research and write about, Cryptozoology is the number one. It wasn’t until July 2004 that I was able to visit Puerto Rico and investigate the mystery for myself. I was there with a good friend of mine, Jon Downes, who runs the U.K.’-based Center for Fortean Zoology. The reason? We were there with a crew from the SyFy Channel who were making a new (and short-lived) show called Proof Positive. It was during those eight days on Puerto Rico that I quickly came to realize how much interest there was on the island, even nine years after the first sightings in 1995. Twenty-five years later, I’ve now been to Puerto Rico on nine occasions and obtained a wealth of data on the monster. Some of it suggests that the phenomenon is real. Other data destroys some of the more controversial aspects of the story.
Time and again I heard rumors that the Chupacbara lived on blood – or that blood was, at least, an integral part of the creature’s daily intake. It was this angle of the Chupacabra lore and legend that really stood out. But, it wasn’t true. If it shatters some cherished assumptions, that’s too damned bad, but – contrary to what many people believe – there’s no proof of the Chupacabras sucking blood. Even vampire bats do not suck blood. Ever. Instead, when a bat lands on its sleeping prey, it makes a tiny incision, with its razor-sharp teeth, that provokes the flow of blood – in much the same way that blood flows to the surface of our skin when it’s cut. The bat then proceeds to lap the protein-rich blood, rather than suck it. Rather incredibly, if the skin of the prey is covered in significant amounts of hair, the vampire bat has the ability to use its teeth to “shave” the hair away, thus allowing it to feed easier. Most ingenious of all, Mother Nature has taken steps to ensure the saliva of the vampire bat contains anticoagulants that prevent the blood of its prey from clotting. The blood, as a result, runs and runs – and runs even more.
To demonstrate the sheer speed and ability with which the vampire bat can feed voraciously on its victim, a fully-grown specimen can lap around fifty percent of its own body weight in less than half an hour. The vampire bat has a near-unique digestive system that allows its stomach to absorb plasma from the blood. From there, it makes its way to the kidneys, and finally to the bladder. It’s a very quick process, too: from intake to urination, the passage of time is around one and a half minutes. And, like all of us, when it’s done feeding, the vampire bat finds a place to settle down, relax, and let the process of digestion do its thing.
During the course of my investigations on Puerto Rico, barely a day went by when I didn’t hear at least one story of the chupacabra’s vampire-like attacks on livestock and other animals. And I can’t tell you how many times the words “blood” and “draining” (or “sucking”) were used in the very same sentences. Certainly, I uncovered a number of stories from people who claimed their dead animals were subjected to necropsies, and which confirmed that massive blood loss had occurred. The problem, however, was that I was never able to secure even a single, official necropsy report to validate those claims. On the other side of the coin, I have heard more than a few very plausible stories suggesting the assumed, huge loss of blood was actually due to the blood of the dead animals sinking to the lowest parts of the victims’ bodies, after death. What appeared to have been evidence of a significant loss of blood may have really been be due to nothing more than misidentification. Today, I have just about completely dismissed the theory that the creature lives on blood. Even in minute amounts.
That didn’t take away the fact, however, that people were still seeing the creature – regardless of the blood angle. Some witnesses were sure that what they had seen was actually a giant bat. Others described it as a large bird with what appeared to be human-like legs. Then, there were those in the field of conspiracy-theorizing, who believed that the Chupacabras were actually genetically altered monkeys turned into raging, killing machines and let loose in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rain-forest. The scenario told to me was something like a combination of Predator and 28 Days Later! That there was a lot of UFO activity on Puerto Rico led to the inevitable scenario of the Chupacabras being extraterrestrial in nature. And, there was the theory that the monsters were supernatural in origin – things that could be invoked via rite and ritual. A few people supported the admittedly interesting theory that perhaps some of the attacks were the work of escaped large cats.
Today, as we “celebrate” the Chupacabras’ 25th year of infamy, not much has changed – in terms of the theories, the claims and the legends. Based on all of the research I’ve done on Puerto Rico, I still believe there is such a creature – a mysterious animal that has yet to be found and identified. There is another aspect to all of this. Namely, all of the friends I have made on Puerto Rico over all the years, and who I have stayed in touch with. Puerto Rico is a great place, with an equally great culture and a cool history. And Puerto Rican food is superb. And after a hard day of seeking out a Chupacabra or several, there’s a plentiful supply of Medalla beer to chug down. I can easily see myself moving to Puerto Rico one day – all as a result of a quest for the truth of the island’s resident monster.
Alien Communications Are Getting More Urgent, Something Big is About to Happen 2020
Alien Communications Are Getting More Urgent, Something Big is About to Happen 2020
COAST TO COAST AM – Certified hypnotherapist, abduction researcher and Director of CERO (Close Encounter Resource Organization) Yvonne Smith discussed stories from the last five years of her work as a hypnotherapist specializing in alien abduction. She has seen a shift or “urgency” in the messages received by the abductees from these beings as if something enormous is about to happen.
Smith has been regressing and counseling abductees for over 25 years, and is convinced that the abduction phenomenon is real and is caused by some sort of extraterrestrial beings or intelligences because the accounts of her clients are “so startlingly similar.”
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The 40,000 Year Old Legacy of the Advanced Siberian Denisovans Giants
The 40,000 Year Old Legacy of the Advanced Siberian Denisovans Giants
COAST TO COAST AM – Andrew Collins has been investigating the idea of advanced civilizations in prehistory since 1979. In the latter half, he spoke about the legacy of the Denisovans, an extinct species of hominins that lived in Siberia around 40,000 years ago, and whose existence was just discovered in 2010.
Collins believes they developed sophisticated technology, using high-speed drilling techniques and creating unique jewelry and musical instruments. The Denisovans, who were large in size and may have been the source of legends about giants (such as the Nephilim) were fascinated by celestial movements, he noted.
Rare View of Advanced Alien Technology next to the Planet Venus
Rare View of Advanced Alien Technology next to the Planet Venus
Astunning image has been taken by a sky-watcher from Waujesha, Wisconsin on April 9, 2020 showing what appears to be two huge UFO lightships next to the planet Venus.
Credit images sky-watcher Waujesha, Wisconsin -
Original image submitted to Mufon .
At first glance it looks like it is just one UFO lightship but zooming in on the object it turns out to be two UFO lightships.
Further analysis shows that the two UFOs are connected to each other by a beam of light whereby a red glowing object surrounds the beam.
It may be that the sky-watcher has captured a rare view of advanced alien technology in deep space.
Mass daytime UFO sighting above Utica, New York 8-Apr-2020
Mass daytime UFO sighting above Utica, New York 8-Apr-2020
Another recent video of a mass UFO sighting in the skies above United States. This one was filmed over Utica, New York on 8th April 2020.
Witness report:
9 Orbs Video Over House 1 moves from left to right. April 8 2020. 1 orb is seen moving left to right. My brother & I both experienced missing time on the same day which was on Sunday 3 days before this encounter. My whole family has been having encounters with aliens the grays & 7 other different species for over 3 decades. No matter where we move the aliens always find us.We believe these craft are flown by aliens not of our world. There was no sound coming from these craft.
Evidence of New Human Species Discovered in a Cave in the Philippines
Evidence of New Human Species Discovered in a Cave in the Philippines
There were once many human species, but today there is only one; modern humans, Homo sapiens. However, the human family tree is growing. Researchers working in a cave in the Philippines claim to have found a new, previously unknown species to add to human history.
Remarkably this hominin was probably less than four feet high and had some of the characteristics of modern people but also anatomical features from much earlier hominins . It is believed that the discovery will transform the understanding of our evolution.
New humans found in the Philippines
In recent years there have been a series of finds of early humans in the Philippines. The latest was made by archaeologists as they were digging in the ‘rocky floor of Callao Cave on Luzon island’ according to History.com. A team of experts found a number of fossils that are unlike anything else in the world. They were unearthed by a team of experts led by Professor Philip Piper, from the Australian National University.
According to the Daily Mail , “the fossil remains included adult finger and toe bones, as well as teeth.” The femur bone of a juvenile was also unearthed. The remains are estimated to be about 50,000 years old, at a period of time in the Pleistocene when several human species co-existed on the planet. A preliminary examination of the remains indicated that they came from an ‘unknown species of hominin’ according to Haaretz.
The five upper teeth found belonged to a single individual of previously unknown hominin, provisionally named ‘Homo luzonensis’. The have a strange mix of Australopithecine and modern features.
The stunning discovery has been provisionally named Homo luzonensis . The new species had some of the same characteristics of modern humans , in particular, its molars. However, they also had characteristics of a far earlier species namely of Homo australopithecus . This hominin was the ancestor of many human species including Homo erectus and lived between 2 and 3 million years ago. The Daily Mail reports that ‘hand and feet bones, are remarkably Australopithecine-like’.
Despite these similarities, the shape of the tooth and the anatomy of the feet shows that they are a unique human species. The slight but significant difference are such that taken together they strongly indicate that Piper and his team have unearthed a new species. What is most striking about the new species was their estimated height, possibly just under four feet.
The height of the new humans was determined by the size of the tooth and the other bones. However, more evidence is required to confirm this. If the size is confirmed, it is raising the possibility that the hominins are somehow related to another species found in the Indonesian island of Flores . This hominin is Homo floresiensis and stood under four feet high. Because of their diminutive stature, they are popularly known as the Hobbit.
An examination of the foot bones found morphological features that come from both earlier and later hominins. This could indicate that they had a particular way of walking. According to Science Mag , the human had ‘long, curved fingers and toes’. This means that it was as comfortable scrambling up trees as walking upright. This would seem to suggest that it ‘might have descended from an earlier human relative, H. erectus , that somehow crossed the sea to Luzon’ reports the WRAL.com.
The proximal foot phalanx of Homo luzonensis. Notice the longitudinal curvature of the bone, which suggests that this species was adapted to climb trees.
According to History.com ‘human evolution was clearly much more complex’ in Asia than previously assumed. It seemed that H. erectus in evolved in the region into new species such as that possibly found in Luzon. It appears that the human evolved in a unique way on the island of Luzon, very different from those on mainland Asia. Science Mag reports that many experts “suspect the islands of Southeast Asia may have been a cradle of diversity for ancient humans.”
New theory on human evolution
The find is casting doubt on the accepted theory of how humans evolved and spread out over the globe. The first wave of our relatives to leave Africa was made up of H. erectus and the second wave was H. sapiens . It was thought that H. erectus settled in Asia and it was the only human in Asia until the arrival of modern humans. The discovery of H. luzonensis , along with the earlier discovery on Flores have upturned this theory.
More work needs to be done to establish if the human remains found on Luzon are from a new group of hominins. At present, there are approximately 12 human species recognized but there is no agreement as exactly how many have been identified. It seems likely that the humans whose bones were found in the Callao Cave may be another one of our relatives and will add greatly to our understanding of human evolution.
Top image: Callao Cave, Luzon Island, Philippines where the bone and teeth of the new human species were found.
The excavation of the site, known as Kunara and located near the city of Sulaymaniyah, was only possible after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003. Researchers also noted that the ISIS terrorist group’s presence in Iraq also hampered their efforts.
“The situation is much more favorable now,” project leader Aline Tenu said in the journal.
4,000-Year-Old "Lost" City That Bordered Ancient Mesopotamian Empire.
Credit: Tenu/Mission Archeologique Francaise du Peramagron
According to the journal, “This city stood in the heart of an unknown kingdom: that of the mountain people, who had until then remained in the shadow of their powerful Mesopotamian neighbors,” including the Akkadians. The Akkadian Empire is considered the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia and reached its peak about 4,000 years ago under ruler Sargon of Akkad . After its fall, historians believe it split into Assyria and Babylonia.
People lived in the city, located near the Zagros Mountains, around 2200 BC, archaeologists have theorized.
“The city of Kunara provides new elements regarding a hitherto unknown people that has remained at the periphery of Mesopotamian studies,” Tenu added.
The lost city was found near the Zagros Mountains,
pictured (sghiaseddin / Adobe Stock)
Meanwhile, dozens of clay tablets covered in cuneiform were also discovered, which showed how people may have delivered flour. Cuneiform is one of the oldest systems of writing.
Researchers said the city underwent a period of decline after it was ravaged by a fire 4,000 years ago, the researchers speculated.
Cuneiform specialist Philippe Clancier said the people who lived in the city had a good “grasp of Akkadian and Sumerian writing, as well as that of their Mesopotamian neighbors.”
An Akkadian tablet
(public domain)
“The first tablets found in a building of the lower city register a large number of entries and departures of flour,” Clancier continued.
“It was actually a kind of flour office,” Tenu explained, adding that it was for the governor of Kunara.
“The city must have even been fairly prosperous,” Tenu noted. “As rare stones such as obsidian [and carnelian, a semi-precious gems stone] were used to produce entirely commonplace tools.”
Residents in the city “most likely took advantage of its strategic location on the border between the Iranian kingdom in the east and the Mesopotamian kingdom in the west and south,” Kepinski also theorized.
Researchers also discovered tools and ceramics that were bought and traded in the city’s ruins.
“It was surely the area’s agricultural wealth that promoted its rise. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of goats, sheep, cows, and pigs, suggesting the existence of a major livestock farming system. The presence of an irrigation network in the city’s south is also a reminder of the mastery the region’s inhabitants achieved in grain farming, especially barley and malt,” the journal also noted.
They haven’t found anything about the city’s original name, which is still a mystery, “But we will continue to look,” Tenu added.
Top image: 3D reconstruction of an ancient Mesopotamian city. (Satori / Adobe Stock)
An amazing transformation has occurred in modern science. It has been slow in coming and is one that many scientists avoid discussing: there is a point where science and religion coincide. The frightening truth about this agreement is that it isn’t about new age physics, the nature of God or the transcendent union of science and religion – it concerns the nature of man, or rather, the problem of man.
For many years, under the influence of liberalism and humanism, science tended to favour the logic of the ‘Noble Savage’. Violence and evil were human problems, probably caused by the conflict between our intellect and natural instincts. Nature was great, instincts were marvellous and sex was fun. This logic was buttressed with romantic notions about the innocence of animals, the moral purity of instinct, and the marketable icon of the harmless, playful, innocent ape. However, as science progressed, these notions fell like a house of cards.
During the 1970s science began to refine its interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This refinement became known as sociobiology – the inclusive fitness theory – or in journalistic terms, ‘the selfish gene’. It was popularised by Richard Dawkins’s book The Selfish Gene. This discovery, which is now conventional scientific wisdom, holds that the ultimate driving force for evolution is the genes, the molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. The maximisation of genetic successes to assure the passing on of certain genes to subsequent generations. This principle, however terrifying in its ramifications, is the state of present evolutionary theory.
When this is combined with our new understanding of the nature of animal behaviour, a darker and more reflective scientific paradigm arises, one that has more in common with Gnosticism, a stream of thought that extends from the early followers of Christ.
A Man & a Chimp
Our relationship to apes has always been a matter of conjecture. We need to abandon the theories and debates about origins and consider the state of humanity at present. There are many ways to consider evolution: Whether we accept Darwinian evolution or a modification thereof, or that evolution was manipulated by ETs, God(s), or even if we consider we are part of a stage of a larger evolutionary cycle (Theosophy, Anthroposophy etc.), the fact remains that our present genetic inheritance indicates something about our present condition.
Science places modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the centre of the ape kingdom. It says humans are part of the same lineage as orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The standard view of this great-ape ‘family tree’ is that humans and chimps are more similar to each other than either is to the gorilla – because chimps and humans diverged more recently. But with the publication of the sequence of the full gorilla genome in 2012, this theory has been overthrown. Scientists realised that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.
While they may seem affectionate and lovable at first appearance, extensive study in the wild has shown a far darker side to ape behaviour. Apes murder, rape and torture. They will defend their territory and intrude on any surrounding territories using guerrilla warfare, literally! In various studies of ape behaviour, it is estimated that at least forty per cent of all cases of copulation involves elements of violence, which would be interpreted as rape. Apes have short-term memories when it comes to companions. If an ape leaves one pack to join another, he becomes an instant enemy. Raids on other packs are frequent, bloody and brutal and involve ambush, torture and death. Apes behave differently from many other animal species and their aggressiveness seems very similar to human behaviour. It’s frighteningly clear that our genetic heritage is directly related to the ape kingdom. This invokes some fascinating questions and quandaries.
Why Intellect?
Apes and related kin are excellent reproducers. They create many offspring and continually reinforce their genetic heritage by territorialism and brute force. Researchers in this field raise the question: why would the ‘genetic program’ create what we understand as the conscious mind?
Many argue that intelligence developed as the result of enhanced hand-eye coordination by using tools. However, many other species use tools, including apes. Apes are quick learners, and use whatever they can find to open that nut, get that fruit, or crush that skull. But apes did not develop a high level of intelligence – only the offshoot of Homo sapiens sapiens. This argument sheds light on a fascinating possibility – was human nature tweaked? Did genetic engineering take place that modified available genetic substances to create modern humans? Such writers as Zecharia Sitchin and Erich von Daniken use this sort of reasoning extensively.
The darker side of this theory is why would an alien life form modify genetic substance without adequately balancing the social effects of the inherent flaws within the original substance? If an alien species, a deity or whatever was capable of manipulating genetic materials, then surely it would be aware of the destructive power within the primate form it was transforming. If we consider there was some manipulation of our genetic structure, then was this accomplished by a somewhat primitive and ignorant entity (which is unlikely considering the required technology)? An entity or force that was malefic and unsympathetic to the resulting human condition?
This may seem too much to grasp at first, yet if we consider the myths and legends that abound within humanity’s history, they all seem to include such tales of genetic interference.
The Gnostics believed that a false creator (Demiurge) formed Matter (the physical world), and humans were moulded out of fallen substance in an effort to trap particles of Light (preexistent Souls). Sitchin argued that an alien race (the Anunnaki) genetically engineered humanity as a slave species, but the early humans rebelled and developed consciousness. Numerous myths, stories and legends suggest someone or something interfered with the ape to create man, and all tend to see this creation as negative. While most religions insist that Matter is good and ‘God’ is the creator, other more esoteric approaches from the Vedas to the Gnostic suggest that Matter is at best dangerous, at worst malefic, and our creation was the result of either a miscalculation or error – or a deliberate destructive act.
This view posits that apes were engineered as a mechanism to trap Souls which existed in the ‘first estate’ (the spiritual worlds). Many Gnostic sects believed that the fallen creator, in his attempt to wrest control of the universe, first created Matter to encapsulate and control the Light. He then evolved the physical form of mankind to capture the preexistent Light forms and turn them into automations under his control. While we may debate details, it is certainly true there is a dichotomy between our genetic programming and mind (which is the gate for one’s true spiritual self). Even if we have trouble accepting the more flamboyant aspects of this theory, the split within humanity and the violent traits of our innate genetic programming cannot be ignored.
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The Role of the Mind
The role of the mind in human development has been ambivalent to say the least. From one perspective it is our saving grace, from another it keeps us enslaved. According to Sitchin, the mind was genetically engineered through modifications to the brain so that a slave race could be created. Apes were difficult to command, so a brain/mind complex (however originally limited) was created. Through the dichotomy between the brain/mind and the instincts, mind control was achieved. Continuing from this argument, early religions and social structures would have worked as ‘control mechanisms’ to keep the slaves in their preordained roles. As time went on, however, the mechanism of control became the tool of liberation. Even the most limited mind/brain complex began to develop thoughts outside the ‘control spectrum’, and one thought led to another and ultimately rebellion. Whether we accept this paradigm or not, we can see that intellect has a contradictory role: it exists as an affront to what science understands as the normal evolutionary process and can work to enslave or liberate.
In this extraterrestrial cosmology, we deduce there are diverse alien species – some wish to help humans, while many desire to keep us enslaved. Accordingly, some early cultures worked to liberate humanity’s intellect, while some cultures, if not the same ones over time, regressed their culture back into slavery by the same means.
It is interesting to note that many early Gnostic groups had a similar view of human nature. In one Mandean account, we read of demons copulating together and their progeny being man’s body and mind. Man’s physical and mental forms are in direct opposition to his spiritual essence. In other Gnostic traditions, our mind is a mixture of light and darkness which offers the opportunity to ascend beyond limitation through its redemption.
Sigmund Freud argues that civilisation exists only in as much as it suppresses instinct, and in many ways we are now returning to his understanding. While pleasure may be the veneer that we accept as justification for our behaviour, not far under the surface is a pit of uncontrolled violence. The major contradiction in our culture is the desire for individualism – the more we demand freedom, the more restraints removed, the more we return to the unfettered ape-like creature we once were. As moral codes are loosened and as we gain more supposed freedom, crime, rape, murder and social disorder arises. As culture fails, the apes return.
Light Emissaries
If we contemplate the adversarial view of prehistory with evil alien forms controlling humanity for their own purposes, we can perceive it in different ways. Gnostics and some Christians may interpret this on a more spiritual level, with dominions and principalities, demos and demi-gods replacing the ‘little green men’. For the scientifically-minded researcher, we could replace aliens and demons with complexes and unconscious social control mechanisms (memes).Ultimately the symbol system is irrelevant. This model could be extended to explain the role of such figures as Zoroaster, Krishna, Jesus, Gautama (Buddha) and so on.
As humanity’s consciousness began to expand, it rejected the ‘social control religions’ and tried to make it on its own. However, humanity was unaware that the forces which created these paradigms of control also started the human mind on a journey of development. An immense conflict evolved. When man rejects tyranny, his instincts take over and a new tyranny, one of ape violence, comes into effect. He is caught in a vicious cycle.
The forces of Light, which exist beyond the contamination of Matter, decided to intervene. Over many millions of years, they sent emissaries to explain to man his real constitution and the conflicting nature of his being. Each avatar taught that man is a hybrid, a mixture of fallen Matter and Light ‘stuff’. Man is a split being – Animal, Intellect and Spirit – each with its own agenda and programming. The physical organism is made of fallen Matter and its programming is that of an ape ruled by the ‘selfish gene’. It is innately violent and destructive. In some sense it has its own consciousness, we could perhaps call it the ‘GE’ (genetic entity).
The mind is another problem. It was created as a modification to the brain but evolved into something more. It has facets (such as the brain stem) which hark back to its original nature, and yet has advanced nodes that offer interface to the spirit. It is a collection of false I’s, sub-identities and personas. It craves domination and works best under control, whether by a cult or ism or by TV and computer games. Its liberation is painful, yet necessary. The emissaries of Light have been giving man ‘wake-up’ calls for thousands of years, yet man does not listen. As soon as the emissaries die, sometimes even before, their messages are distorted and become part of the ‘social control mechanism’.
Aliens, DNA & Beyond
Ultimately it does not matter how we perceive our masters, whether we believe the extraterrestrial theory of our origins or see them in more religious, psychological or scientific terms. The point of reference for all these paradigms is spiritual: if the aliens created slaves, it was under the influence and control of greater and more malefic spiritual powers and dominions. The Gnostics said that Matter is fallen, nature is a trap, and man’s real self is locked in an eternal game.
As we move further and further into the Kali Yuga, the age of blood and iron, the game becomes more and more vicious. The ‘selfish gene’ is far more malleable than we care to realise, since it is an intrusion from a spiritual reality: it can transform and change according to new challenges. In the distant past the ‘selfish gene’ program realised man could not be controlled by the genetic entity alone, so it evolved new gene-like structures to control the mind like Memes. A Meme is a virus of the mind.
Meme: (pron. ‘meem’) A contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind. Memes function the same way genes and viruses do, propagating through communication networks and face-to-face contact between people. – David S. Bennahum
Memes mould consciousness to fulfil the directive of the original DNA program. Memes transform meaningful social movements into bureaucracies, and take ideals and turn them into commodities. They take transformational technologies and turn them into mechanisms of control. TV, computer games and sport are means to stop us using our mind to any spiritual end by keeping it absorbed and controlled. Our entire culture is based on this premise: all thought must be controlled, albeit covertly, so that freedom is impossible. Democracy is simply the choice between different paradigms of control. Isms, cults and ologies offer further mechanisms of control. Many appear to be outside of the structure, but are really part of it.
Where Science Meets Religion
We have arrived in the new millennium, and science meets religion at last, yet in a way neither would have expected. By understanding the ‘selfish gene’, and the split nature of humanity, we have uncovered the reasons behind the constant tension and violent behaviour of modern man. Illusions are washed away when we truly comprehend the hybrid composition of human nature.
Scientists reveal highest-ever resolution images of the sun
Scientists reveal highest-ever resolution images of the sun
The pictures were captured with a telescope that had been carried to the cusp of space on a sub-orbital rocket flight.
The high-resolution images reveal impressive detail.
Pic: UCLan
The highest-ever resolution images of the sun have been revealed by British scientists working alongside NASA researchers.
The images analysed by a team from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and NASA offer astronomers insights into the sun's atmosphere.
Before the images were released, aspects of the sun's atmosphere were a mystery - appearing dark or mostly empty.
Image:The individual strands are up to 500km thick. Pic: UCLan
But now scientists have discovered these spots actually contain strands of incredibly hot electrified gas - strands that are individually up to 500km (311 miles) thick.
The images were captured by NASA's high-resolution coronal imager (Hi-C), a telescope which was carried to the cusp of space on a sub-orbital rocket flight.
Being ultra-sharp, the telescope is able to identify structures in the sun's atmosphere as small as 70km (43 miles), or about 0.01% of its total size.
Despite knowing these strands exist, scientists are still puzzling over what exactly is creating them.
Why they are formed in the sun's atmosphere and how their presence helps us understand the eruption of solar flares and solar storms which could affect life on Earth are subjects of ongoing debate.
Professor Robert Walsh, professor of solar physics at UCLan, said the images provide an "ultra-high definition" glimpse of the our solar system's star for the first time.
Image:The pictures are the clearest ever of the sun. Pic: UCLan
"Until now, solar astronomers have effectively been viewing our closest star in 'standard definition', whereas the exceptional quality of the data provided by the Hi-C telescope allows us to survey a patch of the sun in 'ultra-high definition' for the first time," he said.
"Think of it like this: if you are watching a football match on television in standard definition, the football pitch looks green and uniform," Prof Walsh said.
"Watch the same game in ultra-HD and the individual blades of grass can jump out at you - and that's what we're able to see with the Hi-C images. We are catching sight of the constituent parts that make up the atmosphere of the star."
Image:The telescope took the images on a rocket ship. Pic: UCLAn
Dr Tom Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLan who worked on the Hi-C data, said the images help provide a greater understanding of how the Earth and sun related to each other.
"This is a fascinating discovery that could better inform our understanding of the flow of energy through the layers of the sun and eventually down to Earth itself," he said.
"This is so important if we are to model and predict the behaviour of our life-giving star."
NASA RELEASES BREATHTAKING INFRARED IMAGE OF PILLARS OF CREATION
NASA RELEASES BREATHTAKING INFRARED IMAGE OF PILLARS OF CREATION
NASA
VICTOR TANGERMANN
Pillars Of Creation
NASA’s incredible view of the “Pillars of Creation,” courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope, has become one of the most iconic views of our cosmos since it was first captured in 1995.
The agency’s newest image of the Eagle Nebula, however, has left us speechless. It shows the radiating glow of the pillars in infrared light — and you can see the infrared light piercing through dust and gas, giving the pillars a spectacular blueish shadow.
Now In Infrared
The earliest image of the pillars, a composite of 32 different images compiled using visible light, shows the pillars located in the Eagle Nebula throwing off cool hydrogen gas and cosmic dust.
First discovered in 1745 by Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux, the Eagle Nebula is roughly 7,000 light-years from Earth, a nursery for stars in the Serpens constellation.
The pillar structure is immense. Just the largest pillar on the left is about four to five light-years long.
Schmidt OceanHet gaat om een tientallen meters lange sliert die bestaat uit miljoenen kwalachtige, ongewervelde diertjes die één kolonie vormen.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEET Biologen hebben tijdens een expeditie voor de westkust van Australië op grote diepte de waarschijnlijk grootste siphonophorae ooit ontdekt. Het gaat om een tientallen meters lange sliert die bestaat uit miljoenen kwalachtige, ongewervelde diertjes die één kolonie vormen maar de indruk wekken een zelfstandig organisme te zijn. Op de wetenschappelijke website Sciencealert jubelen experts over de vondst: “Dit is de spectaculairste en langste die in de diepzee is gespot.”
Op het controleschip aan de oppervlakte kwamen de beelden uit de duikboot binnen, waarna het personeel enthousiast en vol verbazing op beeldschermen in de stuurhut het buitenaards lijkende fenomeen aanschouwde.
“We werden volledig weggeblazen”, vertelden biologen Nerida Wilson en Lisa Kirkendale naderhand. Met name omdat siphonophorae meestal ‘maar’ 25 meter lang zijn en min of meer recht. “De buitenste cirkel van deze langzaam en hypnotiserend bewegende vorm was ongeveer 47 meter, dus de totale lengte van het ding was gigantisch.”
Specifieke taken
Elk individu dat onderdeel is van een siphonophorae heeft een specifieke taak en een op die taak aangepaste vorm. Zo zijn er eet-, vang-, tast- en geslachtsdieren. De prooi van het schepsel bestaat uit kreeftachtigen en vis die door netelcellen worden verlamd en vastgehouden.
...most of the siphonophore colonies I've seen are maybe a 20cm long, maybe a meter. But THIS animal is massive. AND not just massive, the colony is exhibiting a stunning behavior: it's hunting....
Open Ocean Exploration@RebeccaRHelm
Some of the clones specialize in catching prey. Their slender bodies hang with a single long tentacle dangling like a hook-studded fishing line. Like the frilled tentacles of another siphonophore pictured below... (pic: @SchmidtOceanhttps://bit.ly/2JLKWmS)
P.S. Totally unplanned, but one of the only animals I know to prey on siphonophores is a cousin of the fish-shaped sea slug that I just happened to tweet about earlier today. It's like weird on weird down there! https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1247210620526657537 …
The sea slugs, called Cephalopyge, grab onto siphonophore clones using their tiny snail food and slowly eat them while hanging off the colony like an ornament! Pic by: https://lindaiphotography.com/black-water-mollusks/ …
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What The Heck Is This Long, Hypnotic Stringy Thing Floating in The Ocean?
What The Heck Is This Long, Hypnotic Stringy Thing Floating in The Ocean?
TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS
New footage has revealed a trailing ribbon of conjoined tentacled clones sweeping the ocean off the coast of Australia. Known in some regions as the "long stringy stingy thingy", siphonophores blur the line between organ and organism. They somehow manage to be both at once.
"The whole thing looks like one animal, but it's many thousands of individuals which form an entity on a higher level," marine biologist Stefan Siebert of Brown University told Wired.
The Ningaloo Canyons Expedition, a team of international researchers from institutes including Western Australia Museum, Schmidt Ocean Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, recently came across one of these spectacular deep sea aliens.
They were exploring a little-studied but biologically rich part of the ocean off the coast of Western Australia, using ROVs and sonar. The creature was spied on the way back up:
"Everyone was blown away when it came into view," biologists Nerida Wilson and Lisa Kirkendale from the Western Australian Museum told ScienceAlert. "There was a lot of excitement. People came pouring into the control room from all over the ship. Siphonophores are commonly seen but this one was both large and unusual-looking.
"Although the ROV pilots made an estimate of its length, it has yet to be formally measured. However, it does appear to be longer than any other animal on the planet," they added.
The outer ring was estimated to be around 47 metres long (154 feet). The whole giant thing is composed of tiny individuals called zooids. They clone themselves thousands of times into one of several flavours - some with stinging tentacles and even red lures to attract food, others specialised for reproduction or movement. Each individual acts like an organ in the larger siphonophore body.
Biologist Rebecca Helm from the University of North Carolina Asheville describes the feeding clones on Twitter:
Some of the clones specialize in catching prey. Their slender bodies hang with a single long tentacle dangling like a hook-studded fishing line. Like the frilled tentacles of another siphonophore pictured below... (pic: @SchmidtOceanhttps://bit.ly/2JLKWmS)
The siphonophore in the video "appears to have assumed a planar feeding posture, which makes it look a bit like a spiral UFO," Wilson and Kirkendale explain.
In a colony this massive, there would have to be at least millions of these conjoined organ-individuals working together, to sift the pelagial depths for food. They share their spoils with each other by passing nutrients along a stem they're all connected to - a vertical branch which also serves as a passageway for nerve signals.
Helm believes there are many millions of these siphonophores floating out there in the ocean, along with other strange creatures they interact with - such as this sea slug (Cephalopyge trematoides) that finds them tasty:
The sea slugs, called Cephalopyge, grab onto siphonophore clones using their tiny snail food and slowly eat them while hanging off the colony like an ornament! Pic by: https://lindaiphotography.com/black-water-mollusks/ …
Another memeber of the entourage is this bizarre barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma). It has a fluid-filled head shield thought to allow them to sneak into stinging tentacled zooids and steal their food.
It's a soothing glimpse of the strange ocean depths that siphonophores call home. And you can check out even more amazing weirdos from the Ningaloo Canyons in the video below.
With so much incredible life hidden away in our planet's oceans, who even needs aliens?
Strange Men In Black, Women in Black and Black Eyed Kid Encounters
Strange Men In Black, Women in Black and Black Eyed Kid Encounters
COAST TO COAST AM –
Nick Redfern shared the latest information on the sinister Men in Black (MIB), the chilling Women in Black (WIB), the creepy Black-Eyed Children, and the ability of these seemingly multi-dimensional entities to invade our space in a hostile fashion.
The majority of the MIB reports describe encounters with very pale, almost emaciated men with very large eyes that they hide behind wraparound sunglasses. People typically get a knock on the door late at night and feel an odd compulsion to let them in, as though they were hypnotized or mind controlled, which has led to the idea that their visitors might not be entirely human, Redfern detailed.
New asteroid disaster movie trailer has suddenly been removed from the web
New asteroid disaster movie trailer has suddenly been removed from the web
Just a few days ago, the production company released the first trailer for the asteroid disaster movie "Greenland" but suddenly the trailer has been removed at the request of the studio and now it's gone everywhere.
Lucky, nwomaster just found one last playable trailer remaining on a German movie site and one illegal re-uploaded to YouTube which has been removed too already. The trailer still can be watched at disclosetv/nwomaster but for how long I don't know.
The story: "They got it all wrong. There's a ton of fragments! Planet killers…" Whoaaa! How about some apocalyptic disaster action to make things even scarier nowadays? The first trailer has debuted for an action movie titled Greenland, the latest from stuntman turned director Ric Roman Waugh (Shot Caller, Angel Has Fallen). The mega disaster in the film involves a comet breaking into pieces, and these pieces striking Earth causing complete devastation.
Talking about a comet breaking into pieces, according to the latest information from astronomers around the world, comet Atlas discovered on December 28, 2019 and it's close approach to Earth on May 23, 2020 might be breaking apart and is starting to fade.
I'm not saying there is a connection between the movie "Greenland" and the comet Atlas but it does make you think...
Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) captured over 2 hours on April 4, 2020.
X-RAYS REVEAL A SURPRISE INSIDE 200 MILLION-YEAR-OLD DINO EGGS
X-RAYS REVEAL A SURPRISE INSIDE 200 MILLION-YEAR-OLD DINO EGGS
"These embryos are beautiful."
FOSSILIZED DINOSAUR EGGS DISCOVERED IN 1976 have finally revealed their inner secrets for this first time — thanks to a cutting-edge new technology called synchrotron scanning.
In a new study, researchers scanned two Massospondylus carinatus dinosaur embryos first found in 1976 in South Africa’s Golden Gate Highlands National Park. They used synchrotron scanning, which is a kind of 3D X-ray scan.
What they discovered was completely unexpected. The dinosaurs are far more similar to modern reptiles than scientists had anticipated.
The reasons why rest on two key findings:
1. The seemingly full skeletons were actually only about 60 percent developed.
2. The dinosaur embryos have two different sets of teeth.
DECEPTIVE DINOSAURS — The embryos “look like the skeleton of an animal ready to hatch,” study co-author Vincent Fernandez, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, tells Inverse.
But the bones in the tiny dinos' skulls, which had remained obscured in the rock, suggest otherwise.
"They are a lot younger that we expected,” Fernandez says.
“With the scan we discovered that these bones were there, but poorly ossified," he says. "Comparing with modern reptiles, we estimated that the dinosaur embryos were about 60 percent of incubation."
The dinosaur eggs studiedin the new research were discovered in 1976 in Golden Gate Highland National Park, South Africa.Brett Eloff
In modern reptiles and birds, “the pattern in which bones start ossifying is quite similar.” In these creatures, the skull bones start to harden at the tip of the snout. The upper and back part of the skull, also known as the "braincase," is the last piece of the puzzle to ossify, along with some jaw bones.
The findings indicate that these prehistoric herbivores were already using an embryo-development strategy common to modern crocodiles, chickens, turtles, and lizards.
The dinosaur specimens also had two different types of teeth. They range in size from 0.4 to 0.7 millimeters — with one set of tiny, triangular, first-generation teeth.
Crocodiles and certain other modern reptiles have similar first-generation teeth, that they resorb or shed before they even hatch. Now, researchers know that ancient dinosaurs did, too.
Peering inside on e of the Massospondylus carinatus embryos using synchrotron scans to look at the skull bones. Kimi Chapelle
The idea that both modern reptiles and ancient dinosaurs might develop similarly is not new, but this is some of the first concrete evidence that modern reptile development is actually prehistoric.
“This development strategy has been around for 190 million years, which is quite surprising," Fernandez says.
A paper detailing the new findings was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.
"BEAUTIFUL" EMBRYOS HELD BIG MYSTERIES — Since their discovery some five decades ago, researchers believed these Massospondylus carinatus embryos had perished just before their eggs hatched.
“These embryos are beautiful, but information that could get obtained from the prepared surface was quite limited,” Fernandez said. To discover whether that was indeed the case, the researchers needed to look below the surface of the fossils' rock.
That’s where the synchrotron scanning came in.
They used high-powered X-ray beams to scan the bones down to the cellular level. That enabled them to recreate the embryos’ 2-centimeter-long skulls as a 3D model, or "virtually extract them from the rock," as Fernandez puts it.
Watercolor painting of the Massospondylus carinatus dinosaur embryos at 17, 60, and 100 percent development, respectively.Mélanie Saratori
“This is a very special moment, knowing you are the first one to see such a beautiful specimen,” he says. It is a slow process, however. “When you have access to a synchrotron, you have to use the machine day and night for days on.”
The team took turns to do the research, eat, and sleep, Fernandez says. The results are a just reward for their travails. Using the novel technology, the team got the first glimpse inside the eggs, and even identified a third embryo inside the samples.
“Virtual extraction of the bone is a painstaking process,” Fernandez says. Researchers had to extract each bone, one at a time.
Kimi Chapelle
The work is testament to how technology can reveal new, granular details of old fossils, Fernandez says. in the future, synchotron scanning could allow researchers to estimate the incubation time of dinosaur embryos, revealing yet more about their early development and how it stacks up to modern reptiles.
The results of such high-level scans are also just visually stunning, Fernandez says.
“I keep being impressed by the level of details we can achieve: We can see these tiny teeth, smaller than the tip of a toothpick,” he says.
“I particularly love when the bones are put back in 3D, and we see the big eye socket of the dinosaur, it really starts looking like a baby.”
Abstract:
Dinosaur embryos are among the rarest of fossils, yet they provide a unique window into the palaeobiology of these animals. Estimating the developmental stage of dinosaur embryos is hindered by the lack of a quantitative method for age determination, by the scarcity of material, and by the difficulty in visualizing that material. Here we present the results of a broad inquiry, using 3D reconstructions from X-ray computed tomography data, into cranial ossification sequences in extant saurian taxa and in well-preserved embryos of the early branching sauropodomorph dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus. Our findings support deep-time conservation of cranial ossification sequences in saurians including dinosaurs, allowing us to develop a new method for estimating the relative developmental percentage of embryos from that clade. We also observe null-generation teeth in the Massospondylus carinatus embryos which get resorbed or shed before hatching, similar to those of geckos. These lines of evidence allow us to confidently estimate that the Massospondylus carinatus embryos are only approximately 60% through their incubation period, much younger than previously hypothesized. The overall consistency of our results with those of living saurians indicates that they can be generalized to other extinct members of that lineage, and therefore our method provides an independent means of assessing the developmental stage of extinct, in-ovo saurians.
TO BUILD A MOON BASE, NASA FIRST HAS TO SOLVE A “BIG” COMPUTER PROBLEM
TO BUILD A MOON BASE, NASA FIRST HAS TO SOLVE A “BIG” COMPUTER PROBLEM
To kickstart a big new era of lunar activity, NASA will have to think small.
If it wants to support a permanent human settlement on the moon, NASA must solve a curious problem first, and is seeking the public's help, the space agency announced Thursday.
NASA has put out the call to the global scientific and technological community to submit ideas for miniaturized moon payloads. It sounds complicated but essentially it comes down to this:
THE PROBLEM— NASA wants to collect data from the moon. In other missions, the agency has used vehicles called rovers to wheel around other planets, equipped with machines to take measurements. The upcoming Mars 2020 Rover, for example, will include an X-ray spectrometer to understand the composition of Mars soil, as well as a radar that can penetrate the ground to reveal the underground geology. But NASA wants to send much smaller rovers to the moon. Sending the vehicle to the moon with these traditional bulky, power-sucking data collectors is likely to cause the rover to run out of power, or collapse under the huge amounts of weight. The moon will be littered with broken-down vehicles that failed to collect enough data.
THE SOLUTION — Crowdsourcing. NASA will call on talented people from all over the world, reaching outside its own team of people, asking them to submit new ideas for data collectors, ones that are small and light enough to fit on the agency's tiny rover. This will ensure the rover can complete its mission, happily whizzing around the moon with data collectors on its back, without running out of power or collapsing in a pile of space rubble.
This new collection of data could help NASA scientists better understand the moon, which in turn could help construct a permanent lunar base for humans as part of the Artemis program.
The challenge, called “Honey I Shrunk the NASA Payload,” named after the 1989 movie, is being organized by the NASA Tournament Lab and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The challenge is accepting payload designs from all around the world, and winners will receive prizes of $160,000.
The agency is planning to send tiny rovers to the moon within the next one to four years. These rovers are about the size of a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, which will support even smaller payloads. The data collected by these tiny packages could help support future plans like a lunar base, as well as help better use the moon's resources.
But a Roomba-sized rover poses some unique challenges. It's a far cry from the Apollo mission's Lunar Roving Vehicle, a 10-foot-long vehicle that could carry payloads over 1,000 pounds. Overloading such a tiny machine on a critical mission would be a bad idea, as witnessed by the cats sitting on Roombas that interfere with the cleaning.
NASA tells Inverse that the payloads will need to measure no more than 100 millimeters by 100 millimeters by 50 millimeters, around the size of a bar of soap. They will also need to weigh no more than 0.4 kilograms (0.88 pounds) and be able to withstand external temperatures between minus 120 degrees Celsius (minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit) and 100 degrees (212 degrees Fahrenheit). These are the maximum limits, but smaller and lighter is preferred.
The agency also explained that payloads that could support a future human lunar presence are desirable, as well as those that enable new technologies, advance lunar science, or even pave the way for in-situ resource utilization. The winners, the agency explained in a press release, will be "ones that can demonstrate near-term technical readiness, high impact, and the ability to integrate with micro-rovers."
The rovers on the moon, complete with payload targets.HeroX
"This is an opportunity to contribute ideas to advance our understanding of the moon and its resources, which will be helpful for future missions," Niki Werkheiser, program executive of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program, said in a statement.
The challenge will be hosted on the crowdsourcing platform HeroX, a Los Angeles-based firm founded in 2013. The platform was co-founded by Peter Diamandis, who also founded XPrize. The XPrize Foundation has hosted challenges seeking to create virtual worlds and use A.I. to tackle global problems. HeroX is aimed at opening up the XPrize model so anyone can create their own challenges.
"Solvers around the world are understandably enthusiastic at the opportunity to contribute to a NASA mission,” Christian Cotichini, CEO of HeroX, said in a statement. “The ability of our community to solve such incredibly complex problems is a powerful case study for the capacity of crowdsourcing.
Entry is open to anyone from any country, assuming United States federal sanctions don't restrict entry, and prizes of $160,000 will be awarded across two categories.
The JPL-led challenge is seeking tiny payloads no larger than a bar of soap for a miniaturized Moon rover.NASA
Winning on the small scale will help NASA, and the wider space community, achieve big things on a big scale. The agency's planned "Lunar Gateway," and subsequent resupply missions, could enable all manner of imaginative experiments.
NASA plans to build a spaceship-like Lunar Gateway, complete with deliveries from SpaceX, similar to the International Space Station -- only it will orbit the moon.
The Lunar Gateway space station will be used to support a manned mission to the moon in 2024, including the first woman to step on the moon. This mission will lead to the Artemis Base Camp "sustained presence" on the South Pole, which will then support more ambitious missions like a manned Mars trip.
All this could lead to a mass expansion of humanity's presence in space. Morgan Stanley projected in July 2019 that the global space industry's revenue could jump from $350 billion today to over $1 trillion by 2040. Perhaps it's little wonder that the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin are so keen to help build the infrastructure to enable this expansion.
The moon could play a role in this by opening up to widespread scientific experiments, similar to the International Space Station. The ISS has supported student and commercial projects like Nickelodeon slime experiments and space broccoli, through a series of resupply missions that send up and bring back projects in capsules. The most recent of these, SpaceX's CRS-20 mission, included Adidas Boost sneakers to test their performance in microgravity.
But not everyone is on board with the idea. Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society who convinced Elon Musk to set his sights on Mars, dismissed it in a May 2017 article as "NASA's worst plan yet" that will "accomplish nothing." Zubrin argued that the Gateway would add no value compared to the International Space Station and a lunar base, making it an irrational goal.
NASA disagrees, and statements suggest the Gateway is intended to lay the foundations for much more ambitious missions.
“The Gateway will give us a strategic presence in cislunar space. It will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us explore the Moon and its resources,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA's Washington headquarters, said in a February 2018 statement. “We will ultimately translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.”
The Artemis Base Camp could help support those Mars missions. The camp would initially see astronauts stay for between one to two months, hosting four crew members. Support infrastructure like communications, power and waste disposal would be added over time. One potential site is near Shackleton Crater, pictured below with the Capital Beltway for scale:
The Shackleton Crater could be one location.NASA
NASA is not the only one that wants to build a moon base. China and Europe have both expressed interest in building a lunar base.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, declared in March 2019 that humans "should" build a "permanently occupied" human base on the moon. SpaceX is currently developing the fully-reusable Starship, which can refuel using resources available in space and either continue its journey or return home. Musk is famous for his plans to eventually build a city on Mars by 2050.
While NASA wants to send soap-sized science projects to the moon, humanity's future presence in space could cover many more places.
One of the consequences of what is fast becoming a worldwide shutdown of businesses and travel is that the noise level outdoors has been reduced drastically, to the point where many people are enjoying the quiet. The lack of clatter and shatter is also allowing people to hear more things that they may not have heard before and therefore may not have worried about before, like the mysterious sounds, horns and hums reported in many places around the world. That seems to be the case in Brazil, Slovakia, the U.S. and Argentina where concerned citizens are uploading recordings, sharing their experience, getting advice and often scaring the pants off of others. Are these sounds related? What are they?
“At 2:15 pm, I heard a crash similar to that of a jet crossing the sky or that of an airplane turbine. I heard it twice, and there was nothing in the sky, I didn’t see any planes, despite being cloudy. I commented to a friend who lives in another location, and he said he heard it too.”
The website Otempo in Brazil reports numerous accounts of people hearing a variety of unexplained sounds across the country, including the one above from Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. It noted that “Noise in the sky” was trending on Twitter but the Civil Defense website in Belo Horizonte had no mention of the sounds. Local astronomer Bernardo Riedel said there were no reports of meteorites in the area.
“On April 3, 2020, very scary news came from the city of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia: Usually, there are always a lot of questions with these “trumpet sounds”, since the videos are isolated incidents, but in this case the whole city heard it all.”
At about the same time, the website SoulAsk reported on “trumpet” sounds in Bratislava. In this case, there are multiple YouTube videos of the sounds, which are more like “respirators” than trumpets, according to one witness. (Listen to one here.) With respirators in the news so much lately, that could just be the power of suggestion, but they do sound more like Darth Vader breathing than Miles Davis blowing. One scientific explanation was the shifting of tectonic plates rubbing against the lost microcontinent of Greater Adria underneath Europe, although there were no reports of earthquakes or other seismic disturbances.
“This is something unheard of, I never heard anything like this, it is beyond my capabilities.”
Moving to Olavarría in the province of Buenos Aires, SoulAsk also reports of strange, unexplained sounds of various types, some of which disturbed local dogs. (Listen here.) “Researcher” Mauricio Gorili had no explanation, nor did astronomers or meteorologists. That left it open for sites like “Humanoids in Olavarría” to point to – what else – humanoids.
“We are witnessing “the great migration”, they (the humanoids) have infiltrated us for decades but now they are approaching en masse, the sounds registered in the city of Olavarria correspond to the opening of a portal in which it allows that these beings can invade us in a more crowded way.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., strange sounds were recorded in Belton, Missouri (listen here), and South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (listen here), and probably heard in plenty of other places. Some blamed these on the latest villain-of-the-moment – 5G – but there’s no evidence that 5G towers are making any kind of noises at all.
Is it just the sound of construction carrying across the now-quiet landscape?
Those are just some of the latest sounds. The website Strange Sounds has more. Is there some sort of logical or scientific explanation for this wide variety of strange sounds around the world — airplanes, gunshots, plates scraping, construction, factories? Is it just because the noise level is down due to the coronavirus lockdowns, causing stir-crazy, locked-up humans who are going outside for a change to hear things they’ve never been able to before? There doesn’t seem to be a general cause and there are far too many to investigate each one individually, so they’re being ignored or dumped into when-we-get-around-to-it piles, never to be checked out. In the meantime, the general public wants answers or they’ll continue to turn to cover-ups, aliens, apocalyptic predictions and the like.
Will we ever find out? Go outside and listen for yourself. Maybe you will be the one to finally figure it out. If you do, will you tell anyone?
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
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