PROOF ALIENS EXIST? | First, it was UFOs, but could extraterrestrial life be next?

The US Government and Pentagon made global news when they confirmed the existence of UFOs after leaked footage surfaced online. But what about aliens? The search for extraterrestrial life has never been more important, or more valued than right now.

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

02-07-2021 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

https://youtu.be/SbK7USdL22Y

A US Navy pilot whose plane filmed the famous "tic-tac" UFO footage has revealed how his weapons system was disabled during the eerie encounter. 

Seventeen years on, Lieutenant Commander Chad Underwood said when he tried to track the "target of interest", he began seeing "strobe lines" on his cockpit radar.

Screenshot from the eerie and unexplained 'Tic Tac' video filmed by the US Navy and released by the Pentagon

Commander Chad Underwood encountered a bizarre object moving 'erratically' at incredible speeds

Credit: Chad Underwood

UFOs have stepped from a fringe conspiracy theory to a genuine national security debate as the US last week admitted hundreds of mysterious encounters in the skies.

It followed the Pentagon confirming Mr Underwood’s in-flight "tic-tac" video from 2004, recorded by his F/A-18 Super Hornet, was authentic. 

The incident unfolded during a USS Nimitz carrier group exercises off the coast of Mexico.

Crew aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, had been spending the past two weeks tracking mysterious aircraft on and off with an advanced AN/SPY-1B passive radar.

Now, speaking to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, Mr Underwood has revealed how his weapons system was suddenly crippled after he attempted to track the "tic-tac" object which was moving at incredible speeds. 

He said: "Once I got the target of interest on my radar I took a lock and that’s when all the kinda funky things started happening.

"The erratic nature of the tic-tac. The air speed was very telling to me.

"Then we started seeing what we call jam strobe lines.

"Strobe lines are vertical lines that show up on your radar that are indications that you are being jammed."

Mr Corbell's extraordinary interview with Mr Underwood detailing the "act of war" UFO encounter will appear in full at a later date.

French warplane pilots have also reported heir weapons systems being disabled during UFO encounters, according to an official investigation. 

After releasing the bombshell report last week, it appears the US Department of Defense (DoD) is preparing to set up a new unit dedicated to the strange phenomena, similar to secretive agencies in hit TV show The X-Files and movie series Men in Black.

DoD officials released a memo on Friday which stated they will now seek to "formalise" the investigations of UFOS, often now referred to as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).

UAPs are currently the main brief of the UAP Task Force, a body set up after a series of stunning leaked videos show strange encounters between the phenomena and US warplanes.

And a memo released by the DoD set out a three point plan to pull together US investigations to try and work out exactly what these mysterious objects that defy normal understanding could be.

The first point states the DoD wants to "synchronize collection, reporting and analysis" of UAPs, and to "secure" military test and training ranges.

And then next it states it wants to set aside resources and staffing to continue the probe, seemingly confirming the establishment of a formal office.

Finally, it states there must be "coordination" between all arms of the US military and the intelligence services on the issue.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed the US military would be taking a deeper look at UFOs after a report was released detailing hundreds of encounters

Some of the numerous sightings by the US military

What is going on with UFOs in the US?

UFOS have stepped from fringe conspiracy theories to a genuine national security debate in the US.

Pentagon officials last year took the unprecedented step to confirm a trio of remarkable videos which showed US encounters with UFOs.

The debate is still open as to what the phenomena caught on film were – but it made clear to everyone, something is in the skies.

Perhaps the most striking was a video known as the "Tic-Tac" – which showed an unidentified object being pursued by fighter planes.

The US also confirmed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) – a Pentagon programme set up to study UFOs before being disbanded in 2017.

However, it was replaced by the UAP Task Force in June 2020 after a vote by the US Senate Intelligence Committee.

Defence chiefs have since confirmed a number of leaked UFO videos and photos which were submitted to the Task Force for investigation.

Why this sudden rush for transparency?

No outside the secretive wings of the US government currently knows for sure.

And as a tacked on addendum to a 5,500 page Covid relief bill passed in December, the the Director of National Intelligence’s office was ordered to compile a report on UFOs within 180 days.

The UAP report dropped as expected on June 25, and while not giving much away - it did not rule anything out either as much of it remains classified.

The US appear to have acknowledged that UFOs - whatever they are - are real and are a potential threat to national security as they appear to be able to enter restricted airspace with total impunity.

Is it aliens? Officially the US position is simply, "we don't know yet" as further disclosure is expected in the coming months and years. 

DoD staff will also have to report an apparent encounter with a UAP within two weeks to allow it to be more properly investigated, the memo reads.

It was signed off by deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks.

The move is a major win for campaigners who have been calling on the US to take the issue of UFOs more seriously, and is being sent as another step on the road to potential disclosure.

Most of the sightings bear similarities. Some are tic-tac shaped while others are triangular or circular.

Footage taken by FA-18 pilots on March 4, 2019

An FA-18 pilot and a Weapons Systems Officer spotted mysterious objects in the sky

Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell received information about a third sighting which happened on March 4, 2019

Footage captured by a US Navy destroyer shows several mysterious flashing objects

The clip was captured with night vision cameras

{ https://www.thesun.co.uk/  }

02-07-2021 om 00:31 geschreven door peter  

Accounts of alien abductions have been around for a while, and they always serve to amaze, stir debate, and raise eyebrows. Some such accounts can definitely be more bizarre than others, and one of the truly outlandish ones comes to us from a supposed alien contactee in the U.S. state of New Mexico, who has a very amazing, and some might say unbelievable, story to tell. The rather bizarre tale here begins in July of 1987, when a woman named Christa Tilton had an inexplicable bout of missing time, with three hours of her life simply gone and with no reasonable explanation. After suffering from nightmares and finding herself constantly pondering why she had lost this time, Tilton underwent hypnosis and this was where she would find her lost memories surging into her consciousness, and would weave an outlandish account of alien abductions, secret underground bases, and strange experiments.

Under hypnosis, Christa would remember being approached by two small humanoid creatures, who grabbed her by the arms and somehow rendered her unconscious. When she awoke, she found herself lying on a table within a small craft, where she was approached by what she calls a “guide.” This guide gave her some sort of liquid to drink, which immediately woke her up and energized her, after which he took her outside onto what appeared to be a small hill. She would say of what happened next:

It was dark, but I saw a faint light near a cavern. We walked up to this area and it is then that I saw a man, dressed in a red military-type jump suit [like a pilot would wear]. My guide seemed to know this man as he greeted him as we came closer. I also noticed he wore some type of patch and was carrying an automatic weapon. When we walked into the tunnel, I realized we were going right into the side of a large hill or mountain. There we were met with another guard in red and I then saw a computerized check-point with two cameras on each side. To my left was a large groove where a small transit vehicle carried you further inside. 

To my right it looked like a long hallway where there were many offices. We took the transit car and went for what seemed to be a very long time to another secured area. It was then that I was told to step onto some type of scale-like device that faced a computer screen. I saw lights flashing and numbers computing and then a card was issued with holes punched into it. I would later realize it was used as identification inside a computer. I asked my guide where we were going and why. He didn’t say too much the whole time except that he was to show me some things that I need to know for future reference. He told me that we had just entered Level One of the ‘facility’. I asked what kind of facility it was and he did not answer.

The guide then wordlessly took her to a large elevator that had no door and they descended, with him merely remarking that they were going to “Level 2.” Here she says there were offices and people walking about, all of them human and seemingly oblivious to her presence, just going about their business as if she wasn’t there. It all looked rather like a normal office building other than for the armed guards in colored jumpsuits interspersed throughout, and at one point they passed what looked like a huge factory of some sort, which had what looked like “small alien-type craft” parked there. As she looked at this factory and the strange craft, she saw what looked like typical “grey-type aliens” going about some sort of maintenance on the craft, which also ignored her as if she had every right to be there in the world. After this she was taken to another elevator to “Level 5,” where she was asked to change clothes. By this point she was starting to feel terrified, but her guide assured her that nothing bad would happen to her. She put on a hospital gown and was weighed and scanned with some sort of electrical device, after which she was led past another guard station and down another hall. It was here where she says she was suddenly hit with a wave of overpowering stench that smelled to like what she thought might be formaldehyde, something she knew from her days as a former nurse. The guide reassured her that everything was alright but the smell was oppressive, and she says of what happened next:

We came to a large room and I stopped to look inside. I saw these huge large tanks with computerized gauges hooked to them and a huge arm-like device that extended from the top of some tubing down into the tanks. The tanks were about 4 feet tall so standing where I was I could not see inside them. I did notice a humming sound and it looked as if something was being stirred inside the tanks. I started to walk closer to the tanks and it was at that time that my guide grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly out into the hall. He told me that it wasn’t necessary to see the contents of the tanks; that it would only complicate matters. So we went on down the hallway and then he guided my arm into a large laboratory. I was amazed because I had worked in a laboratory before and I was seeing machines that I had never seen before. It was then I turned and saw a small grey being with his back turned doing something at a counter. I heard the clinking of metal against metal. I had only heard this when I was preparing my surgical instruments for my doctor in surgery.

Christa was then told to sit on a table in the middle of the room, and she was now getting the very strong sense that something wasn’t right, the fear beginning to grip her more tightly. As she sat there wondering what to do and what was going on, a human doctor then entered the room, greeted the guide, and turned his gaze to her. She explains the next part of her very odd tale:

My guide smiled at me and told me he would be waiting outside and I would only be there for a few minutes. I began to cry. I cry when I get scared. The grey alien looked at me and turned around to continue what he was doing. The doctor called for more assistance and it was then that one other grey alien came in. The next thing I knew I was very drowsy. I knew I was being examined internally and when I lifted my head, I saw this horrid grey alien glaring at me with large black eyes. It was then I felt a stabbing pain. I screamed and then the human doctor stood next to me and rubbed something over my stomach. It was cold. The pain immediately subsided. I could not believe this was happening to me all over again. 

I begged for them to let me go, but they just kept on working very fast. After they were finished, I was told to get up and go into this small room and change back into my other clothes. I noticed blood, as if I had started my period. But, I continued to get dressed and when I came out I saw my guide speaking to the doctor in the corner of the room. I just stood there… helpless. I felt more alone then than I ever had in my life. I felt like a guinea pig. After we left that laboratory I was silent. I was angry at him for allowing this to happen to me ‘again’. But he said it was necessary. Told me to forget. I see more aliens pass us in the hall. Again, it is as if I was a ghost. I asked my guide to please explain this place to me. He told me it was a very sensitive place and I would be brought back again in the next few years. I again asked where I was and he told me I could not be told for my own safety.

She then got into a sort of transit car with her guide and they moved on to what she considers to be the most unsettling thing she saw during the whole weird encounter, saying:

I saw what looked to me to be people of all different types standing up against the wall inside a clear casing-like chamber. I went closer and it looked ‘as if they were wax figures. I could not understand what I was seeing. I also saw animals in cages. They were alive. They looked as if they were in suspended animation. I went up to the clear casings that they were being held in. I put my hands on the casing and leaned towards them to see if I could get some kind of a response. I did not. I could not discern whether they were dead or alive at that point in time. They were just not moving, and I could not see whether or not there was any fluid. I think that the casings were free of any fluid in this particular case.

She says that after this, her guide took her back outside to the waiting alien craft that had abducted her, and she was taken back to where they had found her and her memory was wiped. Remembering this experience through the hypnosis marked the beginning a nearly obsessive search for answers as to what had happened to her. Although she was never explicitly told where she had been taken, she would come to the conclusion that she had likely been brought to a secret underground base beneath the town of Dulce, New Mexico, a place that has been at the center of all manner of conspiracy theories since at least the 1970s and is a hotbed of UFO activity, cattle mutilations, and talk of top secret underground bases. In addition to this, Christa claims that after this initial experience she would be abducted on numerous other occasions and taken to different underground facilities, which she claims the government keeps a network of across the country. She explains of this:

I am aware of many, many, many underground facilities or bases that are being used for different purposes. Most of the underground bases are being used for covert purposes or otherwise purposes involving governments who are doing certain types of testing that they consider would be safer to do underground. And then there are the bases, one in particular north of Tucson, Arizona, where I’m almost positive I was taken to, it goes under the cover or name of “Evergreen Aviation”. They have all the planes there and everything, but what I found during my ten years of research is that this is a CIA-backed or based facility. I got very, very close to the facility, I climbed over the wired fence and sneaked in with a pilot friend of mine not long ago and got some great photographs of some black helicopters. These black helicopters were unmarked. There were other types of aircraft there, and so we really believe that there are many many bases in many states. I’ve heard of bases in almost every state here in the United States.

Christa has written a book of her experiences at Dulce, rather straightforwardly called Underground Alien Bio Lab At Dulce, and has been very vocal about these underground bases and aliens in general. Her stories have gotten increasingly eye-brow raising over the years, with her claiming to be an alien hybrid, and she has written extensively on her encounters with various types of alien beings, including what she calls “Light Beings,” Reptilians, blonde-haired humanoid Nordics, and more, with agendas that from range strict non-interventionists to imperialistic factions who want to conquer Earth. Then there are of course the Greys, which she has made abundantly obvious she doesn’t care much for. She has not minced words when she has said of the Greys:

The Greys seem to do things like a massive collective consciousness. I’ve noticed that they do things together, there is almost no discussion among themselves. They seem to be working on projects or on certain things that are given to them by higher-ups, or higher alien beings and/or humans. I can tell you right now that the main weakness of the Greys is that they have no soul, they are soulless. Do not allow them to tell you otherwise. Some of them have been known to try to impart some type of false religious philosophies on people that they’ve abducted, and the thing is you have to realize that these aliens have their own agenda, and its not something that I feel is a positive one really. Certainly I have to believe that the Greys are, the only way I can describe it is that they are an empty, empty case… There’s nothing there other than a superior technology type of brain apparatus up in their skull area. Otherwise they are of no use to us really, they are really of no use. They are used to impart different technologies and give us information, but as far as trusting them, I do not trust them as far as I could throw them.

It is hard to know what to do with this rather spectacular case, and with all of the added details and science fiction-sounding claims made over the years, Tilton has gained just as many skeptics and detractors as believers. It is all certainly a compelling and oddball case, but is there anything to it all? Whatever you might think, it manages to stand on the fringe end of alien abduction cases, and true or not it manages to point out just how deep the rabbit hole can go.

https://youtu.be/59HMBTD_tvI

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

02-07-2021 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

What you're looking at is the plasmodium form of Physarum polycephalum, the many-headed slime mold. Like other slime molds found in nature, it fills an important ecological role, aiding in the decay of organic matter to recycle it into the food web.

This bizarre little organism doesn't have a brain, or a nervous system – its blobby, bright-yellow body is just one cell. This slime mold species has thrived, more or less unchanged, for a billion years in its damp, decaying habitats.

And, in the last decade, it's been changing how we think about cognition and problem-solving.

"I think it's the same kind of revolution that occurred when people realized that plants could communicate with each other," says biologist Audrey Dussutour of the French National Center for Scientific Research.

"Even these tiny little microbes can learn. It gives you a bit of humility."

P. polycephalum in its natural habitat.

(Kay Dee/iNaturalist, CC BY-NC)

P. polycephalum – adorably nicknamed "The Blob" by Dussutour – isn't exactly rare. It can be found in dark, humid, cool environments like the leaf litter on a forest floor. It's also really peculiar; although we call it a 'mold', it is not actually fungus. Nor is it animal or plant, but a member of the protist kingdom – a sort of catch-all group for anything that can't be neatly categorized in the other three kingdoms.

It starts its life as many individual cells, each with a single nucleus. Then, they merge to form the plasmodium, the vegetative life stage in which the organism feeds and grows.

In this form, fanning out in veins to search for food and explore its environment, it's still a single cell, but containing millions or even billions of nuclei swimming in the cytoplasmic fluid confined within the bright-yellow membrane.

Cognition without a brain

Like all organisms, P. polycephalum needs to be able to make decisions about its environment. It needs to seek food and avoid danger. It needs to find the ideal conditions for its reproductive cycle. And this is where our little yellow friend gets really interesting. P. polycephalum doesn't have a central nervous system. It doesn't even have specialized tissues.

Yet it can solve complex puzzles, like labyrinth mazes, and remember novel substances. The kind of tasks we used to think only animals could perform.

"We're talking about cognition without a brain, obviously, but also without any neurons at all. So the underlying mechanisms, the whole architectural framework of how it deals with information is totally different to the way your brain works," biologist Chris Reid of Macquarie University in Australia tells ScienceAlert.

"By providing it with the same problem-solving challenges that we've traditionally given to animals with brains, we can start to see how this fundamentally different system might arrive at the same outcome. It's where it becomes clear that for a lot of these things – that we've always thought required a brain or some kind of higher information processing system – that's not always necessary."

(David Villa/ScienceImage/CBI/CNRS)

P. polycephalum is well known to science. Decades ago, it was, as physicist Hans-Günther Döbereiner of the University of Bremen in Germany explains, the "workhorse of cell biology". It was easy to clone, and keep, and study.

However, as our genetic analysis toolkits evolved, organisms such as mice or cell lines such as HeLa took over, and P. polycephalum fell by the wayside.

In 2000, biologist Toshiyuki Nakagaki of RIKEN in Japan brought the little beastie out of retirement – and not for cell biology. His paper, published in Nature, bore the title "Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism" – and that's exactly what P. polycephalum had done. Nakagaki and his team had put a piece of plasmodium at one end of a maze, a food reward (oats, because P. polycephalum loves oat bacteria) at the other, and watched what happened.

The results were stunning. This weird little acellular organism managed to find the fastest route through every maze thrown at it.

"That triggered a wave of research into what other kinds of more difficult scenarios we can test the slime mold with," Reid says.

"Virtually all of those have been surprising in some way or another, and surprised the researchers in how the slime mold actually performed. It revealed some limitations as well. But mostly, it's been a voyage of revelation on how this simple creature can do tasks that have always been given to and thought to be the domain of higher organisms."

Full of surprises

Nakagaki recreated the Tokyo subway, with the station nodes marked out with oats; P. polycephalum recreated it almost exactly – except the slime mold version was more robust to damage, wherein if a link got severed, the rest of the network could carry on.

Yet another team of researchers found that the protist could efficiently solve the traveling salesman problem, an exponentially complex mathematical task that programmers routinely use to test algorithms.

Earlier this year, a team of researchers found that P. polycephalum can "remember" where it has previously found food based on the structure of the veins in that area. This followed previous research from Dussutour and her colleagues, who discovered that blobs of slime mold could learn and remember substances that they didn't like, and communicate that information to other blobs of slime mold once they fused.

"I'm still amazed by how, in a way, complex they are because they always surprise you in an experiment, they would never do exactly what you choose to do," Dussutour says.

In one instance, her team was testing a growth medium used for mammal cells, and wanted to see if the slime would like it.

"It hated it. It started to build this weird three-dimensional structure so it could go on the lead and escape. And I'm like, 'oh my gosh, this organism'."

A processing network

Although it's technically a single-celled organism, P. polycephalum is considered a network, exhibiting collective behavior. Each part of the slime mold is operating independently and sharing information with its neighboring sections, with no centralized processing.

"I guess the analogy would be neurons in a brain," Reid says. "You have this one brain that's composed of lots of neurons – it's the same for the slime mold."

That brain analogy is a really intriguing one, and it wouldn't be the first time P. polycephalum has been compared to a network of neurons. The topology and structure of brain networks and slime mold blobs are very similar, and both systems exhibit oscillations.

It's not entirely clear how information is propagated and shared in the slime mold, but we do know that P. polycephalum's veins contract to act as a peristaltic pump, pushing cytoplasmic fluid from section to section. And oscillations in this fluid seem to coincide with encounters with external stimuli.

"It's thought that these oscillations convey information, process information, by the way they interact and actually produce the behavior at the same time," Döbereiner tells ScienceAlert.

"If you have a network of Physarum go to a certain food, it changes oscillation pattern when it encounters sugar: it starts to oscillate quicker. Because of these quicker oscillations, the whole organism starts changing its oscillation pattern and starts to flow into the direction where the food was found."

He and colleagues recently published a paper demonstrating that these oscillations are extraordinarily similar to the oscillations seen in a brain, only a hydrodynamic system rather than electrical signals.

"What's relevant is not so much what oscillates and how the information is transported," he explains, "but that it oscillates and that a topology is relevant – is one neuron connected to 100 neurons or just to two; is a neuron connected just to its neighbors or is it connected to another neuron very far away."

P. polycephalum growing on a life-sized model of a human skull.

(Andrew Adamatzky, Artifical Life, 2015)

Defining cognition

As exciting as its escapades may seem, any researcher working with it will tell you that P. polycephalum is not, in itself, a brain. It's not capable of higher-level processing or abstract reasoning, as far as we can tell.

Nor is it, as intriguing as the notion may seem, likely to evolve into something like a brain. The organism has had a billion years to do so and shows no sign of going in that direction (although if any science fiction writers out there like the idea, feel free to run with it).

In terms of overall biology, slime mold is extremely simple. And by that very fact, it's changing how we understand problem-solving.

Just like other organisms, it needs food, it needs to navigate its environment, and it needs a safe place to grow and reproduce. These problems can be complex, and yet P. polycephalum can solve them with its extremely limited cognitive architecture. It does so in its own simple way and with its own limitations, says Reid, "but that in itself is one of the beautiful things about the system". 

In a sense, it leaves us with an organism – a wet, slimy, damp-loving blob – whose cognition is fundamentally different from our own. And, just like the Tokyo subway, that can teach us new ways to solve our own problems.

"It's teaching us about the nature of intelligence, really, challenging certain views, and basically widening the concept," Reid says.

"It does force us to challenge these long-held anthropocentric beliefs that we are unique and capable of so much more than other creatures."

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

01-07-2021 om 23:53 geschreven door peter  

More frequently reported sightings of unidentified flying objects by pilots have made government officials more serious about finding out what they are.

(File Photo)

The growing number of sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFO's, by military and commercial pilots is now drawing the attention of the federal government. Members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Capitol Hill have now been briefed on the much-anticipated UFO report that is expected to be released at the end of this month. 

“We do have reason to be concerned until we are able to rule out any threat to the traveling public, to those military pilots, to our military facilities,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Florida District 10), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Demings was briefed Wednesday by Naval and FBI officials on their findings, which did not confirm or rule out the sightings as alien spacecraft. 

“It’s an ongoing investigation — I think they are competent and capable of identifying those unidentified objects,” Demings said in an interview with Spectrum News.

The Department of Defense has been keeping track of these kinds of reports for decades but only recently acknowledged their existence. 

“There was a taboo on discussing technological civilizations beyond Earth for a while,” said Harvard University science professor Dr. Avi Loeb. “It was considered a little crazy, perhaps in the realm of science fiction, but I think we're getting to the time where it will be part of the mainstream discussion.”

For years, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has been urging the federal government to take UFOs seriously. He’s been demanding answers and added language into former President Donald Trump’s last spending bill that mandated the Pentagon to compile the UFO report.

“People can speculate about, well, it’s space aliens,” Rubio said. “My biggest concern frankly is that it’s another country. They’ve made some technological leap that will catch us by surprise by perhaps one of our adversaries. That would be deeply concerning.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the space agency is also launching an investigation of its own. 

“Now that I’m here at NASA, I’ve turned to our scientists, and I’ve said, ‘Would you look at it from a scientific standpoint?’” Nelson said. “NASA is going to appropriately look at it through the lens of its scientists.”

The UFO report is expected to be released to the public by the end of the month.  It’s unclear how much the government will reveal of its findings because of national security concerns. 

{ https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando }

01-07-2021 om 23:30 geschreven door peter  

01-07-2021 om 23:14 geschreven door peter  

Chichen Itza: Ancient Maya City Built Above A Gateway to the Underworld

Chichen Itza is an ancient Mayan city located in the northern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The city is though to have been founded around the 6th century AD. Nevertheless, it only rose to prominence several centuries later. Chichen Itza dominated the Yucatan Peninsula during the early part of the postclassic Mayan period, from about the 10th to 13th centuries AD. The supremacy of the city during this period is reflected by the great monuments that were constructed by its rulers. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Chichen Itza had been largely left abandoned. Since the 19th century, the site has been explored and excavated by archaeologists. Apart from being an active archaeological site, Chichen Itza is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico.

Where does the name Chichen Itza come from?

The name Chichen Itza comes from a combination of three separate Mayan words. Chi means “mouth” or “edge”, chen means “well,” and Itza is the name of the Mayan ethnic group that settled at the site. Therefore, the name of this ancient city may be said to mean “the mouth of the well of the Itzas.” The word Itza can also be translated to mean “magicians of the water”. This is because Itza itself is a combination of two words, itz, meaning “magic”, and a, meaning “water”.

Chichen Itza is thought to have been founded during the 6th century AD, presumably by the Maya peoples who had occupied the Yucatan Peninsula since the preclassic period, which lasted from around 1500 BC to 300 AD. There is evidence that during the 10th century the city was invaded by foreigners. It was around this time that the Maya cities of the southern lowlands were collapsing. The identity of these invaders, however, is not entirely clear. Some scholars, for instance, believe the invaders were the Itza, whilst others believe that they were Maya who were influenced by the Toltecs of central Mexico, or even the Toltecs themselves. There is also a suggestion that the Itza came to occupy the site, though only two or three centuries after this initial invasion.

Relief sculpture in the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza showing sacrifice by decapitation.

( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Interestingly, there is evidence in the Books of the Chilam Balam (“Chilam Balam” meaning “Secrets of the Soothsayers”) that Chichen Itza had a different name prior to the arrival of the Itza. Since there is no single standard of orthography for the Yucatec Maya, the original name for the site has been represented in different ways, including Uuc Yabnal , Uuc Habnal , Uuc Hab Nal , or Uc Abnal . Whilst Uuc or Uc means “seven”, the meaning of the second word varies. Yab, for instance, means “many”, whilst an ab is a type of fruit.

The Sacred Cenote: Ritual Sinkhole Becomes Treasure Trove for Archaeologists

One of the factors that led to the establishment of a settlement at Chichen Itza is the presence of several cenotes at the site. These are large, natural sinkholes that serve as a source of water. Considering that the northern Yucatan is arid, and that its interior has no above-ground rivers, cenotes would have played an important role in the survival of the people who lived there. The most famous cenote at Chichen Itza is the Cenote Sagrada or Sacred Cenote, which was formed by a collapsed cave in the limestone bedrock.

The Sacred Cenote is considered one of the largest repositories of offerings in the Americas.

( Subbotina Anna /Adobe Stock)

As its name suggests, the Sacred Cenote was not just a source of water, but was also a place of ritual significance. According to sources written during the Spanish period, the Maya deposited luxury goods, and made human sacrifices at cenotes as a means of worshipping Chaac, the Maya rain god. Over time, researchers have found truth in these claims, as a variety of luxury goods have been found deposited in the cenote. As a matter of fact, the Sacred Cenote is considered to be one of the largest repositories of offerings found in the Americas during the pre-Columbian period.

During the 20th century, the Sacred Cenote has been investigated by archaeologists. Between 1904 and 1910, for example, a controversial dredging project was undertaken by the American archaeologist Edward Herbert Thompson. The project recovered a large quantity of artifacts, including pottery, gold objects, and goods made of jade. In addition, human remains, which displayed wounds consistent with ritual sacrifice, were found.

Deciphering History Through Architecture at Chichen Itza

As mentioned earlier, Chichen Itza was established during the 6th century AD, but was later captured by foreign invaders. This change in the city’s occupants is physically visible in the structures that have survived. Before the coming of the Itza, the inhabitants of Chichen Itza constructed their buildings in an architectural style known as Puuc. This style is named after the Puuc Hills to the southwest of Chichen Itza, and may be identified by several characteristics. For instance, Puuc buildings normally face inwards towards the city’s ceremonial plaza, and are grouped around a general north-south axis. Apart from that, Puuc buildings consist of a solid core of stone and plaster, covered by well-cut, worked stone that serves a purely ornamental function.

Aerial view of Chichen Itza, UNESCO World Heritage site.

( CC BY 3.0 )

The buildings of Chichen Itza that were constructed in the Puuc style are located to the south of the main plaza, in the area known today as Chichen Viejo , or Old Chichen. The structures of Old Chichen are considered to be the oldest in the site, and include el Caracol , la Iglesia , and the Akabtzib. El Caracol , which means “the snail”, named as such after the stone spiral staircase within it. The structure consists of a round building (where the staircase is found) on a square platform, and it served as a sophisticated astronomical observatory. La Iglesia , meaning “the church,” is a small temple decorated with elaborate masks of Chaac, whereas the Akabtzib, which is Maya for “House of the Dark Writing’, was the home of the city’s administrator. The name of the latter is derived from the intricately carved glyphs found on the lintel above one of the structure’s doorways. Incidentally, the building was once known as “The Flat House with the Excessive Number of Chambers.”

Temple of Kukulcan: The Mesoamerican Step-Pyramid at the Heart of Chichen Itza

The most famous monuments at Chichen Itza, however, were only built after the arrival of the foreign invaders. These include El Castillo , the Great Ball Court, and the Temple of the Warriors. El Castillo, meaning “the castle,” is arguably the most recognizable monument of Chichen Itza. This structure, known also as the Temple of Kukulcan, is situated at the center of the city. The prominence of the temple is enhanced by the fact that it is the tallest structure at the site. The pyramid itself is 24 m (78.7 ft.) in height, whilst the temple on the platform is 6 m (19.7 ft.). Thus, the entire monument is 30 m (98 ft.) high. In addition, the Temple of Kukulacan is the largest temple in Chichen Itza, having a base measuring 53.3 m (174.9 ft.) on all four sides.         

El Castillo, know as the Temple of Kukulcan, at the center of Chichen Itza.

( CC BY-SA 4.0 )

The Temple of Kukulcan is not only impressive for its size, but also for the mathematical brilliance of its architects. According to legend, twice a year, when day and night are in balance, Kukulcan (the Maya version of Quetzalcoatl) would visit this temple. The god would commune with his followers, give them his blessings, and continue into the sacred waters. After taking a bath there, he would continue his journey to the Underworld. The architects of the Temple of Kukulcan designed the pyramid in such a way that during the equinox, those who came to the temple would be treated to a magical spectacle of light and shadow. For five hours on those days, the shadow of seven triangles would appear on the side of the staircase, starting from the top, and making its way down to the giant stone head of Kukulcan at the bottom. The top and the bottom of the pyramid are connected by the shadows for 45 minutes, before it slowly descends, and disappears. For the ancient Maya, this must have been proof of the legend. Interestingly, this phenomenon has been recreated artificially in modern times on a nightly basis, so that tourists need not wait for the equinox to see it.

Great Ball Court and the Temple of a Thousand Warriors

To the northwest of the Temple of Kukulcan is located the Great Ball Court. Although seven ball courts have been discovered at Chichen Itza, this one is considered to be the most impressive. The Great Ball Court measures 166 m (544.6 ft.) by 68 m (223.1 ft.), making it the largest ball court in Mesoamerica. The walls of the court are 12 m (39.4 ft.) high, on the top of which are rings carved with intertwining serpents. The walls are also decorated by sculpted reliefs. One of these reliefs has been interpreted as depicting the victors of a game holding the decapitated head of a member of the losing team.

Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza

( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

As for the Temple of a Thousand Warriors, this is a large, stepped pyramid with rows of carved columns portraying warriors. The columns are located in front and on the side of the temple. Similarities in design have been noted between this temple and Temple B at Tula, the Toltec capital. This has led to the suggestion that there were cultural contacts between the peoples of the two cities.

Decline of Chichen Itza and the Spanish Conquest

Scholars believe that Chichen Itza dominated the Yucatan Peninsula between the 10th and 13th centuries. According to written sources, a revolt and civil war broke out about 1221 in Chichen Itza, leading to the city’s decline. This is corroborated by the archaeological evidence, as the wooden roofs of the Temple of the Warriors and the Great Market were found to have been burned around this time. In more recent years, however, archaeologists have suggested that Chichen Itza went into decline around the 11th century, 200 years earlier than originally thought.

• What Happened to the Maya?
• Advanced Engineering Discovered at the Maya Observatory at Chichen Itza
• Kukulcan, the Snake God of the Maya, Remains as a Legacy of the Once-Powerful Civilization

After its decline, Chichen Itza was replaced by Mayapan, a neighbouring city to its west, as the dominant power on the peninsula. For a period of time, Chichen Itza joined Mayapan and Uxmal to form a political confederacy called the League of Mayapan. The league, along with the supremacy of Mayapan, came to an end around 1450. During the 16th century, the Spanish arrived on the Yucatan Peninsula, and began their conquest of the Maya. Chichen Itza was claimed by the conquistador Franciso de Montejo in 1531. Although de Montejo intended to make the city the capital of Spanish Yucatan, he failed to do so, as the Spanish were driven out by a native Maya revolt several months later.

Page from the illustrated book Incidents of Travel in Yucutan by John Lloyd Stephens.

( Metropolitan Museum of Art / CC0 )

Forgotten Maya Ruins Capture the Imagination

In any case, by the time of de Montejo’s arrival, Chichen Itza had been largely abandoned, as its inhabitants had moved to smaller towns. The situation remained as such in the centuries that followed, and the site was gradually reclaimed by the jungle. Although Chichen Itza remained sacred to the Maya, it was slowly forgotten by the rest of the world. The site, however, entered popular imagination during the 19th century. In 1843, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan was published by the American explorer, John Lloyd Stephens. As a result of Stephens’ book, which recounted his journey in the Yucatan Peninsula, other explorers began to visit the ancient Maya city.

In the decades that followed, various archaeological excavations were conducted at Chichen Itza . As a result of these investigations, the site’s ruins were mapped, and some monuments were restored. The archaeological work at the site has also led to a greater understanding of Chichen Itza. Archaeologists continue to work at Chichen Itza even today, on the hunt for new discoveries. In 2019, for instance, archaeologists were searching for a sacred well under the city. Instead, as they were exploring the Balamku, or ‘Jaguar God’ cave system, they stumbled upon a trove of over 150 ritual objects.

Chichen Itza has become an extremely popular tourist attraction. Stephens’ book not only prompted archaeologists to explore the site, but tourists were not far behind. In the early 1920s, for example, Yucatan’s first official tourism business was established. In recent years, it has been estimated that up to two million tourists visit Chichen Itza annually, which makes it one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. Chichen Itza is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 2007 it was voted as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a global survey of more than 100 million people.

• Top image: The Maya pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza in Mexico.
• Source: IRStone /Adobe Stock

By Wu Mingren

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/general }

01-07-2021 om 22:28 geschreven door peter  

Hyperborea: Mythical Land That Fascinated Writers of the Ancient World

Hyperborea is a location in Greek mythology. The inhabitants of this mythical land are known as Hyperboreans, whom the ancient Greeks believed enjoyed extremely long lives. Hyperborea is mentioned by a number of Greek and Roman writers, including Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Pindar. Although Hyperborea is a mythical land, there has been speculation over the ages that it is a real place on earth. This has led to a number of theories about its exact location. In addition, attempts have been made to connect the Hyperboreans with real, historical peoples.

The name ‘Hyperborea’ may be translated to mean ‘Beyond the North Wind’, which is an indication of where the ancient Greeks thought this land was located. According to Greek mythology, the North Wind, personified by the god Boreas, lived in Thrace. Therefore, Hyperborea would logically be placed to the north of Thrace. Hyperborea, however, was one of the terrae incognitae (Latin for ‘unknown lands’) of the ancient Greeks and Romans. These were regions which have neither been mapped nor documented. In other words, Hyperborea might very well be a place that exists only in myth. And many of the stories told about Hyperborea and the Hyperboreans are quite unbelievable.

Hyperborea Mentioned Repeatedly by Herodotus

One of the ancient writers who mentions Hyperborea many times in his work is the Greek historian Herodotus. The so-called ‘father of history’ wrote about the Hyperborea in Book IV of his Histories. In one part of this book, Herodotus writes:

“Aristeas the son of Caystrobus, who came from Proconnesus, claimed in a poem that he visited the Issedones in a state of inspiration by Apollo, that beyond the Issedones lived a one-eyed race called the Arimaspians, beyond them there is the land of the gold-guarding griffins, and beyond them the Hyperboreans, all the way to the sea. All these people, from the Arimaspians on, except the Hyperboreans, are constantly attacking their neighbors.”

Ancient north pole map of mythical lands including the central continent of Hyperborea.

(Abraham Ortelius / Public domain )

Herodotus seems to be skeptical about the existence of Hyperborea, but nevertheless informs his readers that this mythical land has been mentioned by two of ancient Greece’s most revered poets, Hesiod and Homer:

“None of the tribes living there, including the Scythians, have anything to say about the Hyperboreans. Perhaps the Issedones do, but I do not think so, because if they did the Scythians would have stories about them too, just as they do about the one-eyed people. Hesiod, however, has mentioned the Hyperboreans, and so has Homer in the Epigoni (if indeed Homer is the author of this poem).”

Herodotus then points out that most of the stories about Hyperborea are told by the inhabitants of the sacred island of Delos, “The overwhelming majority of the stories about the Hyperboreans come from Delos.” The historian goes on to relate some of the tales about the Hyperboreans, in which Delos, as one might expect, plays a prominent role. One of these, for instance, relates to the way sacred objects were transported from Hyperborea to Delos:

“The Delians say that sacred objects are tied up inside a bundle of wheat straws and are transported from the Hyperboreans first to Scythia, then westward as far as possible – that is, to the Adriatic – through a chain of successive neighbouring tribes, then south to Dodona (which is the first Greek community to receive them), then to the Gulf of Malia, where they cross over to Euboea, where they are passed from town to town until they reach Carystus, at which stage Andros is omitted, because the Carystians are the ones taking them to Tenos, and from Tenos the objects are conveyed to Delos. So this is how these sacred objects are said to reach Delos.”

The next story provided by Herodotus explains why the sacred objects were delivered in such a manner. According to the historian, the first time the sacred objects were sent to Delos, they were carried by two Hyperborean women, Hyperoche and Laodice (according to the Delians). The women were accompanied by five Hyperborean men who protected them and served as their escorts. These envoys, however, never returned home, causing the rest of the Hyperboreans to worry that the people they sent to deliver sacred objects in the future would not come back either. Therefore, they devised the method in which the objects were passed from one group of people to another, until they arrived in Delos.

Herodotus states that Hyperoche and Laodice accomplished their mission, and stayed in Delos, rather than returning home. After their deaths, the women were worshipped by the Delians and commemorated in a special ritual:

“Now, the death of the young women who came from the Hyperboreans is commemorated on Delos by a hair-cutting ritual performed by the girls and boys of the island. Before they get married, the girls cut off a lock of hair, wind it around a spindle and put in on the tomb (which is inside the sanctuary of Artemis, on the left as one enters, and an olive-tree has grown over it), and the Delian boys wind some of their hair around a twig and put it on the tomb as well. So that is how these Hyperborean women are worshipped by the inhabitants of Delos.”

Herodotus’ last story about the Hyperboreans is that of Arge and Opis, a pair of women who also travelled from Hyperborea to Delos. The women are said to have made the journey before Hyperoche and Laodice, though for a different purpose. Arge and Opis went to the island in order to pay tribute to Eileithyia, the Greek goddess of childbirth, in exchange for a quick and easy labor at childbirth.

According to Herodotus, the Delians claimed that the two women were accompanied by the gods themselves, and received different honors when they came to Delos. The women of the island begged gifts for Arge and Opis, whilst calling on the pair by name in the words of the hymn composed by Olen of Lycia in their honor. This practice has spread from Delos to the other Aegean islands and Ionia. Like Hyperoche and Laodice, the tombs of Arge and Opis are also found on the island: “This tomb of theirs is situated behind the grounds of the sanctuary of Artemis, facing east, right next to the banqueting-hall of the Ceans.”

Head of Herodotus, the “father of history” who wrote the most about Hyperborea.

(© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Public domain )

Before ending his discussion about Hyperborea, Herodotus mentions in passing a figure called Abaris. As the historian says that he was not going to repeat the story of Abaris, it may be assumed that Herodotus’ readers were familiar with this tale. In any case, we learn from Herodotus that this Abaris was believed to be a Hyperborean, and that he “carried an arrow all the way around the world without eating anything.” Herodotus ends this section with a playful suggestion about people living beyond the South Wind, “But if there are Hyperboreans, there should also be Hyperenotians, people living beyond the south wind.”

Pliny The Elder and Hyperborea

Although Herodotus provides several stories related to the Hyperboreans, he does not talk much about Hyperborea itself, apart from its general location. Therefore, one has to rely on other ancient sources to fill in the gaps left by Herodotus. One such source is Natural History , written by Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist and natural philosopher. Pliny mentions the Hyperboreans in Book IV of his work, and begins with the general location of Hyperborea:

“Along the [Black Sea] coast [of Europe], as far as the river Tanais [known today as the Don], are the Mæotæ, from whom the lake derives its name, and the last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then come to the Riphæan mountains, and the region known by the name of Pterophoros, because of the perpetual fall of snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.

Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the Hyperborei.”

Pliny the Elder of Rome who also wrote a lot about Hyperborea

(Wolfgang Sauber / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Like Herodotus before him, Pliny seems to express his doubts about the existence of the Hyperboreans. Unlike the Greek historian, however, Pliny does not go straight into Delian-related Hyperborean stories. (Incidentally, the story about the Hyperboreans sending sacred objects to Delos via neighboring tribes can be found at the end of Pliny’s account of Hyperborea.) Instead, Pliny provides his readers with more details about Hyperborea itself:

“At this spot are supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months together, given by the Sun in one continuous day, who does not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal himself from the vernal equinox to autumn. On the contrary, to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from every noxious blast.”

Pliny continues his account with information about the Hyperboreans themselves. Apart from referring to the Hyperboreans “a race that lives to an extreme old age,” earlier on, Pliny also wrote the following:

“The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable mode of ending existence.”

• Eight Legendary Creatures from Greek Mythology That You Might Not Know About
• Thucydides Versus Herodotus: Who Was the Real Father of History?
• What Did Ancient Civilizations Believe Lay at The Edges of the Earth?

From Pliny’s work, it is clear that even in ancient times the exact location of Hyperborea was a puzzle. Several competing hypotheses about Hyperborea’s actual whereabouts are mentioned by the Roman writer. For instance, Pliny mentions some ancient writers claimed that Hyperborea is located on the edge of the shores of Asia. These writers argued that a people called the Attacori, who resemble the Hyperboreans, lived in that region, which has very similar conditions to Hyperborea. Other writers argued that the region lies “midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us.” Pliny discounts this hypothesis, considering the “vast tract of sea which there intervenes” A third hypothesis states that Hyperborea is located “nowhere but under a day which lasts for six months,” and that the Hyperboreans sow in the morning, reap at mid-day, gather the fruits of the trees at sunset, and conceal themselves in caves at night.

Bust of the lyric Roman poet Pindar whose poems mention Hyperborea

(Stas Kozlovsky / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Other Talk of Hyperborea

Hyperborea is also mentioned in works by ancient poets. These poetic works provide us with more information about this mythical land. The Hyperboreans, for instance, appear in Pindar’s Olympian Ode III . In his poem, Pindar claims that Heracles had travelled to Hyperborea to obtain an olive tree from its inhabitants. The hero begged for the tree “to make shade for all men to share, and for brave deeds of valorous spirits, a crown.” In another poem, Pythian Ode X , Pindar places the slaying of Medusa by Perseus in Hyperborea, and paints the region as a place of great happiness:

“The Muse is not absent from their customs; all around swirl the dances of girls, the lyre’s loud chords and the cries of flutes. They wreathe their hair with golden laurel branches and revel joyfully. No sickness or ruinous old age is mixed into that sacred race.”

Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Pindar were not the only ancient authors who wrote about Hyperborea. Other well known figures who mention this mythical region include Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Ovid, and Strabo.

The large amount of work written about Hyperborea by these ancient authors shows that there was a great fascination with this land. As a matter of fact, this fascination has survived till this day, as some have sought to identify the location of Hyperborea, which may help to prove its existence. Nevertheless, there is still no consensus to the location of Hyperborea, assuming this paradise even exists in the first place.

• Top image: Boreas, Greek God of the North Wind, who is strongly connected with the mythical land of Hyperborea, abducting Oreithyia.   Source: Giovanni Francesco Romanelli / Public domain .

By Wu Mingren

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{  https://www.ancient-origins.net/general }

01-07-2021 om 22:05 geschreven door peter  

 Bruce Dorminey -  Contributor Science

I cover aerospace, astronomy and host The Cosmic Controversy Podcast.

For the past two decades, planetary scientists have been trying to solve the mystery surrounding measurements of atmospheric methane on Mars. This includes repeated detections of this potential biosignature right above the surface of Mars’ Gale Crater by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

But as yet, the European Space Agency’S (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has come up empty when looking for methane higher in the Martian atmosphere, says NASA.

“When the Trace Gas Orbiter came on board in 2016, I was fully expecting the orbiter team to report that there’s a small amount of methane everywhere on Mars,” Chris Webster, lead of the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) instrument in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) chemistry lab aboard the Curiosity rover, said in a statement.

But now NASA thinks it may have found a solution. 

Because it needs a lot of power, TLS operates mostly at night when no other Curiosity instruments are working, says NASA. That’s when the Martian atmosphere is calm at night and methane seeping from the ground builds up near the surface where Curiosity can detect it, the agency notes. 

ESA’S Trace Gas Orbiter, on the other hand, requires sunlight to pinpoint methane about 3 miles above the surface.

So, NASA made specific measurements using the TLS instrument during daytime and also confirmed a non-detection of the methane gas. Webster and colleagues detailed their results this week in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal. 

{ https://www.forbes.com/ }

01-07-2021 om 21:39 geschreven door peter  

Beetles are everywhere—and new members of Earth’s most diverse group of organisms are being discovered nearly every day. Now, for the first time, scientists have found a new species in an unusual place: the fossilized poop of a dinosaur ancestor. Found whole and remarkably intact, the 230-million-year-old beetle, named Triamyxa coprolithica, is the first insect to be scientifically described from fossilized feces, also known as coprolites.

“This is very exciting research,” says Spencer Lucas, a paleontologist at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, who was not involved in the work. “This study is cutting edge and explores a whole new area of paleontology that has only been understood in the last decade.”

Coprolites are abundant in museum and research collections around the world. But until recently, Lucas says, few scientists examined these “little capsules of incredible fossil record” for their content, largely because researchers did not think small insects could successfully pass through a digestive system and end up in a recognizable form. Instead, paleontologists got most of their information about insect evolution from unlucky ones trapped in amber, or fossilized tree resin. But these fossils aren’t very old, geologically speaking: The most ancient ones date back to about 140 million years ago.

To discover whether coprolites could indeed preserve insect remains, Uppsala University paleontologist Martin Qvarnström and colleagues examined fossilized droppings from Poland that has previously been associated with the Triassic period, some 230 million years ago. They selected a coprolite fragment nearly 2 centimeters long that, based on its broken ends, suggested it was part of a much larger piece that might be more likely to contain things inside it. Then, they subjected the whole specimen to an intense x-ray beam at a synchrotron. By rotating the coprolite in the beam, they created 3D reconstructions of the coprolite’s contents. What they saw astounded them: incredibly preserved, nearly complete insects just 1.4 millimeters long, as well as fragments like heads, antennae, and legs, they report today in Current Biology.

The new species came from dung presumed to have been excreted by Silesaurus opolensis, a beaked dinosaur ancestor about 2.3 meters in length. The beetles were well preserved because coprolites act as microenvironments that can preserve organic material, including soft tissues, without any of the flattening that comes with other fossil types.

This extinct beetle likely belonged to a group known as Myxophaga, small beetles that thrive on algae in wet habitats, says study co-author Martin Fikáček, an entomologist at National Sun Yat-sen University. The team categorized it taxonomically by noting shared characteristics, like the number of abdomen segments or the position of the antennae, to modern Myxophaga, of which four lineages still survive today. The find is remarkable, Qvarnström says. “We have found bits and pieces [of insects in fossilized feces] before, but not enough to describe a new species, genus, and family,” like this.

These reconstructed images and models (see video above) not only reveal the new beetle species, but also offer information about the diets and environments of the animals that ate them, Qvarnström says. Such analyses can help scientists understand ancient food webs and how the dinosaur ancestors lived and interacted in this ancient ecosystem. By scanning coprolites from earlier and later in the Triassic period, the team also hopes to learn about insect evolution. 

As for T. coprolithica, researchers say there is no way of knowing why it went extinct while its cousins survived into the modern era. Fikáček says it is likely to have been a combination of random events and sheer bad luck. “Extinction is always the trickiest part out of all these things to understand,” he says.

Related information about fossil discovery is shown on Blast World Mysteries' YouTube video below:

{ https://science.sciencemag.org/ }

01-07-2021 om 21:02 geschreven door peter  

The violent birth of modern man: The incredible ancient stone carvings that reveal how a devastating comet impact 13,000 years ago killed thousands, altered the climate and triggered the rise of the first civilisations

• Scientists were analysing symbols carved on pillars at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey

• Using memorial carvings they pinpointed a comet impact to around 11,000BC

• The comet triggered a mini ice age that lasted 1,000 years

• This ice age forced humans to develop farming techniques to grow their crops

By HARRY PETTIT FOR MAILONLINE 

Ancient symbols carved into stone at an archaeological site in Turkey tell the story of a devastating comet impact that triggered a mini ice age more than 13,000 years ago, scientists believe.

Evidence from the carvings, made on a pillar known as the Vulture Stone, suggests that a swarm of comet fragments hit the Earth in around 11000 BC.

One image of a headless man is thought to symbolise human disaster and extensive loss of life. 

The devastating event, which wiped out creatures such as woolly mammoths, also helped spark the rise of civilisation.

Scroll down for video 

Ancient stone carvings confirm that a swarm of comets hit Earth 13,000 years ago sparking the rise of civilisations and wiping out the woolly mammoth. Pictured are the stone carvings used in the team's research, found on pillar 43 or 'the Vulture Stone' at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey

Scientists have speculated for decades that a comet could have caused the sharp drop in temperature during a period known as the Younger Dryas.

The Younger Dryas is seen as a crucial period in humanity's history as it coincides with the beginnings of agriculture and the first Neolithic civilisations.

Scientists were analysing the mysterious symbols carved onto stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey to find out if they could be linked to constellations. 

Engineers from the University of Edinburgh studied animal carvings made on a pillar – known as the vulture stone – at the site.

By interpreting the animals as astronomical symbols, and using computer software to match their positions to patterns of stars, researchers dated the event to 10,950BC.

It probably resulted from the break-up of a giant comet in the inner solar system. 

This is around the time the Younger Dryas period began according to ice core data from Greenland, which pinpoints the event to 10,890BC.

Before the comet strike, large fields of barley and wheat had allowed roaming hunters in the Middle East to set up permanent base camps.

Evidence from the carvings, made on a pillar known as the Vulture Stone, suggests that a swarm of comet fragments hit the Earth in around 11000 BC. The different symbols, said to tell the story, are labeled in the graphic above

But the ice-cold conditions created by the impact forced these hunters to band together and find new ways to grow crops.

They developed watering and selective breeding to help their crops last against the harsh climate, forming modern farming practices.

The carvings appear to have remained important to the people of Gobekli Tepe for millennia, the Edinburgh researchers said. 

This suggests that the event and cold climate that followed likely had a serious impact.

The comet's impact killed thousands of people and triggered a mini ice age that lasted more than 1,000 years. Pictured is a replica of the Vulture Stone at Sanliurfa Museum in Turkey

By interpreting the animals as astronomical symbols, and using computer software to match their positions to patterns of stars, researchers dated the event to 10,950BC. This image shows the position of the sun and stars on the summer solstice of 10,950BC

The team suggest the images were intended as a record of the cataclysmic event.

A further carving showing a headless man may indicate human disaster and extensive loss of life, they said.

Furthermore, symbolism on the pillars indicates that the long-term changes in Earth's rotational axis was recorded at this time using an early form of writing.  

The symbolism suggests that Gȍbekli Tepe was an observatory for meteors and comets.

The find supports a theory that Earth is likely to experience periods when comet strikes are more likely, owing to Earth's orbit intersecting orbiting rings of comet fragments in space.

Stone pillars at Gobleki Tepe, thought to be the world's oldest temple site. Scientists have speculated for decades that a comet could have caused the sharp drop in temperature during a period known as the Younger Dryas around 11,000BC

More stone pillars found at the Gobleki Tepe temple site. The Younger Dryas is seen as a crucial period in humanity's history as it coincides with the beginnings of agriculture and the first Neolithic civilisations

Dr Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering, who led the research, said: 'I think this research, along with the recent finding of a widespread platinum anomaly across the North American continent, virtually seal the case in favour of (a Younger Dryas comet impact).

'Our work serves to reinforce that physical evidence. What is happening here is the process of paradigm change.

'It appears Göbekli Tepe was, among other things, an observatory for monitoring the night sky.

'One of its pillars seems to have served as a memorial to this devastating event – probably the worst day in history since the end of the ice age.'

Scientists were analysing the mysterious symbols carved onto stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey to find out if they could be linked to constellations

The find supports a theory that Earth is likely to experience periods when comet strikes are more likely, owing to Earth's orbit intersecting orbiting rings of comet fragments in space (stock image)

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-07-2021 om 18:32 geschreven door peter  

Catastrophic Comet Impact 13,000 Years Ago Likely Sparked the Rise of Civilization

Humans suddenly changed around 13,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherer societies began to rapidly change their way of life. They began to build permanent settlements and focused their efforts on farming. The oldest man-made megalithic structures around were also built around this period. Was a comet impact the reason behind this rapid development of human civilization?

 Vladislav Tchakarov 

01-07-2021 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

8 takeaways from the government's big UFO report

  Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) - On Friday evening the US intelligence community released something remarkable: An unclassified report to Congress of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) aka UFOs.

Which is a big deal! Especially when you consider that, for decades, the American government totally denied the existence of flying objects that they simply could not identify or, in some situations, explain.

The 9-page report isn't exactly an exhaustive study of UFOs, nor does it confirm or debunk the existence of alien life. And that it was released on a Friday night in the summer is also not an accident in terms of the government doing everything they can to bury the report.

Despite all of that, there were a number of interesting tidbits in the report. I pulled out some key quotes -- and added some context as well. That's below.

1. "Our analysis of the data supports the construct that if and when individual UAP incidents are resolved they will fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall 'other' bin."

OK, so there are five basic categories for UFOs according to the report: Random airborne, uh, stuff (like birds), weather phenomenons, defense prototypes -- either from the US or "foreign adversary systems" and then the "other bin." And, yes, I (and the rest of the world) am most interested in the "other" bin.

2. "After carefully considering this information, the UAPTF focused on reports that involved UAP largely witnessed firsthand by military aviators and that were collected from systems we considered to be reliable."

The UAPTF is short for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, of course. (There's nothing that the government likes more than acronyms.) And, what this line says is that the task force decided to give precedence to UFO reports "witnessed firsthand by military aviators." Which is rightly read to mean that these reports are a) serious and b) credible.

A movie poster from the 1950s shows how Hollywood envisioned UFOs

3. "No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019. The Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism in November 2020, but it remains limited to USG reporting."

Amazing! There was no formal way within the government to record UFO sightings until the Navy started one in 2019!!! And the Air Force didn't follow suit until, roughly, six months ago! Which reveals a) how resistant the government has been to acknowledging UFOs and b) how many sightings were almost certainly missed.

4. "[There were] 144 reports originated from USG sources. Of these, 80 reports involved observation with multiple sensors."

This line establishes the universe, ahem, that the task force examined. There were incidents between 2004 and 2021 -- and more than half were confirmed by "multiple sensors."

5. "Narratives from aviators in the operational community and analysts from the military and IC describe disparagement associated with observing UAP, reporting it, or attempting to discuss it with colleagues. Although the effects of these stigmas have lessened as senior members of the scientific, policy, military, and intelligence communities engage on the topic seriously in public, reputational risk may keep many observers silent, complicating scientific pursuit of the topic."

Important stuff here -- an acknowledgment that the number of reports of UFOs may have been kept artificially low because of the stigma long attached to reporting these sorts of things, particularly among the military and intelligence community. That, according to the task force, has lessened somewhat as "senior members of the scientific, policy, military, and intelligence communities engage on the topic seriously in public."

6. "In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics. Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings."

Eyes emoji!!!! Like, this seems like a big deal! A total of 18 incidents where UFOs "appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion." In plain English, that means that military personnel spotted unidentified aerial phenomena that appeared to be unaffected by wind, move in ways that can't be explained and be propelled in ways that can't be explained. Which is very, very interesting.

7. "With the exception of the one instance where we determined with high confidence that the reported UAP was airborne clutter, specifically a deflating balloon, we currently lack sufficient information in our dataset to attribute incidents to specific explanations."

So, one time the thing that people thought was a UFO was a "deflating balloon." But, ALL the other times the military and intelligence community can't explain what the heck the UFO actually was. Which, again, BIG DEAL.

8. "Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them."

Most of these episodes remain mysterious, according to the report, because there simply isn't adequate information on hand to explain them. Then, however, there are some incidents that "may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them." Like, advanced science beyond our current capacity. Interesting!

{ https://edition.cnn.com/ }

01-07-2021 om 17:57 geschreven door peter  

Translation of 5,500-Year-Old Babel Text from China Reveals Oldest Known Map of Inner Solar System

It is obvious to any astronomer that some of the brightest objects in the night sky are the planets. It is thus mysterious that there are so few references to the planets in ancient literature.

Prior to decoding the Babel Text , which is an archaic geometric text that is based on astronomy, the oldest representation of the planets orbiting around the sun was ancient Greek philosophers Hicetas and Philolaus’ discussion on the planets orbiting a hot ball of metal, but there is little to indicate that they knew the relative orbital distances.

Identifying Astronomical Details with the Babel Text

However, with Dr. Derek Cunningham’s recent discovery of the Babel Text, a 5,300 to 5,600-Year-Old text from Lingjiatan, China, our understanding of the ancient past has changed dramatically. Now it is possible to read the enigmatic geometrical symbols on ancient artifacts and to identify subtle astronomical details that prior historians have missed.

In China, one of the most intriguing sites is Lingjiatan. The Lingjiatan culture existed from 5,500 to 4,000 years ago; and at around the same time as Stonehenge was constructed, the Chinese also created astronomical observatories and stone circles. Remarkably, the larger stones used to create the Chinese stone circles were not local to the area, which is the exact same trend seen later at Stonehenge.

• Stone Age Text Links Australia to Europe: Initial Evidence for Worldwide Travel by an Ancient Stone Age Civilization
• Did Humans Speak Through Cave Art? Ancient Drawings and Language's Origins
• Religious statues from Cyprus show evidence of astronomical writing

A tomb full of grave goods at Lingjiatan in China.

( Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology )

Amongst the thousands of artifacts recovered at site 87M4:30, two items have caught the attention of Chinese archaeologists and historians.

A Depiction of Heaven and Earth

The first is an engraved geometric plaque that was found in 1987 between two jade tortoise shells that draws the ancient Chinese description of Heaven and Earth. This is a geometric drawing with lines radiating through two concentric circles, with four arrow-type symbols placed on the outer circle.

At the center of this complex drawing is an eight pointed star that is still used as a pattern in local tribal clothing. For example, the Yi describe (note: the linked text is in Chinese) the eight pointed star as the "the heaven and earth gossip pattern."

A representation (not the actual image) of the Jade Heaven and Earth plaque from Lingjiatan.

Credit: Derek Cunningham

This symbol is also mentioned in the Chinese document called the “Book of Changes”, where it is said the universe began in a state of chaos called Taiji and it was centered on the rotation of the North Pole. Then order developed from this chaos and Taiji created two Yis. One Yi was called Earth (Yin). The other Yi was called Heaven (Yiang).

In the book “Chinese Jade”, the author Ming Yu then states that Yin created what was called the four Xiangs, which is represented by four arrow-type images. These are argued by Chinese historians to be the same symbols drawn on this jade plaque. Then Yin developed into the shape of a square (perhaps reflecting a rectangular Mercator Map of Earth), and the heavens then circled three (or four) times around Earth. The jade plaque is dated differently by various researchers, but it is normally considered to be between 5,600 to 5,300 years old (see work by Li Liu, and Xingcan Chen.)

Variant of the Taijitu ("supreme ultimate diagram"). A number of similar such diagrams are known from the Ming-era Daoist canon. The origin of this particular design is unknown (but it likely predates the 18th century). ( Public Domain ) A more detailed explanation surrounding this ancient description of a square-shaped Earth is provided in “ The Map that Talked ”; which looks at the creation of an intriguing Stone Age map, which uses the stars to create a relatively accurate map of Earth.

This archaic map can also explain the various aquatic descriptions that the Greeks gave to the constellations; where it is found that, when an expanded map of the stars is wrapped three times around Earth the Greek water constellations intriguingly mark the oceans and the constellations that describe heroes that did not drown mark the continents. The same book also describes the initial discovery of the original Babel Text.

“Aquarius, Piscis Australis & Ballon Aerostatique”, plate 26 in Urania's Mirror, a set of celestial cards accompanied by A familiar treatise on astronomy ... by Jehoshaphat Aspin. London. Astronomical chart, 1 print on layered paper board: etching, hand-colored.

( Public Domain )

Language in the Babel Text

Though many dedicated Ancient Origin readers will know of Derek Cunningham’s prior work, where he analyzed many geometric symbols around the world and noted the archaic patterns were apparently used as a very simple code, in which the angles of the lines were set to reflect the key astronomical values that astronomers used to calculate time and predict eclipses, few will have heard the phrase, “The Babel Texts”.

The reason for now referring to these lines as being the original written and spoken world language comes from a preliminary analysis that has recovered a phonetic code that can be attached to the lines. This means the lines are both mathematical values (that reflect astronomical terms) and a type of alphabet, where each line can be given a consonant that depends on the angle of the line.

To this pictorial text a vowel can also be attached, where the vowel depends on whether the offset is to above or below the horizontal, or to the right or left of the vertical.

This idea is discussed in much more detail in the author’s latest book “The Babel Texts”, where the basic conclusion is that the same astronomical code was used worldwide, including in Australia and in North and South America, during the Stone Age.

Part of the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement in Victoria, Australia.

(Ray Norris/ CC BY SA 2.5 )

Intriguingly, though the original world “spoken” language rapidly diverged over time, it appears the written text was far more resistant to change, and that permits more modern texts, such as proto-cuneiform and other angular-based texts such as Irish Ogham , to be used to recover phonetic clues; which now brings us back to the Chinese Neolithic Lingjiatan astronomical site and a second intriguing pattern that was found on a jade eagle.

The Jade Eagle

The Babel Text also appears on this jade artifact, but what is important about this archaic text is the pattern apparently names six planets and the moon and the sun. From its layout it is possible to extract the names of the celestial bodies.

The most important point to note is the inverted triangles on this jade eagle are almost all symmetrical. The exception is just one pairing, which is created using the -18.6, -5.1 degree pairing. These astronomical values are linked to the angle of the moon’s orbital plane relative to Earth, and the moon’s 18.6 year long orbital cycle around Earth. As this is the only inverted triangle that uses the 5.1 degree value, this inverted triangle is believed to represent the moon.

Using various ancient texts to try to determine phonetic values for these lines then produces a relatively simple text that matches later Ogham phonetic values. In this case it appears the names for the celestial bodies are GeGo (Earth); ShyiShyu (Mercury); Ish(o)?Ishe (Venus); NuNi (Mars); IsheIsh(o)? (Jupiter); NiNu (Saturn); Ish(o)?Hes (The Moon) and ShyuShyi (The Sun).  

Intriguingly, this jade eagle also provides the earliest known drawing of the inner solar system.

The jade eagle also appears to draw the inner solar system. Credit: Derek Cunningham

By using the holes that create the eyes and the nose of the various animals to draw circles, it is found that the image draws the orbital distances for the first four planets.

It is also intriguing that this jade eagle is considered to be circa 5,300 years old, which makes it marginally older than the earthwork found at Stonehenge.

In this image, which is a representation (and not the actual image of the jade eagle) it is found that the angles drawn by the lines that create the central star pattern are aligned to the astronomical values that astronomers use to measure time and predict eclipses. For example, the 27.32 degree value is the sidereal month, which is central in determining where the Earth is in its orbit around the sun.

Credit: Derek Cunningham

Both the jade eagle and the layout of Stonehenge are described in more detail in the author’s book “The Babel Text”, but what is now becoming clear is the same astronomical knowledge was present in both Britain and China at around the same time period.

The Case of Stonehenge

In the case of Stonehenge, I could find no prior work by any other author that mentions the size of the Stonehenge earthwork relative to the central stone circle appears to show the relative diameters of the moon and planet Earth.

The width of the stone circle at Stonehenge also appears to reflect the apparent change in the size of the moon at apogee and perigee.

This drawing of Stonehenge is based on recent LIDAR data, which shows the outer earthwork that surrounds Stonehenge is actually a reasonable representation of the size of Earth if the inner stone circle is considered to the moon. (See here)

It thus seems likely that circa 5,300 years ago the Mesopotamians, the people who settled in the Orkney Isles , and the Stone Circle Builders of Lingjiatan were in contact.

However, this is not the only time the world was in contact.

• Are There Hidden Depths to the Golden Lozenge of Stonehenge?
• Ten Mysterious Examples of Rock Art from the Ancient World
• The Origins of Human Language: One of the Hardest Problems in Science

A Connection Since the Appearance of the Fist Homo sapiens

For this archaic text to be the original Babel Text, it must be old enough to explain the appearance of the same geometric text in Australia and in California and Nevada in North America; and with the original text to guide us, it is actually possible to follow this text through time. Amazingly, the journey does takes us all the way back to the appearance of the first Homo sapiens.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to discuss all the results here, but it is now clear that the Bible was correct. There was a time when the whole earth was of one language , and of one speech . The only surprise is we didn’t realize that the phrase “One Language” was referring to an archaic written text.

‘The Confusion of Tongues’ (1620) by Karel van Mander I. 

Source: Public Domain

• Top Image: Early man looking up at the stars ( Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock)

By Derek Cunningham

More information on this topic can be found in The Babel Texts by Derek and Robert Cunningham.

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

01-07-2021 om 17:19 geschreven door peter  

How transparency on UFOs can unite a deeply divided nation

© Getty

President Biden promised to unify a fractured country. At the same time, his administration pledged to usher in a new era of transparency. Following the release of a highly anticipated government report on UFOs, Biden has a rare opportunity to live up to both commitments.

The UFO report prompted a flurry of bipartisan calls for a robust, open-minded investigation into these perplexing phenomena. If members of Congress can set aside seemingly intractable differences to take this issue seriously, the Biden administration – and the American public – should take note.

Beyond acknowledging that intelligence analysts are thoroughly stumped by mysterious objects – some of which appear to exhibit remarkable technology in restricted airspace – the report marks an extraordinary shift in how the government perceives UFOs. After seven decades of deflection, ridicule and brushing aside such encounters, the Pentagon is following in Congress’s footsteps and taking such phenomena seriously. Very seriously.

Moreover, by demanding the report, Congress stumbled upon an issue that can unite Americans of all political stripes. Indeed, if strong, bipartisan statements on these encounters are any indicator, the UFO mystery could ultimately transcend the deep polarization of the post-Trump era.

America, after all, is at its best when it is united by curiosity about the unknown.

To that end, the Biden administration should declassify some basic, non-sensitive information, focusing on objects that seem to exhibit remarkable technology.

Of 143 unexplained encounters, 18 involved “unusual” “movement patterns or flight characteristics.” According to the report, analysts are attempting to determine if these objects demonstrated “breakthrough technologies.” This aligns with reporting by the New York Times that some of these craft accelerated, changed direction and submerged in seemingly extraordinary ways.

The report’s equivocation on these perplexing encounters stands in stark contrast to former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe’s unambiguous comments that “there are technologies that we don’t have and frankly that we are not capable of defending against.”

According to Ratcliffe, intelligence analysts “ruled out” weather incidents, visual disturbances, foreign adversaries or ultra-secret U.S. technology as possible explanations for the most exotic phenomena.

If Ratcliffe’s statements are accurate, this is an extraordinary development. More to the point, the Biden administration has a rare opportunity to live up to its pledges to restore transparency and national unity. It can begin by releasing a numbered list of the report’s 18 “unusual” encounters alongside the intelligence community’s preliminary confidence levels (low, medium or high) that each object exhibited some sort of “breakthrough technology.”

If Ratcliffe is correct and analysts ruled out mundane explanations or advanced U.S. and adversarial technology, the government’s high-level assessments would fuel a remarkable discussion, drawing in Americans from across the political divide.

Perhaps best of all, declassifying such data would not expose tradecraft or sensitive sources and collection methods. In other words, the Biden administration has no good reason not to release such basic information.

Ratcliffe’s eyebrow-raising comments are not the only reason more Americans’ curiosity should be piqued.

After reviewing government reports on UFOs, former astronaut, senator and current NASA administrator Bill Nelson said “the hair stood up on the back of my neck.”

John Brennan, CIA director under President Obama, went further, speculating that UFOs might constitute a “different form of life.” In much the same vein, Luis Elizondo, the one-time head of a Pentagon unit tasked with investigating these phenomena, stated that the U.S. government is actively “considering whether the most extraordinary unidentified flying objects are not of earthly origin.” Meanwhile, Christopher Mellon, a former top Pentagon official, penned a post titled “Don’t Dismiss the Alien Hypothesis.”

And in recent weeks, former presidents Obama and Clinton – who still receive high-level intelligence briefings – openly speculated about extraterrestrial life when asked about UFOs.

Make no mistake: These are fascinating developments that should spur curiosity among Republicans and Democrats alike.

And if a thorough investigation, driven by intense bipartisan interest, ultimately determines that balloons, drones, birds or plastic bags explain the most extraordinary UFO encounters, the upshot is that America will be less politically and culturally fractured. (Ditto for any revelation that an adversary mounted an audacious espionage campaign.)

As large swathes of the country face a drought of “biblical proportions” and all-time temperature records are demolished, an unlikely shot at uncovering “breakthrough technology” is worth eroding the deep fault lines dividing America.

To that end, the Biden administration must live up to its twin commitments to transparency and unity.

Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense. Follow him on Twitter @MvonRen.

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01-07-2021 om 16:53 geschreven door peter  

© Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo

A coronavirus outbreak struck East Asia some 20,000 years ago — and left traces of the epidemic in the genetic makeup of people from that area, a study has found.

An international team of researchers led from the University of Queensland analysed the genes in human DNA that code for proteins that interact with coronaviruses.

They found evidence among the DNA people of East Asian ancestry of natural selection for adaptations that would have served to lessen disease severity.

COVID-19 — which has killed some 3.8 million people over the course of the last 18 months — is not the only severe outbreak of coronavirus that jumped from animals.

In 2002, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome resulting from SARS-CoV emerged in China and led to more than 800 mortalities. 

Meanwhile, MERS-CoV — which leads to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome — killed more than 850 people after it was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. 

Scroll down for video

© Provided by Daily Mail 

'The modern human genome contains evolutionary information tracing back tens of thousands of years,' said paper author and synthetic biologist Kirill Alexandrov of the Queensland University of Technology.

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-07-2021 om 16:31 geschreven door peter  

The entire world right now is going through a horrible and deadly pandemic with over 180,000,000 people having been infected with COVID-19 and almost 4,000,000 deaths. But this isn’t a new thing as over 20,000 years ago there was another coronavirus infection that hit the eastern part of Asia.

A new study was conducted by researchers from the United States and Australia who analyzed the genomes of over 2,500 people belonging to 26 different worldwide populations. They specifically found the earliest interaction of the human genome with coronavirus infections and those genetic imprints are incredibly still present in the DNA of people currently from East Asia.

Lead author Yassine Souilmi explained that viruses duplicate themselves; however, they don’t have the tools to do that on their own, “So they actually depend on a host, and that’s why they invade a host and then they hijack their machinery to create copies of themselves.” The hijacking on the cells can still be seen in today’s populations which allowed the researchers to pinpoint whose ancestors may have been exposed to a very ancient form of coronavirus.

The experts found specific genomes with signs of ancient coronavirus in five populations located in China, Japan, and Vietnam. It is possible that the virus could have spread to other parts of the world but there is no information so far on whether or not that happened.

In those five specific populations, the researchers discovered that a beneficial mutation had been developed throughout the years that aided in protecting them against coronavirus and gave them a better chance of surviving it. Souilmi explained this further, “Over a long period of time, and along the exposure, this leaves a very, very clear marking in the genomes of their descendants,” adding, “And that’s the signature we actually use to detect this ancient epidemic, and also the timing of this ancient epidemic.”

It is unknown how many people caught the virus, how many died as a result from it, and what type of symptoms they had – was it like a normal flu or something much worse, similar to what we’re currently dealing with? Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that coronavirus hit a part of the world over 20,000 years ago and it is now doing the same thing but much, much worse.

The study was published in Current Biology where it can be read in full.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-07-2021 om 16:17 geschreven door peter  

Over the course of several months between the final weeks of 1896 and the early summer of 1897, newspapers throughout the United States had been reporting on odd stories of airships that were purportedly being seen across the nation. Beginning in California, the sightings continued in the months ahead as the area of sightings slowly expanded eastward into states like Arkansas, Missouri and Texas.

One of the most interesting accounts from the era appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the date of April 16, 1897, which announced that the mysterious airship had been viewed through a telescope by one Dr. Leo Caplan while it passed over Missouri.

“The airship visited St. Louis again Thursday night,” the Post-Dispatch report read. “This time the bright searchlight was not only seen by thousands but the object was observed through a telescope and the outlines of the craft were seen.”

Artist’s rendering of the airship purportedly seen during late 1896 and into the summer of 1897.

Dr. Caplan, who was described in the article as a medical doctor and “a dabbler in astronomy” and frequent stargazer, had been convinced that what he observed was no star.

“I was walking to my home on Washington avenue last night about 7:45,” Caplan explained, “when I saw a bright light almost overhead.” The light appeared to the northwest of where Caplan stood observing.

“But the moment I saw this light,” Caplan explained, “I realized it was something unusual and I hastened home, ran to the roof and brought my telescope to bear on the object. Before taking a sight I noticed the light was swaying from side to side.” Caplan likened this peculiar motion to that of “a searchlight that was being manipulated.”

Most intriguingly, Caplan also said that he was able to observe through his telescope “a long black body behind the light,” which he described as being similar to other reports of a large, cigar-shaped object reported by other observers around the time who had seen the mysterious craft during its mostly nighttime visits. One day after Caplan’s observation, another purported sighting of the strange aerial visitor was logged by an Arkansas constable named John J. Sumpter, who saw the airship with his Deputy Sherriff John McLemore.

Amidst newspaper reports like these that had been occurring in the spring and early summer of 1897, there had been other unusual sightings taking place even further east. Around the same time, Joseph Loven, a resident of the Cold Springs community along Jonas Ridge, North Carolina, first said he observed peculiar lights that appeared at night and could be seen from his home off in the direction of a location now famous for the strange lights said to manifest there: a long, flat ridgeline called Brown Mountain.

Brown Mountain as seen today in Western North Carolina.

The Brown Mountain Lights, as the phenomena reputed to occur near Linville in Western North Carolina has since come to be known, would seem to be quite different from the reports of airships that were afoot during the 1890s. However, is it possible that there might nonetheless be a connection between them?

In 1906, nine years after the American airship affair had died down (and some of the earliest alleged sightings of the Brown Mountain Lights were said to have occurred), author Jules Verne still had airships on his mind. His novel Master of the World, a sequel to his earlier book Robur the Conquerer, was now hitting the shelves, which continued the adventures of the fearful Robur and his penchant for building magnificent flying ships. In Master of the World, Verne described a rather unique location as the base of operations for Robur’s latest operations, as featured in the opening pages of the story.

“The strange occurrences began in the western part of our great American State of North Carolina,” Verne explains. “There, deep amid the Blueridge Mountains rises the crest called the Great Eyrie. Its huge rounded form is distinctly seen from the little town of Morganton on the Catawba River, and still more clearly as one approaches the mountains by way of the village of Pleasant Garden.”

“The Great Eyrie,” as depicted in the original illustrations for Jules Verne’s novel “Master of the World”

(public domain).

Verne goes on to paint the Great Eyrie as a strange prominence rising above the surrounding landscape, describing it as “rocky and grim and inaccessible,” noting that “under certain atmospheric conditions [it] has a peculiarly blue and distant effect.” Verne elaborates further, speculating that the summit of the Great Eyrie, which remained impenetrable to even the most experienced climbers, might have been an ancient volcano, “one which had slept through ages, but whose inner fires might yet reawake,” which he likens to Krakatoa, Mont Pelee, and potentially being host to an “eruption such as that of 1902 in Martinique.”

This much might have been evident by the many sightings of smoke, or the “unexplained rumblings” cited by locals which appeared to emanate from the Great Eyrie. This, and the fact that, as Verne recounts, “A glow in the sky had crowned the height at night.”

“And finally,” Verne tells us, “one stormy night pale flames, reflected from the clouds above the summit, cast upon the district below a sinister, warning light.”

Flames above the Great Eyrie, from Verne’s “Master of the World”

(Public Domain).

Soon, newspapers throughout the region would begin to report on the mysterious light show occurring in the skies above The Great Eyrie, and as Verne tells us, “curiosity among those who being in no danger themselves were interested in the disturbance merely as a strange phenomenon of nature,” while others nearer to the mysterious mountain lived in fear of possible forthcoming danger.

“Those more immediately threatened were the citizens of Morganton,” Verne tells us, “and even more the good folk of Pleasant Garden and the hamlets and farms yet closer to the mountain.”

English translations of Vern’s novel wouldn’t make their way onto the shelves of American bookstores until 1911, but by the time they did, people around real-life Morganton, North Carolina, were already familiar with similar strange happenings said to occur in their region.

An example appeared in The Charlotte Daily Observer on the date of September 23, 1913, which provided the following account:

“The mysterious light that is seen just above the horizon almost every night from Rattlesnake Knob, near Cold Spring, on the Morganton road is still baffling all investigators. With punctual regularity the light rises in a southeasterly direction from the point of observation just over the lower slope of Brown Mountain, first about 7:30 p.m. and again at 10 o’clock. It looks much like a toy fire balloon, a distinct ball, with no atmosphere about it. It is much smaller than the full moon, much larger than any star and very red. It rises in the far distance from beyond Brown Mountain, which is about 6 miles from Rattlesnake Knob, and after going up a short distance, wavers and goes out in less than 1 minute. It does not always appear in exactly the same place, but varies what must amount in the distance to several miles. The light is visible at all seasons, so Mr. Anderson Loven, an old and reliable resident testifies There seems to be no doubt that the light rises from some point in the wide, level country between Brown Mountain and the South Mountains, a distance of about 12 miles, though it is possible that it rises at a still greater distance.”

Historical photo depicting lights purported to represent the mysterious lights seen near the vicinity of Brown Mountain, North Carolina.

According to most sources, no written records of mysterious lights appear in the region prior to around 1912, although most newspaper accounts begin appearing in 1913. These state that locals had been troubled by the appearances of the lights for the last “two or three years,” which as Geologist Ed Speer, a researcher who has studied the lights for several years has pointed out, would roughly coincide with the appearance of English translations of Jules Verne’s Master of the World in 1911.

However, some sources such as Joseph Loven, who claimed to have seen the lights as early as 1897 (when mysterious “airships” were frequent appearing, at least in American newspapers) also said he wouldn’t begin to pay attention to the lights until 1910, when others began to bring attention to them like Rev. C. E. Gregory, his neighbor at the time.

Is it indeed possible that there could be any connection between beliefs about the Brown Mountain Lights—appearances of which have been said to persist now for decades—and the mysterious airships of the 1890s? Admittedly, the appearance of “The Great Eyrie” as depicted in art from Verne’s novel bears a striking similarity to Table Rock, a prominent mountain in the Linville Gorge wilderness a short distance from Brown Mountain where reports of the mysterious lights have also been logged over the years.

An enhanced photo that may depict an anomalous light rising over Table Rock in the Linville Gorge Wilderness, taken in 2009 by researcher Bill Fox

(Credit: Bill Fox).

It would be difficult to imagine Jules Verne (who despite his gifted imagination, never strayed far from his home in France) had somehow heard about quaint local traditions in the southern Appalachians regarding ghost lights at the time he wrote of the “strange occurrences… in the western part of our great American State of North Carolina” in Master of the World. This is especially unlikely since newspaper accounts detailing the lights appeared no earlier than 1912, one year after the publication of his novel.

Conversely, the skeptically inclined would argue that stories about the lights, rather than inspiring Verne’s story, had actually been influenced by its publication instead. Then again, if this were true, what can be said of the endurance of reports of the lights now for more than a century? A final possibility would simply be that there are no connections, apart from the coincidental appearances of the lights shortly after the publication of Verne’s book, which borrowed from the lingering interest in prospective airships seen in America in the 1890s (although it should be noted that a similar rash of sightings occurred in Britain in 1909, Verne’s novel was published in France three years before this, and thus couldn’t have been inspired by the sightings of “Scareships” over Europe).

Some of the similarities between these late-19th and early-20th century oddities are certainly difficult to ignore. Ultimately, they could be suggestive of the cultural influence one of the most renowned early science fiction novelists had on the development of a famous folk tradition of “ghost lights” in the American southeast.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-07-2021 om 16:11 geschreven door peter  

If there was one person on Earth who would have definitive knowledge of extraterrestrials, the leading candidate would be an astronaut who has spent time in space. Second choice might be the head of NASA, who has talked to these astronauts and seen their reports. Third would probably be someone who has read the full classified Pentagon report on UFOs, not just the public summary. There’s one person who fits in all three categories – Bill Nelson, the former astronaut who is currently the new head of NASA and just finished reading the classified Pentagon report. So, what does he have to say about ETs?

“People are hungry to know. And of course, ever since ‘Star Trek,’ you know people are yearning to find out what’s out there in the cosmos. Are we alone? Personally, I don’t think we are. The universe is so big, it’s 13 and a half billion years ago is when the universe started. That’s pretty big.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson

What about the UAPs, Bill. Are these Romulan warships or Klingon battle cruisers? Are they shuttlecrafts from a cloaked mothership? Scouts? What did the classified version of the Pentagon report really say about them?

“The report basically says what we thought. We don’t know the answer to what those Navy pilots saw but they know that they know something. They tracked it and locked their radar on to it. It moved quickly from one location to another.”

In an interview with CNN (watch it here), Nelson unfortunately doesn’t sound the one person on Earth with the experience and the exposure to answer those critical questions. Instead, he verbally agrees with the limited 9-pafe summary released to the public, although he does add some NASA-specific observations about whether it might be an alien adversary.

“We don’t think so [that it is an adversary], but when it comes to universe, remember the universe is so large, we have a program in NASA called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. But thus far, we don’t have any receipt communication from something that’s intelligent.”

Not surprisingly, he hopes they’re not owned by a foreign adversary.

“… I talked to the Navy pilots, when we were briefed in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and my feeling is that there is clearly something there. It may not necessarily be an extraterrestrial, but if it is a technology that some of our adversaries have, then we better be concerned.”

He also says the public needs to be patient. NASA scientists are analyzing the data in an attempt to explain them scientifically, and he’s awaiting their report. He also plugs the upcoming launch of the James Webb telescope in November, which will “peer back in time, almost to the beginning and additional information will find more planets.”

Associate NASA Administrator Robert Cabana, Administrator Bill Nelson and former NASA Deputy Director Lori Garver in an early photo front of NASA’s first space-bound Orion capsule.

Sigh. Despite his top position at NASA, his time in space and with other astronauts, his access to classified information … he sounds like he’s still in the mode of his other previous job – U.S. senator from Florida.

Will anyone step forward with additional information on those 143 unexplained UAP sightings by the military, or the UAP sightings by other countries, or the hundreds (or more) of other non-military sightings the government must have in its files? Are the sightings really not ours nor of other countries? How much longer will frustrated pilots continue to report on them with no answers? How much longer before there’s a confrontation? Why hasn’t there been one yet?

We want to believe … we just don’t yet know WHO to believe.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-07-2021 om 15:44 geschreven door peter  

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 01 - 07 - 2021

UFO Sighted Over Arizona Desert ( June 26, 2021 )

Amazing UFO sighting was held in the Arizona Desert on June 26, 2021 

STATEMENT : ufo black floating box footage az desert

• credit : Austin 2

UFOs Sighted Over Canada ( June 30, 2021 )

UFOs were sighted over Canada on June 30, 2021

STATEMENT : Enregistrement Canada 2021 : Recording Canada 2021

• credit : UFO Sightings Footage

UFOs Sighted Over Nashik, India ( June 30. 2021 )

UFOs were sighted over Nashik, India on June 30. 2021

STATEMENTS : Orange Lights In Sky : Strange lights in sky - Nashik : Video from Suma Khan

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : VIDEO 1 : Vaibhav.n

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/kR5-v_rbaog

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : VIDEO 2 : sumaiya khan

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/PnZlqjcsLl

Strange Light Over Guanajuato, Mexico ( June 29, 2021 )

Strange Light Over Guanajuato, Mexico on June 29, 2021

STATEMENT : Será un relámpago!!! ¿Qué es eso?
Se ve como para Gran Jardín o el Parque Metropolitano...

TRANSLATE : It will be lightning
!!!What is that?
Looks like Big Garden or Metropolitan Park...

• credit : Ricardo Dávalos

UFO Follows Helicopter Over Mexico ( June 30, 2021 )

UFO Follows Helicopter Over Mexico on June 30, 2021

STATEMENT : ufo acompanha Helicóptero : Ufo acompanha Helicóptero no vôo : Ufo accompanies helicopter on flight

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : Arquivos do Mundo Sobrenatural

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/tth1IeHTfow

UFO Sighted Over Seoul, South Korea ( June 30, 2021 )

UFO sighted over Seoul, South Korea on June 30, 2021

STATEMENT : It was not a balloon. Still cannot figure out of the identity.

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : Truth Finder

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/ywGGlgR0vgg

Strange Lights Sighted Over London, England ( June 30, 2021 )

UFO ? : STATEMENT : Wembley ( London ) blue lights coming from behind the clouds

Well guys during lockdown in the U.K. stay indoors have a ceiling over your head for a whole year !!!! Hmmmmm. Not many people looking up at the sky anymore ??? Very fishy stuff

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : TROJAN PERFORMANCE

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/hgcZ0hYOnh4

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

01-07-2021 om 15:30 geschreven door peter