300,000 Year Old Campfire found in Israel

A newly discovered hearth full of ash and charred bone in a cave in modern-day Israel hints that early humans sat around fires as early as 300,000 years ago — before Homo sapiens arose in Africa.
In and around the hearth, archaeologists say they also found bits of stone tools that were likely used for butchering and cutting animals.

The finds could shed light on a turning point in the development of culture "in which humans first began to regularly use fire both for cooking meat and as a focal point — a sort of campfire — for social gatherings," said archaeologist Ruth Shahack-Gross of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

"They also tell us something about the impressive levels of social and cognitive development of humans living some 300,000 years ago," Shahack-Gross added in a statement.
The centrally located fire pit is about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter at its widest point, and its ash layers suggest the hearth was used repeatedly over time, according to the study, which was detailed in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Jan. 25. Shahack-Gross and colleagues think these features indicate the hearth may have been used by large groups of cave dwellers. What's more, its position implies some planning went into deciding where to put the fire pit, suggesting whoever built it must have had a certain level of intelligence.

Qesem Cave was discovered more than a decade ago during the construction of a road some 7 miles (11 kilometers) east of Tel Aviv. At the site, excavators had previously uncovered other traces of fire (scattered deposits of ash and clumps of soil that had been heated to high temperatures) as well as the butchered bones of big game like deer, aurochs and horse left their by the prehistoric cave dwellers, possibly up to 400,000 years ago.

Anthropologists have debated what constitutes the earliest evidence of controlled fire use — and which hominin species was responsible for it. Ash and burnt bone in Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa suggests human ancestors used fire at least 1 million years ago. Some researchers, meanwhile, have speculated that the teeth of Homo erectus suggest this early human was adapted to eat food cooked over a fire by 1.9 million years ago. A study out last year in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal argued that fire-builders would have needed some sophisticated abilities to keep their hearths burning, such as long-term planning (gathering firewood) and group cooperation.

It's not entirely clear who was cooking at Qesem Cave. A study published about three years ago in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology described teeth found in the cave dating to between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago. The authors speculated the teeth might have belonged to modern humans (Homo sapiens), Neanderthals or perhaps a different species, though they noted they couldn't draw a solid conclusion from their evidence.
Nonetheless, study researcher Avi Gopher, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, said in an interview with Nature at the time, "The best match for these teeth are those from the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in northern Israel, which date later [to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago] and which are generally thought to be modern humans of sorts."
That interpretation is at odds with the predominant view that modern humans, the only human species alive today, originated about 200,000 years ago in Africa before dispersing to other parts of the world.



Source: http://www.livescience.com/42861-early-human-campfire-found-israel.html

'Swamp Monster' Skull found in Texas

A toothy, long-nosed skull found in Texas belonged to a "swamp monster" that lived more than 200 million years ago.

The creature is a previously unknown type of phytosaur, an extinct creature that hunted fish and other prey along the shallow edges of rivers and lakes. Dubbed Machaeroprosopus lottorum, the phytosaur probably measured about 18 feet long.
"They had basically the same lifestyle as the modern crocodile, by living in and around the water, eating fish, and whatever animals came to the margins of the rivers and lakes," study researcher Bill Mueller, assistant curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University, said in a
statement.

Phytosaurs are a common find in the Cooper Canyon formation in Garza County, Texas, where the new species was discovered. This area is now dry and scrubby, but in the late Triassic, it was a conifer forest with fern underbrush and an oxbow lake where phytosaurs hunted.

In 2001, Doug Cunningham, a research field assistant at the Texas Tech museum, unearthed the new skull during a dig.
"When he found it, just the very back end of the skull was sticking out of the ground. The rest was buried," Mueller said. "We excavated it and brought it into the museum to finish preparation."
That preparation took years. Once the skull was out of the rock surrounding it, Mueller and his colleagues compared the features of the skull with other phytosaur skulls (more than 200 have been found in North America). They also analyzed another phytosaur skull, found 120 feet from the first.

They discovered that their specimens represented a male and female from a new species, which they named M. lottorum in honor of the Lott family, the owners of the ranch where the fossil was found.

Phytosaurs lived from about 230 million to 203 million years ago. They were one of the victims of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction, a huge die-off that wiped out many large land animals.
The new female's skull is about 3 feet long, and she would have grown to be about 17 feet total length, Mueller said. The male would have been about a foot longer. M. lottorum's delicate snout suggests it ate mostly fish, and not more robust prey. It would have looked very much like an alligator or crocodile, but its nostrils were up near its eyes at the base of its snout, rather than at the end.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/30/new-swamp-monster-skull-found-in-texas/

Apocalyptic Storm to Hit UK Tonight! Recent CME & Lunar Transit to Blame?

A terrifying storm is quickly approaching the UK bringing winds in excess of 150 mph and much more unwanted rain that may soon turn to blizzard like conditions as the storm moves east.

 

On January Spaceweather.com released a video showing a recent M6 Class Solar Flare plus a Lunar Transit, or Eclipse that was only visible from space as captured by NASA's LASCO SOHO Cam.
Could these event be connected?

Fake Snow falling on East and Central USA causing a Chemical odor when burned?

Reports of 'Fake Snow' have suddenly been reported from the East Coast to the far Midwest in the United States. A slough of Youtube videos have sprung up almost over night of people in these areas trying to melt snow with lighters, matches and candles. All results end up as the snow not actually melting but burning and causing a foul chemical type odor.

 

Some people claim the snow is contaminated with chemicals from planes 'Chem-trailing', a method suspected by many of the US Government purposely spraying the skies with barium or silver oxide for means of 'Climate Engineering'. While others maintain that its direct evidence of Fukushima Radiation spreading in our atmosphere.

 

 

While no conclusive testing has been preformed at this time in these specific areas, this bizarre phenomenon continues to confuse and frighten others about what's really falling from our skies.

Giant Hologram of Turkey's Prime Minister in the Sky!

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan couldn't attend a political party meeting in the city of Izmir on Sunday, so he decided to send the next best thing: a giant hologram of himself.
In a scene straight out of Star Wars, Erdogan's shimmering avatar, whose real-life counterpart is under siege amid an ever-expanding corruption scandal and the resignations of multiple high-level officials, spoke to an astonished crowd of Justice and Development Party supporters on the need for resilience before municipal elections on March 30.
"We are going to elections in the shadow of attacks prepared by treasonous networks," said the towering, photon-based figure, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. "I urge all my mayoral candidates to not waste any of their time."

Erdogan isn't the first politician to use holograms. India's Narendra Modi, a rising star in Indian politics, broadcast 26 holograms of himself to a crowd of supporters during his re-election campaign in 2012. Holograms have yet to make their way to the American campaign trail. I repeat—yet.
Perhaps the most famous use of holographic technology came in 2012, when a photonic simulacrum of the deceased rapper Tupac performed alongside Snoop Dogg at Coachella. CNN briefly flirted with using holograms to conduct in-studio interviews during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, but abandoned the project after widespread public ridicule. At least among his political supporters, Erdogan appears to have been spared that fate.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/giant-hologram-of-turkish-prime-minister-delivers-speech/283374/

Pope's Doves of Peace is Attacked by a Crow & Seagull! Ill Omen?

Pope Francis on Sunday prayed for the start of a “constructive dialogue” in Ukraine, releasing two white doves to symbolize the hope for peace. However, the doves were immediately attacked by a crow and a seagull.
Addressing tens of thousands of people gathered in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square for the Pope’s weekly Angelus prayer, the pontiff said that his thoughts and prayers were with the victims of the Ukrainian unrest.

“I am close to Ukraine in prayer, in particular to those who have lost their lives in recent days and to their families,” Pope Francis said.

He then raised hopes for a “constructive dialogue between the institutions and civil society,” urging both sides to avoid violence and reminding that “the spirit of peace and a search for the common good” should be “in the hearts of all.”

In a symbolic peace gesture, two white doves were then released by children standing alongside Pope Francis.

But as soon as the birds took off, they were immediately attacked by a crow and a seagull.

The crowd gasped as one dove broke free from its seagull attacker, losing some feathers in the process. The other was less fortunate and was repeatedly pecked at by the crow before flying away.

Is this an Omen?

Source: http://rt.com/news/pope-doves-omen-ukraine-222/

Thomas Jefferson would be considered a Tea Party Extremist!

Thomas Jefferson was radically anti-tax, pro-gun and anti-central bank.  He loved precious metals, he openly acknowledged a “Creator” and he wanted to add an amendment to the Constitution which would ban the federal government from going into debt.

If he was around today, he would be considered a “nutjob”, an “extremist”, a “fascist” and even a “potential terrorist“.  But of course Jefferson was none of those things.  Rather, Jefferson was a great thinker, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and our third President.  Below, I have shared a list of 13 famous Jefferson quotes (13 for the 13 colonies that originally founded America) that show just how far America has fallen away from our founding principles.  I think that most of you will be very shocked when you read this list…
#1 “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”

#2 “If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.”
#3 “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
#4 “I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.”
#5 “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”

#6 “And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity in the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
#7 “Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
#8 “It is said that our paper is as good as silver, because we may have silver for it at the bank where it issues. This is not true. One, two, or three persons might have it; but a general application would soon exhaust their vaults, and leave a ruinous proportion of their paper in its intrinsic worthless form.”
#9 “The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated.”
#10 “That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied.”

#11 “Certainly no nation ever before abandoned to the avarice and jugglings of private individuals to regulate according to their own interests, the quantum of circulating medium for the nation — to inflate, by deluges of paper, the nominal prices of property, and then to buy up that property at 1s. in the pound, having first withdrawn the floating medium which might endanger a competition in purchase. Yet this is what has been done, and will be done, unless stayed by the protecting hand of the legislature. The evil has been produced by the error of their sanction of this ruinous machinery of banks; and justice, wisdom, duty, all require that they should interpose and arrest it before the schemes of plunder and spoliation desolate the country.”
#12 “I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.”
#13 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Sadly, great statesmen like Thomas Jefferson are in very short supply today.
At this point, most of our politicians are millionaires that have totally sold out to the elite.

And if “another Thomas Jefferson” did show up on the national political stage today, he would be treated like garbage.  The amount of abuse that is heaped on those considered to be “Tea Party extremists” these days is absolutely staggering.  The following are just a few recent examples that demonstrate this…
-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the following during a radio interview last Friday: “Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”
-An article that recently appeared on a prominent liberal news websites had this striking headline: “Frankly, Koch Brothers Deserve the Death Penalty“.
-Professor Terrence Moore recently explained that it is now common practice for textbooks across the United States to use the term “fascist” for all “right-wing extremist groups”: “In the margin of the teachers edition, the teacher is instructed to explain the term ‘fascist’ to the students and to point out that the term ‘fascist’ is now applied to all right-wing extremist groups.”
The sad truth is that Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t have a prayer of making it to the White House today.
In fact, he would probably be blackballed by both major political parties.
America is in decline, and it is not because the principles that this nation was founded upon have failed.
Rather, one of the primary reasons why America is falling apart is because we have rejected the principles that were handed down to us by men like Jefferson.
Shame on us.

Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/f-he-was-around-today-thomas-jefferson-would-be-considered-a-tea-party-extremist.html