Havoc and Chaos: January 9, 2016::End of the day round-up (pg 2)

Ruqia Hassan: Isis executes first female citizen journalist in Raqqa, confirmed by 'Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently'

Isis has executed what is believed to be the first female citizen journalist for reporting inside its territory, Syrian media has reported.

The execution of Ruqia Hassan marks the fifth journalist who reported on Isis to be killed since October, according to Syrian journalism organisation Syria Direct.

Ms Hassan, who also went by the pseudonym Nisan Ibrahim on social media, was a independent reporter. Her death was confirmed by Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group exposing human rights abuses from within Syria.

Abu Mohammed, founder of RBSS, tweeted on Saturday that Ms Hassan’s last words were: “I’m in Raqqa and I received death threats, and when Isis [arrests] me and kills me it’s ok because they will cut my head and I have dignity its better than I live in humiliation with Isis [sic]”

Fourteen days from the "5th Annual International Day of Protest Against Hereditary Religion" which is taking place on January 23, 2016. Here is part 1 of 4 from 2014 to tickle your appetite.

Muslims in America - 24 Famous celebrities who are Muslim - Pictures - CBS News 

From the "pen" of Yvette D'Entremont, aka the "SciBabe"

Why Your Detox Is Bullsh*t

These juice cleanses generally claim to give you more energy, make your skin glow, and help you lose weight by ridding your system of heavy metals, pesticides, and other nefarious yet unnamed toxins … how exactly does apple juice or kale accomplish this, even if it is "cold pressured" or organic? Why couldn't you do this in (much cheaper and more nutritious) salad form? Could any of these websites point me to the mechanism of action or do they just do this via waving their magic wand of organic-iness?

Let me point out: In order to be detoxed, you first have to be, well, "toxed." And you're probably not. If you actually had a build-up of heavy metals or pesticides in your body, you'd be crazy sick. There are specific symptoms to having both of these "toxins" inside of you. In fact, different metals and pesticides have specific symptoms, like muscle spasms and breathing difficulties. Bottom line? Breakouts and feeling a little rundown aren't symptoms of any of them, and you need REAL MEDICINE — dimercaprol chelation and atropine, respectively — for treatment. Not juice.

And why else shouldn't you do a juice cleanse? Suja's three-day program drains you of $162, and that's pretty standard. For that much, I expect perkier boobs, fuller hair, and Republicans and Democrats to act like grown-ups. Instead, you're just getting juice. The only real thing these programs cleanse is the money right out of your wallet.
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More ridiculously, colon hydrotherapy — aka a colon cleanse or a colonic — is a service offered at some spas, during which some 60 liters of water are piped into your bowels and the "toxins" are "plumbed" straight out of you. That sounds nice and cleansing, doesn't it?

Nope. Removing toxins? You're just forcibly giving yourself diarrhea. There's no toxin or waste build-up the water is removing. This is just fecal matter that would have been expelled naturally (in time) by your body anyway, but with added potential complications — like intestinal parasites, bowel perforation, and heart failure. In fact, this article from The Journal of Family Practice reported the following adverse effects due to colon cleansing:

Case reports also have noted back and pelvic abscesses after colonic hydrotherapy, fatal aeroportia (gas accumulation in the mesenteric veins) with air emboli, rectal perforations, perineal gangrene, acute water intoxication, coffee enema-associated colitis and septicemia, and deaths due to amebiasis.

The discovery of a 300-year-old ship at a construction site has archaeologists ecstatic

“It’s very rare. This almost never happens,” said Dan Baicy, the hard-hatted field director for Thunderbird Archeology, the firm watching for historic evidence during construction. “In 15 years that I’ve done this work, I’ve never run into this kind of preservation in an urban environment where there’s so much disturbance.”

On Monday, naval archaeologists joined the crew at the site to help dismantle the vessel, timber by timber, looking for artifacts and markings that could identify it and show where it sailed and what it carried. The public is invited to view the findings Tuesday from 10 a.m. until noon, after which the wood will be removed from the site.
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The find has archaeologists surprised and ecstatic. Unlike the warehouse, which was noted in old city records, there was no known documentation of the buried ship’s existence.

Call for police probe of anti-gay hate speech in Malawi

Anti-gay politicians and preachers in Malawi have responded harshly to the government’s decision on Dec. 19 to continue the country’s moratorium on arrests for violations of its law against same-sex intercourse.

In return, the Malawi Law Society has asked police and the Malawi Human Rights Commission to investigate recent anti-gay statements as hate speech, a criminal offense.

Enforcement of the law has been suspended since November 2012 while courts decide whether the law is unconstitutional and politicians decide whether it should be repealed. The law calls for sentences of 14 years for violations by men and five years for women.

Louisville woman accused of assaulting, robbing disabled man after he jokes that he doesn't believe in God

A woman was arrested at the Hall of Justice in downtown Louisville Tuesday afternoon, months after police say she assaulted and robbed a man after he joked that he did not believe in God.

According to an arrest warrant, the incident took place on Oct. 20.

Police say that 49-year-old Laura Reid was visiting a disabled man in his home. At one point, police say, Reid asked the victim if he believed in God, and he jokingly replied that he did not.

According to an arrest warrant, Reid became angry with his response, so she picked up his metal cane and began beating him on the head and body, hitting him so hard that the cane broke.

Warning from the Birding Community to the Terrorists in Oregon: We're Watching You

Just a friendly warning from the birding and wildlife photography community to the Oregon terrorists. We are watching your every move, and we have been watching you for a long time. And yes absolutely you are domestic terrorists of the worst kind, and the truth about your decades of constant poaching of protected wildlife around Malheur and other wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests and BLM lands has been well-documented. For years those of us who are wildlife photographers, birdwatchers and carers of wildlife, have been documenting the activities of you poachers and criminals around many of our nation's wildlife refuges. With our powerful cameras, and ability to move unseen in the wilderness, we have found and documented your illegal hunts, your illegal traps and all sorts of illicit activities, and are constantly feeding that information to law enforcement, and we have finally got many of you poachers on the run and into jails. And I for one am a westerner sick to death of you welfare queens and cheats living off of BLM land, illegally gutting our wilderness and our wildlife,,,

Scientist fired from university after discovering shocking dinosaur bones believed to be only 4,000 years old - NaturalNews.com

Back in early August, I was "introduced" to this story. A lively debate ensued when I contested this point, ",,,since flexible matter has never before been discovered on a dinosaur fossil," with the following:

The controversial discovery of 68-million-year-old soft tissue from the bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex finally has a physical explanation. According to new research, iron in the dinosaur's body preserved the tissue before it could decay.

The research, headed by Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at North Carolina State University, explains how proteins — and possibly even DNA — can survive millennia. Schweitzer and her colleagues first raised this question in 2005, when they found the seemingly impossible: soft tissue preserved inside the leg of an adolescent T. rex unearthed in Montana.

The ensuing debate then devolved into the usual creationist v science debate:

I have never been able to prove the Bible wrong. If I think something is wrong, I usually find it was my lack of information or understanding. I don't know that Everest existed, or if the atmospheric differences played factors. I can't turn my back on all the reasons I have to believe it's so just because questions arose that my own ignorance or the ignorance of man in general can't answer. I am not arguing with the Bible because I can accept and be at peace with not knowing everything about it right this moment.
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Faith allows me to trust what I don't completely understand. I understand enough to not turn my back on it. One day, I'll have complete understanding. And, for argument's sake, if that day is a lie, then I spent my whole life trying to be a better person and love others. Not a bad deal, I don't think. Again, my opinion is free. You don't have to take it.

Completely frustrated I left the conversation for two reasons. Debating religionists is not my strong suit as I find it pointless and the willful ignorance of some is mind-numbing. And second, something about the initial story just wasn't adding up.

A recent archaeological discovery that throws a wrench into the conventional theory of evolution has reportedly cost a California professor his job. Mark Armitage, a former scientist at California State University, Northridge (CSUN),,,A 30-year veteran in his field, Armitage has published many studies over the years in peer-reviewed journals.

Regretfully my frustration got the best of me and I forgot about it, sort of,,,

[Note: In my initial reading of the attached article, I did not get past the first few paragraphs. Sorry to say that the said website associated with this article is pure bunk.  I was unaware that they mentioned the Schweitzer research, "NC paleontologist claims to have explanation for soft tissue, but even this is just a theory." No it is not a "theory," it is a hypothesis; an explanation.  This is not to say that Mr. Armitage does or does not have a legitimate legal case for religious discrimination, that is for the courts to decide.]

This story fills in a few more details from Armitage's POV.  Again using the words "scientist" and "professor."

Although the following article delves into some of the possible legal ramifications; but again, that is not my interest here.  I do however agree that the handling of Armitage's dismissal was poorly handled, as was his hiring as you will see.

Mark H. Armitage. Mr. Armitage is a microscopist; he's worked with microscope sales and services since at least 1984. When not involved in commercial microscopy, he is interested in scientific microscopy. He did undergraduate work without a degree in Biology at the University of Florida, he acquired a B.S. in Education at Liberty University, an M.S. in Biology (emphasis in parasitology) at the Institute for Creation Research, an Ed.S. in Science Education from Liberty University, and is a doctoral candidate at Liberty University in Science Educational Leadership.

He's managed electron microscope labs at the Institute for Creation Research, at the Creation Research Society Van Andel Creation Research Center, at Azusa Pacific University and at the Biology Department at California State University-Northridge (henceforth, CSUN). He was an Adjunct Professor at Azusa Pacific University and was at least some of the time an Instructor at CSUN.

Part of an agenda?

In middle May of 2012, Mr. Armitage went to a dinosaur dig in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. This dig was conducted with Dr. Kevin Anderson (fellow young-earth creationist) and guided by Mr. Otis Kline (also a young-earth creationist). The dig was being done expressly to find dinosaur bones to break them apart to find soft tissue. Pieces of horn, rib, and vertebrae, presumably from Triceratops, were discovered on this dig, and the specimens were studied at CSUN. 

A slip of the tongue,,,

Then Mr. Armitage's big week happens. He doesn't mention it in his lawsuit, but on June 7-9^th, 2012, the Creation Research Society Board of Directors had their meeting, Mr. Armitage, as a member of the board, attended and talked about his less-than-a-month-old project. He was interviewed by a young-earth creationist podcast on June 8^th, talking about his preliminary findings. That day, Mr. Armitage also appeared at the Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship's monthly meeting identifying as a Biologist at CSU-Northridge, speaking about how scientific timescales must be wrong. This is relatively a lot of vocalism by Mr. Armitage about his beliefs, and possibly the most vocal he is about his beliefs since he was hired at CSUN.

What I am curious about, Mr. Armitage was fired in February but yet waited until July to file his complaint. He is represented by Pacific Justice Institute, led by none other than Brad Dacus of Prop 8 fame as well as the debacle surrounding a transgender student at Florence High School in Colorado. If PJI was willing to file false accusations against 16-year-old Jane Doe, what is to prevent them from doing the same here?

Whether Armitage has an agenda remains to be seen.   It is apparent that CSUN botched the hiring and firing, but would I go as far as Donald Prothero over at Skepticblog and suggest that Armitage is a "creationist mole?"  Although I do wonder as to why he Armitage chose a "secular" institution.

Prior to his employment at CSUN, he was employed as a microscope technician at a variety of Christian schools. But he has no Ph.D., no formal training or peer-reviewed published research in the histology he was working on. He’s just a humble lab tech on a 2-day a week part-time gig, with no guarantee of employment from one semester to the next. His sole job is to maintain and keep track of the microscopes in a big department with hundreds of them, not to teach courses or do research.
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So what happened here? It seems clear that Armitage was implying that he was a biologist at CSUN and that he was qualified to study histology and publish on it—all claims which are false, and abuse of his part-time position in an unrelated field. It is credential mongering and trying to get  false credibility for expertise he does not have. That might be sufficient grounds for dismissal right there, even if Armitage hadn’t been a creationist, but just another employee using his CSUN Biology affiliation to promote himself and imply that CSUN Biology endorsed his views.
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He was also a mole, with an agenda to undermine the teaching of science at a major university science department. If someone is dedicating his life to undercutting and destroying part of the mission of your department or institution, they are not qualified to hold a job in that department or institution. If you hire them, at the very least you are inviting them to use their affiliation to falsely imply that your department endorses anti-science, or even worse, to create turmoil in the department. Those are things you do not want from any employee, no matter what other qualifications they might have.

Prothero highlights this point of "credential mongering" by citing the 2009  L’Aquila earthquake in Italy.  Comments also mention Kent Hovind, Carl Baugh, Ron Wyatt .  A more generalized example would be that of David Brat  who implied on his web page that he attended Princeton University.

A comparison can also be made to the David Coppedge case, which also arose in California.  Coppedge alleged he was fired because of his creationist views while his employer said it was because he repeatedly, and despite warnings, forced his views on co-workers. Coppedge lost.

But Prothero hammers his point home concerning the use of affiliation with the university to gain credibility, by citing the 1984 xenotransplantation of "Baby Fae."

If you were in a college astronomy department or research lab, would you want employees using your institution to claim that the earth is flat, or that geocentrism is right, as the Galileowaswrong.com crew are still advocating? If you were in a medical department, would you want an anti-vaxxer or an AIDS denier or a faith healer or a Christian Scientist in the department, undermining the health of your patients by peddling quackery? We’ve already had an example where creationist Dr. Leonard Bailey performed an unethical experiment in transplanting a baboon heart into infant “Baby Fae”, who promptly died. When asked why he didn’t use a more closely related animal like a chimpanzee and minimize immune rejection, he admitted he didn’t believe in evolution—and “Baby Fae” paid the price for his anti-science views.

When asked why he had picked a baboon over a primate more closely related to humans in evolution, he replied "Er, I find that difficult to answer. You see, I don't believe in evolution."[www-bcf.usc.edu/~bwrobert/teaching/mm/articles/Pence2004_Ch14.pdf]

Only time will tell as to the outcome of Armitage's complaint. As comments again point out,"While it is early days in terms of fact development, if it is ultimately found that Armitage represented himself such that a reasonable person would have thought that Armitage held a position in CSUN he did not actually hold, represented as views of CSUN views CSUN did not have, etc., then this sounds to me like a stronger case for the employer than Armitage." [Ed. to correct name referred to.]

Scientist fired from university after discovering shocking dinosaur bones believed to be only 4,000 years old - NaturalNews.com

Does economy affect religion? Does religion affect economy? | HeritageDaily – Latest Archaeology News, Archaeology Magazine

An interesting question and one I have never considered before especially in the means this article cites, zooarcheology, "[s]tudies must then be performed on the remains to determine how the animals may have applied to the economic and non-economic structure of the society."

When one studies zooarchaeology, s/he is seeking knowledge about the animals that existed in the past for the purpose of understanding the culture of the society that exploited them. Not only are the taxa being identified, but additionally the understanding of the degree of exploitation of the animals to better appreciate the importance of those animals in the lives of the people ultimately being studied. Are there other motives for examining zooarchaeological remains other than discovering the economic status of the society?

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The question of whether or not religion can be tied to economy is a debatable one. The use of animals in non-food, strictly religious means, is more difficult to link economically; however, it can still be attempted.

[,,,]
Religion and economy do not necessarily go hand in hand, however, the people who obtained the materials needed for constructing these rosaries or any other religious artefact made with fish remains, would need to either be in the fish processing business or in a trade agreement with other groups who utilize fish regularly.

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This ensures the least amount of mental trauma for the animal. In butchery practices, zoorchaeological evidence from the first century BC, also illustrates the possibilities of early kosher practices.

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Many other religious customs can be observed though archaeological practices. Ancient Egypt was highly religious with many gods and goddesses ruling the land as well as the underworld. Ikram (2002) discusses a possible ritual deposit in Saqqara, and the faunal remains in a religious context. Animals were likely deposited for ritualistic and god-appeasing purposes.

Does economy affect religion? Does religion affect economy? | HeritageDaily – Latest Archaeology News, Archaeology Magazine

Dig This: William Dever - YouTube

Recently I have been doing some research into the mind-set of the End-Times genre, specifically those that believe in biblical prophecy and Armageddon,,,one thing I found fascinating was their total disregard for ideas that do not fit into their paradigm,,,or their acceptance of science that supports their ideas (ie String Theory and M-Theory) but reject science that contradicts (ie paleo-biology in regards to the Pre-Cambrian explosion),,,

I came across this article and video which highlights another difficulty within this whole discussion,,,



The truth of the matter today is that archeology raises more questions about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible and even the New Testament than it provides answers, and that's very disturbing to some people.

[,,,]The fact is that archeology can never prove any of the theological suppositions of the Bible. Archeologists can often tell you what happened and when and where and how and even why. No archeologists can tell anyone what it means, and most of us don't try.

[,,,]The portrait of Israelite religion in the Hebrew Bible is the ideal, the ideal in the minds of those few who wrote the Bible—the elites, the Yahwists, the monotheists. But it's not the ideal for most people. And archeology deals with the ordinary, forgotten folk of ancient Israel who have no voice in the Bible. There is a wonderful phrase in Daniel Chapter 12: "For all those who sleep in the dust." Archeology brings them to light and allows them to speak. And most of them were not orthodox believers.

[,,,]However, we should have guessed already that polytheism was the norm and not monotheism from the biblical denunciations of it. It was real and a threat as far as those who wrote the Bible were concerned. And today archeology has illuminated what we could call "folk religion" in an astonishing manner.

[,,,]In 1968 Dever discovered an inscription in a cemetery west of Hebron, in the hill country, at the site of Khirbet el-Qôm, a Hebrew inscription of the 8th century B.C.E. It gives the name of the deceased, and it says "blessed may he be by Yahweh"—that's good biblical Hebrew—but it says "by Yahweh and his Asherah."

[,,,]Asherah is the name of the old Canaanite Mother Goddess, the consort of El, the principal deity of the Canaanite pantheon. So why is a Hebrew inscription mentioning Yahweh in connection with the Canaanite Mother Goddess? Well, in popular religion they were a pair.

[,,,]The Israelite prophets and reformers denounce the Mother Goddess and all the other gods and goddesses of Canaan. But I think Asherah was widely venerated in ancient Israel. If you look at Second Kings 23, which describes the reforms of King Josiah in the late 7th century, he talks about purging the Temple of all the cult paraphernalia of Asherah. So the so-called folk religion even penetrated the Temple in Jerusalem

[,,,]In the 1970s, Israeli archeologists digging in Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai found a little desert fort of the same period, and lo and behold, we have "Yahweh and Asherah" all over the place in the Hebrew inscriptions.

[,,,]Monotheism was a late development. Not until the Babylonian Exile and beyond does Israelite and Judean religion—Judaism—become monotheistic.

from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/archeology-hebrew-bible.html


Dig This: William Dever - YouTube

Archaeological dig at Concentration Camp reveals what the Nazis tried to hide

There is a bit of synchronicity in finding and posting this story as the holocaust and some of the sites came up in a recent conversation concerning paranormal investigating,,,the topic was extreme paranormal and what locations are considered to be examples of such,,,for me 1 place has held a life long fascination from a historical perspective but with my interest in the paranormal there is now an added facet,,,Corrie ten Boom's home from the movie The Hiding Place,,,

Others mentioned Anne Frank,,,and some specifically mentioned the camps,,,I was taken aback to learn that a friend had lost many family members to the atrocity of the holocaust,,,puts a different perspective on things,,,


As reported in Haaretz, Haimi — who lost family members in the camp — is using standard archaeological techniques to piece together the layout of the camp, while looking for artifacts and other clues that could help historians chronicle the events that transpired there. Haimi is sifting the earth for anything left behind, while also relying on more non-invasive, high-tech aids such as ground-penetrating radar and global positioning satellite imaging.

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"Because of the lack of information about Sobibor, every little piece of information is significant," said Haimi. "No one knew where the gas chambers were. The Germans didn't want anyone to find out what was there. But thanks to what we have done, they didn't succeed."

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He also uncovered a unique version of the yellow star Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis, made out of metal instead of cloth, which researchers determined to have originated in Slovakia.

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In addition, the archaeological site could be used an important tool against Holocaust denial. Haimi believes that, with survivors rapidly dying, it could soon become a key tool for understanding the Holocaust, calling it "the future research tool of the Holocaust."


There is a link to a longer article that is worth reading as well,,,

Archaeological dig at Concentration Camp reveals what the Nazis tried to hide

Ancient 'New York City' of Canada Discovered - Yahoo! News

Today New York City is the Big Apple of the Northeast but new research reveals that 500 years ago, at a time when Europeans were just beginning to visit the New World, a settlement on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Canada, was the biggest, most complex, cosmopolitan place in the region.

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Now, a scholarly book detailing the discoveries is being prepared and a documentary about the site called "Curse of the Axe" aired this week on the History Channel in Canada.

[,,,]
"It's the largest, most complex, cosmopolitan village of its time," said Williamson, also of the University of Toronto, in an interview with LiveScience.  "All of the archaeologists, basically, when they see Mantle, they're just utterly stunned."

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Despite its massive size, the site remained hidden for hundreds of years, likely escaping detection because its longhouses were primarily made of wood, which doesn't preserve well.

[,,,]
For instance, among Mantle's discoveries are the earliest European goods ever found in the Great Lakes region of North America, predating the arrival of the first known European explorers by a century. They consist of two European copper beads and a wrought iron object, believed to be part of an ax, which was carefully buried near the center of the settlement.

Ancient 'New York City' of Canada Discovered - Yahoo! News

Ancient Mosaic Depicting Fiery Bible Story Discovered - Yahoo! News

A glittering mosaic of colored stones once decorated an ancient synagogue floor with scenes of the Biblical hero Samson getting revenge on the Philistines.

This newly excavated discovery in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq not only depicts an unusual scene — Samson tying torches to foxes' tails in order to burn his enemies' crops — it's also remarkably high-quality, said dig archaeologist Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In a mosaic, "the smaller the cubes, the finer the work," Magness told LiveScience. "Our cubes are very small and fine."

The mosaic decorates part of a synagogue dating back to about A.D. 400 to 500.
[,,,]

Ancient Mosaic Depicting Fiery Bible Story Discovered - Yahoo! News

Archaeological Dispute Erupts over Gold Trove - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking veteran Social Democratic politician.

Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet) wide had to be created from Lubmin, a coastal resort town in northeastern Germany, to Rehden in Lower Saxony near the northwestern city of Bremen.

The result has been a veritable cornucopia of ancient discoveries. The most beautiful find was made in the Gessel district of Lower Saxony, where 117 pieces of gold were found stacked tightly together in a rotten linen cloth. The hidden treasure is about 3,300 years old.

[,,,]
As audacious as the Asia connection seems, it could be true. There is plenty of evidence that human greed led to globalized trade more than 3,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians' folding-chair designs reached Sweden, and magnificent Spondylus shells from the Mediterranean have been found as far away as Bavaria.

Archaeological Dispute Erupts over Gold Trove - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Oldest Natural Pearl Found in Arabia : Discovery News

 French researchers have unearthed the oldest natural pearl ever found at a Neolithic site in Arabia, suggesting that pearl oyster fishing first occurred in this region of the world.

Discovered in the Emirate of Umm al Quwain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the pearl was believed to have originated between 5547 and 5235 BC.

[,,,]
Some 7,500 years old and 0.07 inches in diameter, the newly discovered pearl is just the last of a series of findings at archeological sites in the Arabian Peninsula.

Over the years, researchers unearthed a total of 101 Neolithic pearls, coming from the large pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera and from Pinctada radiata, a much smaller, easier to collect species, which provides higher quality pearls.

"The discovery of archaeological pearls demonstrates an ancient fishing tradition that no longer exists today," wrote the researchers.

Oldest Natural Pearl Found in Arabia : Discovery News

Sri Lanka : Pre-historic human skeleton discovered in Sri Lanka

Archaeology Department of Sri Lanka has found a skeleton of a pre-historic man from the Fa-Hien cave archaeological site in Pahiyangala of Kalutara district.

The skeleton is believed to be about 12,000 years old and belonged to the Homo sapiens species known as Balangoda Man.

Sri Lanka : Pre-historic human skeleton discovered in Sri Lanka

What a 28,000-year-old piece of art looks like - thestar.com

[,,,]
He said the rock art was made with charcoal, so radiocarbon dating could be used to determine its age. Most rock art is made with mineral paint, so its age cannot be accurately measured.

“It’s the oldest unequivocally dated rock art in Australia” and among the oldest in the world, Barker said.

The oldest known rock art is in Spain, where hand stencils and red disks made by blowing paint on to the wall in El Castillo cave were at least 40,800 years old, according to scientists using a technique known as uranium-thorium dating.

What a 28,000-year-old piece of art looks like - thestar.com

Famous Cave Paintings Might Not Be From Humans : NPR

The first European cave paintings are thought to have been made over 30,000 years ago. Most depict animals and hunters. Some of the eeriest are stencils of human hands, apparently made by blowing a spray of pigment over a hand held up to a wall.
But now scientists are suggesting those aren't human hands, at least in some caves in Spain.

Famous Cave Paintings Might Not Be From Humans : NPR

The Cro Magnon Religion

 Some of the most familiar finds that many associate with the Cro Magnon religion are the cave drawings found on the ceilings and walls of caves in France and Spain. It's evident that these drawings were completed in areas that were quite inaccessible to many, and so we assume that these locations represent a spiritual or sacred location. We can, however, be appreciative of the fact that these drawings have remained untouched and unblemished for thousands of years due to their remote location.

[,,,]

Although the cave drawings associated with the Cro Magnon are the most familiar to archaeologists and residents around the France and Spain, there were also several other forms of sculptures left behind. Figurines carved out of ivory, stone, and bone gave rise to the various gods venerated by the Cro Magnon people. One of the most familiar being the Venus of Willendorf, a figure depicting the human form. There exists no face, however it's hips, breasts, and stomach are greatly exaggerated. This female form indicates that these historic cultures often worshipped a fertility goddess.


The Cro Magnon Religion

Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents : Discovery News

Credited with the destruction of the temple of Solomon in 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II was also responsible for sending the Jews into exile, according to the Bible.

The first Babylonian king to rule Egypt, he is also famous for building the legendary Hanging Gardens, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and many temples all over Babylonia.

Calling himself the "great restorer and builder of holy places," he also reconstructed Etemenanki, a 7-story, almost 300-foot-high temple (also known as a ziggurat) dedicated to the god Marduk.

Biblical scholars believe that this temple may be the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible.

Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents : Discovery News

Codex Sinaiticus

I was a bit disappointed that I could not get the The Codex Sinaiticus Project website to work. But still a interesting prospect if they can get the kinks worked out,

Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors.

The significance of Codex Sinaiticus for the reconstruction of the Christian Bible's original text, the history of the Bible and the history of Western book-making is immense.

Altho I couldn't acces the manuscript there is still some interesting information available on the site pertaining to the codex.

First homosexual caveman found

OK,,,first reaction to this story,,,WTF!! I'm all for LGBT rights and the activism that goes with it; at first that what I thought this article was expossing. Shock value was the first thought. They couldn't seriously be interpreting their findings in such a manner--how could they?

The skeleton was found in a Prague suburb in the Czech Republic with its head pointing eastwards and surrounded by domestic jugs, rituals only previously seen in female graves.

"From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova.

"Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual," she added.

According to Corded Ware culture which began in the late Stone Age and culminated in the Bronze Age, men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their heads pointing towards the west, and women on their left sides with their heads pointing towards the east. Both sexes would be put into a crouching position.

It just seems too far fetched to me. But they are serious. My dismay lessened a bit after reading some of the reader comments. One in particular caught my attention and forced me to rethink my initial reaction.

[Y]our slavish worship of willful ignorance continues to amaze me. [H]ow else are people supposed to build on knowledge of the past without drawing suppositions from facts then seeing where that conjecture leads? [A]t this point it is just an idea, but now scientists can look for further evidence to support or refute that idea. [T]ime will tell. [P]erhaps this is a one-time-thing and will drop into obscurity, but to dismiss at the outset it as "wishful thinking" betrays either your hatred of inquiry or your hatred of sexuality. (ViennaLane--11:01 am, Apr 7, 2011 from The Daily Beast: Cheat Sheet

As I have stated before, I find it fascinating what science" can tell us from a pile of bones. Oh and I kept the original headline for,,,you guessed it,,,shock value,,,lol!!

First homosexual caveman found - Telegraph

Historic Discovery in Peruvian Jungle Forces Rethinking Past History | Truth Is Scary

I think it is fascinating that with all of our knowledge that to this day we can learn something new. Human history has so much to teach us

Historic Discovery in Peruvian Jungle Forces Rethinking Past History | Truth Is Scary