All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Neanderthals Had Advanced Hunting Technology

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Forty thousand years after disappearing, the Neanderthals have stayed alive largely as the butts of our jokes. You know how it goes: They’re unintelligent, lethargic, incompetent—an embarrassing chapter in our evolutionary history. Right?

Not really. Research published today in Scientific Reports provides yet another indication that our ancestors were far more advanced than we had thought—even when it comes to violence, a realm in which humankind can claim some unequivocal, if unfortunate, authority.

Archaeologists from University College London (UCL) have demonstrated that the 300,000-year-old “Schöningen spears”—the oldest preserved hunting weapons ever found in Europe—could have been used to hunt prey from a distance, and not only at close range. When the spears were excavated between 1994 and 1999, in a lignite mine in Schöningen, Germany, they helped to “really push away” the perception that Neanderthals were scavengers instead of hunters, says Annemieke Milks, the lead author of the new study. Still, Milks noticed while conducting her graduate research that there was a lack of data on hand-thrown spears from the period. Researchers like her “needed to understand basic things about how” these weapons functioned. So she set out to do exactly that with the Schöningen spears.

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Using wood from Norwegian spruce trees grown in Kent, England, UCL Institute of Archaeology alum Owen O’Donnell built replicas of the spears by hand, weighing 760 and 800 grams, respectively. To ensure that the spears not only matched the historical specifications, but that they would also be handled with the proper technique, the team enlisted six javelin athletes to throw the spears at a hunter’s high velocity. The javelin throwers were able to hit targets up to 20 meters away, and with enough force to kill the would-be prey. Before the experiment, scientists had estimated that the spears could only be thrown half as far. They’re relatively hefty, after all—NFL footballs, by comparison, weigh around 400 grams.

The findings reveal the Neanderthals’ technological sophistication, and a major—if rather macabre—way in which they influenced human civilization. “Understanding when we first developed the capabilities to kill at distance,” said co-author Matt Pope in a press release, “is… a dark but important moment in our story.” Yet these capabilities represent just one piece of the rather complex Neanderthal puzzle. Between the last 10 and 15 years, says Milks, researchers have had to radically rethink the Neanderthals after evidence emerged that they explored underground, created art, thought symbolically, and made other advanced stone tools. But maybe it shouldn’t have been so surprising: The Neanderthals roamed for over 300,000 years. “Understanding them as a human-like species,” says Milks, “helps us understand their longevity.”

Going forward, Milks hopes that this study can lay a foundation for comparing early spears to later projectiles, and that a larger sample size of throwers can illustrate the importance of variables like skill and body size in handling them. Until then, let’s give the Neanderthals a break already.

Covington Catholic School’s Not So “Christian” Values – LA Progressive

The students say they were under assault by a gang of “Black Hebrew Israelites.”  The group is a well-established fringe religious movement, frequently engaged in street preaching around Washington D.C.  Their preaching is frequently profane, but is not known for violence.  The “gang” that assaulted the Covington Catholic School students numbered FOUR.  There were a couple of others, filming the preaching, as the group does, for posting on Youtube. The Covington Catholic School students being “assaulted” numbered about 50.  They were gathering at the Lincoln Memorial to get reloaded onto their school busses for the ride back to Kentucky, where the school is located.  Yes, 50 active, healthy young men under deadly “assault” by 4 street preachers holding scriptures and religious signs.“” Additionally, the four Black Hebrew Israelite preachers were on the sidewalk, below the Covington Catholic School students standing on the steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial.  The Native American marchers were also down on  the sidewalk level, below the students.  Until the students descended the steps for the purpose of blocking the way where the elderly Native American was walking, they wer

Source: Covington Catholic School’s Not So “Christian” Values – LA Progressive

US university official quits after telling Chinese students to speak English ‘100 per cent of the time’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) – “doesn’t get much more racist than this! Brits outlawed speaking Irish and Scottish – as Anglo-Americans would not allow Native Americans to speak their language.”

The faculty members were upset, she added, because the students were, “being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand”.

Source: US university official quits after telling Chinese students to speak English ‘100 per cent of the time’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

What would we say if English speaking Americans who were studying in Spain, sometimes only spoke in English with each other when Spanish speakers were around them?

Trump lifts sanctions on firms linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

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  • Democrats in Congress opposed move to lift restrictions
  • Deripaska is ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin

The Trump administration on Sunday lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions.

Related: ‘Sex trainer’ who said she could prove Russia meddled in US election freed

Continue reading…

Kamala Harris Officially Launches 2020 Presidential Campaign

(CNN) Kamala Harris officially launched her 2020 presidential campaign Sunday in her birthplace of Oakland, promising to be a fighter “for the people” and stating that it is time to restore what she views as the loss of American values under President Donald Trump.

“We are here because the American Dream and our American democracy are under attack and on the line like never before,” the California senator said. “We are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question. Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So, let’s answer that question to the world and each other right here and right now. America: we are better than this.”





In an allusion to Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric, his policies at the border, and his decision to shut down the government in a failed attempt to get his wall, Harris said that “people in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other.”

“But that is not our story. That is not who we are. That is not our America,” Harris said without mentioning Trump’s name. “The United States of America is not about us versus them … I’m running to be a President of the people, by the people, for all the people.”

“If I have the honor of being your president, I will tell you this: I am not perfect. Lord knows, I am not perfect,” she said. “But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity. And I will speak the truth.”

She did not dwell on her own potential for a history-making candidacy with her background as a black woman seeking the Democratic nomination.

Ashrawi: Israeli gov’t and its allies responsible for rise in settler terrorism

PNN/ Ramallah/

Member of the PLO Executive Committee, Hanan Ashrawi, said on Saturday evening that the Israeli government and its allies are responsible for rise in settler terrorism, referring to the fatal shooting by Jewish settlers of a Palestinian man in the village of al-Mughayir, near Ramallah, earlier on the day.

Ashrawi condemned on behalf of the PLO “the heinous murder of Hamdi Nassan, 38, and the injury of 30 other Palestinian civilians at the hands of armed Israeli settler militias.”

In a statement, Ashrawi said “Under heavy protection from Israeli forces, these militias raided Al-Mughayer village near Ramallah this Saturday, terrorizing the defenseless residents and wreaking havoc in the isolated village.”

“The political climate in Israel negates Palestinian rights and expresses objectionable racism against the Palestinian people. As such, the marked escalation of terror attacks by armed groups of Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians is a natural outcome of the culture of hate and atmosphere of incitement and violence against Palestinians that this extremist Israeli government espouses and promotes,” said continued.

Ashrawi held the Israeli government wholly responsible for what she described as a heinous crime.

“Governments that actively support this colonial regime and shield it from accountability also bear moral and criminal liability for the crimes committed by Israeli forces and settlers, who commit murder with impunity. Equally, states that choose to remain silent against this terror campaign must understand that in these times of injustice, silence is complicity.”

“We grieve along with Hamdi Nassan’s bereaved wife and four children. Thirty other Al-Mughayer residents are receiving medical treatment for their injuries. We wish them a speedy and full recovery,” she concluded.

White House promises ‘significant response’ to any Venezuela violence

Looking for any excuse to wag the dog and launch takeover of Venezuela – look deeper into what and who has screwed up Central and parts of South America! White House national security adviser John Bolton warned on Sunday against violence or intimidation of American diplomats in Venezuela or opposition leader Juan Guaido, saying such action would trigger a response from the United States.

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