Nachash

Archaeologists have discovered a mini-Stonehenge, a mile from the site of Wiltshire’s famous stone circle.

“Bluehenge”, named after the hue of the 27 stones from Wales which once formed it, has been described by researchers as a “very important” find.

All that now exists of the 5,000-year-old site is a series of holes where the dolerite monoliths once stood.

Bluehenge lies at the end of the “Avenue” – a pathway connecting the larger Stonehenge to the River Avon.

The remains of the monument was unearthed over the summer by researchers from Sheffield University.

It is thought it was erected around the same time as its neighbour Stonehenge.

The circle was made using the Preseli spotted dolerite stone.

It is a chemically altered igneous rock – harder than granite – which was mined in the Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire and dragged 200 miles to the site on the banks of the river.

Full details of the Bluehenge discovery will be published in February.

Source/Full Story: BBC NEWS
Technorati Tags: monoliths, Bluehenge

Source/Full Story @: The Independent

The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man.

The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia – before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man.

Experts believe fossilised bones unearthed at the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses, and dated to about 1.8 million years ago, are the oldest indisputable remains of humans discovered outside of Africa.

But what has really excited the researchers is the discovery that these early humans (or “hominins”) are far more primitive-looking than the Homo erectus humans that were, until now, believed to be the first people to migrate out of Africa about 1 million years ago.

The issue of "child witches" is soaring in Nigeria and other parts of the world, Foxcroft said.

The states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River have about 15,000 children branded as witches, and most of them end up abandoned and abused on the streets, he said.

Christian ran away from home and wandered around for two years with other children similarly accused. He said they stole, begged for food and performed menial jobs to survive.

The plight of "child witches" is raising concern among aid organizations, including the United Nations.

"It is a growing issue worldwide, among not just African communities, but in countries such as Nepal as well," said Jeff Crisp, head of policy development and evaluation for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "We are trying to see whether it is a neglected protected issue."

Belief in witchcraft thrives worldwide. About 1,000 people accused of being witches in Gambia were locked in detention centers in March and forced to drink a dangerous hallucinogenic potion, human rights organization Amnesty International said.

In 2005, relatives of an 8-year-old Angolan girl living in England were convicted of torturing her for being a "witch," according to the Times Online.

Pastors have been accused of worsening the problem by claiming to have powers to recognize and exorcise "child witches," sometimes for a fee, aid workers said.

But some are true believers, such as one minister in Lagos, Nigeria. He pinpoints children affected by witchcraft for free, he said.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere.

Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.

He delivered his remarks during an appearance at the National Press Club following the conclusion of the fifth annual X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.

Mankind has long wondered if we’re “alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we’re not alone,” Mitchell said.

“Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. … We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there.”

Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown “had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities.” They had been warned of “dire consequences” if they did so.

But, he claimed, they “didn’t want to go to the grave with their story. They wanted to tell somebody reliable. And being a local boy and having been to the moon, they considered me reliable enough to whisper in my ear their particular story.”

Source/Full Story:: CNN.com

BRITAIN’S defence ministry was so alarmed by reports of a UFO sighting nearly 20 years ago, it took the unusual step of briefing ministers, according to secret files released on Sunday.

Other incidents in the files, released by the National Archives, include a woman who claimed she was approached by an alien with a “Scandanavian-type accent.”

The group of seven files, released by Britain’s National Archives, were recorded between November 1987 and April 1993 by the Defence Intelligence Staff in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and include details of around 1,200 different UFO (unidentified flying object) sightings.

The MoD was handed negatives of photographs – showing a large diamond-shaped object hanging in mid-air for around 10 minutes before ascending upwards at high speed – taken on August 4, 1990, by two members of the public.

“Such stories are not normally drawn to the attention of ministers,” an official noted in a memo included in the file.

“On this occasion, however, the MoD has been provided with six photographic negatives of an alleged UFO by the Scottish Daily Record and has been asked for comments almost certainly for inclusion in a forthcoming story.”

The official added that ministers should tell the media that “no definite conclusions (were) reached regarding (the) large diamond-shaped object.”

Source: The Australian

The Ministry of Defence abandoned plans for a secret computer database of UFO sightings for fear they would be mocked if its existence was ever revealed to the public, once-classified documents reveal.

The idea was scrapped because officials did not want people to believe they were taking the idea of visitors from outer space seriously. Instead, the MoD continued to keep only paper records of almost 1,200 sightings reported between 1987 and 1993. These include “pie shaped” flying saucers and diamond-shaped shards of light in the night sky. The files, to be posted on the National Archives website, include the story of an alien banana-man spotted in west London in May 1989.

Another mystery was the story of a woman who said that while walking her dog near Norwich in November 1989 she was approached by a man with a “flying suit” and “a Scandinavian-type accent”. The report notes: “He asked her if she was aware of stories about large circular flattened areas appearing in fields of wheat, and then went on to explain that he was from another planet similar to Earth, and that the circles had been caused by others like him.” The report said he disappeared and, as she ran away in fear, the woman saw a large glowing orange-white ball rising vertically from behind trees.

Other recorded incidents include a spate of UFO sightings in London in 1993 which were all put down to the presence of a brightly illuminated airship advertising the new Ford Mondeo, strange circular lights lighting up the sky in Rochdale in 1987, and various reports of strange objects in Derby in the same year, one of which “left a trail of bright blobs behind it”.

An “elongated spinning top” apparently three times the size of an airship was spotted by a taxi driver in Huddersfield in 1990. The night before, he had reported a silver space craft emitting green, red and white beams. The MoD also looked into a photo of a diamond-shaped light hovering above an air base in Pitlochry. The bright light was spotted jerking vertically in a strange movement in August 1990.

Several documents cover the death of an US pilot attached to the RAF who crashed into the North Sea in 1970. Captain William Schaffner’s death was investigated 20 years later after claims he had gone missing after approaching a bright light off the east coast. In 1992, The Grimsby Evening Telegraph printed an alleged transcript of his call back to base in which he reportedly said he had seen something “like a large soccer ball made of glass. It’s like bobbing up and down and going from side to side slowly.”

The MoD insisted in its reports that there had been nothing sinister and Captain Shaffner had misjudged how low he was flying and had then failed to operate his ejector seat properly.

The MoD said it recorded each sighting to help ministers answer questions from MPs in Parliament – but they were always kept on paper. Notes from March 1988 show that the plan for a full computerised database was spiked. A memo sent to staff said it “contravened” statements from ministers saying UFOs did not pose a threat to the UK and resources would not be diverted to investigate incidents.

“I also understand that there was some concern about public reaction if knowledge of the work being undertaken emerged in the media,” an official wrote. He said it now seemed “all work must stop”, but that UFO incidents would continue to be logged “as and when” they took place.

Source: The Independent

Source:  TIME

Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now, a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all — a claim that has shaken the bedrock of Biblical scholarship.

Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian, Josephus Flavius, and that his faulty reporting was passed on as fact through the centuries. As Elior explains, the Essenes make no mention of themselves in the 900 scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. “Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls,” Elior tells TIME. “But they didn’t exist. This is legend on a legend.”

Italian researchers believe they have found the remains of a female “vampire” in Venice, buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century.

Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

“This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire,” Borrini told Reuters by telephone. “This helps … authenticate how the myth of vampires was born.”

The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 — in which the artist Titian died — on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around three km (2 miles) northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.

The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.

Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.

The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse’s teeth, and vampires became known as “shroud-eaters.”

According to medieval medical and religious texts, the “undead” were believed to spread pestilence in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.

“To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,” said Borrini. “It’s possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognized.”

While legends about blood-drinking ghouls date back thousands of years, the modern figure of the vampire was encapsulated in the Irish author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula,” based on 18th century eastern European folktales.

Source:  Reuters

Source: SPACE.com

Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites — flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms.

The dancing lights have appeared above most thunderstorms throughout history, but researchers did not start studying them until one accidentally recorded a sighting on camera in 1989.

“Lightning from the thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” said Colin Price, a geophysicist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. “We now understand that only a specific type of lightning is the trigger that initiates sprites aloft.”

Researchers have detected the flashes between 35 and 80 miles (56-129 km) from the ground, far above the 7 to 10 miles (11-16 km) where usual lightning occurs. Sprites can take the form of fast-paced balls of electricity, although previous footage has suggested streaks or tendrils.

The cause or function of the flashes remains murky, but Price suggested that they could explain some of the UFO reports which have cropped up over the years. That might provide some solace for UFO enthusiasts disappointed by human-caused hoaxes in the past.

Both jetliner pilots and astronauts have previously reported sightings of sprites, along with a different but equally mysterious phenomenon known as blue jets.

Price and his colleagues have focused on “winter sprites” which appear only in the northern hemisphere’s winter months. Their remote-controlled roof-mounted cameras can spot thunderstorms producing sprites far out over the Mediterranean Sea.

Triangulation techniques have also allowed the researchers to calculate the dimensions of the sprites.

“The candles in the sprites are up to 15 miles high, with the cluster of candles 45 miles wide — it looks like a huge birthday celebration!” Price said.

Sprites may have some effect on the Earth’s ozone layer, but researchers suspect that the global impact is small.

Technorati Tags: UFO, sprite

Source:  Mail Online

Italian police are investigating whether Santanists desecrated the site where British student Meredith Kercher was murdered

Detectives were last night investigating the possibility that Devil worshippers broke into the house where British student Meredith Kercher was murdered.

Italian police yesterday discovered that the house – where Meredith, 21, was found semi naked and with her throat slashed in 2007 – had been ransacked by intruders.

Four knives were found on the kitchen floor while a burned candle was also discovered in another room.

Drips of candle wax were found in what had been Meredith’s bedroom.

Devil worship and the occult is a widespread phenomenon in Italy, and such incidents at murder scenes or in woods are not uncommon.

The house in Perugia has been sealed off as a crime scene since the murder in November 2007.

Police officers had guarded the house in the weeks after the death, but they are no longer on duty at the property, which is surrounded by police tapes.

It is not yet known when the break-in occurred, but officers have not visited the property since January.

Police said the intruders had gained entry to the home through a kitchen window at the back of the home and that nothing had been taken.

Meredith’s flatmate Amanda Knox, 21, is currently on trial for her murder along with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, at Perugia court.

Miss Kercher was found with her throat cut in this house in Perugia, Italy, in 2007

Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was jailed for 30 years last October after being convicted of the murder.

Police and prosecutors believe that she was killed after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game but both Knox and Sollecito have denied any involvement.

With the murder having occurred around Halloween,  some in Italy have made  lurid claims that there was a Satanic connection to the crime.

American Amanda Knox is currently on trial accused of Miss Kercher’s murder

Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family lawyer, said he was ’staggered’ by the break-in.

‘I have no words to describe how much distress this will cause the family,’ he said.

‘I hope that full details about what happened will come out quickly.’

Sollecito’s lawyer, Marco Brusco, said: ‘This break-in just shows what we have always said – anyone could get into the house.

‘It proves how easy it is to get into the house and tamper with the crime scene.

‘We are very concerned about what happened but at the same time it proves what we have always said that a thief broke into the house and murdered poor Meredith Kercher.’

Last night a Perugia police spokesman said the break in was discovered after police returned items to the house.

‘Four knives were found at the scene and they were all found to be from inside the house. They were not brought there.,’ he said.

‘A candle was also found but this also appears to have been in the house.

‘Traces of wax were found in Meredith’s bedroom and at this stage we are keeping an open mind on the motive.

‘We cannot exclude anything and it is possible it was for some unnatural reason such as Satanism.’

Technorati Tags: Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox

The U.S. government says there’s no relation between the fireballs that streaked the Texas skies Sunday and the collision of two satellites over Siberia last week.

“There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry,“ said Maj. Regina Winchester, official spokesman for the U.S. Strategic Command, which includes the Air Force Space Command that monitors satellites.

Jim Orberg, space program expert and NBC contributor, explains officials at Strategic Command came to that conclusion by noting the orientation in space of the belt of debris formed from the remains of both satellites, and that Texas was not passing through the belts of debris at the time of the sightings.

Numerous people across Texas reported seeing fireballs in the air Sunday morning.

People in Richardson, Plano, Burleson and near Corsicana reported seeing the streaks in the skies.

Kenneth and Jacqueline Terry said they saw fireballs in the sky as they were leaving church services at the Potter’s House in Dallas.

“It was definitely five streaks of burning debris that lasted for about five seconds, and then it disappeared and then the white smoke stayed and it just started to go with the wind,“ Kenneth Terry said.

“It was really amazing,“ Jacqueline Terry said.

Air traffic controllers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport also received several reports from pilots of a streak of light in the sky.

Some pilots said it looked like something re-entering the atmosphere, an air traffic source said.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris from the collision.

Controllers also saw what looked like a vapor trail in the sky far to the south of the airport.

The FAA said it suspected the lights are pieces of two big communications satellites that collided in space on Tuesday, but the FAA could not confirm it.

The FAA said some Texas law enforcement agencies have found debris, but it was not immediately clear which agencies reported finding pieces.

The FAA said people who find pieces of debris should not touch them and should contact law enforcement.

Local military officials will collect and analyze the debris to confirm what it is, the FAA said. The debris field could stretch from New Mexico to Houston.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: Fireballs, UFO

Book reviews: The Vagrants | UFO In Her Eyes (The Scotsman)

Two contrasting visions present equally damning portraits of totalitarian China, writes Stuart Kelly

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Economic Lessons From Lenin?s Seer (New York Times)

Nikolai Kondratieff?s theory: capitalist economies are fated to go through regular and predictable cycles, inevitably culminating in a depression.

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Remembering Rutherford: North Maple property tells interesting tales (Daily News Journal)

When the Methodist church moved from its first home on North Maple, most of the churchyard graves were also moved, but a number of the deceased continued to lie beneath the cotton gins, and later beneath the feet of the “Southern magnolias,” the Tigers, the utility linemen and public employees.

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12 injured in Bihar train collision (Calcutta News)

At least 12 people were injured when a passenger train collided with a goods train in Bihar’s Motihari district early Saturday morning, the second accident within 24 hours.

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