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SOTT Focus: MindMatters: The Creativity and Humanity of John Lennon

Elan Martin, Adam Daniels, Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Sat, 29 Jan 2022 00:00 UTC
beatles lennon
Peter Jackson's excellent new documentary Get Back provides an inside view of one of legendary rock band The Beatles' last recording sessions and their final public performance. Inspired by our viewing of the three-part documentary, today on MindMatters we discuss our thoughts about not only the Beatles and the nature of creativity, but also musical giant John Lennon's incredible artistry, the role he chose for himself post-Beatles, and how he chose to make constructive use of his considerable fame and talent to raise political awareness.

Few artists in history are gifted with such creativity and influence so as to make them the enemy of presidents and intelligence agencies, and yet that was exactly what John Lennon was before his life was cut tragically short by so-called 'lone nutter' Mark David Chapman. What Lennon might have done with a full life one can only, sadly, speculate. But we can look back at his all-too-brief life, celebrate his accomplishments, acknowledge his flaws, and recognize the power he had to move millions with his heart and with his message.


Running Time: 01:04:47

Download: MP3 — 89 MB


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Better Earth

Ice-age remains near Sea of Galilee show ancient residents thrived as ice melted

Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Phys.org
Wed, 26 Jan 2022 12:00 UTC
ice age galilee
© Steiner et al., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Early Epipaleolithic sites are marked with red circles, Middle Epipaleolithic with black squares and Late Epipaleolithic with blue triangles.
A new article published today in PLOS ONE by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)'s Institute of Archaeology team and colleagues focused on the remains of a previously submerged fisher-hunter-gatherer camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee from around 23,000 years ago. Through a close analysis of the abundance, variety and through use of animal remains, the team concluded that these survivors of the latest Ice Age thrived whereas most of their contemporaries, in other parts of the world, were nearly starved, due to the Earth's extremely cold temperatures.


Comment: As Pierre Lescaudron details in Of Flash Frozen Mammoths and Cosmic Catastrophes, since then, a series of cataclysmic events have shifted our planet's latitude:
The above strongly suggests that before the Younger Dryas, the North geographic pole was located around Hudson Bay, which is about 60° North - that is; 30 degrees in latitude away from the current North pole.

But the peculiar Laurentide ice sheet is not the only evidence we have. The study of fossils provides a very good idea of what kind of plants and animals lived in different locations of the planet right before the Younger Dryas. This research tends to confirm that, at the end of the Pleistocene, the North pole was located in Hudson Bay.

Indeed, before the Younger Dryas, the Arctic Ocean was a temperate ocean (as indicated by the presence of Foramainifera in sea cores), Siberia was a temperate region (as indicated by human remains, entire forests and temperate flora), and Japan was warmer than today (as indicated by flora that grows in temperate climate and by the corals of Okinawa).

The Israeli site, known as Ohalo II, was occupied at the end of the last Ice Age ("Last Glacial Maximum"), between 23,500 and 22,500 years ago. Ohalo II is known for the excellent preservation of its brush huts and botanical remains. The study, led by HU doctoral student Tikvah Steiner, under the supervision of HU Professor Rivka Rabinovich and University of Haifa archaeologist Prof. Dani Nadel who excavated the site, examined the diet and extensive use of animal parts to determine the welfare and lifestyle of these ancient inhabitants.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:


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Info

Possible lunisolar calendar systems at Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe

Dr. Martin Sweatman
Prehistory Decoded
Wed, 26 Jan 2022 17:45 UTC
The following manuscript will soon be submitted for peer-review to an academic journal. It is reproduced here with the permission of the journal. Please see the acknowledgments section for proper attribution of ideas.

ABSTRACT

Gobekli Tepe is a remarkable ancient archaeological site in southern Turkey featuring several sub-circular temple-like enclosures adorned with many carved symbols. The oldest radiocarbon date obtained, so far, for the site places one of its enclosures, Enclosure D, at the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic boundary, circa 9,500 BCE. Earlier work provided an astronomical interpretation for some of its symbolism, focussing on the animal symbols which were interpreted in terms of familiar constellations.

Here, that earlier interpretation is extended by showing how V-symbols on Pillar 43 in Enclosure D, in particular, can be interpreted in terms of a lunisolar calendar system, which would make it the oldest known example of its type. Furthermore, it is shown that a stone 11-pillar pool structure at neighbouring Karahan Tepe can also be interpreted in terms of the same lunisolar calendar system.

Other V-symbols at Gobekli Tepe are also interpreted in astronomical terms. Finally, it is shown how the Urfa Man statue and a carving at Sayburc can be interpreted as time-controlling or creator deities. Symbolic links with later cultures from the Fertile Crescent are explored.
Pillar D
© Image courtesy of Alistair CoombsFigure 1. Left: Plan of Enclosures A to D at Gobekli Tepe. Right: Pillar 43 at Gobekli Tepe, Enclosure D.
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Stop

Across the Muslim world, Islamism is going out of vogue

Imram Said
Quillette
Fri, 21 Jan 2022 00:00 UTC
Jakarta protest
© Wikimedia CommonsA protest in Jakarta, Indonesia, 2017
Though the Taliban has once again taken power in Afghanistan, they have come back at a rather inopportune time. Across the Muslim world, many seem to be souring on Islamists, defined as those who derive legitimacy from Islam and advocate for modern states to be governed along Islamic precepts, both economically and judicially. Over the last few years, Islamist governments have fallen out of power across the Middle East and Africa, haemorrhaged support in Turkey, and failed to make headway in Southeast Asia.

Islamism was once seen as an unstoppable force throughout most of the Muslim world, its proponents representing the most organized and influential voices in opposition to the often corrupt and incompetent secular leadership of Muslim countries. In more authoritarian states, mosques regularly served as one of the few "safe spaces" for citizens to vent their disenchantment about the state of society, ensuring the institutions of Islam a prominent place in the larger anti-statist opposition. Many Islamist groups further amass popular support by filling the gap left behind by woefully inadequate welfare systems and, in turn, providing their own social services, including schools and hospitals.

The issue is that once Islamists manage to get themselves into power, they frequently prove incapable of delivering on their promises. Islamist governments have often been, at best, incompetent and out-of-touch (as has been the case in the Arab world) and at worst, economically disastrous (as has been the case in Turkey and Sudan). In the more consolidated democracies of Malaysia and Indonesia, Islamist movements are fractious and riven by internal divisions and overly ambitious leaders. The Taliban may be back, but it would be a mistake to overstate the power of Islamist movements around the world.
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Info

Archaeological discoveries show Poverty Point is more complex than previously known


The University of Louisiana Monroe
Tue, 18 Jan 2022 02:49 UTC
Poverty Point Samples
© Photo courtesy of Rinita DalanExamining soil core samples at Poverty Point World Heritage Site are, from left, Thurman Allen, a soil scientist retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service; Mark Brink, Poverty Point WHS manager; Rinita Dalan, Ph.D., of Minnesota State University Moorhead; and Diana Greenlee, Ph.D., Poverty Point WHS station archaeologist, and ULM adjunct professor.
These earthworks, together with a buried, mound-like feature with unique soil properties unlike any of the known earthworks at the site, demonstrate that the Plaza at Poverty Point has a more elaborate construction history than we knew.

Diana Greenlee, Ph.D.
Poverty Point World Heritage Site is slowly revealing her secrets.

Diana Greenlee, Ph.D., station archaeologist at the ancient monumental earthworks and adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana Monroe School of Sciences, said recent archaeological research shows the site is "much more complex than previously realized."

The joint project by ULM and Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM ) was funded with a 2019 Preservation Technology and Training Grant from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service.

Greenlee, Rinita Dalan, Ph.D., of MSUM, and their colleagues focused on Poverty Point's central Plaza. This 43-acre area was created thousands of years ago by removing the original topsoil and then adding fill dirt to build a raised, near-level surface. To look at the Plaza today, one would not suspect what is hidden below.

Parts of the Plaza were surveyed using a sophisticated ground penetrating radar developed in Norway and used extensively by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Arne Anderson Stamnes, Ph.D., of the university's Terrestrial, Marine, and Aerial Remote sensing for archaeology research group, operated the GPR.

Nearly 2,000 reflectors, which are objects or soil disturbances that reflect the radar signals, were identified. These results were compared to other geophysical surveys.

Then, several targets were tested using a combination of soil coring, analyses of soil samples, and sieving for artifacts, and by lowering a geophysical sensor down the cored holes.
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SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Wall Street and the Russian Revolution, with Richard B. Spence

Harrison Koehli and Elan Martin
Sott.net
Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00 UTC
richard spence
History is rarely cut and dried, but important historical events are quite often portrayed in a very limited context, providing a very narrow understanding of how the world actually works. Or how the omission of a certain set of facts can almost completely upend our 'map of reality'; the commonly understood factors which brought about the Russian Revolution of 1917 being just such a story.

When we can begin to ask whether or not the U.S. government was actively engaged in undermining the Tsarist power structure in Russia, or how, at the same time, some of the largest and most powerful figures in American banking and industry helped organize and fund radical left causes there, or how U.S.-based media magnates twisted the news out of Russia to fit the agendas of the above - then we may start getting somewhere..

This week we speak with author and historian Richard B. Spence about his book Wall Street and the Russian Revolution, and delving into the data, agendas and dynamics that led to what is arguably one of the most profoundly destructive developments of the 20th century. And if the broader picture presented is more accurate than the more simplistic view, then we will surely be better equipped to see and understand what it is the Western world may be experiencing right now.


Running Time: 01:52:05

Download: MP3 — 154 MB


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Bizarro Earth

Is Vesuvius taking an extended siesta?

Peter Rüegg
ETH Zurich
Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:49 UTC
Located near Naples, Italy, Vesuvius last had a violent eruption in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. It could be a few hundred years before another dangerous, explosive eruption occurs, finds a new study by volcano experts at ETH Zurich.
Streets of Pompeii
© Jörn-​Frederik WotzlawPompeii was destroyed in 79 AD during a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Vesuvius is one of Europe's most dangerous volcanoes. More than three million people live in its immediate vicinity, and in historical and prehistoric times, there were explosive eruptions that destroyed entire settlements and towns in the area.

So, the pressing question is: When will Vesuvius erupt again and how strong could the eruption be?

To answer this question, a research group at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with researchers from Italy, has taken a close look at the four largest eruptions of Vesuvius over the last 10,000 years so that they can better assess whether a dangerous event might be expected in the foreseeable future.

The four eruptions studied include the Avellino eruption of 3,950 years ago, which is considered a possible "worst case scenario" for future eruptions, and the eruption of AD 79 that buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The latter was documented by the Roman writer Pliny the Younger, and so all eruptions of this type are referred to as "Plinian" eruptions. Further, the volcanologists studied eruptions of 472 AD and 8890 y BP. The sub-​Plinian eruption of AD 472 is the smallest of the investigated eruptions but still similar in size compared to the recent Tonga eruption.
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Yoda

How the untimely death of RG Collingwood changed the course of philosophy forever

Ray Monk
Prospect Magazine
Wed, 19 Jan 2022 19:23 UTC
RG Collingwood philosphy
© Nation Portrait Gallery, London. Painting Cortesy Teresa SmithRobin George Collingwood, philosopher (1889 - 1943)
In the 20th century an unfortunate gulf opened up in philosophy between the "continental" and "analytic" schools. Even if you've never studied the subject, you might well have heard of this one split. But as the British moral philosopher Bernard Williams once pointed out, the very characterisation of this gulf is odd — one school being characterised by its qualities, the other geographically, like dividing cars between four-wheel drive models and those made in Japan.

Unsurprisingly, no one has come up with a satisfactory way of drawing the line between them. Broadly speaking, however, one can say that the continental school has its roots in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, and encompasses a range of diverse traditions, including the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, the structuralism of Ferdinand de Saussure, the postmodernism of Jean-François Lyotard and the deconstructionism of Jacques Derrida. The analytic school, meanwhile, has its roots in the work of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein and has been until fairly recently much more narrowly focused, concentrating mainly on logic and language.

Comment: More on this remarkable thinker: MindMatters: The Triumph of Irrationalism and the Death of Metaphysics

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Red Flag

As a former US intelligence officer, I see a red flag in the CIA's latest anti-Russia playbook

Scott Ritter
RT
Mon, 17 Jan 2022 19:13 UTC
CIAlogo
© Washington Post
Reports that the CIA is running training programs to prepare Ukrainian forces for unconventional warfare bear an uncanny similarity to a long-exposed Cold War-era project. If history is any judge, it is likely to end the same way.

A tranche of allegations recently published in the press, ostensibly sourced to "five former intelligence and national security officials familiar with the initiative," claims that America's top spy agency has been, since 2015, conducting training for select Ukrainian military and security personnel. According to the speculation, the program aims to develop skillsets associated with unconventional warfare (UW), a form of conflict often referred to as insurgency. These reports say that the training takes place in the US, and is overseen by the CIA's paramilitary arm, the Special Activities Division.

An unconventional approach

The Department of Defense defines UW as:
"activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or overthrow an occupying power or government by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary or guerrilla force in a denied area."
The term 'guerrilla force' is further defined as:
"a group of irregular, predominantly indigenous personnel organized along military lines to conduct military and paramilitary operations in enemy-held, hostile, or denied territory."
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Archaeology

Metal plate inserted into 2,000 year-old Peruvian warrior's skull may be oldest evidence of surgery

Matt Mcnulty
The Daily Mail
Mon, 17 Jan 2022 20:46 UTC
closeup skull surgery elongated peru
© Museum of OsteologySilver and gold were typically used for this type of procedure,' a spokesperson for the SKELETONS: Museum of Osteology exhibit told the Daily Star
The 2,000 year old skull of a Peruvian warrior was found to have been fused together with metal in one of the world's oldest examples of advanced surgery, according to a museum.

The Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma says the skull, which is in its collection, is reported to have been that of a man who was injured during battle before having some of the earliest forms of surgery to implant a piece of metal in his head to repair the fracture.

Experts told the Daily Star that the man survived the surgery, with the skull now a key piece of evidence in proving that ancient peoples were capable of performing advanced surgeries.

Comment:

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