Secret HistoryS


TV

Why Channel 37 doesn't exist on your tv (and what it has to do with aliens)

Ernie Smith
Tedium
Fri, 05 Mar 2021 20:13 UTC
vintage television static
© Dabarti/Shutterstock
I'm endlessly fascinated by stories of the quirks that were built into the TV system where the well-laid plans of the system simply fell apart because it was asked to do too many things.

Nearly five years ago, I wrote about one of them, the tale of how radio broadcasters were able to shoehorn an additional FM station into the radio because of the proximity of TV's channel 6 to the rest of the radio feed.

So when I was informed that there was another oddity kinda like this involving the TV lineups, I decided I had to take a dive in.

It's a tale that centers around channel 37, which was a giant block of static in most parts of the world during the 20th century.

The reason for that was simple: it couldn't fend off its scientific competition.
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Eye 1

Best of the Web: Return of the Leviathan: The Fascist Roots of the CIA and the True Origin of the Cold War

Cynthia Chung
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 07 Mar 2021 01:41 UTC
Dulles Bros
© Jacob Harris/APJohn Foster Dulles (right) is greeted by his brother Allen Welsh Dulles on his arrival at LaGuardia Field in New York City in 1948.
In whose interest did the creation of the Cold War serve and continues to serve? Cynthia Chung addresses this question in her three-part series.

In 1998, the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), at the behest of Congress, launched what became the largest congressionally mandated, single-subject declassification effort in history. As a result, more than 8.5 million pages of records have been opened to the public under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (P.L. 105-246) and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act (P.L. 106-567). These records include operational files of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA, the FBI and Army intelligence. IWG issued three reports to Congress between 1999 and 2007.

This information sheds important light and confirms one of the biggest-kept secrets of the Cold War - the CIA's use of an extensive Nazi spy network to wage a secret campaign against the Soviet Union.

This campaign against the Soviet Union, which began while WWII was still raging, has been at the crux of Washington's tolerance towards civil rights abuses and other criminal acts in the name of anti-communism, as seen with McCarthyism and COINTELPRO activities. With that fateful decision, the CIA was not only given free reign for the execution of anti-democratic interventions around the world, but anti-democratic interventions at home, which continues to this day.
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Treasure Chest

Does this bronze age burial treasure reveal a powerful European female leader?

Tom Metcalfe
National Geographic
Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
Almoloya
© Cambridge University PressLa Almoloya, in Murcia, southern Spain, home to the El Argar, a society among the first to use bronze.
The lavish discoveries could undermine the idea that state power is almost exclusively a product of male-dominated societies, researchers say.

A trove of ornate jewelry, including a silver diadem, suggest a woman buried nearly 4,000 years ago in what is modern-day Spain was a ruler of surrounding lands who may have commanded the might of a state, according to a study published today in the journal Antiquity. The discoveries raise new questions about the role of women in early Bronze Age Europe, and challenge the idea that state power is almost exclusively a product of male-dominated societies, say the researchers.

The remains of the woman, alongside those of a man who may have been her consort, were originally unearthed in 2014 at La Almoloya, an archaeological site among forested hills about 35 miles northwest of Cartagena in southeastern Spain. Radiocarbon dating suggests the burial happened about 1700 B.C., and its richness suggests to the researchers that she, rather than he, may have been at the top of the local chain of command.

Comment: There have been times throughout history where women were leaders, co-rulers, even a few will have been warriors - at certain periods matriarchy appears to have been predominant - however we must be mindful that, increasingly, some researchers appear intent on projecting postmodern ideas into their discoveries:

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Colosseum

Researchers solve more of the mystery of Laos megalithic jars

University of Melbourne
Phys.org
Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
laos jar
© Plain of Jars Archaeological Research ProjectDr Shewan and collaborators present new radiocarbon results for site use and also introduce geochronological data determining the likely quarry source for one of the largest megalithic sites.
New research conducted at the UNESCO World Heritage listed 'Plain of Jars' in Laos has established the stone jars were likely placed in their final resting position from as early as 1240 to 660 BCE.

Sediment samples from beneath stone jars from two of the more than 120 recorded megalithic sites were obtained by a team led Dr. Louise Shewan from the University of Melbourne, Associate Professor Dougald O'Reilly from the Australian National University (ANU) and Dr. Thonglith Luangkoth from the Lao Department of Heritage.

The samples were analysed using a technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to determine when sediment grains were last exposed to sunlight.

Comment: See also:

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Solar Flares

The great Quebec blackout, March 13, 1989


Spaceweather.com
Sat, 13 Mar 2021 05:33 UTC
Sunspot 5395, source of the March 1989 solar storm
Sunspot 5395, source of the March 1989 solar storms. From "A 21st Century View of the March 1989 Magnetic Storm" by D. Boteler.
They call it "the day the sun brought darkness." On March 13, 1989, a powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field. Ninety seconds later, the Hydro-Québec power grid failed. During the 9 hour blackout that followed, millions of Quebecois found themselves with no light or heat, wondering what was going on?

"It was the biggest geomagnetic storm of the Space Age," says Dr. David Boteler, head of the Space Weather Group at Natural Resources Canada. "March 1989 has become the archetypal disturbance for understanding how solar activity can cause blackouts."

It seems hard to believe now, but in 1989 few people realized solar storms could bring down power grids. The warning bells had been ringing for more than a century, though. In Sept. 1859, a similar CME hit Earth's magnetic field--the infamous "Carrington Event"--sparking a storm twice as strong as March 1989. Electrical currents surged through Victorian-era telegraph wires, in some cases causing sparks and setting telegraph offices on fire. These were the same kind of currents that would bring down Hydro-Québec.

Comment: What if ... a perfect CME hit Earth?

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Chalkboard

Mystery of 2,000-year-old Antikythera 'computer' may be closer to being solved

Ian Sample
The Guardian
Fri, 12 Mar 2021 10:00 UTC
Antikythera
© UCLComputer model of how the Antikythera mechanism may have worked.
From the moment it was discovered more than a century ago, scholars have puzzled over the Antikythera mechanism, a remarkable and baffling astronomical calculator that survives from the ancient world.

The hand-powered, 2,000-year-old device displayed the motion of the universe, predicting the movement of the five known planets, the phases of the moon and the solar and lunar eclipses. But quite how it achieved such impressive feats has proved fiendishly hard to untangle.

Now researchers at UCL believe they have solved the mystery - at least in part - and have set about reconstructing the device, gearwheels and all, to test whether their proposal works. If they can build a replica with modern machinery, they aim to do the same with techniques from antiquity.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: America Before: Comets, Catastrophes, Mounds and Mythology

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Folder

BBC leaked files: UK's state media engaged in anti-Moscow information warfare operations in Eastern Europe


RT
Thu, 11 Mar 2021 09:10 UTC
BBC Media Action Russian flag
© AFP/BBC/KJN
New documents raise serious questions about how well-deserved British state broadcaster BBC's 'unimpeachable' reputation is, and also what impact its relationship with the UK government has on its supposedly 'impartial' output.

Within a tranche of secret UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) papers, recently leaked by hacktivist collective Anonymous, are files indicating that BBC Media Action (BBCMA) - the outlets 'charitable' arm - plays a central role in Whitehall-funded and directed psyops initiatives targeted at Russia.

American journalist Max Blumenthal has comprehensively exposed how, at the FCDO's behest, BBCMA covertly cultivated Russian journalists, established influence networks within and outside Russia, and promoted pro-Whitehall, anti-Moscow propaganda in Russian-speaking areas.

However, the newly released files reveal BBCMA also offered to lead a dedicated FCDO program, named 'Independent Media in Eastern Partnership Countries' and targeted at Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. This endeavor forms part of a wider £100 million ($138.9 million) effort waged by London to demonize, destabilize and isolate Russia, at home and abroad.
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Info

Scythians also settled down and practiced agriculture says new study

Mihai Andrei
ZME Science
Wed, 10 Mar 2021 18:41 UTC
Scythians are ancient people that lived in the steppes of Eurasia from approximately the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. They're often portrayed as nomadic peoples who moved along as they traded and raided — but a new study challenges this notion. Using isotopic analysis, researchers have shown that, at least sometimes, the Scythians also settled down and practiced agriculture.
Bronze Mirror
© Svetlana AndrukhBronze mirror found at one of the researched sites.
Scythians were excellent horse riders and carried out frequent raids on both European and Middle-Eastern civilizations, but also facilitated trade along the legendary Silk Road. For these reasons (and because they couldn't prove otherwise), many archaeologists considered Scythians to be nomads. But in a new study led by Dr. Alicia R. Ventresca Miller, the evidence suggests otherwise.
"The Scythians are often imagined as nomadic warriors roaming the steppe, but our finds suggest that most people remained local to their settlements and only a few moved long distances," Miller tells ZME Science.
Miller is a bioarchaeologist and stable isotope analyst at the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on populations in the steppe, focusing on nomadic cuisine and the rise of urban economies. Along with her colleagues, she measured isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium in human teeth and bones from several Scythian-era burial sites in Ukraine.
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Star of David

Biden should end U.S. hypocrisy on Israeli nukes

Victor Gilinsky, Henry Sokolski
Foreign Policy
Fri, 19 Feb 2021 05:19 UTC
Biden Netanyahu
© Debbie Hill/APUS President Joe Biden • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Until Feb. 17, U.S. President Joe Biden had delayed making the usual post-inauguration ceremonial call to the Israeli prime minister. Washington insiders concluded that the apparent cold shoulder meant Biden had not yet signed "the letter," which Israel routinely demands of U.S. presidents to ensure the United States doesn't mention Israel's nuclear weapons when discussing proliferation in the region or pressure the Israeli government to reduce its formidable atomic arsenal.

As described by Adam Entous in a 2018 New Yorker article, every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has, at Israeli insistence, signed a secret letter upon entering office that effectively pledges the United States will not "press the Jewish state to give up its nuclear weapons so long as it continued to face existential threats in the region."

Whatever policy the United States adopts toward Israeli nuclear weapons, it's time it stopped this demeaning rite.

The consequence for U.S. policy has been that the United States does not press Israel to give up its nuclear weapons — when doing so would have been the only course consistent with U.S. nonproliferation policy. However, Washington actively assists Israel, both diplomatically by quashing discussion of its nuclear weapons in international forums and materially by looking the other way at nuclear-related Israeli violations of law, including some within the United States.

This included pretending in 1979 that what was almost certainly an Israeli nuclear test in the South Indian Ocean, which was observed by a U.S. satellite, didn't happen. Former President Jimmy Carter's White House and its successors classified documents and debunked what was known, but the signal evidence is extremely compelling, as we and others have detailed in Foreign Policy.
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Rocket

Space, spies & suicide: How Roscosmos adviser and ex-journo Ivan Safronov crash-landed at the centre of NATO-linked espionage drama

Gabriel Gavin
RT
Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:15 UTC
composite blackboard items
© RT
By all accounts, Ivan Safronov was set for a stellar career at the heart of Moscow's political establishment. Aged 30, he'd left a prestigious journalistic role to become an aide to the head of Roscosmos, Russia's answer to NASA.

That changed dramatically in July last year, when he was arrested by agents from the FSB, the country's top domestic security agency, and charged with treason. In a statement, officials said that he was suspected of passing state secrets to spooks from a NATO nation. On Tuesday last, a Moscow court extended his arrest, meaning he will languish behind bars until at least May, while prosecutors prepare the case against him.

Safronov's lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, revealed after his arrest that, in files shared by investigators, "the Czech Republic is the state that is mentioned as receiving classified information," allegedly transferred over the internet. "Prosecutors believe that the US has become the ultimate recipient," the advocate added. His client continues to maintain his innocence.
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