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New human species with orange-size brain discovered

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Thu, 10 Sep 2015 06:34 UTC
Homo naledi
© Mark Thiessen/National GeographicPaleoartist John Gurch spent some 700 hours recreating the head of Homo naledi based on bone scans.
A newly discovered extinct human species may be the most primitive unearthed yet, with a brain about the size of an orange. But despite its small brain size, the early human performed ritual burials of its dead, researchers say.

This newfound species from South Africa, named Homo naledi, possessed an unusual mix of features, such as feet adapted for a life on the ground but hands suited for a life in the trees, that may force scientists to rewrite their models about the dawn of humanity.

Although modern humans are the only human lineage alive today, other human species once walked the Earth. These extinct lineages were members of the genus Homo just as modern humans are. The earliest human specimens found yet are about 2.8 million years old. [See Images of the Newfound Human Relative]

Though the researchers aren't sure how far back this human relative dates, it is the newest addition to the genus Homo. "It's a very exciting finding," said paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall at the American Museum of Natural History, who did not participate in this research.

However, Tattersall suggested these new hominins might not belong to genus Homo. "I'm a great advocate for the notion that the genus Homo has been made overinclusive," he said. "I don't like to stuff new things in old pigeonholes. I don't think we have the vocabulary needed to describe the diversity we're seeing in early hominins."
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Magnify

New human-like species discovered in S. African cave with 'tiny brain, slender body'


RT
Thu, 10 Sep 2015 13:09 UTC
Crania lateral.
© John Hawks / Wits University
Scientists in South Africa have unearthed a new species of human relative in a burial chamber deep down in a remote cave system, naming it Homo naledi. It's the single largest fossil hominin find yet made on the continent.

It's believed the discovery, consisting of over 1,550 numbered fossil elements representing at least 15 individuals, may "alter views of human behavior." Paleontologists have come to the conclusion that H. naledi deliberately deposited bodies of their dead in a remote cave chamber - behavior previously thought limited exclusively to humans.

According to scientists, H. naledi had a tiny brain, about the size of an average orange (about 500 cubic cm), perched atop of a "very slender body."
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Blue Planet

2,500-year-old city buried under flood sediment may belong to lost civilization in Spain


Ancient Origins
Tue, 08 Sep 2015 23:19 UTC
Image
Manuel Cuevas is 52 years old and is not only an entrepreneur, but also a passionate independent researcher. A few days ago, this resident of Sanlucar de Barrameda (Cadiz) sprung into the Spanish media after presenting a report to the Register of the Ministry of Culture of Andalusia. This report provides the coordinates of what has been interpreted to be four large buildings and a town from at least 2,500 years ago. One of these structures, a building or square surrounded by buildings, has measured 360 by 180 meters (1181 by 591 feet), while another, according to information provided by Antena3, reaches a size of about 180 by 100 meters (591 by 328 feet): unusual measurements for such ancient buildings.

The ancient city would be located in the area of Pinar de La Algaida covering an area of about 8 square kilometers (5 square miles.) This is where Cuevas claims to have recognized structures of entire buildings, with the appearance of having been preserved under multiple layers of sediment after suffering a major flood. The researcher believes that the architectural structures are older than that of the great Pharaonic and Mesopotamia monuments. Moreover, some of these buildings, due to their depth, refer to the period in which the mouth of the Guadalquivir River was a huge estuary, when the sea water covered the present city of Seville. Thus, at least some of the buildings may correspond to a time in which the common technology available would not have been sufficient to build such structures - making the city the location of a possible lost civilization.
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Eye 2

The Ukrainian Legion: Nazi collaborators who sought to help Germany invade Poland


Sputnik News
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 11:33 UTC
Ukraine nazi
© Wikipedia
In the spring of 1939, a few months before Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, an ultra-right political organization seeking to achieve Ukraine's independence via violence and terrorism, formed a military unit which planned to assist the Germans in their invasion. Alas, history turned out differently.

The little-known unit, called the Military Units of the Nationalists, referenced in German documents as the Bergbauernhilfe (B.B.H), was unofficially referred to as the Ukrainian Legion, and was organized with the assistance of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, by OUN military and political leader Roman Sushko in the summer of 1939. The unit was formed to take part in battles, and to support armed uprisings of Ukrainian nationalists in the territories of eastern Poland populated by Ukrainians.

In March 1939, during the liquidation of Czechoslovakia, the leaders of the Soim of Carpathian Ukraine, the 'autonomous lands' of the former Czechoslovakia, declared their territory's independence. Hungary, which had annexed the region, sent troops into the area to crush the resistance of the Carpathian Sich - the poorly armed and trained militia comprised of Ukrainian nationalists, many of them former members of the Czechoslovak military, volunteers from neighboring Galicia, and activists from the OUN. Among the latter was Roman Sushko.

Comment: Allen Dulles and the Ukrainian fascists: Did the CIA / MI6 use of Nazis in Ukraine during the Cold War ever stop?

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Fire

"Hijacked in Rome" and the history of Israel's "animut" nuclear program

Gilad Atzmon
Gilad.co.uk
Tue, 08 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu - Documentary (screen shot)
Superb documentary - a lot of new information relating to the early days of the Dimona Project, the 67 war, The Liberty and more..



Comment: In this documentary, it can be noted that the particular period centered around the 1967 War, which included the blatant attack on the USS Liberty in the Mediterranean Sea, by none other than Israel's Mossad/Military, had a number of different sides. Angles that involved the Soviets support of Egypt and Syria, and the direct possibility that the U.S. government (CIA) under President Lyndon B. Johnson, colluded with Israel (Mossad) to sink the USS Liberty, helping to sacrifice murder their own navy sailors in an attempted false flag operation to help shift this murderous dead upon Egypt to help counter the Soviets? If this is so, when the Israeli military aircraft and fast boats failed to completely sink the USS Liberty, and failing to ensure that every US Navy sailors was dead that could point the finger at Israel, the ridiculous cover stories started to fly high?

For more on the subject of Israel's Dimona project, nuclear bomb development and use, and Mordechai Vanunu's imprisonment etc, the following collection of articles is a sample:

Iran? What about Israel? JFK tried and failed to demand inspections of Dimona nuclear facility
Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki was unjustified - US experts
Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons: Israel's arsenal is a plague upon the world
The Soviet Union was the ultimate target of the nuclear attack on Japan during WWII
Happy Veterans Day: New evidence proves Israel attacked USS Liberty with orders to kill 294 Americans
Israel gags nuclear whistleblower Vanunu invited to speak at human rights conference
The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal
Israeli nuclear whistleblower Vanunu on Iran and Democracy

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Sherlock

Basque origins mystery solved by ancient DNA


BBC
Mon, 07 Sep 2015 02:16 UTC
Basque origins DNA genome
© Agence France-PresseTwo men saw a tree trunk with a "tronza" (traditional Basque saw) during a rural sports championship
DNA from ancient remains seems to have solved the puzzle of one of Europe's most enigmatic people: the Basques.

The distinct language and genetic make-up of the Basque people in northern Spain and southern France has puzzled anthropologists for decades.

One theory proposed that they were an unmixed pocket of indigenous hunters.

Now, a study in PNAS journal suggests they descend from early farmers who mixed with local hunters before becoming isolated for millennia.

The Basques have unique customs and a language - Euskera - that is unrelated to any other spoken in Europe, or indeed the world.

Nestled in a mountainous corner of Atlantic Europe, they also show distinct genetic patterns to their neighbours in France and Spain.

It seemed logical that they were representatives of an older layer of population settlement, but just how far back their roots went has been a topic of debate.

Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University in Sweden analysed the genomes of eight Stone Age human skeletons from El Portalón in Atapuerca, northern Spain.

These individuals lived between 3,500 and 5,500 years ago, after the transition to farming in southwest Europe.

The results show that these early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to present-day Basques.

Comment: Other theories:
  • Basque Origins Predate Arrival of Farmers in Iberian Peninsula, DNA Analysis Finds


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Gold Bar

Mysterious treasure hunter says he found 100 tons of Soviet gold hidden from Nazis during WWII


RT
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 20:22 UTC
Image
© Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
A representative of a mysterious treasure hunter has told the German tabloid Bild that he has discovered an underground gold cache near the Russian city of Smolensk, which was placed there as the Soviets retreated during the German onslaught in 1941.

According to his Berlin-based lawyer Mikhail Kantor, the gold-seeker "risked his life using a geo-radar to scan the environs of Smolensk" until he struck upon the cache in shaft near the village of Otnosovo, located 15 to 17 meters underground, where five or six trucks laden with 100 tons of jewelry, precious stones and bullion stand untouched.

Even assuming that the contents are generic gold bars, the market value of such a find at current prices would be over $3.4 billion.

The expert believes claims that at least seven, possibly eight trucks were packed up in a rush in July 1941 - less than a month before Smolensk was captured - from the regional department of the Soviet state bank, and sent towards Moscow. But as they crossed the river Dnieper, they came under fire from German bombers, and one or more of the trucks were destroyed.
Image
© RIA NovostiCombat equipment near Smolensk. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Local eyewitnesses saw a "shower of precious coins" erupt from the trucks. Deciding they were unable to safeguard the cargo, Soviet officers burned all the paper money, and hid the precious cargo locally.

Comment: Historical anomaly: U.S. WWII propaganda film ACCURATELY portrays Russia and 'most epic battle in history'

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Vader

Secret crimes: U.S. dropped insects carrying anthrax, cholera, encephalitis, and bubonic plague on North Korea

David Swanson
Let's Try Democracy
Sun, 06 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
korea
This happened some 63 years ago, but as the U.S. government has never stopped lying about it, and it's generally known only outside the United States, I'm going to treat it as news.

Here in our little U.S. bubble we've heard of a couple versions of a film called The Manchurian Candidate. We've heard of the general concept of "brainwashing" and may even associate it with something evil that the Chinese supposedly did to U.S. prisoners during the Korean War. And I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people who've heard of these things have at least a vague sense that they're bullshit.

If you didn't know, I'll break it to you right now: people cannot actually be programmed like the Manchurian candidate, which was a work of fiction. There was never the slightest evidence that China or North Korea had done any such thing. And the CIA spent decades trying to do such a thing, and finally gave up.


Comment: Actually there is substantial evidence to the contrary. In his book, The C.I.A. Doctors, Dr. Colin Ross provides proof, based on 15,000 pages of documents obtained from the C.I.A. through the Freedom of Information Act, that the Manchurian Candidate "super spy" is fact, not fiction. He describes the experiments conducted by psychiatrists to create amnesia, new identities, hypnotic access codes, and new memories in the minds of experimental subjects.

I'd also be willing to bet that very few people know what it was that the U.S. government promoted the myth of "brainwashing" to cover up. During the Korean War, the United States bombed virtually all of North Korea and a good bit of the South, killing millions of people. It dropped massive quantities of Napalm. It bombed dams, bridges, villages, houses. This was all-out mass-slaughter. But there was something the U.S. government didn't want known, something deemed unethical in this genocidal madness.


Comment: See: SOTT Exclusive: US-occupied Korea - A forgotten verdict for a forgotten war


Comment: According to findings from a 2003 International War Crimes Tribunal:
..the U.S. used weapons banned by the articles of war, including bacteriological and chemical weapons. U.S. planes had dropped canisters containing flies and other insects infected with plague, cholera and other epidemic diseases.


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Info

DNA helps unravel the story behind past human migrations


ABC Science, Australia
Tue, 08 Sep 2015 00:30 UTC
Cristina
© Cristina ValdioseraCristina working at the El Portalon cave dig at the anthropological site Atapuerca in northern Spain.
It's only a matter of time before we have a nearly complete genetic picture of the Neolithic in Europe, thanks to molecular archaeology, writes Dr Cristina Valdiosera.

Past human migrations have always been a subject of great interest because they tell us a story of where we come from, and who we are.

Molecular archaeology or archaeogenetics, is a new field that allows you to travel back in time and directly study the DNA of humans or animals in the archaeological record.

This has now opened the possibility to directly track ancient human migrations by analysing the genetic composition of past populations.

Among the subjects that I have been recently working on are the 'Peopling of the Americas' and the 'Neolithisation' of Europe: that is, the origin of agricultural societies. Both involve past human migrations.

The peopling of the Americas is of particular interest because this was the last mass of land on earth to be populated by humans.

But who were these people? Where did they come from? Are all Native Americans direct descendants of one single migration wave that populated the Americas only one time? Or were there several initial migration waves originating from different places?

By using the latest molecular technologies, the field of molecular archaeology has been unravelling some of the stories behind the past human migrations.
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Attention

Ice Age skeletons discovered in Mexican underwater cave show evidence of early migrations to the Americas

April Holloway
Ancient Origins
Sun, 06 Sep 2015 21:54 UTC
Tulum
© Christine Rondea / Roberto Chavez ArceA cenote in Tulum, Mexico Inset: Ancient skull found in Tulum cenote.
In May last year, archaeologists made the exciting announcement that a complete Ice Age skeleton had been found in an underwater cave in Tulum, Mexico. Since then, more than eight well-preserved skeletons, ranging in age from 9,000 to 13,000 years have been retrieved from cenotes in Mexico and now scientists are beginning to unravel the secrets that they hold, remaining hopeful that the bones may eventually reveal how the Americas were first populated.

El Universal reports that three skeletons were found in the Naharon cenote, Los Palmas cenote, and the Temple cenote. Out of the eight sets of human remains, at least one of the individuals is believed to have accidentally fallen in the cenote - a natural pit resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath, while at least two of the skeletons were intentionally deposited. Cenotes were later used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings.

Comment: See also: Skull in Underwater Cave May Be Earliest Trace of First Americans

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