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Traces of 3.95 billion-year-old organisms found in Labrador, Canada

Labrador, Canada
© nvcamperva /InstagramLabrador, Canada
Ancient rocks in northern Canada may contain the oldest traces of life on Earth, dating back 3.95 billion years, according to new research.

Graphite found in sedimentary rocks in Labrador revealed that the geochemical signature came from the decomposition of living organisms, researchers from the University of Tokyo said.

The substance - a form of carbon used in pencil lead - was analyzed by scientists to determine its isotope composition and the signature of its chemical elements.

The team concluded the graphite was "biogenic," meaning it was produced by living organisms. The identity of these organisms remains a mystery, however.

2 + 2 = 4

Hugh Hefner's legacy

Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner, America's famous porn magnate, has died at the age of 91 at the Playboy Mansion. Throughout his life, he championed unfettered hedonism in every form: Abortion, the legalization of marijuana, the liberation of sex from love, and pornography were all causes he fought - with much success - to bring into the mainstream. Hefner himself was not single-handedly responsible for the massive social changes that rocked the Western world from the Sexual Revolution onwards, but he was easily the single most recognizable symbol of them all.

It began with Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a zoologist with an expertise in gall wasps, who switched to the study of sex and began a campaign to change social norms around sexual behavior. His two major works, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1953 stunned everyday Americans as nothing else had. Kinsey claimed that children were sexual from birth and could experience sexual pleasure (the abuse of children was facilitated in order to construct this faulty theory), that nearly half of men had affairs, that 85% of men had sex before marriage, that a staggering 70% of men had used prostitutes, and that between 10-37% of men had engaged in homosexual behavior.

Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza: Archaeologists uncover secrets of how mankind possibly pulled off one of its wonders of the ancient world

Pyramids
Archaeologists have discovered proof that shows how the Egyptians transported 2½-ton blocks of limestone and granite from 500 miles away to build the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu in about 2,600 BC.
It has for centuries been one of the world's greatest enigmas: how a Bronze Age society with little in the way of technology created Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza - the oldest and only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Now archaeologists have discovered fascinating proof that shows how the Egyptians transported 2½-ton blocks of limestone and granite from 500 miles away to build the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu in about 2,600 BC.

At 481ft tall, it is the biggest of all the pyramids and was, until the Middle Ages, the largest man-made structure on Earth. Now the discovery of an ancient papyrus, a ceremonial boat and an ingenious system of waterworks have shed light on the infrastructure created by the builders.

Pistol

Rashid Khalidi: Balfour Declaration was 'gun pointed at heads' of Palestinians

Rashid Khalidi
Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi
Last night at NYU, Rashid Khalidi gave a lecture to mark the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration- "from the standpoint of its victims," the Palestinians.
For the Palestinians this statement was a gun pointed directly at their heads... The issuance of the Balfour Declaration thus marked the beginning of what I would describe as a century long colonial war in Palestine supported by an array of outside powers which continues to this day.
Let me break out two other bracing statements that Khalidi made in the talk, at the Hagopian Center at NYU, one about the state of the Arab world, one about the power of Zionism.

MIB

Living-in-CIN: CIA archive reveals secret network of ex-spies that worked to influence policy and public perception

deep state shadow government
The Common Interest Network or CIN - pronounced "sin" - billed itself as an "unofficial Intelligence Community"

A document in Central Intelligence Retirees Association's (CIA) archive points to the existence of an unofficial "Common Interest Network" of retired intelligence officers. The network, also known as CIN - "as in living-in-sin" according to one of its founders - exists to coordinate the efforts of different organizations. Described as "an unofficial Intelligence Community," it doesn't exist except as an abstract, with no chairman, no agenda, and "not even the formality of a rotating host list." Yet it exists, meeting to discuss influencing Congress and the press, to successfully attack the Freedom of Information Act, and to coordinate the efforts of the organizations that make up the Common Interest Network.
Common Interest Network documents
Captain Richard Bates, who was the president of two organizations making up the Common Interest Network, a board member on another three of its organizations, and the man who ran CIN for a time, wrote that it "is a network. It is not an organization. It has no charter, no list of officers, no bylaws, no regular obligations, and it does not contemplate acquiring any." According to Ray Cline, a principle member of CIN, the acronym was appropriate because it would inevitably be pronounced "as in living-in-sin." Captain Bates added that "CIN is a network ... a loose, informal but regular gathering of representatives of the organizations with offices in the Washington area."

Frog

Jar of headless toads discovered inside 4,000-year-old Jerusalem burial

Jar of headless toads found in Jerusalem
© Zohar Turgeman-Yaffe, Israel Antiquities Authority
Finding a tomb that's been sealed for thousands of years is always a treat for archaeologists -especially when that tomb contains a jar of headless toads.

That's what archaeologists discovered inside a 4,000-year-old burial in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced yesterday (Sept. 25).

The excavators think the jar might have been a funeral offering to feed the dead in the afterlife.

In 2014, archaeologists were excavating at a Bronze Age cemetery of more than 60 rock-cut tombs in Jerusalem's Manaḥat neighborhood. They discovered a sealed tomb, and after they rolled back the stone that was covering its opening, they found one poorly preserved human skeleton. The person had been buried lying on their back among intact ceramic bowls and jars. Based on the style of the pottery, the researchers think the tomb likely dates to the early part of the Middle Bronze Age (about 4,000 years ago).

One of the jars held a heap of small bones from nine toads that had all been decapitated.

Bad Guys

The Espionage Act of 1917: When the US government declared war on the First Amendment

espionage act, sedition act
One hundred years ago, the U.S. government declared war on the First Amendment.

It all started with President Woodrow Wilson. On April 2, 1917, Wilson urged the nation into battle against Germany in order to "make the world safe for democracy." But the president also set his sights on certain enemies located much closer to home. "Millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy...live among us," Wilson observed. "If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of repression."

That firm hand came in the form of the Espionage Act, which Congress passed in June 1917 and Wilson eagerly signed into law. Among other things, the act made it illegal to "convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies." That sweeping language effectively criminalized most forms of anti-war speech. If convicted of obstructing the war effort, the guilty party faced up to $10,000 in fines and up to 20 years in prison.

With that law in place, Wilson's threats of repression soon became reality. In August, the federal government arrested and imprisoned Charles Schenck, the general secretary of the Socialist Party. His crime? Printing and distributing thousands of anti-war leaflets. Schenck maintained that the First Amendment clearly protected his right to speak out in that manner against U.S. militarism, but his arguments fell on deaf ears.

Comment: Espionage Act: How the Government Can Engage in Serious Aggression Against the People of the United States


Archaeology

Canada's Dene people: History, science, and the 'year of two winters'

Dene native elder
© John IvesElder Bruce Starlight, a member of the Tsuut'ina Nation and co-organizer of the Dene Migration Symposium, with University of Alberta professor John Ives in Utah on an archeology project.
Uncovering the secrets of Dene migration Archaeology shows Northern Indigenous people travelled and traded widely

Raymond Yakeleya, a Dene filmmaker originally from Tulita, N.W.T., is struck by the rich history of his people.

He attended the second Dene Migration Symposium hosted by the Tsuut'ina Nation, a Dene community near Calgary, earlier this month. Part of the focus of the conference was on the people defined by the Dene family of languages and their movements across North America.

"It seems that all of the Dene were true nomads," Yakeleya said. "They were not scared to go around the next corner or go around the next mountain in search of their livelihood in North America."

2 + 2 = 4

How the NFL blitzes taxpayers

Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league-and to the feudal lords who own its teams.

National Football League
BLITZING TAXPAYERS: Even in states facing billion dollar budget shortfalls, the NFL has been able to get massive handouts in recent years.
Last year was a busy one for public giveaways to the National Football League. In Virginia, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, who styles himself as a budget-slashing conservative crusader, took $4 million from taxpayers' pockets and handed the money to the Washington Redskins, for the team to upgrade a workout facility. Hoping to avoid scrutiny, McDonnell approved the gift while the state legislature was out of session. The Redskins' owner, Dan Snyder, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $1 billion. But even billionaires like to receive expensive gifts.

Taxpayers in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, were hit with a bill for $26 million in debt service for the stadiums where the NFL's Bengals and Major League Baseball's Reds play, plus another $7 million to cover the direct operating costs for the Bengals' field. Pro-sports subsidies exceeded the $23.6 million that the county cut from health-and-human-services spending in the current two-year budget (and represent a sizable chunk of the $119 million cut from Hamilton County schools). Press materials distributed by the Bengals declare that the team gives back about $1 million annually to Ohio community groups. Sound generous? That's about 4 percent of the public subsidy the Bengals receive annually from Ohio taxpayers.

Comet 2

Death from the clouds - Toxic Comets

Cumulus Congestus
© Flickr/Kevin Dooley
Although molecular Nitrogen represents 78.09% of the air we breath this doesn't mean all substances containing Nitrogen are nice and nurturing.

In reality Nitrogen is a very curious substance that can also be very nasty.

The combination of Nitrogen and Carbon in the form of Cyanogen is very toxic.
Cyanogen is the chemical compound with the formula (CN)2.

It is a colorless, toxic gas with a pungent odor.
cyanogen
© Malaga Bay
Like other cyanides, cyanogen is very toxic, as it readily undergoes reduction to cyanide, which poisons the cytochrome c oxidase complex, thus interrupting the mitochondrial electron transfer chain.
...
Inhalation of 900 ppm over a period of 10 minutes is considered lethal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanogen
Comet Composition
© Wikipedia
Comets are very toxic because they produce cyanogen.