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Benjamin Lay: The 18th-century Quaker dwarf who challenged slavery, meat-eating, and racism

Natasha Frost
Atlas Obscura
Fri, 11 Sep 2020 20:36 UTC
benjamin lay quaker abolistionist
© William Williams/Public Domain
This 1790 portrait of Benjamin Lay, by William Williams and his apprentice, depicts Lay in front of his cave. The basket of vegetables beside him is a hint of his vegetarianism.
One Sunday, 18th-century Quakers living in Abington, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, were met with a strange sight outside their morning meeting. The snow lay thick on the ground and there was Benjamin Lay, a member of the congregation, wearing little clothing, with his "right leg and foot uncovered," almost knee-deep in the snow. When one Quaker after the next told him that he would get sick or that he should get inside and cover up, he turned to them. "Ah," he said, "you pretend compassion for me, but you do not feel for the poor slaves in your fields, who go all winter half-clad."

Lay always cut a striking figure. An 1818 article, republished in the newspaper The Friend in 1911, many years after his death, described him thus:
... only four foot seven in height; his head was large in proportion to his body, the features of his face were remarkable ... He was hunch-backed, with a projecting chest, below which his body become much contracted. His legs were so slender, as to appear almost unequal to the purpose of supporting him.
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SOTT Logo Radio

MindMatters: Who Was G.I. Gurdjieff And Why Does It Matter?

Harrison Koehli, Elan Martin, Corey Schink
Sott.net
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC
gurdjieff
Healer, philosopher, psychologist, adventurer, composer, mystic - all describe a facet of who George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was, and what he did. And yet, he may also be called one of the leading figures in 'spiritual' growth that most people have simply never heard of. Gurdjieff's teachings, body of writing and the schools he started and taught were, and are, a profound testament to his insight and vision for a healthy and well functioning human being. On a personal level, he worked with hundreds of students in assisting them to not only see themselves as they really were, but to help grow the seeds of greater consciousness and conscience that would make them better people.

This week on MindMatters we discuss the life and times of one of the 20th century's most towering figures and ask, what drove him? Who did he work with? And what is the 4th Way school that has carried on his work in the generations after his death in 1949? In a world that insists that it is 'woke', why are Gurdjieff's ideas about self-awareness so relevant to the individual in the here and now?


Running Time: 01:02:03

Download: MP3 — 57.7 MB

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Archaeology

Egypt unearths 3,000 year-old tomb with sarcophagus dedicated to Horus, GOD of the sky


RT
Fri, 31 Jan 2020 17:19 UTC
sarcophagus
© Global Look Press / dpa / Samer Abdalla
A vast trove of artifacts, including 20 sarcophagi, has been discovered in sixteen tombs in Egypt's Minya region. It's the latest in a series of high-profile digs which have resulted in extraordinary finds in recent years.

The Ministry of Antiquities unveiled the incredible discovery at the Al-Ghoreifa site, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Cairo on Thursday.

The tombs contained the mummified bodies of high priests of the god Djehuty, and nobility from the 26th dynasty from the Late Period around 3,000 years ago. A spectacular sarcophagus inscribed with hieroglyphics dedicated to the sky god Horus was also unearthed.
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Camera

Russia declassifies pre-Yalta conference photos: Churchill, FDR in Sevastopol, Crimea


RT
Fri, 31 Jan 2020 08:41 UTC
Churchill/Roosevelt
© Russian Defense Ministry archive
(left to right) Soviet FM Molotov, British PM Churchill and US President Roosevelt at the Sevastopol airport, Crimea, USSR, February 1945
As part of a WWII document trove declassified ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Yalta summit, never before seen photographs show US and British leaders and officers arriving in Crimea and touring Sevastopol with Soviet hosts.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Crimea in February 1945, to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Black Sea town of Yalta.

Official photos from the Yalta conference itself were taken by American photographers at the Livadia Palace, where the US delegation was staying. Prior to the summit, however, Soviet photographers captured the arrival of Allied leaders and their activities in Sevastopol.
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Microscope 2

Neanderthal genes found for first time in African populations

Hannah Devlin
The Guardian
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 16:00 UTC
Neanderthal
© Universal Images Group North America LLC/Alamy
A Neanderthal skull.
African populations have been revealed to share Neanderthal ancestry for the first time, in findings that add a new twist to the tale of ancient humans and our closest known relatives.

Previously it was believed that only non-African populations carried Neanderthal genes due to interbreeding that took place after a major human migration out of Africa and across the globe about 60,000 years ago.

The latest findings suggest human and Neanderthal lineages are more closely intertwined than once thought and point to far earlier interbreeding events, about 200,000 years ago.

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

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Cow Skull

Scientists have found 330-million-year-old sharks fossilized in a Kentucky cave

David Williams
CNN
Fri, 31 Jan 2020 07:28 UTC
kentuky cave shark
Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park is a long way from the ocean, but newly discovered fossils suggest the area was once teeming with sharks.

Scientists have identified the remains of 15 to 20 different species of sharks deep in the cave, including part of the head of a great white-sized monster that's partially protruding from a wall, paleontologist John-Paul Hodnett told CNN.

The sharks lived about 330 million years ago in what is known as the Late Mississippian geologic time period, when much of North America was covered by oceans. When they died, their remains were encased in sediment that eventually became the limestone where the cave formed.

"There's hardly ever any record at all of sharks' teeth coming from these rocks. So that was exciting", Hodnett sad. "So this is a brand new record of sharks from a particular layer of time." Mammoth Cave scientists Rick Olson and Rick Toomey were mapping a remote part of the cave when they started seeing shark fossils, according to Vincent Santucci, senior paleontologist with the National Park Service.

They sent photos of their find to Hodnett, because he's an expert on Paleozoic sharks. He works at Maryland's Dinosaur Park, a fossil site near Washington, DC, and does support research for the National Park Service.
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Boat

Wreck found believed to be 95-year-old ship that vanished near Bermuda Triangle

Ella Torres
ABC News
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 02:14 UTC
Diver
© Science Channel
An undated photo shows diver Michael C. Barnette measuring the wreck of the SS Cotopaxi off the coast of Florida.An undated photo shows diver Michael C. Barnette measuring the wreck of the SS Cotopaxi off the coast of Florida.
After nearly 95 years, explorers believe they have discovered the SS Cotopaxi, a ship that vanished near the area known as the Bermuda Triangle in 1925.

The steam-powered bulk carrier set sail from Charleston, South Carolina, to Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 29, 1925 before disappearing on the way.

Carrying 32 passengers, no bodies have been recovered, and what happened in the shipwreck, or the whereabouts of it, were unknown -- until now.

In the summer of 2019, Michael Barnette went on a dive and believed he came across the wreckage of the Cotopaxi off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida.

Barnette said that while he didn't go specifically looking for the ship, he regularly goes out to sea to help identify local wrecks.
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Archaeology

Ancient stone tools found in Siberian cave overturn accepted theories on Neanderthal migrations


Sputnik
Wed, 29 Jan 2020 20:41 UTC
neanderthal
© Marcin Rogozinski / Alamy Stock Photo
Many of us have at least a little Neanderthal DNA inside us
Neanderthals, a subspecies of archaic humans who roamed Eurasia before mysteriously disappearing some 40,000 years ago, remain a source of fascination among archeologists and ethnographers, since the true cause of their extinction has yet to be agreed upon.

A multinational collective of scientists from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Australia and Canada has discovered important new clues indicating that Neanderthal nomads made at least two separate 3,000-4,000 km treks from Eastern Europe to southern Siberia in the hunt for bison.

The groundbreaking discovery, based on the identification and analysis of a distinct type of stone tool at Chagyrskaya Cave, a famous archeological site in Altai region, provides new clues about the ancient hominins' amazing ability to adapt to the dry and barren steppes and frigid cold temperatures of Siberia during migration across long distances.
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Dig

Pliny the Elder's remains were found on shores of Pompeii, researchers believe

Ariel David
Haaretz
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:29 UTC
skull
© Luciano Fattore
The skull and mandible found at Stabiae. Tests showed they belonged to two different people
The cranium really does belong to the Roman admiral who died leading a rescue mission after Vesuvius erupted, even if the jaw doesn't, researchers say

A team of Italian researchers have strengthened the case that at least the cranium found near Pompeii 100 years ago really does belong to Pliny the Elder, a Roman military leader and polymath who perished while leading a rescue mission following the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. However, a jawbone that had been found with the skull evidently belonged to somebody else.

Over the last couple of years the experts, including anthropologists and geneticists, conducted a host of scientific tests on the skull and lower mandible that had been found a century ago on the shore near Pompeii, which have since been at the center of a scholarly debate as to whether they should be attributed to Pliny.

The main finding of the researchers, who presented their conclusions at a conference in Rome on Thursday, is that the jawbone belonged to a different person, but that the skull is compatible with what we know about Pliny at his death.

Comment: For more of the fascinating finds in Pompeii, see:

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Archaeology

Egypt's fascinating 'Valley of the Whales'


Curiosmos
Tue, 28 Jan 2020 23:18 UTC
whale fossils egypt
© Shutterstock
Wadi El Hitan, the Valley of the Whales
There is an ancient Egyptian desert, once a vast ocean, that guards the secret of one of the most remarkable transformations in the evolution of life on planet Earth.

Egypt is known as the land of Pyramids, Pharaohs, and golden sands. Countless treasures have been excavated from beneath Egypt's sands, revealing a treasure trove of a time long gone. Archeologists have discovered pyramids, temples, entire cities and treasures whose value is incalculable. But there's more to Egypt than the Sphinx, the Pharaohs, and its incredible pyramids, and there is more to this wonderful land than the Valley of Kings.

Some 160 kilometers southwest of the Pyramids at the Giza plateau is a treasure trove of history. There aren't any pyramids, temples or mummies buried there, but it is nonetheless a site of great importance. In fact, Wadi El Hitan was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

The reason? hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales) lie buried beneath the desert sand.
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