Secret HistoryS


Quenelle

Anger over London housing reminiscent of 1915 Glasgow rent protests


The Conversation
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 01:23 UTC
rent refusers glasglow
© WikimediaProtesters prevent sheriff officers entering the tenements of rent refusers.
Anger over government housing policy is undoubtedly one of the running themes of the 2010s. Most recently we have seen anti-gentrification protests in east London over people being pushed out due to huge increases in private rent costs and a lack of social housing, which made headlines for targeting the hipster Cereal Killer Cafe in Brick Lane.

This is an era of severe shortages in social housing, aggravated by Tory plans to extend the right to buy scheme to housing associations. We have seen staggering increases in the costs of private renting, dwindling owner occupation and of course the bedroom tax. The London protests were a reaction to the effective social cleansing of working-class residents by Tory/Lib Dem coaliton policy. Local tenants' organisations and protest groups have also been formed to co-ordinate discontent. Meanwhile, Corbyn's Labour is proposing the biggest social-housing programme since the 1970s.

Comment:

Read More...
Sherlock

Not just the Egyptians: Ancient Britons mummified their dead

David Keys
The Independent
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:09 UTC
British mummies
© Geoff MorleyThis may look like a ordinary skeleton - but the bones provide compelling evidence that these remains were once mummified.
Findings mark major breakthrough in helping archaeologists to understand the nature of society in prehistoric Britain

While the ancient Egyptians were busy mummifying their dead, prehistoric Britons - well beyond the fringes of the known world - were doing the same more than 2000 miles to the north-west.

New research is revealing that people throughout much of prehistoric Britain used mummification to ensure that their dead ancestors appeared to 'live on', at least physically, for decades and probably centuries.

The research is a major breakthrough in helping archaeologists to understand the nature of society in prehistoric Britain.

Scientific investigations are now showing that ancient British tribes mummified some of their dead by immersing them in peat bogs and in some cases by exposing them to heat and smoke. It is a completely different mummification system to the salt-based one used by the ancient Egyptians.

The new research - carried out by Dr Tom Booth at Sheffield University - shows that mummification in Britain seems to have started by 2400BC and continued until at least 1000 BC. It suggests that prehistoric Brits may have been among the first peoples in the world, apart from the ancient Egyptians and Peruvians, to practise deliberate mummification.

Comment: More interesting finds:

Read More...
Magnify

Latest treasures from Antikythera shipwreck reveal how elites lived during Julius Caesar's time

Hannah Osborne
International Business Times
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 17:59 UTC
antikythera shipwreck
© WHOIThe latest expedition to Antikythera shipwreck yields new treasures
The excavation of the ancient Antikythera shipwreck has revealed how the top "1%" of Julius Caesar's time would have lived, with the remains of a bronze throne and luxury ceramics yielded from the latest expedition. Underwater archaeologists have revisited the site of the 2,000-year-old Greek shipwreck and have announced some of their latest findings.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute said more than 50 items have been brought up from the shipwreck, including a bone flute, a bronze armrest (thought to be part of a throne) and a pawn from a board game. The latest treasures will be added to the other artefacts discovered at the site, including 36 marble statues of mythological figures and a life-sized bronze statue.

Most interestingly, the wreck uncovered the Antikythera mechanism - a mechanical device that encoded the movements of the planets and stars. This artefact has been much studied and has been called the world's first computer.

Researchers believe the ship sank around 65BC. It is thought to have been transporting treasures back to Rome from Greece following an expedition by Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix. Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with WHOI, said: "This shipwreck is far from exhausted. Every single dive on it delivers fabulous finds, and reveals how the '1%' lived in the time of Caesar."

Comment: For more information on the Antikythera treasures, see:

Read More...
Light Saber

Viking Chief Tore Hund and his successful resistance against Christian conversion

Mark Miller
Ancient Origins
Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:51 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia CommonsThe death of King Olaf at the hands of Tore Hund, Viking chief
When Christians made their theological push into Europe, suppressing native religions and supplanting them with a foreign God, some pagans resisted by secretly practicing their old religion, while others resisted by meeting force with force. One such case of forceful resistance was by Tore Hund or Thorir the Hound, a powerful Viking born around 990 AD, during the first incursions of Christianity into Norway.

Today, many people around the world still resort to violence over religion, more than 1,000 years after Tore Hund killed King Olaf II or Saint Olaf, who reportedly made a deal to impose Christianity on Norway in exchange for the help of other European powers. Tore killed Olaf at the battle of Stiklestad. There, an army of farmers and laborers overwhelmed the king's army.
Read More...
Post-It Note

1920s eugenics exhibit reveal the elitist mindset

Melissa Dykes
Activist Post
Tue, 29 Sep 2015 21:02 UTC
This is an exhibit about Eugenics, dated 1926.
eugenics display
According to eugenics, "some people are born to be a burden on the rest".

You see, the eugenics movement — which steadily gained popularity for the first nearly 40 years of the 20th century and is the direct reason for forced sterilization laws implemented across America — sought to "breed out" people the elite that ultimately funded and promoted it (the Carnegie Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation, etc.) determined were genetically defective "riff raff" by way of pseudoscience parading as science.

Comment: See also: The fascinating history of eugenics

Read More...
Pharoah

King Tut's tomb reveals two secret chambers

Nevine El-Aref
Ahram Online
Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:00 UTC
Tutankhamun tomb
© Nevine El-ArefAntiquities minister Mamdouh Eldamaty (in yellow shirt) during examinations in Tutankhamun tomb.
Antiquities minister Mamdouh Eldamaty announced on Monday that the first examinations carried out by himself and British archeologist Nicholas Reeves in Luxor on Tutankhamun's tomb have revealed that the tomb's northern and western walls both hide chambers.

There are scratching and markings on both walls like those found on the entrance gate of Tutankhamun's tomb when it was discovered in 1922, Eldamaty explained.

"This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun's tomb could hide two burial chambers," Eldamaty told Ahram Online.

Nicholas Reeves said their investigations showed the tomb's ceiling extends behind the northern and western walls. He is now almost convinced his theory suggesting the existence of two undiscovered chambers is correct.

"After our first examination of the walls we can do nothing more until we receive the all-clear from the radar device to confirm the our findings," Reeves told Ahram Online.

Eldamaty has promised that on 4 November, the same day Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered, the radar results of scans on the two walls will be announced.
Read More...
Light Saber

The Empire Files: Abby Martin interviews Chris Hedges - American myths, war, and revolt


teleSUR
Sat, 26 Sep 2015 15:27 UTC

Abby Martin interviews Chris Hedges on American myths, war and revolt. Hedges explains the 'folly of Empire,' the dangers posed by right-wing extremism and the urgent need for a new system.

Chris Hedges is a former New York Times journalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of several books including his most recent, Wages of Rebellion: the Moral Imperative of Revolt. He publishes a weekly column on Truthdig.com and is the host of Days of Revolt, airing every Monday night on teleSUR english.

Comment: Chris Hedges lays out the U.S. history most have either forgotten, or were never told.

Read More...
Nuke

Top secret: The worst nuclear disaster in US history

Carey Wedler
The Anti Media
Mon, 28 Sep 2015 14:40 UTC
Image
The United States government deliberately hid "the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history," according to experts and an in-depth investigation by NBC4 Southern California. Whistleblowers have also come forward to expose the little-known catastrophe, which occurred north of Los Angeles in 1959 and leaked over 300 times the allowable amount of radiation into surrounding neighborhoods. That contamination is now linked to up to a 60% increase in cancer in the area, but the government still refuses to acknowledge its colossal mistake.

The ongoing tragedy was driven by America's darkest demons, from dogmatic militarism to aggressive corporatism, and ongoing government and corporate efforts to cover-up the disaster are nothing short of staggering.

Comment: Additional ongoing tragedies 'driven by America's darkest demons':

Read More...
Pyramid

Out-of-place artifacts suggestive of ancient high-tech civilizations

Tara Maclsaac
Epoch Times
Mon, 28 Sep 2015 19:14 UTC
Image
In Beyond Science, Epoch Times explores research and accounts related to phenomena and theories that challenge our current knowledge. We delve into ideas that stimulate the imagination and open up new possibilities. Share your thoughts with us on these sometimes controversial topics in the comments section below.

According to the conventional view of history, humans have only walked the Earth in our present form for some 200,000 years. Advanced civilizations appeared several thousand years ago, but much of the mechanical ingenuity we know in modern times began to develop only around the Industrial Revolution a couple hundred years ago.

Oopart (out-of-place artifact) is a term applied to dozens of prehistoric objects found in various places around the world that seem to show a level of technological advancement incongruous with the times in which they were made.

Many scientists attempt to explain them using natural phenomena. Others say such explanations ignore the mounting evidence that prehistoric civilizations possessed advanced technological knowledge that was lost throughout the ages only to be redeveloped in modern times.

Comment:

Read More...
Nuke

Vasili Arkhipov: Cold War Russian hero

Erico Matias Tavares
LinkedIn
Sun, 27 Sep 2015 14:57 UTC
Vasili Arkhipov
You may have never heard of Vasili Arkhipov. And yet life as we know it on this planet could have ended if it were not for his crucial intervention during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Born in 1926, Arkhipov saw action as a minesweeper during the Soviet-Japanese war in August 1945. Two years later he graduated from the Caspian Higher Naval School, serving in the Black Sea and Baltic submarine fleets - just in time for the start of the Cold War, which would stay with him for the rest of his service.

During the 1950s the Soviets became very concerned about the US' lead in submarines. They eventually rushed the development and construction of the K-19, the first of two new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarines. However, things did not go smoothly. Eleven people died due to accidents and fires during the construction phase. To top everything off, the champagne bottle used in the inauguration ceremony failed to break.

These were frightening omens for the crew. But they could scarcely imagine the events that would unfold soon after.
Read More...