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Ancient European genomes reveal jumbled ancestry

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© De Agostini Picture Library/Getty ImagesMysterious peoples from the north and Middle Easterners joined prehistoric locals.
Newly released genome sequences from almost a dozen early human inhabitants of Europe suggest that the continent was once a melting pot in which brown-eyed farmers encountered blue-eyed hunter-gatherers.

Present-day Europeans, the latest work shows, trace their ancestry to three groups in various combinations: hunter-gatherers, some of them blue-eyed, who arrived from Africa more than 40,000 years ago; Middle Eastern farmers who migrated west much more recently; and a novel, more mysterious population whose range probably spanned northern Europe and Siberia.

That conclusion comes from the genomes of 8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers - one man from Luxembourg and seven individuals from Sweden - as well as the genome of a 7,500-year-old woman from Germany. The analysis, led by Johannes Krause of the University of Tübingen, Germany, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, was posted on the biology preprint website bioRxiv.org on 23 December 20131. The results have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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When was the last time volcanoes erupted on the U.S. East Coast?

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© Valleyconservation.orgMolehill viewed from Oldtown in Harrisonburg
Volcanoes on the East Coast of North America are more recent than you think - and they may be why the region still suffers relatively large earthquakes

How Mole Hill in Virginia became a mountain is an old story, but not as old as some geologists think. The reason for that has to do with volcanoes - and may help explain why the U.S. East Coast, so long removed from geologic upheaval compared with the West, still suffers from relatively powerful earthquakes like the one that shook Mineral, Va., and much of the East Coast, in 2011.

Five years ago or so, newly minted professor of geology Elizabeth Johnson needed something for her undergraduate students at James Madison University to study on field trips. Locals suggested the unusual geology of Mole Hill, just a few kilometers from campus, where one could find black obsidian (a superhard rock glass formed when magma cools quickly) or rocks that when cracked open looked as pure white as newfallen snow thanks to the carbonate minerals inside.

When Johnson and her students started to poke around through the dense vegetation swathing Mole Hill, the very texture of the volcanic rock appeared unusual. The igneous rock was fine-grained with small crystals of various kinds, except every once in a while where a relative giant crystal - 1 centimeter or more across - intruded. Intrigued, Johnson studied up on the local geology, finding that this is not the first time these interesting igneous rocks had been spotted. As far back as 1899, such obsidian and minerals had been reported in this area. Most other geologists simply assumed they were much older.

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Is it 1914 all over again? We are in danger of repeating the mistakes that started WWI, says a leading historian

World War
© The Independent, UKThe Great War was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Balkans. The Middle East could be viewed as the modern-day equivalent, argues Professor Margaret MacMillan.
History never repeats itself, but it sure does rhyme, it has been said. Now an internationally respected historian is warning that today's world bears a number of striking similarities with the build-up to the First World War.

The newly mechanised armies of the early 20th century produced unprecedented slaughter on the battlefields of the "war to end all wars" after a spark lit in the Balkans with the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Professor Margaret MacMillan, of the University of Cambridge, argues that the Middle East could be viewed as the modern-day equivalent of this turbulent region. A nuclear arms race that would be likely to start if Iran developed a bomb "would make for a very dangerous world indeed, which could lead to a recreation of the kind of tinderbox that exploded in the Balkans 100 years ago - only this time with mushroom clouds," she writes in an essay for the Brookings Institution, a leading US think-tank.

"While history does not repeat itself precisely, the Middle East today bears a worrying resemblance to the Balkans then," she says. "A similar mix of toxic nationalisms threatens to draw in outside powers as the US, Turkey, Russia, and Iran look to protect their interests and clients."

Professor MacMillan highlights a string of other parallels between today and a century ago. Modern-day Islamist terrorists mirror the revolutionary communists and anarchists who carried out a string of assassinations in the name of a philosophy that sanctioned murder to achieve their vision of a better world. And in 1914, Germany was a rising force that sought to challenge the pre-eminent power of the time, the UK. Today, the growing power of China is perceived as a threat by some in the US.

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French town probes 'second' Lascaux cave

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© ProfSaxx/WikimediaOne of the cave paintings at Lascaux in south-western France. Could a 50-year-old family secret help unveil a new prehistoric art gallery at nearby Montignac?
Authorities in the southwestern French town of Montignac are investigating the extraordinary possibility that, just 4km from the famous Lascaux caves, there may exist another set of prehistoric paintings hidden away in a separate underground cavern.

A group of teenagers in the south west of France in 1940 stumble across what turns out to be a complex network of Paleolithic caves with a series of astonishing 17,000-year-old frescos, which becomes known as the "Sistine Chapel of the Prehistoric era."

You might assume this type of thing only happens once in the same region, but authorities in the town of Montignac, Dordogne are probing the possibility of the existence of a second Lascaux cave.

The rumours of a second cave covered in pre-historic artwork have been circulating for years, but it appears local authorities are now ready to take them seriously after one local family shared an extraordinary secret they had kept to themselves for half a century.

According to French media reports this week, preliminary investigations by the town's mayor, as well as authorities in the Dordogne region, have proved promising enough to warrant a more detailed probe into a patch of land 4 km from the site of the Lascaux caves.

"There's no certainty, and we are still quite far from having the necessary evidence to confirm the existence of another decorated cave," Montignac mayor Laurent Mathieu told French daily Le Figaro this week.

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A warning from history: Quotes on Democracy vs. Republic

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© UnknownJames Madison
Quotes on Democracy vs. Republic

"Democracy is the most vile form of government. ... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as the have been violent in their deaths."
- James Madison (1751-1836) Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the U. S.

"We are a Republic. Real Liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy."
- Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) Lawyer, Secretary of the Treasury & Secretary of State

"A simple democracy is the devil's own government."
- Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) Founding Father& signer of the Declaration of Independence

"Let the American youth never forget that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils and sufferings and blood of their ancestors, and capable, if wisely improved and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to the latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence. The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid, its compartments are beautiful as well as useful, its arrangements are full of wisdom and order, and its defenses are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of men may justly aspire to such a title. It may nevertheless perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, the People. Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people in order to betray them."
- Joseph Story (1779-1845) Lawyer, Supreme Court Justice & influential commentators on the U.S. Constitution

Pharoah

Ancient Egyptian brewer's beautiful tomb discovered

Khonso Im-Heb
© Photograph by Supreme Council of Antiquities, APKhonso Im-Heb, bare-headed, and his wife are shown in ritual scenes with two gods associated with the underworld and death: Osiris (top left) and Anubis (top right).
The stunning tomb of an ancient Egyptian brewer has been found on the west bank of the Nile. Paintings on the walls depict scenes of worship and daily life from 3,000 years ago, reports a Japanese archaeology team.

The tomb belonged to Khonso Im-Heb, who was head of granaries and beer-brewing for the worship of the Egyptian mother goddess, Mut.

In December 2007, the Japanese researchers, led by Jiro Kondo of Waseda University in Tokyo, began excavating in El Khokha, near the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

The area had recently been cleared of modern houses during the removal of Qurna village, just to the north, and was already known as a locale for tombs of ancient nobles.

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Diets of the middle and lower class uncovered in Pompeii

Steven Ellis
© University of Cincinnati Steven Ellis
University of Cincinnati archaeologists are turning up discoveries in the famed Roman city of Pompeii that are wiping out the historic perceptions of how the Romans dined, with the rich enjoying delicacies such as flamingos and the poor scrounging for soup or gruel.

Steven Ellis, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of classics, will present these discoveries on Jan. 4, at the joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and American Philological Association (APA) in Chicago.

UC teams of archaeologists have spent more than a decade at two city blocks within a non-elite district in the Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried under a volcano in 79 AD. The excavations are uncovering the earlier use of buildings that would have dated back to the 6th century.

Ellis says the excavation is producing a complete archaeological analysis of homes, shops and businesses at a forgotten area inside one of the busiest gates of Pompeii, the Porta Stabia.

The area covers 10 separate building plots and a total of 20 shop fronts, most of which served food and drink. The waste that was examined included collections from drains as well as 10 latrines and cesspits, which yielded mineralized and charred food waste coming from kitchens and excrement. Ellis says among the discoveries in the drains was an abundance of the remains of fully-processed foods, especially grains.

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Skeletons holding hands unearthed at 3,500-year-old Siberian burial site

Siberian Skeleton
© Vladimir Wrangel / Shutterstock
Archaeologists in Siberia have discovered a 3,500-year-old burial site containing skeletons of men and women buried together, some facing each other and holding hands. Dozens of tombs had skeletons caught in these "post-mortal hugs;" some also had skeletons of men and women buried with a child. Some 600 of these tombs dating back to the Bronze Age were unearthed in the Staryi Tartas village near the city Novosibirsk in Russia.

Many theories have been fielded by the archaeologists who found them, in order to explain why the skeletons were buried in such a manner. One such theory is that, between 17th and 14th century BC, couples were probably buried together to emphasize the importance of nuclear families as a unit, even in death. Another theory suggests links to reincarnation beliefs.

"We can allege that husband died and the wife was killed to be interred with him as we see in some Scythian burials, or maybe the grave stood open for some time and they buried the other person or persons later, or maybe it was really simultaneous death... we can raise quite a variety of hypotheses, but how it was in fact, we do not know yet," Vyacheslav Molodin, Director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the Siberian Times.

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The American medical experiments that the Nazis used as a defense

Medical Experiments
© io9
You know you're doing something wrong when the Nazis use your behavior as proof that they weren't doing anything wrong. Or do you? The Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study became a focal point for debates over the ethics of experimenting on prisoners. Guess which side won.

The Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study was prompted by the need to get effective anti-malarial drugs to troops fighting in the Pacific during World War II. Animals were proving inadequate for testing purposes, but few people would volunteer to take untested drugs.

So prisoners were told they could potentially shave years off their sentences, earn privileges and get special treatment, if they took part in the study. But they also might die of a fatal heart attack, after experiencing a 106 degree fever.

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The mystery of Coral Castle

Coral Castle_1
© Today I Found Out
Between 1923 and 1951, a diminutive Floridian single-handedly and without heavy machinery moved 1,000 tons of limestone, creating out of it a castle. This is his story.

The Builder

Very little is known of the mysterious creator of the Coral Castle, Ed Leedskalnin. Born in Riga, Latvia in 1887 to a family of stonemasons, Ed immigrated to the U.S. sometime around 1913 after his fiancée broke off their engagement (and a large piece of his heart). During a bout with tuberculosis around 1919, he moved to Florida, where magnets were apparently used to treat his condition. This experience seems to have had a life-changing effect, as you'll see later.

After he bought a parcel of land in Florida City, Florida, Ed began to work on the Castle. A loner, one hundred pound, five-feet tall Ed refused to let anyone even watch him work, and no one is known to have helped him move, carve or place the massive stones. When asked how he manipulated such large blocks alone, Ed would explain that he had "discovered the secrets of the pyramids."