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History (General/Chat)

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  • Fowl play: Neanderthals were first bird eaters (Update)

    08/18/2014 8:00:35 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 17 replies
    Phys dot org ^ | August 07, 2014 | Brian Reyes
    Neanderthals may have caught, butchered and cooked wild pigeons long before modern humans became regular consumers of bird meat, a study revealed on Thursday. Close examination of 1,724 bones from rock doves, found in a cave in Gibraltar and dated to between 67,000 and 28,000 years ago, revealed cuts, human tooth marks and burns, said a paper in the journal Scientific Reports. This suggested the doves may have been butchered and then roasted, wrote the researchers—the first evidence of hominids eating birds. And the evidence suggested Neanderthals ate much like a latter-day Homo sapiens would tuck into a roast chicken,...
  • The Evil that Men Do: How Bad Governments Create Poverty

    08/18/2014 1:10:03 PM PDT · by Politically Correct · 19 replies
    Pharoah, let my people go: How did ancient Egypt become a land of slaves building fantastic monuments to dictatorial leaders? The land of Egypt was rich and fertile, a seeming paradise for egalitarian living. Stephanie Pappas writes in Live Science about how despots “evolved” in ancient societies, but that’s a misleading use of the term; it actually was a series of bad choices by free people. She writes how Simon Powers at the University of Lausanne came up with a mathematical model to explain the shift from egalitarianism to despotism. Whether it actually explains them could be disputed, but he...
  • Low Income Preppers, Should they get a SNAP/EBT Card? ~ Vanity

    08/18/2014 11:34:16 AM PDT · by GraceG · 77 replies
    GraceG
    Okay, So I know of a few people who are shall we say very Lower middle class who used to be Mid-Middle class until recently due to the wonderful economy as of late. I know they are wanting to prep, but are unable to make ends meet and I have been rotating out my own personal prepping stock to just keep them fed day to day. (don't worry I am not giving them expired food, just food that is nearing expiration). The question recently arose about if they should get an EBT card and use it to buy their own...
  • Hitler suspends euthanasia program (This Day in History)

    08/18/2014 11:30:21 AM PDT · by Kid Shelleen · 5 replies
    History.com ^ | 08/18/2014 | staff
    On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany. In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler's Euthanasia Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began as the systematic killing of children deemed "mentally defective." Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. --SNIP-- Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only...
  • Ingalls Shipbuilding Christens 5th National Security Cutter

    08/17/2014 9:48:54 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 2 replies
    marinelink.com ^ | Sunday, August 17, 2014 | Joseph R. Fonseca
    Capt. James is one of the world's most celebrated lifesavers. His lifesaving began at age 15 when he joined the Massachusetts Humane Society. Over the years, until the age of 75, he was credited with saving more than 600 lives until his death at age 75. He was on duty with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, which later merged with the U.S. Coast Guard. Ingalls has delivered three NSCs, and three more, including James, are currently under construction. A seventh NSC, Kimball WMSL 756, is scheduled to begin construction in early 2015. James is scheduled to deliver next summer. "Teamed with...
  • Archaeologists shocked to find 5,000-year-old battlefield in prehistoric Cardiff

    08/17/2014 1:17:04 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 41 replies
    Culture24 ^ | 11 August 2014 | Ben Miller
    Archaeologists hoping to discover Roman and Iron Age finds at a Welsh hillfort were shocked to unearth pottery and arrowheads predating their predicted finds by 4,000 years at the home of a powerful Iron Age community, including flint tools and weapons from 3,600 BC. Caerau, an Iron Age residency on the outskirts of Cardiff, would have been a battleground more than 5,000 years ago according to the arrowheads, awls, scrapers and polished stone axe fragments found during the surprising excavation. “Quite frankly, we were amazed,” says Dr Dave Wyatt, the co-director of the dig, from Cardiff University... “But no-one realised...
  • Archaeologists compare Neolithic Kent site to Stonehenge, find Bronze Age funerary monument

    08/17/2014 1:10:57 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    Culture24 ^ | 12 August 2014 | Ben Miller
    Archaeologists suspect a “sacred way” could have led to a henge 6,000 years ago at Iwade Meadows, to the west of the Kent industrial town of Sittingbourne. Positioned on a north-west slope, the 30-metre diameter structure is one of several prehistoric monuments on a north-west slope above the Ridham fleet stream running through the centre of the site. ...says Dr Paul Wilkinson, of... SWAT Archaeology... “The monuments are in a location that would have formerly had extensive views to the Swale Estuary and the Island of Sheppey beyond. “The archaeological evidence suggests that the outer ditch may have originated in...
  • Fighting Bob Fest returns to Baraboo

    08/17/2014 1:10:51 PM PDT · by gorush · 6 replies
    Baraboo News Republic ^ | 8-15-2014 | By Annie Getsinger |
    Fighting Bob Fest will return to Baraboo next month after taking place in Madison for the past three years. The political festival, set for Sept. 13 at the Sauk County Fairgrounds, was first held in Baraboo in 2002 to honor the legacy of the late U.S. senator and former Wisconsin Gov. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette. La Follette is considered one of the founders of the progressive movement and organizers say the intent of the festival is to honor his contributions and energize progressives by providing a forum for speakers, networking and camaraderie. The annual festival, which draws thousands, was...
  • Movie for a Sunday afternoon: "The Egyptian"(1954)

    08/17/2014 12:09:02 PM PDT · by ReformationFan · 6 replies
    You Tube ^ | 1954 | Michael Curtiz
  • Unearthed Neanderthal site rich in horse bones

    08/17/2014 12:02:34 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 17 replies
    Horsetalk ^ | August 15, 2014 | unattributed
    A site in southwestern France found to be rich in the bones of horses and other large herbivores has provided important insights into the hunting and scavenging habits of Neanderthals. A team of archaeologists from the French archaeological agency Inrap have unearthed hundreds of bones at the Middle Paleolithic site in Quincieux dating back 35,000 to 55,000 years. The work was started due to roadworks in the area, with the outstanding discovery prompting local authorities to extend the time available for excavations. The excavation of the prehistoric site, on a hill overlooking the old bed of the Saone River, revealed...
  • ‘Significant’ human burial site uncovered by archaeologists in Cyprus

    08/17/2014 11:49:52 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies
    Cyprus Mail ^ | Thursday, August 14th, 2014 | Elias Hazou
    The Department of Antiquities has announced the completion of the 2014 excavation season of the Kourion Urban Space project (KUSP) under the direction of Dr. Thomas W. Davis of the Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. This year’s excavations uncovered the remains of more victims of the massive earthquake that destroyed Kourion in the fourth century AD. According to an official announcement, initial analysis indicates the remains consist of two adults, a juvenile, and an infant. The family was found huddled together; the infant was found under the right arm of one of...
  • US Navy taking apart world's first nuclear-powered aircraft (carrier) after 50 years of service

    08/17/2014 9:23:43 AM PDT · by virgil283 · 51 replies
    dailymail.co.uk ^ | 16 August 2014 | By Zoe Szathmary
    "The USS Enterprise, a Navy ship stationed in Virginia, is slowly being taken apart. According to The Daily Press, the ship's 'inactivation' is being handled in Newport News. The Enterprise was active between 1962 and 2012 - and is 'the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,' The Press said.A ninth USS Enterprise will eventually be built and may include parts of the eighth ship being disassembled, the newspaper said. .....; Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
  • A Brilliant Audio Podcast w/ Angelo Codevilla

    08/16/2014 6:18:50 PM PDT · by crusher · 5 replies
    Liberty Law Talk podcast ^ | 7/28/2104 | Angelo Codevilla
    As time goes by I find reading less pleasurable, mostly due to time constraints and my continuing fading vision. I find myself listening to more stuff on my MP3 player. I also am finding those voices I want to pay attention to. For almost thirty years one of those people I listen to VERY CAREFULLY is Angelo Codevilla, whose insights into the nature of the political world are unerringly well thought through. His previous book, "America's Ruling Class," a bipartisan evisceration of the political establishment, ranks in my opinion with Thomas Sowell's "Conflict of Vision," perhaps the most insightful secular...
  • Wilder memoir to give gritty view of prairie life

    08/16/2014 11:47:42 AM PDT · by afraidfortherepublic · 10 replies
    Yahoo News ^ | 8-16-14 | Kevin Burbach
    Laura Ingalls Wilder penned one of the most beloved children's series of the 20th century, but her forthcoming autobiography will show devoted "Little House on the Prairie" fans a more realistic, grittier view of frontier living. "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography" — Wilder's unedited draft that was written for an adult audience and eventually served as the foundation for the popular series — is slated to be released by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press nationwide this fall. The not-safe-for-children tales include stark scenes of domestic abuse, love triangles gone awry and a man who lit himself on fire...
  • Ancient Maya Cities Found in Jungle

    08/16/2014 9:23:35 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 24 replies
    discovery.com ^ | Aug 15, 2014 12:01 PM ET // by | Rossella Lorenzi
    Sprajc and his team found the massive remains as they further explored the area around Chactun, a large Maya city discovered by the Slovenian archaeologist in 2013. No other site has so far been located in this area, which extends over some 1800 square miles, between the so-called Rio Bec and Chenes regions, both known for their characteristic architectural styles fashioned during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, around 600 - 1000 A.D. One of the cities featured an extraordinary facade with an entrance representing the open jaws of an earth monster. The site was actually visited in the 1970s...
  • James Knowles Ferguson v. Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia

    08/16/2014 7:44:25 AM PDT · by Jacquerie · 15 replies
    There was a time when some mayors and police commissioners knew their duty. First and foremost, protect lives. Second, protect property. Unlike Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, Frank Rizzo knew how to keep the peace and what to do with rioters. "Throughout his career, Mr. Rizzo seemed to embrace controversy. "I'm going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot," he once told a newspaper reporter." Check out the following 1991 NYT column on the life of Philly Police Commissioner and Mayor Frank Rizzo: Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia Dies at 70; A 'Hero' and 'Villain'
  • Gun Culture : We're pikers compared to most of the Middle East.(video)

    08/15/2014 5:36:43 PM PDT · by virgil283 · 8 replies
    senseofevents ^ | Friday, August 15, 2014 | Donald Sensing
    " only the large scale here is exceptional. This is the traditional celebratory gunfire at a wedding celebration. Note that the arms being fired are fully-automatic sub-machine guns. And you thought the United States had a "gun culture!" We're pikers compared to most of the Middle East...."
  • 200-year-old booze found in shipwreck -- and it's still drinkable

    08/15/2014 5:24:51 PM PDT · by ButThreeLeftsDo · 29 replies
    CBSNews.com ^ | 8/15/14 | Agata Blaszczak-Boxe/
    A 200-year-old stoneware seltzer bottle that was recently recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea contains alcohol, according to the results of a preliminary analysis. Researchers discovered the well-preserved and sealed bottle in June, while exploring the so-called F53.31 shipwreck in Gdańsk Bay, close to the Polish coast. Preliminary laboratory tests have now shown the bottle contains a 14-percent alcohol distillate, which may be vodka or a type of gin called jenever, most likely diluted with water. The chemical composition of the alcohol corresponds to that of the original brand of "Selters" water that is engraved...
  • Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan Was Imperative

    08/14/2014 8:21:40 PM PDT · by Retain Mike · 25 replies
    Self | August 14, 2014 | Self
    We now mark the 69th anniversary of VJ-Day preceded by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WW II. The generations which made the decisions for World War II have passed away. The generation which faced the tragic violence required for carrying out those decisions is rapidly leaving us. As this personal knowledge becomes ever rarer, we must increasingly listen without response to revisionist contra-factual analyses expounding about what a needless, tragic and profoundly immoral decision the United States had made. The arguments advanced display a pleasing, deliberate ignorance which burnishes this peculiar new morality. However, these views...
  • Homicide Watch Chicago (No Swat Teams There. No Presidential Speech)

    08/14/2014 11:04:18 AM PDT · by Dallas59 · 7 replies
    Homicide Watch Chicago ^ | 8/14/2014 | Homicide Watch Chicago
    Homicide Watch Chicago is dedicated to the proposition that murder is never a run-of-the-mill story. Attention must be paid to each one, not merely a select and particularly tragic few. We understand the reality of public’s demand for news - that some stories get more attention than others. But all murders represent a degree of human suffering - direct and indirect - that cannot be ignored. Our goal is to tell the story of every murder in the city, so that together we might fight the tendency to view homicides as just another rising or falling number, like mortgage rates...