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Turkey eggshells and bones from an offering 1,500 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico. Credit: © Linda Nicholas, The Field Museum. ================================================================================================================================ The turkeys we'll be sitting down to eat on Thursday have a history that goes way back. Archaeologists have unearthed a clutch of domesticated turkey eggs used as a ritual offering 1,500 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico—some of the earliest evidence of turkey domestication. "Our research tells us that turkeys had been domesticated by 400-500 AD," explains Field Museum archaeologist Gary Feinman, one of the paper's authors. "People have made guesses about turkey domestication based on the presence or...

Credit: The American Chemical Society ============================================================================================================================ There are three times more cooking fires—the most common cause of house fires—on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year. And the thousands of "turkey-fryer explosion" videos on YouTube are a testament to why frozen turkeys and hot oil are an especially dangerous mix. With the holiday coming up, Reactions teamed up with the District of Columbia Fire Department to explain the chemistry behind grease fires, how they happen and how to avoid them this Thanksgiving. Watch the video here: Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-video-turkeys.html#jCp

Credit: Yathin S Krishnappa ============================================================================================================================ Hundreds of years before the first Thanksgiving, Native Americans were raising and feasting on America's classic holiday meal. Florida State University Associate Professor of Anthropology Tanya Peres and graduate student Kelly Ledford write in a paper published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports that Native Americans as early as 1200 - 1400 A.D. were managing and raising turkeys. This is the first time scientists have suggested that turkeys were potentially domesticated by early Native Americans in the southeastern United States. "In the Americas, we have just a few domesticated animals," Peres said. "Researchers...

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses an annual economy and trade meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016. Erdogan declared Wednesday that an upcoming vote in the European Parliament on whether to freeze membership talks with Turkey is of “no value” to his country.(Yasin Bulbul, Presidential Press Service/Pool Photo via AP) 23 November 2016, Nirapad News: Turkey’s president has maintained that many in the U.S. and Europe are calling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a “dictator” because he wasn’t their favored candidate. Addressing a meeting of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday, Recep Tayyip...

Recently, Azerbaijan celebrated 25 years of independence from Soviet rule. Arguably Eurasia’s most Western-friendly and secular Muslim-majority nation, Azerbaijan has long fought another battle, one that the election of Donald Trump may shift: the occupation of its Nagorno-Karabakh region by Armenia. As the international community often does, a multilateral body was established to “solve” the problem following a bloody war from 1988 to 1992. For decades, the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France, and the U.S., has produced no demonstrable gains. Successive U.S. presidents have paid lip service to the Minsk Group and pleaded for time. The election of Donald...

The only Christian mayor in Turkey, a U.S. NATO ally, has been removed as part of a purge by the ruling Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following an abortive coup earlier this year. “A massive purge by the Turkish government of politicians and officials accused of being supporters of the network of Fethullah Gulen — the Turkish Islamic preacher, continued this week with the sacking of Februniye Akyol, the first Assyrian Christian to be elected co-mayor in Turkey, in the city of Mardin,” reports Independent Catholic News.

Turkey is a nation in crisis, scarred by government crackdowns following a failed coup attempt and on a potential collision course with the West. It is also home to a valuable revenue stream for the president-elect's business empire: Trump Towers Istanbul. Donald Trump's company has been paid up to $10 million by the tower's developers since 2014 to affix the Trump name atop the luxury complex, whose owner, one of Turkey's biggest oil and media conglomerates, has become an influential megaphone for the country's increasingly repressive regime. That, ethics advisers said, forces the Trump complex into an unprecedented nexus: as...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he’s “disillusioned” with the Obama administration for failing to address Middle Eastern refugees and extradite one of Erdogan’s political rivals. “They failed to rise to the occasion and handle these issues seriously,” Erdogan said of the refugee problem during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Turkey has taken in roughly 3 million refugees from Syria and elsewhere, twice the number that have fled to Europe. …

Turkey’s governing party has sparked an outcry after putting forward a bill that would pardon up to 3,000 child rapists if the perpetrator married his victim. Critics have warned that such a law would encourage sexual abuse, while the government has defended the bill as an attempt to deal with legal complications arising from child marriage. The controversial proposal would apply to statutory rape cases without use of “force, threat, or any other restriction on consent” involving girls aged 15 or younger.

A Turkish government proposal which would pardon some people imprisoned for statutory rape in the past decade has fallen short of passage by legislators. The proposal would defer sentencing or punishment for sexual assault in cases where there was no force and where the victim and perpetrator were married. Following the defeat late Thursday, the government is bringing the proposal back for consideration next week. An earlier law, abolished in 2005, said there is no crime if the couple marry. …

Media are reporting that General Michael Flynn is being “offered” the position of National Security Adviser to President-Elect Donald Trump. However, there should be some reasonable caution on this announcement: Almost everyone who supports Donald Trump has also supported Michael Flynn.... HOWEVER, recently, unbeknownst –at least originally– to the to the Trump campaign, General Flynn accepted a lobbying role for the government of Turkey, specifically to advocate for Recep Erdogan and Turkish interests, and presumably never told the campaign.

Full Title: Michael Flynn, Trump's reported pick for national security advisor, sat in on intel briefings — while advising foreign clients Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has reportedly been offered the role of national security adviser in Donald Trump’s White House, began receiving classified national security briefings last summer while he was also running a private consulting firm that offered “all-source intelligence support” to international clients. Flynn’s relationship with his overseas clients is coming in for new scrutiny amid recent disclosures that two months ago, during the height of the presidential campaign, his consulting firm, the Flynn Intel Group,...

Especially at this time of year, I’m a fan of ‘finger food’ that can be made ahead, frozen, and ready in just minutes in the event of impromptu visitors. Nothing fits this bill better than the Gougere, a light savory ‘puff’ of cheesy pastry that goes wonderfully with cocktails and freezes very well. There are many variations on the Gougere, but this one is basic and classic: http://chezbonnefemme.com/recipes/gougeres/________________________________________________________ Last Thanksgiving, I took the advice of Freeper ‘boatbums’, and we dry-brined our turkey for the first time; it really was the best turkey we’ve had, even though we made the mistake...

Just as our democratic elections were wrapping up last week we heard rumors that a different sort of transition of power was taking place in Turkey. Aspiring tyrant Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the nation’s president, was spreading the word that he would like to see some changes to the constitution which would effectively remove most limits to his power. At the time I predicted that while the desired changes would be sweeping and transformative, there was actually a good chance he could pull it off.Sometimes I really get tired of being right. (Business Insider) President Tayyip Erdogan could govern Turkey...

President Tayyip Erdogan could govern Turkey until 2029 with expanded executive powers under proposals the ruling AK Party hopes will go to a referendum next spring, officials who have seen the latest draft told Reuters on Wednesday. Erdogan and his supporters argue Turkey needs the strong leadership of an executive presidency, akin to the system in the United States or France, to avoid the fragile coalition governments that hampered its development in the past.

According to a report in Deutsche Welle (DW) on Tuesday, most of the 60 Turkish diplomatic passport holders who are seeking asylum in Germany in the post coup period are military personnel who were representing Turkey at NATO. Given the fact that the military personnel at NATO have classified information regarding Turkey, which is a NATO ally, German officials are reportedly evaluating the applications with sensitivity. In an earlier report in October, German media said that 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had applied to Germany for political asylum. Today’s DW story gives this number as 60. However, it has emerged...

Turkey has warned its citizens against traveling to the United States in an advisory on the website of its Foreign Ministry posted Saturday. The warning comes in the wake of the coast-to-coast protests by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton that have taken place in some two dozen major American cities following Tuesday’s election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States. The ministry said in its warning, “It has been understood from protesters’ social media accounts that the protests will continue for a while.” The ministry also advised Turkish citizens to be “calm”...

Turkey's Foreign Ministry has issued a travel warning concerning the United States Sunday as thousands of Americans spilled into the streets fourth day in a row to protest President-elect Donald Trump.

Turkey should be a top priority in U.S. foreign policy, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday in an article that slammed Barack Obama for failing to understand Ankara’s geopolitical position. “We must begin with understanding that Turkey is vital to U.S. interests,” retired Gen. Michael Flynn wrote for the Hill newspaper. He also called Turkey "a source of stability in the region”. Flynn was a key national security adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign and is expected by many to be appointed to a Cabinet position, possibly as defense secretary. The veteran general wrote that it...

The United States should not provide a safe haven for the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, who the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating the failed July 15 coup attempt, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump has said. “The forces of radical Islam derive their ideology from radical clerics like Gülen, who is running a scam. We should not provide him safe haven,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn wrote for the Hill newspaper in a piece published on Nov. 8. “In this crisis, it is imperative that we remember who our real friends are,” added Flynn, who is the former...