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September 28, 2010
September 27, 2010
September 24, 2010
Neardenthals were able to develop their own tools
Neanderthals were keen on innovation and technology and developed tools all on their own, scientists say.
A new study challenges the view that our close relatives could advance only through contact with Homo sapiens. The team says climate change was partly responsible for forcing Neanderthals to innovate in order to survive. The research is set to appear in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory in December.
"Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado in Denver, who led the seven-year study. "They were far more resourceful than we have given them credit for."
Vanished culture
Neanderthals were first discovered in Germany's Neander Valley in 1856.
It is believed that they lived in Europe and parts of Asia. Close examination of the found fossils shows that they shared 99.5-99.9% of modern humans' DNA, which makes them our closest relatives.
They had short, muscular bodies, large brains, prominent facial features and barrel chests. Neanderthals split from our evolutionary line some 500,000 years ago, and disappeared off the face of the Earth about 30,000 years ago. Since the first discovery, anthropologists have been trying to crack the mystery of the vanished culture, also debating whether or not Neanderthals were evolving on their own or through contact with Homo sapiens. During the research, Dr Riel-Salvatore and his colleagues examined Neanderthal sites across Italy.
About 42,000 years ago, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were already living in the northern and central parts of the area. At that time, an entirely new group appeared in the south. The researchers believe that the southerners were also Neanderthals, of a culture named Uluzzian.
Dr Riel-Salvatore's team was astonished to find quite a few innovations throughout the area, even though the Uluzzians were isolated from Homo sapiens. They discovered projectile points, ochre, bone tools, ornaments and possible evidence of fishing and small game hunting.
"My conclusion is that if the Uluzzian is a Neanderthal culture, it suggests that contacts with modern humans are not necessary to explain the origin of this new behaviour."This stands in contrast to the ideas of the past 50 years that Neanderthals had to be acculturated to [modern] humans to come up with this technology.
"When we show Neanderthals could innovate on their own, it casts them in a new light.
"It 'humanises' them, if you will."
Brothers? The researchers believe that one reason that forced Neanderthals to innovate was a shift in climate.When the area where they were living started to become increasingly open and arid, they had no choice but to adapt - or die out. "The fact that Neanderthals could adapt to new conditions and innovate shows they are culturally similar to us," said Dr Riel-Salvatore. He added that they were also similar biologically, and should be considered a subspecies of human rather than a different species. "My research suggests that they were a different kind of human, but humans nonetheless. "We are more brothers than distant cousins."
BBC news Katia Moskvitch 09/24/2010
September 22, 2010
Battle of Hastings, a strategy game
Be a great warrior and strategist! you must win the battle against evil norman invaders or maybe do you prefer to defeat the coward saxons?? choose your side and live an amazing experience !! And remember...maybe the force and the Lord be with you, general
Press this link and follow carefully the instructions:
Massive solar flare 'could paralyse Earth in 2013'
A massive solar flare could cause global chaos in 2013, causing blackouts and wrecking satellite communications, a conference heard yesterday. Nasa has warned that a peak in the sun's magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could generate huge radiation levels.
The resulting solar storm could cause a geomagnetic storm on Earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world for hours, days, or even months, bringing much of normal life grinding to a halt. Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who delivered the keynote address at an international conference on the vulnerability of electricity grids around the world, warned that modern societies' dependence on technology leaves them vulnerable to such events he Sun follows an 11-year cycle of high and low periods of solar activity. It is now leaving a notably quiet phase and scientists expect to see a sharp increase in the number of solar flares as well as unprecedented levels of magnetic energy.
The rings of fire, which have the power of 100 hydrogen bombs, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina. Experts met in Washington DC in June to discuss how to protect Earth from the ferocious flares, which are expected sometime around 2013. asa is using dozens of satellites – including the Solar Dynamics Observatory – to study the threat. The problem was investigated in depth two years ago by the National Academy of Sciences, in a report which outlined the social and economic impacts of severe space weather events.
It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. But much of the damage could be minimised if it was known in advance that the storm was approaching. Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformers could protect them from damaging electrical surges.
Scientists are said to fear that a similar effect could be achieved by a hostile power exploding a nuclear weapon in space, producing a massive burst of electromagnetic energy known as a high altitude electromagnetic pulse. Mr Fox also warned that countries seeking nuclear capabilities could use them in a different way to the traditional 'nuclear strike" method used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. Citing North Korea and Iran, Dr Fox said countries seeking nuclear capabilities could use them in a different way to the traditional 'nuclear strike' method used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War.
This could involve a nuclear detonation in the upper atmosphere that would knock out vital electronic systems by producing an electro-magnetic pulse, he said. He warned that terrorists might also seek to employ similar methods as he urged the public to take greater heed of the threat. 'I think it's a subject that we need to give a good deal more attention to, not least because we are in an era where there are those who seem to believe that we can choose to enter or not enter certain conflicts, and also because we live in a war where proliferation is becoming more not less the case,' the Defence Secretary said.
'And when we are discussing North Korea or Iran, for example, people need to understand there are other risks than just what we would consider the sort of nuclear strike we saw in Nagasaki or Hiroshima.'The range of risks out there are many-fold and I think we need to make that extremely apparent to the public.' Dr Fox insisted that the threat of such an attack was 'low', but that the Government was working internationally with telecoms, energy and transport companies to increase resilience. 'With reliance, for instance on technology, comes vulnerability, and vulnerability can invite attack,' he went on .'Our wider reliance on digital technologies will not have gone unnoticed among those who would mean us harm.'We will need to ensure that those same technological innovations that provide advantage do not become our Achilles heel.'
Daily Mail 09/22/2010
September 17, 2010
Prolonged Climatic Stress Main Reason for Mass Extinction 65 Million Years Ago, Paleontologist Says
Long-term climate fluctuations were probably the main reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs and other creatures 65 million years ago. This conclusion was reached by PD Dr. Michael Prauss, paleontologist at Freie Universitaet Berlin, based on his latest research results.
Prauss thus challenges the almost 30-year-old theory that a meteorite impact at the Mexican Yucatan peninsula was the single cause for one of the five largest mass extinctions in Earth history, which has most recently been reiterated in a publication in the journal Science. According to Prauss, the impact was only one in a chain of catastrophic events that caused substantial environmental perturbations, probably largely controlled by the intermittent activity of the Deccan volcanism near the then-Indian continent, that continued over several million years and peaked at the Cretaceous-Paleogen boundary."The resulting chronic stress, to which of course the meteorite impact was a contributing factor, is likely to have been fundamental to the crisis in the biosphere and finally the mass extinction," says Michael Prauss
(Science Daily 03/27/2010)
Iron Age village found in UK school building site
Ancient human infant and animal remains believed to be more than 2,000 years old have been unearthed during the construction of a school in London. Archaeologists say the discovery, one of the most important in the British capital in recent years, points to evidence of an Iron Age and early Roman farming settlement.
Experts say the find is important because similar sites from the period in the area have been destroyed by later development. Excavations have revealed child and animal burials -- some dating from Roman rule -- dotted across the south London site as well as an assortment of weaponry, including a spear and a shield. "A very large number of domestic animal skeletons have been recovered -- including horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and dogs," said lead archaeologist Duncan Hawkins.
"These animals which were either whole or partly dismembered appear to have been deliberately sacrificed and deposited in deep pits cut into the chalk bed rock."
Early Iron Age features, including a livestock pathway, shallow gullies and pits have also been identified. Builders stumbled over the remains while laying the foundations for Stanley Park High School in Sutton. The site is just a stone's throw from one of the largest late Bronze Age hilltop enclosures in southeast England, found in the early 20th century. It is not known whether the two settlements are connected.
(Reuters) Thursday September 16 2010
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