Largest Cave Art in Alabama

American photojournalist and founder of the Ancient Art Archive Stephen Alvarez in the 19th newly identified but unnamed cave in Alabama. (Image credit: A Cressler; Antiquity Publications Ltd)

Archaeologists in Alabama have discovered the longest known painting created by early Indigenous Americans, a new study finds.

Indigenous Americans crafted this 1,000-year-old record-breaking image — of a 10-foot-long (3 meters) rattlesnake — as well as other paintings, out of mud on the walls and ceiling of a cave, likely to depict spirits of the underworld, the researchers said.


The cave has hundreds of cave paintings and is considered the richest place for Native American cave art in the American Southeast, the researchers said. 

To investigate its historic art, the team turned to photogrammetry, a technique that involves taking hundreds of digital images in order to build a virtual 3D model. Using this method, the researchers spotted five previously unknown giant cave paintings, known as glyphs.


"This methodology allows us to create a virtual model of the space that we can manipulate," study first author Jan Simek, a distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, told Live Science. 

"In this particular case, the ceiling of the cave is very close to the floor. So your field of vision is limited by your proximity to the ceiling. We never saw these very large images because we couldn't get back far enough to see them."

Windmill

 

Previous Solar Flares - Geomagnetic Storms

When a solar flare hits the Earth's magnetic field, it can result in a solar storm that affects the power grid and radio communication.

Experts at SpaceWeather.com stated: "A beautiful solar flare (M4-class) on April 29th hurled a CME into space. It might sideswipe Earth today.

"The glancing blow, if it occurs, could spark a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm on May 2nd or 3rd."

A CME stands for coronal mass ejection, a type of solar flare.

It's essentially a huge expulsion of plasma from the Sun's outer layer, called the corona.

This mass ejection of particles from the Sun travels through space and the Earth uses its magnetic field to protect us from damaging radiation.

Each solar storm that hits Earth is graded by severity and this one is only expected to be a "G1 minor".

This means it could cause weak power grid fluctuations and have a small impact on satellite communications.

Fortunately, solar storms aren't thought to be dangerous to humans on Earth.  READ MORE...

Blue Dress

 

The Russian Hoax Thingy

Special Counsel John Durham has scored another big victory after a federal judge ordered Hillary Clinton to hand over documents for the Russia hoax investigation.

The judge in Washington, DC, sided with Durham and agreed to compel the production of documents that Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign claimed were protected by the attorney-client privilege.

Durham is prosecuting former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI.

Sussmann lied to agents when he claimed to be acting as a private citizen who was handing over information that he claimed showed criminal activity.

However, he was actually providing false information on behalf of the Clinton campaign in an attempt to link then-candidate Donald Trump to the Russian government via Alfa Bank.

Durham had requested the documents last month but faced pushback from Clinton's allies.

As the New York Post noted earlier in the week:

In court papers filed last month, Durham said the Democratic National Committee, Hillary for America, the Fusion GPS research company and the powerhouse Perkins Coie law firm — where Sussmann was formerly a partner — “have all withheld and/or redacted documents and communications” that could potentially be used against the defendant.”

Durham said they made that decision “based on an apparent theory that political opposition research and/or public relations work … falls within the legitimate scope of attorney-client privilege and work-product protections.”

“They have done so despite the fact that almost all of these materials appear to lack any connection to actual or expected litigation or the provision of legal advice,” members of Durham’s team wrote.  READ MORE...

Lovers

 

Ain't it Funny...

 

That the ones who say they care about you the most are the ones who end up treating you the worst...

This is especially true in marriages although one might assume that the longer you remain with your partner the more understanding that partner will become...  well...  in most cases, those expectations never happen...  in fact, the more that someone gets to know you, the least likely they are to like you or even want to remain with you in marriage...  but, they do remain for fear of starting over...  and/or... because of the fear of hooking up with someone worse...

Oftentimes, individuals who have been married before, have a tendency to want to live together for a while in order to sort out these differences or have the differences finally surface that would not have surfaced had the two individuals remained in a dating relationship...  even then, and because of the theoretical love that is felt between the two individuals, those differences are again tolerated as if they were already married...  hence, very little is ever accomplished by living together...

The old one becomes, the more difficult and pronounced these differences become and both parties are likely to assume that the behavior they dislike is still continuing even when it is not still continuing...  as they fail to see and correct their perceptions...  or, they just don't want to admit they are wrong...

Being wrong in a marriage can be devastating, especially if the other person takes advantage of that weakness or that admission.  However, if one were to take advantage of that weakness or admission what does that actually say about the love that is theoretically supposed to exist between those two individuals???  It would be easy to theoretically conclude that their love did not exist at all...

Not only does this type of behavior in marriages cause affairs to take place, but it also causes the two individuals to simply begin existing in two separate environments whether those environments take place inside the home or outside the home does not seem to matter.  typically, they will involve themselves in activities that they may or may not like but are willing to accept just to get away from their spouse...

Conservatively, I would estimate that this happens in about 80% of our current marriages, and no doubt the main reason that the divorce rate for the last 20 years has hovered around 50% which includes marriages in the Bible Belt.

2000 Mules

 

In Love

Hobbits Among Us

Do relic hominins exist on Earth today? This is an artist’s concept of one that might. It is Homo floresiensis, aka hobbits. Image via paleo-artist Katrina Kenny of Echunga, Australia.

Anthropologist Gregory Forth at the University of Alberta in Canada authored a controversial opinion piece in The Scientist on April 18, 2022. In it, he claims that a relic population of elf-like ancient hominins might still roam the jungles of a remote Indonesian island.

The discovery of the remains of Homo floresiensis in 2003 – a tiny hominin standing just 3.5 feet (106 cm) tall and weighing only 66 pounds (30 kg) – caught the scientific world completely by surprise. Scientists announced the initial find in 2004. 

Subsequent work on the Pacific island of Flores unearthed fossils of an entirely new species, now known colloquially as “the hobbit” or Flores man. H. floresiensis dates to between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago. 

Tools of the diminutive people appear in the fossil record from 190,000 to 50,000 years ago, meaning the so-called hobbits shared their world with modern humans.

According to Forth, the hobbits may still hide today in the lush rain forests of Flores, alongside the ravenous Komodo dragon.  READ MORE...

Roughnecks

 

Tianhuang Mountain Caves

The Guyaju Caves, also known as the Yanqing Ancient Cliff House, is a rock-cut complex of honeycomb caves carved into the slopes of the Tianhuang Mountain in the Yanging District of China.

The site was first discovered in 1984 near the village of Dongmenying during a survey conducted by the Yanqing County Cultural Relics Management Office. 

Since then, Guyaju has been registered with the national key cultural relics protection unit, the highest protection level approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China for immovable cultural relics.

Guyaju is situated in the northern margin of the Yanqing-Fanshan Basin, a geological region comprising of 110-million-year-old granite that formed when magma intruded upwards through large amounts of diabase rock.

The cave builders took advantage of exposed granite features to construct a complex network of 350 chambers cut into the rock face across a system of 117 caves. 

The chambers are mainly 1.8 metres in height and laid out in a rectangular or square plan that vary from single room dwellings to larger multi-room homesteads over multiple levels.  READ MORE...

The Toy

 

Portable Wind Turbine

Canadians Cat Adalay and Rachel Carr created the $325 Shine portable wind turbine, which is about the size of a one-liter water bottle. 

The crowdfunded effort received $400,000, according to Core 77.

Once set up on its tripod, the 3-pound, 40-watt device automatically rotates towards the wind and starts charging its 5V, 12,000 mAh battery.

(Alternatively it can charge your device directly via USB.) The company says that in peak conditions, the Shine Turbine can generate enough juice to charge a smartphone in just 20 minutes.

 

Firebird

An Undeniable Fact

As long as we are blessed with life, there is a fact of life that we cannot avoid and that is this...  as long as we continue to age, our physical, mental, and emotional health will continue to decline, worsen, and/or deteriorate...  and, there is not a damn thing that we can do about it...  in some of us the process will be ever so gradual but in others, it will seem like the process has been accelerated for some reason...  it has little to do, if anything, with one's personality although many of us wish that acceleration be the case for some as a method of payback I suppose...  but bad health is not something I would wish for my favorite enemy let alone someone that I might truly despise or hate.

At 74 years of age, my physical health has been gradually declining ever since I reached 60 years of age with my body manifesting Lymphoma cancer, then a heart attack, various squamous carcinomas, then melanoma cancer appeared, thyroid and prostate issues, and now low back issues where my L3-L4-L5-S1 must be fused together in order for me to regain some of the mobility that I have recently lost.

I don't worry about what may happen next but I know that something will happen as my body will finally pay be back for all the abuse I put it through when I was younger,  My mind is not as clear as it once was but it seems more focused and the more I pursue areas of interest where I have the struggle for mental understanding the more I am preventing its decay.

My mental state is also in disarray as my anxiety issues and panic attack are more frequent than ever before and whether I worry about it or don't worry about it, these issues are still thrust upon me from time to time and when I least expect it.  My eyes are gradually losing their ability to see clearly and for the first time in my life, I am consulting an audiologist for hearing aids.

I spend more time sitting than I do standing or moving around and while I know that is not good, my sitting time is spent writing novels that may or may not be published but it gives me something to do and provides me with a sense of accomplishment when I write THE END.

As I look around at all the obese people, I wonder what their state of health will be in 10-20 maybe 30 years from now...  and I wonder the impact it will have on our fragile healthcare systems that can barely handle what is going on today...  just look at how we were impacted by COVID...

Our health is like our freedom...  we don't realize what we had until it is gone!!!

Let's Talk Abortion

 PERSONALLY...  I think all females...  all ladies...  all girls... have the fundamental right to be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to receive an abortion.

IT IS NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DAMN BUSINESS...

AND...  IT IS NO DAMN RIGHT GUARANTEED IN THE US CONSTITUTION...  unless you want to classify it as some asinine attempt at the pursuit of happiness.

The Federal Government has no business telling us what we can or cannot do with our bodies after we reach a certain age...  therefore the Supreme Court should have never heard the case from the get-go...

NOW...  do the states have a right to legislate laws pertaining to abortion?  NO...  again, it is not the business of government.

Would I pay for an abortion if I was approached by my wife or daughter asking for one?  My answer is an easy YES...  Would I like their decision...  My answer is an easy NO...  but, it is their decision, not mine.

The religious community for the most part does not believe in abortions and that is their right.  If they want to kick me out of the church because of my beliefs, then that is their right as well.

It would seem to me that a little common sense should prevail here...  we should not use government to push a religious agenda nor should we use government to fight a religious agenda...

But, this is just my opinion...  and yes, I am very religious... but I also believe in FREE WILL...  and that we have a fundamental right to do whatever it is that we want to our bodies...  and if it hurts...  then, that too is our responsibility...

Baby Dancers

Microplastics & Human Health

Scientists are certain that humans around the world are ingesting tiny pieces of plastic on a regular basis. Now, they are seeking to understand how the wide distribution of microplastics affects human health and the environment as a whole.

Eating a credit card's worth of plastic — a comparison often used to illustrate estimates that people consume about 5 grams of microplastics a week on average — sounds unhealthy on a very visceral level. Learning that those pieces of plastic could later show up in your lungs is even scarier.

Investigations into microplastics exposure and human health have confirmed that not all plastic ingested by humans comes out the other end; at least in some cases, microplastics can be absorbed into the bloodstream or trapped in the lungs.

But scientists don't yet know how the presence of microplastics in the body affects overall health, especially compared to exposures to other environmental chemicals and contaminants.

You may have heard that plastics never fully decompose. In fact, plastic waste slowly breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, creating microplastics that are so light they can be swept up by the wind.

Microplastics are defined as particles measuring no more than 5 millimeters across, which is about the size of a grain of rice. In the 20-odd years since they were named, scientists have found microplastics in virtually every environment, from ocean floors to mountain peaks, National Geographic reported.  READ MORE...

Yawn