Sub-Saharan DNA Antiquity Doubled in New Find

Sub-Saharan DNA Antiquity Doubled in New Find

Freedomist Curator March 2, 2022

DNA from ancient African foragers indicates cultural change

From www.futurity.org
2022-02-28 21:40:09
Amy McCaig-Rice University
Excerpt:

A new analysis of human remains buried in African archaeological sites has produced the earliest DNA from the continent, research finds.

The findings tell a fascinating tale about how early humans lived, traveled, and even found their significant others.

The research team outlines its work in the journal Nature, including findings from ancient DNA from six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia who lived between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago.

“This more than doubles the antiquity of reported ancient DNA data from sub-Saharan Africa,” says David Reich, a professor at Harvard University and investigator at the Howard Hughes…

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Parents Divide Over Covid Mask Rules for Kids

Paul Collier March 2, 2022

U.S. parents still divided over school COVID masking rules -survey

From www.reuters.com
2022-03-01 10:06:00

Excerpt:

March 1 (Reuters) – As public schools around the United States lift COVID-19 mask mandates, parents are divided over the issue, with nearly 43% saying face covering requirements should remain in place to prevent virus transmission, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

Most parents who responded also expressed concern about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5, saying they do not have enough information, according to the KFF survey of 1,502 adults conducted between Feb. 9 and 21.

Support for masks in schools has been falling since September, when two thirds of people and over 60% of parents favored some level of mask requirements, KFF said.

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Myanmar Junta Questions Whether China Might Ukraine Them

Mark Clouse March 2, 2022

Russia-Ukraine Crisis Prompts Myanmar Junta Emergency Meeting

From www.irrawaddy.com
2022-03-01 09:20:48

Excerpt:

Myanmar’s military regime held an emergency meeting on the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the capital Naypyitaw on February 26, to discuss how the conflict in Eastern Europe might affect Myanmar, sources told The Irrawaddy.

At the meeting, the regime assumed that Myanmar faces the risk of invasion by its neighbor China, just as Ukraine has been invaded by its neighbor Russia.

While the junta is convinced that Beijing would not invade Myanmar in normal times, it is concerned that the superpower would take matters into its own hand if and…

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Russian Media Dimmed by Silicon Valley Taking Sides

Ivo Fysic March 2, 2022

RT sees its influence diminish as TV providers and tech companies take action against the Russia-backed outlet

From www.cnn.com
2022-03-01 16:30:00

Excerpt:

The actions taken by television providers and technology companies against RT have dealt one of the largest blows to the outlet in its history, reducing the Kremlin’s ability to peddle its narrative at a pivotal time when its international standing has fallen as a result of its unprovoked war on Ukraine.

YouTube, TikTok, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook (FB) and Instagram, each separately announced on Monday and Tuesday some of the harshest measures taken thus far against RT. The social media companies said they had moved to block RT in Europe. The outlet’s accounts will no longer be accessible to users on that continent through those companies’ services, depriving RT of crucial venues to advance its messaging.

Meta and Google (GOOG), the parent company of YouTube, had previously announced that RT would no longer be eligible to monetize its content on the company’s platforms.

Roku, the company that sells hardware which allows users to stream content through the internet, said…

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Bionic Eye Gives Sheep the Gift of Sight

Parker Davis February 17, 2022

Bionic Eyes Give Sheep Sight, Heading to Humans Next

From futurism.com
2022-02-14 22:14:26
Victor Tangermann
Excerpt:

The BBC reports that a team of Australian researchers gave a small flock of sheep “exceptionally sharp eyesight” — at least for sheep — using bionic eyes surgically implanted behind their retinas.

The idea behind the wooly experiment was to make sure the implants didn’t cause undesirable side effects. Now, the team from the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales say they’ve filed paperwork to start human trials — a striking step toward the type of bionic eyesight we’ve glimpsed in Star Trek via the character Geordi La Forge…..

The device, dubbed Phoenix 99, works by wirelessly relaying a camera feed from a small camera attached to a pair of sunglasses in the form of electric signals directly to the wearer’s retinas, according to the BBC‘s reporting. These signals then get processed by the optical nerve and sent into the brain.

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GOP Wants DOJ Assault on Parents to End

Ivo Fysic February 17, 2022

Sen. Hawley demands answers on FBI, AG Garland school board memo: ‘Silence must end’

From www.foxnews.com
2022-02-15 21:53:18
Timothy Nerozzi
Excerpt:

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has sent a follow-up letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanding answers to Senate Republicans’ questions regarding Attorney General Merrick Garland’s October 2021 memorandum seeking law enforcement intervention at school board meetings across the country.

On Oct. 4, Garland published a memo instructing local law enforcement to coordinate with the FBI in investigating disruptions at school board meetings nationwide. The memo came in response to an alleged increase in criticism, public insults and accusations against school board members. In addition, it came just days after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Biden comparing parent protests to domestic terrorism. Garland testified later in October that the NSBA letter was the basis for his memo.

“Yet again, reports have revealed even more concerning details about your infamous school board memorandum from…

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DNC Black Militant Attempts Assassination of DNC Jewish Rival

Freedomist Curator February 17, 2022

Anti-Police Activist Charged With Unspeakable Act of Political Violence

From freebeacon.com
2022-02-15 21:00:52
Andrew Stiles
Excerpt:

A radical anti-police activist was charged Monday with the attempted murder of Louisville, Ky., mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. The activist, Quintez Brown, was apprehended shortly after he allegedly entered Greenberg’s campaign headquarters and fired multiple shots with a handgun.

Brown, 21, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. No one was injured during the attack, but a bullet reportedly grazed the back of Greenberg’s sweater. The mayoral candidate, a Democrat, said the suspect walked into his office where he and four other staffers were meeting Monday morning. “When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me, and began shooting,” Greenberg told reporters. “The individual closest to the door managed to bravely get the door closed,…

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Scientists Model The Universe Like Nothing Ever Before

Ivo Fysic February 17, 2022

Scientists Unveil Largest and Most Accurate Virtual Representation of the Universe

From scitechdaily.com
2022-02-15 20:02:47
Royal Astronomical Society
Excerpt:

At the very center of the simulation (and our own Universe) is the Milky Way galaxy, and our nearest massive neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy (known as M31). Credit: Dr. Stuart McAlpine

Scientists have produced the largest and most accurate virtual representation of the Universe to date. An international team of researchers, led by the University of Helsinki, and including members from Durham University in the UK, used supercomputer simulations to recreate the entire evolution of the cosmos, from the Big Bang to the present. The findings are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The simulation, named SIBELIUS-DARK, is part of the “Simulations Beyond the Local Universe” (SIBELIUS) project, and is the largest and most comprehensive ‘constrained realization’ simulation to date. The team meticulously compared the virtual Universe to a series of observational surveys to find the correct locations and properties for the virtual analogies of the…

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Threat of Man-Made Super Virus Very Real

Freedomist Curator February 17, 2022

Scientists Warn That Terrorists Could Release a Horrifying Virus

From futurism.com
2022-02-15 16:21:54
Victor Tangermann
Excerpt:

In her new book “The Genesis Machine,” futurist and founder of the Future Today Institute Amy Webb warns that terrorists could create synthesized viruses in a lab and use them for nefarious purposes.

Scientists have managed to replicate potentially harmful viruses like the poliovirus and smallpox before. It’s a contentious issue: some say the work could lead to scientific breakthroughs, but to others it amounts to government-funded saber-rattling.

In an excerpt from the book published this week by The Atlantic, Webb points out that in 2011, Erasmus Medical Center virologist Ron Fouchier was able to change the DNA of the H5N1 bird flu virus to make it transmissible from bird to humans and from human to human.

Fouchier’s research was funded by the US government, according to Webb, but due to the sheer risks involved, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked academic journals to redact portions of Fouchier’s paper to ensure details didn’t end up in the wrong hands.

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Nicaragua Government to Criminalize Political Opposition

Ivo Fysic February 17, 2022

Nicaragua’s Ortega government puts the political opposition on trial

From www.washingtonpost.com
2022-02-15 18:25:30

Excerpt:

Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have dismantled the country’s democracy with startling speed. After crushing nationwide demonstrators in 2018, their government arrested protest leaders, shut down news organizations and stripped the legal status of civil society groups. Last year, with elections looming, authorities intensified the crackdown, jailing around four dozen opposition politicians, journalists and business leaders.

Nicaragua has become the most dramatic example of the crumbling of democracy in Central America, a trend condemned by the Biden administration that is contributing to surging migration.

The trials are “an attack on all types of dissidence,” said Carolina Jiménez, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group. She said they lacked even the minimum standards of due process. “We know these sentences aren’t pronounced by an independent justice system, but by the presidential couple.”

Nicaraguan authorities have accused the jailed activists of working with foreign powers to undermine the government. “These are the same people who promoted and directed terrorist actions in the failed coup in 2018,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement last month, referring to the anti-government protests…..l.