Free Republic

Philosophy When our breeding endeavor began, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to gain exposure and knowledge through contacts in both the United States and in Europe. Differing opinions are a staple in any community, and the Norwegian Forest cat lovers/breeders are certainly no exception to this rule. We have learned from observing breeding programs and participating in shows both in the United States and in Europe and have developed our own ideas about the Norwegian Forest cat, but our end goal is ultimately the same as breeders around the globe. Our philosophy is quite simple, taking into consideration...

One of the oldest breeds of cats in North America is the Maine Coon Cat, and some say 40% of the originals had extra toes. One article said it evolved as a "snowshoe foot" to help these cats walk in the snow. Cute story, but probably [expletive deleted] ...The breed closest to the Maine Coon Cat is the Norwegian Forest Cat which evolved in the same climate and lends credence to one theory that ancestors of the Coon Cat may have even come to the New World onboard Viking ships. I like that theory best.

It was only when the coin was later identified as Viking that the game heated up. By then poor Mellegren -- who, Beachcombing must say was someone with a reputation for integrity -- had passed away. Beachcombing has no illusions about much of the nonsense written about pre-Columbian visits to North America. But in this case he would give a thumb and a half followed by two cheers and three quarters. There is a good chance that this really is what it seems: A European coin that found its way to North America in the twelfth century. Minted in Norway,...

You’ve heard of ancient Egyptian cats. But Viking cats? Scientists studying cat DNA say that they found cat remains at a Viking site dating to between the eighth and eleventh century A.D. in northern Germany.

The study, which focused on the ancient settlements of Shivta and Sa'adon, found archaeological evidence that the Byzantines in the Negev did not raise their pigeons for food, but to fertilize the dry loess soil and making it more suitable for intensive agriculture. Loess is made up of fragment of geological detritus, formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. But despite its lowly origins, loess tends to develop into very rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, it forms some of the most agriculturally productive terrain in the world. "The pigeon droppings are rich in phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, which are...

The team has been investigating findings from an ancient rock shelter at a site named Takarkori in south-western Libya. It is desert now, but earlier in the Holocene age [our present age], some 10,000 years ago, it was part of the "green Sahara" and wild cereals grew there. More than 200,000 seeds - in small circular concentrations - were discovered at Takarkori, which showed that hunter-gatherers developed an early form of agriculture by harvesting and storing crops. But an alternative possibility was that ants, which are capable of moving seeds, had been responsible for the concentrations...The site has yielded other...

"It was suspected that a harsh drought from about 2000 to 2010 that killed tens of thousands of livestock was unprecedented in the region’s history and primarily the result of human-caused climate change. But the tree ring data show that the dry spell, while rare in its severity, was not outside the realm of natural climate variability, researchers report online March 14 in Science Advances."

I never post, but this is noteworthy. Brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is responsible for five percent of our gross domestic product. From bread to beer and beyond, this fungus has an incredible impact on our lives. Fungi are important!

The last 'wild' horses is the world are not truly wild, according to a shock DNA study. Przewalski's horses, a breed thought to be the last 'wild' species, are the descendants of escaped once-domesticated animals. The research turns the mysterious origin of domesticated horses 'upside down', experts claim.

More than 4,000 years ago builders carved out the entire surface of a naturally pyramid-shaped promontory on the Greek island of Keros. They shaped it into terraces covered with 1,000 tonnes of specially imported gleaming white stone to give it the appearance of a giant stepped pyramid rising from the Aegean: the most imposing manmade structure in all the Cyclades archipelago... Archaeologists from three different countries involved in an ongoing excavation have found evidence of a complex of drainage tunnels -- constructed 1,000 years before the famous indoor plumbing of the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete -- and traces...

Beer enthusiasts are using a barn in Norway’s Akershus County to brew a special ale which has scientific pretensions and roots back to the dawn of human culture. The beer is made from einkorn wheat, a single-grain species that has followed humankind since we first started tilling the soil, but which has been neglected for the last 2,500 years. “This is fun − really thrilling. It’s hard to say whether this has ever been tried before in Norway,” says Jørn Kragtorp. He started brewing as a hobby four years ago. He represents the fourth generation on the family farm of...

Mr Jiapeng Chen, a PhD candidate from the University of Sydney who initiated the work by sequencing and analysing the genome of a virulent rust isolate, said this was the first important step in addressing the diagnostic challenges posed by ever-changing fungi, which result in new rust pathogen strains. Professor Park explained: "It's like an ongoing arms race - we've got to keep one step ahead of this changing pathogen. "The last major epidemic of wheat stem rust in Australia alone, in 1973, caused $AU300 million in damage - imagine what that would be today." Co-corresponding author, Dr Peter Dodds...

First domesticated 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, wheat and barley took vastly different routes to China, with barley switching from a winter to both a winter and summer crop during a thousand-year detour along the southern Tibetan Plateau, suggests new research... "Wheat was introduced to central China in the second or third millennium B.C., but barley did not arrive there until the first millennium B.C.," Liu said. "While previous research suggests wheat cultivation moved east along the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, our study calls attention to the possibility of a southern route...

AN APPLE A DAY may or may not keep the doctor away, but it's a sentiment shared by just about everyone our Mo Rocca has been visiting: At the Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind., there's no such thing as a bad apple. There you can indulge in apple dumplings -- a skinless apple wrapped in dough, and deep-fried. Rocca asked, "How healthy is this? "Very healthy -- it's an apple!" he was told Or partake of apple petals ("Better than apple dumplings!" enthused cutthroat vendor Logan Forbing), and sample some apple sausages. Fort Wayne is where John Chapman...

Shuwaymis is an area about 370 km southwest of the city of Ha’il, near the town of al-Ha’it, in southern Ha’il province. The petroglyphs were known by local Bedouin for centuries, but only drawn to the attention of authorities by a local school headmaster, Mamdouh al Rasheedi, in 2001. Professor Saad Abdul Aziz al-Rashid, calls Shuwaymis “a unique and very important find.” The setting differs significantly from Jubbah in being surrounded by striking lava flows that impede travel, especially by camels and horses. Wadis are therefore important avenues for herders, and it is in these valleys that Neolithic and later...

Based on his leaked emails, it seems a safe assumption that Colin Powell will not endorse or vote for Hillary Clinton. After Democratic megadonor Jeffrey Leeds emailed Powell on July 24, 2014, to tell him he’d gotten Rudy Giuliani to admit that President Obama is a “decent man” and that Hillary Clinton is “not stoppable” for the 2016 election, Powell confessed: “I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect.” He noted that she is a 70-year-old person with “long track record,” but is hampered by being “greedy, not transformational, with a husband...

Giant bull, wild boar and red deer bones left at a settlement a mile from Stonehenge prove that Amesbury is the oldest settlement in Britain and has been continually occupied since 8820 BC, according to archaeologists who say the giant monuments were built by indigenous hunters and homemakers rather than Neolithic new builders. Carbon dating of aurochs – a breed twice the size of bulls – predates the settlers responsible for the massive pine posts at Stonehenge, suggesting that people had first lived in Wiltshire around 3,000 years before the site was created in 3000 BC. Experts had previously thought...

Scientists have analysed the DNA of ancient giant European wild cattle that died out almost 400 years ago. They have determined the first mitochondrial genome sequence from aurochs (Bos primigenius) from bone found in a cave in England. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down from a mother to her offspring....... One of the researchers involved, Dr Ceiridwen Edwards, has previously investigated the remains of a polar bear found in the Scottish Highlands.... The species became extinct when a female animal died in a forest in Poland in 1627. Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar was said to have been impressed...

An ancient tavern believed to be more then 2,100 years old has been found in the town of Lattes, southern France, making it the oldest Roman restaurant found in the Mediterranean. They also found evidence that while Romanization changed the locals' dining habits, it didn't do much for the cuisine. Evidently some things never change, though. The excavators in the town of Lattes found indoor gristmills and ovens for baking pita, each about one meter across. This oven, called a tabouna or taboon, is still used throughout the Middle East and Israel. In another room, across the courtyard from the...

On one tablet excavated from the area we can see a human head eating from a bowl, meaning “ration”, and a conical vessel, meaning “beer”. Scattered around are scratches recording the amount of beer for a particular worker. It’s the world’s oldest known payslip.