Free Republic

A series of 16th-century manuscripts that have been making waves on the Internet look like a Monty Python version of the Renaissance: They show cats outfitted with flaming backpacks, attacking castles and villages. But the illustrations are legit. They're intended to show how cats and birds could in theory be used to set fire to a besieged city, according to a University of Pennsylvania scholar. Mitch Fraas, scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania—the university digitized the manuscripts last year—says that the drawings are from artillery manuals and are accompanied by notes explaining how to use animals as incendiary...

peculation was growing last night that American mercenaries had been deployed to Donetsk after videos emerged of unidentified armed men in the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city. At least two videos published on YouTube earlier this week show burly, heavily armed soldiers with no insignia in the city, which has been gripped by pro-Moscow protests. In one of the videos onlookers can be heard shouting 'Blackwater! Blackwater!' as the armed men, who wear no insignia, jog through the streets....

The Mesolithic, a transitional period that lasted from circa 11,000 to 5,000 years ago (between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic), ends with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry and the concurrent arrival of new genetic material from the Middle East. The arrival of the Neolithic farmers, with their carbohydrate-based and domesticated animal diet, along with food-borne pathogens and the inherent metabolic /immunological challenges can be reflected in genetic adaptations of post- Mesolithic populations.Pre-Neolithic genetic material The individual at the centre of the study belongs to a group prior to this influx of new genetic material.“The biggest surprise was to discover...

The Mystery of Stonehenge, Ancient Petroglyphs and Crop Circles There are many theories about the origins and functions of Stonehenge. Only through exploring the significance of the electromagnetic universe do we begin to understand the implications of this great stone megalith. Revelations have appeared via another great mystery, crop circles but in a formation so obtuse it was largely bypassed.In 2009 at Manton, Wiltshire, UK, a stand alone pattern appeared. A peculiar stark design, it attracted little in the way of analysis going largely unexplored.However it is a major key to much crop circle imagery and meaning; that Earth life...

A collection of rare 9,000-year old masks, which are considered among the most ancient human portraits, are to go on show in Jerusalem. The masks all originated from Israel and have the same striking features, perhaps to resemble the spirits of dead ancestors. It is thought they were used by in religious and social ceremonies and in rites of healing and magic. The exhibition at The Israel Museum is the result of a decade of investigative work into where the masks came from and it is the first time that the group of 12 Neolithic masks will be displayed together...

The probability of two vibrant young men in their 30s who are employed by the same global bank but separated by an ocean dying within six days of each other is remote. And few companies are in as good a position to understand just how remote as is JPMorgan: since 2010, it has received four patents on quantifying longevity risks and structuring wagers via death derivatives. The two deaths at JPMorgan remain unexplained. Gabriel Magee, a 39-year old technology Vice President was found dead on the 9th level rooftop of JPMorgan’s European headquarters at 25 Bank Street in the Canary...

On the evening of Sunday, December 15 of last year, six weeks before the onset of the latest rash of tragic deaths of young men in their 30s employed at JPMorgan, the Pearland, Texas police received a call of a person in distress outside a Walgreens pharmacy at 6122 Broadway in Pearland. The individual in distress was Jason Alan Salais, a 34-year old Information Technology specialist who had worked at JPMorgan Chase since May 2008. A family member confirmed to Wall Street On Parade that Salais died of a heart attack on the same evening the report of distress went...

ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- U.S. Navy Commander Alphonso Doss, 44, was slain at a hotel in Orange Park about two weeks ago. According to the Orange Park Police Department, investigators found Doss, of Pensacola, dead at the Astoria Hotel located at 150 Park Avenue and east of Wells Road. Authorities from both the Clay County Sheriff's Office and the Orange Park Police Department found Doss' body around 8:45 a.m. Doss' body was sent to the medical examiner's office in Jacksonville....

Exclusive pictures show autopsy on a four year old bison preserved in ice since ancient times. The autopsy, conducted on 27 February 2014, is understood to be the first in the world on a 9,000 bison, and it could provide vital scientific information. The creature was found in exceptional condition in July 2011 by Yukagir community members in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, where mammoth remains were also found. This bison, dating from 9,000 years ago, was located on the shore of a lake in the north of Ust-Yana district. The body became visible after a part of...

Abstract The description of a new skull (D4500) from the Dmanisi site (Republic of Georgia) has reopened the debate about the morphological variability within the genus Homo. The new skull fits with a mandible (D2600) often referred as ‘big’ or ‘enigmatic’ because of its differences with the other Dmanisi mandibles (D211 and D2735). In this report we present a comparative study of the variability of the Dmanisi mandibles under a different perspective, as we focus in morphological aspects related to growth and development. We have followed the notion of modularity and phenotypic integration in order to understand the architectural differences...

An archaeologist says he discovered nine tiny scrolls with biblical text from the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed, according to news reports. The newfound scrolls, which date back to about 2,000 years ago, were hidden inside three leather tefillin cases, also known as phylacteries, traditionally carried by observant Jewish men, Italian news agency Ansa Mediterranean reported. These cases were first pulled out of the caves in the 1950s, but their contents apparently were not examined until now....

<p>The victims all appeared to be women, mostly in their late teens or early 20s. Evidence suggested they were strangled, or perhaps cut at the throat, at the edge of their shared mass grave, and then interred, meters away from an ornate burial of two men thought to be clan elders, political leaders, spiritual guides, or all three.</p>

Excavations in the Midwest have turned up evidence of a massive ancient fire that likely marked “the beginning of the end” for what was once America’s largest city, archaeologists say.The digs took place in southern Illinois, just meters away from the interstate highways that carve their way through and around modern-day St. Louis. But 900 years ago, this was the heart of Greater Cahokia, a civilization whose trade routes and religious influence stretched from the Great Lakes to the Deep South, and whose culture shaped the lifeways of the Plains and Southern Indians.An artist’s rendering depicts Cahokia’s city center...

For some cheese lovers, the older and stinkier the cheese, the better. Well, what about a cheese that's been aging for 3,600 years? Yellow lumps, believed to be the world's oldest cheese, were found on mummies buried in the Taklamakan Desert in northwestern China. The cheese, which was found during archaeological excavations that took place between 2002 and 2004, dates to as early as 1615 BC. The cheese was found on the necks and chests of the mummies. The multiple layers of cowhide the mummies were buried in, and the dry, salty desert helped preserve the cheese....

And now, for your Louisville moment of the day: Sharieff Rhaheed-Muhammed, a 2014 linebacker who signed with Louisville, was arrested yesterday for impregnating his 14-year-old cousin.Fort Pierce, Florida police discovered the two had sex after the teenage girl gave her mom a positive pregnancy test and admitted what happened. She told police that Rhaheed-Muhammed didn’t force himself on her and that the sex “just happened,” and that he later tried again, but she refused. She had an abortion in November, and tests confirm that Rhaheed-Muhammaed is the father.Rhaheed-Muhammaed was arrested on a felony charge of lewd lascivious behavior yesterday, and...

My family has operated our business from the same small town in northern Italy for 500 years. This means that when we make a commitment to a local community, our hope is to do so for decades, if not centuries, to come. We apply this same philosophy to all of our factories and locations throughout the world. Such a commitment is not a one-way street, though. In return for our investment in jobs, facilities and assistance to the local economy, we ask for respect and a supportive business climate. We deserve such respect. We make the standard sidearm for the...

News organizations often disagree about what Americans need to know. MSNBC, for example, apparently believes that traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., is the crisis of our time. Fox News, on the other hand, chooses to cover the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi more heavily than other networks. The American people, for their part, disagree about what they want to watch. But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. Last May the FCC...

BUFFALO, NY—Sometimes it’s just fun to see someone who speaks out of both sides of their mouth get into trouble for it. Actually, it’s always fun to see. So, when gun control advocate Dwayne Ferguson was arrested by police for carrying a loaded pistol into Harvey Austin Elementary School, it’s easy to feel smug about it. At 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, local police got a number of anonymous tips that a black male had just been seen walking into the elementary school carrying a pistol. Within minutes of the calls, the school had been placed on lock-down, surrounding streets had...

As I have confessed in the past, in my early years I found myself active in the Democratic Party and the general liberal methodology. I had no understanding of the concept of the false left/right paradigm. I had no inkling of the dangers of globalism and central banking. I had no concept of decentralization or non-participation. I had never even heard of libertarianism. I knew only that George W. Bush was a criminal (and I was right), but the problem went far deeper than the GOP. I was astoundingly ignorant of the bigger picture. However, what I did have going...

What else can we do with the $1.25 trillion we'll save by eliminating these obsolete financial middleman parasites? A lot. Technology has leapfrogged the banking sector, rendering it as obsolete as buggy whips. So why are we devoting 9% of our economy to an obsolete parasite? Financial sector profits now total a staggering 4.5% of GDP (gross domestic product), while the expenses generated by financial churning account for another 4.5% of the economy....