Free Republic

Modern subdivision is home to ancient villageDavid Davis Managing Editor Thursday, May 08, 2008 Upon entering Princeton Hills subdivision off Freewill Road, visitor's see a wide expanse of green space bordered by a circular drive. Large, expensive homes surround the green, grassy mound in an arrangement akin to a prehistoric village. In a sense, that is exactly what the mound represents. It is the five-acre site of the Candies Creek Village Archaeological Preserve owned by the Archaeological Conservancy. It contains the remains of houses, human burials and pit features. Developer Jim Sharp sold the site to the Conservancy in 2001...

Ancient Cave Bears Were As Omnivorous As Modern BearsFemale cave bear skull from the Pestera cu Oase. Studies of the bones and teeth of cave bears, and especially the nitrogen isotopes in their bone protein, have concluded that they were largely vegetarian. (Credit: Academia Romana / Erik Trinkaus) ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time: hyaenas, lions, wolves, and our own human ancestors. Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) have long fascinated paleontologists and...

New movie out in October. From the site: Synopsis: within a few months 4yr old Marla Olmstead sold over $300K worth of paintings. Compared to Kandinsky and Pollock.... Michael Kimmelman Quotes: "people don't seem to feel there's really some way of judging what's good, what's bad. There's this large idea out there that abstract art has no standards, no truths.." .."pulls the veil off this con game...."

'Oldest' wall painting looks like modern art By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:56pm BST 11/10/2007 French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old work of art in northern Syria which is the oldest known wall painting, even though it looks like a work by a modernist. The painting resembles the work of Paul Klee The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo. "It looks like a modernist painting," said Eric Coqueugniot, the team leader. "Some of those who saw it have...

...Eight years earlier, he and I had met at a restaurant in Boston where we both worked late nights. We were each in the midst of deteriorating relationships and through our commiseration became close friends, confidants and eventually a couple. Our relationship was brief, intense and tumultuous, more addiction than love — a scalding hot bath that feels like comfort but in reality is scorching you. I think we both knew we were wrong for each other but didn’t care. We were young, lost and unmoored, each secretly terrified of the phrase, “your whole life ahead of you.” Depressed and...

I didn't want to be the last Freeper to post this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ

WASHINGTON, July 5, 2007 – President Bush took advantage of a Fourth of July address yesterday to urge all Americans to show support for men and women in uniform who continue to defend American liberties. President Bush embraces Joy Enders, president of the 167th Airlift Wing family readiness group, July 4, 2007, during a visit with members of the West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing and their family members in Martinsburg, W.Va. Bush thanked Enders and members of her organization for their mission to care for families of deployed Guard members. White House photo by Chris Greenberg  (Click...

Spread Of Modern Humans Occurred Later Than Previously Thought, Profs Say Thursday, January 11, 2007 The spread of modern humans out of Africa occurred 40,000 to 50,000 years later than previously thought, according to researchers including one Texas A&M University anthropologist. Ted Goebel, associate director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M, is the author of the paper titled “The Missing Years for Modern Humans” that appears in the Jan. 12 (Friday) issue of Science. Goebel’s paper is one of three published in the current issue of Science dealing with the origins and dispersals...

Cardinal Lehmann has used the German manifesto for the liberation of the old Mass to his own ends, by coming out with praise of the failed liturgy reform of the late 1960s. Translation of an article from the ever excellent kreuz.net. “There are mis-implementations here and there.” The Mainz bishop, Karl, Cardinal Lehmann has recently remarked on the “beauty” of the new Mass. A reason for this recent praise was the German language manifesto for the readmitance of the old Rite. These comments were made by Cardinal Lehmann for the latest edition of the Mainz Church News, “Glaube und Leben”...

Modern Humans, Neanderthals May Have Interbred By E.J. Mundell HealthDay Reporter Mon Oct 30, 5:03 PM ET MONDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- There may be a little Neanderthal in all of us. That's the conclusion of anthropologists who have re-examined 30,000-year-old fossilized bones from a Romanian cave -- bones that languished in a drawer since the 1950s. According to the researchers, these early Homo sapien bones show anatomical features that could only have arisen if the adult female in question had Neanderthal ancestors as part of her lineage. The findings may answer nagging questions: Did modern humans and Neanderthals...

Contact: Neil Schoenherr nschoenherr@wustl.edu 314-935-5235 Washington University in St. Louis Modern humans, not Neandertals, may be evolution's 'odd man out'Looking incorrectly at Neandertals Could it be that in the great evolutionary "family tree," it is we Modern Humans, not the brow-ridged, large-nosed Neandertals, who are the odd uncle out? New research published in the August, 2006 journal Current Anthropology by Neandertal and early modern human expert, Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that rather than the standard straight line from chimps to early humans to us with Neandertals off on a side graph, it's...

Bob Dylan's Modern Times. Released Aug 29,2006. I purchased this CD today and listened to it in it's entirity. It's an excellent album, and has some really good moments on it. I think Bob Dylan fans will like this release. I purchased a limited edition version that has a DVD in it also. The CD has 10 new Bob Dylan songs on it, and the DVD has 4 previously released songs... (I've not viewed the DVD yet). The CD starts fast and plays strong. Songs 4, 5, and 6 come together in a strong way making my favorite portion of...

The Washington Post warns of "Pakistan's Awkward Balancing Act on Islamic Militant Groups." But if one looks closely at the actions of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, it is clear that he has made his choice to side with the West, there's no going back, and he is beyond the pale of reconciliation with his country's lunatic Islamists. The scale has tipped to one side. It is time for Musharraf to explicitly say so and do so, as he'll never appease Pakistan's radicals. Here's an excerpt from the Post: The basic problem for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is that he...

Contact: Hannah Johnson hannah.johnson@bristol.ac.uk 44-117-928-8896 University of Bristol How modern were European Neanderthals? Neandertals were much more like modern humans than had been previously thought, according to a re-examination of finds from one of the most famous palaeolithic sites in Europe by Bristol University archaeologist, Professor Joao Zilhao, and his French colleagues. Professor Zilhao has been able to show that sophisticated artefacts such as decorated bone points and personal ornaments found in the Châtelperronian culture of France and Spain were genuinely associated with Neandertals around 44,000 years ago, rather than acquired from modern humans who might have been living nearby....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc. "I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Dylan, who released eight studio albums in that time, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday. Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't...

CLASSIC VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MODERN VERSION: IF THIS ISN'T THE TRUTH!!!! The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and...

Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly modern spine supported human ancestor Bruce Bower Bones from a spinal column discovered at a nearly 1.8-million-year-old site in central Asia support the controversial possibility that ancient human ancestors spoke to one another. WIDE OPEN. A recently discovered Homo erectus vertebra from central Asia (left) displays a larger spinal cord canal than does a corresponding bone (right) from a skeleton that had been found in Kenya. Meyer Excavations in 2005 at Dmanisi, Georgia, yielded five vertebrae from a Homo erectus individual, says anthropologist Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The finds occurred...

It's Saturday night, and as one group of 12-year-old girls prepares to head out for a night at an all-ages dance in Toronto's nightclub core, another group of preteens is busy fussing over their expensive gowns and shoes and wheedling their parents to arrange a limousine for their Grade 8 graduation. In the week that has followed an altercation involving a 12-year-old girl stabbed on the streets of Toronto's Entertainment District at 2:30 a.m. last Saturday, there has been an outcry over parental abdication of responsibilities, calls for a strict children's curfew, and considerable hand-wringing about what kind of society...

THE art world is being driven by a new generation of female collectors who are dominating the market and buying work by both established and up-and-coming artists. Figures from the Arts Council in England show 56 per cent of all contemporary art in the UK is now purchased by women. Their interest has been galvanised by the high profile of young British artists such as Tracey Emin and Rachel Whiteread, while women's magazines are giving more space to profiling some of the rising female stars of the art world. The large number of women who run and own the nation's...

Time changes modern human's face By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Our ancestors had more prominent features but lower foreheads Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years. Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors. Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations. The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking". Plague victimsThe team used radiographic films of skulls to record extensive measurements taken by a computer....

Source: University of Chicago Press Journals Date: 2006-01-19 New Study Reveals Neanderthals Were As Good At Hunting As Early Modern Humans The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters. However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable, a conclusion leading to a different explanation, also based on archaeological data, to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals. This study has important implications for debates surrounding...

The Virgin Mary and St Joseph, both faceless, seek logdings - an illustration from the front cover of the Diocesan newspaper. What a contrast with MariaHilf (Mary Helper), one of the major pilgrimage shrines in the Diocese. The retreat centre of the Diocese has been placed under the patronage of Mariahilf. It is also called Spectrum Church. The Germans trying to keep up with the Austrians and their plague of rainbow churches. On the 8th December, they forgot the Feast of the Immaculate which the rest of the Catholic world were celebrating but rather celebrated a Festival Mass to commemorate...

Posted on Sun, Nov. 13, 2005 Research on ancient writing linked with modern Mideast conflict BY RON GROSSMAN CHICAGO - Professorial colleagues think Ron Tappy has made a landmark breakthrough in our understanding of the world of the Bible. He himself is waiting for the other shoe to drop. This week, Tappy will formally unveil his discovery at the meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Normally a presentation titled "The 2005 Excavation Season at Tel Zayit, with Special Attention to the Tenth Century BCE" would hardly be noticed beyond the scholars who will gather at the Hyatt Penn's...

The New “ Cut ‘n Paste “ Copperheads I’ve just finished reading “ American Falls” , by John Calvin Batchelor . It is a novel of the Civil War – especially that part of the war that involved the Union and Confederate Secret Services; and there is much mention of “The Copperheads”. The Copperheads were Southern sympathizers to one degree or another. Some – who called themselves “The Sons of Liberty” - wanted an outright Confederate victory on the battlefield ; others wanted a negotiated settlement that would accomplish the same goal. Most just wanted the war to end –...

Skull worship or that's what it looks like in the Church of St. Andrä, Graz, Austria. The photo shows the Good Friday Liturgy. During Holy Week, when there should be no images and certainly not of a skull. Christ on the Cross is uncovered on Good Friday. The participants in this liturgy were given 3D glasses. Later on in this liturgy a man and woman, back to back and totally naked were projected on the same screen. They extended their arms as if they were being crucified. The picture is not suitable for Cathcon. The parish and their priest have...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

During Israel’s dramatic eviction of its settlers, it went almost unnoticed that on Aug. 15, armed men in Gaza kidnapped a soundman who worked for a French state television station. I’ll bet you’ve already assumed the kidnappers were Arab Muslims. Shame on you. And yes you’re right, they were. The week before, three foreign workers were kidnapped by members of Fatah, founded by the late Yasser Arafat. “Fatah” means “conquest by means of holy war.” No matter what our political views, we all agree on two things: 1) Israel and the West on the whole follow the norms of civilization;...

When American bombs were raining down on what is left of Afghanistan, fellow Muslims in the neighbouring Islamic republic of Iran took out to the Streets. Contrary to our expectations in the West, they did not rally to denounce the 'Great Satan' - the name given to America by the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Instead, ordinary Iranians, in one of the most extraordinary shifts in the geopolitical landscape since September 11, challenged their own hard-line Islamic clerics who swept Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from power in 1979. Tens of thousands of men and women also demonstrated, in several cities, after World...

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are symbols that used to be etched in the minds of millions of American immigrants. They are still living symbols for millions of other Americans who were born here and trace their ancestors to the Old World. To go and stand where your grandmother came to America, and see across the water to the lights of New York City still may leave a lump in your throat. A hundred years ago most immigrants came to the U. S. after a long sea voyage. They left behind the Irish potato famine or being drafted...

Last week, BT, a large British telecommunications company, announced what was billed as the world’s first hybrid telephone. The phone connects to a landline in the same way that a cordless telephone does. But it can be taken away from its base and used as a mobile phone. Cellular charges will only apply if the phone is away from its base. It wasn’t that long ago when the proliferation of cell phones gave rise to the fear that it would only be a matter of time before we ran out of telephone numbers. As mobile phones became cheaper and smaller,...

Celebrity, high and low, is judged by double standards. We forgive the talented their sins because we appreciate their talents. Sometimes we're hypercritical (and hypocritical) for the very reason they let us down -- when what they say has little, if anything, to do with their talents. The moguls of the old studio system in Hollywood knew what they were doing when they kept the politics, if any, of their stars hidden safely away. We don't really want to know what a good actor like Sean Penn thinks about politics, overlooking his childish anti-American diatribes, because we know his views...

One of the enduring myths about the so called modern "art" is the need (?) to understand it. According to its apologists without understanding there is no real or proper appreciation of the painting/sculpture that one is looking at. In other words a process that naturally begins and ends at the heart must begin in our brain. That means we have already made a wrong start. I remember a quote from Renoir, a painter who is not a favourite of mine but who, nevertheless, hit the nail right on its head when he said: "... art is about emotion, if...

I am approaching this subject from a unique perspective, as someone who had never seen a single “Star Wars” film until about 3-4 weeks ago. In the past month, I have seen all 6 episodes, and I gotta tell ya… the newer ones are better......

Like Rodney Dangerfield, the humanities in Washington "don't get no respect." Not as much as they should, anyway. We're a company town and the company makes politics. But like a blind squirrel who finds an acorn once in a while, politicians and the journalists gather occasionally with others who crave more profundity than the noise in political rhetoric to listen to the annual >Jefferson Lecture. "The training of the intellect was meant to produce an intrinsic pleasure and satisfaction but it also had practical goals of importance to the individual and the entire community, to make the humanistically trained individuals...

New evidence challenges hypothesis of modern human origins www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-27 17:00:01 WUHAN, April 27 (Xinhuanet) - - Chinese archaeologists said newly found evidence proves that a valley of Qingjiang River, a tributary on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, might be one of the regions where Homo sapiens, or modern man, originated. The finding challenges the "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins, according to which about 100,000 years ago modern humans originated in Africa, migrated to other continents, and replaced populations of archaic humans across the globe. The finding comes from a large-scale excavation launched in the Qingjiang River...

Generation X Catholics were asked in their teenage days what it was that the church had failed to give them. The most frequent response was that the church had not challenged teens with “a high and heroic ideal.” Such a challenge, as we’ve been reminded these past few weeks, was made with astounding success by the late pope. The Millennial Generation, born in the days of Reagan and John Paul II, is emerging into the world with a conservatism unexpected and nervously opposed by the liberal elite of American culture. But liberalism cannot erase the moral demand it has provoked....

I recently learned a valuable lesson about the ways in which we support our service people for fighting the battles that change the tides of war and, inevitably, history. Before departing for an extended business trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my Dad -- a genealogist since his retirement -- suggested that I visit the gravesite of my maternal Great-Great-Great Grandfather, 1st Lieutenant Joseph R.D. Clendenning. I crammed into my briefcase a file containing documents about my ancestor. He was 115 years forgotten since the United States Army buried him in Pittsburgh on March 10, 1890. Distracted by the business at hand,...

This month, the New Jersey Pest Management Association issued a news release to warn against the prospect of billions of mosquitoes and threat of West Nile Fever they pose. West Nile Fever arrived in New York City in 1999 and, within three years, it had spread to California. In Washington, an executive order was signed recently to insure that avian flu does not reach these shores and, when a single case of Mad Cow Disease was discovered, the border was shut to Canadian beef. When SAARS broke out in Red China a few years ago, it too was quickly quarantined....

"Only a madman could maintain that the distinction between the honorable and the dishonorable, between virtue and vice, is a matter of opinion, not of nature.” – Cicero in de Legibus The last 40 years or so has seen a dramatic shift in the way people view moral truth. It has been a move away from the idea of morality as a set of objective and universal standards, to the view that moral codes are merely the synthesis of popular opinion. Consider the Episcopal cleric who supported the ordination of homosexual priest, Gene Robinson, as bishop of the Diocese of...

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: MODERN DAY SLAVE MASTER Posted by Jason Saine on 2005/1/18 20:47:06 By J. Matt Barber As a little girl in segregated Birmingham Alabama, Condoleezza Rice, like so many other black Americans, often experienced systematic racism rooted in old-fashioned hatred. On a balmy September morning in 1963 that hatred manifest to sight, the vile portrait of pure evil. A group of radical white supremacists bombed a Birmingham church in a black neighborhood killing four little girls. One of those little girls, Denise McNair, was a friend to Condoleezza Rice. From her humble beginnings in the Deep South, to...

Cyrus SAYS: Daddy, how was I born? DAD SAYS: Ah, my son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Well, you see your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on MSN. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, where your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit...

learn, via a Los Angeles Times article, of a recently-established magazine calling itself Modern Drunkard, dedicated to heavy drinkers and heavy drinking. My initial response was a chuckle and the assumption it was some kind of satirical parody. But sure enough, it has a website, and may even have the circulation of 50,00 which it claims. Although I am in the wine business as a part-timer, I do not find the excessive consumption of alcohol to be an attractive practice - for myself or others. Drunks lose control, and it isn't pretty. Many of those controls (inhibitions, if you will)...

The mother of all Palestinian modern-day curses By Yoav SternThe parchment on which the curse was written and the package in which it was found." During a Dead Sea-area dig in 2002, Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld discovered two small packages wrapped in cloth. The contents of one of them, just recently made public, was a scathing curse aimed at Israeli leaders. "Oh God almighty, I beg you God to destroy Ariel Sharon, son of Devorah, son of Eve." Thus opens a unique text, written in eloquent Arabic, on parchment found more than two years ago at the bottom of the Dead...

The Prophecy of Saint NilusDid this saint forsee the crisis of the Church and world of our time? St. Niluswas one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, married, with two sons. While St. John Chrysostom was patriarch, before his exile (398-403), he directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. St. Nilus left his wife and one son and took the other, Theodulos, with him to Mount Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained both St. Nilus and his...

People from all walks of life keep asking me the same question: “Are there moderate Muslims?” I know myself that there are, but… Many of the moderates are faced with intimidation by militant Muslims (“Islamists”). Muslims also have to contend with their own old cultural habits, hateful religious leaders, a bigoted press, and schools that teach hatred and homicide bombings. As usual, just as things seem the darkest, I happen upon something that brightens my spirit -- at least a little. Last week, FOXNews mentioned the organization “Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism” (FMCAT). I immediately went to their website, and...

NEANDERTHAL LIFE NO TOUGHER THAN THAT OF “MODERN” INUITS COLUMBUS, Ohio – The bands of ancient Neanderthals that struggled throughout Europe during the last Ice Age faced challenges no tougher than those confronted by the modern Inuit, or Eskimos. That’s the conclusion of a new study intended to test a long-standing belief among anthropologists that the life of the Neanderthals was too tough for their line to coexist with Homo sapiens. “Looking at these fossilized teeth, you can easily see these defects that showed Neanderthals periodically struggled nutritionally,” Guatelli-Steinberg said. “But I wanted to know if that struggle was any...

Family witnesses God's intervention after near-fatal crash As they reflect back on the horrific events of a November day in 1996, Ken Creekmore of Brunswick and his family do so with much humility and thankfulness. The reason: the Creekmores can attest to the fact that miracles do exist, else they wouldn't be here today to tell their dramatic story, a story in which the family says it witnessed God's intervention and healing hand. At the time, the Rev. Creekmore, who today is pastor of Glyndale Baptist Church in Brunswick, and his wife, Lisa, were en route to the South Carolina...

Jan. 27, 2004 — In a prehistoric battle for survival, Neanderthals had to compete against modern humans and were wiped off the face of the Earth, according to a new study on life in Europe from 60,000 to 25,000 years ago. The findings, compiled by 30 scientists, were based on extensive data from sediment cores, archaeological artifacts such as fossils and tools, radiometric dating, and climate models. The collected information was part of a project known as Stage 3, which refers to the time period analyzed. The number three also seems significant in terms of why the Neanderthals became extinct....

I apologize if this has already been discussed, but is there some way that Freepers can send our personal condolences to Nancy Reagan? We all know how much she loved President Reagan, and her grief right now must be terrible. What a strong, tremendous lady she is. President Reagan was so fortunate to have her as a wife and a caregiver these past 10 years. She deserves to hear from all of us how much we loved President Reagan, how grateful we are for his life and service, and how we will keep her in our prayers.