Free Republic

Archaeologists in Jordan and Saudi Arabia have found what they believe to be by far the world’s oldest to-scale architectural renditions. The stone engravings, which were made between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago, represent “desert kites,” landscape-scale traps built by early humans to hunt herd animals. The engravings show the Neolithic structures, which the authors say were probably crucially important to the societies that built them, with the kind of precision that would normally only be possible from the air. Both objects were found in 2015 and a study of them was published this month in the journal PLoS ONE....

Archaeologists at the University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology have used satellite imagery to identify and map over 350 monumental hunting structures known as ‘kites’ across northern Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq – most of which had never been previously documented...Termed kites by early aircraft pilots, these structures consist of low stone walls making up a head enclosure and a number of guiding walls, sometimes kilometres long. They are believed to have been used to guide game such as gazelles into an area where they could be captured or killed...Kites cannot be observed easily from the ground, however the advent...

The guy flying the 3 kites is in his 80s, and he's from Canada. He comes to the Washington State International Kite Festival every year. His skin is like leather as he normally flies with his shirt off. He is deaf, so when he flies we hold our hands up and wave them for applause. He flies 2 with his hands and the 3rd one is attached to his waist. Enjoy!

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are relentlessly flying a variety of airborne arson and explosive devices into Israel, causing hundreds of fires, millions of shekels in damageFor over two months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been flying kites, birthday balloons and inflated latex condoms into Israel, relying on the gentle Mediterranean coastal breeze to push them across the border. Silly as they may sound, these weapons are no joke. Most of them carry metal mesh pouches containing a burning piece of coal or oil-soaked rag, which have sparked hundreds of fires in southern Israel, destroying thousands of acres of...

An incendiary kite flown from Gaza sparked a major fire in an open field across from the Sapir College in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, near the southern city of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon. Heavy smoke covered the college building as firefighters were dispatched to the area and worked to prevent the fire from spreading to the nearby road and into the college. There were no reports of injuries. On Tuesday afternoon, fires broke out in seven other locations in the Gaza vicinity, four in the Eshkol Regional Council and three in Sha’ar Hanegev. Firefighters gained control of the fire...

Birds Seem to Intentionally Spread Fires! Jan. 15, 2018 Birds are incredibly intelligent animals. They work through certain probability problems better than some students, they communicate with people in order to hunt, they build structures with perspective in mind, they can figure out other birds’ desires, and they use and modify tools. Well, now we have one more thing to add to the list. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, at least three species of bird (Black Kites, Whistling Kites, and Brown Falcons) also use fire!

The object is to make your kite dive at another in such a way that its string cuts the string of the other kite, causing it to fall. Then, usually, a second game ensues for the gaggle of children who have been watching the aerial battle. They scramble to follow the snipped kite as it falls, racing to be the one who can retrieve it for its owner... Shops that sell kites began stocking glass-laced kite strings to make it easier to cut others' strings.

Three people, including two children, have died after their throats were slit by glass-coated strings used for flying kites on India's Independence Day. ... Glass-coated strings are used to bring down competitors' kites, but they also end up injuring and killing people. Many Indians fly kites to celebrate festivals and important occasions like the Independence Day, which is celebrated on 15 August. But every year, there are reports of people dying or getting wounded from the kite strings - locally known as manja - treated with powdered glass or metal to sharpen them. ... The Delhi government has now banned...

The following is based on a translation of a report in Chinese media: According to xinhuanet.com’s report on June 19, through 3 years of research, Prof. Chen Yongsheng of the College of Chemistry and Prof. Tian Jianguo of the Institute of Physics, Nankai University have obtained a special graphene material for light-driven flight. Due to the special electronic characteristic of graphene and the macrostructure and form of the material, the material is able to get driving force from light 1,000 times greater than ordinary light pressure. The website’s reporter claimed to have seen with his own eyes a graphene sponge...

Escape for a few minutes....Go fly a kite, or three http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=nr9KrqN_lIg

"Hurry hurry hurry. We can destroy the enemy. Advance." "Hit hit hit the Taliban." "Hit him hit him hit him. Fire, fire." "We're arriving in Khalakhan." "Take care about the troops." "The Taliban are surrendering." "Bring them to me." "One hundred of them are coming to you." "El Ham captured a pickup with their weapons." These were the voices on the radio of the Northern Alliance commanders we have been visiting for weeks. Several other journalists and I were standing with some Afghan soldiers on the roof of a command post--a mud house with a tank's turret and gun jutting ...

What is being hailed as the clearest ever UFO footage (view below) and final and definitive proof of alien visitation to planet earth has been filmed in China in the last fortnight. ON January 28 at 8.40am multiple witnesses saw a giant pyramid shaped UFO briefly hover above the city of Xi'an. The UFO was seen for no more than two minutes and one witness, Mr Yu managed to film around 15 seconds of footage of this historic event. Mr Yu described the UFO as being covered in uneven patterns and shapes as well as having glowing purple light coming...

Al-Qaeda's new weapon: a kite Forget heat seaking multi million pound missiles Al-Qaeda terrorists may be using a low tech weapon that has been used as a toy by children for thousands of years: kites. The multi billion pound US military fear al-Qaeda-linked militants may be flying cheap kites high above the Indonesian jungle with the intention that they get caught in the propellers of military helicopters flying by to bring them crashing to the ground. A Huey helicopter encountered difficulty while flying back at night from a recent combat mission on the southern island of Jolo after a...

LAHORE, Pakistan — At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday. ... Police arrested more than 700 people for using sharpened kite strings or firing guns, and seized 282 illegally held weapons during this year's festival, said Aftab Cheema, a senior Lahore police officer. Five of those who died on Sunday were hit by stray bullets, including a 6-year-school boy who was struck in the head near his home in the city's Mazang area, Bano said....

Eleven dead, over 100 injured at Pakistani kite flying festival, officials say LAHORE, Pakistan An annual kite festival in eastern Pakistan has left at least eleven people dead. Officials say two died after their throats were cut by metal kite strings. Kite flyers often use string made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cut the strings of rivals or damage other kites. The festival is also often marked with celebratory gunshots fired into the air. Five people died after being hit by stray bullets. Two people were electrocuted when they tried to untangle kites from...

LAHORE, Pakistan - Hundreds of kites filled the skies of Pakistan’s cultural capital on Saturday, the opening day of a traditional spring festival, despite a ban that followed the deaths of seven people killed by glass-coated or wire kite strings.

Lahore: Increasing casualties from kite flying have prompted a provincial minister to threaten the use of the anti-terrorism law to curb the use of hazardous kites, while an organisation has called for a total ban of the sport. Flying kites which is a tradition of the spring festival Basant in Punjab province has resulted in seven accidental deaths in a span of 14 days in Lahore. The sport is banned in the province, but the Supreme Court has lifted it for 15 days from Sunday for the Basant festival. The Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP) has asked the Punjab government to...

There was video of it. Its photo made the front page of the local paper. And police did not have a good explanation for the mysterious, unidentified flying object which spooked residents for five hours in New South Wales, Australia, last weekend. "A black triangular object that made a number of movements and then speared off out of sight behind the trees," is how authorities described the item, according to the Dubbo Daily Liberal. "I've never seen anything like it," Suzanne Fuller told the paper, thinking the object to be 40 to 50 miles away. "It was hovering there for...

THIRTEEN people have been killed and more than 500 injured during an annual kite-flying festival in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Seven people with severe head injuries died in the city's General Hospital alone, and about 220 people were admitted with a variety of injuries including broken bones, hospital officials said. The two-day festival of Basant, marking the start of spring, began with thousands of revellers perched on rooftops. Two teenagers were killed when they fell from a roof, and two more were killed when a car hit them while they were trying to catch a stray kite, police...

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