Saturday, February 28, 2015

Germany Emerges









What is emerging is a profound lack of vision and leadership coming out of Washington. This has tempted the Russians under Putin. And that has forced the Germans under Merkel to reconsider their choices. This is something they do not want and their vision is not brilliant either.


All this has badly disturbed the long lasting European dispensation. What is truly lacking is a sensible economic vision that is not seen as beggaring your neighbors. Do that and even Russia will finally make real peace and join the EU as well.


Otherwise, what is seriously need is a border commission with the capability of effecting voluntary population shifts. Such shifts need not be even physical but can exist as a right with attached voting rights also dealt with.


This can be done with German leadership at least. Hopefully some of this happens or they come up with a better road-map or we continue to muddle along..


Germany Emerges 


February 10, 2015 | 09:00 GMT





https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/germany-emerges


German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied by French President Francois Hollande, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 6. Then she met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Feb. 9. The primary subject was Ukraine, but the first issue discussed at the news conference following the meeting with Obama was Greece. Greece and Ukraine are not linked in the American mind. They are linked in the German mind, because both are indicators of Germany's new role in the world and of Germany's discomfort with it.







It is interesting to consider how far Germany has come in a rather short time. When Merkel took office in 2005, she became chancellor of a Germany that was at peace, in a European Union that was united. Germany had put its demands behind it, embedding itself in a Europe where it could be both prosperous and free of the geopolitical burdens that had led it into such dark places. If not the memory, then the fear of Germany had subsided in Europe. The Soviet Union was gone, and Russia was in the process of trying to recover from the worst consequences of that collapse. The primary issue in the European Union was what hurdles nations, clamoring to enter the union, would have to overcome in order to become members. Germany was in a rare position, given its history. It was in a place of comfort, safety and international collegiality.







The world that Merkel faces today is startlingly different. The European Union is in a deep crisis. Many blame Germany for that crisis, arguing that its aggressive export policies and demands for austerity were self-serving and planted the seeds of the crisis. It is charged with having used the euro to serve its interests and with shaping EU policy to protect its own corporations. The vision of a benign Germany has evaporated in much of Europe, fairly or unfairly. In many places, old images of Germany have re-emerged, if not in the center of many countries then certainly on the growing margins. In a real if limited way, Germany has become the country that other Europeans fear. Few countries are clamoring for membership in the European Union, and current members have little appetite for expanding the bloc's boundaries.







At the same time, the peace that Germany had craved is in jeopardy. Events in Ukraine have aroused Russian fears of the West, and Russia has annexed Crimea and supported an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Russia's actions have sparked the United States' fears of the re-emergence of a Russian hegemon, and the United States is discussing arming the Ukrainians and pre-positioning weapons for American troops in the Baltics, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The Russians are predicting dire consequences, and some U.S. senators are wanting to arm the Ukrainians.







If it is too much to say that Merkel's world is collapsing, it is not too much to say that her world and Germany's have been reshaped in ways that would have been inconceivable in 2005. The confluence of a financial crisis in Europe that has led to dramatic increases in nationalism — both in the way nations act and in the way citizens think — with the threat of war in Ukraine has transformed Germany's world. Germany's goal has been to avoid taking a leading political or military role in Europe. The current situation has made this impossible. The European financial crisis, now seven years old, has long ceased being primarily an economic problem and is now a political one. The Ukrainian crisis places Germany in the extraordinarily uncomfortable position of playing a leading role in keeping a political problem from turning into a military one.




The German Conundrum


It is important to understand the twin problems confronting Germany. On the one hand, Germany is trying to hold the European Union together. On the other, it wants to make certain that Germany will not bear the burden of maintaining that unity. In Ukraine, Germany was an early supporter of the demonstrations that gave rise to the current government. I don't think the Germans expected the Russian or U.S. responses, and they do not want to partake in any military reaction to Russia. At the same time, Germany does not want to back away from support for the government in Ukraine.




There is a common contradiction inherent in German strategy. The Germans do not want to come across as assertive or threatening, yet they are taking positions that are both. In the European crisis, it is Germany that is most rigid not only on the Greek question but also on the general question of Southern Europe and its catastrophic unemployment situation. In Ukraine, Berlin supports Kiev and thus opposes the Russians but does not want to draw any obvious conclusions. The European crisis and the Ukrainian crisis are mirror images. In Europe, Germany is playing a leading but aggressive role. In Ukraine, it is playing a leading but conciliatory role. What is most important is that in both cases, Germany has been forced — more by circumstance than by policy — to play leading roles. This is not comfortable for Germany and certainly not for the rest of Europe.




Germany's Role in Ukraine


The Germans did play a significant part in the fall of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's government. Germany had been instrumental in trying to negotiate an agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, but Yanukovich rejected it. The Germans supported anti-Yanukovich demonstrators and had very close ties to one of the demonstration leaders, current Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who received training in a program for rising leaders sponsored by the Christian Democratic Union — Merkel's party. The Germans condemned the Russian annexation of Crimea and Moscow's support for the Ukrainian secessionists in the east. Germany was not, perhaps, instrumental in these events, but it was a significant player.







As the Germans came to realize that this affair would not simply be political but would take on a military flavor, they began to back away from a major role. But disengagement was difficult. The Germans adopted a complex stance. They opposed the Russians but also did not want to provide direct military support to the Ukrainians. Instead, they participated in the sanctions against Russia while trying to play a conciliatory role. It was difficult for Merkel to play this deeply contradictory role, but given Germany's history the role was not unreasonable. Germany's status as a liberal democracy is central to its post-war self-conception. That is what it must be. Therefore, supporting the demonstrators in Kiev was an obligation. At the same time, Germany — particularly since the end of the Cold War — has been uneasy about playing a direct military role. It did that in Afghanistan but not Iraq. And participating in or supporting a military engagement in Ukraine resurrects memories of events involving Russia that Berlin does not want to confront.




Therefore, Germany adopted a contradictory policy. Although it supported a movement that was ultimately anti-Russian and supported sanctions against the Russians, more than any other power involved it does not want the political situation to evolve into a military one. It will not get involved in any military action in Ukraine, and the last thing Germany needs now is a war to its east. Having been involved in the beginnings of the crisis, and being unable to step away from it, Germany also wants to defuse it.




The Greek Issue


Germany repeated this complex approach with Greece for different reasons. The Germans are trying to find some sort of cover for the role they are playing with the Greeks. Germany exported more than 50 percent of its gross domestic product, and more than half of that went to the European free trade zone that was the heart of the EU project. Germany had developed production that far exceeded its domestic capacity for consumption. It had to have access to markets or face a severe economic crisis of its own.




But barriers are rising in Europe. The attacks in Paris raised demands for the resurrection of border guards and inspections. Alongside threats of militant Islamist attacks, the free flow of labor from country to country threatened to take jobs from natives and give them to outsiders. If borders became barriers to labor, and capital markets were already distorted by the ongoing crisis, then how long would it be before weaker economies used protectionist measures to keep out German goods?







The economic crisis had unleashed nationalism as each country tried to follow policies that would benefit it and in which many citizens — not in power, but powerful nonetheless — saw EU regulations as threats to their well-being. And behind these regulations and the pricing of the euro, they saw Germany's hand.







This was dangerous for Germany in many ways. Germany had struggled to shed its image as an aggressor; here it was re-emerging. Nationalism not only threatened to draw Germany back to its despised past, but it also threatened the free trade essential to Germany's well-being. Germany didn't want anyone to leave the free trade zone. The eurozone was less important, but once they left the currency bloc, the path to protectionism was short. Greece was of little consequence itself, but if it demonstrated that it would be better off defaulting than paying its debt, other countries could follow. And if they demonstrated that leaving the free trade zone was beneficial, then the entire structure might unravel.







Germany needed to make an example of Greece, and it tried very hard last week to be unbending, appearing to be a bit like the old Germany. The problem Germany had was that if the new Greek government wanted to survive, it couldn't capitulate. It had been elected to resist Germany. And whatever the unknowns, it was not clear that default, in whole or part, wasn't beneficial. And in the end, Greece could set its own rules. If the Greeks offered a fraction of repayment, would anyone refuse when the alternative was nothing?







Therefore, Germany was facing one of the other realities of its position — one that goes back to its unification in 1871. Although economically powerful, Germany was also extremely insecure. Its power rested on the ability and willingness of other countries to give Germany access to their markets. Without that access, German power could fall apart. With Greece, the Germans wanted to show the rest of Europe the consequences of default, but if Greece defaulted anyway, the only lesson might be that default works. Just as it had been in the past, Germany was simultaneously overbearing and insecure. In dealing with Greece, the Germans could not risk bringing down the European Union and could not be sure which thread, if pulled on, would unravel it.




Merkel's Case in Washington



It was with this on her mind that Merkel came to Washington. Facing an overwhelming crisis within the European Union, Germany could not afford a war in Ukraine. U.S. threats to arm the Ukrainians were exactly what she did not need. It wasn't just that Germany had a minimal army and couldn't participate or, in extremis, defend itself. It was also that in being tough with Greece, Germany could not go much further before being seen as the strongman of Europe, a role it could not bear.







Thus, she came to Washington looking to soften the American position. But the American position came from deep wells as well. Part of it had to do with human rights, which should not be dismissed as one source of decision-making in this and other administrations. But the deeper well was the fact that for a hundred years, since World War I, through World War II and the Cold War, the United States had a single rigid imperative: No European hegemon could be allowed to dominate the Continent, as a united Europe was the only thing that might threaten national security. Therefore, regardless of any debate on the issue, the U.S. concern about a Russian-dominated Ukraine triggered the primordial fear of a Russian try at hegemony.







It was ironic that Germany, which the United States blocked twice as a hegemon, tried to persuade the United States that increased military action in Ukraine would not solve the problem. The Americans knew that, but they also knew that if they backed off now, the Russians would read it as an opportunity to press forward. Germany, which had helped set in motion both this crisis and the European crisis, was now asking the United States to back off. The request was understandable, but simply backing off was not possible. She needed to deliver something from Putin, such as a pledge to withdraw support to Ukrainian secessionists. But Putin needed something, too: a promise for an autonomous province. By now Merkel could live with that, but the Americans would find it undesirable. An autonomous Ukrainian province would inevitably become a base for undermining the rest of the country.







This is the classic German problem told two ways. Both derive from disproportionate strength overlying genuine weakness. The Germans are trying to reshape Europe, but their threats are of decreasing value. The Germans tried to reshape Ukraine but got trapped in the Russian reaction. In both cases, the problem was that they did not have sufficient power, instead requiring the acquiescence of others. And that is difficult to get. This is the old German problem: The Germans are too strong to be ignored and too weak to impose their will. Historically, the Germans tried to increase their strength so they could impose their will. In this case, they have no intention of doing so. It will be interesting to see whether their will can hold when their strength is insufficient.

The Monarch Massacre


 



As you may imagine, i am extremely unhappy with both the insect catastrophe rolling through American farm lands, but even more by the level of disinterest.  Do we really have to see the human population collapse before we act responsibly?

We are seeing the bee collapse.  We are seeing the monarch collapse.  We are not even measuring the thousands of other insect losses taking place out there.  

My only comfort is that while this will get worse, organic agriculture is beginning to seriously take off and we have at most another twenty years of this ecocidal crap.  The farmers want that and they are progressively becoming more and more disenchanted with industrial farming and its economics.


The species will survive in Refugio and will recover.   We just did not need this.


The monarch massacre: Nearly a billion butterflies have vanished

  February 9

 http://wapo.st/16MoFzv

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/09/the-monarch-massacre-nearly-a-billion-butterflies-have-vanished/

Threatened animals like elephants, porpoises and lions grab all the headlines, but what’s happening to monarch butterflies is nothing short of a massacre. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service summed it up in just one grim statistic on Monday: Since 1990, about 970 million have vanished.


It happened as farmers and homeowners sprayed herbicides on milkweed plants, which serve as the butterflies’ nursery, food source and home. In an attempt to counter two decades of destruction, the Fish and Wildlife Service launched a partnership with two private conservation groups, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to basically grow milkweed like crazy in the hopes of saving the monarchs.

Monarch butterflies are a keystone species that once fluttered throughout the United States by the billions. They alighted from Mexico to Canada each spring on a trek that required six generations of the insect to complete. Afterward, young monarchs about the quarter of the weight of a dime, that know nothing about the flight pattern through the United States, not to mention Mexico, fly back, resting, birthing and dining on milkweed. Only about 30 million remain.


The extinction of certain butterfly species is not unheard of. The blueberry-colored Xerces blue disappeared from San Francisco years ago, and recently Fish and Wildlife announced that two subspecies — the rockland skipper and Zestos in South Florida — haven’t been seen since 2004 and are probably extinct. On top of that, pesticide use has also caused a collapse of other pollinators — wasps, beetles and especially honeybees.


Fish and Wildlife is reviewing a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity to list monarch butterflies as an endangered species that requires special protection to survive. The agency is studying whether that’s necessary and also trying to do more to help restore the population.


The agency is providing $2 million for on the ground conservation projects. As part of an agreement, the federation will help raise awareness about the need for milkweed, provide seeds to anyone willing to plant it and to plant the seeds in open space — roadsides, parks, forests and patio flower boxes, to name a few places. Another $1.2 million will go to the foundation as seed money to generate a larger fundraising match from private organizations.


Yosemite National Park offers protection to the milkweed plant, which is important to the survival of the "charismatic" monarch butterfly. (National Park Service/Yosemite Conservancy via YouTube)

 
Fish and Wildlife will chip in to plant milkweed seeds in refuges and other  areas it controls to create 200,000 acres of habitat along the Interstate 35 corridor from Texas to Minnesota, where 50 percent of monarchs migrate. Fish and Wildlife will encourage other federal and state agencies to do the same on public lands and is working with the governments of Mexico and Canada to help restore the iconic butterfly.


The monarch butterfly’s round trip to and from Mexico takes it past a killing field of agriculture. But farmers aren’t entirely to blame for the insect’s decline, said Dan Ashe, director of Fish and Wildlife. 


“We’ve all been responsible. We are the consumers of agricultural products. I eat corn. American farmers are not the enemy. Can they be part of the solution? Yes,” Ashe said.


“It’s not about this wonderful, mystical creature,” Ashe said. “It’s about us.”


U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) underscored that point in her remarks during the announcement of the partnership at the National Press Club in Washington. Her mother, a second-grade teacher, was wild about monarch butterflies, Klobuchar said, so much so that she dressed as one each year to call attention to their return flight home. Her mother carried a sign, Klobuchar said, “Mexico or bust.”


“This is something that means a lot to my family,” the senator said. “My mother would want me to do this.” Klobuchar said her role is to help the foundation bring private partners to the effort and help the Fish and Wildlife Service however she can to persuade public entities to get involved. Minnesota, she said, has a monarch festival each year.


Collin O’Mara, president of the National Wildlife Federation, said momentum is building. Charlotte and St. Louis, he said, are two cities that declared themselves as sanctuaries for monarchs.


O’Mara said homeowners can do the same. The federation makes milkweed seeds available to people who want to plant them in gardens. O’Mara said there are milkweed plants at his home, and at his mother’s home, and they often see monarch butterflies climbing on them.


But if the new effort generates widespread interest, the federation might find it hard to keep up with demand. Not enough seeds are available, and not just any seed can survive anywhere. Milkweed seeds grow everywhere in the United States, but they grow better when adapted to local conditions, he said.


“I have a 3-year-old whose eyes pop wide open” when she sees monarchs crawling on  leaves in their back yard, O’Mara said. “This is one of those keystone species. These are things that don’t make headlines, but they are indicators that something bigger is happening.”



The Interview’ Film You Haven’t Heard Of But Should

 

Thus another film highlighting these ideas will hardly  resonate among those who adhere to a material interpretation however wrong.  They need to impose and intimidate and enforce a form of mental slavery to sustain their vampire life way.


In the end all those material dreams of empire must fall away and will.  This is in a tradition of continuous resistance until something gives and the avalanche washes out the dams of state resistance.

 

The Interview’ Film You Haven’t Heard Of, But Should


http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1238129-the-interview-film-you-havent-heard-of-but-should/

There’s a recent film produced stateside by an American director that has angered a communist nation to the nth degree across the seas.
It underscores all the reasons to have freedom of speech, freedom of press, and is at the core of all the discussions you have heard across the web and social media.

It is a part of the reason why many emails and computers, here in the United States have been hacked and why corporations have been pressured to distance themselves from the subject matter.


The interesting thing is, you actually might not know the name of the film.


“Free China: The Courage to Believe” is a documentary film about Chinese-American Charles Lee and a biochemist from Peking University Jennifer Zeng who endured torture and imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Regime.

 
Why were they tortured and imprisoned?


Well, while it might sound surprising, these two individuals were tortured, imprisoned, and almost killed simply for their belief.


This is the plight of the Falun Gong. Three simple words—truth, compassion, and tolerance—is what they stand for, what they try to adhere to, but inside China it is illegal to practice this belief and meditation.


If you walk through the conceivable reasons why, it doesn’t make any logical sense, but genocide never makes any logical sense, nor should it.


‘Free China’ has won over a dozen international film awards and has been screened over 1,000 times all across the world. Now the film is available for digital rental and purchase, through Yekra (visit HelpFreeChina.com to rent or buy the film).


Film director, Michael Perlman, and producer, Kean Wong, teamed up after meeting, and quickly set on a course for telling this much needed tale of courage. They both firmly believe that if the Chinese regime opens to Falun Gong, it will have great positive impact on Chinese society.


“I think that is why the Falun Gong issue is so critical, because if truth, compassion, tolerance and other beautiful spiritual practices out there are allowed to spread, then the morality of the entire nation can revive itself,” said Wong.



“If individuals and families are given the freedom to live a moral life so that the society they are a part of is one that embraces and cherishes moral values, that is what China needs,” he added.


Perlman says he directed the film with the hope that it could bring about change in China, and actually strengthen a nation.


“History is on the side of freedom around the world,” said Perlman.


“And it’s something that all of us together, both in the United States, and around the world, individually and collectively, can work and make it happen.”


If you have ever wondered what Falun Gong is, if you have ever wondered why peaceful smiling Chinese with yellow t-shirts hold up signs to garner attention, if you have ever wondered why people are willing to stake their lives for their belief, then watch this film.


Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times.

Tonal Languages Require Humidity

  IMAGE
This is an unexpected thought.  it may even stand up and work.  For myself i find the whole enterprise disconcerting but that is because i have no experience as yet learning how to pronounce Chinese. 


I do find folks are learning to use both here in Vancouver with ample dexterity so it does not make any of it impossible.  I am more concerned about the limitation if it is real on robots as that is becoming necessary.

At least wee now understand the issue and what affects it.

Tonal languages require humidity
Posted: 26 Jan 2015 11:10 AM PST


IMAGE: Languages in humid regions of the Earth (light circles) are more often tonal languages (red) than in dry regions. view more 
 
Credit: MPI f. Psycholinguistics/ Roberts

Public Release:  23-Jan-2015 

                   Tonal languages require humidity
 
               
Languages with a wide range of tone pitches have primarily developed in regions with high levels of humidity   Max-Planck-Gesellschaft  
 http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.ca/2015/01/tonal-languages-require-humidity.html
 This news release is available in German
 
The weather impacts not only upon our mood but also our voice. An international research team including scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Psycholinguistics, Evolutionary Anthropology and Mathematics in the Sciences has analysed the influence of humidity on the evolution of languages. Their study has revealed that languages with a wide range of tone pitches are more prevalent in regions with high humidity levels. In contrast, languages with simpler tone pitches are mainly found in drier regions. This is explained by the fact that the vocal folds require a humid environment to produce the right tone.

The tone pitch is a key element of communication in all languages, but more so in some than others. German or English, for example, still remain comprehensible even if all words are intonated evenly by a robot. In Mandarin Chinese, however, the pitch tone can completely change the meaning of a word. "Ma" with a level pitch means "mother," while "ma" with a falling then rising pitch would mean "horse". "Only those who hit the tone pitch correctly can express themselves in tonal languages," explains Seán G. Roberts, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. 


However, the climate can become a problem for the speakers of tonal languages, as the vocal folds in the larynx - commonly known as the voice box - suffer as a result. Even a temporary increase in humidity impacts upon the vocal folds: The humidity keeps the mucous membranes moist and makes them more elastic. It also changes the ion balance within the mucous membranes of the vocal folds. With good humidity, the vocal folds can oscillate sufficiently and produce the right tone. 


The scientists therefore suspect that tonal languages are less common in dry regions as the wide range of tonal pitches is difficult to produce under these conditions and are more likely to result in misunderstanding. "Modern databases enable us to analyse the properties of thousands of languages. But this also brings problems because languages can also inherit their complex pitches from another language," says Damián E. Blasi, who conducts research at the Max Planck Institutes for Mathematics in the Sciences and for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. In their study, the scientists have now shown that these effects can be disentangled from the effects of climate. 


The researchers investigated the correlation between humidity and the significance of tone pitch in over 3,750 languages from different linguistic families. This indicates that tonal languages are significantly rarer in dry regions. In relatively dry Central Europe, no tonal languages have developed like those found in the Tropics, Subtropical Asia and Central Africa.


Climate apparently shapes the role of pitch tone in a language and therefore how information is exchanged. Even small effects may be amplified over the generations to produce a global pattern. The climate thus determines the development of languages. "If the UK had been a humid jungle, English may also have developed into a tonal language," explains Roberts. 


###
Original publication Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: Connecting the physiological and geographic dots

Caleb Everett,Damián E. Blasi, and Seán G. Roberts

PNAS, published online before print January 20, 2015, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1417413112 

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Chinese Civilisation Older Than Thought

Chinese Civilisation Older Than Thought




The key date for the global bronze Age is 2400 BC.  This is when the Great pyramid appears to have been built using access to high quality copper from Lake Superior.  This was sufficient to underwrite a global metal working sea connected civilization we know as the Atlantean.


Yet the size and scope screams for the existence of a long prehistory that did not much depend on a metal trade and its natural currency the metal ingot.  This prehistory was land based village agriculture without the threat of mobile cavalry..


That expansion took several thousands of years and took advantage of woodland soils.  This includes Western China and all the Middle East and the Sahara.  The loss of tree cover slowly eroded the hydraulic cycle and the presence of domesticated browsers prevented recovery.  The end result was abandonment and movement into lands were irrigation was possible.

Because we are looking, we are picking up evidence of this huge earlier population and their tools.


This also readfily explains why First atlantean Chinese pyramid building is so far west.  That was were the agriculture was.



Chinese Civilisation Older Than Thought

Posted By: Adam Steedman ThakePosted date: January 07, 2015in: Breaking News

http://www.newhistorian.com/chinese-civilisation-older-thought/2638/

New findings have shown that Chinese civilisation may have much older roots than thought.
A study published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ has found evidence of a process of rapid desertification in China, 6,500 years ago. Lush areas transformed into arid desert, driving early Chinese people of the Hongshan culture into hitherto unpopulated areas.

The Hongshan culture predates the Xia Dynasty, the first Chinese dynasty described in chronicles, by 2,400 years. As the Hongshan existed so early, it could reveal that the root of Chinese civilisation is thousands of years older than previously thought.

The importance of Hongshan culture to Chinese history, however, has been hotly debated. 

Traditionally, Chinese culture is seen as originating in the middle reaches of the Yellow River; Hongshan is often dismissed as a remote culture far from the cradle of Chinese civilisation. Evidence has shown that Hongshan culture was significantly advanced, however.

Excavations throughout northern China have revealed artefacts from the Hongshan culture. The Hongshan displayed some of the earliest known examples of jade working and elaborate pieces of jewellery have been found. The first dragon-like carving in China may have been Hongshan.

“We seem to see evidence that Hongshan was far more important to early Chinese culture than it’s currently given credit for,” said study co-author Louis Scuderi, from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. “Archaeologists are having a hard time figuring out what the importance of Hongshan culture was.”

In order to discover more about Hongshan culture, researchers investigated the Hunshandake Sandy Lakes in Inner Mongolia, an area 185 miles (300 kilometres) away from the first Hongshan discoveries. The team found significant quantities of Hongshan pottery and stone items in Hunshandake, indicating that Hongshan culture had been much more widespread than previously thought. 

The team also analysed environmental changes over the last 10,000 years. Patterns of dunes and depressions between dunes suggested that the Hunshandake area was once covered with rivers and lakes. Lake sediments indicated that relatively deep water existed in Hunshandake between 5,000 and 9,000 years ago. Pollen trapped in those sediments showed that birch, spruce, fir, pine and oak trees were all common at the time. It appears that the humid conditions in the Hunshandake would have created an ideal environment for Hongshan peoples to exist.

“We’re amazed by how much water there was back then,” Scuderi added. “There were very, very large lakes, and grasslands and forests. And based on all the artifacts we’ve found out there, there was clearly a very large population along the lake shores.”

It was also revealed that the area became much drier around 4,200 years ago. The researchers calculated that 7,770 square miles (20,000 square kilometres) were transformed into desert; Hunshundake remains desert to this day.

This process of desertification would likely have had devastating consequences for the Hongshan community in the area. It is possible that the arid climate in the north of China caused a large-scale migration southwards. Hongshan culture, therefore, may have had a formative role in the rise of Chinese civilisation. 

If this is the case, the team’s research could mean that China has much older roots than previously thought. As such, we may need to rethink the very beginnings of Chinese civilisation, and rewrite Chinese history.

Flying Manta Ray Shaped Cryptid



This is not the first such story and we actually have seen several.  What has been lacking is any form of a credible explanation.  At the same time on a deeper level we do not have a good explanation for the manta ray itself.


Yet we now know that ordered planar Dark Matter can be used to manipulate gravity.  We are actually doing it.  All of a sudden the geometry of the manta ray makes real sense as it provides a kite like layer of contained dark matter that can be charged in order to provide a change in gravitational effect.

By charging up a manta ray can leave water and use its control of gravity to essentially swim through the air in the same way as it swims in the sea.  Why it may do this is not known, but  observation shows us that it can and will.  I love it when we go from dismissing a story as impossible to finding out that it can be possible with facts superior to any other explanation for the mere existence of the creature in the first place.


.
Flying Ray-Shaped Cryptid - Richmond, Indiana

Monday, February 09, 2015

http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2015/02/flying-ray-shaped-cryptid-richmond.html

Once again, I have received an eyewitness sighting report of a flying ray-shaped cryptid. Are these flesh and blood creatures...or some type of bio-engineered UFO? This is still a very bizarre phenomenon:


This is very hard for me to publicly write about. It was so, so strange and I have only told a few people because they just think you are crazy - when you tell them you 'saw a sting ray fly over the street from one bunch of trees to another.' I mean we are in Indiana – nowhere near the ocean for one thing but even if we lived by the ocean, why would a sting ray fly into trees?


Anyway, this is what I saw on my way to work one early fall morning around 6:30am – still not all the way light out but light enough, plus there are street lights up and down the way I drive to work. I am coming up to a 4 way stop, no cars around so I go. I am looking downhill kind of, following the street and seeing no cars. I kind of glance up a bit and see this huge sting ray looking thing fly from one side of the street, kind of like out of a group of trees and going over the street into another group of tree tops! I was astonished is the only word I can think of to described it – never had much of a reason to use that word but that sums it up! I was like OMG! OMG! Well I started praying Lord what was that? It was so weird. I felt like I wanted to cry. I was kind of afraid, many emotions ran through me after the initial astonishment. I kept asking myself did I really see what I just saw, over and over all the way to work. I kept thinking 'ok – did that just happen?!?!'

Well for days I could not stop thinking about it so I told a couple of people and they don’t believe me - I know. Well I started to look at pictures on the internet to see what I might compare it to and I come across this huge Manta Ray picture andunderneath it says “Devil Ray!’ SO then I look up on the internet some things about demonic creatures slash sting rays and I come up with this whole bunch of stuff about water spirits so that is what I really think it was. For one brief moment I saw a demonic water spirit that has the form of a sting ray. Our town has been known to give people the feeling of a demonic hold or something and now I believe it. This town has all kinds of problems and if you look up these water spirits you can see what they bring. Anyway – that’s what I saw and now I am seeing you have others that have seen the same thing. This makes me so happy that I am not CRAZY! Have you seen the strange creature in the tsunami video? I think that is the same thing! Thank you for posting these sightings. TS


I contacted the witness and received more information:


The location was in Richmond, IN between S 16th & E Streets and S 12th & E Streets overhead. I was driving west on E Street.

It was grayish (shark-like) gray on top and whiter on the bottom, but it looked just like a giant sting ray gliding over the street. We lived in Florida for years and there are a lot of petting places that have star fish, sharks, turtles and sting rays so I have seen these things up close. It is hard to explain but you know how the edges of a sting ray like wave as it glides through water, well the edges of it were doing the same thing but through the air. I barely saw the long tail thing from the back as I was watching the edges of it wave and glide.

There is a river (East Fork - Whitewater River) – if you continue down E street west you would run in to it. Which would be S 1st Street. I go over the bridge to my work

NOTE: The area of the sighting is a mix of residential & commercial properties on a two-lane road. The witness' description mirrored that of an actual Manta Ray...with very little deviation. It's unusual for one of these cryptids to be seen in populated location...but I truly feel the witness observed what she described. Lon