Earliest known drawing found on rock in South African cave
Researchers believe the pattern on the fragment of rock is 73,000 years old, but are perplexed as to what it might represent
‘…It lacks the grace of Da Vinci and has none of the warmth of Rubens, but the criss-crossed pattern on the chunk of rock is remarkable all the same. According to researchers who unearthed the piece, it is the earliest known drawing in the world.
Archaeologists found the marked stone fragment as they sifted through spear points and other material excavated at Blombos cave in South Africa. It has taken seven years of tests to conclude that a human made the lines with an ochre crayon 73,000 years ago.
The simple red marks adorn a flake the size of two thumbnails which appears to have broken off a grindstone cobble used to turn lumps of ochre into paint powder. The lines end so abruptly at the fragment’s edges that researchers believe the cross-hatches were originally part of a larger design drawn on the cobble.
“This is first known drawing in human history,” said Francesco d’Errico, a researcher on the team at the University of Bordeaux. “What does it mean? I don’t know. What I do know is that what can look very abstract to us could mean something to the people in the traditional society who produced it.”…’
How Viktor Orban Bends Hungarian Society to His Will (March 27, 2018)
‘…Even school textbooks.
On Page 155 of the latest eighth-grade history textbook, students are told that Mr. Orban thinks refugees are a threat to Hungary — and then encouraged to believe he is right. “It can be problematic,” the book concludes, “for different cultures to coexist.”
It is a testament to the scope of Mr. Orban’s program for remaking Hungary that part of the far-right leader’s message is now woven into the school curriculum…’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/world/europe/viktor-orban-hungary.html
The refugee Dalai Lama who escaped to India from Chinese troops says refugees in Europe should go home (eventually)
– this is actually consistent with what he and his movement has said for a long time. But do not expect any kind of advocacy of multiculturalism or universalist humanist principled from him. I wonder if he is even aware how this statement will be interpreted by Euro-Nazis who regularly threaten and attack refugees in Europe?
/jd
‘…The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Wednesday that “Europe belongs to the Europeans” and that refugees should return to their native countries to rebuild them.
Speaking at a conference in Sweden’s third-largest city of Malmo, home to a large immigrant population, the Dalai Lama — who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 — said Europe was “morally responsible” for helping “a refugee really facing danger against their life”.
“Receive them, help them, educate them… but ultimately they should develop their own country,” said the 83-year-old Tibetan who fled the capital Lhasa in fear of his life after China poured troops into the region to crush an uprising.
“I think Europe belongs to the Europeans,” he said, adding they should make clear to refugees that “they ultimately should rebuild their own country”…’
https://www.france24.com/en/20180912-dalai-lama-says-europe-belongs-europeans
Trump’s National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to Speak Along Side Far-Right Parties Linked to Current Neo-Nazi Rallies In Germany
‘…While the [USA] Centrist and DNC aligned media has by and large pronounced the various neo-Nazi and white nationalist factions within the Alt-Right to be dead in the water, at the same time, in just the past month a member of DHS, a writer at the Daily Caller, and a Trump speech writer were all fired for their connections to white nationalists and the Alt-Right…’
The Big Hole in Germany’s Nazi Reckoning? Its Colonial History
‘…Running from 1884 to 1918, that colonial history was relatively short, compared with that of other European countries, but still scarring. German colonizers killed tens of thousands during their reign over all or part of modern-day Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Namibia.
Street signs and other memorials honoring German colonizers still remain scattered throughout the country. Only a smattering of colonial history is taught in German schools. The government has not apologized for the nation’s colonial crimes, and it only recently started referring to the killings as genocide.
[….] Berlin officials agreed a couple of months ago to rename Petersallee and two other streets honoring German colonizers, much to the delight of activists who have spent years lobbying for the changes. The streets will be named after African resistance fighters…’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/world/europe/germany-colonial-history-africa-nazi.html
Are your memes Article 13 compliant?
Never forget that he was a born-again christian conservative Dem when he ran in 1976 – it was right wing media that morphed him into a liberal in the propagandized American mind.
/jd
Jimmy Carter warns Democrats: Don’t veer too far left, scare off moderates
‘…”Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Carter said Tuesday during his annual report at his post-presidential center and library in Atlanta, where he offered caution about the political consequences should Democrats “move to a very liberal program, like universal health care.”
That’s delicate — and, Carter acknowledged, even contradictory — advice coming from the 93-year-old former president, and it underscores the complicated political calculations for Democrats as they prepare for the November midterms and look ahead to the 2020 presidential election.
“Rosie and I voted for Bernie Sanders in the past,” Carter noted…’
Taking away American passports and citizenship is a precursor to genocide.
‘…It’s what happened to Jews in Germany in 1938 when their passports were declared invalid. That is what is beginning to happen here, now, to Hispanic citizens along the U.S.-Mexico border. [….]
Hispanic U.S. citizens, some of whom were in the U.S. military, are not being allowed to renew their passports. This is reportedly happening to “hundreds, even thousands” of Latinos, according to a report in the Washington Post. They’re getting letters from the State Department saying it does not believe they are citizens. The government claims their citizenships are fraudulent. “I’ve had probably 20 people who have been sent to the detention center—U.S. citizens,” Jaime Diez, an attorney in Brownsville, told The Washington Post.
The Washington Post also reports on ICE officials coming to citizens’ homes and taking their passports away. This is an escalation from a few months ago, when Americans were detained by ICE officials just for speaking Spanish to one another…’
America doesn’t know how to escalate itself – and then thinks the solution is more guns and more cops, which then leads to more guns and more cops…
/jd
‘…According to the ACLU, schools nationally reported 27,000 sworn law enforcement officers, but only 23,000 social workers…’
https://gritpost.com/schools-guards-social-workers/
Oh FFS #Murica, WTF
/jd
‘North Carolina is bracing for the climate change-supercharged storm six years after passing legislation prohibiting state and local agencies from making planning decisions based on the latest climate science about sea level rise. Now the state is facing the threat of a life-threatening storm surge, which could cause billions of dollars in damage.’
‘The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today ruled that the UK’s mass interception programmes have breached the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Court found that the UK’s mass surveillance programmes, revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, did ‘not meet the “quality of law” requirement’ and were ‘incapable of keeping the “interference” to what is “necessary in a democratic society”’…’