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Judi Lynn

Judi Lynn's Journal
Judi Lynn's Journal
October 31, 2018

This 4,500-Year-Old Ramp Contraption May Have Been Used to Build Egypt's Great Pyramid


By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | October 31, 2018 10:40am ET
 

- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzEwMi81ODcvb3JpZ2luYWwvaGF0bnViLXN0b25lLW1vdmluZy1zeXN0ZW0uanBn

This 4,500-year-old system used to pull alabaster stones up a steep slope was discovered at Hatnub, an ancient quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Two staircases with numerous postholes are located next to this ramp. An alabaster block would have been placed on a sled, which was tied by ropes to the wooden poles.

Credit: Yannis Gourdon/Ifao

Archaeologists have long wondered exactly how the ancient Egyptians constructed the world's biggest pyramid, the Great Pyramid. Now, they may have discovered the system used to haul massive stone blocks into place some 4,500 years ago.

They discovered the remains of this system at the site of Hatnub, an ancient quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The contraption would have been used to transport heavy alabaster stones up a steep ramp, according to the archaeologists working at the site, from the Institut français d'archéologie orientale (French Institute for Oriental Archaeology)in Cairo and from the University of Liverpool in England. And it was possibly how Egyptians built the Great Pyramid, in the name of the pharaoh Khufu. [In Photos: Inside Egypt's Great Pyramids]

"Thissystem is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes," Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, told Live Science. "Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more."

The ropes attached to the sled acted as a "force multiplier," making it easier to pull the sled up the ramp, said Roland Enmarch, the other co-director of the Hatnub mission.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/63978-great-pyramid-ramp-discovered.html
October 29, 2018

Thousands in Brazil protest order to remove 'propaganda'


Marcelo Silva De Sousa and Mauricio Savarese, Associated Press
Updated 7:51 pm CDT, Friday, October 26, 2018



Photo: Silvia Izquierdo, AP
  
IMAGE 1 OF 4
University students hold signs with message that read in Portuguese: "Not Him" and "My faith doesn't go with torture" during a protest of an electoral court order for universities to remove banners containing 'negative propaganda' against presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, in front of the Regional Electoral Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. The Brazilian Bar Association is criticizing the order, releasing a statement that reads the court's decision was an attempt to limit the freedom of expression of students and professors.


University students hold signs with message that read in Portuguese: "Not Him" and "My faith doesn't go with torture" during a protest of an electoral court order for universities to remove banners containing 'negative propaganda' against presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, in front of the Regional Electoral Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. The Brazilian Bar Association is criticizing the order, releasing a statement that reads the court's decision was an attempt to limit the freedom of expression of students and professors. Photo: Silvia Izquierdo, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Photo: Silvia Izquierdo, AP
IMAGE 1 OF 4
University students hold signs with message that read in Portuguese: "Not Him" and "My faith doesn't go with torture" during a protest of an electoral court order for universities to remove banners containing 'negative propaganda' against presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, in front of the Regional Electoral Tribunal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. The Brazilian Bar Association is criticizing the order, releasing a statement that reads the court's decision was an attempt to limit the freedom of expression of students and professors. less

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Two days before Brazil picks its next president, thousands gathered in front of Rio de Janeiro's electoral court on Friday to protest its ruling forcing universities to remove banners containing allegedly illegal electoral propaganda.

Electoral courts in six other states made similar moves, which led several top Brazilian judges to criticize the decisions as a blow to freedom of speech.

Witnesses say most of the material seized by authorities was either critical of front-runner Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters — although few mentioned the far-right candidate by name — or suggested he was a fascist. The former army captain denies he is a radical, but does praise Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Students and professors accused the Rio court of exercising censorship and working in favor of Bolsonaro, who leads all polls before Sunday's runoff.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Brazil-association-criticizes-order-to-remove-13339784.php


October 26, 2018

There's a Strange Cloud on Mars Right Now, and It's Just Hanging Around


By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer | October 25, 2018 03:00pm ET

- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA4MC8yNzEvb3JpZ2luYWwvbWFycy0xMDEwMTguanBn

An instrument aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured this image of a strange cloud on the Red Planet on Oct. 10, 2018.
Credit: ESA/GCP/UPV/EHU Bilbao, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO


For more than a month now, a European orbiter circling Mars has been watching a long, plume-like cloud on the Red Planet.

The cloud has remained in place over a mountain called Arsia Mons near the Martian equator since Sept. 13, according to a statement released by the European Space Agency (ESA). But that location is just a coincidence, the agency adds. No volcanic process is producing the cloud — the volcano hasn't been active in about 50 million years, scientists believe.

The same spacecraft, called Mars Express, and its predecessors have spotted similar clouds on at least three previous occasions, and those structures formed around the same time in the Martian year. And that's not a coincidence, the ESA wrote.

The cloud is full of water ice, the agency continued, created by air flow along the side of the volcano. This means the feature is what scientists call an orographic or lee cloud. That also happens to mean that the cloud changes over the course of the day as atmospheric patterns on Mars change.

More:
https://www.space.com/42257-strange-mars-cloud-on-mars-photos.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20181026-sdc
October 26, 2018

Universities All Over Brazil Suffer Police Raids And Electoral Justice Operations

Source: Folha Brazil


Public interest organizations and the academy disavowed the raids, which happened in several states for the last three days
Oct.26.2018 2:07 AM

SÃO PAULO and RIO DE JANEIRO

Police officers and electoral justice officials unleashed a full-scale operation in public universities all over Brazil, which brought a reaction from the academic community and public interest organizations.

The measures, related for the most part to political advertising control, have been happening in higher education institutions in several states. Critics are calling them censorship attempts.

In Rio de Janeiro, the court mandated that UFF's (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State) Law School take out a flag that read "Law UFF - Antifascist." The flag was taken down on Tuesday (23th), without any warrant, but students later put it up again.

At Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro, a different institution), there was a warrant to take down banners honoring city councilwoman Marielle Franco (PSOL), murdered last March. There were other similar accounts at Unirio.

Read more: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2018/10/universities-all-over-brazil-suffer-police-raids-and-electoral-justice-operations.shtml

October 26, 2018

FROM THE FIELD: Enslaved Guatemalan indigenous women wait for reparations

25 October 2018

Fifteen Guatemalan women from the Q’eqchi indigenous group, who were enslaved and raped by the military during the Central American country’s 36-year-long civil conflict, are still waiting for hard-won reparations to materialize.


With the help of local women’s rights organizations, including UN Women and other UN partners, the women from Sepur Zarco in the east of Guatemala succeeded in securing the conviction of two former military officers on charges of crimes against humanity, back in 2016.

It was a groundbreaking legal decision; the first time anywhere in the world that a national court had prosecuted sexual slavery during conflict using national legislation and international criminal law.

The women were granted a total of 18 reparation measures, including education for the children of their community, access to land, a health-care clinic and other interventions which would help to confront what UN Women has described as “the abject poverty their community has endured across generations.”

More:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1024092

October 26, 2018

In tears over the injustice of corruption in Colombia, judge sends contractors to jail


by Adriaan Alsema October 21, 2018

A judge from the Caribbean island of San Andres became a bit of a national hero when he failed to hold back his tears about the injustice of corruption in Colombia.

Judge Jair Torres from San Andres jailed the four top officials for allegedly embezzling $40 million (COP120 billion) for which two former governors, Ronald Housni and Aury Guerrero, are already jailed.

“You don’t have the right to rob our people of their money. I am telling you this as an islander, not as a judge,” Torres told the accused officials with tears in his eyes.

When asked why he cried, the judge told newspaper El Tiempo that his heart broke when he heard about the amount of money that had been embezzled.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/in-tears-over-the-injustice-of-corruption-in-colombia-judge-sends-contractors-to-jail/
October 23, 2018

Dizzying Array of Stars Dazzles in New Hubble Photo


By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | October 23, 2018 07:06am ET

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https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA4MC8yMDkvb3JpZ2luYWwvcG90dzE4NDBhLmpwZw==

Wow. That's a lot of stars.

The uncountable multitudes of the globular cluster NGC 1898 shine in a newly released photo by the famous Hubble Space Telescope, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Over the years, Hubble has made many observations of NGC 1898, a structure that was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1834. NGC 1898 lies near the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way that's about 160,000 light-years from Earth. [The Hubble Space Telescope: A 25th Anniversary Photo Celebration]

"Today, we know that globular clusters are some of the oldest known objects in the universe and that they are relics of the first epochs of galaxy formation," ESA officials wrote today (Oct. 22) in a description of the image.

More:
https://www.space.com/42218-hubble-space-telescope-ngc-1898-photo.html?utm_source=notification
October 23, 2018

Peruvian archeologists discover pre-Columbian statues

23 OCT 2018



Archeologists in Peru have found 20 800-year-old wooden statues in the largest pre-Columbian site in the Americas, Culture Minister, Patricia Balbuena and researchers revealed on Monday.

The statues, all but one of which were in a good condition, were found in the Chan Chan archeological site: a city that was once the capital of the Chimu Kingdom and pre-dated the Inca Empire.

Located close to the north Peruvian modern city of Trujillo, Can Chan was comprised of 10 citadels, or walled palaces, in its six kilometer squared (2.3 square miles) center of a wider city that measured 20 square kilometers.


Each statue measures 70-centimeters (27.5 inches) in height and they were aligned in niches in the wall of a ceremonial corridor decorated with high mud reliefs in a thousand-year-old building.

More:
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/peruvian-archeologists-discover-pre-columbian-statues-doc-1a816o2


Would you like to see the Chan Chan archeological site in Peru? You need to see many images. Just one couldn't do justice:

https://tinyurl.com/ydgqudoy

OMG.

October 23, 2018

Peru president vetoes law that could have freed ex-leader Fujimori


BY LUIS JAIME CISNEROS (AFP) 5 HOURS AGO

Peru President Martin Vizcarra vetoed on Monday a law that would have spared disgraced former leader Alberto Fujimori from prison, confining criminals over 65 suffering from serious or chronic illnesses to house arrest.

The law, passed by a Congress dominated by Fujimori's former party, Popular Force, would have allowed the 80-year-old to avoid being sent back to prison once he leaves hospital, where he is being treated for heart problems.

Fujimori is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity and corruption. He was granted a presidential pardon -- by Vizcarra's predecessor -- on humanitarian grounds in December, but that was revoked by a court earlier this month.

Fujimori was 12 years into a sentence handed down for ordering two massacres by death squads in 1991 and 1992, leaving 25 people dead, when pardoned last year.

. . .

The bill was passed in Congress on October 11 thanks to the large majority enjoyed by the Popular Force, now led by Fujimori's daughter Keiko.

It was criticized by human rights groups, though, with Amnesty International saying it was a blow to "the families of victims of grave violations of human rights.

More:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/peru-president-vetoes-law-that-could-have-freed-ex-leader-fujimori/article/535215
October 22, 2018

Explorers Found Something Astonishing Hiding At The Bottom Of A Sinkhole In China





Deep in the misty valleys of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a gaping sinkhole leads the way to a vast "world-class" cave hall.

The giant cave hall was explored for just the second time by a China-UK joint expedition earlier this month. As reported by BBC News, the team lowered themselves into the newly discovered cave hall using a single 200-meter (656-foot) rope and began to explore the 6.7-million-cubic-meter (236-million-cubic-foot) cavern.

Footage from Chinese television (below) shows the surprisingly beautiful interior of the cave, complete with clear blue waters, collapsed rock, and other geological features.

"This giant cave hall was actually discovered by the Hong Kong expedition last year, so it was named Hong Kong Haiting Hall. This time we determined its volume and world-class status through three-dimensional scanning," Zhang Yuanhai, a researcher at the Institute of Karst Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, told the Chinese media outlet Science and Technology Daily.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/a-vast-sinkhole-in-china-has-revealed-an-awesome-discovery/

More info. on the newly discovered Chinese cave:

Watch: UK-China expedition discovers world-class cave hall





An incredible cave hall which could fit two Great Pyramids inside has been found at the bottom of a vast sinkhole in Guangxi in China.

The cave hall, discovered earlier this month, is estimated to be 236 million cubic feet (6.7 million cubic metres) in volume and has been described as a ‘world-class’ find by experts.

A team of Chinese and British explorers lowered themselves into the 650ft (200m) long Nongle sinkhole using just one rope.

HOW DO SINKHOLES FORM?
Sinkholes are a global problem. Sometimes sinkholes are a purely natural phenomenon, but they may also be associated with previous industrial activities, most commonly mining.

More:
https://www.thenewsto.com/2018/10/22/stunning-footage-shows-a-giant-cave-hall-vast-enough-to-fit-two-great-pyramids-inside/

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