Tag: france

Hip bone found in cave in France may represent a previously unknown lineage of Homo sapiens

A bone found in a cave by an international team of anthropologists in France may represent a previously unknown lineage of Homo sapiens. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The Grotte du Renne is a cave in France; it has been the focus of archaeological research for several decades. Such research has shown that there are layers of historical relevance in the cave, with deeper layers representing the time period when the cave was occupied by Neanderthals and higher layers representing the time period when anatomically modern humans (AMHs) occupied the cave.

In between those layers is another that represents the time period when the two hominids may have co-existed. Stone tools found in the layer have been ascribed to an early Châtelperronian techno-cultural complex, though scholars have not been able to agree on whether they were made by Neanderthals, AMH or both. In this new effort, the research team took a new look at a bone that was excavated from the cave decades ago—a hip bone called an ilium.

The researchers found that the bone was from a newborn baby. They also believed that it was not Neanderthal. By comparing it with other Neanderthal bones and against 32 modern baby bones, they found that it did not conform to either species. Its shape was different from Neanderthal and slightly different from AMH. They noted that the odd shape fell outside the bounds of what would be considered normal variation in humans. That, they concluded, suggests the bone represents a previously unknown lineage of Homo sapiens with a morphology that is slightly different from AMH.

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Special Delivery: Severed Finger “From Living Human” Sent by Mail to French President Emmanuel Macron’s Home

France is burning under President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, in a disturbing turn, a severed human finger was sent to the official presidential home. The package did not contain any correspondence, only the finger, which investigators determined came from “a living victim” who, according to police sources, has been identified.

The Evening Standard reports:

The macabre parcel containing the amputated digit arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.

“The finger was initially put in a fridge where the police put their snacks,” said a source at the official presidential home. “This was to make sure it was preserved and could be analysed as quickly as possible.”

Tests later identified the finger as belonging to a “living human being,” who was contacted and “given full medical support,” said the source.

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Police will be allowed to spy on suspects by remotely activating their phones’ camera, microphone and GPS under new French laws dubbed a ‘snoopers’ charter’

French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late Wednesday.

Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers’ charter, though Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only ‘dozens of cases a year’.

Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years’ jail.

Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organised crime.

The provisions ‘raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,’ digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May statement.

It cited the ‘right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence’ and ‘the right to come and go freely’, calling the proposal part of a ‘slide into heavy-handed security’.

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French government could cut off social media during unrest, says Macron

Emmanuel Macron has said the French government should consider controlling and cutting off social media networks “when things get out of hand” in the country.

The president’s comments came as ministers blamed young people using platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok for organising and encouraging rioting and violence after the shooting last week of a teenager during a police traffic stop in a Paris suburb.

“We need to think about how young people use social networks … when things get out of hand, we may have to regulate them or cut them off.

“Above all, we shouldn’t do this in the heat of the moment and I’m pleased we didn’t have to,” Macron told a meeting of more than 200 mayors whose municipalities were hit by the violence.

“I think it’s a real debate that we need to have in the cold light of day,” Macron told the mayors in a video obtained by BFM television.

Critics said it would put France alongside authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in considering such measures.

Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist party, tweeted: “The country of the rights of man and citizens cannot align itself with those great democracies of China, Russia and Iran.”

Olivier Marleix, from the centre-right Les Républicains, added: “Cut social media? Like China, Iran, North Korea? Even if it’s a provocation to distract attention, it’s in very bad taste.”

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It Begins: France to Shut Down Internet in “Certain” Neighborhoods to Prevent Use of Social Media to Organize Violence

The Minister of the Interior in France announced on Sunday the country will restrict internet access in “certain” neighborhoods as the violence continues across the country.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the restrictions are meant to prevent the use of social media and other platforms to organize violent activities.

Via Midnight Rider and Zoomer Waffen.

France is planning a shutdown of the nation’s internet in an attempt to stop the world from seeing what invaders are doing to the nation.

In just the span of a few days, France has devolved into a middle eastern nation engulfed in war and its despot limiting news from reaching the outside world.

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Could these marks on a cave wall be oldest-known Neanderthal “finger paintings”?

Archaeologists have concluded that a series of engravings discovered on a cave wall in France were made by Neanderthals using their fingers, some 57,000 years ago. They could be the oldest such marks yet found and further evidence that Neanderthals’ behavior and activities were far more complex and diverse than previously believed, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE.

As Kiona Smith previously reported for Ars, evidence that Neanderthals could think symbolically, create art, and plan a project has been piling up for the last several years. For instance, about 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals in France spun plant fibers into thread. In Central Italy, between 40,000 and 55,000 years ago, Neanderthals used birch tar to hold their hafted stone tools in place, which required a lot of planning and complex preparation. In 2016, we reported on archaeologists’ announcement that a Neanderthal group wrested hundreds of stalagmites from the floor of a cave inside Bruniquel Cave in Southern France to build elaborate circular structures, their work illuminated only by firelight.

Archaeologists have also found several pieces of bone and rock from the Middle Paleolithic—the time when Neanderthals had most of Europe to themselves—carved with geometric patterns like cross-hatches, zigzags, parallel lines, and circles. That might mean that the ability to use symbols didn’t originate with modern humans.

For instance, in 2018, archaeologists claimed that uneven lines observed in the soft, chalky outer layer of a small, thin flint flake were a deliberate marking. It was found in Kiik-Koba Cave, which overlooks the Zuya River in the Crimean Mountains. The engraved flake came from a layer between 35,486 and 37,026 years old. Archaeologists found the skeleton of a Neanderthal infant in the same layer, leaving no doubt about who lived at Kiik-Koba when the stone tools were made and used.

In 2021, archaeologists announced they’d found a geometric design akin to “offset chevrons” carved into the second phalanx, or toe bone, of a giant deer in a cave now called Einhornhohle in the Harz Mountains of Northern Germany. The carver was almost certainly a Neanderthal, based on the bone’s radiocarbon-dated age, because no one but Neanderthals lived in Europe until around 45,000 years ago.

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Great Reset: Macron Suggests International Taxation System to Subsidise Green Agenda

French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested the imposition of a global taxation system in order to subsidise the green agenda to mitigate climate change.

Speaking at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris on Friday, Mr Macron argued that actions from individual governments would be insufficient to deal with the alleged armageddon set to descend upon the world and therefore a new international taxation framework should be established.

“I’m in favour of an international taxation to finance efforts that we have to make to fight poverty and in terms of climate [action],” the French president said in comments reported by POLITICO.

“It doesn’t work when you do it alone, the [financial] flows go elsewhere,” Macron added, while shutting down calls for France to implement a new wealth tax to fund the green agenda.

“France already has in place two types of taxes that have been suggested: one on plane tickets, another on financial transactions,” he said adding that he was going to “make others follow us and mobilize” around these issues.

“There has been a great deal of discussion on the idea of international taxation, over and above what countries and institutions are doing. Whether it’s on financial transactions, maritime transport or certain other models, it will only work if it’s truly international, and so it presupposes an agreement, as we’ve been able to do on international taxation,” he said.

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39 Prehistoric Megaliths At ‘The French Stonehenge’ Destroyed by Monumental Error

DIY chain Mr. Bricolage is under fire for ‘accidentally’ destroying a vital part of the deeply ancient historical heritage of Brittany – ‘The French Stonehenge’. The unfortunate destruction of thirty-nine ancient standing stones at the renowned Neolithic site of Carnac in north-west France has caused widespread dismay.

The incredibly significant archaeological site in Brittany, encompasses thousands of standing stones spread across 27 communes, making it one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe . These ” menhirs,” or single standing stones, constitute one of the largest collections of their kind in the world, famously depicted as the colossal rocks carried by Obelix in the beloved French comic series “Asterix & Obelix”, reports The Local .

Believed to have been erected during the Neolithic period, some of these stones date back thousands of years, originating as early as 4,000 BC. However, the recent construction of a new DIY store on the outskirts of the heritage area has been detrimental to its preservation, to say the least. With so many stones, it seems it has proven difficult to keep account of them all.

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Macron Gives ‘Le Doigt’ To Free Speech: Protesters To Be Prosecuted For Flipping-Off French President

Five years ago, I wrote a column criticizing Democratic and Republican members of Congress who joined the media in gushing over an address from French President Emmanuel Macron as he called for European style censorship. Free speech has been in a virtual free fall in France for decades and Macron is a major voice in that movement.

This week, the French added another outrage to Macron’s legacy by promising to prosecute three citizens who protested the President by flipping him off at an event. The use of “Le Doigt” could now land them in “La Prison.”

The three will be prosecuted under France’s abusive criminal code that allows for the arrest of those who engage in speech that “affect the personal dignity or the respect owed to a public official.” It is a breathtaking denial of political speech and invites selective prosecution.

If convicted, they could face a fine of 15,000 euros and potentially up to one year in prison, according to La Chaîne Info. 

Macron has hit a record low in polling, but his government will now enforce respect for him through threats of incarceration.

France has been a leader in the rollback on free speech in the West with ever widening laws curtailing free speech. These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to “inciting” or “intimidating” others based on race or religion. For example, fashion designer John Galliano has been found guilty in a French court on charges of making anti-Semitic comments against at least three people in a Paris bar. At his sentencing, Judge Anne Marie Sauteraud read out a list of the bad words used by Galliano to Geraldine Bloch and Philippe Virgitti, including using ‘dirty whore” in criticism.

In another case, the father of French conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was fined because he had called people from the Roma minority “smelly.” A French mother was prosecuted because her son went to school with a shirt reading “I am a bomb.”

A French teenager was charged for criticizing Islam as a “religion of hate.”

Yet, our leaders (and many in the media) were ecstatic when Macron came to the Congress and called for a joint war against “fake news,” declaring, “Democracy is about true choices and rational decisions. The corruption of information is an attempt to corrode the very spirit of our democracies.”

Nothing says Democracy like jailing those who do not show you respect.

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Scientists Redirect Lightning Strikes Using a Weather-controlling Super Laser

Scientists in France have created a way to divert lightning strikes using a weather-controlling super laser.

Researchers with the Polytechnic Institute of Paris guided the strikes from thunderclouds to places where they don’t cause damage. The team says the new technique could save power stations, airports, launchpads, and other buildings from disaster.

The system creates a virtual lightning rod, metal conductors that intercept flashes and guide their currents into the ground.

“The findings extend the current understanding of laser physics in the atmosphere and may aid in the development of novel lightning protection strategies,” says corresponding author Dr. Aurelien Houard, according to a statement from SWNS.

The five-ton device is about the size of a large car and fires up to a thousand pulses per second. The scientists installed it near a telecommunications tower in the Swiss Alps – which is struck by lightning around 100 times a year.

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