Tag: unanswered questions

Scientists Make A Great Step Forward in the ‘Where After Africa?’ Question

A growing body of evidence indicates that our ancestors left Africa between approximately 70 to 60 thousand years ago. Yet, it wasn’t until around 45,000 years ago that they spread across Eurasia. The mystery of where these early humans resided in the intervening period has long puzzled scientists. By integrating genetic evidence with paleoecological models, researchers have pinpointed the Persian Plateau as a crucial hub during the initial phases of Eurasian colonization.

Exploring the Dawn of Populating the World

All present day non-African human populations are the result of subdivisions that took place after their ancestors left Africa at least 60,000 years ago.

“How long did it take for these separations to take place? Almost 20,000 years, during which they were all part of a single population. Where did they live for all this time? We don’t know, yet.”

This is a conversation that could have taken place one year ago. Now it is possible to give clearer answers to these questions thanks to the study recently published in  Nature Communications led by the researchers from the University of Padova, in collaboration with the University of Bologna (Department of Cultural Heritage), the Griffith University of Brisbane, the Max Planck Institute of Jena and the University of Turin.

The ancestors of all present-day Eurasians, Americans and Oceanians, moved Out of Africa between 70 and 60 thousand years ago. After reaching Eurasia these early settlers idled for some millennia as a homogeneous population, in a presumably localized area, before expanding their range across the whole continent and beyond.

This event set the basis for the genetic divergence between present day Europeans and East Asians and can be dated to around 45 thousand years ago. On the one hand, the dynamics that led to the broader colonization of Eurasia have been already reconstructed by some of the authors in a previous publication in 2022, and occurred through a series of chronologically, genetically and culturally distinct expansions.

On the other hand, the geographic area where the ancestors of all non Africans lived after the Out of Africa, and that acted as a “Hub” for the subsequent movements of Homo sapiens has been the matter of a long standing debate, with most of West Asia, North Africa, South Asia or even South East Asia having been listed as potentially suitable locations.

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Scientists Have Traced the Lost Journey of Stonehenge’s Mysterious Megaliths

Stonehenge hasn’t given up all its mysteries just yet, even though scientists are working to cut them away one by one. The latest scientific effort has been pointed towards identifying the origin of a pair of unidentified sarsen stones—numbers 26 and 160—that don’t neatly fall into past identification efforts.

The results may stretch our understanding of Stonehenge a bit—76 miles southeast, to be more precise.

In a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, researchers employed X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to analyze the chemical composition of 54 sarsen stone fragments culled from the 5,000-year-old site. This allowed the team to show that stones located at England’s Stonehenge have a more diverse provenance than previously believed.

Over the past few years, scientists have traced the origins of many of the remaining 52 stones at the site. These stones fall into a variety of differing categories, some grouped together and others standing solitary. The bluestones of the inner circle come from the Preseli Hills in Wales, and a variety of the sarsen stones (made of silcrete sandstone) were traced in 2020 to roughly 19 miles from Stonehenge. That site, known as West Woods and located in the southeast Marlborough Downs, was a key source of stone for Neolithic people—both because of the widely available supply and natural access points.

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Small Town in Maryland Suspends Entire Police Force and Residents Have No Idea Why

The leaders of the small town of Ridgely, Maryland recently suspended its entire police force and to make matters worse, the people who live there have absolutely no idea why this happened.

So much for transparency in government.

This comes at a time when concerns about crime are at an all-time high.

The Associated Press reported:

A small town suspended its entire police force. Residents want to know why

A small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore has suspended its entire police force pending the results of an investigation by state prosecutors, a largely unexplained decision that has left residents shocked, skeptical and on edge…

With the Ridgely Police Department temporarily defunct, other public safety agencies have agreed to fill the void. But residents of the historic town are concerned about response times should they need assistance. And they remain entirely in the dark about why their police department was shut down.

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Airport executive shot in firefight with federal agents at his home in Arkansas

The executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, was shot Tuesday as federal agents arrived at his home to serve a search warrant, police said.

Bryan Malinowski, 53, the airport’s executive director, was injured during a firefight after 6 a.m. as Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents arrived.

He “was injured with gunshot wounds and treated on scene by paramedics before being transported to a local hospital,” Arkansas State Police said in a statement, adding that his condition was unknown as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

One ATF agent received what police called a “non-life-threatening gunshot wound” and was also taken to a hospital, police said.

Malinowski’s older brother, Matthew Malinowski, 55 of Pennsylvania, was at his bedside Wednesday and said he didn’t know whether his brother would survive.

“We don’t know if he’s going to make it in the next 24 hours,” Matthew Malinowski told NBC News by phone in his first public comments. “He was shot in the head.”

Matthew Malinowski said his brother was on life support and doctors haven’t performed surgery “because they don’t think he’s gonna make it.”

He said Bryan Malinowski collected guns and other weapons, as well as coins, lived in an upper-middle class suburb and earned $253,000 a year.

“He has so much to lose,” the brother said.

A public records search of Bryan Malinowski showed no arrests or other run-ins with police.

Shea De Bruyn, a neighbor, told NBC News’ affiliate KARK of Little Rock that she was woken by five or six loud bangs.

“My heart was racing and the dogs were barking.” she said. “I’m just really curious as to what was going on just a few houses down.”

Neighbors also told KARK that on Tuesday evening they saw guns and ammunition being loaded onto a trailer, while firefighters carried a circular saw, crowbars and other tools into the house.

Matthew Malinowski said his brother met with Arkansas senators last week in Washington for official airport business.

“That tells you the circles he’s running in,” the older brother said.

The state police Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the case.

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Mysterious Drones Swarmed Langley AFB For Weeks

Langley Air Force Base, located in one of the most strategic areas of the country, across the Chesapeake Bay from the sprawling Naval Station Norfolk and the open Atlantic, was at the epicenter of waves of mysterious drone incursions that occurred throughout December. The War Zone has been investigating these incidents and the response to them for months. We know that they were so troubling and persistent that they prompted bringing in advanced assets from around the U.S. government, including one of NASA’s WB-57F high-flying research planes. Now the U.S. Air Force has confirmed to us that they did indeed occur and provided details on the timeframe and diversity of drones involved.

This spate of bizarre drone incursions deeply underscores the still-growing threats that uncrewed aerial systems present on and off traditional battlefields, and to military and critical civilian infrastructure, issues The War Zone has been highlighting in great detail for years.

“The installation first observed UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] activities the evening of December 6 [2023] and experienced multiple incursions throughout the month of December. The number of UASs fluctuated and they ranged in size/configuration,” a spokesperson for Langley Air Force Base told The War Zone in a statement earlier today. “None of the incursions appeared to exhibit hostile intent but anything flying in our restricted airspace can pose a threat to flight safety. The FAA was made aware of the UAS incursions.”

“To protect operational security, we do not discuss impacts to operations,” the statement added. “We don’t discuss our specific force protection measures but retain the right to protect the installation. Langley continues to monitor our air space and work with local law enforcement and other federal agencies to ensure the safety of base personnel, facilities, and assets.”

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CIA Deployed Bomb Technicians To Capitol Area On Jan. 6, New Records Show

The Central Intelligence Agency deployed two bomb technicians to assist with a pipe bomb found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 and there were “several CIA dog teams on standby,” according to records obtained by Judicial Watch.

References to CIA involvement on Jan. 6 were included in text messages obtained from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) under a U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Judicial Watch filed in 2023 against the U.S. Department of Justice.

“These striking records show that CIA resources were deployed in reaction to the January 6 disturbance,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a March 13 news release.

Among the 88 pages of heavily redacted records obtained by Judicial Watch is a group of text messages labeled “Jan. 7 Intel Chain” that includes two references to CIA assets in use or on standby on Jan. 6, 2021.

“FC I has two CIA bomb techs with us—EEO [redacted] in route,” one text read. Just prior, what appeared to be a text from the ATF said, “Our assets: SRT in Capitol with Group I, Groups II and III assisting with pipe-bomb scene on New Jersey and D St. SE.”

The CIA bomb techs are referenced in a text later that afternoon as “helping Capitol Police bomb squad clear Capitol.”

Another text refers to the availability of K9 units to assist in clearing buildings. “7 NGA dog teams, 2 ATF and several CIA dog teams on standby,” the text said.

The disclosures are the first documented references to the CIA having any involvement in response to the protests, chaos and later rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Two pipe bombs were discovered near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6: one in an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee building, and the other in the bushes on the southwest side of the DNC building. Despite a three-year federal investigation and an offer of $500,000 in reward money, no arrests have been made.

The names of most of the participants in the group text are redacted in the records turned over to Judicial Watch. One name on the text chain is Ashan M. Benedict, the ATF’s incident commander in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 who in December 2023 became assistant chief of U.S. Capitol Police.

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10-foot mysterious metal monolith appears on remote hill, baffling locals

It’s steeling the limelight.

A strange and gigantic steel monolith was recently spotted on a hill in Wales — one of several mysterious Toblerone-like structures that have popped up around the globe in recent years.

They have evoked online conspiracy theories of aliens and extraterrestrial beings.

The latest futuristic-looking installation, found in Wales’ Hay-on-Wye region, was noticed over the weekend by area runner Richard Haynes. He didn’t quite know what to make of the unusual sighting.

“I thought it looked a bit bizarre and might be a scientific media research thing collecting rainwater,” he told Wales Online on Monday.

“But then realized it was way too tall and strange for that. Then I went up to it and it was about 10-foot-tall at least and triangular, definitely stainless steel,” Haynes continued. “It was hollow and I imagine pretty light. Light enough for two people to carry it up and plant it in the ground.”

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MH370’s suicidal pilot entombed plane and its 239 passengers at bottom of the ocean after perfect ditching, says flight expert 10 years after plane disappeared

The ‘suicidal’ pilot of the MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight perfectly ditched the plane into the sea, entombing it and the 239 passengers aboard at the bottom of the ocean, a flight expert has claimed ten years after it disappeared.

British pilot Simon Hardy has said he believes that the plane was sunk into the ocean at a spot that has never been searched before.

The Boeing 777 aircraft vanished from radar while en route from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

There are fears that pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was responsible for deliberately crashing MH370 in a murder-suicide of a shocking scale, which he committed because of problems in his personal life.

Shah had allegedly split with his wife Fizah Khan, and was said to be furious that a relative, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, had been given a five-year jail sentence for sodomy shortly before he boarded the plane for the flight to Beijing. But the pilot’s wife has angrily denied any personal problems, while other family members and friends said he was a devoted family man and loved his job.

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MH370 – the mystery that stunned the world: Ten years on, we look at the theories about what happened, the fight for a new search and the clues that hint equally at tragic accident.. or murder

Friday marks ten years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished without a trace, tragically becoming one of the world’s great aviation mysteries.

The plane carrying 239 people bound for Beijing disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, which combed 46,332 square miles of the sea floor of the southern Indian Ocean, only a few fragments of the Boeing 777-200ER plane have been found, scattered on beaches thousands of miles apart.

The operation was suspended in January 2017.

The families of those who were lost to the abyss have long hoped that by finding the missing plane, authorities would finally be able to give them an answer to the question that has haunted them for a decade: What happened to their loved ones?

In the years since, the void left by the missing wreckage has been filled by speculation and outlandish conspiracy theories, when the fact is that still – after ten years – no one alive today truly knows beyond reasonable doubt what happened.

Hopes were once again raised this week that the question could be answered with the announcement that Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would be ‘happy to reopen’ the search if ‘compelling’ evidence emerged.

This came after Texas robotics firm Ocean Infinity said it had proposed a new search for the missing jetliner to the Malaysian government while claiming to have new evidence – six years after carrying out an unsuccessful search in 2018.

While it remains to be seen whether a new search will unearth any new clues, the families of the victims remain in limbo. Today, as they mark 10 years since their loved ones were lost, MailOnline looks back at the MH370 tragedy.

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International Intrigue on a Ranch in Texas – The Angela Chao Story

Angela Chao, the sister of Elaine Chao (wife of retiring Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Minority Leader), died in her car on February 11, 2024.  Angela was found in a submerged car, unresponsive, first responders attempted to revive her, but were unsuccessful.  The pond was on a ranch close to Johnson City in Blanco County, Texas, about 40 miles west of Austin.  The ranch was reportedly owned by a business entity of Chao’s husband, Jim Breyer, a Venture Capitalist who has offices in Austin.

The Sheriff of Blanco County is Don Jackson, and the matter has now been deemed a criminal investigation, which blocks the release of many details to the public.  In a letter to Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, Sheriff Jackson said, “This incident was not a typical accident.”.

Angela Chao was also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Foremost Group, a privately held business entity that was the largest American owner of bulk shipping merchant vessels (all the vessels were flagged in other countries).  The ships alone were valued at $1.2B five years ago, but there were other activities of the Foremost Group that because it is privately held, are not fully known.  Power, wealth, international connections, privately held business group, China, Taiwan, America; there are many branches and sequels to this story and now a criminal investigation is ongoing.

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