CaaC (John)

Recently Discovered Ancient Fossils May Be the 'Missing Link' Between Apes and Humans VIDEO Fossils from a new species of ape have been discovered in Bavaria, and the discovery may shed light on how the ancestors of humans may have evolved to walk on two legs. The fossil of the great ape was unearthed with complete limb bones. He lived during the Miocene about 11.62 million years ago. "The finds in southern Germany are a milestone in palaeoanthropology because they raise fundamental questions about our previous understanding of the evolution of the great apes and humans," Professor Madelaine Böhme from the University of Tübingen told BBC News. Böhme also said this ape could be the best model we have to the "missing link" between apes and humans. © Associated Press A man holds bones of the previously unknown primate species Danuvius Guggemos in his hand in Tuebingen, Oct.17, 2019. The species was named Danuvius Guggemos by the palaeontologists. "Danuvius" is derived from the Celtic-Roman river god and "Guggemos" is to honour Sigulf Guggenmos, who discovered the site where they found the fossils. Böhme said when Danuvius was alive, the area was a hot, flat landscape with forests and rivers not far from the Alps. A new study found that the ape creature may have used an unusual locomotion never seen until now, which could reveal how the ancestors of humans may have evolved to walk on two feet. The fossils—two females, a juvenile and a male, who had the most complete set of limbs—were discovered in a clay pit in Bavaria between 2015 and 2018. © Atypeek/Getty Paleontologists unearthed 21 bones of the most complete partial skeleton of a male Danuvius. The male animal's build, posture and locomotion are unique traits among primates. His strong ape-like arms were made for swinging from tree limbs but he also possessed human-like legs. Researchers said Danuvius didn't favour either its arms or legs in movement but appeared to use them equally. Böhme and her colleagues suggested this newly identified type of locomotion—which they called "extended limb clambering"—could be the ancestral form of movement for both modern great apes and humans, reports Live Science. One of the key traits that distinguish humans from our closest living relatives like modern great apes, chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans is how we walk upright on our feet. This allowed us to free our hands for using tools, which ultimately helped humanity spread across the planet. In contrast, modern great apes possess long arms and traits that allow them to swing from branches using only their arms, which is called brachiation. Chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas practice knuckle-walking. The new research and where the fossils were found suggests our upright posture could have originated in a common ancestor of great apes and humans who lived in Europe. For many years, scientists thought those ancestors originated from Africa. Understanding how humans came to walk on two feet promises to answer many of the fundamental questions about the evolution of our species. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/recently-discovered-ancient-fossils-may-be-the-missing-link-between-apes-and-humans/ar-AAJY8a4?ocid=chromentp

I smoked that stuff once years ago and never again which I have mentioned in here before, mind you, I was pissed as a newt and the next day I woke up with a splitting headache and have never smoked it since. 20 Health benefits of cannabis that everyone should know

150-million-year-old sea monster unearthed in once-tropical Poland © Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. A pliosaur takes down another unlucky victim in this illustration from the University of Oslo. Natural History Museum/University of Oslo/Tor Sponga Researchers have unearthed a 150-million-year-old fossilized sea monster called a pliosaur in a cornfield near a village in southern Poland. In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences describe the titan of the Jurassic period. With jaws up to about 8 feet long and 4.5 times more powerful than those of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the pliosaur could grow to be twice the size of a modern killer whale, weigh dozens of tons and eat any creature in the water. The fossil is about 33 feet long and was surrounded by ancient crocodile teeth and turtle shells and situated in what's believed to have been a tropical archipelago dotted with warm-water lagoons and reservoirs. "This new locality is rich in fossils of coastal and pelagic reptiles," the researchers wrote of the find's site, located in the northeastern part of the Holy Cross Mountains near the village of Krzyżanowice. © Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. Pliosaurus jaws and teeth from the Krzyzanowice site in Poland. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 2019 https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/150-million-year-old-sea-monster-unearthed-in-once-tropical-poland/ar-AAJUtyI

Ancient Greek Settlement With Purple-Producing Shells and Carved Fish Tanks Discovered on Tiny Island © Greek Ministry of Culture Archeologists excavating a Minoan settlement at a location to the west of Chryssi Island, near Crete, have found the discarded remains of Hexaplex trunculus shells, used in the production of the colour purple. Pictured: site of the excavation. Archaeologists excavating a Minoan settlement have found the discarded remains of Hexaplex trunculus shells, used in the production of the colour purple—as well as gold jewellery and copper vases. The discoveries were made at a location to the west of Chryssi, a small island near Crete, where ancient carved fish tanks can still be found preserved on the beach. According to the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, the site, a large multi-room dwelling, would have been involved in the craft production of Tyrian (or "royal) purple dye, an extremely expensive and highly prized commodity, in the Late Minoan period circa 1800 to 1500 BCE. In addition to the large quantities of shells found at the site, archaeologists unearthed a treasure trove of valuable objects, including a gold ring, a gold bracelet and dozens of beads made from gold, silver, bronze, and maple. Three copper vases, handfuls of glass beads made from amethyst, lapis, corneal stone and "Egyptian blue," and one seal made of agate were also found during the excavation. These artefacts, the researchers say, suggests the settlement had once had a flourishing economy, despite the rather simple architecture of the building. The inhabitants would have been of a high social level and involved in purple trade, they say. The history of the colour purple Recently, research has confirmed the production of various dyes in Crete during the Minoan period, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology reports. Faded fresco painting hints that Minoans, named after the legendary Greek King Minos, wore brightly coloured garments and samples of ancient dye found in pottery appears to confirm this, suggesting several vibrant dyes were being produced at the time, including yellow dye from the plant Reseda lutiola and red dye from the plant Rubia tinctorum. Purple would have been particularly prized by the Minoans (as it has been in several societies since) for its expense and the amount of time it would have taken to produce. According to Robert R. Stieglitz, author of The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple, purple was "the most expensive dye in the ancient world." The dye was highly coveted in spite of its slightly icky origins—sea snail mucus. Hexaplex trunculus is a medium-sized sea snail (or mollusk) that produced an intensely coloured secretion, which (when oxidized, added to water and heated) creates a brilliant purple dye. Aristotle, 384 BC – 322 BC. Greek philosopher and scientist. From The Story of Philosophy, published 1926. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images) According to the first-hand accounts of Aristotle and Pliny, to make the colour purple, the creature is crushed and its gland extracted. Each extraction only provides a few drops of secretion, making the production of purple dye an expensive and industrial process. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/ancient-greek-settlement-with-purple-producing-shells-and-carved-fish-tanks-discovered-on-tiny-island/ar-AAJWVeJ?li=AAg17eQ#image=1

I have the blue salbutamol one and only use that really if I need it, I do use it a lot in the summertime when neighbours decide to cut there lawns and hedges and I also sneeze like fuck and in this flat winter times when the wife is cold and decides to put the heating on full blast, I can't stand hot stuffy rooms and have to have a window open. Not sure about the before sex bit as me and the wife at our ages take all our times just crawling in the bed and then crashing out with exhaustion let alone me trying to get my leg over.

I have that and COPD, diagnosed with them two around 14 years ago and 3 years ago I ended up in the hospital with a virus that was affecting my asthma breathing wise and they found out I had a condition called heart failure which was a weak heart muscle, apparently, you can be born with it, some people just don't worry about it but I am on tablets now for life, our kitchen cabinet with me and the wife's tablets look like a walk in chemist shop!!

Couldn't find a separate thread for this so how is everybody's health at this current time? Just got back with the wife from the local doc's and had our yearly flu jabs, so while I was there I got the nurse to weigh me, the last time I weighed myself last year some time I had shot up from 11 stone to 14 stone, I took this down to me stopping smoking and I was eating a lot instead-but when I left the hospital after the collapsed lung operation I was advised by the hospital and my doc to keep my weight down to 11 stone and maybe a few pounds. Well now I am a happy chappie as I have lost a stone odds in weight and weigh now around 11 stone 5 and that's taking around 3 pounds off adding the weight of my clothes and shoes, I am now a Skinny Minnie.

He must need glasses

Cough, cough Aussie humour

The universe might not be flat (it could actually be curved like an inflating ball) Just thinking about the shape of the universe we live in a slightly mind-boggling idea - but we might have got it completely wrong. Many scientists have believed that the universe is flat and that things continue in a straight line. But data collected the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite suggests another shape entirely - a curved, closed sphere Video: Dive Into TESS's Southern Sky Panorama (CNET) Researchers measured the effect of ‘gravitational lensing’ - how gravity distorts light. Telescopes on Earth commonly detect gravitational lensing where light is ‘bent’ by massive objects on its way towards us. Researchers measured the effect of the gravitational lensing on the cosmic microwave background - the afterglow of the Big Bang. The ancient light is being distorted by gravity more than it should be if our universe is flat. But the researchers suggest that the data gathered in 2018 by the Planck satellite shows that our universe might be ‘closed’ and curved. The researchers write, ‘"A closed Universe can provide a physical explanation for this effect, with the Planck cosmic microwave background spectra now preferring a positive curvature at more than the 99 per cent confidence level. © 2009 AFP POUR ILLUSTRER LE PAPIER : "L'OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS : AGE D'OR DE L'ASTRONOMIE, MAIS CRISE DES VOCATIONS" - French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) research director and designer in part of the first European cosmological satellite Planck (due to be launched by Ariane 5 by the end of April) at Laboratory for the Study of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics (LERMA) Jean-Michel Lamarre shows the model of satellite Planck (L) and the model of "Herschel observatory" (R) on March 19, 2009 in Paris, at the Paris Observatory, the most ancient of Europe (1667) and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Satellite Planck is a unique opportunity to revisit the primaeval Universe. AFP PHOTO PATRICK KOVARIK (Photo credit should read PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images) "Here, we further investigate the evidence for a closed Universe from Planck, showing that positive curvature naturally explains the anomalous lensing amplitude." If true, the finding would upend our ideas about our universe. The researchers led Eleonora Di Valentino of Manchester University in the UK. suggest that their findings could call for a "drastic rethinking of the current cosmological concordance model." https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/the-universe-might-not-be-flat-it-could-actually-be-curved-like-an-inflating-ball/ar-AAJTSU9?li=BBoPWjQ

Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos, reportedly a target for Aston Villa, says he has had no contact with any club but the Colombian, 23, added: "Many teams would be offering a good amount of money for me." (Antena 2, via Birmingham Mail)

That's the fallen tree chopped up and removed by the council guys, somebody is going to have a good bonfire night tonight if they hand it over to a community firework and bonfire night display.

The Misunderstood Legacy of Guy Fawkes “Remember, remember the fifth of November,” the old British rhyme goes. For more than 400 years, Britain has remembered. Every year, on this day, fireworks are set off, bonfires are built, and effigies are burned to commemorate the failed 17th-century plot by a group of English Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament—with the country’s entire political establishment and reigning Protestant monarch, King James I, inside. But for an event rooted in remembrance, what has come to be known here in Britain as Guy Fawkes Night (named after one of the key plotters) could not be further removed from it. Today, the annual ritual is more festive and fun than religious and monarchical. Even Fawkes himself has taken on new meaning, becoming best known around the world not as a would-be religious extremist and terrorist, but as a populist hero. His life has been romanticized in film, his likeness has been preserved in masks, and his legacy has morphed into an almost mythical tale of anti-government rebellion, anarchy, and subversion. Related: How the Gunpowder Plot backfired How we remember Fawkes, as both a person and a symbol, presents a case study for how the meaning of historical events can be bent to serve the religious, political, and cultural needs of the present. But it also presents a fundamental question about how much is too much historical alteration. By turning people into symbols, do we run the risk of changing them into someone they weren’t? FULL REPORT

Bloody gale-force winds yesterday and last night and our son woke us up about 05.00 ish after coming home from his night taxi stint and said "that's a tree down in the back lawn pops", lucky enough no one was hurt or any cars damaged, just waiting on the council now to come and remove it, shitty picture I took from our back flat room window.

Albert Lin travels to Micronesia, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, to uncover the ancient island city of Nan Madol

Voyagers shed light on Solar System's structure Data sent back by the two Voyager spacecraft have shed new light on the structure of the Solar System. Forty-two years after they were launched, the spacecraft is still going strong and exploring the outer reaches of our cosmic neighbourhood. By analysing data sent back by the probes, scientists have worked out the shape of the vast magnetic bubble that surrounds the Sun. The two spacecraft are now more than 10 billion miles from Earth. Researchers detail their findings in six separate studies published in the journal Nature Astronomy. "We had no good quantitative idea how big this bubble is that the Sun creates around itself with its solar wind - ionised plasma that's speeding away from the Sun radially in all directions," said Ed Stone, the longstanding project scientist for the missions. "We certainly didn't know that the spacecraft could live long enough to reach the edge and leave the bubble to enter interstellar space." The plasma consists of charged particles and gas that permeate space on both sides of the magnetic bubble, known as the heliosphere. Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System' Voyager 2 probe 'leaves Solar System' Measurements show that the identical probes have exited the heliosphere and entered interstellar space - the region between stars. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012, Voyager 2 crossed over late last year. The key sign in both cases was a jump in the density of the plasma. This showed that the spacecraft was passing from an environment with hot, lower density plasma characteristic of the solar wind and entering a region with the cool, higher density plasma thought to be found in interstellar space. The boundary between the two regions is known as the heliopause. "We saw the plasma density at the heliopause jump by a very large amount - a factor of 20, at this rather sharp boundary out there," said Prof Don Gurnett, from the University of Iowa. "Actually, with Voyager One we saw an even bigger jump." The findings suggest that the heliosphere is symmetrical, at least at the two points that the Voyager spacecraft crossed. The researchers say these points are almost at the same distance from the Sun, indicating a spherical front to the bubble - "like a blunt bullet", according to Prof Gurnett. The results also provide clues to the thickness of the "heliosheath", the outer region of the magnetic bubble. This is the point where the solar wind piles up against the approaching wind of particles in interstellar space, which Prof Gurnett likens to the effect of a snowplough on a city street. The heliosheath appears to vary in its thickness. This is based on data showing that Voyager 1 had to travel further than its twin to reach the heliopause, where the solar wind and the interstellar wind are in balance. Some had thought Voyager 2 would make that crossing into interstellar space first, based on models of the magnetic bubble. "In a historical sense, the old idea that the solar wind will just be gradually whittled away as you go further into interstellar space is simply not true," says Don Gurnett. "We show with Voyager 2 - and previously with Voyager 1 - that there's a distinct boundary out there. It's just astonishing how fluids, including plasmas, form boundaries." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50289353

@MUFC Eli trailer.

A lot of people around here have already let their fireworks off frid/sat & last night which is the norm nowadays because a lot of people have work during the week but we don't get callers at the door asking for a penny for the guy as times change where people like me and the wife won't give out dosh to young lads knocking at the door. It's not the same as I have mentioned in here before like when we were kids and go around with a guy in a barrow or an old pram asking for a penny for the guy as people in my days knew that we would go home with the pennies and give them to our mum & dad where they would go out and buy the fireworks for bonfire night, not like nowadays where arseholes over 18 +years old would buy the fireworks for young kids knowing that they were going to go around and stick bangers in letterboxes or chuck them at people etc laughing.

I wouldn't say it was a classic horror and yes, it did lose its way coming towards the end but a lot of movies are like that and as I said I gave it a 8/10 because the wife kept hiding her eyes and giving the odd "Ohhhh..." and jumping, otherwise I would give it a 5/10.

Britain's first city discovered as archaeologists say it was home of people who built Stonehenge Britain’s first ‘city’ arose near an ancient spring on Salisbury Plain, and its inhabitants probably built Stonehenge, archaeologists believe. Blick Mead lies just a mile away from the Wiltshire stone circle, and experts have uncovered more than 70,000 stone tools at the site, as well as an intriguing ceremonial platform suggesting the area held ritual importance for prehistoric hunter-gatherers who lived there 10,000 years ago. Although hunter-gatherer populations rarely settle in one place, Professor David Jacques of the University of Buckingham believes the site may have been a permanent encampment where at least the children, elderly and sick lived. “When you look at Stonehenge you think, ‘but where are the people?’” said Prof Jacques. “It makes sense that if you want to find the people who built it, the obvious idea is to look for where the water is. FULL REPORT

This made my day 5-Year-Old Boy Really Wanted a McDonald's Happy Meal — So He Called 911 One little boy in Arizona thought he had a super-sized problem and called 911 about it. Charlie Skabelund, 5, really wanted a happy meal, so he phoned in his order to the police. As the officer asked what the emergency was, the child ordered a Happy Meal. “We were completely surprised and a little embarrassed,” his mom told Inside Edition. FULL REPORT

Unai Emery has been given a month to save his job as Arsenal manager. (Mirror) The Gunners are distancing themselves from a possible move for former Manchester United and Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho. (ESPN) Assistant manager Freddie Ljungberg is ready to step in as caretaker manager if Emery is sacked by the Emirates Stadium club. (Independent)

Lol, NO, that's like saying Man United and City are the same club or Liverpool and Everton god forbid, fucked if I know what made me post it in the AC Milan thread? just found a thread to do with Inter Milan if you want to shift it there @Stan? I blame Ole for getting rid of Lukaku to quickly, this guy is coming back to bite his arse.

World Rugby Awards: Pieter-Steph Du Toit & Emily Scarratt named players of the year The awards were held in Tokyo, the day after the Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama South Africa's Pieter-Steph du Toit and England's Emily Scarratt were named as Players of the Year at the World Rugby Awards in Japan. Flanker Du Toit was part of the Rugby World Cup final win over England on Saturday. His team also won their first Rugby Championship in August. Centre Scarratt started four matches in England's Women's Six Nations Grand Slam on her return from the sevens. Team-mates Katy Daley-McLean and Sarah Bern were also on the shortlist. Du Toit, who made more tackles than any other Springbok in their successful World Cup campaign, beat England's Tom Curry, Wales' Alun Wyn Jones, New Zealand's Ardie Savea, United States hooker Joe Taufetee and his own team-mate Cheslin Kolbe to win the men's award. His success followed South Africa being named team of the year and their coach Rassie Erasmus picking up the coach of the year accolade. Recent World Rugby Awards winners Men's 15s player of the year Women's 15s player of the year 2018 Johnny Sexton (Ire) Jessy Tremouliere (Fra) 2017 Beauden Barratt (NZ) Portia Woodman (NZ) 2016 Beauden Barratt (NZ) Sarah Hunter (Eng) 2015 Dan Carter (NZ) Kendra Cocksedge (NZ) Scarratt said that the re-introduction of professional contracts for the England Women's team after funding had controversially been switched to funding sevens after the 2017 World Cup, had helped improve both her and her team's performances. "We got professional contracts that gave some of the girls that had not been part of the sevens team the chance to train full-time. As everyone knows that makes such a huge difference," said Scarratt, "We don't chase after individual accolades in a team sport, but it's pretty cool for sure." Romain Ntamack, who started three of France's four games at the Rugby World Cup at fly-half, won the breakthrough player of the year award. The 20-year-old, whose father Emile won 46 caps between 1994 and 2000, made his senior debut in February after helping the nation's under-20 team lift their age-grade world title the previous summer. England wing Joe Cokanasiga and South Africa scrum-half Herschel Jantjies were also on the shortlist. TJ Perenara's score in New Zealand's pool-stage win over Namibia was named as the try of the year, while England's Wayne Barnes won the night's referee award. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/50281493

They all feel like this after the comeback, I know as my son yelled his head off in the backroom when they scored the winner and scared the shite out of me and the wife