Archaic Building Found At Asclepeion Sanctuary In Ancient Epidaurus

1/29/2020 

The Asclepeion of Epidaurus on the Peloponnesian Peninsula is one of the most important ancient sites in the entire world.

The Tholos of Ancient Epidaurus in the process of restoration and the 

remains of the Archaic era building that has just been discovered 

[Credit: Athens-Macedonian News Agency]

Today, it owes a great deal of its fame to the theatre, a wonder of acoustics which is still in operation today, but in ancient times it served as a medical sanctuary, and serious illnesses were healed there.

People from all over the Eastern Mediterranean region flocked to Epidaurus in antiquity to find cures for their various maladies. It was a spacious resort which included guesthouses, a gymnasium, a stadium and the famous theater, which served to “elevate the soul,” which ancient Greeks saw as the goal of all theatrical plays, both tragedies and comedies.

Along with its many luxurious facilities, the Asclepeion of Epidaurus offered beautiful, serene natural surroundings, with lush vegetation and stunning views of the surrounding mountaintops.

According to the poet Hesiod, who was active between 750 and 650 BC, Asclepius, the son of Apollo who was considered the ancient Greek god of medicine, was born in Epidaurus.

A new building found at Epidaurus’ Asclepeion area, which was dedicated to this god, gives new insight into the famous sanctuary, mainly concerning the early years of its creation.

The newly-uncovered building is a structure from the archaic era, whose function is currently unknown. It was built on a site adjacent to where the Tholos, or dome, the most iconic building of the Asclepeion, is situated.

The building, rectangular in plan, had a basement space corresponding to the ground floor, with mosaics placed in a peristyle form. According to the information gleaned so far from the excavation, which is still in progress, the building dates back to around the year 600 BC.


The theatre at Epidaurus [Credit: Geolines]

University of Athens Professor Vassilis Lamprinoudakis, head of the excavations in ancient Epidaurus, explained to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency “This means the worship of Asclepius appears to have begun earlier in the Asclepeion of Epidaurus. Until now, it was believed to have begun around 550 BC, i.e., in the middle of the sixth century BC.

“Now it is evident that the structures are earlier, and this is particularly important for the history of the sanctuary and for the history of Asclepius himself,” the archaeologist noted.

“At the place where the Tholos was later built, a part of a building, a ‘double’ building, with basement and ground floor has been found. Since there is a basement, like in the Tholos, we consider it to be a forerunner of this ‘mysterious’ building called the Tholos,” Lamprinoudakis stated.

“When it was decided to build the Tholos, this building was demolished. The empty space created by its basement was filled with relics from the old building, but also from other parts of the sanctuary. That is because (when) the great program of the 4th century BC began, some other buildings were also demolished, the material of which was buried with respect in the place,” he added.

The archaeologist explained that the name Tholos “was only given to the structure by the ancient traveler Pausanias in the second century AD. Its original name, as we know from the inscriptions of the 4th century BC, was ‘Thymeli.’ Thymeli was a kind of altar (used in sacrifice), in which offerings were made without blood.”

Lamprinoudakis continued, saying “Research tells us that the Tholos was a kind of underground house of Asclepius, where patients were treated by injection.” The patient who slept in this special place would dream of the god Asclepius to reveal to him the cure for his illness. “This former building had a function similar to that of the Tholos, that is, its basement served as the seat of Asclepius on earth,” the archaeologist explained.

“The new building, however, also gives important clues to the topography of the sanctuary. It explains the orientation of some other constructions that follow,” Lamprinoudakis concluded.

The archaeological dig at the sanctuary of Asclepius of Epidaurus, which has been carried out by the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Athens since 2016, continues today.

The excavations, carried out with the support of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolis, were funded by the organization “Asclipiades” in 2016-2017 and by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in the years 2018-2019.

Author: Philip Chrysopoulos | Source: Athens-Macedonian News Agency via Greek Reporter [January 29, 2020]

New Study Debunks Myth Of Cahokia's Native American Lost Civilization

1/27/2020

A University of California, Berkeley, archaeologist has dug up ancient human feces, among other demographic clues, to challenge the narrative around the legendary demise of Cahokia, North America's most iconic pre-Columbian metropolis.

Painting of the Cahokia Mounds by William R. Iseminger [Credit: Cahokia Mounds Historic State Site]

In its heyday in the 1100s, Cahokia -- located in what is now southern Illinois -- was the center for Mississippian culture and home to tens of thousands of Native Americans who farmed, fished, traded and built giant ritual mounds.

By the 1400s, Cahokia had been abandoned due to floods, droughts, resource scarcity and other drivers of depopulation. But contrary to romanticized notions of Cahokia's lost civilization, the exodus was short-lived, according to a new UC Berkeley study.

The study takes on the "myth of the vanishing Indian" that favors decline and disappearance over Native American resilience and persistence, said lead author A.J. White, a UC Berkeley doctoral student in anthropology.

"One would think the Cahokia region was a ghost town at the time of European contact, based on the archaeological record," White said. "But we were able to piece together a Native American presence in the area that endured for centuries."

The findings, just published in the journal American Antiquity, make the case that a fresh wave of Native Americans repopulated the region in the 1500s and kept a steady presence there through the 1700s, when migrations, warfare, disease and environmental change led to a reduction in the local population.

White and fellow researchers at California State University, Long Beach, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northeastern University analyzed fossil pollen, the remnants of ancient feces, charcoal and other clues to reconstruct a post-Mississippian lifestyle.

Their evidence paints a picture of communities built around maize farming, bison hunting and possibly even controlled burning in the grasslands, which is consistent with the practices of a network of tribes known as the Illinois Confederation.

Unlike the Mississippians who were firmly rooted in the Cahokia metropolis, the Illinois Confederation tribe members roamed further afield, tending small farms and gardens, hunting game and breaking off into smaller groups when resources became scarce.


Credit: Herb Roe, University of California - Berkeley

The linchpin holding together the evidence of their presence in the region were "fecal stanols" derived from human waste preserved deep in the sediment under Horseshoe Lake, Cahokia's main catchment area.

Fecal stanols are microscopic organic molecules produced in our gut when we digest food, especially meat. They are excreted in our feces and can be preserved in layers of sediment for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Because humans produce fecal stanols in far greater quantities than animals, their levels can be used to gauge major changes in a region's population.

To collect the evidence, White and colleagues paddled out into Horseshoe Lake, which is adjacent to Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site, and dug up core samples of mud some 10 feet below the lakebed. By measuring concentrations of fecal stanols, they were able to gauge population changes from the Mississippian period through European contact.

Fecal stanol data were also gauged in White's first study of Cahokia's Mississippian Period demographic changes, published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It found that climate change in the form of back-to-back floods and droughts played a key role in the exodus of Cahokia's Mississippian inhabitants.

But while many studies have focused on the reasons for Cahokia's decline, few have looked at the region following the exodus of Mississippians, whose culture is estimated to have spread through the Midwestern, Southeastern and Eastern United States from 700 A.D. to the 1500s.

White's latest study sought to fill those gaps in the Cahokia area's history.

"There's very little archaeological evidence for an indigenous population past Cahokia, but we were able to fill in the gaps through historical, climatic and ecological data, and the linchpin was the fecal stanol evidence," White said.

Overall, the results suggest that the Mississippian decline did not mark the end of a Native American presence in the Cahokia region, but rather reveal a complex series of migrations, warfare and ecological changes in the 1500s and 1600s, before Europeans arrived on the scene, White said.

"The story of Cahokia was a lot more complex than, 'Goodbye, Native Americans. Hello, Europeans,' and our study uses innovative and unusual evidence to show that," White said.

Author: Yasmin Anwar | Source: University of California - Berkeley [January 27, 2020]

Study Reveals Pre-Hispanic History, Genetic Changes Among Indigenous Mexican Populations

1/22/2020
As more and more large-scale human genome sequencing projects get completed, scientists have been able to trace with increasing confidence both the geographical movements and underlying genetic variation of human populations. Most of these projects have favoured the study of European populations, and thus, have been lacking in representing the true ethnic diversity across the globe.

To better understand the broad demographic history of pre-Hispanic Mexico and to search for signatures of adaptive evolution, an international team led by Mexican scientists have sequenced the complete protein-coding regions of the genome, or exomes, of 78 individuals from different indigenous groups from Mexico. The genomic study is the largest of its kind for indigenous populations from the Americas [Credit: Ruben Mendoza,
National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO) - UGA, CINVESTAV]

To better understand the broad demographic history of pre-Hispanic Mexico and to search for signatures of adaptive evolution, an international team led by Mexican scientists have sequenced the complete protein-coding regions of the genome, or exomes, of 78 individuals from five different indigenous groups from Northern (Rara?muri or Tarahumara, and Huichol), Central (Nahua), South (Triqui, or TRQ) and Southeast (Maya, or MYA) Mexico. The genomic study, the largest of its kind for indigenous populations from the Americas, appeared recently in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

"We modeled the demographic history of indigenous populations from Mexico with northern and southern ethnic groups (Tarahumara and Huichol) splitting 7.2 kya and subsequently diverging locally 6.5 kya (Huichol groups) and 5.7 kya (Triqui and Maya), respectively," said lead author Maria Avila-Arcos, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The Nahua were excluded from the final analysis due to the noise it brought to the overall analysis.

Overall, they identified 120,735 single nucleotide variants (SNV) among the individuals studied, which were used to trace back the population history. Furthermore, they were able to reconcile their data with the demographic history and fossil records of ancestral Native Americans.

"The split times we found are also coherent with previous estimates of ancestral Native Americans diverging ~17.5-14.6 KYA into Southern Native Americans or "Ancestral A," comprising Central and Southern Native Americans) and Northern Native Americans or "Ancestral B," and with an initial settlement of Mexico occurring at least 12,000 years ago, as suggested by the earliest skeletal remains dated to approximately this age found in Central Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula," said Avila-Arcos. "Studies on genome-wide data from ancient remains from Central and South America reveal genetic continuity between ancient and modern populations in some parts of the Americas over the last 8,500 years."

"This suggests that, by that time, the ancestral population of MYA was not yet genetically differentiated from others, so our estimates of northern/southern split at 7.2 KYA and Mayan/Triqui divergence at 5.7 KYA fit with this scenario."

Next, they scanned the data to identify candidate genes most important for adaptation.

"Interestingly, some of these genes had previously been identified as targets of selection in other populations," said co-corresponding author Andres Moreno Estrada, principal investigator at National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO) - UGA, CINVESTAV.

These genes include SLC24A5, involved in skin pigmentation, and FAP, which was previously suggested to be under adaptive archaic introgression in Peruvians and Melanesians. Three genes were involved in the immune response. These include SYT5, implicated in innate immune response, and interleukins IL17A and IL13. The remaining candidate genes were involved in signal transduction (MPZL1), protein localization and transport (GRASP and ARFRP1), cell differentiation and spermatogenesis (GMCL), Golgi apparatus organization (UBXN2B), neuron differentiation (MANF), signaling and cardiac muscle contraction (ADRBK1), cell cycle (CDK5), microtubule organization and stabilization (NCKAP5L), and stress fiber formation (NCKIPSD).

A couple of genes stood out for the team. These included, BCL2L13, which is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and could be related to physical endurance, including high endurance long-distance running, a well-known trait of the northern Mexico Rara?muri. The KBTBD8 gene has been associated with idiopathic short stature (also found in Koreans) and the team found it to be highly differentiated in Triqui, a southern indigenous group from Oaxaca whose height is extremely low compared to other Native populations.

"We carried out the most comprehensive characterization of potentially adaptive functional variation in Indigenous peoples from the Americas to date," said Moreno Estrada. "We identified in these populations over four thousand new variants, most of them singletons, with neutral, regulatory, as well as protein-truncating and missense annotations. The average number of singletons per individual was higher in Nahua (NAH) and Maya (MYA), which is expected given these two Indigenous groups embody the descendants of the largest civilizations in Mesoamerica, and that today Nahua and Maya languages are the most spoken Indigenous languages in Mexico. Furthermore, the generated data also allowed us to propose a demographic model inferred from genomic data in Native Mexicans and to identify possible events of adaptive evolution in pre-Columbian Mexico."

Source: Oxford University Press [January 22, 2020]

INTERVIEW
Jackson Browne: ‘My generation were idealistic and naive but we were right about so many things’

The singer-songwriter talks to Kevin E G Perry about his benefit album for Haiti, the calamitous state of the planet, Donald Trump’s ‘wild lies’, his fears about the election, and getting old


Jackson Browne performing at a benefit concert in New York, December 2019 ( Rex )

The morning after our interview I get a call from Jackson Browne. I stare at my phone in bleary-eyed confusion, trying to remember if one of the all-time great singer-songwriters had let slip anything scandalous he might be eager to recant, but when I pick up I hear his warm Californian tones overflowing with enthusiasm. “I just realised I didn’t finish telling you about Rick!”

Rick appears in the third verse of Browne’s song “Love Is Love”, the lead single from a new benefit album, Let the Rhythm Lead, which he recorded in Haiti along with a group of fellow musicians to support the charity Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ). Browne has been passionate about their work since playing a benefit concert after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and was impressed by APJ’s ability to swiftly build a school in Port-au-Prince that now provides free education to 2,600 of the most impoverished children in the western hemisphere. Moved by the stories he heard from Haiti, Browne wrote “Standing in the Breach”, the title track of his 2014 album about the disaster and the long history of colonialism and slavery that preceded it. “It’s a difficult subject, so it took me a long time to finish that song,” he says. “I think it took me longer to write than it took them to build the school.”

Browne made his name in the Seventies as a writer of deeply introspective songs about love, death and desire. He had his first hit in in March 1972 with “Doctor My Eyes”, which was soon covered by The Jackson 5. A few months later, Eagles frontman Glenn Frey completed Browne’s unfinished song “Take It Easy” and the track launched his band’s career. As rock lore has it, Browne was stuck on the line: “Well, I’m a-standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona…”, before Frey provided: “Such a fine sight to see. It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”

Browne filled the remainder of the decade with a string of classic albums: 1973’s For Everyman, 1974’s Late for the Sky, 1976’s The Pretender and 1977’s Running On Empty, a portrait of life on the road which gave him his biggest commercial success. In the Eighties, Browne’s songwriting became more overtly political as he began to turn his lacerating gaze outward.

It was only when he arrived in Haiti to visit the school that APJ built that Browne learned they’d also constructed an artist’s institute in the south coast town of Jacmel, where young people were learning to become sound engineers in a modern studio. “When I saw it I thought, well, people from outside of Haiti should come here and work,” he says. “So I asked some people if they wanted to come.”

The group he rounded up included the songwriter and producer Jonathan Wilson (“A very willing partner and accomplice”) and former Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis (“One of my heroes. I love her music”) as well as Paul Beaubrun, Habib Koite, Raul Rodriguez and Jonathan Russell. On the island they also teamed up with members of the Haitian roots band Lakou Mizik. They set about trying to capture the reality of the country in song, which brings us back to Rick, who Browne didn’t finish telling us about. In the song he’s riding a motorbike through the slums: “The father and the doctor to the poorest of the poor / Raising up the future from the rubble of the past”. As it turns out, he’s a real person.

“Father Rick Frechette is a major figure in this whole story,” explains Browne. “He’s a Catholic priest, but when he arrived in Haiti it was so rough he said: ‘These people don’t need a priest, they need a doctor.’ He went away, became a doctor and then came back to Haiti and built a hospital. He’s an inspiration, and he was instrumental in starting the school.”

Browne’s determination to shine a light on Rick and the work still being done in Haiti is in part motivated by the knowledge that the world’s attention has long since moved on. “It’s such a vibrant culture,” he says. “But the art and music and the incredible resilience of these people is matched by the environmental problems which have come with global warming, the hurricanes and the effects of centuries of deforestation. The problems are formidable.”

Jackson Browne (fourth left) with the musicians who worked on charity album ‘Let the Rhythm Lead’

Browne is fiercely passionate about the environment. He lives in an off-grid ranch supported by wind and solar power, and since 2008 has banned plastic bottles from his tours. His 1974 song “Before the Deluge” spoke of anger at those who had forged the earth’s “beauty into power”, and warned of the “magnitude of her fury in the final hour”. It could almost have been written today, although Browne sadly points out our situation is now even more dangerous. “That song was inspired by a writer named Paul Ehrlich,” he says. “He laid forth a scenario in which the world’s dysfunctions compound and create an apocalyptic outcome, but even he couldn’t have predicted the calamitous situation we’re in now where we have a world leader who is flagrantly disregarding information from the scientific community.”

As if to underscore his point, the day we speak the Trump administration announces it is scrapping pollution protections for America’s streams and wetlands. Browne says he doesn’t believe America will re-elect their president this year, but his optimism is shaded with caution. “I don’t think it’s in the bag or anything, but I have to hope,” he says. “He didn’t win the popular vote, and he only has a 30 per cent approval rating, but that 30 per cent of people are the ones I’m worried about. I saw a photograph of him at a rally, and there was a sign saying: ‘Thank Baby Jesus for President Trump’. Holy s**t! He’s telling these wild lies and still receiving that sort of adoration.”


Read more
Louis Tomlinson: ‘Being in One Direction was like a drug’

All of these issues will filter into his next album, which he plans to release in September. He’s currently finishing a track called “Downhill from Everywhere”, inspired by the oceanographer Captain Charles Moore’s remark that “the ocean is downhill from everywhere”. Another new song is called “A Little Soon to Say”. He recites a few lines of it: “I want to see you holding out your light / I want to see you find your way / Beyond the sirens in the broken night / Beyond the sickness of our day / And after all we’ve come to live with / I want to know if you’re OK / I have to think it’s gonna be alright / It’s just a little soon to say.”


“That’s my way of touching upon what I’m worried about most,” he explains. “I wonder how young people coming into positions of authority in this world are going to deal with what we’re leaving them. Even as my generation were somewhat myopic or idealistic or naive, we were right about so many things. It’s the same people that opposed the Vietnam War, who wanted to protect the planet, who want to feed the hungry and educate the uneducated.”

He sees echoes of that Sixties idealism in the “very inspiring” activism of Greta Thunberg. “This generation coming into the world taking these problems seriously is exactly what’s needed,” he says. “I don’t feel I have the right to be pessimistic or feel defeated, but it’s a struggle I have every day because the news is so unremittingly bad. Activism by young people is one of the brighter spots.”
Browne in 1974 (Rex)

For Browne, America’s problems are manifold but intertwined. He brings up the failings of the criminal justice system and the unchecked power of the industrial war complex that he sang about on 1986’s “Lives in the Balance”. “This is the worry I have about democracy,” he says. “It can be gamed by private interests, whether they be robber barons in the 1800s or the fossil fuel industry today. They get us to drag our feet so they can keep making their corporate fortunes. As Warren Zevon said in his great song: our s**t’s f***ed up.”


That would be Zevon’s “My S**t’s F***ed Up”, released in 2000, which is about a man hearing bad news from his doctor. Two years later Zevon received his own terminal diagnosis, learning of the cancer that would kill him in 2003. Browne and Zevon had been friends and collaborators since the Seventies, and they shared a knack for sharply prescient songwriting. When Browne was on his most recent tour, with the headlines full of Russia’s attempts to influence American politics, he took to covering Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money”. It opens with the line: “I went home with the waitress / The way I always do / How was I to know / She was with the Russians, too?” Browne clearly got a kick out of its continued relevance. “If you didn’t know that song you’d think it was written last week,” he laughs. “That song is 40 years old. It was funny then, and it’s even funnier now.”

Let the Rhythm Lead interpolates languages like Creole and Spanish, much as Zevon did on his 1982 track “The Hula Hula Boys”. When I remind Browne of this he howls with delight. “Do you know what the chorus of ‘The Hula Hula Boys’ actually means?” he asks mischievously. “It’s a saying in Hawaii that loosely means ‘get to the point’, but literally means ‘sing the chorus’. So when they sing the chorus, they’re singing ‘sing the chorus’. That is the funniest f***ing thing I have ever f***ing heard! That’s Warren Zevon at his best. With one stroke, he’s saying nothing and everything. Zevon is a singular writer.”

Now 71, after more than half a century of songwriting, Browne still believes in the power of music to change lives. He was just 16 when he wrote “These Days”, which is made all the more remarkable by the fact it contains one of the most devastating lyrics ever committed to song: “Don’t confront me with my failures/ I had not forgotten them”. Was the teenage Browne really that tortured, or was it a case of art imitating art?

“I don’t know,” he says after a pause. “I listened to a lot of old men making music when I was a kid. Blues and folk, as well as Bob Dylan, who sounded old. I was emulating them to an extent, but I wasn’t just posing as an old person. That thought resonated with me. I’ve had therapists say to me: ‘What the hell happened to you when you were young?’” He thinks he was just always an old soul. He remembers reading a book of blues lyrics his mother had given him. “There was a lyric where it arrived at the place: ‘I got so old,’” he says. “It hit me really hard. I thought: ‘F***, that’s going to happen.’ You get to a place where you can’t believe how old you are. No one ever thinks it’s gonna happen to them, isn’t that wild?”

He may be of their generation, but The Who’s line about hoping they’d die before they got old never rang true for Browne. “I’ve always disputed that inwardly,” he says. “I’ve had a problem with my back most of my life. In my thirties it got to where it was so painful I could barely lean over the sink when I brushed my teeth. I thought: ‘This is the onset of decrepitude,’ but I hadn’t tried anything! With yoga and chiropractic doctors I eradicated the problem. I remember thinking with amusement: ‘You were really ready to accept the idea that you were decrepit and there was nothing to be done about it.’ That’s maybe a metaphor for what we’re talking about, about hope in the world. Things are so bad, but I still don’t hope the world dies before it gets older.”

‘Let the Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol 1’ by Artists for Peace and Justice is released today (31 January)

MY FAVORITE JACKSON BROWNE SONG

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=REBEL+JESUS

‘The haters will shut up when we win’: Rashida Tlaib boos Hillary Clinton at Sanders rally in Iowa

Bernie Sanders’ backers are upset by Hillary Clinton’s recent comments about the 2020 hopeful, in which she said: ‘Nobody wants to work with him’

A rally in support of Bernie Sanders erupted in boos when a moderator mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name – and even Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib joined in from the stage.

It came at the end of a panel discussion between Ms Tlaib and fellow representatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal. All three have endorsed Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary.

When moderator Dionna Langford mentioned Hillary Clinton at the end of the discussion – raising her recent statement that “nobody likes Sanders” – the audience began to boo.

Langford attempted to quiet then down, saying: “We’re not gonna boo, we’re not gonna boo. We’re classy here.”

But Ms Tlaidb jumped in, saying: “I’ll boo. Boo,” as her fellow panellists began laughing.

“You all know I can’t be quiet,” Ms Tlaib added. “The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.”

She later rowed back with a Twitter statement, saying: “I am so incredibly in love with the movement that our campaign of #NotMeUs has created. This makes me protective over it and frustrated by attempts to dismiss the strength and diversity of our movement.

“However, I know what is at stake if we don't unify over one candidate to beat Trump and I intend to do everything possible to ensure that Trump does not win in 2020. In this instance, I allowed my disappointment with Secretary Clinton's latest comments about Senator Sanders and his supporters get the best of me.

"You all, my sisters-in-service on stage, and our movement deserve better."

It happened during Mr Sanders’ first ‘Caucus Concert’ ahead of Monday’s Iowa Caucuses.

The event was mainly taken up with discussions of progressive issues such as climate change, but it ended with the discussion of Ms Clinton because of her recent negative comments about Mr Sanders, in which she said: “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.”

Ms Clinton has also refused to confirm whether she will endorse and campaign for him if he wins the Democratic nomination. 

AND THAT SAYS IT ALL ABOUT THE 1% BITCH 

A SORE LOSER WHO RIGGED THE PRIMARY AGAINST BERNIE IN 2016

H&M has been criticised over its plans to start making clothes from Circulose, a sustainable fabric made from up-cycled clothing and fashion waste.
The Scandinavian fashion giants will be the first retailer to sell garments made from the material, which is produced by Swedish company Re:newcell.

The clothes sold by H&M will comprise a Circulose/Viscose blend that uses 50 per cent Circulose sourced from upcycled cotton jeans fabric and 50 per cent viscose sourced from FSC-certified wood.

The retailer told WWD that its Circulose clothes will be in stores from spring and that it plans to use only recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030.

However, the move has been criticised by anti-fast fashion campaigner, Venetia La Manna, who tells The Independent that it is another example of H&M “greenwashing” its consumers.

“Circulose is an absolute box-ticker,” La Manna says. “Not only is it creating something from waste, it’s also vegan-friendly, non-toxic, durable and biodegradable. As a ‘new’ material, it’s much more planet friendly than a lot of the sustainable yarns that are already on the market.

“With this in mind, it’s a real shame to hear that Circulose chose to partner with H&M on such an exciting, circular and innovative yarn. Sustainable fashion absolutely needs to be as accessible for as many people as possible, but the fast fashion model will never reach that all important net zero target that we need to be aiming for.”

La Manna explained that textile waste has increased drastically in recent years and the focus should be on reducing how much we buy and slowing production rates rather than introducing new materials to consume.

“H&M will do whatever they can to continuously greenwash consumers,” La Manna added, citing the retailer’s Conscious Collections, which are made from environmentally friendly materials.


“Ultimately, the sheer amount of product H&M produces is causing irreversible harm to both planet and people, and completely outweighs their sustainability efforts,” she explained. “Fashion this fast can never and will never be sustainable.”

As for how best to be an eco-conscious shopper, La Manna advises enjoying the clothes you already own by finding different ways to style them rather than constantly looking to revamp your wardrobe with new purchases.

“I’d suggest organising a Swap Shop with friends or co-workers to get the dopamine hit of something new, without actually making a purchase,” she adds.

“If you’re craving Zara, try a car boot sale, charity or vintage shop and take advantage of online circular fashion via websites like eBay, Depop or Vestiaire Collective. I’d also recommend renting an outfit for when you want something for an event or wedding, my go-to is Hurr.”

venetiafalconer

Verified

BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY?
I want to start by saying that for some people, Black Friday is their only chance to afford something they’ve been lusting after for a really long time - and perhaps something that is going to add real value to their life. I am not in a position to comment on those people. But what I will say, is that crucially, they are in the minority. ⁣
⁣
To bring you up to speed, Black Friday is a shopping weekend that traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving in America (NB, this is not a public holiday here in the UK, we just love an excuse to over consume). It started as a day, then it spread to a long weekend, and now, with consumerism at an all time high, it’s an entire week long. In fact…
⁣
⚫️Last year in the UK, shoppers spent £1.49 billlion over Black Friday weekend [Interactive Media In Retail Group via Fashion Revolution] ⁣
⚫️In the USA, more than £6.4billion was spent on Cyber Monday, the highest e-commerce sales day in American history [Adobe Analytics via Fashion Revolution]

A few pointers I just learned from a quick click onto the websites of some of the the UK’s fastest fashion stores…
⚫️@PrettyLittleThing are offering up to 80% off their entire site
⚫️@Missguided are offering up to 90% off everything
⚫️@ASOS are offering 70% off - their ‘biggest ever’

Not only is this level of consumption having a negative impact on the planet, it’s having a negative impact on the PEOPLE who are making these clothes ⚫️ We are producing 80 BILLION pieces of clothing each year - that’s 400% more than the amount we consumed just two decades ago (@truecostmovie) ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
We are being encouraged to BUY BUY BUY as a means to make us think that this will bring us happiness. NEWSFLASH: it doesn’t. And fun fact, NOT SHOPPING IS FREE.

It’s time to ask ‘WHY?’ before you buy. 
If you truly LOVE something, buy it. 
If you don’t, leave it. 
And again, NOT SHOPPING IS FREE!⁣
⁣
♻️#OOOTD (old outfit of the day) : t shirt: @depop, skirt @hurr, jacket, belt + kicks: 4 years old

Venetia La Manna

🌎recovering hypocrite + climate activist
♻️on a mission to slow fast fashion
🌱host of #TalkingTastebuds podcast
🤳🏼@48hourchallenge 2020 retreat👇🏼www.ourretreat.co.uk/retreat/march-27th-30th-2020

If you’re not ready to change your shopping habits and completely boycott the high street, La Manna suggests simply trying to shop less frequently.

“Slowing down our overall consumption can have a huge impact,” she adds.

Rand Paul named the whistleblower and revealed the hypocrisy at the heart of the Republican Party

rand paul is not a real libertarian he is a right wing american who has no clue about libertarianism anymore than he has a clue about what socialism is.

It would be pertinent to remember this the next time right-wing people call themselves 'free speech advocates'

Noah Berlatsky New York January 31,2020

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul today named the whistleblower whose revelations sparked the House impeachment hearing. Paul is, in theory, a libertarian, who believes in the protection of free speech. But in naming the whistleblower, he showed how little his free speech principles are worth — and how the GOP has morphed into a party bent on crushing speech, dissent, and liberty.

The Constitution protects free speech from government interference in part because the founders believed that criticism of those in power was necessary to prevent abuse. Government employees who come forward with information about crimes or abuses are alerting the public, and checking corruption. Even if a whistleblower's information turns out to be incorrect after investigation, it's important to protect the ability of people to speak up and come forward. And you do that by ensuring anonymity and freedom from retaliation.

But instead Rand Paul, a Senator and government actor, chose to reveal the whistleblower's name today on Twitter and in a press conference, after Chief Justice Roberts refused to read out his question because it contained the name in question. The whistleblower has already received death threats; he will now receive many more. Any other potential whistleblowers in the Trump administration and intelligence services are now on notice that if they come forward, Republican members of our government will not protect them. This will have a chilling effect on how our democracy works. Whether or not he realizes the consequences of his actions, Paul has contributed to an atmosphere of fear and oppression. Those who might otherwise have spoken out — about anything at all — will now wonder whether they should instead shut up for the sake of themselves and their families.

Republicans have insisted for some time now that they inhabit the party of free speech; indeed, right-wingers across the world have styled themselves as “free speech advocates” fighting the “leftie language police” and “political correctness gone mad”. Conservative commentators, and many in the center, have lamented campus protest of talks by right-wing figures like Milo Yiannopolous and Charles Murray. They argue that the left is intolerant and unwilling to hear opposing viewpoints, and this could have a harmful effect on education and the future of open discourse.

But student protestors on campus are not in positions of substantial power and authority. In contrast, the right has brazenly and with little pushback cultivated an ethos of intimidation intended to muzzle any critic on the left, or anyone who dares to push against a reactionary agenda. Yiannopoulos himself first rose to prominence as a leader of Gamergate, a floating right-wing harassment campaign loosely connected to video games, which under his guidance quickly spread to other targets. As just one example, in 2016, Yiannopoulos wrote an essay attacking Leslie Jones for her participation in the female-led reboot of Ghostbusters. Her social media accounts quickly filled with horrific racist and sexist abuse. Yiannopoulos and his fans regularly singled out targets large and small in this way; in doing so, they sent the message to leftists, women, and black people that their words and cultural products were being policed, and that they could face vicious, psychologically damaging abuse if they stepped out of line.

Some might dismiss Yiannopolous and his type as clowns or an irrelevant bullies. But the same tactics have been used by the President of the United States. When Trump retweeted a lie that Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had celebrated after the 9/11 attacks, Omar was sent death threats by Twitter trolls. And just this week, the president tweeted about House impeachment manager Adam Schiff, saying he had “not yet paid the price” for his role in the hearings.

This sort of behavior has become a theme for right-wingers, and it’s seriously concerning. Unlike students speaking up against right-wing debaters, such suppression of dissent has serious, tangible risks. It seems that Rand Paul, cheerleader of liberty, would do well to remember that - because today he did his part to make his country a little less free.

How climate-conscious children are forcing their schools to be more eco-friendly

‘Five-year-olds can be incredibly convincing because they are incredibly passionate’

Eleanor Busby Education Correspondent

Students at Pipers Corner School are presenting business pitches on how to be green ( Pipers Corner School )


Young people across the country have caused controversy with school walkouts to demand action on the climate crisis – but they're also forcing change inside the classroom.

As thousands of students prepare to take to the streets again this month, politicians are not the only ones under the spotlight. Pupils are demanding more from their teachers and families.


Children as young as five are presenting business pitches to schools on how to be greener, while pupils are begging their parents to stop engines running outside the school gates and calling on teachers to make school trips closer to home.




The number of eco-conscious students across the country has grown as a result of the movement led by teenage activist Greta Thunberg in recent months and the “Attenborough effect”, headteachers say.

Plastic bottles, straws and Christmas crackers are a thing of the past at some schools after student-led campaigns for the environment.

Best Global Climate Strike protest signs, Friday 27 September 2019
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And pupils are increasingly demanding for school trips to be scaled back and for meat dishes to be replaced to reduce their carbon footprint.

Pipers Corner School, a private girls’ school in Buckinghamshire, has employed an “environmentalist in residence”, believed to be the first of its kind, to address the rising interest among students.

Phil Williams is helping teachers at the school embed lessons on climate issues across the curriculum, including in maths and psychology, and he is urging pupils to look at the school as a business.

A group of five- and six-year-olds wanted a gutter on a shed in the playground to collect rainwater to help the environment, so the headteacher asked them to present the idea to senior leaders at the school.

Helen Ness-Gifford, headteacher of Pipers Corner School, said: “There are eco-groups and teams of students as young as five-years-old who see it as absolutely vital. They are very active.”

On the bid for a gutter, she said: “It wasn’t high on the priorities of my maintenance team so I said ‘girls you are going to come in and present to my finance manager and you are going to convince him why it matters. Five-year-olds can be incredibly convincing because they are incredibly passionate.” 

Read more

Schools move trips closer to home to ‘lower their carbon footprint’

Last year, her students also called for Christmas crackers to be scrapped as they did not want the plastic waste on site. The school had already decided to get rid of plastic bottles and straws.

Meanwhile, at Sheffield High School, pupils are leading a campaign against air pollution. They created posters warning parents against car idling outside the school which were displayed on roads nearby.

Nina Gunson, head of the girls’ school, said: “The posters are very emotive and they are almost following suit in some of the language that Greta Thunberg has used. ‘Turn off your engines and don’t pollute my air’.”

The headteacher said more children are sharing their “dissatisfaction” with policies through eco-committees and they are calling on their families “to be mindful of their world”.
Children created posters to stop parents from engine idling (Sheffield High School)

Television programmes, like Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, have helped raise awareness among pupils of the environmental damage caused by plastic pollution. Children as young as seven at Sheffield High School recently made a business pitch to remove single-use plastics from the canteen.

And they are increasingly questioning the school’s plans for trips and long-haul flights. “Our eco-agenda has really gained more momentum in recent years. It is so important to our girls so they are really leading this more than they have done in the past,” Ms Gunson said.

Pupils now tell their classmates off if they bring in plastic bottles of water, Ms Gunson added. “Greta Thunberg is definitely having an impact but also David Attenborough has had a huge impact.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “There is certainly an increasing appetite among young people for more action on environmental issues, and schools respond to this through things like eco-committees so that it is the pupils who are themselves leading that change.

“This can involve a wide range of activities, including campaigns to save energy around the school site by switching off lights and plug sockets, encouraging parents not to leave their car engines running outside the school gates, and having a meat-free day each week.”

Commercial airlines made more than 1,300 deportation flights for ICE in the last year
Isaac Scher

A detainee, shackled at the ankles, boards an ICE deportation

 flight to Honduras. John Moore/Getty Images

A Newsweek report found that commercial airlines, including some of the biggest in the United States, deported unauthorized individuals on behalf of ICE.

The airlines made at least 1,386 flights between January 1, 2019, and January 16, 2020.
ICE paid discounted fares for the deportation flights.

A new report has found that three of the biggest commercial airlines in the United States made more than 1,200 deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in just over one year.

Commercial airlines made at least 1,386 flights to remove unauthorized individuals from the United States between January 1, 2019 and January 16, 2020. The data, published Friday morning by Newsweek, was obtained by the outlet through a Freedom of Information Act request with ICE.

United Airlines accounted for almost half of the tallied flights, with 677 trips. American Airlines made 345 deportations, and Delta Airlines made 266. Together, the three airlines hold 49.9% of the domestic commercial-flights market, according to the US Bureau of Transpiration.

All the reported flights went to Latin America. Over 80% of them were destined for Northern Triangle countries — Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Honduras received 605 flights, 429 went to Guatemala, and 79 landed in El Salvador.

Three foreign airlines — the Colombian company Avianca, Panama's Copa Airlines, and Mexico's AeroMexico — also flew individuals out of the country on behalf of the US government agency. But in total, their deportations made up less than 0.7% of the reported 1,386 flights.

Alaskan Airlines made one flight for ICE.

Roughly half of all reported deportation flights flew out of airports in Texas and New York. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States. Texas and New York are both in the top-four states by number of unauthorized people. Around 1.6 million live in Texas, and more than 750,000 live in New York.

According to Newsweek, 450 commercial-flight deportations departed from Texas. 280 flew out of New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport.

An American Airlines spokesperson sent an email to Newsweek explaining that US commercial carriers offer discounted fares to ICE for its flights through the City Pair Program (CPP).

Delta, United, American, and Alaskan Airlines all offer CPP-discounted fares to ICE, according to the US General Services Administration.

The Newsweek report found that while a typical flight from JFK to Honduras costs roughly $500, the discounted fare for ICE is as little as $177.

The CPP discount, according to ICE spokesperson Danielle Bennett, is not only for ICE operations.

"It is government-wide," Bennett told Newsweek.

It is unclear whether the commercial flights were for detainees alone. Neither ICE nor any of the airlines responded to whether non-detainee passengers typically traveled on the same flight as unauthorized individuals being deported.

ICE's use of commercial airlines for deportations has been previously reported, but is "hidden in plain sight," according to a report from the George Washington University Center for Human Rights.

The report noted that "only small numbers of deportations take place on commercial flights."

In the 2017 fiscal year, ICE "coordinated the removal of 8,288 aliens via commercial flights and the removal or transfer of 181,317 aliens via charter flights," according to a 2019 report from the US Office of the Inspector General.

Read more:
The government has spent $1 billion in the last decade to deport 100,000 people on planes per year. Here's what 'ICE Air' is like.

A man says he unwittingly recruited foreign-born students to ICE's fake university. He's been sentenced to federal prison and will be deported after his sentence.

A judge who reports his Spanish-speaking defendants to ICE claims 'it's not racial profiling'

A US Air Force veteran was knocked off his feet after learning his watch is worth up to $700,000. Antiques Roadshow/PBS/YouTube

A US Air Force veteran purchased a Rolex for $345 while he was stationed in Thailand in the 1970s.

On a recent episode of "Antiques Roadshow," the veteran found out that the watch was similar to one Paul Newman wore in a film, making it extremely valuable.

He kept the watch in a safe deposit box for nearly 40 years, which increased its value.
In the video, the man falls to the ground after the "Antiques Roadshow" host tells him watches like his sell for $400,000.

The host then says that the watch could actually sell for up to $700,000 at an auction because it's so special.