Brazil authorities probe Amazon ties to capital attacks
  

 An investigation into anti-democratic protests and a recent attack on Brazil's capital is centering in part on areas along an important highway that goes through the Amazon. 

FABIANO MAISONNAVE AND JOSHUA GOODMAN
Wed, February 1, 2023 

SAO PAULO (AP) — On the edge of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the Rovaris family is a symbol of a pioneering success story.

The family arrived in the state of Mato Grosso in the 1970s as part of a wave of agricultural expansion promoted by the country’s then-military dictatorship. In a short span, the Rovaris clan accumulated vast wealth as agronomists figured out how to successfully grow soy in the hostile tropical climate.

Now, the family’s scion, Atilio Rovaris, is being investigated in the sprawling criminal probe into how supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to subvert Brazil’s democracy when they blocked highways right after the election and temporarily took over several government buildings in the capital of Brasilia in early January. Bolsonaro lost October's election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a result that many Bolsonaro supporters don't accept.

Much of the investigation is centered along the northern stretch of highway BR-163, built in the 1970s. It connects two of Bolsonaro’s most substantial support bases. In Mato Grosso, these are Rovaris and other businesspeople from wealthy cities such as Sorriso, Brazil’s largest soybean producer. In Para, they are land-grabbers, illegal gold miners, and loggers who sustain impoverished cities such as Novo Progresso, 700 km (438 miles) north of Sorriso.

Days after the failed takeover, Justice Minister Flávio Dino said that “agribusiness sectors” were among the leading financiers. And Environment Minister Marina Silva said some of the rioters were linked to criminal activities in the Amazon.

“A significant portion of the enraged crowd were individuals who, under the Bolsonaro government, believed their criminal activities, such as deforestation, land grabbing, illegal logging, illegal fishing, and illegal mining, would go unpunished,” Silva told daily Folha de S.Paulo a few days after the Jan. 8 attack.

Bolsonaro won by big margins in population centers along the highway, as many people in theses areas share his view that Brazil needs to push economic growth by rolling back environmental regulations aimed at slowing deforestation. They deem conservation units and Indigenous territories as barriers that undermine agribusiness. Protected areas in the region are reeling from invasions from cattle farmers, loggers and gold miners.

That so much support for Bolsonaro came from these areas could complicate Lula's promise to reach “zero deforestation” in the Amazon, as such efforts will require the buy in of locals and must be joined with sustainable forms of development.

Rovaris, an amateur rally car driver, has made no secret of his support for Bolsonaro. He was one of the biggest donors to his presidential campaign, contributing close to $100,000, according to public election data.

Although no evidence in the fledgling probe has emerged publicly tying him to the rioters who vandalized Brazil’s presidential palace and congress, he is being investigating for alleged support of protests that blocked major highways for weeks in attempts to restore Bolsonaro to power after the lost the elections in October.

In November, a bank account belonging to a trucking company that Rovaris owns was one of 43 frozen by the Supreme Court as part of an investigation into possible crimes against Brazil’s democracy. In total, 30 of the frozen accounts belonged to individuals or companies from Mato Grosso — a sign of how deep support for Bolsonaro remains in one of Brazil’s key economic hubs.

“There is a repeated abuse of the right of assembly, directed illicitly and criminally, to propagate non-compliance and disrespect for the result of the election for president,” Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in the ruling.

Rovaris merely supported Bolsonaro in the campaign and had no involvement in anti-democratic acts, Larissa Gribler, his spokesperson, told The Associated Press. Gribler said Rovaris declined to answer further questions or give an interview.

During his first term as president, between 2003 and 2006, Lula started paving BR-163, a job later completed by Bolsonaro. As part of the environmental licensing to authorize the paving, conservation units were created along the highway. The goal was to “close the agriculture border” to prevent uncontrolled deforestation, as had happened in Mato Grosso.

In the Novo Progresso region in Para state, these conservation units have been largely invaded by land-grabbers, who have fought to annul them. The most prominent example is Jamanxin National Forest, the most deforested federal conservation unit in the Amazon.

A roadblock there lasted several days in November. Footage shows police cars being attacked with stones by an angry mob and a felled Brazil Nuts tree, a protected species, across the road. According to local press reports, about 30 Novo Progresso residents were arrested in Brasilia following the attack. Those included the owner of a sawmill.

"The city relies on illegal activities such as illegal gold mining, illegally harvested wood, cattle raised in off-limits areas within conservation units, and land grabbing,” said Mauricio Torres, a geographer from Para Federal University.

“Bolsonaro supported these illegal activities. And the people are willing to kill and die for it because they have no other option. So I don’t know how Lula will be able to implement the rule of law," he added.

That is a different situation from Sorriso, where initial deforestation and land-grabbing were legalized decades ago, and the economy depends on soybean exports, Torres said.

Just as the profile of the Amazonian strongholds for Bolsonaro differ, combatting deforestation will require different approaches, depending on the place, according to deforestation experts.

Lula's administration will have to act on many fronts, said Brenda Brito from Amazon Institute of People and the Environment, a group focused on sustainable development in the Amazon. It will have to reverse court decisions that have favored land-grabbers inside conservation units and a offer wide range of economic incentives, from forest land concessions to supporting ecotourism.

“Otherwise, even if we manage to remove invaders, the protected areas will be invaded again,” she said.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, stand on the roof of the National Congress building after they stormed it, in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023.

(AP Photos/Eraldo Peres, File)

FIELD TESTED
Arctic cold 'no sweat' for electric cars in Norway

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES, with Elias HUUHTANEN in Helsinki
Wed, February 1, 2023 


Norwegian electric car owners have a word for the way they feel when they look nervously at their battery indicators while driving in subfreezing weather: "rekkevideangst", or "range anxiety".

Tesla owner Philip Benassi has experienced it on cold winter days, but like other Norwegians, he has learned to cope with it.

With temperatures often falling below zero, rugged terrain and long stretches of remote roads, Norway may not seem like the most ideal place to drive an electric car, whose battery dies faster in cold weather.

Yet the country is the undisputed world champion when it comes to the zero-emission vehicles.

A record four out of five new autos sold in Norway last year were electric, in a major oil-producing country that aims to end the sale of new fossil fuel cars by 2025 -- a decade ahead of the European Union's planned ban.

By comparison, electric cars accounted for 12.1 percent of new car sales in the EU in 2022, up from 9.1 percent a year earlier, according to data published Wednesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.

Benassi took the plunge in 2018.

In his gleaming white Tesla S, the 38-year-old salesman for a cosmetics company clocks between 20,000 and 25,000 kilometres (12,400 and 15,500 miles) a year.

Like most new electric vehicle owners, he had moments of panic in the beginning when he saw the battery gauge drop quickly, with the prospect of it falling to zero on a deserted country road.

"I didn't know the car well enough. But after all these years, I have a pretty good idea of how many kilowatts it needs and I know that it varies a lot depending on whether the car has spent the night outdoors or in a garage," he told AFP.

The car uses much more battery when it is parked outside in temperatures that can reach minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit), Benassi said.

"It takes quite a while for it to go back to normal consumption," he added.

In the cold season, how much range electric cars lose depends on the model and how low the temperature gets.

"But the following rules of thumb apply: a frost of around minus 10C will reduce the operating range by around a third compared to summer weather, and a severe one (minus 20C or more) by up to half," said Finnish consultant Vesa Linja-aho.

"By storing the car in a warm garage, this phenomenon can be mitigated somewhat," he added.

- Charging stations -

Drivers must plan their routes before long journeys, but car applications and Norway's vast network of more than 5,600 fast and superfast charging stations help make the process easier.

Electric cars accounted for 54 percent of new car registrations last year in Finnmark, Norway's northernmost region in the Arctic where the mercury has at times fallen to minus 51C -- a sign that the cold issue is not insurmountable.

Other Nordic countries that regularly experience chilly temperatures also top world rankings for electric vehicles -- they accounted for around 33 percent of new car sales in Sweden and Iceland in 2022.

"Now more and more new electric cars have systems for pre-heating the batteries, which is very smart because you get more range and because if your car is heated before you charge, it will also charge faster," said Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.

Electric car owners are not the only ones who have to worry about the cold.

"Actually, if it's very, very cold -- freezing temperatures -- sometimes diesel engine cars can't start and an electric car starts," she said.

- 'Everyone can do it' -

Norwegians are clearly sold: more than 20 percent of cars on Norway's roads are now electric -- and green, with the electricity they consume generated almost exclusively by hydro power.

Norway's longstanding policy of tax rebates for electric cars has facilitated the transition, although the government has begun to roll back some of the incentives to make up for a budget shortfall estimated at nearly 40 billion kroner ($4 billion) last year.

There is "a simple answer to why we have this success in Norway and that's green taxes", Bu said.

"We tax what we don't want, namely fossil fuel cars, and we promote what we do want, electric cars. It's as simple as that," she said.

"If Norway can do this, everyone else can do it as well."

phy/po/rl

YOU FORGOT TO MENTION FARTING
Cow Burps Have a Big Climate Impact. 

Solving That is Harder than You'd Think


Joseph W. McFadden

TIME.COM
Wed, February 1, 2023 


Credit - Illustration by Katie Kalupson for TIME

To slow global warming within the decade, the fastest (and perhaps only) way is to curb emissions of methane—one of the most potent of greenhouse gases with more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. The Global Methane Pledge, launched in 2021, set a target to reduce global methane emissions 30% by 2030, relative to 2020 levels, while enhancing public health and agricultural productivity. It is a goal that can’t be achieved without urgent and widespread reductions in livestock methane emissions.

Agriculture contributes about 40% of total global methane emissions—the bulk of which is belched from grazing livestock due to digestion of dietary carbohydrates. This methane from livestock is part of a natural carbon cycle, but reducing livestock methane using feed additives is key to lowering global methane emissions, as well as enhancing the conversion of dietary energy to meat or milk production without compromising the animal’s health.

Read More: Researchers Reveal the Worst Methane Super-Emitters in the U.S.

In support of the Global Methane Hub’s work to develop a global research accelerator to reduce livestock methane, I engaged in discussions with 20 animal scientists in 11 countries to identify barriers for the acceleration of the discovery and adoption of methane-reducing feed additives. Here are the biggest challenges we identified:
No silver bullet for farm systems, and too much uncertainty

Currently, there is no scalable technology today that provides robust and consistent reductions in enteric methane emissions from the wide array of farm systems that exist in the world. We cannot ask farmers to lower methane emissions without providing them effective, safe, and profitable solutions.

Studies of feed additive supplementation in cattle that span months—even years—are needed to confirm the persistency of methane reduction and animal safety. Diet, environment, management, animal genetics, and their microbiome are expected to uniquely influence the degree of methane reduction for feed additives. However, we have a limited understanding of how these factors impact the short and long-term efficacy of feed additives to inhibit methane production by cows.

Feeding cows seaweed is one solution being discussed, but it has not been properly evaluated by scientists and is plagued by cultivation requirements for broad adoption. Feeding bromoform, the active ingredient in seaweed, could be a potential solution but we must carefully examine its efficacy over time, as well as its toxicity.

Little consideration has also been given to alternative ways of actually delivering methane-reducing feed additives to cattle. Although the common approach in conventional cattle systems is to provide a feed additive in a cow’s diet, this approach may not be suitable for ruminants that graze pasture. Providing the feed additive in water or as slow release capsule provided directly to the cow’s stomach may be more suitable for this farming practice. What’s more, we must also adequately explore early life interventions for cattle, such as dietary feeding strategies or vaccines, which lower cattle’s methane production into adulthood and can minimize the need to provide feed additives daily throughout life.

We also cannot underemphasize the importance for research that evaluates the net impact of feed additives on greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen, and phosphorus excretion in the environment, efficiency of production, as well as the presence of any residues in meat or milk that are of a potential concern to human health.
Farmers in developing nations face high barriers to adopting methane mitigating tech

We cannot achieve a 30% reduction in global methane emissions by 2030 if we ignore subsistence and smallholder farmers in developing nations. They are integral to the agricultural landscape because they provide nutrition, traction, fertilizer, and prosperity to low socioeconomic communities.

Without incentives or government mandates, the cost for purchasing a feed additive, as well as the lack of distribution and absence of prioritizing the adoption of methane-mitigating technologies, are bottlenecks to wide adoption in these farming systems.

In addition, the efficiency of animal production in developing countries, such as those in South Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, is drastically lower than that of the United States or Europe. The cause is poor animal genetics and management, and inadequate animal nutrition to meet the requirements for meat or milk production. Therefore, methane intensity per unit of animal-sourced food is far greater.

In a 2011 study in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, the emission rate was 0.92 and 1.98 in the USA and India, respectively. It is was also estimated that India contributed the highest percentage of global dairy-related CO2-equivalent emissions because milk per animal is low and the population of cattle and buffaloes is high.

To achieve the 30% reduction in global methane emissions by 2030, we must enhance the efficiency of meat and milk production in developing nations but do so without compromising the livelihoods of farmers or their communities. Such possibilities include enhanced nutrient balancing, improved fodder crop production and quality, accelerated use of crossbreeding and reproductive technologies such as in vitro-fertilization and sexed semen, improved veterinary medicine to reduce disease, and enhanced farmer education.

There is a massive investment gap in methane mitigation solutions

Speaking at COP27 in Nov. 2022, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Climate, Rick Duke, said that less than 2% of current climate finance is used to develop methane mitigation solutions. Because of this poor investment, he emphasized that methane emissions are expected to increase, not decrease, by 2030 under a status-quo scenario.

Investment and reform are needed for the regulatory registration of feed additives that reduce methane production. In the U.S., there is no pipeline to accelerate the approval of methane-reducing feed additives proven safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration. The current approach is that products seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine via the New Animal Drug Application (NADA) process, which is oftentimes intensive and lengthy due to its stringent clinical trial requirements. Teams at Cornell University, UC Davis, Environmental Defense Fund, and Global Research Alliance are working to develop standards that define efficacy of feed additives as means to improve the regulatory process and accelerate entry of these technologies onto the marketplace using a streamlined approach.

At the same time, many university facilities in the U.S. that study cattle have been decommissioned or scaled down. Equipment for absolute quantification of greenhouse gasses is limited. Analytical tools to study feed chemistry and metabolism of the animal are defunct or underdeveloped. University faculty positions have gone unfilled to weaken expertise. Not to mention, federal funding for feed additive research is dramatically insufficient considering the strict requirement for intensive studies that confirm consistent methane reduction and safety. The issue is worse in developing countries.

Collectively, these barriers need to be addressed if we have any hope of lowering global methane emissions by 2030. International engagement for the discovery, approval, and adoption of regional solutions that reduce methane from livestock—while also improving human health, food security, and farmer prosperity—must be prioritized.

General Atomics’ air-launched ‘Eaglet’ gets its wings



Jen Judson
Tue, January 31, 2023 

WASHINGTON — A General Atomics Aeronautical Systems-developed unmanned aerial system flew for the first time, launching from another UAS in a demonstration at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah.

The company, which is the manufacturer of the U.S. Army’s Gray Eagle UAS, has named its air-launched effect, or ALE, the Eaglet.

Eaglet launched from a U.S. Army-owned Gray Eagle Extended Range UAS in December as part of a jointly funded effort with the service’s Combat Capabilities Development Army Research Laboratory and Aviation & Missile Center, the unit of General Atomics said in a Jan. 31 statement.

The ALE is “intended to be a low-cost, survivable UAS with the versatility to be launched from a Gray Eagle, rotary-wing aircraft, or ground vehicles,” General Atomics President David Alexander said in the statement. “It enables extended reach of sensors and increased lethality while providing survivability for manned aircraft.”

The Army is pursuing options for both large and small ALEs to bring a variety of capabilities to the battlefield, from targeting to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to providing communications connections and data links.

Eaglet fits into the large category, which General Atomics said translates to having the ability to carry a wide variety of more powerful sensors and payloads.

The company said Gray Eagle is capable of carrying Eaglet for thousands of kilometers before launching it.

Teaming up

Eaglet is intended to contribute to advanced teaming command-and-control capabilities and can work with other long-range payloads that Gray Eagles and other Army aircraft carry “to support deep sensing” in operations. The Army’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, or PEO IEW&S, has taken a specific interest in ALEs as a means to jam, spoof or spy and fight from greater distance.

The next step for the Eaglet is to participate in other exercises to further determine its potential. The command in charge of Army modernization — Army Futures Command — approved an initial capability refinement document for ALE in the fall of 2019.

ALE is meant to be a part of what the Army calls its Future Vertical Lift “ecosystem,” which will include a manned Future Long Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA, another manned Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, or FARA, a Future Tactical UAS and ALE.

“The plan to acquire ALE is through an incremental approach that allows rapid prototyping and fielding of technology to field available capabilities while continuing [science and technology] efforts to mature and transition emerging technologies to fully realize required capabilities,” according to the Army’s fiscal 2023 budget. “This is accomplished through multiple prototype development activities for the air vehicle, payloads, and mission system architecture through experiments, simulations, and demonstrations conducted in parallel and/or sequential timelines.”

The Army is aiming to develop multiple ALE prototypes to be able to more rapidly move capability into the operational force, the documents note, and future increments will upgrade mission systems, payloads and interface to extend the range of ALE for missions in support of Long-Range Precision Fires, meaning ALEs will help enable targeting for weapons systems such as the Extended-Range Cannon Artillery, or ERCA, beyond line-of-sight.

The Army has evaluated multiple payloads on large ALEs including a synthetic aperture radar, electronic warfare capability and communications systems at various experimentation efforts over the past several years.

Air-launched tech was tinkered with during Project Convergence 21, a large-scale networking experiment put on by the Army, and at the Edge 21 exercise, where sensors were used to collect and distribute real-time information.

Avenues to Air-Launched Effects

In 2020, the service awarded 10 small contracts worth a total of $29.75 million to mature technologies in the realm of ALE as it works toward designing complex advanced teaming plans for what it anticipates will be needed as part of the aerial tier of the force in 2030 against high-end adversaries.

Raytheon, Alliant TechSystems Operations of Northridge, California, and Area-I of Marietta, Georgia, were awarded contracts to develop air vehicles while others like L3Technologies, Rockwell Collins and Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation were awarded contracts to develop mission systems.

Payloads development contracts went to Raytheon, Leonardo Electronics US Inc., Technology Service Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, and Alliant.

The efforts were all meant to feed into the Army’s decision-making process as it develops ALE concepts and requirements.

In August, PEO IEW&S boss Mark Kitz said “some tech maturity investments” are expected in 2023. Coordination on ALEs between electronic warfare and aviation camps is in the early stages.

The Gray Eagle has also launched ALEs from other developers such as one built by L3Harris at the Army’s Edge event at Dugway in 2021. The system that flew at the event is capable of flying at more than 200 knots and has a range of more than 300 kilometers. The system had flown just one other time at Yuma, Arizona, in February.

The Army has also heavily tested and evaluated Area-I’s ALTIUS, the Air-Launched Tube-Integrated Unmanned System, over the course of nearly five years, first launching it from a UH-60 Black Hawk from a high altitude in August 2018.

Anduril bought Area-I in April 2021.

At Edge 21, the Army deployed ALTIUS from a C-12 transport aircraft at 18,000 feet and fired them from pneumatic tubes on an all-terrain vehicle on the move.

The Army intends to continue to develop its requirements and strategy for ALE and, according to budget documents, is aiming to release a request for proposals for ALE capability in the final quarter of FY24 and will go into engineering and manufacturing development in the third quarter of FY25.

Colin Demarest contributed to this report.

Unidentified aerial annoyance: Full disclosure or dubious UFO nonsense?

Leonard David

SPACE.COM
Tue, January 31, 2023 

An illustration of a flying saucer above a country road.

The coming year will surely see a persistence of debate, discussion and disbelief regarding anonymous airborne occurrences.

Today they are branded as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP). But perhaps UAP is an off-shoot of "flying saucers" from afar, and once identified, will satisfy those hungry for a governmental confession that over the decades Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have assaulted our atmospheric, as well as mental airspace.

Whatever is at play here, organizations are taking close encounters with weirdness seriously.

What confidently looms ahead is an entire year of UAP and UFO banter. Could 2023 become the year of the great reveal, the "truth" that Earth is on the receiving end of full-body contact with other star folk?


Conversely, will it be one more calendar year that adds up to a nothing burger and confusing brouhaha?

Related: Pentagon releases its long-awaited 2022 UFO report

Truth revealed?

Soon to hit the airwaves is the multi-episode docuseries, "UFOs: Investigating the Unknown." It premiers on the National Geographic TV channel on Feb. 13.

According to National Geographic, it has been over 50 years that the U.S. government has snubbed the discussion of UFOs, "but now, Navy pilots tell of seeing mysterious objects tracking their fighter jets — vehicles unlike anything they've ever seen before; top-secret Naval videos are leaked that captivate the world."

The topic has garnered recent U.S. military and congressional investigation. "At long last, it looks like the truth about UFOs may finally be revealed," National Geographic suggests. Indeed, NASA, and several private organizations are flexing their research muscle into appraising the UAP state of affairs.

More to the point is the ongoing work of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the newly established All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

The 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena is available at ODNI's website.

All this sky-high investigation is meant to get to the bottom of what's up in UFO and UAP sightings.

Exciting data

In the meantime, the upcoming "investigative docuseries" at National Geographic is the product of Leslie Kean, an independent investigative reporter and author of "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record" (Crown Publishing Group, 2010).

Kean says that another ODNI report on UAP is due later this year, to follow the one that was just released on Jan. 12.

"I hope the next one will provide us with more information and case details than the latest one, as I'm sure many others do," Kean told Space.com. A lot could happen this year to make that possible, she feels.

For one, the Galileo Project, led by astrophysicist Avi Loeb at Harvard University, could come up with some exciting data, says Kean. "The Galileo Project is engaged in a systematic scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artifacts. It does not work with classified information or unreliable past data. All discoveries will immediately be made public."

A still from a video taken by a U.S. Navy pilot of an unidentified anomalous phenomenon.

Consolidation of data

Kean underscores the work of the AARO that reports to officials within the U.S. Defense Department and the intelligence community.

"This agency's job is to get the cooperation of all the relevant military services and intelligence agencies. This collaboration allows for the consolidation of data on UAP from a wide range of locations and official data bases."

Congress will be monitoring this process, Kean adds. "It's my understanding that the consolidation of data is a lengthy process and that this has been the major focus of AARO so far, along with building and staffing the operation."
Gold standard

Joining in on the study of UAP is New York-based Enigma Labs, offering a global platform for sightings, explaining that it's the world's first UAP analytics and community platform. "Come search with us," they say, "we're building the gold standard for collecting sighting data and empowering future observers."

By downloading the Enigma Labs mobile app and perusing their website, users can explore a trove of historical and fresh UAP sightings, both from citizens and documented military cases.

"The goal of the app is to continue reducing the stigma around reporting a potential UAP sighting and help drive a fact-based public conversation on the topic," explains Enigma. "Enigma is the first tech-enabled platform to standardize sightings reports and make them queryable and accessible to the public."

Alex Smith, founder of Enigma Labs, notes in a statement: "Our platform already has some of the top experts in the field, including aviators, scientists, former military personnel and more, and we are ready to open up our database to a larger swathe of the general population."

Enigma Labs is offering a new public platform for sighting reports of unidentified aerial objects.

Enticing scientific thinking

Like-minded is the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), a group comprised of over 200 members, including university professors, high-tech and defense industry experts, along with scientists, intelligence specialists and former members of space research organizations.

New federal government interest should be commended, the Coalition says in a statement, "for reducing the stigma in the study of a subject that has long been neglected."

The AARO has come to the same conclusion that the Coalition's UAP research community has found, that a percentage of UAP "appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities and require further analysis."

Nonetheless, the Coalition calls for more information from the AARO regarding UAP characteristics "in order to entice the broader scientific community to engage in the UAP subject."

An illustration of a triangular UFO above powerlines.

Citizen science

Taking note of the fast-paced evolution of private-sector initiatives to scope out UAP is Greg Eghigian, a professor of history and bioethics at Penn State University and a well-known UAP/UFO researcher.

"This kind of citizen science work has been going on in 'ufology' since at least the 1960s, and I suppose you could say it's the very definition of ufology," Eghigian told Space.com. However, he thinks it is fair to say that the equipment today is likely superior to what folks had available in those past days.

But as U.S. government officialdom and private-sector enterprises step forward, armed with ambition and equipment, will amassed data on unknown aerial phenomenon be shared and coordinated?

"I think there is likely to be coordination only within the different silos that exist," Eghigian adds, for example across federal government agencies. "Cohesiveness in this area has always been a challenge."

Eghigian supposes that one might make the argument that different initiatives run by different groups with different methods may actually serve the problem better than a one-size fits all approach. "In the end, however, I'm still not sure where all this is heading and what it all adds up to," he says.
Eroding stigma

RELATED STORIES:

— What's next for UFO studies after landmark congressional hearing?

— NASA hopes new study helps bring UFO research into the mainstream

— 2022 could be a turning point in the study of UFOs

In viewing the UAP matter broadly — if you see it as more than simply addressing the question "what are they?" — Eghigian feels real progress is being made.

"Yes, the stigma surrounding the phenomenon is beginning to erode, but it's still there. That said, given the hype and speculation surrounding UAP, dubiousness is not always unwarranted. It's clear that not everyone at the table is necessarily qualified to speak substantively about the issues at hand," he says.

However, in 2023 alone, Eghigian adds, there is going to be at least three academic conferences on the topic, each one generally focusing on different facets, with input from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

"I think this kind of interdisciplinary approach to studying and discussing the matter, always grounded in careful, empirical research, is welcome and should be encouraged," Eghigian concludes.

What makes archaeology useful as well as exciting? It offers lessons from the past

Shadreck Chirikure, University of Oxford.

THE CONVERSATION

Tue, January 31, 2023 

Great Zimbabwe Shutterstock

Archaeology is fun. It’s so much fun that sometimes people do not treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Studying the past, through what people leave behind, can offer insights into some of the world’s challenges – like hunger, health, and protecting the environment.

Some of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world include Great Zimbabwe, the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China. Side by side with these very old and massive structures are sediments, old bones, seeds, pottery, glass, metals and human skeletons. All yield clues about ancient environments, societies and economies.

Archaeological discoveries sometimes grab headlines: Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt in 1922, the Terracotta Army discovery by local farmers in China in 1974, the spectacular objects of Igbo Ukwu in Nigeria, the gold burials of Mapungubwe and the Staffordshire hoard in England are a few examples that come to mind.

At Great Zimbabwe, the excavation team I lead always discovers interesting things that show how this place was once connected across Africa and with India and China.

Read more: How we found the earliest glass production south of the Sahara, and what it means

But beyond being interesting, what is the value of these discoveries? The short answer is that they offer lessons from human experience. They show us different options that we could think about and modify to suit changing circumstances. Materials, land use, water storage, cultural practices and ways to manage health are just some of the kinds of options I mean.
Lessons from human experience

For example, of the many “gifts” that the Romans gave to the world, concrete is one of the most studied materials. It has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases known to cause global warming and climate extremes. Studies in design and engineering are showing that adapting Roman techniques can improve modern concrete formulations, making them durable and environmentally friendly.

And modern designers have been inspired by research into ancient tiles used in Asian regions such as Uzbekistan.

Learning from the past also promotes balanced approaches to sustainable farming practices. It can lead to responsible planetary stewardship. For example, we can learn about growing traditional crops such as millet and sorghum that are not only nutritious but also help in biodiversity conservation and heritage protection.

Clues to environmental changes can come from unexpected places. One of the most exciting archaeological discoveries I have worked on is the Oranjemund shipwreck. Diamond miners in Namibia stumbled on this in 2008 when dredging sand. A Portuguese ship had sunk in the 1530s and its cargo was on the seabed. Through international collaborations, we rescued 20 tons of copper, nearly 40kg of gold coins, 7 tons of unworked elephant tusks and many other items from the ship.

Work by teams bringing together different scientific techniques, such as stable isotopes and ancient DNA, identified the West African forest region as the source of the elephants hunted for their ivory. Most of that elephant population has since disappeared, through unsustainable consumption.

Read more: Fossil tracks and trunk marks reveal signs of ancient elephants on South Africa's coast

Archaeology also shines a light on the different ways human societies have organised themselves. For example, discoveries of evidence showing the migrations of different groups of people in Africa show the limitations imposed by the national borders created by colonial powers. Before European colonialism, African peoples were connected in different ways. Archaeology presents this African heritage and offers social cohesion as an alternative to xenophobia.
Multidisciplinary discovery

Another value of archaeology is that it uses multiple fields of knowledge to discover and interpret findings. Studies of precolonial African trade, for example, use multiple sources and techniques such as oral and documentary history, languages and archaeological materials analysis to show that communities in southern Africa were networked with each other and those in central and eastern Africa. Archaeologists recovered iron gongs produced in central Africa at Great Zimbabwe together with a coin minted at Kilwa on the Indian Ocean coast. This shows movement of resources and people within Africa – which is once again a goal through the African Continental Free Trade Area.

As heritage, archaeological discoveries also have economic and intrinsic value. Some of the world’s most visited tourism destinations are archaeological sites – Machu Picchu in Peru is one. This goes against the perception that archaeology is all about discovery for discovery’s sake and that it is a luxury in a hard-pressed world.

Archaeology matters because lessons from the past can put solutions on the table, mixing excitement with problem solving.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Shadreck Chirikure, Director, Research Laboratory, 

Professor of Archaeological Science and British Academy Global Professor, University of Oxford

Shadreck Chirikure receives funding from the British Academy, the University of Oxford, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and the University of Cape Town. He is affiliated with the University of Cape Town.

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1.2 million-year-old ‘stone-tool workshop’ uncovered in Ethiopia is oldest ever found


Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, February 1, 2023 

A tan cliff stretching through a valley in Ethiopia contained a collection of black stones that were much more than just rocks, researchers found.

Archaeologists noticed a large deposit of obsidian stones while studying the Melka Kunture archaeological site, according to a study published Jan. 19 in the journal Nature. Looking closer, they noticed the obsidian pieces had been shaped into handaxes.

Researchers uncovered nearly 600 stone tools, almost exclusively made of obsidian, in one section of the cliff side. The artifacts were over 1.2 million years old, the study said. Based on the weathering patterns, the tools were likely found near where they were initially buried.

The rock layer where the “workshop” and tools were found.

Analyzing the handaxes, archaeologists found a “remarkable” amount of “standardization,” the study said. Notably, the handaxes were made of obsidian, a fragile black volcanic rock that is difficult to carve.

“This was a focused activity” for the hominin crafters, researchers said. “The sheer amount of handaxes and debris that had accumulated … suggest that this was an often repeated activity and even a routine one.” The tools provided evidence of “the repetitive use of fully mastered skills” by hominins, the early family of modern humans.

Archaeologists concluded they uncovered a “stone-tool workshop” — the oldest ever known, according to the study.

A researchers holds on of the obsidian handaxes found at the site.

Although tool-crafting dates back 3.3 million years, researchers believed “the use of dedicated ‘workshops’ for tool-crafting” came millennia-later, Vice reported. The finds at Melka Kunture have challenged that timeline.

At Melka Kunture, “hominins were doing much more than simply reacting to environmental changes;” the study authors wrote. “They were taking advantage of new opportunities, and developing new techniques and new skills.”

Excavations at the archaeological site are ongoing and led by a team of Italian and Spanish researchers, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the project.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man 

First, owing to their way of living which meant that the hands had different functions than the feet when climbing, these apes began to lose the habit of using ...

The Melka Kunture site is about 30 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.

CELTIC FEDERATION
Searchers with metal detectors stumble on 2,500-year-old sacrificial site in Poland


Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, February 1, 2023 

Scanning a pasture in Poland, searchers stumbled upon a collection of metallic objects, loops and spirals reemerging from the damp soil thousands of years after being buried.

Volunteers with metal detectors were exploring the landscape around Radzyń Chełmiński when they found something unusual in the peat field, The Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Toruń said in a Wednesday, Jan. 25, news release.

Archaeologists were called in and identified the finds as part of a 2,500-year-old sacrificial site, officials said. Ornamental offerings and human bones were unearthed from three deposits.

Another deposit of offerings.

The sacrificial site is on a peat bog that used to be a large lake, archaeologists said. The offerings were likely dropped or drowned in the lake before being buried for millennia.

Researchers unearthed numerous hoop ornaments — necklaces, bracelets and headbands — linked to the Lusatian culture, officials said. The Lusatian culture, named after the German region where monuments were first uncovered, was a group of tribes that lived in central and Eastern Europe during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, according to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

One necklace stood out, a delicate metal shape likely adorned with glass beads and pendants, officials said.

Excavations also uncovered numerous bronze metal spirals, photos shared by the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Group of History Seekers in a Jan. 25 news release show.

Horse harnesses, fabric remnants and tools made of antler were also found at the site, officials said. Archaeologists noted that some items were likely connected to the Scythian civilization. The Scythians were a nomadic people, skilled at horsemanship, whose civilization centered around modern-day Crimea and reached across Central Asia during 800 to 600 B.C., according to Britannica.

Researchers also pulled numerous fragments of human bones from the boggy field, according to a Jan. 25 news release from Wdecki Landscape Park. The bones indicated that human sacrifices likely took place at the site, park officials said.

The sacrificial site is one of the first of its kind in Poland and one of the northernmost bog sites found in Europe, park and cultural officials said.

Radzyń Chełmiński is a town about 130 miles northwest of Warsaw.

Facebook Translate and Google Translate were used to translate news releases from The Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Toruń, the Wdecki Landscape Park and the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Group of History Seekers.

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60,000-year-old knives give insight into how early humans in Israel butchered animals

Moira Ritter
Tue, January 31, 2023

Along the banks of an ancient lake, buried under tens of thousands of years of sediment, the remains of an ancient hunter-gatherer camp were recently unearthed in Israel.

The discovery was made at the Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), a site along the left bank of the Jordan River, and consists of well-preserved animal remains and stone tools, according to a Jan. 31 news release from the Catalan Institue of Human Paleocology and Social Evolution. The findings date to the Middle Paleolithic era, roughly 60,000 years ago.

After a team of archaeologists worked to excavate the site, researchers carried out in-depth analysis of the stone tools to learn more about how they were used, the institute said.

The Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet dates back to the Middle Paleolithic era, about 60,000 years ago.

The study — which was published Jan. 3 in Scientific Reports and was led by Juan Ignacio Martin-Viveros, a researcher with the institute — analyzed wear marks on the edges of the tools to determine how they were used.

The team of researchers concluded that unlike other remains that have been discovered from the same period, the tools found at NMO were uniquely made before the camp was set up and were not used for hunting, breaking from traditional understanding, according to the study.

Wear marks on the flint points helped researchers determine how the tools were used.

Instead, early hunters used the cutting tools primarily for butchering large game, but also for “hide-processing, bone-scraping, and wood/plant processing,” the study said.

The creation of the tools before reaching NMO exemplifies a “high level of planning and anticipation,” offering a new and unique look into prehistoric life and suggesting that early humans had a great cognitive capacity, researchers said.

The Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet is located along the Jordan River near the Hula Valley in Israel’s northeast region.

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Egyptian Tomb Uncovered With 142 Dogs, 8-Year-Old Child

Tue, January 31, 2023 




(Picture Credit: Aldo Pavan / Getty Images)

Recently, archaeologists uncovered an Egyptian tomb with the body of an eight-year-old child, buried with 142 dogs. Of the 142 dogs, 87% were puppies when they died. As a result, the conditions of the grave have left archaeologists asking questions.

A Tomb Hidden in the Desert

Inside a necropolis near the Fayoum oasis, 62 miles south of Cairo, archaeologists have been working for several years now. There, they’ve been revealing burials dating from the 4th century BC to the 7th century AD, says Heritage Daily. Atef-Pehu, or the twenty-first nome of ancient Upper Egypt. Many ruins lie scattered around the oasis, like Crocodilopolis, dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek.

Reassuringly, zoologist Galina Belova said that after examining the dogs, there was no evidence of violent death. Concludingly, she believed it was likely they all died at once. Interestingly, the dog remains had blue traces of clay. Historically common in Ancient Egyptian reservoirs, the clay suggested the dogs may have drowned.

Contrastingly, there was little evidence to help piece together the child’s story. According to Archaeology, the child could’ve been the dogs’ caretaker, and died alongside them. Notably, the child had a linen bag tied over his head. Actually, the only other burial where this has happened was an execution by an arrow, says the Jerusalem Post.

Dogs Held a Place in Ancient Egypt

Not surprisingly, animal burials were a regular occurrence in ancient Egyptian life. Actually, many Egyptian gods presented themselves as animals. For example, Anubis–the jackal-headed god of the underworld. And, many Egyptians believed animals had souls. For instance, some people even mummified their dogs or used them as burial amulets.

In short, whatever the circumstances may have been for the untimely burial, one thing is certain. There was time and attention paid to burying that child with their beloved dogs. Additionally, the discovery underlines how significant dogs were to ancient civilizations.

The post Egyptian Tomb Uncovered With 142 Dogs, 8-Year-Old Child appeared first on DogTime.