Author: sharonstjoan

Western armies lose no matter how big and well-equipped they are because the insurgents are fighting on home ground. – Gwynne Dyer

I will never kneel before such a destructive force (as the Taliban),” declared Ashraf Ghani, the soon-to-be ex-president of Afghanistan. “We will either sit knee-to-knee for real negotiations at the table, or break their knees on the battlefield.” Good luck with that, Ashraf.

General Sami Sadat, still commander of Helmand province as I write this (although perhaps not by the time you read it), was equally confident, but warned that the safety of the world is at stake: “This will increase the hope for small extremist groups to mobilise in the cities of Europe and America, and will have a devastating effect on global security.”

And how did it all come to this? Ashraf Ghani pointed out that it is obviously America’s fault. “The reason for our…

https://qz.com/africa/1996308/what-do-we-know-about-human-evolution/

ByEleanor Scerri

Independent Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryApril 17, 2021

Our species,Homosapiens, rose in Africa some300,000 years ago. The objects that early humans made and used, known as the Middle Stone Age material culture, are found throughout much of Africa and include a vast range of innovations.

Among them arebow and arrow technology, specializedtool forms, the long-distance transport of objects such asmarine shellsandobsidian,personal ornamentation, the use ofpigments,water storage, and art. Although it is possible that other ancestors of modern humans contributed to this material culture in Africa, some of the earliest Middle Stone Age stone tools have been found with the oldestHomo sapiensfossils foundso far.

The textbook view…

Don’t count on aliens.

https://www.engadget.com/proxima-centauri-strange-radio-signal-164510331.html

Jon Fingas,@jonfingas3h agoComments230Shares

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Astronomers have encountered a mystery surprisingly close to Earth. TheGuardianandScientific Americanhave learned thatBreakthrough Listenastronomers using the Parkes telescope in Australia discovered a strange radio signal coming from Proxima Centauri, the star system closest to the Sun. The signal occupies an oddly narrow 982MHz band that’s unused by human-made spacecraft, yet not possible through known natural processes. The frequency shifts up, too, rather than down like you’d expect for a planet.

Don’t count on this as a sign of aliens. Although Proxima Centauri does host apotentially habitable planet, the signal hasn’t been detected since its…

Morgan McFall-Johnsen 20 hours ago

https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-solar-system-most-distant-object-farfarout-2021-2

• Astronomers discovered a planetoid orbiting the sun further than any known object in the solar system.
• Called “Farfarout,” the object orbits the sun every 1,000 years.
• Objects like Farfarout could help astronomers figure out whethera massive planethides in the outskirts of our solar system.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Astronomers have discovered the most distant object ever found in our solar system.

The planetoid — the term for a small chunk of rock or dust or ice orbiting the sun — is appropriately nicknamed “Farfarout,” after the previous record-holder, “Farout,” which was discovered by the same astronomers in 2018. After years of observing the object’s trajectory across the sky, that team of researchers announced on Wednesday that they could confidently say Farfarout is, well, much farther out than any solar-system object seen…

• Story by Peter Brannen
• MARCH 2021 ISSUEPLANET
• https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/extreme-climate-change-history/617793/

A new guide to living through climate change.Robinson Meyer brings you the biggest ideas and most vital information to help you flourish on a changing planet.

Photo Illustrations by Brendan Pattengale | Maps by La Tigre

Images above:Glaciers from the Vatnajökull ice cap, in Iceland

Brendan Pattengale is a photographer who explores how color can convey emotions in an image. In his photo illustrations throughout this article, the colors of the original photos have been adjusted, but the images are otherwise unaltered.

This article was published online on February 3, 2021.

We live ona wild planet, a wobbly, erupting, ocean-sloshed orb that careens around a giant thermonuclear explosion in the void. Big rocks whiz by overhead, and here on the Earth’s surface, whole continents crash together, rip apart, and occasionally turn inside out, killing nearly everything. Our…