The Shoe's on the Other Foot, or Rather, the Rally Flag is in the Other Hand  

      As I was listening to news reports today it made me start to ponder (yes, I know that can be dangerous).  It was another story about Syria.  The French are urging us, and even goading us a bit to go to action of some kind there.  They have again stated that they have absolute, and undeniable proof that the Syrian government has used weapons of mass destruction - poison gas against its citizens.  The official response from the US is that they need more solid proof.  WOW!  The tables have turned 180 degrees.  
      Just a little over ten years ago the US was the one trying to convince France to join into the fight.  Our people in Washington were telling everyone that they had absolute and undeniable proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  Remember that?  When France wanted more proof, the media went into a huge shaming campaign, and accused the French of being cowards.  Every talk show host had jokes and one-liners for the occasion, and the internet was filled with jokes mocking the French.  
      I think it was Regis, or Letterman, (I can't remember which one), who said "The last time the French wanted proof, it came marching into Paris carrying a German flag."  There was the internet joke that cycled and recycled repeatedly about the French military being crippled due to a fire at the white flag factory.  
      There were people who wouldn't buy or sell French fries, or French toast, and instead they called them "Freedom fries" and "Freedom Toast" instead.  

                                    Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix

      Now it's the French who are all gun ho and leading the charge, while it's the US who are being cautious, and demanding more proof.  I just think that irony is funny.  Are the French people going to refuse to buy or sell American Fries and American cheese now?  Or would they rename these things?  Well, I don't know about the American fries, but I know that with all the varieties of cheese they have there they detest the flavor of American cheese.  They have already renamed it.  They call it "yuck" (or perhaps it is "yuque").  They can't reuse the white flag factory joke either, because our people have been fighting out in that part of the world for well over ten years now. 
      Nevertheless, the French are investigating in Syria, and declare that they have proof that the Syrian government used poison gas against the rebels.  The US is responding that they want more proof.  

The French:  "We have found residue of the gas."  
The US response:  "Maybe it was really something else.  We need more proof."  
The French: "We found poison gas in the tox screen of the victims."  
The US response:  "Maybe they poisoned themselves.  We need MORE proof." 
The French: "We found the government there shipping the poison gas."  
The US response: "there must be a reasonable explanation for that.  We need even more proof."  

      The real point is that for many different reasons Obama and his administration had absolutely no intention whatsoever, under any circumstances whatsoever to get into this conflict in any way whatsoever.  When he stated that the only thing that would make him get into the conflict would be the use of poison gas or other weapons of mass destruction against the rebels, he never thought in a million years that President Bashar Al-Assad would ever really use poison gas against his own people.  Obama thought he was completely safe in making such a statement.  When he declared that as the line to cross, he never thought it would actually happen.  When Bashar Al-Assad actually did use poison gas Obama was backed into a corner that he didn't want to be in.  

       
      Now the only ay he can stay out of the Syrian conflict is to continuously demand more proof, no matter how much proof they have already provided.  He just does not want to get into this one.  He should just say that.  His reasons are numerous.  One, we just don't have enough money to get into any more conflicts.  He's desperately trying to get out of the ones we're in already.  Our soldiers are tired after more than a decade of fighting.  Soldiers deployed and redeployed again and again have lost their marriages over this.  Many have been severely wounded and some have lost their minds.  There isn't much public support for going there for these and other reasons.  Also, they don't want any US weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists.  Finally, no matter how many allies ask, urge, plead and even beg us to go in there, Russia is against it, and there are still enough military people and politicians left over from the Cold War era, who don't want to do anything to make the Russian government mad.  Why was Libya important enough to go in there and help their rebels, but not Syria?  We were in and out of Libya in short order.  The answer:  the Russian government didn't care about Libya, but they don't want us to even think about having any involvement in Syria. 
      France wants to go right in there and help the rebels in their fight for freedom, and stop the slaughter against the civilians.  Our regional ally Turkey is pleading with us to go in there and stop this madness so that Bashar Al-Assad's rockets will stop shelling Turkey's border towns, as he tries to kill any who would escape.  The people of Syria are begging us to help.  An NPR reporter was out there near one of the border towns interviewing refugees after the gas attacks.  The refugees, some sobbing, begged for US intervention and help.  The reporter told them that this just isn't US policy right now.  The refugees then said, "We will never forget this."  That's one potential ally lost forever.  But, as long as Russia doesn't want us to get involved there, that's a price we will have to pay.  

      I am leaving this morning to go camping for a few days.  I will not have a laptop with me, and that wouldn't help anyway.  The place I'm going to doesn't even have decent cell phone service, let alone something like wyfy.  I will be purely vacationing, and enjoying every moment of it (despite the fact that it's supposed to rain - I have a tent stove, and I'm not afraid to use it).  There will be no posts therefore, until I get back on Saturday.  Sorry, there won't be a Science Fridays post this week - maybe I'll post Saturday's as a Science post.  
      This will give some of you, particularly the newer readers a chance to go through the archive and read older posts.  Some of them have long videos attached.  Have a great few days.  I will.   

Sesklo, Starcevo, and Vincas

Sesklo, Starčevo, and Vinčas

      In my posts about early migrations, and the people of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, it may seem that I have been hopping around like a wood tick on a stove top.  I have touched on a culture here and there, and made passing references to others in relation to other subject matters, such as farming, or mass migrations.  I feel it's time to post some of these in chronological order.  I will even post an ongoing timeline to assist with this.  I will be using the accepted dates for these.  

      Let's review.  The hunter gatherers of Europe, who are all genetically tied have lived in those frozen wastes throughout the Pleistocene Glacial maximum.  At their height, one tribe of them, the Solutreans of western France, blocked by glaciers on three sides and by the ocean, turned to the sea ice in search of food.  Many of them got blown off course and ended up in North America.  
      Glaciers began to melt during Boller Interstadial Warming Period, opening the way into North America from the west (the far west - so far west that people call it the far east).  Some Asians from Siberia migrate through the passage.  Some of Jomon Culture moves into China, introducing Ceramics to the rest of the world.  A group of people leave northern Kenya and settle into the Fertile Crescent.  They are now known as the Natufians,  There they harvested wild grains.  
      After this, the Cooling period known as the Younger Dryas began.  The ice sheets grew again, and all the regions around the earth experienced a heavy drought.  The Younger Dryas lasted for about 1500 years.  During this time the cultures that had been harvesting wild grain, planted those grains to survive.  They were successful enough at this that the first cities were built in southern Turkey at Catal Hoyuk, and Asikli Hoyuk.  In the Zagros Mts. Hunter-gatherers captured and bred goats, the first domesticated animals.  After that others tried and succeeded in domesticating sheep, cattle, chickens, and donkeys. 
      When the Younger Dryas ended so did the drought.  As water returned, farming spread out from the river systems.  This caused a huge population bloom, due to an ample, steady supply of food.  Between 8000 and 7000 BC descendants of the Natufians had spread out to all arable land throughout the Fertile Crescent, to the Indus River Valley on one side, and all the way across Asia Minor on the other, and all the way down the Nile River Valley.  
      With nowhere else to go, some of them crossed over to Greece near the present day town of Sesklo.  They had to use new techniques there.  All of Europe was a dense forest that had to be cleared away to do anything.  Therefore they couldn't just sweep through their new land.  They could only settle in pockets and spread out from there.  On the plus side of things, rain was plentiful enough that they didn't have to irrigate.  In Europe other plants were added to their farming repertoire.  They had various vegetables that were native to the area, which they also learned to plant.  After about a thousand years or so, Sesklo itself became a huge city, and smaller farming communities filled the region.  As they spread out, it was time again for some of them to move out farther.  
      New colonies were established in Serbia, and Hungary.  During this phase, these farmer descendants of the Natufians hacked colonies out of the thick forests all the way to the Atlantic coast - to Spain, France, England, Ireland, Skara Brae, and Doggerland.  One would like to think that these people mingled readily with the hunter-gatherers who already lived there, but genetic evidence shows that this wasn't the case.  There was some mingling that went on, but the percentage of their genetic markers among the farming people who invaded them is not high enough to regard such a notion.  Most likely the hunter-gatherers were wary of these newcomers, and for the most part avoided them, as they wandered along in search of game.  There was enough mingling, however for some of their religious rituals to be adopted and adapted by the farming cultures. 
      The first two expansion colonies were in Hungary and Serbia, and are known as the Starčevo, and Vinčas Cultures.  By about 5000 BC these two cultures were thriving.  They each developed their own distinct styles of pottery (pottery didn't arrive that far west [from the Jomon Culture] till after Sesklo had been established as a full fledged city - once it did, it spread through Europe like a wildfire). Their pottery was somewhat acorn shaped with a wide rim for hanging.  The rim was decorated with two variations of a flame motif (one style for Vinčas, another style for Starčevo).  When viewed from above they looked like the sun.  They also made little anthropomorphic and zoomorphic statuettes.  Each of them also had statuettes in different versions of the "mother" or "Doni" figure, which had been an important part of worship for the hunter-gatherers before them. 
      In the Vinčas Culture they also developed what is regarded by some as the first alphabet (this includes myself - I have read arguments for both sides, and the alphabet evidence seems most valid).  Writing didn't reach Egypt or the Harappan Culture of the Indus River Valley until a couple thousand years later.  The Vinčas Civilization had a full set of symbols that they used.  Artifacts such as the Tatania Amulet show that these symbols were used in a way that is not just mere decoration, but rather as a system of writing.  
      What I find extremely interesting about this is that there is not one of these symbols that is not also found among Native American petroglyphs.  These can be seen in the images below.  People crossed over before.  There's no evidence to say that other people didn't cross over again.  Actually the evidence shows that many people throughout the ages made the Atlantic crossing. 

This amulet from Vinčas is what is known as the Tatania Amulet.  Here you can see that the Vinčas symbols were used as a form of writing. 

Bright Flash On the Moon

      In March a bright flash was visible on the moon.  The flash didn't last long, but according to NASA it was as bright as a 4th magnitude star.  It was caused by a meteor impact.  During the same period as the impact, there were also several meteors visible in the Earth's skies.  The Earth-Moon system had passed through a debris field of some kind.  

 
       These chunks of space rock weren't very large, not scary large anyway.  They were about the size of  large rocks and the one that struck the moon was the size of a boulder.  It was about 90 pounds (40 kg), and about a foot wide.  If that one would have hit the Earth's atmosphere, it would have been seen as a very long and bright streak.  
      Having no atmosphere to burn these up, the moon gets pelted by even the smallest meteors.  The atmosphere of the Earth protects us from most meteors.  Except for the very large ones, they all just burn away as a bright flash in the sky.  
      This meteor was seen by a video analyst of the Marshall Space Flight Center's monitoring system, a part of NASA's Lunar Monitoring Program.  Started in 2005, NASA put the Lunar Monitoring Program into place to watch the Moon for impacts.  Since the program began they have recorded over 300 strikes to the Moon's surface.  According to the NASA spokesman of the project, March's impact was so far the largest. 

                                           Artist's rendition of a lunar impact

                      All the recorded lunar impacts since the monitoring program began


      You can watch this impact, and get more of the details right from NASA in the video below.  

Dollars and Scents 

      As we move into an increasingly cashless society having real, actual money in your pocket seems to be less alluring as it once was.  It is written right on our money "This is legal tender for all debts, public and private."  Nevertheless, there are a few places of business that refuse to accept cash (these same won't accept checks either).  This really isn't the norm (yet), but they have signs displayed in their establishments saying something on the order of "Credit Card Transactions Only."  I think that these places are afraid of being robbed.  Of course, online purchases are cashless.  Just try to pay a fine at the courthouse with cash (I know someone who tried).  If you protest it by showing them the quote written right on the bills, you will be escorted to someplace you don't want to go.  
      There are people who just aren't as enthusiastic about cash as they once were.  Our cash here used to always be just the same shade of green, with black printing on the front, and a dark green ink on the back.  We used to look at all the colors of money from other countries and jokingly call it "Monopoly Money."  Then in an attempt to make counterfeiting more difficult, and make our cash more appealing the mints started to revamp our money, so that now we also have "Monopoly Money."  

      All over the world there are little things being done to make money look better.  There are ghost images, watermark type images, and even some cases of holographic images being added to the bills.  Images of famous artists, scientists, explorers, and such are put on their bills, rather than just political leaders.  Up in Canada they have raised the bar for making cash more attractive again, or so many people insist.       
      Up here in Northern Minnesota, we love the Canadians (or Cannucks, as we call them).  They talk the same way as us (with the exception that they have a few people up there in Thunder Bay region, for instance who have a heavy Scottish brogue, or the French speakers living near Winnipeg - and yes there is that entire province that speaks French only, but they're SO different that it's hard for me to think of them as Canadians).  Up here, their coins at least are accepted the same as our own.  It is not at all uncommon to get Canadian dimes or quarters in our change.  They even have the same denominations as we do (they don't have nickels though).  They like fishin', eh, and so do we.  We are a huge hockey state, and the Cannucks love their hockey too.  We have many other similar likes, dislikes, and interests; including, and not limited to snowmobiles, walleyes, northern pikes and muskies, moose, deer, a disgust for interfering political schemes, guns, rivers, lakes, and lots of trees, and delicious maple syrup.  

      We are only a little over 100 miles from the border here.  I have discussed this very thing before with friends of mine from the former, but still great Canadian rockin', folk band Tanglefoot.  While sitting around at a mutual friend's house one evening they mentioned that most of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the border.  I told them that I think of Canada as the very northern part of Minnesota, and they replied that they consider Minnesota to be one of their long lost provinces. 
      This is why I find this story so interesting.  People in Canada are claiming that the Royal Canadian mint has added a scent to their money.  They say that their larger denomination bills smell like maple syrup.  They go on to say that the smell is increased if you scratch or wrinkle the money.  Officials, on the other hand insist that no such thing has been done, but the "believers" are not so easily dissuaded.  Officials are getting calls from all over the country with questions about the maple syrup smell to their cash.  An official stated in an interview that he was asked by a woman if her bill was still good if the smell went away, or if it had expired.  

      Actually I kind of wish they did really put a maple smell in their money.  A possible theory (my own theory) is that maple actually came out of the pores on people's skin while handling the money.  

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      Related, but not related to this, there was a neighborhood in some eastern city (sorry, I don't remember which one) that was evacuated for a possible gas leak.  after searching all over for the leak, they found the culprit.  Several cases of scratch and sniff cards with the smell of natural gas had been thrown into a dumpster.  After the garbage truck picked them up, the crusher made them all activate.  The cards had been part of a failed attempt to make people aware of the smell of natural gas.