Time to Indict Mayorkas

Mexico Elects First Female President

An ancient Olmec monument symbolizing the entrance to the afterlife has finally been restored to its former glory and returned to its ancestral home, almost 3,000 years after it was sculpted. The enormous Portal al Inframundo (Portal to the Underworld) is thought to have been looted in the 1960s, yet was only brought back to Chalcatzingo in central Mexico following a decades-long investigation into its whereabouts.Located in the state of Morelos, Chalcatzingo was an important Olmec site that is famous for its enormous sculpted monuments. Among these was the Portal to the Underworld, which depicts the gaping jaws of a mythical feline figure, forming an opening that represents the threshold of the spiritual realm.The piece has been dated to the Preclassic period, and is thought to have been created sometime between 800 and 400 BCE. Unfortunately, however, the monumental artwork was ransacked shortly after it was discovered in the mid-20th century. In order to transport the piece, thieves had to significantly reduce its size and weight, and used mallets to smash much of the bulk without damaging the main facade. They then smuggled the artifact over the border to the US, where it began its journey through the illegal antiquities trade network.In 1968, the sculpture appeared in a museum in New York under the title of "Monster of the Earth". It was here that archaeologist David Grove first encountered the portal, immediately noting its Olmec flavor and linking it to the other enormous engravings at Chalcatzingo.For instance, the great feline’s eyes appear to take the form of the Olmec cross, while the corners of the creature’s mouth are decorated with bromeliad flowers, which also appear on other monuments at Chalcatzingo. However, as the relic continued to circulate through the black market, it became harder and harder to trace its origins.It wasn’t until the start of this century that the thread was finally picked up by Mario Córdova Tello from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). After coming across a description of the portal written decades earlier by Grove, Córdova Tello began to retrace the artifact’s steps from museum to museum, eventually gathering enough evidence to prove that the item had been illegally removed from its home in Chalcatzingo.Finally, on May 19, 2023, the Portal to the Underworld was repatriated to Mexico. Fittingly, Grove died less than a week later, making his own passage through the doorway to the next world just as his life’s work was completed.In the year since then, experts have been meticulously restoring the ancient monument, undoing the damage caused by traffickers who had sought to reduce it to a more discrete size. Using the same materials with which the portal was originally crafted, researchers have now filled in the defects left by these looters, expanding the relic to its original size of 1.8 by 1.5 meters (5.9 by 4.9 feet). Now returned to Chalcatzingo, the Portal to the Underworld has finally completed its round-trip to the abyss and back.

During the 16th century BCE, prehistoric people in what is now Armenia placed a 3.5-meter (9.8-foot) tall basalt stone over a barrow. Buried below the stone were the remains of an adult woman and two newborn children. At first, researchers believed the babies were twins, but new analysis suggests a more complicated and remarkable relationship.So called “dragon stones” are stelae – upright stone slabs or columns – that depict animal imagery. They are typically found in the mountains of present-day Armenia and the neighbouring regions of southern Georgia and Eastern Turkey.It is thought the stones are named after local folk stories concerning dragons that take the form of bulls, fish, or snakes in the mountains, which serve as guardians of water and thunder.To date, around 150 dragon stones have been discovered. Typically, they are found collapsed and hidden in secluded areas where there is plenty of water, like mountain meadows. There are thought to be three types of dragon stone, as identified by archaeologists: those with fish-shaped carvings (piscis); those that look like the remains of bovids, like goats, sheep, cows and so on (vellus); or a mix of the two (hybrid).The dragon stone with the two babies buried below it is an example of the vellus style. It shows the hide of a bovid flopped over the top of the stone. “The hide”, as the researchers explain in their paper, “descends from the top of the stone to the back, ending in a tail with a multi-spiral bundle.”“The bovid’s ears and the horns with arches descending on either side of the head are clearly distinguishable. A liquid flowing from the mouth of the bovid may represent water, blood, or a synecdoche of both.”The dragon stone at the burial site, with a line drawing by A. Hakhverdyan showing the depiction of the bovine animal that allows it to be classified as the vellus style.Image credit: Bobokhyan et al, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2024 (CC BY 4.0); drawing credit: A. HakhverdyanThe stone was discovered in 1980 in an ancient cemetery called Hamaliri taratsk close to the village of Lchashen, in a plateau near Lake Sevan, Armenia. This whole area has previously yielded valuable archaeological information regarding the lives of Bronze and Iron Age peoples living in South Caucasus.After some initial examination of the stone in situ, it and other materials excavated from the burial site, were transported to the Metsamor Historical-Archaeological Museum Reserve.The barrow chamber was buried about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) below the surface and had a pebble filling. It contained broken pottery and other artifacts, animal bones, and the remains of a human skeleton (believed to be that of an adult woman).Unfortunately, the woman’s bones are now missing. They were apparently sent to Russia in the 1980s for further analysis and have not been located since then. But the bones of the two infants – referred to as Dragon1 and Dragon2 – remain. In fact, they were not even detailed in the original publications regarding this barrow.Anthropological analysis confirmed that the remains of Dragon1 and Dragon2 belonged to children between 0 and 2 months of age. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed that they both died sometime between 1616-1503 BCE.However, this analysis alone cannot determine whether the babies died and were buried together at the same time. It is possible they may have been born at separate points in this time range and were placed in the same grave, years or decades apart. But the researchers believe this is unlikely.This is because, from an archaeological perspective, the burial site does not appear to be a multigenerational tomb. As they explain, "multigenerational tombs are not attested among the over 400 tombs excavated at Late Bronze Age Lchashen, nor are they in any other contemporary necropolis in Armenia.”If they are correct, then the two babies were likely buried together. The genomic evidence indicates that they were second-degree relations, sharing around 25 percent of DNA. This is a strange puzzle.“Biologically speaking”, the authors write, “this may result from the two individuals being (a) half-sisters, (b) aunt (likely maternal) and niece, (c) double-cousins or (d) grandmother (likely maternal) and granddaughter.”Given that barrow is not likely a multigenerational tomb, we can eliminate several of these possibilities. It is not likely that the infants belong to a grandmother and a grandchild, of course, nor is it likely that the individuals were aunt and niece. This scenario would require one parent and their offspring to each have a daughter and to lose them at the same time.This then suggests that the babies may have been half-sisters (based on mitochondrial analysis and other information). If so, then this is a rare example of heteropaternal superfecundation, the situation where a mother carries twins from different fathers. However, the exact relationship between the pair cannot be determined from the DNA data alone.If the adult skeleton were still available for analysis, it may be possible to shine greater light on their relationship, but that is not currently an option.Nevertheless, the mystery is significant. As the researchers explain:“The event envisaged by the burial is in any case exceptional, both from the point of view of genetics and from the archaeological viewpoint. In Late Bronze Age Armenia in general and at Lchashen in particular, burials of children are rare and the burial of two newborns combined with a monumental stela is unique.”Ultimately, they argue, the exceptional nature of the individuals buried at this site may well explain why they were placed under a monument as important as a dragon stone.The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

An international team of astronomers has announced the detection of two of the earliest and most distant galaxies known. The light of both of them comes from just 300 million years after the Big Bang and it was possible to observe them only thanks to the power of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).The galaxies are located in a region near the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the famous observations by the Hubble Space Telescope showing some of the most distant galaxies known at the time. JWST's larger mirrors and infrared capabilities allowed astronomers to see even farther into the universe.“These galaxies join a small but growing population of galaxies from the first half billion years of cosmic history where we can really probe the stellar populations and the distinctive patterns of chemical elements within them,” Dr Francesco D’Eugenio of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, one of the team behind the discovery, said in a statement.The results are part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) and they are known as JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1, with the former slightly more distant than the latter. The team was able to conduct a spectroscopic survey of the galaxies, breaking their light into a rainbow. Using this rainbow, the researchers were able to work out how far away they are and what kind of chemical elements were present. This is possible because chemical elements interact with light at specific wavelengths. And that is not all. Due to the expansion of the universe, light is redshifted. This is similar to the Doppler effect, which changes the pitch of an ambulance’s siren if the vehicle is approaching or receding. In the case of these galaxies, their light is stretched out to extreme wavelengths.“We are seeing extra emission from hydrogen and possibly even oxygen atoms, as is common in star-forming galaxies, but here shifted out to an unprecedented wavelength,” said Jakob Helton, a graduate student at the University of Arizona and lead author of one of the papers detailing the discovery.JADES-GS-z14-0 is small compared to the Milky Way, but mighty. It is 1,600 light-years across and is forming stars at a rate 20 times faster than our own quiet galaxy. Before JWST, astronomers didn’t expect galaxies to become big, bright, and massive very quickly, but galaxies like this suggest that this is definitely a way that they can grow.“JADES-GS-z14-0 now becomes the archetype of this phenomenon,” said Dr Stefano Carniani of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, lead author on the discovery paper. “It is stunning that the Universe can make such a galaxy in only 300 million years.”JWST is designed to look for the most distant galaxies yet discovered, so expect this current record holder to be replaced relatively soon. These observations suggest that objects significantly closer to the Big Bang might soon be found.“We could have detected this galaxy even if it were 10 times fainter, which means that we could see other examples yet earlier in the Universe—probably into the first 200 million years,” said Brant Robertson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and lead author of a third paper on the team’s study of the evolution of these galaxies. “The early Universe has so much more to offer.”The papers related to the discovery are waiting for peer review, but have been posted to arXiv. The Carniani paper confirmed the distance, the Helton paper is all about the galactic properties, and the Robertson paper provides insights into how such a galaxy managed to grow so big in such a short time.

Several fossil remnants of a huge bird called Genyornis newtoni, including the first intact skull, have been described, offering insight into the lifestyle of the last of the giant thunder birds that once roamed Australia. If you think Australia’s existing fauna are terrifying, take a look at what used to inhabit the continent. A starring role goes to the Dromornithidae (also known as mihirungs or thunder birds), which include what is thought to have been the largest bird that ever lived, Dromornis stirtoni.  By the time the first people reached the continent, Dromornis and many other mihirungs were long gone, but at least one member of the family remained. Whether through hunting, egg consumption, or the widespread use of fire, humans quickly spelled its doom.At 230 kilograms (500 pounds), G. newtoni was about half the weight of its heaviest ancient relatives – but it was still one of the largest birds humanity has ever encountered, making it a subject of much interest. Nevertheless, it has taken 128 years from first being scientifically described for us to get much idea of how it looked and lived.A comparison of the size of Genyornis newtoni, a human, and modern birds, including the cassowary – which, while not related provides a comparison for how scary the thunderbirds could be.Image Credit: Phoebe McInerney.The original skull used in the scientific description was; “Transported to Adelaide on camel and stuck together with flour and water” to repair the damage, Flinders University PhD student and study co-author Jacob Blokland told IFLScience. “There was lots of artistic license in the reconstruction.” For more than a century nothing better was found.The original skull was found at Lake Callabonna, and subsequent scientists have been aware there are plenty more Genyornis fossils there, along with others that reveal life in a long-lost wetland. However, Blokland explained; “It’s on private land, very hard to get to and has sandstorms.” To make things worse, the site is now a salt lake, and as soon as fossils removed from it dry out the salt starts breaking them up. Visits by paleontologists have been few and far between. Eventually, however, the lack of an intact G. newtoni skull was too much, and Dr Trevor Worthy organized a series of visits, which returned with several high-quality specimens.Some of the valuable fossils used to reconstruct G. newtoni accurately for the first time.Image Credit: Jacob C. BloklandThese reveal a bird that could walk comfortably, but still retained a heavily aquatic lifestyle. Specifically, it has features that allow modern-day waterfowl to seek food underwater without ingesting unwelcome quantities of water. Blokland told IFLScience that Genyornis probably; “Walked long distances between ephemeral wetlands,” and would have eaten any fruit it encountered on the way, but relied heavily on the foods those wetlands offered after rains. “We imagine it was an ecosystem engineer, crashing around in the reeds and uprooting things.”The specimens reveal a braincase described as “massive” in the paper – but according to first author PhD candidate Phoebe McInerney, that doesn’t mean G. newtoni was smart. “Their brains were smaller than you would expect. Normally the braincase is very close to the brain.” McInerney told IFLScience. G. newtoni instead filled the space with airy bone. “Brains are very energy and nutrient-hungry. If you don’t need more brain, then its more energy-efficient to fill the space up with bone.” Words some people seem to have taken to heart.Artistic reconstruction of the skull of Genyornis newtoni, revealing its large braincase and its remarkable beak.Image Credit: Jacob C. BloklandThe braincase grew, McInerney said, not to make room for brains, but to support beaks capable of eating large fruit. McInerney noted there are reports of trees clinging on in isolated Australian locations that produce fruits that no surviving species, humans aside, can distribute. It’s possible Genyornis was once responsible for their spread, like a true version of the avocado myth. The beak the braincase supported is particularly interesting. “Genyornis newtoni had a tall and mobile upper jaw like that of a parrot but shaped like a goose, a wide gape, strong bite force, and the ability to crush soft plants and fruit on the roof of their mouth”, McInerney said in an emailed statement. The Dromornithidae have been labelled the “demon ducks of doom” for their huge size and relationship to living waterfowl. Blokland noted the relationship may be closer to the South American birds known as screamers and Australia’s magpie goose. However, he added; “The term goose can cover quite a wide range – it really just means a long-legged waterfowl that has become a bit more terrestrial. On that basis this Genyornis certainly qualifies. At a weight fifty times even a large living goose, the team thought the term “gigagoose” was appropriate.A final feature of Genyornis revealed by the new specimens is a distinctive casque on its head. Whether this was for sexual signaling is unknown.The study is published in the journal Historical Biology

On Thursday's Morning Joe, to keep hope alive for President Biden's chances in the 2024 election, co-host Joe Scarborough clung to an article by Nate Cohn of the New York Times like a drowning man to a life vest. Here's the gist of Cohn's theory: "The polls are not perfect. They've been off before, and they'll be off again. They wouldn't really need to be off-target by much at all for Mr. Biden to squeak out a victory. But even if the polls were exactly right, in the sense that Mr. Trump would win if the election were held tomorrow by the precise margins implied by the recent polls, Mr. Biden would still have a very real chance to win in November." Note that, per Cohn, even if things fell into place Biden's way, he would likely win with the bare minimum of 270 Electoral College votes. Scarborough also boasted about having predicted in 2016 that Trump could win, omitting the fact that just a few days before the 2016 election, he told worried Democrats to "Just relax. Don't go under your bed and get in the fetal position and get your Cheetos out. It's going to be OK. I think Hillary is still going to win." And speaking of Joe's paltry powers of prognostication, in 2018 Scarborough predicted that Trump wouldn't run in 2020!     Inevitably, Scarborough also worked in the fact that he had been a congressman. He boasted that in his first run, while his opponents were wasting their time waving to crowds at fairs, he was going door to door, putting up yard signs, etc. In early May, we noted a furious Scarborough accusing the New York Times [!] of rigging its polls against Biden, in order to drum up the basis for multiple follow-up articles. When, on that show, panelist John Heilemann cautiously expressed doubts about Scarborough's conspiracy theory, Joe angrily rebuked him. Today, perhaps in an effort to butter up the guy who controls his appearances on Morning Joe, Heilemann suggested that The Times had listened to Scarborough's tirade, and that it had published Cohn's article as "a useful corrective." That was some serious sycophancy, Heilemann! Instead of subscribing to Cohn's theory, Scarborough could just as easily have discussed this recent column by respected, non-partisan election analyst Sean Trende: "Are We Too Bearish on Trump?" in which he makes the case that the race is not the toss-up most analysts claim and that Trump was actually leading. Trende ascribes analysts' unjustifiably bearish view of Trump's chances in part to "deeply internalized biases [emphasis added]: "Most of us very much do not want it to be the case that Trump is the favorite. Our degrees of revulsion at the idea of Trump again occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. vary widely, but it’s definitely the predominant view." But of course, Scarborough would never mention Trende's analysis. Joe wants to buck up the Biden base, and cheer up his phone buddy, The Big Guy in the Oval Office. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: MSNBC's Morning Joe 5/30/24 6:04 am EDT MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Amid reports of hand-wringing from Democrats about President Joe Biden's re-election chances, the New York Times is out with a new piece this morning entitled, "Perhaps lost in the polling: The race for president is still close." In it, chief political analyst Nate Cohn writes that November's election will likely come down to just three states, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Where have we heard that before, Joe? As Cohn points out, Biden could lose every other swing state, but if he wins those three, he will most likely win a second term.   . . .  As Cohn puts it, quote, Biden has already done what would ordinarily be considered the hard part. The polls are not perfect. They've been off before, and they'll be off again. They wouldn't really need to be off-target by much at all for Mr. Biden to squeak out a victory. But even if the polls were exactly right, in the sense that Mr. Trump would win if the election were held tomorrow by the precise margins implied by the recent polls, Mr. Biden would still have a very real chance to win in November.  . . . JOE SCARBOROUGH: I'll just say, in 2016, people freaked out when we said that Donald Trump could win. In 2020, I've even dared to say how likely I think it is that Joe --or in 2024, how likely I think it is that Joe Biden will win. Cause I know everybody will freak out and say that I've got my head in the sand. You look at the numbers. You look what Biden's sitting at right now. You look at the fact he's had a low-water mark. You look at the fact that the two areas that he should be having the most problem with, white voters and men, older men, he's actually -- older Americans, he's actually doing very well. . . .  What I always talk about is blocking and tackling. They are lights ahead right now, light years ahead, the Biden team is, of organizing on the ground. Is this, is this a pep rally for Joe Biden? No, it's not. I'm just -- I'm just, just like it wasn't a pep rally for Trump in '16 when everybody said, no, he can't win. Yeah, he can. He can get 270. We were mocked and ridiculed and abused because we predicted the hurricane was coming in September and October. . . .  The stupidity I've been listening to over the past several months, about how this race is over and, you know, Democrats are freaking out and Trumpers are so overconfident. John Heilemann, it's just absolutely insane.  It reminds me when I ran the first time. I would drive past state fairs, and I would see all of my opponents. And they wouldd be waving to people at state fairs. And I would drive by laughing. And then I would go to a neighborhood where I knew there were -- what I called supervoters, who voted every two years. And while they were waving at tens of thousands of people, I was knocking on doors, shaking hands, planting yard signs. It's how I won! I didn't have money. Nobody knew who I was. But it was targeted. This political race this year is targeted. It's basically about 7, 8, 9 congressional campaigns. In Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania. And I thought the Nate Cohn article yesterday explained this better than any I've seen. ANd explained why Biden, man, Biden's as good a chance as he had in 2020. Right now. JOHN HEILEMANN:  Well, good morning, Joe. And I will say, the last time we were talking about The New York Times on the air, you and I were having a healthy, spirited exchange. And, you know, you were pretty angry, annoyed, irritated at the -- at that last wave of Siena battleground state polling. And I guess, you know, someone over at the New York Times may have been listening. This seemed like a useful corrective on that front.

Muslim soccer player Mohamed Camara was suspended four games for covering a pro-gay patch on his jersey with tape.Camara is from Mali and plays in the top French soccer league, Ligue 1. His team is AS Monaco, which is consistently one of the better performing teams in Europe and currently second in the league standings at the time of this writing.The patch said "homophobie football" with a red line through it to denote it was against homophobia; Camara covered it with white tape. He also declined to stand in front of an anti-homophobia banner before the game, both for religious reasons.Camara played five years in Austria before making the move to the bigger French club, but his status was not enough to avoid his team handing down a four-game suspension for refusing to participate in the initiative.The Ligue de Football Professionnel, known as the FLP, which governs French soccer, released a statement that said, "After hearing the player Mohamed Camara, and noting his refusal during the meeting to carry out one or more actions to raise awareness of the fight against homophobia, the Commission decided to impose a four-match suspension."'I think such behavior must be subject to the strongest sanctions against the player and the club.'Monaco's CEO Thiago Scuro said that his team supported the league's pro-gay campaign and will have discussions with the Malian player."It was a personal initiative from Mo Camara. We will have this conversation with Mo internally. Internally, we will discuss this situation," Scuro said, according to Daily Mail.The government also took issue with the player's beliefs, as French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said both Camara and Monaco should be punished."It is unacceptable behavior," she reportedly told a radio station. "I had the chance to tell the Ligue de Professionnel what I thought about it, and I think such behavior must be subject to the strongest sanctions against the player and the club which allowed it to happen."As reported by Outkick, the French soccer league launched its initiative on May 17, 2024, with the proclamation, "Let's get rid of discrimination and homophobia!""The LFP is continuing its major anti-discrimination campaign, with a new section dedicated to the fight against homophobia. Seven weeks after an exceptional mobilisation on a day dedicated to the fight against racism, French professional football is mobilising to fight homophobia in a totally unprecedented way at all Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT stadiums," the league said.Camara received support from his home country through the Mali football federation, which said it supports his freedom of speech.Monaco won its game against Nantes 4-0 with Camara scoring a penalty kick.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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