This one's for the palæontology nerds on here.

A geology professor, Heinrich Frank, found a peculiar hole in Brazil.

[Image: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/f...icanum.jpg]

«Local geology doesn’t yield such a sight, so Frank went back a few weeks later and crawled inside. It was a single shaft, about 15 feet long; at its end, while on his back, he found what looked like claw marks all over the ceiling. Unable to identify any natural geological explanation for the cave’s existence, he eventually concluded that it was a “paleoburrow,” dug, he believes, by an extinct species of giant ground sloth.

«“I didn’t know there was such a thing as paleoburrows,” says Frank. “I’m a geologist, a professor, and I’d never even heard of them.»

Now Frank & co have found lots and lots of palæoburrows. And «“[ i ]n these burrows, sometimes you get the feeling that there’s some creature waiting around the next curve – that’s how much it feels like a prehistoric animal den,” he says.»

[Image: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/f...igging.jpg]

There's plenty of unanswered questions here. E.g. «the sheer size of the burrows is something that Frank and his colleagues are still trying to explain. Whether prehistoric sloths or armadillos were responsible, the burrows are far larger than would be necessary to shelter the animals that dug them from predators or the elements.

«The giant armadillo, the largest living member of the family, weighs between 65 and 90 pounds and is found throughout much of South America. Its burrows are only about 16 inches in diameter and up to about 20 feet long.

«“So if a 90-pound animal living today digs a 16-inch by 20-foot borrow, what would dig one five feet wide and 250 feet long?” asks Frank. “There’s no explanation – not predators, not climate, not humidity. I really don’t know.”»

Dating them is also difficult, and the geographic distribution appears to be rather bizarre. It's interesting stuff!

https://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/...th-america

[Image: https://content.artofmanliness.com/uploa...civil2.jpg]

I find it interesting how there seems to be an inverse correlation between how acceptable sex and intimacy are in civilised society. Attitudes towards sex are in many ways more open and relaxed than they've ever been, yet at the same time if two men hug, they must immediately resolve this transgression by ironic distancing—"no homo!"—or some other inane behaviour. Of course, these are mere tendencies (I certainly don't shout "no homo" when hugging someone else who happens to have similar genitalia to myself), but they are observable—at times nigh palpable, because they are so odd to me.

[Image: https://content.artofmanliness.com/uploa.../male2.jpg]

So I found this photo album from days of intimate openness, but sexual "closedness", rather interesting.

[Image: https://content.artofmanliness.com/uploa.../male3.jpg]

«As [homosexuality became] stigmatized and [an] onerous identifier […], men began to be much more careful to not send messages to other men, and to women, that they were gay. And this is the reason why, it is theorized, men have become less comfortable with showing affection towards each other over the last century. At the same time, it also may explain why in countries with a more conservative, religious culture, such as in Africa or the Middle East, where men do engage in homosexual acts, but still consider homosexuality the “crime that cannot be spoken,” it remains common for men to be affectionate with one another and comfortable with things like holding hands as they walk.»

[Image: https://content.artofmanliness.com/uploa.../bros1.jpg]

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/...affection/

[Image: https://content.artofmanliness.com/uploa...shots6.jpg]

Interesting article on "red-pilling". It's about this new generation of "far right" people, and their lingo, memes, and so on. It talks about 4chan, YouTube, Infowars, Discord, and how all of these things are used to "red-pill" "normies". To "red-pill" roughly means to get people to realise that Jews control the world… or something like that? Fascinating stuff.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas...red-pilled

Banksy arranged for one of his best-known works to be shredded after it was sold at an auction for >£1m. Banksy built the shredder into the painting years ago, «[ i ]n case it was ever put up for auction».

Simply marvellous.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...th-balloon

Wengrow is back at it. This time he's upset that civilisation gets a needlessly bad rep. I concede I didn't really understand where this article is supposed to be going, and whenever I see these sort of "idea pieces" by Wengrow (or Græber), it just reads like reverse science fiction to me.

That said, I would like to read some papers on these supposed egalitarian early cities they keep referring to. Namely, papers that explain what that is supposed to mean. I have no doubt that there existed mutual aid in early cities -- there's mutual aid everywhere
today still, I engage in it daily. But what's the scope of these claims? What's the evidence? I mean this to be taken as genuine curiosity, not "digs" at Wengrow (or Græber).

https://aeon.co/ideas/a-history-of-true-...-monuments

File under "welp, duh".

«The world’s governments are “nowhere near on track” to meet their commitment to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial period, according to an author of a key UN report that will outline the dangers of breaching this limit.»

Not much more to it. The conclusion includes helpful suggestions such as "more electric cars!"

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...-un-report

Shaking the planet itself

Being anti something pulls negative toughts and negative reactions from people, i want to hear sugestions here to call it something else.
Pro-life, Pro-earth, Civ-outsider.....

Why Petroleum Did Not Save the Whales, By Richard York


An interesting read..

"The case of whaling shows the error of conceptualizing resource extraction as necessarily driven by inherent demand or societal need for the resources extracted and highlights how the capacity for production and the interests of industry can create demand and drive consumption. In particular, the case of whaling shows some potential explanations for the displacement paradox identified by York (2006, 2012), who demonstrated that the development of non–fossil fuel energy sources in recent decades did not substantially suppress fossil fuel use in most nations. As I have shown happened in the case of modern whaling, the power of industry (especially in the context of capitalism), geopolitical posturing, and/or cultural identity construction can drive the extraction of a resource even when it is not needed. The displacement paradox, in addition to Sinn’s (2011) green paradox (where industries accelerate resource extraction in anticipation of future regulations) and the depletion paradox (where individual economic actors accelerate extraction of a commonly held resource in an attempt to maximize their share of that resource as it approaches exhaustion), suggest the need for addressing the production side of resource exploitation, rather than focusing primarily on the consumption side. Furthermore, these paradoxes suggest that “green” technological fixes, such as developing renewable energy sources, are unlikely to curb environmental degradation unless there are corresponding political and social changes that ensure technologies are applied for the common good, and environmental protection is promoted as a goal in itself."


http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....3117739217

«[The music streaming service] Spotify has teamed with [the genealogy website] Ancestry.com to offer users playlists based on their own DNA.»

The way it works is that you sign up «through the genealogy company, you can trace your family history and input results to Spotify. It’ll then generate a playlist based on your family tree and listening habits.»

Apparently this «will “encourage [Ancestry’s] audience to explore the soundtrack of their heritage”». Because that's what we need more of in this world—21st century racism!

The only reason I believe that this is real is because it's just sounds so unbelievably asinine.

https://pitchfork.com/news/spotify-teams...n-your-dna