Nova Scotia aquaculture salmon killed by superchill

© Canadian Press

Cooke Aquaculture's fish farm in Shelburne Harbour on Nova Scotia's South Shore is one of the sites where officials believe fish have died due to a so-called superchill.

Fish at three aquaculture sites in Nova Scotia have died and a so-called superchill is suspected, the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture said Tuesday.

Cooke Aquaculture's sites in the Annapolis Basin, Shelburne Harbour and Jordan Bay are reporting mortalities, officials said.

A fish health veterinarian visited the Annapolis Basin and Shelburne Harbour sites and is expected to visit the Jordan Bay site in the next few days to investigate the cause of death, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell said in a statement.

"Our provincial fish health veterinarians investigate mortality events to rule out diseases of concern," he said.

The department said a preliminary investigation has found a superchill happened, meaning sustained cold temperatures dropped the temperature of the water to the level that fish blood freezes — around - 0.7 C.

Tides in late February and early March also tend to be high, the department said, contributing to to lowering temperatures in sea cages by flooding more shallow areas than usual. Low air temperatures cool the water and receding tides flush the cages with superchilled water.

The Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture said superchills happen every five to seven years and the deaths do not pose a risk to the environment.

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Elongated Peruvian skulls DNA tested: Not human?

Paracas skulls at the National Museum of Achaeology, Anthropology, and History in Lima

Ever since their discovery by Julio Tello in 1928, the bizarre Paracas Skulls have amazed and terrified in equal measure. Uncovered in a tomb in South Peru, and believed to be around 3,000 years old, the skulls feature strange elongated craniums which gives them a decidedly inhuman appearance.

In fact, some have claimed they could in fact be the skulls of ancient alien visitors who apparently frequented South America, with other clues including the Nazca Lines and stepped pyramids. Now, an expert on these skulls, Brien Foerster, has claimed he has scientific evidence to back up these claims.

The traditional logic dictates that the skulls were created via a process of 'binding' - in which rope and wood was used to change the shape of a new born infant's skull. This was not unique to the Paracas region, and was practiced all over the South American continent by indigenous tribes. Over 300 elongated skulls of different shapes and sizes were discovered by Tello alone, suggesting the process may have been widespread and used to illustrate a highborn status. The Paracas skulls are particularly strange, however, as they are 60% heavier than most normal skulls.

Foerster, the director of the Paracas History Museum, claims the skulls' DNA is categorically not human. Without informing them of their source, he sent 5 samples of the mitochondrial DNA from the skulls to a geneticist who returned with some rather shocking and ground-breaking results:

It had mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far. But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

One geneticist even went so far as to claim the Paracas skulls are so different from humans' they would not be able to interbreed, claiming: "I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree."

This has led some to conclude the skulls must belong to aliens who visited Earth long ago, perhaps the very same aliens who gave us the technology to build pyramids and/or Atlantis.

One prevailing theory, labelled the Ancient Astronauts Hypothesis, suggests intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and greatly changed our destiny. Some even suggest prehistoric and ancient deities and Gods could have in fact been technologically superior aliens whose skills and machinery was confused for divine power.

This theory isn't unique to South America, but also extends to practically every corner of the Earth. For example, below is an Indian painting apparently showing Rama return to Earth in "flying cars."

Are They Really Alien Skulls?

You're probably thinking, why am I reading this earth-shattering news on Moviepilot, and not, say on the BBC or CNN?

Well, no major mainstream journalistic organization has reported these findings, which should set alarm bells ringing. I'm sorry to burst your alien bubble, but it's very unlikely that there is anything extraterrestrial about the Paracas skulls.

A little bit of additional research - something clearly not done by the blogs which first posted the news - reveals there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

Firstly, the news was announced by Foerster on JustEnergyRadio - which, last time I checked, isn't exactly the global mouthpiece of the scientific of archeological community. The report is in no way linked to any academic institution (other than the Paracas History Museum - I'll get to that later) or any kind of peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Secondly, we do not know which geneticists actually conducted the work. According to Foerster, they want to remain anonymous (which is strange considering they've basically made the scientific breakthrough of the century), although the speculation is that those responsible are from the general pseudo-science community. DoubtfulNews.com names Lloyd Pye, the (now deceased) founder of the debunked Starchild Project as one of the recipients, while Dr. Melba Ketchum (the discredited Bigfoot DNA 'expert') is another. All told, these are not credible or reputable geneticists.

Thirdly, the Paracas History Museum is a private museum whose directors are also members of a paranormal tour group, Hidden Inca Tours, the major focus of which is elongated skulls. Throw in the fact Foerster has no archeological, anthological or scientific credentials, is a collaborator with other pseudo-historians of dubious credibility like Graham Hancock and David Hatcher Childress (the latter of which was named by Vanderbilt archeologist Charles E. Onser as "one of the most flagrant violators of basic archaeological reasoning"), and I think we're beginning to get an idea of what's going on here.

Don't get me wrong, perhaps the results did come back as non-human, but without knowing who conducted the research and without their results being peer-reviewed by the scientific community, these findings will never have credibility. Indeed, an explanation for non-human results could merely be that the research wasn't conducted properly, or the DNA samples had degraded beyond the testing capabilities of our anonymous geneticists. In that case a result that was essentially gibberish has been read as 'non-human.' As Discovery.com's Sharon Hill explains:

[S]cience doesn't work by social media. Peer review is a critical part of science and the Paracas skulls proponents have taken a shortcut that completely undermines their credibility. Appealing to the public's interest in this cultural practice we see as bizarre — skull deformation —instead of publishing the data for peer-review examination is not going to be acceptable to the scientific community.

So, will this information be given up to the general scientific community? Well, Foerster is dubious on that front, stating on Facebook:

Peer review will of course be considered, but this information belongs to THE WORLD, not a few academics...

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FLASHBACK: The archaeology of Nazareth: A history of pious fraud?

Good morning. This presentation will be divided into two parts. The first part will consist of a brief survey of the most significant material finds from the Nazareth basin as they relate to the possible existence of a settlement there at the turn of the era. The second part will briefly discuss the question of "pious fraud" as this may relate to the history of Nazareth archaeology.

First, however, I would like to preface these remarks with a little background on myself and on some false assumptions regarding my work.

You may be aware that I wrote a book called The Myth of Nazareth: The Invented Town of Jesus. It was published in 2008 by American Atheist Press. The book required eight years of research and has over 800 footnotes, seven appendices, and a bibliography that extends to hundreds of works. It's major thesis has since met violent and sustained opposition from scholars of virtually every stripe. The evidence in the book, however, has not yet been contradicted.

Not being an archaeologist myself, I am often asked: "How can you date evidence, Mr. Salm?" or: "How can you presume to correct professional archaeologists?" or: "How can you have any opinion on these matters?" However, there is a misunderstanding inherent in these questions, for I have never dated anything at all. I have simply identified the relevant archaeological experts and quoted their published datings: Hans-Peter Kuhnen on kokhim tombs, Varda Sussman on bow-spouted oil lamps, Roland Deines on Jewish stone vessels, Amos Kloner on circular blocking stones, and so on. The case regarding Nazareth does not rest on my opinion at all. Anyone who disagrees with The Myth of Nazareth is not disagreeing with me but is taking issue with the leading archaeological experts in the world. As we shall see, this is fatal for traditional conclusions regarding Nazareth.

I. A brief survey of the most significant material finds from the Nazareth basin as they relate to the existence of a settlement there at the turn of the era

The demonstrable material record shows that the settlement that eventually came to be called Nazareth did not come into existence until after the First Jewish War, that is, after 70 CE. We should first agree on what constitutes the "demonstrable material record." All can agree that it is found in scholarly publications. Note my inclusion here of the word "scholarly." Many opinions are now current on the Internet and in the popular press which claim, for example, the existence of a house in Nazareth from the time of Jesus, the existence of coins dating to Hasmonaean times, and even that a bath-house in Nazareth existed at the turn of the era—one in which Jesus himself may have bathed. However, these popular claims do not meet scholarly standards of publication, description, context, itemization, parallels, etc. That is, they do not allow other scholars to verify the nature of the evidence and hence to weigh the claims themselves. These non-academic press reports—quite frequent these days—are not what one can term "diagnostic." Until the evidence is itemized and described in a scientific way, such claims are the equivalent of unfounded opinion, hearsay, and innuendo.

The Bronze and Iron Age settlement

surveys the material from the Stone Age to Later Roman times. It shows that there was indeed a settlement of considerable size in that locality in the Bronze and Iron ages. The material evidence is congruent with the thesis, presented in my book, that this settlement was in fact Biblical "Japhia" and, furthermore, that the Assyrians destroyed this important town in the later eight century BCE. A complete and total lack of material evidence in the Nazareth basin for the ensuing 800 years (from roughly 700 BCE to 100 CE) is systematically demonstrated in The Myth of Nazareth. I term those eight centuries the "Great Hiatus."

Alleged evidence from the Hellenistic era

The traditional Catholic view is that Nazareth has existed in continuity since the Bronze Age. However, this view has become increasingly untenable, partly as a result of the appearance of my book. An alternate view, now gaining currency, is that Nazareth came into existence in Hellenistic times. However, the critical evidence to substantiate this view cannot be found in the published scientific literature. I show that all the specific evidence relative to the Hellenistic era claimed by Bagatti and other archaeologists to date simply does not exist. Those Hellenistic claims reduce to eleven pieces of movable evidence, including pottery and some oil lamps. In every case the evidence has been redated by specialists to later times, and in one case to the Iron Age (MoN:135). In short, there is no Hellenistic material evidence from the Nazareth basin at all.

Read the rest of the article here (PDF)

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Rampaging tusker kills four villagers in India

Asian elephant

A rampaging wild elephant has trampled four persons to death and seriously injured three others in Sitamarhi district.

Four persons-Md. Nizamuddin, 50, a resident of village Siswa, Bhola Rai (30) of village Indarwa, Chhattar Rai (37) of village Adhakhanni under Parihar police station and homeguard-cum-driver of Bajpatti police station in Sitamarhi district Hulas Rai (30) were trampled to death by a Nepalese elephant on Tuesday.

Two injured women-Lalita Devi and Sonam Kumari, are being treated at different hospitals. The police driver was trying to help villagers chase the pachyderm away from the agricultural fields.

Sitamarhi SP Hari Prasath S said on Wednesday, "Two persons have been crushed to death in Bajpatti and Parihar police station areas of the district. We have got reports that other person injured by the elephant has died. We are trying to confirm the identity of the person."

The SP said as per latest report, the wild elephant has entered adjoining Madhubani district and was roaming in Arer police station area there.

"Forest department teams and police teams following the elephant have also reached the place where the tusker is present now. They will try to tranquilize the animal," the SP said.

Meanwhile, Sitamarhi divisional forest officer Shashi Shekhar said the wild elephant seemed to have strayed to Sitamarhi on Tuesday morning from forests of Nepal.

"Once the elephant entered Indian side and started moving across agricultural fields, villagers started chasing it. It entered deep inside the district and is now in an agitated state. Wild elephants usually take the same route while going back to their native place if they stray, and the villagers are not allowing it to do so," Shekhar said.

The DFO said the forest department and police teams followed the elephant till the early hours on Wednesday, and also tried to dissuade villagers from chasing it further, but to no avail.

"A team of forest officials with tranquilizer gun has arrived from Patna. We have also arranged for a heavy-lift crane as the elephant is around 13 feet in height and weighs between 2,000 to 3,000 kg. We are positive about bringing the rampage to an end today. We will either chase it back towards Nepal or trap or tranquilize it," the DFO added.

Seeing the agitated state of the elephant, the district administration in Madhubani has appealed to the people to stay away from elephant and not try to shoo it away by means of drums, crackers or organised chases.

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FLASHBACK: The myth of Nazareth, the invented town of the mythical figure known as Jesus

René Salm

"It is very doubtful whether the beautiful mountain village of Nazareth was really the dwelling-place of Jesus."

—T. Cheyne (, "Nazareth," 1899).

A recent column [1] contained surprising results of new research into one of the most important venues of the Christian story: the town of Nazareth. This topic has been contentious for many years, and it is no coincidence that significant research into the dubious origins of Christianity should first appear in this magazine, given what I consider the common sense and scientific acumen indigenous to Atheists. Of course, damaging material such as this puts the very stiff Christian neck in a scientific noose, as it were, and the Christian press has no interest in kicking the chair out from under itself. A nudge by well - intentioned Atheists at this critical juncture won't hurt... With the knowledge that Nazareth did not exist in the time of Jesus, we have our fingers wrapped around one of the chair legs and are now poised to give it a decided heave.

The column in the November-December issue of was aptly titled "Why The Truth About Nazareth Is Important." This topic is indeed important, but not for the most obvious reason. After all, where Jesus really came from is hardly earthshaking. What must matter to all Christians, however, is the inescapable fact that the evangelists invented this basic element in the story of cosmic redemption. The proof is now at hand that "Jesus of Nazareth," a long-standing icon of Western civilization, is bogus.

There can be no return to the comforting familiarity of the past, for with the proof that Nazareth did not exist at the turn of the era, the gospels leave the realm of history and forever enter the realm of myth. It is a swift kick to the solar plexus of Christian inerrantism, the scholarly equivalent of a punch sending the opponent to the mat—perhaps even a knock-out.

The Myth of Nazareth boots Christian certitude out the window, and the door is now wide open to ask, "What else did the evangelists invent?" As after the recent power shift in Congress, there will be questions... Up until now the tradition has been able to fend off attacks from the intellectual left because those attacks lacked proof. Now, archaeology has supplied the proof, and with it the balance finally shifts. The Church's position must fall like a house of cards. After all, Nazareth is mentioned in three of the four four canonical gospels [2] and is neither an insignificant nor a passing element. If the tradition invented his hometown, then who can place faith in other aspects of the Jesus story, such as his virgin birth, miracles, crucifixion, or resurrection? Were these also invented? What, in other words, is left in the gospels of which the average Christian can be sure? What is left of his or her faith?

Scholars can now apply this radical new information to problems that have bedeviled them for three centuries, as they fruitlessly have tried to reconcile contradictions and make sense out of four narratives that obstinately refuse to agree. For example, it has long been known that the birth stories in Matthew and Luke are incompatible (in the Gospel of Matthew the Holy Family comes from Bethlehem, not Nazareth). Again, why is Jesus so often interacting with Pharisees in the Galilee, where they were hardly known before 70 CE? Why does Luke write about a preposterous Roman census in which everyone returned to his birthplace to register for taxation (2:1 - 7)? The Romans were far too practical to mandate such a recipe for instant social chaos. Besides, the evangelist was in error by several years (a different type of census took place in 6 CE). In any case, Galilee was not within the area of direct Roman jurisdiction (it was administered by the puppet ruler, Herod Antipas). To make a long story short, the invention of Nazareth now brings another alternative to the fore: these elements are not historical at all. They, too, are make-believe.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Economic losses from global disasters hit low-income countries the hardest

Deaths, economic losses and other negative impacts from disasters have caused losses equivalent to 42 million years annually since 1980, a measure that is comparable to the burden of tuberculosis worldwide, the United Nations said.

More than 90 percent of the total "years" lost in disasters between 1980 and 2012 were in low and middle-income countries, representing a serious setback to their development, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said.

"If these figures show that disaster loss is as much a critical global challenge to economic development and social progress as is disease, they also show that it is a challenge unequally shared," the UNISDR said in a report on Wednesday.

Bina Desai, UNISDR policy and research coordinator, referred to the number of years lost due to disaster-related deaths, injuries, economic damage and other losses as an "opportunity cost".

"It is lost time that could otherwise be invested in development and social progress," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In particular, risk from recurring, smaller disasters rather than huge one-off events drives poverty through destruction of homes, water supplies, infrastructure, and health and education facilities, the report said.

Yet 10 years after governments signed up to a global plan to tackle disasters, known as the Hyogo Framework for Action, disaster risk "has not been reduced significantly", it said.

Governments will meet in Japan from March 14 to 18 to adopt an updated version of the framework, still being negotiated.

GROWING THREATS

Disaster risk is already making it hard for many countries to afford the capital investment and social spending they need to develop sustainably, the report said.

Growing global inequality, increasing hazard exposure, rapid urbanization and overconsumption of energy and natural resources threaten to drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels with systemic global impacts, it warned.

Expected losses from disasters caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical cyclones and river flooding worldwide are estimated at $314 billion per year, or almost $70 for each person of working age, according to the report.

This includes only damage to commercial and residential properties, schools and hospitals, Desai said. The figure would be even higher if it included other hazards such as drought, and other sectors like utilities and agriculture.

"This is not what will happen in terms of losses on an annual basis - it is what countries should prepare for," Desai said. "But you can reduce these risk levels."

Global annual investment of $6 billion in managing disaster risk - only 0.1 percent of the $6 trillion per year that will be required to build infrastructure over the next 15 years - would result in total avoided losses of $360 billion, the report said.

"For many countries, that small additional investment could make a crucial difference in achieving the national and international goals of ending poverty, improving health and education, and ensuring sustainable and equitable growth," it added.

Measures to reduce the risk of disasters include rules that strengthen buildings against quakes or storms and prevent construction on flood plains, urban drainage, early warning systems and insurance schemes for small farms.

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Fitting end: Nobel Peace Prize chairman who oversaw Obama award removed for first time in 114-year history

© Reuters/Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix

Deposed Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee's chairman has been removed from his post for the first time in the award's 114-year history. He's been criticized over a number of the panel's controversial picks, like US president and the EU.

Ousted Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland, a former Norwegian Labor prime minister, had been in charge of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee for six years before he was voted out on Tuesday. He will remain a member of the committee, but the leading role has been passed on to the panel's deputy chairman, Kaci Kullmann Five, a former conservative party leader.

"There's a new committee with new people, and new people can always lead to new considerations," Kullmann Five told journalists. "Jagland has been a good leader for the committee for six years."

New Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, responsible for selecting #NobelPeacePrize Laureates: Kaci Kullmann Five http://bit.ly/1DVWCJH

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) March 3, 2015

Three out of six prize winners chosen under Thorbjoern Jagland have raised controversy.

Jagland's first year as chairman in 2009 saw the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to US President Barack Obama, who at that time had only been in office for nine months.

Obama won the prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," while the US was engaged in two lengthy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as heightened US drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen.

A Norwegian diplomat revealed in 2014, that the Obama administration itself was not happy with being given the award.

"My colleague in Washington received a reprimand from Obama's chief of staff [Rahm Emanuel, at the time]. The word 'fawning' was used," Morten Wetland, who was Norway's United Nations delegate from 2008 to 2012, wrote in an article published in the Norwegian daily and cited by AFP.

The Nobel Prize Committee's 2012 choice of the European Union as the winner of the award has also raised quite a few eyebrows. Critics pointed out Jagland's other role as head of the European Council as a potential conflict of interest. Many argued the prize was undeserved because of the EU's economic and foreign policy failures.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and two other Nobel Peace Prize-winners protested the decision in an open letter.

"The EU is clearly not 'the champion of peace' that Alfred Nobel had in mind when he wrote his will," the letter read. "The Norwegian Nobel committee has redefined and remodeled the prize in a manner that it is not consistent with the law."

A 2010 award to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo led to Beijing freezing diplomatic relations with Oslo.

Jagland's removal has led to speculations over how much the prize is influenced by politics, having been replaced by another former party leader.

Nobel Committee members are appointed by Norway's parliament according to the power balance there. Right-wing parties won elections in 2013, which gave them a 3-2 majority over Labor on the Peace Prize panel.

"This can be interpreted as an attempt by the rightist government to exert more political control over the committee than has been customary," Nobel historian Asle Sveen told AFP.

There have been calls for the Nobel committee to be open to foreigners to boost its scope and preserve its independence from shifts in Norwegian politics.

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