Meteorite impacted in Egypt in the last 5000 years

A large "fresh" meteorite impact crater has been discovered in SW Egypt with the aid of Google Earth.



The crater is fresh enough to still show the radial marks so common in lunar craters, where erosion is most slow. This leads researchers to claim preliminarily that the crater is not older than 10,000 years, probably less than 5000.

They estimate that the original meteorite weighted some 5 to 10 metric tons, having recovered 1.7 tons of the iron material.

Source: Science News.

We'll see when the analysis finally dates the impact but I am pondering that it might have some correlation with the series of catastrophic earthquakes that shattered the Mediterranean by the end of the Bronze Age, slightly above 3000 years ago. I also wonder how ancient Egyptians perceived this phenomenon and if there are any records that may make any mention of it.

On second thought another possible catastrophic scenario may be the one related to the sudden end of the Old Kingdom, which is related to drastic climate fluctuations worldwide. If so, it would date to c. 2200 BCE.

More walls against Palestine

The Autocracy of Egypt, in collaboration with the USA, who have designed (and probably financed) it, is building a new "impenetrable" wall along the border with Gaza. The new ghetto wall, whose construction was so secret that nobody knew until now, is said to be made up of such a "super-strong" steel that it's not just bomb-proof, but can't be melted or cut either (though I presume this is an exaggeration and they are talking of regular manganese steel, which is used to build armored vehicles - nothing is totally indestructible).

The new Egyptian wall of shame is meant to be finished in just 18 months and will add insult to injury among Arabs while not really being able to impede the drilling of tunnels so much necessary for the battered Gazan economy.

Source: BBC.

Another humanitarian convoy to Gaza blocked

It seems that the siege of Gaza is becoming tighter, while in February both humanitarian aid convoys (one of Free Gaza by sea and another of Viva Palestina by land) were allowed in by Israelis and their Egyptian allies. Now they both have been blocked.

Read more at Viva Palestina US.
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The Tel Aviv-Cairo-Riyad axis of terror

Famed research journalist Thierry Meyssan writes in Voltairenet (article available in Spanish, French and Italian - originally found in Eutsi in Spanish language) on the Gaza genocide. He does give a somewhat different viewpoint of what I have been reading so far, so guess it's worth a mention.

Meissan argues that some of the appointments of the new US President B. Obama have been recieved with dislike in Tel Aviv and that the attack against Gaza, coordinated with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is an attempt to force Obama's hand.

It's been denounced (Petras called him the "first Jewish President") that Obama is strongly supported by the Israel Lobby, not just this last year but through all his political career. But Obama's base, the politically relevant one, does not just include Zionists but also realistic generals who are (common sense) tired of getting the US foreign policy dictated almost to the letter by Tel Aviv and who think it's about time that the inverse becomes true: that Tel Aviv is forced to make concessions in order to get peace and stability in the so-called Middle East. Some among these realists are even asking to include Syria and Iran in the Western bloc and, in order to achieve that, propose making reality the Oslo accords and giving Golan Heights back to Syria.

All this, Meyssan argues, would mean the end of the Zionist project of unlimited genocidal expansion, leaving it stuck in the 1967 borders (i.e. undoing all the de-facto gains of the last decades) and making it just another ally among many western-friendly West Asian countries. It's even possible it would be forced to get rid of its arsenal of WMD.

Meanwhile the radical Zionists, whose most important figure in the current US government is Hillary Clinton (a convert to Christian Zionism), want to consolidate the apartheid system normalizing the Israeli bantustan system for the Palestinians, who would get a formal recognition as autonomous Israeli protectorate.

In September and October 2008, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt held meetings in Cairo where they agreed that, in case of uncertainty for the Zionist project in Washington D.C., Israel would attack Gaza with Saudi financing, while Egypt would infiltrate paramilitary troops in the territory.

The Obama cabinet has ended being a mixture of tendencies: the state department is fully under Zionist control and the cabinet chief, Rahm Emmanuel, is an Israeli citizen (who with all lkehood informs Tel Aviv in real time of what happens in Washington) but the National Security Council and the ministry of defense is in the hands of Atlantist realists who are nowadays worried about uncontrolled Israeli activities causing disruption in the oil and gas supplies to the USA and Europe.

This one has been the first Israeli "war" (rather a masacre) not financed by the USA (though I can't help thinking on where did Madoff's money end) but by Saudi Arabia. This neo-medieval theocracy is worried about any kind of Islamic Fundamentalism it cannot control (read Hamas) and wants to supress it by any means at hand.

A defeat of this plot would leave Israel very much weakened anyhow, especially after two recent major defeats (Lebanon and Georgia).

On Europe, Meyssan just mentions the clear pro-Zionist partiality of Sarkozy and the typical arrogance exhibited by Tel Aviv with one of its greatest benefactors: the EU. But I can't help to consider wether this week's news of a trial by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional (political tribunal under full control of the Spanish government) against Israeli politicians and generals on massacres happened in 2002 doesn't mean that some European powers are maybe taking steps in prevision of Israel (or at least the Israeli hardliners) falling out of grace in Washington D.C. (and other capitals of the West). I seriously doubt that Spain (a middle sized power, certainly much richer than Israel but in serious economic trouble and seldom an independent player in international politics) would allow its pitbull judges to act against Israel (causing an important diplomatic row) if it was not intently moving piece in the international chessboard. This means probably that, while France is standing firmly by the Zionist bloc within NATO, Spain is showing its support for the Realist bloc instead.

In any case I have to say that this is the first independent analysis that puts any hopes in Obama and his team regarding the Zionist problem. Nearly everything else I have read basically understands that Obama is not just another Zionist US president but maybe the most boot-licking one of all. I wonder if Meyssan is blind or if he has actually found some discrepancies in Washington. Of all what I see, very few signs could support at the moment a turning point of the Atlantic Empire in regard to Israel.

But certainly the Realist bloc, if it actually exists, should have very great concerns regarding the absurdly problematic "clash of civilizations", fed basically by Israel and Saudi Arabia for their own goals (apparently opposed but efefctively in agreement). Meyssan is one of the persons that most strongly have denounced the 9/11 scam, so he must know all that. Maybe there is some real Realist bloc within the USA and NATO, that is extremely concerned that, without a change of policy regarding Israel, the farce could become true and actually challenge the Western interests in the region.

In any case it is still weak. And Obama's independent foreign policy is even weaker. I hold some hopes on this guy not just being another figurehead but a real Machiavellan "prince", i.e. a true statesman, but this hope is mostly based on astrology, not on real facts by the moment. Astrologically thinking, Obama could be even stronger than Putin, with whom he shares some traits, but we can't forget that the main weakness of a Leo is always his vanity.

We'll see. Meanwhile the people of Gaza and all Palestine continue being treated worse than cattle while the world governments remain outragingly silent.
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Discovered Upper Egyptian Late Paleolithic rock art

Via Tim (not yet at Remote Central due to technical issues but soon to come).

The 51st issue of the International Newsletter on Rock Art (PDF) reveals the impressive findings at Qurta, not far from Edfu, in Upper Egypt, described as the Côa of Africa.

The open-air art complex includes many engravings like the one above, mostly of bovids. Unlike later pre-Dynastic art, these images show a strong sense of naturalism and movement, they also tend to represent individuals rather than scenes, the figures can be pretty large (as much as 80 cm) and sometimes they integrate the irregularities of the wall in the drawing itself. Human figures (rare) are, unlike animal ones very schematic. In all this they resemble other late UP art of Europe and Anatolia.

The author, Dirk Huyge, suggests a date of 16-15,000 years BP, based on the C14 datations of the UP settlements found just under them and in nearby areas, belonging to the Ballanian-Silisian culture, whose members hunted precisely the animals represented in these murals.

Huyge ponders that the style similitudes with Western European art are impressive though the kind of influence that could have moved this style through such long distances is impossible to determine on light of the available evidence (scarce for North African Paleolithic). They says that only one expert has criticised this datation, Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, who claims instead an stylistic connection with the so-called Bubaline-Naturalistic art of the Saharan Neolithic. The author replies arguing that this style is not as naturalistic as its name suggest but rather somewhat caricaturesque of the criatures imaged and pondering the diferent kind of fauna depicted and archaeologically known to have existed in Upper Egypt in the different periods.

Another discovery mentioned is the increase in more of 500 items in the account of the rock art of the Yagour area of Moroccan Western High Atlas. The overall importance and diversity of the North African rock art is also considered in yet another article.

There is also an article on the very serious conservation issues at Lascaux cave (Aquitaine), plus another on the Interpretation Center of Candamo cave (Asturias), that has opened a replica of the original cave for visitors.

Keep an eye in Egypt.

The food crisis is apparently striking Egypt heavily. While the government has traditionally made sure people could buy bread at state controlled prices, being the staple food for many of its 80 million inhabitants, now soaring prices are causing corruption in the distribution chain, leaving many out of it.

Al Jazeera: Warning over world food shortages (in spite of the title half of the article deals with the Egyptian situation actually).

A couple of quotes:

"People are fighting. Killing for bread, some are even pulling out knives. What is happening? What is this? Famine?"

"I've been standing here from 7am. Its now 2pm and I can't get hold of even one loaf of bread. I have five children. What am I supposed to do? You now need to bribe someone to get bread, if you do not want to get trampled on."

Food and housing are the basics for people's lifes, amybe along with healthcare. When they get nothing of such basics, no matter how hard they struggle for them, then revolution is at the gates.