Giant Dolphin-Like Dinosaur Fossil Found in India

The Ichthyosaur is nicknamed "Fish Lizard" is an ancient marine reptilian dinosaur 15 feet long resembling dolphins and whales that survived alongside other epic sea predators like ancient sharks and plesiosaurs. They lived between 90 and 250 million years ago when supercontinent Pangaea broke into Laurasia and Gondwana. 

Fossils of the Jurassic-era Ichthyosaur have already been found all over the world with, so what makes this one found in India so special? This is the only almost-complete skeleton ever discovered from this part of the world. Previous ones were only parts of the spine and teeth, providing little clues to these creatures here. 

"Vertebrate fossils are rare from the Kachchh region, and we were expecting only bone fragments from this area. So, to find a near-complete skeleton is surprising as well as exciting," said study lead author Guntupalli Prasad in an interview. 

This also strengthens theories of a sea route connecting India and South America where these creatures could travel through. 

What Did the Iichthyosaur Eat?

The teeth showed wear marks from biting hard rough things and since mollusk fossils were found next to it, archaeologists believe they ate mollusks as well as ancient fish and other smaller reptiles. 

4,000-Year-Old Jar of Toads Found in Ancient Jerusalem Tomb

Excavation just outside Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo gives window into funerary rites, with unexpected remains of decapitated toads and not-local myrtle and date pollen

In Jerusalem, researchers recently found a 4,000 Canaanite burial collection of jars with decapitated toads in it. Stranger than finding frogs in a tomb is the 3,000+ year difference from the only others found. 

“To the best of my knowledge, the only other place in Israel with a toad find was in Wadi Ara, and dates to the Late Bronze Age," said Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Shua Kisilevitz.

These vessels held food for the ghosts to consume in the afterlife. This food was the same as what people would eat in daily life, so finding frogs makes one wonder if these people ate frogs regularly as well. 

But why were the toads' heads missing? Kisilevitz suggests, as in the South American practice, it was to help remove the animal’s toxic skin. “It could be an indication that this is how they prepared the toads,” she said. In other words, this was a rare example of people eating toads, rather than some creepy witchcraft ingredient. 

In the Middle Bronze Age, goats, sheep, oxen, gazelles, and horses were found in these burial sites. It seemed the horses were important symbolic animals to include as they represented wealth, nobility, and perhaps a companion or vehicle in the afterlife. 

“For an archaeologist, finding tombs that were intentionally sealed in antiquity is a priceless treasure, because they are a time capsule that allows us to encounter objects almost just as they were originally left,” said Kisilevitz and co-dig director Zohar Turgeman-Yaffe.

“This section of the Nahal Repha’im basin was fertile ground for settlement throughout time, especially during the Canaanite period. In recent years excavations in the area have uncovered two settlement sites, two temples and a number of cemeteries, which provide new insight into the life of the local population at that time,” they said.

They also found a small manmade cave 3.5 ft wide x 3 ft high containing only part of a skeleton and jars of artifacts native to far away lands. Archaeologists think these foreign plants were imported and grown locally and probably for the express purpose of ceremonial burials. 

Sources:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/afterlife-snack-jar-of-toads-popped-open-in-4000-year-old-canaanite-tomb-dig/

The Legendary Sunken Continent of the Kumari Kandam

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We’ve all heard many stories about the Atlantis, the mythical city that the ancient Greeks wrote about in their literature. They were said to be an enlightened and advanced civilization for their time. It was also believed that the whole city met a tragic end, with the ocean consuming it whole and erasing remnants of its people’s culture and legacy from existence.

No one knows for sure whether or not the Atlanteans truly existed as a thriving civilization at some point in our ancient past and if the land they inhabited really had been swallowed by the ocean. And until now, people are still fighting over this issue heatedly, with neither side having any intention of standing down. But did you know that that the tale of the lost city of Atlantis is not the only story involving a sunken land and advanced ancient civilization?

A similar tale has been told in India although it is definitely the less popular one compared to the myth of Atlantis. This lesser-known legend of another lost continent is known as the Kumari Kandam, which is what we will be talking about in this video.

The Legendary Sunken Continent of the Kumari Kandam

The Kumari Kandam is a supposed to be a lost continent located south of modern-day India that occupied a large portion of the Indian Ocean. Also referred to as Kumarikkantam and Kumari Nadu, this massive landmass below the Indian subcontinent is believed to be the home of an ancient Tamil civilization before a catastrophe resulted to its submersion in the deep sea. 

The Tamil people are a Dravidian ethnic group whose ancestry can be traced back to Tamil Nadu of India and Sri Lanka. Tens of millions of individuals today identify as Tamilans, making them not only one of the oldest but also largest existing ethno-linguistic cultural groups today. Some of these Tamilans say that the missing Tamil continent of Kumari Kandam is what used to connect the continent of Africa and the landmass of south India. And for the last two centuries, they have declared that this legendary continent is also the hypothesized “lost land” of Lemuria which was developed in the 1890s by Western scholars.

The Hypothesized Submerged Continent of Lumeria

Several scholars in the United States and Europe during the latter part of the 19th century were puzzled by the geological similarities between India, Madagascar, and Africa. English geologist Philip Sclater pondered over the possible reason why there is a significant presence of lemur fossils in Madagascar and India but not in the Middle East or mainland Africa. Sclater went on to publish an article in 1864, titled “The Mammals of Madagascar,” in which he proposed a hypothesis suggesting that Madagascar and India used to be a part of a larger landmass he called “Lemuria.”

Sclater’s Lemuria hypothesis was initially welcomed by members of the scientific community as an acceptable explanation to the way lemurs could have migrated in Madagascar and India in the distant past. However, the theory was eventually discarded after the continental drift theory became the widely-accepted theory in modern times. Nevertheless, the concept of a lost continent below southern India continued to remain popular until the 20th century, especially among the Tamil nationalists who believed Lemuria was the same lost continent they referred to as the Kumari Kandam.

Popularization of Lemuria in Tamil Nadu

According to the Tamil revivalists of the 20th century. Kumari Kandam was the land where the Pandiyan kings once reigned and where the first two Tamil literary academies known as “sangams” were established. And in the 1920s, these Tamil revivalists tried to reduce the domination of the Indo-Aryans and Sanskrit by claiming that prior to the disappearance of Lemuria, it was actually the long-lost Kumari Kandam - the original homeland of the Tamilans and the birthplace of their civilization, language and culture.

The Tamil nationalists did not simply regard the lost land of Kumari Kandam as the home of an ancient Tamil society, but as the cradle of human civilization. They described it as a utopic society where the continent’s enlightened citizens were dedicated to higher learning, trade and commerce, and exploration of the rest of the world. They had established an egalitarian and democratic government that allowed the economy to flourish and its people to thrive.

However, when the continent of Kumari Kandam was lost and the ocean swallowed it whole, the Tamil people had no choice but to migrate to different parts of the world where they established new civilizations.

Submerged Lands in Ancient Indian Literature

Various Tamil and Sanskrit literary works from ancient and medieval times contain legends about a land located south of India that was consumed by the ocean, a catastrophic event believed to have been caused by a tsunami or by a devastating flood. For example, a commentary in the Iraiyanar Akapporul - which is a written work on Tamil poetics from the medieval times - mentions the Pandiyan kings of the early Tamil dynasty and their effort to form three sangams that lasted for thousands of years. The commentary also reveals that two of these sangams were “seized” by the ocean, which ultimately led to the destruction and loss of many ancient writings.

It is important to note, however, that none of these ancient texts or medieval commentaries referred to this lost land that was seized by the sea as “Kumari Kandam.” And none of these literary works have also stated that Kumari Kandam was big enough to qualify as a continent. It turns out that the term “Kumari Kandam” first appeared in the 15-century Tamil version of the Hindu scripture Skanda Purana, and according to cultural historian Sumathi Ramaswamy, the Tamil nationalists used the word “Kumari” - which means “virgin” or maiden” - to symbolize their belief in the purity of the Tamilans’ language and culture prior to their association with the Indo-Aryans.

Criticisms of the Concept of Lemuria

Because the concept of Lemuria is largely recognized by mainstream scholars as a debunked hypothesis today, many experts have frowned upon the alleged attempts of Tamil writers to use the pseudo-scientific theory to validate unverifiable, alternative history. Some historians regard the Kumari Kandam as nothing more than mere fiction founded on mythology and not legitimate scientific research.

Moreover, according to geologists, even if the continental drift theory is set aside and the Lemurian continent did exist at some point in the past, its submersion or dismemberment would have taken place tens to hundreds of millions of years ago during the Mesozoic era. Hence, geological theories like the Lemurian hypothesis should not have anything to do with events in human history that supposedly occurred only a few thousand years ago.

In the end, it cannot be said with absolute certainty that the Kumari Kandam - the land lost to the ocean as described in ancient and medieval Tamil texts - is the same as the hypothesized size and location of the Lumerian continent. At best, we can say that there may be some truth behind such legends. By just how much, there is no way to tell just yet.

For now, this means that while we may be permitted to consider the possibility that the Tamil civilization had once lost a part of its former lands to an ocean-related catastrophe, we cannot claim that this lost land was as big as a continent. If this ancient Tamil landmass did exist in the past, its size can only be compared to that of a small city or a district in today’s standards, making its possible submersion in the sea a few thousand years ago a lot easier to believe.

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Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/lost-continent-kumari-kandam-001941?nopaging=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraiyanar_Akapporul
http://www.crystalinks.com/KumariKandam.html
http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/08/05/kumari-kandam-mythical-lost-virgin-continent-and-history-of-tamil-people-shrouded-in-mystery/
http://www.themysteriousindia.net/kumari-kandam-lost-continent/

5 Ancient Secret Societies that Tried to Control the World

There is something about secret societies that make us immensely distrust them and undeniably fascinated with them at the same time. Even if we have no interest in being a part of one, we can’t seem to shake off the inherent curiosity we have to get to know as much as we can about them. Many of us regard these covert organizations as an elite selection of individuals who have more than enough wealth, power, and influence to further their own self-interests to the detriment of the rest of the world. We view them as a faceless evil lurking in the shadows, dictating the ways of the world and quietly enslaving most of the human society through their cunning schemes and careful plotting.  

This negative view on secret societies is largely founded on our natural wariness of anything shrouded with mystery and perpetuated by dozens of conspiracy theories about these organizations that have sprung up over the years. While we can’t say for certain whether or not some of these secret societies are guilty of surreptitiously trying to rule the world, we can confirm that hundreds of these groups have indeed been established across the globe to serve grand social, political and religious agendas. Some of these institutions date back to several centuries and even a thousand years. Many of them had long since been disbanded but a few of these old clandestine orders continue to exist today.

Here are five (5) of the oldest secret societies you may or may not know about.

#1 – Illuminati

Probably the most well-known and most infamous secret society on this list, the Illuminati historically refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society of freethinkers formed during the era of Enlightenment in the late 18th century. It was founded by Adam Weishaupt on May 1, 1776, and its objectives were to oppose the deliberate restriction of knowledge dissemination of that time; to decrease the influence of superstition and religion over public matters, and to stand against those who abuse state power. Though they were not legally permitted to form an organization, a large number of intellectuals and politicians was a part of this secret group, with some freemasons even joining the fray. Internal dissent and the government’s effort to expose the group and disband it completely led to the Illuminati’s collapse before the end of the 18th century.

While the original Bavarian Illuminati is long gone, several fraternal organizations that exist today claim to have descended from the original members of the 18th-century Illuminati and openly use the name for their own organizations. Conspiracy theorists, however, insist that the real Illuminati organization was not completely quashed and that its members for the past few centuries have orchestrated a variety of historical events to control global society and to establish a “New World Order” governed by atheist and humanist principles. Some have even gone so far as to say that the Illuminati are also Satan worshippers who are furtively plotting to bring the Antichrist into power.

#2 – The Freemasonry

The Freemasonry is a “not-so-secret” secret society whose presence is still widely felt worldwide today ever since the First Grand Masonic Lodge was founded in London back in 1717. While the existence of Freemasonry is public knowledge for the past few centuries, the group has managed to maintain its exclusivity and has kept most of its practices and activities under wraps. They refer to god as “The Great Architect of the Universe,” and they are known to use various architectural symbols. They strictly observe a ritualized style in conducting their meetings, and it is said that Masons are taught secret signs and handshakes that will help them identify fellow Masons.

The challenges of being a part of the Masonry does not end with a confirmed membership to the group. The organization observes a gradual and graded membership system. Initially, the Masonry only had two membership levels – the first and the second degree. However, in the 1750s, a third degree was introduced - a move which was met with outrage and led to the group’s split at the time. Today, the three degrees of Masonry are the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft and the Master Mason. Being an Entered Apprentice equates to a basic membership to the organization. A Fellow Craft is required to pursue furthering his knowledge on masonry. Finally, achieving the degree of a Master Mason means being able to be a part of various Masonic activities.

#3 – The Rosicrucian Order

Said to have been founded by Christian Rosenkreuz back in the early 15th century, this secret society is regarded as one of the oldest ones ever formed. The order’s official symbol is a rose on a cross, and initially, the organization was just a very small circle of doctors who are also sworn bachelors. Each member of this secret society took a vow to always tend to the sick, maintain the strength of the secret fellowship, and to select a suitable disciple to replace him in the event of death.

The Rosicrucians ultimate objective as a group is the “universal reformation of mankind,” and to them, this meant turning to occultism as well as other religious beliefs and practices. Members of this secret society essentially believed that they possessed secret knowledge that have been passed on to them from the “esoteric truths of the ancient past” about “nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm.”

The secret Rosicrucian Order reached the peak of its glory during the 17th century with the publication of the group’s three manifestos. All of Europe was fascinated with the revelation of the existence of a covert brotherhood of sages and alchemists who were dedicated to transforming the political and intellectual landscape of the continent through the arts, sciences and religion. There are even rumors that this secret society was the hidden force operating behind every major war or revolution that occurred for the last several centuries.

#4 – The Hashashin

Also known as the Nizari Ismailis, the Hashashin was an enigmatic order composed of Muslim assassins that operated during the medieval period in the Middle East. This secret organization was formed by Shia Muslims who separated from a larger sect and decided to form a coalition in the late 11th century in hopes of building a utopian Shi’ite state. The Nizari did not have a large army so the group had to resort to various tactics like psychological warfare and orchestrating assassinations to accomplish their goals and defeat their enemies. While the term “assassins” refers to the medieval Nizari sect as a whole, those who actually complete the assassination missions are referred to as the “fida’i.” By using these warriors, they managed to eliminate many of the sect’s enemies, including caliphs, sultans as well as the leaders of the Crusaders of that period.

The Hashashin met its downfall at the hands of the Mongol Empire in the late 13th century, permanently losing their political power and influence as an organized sect. With the destruction of the Nizari, the remaining members of the fida’i class found a means to survive using their skillset by operating as contract killers. It is said that they charged a fixed rate for their services and were employed as mercenaries by various rulers. Records about the Nizari Ismailis has been lost or destroyed so much of what we know about them today is labeled by experts as more legend and myth than real facts.

#5 – The Brethren of Purity

The oldest and the most mysterious secret society on this list, the Brethren of Purity was formed around the 8th or 10th century by Muslim philosophers in Barsa, which is located in modern-day Iraq. Not much is known about this organization’s structure as well as the identities of its members in the past. However, they may have been followers of Shiism – a branch of the Islam religion which holds on to the belief that the prophet Muhammad had selected Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed his position.

The Brethren of Purity followed a hierarchy with four levels: the “Craftsmen,” the Political Leaders,” the “Kings,” and the highest is the rank of “Prophets and Philosophers.” Members of the Brethren had also compiled a massive compendium titled the “Epistles of the Brethren of Purity,” which contains the organization’s esoteric teachings and philosophy on fifty-two treatises, including theology, natural sciences, mathematics and psychology.

The Brethren also strictly observed their rituals and traditions, especially on how their meetings are scheduled and how they are conducted. For example, they regularly held meetings for three evenings every month. The first meeting is set in the beginning of the month during which speeches were given. The second meeting is scheduled in the middle of the month, and it is allotted for topics about astronomy and astrology. And the third meeting is around the end of the month during which members of the order would recite hymns rich in philosophical wisdom. They also held feasts and lectures.

It cannot be said for certain whether the Brethren of Purity has completely been disbanded or if a branch of this secret society remains active to this day. At present, a large number of Muslim and Western scholars have made it their mission to identify the members of the Brethren of Purity and establish the period or century in which they were most active.

The five organizations we have just enumerated are just a few examples of dozens of mysterious secret societies that have been formed for the last thousand years. Most of these old elite orders have long been abolished or exposed, and those that remain until today no longer conduct most of their business in the shadows.

But can we say with absolute certainty that secret societies like the original Illuminati and the Hashashin no no longer exist today? It’s hard to be that confident. And even if they’re really gone for good, many contemporary elitist groups and mysterious organizations have already taken their place. They might go by different names now, but their objectives are perhaps not so different from those that came before. Maybe these faceless entities are still trying to change the world but the manner in which they try to do so has already changed as well.

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SOURCES:

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/the-biggest/new-world-order-the-5-oldest-secret-societies/

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/10-elite-secret-societies-history/

https://www.ancient-code.com/here-are-3-of-the-worlds-most-mysterious-secret-societies/

https://www.ancient-code.com/the-five-most-influential-secret-societies-in-history/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-grecian/the-most-exclusive-secret_b_5398914.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rosicrucians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_Purity

World's Oldest Dress Found in Egypt

(Courtesy Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology). The Tarkhan Dress likely was worn by a young or slim female member of the royal court, and then placed in the tomb as a funerary object. Although the bottom does not survive, it may once have been full-length.

The world's oldest dress - that's still intact - was originally found in Egypt in 1913 but, thanks to new radiocarbon technology, it's been dated at over 5,100 years old! It's called the "Tarkhan Dress," named after the town it was discovered in. 

Researchers concluded the very finely made flax linen dress dates between 3482 and 3103 B.C., making this the world’s oldest woven garment found so far.

“The dress has provided people with a real sense of the antiquity and longevity of the ancient Egyptian state and society.” Alice Stevenson, curator at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

“Linen is a robust plant fiber composed of the carbon-rich biopolymer cellulose,” Dee explains. “This is much easier to handle and date than proteinaceous fibers like those found in wool and leather.”

"With its pleated sleeves and bodice, together with the V-neck detail, it’s a very fine piece of clothing. There’s nothing quite like it anywhere of that quality and of that date. It’s amazing to think it has survived some 5,000 years.”

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Sources:

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/215-1605/trenches/4349-trenches-egypt-predynastic-period-tarkhan-dress

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/241-features/top10/5113-egypt-tarkhan-dress

NEW BIRD SPECIES DISCOVERED IN PERU: Machaeropterus Eckelberryi

Machaeropterus eckelberryi. Image credit: Andy Kratter, Florida Museum of Natural History.

The Machaeropterus eckelberryi was just found in southwestern Loreto, Peru. However, in 1994, it was mistakenly thought to be another species: striped manakin (Machaeropterus regulus) found in the Cordillera Azul mountain range. It's named after 20th century bird illustrator Don Eckelberry.

Researchers realized it was a new species when hearing its unique chirping. 

“Machaeropterus eckelberryi’s song lacks undertones and has a one-noted rising vocalization, rather than two-noted falling vocalization with undertones or a falling monosyllabic vocalization with undertones.”

“With its bright yellow front feathers, the bird was different from a local subspecies of the striped manakin, but nearly identical to the subspecies Machaeropterus regulus aureopectus found in the distant Venezuelan tepuis, but it has a completely different voice,” explains ornithologist Dr. Andy Kratter, of the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science.

“Even if we weren’t discovering new species, just exploring regions of the world that are still poorly known and getting a better picture of where species are distributed, what habitats they use and how we may use this knowledge to preserve them is a worthwhile activity,” says Dr. Daniel Lane, a research associate at Louisiana State University.

“Peru still has many treasures hidden in unexplored nooks and crannies, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the opportunity to uncover them. To this day, it may be some of the most virgin terrain I’ve ever visited.”

“Finding the new species and the isolated mountain ridge were important for the scientific community, in part because the discovery spurred Peru to preserve the area,” Dr. Kratter says.

“The Peruvian government established a national park in the area in the early 2000s, mainly as a result of finding this novel diversity in this area, which our expedition did.”

“Finding these guys opened up a little more inventory and exploration, which led to the formation of this gigantic national park.”

Machaeropterus eckelberryi is described in a paper published in the September 15, 2017 issue of the journal Zootaxa.

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Sources:

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/machaeropterus-eckelberryi-new-bird-species-peru-05353.html

Daniel F. Lane et al. 2017. A new species of manakin (Aves: Pipridae; Machaeropterus) from Peru with a taxonomic reassessment of the Striped Manakin (M. regulus) complex. Zootaxa 4320 (2); doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4320.2.11

Deadly Life of a Female Ninja

When we hear the word “ninja,” most of us picture those sword-wielding assassins wearing an all-black garb who are adept at martial arts and the art of stealth. We’ve read about these black-masked warriors in novels and comic books, and we’ve seen some fictionalized versions of them in a lot of movies for the past few decades. And in many of these materials, we’ve learned that a ninja is often a cloaked and masked man who can stealthily infiltrate an enemy’s territory to end the life of a specific target. 

In reality, however, the way of the ninja is not a life solely intended for men, and not all ninjas live in the shadows. Yes, some of these ninja assassins were female, and they often hid in plain sight. These female ninjas were referred to as the “kunoichi,” and while they equaled their male counterparts in terms of combat and stealth skills, they handled their assignments differently from men in several impressive ways.

Defining Ninja, Shinobi, Kunoichi

While the term “ninja” is what became popular among Westerners, written records in feudal Japan refer to these covert agents and mercenary assassins as the “shinobi.” Members of the shinobi clans in Japan were practitioners of ninjutsu, which taught them the strategy and tactics of espionage, infiltration, sabotage, assassination and even guerrilla warfare. They were like the antithesis of the honorable samurai as the ninja’s covert methods of warfare were regarded as irregular and dishonorable. Nevertheless, as spies and assassins, many of the shinobi lost their lives while in the line of duty and usually took on missions from which they were not expected to return alive.  

Medieval Japan was a time during which men dominated society while women were primarily relegated to the sidelines, taking “harmless” roles such as that of a wife, a mistress, or a maid. And so many incorrectly assume that ninja clans were strictly composed of males when the truth was women of that time also worked as covert agents and assassins alongside men although their approach in doing so is not the same as the male shinobi accomplished their missions.

The existence of female ninja warriors is mentioned in the Bansenshukai - a 17th-century book containing knowledge and secrets about ninja training. The Bansenshukai revealed the primary function of a kunoichi, and that is to infiltrate a target’s household by forming intimate relations with members of that clan and gaining their trust. Walking freely inside enemy territory and hiding in plain sight, they usually bided their time in collecting information about their target, but they were also capable of facilitating assassinations if ordered to do so.

Disguises And Tactics Of A Female Ninja

The shinobi knew the importance of using personal strengths to their deadliest advantage. In a world where women were prized for their beauty and were deemed ignorant and harmless, the kunoichi was less likely to arouse suspicion and found it much easier to get close to their targets compared to their male counterparts. The female ninjas used feminine wiles to accomplish their objective and even became concubines and mistresses to mask themselves for long periods of time.

The targets of the shinobi were typically powerful and influential members of the samurai class, which meant that they were heavily guarded and were naturally distrustful of men outside their clan. However, rarely were they as suspicious of the women around them as they were of men. This allowed the kunoichi to disguise themselves as maids, courtesans or as priestesses and go undercover, infiltrating dangerous enemy zones on a broader and more intimate level than male shinobis would have ever been able to achieve.

The kunoichi did not sneak in during moonless nights to steal information or eliminate their targets. A kunoichi was patient and took time to accomplish missions even if the mission took years. Female ninjas rarely attempted to kill their targets right away. First, they worked hard to integrate themselves well into the enemy’s household and to earn the trust of the household's many residents slowly. They gathered intelligence and passed on crucial information to a samurai’s enemies. When the time came to eliminate the target they were monitoring, they did not wait for a male shinobi to finish the job. Their combat skills were just as excellent, and sometimes, their method of execution was even more creative and brutal.

This is why some argue that the kunoichi posed a more serious threat than other members of the shinobi. It was hard to tell if a maid, a priestess or a courtesan was who she said she was since they could pretend to be one for a very long time if they must. And when they were ordered to strike, they did so cunningly when their targets are at their most vulnerable – often in bed and with their pants down. Hence, it is not so surprising that they suffered worse fates than the captured male ninjas when they were caught for committing such intimate betrayals.

Weapons Used By Female Assassins

Beauty and sexuality were the female ninjas’ primary weapons when gaining access to their targets, but they also wielded actual deadly weapons of their own. Considering they had to go to their enemy’s territory unnoticed, they could not bring around with them long swords that would catch people’s attention. Instead, they carried weapons such as dagger-like hairpins, throwing stars, tessen or folding fans with hidden blades, and poison as these items can be inconspicuous while wearing a standard kimono.

Perhaps the iconic weapon of choice used by the kunoichi was the neko-te. The neko-te mimicked Wolverine claws and was made of leather finger sheaths topped with very pointed metal tips. The tiger-like claws of the weapon extended between one and three inches in length and were sharp enough to tear away human flesh. Some of the kunoichis would even douse their neko-te with poison in order to quicken death or worsen pain.

Mochizuki Chiyome: Japan's Most Famous Kunoichi

There is little record available about kunoichis, and Mochizuki Chiyome is probably the only one whose name was solidified in Japan’s ninja history.  Mochizuki Chiyome was a noblewoman from the 16th century and the wife of a samurai warlord. She is credited for setting up an underground network of female spies, which she accomplished by recruiting around 300 female orphans, war victims, and prostitutes.

To the eyes of the locals of Nazu village in the Shinshu region, the noblewoman was merely running an orphanage, but in reality, she trained and managed a very sophisticated group of female espionage operatives and assassins who have infiltrated almost every aspect of the region’s community. These groups of female ninjas put their bodies and lives on the line all in service to the Takeda clan led by the uncle of Chiyome’s late husband, Takeda Shingen.

For reasons unknown, after the death of Shingen in 1573, Chiyome and her league of spies disappeared from Japan’s historical records, and no one knows what happened to the secret group after serving the Takeda clan.

Although we don’t know all the names of the Japanese women who were once among the kunoichi, they were no less important than their male counterparts within the ranks of the shinobi. These deadly female ninjas were highly respected by the men they worked for and those who worked alongside them, and for a time, they were truly a force to be reckoned with in Medieval Japan.

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Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi
http://www.ninjaencyclopedia.com/reality/kunoichi.html
https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2013/06/kunoichi-female-ninja-spies-medieval-japan-susan-spann
http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/deadly-female-ninja-assassins-used-deception-and-disguise-strike-their-target-021503?nopaging=1
https://www.mysterytribune.com/kunoichi-closer-look-female-ninja-spies-old-japan/

Underwater Ghost Town Hidden Beneath Canadian Lake's Icy Waters

Surrounded by tall evergreen trees near today's Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, Lake Minnewanka's waters have drawn people to the area for years to enjoy kayaking, hiking, and the beautiful scenery. But most people don't realize that beneath the icy waters lies the sunken city of Minnewanka Landing. 

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Since 1886, this was a busy summer village at the base of the Canadian Rockies with a popular beach house and hotel. Minnewanka Landing grew with more roads, cottages, restaurants, and boatyards that sailed tourists around the much smaller original lake.

“It was during the Second World War, and everyone was hungry for power,” Bill Perry, Parks Canada archeologist. “Calgary and the surrounding area were growing substantially during that point in time and required more power, so Lake Minnewanka was seen as an easy end.”

What changed this lovely little town's fate was the Calgary Power Co. who built a hydroelectric dam in 1921, flooding part of Minnewanka Landing. However, the town kept running for twenty years until a new larger dam was built in 1941, raising the reservoir’s waters by 98 feet. Thus, Minnewanka Landing disappeared beneath the waves. 

Yet, this little town remains remarkably intact and still has tourists visiting it... in scuba gear; about 8,000 each year.

“Because of the cold, clear water, wood actually survives quite well down there,” Perry says. “That’s why it has become such a popular diving place for local scuba diving clubs. There's just so much left to see.

Besides this sunken city, there's a Native American campsite thousands of years old where archaeologists find ancient stone weapons and tools. 

“What is particularly interesting about that for me is looking at the whole area as a cultural landscape,” Perry says. “The area's 13,000 years of continuous use absolutely fascinates me.”  

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SOURCES:

1.http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/underneath-canadian-lake-sits-preserved-ghost-town-180964645/#dk6Mrf4HD0i21VPZ.99

New Large 'Wandering' Spider Discovered with Red Fangs

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Scared of spiders? You're going to love (or hate) the discovery of a new LARGE SPIDER the size of a softball. Seemingly straight out of a horror story, a team of researchers exploring Mexican mountains... at night wandered into a cave to find dozens of these large hairy red-fanged spiders hanging from the ceiling!!!

Originally found in 2013 by Jim Berrian and a team of researchers from the San Diego Natural History Museum released a report about their find earlier this year.

Jim and the others brought back 8 of 24 these spiders to study and named them "califorctenus cacachilensis" or "Sierra Cacachilas wandering spider" and represents a new genus of arachnids.

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“When I saw these spiders for the first time, I was very impressed by their size,” Baja spider expert Maria Luisa Jimenez, a researcher at Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste.

The head and legs of the spider are dark brown with a yellow abdomen. The body is about an inch long while the legs are about four inches across. The arachnid belongs to the same family as the Brazilian wandering spider—one of the deadliest spiders in the world.

"I got bit while handling a live specimen of Califorctenus cacachilensis and I'm still alive," said Jim Berrian.

But this Sierra Cacachilas wandering spider is so different from other related species that the researchers put it in a different genus. Despite its large fangs and body, a bite from one won't kill you.

“The odds of discovering a new species are pretty high. But...generally, [most] new species discovered are itty-bitty things that people don’t pay attention to, so given the size of this spider, that was surprising.”

So, that's good news! You have a great chance of finding a new spider species... that may or may not be poisonous... and could be really big. 

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SOURCES: 
1.http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/huge-new-spider-species-discovered-mexican-cave-180962848/#zLx8JBGCAEoQQAUz.99

Ancient Volcanic Eruption Caused Collapse of Egyptian Dynasty

2,000 years ago Egypt's last dynasty collapsed after volcanic eruptions prevented monsoon rains from swelling the Nile, thus causing economic pressures and revolt.

Wow, what an example of the "butterfly effect!" This is a lesson to all of us of our interconnection to natural events and their consequences in our seemingly independent lives.

The ancients believed in following the course of nature and maintaining harmony with nature.

As you will see, they had very good reason to. Nowadays, the average person living in the developed world may only consider nature when checking the weather to pick what clothes to wear, but in traditional culture, people deviating from the natural seasonal cycles could mean starvation for an entire nation! Large natural disasters were viewed as the responsibility of the ruling monarchy who would even make a public apology to the people and make changes to fulfill his duty to his people's well being. 

Yale University historian Joseph Manning and his colleagues compared records of Nile River heights dating back to A.D. 622 with 2,500 year-old ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica with layers of volcanic ash matching the years the Nile's waters did not rise high enough.

Less flooding meant less food, which meant poverty, revolt, and the eventual end of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom.

Each volcanic eruption limited rainfall across Africa where the Nile receives water from. Such eruptions impact monsoons via a low-pressure belt near the earth's equator called the Intertropical Convergence Zone that governs rain cycles. Basically, the volcanic ash blocked monsoon weather from watering the Nile and caused turmoil in human society. 

Manning and researchers found recorded revolts matched the dates of volcanic eruptions. During Italy's Mount Etna's massive explosion in 44 BC, there were political earthquakes, starvation, and drought. Coincidence? I think not. 

This research is astonishing and points to the affects of other natural disasters to our civilization and social behaviors. With all of today's hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and political tension, let us remind each other to re-align to the natural way because our actions also influence the greater world around us that we all live on. 

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Sources:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-volcanoes-may-have-ended-dynasty-ptolemy-and-cleopatra?mode=topic&context=60

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00957-y