Archaeologists Find the Colour of Solomon’s Garments

 

Credit courtesy of Dafna Gazit, the Israel Antiquities Authority, fair use doctrine.

Joel Kontinen

Archaeologists excavating at ancient copper mines in southern Israel have recovered scraps of fabric dyed in royal purple from the time of Kings David and King Solomon. This is the first time remnants of such “royal clothing” has been found from the age of the great biblical kings from 3000 years ago.

“The colour immediately attracted our attention, but we found it hard to believe we had found true purple from such an ancient era,” said the researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority on Thursday.

The dig has been ongoing since 2013 in the Timna Valley, known as the site of ancient copper mines located some 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the city of Eilat,

A large section of the valley is a park where visitors can see spectacular geological features as well as preserved excavations of ancient copper mines, including rock drawings from ancient Egypt.

In the joint project carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan University, researchers were surprised to find remnants of woven fabric, a tassel and fibers of wool dyed with royal purple that radiocarbon dating confirmed to be 3,000 years old, corresponding to the biblical monarchies of David and Solomon in Jerusalem.

The dye, which is produced from species of mollusk found in the Mediterranean, over 300 km from Timna, is often mentioned in the Bible, including in a passage in the Song of Songs (3:9–10): “King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold. Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love.”

“This is a very exciting and important discovery,” said Dr. Naama Sukenik, curator of organic finds at the Israel Antiquities Authority. “This is the first piece of textile ever found from the time of David and Solomon that is dyed with the prestigious purple dye.”

“In antiquity, purple attire was associated with the nobility, with priests, and of course with royalty. The gorgeous shade of the purple, the fact that it does not fade and the difficulty in producing the dye, which is found in minute quantities in the body of mollusks, all made it the most highly valued of the dyes, which often cost more than gold,” Dr. Sukenik said.

Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef of Tel Aviv University explained that the extremely dry climate of Timna helped preserve organic materials such as textile, cords and leather from the Iron Age, from the time of David and Solomon, “providing us with a unique glimpse into life in biblical times.”

“If we excavated for another hundred years in Jerusalem, we would not discover textiles from 3000 years ago. The state of preservation at Timna is exceptional,” said Prof. Ben-Yosef.

This discovery highlights the veracity of scriptures.Everything it says, stays true.

 

source  

Benzion, Yakir, 2021. Archaeological find gives a glimpse into the wardrobe of King David and King Solomon from 3000 years ago. United with Israel 29.1. 

Japanese Diplomat Saved 6 000 Jews From Concentration Camps

 Sugihara.  Image courtesy of public domain.

Joel Kontinen

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, a virtual event on Monday honoured a hero often referred to as the “Japanese Schindler” for helping to save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania, defied his own government’s orders by issuing handwritten transit visas in 1940 to more than 6,000 Lithuanian Jews, enabling them to escape Nazi-occupied Europe. He continued to do so for over a month until the Japanese consulate was closed. More than 40,000 descendants of those Jews are believed to be alive today because of his courageous actions.

Sugihara died in 1986 at the age of 86.

The online event highlighted Sugihara’s heroic deeds and the lessons we can learn from him in battling contemporary anti-Semitism. The reception was hosted by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement and B’nai B’rith International.

Sacha Roytman Dratwa, executive director of the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, told JNS, “While Sugihara has gotten more attention in recent decades, particularly after Yad Vashem gave him the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ title in the 1980s, most people, including Jews, are still unaware of his heroic deeds. So, it is important that we honour those, such as Sugihara, who came to the aid of the Jewish people in the darkest hour of their history.”

“With fewer and fewer survivors of the Holocaust alive to tell their stories, it is vital that its lessons continue to be shared,” he continued. “The Sugihara lesson is about what one person can do in the face of evil—which, with anti-Semitism on the rise around the world, is as relevant as ever.”

He was not the only one to save Jews: Apart from Schindler, who saved 1 200 Jews from concentration camps, Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, teamed with 20 others and smuggled 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, some in ambulances and trams between October 1940 and April 1943 and placed them in Catholic homes. And in the UK, they had Frank Foley, who saved 10,000 Jews  and sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 Jewish children..

Source 

Ghermezian, Shiryn. 2021. Honoring the Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Holocaust Jewish News Syndicate 27 January

 

How the platypus got to be so bizarre

·         Dr. Philip Bethge CC BY-SA 4.0.

Joel Kontinen

The platypus is an enigma for evolution.  The platypus is a mammal, but it has a duck’s beak and it lays eggs.

For evolutionists the platypus is a problem as it does not fit into their model. They have a hard time figuring how a water-loving animal could have evolved from a bird and a mammal.

Often considered the world's oddest mammal, Australia's beaver-like, duck-billed platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies, sweats milk, has venomous spurs and is even equipped with 10 sex chromosomes. Now, an international team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen has conducted a unique mapping of the platypus genome and found answers regarding the origins of a few of its stranger features

Evolutionists believe that . “During our own evolution, we humans lost all three so-called vitellogenin genes, each of which is important for the production of egg yolks. Chickens on the other hand, continue to have all three. The study demonstrates that platypuses still carry one of these three vitellogenin genes, despite having lost the other two roughly 130 million years ago. The platypus continues to lay eggs by virtue of this one remaining gene.”

Yes, the study has millions of years that support evolution, but given the soft tissues in dinosaurs, that would be a non-issue.  

Source.

Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen, 2021.. Mapping the platypus genome: How Earth's oddest mammal got to be so bizarre. Science Daily, 6 January .

Hazes Are Popular In The Solar System

 

Image courtesy of  NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/SPL

Joel Kontinen

A new study finds that the haze shrouding Pluto might be made up of ice crystals possessing cyanide hearts. This means that not only the Earth has hazes – they are popular in the solar system.

How could planets that are supposed in the 4,6 billion year old support hazes?

This is in believe that different shades of the planets regard in different ways to hazes, After they found on hazes on Pluto, researches thought they the same all over the solar system. However, Pluto has an atmosphere that is very cold, So they had they had to to think  differently,

Source:

Choi, Charles Q. 2021. Pluto's haze made up of ice crystals with cyanide hearts.  Live Science 23 January.

Largest Dinosaur Found

 

Nobu Tamura,  CC BY 3.0.

Joel Kontinen  

Source.  

Evolution believing scientist have found the largest dinosaurs ever. Found in 2012, in Neuquén Province of northwest Patagonia, but have still not been fully excavated that is until now. It is probably a titanosaur, possibly the largest one on record. Titanosaurs were amongst the largest sauropods — long-necked, plant-eating giant dinos — and lived from the late Jurassic period (163.5 million to 145 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago).

 

Scientist claim the discovery hails from 98 million years ago, meaning the creature lived during the Cretaceous period.

 

Now, how could such a dinosaur fit into Noah’s ark. Dinosaurs grew very fast during puberty. It is supposed that God only took the ones approaching puberty on board the vessel. They could then repopulate the world.

 

This study was published online 12^TH January  in the journal Cretaceous Research

Source.

Baker. Harry. 2021. Massive new dinosaur might be the largest creature to ever roam Earth Live Science 21 January. 

Neutron Stars Emit High Energy X-Rays

D. Ducros; ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Joel Kontinen

Over 400 light years from us, there is a cluster of young neutron stars that are too hot for their age. These stars, known as the "Magnificent Seven," emit a stream of ultra-high-energy X-rays that scientists haven't been able to explain. 

Now, scientists have proposed a possible culprit: axions, theoretical particles that turn into light particles when they are in the presence of a magnetic field. 

 

In a new study, published January 12 in the journal Physical Review Letters, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist Benjamin Safdi and colleagues used supercomputers to model the idea that axions produced inside the stars could convert to X-rays in the magnetic fields outside the stars.

However, there is no evidence of ultra high energy x-rays or even axions. Axions might be a component  dark matter, the unobserved stuff that seems to make up over a quarter of the universe's mass.

But who knows. 

Source:

 Pappas, Stephanie. 2021. Mystery particle may explain extreme X-rays shooting from the 'Magnificent 7' stars. Live Science  20 January.  

Science and The Afterlife

 

The passage of the souls, by Louis Janmot. public domain.

Joel Kontinen

A text on the life after death in a new Netflix series says there is. However, the text muddles up the scale between Christianity and what we call the paranormal all included.

The text on live science makes it clear that no evidence for afterlive exists that can be fathomed by science.

Christianity proves s with access to God, and scientist agree with this, including us astronauts,  

Pappas, Stephanie. 2021, Can science 'prove' there's an afterlife? Netflix documentary says yes.  Live Science 18 January.

Dogs might have been domesticated pets

 

Image courtesy of Morphdog, CC BY-SA 4.0SA 4.0

Joel Kontinen 

According to evolution, people can not eat a lot of meat. What should they do with the bits left over?

A new study shows they gave it to wolves during the ice age. They became pets, this is what Maria Lahtinen of the Finnish Food Authority in Helsinki and her colleagues suggest. 

According to evolution timeline, that dogs split from their wolf ancestors between 27,000 and and 40, 000 years ago, The oldest dog burial is from from 14,200 years ago, suggesting dogs were firmly installed as pets by then.

But scientist do not know where that took place.

According to Genesis, wolves and dogs belong to the same species.

Source:

Marshall, Michael. 2021. Humans may have domesticated dogs by accident by sharing excess meat.  New Scientist 7 January

Sleep evolved before the brain did

Image courtesy of Flatters & Co., public domain.

Joel Kontinen 

Evolution believing scientist have found out that sleep evolved before brain did, this is shown in a tiny, brainless, freshwater animal called a hydra.

"We now have strong evidence that animals must have acquired the need to sleep before acquiring a brain," study lead author Taichi Q. Itoh, an assistant professor at Kyushu University in Japan, said. 

They discovered that the hydra, the animal that lacks a brain take some sleep. Humans and all mammals, as well as in insects and even roundworms. sleep.  However, all these creatures have some form of central nervous system. or brain, and so scientists didn't know whether the evolution of sleep preceded that of brains, or vice versa.

Source: 

Rettner, Rachael, 2021. Sleep evolved before brains did, study finds.  Live Science 14 January.

Great Fossil Graveyard in Wyoming Points to Noah’s Flood

 

Image courtesy of Nobu Tamura, CC BY 2.5, 

Joel Kontinen

A great fossil found fossil graveyard  in eastern Wyoming has yielded over 13,000 individual elements primarily of the hadrosaurid dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens, 

Almost all specimens exhibit exquisite preservation (i.e., little to no abrasion, weathering, and breakage), but they are disarticulated which, combined with our sedimentological observations, suggests that the bones were remobilized and buried after a period of initial decay and disarticulation of Edmontosaurus carcasses,

Forget the millions of years postulated for this find, This points out that the Flood of Noah’s time could most probably caused this preservation. 

Source:

Snyder. Keith et al. 2020. Over 13,000 elements from a single bonebed help elucidate disarticulation and transport of an Edmontosaurus thanatocoenosis  PLoS ONE 15(5): e0233182

The Emergency Of Monotheism

 

Image courtesy of Tinnakorn Jorruang/EyeEm, fair use doctrine. 

Joel Kontinen

Evolutionists believe that what we mean by monotheism is more recent than the religions it describes.

It has to do with evolution. For instance, Dan Assman calls it "evolutionary monotheism"; although not all scholars of religion agree with this interpretation.

Darwinists assume that before monotheism became popular, many folks thought that their religion was the most popular one. Thus, when it comes to Christianity, they just taught the worshippers of other religions served demons.

Matthew Chalmers thinks that some Jewish and Muslim writers interpreted the Holy Trinity as three gods rather than one. Instead, the distinction between polytheism and monotheism is one we've made in retrospect to try and make sense of our own history.

However, God tells men to listen to him. in the Bible, God is presented as the one who made the heavens and Earth.

Source:

Whitcomb, Isobel. 2021. What led to the emergence of monotheism? Live Science 5 January

Darwin was wrong about the height of giraffes

 

Image courtesy of Emma Wells, fair use doctrine.

Joel Kontinen 

The okapi is a living fossil that defies Darwinism.

However, the discovery of two full grown giraffes could make them want to defy evolution as well. The specimens ae 2,7 metres or 9 feet tall, these two dwarf giraffes are about half the height of the average giraffe.

Adorable dwarf giraffes have been spotted for the first time, and with their graceful long necks tacked onto a set of chunky legs, they look like a mashup of mythical creatures. Researchers identified two wild giraffes that were around 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall — about half the height of the average giraffe. That diminutive stature could put them at a disadvantage in the wild, experts say. 

One giraffe, dubbed "Gimli," after the trusty dwarf sidekick in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was first spotted in 2015 in Uganda's Murchison Falls National Park, according to The New York Times. The researchers were baffled when they first saw the 2.8 m or 9-foot-4-inch-tall giraffe.

"The initial reaction was disbelief," study lead author doctor Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, told the Times. 

The giraffe's legs were unusually short, which made it look as though someone had stuck a giraffe's head on a horse's body, the Times reported.

In 2018, the researchers observed an 8-foot-6-inch-tall (2.6 m) giraffe, nicknamed "Nigel," on a private farm in central Namibia, according to a new study on the encounters, published Dec. 30 in the journal BMC Research Notes.

In addition to humans, dwarfism or skeletal dysplasia, affects bone growth, often resulting in short stature. although it has been known to occur in humans and domestic animals like dogs, cows and pigs, dwarfism is rarely observed among wild animals and this is the first time it has been found in giraffes. has Gimli and Nigel are the first reported giraffes with the condition.

Source:


Rettner, Rachael, 2021. Adorable dwarf giraffes spotted for the first time, Live Science 8 January

What if humans had photosynthetic skin?

  

Jon Sullivan, public domain

Joel Kontinen

Evolution drives this story. If evolution can do all kinds of things, why not produce a man that has photosynthesis skin^?  It probable could not do such a thing, Only God can do that and rest is just Darwinian speculation._.

In John Scalzi's Hugo Award-nominated novel Old Man's War, soldiers are equipped with genetically engineered bodies that not only possess cybernetic brain implants and enhanced strength, speed, senses, endurance and dexterity, but also green, photosynthetic skin.

Source:

Choi, Charles Q . 2021. What if humans had photosynthetic skin? Live Science 5 January

Trump Elected As America’s Most Admired Man

Image courtesy of Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock, com.

Joel Kontinen

Who is the most admired man in America? For years, it was Barack Obama. Now, its Donald Trump. 18 per cent of those admired him the best, while Obama had to do with 15.

Trump did not win the Noble peace prize, while he was instrumental in bring peace between Israel and four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Source:

Langlois Shawn, 2020. Donald Trump puts an end to Barack Obama’s record 12-year streak as America’s ‘most admired’ man  Market Watch 29 Decembern