Three Chinese citizens were found murdered in an apartment in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. A search is underway for a fourth Chinese national who is still missing. The Afghan authorities have not identified a motive for the killing.
In other news, detainees at a Muslim immigrant detention center in Greece rioted, setting fire to mattresses and their living quarters. Police had to be called in to quell the disturbance.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, JD, Kitman, Papa Whiskey, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
During the Best Period of Economic Growth in U.S. History There Was No Income Tax and No Fed
How would America ever survive without the central planners in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve? What in the world would we do if there was no income tax and no IRS? Could the U.S. economy possibly keep from collapsing under such circumstances? The mainstream media would have us believe that unless we have someone “to pull the levers” our economy would descend into utter chaos, but the truth is that the best period of economic growth in U.S. history occurred during a time when there was no income tax and no Federal Reserve. Between the Civil War and 1913, the U.S. economy experienced absolutely explosive growth. The free market system thrived and the rest of the world looked at us with envy. The federal government was very limited in size, there was no income tax for most of that time and there was no central bank. To many Americans, it would be absolutely unthinkable to have such a society today, but it actually worked very, very well. Without the inventions and innovations that came out of that period, the world would be a far different place today.
It is amazing what can happen when the government just gets out of the way. Check out all of the wonderful things that Wikipedia says happened for the U.S. economy during those years…
When hard working, industrious people are given freedom to pursue their dreams, great things tend to happen. The truth is that we were all designed to create, to invent, to build, and to trade with one another. We all have something that we can contribute to society, and when families are strong and the invisible hand of the free market is allowed to work, societies tend to prosper.
It is not a coincidence that the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was between the Civil War and 1913. The following information comes from Wikipedia…
[…]
That would be bad enough, but it is also important to remember that since 2008 the Fed has actually been paying banks NOT to lend money to the rest of us.
[…]
It is not an accident that our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Fed was originally created. This is what the bankers wanted the system to do.
They wanted a system that would extract wealth from all of us through taxes, transfer it to the government, and then transfer it to them through interest payments.
We never needed a central bank, we never needed the IRS and we never needed an income tax. America would be doing just fine without any of them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Consumers Feeling More Vulnerable as Crisis Deepens
Greeks appear to feel increasingly insecure about their consumer rights and believe they are exposed to a growing number of unfair and abusive commercial practices in the midst of the economic crisis.
According to the European Union’s latest survey on consumer behavior and conditions, just 18 percent of Greeks felt adequately protected by existing consumer legislation. This is by far the lowest rating in the last five years, having declined from 31 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2009, 30 percent in 2010 and 28 percent in 2011. The EU-27 average stands at 55 percent.
But low consumer confidence also appears to be accompanied by a low awareness of consumer rights, which creates a serious obstacle to claiming them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Place Where Every Week is “Shark Week”
[WARNING: Disturbing content]
“Getting attacked by a shark just might be the scariest event in nature!” gasps a Discovery Channel narrator during Shark Week. “Australia recorded 56 fatal shark attacks between 1956 and 2008!” he gasps again. “Find out what it’s like from people who’ve lived to tell the tale!”
So the Discovery Channel goes back over half a century and to a distant continent to interview the victims and dramatize the attacks. But why the distant timeline and setting, ask many people in South Florida?
[…]
The waters surrounding Cuba are famed for their hordes of sharks. Most people entering them for extended periods (all those showboat swimmers and surfers) insist on a defense against them. Yet from a quarter to a half million Cubans have crossed these waters with little between them and the sharks than thin rubber or canvas — and knowing the odds were close to 50-50 that their craft would overturn or crumble.
Not that ( given the media silence) most of you would have any reason to know this, but right off the southern Florida coast an estimated 70-80,000 people have perished since 1961 on the high seas, a large but unknown number of these at the hands (jaws, actually) of sharks. To this day most airborne rescuers report seeing sharks in the vicinity of most Cuban rafters. Many have observed attacks. Most survivors mention sharks and shark attacks often during their terrible voyage…
The Discovery Channel, you see, is a major business partner of the Castro regime. So such a show would probably not sit well with their communist client. When it comes to the U.S. media and U.S. celebrities, after all, this communist client is much more accustomed to seeing such items as Newsweek hailing Cuba as among the “Best countries in the world to live,” to hearing Jack Nicholson hail Castro’s Stalinist fiefdom as “a paradise!” and to hear Bonnie Raitt commemorate Cuba in song as a “Happy Little Island!”
Never mind that ten to twenty times as many people have died attempting to flee Castro’s Cuba as died trying to flee East Germany, who — best we can tell — won no awards from Newsweek for its “quality of life.” What makes these stats even worse is that prior to Castroism Cuba took in immigrants at a higher rate than did the U.S! And mostly from Europe. Indeed more Americans lived in Cuba than Cubans in the U.S!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nero fiddled, Obama golfed. Rome burned, the U.S. is burning
In Roman history, few emperors are as reviled as Nero, who famously fiddled while the beautiful city of Rome burned. Most historians believe Nero allowed the city to burn so there would be space for his own grand palace. In the end, Nero was undone by his pettiness; his tyranny and his extravagance.
Thankfully, America does not have an emperor; we have a public servant in the highest office. Our President is responsible for his or her actions and stands before the voters every four years.
Our current President, Barack Obama, was elected twice and now does not have to worry about his approval ratings or another election. He is term limited and free to pursue his liberal agenda to his heart’s content.
He is also free to enjoy the perks of the highest office without suffering the wrath of the voters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austin, Texas, Braces for Al-Qaeda Terrorist Attack
Feds issue emergency alert ordering law enforcement to prepare for attack
Law enforcement agencies in Texas have received a special threat advisory based on information provided by the Department of Homeland Security indicating Austin, Texas, has been singled out for a terrorist attack on Friday, August 9. Pasadena, California, is also mentioned in the advisory.
The document was provided to Infowars.com by sources in the Texas State Police on Thursday evening.
“According to anonymous reporting, a group of trained terrorists are planning to conduct attacks in Austin, Texas and Pasadena, California at the conclusion of the Ramadan period,” the document marked for official and law enforcement use states.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Money Buys Access for Al Jazeera
Evidence is emerging that powerful Republican K Street lobbyist Tom Korologos is the main factor behind the failure of the House of Representatives to do its duty and investigate the activities of Al Jazeera on U.S. soil. Korologos has been described as a Republican “heavy hitter” who can work his will on Capitol Hill. His clout explains why Rep. Michael McCaul (TX), Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has failed to open hearings on Al Jazeera.
Big money has bought access to the U.S. media market for the latest version of terror television. And Republicans who should be on guard against this have sold out.
The channel has Arabic and English versions, and works hand-in-glove with the Muslim Brotherhood and its associated terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and Hamas. The channel is well-funded by the regime in Qatar, where the country’s citizens are denied freedom of speech and press and there has been no “Arab Spring.” Indeed, a poet got life in prison in Qatar for insulting the emir, a multi-billionaire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christie Signs Gun Control Laws
Gov. Christie signed 10 bills Thursday targeting gun violence in New Jersey, including measures requiring that certain mental-health records be submitted to the federal background-check database and increasing penalties for gun trafficking.
Christie did not take action on several other measures passed by the Legislature after the December massacre in Newtown, Conn., including a proposal to ban .50-caliber guns and another requiring that gun-permit information be encoded on driver’s licenses.
The driver’s license proposal, sponsored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), would overhaul the state’s system for gun purchases, requiring the creation of a database that would allow gun dealers to instantly check whether a person is qualified to buy a firearm. Gun owners also would have to complete a firearms safety course.
Those proposals have drawn opposition from gun-rights groups, including a New Hampshire organization that recently urged supporters to ask Christie to veto the bills…
The bills signed by Christie on Thursday will:
Require that certain mental-health records be sent to the national background check database.
Enhance penalties for giving a gun to an underage person, as well as for people convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, which will be a crime of first-degree under certain circumstances.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: If Frontpage Lies About This, They’ll Lie About Anything, Pt. 2
I would like to salute the contributions made in the comment-trenches in response to the recent eruptions over American Betrayal. It is interesting to note that the Frontpage cadre, led by chief enforcer David Horowitz, finds it hard to believe that so many people would take to the comment sections, Facebook, blogs and elsewhere wholly unsolicited by me and oppose their ugly attempts to render certain research, certain arguments unacceptable inside boundaries of historical debate as they, themselves, set them.
The Wall is going to come down no matter what they do to shore it up.
Meanwhile, on somewhat closer scrutiny, I find the Radosh mess to be a series of flattened, screaming, straw-man arguments that fail in terms of the most basic intellectual honesty to convey any reality-based synopsis of the evidence assembled inside the pages of my book.
For example, Radosh has readers believing that my quite lengthy, sourced discussions of whether Harry Hopkins, FDR’s top wartime advisor, was an agent of Stalin’s influence turn on one document. This is a 1943 Venona cable in which “Agent 19” is passing information to Moscow gained inside a small private meeting that included FDR and Churchill about the postponement of D-Day to 1944.
He writes: “The identification of Hopkins as Agent 19 is the linchpin of West’s conspiracy case.”
This is a lie. My case against Hopkins, and, for that matter, the larger Soviet influence network, which included at least hundreds of identified American traitors assisting the KGB from various positions and institutions, by no means turns on one document. For Radosh to say so is ridiculous, but it is also damaging if people believe him. The range of my dossier on Hopkins is varied and extensive, as any casual perusal of the book reveals. Radosh, however, has chosen to omit all mention of the evidence I have gathered in my case against Hopkins. This, in and of itself, demonstrates that Radosh is not honestly evaluating my discussion of whether the president’s top advisor during WWII might have been an agent of Stalin’s influence. Nay-saying one piece of evidence to the exclusion of many other pieces of evidence is a transparently mendacious effort to misrepresent the book. This is not book reviewing; it is book assassination.
Here are just a few of the briefest, most quickly conveyed points about Hopkins Radosh doesn’t mention…
| [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: “Professor” Radosh Gets an “F”
Note to readers.
In just one of today’s installments of the Smear Me Show at Frontpage, Radosh tells readers that an episode he criticized in his original “review,” and that I flagged yesteday for not being in the book, is in the book — and in three places.
This is a lie, too.
But it gets worse. First, he has to swap the first episode (not in book) for a new one (also not in book), and hope no one notices.
I noticed.
His original episode (still not in book) relates that “George Elsey found confidential files in the Map Room that showed FDR naively thinking he could trust Stalin, and instructed Hopkins to tell Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov that FDR was in favor of a Second Front in 1942.”
Remember: Elsey, Map Room, confidential files, FDR telling Hopkins to tell Molotov he favored a Second Front.
Today he writes:…
| [Return to headlines] |
Diana West’s Latest Concerning the Ron Radosh ‘Smear Me Show’ At F-Troop Page Magazine
Vasarahammer has an interesting observation that bolsters West’s position of Russian influence in US decision making during WWII:
The fact remains that WWII was not such a success from an British/American point of view as it is sometimes painted to be. Half of Europe was left behind Iron curtain for 50 years and the effects of that can still be seen. The effects of Lend & Lease were very much visible in the Continuation war front. Suddenly, the Soviets started having American gear and Studebaker trucks. This would not have happened if the USSR did not have able spokesmen close to the US government…
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Kidnapping Suspect Killed by FBI; Hannah Anderson in ‘Good Shape’
CASCADE, Idaho — The man accused of kidnapping 16-year-old Hannah Anderson was killed in the Idaho wilderness Saturday, but the teen was found safe and “appears to be in pretty good shape,” San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said.
Gore said the suspect, James Lee DiMaggio, was shot by the FBI.
“Obviously we would have liked Mr. DiMaggio to surrender and face justice in a court of law, but that was not the case,” Gore said. Hannah will be “thoroughly evaluated” at a hospital before detectives talk to her, he said.
Hannah’s father, Brett Anderson, was notified this afternoon and was “very relieved,” Gore said at a press conference in San Diego. Plans are in progress to reunite him with his daughter Sunday. She was taken to a hospital for observation.
DiMaggio, 40, was killed not far from the remote Idaho location where a group of horseback riders had seen him and Hannah earlier in the week, law enforcement sources told The Times.
DiMaggio was the subject of an intensive manhunt in the wilderness above Cascade, where he had taken Hannah, who had been missing from her San Diego County community since Sunday
DiMaggio had been considered armed and dangerous. Earlier in the day, FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said that danger required officials to send in “highly trained, enhanced SWAT teams and law enforcement” as part of the search.
DiMaggio’s blue Nissan Versa — the subject of a five-state Amber Alert — was found Friday roughly 60 miles northeast of Cascade, at a trail head leading into the wilderness.
Ada County sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said it was “the last place you can go before you hit the wilderness and stop driving.”…
| [Return to headlines] |
Number of Americans Renouncing Citizenship Surges
Expert Says 2013 on Pace to See Highest Number of U.S. Expatriations Ever
The number of U.S. taxpayers renouncing citizenship or permanent-resident status surged to a record high in the second quarter, as new laws aimed at cracking down on overseas assets increase the cost of complying and the risk of a taxpayer misstep.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Melting Pot Mostly a Myth, Poll Reveals
Is America really a melting pot? A recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos calls that myth into question.
The nationwide poll revealed that 40 percent of white Americans have only white friends. And among non-white Americans, about 25 percent associate exclusively with members of their own race, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“This country has a pretty long history of restriction on interracial contact, and for whites and blacks, even though it’s in the past, there are still echoes of this,” Ann Morning, an associate professor in the department of sociology at New York University, told The Raw Story.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Military Caught Manipulating Social Media, Running Mass Propaganda Accounts
It has been common knowledge to anyone paying attention within the alternative news community for years, but once again the media is now admitting that the US military and intelligence agencies are indeed running massive propaganda campaigns that cover a vast array of online networks.
By Anthony Gucciardi
How many times now has such ‘conspiracy nonsense’ now been reported years later by the mega media as undeniable fact? In the case of the US intelligence propaganda machine that even the New York Times has covered in an article entitled ‘The Real War on Reality’, we are seeing just that. The New York Times report goes on to detail information uncovered from hacked data regarding the military operation to stage ‘grassroots’ responses and organizations in order to deceive via psyop. Professor of philosophy Peter Ludlow writes for the Times:…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Why Have Police in America Turned Into Such Ruthless Thugs?
Once upon a time, the police were one of the most respected institutions in America, but now most Americans fear them. Almost every single day there are multiple stories of police brutality or misconduct that make the national news. Just this week, there have been stories about police killing a baby deer at an animal shelter, about police killing a 95-year-old World War II veteran in a retirement home, and about police using legal technicalities to “legally” steal massive amounts of money from innocent citizens. Why are police acting like this? Why have police in America turned into such ruthless thugs? In the case of the baby deer that was killed, 13 armed agents stormed the animal shelter up in Wisconsin where it was being cared for. Is this really the kind of country that we want our children to grow up in? A country where Bambi is hunted down by armed thugs working for the government? Sadly, the story about that deer is not an isolated incident. The truth is that police all over the country kill animals every single day. In fact, police in Chicago have shot 488 animals since 2008. No wonder people are so afraid to have the police come to their homes.
Increasingly, police departments all over the United States are being transformed into military-style units. These days, even very minor violations of the law can result in a SWAT team raid. The following is from a recent article by John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute…
“Consider that in 1980, there were roughly 3,000 SWAT team-style raids in the US. By 2001, that number had grown to 45,000 and has since swelled to more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Surprise Reversal, Danish Muslim Leader Regrets Role in Rage Over Muhammad Cartoons
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A Danish Muslim leader who seven years ago traveled the Muslim world fueling the uproar over newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is back in the headlines in Denmark after doing an about-face on the issue.
Once a leading critic of the Danish cartoons, which sparked fiery protests in Muslim countries, Lebanese-born Ahmad Akkari now says the Jyllands-Posten newspaper had the right to print them..
His unexpected change of heart has received praise from pundits and politicians in recent weeks, though some question his sincerity. It has also disappointed some in the country’s Muslim minority who were deeply offended by the cartoons.
Akkari, now 35, was the spokesman for a group of imams who led the protests against the drawings in Denmark. They traveled to Lebanon, Egypt and Syria to elicit support, saying the Danish government wouldn’t listen to their concerns.
Their journeys helped turn the dispute into an international crisis.
[Not only an international crisis, but the kickoff for the ongoing Islamic campaign against free speech in the West. Akkari’s reversal is praiseworthy, but it’s about like Gavrilo Princip saying he’s sorry he bumped off that archduke and started World War I. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
All babies born in Britain could have the EU flag stamped on their birth certificate within three years.
Eric Pickles said there was nothing he could do to prevent the emblem from replacing the royal crest on birth, marriage and death certificates.
The Communities Secretary warned the move was part of a Brussels plot to brand people as European citizens ‘from cradle to grave’.
He said the plan, contained in the Lisbon Treaty, was part of an insidious campaign to stamp the EU flag across all tiers of public administration and undermine nation states.
His warning came after the EU unveiled new identikit blue-and- yellow certificates emblazoned with the 12-star flag.
[Comment: Next step, look for “Comrade” or “Citizen” to precede the name on the birth certificate.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Pesticides Found in Fruit
Non-organic bananas are ‘full of poison’
Traces of up to seven different types of pesticides were found in a single banana during tests conducted in Sweden, with five of the poisonous substances found in the pulp itself and not just in the peel.
Traces of pesticides used to destroy insects and fungi were found during the tests conducted by Testfakta, a research company specialised in evaluating consumer products.
However, the levels do not exceed EU limits, newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten reported.
Åke Bergman, an environmental chemistry professor at Stockholm University, told Swedish Radio News that there is a lack of knowledge about the combined effects of the “cocktail of chemicals” found in bananas.
“We know that pesticides are used in fruit and vegetables and of course they don’t just vanish,” Bergman said after studying Testfakta’s findings.
None of the four organic banana kinds tested by Testfakta contained traces of pesticides, but they are also more expensive, costing around five SEK more per kilo than regular bananas.
On average, Swedes eat 19 kilos of bananas per year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The French Remain Opposed to Islamic Veil in Schools
A majority of French people remain against allowing the Islamic veil to be worn in universities, according to a recent poll. Interior Minister Manuel Valls says he is looking at a proposed ban with great interest.
An online survey by pollsters Ifop, published on Friday, showed that 78 percent of French people are against the Islamic veil in higher education.
Only 4 percent said they were for the wearing of the veil, while 18 percent abstained from responding. Members of the centre-right UMP party were opposed far more than those from the left-wing, with 91 versus 67 percent, and members of the far-right Front National party against at 95 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A pair of Romanian ‘rag and bone’ men who took a disabled teenager’s wheelchair to sell for scrap have been cleared of theft.
A court heard Gheorghita Stan and Florin Axima, who dragged 17-year-old Jack Benton’s wheelchair into their van after spotting it outside his aunt’s home in Watford, thought the chair was being thrown away.
In fact, Jack’s father had deliberately left it outside the house along with his son’s schoolbag ready for him to board a bus to college…
His aunt Louisa Rowe, said: ‘We go through this routine every morning. His packed lunch was in his rucksack which was sitting on his chair ready for him to go to college.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Battle Over Ceuta, Spain’s African Gibraltar
It overlooks the mouth of the Mediterranean, a fortified port city in the shadow of a towering rock. Long notorious for its smugglers, it is now a duty-free haven, owned by a country across the sea but claimed by the sovereign nation that surrounds it.
“I have links with Morocco but if you gave me a choice I would always stay Spanish. I’m much better off than my Muslim brothers across the border.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Camels Charged With Passing MERS Virus to People
It’s enough to give a camel the hump. Camels have been accused of infecting humans with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), the deadly coronavirus that emerged last year in the Arabian peninsula.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Groups Warn of Lost Generation of Syrian Children
More than 100,000 deaths, around 4 million refugees within the country, and 1.8 million outside of Syria — these are the results of the two-year civil war. And it’s affecting children the most.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Muslims Kidnap Christian Priest Who Was Negotiating for Release of Other Hostages
Kidnapping infidels and releasing them for ransom or killing them, as well as enslaving them if that option is deemed most advantageous for the Muslims, is fully sanctioned in Islamic law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On July 22, more than 500 inmates escaped from two different prisons in Iraq, one in Taji, north of Baghdad, and the other at Abu Ghraib prison. Then on July 28 there was a jailbreak at the Kuayfia detention center in Benghazi, Libya, with 1,200 prisoners escaping.
The day following, on the 29th, in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan, Taliban and al Qaeda forces forced the release of 250 prisoners. In just a few days, thousands were added to the active forces of Islamic jihad.
Additionally, it has been reported that there are now about 6,000 Islamic jihadists in Syria, many of whom are connected with al Qaeda, an organization always looking for secure bases of operation and for training. As a result, they are now using Syria as a catalyst to spread jihad to the rest of the world.
After going through an election year in which the Obama campaign tried to downplay the terrorist threat to our nation and the world, in order to falsely portray the President as defeating terrorism, we are now finding a second-term administration having to respond to the results of their failed policy of appeasing radical Islam in the first four years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Genetic Evidence Shows Recent Population Mixture in India
Scientists from Harvard Medical School and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, provide evidence that modern-day India is the result of recent population mixture among divergent demographic groups.
The findings, published August 8 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, describe how India transformed from a country where mixture between different populations was rampant to one where endogamy—that is, marrying within the local community and a key attribute of the caste system—became the norm.
“Only a few thousand years ago, the Indian population structure was vastly different from today,” said co—senior author David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. “The caste system has been around for a long time, but not forever.”
In 2009, Reich and colleagues published a paper based on an analysis of 25 different Indian population groups. The paper described how all populations in India show evidence of a genetic mixture of two ancestral groups: Ancestral North Indians (ANI), who are related to Central Asians, Middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans; and Ancestral South Indians (ASI), who are primarily from the subcontinent.
However, the researchers wanted to glean clearer data as to when in history such admixture occurred. For this, the international research team broadened their study pool from 25 to 73 Indian groups.
The researchers took advantage of the fact that the genomes of Indian people are a mosaic of chromosomal segments of ANI and ASI descent. Originally when the ANI and ASI populations mixed, these segments would have been extremely long, extending the entire lengths of chromosomes. However, after mixture these segments would have broken up at one or two places per chromosome, per generation, recombining the maternal and paternal genetic material that occurs during the production of egg and sperm.
By measuring the lengths of the segments of ANI and ASI ancestry in Indian genomes, the authors were thus able to obtain precise estimates of the age of population mixture, which they infer varied about 1,900 to 4,200 years, depending on the population analyzed.
While the findings show that no groups in India are free of such mixture, the researchers did identify a geographic element. “Groups in the north tend to have more recent dates and southern groups have older dates,” said co-first author Priya Moorjani, a graduate student in Reich’s lab at Harvard Medical School. “This is likely because the northern groups have multiple mixtures.”
“This genetic datatells us a three-part cultural and historical story,” said Reich, who is also an associate member of the Broad Institute. “Prior to about 4000 years ago there was no mixture. After that, widespread mixture affected almost every group in India, even the most isolated tribal groups. And finally, endogamy set in and froze everything in place.”
“The fact that every population in India evolved from randomly mixed populations suggests that social classifications like the caste system are not likely to have existed in the same way before the mixture,” said co—senior author Lalji Singh, currently of Banaras Hindu University, in Varanasi, India, and formerly of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. “Thus, the present-day structure of the caste system came into being only relatively recently in Indian history.”
But once established, the caste system became genetically effective, the researchers observed. Mixture across groups became very rare.
“An important consequence of these results is that the high incidence of genetic and population-specific diseases that is characteristic of present-day India is likely to have increased only in the last few thousand years when groups in India started following strict endogamous marriage,” said co—first author Kumarasamy Thangaraj, of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India.
Mohan Rao, Director, CSIR-CCMB said, “CCMB’s continuing efforts over a decade on this field had helped in understanding the complexity of Indian population history and social structure, such as caste systems.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Chinese Murdered in Afghan Capital, One Missing: Embassy
(Reuters) — Three Chinese citizens were found murdered in an apartment in Afghanistan’s capital, according to a statement issued by China’s embassy in Kabul carried on a Chinese state-run news agency.
The report said the three were killed on Thursday but did not say the whether the victims were men or women. It said the statement was issued by the embassy late on Friday.
The identity of the victims and motive for the killings were also unclear.
The embassy had said two Chinese were missing after the murder but it was later quoted by China’s state news agency Xinhua as saying that one has been found and taken to a safe place. A search was going on for the other missing person.
Afghan officials did not respond to calls on Saturday, the last day of the three-day Eid al-Fitr public holiday. The Chinese embassy also did not respond to repeated calls or email.
Pictures of the crime scene showed a cluttered double bed with pink pillows in a dingy room, with bare walls and very little furniture. The worn red carpet was also littered with items like clothes and what appeared to be a power cable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Mugabe Hails Re-Election as Victory Over the ‘British and Their Allies’
President Robert Mugabe has hailed his re-election in Zimbabwe as a victory over the “British and their allies”.
Delivering his first speech since winning a poll that his critics believe was rigged, Mr Mugabe, 89, reverted to his familiar rhetoric. Ever since the Morgan Tsvangirai, his leading opponent, formed the Movement for Democratic Change 14 years ago, Mr Mugabe has accused them of being puppets of the British, dedicated to returning Zimbabwe to colonial rule.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Details of the horrifying attack have also revealed Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup saw their attackers smile and nod to each other moments before throwing the liquid on the holiday island of Zanzibar.
The injuries of one of the teenage girls attacked with acid were made worse when desperate helpers threw dirty water over her, it has emerged.
Details of the horrifying attack have also revealed the two British teenagers, who suffered horrific burns when the acid was thrown at them, saw their attackers smile and nod to each other moments before throwing the liquid…
Mr Trup said the girls were dressed appropriately and had been warned not to wear anything which gave away their Jewish background, including the Star of David.
He told the newspaper: ‘We know it’s a Muslim country, they were Western girls. Unfortunately they went out during the month of Ramadan.
‘There has been a huge alert in African countries with potential threats. Maybe it’s connected, maybe not.’
[…]
Yusuf Ilembo, deputy director of criminal investigations, said his detectives were exploring ‘many avenues of investigation, including political and religious’.
He added: ‘It is too soon to accuse anyone directly, but yes we are looking at those people and their supporters.’
Police are also hunting Sheikh Issa Ponda Issa, an inflammatory Muslim cleric who arrived on the island a week ago to build support for protests against the government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Police Report Riot at Muslim Immigrant Detention Camp
Riot police were dispatched on Saturday to put down a riot at Greece’s main migrant detention camp where detainees hurled stones at officers and set fire to their living quarters, authorities said.
Television footage showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where some 1,200 mainly Asian migrants are kept under police guard.
“We have 10 police officers injured by stones and other objects thrown at them,” a police spokesman told AFP.
“The detainees set fire to mattresses and their living quarters, but riot police have been sent and the situation is calming down,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration to Track ‘Diversity’ of Your Neighborhood
Why can’t people live where they want to live? It’s a free country, right? Not according to Barack Obama. With new policies coming out of Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development, the “diversity” of each neighborhood in the country will be tracked, and if the area does not meet the “standards” established by his cronies, cities and businesses could face consequences.
As reported by CNSNews.com, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) “has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in.”…
Investor’s Business Daily reports: “Now even ZIP codes are racist, and according to this race-obsessed administration, you’re racist for living in a suburban area with little public housing. And it plans to change that.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Jason Richwine
“IQ is a metric of such dubiousness that almost no serious educational researcher uses it anymore,” the Guardian’s Ana Marie Cox wrote back in May. It was a breathtakingly ignorant statement. Psychologist Jelte Wicherts noted in response that a search for “IQ test” in Google’s academic database yielded more than 10,000 hits — just for the year 2013.
But Cox’s assertion is all too common. There is a large discrepancy between what educated laypeople believe about cognitive science and what experts actually know. Journalists are steeped in the lay wisdom, so they are repeatedly surprised when someone forthrightly discusses the real science of mental ability.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Abused Puppies Get More Sympathy Than Adult Crime Victims
People have more empathy for abused puppies and dogs than they do for adult humans who have been abused, a new study suggests.
However, empathy for abused children was about the same as that for puppies and dogs, the study found.
Researchers surveyed 240 college students and asked them to read one of four versions of a fictional news article about a brutal beating. The wording in articles was the same, except for the identity of the victim, which was either: an infant, an adult in his 30s, a puppy or a 6-year old dog. Participants then rated their level of empathy for the victim.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Real Life Elysium Off Earth Plans Exposed (Video)
The Elites are planning to build off-world, floating bases where they will run after they destroy the world. Could these plans now be in the works thanks to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin airlines CEO Richard Branson?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |