It’s a Weird History Wednesday

Happy Rosh Hashana, by the way!

Anomalous Mitochondrial DNA Lineages in the Cherokee. Or, to quote Gene Wilder in ‘The Frisco Kid’: “I think we have some Jewish Indians here!”

Let’s not forget the intriguing story of the Bat Creek Stone,  professionally excavated in 1889 from an undisturbed burial mound in Eastern Tennessee by the Smithsonian’s Mound Survey project. The inscription on it is apparently Paleo-Hebrew of approximately the first or second century A.D. Or is that really Welsh?

A long overlooked report made to the King of Spain in 1521 provides an eyewitness account of an Irish province on the coast of South Carolina. The description of its culture seemed so absurd to scholars that it was ignored for centuries.

Might the same people have lived on both sides of the Atlantic? Why do you think identical motifs are carved into boulders on the coast of Ireland… and the coast of Georgia?

Mustang, a former kingdom in north-central Nepal, is home to one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries: the Sky Caves.

A tourist has had a lucky escape after being trapped on a remote Australian island for two weeks by a monster six-metre (20-foot) crocodile, reports said Monday.

Radiation levels around tanks storing contaminated water at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have risen by a fifth to a new high, officials say. Japan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into building an ice wall around it.

Nodoroc and the Wog

A queer old historical reference has come to my attention, and I believe it’s worth sharing: “Nodoroc”, the Hell of the Georgia Creeks. A detailed early reference is found in “The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia“, by Gustavus James Nash Wilson (1914).

Prior to the mid-1800s Nodoroc was a burning mud volcano that covered several acres. The center of the site belched flames and black smoke that could be seen for many miles. The flames and smoke presumably came from burning methane, but this is not known for certain. The lethal heat associated with the Nodoroc suggests that perhaps it was more akin to a true volcano.

Nodoroc was also the hunting ground of a beast called the “Wog”, described as a hairy, misshapen beast with a sweeping tail and a forked tongue, and that it fed on carrion and sacrifices. Creepy stuff to be sure!

There’s always Syria –

President Bashar al-Assad’s former defense minister has fled Syria, opposition figures said on Wednesday, noting that General Ali Habib was the most senior of Assad’s Alawite sect to defect.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee struggled on Wednesday to reach agreement on a resolution authorizing military strikes in Syria, but scheduled a vote for later in the day as Obama administration officials pressed for action in Congress.

Well put: “I don’t care what the [expletive] Americans think!”

Taiwan has disguised the command and control vehicles for its newest cruise missiles as delivery trucks. Seriously! Defense News’ Asia bureau chief Wendell Minnick got a Taiwanese military official to acknowledge that the missile trucks have been disguised as delivery trucks — an “idiotic” and “embarrassing” move, according to the official. The Hsiung Feng 2E land-attack cruise missiles reportedly have a range of 745 miles and race toward their targets at Mach 3.

When asked if Taipei was concerned the U.S. would object to the new missiles because they violate the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) — which limits missile payloads to 500 kilograms and ranges of no more than 300 kilometers — one government source replied, “This is a 1,000 percent violation of the MTCR, and I don’t care what the [expletive] Americans think“. Former vice minister of defense for policy, Lin Chong Pin, said China has more than one way to take Taiwan. “China these days does not rely on military instruments as such to achieve its ultimate goal of unification,” he said. All that China has to do, with the opening of direct Chinese investment into Taiwan, is “to buy Taiwan.” This is “cheaper than to attack Taiwan,” Lin said.

A robotic X-47B  landed, took off and landed again on an aircraft carrier off the Virginia coast Wednesday, catapulting the Navy into the next generation of autonomous aviation. However, after two successful landings (and after the first group of reporters left the Bush on the Osprey to return to Washington), the third and final approach by ‘Salty Dog 502’ failed. The aircraft “self-detected a navigation computer anomaly” and opted to land itself at Wallops Island Air Field, for safety.  “X-47B navigated to and landed without incident,” according to a statement from the Navy. So, technically, the X-47B program isn’t over – it must complete the third landing before the ‘fat lady sings’. Then Navy officials will determine what more to do with the twin prototypes before ultimately retiring them (I’d suggest a ‘demonstration flight’ over the Presidential Palace in Syria as one possible option).

Egypt’s new military-led government broadened its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, issuing arrest warrants for nine top Brotherhood officials, including Mohamed Badie, the group’s spiritual leader. Meanwhile, the restoration of power, disappearance of gas lines, and immediate deployment of police forces after the last week’s military takeover suggest that remnants of Hosni Mubarak’s regime played a significant role in undermining Morsy prior to his ouster. “This was preparing for the coup,” Naser el-Farash, a spokesman for the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade under Mr. Morsy told the New York Times.

The head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday that the damaged nuclear facility in Fukushima has most likely been leaking contaminated water since 2011. In unusually candid comments, Shunichi Tanaka, the head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, also said that neither his staff nor the plant’s operator knew exactly where the leaks were coming from, or how to stop them.

Down with Drones, self-defense tactics against the menace from above, is sort of a free-association laundry list on what looks like an orphaned domain. Still, some giggles/ideas.

I am really looking forward to sharing my DIY “Lawnhenge” project, but Indian Territory is under this wave of oppressive 100°F heat lately, so I’ve been making like a Morlock of late, hiding from the sun and trying to stay cool.  Look for it in the next few days.