“Be Cheerful, Enjoy Your Life” Says 2,400 Year Old Ancient Greek Mosaic Found in Turkey(Photos)

A 2,400 year-old Greek mosaic has been discovered during excavations in Turkey’s southern Hatay province, showing a skeleton lying down with a mug in his hand and a wine pitcher and bread on the side. The mosaic has has an Ancient Greek inscription saying ‘Be cheerful, enjoy your life.’

The mosaic, which is estimated to be from the 3rd century BC, was first discovered in 2012, when municipality was carrying out work to build a cable car in Antakya and found ancient remains.

Turkish archeologists say the mosaic is a part of ancient Greek/Roman city of Antioch and believe the mosaic belonged to the dining room of an upper class house.

The ancient city of Antioch was established by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, in the 4th century BC.

Greece: More than 350 refugees, 19 activists arrested in raid on Lesbos camp

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 20 Απρ 2016

At least 375 refugees and 19 volunteers were detained by police following a raid on a makeshift camp on Tsamakia Beach near Mytilene, Wednesday. 

U.S.-backed Rebels Show Off Surface To Air Missiles

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 19 Απρ 2016

An interesting development in Syria may bring in a new phase of the war as anti Assad rebel groups are now being armed with surface to air man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). A recent video has surfaced showing the Homs Liberation Movement branch of the Free Syrian Army showing off recently acquired Chinese-made FN-6 heat-seeking missiles. The U.S. and Arab Gulf states have been frustrated with the gains made by Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air support. The U.S. had been wary of supplying anti aircraft missiles to the rebel groups for fear of disastrous consequences through the escalation of force with the Russian military. Back in October, the U.S. said it would not be in support of giving MANPADS to rebels, but now it seems their tune has changed.

The decision to use the Chinese FN-6 may have been a calculated one. The FN-6 is specifically designed to engage low flying targets. Therefore, Russia could still avoid the weapon by flying higher, but at the cost of having to use more expensive, precision-guided munitions. The Syrian Air Force relies heavily on cheaper dumb bombs that must be dropped from much lower altitudes, and therefore, would be the main target of the rebels. The presence of the missiles could also freeze helicopter use by both the Syrian and Russian militaries.

Mexican volcano erupts in fiery timelapse video

BY MEGAN SPECIA

Mexico's Popocatépetl erupted on Monday, spewing lava and ash into the air high above the towering mountain.

The fiery show was captured in a timelapse video. Authorities say the volcanic ash rose nearly two miles into the sky, and the area is still under a heightened alert for further volcanic activity.

SEE ALSO: Rare images of a remote sub-Antarctic volcano erupting

In the light of day Tuesday morning, the still-erupting volcano struck made for a beautiful sight in the morning light. 

But concerns remain for local residents in the nearby city of Puebla, home to more than 1.4 million people. The city's airport was closed following the eruption, due to decreased visibility from the imposing ash cloud.

Residents found cars and streets covered in a thick layer of fine white ash, which rained down on the city. 

According to local reports, the civil service provided medical care to some affected communities, but there were no major injuries reported. Local authorities have been distributing face masks to protect people from inhaling the ash.

"درون" يسجل لقطات لسحق داعش قرب دمشق

The Northrop Grumman X-47B (also known as Salty Dog.)VIDEO

The Northrop Grumman X-47B (also known as Salty Dog) is a demonstration unmanned combat air vehicle(UCAV) designed for aircraft carrier-based operations. Developed by the American defense technology companyNorthrop Grumman, the X-47 project began as part of DARPA's J-UCAS program, and subsequently became part of the United States Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. The X-47B is a tailless jet-powered blended-wing-body aircraft capable of semi-autonomous operation and aerial refuelling

The X-47B first flew in 2011, and as of 2015, its two active demonstrators have undergone extensive flight and operational integration testing, having successfully performed a series of land- and carrier-based demonstrations.In August 2014, the US Navy announced that it had integrated the X-47B into carrier operations alongside manned aircraft and by May 2015 the aircraft's primary test program was declared complete Northrop Grumman intends to develop the prototype X-47B into a battlefield-ready aircraft, the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) system, which will enter service in the 2020s. The X-47B demonstrators themselves were intended to become museum exhibits after the completion of their flight testing, but the Navy later decided to maintain them in flying condition pending further development

The US military X-47B UAV will serve the US navy well and will be the worst nightmare for the Russian military. The Northrop Grumman X-47B is a demonstration unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) designed for carrier-based operations. 
The US Navy has successfully catapulted a prototype drone from an aircraft carrier on Tuesday, which is the first step in a program designed to begin fielding drones on all Navy carriers between 2017 and 2020.

The flight serves as a milestone for the future of drone aviation, and US Navy officers have celebrated the success of its launch. But the flight of the unmanned aircraft, which is the size of a fighter jet, is likely to become the subject of criticism from those who believe drone usage hurts the US image – especially since drones are behind many civilian deaths on foreign grounds. 

Critics have already condemned the Navy’s $1.4 billion drone prototype program, relaying their concerns over the development of weaponized systems in which humans will have even less control over when it comes to launching attacks.

Human Rights Watch has particularly protested the development of drones that carry weapons and are fully autonomous, like the X-47B unmanned aircraft that the Navy launched from the USS George H.W. Bush on Tuesday. This unmanned aircraft can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, the Associated Press reports.


This model is particularly valuable because it has the capability to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Developing such drones would allow the US to launch strikes from anywhere in the world, regardless of whether or not a foreign country allows the US on its grounds. 

The drone is fully autonomous in flight, and relies on computer programs to direct it – unless an operator programs it to operate otherwise. Most drones currently employed by the military fully rely on operators to control it from a remote location. 

While the X-47B is only intended for testing purposes rather than operational use, the Navy will use it for research purposes to develop advanced unmanned aircraft for use in future conflicts. When it comes to using lethal force, the X-47B still requires human approval. But Human Rights Watch believes the prototype research will lead to the development of drones that conduct deadly attacks with no human intervention. 

Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, expressed some of his fears with AP. 

“For us, the question is where do you draw lines?” he said. “We’re saying you need to draw the line when you have a fully autonomous system that is weaponized. We’re saying you must have meaningful human control over key battlefield decisions of who lives and who dies. That should not be left up to the weapons system itself.”

But despite fears over the future of fully autonomous drones that can launch deadly attacks from aircraft carriers, the Navy is hailing the flight of its prototype as a success it has long sought. 

“US Navy history is made!” the Navy wrote from its official Twitter account. “Was airborne at A. More to come.”

The Navy plans to release videos and photographs of the event, which Read Adm. Mat Winter wrote marks “an inflection point in history on how we will integrate manned and unmanned aircraft on carrier flight decks in the future.”

Πρώτες εικόνες: Αυτή ήταν η 7,8 σεισμός στο Εκουαδόρ

Αυτές οι σκηνές χάους καταγράφηκαν σε Portoviejo, Εκουαδόρ, κατά τη διάρκεια ενός ισχυρού σεισμού των 7.8. Τουλάχιστον 28 άνθρωποι έχουν χάσει τη ζωή τους σε αυτή τη χώρα της Νοτίου Αμερικής 

Βίντεο: παράξενο φως στον ουρανό κατά τη διάρκεια της φονικό σεισμό στο Εκουαδόρ

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 17 Απριλίου 2016 6:54 GMT | Τελευταία ενημέρωση: 17 Απρίλη, 2016 8:01 GMT

Το επίκεντρο εντοπίστηκε 27 χιλιόμετρα από την πόλη της Muisne, στην επαρχία Esmeraldas, σε βάθος 19 χιλιομέτρων. Οι αρχές έχουν επιβεβαιώσει το θάνατο 77 ανθρώπων.

Παράξενο φως στον ουρανό κατά τη διάρκεια του σεισμού στο Εκουαδόρ Youtube / Geovanny Bsc

Σάββατο 16η Απριλίου ένας ισχυρός σεισμός μεγέθους 7,8  συγκλόνισε  τον Ισημερινό, αφήνοντας τουλάχιστον 77 νεκρούς, σχεδόν 600 τραυματίες και εκτεταμένες καταστροφές σε όλη τη χώρα, ιδιαίτερα στις παράκτιες πόλεις της Μάντα, Esmeraldas και Guayaquil.

Κατά τη διάρκεια του σεισμού ένα παράξενο φως φαινόμενο έχει συλληφθεί στο Εκουαδόρ ουρανό. Σύμφωνα με την εφημερίδα El Universo , αρκετοί άνθρωποι έχουν παρατηρήσει. Το φως ήταν εύκολα ορατό από πόλεις όπως το Guayaquil και Duran, λόγω διακοπής ρεύματος κατά τη διάρκεια της κατάστασης έκτακτης ανάγκης. Εκουαδόρ δημοσιογράφοι εφημερίδα αναφέρει επίσης ότι έχουν δει το φως.

Σε ένα βίντεο που υποτίθεται ότι γυρίστηκε στο Guayaquil μπορείτε να δείτε μια παρόμοια με εκείνη ενός κομήτη που ταξιδεύει μέσα από το φως του ουρανού. Η εκδήλωση αυτή συζητείται ενεργά στο Διαδίκτυο.

Scientists Have Finally Figured Out Why Hundreds Of Thousands Of Antelope Dropped Dead Last Year

April 16, 2016 | by Josh L Davis

photo credit: Hundreds of thousands of saiga antelopes suddenly dropped dead in May 2015. Albert Salemgareyev

Late last year, news trickled in about the horrific mass dying of the saiga antelopes of central Kazakhstan, of which it has been estimated that over 200,000 of the animals dropped dead over a matter of days, with scenes of entire herds of the antelope, made up of mothers with calves, littering the landscape. What caused this sudden widespread mortality initially baffled biologists and zoologists who struggled to find the culprit.

It now seems that the mystery is finally over, with the cause being narrowed down by the Saiga Conservation Alliance to a normally benign bacteria suddenly becoming deadly – although the cause of why that happened is not known.

When researchers first discovered the dead and dying animals on the Kazakhstani grasslands, they had no idea as to the scale of the disaster. The first accounts were still shocking, putting the number of dead saiga in the tens of thousands, but as more reports came out conservationists realized the full extent of the die-off.

It is thought that as much as 88 percent of the antelope from the Betpak-dala desert of Kazakhstan succumbed, accounting for roughly 70 percent of the entire global population of the already endangered antelope.

The antelope were killed with an almost 100 percent mortality rate. Victor Tyakht/Shutterstock

Now, after continued analysis of samples taken from the carcasses of the saiga, multiple laboratories have come to the same conclusion and identified the bacterium Pasteurella multocida as the cause. It is thought that the bacteria, which naturally lives in the respiratory tract of the animals and normally has no impact on their health somehow became deadly, leading to haemorrhagic septicaemia.

The symptoms of the condition include a high fever, salivation, and shortness of breath, followed by death within 24 hours. This is consistent with what was observed in the field.

It is not unknown for domestic animals to suffer from the same condition, but what is particularly unusual is the 100 percent mortality rate seen in the saiga herds. The reasons behind this are less clear, but could be related to earlier suggestions that unusual weather conditions may have been stressing the animals, many of which were mothers who had just given birth.

As the Saiga Conservation Alliance says, the investigation into the animals’ deaths is still ongoing, with questions such as these still to clear up. With a next calving season creeping up, many biologists are waiting with baited breath to see what will occur.

Before the mass dying, the antelope numbers stood at around 300,000. They were previously heavily hunted, mainly for their horns, which were used as a replacement for rhino in traditional medicine. In a terrible case of poor lack of judgement, the WWF is thought to have had a hand in the decline of the species during the 1990s.

At the start of the decade, there were thought to have been around a million of the antelopes roaming the steppes of central Asia, but in a bid to try and ease the poaching of rhinos for their horn, the WWF actually encouraged the use of the saiga horn, leading to their populations to crash.