Researchers have discovered what may be the world’s oldest three-dimensional map, located within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast in the Paris Basin.
The Ségognole 3 rock shelter, known since the 1980s for its artistic engravings of two horses in a Late Palaeolithic style on either side of a female pubic figuration, has now been revealed to contain a miniature representation of the surrounding landscape.
Dr Anthony Milnes from the University of Adelaide’s School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, participated in the research led by Dr Médard Thiry from the Mines Paris – PSL Centre of Geosciences.
Dr Thiry’s earlier research, following his first visit to the site in 2017, established that Palaeolithic people had “worked” the sandstone in a way that mirrored the female form, and opened fractures for infiltrating water into the sandstone that nourished an outflow at the base of the pelvic triangle.
New research suggests that part of the floor of the sandstone shelter which was shaped and adapted by Palaeolithic people around 13,000 years ago was modelled to reflect the region’s natural water flows and geomorphological features.
“What we’ve described is not a map as we understand it today — with distances, directions, and travel times — but rather a three-dimensional miniature depicting the functioning of a landscape, with runoff from highlands into streams and rivers, the convergence of valleys, and the downstream formation of lakes and swamps,” Dr Milnes explains.
Mapping of the cave floor with École River valley. Credit: Dr Médard Thiry
“For Palaeolithic peoples, the direction of water flows and the recognition of landscape features were likely more important than modern concepts like distance and time.
In another open-source win, DeepSeek aims to redefine ‘open AI’ with R1, its latest model. Open-source artificial intelligence (AI) has reached another milestone — and the cost differences it represents could shake up the industry.
On Monday, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek announced the release of R1, the full version of its newest open-source reasoning model, which the company launched in preview in November. The company noted that R1 beats or is on par with OpenAI’s o1 in several math, coding, and reasoning benchmarks.
Similar to o1, R1’s reasoning takes more time to answer than other models, but its queries are meant to be more sophisticated and accurate. Alongside the 671-billion-parameter model, DeepSeek also released six smaller “distilled” versions with as few as 1.5 billion parameters, which can be run on a local device.
The Democrats in the Senate are back to their old tricks of using delay tactics to stall President Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions.
The nomination of CIA Director John Ratcliffe passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee with a vote of 14-3. However, when the Majority Leader John Thune calls the Ratcliffe nomination to the floor for a full Senate vote, suddenly individual Senators start using procedural processes to delay the votes.
The issue is not about Ratcliffe per se’, without doubt Ratcliffe will pass a full senate confirmation vote without issue when it takes place. The Democrats are using Ratcliffe to set the stage for delays in Pete Hegseth to be Defense secretary and Kristi Noem to be DHS secretary; along with a pending confirmation hearing set for Tulsi Gabbard (DNI) and Kash Patel (FBI).
This ultimately becomes the first test for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has previously said he would fully support a rapid confirmation process for all of President Trump’s nominees. Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did nothing to force the Upper Chamber to confirm, Senator John Thune does not want to be seen as following McConnell’s path.
Leader Thune and Senator Barrasso (#2) are now pledging to keep the Senate in session until the nominees are confirmed. This stops the Senators from going home but inevitably ends up on a game of attrition. Whose determination will last longest, the minority resistance or the Senate majority.
This activity in the Senate comes as the latest Presidential Tracking Poll shows a net approval of +14, President Trump’s highest approval rating ever. The Democrats in the upper chamber are walking a narrow path of irrelevance; however, they are counting on their superiority in the Senate to outlast any negative public opinion.
A high-class escort has spilled the beans on what happens behind closed doors in Davos during the World Economic Forum, including what the wealthy think really will happen to the world in the near future.
Salome Balthus, 40, is a high-end escort and author from Berlin who has travelled to Davos, Switzerland, to meet up with clients during the annual gathering of the global elite.
Salome revealed to MailOnline what she has learned about the global elite – and for many it is that they are doom-mongering about the fate of the world… so they’ve decided to enjoy it while it lasts.
Convinced that a climate change apocalypse is upon us they shamelessly spend their vast wealth on expensive escorts in Switzerland… which they fly to in their environmentally-unfriendly private jets.
‘The elephant in the room is climate change. Everyone knows it can’t be prevented any more,’ she said, adding that the ‘super rich’ could generally be split into two groups on the topic.
America’s biggest corporations have been stunned by President Trump‘s breakneck pace as he starts his second term and are working round the clock to catch up.
The speed, clarity, and accuracy of Trump’s EOs are signs of a very dynamic presidency. Recall, Obama did almost nothing for months while Biden was barely alive his entire term. It is beautiful to see what Trump is doing. Historically and politically, his boldness is almost unparalleled. USA needs dynamic change, a peaceful revolution. Not everything is going to go how we as individuals may want but keep an eye on the big picture. So far, he is doing what he said he would do and what many of us believe is important to do. The ship of state must have a clear course toward a real destination and it must base this on the rights and freedoms of the Constitution. ABN
Donald Trump quickly made good on his pledge to sever diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government as he is set to lay off all DEI hires within 24 hours.
The new Trump administration sent a letter to all heads and acting heads of government agencies on Tuesday, informing them all federal employees in DEI roles must be placed on paid leave by 5pm Wednesday.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, the agencies were ordered to ‘take prompt actions’ against all departments ‘focusing exclusively on DEI initiatives and programs.’
The letter also demands all public DEI focused webpages be taken offline, and orders employees within the departments to report ‘any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.’
Any employees that are aware of ‘coded or imprecise language’ intended to keep DEI programs alive but do not report them within 10 days are warned of ‘adverse consequences.’
Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’, directly reverses a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years ago.
Tuesday’s order concludes: ‘These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.’
He demonstrates the danger of an ‘untrained mind’ in the ethics and morals of real life. The Buddha said an ‘untrained mind’ can do more harm than anything. ABN
American Buddhist Net 