‘Unexpected’ origin story of Egypt’s Great Sphinx unearthed by NYU researchers



These researchers have made a great discovery.

Scientists believe they have finally figured out how, exactly, the Great Sphinx was built in Egypt more than 4,500 years ago.

For decades, experts have agreed that the detailed face of the iconic limestone statue found along the Nile River in Giza was most likely hand-carved by stone masons — but they have never concluded how the massive, layered body was created.

A study conducted by researchers at New York University, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Fluids, analyzed how wind moves against rock formations to finally understand this mystery.

The researchers took mounds of soft clay with harder, less erodible material embedded inside to replicate the terrain in northeastern Egypt and then washed these formations with a fast-flowing stream of water to act as the wind.

In the end, the clay eventually resembled a Sphinx-like formation.
Experts have thought that the detailed face of the limestone statue found was most likely hand-carved by stone masons.

A Sphinx model was carved through an experiment that replicates the wind moving against once-shapeless mounds of clay, with harder material becoming the “head” of the lion and other features.

“Our findings offer a possible ‘origin story’ for how Sphinx-like formations can come about from erosion,” Leif Ristroph, senior author of the study, said in a statement.

“Our laboratory experiments showed that surprisingly Sphinx-like shapes can, in fact, come from materials being eroded by fast flows.”

The experiment resulted in a lion’s “head,” an undercut “neck,” “paws” laid out in front on the ground, and an arched “back.”

“There are, in fact, yardangs in existence today that look like seated or lying animals, lending support to our conclusions,” Ristroph said.

“Our laboratory experiments showed that surprisingly Sphinx-like shapes can, in fact, come from materials being eroded by fast flows," one researcher declared.

The experiment tested a theory initially proposed in 1981 by geologist Farouk El-Baz, who claimed the Great Sphinx was naturally created by wind eroding the sand.

“The work may also be useful to geologists as it reveals factors that affect rock formations—namely, that they are not homogeneous or uniform in composition,” Ristroph added.

“The unexpected shapes come from how the flows are diverted around the harder or less-erodible parts.”

https://nypost.com/2023/10/31/lifestyle ... searchers/

[goldie0608]

Large Moose Makes Surprise Visit to Mass. Elementary School: 'This Is Crazy'

"[Staff] were all looking at each other, like, there's no way. This is a moose. This is crazy," school staff member Bonnie Anne Albert said



A giant moose shocked a Massachusetts town by stopping by a local school.

On Monday, the towering creature walked through drop-off at Naquag Elementary School in Rutland, Massachusetts. Bonnie Anne Albert, a paraprofessional at the school, caught the incident on camera.

In the video, the moose takes long steps past the school, walking by cars lined up to drop off children for the day. The wild animal continues onto a walkway on the elementary school campus as someone says, "Holy cannoli, that is crazy," in response to the sighting. Another person exclaims, "How beautiful!"

Albert can seen opening the door to capture a better angle of the creature as it makes its way through the school grounds. The clip concludes with the moose passing by a playground before disappearing further down a pathway into the trees.

"To see it where I work and come here every day, it was pretty cool," Albert told local news station WCVB-TV.

Albert added to the outlet that the school's staff had been preparing to welcome kids at the school around 8:35 a.m. when the moose appeared. "My co-workers and I do our normal routine of picking up the kids in the morning drop off line, and to witness a moose walk on the sidewalk was a shocker and so neat," she said.

"We were all looking at each other, like, there's no way. This is a moose. This is crazy," Albert said, per WCVB-TV.

The educator noted that the moose even followed the rules of the road, "crossing the crosswalk" and "using the right" path forward.

Parents and students in the cars arriving at the school also caught glimpses of the moose walking by. "All the parents, too, in the pick-up line, they're sticking their heads out the window videoing it. It was pretty funny," Albert added.

The rare incident even earned a social media mention from the police department in Rutland, Mass. "Special visitor in the Naquag Elementary School drop-off line this morning! [The] moose has since left the area," the authorities wrote online alongside a photo of the moose.

The department also passed on a warning from the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which asked people to "never try to approach or pursue a moose."

"Pursuit not only stresses the animal, but it adds the risk of having a moose chased out into traffic or into a group of bystanders," the police department said. "Wildlife professionals recommend letting the moose find its way out of populated areas and into nearby forested areas."

The Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife said on its website that if people spot a moose in a densely populated area, they should "leave the moose alone" and "contact the nearest MassWildlife District Office or the Environmental Police."

French Art World Seeks Funding to Preserve Studio Where School of Paris Movement Began



A fundraising campaign has been launched to save a 150-year-old studio with art historical significance in the Cité Falguière in Paris, the Guardian reported.

The studio, known as Atelier 11, has been home to Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, French painter Chaïm Soutine, Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and French painter Paul Gauguin, and was also where the School of Paris movement began.

The Cité Falguière, a cul-de-sac in Montparnasse, was constructed by sculptor Jules-Ernest Bouillot in 1861. Just south of the French capital city, Bouillot constructed 30 rudimentary spaces for struggling artists, which eventually led to the formation of a commune for those who were out priced in Montmartre.

Gauguin began working in the commune in 1877, and was followed not long after by Modigliani, who met his Russian mistress, poet Anna Akhmatova, there. Brancusi and Japanese-French painter Tsuguharu Foujita also joined the commune. Soutine, who painted the building’s facade, shared Atelier 11 with Modigliani.

In the 1960s and ’70s, many of the historic studio spaces were destroyed. With the exception of Atelier 11, the few that remained were converted into private homes.

Until 2021, when it began hosting an international residency program, Serbo-Russian artist Mira Maodus lived and worked at Atelier 11 for 40 years.

Despite 60 years of unsuccessful attempts to save the structure, campaigners are trying to have the studio classified as a historic building. They are trying to keep the studio as a work and living space for artists.

Atelier 11’s current owners signed an agreement with the nonprofit associations L’Air Arts and Cité Falguière for the studio to continue as a work and living space.

The national organization Mission Patrimoine donated €105,000 (roughly $111,500), but an additional €150,000 (about $159,300) is needed to complete the renovation of Atelier 11’s facade. The organizers of the fundraising campaign believe another €1 million (approximately $1.1 million) will be necessary to restore the three-story interior.

The Fondation du Patrimoine is overseeing the appeal for donations.

[Fatima99]

‘Cat-ching Criminals’ Just Became a Lot Easier Thanks to New Method for Analyzing Cat Hair



There are some people who will say that for home defense, you’re better off having a dog. Well, it turns out almost every cat has a unique DNA mutation detectable in their hair, and it’s offering CSI detectives an almost sure-fire way to put criminals at the scene of their crimes or their homes, provided there was a cat there.

Anyone who of course has a cat will know that it’s almost impossible to get out of their house without cat hair stuck somewhere on their clothes. Thanks to an innovative DNA analysis technique developed at the University of Leicester, this has already been used to place a murderer at the scene of their cat.

While any perpetrator will take pains to not leave any of his own DNA behind, it’s unlikely that a burglar rummaging through your home possessions will be able to avoid every last strand of cat hair.

“Hair shed by your cat lacks the hair root, so it contains very little useable DNA,” said Emily Patterson, the lead author of the study published in Forensic Science Internationa and a Leicester Ph.D. student.

“In practice we can only analyze mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mothers to their offspring, and is shared among maternally related cats.”

Patterson and her team however have now increased by ten-fold the detail with which they can analyze the mitochondrial DNA, and because virtually every cat has a rare DNA type, the test will almost certainly be informative if hairs are found.

The team tested the method in a lost cat case, according to the University of Leicester press, where DNA from the skeletal remains of a missing female cat could be matched with DNA from hair from her surviving male offspring.

“In criminal cases where there is no human DNA available to test, pet hair is a valuable source of linking evidence, and our method makes it much more powerful,” said study co-lead, Professor of Genetics, Mark Jobling. “The same approach could also be applied to other species—in particular, dogs.”

Even while they were developing this new technique, Patterson and her team had used it in a previous murder case to identify the DNA of the perpetrator’s cat.

[PennySerenade]

Toronto-area woman uses $100 lotto win on new ticket and lands $250,000



A Brampton woman is still trying to convince her family members that they are $250,000 richer.

Gurbax Dhaddy is an occasional lottery player who enjoys playing instant tickets.

She initially won $100 on a ticket and used some of her winnings to purchase more tickets — including the eventual Bonus Money big winner.

“I played my ticket while in the store waiting for the food I ordered for my family,” she shared while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.

“I never expected to win like that.

“I told my family, and they didn’t believe me – they still don’t believe me.”

Dhaddy plans to save the money and invest for the future and retirement.

She will have a little fun, though.

“I will pay a few bills and enjoy a little bit of travel,” she said. “My heart feels full today.”

Dhaddy bought the scratcher at Hasty Market on Wexford Rd. in Brampton.

Deaf Children Are First Humans to Have Hearing Pathway Restored in Dramatic Demonstration of New Gene Therapy


Les Anderson

In China, a true medical breakthrough has been achieved in a human trial that had as many as 10 children born deaf have their hearing restored through a genetic therapy method.

MIT hailed it as China’s first domestic gene therapy breakthrough, as well as “the most dramatic restoration of a lost sense yet achieved.”

Much like other gene therapy treatments, children like Li Xincheng were injected with a reprogrammed virus that carried replacement DNA into the part of her body the scientists hoped to alter—in this case the location of the inner ear canal that detects vibrations and sends that information to the brain.

In less than a month, her mother, Qin Lixue, said she was hearing out of her treated ear for the first time in her 5 years of life, and repeating various rhymes and songs back to Lixue as she sang them with her hand over her mouth to prevent lip-reading.

It bears repeating that this, according to MIT Technological Review, has never happened before.

“We were careful, and a little bit nervous, because it was the first in the world,” says Yilai Shu, a surgeon and scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, and part of the team who treated 5 children.

“Before the treatment, if you put them in a movie theater with the loudest sound, they wouldn’t hear it,” says Zheng-Yi Chen, an associate professor at Mass Eye and Ear, a Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston, who helped design and plan the study. “Now they can hear close to normal speech, and one can hear a whisper.”

Of Shu’s five children, 4 recovered hearing, and one did not, which the team hypothesizes could be because the child already had a developed immune response to the virus that they used.

This new gene therapy is not a cure-all, as it was designed to correct a defect in a gene that produces a protein called otoferlin that is necessary to build the special hairs that vibrate to different frequencies in the inner ear and relay that information to the brain.

This is present in only 1% to 3% of those born deaf, amounting to 900 children a year in the world’s second-most populated country. But Lawrence Lustig, a physician at Columbia University who runs studies of hearing treatments, told MIT Tech Review that this dramatic success—allowing children to hear sound for the first time—may be a “gateway drug” that spurs funding toward more causes of deafness.

Genetic therapy, such as CRISPR and other methods, has also had remarkable successes with blindness, including in 2021 of a Frenchman with retinitis pigmentosa, the degradation of photoreceptive cells in their eyes, another two patients from Portland, Oregon who had Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a rare mutation in the retina, and another 10 with LCA who were treated at the Perelman School of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania

[lush]

‘Trans-Age’ Man Identifies as 28 Years Old Despite Being Born 39 Years Ago
091823*

A 39-year-old Japanese man has been described as ‘trans-age’ after reportedly identifying as 28 because it’s an age that better describes his still immature personality.

In the age of ‘self-identified diversity’ where anyone is free to identify as whatever they want, a Japanese man has come out as ‘trans-age’, meaning that he chooses to identify as 28 years old, despite having been born 39 years ago. The Kyoto-based man known only as Jackie appeared on the reality show ABEMA Prime where he explained that he didn’t feel comfortable as a 39-year-old man, so he decided to be 28 instead. Apparently, the trans-age man settled on this particular age, because it strikes a good balance between being an adult and still having a childish side without attracting the judgment of others.



During the program that catapulted him to temporary online stardom, Jackie said that the idea of becoming trans-age and identifying as 11 years younger was inspired by an interaction with his boss at work. During one exchange, his superior asked ‘How can you not know how to do this at your age?” It made him feel bad. so he decided to adopt an age he felt more comfortable at.

Jackie’s story went viral in Japan back in May, but the concept of trans-age has remained a hot topic on social media ever since. Although many mocked the idea of choosing one’s age rather than using their biological one, some believe that the trans-age concept eliminates various restrictions, and can even make life more fun as you can virtually go back to being a child…



In Jackie’s case, he chose to identify as a younger self, but being trans-age allows a person to add years to their age all the way to infinity, disregard their age completely, or even use imaginary numbers or equations to describe their age. Apparently, one can even have multiple ages. Basically, anything goes…

[Misstee]

Missing Pa. pig Kevin Bacon returns home after plea from actor Kevin Bacon
philadelphia

By Joe Brandt




PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The bacon has been brought home.

Escaped Pennsylvania pig Kevin Bacon has returned home after weeks on the run and shortly after his owner laid out a Benadryl-laced sticky bun hoping to get him sleepy and easily carted back to his pen.

But in the end, Kevin just walked back home himself and plopped down.

"He's home," the Bring Kevin Bacon Home page posted on Facebook.

"He is secured in our pen," the owner said in a follow up message. "Walked in himself."

It was an exhausting orderal that captured the attention of the internet - even reaching the actor after whom he is named.

Kevin Bacon's namesake, the actor and Philadelphia native Kevin Bacon, called for the central Pennsylvania pig to be brought home in a post on Threads this weekend.

The Facebook page Bring Kevin Bacon Home posted an update on Tuesday indicating Kevin Bacon The Pig may have chowed down on a snack that will make them very sleepy.

"Benadryl sticky bun has been eaten and now I'm looking for a passed out pig somewhere," a post on the page Tuesday morning read.


Kevin didn't wander far during his time away. He was spotted in neighbors' yards and even on his owner's property. But then he would get away again.

He's been missing since Oct. 14.

[HogwartsExpress]

Man saw something 'strange' when he checked Ring Video Doorbell


A man was in disbelief after spotting a "strange" light flashing through the sky above his home in Kirkby.



Spooky sightings are to be expected on Halloween but 35-year-old Ian Twinny claims he has saw something far more unusual than ghosts or ghouls on Tuesday, October 31. At around 7.30pm, when 'trick or treaters' were out in full force on the hunt for chocolate, the Kirkby man noticed something strange on his Ring doorbell camera.

Ian claims he saw a UFO flying at high speed over Merseyside and was shocked when he saw the footage. In the footage, a bright orange light can be seen travelling at speed above houses before disappearing out of view.

Ian said the unidentified object didn't appear to be a firework and instead believed it could be a 'comet' or a 'meteorite'.

He told the ECHO: "It was really strange. It looks like maybe a comet or a meteorite with the flame coming out of it. I got it on the Ring doorbell camera.

"I don't really believe in aliens or anything like that, but it was an odd thing to see, especially in Kirkby of all places!"

Since January 2021, there have been around 20 UFO sightings in Merseyside. The ECHO released an interactive map in September showing whereabouts of previous UFO sightings in the UK.

src: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslive ... r-AA1jeebG

White Dots On Strawberries Aren’t Strawberry Seeds
Who knew swollen receptacle tissue could be so damn tasty.



The taxonomical world of fruits, vegetables, and berries can get pretty confusing. Grapefruits and pumpkins, for example, are technically berries, while the humble strawberry isn’t a berry at all. In fact, it seems strawberries are full of surprises, or rather covered in them, because those seedy-looking white dots also aren’t seeds.

The pitted accessories found across the surface of strawberries are called achenes, and while they may resemble seeds, these tiny dots are actually the plant’s fruit. The term “achene” refers to the simple dry fruit produced by many different flowering plant species, including quinoa, buckwheat, and cannabis.

Like all fruits, these achenes do contain a single seed inside, but the strawberry plant won’t necessarily use these to reproduce.

Instead, strawberry plants send out “runners” as they grow, essentially little strawberry clones that will take root and begin growing when they reach the ground. This is a much more efficient way for the plant to spread and can also be observed in species like spider plants and peppermint.

So, if the strawberry isn’t the fruit of the plant, and it’s not a berry, then what is it?

Hailing from the family Rosaceae, along with the common garden rose, strawberries are technically aggregate fruits, as are the equally deceptive raspberry and blackberry. Aggregate fruits consist of a number of smaller fruits grouped together – in the strawberry’s case, these are the achenes – but to be classified as a true berry, the fruit must contain more than one seed internally.

The scientific classification of a berry requires the fruit to be made up of an outer skin (exocarp), a fleshy middle (mesocarp), and an inner casing that holds the seeds (endocarp). However, if you fancy taking the less pedantic route, the common use of the term “berry” can technically be classed as any edible, fleshy, seed-containing fruit.

Berries are derived from a single ovary of an individual flower and are made up of two distinct groups. Citrus fruits belong to the taxonomic group hesperidium and are classified as modified berries, while the Cucurbitaceae family (including gourds, cucumbers, and watermelon) comprise the pepos group of berries.

Strawberries, unlike the true berry group, are actually the swollen receptacle tissue that holds the seed-carrying fruit on its surface. Unlike other fruits, when the strawberry flower is pollinated the fruit doesn’t swell; instead, the receptacle tissue swells, while the true fruit separates into small, dry achenes.

The unusual life cycle of these berry imposters means they’re lumped in with the rest of the fruity outcasts in the aggregate fruit category, along with the drupe classification of one-seeded freaks.

https://www.iflscience.com/white-dots-o ... eeds-71390

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 2
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Man can't go abroad as his surname is 'too rude' for passport

A man has been stopped from going abroad - as his surname has been deemed too rude to be written on a passport.

Kenny Kennard changed his surname by deed poll to 'Fu-Kennard' for a laugh a few years ago, but now the joke has backfired. Despite the former squaddie getting a driving license under his new moniker he has been told he cannot have it on a passport. When it expired earlier this year and he applied for a new one, his application was denied because his name "may cause offence".

The supermarket worker from Bude, Cornwall, has contested HM Passport Office's verdict three times- but the Home Office has refused to budge. Keen traveller Kenny said he doesn't want to change his name again - so faces a life of UK holidays instead. He said: "I'd decided to change my name to Fu-Kennard a few years back.

"When I had to apply for a driving licence, it was accepted fine, so I figured it wouldn't make much difference in applying for a passport. How wrong I was. I got refused on grounds that my name could cause offence or was vulgar. So I complained, but they upheld their decision so I complained again. I was then told they'd keep the fee for administration costs. If I wanted to take the matter further, they said I'd need to contact my MP. So I wrote to MP Scott Mann, and he replied saying they're within their remit to refuse.


Kenny changed his surname for a laugh by deed poll in 2016

"Now I'm skint with no passport, like a prisoner in my own country. On the one hand, I find the whole thing funny - as do all of my friends. But I'm also finding it hard to believe the name could be construed as anything but funny and slightly ridiculous. It's just a joke. I agree with Home Office policy that not all names are acceptable, such as racial hate words or anything that invokes hatred.

"'Fu-Kennard' is not offensive, and I object to them denying my chosen name." Kenny first changed his name to 'Coco Kenny' when he was 16, but after he joined the Army aged 19 he said he was told to change it back because it was "immature". After eight years serving his country, Kenny decided to "change it to something with a bit of 'fun' about it".

Knowing that he'd be applying for 'normal' jobs, he knew to "play it a bit safe" - and settled for 'Fu-Kennard' because "not everyone gets the joke". "Life's too short to be boring," he said. Kenny successfully applied for a driving licence in 2016, so had no reason to suspect that it would be any different applying for a passport.

But the Home Office dismissed his application on three occasions in May, June and July this year, citing Section 2 on its longstanding policy on changing names. The official guidelines list a series of "names that may cause outrage or offence" that could be classed as "unacceptable" and not fit for a passport.

They include "the use of swear words; sexually explicit references; inappropriate religious connotation; is vulgar, offensive, or libellous to an individual; makes use of a name of a person living or dead which may cause public concern". The guidance also states: "This applies to phonetic, as well as actual use of words comprising of part or the entire name."


"I object to them denying my chosen name," said the former squaddie

In a letter the office even advised that it would even retain Kenny's £94.75 application fee "to cover the costs of administration". Bemused and bewildered, Kenny wrote to local Tory MP Scott Mann, whose office also supported HM Passport Office's decision. The letter from Mr Mann's office stated - under Section 2 of Home Office policy, concerning 'unacceptable names' - HM Passport Office was "within its remit to refuse your request for a passport under the name you have chosen".

Kenny said the Home Office has told him it will only proceed with an application for a passport if he either changed his name to one that was acceptable - or uses his previous name. Their letter dated July 11 stated: "Your application is deemed to contain a name, which may cause offence to individuals and the wider public.

"The passport is not an appropriate vehicle to carry names which may be considered as distasteful or vulgar. The application will be failed and the fee retained, in line with HM Passport Office procedure, to cover the costs of administration." But the wacky retailer is shocked by the Home Office decision, and said he's been left "stumped at what I can do - live without a passport?"

Kenny, who loves to travel and last went on holiday to Sri Lanka months before his passport expired, now can't holiday abroad. He said: "Without a passport, I can't go on holiday abroad. I live in a seaside town, but have always enjoyed travelling. My last holiday - to Sri Lanka - was about three years ago. But there are so many countries I'd still like to visit, such as Cambodia.

"I went camping down Sennen Beach for my week off. For my next leave, I have no plans as my options are limited. I have a stag do in three weeks, for instance. When the best man was deciding what to do for it, he knew I couldn't travel - so he settled on Cardiff instead.

"I don't know what else I can do to escalate the situation with HM Passport Office, because no one has advised me how else I can challenge the verdict. I only have one red line, though - I'm keeping my surname. I don't want to change it again, especially because they're restricting my freedom. I like Fu-Kennard."

Cold weather could have helped cause the Salem Witch Trials

The Salem witch trials were the largest witchcraft outbreak in American history, resulting from a perfect storm of catastrophes.

Taking place in 1692 and 1693, the Salem witch trials were held in towns across northeastern Massachusetts. The center of the trials was Salem Village, or the modern day town of Danvers, according to Salem State University history professor and author of “A Storm of Witchcraft” Emerson Baker.

More than 150 people were tried during the Salem witch trials, Baker said. Most were locked up in jail for months, and some were sentenced to up to a year or more. Five died in jail, 19 were executed, and one was pressed to death.

Baker noted that the witch hunt phenomenon was a regional crisis, and one that was caused by a perfect storm of factors.

One reason, particularly in Salem Village, was strife and factionalism as arguments over who the ministers should be, pitting neighbors against one another. Baker noted that this contention in the community laid the groundwork for accusations of witchcraft. In fact, the first people who were accused were the daughter and niece of a reverend who had political enemies.

Additionally, the people in the Salem area worried they were losing their Puritan mission. Most people came to Massachusetts to create their own community where they could worship their own faith. By the 1690s, however, Baker said many people felt that they’d lost that original fervor.

The people of Massachusetts were also concerned about a war they were fighting on the northern frontier, or what is now New Hampshire and Maine, according to Baker. They were battling the Native Americans and their French allies and losing.

Extreme weather causes extreme consequences

On top of the war, religious concerns and political tensions, the people were experiencing a long stretch of inclement weather.

This was of particular concern for the people of 17th-century New England, as they were a largely agrarian society. Their communities were predominantly made of farmers or people who depended on their gardens to feed their families. So when bad weather struck, it led to crop failures, often starvation, disease and death.

Such a devastating weather pattern was caused by something much larger and more widespread than what the people of Salem might have guessed.

“As it turns out, the Salem witch trials took place in what we now recognize as the Little Ice Age, which was a time of colder climate, more severe weather,” Baker said.

He noted that the Little Ice Age lasted from about 1400 to 1800, and it caused temperatures to become considerably cooler. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere during the Little Ice Age dropped by 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0.6 degrees Celsius, and caused mountain glaciers to expand.

In addition to the drop in temperature, the Little Ice Age brought with it more storms and instability, Baker said.

The Little Ice Age brought cold winters with heavy snowfall; during spring, when farmers would plant their crops, frosts would come in until June. Summers were not much better for replanting; the weather was hot and dry enough to destroy more crops before another frost hit in August and early September.
when bad weather struck, it led to crop failures, often starvation, disease and death.

“It turns out the 1680s and the 1690s were the absolute most extreme weather of this whole Little Ice Age,” Baker said. “This was really extreme weather on an unprecedented scale, and it had consequences.”
Start your day with all you need to know

The severe weather, in addition to war on the frontier, led many Puritans to believe that God was angry at New England for losing its spiritual community. In an attempt to find someone to blame, they held their witch trials.

Baker noted that people in the 17th century sometimes blamed bad weather on witches.

“If a bad storm at sea sank a ship, or if lightening struck and destroyed a house, or if a storm destroyed crops, they often felt a witch might have been responsible,” he said.

However, the trials did not lead to better days for the people of Salem and around New England. According to Baker, matters deteriorated for the next several years to the point where they realized the grave mistake they had made with the witch trials.

In 1697, Massachusetts called for a public day of humiliation and fasting. Baker said the occasion involved the colony publicly confessing its sins on how the colony had gone wrong, including being deluded by Satan to execute people for witchcraft.

“It wasn’t sort of a full apology, shall we say, but it was as close as the government could come at that point to acknowledging that it might not have been a great thing to execute witches,” he said. “Clearly the witches weren’t entirely the problem, and there were other things going on.”

While the Salem witch trials involved trying more than 150 people across the Atlantic Ocean in Europe, where the Little Ice Age also wreaked havoc, about 100,000 people were tried for witchcraft. Baker noted that about half of them were executed.

“Salem is known as the Witch City, but in fact, it’s symptomatic of a much larger problem that, it’s kind of a timeless crime that every society has escaped from.”

https://nypost.com/2023/10/31/lifestyle ... ch-trials/