Scientists have discovered a new species of human, distinct from our own, which lived in caves in China in the Stone Age.

Fossil remains of the mysterious 11,500-year-old people were discovered in south-west China.

Analysis of the find has only now revealed their true significance, opening what scientists have dubbed “the next chapter in the human evolutionary story”.

The bones display an unusual mix of ancient and modern anatomical features, as well as some characteristics not seen before.

Scientists believe they may have belonged to a previously unknown species, distinct from that of modern humans, Homo sapiens.

However, they remain cautious about how to classify the “red deer people” – so called because they hunted extinct red deer.

Lead researcher Professor Darren Curnoe, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said: “These new fossils might be of a previously unknown species, one that survived until the very end of the Ice Age around 11,000 years ago.

“Alternatively, they might represent a very early and previously unknown migration of modern humans out of Africa, a population who may not have contributed genetically to living people.”

Controversy still surrounds the discovery of miniature extinct humans dubbed “hobbits” on the Indonesian island of Flores.

The 3ft 6inch creatures, which may have inhabited the island as recently as 12,000 years ago, have been given their own species name, Homo floresiensis.

But some experts insist they were abnormally formed modern humans.

Another puzzle emerged in 2010 with the discovery of a new human species called the Denisovans. Not only were they once widespread across Eurasia, but there is evidence that they interbred with modern humans around 50,000 years ago.

The new research, published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, once again places human evolution in Asia under the spotlight.

Remains of at least three “red deer people” were found at Maludong – the name means “Red Deer Cave” – near the city of Mengzi in Yunnan Province in 1989.

They were left unstudied until research began in 2008 involving scientists from six Chinese and five Australian institutions.

A Chinese geologist discovered a fourth partial skeleton in 1979 in another cave near the village of Longlin, in the neighborring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

It remained encased in a block of rock until its removal by the international team.

Here’s some Red Deer people teeth:

Despite containing more than half the world’s population, scientists still know little about how modern humans evolved there after settling in Eurasia some 70,000 years ago.

Scientific attention on human origins has mostly focused on Europe and Africa.

Until now, the only human fossils less than 100,000 years old found in mainland eastern Asia have resembled those of Homo sapiens.

This suggested the region was devoid of human species until the arrival of modern humans. If the new fossils really do belong to a separate species, it would prove this assumption wrong.

“The discovery of the red deer people opens the next chapter in the human evolutionary story – the Asian chapter – and it’s a story that’s just beginning to be told,” said Prof Curnoe.

CREDIT: Peter Schouten for artist’s reconstruction of the Red Deer Cave People
Charles Choi, LiveScience

CANBERRA – President Obama, worried about the Australian threat, is deploying Marins to Australia.

With the approval of Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,  Barack Obama announced details of a new military operation in Australia.

In recent months, there has been a lot of unrest in Australia, which came about after Gillard announced some pro-Labor economic policies.  Conservatives in Australia began protesting and seemed to be gaining in popularity.

“We can’t have conservatives getting the majority in any country,” Obama reportedly told Australians.

“If conservatives get control of Australia, then that kind of ‘virus’ can spread around the world and that could ruin what we’ve all done the last four years.”

Australia has agreed to allow two full Marine battalions to set up a base outside Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.

2,250 US Marines will arrive at the beginning of 2012 (redeployed from Iraq) and by the end of 2012 there will be about 10,000 U.S. Marines in Australia, ready to battle some young, wild Australian conservatives like these fellows:

The deployment is being seen as a move to counter China’s growing influence.

Obama said the US was “stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific”, and if there were any hints of “dangerous” conservative thinking rising up in other Asian countries.  ”I will take action.”

“The main message that I’ve said, not only publicly but also privately to China, is that with their rise comes increased responsibility,” he said.

“It is important for them to play by the rules of the road.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin questioned whether the move was in keeping with the region’s peaceful development.

“It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

This deployment is the biggest in Australia since World War II.

Mr Obama has twice cancelled visits to Australia in the past – in March 2010 as he worked to pass healthcare reform legislation and then in June the same year amid the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

After his stop in Darwin, Mr Obama flies to Indonesia for a summit of Asian leaders.

Many Australian natives are confused about this latest deployment:

NEW YORK – In a ruse to cover-up the fact that Facebook is shutting down, Goldman Sachs announced that U.S. citizens are banned from investing in Facebook.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has prohibited U.S. investors from participating in a private offering expected to raise up to $1.5 billion for social networking site Facebook, citing widespread media coverage that could run afoul of securities guidelines.

That’s the official report.  WWN has learned that the truth is that Goldman Sachs is trying to cover-up the fact that Facebook is shutting down on March 15th.  This story broke right here on WWN and has since become one of the hottest stories on the internet.

Goldman Sachs doesn’t want to have egg on its face when Facebook “goes dead” on March 15th, so they are trying to distract and deflect attention from the big news with the silly notion that U.S. investors can’t participate in the Facebook IPO.

“Ban U.S. investors?” said Jonathan Hoenig of Capitalist Pig.  “You can’t ban U.S. investors, we are the ones that made Facebook.   It is an American company.  Of course, U.S. investors should be allowed to participate.  And all Americans should make a killing in the deal.”

The investment bank said it decided to restrict the fund to prospective shareholders in Asia and Europe.

The truth is that investors in Asia and Europe haven’t all heard the news that Facebook is shutting down.   Goldman hopes to pocket the investment dollars from investors in these countries – hopefully before they realize that Facebook is going out of business.

In a statement, Goldman Sachs said it made the decision on its own and “believes this is the most prudent path to take.”  Rumors that Goldman Sachs partners are just tired of their teenagers spending all their time on Facebook, so they are pulling the plug on the deal – are completely false.  Though they may be true.

Goldman Sachs has VERY close ties to the Obama Administration.  Some say, VP Joe Biden, is a Goldman Sachs mole.  Isn’t it odd that Facebook is closing down right when the deal with Goldman is being finalized?  Is the government colluding with Facebook?  With Goldman?  What exactly is going on here?

“There’s a massive government cover-up about the shuttering of Facebook,” said Dr. Thomas Hillstrom, chief counsel for the government watchdog group,  We The People Power.  “There is a corporate-government scam being perpetrated on the American people – and Facebook users across the globe.  We intend to get to the bottom of it.”

Goldman Sachs set up the offshore fund, which initially was to have been available to investors in the United States.  The offshore fund is on a tiny island off New Jersey.

Goldman Sachs has declined to specify when the offering may close – though insiders know that it never will . It is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion for the privately held Facebook, the world’s largest Internet social network  – right before it shuts down.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 26, has been in no hurry to take the company public, partly because he hoped to preserve a free-wheeling culture – and partly because he intends on shutting it down and starting a new company.

WWN has confirmed that Facebook is shutting down.  Facebook users around the world are outraged.

A petition has been started to Save Facebook.  Sign it and stop Goldman Sachs from abetting in Facebook’s demise!

SIGN THE “SAVE FACEBOOK” PETITION HERE.

SOUTH ASIA – Flying snakes have become more and more prevalent in Asia and the United States.

More and more people in Asia are seeing flying snakes.  And they are attacking people at an alarming rate.

The snake dangles 49 feet (15 meters) off the ground, tail entwined around a branch. Suddenly, the animal rears up and launches, flinging its body toward the forest floor.  Often they land right on the necks of victims.

In other reptiles, the leap would be suicidal, or at least an invitation for broken bones. But the snake in question is a Chrysopela paradis, one of five related species of tree-dwelling snakes from Southeast Asia and Southwestern United States. When these snakes leap, it’s not to nosedive; it’s to glide, a feat they can accomplish at distances of at least 109 feet.

What no one knows is exactly how these reptiles manage to fly so far without wings. Now, a new study finds that the snakes’ amazing aerial abilities may all be in the way they move.

“For any flier, you really need to know the basics: How fast is it going, what’s the shape of the flier, what is the shape of the wing,” study author Jake Socha, a biologist at Virginia Tech, told LiveScience writer Stephanie Pappas. “With this new study, we now really get insight into what the exact position of the body is as it’s in this really developed glide.”

Studies have found that these snakes flatten themselves as they launch, undulating side-to-side as if they’re slithering in mid-air. They glide very fast, between 49 and 63 feet per second.

To find out more about how the snakes position themselves during the glide, Socha and his colleagues videotaped snakes launching themselves from the 49-foot tower toward the ground. The researchers put white dots on the snakes’ bodies so they could calculate where the animal was in space at each point during the flight. The technology is similar to that used to do motion capture for video games or animated movies, Socha said.

The snakes are more than happy to glide for the cameras, Socha said.

“They glide; that’s what they do,” he said. “So they’re like, ‘I’m outta here, I’m gonna go down there.’”

Next, the researchers used the video to model and analyze the forces acting on the snakes’ bodies. They found that the snakes aren’t horizontal during their glide; they’re actually tilted up about 25 degrees relative to the airflow created by their flight. They hold the front half of their bodies fairly still, with the exception of the side-to-side undulations. Meanwhile, their tails move up and down.

“Surprisingly, although the snakes move down toward the ground, the net force on their bodies during the glide is an upward force – at least briefly. That means that if you add up every force acting on the snake, Socha said, you’d be left with a small force pushing the snake skyward.

The snake doesn’t actually start moving up in part because they don’t fly far enough for the net upward force to have an effect, and in part because the upward force disappears quickly, Socha said

“Why is it that you don’t tumble out of the sky if you’re a snake?” he said. “Now we have the framework for doing detailed studies of the aerodynamics.”

Just be careful when you are walking around Southeast Asia and the Southwestern United States.

BEIJING, CHINA – The Chaos Cloud has been spreading across Asia to finally center in on one of the world’s most polluted cities.

According to Shai Oster’s article in the Wall Street Journal, the Chaos Cloud is wreaking havoc across the continent, presumably in unhappiness over the pollution problems. China’s habit of coal burning has caused its air quality to plummet. The World Health Organization has found that 750,000 people die prematurely each year from respiratory problems, and acid rain falls on 30% of the country.

Experts believe that the Cloud is unhappy over so many premature deaths. It is predicted to touch down in 2014 and destroy the world in total chaos, and presumably wants as many human lives to end as possible.

The Director of Ministry of Environmental Protection is currently hiding under his desk and refusing to release any public statements.