Ancient remains found in California suggest that humans were present in North America some 130,000 years ago — substantially earlier than scientists previously thought. A site in San Diego contains evidence that early human ancestors smashed mastodon bones and teeth to make rudimentary tools. The smattering of bone fragments, hammer-stones, and anvils now represents the oldest archeological site in the Americas, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The oldest widely accepted date for humanity's presence in North America is less than 15,000 years ago. If the findings are true, this would make the San Diego site older by a factor of nearly ten, the study found. SEE ALSO: A 400,000-year-old fossil offers new clues on how humans evolved "Extraordinary claims like this require extraordinary evidence, and we feel that the Cerutti Mastodon site [in San Diego] preserves such evidence," said Thomas Deméré, the study's corresponding author and curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Paleontologist Don Swanson points at rock fragment near a large horizontal mastodon tusk fragment.Image: San Diego Natural History MuseumSome outside experts said they were deeply skeptical that the site is as old as the scientists claim, or that the mastodon bones show definitive signs of human activity. "I was astonished, not because it is so good but because it is so bad," Donald Grayson, an archaeologist at the University of Washington, told theNew York Times. He faulted the study for failing to rule out other explanations for markings on the bones. John McNabb, an archeologist at the University of Southampton in England, said the study raises more questions than answers. In a commentary published inNature, he said that, to prove this is truly evidence of human activity, more information is needed about how people even arrived there so long ago. But archeologist Erella Hovers agreed the study "points to a much earlier arrival of human relatives" than previous studies suggest.  The new finding "has been rigorously researched and presented," Hovers, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote in a commentary forNature. However, the scientists' proposed narrative about the bone data "has some gaping holes that need filling," she added. The study's authors said they don't know which kind of early human ancestor was responsible for the bone breaking, since no human remains were found at the site. They also don't know how humans arrived in southern California, though they might've crossed the Bering Strait or traveled in a water craft from Asia. Unbroken mastodon ribs and vertebrae, including one vertebra with a large well preserved neural spine.Image: san diego natural history museumDeméré and his colleagues acknowledged the skepticism toward their study. But they defended their results on a Monday call with reporters, noting the study was the result of more than two decades of research. San Diego paleontologists first discovered the mastodon bones and rock tools in 1992, during a routine survey at a freeway construction site.  Using an excavator, scientists dug nearly 10 feet below the surface to uncover the remains, which neither geological forces nor human activity had disturbed in over 100,000 years, said Steve Holen, the study's lead author and director of research at the Center for American Paleolithic Research in South Dakota. A view of two mastodon femur balls, one faced up and once faced down. Neural spine of a vertebra exposed (lower right) and a broken rib (lower left).Image: San diego natural history museumDeméré said back then, the site likely sat near a meandering stream near the coastline, the landscape filled with extinct Ice Age megafauna, including camels, horses, and deer. Today, the dig site is part of a sound berm on the north side of a San Diego freeway. Mastodon rib bones, vertebrae, and femurs showed distinct fracture lines that suggest they were broken while fresh — not run over by a truck or demolished by nature millennia later. Other bone and molar fragments showed evidence of being hit with hard objects, while five large hammer-stones and anvils at the site show signs of wear and tear that could only come from human interference, scientists said. To verify their findings, the team conducted two experiments on elephant bones using large rock hammers and anvils, and produced the same types of fracture patterns. "People were here breaking up the limb bones of this mastodon ... probably to make tools out of, and they may also have been extracting the marrow for food," Holen said. He noted that human ancestors in Africa used this same approach on elephant limb bones some 1.5 million years ago. "As humans moved out of Africa and across the world, they took this type of technology with them," he said. Researchers studied the bones and archeological evidence for years. But it wasn't until recently that they were able to accurately estimate the date of the site. James Paces, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and co-author of the new study, used uranium-thorium dating from multiple bone specimens to determine their approximate age. He estimated the bones were about 130,000 years old, plus or minus 9,400 years, based on the distribution of naturally occurring uranium and its decay products. He said other methods, such as radiocarbon dating and luminescence dating — which measures the amount of light emitted from energy stored in rocks — had failed because of the bones' condition. "We now have a robust, defensible age for early humans being present in North America more than 100,000 years previous than what people had imagined," Paces told reporters. WATCH: This gene-editing technology has the potential to bring back the woolly mammoth

CLEVELAND (AP) — An attorney for former Ohio State football star Gareon Conley says the player denies an accusation made in a police report that he sexually assaulted a woman. No charges have been filed.

The AirPods are Apple's first foray into the wireless headphones industry offering a no-fuss, near-instantaneous way to wirelessly connect to your iOS device. The Syllable D900 Mini Bluetooth Earphones offer the same wireless capabilities as Apple's AirPods, but at a considerably lower price.

If you own an Amazon Echo Dot, you know quite well that it’s the best way to interact with Alexa (and if you don’t have an Echo Dot, definitely grab one now while 3-packs are on sale at their lowest price of 2017 so far). But the Echo Dot isn’t perfect, of course, and that’s where third-party accessories come into play. We’d like to bring two accessories in particular to your attention in this post, because they both make Amazon’s Echo Dot so much better. The first is the Fremo Evo, a great little attachment that transforms your stationary Echo Dot into a portable Alexa speaker. The second is the LANMU Wall Mount, which fixes your Dot to the wall when you’re not on the go, clearing space and keeping your Echo Dot out of the way.

Fremo Evo

• Easily and securely attaches to Echo Dot by a magnet with no interference. Easy to separate.
• 5200mah LG battery cell Enables your echo dot to continuously function for more than 6 hours without being plugged in.
• Recharges using the Echo Dot power adapter.
• Intelligent battery management system allows the user to leave the power adapter plugged in without damaging the battery.
• Please use the plug and cable that came with the Echo Dot.

LANMU Wall Mount

• LANMU Wall Mount: Simple steel black bracket, according to the principle of triangle stability, strong, practical. You can use it on any wall of room. To provide a high-quality work environment for Echo Dot 2nd Generation.
• Why Use the Wall Hanging: If Echo Dot is placed on the table, it will be touched by pet and child. And the things on desktop will usually become obstacles to block the spread of sound and signals, you can not see the Echo Dot lights and can not identify whether it is working.But LANMU Wall Mount Bracket resolve this perfectly.
• Professional design: according to the size of Echo Dot 2nd Generation tailored design,LANMU Wall Mount is made of ultra-thin steel plate, solid and beautiful, perfectly compatible with Echo Dot 2nd Generation (not compatible with a generation Echo Dot 1st).
• Usability: Installation is very easy and simple, the product comes with detailed installation instructions. Fit for installation to the living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and so on. After installation,LANMU Wall Mount Bracket is almost invisible.Echo Dot 2 will combinate with wall perfectly to let your house become beautiful and intelligent.
• Customer Service: 180 days of free return cargo service, search for "LANMU echo dot" for more echo dot accessories.

PRIPYAT, Ukraine (AP) — A bulletin board in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat still bears an edition of the Sovietsky Patriot newspaper, dated three days before the nuclear explosion that turned the city into one of the world's most baleful ghost towns.

Just 100 days into his term, Donald Trump’s young presidency has already provided its share of memorable moments, from his speech to a joint meeting of Congress to his decision to rain cruise missiles on a Syrian base in response to a chemical attack that killed civilians, including children. He has hosted a virtual parade of world leaders, seen his Supreme Court pick confirmed, and held some rallies that recall the mood of his boisterous, unorthodox campaign, all while trying to lay the groundwork for still-elusive legislative achievements.

The stated objective of the Hezbollah-coordinated press tour of southern Lebanon was to see new Israeli defensive installations on the border – indications, according to the powerful Shiite Lebanese militia, of Israeli fears of Hezbollah’s growing military might. The unprecedented spectacle appeared to be a deliberate and calculated breach of a UN Security Council resolution that bans non-state forces from bearing arms in southern Lebanon, and it illustrated the unmatched sway Hezbollah wields, and the impunity it enjoys throughout the country. Recommended: Hezbollah 101: Who is the militant group, and what does it want?

An army veteran and her boyfriend have been arrested on animal cruelty charges after a video of the pair emerged apparently showing them tying a service dog to a tree and shooting it five times. Marinna Rollins, 23, was arrested on Tuesday in North Carolina. ​Rollins and Heng apparently filmed themselves as they tied up a pitbull named Camboui in a wooded area in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and allegedly shot it at close range five times with a rifle.

By David Mardiste AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia (Reuters) - Two of the U.S. Air Force's newest and most advanced jets landed in the Baltic state of Estonia for the first time on Tuesday, a symbolic gesture meant to reinforce the United States' commitment to the defense of NATO allies that border Russia. The visit of the F-35 stealth fighters, which flew from Britain and spent several hours in Estonia, is part of broader U.S. jet pilot training across Europe as the NATO alliance seeks to deter Moscow from any possible incursion in the Baltics. "This is a very clear message," Estonia's Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna told Reuters.

On Wednesday, April 26,2017, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan holds a press conference after closed-door meetings with House Republicans.

Former “Bachelor” Chris Soules has finally addressed his hit and run arrest.

AT&T is using some wordsmithing to deliver to you faster Internet speeds. This week, the wireless carrier announced plans to deliver what it's calling the "5G Evolution" network to more than 20 markets by the end of the year. Credit: Jeremy Lips/Tom's GuideFor starters, to call AT&T's move a 5G rollout would be a bad idea.

Turkey insisted Wednesday that it had informed the United States and Russia before launching strikes against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, as Moscow blasted the bombing raids as "unacceptable" and new border clashes erupted. Washington angrily accused Turkey of lacklustre coordination after Turkish war planes carried out strikes on Kurdish militia forces in Syria on Tuesday, and also hit Kurdish forces in neighbouring Iraq in what Ankara described as "terrorist havens".

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Latest on Arkansas' multiple execution plan (all times local):

A man is sprayed with a chemical irritant as multiple fights break out between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters in Berkeley, California, on 15 April. Ann Coulter has canceled a speech that had been planned for Thursday on the University of California’s Berkeley campus after initially claiming she would defy the administration’s request that she hold her event a week later at a secure venue.

Until recently, it seemed that we would be able to manage global warming-induced sea level rise through the end of the century. It would be problematic, of course, but manageable, particularly in industrialized nations like the U.S. However, troubling indications from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets show that melting is taking place faster than previously thought and that entire glaciers — if not portions of the ice sheets themselves — are destabilizing. This has scientists increasingly worried that the consensus sea level rise estimates are too conservative. With sea level rise, as with other climate impacts, the uncertainties tend to skew toward the more severe end of the scale. So, it's time to consider some worst-case scenarios. SEE ALSO: Trump White House reveals it's 'not familiar' with well-studied costs of global warming Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published an extreme high-end sea level rise scenario, showing 10 to 12 feet of sea level rise by 2100 around the U.S., compared to the previously published global average — which is closer to 8 feet — in that time period.  The research and journalism group Climate Central took this projection and plotted out the stark ramifications in painstaking, and  terrifying, detail.  The bottom line finding?  "By the end of the century, oceans could submerge land [that's] home to more than 12 million Americans and $2 trillion in property," according to Ben Strauss, who leads the sea level rise program at Climate Central.  Here's what major cities would look like with so much sea level rise: New York CityImage: CLIMATE CENTRAL New Orleans: Gone.Image: CLIMATE CENTRAL San Francisco International AirportImage: CLIMATE CENTRAL Bienvenido a Miami.Image: CLIMATE CENTRALIn an online report, Climate Central states that the impacts of such a high amount of sea level rise "would be devastating."  For example, Cape Canaveral, which is a crown jewel for NASA and now the private sector space industry, would be swallowed up by the Atlantic. Major universities, including MIT, would be underwater, as would President Trump's "southern White House" of Mar-a-Lago. In the West, San Francisco would be hard-hit, with San Francisco International Airport completely submerged. "More than 99 percent of today’s population in 252 coastal towns and cities would have their homes submerged, and property of more than half the population in 479 additional communities would also be underwater," the analysis, which has not been peer-reviewed, found.  Image: climate centralIn New York City, the average high tide would be a staggering 2 feet higher than the flood level experienced during Hurricane Sandy. More than 800,000 people would be flooded out of New York City alone.  Although the findings pertain to sea level rise through the end of the century, in reality sea levels would keep rising long after that, with a total increase of about 30 feet by 2200 for all coastal states, Climate Central found.  As for how likely this extreme scenario really is, here's what the report says:  "The extreme scenario is considered unlikely, but it is plausible. NOAA’s report and Antarctic research suggest that deep and rapid cuts to heat-trapping pollution would greatly reduce its chances."  More specifically, the NOAA projection says this high-end outlook has just a 0.1 percent chance of occurring under a scenario in which we keep emitting greenhouse gases at about the current rate. While a 1-in-1,000 chance outcome might seem nearly impossible to occur, recent events suggest otherwise.  For example, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Mid-Atlantic in 2012 while following a track that was virtually unprecedented in storm history. In addition, California is estimated to have had just a 1 percent chance of climbing out of its deep drought in a one to two-year period, and it did just that this winter.  Also, Donald Trump is president, people.  Robert Kopp, a sea level rise researcher at Rutgers University, whose projections formed the basis of the NOAA scenarios, said it's difficult to put exact odds on the extreme scenario.  "I would say that our knowledge about marine ice-sheet instability is too deeply uncertain for us to answer that question right now," Kopp said in an email. "We can come up with a physically plausible pathway that gets us to 2.5 meters [or 8.2 feet], we know it is more likely under higher emissions, but we don't have a good way of putting a probability on it." A paper published in the journalNature in March found that if emissions of global warming pollutants peak in the next few years and are then reduced quickly thereafter, then there is a good chance that the melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet would be drastically curtailed.  However, with the U.S., which is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, backing away from making significant cuts under the Paris Climate Agreement, adhering to such an ambitious timetable is looking less realistic.  Image: climate centralIn order for NOAA's extreme scenario, and therefore Climate Central's maps, to turn into reality, there would need to be decades more of sustained high emissions of greenhouse gases plus more melting from Antarctica than is currently anticipated.  However, recent studies have raised questions about Antarctica's stability, as mild ocean waters eat away at floating ice shelves from below, freeing up glaciers well inland to flow faster into the sea.  "What's new is that we used to think 6- to 7 feet was the max *plausible* or *possible* sea level rise this century, and now we've roughly doubled that," Strauss said in an email. "The new Antarctic science says it's plausible."  "If you were to survey ice sheet experts today, instead of something like 5 to 10 years ago, I suspect you'd get a significantly higher probability than 0.1 percent," he said.  A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change last week found that sea level rise could prompt a wave of internal migration within the U.S., especially as people move from the hardest-hit states such as Florida, Louisiana and New York. It's long been known that Florida is ground zero for sea level rise impacts, but the Climate Central projections are even more pessimistic. The report shows that a whopping 5.6 million Floridians would be at risk before the end of the century under an extreme sea level rise scenario, about double the amount simulated in the study last week. WATCH: Serene underwater footage shows whale's-eye view of Antarctica

Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ were finally released this past Friday, and it seems like the phones are already well on their way to becoming a smash hit. The South Korean electronics giant announced Monday morning that combined Galaxy S8 and S8+ pre-orders out-sold Samsung's previous-generation Galaxy S7 and S7 edge by 30%. As a quick reminder, the S7 and S7 edge were Samsung's best-selling phones ever.

If you picked up a new Galaxy S8 on Friday or over the weekend, rest assured that you now hold the most stunning smartphones that have ever existed. They're also two of the most powerful smartphones that have ever existed. In fact, there's almost nothing on Earth that could possibly give you buyer's remorse. Almost nothing...

When an early adopter buys a new flagship iPhone, he or she knows that there will be a full year to wait (and save up money) before an even better new flagship iPhone launches. In Samsung's case, however, there's a much shorter buffer in between flagship releases.

In the first half of each year, Samsung updates its Galaxy S lineup. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are the company's flagship smartphones for the first half of 2017 and as you read in our Galaxy S8 review, they're incredible. Then, in the second half of 2017, Samsung will update its Note line with the all-new Galaxy Note 8.

If the Note 8 looks anything like this, Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners should prepare to be very, very jealous.

Graphic designer Muhsin M. Belaal Auckburaully teamed up with YouTube channel DBS Designing to completely reimagine Samsung's Galaxy Note series using design cues from the Galaxy S8 along with rumors we've heard so far. The results, as you can see, are absolutely stunning.

Unlike most concept smartphones we see out there, this Galaxy Note 8 is actually rooted in reality. It likely doesn't look exactly like the Note 8 Samsung will release later this year, but we're willing to bet that it's close. Hopefully Samsung sticks with the precedent set by the Galaxy S8, however, and ditches that distracting logo from the front of the phone.

As for specs, Auckburaully stays well within the realm of reality by sticking with the rumors we've heard so far. The Note 8 should feature a huge 6.4-inch QHD+ display and a screen-to-body ratio that's even better than the 83% ratio on the Galaxy S8. Other expected specs include 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of storage, microSDXC support, a new dual-lens rear camera setup, an iris scanner, and a huge 4,000 mAh battery that hopefully doesn't explode.

More images of Auckburaully's Galaxy Note 8 design can be seen on his Behance page, and a video featuring the design is embedded below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0p3CAs9ZP0

The US has conducted a missile test to demonstrate its “national nuclear capabilities” amid ongoing tensions with North Korea. Military officials said the test involved the launch of intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Colonel Chris Moss, Vandenberg’s 30th Space Wing commander, said the test launch was “an important demonstration of our nation's nuclear deterrent capabilities”.

The 15-year-old Tennesssee teen was rescued last week after being allegedly kidnapped by ex-teacher Tad Cummins on March 13.

A 3-foot-long giant rabbit died at a United Airlines pet holding facility in Chicago following a flight from London, in another embarrassment for the airline as it struggles with a global backlash this month over a passenger dragged from his seat. The 10-month-old Continental Giant breed rabbit named Simon, who was tipped to become one of the world's largest rabbits, had appeared to be in good condition upon arrival at the facility at Chicago's O'Hare airport, an airline spokesman said. Simon was due to be picked up by a celebrity who had bought him.