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Into Centaurs? Wanna be one?
There truly is an alliance for everyone...
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Monsters, Ghosts and Gods: Why We Believe
Monsters are everywhere these days, and belief in them is as strong as ever. What's harder to believe is why so many people buy into hazy evidence, shady schemes and downright false reports that perpetuate myths that often have just one ultimate truth: They put money in the pockets of their purveyors.
According to several interviews with people who study these things: People want to believe, and most simply can't help it.
"Many people quite simply just want to believe," said Brian Cronk, a professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University. "The human brain is always trying to determine why things happen, and when the reason is not clear, we tend to make up some pretty bizarre explanations."
A tale last week by three men who said they have remains of Bigfoot in a freezer was reported by many Web sites as anywhere from final proof of the creature to at least a very compelling case to keep the fantasy ball rolling and cash registers ringing for Bigfoot trinkets and tourism (all three men involved make money off the belief in this creature). Even mainstream media treated a Friday press conference about the "finding" as news.
Reactions by the public ranged from skeptical curiosity to blind faith.
A subsequent test on the supposed Bigfoot found nothing but the DNA of humans and an opossum, a small, cat-like creature.
Also last week, in Texas there was yet another sensational yet debunkable sighting of chupacabra, a beast of Latin-American folklore. The name means "goat sucker." In this case, law enforcement bought into the hooey with an apparent wink and nod.
"Humans first started believing in the supernatural because they were trying to understand things they couldn't explain," says Benjamin Radford, a book author, paranormal investigator and managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. "It's basically the same process as mythology: At one point people didn't understand why the sun rose and set each day, so they suggested that a chariot pulled the sun across the heavens."
Sometimes the belief in curses crosses paths with religion, as was the case in 2005 when televangelist John Hagee (whose endorsement was solicited and received by presidential hopeful John McCain) blamed Hurricane Katrina on God's wrath for a gay parade that had been scheduled for the Monday of the storm's arrival.
"I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are - were recipients of the judgment of God for that," Hagee said at the time, reiterating the belief in 2006.
That might lead one to assume religion and paranormal beliefs are intertwined.
Before modern scientific explanations of germ theory, explained Radford, who writes the "Bad Science" column for LiveScience, people didn't understand how diseases could travel from one person to another. "They didn't understand why a child was stillborn, or why a drought occurred, so they came to believe that such events had supernatural causes," he said.
Bader, the sociologist at Baylor, and his colleagues teamed up with the Gallup organization to conduct a national survey of 1,721 people in 2005 and found nearly 30 percent think it is possible to influence the physical world through the mind alone (another 30 percent were undecided on that point). More than 20 percent figure it's possible to communicate with the dead. Nearly 40 percent believe in haunted houses.
"All societies have invoked the supernatural to explain things beyond their control and understanding, especially good and bad events," Radford said. "In many places - even today - people believe that disasters or bad luck is caused by witches or curses."
Which raises the bigger question: With science having answered so many questions in the past couple centuries, why do paranormal beliefs remain so strong? Monsters are everywhere these days, and belief in them is as strong as ever. What's harder to believe is why so many people buy i... more -
Medieval polar atlas depicts mysterious Arctic islands
This polar chart was first published in 1589 by Gerard Mercator. Mercator claimed that 4 land masses encircled the North Pole, 4 rivers dived the land masses, and at the center was an oceanic vortex which cycled water back to all the world rivers. This was reported by many other explorers, but decades later no trace could be found. Could this have been the folklorish Kingdom of Frisland? This polar chart was first published in 1589 by Gerard Mercator. Mercator claimed that 4 land masses encircled the North Pole, 4 river... more
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Archeologists discover portal to Mayan underworld
Archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.
Researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples, some containing human bones, possibly from sacrifices, at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
Mayans thought the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld called Xibalba.
According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the route to Xibalba was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats. In order to find their way through the darkness, the souls of the dead followed a mythical dog who could see at night.
Excavations over the past five months in the Yucatan caves also revealed stone carvings and pottery left for the dead. Archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead soul... more -
'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis
Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive.
Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.
He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting".
After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.
They say that the tests on Thursday were a "process of elimination" in which the hairs from India were compared with hairs from other animals known to live in the area around the Garo hills of the north-eastern state of Meghalaya.
The little known Indian version of the legendary yeti - or abominable snow man - is an ape-like creature called mande barung - or forest man.
"We are very excited about the preliminary results although more tests need to be done"
Ian Redmond
The BBC was given the hairs by passionate yeti believer Dipu Marak, who retrieved them from a site in dense jungle after the mande barung was allegedly seen by a forester for three days in a row in 2003.
Mr Marak says the hairs may provide compelling evidence of the existence of a black and grey ape-like animal which stands about 3m (nearly 10ft) tall.
There have been repeated reports of sightings over many years by different witnesses in the West, South and East Garo hills.
Mr Marak estimates the creature weighs about 300kg (660lb) and says it is herbivorous, surviving on fruit, roots and tree bark.
Preliminary test by the scientists in the UK have not so far disproved his belief.
"We now know for definite that these hairs do not belong to Asiatic black bear, they do not belong to a wild boar and they do not resemble hairs from various species of macaque monkeys. These hairs remain an enigma," said wildlife biologist and and ape conservation expert Ian Redmond.
"Another thing I can confirm is that if these hairs do indeed belong to a yeti then they - like human beings - suffer from split hair ends!" he joked.
The tests were carried out at Oxford Brookes University in central England with award-winning primatologist Anna Nekaris and microscopy expert Jon Wells from the university's anthropology department.
Using some of the most sophisticated microscopes in Britain, the hairs were magnified up to 200 times and then compared with a database of other hairs collected by Mr Redmond from London's Natural History Museum and the primatology department at Oxford Brookes University.
To make the results as definitive as possible, the scientists took a cast of one of the two hairs brought over from India using nail varnish.
"When the varnish dries the mould which it forms creates a much better three-dimensional image than the hair itself," explained Ms Mekaris.
After the test were completed, Mr Redmond - who is also a senior consultant for the UN's Great Ape Survival Project - and Ms Nekaris were able to rule out the "obvious candidates" to whom the hairs might belong.
Mr Redmond said that on first glance, the hairs from India had the same follicle pattern to hairs brought back to the UK by Sir Edmund Hillary and donated to the Natural History Museum. Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inco... more -
Cancer is not a disease - chemotherapy is a hoax
Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died in July 2008 at the age of 53, following a series of chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer. In 2005, Snow had his colon removed and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. Two years later (2007), Snow underwent surgery to remove a growth in his abdominal area, near the site of the original cancer. "This is a very treatable condition," said Dr. Allyson Ocean, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical College. "Many patients, because of the therapies we have, are able to work and live full lives with quality while they're being treated. Anyone who looks at this as a death sentence is wrong." But of course we now know, Dr. Ocean was dead wrong.
The media headlines proclaimed Snow died from colon cancer, although they knew he didn't have a colon anymore. Apparently, the malignant cancer had "returned" (from where?) and "spread" to the liver and elsewhere in his body. In actual fact, the colon surgery severely restricted his normal eliminative functions, thereby overburdening the liver and tissue fluids with toxic waste. The previous series of chemo-treatments inflamed and irreversibly damaged a large number of cells in his body, and also impaired his immune system -- a perfect recipe for growing new cancers. Now unable to heal the causes of the original cancer (in addition to the newly created ones), Snow's body developed new cancers in the liver and other parts of the body.
The mainstream media, of course, still insist Snow died from colon cancer, thus perpetuating the myth that it is only the cancer that kills people, not the treatment. Nobody seems to raise the important point that it is extremely difficult for a cancer patient to actually heal from this condition while being subjected to the systemic poisons of chemotherapy and deadly radiation. If you are bitten by a poisonous snake and don't get an antidote for it, isn't it likely that your body becomes overwhelmed by the poison and, therefore, cannot function anymore?
Before Tony Snow began his chemo-treatments for his second colon cancer, he still looked healthy and strong. But after a few weeks into his treatment, he started to develop a coarse voice, looked frail, turned gray and lost his hair. Did the cancer do all this to him? Certainly not. Cancer doesn't do such a thing, but chemical poisoning does. He actually looked more ill than someone who has been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Does the mainstream media ever report about the overwhelming scientific evidence that shows chemotherapy has zero benefits in the five-year survival rate of colon cancer patients? Or how many oncologists stand up for their cancer patients and protect them against chemotherapy treatment which they very well know can cause them to die far more quickly than if they received no treatment at all? Can you trustingly place your life into their hands when you know that most of them would not even consider chemotherapy for themselves if they were diagnosed with cancer? What do they know that you don't? The news is spreading fast that in the United States physician-caused fatalities now exceed 750,000 each year. Perhaps, many doctors no longer trust in what they practice, for good reasons. Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died in July 2008 at the age of 53, following a series of chemotherapy treatments for col... more -
The Sphinx: whether the weather be wet
A collection of unusual aerial photographs of the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau in Egypt, music by Patrick Leonard/Shenkar - "pudusu" from their CD "udistam". The Sphinx is classic in its structure and form. Its body is a beautifully proportioned carving out of one piece of limestone bedrock on the edge of the Giza Plateau, although curiously, the head of the sphinx is small. The Sphinx of Giza is about 240' long and 66' high. John Anthony West and Dr. Robert Schoch, a geologist/geophysicist, from Boston University, presented the idea that the weathering on the body of the Sphinx and walls of the Sphinx enclosure had been created by precipitation - over a long enough period of time to create the deep fissures and smooth rounded shapes you can see, particularly on the west and south walls of the Sphinx enclosure. Detective Frank Domingo, a senior forensic officer with the NYPD applied his expertise of identification techniques to compare the facial structure between the Sphinx, and the Pharoah Chephren from a statue in the Cairo Museum. The attribution of Chephren being the builder of the Sphinx is partly because of this discovery and dedication given by proxy, reports suggesting they look similar. Take a good look. Check out John Anthony West's YouTube Channels: JAWSPHINX99 and MYSTERYOFTHESPHINX. For contact re: "pudusu" from UDISTAM, udistam@yahoo.com, and Shenkar - www.myspace.com/shenkarworld A collection of unusual aerial photographs of the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau in Egypt, music by Patrick Leonard/Shenkar - "pudusu... more
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Homer's "Odyssey" may have historical fact
Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when King Odysseus returned from the Trojan War and slaughtered a group of suitors who had been pressing his wife to marry one of them.
Homer's possible reference to a solar eclipse helped scholars date Odysseus' return from the Trojan War.
It was on April 16, 1178 B.C. that the great warrior struck with arrows, swords and spears, killing those who sought to replace him, a pair of researchers say in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Experts have long debated whether the books of Homer reflect the actual history of the Trojan War and its aftermath.
Marcelo O. Magnasco of Rockefeller University in New York and Constantino Baikouzis of the Astronomical Observatory in La Plata, Argentina, acknowledge they had to make some assumptions to determine the date Odysseus returned to his kingdom of Ithaca.
But interpreting clues in Homer's "Odyssey" as references to the positions of stars and a total eclipse of the sun allowed them to determine when a particular set of conditions would have occurred.
"What we'd like to achieve is to get the reader to pick up the "Odyssey," and read it again, and ponder," said Magnasco. "And to realize that our understanding of these texts is quite imperfect, and even when entire libraries have been written about Homeric studies, there is still room for further investigation."
Their study potentially adds support to the accuracy of Homer's writing.
"Under the assumption that our work turns out to be correct, it adds to the evidence that he knew what he was talking about," Magnasco said. "It still does not prove the historicity of the return of Odysseus," he said. "It only proves that Homer knew about certain astronomical phenomena that happened much before his time."
Homer reports that on the day of the slaughter the sun is blotted from the sky, possibly a reference to an eclipse. In addition, he mentions more than once that it is the time of a new moon, which is necessary for a total eclipse, the researchers say.
Other clues include:
• Six days before the slaughter, Venus is visible and high in the sky.
• Twenty-nine days before, two constellations -- the Pleiades and Bootes -- are simultaneously visible at sunset.
• And 33 days before, Mercury is high at dawn and near the western end of its trajectory. This is the researchers' interpretation, anyway. Homer wrote that Hermes, the Greek name for Mercury, traveled far west to deliver a message.
"Of course we believe it's amply justified, otherwise we would not commit it to print. However we do recognize there's less ammunition to defend this interpretation than the others," Magnasco said.
"Even though the other astronomical references are much clearer, our interpretation of them as allusions to astronomical phenomena is an assumption," he added in an interview via e-mail.
For example, Magnasco said, Homer writes that as Odysseus spread his sails out of Ogygia, "sleep did not weigh on his eyelids as he watched the Pleiades, and late-setting Bootes, and the Bear."
"We assume he means that as Odysseus set sail shortly after sunset, at nautical twilight the Pleiades and Bootes were simultaneously visible, and that Bootes would be the later-setting of the two," Magnasco explained.
"It is a good assumption because every member of his audience would know what was being discussed, as the Pleiades and Bootes were important to them to know the passage of the seasons and would be very familiar with which times of the year they were visible. Remember the only calendar they had was the sky."
Since the occurrence of an eclipse and the various star positions repeat over different periods of time, Magnasco and Baikouzis set out to calculate when they would all occur in the order mentioned in the "Odyssey." Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when K... more -
Unicorns Do Exist!!!
ROME - A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.
"This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. "The unicorn has always been a mythological animal." ROME - A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature pre... more -
Mythical Unicorn Found!
Exciting, I know. But it's really just a genetically flawed deer.
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Skull & Decker: does Indiana Jones know he's chasing fake skulls?
Does Indiana Jones, who's back in action this bank holiday weekend in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, know he's risking life and limb for a bunch of fake artifacts? Experts analyzed two skulls held by the British Museum and the Smithsonian that were once thought to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican relics, and concluded that they are modern fakes. The findings are published in the May 2008 edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
British and American researchers used modern techniques to uncover the quartz crystal skulls' secrets. Using electron microscopes and X-ray scanning methods, the teams found that modern industrial techniques had been used to fashion the stone. The British Museum skull was manufactured using rotary tools and an abrasive substance such as crystallized aluminum oxide or diamond particles, while the Smithsonian skull has been fashioned with a silicon carbide abrasive.
The British Museum skull first surfaced in 1881 in a Parisian antiques shop. It was bought at auction by Tiffany & Co, who then sold in on to the museum, at a profit, in 1897. The Smithsonian skull was donated anonymously in 1992. It was left with a note that said it had been purchased in Mexico in the 1960s.
"There are about a dozen or more of these crystal skulls. Except for the British Museum skull and one in Paris, they seem to have entered public awareness since the 60s, with the interest in quartz and the New Age movement," said Cardiff University Professor and study researcher Ian Freestone, speaking to the BBC. "It does appear that people have been making them since then. Some of them are quite good, but some of them look like they were produced with a Black & Decker in someone's garage."
Suspecting their skull was a fake, the Smithsonian first carried out research on their relic in 1992. Meanwhile the British Museum list their skull as being "probably European, 19th century AD" and "not an authentic pre-Columbian artifact".
A simple search on the internet could have saved Indiana Jones the bother of coming out of retirement. Rather than chasing halfway around the world after these forged antiquities, leaving a path of destruction in his wake, it would have been far more efficient it he'd bought a lump of quartz and a power tool from Home Depot to satisfy his quest for a crystal skull.
http://www.dailymantra.com Does Indiana Jones, who's back in action this bank holiday weekend in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, know he's risking li... more -
'The Truth About Cancer'
Portentously named documentary follows the lives of cancer patients, doctors and researchers involved in 'conventional' medicine. Portentously named documentary follows the lives of cancer patients, doctors and researchers involved in 'conventional' medi... more
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Lyonesse the Drowned City
Lyonesse the Cornish version of Atlantis, its role in local myths and Arthurian legends
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Kay Weber, artist
For more information: http://www.kayweberartstudio.com
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Greek mythology: Titans
The role of the Titans in the mythology of Ancient Greece, predecssors of the Olympians, their role in the more common tales
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Greek mythology: Hades, the god of the dead
Hades the brother of Zeus in Grek mythology. His role in ancient myths and interlocking stories
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Mexico: Dawn, Dusk, Ritual and the Afterlife
A brief overview through a simple slide show of Mexico's ancient archaeological and sacred sites and rituals: Teotihuacan (City of the Gods) and the sun rise ceremony of the Sun during the Vernal Equinox, carvings of the legendary Quetzalcoatl who promises return very soon, Chichen Itza, the sacred tomb of Chac Mool, magnificent Uxmal, Oxkintok, Sayil, Dzibilchaltun, Kabah, Labna.Then, a significant cultural shift - remote churches also in ruins (and still used by the local people) in Yucatan, and onto Izamel Convento built on top of an ancient pyramid and a blending of cultures - pre columbian elements of worship can still be found, the Pope and the Goddess, moving to Day of the Dead and Night of the Dead Festival (Dia de Muertos, Noches de Muertos) and the Festival of Guadalupe celebrated in the weeks before Christmas. A brief overview through a simple slide show of Mexico's ancient archaeological and sacred sites and rituals: Teotihuacan (City o... more
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Greek Mythology : Daedalus
The Greek tale of Daedalus, inventor of the Knossos maze, and most famous for his flight with son Icarus
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Medusa the Gorgon
Medusa the snake headed Gorgon. Her creation and death at the hands of Perseus
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Greek Mythology: Hermes
The greek god of pranksters and thieves. Hermes was the messenger of the gods and most loyal to Zeus
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Mythology
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Mythology
