Thursday, August 16, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
UFO Seen over Antartica
A video taken of the Antarctic research station Neumayer-Station III appears to show what some are calling a UFO over the South Pole.
The video posted to YouTube
seems to show a round, blurry object floating above the station on Aug. 10. Speculation has run rampant, with conspiracy theorists and UFO buffs swapping explanations ranging from government collaboration with aliens to a top-secret test of some new cutting-edge secret weapon.
seems to show a round, blurry object floating above the station on Aug. 10. Speculation has run rampant, with conspiracy theorists and UFO buffs swapping explanations ranging from government collaboration with aliens to a top-secret test of some new cutting-edge secret weapon.
While a definitive explanation has not been found, several elements suggest a prosaic answer. The supposed UFO appears more or less directly over the research station; it also appears to be nearly perfectly round and about the right size for a balloon. Neumayer-Station III, a scientific research station, carries out tests and experiments in a wide variety of areas, including geophysics, meteorology and atmospheric chemistry. Weather balloons are used extensively to study and sample the atmosphere at different times and altitudes above Antarctica.
are used extensively to
One UFO buff admitted that most of the evidence suggested it was indeed a balloon, except for one mysterious fact: "none could explain why the object appeared in just a few frames." It's true that the object appears in only a few frames of the footage. However this becomes much less mysterious when you realize that the original video has been sped up. That's what happens in time-lapse photography: objects that are not stationary for long periods of time (people, vehicles, animals, clouds, etc.) only appear in a few frames — depending of course on the frame rate of the video and how fast they move. There's nothing mysterious about it. [UFO Quiz: What's Really Out There?]
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If it were a balloon that had been put aloft for hours, it would have been visible for a longer duration than seen in the video. On the other hand, not all experiments using balloons necessarily last for hours; some may only take a few minutes. It's also possible that someone at the station was merely conducting a routine equipment test in preparation for an upcoming experiment or sampling: The balloon went up, everything worked perfectly, so it came back down.
Though the "Neumayer UFO" is being discussed on various UFO and conspiracy theory websites, there's a glaring contradiction in suggesting it's evidence of extraterrestrials. If it is indeed a spacecraft instead of a balloon or some other mundane object, why would the government — which is routinely accused of going to extraordinary lengths to cover up all evidence of aliens — intentionally release the video to the public?
— intentionally release the video to the public?
Unlike an Air Force base where people live and work nearby and can usually photograph or videotape what's in the skies above at will, Neumayer-Station III in Antarctica is essentially inaccessible to the public — except in limited ways such as a Web cam that the government has exclusive access and control over. Did this somehow get past the global UFO censors?
Conspiracy-minded people will always search for, and often find, anomalies, things that they don't understand or believe to be odd or unusual for some reason. For some people any ambiguous light or object in the sky they don't recognize can be turned into a possible UFO sighting
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/13/ufo-spotted-over-antarctica/#ixzz23eRkA2v2
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Dramatic Pole Shift?
Some people are saying that this video is a hoax but the video that they provide I don't believe looks like him. Check it out yourself here
Monday, August 13, 2012
Two Almost Identical Ancient Civilizations Separated by Sea
What does archaeology have to do with big politics and big business? Everything. This next statement, written in boldface, may sound absurd to you; but please keep reading, then look at the photographic evidence in this article, then draw your own conclusion:
By controlling major academic institutions and the mass media, a vastly wealthy elite group of powerful corporate families is successfully hiding historical and spiritual truths of our ancient past. The goal of this group is to maintain a secretive global system of economic and political tyranny that their forefathers established more than a century ago that was once termed the “Invisible Government” by influential American leaders.
More specifically, this elite are concealing the fact that there once existed a highly-sophisticated “Golden Age” civilization on earth in remote prehistory. This Golden Age civilization ended abruptly, but left behind a powerfully-advanced spiritual doctrine that was later inherited by the world’s first known civilizations, all children of the Golden Age.
The world’s first cultures inherited and practiced this “Universal Religion” via the now-academically-taboo process called “hyperdiffusionism,” a pejorative 20th century term recently invented by the establishment media and academia :
“Hyperdiffusionism — the theory that all cultures originated from one [Golden Age] culture. Hyperdiffusionists deny that parallel evolution or independent invention took place to any great extent throughout history, theyclaim that…all cultures can be traced back to a single culture.”
— Wikipedia
By denouncing, and thus debilitating, any academic study even remotely related to the so-called “hyperdiffusionist” model of history—a model that was widely accepted by scholars of past centuries, who called the Golden Age civilization “Atlantis”—the elite have successfully kept the Universal Religion out of our reach. In doing so they have prevented us from accessing a deep, self-empowering body of wisdom that has the potential to stir a paradigm shift in humanity which would endanger their global hegemony.
The present article relates a single example of hyperdiffusionism in the ancient past. It’s a revealing look at how the ancient culture of the Mayans, a highly-advanced civilization that flourished on the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, is mysteriously similar to a parallel culture on the other side of the globe, the ancient Balinese, who flourished on the tiny island of Bali in Southeast Asia. What you are about to see is evidence of the Universal Religion on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, apparently handed down by the same Golden Age civilization.
Establishment scholars say the Mayans and the Balinese were never in contact, since they were separated by the Pacific Ocean, which these scholars say was impassible by the ancients. Yet these scholars never offer to explain the profound parallels the two cultures shared. Here are 12 examples of these parallels:
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#1 – Stepped Pyramids (With Temples On Top)
BALINESE (LEFT): The Mother Temple of Besakih, or Pura Besakih, is the most important, the largest and holiest pyramidal temple in Bali, Indonesia, and one of a series of Balinese temples. It has stepped terraces, resembling a stepped pyramid.
MAYAN (RIGHT): This stepped pyramid, called the High Priest’s Temple or Ossuary, has four sides with staircases on each side. The sides of the stairways are decorated with interlaced feathered serpents. Pillars associated with this building are in the form of the Toltec feathered serpent and human figures.
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#2 – Twin Dragons / Serpents Balusters Running Down Temple Sides
BALINESE (LEFT): The last stage of Besakih temple is called Stairway to Heaven, and it is made of twin serpent / dragon balustrades that run down the full length of the stairway. At the bottom of the stairway their mouths are open.
MAYAN (RIGHT): The pyramid of El Castillo features plumed serpents that run down the sides of the northern balustrade. At the bottom of the stairway their mouths are open. During the spring and autumn equinoxes, the late afternoon sun strikes off the northwest corner of the pyramid and casts a series of triangular shadows against the northwest balustrade, which creates the illusion of a feathered serpent “crawling” down the pyramid.
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#3 – Sacred Corbel Arch Architecture
BALINESE (LEFT): This corbel arch from a temple complex in Ubud is constructed by offsetting successive courses of stone (or brick) at the springline of the walls so that they project towards the archway’s center from each supporting side, until the courses meet at the apex of the archway. Often, the last gap is bridged with a flat stone.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Notable throughout Maya architecture is the corbel arch, which directs the weight off of the lintel and onto the supporting posts. The corbel vault has no keystone, as European arches do, making the Maya vault appear more like a narrow triangle than an archway. Often, the last gap is bridged with a flat stone.
Renowned 19th century Mayanist Augustus Le Plongeon, who has since been discredited because of his hyperdiffusionist idea that the world’s first cultures were children of a much older civilization named Atlantis, believed that the universality of the corbel arch in Antiquity was strong evidence of hyperdiffusionism:
“…Augustus Le Plongeon, a pioneering Mayanist, renowned for having made the earliest thorough and systematic photographic documentation of archaeological sites in Yucatan……for Le Plongeon, the most important evidence of cultural diffusion was the Mayas’ corbelled arch. The arches… he believed, had proportions that related to the “mystic numbers 3.5.7″ which he stated were used by ancient Masonic master builders…Those same proportions, he also noted, were found in tombs in Chaldea and Etruria, in ancient Greek structures and as part of the Great Pyramid in Egypt…Throughout his writings, including “The Origins of the Egyptians” published posthumously in 1913, he compares modern and ancient Maya and Egyptian ethnography, linguistics, iconography and religious practices…He was basically on the right track methodologically, and he did make a number of intriguing observations and analogies…”—Lawrence G. Desmond, Augustus Le Plongeon: A Fall From Archaeological Grace
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#4 – Parallel “Fearsome” Deities At Temple Entrances
BALINESE (LEFT): Note the face, right hand, left hand, and left foot. This fearsome looking Balinese deity marks the entrances to Balinese temples. He has a torch in his left hand, huge teeth and fangs, long hair, a beard, and a fearful expression. In the bottom photo you can see his left foot points out to the left while his right hand is close-fisted just below his chest, elbow out—similar to the Mayan photo.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Note the face, right hand, left hand, and left foot. This fearsome looking “howler monkey god” statue marks the entrances to Mayan temples. The howler monkey god was a major deity of the arts—including music—and a patron of the artisans among the Classic Mayas, especially of the scribes and sculptors. He holds a torch in his left hand, has huge teeth, long hair, a beard, and a fearful expression. In the bottom photo you can see his left foot points outward to the left while his right hand is close-fisted just below his chest, elbow out—similar to the Balinese photo.
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#5 – Sculpted Stone Serpents
BALINESE (LEFT): Balinese serpents carved in stone protrude from the sides of temples. The serpent is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols; it represents fertility or the creative life force. As snakes shed their skin through moulting, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. The ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and continual renewal of life.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Mayan serpents carved in stone protrude from the sides of temples. The serpent was a very important social and religious symbol, revered by the Mayans. The shedding of their skin made them a symbol of rebirth and renewal. The chief Mesoamerican god, Quetzalcoatl, was represented as a feathered serpent. The Vision Serpent was also important. During Mayan rituals participants would experience visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods. These visions took the form of a giant serpent which served as a gateway to the spirit realm. The ancestor or god who was being contacted was depicted as emerging from the serpent’s mouth.
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#6 – Spiritual Energy Harnessed Through Hand Gestures
BALINESE (LEFT): Notice the yoga-style position of the hands of Acintya (Statuette of Acintya, Bali Museum) the chief deity of the ancient Balinese religion. An important aspect of the ancient worldwide practice of yoga is the subtle but key practice of hand, body and eye postures, to invoke certain flows of energy and create certain states of consciousness, called in India “yoga mudras” or “hand yoga gestures.”
MAYAN (RIGHT): Stela at Copan of king Waxaklahuun Ub’aah K’awiil, believe to have been erected December 5, 711. Note the position of his hands as compared to Acynta. Hand yoga gestures generally work by preventing the dissipation of prana (life-force) from the fingertips. In order to do this, one brings the fingers together in various ways, which helps create certain subtle energy circuits. These circuits then channel prana along particular pathways to affect the mind/body complex in specific ways.
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#7 – Frightening Faces Above Doorways (With Recessed Lintels)
BALINESE (LEFT): Many Balinese temples depict faces of deities—often grotesque or scary visages— above the main doorway. Note how the top of the doorway steps inward in successive steps. In one sense, these were used as apotropaic symbols, having the power to prevent evil or bad luck and to scare away evil spirits. The doorways and windows of buildings were felt to be particularly vulnerable to evil. On churches and castles, gargoyles or other grotesque faces and figures would be carved to frighten away evil and other malign influences.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Many Mayan temples depict faces of deities—often grotesque or scary visages— above the main doorway. Note how the top of the doorway steps inward in successive steps. Some scholars believe these to be masks. The Mayan’s created masks showing the faces of snakes and various animals and these masks were quite common.
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#8 – Twin Elephant Deities
BALINESE (LEFT): An elephant head at the entrance to a Balinese temple. The elephant here may or may not predate the practice of Hinduism on the island. In Hinduism, the most widely worshiped Hindu god deity is Lord Ganesha: The Elephant God. He represents “perfect wisdom” and is considered to be the “remover of obstacles” and “bestower of prosperity.” He combines the natures of the two most intelligent beings—man and elephant.
MAYAN (RIGHT): An elephant head on a Mayan sculpture. Elephant heads are prominent in art and sculpture throughout the ancient Americas. This is a bit of a mystery, since elephants were supposed to have disappeared from America about 10,000 years ago as the Ice Ages waned. Scholars in the past who subscribed to diffusionist theories believed the elephant imagery was created by the Mayans either because they themselves originated in the Old World or because they had seen elephants first hand after traveling there themselves. It is also possible that cultures in the Americas are far more ancient than scholars realize, and stretch back to a time when elephants were still living in the Americas. British surgeon and sinologist. W. Perceval Yetts (1878 – 1957) wrote:
“So far back as 1813 doubts were thrown on the autochthony attributed to Maya culture, and about ten years ago the famous anatomist Professor G. Elliot Smith revived some of the old arguments and fortified them with many ingenious speculations of his own…to prove that a certain motive used in Maya design was derived from the Old World. The motive is well displayed twice on a carved monolith at Copan…and Professor Smith champions the identification of these two forms as heads of elephants, and, above all, as heads of Indian elephants.”—W. Perceval Yetts, Elephants and Maya Art
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#9 – Monster Temples With Massive “Mouth” Entrances
BALINESE (LEFT): This is the Goa Gajah temple, also called Elephant Cave. On the façade of the cave is an enormous zoomorphic mask with the entrance to the temple as its mouth. Next to this figure in relief are various menacing creatures and demons carved in the rock at the cave entrance. The primary figure was once thought to be an elephant, hence the nickname Elephant Cave. The site is mentioned in the Javanese poem Desawarnana written in 1365. An extensive bathing place on the site was not excavated until the 1950s. These appear to have been built to ward off evil spirits.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Uxmal: Pyramid of the Magician. On the façade of the pyramid entrance is an enormous zoomorphic mask with the entrance to the temple as its mouth. Next to this figure in relief are various menacing creatures and demons carved in the rock at the entrance. Linda Schele (1942 – 1998) an expert in the field of Mayan epigraphy and iconography, wrote:
“The façades of Maya architecture served as a stage front for ritual and carriers of important religious and political symbolism…One of the most impressive techniques was to treat the entire façade as a great monster head with the door as its mouth, as on…the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal…People entering such buildings appeared to be walking into the gullet of the monster.”—Linda Schele, The Iconography of Maya Architectural Façades during the Late Classic Period
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#10 – Chakana Cross Symbols
BALINESE (LEFT): Scholars have mostly ignored this esoteric spiritual symbol that repeats on Balinese stone monuments, here shown on the Bali Pavilion of Taman Mini. But in Andean culture (Incas, pre-Incas) it’s well-known as “Chakana,” which stands for “Inca Cross.” The Chakana symbolizes for Inca mythology what is known in other mythologies as the World Tree (i.e., the Tree of Life). A stepped cross, with three steps on each side, it is made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square
MAYAN (RIGHT): Chakana symbols similar to those created by the Incas and pre-Incas of the Andes in Peru exist throughout Mayan art and architecture where they held the same religious meaning and served the same spiritual purpose. As in Bali, the Chakana takes the form of a stepped cross, with three steps on each side. It is made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square.
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#11 – Third Eye Dot Between Eyes On Forehead
BALINESE (LEFT): The Balinese sculpted faces and wood carvings at left display the Third Eye dot in the forehead, symbolic of the ancient “Third Eye” explained in the religions, mythologies and spiritual systems of indigenous cultures around the world. The Third Eye is available to all of us and we can open it and use it to see the “inner soul,” which is who we really re (i.e., we are the soul, not the body). You can learn more about the Third Eye here.
MAYAN (RIGHT): Mayan stone faces at right display the Third Eye dot in the forehead, symbolic of the ancient “Third Eye” explained in the Mayan religion. You can learn more about the Third Eye here.
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#12 – “Triptych” Three-Door Temples—With Accent On Center Door
BALINESE (LEFT): The Triptych three-in-one temple is common throughout Bali, visible on countless temples all over the island. The Triptych pattern relates the central teaching of the indigenous Balinese religion, which is related to the Third Eye. You can learn more about this religion symbolized by theTriptych here.
MAYAN (RIGHT): The Triptych three-in-one temple is common throughout Mexico, visible on countless Mayan, Aztec and other cultural temples all over the Yucatan. The Triptych pattern relates the central teaching of the indigenous Mayan religion, and pre-Columbian religion in general. You can learn more about this religion symbolized by the Triptych here.
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Why Scholars Fail To Study The Parallels
These are 12 major parallels still visible in the ruins of the ancient Balinese and ancient Mayan cultures—twin civilizations that developed on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean who scholars say were never in contact and who scholars believe developed independently of each other. The parallels shared here point to a far different story than scholars tell. The evidence indicates a much deeper relationship shared by the ancient Balinese and ancient Mayans.
Yet establishment scholars are completely ignoring these parallels, not out of spite or because they arepurposely trying to cover something up; but because they are being controlled to do so in a way so subtle that even they themselves aren’t unaware of it.
How?
These scholars—mainstream historians and archaeologists—are fundamentally honest and hard-working people who perform the extraordinarily laborious task of unearthing artifacts from our ancient past. When they say “there’s no mystery in the past” and “hyperdiffusionism is an outdated model of history” it seems clear that they themselves genuinely believe it; they’re not trying to deceive the public in any way.
The problem is that they are locked into a particular paradigm that sees our society as the apex and pinnacle of the human story. They view history as a straightforward evolutionary process that went from primitive cavemen through a gradual development into agriculture and then down into the Greeks, Romans, the Middle Ages, and finally the Enlightenment and beginning of Science, all ending with our highly technological civilization of today, which in their minds is the “supreme” one.
They are 100% locked into this “evolutionary” idea of how history works, and so it’s very difficult for them to accept that deep in the remote past there existed a civilization or Golden Age that was even higher than we are, and that was able to do things that we cannot. This is the lens through which they view reality, and so they dismiss any anomalous evidence or find plausible explanations for any evidence that does not jive with this reality.
Moreover, being a “scholar” or an “academic” is a job, a profession, which is part of a larger structure. If you want to get a job as a “scholar” or “academic” you absolutely need to buy into its mindset; buy into the paradigm. If you don’t buy in then you simply won’t get hired, and you won’t climb the ladder and move up. Thinkers and researchers who might have wilder or different or more extra ordinary ideas of the past are thus weeded out so that the ones who are left are those who have bought into the existing paradigm.
Thus, no scholar dares challenge the “established” model against hyperdiffusionism, that is, if he or she wishes to get published or win research grants or move along in the profession. This is the simple way in which research into the human past is being controlled by forces we can’t see and most of us don’t understand.
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In Conclusion
This is a very brief look at highlights of the parallels common to two ancient civilizations separated by the Pacific ocean. Like a jig-saw puzzle, the missing pieces of these twin cultures separated by the Pacific Ocean can be put together to reveal a common ancestry.
Scholars of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century believed they understood this ancestry. According to their research, in the dimness of remote Antiquity, in an age so prehistoric it is now lost to time and memory, there once existed a spiritually-advanced “Golden Age” civilization which far surpassed our own modern society culturally and spiritually. The world’s first cultures were all children of this Golden Age “Mother Culture,” and we can still see traces of it today in the many similarities shared by those civilizations that we understand to be the world’s first cultures.
The trouble is, if you mention this Golden Age culture to scholars by using the words “hyperdiffusion,” “Atlantis” or “Lost Civilization,” then not only have you lost their ear, but you’ve lost the ear of most people who hinge on every word the academics say (without thinking for themselves). Hyperdiffusionism is bubkis; that’s the academic line, and if you don’t tow it you’re through.
Richard Cassaro is the author of the groundbreaking new book Written In Stone: Decoding The Secret Masonic Religion Hidden In Gothic Cathedrals & World Architecture:
Richard Cassaro is a journalist, speaker and author of “Written In Stone: Decoding The Secret Masonic Religion Hidden In Gothic Cathedrals And World Architecture.” The book uncovers a lost Wisdom Tradition that was practiced globally in antiquity, found memorialized in pyramids, Triptychs, and identical images worldwide. The central tenets of this tradition have been perpetuated in Western Secret Societies. The most visible of these is the so-called “Masonic Fraternity,” an age-old chivalric Order whose ranks have included Europe’s Gothic cathedral builders and America’s Founding Fathers. Richard has two websites: www.DeeperTruth.com and www.RichardCassaro.com
Article originally seen here...
Article originally seen here...
Huge Solar Flares in Forecast!
This article has now been updated with additional information from NASA including images and video!
The Sun's odd behavior has been mentioned on many occasions recently. As we all await the Solar Cycle 24, scientists keep a close eye on the Sun.
Now astronomers have discovered huge dark strip on the surface of the Sun. It is estimated this filament is about 800,000 km in length!
Astrophysicists presume dark spots on the Sun are areas where the temperature is lower. However what we see here is not a normal sunspot and it is growing at an alarming rate.
According to researchers the region has increased to almost one million kilometers in just three days.
Click on image to enlargeImage credit: NASA/SDO
This image (above) from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a very long, whip-like solar filament extending over half a million miles in a long arc above the sun’s surface.
Filaments are cooler clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun’s surface by unstable magnetic forces.
The image and video (below), which covers August 6 to 8, 2012 show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days. Towards the end of the video part of the filament seems to break away, but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact.
NASA forecasts that in September 2012, there will be outbreaks of unprecedented power. We can expect huge solar flares that can have serious effect world-wide.
Commenting on the study of the dangers of "space weather", astrophysicist Daniel Baker claimed that the effects will be comparable to a nuclear war or the fall of a giant asteroid.
| However, in terms of power grids and satellites, it's not the flares that the experts have to worry about, but the CMEs.There is a risk that one day, they can wipe out all of our electronic civilization. Solar storms can disrupt communication, and navigational equipment, damage satellites, and even cause blackouts by damaging power plants and electrical grid components.They can also bring additional radiation around the north and south poles; and this, in turn forces airlines to reroute their flights. |
According to a report published by NERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, which oversees North America's power grid we can feel the effects for several years to come.
"Historically large storms have a potential to cause power grid blackouts and transformer damage of unprecedented proportions, long-term blackouts and lengthy restoration times, and chronic shortages for multiple years are possible," the report said.
Click on image to enlargeTerrible stripe on the Sun
This filament happened on Aug. 5th, 2012.
11 images were put together to create this huge filamament on the Sun.
Photo Credits: Leonard E. Mercer,
amateur astronomer from Malta, who contributes with many astrophotos.
Richard Andres, an energy and environmental security expert at the military's National Defense University (NDU), is helping to coordinate an interagency group to deal with the problem. The failure of the national power grid could be disastrous, he said.
In a worst-case scenario, commerce would almost instantly cease, he said, noting he was speaking for himself and not the U.S. government. Water and fuel, which depend on electric pumps, would stop flowing in most cities within hours, modern communications would end and mechanized transport would stall.
Backup generators for hospitals, the military, and other critical facilities would be vulnerable if they depended on diesel or natural gas, which also rely on pipelines for resupply.
The report said more than 130 million people in the United States could be affected. Andres said the death toll could run into the millions in the worst-case scenario.
How many people will suffer world-wide? We can only make guesses about the number of deaths.
Space weather experts already warn that the next solar storm can be much worse than previously expected.
There are leaks in Earth's magnetic field. Earth's magnetic field which acts as our protective shield in space has a hole in it. That could be a problem because a weakened field could leave Earth vulnerable to solar storms.
Unfortunately it is impossible to determine in advance in how serious danger Earth will be.
Image credit: SPL
"It's a lot like asking how many trees would fall in the next hurricane," a government expert said. "We don't know that, but we do know that there will be a hurricane. When we have another space weather superstorm, there will be an effect on the grid. We're trying to understand now what that effect is going to be."
We should hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.
Zecharia Sitchin
Zecharia Sitchin (July 11, 1920 – October 9, 2010) was an Azerbaijani-born American author of books promoting an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki, which he states was a race of extra-terrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru. He believed this hypothetical planet of Nibiru to be in an elongated, elliptical orbit in the Earth's own Solar System, asserting that Sumerian mythology reflects this view. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 25 languages.
Sitchin's hypotheses are not accepted by scientists and academics, who dismiss his work as pseudoscience and pseudohistory. Sitchin's work has been criticized for flawed methodology and mistranslations of ancient texts as well as for incorrect astronomical and scientific claims.
Ideas and works
Similarly to earlier authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky and Erich von Däniken, Sitchin advocated hypotheses in which extraterrestrial events supposedly played a significant role in ancient human history.
According to Sitchin's interpretation of Mesopotamian iconography and symbology, outlined in his 1976 book The 12th Planet and its sequels, there is an undiscovered planet beyond Neptune that follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (although Jupiter was the planet associated with the god Marduk in Babylonian cosmology). According to Sitchin, Nibiru (whose name was replaced with MARDUK in original legends by the Babylonian ruler of the same name in an attempt to co-opt the creation for himself, leading to some confusion among readers) collided catastrophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the Babylonian creation myth the Enûma Eliš), which he considers to be another planet once located between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Sitchin states that when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two, and then on a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth.
According to Sitchin, Nibiru (called "the twelfth planet" because, Sitchin claimed, the Sumerians' gods-given conception of the Solar System counted all eight planets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon) was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the Nephilim in Genesis. He wrote that they evolved after Nibiru entered the solar system and first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. Sitchin states that these "gods" were the rank-and-file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru.
Sitchin wrote that Enki suggested that to relieve the Anunnaki, who had mutinied over their dissatisfaction with their working conditions, that primitive workers (Homo sapiens) be created by genetic engineering as slaves to replace them in the gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus. According to Sitchin, ancient inscriptions report that the human civilization in Sumer, Mesopotamia, was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki (creating the "divine right of kings" doctrine). Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons, used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials, is the "evil wind" described in the Lament for Ur that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC. Sitchin states the exact year is 2024 BC. Sitchin says that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.
Popularity
Since the release of his first book The 12th Planet in 1976, now in its 45th printing, Zecharia Sitchin has written seven other books as part of his Earth Chronicles series, as well as six other companion books, all of which are still in print . Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and been published in more than 25 languages, as well as in braille. New York Times reporter Corey Kilgannon noted that despite academic dismissal of his work, Sitchin has "a devoted following of readers".
Critic Michael Heiser called Sitchin "arguably the most important proponent of the ancient astronaut hypothesis over the last several decades". Sitchin was a frequent guest on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, which in 2010 presented Sitchin with a life-time achievement award. Gods of the New Millennium author Alan F. Alford admits he initially became "infatuated" with Sitchin's hypotheses but later became a critic of Sitchin's interpretations of myth.
According to some writers, Sitchin's ideas along with those of Erich von Däniken may have influenced the beliefs of the religious sect of Raëlism, and writer Mark Pilkington sees the mythology of Japan's Pana Wave religious group as rooted in Sitchins The 12th Planet and its sequels.
The 1994 movie Stargate, directed by Roland Emmerich, and the 2009 video game The Conduit drew some conceptual inspiration from Sitchin's ideas, while screenwriter Roberto Orci says the villains of the film Cowboys and Aliens were inspired by Sitchin's conceptualization of the Anunnaki as gold-mining aliens.
Criticisms
Criticism of Sitchin's work falls primarily into three categories: 1) translations and interpretations of ancient texts, 2) astronomical and scientific observations, and 3) literalism of myth.
Translations and interpretations
When Sitchin wrote his books only specialists could read the Sumerian language, but sources such as the 2006 book Sumerian Lexicon have made the language more accessible to non-experts. Ancient language scholar Michael S. Heiser, states that he has found many inaccuracies in Sitchin's translations and challenges interested parties to use this book to check their validity. Prof. Ronald H. Fritze, author of the book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions, mentions the example of Sitchin's claim that the Sumerian signDin-Gir means "pure ones of the blazing rockets", adding that "Sitchin's assignment of meanings to ancient words is tendentious and frequently strained." Fritze also commented on Sitchin's methodology, writing that "When critics have checked Sitchin's references, they have found that he frequently quotes out of context or truncates his quotes in a way that distorts evidence in order to prove his contentions. Evidence is presented selectively and contradictory evidence is ignored."
Sitchin bases his arguments on his personal interpretations of pre-Nubian and Sumerian texts, and the seal VA 243. Sitchin wrote that these ancient civilizations knew of a twelfth planet, when in fact they only knew five. Hundreds of Sumerian astronomical seals and calendars have been decoded and recorded, and the total count of planets on each seal has been five. Seal VA 243 has 12 dots that Sitchin identifies as planets. When translated, seal VA 243 reads "You're his Servant" which is now thought to be a message from a nobleman to a servant. According to semitologist Michael S. Heiser, the so-called sun on Seal VA 243 is not the Sumerian symbol for the sun but is a star, and the dots are also stars. The symbol on seal VA 243 has no resemblance to the hundreds of documented Sumerian sun symbols.
In a 1979 review of The Twelfth Planet, Roger W. Wescott, Prof. of Anthropology and Linguistics at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, noted Sitchin's amateurishness with respect to the primacy of the Sumerian language:
Sitchin's linguistics seems at least as amateurish as his anthropology, biology, and astronomy. On p. 370, for example, he maintains that "all the ancient languages . . . including early Chinese . . . stemmed from one primeval source -- Sumerian". Sumerian, of course, is the virtual archetype of what linguistic taxonomists call a language-isolate, meaning a language that does not fall into any of the well-known language-families or exhibit clear cognation with any known language. Even if Sitchin is referring to written rather than to spoken language, it is unlikely that his contention can be persuasively defended, since Sumerian ideograms were preceded by the Azilian and Tartarian signaries of Europe as well as by a variety of script-like notational systems between the Nile and Indus rivers.
Astronomical and scientific observations
Sitchin's "planetary collision" view does superficially resemble a theory by modern astronomers—the giant impact theory of the Moon's formation about 4.5 billion years ago by a body impacting with the newly-formed Earth. However, Sitchin's proposed series of rogue planetary collisions differ in both details and timing. As with Immanuel Velikovsky's earlier Worlds in Collision thesis, Sitchin states that he has found evidence of ancient human knowledge of rogue celestial motions in a variety of mythological accounts. In Velikovsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place within the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred during the early stages of planetary formation, but entered the mythological account passed down via the alien race which purportedly evolved on Nibiru after these encounters.
While Sitchin's scenario for the creation of the Solar System is hard to reconcile with the Earth's current small orbital eccentricity of only 0.0167, Sitchin's supporters maintain that it would explain much of Earth's peculiar early geography due to cleaving from the celestial collision, i.e., solid continents on one side and a giant ocean on the other.
According to former Immanuel Velikovsky assistant turned prolific critic, C. Leroy Ellenberger, "[Sitchin states that] from an equal start, the Nefilim evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth with its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to say the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibiru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Also unexplained is how the Nefilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew what happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."
The scenario outlined by Sitchin, with Nibiru returning to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years,
. . . implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 astronomical units, extending from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond the sun than Pluto. Elementary perturbation theory indicates that, under the most favorable circumstances of avoiding close encounters with other planets, no body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. Within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected or converted to a short period object. Thus, the failed search for a trans-Plutonian planet by T.C. Van Flandern, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which Sitchin uses to bolster his thesis, is no support at all.
Sitchin in “the case of Adam’s alien genes” states that 223 unique genes found by the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium are without the required predecessors on the genomic evolutionary tree. Later researchers have argued that the conclusion from the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium cannot be drawn due to a lack of a comprehensive gene database for comparison. An analysis by Salzberg identified 40 potential genes laterally transferred into the genome from prokaryotic organisms. Salzberg also argues that gene loss combined with sample size effects and evolutionary rate variation provide an alternative, more biologically plausible explanation.
Literalism of myth
Peter James, co-author of the controversial book Centuries of Darkness, has criticized Sitchin both for ignoring the world outside of Mesopotamia and more specifically for misunderstanding Babylonian literature:
William Irwin Thompson comments on what he calls Sitchin's 'literalism':
What Sitchin sees is what he needs for his hypothesis. So figure 15 on page 42 is radiation therapy, and figure 71 on page 136 is a god inside a rocket-shaped chamber. If these are gods, why are they stuck with our cheap B movie technology of rockets, microphones, space-suits, and radiation therapy? If they are gods, then why can't they have some really divine technology such as intradimensional worm-hole travel, antigravity, starlight propulsion, or black hole bounce rematerializations? Sitchin has constructed what appears to be a convincing argument, but when he gets close to single images on ancient tablets, he falls back into the literalism of "Here is an image of the gods in rockets." Suddenly, ancient Sumer is made to look like the movie set forDestination Moon. Erich Von Däniken's potboiler Chariots of the Gods has the same problem. The plain of Nazca in Peru is turned into a World War II landing strip. The gods can cross galactic distances, but by the time they get to Peru, their spaceships are imagined as World War II prop jobs that need an enormous landing strip. This literalization of the imagination doesn't make any sense, but every time it doesn't, you hear Sitchin say "There can be no doubt, but..."
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Friday, August 10, 2012
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