Sample-Return Mission to Enceladus? Make It So!

Space.com – Enceladus vents water into space from its south polar region. The moon is lit by the Sun on the left, and backlit by the vast reflecting surface of its parent planet to the right. Icy crystals from these plumes are likely the source of Saturn’s nebulous E ring, within which Enceladus orbits. Mosaic composite photograph. Cassini, December 25, 2009.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Benson/Kinetikon Pictures. © All rights reserved.

From Saturn Moon Enceladus Eyed for Sample-Return Mission at Space.com:

SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists are developing a mission concept that would snag icy particles from Saturn’s moon Enceladus and return them to Earth, where they could be analyzed for signs of life.

The spacecraft would fly through the icy plume blasted into space by geysers near Enceladus’ south pole, then send the collected particles back to our planet in a return capsule. Enceladus may be capable of supporting life, and the flyby sample-return mission would bring pieces from its depths to Earth at a reasonable price, researchers said.

“This is really the low-hanging fruit” of sample-return missions, said study leader Peter Tsou of Sample Exploration Systems in La Canada, Calif., who presented the idea here Wednesday (Dec. 5) at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “It would be a shame not to pick it.”

[...]

If the mission is approved, it could probably be ready to launch by 2020, Tsou added. Samples from Enceladus’ plume would make it to Earth about 14 years later.

Enceladus is a great candidate for sample-return, Tsou said. Its geyser-blasted particles are fresh, having come right out of the moon’s subsurface ocean. The mission can be done without landing on and re-launching from another world, two costly and complicating extra steps. And Enceladus seems to have all the ingredients necessary to support life.

“That doesn’t mean life is there,” Tsou said. “But we want to find out.”

Well, dang, doc, I want to find out, too!

I mean, just think… !

Enceladus is an awesome place. Seriously, I have always had a gut feeling that there are critters there.

Too bad it will be so far off, man, seven long years… but

It would be awesome if a base could be established, robotic, no doubt, that would bore through the ice to the ocean below… and have streaming video. Should be able to sort out the streaming part by then, eh?

There’s a strange old post here from October ‘09 called The Critters Of Enceladus,

Ha! That was a fun one.

Here’s a pic…

Resident of Enceladus? image N00121336(crop) NASA/JPL

Yes, indeed, Enceladus is a fine place to get real and tangible material to study.

Peace.

P.S. This was a draft from way back in January… sigh.

 

UFOS: IT HAS BEGUN – A Documentary Film Presented by Rod Serling.

hotkministry
Uploaded on Jul 3, 2011

It has begun.

Rod Serling! WoOt!

I love Rod Serling. His awesome imagination and exceptional creativity played a very large part in shaping my mind. For that I am grateful to him. The Twilight Zone… Rocks!

And here he is… narrating this rather well done UFO documentary, infusing it with his inimitable style. Not only that, it also features Dr. Jacques Vallee; and two other very nice people, Mr. José Ferrer and… Mr. Burgess Meredith! Whee! How cool is that?

The film was originally released in 1974 as UFOs: Past, Present and Future with Rod narrating. It won a Golden Globe Award. This is the updated version released in 1979 with the new title. I do not know what the ‘update’ consisted of, however, as I have not seen it. Hadn’t seen this one before, either, actually, until last night via a thread by Karl 12.

The film was produced by Allan F. Sandler, directed by Ray Rivas and written by well known UFO researcher Robert Emenegger, who also composed the musical score.

There is a treasure trove of rarely, if ever, seen historical footage and interviews with some significant individuals and witnesses. It is long, but if you have an interest in this subject it is decidedly worth the watch.

It is said that there was US Government co-operation in the production of this film… and that claim is evidenced by the inclusion of interesting interview footage filmed inside the Pentagon. That interview is with Colonel Bill Coleman, Chief of Public Information for the US Air Force from 1969 to 1974.

Well, now. I have heard as may you have, too, of cases where official help is offered as a lure of some sort, perhaps and then reneged on. It may just be that the reneging was not fully implemented in the case of Mr. Emenegger.

From this fine page at Ron Schmidt’s Pegasus Research Consortium site, we note this, quoted thereon, from here…

The Holloman AFB UFO landing event was featured in Robert Emenegger’s/Alan Sandler’s 1974 documentary ‘UFO’s: Past, Present and Future’, and in an updated 1979 version ‘UFOs: It Has Begun’. These documentaries were both narrated by Rod Serling. Towards the end of the documentary, a ‘what if’ scenario was presented to the viewer about a landing that could happen in the future, or perhaps already could have happened…

“Let us look at an incident that might happen in the future, or perhaps could have happened already. The premise is that contact is made by extraterrestrial beings with representatives of the United States Air Force at Holloman Air Force Base in the deserts of New Mexico.”

Rod Serling goes on to narrate the Holloman landing event which consisted of illustrations of the landing and the aliens meeting Air Force officials. These illustrations were inter-cut with actual footage from the base. At one point in the re-enactment there is footage of a strange white-yellowish object descending towards the base, with the mountains in the background (some people have suggested it is part of the authentic UFO landing tape that slipped though).

From a 2005 pdf file by Steve Johnson giving a blow-by-blow description of the film we read this…

It is said that the producers of the film were promised unprecedented cooperation from the US military, and the inclusion of many military reports and interviews seems to confirm that suggestion. It is also said that actual footage from a real incident at Holloman AFB would be provided to them and that this would be used as the startling finale to the programme. Unfortunately, it seems the authorities got cold feet and we ended up with some hastily-prepared footage and artwork. But was it all a fiction? During the segment, we are shown a bright light descending towards the desert. Is this a real UFO, or just an out-of-focus aircraft coming in to land?

Why are specific names used, exact times and usage of precise amounts of film? What is the King One area at Holloman AFB? Apparently, in the novelisation of the film, the King One area is described as being on Mars Street in Building 930. I have been unable as yet to find a plan of the AFB with Mars Street or Building 930 noted.

And from an article (in pdf) called A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television, we read…

There was more comprehensive, high-level cooperation from the DoD for the production of one particularly unusual film, though – the documentary, UFOs: Past, Present and Future (1974), which considered the extra-terrestrial hypothesis in a much more serious light. The film’s director, Robert Emenegger, was given unprecedented access to DoD facilities, including the highly sensitive Holloman Air Force Base and the Pentagon itself. “The Secretary of the Air Force [Robert Seamans] gave the order to co-operate,” explained the director, who was granted time with highranking military officers apparently well-versed in UFO-related matters, among them Colonel William Coleman, a former spokesman for Project Blue Book, and Colonel George Weinbrenner, then head of Foreign Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

The film even included a detailed reconstruction of what Emenegger claims the USAF told him was a real extraterrestrial landing at Holloman Air Force Base in 1971, complete with artistic renderings of the alleged aliens.

The USAF even provided Emenegger with a few seconds of footage showing what appeared to be an unusual, bright object descending slowly and vertically over the base. These frames, Emenegger claims, were taken from the “genuine” alien landing footage and officially authorised for use in his completed documentary, which, in line with a 49th Parallel, Vol. 25 (Spring 2011) Graham & Alford ISSN: 1753-5794 (online) 14 recommendation by the USAF, presented the incident as “one that might happen in the future – or perhaps could have happened already.”74 Emenegger claims that he was approached by the USAF to initiate this project, which would be in line with his scholarly interest in propaganda, his history as a Vice President at Grey Advertising, and his personal involvement in the Nixon Campaign to Re-Elect the President (CREEP).75 The film also received support from the Army, the Navy and NASA, with the latter furnishing Emenegger’s production with previously unreleased photographs of what appeared to be UFOs taken in space by Gemini astronauts..

Fascinating!

Seems legit, too, at least to this tired mind.

Oh, by the way, here is Angelia Joiner’s Interview with Robert Emenegger at the 2008 X-Conference.

I dunno… I love this stuff. Maybe someday I’ll even go so far as to write up my own sightings…

Anyway, enjoy!

Peace.

Various Ephemera For Breakfast – Anton Newcombe

anton newcombe

Published on Mar 15, 2013

As we enter the 21st century and a new millenium, Satan has devised the delusion that mankind is entering into an important evolutionary phase – a New Age. The push for “global enlightenment” has now extended to the vast reaches of the universe, into what could be deemed as a “space” religion. However, once this nebulous veil is lifted, a definite correlation emerges between the UFO/Alien phenomenon and occultic/satanic activity.

Photo of a Gargoyle, or perhaps, a representation of humanity’s collective memory of the ‘GODS’ or ‘MICE’ who once walked among us. The ancient civilizations of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas shared several intriguing characteristics: They were extremely advanced scientifically and technologically. Animal and human sacrifices were performed at an alarming rate, preceding their demise. They believed they had acquired metaphysical knowledge from the “gods”, whom they perceived as coming from the stars and also the subterranean level of the earth. These cultures disintegrated or became abruptly extinct while at the pinnacle of their existence.

Many of these revered and feared entities were described as looking like winged-reptilians or dragons. Similarly, Satan and his minions were depicted in an identical manner, as seen in artwork throughout the centuries.

A monograph entitled, Reality of the Serpent Race, by Branton, reveals, “In Genesis 3 we read about the ‘Nachash’; Hebrew word for ‘Serpent’. The original Nachash was not actually a snake as most people believe, but an extremely intelligent, cunning creature, possessed with the ability to speak and reason.” Another significant parallel from the Holy Bible is shown in Jeremiah 8:17, “Behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will bite you, saith the Lord.” The definition of a cockatrice is a reptilian bird-like creature or winged-serpent. This could very well represent the Phoenix, described in Egyptian mythology.

A theory proposed by Bible scholar I.D.E. Thomas asserts that the race of the “Nephilim” (meaning Giants and/or fallen ones), mentioned in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33, closely resemble the alien race of the blond Pleiadian Nordics, reported to be eight to nine feet tall. The Nazis attempted to revive this mystical Aryan race in the 1930s and 1940s. Mr. Thomas believes that a hybrid offspring culminated from relations between the Nephilim and the “daughters of man” resulting in increased wickedness upon the earth; and thus evoking God’s wrath in the form of the “Great Flood”.

Interviews taken of ex-Wiccans and Satanists (now Christians) indicate a high level of personal contact with various alien types, especially during coven meetings and holiday rituals. Those coming from the highest echelon of Satanism known as the Illuminati, believe the original people who inhabited the earth descended from Mars via the Moon. They believe the first established civilization was Atlantis. Renowned for their superior intellect, the Atlanteans suffered the same fate as a few of the proceeding cultures already mentioned. The remnant people from Atlantis became the American Indians, according to their interpretation of history.

Dr. Richard Boylan has written extensively about E.T. encounters, and has found five common features of people predominately involved in UFO/alien sightings and abductions: Individuals possessing a high degree of psychic ability. Similar phenomenon occurring with other family members (multi or trans-generational). Native Americans and/or indigenous peoples. Children who have been subjected to severe abuse or trauma. Individuals and/or family members affiliated to government and/or military intelligence agencies or departments.

In conjunction, a strong relationship exists between occultic ritual sites, top secret military installations, and UFO/alien sightings and abductions. There also appears to be a magnetic spiritual vortex (or vacuum) which has drawn an many “New Agers” into these areas (Taos, NM; Sedona,AZ; Boulder, CO, etc.). One prime example is the area near Dulce, NM, where the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has a highly-secured underground complex on the Jicarella Indian Reservation — a region known for Native American shamanism. The facility is said to be used for genetic engineering, including cloning. Several witnesses who were employed there reported seeing different breeds of aliens.

Gosh!

Digging the music… quite the aural treat!

I am not quite sure what to say about the essay, though. I was told that the treatise above was written with me and folks like me in mind, but I do not know that that is a fact or not. Knowing the person who said it quite well does, however, lend credence to that possibility.

Covers a lot of ground, it does, eh? It is… interesting, to say the least.

I also think a Fortean perspective on it is needed, as there are bits in there that are relating to highly speculative happenings.

Make of it what you will…

Enjoy!

Peace.

Spiritus Sanctus – Hildegard of Bingen

prosepp

Uploaded on Sep 15, 2007

HQ & Stereo:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEfyZS…

Spiritus Sanctus, die zweite Antiphon und Psalm 110/111 aus der Vesper von Hildegard von Bingen.

Voller Bewunderung für die Grösse der Schöpfung Gottes, sie bewundernd und preisend.

Zusammen mit den Photos von Markus Coy Dog Werner. Photos, die Gottes Grösse durch Bienen, Schmetterlinge, Vögel und Blüten veranschaulichen.

Spiritus Sanctus, the second Antiphone and Psalm 110/111 from the vesper of Hildegard von Bingen.

Admiring the height of God´s Creation, praising him, thanking him.

Together with the photos of Marcus “Coy Dog” Werner. Photos, visualizing God´s splendor in bees, butterflys, birds and flowers.

Sweet.

This pleasurably relaxing piece was referred to me by a friend at a time where such a “breather” was sorely needed. That was back at the end of March… sigh.

There are drafts aplenty waiting for things to gain a semblance of something that could be construed as normal, including a much more modern piece of music sent by another dear friend that’s accompanied by a rant of Fortean proportions. Or something like that :)

Peace.

Gopala Krishna – George Harrison

mugui

Uploaded on Sep 21, 2006

Gopala Krishna (Short Edited Mix). An unreleased song from the ATMP sessions.

Clip made with images from the web; many of which are copyrighted © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc. www.krishna.com

Well, now… This is really rather nice to listen to! Really.

Thanks, George!

Should be longer, though, dude. Ha!

Finding it most strange that this song was not released back in the day. It would have done very well.

Finding it strange as well that I’ve never heard of it, but then again it was unreleased… so, yeah.

Hat tip and many thanks to my excellent friend and soul sister Mu San for the heads up.

Listening to it is making me smile and that is always a Good Thing.

Especially today.

Because today is, so far, sort of uncomfortable and strange.

Peace.

The first remote reconnaissance of another solar system!

Cool! This is really cool!

And here it is… one of Project 1640’s direct images of the HR 8799 planetary system, located a mere 128 light years from Earth:

This image of the HR 8799 planets was taken with starlight optically suppressed and data processing conducted to remove residual starlight. The star is at the center of the blackened circle in the image. The four spots indicated with the letters b through e are the planets. This is a composite image using 30 wavelengths of light and was obtained over a period of 1.25 hours on June 14 and 15, 2012. Credit: Project 1640

I like this.

This Project 1640 that scientists led by Ben R. Oppenheimer at the American Museum of Natural History cooked up is most impressive.

Ben R. Oppenheimer is associate curator and chair of the Astrophysics Department at the American Museum of Natural History.

Researchers have conducted a remote reconnaissance of a distant solar system with a new telescope imaging system that sifts through the blinding light of stars. Using a suite of high-tech instrumentation and software called Project 1640, the scientists collected the first chemical fingerprints, or spectra, of this system’s four red exoplanets, which orbit a star 128 light years away from Earth. A detailed description of the planets—showing how drastically different they are from the known worlds in the universe—was accepted Friday for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

I’m thinking that this success will be repeated quite often in future. It seems likely to my way of thinking that most stars would have a planetary system as standard equipment if the disc accretion theory is right. There are, it would seem, on cursory inspection… a lot of stars.

This photo shows the Project 1640 instrument in the telescope dome of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, prior to being installed for observations. Credit: Palomar Observatory/S. Kardel

The instrument, which uses all 200 inches of the nicely formed optics within the world-renowned Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory in California, has 200 of those stars listed in its target itinerary.

The mission is a three-year survey, launched in June 2012. The 200 stars in the list are all within about 150 light years of our solar system.

The project involves researchers from the California Institute of Technology, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cambridge University, New York University, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in addition to Oppenheimer’s team at the Museum.

The image above is not in the visual range, as the instrument is a spectrograph. It reveals the chemical composition of objects in its field of view. This is vital data which shows what a planet, or at least its atmosphere, is made out of. And that means that it can detect if a planet has or is capable of having life onboard. How cool is that?

These four, which had actually been imaged before this development, are not candidates for life as we know it, unfortunately but they are intriguing as it would appear that they are quite weird!

I like that, too! Ha!

The results are “quite strange,” Oppenheimer said. “These warm, red planets are unlike any other known object in our universe. All four planets have different spectra, and all four are peculiar. The theorists have a lot of work to do now.”

Also…

“The spectra of these four worlds clearly show that they are far too toxic and hot to sustain life as we know it,” said co-author Ian Parry, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. “But the really exciting thing is that one day, the techniques we’ve developed will give us our first secure evidence of the existence of life on a planet outside our solar system.”

And…

In addition to revealing unique planets, the research debuts a new capability to observe and rapidly characterize exoplanetary systems in a routine manner, something that has eluded astronomers until now because the light that stars emit is tens of millions to billions of times brighter than the light given off by planets. This makes directly imaging and analyzing exoplanets extremely difficult: as Oppenheimer says, “It’s like taking a single picture of the Empire State Building from an airplane that reveals the height of the building as well as taking a picture of a bump on the sidewalk next to it that is as high as a couple of bacteria.”

I am excited by the implications of this remarkable development in spectroscopic instrumentation. This is going to give us some fabulous things to think about. We can only hope that the results that I expect will eventually show themselves will do wonders for the inspiration of many and trigger a renewed sense of the need to explore. Exploration is a wonderful thing.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-astronomers-remote-reconnaissance-solar.html#jCp

To view the science paper and supporting images, go to: http://www.amnh.org/our-research/physical-sciences/astrophysics/research/project-1640

To see where HR 8799 is in relation to Earth, watch this Digital Universe visualization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDNAk0bwLrU

American Museum of Natural History (amnh.org)

Enjoy… and wonder!

Peace.

Can You Speak Venusian?

Uploaded on Nov 19, 2008

Excerpt of guy speaking Venusian on One Pair Of Eyes with Patrick Moore from 1969.

Can you? No? Oh dear… Well, ok, how about Plutonian? Ah, I see… Alrighty, then, what about Kruger  60b? Sigh…

Hahahaha!

Wow, I saw this clip… and thoroughly enjoyed it… simply ages ago now. It popped up out of nowhere today… and from the most unlikely source imagineable, no less! Serendipity!

Do I believe a word of it? Nope. Not a one.

I enamored because Mr. Bernard Byron, of Essex, is just so wonderfully charming. He clearly shows that he is completely sincere in his belief that various alien folk are chatting him up. His presentation is, in a word, flawless. Just flawless. He’s a treasure!

How can you not like this guy? Seriously! Makes me smile.

The host, too, is the very model of a gentleman. The warmth, charm and respect he practices with Mr. Byron are, to use an old line, the way it should be. Mr. Moore became Sir Patrick Moore as a result of such delicious behavior.

I kind of doubt that what you see above could ever exist today, given the rather untoward state of today’s mockery of media. It’d be a disaster.

I am glad that I am old enough to have lived in a time when the above was possible. Really. I am.

And on that note, dear readers, I wish you…

Peace.

So Ham – Spiral of Sound Crystal Bowl Choir

Uploaded on Mar 5, 2009

Oct. 2008, Atlanta. Candace Keach, director. Spiral of Sound Crystal Bowl Choir
www.SonicAngelMusic.com

Now for some harmonics.

Accompanied by a note that said simply “huge beautiful sound waves weaving in and out of phase . . . everything is vibration . . .,” this video arrived via a dear old friend.

Mighty good stuff. Interesting how they run the wands around the bowls to keep the sound going.

This is how this piece is described at the artist’s site:

“So Ham”, based on the six-pointed star, visually represents the sound of OM considered to be the sound of creation. You will want to join us in the So Ham breath, the prayer of life bridging body to spirit as we sound the Vedic creation story.

A lot going on in that summary. Ancient stuff. Need to listen a bit more to connect properly to those old Vedician concepts.

And this is their mantra, it seems… it is the only text on their homepage. Says a lot, though.:

“…the moment you notice that you are just an instrument of the Divine,

… the moment you become like a hollow flute,

… the wind will blow thru you and there will be music.”

I can dig it. It would be nice to able to relax the mind enough so that these swirling, phasing acoustical vibrations could sink in and do their stuff. A good goal… will work on that!

Ah well… enjoy!

Peace.

Jail Bait – Wishbone Ash

Uploaded on Oct 14, 2006

Wishbone Ash live in 71

Ah, such goodness! Really! Doesn’t get much better than Wishbone Ash…

Besides realizing that I haven’t posted a tune in a while, or much of anything, really, the actual stimulus for this one was my fabulous blues-playing brother-in-law calling me up just now from an ultra-high-tech clean room up north a ways to tell me these fellas are playing rather near here at the Towne Crier in Pawling, NY next Friday.

Sadly I can’t go due to aunt care duties and not being able to afford the $40 fee anyway due to the standard state of pennilessness. Sigh

But our jam tomorrow’s still on so far so that’ll make up for it. That’d be our Meadowbrook Drive Band.

These guys influenced many people and it is rather easy to hear why… just listen! They perform a diverse and fascinating repertoire of soaring lyrical rock tunes and great blues tunes… most interesting. Sad they didn’t really get much air play even back in the day.

If you want to keep up with them, their website is called Wishbone Ash.

Peace.

Strange Trees

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Trees are cool.

So… above are a few rather strange trees from around the world. My favorite tree of all time is shown… yay… if you guessed that it’s the one that looks remarkably like a young lady dancing in glorious happiness… you’d be right. That one is just way too cool.

See even more good weirdness at 10 Strangest-Trees On Earth, The “crooked forest” of Gryfino (Poland) – updated and at xinhuanet.

There’s the thread called Strangest Trees On Earth which was the impetus for this post.

Although things are better every day and preparations to transform into something or other are underway, I still haven’t been feeling 100% right in the head after the incident. Hence the lack of posts. Saw this surfing ATS and figured this’d be an entertaining quickie to hold WATT over until I can regroup and start up properly again.

More coming soonest…

Peace.

Lessen The Grip Of Fear!

What can we do to lessen the grip of fear from terrorism?

Click!

Yes siree, Bob,

I guarantee you that this simple action will go a long way towards that end.

The TV and radio are not on our side.

Those days are over.

Be aware.

Peace.

“Midnight in Moscow” – Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen

Uploaded on Mar 24, 2009

Song starts at 0:14

Artist: Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen (Johnny Bennet, trombone, Dave Jones, clarinet, Ron Weatherburn, piano, Vic Pitts, bass, Ron Bowden, drums, and Paddy Lightfoot, banjo)
Title: “Midnight in Moscow” (Soloviev-Sedoi, Matusovosky, Ball)

Album: “Midnight in Moscow”
Label: Kapp
Cat No: KTL 41039
Release Year: 1962
Country: USA
Format: 1/4” quarter track 7½ IPS reel to reel tape

Many props and kudos to my awesome friend Glenn for this tune…he knows…

So great to see it played on reel-to-reel! Reels… meters… magnetics!

Wa hey!

“The Lone Ranger” – Quantum Jump

Published on Sep 25, 2012

Quantum Jump: The Lone Ranger

Sigh. Distractions do affect the timeline…

Meant to get this post in yesterday on January 30th, as yesterday marked the 80th Anniversary of the first public airing of The Lone Ranger.

When I posted that little tidbit to my Facebook page, my good friend Stein, to my delight, responded with this video and this comment:

Happy 80, Lone Ranger!

“He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendl or by Fran Striker, the show’s writer. The show proved to be a huge hit, and spawned an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, as well as comic books and movies. The title character was played on radio by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and most memorably Brace Beemer. To television viewers, Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger. Tonto was played by, among others, John Todd, Roland Parker, and in the television series, Jay Silverheels.” (Wikipedia)

I have an extra affinity for the Ranger… the television show was never missed during my youth, ‘tis true… but then, you see,  much later on in life, my aunt went and married her good friend Clayton Moore!

And he had thus become… Uncle Clay.

Such a sweet, kind man he was, too.

Memories…

Uploaded on May 7, 2009

Watch full Lone Ranger Episodes here

www.youtube.com/user/LoneRanger

Peace.

Eight million dog mummies found in Saqqara, Egypt!

Yes sir, that’s eight million dog mummies! That is a heck of a lot of mummies.

Incredible. Imagine what you’d think if you were doing some boring excavatory work near a temple of Anubis and suddenly came upon such a find as this.

Adding to the wow factor is the fact that the dogs were not alone. Accompanying the woofers on their journey to heaven were mummified cats, bulls, cows, baboons, ibises, hawks and others.

My goodness gracious. The things these folks did…

Some weird occult tradition, maybe? I’d been aware, of course, of their high opinion of cats, but being not nearly as up on Egypt as I should be, did not know they dug dogs so much… The ancient Egyptians were very much into following weird traditions, but who knows, really. Perhaps they will chance upon some mention of what was really going on. Perhaps not.

Here is an excerpt from the full article, entitled Eight million dog mummies found in Saqqara at ahramonline:

During routine excavations at the dog catacomb in Saqqara necropolis, an excavation team led by Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo (AUC), and an international team of researchers led by Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University have uncovered almost 8 million animal mummies at the burial site.

Studies on their bones revealed that those dogs are from different breeds but not accurately identified yet.

“We are recording the animal bones and the mummification techniques used to prepare the animals,” Ikram said.

Studies on the mummies, Ikram explains, revealed that some of them were old while the majority were buried hours after their birth. She said that the mummified animals were not limited to canines but there are cat and mongoose remains in the deposit.

“…the majority were buried hours after their birth.” Pretty creepy.

So very strange!

Peace.

Abraham Lincoln – John F. Kennedy

Saw this on Facebook today. Nothing really extraordinary, nonetheless I found it to be pretty darned interesting… and thus likely be a good couple minute’s worth of time killer for my dear readers.

Have a history teacher explain this if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.

Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named “Ford.”

Kennedy was shot in a car called “Lincoln” made by “Ford.”

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here’s the “kicker”:

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

AND……………….:

Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a warehouse…

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theater… ___________________________ I saw this had to share just in case anyone did not know.
-Sylvia Timeline Photos · Jan 10 at 11:18pm ·

Yep, mighty interesting. Better include that I am not in any way, as you’ll find if you look around this site, a subscriber to the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was culpable in this situation. That is for another thread.

Alrighty, then, to close, let us not forget the message that was not included above and yet of extreme importance, a message graphically portrayed in this image from down there in the footer…

Peace.

The Girl From Ipanema – Stan Getz, Astrud and João Gilberto

Uploaded on Mar 2, 2010

Originally from the 1964 verve album “Getz/Gilberto” featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim & Astrud Gilberto.

Stanley Gayetzky or Stanley Gayetsky (born February 2, 1927 June 6, 1991), usually known by his stage name Stan Getz, was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as “The Sound” because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow tone of his idol, Lester Young

João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira on June 10, 1931 in Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian singer and guitarist. He is credited with having created the bossa nova beat and is known as the “Father of Bossa Nova.” His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre in the late 1950s.

Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian singer best known for her samba and bossa nova music, most famously as the vocalist on the Grammy Award-winning song “The Girl from Ipanema”.

Astrud Gilberto was born as Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and was raised in Rio de Janeiro. In 1959, she married João Gilberto, later emigrating to the United States in 1963. They eventually divorced in the mid-1960s.

She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her (then) husband, João Gilberto.

Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (January 25, 1927 in Rio de Janeiro December 8, 1994 in New York), also known as Tom Jobim, was a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. A primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally.

Been playing this a lot lately, along with many other favorite songs to help alleviate the emotional pain running amok through my mind. It hurts… and some of it… the things I was compelled to do and especially the resultant messages… will haunt me for many, many years to come. There is no doubt. It is disturbing that this distress does not seem to be reciprocal in even the slightest way, but that is expected as, sadly, it is the nature of the affliction. Horrible.

Soothing, graceful songs like this one instill a calming effect, lots of old favorites from my youth do also, it seems the only way and it is working more and more with each play. Slow going, but going!
A few of these tunes can be found here at WATT by typing ‘music’ into the site search field on the left.

Science has found that music is embedded quite deeply in our genes (a good thing!) and it does help to listen. Seem to need a lot of it, though and non-stop to boot. Not a problem. WFUV is always on of late, even in my sleep (just in case).

Oh, yeah, if you like, here’s a link to Astrud Gilberto’s website.

I will learn to be at peace, to forgive, to cope.

Peace.

Baying At The Moon … A Cry For Help.

A strange post follows… from out of the blue… an attempt at inner peace through writing it out…

I can’t sleep. I usually can, but not tonight. It’s 6 in the morning… been up since 2:30. My mind’s racing. It always does. Always. Can’t stop it, or even slow it down. So many thoughts. Like cars on the highway, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, all going fast, so fast. And I look at them all.

My friend Nelson’s getting help with the same thing and says it’s working. I need that same help. Need it so bad, so damn bad. And I have, for the first time, decided that I will get it.  Applying for SAGA state aid, even though they’ll hold me as a financial hostage. Awaiting the start of the second, much larger in scope therapy program. Reapplying at the hospital’s clinic.

Took some cig breaks outside as it’s warm… and cried at the end of the driveway. Short walks down the hill. Need to stop smoking tobacco, really. Thankfully, that thought at least is sinking in pretty well.

This new determination to make 2013 radically different and good is the direct result of the aftermath of what I have gone through over the past three months… something which went horribly wrong and left my heart and soul ripped right in half. That ripping overwhelmed me as it was the very manifestation of my inexperience and fears in living life.

My wonderful loving friends, who in my long-standing despair had not been called or visited in so very long, showed their true colors and helped me see clearly what had been happening in those months… and long before… and I have thus been able to cope and return to a place of relative calm. I thank God for them and love them dearly. One has suggested that I write up this experience and told of the healing and mental organization that will come of doing that. This post is somewhat of a preamble to that task… I think I should do it.

I am so alone; have been since the year dot. If only there was someone to love, someone to hold, to share life with, someone to help ease the pain. Someone who… in her heart… truly wants to be that person.

I don’t know how to find such a person. Not a clue.

When that last sentence got typed, I finally felt tired, very tired and fell asleep in the chair. Awoke at 8 and laid down. Up at 10:30, checked on my aunt and walked down the hill to Mario’s to get some egg, cheese and bacon sandwiches. Someone had taken a tear-off from my web design poster there. No one has contacted me, even from the last one. Saddens me. I think this one’s slightly better after editing. We’ll see, eh?

I’d been pacing and pacing and pacing, trying with no success to keep the angst down, puttering with no real aim and going outside as mentioned to feel the cool air. Nothing was working, not even music so I typed the blurb above. It did help. I hope you can forgive this deviation from WATT’s norm.

Taking comfort… knowing that this will be the start of inner peace and healing, a mere 50 years late.

I take comfort in you readers, too. You make the world seem that much less lonely. Thank you.

Peace to you.

Undercover in the Secret State: North Korea Documentary

Published on Dec 5, 2012 → NOTE: This video has apparently been removed from all web sources. Sorry.

Documentary on the secretive existence inside North Korea. This video has been uploaded to YouTube for research and educational purposes.

I haven’t done a North Korea post in a while. Regulars will be aware of my deep loathing of the place. It is freakish, bizarre and unbelievably cruel. Hundreds of thousands of it’s citizens live in concentration camps.

Yes, real live concentration camps that’d make the SS blush, and if they looked real close, throw up. There they produce much of the country’s goods, food and mining wealth. None of which the population at large gets to enjoy.

This is a good documentary. It features lots of raw footage smuggled out of the country by some seriously brave people. Some of whom smuggle material from the outside world back in, which is arguably even more brave.

But it is a most noble gesture, as the populace is gradually becoming aware that there is a world outside their border. And that that world is the good one. North Koreans as a rule are not allowed access to the outside. If caught… you’re in one of those concentration camps along with three generations of your family. Usually for life.

Of course only the lucky ones get to see the DVDs and tapes smuggled in, as electricity is an exceptionally rare thing in North Korea. But they see it… and they will whisper it to their friends. And that is good.

Now while it is true that Kim Jong Il is dead and there is a new leader, the Western-educated Kim Jong-un, in command, there has been no evidence whatsoever that there has been any improvement at all in any of of the conditions that you will view in this film. I would dare venture that things have actually gotten worse for the people since this film was made.

That is so sad.

Pray for the people.

Peace.

Arctic “Frost Flowers” – Neato!

Check this out…

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On Christmas Day, an article was posted online called Warmer Arctic Waters Sprout Frost Flower Meadows. It had been posted before, on the 19th of December to the NPR website as Suddenly There’s A Meadow In The Ocean With ‘Flowers’ Everywhere.

Here’s a tantalizing little taste:

“I was absolutely astounded,” he says. They were little protrusions of ice, delicate, like snowflakes. They began growing in the dry, cold air “like a meadow spreading off in all directions. Every available surface was covered with them.” What are they?

“Frost flowers,” he was told. “I’d never heard of them,” Jeff says, “but they were everywhere.”

Whoa. I’ve never heard of them, either!

Nature is just amazing. These form when the water is warmer than the air and at the surface the conditions are such that these are sort of drawn out of the water carrying the salt with them forming delicate structures with three times the salinity of the water.

Also fascinating is that the team found that these little ‘flowers’ are teeming with life! Which they did not expect. Each one is a home for one million bacteria! One million!

Read the article! Either one, for the full story.

Gives more hope for finding critters in other unexpected places… places like moons and planets!

Let the search continue!

Peace.