First Date

 

Halloween Born in "Hell Caves"

The current archaeological site of Rathcroghan displays an artist’s impression of the temple that once stood there. It was the main meeting place of the Connaught kingdom 2,000 years ago.PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN O'CONNELL

In the middle of a field in a lesser known part of Ireland is a large mound occupied by sheep. These livestock wander freely, chewing the grass beneath their feet. Yet, had they been in that same location 2,000 years ago, these animals probably would have been stiff with terror, held aloft by chanting, costumed pagans while being sacrificed to Celtic demons that inhabited nearby Oweynagat cave.

Considered by the ancient Celts to be a passage between Ireland and its devil-infested “otherworld,” Oweynagat (pronounced “Oen-na-gat” and meaning “cave of the cats”) was the birthplace of the Samhain festival, the ancient roots of Halloween, according to Irish archaeologist Daniel Curley. Far from the child-friendly event it has become, Halloween can trace its origins to a bloody and eerie ritual marked in Rathcroghan, a former Celtic center buried beneath the farmland of Ireland’s County Roscommon.

Curley is an expert on Rathcroghan, which was the hub of the ancient Irish kingdom of Connaught. At the heart of Rathcroghan, on that monumental mound, animals were sacrificed at a mighty pagan temple during Samhain. Now Ireland is pushing for UNESCO World Heritage status for Rathcroghan (“Rath-craw-hin”), a 5,500-year-old mystery slowly being decoded by scientists and historians.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Cats

 

An Oasis Found

Millions of miles away, on the surface of Mars, inside an enormous crater, a little NASA rover is taking some pictures. The view is quite stunning there—miles of undisturbed cinnamon terrain scattered with pebbles and boulders, with silky dunes where the craggy bedrock doesn’t peek through. But when the rover, named Perseverance, sent the photos back home from the crater, known as Jezero, scientists saw something more.

© NASA / JPL-Caltech

The arrangement of the sediment? It resembled a certain familiar landscape on Earth. Those boulders? A strong current had carried them in. Jezero, scientists could now see, wasn’t always dry and desolate. It was once a lake. The Perseverance rover was roaming what used to be a delta, where a small river met calm waters. A few billion years ago, the ground beneath its tires might have been sloshing with water.

On Earth, when a river pours into a lake, it carries grains of silt with it. Over time, that sediment builds up in layers that fan out from a narrow point where the running water meets the still. Observations from previous spacecraft missions, orbiting Mars from above, had shown something similar on the red planet’s surface, so scientists already suspected that Jezero crater, formed after a meteor impact, had been filled in with water. But they couldn’t be sure until Perseverance was there, snapping pictures like a mesmerized tourist. Here was history, the ancient ruins of Mars. The rover had looked out across the quiet terrain and observed not a barren wasteland, but a lost oasis.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Cooking Burgers

 

What About our Future?

Why is next Tuesday different from Amsterdam's Central Station?

Next Tuesday is off in the future. It hasn't happened yet, and you can't say what it's going to look like. Maybe it will be like today. No big deal. But maybe you'll get hit by a falling meteor on Monday and be in the intensive care ward. Bummer. Amsterdam's Central Station, however, exists now. It's just over the Atlantic Ocean, and even as you read these words people are there, scurrying to get their trains or milling about buying weird Dutch fast food (try the greasy fried rice balls ... yum!).

So Amsterdam Central Station already exists. It's just at a different point in space. But next Tuesday, which is at a different point in time, doesn't exist.

What is up with that?

For physicists like myself, this question of the difference between space and time is rock bottom, fundamental, super important. We can't really do physics without starting with some kind of theory of space and of time and of their relationship.
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Newton's giant leap forward, 400 years ago, was to think about space and time as two totally separate domains. Space was the unchanging stage on which the drama of the world played out. Time was a river that flowed at an unchanging rate through every point on that cosmic change.

The power of Newton's conception changed the world, opening the floodgate for the mechanical era and the Industrial Revolution. There was only one small problem with this idea of a separate, absolute space and time.

It was wrong.

Of Albert Einstein's many great achievements, his most profound might be the recognition that space (the location of Amsterdam Central Station) and time (the location of next Tuesday) cannot be so easily separated. And that is why next Tuesday may already exist in the same way as Amsterdam's Central Station does.

Let me tell you about your "world line."

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the drama of the world is "played" out not on the 3-D stage of space with time acting as an unchanging metronome. Instead, reality is composed of a four-dimensional space-time. There are three dimensions of space: left/right, forward/back, up/down. And there is one dimension of time: past/future. Just as every location on the surface of the Earth already exists in space, every event that has ever happened and ever will happen already exists in space-time.

To see how freaky this idea really gets, let's consider your life for a moment.  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS CONCEPT, CLICK HERE...

Bird Wash

 

Macho Tool

Was Einstein Wrong?

As in history, revolutions are the lifeblood of science. Bubbling undercurrents of disquiet boil over until a new regime emerges to seize power. Then everyone's attention turns to toppling their new ruler. The king is dead, long live the king.

This has happened many times in the history of physics and astronomy. First, we thought Earth was at the center of the solar system — an idea that stood for over 1,000 years. Then Copernicus stuck his neck out to say that the whole system would be a lot simpler if we are just another planet orbiting the sun. Despite much initial opposition, the old geocentric picture eventually buckled under the weight of evidence from the newly invented telescope.

Then Newton came along to explain that gravity is why the planets orbit the sun. He said all objects with mass have a gravitational attraction towards each other. According to his ideas we orbit the sun because it is pulling on us, the moon orbits Earth because we are pulling on it. 

Newton ruled for two-and-a-half centuries before Albert Einstein turned up in 1915 to usurp him with his General Theory of Relativity. This new picture neatly explained inconsistencies in Mercury's orbit, and was famously confirmed by observations of a solar eclipse off the coast of Africa in 1919.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Creating Pottery

 

Chinese Ghost Cities

China still has a startling number of vacant real-estate developments, judging from new satellite analysis by DigitalGlobe and Business Insider.

Chinese ghost cities have made headlines for nearly a decade, with huge new real-estate developments sitting mostly empty for years. Some see them as a sign China is heading for a real-estate crash. Others see them as just the typical style of urban expansion for a giant state-run economy.

While some ghost cities are reportedly filling in, the problem isn’t going away. A recent Baidu study of phone data gave clear evidence of 50 cities with areas of high vacancy. And just this fall China's richest man called Chinese real estate "the biggest bubble in history."

We looked inside some ghost cities with the latest in satellite technology, including time-lapse images, to show what’s making progress and what isn’t.  Highlights below.  TO SEE THESE HIGHLIGHTS, CLICK HERE...

Sharing

 

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• A Rocketbook smart reusable notebook that takes your hand-written notes and makes them digital so when your boss asks for a recap of that meeting...  See in list
• A glass dry-erase desktop whiteboard you can write your important reminders and "I CAN'T FORGET" notes on instead of using scraps of paper...  See in list
• A monitor memo board with a spot to hold your phone so you never miss another important text or call...  See in list

1. A wall charger with six outlets *and* two USB fast-charging ports to keep all your devices and accessories at 100% and not die in the middle of that team meeting.

amazon.com, amazon.com

Promising review: "I work from home in a small apartment, and this really made my setup work the way I want it to. I need to use all six plugs, plus I like to keep my phone and Mi-Fi charging while working, too. This was the perfect thing for me to get everything plugged in and essentially retrofitted into a built-in apartment wall desk setup that was intended for the large desktop towers of the late '90s. I’m ordering a second one in hopes it transforms another part of my weird floor plan. Bonus: The USB ports seem to fast-charge my iPhone XS Max. I can go from dead to fully charged in about 90 minutes." —Moose              Get it from Amazon for $19.97.


2. A storm cloud that will not only look cool sitting on your desk but will also change patterns as the air pressure changes, alerting you as to what the weather is like outside.

Uncommon Goods


Promising review: "This is such a sweet and unique item, and it really works with the changes in the weather!! I've had a number of friends who have remarked how cool it is. This is the perfect gift for anyone who has an interest in the weather or wants something different." —MM    Get it from Uncommon Goods for $25 or from Amazon for $22.46.    

TO FIND OUT AND READ A LITTLE ABOUT ABOUT THE OTHER ITEMS ON THIS LIST...  CLICK HERE...

Muppet Show

 

Sunday Afternoon No Apologies Day

For my entire life, I have always had to make apologies to someone that I have offended because my thruths were too blunt for their sensitive ears...  odd when one thinks about it...  isn't it...  how someone does not want to hear the truth...  and, I am reminded of the phrase...                                                    "the truth will set you free but first it will piss you off..."                                                and, I suppose that is what happened to them...  they were set free by me...

I have my own truths with which to deal that are hardly ever very pleasant for me to hear but I hear them nonetheless and am amazed by their forthrightness and in the way they humble my soul and the spirit that serves it...

We are creatures of our our devices some of which are not deserved for others and some of which are deserved for everyone...  and, it is these truths that one is reluctant to hear...  so, I apologize not for what I say nor do I apologize for what I do or what I might think...  as it is my right to be like this and have no friends at all...  few to none is better than having many insincere ones...

I am elated that I no longer have to go to work and put up with the bullshit that comes out of the mouths of bosses who typically have their heads so far up their asses that they need glasses bellybuttons out of which to see...  imagine that???  

I have had many bosses who have been like that...  and, I suppose that when I was a boss, I was like that too...  as it is typical for bosses to be assholes because that is simply what they do...  they cannot please everyone...  they cannot give special favors...  and, they must never be your friends...  as that is the first level of putting one's self in a position to get sued.

Lawyers love asshole bosses as this is how they make their living, suing others as often as possible and taking a 20% commission for their services...  because it seems that someone only like that, has the authority to speak in a court of law unless you have been invited to the witness stand and then someone else is going to try and ground your ass into the ground to show that the are smarer...

Mother-in-laws and lawyers are necessary evils that make our little world revolves and which help us pass the the time of day along to someone who gives a shit about it all...  because I have seen very few of them around lately...

I am not the last person on earth to think this way...

Map of Consciousness

 

Politics

Well...

 Prove It...

I was raised Methodist, attended Episcopal and Baptist for a while but then decided that my faith was more spiritual than institutional and decided I needed to teach myself a thing or two...  so, I read the Bible (cover-to-cover) taking notes and writing down questions... and discovered there was a lot of information that these religious institutions were omitting...  at least not wanting to share with their congregations.

As part of my spiritual journey, I discovered that there were 12 major religions in the world today, so I decided to learn a little bit about each one of them...  I also read the mythologies of countries all over the world, most of which formed the basis for their religious beliefs.

In all these religions and mythologies, I found similarities about:

• Creation
• God/gods
• Heaven/Hell
• Life After Death
• A Great Flood
• Virgin Birth
• Death of Savior
• Teaching Mankind

So... which religion is correct?

Or...  are all of them correct?

Could God have given them a slightly different story based upon their location and circumstances?

As my self-education continued, I became involved with astronomy, cosmology, theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, string theory, and Stephen Hawking's theory of Spontaneous Creation...  all of which underscored the overwhelming magic of our universe and how it it practically impossible for this type of detail to have arisen out of random chaos brought about by expansion from a big bang.

Since, I was not finding anything substantial on which to hang my spiritual beliefs, I got involved with a program entitled ANCIENT ALIENS...  and, the more I watched that show, the more everything about which I was thinking made sense...

There is a God...  and, there were gods...  all of whom were extraterrestrials from another planet in another solar system in another galaxy and quite possibly from another dimention or even a parallel universe...  we are not alone...  and, when they came to visit us, and supply us with knowledge to grow our civilizations we began to think of them as a God or many gods...

Mankind is THEIR CREATION...  we are even perhaps created or genetically modified in their image...  these aliens or extraterrestrials altered our DNA to push us quicker along our evolutionary path...  they gave some of us knowledge in the hopes that it would be shared with others like:  Einstein, Tesla, DaVinci, Von Braun, and Turing among others who had knowledge ahead of their time.

What really strikes me and sometimes causes chills to race inside me is when I think about what Jesus said to Pilot:  "My Kingdom is not of this world."  How profound is this?  Obviously, the world about which he was speaking was EARTH...  so where is his kingdom?  

• Another Planet?  
• Another Solar System?  
• Another Galaxy?  
• Another Dimension?  
• Another Universe?

Why haven't any of our ministers, priests, pastors, or other members of the clergy explained this kingdom of his in terms that made some kind of logical sense other than saving, he was talking about heaven...?

Don't they owe us that much courtesy?

SO...  my faith is based upon my spiritual journey that continues everyday as I search for more clues as to what is really going on...

AND...  one final thought to leave you with...

if we were created on this planet called earth thousands of years ago, why hasn't our eyes adjusted to the sun because many of us still have to wear sunglasses outside when the sun is shining...  and, why hasn't our skin adjusted either because if we are out in the sun too long without protection, we get sunburn...  don't you think evolution would have caused our bodies to adjust to this sun by now?

Plan Your Life

If I were to advise someone in high school what to do with their lives, I think this is what I would tell them...  

First, learn what you can in high school but have fun as well.

Second, join the Air Force after graduation and as soon as you can after you become designated with a skill, start taking college classes...

NOTE:  If you are in the Air Force, your likelihood of being sent to any war zone is next to nothing

Third, plan on remaining in the Air Force for 20-24 years...

Fourth, plan to have received a BA and MA degrees (perferrably in Education) by the time you leave the Air Force.

NOTE:  if you are 18 years of age when you graduate from high school, you will be only 38 years old after serving 20 years or 42 if you stay for 24 years.

Fifth, relocate in a Southern State and try to find employment at a Community College while you pursue a PhD in  Education.

NOTE:  Plan to work at this Community College for another 20 years or until you are 67 years old and can return with full Social Security Benefits.

So, you are now 67/70 years old and you are living in the South where is cos of living is lower than most other State and you are receiving 3 sources of retirement income:

• 20+ years from military
• 20+ years from Community College
• Full Benefits from Social Security (because you worked 40 quarters or 10 years that your paid FICA)

So...  let's just say that you are going to receive $1,500 each month from each one of those...  that will give you a retirement income of $4,500 each month for the rest of your life...  this does not include possible income from your spouse if you decide to get married.

HERE's another idea...

If you save $2.50/day and at the end of each month you put that money into a Mutual Fund...  and, if you do this for 40 years...  at the end of those 40 years you will have $500,000 that will give you a monthly income of $2,000/month for the rest of your life.

If you were to do the Air Force/Community College life plus the Mutual Fund savings, when you retired you would have an income of $6,500 each month.

The key is to plan out your life and then spend the rest of your life executing your plan...  Once you have developed a plan, you will have plenty of time to enjoy life along the way...

DOJA Cat