Interesting video on American history, the news media, psychological operations, perception management, politics, wars and warfare, and much more….
As always, you decide:
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NXg70qJQ6O0#!
Today’s cold, dry, and likely lifeless martian surface extends back in martian history past the time when life was taking hold on Earth, according to a new study. But researchers have also found that liquid and likely warm water persisted kilometers below the surface at the same critical time for life. Not exactly Darwin’s “warm little pond” for the beginnings of biology, but it might well have served.
The key to Mars’s water history is clay. The familiar mineral forms only when liquid water has plenty of time to change the chemical structure of rock into that of clay. And the particular sort of clay that forms depends on the type of rock as well as the prevailing temperature and chemical conditions. So planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann, now at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and her colleagues considered the martian clays identified by their spectral colors as observed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express.
In their paper published online today in Nature, Ehlmann and her colleagues report finding two sorts of clay formations going on at different times on early Mars. Clays indicative of warm, even hot, water persisting over millions of years show up where deep martian crust is exposed today, especially where large impacts have blasted into the crust. These clays formed about 3.7 billion years ago and earlier, when the earliest hints of life on Earth first appear in the geologic record. Other clays, as well as salts such as sulfates that suggest formation on or near the surface under intermittently wet conditions, are found in sediments washed into ancient lake basins, especially around 3.7 billion years and later.
The new findings probably deliver the final blow to the possibility that the surface of early Mars was a “warm and wet” incubator for any martian life. They are consistent with a history in which Mars has been almost always rather cold and dry, Ehlmann says. The later weathering of rock into salts seems to have occurred during geologically brief intervals when water flowed on the surface, she says. “The most stable, [habitable] environments may have been underground.”
The new interpretation of the spectroscopic observations tends to confirm what planetary geologists have been suggesting, says planetary geochemist Scott McLennan of Stony Brook University in New York. They have been arguing for intermittent water flows around 3.7 billion years ago because the river channels, deltas, and sedimentary fans typical of that period look as if they formed within millennia, not over millions of years.
The inference that martian clays are pointing to persistent liquid water deep beneath the ancient surface is more tentative, McLennan says. “A clay cycle on Earth is really complex,” he says. The new study, by contrast, “is a very simple view. You can’t get too elaborate when the data is so immature.” The clays that the group sees in crustal rock, for example, may have formed elsewhere and later been deposited in the crust.
Planetary scientist Ralph Milliken of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana agrees. “It’s certainly not the end of the story,” he says. “It puts forth a testable hypothesis.” And it could be seriously tested quite soon. NASA’s Curiosity rover (formerly Mars Science Laboratory) is scheduled to launch toward Mars as early as the 25th of this month, destination Gale crater.
from: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/11/life-on-mars-driven-underground.html?ref=hp
You might think it unlikely that this weekend’s switch from daylight saving time (DST) to standard time could throw your cat or dog’s busy schedule — eat, sleep, eat, sleep — off-kilter. But, as it turns out, some animals are so in tune with their owners’ schedules that falling back an hour can cause our furry friends some confusion.
Just like humans, animals have their own internal clocks that tell them when to eat, sleep and wake up. This biological timekeeper, also known as circadian rhythm, is set in motion by natural sunlight. However, for pets this effect is minimized by the artificial environment they live in, where light comes and goes not only with the rising and setting sun, but most often with the flip of a switch.
Humans set their pets’ routines, said Alison Holdhus-Small, a research assistant at CSIRO Livestock Industries, an Australia-based research and development organization.
“Animals that live with humans develop routines related to human activity — for example, cows become accustomed to being milked at particular times of day, or pet dogs become accustomed to going for walks or being fed at a particular time of day,” Holdhus-Small said. “When humans apply daylight saving time to their own lives, if they carry out their routine according to the clock, the animals can become confused.” [Everything You Need to Know: Why Do We Observe Daylight Saving Time?]
Holdhus-Small gives some examples of how animals might respond to a time change: If a farm owner arrives an hour later (when the clocks are turned back) to milk the cows, the animals will be waiting, bellowing anxiously because their internal routine tells them that they’re late. Conversely, if the farmer arrives an hour earlier (when the clocks are turned ahead) the cows will not be inclined to come in to milk until closer to the “proper” time.
“When humans change the clocks for daylight saving, to suit our preferred working environment, from an animal’s point of view, we are suddenly behaving oddly,” Holdhus-Small told Life’s Little Mysteries. “To the animals, it is inexplicable that suddenly dinner is an hour later or earlier than expected.”
This behavior shift could cause animals psychological and physiological stress, Holdhus-Small said. A cow’s udder, for example, will continue to produce milk regardless of how we set our clocks and pressure will build up until the cow is milked. Household pets might get grumpy when they show up to an empty food dish at their perceived dinner time.
So when you set your clock back an hour this weekend, remember that your pets need a little paw-holding during the time change. Holdhus-Small suggests gradually changing the animal’s activities by a few minutes a day rather than the whole hour at once.
from: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/daylight-saving-time-pets-notice-difference-2155/
In medieval times, numerologists — those who searched for the mystical significance of numbers — believed all numbers had both positive and negative aspects … except for 11. In the words of the 16th century scholar Petrus Bungus, 11 “has no connection with divine things, no ladder reaching up to things above, nor any merit.” Stuck between the divine numbers 10 and 12, 11 was pure evil, and represented sinners.
That doesn’t bode well for Nov. 11, 2011, the date when three 11s will align for the first time in a century. A new horror film, “11/11/11,” has even been made for the occasion, and it plays on (or perhaps plays up) people’s fear of coincidences surrounding the number. Film characters experience the so-called “11:11 phenomenon,” a tendency to look at the clock more often at 11:11 than at other times of the day. In the film, this is a warning of what’s to come: “On the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year, a gateway will open … and on this day, innocent blood will spill,” says a voiceover in the trailer
Indeed, the 11:11 phenomenon is widely reported in real life, with entire online discussion forums dedicated to figuring out what the number means. People say they feel haunted by 11s, which appear to them eerily often. To them, the impending date is bound to seem ominous.
On the flip side, some modern-day numerologists have deemed 11/11/11 auspicious, and according to local news sources around the country, an unusual number of couples have planned to marry on the day. The number 11 is also a favorite of gamblers — particularly blackjack and Keno players. So, amid all these alternative perspectives, what’s the real deal about repeating 11s? Is there anything special about the numbers lining up?
No. With regards to the 11:11 phenomenon, rather than being a supernatural warning sign, psychologists say it is a classic case of “apophenia,” or the human tendency to find meaning or patterns in randomly occurring data. This condition feeds on itself, because the more conscious you are of something — such as repeating 11s — the more often you’ll notice it in the world around you, and thus the more certain you’ll become that the pattern is real.
In online forums about the 11:11 phenomenon, people often say they didn’t notice how many 11s appeared to them until hearing about the phenomenon from someone else. This is a tell-tale sign of apophenia: When they found out about the phenomenon, they subconsciously started keeping track of all the 11s they saw, with each new sighting seeming more significant than the last.
Just as there is nothing to fear about 11/11/11, there is no reason to be optimistic about the date, either.
According to Alan Lenzi, professor of religious studies at University of the Pacific who studiesbiblical numerology, seeking meaning in numbers is a natural human tendency. “Cognitive scientists have demonstrated that the human brain is hard-wired to look for meaningful patterns in the sensory data it collects from the world,” Lenzi told Life’s Little Mysteries.
In most situations, this cognitive wiring helps us: It enables us to pick important information out of a background of random noise. But sometimes we overdo it by finding patterns where they aren’t — from faces seen in the clouds to numerical coincidences. Once found, these patterns “are easily imbued with imaginative meaning,” he said.
There is nothing unusual about the time 11:11 or the date 11/11/11, but our brains can’t help noticing the repeating digits, and seeing them as meaningful. “Numbers that are already significant to us, such as calendar dates that also coincidentally fall into an obvious pattern, become doubly significant,” Lenzi said. “11/11/11 is another example of people doing what people are cognitively prone to do: find significance.”
from: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/meaning-date-11-11-11-2145/
fr/spaceweather.com
SOLAR ACTIVITY: Sunspot AR1339 is crackling with M-class solar flares, unleashing at least five of them in the past 24 hours. The blasts have been coming with such thick frequency that photographer Randy Shivak of Elyria, Ohio, was able to catch one in action on Nov. 5th:
“Looking like iron filings around a bar magnet, sunspot group 1339 showed itself in the throes of a solar flare,” says Shivak.
Even bigger eruptions are possible before the weekend is over. AR1339 has a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class flares. The sunspot is turning toward Earth, so the odds of a geoeffective flare are increasing.
By CC Treadway
Earlier this year, I found out about these things called “meditation flash mobs.” Excited at the prospect of being in my heart with others in some of the busiest places in New York City, I became a meditation flash mob junkie. The experience consists of picking a busy, public place and then gathering to meditate together for an hour. Following the meditation we usually chant and do a little dancing.
The crowd consists of indigo and crystal kids all grown up, actualizing their mission, and then others flock around them. These flash mobs have been happening all over the world, from Sedona, AZ to Moscow, Russia. The intention is to bring light and love to that area.
The first time we meditated together was in Union Square, the busiest section of downtown New York. I was shocked at how blissful the experience was, how many people came to join, and how many people thought we were entertaining enough to watch.
When we sit down to meditate, it’s like the universe knows exactly what to do. The click into bliss is immediate. Every time we do these meditations, I see crystal cities of light descending up on us. The energy is very strong, and will usually affect me for days.
I HAD BIGGER DREAMS
I didn’t want to stop there. Sure, unifying in our hearts anywhere unexpected is an amazing experience, but there was more. I had a dream. I yearned to infuse the financial system with love. This dream has pulsed inside me for years. You see, I don’t hate Wall Street, bankers or any other kind of successful person. I loooooove them. I was raised by a pack of ambitious wuvable Wall Street wolves who looooooved me.
Every time I hear someone saying how much they hate the system or money, I want to send love to them, and to the system, and to money. (Please read this article: Money, Power, Sex and the Snakefor more info on this.)
Some people can’t wait for the system to crash, for money to disappear, for bartering to become the main source of exchange again. In fact, I hear predictions of the global economy crashing daily from all kinds of reliable and unreliable sources.
And yet the economy hangs on, we hang on, somehow we are all still functioning in this fluctuating system. Grass roots communities form, and Bentleys are still purchased. Could a shrinking middle class result in a growing grass roots movement for a new kind of society? Because being stripped of our material wealth creates resourceful thinking, shared thinking, and creative solutions.
How many of us have had this happen in the last few years? I went through it. What a blessing. And we are doing it within this current system… because we are the system. We are the 100%. The system is not out there somewhere being forced upon us, it reflects all of us and our actions, feelings and reactions. The masses (we) went to sleep and let the overlords control us, and now we don’t want that anymore. It’s simple at the macro level.
So perhaps there is a better way than everything going to hell in a handbasket all at once. If we are the 100%, then let’s walk our talk with the oneness stuff, and let’s infuse our love into every aspect of life, including the economy. Economies, whether based on bartering or currency need our love. Something better is happening. Somehow we all still get up in the morning, using what has been built in our past, to inform and help create what we would like in the future. And I see that we are changing things for the better, together.
WALL STREET LOVE
We are well aware of the powerful energy that the financial industry is working with and somehow most people feel that energy, that force, that world, is separate from them or does not belong to them. It’s only separate if you let it be. Do not be afraid. That energy can be reclaimed and integrated in the heart. Imagine if that most powerful energy was infused with Love? Think of the possibilities for abundance!
Wall Street is the center of many ley lines coming together and creating a strong vortex that broadcasts to the rest of the world. The experience of being down there is actually very calm, like being in the eye of the storm.
In August of 2011, about six weeks before the #Occupy movement took hold, my friend Anthony Finno, owner of City Life Wellness here in Brooklyn, put on a suit, called on the meditators and headed down to Wall Street. We set up an unassuming meditation flash mob directly in front of the New York Stock Exchange! My dream was becoming a reality! Anthony, a master negotiator, had the police, the paparazzi and the bankers in the palm of our hands instantly.
Our intention was simply to hold a loving and grounded space for whatever transition needed to happen. We were aware that there was a lot of chaotic and fearful energy around financial fluctuations, people losing jobs and homes, corruption being exposed and so on and so on. What if we held the space for all of that energy to be met with love? What if we allowed ourselves to channel that energy deep into the earth so it could be supported and nurtured?
It was important that we be outside, that we be seen, instead of doing our lightwork thing in secret like it’s been for so long. Anthony made a huge banner with our intention statement so everyone knew what we were doing and encouraged us to talk to people if they were curious. We were not protesting or challenging anything, just loving. We were peaceful, non confrontational and respectful. Proudly, we made the New York Times and several other news sources.
We continued these meditations about once a week for six weeks until one day it was enough. On that last day we were accompanied by an ancient Olmec crystal skull affectionately called Pancho. Three days later, the #Occupy movement came in.
#OCCUPY THE WORLD
It was never just about the hippies. Everyone is down there, representing all of us. And the movement grew and went global so quickly. 70,000 people took to the streets in Israel, hundreds of cities participated and continue to participate all over the world. Northern Africa is liberating itself and choosing democracy without the US Army forcing them to do so. What is happening in the world right now is nothing short of amazing.
Our meditation flash mob team set up shop in Liberty Park with the protesters, and have continued with bi-weekly meditations since the movement began. It is unbelievable the variety of folks that are down there. We see our part as simply balancing and participating in the adventure.
Each one of us collectively created the reality we are living in now. Each one of us, whether we are members of the elite, whether we are the shrinking middle class, whether we are on welfare, whether we are the farmer in the US or abroad, have made decisions to support the current reality. And now, collectively, we are making the decision to improve it.
On a personal level, one of the things that gets me meditating on the street is the thought of childhood slavery and prostitution. Who else can’t tolerate that? No more. I don’t want an ounce of my tax dollars, of my energy, of my livelihood contributing unknowingly to these kinds of abuses. No taxation without representation.
MY WISH
My wish for those screaming and yelling at the tall buildings and people in suits is to let that energy light up your fire of personal empowerment to help build the new world. Together. This new world requires you to surrender to your hearts, your passions and to bravely step forward and believe that you are taken care of by life itself. It asks you to be proactive in co-creating your dreams. In the new world there is no lack. Let your screams fill the holes in your belief systems that convince you that you don’t have enough or that you aren’t enough. Let the power of your eternal soul light you on fire to the truth that you are abundant and taken care of at all times.
To those who would rather remain silent and disconnected with stockpiles of insider trades in their back vault, I wish for you the gentle letting go of the illusion that hoarding makes you powerful and safe because you don’t believe there is enough, because sinking into life feels so impossible. I wish for you to see that were you to lose everything, you would be taken care of, abundantly, with everyone else. Together. The new world asks you to be softer, more flexible and to experience the joy in togetherness. What are your secrets, and who are you really? We want to know. Let the power of your eternal soul light you on fire to the truth that you are abundant and taken care of at all times.
THE END OF TIME, THE BEGINNING OF…
On October 27th, 2011 I went to the event with the 13 crystals skulls and the Mayan priests expecting something new and huge to hit me. But as I listened, I realized we had already achieved what they were talking about. Global unification was happening as they were speaking.
The revolution will not be televised, but it will be between you and me, face to face, soul to soul. And I think we did it. The years of preparing through lightwork, ceremony, and the reading and rereading of prophecy were all validated when a global outcry for a better world hit the streets. People want a world that more accurately reflects their hearts, and are tired of letting corruption go by unchecked. We will continue to shout it out until our energy and hearts are fully woven into the new system. The new system is global, conscious and requires everyone to bring their full selves in to participate. It will take time to form, but it is happening.
This new system exists within a different experience of time than we have known, it is born from our hearts, and not from our minds trying to fix something broken. As a healer, I know that if I approach a client like they are a problem needing to be fixed, no healing happens. Healing happens when we know and see the true source within, when we tap into the body and soul’s natural way of being, which is health and harmony.
I leave you with a few brilliant quotes by members of our community:
“If you are wondering what type of people are Occupying Wall Street I will tell you exactly what I see. Some people know exactly what’s wrong with the world, some people just have a sense that something’s not right, some people have amazing ideas and plans to heal the world, some people have no clue, but ALL people at Wall Street are STANDING UP FOR YOU and your mother and your father and the guy who you buy coffee from at the deli down the block from your house in the morning. So when you ask me what type of people are Occupying Wall Street I’ll tell you that the only people who are Occupying Wall Street are the bravest people I have ever met! LOVE YOU ALL!!! ? Let’s Turn Our Mother Earth Into the Paradise that it is Waiting to Grow Into.” -Jesse Mejia
“Since following the development of this movement, I have come across such inspiring conversations between people who are seemingly on “opposite sides” but trying to find common ground. I see that some are waking up, looking at ourselves and seeing how we contributed to the mess, taking responsibility and brainstorming solutions that take everyone’s voice into account. There’s a lot of different opinions and it’s messy. But I have been so moved just by witnessing people focusing on their similarities instead of their differences, reaching out across party/race/lifestyle/class/etc lines to have real conversations. There is no 99%. We’re all in this together, and my hope is that more and more people start to see it that way . But ultimately, what we have already achieved is for people to stand up, speak up, and get together in community. Whatever happens next, it has opened us up to speaking with our neighbors in a city in which that almost never happens. And, to tell you the truth… I feel it’s all about enjoying this big adventure! We don’t know how to create what we want, but it’s so exciting that we are getting together to try to make it happen.” -Melody Kiersz
About CC Treadway
CC Treadway, founder of Treadway Esoteric, is a healer, channel, sound healer and multidisciplinary artist. She bases her practice out of Sedona, AZ and New York City, as well as long distance through Skype. She is a graduate of the prestigious four-year program, The Barbara Brennan School of healing and teaches a Channeling Certification program, as well as a myriad of workshops on energy healing and consciousness. CC is honored to write for the Spirit of Maat.
To sign up for a free monthly newsletter, access educational tools and learn more about CC’s work and events, visit www.treadwayesoteric.com.
from: http://www.spiritofmaat.com/nov11/thoughts_on_revolution.html
ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) — Tractor beams — the ability to trap and move objects using laser light — are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.
The NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has awarded Principal Investigator Paul Stysley and team members Demetrios Poulios and Barry Coyle at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., $100,000 to study three experimental methods for corralling particles and transporting them via laser light to an instrument — akin to a vacuum using suction to collect and transport dirt to a canister or bag. Once delivered, an instrument would then characterize their composition.
“Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn’t fanciful or beyond current technological know-how,” Stysley said. The team has identified three different approaches for transporting particles, as well as single molecules, viruses, ribonucleic acid, and fully functioning cells, using the power of light.
“The original thought was that we could use tractor beams for cleaning up orbital debris,” Stysley said. “But to pull something that huge would be almost impossible — at least now. That’s when it bubbled up that perhaps we could use the same approach for sample collection.”
With the Phase-1 funding from OCT’s recently reestablished NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program designed to spur the development of “revolutionary” space technologies, the team will study the state of the technology to determine which of the three techniques would apply best to sample collection. OCT received hundreds of proposals, ultimately selecting only 30 for initial funding.
Replace Current Sample-Collection Methods
Currently, NASA uses a variety of techniques to collect extraterrestrial samples. With Stardust, a space probe launched in 1999, the Agency used aerogel to gather samples as it flew through the coma of comet Wild 2. A capsule returned the samples in 2006. NASA’s next rover to Mars, Curiosity, will drill and scoop samples from the Martian surface and then carry out detailed analyses of the materials with one of the rover’s many onboard instruments, including the Goddard-built Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite.
“These techniques have proven to be largely successful, but they are limited by high costs and limited range and sample rate,” Stysley said. “An optical-trapping system, on the other hand, could grab desired molecules from the upper atmosphere on an orbiting spacecraft or trap them from the ground or lower atmosphere from a lander. In other words, they could continuously and remotely capture particles over a longer period of time, which would enhance science goals and reduce mission risk.”
Team to Study Three Approaches
One experimental approach the team plans to study — the optical vortex or “optical tweezers” method — involves the use of two counter-propagating beams of light. The resulting ring-like geometry confines particles to the dark core of the overlapping beams. By alternately strengthening or weakening the intensity of one of the light beams — in effect heating the air around the trapped particle — researchers have shown in laboratory testing that they can move the particle along the ring’s center. This technique, however, requires the presence of an atmosphere.
Another technique employs optical solenoid beams — those whose intensity peaks spiral around the axis of propagation. Testing has shown that the approach can trap and exert a force that drives particles in the opposite direction of the light-beam source. In other words, the particulate matter is pulled back along the entire beam of light. Unlike the optical vortex method, this technique relies solely on electromagnetic effects and could operate in a space vacuum, making it ideal for studying the composition of materials on one of the airless planetary moons, for example.
The third technique exists only on paper and has never been demonstrated in the laboratory, Poulios said. It involves the use of a Bessel beam. Normal laser beams when shined against a wall appear as a small point. With Bessel beams, however, rings of light surround the central dot. In other words, when seen straight on, the Bessel beam looks like the ripples surrounding a pebble dropped in a pond. According to theory, the laser beam could induce electric and magnetic fields in the path of an object. The spray of light scattered forward by these fields could pull the object backward, against the movement of the beam itself.
to read more, go to: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103030817.htm
ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) — University of Kansas anthropologist and Maya scholar John Hoopes and his students are watching predicted doomsday dates such as 11/11/11 and Dec. 21, 2012, with considerable skepticism.
Hoopes is regarded as one of the major go-to guys to separate fact from fiction about the Maya calendar and a prediction that the world would end Dec. 21, 2012.
He has written scholarly articles debunking the 2012 myth, including a chapter in “2012: Decoding the Counterculture Apocalypse,” edited by Joseph Gelfer and scheduled for release this month by Equinox Publishing. In addition, Hoopes contributes to Wikipedia as a 2012 skeptic and is featured in at least three documentaries on the topic (“Apocalypse 2012” airing on CNBC, and two more scheduled for release next year). In his fall course on Archaeological Myths and Realities — An Introduction to Critical Thinking, the 2012 myth works as a dynamic teaching tool.
This fall, Hoopes and his students have watched two predicted cataclysmic dates — Oct. 21 and 28 — come and go with little fanfare. Oct. 21 was a date selected by California evangelist Harold Camping after his original May 21, 2011, prediction passed without calamity. Swedish pharmacologist, self-help advocate and self-taught Maya cosmologist Carl Johan Calleman was among those predicting that Oct. 28 would usher in a worldwide unified consciousness.
The next big date to consider is 11/11/11, when many in the New Age movement plan celebrations to receive emerging energies in preparation for a transformation of consciousness on Dec. 21, 2012.
Whether these dates mark a time for transformation of consciousness or a catastrophic end, they are part of a 2012 eschatological myth that originated with Christopher Columbus and Franciscan missionaries, not the ancient Maya calendar, Hoopes emphasizes.
In a paper presented in January at the Oxford IX International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy in Lima, Peru, Hoopes tracks the 2012 Maya myth origins through various revivals into the 21st century. The myth is rooted in an early 16th-century European combination of astrological and biblical prophecies to explain the new millennium. Columbus believed that his discovery of the world’s “most remote land” would lead to Spain’s re-conquest of Jerusalem and fulfill world-end events described in the Book of Revelations.
To validate his convictions, Columbus wrote his own Book of Prophecies that included an account of his interview with a “Maia” leader in 1502. The reference inspired early speculation by explorers and missionaries, indirectly influencing crackpots as well as scholars to link ancient Maya — before any contact with Europeans — with the astrological and religious beliefs popular in Europe in the 1500s.
Misinterpretations and distortions flowed with each revival of interest in Maya culture. In the 1960s, the myth re-flowered as the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, enjoyed a resurgence in Y2K and thrives today. Hoopes adds that the Occupy Wall Street movement clearly reflects a nostalgia for the progressive culture of the 1960s.
More than 1,000 books have been published on the 2012 myth, not to mention a plethora of Web sites on the topic. Hoopes expects the hype won’t hit its peak until well into 2012. Fear and fantasy both sell well, especially in uncertain times, he notes.
End-of-the-world and transformative beliefs are found in many ancient cultures but have been a fundamental part of modern times since 1499, Hoopes point out. They are also fundamentally American, he adds.
“The United States has always embraced religious freedom. Peculiar religious sects, including occult beliefs, have always been part of America,” he says.
Astrology, Ouija boards, séances, channeling, spiritualists, extraterrestrial life and a host of pseudosciences all have had acceptance in parts of America, he adds. Mary Todd Lincoln used séances to contact her son. Nancy Reagan consulted astrologists.
Wishful or magical thinking help perpetuate myths and beliefs that have no basis in science. Hoopes uses the 2012 myth and others to teach students to think critically and learn to distinguish science and myth.
“If a narrative has a moral message, then it probably is not a scientific story. Stories based in science ideally should be objective, not subjective,” Hoopes says.
The persistence of the 2012 myth may reflect a fear of mortality that has nagged ancient and modern civilizations.
“It’s much easier to discuss mortality when we’re all in the same boat,” Hoopes said. “Creating a concerned community allays people’s fears and allows us to project individual morality onto the world.”
Hoopes’ interest in the 2012 phenomenon began as an academic hobby and has evolved into an anthropological study of contemporary American culture. At the very least, he says, the 2012 phenomenon “has made a huge audience aware of Maya calendrics and the winter solstice.”
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided byUniversity of Kansas.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103143255.htm
NOW, you decide…..
ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) — In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. In a new paper, Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Edwin Turner (Princeton University) suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights. “Looking for alien cities would be a long shot, but wouldn’t require extra resources. And if we succeed, it would change our perception of our place in the universe,” said Loeb
As with other SETI methods, they rely on the assumption that aliens would use Earth-like technologies. This is reasonable because any intelligent life that evolved in the light from its nearest star is likely to have artificial illumination that switches on during the hours of darkness.
How easy would it be to spot a city on a distant planet? Clearly, this light will have to be distinguished from the glare from the parent star. Loeb and Turner suggest looking at the change in light from an exoplanet as it moves around its star.
As the planet orbits, it goes through phases similar to those of the Moon. When it’s in a dark phase, more artificial light from the night side would be visible from Earth than reflected light from the day side. So the total flux from a planet with city lighting will vary in a way that is measurably different from a planet that has no artificial lights.
Spotting this tiny signal would require future generations of telescopes. However, the technique could be tested closer to home, using objects at the edge of our solar system.
Loeb and Turner calculate that today’s best telescopes ought to be able to see the light generated by a Tokyo-sized metropolis at the distance of the Kuiper Belt — the region occupied by Pluto, Eris, and thousands of smaller icy bodies. So if there are any cities out there, we ought to be able to see them now. By looking, astronomers can hone the technique and be ready to apply it when the first Earth-sized worlds are found around distant stars in our galaxy.
“It’s very unlikely that there are alien cities on the edge of our solar system, but the principle of science is to find a method to check,” Turner said. “Before Galileo, it was conventional wisdom that heavier objects fall faster than light objects, but he tested the belief and found they actually fall at the same rate.”
As our technology has moved from radio and TV broadcasts to cable and fiber optics, we have become less detectable to aliens. If the same is true of extraterrestrial civilizations, then artificial lights might be the best way to spot them from afar.
from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103190356.htm