If animals can recognize group members that excel in some way, being a comfort, leading the call to chow etc., they may achieve preferential ranking among breeding pool candidates.
In Darwin's view, modification with descent results from offspring success. Pair this to breeding preference behaviours and you have the other half of the picture.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Conviction or Intolerance
As a former medical student I was often chided for wearing a crucifix to the clinic. Were my troubles limited to angry words that would be enough... however I was told that I must choose between career and faith by one of the school's deans. Several clinical supervisors had voiced their distaste for my cross and these same people gave me failing grades in my rotations. Eventually I was expelled from the MD program for my beliefs.
The argument, I suppose, was that my open display of a cross, the emblem of my chosen faith, represented an offence to 'nonbelievers'. I was guilty of being intolerant.
Yet were one to suspend one's fundamental beliefs in deference to the projected views of others, the integrity of one's personal journey of faith is thus compromised. While I was seen by certain supervisors as being intolerant, I was in fact acting out of conviction.
You see, I did not grow up as a Christian. I was born into a muslim household. In addition to this, I read about other faiths, including Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. How to explain to the uninitiated what happens once you experience Jesus as Saviour? It is the crossing from the hopes and beliefs of other religions into a relationship with the Divine. It is a form of knowing that surpasses the zeal of my Islamic youth, that bypasses the intellectual approach of Buddha, that fills the God-shaped vacuum the Decalogue so aptly delineates.
So while I have been chastised most severely for intolerance of other religions, my conviction stands on a firm foundation, that of having had my sins wiped away, not in theory but in fact. When the Holy Spirit came into my heart years ago and washed my soul of its pain, it was in direct response to my openness to Christ and His cross.
If I were to deny this in public He would deny me before the angels and the Father in heaven. And I would also be denying my patients the very real healing power which accompanies a look at the cross.
The next time you are worried about being intolerant remember that your faith in Him is not a negative, it is a positively golden conviction.
The argument, I suppose, was that my open display of a cross, the emblem of my chosen faith, represented an offence to 'nonbelievers'. I was guilty of being intolerant.
Yet were one to suspend one's fundamental beliefs in deference to the projected views of others, the integrity of one's personal journey of faith is thus compromised. While I was seen by certain supervisors as being intolerant, I was in fact acting out of conviction.
You see, I did not grow up as a Christian. I was born into a muslim household. In addition to this, I read about other faiths, including Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. How to explain to the uninitiated what happens once you experience Jesus as Saviour? It is the crossing from the hopes and beliefs of other religions into a relationship with the Divine. It is a form of knowing that surpasses the zeal of my Islamic youth, that bypasses the intellectual approach of Buddha, that fills the God-shaped vacuum the Decalogue so aptly delineates.
So while I have been chastised most severely for intolerance of other religions, my conviction stands on a firm foundation, that of having had my sins wiped away, not in theory but in fact. When the Holy Spirit came into my heart years ago and washed my soul of its pain, it was in direct response to my openness to Christ and His cross.
If I were to deny this in public He would deny me before the angels and the Father in heaven. And I would also be denying my patients the very real healing power which accompanies a look at the cross.
The next time you are worried about being intolerant remember that your faith in Him is not a negative, it is a positively golden conviction.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Nebular Theory and Red Eye of Jupiter...
If planetoids are in fact spit out of their parent body in decay-like events as is suggested by the alternative to nebular theory, then mightn't the red eye of Jupiter also be in fact a planetoid being readied to burst forth?
Friday, July 5, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Mohammad and the spirit of Jezebel
As incentive to gather followers to his floundering cult, Mohammad proposed that each man could possess four wives on earth and 72 virgins in heaven.
This base motive is common to other personages from history, including Joseph Smith and their shared spiritual progenitor, the false prophetess from the Old Testament, Jezebel.
How does this incentive compare with the teachings of Christ? Jesus lived as a celibate, was born to a virgin, and called his followers to renounce all worldly ties for the sake of a heavenly kingdom where there was no marriage, as all lived asexually, like angels.
Paul affirmed that marriage was honourable if it consisted of one man with one woman, although celibacy was to be preferred should this gift be manifest in a believer's life, as a celibate follower's mind remained single and able to concentrate on the work of the Lord without division.
Some might argue that Mohammad was simply responding to a societal need in a time when many women were left without husbands due to the effects of war. While one cannot be certain of this, statistically it seems unlikely that 75% of men had been killed in war, thus necessitating such an unfavourable imbalance. Rather it seems to be more consistent with raiding marauder recruitment techniques, for what modern day African warlord does not employ promises of booty to harvest young men to his cause?
In the Old Testament, Jezebel, the foreign wife of Ahab, elicited the people to follow a false god by loosening the restraints of morality. The appeal to the desires of the flesh established a pattern for cults to follow, including those of Mohammad and Joseph Smith.
Today, one sees the deleterious effects of this demon spell in the moral and sociological devastation of nations chained by Mohammad's lust. Men marry for but a season then, when they are bored, they abandon their family and find a younger bride and start again, finding justification in the actions of their false prophet.
Women abandoned in this case often end up as prostitutes, or as second or third wives to wealthy men. The effect on children is like a plague, with no sense of right or wrong, many end up walking the streets in gangs, addicted to drugs or selling their bodies.
The Mohammadan cult boasts no new thing, only an old sin in a new guise. When religion offers flesh rather than calling for denial of the same, no permanent bonds can be established. No ethic for service to other exists, no compass for actions other than burning desire motivates the individual conscience in a Mohammadan world.
But Jesus says, deny yourself and carry your cross daily. Desires are to be satisfied primarily in the comfort of God's presence and Spirit, passions redirected to creative endeavours. Marriage is to be honoured for the sanctity of children, who then go on confidently to establish healthy societies.
The problem with Mohammedan society is Jezebel. Flesh vs. spirit. An age old battle with an age old solution. Deny the flesh, sow to the spirit. For the the life of the spirit is eternity but the life of the flesh is rottenness and death.
And though the Mohammedan and his sympathizers (for many who are politically correct defend Muhammad but this is not love, for it holds the soul of the lost in low regard by denying it the saving grace of forgiveness found only via the cross) would be angry at these thoughts, the test of truth is practical. Would these people, if given the choice, rather live in a JudeoChristian nation or a Mohammadan nation?
I know a man from Pakistan who swears when he talks about the US, calling it a satanic country. But I know this same man would sell his own mother to obtain a visa to come to the US. The proof is in the actions and in the attraction for a Christian nation and all of its benefits.
This base motive is common to other personages from history, including Joseph Smith and their shared spiritual progenitor, the false prophetess from the Old Testament, Jezebel.
How does this incentive compare with the teachings of Christ? Jesus lived as a celibate, was born to a virgin, and called his followers to renounce all worldly ties for the sake of a heavenly kingdom where there was no marriage, as all lived asexually, like angels.
Paul affirmed that marriage was honourable if it consisted of one man with one woman, although celibacy was to be preferred should this gift be manifest in a believer's life, as a celibate follower's mind remained single and able to concentrate on the work of the Lord without division.
Some might argue that Mohammad was simply responding to a societal need in a time when many women were left without husbands due to the effects of war. While one cannot be certain of this, statistically it seems unlikely that 75% of men had been killed in war, thus necessitating such an unfavourable imbalance. Rather it seems to be more consistent with raiding marauder recruitment techniques, for what modern day African warlord does not employ promises of booty to harvest young men to his cause?
In the Old Testament, Jezebel, the foreign wife of Ahab, elicited the people to follow a false god by loosening the restraints of morality. The appeal to the desires of the flesh established a pattern for cults to follow, including those of Mohammad and Joseph Smith.
Today, one sees the deleterious effects of this demon spell in the moral and sociological devastation of nations chained by Mohammad's lust. Men marry for but a season then, when they are bored, they abandon their family and find a younger bride and start again, finding justification in the actions of their false prophet.
Women abandoned in this case often end up as prostitutes, or as second or third wives to wealthy men. The effect on children is like a plague, with no sense of right or wrong, many end up walking the streets in gangs, addicted to drugs or selling their bodies.
The Mohammadan cult boasts no new thing, only an old sin in a new guise. When religion offers flesh rather than calling for denial of the same, no permanent bonds can be established. No ethic for service to other exists, no compass for actions other than burning desire motivates the individual conscience in a Mohammadan world.
But Jesus says, deny yourself and carry your cross daily. Desires are to be satisfied primarily in the comfort of God's presence and Spirit, passions redirected to creative endeavours. Marriage is to be honoured for the sanctity of children, who then go on confidently to establish healthy societies.
The problem with Mohammedan society is Jezebel. Flesh vs. spirit. An age old battle with an age old solution. Deny the flesh, sow to the spirit. For the the life of the spirit is eternity but the life of the flesh is rottenness and death.
And though the Mohammedan and his sympathizers (for many who are politically correct defend Muhammad but this is not love, for it holds the soul of the lost in low regard by denying it the saving grace of forgiveness found only via the cross) would be angry at these thoughts, the test of truth is practical. Would these people, if given the choice, rather live in a JudeoChristian nation or a Mohammadan nation?
I know a man from Pakistan who swears when he talks about the US, calling it a satanic country. But I know this same man would sell his own mother to obtain a visa to come to the US. The proof is in the actions and in the attraction for a Christian nation and all of its benefits.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Pharma watch
Forwarded from Before It's News:
Recently, Bayer Pharmaceuticals has come under a lot of scrutiny, due to some of their recent problems with some of their products that were mass produced, and sold to millions of consumers. Products in question include but, are not limited to these examples would be, Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Minera etc.
With that being said this is not the first time that Bayer has been under such scrutiny. Bayer A/K/A IG Farben use experimental drugs were tested on Auschwitz & Mauthausen-Gusen prisoners. Auschwitz & Mauthausen-Gusen were two of many concentration camps throughout Germany. Bayer along with several other smaller chemical companies in Germany were the biggest single financier of the Nazi party from 1933 to 1944.
In the New York City children’s homes: Forced non-compliant children to take experimental AIDS drugs by feeding them medication through tubes placed in their stomachs
In 1913, At St. Vincent’s House childrens’ home in Philadelphia 15 children were injected with tuberculin that caused permanent blindness in some of the children. This test was reported and recorded but none of the researchers were punished.
In 1987, Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed her son’s brain post-mortem for medical study. She later learns that the state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of “implied consent,” meaning that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ removal is automatically implied
In 1992, Columbia University’s New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males — mostly African-American and Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of juvenile delinquents — 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants received $125 each, including a $25 Toys ‘R’ Us gift certificate
The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons
In 2002, The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate — a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses — every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water
In 2002, President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the number of children used as human test subjects.
Being forewarned, is being forearmed. Despite popular belief ignorance is not bliss.
Recently, Bayer Pharmaceuticals has come under a lot of scrutiny, due to some of their recent problems with some of their products that were mass produced, and sold to millions of consumers. Products in question include but, are not limited to these examples would be, Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella, Minera etc.
With that being said this is not the first time that Bayer has been under such scrutiny. Bayer A/K/A IG Farben use experimental drugs were tested on Auschwitz & Mauthausen-Gusen prisoners. Auschwitz & Mauthausen-Gusen were two of many concentration camps throughout Germany. Bayer along with several other smaller chemical companies in Germany were the biggest single financier of the Nazi party from 1933 to 1944.
I.G. Farben attempted to shake
its abominable image through corporate restructuring and renaming the
company Bayer after World War II. Which proved to be pure genius,
because most people don’t know Bayer was/is responsible for some of the
worst atrocities in written history. The fact that Bayer is now under
fire for negligence due to not warning its consumers of all possible
side effects of drugs and products they have produced, shows that like
tigers Bayer has not changed it’s stripes.
The drugs Yaz, Yasmin,
& Ocella are all pretty much the same drug with different names as a
way to increase profits. When Yasmin and it’s counterparts were
released in 2001, Bayer did not tell the users of these product that it
could possibly cause, blood clots, gallbladder disease, deep vein
embolism, heart attack, pulmonary embolism or stroke. Which in essence
means that Bayer is still doing human experiments.
We can also use the drug
Thalidomide for example. Thalidomide was first released in the US in the
late 1950′s, as a drug prescribed to pregnant mothers to help aid them
with morning sickness. It was considered perfectly safe and had even
received FDA approval. As a result of taking Thalidomide while pregnant
several women gave birth to babies who were born without arms or legs.
It was later removed from the market in 1961. Thalidomide was a drug
developed by wartime Nazis from one of their many chemical weapons
experiments used on Jews. Would you believe that the FDA has once again
approved the use of Thalidomide?! It is a drug used to help treat
chemotherapy patients with cancer. It is also still considered safe.
While this article is mainly
about the history of Bayer, I would also like to discuss big
pharmaceuticals companies in the US as a whole. While Bayer has many
skeletons in its closet they are not alone in human experimenting in the
US. Below I have cited just a few of the experiments that the US has
done on its citizens over the years.
There was experimental drug
testing centers in the US. New York City children’s homes (during the
late 1980s and 1990s) & For the EPA’s proposed CHEERS study: Health
care centers in Duvall County, Fla.
Experimental drug test subjects
were mainly poor people — including children in poor families, orphans
and foster care children; immigrants; mentally ill and mentally
challenged individuals and prisoners.
For CHEERS: Children born to low-income, minority families
Potential test subjects were
given long forms written in language they may not understand (either
because they are immigrants or because it’s written in obscure technical
jargon) as “informed consent”
In the New York City children’s homes: Forced non-compliant children to take experimental AIDS drugs by feeding them medication through tubes placed in their stomachs
In 1986, New York pediatrician
Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls “an idiot with
chronic epilepsy” with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment (“Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After”).
In 1906 Harvard
professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines with
cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors
with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors
cite this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
In 1911, Dr.
Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
published data used from injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into
the skin of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to
develop a skin test for syphilis.
In 1913, At St. Vincent’s House childrens’ home in Philadelphia 15 children were injected with tuberculin that caused permanent blindness in some of the children. This test was reported and recorded but none of the researchers were punished.
In 1915, Dr.
Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office,
produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central
nervous system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the
disease. In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of
the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had
known that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did
nothing about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans.
In 1948, Based on the secret
studies performed on Newburgh, N.Y. residents beginning in 1945, Project
F researchers publish a report in the August 1948 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association,
detailing fluoride’s health dangers. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) quickly censors it for “national security” reasons
In 1985, A former
U.S. Army sergeant tries to sue the Army for using drugs on him in
without his consent or even his knowledge in United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669.
Justice Antonin Scalia writes the decision, clearing the U.S. military
from any liability in past, present or future medical experiments
without informed consent
In 1987, Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed her son’s brain post-mortem for medical study. She later learns that the state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of “implied consent,” meaning that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ removal is automatically implied
In 1990, The
United States sends 1.7 million members of the armed forces, 22 percent
of whom are African-American, to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War
(“Desert Storm”). More than 400,000 of these soldiers were ordered to
take an experimental nerve agent medication called pyridostigmine, which
is later believed to be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome — symptoms
ranging from skin disorders, neurological disorders, incontinence,
uncontrollable drooling and vision problems — affecting Gulf War
veterans (Goliszek; Merritte, et al.).
Also, in 1990, The CDC and Kaiser
Pharmaceuticals of Southern California inject 1,500 six-month-old black
and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles with an “experimental” measles
vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States.
Adding to the risk, children less than a year old may not have an
adequate amount of myelin around their nerves, possibly resulting in
impaired neural development because of the vaccine. The CDC later admits
that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected into
their children was experimental (Goliszek).
The FDA allows the U.S.
Department of Defense to waive the Nuremberg Code and use unapproved
drugs and vaccines in Operation Desert Shield
In 1992, Columbia University’s New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males — mostly African-American and Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of juvenile delinquents — 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants received $125 each, including a $25 Toys ‘R’ Us gift certificate
In 1993,
Researchers at the West Haven VA in Connecticut give 27 schizophrenics —
12 inpatients and 15 functioning volunteers — a chemical called MCPP
that significantly increases their psychotic symptoms and, as
researchers note, negatively affects the test subjects on a long-term
basis
The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons
In 2002, The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate — a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses — every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water
In 2002, President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the number of children used as human test subjects.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Expanding Earth, Considerations
Expanding earth explains the edges of a supercontinent better than static diameter pangaea hypothesis.
Imagine a smaller earth, this permits a pangaea with all edges touching - and they just so happen to fit in this scheme, too.
Satellites have tried to disprove an expanding earth by measuring the movements of continents from one another. But a linear expansion is not required, hence no disproof has been established yet.
Consider then, episodic expansion, like punctuated equilibrium. Ever-hot, the core pushes outwards, evidence being found in volcanic activity. We have also the push and pull of the moon on tides, which must effect the crust also, weakening it in a back-and-forth rocking motion, creating fissures which allow outgassing and lava to flow to the surface.
Why episodic expansion? Events internal or external to the earth must have impact as well on its stability and rate of growth eon to eon. For example, the rise and fall of the solar system in the disc of the milky way, which may cause a tilt in the axis of rotation, or the proximity of gas giants as the earth rolls along in its orbit. Or the momentous giving way of layers of rocks within, which after being pressed for millenia, suddenly let burst forth a dam in a night, or a century, a thrust which may be evidenced in the geological record.
No- the expanding earth is far from disproven - rather its detractors like flat-earthers of old, only spur its proponents to refine the model to better fit the data.
Imagine a smaller earth, this permits a pangaea with all edges touching - and they just so happen to fit in this scheme, too.
Satellites have tried to disprove an expanding earth by measuring the movements of continents from one another. But a linear expansion is not required, hence no disproof has been established yet.
Consider then, episodic expansion, like punctuated equilibrium. Ever-hot, the core pushes outwards, evidence being found in volcanic activity. We have also the push and pull of the moon on tides, which must effect the crust also, weakening it in a back-and-forth rocking motion, creating fissures which allow outgassing and lava to flow to the surface.
Why episodic expansion? Events internal or external to the earth must have impact as well on its stability and rate of growth eon to eon. For example, the rise and fall of the solar system in the disc of the milky way, which may cause a tilt in the axis of rotation, or the proximity of gas giants as the earth rolls along in its orbit. Or the momentous giving way of layers of rocks within, which after being pressed for millenia, suddenly let burst forth a dam in a night, or a century, a thrust which may be evidenced in the geological record.
No- the expanding earth is far from disproven - rather its detractors like flat-earthers of old, only spur its proponents to refine the model to better fit the data.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Hagar Qim and Stonehenge: Testaments of the Neolithic Age
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| Fig. 1 - Hagar Qim |
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| Fig. 2 - Stonehenge |
When the
ice receded from Europe around 9000 BCE (Kleiner, 29), one would
suppose there must have been an eventual shift from hunting and
gathering towards farming and the domestication of animals, which in
turn led to the founding of human settlements (Malone, 15), as early
as 7000 BCE in Southern Europe and 4500 BCE in Northern Europe
(Biagi, 36). Two Neolithic monuments, Hagar Qim and Stonehenge,
serve as testaments to the evolving customs of geotemporally distinct
yet architecturally and cosmologically-related cultures. In this
paper we will seek to examine the similarities and differences
between Hagar Qim and Stonehenge, with respect to materials and
design, theorized uses and significance of the monuments.
Hagar
Qim (Fig.1), found on the Mediterranean island of Malta, is a complex
of Neolithic buildings (one of several in the area), dating back to
around 3200 -2500 BCE (Kleiner, 28). The stones found in the
buildings were cut and arranged in stages from limestone, which is
abundant on Malta (Robb, 177). It has been suggested that Hagar Qim
is the oldest example of dressed stone architecture in the world
(Turnbull, 126). The complex is built using both horizontal courses
and the post-and-lintel
system (Kleiner, 28).
The
curvilinear forms of Hagar Qim are based on a modified trefoil
(three-leaf/lobed) and are unique, perhaps owing to the insularity of
island culture (Turnbull, 127-8). While they may reflect the shape
of nearby rock-cut tombs (Ibid, 133), the rounded walls of these
ancient temples have also been likened by some to the fava bean, a
local staple, which in turn is slang for female genitalia (Biagi,
36).
The
association with a goddess cult is not inconsistent with the
discovery of the Venus of Malta at
Hagar Qim. In the semicircular
recesses, or apses, of Hagar Qim, implements of worship have also
been found, including sacrificial altars, bowls and figurines, which
have led to the designation “temple”, although one might posit a
multifunctionality of uses over time, including the storage and
preparation of foods, among others (Turnbull, 130).
Hagar
Qim, like other megalithic monuments, displays stark evidence of an
advanced scientific culture. First, there is the obvious engineering
feat of quarrying and moving stones weighing up to several tonnes
without sophisticated tools. Arranging these into oval chambers,
with horizontal arches, corbelled vaulting and eventually domed
arches (found in the later temples, e.g. Tarxien) was an
extraordinary feat for its time (Ellul, Malta's Prehistoric
Genius).
Hagar
Qim was also designed with defenses in mind – a massive retaining
wall and the elevated location may have served to protect from
animals and invaders (Childress, 205). A forecourt and façade
reinforce the idea that this was a public place with ceremonial
usage.
The
Hagar Qim complex is a marvel of astronomical knowledge. With the
advent of agriculture in the Neolithic, people's sense of time would
have expanded and awareness of seasonality and cycles become
apparent. In several places of Hagar Qim, celestial alignments
inform the building pattern. Doorways are built to face the major
standstills of the moon, as well as solstices and equinoxes of the
sun (Ellul, Neolithic Temple Alignments).
Of note
is the skill with which the builders provided for amplification of
sound between the chambers. By creating an “acoustic hole” in a
corner of the main chamber, architects ensured that an audience in
the adjacent “Women's Chapel” would be able to participate in
ongoing ceremonies (Ellul, Shape of Temple).
The segregation of audiences is suggested to have been related to
the gore of ritual animal sacrifices, thought to have been unsavory
to some (Ibid).
Turning next to Stonehenge, we will consider again the materials,
design and theorized uses of this Neolithic monument, located several
hundred miles, and possibly centuries away, in Britain. We will
attempt to delineate both what is common and unique to each of the
two sites.
Stonehenge
(Fig. 2) may have begun with a simple circular earthmound (henge) and
ditch before 3000 BCE (Malone, 14). One might suppose this was a
suitable arrangement for penning animals, with the mound and ditch
serving as barriers; a ditch full of water would have been useful for
watering, also, perhaps explaining the later reversal to the ditch
being contained inside the mound. Later refinements were made in
stages between 2500 and 1600 BCE (Ibid).
Evidence
for multiple building stages at Stonehenge can be found in the types
and arrangements of stone used over time.1
It is thought that the volcanic bluestones were the first to have
been moved to the site – these were smaller and stood alone, up to
seven or eight feet and weighing up to four tonnes (Ibid, 23). The
larger sarsen stones, made of hardy sandstone, were moved to the site
later and fitted together into trilithons using mortise-and-tenon
joints (Ibid, 31). The largest sarsen measures approximately 30 feet
in height (8 of which rest in the ground) and weighs 45 tonnes (Ibid,
21).
There
are various theories about how these were moved with the primitive
tools of the time. Some posit the bluestones were quarried in Wales,
over 100 miles away, although this has not been reproducible, while
others suppose glacial tow may have deposited the stones nearer the
henge. Still others invoke antediluvian giants (Ellul,
Introduction).2
What is of note is the belief that
stones had special meaning, even powers:
“...the
different types of stone were not inanimate in
the Neolithic, but part of a broader animistic understanding of the
world”
(Cummings, 33).
The
people
of Stonehenge must have been of full of wonder, although their
beliefs did not oppose but rather informed their lifestyle. They
were keenly aware of the passage of time, of cycles of life and
death. Like the builders of Hagar Qim, the architects of Stonehenge,
being tied to the land through agriculture, were expert at expressing
and anticipating astronomical events, key to seedtime and harvest.
The looming trilithons, built with post-and-lintel construction like
their Maltese counterparts, formed calendric portals to mark the
passage of time. Circles within circles suggest not only continuous
refinement of uses for the henge but also sophistication of
astronomical knowledge. Standing in the central horseshoe and facing
the heelstone at dawn on a summer's solstice day, one sees the sun
rising (Malone, 29).
While
human bones have not generally been associated with Hagar Qim, this
is not the case with Stonehenge, which, with its profundity of
cremated (Pearson, 37) and skeletal remains, suggests a variety of
cultural practices ranging from burial, to healing3
to sacrifice (Robb, 184). Some theorize Stonehenge to hold
ritualistic value in conjunction with nearby Darrington Hills, with
the former representing the realm of the dead and the latter the
living and newly deceased; a precession symbolizing the journey was
to have taken place along the River Avon and down the Avenue (Pollard
337-8).
Now, if
the Neolithic people of Hagar Qim were associated in some way with
goddess-worship,4
then the question arises, what or whom did the Neolithic builders of
Stonehenge revere? The monument itself suggests an intimate
connection with ancestors, with trilithons representing perhaps the
union of two adults. Bluestones may then represent children, as they
stand alone and are found in greater number, too. Their place
eventually in the centre of the trilithons mirrors the picture of a
small village protecting its most precious resource. Intersected
with this is the clear association with sun and moon – circles
marking their positions throughout the year and perhaps even over
several years. With all of these primitive energies working
together, one might sum with, “...the
architecture of the monument in some way acted as an index of the
supernatural world” (Pollard, 347). Death, life, seasons, all find
expression here.
We
have attempted to present a brief but accurate understanding of two
Neolithic monuments, Hagar Qim, from Malta, and Stonehenge, in the
United Kingdom. The movement of peoples following the last ice age
in Europe ca. 9000 BCE from forests, hills and hunting towards
plains, valleys and agriculture set the scene for a revolution in
architectural design. We have seen how the enormous materials and
the elaborate designs wrought with astronomical meaning speak of
ancient cultures steeped in knowledge which predates the record of
any written language. We have seen that the builders of these
structures expressed, over various stages in the lives of the
monuments, diverse cultural traditions, from the burial of ancestors,
to the herding of animals, to grand ceremonious precessions involving
entire communities with a unified vision.
That
much more could be said about these wonders of an ancient age, with
regards to dimensions, dates, the various phases over centuries, as
well as newer theories based on the latest archeological findings is
clear from the profusion of papers, texts, and other materials
already written. That we, like the builders of Neolithic monuments,
look backwards to find meaning in these histories, speaks to the
commonality of the human condition.
Works Cited
Biaggi, Cristina.
"Myths of the Goddess in Neolithic Island Cultures of Northwest
Europe and the Mediterranean." ReVision 21.3 (1999): 36.
Childress, D. H.
Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean.
Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996.
Cummings, Vicki.
"What Lies Beneath: Thinking about the Qualities and Essences of
Stone and Wood in the Chambered Tomb Architecture of Neolithic
Britain and Ireland." Journal of Social Archaeology 12.1
(2012): 29-50.
Ellul, J. Malta's
Prediluvian Culture at the Stone Age Temples with Special Reference
to H̳aÄ¡ar Qim, Gh̳ar Dalam, Cart Ruts,
Il-Misqa, Il-Maqluba & Creation., 1988.
Kleiner, F. S.
Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Vol.
2. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2009.
Malone, Caroline,
and Nancy S. Bernard. Stonehenge. Ed. Caroline Malone and
Nancy Stone Bernard. Oxford [England] ;New York : Oxford University
Press, c2002, 2002. . RefWorks Tagged Format.
Parker, Mike, et al.
"Who was Buried at Stonehenge?" Antiquity 83.319
(2009): 23-39.
Pollard, Joshua.
"The Materialization of Religious Structures in the Time of
Stonehenge." Material Religion 5.3 (2009): 332-53.
Robb, John. "Island
Identities: Ritual, Travel and the Creation of Difference in
Neolithic Malta." European Journal of Archaeology 4.2
(2001): 175-202.
Turnbull, David.
"Performance and Narrative, Bodies and Movement in the
Construction of Places and Objects, Spaces and Knowledges."
Theory, Culture &
Society 19.5-6 (2002):
125-43.
1Stages
were also apparent in the building of Hagar Qim – three layers of
different pavement stone can be found.
2While
the more pragmatic theorists have struggled to reproduce the
herculean task of moving a bluestone by boat from Wales to
Wiltshire, others have sought meaning in the paranormal. One theory
suggests extraterrestrial assistance, while others believe giants
walked the earth before the flood, consistent with the ages
considered here.
3Whether
Neolithic monuments were in fact places of healing is somewhat
speculative, with evidence being limited to the presence of deformed
body parts (Childress, 209).
4The
overall shape of the main temple at Hagar Qim mirrors that of the
two sets of seven statuettes found onsite, although there is
ambiguity with respect to the gender-representation as the figures
lack breasts or obvious genitalia (Ellul, Statuettes).
UFOs filling up on fuel at the sun
This seems like the type of thing one ought to hear on the news, a UFO of sorts, larger than the earth, captured by NASA's solar observer filling up on fuel at the sun!
We are clearly not alone...
http://youtu.be/2gTy1ZxerZ8
We are clearly not alone...
http://youtu.be/2gTy1ZxerZ8
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Evidence of Past Solar Flares - Extinction Grade!
Calling all amateur geology students!
Given that civilization may have occurred severally before this one, evidences being seen at Malta for example, at Hagar Qim, which predates the flood and matches descriptions of Atlantean nature.
Should another event have occurred prior to the flood to wit evidence may be in the rock...
Who would suppose that golden veins and silver rivers and copper islands be proof of giant forces of solar eruptions in the earth's long history? To find again on the moon or by digging deeper cores, in oceans, may, to see scorched swaths in unison in diverse places?
Warning then of impending doom - he will destroy the world not in water but in fire - the very elements will melt with a fervent heat - keep an eye on the corona!
Given that civilization may have occurred severally before this one, evidences being seen at Malta for example, at Hagar Qim, which predates the flood and matches descriptions of Atlantean nature.
Should another event have occurred prior to the flood to wit evidence may be in the rock...
Who would suppose that golden veins and silver rivers and copper islands be proof of giant forces of solar eruptions in the earth's long history? To find again on the moon or by digging deeper cores, in oceans, may, to see scorched swaths in unison in diverse places?
Warning then of impending doom - he will destroy the world not in water but in fire - the very elements will melt with a fervent heat - keep an eye on the corona!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Venus and the Dark Side of the Moon
Please watch the corona for unusual activity, kids.
If there is another floodlike event of biblical proportions as is thought to be coming - we hope to be in safety then, yes?
If a solar flare were to occur periodically say every precession, 25000 years, yes?
Where is a suitable cloak, save in the shade?
Venus' one face, a saviour too.
If there is another floodlike event of biblical proportions as is thought to be coming - we hope to be in safety then, yes?
If a solar flare were to occur periodically say every precession, 25000 years, yes?
Where is a suitable cloak, save in the shade?
Venus' one face, a saviour too.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Angrous?
Young men harken to my wisdom, for I speak of things which are known only from a great height,
When scars of age have weathered fables and fortunes into so much dross.
If you are angrous at your companions then think, it might be best to see things from the end,
Worry not for your raiment nor for your food - here is ease from all, rest and eat.
Without cost is the Word, you are free!
When scars of age have weathered fables and fortunes into so much dross.
If you are angrous at your companions then think, it might be best to see things from the end,
Worry not for your raiment nor for your food - here is ease from all, rest and eat.
Without cost is the Word, you are free!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
To Love
To love is to be strong. Strong enough to hurt the ones you love in order to make them see and relieve them of their greater hurts.
To love is to listen, to bear the pains that scar the heart, to polish them up and send them back as love.
To love is to exist in a state of trust - free of fears, in order to be able to see clearly.
To love is to be honest at all times with all people, especially with yourself.
To love is to be free from barriers - to be in sync with all things, bathing in an ocean of empathy.
To love is to fulfill a need, more basic than hunger.
To love is to sing with joy and stretch your heart till it tunes in to the voice of the stars.
To love is to be. To be is to love.
Without love, there can be no life.
Written Sept '93
To love is to listen, to bear the pains that scar the heart, to polish them up and send them back as love.
To love is to exist in a state of trust - free of fears, in order to be able to see clearly.
To love is to be honest at all times with all people, especially with yourself.
To love is to be free from barriers - to be in sync with all things, bathing in an ocean of empathy.
To love is to fulfill a need, more basic than hunger.
To love is to sing with joy and stretch your heart till it tunes in to the voice of the stars.
To love is to be. To be is to love.
Without love, there can be no life.
Written Sept '93
Saturday, January 21, 2012
red eye of jupiter aka inner moon?
some speculate a black hole or impact event centuries go smoldering... so many ideas!
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