The 2012 Apocalypse
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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161488891 The Singularity is near Without Arnold Schwarzenegger, the fourth film in the series, Terminator Salvation, is a bit limp, in the opinion of most critics – notwithstanding the car chases, explosions, and high-tech shoot-outs. But, believe it or not, obscured by billowing clouds of smoke and spurts of flame, there is a significant question. Is it better to be a man or a machine?Without revealing the absurdly convoluted plot, our saviour is Marcus Wright, a prisoner executed in 2004. He wakes up in 2018 as a cybernetically-enhanced participant in a war between us and Skynet, an artificial intelligence system which has become conscious and turned on its creators. Most of humanity has already been obliterated in a nuclear holocaust. The ragged remnant spend their time plotting to win back the planet and screaming at each other over the noise of colliding machines and exploding gas tanks. Where do the loyalties of half-human, half-machine Marcus lie in this crisis? Well, this is Hollywood and you can guess the answer. T4’s muscles are titanium, but he still has a heart and sacrifices himself to save humanity. For most viewers, Terminator Salvation is as realistic as Grimm’s Fairytales. At least it has a sensible outcome: humanity wins. But there are a number of computer experts who sympathise with Skynet rather than with humanity. They look forward eagerly to a time in which homo sapiens will perfect itself and become more and more like super-intelligent machines. And they are already planning for its coming. They call it "the Singularity". Ray Kurzweil, a legend in the IT world, a pioneer in optical character recognition, speech recognition and text-to-speech, has become the apostle of "the Singularity". A documentary about him will be released later this year, Transcendent Man. In summary, the visionary Kurzweil argues that artificial intelligence is improving exponentially, and eventually – the latest ETA is 2045 – it will become self-conscious and "alive". Here’s how Kurzweil explains it: "What, then, is the Singularity? It's a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed. Although neither utopian or dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life, including death itself. Understanding the Singularity will alter our perspective on the significance of our past and the ramifications for our future. To truly understand it inherently changes one's view of life in general and one's own particular life. I regard someone who understands the Singularity and who has reflected on its implications for his or her own life as a 'singularitarian'." Kurzweil assumes that human intelligence and emotions are just a highly complex biological computer. If this is true, the rapid advance of science guarantees that we will be able to reverse-engineer our brain and create incredibly powerful computers which will usher in the Singularity. And that’s not all. Ultimately this new life form will expand throughout the whole universe; all inanimate matter will be converted into substrates for computation and intelligence; and a universal super-intelligence will emerge. Most people would call this God, and, indeed, the more of Kurzweil you read, the more it sounds like theology for materialists. Technology becomes God and offers salvation from the pain of human existence. What happens to Humanity 1.0 after 2045? Well, the singularitarians do discuss troubling issues like that at their summits. Perhaps we will be in charge of the machines. In that case, humans will have become a hybrid of biological and non-biological intelligence. Nanotechnology will allow us to live indefinitely. We will be able to upload our personalities onto computers and achieve a kind of disembodied cyber-immortality. All of humanity’s great problems will be solved – poverty, hunger, disease, climate change and so on. On the other hand, perhaps super-intelligent computers will exterminate us, à la Skynet. To many people, this vision of the future sounds nutty – "the Rapture of the geeks" is one unkind description -- but the amazing thing is that many intelligent and well-heeled Silicon Valley residents, are enthusiastic supporters of the Singularity. These include Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal. The giant internet corporation Google is the major financial backer of a project called Singularity University. This will educate leaders who understand the exponential growth of technology and will use it to solve humanity’s grand challenges. So the question provoked by Terminator Salvation is this: is being plain old Humanity 1.0 worthwhile -- in spite of our messy emotions, cloudy intelligence, imperfect bodies and unavoidable death? Or should we aspire to move forward to Humanity 2.0? In fact, we are moving in the direction of Humanity 2.0, or "transhumanism", right now. We are far away from the fantasy of immortality uploads but more realistic scientists are working on creating "better humans" through genetic engineering. It is not yet possible – or legal – to created genetically enhanced children yet, but the time is not far off. Many IVF clinics already offer parents the possibility of sifting embryos for children who will not carry genes for certain genetic diseases. The next step is premier IVF to produce offspring with higher IQs or the bodies of super-athletes. Or both, if you can afford it. As many bioethicists have noted, the notion of Humanity 2.0 opens a Pandora’s box. If it becomes possible, society could end up divided between the gene-rich and the gene-poor. Mankind might eventually split into two distinct species, Übermenschen with an enhanced genome which confers longer life, freedom from disease, and freedom from violence -- and the rest of us Untermenschen. This would spell an end to democracy and equality. That’s why the well-known American political scientist Francis Fukuyama has called transhumanism "the world’s most dangerous idea". "It is very possible, he writes, "that we will nibble at biotechnology's tempting offerings without realizing that they come at a frightful moral cost." The point is that the dilemma faced by the saviour cyborg is one that we will face in real life in the not-too-distant future. Should we seek to become better humans by modifying ourselves with technology or in the old-fashioned way, with politics and moral codes? Terminator Salvation may offer mindless violence, but it is not altogether brainless. Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. Chart of the day: Household equity His point is that it’s silly to talk about the number of states where house prices are flattish. The states which matter — the states accounting for the overwhelming majority of housing wealth in the country — have seen their house prices implode. And as a result homeowners are now poorer to the tune of trillions of dollars — or, as the chart shows, almost 50% of GDP. It’s easy to see why this recession is so severe, if you think about the unsustainable consumption boom fueled by mortgage equity withdrawals between 1997 and 2006. The loss in wealth during the dot-com bust might have been similar, but the effect on consumption wasn’t nearly as big: people weren’t borrowing against their tech stocks in order to buy new kitchens. Now, of course, all that home equity has evaporated, leaving behind nothing but a stinking pile of toxic debt. We still have no idea how long it’s going to take to clean up the mess; all we know for sure is that the equity isn’t going to return any time soon. NORAD and USNORTHCOM exercise planned for mid-June
PETERSON AFB, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command are planning to conduct a combined exercise June 18 - 24 that will incorporate several military exercises with a National Guard exercise. These linked exercises are referred to as ARDENT SENTRY 09. Events will take place in multiple venues across the country including Iowa, Kansas, Oregon, Wyoming, and off the East and West Coasts.The exercise will allow several Department of Defense organizations and some federal and state partners to implement plans and respond to a variety of notional events. Historically, exercises like these have helped both DoD and other agencies review their processes and procedures and focus their future training efforts on closing gaps and identifying areas that need additional attention.
Major AS 09 venues include: NORAD’s AMALGAM DART exercise involving air defense activities at Camp Rilea, Oregon; The National Guard’s VIGILANT GUARD exercise focused on civil support with major activities in Des Moines, Iowa and Topeka, Kansas; and, A Nuclear Weapons Incident exercise (NUWAIX) with a U.S. Air Force response near Cheyenne, Wyoming; The activities in the vicinity of Camp Rilea will involve the deployment of an Army National Guard ground-based air defense system that will be integrated with Air Force airborne systems (AWACS and fighters) and a Navy Aegis Destroyer. (Media interested in covering this event should contact Mr. Al Eakle at 1-850-283-8080)Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska National Guard units will respond to multiple events in Iowa and Kansas including simulated train derailments and foreign animal disease. (Media interested in covering events in Iowa should contact LTC Greg Hapgood at 515-971-6385; for events in Kansas, contact Sharon Watson at 785-274-1192)In Wyoming, Air Force Space Command will respond to an incident involving a simulated nuclear weapon. (Media interested in covering this should contact Capt. Sharbe Clark at 719-554-3815).NORAD is a bi-national United States and Canada organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. USNORTHCOM provides command and control of DoD homeland defense efforts and, when directed, provides timely and effective defense support of civil authorities. (see www.norad.mil and www.northcom.mil for more information) For more information about the exercise, contact NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs at 719-554-6889. W.H.O. Raises Alert Level as Flu Spreads to 74 Countries By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and ANDREW JACOBS Published: June 11, 2009 GENEVA — The World Health Organization raised its alert on swine flu to the highest level on Thursday, in its first designation of a global pandemic in 41 years. Calling further spread of the virus “inevitable,” the organization’s director general, Margaret Chan, said, “We are at the earliest days of a global pandemic.” The new H1N1 strain, she said, is “spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another” in more than one region of the world. But the pandemic is “moderate” in severity, she noted, with the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the absence of any medical treatment. And scientists are painstakingly tracking its every movement. “The virus is spreading under a close and careful watch,” Dr. Chan said. “No previous pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely.” The heightened alert came after an emergency meeting with flu experts here that was convened after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, which reported 1,263 cases on Thursday, and rising numbers in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere. The declaration will trigger drug makers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine — expected to take a minimum of 4 to 6 months — and prompt governments to devote more money to containing the virus. As the disease moves into the developing world, where rates of chronic disease are high and health systems typically poor, Dr. Chan said, “it is prudent to anticipate a bleaker picture.” The virus itself can also change quickly, she said, and even those nations that have already experienced a rash of cases “should prepare for a second wave.” “The virus writes the rules, and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules without any rhyme or reason,” Dr. Chan said. Unlike seasonal flus, which have taken their highest toll on the very young and the very old, Dr. Chan said, most severe cases of the new H1N1 virus have involved people between the ages of 30 and 50, while overall, the majority of all infections have occurred in people under 25. Some 2 percent of infections, Dr. Chan said, have resulted in severe illness, with rapid progression to pneumonia. Based on preliminary data, asthma, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders and obesity are the underlying conditions that most put people at greater risk. Around a third to a half of the severe cases occurred in previously healthy young people, she said. Pregnant woman are also at heightened risk, a particular concern for the developing world, Dr. Chan said, which already reports 99 percent of maternal childbirth deaths worldwide. Typically, pandemics take six to nine months to move throughout the world. This one has been detected early, giving health officials what Dr. Chan called a “head start.” And as the disease continues, it will be important to add to the health resources of poorer countries, Dr. Chan said. Vigilance must be maintained, she said, “for the next year or two — and beyond.” “Influenza pandemics, whether moderate or severe, are remarkable events because of the almost universal susceptibility of the world’s population to infection,” Dr. Chan said. “We are all in this together and we will all get through this together.” The W.H.O. released a report on Wednesday saying that 74 countries had reported 27,737 cases of the disease and 141 deaths since April. Those cases had been heavily concentrated in the Americas, but the rise in cases in Australia and elsewhere indicate communitywide spread in other world regions. According to W.H.O. rules, the organization should declare a pandemic once it finds evidence of widespread “community transmission” — meaning beyond travelers, schools and immediate contacts — on two continents. The last pandemic, the Hong Kong flu of 1968, killed about 700,000 people worldwide. Ordinary flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people each year, international health officials have said. Meanwhile, around the world, efforts to limit the spread of the flu continue. In Hong Kong, which is especially skittish about the flu after its experience with a lethal SARS outbreak in 2003, authorities ordered all kindergartens, primary schools and day care centers to close after an outbreak of swine flu was reported at a local secondary school. The order, effective Friday, will last at least two weeks and affect about a half million students. Fifty cases of the H1N1 flu have been reported in Hong Kong, but health officials said the 12 infected students at St. Paul’s Convent School were the first cluster. The students are being quarantined at a hospital while officials try to determine the source of the infections. NYT_VideoPlayerStart( { playerType : "article", videoId : "1194840864207" } ); Hong Kong health officials said Wednesday that a 55-year-old man was the first person to contract the disease locally. So far, the city has had no fatalities. Hong Kong’s Health Department says it will order five million doses of flu vaccine and open eight flu clinics. “The government is well prepared,” Donald Tsang, the city’s chief executive, said at a news conference announcing the school closings on Thursday. “There’s no need to panic.” China confirmed 10 new flu cases, bringing the total number of infections on the mainland to 111. Health officials say all of the country’s flu cases have involved people returning from abroad. According to the Health Ministry, the new cases include a Canadian-Chinese teenager who just returned from Toronto and two children in Shanghai who had been in the United States. There have been no deaths, and more than half of those infected have been discharged from the hospital, the ministry said. Chinese officials released Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans from three days of quarantine in Shanghai on Wednesday. Mr. Nagin and his wife had been placed in isolation after a passenger who sat one row ahead of them on a flight from the United States came down with a fever. Mr. Nagin, who had been set to attend a series of economic development meetings, described the experience as “surreal” and said he and his wife had their temperatures taken every three to four hours. “When you see people coming toward you with full hazmat gear on, it’s pretty interesting,” he told The Associated Press after his release, referring to hazardous material protection. In New York City, health officials said Thursday that three more people had died from the H1N1 virus, bringing the city’s total to 15, The A.P. reported. One victim was a child under the age of 5, one was a person between 5 to 24 years old, and another was between 30 to 39 years old. The deaths came one day after health officials announcedthat in a telephone poll of New Yorkers, 6.9 percent of the 1,006 surveyed reported having flulike illness, like fever and cough or a sore throat, between May 1 and May 20, that may or may not have been swine flu. Extrapolated to the general population, that would mean that about 550,000 people could have become sick with the virus. The 530 citywide who have been hospitalized make up a tiny proportion — about one-tenth of 1 percent — of those who became ill, an indication of how mild the virus generally has been, officials said. The total number of swine flu cases reported to the nation’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other national, state, and city health authorities worldwide likely do not account for hundreds of thousands of cases which were not tested by doctors because of their mildness, flu experts have said. “The findings don’t tell us exactly how many New Yorkers have had H1N1 influenza,” Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s new health commissioner, said in a statement. “But they suggest it has been widespread and mild in most people.” Fire claims building at CCTV Beijing headquarters (a look back) Mon Feb 9, 2009 3:34pm EST By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Fire consumed a building in Beijing that formed part of Central China Television's new headquarters as residents set off fireworks throughout the city to celebrate the Lantern Festival on Monday evening. Flames 20-30 feet high shot out of the building, just north of the landmark CCTV tower designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The flames were reflected in the tower, which itself appeared to be untouched. "The upper fifth is on fire, multiple floors. Debris is falling and flames are coming out in all directions," Edie Marshall, a Beijing resident, told Reuters. The fire began abating just before midnight (11:00 a.m. EST). No one appeared to have been in the building, a policeman on the scene said, adding he had no immediate knowledge of any casualties. Hundreds of people watched and took photos as fire trucks sprayed streams of water on the building. Armed police moved the onlookers beyond a cordon as paramilitary troops moved in on the building. The fire department did not immediately comment on the suspected cause of the blaze, which occurred as the city was bombarded with fireworks on the final day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The destroyed building housed the Mandarin Oriental hotel in eastern Beijing, which was supposed to open in 2009. It was also designed to include a theater, recording studios and cinemas, while CCTV's main production and broadcasting units were to occupy the main building next door.  (Writing by Lucy Hornby: Editing by Angus MacSwan). Israel's Olmert: Rice Embarrassed Over UN Vote
Israel's Olmert says Rice embarrassed over UN resolution vote; US disputes his account
By JASON KEYSER Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM January 12, 2009 (AP) Israel's prime minister said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was embarrassed by orders to abstain from voting last week on a U.N. truce resolution for Gaza that she helped arrange. Israel had argued that the Security Council measure calling for a halt to the Gaza fighting — which passed Thursday in a 14-0 vote with the U.S. abstaining — was unworkable because it did not guarantee Israel's security. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he called President George W. Bush to seek an abstention from the U.S., a key Israeli ally at the United Nations. "I said: 'Get me President Bush on the phone,'" Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. "They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care: 'I need to talk to him now.' He got off the podium and spoke to me." Olmert said he argued that the United States should not vote in favor, and the president then called Rice and told her not to do so. "She was left pretty embarrassed," Olmert said. A senior U.S. official in Washington disputed the account. "The plan had been all along, as agreed by the secretary and the president, that if all of the pieces fell into place, we would abstain," the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. "The government of Israel does not make policy for the United States," the official added. The approved resolution called for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza." Rice said later that the United States "fully supports" the resolution but abstained because it "thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation," referring to an Egyptian-French initiative aimed at achieving a cease-fire. Still, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said he was surprised by the U.S. abstention. "We were told that the Americans were going to vote in favor," he said Friday, a day after the vote. But when Rice came in to the Security Council chamber, she informed the Saudi foreign minister with an apology that she would abstain and would clarify later that the U.S. supported the resolution nonetheless, according to Malki. "What happened in the last 10 or 15 minutes, what kind of pressure she received, from whom, this is really something that maybe we will know about later," he said. news source: abc news Was Horus "Crucified?"
by D.M. Murdock/Acharya SAuthor of Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
"Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the Sun, and the god himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his fructifying power. "Horus was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like...Christ Jesus, with outstretched arms in the vault of heaven." Thomas W. Doane, Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions (484) In my book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, I delve deeply into various parallels between the Jewish godman Jesus Christ and the Egyptian gods Horus and Osiris. Along with the claim that Horus was born on "December 25th" or the winter solstice of a virgin called Mery comes the contention that he was "crucified between two thieves," as Jesus is depicted to have been in the New Testament. Although I included this motif in my book The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, this assertion does not originate with me but can be found in older sources, as highlighted in Christ in Egypt ("CIE"), which contains a 40-page chapter on the subject entitled "Was Horus 'Crucified?,'" with 120 footnotes citing primary sources as well as the works of respected Egyptologists and other scholars in relevant fields. This chapter in CIE also provides 18 images to illustrate the various points, such as the abundance of Pagan gods and goddesses in cruciform or cross shapes. The list of sources cited in the chapter "Was Horus 'Crucified?'" includes: ancient Egyptian primary sources such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead and other artifacts; the writings of the ancient historians Herodotus and Plutarch, philosophers Plato and Philo, and the Egyptian priest Horapollo; the Bible; noncanonical early Christian writings such as the Epistle of Barnabas, Acts of John and Acts of Pilate; the writings of early Church fathers Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Minucius Felix; Gnostic writings; Coptic writings such as the Kebra Nagast; the Catholic Encyclopedia; the works of modern Egyptologists Drs. Erik Hornung, Raymond O. Faulkner, Jan Assman and Barbara S. Lesko; and the works of various theologians, historians and other professional scholars such as Pope Benedict XVI, Jean Doresse, Joseph Campbell, Dr. Roger Beck and Dr. Tryggve N.D. Mettinger. Even with all of the scholarship put together in Christ in Egypt, there remains much confusion concerning this subject, because many people erroneously believe that the contention is that Horus or Osiris were killed via crucifixion, as allegedly happened to Jesus. In actuality, the most common myths concerning the deaths of Osiris and Horus are that the former was rent into pieces, while the latter was stung by a scorpion, after which both were resurrected. In this regard, the same Greek word used by historian Diodorus Siculus in the first century BCE to describe Horus's resurrection - anastasis - is utilized by later biblical writers in the New Testament to depict Christ's resurrection (e.g., Mt 22:23). Testimony of the Church Fathers It needs to be emphasized that the claim is not that Horus was a human being thrown to the ground and nailed to a piece of wood. In CIE, I discuss the etymology of the word "crucify," which comes from the Latin crucifigere, composed of cruci/crux and affigere/figere, meaning "cross" and "to fix/affix," respectively. Crucifigere and its English derivation "to crucify" mean "to fix to a cross," but not necessarily to throw down and nail to a piece of wood. What we are interested in, then, is whether or not pre-Christian gods and goddesses were depicted as fixed to a cross or in cruciform, appearing as a crucifix. This motif of a pre-Christian or non-Christian god or man on a cross or cross-shaped is expounded upon by the Church fathers Tertullian (c. 160-c. 200) and Minucius Felix (2nd-3rd cents.). In his Apology (16), Tertullian remarks: "We have shown before that your deities are derived from shapes modelled from the cross. But you also worship victories, for in your trophies the cross is the heart of the trophy. The camp religion of the Romans is all through a worship of the standards, a setting the standards above all gods. Well, as those images decking out the standards are ornaments of crosses. All those hangings of your standards and banners are robes of crosses." (Roberts, ANCL, 85) The place where Tertullian had "shown before" his contentions about the Pagan gods being cross-shaped was in his work Ad Nationes (12), in a lengthy treatise which includes the following remarks: "...The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial [Crosslike] Frame. "...your gods in their origin have proceeded from this hated cross... if you simply place a man with his arms and hands outstretched, you will make the general outline of a cross...." (Roberts, ANF, III, 122) In his Octavius (29), Minucius echoes the same sentiment: "...The Egyptians certainly choose out a man for themselves whom they may worship... Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. You, indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners, and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it." (Roberts, ANF, IV, 191) In the same passage, Minucius states, "...crucis signum est, et cum homo porrectis manibus deum pura mente veneratur." (Felix, 66) To wit, "...the sign of the cross it is, also when a man stretching out his hands venerates God with a pure mind." In his First Apology Church father Justin Martyr (c. 150) writes: "Chapter 21. Analogies to the history of Christ. "And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter..." (Roberts, ANF, I, 170) It is evident that the Church fathers did not perceive the configuration of Christ on the cross to be anything unusual. Indeed, they insisted that the Pagans likewise worshipped gods on crosses or in "crucial frame," as Tertullian styles it. With such surprising declarations from early Christian authorities, we are justified in asking which of the "sons of Jupiter," i.e., the Greek and Roman gods, was thus depicted as "crucified?" What we discover is that both the cross and a deity or man on a cross were common sacred motifs long before the Christian era. In reality, there were many depictions of Pagan gods and goddesses in cruciform or in cross shape, with arms outstretched, a motif considered by the Church fathers to represent the "sign of the cross," such as concerns Moses, for example, at Exodus 17:11. Regarding the repeated statements and reports about the reverential crosslike pose or "cruciform posture" by the Church fathers and elsewhere in Christendom, Rev. William W. Seymour remarks: "Examples of this posture in prayer are found in the Catacombs.... "We find that the ancient Egyptians used this posture in prayer, as is figured in the hieroglyphics on the obelisk before the Church of S. John Lateran at Rome. This also was the custom of the Romans... The Hebrews spread forth their hands before the Lord; in short, this posture in devotion we believe may be traced the world over..." (Seymour, 432-433) In reality, non-Christian gods were represented in cruciform centuries before Christ was portrayed likewise; in fact, the first depiction of Jesus on a cross in art did not occur until the fifth century AD/CE. As stated by the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Cross and the Crucifix"): "The sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both the East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization.... "...It is also...a symbol of the sun...and seems to denote its daily rotation.... Cruciform objects have been found in Assyria. The statutes of Kings Asurnazirpal and Sansirauman, now in the British Museum, have cruciform jewels about the neck.... Cruciform earrings were found by Father Delattre in Punic tombs at Carthage. "Another symbol which has been connected with the cross is the ansated cross (ankh or crux ansata) of the ancient Egyptians.... From the earliest times also it appears among the hieroglyphic signs symbolic of life or of the living... perhaps it was originally, like the swastika, an astronomical sign. The ansated cross is found on many and various monuments of Egypt.... In later times the Egyptian Christians (Copts), attracted by its form, and perhaps by its symbolism, adopted it as the emblem of the cross... "...In the proto-Etruscan cemetery of Golasecca every tomb has a vase with a cross engraved on it.... "...On an ancient vase we see Prometheus bound to a beam which serves the purpose of a cross.... In the same way the rock to which Andromeda was fastened is called crux, or cross.... "...The Christian apologists, such as Tertullian (Apol., xvi; Ad. Nationes, xii) and Minucius Felix (Octavius, lx, xii, xxviii), felicitously replied to the pagan taunt by showing that their persecutors themselves adored cruciform objects. Such observations throw light on a peculiar fact of primitive Christian life, i.e. the almost total absence from Christian monuments of the period of persecutions of the plain, unadorned cross... "...The early years of the fifth century are of the highest importance in this development, because it was then that the undisguised cross first appears.... But the fifth century marks the period when Christian art broke away from old fears, and, secure in its triumph, displayed before the world, now become Christian also, the sign of its redemption.... "...The most ancient text we have relating to a carved cross dates from later than A.D. 362.... "...Although in the fifth century the cross began to appear on public monuments, it was not for a century afterwards that the figure on the cross was shown; and not until the close of the fifth, or even the middle of the sixth century, did it appear without disguise...." (CE, IV, 517ff) In its article entitled "Images," the Catholic Encyclopedia relates: "...The first mentions of [Christian] crucifixes are in the sixth century.... The oldest crucifixes known are those on the wooden doors of St. Sabina at Rome and an ivory carving in the British Museum... Both are of the fifth century...." (CE, VII, 667) As we can see, the cross was a sacred symbol, and cruciform objects were worn around the neck, long before the Christian era. One such cruciform figurine with a crucifix around its neck from Cyprus dates to the Chalcolithic Age (3900-2500 BCE). On a vase dating from around 350 BCE, we find a tortured Greek god Prometheus chained in cruciform, while another vase dating to the late sixth to early seventh centuries BCE depicts Prometheus on a stake or stauros, as the term is in Greek - the same word used in the New Testament to describe Christ's cross. Moreover, the mythical princess Andromeda too was portrayed essentially as having been crucified, as demonstrated by an image from Pompeii, which was destroyed in 79 AD/CE, several centuries before Christ was depicted on the cross in art. So too was the Egyptian cross or ankh a prevalent sacred symbol for millennia prior to the common era, being adopted as well by Egyptian Christians or Copts. Horus and the Cross In this regard, Osiris and Horus both were associated with and/or identified as a cross, such as the ankh, which, like the cross of Jesus, represents eternal life. Horus is identified with the cross in several ways, using the ankh, for instance, to raise Osiris from the dead. Providing an example of the Church fathers' contention about gods with arms outstretched making the sign of the cross or being in "crucial frame," i.e., cruciform, Egyptologist Dr. Erik Hornung discusses Horus as the hawk "whose wings span the sky" (CGAE, 124) and "the ancient god of the heavens, whose wings spread over the whole earth" (VK, 59). We find several other Egyptian gods and goddesses in this same cruciform pose, with arms and wings outstretched, including in tombs and on numerous coffins, serving as protection and assistance for a smooth passage into the afterlife, the same role as the cross on Christian coffins. Again, the early Christians considered figures with arms outstretched to be making the sign of the cross, and they compared Pagan gods in cruciform to Christ on the cross. Horus as the hawk with his wings or arms outstretched reflects his role as the sun god "crossing over" the sky, as depicted in various hymns and Coffin Texts. As I say in Christ in Egypt (342), the significance of asserting the sun god to be "crucified" is not that his myth is imitated exactly in the gospel story but that he was a revered pre-Christian god "on a cross" and that this particular motif was adopted by those who created the Christian myth specifically because it was a popular and venerated theme. Moreover, in Christ in Egypt, I include an extensive discussion of a mysterious Egypto-Gnostic character named Horos, essentially the same name as "Horus" in Greek, although the two words are spelled slightly differently, the former with an omega and the latter with an omicron. Nevertheless, there is reason to suppose that the Gnostic figure of Horos and the Egyptian god Horus are at root one and the same. The Gnostic Horos not only is associated with but is also identified as "Stauros" - the Cross - again, the same Greek word used in the gospels to describe what Jesus was purportedly crucified upon. Indeed, in Christian writings Jesus is "often assimilated" to Horos-Stauros. In describing the Gnostic character of Horos-Stauros, the Encyclopedia Britannica ("Valentinus") relates: "A figure entirely peculiar to Valentinian Gnosticism is that of Horos (the Limiter). The name is perhaps an echo of the Egyptian Horus. The peculiar task of Horos is to separate the fallen aeons from the upper world of aeons. At the same time he becomes...a kind of world-creative power.... He is also called, curiously enough, Stauros (cross), and we frequently meet with references to the figure of Stauros. But we must not be in too great a hurry to conjecture that this is a Christian figure. Speculations about the Stauros are older than Christianity, and a Platonic conception may have been at work here. Plato had already stated that the world-soul revealed itself in the form of the letter Chi (X); by which he meant that figure described in the heavens by the intersecting orbits of the sun and the planetary ecliptic. Since through this double orbit all the movements of the heavenly powers are determined, so all "becoming" and all life depend on it, and thus we can understand the statement that the world-soul appears in the form of an X, or a cross. The cross can also stand for the wondrous aeon on whom depends the ordering and life of the world, and thus Horos-Stauros appears here as the first redeemer of Sophia from her passions, and as the orderer of the creation of the world which now begins. This explanation of Horos, moreover, is not a mere conjecture, but one branch of the Valentinian school, the Marcosians, have expressedly so explained this figure.... Naturally, then, the figure of Horos-Stauros was often in later days assimilated to that of the Christian Redeemer. (EB, 854 [Emph. added]) Here we read that the name Horos is "perhaps an echo of the Egyptian Horus" and that "speculations about the Stauros are older than Christianity." We further learn that the ancient writer Plato (429-347 BCE) had described the "world-soul" in the shape of an X or cross and that this concept also represented the orbits of the sun and earth's ecliptic intersecting. Again, this Gnostic Horos-Stauros character with pre-Christian roots was so similar to the Christ figure that the two were frequently combined. Plato's World Soul and Just Man Crucified In his role as the sun crossing over the sky and as the apparent origin of the Horos-Stauros character, Horus has been compared to Plato's world-soul impressed upon a cross in the heavens, as found in the Timaeus (36bc). (Plato, 49) This Platonic figure in turn was commonly taken to be a "foreshadowing" of the Christ character and cross. As theologian Rev. Dr. Hugo Rahner states: "...Adapting an old Pythagorean notion, Plato had written in the Timaeus of the world soul revealed in the celestial X; to the early Christian this was a pagan imitation of the world-building crucified Logos who encompasses the cosmos and causes it to revolve around the mystery of the Cross." (Campbell, 372) One of these early Christians who saw the Cross and Son of God revealed in Plato's writing was Justin Martyr, who in his First Apology (60.1), in a section entitled "Plato's Doctrine of the Cross," remarked: "And the physiological discussion concerning the Son of God in the Timæus of Plato, where he says, 'He placed him crosswise in the universe," he borrowed in like manner from Moses...'" (Roberts, ANF, I, 183; Justin/Gildersleeve, 55) Commenting on this interpretation, Dr. Eric Francis Osborn states, "The supremacy of divine love in creation leads Justin to attribute to Plato the concept of the cosmic cross." (Osborn, 51) Justin's remark about Moses being the originator of the cosmic cross comes from the early Church fathers' interpretation of Numbers 21:6-9, in which Moses is said to raise up a bronze serpent, asserted to be a "type of cross." In consideration of the debate as to Moses's historicity and when exactly the Old Testament texts were written down first, the contention that the biblical writers possessed these or other spiritual notions before other cultures is unfounded, particularly in view of the antiquity of the Egyptian civilization and the abundance of spiritual concepts there. In any event, centuries before the common era Plato also discussed a "just man" who is "crucified" (Republic 361d), as related by Pope Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger): "...according to Plato the truly just man must be misunderstood and persecuted in this world; indeed, Plato goes so far as to write: 'They will say that our just man will be scourged, racked, fettered, will have his eyes burned out, and at last, after all manner of suffering will be crucified.' This passage, written four hundred years before Christ, is always bound to move a Christian deeply." (Ratzinger, 353) The Pope uses the translation of Plato by Dr. A.D. Lindsay, who specifically renders the Greek as "crucified" in describing the fate of the "just man." This Platonic passage, in fact, much resembles that found at Isaiah 53:4-1 and, along with that OT "messianic prophecy," likely was used as a blueprint in the creation of the Christ character. Again, in Platonic philosophy, the "world soul" or "divine Son of God," as Justin interprets it, is impressed upon a cross in the vault of heaven, representing, as we have seen, the sun crossing over the ecliptic, which was likewise the role not only of Horus in transit across the sky but also of the Gnostic Horos-Stauros, another "cosmic cross." Osiris and the Djed Pillar As a Platonic ideal, the cosmic cross/stauros precedes the Christian era by centuries; yet, the cross supposedly only gained significance with Jesus's alleged death upon it. In fact, the cross's purpose as bestower of salvation and eternal life already existed as a spiritual concept long before the common era, in Egypt for one. Indeed, Osiris's depiction on or as the djed pillar - surrounded by the two sisters or "the Merti" (Budge, 429), much like Christ on the cross with the three Marys at his feet (Jn 19:25) - served as "sin removal," as related in Christ in Egypt (351): "...the erection of the djed cross during the celebration also apparently took the place of human sacrifice, which was designed to propitiate the god or God in order to remove sins and bring about continuity of the community as a whole." The correlation between Osiris's pillar and the cross of Jesus was obvious enough to the Egyptian Christians or Copts for them to depict Archangel Michael, for example, holding a "djed cross" in his right hand. As further stated in CIE (365), in addition to pre-Christian texts depicting the "crucified man in space," we also possess various Egypto-Christian artifacts connecting Jesus with both Osiris and Horus, including Gnostic gems. As another example, in Ancient Christian Mage: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, Drs. Marvin W. Meyer and Richard Smith report on a crucifix in the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo "with the crucified figure of Jesus together with a falcon (Horus)." This artifact demonstrates that identifying Horus with the crucified Jesus occurred even in antiquity. As revealed in my books Christ in Egypt and Suns of God, there is much more to the subject of Pagan gods and goddesses on a cross or in cruciform, serving as crucifixes. The images and descriptions of deities in cruciform include Osiris, Isis and Horus, and the answer to the question of whether or not Horus was ever associated with the cross and depicted on a cross or in cruciform must be a resounding yes. If other gods were shown on a cross or in cruciform, or associated otherwise with a sacred cross, then Christ's depiction on a cross is not unique. If the Pagan personified savior-cross existed first, the whole notion of Christ's redeeming power through the cross becomes derivative. Rather than representing "history," it is more probable that Christ's "crucifixion" constitutes a mythical motif created in order to associate him with the already revered cross and image of a divine figure in cruciform. We must therefore conclude that the figure of Christ on a cross or in the shape of a cross is a johnny-come-lately in the world of religious iconography, and the story of the crucifixion appears more likely a contrivance based on this important imagery, as well as on Jewish "messianic prophecies" or blueprints, instead of an improbable "historical" tale. Indeed, the crucifixion reveals itself to be another pre-Christian mythical motif with a largely astrotheological meaning. Along with this interesting evidence concerning the profound importance of the sacred cross in pre-Christian religion, as well as its association and identification with Egyptian gods, we find another "Christian" motif in Egypt, with Horus represented on the cross at the vernal equinox between two "thieves" in a pre-Christian artifact. For much more information on this fascinating subject, see Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. Sources "1000 Years of History," www.limassollink.com/history.php"Herakles & Prometheus," www.theoi.com/Gallery/T21.4.htmlBudge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, v. 1, Dover Publications, NY, 1978.Campbell, Joseph, ed., The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Bollingen Series XXX, Princeton University Press, 1979.Catholic Encyclopedia, IV, ed. Charles George Herbermann, The Encyclopedia Press, 1913. --VII, ed. Charles George Herbermann, The Encyclopedia Press, 1913.Corbelli, Judith A., The Art of Death in Graeco-Roman Egypt, Osprey Publishing, 2006.Doane, Thomas, Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, The Truth Seeker, 1882.Encyclopedia Britannica, XXVII, The Encyclopedia Britannica Company, NY, 1910.Faulkner, Raymond, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1998.Felix, Minucius, Octavius, ed. Gilles Quispel, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1973.Hornung, Erik, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, tr. John Baine, Cornell University Press, NY, 1982. --The Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity, tr. David Warburton, Timken Publishers, NY, 1990.Justin Martyr, The Apologies of, ed. Basil L. Gildersleeve, Harper & Brothers Publishers, NY, 1877.Kamil, Jill, Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs: The Coptic Orthodox Church, Routledge, 2002.Lundy, John P., Monumental Christianity, or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church, J.W. Bouton, NY, 1876.Maitland, Charles, The Church in the Catacombs: A Description of the Primitive Church of Rome, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London, 1846.Meyer, Marvin W. and Smith, Richard, Ancient Christian Mage: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, Princeton University Press, 1999.Murdock, D.M., Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, Stellar House Publishing, Seattle, 2009.Osborn, Eric Francis, Justin Martyr, J.C.B. Mohr/Siebeck, Tubingen, 1973.Plato, Timaeus and Critias, tr. Desmond Lee, Penguin Books, 1971.Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, Introduction to Christianity, Ignatius Press, 2004.Roberts, Alexander, Ante-Nicene Christian Library, XI, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. --Ante-Nicene Fathers, I, The Christian Literature Publishing Co., Buffalo, 1885. --Ante-Nicene Fathers, III, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1903. --Ante-Nicene Fathers, IV, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1926.Seymour, William Wood, The Cross in Tradition, History and Art, G.P. Putnam's Sons, NY/London, 1898.Sharpe, Samuel, Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, John Russell Smith, London, 1862.Wilkinson, J. Gardner, The Manner and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, I, John Murray, London, 1847. Illustrations a. Tertullianb. The Octavius of Minucius Felixc. Justin Martyrd. Cruciform prayer posture of deceased Christian in the catacombs. (Seymour, 433)e. Hellenized Egyptian funerary stela from Kom Abu-Billo/Terenuthis, with Horus hawk. 3rd-4th cent. AD/CE (Kamil, 153; Corbelli, 39)f. Human in cruciform with cross around neck from Cyprus, Chalcolithic period (3900-2500 BCE), www.limassollink.com/history.phpg. The Shari in Egypt wearing crosses, possibly Assyrians, c. 15th cent. BCE. (Wilkinson, I, 365, 375ff)h. Crosses on the bottoms of ossuary-vases from the cemetery at Golasecca, Italy. (Seymour, 25)i. Prometheus crucified using chains on a Greek vase, c. 350. BCE, www.theoi.com/Gallery/T21.4.htmlj. Andromeda crucified using chains in a wall painting from Pompeii, c. 79 AD/CE, www.uwm.edu/Course/mythology/0800/underworld.htmk. Early Christian crucifix from the catacombs, in a manuscript from the sixth century. (Seymour, 172)l. Crucifixion scene from the Santa Sabina Church, Rome, 5th cent.m. Prometheus bound to a wooden stake or stauros, i.e., a cross, on a Greek vase, c. late sixth to early seventh cents. BCE, www.theoi.com/Gallery/T21.5.htmln. Horus using Egyptian cross to raise Osiris. (Lundy, 403)o. Winged goddess (Isis) in cruciform on King Tut's sarcophagus.p. Horus with arms outstretched in vault of heaven, from Samuel Sharpe's Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum (143). This image was originally on a papyrus and is here and in Christ in Egypt depicted upside down for purposes of more readily illustrating the point.q. Plato's world soul forming a cross of the solar and planetary orbits and ecliptic.r. Platos. Moses raising up the "brazen serpent" or snake made of bronze, shaped like a cross. (Seymour, 54)t. Osiris as personified djed pillar holding the sun, surrounded by the two sisters Isis and Nephthys - called the Merti - found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ani Papyrus, plate 1, c. 13th-15th cents. BCE.u. Christ on the cross, surrounded by the three Marys, per John 19:25, www.knowjesuschrist.org/prayers.html.v. Archangel Michael holding a djed cross in a Coptic painting, 18th cent. (Kamil, 156) Reflections And Warnings - An Interview With Aaron Russo {Full Film}An Interview With Aaron Russo, the FULL FILM! This is one hella of a blockbuster hit, folks! Tim Geitner in China Getting laughed at by Chinese StudentsThis video just released today, fresh off the press! AUTEC... The underwater Area 51Everyone's heard of Area 51--Groom Lake, Nevada. However, 2,500 miles away there's an underwater facility that's also highly secretive. Perched on the cusp of The Bermuda Triangle, it's called AUTEC. The Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center is a laboratory said to be used by the U.S. Navy for weapons testing and underwater research. UFO and USO activity in and around AUTEC fuels speculation that the U.S. government is secretly working with extraterrestrials; engineering and testing alien technology . The team heads here to speak with former base employees and to search the waters around one of America's most top-secret facilities. Russia, China should dump dollar in trade - Medvedev
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and China should consider switching to domestic currencies in bilateral trade without going to the dollar, Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Kommersant daily published on Friday.
China has already entered similar agreements with Brazil and Belarus. The deal involves a currency swap agreement between the two countries. Trade turnover between Russia and China reached about $50 billion in 2008 and is set to increase. "I think that we can think about such positions, for example the rouble against yuan," Medvedev was quoted by Kommersant as saying. Russia's own attempt to switch to the rouble in bilateral trade with Belarus has so far not been successful. Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, known by their BRIC acronym, are meeting in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on June 16 to discuss the role of the dollar in the global financial system among other issues. Medvedev said bilateral currency deals between trade partners ease impact of the economic crisis in an environment when many countries have difficulties tapping international capital markets. National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09)
National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) is scheduled for July 27 through July 31, 2009. NLE 09 will be the first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery.
NLE 09 is designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise. Tier I exercises (formerly known as the Top Officials exercise series or TOPOFF) are conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was established to provide the U.S. government, at all levels, exercise opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters. NLE 09 is a White House directed, Congressionally- mandated exercise that includes the participation of all appropriate federal department and agency senior officials, their deputies, staff and key operational elements. In addition, broad regional participation of state, tribal, local, and private sector is anticipated. This year the United States welcomes the participation of Australia, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom in NLE 09. EXERCISE FOCUS NLE 09 will focus on intelligence and information sharing among intelligence and law enforcement communities, and between international, federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector participants. The NLE 09 scenario will begin in the aftermath of a notional terrorist event outside of the United States, and exercise play will center on preventing subsequent efforts by the terrorists to enter the United States and carry out additional attacks. This scenario enables participating senior officials to focus on issues related to preventing terrorist events domestically and protecting U.S. critical infrastructure. NLE 09 will allow terrorism prevention efforts to proceed to a logical end (successful or not), with no requirement for response or recovery activities. NLE 09 will be an operations-based exercise to include: activities taking place at command posts, emergency operation centers, intelligence centers and potential field locations to include federal headquarters facilities in the Washington D.C. area, and in federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector facilities in FEMA Region VI, which includes the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. EXERCISE OBJECTIVES Through a comprehensive evaluation process, the exercise will assess prevention and protection capabilities both nationally and regionally. Although NLE 09 is still in the planning stages, the exercise is currently designed to validate the following capabilities: * Intelligence/Information Sharing and Dissemination * Counter-Terrorism Investigation and Law Enforcement * Air, Border and Maritime Security * Critical Infrastructure Protection * Public and Private Sector Alert/Notification and Security Advisories * International Coordination VALIDATING THE HOMELAND SECURITY SYSTEM Exercises such as NLE 09 are an important component of national preparedness, helping to build an integrated federal, state, tribal, local and private sector capability to prevent terrorist attacks, and rapidly and effectively respond to, and recover from, any terrorist attack or major disaster that occurs. The full-scale exercise offers agencies and jurisdictions a way to test their plans and skills in a real-time, realistic environment and to gain the in-depth knowledge that only experience can provide. Participants will exercise prevention and information sharing functions that are critical to preventing terrorist attacks. Lessons learned from the exercise will provide valuable insights to guide future planning for securing the nation against terrorist attacks, disasters, and other emergencies. For more information about NLE 09, contact the FEMA News Desk: 202-646-4600. FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation, to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the nation from all hazards including natural disasters, acts of terrorism and other man-made disasters. Last Modified: Thursday, 04-Jun-2009 11:54:54 EDT Texas Giant Human Skull
January 7, 2008
by David Allen Deal There are groups in our society that have always tried to suppress any evidence that supports biblical history, such as the flood of Noah, or existence of giants, wherever and whenever they have been found in the past. Sometimes the evidence is sent to the Smithsonian or a state university from which it disappears, never to be seen again. As time passes these efforts are ever increasing, and now we see attacks against all religion by wild-eyed fanatic atheists. The famous Davenport Iowa, Academy of Natural Sciences dispute with and report about the arrogance of Mr. Henshaw of the Smithsonian by Charles Putman in 1885 is another example of honest academics going up against the Smithsonian Institute and the erroneous and spiteful policies of its director, Major John Wesley Powell.1 The evidence for the existence of elephants and mastodons and mammoths has been well reported from sites throughout the Americas for the past 150 years, yet not many stop to realize the biblical significance of this. In other words, prior to the world wide deluge, (Flood of Noah) many robust animal types lived on the American continent, and fossil evidence supports this claim. Examples are: elephants, bison, horses & camels. Of the latter two, examples are found as fossils in Anza Borego State Park in California, in a huge anticline near Fish Creek and split mountain. Modern horses and camels and elephants do not appear here in the Americas again until thousands of years after the flood. Some antediluvian life forms never appear here again, only to reappear in eastern Anatolia where the ark landed on a mountain. One form of antediluvian life that never reappears is super giant humans, except as an occasional bone or grave which are obviously of pre-flood origin. So-called “giant” graves are usually of men less than eight feet in stature, yet considered to be giants - they weren't. However there have been exceptions. This is one of those previously hidden and suppressed stories. It comes from a small bedroom community of Rockwall, Texas just east of Dallas and the old Trinity River. This place is of great prehistorical interest, because of the buried 40 foot high wall that enclosed approximately 30 square miles, now covered with 40 feet of marine (flood) sediments. In the past, for example, when the early residents were building the Courthouse, several subterranean rock-lined rooms were uncovered, and then filled-in for the modern structure being built. A rock lined tunnel down to the river was discovered, according to local architect John Lindsey, and even later while crews were building Interstate 30, a large rock-lined room was found because a huge road grader fell into it. Several excavations have been made to expose the wall over the years, the latest, only about 5 years ago. Local squabbling and small town politics closed down their website, but not before I copied all the photographs of the exposed wall structure. I can't use them for this article because of ownership and copyright restrictions, but I can send a few to interested parties who wish to see them via e-mail. (http://www.noahsark-naxuan.com/4.htm). Three follow-on stories, written in mid 1886 published in the ROCKWALL SUCCESS newspaper, were found in the archives by a member of the Rockwall Historical Society in 2006 and sent to me. I have photocopies of these three clippings. They are datelined “Buffalo.” Buffalo was a small township, several miles south of Rockwall which no longer exists. Rockwall Success May 28, 1886 2 --- Dateline “Buffalo” “The greatest wonders that we have to record this week is the finding of a petrified human skull. While at work last Saturday, Ben Burton unearthed with his plow, a gigantic skull, fully as large as a half bushel. The staring sockets wherein the eyeballs once rolled, were as large as a half-gallon cup. Some few of the jaw-teeth still remained; one of them about an inch thick by two inches long. This goes to prove that this county was once inhabited by a race of people that would be wonderful to look at now. Dr. Wiggins thinks it the skull of some ante-deluvian giant, that would have weighed at least 1000 pounds. Any one wishing to see this mammoth skull, can do so by calling at The Success office, as Mr. Burton says he will leave t there for inspection. -- Sam Slick” Rockwall Success June 4, 1886 No. 19 --- Dateline “Buffalo” May 30 THE MYSTERY SOLVED The Rock Wall is Human Handiwork. Wonders will never cease. Immediately after it was generally known that Mr. J. B. Burton had found the gigantic petrified skull, a large crowd collected and set about making an examination of the surrounding ground. Spades, picks, and axes were plentiful and in use. Mr. W. R. Grier might have been seen pounding the ground with a huge hammer, and intently listening after each successive blow, when he was heard to call out, “This way boys!” There was a general rush to his position. “Listen Boys,” said Grier as he brought the hammer down with a heavy thump on a large flat rock. To the astonishment of all, the hammer slipped from Grier's hands, and after a short interval, was heard to strike something below that had the clear distinct ring of metal. Now the wildest excitement prevailed. A lantern and rope were quickly brought, and the earth was rapidly cleared away. The hole in the rock, which proved to be slate, was enlarged and the lantern was let down into the murky darkness. At last Messrs Burton, Grier and J. B. Steger volunteered to descend and explore the mystery. The cavity proved to be a chamber about 60x100 feet square, and 40 feet from the floor to the slate roof through which they had effected an entrance. This roof was supported on pillars of black marble, whose polished sides glittered in the lamplight and made one think of the orient. This underground palace will undoubtedly astonish the world, when thoroughly explored. In one corner stands a large iron chest - supposed to be full of gold or valuables which was so heavy as to baffle all efforts to remove it. Among other things found was a huge iron bedstead, 25 feet long and a pair of sandals three feet wide by ten inches wide, a battle axe with a pole handle 12 feet long, which weighed at least 75 pounds. The explorers extended their investigation no further, but are sure that there are other rooms connected with the one visited. The noted rock wall from which our county takes its name runs in a few gards (yards) of this palace. This we think settles that mystery. All surrounding circumstances go to show that this goliath built the rock wall to enclose his vast estate. Another visit has been made, the result of which your correspondent has not yet ascertained. --- Sam Slick Rockwall Success June 11, 1886 -- Dateline Buffalo June 8 BUFFALO'S MARVEL The Palace and its Living (sic) Occupant. We told you in our last, that another search had been made. Your correspondent visited this wonderful subterranean palace, to ascertain for himself the almost incredible facts connected with it. We arrived in time and were invited to descend with the exploring party, consisting of J. B. Steger, J. B. Grier, Jess Handley, Tom Bratcher, J.B. Burton and Dr. Wiggins and your correspondent. We at once began examining the walls, and found on the north side a huge iron door, which yielded to our efforts assisted by a crow bar and a sledge hammer. As it swung round on its rusty hinges, its harsh grating sound was echoed and re-echoed from the cavern of darkness that lay before us. No one was in a hurry to go in, as a heavy noise was heard like the slamming of a door, and each feared to intrude. Finally Steger thrust his lantern forward and peered in and at least walked forewarn (forward) followed by the party. Mr. Editor, I have read of unearthing buried cities, and of the mysterious things found in them, but never did I dream of seeing what we did that day. Tom Bratcher's eyes could have been snared off with a grape vine. Dr. Wiggins, Grier, Steger and Handley gazed in awe at what met their sight. A huge iron kettle swung near the floor. It would hold at least 1000 gallons, and against it leaned a fork as large as a hay fork. You can better imagine our consternation when I tell you that we saw in that kettle a mass of bones and grinning, staring skulls. Dr, Wiggins touched one with his cane and it fell into dust. There is no doubt that the ancient Goliath, whose residence this was, was a fierce cannibal. But may I be delivered from what we next encountered. In the center of the hall, we found an iron trap-door, which our combined strength at last raised; when from out of stygian darkness, there flapped screaming a huge bird with eyes like Poe's “nevermore” raven. In a dismal half-human voice, in grating screeches, the great bird seemed to cry “Get out of here, Get out of here!” ?It is needless to say that in mad terror we hastily obeyed, as the bird, blinded by the light, flew from wall to wall (large Bat perhaps?). We quickly reached the platform whence we were hastily drawn to the open air, Sterer, Grier and Bracther fainted and Dr. Wiggins was so unnerved that he could do nothing for them. They were resuscitated by throwing cold water into their faces. Bratcher said he would not have fainted if it had not been that when they opened the trap-door he “smelled something like yarn sox b_ _ gbug .” (last word unreadable). -- Sam Slick Exactly seven days after this final story appeared, on June 18, 1886 “The Rockwall Success” was sold out to new owners and the paper's name was immediately changed to: “The Texas Success.” No follow on stories ever appeared in the new, larger formatted, paper's pages. This circumstance should create a question in the reader's mind. “Was the paper purchased to stop any further public information on this subject giant men, which had become anathema to the, then current, Smithsonian Institute Powell doctrine of ancient American migration and evolution theory, a doctrine that has been slavishly followed to this “enlightened time.” The giant skull has obviously gone the way of the Smithsonian: swept under the academic rug, or otherwise “disappeared,” so as to not have any disruptive influence against the prevalent academic theory. However, using the descriptions given by the paper's correspondent and the word of the other honest American town's people of Rockwall, we can reconstruct the comparative size using other photographs. It is hard for most people today to visualize a half-bushel basket or a gallon cup or jug, so these items are shown for size comparison to accurately scale the size of the skull, since no visual pictures exist, only verbal ones, but they suffice. Items shown here are common everyday items of the time period. We don't use “bushels” too much in everyday life, but these well-known articles give a good idea of the size of the skull. The Man is just a man (for scale) dressed in period garb. If we extrapolate from the size given for the skull we can see a giant of 18 feet in stature. We also know from the story, that this and presumably others living around the defensive wall of Rockwall were cannibalistic, and we can thus surmise the reason for the wall in the first place. It appears that Dr. Wiggins of Rockwall was right. “Dr. Wiggins thinks it the skull of some antediluvian giant, that would have weighed at least 1000 pounds.” Actually 1620 pounds would be more accurate. One arrives at this number by cubing the weight of an average 180 pound man. Rockwall, Texas is built directly over nothing more than a pre-flood American city with a defensive wall system to protect the normal sized human inhabitants from marauding, cannibalistic giants. We can also see some of the reason for the flood in the first place, “...the earth had become corrupt and full of violence.” And we also see the reason why many people who have alternative ideas and beliefs would wish to diminish, and cover up such valuable and biblical confirming evidence. As Sam Slick, the reporter could visualize, this information would be a sensation around the world. Yet it was effectively silenced by men of ill will. And we are the less for it. Following Accounts and Articles by Mike Frizzell of the Enigma Project 1923 Arizona, Grand Canyon: The bodies of two petrified human beings 15 and 18 feet in height were discovered. Some time in the late 19th century, giants with double rows of teeth, red hair, and skulls 3 to 6 times the size of normal humans were discovered on Catalina Island in California. by Chad Arment of the North American Biofortean Review B. 15-foot human skeleton found in S/E Turkey in late 1950's in the Euphrates valley during road construction. Many tombs containing giants were uncovered here. This pertains to the picture of the giant human femur and myself above. Read more: http://www.geocities.com/saqatchr/page46.html FOOTNOTES 1 Search: davenport elephant pipes http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=jVItkIn6LWsC&dq=davenport+elephant+ pipes&printsec=frontcover&source= web&ots=J6yJKV-Eil&sig= jtCWeengsXo0jp-p2XzI1ltGLtY#PPP1,M1 2 Three clippings from the Rockwall Success newspaper: May 28 - 30 June 4th and June 8th and 11th, 1886 http://www.noahsark-naxuan.com/Research.cfm Oil Prices Doubled Since Inauguration, Will Media Blame Obama?
By Noel Sheppard
June 6, 2009 - 13:21 ET Virtually every time oil and gasoline prices rose when George W. Bush was in the White House, his policies and/or his connections to folks in the oil industry were blamed by newsrooms from coast to coast. Yet, even though oil has doubled in price since Inauguration Day, with retail gas prices up $0.75 a gallon, you'd be hard-pressed to find reports blaming these spikes on President Obama or anything he's done since taking office. Why? Before you answer, take a look at the following crude oil chart:
On January 19, crude was $34.78. On Friday, it closed at $68.44, a virtual doubling in only four and a half months. Although oil prices certainly rose during the Bush years, there was never such a fast doubling as what we've seen since Inauguration Day. As for prices at the pump, the national average was $1.85/gallon on January 19. Today's average is $2.60. But that doesn't tell the entire story, for the wholesale gas price was about $1.10 before Inauguration Day. With its $1.95 close on Friday, Americans could be seeing $3 at the pump soon; we in California already are. With this in mind, given the constant lambasting Bush used to get concerning rising energy prices, will Obama and his policies be similarly blamed? Or will this be another thing the Obama-loving press gives him a pass for? Unanswered Chemtrail Questions... As Evidence Mounts
©By Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri
6-7-9
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