Ancient Aliens — Evidence of Ancient Aliens?

Ancient alien theorists like Erich von Däniken believe that, thousands of years ago, extraterrestrials landed on Earth, where they were hailed as gods and helped shape human civilization. But what proof could possibly exist for such an encounter? Proponents of the theory point to two types of evidence: ancient religious texts and physical specimens such as cave drawings, stone sculptures and pyramids. Is your curiosity piqued? Here’s a quick introduction to some of the most famous examples.

The Nazca Lines

Etched into a high plateau in Peru’s Nazca Desert, a series of ancient designs stretching more than 50 miles has baffled archaeologists for decades. Along with simple lines and geometric shapes, they include drawings of animals, birds and humans, some measuring more than 600 feet across. Because of their colossal size, the figures can only be appreciated from way up in the air—and there is no evidence that the Nazca people, who inhabited the area between 300 B.C. and 800 A.D., invented flying machines. According to ancient alien theorists, the figures were used to guide spaceships as they came in for a landing, and the lines served as runways.

Vimanas

Many Sanskrit epics, which were written in India more than two millennia ago, contain references to mythical flying machines called vimanas. Pointing to similarities between descriptions of vimanas and reports by people who claim to have seen UFOs, ancient alien theorists have suggested that astronauts from other planets visited India during ancient times.

he Moai of Easter Island

The Polynesian island of Easter Island is famous for its “maoi”: the 887 giant human figures with enormous heads that guard its coastline. Roughly 500 years old, these monolithic statues stand 13 feet high and weigh 14 tons, but some are twice as tall and much heavier. How could human beings without sophisticated tools or knowledge of engineering craft and transport such incredible structures? Some ancient alien theorists believe it is the work of visiting extraterrestrials who left their mark on the island.

Puma Punku

Located in the Bolivian highlands, Puma Punku is a field of stone ruins scattered with giant, finely carved blocks. Such precise workmanship on a massive scale would have been nearly impossible without modern tools and machines, yet the ruins are more than 1,000 years old. Ancient alien theorists have hypothesized that extraterrestrials with advanced engineering techniques created the site or advised the people who built it.

The Book of Ezekiel

In the Book of Ezekiel, part of the Hebrew bible, a prophet has a vision of a flying vessel accompanied by fire, smoke and a loud noise. Some ancient alien theorists have argued that the vehicle’s design closely mirrors that of a modern spaceship. Rather than a divine intervention, then, perhaps the text describes an early encounter between humans and alien astronauts.

Pacal’s Sarcophagus

Pacal the Great ruled over the Mayan city of Palenque, in what is now southern Mexico, during the seventh century. Upon his death, he was buried inside a pyramid called the Temple of Inscriptions. The intricately carved lid of his sarcophagus has become a classic work of Mayan art—and an oft-cited piece of evidence for ancient alien theorists. In their view, Pacal is pictured in a spaceship during takeoff, with his hand on a control panel, his foot on a pedal and an oxygen tube in his mouth.

For more earthly evidence of extraterrestrial encounters, tune in to Ancient Aliens on HISTORY.

via Ancient Aliens — Evidence of Ancient Aliens? — History.com.

If you are interested in this topic, watch the ancient alien series on history channel.  The final episode, “The Return,” premiers on May 25. I’m not certain, but it doesn’t look like you can view it on line. The iTunes store currently only has three episodes available and they are $3.99 each. “The Return” is not yet available on iTunes.  I may get the entire Ancient Aliens’ Ancient Aliens, Season 1 … especially if there is some freaky music like the theme of “In Search of…” which got me interested in this topic years ago.

Results of cell phone cancer study “inconclusive”

After spending 10 years and $24 million to see whether cell phone use leads to brain cancer, the World Health Organization has reached a verdict: it’s not quite sure.

In a decade-long survey of nearly 13,000 people across 13 countries, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined that most cell phone use did not lead to an increased risk of either meningioma, a common but typically benign form of cancer, or glioma, a rare but more dangerous type of brain cancer.

The study results, released Monday, did see “suggestions” that using cell phones for long periods of time on the same side of the head could lead to an increased risk of glioma, especially around the temporal lobe. However, the authors acknowledged that possible biases and errors from those participating in the survey meant that these results were not conclusive enough to directly blame cell phone radiation for such tumors. For example, people were asked to try to keep track of how often they used their cell phones and on which side of the head over a period of 10 years.

To conduct the study, 21 scientists from around the world came together in 2000 to form the Interphone International Study Group under the auspices of the IARC. Among the many people interviewed were those who had brain tumors–2,708 individuals with glioma and 2,409 with meningioma–so the researchers could gauge their cell phone activity to see if there was a direct correlation with their cancers.

With a definitive answer still lacking, the IARC concludes that further study is needed, especially since cell phone use has increased dramatically since 2000, particularly among younger people.

“An increased risk of brain cancer is not established from the data from Interphone,” Dr. Christopher Wild, IARC’s director, said in a statement. “However, observations at the highest level of cumulative call time and the changing patterns of mobile phone use since the period studied by Interphone, particularly in young people, mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is merited.”

The researchers also want to conduct a new study to determine whether cell phone use leads to an increase risk of tumors in the ear’s acoustic or auditory nerve and the parotid gland, one of the glands that produces saliva.

Almost 25 percent of the $24 million needed to fund the study was contributed by the cell phone industry, but WHO said it took precautions to ensure that the researchers were able to work independently. …

via Results of cell phone cancer study inconclusive | Health Tech – CNET News.

Republican Rep Souder admits affair, resigns

Republican U.S. Representative Mark Souder, a self-proclaimed evangelical Christian, said on Tuesday that he had an affair with a female staffer and would resign, effective on Friday.

“I’m resigning rather than put my family through a painful drawn out process,” Souder said at a hastily called news conference in his home district in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Souder likely faced an investigation by the House of Representatives ethics committee if he did not step aside.

In a statement issued by his office, Souder, 59, said he had “sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff.”

The Republican Party will first have to move quickly to come up with a candidate to replace Souder in November’s election.

David Wasserman, who tracks congressional races for The Cook Political Report, said the Republicans were likely to retain the seat because it serves “one of the most Republican districts in the state of Indiana.”

Souder is the 20th House Republican to announce plans to resign or run for higher office in November. There are 19 House Democrats who plan to retire, run for higher officer or have lost their party’s primary.

Democrats now control the U.S. House, 254-177, but with polls showing plenty of voter anger at Washington, lawmakers are scrambling to retain the advantage. …

via Republican Rep Souder admits affair, resigns | Reuters.

Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder

Google has admitted that for the past three years it has wrongly collected information people have sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks.

The issue came to light after German authorities asked to audit the data the company’s Street View cars gathered as they took photos viewed on Google maps.

Google said during a review it found it had “been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks”.

The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches.

These snippets could include parts of an email, text or photograph or even the website someone may be viewing.

In a blogpost Google said as soon as it became aware of the problem it grounded its Street View cars from collecting wi-fi information and segregated the data on its network.

It is now asking for a third party to review the software that caused the problem and examine precisely what data had been gathered.

“Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short,” wrote Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research.

“The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust – and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here.”

‘Pushing the envelope’

Google said the problem dated back to 2006 when “an engineer working on an experimental wi-fi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast wi-fi data”.

That code was included in the software the Street View cars used and “quite simply, it was a mistake”, said Mr Eustace.

“This incident highlights just how publicly accessible, open, non-password protected wi-fi networks are today.”

Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing for security firm Ioactive, said there was no intent by Google.

“This information was leaking out and they picked it up. If you are going to broadcast your email on an open wi-fi, don’t be surprised if someone picks it up.” …

via BBC News – Google admits wi-fi data collection blunder.

This is a few days old but still interesting if you missed it.

FBI CIO Unveils Next-Gen IT Strategy

Despite a setback to its Sentinel case-management system, the agency is deploying a high-speed network, new Office-based PCs, and other infrastructure improvements. The FBI has completed an agency-wide upgrade to its network infrastructure and is six months into deployment of a new Microsoft Office-based PC environment in its field offices. In addition, the FBI’s new case-management system, Sentinel, has begun Phase 2 pilot testing, despite delays that have pushed Sentinel’s completion into 2011.

… The FBI has replaced its ATM/Frame Relay network with a new Cisco-based IP infrastructure that utilizes Multiprotocol Label Switching for higher performance. The new net, dubbed Next Generation Network, serves as a backbone for three FBI networks — the unclassified UNet, classified FBINet, and top secret SCION network — and extends to some 800 FBI locations. The network provides 45 times as much backbone capacity as the one it replaced, as well as doubling access speed at network endpoints.

The network replacement was a necessary precursor to the introduction of upgraded PCs that bring a range of new tools and capabilities to FBI special agents and other employees. The configuration of the FBI’s so-called Next Generation Workstation comprises Office 2007 and Windows XP running on a Dell PC with dual-core processor. As a cost saving measure, the FBI upgraded existing PCs with new hardware where possible. …

via FBI CIO Unveils Next-Gen IT Strategy — Government Technology — InformationWeek.

Easter Island discovery sends archaeologists back to drawing board

Archaeologists have disproved the fifty-year-old theory underpinning our understanding of how the famous stone statues were moved around Easter Island.Fieldwork led by researchers at University College London and The University of Manchester, has shown the remote Pacific island’s ancient road system was primarily ceremonial and not solely built for transportation of the figures.

A complex network of roads up to 800-years-old crisscross the Island between the hat and statue quarries and the coastal areas.

Laying alongside the roads are dozens of the statues- or moai.

The find will create controversy among the many archaeologists who have dedicated years to finding out exactly how the moai were moved, ever since Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl first published his theory in 1958.

Heyerdahl and subsequent researchers believed that statues he found lying on their backs and faces near the roads were abandoned during transportation by the ancient Polynesians.

But his theory has been completely rejected by the team led by Manchester’s Dr Colin Richards and UCL’s Dr Sue Hamilton.

Instead, their discovery of stone platforms associated with each fallen moai – using specialist ‘geophysical survey’ equipment – finally confirms a little known 1914 theory of British archaeologist Katherine Routledge that the routes were primarily ceremonial avenues.

The statues, say the Manchester and UCL team just back from the island, merely toppled from the platforms with the passage of time.

via Easter Island discovery sends archaeologists back to drawing board (The University of Manchester).

I’ve been interested in Easter Island for a long time. Here is a report I did back in 2002 which has some awesome pictures.

Ultra cheap nanochips could be built from DNA

In his latest set of experiments, Chris Dwyer, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, demonstrated that by simply mixing customized snippets of DNA and other molecules, he could create literally billions of identical, tiny, waffle-looking structures.

Dwyer has shown that these nanostructures will efficiently self-assemble, and when different light-sensitive molecules are added to the mixture, the waffles exhibit unique and “programmable” properties that can be readily tapped. Using light to excite these molecules, known as chromophores, he can create simple logic gates, or switches.

PhysOrg: DNA could be backbone of next generation logic chips

(via Theoretick)

via Ultra cheap nanochips could be built from DNA | Technoccult.

Crescent Venus and Moon

There’s something behind these clouds. Those faint graceful arcs, upon inspection, are actually far, far in the distance. They are the Earth’s Moon and the planet Venus. Both the Moon and Venus are bright enough to be seen during the day, and both are quite capable of showing a crescent phase. To see Venus, which appears quite small, in a crescent phase requires binoculars or a telescope. In the above dramatic daytime image taken from Budapest, Hungary in 2004, the Moon and Venus shared a similar crescent phase a few minutes before the Moon eclipsed the larger but more distant world. Similarly, visible today in parts of Africa and Asia, a crescent Moon will again eclipse Venus during the day. About an hour after the above image was taken, Venus reappeared.

via APOD: 2010 May 16 – Crescent Venus and Moon.

A crescent Venus?! Wow. I had no idea this was possible.

Weird Clouds Look Even Better From Space

Clouds are fascinating because they take on so many different, beautiful shapes and are constantly changing. Cloud-watching from Earth can be endlessly entertaining, but some of the most amazing cloud patterns can only be properly appreciated from space.

Satellites can take in thousands of miles of the Earth’s surface in one shot, revealing complicated and intriguing cloud patterns we could never see from below. We’ve gathered here some of the best cloud formations to see from above.

See More Here:  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gallery-clouds/#ixzz0oG5hfNaP

Yikes. Looks like you are skydiving into a nest of tornadoes!

Sherlock the vulture does CSI from the air

Sherlock, a five-year-old Turkey Vulture being trained to locate human corpses under a project commissioned by the German police.

German police are testing the use of vultures to seek out human corpses in a project aimed at speeding up criminal investigations. A bird expert at a wildlife park in northern Germany is training Sherlock, a five-year old turkey vulture, to locate fabric containing the scent of the dead.

Trained canines, such as bloodhounds, are highly effective in tracking and remembering scents, but, according to the German press, they need to take frequent breaks and can only scour 100 square meters per day, or even less if the terrain is difficult.

“Vultures can fly over many square kilometers. They could make police work much more efficient,” said an expert on forensic science and technology at the Lower Saxony criminal police force. It would take the birds just a few hours to cover areas that would take dogs days.

via n-SDA