The Psychedelic Cult That Thrived For Nearly 2000 Years

… The longest lasting “mystery” religion of the Greco-Roman period spanned nearly 2000 years, extending out of Mycenean traditions (approx. 1500 BC) and the Greek Dark Ages. The Eleusinian Mysteries are named for their origin in the city of Eleusis, but the religion centers on the story of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone. One day, Persephone is captured by Hades. In order to coerce the other Greek gods to retrieve Persephone from the Underworld, Demeter causes a worldwide drought.

The drought deprives humans of food — but, more importantly, the Greek gods of sacrifices. Zeus orders Hades to return Persephone, but a dirty rule of the Underworld calls for anyone who consumes food within the Underworld to stay within its boundaries forever. Persephone ate several pomegranate seeds during her stay in Underworld, but a deal is struck that calls for her to return to Hades for four to six months out of the year, months when Demeter will be dissatisfied and once again prohibit the growth of plants. This story of Demeter and Persephone sets forth an understanding of the change in seasons against a backdrop of the Greek pantheon. …

via The Psychedelic Cult That Thrived For Nearly 2000 Years.

 

Religion is the ancient way we attempted to understand the unknown. Then came religion 2.0, aka Science, but where science does not yet have answers, we still have religion 1.0.  The reason I call science a religion is that it requires faith, faith that no one faked the data, faith in the peer review process, faith that industry is not skewing the data for profit, and so on. As a new religion, Science is, IMHO, a significant improvement. As Science has progressed, religion 1.0 has backed off.  There aren’t many religions that now believe the planets are gods, or that rocks are alive and have human emotions, for example. But there were, once.  The “holy spirit” is another ancient attempt to understand our world. If you do the biblical research, you’ll discover that the holy spirit is the breath, which at one time was quite mysterious. While a person is breathing, they  have a life force. When a person dies, they take a last breath and the spirit (breath) leaves them.  Therefore, the ancients wrongly concluded that the breath is a mystical force that makes things alive. There was no ancient understanding of respiration, the exchange of O2 and CO2 required for cells to continue to function. The wind, without any understanding of high and low pressures caused by variations in temperature, was equally mysterious, and was explained as the roaming free spirits (breath) of past dead persons, animals, etc

Where the actual boundary of life and death lies is still a tad mysterious.  According to Aubrey DeGrey, cells age for seven reasons, and these combined with attacks by microbes, our immune system, chemicals, radiation and so on, are the reasons our individual cells die.

1. Cancer-causing nuclear mutations/epimutations:

   These are changes to the nuclear DNA (nDNA), the molecule that contains our genetic information, or to proteins which bind to the nDNA. Certain mutations can lead to cancer, and, according to de Grey, non-cancerous mutations and epimutations do not contribute to aging within a normal lifespan, so cancer is the only endpoint of these types of damage that must be addressed.

2. Mitochondrialmutations:

   Mitochondria are components in our cells that are important for energy production. They contain their own genetic material, and mutations to their DNA can affect a cell’s ability to function properly. Indirectly, these mutations may accelerate many aspects of aging.

3. Intracellular aggregates:

   Our cells are constantly breaking down proteins and other molecules that are no longer useful or which can be harmful. Those molecules which can’t be digested simply accumulate as junk inside our cells. Atherosclerosis, macular degeneration and all kinds of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s disease) are associated with this problem.

4. Extracellular aggregates:

   Harmful junk protein can also accumulate outside of our cells. The amyloid senile plaque seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients is one example.

5. Cell loss:

   Some of the cells in our bodies cannot be replaced, or can only be replaced very slowly – more slowly than they die. This decrease in cell number causes the heart to become weaker with age, and it also causes Parkinson’s disease and impairs the immune system.

6. Cell senescence:

   This is a phenomenon where the cells are no longer able to divide, but also do not die and let others divide. They may also do other things that they’re not supposed to, like secreting proteins that could be harmful. Immune senescence and type 2 diabetes are caused by this.^{[citation needed]}

7. Extracellular crosslinks:

   Cells are held together by special linking proteins. When too many cross-links form between cells in a tissue, the tissue can lose its elasticity and cause problems including arteriosclerosis and presbyopia.^[8]

Cells are dying and new ones are created constantly in your body.  When is a cell dead?

Dying cells are engaged in a process that is reversible until a first irreversible phase or ‘point-of-no-return’ is trespassed (Table 1)

A cell is dead on a molecular or morphological level when one or more of these three things is true:

1. [Its] plasma membrane has broken down, resulting in the loss of cell’s identity
2. The cell (including its nucleus) has undergone complete fragmentation into discrete bodies (usually referred to as apoptotic bodies),
3. The corpse or its fragments have been phagocytosed by neighboring cells

If cells do not die, then you have a cancer where the replicating cells end up damaging/starving other parts of the body and killing the host. Is it too simplistic to say that immortality can be found in between those two points: cancer and aging, cells never dying and cells dying off too quickly? If we evolve morally and keep our population down voluntarily, I’d love to see people living to a healthy 2,000 years, as long as the above article says the “Eleusinian Mysteries” religion endured.

 

Russian flight controllers find UFO with aliens that speak in ‘cat-like language’

The UFO was picked up over Yakutsk in Siberia

Air traffic controllers in Siberia claim they were buzzed by a high-speed UFO with a female sounding alien who spoke in an unintelligible cat-like language.

The mystery object suddenly burst onto flight monitors over the remote Russian diamond capital of Yakutsk.

It was shown flying at a speed of slightly over 6000 mph, and rapidly changing direction in the early morning sky, it is claimed.

COMMENT:

Russian air traffic control is primarily a spoken series of numbers indicating speed, altitude, etc. with LOTS of “Ne ponyal’s” (do/did not copy) thrown in….toward the end of the video, one of the controllers says “Some woman is making ‘meow’ sounds, etc.”…..Lastly, these Russians are speaking VERY fast so I missed a lot in the static….AND the Russkies swallow syllables with as much alacrity as they swallow that potato-based refreshment they are so fond of….

- jbw, redondo beach, ca, 03/3/2011 05:58

via Russian flight controllers find UFO with aliens that speak in ‘cat-like language’ | Mail Online.

Wow. Any visual confirmation to rule out a practical joke on the flight controllers pulled by someone who can program the system?

Image: Pattern resulting from a lightning strike on a sidewalk

lightning-strike-on-sidewalk.png (JPEG Image, 537 × 720 pixels) – Scaled (91%).

 

Triclosan, A Chemical Used in Antibacterial Soaps, is Found to Impair Muscle Function

Take a look at the bottle of antibacterial hand soap in your bathroom. Chances are good that a particular chemical is listed among its ingredients: triclosan.

The antibacterial substance, which was first developed in the 1960s to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals, has since been incorporated into everything from hand soaps to toothpastes to mouthwashes. Manufacturers see it as a marketing bonus, increasing consumer confidence that a particular product kills harmful bacteria. Even some household products—such as kitchen utensils, toys and bedding—include triclosan.

In recent years, though, research has shed light on a number of problems with employing triclosan so widely. Studies have shown that the chemical can disrupt the endocrine systems of several different animals, binding to receptor sites in the body, which prevents the thyroid hormone from functioning normally. Additionally, triclosan penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream more easily than previously thought, and has turned up everywhere from aquatic environments to human breast milk in troubling quantities.

To this list of concerns, add one more: A new paper, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that triclosan impairs muscle function in both animals and humans. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of California, Davis, found that the chemical hinders human muscle contractions at the cellular level and inhibits normal muscle functioning in both fish and mice.

“Triclosan is found in virtually everyone’s home and is pervasive in the environment,” said lead author Isaac Pessah. “These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health.” …

Using studies with animals to make assumptions about human health is always dicey, but the researchers say the fact that triclosan produced similar results in widely varying conditions with different animals—and the troubling effects of the chemical on human heart cells in test tubes—are causes for concern. ”The effects of triclosan on cardiac function were really dramatic,” said co-author Nipavan Chiamvimonvat. “Although triclosan is not regulated as a drug, this compound acts like a potent cardiac depressant in our models.” He speculates that in some cases, triclosan may be responsible for exacerbating heart problems in patients with an underlying condition.

Additionally, the FDA has declared that there is no evidence that using antibacterial soaps with triclosan confers any more health benefits than simply washing with conventional soap and water, and the agency is currently conducting a risk assessment for the chemical. ”Triclosan can be useful in some instances, however it has become a ubiquitous ‘value added’ marketing factor that actually could be more harmful than helpful,” said study co-author Bruce Hammock. “At the very least, our findings call for a dramatic reduction in its use.” …

via Triclosan, A Chemical Used in Antibacterial Soaps, is Found to Impair Muscle Function | Surprising Science.

I’ve been avoiding anti-bacterial soaps for years, but it isn’t always easy.

 

Mystery over Mars rover Curiosity’s photo appears solved

 

Confirmed: Mars rover Curiosity took photo of craft crash-landing
Images taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars show a plume of dust, left, which had disappeared when another photo was snapped 45 minutes later. Engineers say the plume indicates the crash-landing of the spacecraft that delivered the rover to the Martian surface. (NASA) – laTimes

Engineers said Friday that the Curiosity rover happened to catch a picture of its own ride crash-landing on Mars — a blink-of-an-eye serendipity that some dismissed as a statistical impossibility, but appears to have been confirmed by a thorough review of landing data.

The final seconds of Curiosity’s eight-month-plus journey to Mars called for a spacecraft to lower the rover to the surface using a “sky crane” — three ropes. The ropes were then cut, and the last of the spacecraft, known as the “descent stage,” cast itself toward the horizon. It crash-landed, on purpose, about 2,000 feet away.

A low-resolution photograph that Curiosity took seconds after landing Sunday night arrived immediately at La Canada Flintridge’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the $2.5-billion mission for NASA.

The photograph captured a pyramid-shaped blotch on the horizon. The same photo taken 45 minutes later with the same cameras showed the same view of the Martian landscape, but no blotch.

Die-hard space fans took to the Internet raising the possibility that the blotch was an image of the spacecraft crashing into the surface, an extraordinary coincidence considering the potential variables and the fact that the shutter was open for only 200 milliseconds.

“We expected it to kick up quite a lot of dust,” said Steve Sell, a member of Curiosity’s entry, descent and landing team. Still, the chances of the image being captured were “insane,” one engineer said.

On Friday, JPL reported that an examination of the mass of data Curiosity had sent home about its elaborate landing sequence showed that the photo did capture the craft crashing into the surface.

The spacecraft that had deposited Curiosity on the surface took about 20 seconds to arc across the Martian sky and crash at about 100 mph.

The photo was taken about 40 seconds after landing, but it appears that the tremendous impact sent up a cascade of Martian soil that was still hanging in the air when Curiosity snapped the photo. That could be due in part to the fact that Mars’ gravity is just 38% as strong as gravity on Earth.

Many had dismissed the plume as dirt on the camera lens, but engineers pointed out that the initial photo was taken in stereo, with two side-by-side lenses. Both images picked up the same blotch. That eliminated the possibility that the lens was simply dirty, and confirmed, Sell said, that “the artifact was real.”

“We believe we’ve caught what is the descent stage impacting on the Martian surface,” Sell said. “We’re fairly certain that is the impact plume.

via Mystery over Mars rover Curiosity’s photo appears solved – latimes.com.

Looks like another Martian bigfoot.

FAA Documents: Drones Over US Pose Huge Safety Risk

Recently released FAA documents have raised yet more questions surrounding the opening up of US skies to unmanned surveillance drones.

Thousands of pages of FAA experimental drone flight records that were obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) detail just how complicated it would be to operate thousands of unmanned arial vehicles safely without spending billions of dollars.

The documents, received by CIR through the Freedom of Information Act, discuss at length the fact that drones do not have sophisticated collision-avoidance systems and pose more of a threat to other aircraft because their pilots are on the ground with limited visual contact.

Experienced California mechanic and pilot Mel Beckman, tells CIR that drone aircraft are problematic because pilots are required to “see and avoid,” – in other words, literally keep an eye out for other aircraft.

“There’s no way for a drone pilot to do that,” Beckman said. “He’s on the ground, and he’s looking through a small aperture. Yes, the camera can swivel a little bit, but it’s nothing like the panoramic view the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) envisioned when they expected pilots to maintain their own visual surveillance.”

“There’s a big disconnect between ground pilots and the aircraft they’re flying,” pilot Beckman said. “The regulations currently don’t accommodate that.”

The FAA documents estimate that an outlay of $2 billion is needed in order to begin development of a satisfactory safety program for drones. In a document dated 2008, the Government Accountability Office estimated that such a program would not be ready before 2020.

The documents also cover numerous instances of companies testing drones. The FAA strictly confined the testing to areas of space where there was no other aircraft, precisely because the drones have no capabilities to avoid collisions. In numerous tests the drones STILL crashed into other objects.

“Without the ability to see and avoid, manufacturers rely on “chase planes” with a human pilot or ground observers who can visually track the drone” writes CIR Homeland Security reporter G.W. Schulz.

Over heavily built up areas with restricted airspace, the margin of safety for operation of drones is even narrower.

“By the time you avoid all of those areas and try to thread the needle, you’re limiting aircraft operations into a very narrow airspace, and you’re also compressing traffic into a very narrow corridor,” said Heidi Williams, vice president of air traffic services and modernization for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. “That reduces the margin of safety for many operators.” she added, noting that the technology will need to be “as reliable as the human eye” in order to be safe.

Despite such warnings, FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta noted last week during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Las Vegas, that over the next three years drones will begin rolling out. He added that “building human consensus … is an equally important task and unbelievably complicated.”

Huerta’s comments attracted criticism from some experts in the field, including Paul Schultz, CEO of Hawaiya Technologies in Aiea, Hawaii and a UAV manufacturer.

“This is all just happy talk. There are so many complex issues, like safety, related to implementation of UAVs that they haven’t even touched yet, like how anyone will pay for this.” Schultz said.

“Unmanned drones operating with airliners?” Schultz questioned. “Do you know how easy it is right now for some crazy person to take control of a drone through its GPS system? We’ll need to add coding to GPS to prevent such actions. Sure the technology exists, but to implement it nationwide is a huge problem.”

As Schultz notes, sophistictaed drones can also  be “spoofed” using relatively basic components, meaning anyone could potentially take full control of the vehicle.

University of Texas Professor Todd Humphreys recently testified to Congress on this very matter.

Manufacturers of drones, almost exclusively defense contractors, have spent $2.3 million so far on lobbying Congress to open up US airspace.

via » FAA Documents Show Drones Over US Pose Huge Safety Risk Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!.

Here’s another good reason to keep drones out of our skies: US draws up plans for nuclear drones. They may not only be nuclear powered, but they may also carry nuclear weapons:

… other unmanned combat aerial vehicles are in the works. Nearly a trillion dollars has been invested in the Northrop Grumman x-47b, which is designed to take off from an aircraft carrier, bomb its target, and return to the mother ship all while being flown entirely by computer. Boeing is developing the Phantom Ray ucav for surveillance and ground attack. A dizzying number of other drones are being researched, developed, tested and delivered—including drones that can carry nuclear warheads. This is the future of American warfare.

Hackmageddon

But the advantages and early success of unmanned aerial vehicles comes at a cost, including a bad case of overconfidence. The U.S. military is overestimating the strength of this new technology while simultaneously underestimating threats to it. This has led military planners and politicians to overreach, turning their present tactical monopoly into a full-blown military strategy for the future.

This overconfidence is leading to mistakes that America’s enemies have exploited and will continue to exploit. America may wield a vast technology edge over the Taliban and other tribal terrorists, but more technically advanced enemies are lurking in the shadows, working to take advantage of weaknesses in America’s new robotic army.

Primitive terrorists with machine guns and grenade launchers may be vulnerable to American drones. But American drones are vulnerable to cyberwarfare. Drone failures and captures have already been made public, underlining the risks Washington is taking by gambling the nation’s future on robots. …

via theTrumpet

 

Rejected Italian Ad: A Womanly Last Supper

click to enlarge

Complaint :
This image offends the religious sensibilities of all citizens. It trivializes the intense and dramatic moment during the Last Supper in which Christ anticipates his crucifixion in order to liberate humanity from their sins by appropriating religious symbols – such as loaves and fish – for commercial purposes and by replacing the apostles with female fashion models.

Advertiser :
The advertisers’ primary defense was that modern society has enabled women to achieve sexual equality with men only by sacrificing their femininity. This advertisement’s interpretation of Leonardo’s painting does not trivialize the sacred, but rather creates a new perception of femininity by presenting men – instead of women – in a position of fragility.

Adjudication :
The Advertising Standards Authority of Italy ruled that the image offends religious belief not only because it provokes a reaction among consumers of the sacred profaned, but also because it attempts to elevate commercial products to the same level as religious symbols. Rather than being merely satirical, the message of this advertisement blurs the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, and thus offends consumer sensibility.

via bestrejectedadvertising.com

I’m browsing rejected ads. Some are quite interesting. This one, if you blow it up, has all kinds of weird stuff, like extra hands, wrong feet, etc.