smorgasbord (smor-gos-bord) n.
A buffet meal featuring a varied number of dishes.
News,
Inspiration,
& Consumer Protection
for Spiritual Seekers
An NHNE Publication
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Total Subscribers:
This Issue: 991
Last Issue: 969
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This issue sponsored by:
MOOSE MEADOW ENTERPRISES
& THE UNDERGROUND PRESS
MOOSE MEADOW ENTERPRISES is an Alberta company that provides consulting services in the Calgary area. Part of their lexicon is web page programming, and under this umbrella, MOOSE MEADOW hosts and maintains the home page for THE UNDERGROUND PRESS, a "real" Calgary street paper. THE UNDERGROUND PRESS back issues are available online and an email link is provided to the publisher. THE UNDERGROUND PRESS was established to enhance public awareness of poverty, homelessness and other related issues and is involved in advocacy, social commentary & political irreverence. MOOSE MEADOW provides a virtual tour online of the home place and surrounding area. Please check out the following URLs:
THE DESERT DOVE is located in Sedona, Arizona, at the base of Cathedral Rock, one of the most photographed sites in the U.S.. Created as a spiritual retreat and healing center, THE DESERT DOVE offers comfortable, affordable lodging to travelers who seek an atmosphere of serenity and beauty, and a unique space in which to connect with the spirit of the land. THE DESERT DOVE also provides workshop and retreat facility rentals, and sponsors workshops that are open to the general public, as well as a series of seminars designed specifically for business leaders and professionals who are looking beyond the quest for success.
www.desertdove.com
Fort more information regarding availability and rental fees:
eMail: sascha@desertdove.com
Phone: (520) 282-9343
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Would you like to sponsor an issue of Smorgasbord and help support NHNE in the process? Send an email message to "nhne@sedona.net" and write "Sponsor Smorgasbord" in the SUBJECT field of your letter.
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"My father was constantly learning and listening and was a lifelong student. I ultimately aspired to be like him. He always told me that we should keep in the company of those looking for the truth and run away from those who had found it. That made a strong impression on me."
---Deepak Chopra
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CONTENTS:
LETTERS:
A Power Greater than Ourselves
-- Dream References
-- Pathwork References
Preparing for the Second Coming
NEWS WATCH:
Fewer Earthquakes, More Lives Lost in 1997
Russians Seek Atlantis Off Cornwall
CNN's Top 10 Sci-Tech Stories
High-Tech Dog Tags
Computerized Pen Wins European Prize
Warp Drive with Parallel Computing
Remote-Control System Uses Brain Waves
Japanese Cartoon Triggers Mass Child Seizures
Breast-Fed Children Perform Better
Biologists Identify Aging Mechanism
Humans Not Neanderthals' Descendants
Americans Promise 99 Percent Pollution-Free Cars
Biggest Meteorite Ever to Hit the Earth?
NASA Promises Cydonia Images "At Every Opportunity"
Launching Spaceships with Lasers
NASA Looks Toward Interstellar Travel
New Planets Found
The Oracle of Changes
IN SEARCH OF THE PROMISED LAND:
The Center for Millennial Studies
NOTES FROM THE HOME PLANET:
Apocalyptic Native American Movements
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
What Went Wrong?
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LETTERS:
A POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES
By David Sunfellow
Over the years, I've shared alot of thought-provoking material with everyone on the NHNE mailing list. But only a handful of publications have generated as many heartfelt letters as my Christmas message ("A Christmas Story", http://www.nhne.com/smorgchristmas.html). Along with many kind and supportive letters, I also received a number of letters from people who said they were wrestling with the same issues I am. Because of this, I thought it might be helpful to share a little bit about the roller coaster I've been on since last I wrote.
One of the themes that appeared in my Christmas letter, and which has also been popping up in other NHNE articles, is my growing sense of frustration with the apparent lack of authentic spiritual masters in our world. I have yet to meet or hear of anyone alive today who embodies the kind of perfection I believe is our birthright. And while there is certainly no shortage of people claiming to be perfect, those who proclaim spiritual mastership the loudest, often turn out to be the least developed and most lost. And this includes many of the eastern world's most celebrated "masters" who, along with whatever genuine inner strengths and powers they tapped into, frequently demonstrate glaring moral defects and/or an inability to function gracefully in the real world.
After emailing out my Christmas letter, I had a dream that reflected these painful perceptions. I dreamed I was visiting a woman who had been closely associated with Edgar Cayce. In real life, I knew this woman and also knew Edgar Cayce's son, Hugh Lynn Cayce. In my dream, both Hugh Lynn Cayce and the woman had grown up together. I saw pictures of them posing together when they were cheerful, idealistic teenagers. Now the woman was old and sick. I came to visit her and after studying her middle-class home, noting her debilitating illness, and becoming aware of the many sorrows she had known, I began to weep. "Even a person who spent their whole life with Cayce and the Cayce readings," I sobbed, "ended up living a normal human life. What hope is there for ever breaking free from the chains of suffering that bind us in this world?"
While I have no illusions about Edgar Cayce (he was a man with special gifts who also had his share of human failings), his life and work were uncharacteristically God-centered and sincere -- and so were many of the people who were drawn to him. Unlike many of today's flamboyant, opportunistic psychics, who are often more gifted at bamboozling gullible seekers than offering authentic intuitive guidance, Cayce was the real McCoy. Along with helping thousands of people with their day-to-day struggles, Cayce's legacy also includes hundreds of thoroughly documented, often very dramatic, healings, which helped give birth to the wholistic health movement many of us enjoy today. But my dream reminded me that even those of us who are fortunate enough to be surrounded by gifted human beings, and inspiring sources of information, often have trouble rising above the trials of ordinary life. More to the point, I came face to face with one of my greatest fears: that after all is said and done, myself, my loved ones, my friends -- all of us -- will grow old, suffer our share of earthly trials, and then leave this world without ever having reached the spiritual heights so many sources promise we can.
I realize, of course, that I/we are better off today than ever before. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to be born in many of today's western cultures live longer, healthier lives. We can pursue whatever interests and callings we have with little fear of starving to death, dying from the newest plague, being forced to serve tyrannical madmen, or being killed by marauding war parties. For the most part, we can love and marry whom we want, and follow whatever religious (or non-religious) path we choose. We also understand a great deal more about ourselves, and our world, than our ancestors did. Humankind, in other words, is clearly progressing from unconscious, self-centered, selfish, exclusive, uninformed, rash, warlike and narrow-minded levels of existence to higher, more loving and fulfilling ones.
But in spite these accomplishments, many of which trace directly back to spiritual impulses that laid the foundation for today's more peaceful, tolerant societies, our world is still surprisingly devoid of human beings who have reached their full potential. Today's world, of course, does have its fair share of inspired spiritual teachers, and teachings. But when was the last time these teachers -- as sincere, kind hearted and dynamic as many of them are -- walked on water, commanded the forces of nature, raised someone from the dead, or even did something as simple as stop or reverse their own aging process, heal a broken arm, repair a bad tooth, produce life-long healthy relationships with their children, spouses, friends, co-workers? Many of them teach that we can do all these things. But have they? Can we?
Lately, I've been hearing from a growing number of people who have become disillusioned with the hodgepodge of spiritual paths available today, as well as many of the spiritual teachers that champion them. Some of these people have had dreams and inner realizations similar to mine. Others, who were absolutely convinced a decade ago that our planet would be in the throws of major geological change by now, are disheartened that planetary-wide geological activity is at or below normal averages. Even Edgar Cayce's organization, THE ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH & ENLIGHTENMENT (A.R.E.) is currently mulling over the fact that Cayce's famous 1958 to 1998 "test period" is almost over -- without producing any of the major earth changes Cayce had predicted.
Last week, I came across an organization on the web that helped snap things into perspective for me. The organization is called "THE CENTER FOR MILLENNIAL STUDIES" (see "In Search of the Promised Land" in this issue for more details). Their primary purpose is to document and understand all things millennial. In reading their mission statement, one line leapt out at me. It said that apocalyptic expectations "have always proven wrong." While the statement itself was referring to literal end of the world predictions, it got me to thinking about humanity's ever-present longing for salvation and the various apocalyptic prophets and prophetic visions that have emerged over the centuries. Have any of them ever come true?, I wondered. Is there any valid reason to believe that human beings, in mass (or even one at a time), will EVER realize their full potential?
Two thousand years ago, ancient Palestine was a hotbed of apocalyptic activity. The Jewish people, suffering under brutal Roman rule, were expecting a Moses or King David-like Messiah to show up and lead them in war against the Roman Empire. Many, including the Essenes that some scholars believe were closely associated with Jesus, expected an all-out, end-of-the-world battle between the forces of good and evil. And, of course, thanks in large measure to the turbulence, uncertainty and desperation of the times, numerous false prophets appeared on the scene, fanning the flames. It was a time very much like today. It was, indeed, a time very much like other time periods in human history when the forces of change were destroying old cultures and creating new ones with such a vengeance that prophetic voices seemed to be everywhere, spontaneously venting collective hopes, dreams, grievances and delusions.
But unlike other prophetic ruptures that produced no lasting changes in the culture they appeared, the apocalyptic expectations of ancient Palestine came to dramatic fruition. The appearance of Jesus two thousand years ago changed everything -- albeit not in the way anyone expected. The world didn't come to a sudden end as many believed it would, nor was Rome violently overthrown by another Old-Testament-style warrior prophet. Nor even did most of Jesus' own people believe he was the one they had been expecting. But whole peoples were swept up in the wake of Jesus and his vision of love nonetheless. Mighty Rome, determined to crush the upstart religion that sprang up around Jesus, was instead converted. New nations, inspired by Christ's life and teachings, eventually emerged and became dominate world powers. And a growing host of human beings, some of whom were able to manifest the same kind of miraculous powers as their master had, began following in his footsteps and making their own mark on human history. Along with all the prophets and prophetic voices that came to nothing (and there have been many), here was one that had the power to change virtually everything it touched. Which brought me back to my ponderings.
"Rome," as they say, "wasn't built in a day." And like it or not, we've probably got a few more eons ahead of us before large numbers of humanity burst into the same kind of flames that Jesus did. In the meantime, I believe it is possible for many of us to start glowing a great deal brighter than we have been. But I don't think this kind of glowing can be achieved solely through our own efforts. One of my all-time favorite Pathwork lectures (Lecture 258, "Personal Contact with Jesus Christ," by Eva Pierrakos), summarized what I believe are the three "truths" all human beings must eventually incorporate into their spiritual journey:
"1. Only you yourself can effect your salvation. It is your responsibility. 2. You cannot possibly do it alone, you need the help of others who share the journey with you, who may often see what you do not see. 3. Without God, without the personal assistance of the personal aspect of God (Jesus), the undertaking is too vast for you to accomplish."
This particular Pathwork lecture was the last one ever done by Eva Pierrakos and, significantly, it focused entirely on Jesus and the importance of forming a personal relationship with him.
"How could you ever overcome the hurdle of your self-hate that fosters underneath all your defenses," this Pathwork lecture asks, "if it were not for the experience of Christ's personal love, forgiveness, acceptance, and total vision of you? How could you learn to love yourself without at least knowing, and finally experiencing, his love for you? How could you activate the power to change involuntary aspects that do not directly respond to your outer will? Only through allowing yourself to know -- and later to feel -- his total love and total acceptance of who you are now, no matter how flawed, imperfect and destructive your lower self may be, will you be able to do same."
Realizing the need for a direct encounter with God/Jesus/Spirit and actually having one are, of course, two different things. For while we can prepare ourselves, we can't dictate when, or even how, God will finally touch us. Indeed, as Pathwork lecture 258 points out, along with seeking the healing touch of God (or Jesus in this case), we also have to be patient, accepting of all aspects of ourselves, and continue, as best we can, to work on ourselves:
"You may be mentally completely reconciled to his reality. You may have used your personal will to make this total surrender and you may sincerely mean it. Yet you may not have experienced the emotional reality of his sweet and loving Presence. Often man becomes impatient and then he begins to doubt, thus disrupting the plant he has sown. When the emotional experience fails to materialize for a while, it is not that he keeps you waiting. It is that your inner barriers need to give way. And that can happen only with the context of your unique, personal rhythm pattern. Remember that and do not despair. Christ is here. He hears you. He loves you. He protects you. He is deeply concerned with you, even though your senses are still too dull to perceive it. But suddenly will the time come when you will be intensely aware of this fact. You will feel his loving, healing arms in which you can always rest and find new sustenance for your life work."
The main message I took away from my dream, then, was not that I, or anyone else, should accept our sad fate as pathetic, miserable, hopeless human beings. Rather than a call to surrender, I believe my dream, at least for me, was a call to arms; a call for me to seek more fervently the One in whom my (and our) ultimate salvation depends.
My hope and prayer, then, is that God may reach into each and every one of our lives, and personally touch and transform us. I pray that the kind of despairing dreams I've been having, and hearing about, are replaced with real life stories of being touched, and healed, by the likes of Jesus, Buddha, or whatever other authentic spiritual forces do God's bidding. I also hope and pray that as this millennium comes to an end, and the next one prepares to throw open its doors to ever-increasing heights of human achievement, that at least a few of us can be lifted up high enough to be beacons of hope to the next wave of souls that will be seeking, as we have, to realize their "full" potentials in this world.
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DREAM REFERENCES:
Dreams have played a very important role in my life, and in the lives of many of my closest friends. If you would like to learn more about dreams and how to use them to receive guidance, help, and inspiration, I encourage you to check out the following resources:
The Association for the Study of Dreams:
http://www.ASDreams.org/
Dream Lynx:
http://licensure.com/.dream/
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Dreams:
"For these, if paid attention to, brought back in the memory, written and kept and studied, interpreted as actual experiences which are symbolic and yet real in their nature, become guidelines to such an extent that one should be able to understand and rectify all those things in the life which are of an imperfect nature."
"The greatest book of study is that one of your own, written by the soul upon time and space--that of your dreams."
---From the book, "Season of Changes, Ways of Response", based on the A.L.M. Readings
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PATHWORK REFERENCES:
If you would like to find out more about Eva Pierrakos and the Pathwork lectures, an NHNE Special Report on the subject is available on the NHNE website:
http://www.nhne.com/pathwork.html
The Pathwork New York Region also has a website at:
http://www.pathwork.org
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PREPARING THE WAY
"David, thank you for your personal Christmas message. I appreciate you sharing it. I would like to give you and your readers my 'Holyday Message.' I sat one night praying, 'How will I recognize Christ when he comes back, when so many didn't recognize him the first time he was here? What can I do until Christ returns?' The message came clear in my thoughts: 'Practice, practice and practice more, treat everyone you meet as if they were Christ. You will bring out the Christ consciousness in them as it will bring out the Christ consciousness in you. Both will win by the practice and experience.' I have been practicing and wow it has opened my life to some glorious experiences. I am devoting my life to sharing this important message to enhance the evolution of Christ consciousness here on Earth for a better universe. So be it. Love & peace to you and your readers."
---Rev. Rhonda McCloud
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NEWS WATCH:
FEWER EARTHQUAKES, MORE LIVES LOST IN 1997
(Source: EUREKALERT, 12/31/98)
Seventeen major earthquakes (magnitude 7.0 or higher) were recorded in the world for 1997, according to the U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER (NEIC) in Golden, Colorado. This is just under the average of 20 major earthquakes in the world each year. Despite the lower number of major earthquakes worldwide (21 major earthquakes were recorded in 1996), the death toll from earthquakes was much higher in 1997 than in the previous year. In 1996, a total of 449 people were reported killed by earthquakes around the world. More than double that number were reported killed in just the first three months of 1997. The total death toll from earthquakes in 1997 is at least 2,913.
We continue to hear from many people throughout the world that earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, this is not the case. In fact, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher have remained fairly constant throughout this century. A partial explanation for this impression may lie in the fact that in the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes USGS has been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. Also, because of the improvements in communications and the increased interest in natural disasters, the public now learns about more earthquakes.
The effect that earthquakes have when they strike is generally more pronounced. Although we have gained much knowledge in building safer structures, when earthquakes occur today, losses (both human and property) are greater in many areas of the world. This is not because the earthquakes are stronger; it is simply because the Earth's population is increasing and more property (much of it not built to withstand earthquakes) exists that can be destroyed in an earthquake.
USGS estimates that several million earthquakes occur in the world each year. Many of these earthquakes go undetected because they occur in remote areas or have very small magnitudes. The USGS locates 12,000 to 14,000 earthquakes each year (about 35 per day).
As the nation's largest water, earth and biological science and civilian mapping agency the USGS works in cooperation with more than 2000 organizations across the country to provide reliable, impartial, scientific information to resource managers, planners, and other customers.
Additional information on the year's earthquakes is available on the USGS NEIC Homepage at:
http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/
To receive the latest USGS news releases automatically by email, please send a request to listproc@listserver.usgs.gov. Please specify the listserver (s) of interest from the following list of names: water-pr; geologic-hazards-pr; biological-pr; mapping-pr; products-pr; lecture-pr. In the body of the message say subscribe (name of listserver)(your name). Example: subscribe water-pr joe smith.
RUSSIANS SEEK ATLANTIS OFF CORNWALL
(Source: BBC NEWS, 12/29/97)
For centuries explorers have searched for the remains of Atlantis -- the fabled city under the sea. Now a team from Russia says it has identified it -- 100 miles off Land's End, off the south-west coast of England. And this summer they intend to prove it. The team from the MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF META-HISTORY is one of two new projects to start in the New Year. The other is a 30-strong British expedition to Bolivia to find Atlantis under a lake. The Russian search is based on a re-reading of classical Greek texts. They believe Atlantis is at Little Sole Bank, a hill on the Atlantic seabed. The site is at the edge of the Celtic Shelf which, before the Ice Age, was above sea level. The site description fits in with the Cornish myth of the land of Lyonesse -- also known as the City of Lions. Lyonesse is said to have stood between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Atlantis was first described by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic nearly 2,500 years ago. Plato said the city existed for more than 9,000 years with walls paved with silver and gold. In The Republic, Atlantis is destroyed by the gods when its people become wicked and decadent. But classical scholar Dr Peter Jones told the BBC: "Historically Atlantis is nonsense." He added that Plato was using a political allegory but also that he was very precise about the location of Atlantis. "It is an island in front of the straits of Gibraltar, and no such island exists," said Dr Jones. "This is pure invention. It's not history, it's not even myth, it is an allegory -- a fabulous science-fiction superstate -- a utopia, and ancient philosophers like Plato use allegories like this all the time."
British explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, believes there is enough evidence in The Republic to justify a search for Atlantis in Bolivia. His team leaves in March. His team has used satellite mapping technologies to analyse the topography in Bolivia and has found striking resemblances between the area and the site Plato describes, he says.
HIGH-TECH DOG TAGS
(Source: Jonathan Karl, CNN ONLINE, 12/27/97)
Through triumph and tragedy and two world wars, the military dog tag has been an American icon for generations of soldiers and sailors. Today's armed forces wear the same basic dog tag that their great-grandparents wore. But that's about to change. By 1999, the 1.4 million members of the active duty military will be issued a high-tech dog tag that contains a computer chip. The old dog tags had just five lines for information, which included spaces for name, religion and blood type. The new digital tags, however, can contain volumes of multi-media information, including medical histories, X-rays and cardiograms. With the new technology also comes new concerns over possible dangers in making such sensitive information so readily available by hanging it on chains around the neck.
COMPUTERIZED PEN WINS EUROPEAN PRIZE
(Source: REUTERS, 11/28/97)
A device that looks and works like a big ballpoint pen but is actually a miniature computer system won a grand prize at a European technology conference this week. When someone uses the LCI-SMARTpen to sign his or her name on a piece of paper, a computer equipped with special software can tell whether it is the real thing. LCI won $228,000 at the annual European Information Technology Prize ceremony sponsored by the European Commission and the scientific organization Euro-CASE.
WARP DRIVE WITH PARALLEL COMPUTING
(Source: EUREKALERT, 12/11/97)
An accountant for XYZ WIDGET CO. has stepped out for lunch and left his computer running with the Dilbert screen saver doing its job. In his absence and without his knowledge, a co-worker downstairs in engineering has silently tapped into the very brain of the accountant's computer, borrowing powerful processor cycles and using them for her own purposes. A hacker at work? Not at all. It's parallel computing with high-performance networks, a concept UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA researchers are developing. Alan George, director of UF's High-performance Computing and Simulation Research Lab, says parallel computing could make computers thousands of times faster than today's models and sidestep the physical limitations of ever-shrinking microprocessors. With parallel computing, multiple processors are linked together in a network so computers can talk to each other -- across the hallway or across the globe -- as easily and quickly as possible by replacing existing network wires with fiber-optic cables. Bill Phipps, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student who has been working at the UF lab for more than two years, said linking multiple computers with high-speed communication may be the next big step in carrying computers into the 21st century.
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uf-ntbpcn.html
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REMOTE-CONTROL SYSTEM USES BRAIN WAVES
(Source: AP, CNN ONLINE, 12/25/97)
Hidenori Onishi is using a device that senses brain-wave patterns and converts them into signals used to operate electrical appliances. He claims that the machine is the world's first brain-wave remote control aimed at a broad consumer market. Its inventors believe it may be a major breakthrough for bedridden or paralyzed people whose bodily movements are severely restricted. TECHNOS JAPAN CO. jointly developed the device with the HIMEJI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. "When your limbs are paralyzed and you can't use your voice, what you have left is your brain." The device in Onishi's lab looks like a pair of ski goggles -- in fact, a device to hold electrodes to the head -- attached to a laptop-sized computer. It is called the Mind Control Tool Operating System, or MCTOS, and should be ready for sale in April at a cost of about $4,800. Onishi said similar devices have been built, but remain either experimental or highly impractical. One device made in the United States requires that an electrode be implanted in the user's scalp, he said. MCTOS, however, appear to be surprisingly easy to master.
Any strong mental affirmation sends out a brain signal that the electrodes apparently intercept and feed to the computer. The computer then activates the appropriate appliance. Items on the display menu, which looks like a computer screen and can be placed conveniently in front of the user, include television, stereo and electric bed control. A brain wave pulse turns the computer on, and more pulses are used to step through a menu of appliances and the desired actions by them. An Associated Press reporter who tested the system easily mastered simple tasks like turning on lights. More demanding activities such as changing television channels took a bit of extra thought, however.
JAPANESE CARTOON TRIGGERS MASS CHILD SEIZURES
(Source: Janet Snyder, REUTERS: 12/16/97)
A television cartoon based on the popular video game "Pocket Monsters" triggered convulsions in hundreds of children around Japan when a "bright red explosion" flashed for five seconds on screens. A spokesman for the Fire Department, which carried out a national survey, told REUTERS at least 618 children suffered convulsions, vomiting, irritated eyes and other symptoms. Many were rushed to hospital by frantic parents and 19 were badly enough affected to be kept in hospital. The cartoon "Pokemon," aired every Tuesday at 6.30 p.m., has an audience of millions of children. The children all came down with the symptoms about 20 minutes into the 30-minute long animation. The ages of the children ranged from three upward. KYODO NEWS SERVICE said some children reportedly said they felt bad and had vision problems after seeing "Pikachu, one of the most popular characters, flash its eyes red during the cartoon.
Dr. Yukio Fukuyama, an expert on juvenile epilepsy, said bright flashes of light and color from a television screen could trigger a phenomenon known as television epilepsy. The medical profession has been aware children were susceptible to such seizures even before the dawn of television, but it became more evident with the spread of TV, Fukuyama said. He said the seizures, albeit unpleasant, were not dangerous and that spontaneous recovery was the norm. But parents should be aware of possible side effects of watching programs featuring bright flashing lights. The networks should definitely think of issuing a health warning beforehand, Fukuyama said.
BREAST-FED CHILDREN PERFORM BETTER
(Source: REUTERS, 1/5/98)
Children breast-fed longer do better in school, with benefits that can be measured into adolescence, according to a study published Monday. The report, from researchers at the Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand, was based on a a look at more than 1,000 children born there in 1977 and followed through age 18. Some of the children were breast-fed less than four months, others four to seven months and some for eight months or more while others were not breast-fed at all. The study's authors found that the longer infants were breast-fed, the higher they scored in evaluations.
MIT biologists have identified a mechanism of aging in yeast cells that suggests researchers may one day be able to intervene in, and possibly inhibit, the aging process in certain human cells.
HUMANS NOT NEANDERTHALS' DESCENDANTS
(Source: Siobhan Darrow, CNN ONLINE, 12/17/97)
For more than a century, scientists believed that Neanderthal man, a hulking ape-like creature who lived in Europe and the Middle East some 300,000 years ago, was the direct ancestor of human beings. But new DNA tests may have finally proven that, while we may be distantly related to the Neanderthals, they were not our direct forebearers. Scientists extracted and cloned DNA from the bones of a Neanderthal specimen. The results showed that human DNA and Neanderthal DNA had too many differences to be directly related. Instead, the results bolster the hypothesis that our ancestors, the first homo sapiens, emigrated from Africa about 100,000 years ago and lived side-by-side with the Neanderthals. More graceful and agile, homo sapiens survived. But the Neanderthals, despite their abilities to make tools and weapons, couldn't adapt the to harsh and changing climate of the times and died out.
AMERICANS PROMISE 99 PERCENT POLLUTION-FREE CARS
(Source: BBC NEWS, 12/20/97)
For much of the Kyoto climate change summit in Japan in early December it appeared the chances of carbon emission actually reducing in the near future were virtually nil. But if the recent comments from the U.S. car industry are taken at face value, that may not be the case. The GENERAL MOTORS Vice-President, Dennis Minano, has promised: "GM will build a car that is 99% emissions-free." This, he added, "will guarantee that America has the cleanest fleet of motor vehicles in the world well into the next century". The United States, as pundits never tired of repeating from Kyoto, produces a quarter of the world's population and the petrol-powered car is the single largest cause of American emissions. American industry reacted furiously to the international proposals that pollution levels should be cut and mounted a publicity drive to try to prevent the U.S. delegation from agreeing to do so. However, the new announcements from General Motors and other car makers appear to be motivated by a new belief: clean vehicles can be good business. Meanwhile, Toyota's Prius is expected to be on sale in America by 2001, while Honda hopes to be first into the arena, with a natural gas-powered Civic GX model with an emission level of next to zero being launched in 1998.
BIGGEST METEORITE EVER TO HIT THE EARTH?
(Source: BBC NEWS, 12/17/97)
As fishermen minded their nets in the dull grey of a Greenland dawn, a blinding flash lit up the sky which could be one of the biggest meteorites to ever hit the Earth. Bjorn Ericksonn, the first mate on the trawler Regina, saw the object fall. "I was on the bridge and looking out of the window, I have never seen so strong light before in the night," he said. Many people across the southern tip of Greenland saw the huge light in the early hours of Tuesday morning last week. But no-one was able to photograph it as it glowed for between 2 and 5 seconds. Seismographic equipment recorded a 10 second shockwave. Scientists believe the early indications are that the meteorite could have measured between 50 and 100 metres across, and have been travelling at 7,600 mph. This would put it on a par with the Tunguska meteorite which devastated hundreds of square miles of Siberia in 1908, when it exploded with the same energy as a 15 megatonne nuclear bomb. The Danish airforce have sent up planes to look for the impact site. So far they have had little success because of appalling weather conditions. The meteorite would have been white hot when it hit the ground. It would have melted its way into the pack ice, which would have then melted on top of it. Just to make things more difficult, there was heavy snow in the hours after the impact, further obscuring the site. The meteorite has been named Qaqortoq, after the nearest post office, which is apparantly traditional.
NASA PLEDGES CYDONIA IMAGES "AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY"
(Source: Michael Lindemann, CNN NEWS, Vol. 3, No. 20, Part 2, Dec. 20, 1997)
In a long-sought breakthrough that many thought would never come, NASA officials publicly promised on November 24 that the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft would take high resolution photos of the controversial landforms in the Cydonia region of Mars "at every opportunity." If the promise is fulfilled, it would mean that the question of possible artifical structures on Mars will almost surely be settled, one way or another, within approximately two years.
Dr. Mark Carlotto, one of the top experts on the Cydonia landforms, announced the breakthrough at the recent World UFO Forum in Brazil. Carlotto was one of six scientists representing the SOCIETY FOR PLANETARY SETI RESEARCH (SPSR) who met with two top NASA officials on November 24 in Washington, D.C. to discuss the new agreement. Carlotto said he left the meeting feeling entirely satisfied that NASA's promise was genuine. Background on the long effort by SPSR to influence NASA's thinking on the Cydonia landforms is posted on the website of SPSR co-founder Professor Stanley V. McDaniel:
http://www.mcdanielreport.com/brkthru.htm.
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LAUNCHING SPACESHIPS WITH LASERS
(Source: CNN ONLINE, 12/12/97)
Thousands of pounds of liquid gas are ignited each time a spacecraft is launched into orbit. The gas load is costly and its burnoff contributes to pollution. Scientists hope a new method will prove to be cheaper and better for the environment. The new launch system works by concentrating laser beams and aiming them at the craft, which converts their energy into a propulsive fuel. If the space shuttle could be launched using lasers, the savings could be astronomical, explained Franklin Mead of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. Because the fuel source stays on the ground, the spacecraft is lighter, saving a tremendous amount of money. It currently costs $10,000 to lift just one pound of payload into space. Beamed energy propulsion could also revolutionize the future of air travel on our planet. Myrabo suggested that in the future, a new type of airborne vehicle could pick you up at your home, then go to a laser fuel station and from there, carry you anywhere in the planet in under an hour. While laser propulsion may improve spacecraft efficiency and cut costs, the environment could be this technology's biggest benefactor. "The reason I think this technology is so important is that it allows us in the future to get rid of the dependency on fossil fuels," Myrabo said. "(Laser) propulsion systems are very environmentally friendly."
NASA LOOKS TOWARD INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL
(Source: NASA PRESS RELEASE, 12/2/97, Thanks to Chris Czech)
Many people wonder when we will be able to travel to distant solar systems as easily as envisioned in science fiction. Discover NASA's perspective on the prospects that exist today for achieving such far-future visions via a new website called, "Warp Drive, When?" This website explains the challenges of interstellar travel, the prospects and limitations of existing propulsion ideas, and the prospects emerging from science that may one day provide the breakthroughs needed to enable practical interstellar voyages. Analogies to familiar science fiction are used to simplify concepts such as "warp drive."
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/warp.htm
For a look at what NASA is doing to achieve such breakthroughs, another website is available about the new NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program. This modest program is taking a step-by-step approach toward discovering the ultimate breakthroughs needed to revolutionize space travel and enable human journeys to other star systems - credible progress toward incredible possibilities. This program represents the combined efforts of individuals from various NASA centers, other government labs, universities and industry.
http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/
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NEW PLANETS FOUND
(Source: BBC NEWS, 12/17/97)
British scientists have used new cameras to find what they say is conclusive evidence of planets circling four of the stars closest to our solar system. Wayne Holland, one of a team of scientists at EDINBURGH'S ROYAL OBSERVATORY, was quoted in THE OBSERVER as saying: "It's planets, I've no doubt." The newspaper said the discovery was bound to lead to speculation that planets were a common feature of our galaxy, making the existence of intelligent life within it much more probable. The camera probed four stars, Beta Pictoris, Fomalhaut, Epsilon Eridani and Vega. These stars are all relatively young -- about 200 million years old compared with several billion for our sun -- and are all within 24 light years from Earth.
For several years I have used a computer program called "Synchronicity." Based on the I-Ching, Synchronicity has provided a wealth of valuable guidance in times of need. A few months ago, I was contacted by the makers of Synchronicity about their "next generation" program, called "The Oracle of Changes." They sent me a copy of their "new and improved" software and asked me to take it for a spin. I did, and think it is so well done that it deserves a plug in Smorgasbord. According to the information on their website, The Oracle of Changes is essentially the same I-Ching system Albert Einstein and Carl Jung used to gain inspiration and insights from beyond the realm of reason. Several innovative thinkers, such as John Gray ("Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"), and Jean Houston, have also sang praises for The Oracle of Changes. The new program includes beautiful art, entrancing animation, a soothing soundtrack, and an easy-to-use modern translation. Loaded on CD-ROM (Win 95 or Mac), The Oracle's list price is $59.95. Reduced prices are available by visiting their website.
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IN SEARCH OF THE PROMISED LAND:
THE CENTER FOR MILLENNIAL STUDIES
http://www.mille.org/
Tired of getting all worked up about the newest end-time prediction, fire-and-brimstone prophet, or apocalyptic organization? Here's a website, and organization, that will help you put all those end-of-the-world expectations into perspective. THE CENTER FOR MILLENNIAL STUDIES seeks to accomplish three major goals:
"1. To gather and archive the vast "harvest" of apocalyptic literature that is appearing at the turn of the second Christian millennium; 2. To collect and edit documents from earlier such times; and 3.to encourage, through publications, conferences, and research, the study and analysis of apocalyptic thought, the millenarian movements it generates, and the kinds of mutations that they must undergo in order to adjust to the (inevitable) return to normal time."
According to their mission statement (http://www.mille.org/mission.html):
"Few religious phenomena are more paradoxical than apocalyptic expectations -- that is, the belief in an imminent, radical transformation of the world. On the one hand, one can say about them what one cannot say about any other religious belief: they have always proven wrong. On the other hand, despite the consistent disappointment of such beliefs, they surge up repeatedly, moving large numbers of people to extraordinary deeds. Indeed, the intensity of the movement is almost a function of its brevity: the sooner the end, the more intense the manifestations of its expectation and the faster the disappointment. Perhaps the most striking result of this paradox concerns the traces these movements leave on the record: partly because they prove wrong in the lifetime of the believers themselves, partly because they provoke some bizarre and embarrassing behavior, there is a tendency for the written record to reflect the (inevitable) 20-20 hindsight. Thus, the historical record tends to reflect not the power of these beliefs while they still offered hopes, but the weakness and ridicule they experienced in failure. The historian, working ex post facto, can only hear the second stage of the doppler effect: not the crescendo of noise, but its rapid fading.
"And yet, seen ex ante, before they have proven wrong, these movements can have immense force, they can move their followers to monumental sacrifices, they can inspire the most dramatic sacrifices, and engender radical behavior that spans the gamut from the most pacific to the most violent. Moreover, even after disappointment, many movements -- the most powerful ones -- rarely disappear. They just rewrite their pasts to eliminate the mistaken apocalyptic beliefs which, like a booster rocket, first put their communities and movements in orbit. We need to look for the signs of these discarded (even disowned) apocalyptic booster rockets and, once found, to reinterpret the trajectory of their satellites."
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NOTES FROM THE HOME PLANET:
APOCALYPTIC NATIVE AMERICAN MOVEMENTS
(Excerpted from "The Native Americans: An Illustrated History", by David Hurst Thomas, Jay Miller, Richard White, Peter Nabokov, Philip J. Deloria, and Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.)
"Indians in the eye of this storm (the growing invasion of white people into Native American lands), eventually began to seek a spiritual rather than violent remedy to their desperation. In the early 1870s, as the death toll mounted and personal tragedies multiplied from cruelty and dislocation wrought by miners, ranchers, new diseases, and a loss of habitats, a wave of native prophets began preaching apocalyptic messages of redemption. The so-called California Ghost Dances, foreshadowing the better-known Plains Indian Ghost Dance by 20 years, were less a single doctrine promulgated by one charismatic individual than a contagious message of divine hope that was reinterpreted by local curers and shamans in hamlet after hamlet throughout northern-central California. Its basic message was that true believers who danced, prayed, and received visions of their dead relatives would experience a world purged by fire and flood, after which white would be gone and Indian life would be better than ever."
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"Although the Plains region yielded a number of messianic movements, in the 1880s one cult, inspired by the Paiute prophet Wovoka, gained prominence. The son of a visionary named Tavibo, Wovoka's message of salvation held a special appeal. His 'Ghost Dance' adherents gathered for many days, praying, chanting, and dancing in large open-air circles. Do this, Wovoka preached, undergo ceremonial purification, reject alcohol, and do not mourn. Then the old world will return, dead relatives will embrace their surviving kinfolk, the landscape will look as it did before the white man, buffalo will thicken the plains, and whites will disappear.
"The compelling message was personally experienced, as closed-eyed Ghost Dancers earnestly swayed, sang, and eventually fell into trances where these future promises were vividly envisioned. Through letters written by boarding school-trained intermediaries and personal pilgrimages, Wovoka's desperate word of hope spread from tribe to tribe across the Plains, but found fertile ground especially with the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne. For some his message of non-violence was downplayed, and specially blessed and symbol-covered muslin shirts were said to stop soldiers' bullets in the event of coming strife.
"In the fall of 1890, when local towns got word of restless, 'wild and crazy' Indians talking about a world free of white men, they wired for military help. The agitation was only heightened when Indian police killed Sitting Bull in a botched attempt to arrest those considered ringleaders of the incipient religious rebellion. The building tragedy came to a head two days before the close of the year, a deplorable moment memorialized in the poet Stephen Vincent Benet's elegaic line, 'Bury my heart as Wounded Knee.'
"Along Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge reservation, Seventh Cavalry troops, having rounded up a band of Hunkpapa Sioux suspected of potential trouble (fully two-thirds of them were women and children), herded the Indians for the night into a tight group surrounded by five hundred soldiers, their normal armament reinforced with four Hotchkiss guns. In the morning, the Sioux men were culled out, lined up, and disarmed. Someone is said to have discharged a weapon. Immediately, the Hotchkiss guns opened fire, and most of the men were killed in the first five minutes.
"The Hotchkiss guns, carefully trained on the milling, terrified people, continued to fire. Some Indians fought back with whatever they had, stones or sticks or bare hands (leaving twenty-nine soldiers dead), while others tried to flee. Within an hour some two hundred Indians were dead or dying. A few women got as far as three miles away before being caught and killed. The rest, about one hundred souls, fled and later froze to death in the hills."
"It is unfortunate that the infamous Wounded Knee massacre... seemed to validate the 'myth of the vanishing Indian' by implying that an entire way of life had ended symbolically in this terrible finale. It served the dramatic needs of popular Indian history, but the reality was very different. For one thing, revitalization movements like the Ghost Dance survive in diverse forms throughout Indian America right up to the present day, still providing succor and hope to native peoples caught between the often contradictory creeds of two cultural worlds. For another, it was not so much sensational battles and deplorable inhumanities that, in the long run, cost Indians their autonomy after the Civil War, but rather the devastation wrought by disease and the expropriation of their land through the bloodless process of treaty making and anti-Indian legislation. Indeed, a vote in the U.S. Congress two years before the slaughter of innocents at Wounded Knee Creek probably created more widespread Indian suffering and left a more destructive legacy for Indians in the future than that infamous massacre."
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
WHAT WENT WRONG?
(Source: "Uh-Oh" by Robert Fulghum, Thanks to James Gregory)
Over the past couple of years I have been a frequent guest in kindergartens and colleges. In the beginners' classroom and university campuses the same opportunities and facilities exist -- the environments differ only in scale. The most apparent difference is in the self-image of the students.
Ask a kindergarten class, "How many of you can draw?" and all the hands shoot up.
"Yes, of course we can draw -- all of us."
"What can you draw?"
"Anything!"
"How about a dog eating a fire truck in the forest?"
"Sure! How big do you want it?"
Ask how many can sing. All hands.
"What can you sing?"
"Anything."
"What if you don't know the words?"
"No problem. We make them up. Let's sing."
"Now?"
"Why not?"
How many like to dance? Unanimous again.
"What kind of music do you like to dance to?"
"Any kind. Let's dance.!"
"Now?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Do you like to act in plays?"
"Yes!"
"Do you write poetry?"
"Yes!"
Over and over again, their answer is Yes! The children are confident in spirit, infinite in resources and eager to learn. Everything is possible.
Try those same questions on a college audience. Only a small percentage of the students will raise their hands when asked if they can draw or dance or sing or act or play an instrument. And not infrequently, those who do raise their hands will want to qualify their response: "I only play the piano; I only draw horses; I only dance to rock and roll; I only sing in the shower."
When asked why the limitations, college students respond that they do not have the talent, are not majoring in the subject, or have not done any of these things since about third grade. Or worse, that they are embarrassed that others would see them sing or dance or act. And when an even older audience is asked the same questions, you can imagine the response: "None of the above."
What has gone wrong between kindergarten and college?
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Copyright 1998 by NewHeavenNewEarth
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