dasa

It didn't make sense to me as i did it, but i did think of a red hammer.

Funny You Should Ask One day a middle-aged Jewish man named Leo hears from his son attending university. "I've decided to become a Christian, Dad." Leo panics. "What do I do?" he asks himself. The only thing he can think to do is call his rabbi. "Funny you should come to me with this problem, Leo," says the rabbi. "Not 2 years ago my son comes to me with the same speech. I had no idea what to do. I panicked, and the only thing I could think to do was go to God." "What message do you think you got from God?" asks Leo. The rabbi laughed. "God said to me, funny you should come to me with this problem ...'"

The Vow A man joining a monestary was told he was to take a vow of silence and was only to be allowed to speak two words every five years.After the first five years had passed he walked into the chambers of the head Monk and said "Bed Hard", then turned and walked out. After the next five years passed he returned to the chambers of the head Monk and said " Food Cold ", then turned and walked out. After the next five years had passd he once again entered the chambers of the head Monk and said "I Quit". The head Monk looked at him and replied. "Well, that doesn't surprise me one bit, you've done nothing but complain since you got here"

Married Couple On their way to a justice of the peace to get married, a couple had a fatal car accident. The couple found themselves sitting outside Heaven's Gate waiting on St.Peter to do an intake. While waiting, they wondered if they could possibly get married in Heaven. St. Peter finally showed up and they asked him. St. Peter said, "I don't know, this is the first time anyone has asked. "Let me go find out." and he left. The couple sat and waited for an answer...for a couple of months...and they began to wonder if they really should get married in Heaven, what with the eternal aspect of it all. "What if it doesn't work?" they wondered, "Are we stuck together forever?" St. Peter returned after yet another month, looking some what bedraggled. "Yes," he informed the couple, "you can get married in Heaven." "Great,"said the couple, "but what if things don't work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?" St. Peter, red-faced, slammed his clipboard onto the ground. "What's wrong?", asked the frightened couple. "COME ON!" St. Peter shouted, "It took me three months to find a priest up here! Do you have any idea how long it will take me to find a lawyer?"

Hearing Problem An old man decided his old wife was getting hard of hearing. So he called her doctor to make an appointment to have her hearing checked. The Doctor said he could see her in two weeks, and meanwhile there's a simple, informal test the husband could do to give the doctor some idea of the dimensions of the problem. "Here's what you do. Start about 40 feet away from her, and speak in a normal conversational tone and see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response." So that evening she's in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he's in the living room, and he says to himself, "I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens." "Honey, how long 'til supper?" No response. So he moves to the other end of the room, about 30 feet away. "Honey, how long 'til supper?" No response. So he moves into the dining room, about 20 feet away. "Honey, how long 'til supper?" No response. On to the kitchen door, only 10 feet away. "Honey, how long 'til supper?". No response. So he walks right up behind her. "Honey, how long 'til supper?" "For the FIFTH time, TEN MINUTES!!!!"

Satellite Search Underway For Noah's Ark By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 07:40 am ET 30 August 2002 A puzzling mountain-side object in Turkey is the target of a hide-and-seek game of biblical proportions. The high-flying and super-powerful commercial QuickBird satellite has begun snapping imagery of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey - in a quest to spot the possible remains of what is believed to be Noah's Ark. Aircraft pictures taken in the late 1940s, as well as more recent secret spy satellite shots of the area do show something odd - a bit of strangeness that has earned the title of the "Ararat Anomaly". Perhaps it's little more than a natural, albeit eye catching, geological formation. On the other hand, that anomaly could have a classic tale to tell, one that reaches back into biblical times. DigitalGlobe's powerful QuickBird satellite is cranking out ultra close-up imagery of Earth targets. As example, this picture shows the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France -- taken March 27, 2002-- and demonstrates the quality of pictures churned out by the high-flying satellite. Credit: DigitalGlobe On the lookout trail Most Biblical scholars and Near Eastern archeologists and historians regard the Biblical accounting of Noah's Ark and a world-devastating flood as a story handed down by oral tradition. As told in the Bible, Noah constructed a large boat to house his family and sets of animals, saving them from flood waters due to 40 days and 40 nights of deluge. Once this Great Flood retreated, as depicted in the Book of Genesis, the ark settled down on the mountains of Ararat. On the lookout trail for the real deal is Porcher Taylor, a senior associate (nonresident) at the prominent think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on satellite intelligence gathering and diplomacy. Taylor has worked for years to compel the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to declassify satellite images and other information related to the unidentified feature perched on Mt. Ararat in Turkey. Indeed, the secrecy wraps have come off a partial set of aerial images taken over that location in June 1949. They do show something at the 15,500-foot level on the mountain's Northwestern Plateau. In later years, Taylor contends, two high-powered intelligence-gathering satellites -- the Keyhole-9 in 1973 and the Keyhole-11 in 1976 -- aimed their cameras at the mountain. What those photo shoots purportedly show created a stir amongst photo interpreters. The anomaly is more than 600-feet long (183 meters), Taylor said, at least the section visible in aerial and satellite imagery. Photo interpretation specialists, he said, do think they perceive actual boat structure in the pictures. Yet those images remain classified at the moment. Remaining unclassified, however, is Taylor's passion. "I want to solve the enduring mystery of the Ararat Anomaly, no matter what it may be," he told SPACE.com Peeking at the peak Thanks to the advent of commercial remote sensing satellites, taking a peek at the object on Mt. Ararat for a fee is feasible. In October 1999 into the summer of 2000, images of the mountain and the object in question were snapped by the IKONOS spacecraft, owned and operated by Space Imaging, based in Thornton, Colorado. Those pictures didn't resolve the issue, one way or the other, however. Now the lenses of another commercial satellite, QuickBird, operated by DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado is on the prowl. "QuickBird is capable of shedding more light on what the anomaly may or may not be," Taylor said. QuickBird was lofted in October 2001 and is billed as the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite. It can see things 2-feet (61-centimeters) across. "We have acquired four images of Mt. Ararat and all have been cloud covered to date," said Chuck Herring, Director of Marketing Communications for DigitalGlobe. "We continue to task this event and will get Porcher Taylor an image as soon as we get a good image," he told SPACE.com. Clear sailing Taylor is anxiously awaiting clear sailing by QuickBird over Mt. Ararat. "Because of constant cloud cover it's tough. Where this thing is, whatever it is…it's basically a glacier, a permanent ice cap at 15,000 feet up on the mountain. It is a unique and unexplored site on Mt. Ararat. You're going to have to have ideal weather conditions and a lot of luck when you're flying over to see it," Taylor said. Meanwhile, Taylor anticipates that when QuickBird does produce the imagery goods, he'll have more leverage to convince U.S. President Bush and his administration to declassify those earlier Keyhole satellite shots. Taylor may not have to wait too long. Next month, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency unveils a load of vintage Keyhole-7 and Keyhole-9 pictures, declassifying the images and making them available for public scrutiny. He hopes Mt. Ararat photos are among those being released. Imagery team Taylor has at the ready a "world class" imagery team, ready to huddle over any new QuickBird images or older Keyhole photos. A leader in that team is Farouk El-Baz, research professor and founding director of Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing. El-Baz first gained world attention for his work on the Apollo program. He served as secretary of the lunar landing site selection committee, chairman of the astronaut training group, and principal investigator for visual observations and photography. A native of Egypt, El-Baz later served as a science advisor to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and to King Hussein of Jordan. He has been a pioneer in developing the field of remote sensing and is offering his expertise to what's truly resident on Mt. Ararat. "There is absolutely enough hearsay…enough discussion about the topic to warrant looking into this, to see whether there is something tangible or not," El-Baz told SPACE.com. Unveil the truth El-Baz recounted his conversations with former Apollo 15 moonwalker James Irwin. The astronaut, now deceased, mounted six expeditions to Mt. Ararat in a search for the ark. Those treks were done through his High Flight Foundation, a non-profit evangelical organization based in Colorado Springs. "Irwin told me he saw something. He felt it was an imprint on the land of the boat that was turned upside down…perhaps with some soil on top. So there was something there in his mind," El-Baz said. El-Baz himself remains true to his training, waiting for scientific data to become available and help unveil the true nature of the Ararat object. "There is absolutely nothing in all the pictures that we have seen up to now that is questionable in my mind. I can explain each and everything as a natural snow bank…a shadow. There is nothing," El-Baz said. But given the interest and the historical nature of such a find, the search is worth conducting, he added. "From all the points of view, there is definitely enough in this to warrant spending time to resolve the issue, one way or the other. So I don't consider it a waste of time," El-Baz said.

Glad you liked those postings, Prabhupadanga. It has fallen off the first page, but half way down page two of the Spiritual Discussions section, there is a posting called "Yonaguni". I always found the pictures there very interesting. You may have missed it, and want to look at it. I don't know if the ideas put forward there are correct, but they are interesting. dasa

Electric force field protects tanks An electric force field that vaporises grenades and shells on impact has reportedly been developed by the Ministry of Defence. The electric armour would be used on tanks and military vehicles and would make them lighter and more manoeuvrable. It works on RPG-7 anti-tank grenades which fire a stream of copper into tanks at 1,000mph, reports the Daily Telegraph. The armour has a highly-charged capacitor connected to two separate metal plates on the tank's exterior. The outer plate, which is bullet-proof and made from an unspecified alloy, is earthed while the insulated inner plate is live. When the warhead fires its jet of molten copper, it penetrates both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate. This makes a connection and thousands of amps of electricity vaporise most of the molten copper. The rest of the copper is dispersed harmlessly against the vehicle's hull. In tests an armoured personnel carrier survived repeated rocket attacks from grenades that would normally have destroyed it. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory developed the Pulsed Power System at its site at Fort Halstead, Kent. Prof John Brown said it was attracting a lot of interest. He added with the easy availability of RPG-7 rocket launchers "it only takes one individual on, say, a rooftop in a village to cause major damage or destroy passing armoured vehicles". Story filed: 07:52 Monday 19th August 2002

Studies find honey and almonds can help fight heart attacks Two separate studies suggest a daily dose of honey or almonds may help prevent heart disease by fighting cholesterol. Canadian researchers at St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, found almonds lowered cholesterol levels by up to 9.4% in patients with high cholesterol. Lead author David J A Jenkins says doctors should encourage patients to eat almonds as part of a healthy diet. In a five-week US study, University of Illinois researchers found a daily dose of four tablespoons of honey mixed in a glass of water increased antioxidant levels in blood. Researchers analysed blood samples from 25 men aged 18 to 68 and found antioxidants in honey were comparable to that in fruit and vegetables. Nicki Engeseth, who led the study, says honey has potential to prevent heart disease. She admits you'd need to eat an equivalent per-weight amount for it to have the same effect as fruit and vegetables. Presenting the results to a meeting of the American Chemical Society, she said: "People could incorporate more honey in places where they might be using some sort of sweetening agent, like sugar." In the three-month Canadian study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers monitored 27 male and female patients with an average age of 64 and high cholesterol levels. They ate two handfuls of almonds a day in the first month, one handful a day in the second and a 'control diet' of a low-saturated fat whole wheat muffin in the third. The team tested cholesterol levels, blood pressure and weight. A handful of almonds lowered cholesterol levels by 4.4% and two handfuls by 9.4%. Cholesterol levels didn't drop after the muffin phase of the diet. Story filed: 21:03 Monday 19th August 2002

River found under Sahara Russian satellites have discovered a river flowing 700 feet under the Sahara. It carries enough water to supply 50,000 people and is said to surge with "colossal power". No-one is certain of the source of the river near the desert city of Atar in Mauritania, north west Africa. The Daily Express reports experts believe the river could help boost the economy of the whole country, most of which is sand and rocky desert. It says the find was made by satellites which provided multi-dimensional and high precision photographs of the Earth's surface. They were then analysed to predict underground resources. The water was discovered in a desert about 150 miles east of the Atlantic coast. The Mauritanian government then asked Russian scientists to test for water near Atar. They discovered a water current in a borehole at the spot identified by the satellites. The paper quotes an expert on the project saying: "Such a fountain in the Sahara is really a world miracle." Story filed: 08:07 Monday 19th August 2002

Does 'lost' Ark exist in Ethiopia? By RICHARD N. OSTLING Associated Press Thanks to Hollywood's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the Ark of the Covenant is one of the most famous objects in the Bible. It's also one of the most mysterious, since the Bible doesn't say what happened to it. Ethiopian Christians, however, believe the ark still exists in their country. The biblical ark signified God's presence among his people. It was a wooden box containing the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. In accord with God-given specifications (Exodus 25:10-22), the ark measured about 4 by 2.5 by 2.5 feet. There were two cherubs with outstretched wings on the lid, or "mercy seat." The ark was covered with gold and carried on poles inserted into rings as the Israelites migrated through the wilderness and Holy Land. Divine powers rested with the ark. It dried up the Jordan River so the Israelites could cross (Joshua 3:14-17) and brought plagues upon the Philistines when they seized it in battle (1 Samuel 4:11-5:12). King David installed the ark in a tent amid great rejoicing after he established Jerusalem as his capital (1 Samuel 6:1-19) and King Solomon ceremonially placed it in the Holy of Holies when the Temple was built (1 Kings 8:1-9). The ark still existed under King Josiah in the seventh century B.C. Then it vanished. The sacred box was somehow lost or destroyed when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 587 B.C., or before that since it wasn't listed with the spoils the conquerors took from the Temple (2 Kings 25:13-17). Israel never built a replacement ark, in accord with God's command in Jeremiah 3:16. So runs the standard Jewish and Christian story. But Ethiopian Orthodox Christians disagree. Raymond Matthew Wray of the American Catholic magazine Crisis, who wrote about his own search for the lost ark, said there are five ark scenarios: The Hollywood version had the ark sitting in a U.S. government warehouse. Some think ancient Israelites hid it under the Temple when the Babylonians invaded. Others say the Babylonians stole or destroyed it. The amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt, who has since died, claimed he rediscovered the ark under the hill where Christ was crucified. There's no evidence for any of this. Then there's No. 5, the Ethiopian scenario. The Bible reports that the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon. Most scholars say she came from present-day Yemen. But Ethiopian legend maintains she was from that country and gave birth to Solomon's son Menelik, who founded a monarchy that lasted until 1974. This tradition says when Menelik visited Solomon, his aides stole the ark and brought it home. It was kept for centuries in other locations but is now said to be held under strictest secrecy in the town of Axum (or Aksum). Wray trekked to Axum to see what he could find. The ark site is St. Mary of Zion Chapel, a modest stone Orthodox sanctuary, roughly 40 feet square, on the grounds of the town's main church. In the past the ark was brought forth from the chapel annually but was never seen and was covered with a cloth, supposedly to protect the people from the ark's power. Today, a replica known as a tabot is paraded instead, to protect the ark. Tabots are important in Ethiopian churches, filling a place similar to icons in Greek and Russian Orthodoxy. Wray met with Abba Welde Giorgis, described to him as the guardian of the ark. The guardian's lifetime appointment is a great honor but also a burden, since it prohibits him from leaving the chapel compound. Unfortunately, Wray's article tells us nothing about the Ethiopian ark itself, either because he did not probe or because Giorgis was reticent. Nor did an Associated Press reporter find out anything on a previous visit. The ancient mystery lingers. We do learn from Wray that Ethiopians believe the ark has helped protect their country, as it did ancient Israel. For instance, Ethiopia is almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims, who are in conflict in neighboring Sudan and elsewhere. But "everybody in Ethiopia is living peacefully," Giorgis said. "The ark is having an impact on everyone."

Real-life Jurassic Park Coming Soon August 12, 2002 9:30 CDT You might call it, "Jurassic Park: Live!" It's not a stage version of the popular movie, though -- this really is "Jurassic Park" -- live! They plan to call it the "Pleistocene Park". Located in Siberia, the proposed site is in an area far from humans, which has good grazing for the ancient animals that will roam the grounds. Of course, some accommodation will have to be made for the tourists who come to the park in deference to Siberia's fierce winters, but Akira Iritani is confident that they can do that easily. Where, you ask, will they get the ancient animals to populate the park? Just as in the movie, they plan to find some viable DNA for creatures like the mammoths and the woolly rhinoceros, and simply recreate them. They'll artificially inseminate the modern counterpart with the ancient specimen's DNA and get a mixture of old and new characteristics. They'll continue to do that across generations, inseminating the "combination" animal with the ancient DNA until they have a fairly accurate version of what roamed the lands there twenty-thousand years ago. A team of Japanese and Russian scientists is currently working in the area of the park, located in the Siberian province of Yakutsk. They hope to find samples of animals they can resurrect, and their wish list for DNA is impressive. The search area has been narrowed to several hundred square meters of tundra, where the team hopes to recover viable DNA from the Siberian tiger, steppe lions, giant deer, ancient foxes and the ancestors of the Siberian horse, as well as mammoths and woolly rhinos. Is it really possible to do that, you ask? "It probably sounds a little far-fetched, but it's absolutely possible to do this," says Professor Akira Iritani, who is co-coordinating the project from Osaka's Kinki University. Speaking to The Scotsman - International, he shared his excitement for the project. "The best way to clone one of these animals is to find frozen sperm, but that is very difficult. Alternatively, a portion of muscle, skin or any piece of tissue can be a good source of viable DNA. "The most important thing is to find a good carcass," he declared. "We need to find specimens that were frozen immediately after death and have remained at a temperature of between -25C and -30C ever since." The team is currently harvesting specimens from the town of Chokurdakh, near the East Siberian Sea and more than 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. They are concentrating on a site identified last year by local people as having numerous cadavers buried in the permafrost. The search area has been narrowed to several hundred square meters of tundra. Mr. Iritani has been working in collaboration with a university in Bangkok and as soon as usable mammoth DNA has been identified, an elephant will be artificially inseminated with the nucleus. Each generation of crossbred mammoths will more closely resemble the genetic inheritance of its forefathers as females are impregnated with more DNA from the male mammoth. The same process will be used with the other beasts and, in as little as 20 years, Mr. Iritani says, these long-extinct creatures will once again be roaming the steppe. "It all depends on getting the good quality tissue, of course, but we will eventually be able to produce many, many animals. At present the success rate for cloned animals is not so high, but in a few years we will have the technology to repair recovered DNA that has been slightly damaged. We'll store any damaged DNA that we find and we're not going to give up this project." The ultimate aim is the Siberian sanctuary. "The last time I was over there our Russian counterparts showed us to the place they will provide for us to build Pleistocene Park," Mr. Iritani said. "We flew over it in a helicopter and the quality of the grass there seems to be perfect for animals we're working on." The finished park will cover an area roughly twice the size of Britain. The location has no human habitation. As well as facilities for tourists, the park will need to provide shelter for the animals, as Mr. Iritani believes Siberia's elements were far less severe 20,000 years ago. His search for a frozen mammoth began in 1996 and he is now a leading member of the Mammoth Creation Society, a group based in Japan. The group has organized several expeditions in search of carcasses and in the summer of 1999 recovered a section of skin from what they believed was a mammoth. Their hopes were soon dashed when it was determined that 90 per cent of the skins DNA sequence matched that of the Indian rhinoceros, although Kazufumi Goto, a professor of reproductive physiology at Kagoshima University and a member of the group, said the discovery was still valuable. Mr. Iritani says a key part of his quest is to draw attention to melting of the permafrost because of global warming.

Temple treatment shows mental health benefits Indian scientists claim people with psychiatric problems can get the same results from a six week stay at a Hindu temple as they can from a month-long course of drugs. Researchers tested patients before and after their stay there and found they had improved by around 20%. The improvement was similar to that of a person on a four-week course of chlorpromazine and risperidone. The temple patients attended simple morning prayer for 15 minutes and then spent the rest of the day helping out with chores. There were no rituals or ceremonies meant to improve mental health, according to New Scientist. More than 30 patients with delusional disorders, paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorders took part in the study. Ramanathan Raguram, of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, carried out the study at the Muthuswamy temple in Tamil Nadu. He said: "What they were given is tender loving care, in a non-threatening environment, in tune with their own cultural beliefs, with the hope of recovery. "And in the history of psychiatry, these were the principles on which asylums were originally built." Raguram says there were no controls with the study and so it was not entirely scientific. The full study is published in the British Medical Journal. Story filed: 10:44 Friday 5th July 2002

'Ready to tackle Armageddon' By Ivan Noble BBC News Online science staff A space mission to knock a potential rogue asteroid off course is undergoing feasibility studies with money from the European Space Agency (Esa). We believe that the outcome of this mission would be good science Jose-Antonio Gonzalez Deimos-Space A Spanish company, Deimos-Space, is designing the mission and hopes its plans will convince Esa to give the go-ahead for a full scale test on a real asteroid. The company has come up with a plan, which it calls the Don Quixote mission, to launch a pair of probe spacecraft called Hidalgo and Sancho at a far off asteroid. One would hit the asteroid at extremely high speed, deflecting it slightly from its orbit. The other would observe the asteroid and make highly accurate measurements of what happened to it after the impact. Asteroid billiards The idea is that the mission would tell scientists how hard they would have to hit a real rogue asteroid heading for Earth in order to deflect it safely. Deimos plans to finish its study early in 2003 and hopes Esa will then come up with the cash for the actual mission. The company is optimistic. "We believe that the outcome of this mission would be good science," Deimos-Space's Jose-Antonio Gonzalez told BBC News Online. "And we are trying to demonstrate the feasibility of the mission, not only in terms of astrodynamic calculations or technology requirements but also financially," he said. The company expects plenty of public and scientific interest in the project. High-speed impact "That's why we expect this mission to go on with the next phases, or at least with even more detailed studies on the key aspects of the mission," he said. If it does, a suitable asteroid will be selected and then Hidalgo will slam into it at extremely high speed, probably around 10 kilometres (six and a half miles) per second. Sancho will be orbiting the asteroid at a safe distance to see what happens. If all goes to plan, the asteroid's orbit will be disturbed in the beginning by a few fractions of a millimetre. The idea is that Sancho will measure this tiny shift and feed the data back to Earth. Tiny changes in orbit can become much larger over time and Deimos wants to use the experiment to calculate how to knock a real rogue asteroid off course. Early warning Whether such an approach to dealing with an asteroid threat would work would depend largely on how much warning there is. Hidalgo and Sancho would take many months to reach their target. Any Hidalgo-like satellite used to deflect an incoming hazard would have to hit it in just the right place and at just the right speed. Getting it right would involve great precision, but, as Mr Gonzalez points out, would not require the nuclear super-rockets of science fiction. If the project does get the go-ahead, the Don Quixote mission would provide valuable information about the composition of the target asteroid. "This mission would provide, for the first time, a look inside the asteroids," said Mr Gonzalez. "The results of the experiment would either validate our proposed strategy or might mean we have to think of other solutions, such as placing a huge solar sail on the asteroid's surface to use the solar wind to change its trajectory."

Bad But True Headlines: March Planned For Next August Patient At Death's Door--Doctors Pull Him Through Diaper Market Bottoms Out Lawyers Give Poor Free Legal Advice 20-Year Friendship Ends at Altar Half of U.S. High Schools Require Some Study for Graduation Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn't Seen in Years Death Causes Loneliness, Feelings of Isolation

What is the definition of a supreme optimist? Someone who jumps off of a 30-story building and every floor says, "So far, so good!"

August 4, 2002 Posted Mar 04.02 Evidence Chinese First To Circumnavigate World [Original headline: Chinese to America before Columbus?] LONDON -- History books may need to be rewritten in the light of new evidence that Chinese explorers had discovered most parts of the world by the mid-15th century. This week, an amateur historian will expound his theory, backed up by charts, ancient artifacts and anthropological research, that when Columbus discovered America in 1492, he was 72 years too late. And so were other explorers, such as Cook, Magellan and Da Gama, whose heroic voyages took them to Australia, South America and India. Instead, according to Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commander who has spent 14 years charting the movements of a Chinese expeditionary fleet between 1421 and 1423, the eunuch admiral, Zheng He, was there first. According to Menzies, it was Zheng He, in his colossal multi-masted ships stuffed with treasure, silks and porcelain, who made the first circumnavigation of the world, beating the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan by a century. Menzies will present his findings at the Royal Geographical Society on March 15 before an invited audience of more than 200 diplomats, academics, naval officers and publishers. Their initial reaction, based on an outline of his thesis, ranges from excitement to skepticism. But if the number of acceptances -- 85 per cent -- is anything to go by, he will not be ignored. He originally intended to write a book about the significance of the year 1421 around the world. While researching it in Venice, he was shown a planisphere, dated 1459, which included southern Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. Yet the Cape was not "discovered" as a sea route by Vasco da Gama until 1497. On the planisphere was a note in medieval Phoenician about a voyage around the Cape to the Cape Verde Islands in 1420 and a picture of a Chinese junk. Menzies felt he was on to something. Using Chinese star charts and maps that pre-date the expeditions of Cook, Magellan, de Gama and Columbus, he has reconstructed what he believes is the epic voyage of Zheng He. He says his knowledge of astro-navigation helped him to work out that the Chinese, using the brilliant star Canopus to chart their course, had sailed close to the South Pole. He determined their latitude and went on to find literary and archaeological evidence to show that the Chinese had effectively circumnavigated the world. Menzies, 64, admits that his greatest fear was being ridiculed. "When I started, I was terrified people would think I was a crank. But although my claim is complicated and stands history on its head, I am confident of my ground. What nobody has explained is why the European explorers had maps. Who drew the maps? There are millions of square miles of ocean. It required huge fleets to chart them. If you say it wasn't the Chinese, with the biggest fleets and ships in the world, then who was it?" Admiral Sir John Woodward, who served on submarines with Menzies in the 1960s and will be at his lecture, describes him as a brilliant maverick. "I was his teacher on a commanding officers' qualifying course and he was the cleverest, sharpest and best I had seen," he said. "He is not some mad eccentric but a rational man, good at analysis -- and he certainly knows all about charts." Chinese ocean-going supremacy in the first half of the 15th century is not in question. The expeditionary junks were three times the size of Nelson's Victory and dwarfed the 16th century ocean-going European caravels. Under his patron, the Yong-le Emperor Zhui Di, Zheng He made seven great voyages to bring foreigners into China's tribute system. When he returned in October, 1423, China was in political and economic chaos. The treasure fleet, now considered frivolous, was mothballed, admirals pensioned off and shipyards closed. Although most of the records of Zheng He's voyage were expunged, a few maps and star charts survived. Menzies believes they were taken to Venice by a merchant traveller, Nicolo da Conti, who had joined one of the Chinese junks in India. In his travel book published in 1434, da Conti claims to have sailed to China via Australia -- 350 years before Captain Cook. Menzies argues that, on his way through Venice in 1428, the King of Portugal's eldest son obtained the salvaged maps and incorporated them into a map of the world. The most controversial part of his theory is that copies of parts of this mappa mundi were used by da Gama, Magellan and Cook. Some of these still survive in museums: Patagonia (1513), North America (1507), Africa (1502) and Asia and Australia (1542). The letters and logs of the European explorers -- including Columbus -- certainly acknowledge that they had maps, says Menzies. "They knew where they were going before they set out." Using his knowledge of winds and tides, Menzies has located what he believes are nine Chinese leviathans wrecked in the Caribbean in December 1421. Pictures of the hull ballast on the seabed show stones identical in shape and size to those found in a Chinese treasure ship recently excavated in the Philippines. Menzies declines to name the uninhabited island because he believes some of the ships may still contain treasure and he wants to investigate them. Gillian Hutchinson, curator of the history of cartography at the National Maritime Museum, is not persuaded that there is a provable link between the Chinese maps and those the Europeans used. "It is possible," she says, "that Chinese geographical knowledge had reached Europe before the Age of Discovery. But Mr. Menzies is absolutely certain of it, and that makes it difficult to separate evidence from wishful thinking." Diplomats of the countries whose early history may be affected by his thesis are reacting with a surprising degree of warmth. Gregory Baughen, first secretary at the New Zealand High Commission, says: "It sounds exciting. We're all ears. Chinese artefacts have been found around the coast for some time." Luis de Sousa, press councillor at the Portuguese Embassy, says: "Magellan is in all the books and his descendants carry his name with pride. But if the Chinese circumnavigated the world first, which is quite possible, then let's give them their 15 minutes of limelight." • Story originally published by: Vancouver Sun / BC | Elizabeth Grice - Mar 04/02

The Tribe of Menashe Discovered in North East India One of the most exciting events in the end-time redemption of Israel is the great testimony of the discovery of descendants of the tribe of Menashe in North East India. This tribe which numbers around 5 million has a very old tradition that they are the tribe of Menashe which was taken from Israel after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians. They observe Shabbat and the festivals and the Biblical Jewish laws. They have synagogues and sing "We desire Zion" and pray to the G-d of Israel to answer and fulfill their desires to return to Zion and they direct their prayers towards the Temple Mount which is called by them, Mount Zion. They are deeply connected to the people of Israel and a major desire is to return to Israel. The Government of Israel may soon send a team to north East India to meet the communities of the tribe of Menashe to learn everything about them and to investigate how to reunite them with the people and land of Israel. The advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel regarding Diaspora Jewry, Channa Isakov, advised the Knesset that this team be sent. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is now checking the possibility to bring the tribe back to Israel. Last year the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, gave citizenship to the first hundred members of the tribe and they are now in Israel. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail was the first to discover the descendants of Menashe in India in 1979. In his testimony he stated that in this year a letter came to him from the Menashe Jews and he immediately travelled to meet them in India. His initial conclusion on meeting them was that they are deeply connected and are a part of the people of Israel. Rabbi Avichail is the man who for many years has pushed this issue. He has travelled to the East on many occasions to discover descendants of the ten Lost tribes of Israel. According to him he has discovered descendants of all ten tribes in India and in the high mountains of Afghanistan. He also discovered that they still call themselves by the original names of the Ten Tribes. He continues to research the matter and will not stop until he has discovered all the descendants. He brought to the attention of the Knesset very clear evidence of the deep connection of the members of the tribe in India to Israel and to the Jewish tradition and heritage. He continues his research into the remainder of the Ten Tribes. On his recent return from North East India where he visited the Menashe communities, Rob Wolfsohn, a journalist who is writing a book on the Menashe communities, stated that in the area of Manipur, he found a synagogue of the Menashe tribe and when he prayed in this synagogue he felt that he could have been in a synagogue in Brooklyn. He said that he had gone to the place not believing that the story was true, but that he had returned with a deep feeling that there is evidence of a very ancient linkage of the Menashe communities to the people and land of Israel. (from the hope-of-israel.org)

Boeing confirms research to defy gravity Boeing has confirmed it's carrying out tests on several anti-gravity devices which could allow almost fuelless aircraft and huge spacecraft. The company wants to join forces with a Russian scientist who claims to have developed a way to shield objects from gravity. Dr Yevgeny Podkletnov was ridiculed by sections of the science community when he released details of his research in 1996. He claimed objects above a spinning, superconducting disc lost weight, but other researchers say they have been unable to validate the results. A Boeing spokesman said: "We feel there is a basic science that exists for all this. We would very much like to work with the Russian scientist who is looking into all this." Nasa and the military wing of BAe Systems are also both working on anti-gravity research projects. Details of the Boeing project, called GRASP - Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion - were revealed by Jane's Defence Weekly. The Boeing spokesman said: "We have conducted tests on a number of anti-gravity devices. These devices do not actually break the laws of physics. "We are trying to engineer the science in a way that produces something workable. It could help produce a transport system that works without fuel, or produce spacecraft." Story filed: 12:44 Monday 29th July 2002 Science and discovery US

Lost civilisation from 7,500 BC discovered off Indian coast Archaeologists have found a civilisation dating back to 7,500 BC off India's western coast. The find is 5,000 years older than any previously unearthed civilisation in the subcontinent. Researchers uncovered pottery, beads, sculptures, a fossilised jaw bone and human teeth at the Gulf of Cambay site. Previously, the oldest known civilisations were the Harrapan and Indus Valley communities - which date from around 2,500BC. Murli Manohar Joshi, minister for human resources and ocean development, told The Times of India: "The findings buried 40 metres below the sea reveal some sort of human civilisation, a courtyard, staircase, a bathroom or a temple." Researchers used carbon-dating techniques. The find was made by the Indian ocean development and archaeology institutes.

New Underwater Finds Raise Questions About Flood Myths This temple, in Mahabalipuram, India, is said to be one of seven that formerly stood at this site. New finds suggest that there may be some truth to the story that the other temples were destroyed by a flood Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News May 28, 2002 Ancient stories of massive floods pass from generation to generation and in many places in the world are integral to a people's spoken history. The tales differ by locale, but commonly feature torrential rains or a hugely destructive wall of water bursting into a valley, destroying everything in its path. In many cases, the flooding is an act of retribution by displeased gods. This temple, in Mahabalipuram, India, is said to be one of seven that formerly stood at this site. New finds suggest that there may be some truth to the story that the other temples were destroyed by a flood. Many scientists, historians and archaeologists view these enduring tales as short, dramatised versions of the memory of rising seas at the end of the Ice Age. Like all good stories, they are rich with local drama, religious legends, and moral principles. While images of catastrophic floods are popular, many scholars argue that the real rising sea level slowly invaded the Stone Age hunting territories for thousands of years, and the stories compress this event into overnight floods, storms, and destruction. Recent undersea findings may yield new clues to the study of human habitations that now lie beneath the waves. Cuba's Sunken City Deep in the waters of Cabo de San Antonio, off Cuba's coast, researchers are exploring unusual formations of smooth blocks, crests, and geometric shapes. The Canadian exploration company that discovered the formations, Advanced Digital Communications, has suggested that they could be the buildings and monuments of an early, unknown American civilization. Many scientists are skeptical of any theory that might tempt people to draw a parallel with the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Geologist Manuel Iturralde, however, has stressed the need for an open mind while investigations of the site continue. "These are extremely peculiar structures, and they have captured our imagination," said Iturralde, who is director of research at Cuba's Natural History Museum. Iturralde has studied countless underwater formations over the years, but said, "If I had to explain this geologically, I would have a hard time." In his report on the formations, Iturralde noted that conclusive proof of man-made structures on the site could reinforce some oral traditions of the Maya and native Yucatecos. These people still retell ancient stories of an island inhabited by their ancestors that vanished beneath the waves. Iturralde makes it clear, however, that just because no natural explanation is immediately apparent, it doesn't rule one out. "Nature is able to create some really unimaginable structures," he said. Further research is scheduled to take place over the summer. Data thus far has been collected using sonar scans and video. The structures are buried under 1,900 to 2,500 feet (600 to 750 meters) of water. Collecting samples from the blocks and the sediment in which they are imbedded is the next step toward determining the origin of these curious structures. Temples Beneath The Sea Off the coast of Mahabalipuram, in Tamil Nadu, South India, the discovery of a complex of submerged ruins has sparked an investigation into their origin. Local lore has long held that the area once boasted seven magnificent temples, but that six of these were swallowed by the sea. The seventh, and only remaining temple, still stands on the shore. Stories passed from one generation to the next tell of a large, beautiful city that once occupied the area. The legends say the ancient metropolis was destroyed by the gods who were jealous of its beauty, and sent a flood to bury it beneath the waves. Best-selling author Graham Hancock spent several years cataloging and studying these myths. When he returned to the area as part of an expedition team jointly sponsored by Great Britain's Scientific Exploration Society (SES) and India's National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), the goal was to search beneath the sea and make a detailed survey that would confirm the existence of the temples, and investigate the date of their destruction. Local fishermen raised on the legends were able to point the team to a dive site where the ruins were located. Expedition leader Monty Halls described the excitement the team felt on discovering the underwater structures. "The initial feeling was one of disbelief," Halls recalled. "The sheer scale of the site was so impressive, and the fact that it was so close to shore. This gradually gave way to absolute elation." Diving in challenging conditions, the team found the "foundation of walls, broken pillars, steps, and many scattered stone blocks," said Kamlesh Vora, a marine archaeologist with NIO. Vora, Halls, and the rest of the team were quickly convinced that they had made a major discovery of man-made structures. "Here there would be no furrowed brows, no peering at reefs from different angles, no dusting for elusive archaeological fingerprints," said Halls. "Here man was everywhere." Still, the Mahabalipuram expedition has created as many questions as it has answered. "It is very rewarding that we have found something of such significance," Halls said. "However, the real questions still demand answers: How old is it? How extensive is it? What artifacts remain hidden in the ruins? For these reasons we must return as soon as possible and give this wonderful site the scientific and disciplined inspection it deserves." Vora agrees that much work remains to be done on the site, which spreads over an area of several square miles. "We will have to carry out extensive explorations beyond this area to find out if the man-made structures observed underwater are indeed of the same temple complex," he said. "All structures are made of granite stone which is locally available," Vora continued. "The archaeological and inscriptional evidence of sites on land near shore indicate a possible date of construction of these structures between 1,500 to 1,200 years before present. We now need to carry out detailed explorations and searches for datable antiquities and inscriptional evidences on the finds." If the Mahabalipuram ruins are found to be of the same temple complex as the shore temple, the discovery would lend credence to the local tales that outsiders have often disregarded as legend. [This message has been edited by dasa (edited 07-27-2002).]

Press Trust of India New Delhi, July 18: Experts at the Indian Instituteof Technology have resolved the mystery behind the 1,600-year-old iron pillar in Delhi, which has never corroded despite the capital's harsh weather. Metallurgists at Kanpur IIT have discovered that a thin layer of "misawite", a compound of iron, oxygen and hydrogen, has protected the cast iron pillar from rust. The protective film took form within three years after erection of the pillar and has been growing ever so slowly since then. After 1,600 years, the film has grown just one-twentieth of a millimeter thick, according to R. Balasubramaniam of the IIT. In a report published in the journal Current Science Balasubramanian says, the protective film was formed catalytically by the presence of high amounts of phosphorous in the iron—as much as one per cent against less than 0.05 per cent in today's iron. The high phosphorous content is a result of the unique iron-making process practiced by ancient Indians, who reduced iron ore into steel in one step by mixing it with charcoal. Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use limestone in place of charcoal yielding molten slag and pig iron that is later converted into steel. In the modern process most phosphorous is carried away by the slag. The pillar—over seven metres high and weighing more than six tonnes—was erected by Kumara Gupta of Gupta dynasty that ruled northern India in AD 320-540. The pillar is "a living testimony to the skill of metallurgists of ancient India", Balasubramaniam said.

A manuscript, composed in Sanskrit by King Bhoja in the 11th Century A.D., deals with techniques of warfare, and in particular with certain types of war machines. The work is called Samarangana Sutradhara, or "Battlefield Commander"(sometimes abbreviated "the Samar"), and the whole of chapter 31 is devoted to the construction and operation of several kinds of aircraft having various methods of propulsion. http://www.atlantisquest.com/Samar.html

(there is no need for the install on demand, to listen to the music, but don't cancel it too soon, or the music may not play) www.shiandci.net [This message has been edited by dasa (edited 05-21-2002).]

China plans Moon base for 2010 13:46 20 May 02 NewScientist.com news service China's ambitious space plans have been extended to building a base on the Moon starting in 2010, a Chinese space official has said. Before that the fledgling space power aims to complete a number of manned missions into space and to establishing an orbiting "space laboratory". In a lecture in Beijing during China's National Science week, Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist with China's Moon programme, outlined the country's bold space strategy. "China is expected to complete its first exploration of the moon in 2010 and will establish a base on the moon as we did in the South Pole and the North Pole." China Daily quotes Ziyuan as saying. He did not say whether China's mission to the Moon would be manned. James Oberg, a veteran of the US space programme and an authority on manned space flight, says China is unlikely to send astronauts to the Moon. "They don't have the budget or the technology," Oberg told New Scientist. "Their whole approach has been remarkably cautious. Robot missions make much more sense." But Oberg believes China could feasibly construct a small space station. China has so far completed three unmanned test flights with its Shenzhou spacecraft and intends to place the first Chinese astronaut in space by 2005. This would make China only the third nation to achieve the feat, after Russia and the US. Twelve people have been selected to become China's first generation of "taikonauts" and are undergoing training.