This relic may relate to the Sampson account. Far more interesting than anything you probably watched on television tonight.
Mars: A New Hope
NASA’s most ambitious Mars probe is set to land late today (or early tomorrow, depending where you live). NASA is one of the few government programs that actually invests in a major — and important — industry that supports high-tech jobs and science and technology advancement. However, the geniuses in Washington has been throwing NASA under the bus as of late. They’d rather bailout unsuccessful ventures. But I digress. At least NASA is finally relying more on the commercialization of space. Now if they only would do that with the International Space Station.
Man’s obssesion with Mars has been detailed by many authors in great fiction. Ray Bradbury’s classic The Martian Chronicles showed us the ruins of a dying world.
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ swashbuckling John Carter series is an amazing adventure series decades ahead of its time.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy is a detailed epic on man’s settlement and terraforming of the Red Planet.
There are many others, but these are of the best. Even though Mars is a dead world, it still draws us to it as one of the most dynamic — and mysterious — worlds in our Solar System. As unfolds in Robinson’s novels, it’s the most likely world for humans to colonize if we can ever begin to look further than next week. Robert Zubrin’s The Case For Mars explains the reasons and means for exploring the Red World.
In an era where the politicians lack any vision, and most people wander aimlessly through life, maybe Mars will inspire a few to raise the bar.
Especially in this election year with the same empty promises and waves of deception, Mars could be just what we need.
Categories: Books, Fiction
Tags: Curiosity, John Carter, JPL, Mars, Mars Direct, Mars rover, Martian Chronicles, NASA, Red Planet, space probes, terraforming, vision, Zubrin
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The Land of Shannara
Middle-Earth and Narnia. Two of the best known worlds in fantasy. Are there others as good? After first reading Lord of the Rings and everything else Tolkien wrote, I was hooked and wanted something else. Someone recommended the fantasy series by Terry Brooks.
And that was it.
Starting in 1977, Brooks has written over 20 books in the series. Stand-alones. Trilogies. Prequels. Duologies. One could start just about anywhere, but I always recommend starting with the first, The Sword of Shannara, then work your way forward. Then go to the very beginning for what would become the prequel series, The Word and the Void (it was first written as a seperate series and later led to the Shannara books via five other volumes).
Some complain his first book was too much of a Tolkien clone. Maybe, but he quickly came into his own and created one of the great fantasy mythos. I have found them to be much more readable than some others in the genre. Those go on and on and often have massive, tedious books. Each of Brooks’ books, or groups of books, stand on their own, while drawing on others and leading you to a conclusion. Sometimes I wish the gaps in the timeline between each series weren’t so large, but from his perspective it makes it easier to create new stories and characters. Still, fans hope he will revisit some of the classic stories. Once you become hooked, buy the companion reference for a guide to this ever-growing world.
Will you choose to go on this adventure or continue on your boring path?
Easter Island Still Unsolved
The Navel of the World it is called. A speck on a map in the endless Pacific. Yet ancient people found it and erected some of the most iconic statues of the ancient world. Mysterious and solemn, the Moai stare, not out over the ocean, but inward. How the people of Easter Island – the Rapa Nui – built them and what happened to their culture has been debated for decades. The current issue of National Geographic details the current state of theorizing over this lost past.
In Jared Diamond’s Collapse, he championed the theory that Easter Island’s civilization collapsed largely due to their destruction of the island’s environment. Once forested, it is nearly empty of trees to this day. Other researchers, as chronicled in The Statues That Walked, lay out evidence that the environmental destruction wasn’t intentional, nor as widespread and not the final nail in their coffin.
As in the end of any culture, many factors were at work. It can be hard to pin the blame on any one as primary, as they often work in tandem.
Of course, the real question is will we learn from the past or suffer the same fate caused by the blindness of hubris?
Ray Bradbury, Legendary Writer, Dies
Few authors write for as long or as much. Fewer still become legends in their lifetime and see their works regarded as classics.
Ray Bradbury, author of the classic Fahrenheit 451, unforgettable stories like The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine and thousands of short stories, died yesterday at age 91.
In an era where many authors come and go, an American Original has been lost.
Categories: Books, Fiction, Writing
Tags: Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
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Mayans: Engineers of the Ancient America
Whereas many are focusing on the Mayan calendar’s supposed world-ending climax in December, others are using this focus on the Mayans to educate on this lost civilization. Engineer and explorer James A. O’Kon has written The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology, a fascinating look at the technology of these people who were for so long considered Stone Age folk.
From pyramids, to grand cities, irrigation and bridges, the Mayans matched and often surpassed civilizations of the Near East and Asia. They didn’t follow the standard model of emerging along riverways, use of animals and stayed relatively isolated from the rest of the world. Yes, they were preceded by the Olmecs, traded and eventually ruled by the Aztecs, and some suggest had at least some transoceanic contact. Yet, they largely seemed to develop on their own the technology that supposedly the primitives of the New World were too simple to figure out.
Eventually, drought and overuse of the land would lead to their downfall. Their cities already abandoned by 1492. Like many peoples, they couldn’t predict the future and thought time was on their side. In their success they felt invincible and they thought their world would never end. It did, as many before and since.
Will humans ever take seriously the history of those who fell before us?
Categories: Ancient America, Native Americans
Tags: Mayans, Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican
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Vikings in America…More Evidence?
For decades, rumors and sagas of Vikings in America before Columbus were ignored as fantasy. One of these evidences routinely dismissed was the Kensington Rune Stone, found in Minnesota. Even after remains of a Viking settlement in Canada, there was still a fierce reluctance to revisit this and other Viking evidences. Now geologist Scott Wolter has presented a detailed and scientific defense of the Kensington Rune Stone’s authenticity.
A potentially history-changing find.
Not the whimsical, logic-leaping theories of a revisionist, Wolter outlines the flaws in the arguments of hoax-claimers and the very serious and difficult-to-deny evidence of his position. (However, Wolter hurts his cause when he brings in the Templars into his theorizing – which wouldn’t be bad by itself, as they may come into play in all of this – but he includes many of the bizarre, untrue fancies that have been following them in recent years. Please, how many historians have to refute these things before people stop repeating them?)
Will the Viking presence in America continue to be ignored? Will these people, whose exploration skill was legendary, still be left on the Canadian coast?
Or perhaps we will finally let history tell its story.
Ancient Mayan Astronomers
I’m sure 2012 fanatics will like this: “Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered.” The Mayans are well known for their sophisticated calendars which are at the root at 2012 fascination. This particular set of finds may extend their calendar beyond the Big End this December. Like many cultures, their science and religion were strongly linked and time keeping was needed for worship purposes. Yet all their knowledge didn’t keep their civilization from ending.
Perhaps something for our own to ponder.
Categories: Ancient America, Ancient Sites, Native Americans
Tags: 2012, Astronomy, Mayans
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Who Exactly Were the Neanderthals?
The status and sophistication of the hominid species Neanderthal has been a matter of debate for decades. Once thought to be an ancestor man, genetic studies show it to be unrelated, though some studies have shown possible limited interbreeding. But how advanced were they? They existed for over a 100 millenia and went extinct about the same time man was making his big push across the globe. One recent study concludes they were building boats. They are the only other known hominid to ever approach man’s abilities.
Like all other hominids and primates, they pose a bit of problem for evolution in that they appear suddenly in history. The “family tree” of man is technically made up of assumed connections between bone fragments. Even though largely not considered man’s ancestor, they are often still referred as a “cousin” or such to fit into the evolutionary paradigm. This why some creationists still pretend they are humans in spite of the evidence. Taking this track instead of focusing on the more obvious problems doesn’t make a lot sense. I suspect this is just to fit this mysterious species into their own flawed interpretation of Earth’s history.
So where do neanderthals fit into the picture? How advanced did they get? Were they simply the latest in a long line of increasingly advanced primates, as some have suggested, designed to prepare the world for man? No evidence of religion or similar levels of sentience is known among them. Their use of simple tools is not unheard of in the animal world. But boats?
We pretend we have explained man’s past and the other beings we share the planet with. It takes only a quick glance to find that each new discovery has only proven we know very little.
It was religion that first said we all originated from the same ancestors, in one location and that intelligence and religion existed from the beginning. Science and history have caught up and verified these claims. Yet many still close one eye to the flaws and holes in evolution and young-earth creationism.
Perhaps someday people will allow facts lead to where they may without trying to bend them around a preconceived conclusion.
[For more on man’s past, see Who was Adam?.]
Categories: Mysteries, Origins of Man, Prehistory
Tags: creation, evolution, neanderthals
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Pyramids in Wisconsin?
For decades there have been reports of geometric structures on the floor of Rock Lake in Wisconsin. And after decades of discussion, we still have a lot of fuzzy photos and disregard by most archaeologists.
Nearby, however, is the Aztalan State Park with remnants of mounds built by a Mississippian mound builder culture. Extensive earthworks were built. Did they build something in the lake when it was low? Why would they? Divers claim they found remains of stone pyramids — stone not being a prime material of mound builders. An Aztec outpost?
This is one of those tantalizing mysteries some people keep talking about, yet no convincing proof seems to come forward.
If there were claims of pryamids in any lake nearby me, I would like to know one way or the other if it were true.
Darrick Dean 