Saturday, January 10, 2009

2012: solar storms will wipe out our infrastructure



There have been solar flares forever, every 11 years. All of a sudden, this next cycle is going to be the "big one" apparently, wiping out our power grid and making our GPS units no longer work. (I know, when the power goes out the first thing I do is run to the car and check my GPS...not.)
According to the fear-mongers at ABC, we aren't ready for a solar space storm that could knock out our electricity, our cell phones, even our water supply. This is based on the fact that, (b)ack in 1859, a solar eruption resulted in telegraph wires burning up. ...

How bad would the "Katrina Space Storm" be for us earthlings? Well, the NAS report suggests the storm could cascade through our modern world. First, the electric grid would be vulnerable, and could be shut down. It's the first big domino that, the report says, could lead to "disruption of the transportation, communication, banking, and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure; and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration."

OMG! Stockpile food...uh, no, can't do that, the refrigerator will be dead. I guess we'll all have to resurrect our 1950's bomb shelters and hope for the best.

Nothing like a healthy dose of fear for breakfast!


(image source lolcats; screenprint of article)

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

4 Ollin, or the end of the world, is Thursday


Thursday is 4 Ollin/Caban/Earthquake, the date the Aztecs think the world will end. Well, on SOME 4 Ollin, we don't know which one. (Unlike the Mayans, who left us the long count pointing to 2012 for whatever reason, the Aztecs only counted their years in sheafs of 52, and didn't include a solar month with their sacred calendar enddate). 500 years ago, they believed the 5th sun was already old and dying and the final 4 Ollin earthquake was eminent. So I guess it could be Thursday. If not Thursday, then in 9 months, on the next 4 Ollin (09-25-2009).
My subconscious must have known 4 Ollin, and possibly the end of the world, were coming, because I had a very odd end of the world dream, very short and very vivid.

In the dream, I sat in the living room of an apartment. My mother slept in the bedroom. It was night, and everyone knew the world was ending that evening. Although you'd think everyone would be outside, rioting, in reality, it everything was quiet. Two laptops sat open and on before me, and I turned them both off, shut the covers, and unplugged them, thinking rather sadly "this won't save them." I knew my mother was in denial and that's why she stayed alone in her room. (I have no idea where my husband, grandmother or pets were--they weren't in my dream consciousness at all--or why I was in an apartment.)
I walked over to the big picture window, maybe 3 or 4 stories up. The building was located on a hill, so I could see pretty far across a city whose lights twinkled below, spread out to the horizon. I couldn't stand the silence so I opened the window and leaned out and started shouting; I don't remember what I said. As I yelled, I saw the lights that were nearest the horizon go out. It was like a dark cloud was racing over the earth (probably the earth turning). I stopped yelling and watched the darkness spread toward me, EMP-ing everything electronic and killing everyone. I wished my mother was awake to watch with me (somehow that, and knowing my computers would be EMPed, were sadder than my own impending death). Watching the world die is a once in a lifetime thing, and here I was alone. The darkness blotted out everything I could once see, and came up the hill, and then it took me, even as I started shouting again.
I realized I was still standing there. I wasn't dead! I turned to feel my way to my mom's room and see if she also survived.
The darkness was complete--no moon, no ambient light. But somehow I never stumbled and my outstretched fingers never encountered furniture. Before I was halfway across the room, I realized that I was indeed dead, and my body was crumpled in front of the window.
But I wasn't a ghost; somehow all at once I realized (or was told) that I was an AI and my memories and sense of self had been transferred from my body at the instant the darkness hit. (Why the EMP wouldn't have taken out an AI, I don't know.) And I also knew that my mother hadn't been spared and she was dead, most everyone else was dead, and only a few were now AIs, but I didn't know how or why.
And that was it.

Here is a list of 4 Ollins between now and 2013
  • Friday, September 25, 2009
  • Saturday, June 12, 2010
  • Sunday, February 27, 2011
  • Monday, November 14, 2011
  • Tuesday, July 31, 2012 (143 days before 13th Baktun)
  • Wednesday, April 17, 2013 (117 days after 13th Baktun)
if you want to mark your calendar....or just buy mine!

(Image is from flickr)

Friday, December 12, 2008

Mystery pyramid built by newfound ancient culture in Mexico


An ancient pyramid located not far from Mexico City may be the product of a previously unknown pre-Colombian culture, according to National Geographic
Most of the 41 artifacts "do not fit into any of the known cultures of the Valley of Tulancingo, or the highlands of central Mexico,"said Carlos Hernández, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History in the central state of Hidalgo. .... Many of the figures are depicted in a sitting position, with their hands placed on their knees. Some have headdresses or conical hats with snakes at the base, which could represent Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl, the Aztec god of the wind. One figure shows a man emerging from the jaws of a jaguar.
The sculptures are also made of flat stucco—a combination of fine sand, lime, and water—and painted blue or green to the give the appearance of jade. All of the artifacts date to the Epiclassic period between A.D. 600 to 900. ...
But by linking all the characteristics that make them different, [such as their location in Tulancingo and time period], allows us to say that they should be considered as a product of a different culture [called Huajomulco]....
The pyramid's proportions, along with smaller structures that were painted black and white, do not correspond to the Toltec or Teotihuacan cultures of the same area and time period.
I wonder how long it will be before people who have no clue will be talking about human sacrifice and calendars ending in conjunction with this new culture?

(Screenprint of original article)
12.19.15.16.10 13 Mac 3 Oc (burner day)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My father’s ghost

I had one of my rare dreams the other night—a dream that I am in (as me) and involving people and places that actually exist. It was a long and complicated dream and I’ll spare you the details. But as part of it, I was hanging around with a bunch of ghosts. Not scary ghosts going “whooo” and rattling chains, simply spirits of dead people. One of them was my dad. And at first (in the dream) it was cool to have my dad’s ghost around—not much different from having a flesh-and-blood Alzheimer’s dad—there but not there, you know?

But as I spent more time trying to communicate with my father’s ghost, I realized something horrible. Something that stayed with me when I woke up, even as the other details of the dream faded away.

My father’s ghost still had Alzheimer’s.

How unfair is that? In the dream, and now, awake, I raged against that. That is not how it is supposed to be. If you have dementia, when you die, you get everything back. You have to. You die and you go to the Elsewhere bar and have a drink. Whatever it was your soul was supposed to learn (or teach you) by stripping away your memories and your personality, you learn it and have a good chuckle, and then you hold the door for some newcomers (8 per hour, just from the US).

You don’t come back as a sad, demented ghost.

I don’t know what in my psyche triggered that dream and I can only hope that it was wrong.

(cross posted to my Alzheimer's blog)

12.19.15.16.9 12 Mac 2 Muluc

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

smart/lucky penguin

I was just at the failblog and saw this video. It's not in English so don't worry about turning the sound on.

Is this penguin lucky or smart? I think he's smart.