Put excitement and adventure back into your life every single day. Make it something that you live and breathe, something that you would instantly notice if it went missing (and you’d want to recapture immediately).

When you’ve been to the moon and back what else is there in life that can excite you or motivate you?

That’s a good question. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did just that in July 1969, reaching a life-defining pinnacle. In the aftermath Aldrin in particular battled with depression and alcoholism back on Earth. But he eventually found his way back to a fulfilling life and became a public figure, an ambassador for space exploration.

His passion for adventure is not diminished as it once was in the immediate years after his date with destiny on the moon. Read his autobiography, or visit his website at www.buzzaldrin.com to get an idea of the life he now lives.

Today, Aldrin has a life of passionate adventure with worldwide business travel, scuba diving and mountain skiing, and also as the author of a number of books and advocate for continued manned space exploration.

So what can you do instead of going back to the moon (or the previous soaring summit of your life)?

1. Find the adventure in a smile.

2. Find the adventure in a love – whoever or whatever that love may be.

3. Find the adventure in a laugh.

Children can teach us a lot. Have you ever seen a child who will laugh at almost nothing? I mean really laugh hysterically at nothing?

Train yourself to be once more like a free-spirited child; to be able to laugh at almost nothing and to feel good about doing so.

A big thank you to everyone who came out Wednesday night for the 4th Annual Trivia Turkey Bowl. Several former teams returned for this special event. Beth, Steve and Shonda from Zoinks! teamed up with Guys & Dolls, and Joe McNew, the God of Fire, made his return after a successful semester of classes.

An even bigger thank you to those who brought in canned goods for the Sharing Center in Sanford. Your generosity had me working overtime hauling all of the donations out to the car. I’ll deliver them to the Sharing Center next week.

As for the trivia, the Dirty Dixies walked away with the Quiz Cash trivia crown for November. The Dixies were in last place after the first week, and Gene found himself in Nancy’s dog house after the team lost 20 points on the Hero or Zero question. But the team battled back in Week Two to take the lead and never relinquished the top spot.

Guys & Dolls had a good month, finished just 1/2 point out of 3rd place.

Guys & Dolls and Empty Glasses won the free rounds of beer.

I need to say thanks to Theo at the Willow Tree Cafe (which was judged as the No. 2 German restaurant in all of America) and Terry at Angelo’s Pizza for donating gift certificates for the night. Your generosity is much appreciated. The teams who won gift certificates include Ecto Cooler, That’s What She Said, Clever Team Name, Simple Minded and Dirty Dixies.

And of course thanks to Rob and Terri at the Black Swan for hosting trivia each week and sponsoring the free shots of Wild Turkey that were passed out Wednesday night.

Trivial tidbits from the night included:

• According to Domino’s Pizza, the company delivers more pizza’s on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day. Domino’s second busiest day is Thanksgiving Eve.
• For their first meal on the moon, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate roast turkey in foil packets.
• A person with Pentheraphobia fears mother-in-laws.
• You will find the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

Standings:

1. Dirty Dixies – 365.25 points
2. Clever Team Name – 350
3. Empty Glasses – 331
4. Guys & Dolls – 330.5
5. Simple Minded – 265
6. Wayne’s World – 228
7. Chasin’ Trivia – 186
8. That’s What She Said – 102
9. Team Doc – 81
10. Haddo’s Delight – 62
11. Aged Beef – 59
12. Team Mas – 58
13. Ecto Cooler – 57
14. Don @ the Bar – 34
15. SanJax – 32
16. Flea Bites – 27
17. Team Larry – 14

Hi,

Two new articles from me in the STV contest have gone up. I need you to read them and post comments on them (on the STV site) to help me…

One article is on our attitudes to space travel, sparked by me reading about the death of a cosmonaut from the 1960s, and the wife of a current astronaut giving birth while he was in space:

Astronauts article

The other article is about a Canadian singer called Justin Bieber tweeting about a personal appearance, which led to a crush. Because “his people” initially refused police demands to tweet telling the crowd to disperse, an executive at Def Jam records was arrested:

Power of Twitter article

Teddy x

What does it take to be a good leader? When Obama was elected to become the most powerful man in the world, there was a lovely story in the January edition of ‘The Surfer’s Path’ about Richard Nixon (bear with me, it is rather long):

 “From John’s deck one could survey the scene, including the upper story of the hacienda and the special stairs that had been built to allow presidential access to the sand and sea. One afternoon, as I looked on, Dick and Pat (the Mrs.) descended the bluff, crossed over the railroad tracks (via a special set of stairs and plank inlays), and stepped out onto the beach. It was a glorious day and the couple was preceded, at a polite distance, by a pair of secret-service agents. In fact, Dick and Pat kept a polite distance from each other, too. Another pair of secret-service agents followed, at a distance. The four men were dressed in black suits, complete with shiny black shoes, ties, jackets. Pat wore a casual pant-suit kind of thing, but it was the president who really caught my eye. He wore a pair of dark gray slacks – high, with the belt buckle positioned about halfway between his navel and his sternum – and a powder-blue shirt with short sleeves that came closer to his wrists than his elbows. He wore polished dress shoes, and he stepped awkwardly towards the berm, along which he walked as he studied the sloshing surges of the Pacific. The impression I got was of a guy a lot less at home on a beach than Neil Armstrong had been hopping around in a space suit on the moon”

President Obama, on the other hand, grew up in Hawai’i and went to the same high school as surfing great Gerry Lopez. Comfortable in the ocean, Drew Kampion (the man responsible for the passage above) believes that Obama is a good thing for the world, notably: “for sustainability and the environment, for compassion and relationships, for sanity and reason”. On Youtube, we can even watch Obama bodysurf a wave at his home break:

Unfortunately, I could not find any Youtube evidence of the ‘inner surfer’ in Herman Van Rompuy, the new European President. Yet we should not give up on the chap just yet. After a trawl through his personal website, I discovered some of his much discussed Haiku. Here is one entitled ‘Water’:

“Plassen wachten

Op warmte om te verdampen.

Water wordte een wolk.”

I suspect he is expressing something in connection with the joys of gliding along a four foot peeling wave. I have emailed to ask him, so maybe if there is a flat spell in politics and swell, he will let us know. And before you write and tell me that Hitler liked poetry and also had connections with Japan, let me tell you this: Herman also cites his favourite author as Albert Camus. What better answer could there be?

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I just watched a BBC America show about the reticent Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and over the last couple of days on NPR radio, the Stardate segments have been devoted to the anniversary of  the Apollo 12 mission when Pete Conrad (the third man to make that walk) and Alan Bean made a pinpoint landing of the lunar module to test  “precise landing techniques” that would be used in future missions.

"The Surveyor 3 spacecraft sits silently in a small lunar crater, with the Apollo 12 lunar module on the crater's rim in the background. Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed just a few hundred feet from Surveyor 3 in November 1969 to test the precise landing techniques that would be needed for future missions."--Stardate.org

We can’t do solar panels here?

***

Early last week I posted this comment by Zachary Karabell, who appeared on CNBC (See: Larry Kudlow Has a Fit as Obama the “Declinist” Opens His Mouth in Japan; Says Obama is “Not His President”):

And he said that if we want China to continue to “hitch” themselves to us more, we’re not supposed to freak out if China wants to buy businesses HERE and not have a “knee-jerk xenophobic response.”

Well, here’s a story that will not make people happy, even though it may help us ultimately less dependent on foreign oil. Of course, we may become dependent on NEW environmental technology from foreign sources, but…

From Business Week (my bolding):

China Solar Panel Maker Sets First U.S. Plant

Suntech Power aims to boost its share of the U.S. market with a solar-panel manufacturing plant to be built in Arizona

China’s Suntech Power Holdings (STP) is no newcomer to the U.S. Last May, President Barack Obama toured the U.S.’s largest solar panel installation at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. There, row upon row of shiny black Suntech panels account for about a third of the 14-megawatt solar farm.

Suntech landed that project the same way it has raced to the top of the fast-growing global solar market: by focusing on price and scale. Now the world’s largest supplier of solar panels is boosting its stake in the U.S. market.

On Nov. 16 in Beijing, the company announced its first American manufacturing plant. The facility, to be located in the Phoenix area, will begin production by next October. “The U.S. market is on the cusp of greatness,” says Steven Chan, Americas president and chief strategy officer for Suntech. With the announcement, Suntech becomes the first major Chinese cleantech player to bring factory j obs to the U.S.

MMMM...wonder how many MORE major Chinese players will be arriving? And on U.S. military bases? (Of course, wasn’t there a flap over Bill Clinton selling military technology to China way back when?)

Now, there are some in Congress that are afraid our home-grown “green manufacturing jobs” won’t get a chance to get off the ground if this sort of thing happens on a regular basis. Sure, the Chinese are manufacturing here, but the factory jobs are THEIR creation, not jobs created by  a  home-grown company.

Obama’s visit to China focusing on collaboration in green technologies. Suntech’s move may soften criticism from U.S. lawmakers worried that low-cost factories in China will snare new green manufacturing jobs before they even have a chance to take root in the U.S. “[Suntech's] decision to bring manufacturing here to the U.S. is a great sign of the increasingly important collaboration between Chinese and American leaders in the renewable-energy industry,” said Dan Kammen, a professor in the energy and resources group at the University of California at Berkeley, in a statement provided by Suntech.

Gee…that Berkley prof can’t write his own statement??

According to the article, most of the grants the U.S. issues for “cleantech” is winding up overseas:

Suntech’s investment comes as anxieties are rising in Washington over foreign domination of the U.S. cleantech space. In late October the announcement of a Chinese-U.S. consortium planning to build a wind park in Texas using imported Chinese turbines led to calls that federal subsidies should be pulled from the project.The same month, a report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop found that in the wind sector, where foreign manufacturers dominate the market, overseas companies have received 84% of more than $1 billion in federal clean-energy grants released since Sept. 1. The study did not focus on solar energy, but the majority of solar panels are also produced by European and Asian companies.

Texas?  Well, naturally…I’d bet that the George Bushes I & II are involved somehow, what with their long-time ties to China…Between them and their heir Barack Obama, things are proceeding very nicely…

In light of my previous post about growing U.S. unemployment, pardon me if I query: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??

(Well, we’re going to build electric cars with the Chinese, for one thing…)

***

Editor’s Note: I loved the space program and now live where Pete Conrad lived…and remember when this irrepressible spirit, who shouted “Whoopee” as he hopped around the moon’s surface, died in a motorcycle crash in California 10 years ago this past July (pictures on this memoria page). (He also rode 2 Gemini missions and Skylab I.)

November 18th, 2009

Over the years you’ve no doubt heard claims that the Apollo Moon landings were an elaborate government hoax. Of course, this is one of the silliest conspiracy theory claims I’ve ever heard, but then once people start to venture down the rabbit-hole of conspiracy mongering I’m of the opinion that logic & reason go right out the window.  In any case, ever since these CT-lunatics (pardon the pun ) have started making their hoax claims a decade ago, one of their most oft-repeated mantras is: “If we really did send humans to the Moon, then why doesn’t NASA show us pictures of the landing sites?”

Well, here you go, an image of the Apollo 11 landing site as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)…

A detailed description of this photo is given over at the Bad Astronomy blog:

We’ve seen it before, but this time LRO is in its 50 km mapping orbit, so the resolution on this image is far higher — about 50 or so centimeters (20 inches). In this image, the tracks made by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they scampered on the Moon for 2 hours and 31 minutes are obvious. You can even see the lander footpads, each just less than a meter (a bit over a yard) across.

The bright spots south of (below) the lander are various scientific packages they installed, including the Lunar Ranging Retro Reflector and the Passive Seismic Experiment. If I’ve got the scale right, the faint dark trail going to the upper left is where they put the TV camera. Somewhere between that and the lander is the flag. The Sun was shining straight down in this image, so the flag isn’t visible.

The image above is a piece of a much larger photo taken by the LRO…

Hat tip to the Rogues at the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe and Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy blog for giving me the heads up on these new photos from the LRO.  Incidentally, Phil has a really detailed blog post on this new development – I recommend you check it out.

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of reaction the Moon hoax CTers will have to this news, seeing as how it addresses a critical claim they’ve been making all along (that no direct photos of the Apollo landing sites exist).  Of course, I predict that the CTers will engage in all manner of special pleading and goalpost moving to explain away this damning evidence – even going so far as to appeal to the conspiracy theory (i.e. NASA faked the photos) to rationalize their delusions.  Such thinking displays the unfalsifiable nature of conspiracy theories and shows how misguided & separated from reality these folks can be.

Era o vreme cand Pamantul era singurul loc cunoscut din univers in care exista apa. Ei bine vremurile alea s-au dus. Aparent, pe langa planeta Marte, si pe Luna exista apa. [Am eu senzatia sau exista apa peste tot?]

Conform unui articol dintr-un ziar, nu numai ca exista apa pe Luna, dar aceasta exista in cantitati semnificative. “Am gasit apa, si nu doar putina, ci in cantitati importante”, a declarat Anthony Colaprete, responsabilul stiintific al misiunii LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite). Ca si in cazul planetei Marte, pe Luna s-au descoperit urme de apa in stare solida. Apa se afla sub stratul de praf de la suprafata, chiar si pe fata luminata de Soare, si se estimeaza ca ar exista cantitati mari in zona polilor.

Ceea ce mi se pare interesant e ca descoperirea a fost realizata de misiunea lunara indiana Chandrayaan-1 si a fost anuntata de reprezentantii NASA. Adica, abia au iesit indienii in spatiu si au si facut o descoperire importanta! Asta pune la indoiala seriozitatea misiunilor americane pe Luna. Cu toate cercetarile lor de ani de zile, cu toate misiunile Appolo, americanii nu au putut ajunge la un asemenea rezultat spectaculos. Oare chiar au fost americanii pe luna? Or fi fost dar nu se cunoaste ca au fost!

In imagine Neil Armstrong. Pe Luna. Anul acesta s-au implinit 40 de ani de cand steagul american “flutura” pe Luna. Fotografie preluate de aici.

Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water

By ALICIA CHANG (AP) – 1 hour ago

LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.

Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.

“Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.

The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that’s only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.

Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

“Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go,” said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.

Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA’s future plans said it doesn’t change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.

“This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but … the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain,” Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.

President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA’s lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.

As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon’s poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon’s surface.

But it was NASA’s Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.

“Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one,” said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it’s unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.

The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.

Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.

NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.

Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft’s spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.

“We’ve had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it,” said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.

“People will overreact to this news and say, `Let’s have a water rush to the moon,’” Aldrin said. “It doesn’t justify that.”

Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.

Finally they’ve confirmed it: the Moon has water. NASA has crashed 2 spacecraft into one of the lunar craters on the Moon and found a pretty sizeable amount of water – approximately 25 gallons. For those on the metric system, that’s 95 litres. Now that we have water on the Moon, chances of having extended stays on the Moon have increased. There is even the possibility of a astronaut outpost.

With this new discovery, there’s a chance that there’s even more water elsewhere on the Moon just waiting to be discovered. Even so, it’s still going to be some time before our dreams of living on another planet come true…

We interrupt our ‘Cool Experiments’ series to give you a special report.  Don’t act like it’s only me who imagines what it would be like to travel back in time or forward in time like Martin McFly (Back to the Future trillogy, ask you parents )or Doctor Who.

I know you all have, even if it was only once. I will now tell you where I would go back in time if i had one chance to travel back in time.

Growing up in Central Florida, one of my earliest aspirations was to be an astronaut. I believe moonwatching, supporting NASA, and reaching for the stars is ingrained in any native Floridian. My mother was pregnant with me when Neil Armstrong first set foot upon the Moon. Just twelve years later, I vividly remember being home sick from school and lying in bed watching both the opening of Epcot as well as the launch of the first space shuttle mission. Later, images of Columbia exploding 72 seconds into flight still reign in my mind, and I remember my high school teachers trying to explain to students what had happened.  In fact, it wasn’t until I was a sophomore sitting in Astronomy class at the University of Florida–and I realized how much math was involved with being an astronaut–that I was forced to give up that dream. 

Now, as NASA struggles with undetermined funding and uncertainty, everyone seems to have a strong opinion either for space exploration or against it. This is why the upcoming Space Elevator Games fascinate me so. The idea of reaching space in a new way (that doesn’t involve me having to conquer ridiculous amounts of math) seems intriguing. Here’s a short trailer for the games.

Yes, this idea seems a bit “out there” and farfetched, but so did rocketry fifty years ago. Ever see the movie October Sky? Well, one of those rocket boys lives right here in Central Florida: Dr. Robert Likens. He is living proof that dreams, however lofty, can come true. So, regardless of whether this idea will actually come to fruition, I loudly applaud the inventive thinking and never-ending dream of reaching for the stars…somehow it seems to epitomize not only the American spirit, but the Central Floridan one as well.

With the death of William Safire, ex-presidential speechwriter for Nixon, in September, a number of websites have posted the text of what may become the most famous presidential speech never given. On the 18th July 1969, two days before the scheduled landing of Apollo XI, Safire produced the text of a speech for Nixon to give to the nation should the astronauts die or become stranded on the moon’s surface.

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

No doubt the moon landing deniers will just regard this as an example of how wide-ranging the conspiracy was.

Juan Moricz, un nacionalizado argentino por residencia y nacido en Hungría, fue el descubridor de unas extensas cuevas subterráneas en Ecuador con más de 200 metros de profundidad en el año 1969. Sin embargo, no eran unas cuevas comunes.

¿Quién las construyó?, seguramente fue la primera pregunta de Moricz, ya que aseguraba que esas cuevas no eran de origen natural; salas parecidas a refugios antiaéreos, radiaciones de origen desconocido, extravagante colección de obras con simbolismos jamás antes vistos, fueron algunos de los descubrimientos de Moricz.

(fig. 01 – Si la naturaleza hizo estos túneles subterraneos, entonces también hizo las piramides…)

Poco se sabe de este tema, pero mucho se especula acerca del mismo. Una cuestión importante es: ¿por qué las visitó el astronauta Neil Armstrong?, pero más importante aún: ¿en realidad las visitó?

Y he aquí la incógnita más grande: ¿Las cuevas fueron construidas por seres extraterrestres?

En un relato que nos brinda en famoso escritor suizo Erich Von Däniken en su libro El oro de los dioses se puede leer el siguiente extracto:

En una época desconocida, y en una lejana galaxia (lo se, suena a Star Wars de George Lucas, sin embargo el libro fue publicado en 1974 y Star Wars en 1977), inteligencias semejantes a las humanas habrían librado una gran batalla.

Los vencidos en aquella batalla huyeron en una nave espacial. Para despistar a sus enemigos, no aterrizaron en un planeta de condiciones óptimas, sino en otro menos adecuado donde hubieron de llevar casco y aparatos de oxígeno durante algún tiempo.

Para protegerse, excavaron los grandes laberintos subterráneos, y además colocaron en otro planeta, el quinto del sistema solar, falsas instalaciones y emisoras. Los enemigos cayeron en la trampa y destruyeron brutalmente todo el planeta, cuyos restos son los asteroides que ahora vemos. Creyendo aniquilados a los vendidos, los vencedores regresaron a su galaxia.

Los vencidos habitaron en la tierra y dejaron aquí los restos de sus gigantescas obras…

En ese relato se puede entender que Von Däniken creía y aseguraba que las cuevas habían sido construidas por seres extraterrestres hace millones de años.

Un detalle que me llamó la atención fue lo del quinto planeta del sistema solar; se menciona que los “vencidos” colocaron falsas instalaciones y emisoras y que los “vencedores” destruyeron dicho planeta. Es decir, el cinturón de asteroides que esta próximo de Marte, ¡era un planeta!

- ¿QUÉ HABÍA EN LAS CUEVAS?

Según la escritura legalizada que Juan Moricz depositó en la notaría del doctor Gustavo Falconi, en la cual se autoproclamaba descubridor de las cuevas, describió algunos de los objetos que había en las cuevas:

Los objetos por mí encontrados presentan las siguientes características:

1)      Objetos de piedra y metal de distintos tamaños y colores.
2)      Láminas de metal grabadas con signos y escrituras. Se trata aquí de una verdadera biblioteca metálica que podría caso contener un extracto de la historia de la humanidad, como asimismo revelar el origen del hombre o dar noticias de una civilización extinguida.

Esta acta notarial fue registrada el día 21 de julio de 1969 y creo que no hay más que decir acerca de éste punto más que detalles de los objetos.

(fig. 02 – Supuesto alfabeto en una plancha metálica )

- PADRE CARLOS CRESPI

Se dice que los indios que custodiaban las cuevas (presuntamente los verdaderos descubridores de las cuevas), durante mucho tiempo le llevaban objetos de oro, plata y piedra al padre de la iglesia María Auxiliadora de Cuenca, Carlos Crespi.

Entre aquellos objetos que fueron guardados por el padre se encontraban láminas de metal en las cuales, según Juan Moricz, se encontraba registrada la historia de la humanidad de los últimos 250,000 años.

Muchas de las piezas de colección del padre Crespi más tarde fueron robadas lo que hizo muy difícil asegurar el origen de los objetos ya que el padre murió en el año de 1982.  Ese continúa siendo un enigma hasta nuestros días.

(fig. 03 – Padre Carlos Crespi)

- EXPEDICIONES EN LA CUEVAS

En julio de 1976 se llevó a cabo una expedición Ecuatoriano-Británica en la que supuestamente participó el astronauta estadounidense Neil Armstrong. Las investigaciones, cuyo objetivo era el de desarrollar experimentos geológicos y biológicos, duraron 35 días.

El resultado de la expedición fue que “la Cueva de los Tayos no tenía origen artificial, y que no existían indicios de trabajo humano”. Pero he ahí un detalle, se habla de trabajo humano solamente…

En relatos de algunas personas que supuestamente accedieron a las cuevas, incluido el mismo Moricz, se habla de descripciones como la siguiente: “Algunas galerías son estrechas; otras, anchas; las superficies a escuadra; paredes lisas, a menudo como pulidas; los techo planos y como vidriados, no se trata por supuesto de vías naturales”.

En una entrevista que se le realizó a Neil Armstrong al salir de las cuevas dijo: ¡que su visita al mundo subterráneo superó su experiencia en la Luna! Sin embargo, cuando se le preguntó a la NASA acerca de lo sucedido con su astronauta, la agencia respondió que eso jamás sucedió.

(fig. 04 – Neil Armstrong dentro de la Cueva de los Tayos)

Todavía se puede hablar mucho más del tema, pero es mejor hablarlo próximamente dentro de otros temas…



New podcast available. You can get it through iTunes now as well.

http://carlsagansdanceparty.podbean.com/2009/10/27/carl-sagans-dance-party-2-102709/

In this episode, we give you a brief bio of Ol’ Carl. Harry Trunckles debunks the moon landing, Jasper Pennies reviews Capitalism: a love story, Wilhelm Blitzkrieg discusses military reform, Michelle Glasshappy tells you how to write genre fiction and our supercomputer brings you precision horoscopes.

Bonjour mes Amours,

Bien que dire hé oui, déjà un mois avec Moto-Men, ça passe vraiment vite, je le crois pas.  Je parle avec lui et il me dit : 2 tu réalises, un mois déjà ! je lui dis : hein un mois!…. Il me semble que nous venons de nous rencontrer… Faut dire que quand on vit le bonheur, le temps s’arrête on ne voit plus rien et c’est bien ce qui se passe.  Toutefois, je suis en grand questionnement, je sais pas pour vous mais y’a des moments dans notre vie où on se dit qu’on doit dormir, on passe rapidement et on réalise qu’on a pas fait grand chose de sa vie…

Je veux changer le monde, big deal ! Comment laisser sa trace, comment devenir connu, comme nous sommes un grain de sable dans l’Univers, je ne veux pas qu’on m’oublie et je suis certain que vous vous questionnez de-même ! Comment devenir un individu qui change la destinée de la vie, de sa vie….. devenir important ça c’est important, mais la question comment ?  que faire ? se démarquer ! créer ! Je ne sais vraiment pas, devenir héros !, il y en as tant !  Aimer son prochain ! ça je peux le faire et ça ne fait pas de bruit, sauf que moi je veux en faire!  Il y a des gens qui sont bien dans le silence, moi je veux crier, parler faire du bruit… Mais je ne sais pas quoi… Bon vous direz, ça y est, la Vilaine dérape et vous n’aurez pas tord, je dérape parce que je veux faire quelque chose faire du bruit… mais quoi… Madonna sauve les enfants en Afrique, Gandhi à soulevé tout un peuple, Obama le premier Noir Président, Neil Armstrong le premier sur la lune, Mère Théresa… la liste est longue…  Je veux quoi moi ?  être le premier Gai qui fait quoi !  Moi j’suis comme vous je veux laisser ma trace mais comment ?  C’est existentiel et pourquoi pas !  sinon c’est quoi le sens de tout ça.. je ne sais pas ! J’ai besoin de faire des grandes choses pour être important, que d’aimer les gens autour de soi pour laisser sa trace…  Aimer encore plus, ouf, là ça demande quelque chose qui me dépasse… Le premier gai qui aime plus que tout!

Ben on va repasser, faudrait que j’apprenne à m’aimer en premier, pis ça c’est l’histoire d’une vie… pis je veux faire plus du bruit et maintenant… Mais comment ? je dois me pencher sur ça, depuis vendredi j’y pense….

Oui je suis mégalomane et pourquoi pas ! Je veux me sentir important et si je trouve la recette je vous la donne c’est sur !… et elle doit être simple cette recette miracle !  l’ennui c’est que je suis certain qu’elle est différente pour chacun de nous alors ce qui s’applique à moi ne s’applique pas à tous….

Si je pouvais créer un mouvement ! ou tous les gens qui se sentent  inconnus et qui désirent devenir vivants et connus, trouver les mots, les idées qui font que des gens on le goût de se dépasser de rendre le monde meilleur autour d’eux !  Dans la vie il y a le sexe et il y a l’amour et L’amitié comment trouver l’équilibre devenir le meilleur dans ces 3 sphères Et ne me dites pas que c’est incompatible!

Le dépassement de soi pourquoi pas… la virtuosité, moi j’y crois! à me lire, on a les cheveux qui se dresse sur la tête, mais j’ai de grandes aspirations moi tout comme vous….. Mais je ne sais pas ce que je veux… Je vais trouver et je vais revenir..

Avec l’idée du siècle !  Bonne semaine… bon je vais aller faire ma vaisselle…….. Et donne aux suivants!

Following on with a horror theme for Halloween, it has been 36 years since famed zombie lover George A. Romero created one of his most loved films to date, The Crazies. It seems that Inevitably, along with many other old school horror movies, such as ‘Halloween‘ and ‘The Nightmare On Elm Street‘, having been made into remakes, with fairly successful reputations. The Crazies is no exception, with a theatre release set for February 26th, 2010, one can only hope; much like with other films mentioned, that it is equally, if not more popular than the original of it’s franchise.

The plot focuses on the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. The 2010 version seems more like a reinvention than a remake where in the original the military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.

Of course Mr. Romero is known for his influence in zombie culture over the last few decades, it may seem like his influence in the film may be irreplaceable, but is it really? New director Breck Eisner, aged 39 attended USC where other notable alumni include; Neil Armstrong, Will Farrell, George Lucas and Forest Whitaker, so it’s not like he wasn’t around an aura of success at a young age. From his previous work on the unappreciated film ‘The Sound Of Thunder‘, I expect good things from him. On a equally as important note, the cast members! Timothy Olyphant (The Girl Next Door, Hitman, Live Free Or Die Hard) will play the protagonist David Dutton, with Danielle Panabaker (Sky High, Yours, Mine and Ours, Friday The 13th) and Radha Mitchell (Phone Booth, Silent Hill, Surrogates) also making appearances within the film. What do you think will come of this remake?

Here is what then White House speech writer William Safire actually wrote for US President Richard Nixon in 1969 as a contingency should disaster befall Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon.

Notice the lack of detail, but the openness of the writing – designed to let the memory fill in the gaps with what would have been remembered of the disaster.

“THE BE READ BY PRESIDENT IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT:

The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.

AFTER THE PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:

A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to “the deepest of the deep,” concluding with the Lord’s Prayer”

Lays it on thick, but so real its unreal.

Yours, while building fantasies and traumas that fit into my grand narrative scheme.

Righteous

p.s. I am responsible for extraordinary pranks in ordinary places, but I am still gloomy and sullen in disposition.