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News Briefs 23-08-2004

By Rick MGon

Today’s News is 99.9% politics free. It may contain traces of peanuts and personal bias.

  • Remember the Kent County Court House ghost caught on security camera earlier this year? It’s an insect according to the security company who studied the recordings, and they say it’s happened before. Yeah, but have they considered it could be the ghost of an insect?
  • Want to catch your own ghost? A ghostbusting kit will soon be mass-marketed. I always wanted to be Venkman.
  • Richard Freeman’s report of his expedition to Sumatra in search of the Orang-Pendek and other cryptozoological mysteries.
  • Fancy learning more about Cryptozoology? Check out Ben Roesch’s Online Cryptozoology Archives.
  • Does a dinosaur named Mokele-Mbembe exist in the African Congo?
  • The world may be getting smaller, but there’s still plenty of wild territory for Extreme Expeditions.
  • Bizarre creatures of Japan. No, not lolita-goths and cosplayers, but goblins and ape-men. Genki link!
  • An excellent website detailing Archaeoastronomy in Japan. Of particular note is the star chart of Kitora Kofun.
  • Cesare Berrini’s theories of Tiahuanaco’s Gateway of the Sun.
  • Explorers find new districts of ancient city in Peruvian Andes. If similar expeditions could get decent funding, I’m sure more discoveries could be made in South America.
  • Paul Stonehill, of the China Paranormal Research Center, presents an interestin article about Ancient China’s mysterious Yellow Emperor, Huang-Ti.
  • Gusev Crater on Mars may contain evidence of a watery past. The evidence is watery because Skeptics keep peeing on it.
  • Are magnetic hills a hoax or the real deal?
  • Greens call for action on Scotland’s chaotic summer weather. Cernig wonders if it’s safe to return. It is, but only when the soccer’s not on.
  • First Dr Wynn warns of massive tsunamis smashing America’s east coast, now he says he was exaggerating and the volcanic collapse of the Canary Islands will only cause mini waves. Surfs up, Prez.
  • Butterflies are disappearing, possibly due to climate change. Butterflies are symbolic of what, according to Jung? Post your answers and I’ll think of a prize.
  • Hopes for an International Linear Collider to be built are rising.
  • The darkest body in the universe may be a moon that partners Sedna.
  • A shortage of primates for lab experiments could slow medical breakthroughs. Uh … any volunteers?
  • The world is experiencing an increase in dust storms. Where’s Iorek Byrnison when you need him?
  • Munch’s painting The Scream has been stolen. Give it back, Greg: administrating TDG isn’t that stressful and it hardly looks like you anyway.
  • A woman hanging out her washing becomes the first person in Britain to be hit by a meteorite. What surprises me is that other people in the world have been hit by meteorites! I wonder if she saw stars?
  • Impact craters hidden under the Antarctic ice sheet are mapped.
  • A strain of China’s Avian flu is discovered in pigs.
  • A US County Sheriff suspects “Al-Qaeda or teenagers” for a string of unsolved petty crimes.
  • A feel-good cute animal story to end today’s news, as Henry the new-born leatherback turtle swims out to sea.

Quote of the Day:

The essential thing in art cannot be explained.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Rick MG
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13 Comments

  1. Scotland is Just Wet, It’s Not Global Warming
    The Green Party are barking up their favcourite tree, but any Scot will tell you that rain is not exactly unkown there. There are several experts who agree the recent floods and landslides in the UK are not down to global warming.

    As for soccer, or proper football as most of the world knows it, my team are the “Blue Brazils”, Cowdenbeath FC (look them up), the worst team in the leagues, so no worries there. If I call to ask when the match begins they say “When can you get here?”

    1. football
      If I call to ask when the match begins they say “When can you get here?”

      Ah thanks Cernig, I haven’t laughed that loudly for a long time! 😀

      ~ Rico, who can’t understand why Rugby, a sport where the ball never touches anyone’s foot, is called football in NSW and Queensland.

      1. Au contraire
        On the contrary Rick, if you’ve taken the time to watch the English rugby team they tend to drop it on their foot (or preferably Johnny Wilkinson’s) as soon as possible.

        That should bring out some of our UK readers…
        😉

        Peace and Respect
        Greg
        ——————————————-
        You monkeys only think you’re running things

    2. Not Global Warming
      I believe that the flooding assessments given by Philip Stott, Professor Emeritus of Biogeography at the University of London, Dr Keith Weston, senior lecturer in Atmospheric and Environmental Science at the University of Edinburgh and vice president of the Royal Meteorological Society, and Gerry Metcalf, Project Manager of the UK Climate Impacts Programme, based at the University of Oxford speak well for the scientific professionalism and integrity of these men, their organizations, and their employers.

      These scientists had every opportunity to join the pack and lay the blame for the flooding on the ever-popular climate-change villain – Global Warming. Rather, these gentlemen made a reasoned scientific assessment that led them to conclude that improper landscape development caused the flooding. These scientists have earned the respect of those of us that rely on experts such as these for proper evaluations. Well done!

      Thanks for posting the link, Cernig. There’s hope.

      Bill

      1. I don’t know, Bill…
        Mr M, at least, seems to be hedging his bets here…just a little!

        Metcalf said: “We can’t say that the weather we have had over the last fortnight is a result of global warming as it might have happened anyway. But what we can say is that it might be indicative of the sort of climate that we might expect in due course. In that sense all of this extreme weather is very helpful as it flags up all of the issues, both good and bad. They are useful indicators of the way things might go.”

  3. Munsch
    I hope whoever swiped Munsch’s painting The Scream keeps a close hold on it.
    If that sort of thing appeals to someone he/she obviously has a need for it.

    BTW you’re on your toes early today Rico, well done.

    shadows

  4. The Butterfly Effect
    >>”Butterflies are symbolic of what, according to Jung? Post your answers and I’ll think of a prize.”

    On the symbollic significance of butterflies disappearing:

    >>Butterflies have been used by the Chinese and Japanese cultures for centuries as symbols of joy and the essence of happiness.

    No need for butterfly sacrifices to understand that one, as it seems self-evident from the massive amounts of anti-depressants being consumed.

    >>Along with being a symbol of witches and fairies in general, butterflies also symbolize the souls of witches. Both butterflies and witches have the ability to change their form; butterflies change in the course of their development, witches allegedly can change at will.

    So are butterflies warning witches that they are losing their ability to metamorph, or does the rising star of science have them all suicidally bemoaning the loss of magic in general?

    >>An Irish term, tiene-dhe’, refers to both butterflies and the fire of the Gods.

    Aha! A likely explanation in that one! Since the fire of the Gods is symbollic of the mind, the butterflies could be trying to tell us we’re losing our minds. Then again, maybe not, since most of us already know that.

    But you asked for Jung, didn’t you?

    >>In Greek, psyche means both butterfly and soul. A couple of things Jung said seem to pithily apply: “there is no self knowledge based on theoretical assumptions.” “People use concepts to avoid experience.” “it would help you most to have a personal insight into the secrets of the human soul. Otherwise everything remains a clever intellectual trick, consisting of empty words and leading to empty talk.”

    Clearly the winner. The butterflies are dying because we humans have refused to engage in the introspection necessary to understand ourselves. Relying on our flawed intellectual concepts by default, we lack understanding of our impact on the natural world.

    Kat

    1. Congratulations!
      Kat,

      You’ve won a free subscription to The Daily Grail! Well done. 😉

      Seriously, nice response. The loss of butterflies could symbolise many things, among them being:

      — the decline of paganism (we no longer worship Nature as we should), so it’s ironic that nature begins to desert us.

      — the rise in depression (butterflies symbolising happiness in some Asian regions).

      — people are getting stupider.

      As for Jung, I could have sworn he said something about butterflies representing death and the afterlife in our subconscious. I’ll have to read up on that. I could be mistaking butterflies for moths. The world’s frog species are disappearing too, but somehow the humble frog less romantic connotations for self symbolism. 😉

      Anyways, I’ve just woken up, I need a cup of tea.

      Cheers Kat!

      Rick

      “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

      1. butterflies
        In the myth of Eros and Psyche, Psyche in the end sprouts wings, like a butterfly. The name Psyche itself means ‘butterfly’. For this reason Jung took the butterfly to be a metaphor of the unconsciuos mind.

        1. butterflies
          Ah, that’s what my unconscious mind was trying to remind me, the myth of Psyche. I’d best get my Greek Myths books out.

          Thanks Lee!

          Rico
          “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

      2. Needa cuppa something for sure – me, not you…
        Hi Rick,

        Thanks for the pat on the back. Not sure I deserve it for accuracy, as Lee and someone else were obviously more on point about Jung/Psyche/etc.. But maybe I deserve it for trying to think in the wee hours of the morning, and for being there first.

        You’ve just woken up, huh? Since I’m still up at 5:30 am, it’s high time I hit the sack, myself. But before I go…

        Surely someone can come up with some symbolic reasons for all the frogs croaking. 😉

        Cheers,
        Kat

    2. Nicely put Kat.
      This is the missing link, really.

      Theoretical assumptions are just that: assumptions. It is interesting to note that hard science would also fall under this description and that the so called sciences of the mind can even be scoffed at by fundamental scientist because they are so ‘theoretical’. In reality, it is the same mechanism at work with the exception of mathematics as a supporting conceptual enforcer.

      Concepts are an extension of the theoretical assumptions when they are used to fill a void in the process of understanding. They are used as building blocks in the edification of the impression of having understood something, which in turn provides a sense of security. The security of the ego, of course, who needs to justify its sense of reality and its psychological mechanisms.

      Lastly, concepts and theoretical assumptions are clever intellectual tricks and the intellect, which is really only a memory processor, uses concepts that he created or borrowed even if they are empty, being the representation of an assumption and not of reality which cannot be understood intellectually because its source remains outside of the realm of memory, makes (the intellect) a perfect falsifier of itself because of the need of the ego to believe. This leads me to state that there is nothing to be understood but that everything is to be known.

      Really engaging in retrospection necessitates the reevaluation of everything that is taken for granted, in particular the ego, the intellect and the tools they use to create a perception of reality. Not upturning these stones only results in the perpetuation of human ignorance elevated to a status of wisdom. It also allows manipulation of concepts and their dissemination at a cultural level, which in turn become ideologies that in the end lead to war, racism, elitism, nationalism, and all the evil isms that you can come up with.

      Accepting or gaining an insight in the nature of the ego, the soul and all these concepts that have been historically subjected to cultural consensus, thus bearing the weight of eons of memorial imprinting, would put the ego at risk in his belief in free will and his psychological need to think that he has a real impact on his destiny and way too often on the destiny of others. This insight would lead to the psychological disintegration of this house of card and, provided there is enough will to survive, its replacement with the acknowledgement of its own reality. Most are neither ready nor willing to go through this process and would rather philosophize on metaphysical questions or worse, rationalize at nauseam at a materialistic level.

      Even curiosity is part of those mechanisms where the ego is seeking the answers that he has already formulated through his beliefs. Curiosity should be replaced with interest to allow the ego the amount of psychological neutrality necessary for such an undertaking.

      Hugh… Sorry for the long sentences.

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