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News Briefs 22-09-2016

Duck!

Quote of the Day:

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.

Warren Ellis

Editor
  1. News
    Tesla: The way the article header made it sound was that China remotely took over a car and they were scrambling to update the software, not that they worked together as a team to prevent it in a controlled experiment. The clickbait, slightly offensive title is bullshit.

    Fish song: It honestly sounds like the background noise for a WWII propaganda film, military planes buzzing over a scrambled soundtrack.

    Zodiac: Actually this is nothing new or recent. An observatory in Wisconsin came out and said this months ago. Even Adult Swim made fun of it in a bump.

    Ravens: Who knew spousal abuse was so rampent in raven communities that they need to adapt to it?

    Lord of Sipan: I got an email this morning from a Prince McNiff asking for a small loan of $13 million. No relation.

    1. Zodiac

      “We didn’t change any zodiac signs, we did the math. Nasa reported that because the Earth’s axis has changed, the constellations are no longer in the same place they were thousands of years ago.”

      In an email discussion about his book The Golden Thread of Time: A Voyage of Discovery into the Lost Knowledge of the Ancients (Amazon US & UK), Crichton Miller told me astrologers need to look up once in a while, for the same reason NASA mentions above. For most of us, this means the constellation that we were actually born ‘under’ (our ‘zodiac sign’), as opposed to the one listed for our birthdate in astrology books, has changed since ancient times.

      At Crichton’s suggestion, I included my time, date and place of birth in my reply. So it was Crichton Miller who changed my star sign – from Gemini to Taurus.

      Neither Gemini or Taurus seems to fit me very well, and my rising sign is no help either. Not that I’m a big fan of it either, but Chinese astrology, based on the Chinese year in which one is born, fits much better — I’m a water dragon. That said, I’m all for anything that encourages humans to be more introspective.

  2. Bogus Chronic Fatigue Research
    I’m amazed that this is still a mystery illness. From my own experience it seems to be caused by the blocking of neurotransmitters. The mind is telling the body to move, but nothing happens. The body feels paralyzed. I fell prey to this back in the early 80’s while still a college student. My illness gradually diminished over many, many years. Getting more calcium (especially in the form of coral calcium) was the first thing that helped. (I know that current thinking is that calcium supplements don’t work, but in my particular condition it did.) After that I discovered serrapeptase, which improved circulation and possibly dissolved some of the neurological “blocking agents” (who knows?). Most of my symptoms are gone now, but I do find that a little Niagen is making it easier to exercise (and recover), as well as maintain muscle tone and general fitness level. But that may only be because I’m much older now.

    When I was suffering the worst effects of the illness, about all I could do is think. Just walking up one flight of stairs was excruciatingly difficult. How could something that real simply be in a person’s head. But, yes, that is exactly what doctors were telling people, even then!

    If I were a conspiracy theorist (ok, I am a conspiracy theorist), I might speculate that CFS was the result of some government’s research into finding a way to disable other military personnel without leaving any trace of poisoning. (This was the kind of thing going on at the time, and put into practice via the Iraq-Iran war that began in 1980. Many Iranians were traveling abroad and to the US in particular prior to the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and may have spread the illness, intentionally or not.)

    1. Chemical sensitivities may be
      Chemical sensitivities may be a primary cause. Synthetic carpets might be a huge contributor to the syndrome.

      http://naetcarolinas.com/NAET-natural-treatment-for-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

      “Case Study: Computer Keyboard and Plastics Causing Fatigue

      “We treated Stan, a 28-year-old computer programmer who began to feel extreme fatigue a year after he started working with a well-known computer firm. He had a wife and two children. When he started experiencing incapacitating exhaustion, he began dreading his work. His output also started to slow down. He was diagnosed as having “chronic fatigue syndrome”. His energy was drained to the pint that he was unable to walk without assistance. Finally, he had to file for disability. His health improved when he was away from work for a while. Once he returned to work, his problems started all over — even though he was given regular physical therapy and supportive treatments.

      After four years of illness, he was referred to our office and it was discovered that he was highly allergic to plastic products and his computer keyboard. He was also allergic to computer radiation. After he was treated by NAET for plastics, keyboard, and radiation, he was able to resume his regular work.””

      1. What’s Sent Around Comes Back Around
        Obviously fatigue and immune disorders can be caused by many things.

        Mine developed before daily computer exposure, and at the time I was living in an apartment with terrazzo flooring. Many of the Iranian students that went to my college came back from Iran very ill at the start of the Winter term. Then the American students started getting sick. It could have been just an ordinary flu virus that triggered CFS in me. I was pushing very hard in those days and not eating a whole lot. It hit me like the proverbial “ton of bricks.” The lasting/chronic effects indicate that some kind of retro-virus could have been at work, but it was not something that showed up in a routine blood test, at least not in those days. Of course governments could not let the public know what kind of horrors they had knowingly or even accidentally unleashed upon mankind. We were also exposed to DDT and other toxins before the full consequences were known. A simple trip to the salad bar was potentially deadly back in the day! New and potentially dangerous chemicals were being introduced all over the place.

        So, it’s a fantastic mystery. I was transformed almost overnight from an athletic 20 year-old into someone with “sleep paralysis” when they were actually awake! It’s also a mystery that ultimately made me “lose my religion” and “radicalized” me toward doing esoteric historical research. The “bug”, whatever it is/was, ultimately defined my life, for better and for worse!

        1. None Dare Call It Conspiracy
          To me the most compelling theory about what happened to Hillary at the 9/11 event is that she had a seizure which is borne out by her “freeze” in front of the van and her wearing “Zeiss Blue” anti- sunlight seizure spectacles for the ceremony.

        2. Cell Phones Again
          http://www.electricsense.com/3002/emfs-cause-of-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

          “I am Paul Doyon and I’m an American. I was living in Asia for the past 22 years. 6 years ago I got very sick and I didn’t know what was causing it. I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is an illness that started in 1984 in United States. It was known also as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in the UK earlier than that.

          But in 1984, which just happens to be the first year that they set up the commercial nationwide cell phone network in the United States, is the year people started to get sick with what is called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”

          1. CFS and Herpes Viruses
            My CFS ordeal began early in 1981. Perhaps I was an “early adopter” (haha) and it took a few years for it to become more widespread. Mainstream medicine ignored it for decades and I never got any help from doctors. When I first contracted it I begged to be given antibiotics, but was refused! Not sure it would have helped, but we’ll never know now.

            The name I first remember being remotely associated with chronic fatigue was Epstein-Barr (related to mononucleosis). I had multiple bouts of Chicken Pox when I was a child (which is not supposed to be possible), and as a kid I used to break out in hives whenever I got too excited about something. I also got mono from my girlfriend during my first year of college and was over that (and her) fairly quickly with the help of some steroids. So, perhaps my immune system was just predisposed to the “herpes family” of viruses. But, that doesn’t make for a very interesting “conspiracy theory” (haha). Whatever nailed me during my junior year of college was a whole ‘nuther muther’!!

  3. Signs – Sigh…..
    This recurring item from NASA about the zodiac shows a stunning lack of research on the part of scientists and journalists (both of whom seem to regurgitate this story every few years). To put it simply, the zodiac most Western astrologers use is not based on the stars at all, surprisingly, but upon the seasonal divisions of the year. So for example, the first day of Spring is zero degrees of Aries, the first day of Summer is the first day of Cancer, the first day of Fall is zero degrees of Libra, and the first day of Winter is the first degree of Capricorn. Deborah Houlding has addressed this faux-controversy in a letter she wrote to NASA, which I’m reproducing here:

    Dear Sir or Madam,

    I have just been directed to your page http://nasa.tumblr.com/post/150688852794/zodiac
    Constellations and the Calendar

    As I am involved in ongoing complaints about the misleading information broadcast about this issue by media authorities in the UK, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of the remarks you have on that page which show incorrect information. I would be grateful if you could forward this email to the appropriate person responsible for that page content, and I would also very much appreciate receiving a response to these two points so that I can help bring clarification to a topic that has reached a ridiculous proportion of public misunderstanding.

    Your page stresses a remark which has been stated twice by yourselves, and so has been reproduced by others in a way that generates even more confusion; i.e., it begins and ends with the remark:
    “we didn’t change any zodiac signs…we just did the math.”

    This remark adds to the current widespread confusion, by giving the false impression that NASA is responsible for some newly realised information, or that someone at NASA has been responsible for working out the ongoing cycle of divergence between the regions of the ecliptic divided into 12 zodiac signs and the constellations that lie behind them.

    Of course this is not the case – the math was worked out and made perfect many centuries ago. The development of the zodiac was a spectacular historical astronomical feat, which brought huge scientific advances to the civilisations that utilised it; and its principles were all based upon astute astronomical reasoning. Since your page concerns itself with the calendar, it is a pity it gives no credence to the calendrical and astronomical significance of the zodiac, which utterly predominated astronomical knowledge for nearly two thousand years. It would have been good if NASA had helped to explain that ancient astronomers understood precession, and how this requires the zodiac to cycle against the background constellations, in order for the zodiac to remain in synch with the seasons and the calendar. You could have also explained how even ancient astronomers were careful to stress that the equally divided zodiac signs must not be confused with the irregular sized constellations that bear their names. However, the important issue here is that NASA should NOT be giving the false impression that it has just done something that has worked out, discovered or resolved an astronomical problem. Nor should it give the impression that precession causes any kind of problem for the demarcation of the zodiac divisions, since precession is the reason why the zodiac was developed in the way that it was, to offer a more reliable, precise, mathematically correct and calendrically obliging system of astronomical reference. The fact that astrologers attach symbolic significance to the zodiac, should not be a matter of significance to NASA – and it should certainly not become a reason for NASA to obfuscate known knowledge of how important the zodiac has been in the history of astronomy, in a way that suggests that the zodiac has never held any kind of scientific value.

    Your page also states “But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and crossed over into the next one.”
    This is a another incorrect remark, which only serves to perpetuate the silly media stories which suggest that the zodiac ought to have 13 signs for a reason that has no historical veracity. The zodiac is known to have been used and employed by the Babylonians at a time that they recognised 18 star constellations in the region of the ecliptic, not 13, which was an adoption made by much later Greek astronomers, at a time when the 12 sign zodiac had become firmly established as the principal system of both astronomical measurement and astrological guidance.

    I would very much appreciate your attention to these matters, and hope that, at the very least, you will do what is necessary to remove this highly misleading and historically incorrect information from your web page.

    Yours sincerely

    Deborah Houlding

    PS – My own article on what the zodiac is currently and historically, why it is differentiated from the constellations, and how the media has misreported the issue in a way that generates endless public misunderstanding, is published online at http://www.skyscript.co.uk/zodiac.html – ‘Understanding the Zodiac, and why there REALLY are 12 zodiac signs, not 13!’ It is fully referenced and the footnotes given there provide the sources required to support the comments I have made above. I would, of course, be happy to provide fuller and more convincing academic and historical references on this matter if you are in any way uncertain about the points that I have made here.

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