I Didn't Know That

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:13 pm

Beyond wrote:Ann, in your spare(?) time, try looking up -cave drawings-. I've seen quite a few pictures of cave drawings on TV, from all over that have a very good similarity to each other, which seem to be UFO's and some that look like space-suited aliens. Of course the drawings are a bit crude, but they sure stand out from the 'critters' that are usually drawn on cave walls.

I've seen a number of these petroglyphs, and not a one of them is convincing as a representation of a UFO or some sort of "critter". I think people see what they want to see, even if it means putting aside common sense and simpler explanations.

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:28 pm

Beyond wrote:Did History Almost End In 1883?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -1883.html

Billion Tonne Comet May Have Missed Earth By A Few Hundred Kilometres in 1883
Technology Review | The Physics arXiv Blog | kfc | 2011 Oct 17

A re-analysis of historical observations suggest Earth narrowly avoided an extinction event just over a hundred years ago

Interpretation of the observations made in 1883 in Zacatecas (Mexico): A fragmented Comet that nearly hits the Earth

Hector Javier Durand Manterola, Maria de la Paz Ramos Lara, Guadalupe Cordero
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1110.2798 > 12 Oct 2011

Did a fragmenting comet nearly hit the Earth in 1883? Color me very skeptical
Discover Blogs | Bad Astronomy | 2011 Oct 17

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:35 pm

There are strange objects that painters put in to represent hevenly beings that are confused with ufo's!
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_file ... rt_01.html

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:43 pm

orin stepanek wrote:There are strange objects that painters put in to represent hevenly beings that are confused with ufo's!
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_file ... rt_01.html :roll:

Like I said, people will see what they want to see! (I'm not suggesting you are falling into this trap- but the authors of this site certainly have.)

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:59 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
orin stepanek wrote:There are strange objects that painters put in to represent hevenly beings that are confused with ufo's!
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_file ... rt_01.html
Like I said, people will see what they want to see! (I'm not suggesting you are falling into this trap- but the authors of this site certainly have.)

True! I don't see interstellar travel as likely; due to distance involved.

rstevenson · Post by **rstevenson** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:14 pm

Ann wrote:Personally I consider the UFO craze a very interesting example of how currents events on the Earth created a belief in flying saucer UFOs and visitors from space.

I don't know... . I think the craze may have started somewhat earlier than WWII -- like perhaps in biblical times. I offer this link without further comment. (Except for a smilie.)

Rob

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:27 pm

rstevenson wrote:
Ann wrote:Personally I consider the UFO craze a very interesting example of how currents events on the Earth created a belief in flying saucer UFOs and visitors from space.
I don't know... . I think the craze may have started somewhat earlier than WWII -- like perhaps in biblical times. I offer this link without further comment. (Except for a smilie.) :shock:

Yeah, but I don't think that story was interpreted as a UFO reference until the mid-20th century UFO craze.

Carl Sagan, in his book The Demon Haunted World, plausibly connects the same psychological phenomenon to a variety of reports throughout history- various demons, leprechauns, fairies, ghosts, alien abductions, etc. The mechanism for seeing or believing these things may be the same, but the actual perception is culturally influenced. UFOs and aliens are only the latest.

rstevenson · Post by **rstevenson** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:33 pm

Probably true, Chris.

By the way, don't dig too far into that site (as if you'd be so inclined.) It's an amazing pile of whooey about all sorts of secrets (only known to the site's author, of course), nefarious plans, and alien intervention in the affairs of the world.

Rob

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:43 am

rstevenson wrote:
Ann wrote:Personally I consider the UFO craze a very interesting example of how currents events on the Earth created a belief in flying saucer UFOs and visitors from space.
I don't know... . I think the craze may have started somewhat earlier than WWII -- like perhaps in biblical times. I offer this link without further comment. (Except for a smilie.)

Rob

: Click to view full size image

This is Mariakyrkan, the Church of Mary, In Ystad, not far from where live. Inside the church you can find an amazing variety of carved and painted little mythological and just plain strange creatures.

I checked out the entire first chapter of Ezekiel. Clearly he describes something which may be interpreted as a spaceship, if we want to impose that interpretation on it. But it is equally possible to think that Ezekiel is just describing something heavenly and otherworldly. If Ezekiel knew anything at all about Greek mythology, he might have been inspired by their stories of strange creatures and of gods travelling in flying carriages.

If you check out Ezekiel 1:5-11, you'll see that the beings described by Ezekiel have four faces each. Each of these "aliens" has one human face, one face of a lion, one face of an eagle and one face of an ox. Sounds like one of those little green men, much? Naaah, didn't think so.

The creatures also have two pair of wings each. Again, that doesn't sound much like E.T. to me.

The first chapter of Ezekiel ends with Ezekiel saying that he has seen God.

Ann

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:29 am

orin stepanek wrote:There are strange objects that painters put in to represent hevenly beings that are confused with ufo's!
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_file ... rt_01.html

Orin, thank you so much for that link! It was incredibly interesting - and revealing!!!

Ann

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 2:55 pm

It's time for ... quantum levitation!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Being smart enough to levitate a disc like that doesn't necessarily make one smart enough not to handle the things with bare fingers!

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 3:44 pm

That's what i was thinking, geckzilla. I just watched it and came here to post it, and found out you beat me to it. Amazing stuff, isn't it?

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:23 am

So I ate a plum tonight and the pit was already cracked open inside and there was an almond-like nut within. Decided to give it a shot and chewed it up, but it was super bitter and smelled amazingly aromatic like almond extract. Then Pat told me there's cyanide in there. Oops.

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:49 am

geckzilla wrote:So I ate a plum tonight and the pit was already cracked open inside and there was an almond-like nut within. Decided to give it a shot and chewed it up, but it was super bitter and smelled amazingly aromatic like almond extract. Then Pat told me there's cyanide in there. Oops.

Good thing there's not very much in each one, or *Ocular Digitator* would be up for grabs

I think the same is true of peach pits. So stay out of the pits

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:57 am

I spat it out, anyway. With my luck it was some freak super plum pit.

One poison-related tidbit is the use of warfarin (rat poison!) as a blood thinner in humans. Turns out it can save you from a pulmonary embolism. Well, help prevent it from happening, I mean.

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:24 am

Plums, peaches and apricots are all the same family.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:46 pm

geckzilla wrote:So I ate a plum tonight and the pit was already cracked open inside and there was an almond-like nut within. Decided to give it a shot and chewed it up, but it was super bitter and smelled amazingly aromatic like almond extract. Then Pat told me there's cyanide in there. Oops.

I accidentally bit into one of those once! It's something I won't be doing again soon. I have to take warfarin; it's a generic for coumadin! You have to go in once a month and have the thinness of your blood checked.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:47 pm

Beyond wrote:
geckzilla wrote:
So I ate a plum tonight and the pit was already cracked open inside and there was an almond-like nut within. Decided to give it a shot and chewed it up, but it was super bitter and smelled amazingly aromatic like almond extract. Then Pat told me there's cyanide in there. Oops.
Good thing there's not very much in each one, or *Ocular Digitator* would be up for grabs
I think the same is true of peach pits. So stay out of the pits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdalin wrote:
Amygdalin : B17 [Not a Vitamin]
B-17E [Not a Vitamin]
Amygdalin (from Greek: ἀμυγδάλη amygdálē “almond”), C₂₀H₂₇NO₁₁, is a glycoside initially isolated from the seeds of the tree Prunus dulcis, also known as bitter almonds, by Pierre-Jean Robiquet and A. F. Boutron-Charlard in 1830, and subsequently investigated by Liebig and Wöhler in 1830. Several other related species in the genus of Prunus, including apricot (Prunus armeniaca) and black cherry (Prunus serotina), also contain amygdalin.

Since the early 1950s, a modified form of amygdalin has been promoted under the names laetrile and "Vitamin B17" as a cancer cure, but it is not a vitamin, and studies have found it to be ineffective and potentially toxic as a possible cause of cyanide poisoning. The promotion of laetrile to treat cancer has been described in the scientific literature as a canonical example of quackery, with Irving Lerner of the University of Minnesota describing it as "the slickest, most sophisticated, and certainly the most remunerative cancer quack promotion in medical history."

The metabolism of amygdalin produces hydrogen cyanide, a potent toxin. Beta-glucosidase, one of the enzymes that catalyzes the release of cyanide from amygdalin, is present in the human small intestine and in a variety of common foods. This leads to an unpredictable and potentially lethal toxicity when amygdalin or laetrile is taken orally. Ingestion of purified amygdalin or apricot seeds can cause severe toxicity and death due to cyanide poisoning. Numerous case reports in the medical literature describe serious cyanide poisoning in patients who ingested laetrile as a cancer treatment.

Amygdalin was first isolated in 1830. In 1845 it was used as a cancer treatment in Russia, and in the 1920s in the United States, but it was considered too poisonous. In the 1950s, a purportedly non-toxic, synthetic form was patented for use as a meat preservative, and later marketed as laetrile for cancer treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibited the interstate shipment of amygdalin and laetrile in 1977. Thereafter, 27 U.S. states legalized the use of amygdalin within those states.

In 1972, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) board member Benno C. Schmidt, Sr. convinced the hospital to test laetrile so that he could assure others of its ineffectiveness "with some conviction." Kanematsu Sugiura, the scientist who performed the requested tests, found that laetrile inhibited secondary tumors in mice, though it did not destroy the primary tumors. However, three other researchers were unable to confirm Sugiura's results. MSKCC researchers conducted a controlled experiment in which they injected some mice with laetrile (as Sugiura had done) and others with placebo. Sugiura, who was unaware of which mice had received laetrile, performed the pathologic analysis. In this controlled, blinded follow-up of Sugiura's initial uncontrolled experiment, laetrile showed no more activity than placebo. Subsequently, laetrile was tested on 14 tumor systems without evidence of effectiveness. Given this collection of results, MSKCC concluded that "laetrile showed no beneficial effects."

The U.S. National Institutes of Health evaluated the evidence separately and concluded that clinical trials of amgydalin showed little or no effect against cancer. A 1982 trial of 175 patients found that tumor size had increased in all but one patient. The authors reported that "the hazards of amygdalin therapy were evidenced in several patients by symptoms of cyanide toxicity or by blood cyanide levels approaching the lethal range."

Some North American cancer patients have traveled to Mexico for treatment with the substance, allegedly under the auspices of Dr. Ernesto Contreras. Actor Steve McQueen died in Mexico following cancer treatment with laetrile and surgery to remove a stomach tumor while undergoing treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma (a cancer that attacks the lining of the abdomen) under the care of William D. Kelley, a dentist and orthodontist who devised a supposed cancer treatment based on laetrile.>>

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:21 am

WOW

I just happened to click in the wrong place and ended up somewhere where it tells what everybody is doing -at the moment- in Asterisk*. I couldn't tell where i was, and i couldn't find it again, but it sure was neat

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:12 am

Beyond wrote:WOW I just happened to click in the wrong place and ended up somewhere where it tells what everybody is doing -at the moment- in Asterisk*. I couldn't tell where i was, and i couldn't find it again, but it sure was neat

You mean, like, "Ann is munching a chocolate-covered truffle and marzipan piece of confectionery, trying not to spill coffee on her keyboard, as she is searching for images to post in her new comment in the 'Discuss Anything' forum at the Starship Asterisk*"?

Does it say "She is wearing her sloppy pyjamas", too?

Ann

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 3:13 pm

Ann wrote:
Beyond wrote:WOW I just happened to click in the wrong place and ended up somewhere where it tells what everybody is doing -at the moment- in Asterisk*. I couldn't tell where i was, and i couldn't find it again, but it sure was neat
You mean, like, "Ann is munching a chocolate-covered truffle and marzipan piece of confectionery, trying not to spill coffee on her keyboard, as she is searching for images to post in her new comment in the 'Discuss Anything' forum at the Starship Asterisk*"?

Does it say "She is wearing her sloppy pyjamas", too?

Ann

No, not that much detail. But if you're in the process of posting, it would say _____ is posting in topic so and so, or if you're not actually posting, then it would say ____ is browsing topic so and so, and what forum the browsing is in. At the time, i was amazed that the computer could put out so much about what individuals were doing. But after reading your delightful description of what you were doing, the computer version sucks is really bland.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:21 pm

You clicked the "Who is Online" link above the list of people who are currently online. The admins love that page.

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:20 pm

geckzilla wrote:You clicked the "Who is Online" link above the list of people who are currently online. The admins love that page.

Thanky, geckzilla. For some reason I've never thought of the who is on line as being clickable.

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:30 pm

Beyond wrote:
geckzilla wrote:You clicked the "Who is Online" link above the list of people who are currently online. The admins love that page.
Thanky, geckzilla. For some reason I've never thought of the who is on line as being clickable.

I didn't know that!

TNT · Post by **TNT** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 2:31 pm

That page is awesome!

Starship Asterisk*

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