Halcyon Days?

That's Findochty, the village where I lived until the age of 12. It's a lovely place, pity the locals weren't so nice. If your Grandparents weren't born there, then you were an outsider. Having no relatives in the village was also a distinct disadvantage, when whole tribes of local bampots tried to persecute you. But, haha, that's all changed now. The village of old has gone and white settlers have usurped the indigenous natives. Where once only Doric was spoken, now Clydseside and Humberside twangs resound. Oh, how I bet they hated that, the narrow-minded, insular, parochial ..... malcontents. Still, it must have done wonders for the gene pool!

Inherent Power In Stones?

Continuing from yesterday's theme of "Maybe ancient poeple were brighter than we give them credit for!", today I intend to postulate some intersting theories about stones, or more precisely, things that ancient peoples might have known about stones, that we don't!

Consider the standing stones in the image above. The image shows some stones located at Carnac in Brittany, and there are just so many of them, all in rows. The most extraordinary thing about the stones from my perspective is the fact that they march straight into the sea. At one point you can actually see the continuation on to an island not far off shore.

The obvious deduction is that the stones must be of such an antquity, that they must have been raised when the land-bridge (Dogger Land) between france and England was still intact, and quite possibly even, a long time before that.

Many scientists and archaeologists have postulated their theories about why the stones are there, but one bold researcher indicated that the stones have grooves at the base, which look decidedly like thy might have been receptive to cabling. Wild specualtion you might suspect, but bear in mind that the stones have a great deal of quartz in them, which is known to have the capacity to store energy, only modern man does not know how to get it in there. If pre-historic man knew how to harness power of some sort through chaining the stones together, then you're looking at history in a whole new way.

Aside: It has been suggested that "ghost sightings" are merely replays of events that have been captured in the quartzite crystals, found naturally in stone. The theory has been forwarded that events of extreme human emotion might leave a lasting imprint at a molecular level within the stone in the surrounding area. The concept might have some merit. As you can see, I'm not a sceptic at all, I'm open-minded to almost any theory!

Atlantis beneath the Ice!

The map you see above, is perhaps one of the most important cartographic legacies we have from our distant past. It is indeed, the Piri Reis Map. Piri Reis was a Turkish Admiral who drew this map in 1513. So, you ask yourself, what can be so important about an old map? Well, the map shows the Northern coast of Antartica, which wasn't even discovered until 300 years later. Not impressed by that eh? Then consider this, the map shows an ice-free Antartica, in a condition that could only have been seen as recently as 4000 BC.

What implications does this have? Well it does raise the following questions:

• Did an ancient mariner race map an ice-free Antartica?
• Did priceless fragments of ancient maps and copies of them exchange hands for thousands of years?
• If so, what were the originals likes?
• Were continents such as Antartica and the Americas frequently travelled to in ancient times?
• Could an ice-free Antartica have been the fabled Atlantis? (bearing the theories of Charles Hapgood in mind!)
  

These are questions that have never been addressed by people of note. Because, people of note are afraid to stick their noses out (in case they get them cut off). In future posts I'll get into some of the finer lies that historians continue to perpetrate. What do you think happens when an archaeologist presents evidence that threatens to overturn everything we believe about history. I'll tell you! It gets buried and they get discredited and vilified by the establishment. Career over effectively. I promise to give you some classic examples in the near future. These ones are just for fun however: Archeological Anomalies!

Darwinism V's Creationism

I've got my concrerns over Darwinism. At school we were taught that it was the only viable alternative to Creationism. So, why are Darwins theories falling apart, when clearly we've been around a bit longer than Arcbishop Ussher's suggested year of 4004 BC (I use BC (Before Christ) here quite lightly, since clearly Jesus was born around 7 BC, yep, that's 7 whole years before he was born, quite a feat)? Here are some obvious flaws I've spotted in Darwinism:

1. There is no missing link
2. If we're evolved from primates, why haven't primates evolved?
3. If man originated in the heart of Africa, how come they've found human remains equally as old in Asia?
4. How come the DNA of primates is more evolved than human DNA?
5. The only difference between us and primates is 1% of DNA ! Scientists claim that that 1% of DNA is alien to the human body, so how did it get there?

To counterbalance the flaws in Darwinism, here are some obvious Old Testament flaws:

1. When Adam (the first man) was expelled from the Garden of Eden, he found people already on the outside ! Do you think God lied to him? and what was he inside?
2. When Moses met God, the great Yahweh was living on a mountain-top. Moses had to build a box for him so he could travel with Moses to Canaan !
3. When God appears to the various Patriarchs of the Old testament, he always takes on the apperance of 2 or 3 men in shiny suits! That's not all, then he nukes some bad guys!
4. Where did God take Ezekiel in his spaceship? Some positive matches found in South or Central America !
5. In the Old Testament God was a vengeful, spiteful, wrathful and at times just petty omniscient. By the time Jesus was around however he'd changed into this really nice deity!

I must remember to poke holes in the crucifixion story sometime soon. Clearly if Jesus died on the cross, he couldn't have gone to India afterwards. Oh, and there's the family of Jesus stuff again, remind me to tell you what the Barrabas thing is all about if I forget. I know so much stuff I could re-write history with, I'm just really crap at getting it down on paper, well, a screen really!

The Sea Egg and the Family of Jesus

Dagobert was murdered! But even worse than that, he was betrayed by his father's chief minister Grimoald, who put his own son on the throne and sent Dagobert off to an Irish monastery at Slane. The ancestry of Dagobert seemed to be a very special one, descended from Merovee as he was. The name Merovee is in itself a curiosity, meaning "sea-egg" or "borne of the sea". The suggestion was that he had 2 fathers, the King and some sort of sea monster. However, deeper investigation indicates that Merovee was somehow closely associated with the sacred family of Jesus, by then firmly established in a Jewich enclave in the Languedoc. Many Jews had fled the Roman persecution to live in Southern France, where they even had their own royal family, which was widely accepted at the time to be descended from Jesus. Yes, even by the Cathoilc Church (however reluctantly). But, as time passed, Catholicism evolved into something which could not tolerate a religion founded on Jewish beliefs, subsiting within it's own domain. A series of punitive crusades would be required to get rid of these heretics who dared claim that Jesus was a man who had fathered children.

Vitruvian Pies !!!

Wasn't Da Vinci a genius? He had his fingers in every pie (in a metaphorical sense)! In forthcoming posts I intend to touch on topics as broad as: the Cathars, the Merovignians, Dagobert, Rennes Le Chateau, more about the Templars (obviously) and the relevance (if any) of all those to Da Vinci and the Da Vinci Code. You might suspect that the Da Vinci Code is a work of pure fiction, but underneath the plotline, there has been a great deal of background research. Obviously it wasn't researched by Dan Brown, because if it had been, he would have picked up on loads of evidence which lends far more credence to the suggestion of a Royal Bloodline descending from Jesus, than the book reveals. The book in itself is a work of fiction, but anyone who cares to look deeper, will find overwhelming evidence of repeated attempts over the past 2000 years, to discredit, subvert, and even to annihilate any claimants with ideas running contrary to the teachings of Catholicism. You might dispute that claim, but I will put my blog where my mouth is... wait and see !

Italy or bust !

Here's a photo I took last year on holiday at Lloret de Mar in Spain (the location reminded me of a scene from the game "Riven"). This year the whole family have their hearts set on Italia. I have been to Italy before, went their around age 10. I recall it quite well though, despite the passage of time (25 years ago). We went to Florence and Pisa (up the tower), the weather was fantastic and the food unlike anything I've known before or since. My last trip abroad, prior to Spain, was a working trip to Azerbaijian. That was a real eye-opener. As we travelled back and forth in the Capital Baku, we saw areas that were clearly Muslim, areas that were completely Westernised and others which were remnants of Communist Russian occupation. Of course there were other Scots working there already, there's no place we haven't infiltrated. When the first Mars mission lands, they'll find Scots guys already hard at work, probably drilling test-wells or something!

To Bee or Not to Bee?

That is the question! So, it looks like the biggest threat to human existence might not be a half-witted fella who lives in a white house, after all, but something far more unassuming, the humble mobile phone. Apparently the Honeybee has difficulties navigating when it gets bombarded with mobile phone signals. As much as 70% of the Honeybee poulation may already have been wiped out ! So you may think, "What's a few bees?" Well bear in mind that Honeybees pollinate our flowers, and that includes crops. No crops pollinated.... no crops! No crops.... hungry people! Hungry people.... anarchy! As someone from Invergordon pointed out to me today, every insect plays a crucial role on this planet. Should we continue to wipe out species at the rate we're going, it stands to reason that at some stage, even the loss of the smallest creature could have a massive impact on our lives. Here endeth todays lesson!

This is Udderly Unbelievable !

Regardless of whether you believe that aliens exist or not, you simply have to click on the image above and watch the Youtube video of (seemingly) a cow being abducted by a UFO. I guess, it's safer to do you're own butchery, after the palavers we've had with E-coli, Salmonella etc. Apparently, the video was from Japanese TV, and the cow's mutilated carcass was found returned the following day. If that happened in France, the EU would be only to happy to hand the farmer compensation for a 1000 cows, because that's what it means to be part of the European Community. Working on the same principle, Scottish fishermen (once part of a thriving industry) are virtually unable to fish in Sottish waters, and have to watch helplessly while foreign boats pull in huge catches. Oh, sorry, I didn't meant to get all political and moaning, as I'm sure you're only too well aware; politics is a moan culture. Back to business, I must send my condolences to the Moo family.

I am a Cider Drinker !

At the tender age of 35, I have finally been converted. I used to think that cider was a girls drink, and remained a firm lager man. But recently I have succumbed, first to Bulmers cider, and more recently Magners, both of which wet my whistle superbly. Just look at that glass above, don't you want it? I'm not trying to market the drink or anything, no need, they alredy have an extensive marketing campaign underway. They also produce it in handy litre bottles, so thoughtful...

Anyway, where was I, oh yes, spent all day yesterday doing a Router configuration task as part of my Network Systems assessment, what a chore! However, in 4 weeks time, my degree studies shall be over, and I'll be a free man, unless I have to sign on, or work, or God forbid.... become a... house-husband!

Nnnnnooooooooooooooooooooo.....................

The demise of the Knights Templar

If you've read any of my posts thus far, which I doubt, you may have wondered why the site is called "The shroud of Jacques DeMolay". Well, you see, Jacques De Molay was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who in the 12th and 13th Century were world players in banking, finance, foreign travel etc. Unfortunately, come Friday 13th October 1307, having lost the Holy Land to the infidels, they had also aroused the jealousy of Phillip the Fair, King of France, who had the Pope (his cousin) denounce them as deviants and worse, heretics. Of course, Phillip just wanted the Templar treasure (not to mention getting rid of his massive debts to the Templars). He never found the treasure, and poor Jacques De Molay spent the next 5 years being tortured until he was finally burned to death in 1312. Part of his torture was being crucified, as one of the charges against the order was denouncing Christ, so his tormentors thought it just revenge. Now, as you might know, tests on the Turin shroud indicate it belonged to that precise period. No-one else was known to have been cruciofied at that time, so it's highly likely that it was the sheet on which Jacques De Molay was lain after he received that form of torture. And Phillip, he never got that treasure, and died 2 years after Jacques. However, for the treasure and the survival of the order, look no further than my own Scotland, where the King Robert the Bruce, who was excommunicat at the time would have accepted both readily.

World In Collision V's Earth Crust Displacement

Perhaps I just come from a strange family, but my father and I hold widely separated views regarding the ending of the last Ice Age, and the global flooding events, volcanic activity etc. which accompanied that era. While my father is a proponent of Immanuel Velikovsky's "Worlds In Collision" theory, aseerting that a large comet impacted the Earth, I myself, am a fervent supporter of Charles Hapgood's "Earth Crust Displacement" theory, which suggests that the massive volume of Ice, which covered North America, pulled the Earth's crust around to displace that mass. Much evidence backs up that theory:

• The rapid freezing of animals in Siberia
• The mystery of Atlantis (could have been Antartica)
• The global mythology of flood events
• Einstein, like me, thought it was a great theory

Of course, it's possible that some combination of both theories actually happened, or neither, but that's the beauty of theories, if no-one can disprove them, then they stand the test of time !

The New Shmoo and Project Pessimism !

I remeber fondly the New Shmoo, from when I was a kid. I have a particuarly vivid recollection of him turning into a ladder, so that the gang could make their way across some pit or other. Apparently he turned into what ever nearby humans wished for, and of course food was a particular favourite. Anyway, I have this web-design project I'm doing at college. It's a team project with a project plan and everything. Today we had our weekly team meeting and one of the team (no names) claimed we were pretty well on target. To which, I had to remind him, we are 4 weeks adrift with 2 weeks remaining. He just refused to share my pessimism and like a good shmoo tried to give me what I wanted. But, it's not real, I can't realistically have 4 weeks in a 2 week period, no more than an animal can morph into a pit-bridging tool.

Saintly Tony dreams of a EU superstate !

So, all ths signs point to the US or Israel launching some sort of nuclear strike on Iran, possibly before the month is out, on the pretext that someday they might be able to make a tiny litle nuke. Where will that leave Blair? who has promised that he will unveil his legacy to us in the next 3 weeks. It looks like his legacy may well be a signature for the EU constitution, which he promised us a referendum on, but we never got it did we, because we would have voted it down big-style. Fortunately for us though, Tony is a man of vision, he has seen the future, and its one where someone else will have to sort out the shit he's left behind. He made a lot of promises didn't he, and he's certainly bowing out on a high: high taxes, high cost of living, high cost of travelling, high cost of fuel, high cost of utilities, high migrant work force, high crime stats, high chance of getting MRSA should you chance going to hospital. Thanks for the memories Tony, you really made this nation great once again.

Paradiso Maldivianus Rex

It's time for a holiday, or at least it feels that way. I'd like to go to Italy this year, but rumour has it I might have to get a job, and then where will that leave me. After 3 years of College, the thought of working is fairly daunting. There is though the even worse prospect of having to deal with Job Centre staff and the usual 99 page application for dole! Then of course they have to make you suffer as much as possible for as long as possible before they give you a penny. I'm still waiting to hear if I've been accepted for teacher training at Aberdeen University, that'll be another year in education, so ideal really, as opposed to working or signing on. Anyway, I have loads of books to read and films to watch that I've foregone in order to complete numerous assessments which I could detail herein, but the subject content of which I hope will never cross my path again, so I won't mention it! I finished reading "The Island of the Day Before". Pretty good read really, must purchase some more of his books.

I think therefore I read !

Have you ever met someone who doesn't like reading? how ridiculous! My brother once worked with a guy who didn't like music (any music). I don't know if I would condemn such people or pity them. Did they choose ignorance? or are they still nursing some childhood trauma?

I think TV is to blame in many ways, people think they can get all they need from the TV, but they can't! Nothing stimulates the mind like a well written book, and I don't think the TV conveys allegory and symbolism very well either. So, if you're reading this and you haven't read a book for a while, just go and find a book you fancy from your local bookshop, there's bound to be something, rediscover the joys of reading, it's not a chore!

Clocks and Doves

The Island of the Day Before is in a large measure about clocks and doves. One chapter alone is entirely about Doves, but merely because the mysterious dove of the island, which is borne of fire, represents the lady he loves in some sort of unobtainable way. Roberto cannot reach the island, he cannot see the dove, he cannot be with his lady. So here I am writing test documentation for my PHP, Javascript, mysql etc. but I chose not to bore you with that, because it is boring and if I ever end up doing it for a living then fate will have played a cruel hand indeed for poor unfortunate me.

I'm terrified I'll end up living vicariously through my kids: my son now plays the guitar quite well and he's a lot younger than I was when I started playing. He also plays golf quite well too, and he's a lot younger than when I started playing. You see a theme evolving there? I'm only 35 for Christ's sake.

The Island of the Day Before

For those unfamiliar with the writings of Umberto Eco, the Italian philosopher and literary master, try not to start with his work "The Island of the Day Before", especially if you're in the last 2 weeks of your degree! I planned to read his books ever since I saw The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery and Christian Slater ie. some time ago, but it was only last Thursday that I finally managed to get around to doing so. I bought it from Borders at Inverness, a marvellous book-shop if I don't say so. Although I have 2 major assessments and a project to complete fro 2 weeks time, followed by 2 exams, I find myself caught up in this literary masterpiece, the story of Roberto della Griva.... wait, I'm not going to explain what the book is about, it's to profound, if you want to know you'll have to read it yourself, anyway I'm only halfway through it !