Two quick views of a crescent Moon

So many things've been going on...
And Flickr is so easy to add to...
That's where I've been instead of this space.

Concentric Garden 2.2

This is the progression of the garden from 2007 to the present day (minus the months while I was away).







My Lady Friend sent the first snowy photo below while I was in Korea. When I returned in August 2008, the first thing that I did was gather seeds. As I did that, I also discovered several skeletonized Datura pods left over from 2007. I figured that they would still be viable, so I added them to my Datura repository (seven species and counting).










I offered most of the seeds from 2007 to anyone who'd take them. Here are some plant-specific photos along with cultivation tips.

A new bit about a spiral rampwithin the Giza pyramids

I had first posted something about Jean-Pierre Houdin's research in the spring of 2007.

"Where the sun meets the shadow ~Exposing the false light of the ages"

Obviously, a weblog on the same wavelength as this one: Atonation.

The Delhi Jantar Mantar

Back in February, I summarized our first day in New Delhi and a visit to the 18th-century Jantar Mantar observatory. I've finally processed the panoramic shots from that day (as well as other images from our India trip), so here we go:


Click image for an animated view.











"Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder of the Jantar Mantars, also established the city of Jaipur. He was keenly interested in the science of astronomy. He ruled (1699-1743) in a volatile period of Indian history. Despite his substantial political and administrative concerns, he built these large observatories after studying all available information on different schools of astronomy.

"This Jantar Mantar (or Yantra Mandir) is the oldest of a unique set of 18th-century observatories constructed by Jai Singh II. The observatory at Delhi, the capital of the Mughal empire, was the first to be built (probably in 1724 AD), followed by observatories located at Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura (no longer extant) and Varanasi.

"Large masonry instruments such as those in the Jantar Mantars are unusual anywhere in the world. The Jantar Mantars represent on the last links with the old school of astronomy and are an important part of the cultural and scientific heritage of the world.

"The Delhi Jantar Mantar was the basis for the revised astronomical tables prepared by Jai Singh in the name of the Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah Rangila. Within the restriction of observations [that] depended on the naked eye, many of Jai Singh's yantras (instruments*) gave fairly precise readings.

"The four main yantras here -- Samrat, Jai Prakash, Ram, and Misra Yantras -- are housed in six structures. The Misra Yantra is believed to have been constructed after Jai Singh by his son, Maharaja Madho Singh (1751-68). These instruments have been repaired and restored repeatedly, but without any large-scale alteration."

* -- A more common use of the word yantra relates to a visual instrument or symbol that supports and focuses meditation.

Shooting for the Moonfrom the Bay of Bengal

"India was preparing to launch its first unmanned space ship to the Moon early Wednesday, part of an effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities out there.

"The launch of Chandrayaan-1, as the vehicle is called (it means, roughly translated, 'Moon Craft-1') comes about a year after China’s first moon mission. The Indian mission is scheduled to last for two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect its surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization, or I.S.R.O. Allusions to an Asian space race could not be contained, even as Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, was due for a visit to China later in the week.

"'China has gone earlier, but today we are trying to catch them, catch that gap, bridge the gap,' Bhaskar Narayan, a director at I.S.R.O., told Reuters.

"The maiden Indian lunar voyage will carry two devices from NASA, one to assess mineral resources on the moon and the other to look for ice deposits in the moon’s polar regions. It is scheduled to be launched from [Satish Dhawan Space Centre] on Sriharikota, a barrier island off the coast of southern Andhra Pradesh state."

Sunday night Moon

What I did during (and after) my Asian vacation

I returned from Korea more than a month ago.
I've been weighing down Flickr ever since.

Firin' up under the Alps

A follow-up to the post from Sunday

"The world's largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile (27-kilometer) underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

"After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:26 a.m. (0826 GMT) indicating that the protons had traveled clockwise along the full length of the 4 billion Swiss franc (US$3.8 billion) Large Hadron Collider — described as the biggest physics experiment in history.

"Champagne corks popped in labs as far away as [Fermilab near] Chicago, where contributing and competing scientists watched the proceedings by satellite.

"Scientists hope to eventually send two beams of protons through two tubes about the width of fire hoses, speeding through a vacuum that is colder and emptier than outer space. The paths of these beams will cross, and a few protons will collide. The collider's two largest detectors — essentially huge digital cameras weighing thousands of tons — are capable of taking millions of snapshots a second.

"The CERN experiments could reveal more about 'dark matter,' antimatter and possibly hidden dimensions of space and time. It could also find evidence of the hypothetical particle — the Higgs boson — which is sometimes called the 'God particle' because it is believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe.

"The start of the collider came over the objections of some who feared the collision of protons could eventually imperil the Earth by creating micro-black holes, subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.

"James Gillies, chief spokesman for CERN, told the AP that the most dangerous thing that could happen would be if a beam at full power were to go out of control, and that would only damage the accelerator itself and burrow into the rock around the tunnel.

"Nothing of the sort occurred Wednesday, though the accelerator is still probably a year away from full power."

Plants are power tools,not toys for tittering about,part four

I've posted many times in the past about the shamanic, restorative or insightful uses of psychoactive plants and fungi (see part three).

Today, there's a story in The New York Times about Salvia divinorum and how its widespread, YouTubed use is jeopardizing the potential use of the plant as a treatment for depression or addiction.

A similarly confounding situation has occurred with ibogaine, a compound from the plant iboga plant, which has received attention as a treatment for opiate addiction (see "Ibogaine Studies and Research Projects").

Anyhow:


Salvia divinorum, 2007
US Botanic Garden,
Washington DC

"Until a decade ago, the use of salvia was largely limited to those seeking revelation under the tutelage of Mazatec shamans in its native Oaxaca, Mexico. Today, this mind-altering member of the mint family is broadly available for lawful sale online and in head shops across the United States.

"Though older Americans typically have never heard of salvia, the psychoactive sage has become something of a phenomenon among this country’s thrill-seeking youth. More than 5,000 YouTube videos — equal parts “Jackass” and “Up in Smoke” — document their journeys into rubber-legged incoherence. Some of the videos have been viewed half a million times.

"Yet these very images that have helped popularize salvia may also hasten its demise and undermine the promising research into its possible medical uses.

"Pharmacologists who believe salvia could open new frontiers for the treatment of addiction, depression and pain fear that its criminalization would make it burdensome to obtain and store the plant, and difficult to gain government permission for tests on human subjects. In state after state, however, including here in Texas, the YouTube videos have become Exhibit A in legislative efforts to regulate salvia. This year, Florida made possession or sale a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. California took a gentler approach by making it a misdemeanor to sell or distribute to minors...

"Though research is young and little is known about long-term effects, there are no studies suggesting that salvia is addictive or its users prone to overdose or abuse. Indeed, a salvia experience can be so intense, and at times so unsettling, that many try it just once, and even devotees use it sparingly.

"Reports of salvia-related emergency room admissions are virtually nonexistent, likely because its effects typically vanish in just a few minutes.

"With little data at its disposal, the Drug Enforcement Administration has spent more than a decade studying whether to add salvia to its list of controlled substances, as is the case in several European and Asian countries. In the meantime, 13 states and several local governments have banned or otherwise regulated the plant and its chemically enhanced extracts."

Speaking of YouTube videos about Salvia, here's Kathleen Harrison, former wife of author and psychonaut Terence McKenna, speaking about the traditional relationship with this plant. Two important points she makes: the Mazatecs treat the plant with high respect (no laughing while under its influence) and they don't smoke the leaves, which, it could be said, would offend the spirit of the plant.

Three things

Links to advocacy and aid organizations
that I'd taken note of while we were
in South Asia last winter:

Rokpa International provides meals, education, medical care and shelter to children and families in Nepal, Tibet, Zimbabwe, and other countries.

Shakti "aims at empowering the girl child [in India] by providing financial support to the daughters of widows/handicapped parents/war martyrs in order to complete their education up to 12th [grade]."

Survival International advocates for the protection and rights of tribal groups around the world.