Going beyond mud ramps at Giza

Just this afternoon, I was grumbling about the standard idea of how the Giza pyramids were built: mud ramps along which stone blocks were dragged and then dropped into place. Having been there, and having read many alternative theories on the subject of how and by whom the pyramids were constructed, I just don't think so the Big Mud Lug is the answer.

Here, however, is some news that takes the ramp method to the next level:


"The construction of the Great Pyramid 4,500 years ago by Khufu, a ruler also known as Cheops, has long befuddled scientists as to how its 3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were lifted into place.

"Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at Giza outside Cairo...

"According to Houdin's theory — shown in a computer model available at 3ds.com/khufu* — the builders put up an outer ramp for the first 140 feet, then constructed an inner ramp in a corkscrew shape to complete the 450-foot structure.

"Houdin also postulated that King's Chamber was hoisted into place through a system of counterweights. Houdin said he plans to verify his theories through non-invasive tests on site."

* You'll need a plugin I'd never heard of until now in order to see the renderings: 3D Life Player

Meanwhile, between the Sun,the Moon and Earth...

The Hinode space probe recorded the Moon passing in front of the Sun on March 19. The images were captured in the X-ray wavelength.

A six-sided segment of Saturn

"'This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides,' said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 'We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere, where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate, is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is.'

"The honeycomb-like feature has been seen before. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged it more than two decades ago. Now, having spotted it with the Cassini spacecraft, scientists conclude it is a long-lasting oddity.

Of course, seeing a hexagon inscribed within a planet's atmosphere, and thinking of "As Above, So Below" and such...

"The overlapping of both triangles [inscribed within the vesica piscis] produces the hexagon, also referred to as the Star of David. The characteristics and symbolism behind this figure are immense. It is also through the natural division of a circle into six parts which allows six circles to fit exactly around the circumference of an equal seventh. John Mitchell has studied the implications of the hexagon at length and further adds that it is "symbolic of the order of the universe..."


A more elaborate rendition of an inscribed hexagon can be found in the geometric Flower of Life or Metatron's Cube.

Elsewhere around Saturn...

"A serene orb of ice is set against the gentle pastel clouds of giant Saturn. Rhea transits the face of the gas giant, whose darkened rings and their planet-hugging shadows appear near upper right.

"Rhea is the second largest of Saturn's moons at 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 3 degrees above the ring plane."

Origin storiesand the whereaboutsof the shadow

Transcribed from notes taken at the "Hundred Languages of Children" exhibit at COSI in Columbus, OH, in 2001. All of these observations came from three- to five-year-olds.


"the sea is born
from the mother wave.
the weather is born
from the storm.
the wind is born
from the air and has
the right shape to
bang things.
time is born from
the years."


"can the shadow disobey the light?
what happens to a little shadow
if it goes inside a big shadow?
does it disappear or does it just
go underneath?"


"shadows are made of air, like oxygen,
but a shadow is black oxygen and that's
carbon dioxide. yeah, because carbon
dioxide is black and so i think that's what
makes shadows.

"at night, shadows disappear because
the plants that feed on carbon dioxide
eat them. shadows are food for plants.
i think it's like that."


"if you switch your shoes,
do your shadows switch too?"

Meanwhile, in Mali...

I learned of Abderrahmane Sissako's film "Bamako" a few weeks ago, after I caught a review in the NYT. I had the good fortune to see the film yesterday during a Cleveland Int'l Film Festival screening.

The plot revolves around a trial of the World Bank prosecuted on behalf of African society. The hearings take place amid the everyday goings-on of a Malian household, so that the audience not only hears the experiences and opinions of Malian people, but sees the standard of their lives as well.

The film was more incisive and unsettling than I expected. But these are my people, after all [I'm descended from the Fula people, a historically nomadic people whose territory is spread across present-day Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso].

We interrupt this blogcast to bring you messagesfrom beyond the mainstream matrix.

"To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really?

"The Century of the Self" [directed by Adam Curtis, who produced "The Power of Nightmares" a couple of years ago -- Ed.] tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States.

"How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.

"Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal."

"The Century of Self" can be viewed in four part on this page, while MP4 files to download (about 165MB each) can be found here.


Meanwhile, in Baghdad...

"Dr. Haseeba Shiya is a well-known and well-regarded doctor who lives in Baghdad. She has been on television many times talking about her work as a doctor and the situation in Baghdad.

"She has a clinic in Sadr City and has worked as a medical doctor for 40 years in Baghdad. She has seen many things, having lived and practiced medicine through three wars and much political turmoil in Iraq.

"She discusses the difficulties of travel to her work as well as some of the strange diseases and medical abnormalities that have shown up since the first and second American invasions of Iraq."

Time-lapse, thrice

Scotland


France


Indonesia

Time for a polar road trip...

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

The Afro-Celt music might not match the opening half so well, but be sure to keep watching in order to see the winter night scenes.

Just a little eclipse trippin'...

...because I've got a little girl waiting for me to draw a princess.


Photo by Jorgen Blom, Stockholm, Sweden: "I caught the 6th-magnitude star 56 Leonis coming out from behind the fully eclipsed Moon four minutes past midnight." That'd be last night, March 3, 2007.


Photo by Sadegh Ghomizadeh, Tehran, Iran

"Why is the human on Earth?"

"I believe that there is, despite the fact that we humans have done so much damage to the world, a reason for our existence on this planet. I think we are here because the universe -- with all of its wonder and balance and logic -- needs to be marveled at, and we are the only species (to our knowledge) that has the ability to do so.

"We are the only species that does not simply accept what is around us, but [one that ] also asks why [the elements of our surroundings] are around us, and how [these surroundings and environments] work.

"We are here because without us here to study it, the amazing complexity of the world would be wasted. And finally, we are here because the universe needs an entity to ask why it is here."

An excerpt from the closing pages of "Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes," by Michael Benson, written by his then-11-year-old daughter.