Look Skyward: Lunar Eclipse

June, 2011 eclipse. Image Source: CNN.

A total Full Moon lunar eclipse at dawn and early morning will turn the Moon dark red. The Moon will also be larger than usual, and the effects of the Earth passing between the Sun and the Moon will be all the more dramatic. The event will be visible early in the morning of December 10 (North American time). Space.com: "The eclipse will start at around 7:45 a.m. EST (4:45 a.m. PST, 12:45 GMT), when the shadow of the moon inches across the lunar disk. The celestial show will be visible from parts of North America, with those in the western portions of Canada and the United States particularly well placed for the event. People in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and central and eastern Asia should also be able to catch sight of the reddened moon. 'For people in the western United States, the eclipse is deepest just before local dawn," NASA scientists said in a statement. "Face west to see the red moon sinking into the horizon as the sun rises behind your back. It's a rare way to begin your day.'" CNN states the first signs of the eclipse will be visible earlier, at 6:33 EST: "The eclipse will last from 6:33 a.m. Eastern (3:33 a.m. Pacific) till 12:30 p.m. Eastern (9:33 a.m. Pacific)"; but the main part of the eclipse will last 51 minutes. The LA Times reports that you can also watch the eclipse live on your computer: "Slooh, the online Space Camera, plans to broadcast a free, real-time feed of the eclipse from telescopes in Australia, Asia and Hawaii. You can access the feed via Slooh's homepage." This will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2014.

Fox News comments that this will be an opportunity to see the impossible - the Sun and the eclipsed Moon in the sky at the same time.  This should not be possible, because when a total lunar eclipse takes place, the Sun and Moon are on a 180 degree line, with the Earth between them. We will see both in the sky because of atmospheric refraction called selenelion.

Not surprisingly, astrologers think this Full Moon lunar eclipse, with the eclipsed, out-of-sight Moon refracted back up into our line of vision, is significant. The eclipse occurs in the constellation of Gemini. For them, it symbolizes a heightening of emotions this weekend, hidden secrets revealed, the penny will finally drop - they think it is also a time of dreams and visions.

Chess for Three

Image Source: Slashgear.

Ack! Thanks to Lee Hamilton for a Slashgear link to this new Chess game for three people. These is more than a geekfest. Millennial shades of gray are literally becoming manifest. For my posts on Chess at the turn of the Millennium, go here, here, here and here. And for my posts on configurations of a third, tripartite agents, and triplets as one of the critical signs of times, go here and here.

Prehistory's Mysteries: Gate of the Gods

Image Source: Ancient Wisdom.

There are some mysterious locations around the world which have legendary significance, but they are so old that the actual reasons for their importance never entered recorded history. Archaeologists are left to guess at their purpose and meaning. One of these is the so-called Gate of the Gods in Peru, a strange T-shaped doorway carved in a sheer rockface, large enough for a man to climb into it.

The circular indentation for the key. Image Source: Ancient Wisdom.

At the centre of the gate, there is a round hole, apparently to insert the 'key,' a gold disk. The doorway was discovered in 1996. From the site, Ancient Wisdom:

This huge mysterious door-like structure in the Hayu Marca mountain region of Southern Peru near Lake Titicaca, lies 35 kilometres from the city of Puno and is found in an area which has long been revered by local indians as the "City of the Gods." Although no actual city has ever been discovered, the area is known as a Spirit Forest, or Stone Forest, made of strange rock formations that resemble buildings, people, and other artificial structures (Simulacrum). The door or the "Puerta de Hayu Marca" (Gate of the Gods) has been, at some time in the distant past, carved out of a natural rock face and in all, measures exactly 23' in height and width, with a smaller alcove in the centre at the base which measures in at just under 6' in height.

Jose Luis Delgado Mamani stumbled across the structure in 1996 while trekking through the surrounding foothills trying to familiarize himself with the area as his job is as a guide for mountaineering tourists. "When I saw the structure for the first time, I almost passed out..." said Mamani in an interview with the local press.

The native Indians of the region had a legend that spoke of "a gateway to the lands of the Gods", and in that legend, it was said that in times long past great heroes had gone to join their gods, and passed through the gate for a glorious new life of immortality, and on rare occasions those men returned for a short time with their gods to "inspect all the lands in the kingdom" through the gate.

Another legend tells of the time when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in Peru and looted gold and precious stones from the Inca tribes. According to one legend an Incan priest of the Temple of the Seven Rays named Amaru Meru (Aramu Muru) fled from his temple with a sacred golden disk known as "the key of the gods of the seven rays", and hid in the mountains of Hayu Marca. He eventually came upon the doorway which was being watched by shamen priests. He showed them the key of the gods and a ritual was performed with the conclusion of a magical occurrence initiated by the golden disk which opened the portal, and according to the legend blue light did emanate from a tunnel inside. The priest Amaru Meru handed the golden disk to the shamen and then passed through the portal "never to be seen again". Archeologists have observed a small hand sized circular depression on the right hand side of the small entranceway, and have theorized that this is where a small disk could be placed and held by the rock.

Prometheus

Here's a random image from the sets of the 2012 Alien-prequel-that-isn't-a-prequel, directed by Ridley Scott. You can see more set photos at Alien Prequel News.

Europe's Toughest Hour

Image Source: The Olive Press. 

The crisis in Europe intensifies. The headlines are desperate: Italy accepted new austerity measures; today, "The [Italian] minister in charge of pension reform broke down and cried as she tried to spell out the detail of the changes." Old Europe is dead, and EU advocates say a new United States of Europe, "a single, robust Brussels government for all EU countries -- or at least for the euro zone," must rise from the ashes. Merkel and Sarkozy are unveiling a euro rescue package this week that will likely require members of the euro zone to relinquish economic sovereignty through changes to the EU treaties.  The Guardian expects that a number of EU countries will drop out of the union. The FT is thinking the unthinkable on a European breakup. The Economist reports that the chance the euro will disintegrate in the coming weeks is alarmingly high. The UK has told its European embassies to brace for riots if the euro collapses. The Telegraph is talking about "Eurogeddon" and says that Britain should close its doors to European immigration. The Dow Jones FX Trader has prepared an EU crisis roadmap for key milestones ahead.

This is "Europe's toughest hour since World War II." There is panicky talk of deeper integration - a new Reich - or conflict?  I have long wondered why Continental-wide empire or the spectre of war are Europe's default alternatives. Couldn't the powers in Europe simply, for the first time in over two thousand years, choose not to invade their neighbours, euro or no euro, European Union or no European Union?  How many non-Europeans died in the twentieth century for the sake of saving Europe from itself?  And how many Europeans died in those conflicts and as well before that, in the fourteenth and fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries? And now we hear hints that nothing has been learned on that score? There's a big difference between an EU striving unsuccessfully to apply federalistic American or Canadian models - and a neo-Roman empire conceived at best in Bonapartistic dreams. Speaking of the EU as the New Rome was once the specialty only of religious eschatologists.  Yet it slouches toward Bethlehem to be born.

This is not just a crisis of the economy and political power.  It is a crisis of values and ideals.  What does Europe stand for?  I have seen some pro-EU blogs talking of the potential loss of Europe's singular greatness, encapsulated symbolically in Beethoven's 9th as the Continent's cultural touchstone.  There was always some hubris and misdirected envy of America in the EU project. The choice of EU anthem made Daniel Hannan recall A Clockwork Orange.  It's a sin, using lovely Ludwig Van like that.

Philosopher Jürgen Habermas, labeled the 'last European' by Der Spiegel, defends the European idea against evil market forces and inept politicians.

Detroit Renaissance

William Livingstone House, designed by architect Albert Kahn, was demolished in 2010. Image Source: Urban and Transportation News.

'Detroit Renaissance' is a term that has been kicked around since the early 1970s. The expression may finally live up to its promise. With all the doom and gloom about the economy, it's hard to find any promise for the future. Detroit seemed a harbinger and poster child for this downturn, and was stuck in a relentless decline over several decades. But times change. In the last couple of days, some reports have circulated that Detroit is set to undergo a massive renaissance in the next five years. American automobile makers face an uphill climb, with well-publicized problems, but they may turn the corner in the Motor City. From Auto Observer:

Detroit-based automakers will hire more than 30,000 new workers in the next four years, reversing years of declining employment in the ranks of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and the Chrysler Group LLC, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor group for the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research. Data from CAR indicate total employment of the Detroit Three automakers will increase from today’s 171,000 to 201,000 by 2015 and that auto-industry suppliers will need to add from 100,000 to 150,000 new workers over the same period. But the research group’s projected 2015 total employment figure for the Detroit automakers still pales in comparison to the industry’s heyday. In the late 1970s, the Detroit Three employed more than 1 million workers in the United States.

This is a story of Millennial hope. Detroit's decline was one of the saddest stories of industrial collapse in the late twentieth century United States.