THE MAYAN CALENDAR
The ancient Mayans, based on star charting, prophesied that December 21, 2012 would be the end of the world (or at least some form of universal catastrophe). Meso-American star charting started around 680 B.C. by the Olmec civilization who were recording astrological patterns in the sky and eventually shared this information with the Mayans. The Mayans had a long history of tracking the winter solstice (probably for planting crops) and creating calendars (at least 17 that we know of). At some point, they developed the belief that our sun is a god and that the Milky Way, called the “Sacred Tree,” was a gateway to the afterlife. After learning from the Olmecs, they began keeping records of the stars’ patterns of movement and continued to do so for the next 200-300 years. The Mayans then developed their own calendar (The Long Count) ca. 355 B.C. They were able to use their observations and mathematical prowess to calculate the future movements of stars across the sky. The result was that the Mayans discovered the effect of the earth’s wobbling as it spins on its axis. This wobbling rotation causes the stars’ patterns of movement to drift gradually in the sky (called “precession”) in a 5,125-year cycle. The Mayans also discovered that once every cycle the dark band at the center of the Milky Way (called the Galactic Equator) intersects with the Elliptical (the plane of the sun’s movement across the sky).
During that year, the sun reaches its solstice (a brief moment when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer) on December 21 for the Northern Hemisphere and June 21 for the Southern Hemisphere. That year, the solstice occurs at the moment of the conjunction of the Galactic Equator with the Milky Way. The year this occurs (in relation to our Gregorian calendar) is A.D. 2012, and happened last on August 11, 3114 B.C. With Mayan mythology teaching that our sun is a god and the Milky Way is the gateway to life and death, the Mayans concluded that this intersection in the past must have been the moment of creation. Mayan hieroglyphs seem to indicate that they believed the next intersection in 2012 would be some sort of end and a new beginning of a cycle. The Mayans also believed that the blood of human sacrifices was what powered the sun and gave it life.
All the so-called “Mayan prophecies of 2012” are nothing more than wildly speculative extrapolations, which are based on the yet uncertain interpretations by scholars of Mayan hieroglyphs. However, the truth is that apart from the astrological convergence, there is little indication that the Mayans prophesied anything specific regarding the events of this distant future. The Mayans were not prophets; they were not even able to predict their own cultural extinction. They were great mathematicians and accomplished sky watchers, but they were also a brutally violent tribal people with a primitive understanding of natural phenomena, subscribing to archaic beliefs and the barbaric practices of blood-letting and human sacrifice.
There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that would present December 21, 2012, as the end of the world. While that date is no less valid for an end-times event than any other future date, the Bible nowhere presents the astronomical phenomena the Mayans pointed to as a sign of the end times. It would seem very inconsistent of God to allow the Mayans to discover such an amazing truth while keeping the many Old Testament prophets ignorant of the timing of the events. In summary, there is absolutely no biblical evidence that the 2012 Mayan prophecy / prediction of doomsday is in any sense valid or probable.
Accepting the Mayan 2012 prophecy logically requires acceptance of the following theories: our sun is a god; the sun is powered by the blood of human sacrifice; the creation moment occurred at 3114 B.C. (despite all evidence that it happened much earlier); and the visual alignment of stars has some significance for everyday human life. Like every other false religion, the Mayan religion sought to elevate to the point of worship that which was created in place of the Creator Himself. The Bible tells us about such false worshipers: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator”, and “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (. To accept the Mayan 2012 prophecy also denies the clear biblical teaching about the end of the world, because Jesus told us “…of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father”.
Thanks for gotquestions.org for this topic!!!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
What is the Year 2012 Mayan Prophecy?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
World's Top 10 Popular Monsters
The livescience website in US has selected the World's Top Ten Popular Monsters. Let's see who they are. BTW, do you believe these monsters exist in our world?
No. 1 Bigfoot
Bigfoot is of course the world's marquee monster, having had pizzas and monster trucks named after it. Bigfoot is known not for what it is (since no one knows for certain what it is, or if it even exists), but what it supposedly leaves behind: large footprints. Bigfoot's high profile is largely due to a short film taken in 1967 in Bluff Creek, California. This is the classic footage of Bigfoot, showing a furry, man-sized creature walking across a clearing. The film has never been proven authentic, and many suspect a hoax. It is also odd that the film remains the best evidence for Bigfoot 40 years later, despite the fact that video cameras are better, cheaper, and in more hands than ever before; surely if it was not a hoax someone would have recorded a film as good or better since then. Perhaps Bigfoot's most amazing quality is its ability to leave no hard evidence of its existence. No teeth, bones, live or dead ones have been found. By one estimate, there should be hundreds of thousands of Bigfoot in North America, yet not one of them has been hit by a car, shot by a hunter, or found dead by a hiker.
No. 2 Vampires
A century after Bram Stoker modeled his Dracula character after Romanian national hero Vlad Tepes, interest in vampires has never been stronger. From Dracula to the "Blade" films, from Anne Rice novels to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," no single monster has captured the public's imagination the way vampires have. At once both sensual and scary, vampire lore has inspired a thriving goth subculture. Despite strong evidence that vampires are a fictional creation, some people even claim to be vampires, conducting arcane rituals and consuming blood from willing donors. Let's hope they show up for the blood drive!
No.3 Werewolves
The fearsome werewolf is a fascinating blend of man and beast. Some believe that a werewolf terrorized the French countryside in 1764, when a strange wolflike creature killed dozens of villagers; the fictionalized story was depicted in the film "Brotherhood of the Wolf." The werewolf is only one variation of lycanthropy, the ancient belief that certain people have the ability to change into animals, either at will, on certain dates, or on full moons. Witches and vampires, for example, are said to become cats, bats, and wolves on occasion. While the werewolf's origins are unclear, an unusual disease that causes excessive body hair (called hypertrichosis) may have contributed to belief in werewolves--in fact sideshow performers with the disease were once exhibited as werewolves or "wolfmen." The connection with the full moon likely came about because of wolves' and dogs' tendency to bark at the moon, but stories of silver bullets didn't arise until much later.
No.4 Loch Ness Monster ( Plesiosaur )
No list of monsters would be complete without the beastie said to inhabit Scotland's Loch Ness. While Nessie is the world's most famous lake monster, it is far from the only one. In fact, there are hundreds (by some counts thousands) of lakes across the globe said to harbor monsters. The earliest eyewitness account of the Loch Ness monster dates back only to May 1933. Since that time, the monster--real or not--has been a major tourism boon for Inverness and other towns along the lake. Loch Ness has been repeatedly searched for over seventy years, trying to verify the occasional sightings, photos, and videos. In 2003, a team from the BBC scoured the lake using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation; they turned up no monsters. Still, the public's interest in Nessie remains high: a film about the monster opened Christmas day and earned $2.4 million.
No.5 Sirens
A distant cousin of the mermaid (in folkloric terms anyway), the sirens were beautiful, alluring women who dwell near rocky cliffs and sung to passing sailors. According to legends, the hapless seamen would become enchanted by the sirens' song, following the mellifluous melody to their deaths as their boats crashed upon the rocky shore. It is an ancient morality tale about the evils of women, but not all sirens were so comely. Other accounts depict sirens as half-bird, half-women creatures who would lure travelers to their doom with harps instead of their voices. In Greek myth, Odysseus escaped the sirens by having his sailors plug their ears with beeswax, though in modern times doctors recommend soft foam earplugs for sailors who may encounter these dangerous monsters.
No.6 Chupacabra
Bigfoot is named after its big footprints, and the dreaded chupacabra is also known for what it leaves behind: dead animals. Though goats are said to be its favorite prey (chupacabra means goat sucker in Spanish), they have also been blamed for attacks on cats, sheep, rabbits, dogs, chickens, ducks, hogs, and other animals. (There is no record of a chupacabra attacking a Bigfoot, though I'd like to see that.) Descriptions of chupacabra vary widely, but many accounts suggest that the creature stands about four to five feet tall. It has short but powerful legs, long claws, and terrifying, glowing red eyes. Chupacabras first gained wide notoriety in 1995 in Puerto Rico. No one knows for certain why or how the chupacabra suddenly sprang into existence, but many Latin Americans believe it is the unholy result of secret U.S. government experiments in the jungles of Puerto Rico. It had a heyday of about five years, when it was widely reported in Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua, Spain, Argentina, and Florida--almost exclusively in Spanish-speaking areas. While widely regarded as a myth, occasional chupacabra sightings are reported in the United States, primarily in Texas and New Mexico.
No.7 Champ
Often referred to as "America's Loch Ness Monster," the mysterious creature in Lake Champlain (which borders Vermont, New York, and Canada) is called Champ. Descriptions of the beast vary widely, but is it said to be anywhere from ten to over one hundred feet long, have dark skin, and several humps. Its head supposedly resembles a snake or dog. A photograph claimed to be of the monster was published in The New York Times in 1981, giving the monster national notoriety, and was considered the best evidence for Champ--in fact for any lake monster. Ironically, the photograph that propelled Champ to stardom was later revealed in a 2003 investigation to be almost certainly an image of a floating log instead of a lake monster. While Champ sightings have waned in recent years, the legend is kept alive by the local minor league baseball team, the Vermont Lake Monsters.
No.8 Giant Squid
The giant squid is the only Top Ten Monster that is known to be real, though for centuries its existence was often rumored. Ancient sea stories told of the fearsome Kraken, a huge many-tentacled beast, said to attack ships and sailors on the high seas. Biologists finally verified the existence of a true sea monster: the mysterious giant squid Architeuthis. Dead specimens periodically wash up on the world's beaches, most often on islands whose name begins with "New": Newfoundland and New Zealand. The largest giant squid specimen was estimated to be 65 feet long, but the monster remained elusive until 2004, when Japanese zoologists filmed a giant squid at depth for the first time. The creature was about 26 feet long, was found nearly 3,000 feet below the surface.
No. 9 Dragons
Perhaps the oldest monster of folklore, there are many variations on dragons and giant serpents. The Bible's Book of Isaiah describes Leviathan, a monstrous sea serpent dragon. Some of the most developed dragons come from Chinese cultures; in fact for centuries some rural Chinese dug up (and made tea from) dinosaur bones, believing they were from dragons. The West is rich in dragon folklore as well; stories of a Christian martyr named George who slew a fearsome dragon later became known as Saint George the Dragon Slayer. While dragons are ancient, they are more popular now than at any other time in history, appearing in role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons and popular films such as "Lord of the Rings."
No. 10 Ogopogo
Canada reputedly has more lake monsters than any other country, boasting no fewer than a dozen in its cold waters. It's no surprise, therefore, that Lake Okanagan, located in British Columbia, might be home to one of the world's top ten monsters. The lake monster, dubbed Ogopogo (from an old music hall song) is unique in that native Indians in the region used to make live sacrifices to a water spirit in the lake as they crossed in boats near the reputed home of Ogopogo, Monster Island. Though any connection between the Indian legend and a modern monster is pure speculation, many eyewitnesses continue to report odd things in the lake. According to John Kirk, Ogopogo expert and president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, there is far better evidence for the existence of a mysterious monster in Canada's Lake Okanagan than at Loch Ness. So if you happen to vacation on Okagangan's shores, bring your camera!
Now there you go!!! I have enumerated the World's Top 10 Popular Monsters for you viewers. Thank you asianoffbeat.com for the source.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
9/11 Demon!!!
This picture is captured by a CNN Journalist during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Disturbing isn't it???
Scariest Stories Sent by You
More Frightening Stories To Be Updated...
Ghost Train
This story was sent by Anonymous on Thursday, May 28, 2009 2:31:38 AM...
The Pic to be Posted Next Week...
"Missing link" Fossil Revealed!!!
Scientists hail stunning fossil !!!
The remains of a 47-million-year-old creature dubbed as the "missing link" between primates and humans has been revealed in the US. The fossil known as 'Ida' is preserved so well that the creature's fur and even its last meal can be seen.
The preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal.
The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives.
But some independent experts, awaiting an opportunity to see the new fossil, are sceptical of the claim.
And they have been critical of the hype surrounding the presentation of Ida.
The fossil was launched amid great fanfare at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, by the city's mayor.
Although details of the fossil have only just been published in a scientific journal - PLoS One - there is already a TV documentary and book tie-in.
Ida was discovered in the 1980s in a fossil treasure-trove called Messel Pit, near Darmstadt in Germany. For much of the intervening period, it has been in a private collection.The investigation of the fossil's significance was led by Jorn Hurum of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway.
He said the fossil creature was "the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor" and described the discovery as "a dream come true".
The female animal lived during an epoch in Earth history known as the Eocene, which was crucial for the development of early primates - and at first glance, Ida resembles a lemur.
But the creature lacks primitive features such as a so-called "toothcomb", a specialised feature in which the lower incisor and canine teeth are elongated, crowded together and projecting forward. She also lacks a special claw used for grooming.
In a David Attenborough-narrated BBC programme, the fossil is revealed in virtual reality
The team concluded that she was not simply another lemur, but a new species. They have called her Darwinius masillae, to celebrate her place of origin and the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
Dr Jens Franzen, an expert on the Messel Pit and a member of the team, described Ida as "like the Eighth Wonder of the World", because of the extraordinary completeness of the skeleton.
It was information "palaeontologists can normally only dream of", he said.
In addition, Ida bears "a close resemblance to ourselves" he said, with nails instead of claws, a grasping hand and an opposable thumb - like humans and some other primates. But he said some aspects of the teeth indicate she is not a direct ancestor - more of an "aunt" than a "grandmother".
"She belongs to the group from which higher primates and human beings developed but my impression is she is not on the direct line."
Independent experts are keen to see the new fossil but somewhat sceptical of any claim that it could be "a missing link".
Dr Henry Gee, a senior editor at the journal Nature, said the term itself was misleading and that the scientific community would need to evaluate its significance.
"It's extremely nice to have a new find and it will be well-studied," he said. But he added that it was not likely to be in the same league as major discoveries such as "Flores man" or feathered dinosaurs.
Dr Chris Beard, curator of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and author of The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey, said he was "awestruck" by the publicity machine surrounding the new fossil.
He argued that it could damage the popularisation of science if the creature was not all that it was hyped up to be.
Dr Beard has not yet seen scientific details of the find but said that it would be very nice to have a beautiful new fossil from the Eocene and that Ida would be "a welcome new addition" to the world of early primates.
But he added: "I would be absolutely dumbfounded if it turns out to be a potential ancestor to humans."
In the PLoS paper itself, the scientists do not actually claim the specimen represents a direct ancestor to us. But Dr Hurum believes that is exactly what Ida is.
He told BBC News that the key to proving this lay in the detail of the foot. The shape of a bone in the foot called the talus looks "almost anthropoid".
He said the team was now planning a 3D reconstruction of the foot which would prove this.
"We're not finished with this specimen yet," said Dr Hurum. "There will be plenty more papers coming out."
Monday, May 25, 2009
Garuda, the Vahana of Lord Vishnu
I created this post because my cousin who resides in Indonesia told me about this Indonesia's famous mythical creature the "Garuda". I also thought that only few peeps recognize this beast and by creating a post about this creature will capture the eyes of many. So here it is. I hope you learn more knowledge about this mythical creature.
What is a "Garuda"?
Based on my source a Garuda is a large mythical bird or bird like creature that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist Mythology.
Trivia:
Garuda is the Hindu name for the constellation Aquila and the Brahminy Kite is considered to be the contemporary representation of Garuda.
In Hindu Mythology,
A Garuda is a lesser Hindu divinity, usually the mount vahanam of Vishnu. Garuda is depicted as having a golden body, white face, red wings, and an eagle's beak, but with a strong man's body. He wears a crown on his head. He is ancient and has a size enough to block out the sun. Worship of Garuda is believe to remove the effects of poisons from one's body.
In the Mahabharata,
The story of Garuda's birth and deeds is told in the first book of the great epic Mahabharata. According to the epic, when Garuda first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age. Frightened, the gods begged him for mercy. Garuda, hearing their plea reduced himself in size and energy.
Descendents
According to the Mahabharata, Garuda had six sons from whom were descended the race of birds. The members of their race were of great might and without compassion,subsisting as they did on their relatives, the snakes. Vishnu was their protector.
As a symbol
Throughout the Mahabharata, Garuda is invoked as a symbol of impetuous violent force, of speed, and of martial prowess. Powerful warriors advancing rapidly on doomed foes are likened to Garuda swooping down on a serpent.Defeated warriors are like snakes beaten down by Garuda. The field marshal Drona uses a military formation named after Garuda. Krishna even carries the image of Garuda on his banner.
In Buddhism,
In Buddhist mythology, the Garudas are enormous predatory birds with intelligence and social organization. Another name for Garuda is Suparna meaning "well-winged, having good wings". Like the Nagas, they combine the characteristics of animals and divine beings, and may be considered to be among the lowest devas.
The exact size of the Garudas is uncertain, but its wings are said to have a span of many miles. This may be a poetic exaggeration but it is also said that when a Garuda's wings flap, they create hurricane-like winds that darken the sky and blow down houses. A human being is so small compared to a Garuda that a man can hide in a plumage of one without being noticed. They are also capable of tearing up entire banyan trees from their roots and carrying them off.
There you go peeps! The Garuda's history is cited for you with the help of some trusted sites. I hope this gives you extra information and knowledge about the beast who become well known as the "Garuda". For other information you know about this beast,kinda e-mail me at rainer.panganiban@yahoo.com and I will include your details about the Garuda here in my blog.
Pictures of Beautiful Crop Circles
I've researched the best pictures of crop circles. They are the most significant and most well document crop circles in the world. These photos are in color, and show geometric shapes which may contain valuable information for all of humanity. I hope you enjoy looking at these beautiful crop circle photos. 
