"In this excerpt from NOVAs two-hour special, The Bibles Buried Secrets, archeologist William Dever describes evidence that the ancient Israelite God, YHWH, had a female counterpart. "
In the complete 'Bibles Buried Secrets' [available on YouTube] Nova shows how ancient Judaism changed from polytheistic to monotheistic, and along the way Jehovah [YHWH] got rid of his wife. Contemporary Judaism, Christianity and Islam would all probably prefer to ignore this newest archeological and historical evidence.
The 'Octopostes marinis' lived in vast colonies in swampy areas during the Carboniferous period [359 million years ago].
Little is known about 'Octopostes marinis' other than that fact that had a rather curious habit of growth, in vast rows of five columns and that reproduction was by a form of mitosis. This can be seen in the second row of these fossil remains, where the parents have begun to split. The third row shows five young juveniles that have broken away from their parent cells and begun life on their own, and of course the parent is now a new cell itself.
The individual cell was eight sided, hence the Latin name Octopodes [from the Greek 'οκτώ όψης'] and though very small, they occurred in such incredibly large numbers the Octopodes are thought to be a major contributor to the vast coal deposits around the world.
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BTW, all of the above is pure fantasy. Time for me to reveal my 'Piltdown man' fossil fakery.
The 'Octopodes fossils' were found during a recent session with the Mandelbulb 3d software. Whereas most of the people who use Mandelbulb3d prefer to entertain situations and fantasies of future scenarios, I have found that this incedible fractal generation program is equally at ease in producing phenonmenal versions of the past, even if they are not necessarily true.
For a more detailed view of this 'fossil' image, visit my deviantArt page, and click on the enlargement button.
:"We now know that birds evolved from small, feathered dinosaurs. It’s easy to think that since birds are still around today, they must have come after their dinosaur* cousins, but that’s not true. In the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs were still around while their descendants flitted through the skies. And some dinosaurs made meals of their flighty relatives. Jingmai O’Connor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has uncovered the remains of a small dinosaur called Microraptor that has the bones of small bird in its gut.
O’Connor analysed the fossil with Xing Xu, a Chinese scientist who has made a career from discovering beautiful feathered dinosaurs. Microraptor is one of his most important finds. This tiny animal, about the size of a pigeon, had four wings, with long feathers on both of its legs as well as its arms. It was, at the very least, a very competent glider, if not a true flier.
The specimen that O’Connor and Xu have studied isn’t the best preserved Microraptor around. However, it does clearly have the remains of a small bird in its gut, including the left wing and both feet. There aren’t enough bones to tell which species it was, but the distinctive shape of its leg bone singles it out as one of the enantiornithines, an extinct group of early birds. They were, after all, one of the most common groups of birds in the forests of China, where Microraptor hunted. , , , , "
Equally amazing is that someone by the name of 'Jingmai O’Connor' is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. But she does indeed exist, and here is her home page:
A new ancestor emerges from the richest collection of fossil skeletons ever found.
"Lee Berger is standing in a death trap, smiling. It is a hole in the ground about 25 miles northwest of Johannesburg, in a ridged brown valley where herds of giraffes occasionally parade between stands of trees. The red-rock walls of the pit are higher than Berger's head, and steep enough in spots to make a scramble up, or down, rather daunting. Some two million years ago, the hole was a great deal deeper, with no possibility of escape for any creature that fell in. This accounts for the trove of fossils Berger is finding, which in turn accounts for his upbeat mood. He leans over a red boulder near the pit bottom, tracing a white-colored protrusion with his fingers. "It looks like part of an arm," he says. "That means we've found another individual. . . . . "
The man is Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. He’s holding the skull of Australopithecus sediba, a 1.98 million year old relative of humans, otherwise known as a hominin. In April 2010 Berger and his colleagues first unveiled the fossil in the journal Science. As I wrote in Slate, Berger argued that A. sediba was the closest known cousin to our genus Homo. Hominins branched off from other apes about 7 million years ago, but aside from becoming bipedal, they were remarkably like other apes for about five million years. Among other things, they were short, had long arms, and had small brains. Berger and his colleagues saw in A. sediba what biologists often find in transitional forms–a mix of ancestral and newer traits. It has Homo-like hands, a projecting nose, and relatively long legs. It was intermediate in heigh between earlier hominins and the tall Homo. And it still had a small brain and long arms. . . . . "
It would appear that some charlatans will do absolutely anything to establish the validiity and historicity of Christianity, well, religion in general. The 'Jordanian Codices' episode began in March of this year. But by September it had been established that the 'Jordanian Codices' were undoubtedly fakes, not even very well produced fakes, and David Elkington's proposed book deal was in the process of collapsing.
Fascinating trail of deception, somewhat like a contemporary detective story. This involved story all began with a press release, passed though the hallowed halls of academia and scientific investigation, naturally was touted on Facebook, and eventually found its way to YouTube:
"One of the biggest and best preserved hoards of ancient sealed books, which had been secretly hidden for centuries, has been discovered in Jordan. Early indications are that some of the books could date from the first century CE/ADand may be among the earliest Christian documents, predating the writings of St Paul. Leading academics consider that the find might be as pivotal as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.The hoard consists of up to 70 ring-bound books (codices) made of lead and copper. Many of them are sealed on all sides. Scrolls, tablets and other artefacts, including an incense bowl, were also found at the same site. Some of the lead pages are written in a form of archaic Hebrew script with ancient messianic symbols. Some of the writing appears to be in a form of code.There is likely to be considerable academic and political debate about the collection’s authenticity, meaning and interpretation. But now there is also a race against time to safeguard the collection’s future. Having been originally discovered some 5 years ago in a remote cave within a militarized zone by Jordanian Bedouin, the hoard was subsequently acquired by an Israeli Bedouin, who illegally smuggled them across the Border into Israel, wheret hey remain hidden under his protection.However, legal advice has confirmed that the find qualifies as treasure troveunder Jordanian law, and is rightly the property of the Kingdom of Jordan. TheJordanian Government is now working at the highest levels to repatriate and safeguard the collection. The British team leading the work on the discovery fears that the present Israeli ‘keeper’ may be looking to sell some of the books on to the black market, or worse - destroy them.The collection appears to be of mixed provenance. But initial metallurgical tests indicate that some of the books made of lead could date from the firstcentury CE/AD, based on the form of corrosion which has taken place, which experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially. Sealed books were used by early Christian writers as a code for secret teaching; they were heavily persecuted and needed to protect their knowledge. Until now, no such book has ever been found. The codices were discovered in an area to which Christian refugees are known to have fled after the fall of Jerusalem in 70CE/AD, and where important documents from the same period have previously been found. The existence of a significant, hidden collection of sealed codices is mentioned in the Christian Bible’s Book of Revelation and in other biblical books."
"The current consensus amongst expert bloggers in the fields of Religion, Archaeology and Linguistics is that the Jordinian Lead Codices are in – all probability – not authentic." [many links]
"More scandalous is the complete lack of journalistic integrity, honest research, and thorough fact-checking. These codices might never have been heard of if the authors of the reports for BBC and Fox News (among others) had just checked with the academic community before publishing the “find”. At the very least, the journalists might have used less authoritative language, expressed more caution, and exposed the controversy rather than simply stating, as if doing so made it fact, that these codices were “the earliest Christian texts” and that they held “early images of Jesus. . . . . .”
But my favortite report is from the sensationalist Daily Mail [with lots of lovely photos and is a must see/read]. This British tabloid is always good for a few chuckles.
"Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history. For scholars of faith and history, it is a treasure trove too precious for price. This ancient collection of 70 tiny books, their lead pages bound with wire, could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of Christianity. . . . . "
"What underlies the incredible diversity of life on Earth? How have complex life forms evolved? The journey from water to land, the return of land mammals to the sea, and the emergence of humans all suggest that creatures past and present are members of a single tree of life.
Evolution determines who lives, who dies, and who passes traits on to the next generation. The process plays a critical role in our daily lives, yet it is one of the most overlooked -- and misunderstood -- concepts ever described."
The Evolution series' goals are to heighten public understanding of evolution and how it works, to dispel common misunderstandings about the process, and to illuminate why it is relevant to all of us."
Sukhothai [ สุโขทัย ] — The first capital of Thailand
It is now more than a decade since my first visit to the ancient capitol of Sukhothai ["Dawn of Happiness"], which is now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage historical park. One of the most beautiful, and enchanting, sites I have ever had the privilidge of exploring. It is breath taking at every turn. I have lost track of how many times I have visited there, alone or with friends.
The Sukhothai Kingdom was an early kingdom in the area around the city Sukhothai, in north central Thailand. The Kingdom existed from 1238 till 1438 at which time the capitol, for political reasons, was moved further south to Ayyutaya. But Sukhothai, and Sukhothai alone, embodies the tranquility, peace, and spirit of ancient 'Siam'.
With each visit I have encountered new treasures, and a different means of appreciating the glories of the past and the beauty of the present.
And in my estimation there is nothing in the enormous complex more beautiful, and characteristic of the period, than the statue of the 'Walking Buddha', which embodies a grace and elegance rarely encountered in relgious artifacts.
Where would we be today if it weren't for the scientists of the past? From the miniature world of genetics to the vast expanse of space, review the greatest discoveries of all time across eight different scientific categories in this multi-part series. Join host Bill Nye as he recounts the 100 most important discoveries and explains how each one has had a hand in shaping the modern world. Watch his lively and dramatic accounts and learn how the great discoveries were made, how they impacted the development of scientific knowledge and how they touch our lives today. From the discovery of the dinosaur-killing KT asteroid to Carl Linnaeus' still-used life form classification system to the groundbreaking theories of Charles Darwin. Learn how intelligent life began on earth.
The Journey of Man is a documentary that talks about our evolution, our recent history, and how we came to be to the way we are today. It looks at the Y chromosome, that's passed down from male to male, and tracks the marker mutations to map our ancestors' journey. It's how we conquered the Earth in just the last 50,000 years.
Where did we come from? Spencer Wells, a 33-year-old population geneticist, has closed the door on his laboratory and is embarking on the biggest adventure of his life. His mission: to retrace the most extraordinary journey of all time, a journey that involves every man, woman and child alive today. He offers his thoughts on this puzzling question, employing the latest in DNA research and technology to track the migration of humanity across the globe. By collecting blood samples from thousands of men living in isolated tribes around the world and analyzing their DNA, Spencer and his colleagues discovered that all humans alive today can be traced back to a small tribe of hunter-gatherers who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago. Following this genetic trail, Spencer has charted the ancient journey of our ancestors as they populated the planet, continent by continent.
Spencer scours the world for indigenous people with deep roots in one place, asking for samples of DNA to test, in order to piece together our "big family" genetic tree.
In Indiana Jones mode, Wells tacks down common ancestors and comes up with some surprising candidates which he interviews.
The best parts are when he returns with DNA results and we see the diverse ways in which people and tribes react to the news of what science says about their arrival and relations. View this as adventure travel or as a painless way to begin your genetic literacy.
Lawn mower to the ferns of Africa, the 500-toothed Nigersaurus was unlike any other. Segment on the Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur Nigersaurus from the National Geographic documentary "Bizarre Dinosaurs,".
