Posts Tagged ‘navigation’

Ancient technology, ancient genius

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Shimla train (469)HDR

Watch the trailer for an exciting new DVD on ancient Egypt.    The Pyramid Code  by Carmen Boulter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04j7rksyRzQ


How smart were “cavemen?”


One of the challenges faced by archaeologist is determining how intelligent people were 10,000 or more years ago.    It’s a fascinating question because it involves an amazing paradox.     By all accounts, whatever they were doing, “primitive” as it may have been,  was very, very successful because it lasted an awfully long time.

That’s strange if one assumes they were not very smart.     The evidence we have from them is things like bones, stone weapons, mounds, so they were not “advanced” by our terms.    Sounds crazy to us.   “How can anybody live like that?”, we ask.   That’s because  most of us today wouldn’t last more than a few months or years.

So, how smart were “prehistoric” people ? Well, some groups like the Hopi Indians, did an amazing job of surviving for thousands of years.    Other long lasting groups:   Celts,  Tibetans, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian.     Some groups were older than the Egyptians by far.     Let’s just take one group archaeologists call the “Clovis” ( particular style of stone arrow point ), present for thousands of years in north America.     They must have been very smart, because look what they had to deal with…. danger day and night, no electricity, hospitals, unpredictable weather.    Unbelievable stuff.    Today, people get all excited watching a show were a few guys do a one hour man versus wild episode.   Hello !! ??   People did that every day for thousands of years.     And one of their amazing skills was of course navigation.   They knew how, and when, and where to go for their food and shelter.    They moved about often, so they MUST have known directions.

10,000 B.C. E.    ( approximately, and covering perhaps a hundreds of years )

From the evidence we have,  it would seem that the last truly global event may have been a slight shift of earth’s axis somewhere around the time the last ice age ended, 10,000 BC     It may have been even a small shift, but combined with a possible asteroid hit on the ice sheet in the great lakes area or N. America, the earth could have been jostled just a bit.    I do believe it was a series of events, with at least one hit somewhere on earth.

At that time, many coastal and island habitations, large and small, were totally destroyed, never to be seen again.    Not everyone perished, obviously.     Many people survived, in clusters large and small all around the planet.    I believe there must have been at least SOME very highly developed groups of people amongst them, left over from the more “advanced” of the peoples.   By developed, I mean they knew complex math,  navigation, geometry, and also some were experts at things we don’t even study much.    Such as, making use of animals, knowing plants, psychic forces, developing internal senses of vision and art, intuition, music, deep meditation, and so on.

That being said, 12,000 years ago there were also many people who lived with very simple lives using agriculture or hunting.    This is actually true today.    Some people fly in jets and some people still live in jungles.   The people in the jungles or on the mountains will probably outlast the people in the cities and jets.

It’s fun to imagine….  If you were one of a group of people that survived a global catastrophe, what would you do ?    What if there was no more electricity except that provided by solar cells,  wind,  and generators ?

Interesting links:

www.pyramidcode.com fantastic stuff.  must see / hear  follow links

Expert who researched the pyramids for over 30 years.  Amazing technology

Ancient navigation

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Please see our collection of playlists on YouTube.   Dozens of subjects.

Moon and Venus near a conjunction

Moon and Venus near a conjunction

 

It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of navigation.    Without it there would be no trade, no discovery, no war, no culture.     It’s clear that in the far distant past some people were navigation geniuses.    How did they do it?      Read about Crichton Miller’s amazing REINVENTION of a very simple, extremely effective, and accurate ancient navigation and measuring tool.

             Long before maps, people learned to navigate by the observing the stars, sun, moon, and planets.   Because the positions of the close celestial bodies like the moon move frequently, they primarily depended on what what was called “fixed stars”.     Those stars that were very high towards the poles were visible all year long, so these were particularly important.   At very high latitudes, of course, there are periods when it’s always daylight.

            Navigation by fixed stars locates the observer at a position on our planet that is relative to those stars, ( sidereal ), so it does not depend on a magnetic compass.     In fact, sidereal navigation can be much more accurate than magnetic navigation, because the magnetic north pole is not at the same place as the true north pole.     If you navigate by magnetic north only you will need to use a “magnetic correction ” adjustment, of as much as 18 degrees, depending on where you are on Earth.    In addition, there are areas on the planet where the magnetic readings are disturbed and unreliable for a variety of reasons.

Celestial Navigation Site 

        When people marked their repeated observations onto the ground, they formed circles.     The inevitable conclusion they came to is that the earth is a sphere, it is moving through space, moves in an arc,  and the arcs of the celestial bodies can be measured and calculated.    The math that results from those observations is astronomy and spherical geometry.    Researchers have found stone and bone circles all around the world.     There is a good reason for this.

          Some cultures like the Sumerians and Egyptians used a remarkable math system of base 60, allowing them to easily calculate values related to 360 degrees, which is close to the 365 days of earth orbit around the sun.   There is a proposition, supported by good evidence, that at one time the earth orbit period was 360 days, and after a major event began a 365 day orbit.    The Egyptian pyramids demonstrate that some people knew spherical geometry and sidereal navigation a very long time ago.    The builders were very smart people.

          Because we know for sure that many ancient peoples travelled long distances with relatively small boats, as well as on camels, elephants, horses, and yaks, and on foot, we must assume that among these people were some who were experts at celestial navigation.  In fact, it’s likely that many people learned to navigate because it was so critical to survival.

         Do you know how to navigate ?   Do you even know what direction your front door faces?

        By watching the sky, one can calculate seasons and provide a time-keeping scale that organizes human activity.     Making frequent measurements over time leads to an understanding of spherical geometry, because the movements of heavenly bodies proceed in arcs.   They are very precise movements too so our celestial canopy is truly a clock.    Ancient navigators used that very effectively.     Spherical geometry is an extremely useful knowledge to have because it can be applied to navigation, timing, building construction, and much more.

 Read about Crichton Miller’s amazing REINVENTION of a very simple, extremely effective, and accurate ancient navigation and measuring tool.    It’s shaped like at was only a streamlined, coded icon for this fabulous tool.  You can make one yourself and learn to use it.

Build a star finder / tracker

Previous global catastrophe causes planetary reset.

 

                It’s my belief that after the end of the last ice age, when the collapse of the northern glaciers occurred, human beings had to basically restart civilization.  There were many small remnants of people left on the earth at that time.    Some of these groups were far more knowledgeable, or technically literate, than others.   Some knew how to build boats and some did not.    Some knew how to navigate, and others didn’t.   Some were good at agriculture, and others were best at hunting or fishing.   Some of them got stranded on islands, just like some animals did.    

          Most people started watching the sky religiously because of the events that had happened.     They developed short and long term calendars in an effort to forecast possible dangers.    They tried to tell future generations about the earth and sun’s journey through the galaxy, the earth’s rotation and its cosmic wobble.   Sometimes they went way up into the mountains to get away from any future floods.

         I believe also that the earth probably shifted slightly on its axis at least once, so one of the first things people did was mark the positions of the sun, moon, and other celestial objects in order to determine the NEW calendar and their star-centered, or sidereal, location on earth.    They used stone circles and other kinds of observatories to do that, resulting in places like Stonehendge and the Mayan pyramids.    These were sometimes developed over many centuries, that’s how important it was for them.     Even today, we stand in awe of these structures, and wonder how they were built and what they were used for.

          So, it has taken thousands of years for our modern world to develop, after getting a major reset long ago and hitting some serious bumps along the way.   We do not know much about any civilization that may have existed back then because so much was utterly devastated by the sea, ice, volcanoes, and other cataclysms.   Therefore, we should not expect to find a lot of evidence because it was destroyed completely or buried, sometimes in hot magma.  

          The population of “developed” civilizations may have been a small percentage of the total earth population, and these more developed cultures may have been spread far apart.   So, it’s really not surprising to me that we don’t find much evidence.   We do find plenty of  stories, however, and those stories are very, very interesting.    In fact, they are shocking.    They declare that there have been many times in the past where there was massive, global, and ABRUBT, geological cataclysms upset the planet.     

          To put this into perspective, in the past 100 years our civilization was traumatized by 2 world wars, Hiroshima, some major tsunamis, earthquakes, and so on, and our society is intent on preserving the memories.     The stories we hear from long ago talk about events that were much, much greater than anything in modern records.    They talk about worldwide trauma, mostly because of geological, or astronomical events.

What to do for 2012 passage

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Please see our collection of playlists on YouTube.   Dozens of subjects.

Many ancient cultures lived in mountains

Many long lasting cultures lived in mountains

 

 

This is where the rubber meets the road, folks.  

What can we do in response to the 2012 crossing?

First, we can learn what’s going on.   Education can be a real life saver.    We can prepare for a variety of possible scenarios.   We can communicate with others.   If we can’t save ourselves during a catastrophe, maybe something we do or say will save others. The following is what I think people should do, and why.  

 

Few people can do all of the items listed, but do what you can.

Don’t panic !  Panic is never good and usually results in disaster.   Be smart, think, act.   Meditate, be still, and you’ll see more clearly.

Overcome the resistance to act boldly.   You will not survive any catastrophe if you are lazy or indecisive.   Once you feel a deep conviction, you need to do something about it.

Form a network.     Nobody will survive on their own.    You will need friends and associates, suppliers, and inspiration.

Gather tools and equipment you might need, or could use, in case there was a huge geologic catastrophe.    Such a catastrophe would, or could do any or all of the following:   knock out power, break gas or oil lines, destroy roads and railroads, divert waterways, bury areas in ash,  flood crops or towns.    Hospitals would become full.  Transportation could become very difficult.

You and friends would or could need:   digging tools, navigation equipment, unusual modes of transport, such as carts or horses, medical equipment and supplies, construction equipment, batteries, solar chargers.

Know where there are a variety of shelters in your region, not just town.     For example, large buildings, underground facilities, large caves.   Underground water sources.    Many catastrophes involve water, or something from the sky, like precipitation, meteors, solar storms, etc.

Know where supplies are.   Nobody needs to stash huge amounts of lumber or gravel, for instance, but if things got rough it would pay to know where they are stored ( lumber yards, rail yards, mines, etc.  ).   If there is a global catastrophe you will need to know where fuel is stored, for example, and how to transport it.

Learn how to navigate.   Navigation is one of the most important things a person can learn.  You will need it if there is a large catastrophe in many parts of the world.   Almost every one would have to move somewhere.   Gather maps of all areas within 1,000 miles of where you live.    You could have to move, and fast.    Know the terrain in every direction.   GET A GOOD COMPASS and learn how to use it.    You might have to drive, or walk, to an unfamiliar place.   For example, to get upwind of something, or away from danger.  

Learn, or know, someone who understands navigation by stars, sidereal navigation.  This is very important.   Here’s why.     If the earth’s pole shifts, OR we have a magnetic polarity shift, OR, we simply lose our GPS facilities, sidereal navigation will be the ONLY one that is reliable.     We will need to know how close we are to the equator.    We will want to go toward the warmer areas.    We would have to know the new positions of  the local planets, the sun,  moon, and stars.

Keep your vehicles in good shape.    Own appropriate vehicles, ones that are durable and can go long distances if necessary.    Every group of people should have access to a variety of vehicles.    For example small trucks, tractors, Quad tracks.    What if roads get jammed up ?   You could get through on a bike or motorcycle.  

Learn to fly a plane   In some areas of the world, an aircraft is even now the only option.     If any of the major highways, rivers, or rail lines gets permanently damaged, aviation will be the only way to get around until they are fixed ( and that could be never ).   There are tons of aircraft just sitting around these days.   They could help a lot.   Learn who is a pilot in your community or family.

Learn how to use boats.    Boats have saved countless lives.   There are thousands of boats just sitting around in marinas all over the world.    They will come in handy, IF they survive tsunamis.

Learn a bunch of skills.     Your value and odds of survival will increase exponentially if you know how to do any of these things:   grow food, give medical care, build a home, fix a car or radio, do electrical work, fly a plane, drive a big truck, dig a well, transport goods, etc.     You don’t have to be an expert, just learn a significant amount.

         Collect relevant books and other important material, like manuals.   SAVE IMPORTANT DOWNLOADED INFORMATION FILES LIKE VIDEOS, AUDIO, ETC.    PRINT OUT important documents and save them.   We could have interrupted internet service, or lose it all together, while still being able to use a basic computer or DVD player, etc.

Stay in good health.     Need more be said?

Read about Crichton Miller’s amazing REINVENTION of a very simple, extremely effective, and accurate ancient navigation and measuring tool.    It’s shaped like the celtic cross, but that was only a streamlined, coded icon for this fabulous tool.  You can make one yourself and learn to use it.

Build a star finder / tracker


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