“I entered the forest here and a hare appeared, then did many more everywhere in a prolific dance, prancing into a murky world of green and blue, a haze of dark colors ablaze dripping morning dew hidden beneath the roof of tree’s shelter as insects flew and fungus grew. I waited in the pond, ankle deep, address of blue silk pattern in hand to avoid getting it wet, an arrow on it pointing the way which kept changing as I moved. My thoughts were adrift absorbing the visual play seeing images all around me reflected off the pond’s surface. After a conversation with a flying squirrel who had spoken to me about the rocky, bumpy hole with the hare, I jumped into this whole, over there, traveling to an another place to attend a tea party with all sorts of strange talking creatures, going through keyholes and eating mushrooms along the way.”

This excerpt, hand-written in Yiddish, was found in the diaries of German Baroness Gertrude Von Ludwig Dodgson, reportedly the second cousin once removed of Charles Lutwig Dodgson, known by the pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, noted British author and master of Literary nonsense. His most popular works include “Jabberwocky”, “The Hunting Of The Snark” and the complete works of “Alice in Wonderland”.

Disney studios brought it to the screen as a beloved 1951 epic animated fantasy, an interpretive adaptation of colors and epic symbols about the girl with golden hair seeing a talking hare, holding watch, nervously observing the direction as thyme grew late for a clue that would help him find his lost hole, running, claiming to be late for a very important date, a gathering with some questionable characters hosted by a loonytoon with attitude and a hat. Now, Tim Burton has created a 3D version starring Johnny Depp.

Dodgson never met his cousin who had been committed to the Bavarian Sanitarium For Anthropomorphic Research when she was observed talking to birds, squirrels and vampire bats migrating from Romania. After her death caused by an attack from a hive of bumble bee’s and spawning salmon, her vast estate including a crypt of secret documents and diaries from some of the most illustrious royal families of Europe, were left to her closest living relative then known by the name Lewis Carroll.

These quotes are believed to be the basis of his most popular books, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and its sequel, Through The Looking Glass And What Alice Found There. Many parallels can be found between his novel nonsense and the stories in her most recent diaries.

Since imagination is a place where living or inanimate objects can have human qualities, it’s sensible to conclude that animals, imaginary people, and even cartoon characters we know can’t   exist, can also act with human traits in a place where everything makes scents despite having no logical sense.

During the Roman Empire, a group of large carp like fish known as genus Barbus were domesticated in marble tanks under the bed of guests invited to lavish Roman Orgies  signifying their fascination with underwater life that led to aquariums. But, it wasn’t known until much later that goldfish like others in the Carp family are social animals who frequently become bored with their environment when left alone without other fish to interact. For them, a stark, un-embellished bowl of water just wont do because their inclination when happy is to be curious. In fact this quality is believed to have encouraged the development of elaborate fish tank rock formations, miniature sunken ships and the R2 Fish Training Kit. which made Albert the goldfish pictured above a member of the Guinness Book Of Records as the fish with the largest repertoire of tricks of any aquatic vertebrate with scales.

According to historical records, The concept of fish school, not to be confused with a school of fish was first founded by Dean and Kyle Pomerleau in 2004. Kyle who was seven years old at the time won two common goldfish at a school fair spending hours watching them for several weeks. He suspected that there was more going on in their brains then most people were willing to give them credit for. On a whim, he and his father decided to see if it was possible to train fish to do tricks using techniques frequently associated with  training dogs, cats, and circus animals.

In an attempt to give fish their just due as responsive pets rather than some kind of decoration at risk for being flushed down the toilet or eaten by a house cat, their scientific investigation led to the Fish School Training Manual, initially written in French. The basic principles set forth in the pamphlet are positive reinforcement and shaping which uses the fish’s innate curiosity to encourage behavior modification. After all, Kyle  claimed,  “Fish have often been served in various cultures as religious symbols, deities and the subject of art, books and films such as The Incredible Mr. Limpit,” a 1964 live action/animated film by Warner Brothers about a human who mysteriously turns into a talking fish and helps the US Navy defeat the Nazis using his “thrum,” an intense  noise that disrupts underwater  instruments and weapons long before Finding Nemo won the Oscar as best animated feature in 2005.

It was the ancient ones who first recognized the nature of cycles,  passing down the knowledge, gifted in written text and oral traditions to the chosen of each generation to keep records of what was meant. The task for them was to create an atmosphere where harmony exists without interfering with choice.

The ancient ones were aware that cosmic forces are immense and subtle, remaining invisible until sensitivity to them is developed much as knowledge is often hidden among the clutter of pointless facts noticed before a truth is revealed.  On the other hand they contended that “nothing is useless as long as its appropriately prioritized.” An approach no different than subjecting students to a multiple choice test who are given more information then they need to choose the correct answer, a way of encouraging the development of  knowledge by also sharpening the ability to use a sound process of elimination (guessing).

Who the ancient ones were is less important than what they said about the universe describing it as “a lot of space with ‘things’ suspended within, in constant motion  as everything moves in relation to their previous position and/or mutual gravitational effects on each other.” They were aware of the closest and farthest currents although they attracted less attention by being silent and occasionally leaving inspiring hints along the way, sometimes misinterpreted, becoming the basis for cults.

According to them, the universe could be interpreted as a conduit for the cosmic pulse, while the veil is defined as “anything that is not known,” frequently misunderstood as a symbol for whatever prevents revelation, neglecting to consider its dual purpose as a protection from the knowledge one is not ready to receive. They indicated, “the ability to verify existence or calculate cycles is not necessary to understand the imperceptible.”  Only a rudimentary comprehension of mathematics is important as one silently listens to the cosmic breadth and reads the poetry of light, sound and motion.

Fragments of fable and myth  have been passed down revealing some things about the first ancient one, said to have been born in a small town in the Himalayan Mountains.  Originally the youth, like the other men of the village, was a peaceful farmer. However, an elder villager held in great respect somehow gained certain  knowledge which he shared with the one who later became the first of the ancients. Both began exploring the secrets of the universe learning how to harness cosmic energy for their own uses, although their motives were quite different. While the elder focused on  building a vast empire, the youth wished to use it for the benefit of his fellow villagers. A great struggle ensued between the two, symbolic of the battle between selfishness and selflessness, as  the legacy of the ancient ones remains a contemporary theme about power.

Another reminder of cycles are found in  remnants of The Mayan civilization, which constructed the most mathematically accurate calender ever devised, informed with future astronomical events which influenced their culture along with paganism and human sacrifice. Survival they realized depended on planting crops at the right time and understanding the forces that effected their growth much of which involved cycles of climatic regularity and change. They found ways to ensure a continuation of their society until they vanished, leaving only mystery and myth for scientists to fathom, although their calender and some written hieroglyphs remain.

The Mayan calender calculates the end of one cycle and the beginning of another at 11:11 am GMT on December 21, 2012.  All they contended was that the transformation from one to another would be characterized by “great changes,” as the Sun and its planets approach the center of the galaxy, an event that occurs once in twenty eight thousand years.

What happens after this date is unwritten suggesting that it must be left to those who are now alive to determine the shape and intensity of the change.

Suppose it were possible to make scrambled eggs without beating them first - perhaps a trivial concern - but when was the last time you cracked an egg without paying attention to what you were doing? It doesn’t really matter where the egg is struck, as long as it contains no shell.

Every now and then a double yolk appears and those become unusual events, especially when children are looking on, eagerly absorbing everything with awe struck attentiveness. To them it’s a magical event and how they interpret what they see can shape their personality and define the approach they will take to life. This may sound like a hefty claim, but each time an egg is successfully transformed into an omelet, it builds confidence, a celebration when it enhances the ability to focus, especially for children and multi-taskers who revel in cracking two, in both hands at the same time.

Creating a batter in a bowl is a rote expenditure of energy. Another approach would be to open the eggs directly into the heated pan, then using a fork, mixing the yolks and the whites together when they are in the process of solidifying, creating a unique variation of color and texture, as a small amount of milk or cream for the aristocrats is added with salt and pepper. This encourages risk-taking, an absorbing adventure each and every time the task is undertaken. Most important is not having to scrape them from the pan. An assurance of an experienced knowing hand, especially when one of the kids asks: “Why are some eggs white, and some brown?” Then a learner-ed parent can respond with a smile, “They can also be green.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_shells

Although The Nutritional Aspects Of Expanding Populations sounds like a worthy subject for serious study in Biochemistry and Nutrition especially when considering the impact of the large spike in population growth during the post war period and its sociological implications on the  baby boom generation, it became the basis for a landmark 1955 cinematic classic  about the development of a growth serum and how it could be used to solve the problem of overpopulation and world hunger, a neglected subject in the mid fifties.

The elixir depicted in this film adaptation is so potent its promise is in providing the complete nutritional needs of any growing organism, a claim overshadowed only by the myopic scientific experimentation focused solely on animal rather than plant life which could have made it more palatable for vegetarians and provide a sound basis for reducing cardio-vascular disease when coupled by increased exercise and the cessation of smoking.

The film is titled Tarantula and was directed by Jack Arnold and stars John Agar,  Leo J. Carroll and Mara Corday with an uncredited appearance of twenty-five year old Clint Eastwood as a jet pilot dropping napalm at the films’ climax. Arnold went on to direct The Incredible Shrinking Man two years later in 1957 considered by many as his masterpiece and  Eastwood became a multiple Oscar winning director.

In this scenario,  Professor Gerald Deemer  is a scientist with a just motive, a hero trying to avert food shortages which are predicted as a result of the world’s expanding population of two billion in 1955, a role passionately played by veteran character actor Leo J Carroll. This is the premise that sets it apart from most giant bug movies featuring  mutations caused by either nuclear weapons or a demented scientist. In this case its a result of noble intentions gone wrong with a sound display of scientific methodology and  multi layered sub plots such as a budding love story and a rare medical condition known as acromegaly artistically shot in black and white featuring an arid desert with whistling tumbleweeds. It is here Professor Deemer invents a special nutrient on which animals can exclusively thrive causing them to enlarge many times their normal size to serve as a source of food.

Harvested in the professors’ home laboratory are several over-sized rodents and a tarantula that escapes somewhere  in the California, Nevada area, hungry and lurking for prey, growing and yet undetected despite  leaving pools of arachnid venom and skeletal remains whenever it fed.  Why spiders and rodents were used to experiment on instead of cattle or sheep is left unexplained, but  perhaps it  suggests that Deemer thought there may be a time when a high protein diet would be defined by how many legs are on the plate.

Unthinkable imagery created by very sophisticated  visual effects and score, the film has a sharp   witty script written by Robert Fresco and  Martin Berkele based on a story by Ray Bradbury, yet its science fiction basis never diminishes the credibility that advancing bio technology may one day lead to the discovery of such a nutrient with unanticipated consequences.

When a very bored hotel concierge  asks Corday, a 1954 Playboy centerfold who  arrives in town as a biology student working on her Masters dissertation, The Nutritional Aspects Of Expanding Populations and Agar who plays the town doctor, “Well ain’t you going to introduce yourselves?” as they leave the hotel for a ride in his car.

“No” they respond in unison, as the hotel manager scratches his head and  mutters,   “Yep, it can be an awfully fast world.”

Disaster films are most engaging when they convey the immediacy of an unexpected catastrophe that is about to happen at the moment its first perceived. No way out and little time to think, absorbed more with the survival struggle of the main characters, usually portrayed by an array of high profile actors unwilling to accept their fate.

The threat, if caused by something from outer space is relegated to science fiction, possible but not probable when scientific evidence to think creatively is obscured by disbelief - a meteor hitting Earth, or a rogue planet out of orbit as portrayed in When Worlds Collide, a 1933 science fiction novel. A story about two planets, one on a collision course with Earth, the other coming close enough to be a haven for survivors if a rocket ship could be built in time to shuttle to the new planet. The continuity of humanity depends on constructing this ark to transport two of every species to a place that may not even have the climate to support Earth’s biodiversity.  A tale filled with uncertainty and biblical drama as portrayed in the 1951 film of the same name. An end of the world scenario inspiring a string of disaster films with a cast of billions and numerous sub plots. The survival of each character depends on luck and the ability to minimize shock, control fear and be able to act quickly while experiencing catastrophic events. But wait, doesn’t this   sound like 2012, the movie?

The fourth cycle of the Mayan Calender culminates at 11:11 am GMT on December 21, 2012 . An anthropological examination of other cultures and their belief systems independently mark this day for some impending change. As the date approaches, prognostications from many sources will become increasingly quoted from the Hopi, I Ching, and Nostradamus to name a few. What will really happen on this date if anything is unclear. Here is where science can speculate on the possibilities of a sudden planetary event such as the reversing of Poles which would cause a ripple in gravity effecting the very atmosphere of Earth.

The basis of Mayan belief is that time is linear and cyclical simultaneously. They looked towards the sky for architectural landmarks which lies at the heart of the structures they built and their cosmological science expressed in surviving records. The sophicated mathematics of its calender are universally recognized for predicting eclipses thousands of years before they occurred. The ancient texts described knowledge of sudden shifts in the climate and references to the dark center of the Galaxy referred to as the cosmic womb identified long before telescopes found evidence for a black hole as the core of The Milky Way.

Many legendary prophecies continue to be credible as long as they remain generic and open to interpretation. Then if something happens it can neatly fit withing the guidelines of what was foretold, but they can also contain ironic twists associated with understanding their meaning in the context of contemporary thought. Some of the great oracles in history such as the one at Delphi went into trances and gave readings in cave dwellings usually connected to fault lines that exposed gases such as ethylene known to have hallucinogenic effects. The one’s that have some basis in science and mathematics, are not as easy to dismiss even after the anointed interval surrounding the date passes because the factors involved that could make the events happen are noticeably present such as global warming and global dimming.

What is agreed upon is that The Sun, Earth and the other planets of the solar system will be at the center of the milky way in an alignment that only happens once in 25,800 years on the winter solastice of 2012. An increase of solar and magnetic energy from the sun is anticipated, but how all this will impact on the crust of Earth, volcanic activity, movement of the oceans and shifting of the continental plates is hard to assess.

Predicting a great change doesn’t necessarily mean annihilation, and all the remaining records of Mayan civilization indicates is that the end of a cycle will occur on that date. The fact that they associate great disaster and upheaval with the transition between one cycle to another is where all the doom and gloom theories are emanating, and yet no one really knows what will occur at 11:11 am GMT on December 21, 2012.

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it will be awarding an honorary Oscar to Roger Corman, the director/producer with a vast array of low budget horror films including The Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957) and Not Of This Earth (1957). Also among his long list of achievements are loose interpretations of many Edgar Allen Poe’s novella’s as The Pit And The Pendulum (1957) and macabre poems such as The Raven (1963). The films were often over the top and frequently starred the late Vincent Price as the demented protagonist.

So many of Corman’s films are considered B- classics, produced on a low budget, shot in several days and elevating exploitation to an art form that it’s easy to forget the list of distinguished directors and actors who were mentored by him such as Martin Scorsese, Frances Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme , John Sayles,  James Cameron, Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, David Carradine, Peter Fonda, Talia Shire, Dennis Hopper and so many more. These filmmakers got their first break as members of the elite Roger Corman School of Film Making. All genres owe a debt of gratitude to his visionary form of schlock.

One of his most intriguing works and a personal favorite is the prophetic 1960 pre bot-ox tour de force, The Wasp Woman starring Susan Cabot in the title role as Janice Starlin, the owner and CEO of a cosmetic firm at a time when women did not mingle in the business world let alone run corporations. When sales of her beauty products began to slide as her consumer base realizes she is aging, she was motivated to become the chief patron of a scientist who had devised a method to extract enzymes from the royal jelly of the queen wasp that can reverse the aging process. Starlin agrees to fund further research provided she can serve as his human subject. Displeased with the slowness of the results, she breaks into the scientist’s laboratory after hours and injects herself with extra doses of the formula, causing an unanticipated side effect, transforming her into an angry woman with the head and arms of a wasp resulting in quite a buzz,  aggressively killing all the men on the board of trustees of Starlin Enterprises, sacrificing everything for a youthful appearance. A perfect character study for aging actors and actresses obsessed with reversing the effects of time.

Corman’s last directorial achievement for American International Pictures was Gas-s-s-s (1971), also known by the title, It Became Necessary To Destroy The World In Order To Save It. A dark comedy of a post-apocalyptic gas leak at a military installation that kills everyone on Earth over the age of 25. Look closely for the performances of Ben Vereen, Cindy Williams, and a young Talia Shire.

The noted producer/ director was once quoted as saying, “I can make a film about the fall of the Roman Empire with two extras and a sagebrush,” also appeared in minor acting roles in such films as The Silence Of The Lambs, Apollo 13 and Philadelphia and was given the title, “King Of The Bs,” a reference to over 400 films he has been associated with. The bad news is that the Academy has opted not to present any of the honorary awards during the live telecast, but will give them at the governors award dinner on November 14th. The other honorary awards being bestowed are to actress Lauren Bacall and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

For a complete list of Roger Corman’s cinematic achievements follow the Idbm link

It was a clear sunny day, a cloudless sky with sunbathers lying on the beach reading the newspaper as the grains of sand reflected radiant light from the sun, a deity central to myth and legend. Then, eyeful of the sky a change was noticed as birds disappeared and sounds of the shore were silenced. A chill filled the air as instinct informed something was approaching. The tide moved out, then a rush of surging wind and finally above the horizon was a suffocating sight, a wall of water fifty stories high, moving towards the shore. There was nowhere to run as awe and disbelief paralyzed the moment of this disturbing vision.

The tsunami on December 26, 2004, began as an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia in the Indian Ocean creating a wave that killed 300,000. The height of the wave was within the range commonly caused by the movement of the continental plates. Similar waves can only be caused by a landslide of immense proportions or from an asteroid hitting Earth.

Off the coast of Africa, toward the west, on the Isle De La Palma - last in the chain of Canary Islands - is Cumbre Vieja, an active volcano. Scientists are concerned it is showing signs that a landslide is near although when it will occur is uncertain.  The displacement of water by such an event could generate a massive wave as high as 2 km, moving thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, hitting the East Coast of North America, Mexico and parts of Central and South America, destroying everything in its path and changing the face of the coastline.

“The Mega Tsunami” as it is known has not received much attention and the thought of a wave the size of a sky scraper is not something anyone is prepared to envision, let alone prepare for. Up until now, it’s been left to special effects artists, but the coming of 2012 when the Mayan calender ends, the predictions of Nostradamus and others describing natural disasters  - although expressed in cryptic language - are a cause for reflection. Many foretold catastrophe for this year. Add to this, prolonged drought, unusual flooding and documented melting of the ice caps to realize that perhaps the signs have arrived.

From an astrophysical perspective, on December 21, 2012 - the Winter solstice - the Sun will touch the Great Rift, the center of the galaxy, seen as a large black hole considered by the Mayans and other cultures as the cosmic womb, a symbol of transformation and rebirth, a place of immense spiritual energy. This is when the calender ends and a new cycle begins. The alignment of planets and energies influencing Earth’s crust will be unique, placing stress on the continental plates argue prognosticators and Vulcanologists but no one really knows what the effects these spacial events will have on the planet. Perhaps the impact will be physical as soothsayers portend or a subtle shift in consciousness. Only time will tell as 12/21/12 approaches and films depicting the end of the world increase as the sirens are sounded to take cover and move to higher ground, assuming there is a place to go to be safe where solace can be found. Otherwise, a final embrace from the cosmic womb and surrendering to the infinite pulse perceived as evolution can’t hurt.

Recommended reading: http://eclecticcommons.telldat.net/2009/09/13/when-science-fails/

In The Holy Grail Of The Unconsciousness, an article appearing in the the September 20th, 2009, New York Times’ Magazine section, Sara Corbett describes the fascinating and unknown history surrounding Liber Novus (L), the unpublished work of Carl Gustave Jung (1875-1961), the founder of Analytic Psychology. These are the handwritten pages of the thinker as he descended into what has been described as severe psychosis for six years.

The text is also known as The Red Book and was penned in German and ornately described as “pages of thick cream-colored parchment, filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils evoking images of medieval times.” Release date is October 7, 2009.

The drama surrounds the reticence of the Jung family, unsure for decades of what to do about publishing this unusual book, fearing it will adversely impact Jung’s legacy. Some who have read it claim it is intensely private and describes it as either the descent of Jung into the underworld of insanity or a transcendental diary of a man chronicling his search by defining his innermost soul.

Over the course of his life, Jung came to see the psyche as inherently spiritual. There is no doubt his thought was greatly influenced by Eastern mysticism, also adopted by The New Age Movement and Theosophy - the school of thought generated by H. B. Blavatsky who wrote Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. Reincarnation and karma have traditionally been fundamental to Eastern thought, often seen as “on the fringe” by the Western academic world, as was  Jung, especially considering mythology and paganism are also themes threaded throughout his work.

Early on, Jung was a disciple of Sigmund Freud but later wound up as his chief rival. Freud contended that the subconscious was a collection of repressed desires that could be interpreted, classified as pathological and treated in analysis. Jung had a much broader sense of analysis than did Freud, describing it more as a soul’s trans-formative experience then a form of treatment. His approach took him to the border of mystical philosophy and, some say, over the edge into divine madness.

The publication of his Red Book, kept under lock and key for decades by his children and grandchildren, may reveal new insights on the schism between the two foremost thinkers of the Twentieth Century. Some of his descendants have claimed that it’s too private, containing so many unsavory descriptions, part of what could be his dementia, while those from the mystical community might see it more as his unfolding soul’s search as he confronts his dark side. This may change how history views Carl Jung. In any event, it should be an interesting read.

For more information on C.G. Jung, visit this Amazon.com web page.

A slimy, pulsating blob, “the sewer monster”, has been found to exist beneath the streets of North Carolina. A colony of prehistoric creatures called Bryozoans eat using a set of brown tentacles.

A worm-like form, they live near ponds and lakes and were captured on film by a maintenance company doing a routine inspection of the sanitation sewer which is located beneath one of America’s oldest shopping centers.

“The Glob appeared larger on film,” asserted a spokeswoman from Malphrus Construction, the firm that shot the video.

Environmental inspector, Ed Buchan was reported by the Charlotte Observer to have said “it was a rare phenomenon, ” first thought to be extra-terrestrial in nature that also led to conspiracy theories about an alien invasion.

Authorities claim there is no plan to remove the blob since its not clogging the pipes.