Futurology is a branch of Eschatology, a discipline of study that examines the past in order to postulate probable futures using consensus views and the evolution of myths that underlie them. The debate is whether this discipline is philosophy, theology, science or mysticism.

Futures as its known by its practitioners is not prognostication, although it is often confused with foretelling the future by mystics who claim to have more then just five senses. Eschatologists use history to predict likelihoods by reconstructing the past and present to find systematic patterns that can explain trends much like forecasting the weather.

From a  scientific point of view we are taught that fate is nothing more than a convergence of probabilities that leads to one outcome; although there are infinite elements to consider at any given time to be sure of one particular result, accuracy is more about determining boundaries of possibilities then it is on being exact, and yet the assumption is that being “scientific” means completely testing every presumption before deciding whether its a fact or not.

Frequently, we have to make fast decisions based on preconceived notions and prejudices evoked from experience because things happen so fast in the real world that there is no time to process them or we’ll never get anything done. Does this mean that quick decisions based on gut instinct are unscientific?

If we view the future simply as the summation of all the steps it will take to get there, then the direction pursued to reach it is defined by some kind of horizon beyond which nothing can be seen, and the only reason to be concerned about what will happen in the future is because we are unhappy about the present and want to know that the future will be a happy one.

When The Avengers, issue #1, was first published in September 1963, a creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, it had a somewhat different cast then the movie version released on May 4, 2012. After the group’s classic battle cry, “Avengers Assemble,” an odd blend of Marvel’s most popular characters put aside their personal differences, but not without difficulty, to save Earth from global peril. In the comic book version they included Iron Man, Ant Man, Wasp, Thor, The Hulk and later, Captain America. Over time other members joined as some of the original members left.

Many of Marvels heroes had imperfections that tended to make them social outcasts, competitive and antagonistic towards each other and unable to combine their powers to unite as a group. Much of the 2012 film adaptation is spent on this same struggle, overcoming their ego’s to find common ground and save the planet. Picking Joss Whedon to write and direct the film was a brilliant choice as it brings him back to his creative roots.

Whedon is best known for his highly successful creation of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, another super hero trying to fit in and have a normal life as the chosen one with a destiny to rid the Hellmouth of demons. Buffy ran for seven seasons and became a cult classic. So Whedon brought a unique understanding of the misunderstood hero with a dark side trying to find a place in the world while carrying a burden. This is also one of the main themes of The Avengers movie, and it is reflected in a witty script with the right amount of humor and drama that is just as endearing as it was in the Buffy universe.

The Avengers movie is by far the most energetic of the Marvel films with outstanding special effects, but what makes it stand apart is that it is a fast moving action film with numerous character conflicts that make it more than just another summer blockbuster and proves that you can have both a high budget action film, ($220 million dollars), while bringing something new to the development of each character.

The ensemble cast includes some of the actors who already played their characters in a starring role in other films. Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America. Mark Ruffalo takes over as The Hulk, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D and finally Scarlett Johansson who plays Black Widow with Kung Fu moves that resonates with some of the moves that Buffy used.

As he did as the villain of The Avengers, issue #1, Loki, the north god of illusion and mischief,  tries to reign supreme on Earth by causing mayhem between the heroes and stealing The Tesserat ( a fouth dimension analog of a cube with unlimited power), using it as a bargaining chip to bring an alien race from outer space to conquer Earth. Loki, portrayed by Tom Hiddleston plays the role with relish and a devilish grin that brings to mind Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight. If he cant rule Asgard, then Earth will be his domain and humans will bow to him as the god he claims he is.

Once the ego’s of the Marvel heroes are put aside and saving the planet becomes the common goal, the action and special effects intensify with the alien attack directly over Stark Enterprises in Manhattan. The film is well acted as the ensemble cast first struggles to take the threat seriously. Iron Man plays it rogue up until the final battle begins. Dr. Banner is calm and tempered as he tries to control his transformation into The Hulk. Thor doesn’t seem particularly interested in working with mortals to defeat his half – brother, and Captain America is still trying to figure out his life in the twenty-first century after being frozen in suspended animation for sixty years.

What is so unusual is that rarely do we have a film with a complex combination of personality conflicts played out in the main characters with blockbuster action and special effects. This is largely due to Whedon who deserves much of the credit for the film’s success, as his ability to combine all of the elements in a solid script filled with just the right amount of humor makes it all work. The Avengers is highly recommended in 2D, 3D, or perhaps 4D when the technology becomes available.

For a complete list of characters and credits for choreography, score and special effects, click on the IMDb link. It has a running time of 2 hours and 22 minutes and is rated PG-13.

Why The Incredible Hulk is Green

Puerto Rico (”rich port“), with a current population of 4 million and comprising the main island and several smaller islands, has a complex and “rich” history. Very little is known about it prior to Columbus’s arrival, not surprising since the history of North America as taught by schools in the United States   began with “Columbus.”

The island has been known by several names before it was called Puerto Rico. When Columbus arrived on his second expedition to the New World in 1493, he named it San Juan Bautista in honor of John the Baptist. The Tainos called the island “Boriken (Boriquen)“. It’s unclear where its current name came from, but it was known as Puerto Rico soon after Ponce de Leon became its first governor in 1508.

According to Wikipedia, the first attempt to uncover Puerto Rico’s origins was described by Fray Inigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, three hundred years after the first Spaniards arrived. The first settlers are believed to have originated from the Oronico valley in South America who migrated through the Caribbean, inhabiting the Antilles from Trinidad and Tobago to Puerto Rico. Recent archaeological expeditions found evidence of their existence on the island of Vieques (1990), dating approximately to 2000 BC. Among the early tribes that were believed to descend from the Taino was the Arawak Indian Culture. They were the dominant society until the Spanish arrival in 1493.

The Spanish brought diseases which spread throughout the indigenous population, affecting the labor force, necessitating the Spanish to bring African Slaves for replacements to transform Puerto Rico into the entry port of the Caribbean on its way to South America, Mexico and parts of what is now the United States. Although the French, English and Dutch occupied the island at various times, they were not there long enough to affect the culture or language until the United States invaded Guanica in 1898 at the beginning of the Spanish American War. Subsequently, Spain was forced to secede Puerto Rico to the United States in the treaty of Paris (1898).

Under US occupation, in the early Twentieth century, Puerto Rico was treated as a conquered adversary, controlled by the American military with its governor as a political appointee of the US President. It wasn’t until 1917 when the Jones-Shafroth Act granted US citizenship to Puerto Ricans under “commonwealth status” that free elections established its ability to choose its cultural path. The first gubernatorial election was held in 1948, however full and equal voting representation in the US Congress afforded by statehood still eludes Puerto Rico.

Part of the problem Puerto Ricans faced under US occupation had been from the pharmacutical industry and other businesses which established a strong foothold on the island due to the tax breaks afforded by their commonwealth status. Vast areas of the island were “cultivated” for its natural resources and forests destroyed to build factories to support commercial interests of the mainland while doing little to enrich the economic life of the population other than provide low paying jobs. Puerto Rico also acutely suffered from the great depression and natural disasters such as hurricanes by losing jobs from those companies. Many migrated to the mainland, primarily New York City, where they and the second and third generation comprise a large percentage of the Latino population while maintaining ties with the island, and wanting a vote in the future status of the island. As time passes, fewer inhabitants remain that were born before citizenship and between 1898 and 1917. In many respects, it remains “a Third World country” with areas of poverty and high unemployment and less financial benefits afforded states or foreign countries receiving aid from the US government.

Over the years, Puerto Rico has been presented with three choices, independence, statehood or commonwealth, each time they have chosen commonwealth, however protectorates, territories or commonwealth status are fast disappearing in the Twenty-First century as more subtle economic and cultural imperialism increases by advancing technology. Puerto Rico will not be able to retain its current status indefinitely. They will be faced with choosing the future extent of its cultural uniqueness by relinquishing American citizenship with all the benefits and protections it provides in an increasingly uncertain world. The future for Puerto Rico will be either independence or statehood.

Puerto Rico con una población actual de 4 millones de habitantes, es la isla principal de varias islas más pequeñas, tiene una historia rica y compleja aunque se sabe muy poco sobre ella antes de la llegada de Cristobal Colón. No es sorprendente, ya que la historia de América del Norte, como se enseña en las escuelas en los Estados Unidos empezó con “Colón.”

La isla ha sido conocida con varios nombres antes de llamarse Puerto Rico. Cuando Colón llegó en su segunda expedición al Nuevo Mundo en 1493, el la  llamó San Juan Bautista en honor a Juan el Bautista. Los taínos de la isla la llamaron  ”Borikén (Borinquen)”, de ahi que los habitantes son llamados “Boricuas”  No está claro de donde proviene su nombre actual, pero se conoce como Puerto Rico poco después que Ponce de León se convirtió en su primer gobernador en 1508.

Según Wikipedia, el primer intento de descubrir los orígenes de Puerto Rico es descrito por Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra en 1786, trescientos años después que los primeros españoles arrivaron. Los primeros pobladores se cree llegaron desde el valle de Oronico en América del Sur que emigraron a través del Caribe, poblando las Antillas desde Trinidad y Tobago hasta Puerto Rico. Recientes expediciones arqueológicas encontraron pruebas de su existencia en la isla de Vieques (1990), que data aproximadamente de 2000 ac. Entre las primeras tribus que se cree que descienden de los Taínos era la cultura de los indios Arawak. Eran la sociedad dominante hasta  la llegada de los españoles en 1493.

Los españoles trajeron con ellos enfermedades que se propagaron por toda la población indígena afectando a la fuerza de trabajo, lo que obligo a los españoles traer esclavos africanos para reemplazar fuerza de trabajo y transformar a Puerto Rico en el puerto de entrada de el Caribe en su camino hacia América del Sur, México y partes de lo que que hoy es Estados Unidos. A pesar que las lenguas  Francés, Inglés y holandeses ocuparon la isla en varias ocasiones, no estuvieron el  tiempo suficiente para afectar  la cultura o la lengua sino hasta que Estados Unidos invadió Guánica en 1898 al comienzo de la Guerra de la América española. Posteriormente, España se vio obligada a ceder  Puerto Rico a los Estados Unidos en el tratado de París (1898).

Bajo la ocupación de EE.UU., en el siglo XX, Puerto Rico fue tratado como un adversario vencido, controlado por el ejército estadounidense, con un gobernador funcionario político nombrado por el Presidente de los EE.UU.. No fue sino hasta 1917 cuando la Ley Jones-Shafroth concedio US ciudadanía a los puertorriqueños bajo el tratado “estado libre asociado” en que  en elecciones libres se estableció su capacidad de elegir su camino cultural y su primera  elección de gobernador que tuvo lugar en 1948.  Sin embargo plena e igualitariamente la representación con voto en el Congreso de EE.UU., que ofrece la condición de Estado, todavía no llega a Puerto Rico.

Parte de los problemas que los puertorriqueños enfrentande bajo la ocupación de EE.UU. ha sido la de la industria farmacéutica y otras empresas que establecieron una fuerte presencia en la isla, debido a los beneficios fiscales que ofrece el Estado Libre Asociado. Vastas zonas (bosques) de la isla fueron destruidas para construir fábricas para apoyar los intereses comerciales de USA, mientras se hacia poco para enriquecer la vida económica de la población con trabajos mal pagados. Puerto Rico también sufrió agudamente la Gran Depresión y los desastres naturales como los huracanes, como las pérdida de puestos de trabajo de esas empresas. Muchos migraron hacia  USA principalmente la ciudad de Nueva York, donde ellos, la segunda y tercera generación representan un gran porcentaje de la población latina, manteniendo  lazos con la isla, y esperando un voto en el futuro estatus de la isla. Con  el tiempo, un menor número de habitantes recuerdan que nacieron antes de la ciudadanía entre 1898 y 1917. En muchos aspectos, sigue siendo “un país del Tercer Mundo”, con zonas de pobreza y con un porcentaje de desempleo elevado.

A lo largo de años, Puerto Rico se le han presentado tres opciones, la independencia, la condicion de estado o estado libre asociado, sin embargo, protectorados, territorios o estado libre asociado están desapareciendo rápidamente en el siglo XXI.  Puerto Rico no será capaz de mantener su estado actual por tiempo indefinido. Ellos se enfrentan a la elección en el futuro, de su singularidad cultural renunciando a la ciudadanía americana con todos los beneficios y protecciones que ofrece en un mundo cada vez más incierto. El futuro de Puerto Rico será la independencia o la estadidad.

translated by Davin Blu

The term, Egg of Columbus, perhaps began with Italian historian Girolamo Benzoni. In his document of the New World he wrote: Columbus was dining with many Spanish nobles when one of them said to him: ‘If your lordship had not discovered the Indies, there would have been, here in Spain, one who would have started a similar adventure with the same result.’

Columbus did not respond to these words but asked for a whole egg to be brought to him. He placed it on the table and said: ‘My lords, I will lay a wager with any of you that you are unable to make this egg stand on its end like I will do without any kind of help or aid.’ They all tried without success and when the egg returned to Columbus, he tapped it gently on the table breaking it slightly and, with this, the egg stood on its end.

All those present were confounded and understood what he meant: that once the feat has been done, anyone knows how to do it.

From Lifehacker.com

Time it seems is nothing more then the pattern of sequencing the brain uses to imprint events as memories so that distinctions between the past, present and future are easier to identify.

Duration, another way of referring to time includes everything between two arbitrary points defined as a pattern of continuity which marks infinitesimal amounts of passage added infinitely.

The present can best be thought of as the thought being thought of, at the moment it’s being thought, or the pause taken when traveling from what was, into what is and what it will be some time in the future. The word itself has little meaning since the universe is dynamic and in constant movement, so that the distinction between the past and future can perhaps best be visualized as a point advancing along an imaginary line.

A photograph can capture the present, but only a small part of what is occurring at the moment it was taken, now a part of the past. A series of older, submerged images can evoke patterns of thought associated with memories as they progress from the past into the future, but it often takes a conscious effort to make sense of their continuity.

Whatever exists now is part of a larger evolution of what will become the future, moving without the sensation of motion unless it is measured by boundaries extrapolated from cycles of  planetary movement and cosmic patterns, such a year, day, an hour, a minute, or a second. In other words, time is that construct that is created to bring sequential order from chaos as we move from one dimension into the next.

New years Eve is a milestone to celebrate in 2011. So much has happened this year, all those roller coaster ups and downs this past 365 and 1/4 days: earthquakes, tsunami’s, volcanic activity and changing weather patterns to political and financial upheaval and the loss of Jobs and Taylor. They are now footnotes of history, recorded and thought of as landmarks, as Earth rotates on its tilted axis wobbling around the sun.

Some say the final day of December is unnecessary, although they acknowledge that December Thirty-First is the last twenty-four hour period defined by the vertical line (The International Date Line), intersecting the Pacific Ocean as it moves to the east, thus completing one rotation of Earth as it revolves around the sun; they also claim that the instant the planet reaches the line is where the new cycle begins for Earth, dismissing the need for a Thirty-First day of December as an illusion. The International Date Line, they argue was an arbitrary concept created by scientists, mathematicians, politicians and religious leaders of the time to define the orderly transition of Earth’s spin, towards the east.

Nevertheless, this is a remarkable achievement since it took everyone, everywhere to agree for the system to work. Perhaps there is hope that there is something else on which they can all agree.

A year is not a long time to wait to find out what will happen, if anything, on December 21, 2012. The Mayans calculated it as the end of the cycle we are now in and the beginning of another. From their experiences natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanic activity surrounded the passage from one cycle to the next, and all of them they noticed, tended to be on a cataclysmic level. There was no reason for the Mayans not to think that this cycle would be any different.

Some fatalists point to metaphysical texts such as those from Nostradamus and others throughout history, usually scripted in archaic language and open to interpretation, about this date. Their range of credibility is wide, and conventional thinkers discount coincidences as any more predictable than seeing chaos within order, or visa versa.

Many scientists point to convincing evidence which does support the claim that the climate change now occurring is from human manipulation of the environment. The disagreement is about how close we have come to the point of no return, and what needs to be done to restore the balance, resulting in essentially no action.

Some within occult circles see this change as a tangible point in the evolution of consciousness. They claim a spiritual alteration will occur, and its effects might not be immediately perceived. How this will manifest is still left uncertain.

Perhaps this will be the day extra-terristrials will make contact with Earth, possibly to offer their help in solving our environmental problems. Will we accept it? or will it lead to suspicion and mistrust?

We only have to look back and recall , “To Serve Man,” a third season episode (#89) of The Twilight Zone, based on a short story of the same name by Damon Knight. It was first published in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. The story was adapted by Rod Serling for television and directed by Richard L. Bare. It was the episode that everyone was talking about the next day.

The story told in 25 minutes is narrated in flashbacks by Michael Chambers, a linguist who is now on a space craft on its way to an alien planet. The Kanamits, a race of nine foot tall aliens came to Earth, a year earlier. Speaking telepathically to the United Nations, they offered their technology to help us solve our environmental and social problems, during the height of the cold war. The outline of their offer is presented as a book entitled, “To Serve man”, and given to the world freely. The initial reaction is skepticism and suspicion. Soon, by ending famine, showing us how to achieve energy efficiency cheaply and by  curing all sorts of diseases, the Kanamits  earned humanities’ trust. In less than a year an exchange program had begun, transporting humans to the Kanamits home planet.

As he is boarding the steps of the spacecraft, Chamber’s assistant who is helping him translate the text, runs up to gate and yells, “To Serve Man, its a cookbook.” But its too late for Michael Chambers who is being fattened up for the menu.

A year is not a long time to wait to find out what will actually happen, if anything, on December 21, 2012. But the countdown has begun and all eyes will be focused on unusual events that may occur in the coming year leading up to December 21, 2012, including first contact with alien life.