Friday, December 01, 2006

Lost Tsunami Lost Atlantis

Could this have been the origin of the Atlantis mythos/meme?

Scientists: Towering Tsunami Hit Mediterranean 8,000 Years Ago
Italian scientists say geological evidence suggests a giant tsunami resulted from the collapse of the eastern flanks of Mount Etna nearly 8,000 years ago.

The collapse of the volcano, located on Italy's island of Sicily, was studied by Maria Teresa Pareschi and colleagues at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. They modeled the collapse and discovered the volume of landslide material, combined with the force of the debris avalanche, would have generated a catastrophic tsunami, impacting the entire Eastern Mediterranean.

Simulations show the resulting tsunami waves would have destabilized soft marine sediments across the floor of the Ionian Sea.

The study -- entitled "The Lost Tsunami" -- appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

A new computer simulation of the ancient event reveals for the first time the enormity of the catastrophe and its far-reaching effects

[video].

The Mt. Etna avalanche sent 6 cubic miles of rock and sediment tumbling into the water—enough material to cover the entire island of Manhattan in a layer of debris thicker than the Empire State Building is tall.

According to Pareschi, if the same tsunami struck today, Southern Italy would be inundated within the first 15 minutes [image]. In one hour, the waves would reach Greece's western coasts. After an hour and a half, the city of Benghazi in Northern Africa would be hit. At the three and a half hour mark, the waves would have traversed the entire Mediterranean to reach the coasts of Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

The researchers have also linked the ancient tsunami with the mysterious abandonment of Atlit-Yam, a Neolithic village located along the coast of present-day Israel. When archeologists discovered the village about 20 years ago, they found evidence of a sudden evacuation, including a pile of fish that had been gutted and sorted but then left to rot.


Lost Civilisations

The implication of the historicist argument is that two highly advanced civilisations – Atlantis and Athens respectively – existed c. 9600 BC. And yet, according to archaeologists, civilisation began much more recently, c. 4000 BC (in the lands of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia). How, then, could the two fantastic civilisations described by Plato have existed more than five thousand years earlier, during what archaeologists call ‘the neolithic period’? The idea is controversial, to say the least.



Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found

Monday, 15 August 2005,

A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered.

Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water.

The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago.

Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology.

Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami.


See

Tsunami

Velikovsky

Catastrophism




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Today In History

Sagittarius (12/1/1954)

It's my birthday. Turns out I am a horse in both western and Chinese astrology.

Sagittarius
November 22 - December 21
Sagittarius, the ninth Sign of the Zodiac, is the home of the wanderers of the Zodiac. It's not a mindless ramble for these folks, either. Sagittarians are truth-seekers, and the best way for them to do this is to hit the road, talk to others and get some answers. Knowledge is key to these folks, since it fuels their broad-minded approach to life. The Sagittarian-born are keenly interested in philosophy and religion, and they find that these disciplines aid their internal quest. At the end of the day, what Sagittarians want most is to know the meaning of life, and if they accomplish this while feeling free and easy, all the better.

It's the Archer which represents Sagittarians, although in this case it's a Centaur (half man, half beast) which is flinging the arrows. Centaurs were the intellectuals of ancient Roman mythology, and Sagittarians are quick to consider themselves their modern-day counterparts. Those born under this Sign are clear thinkers and choose to look at the big picture most of the time. They also like it when others agree with their well-thought-out point of view. The alternative to this, for better or for worse, is a Sag who can become argumentative and blunt. That's not to say that these folks are intransigent -- Archers will listen to what others have to say, in keeping with the Mutable Quality assigned to this Sign. Indeed, Sagittarians are enthusiastic consumers of information (and enthusiastic in general), the better to get the answers they need. It's also a good idea to give Sags lots of room to explore their world. Once these folks start to feel hemmed in, they'll become impatient and difficult.


I've always been attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos—especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom—external revolt is a way to bring about internal freedom. Rather than starting inside, I start outside—reach the mental through the physical. I am a Sagittarian—the most philosophical of the signs-if astrology has anything to do with it—the Centaur—the Archer—the Hunt—
Jim Morrison


Sagittarii (also equites sagittarii) were horse riding auxiliary archers recruited mainly in the Eastern Empire and Africa.

By the 5th century, there were numerous Roman cavalry regiments trained to use the bow as a supplement to their swords and lances, but the sagittarii appeared to have used the bow as their primary rather than supplemental weapon. The Notitia Dignitatum does not list any sagittarii as being stationed in the Gallic provinces; the ones in the Western empire seem to have been concentrated in Africa. Possibly some of the other cavalry regiments there carried bows as back-up weapons, but were not the dedicated mounted archers that the sagitarii were. The use of bows as a primary weapon probably originated in the East in the later 4th century to help the Roman Army counter Persian bow-armed cavalry.


Sagittarius

Interactive, wide area map of Sagittarius

Map thumbnail

Tochtli (rabbit)

Daysign Tochtli


The protector of day Tochtli (Rabbit) is Mayahuel, goddess of the Maguey and of Fertility, a pulque goddess. Tochtli is a day of self-sacrifice and service to something greater than oneself. It signifies the religious attitude which holds everything sacred and results in experiences of self-transcendence. It is a mystical day, associated by the passages of the moon. It is a good day for communing with nature and spirit, a bad day for acting against others. Aztec Calendar

News archive results for Dec 1 1954
1954 » Lieber v. Sherman,Lieber v. Sherman, 274 P.2d 816 - Subscription - Supreme Court of Colorado, en ...
1954 » Warring Trial Set for Dec. 1 - Pay-Per-View - Washington Post
1954 » RKO Radio Pictures v. Department of Ed., Division of ... - Subscription - Supreme Court of Ohio

December 1, 1954
RCA began commercial production of color TV sets with a new 21-inch picture tube.

(This was the model 21CT55 receiver, a 21-inch version of the CT-100 circuit. By summer of 1955, two new models, a console and a table model, were started in production. The new sets employed the CTC4 chassis, the first to use printed circuits. The chassis was also used in receiver cabinets sold in 1955-6 by Magnavox and Hallicrafters.)


History of US Government Furnished Headstones and Markers

The above directive was superseded and reissued on Dec. 1, 1954, to provide for inclusion of the word "Korea" on government headstones and markers for the graves of those members and former members of the United States armed forces who served within the areas of military operations in the Korean Theater between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954.

Dec. 6, 1954



World Aids Day

Each year on 1 December, the global community participates in World AIDS Day and focuses on one of mankind's greatest historical challenges, the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. An estimated 38.6 million people worldwide lived with AIDS in 2005. Of these, 2.3 million were children. Last year, an estimated 4.1 million people became newly infected with HIV and 2.8 million lost their lives to AIDS (UNAIDS, 2006).


Grey Cup History

Most Points by a team in a single game
54 Queen's University vs. Regina, Dec. 1, 1923


Most touchdowns by one team in one game
9 Queen's University vs. Regina., Dec. 1, 1923

Most converts by one team in one game
7 Queen's University vs. Regina, Dec. 1, 1923



Obituary; Dec 1, 1947 - The Wickedest Man in the World.

Aleister Crowley, English occultist (b. 1875) dies.

"I am one hell of a holy guru"


The Original John Bull Article on Crowley








Dec. 1, 1953: Hugh Hefner launches Playboy magazine

"I never intended to be a revolutionary. My intention was to create a mainstream men's magazine that included sex in it. That turned out to be a very revolutionary idea."









December 1, 1957 in History
Event:
Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly and Crickets debut on Ed Sullivan Show

This is a chronological listing of the top 100 Hard Bop albums of all time.

89
Roy HargroveDiamond In The RoughDec. 1, 1989Novus



Dec, 1st

659: Death of St. Eloi
1083: Princess Anna Commena of Byzantium born
1135: Death of Henry I, King of England
1170: Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, returns to England from exile
1372: Geoffrey Chaucer left England for Rome on a Royal mission
1590: Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene" is registered for publication
1615: The first Bach or at least, the first musical Bach we know died. Hans Bach is considered the patriarch of a family that produced so many musicians over so many generations (The Bach came much later) that in those days the family name was actually used as a synonym for musician.
1640: Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule
1741: Samuel Kirkland Congregational minister to the Indians of the Six Nations (the Iroquois League) and negotiator of the Oneida Alliance with the colonists during the U.S. War of Independence born
1742: Empress Elisabeth orders expulsion of all Jews from Russia.
1743: Martin Heinrich Klaproth German chemist who discovered uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803). born
1824: The presidential election was turned over to the US House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)
1861: The U.S. gunboat Penguin seizes the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying supplies worth almost $100,000.
1862: President Lincoln gives the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress.
1878: The first telephone is installed in the White House.
1879: Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, "H.M.S. Pinafore" opened this day. Arthur Sullivan conducted the orchestra while William Gilbert played the role of a sailor in the chorus and in the Queen's Nay-vee.
1881: Virgil, Wyatt and Morgan Earp are exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
1886: Detective novelist Rex Stout (mystery writer born
1887: Sherlock Holmes 1st appears in print
1898: Actor Cyril Ritchard born
1899: Robert Welch founder of John Birch Society. born
1904: Former United Mine Workers president W.A. "Tony" Boyle born
1909: The Pennsylvania Trust Company, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania became the first bank in the nation to offer a Christmas Club account. It encouraged customers to set aside money for holiday.
1911: Baseball manager Walter Alston (LA Dodgers) born
1911: Baseball owner Calvin Griffith (Senators, Twins) born
1912: Baseball player Cookie (Harry) Lavagetto born
1913: Actress Mary Martin (South Pacific, Peter Pan) born
1913: The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh.
1913: Continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford (a new
1917: Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska.
1923: Former CIA director Stansfield Turner born
1924: The play, "Lady Be Good" opened in New York City. George Gershwin wrote the music while Fred and Adele Astaire were well-received by the show's audience for their dancing talents.
1926: Actor Robert Symond born
1929: Actor Dick (Schulefand) Shawn (Bewitched) born
1929: BINGO invented by Edwin S Lowe.
1934: Singer Billy Paul (Me and Mrs. Jones) born
1934: Josef Stalin aide, Sergei Kirov, is assassinated in Leningrad.
1935: Comedian-film maker (Allen Konigsberg) Woody Allen born
1935: Soul singer Lou Rawls (You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine) born
1939: PGA golfer Lee Trevino (US Open 1968,71). born
1939: Singer Dianne Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) born
1940: Comedian-actor Richard Pryor (Stir Crazy, Blue Collar, The Richard Pryor Show) born
1942: Country musician Casey Van Beek (The Tractors) born
1942: Nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States.
1943: Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) some sources 1945 born
1943: Ending a "Big Three" meeting in Tehran, President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian Premier Josef Stalin pledged a concerted effort to defeat Nazi Germany.
1945: Actress-singer Bette Midler (The Rose, From a Distance, Beaches) born
1945: Burl Ives made his concert debut this night. He appeared at New York's Town Hall.
1946: Singer Gilbert O'Sullivan (Alone Again Naturally). born
1948: Baseball player George Foster born
1950: British composer, EJ Moeran, died. He drowned at the age of 50.
1951: Actor Treat Williams born
1953: Walter Alston was named manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers on this, his 42nd birthday. He became the dean of baseball managers before retiring in 1976.
1955: Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defied the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man aboard a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. Mrs. Parks was arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.
1956: Country singer Kim Richey. born
1958: The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song" opened on Broadway.
1959: Actress Charlene Tilton (Dallas) born
1959: Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
1960: Actress-model Carol Alt born
1965: An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
1968: "Promises, Promises" opened on Broadway. The play ran for 1,281 performances; earning $35,000 in profits each week of 1969. Dionne Warwick had a hit version of the title song.
1969: The US government held its first draft lottery since World War Two.
1971: John Lennon's ``Happy Christmas'' was released.
1972: Actor Ron Melendez born
1973: David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, died in Tel Aviv at age 87.
1973: 'The Golden Bear', Jack Nicklaus, won the Walt Disney World Open Golf Tournament and became the first golfer to win $2 million in career earnings.
1975: Gospel singer Sarah Masen born
1975: On her 30th birthday, Bette Midler had an emergency appendectomy.
1980: George Rogers, of the University of South Carolina, was named the Heisman Trophy winner. He went on to achieve great success for the Washington Redskins.
1981: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpassed Oscar Robertson as pro basketball's second all-time leading scorer (second only to Wilt Chamberlain). Kareem got to the total of 26,712 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 117-86. Chamberlain's record fell in 1984, when Kareem's scores reached 31,259. Kareem wound up his career in 1989 with 38,387 points.
1986: President Ronald Reagan said he would welcome the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Iran-Contra affair, if such a move were recommended by the Justice Department.
1986: Lt. Col. Oliver North pleads the fifth amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran Contra arms sale.
1986: On this day, the world's most expensive hotel suite (to that date) was offered to visitors at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The eight-room accommodations included four fireplaces, three bedrooms and a library with secret passage. All this, and much more, for a mere $20,000 a night.
1987: NASA announced that four companies -- Boeing Aerospace, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, General Electric's Astro-Space Division and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International -- had been awarded contracts to help build a space station.
1988: Actress Ashley Monique Clark ("The Hughleys") born
1988: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev won nearly unanimous approval for a more dynamic political structure from the Supreme Soviet, which voted itself out of existence in favor of a new Congress of People's Deputies.
1988: Carlos Salinas de Gortari was sworn in as president of Mexico.
1989: A historic meeting took place between Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev and Pope John Paul the Second. They met at the Vatican and announced agreement to establish diplomatic ties. Gorbachev renounced more than 70 years of oppression of religion in the Soviet Union.
1989: Dissident elements in the Philippine military launched an unsuccessful coup against Corazon Aquino's government.
1989: East Germany's Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of supremacy.
1990: British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel.
1990: Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
1991: Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991: Kidnappers in Lebanon pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
1991: The space shuttle Atlantis safely returned from a shortened military mission.
1992: President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.
1992: Mineola, New York, Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
1992: The Senate Ethics Committee started an investigation into allegations that Oregon Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed women who worked for him. He denied it, but a large number of women came forward with similar stories, and ultimately he resigned from the Senate.
1993: Eighteen people were killed when a Northwest Airlink commuter plane crashed in Minnesota.
1993: Crystal Records issued a new recording of Barber's "Summer Music" for winds, performed by the Westwood Wind Quartet. Barber's "Summer Music" is one of the composer's most inventive pieces but isn't very well known to classical fans.
1994: Former TV evangelist Jim Bakker spent his first full day of freedom after time in prison, a halfway house and house arrest for bilking followers of his PTL ministry.
1994: Rapper Tupac Shakur was convicted in the November of 1993 sexual assault of a woman at his New York City hotel suite.
1994: The Senate gave final congressional approval to a world trade agreement, passing the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 76-24.
1995: The NATO alliance chose Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana to be its new secretary general.
1995: Tens of thousands of people in Dublin, Ireland, warmly welcomed President Clinton to his ancestral homeland.
1996: The Arab League held an emergency meeting in Cairo, after which it warned Israel that peace efforts would be endangered if Israel insisted on expanding Jewish settlements.
1997: A 14-year-old youth opened fire on a prayer circle at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three fellow students and wounding five; Michael Carneal later pleaded guilty but mentally ill, and is to be sentenced December 1998.
1997: An international conference on reducing greenhouse gases opened in Kyoto, Japan.
1998: Exxon agreed to buy Mobil for $73.7 billion. Cuba's Communist Party recommended that December 25th be re-established as a permanent holiday.
1999: President Clinton addressed a World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, where he defended his administration's policies in the face of sometimes violent street demonstrations.
1999: An international team of scientists announced it had mapped virtually an entire human chromosome.
1999: On World AIDS Days, United Nations officials released a report estimating that 11 million children worldwide had been orphaned by the pandemic.




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