Down Time - Stray_Dog_blog

Sorry about the down time folks. Minds been in other places. But seems that the planets have now aligned ( or maybe Wayne Batteau's Cetacea ultrasound machines have finally laid off my sensitive brain waves. Hah.) I have been archiving good material this whole time, even if i haven't gotten around to posting it. Be sure, the new stuff i have will get you digging for months. I have at least 100 new post just waiting to be churned out now that i have my focus back.

Peace all, Stray Dog

TDG - The Best of This Week

The best links and stories from TDG (The Daily Grail) in the past week.

BBC was half an hour too early reporting WTC7 collapse. More here. BBC responds. Further analysis.

A look inside an ancient computer: the Antikythera Mechanism.

Huge underground ocean found beneath Asia.

Joe Rogan talks about his DMT experiences (psychedelic video - which begins loading when you click - with audio overlay, which includes an abundance of expletives). Transcript and MP3.

Stonehenge Builders' Houses Found

A huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge has been found, archaeologists have said. BBC NEWS

"Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument(Stonehenge), uncovered remains of ancient houses. In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain. The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC - according to the researchers, the same period that Stonehenge was built. "In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards," he explained. "Source and Full Article - BBC NEWS

Boston's Scared of 8-Bit Finger Flippers

A marketing campaign for Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie went awry Wednesday in Boston when several of Cartoon Network's blinking signs were mistaken for bombs causing a terror alert throughout the city that included blowing up at least one of the lights by the city's bomb squad. Check out what caused all the stir here.

The charges were (see finally) dropped against the marketeers putting up the signs, but apparently Turner Broadcasting (who paid them) will be fined for the publicity stunt. More info - ATHF Wikipedia entry

Seriously America, are you that afraid?

God and Gorillas

Anthropologist Barbara J. King explains what our distant cousins can tell us about religion and why it's OK for scientists to believe in God.

"Every human culture has believed in spirits, gods or some other divine being. That's why human beings have often been called Homo religioso. Some people take this long history of belief in the otherworldly as evidence for God; doesn't it explain why religion continues to be so pervasive? But many scientists are coming up with their own, decidedly secular, theories about the origins of faith. Take Daniel Dennett, the philosopher who has proposed that religion is a meme -- an idea that evolved like a virus -- that infected our ancestors and continued to spread throughout cultures. By contrast, anthropologist Pascal Boyer argues that religious belief is a quirky byproduct of a brain that evolved to detect predators and other survival needs."

"Of course, these thinkers are either religious skeptics or outright atheists who mean to imply that we've been duped by evolution to believe in supernatural beings when none, in fact, exist. That's what makes Barbara J. King, an anthropologist at the College of William and Mary, so unique. She has no desire to undermine religion. In fact, she's been deeply influenced by the religious writers Karen Armstrong and Martin Buber. But her main insights about the origins of religion come not from researching humans' deep history, but from observing very much alive non-human primates. "

"For the last two decades, King has studied ape and monkey behavior in Gabon and Kenya, and at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. In her new book, "Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion," King argues that religion is rooted in our social and emotional connections with each other. What's more, we can trace back the origins of our religious impulse not just to early cave paintings and burial sites 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, but much earlier -- back to our ancient ancestors millions of years ago. And today, King says, we can see the foundations of religious behavior in chimpanzees and gorillas; watching our distant cousins can do much to explain the foundations of our own beliefs."

The entire interview of a very provocative concept from Kingcan at Salon.
Source-Quotes from the same article.

Blogs blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran and China!

A big screw that from Stray Dog! Fellow bloggers, readers from Myspace, please add people from India, Pakistan, Iran and China. Tell them all they can still speak freely on the internet! Direct this link provided bellow to them all. Freethinkers unite, ideas never die, let us all speak loudly from our keyboards from sea to shining sea!
Godspeed!

Link and Banner that will allow people to shove it to their respective goverments - Pkblogs

James Brown - Rest in Peace

"Brown was admitted to the Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on December 24, 2006 after a dentist visit where he was found to have severe pneumonia.[6] Brown died the next day on December 25, 2006, around 1:45 a.m. (06:45 UTC)" Source : Wiki
James Brown- Sex Machine / Soul Power

Reindeer Hot Dogs Served For Holiday Season

"Just in time for Christmas, they're selling reindeer hot dogs in suburban Chicago. With grilled onions and mustard, it will cost you $8 at Fred Markoff's hot dog stand in Glenview.The reindeer dogs are made in Alaska and actually contain a bit of beef and pork, because reindeer meat is so lean and dry." Source : CNN

Komodo dragon gives virgin birth in the UK

"Scientists report of two cases where female Komodo dragons have produced offspring without male contact. Tests revealed their eggs had developed without being fertilised by sperm - a process called parthenogenesis, the team wrote in the journal Nature. Flora, who has never been kept with a male Komodo dragon, produced 11 eggs earlier this year. Three died off, providing the material needed for genetic tests. These revealed the offspring were not exact genetic copies (clones) of their mother, but their genetic make-up was derived just from her."

Source and Complete Story : BBC NEWS Science & Nature

Iraq Study Group Report : Download PDF Link

Other then the key excerpts given here, the report suggest removing troops completely by the first quarter of 2008, as opposed to Bush's open ended policy. It also points out that our military is seriously lacking Arabic translators. I personally can think of seven translators who specialized in Arabic that have been discharged between 1998 and 2003 because they were gay and one the military has admited to since the Iraq war began. When are we going to get our act togather people, seriously? That's our white house, they work for us, we're 'the deciders'. It's about time we acted like it.

You can download the entire "Iraq Study Group Report" from the United States Institute of Peace's website in PDF form. - Download the report

"The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved."

"If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences could be severe. A slide toward chaos could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government and a humanitarian catastrophe. Neighboring countries could intervene. Sunni-Shia clashes could spread. Al-Qaida could win a propaganda victory and expand its base of operations. The global standing of the United States could be diminished. Americans could become more polarized."

Active Hate Groups in Texas

The recent coverage of the Michael Richards rant brought to light, at least in the media, that racism is still a factor that our nation has to deal with. Not only that, but here recently at a local bar me and some buddies hanging out had to deal with a drunk-ass who was also spilling forth racist verbs left and right. But a war with words isn't the only problem when dealing with race, there are still to this day 43 active Hate Groups in Texas. As many as 3 in Dallas, 3 in Forth Worth and 1 in Richardson, this strikes close to home. Now i know this blog, which is mostly lighthearted and leans on hummor and art, the salt of the earth, isn't going to change that, but i do believe in promoting awareness. Sample chart bellow.

Source : Southern Poverty Law Center - Check Your State


Key

Black Separatist
Christian Identity
Ku Klux Klan
Neo-Confederate
Neo-Nazi
Other
Racist Skinhead