A SNOW BRIG

Stories like this fascinate me. If only the ship could speak. What other deep water finds are yet to be found. I did a web search and could not find an update about any recovery of the ship and the artifacts starting. There may be a short story or a poem in this for some of 360's talented writers. Enjoy the read. John The Mystery Snow Brig Some years have now past since this unique and mysterious find, and no investigation is planned. If nothing is done soon, this ship may well be wiped out by one of the many trawler fishers of the Baltic Sea.
In early 2002, the Swedish Navy submarine rescue ship HMS Belos was on a routine exercise* in the middle of the Baltic Sea, when the side scan sonar caught a strange-looking wreck. The on-board ROV Sjöugglan – Swedish for sea owl – was sent down 100 metres to the bottom. Despite bad visibility near the bottom, the crew got a spectacular sight on their TV monitors – an old ship standing upright with its two masts standing and bowsprit, perfectly intact. The reason for sinking is a mystery, since both hull and rigging are intact. Snow brig The ship is 26 m long and the masts rise about 20 m, with perfectly-preserved tops (platforms) about halfway. The rigging is clearly a brig, with yard sails on both masts and a gaff sail behind the rear mast. It is specifically a snow brig (Swedish: snaubrigg), since there is a separate minor mast for the gaff sail, just behind the rear mast. The snow brig was a common rigging for minor ships during the entire 18th century. One of the earliest snow brigs was “Mjöhunden”, built for the Swedish Navy by Charles Sheldon in 1698 and sunk in battle off Arkangelsk in 1701. Mjöhunden was 21 m long and carried six 3-pound guns. Later on, in the 19th century, the snow brig was gradually replaced by the regular brig, where the gaff sail is attached directly to the rear mast. Golden seahorse The figurehead on the wreck is a fantastic gilded horse with (human) hands clasped under its belly and a fish tail. The gunwales (shipsides) have deck-level gunports and at least one gunport seems to have been decorated. But there are no guns to be seen. Several planks and possible decorations of the sterncastle have fallen off, perhaps because they were attached with (now rusted) nails, while other planks are attached with wooden pegs. The ship seems to be a minor naval or postal ship, or maybe a private or Royal yacht. Skulls from at least two crewmen lie on the deck, which is unusual, since casualties usually float away during sinking. Perhaps those men were trapped. Why? Why did it sink? Ships that sink in storms usually lose parts of the rigging and suffer general damage. But this ship is in mint condition. Perhaps she had all sails set and was caught by a sudden wind, like the Hamilton and Scourge. Perhaps she suddenly started leaking. On the video, one of the skulls on the deck seems like it might have an axe buried in it. Strange. Could the ship have been taken by pirates or mutineers and then sunk to remove all trace? But there were hardly any pirates in the Baltic Sea in the18th century. Perhaps it was pirates, and they were unknown until now, since no witnesses were left alive... Identity? Questions, questions, questions... The identity and reason for sinking is still a mystery. Archival search may tell us more. But perhaps only a site investigation will tell for sure. Meanwhile, having seen the video, here are some notes: The ship and rigging look roughly similar to some of the 1768 Chapman plates (link below). The stern part of the hull and of course the rigging look similar to the model of snow brig Gustaf Adolf, built in 1783-85. The model is at the National Maritime Museum. However, the bow and bowsprit of this ship look roughly a century older. It is similar to the Nonsuch from 1650. So one guess would be dating this wreck to first half of 18th century. Since the ship so far has not been identified as a known Swedish ship, perhaps it's Russian, or some other nationality. Archival search may tell. Where are the guns? Was this a new-built ship not fully fitted? Funding & action needed The position is kept secret by the Swedish Navy, to prevent looting by treasure hunters. The idea is that an official investigation will be performed. But when? And who will pay? Presently neither the National Maritime Museum nor the Swedish Navy has the money for an investigation. If you have ideas on how to contribute to or finance an investigation, please feel free to contact the museum. Perhaps it's time for a national fundraising program, just like it was 40 years ago, when private donors and sponsors helped pay the Vasa project. Or perhaps this investigation can be co-produced with e.g. National Geographic. The possible investigation Archaeologist Bert Westenberg at the National Maritime Museum is presently (January 2004) hoping to find an outside partner that can provide resources for an investigation. According to Mr Westenberg, an investigation would primarily aim at dating and identifying the ship, by video documenting, by bringing up some loose objects, as well as sample wood for dendro dating. The HMS Belos would be rented from the Swedish Navy for the operation (they don't do it for free), and would have these resources: The ROV Sjöugglan, remote-controlled from surface. "Mantis", a mini submarine operated by one man using robot arms to grab surrounding objects. If needed, trimix divers can be assigned. Mr Westenberg, if you had the resources now, when would an investigation start? – If we started planning now, we could expect to be on-site during the spring of 2005, says Bert Westenberg. Mr Westenberg's museum is fighting a battle against time. Two years have passed, and if nothing is done soon, this ship may be wiped out by one of the many trawler fishers of the Baltic Sea. Per Åkesson April 2002, revised Jan 2004		present state of the wreck guilded figurehead horse from the video, courtesy Swedish Navy figurehead from the video, courtesy Swedish Navy, note the horse's fingers, clasped under its belly bow section interpretation with figurehead original ship interpretation, the Swedish flags are pure speculation, the ship could just as well be Russian or Danish crosstrees on fore topmast, from the video, courtesy Swedish Navy top on forward mast, from the video, courtesy Swedish Navy

PREHISTORIC LOVE

Love is blind.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Two old sayings, and very true, and probably as old as humanity. What would our ancestors have said when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnans crossed paths. "Owowoh Baby, I love your protruding brow ridges." "Wooo fella, your flat face just makes me want to jump up and down!" Evidently some couple got the hots for each other around 30,000 years ago. Food for thought. Enjoy the read.

*****

Chance and isolation gave humans elegant skulls

• 24 July 2007
• NewScientist.com news service

Only chance kept us from looking like our crag-browed Neanderthal cousins. A statistical analysis suggests that the skull differences between the two species stems not from positive natural selection but from genetic drift, in which physical features change randomly, without an environmental driving force.

Some anthropologists had put the cranial differences down to natural selection arising from Neanderthals' use of their teeth as tools, for instance, or from modern humans' speech. To test if genetic drift could have been responsible instead, Timothy Weaver of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues compared 37 measurements of the skulls of various modern human populations with those of Neanderthals. After a comparison of the mean divergence between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals and the mean divergence among groups of modern humans, they conclude that genetic drift is responsible (Journal of Human Evolution, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.03.001).

The development of culture weakened the influence of the environment upon both Neanderthals and modern humans, says Weaver. But ultimately the two species drifted apart genetically when they became isolated from each other.

From issue 2613 of New Scientist magazine, 24 July 2007, page 19

Neanderthal Reconstruction

*********

Cro-Magnon Man Reconstruction

Neandertal-Cro-Magnon Hybrid?	April 29, 1999
by Spencer P.M. Harrington

Analysis of the skeletal remains of this four-year-old boy has revealed that he may be a Neandertal-Cro-Magnon hybrid. (Courtesy João Zilhão) [LARGER IMAGE]

Analysis of the skeletal remains of a four-year-old child buried in a Portuguese rock-shelter 25,000 to 24,500 years ago has yielded startling evidence that early modern humans and Neandertals may have interbred. While the boy's prominent chin, tooth size, and pelvic measurements marked him as a Cro-Magnon, or fully modern human, his stocky body and short legs indicate Neandertal heritage, says Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Interbreeding could answer the vexed question of the fate of the Neandertals, the last of whom disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula 28,000 years ago.

NeanderthalCro-Magnon

Trinkaus was summoned to Portugal after archaeologists searching for rock art in the Lapedo Valley, 85 miles north of Lisbon, found the burial this past December. João Zilhão of the University of Lisbon, the excavation's director, described the skeleton's preservation as "miraculous"--only the skull and right arm were badly broken. The boy is the first Palaeolithic burial ever excavated on the Iberian Peninsula, and among the oldest modern humans ever scientifically excavated.

Trinkaus, who compared the boy's limb proportions with those of Neandertal skeletons, including some children, says that the body is the first definite evidence of a mixture between Neandertal and early humans. While full Neandertals are thought to have been extinct for 4,000 years before the boy was born, he appears to be a descendant of generations of Neandertal-Cro-Magnon hybrids. Neandertals belong to our species and contributed their genes to European ancestry, he says.

© 1999 by the Archaeological Institute of America www.archaeology.org/online/news/neanderkid.html

PICTURE PERFECT FRIDAY--FUNCTIONAL

Thank you Heather (A Slow Read) for bringing us all together again for a fun Picture Perfect Friday!!

Some of my teachers over the years, the ones I remember and learned the most from all taught with humor. I love a good sense of humor, especially in making a point or illustrating a story. So, perhaps I should have explained my thoughts, no matter how dis-jointed, behind this photo when I first posted it. I have had this AM/FM/FM Stereo/Cassette player since 1983. It was given as a birthday present from a girl friend. It has traveled with me on trips here and there, and back again. And when the Cassette player finally rebelled against my choice of music and refused to function, it became my job radio, going with me from one job site to another. It has been dropped, painted, sat on, left in the rain, had coffee spilled on it and in it, lumber has bounced off of it, tools have fallen on it, the antenna was snapped off, and it still works, at least the radio part! There are a lot of memories in this old radio. And like so many things, when you think its' usefulness has passed, gone like so many fallen leaves, it still has use, it still has a function.

The camera is a Kodak Easy Share , and I used MGI PhotoSuite for the text balloon.

And yes I collect Marvin The Martian figurines.

THE RAVEN

THE RAVEN

Edgar Allan Poe published 1845

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow will he leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -
`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!

CROW WATCHING AT THE BEACH

Birds fascinate me, especially hawks and crows. Their intelligence amazes me, the power and grace of a hawk in flight, and the "here I am deal with it" attitude of the crow. And I love walking the beach. I have learned to combine bird watching and beach combing. It is beautiful warm sunny crisp and clear on the bay, just a glorious morning. Enjoy your day, I am.

*

PICTURE PERFECT FRIDAY --- ENTANGLED

This was taken underneath a Loquat Tree in the front yard. Amazing how uniform it can look from outside, but once underneath it is a maze of twisted branches and entwined leaves.

The camera is a Kodak Easy Share Z612, thanks Tami!!!!

And Thanks to Heather, aka A Slow Read,

for hosting PICTURE PERFECT FRIDAY!

FRIENDS AND FRIENDSHIP

The Friendship Poem
by Collin McCarty

Friends do things for one another. They understand. They go a million miles out of their way. They hold your hand. They bring you smiles, when a smile is exactly what you needed. They listen, and they hear what is said in the spaces between the words. They care. And they let you know you're in their prayers.

Friends always know the perfect thing to do. They can make your whole day just by saying something that no one else could have said. Sometimes you feel like the two of you share a secret language that others can't tune into.

A friend can guide you, inspire you, comfort you, or light up your life with laughter. A friend understands your moods and nurtures your needs. A friend lovingly knows just what you're after.

When your feelings come from deep inside and they need to be spoken to someone you don't have to hide from, you share them... with a friend. When good news comes, a friend is the first one you turn to. When feelings overflow and tears need to fall, friends help you through it all.

Friends bring sunlight into your life. They warm your life with their presence, whether they are far away or close by your side. A friend is a gift that brings happiness, and a treasure that money can't buy.

******

A friend loves you.

HISTORY OF BEER PART 1 SUMERIAN BEER

Ninkasi, Sumerian goddess of Beer and Fertility

*****

Whatever Happened to Sumerian Beer?

Horst Dornbusch on Beer and Civilization #11

Feature Article by HorstDornbusch / 07-13-2007

Anthropologists and archaeologists believe that the first humans ever to make the great leap from a nomadic and tribal into a civilized and sedentary existence were the Sumerians, some eight to ten thousand years ago. The place was Mesopotamia (now the southern portion of present-day Iraq). Apparently the Sumarians had migrated there all the way from India. Once settled in the Middle East, they build elaborate communities, grouped in prosperous city-states, and surrounded by fertile fields, which they kept lush by communal irrigation from the waters of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The most magnificent of their urban centers was Babylon on the banks of the lower Euphrates. The Sumerians are considered the world's first builders, farmers, and writers - and, as we know from archaeological finds, probably the first brewers, too. Beer was at the center of their religious rituals. Their highest deity was the goddess of beer and fertility. It is a measure of the importance of beer in Sumerian society that eventually about half their grain ended up in their brews.

The Official Story of the Sumerian Exit from History
The Sumerians' ingenuity and wealth soon became a magnet for other, non-brewing, people around them. Newcomers, mostly Semitic tribes from the north and west, began to move into Mesopotamia - sometimes commingling peacefully with the Sumerians, sometimes fighting wars against them for supremacy. As a result, the Sumerians eventually began to be absorbed by their numerous neighbors and gradually disappeared as a distinct culture. By the start of the third millennium BC, Sumeria had faded almost completely into oblivion. In its place arose a new culture, which historians call Babylonian.

The new masters of Mesopotamia centralized power away from the many scattered city-states ruled by kings, queens, and priestesses, to just one center, Babylon, and they unified the loose cluster of Sumerian settlements into a territorial state and government. This new, broad regional organization, Babylonia, was, in essence, the first sovereign country in history.

Once the Babylonians consolidated their power internally, they turned their attention to external conquest. They poured their resources into building a mighty army, which they marched westward to the shores of the Mediterranean, northward into Armenia, eastward into Persia, and southward into Arabia and the islands of the Persian Gulf. In the process, they amassed the first true empire in history - with the king of Babylon known as the King of the Totality, or the King of the Four Regions. He ruled an empire that spanned the four corners of the then-known world.

This is the official story of the demise of the Sumerians and the Babylonian take-over of their lands, at least as it is written in the history books. However, the common narrative of history always seems to focus on political and military events, while the less transient forces of social evolution often receive only scant attention. What we do not learn from the shifting sands of military power in Mesopotamia is what happened to the all-important Sumerian beer as Sumerian society changed under the burden of conquest! Born out of the mist of prehistory as the twin of society itself, did beer survive in the new order? That's a question historians rarely address.

BABYLON and JEREMIAH

This story is from The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22055722-2703,00.html

Tablet aids Old Testament's credibility

• Dalya Alberge
• July 11, 2007

THE British Museum has hailed a discovery within a modest clay tablet in its collection as a breakthrough for biblical archaeology - dramatic proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament.

The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time - revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

This is rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible.

The tablet names a Babylonian officer called Nebo-Sarsekim, who according to Jeremiah xxxix was present in 587BC when Nebuchadnezzar "marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it".

The cuneiform inscription records how Nebo-Sarsekim lavished a gift of gold on the Temple of Esangila in the fabled city of Babylon, where, at least in folk tradition, Nebuchadnezzar is credited with building the Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

British Museum staff are excited by the discovery. Irving Finkel, assistant keeper in the Department of the Middle East, said: "A mundane commercial transaction takes its place as a primary witness to one of the turning points in Old Testament history. This is a tablet that deserves to be famous."

The discovery was made by Michael Jursa, associate professor at the University of Vienna, on a routine research trip to the museum.

"It's very exciting and very surprising," he said. "Finding something like this tablet, where we see a person mentioned in the Bible making an everyday payment to the temple in Babylon and quoting the exact date, is quite extraordinary."

Since 1991, Dr Jursa has been visiting the museum to study a collection of more than 100,000 inscribed tablets - the world's largest holdings.

Although they are examined by international scholars daily, reading and piecing together fragments is painstaking work and more than half are yet to be published.

Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing. During its 3,000-year history it was used to write about 15 languages including Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite and Urartian.

A wedged instrument - usually a cut reed - was used to press the signs into clay. This gave the writing system its name, "cuneiform", or wedge-shaped.

There are only a small number of scholars worldwide who can read cuneiform script. One of them is Dr Jursa, who told The Times yesterday (Tuesday) that the British Museum tablet was so well preserved that it took him just a couple of minutes to decipher.

This one - which is 2.13 inches (5.5cm) wide - was acquired by the British Museum in 1920.

Dr Jursa said: "But no one realised the connection. They didn't really read it." It was unearthed from the ancient city of Sippar, where there was a huge sun temple, just over a mile from modern-day Baghdad. It was part of a large temple archive excavated for the British Museum in the 1870s.

Dr Jursa, who made the discovery while conducting research into officials at the Babylonian court, said that the tablet recorded Nebo-Sarsekim's gift of gold to the temple - a gift so large that it would be comparable in value today to the cost of a large townhouse.

On hearing of the discovery yesterday (Tuesday), Geza Vermes, the eminent emeritus professor of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, said that such a discovery revealed that "the Biblical story is not altogether invented".

He added: "This will be interesting for religious people as much as historians."

OOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I found this very interesting, I am going to contemplate my belly button for a while. . .

***********

Meditators' brains seem alert

Anna Salleh ABC Science Online

Friday, 6 July 2007

Meditators might look like they're asleep but new evidence suggests they're actually more alert than normal (Image: iStockphoto)

People who meditate show signs they are surprisingly alert, the first study of its kind has found.

Australian PhD researcher Dylan DeLosAngeles, at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, shows that mediation produces changes in brainwaves usually associated with increased alertness.

He will present his findings at the IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne later this month.

"There are a lot of subjective reports of meditation benefiting subjects on a personal level," says DeLosAngeles.

"I wanted to try and quantify some of that and look at how that was changing the brain on a neurophysiological level."

DeLosAngeles says previous research on mediation and the brain has produced conflicting evidence about its impact on the brain, with some studies even reporting that meditators were asleep.

In preparatory research for his PhD, DeLosAngeles studied a type of Buddhist mediation that teaches people to achieve several distinct states.

He asked 13 people in a meditation group to describe their experiences of five different states, both before and after the study.

"We found common experiences in each person," says DeLosAngeles.

He says in the first meditative state, people focused their thoughts on breathing, and in the second state they stopped thinking and just breathed.

In the third state, they felt a loss of body boundaries and spatial orientation, and in the fourth state they felt their mind and breath became one.

In the fifth state, the meditators felt their mind expand into space.

Brain activity measured

DeLosAngeles then measured brain activity in each state using an electroencephalograph.

"We were able to correlate the changes in certain brainwaves against the changes is subjective experience," he says.

DeLosAngeles found that, compared to the baseline condition - eyes-closed and resting - people had distinct changes in brainwaves with each meditative state.

He found the brains of people in the first state showed an increase in the amplitude of alpha brainwaves, which are are associated with alertness, focus, attention and concentration.

DeLosAngeles says there was also a decrease in delta brainwaves, ones associated with drowsiness or sleep.

He says as mediators progressed through the other four stages of mediation, their alpha brainwaves slowly decreased in a linear fashion.

DeLosAngeles thinks this decrease is because the mind is already very alert and focused and doesn't have to try so hard to stay that way.

As mediators progressed into the last four states of meditation, their delta brainwaves also decreased.

A unique state

He says the findings support the idea that meditation is a unique state.

"Meditation is a finely held state of attentiveness and alertness that differs from eyes-closed resting or sleep," says DeLosAngeles.

He says the findings add weight to the idea that meditation could be used to help people improve their ability to concentrate.

DeLosAngeles will now use his PhD scholarship from the South Australian Department of Health to investigate this idea.

CAN'T TELL ABOUT A BOOK BY LOOKING AT THE COVER

I think most of us are familiar with CHARO, some of us may have even had a crush on her. We know her as a Singer, Dancer, Comedienne, as an Actress, and as The Cuchi-Cuchi girl with big breasts and a great smile!!!! Linda reminded me in her comment how infectious Charo's smile, and her laugh is. You could not help but smile back at her.

We may not know her as the world class Flamingo and Classical guitarist she is. Her real name is María del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza de Rasten was born in Spain in January 15 1951 ( disputed year 1941). She studied under the great Andres Segovia in her youth.

Listen to her play, you will never think of her as just the Cuchi-Cuchi girl again!

Enjoy, John

Thanks to Tarzan, I tried again to embed a video and this time it worked. This is not the same video that Tarzan listed in the comments, so if you want a treat, and some smiles today, watch both videos please.

JULY 4, 2007

Freedom is not free, remember those who served and are serving. Our freedom has been sustained by young men and women over the decades. Never forget, "all gave some, some gave all", never forget the price they paid for us. This is not only a time of celebration, but a time of somber reflection.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

-- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

-- He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

-- He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

-- He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

-- He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

-- He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

-- He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

-- He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

-- He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

-- He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

-- He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

-- He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

-- He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

-- For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

-- For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

-- For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

-- For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

-- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

-- For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

-- For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

-- For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

-- For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

-- He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

-- He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

-- He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

-- He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

-- He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor