We won by a landslide, the closest (and only) opponent trailing by 9000ish hits (but who’s counting) and I was delighted to recieve the promised books last week.

A massive THANKYOU to Jeremy Robinson for the very generous prize (and for forking out mega moolah for the postage). Please check out his site here.

And for all those dying to know how the movie magic was created, here is some Bigfoot Attack Footage trivia…

1. No, the Bigfoot wasn’t real. There was more than one concerned person thinking the footage was authentic. Lesmondj and I must have the mean acting skills (and girls dig guys who have skills…).

2. The entire attack scene was done on the first take… with an imagined Bigfoot, yes imagined, not real.

3. Jon Dylan used his computer hacking skills to overlay the Bigfoot sound effects (purchased from Itunes for $1.79).

4. Apparently, the Bigfoot growls sound identical to a real Bigfoot, as one reader commented (as she deals with them on a daily basis – seriously).

5. The Mair Park Ghost legend is mostly true.

6. On the short version, Yes, the blood was real… from my nose. Don’t ask.

7. The rotting bone at the cave’s entrance (tedious version) was stolen from my dog.

8. Lesmondj spent the majority of the attack scene voluntarily lying in a puddle of water. The mark of a true friend.

9. There was no script.

View the short (and exhilirating) version below:

Footage of Bigfoot Attack? – Click here for more blooper videos

View the long (but informative) version below:

A 13 mile wide pulsar known as PSR B1509-58 (B1509) is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years.

B1509 makes one full rotation every 1/7 of a second. Think about that for a second. An immensely heavy star neutron star, 15 miles wide, spinning 7 times a second. Crazy. It’s magnetic field is estimated to be 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s. Double Crazy.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:20 NLT)

To astronomers, NGC 7293 is a Helix Nebula. To us normal people, it is “a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases” caused by a dying star.

Pretty awe-inspiring if you ask me.

It will forever confound me as to how some of us will ponder this image, and see it as further evidence of a Creator, and how others will view the same image and harden their hearts to even considering the notion that such a Creator could exist.

I had never ever heard of the name Tunguska before… until I bought a PC game (for the kids) called Secret files: Tunguska. Then I became enlightened to an extremely fascinating and equally mysterious event which occurred 101 years ago in Central Siberia.

In the Tunguska region at 7:17am on 30 June 1908 something of apocalyptic proportions occurred. This ‘happening’ flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,000 square km. The blast (if that was what it was) was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and generated a shock wave that knocked people unconscious 60km from the epicentre. In the following weeks, night skies over Europe and western Russia glowed brightly enough for people to read by. Mysteriously, there was no crater or any other clear evidence for what exploded.

The first report of the explosion was in the Irkutsk paper dated July 2, 1908, published two days after the explosion:

The peasants saw a body shining very brightly (too bright for the naked eye) with a bluish-white light… The body was in the form of ‘a pipe’, i.e. cylindrical. The sky was cloudless, except that low down on the horizon, in the direction in which this glowing body was observed, a small dark cloud was noticed. It was hot and dry and when the shining body approached the ground (which was covered with forest at this point) it seemed to be pulverized, and in its place a loud crash, not like thunder, but as if from the fall of large stones or from gunfire was heard. All the buildings shook and at the same time a forked tongue of flames broke through the cloud. All the inhabitants of the village ran out into the street in panic. The old women wept, everyone thought that the end of the world was approaching.

S.B. Semenov, an eyewitness in the village of Vanovara about 60 km south of the explosion site, gave the following report…

I was sitting in the porch of the house at the trading station of Vanovara at breakfast time… when suddenly the sky was split in two and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared to be covered with fire. At that moment I felt great heat as if my shirt had caught fire; this heat came from the north side. I wanted to pull off my shirt and throw it away, but at that moment there was a bang in the sky, and a mighty crash was heard. I was thrown to the ground… and for a moment I lost consciousness… The crash was followed by noise like stones falling from the sky, or guns firing. The earth trembled, and when I lay on the ground I covered my head because I was afraid that stones might hit it.

The most accepted explanations as to what caused the Tunguska event are:

But I ask you, could a comet cause the following enigmatic effects that were recorded at the site?

Not surprisingly there are many learned people who disagree with the ‘accepted’ explanation. Among the more ‘exotic’ theories are…

I agree that most of the theories listed above sound utterly ridiculous… but the event itself simply cannot be adequately explained using natural reasoning. Even now, 101 years later Russian scientists are still struggling to get a clearer understanding of what really happened that day.

What is disturbing is that if the Tunguska event occurred 4 hours and 47 seconds later, it would have hit the Russian Capitol.

(For an intriguing look at the Nikola Tesla hypothesis click here.)

Around 250AD, when Christians were being fiercely persecuted, seven young men refusing to recant their faith, gave their worldly goods to the poor and retreated to a mountain cave to pray (and await capture, followed by execution I presume), where they fell asleep. The emperor, seeing that their attitude towards Christ had not improved, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed, and effectively sealed their fate.

Two centuries passed and the landowner decided to re-open the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He did so, and to his astonishment, found seven men sleeping inside. They awoke and believed they had only slept one day. They wandered into the city of Ephesus, and were utterly bewildered at the many churches and the freedom of worship for Christians. The Sleepers later died naturally (and this time permanently) and were buried in the cave in which they had slept.

The ‘Cave of the Seven Sleepers’ became a major place of pilgrimage from the 5th to 15th centuries, and as often happened with venerated sites, a church was built above the seven original tombs. The site was excavated in 1927, and brought to light many hundreds of graves which were dated to the 5th and 6th centuries. Inscriptions dedicated to the Seven Sleepers were found on the walls of the church and in the graves.

And so ends my history lesson for today.

The story reminds me of the Templar Knight in Indiana Jones 3. The Last Crusade was a fictional story… The Seven Sleepers possibly isn’t. Although seemingly impossible, early Christian documents are strewn with this legend (a similar story even appears in the Quaran), and may I remind you, that stranger things than this have been known to have happened…

Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:50-53 Holy Bible (NLT)

Once again, the truth is quite possibly stranger than fiction.

The Seven Sleepers at Wikipedia here. ]]> http://www.symondrake.com/tomb-of-the-seven-sleepers/feed/ 10 http://www.symondrake.com/kali-thugees-the-temple-of-doom/ http://www.symondrake.com/kali-thugees-the-temple-of-doom/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:35:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=133 Those of us raised on a regular media diet in the 80′s will remember well Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was all nostalgic the other day, and watched it on DVD (the first time in nearly twenty years). I must say that I was appalled by the human-sacrifice-to-Kali-goddess-of-death-by-thugge-cult-fanatics-in-temple-under-palace scene. The ‘Fast Forward’ button was used fuequently. Perhaps, I’ve become resensitised (opposite of desentitised) in my old age, which is a very good thing.

The disturbing part is that the Temple of Doom and corresponding cult is based on fact.

Thugee (from the Hindi verb ‘thaglana’ meaning ‘to deceive’) was a secret society based in India with followers who regarded murder as a legitimate sport and a very important part of their faith. The Thugees used scarves to strangle unsuspecting travellers whom they would befriend on the high roads of India during the pre-British era. At its prime, the Thugee cult was responsible for about 30,000 killings per year.

Thugees worshipped ‘Kali’, the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. They believed Kali had ordered them to destroy all men who were not of their kindred. Hence, every murder carried out was considered an offering to Kali. Surprisingly, Kali’s followers were normally good citizens (many were influential in Indian society) who were also devoted to their families.

The cult was eventually eradicated by the British colonists, led by Sir William Henry Sleeman during the second quarter of the 19th century.

A few concluding questions…

- Do Thugees still exist? Who really knows for sure that they were completely eradicated?

- Would Sir William Henry Sleeman be tried for War crimes if he was alive today? Thugee extermination does not sound very PC to me.

- Killing was considered crucial to the Thugee’s religious practices. If they were active in New Zealand today, would they get away with murder? After all, a former NZ polititian frequently (and flauntingly) broke the law during his days in parliment. His excuse? Religious practice.

- Just how authentic did Lucas and Speilberg make the Temple of Doom? The freaky chanting and sacrifice rituals… I shudder to think. I know that during the sacrifice scene, Mola Ram chants in Hindi, imploring “Kali Ma Shakti de,” asking for the “Spiritual power of Mother Kali.” It is very disturbing actually. Where does acting become reality? Where does ‘being entertained’ become ‘being defiled’?

And finally, yes… the english word ‘thug’ originated from ‘thugee’.

]]> http://www.symondrake.com/kali-thugees-the-temple-of-doom/feed/ 5 http://www.symondrake.com/flipper-shark-repeller/ http://www.symondrake.com/flipper-shark-repeller/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:47:00 +0000 Symon http://www.symondrake.com/?p=131