A Snowball's Chance

Thought for the day: When you pray for rain, better carry an umbrella. 

[image courtesy of seniorark.com]

And if you pray for rain in the middle of a drought, maybe you should carry an umbrella that can also save that precious water, like this inventive fella. Waste not, want not, right?

If you think about it, umbrellas, like parachutes, have something in common with human minds. They all function best when they're open.

When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. [Eckhart Tolle]

That uncertainty, that willingness to accept that what one believes to be true may, in fact, not be true, is what I mean by keeping an open mind. Even so, sheer logic often tells us that some things are so off-the-chart improbable that we pretty much accept the fact that they're never going to happen. For example, when I walk out our front door tomorrow morning, I find it highly unlikely that a mountain would have sprung up in our front street overnight, or that the Atlantic Ocean would suddenly be lapping at our front steps, and what's more, I think most people would agree that such a ridiculous scenario goes way past improbable and hovers somewhere above the downright impossible. It's also highly unlikely that the U.S. Olympic swim team could swim laps in the middle of the Sahara Desert... during a drought.

                                                                           Or is it...?

[the Sahara Desert.- courtesy of wikipedia]

The Sahara desert is more than three and a half million square miles of sand, which is comparable to the area of China or the United States. That's a LOT of sand. (FYI: Even so, it's only the third largest desert in the world... behind Antarctica and the Arctic.)

Anyhow, In August of 2014, right in the middle of a relentless drought, something highly unlikely happened in this unforgiving desert. Something very improbable, verging on the impossible.

In Tunisia, in the middle of the drought, a lake was born in the Sahara desert... virtually overnight.

[image courtesy of morguefile]

A man named Mehdi Bilel trekked through the sandy expanse to attend a wedding, and when he returned home via that same route just three days later... he found that a 2.6-acre crystal clear turquoise blue lake, 10 to 18 meters deep, had miraculously appeared. Needless to say, at first he thought it was a mirage... (Wouldn't you?)

But it wasn't a mirage. As highly unlikely as it was, as improbable as it was, as nigh on impossible as it seemed, the lake was real.

The clear water soon turned a murky green, and the authorities issued a warning that the water might not be safe. They said because of all the phosphorus mining in the area, it could be contaminated or radioactive. Undeterred, the locals continue to flock to the water, which they've dubbed Gafsa Beach, or Lac de Gafsa, and they still contend that the lake was created supernaturally as a blessing to the people. And the lake, an unexpected and blessed refuge from the desert heat, has become a bit of a tourist attraction.

Geologists say a minor earthquake could've fractured an underground aquifer, allowing the water to rise to the surface. But no tremor registered, and no evidence of an aquifer has been found.

 Sometimes, something as unlikely as a lake in the middle of a desert has to be seen to be believed:

For clarification, this isn't the only lake that mysteriously appeared in the Sahara in 2014. On November 11, a lake also materialized in the Enuga State of Nigeria. It's now revered as a place of healing, and people travel from far and near to bathe in and drink the water. It's also not the first time this lake appeared in Nigeria. One of the elders in the area said the lake has actually appeared three times over the past 80 years ... always in the midst of the driest, hottest times... and then disappeared. Nigerian legend holds that if a righteous man scratches the ground on that spot while at prayer, the healing water will magically begin to appear.

Who knows? A natural geological occurrence with a simple explanation, or something supernatural, as the people there believe?

All I know is there's a snowball's chance in hades that it'll ever snow there.

                                                             Um, never mind.

Yep, it snowed in the Sahara last week.  In a small Algerian town... and it snowed there in December, too. In this world, I reckon just about anything is possible. 

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. [Mark Twain]

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other. 

Digging for Treasure

Thought for the day:  Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. [Chinese proverb]

There's all kinds of treasures in this world. Learning is definitely one of them, and one that I value highly, but when you were a kid, did you ever dig for buried treasure? Only things I ever found were pretty rocks and fat wiggly worms, which inevitably led to a different kind of quest... for fish.

Well how about if I tell you about someone else's tenacity in solving a mystery, and his successful search for buried treasure that led to a whole new world of learning?

The roots for this story were set before the Civil War, when steamboats were a vital part of America's economy, moving goods and people up and down her mighty rivers. This picture, sent to me by a friend, is a rendition of the steamship Arabia, who happens to be the star of our tale.

On September 5, 1856, this steamboat, on a voyage to deliver two hundred tons of cargo and one hundred and thirty passengers to sixteen different frontier towns, hit a submerged tree, ripped a hole in its hull, and in a matter of minutes, sank to the muddy bottom of the Missouri River. All human passengers survived; the sole fatality was a hapless mule.

The boat, like other steamboats that had met the same fate, was believed to be lost forever.


A river is more than an amenity; it is a treasure. [Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]

[picture by David Hawley]

In this case, as the years went by, the treasured Missouri River wasn't the one hiding the Arabia. 

A local amateur treasure hunter named Bob Hawley was particularly intrigued by this missing steamboat and the mysterious cargo she held.  He knew the course of the river had shifted decidedly eastward over the years, and based on extensive research, he and his sons surmised in 1987 that the missing Arabia might be located in the middle of a Kansas City cornfield. The farmer graciously agreed to let them search and dig in his field... as long as they were done in time for spring planting. They were. After Hawley's metal detector pinged the boat's boilers, with the use of heavy equipment, he, his sons, and some other family members and friends, uncovered the missing boat four months later... forty-five feet down, and a half mile from the current riverbanks. In the course of their work, they removed twenty thousand gallons of water from the site.

The location of the boat isn't the most amazing part. The most amazing part is the condition of its contents. Buried under the mud for over 130 years, the goods were beautifully preserved, serving as a time capsule from the past, and showing us more about the needs of day-to-day living in frontier American than any history book alone could ever do. The remarkably preserved contents of this boat included clothing, tools, guns, food products, dishes, jewelry, wine, window glass, French perfume, lumber, a couple of prefab houses, a sawmill, and a case of cognac.

The past is a treasure chest filled with learning opportunities for our present and future, but only if we look inside. [Kevin Eikenberry]

Great idea! Shall we...?

This fine china was still preserved in its original yellow packing straw.

[wikipedia]

And not just a FEW dishes were found, either. LOTS of dishes were found, as you can see from this picture taken inside of the Steamboat Arabia museum in Kansas City.

Here's a glimpse at some of the recovered clothing.

You probably know that calico was a very popular fabric for making dresses back then, but most of the calico dresses didn't fare too well during their time spent in the mud. However, these porcelain buttons, printed to match the dresses they adorned, survived beautifully.

Many guns and knives were recovered.

Check out this spiffy-looking rubber shoe.

And a beaver-skin hat. Naturally waterproof!

The world's oldest pickles? Because there was no air reaching the foodstuffs, it was surmised that the jars of food were still edible. To test that theory, one brave escavator ate one of the pickles. According to him, the 130+ year old pickle still tasted fresh. 

These signs hang inside of the Steamboat Arabia museum in Kansas City. Alas, most of us will never have the opportunity to visit that museum in person, but rather than me posting more pictures, how about something much better?









                                                          A video taken inside the museum!

What an amazing story, and what an amazing place to visit... even if only vicariously.

                            Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
   

Time to go digging for some more fun facts.

Satisfaction Brought Him Back

Thought for the day:  The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. [Dorothy Parker]

I don't believe curiosity killed the cat, do you? (However, it might possibly have led him into some oopsie situations a time or two.)

How about you? Are you the curious sort? I am. Dorothy Parker was right. I'm rarely bored, and that's probably because I've been afflicted with a raging case of curiosity my entire life. What's more, the condition is still going as strong as ever. (Beats being bored...)

Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.

Okay, before I share a current  curiosity with you... it's the last Friday of the month, and time for the monthly gathering of bibliophiles known as the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, hosted by the chief cephalopod himself,  the armchair squid. As usual, I'll post my bookish stuff near the end of this post, so those of you who don't give a good hoot what I've been reading can just read the first part of the post and ignore the rest. Those who wanta see even more of who's been reading what, pop over to the squid's blog and check out the linky link thing-a-ma-bob there.

Now then. Thing-a-ma-bob. That's what it is. Or possibly a doohickey. The truth is, we don't know what the heck it is. Smarticus found this thing... this very interesting thing...  in the bottom of a box of stuff he bought from a pawn shop before it went out of business. We don't know what it is. The other people we've asked don't know what it is, either.

Maybe one of you do. Ready to see it?

Here it is in profile. It's made of brass and has a sturdy feel to it. A fairly simple construction, but well-made.

Here it is, head on. (Or heck, maybe it's the back...) The black bulbous part is made of a rubber compound of some sort.

The other side features a shallow channel, which isn't as smooth as the rest of the... thing-a-ma-bob. 

When the handle is squeezed shut, the ends separate, as though it's intended to stretch something, maybe. Maybe not.

Whether this is part of something larger, or it's the whole deal, we don't know. Do you? Anybody know what this is?

(If not, any fun guesses...?)

Okay, moving on the the book part of this post. First up, my most recent book from

Unlike last month, I can't honestly say this was the best book I read this month, but it might be something y'all would enjoy...

 Before requesting Tantric Coconuts, I read the handful of reviews already written for it, and noted that they differed dramatically, with ratings ranging from one-star to five. Still, I was intrigued with the notion of a Nicholas Sparks-like novel with a spiritual element. Besides, the author has a "New York Times" bestselling track record. It HAD to be good, right?

Now then: reality. Say there are two Ferraris zipping down the road. Now imagine a head-on collision. Both are destroyed, and now neither is worth a plug nickel. That's kinda what I think happened to this book. On the one hand is a semi-sweet story laced with bits of humor, and on the other hand is the author's serious philosophy about life and spiritual growth. Either of these premises could have made a top-notch book, but when they're forced to collide and merge bumpers? Not so much. Then the book looses focus and identity, and in a well-meaning attempt to fulfill both roles, it fails to adequately fulfill either. Manufactured discussions between the characters as a means to teach the path to spiritual fulfillment came across as contrived and awkward. Stiff. The saddest part is that the message the author is trying to send is definitely one worth receiving. Unfortunately, I think most readers will give up on this book without finishing. I wish the author would write a straightforward non-fiction book about his thoughts on spiritual growth, rather than try to incorporate them artificially in a piece of fluff.

For more information about this book, please see here, and for more info about the author, this is the place right here. Just to make it clear, I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. If you're interested in following suit, just check out their website.

Now, then, I thought I'd mention a few books I read this month which I highly recommend:

• Deadly Lies, by Chris Patchell. Part of my review from Amazon and Goodreads: How well do we really know the people we love? Police detective Alex Shannon thought he knew his wife Jill very well, but now he's not so sure. Something's changed. As a sexually abused teenager, Jill vowed to never be a victim again, so when abuse rears its ugly head again and threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, she has to do something to take control of her life again. The problem is, that "something" is far from legal. When the detective's investigation uncovers clues leading right to his bride, what will he do about it? Uphold the law, let his wife go... or something else?  

I really enjoyed this book, which could be classified as a thriller, I suppose. Much to my surprise, after I posted my review for it, the author sent me a really nice box of chocolates. (Which in no way influenced the five stars I'd already given it...)

• The Graveyard Shift, by Brandon Meyers & Bryan Pedas. These talented guys, who blog at A Beer for the Shower,  have already proven themselves to be off-the-chart funny and witty. In this collection of short stories, they also prove themselves to be a little... creepy. (Of course, I mean that in the nicest way...) One of the best things about reading a collection of short stories is the reader can read one story now, set the book down, do something else, and come back to read another one later, right? Kinda like having a lovely box of mixed chocolates next to your easy chair to select from at leisure. HA! I dare ya! TRY to read just one. Me? I read every single story in one sitting. (Which comes pretty close to my approach to eating boxes of chocolates, too, now that I think of it...) Anyhow, these stories are worthy of raising a couple goose bumps, and verrrry well-written. Imagination out the wazoo. Loved 'em! (Brandon also recently published a novel called Lovely Death, which I just purchased, but haven't yet read. Looking forward to it, though.)

• Bombs and Butterflies, by Jo Carroll. Anyone who's ever daydreamed about visiting exotic places around the world would love this author's books. This lovely blogging grandma from London doesn't just daydream about traveling... she DOES it. To wonderful places, where this intrepid traveler experiences wondrous (and sometimes scary) things, and meets wonderful (and sometimes scary) people. Then, she goes back home and writes about it, so we lucky readers can benefit from her insights and experiences. This book is about her trip to Laos, but all of her books are terrific. Seeing the world through her eyes may not be the same as seeing them first-hand, but it's the next best thing.

And there ya have it. Now... I want you to put on your thinking caps. I'd like you to think about your favorite old broad... could be someone in your family, a friend, celebrity, whatever. But don't tell me now. Next Friday, I'm gonna be writing about MY favorite old broad, and I'll be asking you then about yours. So think about it, so you're prepared to give an answer...

                                   Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

No Skirting the Issue

Thought for the day: Yer bum's out the windae.  [Scottish slang for, You're talking rubbish.]

My bum isn't out the windae when I say I love this picture of our daughter and son-in-law. He cuts a mighty fine figure in his kilt, doesn't he? And their poses? Priceless.

Aye, 'tis no secret that there's something charmin' about a Scotsman sportin' a kilt... no matter how coy he may be about what he's wearing under it. (i.e. She: What's worn under your kilt? He: Nothing, lass. It all works just fine.) Indeed,  the lads seem to enjoy perpetuating the mystery. But, guess what? Thanks to a picture I found on seniorark, I can now provide a definitive answer to that age-old question about kilts and skivvies.

OH, laddies! And a fine cheeky revelation it is!










I shared the following video with you once before, but now that the truth has been laid bare once and for all, I believe this auspicious occasion calls for an encore.

Gee I don't know why, but for absolutely no reason at all, an old Saturday Night Live skit just came to mind. For copyright reasons, I can't share it, but it's a classic skit called... (ahem)...  Schweddy Balls. (If you've never seen it before, you should be able to find a facsimile of it on Youtube.)

This post is a wee bit short, so tell ya what. I'm gonna fill it out with a wee joke:

As the dance was coming to an end, a Scottish lass smiled at a handsome young man and said, "Would it be that ye'd be wantin' to walk me home noo?"

"Aye, it would!" he said. "And how would it be that ye'd be knowin'?"

"Oh, by the twanklin' in yer aie," she said. After a wee walk down the lane, she said, "Oh, and would it be that ye'd be wantin' to hold me hand noo?"

"Aye, it would!" he said. "And how would it be that ye'd be knowin'?"

"Oh, by the twanklin' in yer aie," she said again. A few minutes later, she stopped, and asked, "Oh, and would it be that ye'd be wantin' to kiss me noo?"

"Aye, it would!" he said, moistening his lips. "And how would it be that ye'd be knowin'?"

"Oh, 'tis that twanklin' in yer aie!" After they shared a kiss, she peeked at him through her eyelashes and whispered, "Oh, and would it be that ye'd be wantin' to make love to me noo?"

"Aye, it would," he said gruffly. "And how might ye be knowin'? By that twanklin' in me aie?"

"Oh nae, lad. By the tiltie in your kiltie."
++++++++++++

By the way, never tell a drunken Scotsman he's wearing a skirt. That just might get ye kilt!

                                Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Sweet Mysteries of Life

Thought for the day:  It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to pursuit. [Antoine Rivarol]

For those with an inquisitive mind, life offers an almost endless stream of mysteries, curiosities, and phenomena worthy of some serious chin-scratching.

Shall we consider a handful of them?

How about those intricate crop circles that have appeared in fields all over the world? What's up with them? Aliens? Hordes of drunken frat boys? Just one big bogus joke?

Beats me.

How about the Voynich manuscript? Ever hear of that? Named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired it in the early 1900s, this detailed 240-page book contains still-colorful drawings, and is written in an unknown language and unknown alphabet. It includes astronomical charts and diagrams, and illustrations of plants unknown to modern botanists. Carbon dating places the book's origins somewhere between 1404 to 1438. Who wrote it? An alchemist, maybe? Where did the language come from? Did he make it up to hide his secrets?

Beats me.

I'm sure you've heard of the Bermuda Triangle. Over the years, many ships and planes have mysteriously disappeared when attempting to navigate through this area. Where did they go? Alien abductions? Is there a huge junkyard of shipwrecks and downed planes at the bottom of the sea there? Is it all a big fat fraud?

Beats me.

Ever hear of the Taos hum? It's a low-pitched humming sound that can be heard in certain parts of the world, mainly the US, UK, and northern Europe... and it can only be heard by some people. More than 2000 people, dating back to the 1940s, have reported hearing the maddening sound in London and Southampton. And I do mean maddening. Tales indicate that the sound has literally driven some people insane. Yet, others can't hear it at all. The most infamous site for the humming sound is in Taos, New Mexico. Ergo, the name. However, the humming has also been identified by other geological locations, as well. Like the Bristol hum. Sorry, I couldn't find an image to illustrate this mystery, but I did find a couple videos on Youtube. Although they were supposed to be recordings of the Taos hum, I couldn't hear a doggone thing. (Maybe I'm already mad?) So what's the source of this mysterious hum only heard by some? (But not me.)

Beats me.

Here's another lulu. Ever hear of the WOW signal? In 1977, SETI (Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence) volunteer Jerry Ehman received a loud 72-second signal with the radio telescope at Ohio State University. The signal appeared to have originated in the constellation Sagittarius — 120 light-years away. The intensity of this signal was more than thirty times greater than normal deep space signals, as evidenced in the figures Ehman circled on the printout, along with his notation WOW! Since then, attempts to relocate the signal have been fruitless. So what was it? Who or what generated it?

Beats me.

Here we have the Georgia Guidestones. This mammoth granite monument is engraved in eight languages, and each presents ten directions for an Age of Reason. Also called the American Stonehenge, the stones are also aligned to include astronomical features. Shrouded in mystery since it was commissioned in 1979, no one knows exactly who commissioned it or why. (If you're interested in more details about this monument, you can find it right here on an earlier post.)

So who was that masked man the mystery man representing that mysterious group, and why did they pay a huge amount of money to have this monument erected? And why in a field in rural Georgia?

Beats me.

Have you ever wished there were well-defined markers pointing the proper path to take through life? Well, guess what? There are! Yep, mysterious concrete arrows, as much as seventy feet in length, can be found all across the United States. Some of them are located in the middle of nowhere... even in the desert. What gives? Who laid out all those arrows for us? A benevolent God? A rich prankster? Drunken frat boys? Is it all a ridiculous plot to drive us crazy? (Just in case we can't hear the hum...)

Beats... No, wait! Actually, I know the answer to this one. When the United States opened its first coast-to-coast airmail delivery route in 1920, it wasn't able to deliver mail much faster than by ground. Why, you ask? Because there weren't any good aviation maps in those days, so pilots had to rely on visual landmarks to find their way, which meant flying during bad weather or at night was nearly impossible.

The solution? The Postal Service installed lit beacons every ten miles all the way from New York to San Francisco, each comprised of a bright yellow concrete arrow and a fifty-one-foot tower topped with a generator-powered rotating beacon. The project started in 1923, and by 1929, the massive illuminated arrows spanned the entire continent. In the '40s, as other technology took over and aviation maps improved, the beacons were decommissioned, and the towers, torn down. The yellow paint is long gone, but guess what? Believe it or not, the arrows... are still there.

One final mystery before I bid you all adieu.  Can you tell me why...  can anyone tell me why...

... why do people of a certain gender leave the lid up on the toilet? And worse... the seat?

Not that it's a problem for Smarticus and me, mind you. In all these years together, in all these years of gaping toilets left to wake my startled butt up in the middle of the night, I've only succumbed to that nefarious trap twice.( The simple solution? A night light.)

Oh well. I suppose people of that certain gender probably wonder what's the point in closing the lid when you're just gonna use it again later. (sigh)

Ah, what the heck! Vive la difference. Just one more sweet mystery...



                                                         Didn't you just love this lady?

                                                          This here is one smart dude!

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Everybody Loves Some Body

Thought for the day:  Quit when you're a head.

"I AIN'T GOT NO BODY..."  [Wikipedia}

On Easter Sunday of 1722, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to (ahem) discover the island of Rapa Nui. Like most other explorers of his day, he felt it was his civic duty to rename the place forthwith, so the island thereafter became known as Easter Island. To the rest of the world, anyway. As anyone who regularly works the New York Times crossword puzzle could tell you, its inhabitants still stubbornly cling to the name Rapa Nui.

Early explorers waxed poetic about the lush Polynesian paradise they (ahem) found on the island, but they were probably the most astounded by the Moai, HUGE monolithic human figures that dotted the island's hillsides...

... and still do.

When considering Easter Island, those Moai heads are usually the first image that comes to mind. But guess what? They do have some bodies... I mean, they've got SOME BODIES! Those heads are like the tips of the icebergs. The rest of the bodies are underground.

[Wikipedia]

Here are some of the other statues from the island. (Just hold your horses; we'll dig up those buried bodies in a minute.)

Scientists have determined that the statues, carved from giant slabs of rock from the island's Rano Raraku quarry, were created from 1250 to 1500, and those statues, weighing upwards of 80-some tons, were then moved to their designated places of honor.

These Agu Tongariki statues were restored in the '90s. [Wikipedia]

A cyclone in the 1960s  knocked over the statues at left, but they were  restored by a Japanese team several decades later. I think it's fairly safe to say they did use modern equipment to do so.

These statues throughout the island are chiefly aringo ora, or living faces of deified ancestors. Just as the lush forests that once covered the island have disappeared, so too have the skills to carve these statues, and the knowledge as to how they were moved.

However, numerous scientific experiments have led to a consensus of opinion that these mammoth carvings walked. Or to be more definitive, they were rocked from side to side like you might move a heavy piece of furniture, and that movement, implemented with a combination of ropes, pulleys, and rollers, did the trick.( I guess you could say the ancient Rapa Nui people were real rock 'n' rollers, huh?)

[Wikipedia]

Today, a sign defines the Rapa Nui statues as being in a UNESCO protected area. That doesn't mean tourists can't go see them or take pictures of them. However, climbing on them, touching them, and breaking off pieces as souvenirs is severely frowned upon.(And heavily fined.)

Now, back to those buried bodies.

Easter Island Statue Program, whose home base is Santa Monica, California, is a private research and archive organization founded by Jo Anne Van Tilburg. Its goals: excavation, conservation, preservation, and education. (Plus a few other things, but I like the sound of all those -tions together.) The work done by EISP represents the first legally permitted excavation since Thor Hyerdahl's work with the Norwegian Archeological Expedition in the mid-'50s. So it's kind of a big deal.

And those statue heads... with bodies... are kinda big, too. Ready to see some of the EISP pictures? (Their reports and pics are in the public record.)

So, why were those ancestral statues buried up to their necks? Nothing nefarious or mysterious there. Scientists believe the burial was caused by centuries of wind, storms, and erosion. The newly uncovered bodies, protected by their years underground, are in excellent shape, (so to speak) and bear some interesting writings on them, yet to be deciphered. Neat, huh?

Oh, and lest you think you have to go to faraway Easter Island to see moai artifacts in person, you don't! The one at left is housed in a British museum. Others reside at the Smithsonian Institute and American University museum in Washington, D.C., at the Louvre in Paris, and in other museums in Chile, Brussels, and New Zealand.

Have you ever seen them in a museum?



Of course, as wonderful as it is to see things like this in a museum, seeing them in their original locales at places like Easter Island would be over-the-top exciting.

Have you ever been there?

If you ever do have the opportunity to visit this Polynesian island to see the moai in person, remember one thing: they are protected. So use your head; there will be none of this...

[seniorark]

                              Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Don't Let Gravity Get You Down

Thought for the day:  Just because an apple falls one hundred times out of a hundred does not mean it will fall on the hundred and first.  [Derek Landy]

[credit: Morguefile]

Whether a scientist peers through a telescope, or gazes through an electron microscope, if he's paying attention, he's gonna see evidence of circular motion. Planets circle the sun... electrons circle a nucleus... and just last year, an international study revealed that light travels in a distinct vortex in a silicon chip.

Yet another fascinating mystery about this universe we live in, huh?

Well, a long-time fascination with a similar mystery prompted Stephen to ask in his comment on my Oregon post last Friday why I hadn't mentioned anything about the Oregon Vortex.

Um, simple. To be perfectly honest, I never heard of it before.

So, I decided to learn something about it, and then put together a quickie easy  lazy-assed  marvelously informative post on the subject. As always, my idea of doing a little research turned into another head-first dive into the rabbit hole. (The Internet is a very dangerous place for an information junkie.)

Anyhow, let's give it a (ahem) whirl, shall we?

[credit: Wikipedia]

The red smoke in this picture provides a dramatic visual to illustrate the spherical motion of a vortex. 

The Oregon Vortex is a spherical force field, which we could think of as an invisible whirlpool of concentrated energy. (Kinda like in that picture... minus the red.) Along with that force field comes gravitational anomalies... a scientific way of saying weird stuff happen. 

Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects.  [Dave Barry]

[credit: Morguefile]

The environment around the vortex defies gravity, bends light, scares animals, twists plant life into contorted shapes, and gives people an eerie feeling...

The Oregon Vortex, located in Gold Hill, isn't the only vortex in the world. Matter of fact, it isn't even the only one in the United States. Other well-known spots in the U.S. include Mt. Shasta, CA, Hungry Horse, MT, and four areas in Sedona, AZ. (There are plenty of others, too, maybe even the Spook Hill we visited in Florida last year.)

Numerous articles equate these worldwide vortexes to Earth chakras, and say that ancient civilizations purposely built sacred monuments on these spots... like Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, among others. Earth's seven major chakras are described as follows;

• Mt. Shasta --- California, U.S.A.
• Lake Titicaca --- border of Bolivia & Peru
• Uluru-Katatjuta --- Australia
• Glastonbury & Shaftsbury --- England
• Great Pyramids of Giza & Mt. Sinai; Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem
• Kuh-e Malek Siah --- borders of Iran, Afghanistan & Pakistan
• Mt. Kailas --- Tibet

Those are allegedly the spots of most concentrated energies, but there's a whole network of interconnected energy fields around the world... some positive, some negative. Maps showing the locations and connectivity of these areas remind me of a cosmic sine wave girding the planet's waistline. Weird. 

Articles comparing these vortexes to human chakras, and mentioning such things as being at one with the universe seem very New Age-y, but then again, like it says in Ecclesiastes: There is no new thing under the sun. 

Just some things we don't yet understand. 

Like the Oregon Vortex... where people inexplicably lean toward magnetic north, bottles roll uphill, and people seem to grow and shrink. Wanta see? Here's a couple videos. I know your time is valuable, so here's a short one, if you just want a peek...

And a longer one, if you care to see a little more... 

                                     Fascinating, huh? Did you already know about this stuff? 

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

[credit: seniorark]

                                You can't blame gravity for falling in love.  [Albert Einstein]