Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave lions painted over 30,000 years ago.
They are the OLDEST discovered art works of man. THE. Very. Oldest.
And they look NEW.

Director Werner Herzog has filmed a masterpiece. The documentary movie, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, featuring Chauvet Cave, released last year and recently out on DVD, is breathtakingly good. GOOD. GOOD. GOOD.

In a word it is: captivating, enchanting, bewitching, enthralling, entertaining, awesome, astonishing, magnificent, moving, brilliant, mesmerizing, mind-blowing and outstanding. And More.

Of the 12 DIFFERENT Critics Choice Awards it was nominated for, this movie has already won 9, is nominated for the 2 others with yet another award pending from the twelfth. And guess what? IT REALLY IS THAT DAMN GOOD.

Now, we have it admit, it's not the movie that's good it is the subject. What makes the movie so ridiculously wonderful is that through Herzog, we get to be inside the cave. The viewer is transported into a cave where 40,000 years ago people went and painted the most beautiful pictures you've ever seen of ice age animals that you've never seen! It's a journey that is so well worth taking we are still stunned, as if we'd been there.

The tableau of cave art is the main attraction of this awesome cave, but what is even more unbelievably overwhelming are the cave bear remnants, the very fossils of cave bear skulls and scratches on the walls that look as new today as they have for over 40-50 millenia! Then there are the fossilized footprints of an 8-year old boy followed by a wolf! As Herzog points out, "was the wolf stalking the boy? Were they friends? Or were the imprints, captured in time, formed thousands of years apart?"

Not to mention the actual cave itself. Sealed by a landslide eons ago, it's main entrance forgotten to time, the cave is resplendent with stalagmites, stalactite's and calcite deposits creating works of beauty all themselves. It's a beautiful and haunting world. More than one researcher has commented that you can actually feel as if the artists were still there watching you.

To call it a treasure trove is a vast understatement. It is acknowledged by virtually everyone that Chauvet Cave is the most magnificent and important discovery in all of the history of human culture.

What Herzog has done is allowed us to explore the cave and it is unprecedented. Access is restricted to archaeologists, geologists, anthropologists and then only for a few weeks a year, a few hours a day, etc. No one just goes in. There are regulations galore. You must wear protected foot gear and walk on a suspended walkway only 2 feet wide and above all else, you must never touch anything!

For this alone, this first class ticket of admittance to the Chauvet Cave is priceless.

Watch the trailer:

A wall of horses and battling rhinos

This unfaded image, over 25,000 years old, looks as if it was painted yesterday.
It is that clear, pristine and perfect.

Wiki Article

L'Institut d'Egypte Destroyed

December 17, 2011

An incalculable treasure has been lost. Egypt's L'Institut d'Egypte, The Egyptian Scientific Institute, founded by FUCKING NAPOLEON in 1798 was burned to the ground on December 17th.

Everything has been lost although Egyptian "officials" are saying that "Protesters and volunteers have been working non-stop to try and salvage the manuscripts and books."

Here are two pictures of what those books look like now. A library of 200,000 volumes incinerated by fucking barbarians.





This is a tragedy somewhat akin or on par with the Alexandria Library loss.

We are personally devastated by this. The state of Egyptian Antiquities are highly unstable right now. WHERE IS THE PHARAOH?

As soon as Zahi Hawass was booted out, all hell broke loose. This is the worst disaster we could imagine short of a terrorist taking out the Sphinx.

One Molotov cocktail is supposedly responsible for this. ONE.

Dr. Hawass wherever you are, we hope you are able to withstand this senseless tragedy. We know you must be inconsolable or raging with anger. We are so sorry.

We just learned about this today. Does anyone know if this was covered by US media AT ALL?

"On 16 December 2011, Egyptian military forces violently attacked the three-week sit-in at the Cabinet building in Cairo. The protesters were demanding that the military ruling council hand over power to civilians.

Military police and central security forces continued to brutally attack, kidnap, kill, detain and torture protesters at Tahrir and in the surrounding downtown Cairo area, as well as systematically sexually assault and beat women. L'Institut d'Egypte, or the Egyptian Scientific Institute, was set on fire on Saturday morning, 17 December 2011.

L'Institute d'Egypte was a research centre created by Napoleon Bonaparte during the 18th century French Invasion of Egypt. It was home to thousands of rare books and manuscripts, including Napoleon's historic 'Description de l'Egypte.' Protesters and volunteers have been working non-stop to try and salvage the manuscripts and books."

Fucking Heathens! Everything Zahi tried to do for the past 40 years has been virtually wiped out and now this. His once grand Pharonic dream, of a new Egypt with new museums and a new bright future, will NEVER be.

News Article

News Article

Time's Person of the Year - The Protester

We couldn't agree more with Time's choice of Person of the Year 2011. For once they fucking nailed it.

Kurt Anderson, Time writer, had this to say:

“2011 was unlike any year since 1968 — but more consequential because more protesters have more skin in the game. Their protests weren’t part of a countercultural pageant, as in ’68, and rapidly morphed into full-fledged rebellions, bringing down regimes and immediately changing the course of history. It was, in other words, unlike anything in any of our lifetimes…”

Naomi Jaffe, Member of the 1960's Weather Underground said this about the year 1968:

"We felt that doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence. That's really the part that I think is the hardest for people to understand. If you sit in your house, live your white life and go to your white job, and allow the country that you live in to murder people and to commit genocide, and you sit there and you don't do anything about it, that's violence."

Well, Naomi, it's over 30 years later and people, not just kids, ALL over the WORLD are lashing out at the status quo and rising up to take a stand for change.

This has been the most amazing year we could ever imagine. There were revolutions in almost every country in the world and here at home with the Occupy Movement.

So let's hear it for the year of the protester! From the guy who self-immolated in Tunisia to ignite the Arab Spring to the retired police officer arrested at Occupy Philadelphia - we salute you all.

Time.com News Article

HuffPost News Article

His Name was Charlie...Update on NYC Carriage Horse Death

The only known picture of Charlie
The horse that will never be forgotten and may yet
be vindicated. His death may change the world...for horses.

The Blogosphere is blowing itself up over the death of poor Charlie the New York carriage horse. AND FOR GOOD REASON.

Necropsy results are sort of in...no cause of death yet...but plenty to be upset about. The necropsy was conducted at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and reported that Charlie, the gorgeous white horse, had been "suffering from a pronounced, chronic ulceration of the stomach and a fractured tooth."

Poor Charlie was in undeniable severe pain for God knows how long before he just collapsed and died on the street 10/23/11.

Animal rights activists are up-in-arms over this needless death. Especially in light of how poor his health had been. And rightly so!

Carriage horse owners have vehemently denied they mistreat their horses BUT THE PROOF IS IN THE AUTOPSY RESULTS! When was the last time Charlie had his teeth looked at? The one tooth was cracked open and the horse had a bit in his mouth. Undeniable cruelty.

We're calling for the neglectful owner(s) to be charged with cruelty, neglect and be shut down. We will not abide.

Huff Post News Article

Read Mayor Bloomberg's updated response at globalanimal.com! Hint: It's just as insensitive and outrageously stupid as his other comments.
GlobalAnimal.com

DNAinfo.com News Article

Humane Society's 21st Century Solution to "Horseless Carriages!"

Daily Mail (UK) News Article

COALITION TO BAN HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGES

If you care at all about these poor defenseless horses PLEASE visit the ASPCA against horse drawn carriages petition page! It only takes a second to add your voice to the growing chorus. Mayor Bloomberg needs to hear us!
ASPCA Petition Against HDCs

A candlelit vigil was held for Charlie on 10/27/11

All Saints Day, World Vegan Day and Day of the Innocents

Roman Catholics are celebrating All Saint's Day today.


Mexicans are celebrating Day of the Innocents today.

And People everywhere are celebrating World Vegan Day.

Let the 2011 Holiday Season commence!

World Heritage Sites in Grave Danger

The World's Heritage Sites are in grave structural danger.

Notably, India's Taj Mahal and China's Great Wall, two of the most iconic and well traveled tourist sites on Earth.

It was reported last month that the Taj Mahal could COLLAPSE within just FIVE years due to a rotting wooden structural beams.


"...believe the foundations have become brittle and are disintegrating.

Cracks appeared last year in parts of the tomb, and the four minarets which surround the monument are showing signs of tilting."

That's right, the 358 year old tomb is already cracking and tilting. The Taj was built near the Yamuna river, which has now run dry due to overpopulation, over building and deforestation. The foundation beams have been exposed and are now dry and brittle. Experts fear that if the foundation isn't shored up immediately the entire thing is going to collapse upon itself into a heap of rubble.

Astonishingly, NO ONE has been permitted to explore the foundations of the building for over 30 years. So for THREE DECADES, there hasn't been any maintenance at all in an age and era when maintenance would have to be a constant job at all times. It's no wonder the thing is going to perish. So sad.

This article has caused an uproar in India and inquiries are now underway to determine the exact state of the monument.

You can read more about this here: Taj Mahal News Article

Omni Report: Taj Mahal - August 2009

The Great Wall of China is falling victim to both legal and illegal mining operations which are undermining the foundation in various spots of its vast length.

Experts are warning that the Wall is crumbling away in sections. Since some of the mining is legal with permits to boot, conservationists can do nothing but sit and watch the ancient monument disintegrate before their eyes.


Green Diary reported back in 2007 that the Wall was suffering from great dust storms caused by over erosion and soil degradation from over farming - exactly the conditions that caused the American dust bowl in the 1930's - as well as over tourism.

These monuments are gargantuan and yet as delicate as flowers. Although they are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, they are at the mercy of local governments, the environment itself, natives and hordes of tourists.

You can read more here: Great Wall News Article

Green Diary article

Omni Report: Great Wall - January 2010

Occupy Sesame Street

Things have gotten serious!

Did you know that 99% of the world's cookies are devoured by 1% of the monsters?

National Coming Out Day

We celebrate all of our friends in the LGBT community and cheer for those who have had the courage and fortitude to "Come Out".

We absolutely love you and how fabulous you are and how freakin' fabulous you make the world.

Nothing would be the same without you! Nothing.

To all the "newbies" - congratulations for coming out today and showing or telling the world...even it's one person...that you are what you are. A beautiful human being.

Your courage is contagious.

Be Loud. Be Proud.

Human Rights Campaign - National Coming Out Day

October 20th is "Spirit Day" - click here to learn why you should wear purple!
Bullying is not "just a right of passage". It's systematic, targeted harassment. It wouldn't be tolerated in the workplace and it should not be tolerated in school. It is a hate crime.

GLAAD.org

"It is Against the Will of the People"

In AMAZING environmental and human rights news, we've learned that Myanmar is "shelving the controversial megadam project."

'This is the first time in 50 years that the government has given in to the wishes of the people'

This is a major victory for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Kyi was kept under house arrest for her pro-democracy views by the ruling Junta of Myanmar.

It's very good of them to listen to the voice of the people," said Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. "I welcome this."

There is much more to this story. Please follow the link to read all the details.

News Article

Bravo Spain!

The crowd cheers as the last dead bull of Barcelona
bullfighting is pulled from the arena

FINALLY!

Spain is finally banning BULLFIGHTING, which isn't fighting at all but the brutal cruelty of spearing bulls in front of cheering whacked out crowds. How anyone can enjoy watching an animal being brutalized is entirely beyond our comprehension. However it's been Spain's number one tourist attraction for hundreds of years.

We couldn't be happier with Spain's decision to grow up and find their compassion. Bullfighting isn't what a modern society should be known for. Animal cruelty as a sport is still number one in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries and is that what a European capital wants to be known for? On the continent? NO!

Congrats to Spain for ending this barbarous stupidity.

Sadly, many are calling for bullfighting to be reinstated in other regions of the country. Losers.

We hope that compassion, mercy and good-sense win out in the end.

News Article

The Price is ALWAYS Right

This Price will NEVER be wrong

Ummm...this one too!

We've been a fan of The Price is Right since we were kids pretending to be sick to play hookey for a day. The show is as popular as ever and is celebrating 40 years on the air.

40 years. That's right. The shows newest season started yesterday 9/19/11 and is a year long celebration of it's 40th year.

And the best news...? There's going to be a Celebrity Week in January featuring, among others to be announced, Snoop Dogg, Jenny McCarthy and Neil Patrick Harris.

Wednesday, September 28 is a MAJOR LANDMARK. The shows 7500th episode will air including a presentation of all the most hilarious memories from the last 40. And we're sure the clip will air where the woman's tube top falls down, she doesn't know and tries to bid to Bob Barker with her boobies hanging out. The original wardrobe clothing malfunction!

If we could do only one thing, just one thing...it would be to spin the Price is Right Wheel. We are dying to do that.

Drew Carey is a GREAT host. Sure, Bob Barker is a legend, but when you watch Drew you can understand how old and frail Bob was toward the end. Drew lets the contestants manhandle him when they run up on stage and hug him. It's great. We think he's an awesome host.



Everyone loves Plinko and so do we, but we have a love for the Cliffhanger too!

Oh and did we mention the models? They're worth watching too!

Congrats to everyones favorite pricing game.

To another 40!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

For everythin' you need t' know about why today exsists includin' how t' talk like a pirate go here:
Talk Like a Pirate.com

And t' help you speak it better or at all in our case:
Talk Like a Pirate - English to Pirate Translator


Here is The Gettysburg Address in pirate speak because you know Abraham Lincoln was a pirate at heart.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated t' t' proposition that all men be created equal.

Now we be engaged in a great civil war, testin' whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We be met on a great battle-field o' that war. We have come t' dedicate a portion o' that field, as a final restin' place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It be altogether fittin' and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. T' brave men, livin' and went t' Davy Jones' locker, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power t' add or detract. T' world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It be for us t' livin', rather, t' be dedicated here t' t' unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. "

It be rather for us t' be here dedicated t' t' great task remainin' before us -- that from these honored went t' Davy Jones' locker we take increased devotion t' that cause for which they gave t' last full meaaye o' devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these went t' Davy Jones' locker shall not have went t' Davy Jones' locker in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth o' freedom -- and that government o' t' people, by t' people, for t' people, shall not perish from t' earth."

Polar Explorers Explored More Than the Just Poles

Polar explorer Rear Admiral Robert Peary and chief aide Matthew Henson are credited with the discovery of the North Pole in 1909. The two and their crew had set up camp in Greenland in the 1890's and relied on native Inuit men to guide them and help them with provisions and logistics on their journey.

It also seems that being men, they had manly needs to attend to as well, turning to the Inuit women for more intimate explorations. Women who bore the men many children.

The children they fathered so far away from their own wives and families at home, were unknown for decades and what started out as almost a tragedy for them has become a source of pride and success.

"After the Americans left in September 1909, never to return or communicate with the Greenlanders, their Inuit families fell into destitution."

"Admiral Peary's forgotten son first came to outsiders' attention through French explorer Jean Malaurie, who spent a year with the Polar Eskimo tribe in 1950-51 and later wrote of Kaala, who was almost killed by an enraged walrus while hunting.

Anaukaq Henson, who died in 1987, remained little known until Harvard University's S. Allen Counter journeyed to Greenland's far north in 1986 to confirm rumours of ‘black Eskimos'"

1986!

Today the Great-Great Grandchildren of these famed polar explorers are striking out on their own and finding a a globalized world of difference.

American polar explorer Robert E. Peary stands with husky sled dogs.

This photo provided by Robert E. Peary II, also known as Hivshu Ua, shows him in Qaanaaq, Greenland. He is the Inuit great-grandson of U.S. polar explorer Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary

This story is intriguing and a MUST read.

Follow the link for the full article including many more pictures:
News Article

Chinese Animal Cruelty Facing Lawful Ban

Chinese Bear Bile "farms" are facing criticism as doctors fight back against hokey claims that bear bile cures various ailments. Hopefully this will lead to a lawfully enforced ban.

The poor bears are put through a never ending life-long torture as the bile is extracted through "through crude holes cut into the abdomen wall and the gall bladder."

It's truly disgusting, cruel and sick.

The Asiatic black bears are one of the gentler species of bear. It's heartbreaking to see it.

The above pic shows the cramped filthy cages and the bears with tubes sticking in the holes in their stomach lining. The cages don't even have floors they are just bars the bears struggle to lie/stand in. In the above case the bear was encased in a cage sideways so they could access the stomach tube easier.

Thank God it seems that the Chinese people as a whole are starting to wake up to the horrific animal cruelty that they so propagate.

This is a great start to end this horrific practice.

News Link

Burning Man 2011

The 2011 Burning Man festival starts today deep in the desert of Nevada.

The sold out one week festival is celebrating it's 25th year as people from all over the world are gathering at Black Rock Desert.

Black Rock City has been erected and will be torn down in totem at the end as green counter-culture organizers will leave the desert as pristine as they found it.

"It began in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James burned an 8-foot effigy on a California beach in honor of summer solstice. An effigy is burned every year at the end of the event. Four years after the first burning, the festival was moved to the remote Nevada desert where it has been gaining participants ever since."

No longer counter-culture, tickets sold from $210 to $360 a piece. A limit of 50,000 people will be allowed in each day.

Among the most famous traditions, as is the end of the fest actual Burning Man, will be the Tesla Coil display by Dr. Megavolt.



The Festival is a haven for art and artists and vendors, such as beverage and food sellers, are urged to barter their products and not sell them.

It is a gathering not for the faint of heart but for the brave and for those who want to party like motherfuckers and show their distaste for the machine as they "Burn the Man."

News Article

Graham Hancock's Important Message

Graham Hancock is one of our heroes.

Here is a video he made on location in Mexico that deals with some heavy shit.
Including the soul of man and altered states of consciousness.

It's WELL WORTH WATCHING.

For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water."

Children like these aren't just dying...
they are suffering terribly before death claims them

Please read the following admonishing post by Richard Stearns.

Richard Stearns - Huffpost

He nails it...and us...for good reason.

Washington Post News Article

Which brings us to this next post...possibly the greatest post we've ever read.
This guy is talkin' our langauge:

READ THIS POST BY CHRISTOPHER COCCA

So why is it that Christians everywhere aren't up in arms over the global crisises that are affecting millions of people when we know damn well we would make a difference?

What makes us as a human species turn our backs on people in need? Fear? Indifference?

Do we just think that someone else is going to do something so why bother?

And is Global Warming to blame for the worst drought in 60 years?

'Tonight the streets are filled with love'

150,000 people lined Oslo's streets yesterday for a gathering of love.

Each person held a single rose into the air as a sign and symbol of love for the fallen.

We don't even have words for this it's so beautiful.

Norway, we love you and we will always stand with you.

We love Thor Hushovd, one of our favorite athletes, We cannot get over the irony that during the entire month of July people lined the street of France waving Norwegian flags for Thor and then this happened.

We love Sig and Edgar Hansen from the F/V Northwestern and hope they are all okay right now.

We think of our Norwegian friends fondly and send them our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.









News Link

Machu Picchu 100th Anniversary Celebrations

Hiram Bingham's discovery of the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu was celebrated by the entire country of Peru yesterday. The famed explorer came upon the city through locals on July 25, 1911 and the world has been captivated ever since.

The Peruvian government held a HUGE celebration to mark the anniversary of the discovery, lighting up the ancient city with laser lights and hosting fireworks in the capital city of Cuzco.

The Inca ceremony Tinkay is performed during the
centennial celebrations of the city's discovery

Tourists watch fireworks explode as the
celebrations get under way at the main square in Cuzco