Drop City Commune

Description:	Drop City was a community that formed in the hills of southern Colorado in the late 1960s, which become a sort of icon of the rural 1960s communal living that seemed to be blooming at that time. Singled out by the media as exemplary, Drop City was known for its dome-style of architecture, which combined the principles and methods of Buckminster Fuller with inexpensive, found materials, such as sheet metal hacked off of junked car roofs. In 1965, when the four original settlers of Drop City, art students and writers from the Universities of Kansas and Colorado, moved to this site, they had no intention of founding a large community, but just wanted to live cheaply and have time to pursue their interests. The community grew, however, spurred by media coverage that included news reports on national television. After becoming what one of the more notorious denizens called "a decompression-chamber for city freaks," and with the people that originally founded the community long since departed, Drop City was slowly vacated. Today, much of the property has been developed, though the last of the iconic domes was taken down only in the late 1990s, by a truck repair facility which now occupies a portion of the site.
Location:	Near Trinidad, 40 miles S of Pueblo (POINT(-104.49119210243 37.220768831485)) (show on map)
Address:	CO
Visitor Info:	On a six acre tract in El Moro, Colorado, 5 miles east of Trinidad off of I-25.
Links:	http://www.clarkrichert.com/dropcity
tag:	Abandoned Site
LCS:	Architectural Landmark, Cultural

Found Here: http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CO3134/

Drop City was an artists' community that formed in southern Colorado in 1965. Abandoned by the early 1970s, it became known as the first rural "hippie commune".^[1]

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_City

VZ-8 Airgeep - Hovering Jeep / Flying Truck Platform

* While the Army was pursuing the flying platforms, they were also investigating larger rotorcraft along similar lines, called the "flying jeeps". Some sources imply that they were intended mostly for hovercraft operation, with an ability to fly over obstacles or impassable terrain when necessary, while other sources indicate they were regarded as helicopter-like utility vehicles that operated normally as flying machines. Whatever the case, the US Army Transportation Research Command began an investigation into the flying jeeps in 1956, leading to award of contracts for prototypes to Chrysler, Curtiss-Wright, and Piasecki in 1957.

* Chrysler developed two prototypes of their "VZ-6" flying jeep, delivering them to the Army in late 1958. The VZ-6 was a single-seat vehicle, shaped like a rectangular box, with two ducted rotors in the box front and back. There were rubber skirts around the bottom, and vanes underneath the rotors to provide airflow for forward motion.

The VZ-6 was powered by a single 373 kW (500 HP) piston engine and had a gross weight of 1,080 kilograms (2,380 pounds). Tethered flights performed in 1959 indicated that the VZ-6 was not very controllable, and was also badly underpowered. On the VZ-6's first untethered flight attempt, it flipped over. The pilot escaped serious injury, but the vehicle was badly damaged. The Army recognized the VZ-6 as a lost cause and got rid of both prototypes in 1960.

* The Curtiss-Wright entry was the "VZ-7", also known as the "Flying Truck", with two prototypes delivered to the Army in mid-1958. The VZ-7 was a simple metal truss with a pilot up front and four horizontal propellers at each of four corners. The props were all driven by a single 317 kW (425 SHP) Turbomeca Artouste turboshaft engine, mounted underneath the central beam. The props were originally ducted, but the ducts were removed after initial test flights. The aircraft was guided by differential pitch between the propellers, and a rudder in the turbine exhaust.

The VZ-7 was 5.2 meters long by 4.9 meters wide (17 by 16 feet) and had a maximum takeoff weight of 770 kilograms (1,700 pounds), with 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of that being payload. The VZ-7 handled well and was easy to fly, but it did not meet either altitude or speed requirements, and the prototypes were returned to Curtiss-Wright in mid-1960.

* The Piasecki flying jeep effort was the most successful of the three. The first of the class was the Piasecki "Model 59H AirGeep", which was given the Army designation "VZ-8P". The AirGeep was 7.9 meters long and 2.7 meters wide (26 feet by 9 feet), with three-bladed rotors in ducts in the front and the back. The pilot and passenger sat between the ducts. In the VZ-8P, the 2.4 meter (8 foot) diameter rotors were driven by a pair of 134 kW (180 HP) Lycoming piston engines, with the power linkages designed so that one engine could drive both rotors if the other engine failed.

The rotors spun in opposite directions to reduce torque effects. Control was provided by varying rotor pitch, as well as through vanes mounted in the downdraft. Forward motion was achieved by pitching the aircraft nose-down.

The AirGeep was first flown on 12 October 1958. Apparently it proved grossly underpowered, barely able to fly over a fence, and it was sent back to the shop, where the piston engines were replaced by a single 317 kW (425 HP) Turbomeca Artouste IIB turbine engine. The upgraded AirGeep flew in late June 1959. It weighed 1.1 tonnes (2,500 pounds) and could carry a payload of 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds), including the pilot.

The AirGeep was put through trials for both the Army and the Navy over the next few years. The engine was upgraded again to a Garrett / Airesearch 331-6 engine, which had a higher power-to-weight ratio. For Navy trials, which began in June 1961, the rotorcraft was fitted with floats, and redesignated the "PA-59 SeaGeep".

* Piasecki wanted to build a bigger and better AirGeep, and the Army Transportation Research Command obliged them by issuing a contract for what Piasecki called the "Model 59K" and what the Army called the "VZ-8P(B) AirGeep II", which made its first flight in the summer of 1962.

The AirGeep II was similar to the AirGeep, except that the aircraft was "bent" in the middle so that the rotors were tilted fore and aft, it seems to improve forward flight characteristics. The AirGeep II used twin 298 kW (400 SHP) Turbomeca Artouste IIC turboshaft engines, once again linked so that if one failed the other would drive both rotors. One engine could also be coupled to the landing wheels to drive the machine on the ground. The increased power allowed a maximum take-off weight of 2.2 tonnes (4,800 pounds). The pilot and observer had "zero-zero" ejection seats, allowing safe escape if the machine was on the ground and standing still, and there were apparently seats for additional passengers.

* The flying platforms and flying jeeps had some merits. They were smaller than helicopters, and could operate in ground cover more successfully. However, helicopters could land more easily on rough terrain and had more convenient seating arrangements. Most critically, the flying platforms and jeeps had much smaller rotors, and so were fuel hogs. There were also apparently concerns about the practicality of the one-person flying platforms, since they provided relatively little capability in relationship to larger rotary-winged aircraft, while still presenting a good proportion of the same support headaches. Some sources also claim, very plausibly, that the flying platforms were unusually dangerous to fly in windy conditions. In short, they didn't have sufficient advantages over helicopters to make them worth further development at the time. The idea didn't die out, however.

Found Here: http://www.vectorsite.net/avplatfm.html

1418 Ming Map - Zhu Di's Map of the World Family

Zhu Di's Map of the World Family

In 1405, Zhu Di sent his favorite Admiral, Zheng He, on a mission to unite the peoples of the "Four Seas"—that is, the World Family. Midway through this enormous undertaking of many overseas voyages, a Ming artist prepared this elegant but somewhat stylized version of the world. It was based on information contained in a variety of field maps and navigational charts. The composite map was intended to represent the final unification of the World Family under the leadership of the Ming Dynasty. It was a visual testimonial about foreign nations (or barbarians) that paid homage to the Son of Heaven in Beijing. It was also a memorial to the role of world commerce in preserving the peace between nations; and it was a graphic representation of the system of transoceanic routes that formed Zheng He's colossal maritime trade network. Zhu Di's dream of a United Family did not last for very long.

Within a few years, Portuguese spies obtained copies of this map. And they used it as the principal tool in world conquest. During that conquest, Europeans claimed they were superior because they had better weapons and maps. They boasted that "the Victor writes the history." And so, the legacy of Zheng He and the heritage of other ancient voyagers faded into the twilight of Western doctrine.

This is a revolutionary map. It will finally force Western scholars to abandon the doctrine of Eurocentrism that has dominated world history for the past 500 years. In the 21st century, the Global Community needs a factual history that reflects the true events of the past. This map can precipitate a paradigm shift in history. Such a paradigm shift is essential in order to dislodge the medieval cultural anchors that are holding us back. Then we can truly build a philosophical foundation of equality for the Whole World Family.

Found Here: http://www.marcopolovoyages.com/Beijing_1481_Presentation/SectionFour.htm

In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map with detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and Native Australians. The map (at right) was dated 1763, and was supposedly a copy of an earlier map made in 1418. Supporters of Gavin Menzies' 1421 theory claim the map as proof that Zheng He sailed to the Americas and Australia. Critics point out that the map, if authentic, is more likely to be based on an eighteenth-century European map.

Detail, Zheng He Map, phonetic transcription of "North America"

According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a Shanghai dealer. A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based orientation. None of these features was used in the best maps made in either Asia or Europe during this period (for example see the Kangnido map (1410) and the Fra Mauro map (1459)). Also mentioned is the depiction of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. On the map the American continent is labelled phonetically "A-me-ri-ca" (今名北亞墨利加, literally: "Now Name Northern A-me-ri-ca," see detail). This translation was unknown in Ming Dynasty, and is known to be a borrowing from the West, (Amerigo Vespucci).

Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. Wade has pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe, which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and their religion is called 'Jing' (景, referring to Nestorianism)", Wade notes that the Chinese word for the Christian God is given as "Shang-di" (上帝), which is a usage that was first borrowed from Chinese ancient text by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in the 16th century.^[49]

In May 2006 the Dominion Post reported that Fiona Petchey, head of the testing unit at Waikato University, which had carbon dated the map, had asked Gavin Menzies to remove claims from his website that the dating proved the map was genuine. The carbon dating indicated with an 80% probability a date for the paper of the map between either 1640–1690 or 1730–1810. However as the ink was not tested, it was impossible to know when it was drawn. Ms Petchey said, "we asked him to remove those, not because we were not happy with the dates, but because we were not overly happy with being associated with his interpretations of those dates."^[50]

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

The Apotheosis of Washington

At the center of the American Rite is the U.S. Capitol. The Apotheosis of Washington in the eye of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Encoded within this fresco is a major Secret of the American Rite. We’ll go to the Capitol and stand in the center of the Rotunda. When we look up we’ll see George Washington in a ring of stars and looking down at us. This fresco, painted by Constantin Brumidi in 1865 is called The Apotheosis of Washington. The word "apotheosis" means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god. Just like the ascension images of Jesus and Buddha Washington rides upon a rainbow. If you stand high up in the Rotunda and look down towards the distant floor below, you have a vision reminiscent of Hollywood's portrayal of Star-gates. We'll take that amazing view and see the Star-gate for ourselves! As William Henry will explain throughout this amazing tour the alchemical transformation of man into a god and the concept of the Stargate are the keys to unraveling the mysteries of the American Rite.
Found Here: http://www.chetsnow.com/americanrite.html

The Apotheosis of Washington depicts George Washington becoming a god (apotheosis). Washington, the first U.S. president and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, is allegorically represented, surrounded by figures from classical mythology. Washington is draped in purple, a royal color, with a rainbow arch at his feet, flanked by the goddess Victory (draped in green, using a horn) to his left and the goddess Liberty to his right. Liberty wears a red cap, symbolizing emancipation, from a Roman tradition where sons leaving the home and/or slaves being emancipated would be given a red cap. She holds a fasces in her right hand and an open book in the other.

Forming a circle between Liberty and Victory are 13 maidens, each with a star above their heads, representing the original 13 colonies. Several of the maidens have their backs turned to Washington, said to represent the colonies that had seceded from the Union at the time of painting.

Surrounding Washington, the two goddesses, and the 13 maidens are six scenes lining the perimeter, each representing a national concept allegorically: from directly below Washington in the center and moving clockwise, "War," "Science," "Marine," "Commerce," "Mechanics," and "Agriculture":

The symbolism and lore surrounding the famous fresco have been mentioned in the latest Dan Brown novel The Lost Symbol.

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington

Statue of Shapur I Sassanid at Cave of Shapoor

The entrance of this cave is one of the largest in Iran. It is a 20m wide and 5m high portal leading to a 50x100m big and up to 12m high chamber. At the far end various short passages start, which may be explored. Appropriate equipment is needed, especially good light. We have no information about the difficulty of the visit, however, the archaeological remains in the entrance hall are very easy to visit.

In the middle of the entrance hall is a 1,800 years old statue of Shapoor I., the Great (241-272). About 1,400 years ago, after the collapse of the Sassanid dynasty, it was pulled down and lost one of its legs. About 70 years ago, the arms of the statue were also broken. 30 years ago a group of enthusiasts raised it on its feet and fixed the foot with iron and concrete.

The story how the arm was destoyed seems to be true, but it sounds like a legend. 70 years ago, a young man from the Qashqaie tribe, who own this area, fell in love with a girl. The girl's father asked the young man to prove his courage by going to the cave at night. The young man went to the cave the same night, ignoring the danger of wild animals. He brought a stick with him, which he rammed into the floor beneath the statue, to prove he had been there. He did not have light, and in the complete darkness he did not mention that he nailed the long tail of his traditional costume into the floor too. When he tried to leave, he was hold back by his cloth, and as he thought he was grabbed by the statue he got a heart failure and died beside the statue. In the morining some people looked for him, and found him dead in the cave. The young man's brother thought the statue had caused his death (which was partly true...) and threw big stones at it until one of its arms was broken.

Found Here: http://www.showcaves.com/english/ir/caves/Shapoor.html

7 meter tall statue of Shapur I Sassanid king of Persian empire that captured Valerian the Roman emperor, located at Tang-e-Chowgan in front of a mysterious cave, near Kazeroun, Southern Iran.

Found Here: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1678299

Fractals

A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole,"^[1] a property called self-similarity. Roots of mathematical interest in fractals can be traced back to the late 19th Century; however, the term "fractal" was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latinfractus meaning "broken" or "fractured." A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion.^[2]

A fractal often has the following features:^[3]

• It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
• It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric language.
• It is self-similar (at least approximately or stochastically).
• It has a Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension (although this requirement is not met by space-filling curves such as the Hilbert curve).^[4]
• It has a simple and recursive definition.

Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered to be infinitely complex (in informal terms). Natural objects that approximate fractals to a degree include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snow flakes, various vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli), and animal coloration patterns. However, not all self-similar objects are fractals—for example, the real line (a straight Euclidean line) is formally self-similar but fails to have other fractal characteristics; for instance, it is regular enough to be described in Euclidean terms.

Images of fractals can be created using fractal-generating software. Images produced by such software are normally referred to as being fractals even if they do not have the above characteristics, as it is possible to zoom into a region of the image that does not exhibit any fractal properties.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - Phoenix against Heimdall crater as it lands

They announced at this morning's press conference that yesterday, when they first looked at their photo of Phoenix under its parachute, the HiRISE team failed to really take in the context of the image. Well, here it is, and -- prepare to have to pick your jaw up off the floor.

Phoenix against Heimdall crater as it lands
This amazing image was captured as Phoenix came in for its Mars landing on May 25, 2008. The HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed at Phoenix, which is seen here against the background of a 10-kilometer-diameter crater called Heimdall. The dramatic view makes it appear that Phoenix is falling into the crater, but in fact Phoenix was 20 kilometers closer to HiRISE than Heimdall, and it landed nowhere near the crater. The photo was taken 20 seconds after Phoenix' parachute opened. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona

Found Here: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001468/

MRO's HiRISE camera acquired this dramatic oblique image of Phoenix descending on its parachute. Shown here is a a wider view of the full image, showing a 10 kilometer diameter crater informally called �Heimdall,� and an improved full-resolution image of the parachute and lander.

Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers in front of the crater. It is difficult to believe that it is in front of the crater because it is so much smaller, but in reality it is, and that's a good thing because landing on the steep rocky slopes of the crater would have been far too exciting (or risky).

Images from the lander clearly show that it sits on a flat plain, although the rim of Heimdall may be visible on the horizon. Given the position and pointing angle of MRO, Phoenix is at about 13 km above the surface, just a few seconds after the parachute opened. This improved image shows some details of the parachute, including the gap between upper and lower sections. At the time of this observation, MRO had an orbital altitude of 310 km, traveling at a ground velocity of 3.4 kilometers/second, and a distance of 760 km to the Phoenix lander.

The image was rotated to a position that seems approximately parallel to the horizon based on the elongation of Heimdall crater, but this is not exact. Thus, although Phoenix appears to hang from the parachute at an angle, as if swaying in the wind, the exact geometry has not yet been determined. The parachute image is very sharp as its apparent motion was straight down the HiRISE TDI (time delay integration) columns. However, the surface of Mars was moving at an angle to the TDI columns, and thus is smeared by a few pixels, although the smear is not apparent at the reduced scale of the image shown here.

The sun is almost directly behind HiRISE, so the parachute should be casting a shadow onto the slope of the crater, but we cannot determine which of many dark spots is the shadow until a detailed geometric analysis has been completed.

Found Here: http://bbs.keyhole.com

Cymatics

Cymatics (from Greek: κῦμα "wave"), also known as modal phenomena, is the study of visible sound and vibration, typically on the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane. Directly visualizing vibrations involves using sound to excite media often in the form of particles, pastes, and liquids. ^[1]

The apparatus employed can be simple, such as a Chladni Plate^[2] or advanced such as the CymaScope, a laboratory instrument that makes visible the inherent geometries within sound and music.
Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics

Its obvious to me that the scientific community investigating "Oscillons" (part of non-linear dynamics) does not know about Dr. Jenny's work.

There are also far more links to be found on the web than I list here.

• You can get books and videos of Jenny's work from this source.
  
  
• A related phenomenon (actually, the same thing) is called "Oscillons". Here is a link to the "discoverer" of Oscillons.
  
  
• Very short Scientific American article on Oscillons.

Found Here: http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/Lynn/Cymatics/cymatics01.html

The truth is that sound creates a dynamic mandela-like pattern in every water molecule of your entire body. And, since your body is 90% water, the effect on your whole system is dramatic. In fact, your entire body (especially your skin) is actually an ear. When you consider the findings of Dr. Emoto, which prove that your intention changes the structure of water, then it becomes clear how sound and intention can create extraordinary changes in your body and consciousness.

Cymatics, the study of wave phenomena, is a science pioneered by Swiss medical doctor and natural scientist, Hans Jenny (1904-1972). For 14 years he conducted experiments animating inert powders, pastes, and liquids into life-like, flowing forms, which mirrored patterns found throughout nature, art and architecture. What's more, all of these patterns were created using simple sine wave vibrations (pure tones) within the audible range. So what you see is a physical representation of vibration, or how sound manifests into form through the medium of various materials.

Dr. Jenny's methodology was meticulous, well documented, and totally repeatable. His fascinating body of work offers profound insights into both the physical sciences and esoteric philosophies. It illustrates the very principles which inspired the ancient Greek philosophers Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Plato, on down to Giordano Bruno and Johannes Kepler, the fathers of modern astronomy. "In the beginning was the word..." takes on a whole new meaning while looking at these experiments!

These cymatic images are truly awe-inspiring, not only for their visual beauty in portraying the inherent responsiveness of matter to sound, but also because they inspire a deep recognition that we, too, are part and parcel of this same complex and intricate vibrational matrix.

Check out more details at www.cymaticsource.com