BoneDance Photos, Preview of NGC’s Unlocking the Great Pyramid, The Grand Inquisitor, The Third Degree, Quantum of Solace, and more….

 

The Temple of Goddess Spirituality in Cactus Springs (dedicated to Sekhmet).

 

 

 

Some photos of altars from the BoneDance. Next year I will be setting up our tent.

 

NGC’s Expedition Week. National Geographic Channel Expedition Week Begins November 16 – 23, 2008. NGC’s first annual Expedition Week begins on Sunday, November 16, at 9:00 p.m. with Unlocking the Great Pyramid. The next shows are Direct from the Moon, Shipwreck! Captain Kidd (Nov. 18), The Real George Washington (Nov. 19), Lost Cities of the Amazon (Nov.20), Egypt Unwrapped (Nov. 21) and a bonus premiere with Herod's Lost Tomb (Nov. 23).

 

I got the entire Expedition Week DVD and immediately watched The Great Pyramid, a 6 minute preview of Direct from the Moon, and Lost Cities of the Amazon!

 

Unlocking the Great Pyramid.

 

How was the Great Pyramid at Giza built? The two most prevalent theories fail to explain how builders managed to lift limestone blocks weighing an average of two and a half tons, 480 feet up onto the top of the pyramid.

 

A new theory argues that the answer may have been a ramp inside the pyramid. Architect Jean-Pierre Houdin went to Giza with Egyptologist Bob Brier (I’ve missed Bob! He’s been missing from TV!) to put his theory to the test. How to Build a Pyramid

 

 

by Bob Brier: http://www.archaeology.org/0705/etc/pyramid.html

 

Why haven’t volunteers or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation moved at least one fallen block of stone and “fixed up” the Great Pyramid? Am I the only one who has noticed that there are stones just lying around? Why not repair Ma'amun's Hole? An outer casing stone from Khufu’s Pyramid is on display in the British Museum. I say, return it to Egypt!

 

Quantum of Solace.

 

Is this Bond, James Bond? It’s not Monaco or the French Rivera, this time it’s La Paz, Bolivia. I’ve been through Bolivia and no one in “Quantum of Solace” gets the dreaded altitude sickness.

 

I thought “Casino Royale” was sensational, with the scene between Bond (Daniel Craig) and Vesper (Eva Green) aboard the train now a classic. I’ve already seen it reprised on a TV series. Well, we gave kudos to the writers, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis. And what about Le Chiffre? Bond villains cannot be commonplace criminals and Le Chiffre was certainly not someone we’d meet at the mall. You’d spot “Quantum” villain Mr. Greene walking down your street in casual wear.

 

Once again, the same writers take on Craig’s second turn as 007. Paul Haggis takes first place, but obviously he was not the one who instilled “Casino Royale” with the verbal sparring we all loved.

 

The action scenes are so fast, with such quick cuts, that one loses any sense of awe. Instead of those ski scenes that opened Roger Moore’s too-long reign as 007, now we have Bond racing through Italy in his Aston Martin being chased by some bad guys. How come employee-goons never give up? Is there bonus pay for being the one who nails the target?

 

With the huge success of “Casino Royale”, and Craig firmly in place as everyone’s best Bond, he’s taken the character deeper and further along the DSM-IV. He’s leaner, rougher, angrier, and much more ruthless. He likes killing instead of interrogating. He is not about to take prisoners.

 

“M” (Judi Dench) has become a busy-body nag and a stalker. We get to see the real “M” at home in her nightgown greasing her face with Vaseline. We then see “M” shopping for groceries at a Costcutter.

 

Instead of a swimsuit, Bond is a bloody mess throughout “Quantum”. Would your iconic James Bond wear dirty white chinos? What kind of MI6 secret agent has his credit cards rejected?   

 

There is a secret organization that no one knows anything about and they are everywhere. When “M” is targeted for assassination, Bond goes viral. On the trail of the secret organization, Bond goes to Haiti and meets gorgeous agent Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who is hooking up with buggy madman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) in order to get closer to a bloated Bolivian general, Medrano. Greene will finance Medrano’s dictatorship run in exchange for a big piece of Bolivia’s desert. Greene is not a classic Bond villain; he’s more an accountant with connections and an eco-friendly company, Greene Planet.

 

Do psychopaths secret agents experience regret and revenge? It seems that “M” is worried about Bond getting sentimental and writing poetry. Bond has to keep reassuring “M” he’s dedicated to his job, nothing more. The writers have thrown away for template of Bond and made him more of a rogue adventurer than a suave killer. I’ve had to live through slapstick, lumbering Bonds and Bonds who look tired, so I’ll ignore “Quantum” and wait for the franchise to return to the cold, calculating world of absurd wealth and villains with narcissistic aspirations to rule the world.

 

Yes, I’m disappointed, but Craig is nevertheless electric. And I do like that when Bond crashes through a building and hits concrete, he actually gets bruised. And when Bond kills somebody in a messy fight, he gets blood on his shirt! Craig’s input is clear, but he should be reminded that we want the man, James Bond, we will never meet. The man aboard the yacht. The man who knows his way around the Anatolian plateau.

 

What I’m Reading.

 

"The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God". Author Jonathan Kirsch ties the Catholic Church's Inquisition to the activities of the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist purges, the American "witch hunts" of McCarthy era, and the present day excesses of the "War on Terror" and water-boarding. The torture chamber of the Inquisition reflects the interrogation cells at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

 

Here are just a two fun facts on Purgatory and The Third Degree:

 

“To encourage attendance, the spectacle [of public executions] was generally mounted on a Sunday, the date was announced in advance from the pulpit at church services, and those in attendance at the auto-da-fe were promised an indulgence by which their souls would be spared forty days of suffering in purgatory.”

 

Forty days early release from Purgatory! Limbo has been decommissioned, but we can still negotiate our stay in Purgatory! Limbo Eliminated; Status of Purgatory in 'State of Limbo'

By Raoul Thibodeaux, Avant News Staff Writer. Rome, Italy February 12, 2006

 

The new catechism of Roman Catholic doctrine that did away with Limbo and was approved by Pope Benedict XVI in the middle of December 2005 threw the state of Limbo into a state of chaos. This catechism changing the eternal residence for those souls included in both the Limbo of the Fathers (limbus partum) and Limbo of Children (limbus infantium) by moving them straight to Heaven has left many souls wondering what happened and why.

 

“Operations in Limbo have been running smoothly for the last eight centuries and then, out of nowhere *POOF* everybody is gone,” said Micah Herschisinger, the former Director of Operations in Limbo who, prior to the new catechism, was responsible for the eternal care of approximately 6.4 billion souls of unbaptized and aborted infants and the 72 righteous Hebrew prophets who lived before Jesus Christ was born. (Pictured: Christ in Limbo by Friedrich Pacher)

 

“It really surprised me when I heard Cardinal Joe [Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)] make the announcement. I thought it was a mistake or some holy joke because I had not received any memo about any changes,” Mr. Herschisinger admitted. “Of course, I had heard rumors about some type of heavenly restructuring to be undertaken, but souls are always gossiping and I’ve been hearing this stuff since the 16th century.”

 

Mr. Herschisinger, along with the entire managed care staff of 4.8 billion souls, is a resident of Purgatory (Purgatorian) who makes the daily commute to Limbo to take care of the souls there (Limboids). “I really enjoyed my time working in Limbo, but I’m sure the Heavenly Board of Directors had their reasons for closing down Limbo,” said Mr. Herschisinger as he hurriedly packed up all his heavenly belongings from his office in an attempt to catch the 5 o’clock commuter cloud back to Purgatory.

 

Others were more outspoken with regard to the change. Wilma Brock, a former employee at prenatal care unit 368-25B (Section 5) in Limbo, said, “I was very upset. We had just moved into our brand new facility and begun computer training when all of a sudden every little baby soul was gone and we had nothing to do. The timing was also horrible in the sense that it happened right before the holidays. That really made for an even more boring holiday season in Purgatory than usual. It was Hell.” (Pictured: Satan, Sin, and Death: Satan Comes to the Gates of Hell by William Blake)

 

When contacted with regard to this article, God’s spokesangel Gabriel responded via email that, “God does not have time to respond to the earthly media questioning every move that the omniscient One makes. Have ye faith that his decisions are made with the best interests of Heaven and its Catholic shareholders in mind.” Gabriel closed his message boldly stating, “You do remember the big flood, right?”

 

Fernando de la Vigueres, a critical heavenly observer for the weekly Purgatorian news magazine Divine Intervention said he was not surprised by either the Limbo catechism or the way they have handled the media, stating, “God and his close group of cronies that make up the Heavenly Board of Directors have always taken a ‘greater than thou’ approach when dealing with issues that affect billions of past, present and future souls. Sure, they are loving, but they can be pretty tough as well with all of that fire and brimstone stuff – hence the flood comment.” (Pictured: Gates of Purgatory by R.L. Frisby)

 

Many speculate the move was prompted by pressures on heaven these days that were merely laughable ideas just a century ago. Mr. de la Vigueres summed this up as, “Over the last few decades Heavenly management has been forced to undertake many cost-cutting measures through outsourcing, restructuring, acceptance quotas, etc. The access to information on the earthly plane has truly upped the ante in the competition for souls and they have been forced to move away from some of their beloved hazy concepts like Limbo and be required to have a more inclusive and straightforward message.”

 

“It’s kind of funny actually,” Mr. de la Vigueres chuckled, “that a group that sees things in such a black and white manner have ended up with so many gray areas of

belief.”

 

When asked about where Purgatory fits in this new scheme, Mr. de la Vigueres said, “to be honest, Purgatory, as a concept, is even tougher for most people to understand than Limbo ever was, and I would presume that the all-knowing management realizes this as well. I guess that we will just have to wait and see what happens, but I believe that Purgatory is now in Limbo.” (Pictured: The Trinity with Souls in Purgatory by Corrado Giaquinto)

 

The Third Degree. 

 

The term “The Third Degree” began with the Inquisition, not the Masons. According to author Jonathan Kirsch: “The inquisitor, according to the meticulous rules that governed the work of the Inquisition, was empowered to subject an accused heretic to questioning under torture according to a scale that measure five degrees of severity. The first degree consisted of stripping off the victim’s clothing and then displaying the instruments of torture to the naked victim…The second degree called for the application of torture to be sustained for a period no longer than it took for the inquisitor to recite a single Ave Maria or Paternoster, that is, less than a minute. The notorious third degree permitted the torturer to torment his victim in earnest…”.

 

In the Masonic lodge, there are three degrees, the first is called Entered Apprentice, the second Fellowcraft, and the third is Master Mason. When a candidate receives the third degree in a Masonic lodge, he is subjected to some activities that involve an interrogation, and it is more physically challenging than the first two degrees (though he not beaten or harmed in any way whatsoever). Giving the person the "third degree" means interrogating him with vigor, and is a phrase taken from the Masonic third degree. (Pictured: Annie Besant, founder of the British Federation of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry in her official regalia) Death is still a spectator sport. A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Mogadishu, Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants. Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death on Oct. 27, 2008 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo.