Recently watched movies

[Doctor X]

I was talking about the 1932 Doctor X not that mediocre Bogart film which is neither a remake or a sequel.

Again . . . I wanted Rathbone.

--J.D.

[Nightg1]

Doctor X

How about Isaac Newton when he put aside the work of the scientist Imanuel Velikovsky ?

I think you mean Carl Sagan and not the 17th century scientist/mathematician Isaac Newton. As Doctor X has pointed out, Newton had been dead for over 200 years by the time Velikovsky published his silly, unfounded ideas.

Sagan was actually taking the scientific community to task for criticizing Velikovsky without actually reading his writing very carefully...something I suspect is also true of you.

Its a shame that some in the scientific community attempted to suppress Velikovsky as it has made him something of a poster child for those who wish to portray all scientists as thick-headed fools who are so afraid of new ideas that they resort to totalitarian tactics to maintain the status quo. Fortunately, the "Velikovsky debate" became an open issue within the AAAS and openly discussed warts and all.

Its also a shame that Velikovsky chose to publish his ideas directly to the public rather than subjecting them to peer review. Velikovsky was well aware of this protocol as a psychoanalyst and chose to ignore it.

Still, his books sold well which seems to impress people who think that book sales prove the ideas within.

[Magpie]

"Election" was on the Diva channel last night and I stayed up to watch it on the recommendation of my wife. I thought it was pretty good, if a little "light".

I also recently watched "Real Genius" (again)--one of my favourite comedies from the '80's which still holds up pretty well.

I also had a "Fletch" night a few nights ago, watching both movies back-to-back. I never fail to wonder why, with so much great source material available in the form of the original books, they decided to cobble together "Fletch Lives" from scratch. They did such a great job staying true to the original book for the first movie--but the second one just seemed to miss the point somewhat.

I'm going through the painful task of sorting through my 2000+ VHS collection to free up space in the store room. Mostly getting rid of tapes that I've since purchased on DVD, a few that I've since downloaded (Gods bless Canadian copyright law and a DVD player that plays DIVX files) but a few gutwrenchers that I realize I'm just never going to get around to seeing (or in some cases seeing again). I've ditched two huge garbage bags of tapes so far, but I can hardly see a dent

[Gideon Fell]

Dr. X (Xavier) was played by Lionel Atwill but the 'Moon Killer' was Dr. Wells played by Preston Foster with his immortal lines "Synthetic flesh! Synthetic flesh!"

[Doctor X]

Though nothing beats Dudley Manlove's "stupid minds!" rant from the much later Plan Nine from Outer Space.

--J.D.

[Maria]

Not . . . really . . . biblical archaeologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries tended to, as the old saw goes, "wander about the desert with a Bible in one hand and a shovel in the other." It is not surprising someone would write a story about cities--look at old Meggido! However, the cities appear in other stories no less for wear. However, no, they have not found the cities "exactly as written." Sorry.

Modern biblical scholarship is fascinating, and I am happy to discuss it--maybe in another thread. Nevertheless, the findings rather contradict Velikovsky. You are dealing with a mythic past--no Patriarchs, no Sojourn, no Exodus, no Conquest, and, it appears, no true United Monarchy. Those stories were put together to ground the contemporary society into the past--there are some wonderful anachronisms that help date the stories. However, that is a HUGE topic--well beyond this one. Happy to explore it.

And he was wrong.

--J.D.[/QUOTE]

Doctor X:

I think it was Henrik Schleimann who discovered the City of Troy around 1880
Before that, everyone thought it was just a tale told by Homer.

As to Pompeii, it was discovered by accident rather than intentionally when an engineer was drenching a tunnel to take water down to Naples.

I do not think Hancock is a crank.

- Maria

[Doctor X]

I think it was Henrik Schleimann who discovered the City of Troy around 1880. . . .

Schleimann sort of read his classics onto the site rather than the other way around. He did not find Troy of Homer anymore than you can find Camelot in England.

As to Pompeii, it was discovered by accident. . . .

No one disputed that; what is disputed is the contention it was ever considered mythic.

I do not think Hancock is a crank.

The evidence indicates quite otherwise.

--J.D.

[Maria]

Doctor X

I don´t know if you have ever visited Tulún, in the Caribbean side of Mexico. At that place, there is a city Tulún which the sea was lashing at, last year. The temple of the sun is teetering at the edge of a cliff and there were fears it could have been destroyed by the hurricane´s grade 8 force, with winds at 380 miles an hour, New Orleans was only a 6 grade force and you can see the devastation that that caused. Anyway, not far from there, deep in the ocean, divers found straight long cobbled roads, giving the indication that the city must have extended all the way where the sea is now.

And not going too far... here in England in Cornwall big chunks of earth have fallen into the sea, 3 years ago, half of a hotel fell into the sea ! Luckily all their guests were at the other side of the hotel and no one perished, so it is is perfectly possible that over hundreds of years, masses of land are sunken in the sea. I think here in England we have the story of Albion which is further south from Cornwall and the folklore is that Albion was submerged under the sea.

Scientists recently announced that Britain was part of France but a river bigger than the Thames started separating the two masses of land until they became completely separated; at one point, it was possible to walk from the channel islands ( Guernsey and Jersey ) to France.

- Maria

[Doctor X]

Debunking Fingerprints of the Gods

Further Debunking Fingerprints of the Gods

Debunking Hancock's Pseudoscience

Just for starts. . . .

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

I don´t know if you have ever visited Tulún, in the Caribbean side of Mexico.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each

I am unaware of how either or the rest rehabilitates Hancock or Velikovsky.

--J.D.

[Maria]

Doctor X

I really think you are mistaken about Troy. Troy does exist, there was an interesting documentary by Michael Wood who knows how to read ancient languages and it was fascinating to see it at the site of Troy.

- Maria

[Doctor X]

I really think you are mistaken about Troy.

Show me the evidence for:

• 1. The Apple of Discord
  2. Amazons
  3. Nestor "that Old Man"
  4. The Horse
  5. Zeus
  6. Hera

That was my point. New York exists. There is no Keyser Soze.

--J.D.

[The Good Michael]

No. Not everyone could have made them, since the purpose for these drawings its still very much unclear, and it is not a competition either, these were done by Native American cultures before Europeans arrived to steal their lands.

Maria, so you've seen the lines then in person? They are simple and aren't all that old, though they do predate Pizarro. This is a competition. To claim that they are something special invites comparisons with other things that are even greater, though considered somewhat ordinary by many. The Nazca lines are ordinary, and their purpose is probably much like any other building, artwork, or creation by any other short-lived, somewhat old, culture. Nazca is absolutely nothing when compared to anything else coming from any other New World culture. The Iroquois nation was a far greater development. There's your competition.

Mike

[Maria]

Doctor X :

How about Ferdinand Fouqué ? He dug in Santorini in 1862 and found fresco covered walls of houses and painted pottery beneath 26 feet of pumice, the result of the great eruption that divided the original Santorinii.

Ferdinand Fouqué was a scientist who did exhaustive studies of igneas rocks in Corcega and Santorini detailed in his book: Les Trememblements de terre. He was a French geologist who taught Natural History at the French College and he was elected as a Member of the Academy of Science in the section of minerology he also studied the volcanic phenomenoms, minerals and rocks being the first scientist to introduce modern petrographic methods to France

So there is plenty of evidence that at one point or another, chunks of earth have sunk into the sea. This is not a crank´s idea, plenty of evidence is there to show that this is true. You cannot deny that.

- Maria

[Graham]

Doctor X,

Albion is the old name for the British Isles - ref: Ptolemy. Derived from the White (or these days mucky grey) Cliffs of Dover.

The land off Cornwall that legend has it sunk beneath the waves is Lyonesse.
They do say that on dark nights if you stand at Lands End you can hear the bells of Lyonesse a-ringin'. I can hear bells anywhere most nights.

Graham