The Whys? Persist

I read, a couple of days ago, that the search for lost airliner MH370 is, possibly, to be resumed in the near future.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41691794

"Malaysia is negotiating a "no find-no fee" deal with a US company to renew the search for downed flight MH370. The government announced in a statement that it was in talks with Texas-based salvage firm Ocean Infinity.
If the deal goes ahead, Ocean Infinity will foot the bill and recoup costs only if it finds the missing plane........."

Wonderings on the mystery of this plane, lost in March of 2014 with 239 souls on board, frequently float around my mind. Media have all but forgotten about the tragedy in these times, when there are many more click-worthy gossip pieces available, highlighting President Trump's regular mis-deeds and mis-speaks.


A more recent mystery, about which media has rapidly gone quiet, but questions remain: what was the likely motive behind recent brutal murders in Las Vegas, by Stephen Paddock, of 58 concert-goers, and injuries to hundreds more? I've been wondering, in kindlier moments if perhaps, media have been asked, or warned, to "go quiet" while authorities conduct inquiries and research in a calmer atmosphere. Or, in more cynical moments, I wonder: is this just another disgusting "shove it under the carpet" deal with the NRA?

Another Mystery

Recent news reports online of the discovery, via satellite pictures, of ancient earthworks, fully visible only from space set my little heart a-racing that bit faster. Memories of Erich von Däniken's book, Chariots of the Gods and old stories of the Nazca Lines bubbled to the surface once again.

High in the skies over Kazakhstan, space-age technology has revealed an ancient mystery on the ground.

Satellite pictures of a remote and treeless northern steppe reveal colossal earthworks — geometric figures of squares, crosses, lines and rings the size of several football fields, recognizable only from the air and the oldest estimated at 8,000 years old.
NASA Adds to Evidence of Mysterious Ancient Earthworks............

Click on images for enlarged versions. The earthworks are from 300 to 1,300 feet across, so they can only be fully appreciated from a distant satellite's perspective.




What was their purpose? Some suggestions I've read so far include: a way to corral cattle(that doesn't seem at all likely to me); used in religious ceremony or relating to religion - but why so huge? Some kind of calendrical guide - this sounds most likely, if we discount any alien-related fantasy (or is it fantasy?) I suppose someone standing at certain points in the square or circle, during the year (or the year as we now count it) might note the pattern the stars and planets were forming - that kind of thing. It must have taken much effort and time to construct these things, they were obviously of great importance.

Any ideas? Wilder the better!

Up Mystery Creek ...with a table and no paddle

Your heart's desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.
~ Cormac McCarthy, "Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West".

Husband, during a chat about his grandparents, whom he hardly knew, described a stray memory he has retained, involving his grandmother - and his mother. In his childhood, one evening, they took him along to a family gathering; it'd have been sometime in the mid to late-1940s. The gathering took place in a long room lit by rows of old fashioned camping lamps. About a dozen relatives were there, seated around a very large circular wooden table - of the style with one huge central "stem" holding up the tabletop. Husband, and the rest of his relatives were asked to place their finger-tips of both hands on the table top. His mother told him he must think hard on the words, "Table lift !...Table lift!" He still recalls that he squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated very hard on those words of command.

The table lifted.

Coming from husband, I found this a strange story. He has, and as far as he knew his mother had, no interest whatsoever in such things as spiritualism, the mysteries, psychic phenomena...even astrology (pshaw!)

After typing that, I searched and found a video depicting one such experiment. This one was conducted by a professional magician. A few commenters on this video have the trick solved, it appears. If a similar thing had happened in the case of husband's childhood experience, he must have had a magician and assistant among his relatives!

I have no such tabular experience to relate, though I've always had an interest in mysteries of all kinds.

Excerpt from a June 2008 post:

In my younger years, in the UK, I experimented with spiritualism, attended several different spiritualist churches and meetings. I was moderately interested in it all, but not sufficiently so to continue the experiment for more than a year or two. I do understand its attraction, but it just wasn't right for me. One side of me was drawn to it while the other side remained too doubtful to accept it.

I remember an occasion, when working in a previously unvisited part of the UK, I sought out a spiritualist church, attended an evening meeting. Several of the congregation eyed me with suspicion, making me feel decidedly uncomfortable. After the meeting members approached me and asked if I was representing some monitoring or "watchdog" body from a governing association. I immediately set them straight. The incident did bring home to me how insecure the people felt. I doubt that established traditional churches have watchdogs monitoring their proceedings. It's an example of how people who follow ideas and beliefs outside the mainstream can feel vulnerable. I guess this kind of thing can happen to professional astrologers too.

And, from 2012, which was part of a re-posted item from 2007
(blogs have cycles too!):

Any evidence to prove to me that certain areas of mystery, such as clairvoyance, using crystal ball, tarot, spirit world, etc. have actual validity, has been scant, but there have been a few scattered experiences of that nature - albeit spanning a very long period. These have been just sufficient that I can't quite close the door, and my mind, on the idea that there is something mysterious going on, other than human wishful thinking and vivid imaginations. For instance, I can find no logical explanation for any of these:

1 ~~~ A tarot reader, who was probably also a medium in the 1960s, in Devonshire, UK, told me that someone was speaking to her, and that he had a peculiar way of using the expression "it was real" in his conversation (meaning that something was very good). I immediately recognised this person. He wasn't anyone close, simply an acquaintance, but his idiosyncratic way of using the word "real" always used to amuse me. He had died in a car accident some years before. I hadn't even thought about this person much, but was very surprised to recognise him immediately from the reader's description.

2 ~~~ Many years ago (1970s), I persuaded my late partner to accompany me to a spirtualist meeting. The speaker there pointed to him during the meeting and said, "Do you know Peter, wearing RAF uniform?" He gasped, "Yes". "Well, he is saluting you", the speaker said. I knew already that my late partner had had a close friend called Peter, in his youth, during WW2, in the Royal Airforce. Their plane was shot down over France and they escaped together. Sadly, Peter's wife had been unfaithful while he was away in the forces, and he commited suicide just after the war ended.

3 ~~~ Many Moons ago, when I was still a young teenager, a fortune-teller told my mother that I would marry someone "from over the sea, and end my days abroad". That wouldn't sound too unusual nowadays, but in the 1950s before air travel was common, computers still unheard of, it was extraordinary! Anyway, the prediction has been vindicated three times. The second time wasn't a marriage, but a 33 year relationship. # 1 husband was from Italy. # 2 from Northern Ireland. # 3 current husband is American. And here I am, ending my days abroad (hopefully not too quickly). I'm pretty sure that this wasn't what's known as "a self-fulfilling prophecy". I did harbour thoughts of retiring to Spain, which might have been seen as such, I guess. I never could have envisioned what actually did happen!

4 ~~~ A fortune teller told me, back in 1973 or thereabouts, that there would be 3 men in my life. I was already aware of two - an ex-husband and a current partner. This prediction worried me for a long time. I took it as a sign that I'd somehow lose my partner. I did, but not for another 30 years! Then # 3 appeared.

Nature, at times leaves footprints of its inverted sense of humor leaving only hope to laugh at its mysterious humor.
~ Rangam Thoitak Chiru

NOTE ~~~ Our air conditioning system bit the dust yesterday - hottest day of the year too: 100* and likely to stay that way for at least 2 or 3 more days! Posts could be intermittent for a while, until we can get system replaced (Yikes!) We will probably de-camp to a motel shortly, my northern blood protests too much, can't think straight! Perhaps we'll take a wee trip while husband's A/C expert son does the necessary for us. Haven't decided yet where or when. We'll have a laptop with us, so maybe I'll scribble something here and there.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Mystery Pic...Escher, Schuiten?

This picture is a mystery and a fantasy - Neptunian then! It's all about buildings and structure though, so in another way it's Saturnian. I found this large (36"x28"), nicely framed print in 2006, in a junk-cum-antique store in a nearby town. It was marked "Unique print, frame and mat alone are worth the asking price". True enough. The print has been tastefully framed and triple matted by someone, who at some time obviously loved and valued this picture. (Image might enlarge if clicked upon - not sure though).

When I first saw the print I was immediately attracted by the light in the window of the building in the foreground, the architecture of the doorway and windows reminded me of a building where I once worked. But the entire fantasy cityscape was and remains a mystery. I've been unable to find any information as to its artist or source. It's a good quality print. I've wondered if it might originally have been part of an even larger illustration, it sometimes gives that impression.

Those hilly structures are reminiscent of Italian hill towns, but there is no hint of vegetation or trees in the picture, and there are just too many buildings to fit that theory. The architecture is definitely European though, but not British. The picture reminds me of some of Escher's early work which depicted Italian landscapes. At right is the first lithograph ever made by M.C. Escher -"Goriano Sicoli, Abruzzi" (1929). Escher's illustrations were, as far as I know, in black and white, or occasionally black with some other colour. I doubt that our picture is a print of an early Escher illustration, but the artist was almost certainly influenced by Escher.

Perhaps my picture illustrated the artist's idea of a city of the future, or from another dimension? Whenever I gaze at it I always come back to the lighted room in the foremost building - perhaps someone in there was dreaming.......

I posted the photo of the picture on my blog in 2007, with request for ideas. Only one comment was received, from Ariana, remarking that, "It feels very Dutch & medieval, out of a fairy tale".... Indeed!

My husband posted a photo of the picture on his Flickr page, asking for ideas. He received the suggestion that it looked like something Francois Schuiten might have created. A flurry of research ensued. It does look like Schuiten's style, in his Les Cités Obscures (literally The Obscure Cities, but initially published in English as Cities of the Fantastic). It is a graphic novel series set on a Counter-Earth, created by Belgian comics artist François Schuiten and his friend, writer Benoît Peeters in the early 1980s. In this fictional world, humans live in independent city-states, each of which has developed a distinct civilization, each characterized by a distinctive architectural style. (From Wikipedia)

I've been unable to trace anything of Schuiten's that is even near to similar to the city in my picture, despite continuing to search over the years since 2006. One would expect, that if it had been produced in large format for framing, then it would be one of his well-known popular images, and would turn up online somewhere. Many of his illustrations contain similar colours and shades to those in my picture, and his drawing style is very similar, even though subject matter differs a lot. It's the nearest we've come to solving the mystery.

If any passing reader recognises the picture or the style, or can add any further information at all, I'd be delighted to hear from them.

UPDATE - Many thanks to commenter "Kidd" for information leading to this discovery:

AND Googling further I found a video with (I think) Jean Pattou himself appearing and taking over at around 3.31 mins.
My schoolgirl French isn't up to following the presentation, but more of the artist's works pop up to the bottom right of the video as the presentation proceeds.

VIDEO

On-going Mystery

I think CNN has stopped mentioning it now - so I will take up the slack.

This year's biggest mystery, so far, hasn't yet been solved: the disappearance of Boeing 777 #MH370, more than three months ago, with 239 passengers and crew on board. I've followed news stories over the weeks during extensive searches in the Indian Ocean: the discovery of pieces of debris, later proving not to be parts of the plane , the complex mathematical calculations drawn up by experts to establish the likely route and crash area using satellite "handshake pings"; the other kind of pings heard in the ocean in a likely crash area, originally thought to have been the last signals from MH370's black box equipment - doubt has now been cast on even this piece of "evidence".

There have been reports of possible sightings of the flight, from a guy on an oil rig; from some villagers on a island in the Maldives early on; and more recently from a British woman sailor on a yacht in the general area of the plane's possible route, who didn't believe her eyes when, close to the horizon she saw a large plane with what appeared to be orange lights beneath it, trailing black smoke. She didn't report the sighting immediately, three months ago, due to her disbelief.

Conspiracy theories have free range now but, strangely, the longer it goes before something definite is found, the less likely most of the theories become. Ideas about a terrorist hijack and subsequent plans to ransom passengers has become highly unlikely now, as has a possible plot to steal the plane, re-paint it, to use for dastardly deeds in the future - but what about those 239 people on board? Was the plane shot down by some over-keen military? Possible, I guess, but a plane shot down would certainly have left debris, some would have washed up or been seen by now. Lack of debris seems to indicate the plane sinking intact, or with minimal debris which sank soon after.

The most likely scenario remaining, other than fire in the cockpit or hold (which kind of makes the several known hours of onward flight unlikely) is that either one of the crew or a passenger re-routed, or caused the re-routing of the plane, but for what reason? If a passenger with sufficient expertise was involved, perhaps the reason could have been to divert the plane in order to crash it somewhere in a populated area, thus causing a 9/11-like tragedy. The captain might have been able to save this from happening by ensuring the plane would be out of range of all populated areas. Or... another scenario: if the plane's captain had held sufficient grudge against his company, or his country, and was in an emotionally unbalanced state at the time, he might have decided to "teach them a lesson" by taking the plane to sink it where it might never be found, thus causing huge expense and effort - and ensuring insurance payments would have to be made? There is some evidence that such a story might fit, but people who new the captain well have said that it seems highly unlikely, because loss of the lives of so many others was involved.

The search will continue in the Indian Ocean after the seabed has been mapped in detail. Expert search companies are currently being tendered, to continue what will likely be year(s)-long searches later this summer.

Recently it was reported as follows HERE:

Grieving relatives of passengers on board missing flight MH370 is offering a $3 million (£1.8m) reward for a whistleblower to come forward and give key information into the flight's investigation.

After three months of failed search efforts, families have become convinced the authorities are concealing the truth about the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and will launch the crowd-funding campaign Indiegogo in a bid to get answers

Latest as of 16 June: When search resumes the Inmarsat "hotspot" will be a key focus.

The emotional pain the families and loved ones of those lost have been enduring is unimaginable. I hope there will be closure for them, and soon.

My Own Peculiar Twilight Zone?

I'm not at all sure that what follows is worth a post - but I want to get it out of my head so.....

You know the strange feeling that comes along occasionally - the feeling that you need to turn around, and when you do, there's someone staring at you? I experienced a variation on it the other day.



Starting at the beginning with some background or this'll sound even sillier.

A couple or so years ago, I was thinking about my first ever boss - Mr. H. I'll call him. I was always very fond of Mr. H. he taught me a lot, about politics and life in general - no romance though - more "in loco parentis" as he used to say. He died in the late 1990s. Mr. H. had three sons, the eldest of whom I'd met once or twice when he was around 7 years old, then later as a teen (I'll call him RH ). RH emigrated to work in California after university, had some kind of falling out at home I understood, but the rift was healed later on. Anyway, on that day a couple of years ago, thinking about Mr. H. I idly typed into Google's search box RH's name. It landed on a blog written by someone of that name. I read through many entries, soon realising that this was the same RH, son of Mr. H. He even mentioned and described his father's work, and other family members, in some posts. I decided to make myself known, so left what I considered to be a very nice comment, remembering his Dad with affection and admiration, and remembering RH himself as a youth. I expected to at least receive an acknowledgement in response - but nothing. Kept looking back - nothing. I felt a wee bit hurt for a while (sensitive soul that I am) then forgot about it.

A few days ago the incident popped into my mind again - for no apparent reason. "I wonder if RH is still blogging?" Google search box - again. Ahead of the entry for his blog were several obituaries from members of an association of which he'd been a longtime member. RH had died in 2010, in his 50s, after suffering a stroke, recovering and - I assume then suffering a fatal stroke soon after. He had posted entries on his blog just a week or so before he'd died.

I tried to find my comment, but in spite of skimming once more through numerous entries from 2009 and early 2010, I couldn't spot it - wondered even if he'd perhaps removed it, along with the relevant post. What I did notice, but among comments to some obituaries elsewhere, were remarks (including one from his brother) that, though usually an affable guy, RH did have "a dark side". I can only suppose that my comment had hit him on a bad day, on his dark side.

Maybe my urge to look back was a hint from "the universe" or something, or someone, to go back and investigate?

That wasn't the first time something of a similar nature had happened to me. There's always a time lag involved. I don't find out soon after a death - these are not experiences akin to someone's grandmother appearing at the foot of one's bed at the time she died. Different thing. Events years ago, on three different occasions, fall into the same category. On one occasion I discovered that an old friend had died - discovered it via a search on the net for no apparent reason, other than the urge to do so. The other two events, further back in time, were similar but minus The Miraculous Google, and resulted from simple enquiries or a letter, also "for no apparent reason". My own peculiar Twilight Zone?