I received an interesting article about the worldwide economic recession and thought I'd share it with you.  It's not like we have not been here before and we will all survive.  So enjoy the read and let’s get down to living life rather than letting life live us.

Have a wonderful weekend!

"We should remember that the boom-slump cycle is a natural part of our history; indeed, it is indispensable to our psychological make-up. It is like love. It is a basically incurable condition, and we revert to it again and again. First. we conceive the passion - the Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble, the dotcom or the property boom - and then we bicycle-pump our hearts with wild hormonal elation, and every time it happens we tell ourselves that this is the big one, this time it's real, this time we have broken the paradigm; and we invest with ever more irrational exuberance, and though some people occasionally tell us that the love-object is not worth it, we don't see it that way, of course we don't, since our exuberance is irrational.

And then it turns out that we have been in some way deceived, and the bubble bursts, as bubbles do, and the irrational optimism gives way to a pessimism that is equally irrational, and life isn't worth living, and nothing will ever be the same again, and we wish we could be towed out to sea and sunk with 20-inch guns.

And that, economically speaking, is where we seem to be today. It is miserable, but it is not so miserable that we have to cease all economic activity out of deference to our misery. Some people genuinely seem to think we would be better off staying at home and growing our own cabbage and baking our own bread. This is insanity. I have just brewed 24 bottles of home-made cider, and by the time I had bought the bottles and the stoppers and the yeast and the press and the alembics, it was the most expensive cider ever made."

(author unknown)

Active volcanoes, nuclear waste deposits, Mayan pyramids - there are lots of places physicists don't want to go in person, for fear of burning in in a river of magma, lethally and painfully failing to develop superpowers, or incurring the wrath of Cizin (Mayan god of death and winner of the "Most people sacrificed" award three millennia running).  Such structures have a scale that laughs in the face of radar and can be so complicated that the best seismic imaging will tell you is "Yep, there's definitely stuff down there all right".  Professor Schwitters of the University of Texas suggests using muons instead.

If you just asked "What's a muon?", then congratulations, you're part of the 99.99999 % of the population that aren't particle physicists.  A muon is a high energy subatomic particle which can penetrate huge volumes of rock, making them perfect for imaging vast structures.  The problem is that the only way humans can produce them is in huge particle accelerators like CERN or Fermilab.  These things cost such a spectacular sum of money that it would probably be cheaper to build your own Mayan pyramid and look at the blueprints to see what's inside, and besides, building a particle accelerator into a live volcano sounds like a great way to convince Bond to shoot you.  Erecting an atom-smasher around a Mayan temple, on the other hand, is a plot that the SciFi channel would dismiss as too stupidly ridiculous despite great lines like

"Professor, the linear coil accelerators are haunted!"

But Professor Schwitter doesn't mess around with piddling little toys like 26 kilometer long accelerators that require the power of a small city.  He's bringing a much bigger muon generator to bear - the universe.  It's a fact that any kind of radiation you care to imagine is generated somewhere out there, and the only reason we aren't all triple-headed glow in the dark skeletons is that the cosmic rays bathing the Earth collide with the upper atmosphere producing all kinds of fancy subatomic particles.  Including muons.  Every square centimeter of the surface receives a complimentary muon per minute courtesy of stuff in space (you've gone through a fair few reading this far), and by planting detectors around the mayan pyramids the professor plans to build up a 3D model of the interior.

The key is that while muons can pass through solid matter, they can be deflected from their path - the more mass, the greater the deflection. In this way the detector data can build up a picture of where there is solid rock (more deflection) and empty chambers (less). Combining subatomic shenanigans, astrophysics and archaeology in this way is one of the coolest crossing of concepts since the short-lived Trampoline Shark Boxing League, and is at least one positive side-effect of every subatomic physicist in the world standing around bored and twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Large Hadron Collider to come online.

Posted by Luke McKinney. Source:www.dailygalaxy.com

Certain aspects of the interlocking Maya calendar system have filtered into public consciousness in the last decade and a half. One of them is the prediction that we will come to the end of a solar-planetary cycle in 2012. But what is this cycle exactly and why is it going to end on the winter solstice of that auspicious year? Is the world going to end as some people are forecasting?

The Maya conceived of time and human history as moving in cycles, small and large. While we use a single calendar to keep track of our annual solar circuit and to mark all of the important days within a year, the Maya used a variety of calendars. The array included a 365-day solar calendar; a 260-day sacred calendar and a Long Count calendar that operated something like an odometer with a zero start date. Unlike the other calendars the Long Count clocked linear time and was programmed to stop after 5,125 years elapsed.

The Long Count was begun at the onset of this current cycle, known as the 5th Sun, in 3114 BC. It will clock the required number of years to complete a full cycle of five suns on December 21, 2012. John Major Jenkins has made the case that this date corresponds to two major alignments, (one between the winter solstice sun and the galactic equator; the other an approximate one between solstice sun and galactic core) and it also completes the Great Zodiac precession cycle of 26,000 years.

The Maya began their Long Count on what they referred to as the ‘Birth of Venus.’ Scholars have never been able to determine what the Maya were referring to and neither have alternative researchers. Nevertheless their sacred calendar, the Tzolkin, placed the synodic cycles of Venus in a central role. The 104-year ‘Venus Round’ cycle (2 Calendar Rounds of 52 years each), was a very important ceremonial event as this was the point in time when the solar and sacred calendars realigned with the cycle of Venus.

An important numerical progression needs to be inserted at this point to provide a basis for the rest of the article. The number thirteen was a root number for the Maya. It is both a prime number and the eighth number in the crucial Fibonacci series that is one source of the Golden Ratio, 1.618.

If we use 13 as the root of the Mayan calendar system we find the following sequence: 13, 26, 39, 52, 65, 78, 91 and 104, which are achieved by simply adding 13 to each succeeding sum. These are the key numbers in the Mayan calendrics and they have a solid scientific footing. Venus was the central component of the Mayan cosmology. It is for good reason that our nearest planetary neighbour is called earth’s sister planet. They have a phase-locked orbital cycle that is based on a 13:8 ratio. That is derived from the fact that Venus revolves around the sun 1.6 times faster than Earth so that 13 Venus revolutions is equal to 8 years.

Why is this important? By establishing Venus as the key component of the sacred calendar they automatically built the Golden Ratio (1.6) into the system since that ratio defines the difference between the two planets orbital cycles. By using 13 as the root number they also included the crucial multiples, or powers, of thirteen - 13,000 and 26,000 - or half as well as the full number of years in the precession. We see that the 5 Suns, each lasting 5,125 years, also add up to the Great Zodiacal Year. We can break these numbers down in different ways and each will show that there was nothing arbitrary about the Mayan system. We somewhat arrogantly disdain other cultures for being superstitious until we come to the number 13 and our own irrationality surfaces. But let’s examine how deeply embedded this number - as well as 26, 52 and 91 - are in our own calendar. Our year is divided into four seasons that are demarcated by the equinoxes and solstices.

Each of the four seasons is 91 days or 13 weeks long, which gives us a year of 52 weeks. We see the key Maya 13-base numerical progression reflected in our own calendar. Half of a year is 26 weeks. It is beyond the scope of this article to delve into all of the intricacies of the Mayan calendrical and mathematical systems; they were extremely adept in these fields.

What has been uncovered during decades of research into this topic are two crucial keys to understanding the system: the ‘Transit of Venus’ and solar output cycles. It just so happens that the 2012 end date corresponds to a Venus Transit cycle that occurs twice in the next 10 years in 2004 and then in 2012. As mentioned above Venus was central to the Mayan cosmology. The Long Count began on what the Maya call the “Birth of Venus” so it is perhaps not too surprising that it ends on a Transit of Venus.

This research has revealed that a Transit of Venus occurred in 1518 and 1526. This was the period when Cortez landed on the shores of the Yucatan and wound up conquering the Aztec empire. The next transit was in 1631-’39. It was followed by a complete stoppage of the sunspot cycle, which lasted for 70 years (science has no explanation for this event). The ‘little ice age’ occurred between 1645 and 1720. What do we find associated with the next transit in 1761-‘69? We discover the birth of the American Revolution.

There is no doubt that the Transit of Venus was an important divinatory alignment factored into the Maya calendar. We will not have to wait for long to test this theory and also get a glimpse of 2012 during the ‘passage’ years. But in reality as Jose Arguelles and others have pointed out the precursor years began in 1987 and the final stages of this cycle really kicked into gear in 1991-’1993. How do we know? There has been a tremendous surge in the number and magnitude of natural disasters and this was also forecast as a harbinger of the 5th Sun’s demise.

13,000 years is a very important time period since we know that the last ice age ended then. This indicates that there is a periodicity to the solar output cycle. There are short and long term fluctuations in solar output and as a result great ice ages, little ice ages and warm inter-glacial, which we are in nearing the end of now.

The cyclical nature of the long range weather patterns are well established is are the variable nature of solar activity. We know that that is true since we have been in a ‘global warming’ period for the past 300 years. The “little ice age” started to thaw in the early 1700s when the sunspot cycle returned. The level of solar activity has been increasing steadily from that ‘zero sunspot point’ right up to our recent sunspot cycles in 1989-‘90 and the double peak in 2000- ’02.

Is it a coincidence that 2012 also coincides with the next solar sunspot maximum? The actual peak of this 300-year cycle of increasing solar output occurred in 1960 when the number of sunspots exceeded 200, the usual peak is around 100-150. Now, what is interesting is that during the first half of the 20th century the Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity were comparatively quiet.

Then after 1960 the level of seismic and volcanic activity increases steadily to the point that the 1990s can accurately be called the ‘decade of disasters’. The surge in major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions radically departed from earlier decades. According to the chief scientist for the world’s largest reinsurance company Zurich Re, “since 1960 natural disasters are a growth industry.” There is hardly the need to mention “global warming” since it is constantly in the headlines. However, the truth is obvious for those that care to see it. The Earth has been warming for 13,000 years with periodic short-term cold spells. However, solar output is the forcing mechanism behind global warming and the 5th Sun is intimately tied to that phenomenon. What does the end of the 5th Sun really mean?

This can be taken very literally to mean that the sun’s output is going to change. We are going to enter the flip side of a new 13,000 year cycle. The earth is overheated and so is the sun, the result being planetary instability manifested in rising earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and erratic weather patterns. These will increase further starting in 2004. The volcanic ash will create more and more cloud cover and that will begin to cool the planet down. If my theory is correct the Maya knew that the Venus Transit acted like a circuit breaker switching off the sunspot cycle and impacting the Sun-Moon-Earth-Venus system. This appears to have happened just prior to the previous two ‘little ice ages’ that were preceded by what solar physicists call the Spoorer (1400-1510) and Maunder Minimum(s) 1640-1710), periods of radically diminished solar activity.

The Venus Transit will trigger the demise of the 5th Sun and set the stage for the next cycle, the 6th Sun. That is the physical side of the Maya 5th Sun forecast. Unlike many predictions this one is built into the Maya calendar and it can be verified with some historical research. Is the world going to end in a violent crescendo of natural disasters and impacts from cosmic objects? This is not likely to be the disaster anticipated nor is it what the Maya predicted.
However, a prolonged period of change is on the horizon that will be ushered in by the 2004 – 2012 ‘passage’. It will culminate in the galactic alignment and complete the processional cycle at that point.
Source: Diagnosis 2012

The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the world's ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.

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Hello Horst, thanks for the visit and your comment. I hope this answers your question

Salad Rocket is also referred to as Arugula

All rocket species have a distinct, pungent-aromatic flavour; the pungency increases with the age of the leaf. The aroma is often described as nutty, herbal or green. The rocket species are native to Central and Southern Europe, but have also been spread to Northern America.

So I have joined the little clan of Camelot and feel so guilty for not contributing much to make it worthwhile.

It has been a very busy period here at House Clifton. The garden has undergone a major revamp; this all took place during a heat wave that left us reeling, transporting me in memory to my time in Singapore. Only I would choose to undertake a garden revamp under such energy sapping conditions. In desperation and one of concern, I connected up and positioned cooling fans around the garden to try and improve the sweltering conditions for the workers slaving away to get the garden completed. The plants have survived well considering, however I feel I may just have lost a few willing contractors forever!

Cape Town does experience some exceptional hot weather days during the summer period, but those days are usually of the dry hot berg wind kind, not as experienced these past few days with temperatures close to 40C and humidity of 49%.....Thankfully House Clifton has good air-conditioning.

Back to the garden; House Clifton has received 4 new babies to join the growing little ecosystem which is in progress. They are clicking stream frogs and all four seem to be settling in nicely, and I look forward to enjoying their pleasant clicking sounds join in on the nightly chorus.