Pyramid Power?

"El Castillo"    Mayan temple on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico    Photo CREDIT: Hector Siliezar

 

A tourist with a camera  in Mexico seems to have been in the right place at exactly the right time while visiting an ancient temple built centuries ago by the Mayans. The Mayans lived on the Yucatan Peninsula and were considered to be an advanced civilization

 

 Hector Siliezar's timely photograph included the image of a major bolt of light emanating from the peak of   "El Castillo ",  the ancient and huge  pyramid-shaped structure.

 In the photo, a bolt of lightning is also visible  behind the 'tower of light'.

At Incoming Bytes we do have to wonder if this phenomenon is related to other strange occurrences or is this  genuine  'Pyramid power"?   

 Critics of Hector's photo suggest a glitch in cheap digital technology is responsible.  The 'light' is lined up perfectly with the camera pixels.  Is lining up an image with pixel structures in the camera "Impossible!   Of course not.

 Note the tower of light in my photograph below  too.   The tower of light is perfectly straight too.  Another pixel job but  this one with an expensive Nikon camera?  

 Not likely.  Why?   The distinctively-shaped light  'envelope'  is not  lined up   or lined up with any pixels, is it....

Unusual Sunrise  Tower of  Light      photo r.a. kukkee

  So much for the  pixel glitch  'technology' explanation.  The 'light envelope' clearly exists.  We suggest it reasonable the the "light tower' can exist too.   Our loyal readers  are encouraged to think for themselves.    

Oh, um...by the way, the top of the  'light envelope'  in my photo  is pyramid-shaped too.  How about that technological 'glitch' .... do we blame that on the Nikon too?   How about 'balls of energy' that have been seen?  More to come on that one.....

Is that Incoming I hear?

No Comment, but...Let's make Decisions

*Winter Sunrise:  The Age of Light is upon Us

The greater realm, inherent curiosity,  the greater purpose--humanity itself --speaks to us in echoes from the past. It asks us with every sunrise  to be brave enough to  make decisions. It demands answers to problematic areas and questions of  life, you know the kind, ethics, morality,  reality,  and intent --in all aspects of our existence. 

 The big  'Why?' even occurs on occasion.  Is the answer always "because"?
 Do you find yourself saying: "I dunno, let's ask Mikey"   or  "Who do you think I am,  Einstein"? or "the devil made me do it" ?
 
 I don't know about you,  but there are  questions I haven't  devised ready answers for.  Yet.   Why?
 To draw important conclusions, thought must be dedicated to the process of making decisions . We actually have to train our minds to think and decide.  Learn how to learn.  It is not always easy. We're bombarded daily and distracted too easily with  trash, trivia, and  'important' daily  bits and bytes. 
How about you?  Can you make important decisions easily? No?    
Let's practice and begin with small stuff.  Small should be easy, right?  Okay, let's start out small. Make some small decisions and specifically  practice the art of making decisions.  For now, pay more  attention to the process of making decisions rather than the decision itself.

 What does one actually do to make decisions?  Let's experiment. Make some. 
 Want pizza instead of  mac 'N cheese  for supper?    An orange instead of an apple?  Red tie instead of blue?    Turn left instead of right, take a different route home?    Recycle the garbage instead of  dedicating it to the landfill...the list goes on.  Mundane crap life.  Decide.  Feel the process.  High road or low.  Black or white.  Dog or cat. Stop or go. Step on the gas, speed up, think faster.   Got enough practice yet? What did you actually do to make those decisions?  What did it feel like?
Let's move into bigger, more difficult  decisions now: 

Go to university? Get married?   Buy a car?   Get a divorce?  Change jobs?  Move across the country,  The generic: like it or not?  That one is general, larger, more complex, more difficult and takes more thought.
    Finally,  a very big question;  one about  life itself.   What exactly is your purpose in life?   Will you give in,   give up,  live a mundane life, watch the boob-tube and eat junk food forever?   Will you hold out for something better,   think for yourself, and make changes for the advancement of  humanity?  
    Will you sit back in limbo, la-la-land apathy, devoid of thought,  and accept the status quo -- or not? Decide.
 
Now we're getting somewhere.  A big question that actually means something. Yes, apathy affects you  even if you don't realize it --or consciously choose the lazy way out, the low road.

 Let us awaken and bring light into our lives by being positive, doing the right thing, making the right decisions.   Can we encourage  thoughtless people. mean, dishonest, and crabby to be nicer?  How about the people that tell  little white lies and progress to ugly black lies?  Can we encourage them to change their lives and tell the truth?  Can the greedy ever be convinced they can thrive otherwise?

Can we influence enough people, ultimately even putting  deviant evil itself on notice?   Yes, that evil, that systemic, encroaching  evil-- the observable pariah that plagues humanity every day.    

 We invite and encourage readers at Incoming Bytes to think for themselves, make some decisions, make some effort,  and come to the same conclusion. We can start civilization over and do things right. How about that?  All you have to do to start is decide which toppings will be on your pizza. Feels good, doesn't it?  You have taken the first step to be in charge of your own life.

  Let us use common sense  and start making change with every sunrise. Let us decide to be proactive and change one mind at a time.  Let us decide to  win with logic and reason.  Let us decide to inspire respect for all of humanity and the planet we live upon.  Let us decide to fulfill our greater purpose in life.
Can you decide if you want to see the world changed for the better?  I have decided.   I do.
Have you made any significant decisions today?  Do you find it difficult to make decisions?


Is that incoming I hear ?


*Photo credit (c) r.a.kukkee 2012 

Real Snow Dogs Carry On

A real zoo out there...

 It was a real zoo out there last night. Snowing monkeys and elephants. You can even see them in the window. 
It came down heavy.  The rain  you have to shovel.  Kids and tow-truck operators love it. If you live in the Northern US or Canada, you know all about it.   

  It was  supposed to be a significant snow fall, an Albert Clipper, they call it. Maybe a foot or more.  A real snowstorm. Nice dry, hard snow.  Some nice drifting and blowing,  whiteout highway conditions.  I don't mind, let it snow, we have not received much snow this year at all. Weird, mild winters do that, but more importantly  it reminded me of the last snowfall.

A few weeks ago we managed to get a few inches of the soft, really sticky kind of white stuff  mild banana-belt  winters are famous for.  Surprise, surprise, we  call  that stuff 'snow', too.  Incredibly clever northerners  reportedly have many names for different kinds of snow.   If I had more names for the stuff,  they might not be printable here at Incoming Bytes.  No matter, labeled or not, there wasn't  really much of it until yesterday. 

 I forgot about the last blizzard.  Cold and wet, but sticky.  Sticky, perfect snow-man-making  snowball stuff. Fun stuff.  

Winter might be a nuisance or  a dog's life to us, but it doesn't bother  Tilly the tall;  she is a long-legged woofer  and her short, smooth coat hunter's coat doesn't collect snow easily . She shakes it off in a flash, bouncing through deep snow like she's on stilts. The snow seldom touches her almost-pink-tan we-wanna-rub-please? bare-belly.  She's tall.

Tilly the Tall

In related news, though,  the other  dog is constructed with completely different architecture. She's short-legged in stature with minimal under-carriage clearance. Ebony is  jet-black.  It's hard to get a picture of her
Now savvy drivers know that if the undercarriage  of  4x4   a.k.a. (Rusty-was-a- Jeep)  gets hung up, nothing happens.  Ain't gonna happen either. especially  37 miles from  a phone booth.  Condemned to sit with all four wheels spinning happily in the air at times, it's no wonder we like camping better.  Be prepared for any experience.  No matter. 

   Ebony the short pushes her undercarriage through  the snow,  something  like a  height-challenged-hellion with teeth.  If it gets deep, she plays athlete,  powerfully hopping  up and over--well, that is, until she becomes grounded with  carry-on baggage.

 Her Achille's heel is long, ultra-fine hair on the undercarriage that magically  builds and  collects snowballs.  A real arsenal.  Perfect for throwing at door-to-door salesmen,  but they tend to  jamb dedicated doggie-drive systems.  
 Keep in mind if 'ya wanna duplicate this experiment with your pooch,  it has to  be snowman-making snow, the special fluffy, sticky kind, and 'ya  gotta grow the right hair on the dog first.

Ebony starts with  small snowballs....

 
 The  snowballs grow bigger and bigger as she trundles about playing in the custom-ordered  snow.  Sooner or later, without fail, the pretty pup has difficulty walking with the huge snowballs that magically attach themselves on the undercarriage.  Reminds me of watching fat  honeybees collecting pollen. Between the knees comes to mind.
 Eventually the pup is waddling,  close to  grounded.  Any bigger and she would be hung up completely, paws waving wildly. No traction.  No-go. 
   

And ends up with big ones...

        

Sooner or later we have to rescue her, haul her into the bathtub and melt off  a half- dozen  4" snowballs with warm water.  I do wish it was that easy to get the old car out of  the snowbank in the driveway.



Oh well. There's always the tow-truck --or Tilly the tow-dog  as the case may be.  

 We might need both.  It's bright and sunny now,  the Alberta clipper wore itself out,   but it graciously left  about 18"  of  new,  improved white rain  to contend with.   
My  choice,  plow, shovel or stay stuck. I strategically plug in the diesel tractor with the snow blower on it, -- and hope it starts. 
Meantime, Real snow dogs carry on. The boss is staying in, schmoozing with her teddy  bear. 
Good dog. Smart dog. After all,  it's a zoo out there.  

  Ebony Schmoozing with her Teddy bear                 photo credit:  wlk photography

Is that incoming I hear?

Incoming Featured Writer: John Angus Carter

  
Every once in a while it's a pleasure to do something different.   
Once again, we introduce and feature a guest writer and friend. 
At Incoming Bytes we're always amazed  at the  incredible variety of content available to us in our daily forays into  the art and business  of writing.  I have the privilege, and am honored to interact with incredible people with the same interests;   excellent writers with very diverse styles,  true life wisdom they so generously share, and perhaps,  most fascinating of all,  stories to tell.  
John Angus Carter is one such writer and a good friend.  At  Incoming Bytes, we are honored to feature one of his many true life stories.    Please welcome John, sit back and grab a hot cup of coffee,  and enjoy  " Smelt Fishing on Lac Shampoo". 

 

                              Smelt Fishing on Lac Shampoo

                                                         * By John Angus Carter

        “The wind she blew on Lac Shampoo and the smelt he went into hiding.” 

 This bit of doggerel alludes to what some mythical Frenchman in Canada called Lake Champlain, a large lake between New York, Vermont and Quebec, Canada at the north end of the lake. 

Smelt   

Photo by Andrea Pokrzwinski

It was during February 1952 as a seventeen year old high school student I was invited by some old time smelt fishermen to go fishing for smelt on Lake Champlain in a place called Basin Harbor, Vermont,  --a bleak and dreary place at best.

 We left for Basin Harbor around nine o’clock on a bitterly cold night with the temperature well below zero and drove all night to reach Basin Harbor in the early morning hours on a very cold Saturday morning --with the thermometer on the door of an all night restaurant in Vergennes, Vermont showing -40^o   below. 

  

 The  restaurant was in a building that was below street level and although the restaurant was alright the accommodations left much to be desired.  When Phil came out of the “John” his advice to the rest of us was, “You’d better not be faint of heart when you go in there.”

 The toilet was on a high platform with thirteen steps leading up to the John just like an old time gallows.  Not only that, but there was no guardrail on the stairs. 

 The restaurant included in its bill of fare,  fishing licenses.  I had to buy one, and being a non-resident had to pay $10.

We then repaired to Basin Harbor where we were going to spend the day fishing for smelt in fishing shacks just off shore.  The problem was,  as the new fish,   they wouldn’t let me into one of the shacks, so instead I settled for the downwind sides of  one of the shacks,  and proceeded to chip a hole into the ice.   

The ice was about six feet thick, so cutting a hole was like digging an open pit mine.  First you cut into the ice with a chisel welded to a length of pipe for about three feet,  making the hole large enough to stand in. Then you chiseled your way until you struck water.  The trick was to get out of the hole before it filled with water, because it came gushing up,  completely filling the hole.

 Ice fishing hole

Photo by Bruck–Osteuropa

By that time the temperature had risen to about -30 F, --a real tropical heatwave. 

 I settled down behind the shack, and could hear the guys inside arguing about where their Ginger Brandy was.  I swiped the brandy because I didn’t want to freeze to death outside the hut. 

 So, there I sat jigging for smelt.  It was too cold even for the smelt, they weren’t biting.

 

Ice Fishing Rod

Photo by Kallern

  

After about an hour of fishing,  a big fire broke out in a sawmill in Port Henry, NY,   across the lake from us. Every fire truck in Vergennes came roaring across the beach where we were and roared  across the lake to the fire.  All the time the wind was blowing about 60 MPH and I noticed that a dock at the edge of the lake sometimes was lower then we were.  Other times that damned dock was higher then we were.

We fished from sunup to sunset.    I caught one smelt that weighed about an ounce.  This critter altogether cost me $20.  At that rate I’m glad I didn’t catch a pound of the critters. One of the other guys caught a couple of  smelts  and one whitefish that looked like a smelt on steroids.  Then we drove most of the night to get home.  

 Helluva a fishing trip,---- it takes a certain amount of patience to be an ice fisherman!

                                                                

Ice Chisel     photo wikimedia.org

 

 

                                                                                                        

This is what we used to cut  holes in the ice except ours wasn’t so fancy ----it was only a chisel welded to a piece of iron pipe.  

                                            ***             

 

Is that incoming I hear?

                                         About our featured Writer

John Angus Carter is a geologist that has had many adventures in life. He is an avid fisherman, helicopter pilot, prospector and finally a free lance writer & photographer.  For almost 30 years he was the head of an environmental consulting firm in Connecticut.  His  latest task is trying to establish a processing plant for recovering metals from the wastes from metal finishing. 

 John has an extensive writing portfolio and currently  writes TWO  highly successful blogs,  Gems and Gemstones, and Gold Mining and Prospecting. John also operates the John Angus Carter School of Prospecting in Barkhamstead, Ct.                             

 *All rights to "Smelt Fishing on Lac Shampoo" (c) 2012 remain the exclusive property of John A. Carter and may not be used without permission.