Death in a Cave

DEATH IN A CAVE

Flickering on a cave wall, shadows dance

Among this nation of necromancers

Cave 421

Hostages and their captors

thru underground tunnels, groping their way

Mustelids and certain raptors

are reported sometimes to decapitate prey

Cave 406

Deep water fish that have no eyes

Three figures, chasing each other,

running in a circle, clockwise

Cave 305

White triangular silhouettes

3-5 days before illness onsets

Cave 383

Primitive drawings, crudely etched

Animals leaping with hind legs outstretched

Cave 532

In caves, unprepared for biological attack

Fluid in the eyeball and conjunctival sac

Unwitting carriers for Project Mad Hatter

orbs distended by pale orange, cheese-like matter

Primitive man, fearing ghosts and shadows and silhouettes

while lacking sense to fear the deadliest threats

Fearing volcano and stranger and sun and storm

Fearing not for the deadly battle-lines formed

Leaving legacy of what little that could be saved,

leaving bone fragments buried in underground caves

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http://www.wookey.co.uk/giant-rabbit.html

YES, the massive long-eared carrot-chompers are soon to be back

with us at Wookey Hole Caves, because Easter's only days away,

and we want you, the esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

to have as much advance warning as possible that GIANT RABBITS

ARE AFOOT with a very strange phenomenon to reveal!

A remarkable discovery has been made by the celebrity rabbit

breeder Annette Edwards that has caused quite a stir down in the

West Country! Since last years marriage of Amy and Roberto at

the famous caves, our fluffy friends have grown and grown to

such a size that they are now officially the

WORLDS LARGEST RABBITS

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2. Preston MacDougall: Chemical Eye on a Hokie CAVE

I'm not a Hokie, but I have been there - nine years ago this

past February. I marveled at the colorful hills that Blacksburg

is fully immersed in, .

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_55296.shtml

Romanian-born engineering professor, Liviu Librescu, who

specialized in materials designed for unsteady aerodynamics,

survived the Holocaust, and escaped a brutal communist

dictatorship. But, in what might have been his most heroic

moment, his body's life force was spent dissipating the chaotic

whirlwind of hate that has sent shockwaves all around the world

from the campus of Virginia Tech.

It makes me want to crawl into a CAVE.

While it is just as possible, I am not afraid of a similar

tragedy occurring here at Middle Tennessee State University,

which is like Virginia Tech in some ways; a large, state-

supported university, set in a college town, surrounded by lots

of beautiful scenery.

And while there are lots of caves in Middle Tennessee, that

slightly acidic ground water has chemically carved out of the

basic limestone bedrock, none are of the kind that I am thinking

about. The CAVE I want to tell you about can be used to escape

reality, or to distort it as in Plato's allegory, but neither of

these would be my purpose.

Furthermore, the CAVE I want to take you to is hardly a safe

distance from the site of the massacre - it is right in the

middle of the Virginia Tech campus!

I'm not a Hokie, but I have been there - nine years ago this

past February. I marveled at the colorful hills that Blacksburg

is fully immersed in, and also at the beautiful buildings on

campus. Many are made from what locals call "Hokie stone" (a

locally-mined dolomite limestone), including those in the

stately engineering complex where I gave a Materials Science and

Engineering Seminar in the building next to the now infamous

Norris Hall.

The darker flip-side, of course, is that technological

catastrophes can also blindside you.

Preston MacDougall: Chemical Eye on Shooting for Par Excellence

Andy Borowitz: Imus Moves to Al-Qaeda Network

Just days after his "Imus in the Morning" program was dropped by

MSNBC, embattled shock jock Don Imus bounced back nicely today,

landing a new show on Osama bin Laden's fledgling Al-Qaeda TV

network.

While Mr. bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network has made headlines

in recent years, the same cannot be said for his Al-Qaeda TV

network, a perennial ratings laggard.

Critics of the network's programming say that it is dull and

uninspired, including such shows as "Osama in the Morning," in

which the fugitive terror mastermind spews repetitious

hate-filled rants from a drab-looking cave.

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22. Annals Of War - The Bioweaponeers

It has been associated with Kitum Cave, near Mt. Elgon, so the

Soviet strain ... Vector, where Variant U was developed, is no

longer part of Biopreparat.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/project0...

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http://www.threerabbits.net/

The three-rabbits image of Cave 305 is so badly deteriorated

that one has to look closely in order to see that it was once

there. But close study clearly reveals the white triangular

silhouette indicating the rabbits' ears as well as parts of

their bodies. In Cave 420, all that remains is the triangle

formed by the rabbits' three ears along with parts of their

heads. With both Caves 305 and 420, it takes some concentrated

effort to determine that the rabbits are running in a clockwise

direction.

In Cave 406, the rough white silhouettes of the three rabbits

are clearly seen against a tan background. It would require

close examination to determine whether these white areas are

places where a darker pigment of the original rabbits has

changed color over time or the original pigment has peeled off

to expose a white undercoat. In Cave 383, the slender rabbits

are gracefully leaping with front and hind legs fully

outstretched.

In Cave 397, the white silhouette of one rabbit and parts of the

other two are still clearly visible. It appears that bits of the

original pigment remain, although its tone may have changed over

time. In some places all the paint has peeled off, exposing the

beige clay. In all three of these images the rabbits are clearly

running in a clockwise direction.

The images of the three rabbits in Cave 205 are very well

preserved. Less so for the images in Caves 144 and 99, but,

again, the rabbits are clearly running in a clockwise direction

in all three of these caves.

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http://www.mybdsm.com/pages/faustopheles/bdsm.html

Gnipa Cave - Home of Faustopheles

This warning and the blank space below are for

people who may have inadvertantly bypassed

the initial warning page.

Mature themes, reader descretion advised.

Metal instruments can be autoclaved.

Alcohols are not effective against bacterial spores.

Bleach solutions should be made the same day.

Alcohol is highly flammable; be careful around

candles and other open source of flame.

Soap helps remove oils which may harbor bacteria

and viruses but doesn't disinfect itself.

Nicks, cracks, pores, etc. can harbor

infections agents. Rinsing in water helps

dilute infectious agents. Using more than one

sterilizing agent may improve effectiveness.

Air drying helps kill HIV and many others,

although you may also pick up air borne agents

I have a surplus medical sterilizer.

Unfortunately, it is basically a boiling water

setup which does not get hot enough to kill

some of the more hardy pathogens although it will

destroy many including HIV and it makes a good prop

for a medical scene An ordinary pressure cooker

can be used as an autoclave. Be sure to follow the

manufacturers directions for exhausting the air

or it won't be effective. Heat sensitive autoclave tape

may be used inside to tell if you have reached

the necessary temperature.

I also have a real autoclave

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www2.umdnj.edu/eohssweb/aiha/accidents/

autoclave.htm

Unexplained Autoclave Explosion (top)

One morning there was a sudden blast which

had laboratory personnel headed for the door.

Before too long it was determined that an

autoclave had ruptured with incredibly violent force.

The room was trashed, broken water connections

were streaming and electrical panels were

severely damaged. Racks of test tubes,

stacks of culture media and trays of used

needles awaiting sterilization prior to disposal

were splattered across the room by the tremendous

concussion. Metal shrapnel penetrated the walls.

------------------------------------------------------------------

28. Safety

This means the jewelry has been run through the AUTOCLAVE

before it is ready to be used. ...

Are there evidence of drugs around? Leave.

Does the place look like a cave? Leave.

http://www.akrontattoos.com/Safety.html

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/wwone/c16.html

"Go over to the side, it will be better there,"

said a little man, bearded like a kobold.

I lifted a hanging, with the impression that

I was penetrating into the breast of a monster.

Opposite me, raised up like a monarch on a sort

of throne, which one reached by a number of

steps, I recognized the heart of this being.

It was what they call an autoclave, a sort of

immense pot in which one could cook with ease

an entire calf. It rested flat on its belly and

flung out a jet of vapor with a noise deafening

and monotonous enough to make one lose all sense

of time and space. Suddenly this infernal sound

ceased, and it seemed to me like the end of eternity.

A lot of little vessels on the back of the monster

continued to sputter and gurgle. A man like a helmsman

was turning a large wheel and the lid of the sterilizer,

suddenly unscrewed, turned over, revealing a

fiery interior out of which came all sorts

of packages and cases.

The heat of the furnace was succeeded by a moist,

depressing warmth, like that of the sweating-room

of a Turkish bath.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_culture

The cost of growing mammalian cell cultures is high, so research

is underway to produce such complex proteins in insect cells or

in higher plants.

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11. A Discussion of Toxins Related to Terrorist Attacks

Ricin is a potent protein toxin derived from the beans of the

castor plant (Ricinus communis ) ... Ricin is very toxic to

cells. It acts by inhibiting

http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/toxins.h...

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/04/12/quincy_

woman_is_remembered_for_caring_devotion_to_community/

By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent

April 12, 2007

Sheila Lynch, a 23-year-old college student from Quincy, was

doing plant cell research in a cave in Texas last July when the

unthinkable happened. Something she touched or came into

contact with infected her with a powerful toxin. She could have

been bitten. No one knows for sure.

Whatever it was, it made her very sick. She returned to her

family in Quincy, and died a few days later.

"She was sick, she got better, and then she passed away very

suddenly," said her sister, Elizabeth. "In a lot of ways, the

shock is still there."

Tests for the toxic agent have not yet produced answers about

what Sheila Lynch encountered in her biology work on that ill-

fated trip, her sister said.

But Sheila Lynch's memory lives on. This week, Boston University's

School of Education is dedicating to Lynch a two-day program

on "The Ethics of Caring".

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com

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http://www.angelfire.com/punk2/walktheplank/rabbat.html

THE BAT CAVE

Most bats prefer to live in caves or empty buildings, where they

form colonies of a few dozen to hundreds of thousands of bats.

The floor of a bat cave is typically covered with a thick layer

of bat guano, as well as insects which feed on the guano, and

animals which prey on the bats (in South America, ASSASSIN BUGS

drink the blood of baby vampire bats that fall to the floor).

THE VAMPIRE BAT uses razor sharp teeth to slice through the skin

of sleeping pigs or cattle. The teeth are so sharp that the host

feels no pain. After making an incision, the vampire bat laps-

up the blood. The bat gorges itself until it is too heavy to fly.

Before taking-off, the bat defecates to rid itself of excess

weight. Vampires will return to feed on the same host animal

night-after-night.

The Mexican Volcano rabbit maintains elaborate runways through

dense vegetation.

Rabbits carry several diseases which are harmful to humans and

livestock, including rabbit fever.

BUNNY BIO WARFARE: A disease called Myxomatosis, which was

introduced from South American rabbits, has been used by humans

to control the rabbit population. The bunnies suffer extremely

agonizing death. Rabbit populations that have been subjected to

this treatment are already developing resistance to the disease

Well, it was last year at Wookey Hole that our famous Rabbits

took such a liking to the new Wookey Hole Cave-Aged Cheddar that

Annette added it to their daily diet!

Could it be that this distinctive cheese has made our rabbits

grow?

SAY "CHEESE"!...THE SECRET INGREDIENT

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3. Continuing Medical Education - Children's Memorial Hospital

Unpasteurized milk or cheese may be the source of brucellosis or

tularemia. Other potential infectious cesspools in improperly

cooked food include eggs

http://www.childrensmemorial.org/cme/online/article.asp?a...4.

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3. Ching Oracle - The ancient divination system

he or she jokingly says it's made of cheese or will tell a child

the story of the Man in the Moon. A Chinese person sees the

Rabbit or Hare of the Moon ...

http://www.chingoracle.com/chinese-astrology/chinese-sign

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.. CDC - Podcasts

Tularemia is not known to spread from person to person, but it

has been studies ... Historians estimate that over 200000

Chinese were killed in germ warfare

http://www.cdc.gov/podcasts/player/2.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/tularemia/biofacts/

tularemiafactsheet.html#_Tularemia_as_a

The former Soviet Union also weaponized F tularensis; the Soviet

program included development of antibiotic- and vaccine-

resistant strains.

In 1969, the World Health Organization estimated that an aerosol

dispersal of 50 kg of virulent F tularensis over a metropolitan

area with 5 million inhabitants in a developed country would

result in 250,000 illnesses, including 19,000 deaths

An outbreak of tularemia caused by a bioterrorist attack would

be expected to have the following features:

The incubation period generally correlates with the virulence of

the infecting strain; in a bioterrorist attack, a highly

virulent strain with a relatively short incubation period likely

would be used. Illness onsets would generally occur 3 to 5 days

after the initial release but could occur as soon as 1 day and

up to 14 days later.

In the event of a bioterrorist attack, use of F tularensis

strains with enhanced virulence or antimicrobial resistance is

of concern; therefore, past experience may not be a valuable

predictor of disease severity under such circumstances.

Case-fatality rate

50% in one series of 14 patients with typhoidal tularemia among case

series of 225 patients reported from pre-antibiotic era

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/researchbriefs/display.php?group=bridge&

date=2001-04-20

BU Bridge

Bats to the rescue. The subjects of mythology and folklore, bats

have traditionally been maligned as blood-sucking harbingers of

evil.

A novel multidisciplinary study is quantifying the economic

impact of bats, specifically the enormous colonies of Mexican

free-tailed bats that migrate each spring to south central Texas.

Visitors gather every evening at the mouth of the cave to

witness the colony of bats as they emerge on their nightly

search for food. At another site, right in the middle of Austin,

Tex., a colony of bats roosts under a bridge, again drawing

hundreds of tourists each night, who spend money that supports

the local economy.

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http://www.bu.edu/research/spotlight/magazine/magazine2004.pdf

Bats to the Rescue

From a distance, the millions of Brazilian free-tailed bats pouring

out of south-central Texas caves and spreading out against the deep

blue summer evening sky look like huge plumes of smoke

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.texasento.net/news.htm

UVALDE, Texas - This month a team of scientists from Boston

University, University of Tennessee, U.S. Department of

Agriculture and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will return

to the Winter Garden agricultural production area near here for

the second year of a five-year research project funded by a $2.4

million National Science Foundation grant.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.fas.org/biosecurity/resource/agents.htm

Different hypotheses have been developed to try to uncover the

cycle of Ebola. Initially, rodents were suspected, as is the

case with Lassa Fever whose reservoir is a wild rodent (Mastomys).

Another hypothesis is that a plant virus may have caused the

infection of vertebrates. Laboratory observation has shown that

bats experimentally infected with Ebola do not die and this has

raised speculation that these mammals may play a role in

maintaining the virus in the tropical forest.

------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Ebola In Texas?

What about that Ebola down in Texas? What was up with that!?!?

The outbreak in Alice Texas in 1996 was an outbreak of Ebola

Reston, which is not believed to .

http://www.brettrussell.com/personal/ebola_in_texas_.html

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://tmbgtalk.1.forumer.com/a/the-hot-zone_post1455.html

The Ebola Reston virus strain at Ferlite was traced by U.S.

investigators from a monkey holding facility in the town of

Alice, Texas, where it broke out last year. All monkeys at the

Texas Primate Center died in the March 1996 incident. The Ebola

strain is named after Reston, Virginia, where it first broke out

in 1989.

While the strain is considered harmless to humans, Ramos says

the government "will not take the chances'' as the virus has the

capacity to "transmutate.'' Ramos says the farm's license has

been ordered canceled and that all monkeys be subjected to

euthanasia, with their carcasses to be incinerated.

Ferlite Farm was earlier given six weeks to improve its

infection control measures in order to control the spread of the

virus. Experts later concluded it failed to comply with health

requirements.

------------------------------------------------------------------

7. e_virus

Bats were found in the roof of the Nzara Cotton Factory during

the Ebola Sudan ... After the Ebola Reston outbreaks in Reston,

Virginia and Alice, Texas,

library.thinkquest.org/26568/e_virus.htm

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17. Tuttle, Merlin D. 2000. RABIES UPDATE: The Media Blitz that Threatens

Bats . BATS....

.... Austin, Texas, approximately 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed

bats live downtown ... hypothesis that bats were the source of

the related Ebola virus, a wide

http://www.batcon.org/batsmag/v18n3-3.html

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27. Article - Texas Researcher Helps Create Possible Treatment for

Ebola Virus @ Acces...

Excerpt: "John Kirsch HURST, Texas _ He's battled fierce Komodo

dragons in Indonesia, searched for vampire bats in remote

reaches of Mexico and collected leeches in.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.p... K

[Found on Yahoo! Search]

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40. Science Magazine

Dobson's linking of bats to emerging dis- eases caused by Ebola

and Marburg viruses is ... of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech

University, Lubbock, TX .

http://www.bu.edu/cecb/BATS/reprints/2006/FentonetalScien...

Voucher Specimens for

SARS-Linked Bats

WE READ WITH INTEREST THE REPORT "BATS

are natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses"

by W. Li et al. (28 Oct. 2005, p. 676).

These authors and others (1) have identified

bats in three genera as reservoirs of SARS-like

coronaviruses (SL-CoVs), raising the possibility

that SARS-CoVs arose among these or

other bats.

Dobson's linking of bats to emerging diseases

caused by Ebola and Marburg viruses is

speculative and does not agree with published

literature

People must be concerned about SARS and

other emerging infectious diseases and the

roles that bats and other animals may play in

their epidemiology. When public health is the

focus, however, those concerned for conservation

of wildlife (including bats) must insist on

careful consideration of documented facts

rather than speculation and unsubstantiated

statements

3Department of Biology, Boston

University, Boston, MA 02215, USA

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3. BIOONE Online Journals - Detection of Dengue Virus Neutralizing ...

Detection of Dengue Virus Neutralizing Antibodies in Bats from

Costa Rica and Ecuador ... Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702?

5011, C. Escuela de Biologia, .

http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=...

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/biosfty/bmbl4/bmbl4s7f.htm

Few patients developed a respiratory disease. Half of the people

infected with this virus died. The natural host(s) for the

Hendra and Hendra-like viruses has not been identified; however

in Australia, bats are suspected of carrying the Hendra virus.

Epidemiologic and laboratory studies are ongoing.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-medi.htm

MCRP 4-11.1B, Treatment of Nuclear & Radiological Casualties

MCRP 4-11.1C, Treatment of Biological Warfare Agent Casualties

National Laboratory Response Network (NLRN)

Biological Assessment Teams (BATS)

Ruggedized Advanced Pathogen Identification Device (RAPID)

joint Microbiology Augmentation Teams

------------------------------------------------------------------

49. Part Two: The Mysterious Death of CIA Scientist Frank Olson

by H. P ...

.... on the roof of the Statler Hotel (then called the

Pennsylvania Hotel) so that hundreds of bats ... somehow related

to another cryptic note about Olson that had been discovered

stuck in

http://www.crimemagazine.com/olson2.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.thothweb.com/content-57.html

Saracco and Bibb quickly learned that "Lovell" was Dr. Stanley

Platt Lovell, a high-level consultant to the CIA and Camp

Detrick's Special Operations Division (SOD). Lovell's talents

were well established in the areas of biological warfare and

assassination techniques. Described by historian Corey Ford as a

"sunny little nihilist" who took great delight in concocting

"calculated mischief" and "diabolical devices," Lovell seemed to

be a shadowy, foreboding figure, a constant presence lurking in

the wings of Olson's finals acts on earth. Once during World War

II in his capacity as director of research and development for

the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA,

Lovell ordered that huge nets be erected on the roof of the

Statler Hotel (then called the Pennsylvania Hotel) so that

hundreds of bats could be captured. The nocturnal creatures were

intended for employment as unwitting carriers of small

incendiary bombs. Later, during the early 1950s as a consultant,

Lovell assisted a joint CIA-SOD team with Operation Big City and

Project Mad Hatter.

------------------------------------------------------------------

7. MOO GHOSTS file list

At Waller creek she joins the Mad Hatter's tea party. ... At her

high school graduation a Texas Alice falls through a trapdoor

into a world with girls

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/VSA/Texas.html

U.T. STUDENTS ADOPT NEW PERSEPCTIVES

Lewis Carroll Does U.T.

Summary of themes

U. T. student follows longhorn into hole, faces confusing

building abbreviations and room nos., drinking, junk food,

Ruskin's dry prose, the Walrus and the Carpenter, a professor's

office, Pres. Faulkner's office and garden, and a turtle.

U. T. physics student late for class, gets lost in a garden,

falls in a pond, dries off by reciting Theocritus, encounters a

lion, a unicorn, and a snake with a hookah. At Waller creek she

joins the Mad Hatter's tea party.

U. T. student finds herself in CandyLand. The white rabbit

becomes a Milk Duds box in a vending machine and they both fall

into Candyland, hear parodies of football yells, and meet a

Jolly Bean named Mr. bump.

A freshman moves into a dorm seeking her purpose, but finds

students as animals, the white rabbit as a kangaroo, and the

Natural Sciences adviser as a caterpillar. She tries Kinsolving

food. She is late for world lit class, where someone named

bumpty Dumpty facilitates a debate about theft by a knave at the

mad hatter's tea party

U. T. student encounters a New Orleans' Bead Lady, a white

rabbit, a talking turtle, and then finds herself in the HRC

talking to Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, J. Frank Dobie and various

obfuscating professors. Eventually she ends up on the Drag

talking a Drag Worm, Bevo, Locohorn fans, and Humpty-bumpty who

has a great fall

At her high school graduation a Texas Alice falls through a

trapdoor into a world with girls shaped like scissors and

toothbrushes, singing dogs, shuttle buses, a tower, a hurrying

Duchess, orange cows, a tea party, the UGL, and the Biology

Ponds.

U. T.student sees parallels to his life in the Alice books.

------------------------------------------------------------------

.. Information on VT-CAVE

Embedded in the floor of the CAVE at Virginia Tech is a six

degree of freedom MOOG 2000E motion platform. This project was

funded by the Office of Naval .

http://www.sv.vt.edu/future/vt-cave/VT/

------------------------------------------------------------------

6. NSF-ARI Virginia Tech CAVE proposal

The first year will be an acquisition-only activity where

Virginia Tech staff will work with the Pyramid Corporation and

NCSA's CAVE technical support

http://www.sv.vt.edu/future/ari/proposal/proposal.html

------------------------------------------------------------------

3. mystic bourgeoisie: curse of the pyramid

Crossing the Line: the curse of the pyramid ... The level above

this is the need to belong, to become Man With Nice Cave and

Loving Family.

mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.com/2005/09/curse-of-py...

------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Zelda Infinite - Link to the Past - Bunny Cave

Bunny Cave is an extra dungeon situated on the pyramid in the

Dark world. ... He will give you the Shield, and tell you of the

curse of Bunny Cave.

http://www.zelda-infinite.com/games/zelda3/bunny_cave.php

------------------------------------------------------------------

.. YouTube - Holy Grail - Killer Bunny

I have ventured to the Caves of Retribution, beyond the third

realm, past this fel beast. Beware the curse of furry king. 15

rows of daggar teeth mixed with

------------------------------------------------------------------

6. No Smoking in the Skull Cave

Navarre and Isabeau have a curse that the Bishop has placed on

them that ... I know Easter was sunday but one can never have

too many girls in bunny suits.

nosmokingintheskullcave.blogspot.com/

Here's a video of my pet rabbit Thumper running around my feet

playing with his toy ring. I bet you didn't know bunnies carried

toys in their mouths

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21. spelunker: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

It is a platform game similar to Pitfall or Curse of Ra. The

original release had a bug ... The Pyramid: There is a large

pyramid inside the cave.

http://www.answers.com/topic/spelunker

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27. ART 347L--Teotihuacan

.... Dead is bound on the North by the Pyramid of the Moon, and

to the South by an ... portion of her body assumes the shape of

a cave from which water also flows.

http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/a_ah/dir/precol/teotihuacan.ht...

The main layout of the city is organized along a north-south

axis known as the Street of the Dead. The Street of the Dead is

bound on the North by the Pyramid of the Moon, and to the South

by an enclosed courtyard and precinct known as the Ciudadela (

"citadel"), which contained the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

Approximately midway along the eastern side of the Street of the

Dead is the massive Pyramid of the Sun.

At the eastern end of the Ciudadela, which punctuates the

southern end of the Street of the Dead, is the Temple of the

Feathered Serpent (also known as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl).

The serpents on the facade bear a serpentine mosaic headdress on

their backs that contains a pair of goggles, a mouthpiece

associated with the Great Goddess at Teotihuacan, and has strong

associations with warfare.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://archaeology.about.com/od/6/fr/brady.htm

The 2005 text from University of Texas Press called In the Maw

of the Earth Monster is a compilation of articles from two

academic conference sessions

There's even an interesting study of Nahua shamans from Alan

Sandstrom, called "The Cave-Pyramid Complex among the

Contemporary Nahua of Northern Veracruz." I loved the

illustrations of the cut paper images produced by shamans to

communicate with spirits and hill guardians.

The Cultural Context of Caves

------------------------------------------------------------------

12. BU Today | News Releases

John Silber Boston University President Emeritus ... He's been

cast in the culture wars as an archconservative white European

male, but he was much more

http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news/releases/display.php?id=897...

------------------------------------------------------------------

17. (off topic) Culture Wars | Uncommon Descent

.... volvariella colony it will cover a petri dish in 3 days and

be climbing the ... it hits the glass wall of the petri dish and

starts climbing up the sides (it'll

http://www.uncommondescent.com/science/off-topic-culture-...

13 February 2006

(off topic) Culture Wars

DaveScot

I started on a new hobby several months ago. I'm trying to grow

Chinese Paddy Straw mushrooms (volvariella volvacea) in semi-

sterile laboratory conditions. These mushrooms are delicious

fresh in the button stage tasting like olive oil and cashews to

me

Volvariella is quite aggressive and if a reculture is being

performed from an active volvariella colony it will cover a

petri dish in 3 days and be climbing the walls trying to escape

before any penicillium can hatch. However, long term storage of

commercial (read very aggressive) strains of volvariella is

problematic. Unlike every other mushroom in the world where

cultures can be stored at near freezing its mycelia dies at any

temperature below 45F

So anyhow, I was just a few minutes ago looking at some recently

innoculated plates from 90 day-old volvariella in stasis and I

wasn't scrupulous about wiping everything down with alcohol

before innoculation. About half the plates got penicillium

contamination. Volvariella is racing the penicillium to occupy

the open real estate.

Looking at the contaminated plates it struck me there's a whole

new meaning for the popular phrase "culture wars"!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I'm such a geek.

As long as I'm thinking about it I should probably expound on

how my understanding of targeted micromutation and natural

selection has led to understanding and success working with vv

colonies.

Colony dies rapidly in culture after it has covered the entire

plate. Assuming a stress response of rapidly increased mutation

of digestive enzymes when it hits the glass wall of the petri

dish and starts climbing up the sides (it'll fill the entire

inside of the dish hunting for food). The colony is basically

trying to learn how to digest glass. Rapid mutation of digestive

enzymes without success eventually leads to production of

enzymes which digest the vv colony itself. It poisons itself.

HAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!! Random mutation and natural selection have

obvious limits in practical application. No matter what they

tell you there is absolutely no practical benefit in applying

macroevolutionary fairy tales to experimental biology. None.

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to run out to the store a pick

up a couple dozen petri dishes and cook up a pint each PDA and

MEA. My culture stockpile is running low? and the culture wars

shall continue.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.changingthetimes.net/samples/asb/lorraine_project.htm

"This is important." "Okay... I've done SCUBA diving and squeeze-

caving, even camped in a 'coffin tent' hung off a cliff. And I

was held hostage in a packing crate for two weeks." "You were

kidnapped, but escaped ? The reports varied..." "One of the

Unquiet 'Stans: Faction thought I was valuable. Blue Helmets

intervened. I escaped in the confusion." "From a padlocked crate

in a guarded cave ?" "They over-nailed the crate and weakened it."

"And you killed your captors with bare hands ?" "Untrue." Indeed:

I'd used a rock, the first guard's AK, the second's grenades...

"I'm beginning to understand how the Neanderthals must have felt

when HomoSaps arrived. Those Ns were stronger, faster, tougher,

better adapted, but the cunning Saps just rolled over them..."

"Won't come to that if I can help it." "Thanks." Pete nodded, "I

don't want to live out my time in a zoo, like the last Tasmanian

Devil, or that lonely Giant Tortoise..."

I nodded, sipped at my tea. SOTM had a last-resort contingency

plan to take in every Amnestied Vamp. The new Prison / Secure

Facility was based on an old design. SOTM, the adjacent Teaching

Hospital, our Uni neighbours, the City's Central Library,

Gallery and Museum held common archives in another recycled salt-

mine. Begun as a WW2 store for artwork and the museum's famed

Egyptology collection, it evolved into a barely documented Cold

War 'Strangelove' Ark, then an 'Omega Virus' bolt-hole. Official

explanation for the 'controlled environment' was still artifact

conservation. Off the books, the 'flooded' bunk-room levels had

been maintained. Though shabby, they were habitable. I would not

have known about the place without my HotZone clearances: Irony

was that I'd be based outside during any pandemic...

I finished my tea, took a careful breath, "No sign of Monty or

Frank.." "Up late, talking-- Do you wonder -" "So they'll hit

Second Breakfast... Um, did anything come of those invites you

were trying to sort?" "Ah, yes, I've to take you around our

other craft areas, and drop in on Elder Book. You're to sign the

Chronicle, which is a great honour. The LitterDay SleepOver is

tomorrow, so you do get another good sleep. Most of the others

are 'After Tea' or 'After Dinner'. Bit complicated by Rhys, of

course." "We'll manage, I'm sure." I grinned, "How secret is my

AlterEgo?" "Elder Weft's Tailor Twins have done as you asked:

Young Rhys is an object of sympathy. We do get such, and the

Nest embraces them. For one thing, it can put new blood in our

gene-pool..."

We're early: I'll take you the scenic route." Pete led me into

the the Nest's dim maze of un-marked doors and oft-crooked

passages. I noted different styles of masonry, plus some modern

brick-work, shuttered concrete and RSJ lintels. "Core looks like

a Medieval under-croft..." I commented. "We think parts are

older..." Pete allowed, "Chronicles mention finding the skull of

a cave-bear..." "Makes sense."

------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Biological Weapons

.... appli cations as an biological warfare agent remain

speculative. ... quarantine in a laboratory in Reston (Virginia),

Alice (Texas) and Pennsylvania. ...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/bio_ebola.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/scenario.htm

Alice Antics

Sometimes, so many witnesses testify to something that it would

seem we have to believe them. At first blush, this seems to be

the case with the witnesses who placed Lee Oswald in or around

Alice, Texas in early October, 1963. As Dave Reitzes explains:

To sum up, fourteen witnesses believed they'd seen or spoken to

Lee Harvey Oswald in or near Alice, Texas in or around the first

week of October 1963, several of them specifying October 3rd,

4th and 5th. Many of these witnesses believed that Marina Oswald

was with him. . . . Some witnesses said he had a car at that

time. Several said he did not. Two said he was trying to rent

one. The physical descriptions are problematic, though the

witnesses seem to have genuinely believed it was Lee and Marina

Oswald they had seen, sometimes with one or two very small

children. (Dave Reitzes, "Another Oswald Sighting: Allegations

of Lee Harvey Oswald in Alice, Texas") So just what are we to

make of this? Conspiracist Chris W. Courtwright, in his essay

"Oswald in Aliceland? A Tale of Two Days; A Tale of Two Oswalds,"

suggests that this was an "impersonation incident." Many

conspiracists believe that Oswald was impersonated at the

embassies in Mexico City, and around Dallas in the days before

the assassination. So perhaps this was another example of a

"second Oswald" impersonating the real Lee Harvey Oswald.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=2199

LOOKING GLASS NEWS

Houston, Texas : Home of CIA-Mob-Bush Crime Family

Doug Harper said to me once "Be a pastor before you become a

prophet." You tell him for me I said, "Yea, but then be a truth-

teller...DAMN IT!"

Do I want the investigation into Patrick's death reopened. OF

COURSE. But who in Harris County would do it? The DA, hand

picked by Johnny B Holmes whose crime lab is in shambles, Chuck

Rosenthal...also from Alice, Texas...home of Hub City

Enviromental Inc's Rudy Johnson's business partner, Quitman

Lindley who lives two blocks over from Revell in Rowlett, Texas ?

Plus Holmes is related by marriage to FPC Sunday School teacher

and now head of Billy Graham's Christianity Today Magazine, Jack

Modesett, mentioned by Houston Chronicle and Post writer and

Texas Texas Journalism Professor, Peter Brewton, as another Iran-

Contra CIA asset.

------------------------------------------------------------------

88. Come Caving with the VPI Cave Club!

We teach Virginia Tech students and others how to have fun

caving safely and ... Boy Scout Troops must follow the BSA rules

on caving.

http://www.cave.org.vt.edu/groups.shtml

------------------------------------------------------------------

32. Cost of War - 655k Iraqi Dead - DPChallenge Forums

.... they hold dear than hiding in caves or churches or mosques

or other incubators of intolerance. ...

Originally posted by hokie:

http://www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_TH...

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Playground_Psychotics.html

Diphtheria Blues

Diphtheria Blues

Play that thing, Asthma Mark

Good God!

Good God!

Amen . . .

John Lennon: Okay?

FZ: Sit down and cool it for a minute so you can hear what we're

gonna do! John Lennon: Yeah, this is a song I used to sing when

I was in The Cavern in Liverpool.

Billy had two big

Caves for eyes,

And GEORGE PUTNAM, the RIGHT-WING CREEPO FASCIST PIG NEWSCASTER

from Los Angeles said . . . (Take it away GEORGE PUTNAM, the

RIGHT-WING FASCIST RADICAL CREEPO PIG NEWSCASTER from Los

Angeles!)

"We now have CONFIRMED REPORTS from an INFORMED ORANGE COUNTY

MINISTER, that ETHELL is still an ACTIVE COMMUNIST, and it's

This Reporter's Opinion that she also practices WITCH-CRAFT!"

It was about this time that the telephone rang in the

SECRET BRIEFCASE belonging to THE ONE MORTAL MAN who might

be able to stop all of this senseless destruction

and save 'AMERICA HERSELF'!

HE WAS SO

(He was so, he was so!)

MYSTERIOUS!

HE WAS SO

MYSTERIOUS!

He could be a DOG

Or a FROG

Or a LESBIAN QUEEN!

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa042399.htm

"Nuclear Waste: Coming Sooner to a Cave Near You?"

presented a negative view of plans by the Office

of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management to transport high-level

nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain, Nevada facility.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.coloradodirectory.com/cripplecreek/

Nestled in an extinct volcano crater and riddled with gold

fields is one of the most famous towns in south central Colorado.

The 1890's gold rush helped to build Cripple Creek as the race

to stake the first claim and "strike it rich" was on.

The Boulder Creek Trail is a 3.2-mile loop, going as far as the

west boundary of the park. Along the way you will pass the

distinctive rock form called "The Caves."

------------------------------------------------------------------

5. PAPABEAR RECORDS - From the Caves of the Iron Mountain

FROM THE CAVES OF THE IRON MOUNTAIN is such a special project,

in that it encompasses an atmosphere, a place so special that

its presence is felt in every

http://www.papabear.com/cave.htm

Once in a while, an idea grabs hold of an artist, or group of

musicians, and compels them to create a work that takes in more

than their music. FROM THE CAVES OF THE IRON MOUNTAIN is such a

special project, in that it encompasses an atmosphere, a place

so special that its presence is felt in every note.

Approaching the Cavern: in which Tchad, our recording engineer,

enters the mine, Steve playing soprano sax in the distance.

Man Walking from A to B: Jerry plays his Taos Drums, while

wearing shakers on his wrists. Tony plays the Chapman Stick,

Steve plays clarinet.

In the Caves of the Iron Mountain: in which Steve moves to his

specialty: the bansuri Indian flute, Tony to the NS Upright bass.

Drumming on Water: Steve starts on double ocarina, Jerry on

shakers, Tony on NS Upright bass. Steve picks up the bansuri as

Jerry wanders about the cave, playing with brushes - Jerry ends

up drumming in the water at the edge of the cave's lake.

Devil's Kitchen: begins with a quiet Steve and Tony duet on

soprano sax and Stick. When Jerry joins in on drums, Tchad moves

around the cave and among the players, microphones in his ears.

Catacombs: Tony on Stick, Steve plays bansuri.

Magic Meadow: Steve starts on bansuri, Jerry and Tony enter,

Tony playing the BoxBass.

The Widow Jane Mine: in which Jerry plays percussion, Tony NS

Upright, and Steve does some harmonic overtone chanting.

------------------------------------------------------------------

73. etchings.com photo album

fairy caves The Fairy Caves are a cave system on Iron Mountain

above Glenwood Springs

http://www.etchings.com/photos/thumbnails.html?dir=fairy_...

------------------------------------------------------------------

79. Caves a Cornerstone of U.S. Security Effort

Caves a Cornerstone of U.S. Security Effort. An unfinished

cavern in the Iron Mountain facility. ... Many of the vaults are

also climate-controlled to keep

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/feb/cave_ar...

------------------------------------------------------------------

12. Sinkhole de May and Jorge Bush - May 1, 2001

President Bush speaks to guest, Friday, May 4, 2001, at the

White House during a ... President Bush and first lady Laura

Bush attended the event on the

http://www.americanpatrol.com/BUSH/PHOTOS/CincodeDubyaDis...

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/devils_sinkhole/

Devil's Sinkhole Society Inc.

101 Sweeten Street

P.O. Box 97

Rocksprings, TX 78880

(830) 683-2287

devilssinkhole@swtexas.net

A friends group and concessionaire

Of Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area

Tours: Access to the park can be obtained only by contacting

Devil's Sinkhole Society 830-683-BATS (2287) to prearrange a

tour. Tours are by reservation only.

------------------------------------------------------------------

40. The blood-curdling scream of the Tasmanian devil, which was

likened to a demon,

Tasmanian devil Sarcophilus harrisii, who weighs. 8 to10 kg, to

the narrow-nosed planigale, who ... underground burrows, hollow

logs or caves during. the day.

http://www.koala.net/cn/download/tassiedevil.pdf

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/02/20/1108834658800.html?

oneclick=true

The devil's ark

By Andrew Darby

February 21, 2005

It's a smelly, cantankerous little beast. But the Tasmanian

devil needs our love and science if it is to beat a biological

crisis that may threaten its survival

If this program is needed, and the species' survival relies upon

them, then wildlife experts' worst fears of the devil facial

tumour disease (DFTD) will have been realised. The extraordinary

little carnivore with the unearthly howl and quarrelsome nature

will be extinct in the wild.

The disease is believed to have killed tens of thousands of

Tasmanian devils. First identified in late 2003, the disease

appears to progress rapidly through adult devils and is 100 per

cent fatal.

Rare among cancers, the tumour may be transplanted as whole cell

lines when the animals bite each other in their normal

quarrelsome lives. Its origin is still unknown.

Zoology student Christine Pukk is among those working to

understand it. She is at Mount William National Park in Tasmania's

north-east, one of the first areas to be found diseased. Pukk

has worked on Tamanian devils for a while, but still finds the

disease distressing.

"At some point, because of the devils' sparsity, either the

pathogen goes extinct, or an increase in immunity leads to

population increase," Bradshaw says. "It's basic epidemiology

that applies even to humans."

Scientists baffled by tumour outbreak

It's a sickness that less than two years ago had no name. As

scientists around the country struggle to come to grips with

devil facial tumour disease, they are yet to find its cause.

DFTD starts to become visible as tiny spots on a devil's face

and progresses rapidly. Lesions are replaced by bulging tumours

and then open wounds. Tasmanian wildlife officers believe at the

end, devils die very quickly.

Initially, the focus was on a highly destructive virus. That

possibility is near to being ruled out by work at the Australian

National Animal Health Laboratory, and the Tasmanian Government'

s own Mount Pleasant laboratories.

Work on finding a cause is now shifting to whether toxins,

either natural or manmade, may be to blame. Herbicides and 1080

poison are routinely used in the state's forests, but disease-

free devils have also been found in such areas, and a solid link

is yet to be drawn. Pilot trials on toxins are being planned by

the Tasmanian Government.

More success has been achieved with the tumours themselves.

Chemical analysis has shown the most consistent tumour type is

of neuroendrocine origin, an unusual group of cancers.

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/JCOK-65X2Y6?open

The chromosomes of the cancerous cells do not exhibit similarity

with the healthy cells elsewhere in the bodies of the infected

devils. This means that the DFTD sarcoma can be described as a

clone capable of parasitic existence in the body of Tasmanian

devils.

The growing scientific acceptance that the infective agent is a

rogue cell-line passed between devils by allograft has

implications for control and suppression of DFTD.

------------------------------------------------------------------

.. Poor Devils: Critters' fights transmit cancer: Science News Online ...

But rearrangements in the devils' tumors, though highly complex,

were identical, suggesting that all the tumors are the work of a

single rogue cell line

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060204/fob1.asp

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.mobio.com/where_in_world/index.php

MO BIO Laboratories, Inc.

"Saving You Time for Life"

Where in the World are MO BIO Kits being used?

Watkinsville, Georgia

Dr. Kamlesh Jangid is a post doctoral associate from the

department of Microbiology at the University of Georgia.

Shown in the picture (above) is Dr. Kamlesh Jangid collecting

soil samples from one of the forests currently under the control

of the USDA in Watkinsville, Georgia.

This forest has not had any human activity since the Civil War

in Georgia back in the 1850's.

Heybridge, Tasmania

Developing a biological reduction cell to remediate heavy metal

and acid-containing industrial and mine leachates Alison Dann is

a Ph.D. candidate whose project is to study the environmental

impact of an old industrial production plant in Tasmania. It was

operated between 1948 and 1996 in Heybridge, located on the

north coast of Tasmania on the Blythe River catchment. During

the plant's operation sulfuric acid/iron oxide waste was

discharged directly into Bass Strait, resulting in elevated

metal concentrations and a highly visible red plume along the

coastline locally suppressing the marine benthic biota and

altering biodiversity. The leachate is very similar to acid mine

drainage.

A passive in situ bioremediation strategy was developed, in

which a series of "cells" and wetlands were built to remove

metals and increase pH. The cells consist of a "potato cell" and

four "reduction cells." The "cells" utilize readily available

agricultural waste products, potatoes, straw and mushroom

compost as organic carbon sources for sulfate-reducing bacteria

which reduce sulfate and metals while raising the pH for a

healthier environment.

Mammoth Caves, Central Kentucky USA

We place "traps" that encourage the growth of cave bacteria and

use MO BIO products to extract DNA (Soil Mega Prep Kits,

Microbial DNA isolation kits) and we also use your PCR cleanup

kits in these experiments.

Mammoth Cave is by far the longest cave in the world. Mammoth

Cave National Park was established to preserve the cave system,

including Mammoth Cave, the scenic river valleys of the Green

and Nolin rivers, and a section of south central Kentucky. This

is the longest recorded cave system in the world with more than

360 miles explored and mapped. This site is called Mystic River

and is located at the lowest level ("base level") of the cave

where water slowly dissolves away limestone and continues the

process of cave formation. We are monitoring the communities of

bacteria at cave sites home to unique and endangered species

such as the Mammoth Cave blind shrimp and the eyeless cave fish.

------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Hell's teeth - contagious cancer suspected of putting the bite

on Tasmanian devils...

.... Tasmanian devils may be an extremely rare transmissible

cancer, spread ... teeth - contagious cancer suspected of

putting the bite on Tasmanian devils.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Environment/Hells-teeth--conta...

------------------------------------------------------------------

2. BIONOIA, Part 6 | World War 4 Report

In the last installment in this series we discussed Biopreparat, ...

would have been necessary to design a new class of contagious

cancer-causing agents.

ww4report.com/node/3500

------------------------------------------------------------------

Biopreparat: Biowar on Steroids, Soviet-Style

by Mark Sanborne

Earlier installments in this series focused primarily on the US

role in secretly researching, developing, and disseminating

biological warfare agents through both tests and accidental

releases, as well as deliberate attacks on plant, animal and

human populations. However, the US is not the only bogeyman in

the bionoia closet. In a little-noticed sideshow to the Cold War'

s conventional and nuclear arms races, it turns out the Soviet

Union actually outstripped Washington's efforts on the biowar

front, building a vast military-industrial complex that churned

out deadly "weaponized" pathogens on a staggering scale.

This is not exactly a state secret. In fact, for those who

follow such matters, the extent of the Soviet program (which

continues in reduced and mysterious form in post-communist

Russia) has been widely known and commented on since the 1990s.

Discussed less?if at all?is the related question of what the US

itself was doing in this field during the heyday of the Soviet

effort in the 1970s and 1980s, after both countries signed the

Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, outlawing such weapons.

But for now we will focus on what the Russians were up to, since

it is a fascinating and frightening story that continues to have

repercussions today.

The USSR began its biological warfare research in 1928, and the

pace of the program picked up leading into World War II in the

face of active Nazi and Japanese biowar threats. It has been

reported by Ken Alibek (about whom more shortly) that the Red

Army employed air-dispersed tularemia or rabbit fever against

the German troops besieging Stalingrad in 1942-43, which

infected many of the enemy but also spread to Soviet troops and

civilians. However, a 2001 article in the journal Military

Medicine argued that the epidemic was more likely a result of

natural causes exacerbated by the complete breakdown in public

health infrastructure. ("Natural causes" certainly seems more

likely in this instance than it does in the case of the

tularemia outbreak that occurred at a 2005 anti-war rally on the

Washington Mall, as discussed in Part 1.)

As related in Preston's article, Ustinov had been studying the

deadly Marburg virus, a close cousin of the better-known Ebola

virus, when he pricked his finger through his biocontainment

suit with an infected needle. (Like Ebola, Marburg originates in

Africa. It is known from Kitgum Cave near Mt. Elgon in Kenya,

though Alibek suspects Soviet agents obtained their sample from

the outbreak that gave the virus its name, which occurred in

1967 among workers handling infected monkeys at a vaccine

factory in Marburg, Germany.) Ustinov was isolated and fell ill

within days, and began keeping a scientific diary of his

hemorrhagic disintegration as blood began seeping from his

orifices. Within two weeks he was dead.

------------------------------------------------------------------

17. The Boston Underground - Critical Mass for Climate Justice

Elected Officials and Community Leaders Applaud Court Decision

to Stop the Boston University Biolab, by ... exposing people to

toxic waste for years, leading to the creation of the infamous...

thestudentunderground.org/article.php?id=201&issue...

------------------------------------------------------------------

30. The Boston Underground - Local Struggle Against Bioterror,

by Alia Ghabra

Anti-Biolab Protesters Visit BU President Brown's Home for a

Second Time, by ... A Call for a Student Boycott of Boston

University, by Operation: Over Media Team

http://www.thestudentunderground.org/article.php?id=147&i...

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/hmelville/bl-hmel-

encan.htm

Sketch Seventh

Charles's Isle and the Dog-King

-- So with outrageous cry,

A thousand villeins round about him swarmed

Out of the rocks and caves adjoining nye;

Vile caitive wretches, ragged, rude, deformed;

All threatning death, all in straunge manner armed;

Some with unweldy clubs, some with long speares,

Some rusty knives, some staves in fier warmd.

That the Buccaneers perpetrated the greatest outrages is very

true, that some of them were mere cutthroats is not to be denied;

but we know that here and there among their host was a Dampier,

a Wafer, and a Cowley, and likewise other men, whose worst

reproach was their desperate fortunes -- whom persecution, or

adversity, or secret and unavengeable wrongs, had driven from

Christian society to seek the melancholy solitude or the guilty

adventures of the sea. At any rate, long as those ruins of seats

on Barrington remain, the most singular monuments are furnished

to the fact that all of the Buccaneers were not unmitigated

monsters.

Black his eye as the midnight sky,

White his neck as the driven snow,

Red his cheek as the morning light; --

Cold he lies in the ground below.

My love is dead,

Gone to his death-bedys,

All under the cactus tree."

------------------------------------------------------------------

'Passing beyond this last island, we reached a country where

there was a cave that ran to the distance of thirty or forty

miles within the bowels of the earth, and that contained a

greater number of far more spacious and more magnificent palaces

than are to be found in all Damascus and Bagdad. From the roofs

of these palaces there hung myriads of gems, liked diamonds, but

larger than men; and in among the streets of towers and pyramids

and temples, there flowed immense rivers as black as ebony, and

swarming with fish that had no eyes.

The Epidendron, Flos Aeris, of the family of the Orchideae,

grows with merely the surface of its roots attached to a tree or

other object, from which it derives no nutriment?subsisting

altogether upon air.

(2) "During the eruption of Hecla, in 1766, clouds of this kind

produced such a degree of darkness that, at Glaumba, which is

more than fifty leagues from the mountain, people could only

find their way by groping.

3) Schouw advocates a class of plants that grow upon living

animals- the Plantae Epizoae. Of this class are the Fuci and Algae

(4) In mines and natural caves we find a species of cryptogamous

fungus that emits an intense phosphorescence.

(5) The orchis, scabius and valisneria.

(6) The corolla of this flower (Aristolochia Clematitis),

which is tubular, but terminating upwards in a ligulate limb, is

inflated into a globular figure at the base. The tubular part is

internally beset with stiff hairs, pointing downwards. The

globular part contains the pistil, which consists merely of a

germen and stigma, together with the surrounding stamens. But

the stamens, being shorter than the germen, cannot discharge the

pollen so as to throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands

always upright till after impregnation. And hence, without some

additional and peculiar aid, the pollen must necessarily fan

down to the bottom of the flower.

Nonsense!" said the king.

"'Among the magicians, were domesticated several animals of very

singular kinds; for example, there was a huge horse whose bones

were iron and whose blood was boiling water. In place of corn,

he had black stones for his usual food; and yet, in spite of so

hard a diet, he was so strong and swift that he would drag a

load more weighty than the grandest temple in this city, at a

rate surpassing that of the flight of most birds.'

"'Among this nation of necromancers there was also one who had

in his veins the blood of the salamanders; for he made no

scruple of sitting down to smoke his chibouc in a red-hot oven

until his dinner was thoroughly roasted upon its floor

"Absurd!" said the king.

"'Another of these magicians, by means of a fluid that nobody

ever yet saw, could make the corpses of his friends brandish

their arms, kick out their legs, fight, or even get up and dance

at his will. Another had cultivated his voice to so great an

extent that he could have made himself heard from one end of the

world to the other. (2) Another had so long an arm that he

could sit down in Damascus and indite a letter at Bagdad?or

indeed at any distance whatsoever

Voltaic pile.

(2) The Electro Telegraph Printing Apparatus.

(3) The Electro telegraph transmits intelligence

instantaneously- at least at so far as regards any distance upon

the earth.

(4) Common experiments in Natural Philosophy. If two red rays

from two luminous points be admitted into a dark chamber so as

to fall on a white surface, and differ in their length by 0.

0000258 of an inch, their intensity is doubled. So also if the

difference in length be any whole-number multiple of that

fraction. A multiple by 2 1/4, 3 1/4, &c., gives an intensity

equal to one ray only; but a multiple by 2 1/2, 3 1/2, &c.,

gives the result of total darkness.

The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade

(1850)

by Edgar Allan Poe

(1809-1849

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

theshadowoverinnsmouth.htm

During the winter of 1927-28 officials of the Federal government

made a strange and secret investigation of certain conditions in

the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. The public first

learned of it in February, when a vast series of raids and

arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning and

dynamiting - under suitable precautions - of an enormous number

of crumbling, worm-eaten, and supposedly empty houses along the

abandoned waterfront

"Innsmouth? Well, it's a queer kind of a town down at the mouth

of the Manuxet

That refinery, though, used to he a big thing, and old man Marsh,

who owns it, must be richer'n Croesus. Queer old duck, though,

and sticks mighty close in his home.

The story is that there's a whole legion of devils seen

sometimes on that reef - sprawled about, or darting in and out

of some kind of caves near the top.

The librarian gave me a note of introduction to the curator of

the Society, a Miss Anna Tilton, who lived nearby, and after a

brief explanation that ancient gentlewoman was kind enough to

pilot me into the closed building, since the hour was not

outrageously late. The collection was a notable one indeed, but

in my present mood I had eyes for nothing but the bizarre object

which glistened in a corner cupboard under the electric lights.

It took no excessive sensitiveness to beauty to make me

literally gasp at the strange, unearthly splendour of the alien,

opulent phantasy that rested there on a purple velvet cushion.

It was as if the workmanship were that of another planet.

The patterns all hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable

abysses in time and space, and the monotonously aquatic nature

of the reliefs became almost sinister. Among these reliefs were

fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity -

half ichthyic and half batrachian in suggestion - which one

could not dissociate from a certain haunting and uncomfortable

sense of pseudomemory, as if they called up some image from deep

cells and tissues whose retentive functions are wholly primal

and awesomely ancestral. At times I fancied that every contour

of these blasphemous fish-frogs was over-flowing with the

ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil.

At last we lost sight of Plum Island and saw the vast expanse of

the open Atlantic on our left

It was then that I began to study the mirror with mounting alarm.

The slow ravages of disease are not pleasant to watch, but in my

case there was something subtler and more puzzling in the

background. My father seemed to notice it, too, for he began

looking at me curiously and almost affrightedly. What was taking

place in me?

I feel queerly drawn toward the unknown sea-deeps instead of

fearing them. I hear and do strange things in sleep, and awake

with a kind of exaltation instead of terror. I do not believe I

need to wait for the full change as most have waited. If I did,

my father would probably shut me up in a sanitarium as my poor

little cousin is shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendors

await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Ia-R'lyehl Cihuiha

flgagnl id Ia! No, I shall not shoot myself - I cannot be made

to shoot myself!

I shall plan my cousin's escape from that Canton mad-house, and

together we shall go to marvel-shadowed Innsmouth. We shall swim

out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black

abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in that

lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for

ever.

------------------------------------------------------------------

.. HERITAGE ZONE: Serenity in the holy caves

Most mountain caves have a distinctive, intangible energy that

students of meditation and martial arts ... An iron ore miner

named Chooi Ah Kee owned the cave in the 1950s. The vicinity was.

http://www.nst.com.my/Weekly/Travel/article/Heritage/2007...

The gigantic entrance leads to a vast cavernous chamber spiked

with stalactites in certain inner recesses. The environment has

an aura of reverence that softens the mood of all its visitors.

You could say that the spirit is alive and the force definitely

strong within its walls.

------------------------------------------------------------------

POET'S POSTSCRIPT

A lot of people will think that this poem was inspired by

incidents at Virginia Tech, because of the references to web

sites referring to the "CAVE" at Virginia Tech.

Actually, no, the poem itself was completed before that incident.

When I Google-searched by hunch for a word

combination of "Hokie" and "cave", I was in one sense

surprised, while in another sense, not surprised at all,

to find something so perfectly suggestive.

It is part of what poets do- explore the dark shadows.

It might seem a bit hokie, yet it is true.

You force yourself to look where most normal people

would want to turn away.

The same phenomenon is part of the problem in combatting

terrorism. When things that are "unthinkable", your mind

shuts down, tunes out, fails to register.

You retreat into denial. In denial, you find complacency.

Unfortunately, the unthinkable is usually the first thing

of which the enemy will think.

Much of the poem's motivation is not simply about human enemies,

in the sense of terrorism, but in the sense of humans

being their own worst enemies- bad decisions, greed

and business-as-usual trumping prudence and long-term

well-being.

Specifically, I was originally motivated by a much more

obscure incident- a small news article about a young woman

from Boston University who died mysteriously, after exploring

some caves in Texas. She was doing some kind of research

on plant cell biology.

The poem is not to make light of her death. To the contrary,

it is to point out that her premature death might be a

cautionary note that foreshadows larger events.

People might complain that it is "inappropriate" to refer

to this young woman's death. It reminds me of Stalin's saying,

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic".

There are some dots that need to be connected. Her death

might hint at far worse possibilities of the future.

Sheila sounded like a wonderful, idealistic young woman.

She reminds me of a young relative, studying to be an

environmentalist. A heart in the right place, but causing

a bit of worry. Doing good work like environmentalism can be

frustrating and unrewarding. Pay is not good. There can

be a lot of dirty work involved. There can be exposure to

toxins, that can shorten life.

No one knows what was the toxin to which Sheila Lynch was

exposed. The media, predictably was unable to connect any dots,

to see how her death might have relevance to the level 4 biolab

that is planned to be be constructed in Boston.

At a minimum, even the most ardent supporters of the lab,

if they were being honest, would need to admit:

something went wrong, in an unanticipated way.

Precautions were not adequate. Even after the fact,

no one is sure exactly what happened.

We cannot afford to find ourselves someday making similar

reflections, if the Boston's Biolab turned out to be as

poorly executed as Boston's "Big Dig".

The result might not be merely one dead biology student, or one poor

women who had a chunk of concrete fall on her head. The casualties

could be significantly greater.

What is the worst-case scenario?

I often worry more about nuclear terror than biological terror.

In the case of real nuclear weapons- not mere "dirty bombs"-

if the weapon works at all, its minimum effect is significant.

The impact of a biological weapon attack has much more variability.

The minimal case damage is far less, but the worst-case scenario,

in theory, could be even far worse than a nuclear explosion.

A biological accident is a danger potentially on a par with

a biological weapon attack.

A nuclear chain reaction stops when the fissile materials in the

bomb are expended. A biological "chain reaction" can keep going

until virtually everyone on the planet is infected.

You can see a hint of the worst-case scenario, in Tasmania.

I visited Tasmania, a few years ago - a beautiful place,

highly recommended, but there is currently a serious problem with

one of their icons, the "Tasmanian Devil".

The Tasmanian Devil is facing possible extinction because of a new

disease, that began only in the last few years. The Tasmanian

Devil has been around since the Pleistocene Epoch.

There was only a minor, passing article in the Boston newspapers,

provoking no editorial comments or columnist musings. I suppose

that the public hears so much talk about endangered species

that it has become jaded.

I wonder, though, what exactly goes through the minds of our

journalists, when they hear a little phrase like

"contagious cancer"?

There are so many varieties of human cancer - colon, brain,

lung, pancreatic, stomach, skin. You name an organ, it has an

associated cancer. Fortunately, virtually none of these are

contagious.

There is an interesting question about possible exceptions

to the rule, but we can leave that for another time.

One of the dots to be connected is from Tasmanian Devils to

the Russian Biopreparat biological warfare facilities.

These existed on an immense scale, in secret, for decades,

during the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

One of the reasons that the old Soviets had launched this

mammoth project was than they did not believe for a

minute that Richard Nixon had really stopped American

biological warfare research. The KGB was very convinced that

Nixon had merely transformed it into a "black op", under the

guise of "cancer research".

One of the things that Russian Biopreparat was allegedly

researching was a means to create contagious cancer.

The history of biological research has been fraught

with malicious biological warfare intentions, but also

with some very well-intended blundering.

An example of the latter, a case of playing-with-fire,

was an attempt by the Australian government to try to

combat the country's burgeoning rabbit population with

a kind of biological warfare.

The biological control experiments with calicivirus resulted

in the release of the virus in South Australia, with

dramatic killing of the rabbits.

The Australian Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee also rejected

a proposal to introduce a genetically engineered bacteria designed

to protect animals from the poison, fluoroacetate, in leaves and

seeds pods of native trees, because of fears that the bacteria

would be transferred to pests such as rabbits

(New Scientist (4 Feb, 1995)).

This is another dot to be connected, and an example of possible

cover-up. Actually, with biolabs and biowar, you often don't even

need a "cover-up", because little can be proven, in any case.

You simply don't know. It is very convenient

The kinds of questions that don't seem to occur to many

people: The disease that now threatens Tasmanian devils-

Is it necessarily natural, or might the hand of man

be involved? Why are animals that have existed for millenia,

suddenly developing such a disease, now?

Could such a disease possibly "jump species" and infect humans?

Wouldn't it be an unfortunate surprise, for example, if the

contagious cancer among Tasmanian Devils were being caused by a

virus, which then suddenly mutated and started to infect dogs,

and then started to spread among human beings?

Any report of contagious cancer ought to raise a few

eyebrows and generate some concern, but it seems like the

media are asleep at the wheel.

There are many questions also in the case of Sheila Lynch

that enquiring minds ought to be asking, but do not seem

to be occurring to the media:

Ms. Lynch was infected in July 2006. It is now April, 2007.

What kinds of toxins are so elusive that they cannot be

identified in a full 9 month period?

What is special enough about a cave in Texas that a woman

would travel all the way from Boston? What exactly

was she studying, that led to her mysterious death?

The news report said that "no one knows" if Ms. Lynch might

have been bitten.

Now, wait a minute. If a young woman is smart enough to

be studying plant cell biology, she is smart enough to know-

if you are bitten by a strange animal and are suddenly feeling

sick, you report that immediately to your doctor. It might

be rabies, and it might cause a fatal brain infection.

You cannot waste any time.

Were there no bite marks present? Did the doctor not check,

even though knowing that she had been working in a cave?

Was there not an autopsy performed?

If something like a bat or a snake bites you, you would

probably know it. If it is a tiny bite from an insect,

small enough to be unnoticed, then it is interesting that

it would be so quickly fatal. What kind of insect might it be?

Might there be swarms of them, ready to wipe out a small

town or two?

Is it possible that authorities have more idea than

they are letting on, and are simply reluctant to say

what killed Sheila? Might she have bitten

by something like an Ebola-infected bat, so authorities

are playing dumb, to prevent the public from getting

alarmed?

Or is it possible that the death of a young woman,

studying biology at Boston University, might somehow

impact negatively on the plans to construct a level 4

biolab constructed in the city, if only the full truth

were known?

Accidents happen, and cover-ups happen. Part of the reason

that the public is not as concerned as it should be about

the proposed Boston biolab, is that we do not know the

full truth about biological accidents that might have

happened in the past.

There was a known case of cover-up, in Sverdlovsk, Russia,

where an anthrax outbreak from a biolab accident was long

pretended by the Russian government to be a natural occurrence.

We might have had a similar cover-up in the United States,

with the introduction of lyme disease, named for its first

outbreak in Lyme, Connecticut. Lyme is only a short

distance from the secretive Plum Island Animal Disease Center,

a biolevel 5 facility, unique in the country for its research

of foreign animal diseases.

By definition, whatever is most dangerous is exactly

what the Boston biolab would need to be studying, in order

to fulfill its mission.

When they are studying something like tularemia (rabbit fever),

or something like anthrax, they are not just studying

ordinary tularemia and everyday anthrax. Some of the keywords

and catch-phrases which are relevant to this discussion

are things like "enhanced virulence", or "weaponized",

or "aerosolized", or "hybridized".

Whatever the biowarriors are making is exactly what the biodefenders

need to duplicate, raising the risk of introducing by blunder

exactly what the biowarriors would be introducing intentionally.

Not to mention that covert biowarriors might infiltrate the facility

that the would-be defenders have so helpfully and conveniently

provided.

If Boston's scientists don't what killed Sheila Lynch,

what else don't they know, and how do they know that

they can detect it escaping? How do they know if might not

be something like a new, contagious cancer?

If you could imagine "The Perfect Virus", like "The Perfect Storm",

what qualities would it have?

In this context, "perfect" means from the perspective of the

Grim Reaper, to cause the most damage and death.

The Perfect Virus might some naturally, at any time, like

the 1918 flu. Its coming could be greatly accelerated by

man-made mucking around and playing with fire.

What would it be like?

Some people might be inclined to think that the perfect

virus would kill people dramatically and quickly, like

Ebola... people covered with hideous sores, vomiting blood,

within minutes or hours.

That is probably one of the less-concerning scenarios.

You would have at least a strategy for dealing with it.

Federal goons in protective suits round up every infected

person, at gunpoint, and herd them off to camps, without

regard to lawyers, privacy, etc. It is crude, but probably

effective and probably necessary.

The perfect virus would arrive in a fashion,

not that obviously dramatic. People would not feel sick,

at all. At least, not yet. They would feel absolutely fine.

They would not stay home from work and the grocery store.

Government scientists would not be frantically searching to

identify the infectious agent, because they would not know that

any infections exists. It would be just another day,

business as usual, All Quiet on the Western Front.

The perfect virus would be highly contagious, like tularemia

(probably one of the very reasons why biowar scientists

study it). It would be casually contagious, by everything-

by mere touch, by air, by kissing, by ingestion, by sex.

The perfect virus would be nearly indestructible-

immune to alcohol, to drugs, even to cooking or boiling.

By the time that science knew that the perfect virus

had even been introduced into the world, it would already

be too late, already spread essentially to the entire

human population. The first thing that anyone would know is

when everyone starts coming down, in the space of a couple

years, with incurable, fatal cancers. Suddenly, from nowhere,

a whole world full of sick and dying people, much like the

sick and dying Tasmanian Devils.

In this scenario, you cannot isolate the sick. Everyone is sick.

You don't even know for sure, who is infected and who isn't,

if there is anyone left who isn't already infected.

I propose one possible defense for that scenario,

which is probably money better spent than putting

a biolab in a major population center.

If you cannot isolate all of the sick, you have to try to

isolate some of the healthy.

Hopefully, enough people to start rebuilding, and

recreating the human race, after the biological storm

has passed.

There might be random survivors in the world, but the

random survivors would not a have a plan, and would

not have a carefully chosen mix of skill-sets.

If you save away a human seed-stock, it needs

some thought.

The considerations are very different than for the

scenario of nuclear attack. You cannot be living in groups.

You can never be mingling with the outside world, even

in times of peace. Each individual has to live in

solitary confinement.

On the more convenient side, you do not need underground

caverns or bunkers. You do not need thick walls

of concrete. The people do not need to stay in their

shelters for their entire lives after the holocaust,

but only for a few years.

They could be in units in the middle of Manhattan,

in an otherwise ordinary-appearing building.

They could have regular contact with their families

every day, by video. They would not have to live

in isolation forever. They could rotate in shifts,

every few years. It would not really be much

different than a soldier, away from home for

an extended period. All they need is a stock of food,

water, and filtered air.

But they need to be isolated right NOW.

It is not like a nuclear war scenario, or a massive

hurricane, where you have the luxury of anticipating the

situation and issuing a warning to relocate. You need

to have an isolated stock of people, at all times,

in order to prepare for an unanticipated situation.

If we can afford to keep thousands of soldiers in

foreign lands, or thousands of federal bureaucrats in

jobs of dubious productivity, then we could surely afford

to keep a seed-stock of at least a few hundred human

beings, quarantined at all times, to continue the human

race in event of a biological holocaust.

It is an interesting question in itself- what would

be a suitable number of human beings, as a minimum

needed to replenish the human race?

There would certainly be some benefits to the job.

When you are not busy with survival training, you would

have much free time. If you learned that the human

race was dying from contagious cancer, you would not re-emerge

to a radioactive wasteland. All of the buildings and houses

would be more-or-less intact. You could take your pick:

many adandoned mansions on the sea-coasts. There would

be plenty of oil and gas for the drastically-reduced

human population. Fish in the oceans, coral reefs,

and rainforests would be making a comeback.

There would be no more hate-drenched conflicts of religious

and ethic groups, no bitter, national rivalries, no wars.

At least, not until you starting growing again, and started

dividing into opposing groups. You would have at least

a chance to train your children about living together,

and warn them where things can lead, if you cannot manage

to live together.

You might like to hope that not even a mad scientist would

try to create "The Perfect Virus". That hope might be a bit

too optimistic. It depends.

If you already had the foresight to create a human seed-stock,

as described, and thought that your bitter enemies did not,

then you could inherit the earth for your own tribe,

clan, religion, nation, ideology, whatever. You would have

the wonderful scenario described, of ample oil, high standard

of living, lack of dangerous enemies who terrorize

you constantly.

Comes the dawn. A great many people potentially might love

to get their hands on "The Perfect Virus".

We do indeed need biolabs to try to fend off The Perfect Virus,

and lesser terror. It would never be enough, simply

to have a human seed-stock, safely tucked away for a rainy day.

People like Sheila Lynch probably know that there is danger

in caves, danger in toxins and in biological research.

They admirably make a sacrifice of their own safety, to do

the work that they do.

There is just one more sacrifice that we need to ask of

the biolab researchers. If you can sacrifice your personal

safety, then you could sacrifice your personal convenience.

You should do your work, but not do it in the convenience

of a major population center. You should agree to remove

yourselves to a more remote location.

We need biodefenders to combat the mad biowarriors,

but our ultimate problem is something deeper in ourselves.

Even a regenerated human race, after a period of peace,

would probably descend once again into divisions and hate.

Tasmanian Devils are not evil. They are not supernatural.

They are not being punished by God. They are merely

animals, noisy, bad smelling, crude. We share much in

common with them. It is little helpful, to heap on

superstitions and to supernaturalize our concept

of the problem.

It is easy enough to become overwhelmed with the

endlessness and the ugliness of the hatred and injustice

around us. The impulses can become mixed, to try to rescue

the dying human race, or simply drive a stake through its heart,

and end it all, in sheer disgust.

One the other messages permeating my writing is the

warning not to heap demonization and indifference on

scapegoat minorities. At various times, this has

focused on blacks and Jews, and today seems targeted

most broadly around the world against gays.

Bullying glee and sadism, mixed with denial and self-flattery,

are basic to universal human nature. Until it has ended

against all groups, it has not really ended, but has

merely changed shape.

The opportunities for counter-attacks by the traditionally

bullied are real and deadly. It is another reason to

take care of the campus climates, and the political climate.

Our survival will never be a matter so much of

vanquishing enemies as managing not to make so many enemies.

There is a saying: "Kindness has no enemies."

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.jnfindlay.com/

His highly original rational-mystical philosophy is detailed in

four of his books, The Discipline of the Cave, The Transcendence

of the Cave, Values and Intentions and Ascent to the Absolute.

Findlay's command of the history of both western and eastern

thought was legendary. John Silber once commented that "if all

the philosophical libraries in the world were suddenly lost,

Findlay could come closer to recapturing the history of

philosophical and religious thought, both West and East, than

any other person."

------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.hschamberlain.net/kant/kant_05_plato.html

IMMANUEL KANT

A STUDY AND A COMPARISON

WITH GOETHE, LEONARDO DA VINCI,

BRUNO, PLATO AND DESCARTES

Yet Plato has in a hundred passages laid stress upon the

allegorical and poetic side of his teaching. For instance, the

famous allegory, to which we shall return presently, of the

chained men in the cave in the seventh book of the Republic, is

expressly designated by Plato as a picture in the Phaedo he

calls his representation "the second-best course," since the

direct representation is impossible. In other places he speaks

of "Dream-pictures which often hover before him" (Kratylos, 439

C), and of discourses of which "he does not know whether he

heard them waking or in a dream."

And so - to begin with the simplest of the allegories, there

arises the fable of the men imprisoned in a cave, who turn their

backs upon the light of day, and only see upon the wall the

shadows of things moving outside. The meaning of the parable is

this: an object perceived only by the senses, not yet

concentrated into the mental form of an idea, is nothing more

than a flitting shadow-picture

As Plato has recognised with critical acumen, where understanding

and perception by the senses meet, there the phenomenon arises:

and this whole picture of the cave may be held to be so far the

most excellent, most popular representation of that which all

criticism understands by the word phenomenon

Plato exclaims - Well and good: ideas are the things! If those

cave-dwellers were to be set free and allowed to go forth into

the light of the sun, then they would see the things themselves

with their eyes.

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