Hello to everyone! To all of our new subscribers out there, welcome to
the book of THoTH Newsletter and to our Book of THoTH Google group.
Thanks for taking the time to subscribe and thanks for joining our
group. We're glad that you've joined our mailing list and hope that
you enjoy what we have to offer in its pages.

As of this newsletter, we have had 21 new members to join us this week
at BoT. To those who've joined, we say thanks for taking the time to
be a part of the greatest paranormal site on the web! Due to this new
addition of members, we now stand at 7719 members strong. A huge
thanks to each and everyone of you for helping to make this site what
it has become! We couldn't do it without you.

This Week at BoT:
In the GoldSTaR department, Crystalsage passed this Prestigious award
to Zingdad, because "There is so much heart and soul in his caring
well thought out responses to others.. his complete and heartfelt
willingness to share of his wisdom....." Congratulations, Zingdad.
Wear the Star with pride. To add your thoughts to Zingdad, see:
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopicp-224067.html#224067 .

In the BoT LabCoat competition, Cato9tails passed the LabCoat to
WhiteTiger for his correct answers to the question. WhiteTiger's
question, "What is the name of the process at work with the dry ice?"
was correctly answered by Momma's answer of Sublimation. Momma then
posed the question, "What was the subject of a little known early set
of papers that Einstein had published? And for a bonus point..what was
the name of the journal where they were published ?", which
NightLighter answered correctly with "...Momma, I belive it was the
capillary action of a drinking straw...published in the Annalen der
Physik, the leading German physics journal." We are currently waiting
for the next question. To read the question as soon as it's asked, go
to: http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopicp-224118.html#224118 .

This Week on the Front Page:
A little-known scroller section of the Front Page is located about 3/4
down the page on the right. Yes! It's the Today In History section,
where trivia buffs can keep track of many daily snippets. Our thanks
go out to Thelmadonna and ReverendChaos for stuffing this section full
of these facts.

This Week in the Forums:
Momma has a thread in the Nature & Environment section, about a
fascinating documentary of a trip into the Marianas Trench. It's being
shown on the History Channel on March 10, so check your local listings
for this no-miss show. http://www.book-of-thoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p...
.

Stevieo has started a thread, "President Obama 9/11 Inquiry", where he
asks if we think that President Obama should hold inquires into 9/11
or not. To join in on the conversation, see:
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p...
.

Zingdad has posted, in the Astronomy section, a link to a fantastic
new picture of The Helix Nebula. To get as a wallpaper, or just to
gaze, see: http://www.book-of-thoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p...
.

The "Where Am I" and the "What Am I" threads in Fun Stuff continue to
be quite active with people trying to guess where the photos are from.
Try your hand at giving the right answer at:
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopicp-224129.html#224129 for the "Where
Am I" and http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopicp-224126.html#224126 for
the "What Am I".

An older thread (but still a worthwile read) about seeing auras has
been resurected by Crystalsage and Amethyst. Can you see auras or
glows around people or objects? If so, you might want to join in the
discussion at: http://www.book-of-thoth.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p...
.

Random Site Feature of the Week:
The BookCases are currently two pages of 3D book cases, with each
clickable book leading to an offsite resource. There's an abundance of
topics included in the BookCases and they will lead you to everything
from scholarly research papers to computer tech sites.

If you don't currently, you'll need to have Java enabled on your
browser to access it. But once you do, you'll have an abundance of
research material at your disposal.

You can visit the Bookcases at either of the following pages:
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/thoth-bookcase1.html
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/thoth-bookcase2.html

Strange Fact of the Week:
In Thailand, the sanctified bodies of monks are preserved in the
belief that the purity of their souls in life has assured that their
earthly remains are left uncorrupted. These monks are on public
display and are objects of veneration and worship. Strangely, these
bodies decay very slowly in an atmosphere of smog, humidity, and heat.
They still have teeth, hair, and skin decades after their deaths. No
special techniques are used to preserve the bodies.

Trivia Question of the Week:
For what purpose do residents of Haiti use the poison gland of a
Puffer Fish?

Answer to Last Weeks Trivia Question:
What mysterious object was said to have caused the daughter of an
archaeologist to have strange and highly detailed dreams about Central
American Indians?

In 1927, the daughter of English archaeologist F. Albert Mitchell-
Hedges discovered the famous crystal skull under the debris of an
ancient altar. After placing the skull near her bed, she began to
experience detailed dreams of the life of the Indians who had lived in
that area. When the skull was not around, the dreams ceased. But each
time it was put back in her room the dreams recommenced, growing more
detailed each time and providing an insight into the life of the
natives that not even scientists knew of at the time.

This Week in History:
March 8, 1917: Russia's February Revolution, which eventually led to
the overthrow the csarist government, began.

March 8, 1965: First U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam.

March 9, 1841: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad slaves
were free.

March 9, 1862: The first battle between two ironclad ships, the
Monitor (Union) and Merrimack (Confederate) occurred, revolutionizing
naval warfare.

March 10, 1629: Charles I of England dissolves Parliament and rules
alone for 11 years.

March 10, 1848: U.S. Congress ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War.

March 11, 1888: A torrential rainstorm hit the East Coast. The rain
turned to snow the next day and it became the Blizzard of 1888, the
most famous snowstorm in American history. It caused more than 400
deaths.

March 11, 2004: Over 200 people were killed and over 1,400 were
injured when bombs exploded in Madrid train stations. Al-Qaeda took
responsibility for the attacks.

March 12, 1930: Mohandas Gandhi began his 200-mile march to protest
the British salt tax.

March 12, 1994: The Church of England ordained women priests for the
first time in 460 years.

March 13, 1781: The German-born English astronomer Sir William
Herschel discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, later known as Uranus.

March 13, 1930: Clyde W. Tombaugh announced the discovery of the
planet Pluto.

March 14, 1794: The cotton gin was patented by Eli Whitney.

March 14, 1990: The Soviet Congress voted Mikhail Gorbachev into the
newly-created and powerful position of president.

This Week's Birthdays:
Otto Hahn (March 8, 1879) - Otto Hahn was a German chemist who
received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nuclear
fission. He is considered a pioneer of radioactivity and
radiochemistry. Glenn T Seaborg deemed Hahn "the father of nuclear
chemistry". Hahn was also called the "founder of the atomic age" by
his contemporaries and, officially, by the senate and the members of
the Max Planck Society.

Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824) - Amasa Leland Stanford was an
American tycoon, politician, and the founder of Stanford University.
He was also the founder of what is now the Washington Herald newspaper
and the co-founder of the Central Pacific Railroad. As head of the
railway company that built the first transcontinental railway line
over the Sierra Nevada, he hammered in the famous golden spike in
Promontory, Utah. In addition to the above, in 1872 he commissioned
Eadweard Muybridge to use newly invented photographic technology to
determine whether a galloping horse ever has all four feet off the
ground simultaneously. This project was a forerunner of motion picture
technology.

Pablo de Sarasate (March 10, 1844) - Also known as Pablo Martin
Meliton de Sarasate y Navascues, Pablo de Sarasate was a Spanish
violin virtuoso and a composer of the Romantic period. He was admired
by the playwright Bernard Shaw who once declared that though there
were many composers of music for the violin, there were but a few
composers of violin music.

Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890) - Known as the "patron saint of
American science, Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science
administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political
role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex,
which was seen decades later as a pioneering concept for the World
Wide Web.

George Berkeley (March 12, 1685) - Also known as Bishop Berkeley,
George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher. His primary philosophical
achievement was the advancement of a theory that he called
"immaterialism". His most widely-read works are "A Treatise Concerning
the Principles of Human Knowledge" and "Three Dialogues between Hylas
and Philonous". In 1734, he published "The Analyst", a critique of the
foundations of infinitesimal calculus, which was influential in the
development of mathematics.

Joseph Priestley (March 13, 1733) - Priestley was an 18th century
British theologian, dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher,
educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works. During
his life, his scientific reputation rested on his invention of soda
water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several
"airs" (gases). Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory
and to reject what would become the Chemical Revolution eventually
left him isolated within the scientific community.

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879) - Einstein was a German-born
theoretical physicist who is considered to have been one of the
greatest physicists of all time. Most known for his theory of
relativity and his mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²), he was awarded the
1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics,
and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric
effect."

We have two BoT members who are celebrating birthdays this coming
week. Those two are Numnutz who has a birthday on March 11 and Juno54
who celebrates on March 13. Happy Birthday to both of you! Here's to a
fabulous day of celebration and a wonderful year to look forward to.

Tech Tip of the Week:
How to manage the compatibility issues of Office 2007 to earlier
office versions?

By default all Microsoft Office 2007 applications use different file
extensions than the earlier versions. All earlier Office applications
used the file extensions as .doc, .xls and .ppt for Word, Excel and
PowerPoint respectively, but now Office 2007 applications uses
the .docx, xlsx and .pptx file extensions for Word, Excel and
PowerPoint respectively. These all new file extensions are not
compatible with all previous versions of Office applications, that is
why Office 2002 and Office 2003 applications cannot open and read
the .docx, xlsx and .pptx file extensions.

However, you have an option in Office 2007 to save the files in older
file extensions. But, if you are frequently using the older versions
of the file and also if the files created by you are to be shared on
other computers which have earlier versions of Office, you may want to
save all your new documents in the older format, but that would create
duplicate files. There is a better option in Office 2007 applications
to change the default file-saving format to the older format and then
the new file format in Office 2007 will be changed to .doc, .xls
and .ppt for Word, Excel and PowerPoint respectively. Today we will
set the older file format for Word 2007 and other applications will be
discussed in the next tips. Follow the given steps to set the default
older file format for Word 2007:

First click on Start button, go to Program then click on Microsoft
Word 2007 to run the word application.

Now click on File menu in the top left corner then click on Word
Options button to change the default word options.

In the left side panel, click on Save option, and now "Customize how
documents are saved" option will appear in right side panel.

Here find the "Save File in this format" option and click on drop down
box to select the different format. Now you will find many options
here, select the Word 97-2003 Document (*doc) option.

Now click on Ok button to save the settings and all new Word files
will be created in the format you set as default.

Unsolved Question of the Week:
This week’s unsolved question deals with a subject that has plagued
scientists & laymen alike for many centuries. Is the Human race alone
in the universe? Are there any other intelligent species out there, on
their own green planet, just waiting for us to find (or to find us)?

Let us consider the universe. It is a very inhospitable place for
humans. Once a human leaves the atmosphere and magnetic fields of
Earth, there is no oxygen for us to breathe (In fact, in
interplanetary space, there is scant little to breathe. Space is a 98%
vacuum, meaning that only 2% of a cubic meter has any kind of atoms in
it.), there is a dangerous amount of radiation, and there is no food.
Going deeper into space, there are black holes, which gobble up
anything foolish enough to get too close to them; there are neutron
stars that are the remnants of supernovas, where the matter is
compacted so tightly that a sun like Sol is squeezed into a space not
much larger than Luna; there is radiation that would strip flesh and
bone away to nothing; there are meteorites and other small particles
that are moving at up to 50% of the speed of light that would pierce
any Earthly armor like it wasn’t even there. These are only a few of
the hazards of open space; there are many others that the human mind
couldn’t even imagine.

And yet, there is Earth. It’s an oasis in the middle of chaos, a place
where the Human race has grown and flourished. In recent years,
astronomers have been refining their telescopes enough to be able to
detect planets circling distant stars. Some of these planets are huge,
gaseous ice balls that could not support any form of life as we know
it; there are yet others that circle their parent star in its
habitable zone (an area around a star where temperatures would allow
liquid water to exist). We are able to detect evidence of more planets
around other stars. It will only be a matter of time before we confirm
these planets’ existence as well.

Carl Sagan, one of the most well-known astronomers of modern times,
had estimated that there are billions of stars in our own Milky Way
Galaxy. Of these, there are millions that are in an orbit that would
allow for planets to form around them. Of these, there are still a
couple of hundred of thousand planets that could be just like Earth.
200,000 planets, very similar to Earth in their size and climate! Many
of these worlds are older than Earth, others at approximately the same
age, and yet others that are younger. It is inconceivable that out of
200,000 planets, that there is only one where intelligent life would
emerge; life as we know it is very determined to force itself up out
of the muck, reproduce, and survive. There are many other types of
life possible, which are even hardier than what we find on Earth.
Let’s take a random number, like 2%. Let us assume that this 2% is the
number of worlds where life actually took hold. That would give us
2,000 life-bearing worlds, just in our galaxy! Take that, and multiply
it by all the galaxies we have discovered to date (which number in the
hundreds of thousands), and you have a truly HUGE number of worlds
that could possibly have civilizations upon them. If any of these
civilizations grew on worlds that are older than ours, they could have
solved the problem of an efficient space drive to get them to other
worlds in a reasonable time.

Speaking from a strictly mathematical standpoint, there is a
statistically significant number of planets in our galaxy that could
support life. To believe that our Earth is the only one that would
develop an intelligent life-form is either egocentric, uninformed, or
plain ignorant. We are not alone! It is just a matter of time before
we meet our cosmic neighbors. I look forward to that day with great
expectations, an open mind, and a friendly gesture toward our new-
found friends.

Quote of the Week:
"An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but
dimly."
- Edwin P. Whipple

That concludes this week's edition of the BoT newsletter. We hope that
you've enjoyed it, found it a nice change in your inbox, and are
looking forward to receiving the next one. As always, we should have
lots more waiting in store for you.

Until next time, keep your eyes to the skies and the door to your mind
unlocked. You never know who might drop by for a visit.