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Death in a Cave

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Thomas Keske

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Apr 28, 2007, 1:36:10 PM4/28/07
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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

------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------------------------------
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, .

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/project0...
------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------
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

www.blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/toxins.h...
------------------------------------------------------------------
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....@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

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

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------
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 .

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

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

www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.p... K
[Found on Yahoo! Search]
------------------------------------------------------------------
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 .

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
------------------------------------------------------------------
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, .

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

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

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 .

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(tm) technical support

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.

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg
------------------------------------------------------------------
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

------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

www.answers.com/topic/spelunker
------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

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

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

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. ...

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.

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:

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

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

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

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

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
devilss...@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.

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

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.

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

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.

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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