Monthly Archive for May, 2010

Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This podcast originally aired May 14th 2010:

My guest tonight is PROF. NOEL SHARKEY. Sharkey is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He is also Professor of Public Engagement and has written numerous papers, as well as, given talks, and television and radio appearances, in order to inform politicians, military, and national and international organizations about the ethical problems that may arise in robotics. He is currently involved in initiating public discussion about the ethical use of robots and the implications for public safety and human rights.
www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~noel

Interview on May 22nd

On Saturday May 22nd, 2010 at 9 PM, est I will be on Journeys With Rebecca with Rebecca Jernigan. Be there, or be square.

Join the chat room & listen here.

The Red-Haired Mummies

A few weeks ago, on my podcast After Dark Radio , my co-host for the night, Danichi, and I, got into a discussion about ancient civilizations. One of the topics was the recent excavation of a 100 naturally preserved mummies in the Tarim Basin in the Xinjang Province in China. Scientists studying the site said the mummies were 3000 to 4000 years old, and were not Asians, but instead, red-haired, lily-white skinned, large nose, deep-set round-eyed, tall in stature caucasians, and according to the New York Times “…archaeologists could hardly believe what they saw.” And they asked: What are white people doing here?

Personally, I don’t think it’s a big mystery.

The mummies were dressed in typical Celtic garb: colorful patterned clothes, tartan plaids, tunics & pantaloons, swirl tattoos painted on face & body, braided long hair. Even though some of the news articles I’ve read have speculated the mummies may be Celtic people, in the same breath, they turn around & rebuff that possibility. Other archeologists guess the mummies are a lost tribe of Europeans who migrated “west to east.” But I think it was the other way around…”east to west.”

If something looks Celtic, tastes & smells Celtic, it probably is Celtic. However, the Celts were not a race, but a group of peoples, or, more accurately, a group of societies. They spoke or still speak dialects of a certain family, called the Celtic languages. Wherever the Celts have lived they’ve left place-names, inscriptions with personal names, & in history the memory of other names, recognized as different from all others and, in general, are the same everywhere.

Twenty years ago, I found an old book called The Rise of the Celts written by Henri Hubert, and published in 1934. The book said the origin of the Celtic peoples came from an Aryan race located in Northern India, at the bottom of the Himalayan Mountains. Anyhow, this is what I’m thinking: Since the Celts were nomads, they must have traveled west, pass the Himalayas until they found the Tarim Basin in China. After all, the Tarim Basin is only a stone’s throw from the mountain range of Tibet. After China, they continued moving westward, through Austria, Spain, and other European countries, until they settled in the British Isles. But where did the Aryan race come from? Perhaps, Sumeria (Sumerian=Aryan), or, is it possible after the destruction of Atlantis the survivors fanned out across the remaining landmass and some settled in North & South America & others in the east and became the Celtic people?

Here is an article from The New York Times, and another article here, with photos and a third article, here

The Mysterious Airships Of The 1800s

This show originally aired November 20th 2009:

My guest tonight is DENNIS CRENSHAW of Unraveling Secrets. We will be discussing Dennis’s new book Secrets of Dellschau The Sonora Aero Club & The Airships of the 1800s: A True Story. It is the story of two men’s obsessions: C.A.A. Dellschau - who spent the last 20 years of his life using every waking moment creating thousands of drawings of strange looking flying machines he called Aeros. Hidden within those drawings were coded messages documenting the story of a secret life. A story he had pledged not to reveal under the threat of death. A story of knowledge, inventions and power sources beyond his time . . . beyond our time. A story that could rewrite history. And, P.G. “Pete” Navarro - An extremely talented artist in his own right, spent 27 years unravelling Dellschau’s secrets. What he discovered was an amazing story of events - - Events that, according to Dellschau, took place during the Gold Rush years of the mid- 1800s in Northern California. A story of flying machines, secret societies, anti-gravity fuel and possibly even .. . murder! Sound like fiction? Don’t be so hasty to decide. Have you ever heard of the Airship Mystery of the 1800s?