Mexico Mystery in Pyramid of the Sun

In the common era of the first millennium, the best developed city of ancient times was none other than Teotihuacán. Archaeologically, pyramids had a primal meaning for pre-Columbian citizens as well as the ancient pharaohs of Egypt separated across the span of the Atlantic Ocean within very different cultures, almost during the same time frames. There are hieroglyphics in each civilizations pyramids. Even the auspices and orators of ancient Rome would be forced to bow before the eminence rising as high as the pyramids springing out of the land now called México, but referred to as Mesoamerica. Since 1987, the area an hour's ride in a rickety tour bus outside Mexico City has held a place as an UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the amazing cultural history and incredible monuments left by an enterprising people. Now tourists flock to Teotihuacán from all over the world to climb the stone steps and see the view from Pyramide de la Luna, especially at time of the spring equinox. (Reuters)

Along the Avenue of the Dead up to the Pyramid of the Sun speaks to an ancient sophistication in urban planning. Now there is a mystery at the Pyramid of the Sun, what caused a collapse - thirty years ago they opened a tunnel that may hold the clue. A team of archaeologists gather to determine causation. Wars of words still rage between archaeologists in papers as to whether Teotihuacan is Totonac in origin or how much Mayan influence actually existed. No one knows. But many scholars and cultural enthusiasts believe clues are still confined within the Pyramid of the Sun. Speculators hazard a guess that volcanic activity was part of the city of over a 150,000, ruination. A long abandoned, torched and destroyed city is what the adventurous Aztecs found in 1500. Then the Spanish showed up.

Seems this particular pyramid does not have as famous a curse as King Tut, but the archaeologist that found the pyramid's secret tunnel thirty years ago, died, taking his insights with him to the grave. Now archaeologists with decided lack of superstitions have reopened the area to seek more answers. Anthropologists will collect more data to inform on their sacred rituals and religious practices and why the tunnel was sealed by the original inhabitants.

Archaeologists are now revisiting a cave system that is buried 20 feet (6 meters) beneath the towering Pyramid of the Sun and extends into a tunnel stretching for 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet (2.4 meters).

They say new excavations begun this month could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs, who believed it was a divine site. (Photo Reuters)

Charles Mann took ten years to emote one of the most seminal books charting the history of the Incas, Mayans, Olmecs among many and their claim to a heritage more unique and deserving of praise than most in the western world are aware. His book, which is a wondrous legacy for all people is 1491: New Revelations of the America Before Columbus. Just an insightful, illuminating well written treatise that is worth more than Inca Gold.

Shrove & Fat Tuesday on International Parade

The Festival of Venice, inaugurated in 1268, and revived in 1980, brings out a collection of rigid masks created by master artisans possessing exquisite details and mystique. En vogue, elaborate Victorian Costumes disguise the wearer since Italy's various rulers got their knickers twisted enough that these celebrations of debauchery in a refined atmosphere caused heartburn and vicious crackdowns. Maybe they were never invited to the grand palazzos.
In the Louisiana French Quarter, Mardi Gras, gorgeous François that translates into Fat Tuesday; is a soulful celebration with mystic krewes and bedecked saints marching in with crowds of swarming tourists wanting to be in any number to grab the gold, green and regal purple plastic doubloons thrown from feathered floats. Haiti brings symmetry with their identical chicken masks.

Brazil's Carnival has a storied samba history audaciously worn to show off skin sparkles in the shimmy parade. Only Japan has more Japanese, as these Japanese-Brazilians get their 2008 dance party on in fine fashion flash. Denmark embraces the slathered buns or delish danish at Fastelavn qnd works them off at parades and parties across Bavaria.

In Sao Paulo, the city with the biggest concentration of the 1.5 million Japanese descendants living in the country, the carnival parade will include a 1,000-strong contingent of Japanese samba dancers -- led by a native Japanese woman, Yuka Sugiura, 36.

He enthused that Sugiara, who moved from Nagoya, Japan to Brazil eight years to indulge her passion for samba, was "a great dancer -- and really beautiful as well."

Preparing for consequences from too much partying in Recife, Brazil; once again, the Catholic Church is scandalized and threatening excommunication at the lack of upholding the missionary position with some of the preparations involving condoms and morning after pills. Rio de Janeiro's mayor,Cesar Maia, got things off to a rollicking start by calling it "Earth's biggest party", other nations and participants may beg to differ.

From "Twelfth Night" it takes 47 full days to get worked up for the final night of circus atmosphere and celebrating mostly the same thing around the world for centuries. In the international spirit, braided rapper and hip hop artist "Coolio" was the master of ceremonies in Venice.



A grand story of fiction around a choice in the election of the Brazilian president makes for a great read with real insight into the nation's culture at every level. Brent Alan James is a new author bringing Carnival King: The Last Latin Monarch to great audience applause.

In Just 3 Minutes Crooks Steal Picasso in Brazil

Faster than boiling an egg the old fashioned way, brazen burglars in São Paulo with a hydraulic jack and a crowbar, pulled off a stealth caper at the break of dawn ripping off a Picasso artwork while nabbing Brazil's own neo-realist Candido Portinari's (1939) "The Coffee House" or "O Lavrador de Cafe" in two separate rooms. Yep, the stylish modern cement fortress, Museum of Art, is shut tight for a few days in its own Blue Period, as it looks for Picasso's (1904) "The Portrait of Susan Bloch" to repair the damage done to one of the nation's most successful exhibits and its own sterling reputation in Latin America. The thieves were caught only on tape rolling in security cameras while duty guards were busy changing shifts. Monetary value of the two pieces has fluctuated between $55 and $100 million USD in news reports. The insurance company will be the final arbiter of worth, not the museum's curator.

Jumping over a glass partition, they climbed an open concrete staircase leading up into the entrance of the two-story modernist building, which hovers over a large plaza on stilts of steel.

For a short time, they could have been seen from blocks away. But the thieves worked quickly. A few jabs of the crowbar, and they were able to slip a common car jack under the metal security gate. A few more cranks and they squeezed inside.

"It was a professional job; it was something they studied because the paintings were in different rooms," said the lead police investigator, Marcos Gomes de Moura.

"The prices paid for such works would be incalculable, enough to give you vertigo," said curator Miriam Alzuri of the Bellas Artes Museum of Bilbao, Spain. (AP Photos/Sao Paulo Museum of Art)

Such a robbery is making worldwide news at a time when art galleries and collectors are feeling the credit Grinch as investors check their portfolios to make sure a big enough nest egg is still able to afford owning art and the art's value continues to climb. The modern masters of the twentieth century will ascend in value as time marches on. Brazil's São Paulo Museum of Art, founded by the meat mogul Chateaubriand, is counting its lucky stars today as these thieves were picky-picky-picky and did not bother with the renowned Renoir, Raphael or Rembrandt that were right on the way to stealing the other two smallish paintings. That smacks of either already having a particular buyer lined up who is not concerned about provenance or seriously undereducated art thieves.

Picasso is a a biographer's dream as much of his life is marked by his paintings and what was happening at the time. There is so much, the stories are broken into separate books to form a trilogy. John Richardson has the latest paperback version with A Life of Picasso: The Prodigy 1881-1906 and followed up last month with a hardbound book, A Life of Picasso 1917-1932.

Rough Week for Spain's Royal Family

The subtle ebbs and delicate flow of international diplomacy this week experienced the equivalent of a nuclear meltdown involving the urbane King Juan Carlos and the rough and tumble president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. No idea which kingly etiquette book of protocol its in, but telling another head of state to SHUT UP is not de rigueur. Not satisfied his honor was fully in the mud, Chavez is publicly searching for reason to keep a relationship with Spain. Spanish CEO's are thunderstruck their business interests (cha ching, the banks) may be in jeopardy after the verbal brawl.

King Juan Carlos vs President Hugo Chavez
Once upon a time, on a Saturday in Santiago, two men met as heads of state at an Ibero-American summit. One man was royalty the other received a promotion to president as the singular candidate on the ballot. In Chile, the machismo showdown erupted when Chavez called a George Bush supporter a fascist stretching decorum to the breaking point. The object of Hugo's disaffection was Spain's former Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar. Current PM, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, stood up to protect and defend the honor of his predecessor noting with aspersion that he was democratically elected by the people and it was legitimate. Ouch, score a direct hit for the Spanish team.

Then, Hugo sensing he was not the beau at the ball, started interrupting the rebuttals. The King's outrage could not contain his inner regalness to just his deeply derisive body language, demanded an answer to why Hugo could not shut up. Basta! zip it! The King did not condescend to await a reply, but left the scene in high dungeon to audience cheers for his smackdown of the Venezuelan. Hugo Chavez is not done talking though the King dismissed him, he's holding press conferences now to impugn the king's motives. Irony isn't Chavez's strong suit.

"[The king] disrespected me, and he was laid bare before the world in his arrogance and also his impotence," Mr Chavez told a news conference on Tuesday, before adding: "We don't want this to become a political crisis."

He went on to say that Spanish commercial interests in Venezuela were not indispensable and hinted that they could be affected if the dispute worsened.

"Spain has many investments, private companies here and we don't want to damage that, but if they are damaged, they are damaged... We don't need it," he said.

Hugo Chavez feeling a mite martyrish, likened himself to Jesus Christ in being persecuted by the Spanish King. His knowledge may need some serious buffing up with a good (and patient) Spanish tutor because it was the Roman's with Christ. The Spanish had this inquisition thing he apparently doesn't know about or the dictatorship of General Franco in Spain. A-W-K-W-A-R-D...

Now we come to more troubles for the King as his palace stationary had to share that his and Queen Sofia's eldest daughter's marriage is taking a break, on holiday, the fairytale is kaput. The husband of Princess Elena will fade into the shark infested business world to make money. (Suggestion, maybe he can be the guy to repair things with the other outcast President Chavez.) Meanwhile, comics were fined for making fun of Crown Prince Felipe in a cartoon of him having sex with wife Letizia with a caption saying it was the first work he had done. Oh my! This is in reference to the baby price Spanish citizens get for successful pregnancies outlined by Zapatero.

Things are not tranquil on the Spanish domestic political front as rebellious Catalans demand independence while burning photos of the King. There went some perfectly good glossies. Morocco's head of state used more diplomatic language in referring to the King & Queen's well publicized trip to Ceuta & Melilla, which Morocco believes are theirs. King Mohamed referred to last week's trip as "regrettable". Oh dear.

Seems the Spanish Royal Family is ensuring the English Windsors were not the only royal family to enjoy mud facials.


Spanish history professor Paul Preston wrote the well researched biography, Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy. It has the remarkable onliner upon his birth from his mom, " He is as ugly as sin."

Onward to Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President by Cristina Barrano and Alberto Barrera.

Mexico Suffers Catastrophic Flooding in Tabasco

The valiant try, the final chance to ward off the coming disaster.It did not work.

Desperate citizen volunteers hauled and piled sandbags
as a last stand defense against the oncoming waters of the Grijalva River. Tragically, the gritty defenses against the flood waters came to naught as the waters from the broken levee rushed through the streets of Villahermosa. One of Mexico's largest oil production urban areas made 500,000 people homeless overnight. Devastation is massive and the costs mount as the floodwaters continue to rise.

Waterborne diseases and other outbreaks are a great fear to the Mexican government. The Tabascan governor says one million people are displaced or affected by the severe flooding. The local economy is in shambles and 300,000 are still desperately awaiting a rescue. Once rescued, its a logistical nightmare as every place is full.

Health officials warned that there could be epidemics of cholera, although none were yet reported.

Tabasco state floods every year around this time, and many poor, low-lying neighborhoods have grown accustomed to spending half a year with the first floor of their home under water. But this year's flooding has taken even flood-weary residents by surprise, inundating the state capital of Villahermosa and leaving the city's famous Olmec statues with water up to their enormous stone chins.

"The situation is extraordinarily grave: This is one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country," President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address Thursday night.

"Nobody can stand around with his arms crossed," Calderon said. "We can't and won't abandon our brothers and sisters in Tabasco."

The rescues in the swift water were heartstopping survival mini-dramas playing out all over the city. Mexican authorities evacuated the city in anticipation of dire circumstances as the breached levee made it impossible to defend with the last ditch sandbagging operation.

Mexico's ancient artefact's in the area were not spared. The amazing Olmec's carved stone heads were partially submerged in the brown fast moving waters. Some of those stone monoliths reach a height of 9 feet. Excavating through the mud will find many treasures lost to the ravaging flood waters. So far, one death occurred in the flooding disaster.

Across the world, Vietnam, counts dozens among the dead in their own horrific flood as a result of a Typhoon.

Artefacts and culture are written about in this intriguing somewhat detailed book, The Olmecs: America's First Civilization by Richard A. Diehl. The exceptional study of Mesoamerican culture continues in Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs by Michael D. Coe and Rex Koontz.

Environmental Breakdancing

The lyrics to "I Feel Pretty" will not grace any pristine environmental areas on the planet. The glaciers are melting faster than scientists predicted. The Inuits are being displaced to higher ground as their homes go under along with the polar bears, seals and walruses. China is trying out stop driving for a day to cut down on the runaway pollution browning the skies and frying the air in Beijing. America has a major metropolitan city with a million plus people down to its last three months supply of water in Atlanta with Lake Lanier drying up. Canada is scratching its head over thousands of fish that died and decomposed in the river after officials waited to report the mess - during separate events twice.

China's leader Hu Jianto is declaring that China will rebalance its economy to reflect the need to stop Global Warming and its status as one of the top three worst polluters. Of course, this is a week of internal Chinese politics as the Communist Party Conference. They want those tourist dollars and the prestige of hosting the 2008 Olympics. After that, who knows.

President Hu Jintao promised to clean up China's polluted environment, pursue balanced trade and create global Chinese companies but announced no new reform initiatives Monday as he outlined the Communist Party's economic goals.

Certain factions in Korea are in a state of denial. Cough, ...

Now the site of one of the world's worst genocides, the Darfur region of western Sudan was a plentiful neighborhood until twenty years ago. Blessed with fertile land, black farmers welcomed Arab shepherds and they shared water. But rising temperatures in the Indian Ocean affected the monsoons and rainfall in the region fell by about 40 percent over the past two decades. As the soil dried up, the farmers and shepherds began to battle for the remaining green lands. With the resources woes compounded by religious and racial conflicts, Darfur has turned into a killing field with 200,000 dead since 2003.

With the glaciers of the equatorial Andes Mountains in Peru melting at a rapid pace, Peruvians face a serious threat to their survival. Without the glacier water that supplies 10 to 20 percent of the lowland water -- 40 percent during the dry season -- Peru's Pacific coast, home to 70 percent of the nation's population, could turn into desert.

Today is Blog Action Day. take action tell somebody the Earth is dying and we must stop pollution. Recycle, Reduce and Reuse! Sign up at World Changing for news alerts. Get involved. Read.

Meteor Crash in Peru Sickens Frightened Citizens

Another science fiction plot turned into reality as a meteor fell from space with a loud heart stopping crash, landing in Carancas, Peru. Like most curious people, Peruvians wanted to see what fell from the heavens unbidden. They got more than they bargained for as those who got too close will attest when not throwing up from the gases emitting from the site. Enter the conspiracy theorists in various stages of intellectual déshabillé. Government sources are claiming no way - no how is it a meteor, experts nowhere near the scene are positing from London that it was a more common fireball. Great balls of fire falling from the sky somehow seems even a wee bit more fantastic.

"Increasingly we think that people witnessed a fireball, which are not uncommon, went off to investigate and found a lake of sedimentary deposit, which may be full of smelly, methane rich organic matter," said Dr Caroline Smith, a meteorite expert at the London-based Natural History Museum.

"This has been mistaken for a crater."

"That is why we are asking for an analysis, because we are worried for our people. They are afraid," he said.

Another local villager, Romulo Quispe, said people were worried that the water was no longer safe to drink.

"This is the water we use for the animals, and for us, for everyone, and it looks like it is contaminated," he said. (photo from BBC)

On top of it all, the uninvited meteor/former ball of fire stinks to high heaven. Some are calling it a rare meteor, which may be a mite redundant. Peru's researchers and scientists are investigating thoroughly as the water supply is a definitive issue as posted previously. This area in Peru suffers from poisonous deposits of naturally occurring arsenic in its soil already and this further makes procuring clean water a life threatening issue to the locals. The area affected is near Lake Titicaca.

But the illness was the result of inhaling arsenic fumes, according to Luisa Macedo, a researcher for Peru's Mining, Metallurgy, and Geology Institute (INGEMMET), who visited the crash site.

The meteorite created the gases when the object's hot surface met an underground water supply tainted with arsenic, the scientists said.

Numerous arsenic deposits have been found in the subsoils of southern Peru, explained Modesto Montoya, a nuclear physicist who collaborated with the team. The naturally formed deposits contaminate local drinking water.

"If the meteorite arrives incandescent and at a high temperature because of friction in the atmosphere, hitting water can create a column of steam," added José Ishitsuka, a geologist at the Peruvian Geophysics Institute, who analyzed the object.

The more than two dozen locals who became ill and nauseous are recovering. Peruvian scientists examining the fragments are finding magnetic fragments consistent with prior meteors that crashed into earth. Clean water repositories are important to the locals and the water supply is undergoing vigorous testing. The testing should not be a one time event because of the unexpected meteor, but because the ground soil is rich with arsenic seeping into the water supply is a known carcinogen the world over.

In 1908 a fireball devastated a Siberian forest. Scientists had consensus on the causation but this book poses some interesting questions. From author Surendra Verma, The Mystery of the Tunguska Fireball is a 2006 paperback release.



A local author from the area of Lake Titicaca, Peru writes beautifully about the ancient mystery and history of the highlands and his intimate knowledge of the area. Jorge Luis Delgado is famous as a guide and MaryAnn Male, a lady of doctorate letters, was so taken by his knowledge she urged him to write the story of the area. The excellent collaborative result is Andean Awakening: An Inca Guide to Mystical Peru.

Roadkill

A nation's infrastructure is only as good as the roads. Roads appear as people populate areas and a need to get to and fro creates demand, then a path forward. A road replaces what existed already, so any road in the middle of a fragile ecosystem affecting the entire planet is a cause for concern and alarm. Certain roads in Brazil are making a mockery of the environment.

"We're cut off from the rest of the world, and that's the truth," Costa said recently

outside his house. "It's like how people lived 50 years ago. We don't have electricity. Sometimes, we don't have a road. We've been forgotten."

Costa and thousands of other Amazon residents would like to see the government finish paving the 1,100-mile road, known as Highway BR-163. The Brazilian government has been promising to do so for more than 30 years.

Yet others oppose paving the more than 500 miles of BR-163 that are unfinished. They fear that a reliable road would spark a land rush and lead to the destruction of more of Brazil's environmentally sensitive rain forest.

The debate symbolizes the dilemma facing Brazilian Amazonia, as the zeal for economic development in the region butts up against worries that the world's largest rain forest is rapidly disappearing. (Picture courtesy Jack Chang/McClatchy Newspapers)

Soybeans for US Conglomerate, Cargill are driving the development in part. They need to get to market so profits can be made. Capitalists argue that everyone should have an economic development opportunity to take part in the market without fully acknowledging longterm environmental degradation happens as part of unrestrained capitalism. In less than thirty seven years, Brazil has cleared or deforested an area the size of Texas.

For under ten dollars, Ziporah Hildebrandt has a paperback offering support and rationales for protection of Brazil's environment. She authored the book, Marina Silva: Defending Rainforest Communities in Brazil. It is part of the Women Saving the World series.

Last Forest: Amazon in the Age of Globalization by Mark London and Brian Kelly is a must read look at Earth's disappearing treasure that is the Amazon.

Kirkus Reviews...Authors note that the TransPacific Highway and other new roads will bring still more change, since most deforestation occurs near roads. Any effort to "save" the species-rich Amazon, they conclude, must now take into account human populations. An incisive, information-packed update on man and nature in our greatest rainforest.

Climate Change & Global Warming

Intense forest fires in Siberia that range mile after mile, (or kilometer after kilometer), increase the effects of Global Warming contributing to Earth's Climate Change; creating droughts and destroying ecosystems. The indefensible non Kyoto-signing US leads in carbon emissions, creating more global warming. Asia has brown clouds casting a fetid pall over the Earth as the clouds roam about all of our skies. Underdeveloped countries trying to catch up or get their slice of the economic pie, throw their share of pollution into the atmosphere. No one is blameless and everyone suffers from the effects of Climate Change caused by Global Warming.

The UN is trying to synthesize a plan of action everyone can agree upon. That is a Herculean task. Action devolves into an international version of one of the committees on committees needs 13 forms of approval to discuss the following items before they can make a pre-agenda. Each nation, continent or kingdom is trying to come up with plans. Bureaucracy, blame and protectionism are powerful gatekeepers from getting to the hard work of making appreciable differences fast enough to make necessary changes before the devastation caused by Global Warming can be off set by our collective affirmative actions.

The question is who is the global leader that will make a difference, now.