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Anyone that knows me also knows that I’m just a bit of a history buff. I’ll set about to reading and sometimes I’ll forget to stop.
This morning I was looking at some past history and happened across the old stone works from centuries back in the day and I thought to share.
Roughly 700 to 2,000 years ago, ancient cultures around the globe erected some of the most amazing structures on the the planet.
Using incredible knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and architecture, ancient people created truly wondrous monuments to stand the test of time.
Some of these structures are engulfed in mystery, as they defy everything we have been taught about ancient cultures.
From laser-like cuts to supermassive blocks of stone weighing up to one hundred tons, these incredible ancient structures prove that our ancestors were far more advanced than what we are crediting them for. I mean these guys literally took the time to focus and think things through.
The Konark Sun Temple. This ancient temple located in Orissa, India was built by King Narasimhadeva I of Eastern Ganga Dynasty in 1255 AD.
This ancient temple located in Orissa, India was built by King Narasimhadeva I of Eastern Ganga Dynasty in 1255 AD
This temple beyond stunning as it features a number of intricate design details that will make your jaw drop.
The temple itself was shaped like a gigantic chariot, but its breathtaking design elements are the smaller ones, like the elaborately carved stone wheels, pillars, and walls. A major part of the structure is now in ruins.
Brihadeeswarar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and commissioned by Raja Raja Chola I
Another temple, perhaps equally stunning is the so-called Brihadeeswarar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and commissioned by Raja Raja Chola I. The temple was completed in 1010 AD. This temple is located in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. One of its most prominent features is the massive 40-meter-high Vimana—one of the largest in the world. The entire temple was built out of granite, and scholars have calculated that the ancients used more than 130,000 tons in its construction.
Prambanan temple compound, home to 240 rocket-like structures
The Prambanan temple compound, home to 240 rocket-like structures. This ancient temple compound is believed to have been erected during the 9th century under the Sanjaya dynasty of the first Kingdom of Mataram in the Central Java region. Prambanan is considered the most significant Hindu temple site in Indonesia, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia. The stunning rocket-like structures are characterized by its tall and pointed architecture style, which, according to historians, are typical of Hindu architecture and by a towering 47-meter-high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.
The Kailasanatha temple (Cave 16) is one of the 34 cave temples and monasteries are known collectively as the Ellora Caves
Another really cool ancient temple is located in Ellora, Maharashtra, India. This ancient wonder of the world is considered the largest rock-cut temple on the surface of the planet.
The Kailasanatha temple (Cave 16) is one of the 34 cave temples and monasteries are known collectively as the Ellora Caves. Its construction is generally attributed to the 8th-century Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in 756-773 AD.
From India, I went over and looked at Egypt.
There, in the land of the Pharaohs, we come across the Temple of Dendera, an ancient monument built to honor the Goddess Hathor.
The Temple of Dendera features a mysterious relief that some authors claim depicts a massive lightbulb used by the ancients Egyptians
Curiously, this temple, located a mere 2.5 km southeast of Dendera, is one of the best preserved Egyptian complexes, especially its central temple, thanks to which it remained buried by sand and mud until it was unearthed by Auguste Mariette in the middle of the 19th century.
The Temple of Dendera features a mysterious relief that some authors claim depicts a massive lightbulb used by the ancients Egyptians, suggesting that thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians had access to advanced technologies like electricity.
This ancient temple is one of the most curious temples in Egypt mostly because of the enigmatic ‘bent’ stones that lie inside the temple. It features supermassive blocks of stones, some exceeding 150 tons in weight, and design elements that eerily resemble elements found halfway around the world, in Peru.
Giant Pyramid-temple of Borobudur
The Giant Pyramid-temple of Borobudur. This magnificent ancient structure is considered the largest Pyramid-shaped Buddhist monument in the world, but it is also one of the most intricately designed structures on the surface of the planet. mainstream scholars have no idea who erected it, what its original purpose was, nor how on earth it was built.
Caral archaeological complex, in Peru. Almost 5,000 years old, it was built by one of the oldest cultures in the world
Few people are aware of the fact that hidden deep inside the desert region in Peru, more than 5,000 years ago, an ancient civilization erected magnificent temples and pyramids.
The Pyramids and temples of Peru are believed to predate the Pyramids of the Giza plateau by at least 500 years and were erected by the Caral people.
The Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) is part of a beautiful complex composed of several temples.
Here’s the Temple of the Sun or (Coricancha, Koricancha, Qoricancha or Qorikancha), the main Inca Sanctuary. Its internal walls, embedded and molded with millimetric precision, surprise even more when it is known that during the Inca Empire they were not ‘naked’, but that all the walls of the temple, according to Garcilaso de la Vega who wrote about Coricancha in the late sixteenth century, “were covered from top to bottom with massive gold planks.”
The Temple of the Sun (Coricancha) is part of a beautiful complex composed of several temples.
And last but not least, Cambodia.
There, in the city of Angkor Thom lie the ruins of the temple complex of 200-smiling-faces: The Bayon Temple.
Four-faced towers in Prasat Bayon, Angkor Thom, Angkor, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Siem Reap,… by robertharding on 500px.com
Built at the end of the 12th century, it was completed during the reign of Jayavarman VII. It was created in Buddhist style. The temple is oriented towards the east, and so its buildings are set back to the west inside enclosures elongated along the east-west axis. It is best known for its 54 towers and more than two hundred Buddha faces which give off a sensation as if they were staring at you with a relaxed, calm, and beatific look.
Originally published by Steve Gillman — December 07, 2023
From ancient Egypt to medieval England, cultivating one or more crops in the same field was common practice among many farmers for thousands of years. However, in the last century, food producers largely stopped ‘intercropping’ and moved towards an industrial type of agriculture – a shift that contributed to 34% of the world’s farmland being degraded today.
“Interest is growing in intercropping again because farmers increasingly understand it improves their soil health,” said Jerry Allford, an organic farmer and advisor from the Soil Association, a UK charity promoting sustainable agriculture. Jerry thinks this renewed focus can “open up a whole new way of farming” because it can bridge profitability with regenerative agriculture practices.
“In the case of growing a legume and cereal together, we know there is nutrient transfer between the two crops,” he said, adding that this reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and its associated costs. Other potential benefits include reduced weeds, pests, and diseases as well as higher resistance to extreme weather from climate change – all of which can improve farmers’ bottom line.
To understand and amplify the potential of intercropping, Jerry is running a range of trials where farmers grow a mix of crops on the same stretch of land. This is part of an EU project called LEGUMINOSE which is researching the benefits of intercropping in eight European countries, as well as in Egypt and Pakistan. In total, there will be 180 ‘living labs’ where farmers in monoculture systems introduce a strip of intercropped cereals and legumes, such as wheat and peas or barley and broad beans.
Each living lab will be tailored to its region with the farmer choosing the techniques and crops most relevant to their area, such as drilling depth, seed mix and planting methods. The idea is that this will enable food producers to produce more practical results, something which LEGUMINOSE wants to use to attract others to intercropping.
One of the UK’s living labs recently finished and Jerry says it has already provided an insight into intercropping’s promise. The test farm planted wheat and beans, reporting a 27% increase in the intercropped plot compared to the monoculture strips on the same farm. Less weeds were also reported while a preliminary analysis of the soil showed less plant disease present between the two, meaning less need to buy and use agricultural chemicals.
The economic potential of intercropping does not stop there either. Farmers can choose to grow a secondary crop for the market, such as a legume for human and animal consumption, or a plant that can enhance the quality of a primary crop.
“We’re also finding that intercropped wheat is meeting UK milling specifications easier, so it could produce a premium price for the farmer,” Jerry said, adding that he hopes this drives an uptake of intercropping and the practice becomes mainstream in the agriculture sector.
Models for scale
In Europe, only 2% of farmers currently use a legume-cereal intercrop. Shamina Imran Pathan, LEGUMINOSE’s project coordinator, says it will not be easy to make the practice go mainstream, but providing farmers with the right information and tools can help them switch quicker from a monocultural farming system to a more regenerative one.
“Many farmers still don’t know what intercropping is,” Pathan points out. “That’s why we need to involve more and more farmers to increase their knowledge about mixing crops together.”
The living labs are designed to galvanize discussions among farmers and boost uptake that way, but LEGUMINOSE will also reinforce this knowledge through seven additional research fields that explore the benefits of intercropping in precise detail. Academics from several European universities will collect soil samples from farms and conduct a range of physical, chemical and biological analyses to explore the benefits of intercropping on a range of aspect, such as those around soil health, pesticide reduction and crop quality.
Early results have also shown promise here too with one trial finding that wheat intercropped with clover completely removed the presence of a parasitic weed called dodder – a benefit that could reduce the need to use herbicide and help farmers’ cut down on their input costs.
Pathan explains this data will be combined with the regional information from the living labs to create forecasting models based on artificial intelligence. This will be made available to farmers as a web-based tool in the coming years that they can use to select the optimal intercrop combinations for their specific situation.
“Farmers can use this to input criteria like their soil type and climate, and the tool will then tell them what combination of crops could work for them,” Pathan said.
sourced –
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shammash (שַׁמָּשׁ, “attendant”). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shammash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.
The name “Hanukkah” derives from the Hebrew verb “חנך”, meaning “to dedicate”.
In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah is written חֲנֻכָּה or חֲנוּכָּה (Ḥănukā). It is most commonly transliterated to English as Hanukkah or Chanukah.
History:
In the second century BC, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in God. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of God.
When they sought to light the Temple’s Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.
To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah.
While dogs are one of God’s gifts to mankind and though most dog parents love having them around all the time, not everyone likes to share a bed with them. New studies have shown that sharing your bedroom with your dog is actually really good for you. Of course, anyone that’s ever had a dog might already know that studies aren’t really needed because they’ve already experienced all of the great things dogs can do.
Years ago we had a Malamute named Smokey — He’d jump up and take over the entire bed it seemed. After a while, when he’d get too warm, he’d jump down and find a cooler spot on the floor at the foot of the bed.
These days we have a German Shepard named Luna. Luna is getting up there in years and she can’t jump up on the bed any more so she sleeps at the foot of the bed just like Smokey did back in the day
When dogs aren’t all out playing stick or drinking out of mud puddles, they can be found doing some of the things listed below.
They reduce stress and anxiety
Just being near your furry friend makes you feel less stressed, imagine how calming it would be sleeping next to him. Therapy dogs are used the world over for a reason. And that is because they’re a proven stress buster.
They give you a sense of security
Not only can they physically protect you from danger, they also make you feel safe just by being present in the same room.
They keep you warm
Dogs are pack animals who stick together to keep each other warm. In the cold winter months, nothing is more soothing than a dog sitting with you and sharing his body heat with you. He’s your own personal bed warmer.
The dog loves it too
For your dog, you are his entire world. Sleeping with your dog by your side ensures you spend quality time with him and in turn lengthen his life and make it happier.
They help you sleep
Studies show that having your dog by your side makes you feel secure enough to sleep peacefully.
They help reduce the onset of depression
With their unconditional love and support, anyone suffering from depression can feel loved and wanted. Some can even cure or prevent depression by simply having their furry love ball around.
