ARCHAEOLOGY NEWSFLASH NO. 260
This news is from Jonathan Gray -www.beforeus.com
"Do you think there was television 3,000 years ago?" said Rex Boucher, as we got into the car.
"Maybe," I mumbled. "But have you heard of the ancient 'magic mirrors' that transmitted pictures like television?
"Or the book containing pictures that appear, then just vanish?
You look through the book. You see the pictures. Then, with a wave of the hand, the pictures are gone?"
"Tell me more," coaxed Rex.
"Well, it does seems inescapable that there were some wonders like that in the past. In fact..."
Just then, I looked up.
The night sky was brilliant with stars. And suddenly my eye caught one of them moving.
"Look, Rex. What do you think," I asked, "Is that a satellite?"
"Where?"
"Just there - going across the belt of Orion. See?"
"Yes," said Rex. "I believe it is. And that's technology for you.
Scores of satellites overhead at this moment that have a resolution that can read the print on a postage stamp lying on the ground.
IS SOMEONE LISTENING TO YOU?
"You are aware, of course, they can track us, listen to our conversations and watch our movements?"
Rex started getting wound up about this. "Satellites now orbiting the earth are linked to equipment which already can monitor every telephone call you make or receive.
"And how about this, intelligence agencies now monitor every local and long distance phone call worldwide… every one of them!
"Did you know, their supercomputers listen for 400 key words.
"If you unknowingly say certain key words, then they down load it and it is listened to by a human. Of course, if you don't use those words, no one ever listens."
Rex was right. If you didn't know, in the United States, the Justice Department is today swallowing an overwheming amount of information about almost 100 million households; also information about all toll calls made from hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of telephones; information from the private conversations of almost one million individuals in just one recent year.
Even as early as 1990, computers in the FBI inventory could handle
203 MIPS (million instructions per second).
How many times when you replace the phone on the hook do you realise that the actual telephone is still on when you hang up?
There are devices which intelligence agencies use, by which they dial a code. Your phone doesn't ring, but everything in your office or home can be heard and recorded.
An article in Nexus magazine, titled "No Place to Hide From State- of-the-Art Satellites" (August-September 2001 issue), citing Pravda, July 14, 2001, observed: "Unknown to most of the world, satellites can perform astonishing and often menacing feats…
"A spy satellite can monitor a person's every movement, even when the 'target' is indoors or deep in the interior of a building or travelling rapidly down a highway in a car, in any kind of weather (cloudy, rainy, stormy).
"There is no place to hide on the face of the earth. It takes just three satellites to blanket the world with detection capacity.
"Besides tracking a person's every action and relaying the data to a computer screen on earth, the amazing powers of satellites include being able to read a person's mind, monitor conversations, manipulate electronic instruments and physically assault someone with a laser beam."
As you very well know, the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, sent the world into shock.
On October 11, 2001 (precisely one month after the disaster, in a front page news story, the New Zealand Herald reported:
"Spy planes equipped with listening devices and super-optic cameras are ready to begin a round-the-clock hunt for Osama bin Laden.
"After quickly gaining mastery of the skies against the ill- equipped Taleban forces, the United States and Britain will draw on the world's most advanced airborne cameras and spying equipment for the next phase of their operation.
"The US has requested use of an RAF Canberra bomber, which has been converted into a spy plane. Its electro-optical camera can take photographs from 48,000 ft. One source said it could identify 'paper in your back garden'.
"Other devices can peer into secret mountain spots from more than 60 km away.
"The aerial surveillance will lead to a more dangerous phase of the military campaign, in which ground forces will pursue bin Laden."
TELEVISION THAT CAN WATCH YOU
Even television sets are being equipped with monitors that scan a room every two seconds to record the movements and actions of every person in the room.
Originally designed to test viewing audiences for the benefit of advertisers, the devices could be used to monitor the whereabouts and actions of certain people for surveillance purposes.
That's clever technology.
Even then, I still suspect that the ancient world may be still ahead of us in certain television matters. "What about those 'magic mirrors?" prodded Rex.
PAIRED TV SCREEN TRANSMISSION
Yes, that's an interesting one. You see, all descriptions of scientific development in China in the first millennium B.C. refer to "magic mirrors".
They are mirrors which have extremely complicated high reliefs on the back of the looking-glass.
When direct sunlight falls on the mirror, the high reliefs which are separated from the surface by a reflecting glass, become visible.
This does not happen in artificial light. If they are set up in pairs, they transmit images, like television.
The phenomenon is scientifically inexplicable, by present knowledge.
Some of these mirrors are still supposed to exist in private collections. We do not understand how they were made or what they were used for.
BOOK TV WITH VANISHING PICTURES
Early this century, Maxim Gorky, the celebrated Russian writer, met an Indian yogi in the Caucasus, who asked Gorky if he wanted to see something in his album. Gorky said he wished to see pictures of India. The Indian put the album on Gorky's knees and asked him to turn the pages. These polished copper sheets depicted beautiful cities, temples and landscapes of India, which Gorky thoroughly enjoyed. When he finished looking at the pictures, Gorky returned the album to the Indian. The Indian blew on it and smilingly said: "Now will you have another look?" Gorky opened the album and found nothing but blank copper plates without a trace of any pictures! It seems like our ancestors knew some astonishing science - which in many respects we have not re-discovered!
But that only scrapes the surface.
Just go to http://www.beforeus.com/mlw.phpto order your special copy right now.
Hope you've enjoyed our little chat.
Best wishes
Jonathan Gray