Madame Butterfly

RK, please take a deep breath. 

 

It has not become st.com.  Its far from it.  Yes, there are different views on the Enterprise.  The members that support Enterprise being cancelled was good should be able to voice that view as well as those who disagree on the show being cancelled.  It has not affect the other threads on the board.  If you don't like the tone on the Enterprise thread than you don't have to read and post to it.  You would be missed if stop posting.

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I think Odie is right.

If you don't like the content, than stay away from it.

Accept that there are those who don't like Enterprise, and maybe even laugh about it.

In the scope of your life, this is really not going to be something you remember when you are old and reflecting back.

I'm sorry you feel you can't post anymore, however, everyone has varying opinions on the show, and we all choose how to express it differently.

The only person who can decide how you feel is yourself, how you chose to take someone's remarks and internalize them is only up to you.

I have been here since March, and lurked before that time, and yet I never got the feeling that there was a war here.

Everyone on this site likes Trek in some way or another.

Enterprise has been cancelled and it's time for Trek fans to unite instead of divide over this series.

I loved The Ship

 

Chicks dig the Ship

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We do?

When TNG was on, I liked the idea of the holodecks, of seeing much more of the ship than we saw on TOS.

The characters were more fully developed too.

I just liked that series the best, too much to list really.

Grilling tonight too, but as soon as I can, I hardly ever cook inside.

As for eating burgers out of home, I can't stand fast food, it does things to my body.

Chili's has a good burger, but the best burger ever is in a town in Michigan. The best burgers hands down.

I've searched and searched for a place that will replace that burger in my heart, and everyone of them fails.

I recall that when TNG first came out, the bashers were out in force as well. TNG never really hit its stride until the 4th season but at least in its case it was given a chance to mature and get good. Unfortunately, Enterprise never got that chance.

The differences between my beloved TNG and Enterprise are huge and so I must comment.

TNG had it's own difficulties at the beginning; poor makeup, finding the "chemistry" between players, etc.

However, that being said, I must strongly assert that the story lines were always intriguing.

Yes, the other things did come together, and I think before the fourth season. By the fourth season it was hugely strong and I always knew it would be a well written show.

I think what most likely happened with Enterprise is the story lines just didn't grab at people the way the other series of Trek have. The special affects that have been mentioned are nice, but they have had nothing really to do with why people love Trek.

Why do we all like to watch TOS if it's for the special affects?

It's for the writing, the ideas, the morality, ethics, humor and the hope for a brighter and better future for everyone regardless of race, religion or sex that Trek had always provided consistantly week after week.

Elgin Marbles Dispute Takes New Twist

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Dec. 3, 2004 — One of the oldest international cultural disputes, the battle over the Elgin Marbles, has taken another turn as a distinguished Cambridge scholar says the sculptures would have been just fine if Lord Elgin had left them in Athens.

Following a sophisticated 11-year conservation program in Athens, the 14 slabs that Lord Elgin did not manage to remove are now showing surprisingly bright original details.

"They are in better shape than anything in London. We now know exactly what Lord Elgin 'saved' them from: one has only to go to Athens and see for oneself," Anthony Snodgrass, professor emeritus of classical archaeology at Cambridge University, told Discovery News.

Indeed, the 17 figures and 56 panels chiseled off in 1801 by Lord Elgin from a giant frieze that once decorated ancient Athens' most sacred shrine, the Parthenon, bear dramatic signs of the British Museum's heavy-handed cleaning scandal in the 1930s.

The fearless horsemen, sprightly youths, lounging deities, belligerent centaurs and expressive horses were cruelly scraped and scrubbed with chisels and wire brushes in an attempt to make them whiter than white, an aesthetic admired by museumgoers.

Despite the 1930s cleaning, the British Museum has always maintained that the museum is the best possible place for the marbles to be on display.

"The British Museum is a truly universal museum of humanity, accessible to five million visitors from around the world every year entirely free of entry charge.

"The Parthenon Marbles have been central to the museum's collections, and to its purpose, for almost two hundred years. Only here can the worldwide significance of the sculptures be fully grasped," Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, said in a statement.

He added that centuries of damage have meant that "the Parthenon is a ruin" and that only 50 percent of the original sculptures survive today.

"They can now only be an incomplete collection of fragments," MacGregor said.

Until now, no one had been able to have a close view of the slabs Lord Elgin did not remove as they were too high up on the Parthenon. When they were taken down in 1993, a thick layer of soot made it almost impossible to distinguish anything.

Now, after undergoing a double-laser cleaning program, the marble pieces show an abundance of details, such as chisel marks and veins on the horses bellies.

According to Snodgrass, who has chaired the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles since 2002, the difference between British museum's marbles and the Greek ones is clear to anyone who compares them.

"The Athens pieces have more detail preserved, and are more like what their makers intended," Snodgrass said.

He noted that the much-debated natural-stained patina is still present in the newly restored Greek marbles, while it is totally gone in the British museum's pieces.

Carved by Phidias in the 5th century B.C., the Parthenon sculptures are scattered throughout several European museums, including the Louvre in Paris.

But the bulk of the marbles are kept in London's British Museum. Greece contends they were stolen in 1801 by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Britain claims that Lord Elgin had permission from the ruling Turkish authorities to take them.

Greece has been demanding the return of the Elgin Marbles since the country's independence from Turkey in 1829.

It is now building an Acropolis Museum which is due to be completed by 2006. The museum will include a Parthenon Hall which will remain empty until the marbles have been returned

A controversial author, Graham Hancock, wrote a book about tracing the "journey" of the Arc of the Covenant. Absolutely fascinating. It was very well done, and I believe that it had to be housed in this small church for a time, even if it still isn't.

As for the Field, they are slowly restoring their Indian items.

England will never return the Elgin Marbles. Which is a shame. I read an article not long ago where their cleaning techniques of them are actually causing more harm than natural pollutants, which is a part of their argument for having not returned them.

Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world

Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome

By David Keys and Nicholas Pyke

17 April 2005

For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.

The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence. Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance".

Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford, described the new works as "central texts which scholars have been speculating about for centuries".

Professor Richard Janko, a leading British scholar, formerly of University College London, now head of classics at the University of Michigan, said: "Normally we are lucky to get one such find per decade." One discovery in particular, a 30-line passage from the poet Archilocos, of whom only 500 lines survive in total, is described as "invaluable" by Dr Peter Jones, author and co-founder of the Friends of Classics campaign.

The papyrus fragments were discovered in historic dumps outside the Graeco-Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus ("city of the sharp-nosed fish") in central Egypt at the end of the 19th century. Running to 400,000 fragments, stored in 800 boxes at Oxford's Sackler Library, it is the biggest hoard of classical manuscripts in the world.

The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery.

Oxford academics have been working alongside infra-red specialists from Brigham Young University, Utah. Their operation is likely to increase the number of great literary works fully or partially surviving from the ancient Greek world by up to a fifth. It could easily double the surviving body of lesser work - the pulp fiction and sitcoms of the day.

"The Oxyrhynchus collection is of unparalleled importance - especially now that it can be read fully and relatively quickly," said the Oxford academic directing the research, Dr Dirk Obbink. "The material will shed light on virtually every aspect of life in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, and, by extension, in the classical world as a whole."

The breakthrough has also caught the imagination of cultural commentators. Melvyn Bragg, author and presenter, said: "It's the most fantastic news. There are two things here. The first is how enormously influential the Greeks were in science and the arts. The second is how little of their writing we have. The prospect of having more to look at is wonderful."

Bettany Hughes, historian and broadcaster, who has presented TV series including Mysteries of the Ancients and The Spartans, said: "Egyptian rubbish dumps were gold mines. The classical corpus is like a jigsaw puzzle picked up at a jumble sale - many more pieces missing than are there. Scholars have always mourned the loss of works of genius - plays by Sophocles, Sappho's other poems, epics. These discoveries promise to change the textual map of the golden ages of Greece and Rome."

When it has all been read - mainly in Greek, but sometimes in Latin, Hebrew, Coptic, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Nubian and early Persian - the new material will probably add up to around five million words. Texts deciphered over the past few days will be published next month by the London-based Egypt Exploration Society, which financed the discovery and owns the collection.

A 21st-century technique reveals antiquity's secrets

Since it was unearthed more than a century ago, the hoard of documents known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri has fascinated classical scholars. There are 400,000 fragments, many containing text from the great writers of antiquity. But only a small proportion have been read so far. Many were illegible.

Now scientists are using multi-spectral imaging techniques developed from satellite technology to read the papyri at Oxford University's Sackler Library. The fragments, preserved between sheets of glass, respond to the infra-red spectrum - ink invisible to the naked eye can be seen and photographed.

The fragments form part of a giant "jigsaw puzzle" to be reassembled. Missing "pieces" can be supplied from quotations by later authors, and grammatical analysis.

Key words from the master of Greek tragedy

Speaker A: . . . gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.

Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.

Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail.

These words were written by the Greek dramatist Sophocles, and are the only known fragment we have of his lost play Epigonoi (literally "The Progeny"), the story of the siege of Thebes. Until last week's hi-tech analysis of ancient scripts at Oxford University, no one knew of their existence, and this is the first time they have been published.

Sophocles (495-405 BC), was a giant of the golden age of Greek civilisation, a dramatist who work alongside and competed with Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes.

His best-known work is Oedipus Rex, the play that later gave its name to the Freudian theory, in which the hero kills his father and marries his mother - in a doomed attempt to escape the curse he brings upon himself. His other masterpieces include Antigone and Electra.

Sophocles was the cultured son of a wealthy Greek merchant, living at the height of the Greek empire. An accomplished actor, he performed in many of his own plays. He also served as a priest and sat on the committee that administered Athens. A great dramatic innovator, he wrote more than 120 plays, but only seven survive in full.

Last week's remarkable finds also include work by Euripides, Hesiod and Lucian, plus a large and particularly significant paragraph of text from the Elegies, by Archilochos, a Greek poet of the 7th century BC.

19 April 2005 21:50

Pompei discovery for Swedish archeologists

(AFP) Swedish archeologists have discovered a Stone Age settlement covered in ash under the ruins of the ancient city of Pompei, indicating that the volcano Vesuvius engulfed the area in lava more than 3,500 years before the famous 79 AD eruption.

The archeologists recently found burnt wood and grains of emmer wheat in the earth under Pompei, Anne-Marie Leander Touati, a professor of archeology at Stockholm University who led the team, told AFP.

"Carbon dating shows that the finds are from prehistoric times, that is, from 3,500 years BC," Leander Touati said. It was until now believed that Pompei was first inhabited during the Bronze Age.

The group of archeologists - part of a larger international project - were mapping a Roman neighbourhood of Pompei when they made the discovery.

"It was a real fluke," Leander Touati said, explaining that the group was emptying a well to determine its use when it made the find.

"We realized that the well was a lot deeper than we thought, and we sent a guy down into the well. He moved some of the earth and suddenly he was in prehistoric times," she said.

The Stone Age remains were covered in a thick layer of ash. On top of that a a layer of ceramic shards was found, which according to Leander Touati could be from the Bronze Age. Additional geological layers lay on top of that, and on top of it all were the ruins of Pompei.

Pompei was covered in lava when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The excellently preserved ruins have become one of the world's most visited archaeological sites.

Leander Touati said her group was now planning the next step.

"We're going down there again," she said.

Terri Hatcher was so sexy in Lois & Clark

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I think she was attractive, but I go for guys!

There's been alot of talk that Nicolette Sheriden has had a lot of plastic surgery since this show aired.

But I think there is something different about Miss Hatcher since her days on Lois and Clark.

I like Felicity Hoffman's [or is it Hufman>] character the most!!! Cracks me up all the time.

Oh!!!

NFL!!!

I know you mean Monday Night Football but for a moment I was lost there!

I do prefer College ball over proball, but I think this is big for ESPN

Science/medical

green capri jammies with hot pink flowers

hot pink ribbed tank to match

Good luck Odie!!

I hope the deployment goes quickly!! <_<

Mine is like that occassionally, I hate it, as I don't know when it'll happen. Sometimes it's in a very delicate or embarrassing situation.

Hey understand, I have family in the military!! <_<

Though I understand the YMCA is fantastic throughout San Diego, you should check it out. My sister in law loves it.

I used to get killer sinus headaches too, but I only get them now if I don't do yoga.

For me it's helped on many levels.

I went for my first class in about 5 weeks though today. I felt like my thighs were on fire, but dang it if my headache wasn't gone within 30 minutes of the start of class. <_<

I understand how you feel.

I have a friend who leads a trip down the Amazon every May. One of the before trips is to Machu Piccu. He's always asked me to come, as he knows my fascination with it, but there's always been something happening to stop the trip from happening.

I would like to see it, but I wouldn't mind being put on a waiting list if it would allow the site to stop deteriorating.

I'm allergic to dust and tree pollen, as well as some food allergies.

My allergies got better when I started doing yoga. Mostly it helped with the headaches and the under eye circles and yes, even the drainage.

I still have allergies, but they aren't nearly what they used to be.

Yes UH, I realize that, I had to type it all out because it wasn't on the CT website today.

It was supposed to be a small joke. Apparently it wasn't one at all. <_<

I think that's open to interpretation UH, as I don't think many men think their Y chromosome is a "bit player" in any way shape or form, especially since it determines their sex. :wink2: <_<

I think that struck me again about research involving the human body, is it seems for years the "male" was the norm for science and there wasn't much research done with women. Is there anyone here who does such research and may give a logical explanation as to why this was?

Actually the X chromosome is what men and women have in common, the difference is the male Y chromosome, which has alot less genes than an X, and since women have 2 full X's they have more back up genes for faulty ones, that is why men are more likely to be insane, or a genius.

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Well, actually, if you read the article you'd see why the sexes differ.

The X chromosome in men is mostly if not entirely inactive.

Tourists endanger legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu

Fri Apr 15,10:17 AM ET

MACHU PICCHU, Peru (AFP) - Overrun by tourists in past years, the legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu has been so damaged that the United Nations has threatened to list it as one of the world's most endangered monuments if the Peruvian government does move to protect it.

Forty years ago a visitor could climb up to the 15th century sanctuary 2,430 meters (7,972 feet) high in the Peruvian Andes by taxi, where a sleepy guard would lift a bamboo-and-string barrier allowing tourists a private visit.

Today there are official ticket takers, a parking lot, a deluxe hotel, shops and a battalion of guides to direct the army of tourists that arrive each day through the stone buildings and temples of the ancient city.

According to Peru's National Institute of Culture, each year some 800,000 people visit Machu Picchu, dropping off some 200 million dollars.

Every day trains of blue railroad cars snakes through the Urubamba Valley from Cuzco carrying up to 2,500 tourists, who then climb aboard tour buses for the final trip up a steep and winding road to the city.

Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham, and was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1983. The site however has been heavily damaged by centuries of rain and poor drainage, as well as by the construction of the village of Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs) at the mountain base.

Aguas Calientes, which had only a dozen or so houses in the 1970s, is now a hive of tourist businesses with some 180 restaurants, hotels and souvenir boutiques.

With tourism a major foreign exchange earner, the Peruvian government has fueled the boom of visitors by heavily advertising the site.

Machu Picchu also attracts a steady stream of "New Age" mystical worshippers who visit the site for shamanist rites and therapies which they say gives them "vital energy".

But the excessive commercialization of the Incan citadel has provoking a backlash. Anger peaked in 2000, when a crane damaged the Intiwatana -- the site's sacred stone pillar known as "the hitching post of the sun" -- during the filming of a beer commercial.

The accident unleashed an outcry in Peruvian media and among archeological conservation groups.

Faced with this onslaught, Unesco's World Heritage Committee stepped up its warnings in recent years, saying there were problems with site management and conservation.

The committee could place Machu Picchu on its list of endangered sites when it meets in two months in South Africa. Making such a designation alerts the international community and helps governments take appropriate steps for protection.

In March, Machu Picchu site director Fernando Astete said that one of the the biggest threats to the ruins is water accumulation and seepage.

"The monument can take 2,500 visitors a day," he said, adding however that research has shown "a risk" in taking so many tourists. "We will without a doubt make some adjustments" to the tourist flow, he said.

Currently, 25 of the 788 World Heritage sites are considered under threat, victims of pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization, tourism, war and natural disasters.

This article was in the April 17 issue of the Chicago Tribune in the Perspective section, which they subhead as "a weekly journal of commentary, analysis and opinion".

I find the information provided interesting and thought it may provide "sparks" for some interesting comments and provide some food for thought.

Women Just Have Something Extra In Their Makeup

What makes them so different, so special, so much smarter?

By Ronald Kotulak