Y2K Links
The last and best solar eclipse of the 20th century (there is none in 2000) is an event that most
Europeans have been waiting some 38 years for. Except for the 1990 eclipse in Finland, not since
1961 has the Moon's shadow touched the Continent. The path begins in the North Atlantic 300
kilometers south of Nova Scotia and quickly traverses the ocean. Southern England enjoys first
landfall in Cornwall and parts of Devon.
Passing 20 km north of Paris, the City of Lights will be darkened
by an eclipse of magnitude 0.994. Southernmost Belgium and Luxembourg also lie in the path, which
continues into Germany. Stuttgart, just north of the centerline, enjoys a total eclipse of 2 minutes 17
seconds. The nearly 2 million citizens of Munich will also witness more than 2 minutes of totality,
provided the winds of good fortune bring clear skies on eclipse day. Traveling through central
Austria and Hungary, the shadow narrowly misses Vienna and Budapest. But Bucharest, Romania,
stands squarely on the centerline just as the total eclipse reaches its greatest duration of 2 minutes 23
seconds.
The path of totality for the August 11, 1999, solar eclipse will cut through the heart of central Europe, where millions of people will be well placed to view the event.
Eclipse Info from Sky & Telescope
Mythical Eclipse 1999
Countdown to Eclipse 1999
RUY2KOK?
The timing of the "Sign" and the date of the "true Millennium"...
It's SOONER than you think... midsummer 1999!
Why? Some of my reasoning was explained in my 'Strange Coincidences 1998' page.
But I should answer the questions that I posed there....
JULY 1, 1999 = "DROP DEAD DATE" for Y2K PREPARATION
CNN Y2K Coverage
Y2K: Hype or Reality?
More Thoughts on HYPE
Jan 1 2000 is the supposed date of "Y2K" = 'secular doomsday' when computer
systems will fail. But secular and religious sources all agree that
if you wait until late 1999 or Jan 2000 to 'get you house in order' it will
be too late! You must act NOW, or by July 1 1999 at the latest, to take the steps
necessary to insure you survival in the period that begins July 1, 1999!
July 1, 1999 is the start of Fiscal Year 2000 for many private companies.
July 1, 1999 is the "drop dead date" by which (US) Federal Agencies must have
all Y2K contingency plans in place.
July 1, 1999 would have been Princess Diana's 38th birthday.
The moon is in exactly the same phase as it was on the day she was born two
Metonic cycles (2 * 19 years) earlier.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM
But the real significance of July 1 1999 is that it is the date 17 Tammuz 5759
in the Hebrew Calendar. This is the "true" bimillennium of the "Star of Bethlehem!"
In that sense, the real Christian Millennium comes six months before the "official"
millennium of the Gregorian Calendar. Those who wait until December 25, 1999 or
December 25, 2000 to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ
are going to be too late!
This article...
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/other/star.bethlhem
... makes quite a compelling case. Two aspects of the nativity must be
resolved for all the facts to fit. King Herod I must be alive, and it must
be during the reign of Caesar Augustus, who ordered the census which caused
Joseph and Mary to return to their home village, Bethlehem.
King Herod I died during a total lunar eclipse. There are several candidate
eclipses that could have been observed from Palestine. Most Biblical
scholars select the eclipse in 4 B.C. but I do not agree. There was also a
total lunar eclipse in January 1 B.C. that was visible from Palestine.
Based on my earlier description of the eclipse I saw in Philadelphia in
1982, it is easy for me to imagine a superstitious king who upon seeing the
moon turn 'blood red' in the sky, became frightened and had a heart attack.
If we go with 1 B.C. as the death of Herod, then the year 2 B.C. is within
the range of years possible for the actual birth of Jesus. It was the 25th
year of the reign of Augustus, and the year 750 since the founding of Rome.
So that would have been the year of the census.
Ken Collins has a very informative page on the Magi and the star- only three
professional astrologers from Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) actually KNEW
the significance of the "star."
http://www.kencollins.com/Why-01.htm
... The word "star" has been passed down through antiquity by writers who
were not astronomers or astrologers. I know from experience as an amateur
astronomer at public star parties that the distinction between a planet and
a star even in our post-technological age is lost on the average person not
educated in astronomy.
Venus and Jupiter are the two brightest planets as seen from earth, and were
associated in mythology with Jupiter/Zeus, King of the Gods, and Venus/Isis,
the most powerful female persona, arguably the "Queen of the Heavens." So
for the "King" and "Queen" of the heavens to "mate" in the sign of Leo
(associated with the Lion of Judah) would have been interpreted by
professional astrologers as a very powerful event.
This page has an excellent narrative of the Jupiter/Venus conjunctions of 3
B.C. and 2 B.C. ...
http://sciastro.net/portia/articles/thestar.htm
Quote: "Through the years there has been some misunderstanding about the
star due to a mistranslation of Matthew in the King James version of the
Bible. The King James version has the Magi saying “we have seen his star in
the east”. A more accurate translation is “we have seen his star at its
rising”. Most of their daily observations took place in the early morning
hours, during which they would have seen the Jupiter/Venus conjunction of
August, 3 BC. They then searched for further signs, and found them, in the
triple conjunction of Jupiter with Regulus. Then, on June 17, 2 BC, Jupiter
again joined with Venus, this time in the early evening. This conjunction,
in all probability, was what brought the Magi to Jerusalem. The Magi,
observing this conjunction from Mesopotamia, would have seen this
conjunction on the western horizon, precisely in the direction of Judaea. "
So by this account, the "Wise Men" saw the first of two Jupiter/Venus
conjunctions while still "in the east" in Mesopotamia, and calculated the
next likely conjunction for June of the next year. As the predicted event
approached, they may have seen it in Mesopotamia and then travelled in the
direction of the "star" or they may have been able to anticipate the
location of Jupiter at the time of the conjunction as being in Leo near the
bright star Regulus, and may have travelled to Palestine in anticipation of
the event, since the interpretation of the "Lion of Judah" was well known to
them.
The "true" bimillennium of the Star of Bethlehem is six months BEFORE the
millennium of the Gregorian calendar- an interesting synchronicity for sure!
It also means that the monk back in the 5th century, who calculated
the birthday of Christ, was not really that far off.
The only reason we celebrate Christmas in winter instead of summer is
because the festival got associated with the Roman winter festival of
Saturnalia. If we were to truly observe the birth of Jesus, we should
observe the summer solstice instead of the winter solstice as the key event.
This gives new meaning to "Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July" cartoon!?
=== End of Message ===
Y2K LINKS
Y2K for Kids
CNN Y2K Coverage
Greenwich 2000 Millennium Countdown
PLEASE send other Y2K Preparedness Web links to me at gcmastra@mcs.drexel.edu
Here are some new ones sent in by readers (last updated 3/15/99)...
From Princeton Economics International- a very sober view.
Y2K: Hype or Reality?
A Presbyterian Church in Spokane WA has a "Y2K Preparedness" page...
http://www.rwf2000.com/joseph.htm
This Government "White Paper" has a huge bibliography...
http://www.gsa.gov/irms/ka/mks/yr2000/whitepaper.htm
many of which are not web links, but can be looked up at the local library.
This is the GSA Official Y2K Clearing house...
http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/
FEMA hits the road with a Y2K "Prep Talk" (from CNN)...
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/12/fema.y2k.idg/index.html
Y2K News Links
TURN OF THE CENTURY DOUBLE-THREAT: Massive solar storm threatens to disable satellites, cell phones
http://www.timesunion.com/news/story.asp?storyKey=7757&newsdate=3/07/99
CIA says every nation in the world will be touched by Y2K related failures
Air Force says it will be 40 percent Y2K-compliant by 2003
Big Glitch at Nuclear Plant Shows Perils of Y2K Tests
Experts warn of Y2K trade upheaval: Each nation's problem will become a global one
`Y2K for Kids' lends youthful perspective to `scary' potential disaster
"Y2K," the Play
Illinois may urge Y2K kits in homes
Air Travel Terror
More Thoughts on Y2K HYPE
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 17:01:44 -0500
From: Chris Mastrangelo
A few more thoughts on "hype"... I can't help it if some people have an emotional charge
on that word. All I can do is try to clarify what I mean. This often works best by
analogy. So here goes...
I was in the military during the Reagan/Bush years. At that time, we were in the twilight
of the Cold War, and I saw the Berlin Wall fall while I was in uniform. Luckily I got
out before Desert Storm, athough they probably wouldn't have called a computer programmer
to the front lines.
Anyway, I have since come to realize that we were fighting a war against an imaginary
enemy. What do I mean? Surely the Soviet Union was a threat, and in the military I got
used to drilling for attacks and developing back-up systems on top of back-up systems in
the event that one system came under attack by nukes or sabotage ( I worked on one of the
communications networks connecting the 'national command authorities' with the troops,
missiles, and bombers in the field).
But the 'real' Soviet threat and the 'imagined' Soviet capability were NOT the same
thing! In retrospect, the Soviet Union was maintaining appearances and falling apart
from the inside. They never had the imagined first strike capability that we attributed
to them. So in a sense, we were fighting a war against our own IMAGINATIONS- we
projected our FEAR of the WORST possible threat onto our perceived enemy.
Each year the DoD put out a booklet called "Soviet Military Power." This was an AMAZING
publication! The Soviet Armed Forces described in this document were the awesome 'evil
empire' draconian forces- they were more invincible than the Evil Emperor's minions in
the Star Wars movies! We justified spending huge budgets on defending against every
possible HYPOTHETICAL threat that the Ultra-Soviets could devise. We ASSUMED that if we
even THOUGHT of a new type of terror weapon, then the Soviets probably already had it in
development. And even if they didn't- WHAT IF? So we had to spend $$$billions
developing a defense against it.
I'm on a roll here... but what I am trying to illustrate is... there was a GAP between
the real Soviet capability and our IMAGINED version of it. That "gap" is the "HYPE"
factor. In a similar way, the actual threat of Y2K (spotty outages here and there)
versus our WORST FEARS projected onto Y2K = the secular/technological DOOMSDAY... there
is a GAP there. Guys like Gary North who are 'hyping' the worst technological doomsday
scenarios are like the Defense Planners who developed the "Soviet Military Power"
handbook- they are creating a FICTIONAL monster.
It is like the movie "Forbidden Planet" (which is a SciFi remake of Shakespeare's King
Lear). The Krell were an advanced race technologically who poured all their resources
into developing the ultimate project- the ability to turn pure thought into matter, to
materialize one's dreams. Within a short time after they out this project online, they
were all wiped out! Why? Because their WORST FEARS and their BASEST INSTINCTS also
materialized as demons which destroyed them... "creatures from the ID"... their
NIGHTMARES materialized as well as their DREAMS. What a great movie! Are WE the KRELL?!?
In the case of Y2K, the results of 'over preparation' are not bad. On a micro level,
taking steps to prevent against the consequences of failures in the GRID are all good,
prudent, common sense actions. You would be irresponsible if you did NOT prepare. So
for those like Gary North and others who 'bang the drum'- I am NOT calling them the HYPE
meisters. In retrospect there will trun out to be a "GAP" between their worst
predictions and reality, but ultimately reality will play itself out in a way that nobody
will predict. It will be kind of a melding of the worst and the best predictions. Some
systems will fail outright, while others will not; people will pull together in
communities and churches, while in a few isolated areas there will be riots and looting.
The fact is... the potential for ALL these things EXISTS right now. Our 'financial
system' on which we depend is really built on FAITH. The millions of Americans with
their retirement funds invested in the stock market do so on FAITH that there will be a
steady double digit rate of return. Hopes and dreams are tied to the way things are.
But in fact, nothing is guaranteed and the whole thing could head south tomorrow or next
year- that has always been true! What is different about Y2K is that we have a
DEADLINE. As happened at the end of the last millennium, in the year 1000, people
assumed THAT YEAR would be the "end of the order" that they were accustomed to.
This New Years Eve (or sooner if you're like me) will be the most exciting night of our
lives! There will be so much anticipation, good and bad, that some people will drop dead
from the stress! Some people have already paid twice retail tobuy cases of the best
champagne to open at midnight, or have booked seats on cruises and special parties.
Tourism will be at an all time high- there will be parties in England at the Millennium
Dome, at Greenwich, in Egypt at the Pyramids, all around the world. All our hopes and
fears will converge on a single moment in time! For some, they will be outside looking
for the UFOs to land. Others will be awaiting the second coming of Jesus Christ. Others
will be in the Holy Land awaiting the start of Armageddon, or ready to precipitate it if
it doesn't come according to their predetermined schedule. National Guard Troops will be
stationed in the streets of all major cities- it will seem like martial law has been
declared.
COMPARE THESE IMAGES
Click on the image to see it "actual size." Can you identify the source?
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2
DOG the WAG?
In the movie "Wag the Dog" a Hollywood producer is asked to stage a war
to take attention away from a presidential sex scandal. Last week when
NATO bombs were falling on Yugoslavia, Clinton was cited with contempt
of court in the Paula Jones sexual harrassment case. Has the Monica
Lewisky fiasco been a Clinton Administration "Smoke Screen?" A WAG the DOG in REVERSE to keep
people's attention diverted from what is REALLY going on in China, Kosovo, and elsewhere?
