Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 20, 2016

14

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 20, 2016 


MAKING WAVES


SURF’S UP IN THE GALAXY: DETECTION OF 
GRAVITY WAVES. The announcement February 
11 of the detection of gravitational waves by the 
LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave 
Observatory) team hallmarks the beginning of a 
new kind of astronomy, according to astronomer 
Laurance R. Doyle of SETI Institute and Principia 
College. 

 At about the time the first plants appeared on 
Earth—long before there were any land animals—
two black holes (former suns) about 30 times 
the mass of our Sun collided at almost the speed 
of light, producing enough energy to cause a 
measureable ripple in the very fabric of spacetime. 
That wave—if something that is millions of miles 
long and yet only sub-millimeter in height can be 
called a “wave”—was headed for Earth, to arrive 
last September 14 after a 1.3-billion-year trip. 

 The LIGO observatory involves two laser beam 
paths that are combined so that any shift along one 
path will produce a change in the way the other 
path interacts with it, at the level of the wavelength 
of laser light. By measuring the change in distance 
between the two paths, one can tell if minute 
changes along any one path have occurred. Such a 
change is what the LIGO Team detected. 

 “Today, the new observational field of 
gravitational-wave astronomy has come of age, 
says Doyle. “It’s the day humankind first caught a 
gravity wave in the fabric of spacetime to surf into 
the future!”

 A NEW KIND OF LIGHT. As the gravitational 
waves warped space-time within LIGO’s 
gargantuan, twin detectors, the observatory’s 
exquisitely sensitive instruments registered 
vibrations on the order of thousands of the 
diameter of a proton. The frequency of these 
waves that LIGO is designed to catch is actually 
in the audible range for humans. Accordingly, the 
signal LIGO received was played on speakers to 
audiences of eager scientists.

 “For this binary black hole system, it made 
a distinctive, rising ‘whoooop!’ sound,” said 
Matthew Evans, an assistant professor of physics 
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 
“This detection means that the stars are no longer 
silent. It’s not that we just look up and see anymore, 
like we always have—we actually can listen to the 
universe now. It’s a whole new sense, and humanity 
did not have this sense until LIGO was built.”

 “Being able to detect gravity waves opens an 
entirely new window in astronomy,” says Will 
Kinney, professor of physics at the New York 
University at Buffalo (UB). “It’s like being able to 
see a new kind of light. Gravity wave telescopes will 
allow us to observe directly entirely new phenomena 
that have been inaccessible to us previously.”

 “We can now study black holes and other violent 
events in our universe—like mergers of very 
massive and dense stars—directly,” says Dejan 
Stojkovic, UB associate professor of physics, who 
has done theoretical research related to black holes. 
“In the past, we’ve had to rely on light that is coming 
from these events. Now we can study them directly 
through gravity waves, even if they do not emit any 
light.”

 Perhaps even more importantly, gravitational 
waves could enable scientists to explore the very 
early stages of the universe, Stojkovic says.

 These stages are impossible to study with light 
because the very early universe was “so hot and 
dense that it was opaque to light,” he says. But 
gravitational waves can freely propagate through 
the hot plasma of the very early universe, so 
scientists can use them to gain insight into what 
occurred during that otherwise invisible time.

 

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@
MtnViewsNews.com.


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

ANCIENT WRITINGS ON ROCK

FOR A SHORT MONTH, FEBRUARY IS RATHER BUSY

Providing evidence for pre-Columbian European 

visitors to California

Usually, I am not one to get all 
excited about holidays. At my 
age, I do not need the confusion and these holidays 
take more away than they actually give, if 
you want my honest opinion. Even my birthday 
is something I am not too excited about anymore.

I did not realize that February, which is the shortest 
month of the year, had more holidays than 
just about any other month. There is a holiday to 
celebrate every day of the month; from Groundhog 
Day to Valentine's Day to President's day. It 
is hard to keep them apart. Sad is the husband 
who confuses Valentine's Day with Groundhog 
Day. 

I could understand how someone might confuse 
President's Day with Ground Hog Day. The confusion 
is obvious. What if after the next presidential 
election Punxsutawney Phil was elected 
president by mistake. Or, would it be a mistake? I 
have to think about that a little more. Instead of, 
"You're fired!" we would hear, "Six more months 
of winter!" I am leaning towards the latter.

Did you know that there is a "Tooth Ache Day" 
in February? Seriously? What a toothache has to 
do with February is simply beyond me. Don't ask 
me what it is or what they are celebrating. Maybe 
it has something to do with the Tooth Fairy. It 
makes my tooth ache just thinking about it. 

All this confusion of holidays has had a negative 
effect upon me but the one holiday I cannot afford 
to overlook is Valentine's Day. If I give attention 
to some of these other nonsensical holidays, 
it might compromise my ability to remember 
Valentine's Day. You know what would happen if 
for some reason I forgot Valentine's Day?

Or, if I got my February cards mixed up and gave 
her a Groundhog Day card on Valentine's Day. 
At that point, I would have to say to Punxsutawney 
Phil, "Move over I'm coming in. And forget 
about six more weeks of winter."

I have often wondered why we celebrate something 
as romantic as Valentine's Day in the shortest 
month of the year. If it was up to me, and it 
certainly is not, I would make Valentine's Day the 
only holiday to celebrate in February. After all, it's 
enough to celebrate during the month.

Also, if it was up to me, and it isn't, I would have 
only one holiday per month. Maybe every year 
rotate the monthly holiday but have only one 
holiday for that month. That, to me, would make 
more sense.

Maybe even a better plan would be, each month 
everybody gets to choose the holiday they want 
to celebrate. Instead of a holiday every day, have 
one holiday and whatever you want to celebrate 
on that day, go to it my man.

What difference does it make what I celebrate?

Feeling a little confident about this idea, I presented 
it to the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. 
I thought she would enjoy some novel idea 
from me. Boy, was I surprised.

"What do you mean," she said sarcastically, "only 
one holiday per month?"

By the tone of her voice, I knew anything I accomplished 
on Valentine's Day, including that 
box of chocolate covered cherries, was completely 
void for the coming year. Somewhere, according 
to her, I had crossed the line.

What line I crossed I am not quite sure yet. All I 
know is, I crossed the line and now I was in deep 
manure. A place I have been in before, but you 
never really get accustom to it.

"Don't you know celebrating holidays is an important 
part of our culture? It's what brings a lot 
of people, especially families together."

Well, I guess I had not thought of it that way. I 
was just thinking of the inconvenience and the 
nonsensicality of it all. All the different holiday 
cards, the gifts and the banks being closed. Oh 
yes, I believe the banks are behind a lot of this 
because every bank is closed on every holiday. It 
seems the only time I have a check that I need to 
cash on some holiday and I need the cash right 
away.

"And don't you dare forget," she said rather sternly, 
"it is always the thought that matters."

At my age, it is very hard to keep the old thought 
machine working and grinding out thoughts. 
Then I remembered the recent Valentine's Day 
card I got for her. I watched her pick it up, open it 
and say, "Oh, you remembered. How thoughtful."

Then I began to think of how I felt when she said 
that. I am not sure how much I paid for that card, 
not much, you can be sure, but I think it was 
worth that comment.

Thinking more about this, I begin to realize that 
holidays were not just "days off," but really had 
something behind them for some people. I don't 
celebrate every holiday, who could? But I was beginning 
to realize that each holiday has some significance 
for somebody.

I was thinking about what Solomon said, "To every 
thing there is a season, and a time to every 
purpose under the heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Every season has a purpose finding that purpose 
is one of the great challenges of life. Celebration 
is a time to think about where you are and how 
far you have come and who shared the journey 
with you.

The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God 
Fellowship, Ocala, FL. Call him at 352-687-4240 or e-
mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site is www.
whatafellowship.com.


[Nyerges is the author 
of “How to Survive 
Anywhere,” “Foraging 
California,” “Enter the 
Forest,” and other books. He can be reached at Box 
41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-
Reliance.com.] 

 On Halloween Day, 2001, I was conducting a 
birthday party nature walk for a 10 year old boy 
and his friends in the Angeles National Forest. 
During that walkabout, I accidentally discovered an 
engraved rock which bore a remarkable resemblance 
to a form of rock writing – ogam – that had died 
out in Europe by the 5th century. I was intrigued by 
the possibility that the engraving was an authentic 
piece of evidence that travelers from afar had been 
to Southern California hundreds of years ago, 
and so I researched this by communicating with 
geologists, archaeologists, linguists, epigraphers, 
various academics, and local Indians over the 
next several years. The geologists told me that the 
engravings were carved approximately 1500 to 2500 
years ago. Over time, I was even able to translate the 
engraving, just by using a standard encyclopedia, 
and the “Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary” by 
Dwelly. Most, but not all, ogam in western Europe 
is translated via ancient Gaelic. Of course, the 
archaeologists told me that all this was impossible, 
that there had been no visitors from Europe to our 
local mountains in the pre-Columbian era. 

 In 2008, I discovered another rock inscribed with 
what appeared to be ogam at the same site, as well as 
numerous other rock features that are stereotypical 
of western European’s many ancient ceremonial 
sites, things such as dolmens, “sacrificial” rocks, 
standing stones, and more. Many of these other 
features were not found by me, but my friend and 
associate Pascal Baudar, who is from Belgium, and 
who has visited many of the old ceremonial sites of 
Europe. Baudar explained that if the area I found in 
the Angeles National Forest was indeed an ancient 
site of European origin, it should have certain 
rock features. Once at the site, Baudar pointed out 
the dolmen which I had not previous noted, the 
standing stone, and the large flat boulder which he 
called the “sacrificial rock.” 

I recorded all my research, step by step, into a 
paper which I recently finished and published with 
Amazon’s Kindle format. In this illustrated paper, 
I include commentary from those who support 
the site as evidence of the presence of ancient 
Europeans, as well as the commentary of those 
who strongly disagree. I present both sides so that 
the reader can decide. 

 The first large inscribed boulder, the one I 
found on Halloween Day 2001, was tentatively 
transliterated to read “Bel, Memory, Young Hero, 
son of, mother, buried, stone,” which would be 
translated as “To Bel (the god of that era), in the 
memory of the young hero, son of the mother, 
laid to rest with this stone.” If this interpretation 
is correct, it suggests that a prominent figure died 
in the Angeles National Forest no more recently 
than 1500 years ago, and surviving members of 
the party inscribed the stone. The second inscribed 
stone, found in 2008, is more straight-
forward, reading B-EA-N-EA in 
ogam, which readily translates as 
“Byanu,” one of the chief goddesses of 
the European pre-Christian religion of 
2000+ years ago. 

 The paper on this discovery, 
“Ancient Writings on Rock,” is 
available from Kindle, and also or as 
a pdf download at the Store at www.
SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com. 

 Because I seek further 
clarification on this site and its 
significance, I will send review copies 
of the book to scholars in related fields. 

Nicole Deweese next to “Byanu” rock


Nyerges next to “young hero” rock. 

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