Clearly, ʻOumuamua is a UFO.

***

So... I'm not sure about the Apocalypto movie. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, and uh... making any connection to the current state of the planet is a bit tenuous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypto

Many writers felt that Gibson's film was relatively accurate about the Maya

... however...

Apocalypto has been criticized for portraying a type of human sacrifice which was more typical of the Aztecs than of the Maya. Archaeologist Lisa Lucero said, "the classic Maya really didn't go in for mass sacrifice. That was the Aztecs." Anthropology professor Karl Taube argued that, "We know the Aztecs did that level of killing. Their accounts speak of 20,000."... There was tremendous Aztec influence by this time. The Aztecs were clearly ruthless in their conquest and pursuit of sacrificial victims, a practice that spilled over into some of the Maya areas.

... and...

Anthropology professor Stephen Houston made the criticism that sacrifice victims were more likely to be royalty and elites rather than common forest dwellers, as shown in Apocalypto. Anthropology professor Karl Taube criticized the film's apparent depiction of widespread slavery, saying, "We have no evidence of large numbers of slaves." Another disputed scene, when Jaguar Paw and the rest of the captives are used as target practice, was acknowledged by the filmmakers to be invented as a plot device for igniting the chase sequence. Some anthropologists objected to the presence of a huge pit filled with rotting corpses near the fields of the Maya. Hansen states that this is "conjecture", saying that "all [Gibson was] trying to do there is express the horror of it".

The Washington Post reported that the famous Bonampak murals were digitally altered to show a warrior holding a dripping human heart, which is not present in the original.

... and...

William Booth of The Washington Post wrote that the film depicts the Maya as a "super-cruel, psycho-sadistic society on the skids, a ghoulscape engaged in widespread slavery, reckless sewage treatment and bad rave dancing, with a real lust for human blood." Gibson compared the savagery in the film to the Bush administration, telling British film magazine Hotdog, "The fear-mongering we depict in the film reminds me of President Bush and his guys."

wow cool

I am not sure if it is accurate, but it's a random thing I remember being told a long time ago: I was told that the court likely was set up like a soccer field with goals on each side. The angled hoop was a special way of scoring and if a team made it through the hoop then they automatically won the game. No one knows if anyone ever scored using this method.

No clue if that's accurate of not.

Really cool posts, thanks for sharing.

That makes a ton of sense. Some of the ball courts had reasonable side hoops. But not Chichen Itza.

daveT, yeah clearly the sacrifice was over the top and stupid. It bugged me that they were basically sacrificing people for days, and the crowd would go just as nuts each time. Unless human nature changed, people would start yawning after a while.

Also yeah a lot of the other stuff was clearly over the top for effect. The theme of the movie was that the Mayan empire crumbled under its own weight before the Spanish arrived - which seems to be largely true.

Someone needs to make a more sober balanced version. Apocalypto started out as this nice little slice of village life, then descended into one of the most bloody violent movies I've ever seen - and stayed there for the rest of the movie.

I saw it available on demand at our Air BnB and thought it would be a nice movie to watch before visiting Mayan ruins the next day. Lol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design)

Couple blue plaques on the same street today in Pimlico. Aubrey Beardsley, who died young:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beardsley

and Jomo Kenyatta, who according to my mother who has been there, had a country named after him, although I'm not sure Google agrees with her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta

I enjoyed it for what it was, but I didn't take any deeper meaning from it either. I just thought it was a chase film, and reading all that from Wikipedia is kind of strange. I had no idea anyone would go out of their way to analyze that film.

In any, hopefully the film (here comes the "pun") didn't ruin the ruins for you.

Did you guess WW1 and WW2 camouflage?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage

Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target's range, speed, and heading. Norman Wilkinson explained in 1919 that he had intended dazzle primarily to mislead the enemy about a ship's course and so to take up a poor firing position

Stolen from zebras obviously.

99% Invisible did a podcast on those as well.

Never heard of those before, if I were boarding a ship painted like that during wartime I'd be extra worried.

John Ashcroft was the Attorney General under GWB, but his background story is awesome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...Missouri,_2000

In the year 2000, incumbent US Senator Ashcroft considered a bid for the Presidency but decided to rerun for the Senate seat.

His opponent, Democrat Governor Mel Carnahan. During this tight race that included Ashcroft outspending the Governor by a lot of money. Carnahan died in a plane crash three weeks before election day.

Election day results:

Mel Carnahan -- 1,191,812 (50.5%)
John Ashcroft -- 1,142,852 (48.4%)

Drudge has linked to two stories today about an American that recently was shot to death with arrows after he paddled a canoe to the island in an attempt to convert the tribesmen to Christianity.

Yep, on CNN as well:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/21/asia/...ntl/index.html

I chuckled when I first saw the story.

I like how the guy came back with arrow wounds and still went back the next day. Gotta be the Darwin award winner of the year.

He had a calling!

lol i commented on facebook "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?"

lmao that story was great

So do these guys get charged with murder or what? Kind of an interesting question imo.

--I guess not. The Indian government says these dudes can kill outsiders.

lol @ trying to bring them in to trial

The 7 fisherman who took the jesus guy to the island were arrested.

okay I mean, first, military w/modern weapons shouldn’t be worried much about arrows.

that said, the best part is the timeline...first night, the bible banger came back with “arrow wounds”. the second, the tribe wrecked his canoe. it wasn’t until the third night that they killed him.

night #1: naaah, they were just playin’. as soon as I get down how to explain JESUS they’re gonna love me.

night #2: still working on translation issues, I have no idea why they’d wreck my only way of the island, must be their way of telling me to stay and tell them more!

night #3: jesus, is that you?

I'm guessing that is a play on the joke where a guy's house is flooding and he turns away the fire truck, boat, and helicopter that come to rescue him because he had faith that Jesus would protect him.

When he gets to heaven "Why didn't you protect me?"

"I sent you everything available!"