Brothers of the Serpent

We interview Dr. Brian Keating about his book, "Losing the Nobel Prize", and we talk physics, the Big Bang, the Multiverse, inflation, gravity, cosmic microwave background, Antarctica, and more. Russ gets pretty much everything wrong, while Kyle publishes his first physics paper. "Dr. Brian Keating is a professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences (CASS) in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. He is a public speaker, inventor, and an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), using it to learn about the origin and evolution of the universe. Keating is a pioneer in the search for the earliest physical evidence of the inflationary epoch,[1] the theorized period of expansion of space in the early universe directly after the Big Bang." Find out more about Dr. Keating and his projects at his website, briankeating.com Follow him on Twitter @DrBrianKeating Find his book on Amazon, Losing the Nobel Prize, and on Twitter, @L_TheNobelPrize     SpaceWeatherNews: Fuzzy Sun Losing the Nobel Prize     The BICEP Telescope, Antarctica   Duck and roll, Dr. Keating! We'll pick you up at dawn, six months from now   Polarized CMB light  

We have a fantastic discussion with the one and only Randall Carlson about vulcanism, ancient mysteries, extinction events, the Younger Dryas, the Missoula Flood, Drumlins, Carolina Bays, the Great Chicago Fire, and much more! We also discuss the upcoming Contact at the Cabin event with Randall and the guys from Grimerica in late May, which we will be attending, to go on field trips to sites of geological and archaeological interest. Enjoy!     Glaciers carrying thick sediment layers   Isostatic Rebound causing multiple shorelines   Isostatic Depression and Rebound   Fossil Shoreline of Lake Bonneville visible on mountains in Utah   Fossil Shoreline in Utah   Enormous volcanic ash layer   Non-uniform volcanic ash layers, indicating catastrophic change interspersed with massive eruptions   Diagram of Wisconsin Glaciation   The Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Wisconsin Glaciation   Modern day glacial outburst flood   Modern Glacial outburst flood   Outburst Flood   Outburst flooding   1980s Mt. St. Helens eruption   St. Helens Cloud   St. Helens Cloud   St. Helens Cloud from far away   Mt. St. Helens just before the eruption   Mt. St. Helens from the same spot as above, four months after the eruption   Helens explosive blast effect on nearby forests   Destruction from Helens   Helens forest devastation   Forests destroyed   Helens Aftermath   Car buried in Helens ash fall   Shattered tree trunk, Helens aftermath   Mt. St. Helens today, forest and ecosystem recovered     Carolina Bays LIDAR   Carolina Bays   Carolina Bays   Original survey collage that showed Carolina Bays   Lunar crater chain, possibly from disintegrating comet   Lunar Crater chain   Lake Superior, with Lake Nipigon possible impact crater to the north   Lake Nipigon   Nipigon southern boundary flood zone   Nipigon flood zone empties into north lake Superior   Isle Royale in Lake Superior, with clear flood flow etching of the basaltic bedrock   Terrain view of Isle Royale   Chicago Fire, Artist rendition   Chicago fire, art   Chicago fire, Art   Chicago fire aftermath   Hinckley fire,"The Suicide Express"   Hinckley Fire Memorial   Hinckley Fire paper   Peshtigo Fire, art   Peshtigo fire, survivor's testimonies   Peshtigo fire, well marker   Peshtigo fire cemetary marker   Peshtigo fire mass grave marker   2017 Napa Valley fire   2017 fire aftermath  

We spend some time on listener comments and correspondence, reading them and responding in kind. Kyle then reads some fascinating news stories about ancient CMEs, and advanced mathematics describing why hipsters are the first to be annoying, anywhere. After that, we read excerpts from Graham Hancock's book Underworld about the mysterious Jomon people of ancient Japan, whose culture survived for at least 12,000 years. Jomon pottery is by far the oldest pottery ever discovered, by many thousands of years, and they had some oldest known organized planned settlements in the world. Dragon Aurora   More sky dragons   Definitely a dragon   Drip painting on canvas by Nathan J Taylor, artist's impression of Ezekiel's Wheel   Another artist's impression of Ezekiel's wheel Jomon site of Sannai-Muryama, reconstructed   Interior of reconstructed Jomon longhouse at Sannai-Muryama Kuromata Yama in the distance, a sculpted 'pyramid' mountain   Kuromata Yama Very ancient Jomon stone circles   Jomon circle   Jomon stone circle Very ancient Jomon pottery, with "rope" impressions   Examples of Jomon pottery   Jomon "incense burner"   Jomon pottery vessel   Ancient fragment of Jomon pottery, with cord marks   Very ancient Jomon pottery   Highly stylized Jomon vessel   Jomon pottery   Jomon maze pattern vase Tiny birdpoint arrowhead we found, with a dime for relative size Jomon "Dogu" figurine   Dogu   Another example of strange Dogu figures   Dogu with characteristic giant slit eyes   Dogu figure   Very old dogu figurine   Dogu   Showing the relative size of the average Dogu figurine  

We speak with Sheldon from the C-Word podcast and mine his brain for valuable nuggets of geological data. He has a degree in geology and has experience in using his degree in the field for oil, gas and mining industries. We talk about uniformitarianism, catastrophism, the Younger Dryas, plate tectonics, the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, vulcanism, rock formation and dating technologies, and pirates at strip clubs. Thanks very much to The C Word for letting us borrow their geologist for one show! Check them out on Twitter @cwordpod and on iTunes. Enjoy! Exposed mantle material at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland "Ultramafic" rock, Gros Morne Subduction of oceanic crust Back-arc Basin and volcanic result of subduction The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Standing on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge exposed in Iceland Oceanic Gyre currents  

We focus on mysterious ancient codices and untranslated written languages and texts from around the world, leading to all manner of discussion on a wide range of subjects. We also deliver the weekly SpaceWeatherNews update, a few interesting news articles, and some listener correspondence.     Dragon Aurora   Fire Falls   Humpback whale in Amazon   Cretan Hieroglyphs on Phaistos Disc   Wadi el-Hol script   Sitovo inscription Olmec writing   Singapore Stone   Rongorongo   Proto-Elamite   Indus Valley script, with Unicorn   Mohenjo-daro     

After reading the entirety of the Upuaut Project info from Gantenbrink's website in episode 85, we follow up on the topic of the "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid by reading articles and info on the more recent explorations of the shafts, finishing up with the ScanPyramids data about the "voids" discovered above the Great Gallery. We discuss the possible ways that Gantenbrink's data may coincide with the ScanPyramids data, and much more.   Mercury after sunset, spaceweather.com   ScanPyramids Big Void      

In this episode we do a deep-dive into German Engineer Rudolph Gantenbrink's exploration of the mysterious "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid, reading at length from his website where he meticulously records every detail of the project to use a robotic crawler to drive a camera up the shafts and inspect them up close, block by block, culminating in the discovery of the now infamous "secret door". So many interesting features were discovered by Gantenbrink and his "Upuaut" robot, most of which were so overshadowed by the "door" that these other details are rarely reported. We remedy that with this show. (All the pictures below come from Gantenbrink's website, www.cheops.org) Settling of the shaft blocks   "Dixon's Rod"   An illustration showing the partially completed shaft block, which the robot could not pass   Block assembly where one of the King's Chamber shaft ends on the exterior of the pyramid   Entering the "Mankiller" tunnel   Cleaning the access to exterior shaft point   The 100 year old wheeled "battering ram"   Installing the protective cover over an exterior shaft exit   Recessed niches in King's Chamber shaft. You can see the laser dots on the wall, inside the niches   Ventilator blower   Upuaut 2 entering a shaft   Lateral displacement of a shaft block   Static forces damaged the floor block of the shaft, making a giant "tank trap" step up to the next block   The infamous "door"   Close-up of the copper rods, with circular "seals" discoloration   Graphic showing shaft block arrangement   Shaft block assembly   Shaft block assembly, showing how the builders changed block sizes to keep the assembly from sliding down into the chambers   Strange vertical shaft seam(it looks tilted from the robot's perspective)   Dixon's "hook"   Black mark on the shaft wall, with horizontal chisel marks across it   Double vertical black mark with chisel marks   Object with two holes in it, beneath Dixon's Rod   Wooden square rod trapped beneath Dixon's Rod   Dixon's Rod curving to the right where it is jammed against the wall. To the left is the square rod, with a mysterious boxy shape barely visible at the far end of it   Very rough block surfaces   Horizontal "Scratch lines" along the block wall, just above floor level   Remnants of mortar glue stuck to shaft wall   More glue in a different area   Floor groove   A second floor groove   Graphic depicting saw being used to clean the sides of casing stones   Groove beneath casing stone seam   Broken piece of copper rod from the "door"   Fine Limestone natural veins visible in cieling   Remnants of gypsum on copper rod   Bottom right corner of the "door"  

This week we had a very special guest(our dad) on the show to regale us with stories about moving and lifting very heavy loads in massive construction projects, the associated headaches and difficulties and, sometimes, outright disasters that can occur when trying to lift object A and place it on point B. His decades of experience allows him to explain very well how complex such operations are, and how much engineering and technology is required to complete them. We compare some of the modern world's most powerful lifting machinery to what would have been required to complete some of the ancient megalithic structures still standing today, and even do some basic math to get the specs for a crane for building the Great Pyramid. Spoiler alert: it would have to have been way bigger than anything we have today. Pink Aurora Steel Counterweight Boxes being lowered into the bridge towers Bridge span being constructed on land     1400-ton completed bridge span being slowly rolled towards the barge   18-20 axle bridge span transports     Bridge rolling onto the barge   Ballast pump keeping barge level as bridge weight is added   Two ballast pumps working   Bridge span almost completely on the barge   The next day, 90-ft wide barge carrying 300-ft bridge span to the channel         Barge with bridge approaching the bridge towers   Completed bridge in the down position for railroad crossing   Completed bridge in the up position for channel traffic Japan Imperial Palace walls coming out of canal     Parabolic curve of the Imperial walls   Relative Size image of Imperial Palace wall corner ashlar blocks   Crane sliding a concrete table out of the side of the building   UPS docking bay doors, pre-poured, rigged for lifting   Lifting a door--note the crane getting "light" on the back track   A lifted door        

After the customary SpaceWeatherNews update, we read the story of the three year old boy who was lost in the woods for 48 hours and, when he was found, said he "hung out with a bear". People seem to think he was actually hanging out with sasquatch. So we get our resident three year old to look at a picture of sasquatch, and he says "Inuno its a gorilla" so, he, at least, would not have called sasquatch a bear. The rest of the show is about spacetime gravity waves, time dilation, red shift, relativity, string theory, and other similarly simple cosmological concepts.  

In this episode we try to give an overview of the topic of ancient mysteries and why we explore alternative views of ancient history. We try to cover as much ground as possible with as broad a brush as possible. For long term listeners or people who are already versed in this subject, this show gives a good outline of our current thinking. For those who are new to the topic, we hope this will initiate you into this most fascinating of subjects.