Sirius Notes

Pertaining to the verses of Don Pablo Estévez y Blanco, titled ‘Siriusly’, ætherickly publish’d in The Flea; videlicet:  http://www.the-flea.com/Issue20/Siriusly.html

Certain researchers investigating the Dogon have reported that they seem to possess advanced astronomical knowledge, the nature and source of which has subsequently become embroiled in controversy… the Dogon appeared to know that the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, has a faint companion, Sirius B, which requires a fairly large telescope to be seen. They also appeared to know of the rings of Saturn, and the Moons of Jupiter, which were not discovered by astronomers until after the invention of the telescope in the 17th century.This is a puzzle because the Dogon do not have telescopes. The controversy escalated when author Robert Temple suggested an extra-terrestrial source of the Dogon's knowledge.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon

The Nommo are ancestral spirits (sometimes referred to as deities) worshipped by the Dogon tribe of Mali. The word Nommos is derived from a Dogon word meaning, "to make one drink," The Nommos are usually described as amphibious, hermaphroditic, fish-like creatures. Folk art depictions of the Nommos show creatures with humanoid upper torsos, legs/feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail… Dogon mythology states that Nommo was the first living creature created by the sky god Amma. Shortly after his creation, Nommo underwent a transformation and multiplied into four pairs of twins. One of the twins rebelled against the universal order created by Amma. To restore order to his creation, Amma sacrificed another of the Nommo progeny, whose body was dismembered and scattered throughout the world. This dispersal of body parts is seen by the Dogon as the source for the proliferation of Binu shrines throughout the Dogons’ traditional territory; wherever a body part fell, a shrine was erected…

…the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. After arriving, the Nommos created a reservoir of water and subsequently dove into the water. The Dogon legends state that the Nommos required a watery environment in which to live. According to the myth related to Griaule and Dieterlen: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Nommo was crucified on a tree, but was resurrected and returned to his home world. Dogon legend has it that he will return in the future to revisit the Earth in a human form.

…Neither does an external cause seem to explain the 400-year old Dogon artifact that apparently depicts the Sirius configuration, or reports that the Dogon were aware of the super dense nature of the white dwarf star, Sirius B, since this was only postulated not long before the Dogon came in contact with the anthropologists.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nommo

Timewave zero is a theory that purports to calculate the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. It is an idea conceived of and discussed at length by Terence McKenna from the early 1970s until his death in the year 2000. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, density of complexification, and dynamic change as opposed to static habituation. According to McKenna, when "novelty" is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as timewave zero or simply the timewave results. The graph shows at what times, but never at what locations, novelty is supposedly increasing or decreasing. According to the timewave graph, great periods of novelty occurred about 4 billion years ago when Earth was formed, 65 million years ago when dinosaurs were extinct and mammals expanded, about 10,000 years ago after the end of the ice age, around late 18th century when social and scientific revolutions progressed, during the sixties, around the time of 9/11, in November 2008, and with coming novelty periods in October 2010, with the novelty progressing towards the infinity on 21 December 2012. Important graphic points in 2009, appear around 19 April, 29 August and 23 October 2009, indicating the possibility of significant events around these dates…

Novelty theory has a few basic tenets: That the universe is a living system with a teleological attractor at the end of time that drives the increase and conservation of complexity in material forms. That novelty and complexity increase over time, despite repeated set-backs.

That the human brain represents the pinnacle of complex organization in the known universe to date…. That as the complexity and sophistication of human thought and culture increase, universal novelty approaches a Koch curve of infinite exponential growth (singularity). That in the time immediately prior to, and during this omega point of infinite novelty, anything and everything conceivable to the human imagination will occur simultaneously, presentation as an implication. That the date of this singularity is December 21, 2012, the end of the long count of the Mayan calendar…

This End of Novelty was to be the final manifestation of The Eschaton, which McKenna characterized as a sort of strange attractor towards which the evolution of the universe developed…

Robert Anton Wilson has the theory of The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon, which he describes at an hour and a half long seminar given in 1988 titled "The Acceleration of Knowledge" and in his book Prometheus Rising. He also theorizes that information has doubled over history, and that these doublings come faster and faster. The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon has more of a philosophical and historical basis than a scientific one, though many parallels between his theory and Timewave Zero can be drawn…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timewave_zero

One of McKenna's ideas is known as novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the Amazon at La Chorrera led him to closely study the King Wen sequence of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves ontology, extropy, and eschatology.

The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by Max More meaning the opposite of entropy). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases and is supposed to represent a model of history's most important events.

The algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or extropy) could occur. Millenarians give more credence to Novelty theory as a way to predict the future (especially regarding 2012) than McKenna himself. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but it hit an asymptote at exactly December 21, 2012.[20] In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. This is also the date on which the Mayan long calendar ends.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna

Omega Point is a term invented by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which the universe appears to be evolving…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point

Claim: The Dogon and the Egyptians detected Sirius B because their melanin acted similarly to an infrared telescope…

Source: http://www.ramtops.co.uk/dogonsum.html

starry: ancient, old  (Russian старый, stary)

Source: http://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Nadsat (Nadsat from Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange)

Eche Flea-some Broadsheete Delay’d for One Monthe

NB: All Broadsheets of THE FLEA,
after May 1611, have been set back for One Monthe, viz.,

Reviz’d Calendar

of
The FLEA
Broadsheet Publickations,
&c.
May, Broadsheet XVI
July, Broadheet XVII
August, Broadsheet XVIII
September, Broadsheet XIX
October, Broadsheet XX

Thus, if your poem be preuiously set to appear in the Avgust Broadsheet,
It will now be publish’d in September,
&c.

Thou FLEA, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou...

FLEA the XVIIth, with Stephen Edgar, Gene Auprey, Michael Burch, Geoff Page, Angela France & more:

http://www.the-flea.com/

The Utterly Fabulous GOLDEN FLEA Awards, 1611

The GOLDEN FLEA Prizes for Excellence in Psyllophilous Poetry, awarded to the best poems (in Yr Hble & Obdt Editor’s infallible Estimation), originally publish’d in The FLEA from June, 1610 to May, 1611; the afore-said awards consisting of valuable ætheric Trophies, so utterly Metaphysical that they do not euen exist in Body Natural, but only in the Realm of the Ideal. This Year they are awarded to—

Mistress Anna Evans, for ‘The Persistence of Desire’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue12/PersistenceofDesire.html

Mr. Amit Majmudar, for ‘The Yo-yo’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue12/TheYo-yo.html

Mistress Ann Drysdale, for ‘When Mister Nifty Plays the Bones’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue14/WhenMisterNiftyPlaystheBo.html

&,

Mr. Stephen Edgar, for ‘The Representation of Reality in Western Art’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue15/TheRepresentationofRealit.html

These awards to be deliuer’d vnto the honour’d Recipients by a host of Angels in a Glory!

For further Intelligence of these Transcendendental Phenomena, please consult the following Æ-Page; viz., http://www.the-flea.com/Issue16/Editorial.html

Down at The Mermaid with The Flea

An evening down the Pub, and aftermath -- with John Whitworth, Ann Drysdale, Les Murray, Geoff Page, Peter Wyton, Anna Evans, Rick Mullin, Stephen Edgar, Ben Jonson, Timothy Murphy, Marly Youmans, Duncan Gillies MacLaurin, Susan Taylor, John Donne, Salli Shepherd &c. &c. Hangover remedies from John Whitworth & Alan Gould. Followed by uplifting ejaculations from George Herbert.

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue16/index.html

Hugh Fox Reading ‘Since’ from Broadsheet 12

Hugh Fox reads his poem ‘Since’, published in The Flea’s Broadsheete 12.

THE FLEA’s Birth-daye Bumper Broadsheet Pub-Crawle

In the Merry Month of May, 2011, THE FLEA will attain his Second Birthday; maugré the vicissitudes of Dame Fortuna, and the desuetudes occasion’d by the Agenbyte of Fleawitte; THE FLEA having so thrived & swyv’d & prosper’d, & swolne moreover, that the once-wee Bug-ger, inflated to this preposterous Girth of Poetick Rotundity, his belly stuff’d with verses Physickal & Metaphysickall, is more aptly address’d as Sir Cumference, than as Sir FLEA!

This Fal-staffe of Fleas, this Ralph Roister Doister of Suttle Inter-netted Verse, this Jiggynge Hobbie-Horse-Pegasus of Poetry, accordingly proposes to celebrate his Happy Anniversarie by heading to

THE MERMAID TAVERN,

or, 

Down the Pub!

THE FLEA therefore invites the Canting Crewe, the Poets, Satyrists, Wittes, Gallants, Fine Ladies, Dells & Doxies, & sundrie divers Revellers, to join it in a Poetic Pub-Crawl to THE MERMAID TAVERN, for a BUMPER BIRTHDAY BROAD-SHEETE, or, it may be, BROAD-SIDE. Thus you may supply Yr Arrogant & Vnruly Editor with select verses compos’d to fit the occasion, on such topicks as:

Ale, Beer, Quaffing, Rollicking, Toasting, Ducke-drunkenness, Lager-Loutes, lustfull Meeting of shining Eyes across a crowded Bar, Wine, Absinthe, Pub-crawling, Pub-brawling, Arrest by the Watch for Drunk & Disorderly, Absinthe, the Heady Intoxication of Love, a Round or two for a Pound or two, Chundering, Beer-goggles, Lost Week-endes, Remorseful Hang-overs;or whatever invention the Poetic Imagination can devize to suit this Bacchanalian & Celebratory theme; and moreover in any mood, from boisterous to maudlin, as may seem apt to the inspiration of the Poet.

Keyboard-Quille THREE of your poetick Effusions in a Fayre Hand, and inclose them in the Submission Forme on the THE FLEA’s Submitte Page, or within an æ-mail address’d to Yr Editor (whose Address may be found vpon that same Submitte page), and be certayne to inscribe THE MERMAID TAVERN as the subject line, or near the toppe of your submission. NB. It is suggested that verses hotly compos’d in a divine afflatus of inspir’d intoxication, be afterwards reviz’d in a more sober & critickal disposition & frame of Minde.

When Yr Editor deems that sufficient lively Bacchanalian Verses have accrued, he will at that point close the Submissions. These Pub-Crawle Birthday Submissions will be in sur-plus & addition to the current General Submissions (which close on the 22nd of January). Authors who have submitted work for the general issues of THE FLEA may nevertheless submit also for this special themed May Birthday Broadsheet.

        Souls of poets dead and gone,
        What Elysium have ye known,
        Happy field or mossy cavern,
        Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?