Re: OT: Iraqi elections

Matthew strikes a resonant chord when he writes the following as a tangent to
the central premise of this thread:

> It's not random good luck, and it does not require builders to be trained
> in geometry or trigonometry either. It is a rather simple thing to take a
> length of string, put four stakes in the ground and stretch another
> length of string from one corner to the opposing corner, then taking
> another length of string of the same length and stretching it between
> the other two corners, thereby "squaring up" your area marked by the
> first length of string marked by the four stakes, as you make
> adjustments. Height to be determined: simple as well - take
> one half or two thirds the length of any side and as the blocks are
> piled up, stop when the end of the string is reached. An
> oversimplification to be sure, but then again you don't need
> anything but an extremely basic understanding of building and
> measuring to build a pyramid.

Of the various pieces of "evidence" that Erich von Daniken, a fellow who
pushed a different kind of "intelligent design" in the 1960's, used to prove that
the ancient pyramids of Egypt could only have been built by aliens were:

o the pyramids were built on dead level plain, something far beyond the
technology of the time.

o the pyramids were oriented against the cardinal directions perfectly.

o the pyramids were built on height/base ratio exactly of pi/3 and pi/4,
but the Egyptians had no idea of the value of pi so precisely.

Given these facts, there was only one obvious and inescapable conclusion:
little grey guys did it.

But in actual fact, every farmer knows how to level a field very accurately.
You simply flood it and fill in the low spots and level off the high areas.
Moreover every agarian society very rapidly becomes an astronomical society.
People nowadays don't use the sky as either a clock or a calendar, in great part
because we never go outside any longer nor can you even see it in most places
now, but if you lived in Egypt, it would shine overhead every night and you
would very rapidly come to know the directions of the solistices and equinoxes
(dead true east and west).

But how did they know pi so precisely? It was automatically built into the
way that they measured distances then (and is still done today). They simply
pulled a large barrel with a stripe marked on it. One fellow pulled, and a second
counted the revolutions. If you built anything x number of that stripe high
and of y number of revolutions, you've got pi resolved into the building as
accurately as you can build your structure.

Wirt Atmar

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Iraqi elections
    ... > length of string from one corner to the opposing corner, ... the ancient pyramids of Egypt could only have been built by aliens were: ... * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * ...
    (comp.sys.hp.mpe)
  • Final candidates for new seven wonders
    ... The Great Pyramids in Giza will retain their status as one ... was built for King Cheops. ... KIYOMIZU TEMPLE, JAPAN ... CHRIST THE REDEEMER STATUE, BRAZIL ...
    (soc.culture.cambodia)
  • Re: Is ABC airing the original Ten Commandments this year?
    ... Whenever I hear somebody say that there was no way those ancient Egyptians could have built those huge Pyramids and Sphinxes and other huge structures without ultra-advanced technology from space aliens, I always tell them to go watch that movie. ... They had zillions of whip-beaten slaves whom they eagerly worked to death--pretty much as Cecil B. DeMille showed it. ... Chickens arrived around the same time as the great pyramid was built, but camels came much later. ...
    (rec.arts.tv)
  • Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:
    ... features you need built in? ... our ethernet-version products. ... tcp/ip session, one line to send a string, one line to get a string, ... All built in, called with plain English words (like ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Data Type mismatch with autonumber
    ... Rather than use a msgbox to grab the text that you've built... ... Toggle Breakpoint) on the next line after your ... That will give you your built string. ... Start a new query, then View, ...
    (microsoft.public.access.formscoding)