Chariots of the Gods

[Kanastrous]

The Marinavaghad Gita.

I sure hope 'Marinavaghad' isn't something obscene, in Sansrkit...

[PeZook]

A "Saturn V-equivalent" wouldn't necessarily be identical to a Saturn V; I'd rate the Ares V (which may wind up being aborted with the collapse of Constellation) as one even though it is definitely more capable and more advanced than the Saturn V.

Yeah, I know a new heavy lift rocket wouldn't be identical to the Saturn V. Hell, a Saturn V built toda would probably be a vastly different rocket.

But yeah. Just checking to make sure there wasn't some specific detail like "You fool, did you not know that the vital Alloy X which was in widespread production in 1962 is no longer made today, without which no heavy lift booster can be built?"

The reasons are purely logistical - right now, there's simply no demand for a rocket with 100+ tonnes of payload.

[Simon_Jester]

There's several passages in the Ramayana that can be interpreted to being about nuclear weapons. Marina wrote a fake passage that's MUCH more clearly about nuclear weapons, and posted it on SDN. Later, it started turning up on UFO websites and an Indian Government cultural website.

I wish I could find the text of the original quote here...

Well, I'm pretty sure it's not the "it was a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe" line, since I'm pretty sure I've seen that in sources that predate her. And that's the really famous one.

The Marinavaghad Gita.

I sure hope 'Marinavaghad' isn't something obscene, in Sansrkit...

On the contrary, that would just make the whole thing even more hilarious.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

There are real 'UFO Proof' texts in the Ramayana. Marina just wrote a better one that people also think is genuine. I believe there's generally three 'big quotes', and one of them is hers. I even found some website/blog that takes comments and one of the comments was 'hey, I can't find the 2nd quote, where is it from?'

It wasn't on Sd.net. Anyway, the original quote was by woo-woo author David Childress, as I recall (it was originally based on a "translation" of the Mahabharata, possibly by Cayce, from the 1930s which was total bullshit), and I modified it to make it explicit for an STGOD, and then one day in the 2000s someone found the quote on an Indian government ministry of culture website. I don't think it's up there anymore, thank god. Someone must have noticed it wasn't actually in their religious texts, though it was utterly hilarious at the time.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, now that it's out there in the echo chamber, it's never going to damp away entirely. I guess that's an occupational hazard of being a large-volume writer: the increasing danger that somewhere out there, an idiot will quote you.

It definitely casts a lot of very unflattering light on the way UFO types think...

What I'm really curious about is whether the "single projectile charged with all the power of the universe" quote is authentic or woo-woo, since I'm not at all familiar with the story in the first place.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Here we go, one dumbass website still has it up:

++http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/viman ... anas_9.htm

"Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the three cities of the Vrishis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas."

This is the one that I created--a mashup of two other quotes--and is itself cropped, as it was a mashup of three, none of which were actually from the Mahabharata but rather from some websites or whatever I'd found at the time--I owned a complete copy of the Mahabharata and knew they weren't in there. Anyway, the work "Gurkha" was the name of a character, and is a total invention--it refers to a race of people and not a figure in the Mahabharata. Anyway, a few specific parts may actually be from the Mahabharata, but devoid of all context. Hinduism has a sophisticated cosmology in which "all the power of the Universe" makes perfect sense in describing a divine weapon.

[Sky Captain]

I have seen Daniken`s Chariots of the gods movie few years ago, I think I even still have it in one of my HDD`s. At least there were lot`s of cool footage from various exotic places from around the world. And I have to thank Daniken because his ideas definitely helped to create Stargate series

As far as whole idea that an extraterrestrial race has visited solar system at some point in it`s history goes I think it`s possible however to prove it we would have to find direct evidence like some discarded alien hardware on Earth or other planets in solar system or drifting in space. Some weird ancient paintings or strange myths are`t enough.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Marina, I just googled the quote and found it on UFO sites, fringe-anti-gravity pages, and even a 'Hindu Creation Myths' page.

Its awesome. I wonder if anyone would believe it was written by a quiet Oregon woman.

[Gramzamber]

It's like that Nostradamus prophecy about 9/11 that turned out to be written by a college student to demonstrate how easy it was to make a genuine sounding prophecy.
People found it and immediately assumed it was solid proof, because it said what they wanted to see.

[Atlan]

Chariots of the Gods... I used to have the graphic novels!

Ye gods... I was maybe ten at the time. That's almost thirty years ago, but in Europe there was a set of Graphic Novels about that story. Wish I could find pictures now... I remember they actually were fairly spiffy looking stories.