Einstűrzende Neubauten and the Death of Pseudo-Myth

 

Eventually, all the bets are covered. The Heisenberg Principle demands it. Entropy needs balance to feed upon. The Nail that Sticks Up is the one that gets nibbled…well, hammered down. Occasionally, as a. Nail, you become uncomfortably aware of a certain uncertainty as to your status in that context.  Sometimes you feel like a Nut, sometimes you don’t. 

Whatever cards you bring to the table, whichever hand you play, there is a game out there with a seat reserved. Your assertion that the Universe should bend to your Will is an assault on Order, a proposal for disruption- so, sit right down.  Ante up some Novelty.

There is a port called Cydonia. It is on the northern coast of the island of Crete. There is a place once called Sidon, on the coast of what is today called Lebanon, not so far away. Are the names   related, are both of Greek origin, does that mean Phoenician, which might mean...? 

The famous Big Heavy Stone of Baalbek. Usually said to have been unused because it broke- or it would have been even bigger. Looks like it belongs alongside those two in the background.
Yes, it does strangely appear that there are faces on that stone. The light has to be just right to see them. This is an old photo-it is from before the stone got cracked (again, in recent years)- the new photos show it in much worse condition.
Here's the old ( I think Old Culture) base blocks the Romans and everyone else just used for foundations. Notice they show the same image embedding as the fallen stone... but the later building on top does not. I did not paint anything into this image. Sometimes, there are things visible in photos not easily seen in person Sometimes, it is the other way around. Sometimes, no one looks.
One more Baalbek item for now. Notice the figures on the stone work in the background. The main item here is probably presented to tourists as an altar of some type. Might actually  be a column top.

There are a few other similar place names scattered around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East. If you are an accomplished player of the Word Game, you might be able to find linkages with the roots of the word insidious, too.  Or not.

There is also another place called Cydonia, on the planet Mars. Is it odd that none of the permutations of that name gracing Earthly locations are as widely known to the general public as the one on Mars? Most people could not really locate Cydonia on a map of Mars without some help, but they have heard the name. What makes a small corner of Mare Acidalia so famous with non-scientists? An apparently human face, staring up into the sky, that’s what.

In the summer of 1976, the Viking mission arrived at Mars. There were two orbiters, and each sent a lander down to the surface. There were devices on these to test for various things, including a clever mechanism to test for the presence of Martian microbes, and there were cameras. Oh, yes, there were cameras. All that Science stuff was very nice, but to the majority of people it was the pictures that drew the most interest. Of course, the Official Opinions of Important Scientists were that we would see a somewhat alien landscape, barren and lifeless, but that isn’t what many non-scientists were hoping for. After all, this was Mars. Schiaperelli and Lowell had looked through their telescopes and seen what might have been evidence of civilization there, hadn’t they? Well, not precisely, but it was a wonderful notion.