2012: End of the world?

As you know, in the last time one of the most popular topics has been the end of the world, because many prophecies indicate 2012 as the last year of the humanity.

I think that prophecies in certain way are true. The Mayas points to a change to another dimension of conscience, another vibrational level, in which the people stop to care about material and superficial things, and starts worried about more transcendental things like spirituality.

In my opinion, the Maya prophecy already started, the world is coming to its maximum capacity to support all the human actions that, most of the time, are against the nature; and the people itself also is noticing that something has to change if we want to still living in this planet. The big industries, transgenic food, indiscriminate hunting, wars, social injustices and a big etcetera, implies damage that the world can’t continue supporting anymore.

At this point, it’s so necessary to make a change in our life style, in the way in which we are related to other people and to the nature. We need to stop to think that money is more important than people or nature. We must do an urgent change in our conscience.

So, if you ask me, do you think that 2012 will be the end of the world? I think that my answer is yes, the end of the world as we know until now.

But, in a hypothetical situation, maybe more superficial, if the world ended this year in a catastrophic way, I would like to spend the rest of the time doing all the things that I love to do or that I would like to do but I never have had the opportunity to do. For example, I would like to travel all over Chile and other countries, to be in contact with nature, to be with my family and friends, and enjoy the life.

Well, in any case, if 2012 is the end of the world or doesn’t it is, I hope that we all change our behavior and we try to make the world a better place to live…       

In Chile the concern for environmental issues is relatively recent. I think that a few years ago if only you are interesting in this topic you can learn about it, but now the environmentally friendly practices are much more widespread in the society. Now, in many schools has incorporated the environmental topic to its academic planning, and I think that is very important, because children since little can be familiarized with the importance of look after the planet.

I used to be more green than now, but always I try to do what I can. When I lived with my family in a house, we always recycled everything we could, like all the paper, cardboard, plastic and glass, also we had redworms, a special kind of worm that are used for vermicomposting and produce humus –a soil much fertile than compost-, that you can feed them with all your organic residues from kitchen. Another recycling habit that we had was to make ecobricks, a plastic bottle filling of plastic that are used for sustainable construction, and now in my apartment we make it too.

On the other hand, I always try to use my bike or legs, and sometimes I use Transantiago. I don’t have a car and the only option to use one is when I asked to borrow my mom’s car… so, that is unusual.

As I said in classes, last year with some friends we made a vegetable garden at the university, near the Art Faculty. We named our group “Rëngalentun”, which means to dig up in Mapudungun. During 2010 and the first semester of 2011 I took active part in the vegetable garden construction and the activities that we made. But since the strike I must recognize that I abandoned it.

Well…as you can see, I used to be more green than now, but I’m trying to get back to my old sustainable habits…

A mastodon rib that could change the Clovis American settlement paradigm...

An archaeological find in North America suggests humans were hunting large mammals, mastodons in particular, about 800 years earlier than previously thought. This find consists in a mastodon rib with an embedded bone projectile tip, which belongs to a human group that inhabited North America before than the “Clovis culture”, which was considered the first human culture in that area.

The mastodon was found in 1977 by a farmer and it was excavated and first interpreted by the archaeologist Carl Gustafson. His analysis concluded that the object in the rib was a projectile point made of bone or antler and also, through dating organic matter, he estimated that it was about 14.000 years old. However his interpretation was questioned.

Those results were reevaluated using modern technology by Professor Michael Waters from Texas A&M University. With an industrial-grade CT scanner he took slices every 0.06 mm and as Waters said: the image clearly showed that the object was sharpened to a tip. This new analysis confirmed that the mastodon died about 13.800 years ago and also it showed that the rib and the spear point belonged to the same species.

There are two other sites in North America beside this one that provide strong evidence for pre-Clovis hunting and it modifies the Clovis paradigm as the first human group in America. However, Waters’s interpretation about the site is still stoking debate.

You can read the full article in this link

I woke up that morning feeling really strange. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I was sure that something is going to happen. I got out of the bed and I opened the curtains, the weather was also really rare…black clouds on the sky and a wind that sounded like somebody was screaming.

I was in a big old house; from the window I could see an extensive garden which had a lot of different plants. When I turned, I saw a big bed with a red blanket, some paintings on the wall and only one door. Suddenly, I heard a loud sound somewhere in the house. I came out of the room and I started to walk trying to find the source of the noise. But while I was walking, I felt that I shouldn’t have gone out of the bed.  

The corridor was dark and the sound was doing loud. It was something metallic. I came into another room, which was full of many bookcases, and I tried to find the light switch but I couldn’t.

Suddenly, I heard another noise, much closer than the other. I realized that the bookcase next to me had moved, and a shadow was getting closer to me. I was so scared but I couldn’t move; I was completely paralyzed. And when the shadow was almost over me, I closed my eyes and I started to scream. Then, when I opened my eyes again I was in the same bed in which I had woken up before…