My tribute to the humankind

carmen — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:04:36 +0100

Be most welcome to a tribute to Mesopotamia, its myths, religion, gods and goddesses. Join us in a journey upon the paths of the soul to meet passionate deities, divine kings, priestesses-queens and all that was sung before the muses and angels. May the Ancient Wisdom be the Light to guide our journey throughout the site and may the old and modern texts come to life to become once again a living force to grow and transform!

Source: http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/

Those words has been written by Lishtar, this my tribute to one of the most important priestesses of Ishtar along the history of the humankind. She is one who really deserves the same title that Enheduanna, the first known writer, worn thousands years ago.

Both, Lishtar and Enheduanna enjoyed their life with Ishtar.

According to Dr. Bernard S. Butler: this new force within us, a Goddess who challenged rather than mothering us, shocked us so we nearly lost our sanity. She has frightened so many for so long that even today people devote their whole existence to the pointless exercise of ignoring or denying her presence. But She inspired us. We now know that Sumer was not the cradle of civilisation so far as writing etc, are concerned. But Sumer was the culture that brought it all together.

Inanna has been worshipped for longer than Judaism and Christianity have existed. She was adored and feared two thousand years before Genesis was written. Then, at the height of Roman imperialism, we lost sight of Her. She was never lost: we were; for two dark millennia in mainstream Europe, and we paid dearly for it. More death, more violence, more suppression of the natural human spirit, for men as much as for women, than in all of human history.

Now science, technology, and most important, psychology, have advanced to a stage where we can see her again. She is returning to consciousness like a shaft of starlight to enrich our minds and delight our hearts. For She it is who represents the ultimate act of civilised humanity, because She personifies the highest form of consciousness, the final phase of what Jung called the process of Individuation - the act of discovering who we really are - not perfect, just authentic, just human.

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me." (Immanuel Kant. Critique of Practical Reason, conclusion.) Inanna represents both.

Source: http://www.peninsula.starway.net.au/~bernard/frame.html

If Sumer brought it all together. Babylon made us dwell together: Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, etc. different languages, different races, different thoughts, etc. We all built along 2000 years the most important city in that world. An small world as we all now dwell in an small planet.

As some describe Babylonian laws since Hamurabi code (1760 BC):The population of Babylonia was of many races from early times, and intercommunication between the cities was incessant. Every city had a large number of resident aliens. This freedom of intercourse must have tended to assimilate custom. It was, however, reserved for the genius of Hammurabi to make Babylon his metropolis and weld together his vast empire by a uniform system of law.Almost all trace of tribal custom had already disappeared from the law of the Code. It is state-law; self-help, blood-feud, marriage by capture, are all absent; though the Code of family solidarity, district responsibility, ordeal, the lex murabi, talionis, are primitive features that remain. The king is a benevolent autocrat, easily accessible to all his subjects, both able and willing to protect the weak against the highest-placed oppressor.

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

Even today, while our planet suffers and all forms of life suffer with it, even today while we have to protect the weak living being (human, animal, tree, plant) against the highest-placed oppressor, I feel what one unknown writer wrote:“As I walk, as I walk, as I pass along the banks of the august river, as I roam along the banks of the Euphrates, as I stand, …, as I pass along the gaudy streets.”(Source: A balbale of Inanna)

As Enheduanna wrote "Since it was full, too full for me, great exalted lady, I have recited this song for you"

May I make of my life a happy song. May that song be joy for other beings.

server upgrade

Triss Gray — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:34:14 +0200

Hi all,

I managed to get the server which hosts this site (and some others) swapped out for one with more ram (256k-->1gb, for the same price!), so as soon as I have some time I'm going to be moving the website over to the new server (and closing down the old one)... I hope more memory will mean better caching, and thus more performance (for the website, but also for the mail etc I do with it), and also the possibility to have more processes running (eg more slaves to serve pages etc)...

Downtime should be limited (don't know when yet) to the time needede for copying the necessary files and changing the dns record so it points to the new server (this means the url for the site will not change)....

After that I'll start thinking about upgrading the software to drupal 6, which is also supposed to speed things up, and solve some problems like with the new post notification....

RepRap universal constructor achieves self-replication

Natlia — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:29:06 +0200

The RepRap universal constructor made a successful copy of itself on May 29, 2008. Follow the link for more information.

Teleport system

Triss Gray — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 23:14:45 +0200

A new invention is installed in babylonia: the teleport system!

It allows you to teleport to and from the most important places , or to make a tour by hopping from one(numbered) place to the next!
Look out for the numbered tiles, or click on a number on the map in the welcome & chat area!

It might still be a bit buggy here and there, and more features are to come!
If you have suggestions or find faults in it, please commenth ere or start a thread in the forum!

About Babylon

carmen — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:52:45 +0100

What Babylonia in Second Life is

Second Life is on online world , where the content is created by the residents. The only limit is the end of your imagination... Babylonia is one of the places in second life, currently located on a mainland plot at orache: the temple of Ishtar and Inanna in Orache. Alas, the ownership of this plot is very vague, and we can not change anything on it. Still, we cling to this place, because it seems to be where the virtual-gegraphical heart of Babylonia lies. For some time, we were hosted on an own island: Babylonia, which has now disappeared into the electrical abyss.... read more »

Babylonian Winter

Triss Gray — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:22:25 +0100

Hi all,

with the big winter festivities a-coming, and SL even having a winter festival, Babylonia can't stay behind!

We want to organize some winter activities, christmas, snow, new year's eve etc are the keywords here! So, if you have any idea's, can offer any help, want to let us know what you think of the ideas already brought forward, let us knowby reacting to this message...

some ideas:

christmas market
christmas treasure hunt
iglo building contest
ice skating
oh,and before I forget: merry christmas, a Happy New Year, and a shiny easter!

Secondseeker.com visited our temple

Triss Gray — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:28:34 +0100

Hey all,

I noticed secondseeker.com, a no-sleeze SL parcel "review" site, visited us and put up a nice article about us!

More in our article section, or at Secondseeker.com !!!

Temple of Ishtar and Inanna

Triss Gray — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:25:26 +0100

Ianna is the Sumerian name for Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, sexual love, and ... erm, war. Some of us may feel these three to be intricately intertwined; others of us - well, we'll just leave it at that!

Ishtar had mixed reviews, even in her own time; she was said to be fickle, capricious, and even, sometimes, cruel. In one story, the goddess descends to the Underworld, where she demands that the gatekeeper open the doors:

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living.

Take a lesson from that, ladies: assertiveness pays off!

[For more, see the Article source]

Eighth wonder of the world?

Natlia — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:17:44 +0100

Nestling in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, 30 miles from the ancient city of Turin, lies the valley of Valchiusella. Peppered with medieval villages, the hillside scenery is certainly picturesque.

But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region's greatest wonders are concealed.

Here, 100ft down and hidden from public view, lies an astonishing secret - one that has drawn comparisons with the fabled city of Atlantis and has been dubbed 'the Eighth Wonder of the World' by the Italian government.

For weaving their way underneath the hillside are nine ornate temples, on five levels, whose scale and opulence take the breath away.

Constructed like a three-dimensional book, narrating the history of humanity, they are linked by hundreds of metres of richly decorated tunnels and occupy almost 300,000 cubic feet - Big Ben is 15,000 cubic feet.

The truth about recycling

Triss Gray — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:15:54 +0100

As the importance of recycling becomes more apparent, questions about it linger. Is it worth the effort? How does it work? Is recycling waste just going into a landfill in China? Here are some answers read more »

Babylonia offline

Triss Gray — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:02:55 +0100

Hi,

tragic news: it seems that our island is offline, I presume since yesterday evening. Since I guess nobody knows the reason (though it could have to do with no more payments coming in), I submitted a support request via the linden support thingy. If i receive any answer I'll let it know here.

Oscatel asked me if "pulling back" to orache would be the safe thing to do, but i'm not entirely sure, since I believe this land should have been payed by the same people pying the island... It could be used until (?) it disappears too though, at least it still is owned by the babylon landowners group.

Back but recovering

carmen — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:38:46 +0200

Hello babylonian friends,

I came back two weeks ago. Has been an intense time. Plenty of experiences. Learning what Ishtar has showed to me about the very real life. I am still unable to explain, I need time to comprehend and accept everything.

I am restoring a way of life and way to earn money for a life. It is a bit time consuming. I think that I need a few weeks yet to have everything ready in real life to attend virtual activities.

In the meanwhile, please enjoy every minute of your life in Babylon, in our planet, because it is a wonderfull gift that most human beings cannot enjoy.

Thanks a lot, babylonians.

Carmen

Site upgraded

Triss Gray — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:10:00 +0200

Hi all,

the site has been offline for a while so I could upgrade the platform we use (called Drupal) to drupal 5.2. This was necessary because of some bugfixes and security patches. A quick test seems to show all is well after the upgrade, but should you find any (new) problems, please let me know!!

I will probably have to take the site offline a few times in the near future, to upgrade some modules (not part of the drupal core, but provide extra functionality).

You should now also no longer receive an update notification by email when somebody spams the site. This used to trigger an email, but when clicking the link you usually didn't see anything because the spamfilter had filtered out that message.
This does however may mean that you will get update notifications later then you used to.

For the people interested, here's why:

old behaviour: read more »

EBay: The Place for Microfinance

Triss Gray — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:14:52 +0200

by Catherine Holahan

On the online auction giant's new MicroPlace site, investors can lend as little as $50 to would-be small business owners around the globe.

Tracey Pettengill Turner doesn't want to give handouts to poor people. But she does want to make investments in them. So on Oct. 24, Turner is launching MicroPlace.com, a Web site that lets small investors provide low-interest "micro" loans, of $50 or more, to would-be small business owners. Her hope is to create sustainable economic growth in the world's most impoverished communities-and do her part to expand the reach of the microfinance industry to more than 1 billion people worldwide, from about 100 million people currently. read more »

Bigg mess

Triss Gray — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:33:05 +0200

As many of you will have noticed by now, there is a lot of junk floating/lying/standing/buried/airborne in and around babylonia. In case you wonder, this is NOT the default look of our island .

We are however unable to clean all this up until carmen returns from holiday..... We tried to convince some people to come over and clean up their stuff (which some did - thanks to those people), but others run as soon as approached .

The chat area is particularly hit by this wave of junk, so we mostly gather on other places at the moment. Please look for green dots on the map to find out where we are

Important news: Save Babylonia!

carmen — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:53:38 +0200

Hello,As some of you already know, as a consequence of our computer hacking or cracking, and her credit card stolen, the person who pays babylonia told me that will not use her credit cards through internet any longer, therefore, if she doesn't change her mind, we would not keep sl-babylonia.Right now, I cannt commit on further payments as I still don't know my earnings in September. And I am also scared about hackers or crackers.Oscatel has suggested to downsize temporarily elsewhere if the current island finally closes.Maybe there are other options. As a first step, we could save our buildings into our inventories.I don't know how often I could access to internet until September, but I think I could use e-mail, at least from time to time. Please, e-mail me, and don't be scared if I don't reply soon. I will love to hear from you all. Thanks.Have great holidays and see you after them !

Nursing home cat can sense death?

carmen — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:25:59 +0200

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the staff jumps into action -- Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die.

In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence.

He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours." read more »

Plant your seeds!

Natlia — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:59:13 +0200

A Joint Effort of the Discordian Society

Post Office Liberation Front

THIS IS A CHAIN LETTER.

WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY-FIVE DAYS YOU WILL RECEIVE THIRTY-ELEVEN HUNDRED POUNDS OF CHAINS!
In the meantime - plant your seeds.

If a lot of people who receive this letter plant a few seeds and a lot of people receive this letter, then a lot of seeds will get planted. Plant your seeds. read more »

New arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map reflects warmer climate

Natlia — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:46:59 +0200

Latest hardiness zones, based on most current temperature data available, suggest up-to-date choices for best trees to plant

Nebraska City, Neb. – Much of the United States has been warmer in recent years, and that affects which trees are right for planting.

Based on the latest comprehensive weather station data, The National Arbor Day Foundation has just released a new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map which separates the country into ten different temperature zones to help people select the right trees to plant where they live. read more »

Virtual fundraiser: scion and movietickets.com launch the first ever multiple sclerosis fly in Second Life

Triss Gray — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:00:04 +0200

The National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society Pilots New Fundraising Opportunities in Virtual World

In a move symbolic of the National MS Society's goal to achieve a world free of multiple sclerosis (MS), the organization's Southern California Chapter is expanding on the success of its signature annual fundraising events to create the first-ever MS Fly, taking participants through an engaging scavenger hunt in Second Life.

Produced by The Illusion Factory and Bullpen Advertising, the captivating and interactive MS Fly will take place June 10th through the 17th. With the support of Scion and MovieTickets.com, the National MS Society is calling on participants worldwide to enter the Second Life world, adorn a MS cape, and join the movement to help achieve a world free of MS. Registration is open until close of event on June 17th at www.themsfly.org. Proceeds for this pilot event will benefit the Society's Southern California Chapter. read more »

DESCENT OF THE GODDESS ISHTAR INTO THE LOWER WORLD

carmen — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:48:33 +0200

[From The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, 1915] read more »

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

carmen — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:53:03 +0200

Nature 448:136, 2007
July 12, 2007

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
by Mark Lynas
Fourth Estate: 2007. 384 pp. £12.99 read more »

Live earth 7.7.07

carmen — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:00:25 +0200

We all are not perfect. We are just authentic, we are just humans. The paradise, the universe, the earth is not based on perfection. The complete purity doesn´t exist, it will never exist. Nothing is 100% something and 0% its opposite. Let´s face it: nobody is 100% light and 0% shadow, nobody is 0% light and 100% shadow. Everything is based on small unbalances that we try to fix along our journey. Although our current way of life is based on full accomplishment of results, on complete and eternal possession of things (and, for some, even possession of people), on expectation of ideal behaviours, etc. That is just a bunch of lies. When we reach one result, one new unbalance appears. When we die, all possessions are lost (most possessions are lost much earlier). We never find someone who always behaves as we expect. Does it mean that we are not in our paradise? read more »

Eyes open, eyes closed

Lemille — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:38:52 +0200

Lem opened her eyes. It felt odd to see that smart fragile and young body to which she was attached by tinny bit cords. She went around light, thoughtful for the new world unfolding ahead. Felt great to live in a free of garbage world. She laughed at herself for such an ordinary thought – no cleaning, no cooking, no eating - none of those earthly tasks that had always stolen her from herself. “Is that a cat you are holding?” A white little cat attached to her right hand had been making her feel less forsaken. Wisely, she did not pay attention to the appearance of that soul talking to her. Little it can say about the one behind the pixels. More than anything, it was time for learning. To move arms and legs, to change clothes, to design a nose, to change colors, clothes and body parts. Steph and Lem had nothing but words bridging an ocean between them. read more »

No Sun link to climate change

carmen — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:36:02 +0200

A new scientific study concludes that changes in the Sun's output cannot be causing modern-day climate change. It shows that for the last 20 years, the Sun's output has declined, yet temperatures on Earth have risen. It also shows that modern temperatures are not determined by the Sun's effect on cosmic rays, as has been claimed.

Recent posts

My tribute to the humankind

server upgrade

RepRap universal constructor achieves self-replication

Teleport system

About Babylon

What Babylonia in Second Life is

Babylonian Winter

Secondseeker.com visited our temple

Temple of Ishtar and Inanna

Eighth wonder of the world?

The truth about recycling

Babylonia offline

Back but recovering

Site upgraded

EBay: The Place for Microfinance

Bigg mess

Important news: Save Babylonia!

Nursing home cat can sense death?

Plant your seeds!

New arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map reflects warmer climate

Latest hardiness zones, based on most current temperature data available, suggest up-to-date choices for best trees to plant

Virtual fundraiser: scion and movietickets.com launch the first ever multiple sclerosis fly in Second Life

DESCENT OF THE GODDESS ISHTAR INTO THE LOWER WORLD

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Live earth 7.7.07

Eyes open, eyes closed

No Sun link to climate change