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With the newest Indiana Jones movie set to come out, everyone is all of a sudden talking about these crystal skulls. I first learned about them a few years ago and actually published some stuff on this very site (but the site was hacked and all of that information, for the most part, is now lost).

Basically, there is some controversy. As usual with ancient relics that are taken out of context (sorry, I am an archaeologist by trade) there will always remain questions about the function and creation of the artifacts. The crystal skull collections will be no different.

The most famous is the Mitchell-Hedges skull. The details of its discovery and legend are all over the internet. What is fascinating are some of the reverberations of this skull and the others like it. They seem to be stirring a lot of interest in the “supernatural” aspects of ancient cultures and the mysteries of time, like the Mayan calendar and its famous prediction for December 21st, 2012. Yet there is more.

What about holographic data storage? What is this? Well, basically data is currently stored on a medium that is magnetic based - think of a floppy disk or your hard drives. The data is essentially limited to a plane; think of it as two-dimensional recording much like a record player (for those of us out there old enough to recognize one). Well, there are experiments to use a three dimensional recording medium that would be read with light - much like an optical storage medium like a CD or DVD (or Blue Ray).

The best medium for such a device? Crystal.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, some have theorized - and the legends surrounding the skulls confirm this - that the skulls actually contain a body of knowledge only accessible by those able to unlock it. There are tales of shamans and priests that where able to tap into the skulls and gain this knowledge; there even was a ritual where an old shaman and his young apprentice would enact in a ritual whereby the old shaman would die but his knowledge would pass to the apprentice by way of the crystal itself. It was a medium for transferring knowledge.

What makes this even more tantalizing is apparently Hewlett Packard Laboratories had run some tests on the Mitchell-Hedges skull at the crystal labs in Santa Clara. There was a lot of interesting findings there that only fueled further sensationalism about the skull.

One thing is for certain, if we are able to develop the technology - or the spiritual knowledge - to the point that we can examine the skulls to see what data is hidden away, then we might really have a true adventure on our hands.

Another thing of the past becomes relevant yet again. Another reason to know our history.

This time, it would prove very beneficial. In this video found on Youtube will show, there was a big movement during the energy crisis of the 70’s to get off of oil. One of the alternatives back then was to develop hydrogen powered automobiles. Sound familiar? It should.

More amazingly, Jack Nicholson of all people is holding a press conference showing off his car that runs on hydrogen. Makes you want to ask, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

Is it no wonder why we are in the midst of a huge economic crisis? Of course, no one is really talking about it either. But read this:

“Free trade…invites the product of cheaper labor to this market to destroy the domestic product representing our high and better paid labor. It destroys our factories or reduces our labor to the level of his [foreign markets]. It increases foreign production but diminishes home production…Open competition between high paid American labor and poorly paid ____ labor will either drive out of existence American industry or lower American wages, either of which is unwise.”

Now, I placed the blank in the quote on purpose. Two reasons: 1) it might help identify the quote or at least date it, and 2) the absence of the identity is more startling when revealed.

Here’s why: this is a quote from William McKinley who was on his presidential campaign trail in 1892 boasting about his McKinley tariff which he passed in Congress in 1890. (Thanks to E. Christian Kopff’s exquisite book, The Devil Knows Latin - exhorting us all to the study of classics, which I obviously support as well.)

Does it still sound relevant today? And when you fill in the blank with the rest of McKinley’s quote - Europe - then it becomes even more relevant. Anyone who has traveled to Europe, or is simply trying to make ends meet here and listens to the business portion of their favorite 24 hour news channels, will echo how the Euro has surpassed the dollar in its buying power. And since the US economic policy since Woodrow Wilson (if I get this correct) has been to diminish the tariff placed on foreign products in favor of free trade, we can see why we are faced with the crisis of outsourcing today.

All it took to avoid this mess was simply to know our history. That the US was at its strongest economically when it protected its market with tariffs (a Republican idea, for those of you keeping score at home) on foreign goods. Could be a way to get us back on track again, too.

Just reading a book right now that is explaining why a classical education is crucial and why the classical tradition is still relevant. It inspired me to come up with this quote (take that for what you will!):

Those who seek to liberate you will have you study the past; those who seek to control you will remove it.

I can’t help but think of when the Nazis were burning books. The bonfire of the vanities, if you will. Look at the action, and look at the intention. The Inquisition. Any time in history that we have seen massive social change followed by a period of darkness, it has begun, ironically, with a burning up of the past. To remove the past from our grasp is to give us no guide for the future but also no foundation for it as well.

And if we agree upon such a concept, then what would the removal of those past languages be akin to? It seems to be a more subtle way of burning books because to burn up the languages, we burn up the connections to those thoughts that are so influential yet so universal. How can we truly understand what is meant by Homer in his great works if we cannot read them? How can we understand Marcus Aurelius’ meditations if indeed we don’t know the words he is speaking? Virgil? Euripides? Plato? Aristotle? Ovid?

The past becomes mute. Just like during those dark epochs of history I mentioned earlier. The climate of those times usually is great arrogance - after all, what more than hubris could give birth to an idea that we no longer need the past? We do indeed live in arrogant times. Cavere, mi amice.

This is a really good demonstration of how far technology has come. No, those aren’t real light sabers but wow they did an amazing job creating their own light saber duel!

And this one is just pretty dang funny. No one ever stops to consider what it would actually be like with a light saber…