TOTALLY off the Wanderlust topic, but......
So I’m sitting here on a ‘snow day’ (took the day off work
due to weather) and was watching History Channel. After something interesting went off, a show
came on that I was only half paying attention to as I was falling in and out of
a nap. But I was awake enough for one
part to get the story of an American Sgt. Jim Penniston in 1980 stationed in
England who was sent to ‘investigate’ some strange UFO that popped on
radar. He and 2 others went. He touched said object (which was in fact
unidentifiable and could fly… so I guess a ‘real’ UFO) and a series of binary
numbers came to him. Later, he states he
wrote them down and has retained the six pages of binary for decades without
having them analyzed. Of course, leave
it to H2’s Ancient Alien people to do that for him. So in 2010, Ancient Aliens had
programmer Nick Ciske transcribe and decipher the binary which supposedly read:
- “Exploration of Humanity [the coordinates] Continuous for planetary advance”.
- +52° 09’ 42.532” (N)
- -13° 13’ 12.69” (W)
Well. I paused the
television. I nabbed a pen and paper and
jotted down the coordinates. I popped
them in the computer and wah-lah: Coastal Ireland. Granted, they did as well, but where’s the fun
in just watching someone else put in the coordinates?
So
here is where the fun and rampantly vivid speculation come in. The coordinates from the supposed message from
the supposed binary recitation from the even more supposed UFO knowledge
transfer is, as the show was kind enough to point out, near a mythical island
off the coast of Ireland. They don’t go
into too much after this. I mean,
Hi-Brasil (that’s the mythical island) doesn’t really have the ‘almost
supernatural humans’ appeal of Atlantis. Oh, not to mention Hi-Brasil didn’t have some
dramatic and apocalyptic end, just simply vanished. More like Bermuda Triangle stuff,
really. Or maybe global warming just
raised sea level enough to cover it up?
(For the record, I don’t think global warming is a mythical tale, I’m
just having fun with this.)
 |
| 1632 Mercator map |
Ok. So here’s a map which
is, granted, showing Hi-Brasil a little farther north than the supposed
extra-terrestrial knowledge transfer location. Well,
the map is from 1632. Earlier maps aren’t
much better but they didn’t exactly have satellite mapping capability. If aliens want to be helpful, the sure could
have provided better maps for us to look back upon. Anyhow, there is some credence to the
location.
But what’s with Hi-Brasil?
What’s with the people who supposedly lived there? I mean, the message said something about
exploration of humanity and planetary advance right? Well, Hi-Brasil doesn’t have Atlantean
intellect and technology stories pervading legend, now does it? I mean, the best pop culture reference we
have is from Tim Robbin’s Erik the Viking.
Well, some websites (I’ve skimmed many)
say it was a home for Celtic gods. Now,
Ufologers (is that a REAL word?) think it was an outpost of sorts.
In reality, what do we have?
Well, more validity than Atlantis but completely lacking the
luster.
Hi-Brasil comes from Ui Breasail which translates to “descendants
(clan) of Breasal”. Which begs the question:
what/where is Breasal? Well, popular
theory seems to suggest it refers to the landing party that discovered
Brasil. Others venture a guess that
monks settled the island. I did even see
a reference that Brasil is also the Irish island of legend: St. Brendan’s
Island.
The last reported sighting of Hi-Brasil was by Arthur T.J.
Westropp and companions in 1872.
Westropp had seen the island before but wanted to bring others to bear
witness as well. They saw the island…
and then supposedly saw it disappear.
Regardless, one almost finds Hi-Brasil more fun than
Atlantis. I mean, it’s on maps all the time
and was seen as recently, in theory, as the late 1800’s. Atlantis? I mean, wasn’t it Plato’s grandpa that passed
the legend of Atlantis to him? I can’t
even remember (yes, I’ll look it up later).
Regardless... me researching random craziness I see on TV is a sure sign that I need to get back into school pretty soon, eh?!
