Prison Fortress turned into Museum

The Patarei Prison Museum in Tallinn, Russia was built in the 19^th century. The prison was originally a sea fortress in 1840 and was turned into a prison in around 1919. This prison housed inmates until 2002 and was then turned into a museum. This museum is now an ideal location to experience the Soviet-era prison life in all its gloom. The prison has been left untouched since 2002 to give visitors a real-life feel of the dreariness of prison life.

The museum shows off cotton swabs in the prison operating rooms. The cells still have books and magazines that belonged to the inmates. The museum offers a range of long tours and guides. There is reportedly also a guided tour that is in fact a “prison adventure” and tourists who successfully escape get to have a picnic as a reward.

The Vedas

The Essence of Vedas

'Whence this creation has come into existence,
whether He established it or did not;
He who is its overseer in the higher firmament,
He verily knows or knows not…'
– The Rig-Veda (hymns to Prajapati, the creator)

Typical mind game from the subtlest and most profound of all ancient Indian, and indeed world, scriptures. This spirit of questioning is, in many ways, the essence of the Vedas, as also the age when the Aryans were finding their feet in India.

The story goes back a long time. It starts in 1200BC, when the first Aryan immigrants in India started composing the various hymns that are part of the books. They were meant to be mantras (incantations) in praise of various Aryan gods. What they also reflect is a startlingly vivid picture of life, as was being led by the Aryans who came to India. Things move along as they trace the settling down of the Aryans in their new habitat and the various changes that invariably happened in their society.

There are four Vedas:
The Rig-Veda:- The date for the Rig-Veda was in controversy for a long time. The traditional date goes back to 3000BC, something which the German scholar Max Mueller accepted. However, modern historians have now reached a consensus that its oldest parts were written around a more cautious 1200BC.

As a body of writing, the Rig-Veda (the wisdom of verses) is nothing short of remarkable. It contains 1028 hymns dedicated to thirty-three different gods; these gods were, quite expectedly, nature gods. The most often addressed gods are Indra (rain god; king of heavens), Agni (fire god) and Rudra (storm god; the 'howler'). A sizeable chunk of the verses are also dedicated to Soma (the draught of immortality), which was a cool alcoholic brew made from the leaves of the soma plant and was drunk during sacrifices. The identity of the plant itself is subject of furious debate. In nature, however, it was somewhat similar to the brews that the American Indians used to consume before conducting sacrifices – to numb both the sacrificer and the sacrificee although human sacrifice was never a part of Aryan worship.

This oldest religious text in the world has10,589 verses which are divided into ten mandalas or book-sections. The oldest portions of the Rig-Veda are from books two to seven; the others were added later. The book-sections are arranged according to the number of hymns they possess.

The Sama-Veda:- The Sama-Veda or the wisdom of chants is basically a collection of samans or chants, derived from the eighth and ninth books of the 'original Veda', the Rig-Veda. These were meant for the priests who officiated at the rituals of the soma ceremonies – in full sway there could have as many as seventeen full rituals. As time went along rituals and ceremonies of worship became increasingly intricate and the simplicity of the original Rig-Vedic age was slowly forgotten. Thus a need arose to compile all the rituals and their chants in a book, as a sort of reference point for the priests whose functions this Veda clearly puts down.

It is not surprising that the Sama-Veda is better known for the precise meter of its poetry than for its literary content. There are also painstaking instructions in Sama-Veda about how particular hymns must be sung; this is perhaps because great emphasis was put upon sounds of the words of the mantras and the effect they could have on the environment and the person who pronounced them.

The Yajur-Veda:- The Yajur-Veda or the wisdom of sacrifices lays down various sacred invocations (yajurs) which were chanted by a particular sect of priests called adhvaryu. They performed the sacrificial rites. This is very much a ritual based Veda for although there are a few hymns to various Gods the main stress is on the theory of the ritual. The Veda also outlines various chants which should be sung to pray and pay respects to the various instruments which are involved in the sacrifice.

The Atharva-Veda:- The Atharva-Veda (the wisdom of the Atharvans) is called so because the families of the atharvan sect of the Brahmins have traditionally been credited with the composition of the Vedas. It is a compilation of hymns but lacks the awesome grandeur which makes the Rig-Veda such a breathtaking spiritual experience. It is roughly equivalent to the western magic spells and has incantations for everything – from success in love to the realization of otherworldly ambitions.

Finding The Origin

So where does life begin when considering a male and a female human, or animal for that matter, producing a new life form? To further pursue this discussion, we must see that “life comes from life”

Professor Sherry Colb, in her article, “An Illinois Judge Declares that Frozen Embryos Are People: What Difference Does It Make?” brings up some very interesting points about where life of the human body begins.

The first conclusion that one must come to, when discussing either human life, animal life or plant life, is that there is always a “life-force” that makes the human, the animal, the plant a living organism. Some refer to it as the “soul”.

To further define “the soul” we must separate the “soul” from the “body”. If we do this we get a dead body. We can see that it is a dead body because it does not have any consciousness: it cant think, speak, hear, smell, touch, taste, or dream. To go even further we can say that the soul is actually the person and that the body is not. If I stand here and I say that this is my arm, this is my leg, this is my head, this is my hand, and so on and I will come to a point where I ask “who am I”? I am certainly not this hand or this head or this arm. The answer is “I am not this body, I am the spirit soul; the life force.”

So now we can say that the “soul” is the operator of the “body”. The body is a machine, the soul is making the body work, just like a machine does not work without an operator. The soul is the operator of the human body. The human body can not work without the soul.

So where does life begin when considering a male and a female human, or animal for that matter, producing a new life form? To further pursue this discussion, we must see that “life comes from life”. If life did not come from life, you could definitely make an argument saying that embryos can be disposed of as freely as your empty container of milk.

However, there is “no proof” at all that life comes from matter, and in fact it is a rather absurd notion. Take for instance the idea of “cloning”: a scientist creates an embryo with a sperm and an egg. Where does the sperm come from? Where does the egg come from? So did the scientist create the embryo? No, the scientist simply put the sperm and the egg together. The scientist can not make the sperm or the egg. In this scenario the scientist is facilitating the situation, to an extent. But he did not create life.

So when was the life created? Was life created at birth, at conception, or even before the male and female came together? If we take the first question: was life created at birth? The child is living inside the womb independently of the mother, otherwise how do you explain premature births? If you cut the umbilical cord, the baby is still alive and is able to live on its own. Through special high-tech devices you can see the baby’s heart beating on a television screen. It is beating separately from the mothers heart, even at a different rate. It’s body is only attached by a cord and this cords only function is to give food to the baby. The baby is living separately from the mother inside her womb.

As soon as the sperm penetrates the egg, the process that creates the embryo starts. The male and female are not together now. The mother is not the sole life support, somehow growing or creating the baby. The mother and the father simply brought the sperm and the egg together and then the growth process of the body begins. What begins the process? What is making the process continue? What makes the process work? That is the question. If you conclude that just by putting the sperm and egg together, process will start, you have missed the point. Something so advanced, such as the growth of a human body within the womb, must have an advanced intelligence behind it.

Take for instance, the electricity that runs your computer. The electricity is one part of all the parts that make the computer work, but still there is a higher intelligence that puts the electricity and all the other parts together. Electricity in itself does not make the computer do anything meaningful. That requires a person: the operator. It is the operator that really makes the computer run. Electricity is not operating the computer. That is done by the person who is operating it. Similarly, the presence of a higher intelligence must be instrumental in creating the growth process within the human body. The “soul”, the “life-force” is the real identity of the human being. We can see this is true just by knowing that if a doctor surgically amputates an arm, we will still live. We will have not lost any of our identity. We will have lost an arm, but we will still be the same person.

So the next question that will arise is; what is the origin of life; the sperm, egg, the human, the species that is able to have consciousness; to think, to understand a concept, to love, to have emotions? You can not avoid this question. To discuss the moral issue of “abortion” you have to address the issue of our origin, otherwise it is like trying to learn a language with out learning the alphabet first.

So where does life come from? We must conclude that there is a controller; a super intelligence, a supreme being, a supreme person. We can see that nothing works without an intelligence to initiate the cause, which makes the effect. Am I really addressing the notion of God? Is this really scientific? It is very scientific. The dictionary definition of Science is : “The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.” (Lexico Publishing Group, LLC: dictionary.com)

The science of God and how he works is a complete science. We can see that the universe is being maintained perfectly. The seasons change and repeat in the same cycle every year. We know that next year in New York City that in January it will be cold, in July it will be warmer. If we accept the idea of God, then we must accept that he is the controller and that he is the origin of everything including us humans. There is always a cause and effect to everything. God is the cause of all causes, the origin.

There must be some intelligence behind something that is so advanced and working effectively or working at all. Just as if a child sees an automatic door open at an airport, he thinks “oh, how is this working?” Because of his poor fund of knowledge he will think that it is by chance. But the older, more experienced person knows that there was a lot of thought and planning in the electrical design behind the automatic door operation. There has to be a higher intelligence.

How can an automatic door be working with out an intelligence behind it? How can the embryo grow into the stages of a baby without a life force of its own? How can a computer be developed without intelligence? The soul, the life force is part and also parcel of the highest intelligence. The supreme person is making the grass grow, the sun rotate the earth, the wind blow, the rain fall, human intelligence work, and making the computer work.

Abortion is not a right, it is murder. Whether the child is growing inside the mother or outside, murder is still murder. The growing of an embryo means that the “life force” is present. Life is forming the body and making it grow.

Afghanistan. 1994 vs 2010 (22 pics)

Photographer Seamus Murphy came back to Afghanistan 16 years later. The Taliban era has ended years ago but not so much has changed since then.

1994, Kabul, a Mujahedeen looks at Jade Maiwand in the old part of Kabul.



Same Jade Maiwand in 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. June 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. June 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. June 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. July 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. July 2010.



Bullet hole in a school blackboard at Shafaq High School in the frontline village of Ghulam Ali, Parwan province. November 2001.



A girl does algebra at a blackboard at Shafaq High School in the village of Ghulam Ali, Parwan province.. July 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. July 2010.



Brothers Farhad, Farhuddin and Abdul Shapoor of the Ba Deli family, who live on Shor Bazar, in Kabul's Old City. 1994.



Farhad and Farhuddin of the Ba Deli family, back at their original home on Shor Bazar, in Kabul's Old City. 2010.



Internally displaced families as a result of the fighting between Taliban and Massoud's forces, Khwaja Bahauddin, Takhar province. November 2000.



Internally displaced people as a result of the fighting in Helmand between Taliban and Coalition forces. July 2010.



Kabul. November 1994.



Kabul. June 2010.

How to Make a Steampunk Keyboard

Jake von Slatt, proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop, made this magnificent keyboard from a 1989 IBM Model M keyboard, cut brass, and antique typewriter keys. He posted his build notes online so you can make one too!