History of Condom

The condom is one of the oldest forms of contraception. Its history and use can be traced back thousands of years. It is believed that a form of modern-day condoms were used by the Egyptians as far back as 1,000 B.C.

The oldest condom in the world, made out of pig intestine, was found in Sweden. The prophylactic dates back to 1640 and was found with its Latin instructions. The manual suggests that users immerse the condom in warm milk prior to its use to avoid diseases (ancient spermicide?). The condom will be on display in the Tirolean County Museum in Austria with many other sex-related antique artifacts. (Picture is the oldest condom in the world)

The antique, found in Lund in Sweden, is made of pig intestine and is one of 250 ancient objects related to sex on display at the Tirolean County Museum in Austria this summer.

The history

The earliest evidence of condom use in Europe are scenes from cave paintings at Combarelles in France. Dated 100 to 200 AD.

The first known published description and trials regarding prophylactic condom use were recorded by the Italian Gabrielle Fallopius in the 1500's. He claimed to have invented a sheath made of linen and conducted trials amongst 1,100 men using the condom - none of who became infected with syphilis.

The origin of the word 'condom' is still unknown. Folklore attributes the invention to Dr. Condom or Conton, who was at the court of King Charles II in the 1600's. It is more likely, however, that the name derives from the Latin 'condus', meaning receptacle.

The condom, made of animal gut, became well known and increased in popularity in the 1700's. Literature of that time suggests that the condom's contraceptive (rather than just prophylactic) properties had already been realised. By 1766 many shops were producing handbills and advertisements.

Japanese are known to have used two types of condom. The 'Kawagata' or 'Kyotai' was made of thin leather and the 'Kabutogata' was made from tortoiseshell or horn.

Documentation also suggests that legendary 19th Century lover Casanova was a regular user of this type of contraception. He referred to condoms as 'Redingote Anglaise' (English Riding Coat).

The rubber condom was developed shortly after the creation of vulcanized rubber in the 1840's, by Goodyear and Hancock. Vulcanisation is the method or process of treating crude rubber with sulphur and subjecting it to intense heat. This process turns the rubber into a strong elastic material.

In the 1930's liquid latex manufacturing superseded crepe rubber. It is still the basis for manufacture today.

In the 1990's new technology considerably improved the condom and enabled the production of far more sophisticated versions.

The story of the New Condom Revolution begins with the invasion of the Japanese condoms on the US market in the early 90's. New condoms like Beyond Seven, Crown condoms and Kimono Microthin condoms started ruffling the feathers of the big boys like Carter Wallace and Ansell. These new condoms were much thinner than the condoms of old. Why these new condoms actually felt natural like a skinless skin, people were finally feeling pleasure when they had sex.

Chocolate –- The History

How Chocolate Became A Popular Flavor

The chocolate is such a world wide super commodity that it deserves some research into its background and history. Well, to start with, the history of chocolate began with the domestic plantation of coco plants by the Olmec Indians way back in 1500 BC. Not that they made a handful of chocolate bars, packed in beautiful cartons for sale in the open market. Their traditional method of consuming this wonder commodity was by drying it first and then making a brew of it, not unlike the way we brew coffee now. This delicacy was meant only for the elite and not for the common man. History, however, took a back seat here when a shipload of coco beans was intercepted by Columbus who had reportedly ordered the cargo destroyed on the presumption that it was nothing but "sheep's droppings".

How Europe first got the taste of chocolate

Christopher Columbus, nevertheless, amended his mistake and brought the first consignment of coco beans to Spain after returning from America. But nothing much about coco or chocolate could be heard for quite sometime until some Spanish monks discovered the taste of crushed coco beans in a the form of a hot beverage. Soon Chocolate Houses opened all over Europe that served the beverage to a clientel that was stinking rich. Grinding the roasted coco bean was an expensive labor oriented affair. During the 1700, mechanized coco grinders appeared in the market that led to a formidable drop in the price of ground coco, the mother of all chocolates.

Chocolate's trip across the Atlantic

During the end of 1700 chocolate was sold in the form of cakes, rolls and sundry chocolate-coated pastries and desserts. These tasty treats were available in Chocolate Houses and in wealthier homes across Europe. The company that initiated the process of making chocolates in America in a big way was named Bakers Chocolate Company. This happened about 10 years before the American Revolutionary War broke out.

Chocolate gains popularity through its own history

No other condiment in recent history had been as popular as the chocolate. Some even thought that it contained medicinal values and one of the reasons for the Baker's Chocolate Company in America to flourish were its products were believed to be linked with therapeutic properties. In Amsterdam a process known as "Dutching" was invented, in which the coco butter is removed from the chocolate resulting in a smoother texture in the still popular beverage form of the chocolate.

The chocolate candy

It was not until the middle of the 1800's when chocolate could be produced in the molded form and thus was born the chocolate candy. It was found that if the "Dutched" chocolate was sweetened then added back into the coco butter it made a delicious sweet and moldable treat. And so what we know today as a chocolate bar was born. Candies in both milk and Swiss chocolates followed it. Valentines Day has been a favorite occasion and when Cadbury's came out with a heart shaped box of chocolates it became a great success. Today we know how important an occasion that was in the history of chocolate.

Chocolate and the modern day America

Ever since the day the chocolate set its foot on American soil, people fell for it, making thousands of variations where chocolate is often the main theme. The first published recipe for the beloved Brownies appeared in the Sears Roebuck Catalogue during the end of the 19th century. The renowned Hershey Company has minted millions by selling chocolates only and so has the Nestlé Company. Enthusiasm soared so high that a Belgian confectioner opened Godiva Chocolate Company in the year 1926 and may God bless them all, they are all still doing fine.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Da Vinci Code -- Foucault’s Pendulum as Inspiration

When Dan Brown's novel was released, it caused quite a stir amongst academics, clerics and religious followers and critics across the world. Some argued his theories were purely illogical, even heretical, while others said they only gave validity to ones that have existed for many centuries. His most controversial theory is his account of the Holy Grail, which he asserts is not a chalice, but a human being - namely, Mary Magdalene.

His story suggests that this truth was suppressed by the church in order to conceal the Sacred Feminine, an ancient principle dictating that God has both male and female elements - one that Jesus himself supposedly adhered to. He uses Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper as evidence of this fact.

However, this is not his only contentious claim: he also states that Jesus and Mary were married, and moreover, that they had a child, named Sarah, who would carry on the bloodline in secret, only to be known by a privileged few. This minority, called the Priory of Sion (who would later become the Knights Templar) carried this secret through history; encoded evidence of which can be found on some historic mounments, including the famed Rosslyn Chapel.

However, Brown was not the first to make such assertions. Learn more about Foucault's Pendulum, and its role as inspiration for the book.

What is Foucault’s Pendulum

The Foucault pendulum, named after French physicist Léon Foucault, was an instrument that was conceived to demonstrate the natural rotation of the earth. The pendulum is free to oscillate along any vertical plane, while running continuously uninhibited by friction (ideally a motor should be utilized to factiliate this). The physics behind it dictate that the direction in which the pendulum swings will rotate along with the earth’s rotation.

Foucault’s first demonstration of the pendulum took place in 1851 at the Pantheon in Paris, when he suspended a 28-kilogram bob with a 67 meter-wide wire from the dome. Although the theory of the earth’s rotation was well known at the time, the experiment demonstrated its veracity in a manner that could be easily comprehended.

Fictional References

In addition to the physical structure of the pendulum, Italian author Umberto Eco also wrote a novel entitled Foucault’s Pendulum, which un-coincidentally figured as a form of indirect inspiration for Dan Brown’s novel.

The book also treats the theme of conspiracy and codes, and it even addresses the plausibility of the Holy Bloodline and the Knights Templar, though this is all done in a satirical manner to demonstrate the futility of such theories.

The story centers around Belbo, Dioatavelli and Casaubon, three friends working for a publisher in Milan, who decide to invent a satirical conspiracy game after reading too many of such theories at work. However, as they get further into their “Plan,” the lines between fiction and reality become increasingly blurred, and what’s worse, followers of conspiracy theories take their “game” seriously, believing Belbo to be the true keeper of the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

Source: www.jesusfamilytomb.com

Jesus Buried in Talpiot -- Claimed by Filmmaker

The Israeli-born, Canadian-based filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is reigniting claims, first made over a decade ago, that a burial cave uncovered 27 years ago in Talpiot, Jerusalem, is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

At a press conference in New York on Monday, the two-time Emmy winner Jacobovici and his team - including Hollywood director James Cameron (Titanic director) - will detail claims that of 10 ossuaries found in the cave when it was discovered in 1980, six bear inscriptions identifying them as those of Jesus, his mother Mary, a second Mary (possibly Mary Magdalene), and relatives Matthew, Josa and Judah (possibly Jesus's son).

Their documentary will be screened this week in the US, UK, on Channel 8 in Israel and around the world. The producers are said to have worked on the project with world-renowned archeologists, statisticians and DNA specialists.

But Bar-Ilan University Prof. Amos Kloner, the Jerusalem District archeologist who officially oversaw the work at the tomb in 1980 and has published detailed findings on its contents, on Saturday night dismissed the claims. "It makes a great story for a TV film," he told The Jerusalem Post. "But it's impossible. It's nonsense."

Kloner, who said he was interviewed for the new film but has not seen it, said the names found on the ossuaries were common, and the fact that such apparently resonant names had been found together was of no significance. He added that "Jesus son of Joseph" inscriptions had been found on several other ossuaries over the years.

"There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb," Kloner said. "They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle-class family from the 1st century CE."

A spokeswoman for the Israel Antiquities Authority had no comment herself on the documentary and referred inquiries to Kloner, who no longer works for the IAA.

The spokeswoman did say, however, that the IAA has loaned out two of the ossuaries that were found in the Talpiot tomb for display by the filmmakers at Monday's New York press conference. She said it was a routine procedure to lend out such artifacts provided the borrowers complied with the necessary handling, transport and insurance requirements and that it did not signal any IAA authentication of claims made in the documentary.

Kloner said the IAA had been "very foolish" to agree to the loan. "The left hand there doesn't know what the right hand is doing," he said.

The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that the 10 ossuaries removed from the tomb when it was first excavated "were taken initially to the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Nine were catalogued and stored but the tenth was left outside in a courtyard. That ossuary has subsequently gone missing."

But Kloner said the IAA routinely left ossuaries in the courtyard if they were not inscribed and were unremarkable, since it had no room for them all "under our roofs." He added: "Nothing has disappeared."

The Jacobovici documentary comes more than 10 years after similar speculation about the so-called Jesus family tomb made world headlines, prompting a London Sunday Times feature entitled "The Tomb that Dare Not Speak Its Name" and a BBC documentary.

The assertion that the ossuaries found in the Talpiot tomb were those of Jesus of Nazareth and family members was branded by The Sunday Times at the time as an archeological discovery "that challenges the very basis of Christianity."

The makers of the documentary are refusing to discuss its content prior to their New York press conference.

source: www.jpost.com

The Tomb Of Jesus in Jerusalem?

In 1980, in East Talpiot, Jerusalem, a bulldozer accidentally uncovered what may be the most explosive archaeological discovery of all time.

Of the ten ossuaries, or stone coffins, found inside the first-century tomb, six bore inscriptions: Jesus, son of Joseph; Maria; Mariamene (the name by which Mary Magdalene was known), Joseph, Matthew, and Judah, son of Jesus. At first dismissed by archaeologists as coincidence, the ossuaries were deposited in the endless warehouses of the Israel Antiquities Association and forgotten.

Twenty-five years later, a group of scientists, researchers, mathematicians, film maker and Emmy-winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici and his team, Felix Golubev, journalist and producer; Hollywood kingpin James Cameron; Paleo-biologist and best-selling author Charles Pellegrino; and renowned Biblical scholar James Tabor, took a fresh look at this astounding cluster of New Testament names.

They claim to have discovered the family tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem. Not only that but have produced a website, a book, and also a feature docuemtanry about the tomb. All will be revealed, we are told. on Monday 26th of February when the news will be announced via a press conference in New York. Granted unparalleled access, but battling a host of problems, the team goes in search of the ossuaries…and the lost tomb…

Feb. 25, 2007

New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.

The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts — originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.

A documentary presenting the evidence, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The documentary comes from executive producer James Cameron and director Simcha Jacobovici. Discovery has set up a special Web site, www.discovery.com/tomb, to provide related in-depth information and to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions about the entire matter.

The Talpiot Tomb

On March 28, 1980, a construction crew developing an apartment complex in Talpiot, Jerusalem, uncovered a tomb, which archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority excavated shortly thereafter. Archaeologist Shimon Gibson surveyed the site and drew a layout plan. Scholar L.Y. Rahmani later published "A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries" that described 10 ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, found in the tomb.

Scholars know that from 30 B.C. to 70 A.D., many people in Jerusalem would first wrap bodies in shrouds after death. The bodies were then placed in carved rock tombs, where they decomposed for a year before the bones were placed in an ossuary.

Five of the 10 discovered boxes in the Talpiot tomb were inscribed with names believed to be associated with key figures in the New Testament: Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription, written in Aramaic, translates to "Judah Son of Jesus."

"Such tombs are very typical for that region," Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and director of California's Bade Museum told Discovery News.

Ossuary Inscriptions

At least four leading epigraphers have corroborated the ossuary inscriptions for the documentary, according to the Discovery Channel.

Frank Moore Cross, a professor emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, told Discovery News, "The inscriptions are from the Herodian Period (which occurred from around 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.). The use of limestone ossuaries and the varied script styles are characteristic of that time."

Jodi Magness, associate department chair of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Discovery News that, based on the New Testament writings, "Jesus likely lived during the first century A.D."

The inscriptions on the ossuaries found in the Talpiot Tomb in 1980 by a bulldozer read as follows:
Ossuary 80/500: “Mariamene e Mara” – “Mariamne, also called Master”
Ossuary 80/501: “Yehuda bar Yeshua” – “Judah, son of Jesus”
Ossuary 80/502: “Matia” – “Matthew”
Ossuary 80/503 “Yeshua bar Yosef” – “Jesus, Son of Joseph”
Ossuary 80/504 “Yose” or “Yosa” – a nickname for “Joseph”
Ossuary 80/505: “Maria” – a Latinized version of the Hebrew “Miriam.”
Ossuaries 80/506-508 were plain, with no inscriptions. And no one knows anything really about Ossuary 80/509. It disappeared before it could be checked for inscriptions or ornamentation.

Of the ten ossuaries pulled from the niches of the burial chamber, inscriptions were recorded as occurring on six, a very high ratio considering that only 20% of the thousands of ossuaries ever found bear such inscriptions.

In addition to the "Judah son of Jesus" inscription, which is written in Aramaic on one of the ossuaries, another limestone burial box is labeled in Aramaic with "Jesus Son of Joseph." Another bears the Hebrew inscription "Maria," a Latin version of "Miriam," or, in English, "Mary." Yet another ossuary inscription, written in Hebrew, reads "Matia," the original Hebrew word for "Matthew." Only one of the inscriptions is written in Greek. It reads, "Mariamene e Mara," which can be translated as, "Mary known as the master."

Francois Bovon, professor of the history of religion at Harvard University, told Discovery News, "Mariamene, or Mariamne, probably was the actual name given to Mary Magdalene."

Bovon explained that he and a colleague discovered a fourteenth century copy in Greek of a fourth century text that contains the most complete version of the "Acts of Philip" ever found. Although not included in the Bible, the "Acts of Philip" mentions the apostles and Mariamne, sister of the apostle Philip.

"When Philip is weak, she is strong," Bovon said. "She likely was a great teacher who even inspired her own sect of followers, called Mariamnists, who existed from around the 2nd to the 3rd century."

DNA Analysis

Jacobovici, director, co producer and writer of "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," and his team obtained two sets of samples from the ossuaries for DNA and chemical analysis. The first set consisted of bits of matter taken from the "Jesus Son of Joseph" and "Mariamene e Mara" ossuaries. The second set consisted of patina — a chemical film encrustation on one of the limestone boxes.

The human remains were analyzed by Carney Matheson, a scientist at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. Mitochondrial DNA examination determined the individual in the Jesus ossuary and the person in the ossuary linked to Mary Magdalene were not related.

Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici and his team suggest it is possible Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple. "Judah," whom they indicate may have been their son, could have been the "lad" described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus' lap at the Last Supper.

Robert Genna, director of the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory in New York, analyzed both the patina taken from the Talpiot Tomb and chemical residue obtained from the "James" ossuary, which was also found around 1980, but subsequently disappeared and resurfaced in the antiquities market. Although controversy surrounds this burial box, Genna found that the two patinas matched.

"The samples were consistent with each other," Genna told Discovery News.

Upon examining the tomb, the filmmakers determined a space exists that would have fit the "James" ossuary. Given the patina match and this observation, Jacobovici theorizes the lost burial box could, in fact, be the "James" ossuary.

Statistical Data

Director James Cameron (Titanic director) and a team of scholars showed two stone ossuaries, or bone boxes, that he said might have once contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene."This is the beginnings of an ongoing investigation," Cameron said. "If things come to light that erode this investigation, then so be it." The filmmakers said that statistically there was a 1 in 600 chance that the names found on the inscriptions were not the family of Jesus.

Cameron's theory is parallel to that put forward by the Da Vinci Code book, in which it argues that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. Mr Cameron said: “It doesn’t get bigger than this. It’s one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. We’ve done our homework; we’ve made the case. Now it’s time for the debate to begin.” The empty 'coffins' were among ten first found by builders in Jerusalem in 1980.

A possible argument against the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb is that the collection of names on the ossuary inscriptions could be coincidental.

But Andrey Feuerverger, professor of statistics and mathematics at the University of Toronto, recently conducted a study addressing the probabilities that will soon be published in a leading statistical journal.

(From various source)