Richard Dawkins still on the war path, pun intended.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Everyone´s wrong
Not sure exactly what this means, other than modern cosmology having problems. And yes, it´s the pesky dark matter again! Ad hoc, anyone?
A question of control
"The Heretic" (2024) is a bizarre American film. It´s actually a kind of philosophical or even theological horror film. I admit that I have no idea what the message might be.
The main character Mr Reed (starred by Hugh Grant of all people) is a crazy, murderous atheist who captures two female Mormon missionaries in a maze-like house. His intentions are unclear, but revolve around attempts to prove that all religions are fake. Their real purpose is control. During the confrontation, it turns out that the Mormon girls are really skeptics. One of them claims that near-death experiences are caused by purely natural causes, while the other says that prayer is purely metaphorical or psychological in nature. Before they visit Mr Reed, the girls discuss sex and pornography.
The atheist arguments sound more convincing than the simplistic faith the missionaries pretend to have at the outset. However, I also get the impression that Reed might not be an atheist in the strict sense. He believes that all religions (or at least the "Abrahamic" ones) go back to a kind of primordial revelation, the exact nature of which is left unclear. It also seems that he is trying to convince himself, first and foremost, that all God-belief really is bunk. Note also that Reed has turned into a kind of cult leader. His personal paranoia is tied to Simulation Theory, which could be interpreted as Gnostic. Maybe the house of horrors is a "simulation" all its own?
And yes, I did notice the allusion to blood atonement and the in-house *skeptical* joke about Mormon "magical underpants" (but here used by the Mormons themselves). The usual pun on Moroni´s name ("Moron I") is also included.
"The Heretic" ends with two miracles, but these are less convincing (I´m tempted to call them deus-ex-machina) than the bulk of the movie, making me wonder if they were tacked on simply to make the production somewhat less shocking to a religious audience. Well, at least it manages to portray consistent atheism-materialism as meaningless, brutal and absurd!
Not sure if anyone really did become a heretic due to this flick.
Friday, October 9, 2026
Världen kan inte vänta
En...ska vi säga "intressant"...artikel i Aftonbladet. Några utdrag nedan.
Jag försöker förstå implikationerna av detta. Det första man undrar över är vad som hade hänt om samma enorma summor istället investerats i klimatanpassning. Exempelvis thorium-reaktorer? Eller åtminstone i åtgärder som mildrar följderna av klimatförändringarna. Låt säga enorma havsvallar.
Det andra jag undrar över är om pengarna ens existerar. Det antyds nämligen senare i artikeln att det kanske inte är så. Fantasisummorna är faktiskt fantasi. Det kanske är samma pengar som bokförts typ tre gånger om. Å andra sidan är ju datacenter och chip verkliga. Teknologin finns ju bevisligen. Fast det kanske är enklare (rent ingenjörsmässigt) att bygga datacenter än nya kärnkraftreaktorer...?
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Nästan 9 miljarder kronor per dag eller totalt 800 miljarder. Så mycket gjorde den sydkoreanska elektronikjätten Samsung i vinst under tredje kvartalet.
Det är nio gånger (!) mer än under samma period ifjol.
Samsung är världens största tillverkare av minneskort och när hela världen kapprustar om vem som kan smälla upp flest datacenter snabbast så verkar det inte finnas någon gräns för efterfrågan på bolagets produkter.
Samsungs försäljning under tredje kvartalet steg med 127 procent till 1 460 miljarder kronor. Det motsvarar en årsomsättning som närmar sig 6 000 miljarder kronor. Om Samsung var ett land skulle dess ekonomi vara i klass med Norges eller Thailands och hamna runt 30:e plats i världen.
Bolagets börsvärde har i år fördubblats till 13 000 miljarder kronor.
(...)
Å andra sidan de närmast ofattbara summor som nu plöjs ned i AI. De totala investeringarna, mätt som andel av ekonomin, är större än vad som tidigare i historien satsades på att bygga ut järnvägarna, elsystemen och telenäten. Tillsammans.
Snabbt stigande räntor har satt fokus på de stora budgetunderskotten och höga statsskulderna i länder som USA, Japan, Storbritannien, Frankrike och flera andra av världens största ekonomier.
Men den offentliga sektorn är bara en del av ekonomin. För privata företag har det aldrig sett ljusare ut.
(...)
Av världens 25 bolag med högst börsvärde är nu tio tillverkare av halvledare och chip, ledda av Nvidia. Dessa tio bolag är värda sammanlagt 160 000 miljarder kronor eller en tiondel av värdet på hela världens aktiemarknad.
Vinsterna ökar också i andra branscher med koppling till AI-utbyggnaden, alltifrån energibolag till byggföretag, tillverkare av grävmaskiner och gruvbolag.
Företagsvinsterna i USA väntas sätta nytt rekord i år och är som andel av ekonomin på den högsta nivån sedan andra världskriget.
Samtidigt har andelen som går till arbetare sjunkit till rekordlåga nivåer.
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Principles
Last year, the Norwegian peace prize committee "awarded the prize to Trump without awarding it to Trump" by giving it to Trump´s rather obvious ally Machado. But now, *the very same committee* (I checked) instead gave it (de facto) to the ICC, against which the Trump administration has imposed sanctions. This year´s peace prize will 100% be seen as anti-Israeli, anti-American and anti-Trump.
Translation: the current Norwegian Nobel Committee are spineless bastards. They are probably banking on Trump becoming a lame duck after the midterms. But when the Don looked like the future Master of the World, the brave Norwegian Vikings chose to hand him the goodies. Or at least some crumbs.
Amazingly, it now looks as if Donald Trump is the winner in this ridiculous spat. He, after all, haven´t changed...
Snaran dras åt
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| Credit: Prophet666.com |
Next, do Lundsberg!
Tre elever anhållna i Sigtuna - polisen utreder misstänkt sexualbrott
On the brink
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| Credit: Mheidegger |
The situation at the Horn of Africa is even more complex than I imagined.
Note that Eritrea has switched sides in the Ethiopian conflict, from backing the government of Abyi Ahmed against the rebel TPLF to backing the rebels instead. Despite Eritrea´s reputation as a pseudo-Communist authoritarian regime, the United States recently lifted the sanctions against its ruling party, probably to lure the country into an alliance against the pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen.
The Saudis also back Eritrea, while Israel prefers Abyi, and so do the United Arab Emirates! All four are supposed to be US allies against Iran. And in neighboring Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are on opposite sides in the genocidal civil war...
I´m old enough to remember when the West supported Abyi Ahmed, even giving him the hotly coveted Nobel Peace Prize, but it seems the man may no longer be our prime "asset" in this part of the world. Who is? Does anyone know? Do we even *want* to know?
Fighting in Ethiopia threatens renewed civil war, destabilising the Horn of Africa
Good genes?
The rather notorious Sydney Sweeney, who is often compared to Marilyn Monroe, is actually her cousin! Well, kind of. She is Marilyn Monroe´s "ninth cousin, once removed" through a 17th century ancestor. LOL. Good genes, huh?
I could probably find some illustrious "cousins", too, if I could go back almost 400 years. Since I *may* have Basque ancestry, how about Augustin de Iturbide, Che Guevara, Simon Bolivar and Francis Xavier, who according to all-knowing Wikipedia had some good genes from Euskal Herria...
The Luciferian impulse
Something´s wrong when a self-awoved Satanist sounds more rational than...I don´t know...anyone else in the United States in 2026? Note that the Satanist was simply reciting the usual American message of individualism, rationalism and secularism. Oh, and the article seems to confuse the Church of Satan with the Satanic Temple...
Starship Troopers
But surely this is against YouTube´s terms of service...?
Pentagon official says Hasan execution will be live-streamed
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