Fler "spännande" problem...
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
"We had no sub-machine guns"
A 1987 interview with David Koresh, rerun on American TV on the eve of the 1993 Waco siege. Frankly bizarre stuff! One thing that struck me was that Koresh doesn´t seem particularly charismatic...
As far as I understand, James Tabor was the guy who tried to "talk Koresh down" during the siege, attempting to convince him that his Bible interpretation was in error!
Monday, May 20, 2024
A literal cold war
Russian scientists have supposedly discovered an enormous amount of oil in Antarctica, enough to last for 500 years. There is just one problem: it´s on territory claimed by the British. And very close to territory claimed by both Britain and Argentina. These territorial claims are invalid according to an international treaty, but who will care in the future? If Russia and/or China moves to extract the oil, all bets are off.
Argentina currently has a pro-Western government, but this could change in the future, and then Argentina´s old claims to the Falkland Islands might be dusted off. Thus, we could see a geopolitical confrontation over fossil fuels in the South Atlantic between a Sino-Russo-Argentine alliance and an Anglo-American ditto.
The consequences for the world´s climate if even more oil is used up is not mentioned in Daily Mail´s article (probably because of their right-leaning political sympathies), but Russia and China are not known for giving a damn about "green transitions". The massive use of aerosols to mitigate global warming is probably inevitable at this point...
Meditate on this
If you know, you know. When you realize the meaning of the above, you will know the Truth. And despair!
Recalled
_(cropped).jpg) |
| Credit: Prime Minister´s Office, India (sic) |
It seems the Devil´s grandmother has recalled one of her most trusted servants.
NOMA be damned
Charles Darwin and a chimp dancing with Krishna and Radha. Non-Overlapping Magisteria be damned!
Taxonomic vandalism (and then some)
Never heard of this matie before, but he is apparently some kind of local celebrity in Australia.
Science blogger Darren Naish isn´t impressed, and charges free-wheeling herpetologist Ray Hoser with "taxonomic vandalism" and "nomenclatural harvesting".
Or, not to put too fine spin on it, of being a real pain the ass! Apparently, the unhinged mate has named snakes after his pet dogs, when not busy running a snake-related road show, unsuccesfully running for office, and accusing other scientists of being rapists, thieves, and what not...
T-Rex the tool maker?
Was Tyrannosaurus rex just as smart as apes and monkeys? Could it use tools and transmit "culture"? Recently, a scientist claiming this made the headlines, but Darren Naish and a team of other scientists beg to differ.
The problem boils down to estimating how many neurons T-Rex had in its brain, but also that a large mass of neurons doesn´t necessarily make you smart. Apparently, giraffes have more brain cells than corvids and most primates, yet aren´t particularly clever...
Still, an interesting little splash.
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Oh no, not again
I do realize that many people believe (or want to believe) in the Rapture and similar things, but do the doomsday preachers believe in their own prophecies at this stage? The above clip features a collection of truly absurd "predictions" connected to - you guessed it - the solar eclipse of 2024. Well, we´re still here talking about it, aren´t we?
The speculations are centered on the United States, not on the Middle East, a more logical place for an "apocalypse" to start (both in Biblical terms and in more secular ones). The fact that the path of the eclipse supposedly passes seven towns named Salem and seven towns named Nineveh is very significant. Except that it apparently doesn´t. It seems the eclipse was also visible from towns with names like "Donald" and "Uncle Joe"...
The paths of the eclipse can apparently be patterned in shapes reminescent of various Hebrew and Greek letters, Alpha and Omega being the most prominent. And what did Christ call himself in Revelation? Exactly. The two paths cross in an area of the Midwest popularly known as "Little Egypt"...
The emergence of the cicadas makes a brief guest appearence. I´m still a bit surprised that this isn´t a bigger thing. I mean, the connection between cicadas and locusts, while far fetched biologically, seem obvious and ominous from a "Biblical" perspective.
As per usual, nothing will happen, and then it´s off to the next failed prediction "until Kingdom come" (pun intended).
When the unhanged vote for the undead
Is this some kind of sick joke? Bolton (who was fired by Trump for being too bellicose) is going to write-in Dick Cheney in the presidential elections. That is, the guy who got us into this bloody mess in the first place...
The irony is that Bolton probably was too belligerent even for the Bush Administration. But I suppose that depends on whether or not you think Cheney was behind 9/11!
Bad theology takes
A short Christian video from YouTube, trying to explain why the Devil cannot be pardoned. It fails.
The explanation given is that the Devil sinned outside time in eternity, while man sinned in time. Therefore God can redeem the latter, but not the former. LOL. By this logic, Lucifer was part of the Godhead since (of course) only God is outside of time.
Back to theology class 101, brothers!
PS. Looked at some of the other videos. It seems to be a Romanian "engagement farming" account, or whatever is the slangword this week. Half of the clips aren´t Christian, and one seems to deny the Biblical view of the apocalypse (despite being tagged "apocalypse")...
The man-eating octopi
This week in weird - are there gigantic fresh-water octopi in man-made lakes in Oklahoma?! Probably not, LOL, but the folklore (or fakelore?) is interesting.
Many suspect that this cryptid is completely fake, made up for a recent TV "documentary". However, the above YouTube channel managed to trace the story to a 1987 letter to the Fortean magazine INFO Journal. It was written by an American Indian, Russell Bates, and purports to retell a Native tradition about monstrous creatures in Oklahoma´s lakes, creatures never named but similar to...you guessed it, octopi. The YouTuber is too nice to say it, but of course the letter could have been a hoax. Bates was a script-writer associated with "Star Trek"!
I also find it curious that one of the man-made lakes in which the dangerous octopus supposedly lives is named after another cryptid: Lake Thunderbird.
The video ends with some (perhaps real) cases of regular octopuses found in freshwater, including a seemingly sensational photo. But alas, it´s probably a known species. In other words: some idiot deliberately released an octopus into a river. And here we are, decades later, still talking about it...
The alien god loves Darwin
Could be entertaining, if you are a theology nerd. Note his attack on Marcion! Apparently, Marcionism is the worst heresy ever, and is connected to Darwinism and atheism?! Wtf...
Upplopp i paradiset
_warriors_posing_with_penis_gourds_and_spears%2C_New_Caledonia.jpg)
Kanaker och fransmän har ju aldrig gillat varandra, men den senaste tidens våldsamheter på Nya Kaledonien verkar vara orsakade av Kina, Ryssland och Azerbaijan (sic).
Kina expanderar i Söderhavet. Ryssland expanderar på Frankrikes bekostnad i Västafrika. Och Azerbaijan är sura på Frankrikes stöd till Armenien. Eftersom Ryssland för närvarande har dåliga relationer med Armenien (annars en traditionell allierad), så kan man väl inte utesluta något slags rysk koppling även här.
Frankrikes president Macron har åtminstone retoriskt intagit en offensiv hållning i konflikten i Ukraina. Säkerligen p.g.a. de geopolitiska spänningarna med Ryssland. Kinas expansion i Stilla Havs-regionen kolliderar givetvis också med franska intressen. Har för mig att vissa småländer i regionen faktiskt varit pro-ryska tidigare, men jag antar att Kina är huvudaktören där.
Återstår att se om detta bara är en försöksballong, eller ett allvarligt menat försök att öppna en ny anti-västlig front från Rysslands och Kinas sida.
The secret world of Incels
I recently watched two documentaries about Incels, Benjamin Zand´s “The Secret World of Incels” and the Swedish “Svenska Incels”, shown on TV4. The latter is probably a copycat of the former. Finnish Hufvudstadsbladet apparently wrote in a critical review that Zand comes across almost as a parody of an uninterested and moralizing BBC reporter. I thought he was just regular. TV4 mostly follows Zand´s lead. I don´t claim to be an expert on the Incel subculture, so I can´t really judge the docus from that angle. At least the productions tell us what establishment media wants us to think about Incels.
It´s a somewhat contradictory picture. On the one hand, the Incel forums
are filled with extreme misogyny, calls for violence, fascination with “gore”,
and eulogization of Elliot Rodger, a disturbed young man who identified as an
Incel and killed six people in California in 2014. On the other hand, the
Incels are portrayed as tragic and lonely, in need of a helping hand from
society or good Samaritans. TV4 also put some emphasis on the autistic aspect
and shows statistics suggesting that more young men than women feel lonely,
never had sex, and so on. This “nice” aspect surprised me, since it must be very
easy to run with the “dangerous extremist” angle.
According to Zand, the “ideology” of the Incels is called “the black
pill”. But surely, that´s just one term, albeit a fairly central one? One thing
that struck me was that the Incels interviewed had a kind of “inverted” version
of the PUA worldview. One even references Vox Day´s SSH, albeit without mentioning
it explicitly. The Incels are self-conscious “Beta males” or “Omegas” who
consider themselves genetically inferior to “Chads” or Alpha males. Weirdly,
the Chad is described in a very stereotypical way, almost as if taken from an
ironic Chad meme on Twitter. He has pronounced jaws, blue eyes, and what not. It´s
difficult to avoid the impression that the autists have been trolled by
somebody! The “black pill” is presumably the realization that everything really
is shit, and there are even forums with tips for how to commit suicide…
One thing never explained in the documentaries is why incels are
becoming more common – that is, why *really*. Autism is obviously a factor. So
why have the number of autists increased? Or virgins, or lonely young people in
general? What about changing dating patterns? The people interviewed (one of
Zand´s interviewees is a young woman or “Femcel”) have either broken with the
toxic subculture, or are on the way out, presumably one of the reasons why they
agreed to talk to reporters in the first place. Frankly, their face masks make
them seem quaint rather than dangerous. But what about all the rest? Or society
in general?
Those questions are left hanging in the air…
Thursday, May 16, 2024
16 maj 2024 e.Kr.
Prioriteringar...
Slovakisk politik:
Premiärministern kämpar för sitt liv efter skjutningen
Svensk politik:
The end of the Paris Accords
Sabine Hossenfelder tries to explain her position on anthropogenic climate change. Apparently, it´s not going very well.
My take is that she is pessimistic, not so much about whether something "can" be done, but rather whether it *will* be done. Her prediction is that the actions taken will be too little, too late. And then it´s off to 3 degrees centigrade increase in average temperature at the end of the century.
Or even higher...
Perichoresis
Lutheran theologian Jason B Cooper claims on YouTube that most pictures illustrating the obscure theological concept of perichoresis (at least it´s obscure to me!) show three female figures dancing together?!
So I asked Copilot Designer to generate a picture of, well, perichoresis.
It seems Brother Cooper was right...
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
The Nicene ChatGPT
ChatGPT on the Trinity:
The Trinity, or the Holy Trinity, is one of the most central and profound mysteries in Christian theology. It is the doctrine that God exists as three persons, yet is one single essence: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these persons is fully and completely God, but they are not three gods, rather one God. This doctrine has been foundational to the Christian faith since the earliest days of the Church and has its roots in both Scripture and tradition.
The Bible and the Trinity:
The doctrine of the Trinity is grounded in the Bible. In the Old Testament, we find hints of God's multi-dimensional nature, such as in the creation narrative where God says, "Let us make mankind in our image" (Genesis 1:26). In the New Testament, God's triune nature becomes clearer. The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River is a powerful example: when Jesus is baptized by John, we see the Son in the water, the Spirit descending as a dove, and the Father's voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17).
Theological Explanations:
Theologians have reflected over the centuries on why God is triune. A fundamental explanation is that the Trinity reflects God's very essence, which is love. Love cannot exist in isolation; it requires a lover, a beloved, and a love that unites them. In the Trinity, we find the Father as the lover, the Son as the beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the love that unites them. Thus, the Trinity is not just a theoretical construct but an expression of God's living and dynamic love.
Incarnation and Salvation:
The Trinity is also crucial for understanding the incarnation and the work of salvation. God the Father sends His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save humanity. Jesus, who is truly God and truly man, lives a sinless life, dies on the cross for our sins, and rises on the third day. The Holy Spirit then works in the world to communicate this salvation to people, renew their hearts, and bring them into fellowship with God. Without the Trinity, this dynamic of sending, salvation, and sanctification would be inexplicable.
Relationship and Communion:
Finally, the Trinity reveals the depth of God's nature as relational. God is, in His essence, an eternal life of communion. This also has implications for human life, as we are created in God's image and called to communion both with God and with each other. The Church, as the body of Christ, is meant to be a reflection of the trinitarian communion, where unity and diversity are united in love.
In summary, the Trinity is not just a doctrinal statement but a living reality that permeates the entire Christian faith and life. It reveals to us a God who is unfathomable and majestic, yet also close and loving, a God who invites us into deep fellowship with Himself and with our fellow human beings.
OK, Boomer
Min reaktion på TV4:s avslöjande om SD:s trollfabrik är...OK, Boomer. Har förresten inte sett TV4:s reportage, och tänker inte heller göra det. There!
Creationism in cryptozoology
Meanwhile, on the fringe...
An intra-mural Catholic polemic on young earth creationism (YEC), complete with the claim that dinosaurs survived the Flood and were still around...during the Middle Ages?!
Best comment: "I did expect them to read the Bible literally, I didn´t expect them to read Beowulf literally". Not to mention the legend of Saint George and the dragon!
Stegosaurs in Cambodia, theropods in China, sauropods (et. al.) around England´s greenest hills...the evidence isn´t exactly convincing. I´m honestly getting a bit tired of all this crap. Should I stop commenting fringe beliefs completely?
Sources say
Overheard on the Internet: "Theory can be no more than this: a trap set in the hope that reality will be naive enough to fall into it".
The real inversion
The question of "inversion" is a fascinating one. Many ancient Gnostic scriptures keep the Biblical narrative, while inverting it. Modern NRMs do the same thing.
Thus, there is the "classic" Gnostic myth claiming that Yahweh in the garden of Eden is really the Devil, while the serpent is the true god. There is also "The Gospel of Judas", in which Cain, Esau and Judas are depicted as good, while Abel, Jacob and Peter are the bad guys!
Examples of modern inversion abound. Often, these are attempts to recast Satan (Lucifer) as good. Another example is the name "Ashtar Command", supposedly an intergalactic fleet of benign space aliens, lead by a space bro somewhat unimaginatively referred to as Commander Ashtar. I think it´s obvious that Ashtar is really Ishtar, Astarte or perhaps Asera. In the Bible, of course, these are evil pagan goddesses. Another example could be the Egyptian spirit-entity Ambres, supposedly channelled by Swedish medium Sture Johansson. Could Ambres be a reference to Jambres, one of Pharao´s evil magicians confronted by Moses and Aaron? The Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was apparently fascinated by the figure of Baraqiel, the angel of astrology, but also one of the fallen angels in the "Book of Enoch"!
What is the point of all this inversion? Perhaps it´s a kind of magical technique, a bit like inverting a crucifix, since transgressive acts are said to generate magic energies. They can certainly "declutch" an individual (or even drive him mad). But here is an interesting idea: what if the Bible itself is one gigantic inversion of previous pagan mythology?
In Sumerian mythology, there was a council of divine beings who descended to Earth and taught the humans civilization. In the Bible, these good culture-heroes have been inverted into fallen angels. Apparently, Ugaratic mythology features a tree of life guarded by weird-looking spirit-beings. When humans eat of the fruit, they see the gods! In the Bible, this is inverted to something negative...
Pondering.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Mot kollapsens hjärta
Ett hårt uppvaknande? Undrar hur länge det tar innan AB låser den här artikeln.
Och nej, jag har inte plötsligt blivit pro-rysk. Jag bara konstaterar fakta. Och ett faktum är att AB (inklusive artikelförfattaren) i flera års tid påstått att Ryssland redan förlorat.
Återstår att se om Macron kan bli den nye Clemenceau...
Lost in translation
Atheist Bible scholar James Tabor stints as Bible exegete in these two videos. Nothing really new in his interpretation, but could be interesting going through anyway.
Short form: "justification by faith alone" isn´t an Old Testament teaching...but not a teaching from Jesus either. It´s 100% Paul. Tabor implies that James (the brother of the Lord) had the original message.
Drill, baby, drill
After exploring geoengineering c/o Björn Lomborg, we now take a look at geothermal energy. Can it help us avoid both peak oil and climate change?
It would be ironic if modern civilization saves itself from these twin dangers...only to be destroyed by, say, overpopulation, rampant hedonism, nuclear war, class conflict or low IQ, but I suppose no civilization can just choose its apocalypse.
Oswald Spengler may be proven right, after all!
See also here:
In control
This can be interpreted in several different ways. How many of those participating in the programs did so voluntarily? Isn´t it fascinating how the Argentine left commandeered the masses? And so on. Note the reference to the Trotskyist Partido Obrero.
Monday, May 13, 2024
MITTENS
Good luck with this material. I disavow...disavow...disavow...
How Genghis Khan´s MITTENS strangled Darwin
The Vacuous Rhetoric of Evolution
Miyake events
So I mocked people who shat in their panties due to the recent "cannibal storm". Then I read this...
Ooops.
Solar superflares could strike again
Den vita sporten
 |
| En vit svartbjörn (sic) Credit: Jackmont |
HA HA HA.
Den idéburna sektorns toppskikt består till över 90% av vita personer
För den som undrar vad "idéburna sektorn" är för något...
"David Icke called me out"
Good luck with this material. 3 hours 30 minutes with Jay Dyer on "David Icke Calls Me Out, Sim Theory, Gnosticism, Platonic GITCH [sic] IN THE MATRIX!".
Submission
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on certain aspects of Western feminism. Let´s see how long it takes before she is reported for hate speech...
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Ett snöpligt slut
Ändå rätt symboliskt att den schweiziske vinnaren i Eurovision Song Contest, "Nemo", slog sönder segerpokalen på scenen av misstag.
Ett passande avslut på denna populärkulturens dance macabre. Som väl var ännu mer makaber i år än tidigare.
Sveriges TV-tittare gav förresten 12 poäng till Israel. Den svenska juryn gav dem noll poäng.
Då vet vi det.
Cracking the code
So Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest, with Israel in fifth position. But if only the phone votes would be counted, Croatia would win with Israel second. Switzerland would be fifth.
It´s also interesting to note that Israel only got 52 points from the jury groups, but 323 points from the people.
Sure, the Israeli song wasn´t particularly good as songs go, but it´s difficult not to suspect that politics were involved here...both when the jury groups voted, and when the television viewers did so. Everyone knows that "Hurricane" is really about the Hamas terrorist attack last year.
The juries preferred the Woke song "The Code" by Nemo from Switzerland, who is now promoted as "the first non-binary winner of the Eurovision Song Contest" (he is a gay male in a skirt). The European public showed solidarity with Israel. And with Ukraine, another nation with a song that got many more votes from the people than the jury groups...
Hurricane
What the fuck does this even mean? Does the United States know where Hamas leaders and Hamas´ hidden tunnels are located, but refused to share the intel with Israel until now?! But it also raises another question: why doesn´t *Israel* have intelligence on such matters? And where are the hostages???
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Ödets ironi
Björn Lomborg börjar bli desperat...
Men visst, förr eller senare kommer någon att testa geoengineering. Om det fungerar, kommer den västerländska civilisationen gå under av *brist* på fossila bränslen istället. Ja, det är alltså en ändlig resurs...
Ironin!
CANNIBAL STORM
LOL. Absolutely nothing has happened here yet, computer and mobile works fine, so does the Internet, and no auroras are visible anyway due to clouded skies.
Onward to the next faux apocalypse!
Emptiness is form
Emptiness is empty of form in the same way that white is “empty” of color.
(From the X account The Fourth Way.)
The parody president
This guy is really starting to grate on my nerves. The parody really does hit home here...
Friday, May 10, 2024
Future blast
The Guardian recently asked 380 IPCC-affiliated scientists about their predictions for the future. Only 6% believe that the target of no more than 1.5 degrees centigrade warming will be met. 80% expect global warming to be 2.5 degrees, while 50% say that even 3 degrees is possible.
A "semi-dystopian future" is anticipated "with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck".
Predestination
If this is a correct understanding of Manichaeism, I must say that I just got much less sympathy for it. Manichaeism is a dead religion, of course, but this small group on YouTube is trying to revive it. Complete with small group dogmatism and "everyone really agrees with us...in their hearts".
(Apart from the clip, also read the comments.)
Interestingly, the content-creator used to be a "Jansenist" Catholic and then a Calvinist. He came to Manichaeism by way of Augustine and a strong belief in predestination. I watched a few of his uploads, and he does try to be as consistent as possible when preaching strict dualism between Light and Dark, for instance by taking an anti-natalist position. His view of sin and grace is super-fatalist.
Somehow, I get the feeling that it´s precisely this consistency which makes Manichaeism (and strongly world-denying Gnosticism more generally) suddenly sound so absurd...
Generation Greta finns inte (del Z)
Generation Greta finns inte. Som bekant. Å andra sidan verkar alternativet inte vara särskilt mycket bättre. Från vår högst ofrivillige grannbloggare.
Generation Z genomsyras av en giftig blandning av nyliberalism, nykonservatism och högerpopulism
Goodbye
Scientific progress really is slowing down, despite attempts by Skeptics (TM) to deny it. Right on schedule.
The Babel babbel
Overheard on X:
>>>Come on bro, just unify everything under one universal system.
>>>Trust me bro, just erase all differences, people are blank slates we can socially engineer the perfect society. >>>Just one more time bro, come on we just need total power to remake humanity it will work this time.Was it really worth it?
Did all the brave bourgeois revolutionaries die for *this*? This is really existing bourgeois society in 2024. But then I recall that the aristocracy the bourgeoisie overthrew had become just as decadent. So I suppose that somehow balances the ledgers...
The betrayal
Will Joe Biden become the first US president who betrays Israel? Note that a "former" anti-Israeli activist has a top position at Biden´s National Security Council! Completely bizarre.
The most "charitable" interpretation is that the Biden Administration wants to "balance" Israel, Hamas and Fatah. Good luck with that.
"Impeach Joe Biden for withholding arms from Israel"
Biden´s NSC Intel Director is a "former" radical anti-Israeli activist
Thursday, May 9, 2024
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