Eufalconimorphae: Finally, a clade that makes some sense!

If this idiot blogger calls me chicken one more time, I´m gonna go ultra-rogue on him!

So DNA research suggests that falcons are more closely related to parrots and passerines than to eagles, hawks, vultures and other Accipitriformes. 

Makes sense.

My amateur biological side always thought there was something strange about falcons. I mean, they *look* differently, don´t they? For all I know, they could be parrots gone ultra-rogue. And what about the caracaras? They look like chicken evolving into birds of prey! 

Next, I want a thorough taxonomical revision of cuckoos. I´m pretty sure there´s something fishy about them, too. And what´s this shit about swifts and hummingbirds being related??? Not to mention the supposed dino-bird connexion, not sure about that one either. 

Maybe we should also take a closer look at the old discarded theory that flying foxes are really primates and hence related to humans... Always missed that one!

Real change we can believe in. Please?

Maitreya came to his people, and his people comprehendeth him not

According to the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, the Buddha of the future will appear in 
5.6 billion years and save all sentient beings by taking them to the Pure Land Paradise. 

Can we really afford waiting that long for real change we can believe in?

Especially since the Earth will be swallowed by the Sun in just 4 billion years. The prospect of having to be suspended in inter-planetary space in the form of a gas cloud chased by Lovecraftian Wyrms for 1.6 billion years doesn´t really appeal to me.

Can Christ Jesus please come back in 2030 instead? 

A bewildering death

“Death and the Afterlife: A Chronological Journey from Cremation to Quantum Resurrection” by Clifford A Pickover is a bewildering, confusing and decidedly non-chronological meandering peregrination through humanity´s myriad views of death and dying.

Peculiar burial customs, child sacrifice, ideas about the afterlife, paintings and novels about our mortality, even some science and science fiction (not always easy to tell apart in these murky waters)…you will need a lot of patience to sift through this material, unless you love to be surprised! Other topics covered: abortion, executions, the Ghost Dance and the two most popular “books of the dead” in Western culture (yes, the Egyptian and the Tibetan). The book has a “Halloween” feel, with small pictures of skulls on the covers.

Much of the information was new to me, such as the notion of “sin-eaters”. In Aztec culture, the soul of the departed is said to meet a spirit-being named Tlazolteotl, which would “eat” his or her sins. I say Tlazolteotl had a lot of work to do, considering the innumerable crimes of this particular civilization! “Real” sin-eaters have existed in the UK. Food was placed at the corpse of the departed, and a social outcast was then instructed to eat it, at which the sins of the deceased person were said to be transferred to the sin-eater via the food. It seems English peasants didn´t trust the efficacy of the atoning death of Christ…

Atheists want immortality as much as the religiously faithful or the credulously superstitious. Hence entries on cryonics, transhumanism, Quantum immortality and Quantum resurrection. There is also something called Boltzmann brains. I´m sure Boltzmann himself had a couple of those. The author of this volume missed Ray Kurzweil´s Singularity notions, though. On a more negative note, there is nothing about runaway climate change and the Venus scenario. Another problem is that the book isn´t fully sourced.

Maybe next time? Or in my next life, LOL.

Wtf, I love falcons now

“Europas rovfåglar” by Gunnar Pettersson is Swedish book about raptors or birds of prey. Published in 1984, it includes the falcons alongside hawks, eagles, vultures and other Accipitriformes. Apparently, the falcons are no longer regarded as raptors in good standing, rather being a dramatic example of convergent evolution. Or so the nerd who writes on Wiki tells me. Until the pendulum swings back again, presumably… Sorting out these birds have long been a problem for biologists!

The book includes all European raptor species. The species presentations are rather short. The book is above all a work of art. And yes, the illustrations are made by Gunnar Pettersson himself. He, or perhaps the editor, seems more fascinated by some species than by others. Peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons and white-tailed eagles are prominently featured. So are some vultures. The author is “pro-raptor” and the concluding chapter attacks humanity as we know it for “persecuting” raptors. I didn´t know that birds of prey were themselves prey for humans just a few centuries ago. In Sweden, the common buzzard was verily food, and in southern Italy and Sicily, the locals feasted on sea eagles and the lammergeier! The author also writes about falconry – I find it fascinating that falcons can actually be trained or tamed.

But no, I´m not particularly raptor-friendly. If it´s between us and them, I´d say kill´em before they multiply (and eat´em). Perhaps I imbibed too much romantic shit about Nature as a kid from books like “Europas rovfåglar”, so this is the counter-reaction. Still, I like parrots and magpies, so the idea that falcons are more closely related to Psittaciformes and Passeriformes than to some ugly buzzard or vulture made me slightly more positive to the fate of the Peregrine…

Occultism for the coffee table

“Ockulta boken” is a Swedish translation of John Michael Greer´s “The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca”. I haven´t seen the American original, but in the Swedish edition, the print is too small, although I suppose it´s possible that I´m simply getting old and even more near-sighted!

Otherwise, I have no particular objections to this volume, described by its author as a “coffee table book”. It could also be described as an encyclopedic teaser trailer to the arcane world of the occult. The author takes us on an extended journey from Pythagoras to the 2012 phenomenon. Most of the landfalls along the path would be familiar to avid students of these truly esoteric topics. Thus, there are entries on Corpus Hermeticum, Paracelsus, Böhme, the Rosicrucian Manifestoes, Eliphas Levi, Golden Dawn, Blavatsky and Steiner. Other topics covered are perhaps more obscure, such as the mysterious Benandanti, a 16^th century pagan cult in northern Italy exposed by the Inquisition. Or what about Hoodoo drug stores, once a staple of the US urban landscape?

“The Occult Book” shows the diversity of the Western occult tradition, which includes both “low” folkish superstition and “high” philosophical speculation…and pretty much everything in between! A thing that struck me when reading about Swedish 18^th century occultism in another work, was how broad the occult interests even of aristocrats actually were, ranging all the way from the Cabala to tasseomancy. Thus, the author´s decision to include other strands of the secret tradition besides Hermetic philosophy and Böhmean mysticism was clearly a good one. And speaking of Sweden, two Swedes have been included in this volume, Johannes Bureus and Emmanuel Swedenborg (our very own prophet). Left out is Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm, but perhaps he is less known internationally?

For those who consider the entries in this teaser trailer too short, a list of recommended reading has been included in the last section. I noticed that it included another book by John Michael Greer, “Apocalypse Not”, the author´s very own take (or take down) of the 2012 phenomenon. Finally, a minor quibble with the Swedish translation. Blavatsky´s magnum opus is called “Den Hemliga Läran” in Swedish, nothing else.

There will be genocide

Not sure whether Styx is trolling or high on something, but this clip is interesting, for various reasons perhaps best not to get into here... 

Give me copper or give me heat death

The demand for copper will have surged by 250% in the car industry by the year 2030. The reason? Electric cars. Which are touted as the solution to the climate crisis by sectors of the establishment.

Thus, in order to save the world, we need copper. And lots of it! Which means we need copper mines. And lots of them. In Sweden, that means Lappland. You know, the pristine wilderness area in the north inhabited by wolves, wolverines, caribou and some recalcitrant Saami Natives (who use gasoline to their snowmobiles and want to exterminate the wolves). Coming soon to an area the local Sierra Club wants to save: yuge copper mining operations!

But don´t worry. Apparently, mines can be electrified, too. So who knows? Maybe we *can* save the world, after all.
Next question.

Oh, wait, you are *against* copper mining cuz pristine wilderness or something? There´s the door. Eco-fascist!

Copper demand to surge

How dare you?!

Special envoy of Sun King Macron reams out lazy leftists of "Workers Party" in Brazil, demands swift and decisive action against destruction of Amazon!

Brasilia, mega-metropolis of Comtean Positivism and Spiritualist Satanism of Kardec, MUST BURN IN BRONZE AGE FIRE!

RT if you agree!

Alla kristna kreationister, se hit!

Neeeeeeeej, nu kommer pingstkyrkan och Livets Ord att få vatten på sina väderkvarnar, STOP THIS NOW IMMIDIATELY SOMEONE!

Universums ålder: det är någonting som inte stämmer!

För att inte tala om Ted Grant och Alan Woods...

Penguins in the vortex

The ruler of Earth takes a closer look at a dying species...

The next intelligent species to emerge on our planet will probably be a highly evolved penguin with the looks of a whale and the brains of a Buddhist.

Or so Lord Maitreya told me when he temporarily materialized in my room on his way to Sukhavati (in the true West). 

I suppose that means the story has a happy ending after all... 

;-)