Vill Aftonbladet alltså att Sverige ska bli *mindre* som Dumpen? Har inte orkat lyssna på podden, cuz what´s the point?
Sabine Hossenfelder argues that dark matter particles (and therefore dark matter) might be impossible to detect even in principle, since their only effect is the gravitational pull they are supposed to explain. No independent confirmation is possible. This is apparently known as "Gravitationally Coupled Dark Matter".
Maybe.
But another possibility is of course that dark matter doesn´t exist in the first place...
“Olympiska spelen: De första tusen åren” (Olympic Games: The first one
thousand years) is a book in Swedish, written by classicist, archeologist and
tourist guide Allan Klynne. It was published this summer – obviously to
coincide with the Olympic Summer Games in Paris (which many Swedes follow on
TV). Despite only being 180 pages long, it´s packed with information, and even
feels a bit unwieldy! And no, it´s not primarily about the modern unwieldy multi-sport event known as the Olympic Games, but rather about their ancient precursors.
In Olympia in ancient Greece, Olympic Games were organized every four
years between 776 BC and 389 AD. In 393 AD, the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius
ordered the “pagan” games to close down, and the planned event that year was swiftly
cancelled. At least, that´s the traditional view. Klynne believes that the real
story is more complex (obviously). Some kind of athletic competitions may have
existed in Olympia even before 776 BC, and there is no real evidence that
Theodosius banned the games (as opposed to de-paganize them). Perhaps the games
continued to be held until some unspecified point during the 5th
century AD when the temple dedicated to Zeus at Olympia burned down, never to
be restored? The “Isolympic” Games in Antioch weren´t banned until 524 AD by
Emperor Justin after sports fans had staged a massive riot in the city! (The
term “Isolympic Games” means “equal to the Olympic Games” and was part of the ancient
Olympic “brand”.)
Obviously, the games at Olympia had their ups and down over the
centuries, but it *is* intriguing that they were organized in some form for about
one thousand years. My impression is that the religious character of the games
had something to do with it. The games were held in honor of the Greek high god
Zeus. The idol of said god in the local temple was regarded as one of the seven
wonders of the world. Large sacrifices of cattle to Zeus took place during the
championships. There was also a female “competition”, the Heraean games, which
may have been an explicit worship service of Zeus´ divine consort, the goddess
Hera, although the question is apparently controversial. It´s precisely these
connections to pagan cults that made many historians suspect that the Christians
suppressed the games for religious reasons. However, the Christianized population
of the Roman Empire loved sports just as much as the pagans, so the real reason
for the decline of the Olympic Games and similar competitions was the general
crisis of the Empire, which made it difficult to sustain large-scale events of
this kind.
When the French baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in
1896 in Athens, historians had very romantic and frequently erroneous views of
the ancient games. For instance, there was a widespread misconception that the ancient
Greek athletes had been amateurs and only competed for the glory. But as Klynne
demonstrates in this book, money or other gifts (from olive oil to mules) were always
part of the picture. So were bribes, cheating and all kinds of scandals. During
the second century AD, when Greece had long been part of the Roman Empire, an
enormous bureaucracy around the Olympic Games and other sport championships was
created and the prize money sums became even larger. Sounds familiar? Klynne
even compares the sports bureaucracy to the modern-day International Olympic
Committee! And no, the ancient athletes weren´t “amateurs” by any stretch of
the imagination.
Sports at the ancient games included running, discus, javelin, boxing,
wrestling, pankration (could be compared to modern MMA), horse-races and more. The
horse-races were considered to be competitions between the owners of the horses,
many of the actual riders being slave-boys. One sport *not* included was marathon
– the sport is named after an event following the Battle of Marathon in Greece
in 490 BC, but the sport itself is wholly modern and seems to have been
invented especially for the 1896 revival games. In ancient times, only males
were allowed to compete in the games at Olympia (but see below), and both
athletes and trainers were nude. During Greek times, only male spectators were
allowed, but under the Romans, at least unmarried women were also allowed to
watch. There was one partial exception to the rule prohibiting female competitors:
female horse-owners were allowed to participate, since the actual riders were
male. But as already mentioned, the prize money and recognition went to the
owners. The first female to win an Olympic prize in this way was Cynisca, a
Spartan princess.
Klynne discusses the various ancient Olympic disciplines in some detail.
The running competition known as “stade” (about 200 meters) was considered the
most ancient one and seems to have had the highest status, at least nominally.
The most popular sport among the spectators, however, was the pankration. The
most dangerous may have been boxing. It´s not clear to me why the athletes were
nude, but I doubt that it had anything to do with equality or democracy! The
Greeks themselves claimed that the runners originally wore garments, but one
day, a Spartan realized that he could run faster without it and simply dropped
it during the race, winning naked. To me at least, this suggests that nudity may
have been the most practical “outfit” for an ancient athlete, making his
movements unhindered. After all, this was long before modern aerodynamic sport-related
clothes. At Olympia (but nowhere else), trainers also had to be nude,
supposedly because of a famous incident involving a boxing trainer who turned
out to be woman dressed as a man!
But what about the results? How good were the ancient Greco-Roman athletes?
The simplest answer is that we don´t really know, since the ancient sources
almost never discuss such matters. Everyone could see who was the winner, so
why bother with details? In all likelihood, ancient athletes were at least
technically speaking worse than modern ones, but I assume that “worse” is a
relative term. Throwing a discus a certain distance may be “good” or “bad”
depending on what technique you use, your physique, and so on. The most
original Olympic disciplines were contests for heralds and trumpeters. Or
perhaps not so original, since these were a necessary part of the program. The
winners´ name, for instance, was announced by a herald, and obviously this
person needed to have a voice both strong and beautiful.
The Olympic peace is well known – the idea that the constantly warring
Greek city-states should lay down their arms during the Olympic Games – but it
wasn´t always successfully upheld (surprise). Elis and Pisa even fought for
control of Olympia itself, and in 364 BC Elis and the Arcadian League fought a battle
in Olympia during the actual games! The sources don´t mention how the spectators
survived the melee. The “treasure houses” in Olympia were filled with trophies
the Greek states had stolen from each other during various wars. The previously
mentioned Spartan princess Cynisca may have entered the games on behalf of the
Spartan king as a diplomatic sleight to Athens. It´s also interesting that the
Athenians organized their own multi-sport event, the Panathenaic Games, as an
alternative to the Olympic Games. Think Ionians versus Dorians. Under Roman rule,
the worst scandal took place when Nero (yes, *that* Nero) forced the organizers
to accept him as a competitor. The tyrant did indeed “win” every discipline he
chose to enter, from playing the lyre to racing with a chariot with ten horses
(despite falling off the chariot during the race).
I already mentioned the 1896 modern revival of the Olympic Games several times and will end on that note. Judging by Klynne´s description, Coubertin´s invention comes across as a gigantic LARP: modernized versions of the original sports, no women allowed, only amateurs, and Athens in the modern nation-state of Greece as the venue. Later Olympic Games also added artistic competitions, which had been on the program in other Panhellenic games in Antiquity. They also allowed women to compete, however. The strange ritual among the ruins of Olympia where the Olympic flame is lit before the games came later, but fits the picture.
Coubertin´s games weren´t the first during the 19th
century to use the name “Olympic Games”. For instance, a large sports event in
Athens in 1870 for Greeks from all over the world used the same designation. But Coubertin
had created a larger apparatus around his idea and…well, here we are. Of course,
today the Olympic Games have almost nothing in common with either Coubertin´s
1896 version or the ancient version, the latest edition in Paris even including
breakdance! Note also the Winter Games, unknown in ancient times since (of course)
there were no winter sports in the Eastern Mediterranean. Paralympics would
also have been impossible in ancient times, since the rules expressly forbade
disabled males from participating. *Sometimes* there really is progress.
But will the modern Olympic Games last for one thousand years? That
would be until 2896. Somehow, I doubt it…
With that reflection, I end this review.
A kind of sequel to the anti-Satanist videos from the YouTube channel Lifting the Lamp. Also discusses the relationship between Christianity and esotericism.
HAH HAH HAH, this is supposed to be a criticism of Buddhism from a Christian (?) viewpoint. The guy doing the criticizing does know *something* about Buddhism, but certainly not very much! He claims that Tibetan Buddhism is the real orthodox dharma, that Buddhism is really Hinduism, that the Buddha was a very selfish man who only wanted to liberate himself, and so on. And yeah, it´s because of Hinduism and Buddhism that India is poor (sure wonder what he thinks of Japan or Singapore, but whatever).
If you listen very attentatively, the Christian activist even says that Tibet became modern when invaded by the People´s Liberation Army and that he lives in Hong Kong?! Hmmm...
This story gives an entirely new meaning to the expression "it didn´t lose anything in retelling". Indeed, that seems to be literaly true.
While the original talltale is from the early 1990´s, recording an event that supposedly happened in Bulgaria in 1990, the current versions seem more recent. This may explain the (obvious) similarities to films such as "Prometheus" or "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".
That being said, this fakelore presumably have roots further back in both science fiction, ancient alien narratives, and conspiracy theory. The presence of psychics strikes me as a bit "old fashioned". And while most of the urban legend concerning Operation Sunray sound very American, some local Bulgarian color has been added (after all, the story *is* from Bulgaria originally).
Baba Vanga was a well-known soothsayer in that Balkan nation who is still quite popular, decades after her death, with (probably forged) prophecies in Vanga´s name making their rounds around YouTube and perhaps elsewhere. Naturally, the baba has been included in the operation, uttering dire warnings about what awaits the unsuspecting soldiers who are digging to unearth the Philosopher´s Stone...
Yepp, it´s aliens all the way down!
