Presumably, this means that Trump and Hegseth has eliminated any potential threats from the US military. Among other things...
Monday, February 24, 2025
Crystal ball
In Tolkien´s "Lord of the Rings" (or at least in the LOTR films), Sauron uses magical crystal balls known as palantírs to spy on Middle Earth. The palantírs are Sauron´s "eyes". Or a fantasy-esque form of surveillence technology, if you like. However, the sinister crystals can also be used to brainwash and control select people. Thus, the wizard Saruman (who was originally good) is "turned" and joins the dark side through the power of Sauron transmitted by one of the palantírs.
And yeah, after reading Wiki´s nerdy entry on the topic, I realize that the full story is much more subtle than in Jackson´s movie adaption. But...
While created by the Elves, the palantírs are at best ambivalent, at worst evil. Apparently, they were Tolkien´s Christian-inspired warning against magic and pagan divination. Which still makes it...I don´t know...strange that Peter Thiel calls his computer software business Palantir. Yes, this would be the same Thiel who "created" J D Vance, the current vice president of the United States and heir-apparent to a certain Donald Trump. So who is Sauron and who is Saruman in this scenario? Asking for a friend named Gandalf!
Thiel has double citizenship, the US and New Zealand. It´s almost as if I want to write a science fiction short story in which Thiel and Vance tries to overthrow Trump, fails, Thiel escaping to New Zealand in the process. The story ends with Trump ordering the Joint Chiefs of Staff to invade the Pacific island-nation (a US ally). Suspense ending!
Or is this too realistic? I mean, I don´t want to get arrested next time I show my ass in the Lower 48. Or on the North Island, for that matter.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
4Chan is fake and gay
The "straight/gay" comments attacked in this video must be trolling. Yes, we´re back in the click bait/entertainment corner of the YouTube crazy-spectrum. NSFW, lol. Gives an entirely new meaning to the phrase "fuck around and find out"!
This is what we´re up against
The year was 2015. In 2014, Russia had occupied Crimea and started to support a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine. Then, they sent a peace song to the Eurovision Song Contest?!
This is what we´re up against, fam.
Recursion
Does an obscure Amazonian language called Piraha disprove Noam Chomsky´s Universal Grammar? No idea, as I hardly understand the topic! Me not grok. Still, interesting after a fashion. Tie-in to the idea that the way we look at the world is (strongly) caused by our language.
Aside from lacking "recursion", Piraha seem to have other unique or unusual features. For instance, no numerals, verb tenses or color words. When anthropologist Daniel Everett and his wife tried to teach the Piraha basic arithmetic, the natives gave up after eight months of study. They simply couldn´t grasp the concept.
My wild guess is that the Piraha people are a relict population of a previously complex culture rather than true primitives, and that this somehow explains why their language is so impoverished. They are "devolving". But then, nobody seems to have made evolutionary claims about their lingo, so maybe this observation is irrelevant to the current conflict...
Our cryptid cousins
OK, this was funny. Who would have thought that there are *cryptid* coelecanths? If an unknown animal is discovered, guess what, people suddenly see it everywhere and at all times...including half a planet away from where it was discovered?! But sure, the idea that people at Mallorca were catching and eating primordial lobe-finned fish until fairly recently does have a certain romantic appeal.
Besides, two species of coelecanth has been discovered - not just one - the second one as late as 1998 (in Indonesia). So I suppose it´s possible that a few new species of this strange and wonderful fish (a *very* distant evolutionary cousin of...ourselves) might still be lurking out there...
Rambling nonsense
Rambling nonsense? Or not? Our favorite crazy uncle TJ Kirk (a.k.a. the content-creator formerly known as The Amazing Atheist) rambles on about all and everything in this improptu video clip, apparently taped at 2AM in the morning!
Which suggests my man has pretty much the same (disturbed) biological clock as here undersigned...
Topics covered in this strange wolf-hour rant include Trump´s effects on TJ´s stock portfolio, questions concerning Elon Musk´s autism, and whether or not trans-gender surgeries have sunk the US economy.
Er, wut?
TJ also promises to show us his next tattoo. Note that he looks almost "spiritual" in this video, with that purple outfit and golden bling-bling. A bit like an Osho devotee, perhaps? He talks a bit about spiritual stuff, too. Make of this unpolished material whatsoever you wish.
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