The best troll on the internet
23 02 11 - 20:30
This dude has us all beat:Leap into Life
22 02 11 - 21:46
From the oh-my-ungod-it's-so-stupid department:
A round-the-world boating adventure ended tragically Tuesday for four Americans, whom pirates fatally shot after capturing their yacht in the Indian Ocean last week, U.S. officials said.
...
He earlier had said the Adams were conscious of pirate threats and were concerned about boating in the area.
One aspect of their travels, according to the couple's website, was "friendship evangelism -- that is, finding homes for thousands of Bibles, which have been donated through grants and gifts, as we travel from place to place." They also said their mission was to "allow the power of the Word to transform lives."
But, Stolnitz said, vigorous evangelism wasn't a major emphasis for the couple. "They use the Bible as an ice-breaker," he said. - People's News Network
Here in unreality land -- a place shared by secular humanism, liberalism, progressivism and exoteric Christianity -- the Crowd gathers and decides it's better to be pacifistic and give in than to struggle. After all, what if one of us was a pirate (because we were down on our luck, of course, not because we were murderous parasites, oh no) -- we wouldn't want to be shot, so shoot no one. Give in.
Yet pirates are just murderous parasites, and so if things don't go according to plan, they freak out and kill people. Those people we hope were dreaming of their evangelism, the movies they made as film executives, their wealth, whatever. They are victims of the unreality in which we live, as are we all if we do not support immediate open-water hangings for all pirates (or all Somalis we can catch, if it doesn't stop).
Not all is as it seems
18 02 11 - 05:54
Last summer physicists noticed that some of the particles created by their proton collisions appeared to be synchronizing their flight paths, like flocks of birds. The findings were so bizarre that âweâve spent all the time since [then] convincing ourselves that what we were see ing was real,â says Guido Tonelli, a spokesperson for CMS, one of two general-purpose experiments at the LHC. - SciAm
They attribute it to a more varied internal structure, but it seems to me this is the wave/particle duality experiment. Waves are causes that exist in indeterminate form until colliding with another object, at which point their effects are material; protons may exist only in theory as a manifestation of the order of energy, not the energy itself but material remnants. Plato lives and always will.
All those adult-teen fantasies were wrong
08 02 11 - 08:58
Sorry, I should clarify: by "adult-teen fantasies" I mean those movies from the 1980s, 1990s and current decade where teenagers struggled to be misfits in a world ruled by blonde, rich, popular cliques who looked down on them:
Now there's research suggesting that aggression increases with peer status, meaning popular kids are the ones who are tormenting others. But here's the twist: Those who are most popular, at the top of the social hierarchy, are the least aggressive.
"They have much more to gain by being nice when theyâre up at that level than by being cruel," theorized lead author Robert Faris, assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis. Alternatively, it could be that the most popular kids are "simply different and incredibly nice people." - DURRR
Yeah. The kids on top are the blonde, rich and intelligent ones who don't need to be mean to others. It's the social climbers, the turnip-picking peasants who want to be future kings of industry, that are being cruel to the nerdy, geeky, slovenly, fat, deformed, retarded, slow, etc.
Religion for people with brains
07 02 11 - 09:48
This can be applied within any religion, and used to understand it to its fullest:
At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.
- The phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousnessâthe world of things and animals and men and even godsâis the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.
- Human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.
- Man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.
- Manâs life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.
From The Perennial Philosophy, by Brokeback Islander Aldous Huxley
Only a few such universally relevant ideas exist. I do not call them "universal," because that implies a universality not just of context but of reception. Darwinism is another such idea: it applies to species, to individuals, to designs/patterns and even thoughts. Another I'd suppose is reverence. Am I missing any?
"Northern Traditions" book released
06 02 11 - 06:30
Primordial Traditions is pleased to announce that our second book, Northern Traditions (ed. Gwendolyn Toynton) is now available.
Northern Traditions is a collection of articles on the indigenous Pagan Traditions of Northern Europe. Authors include Matt Hajduk, Juleigh Howard-Hobson, Amy Johanna Ahlberg, Troy Southgate, S.R. Hardy, Christopher A. Smith, Stephen Borthwick, Vijay Prozak and Gwendolyn Toynton.
Content ranges from in-depth mythological studies and translations of texts through to ritual reconstruction. The book is divided into two sections, with one half containing Traditional and historic content. The second half of the book is dedicated to contemporary practice and issues relating to the spiritual practice of Northern Traditions in the modern era.
Topics dealt with include a detailed exegesis of Völuspá, examinations of key figures in the Northern mythos such as Odin, Forseti, Tyr and Loki, herbal and botanical uses of plants, ritual reconstruction and ideas for contemporary practice.
Content level is semi-academic. By combining academic level material with practical work the aim of the book is to take contemporary pagan practices to a new level where they can be accepted as a serious spiritual movement.
Currently available from Amazon.co.uk for £18.00
