Via Hávamál
23 december 2013
19 december 2013
18 december 2013
Sorcerers’ passport
A “sorcerers’ passport,” offering safe passage to vodou initiates, obtained by Albert Métraux during his anthropological field work in Haiti in the 1940s. Kate Ramsey notes that the Haitian secret societies that issue these passports are linked to vodou and still form an active alternative (“nighttime”) system for delivering law and justice to their adherents.
Read more: The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name
17 december 2013
Native dignity
PRIMARY ARTIST: S.T. Gill (1818–1880)
TITLE: Native dignity.
DATE MADE: 1866
TECHNIQUE: lithograph, printed in black ink, from one stone
Via: CENTRE FOR AUSTRALIAN ART
11 december 2013
10 december 2013
05 december 2013
Boltzmann brain
.jpg)
Boltzmann proposed that we and our observed low-entropy world are a random fluctuation in a higher-entropy universe. Even in a near-equilibrium state, there will be stochastic fluctuations in the level of entropy. The most common fluctuations will be relatively small, resulting in only small amounts of organization, while larger fluctuations and their resulting greater levels of organization will be comparatively more rare. Large fluctuations would be almost inconceivably rare, but are made possible by the enormous size of the universe and by the idea that if we are the results of a fluctuation, there is a "selection bias": we observe this very unlikely universe because the unlikely conditions are necessary for us to be here, an expression of the anthropic principle.
The Boltzmann brain paradox is that any observers (self-aware brains with memories like we have, which includes our brains) are therefore far more likely to be Boltzmann brains than evolved brains, thereby at the same time also refuting the selection-bias argument. If our current level of organization, having many self-aware entities, is a result of a random fluctuation, it is much less likely than a level of organization which only creates stand-alone self-aware entities. For every universe with the level of organization we see, there should be an enormous number of lone Boltzmann brains floating around in unorganized environments. In an infinite universe, the number of self-aware brains that spontaneously randomly form out of the chaos, complete with false memories of a life like ours, should vastly outnumber the real brains evolved from an inconceivably rare local fluctuation the size of the observable universe.
The usual counter-argument is that natural selection is capable of generating outcomes which are a priori extremely improbable (as demonstrated by the weasel program). The level of organization in ourselves, and in the biosphere around us, was not generated by a single random fluctuation, but by a process of evolution by natural selection acting across billions of years. This evolutionary process does not violate the second law of thermodynamics, since the biosphere is not a thermodynamically closed system (it receives energy from the Sun and loses energy to space).
(Bron: Wikipedia)
04 december 2013
03 december 2013
02 december 2013
The Klaus Schreiber Method
The Klaus Schreiber Method
One of the most important and interesting techniques for making Video ITC recordings was pioneered by Klaus Schreiber in the 1980s. Schreiber's method involves recording from a video camera that is pointed at a TV or video monitor which itself displays the output from the video camera. This sets up a feedback loop between the camera and TV which, when the camera is correctly adjusted for zoom and focus, results in strange visual displays.
The effect generally sought is one where swirling clouds appear. Best results are obtained when the camera is focussed just beyond the TV screen (i.e., the image is slightly out of focus). Somewhat different results are obtained depending on the distance between the camera and the screen (which may be from a few inches to a few feet).
Via
Fred L. Aeilts - Scientology Service Completions
Fred L. Aeilts in Scientology's Published Service Completion Lists
The following 13 individual completions for Fred L. Aeilts appear in official Scientology publications:
| Fred Aeilts | MINISTERS COURSE | Gateway 159 | 1981-02-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | METHOD 1 CO-AUDIT COURSE | Gateway 160 | 1981-03-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | METHOD 1 WORD CLEARING | Gateway 160 | 1981-03-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | EXPANDED ARC STRAIGHTWIRE | Gateway 180 | 1982-11-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | EXPANDED GRADE 0 | Gateway 184 | 1983-03-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | TRAINING COMPLETIONS - GRADUATES [no specific service names given] | Gateway 185 | 1983-04-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | E-METER DRILLS COURSE | Auditor 209 | 1987-01-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | CLASS VI AUDITOR | Auditor 221 | 1988-10-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | SAINT HILL SPECIAL BRIEFING COURSE GRADUATES | Auditor 221 | 1988-10-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | NED INTERNSHIP | Auditor 226 | 1989-07-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | LEVEL F | Auditor 228 | 1989-10-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | CCRD | Auditor 234 | 1990-04-01 |
| Fred Aeilts | SCIENTOLOGY ETHICS SPECIALIST COURSE | Auditor 307 | 2003-04-01 |
Note: The dates listed above are the approximate publication dates of the magazines, which may be weeks or months later than the actual date the service was completed.
Fred L. Aeilts in Scientology's Publications
The following 2 mentions of Fred L. Aeilts appear in official Scientology publications:
| Fred L. Aeilts | Honor Roll of the IAS | Impact 102 | 2002-12-01 |
| Fred L. Aeilts | Honor Roll | Impact 114 | 2006-09-01 |
Note: The dates listed above are the approximate publication dates of the magazines, which may be weeks or months later than the actual date the service was completed.
Via: The Truth About Scientology
Zie ook: The Physics of Ghost Orbs, F. Lee Aeilts
29 november 2013
Mohammed & Ali
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"This 17th-century mural on the Iman Zahdah Chah Zaid Mosque in Isfahan, Iran is identified by various sources as depicting either the assassination of Ali (Mohammed's cousin) in 661 A.D., or Ali receiving a blow at the Battle of the Camel five years earlier in 656 A.D. Either way, it seems that the veiled figure holding up the wounded Ali is Mohammed himself, or at least his spirit. His facial features are clearly visible beneath the veil."
(Via Mohammed Image Archive)
28 november 2013
27 november 2013
26 november 2013
Number 1 Rabbit Proof Fence
"Construction of the Number 1 Rabbit Proof Fence began in 1901. It stretched 1834 kilometres from the south coast to the northwest coast, along a line north of Burracoppon, 230 kilometres east of Perth. Unfortunately by 1902 rabbits had already been found west of the fence line."
Via: The Rabbit Proof Fence (Western Perspectives on a Nation, Library and Information Service of Western Australia)
25 november 2013
21 november 2013
Onsamehangend en stompsinnig
Oormatige gebruik van SMS-taal programmeer die intellek vir die uiterste afkorting van
gedagtegange sonder die hegwerk van grammatika. In so ’n mate dat jy nie meer weet wat is
taalmatig nodig om ’n gedagte of ’n argument in logies opeenvolgende volsinne of
stellings uit te druk nie. Jy raap hier en skraap daar en kom só oor as onsamehangend en stompsinnig.
ISSN 1995-5928
gedagtegange sonder die hegwerk van grammatika. In so ’n mate dat jy nie meer weet wat is
taalmatig nodig om ’n gedagte of ’n argument in logies opeenvolgende volsinne of
stellings uit te druk nie. Jy raap hier en skraap daar en kom só oor as onsamehangend en stompsinnig.
---
Bron:
Die mate van konsekwentheid in SMS-Afrikaans Jako Olivier, Skool vir Tale, Noordwes-Universiteit, Potchefstroomkampus | |
| LitNet Akademies Jaargang 10(2) | |
Die artikel sal binnekort in PDF-formaat beskikbaar wees. |
15 november 2013
Dear Miss Elsie Wright
June 30
Dear Miss Elsie Wright
I have seen the wonderful pictures of the fairies which you and your cousin Frances have taken, and I have not been so interested for a long time. I will send you tomorrow one of my little books for I am sure you are not too old to enjoy adventures. I am going to Australia soon, but I only wish before I go that I could get to Bradford and have half an hours chat with you, for I should like to hear all about it. With best wishes
Yours sincerely
Arthur Conan Doyle
Mr Gardner told me about it.
(Via)
14 november 2013
Cardboard fairies
"The Cottingley Fairies appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. Elsie borrowed her father’s camera and took pictures of what seemed to be fairies. At the time some people weren’t sure whether the photographs were real or not. Many years later, the girls confessed to drawing the fairies on cardboard and placing them in the landscape with pins."
(National Media Museum, Bradford, UK)
Infinite vibrations
"We see objects within the limits which make up our colour spectrum, with infinite vibrations, unused by us, on either side of them. If we could conceive a race of beings which were constructed in material which threw out shorter or longer vibrations, they would be invisible unless we could tune ourselves up or tone them down. It is exactly that power of tuning up and adapting itself to other vibrations which constitutes a clairvoyant, and there is nothing scientifically impossible, so far as I can see, in some people seeing that which is invisible to others. If the objects are indeed there, and if the inventive power of the human brain is turned upon the problem, it is likely that some sort of psychic spectacles, inconceivable to us at the moment, will be invented, and that we shall all be able to adapt ourselves to the new conditions. If high-tension electricity can be converted by a mechanical contrivance into a lower tension, keyed to other uses, then it is hard to see why something analogous might not occur with the vibrations of ether and the waves of light."
Uit: The Coming of the Fairies, Arthur Conan Doyle
Zie ook hier.
Uit: The Coming of the Fairies, Arthur Conan Doyle
Zie ook hier.
09 november 2013
Stranger than strange
September 11, 1952 - Flatwoods, WV - Stranger than strange...
Probably the most scrambled, irritatingly strange story ever, the Flatwoods Monster/Alien/UFO/Meteor/ remains one of those inexplicable tales touting many witnesses and just as many versions of what was seen and heard. As best as can be determined, a Meteor (confirmed by the research of Major Donald Keyhoe) passed along a trajectory placing it roughly in the West Virginia mountains approximately 7pm on Sept. 11th, 1952. Residents of Flatwoods reported seeing strange lights in the skies that did not fit any description of a meteor and its known flight patterns. But here's where it gets really weird. A group of kids witnessed a fiery red ball zip across the sky and impact just beyond Bailey Fisher farm. Mrs. Kathleen May took a flash light to help the kids as they made their way into the dark woods to see where the fireball landed. With her were her two teenaged sons, Eddie and Freddie, Neil Nunley, Gene Lemon (the oldest among them, at 17), Tommy Hyer and Ronnie Shaver with his dog. The group saw a pulsing red light just beyond a hilltop and when they approached encountered some kind of being with a cornucopia of peculiar features: It was eight feet tall, had glowing red eyes, a strange drape-like clothing, claws, an enormous round, red head covered by some kind of pointed hood, was surrounded by a foul smelling mist and was making frightening hissing sounds as it approached the boys, scaring them all to death and sending them fleeing into the night.
Via
Via
