Elon Musk is accused of promoting anti-Semitism after agreeing with a post that claimed Jewish people have been ‘pushing hatred against whites’
- The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism is currently airing an advert showing a father confronting his son about online posts he made, praising Hitler
- A man with 1,875 followers on X responded to the post, and said that Jewish people have a ‘hatred against whites’ and welcomed ‘minorities’ who hate them
- Elon Musk replied to the man’s post: ‘You have said the actual truth’
Douglas Macgregor — We are not ready for a broader regional war
UPDATE: KOBK players have no choice but to strike when the time is right if they believe they are the strongest player. Western neocons, which includes Israel, appear to believe they are the strongest. All of their actions over several decades conspicuously indicate they are going for world domination. If you are going for world domination and you believe you are the strongest player and/or it’s now or never, you will make the battle as complex as possible. Complexity aids the strongest player. This is what Western neocons are doing now. Where it will lead is to more war, more conflicts, more stealth strategies and ruses. The goal is world domination at any price, Kill-Or-Be-Killed, KOBK. ABN
UPDATE 2: One of the next big things to happen will be terrorist attacks in Western countries. Whether they are done by Islamic fighters or are false flags, does not matter. They will be blamed on Islamic fighters. The result will be an inflamed and frightened Wester world with people everywhere panicking and calling for revenge. Westerners will clamor for facial-recognition, digital currency, internal passports, lockdowns, anything to keep them safe. The neocons will use this public fervor and support to increase their aggression where it will do the most harm to their enemies—anyone with power who opposes them. ABN
Turks and Iranians cooperating
Simulating an Entire Car Engine (yes, it makes noise)
If you find this interesting and can appreciate the complexity of something we use or hear every day, why wouldn’t you find what your mate is really thinking or meaning when they do or say whatever they do or say that you don’t understand or are not sure of? We humans love complexity and can appreciate it whenever it is clearly described. Only your mate can clearly describe the inner workings of their mind to you and only you can clearly describe the inner workings of your mind to them. Yes, FIML allows you both to do that. FIML is easier to understand than this video and much more rewarding, though I really do like the video. A little ingenuity and you can become a FIML pro. ABN
Science, Buddhism, and FIML
In some ways FIML practice is a science.
Partners seek the best data available to determine what is being said and/or how they are communicating with each other. Their communication becomes highly objective in the sense that each partner trusts the other’s description of what they said more than their own subjective/emotional impression of what they think they heard. Based on this data, partners are able to continuously upgrade their understandings of each other.
FIML uses an extrinsic formula—the rules of FIML practice—to make this happen, and in this it also resembles science. FIML has an objective, clearly stateable and testable method or procedure for attaining its results. FIML results are also objective in that great satisfaction and better communication are measurable. FIML can be falsified by having many partners do it and not get good results, and in this it is also scientific.
In some ways, though, FIML is turned 180 degrees away from science. This is so because FIML does not have any extrinsic belief or value system that requires submission of the intrinsic, individual, unique mind of either partner. Partners who do FIML can only look to themselves to free themselves from the constraints of extrinsic beliefs, values, semiotics, behaviors, ideas, concepts, and so on. (This does not mean abandon the extrinsic, but rather become free of the constraints of the extrinsic. FIML practice, by paying close attention to speech moments, will help partners do this because they will see precisely where the rubber of extrinsic values meets the road of their self expression and/or listening.)
The FIML method gives partners the tools they need to perceive what Buddhists call the thusness of their unique individualities. The thusness or suchness of being cannot be apprehended through extrinsic semiotics, but can only be experienced by the individual.
Science, in general, does not give us insight into our suchness. Yet FIML practice and Buddhist practice, by using methods that are similar to those of general science, can. FIML differs from science in that it does not make any claims about what is objectively true “out there.” But FIML does claim that partners will vastly improve their communication with each other, and following that vastly improve their understanding of their existence, the suchness of their unique being.
FIML may constitute an improvement on traditional Buddhist practices because FIML uses objective rules to unite two people in the pursuit of truthful communication. It is different from the traditional practice of one person pursuing “truth” alone in that FIML provides the means for each partner to constantly check his or her work against the other partner. An individual alone is easily subject to fantasy and illusion. FIML is also different from traditional group practices where a group is led by a master or guru. In these practices, the master may be subject to the limitations of solitary practice while the group may be misled by that. Additionally group members will have a very strong tendency to base their understanding on extrinsic semiotics provided by the master, not the true suchness of their individual being.
slightly edited, first posted NOVEMBER 18, 2012
Define your religion in one word — survey results
[Somewhat interesting survey of 85k people in many countries. More results and info below the fold. ABN]
Continue reading “Define your religion in one word — survey results”Device keeps brain alive, functioning separate from body
DALLAS – Nov. 02, 2023 – Researchers led by a team at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a device that can isolate blood flow to the brain, keeping the organ alive and functioning independent from the rest of the body for several hours.
Juan Pascual, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Physiology, and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at UT Southwestern. He holds the Ed and Sue Rose Distinguished Professorship in Neurology and The Once Upon a Time Foundation Professorship in Pediatric Neurologic Diseases.
The device, tested using a pig brain model and described in Scientific Reports, could lead to new ways to study the human brain without influence from other bodily functions. It also could inform the design of machines for cardiopulmonary bypass that better replicate natural blood flow to the brain. The findings build on previous research by study leader Juan Pascual, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues.
“This novel method enables research that focuses on the brain independent of the body, allowing us to answer physiological questions in a way that has never been done,” said Dr. Pascual.
…Isolating the brain will allow researchers to manipulate inputs to this organ to study how they change brain function without the body’s influence. For example, Dr. Pascual said, he and his colleagues have already used this system to better understand the effects of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in the absence of other factors. Although scientists can induce hypoglycemia by restricting food intake in lab animals or dosing them with insulin, the body can partially compensate for either of these scenarios by altering metabolism and this, in turn, alters the brain. In contrast, the new device allows researchers to alter the glucose content directly in blood pumped to the brain.
EXCLUSIVE I wore a vibrating sex toy and used it to beat a chess grandmaster
It was the scandal that rocked the chess world. The game’s foremost player, Magnus Carlsen, was unbeaten in 53 games before self-taught grandmaster Hans Niemann, 20, shattered his run in September 2022. But the outcome would snatch headlines for different reasons. Niemann had cheated, Carlsen claimed – and promptly withdrew from the $500,000 Sinquefield Cup.
Rumours spread quickly, prompting absurd suggestions on how a player could cheat at such a high level. Among the most ludicrous, the suggestion Niemann could have used a vibrating set of anal beads to communicate in a kind of Morse code with others watching the match remotely.
The Unspoken Elephant in the Room of Netanyahu’s Intent in Gaza
Is this punishment on Gaza’s civilian population, prompted by desire for vengeance? Or is it an outpouring of eschatological rage and determination?
The point about the Gaza crisis is that should everyone agree to stick their head in the sand and ignore the ‘elephant in the room’, it’s easy enough so to do. The meaning to a severe crisis is only properly understood when someone notices ‘the elephant’, and says look out; there’s an elephant stamping here. That’s where we are today. Slowly, the West is beginning to take notice. The rest of world however, is transfixed by it, and is being transformed by it.
What is the ‘elephant’ (or elephants) in the room? Blinken’s recent regional diplomacy was ‘a bust’. None of the regional leaders that Blinken met would talk further about Gaza beyond demanding stridently, ‘no Palestinian population displacement into Egypt’ a ‘stop to this madness’ – the carpet bombing of Gazans – and the demand for an immediate ceasefire.
And Biden’s calls for a ‘pause’ – softly, at first, and the more strident now – is being bluntly ignored by the Israeli government. The spectre of President Carter’s impotence during the Iran hostage crisis hangs ever more soberly in the backdrop.
The truth is that the White House cannot force Israel to do its will – the Israeli lobby holds more clout in Congress than any White House team. Thus, ‘no exit’ from the Israeli crisis is readily to be seen. Biden ‘made his bed’ with the Netanyahu cabinet and must live with consequences.
Impotence then, as the Democratic Party fractures beyond the simplistic division between centrists versus progressives. The polarisation emanating from the ‘no ceasefire stance’ is having stark destabilising effects on politics, both in the U.S. and Europe.
Impotence then, as the shape of the Middle East crystallises into sharp antagonism towards the West’s perceived accommodation of the mass slaughter of Palestinian women, children and civilians. The die may be too far ‘cast’ to brake the ongoing tectonic reset already underway. Western double standards are just too inescapably obvious now to the Global Majority.
UPDATE: With all respect for Crooke’s position, I do not see any of this situation as being a surprise. The ‘eschatological rage’ he describes is in reality an eschatological plan and a very methodical one at that. ‘Greater Israel’ = planet earth. The Israelis, joined at the hip with American neocons, are going for world domination. One could state that differently to avoid overemphasizing the Jewish component: American neocons, joined at the hip with Israeli and Western neocons, are going for world domination.
The plan was obvious in Ukraine, which was simply the most recent aggression against Russia. It’s obvious in mass migration into Western countries coupled with a slew of other anti-national policies which I see no need to list here. The plan for world domination has been obvious for decades. Today it is glaringly obvious.
Why Crooke and so many others pretend not to see it is either: 1) they fear the wrath of the neocons; 2) know that others fear the wrath of the neocons and thus go along; 3) they are trapped in a conceptual mind-control cage developed by the neocon global aggressors.
The plan is a long range one. Historically it is as old as the Old Testament. In the modern era it is well over one-hundred years old, with an acute stage beginning after WW2. This acute stage has become frenzied, inflamed, even enraged, since 2001.
Western neocons are going for world domination. They have already staked everything on it. If their plan is delayed, which I doubt, the delay will be only temporary. Western neocons are locked into a win-or-lose situation, a kill-or-be-killed situation. They will not and cannot back down. ABN
‘86% of Israelis want Gaza not only crushed but completely eviscerated and the people moved elsewhere. They want Gaza empty’ — Alastair Crooke
Fish can recognize themselves in a mirror, an indication of self-awareness and complex cognition
Atwo-year-old toddler flashes her toothy grin as she catches sight of her reflection in a mirror and watches as the image in front of her mimics her every move. Unbeknownst to her, she has passed a major developmental milestone called mirror self-recognition or MSR, which indicates an advanced level of cognitive capabilities in both human and non-human animals.
A new study shows that in addition to other non-human animals like dolphins, elephants and several great apes, fish can recognize themselves in mirror reflections and photographs. What’s more, they can even distinguish between photographs of their own images and that of their companions. Researchers studying the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) have now added their findings to a growing body of evidence that points to fish having a sense of self, indicating a higher depth of awareness than previously known.
Mirror self-recognition has been used to study self-awareness and visual recognition in a wide range of human and non-human animals. Developed for primates in the 1970s, the test begins by allowing the individual to familiarize herself with her mirror image.
Thailand’s plan to deploy Chinese police patrol sparks outcry
BANGKOK – Thailand is mulling over a plan to station Chinese police personnel at some of its popular tourist destinations to lift the confidence of travellers from the Asian neighbour, but the move has sparked a controversy, with some critics raising concerns over sovereignty.
The cooperation with Chinese police was discussed by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, senior police and tourism officials on Sunday as a way to draw more Chinese visitors, who used to make up the largest number of foreign arrivals to Thailand before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’re in talks with the Chinese embassy about a patrol programme to bring Chinese police to Thailand,” Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool told reporters on Sunday. “This will show how Thailand has ramped up safety measures, which will be a great boost to Chinese tourists’ confidence.”
Ms Thapanee said that a similar programme was “successfully” implemented in Italy in the past.
The European country is home to the largest number of so-called secret Chinese police stations, according to reports by Safeguard Defenders, a Spain-based human rights group, which has found at least 102 such police centres in 53 foreign countries.
American Buddhist Net 