fnord Travels in Hyperreality

24 May 2007

Jewish Mysticism and Quantum Cosmology

There is a concept in cabbala, the Jewish mysteries, called "tzimtzum", which I would like to compare to a phenomenon in quantum cosmology; I take my information on quantum cosmology from a book called Hyperspace by Dr. Michio Kaku.
It is suggested that our universe was composed of ten dimensions before the beginning of time, something dubiously called the "Big Bang". This ten-dimensional state allowed a sort of cosmic "oneness", or, to make things perfectly unclear, interdimensional travel was possible for any created forms that existed in its spacetime matrix. Somehow this ten-dimensional universe ruptured, or "cracked". It was rent asunder, and the resulting halves were one four-dimensional universe (ours) and an infinitesimal six-dimensional universe. One "perfect" ten-dimensional universe broke to create from itself the cosmos we currently inhabit (read--grew from).
It seems to me that the cabbalistic Rabbis understood a similar form of this concept. Here's the background: Everything we know about God comes from His decision to expose some of Himself to us, whether that is by direct revelation, like Moses and the burning bush, or through scripture. These glimpses must represent only a tiny fraction of the entirety of God. All of the other aspects of Him we may not be sure of; they are unknowable to us. The idea of 'everything-that-is-unknowable-about-God' is called the Ein Sof, "Limitless Light" or more literally "Light of Limitlessness", by the cabbalists. Before the creation of our universe, this Limitless Light was all that existed, since the Creator necessarily existed before His creation.
When the Ein Sof began the creation of our cosmos, it was necessary to render a place for it to be: the cosmos cannot co-exist with the Light, the infinite glory of God would destroy the profane base-matter. So the Ein Sof contracted within itself to create a void. This is the process called tzimtzum, and it explains the reason for the character trait of harsh judgement in God's person (called "Din", judgement, the fifth Sephirot). Id est: the sacrifice of tzimtzum created a sort of 'vacuum'--the absence of His glory--attracting obedience to His Divine Will and destroying rebellion.
These two abstractions seem remarkably similar. They begin with an integral whole--both are pictures of an infinite and perfect "oneness". Then there is a cataclysmic tearing of that whole, from whence comes the energy that fills our universe. How remarkable, then, that one theory has been in place for many centuries, and the other for only about a decade. Probably not either of these word-pictures accurately describe the pre-existential cosmology, but their similarities contrasted by their wildly different sources, one coming to us from an ancient Jewish oral tradition, the other from post-modern quantum physicists, one highly theological and the other entirely atheist, suggests a measure of accuracy or legitimacy to the concept.
--22 May 2007

26 March 2007

Manhands' Ragtime

Out of all these images, this is my favorite so far.

Cut and Paste :: World Book Encyclopedia 1958 :: Giraffe :: Encyclopædia Brittannica 1968 ::Sergey Rachmaninov :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor

Joh Dory Surveys the Troops

History buffs will probably know the man in the photo; with a fishface the image is very surreal.

Cut and Paste :: Encyclopædia Brittannica 1968 :: Winston Churchil :: John Dory [St. Pierre] :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor

Gorgonman and Koalakennedy

Gorgonman's ugliness provides a good contrast to Koalakennedy's cuteness.

Cut and Paste :: Encyclopædia Brittannica 1968 :: Gorgon, from a fresco :: Man in Top Hat:: John Fitzgerald Kennedy :: Koala :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor


My favorite thing about this one is the quizzical expression on his face. He seems deeply intrigued by his task.

Cut and Paste :: World Book Encyclopedia 1958 :: Encyclopædia Brittannica 1968 :: Raccoon :: A man Polishing Glass :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor

longNeck Yokel

Discovered in an article about farming on Three Mile Island.

Cut and Paste :: World Book Encyclopedia 1958 :: Encyclopædia Brittannica 1968 :: Three Men on a Farm :: Rhea :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor


Not sure exactly what's going in in this picture, but here it is.

Cut and Paste :: World Book Encyclopedia 1958 :: Man :: Bird Feeding Young [Robin?] :: Football Player Demonstrating the Strength of Epoxy :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor

14 March 2007

The Queem of Enkland

Cut and Paste :: World Book Encyclopedia 1958 :: Owl :: Lightning Whelk :: Moth from '68 Britannica :: Felt Pen :: Ink :: Elmer's Glue-All :: Razor

21 February 2007

Bring out the GIMP

I've been using GIMP a whole lot lately. Here's a cool image I made from scratch:
Click to enlarge

19 January 2007

A .'. A .'.

Jack Johnson - Times Like these

Misfits- London Dungeon 1982

Ramones-Beat On the Brat



16 January 2007

Psi wheel x2

Contrarotation in this one seems to add a little crediblity.

Another Covered Psi Wheel

One skeptical commentor postulates that this was faked by microwaving the eraser, causing the aluminum wheel to move by convection currents in the air. But why did it reverse directions? It stopped when he put the lid over it, then moved again, contrary to the origianl direction. Try it with a nuked eraser and find out, I guess.

Psi Wheel

A sort of folded pinwheel on a pin. It's covered to precent the interference of air currents. Allegedly, this guy is moving the piece of foil with so-called psionic energy, a sort of mental projection. In other words, telekinesis. Read Wikipedia's definition of Psi Wheel.

Ki Energy and Martial Arts

The old master knocking an guy down looks too real...creepy

GWAR - Meat Sandwich

I would love to see GWAR live. In fact, i think I will add it to my list of goals for the next 5 years.

05 January 2007

Tuesday's Dream

In a colliseum, or some sort of dirty, brownish arena in an acient and foreign land, local people brought birds for a festival. They brought the birds, not in cages, but on long leashes. There were all sorts of birds--eagles, buzzards, ravens, falcons,gulls, crows, hawks, and so forth--all with gnarly beaks. There were several hundred birds; they did not fly, they walked and waddled in. By instinct, training, or perhaps divine guidance, they lined up from shortest to tallest. This process tangled their leashes which were (perhaps for this purpose) inordinately long, but always remained taut. The result was a neatly arrange corps of birds assembled rank and file restrained by a chaotic network of lines.

After this, a man holding a small bundle in his arms walked into the arena. He place the object before the birds and removed a sheet. The bundle was revealed to be a smallish white-haired dog.

The birds and dog faced each other. In unison, the birds opened their beaks and began to screech and howl at the dog: a cacophonous roar. The dog, unperturbed, began to howl back.

-the end-

The Abyss

I believe our current sociopolitical climate is indicative of a fast-rising tide of the schemes of the illuminist regime (i.e. the Antichrist). The current state of the bourgeois (which is an unfortunate but appropriate label) is a barometer which reveals the relative success of those plots. There are five societal conditions which I believe most suggestive of decaying morality in America.

First, the structure of the traditional nuclear family is being systematically undermined. The family is central to God's plan for life on earth. It is the first directive given specifically to mankind in the Pentateuch: Genesis 2:24 outlines monogamous marriage quite clearly. The institution of marriage is also clearly defined as heterosexual in this same passage. It is for this reason the institution of marriage is under attack. Presently, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts has amended the constitution of that state to make homosexual marriage legal [1]. This was done without the consent of the voting public.

But the attack on marriage does not come solely from the gay camp. It comes most strongly from the heterosexuals, among whom divorce is rampant: our nation suffers an epidemic of broken homes. Hedonism is pitched, promoted and propagated by the entertainment industry. It is consumed and practiced by the working man. In a society void of any significant moral foundation (what is right for me to do is whatever I feel), it is considered obscene to suggest that another person may be exercising poor judgment. After all, how can I say what is best for another man? That would mean imposing my set of values on another being, God forbid. Compare Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This is, in fact, the basic command taught by occultists like Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey: "Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law." This situation allows wanton and reckless decision making--men are free to live willy-nilly, however they please. Indeed, such a state of affairs may be apropos called anarchy.

But to what end? Well, one reason, of course, is the out-modation of Christian values from the community. But central to the theme of family values lies this motive: with a populace incapable of morally guiding themselves, and the ecclesiastical institutions discredited as a source of moral enlightenment, the moral awareness and judgmental capacity of our children becomes the responsibility of the state.

Second, the proliferation of addictive and deadly drugs is a heinous, subversive, and dubious method of population control. Glorified is the life of the thug-crack-dealer, with his guns, whores, 22" mag-wheels, money ,and power, by rap musicians--most of whom own college diplomas, Bentleys, and mansions in L.A. or upper Manhattan, have never been on the streets, and simply exploit the insecurities of poor, uneducated black teens living in the metropolitan and suburban slums of the US.

A great and growing number of youth and adults are addicted to methamphetamine, a devastating chemical, simple to manufacture and easier to purchase. Its mind-altering effects are profound. Methamphetamine is the chemical that was used to brainwash the Kamikaze ("Divine Wind") pilots during the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor into believing they were on a mission from God. Sleep becomes impossible; the drug-filled and sleep-deprived mind shortly becomes psychotic, deranged, and psychically vulnerable to demonic influence. Anecdotal descriptions of demonic activity abound among meth users. Meth can be ingested, snorted, smoked, taken suppositorally, or intravenously, depending on the user's preference. Because the effects of a single 'hit' of meth last from 6-8 hours compared to the 15-20 minute rush from crack cocaine, it is much more effective and dangerous.

There are a host of other deadly drugs of abuse, like heroin and its step-sister, 'cheese', a mixture of low-grade Mexican heroin, diphenhydramine hcl, and acetaminophen (Tylenol PM). Cheese is cited as a rapidly growing problem in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex, with at least 78 incidents reported, and among students as young as 12 [2]. It is hardly necessary to mention the destruction reaped by the legal intoxicants, alcohol and tobacco.

How do these scenarios play into the subversive plots of the antichrist? The war on drugs is the answer in short form. The ruling class wrings its hands in public over the drug epidemic, but under the table, they profit from the creation of an imprisoned slave-state. Some monstrous percentage of our current prison population is detained solely on drug-related charges. Who profits from the current situation? The police state: Judges, Jailors, the Police, and hard-line, anti-drug, conservative politicians. The Mafia rose to power in the early 20th century as a direct result of alcohol's entrance into the black market. This is an established fact: organized crime profits from the war on drugs. The motives and mechanics of the current system are inherently wicked. The victims? American families.

Third, as mentioned before, hedonism is being peddled to the men and women of this country like slinky and silly-putty to grade-schoolers. The word hedonism stems from the root hedone, which is Greek. It means pleasure. Aside from the more material form of lust, which is greed, there are two others which are of equal spiritual and emotional import. One is the lust of the flesh, or sexual lust, with which we most often associate the word lust, and the other is called the lust of the knife, or bloodlust (this is what Louis Armstrong sings about in 'Mack the Knife', a song about a killer named Mac Heath); simply put--sex and violence.

On the subject of the former, movies and television have done their part in bringing pornography to the masses and making it socially acceptable. Aside from the blatant, hardcore pornography industry, which flourishes because of the success of the internet, mainstream movies and television programming (that word, programming, has an interesting connotation related to mental conditioning) continue to become more and more lewd. Movies like American Pie, The 40-year-old Virgin, Boogie Nights, etc. make sex into a joke. True, it is a subject which seems ripe for humorization and comic interpretation. But the cost of a laugh is mockery of the sanctity of the act and the sobriety of its consequences. Television, not only cable program, like Sex in the City, but nationally broadcast programming, continues to press the issue of what should be socially acceptable. The show Will & Grace humorizes a man who left his fiancée to engage in a homosexual lifestyle. The comedy centers around gay community in-jokes and situational comedy based on the strange relationship between Will, Grace, his former-fiancée-turned-best-friend and Jack, a struggling gay actor and Will's 'special friend'. Talk shows, like Jerry Springer, satirize and mock the promiscuous middle- and lower-classes and the consequences of such behavior. Though the scenarios are staged, tragic human sexual foolishness is presented as a public spectacle. The live audience encourages "guests" to strip off their clothes and fight. Curses and fists, chairs and shirts fly around the stage in the fray. The message being broadcast and presented is this: human sexuality is trivial and inconsequential. What should be socially acceptable? Everything.

Concerning violence, it is not news to anyone that the media is increasingly hawking blood and guts. A recent film by Quentin Tarantino, called Hostel, exposes viewers to a torture scene where surgery is performed on a live victim without anesthesia. A new film called Primeval’s trailer taglines includes such tantalizing taglines as... "a bloodthirsty serial killer has claimed over 300 victims." Television shows, like CSI, show dead, raped bodies, skulls split open and autopsies being performed, all on prime-time. Video games are increasingly violent and are of special consideration because they allow the consumer to become personally involved in violent fantasies. A game called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas places the player in a fictional metropolis (loosely based on California) where the player steals cars, buys guns, joins a gang, hustles, and pimps to become a successful Mafioso. Or not. You may also play the game however you like, going on a rampage, stealing cars, killing bystanders--depending upon how much havoc you wreak, the police, SWAT team, and National Guard will come after you. How long can you survive? The real cost of the profits of the giant media conglomerates is desensitization toward violence and depreciation of the value of human life.

But is it possible that these effects are calculated? A society deranged by hedonism and consumer fetishism is less likely to object to a liberal political agenda--indeed, they would welcome it with open arms. At this point, turn your attention to a rather revealing quote from Norman Thomas, six-time Presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in America: "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism, but under the name of Liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program until one day America will be a Socialist nation without knowing how it happened."

If this seems hard to believe, consider the fourth condition, which is increased reliance on welfare and socialized medicine. With regard to welfare, the abundance of poor single mothers receiving a check from the state may be seen as a direct consequence of the devaluation of traditional marriage and family values. With fathers in absentia, women often face great hardship and must seek governmental aid to support a family--agriculture is no longer a means to that end; can you imagine a subsistence farmer (female, no less) in the ghettos of Chicago of Houston? Some simply take advantage of the system, cheating welfare for a check. The result is the same: increased reliance on the state for individual well-being.

In the same light, socialized medicine is hardly a small problem. With HMOs and insurance corporations governing the medical establishment, healthcare is mired in bureaucracy and legal complications. Doctors are forced to charge astronomically inflated rates, even for simple procedures, like a yearly check-up. God forbid you should develop Lymphoma or need a triple-bypass! With medical bills outside the realm of financial feasibility for most middle- and lower-class families, insurance is a must. The employee without insurance or whose insurance plan's benefit cap is exceeded is forced to apply for Medicare or face years of enormous debt. And with the current situation only growing from bad to worse, so grows the demand for more governmental interference and assistance.

The primary aim of the Socialist state is governmental control of the citizen and all his affairs. With increased reliance on the state for welfare and Medicare, the responsibility for the well-being of the "lumpy proletariat" is shifted from the individual to the state. Consider this statement made by Zbigniew Brzezinski who was, at the time, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor:

"I think we accept the idea of a vast expansion in social regulation. It may take such forms as legislation of the number of children, perhaps even the legislation determining the sex of children once we have choice, the regulation of the weather, the regulation of leisure, and so forth."






08 November 2006

Population Explosion

The ruling-class has created a myth called "over population." The myth states that the population of the world is growing too fst. It is used to propigate thoughts like this: "A democratic, capitalist state [does not have] the discipline necessary to survive in a world of scarcity." The purpose of these messages is to prepare the average citizen to accept total government control of himself and his environment. This authoritarian control has been mentioned by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981:

"I think we accept the idea of a vast expansion in social regulation. It may take such forms as legislation of the number of children, perhaps even legislation etermining the sex of children once we have choice, the regulation of the weather, the regulation of leisure, and so forth."

A Washington psychologist and sex-therapist suggested "that the world's nations remove 'the right to reproduce' from their people as the only solution to the global population explosion...by such means as placing temporary sterilizing chemicals in food and water supplies...whether or not it was with the individual's consent."

Some nations have already taken these extreme measures. For example, India has taken steps to control its population growth by the forced sterilization of its citizens. In the Indian state of Maharashta, where Bombay is located, all men up to age 55 and women to age 45 must be sterilized within six months of the birth of their third child. During one period of "special emergency," the Indian government performed 10 million forced sterilizations.

In a government report entitled Communist Persecution of the Church in Red China and North Korea, dated March 29, 1959, it is reported that "all the elderly people 60 years of age and above who cannot work are put in the old people's 'Happy Home.' After they are place in the home, they are given shots. They are tolde these shots are for their health. But after these shots are taken, they die within two weeks.

06 November 2006

Two Dead Poodles

I was sitting in a crowded room, full of mostly post-menopausal women. We were listening to a woman named Dr. Adonna Otwell preach to us. She started to play a song that went like this: "The presence of the Lord is here, You can feel it in the atmosphere...". A white haired old man wrapped in a sheet, like a toga, came out and started walking around slowly. He put his hands on some of the women's foreheads and walked around, real sober and solemnly. Some of the ladies fell out and had spasms on the floor. Some just crowded around him. I thought it was rather blasphemous. It made me sick to my stomach. Brother Nelson, who can be seen below, ran to him and hugged him, weeping and wailing, would not let him go. Dr. Otwell told us that she was glad she had been raised Pentecostal, she was not under the bondage of false religion.

General Characteristics of Neoplatonism

1. There is a plurality of levels of being, arranged in hierarchical descending order, the last and lowest comprising the physical universe, which exists in time and space and is perceptible to the senses. (See pluralism.)

2. Each level of being is derived from its superior, a derivation that is not a process in time or space.

3. Each derived being is established in its own reality by turning back toward its superior in a movement of contemplative desire, which is implicit in the original creative impulse of outgoing that it receives from its superior; thus the Neoplatonic universe is characterized by a double movement of outgoing and return.

4. Each level of being is an image or expression on a lower level of the one above it. The relation of archetype and image runs through all Neoplatonic schemes.

5. Degrees of being are also degrees of unity; as one goes down the scale of being there is greater multiplicity, more separateness, and increasing limitation--until the atomic individualization of the spatiotemporal world is reached.

6. The highest level of being, and through it all of what in any sense exists, derives from the ultimate principle, which is absolutely free from determinations and limitations and utterly transcends any conceivable reality, so that it may be said to be "beyond being." Because it has no limitations, it has no division, attributes, or qualifications; it cannot really be named, or even properly described as being, but may be called "the One" to designate its complete simplicity. It may also be called "the Good" as the source of all perfections and the ultimate goal of return, for the impulse of outgoing and return that constitutes the hierarchy of derived reality comes from and leads back to the Good.

7. Since this supreme principle is absolutely simple and undetermined (or devoid of specific traits), man's knowledge of it must be radically different from any other kind of knowledge. It is not an object (a separate, determined, limited thing) and no predicates can be applied to it; hence it can be known only if it raises the mind to an immediate union with itself, which cannot be imagined or described.

"Platonism" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

[Accessed October 2 2000].

03 November 2006

Gyrating Hips

Here's Nelson. He sure can dance:


This is me and my boy Casey, chasing some cows in a golf cart:


The February, 1962 Scientific American magazine carried an advertisement on page 91, placed there by the Sperry Gyroscope Company. This ad showed a drawing of a space station and individuals working on it in space suits.

The same drawing, with the addition of certain descriptive phrases attached to identify certain parts of the space station, appeared in the October 13, 1969 New York Times, on page 32, over seven years later.

But the NY Times used the drawing to illustrate: "One concept of a future Soviet space station in which the crewmen in a mother ship transfer through a transit chute to help assemble another ship is depicted here."

Radio Entelechy

"There is, so far as we know, nothing more advanced than what is sitting behind your eyes. The human neocortex is the most densely ramified and complexified structure in the know universe. We are the cutting edge of organismic transformation of matter in the cosmos....We can kindle in hte deserts and, if necessary, upon the cities of our enemies the very energy which lights the stars at night." - Terrence McKenna

College Students with Too Much Free Time

Time out of Mind

"Billy Pilgrim says that the universe does not look like a lot of bright lights to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are full of rarified, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don't see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes--"with babies' legs at one end and old people's legs at the other." says Billy Pilgrim." -Slaughter-house Five Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Chapetr 5, Paragraph 1.

Animal Farm

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism, but under the name of Liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program until one day America will be a Socialist nation without knonwing how it happened." -Norman Thomas

Life in Exile

In it's edition of June 11, 1979, on page A-2, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner carried a story which questioned the authenticity of the Ayatollah Kohmeini. The article quoted a column by William Hickey in the London Express which included photographs of the Ayatollah Khomeini, which were taken when he was in France, showing that he had only nine fingers. The middle digit of his right hand was missing. REcent photographs show that the present "Ayatollah Khomeini" has ten fingers.

In addittion, Iranian premier Amir Hoveida testified: "I know him and I can assure you he had only nine fingers. This Khomeini is an imposter." Shortly after making that statement, Hoveida was shouted down in the court he was testifying in and pulled out of the building and shot.

-The Review of the News (December 12, 1979) p. 65

Policy Architecture

"I think we accept the idea of a vast expansion in social regulation. It may take such forms as legislation for the number of children, perhhaps even legislation determinig the sex of children once we have choice, the regulation of the weather, the regulation of leisure, and so forth." - Zbigniew Brzezinski

Genesis of Buttholes

Once we had a guest speaker. His name was Frank. He told us that after God created Adam and Eve, and before the fall of man, everything was perfect. He said that when Adam and Eve ate food it was all digested. That means there would be no waste left over in their guts. This was the logic he used when he told us they had no buttholes. He called buttholes "bum-bums."

Jesse James

"Jessie James, a 33rd degree Mason...assumed the aliases of some seventy-three individuals. He claimed that one of the aliases he used in later years was that of William A. Clark, the copper king and later US senator from Nevada." Jesse claimed that he would find a cowboy somewhere of similar appearance to his own, shoot him in the face and leave some of his personal belongings on the body. He would send a family member to identify the body; this way he lived to be over 100 years old. Ralph Epperson's book