China’s Viral Belt and Road Initiative
Analysis and Opinion
By Dean de la Paz
Hegemony takes many forms.From conquests, and colonization, the menu now includes terraforming watery shoals, foreign debt-compromised infrastructure with sovereign guarantees that hock patrimonial assets, the invasion of online gambling armies and battle-ready battalions of foreign construction and factory workers. The most farfetched form of domination is inflicting virtual eugenic population control using deadly viral and mutating microbes.
Note hegemony’s more novel forms. Off Palawan there is the exploitation of natural resources by an entity owning 90% of the exploration company, but with layered equity leveraged to foreign creditors. Across the archipelago a telecommunications company owned 40% by a hostile foreign state has the Filipino 60% likewise indebted to foreign creditors.
In Dumaguete there is foreign intrusion in an environmentally destructive reclamation project. In Central Luzon, and even in Manila, foreign factory, construction workers and casino operators have displaced Filipinos whose total unemployment rate worsened severalfold. Across the country the electricity transmission grid is technically in the grip of a hostile superpower.
There are many ways to subdue and dominate. On the COVID 19 pandemic, more than half of those vaccinated were, by deliberate design, inoculated with a Chinese vaccine that, among all others, exhibited the least efficacy.
We should have been forewarned early in 2020 when Iran was COVID 19’s first epicenter.
Why Iran? Given the number of Chinese nationals from China’s innermost provinces, spread like a virus to all who welcomed the tax revenues from online gaming operations, one would think the Philippines would be more impacted since we host legions of legal and illegal Philippine Online Gaming Operators. In contrast, Iran, an Islamic nation, strictly adheres to the Holy Koran that declares gambling illegal.
It is not just religion. Shielding Iran from China are Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in between. The distance from COVID 19’s petri dish birthplace to Tehran is 5,780 kilometers as the crow flies. From Wuhan to Manila is a mere 3 hours. Closer if you count Chinese islands squatting inside our exclusive economic zone.
When the United States imposed economic sanctions on Iran in 2018, they virtually shoved Iran into the waiting talons of China. In our case, we recklessly pivoted, lured by China’s ‘’Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI).
Within a year, Iran’s inflation worsened to 40%; it was forced into rationing; its currency lost 70% of its value; and unemployment rose to 50% among the young.
Iran owns 10% of known oil reserves. With China as an insatiable consumer, a diabolical parasitical relationship ensued. China’s oil purchases keep Iran afloat. In return China provides weapons and nuclear technologies, thus deepening their infernal bond. With that, debt between the two grew. Chinese investments then went into a frenzy as China opened billions in credit lines.
Within Iran a web widened with the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation guaranteeing a market for imported Chinese goods and the employment of exported Chinese workers under the BRI quid pro quo.
Chinese names are now familiar in Iran’s innermost regions – China Railway Construction Corp., China National Machinery Industry Corp. and China Railway Engineering Corp. with the latter building a $2.7 billion rail line in Qom, a city that hosts Iran’s largest Chinese labor force.
Incidentally, Qom is where COVID 19 had spread like wildfire. So why Iran? Connect the dots. But check the neighborhood as well. Ours and theirs.
____________
Dean de la Paz is a former investment banker. He is the Chairman of the Board of a renewable energy company and is a retired Business Policy, Finance and Mathematics professor.
Photograph is from CHOICE, China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe: https://chinaobservers.eu/are-china-and-iran-forging-a-new-geopolitical-axis-in-eurasia/
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Fiction first then non-fictoon
In he Novel 2034, the Chinese gave Iran the tech to hack the stealth jet of the US, and china using a fishing trawler in distress to lure the US into rescuing it and the said fishing vesseld contained tech to jam the comms of the US vessel then Bam! A torpedo hit the US vessel.(Happened in the Spratlys)
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/2034-a-novel-of-the-next-world-war-by-elliot-ackerman-and-james-stavridis/
The above maybe fiction, and a lot of nay sayers are saying that it is far from the truth.
But if China continues its pirated tech transfer and pouring money to Iran, then it is close to reality.
Iran may not mind its real estate be chinese property like the rest of B and R Beneficiaries the latest to fall in the bridges and roads to nowhere is Montenegro.
And we have not touched covid yet.
Thanks for the tip for my next binge reading selection, Karl. Tech transfer and the theft of intellectual property are among the threats posed by China when it became the world’s largest manufacturing hub and stole jobs in the process.
On COVID, it is not simply a price paid for our reckless pivot on our end, specifically referring to the percentage of vaccine types we imported, but on the part of China, it also an example of the dangers of aggressive hegemonic expansion by those who care little for the welfare of others.
You’re welcome Dean.
Not content on being the world’s factory, hegemony is their ongoing agenda. They do this by pretending to care, not unlike the malasakit agenda of Bong Go.
karl, Dean, et al.
Every nation’s aspirations should include hegemony, everyone should endeavour to be an unmoved mover.
But if a nation is a lowly pawn then they have to choose which benefactor, or if they can survive without one then what’s their gimmick.
Iran like the Philippines is no doubt just hedging bets, Cuba for example I’m sure has buyers remorse right now, just like Qaddafi, Mubarak, Saddam Hussein… Asad I’m sure is thinking man i’m glad I had a plan B and C.
See how that works.
COVID19 first hit northern Italy because there’s a bunch of Chinese garment workers there , so they can sell stuff with Made in Italy on it.
In contrast, Americans send out our evangelicals to preach the good news in Africa; military where Muslims are; and business folks especially Economists where they wanna be rich like Americans— unbeknownst to them its all a big ponzi scheme really.
We’ve been doing this since WWI, League of Nations stuff, China’s just been doing it in the past 10 years or so, so far so good, no wars…
I’m sure China s still scared of the US, but by not seeking hegemony they’ll simply kow-tow to America. Thus they must have as agenda hegemony. And be independent of the US, if that causes other lesser nations to be dependent on China, then
that is the fault of those nations. Its either China or the WB.
China’s all over the world because the US is all over the world. It’s as simple as that, whose more better is irrelevant, the Philippines should seek to be independent of both. Especially Economists!
Thus, MMT.
China is playing by that outmoded paradigm of economic growth, and lying and stealing her way to advantage. The issue is whether or not she can incorporate the interests of other nations in her ambitions, or only when it suits China.
I agree.
” The issue is whether or not she can incorporate the interests of other nations in her ambitions”
No, its whether or not other nations can incorporate their own interests to their own ambitions. For your own ambitions and interests is the point, Joe.
China’s interests and ambitions are of course her own. So too the US. What are the Philippines’ is the question.
Before it was all like, wahhh Spanish kept us down, then it was waaaahhh Americans keep us down, now its boooohooohooo China is keeping us down.
Also now its waaaaahhh, its DU30’s fault.
Remember…
Plus, its like asking someone to pull your finger, and everyone knows that joke already, so on one will pull it, and you simply end up farting by yourself.
Point is to stop pointing your fingers.
Wait, you say every nation should pursue hegemony, but if China is claiming other nation’s seas as her hegemonic endeavor, it’s wrong for these nations to point to China as the problem? They should instead pursue their best interest by rolling over or going to war? Color me gobsmacked. 😱😱😱
That’s the thing with going to war, Joe,
a nation has to have means to do so; Or allies who’ll do their bidding for them, absence of all that, sure you have some UN legal precedence, but so do Palestinians. So at the end of the day, Filipinos should’ve stayed and protected that which they deemed theirs; just like the Palestinians, the act of leaving itself is an expression of interest is it not,
or actually, the lack thereof.
Those islands only became important when China took it for themselves, before that they were just there, shallow reefs. Taken for granted really. Interest also presupposes fore thought. Like i7sharp’s I want ice cream example in the other thread wherein he got a bunch of books instead, sure i7sharp probably didn’t get ice cream but he got some books. Get something is the point.
i7sharp expressed his interest, though no ice cream, he still got something.
and p.s.— Getting something is not the same as begging for something, or settling for scraps, getting something means getting something of value. Means out manuevering, out negotiating, out thinking. Again forethought is a given here.
@LCX, That’s all well and good in the shoulda, woulda, coulda world of hindsight and wishes. The Philippines is what she is, where she is, today, now, and all the wishing or lecturing in the world won’t give her a competent, decisive leader who has a navy and strong military alliances. Dean is arguing for what you are saying “should have been”, it seems to me, adjusted to today’s real world. See Iran, see China, and see the Philippines objectively. Then the Philippines can do something hegemonic about it, competently.
Joe,
This isn’t a shoulda coulda commentary, its a compare and contrast, of the US and China, and so far because China has not yet caused wars, only made deals in which its bested the nations it made deals with (because stupidity or corruption or both), China has to be seen as better than the US, at least it doesn’t go around nation building and building nations in its image.
China’s just making deals, and spread its powers thus. After Independence, We the People… had a Whiskey rebellion, then wars against Mexico, then war against itself, then wiped out the Indians, then decided to take over for Spain, etc. etc. That’s true hegemony…
What China is doing is simply setting up shop where the US has decided to back away from. For example , I’m sure its gonna make deals with Afghanistan now (or maybe just stay clear); deals with Iraq, etc.
I actually agree with Micha below, my point was that you as a nation have to think as hegemon to not get roped by hegemonic interests, otherwise you’ll just be wiping their butts all day long. So yeah, if you can’t expand militarily, or commercially, or culturally, then fine other means to make alliances and deals. Just don’t be caught without a chair when all is said and done, and why I always encourage people to play the game of Diplomacy.
The Philippines seems to be a nation that’s always caught without a chair like consistently. I think it has something to do partly with its rich always having sequestered and sheltered its money in the US, their kids vacation and school here too. There’s an escape hatch.
But to Ireneo’s point about space, this is a very important point, because China as a nation is the most space bound, I mean theirs isn’t to study or commercialize space, theirs is to South China Sea all of space. And for me at least , I take solace in that, because it averts the possibility of more chaotic wars (remember I’m for precision killings).
Every other national interest is subservient to that one goal.
So far only Bezos and Musk are matching China’s interests in space, but even theirs is limited in scope and resource, China already diverted military funding and people to working on South China Sea-ing space, and the only thing stopping them really is UNCLOS and the Space Treaty.
This should be seen as a plus.
My strawman attack of Dean, leading to climate change, Economics, hegemonies, Micha’s MMT, even i7sharp’s ice cream are all related. its related to nearing 8 billion people, and Ireneo’s reporting that tornadoes are now common in EU, hell this week is the first week i’ve turned off my AC unit, but its muggy as hell. Something wicked this way comes, and its not China folks,
China is the least of our worries, because China won’t lash out , it’ll escape… Earth.
And Ireneo’s kinda close, I do not wanna be stuck on Earth when the shit hits the fan, and that’s Mother Nature come to punish us, i’d rather be in Mars, or the moon, or some space ship, as the Prime Directive enforcement officer, always telling the ships staff and crew, Lets’ just leave it alone, nothing to see here, De-growth, folks, less is more, let’s just get the bare minimum of what we need. And leave.
There will always be an unless… there somewhere. That is the problem. If you boil it all down, thats always been the problem.
Who is Azazel? What is Azazel? and why have the KJV Bible committees decide to exclude this name. If we figure out who what Azazel is, then we’ve have come closer to divining whats to come. The answers aren’t found in Genesis but in Leviticus. And there’s no ice cream(s) in Leviticus. Keep in mind, its pre-Biblical and pre-Judaism.
I think the damage from global warming is already upon us, so you’re stuck. China’s deal-making is punitive and certainly different than the evolved modern western democratic model that strives to recognize human rights. Her threatening words and ways are just short of war, so we’ll likely see in your lifetime and mine if she can continue her bloodless conquests. As for the evils of economists or the meanings in the Bible, I’ll leave those shits and giggles to you, as they are too much the stretch for my weary mind.
China scares me, frankly, with secrecy, diseases, strange science methods, and ethnic discrimination. Horrors.
https://www.voanews.com/silicon-valley-technology/genetic-data-collection-chinese-company-poses-global-policy-challenge
Who controls the outside (space) , controls the inside (Earth), Joe.
While everyone’s nitpicking China’s policies here and there, they are already working on control of space; so unless the UN, or NASA or NATO or even ASEAN , mirrors China in space. We’re all assed out.
We’re all happy that billionaires are taking all us up to space, but have no national or international policies of this. Might as well already kowtow to China.
So no if left unprovoked, China’s military hardware is just so other more powerful nations will be kept at bay, but once China has control of near earth orbit, then the moon, then Mars, then the asteroid belt, they’ll have control of Earth by default.
This default is the reason China does not need to go to war, Joe. You’re right China doesn’t care about individual rights, they’ve been successful without it, thus individual rights is no precursor; granted I would not make a good Chinese, nor would I want to be.
But once they control the outside, they’ll control the inside— no wars needed. By default.
So you wanna beat China, mirror them in space.
p.s. — No need to mind stretch about Azazel , Joe that was specific to i7sharp, now he know that the KJV committees are keeping something from him.
The corruption brought on by Azazel and the Grigori degrades the human race, and the four archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel) “saw much blood being shed upon the earth and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth […] The souls of men [made] their suit, saying, “Bring our cause before the Most High; […] Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were in heaven, which men were striving to learn.”
@LCX
“p.s. — No need to mind stretch about Azazel , Joe that was specific to i7sharp, now he know that the KJV committees are keeping something from him.”
Lance,
Lest you think I am evading your “hard” questions or implications, perish the thought.
Having said that, let me ask you:
What question of yours do you want me to tackle first?
Make it relevant enough to make some people around SMP (whom I plan to vote for)
want to chime in here.
1. What is the Pac-man’s preferred Bible?
2. Does he know anything about Azazel?
3. How do Filipinos understand Azazel?
4. This is the source, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melek_Taus . Did you know this?
5. Why aren’t you voting for Inday Sara?
Lance,
As far as I can tell, SMP prefers the NIV (New International Version).
I think, Tim Tebow does, too.
The NIV is said to be the most popular version today.
In the early 90s, during a very difficult time in my life, I decided to transcribe the NIV from cover to cover – typing the words on my laptop as I read them. It took me about two years to finish the self-imposed task.
A few years later, I became keenly curious about the KJV because the bible study guide (that our study group used where I then worked) did not include the KJV among the versions recommended.
Wanting to learn more I decided to join discussions in a “Christianity Section” of a CompuServe forum.
It probably took me at least five years, after that, to become a KJVO (King James Version Only).
There is no organized KJVO group that I know of.
Some KJVOs can be VERY nasty.
Do you think I have been nasty, Lance?
btw,
Manny Pacquiao Interview at Shepherd Church
180,527 views
Apr 28, 2015
“Do you think I have been nasty, Lance?”
The last time i was asked this very same question it was inside a strip club in San Diego. Which reminded me of this quote from Wiki,
The Book of Enoch 8:1–3a reads, “And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates; and made known to them the metals [of the earth] and the art of working them; and bracelets and ornaments; and the use of antimony and the beautifying of the eyelids; and all kinds of costly stones and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways.”
I’ve not transcribed anything that significant, but I am very much now into Azazel, i7sharp. I think you should be too.
@LCX
“I’ve not transcribed anything that significant, but I am very much now into Azazel, i7sharp. I think you should be too.”
Lance, I think Azazel is a distraction.
btw, …
The main reason I transcribed the NIV was to help keep my mind OFF the horrific things that I imagine might be happening or could happen to a member of my family.
Regarding Azazel, let me refer you to this:
https://brandplucked.webs.com/lev1610scapegoat.htm
x-
Who is your “scapegoat”, Jesus or the devil?
Leviticus 16:10 “a scapegoat” or “for Azazel” the devil?
…
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2203-azazel
“Most modern scholars, after having for some time indorsed the old view, have accepted the opinion mysteriously hinted at by Ibn Ezra and expressly stated by Naḥmanides to Lev. xvi. 8, that AZAZEL BELONGS TO THE CLASS OF “se’irim,” GOAT-LIKE DEMONS, jinn haunting the desert, to which the Israelites were wont to offer sacrifice (Lev. xvii. 7 [A. V. “devils”]”
Leader of the Rebellious Angels – “This is confirmed by the Book of Enoch, which brings Azazel into connection with the Biblical story of the fall of the angels”
-x
So why was it left out in the KJV?
@LCX
“So why was it left out in the KJV?”
Lance, by “it,” you mean “Azazel”?
I just want to make sure.
In any case, can you please elaborate?
4got the shortcut for butting in. @i7sharp
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Azazel.php4
@Karl
“4got the shortcut for butting in.”
Karl, could it be you are thinking of “PMFJI”?
“Pardon me for jumping in”
I do not think you are butting in, though.
And, thanks for the link.
i7sharp,
karl’s link looks like a jumble of cut and paste, but here’s a possible reason,
be embodied in a visible “transaction, and hence the dismissal of the “scape-goat.” It was” “of no consequence what became of it, as the whole import of the” transaction lay in its being sent into the wilderness bearing “away sin.
But in the end, Azazel was there originally but taken out of the KJV, so why was Azazel taken out? your beloved committee actually wrote out the English translation, read it out loud to one another, and as a group decided, you know what let’s just take out Azazel.
So why?
@LCX
“… Azazel was there originally …”
Lance,
Of the sources that tell you where “Azazel” had appeared “originally,”
specify the one you believe you can rely on.
Let us relate the matter to hegemony and the near future of the Philippines.
The source I rely on says this:
——-
“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein.”
——-
Of course, this includes the Philippines and the people that dwell therein.
My source warns against “adding to” and “taking away from”
what it says. Revelation 22:18, 19
It also warns about a sin that “shall not be forgiven.”
Matthew 12:31, 32
Luke 12:10
(It is a sin against a particular person. Christians know which person? Do Christians care to know?)
i7sharp,
My source is the Torah, and heres evidence that your KJV committee who translated Leviticus has “taken away from” by not including Azazel in their translation.
“My source is the Torah, …”
Lance,
I wish I can have the skill to do what you do (using Imgur, etc.) but I don’t seem to even have access to where I can at least bold or italicize words. I remember being able to do that a few years back.
Anyway, regarding the Torah …
It was written in Hebrew, afaik.
This, below, will not directly address your point about “Azazel” but I believe it will shed some pertinent light – aside from telling an interesting story.
Written by Richard Wurmbrand
x-
page 20 CHRIST ON THE JEWISH ROAD
I was sitting in the house of a rabbi who was one of the
outstanding personalities of Rumanian Judaism. I had come to
tell him why I believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
Rabbi H. officiated at my marriage: I was married in the
synagogue, for the family’s sake. He knew then that I was a
militant atheist and an anarchic element. Yet he made not the
slightest attempt to tell me anything about God. He carried out
the ceremony, and that was all.
Now that I had come to God by way of Jesus, he was
displeased. He asked me: “What makes you believe in Christ?”
I told him that the prophecy of Isaiah, about eight
hundred years before Jesus, had particularly struck me. Reading
this prophecy, in the fifty-third chapter, I had the impression
that, centuries before the birth of the Saviour, the prophet had
foreseen His entire life, and had depicted it in outline, so that
the Jews should recognize Him when he came.
The rabbi stroked his beard, and said to us (my wife was
also present): “You should not have read that. That chapter is
forbidden to you.”
I have subsequently verified this ban in the calendars
issued by Orthodox Jewish congregations, which give the texts
from the prophets to be read at public services in the synagogue
(the so-called ~Haftorahs~). After the part of the Law of Moses
called ~Shophtim~, Isaiah Chapters 51 and 52 are to be read. On
the next Sabbath there follows Chapter 54. Chapter 53 has been
omitted. The prophecy about Jesus contained in this chapter is
too revealing.
The rabbi urged us: “My children, leave these things
alone!”
I answered: “I should like to do so, but the prophecies
will not leave me in peace. What other interpretation of this
part of the Bible can you give me?”
The rabbi shook his head sadly, and dismissed us without
trying to give an explanation. I don’t know why.
Several years passed. In 1940, in the course of a
pogrom, the Fascists killed two of his sons before his very eyes.
They also fired at him, but failed to hit him.
Rabbi H. personally conducted his sons’ burial services.
It
page 21 CHRIST ON THE JEWISH ROAD
greatly moved all those present to see him place his hands on
both coffins, and to hear him begin his sermon with the words of
the psalmist: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in
all His works” (PSA 145:17).
Thousands of Bucharest Jews were present in the cemetery:
I was also there, though I was ostracized because of my Christian
faith. I stood by myself at the entrance to the chapel. After
the ceremony was over, as the rabbi was leaving, supported by two
Jews, he caught sight of me, and called to me from a distance:
“Richard!” He embraced me in the sight of all who were present.
Among the thousands of Jews he had chosen me to whom to pour out
his sorrow.
I have met him several times since then, and he has
always listened to me lovingly when I have told him about my
faith. I have never tried to force myself upon him. The man who
had organized the murder of over a hundred Jews in the Jilava
Forest, and hanged about forty others in the municipal
slaughterhouse under a sign “Kosher Meat,” had been a Greek
Orthodox priest. It is difficult to bring a Jew to Christianity.
-x
imgur is simple; you upload a photo from your computer, before you didn’t have to sit thru an ad, but now you do, then voila! your own photo link, which works perfect with wordpress.
Remember my point here isn’t Jews vs. Christian, my point here is that the KJV translators, I’m searching right now for the specific committee that covered Leviticus, both Anglicans and Puritans, sat down wrote it out, then came together to read it out loud for all to hear, the final edit was in how good the scripture sounded,
So why subtract Azazel? Read your KJV out loud, but this time put Azazel back in, it just reads better, plus its accurate. to Azazel; or for Azazel.
Here’s the KJV,
8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
@LCX
This azazel being left out by KJV will ressurect, reincarnate or be zombified one of these days.
We Filipinos have the moon for a scapegoat, when we do not want to answer a question we just say: Itanong mo sa buwan. (Why don’t you ask the moon).
but in the threads we scroll up or down.
Why did the translators leave out Azazel? Because they can. FULL STOP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version
‘It was first printed by John Norton and Robert Barker, both holding the post of the King’s Printer, and was the third translation into English approved by the English Church authorities: The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second had been the Bishops’ Bible, commissioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1568).[5] In Geneva, Switzerland, the first generation of Protestant Reformers had produced the Geneva Bible of 1560[6] from the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures, which was influential in the writing of the Authorized King James Version.
In January 1604, King James convened the Hampton Court Conference, where a new English version was conceived in response to the problems of the earlier translations perceived by the Puritans,[7] a faction of the Church of England.[8]
James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology—and reflect the episcopal structure—of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.[9] The translation was done by 6 panels of translators (47 men in all, most of whom were leading biblical scholars in England) who had the work divided up between them: the Old Testament was entrusted to three panels, the New Testament to two, and the Apocrypha to one.[10] In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible for Epistle and Gospel readings (but not for the Psalter, which substantially retained Coverdale’s Great Bible version), and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament.[11]
By the first half of the 18th century, the Authorized Version had become effectively unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and other English Protestant churches, except for the Psalms and some short passages in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. Over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. With the development of stereotype printing at the beginning of the 19th century, this version of the Bible became the most widely printed book in history, almost all such printings presenting the standard text of 1769 extensively re-edited by Benjamin Blayney at Oxford, and nearly always omitting the books of the Apocrypha. Today the unqualified title “King James Version” usually indicates this Oxford standard text.”
====
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel
“In Christianity
Latin Bible
Main article: Scapegoat
The Vulgate contains no mention of “Azazel” but only of caper emissarius, or “emissary goat”, apparently reading עז אזל goat which leaves:
8 mittens super utrumque sortem unam Domino et alteram capro emissario 9 cuius sors exierit Domino offeret illum pro peccato 10 cuius autem in caprum emissarium statuet eum vivum coram Domino ut fundat preces super eo et emittat illum in solitudinem
— Latin Vulgate, Leviticus 16:8–10
English versions, such as the King James Version, followed the Septuagint and Vulgate in understanding the term as relating to a goat. The modern English Standard Version provides the footnote “16:8 The meaning of Azazel is uncertain; possibly the name of a place or a demon, traditionally a scapegoat; also verses 10, 26”. Most scholars accept the indication of some kind of demon or deity,[17] however Judit M. Blair notes that this is an argument without supporting contemporary text evidence.[18]
Ida Zatelli (1998)[19] has suggested that the Hebrew ritual parallels pagan practice of sending a scapegoat into the desert on the occasion of a royal wedding found in two ritual texts in archives at Ebla (24th C. BC). A she-goat with a silver bracelet hung from her neck was driven forth into the wasteland of ‘Alini’ by the community.[20] There is no mention of an “Azazel”.[21]
According to The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Azazel is the Hebrew word for scapegoat. This is the only place that the Hebrew word is found in the whole Hebrew Old Testament. It says that the Book of Enoch, (extra-biblical Jewish theological literature, dated around 200 B.C.) is full of demonology and reference to fallen angels. The EBC (Vol 2) says that this text uses late Aramaic forms for these names which indicates that The Book of Enoch most likely relies upon the Hebrew Leviticus text rather than the Leviticus text being reliant upon the Book of Enoch.[22]
Christian commentators
Cyril of Alexandria sees the apompaios (sent-away one, scapegoat) as a foretype of Christ.
Origen (“Contra Celsum,” vi. 43) identifies Azazel with Satan.[23]”
I’m i7sharp is doing some more research on KJV, because why add unicorns but subtract Azazel.
That’s just confusing. As i7sharp has pointed out time and time again, these were learned men, Puritans and Anglicans together.
https://joeam.com/2019/04/24/ist-gott-tot-is-god-dead/#comment-279270 <<< edgar started the thread in response to chempo… This stuff is truly interesting, there's the imagery but also the nomenclature of whos who, serpent/Lucifer/HaSatan.
Azazel isn't the Devil, he is something else entirely. I don't know if L. Ron Hubbard studied the Kabbalah when he came up with Scientology, karl, but there is something familiar about his retelling.
The Book of Enoch and the Peacock Angel are said to be older than the events found in the Bible, thus Sumerian or older.
"While Jews study a number of religious books—from the Talmud to the Shulchan Aruch—the text that provides the religion’s very foundation is the Torah. And the version of the Torah most commonly studied by Jews is known as the Masoretic text, the most authoritative Hebrew version of the Torah.
But it is not the only one.
A small, ancient sect known as the Samaritans rely on the Torah, and the Torah alone, as their sole religious text—and the Samaritans use a somewhat different version. Two weeks ago, the first English translation of this Hebrew text was published by Samaritan historian and scholar Binyamin Tsedaka: The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah. There are some 6,000 instances where this version of the Torah differs from the Masoretic text; the question for scholars is which version is more complete, or more accurate.
As an ancient Semitic people, the Samaritans abide by a literal version of Torah law. Eschewing Jewish practices that are rabbinic in origins, they believe only in the Five Books of Moses and observe only holidays found in the Pentateuch, such as Passover and Sukkot.”
___________________________________________
I’m still attempting to Google the Samaritan version of Leviticus, karl. Will post when I find it.
Lance,
A few minutes ago, I heard “Great Awakening” mentioned in the news.
I will provide the link later – in a day or so.
Meanwhile, let us have another look at Edgar’s post
https://magilas.me/ja-ga
ja – Joe America; ga – “Great Awakening”
Will there be a Great Awakening with SMP (Manny)?
And forestall hegemony by China?
Cautioned by this,
https://magilas.me/ja-kny (“… know nothing yet”)
let me say this from what VERY little I know:
There probably can be a Great Awakening if SMP switches from NIV to KJV.
Of course, a lot more is necessary, but I believe that would be the GREAT CHANGE
that the Philippines/her next President must have.
Lance, IMO, the so-called bibles that contain “Azazel” will not do.
Of course, I will try to subsequently explain this.
Find a way to translate it to English, be careful and be sure not to miss azazel.
https://archive.org/details/IsraeliteSamaritanTorah/
Found it LCX
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=-wn8ABo-Fz0C&pg=PA267&dq=samaritan+torah+leviticus+azazel&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiawc2LlY3yAhXKA94KHZQUAqYQ6AEwAHoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=samaritan%20torah%20leviticus%20azazel&f=false
“There probably can be a Great Awakening if SMP switches from NIV to KJV.”
i7sharp,
There’s unicorns in the KJV, but there’s no Azazel! thus KJV is guilty of “adding to” and “taking away from”.
How can SMP awaken, when there’s clearly sins of omission and addition???
You’re the best , karl!
Google books blocks this page when I search it; but with your link it shows, I have no idea why this is.
So the Samaritans, I guess the purest Jews , this Azazel is Destruction (their Leviticus is the on the left, Ezaazel).
Creating another hegemon is a dangerous project, plunging us back into another insane arms race and the possibility of nuclear war.
Cooperation and partnership is the way forward if the collective humanity intends to survive in a planet that is now starting to literary boil over – melting ice caps and glaciers, record heat, forest fires, changing weather patterns, summer floods, and a mutating deadly virus.
Infantile pursuit of who’s going to be the hegemonic top dog in a fragile speck of cosmic dust is both suicidal and madness.
Agree.
Some scientists curious about alien life forms theorize that we have never been visited by aliens because most or all species managed to self-destruct before or upon reaching the threshold to interplanetary travel.
The human species may be at exactly that threshold right now, and there may never be a future like Star Trek, ever, though maybe LCPL_X might find himself among the preppers who flock around Warp Drive inventor Cochrane some decades from now, probably as an old geezer with a beard like the band ZZ Top who drinks a lot of whiskey and tells a lot of stories most of the young find unbelievable about the times before the Atomic War.
Climate change is getting intense. Already. People are getting stupider.
people getting stupider and finding people equally stupider and then forming alliance: russia, china, turkey, iran, north korea, etc and muscling in on united nations.
as for china and iran, wow na wow, match made in colocation! both repressive and oppressive even to their own people, hypervigilant.
sa tokyo olympic, iran is banning its own athletes from competing with israeli athletes. iran itself risk being banned too, for picking and choosing events not sullied by the presence of israeli athletes.
Yes. Evil twins.
still on stupider: china’s hou zhihui on winning olympic gold on women’s 49kg weightlifting event, china’s diplomats and state run media protested for the ugly photo finish report of hou zhihui’s winning moment: she in rictus and straining to attempt to lift, and successfully lifted . . . the unflattering photo released worldwide and etched forever in olympic history apparently much to china’s ire. the west choose the pic that depicts the brutal truth that winning olympic gold is hardest work and utterly physically draining. and not at all dainty.
well, china that has invested so much in its athletes can always photoshop said pic and make the gold medalist prettier than gong li in her heyday, lol!
German socmed commenters on the Olympics are mocking how China is obviously pissed off whenever they don’t get gold. Obviously mainland China has a huge chip on the shoulder and a sense of entitlement stemming from it.
True they were indeed the most advanced nation on earth 500 years ago and lost their lead gradually, after the “Century of Humiliation” (the 19th) and the struggles of the 20th they may feel they must be “great again” to compensate, which makes China unpleasant.
In situations where they are not fully in control like these Olympics, it just looks uncool. And Hidilyn Diaz including her training in a Malacca garage making China finish second has shades of Rocky Balboa vs. Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
Usually these Olympic athletes for Philippines are sucked up and maintained by AFP, military branches themselves recruit these athletes as competition, how did Hidilyn end up in Malaysia?
Hidilyn is an air force master sergeant and in fact saluted when the national anthem was played for gold. Seems she got stuck due to pandemic, but there might also be the aspect that she was put into an official matrix by Panelo back in 2018 after she criticized national sports funding. Also seems the government somehow didn’t like her boyfriend and coach as well – a Fil-Am – and I guess wanted the Chinese to run her entire show.
These are just some loose ends that I gathered, big picture not clear yet. She did mention the matrix when Gretchen Ho (who was also tagged then) interviewed her for the gold. Don’t think we will find out much if we dig deeper as she will play it safe, of course.
Ah, I see so the Chinese connection is in fact with DU30. LOL! interesting.
I don’t know if Dennis Uy actually pushed through with funding her Chinese strength coach via Bong Go’s intercession as PNA reported some years ago. This was after she was tagged so did she have much of a choice including fist bump fotos from then.
There seems to be a short scene where she thanks Bong Go as well after the gold, so Malacca could have been her way of setting her own priorities – utilizing the Chinese coach but her Fil-Am boyfriend was still the main coach – outside government control.
What I also read was that her boyfriend/coach’s strategy was behind her lifting 127 kg just after the Chinese woman had lifted 126 kg with no more tries left, wondering how likely that would have been if control by the China/Go/Uy group had been tighter.
Now she is getting all kinds of corporate sponsorship offers including a house, but most of it unfortunately has a touch of Hunger Games / Panem including Victor’s Village to it.
But then again Philippine sports has always been even weirder than elsewhere I gather.
Another strategic move emerging today. She deliberately did not try to win in the Asian Games competition in order to shock her opponents during the Olympics. Coaches did not want opponents to know of her abilities.
This suggests there is no ‘China connection”.
I hope Pac-man taps her for VP for next year.
I just caught this in the news here, I didn’t know they had this here, I knew there was a training facility in Lake Tahoe. but this looks like a good program, she could totally back.
https://trainatchulavista.com/
Yes, KB. Now that you mentioned it, they do deserve each other.
Speaking of evil siblings, I wonder how much the Duterte government’s trade with Iran or the influx of Iranian medical students increased since 2016?
I once spoke to a local girl in Cebu she was in nursing school then, who spoke Farsi fluently. Overheard her talking to a bunch of classmates i guess from Iran– i thought they were Arabs at first.
Turns out her dad was a doctor in Iran. Sent there as a group by Marcos for the Shah, Iranian revolution hit, Filipino doctors/nurses stayed. Iranian loved them so much, I guess because most Iranian doctors fled, they were treated like royalty. At one point, Khomeini’s doctors were Filipinos, she said.
Eventually, this contingent of Filipino nurses and doctors left Iran; but this girl’s family stayed thru the 80s then 90s, then went back to Cebu around early 2000s. I guess mostly, so she could go to school back in Cebu. She was fluent both in Cebuano (her parents tongue, a doctor and nurse) , as well as Farsi (more fluent with Farsi upon return).
So my point theres traditions and connections that’s probably unseen too minuscule to affect geopolitics, but they transcend time and space. So no need to malign Iran to get at China. Anything medical should surpass geopolitics.
dean, under duterte’s regime, iranian med students did proliferate in 2016, you got that right. it may well be china put in good words for them. but why not study in china where medical and scientific research are more aggressive and better funded? I can only think of what is being “piggybacked” by these iranian med students. and to think our country did not get much oil from iran! and exchange student program between our country and iran is dicey.
like china, iran has habit of spying on students/academics and sending them to jail on trump up charges. happened to an australian academic, my friend told me. the academic has scholarship in iran and was bundled to jail the moment she arrived. accused to being israeli spy just because she once wrote an article that appeared in peer reviewed israeli journal. freed she was after 2yrs in jail, thanks to australian embassy negotiation.
dept of foreign affairs under teddy locsin knows more about the presence of iranian med students, whether all finish their studies, disappear into our community, or did something else.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/233000/iranian-students-in-phl-decry-terrorists-label/story/
This happened last 2011. The Iranian students cried foul by being labelled as terrorists.
It is tough being called terrorist especially nowadays with the ATL.
But some or most were expelled because of cheating.
We used to import a lot of oil from Iran.
But they keep on getting sanctioned so it is hard to trade with them unless we get sanctioned our selves.
I have no problem with expats. Even foreign doctors, nurses, dentists etc
So long as they follow the law, and Filipinos get priotized.
The problem with the Chinese has less to do with us discriminating them.
They work illegally, drive condo prices, etc.
Re: Foreign students arrested in Iran.
True. They are used for prison swaps of jailed Iranians abroad.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/11/874079626/released-from-iranian-prison-u-s-student-xiyue-wang-says-he-was-held-as-a-hostag
If the Iranians can not get a US visa they study here, then become government officials when they return.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/02/15/weekly/expat-diplomats/iran-seeks-stronger-cultural-relations-with-philippines/840919
“The people of Iran and the Philippines have good memories of each other. The significant number of students here and Filipinos in Iran indicate the interest of our two people to expand their relation,” he added.
Dr. Khalaj Monfared, head of Iran’s center of International Strategic Cultural Studies (ICRO), said, “I would like to ask the authorities of foreign ministers in Iran and the Philippines to help and facilitate the formalization of the new cultural exchange program between the two countries to be signed as soon as possible.”
“Through this document we can expand our relation and we can have so many other cultural and programs. In fact we have so many Iranian students who have graduated from the Philippines and some of them got very high positions in Iranian government,” Monfared pointed out.
On trade.
The plan was Iran will import bananas.
Get involved in infrastructure, banking, energy,etc.
https://www.rappler.com/business/economy/iran-philippines-trade-relations-dominguez
Thanks for your well-thought out rejoinders KB and Karl. You are both catalysts in moving the discourses in Joe’s site forward as well as deeper.
Thanks Dean, I will do my best.
Also pardon me for my corny jokes. Joe keeps reminding us to be guided by logical fallacies in our discussion, but I stopped counting on how many times I might have been fallacious in my arguments.
sakit naming mga bisaya yan, to look and see, to ask questions and opined, sometimes at the risk of being called cretins, lol!
Irineo,
The words “inventor” and “ZZ Top” prompted me to check if Kyxz (whom I learned of only yesterday) has been mentioned here at TSoH.
https://joeam.com/category/education-2/page/4/
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How can the Philippines get out of the mud?
Posted by The Society of Honor on October 8, 2020 · 101 Comments
[image]
Analysis and Opinion By Irineo B. R. Salazar Will Villanueva figuratively struck me with his comment to my article “Towards FILIPINO modernity”: “The Philippines is next-door neighbor to the Garden of Eden, what we may call Ayala Alabang Gilid, not Village, a cardboard and tape settlement that amazingly has a long shelf life, unable to … Continue reading →
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Speaking of the Garden of Eden …
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Solomon’s Gold Series – Part 12A: Where is the Garden of Eden? Ophir, Philippines?
221,461 views
Aug 22, 2017
The God Culture
103K subscribers
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Just sharing. 🙂
I do agree with you on this – ideally it would be better if mankind was able to cooperate. But the reality of today’s world shows that cooperative efforts are falling short, and it may indeed come to a kind of global meltdown. Possibly even LCPL_X’s “prophecy” of a reduction of the global human population to what – two billion, one, half a billion? That mRNA vaccines are here may yet save a lot of us now but what about what comes next?
Also, cooperative efforts mean there has to be a common mindset behind the institutions that foster certain cooperations. There is an article about India quoted by MLQ3 some months ago that clearly outlines how the anti-colonial elites of postwar India all had similar values shaped by Western education – and that the present ideology of Hindutva (Modi) is a departure from that. In a way Dutertismo is also a departure fom the postwar, Westernized consensus of the Philippines, a consensus that is maybe lost.
Similarly, Turkey under Erdogan is drifting away from the very strong consensus once established by Atatürk, some articles say his policies are a return to the days of Sultan Abdulhamid, to a time before the Young Turks, a kind of Dilawan (civic groups) and Magdalo (military groups) on steroids established modern Turkey, even as Erdogan taps the organized power of the Republic, but is following a course of his own as Turkey is now a regional power in itself, only formally still moored in by NATO which it is part of.
Russians and Americans may have had their Cold War, but there was still enough of a common European-based mindset on both sides – the respective intellectual elites and leaders had values based on the old consensus of European education of those days. Now the USA AND Russia have sectors that are drifting towards right-wing Christianity (Poland and Humgary as well) while Western Europe and US Democrats still are the old Transatlantic consensus that held even when Dubya Bush ran things in Washington.
While a lot of consensus is breaking down, China is going back to its old mindset that it is the center of things, which it was in a way before Europeans came to Asia, and yes even until 1750 when centuries of too much Andes silver from the Galleon trade (till the early 20th century Mexican silver pesos were the de facto currency of China!) made the Chinese economy tank due to inflation, with a weakening China eventually falling prey to the Opium Wars, the Taiping rebellion and the Western powers in Shanghai, with even Germany having its treaty port in Tsingtao (beer is the legacy left by that) and Japan as a newcomer power controlling Manchuria etc etc. There is nationalistic resentment now which fuels a certain desire for hegemony, for turning back 500 years of history that was not in China’s favor mostly. Belt and Road retracing both the Silk Road and the course of Portuguese entry into Asia (backwards) show the desire for a kind of “comeback”.
Consider also that China due to its natural borders of old had the least contact with others of all major powers today. That means little of a common denominator for other powers to know how to deal with it. It does not recognize many conventions that others have developed over centuries of interaction. This is indeed very bad as it means many dealings involve some form of strong-arming between sides, with conflict very likely. We are coming to what ancient Chinese (central, but self-contained) call “interesting times”.
That’s right Micha.
There are people in high government and echelons of capitalism who relish playing the so-called Great Game, where even lives are used as chips on a vast global baccarat table.
If the Philippines still had many jejemons, it might aim for Internet jejemony.
Unfortunately I guess most work as trolls today, and by now K-Pop stans are the current superpower in social media one should better not mess with.
I don’t know much about computers, hard/software, but I’m a fan of art and design, and I’ve always said Filipinos have an eye for this stuff, maybe because everything around them is so ugly (in the city) that they put pen to paper and come up with beautiful things, and also on computers.
With de-growth, theres gonna be a need for beautification, again based on nature, maybe fractals or more play of light and colours.
Filipinos could totally corner this. it s no wonder a half-Filipina Australian invented Canva.
I think I’ll park my comment here, LC. Bcoz you used the word “computer.”
Like King Priam’s daughter Cassandra I will say:
1. Beware the Greeks bearing gifts;
2. The distinction between serial & parallel processing is only clear in working with computers and its architecture;
3. When human thinking and doing is involved, only the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is useful.
Thanks, LCX!
My first time to hear of Canva.
https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/canva-philippines-named-no-1-best-workplace-in-asia/
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Online design company Canva Philippines has bagged the top spot in this year’s Best Workplaces in Asia list in the small-medium business (SMB) category.
Canva, co-founded by Filipino-Aussie Melanie Perkins, ranked first among Asia’s Best 100 small and medium businesses released by global workplace culture authority Great Place to Work (GPTW) on July 20, 2021.
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Youngest billionaire in Australia?
I doubt she’ll be interested in Solomon’s Gold though, i7sharp. 😉 But hey, I’m gonna email her about my CA audit (FREE t-shirt), so maybe she’s another Mackenzie Scott. its your diskarte, i7sharp. Good luck!
LCX,
Perkins is not materialistic, it seems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Perkins
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Personal life
…
In 2019, Obrecht proposed to Perkins on a holiday in Turkey’s backpacker-friendly Cappadocia region.[20] The engagement ring was $30.[20] The couple have been critical of materialism with Obrecht stating ‘what is the point of hoarding stuff’.[21] They have expressed a desire to donate most of their fortune to charity.[21] Perkins and Obrecht married in January 2021 on Rottnest Island.[22]
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In that case, she’ll be a fan of the narrative. So sell her on some quest story in the Philippines.
This might happen to us if it is not happening yet.
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/28/1010832606/road-deal-with-china-is-blamed-for-catapulting-montenegro-into-historic-debt
Now they have to do major refinancing.
https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-china-debt-eu-assistance-refinance-1-billion-motorway/31322151.html
===
Back to Asia.
Iran deal of discounted oil for infra might overshadow previous deals with Pakistan.
Pakistan’s expensive railway had failure to launch pronblems.
Now they are also worried that their port deals miht be overshadowed by Iran’s port deals.
The railway issues reminds me of the Mindanao railway that went pfft.
Aside ftom displaced workers, we had pre-existing problems exacerbated by the chinese.
Like up to the roof rise in property rates, unruly Chinese, environmrntal degradation.
Sure we did our own dynamite fishing, and damage to our reefs, our small scale or big sce mining was there ever since.
Quarrying reclamations- all pre,-existing
But china gave them Perrformance Enhancenement steroids
” So why Iran? Connect the dots. But check the neighborhood as well. Ours and theirs.”
I am checking the neighborhood.
Link to the Iran deal overshadowing Pakistan’s Economic Corridor.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt-and-Road/China-Iran-deal-overshadows-Pakistan-Belt-and-Road-project
But this one said the opposite.
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/pakistan-set-to-gain-from-china-iran-strategic-partnership-deal-report20210401145049
As to Covid to date.
Totals in Pakistan
Total cases
1.01M
Recovered
929K
Deaths
23,087
* Close to PH current numbers.
Totals in Iran
Total cases
3.72M
Recovered
3.27M
Deaths
89,122
* Close to Indonesia’s current numbers
Vaccine news from Pakistan
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225306.shtml
Chinese vaccines better than others: Pakistani scholar
Vaccine news from Iran
https://iranintl.com/en/iran-in-brief/iran-official-blames-chinese-russian-covid-vaccine-firms-shortages
Iran Official Blames Chinese, Russian Covid Vaccine Firms For Shortages
Recent history will tell us that the Iran-China relation is more of “user-friendly”, while the history of Pakistan-China is said to be Iron clad.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1228146.shtml
Our Friends were Suffering, We Sent Everything to China. We didn’t Worry about What Will Happen in the Future. — How Ironclad Friendship Was Made
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Sounds like Duterte, but Duterte will be all bark, no bite.
lot of people die because of his bark: lawyers representing the oppressed farmers, rival politicians, drug suspects, etc. he barks and others follow, bloodbath in the wake of his shopping lists. as well, health care workers still waiting for promised allowances, labs and health care facilities lacking genomic facilities and not enough workers to operate genomic sequencing, and and yet bong go keeps on opening new malasakit centers.
Absolutely correct.
Thanks so much for the links on Montenegro, Karl. I was there right before COVID 19 hit and I cant imagine how such a pretty country can fall into the Chinese Debt, Doom and Death trap.
Welcome Dean!
LCPL_X is right about space domination – one only needs to look at the Russian-Chinese project of a permanent moon base and read Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to know – even if it seems a long shot at this point for a number of reasons.
Simply put, once you have a kind of ballistic catapult to send minerals for instance back to Earth you also can easily ballistically target any place on earth, which is what the penal colonists who live on the Moon in that sci-fi novel manage to do nearly at will.
Artificial meteors that wipe out cities and can practically not be stopped. Heinlein once said that the nation that controls the moon will control the earth – sure a lot of his stuff like Starship Troopers is hardly bearable but the physics of the moon-earth are real.
Destroying any lunar presence is harder, computations of what would happen if one nuked anything on the moon are awful – as the moon has no atmosphere no stopping fallout from knocking out all satellites in earth Orbit by electromagnetic pulse.
Of course keeping a permanent presence stays a challenge as low gravity even on Mars is not what human bodies are designed for. Also keeping a bubble to sustain life for that long with that many people is still a long shot inspite of ISS and Mir station experience.
I’m more thinking along the lines of the Expanse novels, Ireneo.
And once you have power like being on the moon or in Mars or asteroid belt mining, etc. no need really for hurtling space rocks to Earth. its more about speaking softly, precisely because you control space.
Then its divvying up who get s the moon, what areas of the moon, then Mars, etc.
Space is not really a place you wanna wage wars, kinda like how they have to take winter breaks in Afghanistan, no wars in winter because its too cold. So i think wars will be averted, at least nations against nations type wars.
Just too counter productive.
But billionaires and corporations, I think they’ll enjoy going to war in space. with drones and stuff. Maybe lobbing space rocks at us, just so they don’t have to pay earthly taxes. That scenario IMHO is likelier.
An asteroid is worth $10,000 Quadrillion
Woohoo for De-growth!
All the nickel, iron and gold without having to destroy a single mountain.
That means more mountains for reclamation ! woohoo for de-growth!
https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/gold-mining-in-space-nasas-psyche-spacecraft-to-study-asteroid-worth-10000-quadrillion-2795127.html
Much of that metal will be used out there, instead of here. So yeah, the wealth stays, earth’s protected, we end up making more things out there, in zero to low gravity environment. win, win, win for all.
I for one really think China will be our salvation re global warming , karl. But since I’m not Chinese I can only say that we should be mirroring China’s space moves.
The world as we know it now will be meaner, so all the engineering we are inventing now, especially artificial photosynthesis, will be both relevant here as well as outer space. Focus on space!
Biden today just said we might have go to war due to hacking and online sabotage, I’m all like dummie! just make sure our cyber security is tight!!! I hope Biden’s just having a senior moment.
Like sonny said below, just watch out for trojan horses! Protect yourself, going to war isn’t protecting yourself, you’ll only invite chaos. A stupid reason to go to war, for sure.
Just protect yourself.
“Senior moment”. Trash comment characterizing the dialogue these days. The sharp old guy is advised by military and security pros with more information than you have in a years worth of shits and giggles.
So you’d go to war over hacking and cyber sabotage, Joe?
Like for like. That’s like saying you’d go to war because someone insulted your mom.
As far as reasons going to war, that’s the worst! At least Hillary, used human rights!!!
Sounds like justice at least abstract; Cyber however seems fixable without resorting to war.
Absolutely if they are trying to take down the giants of the nation’s communications and intelligence infrastructure. That’s like bombing Pearl Harbor. That’s not insulting my mom, may she rest in everlasting peace.
You’re not wondering why we don’t have robust cyber protection instead?
They’re only attacking because they can, with better cyber security, problem solved!!! Now they can’t.
For example , we got to spin Iran’s centrifuges; solution… don’t let anyone bring thumb drives to work, if you don’t want people spinning centrifuges.
It’s all preventable, Joe. One shouldn’t go to war over something preventable.
Here’s an article on Biden’s statement that provides more context than your one-line ‘senior moment’ disparagement. Readers can judge for themselves at what level they think China’s aggression moves from an insult to mom, to structural damage.
https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-warns-cyber-attacks-could-lead-a-real-shooting-war-2021-07-27/
If it were so easily preventable, it would be prevented. The US has the most technically proficient firms on the planet. The culprit here is China. Not Biden.
In case you missed the point or forgot for whom you served.
Cyber hacking does not just mean getting all the personal information of people to be used to blackmail, extortion, theft.
Cyber hacking can cripple communications, render all modern crafts, weapons systems, next to useless if successful.
You can not just shift to manual gear stick shift where there is none, in an automatic transmission vehicle.
Imagine all the novels you read about hacking come to life.
You guys are missing my point here,
can we prevent them from hacking is the question. If we can’t hack them, then they must be doing something right, right?
Aw, fer crimminy sakes, stop trolling the issue. You are off into twists and turns again. China is doing something right by attacking the US? Senior moment? A mere insult to mom?
We always miss your point. I wonder why.
Then let me ask you this , Joe, what constitute a cyber breach that will justify a war?
Hacking Sony pictures?
Hacking Google?
Hacking the DoD?
Hacking IoT?
Hacking our internet?
Hacking … ?
What situation will justify sending troops, and where to China or to Russia, en mass? Nuke Hainan island?
The answer should be all that above doesn’t justify more American blood and taxpayer money!
Use that money instead to have better cyber security.
As I said, readers can read the details and make up their minds. Is a shot at food security or oil pipelines worth war?
Your issue is with Biden’s comment. Maybe he is posturing, as China postures, blustering as China blusters, being hegemonic as China is hegemonic. Doing what you say a country should do. How come you won’t give your own American President the benefit of the doubt? Why won’t you criticize China’s adventurism into American enterprise? Peculiar. Peculiar.
Because if you think about it , Joe, every 10 years or so, we always go to war.
At some point, Americans should start asking why? No?
This is the latest of “justifications” for war. So it behooves us to question it, and delineate exactly what kind of cyber attack will constitute a war. Because if this pattern of wars is consistent, the Trump 4 years of no war, is too long. So no I don’t think Biden is blustering, he’s setting up the justification for the next war,
thus makes sense to question the exact nature of this cyber attack, what are the requirements to send American military out there again.
Can you imagine, going to war because Socal Edison was hacked? or Microsoft? or Apple? or Verizon?
To not question all this, is so much more problematic , Joe.
That’s a conspiracy theory argument. haha
Defense Secretary Austin yesterday.
“Beijing’s unwillingness to resolve disputes peacefully and respect the rule of law isn’t just occurring on the water. We have also seen aggression against India, destabilizing military activity and other forms of coercion against the people of Taiwan, and genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.”
“We will not flinch when our interests are threatened. Yet we do not seek confrontation. . . . Let me be clear: … I am committed to pursuing a constructive, stable relationship with China.”
I don’t see how Sec. Austin’s comments relates to cyber security, Joe;
He’s doing what State and Defense secretaries do, ensure reassure defense and diplomatic stuff.
Going to war over cyber attacks is a different beast all together. That’s a policy shift.
I’ve never heard of wars for cyber attacks, Joe. This is the first. When US presidents talk about war, everyones ears should perk up.
It’s to the point of war, or not war. I think you’ve been missing my point. President Biden is being properly hegemonic. You are demanding that he roll over.
“That’s a conspiracy theory argument. haha”
Check it yourself , Joe. Only Trump didn’t use American military might during his presidency (sure rockets were lobbed, Special ops don’t count, that’s shadow stuff, I’m talking about regular military).
FDR, check.
Truman, check.
Ike, check.
JFK, check.
Johnson, check.
Nixon , check.
Ford, check.
Carter, check.
Reagan. check.
Bush, check.
Clinton, check.
W., check.
Obama, check.
Trump, nope.
Biden, looks like another check, Joe! cross fingers hoping its another nope like Trump.
Every action has a context and set of facts. Troops are not deployed on a Nostradamus bet, or conjunction of the planets, or numerology calculation.
@LCPL_X
Maybe it is time for a Digital Geneva Convention.
“The closest that the U.S. military has come to such a definition is to say that “acts of significant consequence” would be examined on a case-by-case basis and could require congressional evaluation. But given how quickly a cyberattack could disable critical infrastructure, expecting Congress to react in time to answer effectively is unrealistic.
In a world where partisan politics have been weaponized, a smart misinformation campaign by a foreign state that targeted only one political party might even be welcomed by other parties so long as there was plausible deniability—and with cyberattacks, attribution is rarely certain.
There is also a serious risk of collateral damage in cyberoperations. Most militaries understand that they are responsible not only for targeting strikes so that they hit valid targets but also for civilian casualties caused by their actions. Though significant collateral damage assessment occurs prior to the United States authorizing cyberoperations, there is no international agreement requiring other powers to take the same care.”
“President Biden is being properly hegemonic. You are demanding that he roll over.”
No. I’m demanding a better justification for war. After 20 years of war, we shouldn’t just roll over either, to “military and security pros with more information”, question their intentions always.
You are still missing my point. It’s the President’s job to speak with a sharp stick if the other side persists in doing illegal acts that damage US interests. Tell China not to do illegal and damaging acts, don’t whine because the US is objecting and saying there can be consequences. Geez. This is pretty straightforward. Ask why five times. You get to the real problem, China. And the US doing what you previously said is proper. Acting and speaking in her interests.
Joe,
I think karl has the solution. Digital Geneva convention. It would suck if the military is sent to China to go to war, because PG&E didn’t spend money to properly set up their cyber security.
The fact that most public infrastructure is run by the private sector is another variable in all this.
Hey! Stop playing golf and invest some of your profits into cyber security, so American kids don’t have to die! Again.
TSH: The sharp old guy is advised by military and security pros with more information than you have in a years worth of shits and giggles.
While it may be worthwhile to discuss or give our two cents worth of ideas, we must admit that the complicated and sophisticated “tree of information” that those military and security pros have is a big part of the picture. These guys also have to do the “if this then this” analysis as a matter of routine to answer the chain of command as they go up the food chain to the old guy.
Of course, this is not to preclude that some blind spots are overlooked — they may, however, have practices that minimize such. Speaking of which the Chinese I believe are more prone to have bigger blind spots because of some rigid rules the functionaries have to observe or break at their own peril.
Right. There are layers of data on any circumstance. Part of the modern condition is fast opinions totally lacking that data and a complete incapacity to project oneself into the shoes of others. I recognized the problem when people were blasting President Aquino when he was acting responsibly, just not the way they wanted. No data. No capacity to project. I got lunch with the President because I went for a little more data, and some did excellent projections on issues. LCX has little data and for sure isn’t in Biden’s shoes with China’s hackers marauding across the American landscape. As nonsensical as the Aquino critics in my eyes.
“LCX has little data”
I’m not arguing data, Joe. I’m arguing justifications and lining them up historically. so from that perspective, America has had more dubious justifications for war.
So the assumption should be, that this is another dubious reasoning for going to war.
Sure like you said, it could all just be hegemonic talk; but base on history , the precursor to tough talk usually ends up in war. Again history.
Thus karl’s link is good cost benefit, lay out the possible scenarios and what exactly justifies a war when it comes to cyber.
PG&E not investing in its cyber security should not be used as justification for going to war. List it out. Clarify what constitutes a cyber attack that deserves war as its answer.
But this , they know more so we should just blindly trust them, we’ve done that over and over. Let’s at least question now.
Go ahead. I’ll dig deeper for more understanding to avoid undermining America’s position in the face of China’s threat.
“Every nation’s aspirations should include hegemony, everyone should endeavour ”
Be careful what you wish for.
Hegemony maybe bloody.
Hegemomy may involve young soldiers wondering what they are fighting for.
Hegemony may mean war, kinetic or otherwise.
Add what Micha said.
We should not aspire for hegemony.
karl,
Hegemony doesn’t necessarily mean war, it just means you’re not subservient to other nations. Synonyms are leadership and dominance. One can dominate w/out war, Sun Tzu said this a long time ago.
Joe,
Here’s a good read:
Click to access DoD%20Law%20of%20War%20Manual%20-%20June%202015%20Updated%20Dec%202016.pdf
scroll all the way down to page 1015, Cyberoperations. Good read. It appears, they don’t really have a bead on this stuff yet. Then from karl’s link Google Tallinn Manual (3.0 is being written right now).
this part of the DoD law of war manual was most relevant,
16.5.2 Cyber Operations That Do Not Amount to an “Attack” Under the Law of War.
A cyber operation that does not constitute an attack is not restricted by the rules that apply to attacks. Factors that would suggest that a cyber operation is not an “attack” include whether the operation causes only reversible effects or only temporary effects. Cyber operations that generally would not constitute attacks include:
• defacing a government webpage;
• a minor, brief disruption of internet services;
• briefly disrupting, disabling, or interfering with communications; and
• disseminating propaganda.
Since such operations generally would not be considered attacks under the law of war,
they generally would not need to be directed at military objectives, and may be directed at civilians or civilian objects. Nonetheless, such operations must not be directed against enemy civilians or civilian objects unless the operations are militarily necessary. Moreover, such operations should comport with the general principles of the law of war.
For example, even if a cyber operation is not an “attack” or does not cause any injury or damage that would need to be considered under the principle of proportionality in conducting attacks, that cyber operation still should not be conducted in a way that unnecessarily causes inconvenience to civilians or neutral persons.
Thanks. I suppose there are defense attacks, crimes, and nuisances and they only want to engage if the matter is serious. But the field of possible attacks is so broad because technology is moving faster than the bureaucracy so, to a large extent, they are reactive and not proactive. China is pushing all the envelopes by hiring private hackers who double-dip by messing with US electronic infrastructure while making money from criminal acts. There is nasty motive here because there is complete disregard for harm. It’s like unleashing a virus, nasty. No single cyber-event rises to the level of ‘warlike’, but the sum of the attacks is like sending thousands of troops into the US to take out bridges, airports, and railways.
May not necessary lead to war, but we are not talking about the olympics when we talk about hegemony.
karl, the point was… to not be a pawn. its a dangerous world, more dangerous for pawns.
Joe,
Exactly, so as you see even DoD doesn’t clearly know what necessitates war for cyber, but Biden’s already hinting at it; so like gain of function , this new era has to be well defined and understood,
as to not leave it at the hands of military and security folks who have taken us on this too well trodden path already. So if PG&E gets hacked, we know Okay we’re not suppose to send troops; a hospital ‘s ICU gets hacked , equipment failure, a bunch of babies get killed lets lob some rockets at Hainan island. stuff like that , pre defined. Understood by everyone.
And explain this to the American people already. So we don’t have another Tonkin incident and/or human rights and nation building reasons for war. At least this cyber stuff isn’t too abstract we can clearly delineate, its just we haven’t done so yet.
“No single cyber-event rises to the level of ‘warlike’, but the sum of the attacks is like sending thousands of troops into the US to take out bridges, airports, and railways.”
Joe, now your stretching it like how military and security folks do; actually military and security folks don’t jump in to wars its politicians, military/security folk just massage their analysis to cater to the politicians whims. those that don’t…
https://www.valerieplame.com/
If you play the sum of all fears, then yeah i guess you can justify rationalize pretty much anything to go to war, this has been done over and over again, Yellow cake for Saddam’s nukes, etc. So us knowing history and pattern here,
the best position to play as American civilians or outsiders to the room where the secret sauce is made, isn’t to tow their line necessarily, but to always question the wisdom of sending more troops to war.
For example, I have never been personally affected by any hacks big or small coming from China or Russia, i have however received plenty of letters from various entities public and private informing me that my personal info has been compromised like an uncaring FYI, CYA legal bound to do so, due to their lack of cyber security , but
never been personally affected by a hack, state or private, or both.
I’m well aware though of all the possibilities that can cascade to chaos, especially if TikTok is taken off line. But you see, Joe, the assumption here its a big assumption is that we in the West are mere victims, like we don’t know how to co-op networks and digital stuff ourselves, well we can and we have. So like for like,
if we’re so scared at the chaos that’ll will befall us if TikTok is taken off line, then China who is too decentralized should be pee’ing their pants at the very thought of it all; Russia too since most of their wealth is in banks, easily coopted by the West, by simply pressing Enter.
so in a sense there’s already a MAD policy in place. More detrimental to them than us. We’re more decentralized in the West. My point, don’t go jumping in on any war bandwagon just yet. Evaluate and discern.
The principle here is simple,
ooooops * too centralized should be pee’ing their pants at the very thought of it all;
Wait tll your bitcoin wallet gets wipe out by cyber criminals then you will say: This is war.
Ahaha! Right. I’m sure his is some form of fallacy but I’m too lazy this morning to look up what the name is.
Fallacy of attempting to give an example to lance knowing that it will backfire most of the time.
Yes, that one! 😂😂🤣
HAHahahahaaaaa…
LOL! but seriously karl after that inflation bug that you found, no more Bitcoin for me. No hack, no war. that should be our mantra.
Give your buddies who are into bitcoin a headsup.
The Russian Mafia is just around the corner.
Let Jet Li and Jason Statham take care of the triad, this more of a fast and the furious stuff, Dwayne Johnson just gave up on the franchise maybe he will stick to G.I Joe.
or
When odds are against you call the equalizer. Denzel can take care of the Russian mafia.
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/10/1004874311/how-bitcoin-has-fueled-ransomware-attacks
“The problem has long plagued bank robbers and drug smugglers: how to transport and hide huge sums of ill-gotten gains without getting caught?
In the past few years, ransomware hackers have found an almost perfect solution — cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It’s fast. It’s easy. Best of all, it’s largely anonymous and hard to trace.
In the latest example, the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, announced Wednesday night that it recently paid $11 million in Bitcoin after a cyber attack forced the shutdown of its plants in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The FBI has blamed the attack on a Russian criminal gang.”
My first choice to take care of both triad and the russian Mafia was Jason Bourne, but Matt Damon is too expensive being rescued from outbreaks, wars, or from Mars, the moon, space stations,etc.
JBS shoulda sent the Marines to attack Russia !!! j/k
My Bitcoin buds know cyber security, plus I’m sure they’ve got the Bitcoins offline.
I’m more worried of folk like gian, in the Philippines, whose internet connection is already tapped by China.
“karl, the point was… to not be a pawn. its a dangerous”
The Chess Olympiad is dangerous, I get it.
Olympics too, look what happened in Munich and Atlanta.
Now back to hegemony, I wlll be for hegemony too if this is all that it takes to avoid it.
1. Self-isolationism.
2. Digital self-isolationism.
3. Ban a particular foreign culture.
4. Ban a particular product of foreign culture.
5. Undermine culture without banning.
6. Replace cultural products of another country with homemade ones.
But who wants to be North Korea. So No to hegemony!
karl,
I just took a peek at the Bitcoin price chart. First-quarter 2015, ~ $250. July 23, ~ $32,000. Wow, not bad if you had 10 bitcoins in 2015 and held on to it. Even Joe will not dislike having those 10 Bitcoins. 🙂
Sell? No. Give it to Junior. What is the chance it goes down to $250 per Bitcoin? Worst case — losing $2500. Peanuts to Joe.
Haha! Peanuts. Wish Ida bought in 2015. Damn!
NH,
The 2015 figures would make me wish I bought bitcoins too.Dang!
Now you’re the one concocting scenarios. The hackers hit some 30,000 microsoft systems. That’s at least one bridge worth of stormtroopers, maybe that cool Fourth Street Bridge in LA that doubles as a movie set. Taken out by an invading foreign force. And you are saying it didn’t hit you, so don’t go to war. Maybe Joe knows who it actually hit, it was damaging, and he wants it to stop. So he did his job. His phrasing was interesting. He said ‘if we go to war’ it will be because of their attacks, not ‘we are going to war if’ they don’t stop. So he was not threatening, but explaining to the American people that it’s getting serious.
I don’t like wars either, and agree the US seems unable to stop little conflicts from becoming muddling messes of big scale. That said, China needs to stay out of my infrastructure and stop messing with my countrymate’s computers.
30,000 Microsoft systems does not equal 4th Street Bridge, Joe.
We have to clarify what exactly 30,000 Microsoft Systems equals, cuz if Bill Gates and company can simply invest on more cyber security, then it should all be moot.
Your analogies are wrong. So long as its private sector, public money and military shouldn’t have to defend them.
Think of an actual scenario that affects public sector and the public negatively. And see if it merits going to war. No private sector. That would suck if we had gone to war over James Franco’s stupid movie.
p.s. — I agree with you Biden just kinda mentioned it, but this is the first mention ever by a sitting president of cyber for war. It’s unmapped territory.
That’s what hegemons do. They are like pokemons, really, with big guns.
Well Canada’s kinda like …
Gets things w/out all the warfare. Just singing.
Nuking the moon? That is a moon shot or suntok sa bwan.(pero di malayo mangyari)
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a34992705/what-would-happen-if-we-nuked-the-moon/
“… once you have a kind of ballistic catapult to send minerals for instance back to Earth you also can easily ballistically target any place on earth …”
You must be talking about “Mass drivers” and electromagnetic catapults:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver#Mass_drivers_as_weapons
China’s congratulations to Hidilyn mentions her Chinese coach first and emphasizes the win as if it were a Chinese achievement:
Also this..
https://twitter.com/SyLicoNgaAko/status/1419966438480125955
Some are questioning Paquiao’s lack of a college degree when he got a full colonel rank, so why wont Hidilyn be promoted?
I guess since Hidilyn is in the active service and Paquiao is in the reserve.(aside from palakasan)
Correct me if wrong.
It is ok for Hidilyn to stay sergeant, they might call her captain barbell once she gets promoted.
Promoted as an officer.
She is for promotion to staff sergeant.
I hope hidilyn receives all that was promised to her, the money, etc. caught at the moment, people have habit of promising and then forget about it, non compliant. happens at super storm yolanda, people promising to donate but did not comply.
hidilyn is probly under contract and has to pay back a percentage of her earning to her coaches and the team for all they’ve done for her.
You read this stuff about Orocan?
If Orocan made money even for a day, they must give Hidilyn her share.
https://twitter.com/knreign/status/1420275890877988864?s=19
show me the money! I did not mean orocan po. I mean the promised 3million by a man who has terrible problem keeping promises.
Yes I’m with you, but part of the windfall from any one who made use of Hidlyn’s success should be given to Hidlyn but that is pushing it too far.
aside from the 3million promised to hidilyn, the same man promised to bring sack loads of cash to election campaign, to attract voters.
although there is move to make hidilyn’s windfall taxfree, methink, hidilyn ought to have loyal staff to oversee, call and collect promised windfall.
Let us apply as windfall caretakers.
Or pledges will just be mult-surface polish and history might repeat itself.
if donors can do that to onyok, they can do same to hidilyn and not honor their pledges. but hidilyn is luckier kasi these days may internet na, info comes fast and quick and almost everyone is on facebook and twitter, and follows same.
and since not all donors are honest and some are shameless epal, hidilyn need not demure and be shy about it, but be confident in pursuing what was promised to her. and she can be as gentle in her nudge and as transparent as she like, and list the names of all her donors in her facebook page. for everyone to see. that way she dont need to knock on doors to remind donors of their pledges, and risk having doors slammed at her, else set the dogs on her, lol!
and only when donors honor their pledges that she thank them profusely.
it will be surprising to see how many donors will ask their names be removed from hidilyn’s list! thus proving their point na hindi dapat umasa si hidilyn sa kanila.
Right now, Afghanistan represents the last gap between the two regional powers, and for both to try courting the otherwise medieval but unrepressed Taliban would be a test of diplomatic skill; they would be sure to try the “benevolent” business aspect, representing themselves as benefactors but really eyeing that vast untapped mineral wealth, and a somewhat clear trading route as long as they disregard Taliban excesses and disallowing them from poking into the Uighur issue.
Like I said above:
“Recent history will tell us that the Iran-China relation is more of “user-friendly”, while the history of Pakistan-China is said to be Iron clad.”
This morning on my Twitter feed:
@Lcpl_x
Not saying that the US should have stayed there til kingdom come, but look what is happening.
Taliban took over and China is the grand opportunist.
===
There is no simplistic way to stop greed and opportunidm not even de-growth.
All we can do is theorize and hypothesize.
China has all the rare earth in its garbage dumps, but it is way more cheaper to mine for virgin minerals than to separate mixtures from powdered magnets phones, shredded cars, computers, etc.
And if from landfills you have to clean them first.
This will never end.
The billionaires is up to the task of redefining long shots to moonshots to infinity and beyond.
If they are to meet aliens, they probably are billionaires from their planet.
Incidentally Canada and Denmark have been going at it for decades.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War
“All we can do is theorize and hypothesize.”
karl, I actually agree with you on this. I’m in no position to affect policy; nor have I some platform for mass consumption. Just a fan of Joe’s blog here.
But its fun, getting into arguments, some serious, some jokingly, for sure my discussions with i7sharp are related to heaven and hell, so pretty heady stuff. IMHO.
In the end, I’m hoping someone reads what I write and says hey that’s actually a pretty good point. Then if you take whole debates and arguments in context, and say Man, that was a darn good debate.
And they can use it for next time they watch the news, or write a paper for school; or just think about thinking.
I personally get a kick when you share old threads and I read those comments, and realized i’ve forgotten many of those points I’ve made, or that which others have made.
When I get into conversations with people in the real world, I find it humorous that I’m actually using either yours, or Joe’s, or Ireneo’s, sonny, NH, i7sharp especially, and Micha Micha ‘s stuff I use a lot, it just feels good to have so many points of view at my disposal.
I say we keep on theorizing and hypothesizing, karl. its paying off more that we give it credit.
That would be nice especially if it is not a screen shot of past unmentionables.
Ps. This sounds like hegemon.
You heard of jejemons here, I suppose.
Jejemon (Tagalog pronunciation: [ˈdʒɛdʒɛmɔ̝n]) is a popular culture phenomenon in the Philippines.[1] The Philippine Daily Inquirer describes Jejemons as a “new breed of hipster who have developed not only their own language and written text but also their own subculture and fashion.”[2][3]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jejemon
Thanks, karl!
“hegemon”
“jejemon”
“pokemon” as mentioned by Joe.
Have you come across this:?
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
I saw a big Pokemon stuff toy in Toy Kingdom.
Bibilhin ko sana kaso tinarayan ako ng saleslady.
Ewan ko ba, sabi ko lang naman
“Miss, patingin ng Pokemong malaki.”
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Please don’t ask me to translate it. hahaha
The global race for rare earth.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/03/11/america-trails-in-global-race-for-rare-earth-elements/?sh=7730add01845
Urban mining and rare earth recycling first then worry about the costs later is the way to catch up with China.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalieparletta/2019/11/21/rare-earth-minerals-could-be-sourced-through-outdated-smart-phones-batteries-wind-turbines/?sh=c0390bd12cce
More on urban mining and capacity build up.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimvinoski/2020/06/11/urban-mining-companys-rare-earths-recycling-helps-us-tackle-chinese-dominance/?sh=36048c6225ea
Geopolitics is complicated.
China’s deal with the Taliban will undermine Russia, maybe part of the plan, but after reverse engineering all those Russian subs and jets, the Russians has served its purpose.
India- Also negotiating with Taliban?
https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/07/china-and-the-taliban-begin-their-romance.html
“Going forward, assuming the Taliban retake Afghanistan, the nature of China-Taliban ties will be geostrategically significant. A sustained positive relationship may further enable Beijing to make broad economic and security inroads into Afghanistan and Central Asia. Beijing already has strong bilateral and multilateral relations throughout the region (not least via the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), but an improved relationship with Afghanistan will pay even larger dividends. If the Taliban stay true to their word—a big if—then Beijing is set to benefit from Belt and Road projects transiting Afghanistan as well as what China frames as counterterrorism cooperation against Uyghur extremists in Xinjiang.
Assuming the Taliban retake Afghanistan, the nature of China-Taliban ties will be geostrategically significant.
Beijing’s growing clout in the region, spurred on by closer ties to the Taliban, could also raise suspicions in Moscow that China is eclipsing Russia as the dominant power in Central Asia—potentially adding a rare friction point to their relationship. Although India also appears to be engaged in back-channel negotiations with the Taliban, an official Chinese recognition of the Taliban is unlikely to sit well in New Delhi because of China’s ties to Pakistan, furthering India’s already strained relationship with China over territorial disputes in the Himalayas.
It is also unclear whether the United States would eventually recognize the Taliban as the official leadership of Afghanistan. As it stands now, China and the United States already have many disagreements, but Afghanistan has traditionally been an area where the two sides have generally agreed, for instance on the need for national reconciliation. However, that could change if Beijing recognizes the Taliban and Washington does not, adding yet another layer of challenges to an already fraught U.S.-Chinese relationship.
Alternatively, a souring Chinese relationship with the Taliban could place new pressure on the China-Pakistan partnership. Beijing might expect counterterrorism results from Islamabad that the latter is unable or unwilling to produce. Pakistan may worry that its own terrorist problems—not just with Tehrik-i-Taliban, but Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and other groups as well—could become worse if they are prevented from operating in Afghanistan. Just last week, Beijing and Islamabad initially disagreed over the cause of a bus explosion that killed Chinese workers traveling in Pakistan for a Belt and Road project. Islamabad originally said it was a mechanical malfunction, while Beijing called it an attack. In the end, Islamabad acknowledged it was the latter. This recent episode suggests that despite their close partnership, tensions over terrorism already exist and might get worse if the Taliban retake Afghanistan—and Pakistan cannot rein in attacks against Chinese interests in either country. This problem, however, is almost certainly manageable given the decades-long, all-weather partnership between China and Pakistan.”
US Secretary of State sees a light at the end of the tunnel with the China-Taliban deal.
https://in.news.yahoo.com/china-interest-afghanistan-could-positive-070230230.html
“US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said China’s possible involvement in Afghanistan could be “a positive thing”.
He said this was if China was looking towards a “peaceful resolution of the conflict” and a “truly representative and inclusive” government.”
His comments came after Taliban representatives visited China.
China said it saw the Taliban playing an important role in the peace process and rebuilding of Afghanistan.
“No one has an interest in a military takeover of the country by the Taliban, the restoration of an Islamic emirate,” said Mr Blinken, who was asked about the talks while on a visit to India.
He urged the Taliban to come to the “negotiating table… peacefully”.
yan baga ay diplomatic talk to mean what the hell is going on, lol!
Oh yes.
I beg to differ that Biden’s pivot to Asia will sow more tension. China armed itself in record time through trial and error reverse engineering and this blog article by Dean showed their hegemonic agenda through BRI.
At least now we have VFA again. So as far as tensions only China and gang will be tense.
But no more arms race please, its a small world afterall.
I second the motion: biden’s pivot to asia will strengthen maritime freedom of navigation, and not leave china running amok in the region. those afghans should eat more fish, not grow more poppies and manufacture more opium, hence maybe, china’s interest, lol! if china is edgy and tense, it’s self inflicted. it’s lofty ambition to dominate the world ought to be put in check, its carbon emission greater than most countries, its trade practices is predatory and mostly one sided. hongkong and taiwan have been long aware.
I’m glad vfa is back too. power to the people, give it to a man, or woman!
TBL and not any other whisperer in the palace deserves a hat tip, a toast and kudos.
Yes.
Look how opioids affected Duterte and the rest of the world.
China needs those Opium pipes to calm their nerves because Duterte only had a five year guarrantee to keep the Americans away.
I remember those photos of reclining Chinese with their opium pipes.
Victorian Britain and the Opium Wars inadvertently created a problem which persists to this day.
Here’s some good advice relating to early Christian “persecution” during Roman times,
Trajan to Pliny
You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it–that is, by worshiping our gods–even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.
https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/pliny.html (but read Pliny the Younger’s letter to Trajan first, very interesting reading, related to hegemony’s “soft” powers ).
‘Pliny was a civil servant who served as governor of Bithynia, in the north of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), from 111-113 AD. Here he met Christians for the first time and was not sure how they should be dealt with. So he wrote the following letter to Emperor Trajan reporting what he had done so far and asking for guidance. Trajan’s more succinct answer is also included below.
As well as being Pliny’s first encounter with Christians, this is our earliest internal document showing the Roman Empire’s attitude and policy towards the church. Moreover Pliny does historians the great favor of describing what he has discovered about the way Christians worshipped. So, this bit of political correspondence, though of very little importance in the political history of Rome, is very important for what it tells us about the way early Christians were seen by the authorities and about what they did.’
Big tech does not want a public private partership because:
They say they do not want to be instruments of the federal government.
China is their biggest market.
“The hack in March of tens of thousands of Microsoft’s servers around the world is part of a barrage of recent hacking incidents, and it revives longstanding tensions between Washington and major U.S. corporations that relish their independence because, especially in China, one of their biggest markets, they don’t want to be identified with a federal government hostile to Beijing.”
Mutual Restraint, is it the only way to prevent a mutually assured destruction in cyber?
https://www.aei.org/technology-and-innovation/the-solarwinds-hack-america-the-helpless-gulliver/
“Crucially, President-elect Joe Biden has signaled that the US needs an offensive strategy, arguing that “we need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyberattacks in the first place.” That may not be easy.
Here are cautionary realities that I and others (notably Harvard’s Jack Goldsmith) have advanced in the past. First, regarding Gulliver, while the US has the most advanced and sophisticated intelligence and offensive cyber capabilities in the world, it is also the most vulnerable target given its extreme dependence on digital communications. Further, at this particular point in time, America is acutely defenseless against potential Russian retaliation in light of the great unknowns regarding the reach and depth of Russia’s cyber penetrations. We will not know for some time what back doors or malware may be lurking in our civilian and defense infrastructures.
Second, offense in cyberspace still trumps defense — even after the expenditure of billions of dollars. The Donald Trump administration’s much-hyped “Defend Forward” strategy clearly failed to detect and counter a Russian attack that went on for over a year. It was FireEye, a private security company, that uncovered the dastardly clever spy system.
Third, shocked reactions and labeling the most recent Russian action an “act of war” are inaccurate and hypocritical. Despite the failure of the “Defend Forward” approach, we still expect US intelligence agencies to penetrate and stay inside the networks of adversaries (and sometimes friends). We cannot expect Russia, China, or Iran to desist when the US spends huge resources to achieve the same result. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s oft-quoted point at the time of the OPM hack was that “you have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did. If we had the opportunity to do that, I don’t think we’d hesitate for a minute.”
All of this leads back to Goldsmith’s continuing argument (more on this here) that the US should at least consider negotiating an agreement of “mutual restraint” whereby it would curb certain activities in exchange for forbearance by our adversaries in our networks (Russia proposed something similar in 2017). Goldsmith admits there are many potential objections and uncertainties to this course, but he holds that given our failure to thwart our cyber foes, President Biden and his team should at least consider this alternative as they plot a way forward on cybersecurity.
Like Gulliver, the US has the means to break out of its cyber binds, but we should weigh carefully the implacable trade-offs of future offensive actions.”
Mutual restraint = Cyber Detente.
https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/what-future-cyber-detente-after-biden-and-putins-geneva-summit
Remember Stuxnet?
Allegedly created by US and Israel to target centrifuges used in Uranium enrichment.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3218104/what-is-stuxnet-who-created-it-and-how-does-it-work.html
https://cyberhoot.com/blog/israel-launches-stuxnet-3-0-on-iran/
“Why Is This Important?
While Nation-State cyber attacks aren’t typically affecting small or medium-sized businesses themselves, citizens should be concerned about what’s happening considering Iran’s capabilities. In January of 2020, the Department of Homeland Security put out an alert notifying citizens of potential cyber-attacks from Iran. This followed heightened tensions between the US and Iran following a drone strike that took out a notorious Iranian military leader. Some cybersecurity experts put Iran’s cyberwarfare capabilities right behind Russia and China.
“Russia and China are Tier 1 cyber aggressors and very close behind them comes Iran, then North Korea. It is often difficult to distinguish between different countries in cyber terms as they probably use proxies in each other’s countries to mask the true originator. The U.S., U.K. and Israel are probably the West’s Tier 1 countries with sophisticated capabilities from both a defensive and offensive perspective.”
Iran has hacked numerous government websites, taken down servers of corporate targets, and broken into email accounts of people speaking out against their regime. Their actions seem to be geared toward cyber vandalism, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable of something far more serious.”
Nothing new here?
It’s been relatively silent.
I hear, this comes from Nothing:
https://magilas.me/ear-1
A wish from out of thin air:
“May this soon be made, mainly, in the Philippines!”
And help the country be known for … “transparency”?
At the risk of being led to a porn site, I clicked your shortened link and whoa!
Ear buds manufacturing and transparent packing can lead to transparency. Way to go for governance and freedom of information.
Karl,
It was a play on words – for a purpose.
Nothing. here. ear. hear, thin air, transparency.
The “Nothing” company challenges the supremacy of the behemoth Apple’s AirPods with, among other things, … dots.
In the linked article, the reader can find this:
x-
What is it with all the dots? The dot logo. The texture dots on the case. The red dot on the right earbud.
-x
I have recently pointed out the significance of the dot or point in the lowercase “i.”
And I have also written of the GOOD things about “magilas.”
You might want to note that the center or middle letter of “magilas” is the lowercase “i” … that unassuming letter, if you will, that has a point … or *the* point.
Later on, I probably will make the point or dot transparent such that in the center of it, I could place, for example, a face.
Such as the face of SMP who, in my opinion, is the epitome of MAGiLAS.
And of TRANSPARENCY.
Do you know of a more transparent person than Pacquiao right now?
As far as HEGEMONY, …
I will try to make my point in my next posting.
Trillanes is more transparent than smp, so is Leni Paquiao did hide to the taxman and did not render unto caesar so.minus points in transparency.
He won his cases, but he still could have submitted all the pertinent documents to BIR but he failed to.
https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/09/pacquiao-couldve-avoided-p3-b-tax-evasion-case-from-bir-if/
“As far as HEGEMONY, …”
Would God let an atheist China touch a Christian nation?
——–
Psalms 24:1
The earth is the LORD’S,
and the fulness thereof;
the world,
and they that dwell therein.
——–
A true Christian nation truly honors Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Creator of the world, has said,
“Search the scriptures … they are they … which testify of me.”
John 5:39 KJV
But how/where can a “Christian” search if he does not know
which/where the scriptures are?
On 11/11/1620, the scriptures (published in 1611) arrived (so to speak) in what would become the greatest nation in the world.
x-
… In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.”
-x
The KJV was the bible used during the Great Awakening and during the Civil War.
A few years after that war, the Revised Version (RV) came into existence.
“The 270-Year Reign of the King”
https://bible.org/seriespage/3-kjv-rv-elegance-accuracy
x-
3. From the KJV to the RV (from Elegance to Accuracy)
-x
Thanks KJV, you may be elegant, but the RV is more accurate.
Really?
Does anyone use the RV today?
What has been the track record of any of the hundreds of new bibles since the RV
… of those which have “Azazel” gracing their pages, of those which do not have “unicorns” in them?
To: LCX
The Torah is not a complete bible, much less English.
Signed: “kny”
i7sharp,
Really? “4 And he must needs go through Samaria.” that’s what you consider elegant? I don’t even understand what that sentence is saying; but Samaritans back then were considered by Jews as unclean, so usually Jews from Galilee would follow the river Jordan to get to Jerusalem.
This story from John below, Jesus and his buds take a short cut thru Samaria. When most Jews didn’t.
That’s because to Jesus, Samaritans were also Jews. He’s the coolest dude ever. Now if Jesus said to keep the laws which are found in the Torah; and the Samaritans keep only the Torah, we can surmise that the Torah is pretty important stuff, i7sharp.
And since both Jewish and Samaritan pentateuch mention Azazel, and no unicorns, we have to conclude that the KJV is flawed. Its a unifying message, saying the Temple at Jerusalem is crap; Samaritans temple on Mt. Gerizim is also not relevant, because
the temple is found from within, in Spirit.
John
Chapter 4 (from the KJV)
1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
As it turns out, now the Samaritans are dying out as a culture and people;
they are like 4 men for every 1 Samaritan woman (so in a way that John story was prescient ) , so lately they’ve changed their rules wherein Samaritan men can now take non-Samaritan women as wives (i’d have gone w/ polyandry , but prolly too kinky for them, they are good Samaritans after all).
But I was just thinking when I finished the video above, you know who has a surplus of women? Filipinos.
So maybe as policy, Teddy Boy and DFA can get a n exchange program with Samaritans where they marry Filipinos, thus making Filipinos now good Samaritans, that should be a start in making the Philippines a better place. More good Samaritans! … but literally. LOL!
It was Samaritans from Samar who gave Magellan and his men food and drink, as they were Good Samaritans.
As we know, Filipinos are the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and Samar was once known as Samaria, as is written in the Lost Scriptures.
In any case, the Samaritans brought Magellan to Limasawa to hold the first Mass on the archipelago, as they already knew from prophecy that men would come with tidings of the Moschiach.
@Irineo
“It was Samaritans from Samar who gave Magellan and his men food and drink, as they were Good Samaritans.”
I wonder what Edgar would have said:
https://magilas.me/ja-7
In any case, I miss Edgar.
The conversations were better then?
And China was not bigger hegemony-wise.
Someone must needs say “hegemony-wise” is grammatically wrong.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22must+needs+say%22&t=newext&atb=v253-1&ia=web
Conversations are what you make them. Evaluative judgments only apply to yourself. We all miss Edgar and his orderly wisdom.
I think my tocayo is in Purgatory. That’s a good state to be in. I wish it for good & just souls.
x-
Really? “4 And he must needs go through Samaria.” that’s what you consider elegant? I don’t even understand what that sentence is saying; …
-x
Lance, are you referring to “must needs”?
Does it matter that Shakespeare used “must needs” more than fifty times?
In the KJV:
in earth – 13 times in 13 verses
on earth – 15 times in 13 verses
throughly
thoroughly
specially
especially
ensample
example
by the which
…
The Influence of the King James Bible on English Literature
https://www.apu.edu/articles/the-influence-of-the-king-james-bible-on-english-literature/
x-
In addition to its importance as a sacred text, the KJV exerted significant cultural influence as a “treasure house of English prose,” as Lewis noted, providing quotes and allusions infused throughout subsequent English literature. Even those who deny the religious aspect of the Bible, praise its literary value. Oxford atheist Richard Dawkins, who in The God Delusion denies the God of the Bible but insists we should remain acquainted with KJV phraseology and imagery in order to understand our cultural past, cites more than 100 expressions to underscore its pervasive presence, from “signs of the times,” to “grapes of wrath,” to “no peace for the wicked.” Further, Canadian critic Northrop Frye created a course in the Bible as literature, citing William Blake’s proclamation, “The Old Testament and the New Testament are the Great Code of Art.”
Clearly, the dominance of the KJV, as the translation known to writers of English literature since the late 17th century, created a familiarity of expression recognizable to most present-day readers. Its literary allusions play an undeniably important role in the imagery and symbolism of major works revered in literature such as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, and Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away. Literature also supplies parallel biblical events in such unexpected places as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where Harry freely offers himself as a sacrifice to save others, a less-overt symbolic act than Aslan’s dying for Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The allusions to biblical incidents, characters, and language color much of British and American literature from the 17th century to the present, including biblical stories recast in innumerable “versions” of poetry, fiction, and drama, in apocalyptic narratives as well as pastoral idylls. From Bunyan to Beckett, from Milton to Morrison, the influence of the KJV broods over the corpus of literature in English, infusing its richness of texture, familiarity of phrasing, fund of imagery, force of simplicity into the very texture of our cultural heritage and the products of our permeated imaginations. That it has informed so much of our sense of community, of common language, of belief however diffused, may offer hope that it can continue to inspire, instruct, and inform our creative work and our beliefs.
-x
More than four years ago, here at TSoH:
A Great Music
Committees and creativity in the making of the King James Bible.
Shakespeare used the phrase several times; for example, in All’s Well That Ends Well, 1601:
Countess: Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
Clown: My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.
_____________________________
It still doesn’t makes sense, i7sharp! How is it being used here, as verb or adverb, or noun? Can you explain what Jesus was doing in Samaria, i mean why didn’t just John say he’s taking a short-cut through Samaria?
You must needs to tell me what it means!
I must needs stop laughing. 🤣🤣😂🤣😂
This is like the standardize adobo issue.
You can not standardize adobo.
Torah- not complete for non-Jews
of course Torah has no New testament to begin with
For the Jews- Jesus is just a Jewish citizen
For the Jews- This is all they need.
KJV- flawed?
Depends on who you ask.
If you ask LCX it IS Flawed.
If you ask i7sharp it IS complete.
We have different standards, we are the adobo group of nations in more ways than one,
Even if I say, I hope this debate does not come up again, somehow there will be a next chapter.
@LCX
“Can you explain what Jesus was doing in Samaria, i mean
why didn’t just John say he’s taking a short-cut through Samaria?”
Lance,
Why didn’t God just say “a lot of fish” … instead of 153.
——-
“Simon Peter went up,
and drew the net to land full of great fishes,
an hundred and fifty and three …”
——-
John 21:11
There is a lot that is way over my head here:
https://magilas.me/pi
Perhaps the mathematicians here can chime in.
Precision in doing things …. it can prevent hegemony?
Then maybe being precise at all times is not the answer.
Consider the perfect circle, is there such a thing?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi_(film)
Pi nickname of Piscine
Patel .
He shortened it to pi because he does not want to be in a pissing contrest by being precise all the time.
Sweet, Karl, just really sweet. I recall my Philosophy 101 (Scholastic system) professor’s definition of circle: the locus of all points equidistant from a center. So just like 22/7 Pi is a transcendental number, an asymptotic situation. 🙂
i7sharp,
RE “an hundred and fifty and three” for 153 fish caught in the net by Simon Peter, all Bibles have this number in the Gospel of John, so nothing special of the KJV.
However as to the number itself. This is very relevant to the interest I’m pursuing right now regarding mathematicians, like Godel and Galois, so my initial feel of the number is it is special, but because Hellenistic group then were into stuff like this.
But the opposite of that hunch is that it could be some scribes favourite number, for example it was just probably “an hundred and fifty” originally, and then later on a scribe wrote in the “and three” ( you know for Trinity, or maybe at the time his daughter just turned three, i dunno ).
Is 150 any more or any less special? I dunno. Maybe NH or sonny can answer. But…
Let’s focus on the number being legit though.
The Old Testament has a bunch of numbers; so too the New Testament. Back at that time, the Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks had a preoccupation with numbers. Understandably so, there was no electricity then, so you’re either doing symposiums which were orgies; or counting numbers and /or the stars; or both.
or simply went to bed really early. LOL!
karl mentioned Stuxnet above, and further up I mentioned centrifuges, aside from the 1s and 0s, the algorithms involved in making that particular sabotage work requires magical numbers or numbers that can only be multiplied by specific numbers or divided by specific numbers, special primes, involved in its IF THEN loops, etc.
So even if you just consider two Natural numbers, between 1 and 2, according to Godel is infinity; so with that said how do we even continue to count? to 3, then to 4, etc. etc. Think about it, the act done by 3 three olds the world over, of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … they are already jumping thru infinities, one after the other, i7sharp.
My point here, if you really examine it, all numbers are special. So 153, could’ve arbitrarily have been 283, and some mathematician or some guy with lots of time with Google can make that number special.
So to quote Joe, “Conversations are what you make them. “ I would add
Numbers also are what you make them. its people’s judgments and opinions that infuse them with special meanings; my point here is every number is already special.
Thus if all numbers are special; and all special numbers in the Bible both in the Old and NT, are in all versions of the Bible, then KJV is no more special, i7sharp. So essentially you’re wrong on all counts.
@LCX
“Thus if all numbers are special; and all special numbers in the Bible both in the Old and NT, are in all versions of the Bible, then KJV is no more special, i7sharp. So essentially you’re wrong on all counts.”
Lance,
Have you specified yet the bible that you believe is better than the KJV?
What does “your” bible say in/about …
1. Genesis 1:1 – “heaven” or “heavens”?
2. 2 Chronicle 4:5 – ” three thousand”? “baths”?
3. The sin that shall not be forgiven: blasphemy against the “Holy Spirit” or the “Holy Ghost”?
Thus, if you really wanna get technical, i7sharp, Genesis 1:1 should read,
In the beginning, gods created the Heavens and the Earth.
@LCX,
Can you google Pi and Bible?
The shortened link of i7sharp is this.
https://www.biblegematria.com/pi-and-the-bible.html
karl,
The math I’ll leave to NH and sonny to cover, as I’m not so sure as to chance/probability and its role in all that (but thanks for that link, I wouldn’t have clicked at all). But my comment above still stands.
But the big assumption above (28/7) is that , that right there is a sentence. We’ve only recently divided up ancient Hebrew and Greek writing with punctuation marks, there were none originally.
So , that 28 letters over 7 words could be arbitrary, and the concept of what a sentence was in the old days could’ve been from lines 1 to 2; or lines 1 to 4. Rendering the concept of “first” sentence suspect.
Remember they were fans of run on sentences.
Here’s good article on it…
“Eventually the Christians developed a need for a more precise way of citing scriptural passages for the Old and New Testaments, especially in the creation of concordances. The Christians incorporated in their biblical texts the Jewish paragraph and verse divisions of the Old Testament and the medieval chapter system of the New Testament.
About AD 500, a group of rabbinic Jewish scribes and scholars, called the Masoretes, saw that the text of the Bible as it was being transmitted began to show signs of changing through the years. The Masoretes standardized the Hebrew text by developing a system to write vowels, formalized word divisions, developed a set of accents to indicate ancient traditions of reciting the text, created concordances, counted all of the paragraphs, words, and letters, and inserted notes of explanation, references, and statistics in the margins and at the end of the texts in order to help future scribes. Their work is called the Masoretic Text.
The oldest surviving Hebrew Old Testament texts are among the Dead Sea Scrolls, found beginning in 1947 in the caves at Qumran—the earliest dating to about 250 BC. These scrolls were written with pen and ink on pieces of leather that were sewn together to form scrolls. The Hebrew text was written in horizontal lines reading from right to left, in columns that were also read from right to left, and the scribes usually left slight spaces between the words. The system of division attested in these earliest biblical texts is neither chapters nor verses but paragraphs according to thematic or sense units.”
https://rsc.byu.edu/king-james-bible-restoration/chapters-verses-punctuation-spelling-italics
The original texts were manmade, transcriptions of God’s word or gods’ words and histories as rendered by the scribes. More modern layouts were man’s reconfiguration of the original writings, done for teaching and recruiting, we can presume. Sharp is a modern day prophet of one of these texts, posing challenges that aim to reinterpret our current times in his interpretive framework. Definitely hegemonic, promoting the moral certitude of his interpretations.
Speaking of hegemonic interpretations, here’s a beaut from China:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1230152.shtml
Hidilyn = Scarlett Johansson
Philippines = Marvel Studios
China = Disney
Coach Gao = Kevin Feige
Let’s just lift = Let’s just make more shows
@sharpie
Why does this topic on biblical fiction taking up miles of discussion space in a blog post about China’s BRI?
Micha,
You see China and BRI.
I see “hegemony” and how it could be inflicted on the Philippines.
Nonetheless, what is your idea of truth (as opposed to “biblical fiction”).
From Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address:
x-
The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’
-x
Did Lincoln quote from a fictional book?
Well sharpie, I’m not quite sure if China’s imperial ambition can be countered by biblical shield, King James or original.
Maybe i7# is hoping for a Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin moment with regards to China, though Upharsin presaged Babylon falling to the Persians. With digital currency TEKEL (akin to shekel) or to be weighed and found wanting is unlikely I guess.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belshazzar%27s_feast
I took him off of moderation. My bad. Sharp has never quite bought into the concept of what the blog is about, versus his personal obsessions. He can finish his discussion with Lance here. If he goes off tangent in future discussions, I’ll put him back out to pasture.
Sorry, this is all my bad, as I’m the one baiting i7sharp. Knowing full well this would happen.
I would connect it to China’s hegemony, by way of religion as means to subvert. Can you imagine getting more Chinese to be more like i7sharp in China?!! The CCP will topple in a few days time.
Just like it toppled the Roman empire, etc. So the utility in Christianity vs. communist China is in its ability to make more and more people susceptible to Quiboloy, or Edward Lansdale. don’t matter either way. so long as China’s swatting.
i7sharp trolling China.
many things will be solved aside from religious conversion.
the cyberwarriors of China will be preoccupied figuring out the numerology of 17sharp.
thus stopping massive cyber attacks.
Religion is the opium of the people, he will stop the whole opium trade.
but if he tries that in Iran or Afghanistan, I do not know what will happen
🤔🤔🤔
We have been overlooking India in all of these.
India was the hidden villain in that book I was talking about(2034).
Most the IT c suites of conglomerates are Indians.
Not just IT Most of the C-Suites of MNCs are Indian.
They are quietly working on their space program and arms buildup.
Once we figure out Delta, Delta plus, Lambda and the next greek warrior, then that means back to this hegemonic one upmanship.
India is indeed a curious country. China chose conflict over alliance.
Curiouser and curiouser. China back as top trade partner of India. What a sweet-sour relationship.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-22/china-returns-as-top-india-trade-partner-even-as-relations-sour
Karl, try Russell Peters for proper comic relief on China & India. 🙂
PS
He’s on youtube.