cosmic rapture

Free Willy

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Fri, 27 May 2016 06:00:00 +1000

I downloaded this image a number of years ago, can't remember where and can't provide attribution: apologies to the copyright-owner. Actually it's unclear as to whether dolphins were granted legal personhood status, or whether India "merely" banned the use of dolphins in aquatic theme parks. But whatever happened in reality has no bearing on whether cetaceans are or are not persons, or on how they should be treated. This issue is a great example of the relativity of values and the significance of context. The movie, Free Willy, is about the conflict of values and the impact of that conflict on the life of an orca named Willy. Many humans, including myself, believe that cetaceans are as "personable" as humans.

Free will means you are free to choose to do anything that is within your power to do; to think anything that is in your power to think; to experience anything that is within your power to experience. But the most significant freedom of all is the freedom to define your values, relative to the All, relative to Everything and every thing.

That relativity is inescapable, at least for the likes of you and me. You might, for instance, choose diversity as one of your values, except if you were supplying tomatoes to a supermarket, in which case you would want all your tomatoes to be the same size, weight and color. A supplier of tomatoes to a supermarket would prefer conformity to diversity, at least in relation to supplying tomatoes. To echo the "location, location, location" of realtors: context, context, context!

Every person with free will defines their values relative to the whole, to Everything, and relative to the values defined by other persons. Ironically, the reverse is true too: values define persons as much as persons define values. Free will is like a passport or visa issued by the United States of Personhood! But please note that there are many more non-human persons on the planet -- and in the universe -- than there are human persons. Infinity contains many types and kinds of sentient entities with free will.

All values and value-systems are relative: they change over time, and they vary by context. But some values approach absoluteness more so than others. It’s arguable that the values held in common among members of a particular culture, for instance, approach absoluteness more closely than the values held by an individual. I think it’s an hypothesis worth examining, that the greater the number of individuals holding values in common, the closer are those values to absoluteness. And perhaps the quality of the individuals also matters, that is, the higher the quality of an individual or individuals, the closer to absoluteness are the values of that individual or individuals. I don’t want to get into defining what “quality” means in this context, but I will say that in my view it doesn’t mean “intelligence”. In many contexts compassion matters more than intelligence, but let's not go there now.

While some values and some value systems approach absoluteness more than others, the approach is asymptotic, ie it never reaches its destination, but really does get closer and closer, irrespective of the number (quantity) or quality of the value-holders. But that doesn’t mean the approach is an illusion; it means that continuous progress is always made even though the journey never ends.

What about Everything herself, she who holds all values? Are any of the infinite number of values of The Biggest Person There Is, absolute? With one exception, they are not.

The fact that Everything values every thing, means that Everything values nothing. To put it simplistically, if you like all foods, then you have no favourite foods. If you like all types of music, then you have no favourite type of music.

The exception is the value of existence itself, ie, beingness, ontology if you will. The fact that I exist and the fact that you exist means that we share at least one value: existence. In fact, every thing that exists holds the value of existence, including Everything herself. The one and only absolute value, now and for all time, for all things alive and dead*, is existence. Every thing else is relative. Except maybe the second law of thermodynamics!

Related Posts

* Dead things exist.

NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS. This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously and grotesquely illustrated.

AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?). We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS. A disturbing repository of quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS. An unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms, including but not limited to barbaric episodes of herring-flinging and kipper-kissing. A cacklingly bizarre read that may induce fatal hysteria. Not Recommended!

FIENDS & FREAKS and serpents, dragons, devils, lobsters, anguished spirits, hungry ghosts, hell-beings, zombies, organ-grinders, anti-gods, gods and other horse-thieves you wouldn't want to meet in a dark cosmos. Immature Content! Adults Maybe.

HAGS TO HAGGIS. An obnoxious folio featuring a puke of whiskey-soaked war-nags, witches, maniacs, manticores and escapegoats. Not to mention (please don't!) debottlenecking and desilofication, illustrated. Take your brain for a walk on the wild side. Leave your guts behind.

many, many tickle a parson

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Thu, 26 May 2016 09:23:00 +1000

The Hand-Writing upon the Wall (1803), James Gillray's caricature of Napoleon as Belshazzar, King of Babylon. Napoleon, Josephine, French soldiers and women are at the feast-table. Napoleon looks in horror at Jehovah pointing to words in the sky. In the Biblical story, on a wall in Belshazzar's palace god's hand writes the message: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Daniel interprets for the King: "God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. You have been weighed and found wanting. The kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." In 539 BCE the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great invades Babylon.

In Babylon flowed the rivers of wine
'til one fateful day god put up a sign

The anger of god was expressed on a wall
but Belshazzar didn't get it at all

The King's main pursuits were eating and drinking
but the words on the wall really got him to thinking

He couldn't make sense of what god had in mind
so turning to Daniel said “please be so kind

as to look at that writing and try and explain
the words on the wall that are hurting my brain.”

Now Daniel was sober, he had a clear head
he knew what to say and here's what he said:

“The finger that writes having writ then moves on
here come the Medes and the Persians: you're gone!

“God's run out of patience, he really can't wait
he's given your kingdom to Cyrus the great

“So don't ask a priest or even a parson
too mene mene and tekel upharsin

“For as it is written and so shall it be
Jehovah is jealous and wrathful you see

“He'll smite you and bite you and strike without warning
so swallow ten tablets and call in the morning!”

the meaning of the meaning of meaning

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Mon, 9 May 2016 22:40:00 +1000

Attention all followers of Cosmic Rapture out there (yes, I'm talking to both of you): Pandemonium for dummies is the new blog on the block and you should go there right now and read the latest post, entitled The Meaning of Meaning.

What does that even mean? Unfortunately, you will never understand the meaning of The Meaning of Meaning, because -- as the post quite frankly points out -- there is no meaning, or to be precise: there are no absolute meanings, only the relative meanings we create ourselves as we go along.

I will say though that at least some of the post is Bohring, and that's no spelling mistake. But if all the loyal followers of Cosmic Rapture (yes, both of you) feel they need more information on the meaning of The Meaning of Meaning, here are some key words that may or may not help: "mercurial", "homeostasis", "tectonics", "cabbages", "monadic", "supernovae", "electron" and of course, "Bohring".

the mysterious footnote

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:47:00 +1000

First identified during the transition from the Age of Uncertainty to the Era of Error, the Mysterious Footnote* has long been the subject of divellent disquisition among Philologists, Etymologists, Semanticians and other horse-thieves. While the exact date of the Footnote's primordial utilization has yet to be firmly established, experts agree that initial references to it first began to appear during the infamous work-to-rule of the Typesetter's Guild in the Century of Confusion.

Subsequent sightings -- mostly unverifiable due to the Publishers' Prohibition of the early decades of the Dates of Darkness -- are believed to have been registered in the Indices of Indeterminacy produced by licensed nitpickers during the reign of Decimus Dysphemist the Tenth. Although the indices did prompt a revival of interest in the Footnote among doctiloquents in the Academy of Addenda, paleographic speculation was palilalic and pachyglossal.

Established by Decimus as part of his campaign to limit the power of the dittographers, the Academy helped sharpen the focus on the search for the origins of the Footnote. Under the leadership of Oswaldus Ontosophistus, expert peotillomaniacs at the Academy helped relieve some of the rising pressure in the organs of state**.

eBooks by Cosmic Rapture
(for kindle, tablet, smartphone or e-reader.)

* This one is reasonably clear about its own lack of mysteriousness, and therefore isn't it.

** At this point I ran out of stupidities and decided to quit while I was behind. And no, this isn't it either!

cosmic schizophrenia

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 21:42:00 +1000

Introducing a new identity, Pandemonium for dummies: a misbegotten mix of epic essays on personhood, pantheism, consciousness, culture and cosmology. And for light relief a pile of dark and wicked fictions: short and sharp as shots of bad whiskey.

When it's fully populated, Pandemonium will have much of the same content as in this blog, but revamped, revised and drastically edited. Pandemonium's skin is the polar opposite to Cosmic's: light not dark, simple not complex and with far fewer Gif files jumping out of the woodwork scaring the bejesus out of anyone foolish enough to visit.

NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously illustrated by over 20 grotesque images you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?) We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS A disturbing repository of quotably quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

meeting of the mindless

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:22:00 +1100

The presenter's voice was low and slow, the soporific drone permeating what remained of Anne's caffeine-deprived consciousness. In the grip of full-blown doodlemania, her glassy eyes stared into her notebook as her pen moved randomly across the page.

Interminable, the presenter's so-called words surged languidly through her skull-case into her soggy brain, the toxic monotony eroding her fragile consciousness:

"...committed to sustainably focus on debottlenecking our key deliverables, empowering and incentivizing optimal customer-facing engagement," continued the presenter, relentless and unrelenting as a tidal bore.

God don't some people just love the sound of their own voice, thought Anne to herself. Death by a thousand powerpoints... but only ninety minutes to go, unless some jerkwad asks a question, which is pretty much guaranteed... The realization multiplied her despair exponentially.

"...and given our objective to leverage stakeholder core competencies, our imperatives encompass picking the low-hanging fruit as key to implementing the new paradigm embedded in our mission-critical strategic tactics," the presenter paused. An almost imperceptible frown crossed his brow as his eyes swept the room.

"And externalising supplier desilofication will mean eating our own dogfood from the get-go," he said, "but that's enough from me. Anne, your thoughts?"

Startled into wakefulness, she looked up from her notebook.

"Uh... that's a no-brainer..." she stammered, praying for more words to come.

Then the solutionization of her predicament arrived. The fire drill alarm brought the meeting to a close.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

broken on the Wheel (don't lose the keys to your karma)

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 10:17:00 +1100

If there aren’t enough bodies for the souls of the dead, the problem is ghosts.

If there aren’t enough souls for the bodies of the living, the problem is zombies.

If there are more dead ancestors than living descendants, the problem is grave.

But there are solutions to these problems, at least in theory.

It’s not true that every body implies at least two others. Sex isn’t the only way to reproduce, though it’s more fun than gene-splicing. Progenitors can and do produce multiple offspring, and are frequently alive during the lifespan of their offspring, though mostly wish they weren’t. And what about weird stuff like in vitro fertilisation, cloning, parthenogenesis, toner-less photocopying, and virgin birth?

There must be a mathematical function or algorithm linking descendants and ancestors. It’s got to involve sex though, unless you’re a whiptail lizard, a species without males. Actually an actuary might be able to help if ze were getting enough, which seems unlikely.

For the algorithm to work you’d need to make assumptions about how many souls can inhabit a single body, how many bodies can host a single soul, and whether souls can inhabit the bodies of non-human organisms including but not limited to animals, gods and devils. Not to mention the bodies of extra-terrestrial species and extra-dimensional species.

Could you, for instance, spread or smear a single soul across a collective of host bodies? Bees, ants and termites do it, kinda’. And humans can be pretty eusocial too. Maybe we can all share a soul or at least an over-self like the Borg do in Star Trek. On the third rock around Sol all souls are tributaries of the over-soul named Gaia, including but not limited to the souls of humans and other living creatures.

Could you pack more souls into a single body — everybody’s, if you had enough? Think multiple personality disorder, an older name for dissociative identity disorder. Call them identities, personalities, persons or even souls, it doesn’t change the basic issue: the more of them, the more chaotic it gets. A house of many tenants is a disorderly house. And some landlords rely on professionals to keep their houses in order. Bouncers are psychologists and psychologists are bouncers. They deal with people entering dark places.

As far as leaving dark places is concerned, being thrown out of a pub after a long hard night is a bit like being born: you come to your senses on a hard, cold, unfriendly place (the pavement), squinting your blind eyes into the harsh light (the early morning sun), squealing in pain (bad hangover), covered in body fluids (blood and vomit), owning nothing (empty wallet).

Slowly, you learn to walk, talk and drink again. And then you die and are reborn... into another life of pain, misery and suffering... another pavement... another empty wallet...
over and over again. Reincarnation.

So who in their right mind would look forward to their next Groundhog Day revolving around the Wheel of Cyclic Existence?

You don't have to be Buddhist to conclude that life is full of pain and misery. But note that some incarnations are less painful, miserable and insufferable than others, depending on which one of six realms you get to be reborn into.

The six realms are each purpose-built for the following lifeforms respectively:

gods
anti-gods
humans
animals
hungry ghosts (aka anguished spirits)
hell-beings (mainly wrathful).

BROKEN ON THE WHEEL
Mouseover image for extended caption.

I don't know about you but I would definitely prefer to be reborn as a god than as an anguished spirit, hungry ghost, or hell-being.

And if you don't fancy any of those, there's an escape clause, a get-out-of-jail-free card, a spanner you can throw into the Wheel of Cyclic Existence. Of course it all depends on your enlightenment-status. Don't lose the keys to your karma.

If you really and truly want to die fully and finally you've got to drag your weary soul to either one of two special worlds in which reincarnation is not only prohibited but is an offence punishable by Life -- a death sentence that spitefully involves a non-parole period being broken on the Wheel.

Those special worlds are Arupyadhatu (the formless world) and Rupadhatu (the non-formless world), and they comprise two thirds of Ultimate Reality. The remainder is reserved for the world of desire, Kamadhatu, which is where the six above-mentioned realms are found.

And by the way, Reality hosts a grand total of 31 realms, which if you think about it will make you as mad as a hatter before you can say "heterotic string theory" or "quintic Calabi–Yau manifold"! Plus or minus 1.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

evolution, devilution

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 12:00:00 +1100

Why is it that of all the scientific theories, Evolution is the one that unfailingly evokes the most hostility in some quarters?

Newton's laws of motion are taught without any demands for a countervailing 'religious' explanation to be taught alongside. Einstein's theory of relativity is taught and learned by believers and unbelievers alike, and acknowledged as probably the best current explanation for gravity and light, with 'best' meaning 'closest to the mark'. Even Cosmology has achieved a rapprochement of sorts with the mainstream monotheistic religions. (You know things are getting very weird when the Pope buys into the Big Bang.) So what is it about Evolution that is particularly devilish and ungodly?

And if one particular conception of god has a valid place in biology (and thereby, anthropology and archaeology) then why not other fields of study? Why not Creationist Engineering, for example? Or Holy Logistics? Sacred Sociology? Hallowed Horticulture? Blessed Botany?

Evolution strikes close to home. It's about creatures, organisms: ourselves included. It's not about the sun or the moon or the stars or the sea (although there is nothing in principle from preventing evolutionary theory from being validly applied to things other than organisms (especially if everything is an organism!)).

Evolution is as personal as underwear. People don't like Evolution because it says things about us behind our backs, without consulting us first. And we don't like what it says either. It says it knows where we came from and why we are the way we are. But we humans are 'irreducibly complex' (or so the argument goes) and therefore could not and cannot be hostage to a mere scientific theory (or so the argument goes). That's why we hate Evolution so much: it provides a context in which to understand ourselves better. Unfortunately, generally speaking we don't like knowing and don't want to know ourselves better.

As well as being the most hated scientific theory, Evolution is also the least understood (noting that the word 'theory' in the scientific context does not necessarily mean 'non-factual' or 'untrue' or 'hypothetical'. Wikipaedia covers this reasonably well.) Sadly, the reasons why Evolution is hated are mainly spurious, and reflect ignorance rather than considered, informed opinion.

Evolution doesn't say that monkeys evolved into humans. Evolution says that something evolved into monkeys, and the very same something evolved also into humans. Or in other words, that monkeys and humans share a common ancestor. Or even that an early part of the set of monkey ancestors overlaps an early part of the set of human ancestors, so that some of the earliest ancestors are common to both monkeys and humans. If you don't like the word 'ancestor' in the above context, you can substitute 'predecessor' or 'precursor' or whatever moves you. (From a fundamentalist point of view, it's bad to have a monkey for an ancestor, but far worse to have an ancestor of a monkey for an ancestor. On the other hand, it's not quite as bad to have a monkey as a precursor than an ancestor!)

There's no purpose to evolution, no direction in which 'lesser' creatures evolve towards being 'greater' or 'higher' creatures. There are no lesser creatures, no higher creatures. There is no teleology to Evolution, no purpose. There's no direction, no start point, no end point. There's no evolution towards. There is only random change, and random response to change. But how cool is that?! Isn't it amazing how much diversity and richness can spring from the simple mechanisms of genetic mutation and natural selection?

At any moment, each and every prospectively non-extinct species is as well adapted as any other to its environmental circumstances. Survival = good adaptivity. Extinction = bad adaptivity. There's nothing in between, no shades of grey. It's like pregnancy. Either you are or you're not. A species can't be just a little bit extinct.

So you can't meaningfully compare the adaptivity of one species to that of another, even if the two species live in the same environment. What metric would you use? Lifespan? Comparing the average lifespan of the members of species X with the average lifespan of the members of species Y tells you which species is longer-lived, but tells you nothing about the relative adaptivity of X vs Y. Average lifespan is highly variable from species to species, and is determined by a large number of different factors including environmental as well as genetic factors.

Likewise, comparing the birth rate of one species vs another tells you about the relative fecundity of the two species, but nothing about the relative adaptivity.

It's true that oranges are better at tasting like oranges than apples are at tasting like oranges, but that doesn't mean that oranges taste better than apples. It's also true that apples are good at tasting like apples, and oranges like oranges, but that still doesn't mean that oranges taste better than apples or vice versa.

But it would seem to be valid to compare the relative adaptivity of a species at one point in time with the adaptivity of the same species at another point in time. It would seem to be true that a species can become better or less well adapted than it was before, or than it will be, in terms of lifespan, or birth/death ratio or whatever metric you care to use. I keep using the word "seems" because for any given species, any changes (in eg lifespan or birthrate) only come about as the result of changes in the external environment; so it's not the adaptivity that is changing, it is the external environment changing.

A species that is longer-lived at time T(ii) than at time T(i) is not better adapted at T(ii) than at T(i). Rather, the species is adapted to the environment at T(ii), and is adapted to the environment at T(i). The same point can be made in relation to a species that is longer lived in one place/environment P(i) than in another place/environment P(ii).

IMHO nothing of the above is incompatible with deity. The fact of Evolution may or may not be to the greater glory of whoever or whatever may or may not have set it all up in the first place, assuming there was a first place. And/or if it wasn't set up in the first place, if there was no first place, it would still be no less glorious... well, you know what I mean.

CONTINUED IN: Awarewolf, and other Crhymes against humanity, illustrated

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

the ogre of broken hill

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 07:02:00 +1100

In the foothills of the badlands
northwest of Broken Hill
lived an ugly hairy Ogre
he probably lives there still.

And in the early evening
Or the middle of the morn
They’d find the bloody corpses
With their throats all ripped and torn.

Some said he was an ogre
Others disagreed
“he’s just a sicko bastard,”
Was all they would concede.

The police could never find him
Nor the soldiers, nor the spies ...

Available at Amazon.com

We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception if it were sufficiently hellgrown, twisted and wicked. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features 53 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

the names change but the murder remains

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 13:38:00 +1100

A common theme in comparative mythology is that of a generation of gods (the offspring) killing or displacing the previous generation (the progenitors). In ancient Greek mythology, for instance, Zeus leads the Olympians into battle against Cronus and the titans.

And then there are divine gender issues, including those related to birth and renewal.

HOW MUCH FARTHER?

Male gods tend to be "driven", paternalistic, egotistical, prideful, wrathful, jealous, lustful, in a word: patriarchal. Their psychology is that of black or white, either or, yes or no, right or wrong. They employ deductive logic, eg that of the excluded middle, in which something is either true and/or its exact opposite is true, but that there is no truth in the middle.

Digital, quantum, discreet truth vs fuzzy, analogue, continuous truth.

The male gods have a clear and definite straightforward direction, a forward movement, an arrow, from A to B. With A as starting point. And B as destination. For them, there's no turning back. Time is a vector; time has an arrow.

WHY WON'T THEY TELOS?

Male gods demand obedience, tolerate no disagreement, inflict punishment. And insist on purpose,telos. They insist that there are purposes, that there is purpose. [but they won't tell us what it is!]

In contrast, the Goddess, the Great Mother (eg the Hindu divinity Adi Parashakti) is the antithesis of the above. Her psychology is that of shades of grey. She employs inductive logic when she employs logic at all. Her style is more intuitive, instinctive than logical or analytical. No purpose. No direction. No starting point. No destination. Her metaphysical expression is that of "the eternal return". [Which is echoed in the "big bang / big crunch" cycle in some modern cosmologies.]

What do you get when you shoot the arrow of time at the eternal return? The eternal spiral of course!

In the mythology of many cultures is the theme of male gods murdering or supplanting the Goddess, the first progenitor, eg Marduk's killing of Tiamat in the ancient Babylonian belief system. [I was going to say "Babylonian mythology" but then decided not to make a judgement about ideas held by people living thousands of years ago.]

The cosmic takeover bid, heavenly matricide one might say, has been linked as wikipaedia puts it, "to the rise of Patriarchal power structures ... and the institutionalisation of warfare...".

(To heap speculation upon speculation, perhaps the shift to patriarchal deity reflects also the shift from hunting/gathering to farming. Though it seems to me that in farming there's a strong flavour of "cyclic-ity" --- eg of the seasons, of rainfall, of reaping and sowing --- that tastes more like "eternal return" than forwardness and purpose.)

The Goddess is an obstacle to the forward direction of the male gods. Her existence refutes the very concept of "direction", of "purpose".

So they kill her. Boys will be boys!

So much for the issues of divine gender and psychopathology.

DROWNING IN GODS' TEARS

Another interesting set of globally cross-cultural themes is that of the Flood --- a story told in many of the myths and legends of peoples across the globe. But one should be careful about the application of the label "myth". I believe that there is a kernel of truth at the heart of many myths. Do myths have a heart? Doesn't matter. Move on.

In "Underworld" author Graham Hancock explores the evidence for global "superfloods" destroying prehistorically advanced civilizations in the period between roughly 20,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Note the plural in "civilisations". We're not talking just one prehistoric civilisation here: Hancock is not an "Atlantis hunter". Among the evidence he presents in Underworld are photographs of structures resembling ruined cities that lie beneath tens of metres of ocean. Not just in one or two places, but in many places beneath the oceans and seas of this Planet --- in the waters around Japan, India, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

Underworld also includes the inundation maps produced by Dr Glenn Milne of Durham University, UK. A world-leader in his field, Milne uses powerful computers to crunch mountains of data relating to sea-water levels, glaciation, ocean chemistry and other factors that determine coastline, the place where water meets land.

The inundation maps in Underworld are those of the past, not of today, ie they show the coastline of continents and islands as they would have been tens of thousands of years ago. Hancock compares Milne's inundation maps with maps known to have been used by civilisations that many if not most mainstream historians, archaeologists and paleontologists would describe as the earliest on the Planet. But what's startling about those ancient maps is that they show places and coastlines that those mariners of ancient Greece and elsewhere would not and could not have known about. Hancock makes a convincing case that the maps could only have been drawn by cartographers of civilisations existing far earlier --- thousands of years if not tens of thousands of years earlier --- than the civilisations deemed by the mainstream to be the earliest.

LIVER LITTLE LIVER LOT

A figure that looms large in comparative mythology is that of the god / godly being who gives humankind gifts of knowledge, and is punished by a literal godfather for disobedience.

In ancient greek mythology, for example, Prometheus gives humankind "the gift of fire" and is punished by Zeus for doing so. His punishment is to be chained to a rock and have an eagle peck at his liver for all eternity. And to make sure Prometheus doesn't get let out early on probation, Zeus makes the relevant arrangements for Prometheus' liver to continually regenerate, so that there's always something for the eagle when it feels a bit peckish.

And then there's Lucifer, "Lightbringer", the rebellious angel, also identified as the serpent who persuades Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. And is punished by Jehovah for doing so.

And on the subject of serpents, the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec entity associated with culture and knowledge, especially gnostic knowledge eg related to priesthood and revelation.

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

black holes and white bangs

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 09:53:00 +1100

Question for physicists: isn't a "white hole" really a "white bang"?

In the weird and wonderful world of physics, "white holes" are associated with black holes, which are said to have been observed in reality. The problem is that if white holes exist, they'd be bangs not holes.

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light. No light = darkness = blackness. Hence "black" hole. Gravity is infinitely strong at the "singularity" at the heart of a black hole. So matter falling into a black hole is squashed -- becoming more and more dense until at the singularity, matter is infinitely dense.

The question is, what happens to all the matter and other stuff falling into a black hole?

There are many theories, including some to the effect that the stuff that gets sucked into a black hole in one universe explodes outward as a white hole in another. In other words that at the back of every black hole is a white hole (possibly with a wormhole/colon connecting the two).

Whether the theories are true or not is not the point (of this post). The point is that if black holes suck, then white holes blow. If black holes are implosions, white holes are explosions. A hole is the opposite of an explosion. So a white hole's really a white bang.

Consider what was supposedly the biggest explosion of all time: the big bang. Once upon no time, the theory goes, the universe was extremely hot and dense. Then, for reasons of which I am blissfully ignorant, exploded outward in a great big bang that continues to drive the expansion of the universe to this very day. But not necessarily forever.

At some point/time, where/when the force driving the expansion of the Universe is weaker than gravity, the expansion will stop then reverse; the expansion will become a contraction. And all the matter and other stuff in the Universe will be pulled together in a big crunch.

The culmination of a big crunch could be a singularity where matter is so dense that it rebels against the contraction by exploding outward in a big bang. Maybe the Life of the universe is measured in big bang / big crunch cycles. Which gives rise to such metaphors as the breathing in and out of the Cosmos. Or God's heartbeat, if you prefer.

But whether big bang theory is correct or not, in one sense is not critical to the metaphysics of the Universe. In some pantheistic models, the universe is an organism, alive and well and growing and learning. Whether that organism was born in a big bang -- or in a barn or someplace else by some other means -- doesn't prove or disprove the existence of that organism, the biggest person of all: Everything That Is (ETI).

Let's say big bang theory is NOT the correct explanation of how the universe came into being. Let's say that the steady state theory is correct. Or that the immaculate conception theory is correct. Or that turtle theory is correct. Doesn't matter. How the biggest person of all came to be born doesn't change the fact of the birth.

And maybe it wasn't a Big Bang but a Big Wank: divine masturbation

CONTINUES in NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS, out now at Amazon. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously illustrated by over 20 grotesque images you wouldn't want to meet in ...

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

end of the assholes

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Wed, 9 Mar 2016 08:38:00 +1100

Once upon a planet named Zurb was a species of lifeform with a complex culture and sophisticated civilisation based on advanced technology.

The Zurbs, as they called themselves, were proud of their culture and civilisation and especially proud of their technology. They had devices and contraptions of every shape and size and nature; inventions and innovations of awe-inspiring cleverness. Their civilisation was so sophisticated and required so much energy to keep it going that they constructed a gigantic Kardashev Device* around their entire home galaxy, to capture every last pulse and flicker of energy from all the stars and black holes and comets and oilfields in the Galaxy.

“Growth at all costs,” their politicians and economists would say, “it’s a fundamental Zurbian right, the Great and Sacred Zurbian Dream”.

FIENDS AND FREAKS and serpents, dragons, devils, hell-beings, anguished spirits, anti-gods, gods and other horse-thieves you wouldn't want to meet in a dark cosmos ... Three and thirty twisted tails so outrageous you'll split your belly open shrieking with satanic laughter, or your money back. Mature content, adults only. Now at Amazon.com!

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

brothers' dreaming

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 8 Mar 2016 06:47:00 +1100

Once upon a night, a nine-year-old boy named Cain dreamed he was soaring like an eagle in the skies above a land so beautiful that he wept with joy. He felt so full of wonder and delight that he called out to his younger brother Abel, asleep in the bunk below. Cain wanted Abel at his side, flying through the air of that mysterious land. Cain knew in his heart it would be a long time and a far way before he’d see those colours or hear that music again.

The next morning Cain felt off-balance. He was happy and excited, as if he had discovered a great secret that would change everything. But he was also angry and resentful that he had to get up and go to school. He wished he could just go back to sleep and resume the magic dream.

Abel woke up that morning feeling hot and dizzy. Their mother, Eve, took one look at his pale sweaty face and said “no school for you today sweetie, you must be coming down with something.”

Then Cain said “he’s faking, it’s not fair…” and Abel said “am not!” and Cain said “liar liar your pants are on fire!” and Abel said “well your pants smell like poo!” at which point Cain flew at his brother in a rage ...

Continues in FIENDS AND FREAKS now available at Amazon.com

CONTINUES IN: Awarewolf, and other chrymes against humanity, illustrated

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

do you believe in mermaids?

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Wed, 2 Mar 2016 07:33:00 +1100

Do you believe in mermaids?
in werewolves dark and furry?
in banshees, beasties, pointy pixies,
ghosts who go all blurry?

Do you believe in unicorns?
in vampires tall and smiling?
in witches, wizards, druids’ blizzards,
wood-nymphs so beguiling?

Are you in fact an alien?
a monster green and pimply?
a freak, a fright, a barrow-wight,
a corpse whose limbs lie limply?

If so then go to meet your friends
...

Available at Amazon.com

CONTINUES in HAGS TO HAGGIS
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Bizarre tales of Whiskey and War-Nags, Manticores and Scapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication. WARNING: Immature Content. Adults maybe.http://amzn.to/1KviJ0M

MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

hags to haggis

noreply@blogger.com (srs) — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:24:00 +1100

The Scottish war-chief McMac and his war-bud Lord Mildew were heading home after a long, hard day of slaughter and mayhem.

Behind them was the whiskey-soaked battlefield upon which their foul-breathed minions had totally vomited upon the enemy — the cowardly, beef-eating English — had thrown them crying into their warm beer back to their moustachioed mothers and pink-cheeked fathers.

Mounted upon their champing war-nags, bollocks bruised and battered, the noble haggis-lovers clip-clopped their weary way up and down a lonely stretch of heather-cursed witch-land, as mountainous and boring as this very tale itself.

Wistful and witless McMac turned his mind to poignant memories of his beloved Lady McMac, she of the hair of gold and lips incarnadine. In his mind’s eye he pictured her within the Castle’s laundry chamber, the flagstone floor strewn with crumpled camisoles, chemises, kilts and kirtles. She would be gazing meekly at the brawny washer-wimmen scrubbing and scrubbing and rubbing and rubbing the bloodstained gore-flecked garments in the great bronze tub. She would be standing behind them, small and dainty, observing their washer-work. “Out, out, damned spots!” she would be shrieking in her sweet little voice.

Thus and these were the thoughts of McMac, upon the homeward leg of his travails, accompanied by the loyal and loathsome Lord Mildew. The air was rank and foul with pestilence wafting from the stink-marshes that festered in those putrid parts. Only the mournful thrum of frost-free heather-crickets perturbed the evil silence.

Traversing a blasted heath McMac and Mildew unexpectedly came upon three ancient snake-haired crones around a fire over which a large and bubblesome cauldron had been suspended.

The hideous trio shared one bloodshot eye, which they passed amongst themselves in turn. Their wrinkled faces were fraught with moles from witch grey hairs sprouted full curly and spikeful.

“Hail MacMac,” they quavered in their rusty, hag-some sing-song, “may thee live long and prosper. May misbegotten mischief and malarkey ne’er attend thee. Or, if thou art lucky, and escapeth from thine enemies, mayhap and perchance shalt thee scoopeth the pools, and winneth a million sponduleks for thy trouble.”

“What crapola uttereth ye, oh horror-hags unholy as a popeless priest?” quoth McMac unto the cauldron-huggers.

“Speaketh plainly and hold naught unsaid. Shall McMac return from battle unscathed?”

“Oh Great War-chief,” cackled the hags in unison, “from battle shalt Macmac return, unarmed. Thus sayeth the magic cauldron.”

“Unharmed, ey?” mused McMac, then turned towards his loyal retainer.

“What sayest thou, Mildew? Shall we delay our longed-for homecomings, and turn once more to rain bloody ruin upon our dastardly antagonists? Or shall we continue on our way, towards those homely places where nice shots of whiskey, slices of frothing haggis, and the sweet siren-song of the bagpipes awaiteth us?”

“Indeed Sire. Methinks a wee drabble of whiskey would hitteth the spot,” responded the dry-throated Mildew.

“Gadzooks and forsooth! Once more to battle then!” quoth McMac, ignoring the words of the thirst-crazed Mildew.

And thus the brave and brass-balled duo turned their weary war-nags south, towards the land of the blighty Sassenach.

‘Twas bloody and brutal work, hacking into the yellow-bellied tea-swillers with halberds and morningstars. ‘Twould have been a great and spotless victory, but for McMac’s misfooted mishap, mayhap. His war-feet trapped in a tangle of guts, McMac fell to earth as heavy as a sodden sack of hops.

Sixteen cowardly muffin-eating English fell upon him with their puny little swordies in their sweaty little handies. First they dextrously diced his strong right arm. Then they spitefully sliced his sinister left arm. Then they hacked both his armies off, right up to the hem of his sleevies.

But stout-hearted Mildew came to the rescue with his snot-encrusted mace and whiskeybreath, and put the mincing muffin-eaters to flight. Then the staunch Mildew staunchly staunched the flow of blood and helped McMac remount his champing war-nag. With nary a backward glance, off they clip-clopped into the sunset.

Arriving once more upon the blasted heath, they espied the one-eyed hag-trio huddled hideously around their bubbling cauldron. Wrathfully the warriors spurred their war-nags into a canter, until panting horsely from their efforts they stood before the wart-emblazoned witches.

McMac waxed full wroth and righteous. Indignant tufts of hair sprouted suddenly from his ears and nostrils.

“Oh hags, thy prognostications and pronouncements be full of shite!” quoth McMac. “Ye cackled and cawed, and ye spattered and spake, that McMac shall return from battle, unharmed.

“And yet mine dextrous sword-arm be gone. And mine sinister arse-scratching lance-arm is gone. Both hacked and slashed right off by the little English goblins, their beer-fuelled courage fuming full foul in their furry little faces. What sayest thou, oh hideous hags? Explain thy mistakenness before I run ye down with my steel-hooved horsey.”

“Oh MacMac,” crooned the hags, “oh brave and handsome War-chief, in thy magnificent war-kilt and matching sporran. Wherefore shaketh thou disapprovingly thy gory locks at us? Verily unto thee hath we quoth, and spaken unto thee. Now desist from thy fulminations and fumigations. Thy sedge is withered, our prognostications vindicated. Unarmed from battle hast thou returned.”

“Have at thee! Foul hags of doom,” quoth McMac enragedly, breakfast-haggis rising in his gorge. ...

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

no vacancies: the universe is fully stuffed

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 06:53:00 +1100

The shortest way between two points may not always be a straight line. Sci-Fi spaceship engines warp, fold or curve space so folk can get from A to B without going through all the space between.

And likewise, in the real world (whatever that is) a host of physicists, mathematicians, cosmologists, geometers and other horse-thieves are firmly of the belief that space has shape. They say it can be flat, curved, even foamy!

They may be right, but I just can't get my head around curved space: I can't visualise it. What happens to the matter, the material, the stuff that's occupying that curved space? Does the stuff get curved too? They say that gravity warps space: I can't visualise that either.

But what if matter IS space, and space IS matter? If matter (stuff) and space are the same thing, then we don't have to think about how stuff "fits" into space. And we don't have to think about the shape of the space occupied by the stuff.

There is no space to be occupied. There is no homeless stuff looking to occupy space. There is no occupying going on at all. Because the Stuff is the Space and the Space is the Stuff: curved, flattened, saddle-shaped or hyperbolic.

There is no matter. There is no space. There is no stuff. There is only matterspace, spacematter, stuffspace or spacestuff: It curves. It's flat. It occupies itself, fully and always.

WE ourselves made up the words "space" and "matter" in the first place(?!). WE invented those words so that we can use them to label aspects of Reality corresponding to "spaciness" and "stuffiness".

And when we invented the words, we also created the difference between the things to which the words point.

The difference between space and stuff is artificial, artefactual even, and ought to be treated as such.

The drawing, "Circle Limit IV: Heaven and Hell" (above) by Dutch artist M. C. Escher is said to illustrate the geometry of a certain type of space, called anti-deSitter space after the Dutch mathematician Willem deSitter.

In the drawing, according to the publication Fermilab, "...the curvature of space changes, as one moves outside the circle along its radius. Thus angels and demons, which all would have the same size in our, Euclidian, space, become smaller and smaller in the anti-deSitter space."**

Well, Fermilab is entitled to their interpretation. To me the drawing illustrates how space and stuff are really one and the same thing; that devils are no more and no less than the dark space of angels, and angels are no more and no less than the lighter side of devils. And I'm entitled to my interpretation too. And that's the problem.

Words, by their nature, have no absolute meaning but are open to interpretation and elaboration. No word can stand in fully for the thing it labels. The word is always a sign to the thing, not the thing itself.

No map can ever be identical to the territory it maps. The map is always at a lower resolution, is less detailed, than the territory.

No scientific model or framework can ever be identical to the aspect of reality it models. The model is always at a lower resolution, is less detailed, than reality. If the model fails to correspond accurately to reality, don't blame reality: the inadequacies and deficiencies are with the model and the model-maker.

Well, we've come to the point where your patience has run out and you demand to know just how stuff can be space and space stuff. Presented below (non-MECE) are a couple of possible explanations, some quite technical.

The problem is that the explanations are expressed in words, and words encourage unproductive argument about meaning, context and category.

To use language is to create and manipulate concepts. And the problem with concepts is they encourage elaboration. And the problem with elaboration is that it leads to more and more elaboration, until we lost sight of the original concept and its implications.

Elaboration leads us away from reality and into the dark forest of human thought. So the two elaborations below are presented not in terms of being true or false, correct or incorrect, but rather to illustrate how difficult it is to approach truth by means of words and thoughts.

ELABORATION #1:
Space and stuff are different states of the same basic thing, just as steam and ice are different states of water.
In Elaboration #1, spaciness and stuffiness are "mere" epiphenomena -- trivial and insignificant variations of a deeper, underlying element of reality. Of course, to a person dying of thirst, there's a big difference between a block of ice and a glass of water. To the thirsty person, the epiphenomenon is much more than "mere", it's far more critical than the phenomenon itself.
And then there's the matter of energy. Under the conservation laws beloved of physicists, energy cannot be created or destroyed but rather can only be transformed, eg into matter (strictly speaking, mass). And likewise, matter (mass) cannot be created or destroyed but rather can only can be transformed, eg into energy, as we have seen at Hiroshima and elsewhere.(Not to mention the fact that what we call matter is 99.9% empty space, or so they say.)
Space and stuff are related in the same way that matter and energy are related, ie they are forms of each other. In other words: no space, no stuff. Only different aspects of the underlying reality: the Higgs Field!
ELABORATION #2:
Even the so-called "vacuum" -- space that is supposedly devoid of stuff -- is not empty, dead or sterile but rather the birthing ground of a whole zoo of virtual particles, wavicles, partiwaves that continually wink in and out of existence, delighting in the bafflement they cause. In other words, there is no totally empty space. And that means there is no space at all. Because anything that is not empty, is not space.
And don't think you can use "density" (number of molecules of stuff per standard unit of space) to make a viable distinction between stuff and space. Stuff is space that is more densely packed. And space is stuff that is more loosely packed. There is no infinite density and no zero density*. "Density" is just another word that helps create and validate the artificial distinction between matter and space.

* except maybe at the singularities lurking deep within black holes and other paradoxical beasts.

**["Fermilab Today", http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2005/today05-05-12.html, Thursday, May 12, 2005.]

MORE WEIRD POEMS in AWAREWOLF & Other CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY, out now at Amazon.

We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception if it were sufficiently hellgrown, twisted and wicked. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes, more than 50 in total. Immature content. Unsuitable for adults.

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

the legend of the dog-faced woman

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 06:35:00 +1100

Once two kids of Satan's spawn
an evil boy, the girl a bitch
came upon a magic thorn
with which they pricked a sad old witch
and that was how the curse was sworn
and thus it was that then was born
the Legend of the Dog-faced Woman.

Every year there is a date
on which all parents hold a feast
they eat and drink and celebrate
a certain hairy, monstrous beast
who growls as bad kids meet their fate
so listen up as I relate
the Legend of the Dog-faced Woman.

When children disrespect their mums
or fail to listen to their dads
when kids forget to wipe their bums
or won't switch channels in the ads
or scream or sulk or suck their thumbs
tell them a tale, and here it comes:
The Legend of the Dog-faced Woman.

...
...
...

If you say "shake!" she'll lift her paw
this member of the canine species
she'll urinate upon the floor
or leave behind a gift of faeces
she's the ugliest thing you ever saw
and only stupid kids ignore
the Legend of the Dog-faced Woman.

MORE bizarritudes and peculiaritisms in MANIC MEMES at Amazon.

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

the gospel of scissors, paper, rock

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 06:07:00 +1100

Rock blunts scissors:
The dead, massive stone of ignorance and superstition blunts the keen, sharp mind seeking truth.

Scissors cuts paper:
The sharp mind that is too keen, too hasty, cuts the paper on which truth is written into disconnected shreds of reductionism and limited perspective.

Paper wraps rock:
With lightness and breadth, truth enfolds and makes invisible the dead, massive stone of ignorance and superstition.

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

Manic Memes: miscellaneous misbegotten malarkey

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:56:00 +1100

Just TWO(of the more than 180) memes in MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS, a disturbing if not downright annoying repository of bizarre thoughts, sayings, ideas, quotes, taunts and miscellaneous misbegotten malarkey:

Only a fool wants to be King of the Fools.

Worship is the golden calf.

In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a meme is “an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.”

As varied as the minds they infest, memes can be words, phrases, images, perfumes, melodies, harmonies, styles of beard, flavours of ice cream, mathematical formulae, recipes for roast chicken, medical procedures, rites and rituals and much more.

Memes are the mindchildren of controversial biologist, Richard Dawkins. The word “meme” first appeared in Dawkins’ book, The Selfish Gene (1976). In that book, he applies the principles of Darwinian evolution to human culture and finds that natural selection applies just as harshly and unforgivingly to thoughts and concepts as to material organisms.

They may not be flesh-and-blood, but memes are born (come into being), reproduce (spread from one “host” mind to another) and die (are forgotten or distorted beyond recognition).

As non-material organisms they reproduce by various non-fleshly means including language to convey meme ‘DNA’ from one human mind to another.

With one or two exceptions, the memes in this book are my own dear brainchildren. I gave birth to them over a number of decades starting from when I first acquired language and continuing to the present day. My teenage years were particularly active in terms of generating memes not based on language, but let’s not go there right now.

Memes compete for mindspace in their human hosts. A catchy song spreads quicker and further than a less memorable one. Memes that breed less efficiently become extinct. The Darwinian survival of the fittest meme itself is a great little breeder!

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

metrics matter more or less

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 06:59:00 +1000

Most critters including humans get their get-up-and-go from the stuff they eat and drink. And they get stuff to eat and drink by using their get-up-and-go (to hunt or fish, harvest crops, stroll to the nearest McDonalds, etc).

Scientists say you can’t make new get-up-and-go or get rid of old get-up-and-go. You can only change get-up-and-go into a different form of get-up-and-go, or into stuff.

Likewise, they say you can change stuff into other stuff or into get-up-and-go. But you can’t make new stuff and you can't destroy existing stuff.

(For example, you can’t get rid of a McDonalds burger, you can only change it into shit. No, hang on, it’s shit in the first place. Better example needed).

By now you’re probably thinking that this post is a load of reprocessed burger. With every word you read, you’re probably muttering or snarling, “says who?”

“Says the Law,” says I in reply.

“What frickin’ law?” snarls you.

“The Law of the Conservation of Get-up-and-go*” replies I.

But whether you conserve or you don't, if you're too massive you can't get up and go for all the tea in China. In other words, if you eat too much stuff you’re stuffed, but no matter. Actually, yes matter: in this post “stuff” means “matter”. And “get-up-and-go” means “energy”.

Einstein’s equation, E=MC2, can be used to work out the energy equivalent of the mass** of any given chunk of matter, if you’ve got nothing better to do. The equation says that Energy (E) equals mass (M) multiplied by the speed of light (C) squared.

Light travels at roughly 186,000 miles per second. Squaring that number yields 34,596,000,000 (34.596 billion).

In kilometres per second, the speed of light squared is roughly 90,000,000,000 (90 billion).

In parsecs -- a unit of distance beloved by astronomers and cosmologists -- light travels way less than 1 measly parsec per second.

So light travels further and faster on 1 tank of kilometres than on 1 tank of miles or 1 tank of parsecs, unleaded or leaded.

No it doesn't. Ignore the previous paragraph. It’s really really rubbish. Pure unadulterated shite. Crapola deluxe. It's not even wrong. It's a reductio ad absurdum. Light travels just as far and as fast (or as slow) in miles per second as it does in kilometres per hour, parsecs per week or any other units or combinations thereof.

The same principle applies to anything that can be measured: distance, mass, gravity, acceleration, volume, density, momentum, rotation, energy etc. Whatever you measure is not affected by the units you choose to calibrate the measurement (ie the units you choose to express the numerical value of whatever you are measuring.)

Now light may be fast, but it may not be the fastest thing in the universe. Physicists think there may be sub-atomic particles that travel faster than light (eg the still-hypothetical particle known as the tachyon).

But even if it's true that light is the fastest thing in the universe, it may not be the fastest thing there is.

According to the eggheads, it's not impossible that there are universes other than the one we know and love. And it's not impossible that in another universe, the numerical value of a so-called constant such as the speed of light is different to the value that applies in this universe. And if it’s not impossible for light to travel faster than 186,000 miles per second, then terms such as “fast” and “fastest” may need to be regauged in order to be meaningful. (Not to mention terms such as "constant"!)

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the fastest thing there is. Nothing is absolutely fast or slow or large or small or long or short or dense or diffuse or hot or cold. The only absolute is Everything (cap E, one word). Every thing else is relative, including the size of numbers such as 90 billion, which is

larger than the number of days in the week
but smaller than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy (estimated at 400 billion) and
dwarfed by the estimated 5,000,000,000,000,000 ants (5 quadrillion, short scale) on Earth alive at any one time.

And that's why, IMHO, comparisons between different methods of producing energy (eg in a nuclear vs a coal-fired power plant) can never be meaningful because they’re not engauged (physics joke: an oxymoron if ever there was one). But rather than risk being charged for attempted humour, let me explain.

Before I explain, however, let me reiterate the key points made so far.

Stuff (matter) can be converted into get-up-and-go (energy).
The energy equivalent of the mass of a chunk of matter can be worked out with Einstein’s equation, E=MC2.
The number you choose to represent C2 in the equation -- whether you choose 35 billion or 90 billion or anything else -- does not directly determine how much energy you can get from a chunk of matter.
Whatever the size of the numbers representing energy and mass in the equation, the speed of light remains the same. It's said to be a constant. Light travels just as fast or as slow whether the speed is measured in miles per second, kilometres per hour, parsecs per week or any other units or combinations thereof.

Whatever numbers are plugged into Einstein's equation, whatever units of measurement are used, nuclear processes*** are said to be the most efficient ways for humans on this planet at this time to produce energy.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can smell disingenuousness with both nostrils sealed shut, and spot an attempted hoodwink with both eyes gouged out.

The problem is there’s no common ground on which to base the comparison. For example, say you wanted to compare the “energy efficiency” of a coal-fired power plant with that of a nuclear power plant. Would you base the comparison on

mass (eg 1 kilogram of coal vs 1 kilogram of uranium), or
volume (eg 1 cubic metre of coal vs 1 cubic metre of uranium), or
density (eg the number of coal molecules in one cubic metre vs the number of uranium molecules in one cubic metre), or
number (eg 100 lumps of coal vs 100 molecules of uranium), or
cost (of building a coal-fired power plant vs the cost of building a nuclear power plant), or
impact on the environment, or
all of the above, or
none of the above, but rather something else entirely?

I don't know whether you would get more or less energy from burning coal in a coal-fired power plant than you would get from applying nuclear processes to the same quantity/amount of coal in a nuclear power station. I don't know if it's even currently technically possible to get energy by splitting or joining the nuclei of atoms in the coal molecule. But even if it is possible, there would still be no valid way to compare the energy-efficiency of a nuclear power plant vs a coal-fired power plant, there would still be the issue of there being no common ground on which to base the comparison. In everyday conversation, the words “amount” and “quantity” are widely used and easily understood. In physics those words are too vague to be useful.

Whether it’s in the form of coal, gas, oil, water, uranium, plutonium, einsteinium, californium, damp carpet or camel dung, matter is the key ingredient in almost every recipe for cooking up some energy****.

In energy matters, matter matters. Maybe that's because matter IS energy IS matter. But we seem to have strayed from the fundamental point of this post. Yes it does too have one. In fact it has two and three bits, as you can see below.

Every thing is relative, including the size of numbers, and
Whatever you measure is not affected by the units you choose in which to calibrate the measurement.
- Einstein's equation E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light) can be used to work out the energy equivalent of the mass of a chunk of matter.
- How much energy you can get from a chunk of matter is not affected by the units you choose in which to express numerical values for mass, energy and the speed of light in Einstein's equation.
- Nuclear power plants and coal-fired power plants both convert matter to produce energy. But there's no valid way to compare the "energy-efficiency" of either against the other because there are too many variables and too little common ground on which to base the comparison. No matter how much get-up-and-go you have.

FOOTNOTES

* In physics, the Law of Conservation of Energy states that the total energy of an isolated system cannot change — it is said to be conserved over time. ... Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can change form, for instance chemical energy can be converted to kinetic energy in the explosion of a stick of dynamite. (wikipedia, 6th May 2014).

Similarly, in metaphysics the Law of the Conservation of Karma, which determines the future outcomes of present actions, states that the overall quantum of justice in a just universe is conserved, and that justice cannot be created or destroyed but only can be transformed into another form.

** Mass is a tricky terms to define. It doesn't necessarily mean weight, though in most sublunary circumstances it does.

*** In this post "nuclear processes" includes cutting up or joining together the nuclei of atoms (fission or fusion, respectively).

**** Exceptions I can think of include electromagnetic induction, in which electricity is produced by a varying magnetic field, the strong force, the weak force (or the electroweak, if you prefer). Solar power is derived from the matter burnt in the furnace we call the Sun. “Wind power” relies on molecules of matter comprising Earth’s atmosphere.

IMAGES/ILLUSTRATIONS

The image shows Joule's apparatus for measuring the mechanical equivalent of heat energy. A descending weight attached to a string causes a paddle immersed in water to rotate. (Caption by Wikipedia, 6 May 2014.)

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

pointless

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 9 Jun 2015 05:50:00 +1000

POINTLESS painted by me in oils on stretched canvas. 51 x 61 cm. Weird title, I know. Couldn't think of anything more compelling. If you can, please let me know.

More than 50 so-called poems, each as weird and offputting as the next, in Awarewolf and Other Crhymes Against Humanity. Third edition out now at Amazon: FREE, one week only!

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

divine masturbation

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Thu, 14 May 2015 11:26:00 +1000

Long, long ago at the dawn of time
even before the primordial slime
when stretching ahead were all the millennia
in which quite a lot, if not more, even many a
tragic mistake or foul evil plot
lay in the future but not at year dot.

Right at the top of history’s first page
when many an era and aeon and age
loomed far ahead to the greatest extent
was writ a uniquely dramatic event
that some call the Bang that was huge if not big
(please pass me my drink and light me a cig).

It wasn’t just huge, the bang was gigantic
God had felt mellow and flirty, romantic
sultry and horny and steamy and loose
in the mood to create not just reproduce
it’s really not strange, unusual or odd
to find thoughts of love in the mind of a god.

How else could the world have ever been born
so long ago on that very first morn?
but who was the female and who was the male?
who held the hammer that hammered the nail?
Who was the yin and who was the yang?
who entered whom in that very first bang?

Was it asexual parthenogenesis
dividing oneself to avoid the cruel nemesis
that some see as death and some say is life
when you don’t need a husband nor even a wife?
When god made the world in an act of creation
perhaps it was simply divine masturbation.

We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. A devil's banquet of adults-only offal featuring more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses, horrible haiku and odious odes.

PUBLISHED IN
Awarewolf, and other chrymes against humanity, illustrated

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

only the birdies

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 07:47:00 +1100

Nowhere to be, not much to say
last week, next month or even today?

Don't get all sad or twisted and bitter
cut it back, slim it down, tweet it on Twitter.

Cats miaow, dogs bark, cows moo and goats bleat
but only the birdies go tweet tweet tweet tweet.

If that makes you much more twisted and bitterer
you must be a twit, a twat or a twitterer.

Available at Amazon.com

We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception if it were sufficiently hellgrown, twisted and wicked. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 53 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes, but who's counting.

FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition

HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated

one hand makes dark work

noreply@blogger.com (masterymistery) — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 12:45:00 +1100

One Hand Makes Dark Work" 45.5 x 35.5 cm, oil on stretched canvas, completed March 2015, commenced 2001 (?) or thereabouts...