Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
But the fact is this huge consensus exists. So in history, that means something. After all, academics work in an environment where it pays to find reasons to disagree with each other. — Tim O’Neill Since watching Tim O’Neill’s 28-minute video Did Jesus Exist? Yes (Probably) I have been toying with the idea of bringing … Continue reading “Getting History for Atheists Wrong (Again) — #1”
Don’t Cross this Virtual Picket Line Simple weeklong Boycott of Amazon starts Sunday March 7th See https://ucommblog.com/section/corporate-greed/dont-cross-virtual-picket-line by Kris LaGrange See also Twitter #boycottamazon Amazon is even working with local officials to change the time that lights outside the warehouse stay red so that organizers can’t speak to the workers while they wait at red … Continue reading “Boycott Amazon Week — Support Striking Employees”
For anyone wondering why I have not posted anything for a little while, — I’ve been in catch-up mode. When I posted something about the Gospel of Mark in relation to Vespasian and the Serapis cult I became focused on finding more about the Serapis cult, where and when and in what modes it functioned. … Continue reading “Vridar posts delay”
It will be seen if the ruling elite in the US is capable of responding to the reality in their nation. Otherwise this was a poorly executed first try. The second will be better organised. An excellent analysis of the deeper national pressures that erupted in the January 6 storming of the Capitol: Lessons From … Continue reading “Lessons From the 6 January Insurrection”
Between April and July 2020, as the pandemic’s first wave was surging, the collective stash of the world’s billionaires grew by 28 per cent and many millionaires joined their ranks. Since 2008 and especially the Covid lockdown the IMF has been dramatically changing course and are now advocating increasing taxes on the wealthy and reducing … Continue reading “Thinking of a Postcapitalist Future in the Midst of the Pandemic”
Extract from a “science fiction” novel, understanding that “science fiction is the archaeology of the future” . . . ‘OK, here is how we do things,’ began Kosti’s account of the corporation in which he worked. ‘No one tells anyone what to do. We choose freely the persons or teams that we want to work … Continue reading “No bosses, no wages, no problem”
We begin with an interesting observation of Rana Foroohar, author of Don’t Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles – and All of Us . . . After outlining how Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, arrived at their PageRank system that became the core feature of Google, Foroohar casts light on … Continue reading “Silicon Valley’s Brave New World — and Chinese Communism may be its Beacon”
Initially, Eva had considered the harvesting of data by Facebook, Google and others for the purposes of advertising a pretty innocuous way for consenting adults to trade a little bit of privacy for some rather desirable free leisure services. But as Costa would point out whenever given half a chance, Facebook and Google, Twitter and … Continue reading “Techno-Feudalism — We are working for Big Tech for free”