The news will get you so excited, that by the end of it you might start sweating blood!
- Is there a musical secret hidden in Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'?
- As tradition —and stupidity, if you ask me— dictates every Easter, the Passion & Crucifixion of Christ will be re-enacted tomorrow in the poor mexican neighborhood of Iztapalapa.
- Six animal species under threat in Mexico. Sadly, drug dealers are not among them.
- Lions & elephants speared near Kenya Wildlife Park. I still have hope that someday Aslan will return to rectify all this.
- Scientists spot organic molecule on distant planet. Whoever said Voyeurism couldn’t be used for the benefit of Mankind?? :-)
- But wait, there’s more! Water vapor detected in Protoplanetary Disks.
- Jules Verne reaches 'parking' orbit.
- Creepy four-legged robot moves in an impressive —yet disturbing— life-like manner. Like something come out of the ’Half-Life 2’ video-game (and me without a crowbar!)
- Gene for brain connections linked with autism.
- 10 Million Baby Boomers Face Alzheimer's, Report Predicts. Cheer up! You know what would be the most effective remedy for this? A Nuclear Holocaust! MUAHAHAHAAAA >:) <————— Evil machiavellic grin
- Yikes!! Monitors that test for consciousness during operations may not be effective :-(
- Interview of Fritjof Capra, founding director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, & author of 'The Tao of Physics'.
- Sundown With Arthur: A very touchy remembrance by Jeff Greenwald on his 4-decade-old friendship with Arthur C. Clarke —scuba diver, ping-pong player, and a hell of a writer too!
- See Arthur’s last recorded reflections upon his 90th orbit around the sun.
- Is the mystery of Saint Exupéry’s disappearance finally solved?
- Ufo spotted over Great Gonerby (UK) could be one of Uncle Sam’s secret birds.
- Two old Private Eyes are hired to look into the mystery of the (in)famous ‘Drone’ photographs.
- The search for ghosts is on at a pre-Civil War mental hospital in Weston. Hmmm… somehow looking for ghosts of lunatic soldiers does not strike me as the brightest of pastimes!
- Skull changes show time of Human-Neandertal split. Maybe the Neanderthals resented our ancestors’ smelly feet?
- Ever wonder how Nintendo’s Mario would look in real life? Well, wonder no more.
- A weird video in which a high-school kid makes a statement against the war on terror… by using PORN! (no kinky stuff, so chill out).
Quote of the Day:
"I hope that we have learned something from the most barbaric century in history -- the twentieth. I would like to see us overcome our tribal factions, and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real globalization."
Arthur C. Clarke
Iztapalapa
From what I understand those people re-enact the passion voluntarily as an expression of their faith. I can't help but admire such a powerful expression of sincere faith, regardless of the religon being practiced. You or I may not intentionally inflict such suffering upon ourselves, but I feel that to glibly pass judgment on them for the way they practice their beliefs just isn't in the spirit of this site.
apology of pain
That may be true Black, but I can't honestly not feel certain disappointment in seeing how some people interpret Christ's message of "Take your cross & follow me". The idea of taking Jesus' life as an example does not mean —IMO— that you must endure several hours of pain in order to be absolved of a whole year of mischeafs and misbehavior, as these people believe.
I have never understood Christianity's apology of pain. The idea that physical pain can cleanse your soul is repulsive and rather primitive to me. Of course this idea is not exclusive from the poor sectors of our society, like the folks of Iztapalapa, but it is also present among members of Opus Dei, that come from wealthier backgrounds.
Incidentally, there was recently a very interesting archeological discovery made close to the place where the Crucifixion re-enactment takes place, but the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology) is prevented to make excavations because people don't want their traditions disturbed. I accept that, but it still saddens me.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Suffering as a by-product of
Suffering as a by-product of pursuing one's ideals (or of life's struggle) is a karmic thing ('no pain, no gain'?), but suffering for the sake of it - I can't see how that works - who benefits?
Pain
The idea that physical pain can cleanse your soul is repulsive and rather primitive to me.
IMO, it doesn't have anything to do with the pain itself. It has to do with a willingness to accept punishment, including physical pain, as an acknowledgement that atonement for one's sins can only be achieved through true repentance, which means an unconditional acceptance of what may required as an act of repentance. Jesus didn't want to have pain inflicted upon him, but he accepted it. One can't truly repent by saying "I'll do anything to atone for my sins…as long as it doesn't hurt". I don't find the spiritual motivation behind this to be "primitive" at all. That being said, to do this as a purely symbolic act is just dumb and yes, repulsive.
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My apologies go out to all who were just offended by this hostile, confrontational and completely unreasonable post.
it takes effort
Anon, I think we can agree that true spiritual growth and repentance for past mystakes implies a real effort on the person. The problem is when we assume that effort as mere mortification of our bodies, that should be regarded as temples of the soul, and therefore sacred.
Let's take for instance the example of a hypotetical murderer. Now, no matter how much pain we could inflict to this person, no suffering from him would ever restore the life he took. But if that person would come to understand a fraction of the error he commited, and turn freely to the authorities, that would be a more fitting form of atonement than receiving 20, 30 or 50 lashes in the back.
It's like in the movie 'Gandhi', when the Mahatma is fasting as an attemp to stop the fighting between muslims and hindus, and one man comes to him and confesses that he murdered a muslim boy, as revenge for the death of his own son. Gandhi explains to him that the only thing he could do to ammend his wrongdoing was to find an orphan muslim boy whose parents had been killed during the riots, and that he would have to raise him as his own, but preserving his muslim faith.
In the end, the pain of the soul is far more terrible than any physical brutality we could experience.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Sure, but....
The problem is when we assume that effort as mere mortification of our bodies, that should be regarded as temples of the soul, and therefore sacred.
That's not really a concept held within Christianity (at least not within the oldest and original Christian church, to which most Christian Mexicans belong), which is the context of this story. Jesus did not consider his physical body to be a "temple" (although it is something to be respected as God's creation), as evidenced by his willingness to have it tortured and killed.
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My apologies go out to all who were just offended by this hostile, confrontational and completely unreasonable post.
Mmmm
Well, I do remember that concept being teached at catechism. That's one of the reasons why they told us onanism was such a naughty thing ;-)
Although I honestly don't recollect if such a concept was expressed in the Gospels.
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
Is there a musical secret hidden in Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'?
Ciao Junkie
I have read the book, it is interesting.
Giovanni Pala have made a big work around "Il Cenacolo": he says to have found don't only music but also words and symbols hidden inside “Last Supper - Il Cenacolo" and I want to dedicate a blog it.
HugshugS!
Katya
'Il Cenacolo'
That would be great, if you could write some review about this book. I read a bit about this story yesterday after I finished editing my news briefs, and I knew I had to include this link, since it fitted perfectly with the date.
un abrazo.
R P J
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
War on Terror video
This person deserves an award for his video - the message aside, it is very well put together and entertaining.
Nostra
But Mo'om!
"I grabbed Dad's videos for my school project!!!" ;-)
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It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie