Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 20 2026 16:26 utc | 337

 
All that to assert that I’m a liar because I posted a link from PubMed?
 
And after I stated in the OP that you could quibble about terminology,  but there are only so many ways to describe the non-random (i.e., goal-oriented) reactions of an organism responding to external selection pressures?
 
Suit yourself. Thanks for your input. Have a nice day.

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 21 2026 0:50 utc | 404

Frank Herbert quote,
 

It is difficult to live in the present, pointless to live in the future and impossible to live in the past.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 1:09 utc | 406

Posted by: juliania | Feb 20 2026 9:39 utc | 315
 
######
 
The mask always falls.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 1:23 utc | 408

Apparently, any Epstein release can be unredacted by opening the PDF in MS Word, and the black redaction stripe disappears.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 2:19 utc | 410

Apparently, any Epstein release can be unredacted by opening the PDF in MS Word, and the black redaction stripe disappears.
 

Is that true?!? An incredible error. The DOJ spends month combing through the files while 17 security-crazed agencies are looking over their shoulder nervously and ready to kill. Then this bomb is readied for the media drop, countless manhours spent blacking out various things, all the while no common, tested and established procedure is applied about how to organize this work? Like, methodically? No way.  I don’t believe for one second that this happened without intention.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 21 2026 2:32 utc | 412

 I’m sure you can see many advantages of metals with no crystal boundaries/interfaces… 
Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 20 2026 22:50 utc | 398
 
Yes. Reading about turbine blades quite a few years back the heat treatment/metallurgy and they are a solid crystal. Heat treating various steel alloys there are time charts. Apart from the really high end single crystal stuff, you are generally going for the smallest grain size possible to have both toughness and hardness.
 
I used to watch the Asian blacksmiths a lot. The would belt out bush knives and choppers From leaf springs and bearings and stuff. A few would show the quality of the product by chopping up a bit of steel bar. One in particular showed off his workmanship by chopping up a bit of half inch concrete reo bar. That’s a high carbon steel and much harder than mild steel. Not a mark on the blade, no chips, no dings.  Quenching oil quench steel in water purely by eye.
 
I made a draw knife one time and tried doing the same. It went snap crackle pop like a bowl of rice bubbles. A couple of hours of hammering and all I had was a bit of metal with cracks everywhere. Bugger.
Those Asian blokes would touch the edge to the water pull it out and watch the colours then touch the edge to the water again until finally they would put the entire blade under the water and cool it.  A Cambodian bloke I watched a bit. An older bloke with a worn out hammer – a big young bloke worked with him alternately cranking the blower or swing a sledge for the initial shaping.
 
Somebody brought him a large bearing they wanted a chopper made from. Once the outer shell was off and straightened, he tested it by belting out the end, quenching it then putting it on the edge of the anvil and giving it a hit. I think leaf springs are a 5000 grade alloy. Can’t remember bearings. But when he quenched it, he dunked it straight in. Bearing grade steel requires a much faster quench than leaf springs.
 
Trying to make bushings for slasher blades, the bought ones were crap and my initial attempts not much better. They required bot very high hardness plus very high toughness. I dicked around with the likes of 4140, EN25, EN 26. The first tries, quench in water to get the hardness, I blew the fruits out of my labour. Then I went to a one or two second oil quench then straight into the water. Success. Tempering was done in an ordinary kitchen oven he had in the workshop.
 
Quenching and aging high tensile aluminiums is different again.
 
On the subject of blacksmithing, I watched a video of a gypsy family in India that just pulled up on the roadside to do some local balcksmithing before moving on. The blacksmith was a small bloke and his wife big and beefy. Bloody hell, she could swing a big hammer. He would have been dog tucker if he gave her any cheek.
 
But it is when you get into the higher end military aircraft you get into the single crystal stuff.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 21 2026 3:02 utc | 414

Another victim of the Hannibal Lector Yanqi Donroe Doctrine –  Cuba is being starved and strangled by America…
 
What Does Donald Trump Plan For Cuba?
 
https://www.rt.com/news/632849-what-does-trump-plan-for-cuba-castro/
 
“…US President Donald Trump claims the Cuban government is the verge of collapse, and has suggested he could order an operation to abduct its leader.
 
The Trump administration is intensifying the US economic blockade against Cuba and would welcome a regime change in Havana.
 
Secretary of State Narco Rubio is reportedly cultivating Raul Castro’s grandson as a potential partner to weaken internal opposition to American dominance over the island.
 
Trump says Havana must strike a deal or face a possible US military invasion similar to last month’s operation in Venezuela. American troops he claimed, could seize Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canal as it did Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and that such a mission ‘wouldn’t be very tough for the Pentagon…”
 
See also: 
 
Cubans struggle against a tightening US noose
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/cubans-struggle-under-a-tightening-us-noose/
 
“Women and the elderly bear the brunt of Trump’s measures… ‘If we take into account what has happened in Gaza…they have tried to replicate that model of action in the Americas…”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 21 2026 4:26 utc | 416

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 21 2026 1:22 utc | 410
 
I find that the internet is itself becoming unknowable, or at least unsearchable to peons such as I.  But I did find one early reference to  pass on, will have a look at some of my own texts over the weekend.  Here is the single example I found for what is called apophatic theology:
 

“…  For we explain not what God is but candidly confess that we have not exact knowledge concerning Him.  For in what concerns God,  to confess our ignorance is the best knowledge…”
[Saint Cyril of Jerusalem  Catechetical Homilies  (313 – 386)]

Posted by: juliania | Feb 21 2026 5:56 utc | 418

Forgot the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f01N2QuXFHA

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 21 2026 7:04 utc | 420

I need a good recipe for merengue. 
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 21 2026 5:42 utc | 420
 
****************
 
My lovely wife’s favorite meringue recipe. It’s almost foolproof. The kids’ and grandkids’ favorite; and they’ve all survived…
 
1 egg white
1 cup castor sugar
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vinegar
 
Place egg white and sugar in small bowl of electric mixer and beat three minutes on low speed. Add boiling water, vanilla and vinegar and beat 15 minutes on medium-to-high speed. Fold in sifted baking powder by hand.
 
Grease oven tray and dust with corn flour. My wife puts the mixture in a piping bag and makes little fancy star-shaped dollops. The mixture is a bit difficult to handle, but a ‘two-spoon tango’ substitutes OK for a piping bag. The meringues rise up fairly well – as a guide to size, this mixture makes 30 – 35  cup-cake sized meringues.
 
Bake in a very slow oven ( 110 to 120 C ) for one hour. Leave in the oven to cool (1 – 2 hours) with the door slightly ajar.
 
 

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 21 2026 7:24 utc | 422

I need a good recipe for merengue. 
 
 Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 21 2026 5:42 utc | 420
 
—
 
Classic Meringue is just eggs whites and powered sugar.  The ratio is 50g sugar for each egg white.  Egg whites will not peak if they contain any yolk.
 
A small amount of stabiliser, an acid like lemon juice or distilled wine vinegar (citric and acetic acid respectively), stabilises the meringue to keep it from collapsing, especially important in soufflés.   A fraction of a teaspoon or just a few grams is sufficient.
 

Posted by: too scents | Feb 21 2026 7:38 utc | 424

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2026 7:19 utc | 424
 
US still needs to refinance $9T worth of debt in 2026. No revenue for tariffs leave another large hole in revenues, which means either taxes elsewhere go up, printing commences, or money from stocks to bonds need to be transferred. The latter option requires engineering a stock market crash, which on all measures seems most likely, well, printing too. There are a lot of people making comparisons of today to 1929, 2007-2008 etc.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2026 7:51 utc | 426

I saw a conversation elsewhere about robots but I am terrified by psychohistorian, so I didn’t chime in.
 
That said, humanoid robots will probably replace human labor before they become elite killing machines.
 
The stuff that needs “muscle” but not a lot of intellectual discernment.
 
Think humanoid robots that will do the job of garbage men or cutting down trees for lumber.
 
In many applications, a human shape may not be the ideal as a tool. Why 2 arms instead of three? Or 6 or only one?
 
Why bother putting optical sensors in a “head” when they can be mounted in many other places?
 
The future of robotics will probably be individualized to the tasks they will be handling instead of a generic humanoid robot that can handle a dozen different jobs with the same frame, weight, and dimensions.
 
For a couple generations, I think humanoid will be a standard, because it helps us see the robots more like other humans than cold machines. That said, the possibilities for humanoid (and other forms) robots is massive.
 
Robots don’t get depressed after a divorce, or develop a drinking problem, or want to form a union.
 
No reason why many first world people wouldn’t have a robot companion that doubles as driver, porter, butler, and bodyguard in 30 years.
 
Maybe not in the West, but I can totally imagine that in China.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 8:01 utc | 428

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 8:01 utc | 431
 
Robotics could also be used a lot in the space environment, with high radiation and low gravity hazards. Think like tasks of mining on the moon or asteroids or setting up structures. For humans to stay prolongedly in space or planetoids they need to create artificial gravity and very good radiation shielding on craft and structures.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2026 8:09 utc | 430

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2026 8:09 utc | 433
 
#####
 
Great example. Robots may be able to colonize harsh environments like Mars and Venus, if there is any material benefit to have a presence there.
 
Perhaps undersea and in the Arctic as well.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 8:15 utc | 432

too scents,
 
indeed. Grear links there 

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2026 8:35 utc | 434

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 21 2026 7:24 utc | 425

 
An enjoyable culinary interlude. Thank you.
 
 

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 21 2026 9:10 utc | 436

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 21 2026 9:30 utc | 440
 
The thought of a ‘self driving car’ as a car with a humanoid type robot using the steering wheel and gas pedal is silly. A true self driving car has these actuators and servos built in, or doesn’t have a steering wheel or gas pedal at all.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2026 9:42 utc | 438

Baking powder and vinegar react to form sodium acetate, a strong emulsifier. 
Posted by: too scents | Feb 21 2026 7:54 utc | 430
 
*****************
 
Yes, but the principal reason to include both in the recipe is to form CO2. The low cooking temperature does not release CO2 from the baking powder (BiCarb Soda   + tataric acid) as for ‘normal’ cooking temperatures.
 
Sodium acetate has multiple uses: culinary, medical (used via IV for sodium serum level adjustment, urinary alkalyser, buffer solution), industrial… and is generally regarded as safe.
 
In this recipe, 1 tsp vinegar (say 5% acetic acid) has about 250mg Ac acid. Assuming complete conversion, this produces about 8mg sod. acetate in each meringue. The lethal dose of Sod. acetate via ingestion is about 10g/kg body weight. I assume Peter is a wiry, hard as nails, 68kg man, so a lethal dose via ingestion would be around 680gm. To achieve a lethal dose, Peter would need to ingest around 85,000 of these delicious meringues. 
 
I reckon if he stopped at around 80,000 meringues and finished off the soiree with a few stiff scotches he may just survive…
 
[ Trust me – I’m a doctor  🙂  ]

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 21 2026 12:20 utc | 440

tataric acid
 
Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 21 2026 12:20 utc | 443
 
—
 
That reminds me.  Cream of tartar is often added to meringues as an addition stabiliser.   It was what Julia Child recommends.
 

Posted by: too scents | Feb 21 2026 12:45 utc | 442

@MAKK | Feb 21 2026 10:00 utc | 442 
No problem at all – TOR from ME

Posted by: Artem | Feb 21 2026 13:30 utc | 444

Gotta see the possible (in everything), rather than focus on the impossible. The first perspective leads to growth, the second to stagnation.
 
That doesn’t mean all ideas are good ideas, but if we never test them, how can we sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 13:55 utc | 446

Car free living remains the best solution. 

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2026 14:55 utc | 448

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2026 14:55 utc | 451
 
####
 
100% agree.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 21 2026 14:59 utc | 450

The bizarre thing is that the evolutionary seeds of AI were planted in the minds of Charles Babbage, Alan Turing et al.
 
The beauty of logical systems is that it is possible to unfold the evolution to it’s logical conclusion, as witnessed in the work of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark and others. 
 
Today, it’s possible to just ask and AI system to explain it’s existence, and it will:
 
“The Evolution of Logic Gates: A Journey from Mechanical Calculators to Digital Minds
 
 
1. Foundations in Mechanical Computation: Charles Babbage’s Vision
 
 
In the early 19th century, Charles Babbage envisioned a mechanical “Analytical Engine,” a device capable of performing complex calculations automatically. His work laid the groundwork for programmable computation, emphasizing the importance of logical operations performed mechanically. Babbage’s design embodied the idea that computation could be broken down into discrete steps, foreshadowing the binary logic that would become central to digital computers.
 
 
2. The Birth of Formal Logic: George Boole and the Boolean Algebra
 
While Babbage’s machines were mechanical, George Boole’s algebraic system in the mid-19th century formalized the logic of true and false values. Boolean algebra became the mathematical foundation for digital logic, enabling the representation of logical operations through simple true/false variables. This formalization was crucial for translating human reasoning into machine-executable operations.
 
 
3. Alan Turing and the Concept of Computability
 
 
Fast forward to the 1930s, Alan Turing introduced the concept of the Turing Machine, an abstract computational model capable of simulating any algorithm. Turing’s work demonstrated the limits of mechanical computation and introduced the notion of a universal machine governed by a set of rules—akin to the logical operations underpinning digital circuitry.
 
 
4. Logic Gates as the Physical Embodiment of Boolean Logic
 
 
Building upon Boolean logic, engineers and scientists developed electronic components called logic gates—AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR—that physically implement Boolean functions. These gates are the building blocks of digital circuits, enabling the encoding of complex computations through simple, interconnected logical operations.
 
 
5. The Path to the Digital Age: From Logic to Computers
 
 
The synthesis of Boolean logic with electronic engineering led to the creation of the first electronic digital computers in the mid-20th century. These machines, such as ENIAC and later the EDVAC, relied on networks of logic gates to perform calculations at unprecedented speeds, transforming raw data into meaningful information.
 
 
6. The Logical Conclusion: Computing as an Evolution of Reasoning
 
 
The path from Babbage’s mechanical calculators through Boolean algebra to Turing’s theoretical models and finally to physical logic gates illustrates an evolutionary thread: the desire to formalize, mechanize, and optimize reasoning processes. Today, this evolution culminates in intelligent systems that, while not fully autonomous reasoning entities, embody the logical structures that define computation.
 
 
In essence, the evolution of the logic gate is a narrative of human ingenuity—starting from mechanical devices, through formal logic, to the abstract models of computation, and finally to the physical realization of logic in electronic circuits. It reflects an ongoing journey to embody reasoning itself within the fabric of technology, leading us to the sophisticated digital systems that underpin modern artificial intelligence and computer vision.”
 
In the words of  Maya Angelou:
 
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That’s why it’s important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are”
 
 
 

Posted by: lachaussette | Feb 21 2026 15:34 utc | 452

 
15% now.
 
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/trump-says-hes-increasing-the-worldwide-tariff-to-15-per-cent/article_bdec6370-b6c7-5d41-9e9c-af5720099075.html
 
The man is unhinged.

Posted by: ftp | Feb 21 2026 17:06 utc | 454

Redacted: Whitney Webb: On Wexner and More!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKAy5i2XmfE
 
“Whitney Webb on massive Epstein document revelations, Palantir, Clintons and ‘Kill List’.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 21 2026 18:16 utc | 456

Central banks are forced to absorb more of the government debts than before due to lack of interest. 
 
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 21 2026 19:45 utc | 42
 
—
 
Crossposting this to the OT thread.
 
It is not Central Banks that are increasing their exposure to US Treasuries.  It is Cayman Island hedge funds.  Those hedge funds are the largest purchasers of US debt.  They skim the razor thin differential between the Secured Overnight Repo Rate and the agregate bond rates with tremendous leverage.
 
The FED lifting the Overnight Repo cap is indicative of the need to give money to the hedge funds so that those funds can buy more Treasury Debt.
 
Every night the FED lends out $3.5 Trillions in the SOFR market.  Cayman Island entities then use that borrowed money to buy the Treasury’s debt.  If the scam stops there will be no buyers for the US dollar.
 
14 minute explainer ==> https://youtu.be/bFR2gJqT_1o
 

Posted by: too scents | Feb 21 2026 20:34 utc | 458

They skim the razor thin differential between the Secured Overnight Repo Rate and the agregate bond rates with tremendous leverage.

thanks two scents – key phrase: tremendous leverage
 
scary
 
prep prep prep

Posted by: Exile | Feb 21 2026 21:10 utc | 460

“Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran”
 
https://www.brookings.edu/events/which-path-to-persia-options-for-a-new-american-strategy-toward-iran/
 
This document describes how the US (+ Israel ????) should “tackle” the problem called Iran.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 21 2026 21:33 utc | 462

Try #2….The latest from Trump about tariffs from ZH
 

One day after ‘The Supremes’ struck down his IEEPA tariffs, President Trump has announced, in a statement issued on Truth Social, that he will raise his new, global tariff to 15% (the maximum allowed under a separate trade law), a day after he took hiked global tariffs to 10% (in response to the SCOTUS ruling).
Trump further slammed the SCOTUS decision as “anti-American”…
“Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court,
Then dropped the hammer…
“…please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been “ripping” the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.”
With the policy taking effect immediately, Trump further signaled that he would press ahead with his trade war despite the major legal setback.
“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs…
…which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

 
He can do this for 150 days without congressional approval

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 21 2026 22:15 utc | 464

🇺🇸🇻🇪🇨🇺🇮🇷⚡️- Republican Senator Ted Cruz hints at a possible ‘US regime change operations in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran within the next six months’

 
Video 1-minute, 32-seconds
https://x.com/MonitorX99800/status/2025380819603271683

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 22 2026 1:26 utc | 466

Pavel Gubarev, the other founder of the Angry Patriots Club is up on discrediting charges. He will join Girkin in the clink. Thoughts? Will actual Russian patriots ever stand up for their country?
⚪️ 🔵 ⚪️

Posted by: substandard tech | Feb 22 2026 1:54 utc | 468

Posted by: substandard tech | Feb 22 2026 1:54 utc | 471
######
The real patriots are in the Donbass at the LOC.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 22 2026 2:00 utc | 470

@ 468 ftp
 
Ewwww… David Pacman?
 
Gross, dude.
 
Maybe go spam CounterPunch?

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 22 2026 3:04 utc | 472

Ewwww… David Pacman? Gross, dude.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 22 2026 3:04 utc | 475
 
Is your problem with him or the content?
 
Fairly new to his channel and I see nothing particularly objectionable.
 
“Maybe go spam CounterPunch?”
Maybe go fuck yourself?
 
 

Posted by: ftp | Feb 22 2026 3:58 utc | 474

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 21 2026 7:24 utc | 426
 
Thanks for your thoughts,  Sticker.  I did go to see what I could find concening the quotation I gave you, and there is online a very long examination of Saint Cyril’s Catechetical Homilies,  which I was delighted to find and have bookmarked.  The translation has been made by non-Orthodox scholars, who aren’t always happy with the text but nonetheless they are doing their best.  I haven’t got very far with it but the interesting part is that Saint Cyril apparently had been a child in Jerusalem before Constantine and his mother Helen came there to ‘ornament’ the various places of Christ’s movements therein, building churches and even changing the landscape somewhat in doing so,  so that was interesting in itself.  He later was the Bishop there, and the Homilies are written for people entering the faith.  So, Saint Cyril most definitely would not feel that his inability to describe God is detrimental to encountering him in the ways you suggest — far from it!  The daily morning prayer that comes down from early times  begins:  Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things…  
 
What I read from modern theologians is that always in the Old Testament Biblical enounters with God, there is mystery involved and no direct visible manifestation.  For Orthodoxy,  it is not until in John’s Gospel we are told that the Son is present from the beginning,  in the Genesis story, as the Word of God.  As is the Spirit.  So this is the Trinity manifesting itself back in creation times, which is why for the Orthodox  the writings that tell that story from the beginning are particularly sacred and can’t be separated from the New Testament as some would have us do.  
 
Anyway, thanks very much for your comments.  I wouldn’t have done my search except for the problems my words had caused,  so I am grateful!!

Posted by: juliania | Feb 22 2026 4:25 utc | 476

@479 juliania, Sticker
Thx for the morning prayer! During Lent, I always try to orient my first thought towards thankfulness and this will help immensely, in addition to taking deep breaths and crossing myself before leaving the home for daily work.
 
Reading your guys’ comments on knowing God objectively, I can offer this essay about the writing of Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Catholic Theologian I have only recently dipped my brain into. 
 
A good passage from the essay:
 

In the AdS, Balthasar wants to “unveil” (enthüllen) the “interior” (das Innen), the most concrete reality of all, by means of a dynamic revelatory process that starts with the exterior. In order to express the interior’s concreteness, Balthasar uses the term “soul” (Seele) instead of the more classical, at least in the German-speaking world, “mind” or “spirit” (Geist). Thus, the living soul is said to be unveiled only in the exterior, for example, in history and the “environment” (Umwelt). Balthasar calls these exterior realities that are studied to come to know the interior soul “images” (Bilder) and “myths” (Mythen). Furthermore, Balthasar claims that these exterior realities are necessary not only because it is only in and through them that the living soul can be unveiled but also because the soul, as the most concrete reality, can express herself only in and through myths and images. In this sense, Balthasar concludes, they must be regarded as the mirror that the soul crafted to attain self-knowledge.

 
juliania, even though the Trinity was there in the beginning, I have recently been thinking about the state of the souls who existed before Jewish-revelation of the one, true God. What happened to them? What access did they have to the notion of the Trinity that could spurn them on their way to divine reconciliation? 
 
Going back to an earlier conversation you and I had about an argument with my father-in-law, I told you I prefer the Apostles’ Creed because, in my view then, Jesus entering into Hell and His resurrection means that He went to drag those souls to Heaven with him. Some say that he ministered and He took the ones who were receptive, but this is just an absurd fiction (if I was conscious in my state within Hades, how could anyone not choose goodness unfolding perpetually eternally, if consciousness were the prerequisite for such a decision?). 
 
But Jesus would not drag those to Heaven He did not know. No, those who existed before Jewish revelation had to have had a yearning for the Good emblazoned within their Soul. And this squares with the thinking of von Balthasar and, as far as I know, the early Church Fathers who surely thought about the souls before the divine revelation given to the Jews.
 
Perhaps that which is emblazoned upon us is in the process of unfolding. The shape that we see now is still mysterious to us and difficult to understand.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 22 2026 5:20 utc | 478

LD, you seem to have never seen a car carrier yourself. Granted, you’ve not missed all that much, they don’t look exactly classy from up close. But there are so many of them that time between arrivals along Elbe river would be measured in hours.
 
My taste for a badass story involving car carriers is this absolutely bonkers longform reporting on the work of a salvage crew retrieving one which capsized on the high seas and was already given up. It had me question my life choices for a while.

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 22 2026 7:12 utc | 480

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERkZfL8lob8&list=RDdwmyZ1fWGlk&index=3
 
The rain tumbles down in July in the south. As a kid some rain washed out the track over the creek. Living on the Paroo, the rain came down if it rained in summer. One day racing the storm clouds and the river home. Had a veg garden but went out onto a gravel ridge and shot sheep for a bit of tucker.
 
Son swimming the river when the mailman got to the other side. Another time, we went to a local do and it rained. First creek the son walked in to test the depth. Near the middle he was nearly taken of his feet so I went in so he could grab the bull bar. Got through that one but not far from home, a creek was running high. We waited till dawn but it was still high so my son swam the creek and got the bush basher. He went up higher to cross then came down through the scrub and picked us up. He was I think about 15 at the time.
 
I guess for many, that song I linked has no meaning. A different life.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 22 2026 9:01 utc | 482

Huckabee says:In an interview with Tucker Carlson released on Friday, Huckabee, a Baptist minister and self-described Christian Zionist, said it “would be fine” if Israel took territory stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. He later added that Israel is not seeking to expand its territory and has a right to maintain its security.
https://www.swentr.site/news/632883-muslim-states-condemn-us-envoy/
What about:
Then it would be time for theindigenous population to drive out those who travelled from Europe to North America and their descendants…
fr.reg.

Posted by: Oberbayer | Feb 22 2026 11:10 utc | 484

Perhaps that which is emblazoned upon us is in the process of unfolding. The shape that we see now is still mysterious to us and difficult to understand.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 22 2026 5:20 utc | 481

 
I believe the end of the journey you describe here has been foretold, so long as the one seeking to find, know, enter into relationship with Him seeks Him with all his heart and mind and soul and strength. 
 
I.e., a sincere seeking, open to Truth regardless of “cost,” wherever it leads. As opposed to seeking that is actually self-seeking, or conditional, or merely out of intellectual curiousity or esoteric aggrandisement. A person who in truth seeks Him will find Him. He’s not interested in turning the sincere away.
 
This is addressed to people far away  from God. They have sunk into sin, rebellion, ignorance, arrogance and disobedience. Yet–
 

But if from there [that place of drastic estrangement from Him] you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deut. 4:29 [my emphasis]

Posted by: Sticker | Feb 22 2026 12:03 utc | 486

Posted by: persiflo | Feb 22 2026 7:12 utc | 483
 
######
 
As often occurs, what seems novel to me doesn’t generally see so to others.
 

This vertical integration, which allows the company to complete all stages of production, from manufacturing to transportation, in-house, enhances the competitiveness of Chinese electric vehicles.

 
I’ve worked around automotive manufacturing. Being able to do all phases “under one roof” is an amazing feat of organization, IMO.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 22 2026 13:34 utc | 488

 I mean, Job’s personal testimony is considered to be the oldest in the bible. His depth of interaction with God, based on mutual love, is astonishing. (And certainly not the cartoon often taught by Churchianity.)  And way back then Job said: 

But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. (Job 19:25)

 Way before the prophets and the first Advent, Job knew. 
Posted by: Sticker | Feb 22 2026 11:30 utc | 488

 
Thanks for this, Sticker.  I was thinking of Job as well, but my relevant passage comes right at the end of his conversations with his friends and the final visitor.  Indeed, whenever this episodic encounter was written, it very much relates to what I was trying to say.  For, when God does finally appear to Job, Job has nothing to say.  This rather than any other part of the story IS the story to me.  And this is what I meant by not being able to describe God as is meant by apophatic theology.    When Job says as we know from the Handelian hymn “I know that my redeemer liveth” — that is not knowing God in His essence, but knowing about him that he exists as all good things do, but greater; and as with the Psalmist this is a limited knowledge that will only become complete not in this world but in the next when we will see Him face to face.   
 
You previously say in this post:
 

The concept of “visible manifestation” seems to me a little too hide-bound in this context, where we recognize there must be some sort of intersection between the physical and spiritual realms for the encounter to take place.
 

I wouldn’t say it quite that way, but rather that at such moments heaven touches earth, and earthly things become transfigured.  For instance, for Moses, who is the author of the first five books of Scripture in the tradition,  his first encounter is with a bush that does not burn. And when he goes closer to examine this strange happening, there comes a voice.   Moses does ask “Who are you?”  receiving the answer variously interpreted, but most simply:  “I am that I am.”   Martin Buber has interpreted this to mean that God is saying “I am the one who will be travelling with you on your exodus from Egypt”,  which is a possible reading.
 
I am not sure what you mean by ‘hide-bound.’  I would say, ‘Scripture-bound’ but also tradition-bound, based on historic events, and my own family and church experiences.  Today in Orthodoxy is called “Forgiveness Sunday”  and I would say myself that without the attending miracle Moses experienced, this was my first  such encounter, spiritually speaking,  in the Orthodox little church in Santa Fe.  It was simply a matter of feeling in the course of the service this day, that I had linked back to my own early childhood, but in a church setting .  This was to me very wonderful, still is.  It is a lovely service, and tomorrow Lent begins.
 
Thank you for these conversations; I have enjoyed them.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 22 2026 23:15 utc | 490

@ 489 sticker
 
One of the things about my faith I have always struggled answering for myself is how one would be capable of rejecting eternal goodness.
 
Maximus the Confessor believed that human beings have two wills: a natural one given by the Creator that naturally seeks union with the good; the other is the gnomic will, the voluntary one that struggles with our fallen reality.
 
Another way to look at the notion of God is absolute, perfect freedom. God is free from a gnomic will. He has no will except that of Himself as the Good. It stands that in our eventual union with Him, we will no longer be subject to the whim of our gnomic will and will be unable to sin. Being trapped in a lack of will sounds bad until one understands that to be perfectly free means you will be unable to sin.
 
“You shall love your God with all…” does therefore not sound like a commandment from our Father. Rather, it sounds like a blessing we must accept and truly have no choice in the matter.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 23 2026 2:34 utc | 492

It‘s more than just incompetent, it’s disgusting. After these sick fucks massacre schools full of children and decapitate your ally, you call for peace? Wow. Putin ain’t beating those Chabad accusations. Has he ever done a single act directly against the entity?

Posted by: Ф | Mar 2 2026 12:42 utc | 494