#church of antipode

[hadea]

THE CHURCH OF ANTIPODE

A fringe organization that believes samaritans and devils were originally one angelic species meant to be servants of God in the higher spheres of heaven. Samaritans are called "doves" and devils are called "lambs" to re-contextualize the relationship between the two, and they worship a leader bearing both genetic traits. The current leader is Mother Concepta, an anomaly whom ironically cannot bear children. She claims to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary helping to merge devils and samaritans back to their original holy being via creating more anomalies (read: isolated cult members). The cult carries out their services and rituals in the long abandoned Church of the Redeemer.

[rastronomicals]

10:01 AM EST November 6, 2024:

The Church - “Perfect Child” From the album Starfish (February 1988)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Antipodal Neo-Psychedelia

–

[scotianostra]

On March 23rd 1848, the Free Church of Scotland settlement at New Edinburgh, New Zealand was founded, it is known today as Dunedin.

It was the poet’s uncle, Rev Thomas Burns, who was among the first settlers to arrive in Dunedin, the Gaelic for Edinburgh, having been appointed by the Free Church to lead a new Presbyterian settlement in the South Pacific

One passenger on the John Wickliffe, the fist ship to carry Scottish settlers to the South Island of New Zealand, wrote in his diary: “All seemed pleased and called it a goodly land – Port Chalmers and around is truly beautiful – rich in scenery – its slopes and shores are fertile, and wooded to the water’s edge.”

Every year in Dunedin, the arrival of these first settlers from Scotland is marked by Otago Anniversary Day, the public holiday falling this year on Monday just gone.

A second boat sent by the Otago Association, founded by the Free Church to broker land sales in South Island for its followers, arrived on April 15 with more than 200 people on board. They had spent 114 days at sea since leaving Greenock.

On board were people such as Adam James, 25, a boatbuilder; James Blackie, 21, a school teacher, James Brown, 23, a calico printer and Mary Pollok, 19, a servant.

By the end of the 1850s, around 12,000 Scots had joined them in this new flourishing city, many from the industrial lowlands.

Artisans, small traders and industrial workers were to make up a third of all Scottish migrants to New Zealand with almost 70 per cent of this group coming from the Edinburgh and Glasgow area.

A number left Paisley in the early 1840s when its weaving industry was in trouble with the south part of the city to become known as “Little Paisley”.

It was George Rennie MP, born in East Lothian, who first proposed a Scottish settlement in 1842 when he declared “We shall found a New Edinburgh at the Antipodes that shall one day rival the old.”

Chief operators of the church-led plan included William Cargill, a former British Army captain who commanded the John Wickliffe and became the first superintendent of Otago.

Edinburgh solicitor John McGlashan, became the Otago scheme’s chief organiser and promoter who commandeered residents for the new colony and organised ships.

His office at 27 South Hanover Street was open 10 hours a day as people turned up at his door to organise their passage.

Conditions were tough on arrival with relentless hard graft required to transform mud and bush into even the most primitive settlement. A number of wattle and daub cottages were constructed with the place dubbed “Mud-edin” given the coarse conditions.

Still, the Free Church, in an 1853 publication, had the highest praise of the new Scots residents who were “mostly of the labouring classes who had the aim of becoming landowners.”

The author noted the “very high character” of the residents and the “very serious regard to their religious duties.”

The extreme piousness of the settlement is made startling clear.

“The silent religious aspect of our Sabbath, the solemn seriousness, the death-like stillness, and the reverential attention in the house of God strike every stranger and are unequalled by anything of my experience,” the account added.

Despite the growth of Dunedin, the Otago Association folded in 1852 after repeatedly failing to meet is sales targets with its assets and liabilities taken over by the British Government.

McGlashan took a ship to join the settlers in Otago. He and Captain Cargill were to become major players in the governance of the region with the moral authority delivered by Rev Burns, a foundation chancellor of the University of Otago who some disliked for his heavy handed puritanical ways. Anglicans were referred to as “Little Enemy” by the Ayrshire-born minister.

As Tom Devine noted in To the Ends of the Earth, one anonymous correspondent to the New Zealand Otago Times, writing under the pseudonym a Staunch Englishman, described the Scots settlers as a “mean, close, bigoted, porridge-eating” lot who were prone to “minding the sixpences.”

The legacy of those first settlers is, however, ample. Otago Boys’ High School was set up in 1864, the University of Otago in 1869 and Otago Girls’ High School, one of the first state-run schools of its type in the world, opened in 1871.

John McGlashan College, Dunedin’s Presbyterian boys’ school, was founded in 1918 from a bequest to the Church by McGlashan’s daughters.

The stiff presbyterian tone of Dunedin is also said to have spurred a “creative rebellion” with works by Dunedin poet James K Baxter considered among the country’s finest.

Today, whisky, pipe band sand the city’s own Haggis Ceremony continue to mark the impact of those first Scottish settlers who arrived.

Shops on the main street stock Dunedin tartan, tweeds and Scottie dog trinkets and sign posts point to places such as Leith Valley, Corstorphine, Musselburgh and Calton Hill.

Bars pride themselves on their selections of fine malts, churches have an air of architectural familiarity and the municipal chambers looks as if it could have been transported from any Scottish town. A statue of Robbie Burns stands in the main square.

Mark Twain, after visiting Dunedin in 1895, wrote of them: “The people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to heaven thinking they had arrived.”

For millions of Scots scattered worldwide, Scotland remains the homeland. It's the place they look towards for inspiration, with affection, or with an air ticket to renew that sense of Scottish identity. The internet has made the world a lot smaller for us all, which is why many enjoy the posts here, it gives them a wee sense of belonging, even if it less than a dram of Scottish blood you have flowing through you.

[unhonestlymirror]

Once and for all. Grand Duchy of Lithuania WAS NOT a backwards state to Poland and especially russia.

In Grand Duchy of Lithuania, they washed the sidewalks. Yes, by hands. Yes, during the same time when in Western Europe, they simply poured slop onto the street. Lithuanians and Belaruthians can't even imagine how it is - to willingly live in shit. My friend, who had the chance to study the history of Belarus after the USSR collapse and before Lukashenko, told me this. And printing was also very developed there, the first printed russian book appeared only about 100 years later after the first Lithuanian-Belaruthian one. And yes, they were pagans, and they really hated The Church because even nowadays, they believe the Church is used by all kind of scum to cause evil and to control people's minds. That's why soviet union used it in order to gain favour from these lands, btw, and the soviet hatred for religiosity is the only thing which Belaruthians praise about soviets. Saying that Christianity (either Catholicism or Orthodoxy, idk, statements from both sides are copying each other) brought prosperity to Lithuania is a veeeery large "pulling of an owl on the globe" (publicly drawing conclusions that are obviously inconsistent with the original premises).

GDL also had a very strong army, and while Kyiv was rich enough to pay off the Horde with tribute while staying in power themselves but not organised enough to stop them from raids, while moscow was just too peripheral to save their autonomy from the Horde, GDL payed no tributes to anyone at all. Taught by bitter experience with Prussia and other Baltic tribes, they were tough, very organised, cunning, and tight-fisted. And therefore, very rich. After all, those who washed the streets by hands and those, who printed the books, needed salary. It's Ukrainians who are generous and cheerful and friendly with everyone and "we can negotiate" mentality, Lithuanians were always famous for their independency and "I won’t look into my neighbor’s plate, but I will fight for what’s mine to the last." When GDL made a union with Kyiv, it truly was a superstate, from the White to Black sea, and just like every superstate, it had to collapse one day because nothing ever lasts forever.

My heart bleeds when I see Lithuania being portrayed as some kind of a lackey. If Ukraine is Eastern European Spain, then Lithuania is Eastern European France, and a lackey is literally the antipode of Lithuania. They are polite but proud, kind but cunning people, and they teach their children the same things they taught them 500 years ago. I just need to look at the way they speak at, e.g., UN meetings to realise these people are born to rule and regulate things. Belaruthians are almost the same, except for they don't value themselves at all.

[rinarin-karimel]

Fumetsu is, of course, a very glassy and painful canon, despite the possibility of resurrection for some people. But when I talk about painfulness, I don't just want to mention deaths, or emotional pain, or the tragedy of situations. And another aspect.

Let's compare with my other favorite manga: Pandora Hearts. A large caste died, giving us a lot of tears, but...Before their death or earlier, the heroes of the manga came to some kind of peace of mind, understood their delusions, or could die peacefully. But in Fumetsu this is completely absent. Let's see:

Parona

Parona could not forgive herself for the death of her sister, and considered herself to blame for her death. Hence part of Parona's behavior and her desire to protect March at all costs. But she fails to protect March, she is defeated and dies at the hands of the murderer of her dear one, and now we are not even talking about universal injustice, but about the fact that Parona could never forgive her far-fetched sins.

Gugu.

In his first appearance, Gugu asks himself: why am I not special? After being wounded, he hides his face under a mask. In the Modern arc, his classmates accept him without a mask, but he still returns to Takunaha, where there are many like him "Gugu under the mask" and most readers see this as a positive thing for him, that he has gone to where he wants to be . Gugu in the future world is also covered with a mask, although he had plastic surgery in the Modern world and Fushi could resurrect him with a healed face. But he never let go of his desire to hide.

Tonari.

Tonari on Janada, even as a child, considers himself “dirty” and a terrible person (and Fushi is his antipode). She, at the end of the past arc, never gets the opportunity to begin to consider Fushi an equal (she asks to be buried at his feet). She also continues to consider herself dirty and unworthy in the modern arc, she believes she must suppress her love for Fushi and considers herself a terrible old woman. Has Tonari cured her complexes and overcome her terrible vision of herself? No.

Kahaku.

Well, he is the standard of this example. His family instilled in him an inferiority complex as a child and proved to him that he was to blame for being born into the world. When he meets Fushi, he has a guilt complex for his own existence and a feeling of guilt, for something that he was unable to influence (he considers himself guilty that the Bennett Church began to hunt Fushi, but as a child he could not influence this at all ) this is almost the first thing we see in him. He further blames himself for the fact that the Church caught Fushi and tortured him with a hot iron. This progresses as he begins to believe that he can't help Fushi and the end of the Renryll arc is quintessential. He can't separate himself from what Left Hand did or forgive himself for his role in it, which leads to his death, but he never forgave himself or let himself go simply for being born and it's so nightmarish.

Messar. Well, here, too, everything is clear, Messar simply drank himself from alcohol for two AGES, wasting his life, unable to forgive himself for the death of Alma. (The question is, why couldn’t his comrades code it by force?).

Fushi.

Well, everything is clear too. As he began to consider himself to blame for all the deaths, he continued. He accepted that he “killed Gugu, Parona, March” (of course, this is not true), he considered himself guilty because he thought that the Knockers were killing people because of him, and having learned otherwise, he continued to consider himself guilty and responsible, hence his self-destructive behavior in Renrill, which he does not let go of, but only reinforces at the end of the arc, concluding that he should have simply obeyed Bon and “he should not have wanted or asked for anything.” This is incredibly cruel.

Mizuha.

Many regard the finale for Mizuha as a happy ending for her in terms of her character: she does not act selfishly, she does something in the spirit of Kahaku in the finale, and it would seem that she also learned to give something to Fushi, and not just accept. But. Mizuha used to live in the concept of “I do everything for my mother, I live an ideal life for my mother,” she did not truly live for herself. I'm not at all sure that the object of this credo just didn't shift from mom to Fushi/Hanna, did Mizuha just live for herself?

It doesn't really work with March or Hairo or Eko and Kai, and I'm not sure about Bon because I don't understand him, but more than half of the main cast just never broke out of the established framework of self-blame and self-harm, and didn't accept themselves and did not forgive themselves, even if their sins were others. The canon of unprocessed injuries. It's very sad actually.

[employee210]

Who is mother Concepta? 👁👁

She's the leader of Church of Antipode, a cult in my fictional city Hadea. She appropriates Catholic iconography, so she's like a Virgin Mary figure. Their thing is that they believe having anomalies (children of devil-appearing species and of angel-appearing species) are the ideal godly form. But really it's an excuse to make more ingrained members of the cult.

[her-moth]

An incomplete list of the best things I've read (in English) between 7 October 2023 and 5 May 2024

12 October 2023, Birzeit University Union: ‘We are all Palestinians’ in the face of colonial fascism, Mondoweiss

13 October 2023, On Mourning and Statehood: A Response to Joshua Leifer, Gabriel Winant, Dissent

14 October 2023, The First Week: Dispatch from the Palestinian Youth Movement, The New Inquiry

16 October 2023, Unconditional Solidarity with Palestine, The Editors, New Socialist

17 October 2023, Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza, Third World Approaches to International Law Review

18 October 2023, To say and think a life beyond what settler colonialism has made, Samera Esmeir, Critical Legal Thinking

25 October 2023, No Human Being Can Exist, Saree Makdisi, n+1

27 October 2023, Our Siege is Long, Esmat Elhalaby, Public Books

16 November 2023, Up in Arms, James Butler, LRB

25 November 2023, Hamas is a Figment of Your Imagination, Steve Salaita

December 2023, Can the Palestinian speak?, Ruba Salih, Allegra Lab

4 December 2023, An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians, Defend Democracy Press

4 January 2024, I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7, Salman Abu Sitta, Mondoweiss

12 January 2024, Acts Harmful to the Enemy, Jake Romm and Dylan Saba, n+1

19 January 2024, Weaponizing Rape, Nada Elia, Jadaliyya

27 January 2024, Palestine’s Martyrdom Upends the World of Law, Bassem Saad, Protean

6 February 2024, Asymmetries, Nasser Elamine, Sidecar

13 March 2024, Are we indeed all Palestinians? Mohammed El-Kurd, Mondoweiss

22 March 2024, Undoing Oslo, Alberto Toscano, Sidecar

27 March 2024, Toward an Intellectual History of Genocide in Gaza, Esmat Elhalaby, The Baffler

28 March 2024, Josie Fanon and her fidelity to Palestinian liberation, Jessica Breakey, Verso blog

11 April 2024, It’s been 164 Days and a Long Century: Notes on Genocide, Solidarity, and Liberation, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Punam Khosla and Natasha Aruri, Antipode

12 April 2024, Tomorrow Is A Palestinian Day, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Progressive International

16 April 2024, Naming Israel’s Psychological War on the Palestinians: Walid Daqqa’s Searing Consciousness (Or on Redefining Torture), Ghina Abi-Ghannam, Liberated Texts

24 April 2024, ‘A Productive Language’: On Western Intellectual Paradigms and Refaat al-Areer, Ameed Faleh, Ebb

5 May 2024, Ghost in a Rhetorical Machine: Against the reification of artificial intelligence, Zhanpei Fang

(no date), Can the Palestinian Mourn? Abdaljawad Omar, Rusted Radishes

4 November 2023, (We felt that we will not permit them to crush us) / Notes on a question, Reports

26 October 2023, Two Litanies for Palestine, Rasha Abdulhadi, The Offing

8 December 2023, Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, Protean

2 February 2024, Once, the Monster Was so Kind, Adania Shibli, Berlin Review

24 March 2024, Palestinian, Ibrahim Nasrallah, translated by Huda Fakhreddine, Protean

1 April 2024, From the River to the Sea, Samer Abu Hawwash, translated by Huda Fakhreddine, LitHub

3 April 2024, Palestinian Poetry is Poetry for All Time: An Interview with Huda J. Fakhreddine, Asymptote Journal

Passages through Genocide

[thewineauctionroom]

New Post has been published on https://wineauctionroom.com/report-on-august-live-auction-annoucing-a-special-single-vendor-auction/

Report on August Live Auction & Annoucing A Special Single Vendor Auction

In our Late Winter Live Auction, which was followed by its after-sale Buy Now auction that concluded on Wednesday the 2nd of August, back vintage Bordeaux achieved the highest bid-to-view ratio echoing recent trends from En Premier trading. 2008 Chateau Mouton Rothschild took the highest regional hammer win at $963.50, while 1984 Chateau Latour sold for $470 and 1998 Chateau Palmer reached $458.25. 2010 Chateau Gazin (6 bottle lot) reached $1480.50.

For Bordeaux blends from the rest of the world, 2010 Stonyridge Vineyard Larose (12-bottle lot) OWC sold for $2538, from the same vintage its 6-bottle OWC sold for $1128 while 2013 Te Mata Estate Coleraine (6-bottle lot) OWC sold for $987. 2005/2007-2009 vintages of Destiny Bay Magna Praemia all reached $376 while 2009 Church Road Tom sold for $188. 1998 Penfolds Bin 707 magnum scored $705. Both 2012 Penfolds Bin 389 & Bin 407 sold for $117.50.

As expected, during the current temporary market corrective period, buyers become more selective, causing prices and interests to drift sideways or slip a bit. After a little over a year, Italy once again outperformed all the other countries of origin.

The highest hammer win of the overall auction went to 2005 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia (6-bottle lot) at $2890.50. 2005 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia 3 Litre reached $1527.50, while 2006 Masseto Tenuta sold for $1410 and its 1999 vintage sold for $1057.50. 2003 Antinori Tignanello magnum scored $1128, and 2005 Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia sold for $470.

In the world of Pinot Noir, 1996 Domaine Armand Rousseau Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru sold for $1010.50, 2002 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay Clos de Ducs 1er Cru sold for $505.25, 2004 Domaine Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes Les 1er Cru sold for $423 closed followed by 1996 Domaine Mongeard Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru at $411.25 and 2003 Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay Clos des Chênes 1er Cru sold for $258.50. From home, 2017 Felton Road Block 5 scored $246.75 while its 2013 and 2015 vintage sold for $223.25 and $211.50 respectively. Both 2015 and 2016 Gibbston Valley Reserve Pinot Noir reached $164.50 while both 2016 Prophets Rock Cuvee aux Antipodes Pinot Noir and 2018 Dry River Pinot Noir sold for $141 and closely followed by 2012 Valli Out Of Shadow Pinot Noir at $129.25.

From Syrah to Shiraz, 2009 E. Guigal La Mouline sold for $916.50, followed by 2007 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape sold for $869.50, while 2010 E. Guigal La Landonne sold for $822.50 and 1990 Paul Jaboulet Aine La Chapelle Hermitage sold for $752. 1997 Penfolds Grange Bin 95 sold for $587.50, and its 1985 Penfolds Grange Bin 95 vintage reached $481.75 while 2005 Jim Barry Armagh sold for $352.50.

On a sweeter note, both 2001 Chateau d’Yquem and 2003 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage scored $1292.50.

All prices include Buyers Premium but exclude GST.

Thanks again to all our bidders, consignors, and friends from the lovely wine community for your continuous support.

Breaking News! There’s a special additional auction starting next Wednesday. We don’t often interrupt our usual auction schedule unless for good reason and this “Tale of Two Collectors” is a great reason to do exactly that! A true labour of love by two generations of the same family, this collection has been consigned from a purpose-built temperature-controlled cellar.  Plumped with wines to suit all tastes and purses, you’ll find gems from both the primary and secondary markets.

Available for a limited time August 09 – 13 online only before we head back into our usual auction schedule. Bid early to not miss out on your wines of choice.

[christophe76460]

DE LA DROGUE À CHRIST

Jonas fuit. Devant son appel et sa mission, la responsabilité était trop grande. Bien que le prophète ne renonça à sa foi, il y en a pour qui, la foi en elle-même s’avère trop lourde à accepter.

Ce fut le cas de l’artiste Zach Williams.

Mais David, le psalmiste, lui-même le dit clairement : “où irais-je loin de ton esprit, Et où fuirais-je loin de ta face ? Si je monte aux cieux, tu y es, Si je me couche au séjour des morts, t’y voilà.” [Psaume 139 v.7-8]. En somme, comme l’histoire de Jonas même nous le prouve, il est impossible de fuir devant le Seigneur. Et Zach Williams en témoigne aujourd’hui.

AUX ORIGINES

Nous sommes en Arkansas, Zach Williams, un jeune garçon, sans histoire, grandit auprès de ses parents, tous deux chrétiens, servant fidèlement dans leur église locale. Le rythme ecclésiastique, le jeune garçon en maîtrise les codes à la perfection. Est-ce cela l’origine de ses frayeurs ? Car l’adolescence arrivée, Zach s’est peu à peu éloigné des valeurs que lui inculquèrent ses parents. Si loin, qu’au lycée, il préféra goûter à la liberté juvénile. Bien que ses parents, n’aient cessé de fléchir les genoux pour que revienne à Dieu, leur fils bien-aimé.

Comme quoi, le salut est bien personnel. La foi de ses parents, certes ferme, n’aura suffi au salut de l’âme du jeune Zach.

“Ne vous y trompez pas: les mauvaises compagnies corrompent les bonnes moeurs” [1 Corinthiens 15 v.33]

Zach Williams le reconnaît. Il commença à fréquenter des personnes qui vivaient aux antipodes des valeurs divines. Se tournant alors vers la facilité contre les sacrifices et concessions qu’impliquent la vie chrétienne, contre la charge qu’incombe la tâche des élus de Dieu. Vivre au jour le jour sans qu’inquiéter des répercussions sur l’avenir. La liberté, quoi…

Mais voilà, très vite, Zach fut séduit par la drogue et l’alcool. Des choix qui malheureusement ruinèrent ses rêves. Lui, qui désirait être basketteur professionnel, par ses addictions, tout s’envola. Lorsqu’il se brisa la cheville, voir sa carrière définitivement réduite à néant, le plongea davantage dans le trou noir de la drogue. Il se tourna alors vers la musique.

A l’âge de 20 ans, loin de ses parents, après avoir abandonné l’école, divorcé de sa première épouse, Zach se mit à la guitare. Le rock ’n’ roll devint pour lui, un exutoire. Pendant plus de quatre ans, il évolua dans un groupe et vécut une vie de rockstar. Mais rien ne cessait d’échouer autour de lui. Comme la majorité des humains, il remettait sans cesse la faute sur quelqu’un d’autre, sans réellement reconnaître son problème. Tout était sa faute.

LE RETOUR DE L'ENFANT PRODIGUE

2012. Zach Williams revint à Dieu. Une réjouissance certaine pour ses parents après plus de 20 ans de prière et d’intercession. L’enfant prodigue, de retour de ce qui sera son ultime tournée avec son groupe, dans un état profondément déchu, rencontra véritablement Jésus-Christ et fut sauvé. Il n’en fallut pas longtemps pour qu’il sente ce vide en lui, comblé par le Seigneur. Pour la première fois, il s’abandonna entre ses mains et ne recula devant son appel. La frayeur laissa place au repos véritable, au soulagement, à l’amour du Christ.

Avec sa nouvelle épouse, à qui, il s’était uni, alors encore en pleine tournée, et leurs enfants, Zach foula à nouveau le sol d’une église, son église en Arkansas. Pour son plus grand bonheur.

Aujourd’hui, serviteur affirmé, Zach, sans grande surprise, pose sa pierre à l’édifice divin au moyen de la musique. Artiste contemporain, auteur-compositeur, leader de louange, il vient de dévoiler, le 23 septembre dernier son tout nouvel EP intitulé “Chain Breaker”. Un titre dans lequel il expose, de son timbre pop-rock, la vraie liberté dont il jouit en Christ. Un témoignage, son témoignage, une bonne nouvelle remplie d’espoir et de grâce qu’il partage au monde.

Disponible sur Itunes, l’artiste nous régale également d’autres titres, “Old Church Choir”, “Song of Deliverance”, “Revival” et “To the Table”.

Un bijou qu’il offre au grand public, via une tournée actuelle aux Etats-Unis, où l’artiste parcourra l’Illinois, l’Iowa et le Texas.

Artistes Press

[authorspress]

Get ready! The 2023 Los Angeles Book Fair is on its way! As we look forward to this year's book fair, we plan to create an atmosphere that fosters a sense of warmth and welcome, allowing readers to immerse themselves in an excellent selection of books. The Los Angeles Book Fair will be held in University of Southern California on April 22nd and 23rd, 2023. See you there!

Author, Theodore G. Obenchain will be joining the Los Angeles Book Fair with his wonderful book, "From DARKNESS to SUNRISE: One Man's Natural Epiphany"!

"Martin Holmes grew up in rural Appalachia at a time when youngsters generally adhered to the strong religious and musical influences of the area. His passion for the guitar was a given, but religion was different. With his many misgivings surrounding supernatural religion, Martin began rebelling against rigid parental expectations. ""Why should I have to listen to church authorities preaching about the supernatural? They know little more about it than I.""

Touring with country rock groups Martin experienced antipodal lifestyle changes-a meteoric rise in musical talent, matched by personal moral decline-innocence to decadence. With years of incessant travel he had become the libertine--partying, drugging, drinking, and womanizing. After one prolonged international tour Martin returned from Seoul to LA preternaturally exhausted. Sadly, thirty-six hours of sleep provided no relief. Some debilitating mental state had set in. He was miserable whether active or sitting inertly staring at the wall. After failing professional treatment, Martin embarked on his own arduous effort to solve his dilemma.

#LosAngelesBookFair #UniversityOfSouthernCalifornia #AuthorsPress #Publishing #SelfPublishing #Reading #Books #BookLover #BookNerd

[pazodetrasalba]

Philosophy (& 3)

Dear Caroline:

I don't feel like giving too much weight to the famous thought experiment you quote as an indictment against utilitarianism. As you aptly suggest, there are different (and differing) utilitarian responses to it, and it is not as if deontology doesn't have problematic thought experiments of its own, as I have mentioned in previous posts of mine.

What I do find interesting is your third solution, or rather, what the material that leads you to it seems to tell me about you. I would offer as a hypothesis that the ethical frameworks we feel 'natural' and 'intuitive' are probably correlated with naturalized and interiorized ways of looking at the world from our youthful days. In your case, your very early involvement with economics, which includes a subtext of premises like the rational actor, utility functions, application of mathematics to problems of allocation of scarce resources, etc..., would naturally lead you to feel the doctrines of The Church of JS Mill as self evident. Conversely, my dogmatic religious and working class background has probably rewired my thoughts towards a need for objective and unassailable truths and a strong emphasis on justice. Not that I am saying that these predispositions cannot be forced to stand up to the Court of Reason and effectively argue their case, but they would be automatic go-to spaces for our lazy thoughts.

I'd really like to hear more about your solution, as I don't think I have quite got it. I don't know much about Game Theory -it lies in the sort of mathematical antipodes of my instinctive likes, as it is both 'applied' (!) and 'applied in the social sciences' (!?!)- but have read enough to be aware of the basic framework of Prisoner's Dilemma. Would in your view the organ-harvesting option represent the case where both prisoners rat each other out, as opposed to the optimal double silence? That would seem to point you in the direction of a rules-based utilitarian, partially corrupted by a felt need for the semblance of (some) deontological binding rules.

Thought experiments aside, though, I still get the feeling that most people actually articulate some sort of hybrid monster that combines these two flavors, and that ultimately, the choice between one or the other hardly has any practical difference in actions except for a vanishing set of extreme cases and thought experiments. Even without having delved much into it, I find much to be liked in utilitarianism, but I don't think I could ever come to grips with the unboundedness of its potential demands on the subject 'for the sake of maximization', perhaps because I am too self-centered and unwilling to sacrifice this our bullet-life opportunity for personal and intellectual flourishing and the pursuit of happiness.

Quote:

I hate being good.

Mary Poppins

[rastronomicals]

7:45 AM EDT March 30, 2024:

The Church - "Under The Milky Way (Acoustic)" From the album Starfish (February 1988)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Antipodal Neo-Psychedelia

[scotianostra]

On March 23rd 1848, the Free Church of Scotland settlement at New Edinburgh, New Zealand was founded, it is known today as Dunedin.

It was the poet’s uncle, Rev Thomas Burns, who was among the first settlers to arrive in Dunedin, the Gaelic for Edinburgh, having been appointed by the Free Church to lead a new Presbyterian settlement in the South Pacific 

One passenger on the John Wickliffe, the fist ship to carry Scottish settlers to the South Island of New Zealand, wrote in his diary: “All seemed pleased and called it a goodly land – Port Chalmers and around is truly beautiful – rich in scenery – its slopes and shores are fertile, and wooded to the water’s edge.”

Every year in Dunedin, the arrival of these first settlers from Scotland is marked by Otago Anniversary Day, the public holiday falling this year on Monday just gone.

A second boat sent by the Otago Association, founded by the Free Church to broker land sales in South Island for its followers, arrived on April 15 with more than 200 people on board. They had spent 114 days at sea since leaving Greenock.

On board were people such as Adam James, 25, a boatbuilder; James Blackie, 21, a school teacher, James Brown, 23, a calico printer and Mary Pollok, 19, a servant.

By the end of the 1850s, around 12,000 Scots had joined them in this new flourishing city, many from the industrial lowlands.

Artisans, small traders and industrial workers were to make up a third of all Scottish migrants to New Zealand with almost 70 per cent of this group coming from the Edinburgh and Glasgow area.

A number left Paisley in the early 1840s when its weaving industry was in trouble with the south part of the city to become known as “Little Paisley”.

It was George Rennie MP, born in East Lothian, who first proposed a Scottish settlement in 1842 when he declared “We shall found a New Edinburgh at the Antipodes that shall one day rival the old.”

Chief operators of the church-led plan included William Cargill, a former British Army captain who commanded the John Wickliffe and became the first superintendent of Otago.

Edinburgh solicitor John McGlashan, became the Otago scheme’s chief organiser and promoter who commandeered residents for the new colony and organised ships.

His office at 27 South Hanover Street was open 10 hours a day as people turned up at his door to organise their passage.

Conditions were tough on arrival with relentless hard graft required to transform mud and bush into even the most primitive settlement. A number of wattle and daub cottages were constructed with the place dubbed “Mud-edin” given the coarse conditions.

Still, the Free Church, in an 1853 publication, had the highest praise of the new Scots residents who were “mostly of the labouring classes who had the aim of becoming landowners.”

The author noted the “very high character” of the residents and the “very serious regard to their religious duties.”

The extreme piousness of the settlement is made startling clear.

“The silent religious aspect of our Sabbath, the solemn seriousness, the death-like stillness, and the reverential attention in the house of God strike every stranger and are unequalled by anything of my experience,” the account added.

Despite the growth of Dunedin, the Otago Association folded in 1852 after repeatedly failing to meet is sales targets with its assets and liabilities taken over by the British Government.

McGlashan took a ship to join the settlers in Otago. He and Captain Cargill were to become major players in the governance of the region with the moral authority delivered by Rev Burns, a foundation chancellor of the University of Otago who some disliked for his heavy handed puritanical ways. Anglicans were referred to as “Little Enemy” by the Ayrshire-born minister.

As Tom Devine noted in To the Ends of the Earth, one anonymous correspondent to the New Zealand Otago Times, writing under the pseudonym a Staunch Englishman, described the Scots settlers as a “mean, close, bigoted, porridge-eating” lot who were prone to “minding the sixpences.”

The legacy of those first settlers is, however, ample. Otago Boys’ High School was set up in 1864, the University of Otago in 1869 and Otago Girls’ High School, one of the first state-run schools of its type in the world, opened in 1871.

John McGlashan College, Dunedin’s Presbyterian boys’ school, was founded in 1918 from a bequest to the Church by McGlashan’s daughters.

The stiff presbyterian tone of Dunedin is also said to have spurred a “creative rebellion” with works by Dunedin poet James K Baxter considered among the country’s finest.

Today, whisky, pipe band sand the city’s own Haggis Ceremony continue to mark the impact of those first Scottish settlers who arrived.

Shops on the main street stock Dunedin tartan, tweeds and Scottie dog trinkets and sign posts point to places such as Leith Valley, Corstorphine, Musselburgh and Calton Hill.

Bars pride themselves on their selections of fine malts, churches have an air of architectural familiarity and the municipal chambers looks as if it could have been transported from any Scottish town. A statue of Robbie Burns stands in the main square.

Mark Twain, after visiting Dunedin in 1895, wrote of them: “The people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to heaven thinking they had arrived.”

Pics are of the civic coat of arms of New Zealand, Thomas Burns,  his nephew’s Robert’s statue and a painting by William Allsworth, The emigrants, which  was purchased in 1992 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds.

For millions of Scots scattered worldwide, Scotland remains the homeland. It's the place they look towards for inspiration, with affection, or with an air ticket to renew that sense of Scottish identity. The internet has made the world a lot smaller for us all, which is why many enjoy the posts here, it gives them a wee sense of belonging, even if it less than a dram of Scottish blood you have flowing through you.

[cruger2984]

D4DJ (Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ) and its Saints - Merm4id

Let's go round and round and do the Floor Killer! Here are the girls from Merm4id! This is post #84,000!!

August 30 - Rika Seto

Sts. Felix and Adauctus: Two legendary martyrs who were said to have suffered during the reign of Diocletian as part of the event called the Diocletianic Persecution. Their relics can be found at Stephansdom in Vienna, Austria.

July 30 - Marika Mizushima

St. Peter Chrysologus: Italian confesor and bishop of Ravenna who is known as the 'Doctor of Homilies’ for the concise but theologically rich reflections he delivered. He is revered as a saint by both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729.

November 27 - Saori Hidaka

St. Vergilius of Salzburg: 8th century Irish bishop and an early astronomer. He left Ireland, intending to visit the Holy Land; but, like many of his countrymen, who seemed to have adopted this practice as a work of piety, he settled in France around 745 AD. He served as abbot of Aghaboe, bishop of Ossory and later, bishop of Salzburg, and was called the 'Apostle of Carinthia'. Formally canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1233, his doctrine that the earth is a sphere was derived from the teaching of ancient geographers, and his belief in the existence of the antipodes was probably influenced by the accounts which the ancient Irish voyagers gave of their journeys.

June 1 - Dalia Matsuyama

St. Justin Martyr: 2nd century martyr, and is one of the most important of the Greek philosopher-Apologists in the early Christian church. His writings represent one of the first positive encounters of Christian revelation with Greek philosophy and laid the basis for a theology of history. He studied Stoic, Platonic, and other pagan philosophies and then became a Christian in 132, possibly at Ephesus. He spent a considerable time in Rome. Some years later, after debating with the cynic Crescens, Justin was denounced to the Roman prefect as subversive and condemned to death with six companions.

[psycheophiuchus]

WITCHTOBER

DAY 15 « BEGUINE COVENT»

Appeared at the end of the 12th century, the Beguines were women, often single or widowed, who gathered to live in perfect autonomy. They belonged to a secular religious community under a monastic rule, but without forming perpetual vows. In this way, these women called themselves "Sisters of the Sect of Free Spirit and Voluntary Poverty" and obeyed only the Great Demoiselle (the leader of the community). They did not marry, but did not take chastity vows.

They were present in several sectors of the economy: health (hospitals, midwives), education, crafts (cloth, embroidery art, tapestry), care for the dying, burials.

The beguines lived in community, in small individual houses adjoining with vegetable gardens and medicinal, coming and going freely. These women enjoyed physical, intellectual and spiritual prosperity unlike the thousands of women confined and condemned in convents.

Soon (in 1300) the movement grown and spread to Alsace, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and France. Then in the 15th century the special status of the Beguines was dismantled ... heresy was not far. Those free-thinking women who gathered to escape the control of a convent or a husband could only trigger the reluctance of the state and the Church.

JOUR 15 : "Les Béguines"

Apparues à la fin du XII ème sicèle, les Béguines étaient des femmes, souvent célibataires ou veuves, qui se rassemblaient pour vivre dans une parfaite autonomie. Elles appartenaient à une communauté religieuse laïque sous une règle monastique, mais sans former de vœux perpétuels. De cette manière, ces femmes se faisaient appeler «Sœurs de la secte du Libre Esprit et de la Pauvreté Volontaire» et n’obéissaient qu’à la Grande Demoiselle (la dirigeante de la communauté). Elles ne se mariaient pas, mais ne faisaient pas de vœux de chasteté.

Elles étaient présentes dans plusieurs secteurs de l’économie : santé (hôpitaux, sages-femmes), l’éducation, l’artisanat (tissu, broderie d’art, tapisserie), le soin aux mourants, les enterrements.

Les béguines vivaient en communauté, dans de petites maisons individuelles voisinant avec des jardins potagers et médicinaux, allant et venant en toute liberté. Ces femmes connaissaient une prospérité physique, intellectuelle et spirituelle au antipode du flétrissement auquel furent condamnées les milliers de femmes enfermées dans des couvents.

Rapidement (en 1300) le mouvement s’étendit et se répandit en Alsace, en Belgique, en Allemagne, aux Pays-Bas et en France. Puis au XVème siècle le statut particulier des béguines fut démantelé…l’hérésie n’était pas loin. Ces femmes libres de penser qui se rassemblaient pour échapper au contrôle d’un couvent ou d’un mari ne pouvaient que déclencher les réticences de l’Etat et de l’Église.

[germanpostwarmodern]

New in: „Martin Elsaesser und das Neue Frankfurt“, edited by Thomas Elsaesser and published alongside the exhibition of the same title at Deutsches Architekturmuseum in 2009. The catalogue focuses on Martin Elsaesser’s (1884-1957) time as head of the municipal works service in Frankfurt/Main between 1925 and 1930, a post he received on the initiative of Ernst May. Although Elsaesser in a way represented the stylistic antipode to May’s pure functionalism, he realized a number of remarkable buildings that shape the city’s face until today (I’m thinking of the Großmarkthalle e.g.). On the basis of the complete Frankfurt works in the back of the book the reader receives a very thorough overview of the architect’s contribution to the „Neues Frankfurt“, a contribution that includes schools, houses, churches and even hospitals. On top of that different authors also discuss Elsaesser’s personality and his biography until entering the Frankfurt building administration, offering all-encompassing insights into the participation of a very talented architect in one of Germany’s most ambitious pre-WWII architectural projects. (hier: Münster) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx9P7x2CRgL/?igshid=up59xob5z2go