#ternary tree

[msexcelfractal]

Tritoniopsis elegans, a nudibranch

[wildfire133]

Finding factorial using Ternary operator.

Hello, everyone....

I'm going to briefly discuss a code in JavaScript, which was invoked to find the factorial of a number.

starting with the keyword const, const is used to define a variable as fixed, in general, we are allocating a fixed location of memory to the variable. 'factorial' is the name of our variable (variables are used to store our data just like a container).

Now we created a function using the keyword 'function' followed by the function name 'fac' and in parentheses, there comes the parameter (typically the values we give our functions to perform operations on)

The body of the function is all we need to focus on for now, 'return' is to return the value. ternary operator (syntax -> condition? true: false) checks if n is less than 2. If n is less than 2 1 will be the return value, else n*fac(n-1). Here comes the recursive functional call, for every n, greater than 2 the n is multiplied by itself and a factional call of the previous value of n.

so, it evaluates to 1*2*3 = 6. This is how recursion works and the final value is calculated by backtracking the tree. The last line of code is to print the value on the console.

Thank You <3!

[deltainfoteklive]

JavaScript Features You Need to Know to Master React

When it comes to web development, React has emerged as a powerhouse for creating dynamic and interactive user interfaces. However, to truly master React, you need a solid grasp of the underlying JavaScript features that empower its functionality. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the JavaScript features you must know to excel in React development. From the fundamentals to advanced concepts, this article will equip you with the knowledge and insights to become a proficient React developer. JavaScript Features You Need to Know to Master React JavaScript, as the foundation of React, provides a range of features that are integral to understanding and effectively utilizing React. Let's delve into these features in detail: 1. ES6 Syntax and Arrow Functions: Understanding the modern ES6 syntax is essential for efficient React coding. Arrow functions, in particular, help simplify code structure and improve readability. 2. Component-Based Architecture: JavaScript's ability to create reusable components aligns seamlessly with React's component-based architecture. This promotes modular and organized code, making maintenance and updates smoother. 3. State and Props: JavaScript's concept of state and props is at the core of React's dynamic nature. State allows components to manage and track changes, while props facilitate data flow between components. 4. Destructuring and Spread Operators: Destructuring objects and using spread operators in JavaScript streamline the handling of data within React components, enhancing code efficiency. 5. JSX (JavaScript XML): JSX, an extension of JavaScript, enables developers to write HTML-like code within their JavaScript. This makes rendering components in React more intuitive and readable. 6. Event Handling: JavaScript's event handling capabilities empower React components to respond to user interactions effectively. This includes handling onClick, onChange, and other events seamlessly. 7. Conditional Rendering: JavaScript's if-else statements and ternary operators align perfectly with React's conditional rendering, allowing components to display content based on specific conditions. 8. Lifecycle Methods: Understanding JavaScript's lifecycle methods, such as componentDidMount and componentWillUnmount, is crucial for managing component behavior and optimizing performance in React. 9. Fetch API and Asynchronous Programming: JavaScript's asynchronous programming capabilities, coupled with the Fetch API, enable seamless data fetching and updating within React applications. 10. LocalStorage and SessionStorage: Leveraging JavaScript's localStorage and sessionStorage facilitates client-side data storage, which can be advantageous for saving user preferences in React applications. 11. Higher-Order Components (HOCs): JavaScript's functional programming capabilities enable the creation of HOCs in React, enhancing code reusability and making it easier to manage complex component structures. 12. Context API: JavaScript's context allows for global data sharing across components in React applications, reducing the need to pass props down the component tree. 13. Promises and Async/Await: JavaScript's Promise-based asynchronous programming, along with the modern async/await syntax, simplifies handling asynchronous operations in React. 14. Immutability and Pure Functions: Understanding immutability and pure functions in JavaScript ensures that state management in React remains predictable and avoids unintended side effects. 15. Error Handling with Try/Catch: JavaScript's try/catch blocks offer a structured approach to handling errors in React applications, enhancing stability and user experience. 16. Routing with React Router: JavaScript's versatility complements React Router's seamless navigation, allowing developers to create dynamic, multi-page applications. 17. RESTful API Integration: JavaScript's capabilities for making HTTP requests align well with React's need for integrating RESTful APIs, enabling data exchange between the frontend and backend. 18. Event Delegation: JavaScript's event delegation strategy optimizes event handling within React's virtual DOM, contributing to improved performance. 19. Web Accessibility (A11y): JavaScript's support for manipulating the DOM aligns with React's commitment to web accessibility, ensuring applications are usable by individuals with disabilities. 20. Webpack and Babel Integration: JavaScript's versatility shines when integrated with tools like Webpack and Babel, enhancing the development and deployment of React applications. 21. Closures and Scoping: Understanding JavaScript's scoping rules and closures is essential for maintaining clean code and preventing variable conflicts in React applications. 22. Memoization: JavaScript's ability to optimize function calls through memoization contributes to React application performance by reducing unnecessary re-renders. 23. Error Boundaries: JavaScript's error handling capabilities align with React's ErrorBoundary component, offering a way to gracefully manage errors and prevent app crashes. 24. Hooks: JavaScript's functional programming nature is well-suited for React's hooks, allowing developers to manage state and side effects in functional components. 25. TypeScript Integration: While not exclusive to JavaScript, integrating TypeScript enhances React development by providing static typing, reducing potential runtime errors. FAQs: How do I start learning JavaScript for React? Begin by mastering JavaScript fundamentals like variables, data types, and control structures. Then, explore ES6 features, such as arrow functions and destructuring, to enhance your code quality. Can I use JavaScript libraries with React? Absolutely. React's flexibility allows you to integrate various JavaScript libraries for specific functionalities, such as data visualization (D3.js) or state management (Redux). What's the significance of the Virtual DOM in React? The Virtual DOM is a JavaScript representation of the actual DOM. React uses it to efficiently update and render components, reducing the need for direct manipulation of the real DOM. Is it necessary to learn all these JavaScript features to master React? While not mandatory, understanding these features significantly empowers your React development journey. They provide the foundation for writing clean, efficient, and scalable React applications. How does JavaScript's event-driven nature enhance React? JavaScript's event-driven paradigm aligns with React's component-based architecture, allowing developers to create responsive and interactive user interfaces by handling user actions. Can I use JavaScript features in both frontend and backend development? Absolutely. JavaScript is a versatile language used in both frontend (browser) and backend (Node.js) development. Understanding its features benefits you in various application areas. Conclusion: As you embark on your journey to master React, remember that a strong foundation in JavaScript is paramount. The features and concepts we've explored in this article lay the groundwork for creating exceptional React applications. By harnessing JavaScript's capabilities, you'll build responsive, dynamic, and user-friendly interfaces that leave a lasting impact. Stay curious, keep practicing, and dive deeper into these features to become a true React expert. Read the full article

[argumate]

that's cute, I tried to make a binary tree where each node points to one parent and two children but ended up with a ternary tree where the children have forgotten their parents

[hochgouez-nerzhus]

Yannick Dubois art

La classe sacerdotale druidique respectant la loi du ternaire se divise en trois ordres ; les Druides, les Ovates et les Barbes. Un arbre correspond à chacun d'eux, le chêne au Druide , l'if à l'Ovate, et le bouleau au Barbe.

Le chêne est non seulement un emblème naturel de la science, du savoir et de la connaissance, il est aussi un emblème de la force et de la longévité. D'ailleurs la force première des celtes fut celle du savoir druidique. Pour les celtes, le chêne est  " l'aspect visible de la Divinité " Pline faisait des Druides les hommes du chêne.

Le Gland du chêne et  La manducation ( mastication) des glands par les druides est mentionné dans le scholiaste (commentaire) de Lucain, elle est généralement mise en rapport avec des pratiques divinatoires. Comme les noisettes et les noix les glands sont des fruits de science et de savoir, leur importance provient de la sacralité du chêne et du sanglier symboles sacerdotale du druide.

La mastication s'apparente à la répétition des noms divins. Si l'arbre est l'image de la divinité , l'axe qui rejoint le monde céleste au monde terrestre , il est indéniable que ses fruits contiennent certaines vertus et le symbolisme de la manducation réside donc dans l'acquisition de celle-ci.

Les glands qui par leurs formes peuvent évoquer l'oeuf cosmique ajoute à l'importance de ce fruit.

The Druidic priestly class respecting the law of the ternary is divided into three orders; the Druids, the Ovates and the Barbs. A tree corresponds to each of them, the oak to the Druid, the yew to the Ovate, and the birch to the Beard.

The oak is not only a natural emblem of science, knowledge and knowledge, it is also an emblem of strength and longevity. Besides, the first strength of the Celts was that of Druidic knowledge. For the Celts, the oak is "the visible aspect of the Divinity" Pliny made of the Druids the men of the oak.

The Acorn of the Oak and The manducation (chewing) of the acorns by the druids is mentioned in Lucain's scholiaste (commentary), it is generally related to divinatory practices. As the hazelnuts and the walnuts the acorns are the fruits of science and knowledge, their importance comes from the sacredness of the oak and the boar, priestly symbols of the druid.

Chewing is akin to repeating divine names. If the tree is the image of the divinity, the axis which joins the celestial world to the terrestrial world, it is undeniable that its fruits contain certain virtues and the symbolism of the manducation therefore resides in the acquisition of this one.

The acorns which by their shapes can evoke the cosmic egg adds to the importance of this fruit.

[voidstarzero]

no autograph has been found

In fact, Hopkins seems to have originated his sprung rhythm as a reform of Swinburne's ternary meter by eliminating what he perceived as its quantitative infelicities (Schneider 1968, Kiparsky 1989).

(Hanson and Kiparsky, 1996, p. 300)

Another [presentation piece] is supposed to be the 'Ad Mariam', printed in the 'Stonyhurst Magazine', Feb. '94. This is in five stanzas of eight lines, in direct and competent imitation of Swinburne: no autograph has been found; and, unless Fr. Hopkins's views of poetic form had been provisionally deranged or suspended, the verses can hardly be attributed to him ... nor can I put aside the overruling objection that G. M. H. would not have wished these 'little presentation pieces' to be set among his more serious artistic work. I do not think that they would please any one who is likely to be pleased with this book.

(Bridges, 1918, p. 105)

Wherefore we love thee, wherefore we sing to thee,                 Where shall we find her, how shall we sing to her, We, all we, thro' the length of our days,                     Fold our hands round her knees, and cling? The praise of the lips and the hearts of us bring to thee,                 O that man's heart were as fire and could spring to her, Thee, oh maiden, most worthy of praise;                     Fire, or the strength of the streams that spring! For lips and hearts they belong to thee                 For the stars and the winds are unto her Who to us are as dew unto grass and tree,                 As raiment, as songs of the harp-player; For the fallen rise and the stricken spring to thee,                 For the risen stars and the fallen cling to her, Thee, May-hope of our darkened ways!                     And the southwest wind and the west wind sing.

(Hopkins, 1894; Swinburne, 1865)

References

Bridges, R. (Ed.). (1918). Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. London: Humphrey Milford

Hanson, K., & Kiparsky, P. (1996). A Parametric Theory of Poetic Meter. Language, 72 (2), 287–335. https://doi.org/10.2307/416652

Hopkins, G. M. (1894). Ad Mariam. Poetry Nook. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/ad-mariam

Swinburne, A. C. (1865). Atalanta in Calydon. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Atalanta_in_Calydon/Text

[bestworstcase]

So I've only read halfway through Benighted Snow, so it may not had came up yet, but would mind going over the the cults of Char Malach and Cathay and their place in Saporia? Is this going to have more impact later in the story?

GODS

okay. yes both cults are plot relevant and start to become so in the third act of benighted by way of characters being introduced who participate in the cults. there’s a lot more discussion of/focus on the religious stuff in moonless air and then cathay plays a significant role in the plot of blooms and sings! which i will not get into because #spoilers

but anyway

actually let me just link this gdoc first. basic notes on narratively relevant gods. for the curious.

so the short version on the saporian ternary is that you have these three gods—of want, wonder, and woe—whose cults are all linked together by the philosophical concept of ‘choimghē’, which is like… a state of balance or harmony where the intrinsic tensions between the sublime (divine/magical) realm and the profane (mundane/mortal) realm are resolved into stable coexistence. *pursuit* of choimghē is sort of the bedrock of saporian culture, and interwoven into the practices of all three cults of the ternary.

and in the most basic sense the methods of pursuing choimghē break down like:

cathay - carve away profane excess to make room for the sublime

char malách - elevate the profane to the level of the sublime

& zhan tiri - taking both and mixing together to produce something new

and then of course you get blending of all of this bc the average religious saporian is observant of the ternary vs just one individual cult.

ANYWAY. i want to rly emphasize btw that none of the three are considered to be evil or good exactly; like cathay is just as terrifying as char malách who is just as terrifying as zhan tiri, but by the same token all three have the same capacity to benevolent if approached with respect according to their rules of engagement. so… like, you get cathay the terrifying chthonic goddess and her necromancer-priests who raise wights in her honor but you also get cathay the goddess you petition for help when you’ve lost your keys. and you get char malách the god of divine inspiration whose priests build beautiful temples and fill art galleries and design flying ships but you also get char malách the architect of wildfires and volcanic eruptions. and you get zhan tiri whose hunger destroys and heals in equal measure. it’s v much a religion preoccupied with *duality* and *balance*

um on a more practical level. zhan tiri’s cult is most influential in remote and rural regions—places where most folks are living off the land or surrounded by wilderness—as well as coastal areas because she’s heavily associated w/ the sea and also with storms. so historically she has been very tied to like, food production (a lot of saporian staples are staples in part bc they’re things that are sacred to her akfkvjdj) and the saporian relationship with nature in general (eg you Do Not Cut Down Trees).

and then char malách tends to be most popular in the big cities (artois/alcorsīa/charcāthēn) where you have the population to support the kind of wide-scale creative efforts that his cults tend to engage in, like big temples and stuff. (there’s a long-standing clash btwn char malách and zhan tiri cults on the matter of land use and navigation of that clash has defined a lot of the development of saporia as a nation—there’s a bit in benighted where cass mentions that one of the first things herz der sonne did after annexing saporia was build a bunch of roads? and that is bc saporians didn’t HAVE ROADS bc zhan tiri doesn’t like them. and in reaction to/accommodation of this the cult of char malách invented air travel in the form of gliders / hot air balloons / flying ships like the zampermin).

anD then cathay is primarily a chthonic goddess so she is very heavily involved in death rites and stuff, and her main like, seat of power is in śaedhíhran, which is a village north of charcāthēn and also the site of a massive series of barrows and burial mounds that sort of double as a temple. there is a complicated Arrangement between her and zhan tiri because they hate each other, and this spills over into a lot of squabbling between the two cults, with the cult of char malách often getting sucked in to mediate. and then there’s the whole necromancy thing too - wights are raised to venerate cathay but individual necromancers have. relatively broad leeway as far as what qualifies as veneration so. a decent chunk of old saporia was built by undead labor agdhgdf and as a result of that it’s really common to find little bone motifs or built-in shrines to cathay in older saporian buildings even if they have nothing to do with cathay herself - it’s like a. payment thing.

[malusart]

Here’s an example of Theoalchemy, that is, alchemy that relates itself to religion. It is found in a manuscript of Rosicrucian and hermetic material in the Getty collection and shows Christ as the Philosophers Stone. Earlier versions exist in the Rosarium Philosophorum (Rose-Garden of the Philosophers, 1550), which show him resurrected, stepping out of the tomb but this is the image of Christ Crucified. The text around the image describes it as ‘Lapis Vegetabilis, Animalis [et] Mineralis’ (The Vegetable, Animal and Mineral Stone’).

Growing around the cross is the Tree of Life, with leaves flourishing at the top, in the ‘Vegetable’ part of the image. This clearly alludes to Christ’s parable of himself in John 15 as the ‘True Vine’, with his disciples as branches. The ‘Animal Stone’ is here Christ’s suffering human body. In the ‘Liber lucis’ (Book of Light), the 14th-century alchemist John of Rupescissa writes that ‘it is necessary to raise up the Son of Man in the air by means of the cross, which in literal terms means that the material that was digested [...] after being ground finely,  is put at the bottom of the flask to be dissolved, and the purest and most spiritous of what is there is then taken upwards into the air, and is raised up in the cross of the head of the alembic, like Christ [...] was raised up on the cross.’

The author of this manuscript may have something like that in mind, but he also is clearly thinking of alchemical on a religious level, for he writes not only of the Tincture of metals, but of the Tincture of Christ and of the truly godly artist, ‘you who transmute yourself into gold’. At the bottom of the image is a fiery circle, the realm of the Mineral Stone. At the center of the circle is a hexagram of fiery-water or watery-fire, within which is the Christian Cabalist Pentagrammaton, or live-letter name for Christ ‫יהשוה‬ (YHSVH). Around this is written ‘Ternarius Sanctus,’ the Holy Ternary, which on one level is the Holy Trinity, and possibly the Three Paraclesian Principles of Matter (Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt.) Around the circumference we read ‘Habitaculum Dei cum Hominibus’ from Revelation 21:3 ‘[Behold] the tabernacle of God with men.’

[jojolightningfingers]

Viera and Gender

Canon (and a few supplementary materials) tells us three key things about viera that I’ve taken as playing into the way their gender works. Lots of headcanons below the cut!!

       1. Physically, they cannot be sexed until adolescence. There’s no way of knowing if a viera is capable of childbirth or insemination until they reach a certain age. Hell, it could even be that an individual is capable of both for all we know, but I’m working off the assumption that, like humans, there are viera whose bodies make one type of gamete and viera whose bodies make another kind of gamete which, when combined, make a viable zygote that eventually results in a baby viera.

       2. With only a few exceptions (i.e. the viera that abandon the Wood as Fran did), the viera as a people are completely isolated from the rest of Ivalice outside of Golmore Jungle. Once you leave the Wood, you’re not technically allowed to return, so ideologies from outside of viera society are slow to spread, if they really do at all. An argument can be made that the viera can hear of various ideologies through their commune with the Wood but even so, they’re intractable in their attitude and slow to change the way they think. (I personally have headcanons surrounding Eruyt in that regard, but it’s a little lengthy to go into here).

       3. Within viera society, the genders live in segregated communities and contact between the two groups is rare and on an as-necessary basis. This is arguably the most important fact here, and the basis on what most of the following meta is built around.

So, what does this say about what gender could look like for the viera?

       1. Gender as humans do it (assigning it at birth, typically based on the gonads) seems to be right out. Viera do the fantasy thing where they grow and develop at the same rate that humans do and then stop aging when they reach adulthood, because they live three times as long as a human on average. I’ve never liked that, and for the purposes of the fic this lore is attached to I’ve altered it so that they age proportionally rather than parallel to each other, but even within strict canon, that’s around 12 to 14 years of nobody knowing or being able to know any given viera’s physical sex. That’s enough time to start figuring out your own identity and what you want out of life.

       2. Due to their isolation, viera have little to no concept of or interest in gender outside of the way that viera do it. They simply don’t understand it, they have no idea about any human gender squabbles, or whatever the bangaa or seeq have going on.

Here’s my theory. All of the in-game ‘the male viera live with the male viera and the female viera live with the female viera’ gender segregation that the game tells you about? It’s inaccurate and arises from a fundamental cross-culture misunderstanding. Because we are all fallible and dumb as hell.

Bear with me, we’re getting to the part where I start making some stuff up to try and explain. (Feel free to use the terms I made up below, or just ignore them and call them by their definition if you don’t like the words lmao.) I posit that the viera don’t divide their genders up as ‘male’ and ‘female’ like they’re said to be in canon. Instead of working off of a sex-characteristic-based binary, viera operate on a location-and-motion-based ternary. The three viera genders are:

- naf’tjl (nahf-TEEL) – Stillness. These are the viera that live most of their lives in settlements like Eruyt, stockpiling surplus food and medicine for all viera to fall back on in the times when the Mist interferes with natural process and their way of life. Most likely, a lot of their more intensive or immobile industry (small-scale agriculture and most textiles, for a start) would be run by naf’tjl viera as well.

- thjrm (THYURM) – Motion. Thjrm viera live most of their lives in nomadic bands, acting as the primary defenders of the Wood. They patrol the width and breadth of Golmore, eliminating immediate and powerful threats to their people (mainly the aggressive local wildlife), monitoring the ebb and flow of the Mist and locating and securing untapped sources of food, water, lumber, ore, and land for building more settlements that can be used for the benefit of all viera.

- norvi (NOR-vee) – Peregrination. Originally this was a term used exclusively to refer to a prepubescent viera that had not gone through their coming-of-age ceremony to become a full adult (the process of ‘child’ to ‘adult’ is, after all, a journey in and of itself). Some adults however prefer to be called such even after they come of age, even if they live almost exclusively with one type of viera or another. This is a practice common enough that es norvi is now a subdistinction that refers specifically to prepubescent viera, while norvi encompasses them as well as the adults who choose to call themselves such. Norvi adults live in both naf’tjl and thjrm communities, and make up a majority of the wood-warder profession.

‘Why did we get the idea that the viera are divided by male and female, then?’ Because humans like to try and make foreign concepts more understandable by drawing lines between it and what they already know. The way I see it going down is some human got into a viera settlement—or more likely, a viera got out of the Wood and shared the information with some curious human. “I see,” says the human, nodding to themselves and looking around. “So you have one group of people who stay home and focus on caretaking and resource management. And you have another group of people who go out and hunt and keep you safe. So you have women and men, just like us!”

The viera, who either doesn’t understand that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ has an additional attached meaning of ‘a person who can impregnate’ and ‘a person who can bear children’, or who has already tried to explain the distinction and their third gender several times and has written it off as a lost cause, says, “Sure, we’ll roll with that.”

TL;DR: Viera gender has pretty much no basis whatsoever in their actual physical sex. Humans assume (incorrectly) that all the viera in the villages that they call female will be capable of bearing children, and all the viera nomads that they call male will be capable of impregnating the females. Viera assume (also incorrectly) that ‘female’ and ‘male’ are direct translations of naf’tjl and thjrm and label themselves accordingly when talking with non-viera races, regardless of whether or not they would actually be considered such.

COROLLARY HEADCANONS

       - Viera language is gendered as well. Most inanimate objects such as rocks, buildings, food, weapons, MOST body parts, and so on and so forth are naf’tjl. Most events (such as a storm), animals, as well as specifically the heart, are thjrm. Things with aspects of both—air, water, plants (especially trees), the Mist, magicite, and intangible things such as ideas, are norvi.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird “Keep them Warm”

Hey guys, Hope you are having a great week. This one is gonna be both awkward and funny hopefully. It was given to me as a prompt idea from one of my readers, and I hope they enjoy it as well. It involves a new alien species that I think you all might be interested in. I would suggest taking a look :) 

“So you’re telling me we found another sentient omnivore species.” The commander grunted ripping his boot from a watery patch of mud and nearly crashing into the swampy water between two twisted tree roots.

Sunny reached out with one of her four armored arms, and caught him by the back of his pack pulling him back upright. He nodded a thanks to her and adjusted his gear. Behind her Ramirez ducked under a low hanging branch slogging through a pool of knee-high water, adjusting the containment pod, holding Krill more comfortably over both shoulders.

Krill, comfortable and warm inside his containment pod, watched the marines, scientists, and a linguist struggle through the mud under a covering of impossibly tall twisted trees their canopy blocking out all light that might have dared cut downwards towards the watery floor below. “Not entirely sentient, I suppose.” Krill answered , “Unfortunately the way in which they communicate is going to drastically reduce their ability to create complex structures and perform mathematical equations.”

Together they maneuvered themselves over a root, which at some point in the distant past, had decided to grow upwards instead of down. At about four feet high, it had changed its mind and arched back down into the water. Perhaps it had been smaller then, but at four feet wide, the root was an absolute monstrosity now.

The trees themselves were massive, challenging, and sometimes outgrowing the legendary redwood forests of the western Americas, but unlike the redwoods, these trees didn’t stand tall and proud. Instead, they chose a twisted path much like the branching veins which made up a human vascular system. They twisted and undulated interlocking past each other with branches that were well over two feet wide in many cases,and stretching to over four feet wide in others. No one direction was good enough, and the trees twisted ducked swirleded and reached grasping for any sort of light to be found.

On top of the darkness cast by the trees and the soggy nature of the forest floor, it was also horribly hot and humid giving the impression of a microwaved wet blanket thrown over the world. Where heat from the upper canopy met the cooler air of deep forest pools, it created a perpetually thick mist which writhed and undulated through the trees, leaving only the shadowy impressions of twisted trunks and clawing branches past distances greater than 50 feet.

“They communicate primarily through pheromones and heat modulation. From what I understand, the language in itself isn’t precise, and really only works in generalities and feelings than it does in absolutes.”

Commander Vir kicked a rotting log out of the way ducking as a massive green bug buzzed over his head and into the fog. Turns out the hotter and more humid a planet gets, the bigger the bugs get, “But we were still able to communicate with them.

KRill nodded from inside his case, “Yes, generally speaking.For a species that cannot communicate in absolutes, I hear they are quite reasonable. They seem willing to accept our friendship, and have….. invited, I guess, us to participate in some sort of primitive ritual.”

The commander nodded scrambling over another tree branch, “Alright, so….. where are these things anyway.” His boots hit solid ground, covered in some sort of wet spongy fungus and glanced down at his GPS. Behind him the other marines went silent heads lifted towards the sky in shock.

“Fuck me.” ONe of the marines whispered scrambling back behind a tree root.

Commander Vir turned and nearly fell into the water again eyes locked onto the creatures descending from high above.

They were huge, about the size of large horses, and horrifically spider like in their construction, or perhaps an ant. They had large-scale abdomens connected to a thinner thorax. All together they had ten appendages, three pairs of spider-like legs on the abdomen which, instead of ending in a pod or foot, ended in a sharp pointed spike. On the abdomen, they had two arm-like appendages, with two many joints and strange waves tentacles instead of fingers

The head was just as disconcerting. It seemed too large for the body, grossly out of proportion and strangely out of place, like some cosmic sentience had used a random animal generator to assign parts to its body. The head was wolflike, if you were to strip the skin and fur away leaving only the muscle underneath. You could see the line of teeth running up either side of the muzzle while the large red-pink ears rotated continuously.

Commander Vir had backed himself into the bowl of a tree eyes wide. Sunny slogged herself up from the water placing herself between the strange spidery creatures and the human.

They didn’t descend like a spider might, on threads of silk, but they used their back six feet, and the spikes on the end to dig into the bark of the trees with a disconcerting thud thud thud thu.

FInally the largest of the creatures reached the ground surprisingly silent for it’s massive bulk.

Glancing around Sunny’s tensed body, he noticed something he hadn’t before, and that was a strange small mass gripping onto the spidery creature’s underbelly. Upon closer inspection he counted ten legs and a surprisingly spidery head buried against its underside….. a completely separate creature holding on to it’s companion.

Behind the largest creature, he noted ANOTHER type of creature. It boasted the same sort of structure as the large creature, but its abdomen was devoid of scales, and covered in strange black bulbs suctioned onto its body by way of a strange, sticky black-green webbing. It’s head was also constructed differently  more like a lizard than a wolf, with large bulbous eyes that could rotated behind it’s own head to look in all directions.

Commander Vir fiddled nervously with the advanced translation headset he wore strapped to his helmet, supposedly it was supposed to be able to understand what these things were saying.

“Sky….. friends.” The translation was somewhat garbled, but he understood it was the large wolf-head who spoke.

He walked forward, pushing Sunny gently to the side despite her clear reluctance, “Yes, we are friends, and we are here to offer peace to you, and the assistance of the Galactic Assembly.” He wasn’t entirely sure how that was going to translate over in smell, but the creature seemed happy lifting it’s head and gnashing it’s large K-9 teeth.

“Agreement….. for a favor.”

Commander Vir grew unsure then letting off a reluctant, “What favor.”

The spidery shape moved closer sniffing at him with it’s large wolffish nose. Sunny stiffened at his side, and he put a hand on her arm to calm her.

“Ritual…. you help.”

“None of us will get hurt ... will we?”

The creature stopped and pondered the question for a long moment, “No danger….. live ... healthy ... happy.”

Commander Vir nodded slowly, “Alright, what do we have to do?”

The creature hefted it’s large bulk, and turned in the opposite direction, “Follow.” It commanded scuttling off into the trees.

***

“This is very interesting.” Krill was saying to one of the accompanying scientists, who nodded vigorously in agreement.

“What’s so interesting.” Commander Vir whispered from where he stood at the edge of yet another, but larger fungus covered clearing, watching as the creatures scuttle back and forth.

The scientist learned in in excitement, “It seems that these creatures have a ternary gender system.” Before the commander could ask, the scientist continued, “For ease of speech, the large ones are the females, and those things on their bellies are probably the males. The medium ones are the third gender, the ‘they’ if you will. It looks like the male impregnates the female who then attaches the eggs to the third party. Dr. Krill tells me that the third party have a very high heat signature probably to incubate the young. Those attachments probably provide nutrients into the egg and may even transfer DNA over as well.”

“WOw…. freaky.” The commander muttered in fascination.

“Kind of gross if you ask me.” Sunny muttered.

“I’m with her.” Ramirez muttered receiving a few nods from the other marines.

“Oh please.” Krill whispered, “I know what human reproduction is like, and it’s arguable way worse.”

The scientist waved them all off, “The big one there, the one that’s been talking to us. I think she’s the queen, and judging from those egg sacks, this is probably mating season, if they have one.”

“Creepy, but cool, I guess.” The captain muttered.

They watched for a little longer as the queen scuttled around the clearing and then return to look at them lowering her meaty wolffish head to the Commander’s eyes level. “Ritual ... find…. eggkeeper.” SHe scuttled away

“Oh….. this is some sort of? Mating ritual maybe….. to choose that third party you were talking about.”

“This isn’t exactly the kind of “Mating ritual” I wanted to see.” One of the marines muttered. The other marines turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. Sunny stuck her tongue out in disgust.

Off in the clearing, some of the smaller females had moved themselves onto the high branches scuttling through the trees to examine the “they” who waited patiently. It appeared that side was very important in the ritual, as they all fought for the largest counterpart. Once found, the wolffish head would lower, and open up to reveal a tube under the tongue. From there she would…. disgorge the egg onto the abdomen of the ‘they’ and the mucus would solidify to hold them on.

“It has to do with size.” Krill hissed, “But it seems that it has more to do with heat. The big ones only get chosen more because they also happen to be warmer than the smaller ones. I’d say they incubate at an average of 90 degrees.”

They watched this for a while, the scientists taking notes and the marines making inappropriate jokes.

Eventually most of the creatures had finished leaving only the queen left over. Everything went still when she began to move, and she scuttled around the clearing looking over all the available ‘theys’ she could find, but she just didn’t seem satisfied.

Commander Vir tugged at the collar of his jacket, a line of sweat dripping down his face.

She continued her circuit once and then twice, at some point she turned her head large eyes locking on the humans. She sniffed at them.

The human laughter died as she advanced.

“What is she doing.” The commander muttered under his breath

The scientist that stood next to him hidden partially behind Sunny, “I…. I’m not sure.”

She scuttled even closer, and the humans backed away.

“Hey doc…. didn’t you say something about….. them being attracted to heat.” Ramirez wondered hiding himself behind a root.

“Yeah….. I did, why.”

“Not to freak anyone out or anything but….. isn’t average human heat about 98.6….”

What followed was a rather violent game of nose goes, but instead of involving touching ones nose to see who was the last person standing, it involved a mad rush to reduce body heat. The smartest marines took the initiative and dove into the water beside the clearing. Completely submerging themselves under the surface. Others chose to cover whatever exposed skin they might have in mud as if to mask the heat. Still others chose to cut and run.

Unfortunately, with his position at the head of the group, Commander Vir wasn’t fast enough.

She came at him in a scuttling rush, and in a frantic leap to get away, his boot caught on a root and he hit the ground hard. Sunny tried to leap in front of him, but was bowled over by the mad rushing form.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Commander vir repeated scuttling backwards across the ground as the large spidery shape loomed over him.

He stopped dead in his tracks backed against a tree root. She leaned closer.

He raised his hands above his head blocking his face, “Please don’t lay your eggs in me. Please don’t lay your eggs in me.”

She reached out one of her forward hands surprisingly delicate as she cut through the first layers of his jacket, and shirt. THey fell away in slices revealing the pale human skin underneath red and sticky with the tropical heat. His chest and abdomen heaved with his breath as he tried to scramble away, but she caught him with the prong of one of her back legs pinning him in place.

“Fuck…. Help…. HELP.”

Sunny wasn’t fast enough, having been tipped head over heels into the water, with the rest of the marines in similar positions, Krill contained inside his tube unable to help but unable to look away.

She lowered her head, and the man screamed. It was cold, gelatinous and slimy at first, but even as it touched open air, he could feel it fusing against his skin solidifying. He thrashed and wriggled, but she was far to strong holding him in place. Finally though, she backed away leaving him panting on the ground shaking and trembling leg throbbing where he had been pinned.

She leaned her head down to examine him, “Warm.”

THey locked eyes, “Friends…. now…. Keep them….. warm.”

SHe retreated, and he struggled to his knees turning to look down at his body which was now partially obscured by a sticky pod of six black eggs pulled tight against his skin. His hand were shaking as he reached down to touch them, cold and smooth. HE tried tugging on one, but nearly fainted at the pain it caused against his skin.

They were withdrawing back into the trees leaving him kneeling on the fungus hands trembling as looked downwards.

Sunny was the first to recover scrambling out of the water and over to him, placing a hand on his back as she examined the strange eggs attached to his skin, “Mother of-“

THe marines cut her off as they came wriggling from the trees, “Commander, Commander are you ok….”  One of the marines cut around front frozen in his tracks eyes wide once he saw, “WHAT THE HELL!”\

Sunny reached out as if to tug on one of them, “NO!” He snapped jerking away from her.

The others gathered around to look with exclamations of shock and disgust. The commander looked up at Sunny pleadingly. She decided to take charge, helping him to his feet and then pulling him into her arms, “We have to get him back to the ship, let's move, NOW!”

***

“What do you think, Dr.”

Dr Katie examined the scan with a frown, “It’s very, very strange, that’s for sure.”

Commander VIr lifted his head to look down at them, “Well what the HELL does that mean.”

Krill shoved his head back onto the table, “Stay still.”

Dr. Katie hummed softly as she continued to examine the scans, “It looks like these little filaments have breached the skin ... and…. well at least one of them has made it to your liver, this one here has made it to your lungs.”

“What about white blood count.” Krill wondered, “THe body must have noticed something by now?”

Dr Katie shook her head, “Nothing, the body seems to have accepted it. I took some samples and….. well I think I might know why.” She rolled herself to the side in her chair and over to one of the adjoining computers, “See this, this is his DNA ...and this is the DNA of the strands.”

Krill pearled over her shoulder, “What the….. they look almost identical.”

“Yes…. I don’t think the body knows anything is wrong.” She turned her chair back around to look at the Commander, “Congratulations Commander,  you are perhaps, in the weirdest way possible, the only man in the history of existence who might just experience the miracle of life.”

The look on his face made it clear he wasn’t interested in being congratulated, “What the actual fuck does that mean?” He snapped

Dr. Katie rolled closer, “Well, to explain in terms you may understand. You are doing more than keeping them warm. Those filaments that you saw are acting like umbilical cords. The one at your liver is using it as a filter, and to take in nutrients as it seems to have branching filaments to the stomach and intestines. The one going to your lungs is taking in carbon…… not sure what that’s going to do to your breathing if anything. But at this point I don’t think that even Dr. Krill, as good as he can remove them. We would have to remove too much of your internal structure to it to be viable, plus they don’t seem to be hurting you.” 

“Not hurting me! NOT HURTING ME! You said it yourself they are SUCKING OUT MY VITAL JUICES.”

Dr. Katie shrugged, “Welcome to pregnancy….. sort of. Look we will monitor you, make sure they aren’t sucking away to many nutrients. Look on the bright side, you can probably eat more, and judging form an analysis of the egg sacks, the average gestational period is only around two months.”

“TWO MONTHS!”

Sunny, who had been standing next to the man at the head of the exam table, couldn’t suppress a short chirp of laughter.

He glowered at her, “What’s so funny!”

She chirped again placing a hand on his arm, “You’re gonna be a mom.”

If looks could kill, shed be reduced to a singularity, “Get your hand off me or ill break it in half!”

She continued chirping, but removed her hand just in case.

This was going to be a very awkward call to the UNSC and the GA.

For that matter, it was going to be a very awkward call home.

[argyrocratie]

Religious and philosophical examination of the principle of authority

(Elie Reclus’ pastoral thesis accepted in 1851 before his immediate resignation. Tranlsated trought me from here )

...

“You, who want to be under the law, do you hear the law!”

- Gal. iv, 21.

INTRODUCTION

At all times of transformation, the question of authority and freedom is increasingly debated. Whenever a new idea wants to creep into humanity, those who are afraid stop it in the process, and say to it: Who gave you the right to live? - Non licet esse vos, said the official world to nascent Christianity.

Now, that a new religious movement is being prepared, this is what everyone has a presentiment of, some with joy, others with apprehension; but whether we love spring or hate it, the swallows are back. 

- I wanted to do a job of removing muck

It is only a question of the religious question here: to leave it is to descend. 

It’s not me speaking, it’s the Idea: I have accepted the starting point of Authority, to produce all of its consequences, to multiply itself by itself. Evil reveals its ugliness by showing itself in broad daylight.

Having to deal only with ideas, I wanted to be severe, because the struggle is serious, it is even deadly. For my part, I refuse any quarter that I would not give; between force and idea, I sided with freedom, and I said: Live free or die!

PART I, CHAPTER l

ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY AS A PRINCIPLE.

Sovereignty.

I. What is authority?

Etymologically, authority means the power of the creator over the created thing. Factor, actor, auctor, auctoritas. In practice, this word designates the government and its delegates. In religion and philosophy, it applies to any principle that calls for obedience.

This is what is meant by authority, but it is about getting into the idea itself, understanding its content and consequences. - I say that it is power, that is to say, necessity, in the forms of right and of fact. 

II. By analysis, particular objects break down into elements common to many others. Thanks to certain laws, gases form oak, moss, or seaweed; what constitutes a flower, a trunk or a fruit could have become charcoal, diamond or freestone. The individual exists only through the action of some law.

If there is an absolute law, it is correlative to the very idea of Being.

III. The Being is not yet life. The stone exists, but it does not live. The laws of Being can be summed up in mathematical laws, but if they had no other existence than the abstract reality of four equal to two plus two, they would be nothing. What is justice without a righteous being? Being as substance will have to take form and life; it will act through individualization; through personality he will truly be a force, and will enter the world of facts and realities.

But the personality will never be anything but the expression of the laws of Being, from which it can no more be freed than nine of the laws of the ternary. Without individualization, the law would be an abstraction, but personality without a law, would be nothing at all. To be, yes or no, subject to its law, for each individuality, is to be, or not to be. Authority as law is summed up in the idea of ​​Being, in that of the Supreme Being, who is God. Authority as a fact, in turn, is summed up in the primary personality, which is God. Authority is God, God is authority.

IV. Whoever unites with God becomes a participant of divine qualities, becomes a participant of impeccability and infallibility. 

Communication with the Divinity carries with it the right of sovereignty. The respect due to the master is due to his representative, and to his ministers; now his ministers are the Prophet with the word of truth, the King with the sword of righteousness, and the priest with the bloody knife of atonement. The king, the pontiff and the prophet are in the midst of men the reflections of the divinity, as in the midst of pebbles, the diamond is the mirror of the sun.

V. The philosophical idea of the law brings us back to Being and to personality, that is, to God, the Law and the Lawgiver. But the religious man does not restrict himself to this detour; he accepts faith in the name of God, and God in the name of faith, he starts from obedience, and returns to obedience. 

VI. All existence being only a living law, nature is only the system of laws, is only universal law. The law being the principle of cohesion and Being, outside of it there is nothing but nothing.

Who will tell all the laws of organic and inorganic matter, the laws of gases, liquids and solids, laws of light and heat, of electricity, of magnetism, of gravity, of expansion, and molecular unions? Where is the forgotten stone, where is the star in the heavens that is not the culmination and the starting point of countless laws? Show it, you who say: I am free!

VII. The law, that is, the authority, is absolute. As absolute, it is the cause, goal and means of all things. As absolute, it is everywhere and always identical to itself. So, the essence of authority being absolute, so too will the attributes; therefore all manifestations of authority are equally just and legitimate. 

VIII. Being absolute, it is the unity of all contradictions. One does not have to do with this or that change, it ignores them. The stream, the cloud and the ice cube are always water. Yesterday it was this, today it is, and tomorrow it will be quite another thing, but it will still be the authority.

IX. Authority, being the absolute principle, confiscates all others for its own benefit. It is she who calls herself the source of justice, of truth, of good and of beauty. 

X. Authority begins by denying any intelligence towards it. For strength without intelligence is pure strength. What can intelligence do against force? Force institutes order, even without intelligence, but intelligence deprived of authority what can it achieve? Something less than disorder,nothingness.

Intelligence is only a passive view; the sight of what is inside and outside of man; it is the more or less obscure perception of objective laws. Man has reason to be proud of his intelligence, as the drop of water to be proud, because the sun has penetrated it with one of its rays, as the night because a lamp has entered its darkness. All subjectivities can only exist through their union with the Objective, that is, through their dependence on the primary fact. So everyone's reason is only the more or less misleading mirror of primary intelligence.

Any intellectual notion in accordance with the immutable laws of Necessity is true, any notion in disagreement with them is false. Intelligence is the apperception of laws, intelligence itself is law like optics. The laws of intelligence are the laws of logic; the logical laws are the laws of equality, then of inferiority, or of superiority, those of addition and subtraction, also those of multiplication and division; they present themselves, it is true, under various combinations, and under great philosophical names; but they are nothing else than mathematical laws, generally qualified as material. Since intelligence is valuable only through its submission to authority, intelligence in itself is null.

XI. Authority again says: I am justice, and outside of me there is nothing but nothingness and injustice. For justice is only harmony with the law, and the law is only the expression of authority. The law is the will of the legislator, and the pure Will is outside justice, it is arbitrary. If God had wanted good to be bad, good would be bad, and evil would be good.

Authority does justice to the most violent injustice. When Jehovah ordered the massacre of the inhabitants of Canaan, he gave an order that it would be a crime to find bad.

The law cannot be debatable, the law can only be fair. The law is not law because of its justice; on the contrary, it is just, because it is the law.

XII. Authority being the negation of freedom, its presentation begins and ends with the negation of freedom.

This negation has much more logical force, now that the authority has just eliminated reason and justice; while freedom can only live on the life of love and understanding.

Authority is therefore supreme freedom to itself, and to others supreme necessity.

XIII. As much as the vulgar apologists for authority and those for freedom have agreed to confuse the two terms, so do we strive to maintain their distinction. If Bahal is God, serve him; if the Lord is God, love the Lord. 

The relative has only a relative value. Now, the relative is precisely what needs law. Whether there are relative authorities, whether there are so many and more, from delegation to delegation man must be able to ascend to the ultimate sovereignty, from which no one can call and say: I brave you; before which all will bow down, as the grass bends in the wind. Under pain of suicide, the authority must crush all enemies; if authority is not binding, it will no longer be authority. Which means that authority has force for its essence, that is, necessity.

However, relative authority is not authority. Because as a relative, it can only engage man relatively, so it cannot constrain him, so it leaves man free. 

We are a slave, or we are not. 

Relative freedom is not freedom either. As soon as there is coercion, there is no more freedom. One is tied to a tree, were he only tied by a thin loose rope, if he were only tied by a very long rope, he is certainly not free. One with his hands tied behind his back, even if he can walk around the whole world, he is not free.

We are free, or we are not. 

Authority, relative freedom, are only relative ideas. Both are only a swing between the two extremes and the two opposites, a compromise between Yes and No, an absurdity continues. Relative authority and freedom are the adulterous fruits of the union of Freedom and Necessity, of Being and of Non-Being.

The relative is a liar, there is only truth in the absolute.

CHAPTER II.

ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY AS FACT

Obedience

XIV. Sovereignty having placed itself above intelligence, justice and freedom, affirms that it is nothing but Force. What is strength in turn? It is not an idea, it is not a principle, it is necessity, it is inevitability, it is chance, it is a fact.

It will therefore be the absolute fact.

XV. If authority is absolute, it is because it has no other reason than itself; it is sovereign, to exercise sovereignty. Why wouldn't the tyrant flog the slave? Now, the God of the slave, can and must only be a despot. For if no tyrant would find themself before a slave that the slave would enslave themself not to the free man, but to another slave. The servile soul enslaves itself to everything, it is afraid of what is good, as well as of what is bad, it is afraid even of what does not exist.

Free the slave? It’s pointless and absurd, it’s cruel.

XVI. From God man derives his being and his personality. He was plunged into the abysses of nothingness, and God, in giving him existence, committed himself to nothing, but committed him to everything. May God send him torment upon torment, man will perhaps owe him gratitude, always submission.

Moreover, he still continues to be before God only the nothingness from which he emerged; his ground is nothing, and the form which this nothing has taken has been given to him by a will other than his own. What does he have left for personal value?

Now, what are, vis-à-vis Omnipotence, what are the rights of nothingness?

XVII. Not being the cause of his life, of his inner principle, he is even less the creator of outer things that can happen to him. If the germ does not come from him, all the developments of the germ will be things beyond his control. Which means that the supreme fact is that of Predestination.

XVIII. The reason for predestination? - But there isn't, and there shouldn't be. Predestination is the pure fact, isolated from any consideration of justice and morality.

If a child dies at birth, and by some accident, has not received the waters of baptism, it is predestined to doom. Cardinal Séfrondate, a modest and pious man, had hoped that these poor innocent people would not go to the place of torture, but Bossuet, the last father of the Church, overwhelmed him:

"Low and angry feeling, which destroys the strength of piety, strange novelty, detestable error, incredible language which strikes us with astonishment! "

“The damnation of infants who die without baptism is of steadfast faith in the Church. They are guilty, since they are born under the wrath of God and in the power of darkness. Children of anger by nature, objects of hatred and aversion, thrown into hell with the other damned, they remain there eternally under the horrible power of the Demon."

"So decided by the learned Denis Peteau, the eminent Henri Nolis, the eminent Bellarmine, the Council of Lyon, the Council of Florence, the Council of Trent. And such things are not decided by thin reasoning, but by the authority of the Scriptures!"

XIX. Whatever happens to you of joys and sorrows, O son of nothingness, comes to you by the express will of Him who, before children were born, loved Jacob and hated Esau. He created light and darkness, the fiber to suffer, and the heart to bleed; it is he who created the criminal and the torment, and the wicked for the day of wrath.

On feast evenings Christians and Christian women were brought into the emperor's gardens, tied to posts, smeared with pitch, and that pitch was set ablaze. And these men burned in the night, and died in excruciating pain, while Nero, accompanied by the imperial ladies, walked by the light of the horrible torches.

Nero had the right to do so; for he was absolute master.

And what you abominate in Nero, with your hand on your mouth, adore it in the strong and jealous God, who decreed the birth of Humanity, so that all of it, except "the little flock," may be destined for the sin and sorrow, and with infinite happiness, he looks upon his dreadful agony during the stream of eternities, and says: All is well, and I have done this for my glory.

XX. To say that authority is absolute as a fact and a principle is to say: de jure and de facto you are a slave.

But who to obey?

Since authority boils down to de facto necessity, one owes absolute submission to the Church or the religious community, in whose bosom one finds oneself by chance of birth.

Your Church will therefore impose some sort of dogma on you. Without discussion or murmur, you will accept them; with love, if she orders it; whether they are from the Thibetian catechism or from the La Rochelle Confession. It is of no importance that you understand them; you have to believe them; although absurd, because absurd, if you understand them, so much the better, but if you doubt, you are a criminal.

To the Church and its leaders, who impose dogmas, correspond the State and its leaders who impose laws. You will obey them.

Who is the legitimate authority in politics?

This question was urgently removed from the jurisdiction of individual reason. Legitimate authority is that under which one finds oneself, whether it be that of a usurper of yesterday, or that of a descendant of the usurper of centuries gone by.

All power is sent from God, if you disobey the power, you insult the representative of the Divine Majesty, that is why you will be punished. The de facto authority is the de jure authority. The authority is the one who holds the scepter which is a staff, the one who holds the sword, and says to you: It is the sword of God. This sword will hurt you, it may kill him too, but would you resist God?

XXI. As much as absolute authority as a principle has denied relative freedom, so authority as fact will deny freedom of examination, which for it is the rotten fruit of a poisoned tree. So if we do not ignore it, it is not to clarify the question, it is only to better formulate it.

In examining the principle of authority, absolute sovereignty has been asserted objectively and a priori. Infinity being the cause and purpose of the finite, submission is required in the name of infinite power.

In the examination of the fact of authority, absolute obedience is justified subjectively and a posteriori. Man not being his own cause, man being only an effect, submission is demanded in the name of his infinite weakness.

This justification, for being only a way to put iself out of the question, is no less terrible. It is the authority that turns around and condemns who wants to judge it. Indeed, if it is in the nature of freedom to forgive, authority need to justifi itself only by irony against whoever doubts, only by lashes and swords against who fight it.

XXII. Freedom of examination is a lie or obedience is a lie. Because if authority is authority only after being accepted by reason, it is reason that is the sovereign mistress. However, the spirit of each one is subjectivism, therefore dispute; intelligence by its nature is individual. What did I say ? The rights of individualism are the rights of intelligence, and before authority, the right of individualism is the right of revolt.

Individualism and authority are mortal enemies, they only fight to kill each other.

If the review confirms the value of the authority's orders, it is unnecessary; if it is against them, it is criminal. Why roll the dice, why risk the unnecessary against crime? 

Who says freedom of examination, says absolute freedom. This man who maintains the autonomy of human reason vis-à-vis all revelations, would this man then abdicate his freedom to bow under a yoke? It would be absurd, it would be bitter madness.

Does he submit himself who submits only conditionally? If religious authority grants the right to scrutinize the Scriptures, it grants the right to reject them; if it is permissible to seek the rights of the pope, priest and pastor, the sincere man and the hypocrite will be able to claim that they are void. 

Otherwise, the so-called freedom of examination is nothing but the freedom to find anything good; the executioner allows this to his victim.

Such were the consequences that Lamennais and J. de Maistre drew from the principle of the Reformation, and by denying them Protestantism lied to its principle and was cowardly of heart. 

He therefore accuses the authority which wants it to be justified and which says to him: Wash away your iniquity. Whoever doubts today will attack tomorrow, for doubting is the first degree of disbelief, protest and hatred. The protest is revolt, and woe to the rebel!

The authority covers the idea and the ideologue of a sovereign contempt, it would gladly do like Nero, who, going for a walk in Greece, forbade the speaking of philosophy during his absence. Mystery and criticism are two contradictory ideas, and the very notion of mystery implies absurdity in the mind of whoever would like to judge it.

What is your right to judge, son of ignorance and desire, nothingness and greed? To be puffed up with pride and puffed up with vanity, which lives only by sucking the void, you would judge the laws immutable and eternal! Say, blasphemer, who assert that God is this, that God is that, say, who are you? where did you come from? say where you will go Do you only know what is your thought, what is your will?

Whoever has not searched what is in a drop of water, would he scrutinize the mysteries of the divine essence? The unfortunate one would dare to judge the one to whom he must obey? 

Why do you command the ox, the horse and the donkey, and impose on them the labors of hard slavery? Because you are smarter than the animal, that is also why you slaughter it and eat its flesh. Now the law which is just against the beast is also lawful against you, whose understanding is without virtue, and is only exalted a degree above that of the brute. 

XXIII. Now, even in logic, the idea of ​​ignorance resolves itself into that of sin, for ignorance can only be caused by estrangement from God, that is to say evil. 

Sin has terrible significance. 

Don't we say that the progress we make in our knowledge of the world and of ourselves is progress in the science of evil? 

Whether you were created as one, or have become one, you are a villain; now, from the wicked one must take away his freedom and his life, if one can. You crush the barely hatched viper, which never bit or hurt, just as you crush the one you meet on your way. And you who, defiled from head to toe, dare to show yourself to the rays of the sun, you were created poisonous scorpion, poisonous scorpion, you will be killed and tormented.

The fruit of sin is death, and to him who has deserved death, the hardest slavery is commutation of punishment and a gift of mercy. For all sin is a violation of eternal laws, and before eternal laws there is not too great a penalty for the least of peccadilloes.

Sin, then, is the moral foundation of the idea of ​​authority. Who says original sin, says absolute authority and complete perversity of human nature, and says that gangrene has rotted the head and the heart.

CHAPITRE III.

Sanction of authority.

XXIV. When there is sin, authority is the punishment. If the crime calls for punishment, it is the authority that gives it. The great sanction of the law is retribution. The commanding word says: "Do this, or you will die." "The punishment, say the laws of Manon," the punishment governs the human race, the punishment keeps watch while all sleeps, the punishment is justice, the punishment is the most powerful of energies. "

Since man is evil and corrupt, can he do anything other than evil? The good is then that it is passive, entirely passive. Being absurd and wicked, he will obey by constraint; of intelligence he must have only to understand the order, of sensitivity, only to feel the lashes. 

It doesn't matter to the authority whether you accept it or not; What does the resistance of the captive do to the heavy chain which seals him to the wall? Authority ignores your obedience, like your rebellion; but if you brave it, force will remain with the law, that is to say, you will be crushed and you will learn what is the reason of the saber and the logic of the grape shot. 

XXV. Political and civil laws, as de facto authority, will have their de facto sanction. This is why the executioner closed the king's procession. This is why the state is calling for the prison and the guillotine. 

In absolute authority, Church and State are brother and sister, and all religions give eternal condemnation as the last reason for their dogma. So much so that the believers, who tied Arnold de Brescia and Michel Servet to the stake and blew the flame there, said: If it is right for God to burn the heretic throughout all eternity, it is our duty to burn them already in timely manner. The last religious formula is this: Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, or he will send you into the lake of fire and brimstone.

Summary.

XXVI. Man now knows what to expect. The earth is only one of the dark satellites of a dark star, an atom in the luminous dust raised around it by the ten-millionth of those blue, green or red suns, which seek some radiant constellation in the boundless fields of space.

Lost on this earth, which seems so great to him, lost like the infusor in the drop of dew trembling at the end of a straw, what is a man in the peoples of humanity, in the generations of past, present and future?

It is the drop tossed from one wave of the sea to the other, and which swirls between the whitening ridges; and the drop cries out: My life is agitated, it is stormy like the ocean; it speaks of revolutions and historical cycles, as it dies in the course of wave to wave, while it vanishes under the vault of an air bubble.

Your cries of joy and sorrows, O generations without number, are they anything other than the little sizzling sound of foam, of foamy foam that melts and goes away! 

XXVII. With respect to authority, man is only one of the forms of nothingness, he has no right but to worship in the dust. His intelligence will never receive any other explanation than: I want it, and it is enough for you! If reason wants to protest against this absolute obedience, it is because the demon of pride is in it; it is that the man who thinks is a depraved animal. If your hand wants to disobey, cut it off and throw it dead and bleeding, as you would throw the slobbering head of a snake far away! Your submission should have no limits except that of your existence, miserable worm!

For it is not an exterior and passive submission that suffices, it is necessary interior and absolute.

The rights of human personality are not made for the slave, to whom the master owes nothing, not even his life. Whether the master chains him to the posts of his doors, so that he remains there from his youth until his very white old age, or that he has the body of the unfortunate thrown to the fish in his tank, the master is in his law.

The slave is one thing. He must annihilate his individuality in that of the master, he must “obey like the corpse,” submission is eternal suicide. 

Slave of authority, do you understand? 

XXVIII. It follows from the above: That authority is no principle of greatness, beauty, justice or intelligence.

That authority is a fact, and that this fact is that of overwhelming force, the fact of necessity.

Let absolute authority deny relative authority.

That authority denies in man all freedom, all reason and all conscience, and reduce his value to the value of nothingness.

SECOND PART.

RELATIVE AUTHORITY.

XXIX. Relative authority and relative freedom are just two sides of the same principle, that of the relative.

As much as the absolute is an enemy of the relative, so much is the antagonism between the two expressions of the same relative principle. So that relative authority fights relative freedom, and these two, leagued together, fight absolute authority and freedom. And yet relative authority has its source in absolute sovereignty, like relative freedom in absolute freedom.

XXX. Relative authority says that absolute sovereignty is impossible, by the very fact that it claims to be absolute. Man is not absolute, therefore nothing absolute can be imposed on him.

Moreover, absolute authority is absurd by the very fact that it places itself above, that is to say, beyond reason. Is absurd whichcommands absurdity.

Likewise, absolute authority is immoral in that it places itself outside the laws of justice and morality.

XXXI. Relative authority is now fighting the religion of absolute sovereignty, having attacked its morals and philosophy. 

If the good and the just are such only by the will of God, if what is false and bad today could cease to be so tomorrow, the good would only have a value of arbitrary, arbitrary willed from all eternity perhaps, but always arbitrary. It is to deprive God of all moral value. This is to say that the divine personality is only a blind and fatalistic will, caprice raised to the height of the absolute, fantasy in the power of eternity. 

What are the consequences ? 

It is that chance and necessity, despite their apparent or real enmity, are only a duality reducible in the same principle, that of fatalism. Chance is the cause of fatality, necessity its effect. 

So that the religion of chance and that of necessity are the same, so that the philosophy of the atheist and the religion of the God of predestination are correlative.

The philosophy of the atheist thus says: There is no God, there are only logical laws, and the harmony of universal laws. Everything is thus reduced to a mechanical-mathematical system of the attraction of similar and proportional, of opposites and homogeneous, everything is reduced to being nothing more than the product of the law of the vibrations of the strings, and of planetary gravitation. . 

But why?

“… Necessity,” we are told.

For their part, the Muslim and the Calvinist blame the atheist for not leaving the idea of ​​pure Being, yet the pure Being, the God of the Neoplatonists has only a much less real existence than that of hydrogen gas. As for them, they bring everything back to a primary personality.

Very good. 

But this personality is only the hypostasis of predestination, which is only eternal arbitrariness, despite its name of immutable justice. 

If in the first system all the affections, from the dog's attachment to his master, to the love of man and woman, have no more moral significance than the fact of a stone which falls under the laws of earthly attraction; in the second, all loves, including the love of God for man and of man for God, have no more moral value than the fact of pebbles placed next to each other by a idle child. 

The atheist naturalist says: There is no God, there is only the impersonal existence of cosmic laws. The supernaturalist says: There is only reality the divine personality, apart from it, to imagine itself to be something, it is the drop of dew which believes itself to be the sun.

Materialism on the one hand, pantheism on the other, blind fatalism on both sides.

XXXII. After denying the principles of absolute authority, we will deny the consequences.

If man is evil itself, if he can only be an abomination, he is no more wicked than the rolling mill which by chance crushes a poor worker between its rolls.

If man is necessarily bad, evil is necessary, evil is only mechanical and material, that is, the very notion of moral evil is destroyed.

XXXIII. If absolute authority brings out the idea of sin and perversity, the relative authority and freedom bring out human weakness, and reduce the principle of human corruption to be nothing but that of the sin of ignoring. Relative authority and freedom therefore have intellectualism as their religion; this is what we see in these religions of compromise between the two opposing tendencies, such as Semipelagianism, Arminianism, Jansenism, Socinianism, and so on. 

Indeed, the principle of relative freedom is summed up not in the principle of creation, but in that of a choice between two extremes. 

Relative authority and freedom will therefore be summed up in philosophy. And what philosophy?

For example, that of Monsieur Cousin. -

XXXIV. But as soon as it comes to rebuilding the overturned edifice, then the union between relative authority and freedom disappears. One wants to take the most, the other wants to give as little as possible; and the struggle has no other logical end than that of a common death. 

The relative authority will copy the absolute sovereignty, that is to say, it will reproduce the brass colonnades, the marble porticoes, and the granite walls, with slabs of clay and wicker trays. . 

Instead of being based on the perversity of man, and his blindest unintellence, it will be based only on weakness and ignorance, and while one claims Omnipotence and that everything be nothing but nothingness around it, the other will have for strength only the weakness of what surrounds it. 

XXXV. Relative authority as authority will feel the need to go back to its principle and will always end up believing itself to be pure authority and giving precedence to sovereignty over reason and justice, in other words: "order comes before freedom, obey first, then you will claim. "

By the sole fact of its exercise, relative authority becomes again theocratic despotism and divine right.

XXXVI. "Choose your government," says Freedom to Members of State and Church. "But stay loyal to it," adds relative authority.

This government, once established as best it can, wants, by the very logic of things, to realize the idea of ​​government, that is to say to govern more and more. Relative freedom, in its turn, wants, no less logically, to be free more and more. 

The struggle is therefore permanent; since there are governments and ruled, there has been religious heresy and civil revolt. Quite naturally, power will therefore compress more and more, just as freedom will react more and more. However, the compressive force on one side and the repulsive force on the other have the same goal: to break the existing union.

The old government will therefore be overthrown, another will be raised, and the struggle will never be more violent; for relative authority must reduce relative freedom, relative freedom must destroy relative authority. 

XXXVII. If absolute authority is only a fact, with much more reason it is the same for relative authority which is only a compromise between two principles, which is therefore only their limitation, their mutual negation. 

Relative authority is said to be the golden mean between absolute authority, which it calls despotism, and complete freedom which is only license to it.

The golden mean being the system of measurement, resent everything that goes too far to the right or too far to the left, because as soon as the two parties go to extremes, the union breaks up, the dualism of wills being irreducible. So, if a power understood its interests, it would only be the point common to all the parties (it is true that this power would only be one of the expressions of freedom), but always power is lost by ceasing to be the central point of opinions, becoming a party itself, an extreme.

The golden mean is the balancing of the forces; a matter of statics, it is the neutralization of all powers, which he minimizes; he protests against any energetic movement, for then how would he control it? he does not like life, because life cannot be weighed, nor measured. It tends to stand still, it tends towards death. Indeed, the golden mean concentrates the universe at a mathematical point, and that point is it. This mathematical point, having neither width, nor length, nor height, nor thickness, would be the infinity of littleness, if it were not the golden mean between what is and what is not; and how would he want movement, it who does not know what space is, how would it want Spirit, it who protests against infinity?

XXXVIII. As a fact, relative authority will translate into relative fact. It will be the chance of the moment that will become the necessity of the moment. These are the laws and dogmas of a day, the merit of which is to be provisional and temporary, and the wrong of believing themselves to be eternal. This is how civil property is that which has been owned for thirty years, without question; for under pain of an eternal war, there must be a statute of limitations for all usurpations.

On the other hand of religious authority which does not claim to be absolute, there are very few; for almost all of them give themselves an eternal value. But for a dogma to be absolute, the faith of the believer is not absolute; which is also a way of relativizing the absolute.

XXXIX. Telling the facts of civil and religious authorities, wouldn't it be a reminder of the shame and pains of humanity? We therefore refrain from doing so here, and stop only at the flow of ideas.

Authority being a fact, authority is necessary as long as the devotee, the serf and the subject believe that he who commands them is more than them, and that he is more than a man; it is then true, indisputable, for we need it, for necessity is the first of laws and the best of reasons; but the moment one no longer believes in authority, it is de facto and de jure annihilated; because if it can burn, it cannot convince. 

As soon as relative authority, that is to say authority mixed with intelligence and liberty, has spend away its higher principle in favor of a people or an individual who has known how to assimilate them, it is then no more than pure authority; and it is precisely when it must perish that it proclaims itself eternal and absolute.

XL. Absolute sovereignty and relative authority agree that the measure of sin is that of their power.

Be it.

However, the authority being exercised by men, so much worth will be the subordinate, so much worth will be the master.

XLI. As far as the authority has been fair, as far it has developed the people towards morality, as far it will have done the work proposed by the tutor of Louis XV, who was working to render himself useless.

As far as it has been unjust, as far it will have developed the instincts of revolt and produced rebellion.

Thus the authority which is legitimized by the sole fact of its existence, is destroyed by the sole fact of its existence.

XLII. Who says relative authority, says authority which will end. For it can only have the practical value of time, accidents and circumstances, which vanishes as soon as we speak of God, conscience and eternity. 

Relative authority is typified by paternal authority, which is also absolute at its origin. As long as the child is null as a force, he would be the victim of all external agents, if he did not have beside him a complementary being to be its strength and his intelligence. But as soon as the child is the smallest possible thing, it is only a question of relative authority, which in turn will decline in the face of the relative freedom of the child, from the day when the father has been somewhat wrong. ; finally, this authority will be nothing at all, when the son is morally up to his father.

Absolute sovereignty and relative authority correspond to the birth and childhood of man; however, it is in the very fact of childhood that it destroys itself by continuing; it is in the nature of authority to destroy itself by exercising.

This is the history of States, of Churches, it is the history of mankind.

Summary.

XLIII. Absolute sovereignty has proven by logical argument that it alone is true and that relative authority is absurd.

Relative authority has proven by the practical argument that only it is possible and that absolute authority is absurd.

Do we state an antinomy between fact and reason? 

Yes, if there is no freedom.

Yes, if the freedom is not absolute.

- I believe in my infinite freedom.

CONCLUSIONS.

There are three religions, that of Force, that of Wisdom and that of Freedom.

The religion of intelligence is the religion of the golden mean, and like any intermediary, it has only a transitional value, and resolves itself into dualism; it is in fact only the perpetual antinomy of the ego and the non-ego, and the eternal attempt at union between the finite and infinite world.

Sixty centuries have slowly come to parade before the God of Strength, all peoples have come down through the ages to bow down to the dark Majesty.

The God of authority is the Sanzaï, it is the terrible Siwas and the heavy Djaggernaut, it is Zeus and Jupiter, it is the Manitou, it is the bloody Teutatés, it is the great fetish of the Kohi desert, and of the black inhabitant of Guinea. 

This God they also called Jehovah, and of Christ with a heart burning with love, the wicked have made the minister of anger and vengeance. On Golgotha ​​stands an immense cross, which rises above the rolling and noisy waves of human generations; and from the cross of the Saint and the Righteous they made a gallows, and to its two arms they tied the sons of Liberty, it is there that they die condemned in the name of God, and of the Man of Sorrows and infinite compassion.

Night covers the fields of the past, but if you look in the dark you will see the red flame of the pyres, and on these pyres they burned Vanini, they burned the noble Arnold and Savonarola, the heralds of freedom, they burned Jean Huss and Giordano Bruno, they burned the holy Joan of Arc. But will I say the names of the martyrs? Ask Torquemada, ask the Albigenses!

As for the people, they never recognized the man of God and cried out to him: Hail, O prophet! only when he saw her hanging bloody from the top of a cross. Who will speak of your sorrows, O martyrs of truth, you who have exercised righteousness! You have been stoned, you have been killed, you have been put to death by the edge of the sword, you have been grieved, tormented, you of whom the world was not worthy!

Oh ! when I look at the executioners dressed in purple reddened in the blood of martyrs, my heart trembles, and my flesh shivers. I shuddered with anguish and anger when I saw Faith, bloody Polyxena, dragging their hands behind their backs, before the altar of a black snake-headed fetish; they spread the dark veil of the criminal over her face, she lowered her head, then the priest cursed her, and the executioner plunged his knife into her chest.

Authority, bloody authority, I will not curse you, for I would make you hated by men weak of faith, and we must pray Forgive, O God, for they do not know what they are doing, to the executioner forgive, forgive because of the victim !

By accusing authority, I am accusing Humanity, and if I cursed it, I would curse my mother. For Humanity adores Necessity, peoples adore the Law of the sword with frightening fervor and immense cowardice. 

All of them adore egoism, which imposes itself on other egoisms, and walks haphazardly across the world, all of them adore despotism, except a few men of desire and love who are lost here and there, near whom pass the people of the city who smile and say: Look at the poor dreamer! 

You who cry out: Slave crouching in the mire, slave, with your head bowed between your knees, get up, get up, and be tall as a man! Poet, prophet, and you, preacher of truth, you are doing a work of greatness and nobility. 

Help them, Lord! 

Because they will be told: You are an ungodly and a blasphemer. They will be told: I excommunicate you, that is, if you take part in the meal of the saints and the blessed, I want the blood of Christ to become poison in your veins, and the flesh of Christ to become in you ferment of death

.Friends, in the name of the Idea, you advance against the sharp bayonet, and you advance against the whistling bullet, and you declare war on the Might, and you want to defeat the Force. So you will perish. 

Let them cry out about madness, about immense madness! They will cry out about the madness of the faith and the absurdity of the miracle.

Go, noble prophet, go therefore and cry: That which is selfishness in the soul manifests itself in tyranny and bondage; what is love in the heart is revealed as Devotion and Freedom!

Our father in heavens, May your kingdom come!

THESE

I.

Ubi spiritus domini, ibi libertas. 2 Cor. III, 17.

Ubi spiritus diaboli, ibi auctoritas.

II.

To argue with authority is madness. It accepts only one response: I am as strong as you, or this one, which is even better: I am stronger than you.

III.

It is said: Authority is the bond of beings, therefore it is unity; it is the first principle, it is therefore life.

Paralogism.

If authority is a link, it only recognizes the enmity of two pre-existing objects.

There is better than a chain to unite two beings, and all the freedoms there is attraction and love.

IV.

If the authority is legitimate by the sole fact of its existence, Freedom will find its justification in the sole fact of its existence.

If authority is only a question of fact, it will only have a matter value.

Now, if for the slave there is no Right against the Fact, for the free man there is no Fact against the Right.

V.

Any power that wants to impose itself must be said to be of divine right; because man cannot have rights against man.

VI. If authority is the product of corruption, authority is corrupting.

VII.

Denying individuality, authority denies the immortality of the soul.

Without absolute freedom, the eternity of man is nonsense.

If man has infinite duration, he must have infinite value.

VIII.

I say that all Revelation, all Redemption was made against authority.

IX.

To be free is my right and my duty.

X.

Protestantism has severed the vital root of Catholicism by depriving it of its principle of authority, papal infallibility.

If Protestantism in turn materializes in any authority, it will perish through authority.

Jesuitism and Calvinism represent the same principle of absolute authority; one stuck to the purely religious and metaphysical question, the other represented the authority of the Vice-God on earth, and stuck mostly to religion in its earthly dealings.

Jesuitism and Calvinism were born and died around the same time, today they are resurrected around the same time.

Representatives of the same principle, they have been the most violent enemies.

The authority of the last days had to be realized in the two most powerful extremes, the better to neutralize each other.

Because authority must perish.

XI.

If fatalism is a pagan idea, through Calvinism and Augustinism, paganism has entered the Church.

As far as it was in him, Calvinism destroyed the redemption of Christ.

XII.

One makes Christ an apostolic and Roman Catholic.

One makes him an "old Lutheran".

One makes a Calvin.

One makes him a rationalist.

Someone else does something else with it.

Certainly, Christ is the Christ.

XIII.

 One make of Christianity  this,

One make of it that.

One tastes of the nut only the very bitter husk.

One eats the fruit of it.

XIV.

God is the supreme objectivity only because he is the supreme subjectivity.

XV.

No one assimilates objectivity, except according to the power of his subjectivity. If I have no more self-awareness than the pebble in the road, I will not have the feeling of God any more than it has. My life is my love. -

XVI.

A higher truth would be fatal to a lower life. The fish that must breathe the little air in the water suffocates in atmospheric air.

Everything is mortal for the being who balances between life and nothingness, but for life everything is life-giving.

This applies to faith, to love, to all energies of the heart.

XVII.

It is said that two infinities cannot coexist without limiting themselves, that is to say without mutually destroying each other.

This is true for infinities which would be of the same nature. This would be true for the co-eternity of Good and Evil, the two sides of the same moral principle.

Is this true for infinities that are of a different nature?

I do not believe that.

I believe that infinite number of individuals would all have infinite value.

If the notion of individuality is identical to that of a being whose essence is absolutely sui generis, the notion of individuality is identical to that of infinity.

XVIII.

God is love.

Man is love.

End.

[deltainfoteklive]

JavaScript Features You Need to Know to Master React

When it comes to web development, React has emerged as a powerhouse for creating dynamic and interactive user interfaces. However, to truly master React, you need a solid grasp of the underlying JavaScript features that empower its functionality. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the JavaScript features you must know to excel in React development. From the fundamentals to advanced concepts, this article will equip you with the knowledge and insights to become a proficient React developer. JavaScript Features You Need to Know to Master React JavaScript, as the foundation of React, provides a range of features that are integral to understanding and effectively utilizing React. Let's delve into these features in detail: 1. ES6 Syntax and Arrow Functions: Understanding the modern ES6 syntax is essential for efficient React coding. Arrow functions, in particular, help simplify code structure and improve readability. 2. Component-Based Architecture: JavaScript's ability to create reusable components aligns seamlessly with React's component-based architecture. This promotes modular and organized code, making maintenance and updates smoother. 3. State and Props: JavaScript's concept of state and props is at the core of React's dynamic nature. State allows components to manage and track changes, while props facilitate data flow between components. 4. Destructuring and Spread Operators: Destructuring objects and using spread operators in JavaScript streamline the handling of data within React components, enhancing code efficiency. 5. JSX (JavaScript XML): JSX, an extension of JavaScript, enables developers to write HTML-like code within their JavaScript. This makes rendering components in React more intuitive and readable. 6. Event Handling: JavaScript's event handling capabilities empower React components to respond to user interactions effectively. This includes handling onClick, onChange, and other events seamlessly. 7. Conditional Rendering: JavaScript's if-else statements and ternary operators align perfectly with React's conditional rendering, allowing components to display content based on specific conditions. 8. Lifecycle Methods: Understanding JavaScript's lifecycle methods, such as componentDidMount and componentWillUnmount, is crucial for managing component behavior and optimizing performance in React. 9. Fetch API and Asynchronous Programming: JavaScript's asynchronous programming capabilities, coupled with the Fetch API, enable seamless data fetching and updating within React applications. 10. LocalStorage and SessionStorage: Leveraging JavaScript's localStorage and sessionStorage facilitates client-side data storage, which can be advantageous for saving user preferences in React applications. 11. Higher-Order Components (HOCs): JavaScript's functional programming capabilities enable the creation of HOCs in React, enhancing code reusability and making it easier to manage complex component structures. 12. Context API: JavaScript's context allows for global data sharing across components in React applications, reducing the need to pass props down the component tree. 13. Promises and Async/Await: JavaScript's Promise-based asynchronous programming, along with the modern async/await syntax, simplifies handling asynchronous operations in React. 14. Immutability and Pure Functions: Understanding immutability and pure functions in JavaScript ensures that state management in React remains predictable and avoids unintended side effects. 15. Error Handling with Try/Catch: JavaScript's try/catch blocks offer a structured approach to handling errors in React applications, enhancing stability and user experience. 16. Routing with React Router: JavaScript's versatility complements React Router's seamless navigation, allowing developers to create dynamic, multi-page applications. 17. RESTful API Integration: JavaScript's capabilities for making HTTP requests align well with React's need for integrating RESTful APIs, enabling data exchange between the frontend and backend. 18. Event Delegation: JavaScript's event delegation strategy optimizes event handling within React's virtual DOM, contributing to improved performance. 19. Web Accessibility (A11y): JavaScript's support for manipulating the DOM aligns with React's commitment to web accessibility, ensuring applications are usable by individuals with disabilities. 20. Webpack and Babel Integration: JavaScript's versatility shines when integrated with tools like Webpack and Babel, enhancing the development and deployment of React applications. 21. Closures and Scoping: Understanding JavaScript's scoping rules and closures is essential for maintaining clean code and preventing variable conflicts in React applications. 22. Memoization: JavaScript's ability to optimize function calls through memoization contributes to React application performance by reducing unnecessary re-renders. 23. Error Boundaries: JavaScript's error handling capabilities align with React's ErrorBoundary component, offering a way to gracefully manage errors and prevent app crashes. 24. Hooks: JavaScript's functional programming nature is well-suited for React's hooks, allowing developers to manage state and side effects in functional components. 25. TypeScript Integration: While not exclusive to JavaScript, integrating TypeScript enhances React development by providing static typing, reducing potential runtime errors. FAQs: How do I start learning JavaScript for React? Begin by mastering JavaScript fundamentals like variables, data types, and control structures. Then, explore ES6 features, such as arrow functions and destructuring, to enhance your code quality. Can I use JavaScript libraries with React? Absolutely. React's flexibility allows you to integrate various JavaScript libraries for specific functionalities, such as data visualization (D3.js) or state management (Redux). What's the significance of the Virtual DOM in React? The Virtual DOM is a JavaScript representation of the actual DOM. React uses it to efficiently update and render components, reducing the need for direct manipulation of the real DOM. Is it necessary to learn all these JavaScript features to master React? While not mandatory, understanding these features significantly empowers your React development journey. They provide the foundation for writing clean, efficient, and scalable React applications. How does JavaScript's event-driven nature enhance React? JavaScript's event-driven paradigm aligns with React's component-based architecture, allowing developers to create responsive and interactive user interfaces by handling user actions. Can I use JavaScript features in both frontend and backend development? Absolutely. JavaScript is a versatile language used in both frontend (browser) and backend (Node.js) development. Understanding its features benefits you in various application areas. Conclusion: As you embark on your journey to master React, remember that a strong foundation in JavaScript is paramount. The features and concepts we've explored in this article lay the groundwork for creating exceptional React applications. By harnessing JavaScript's capabilities, you'll build responsive, dynamic, and user-friendly interfaces that leave a lasting impact. Stay curious, keep practicing, and dive deeper into these features to become a true React expert. Read the full article

[senzacaponecoda]

@esoanem​ So I wanted to say something about how binary branching and multibranch branching might be equivalent from a discussion we had like a year ago This is also here for anyone that cares

Let me try to give the generative grammar rules for the DP and NP (star means concatenation of two rules):

DP -> Spec1P * D’ | D’ D’ -> D’ * Adjunct1P | D * NP D -> d (d = any determiner word)

Spec1P -> s1 (s1 = any specifier word for a DP)

NP -> Spec2P * N’ | N’ N’ -> N’ * Adjunct2P | N N -> n (n = any noun in the lexicon) Spec2P -> s2

To keep things simple, we’ll ignore the detail in the adjunct phrases and stuff like case. We’ll use the phrase “all the dogs in the kitchen” as our goal, and start deriving from DP.

I. DP -> Spec1P * D’ : Spec1P * D’ II. Spec1P -> s1 -> all : all D’ III. D’ -> D * NP : all D NP IV. D -> d -> the : all the NP V. NP -> N’ : all the N’ VI. N’ -> N’ * Adj2P : all the N’*Adj2P VII. N’ -> n -> dogs : all the dogs Adj2P VIII. Adj2P -> ... -> in the kitchen : all the dogs in the kitchen

Let’s draw a tree using our rules

Cool. Notice how the tree and the rules are the same thing.

You could have extra rules; of course. The Context Free Grammar we’re using has a few patterns to how it’s stated however; all of the rules are in the form X -> Y, (rule to rule), X -> YZ (rule to two concatenated rules), or X -> x (rule to terminal symbol, the syntactic word more-or-less).

That’s called Chomsky Normal Form. You can put it into other forms, however, simply by applying the rules to themselves. Logically, restating a CFG from one form to another can be equivalent. So, we can go from Chomsky Normal Form to Greibach Normal Form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greibach_normal_form Sheila Greibach proved that every CFG converted into her form is equivalent to a form in like CNF or other normal forms. I suck at proofs, but basically if you never change a rule, but only ever substitute in rules, you create equivalent CFGs

Greibach Normal form is basically every rule has to begin with one terminal symbol, followed by any number of non-terminal symbols. X -> x(A*B*C*D...). We can follow this guide https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/converting-context-free-grammar-greibach-normal-form/

Looking at our rules again DP -> Spec1P * D’ | D’ D’ -> D’ * Adjunct1P | D * NP D -> d

Spec1P -> s1

NP -> Spec2P * N’ | N’ N’ -> N’ * Adjunct2P | N N -> n Spec2P -> s2 We can eliminate recursion pretty much by substituting in the non-left recursive part of the rules in for itself: DP -> Spec1P * D’ | D’ D’ ->  D * NP | D * NP * Adjunct1P D -> d Spec1P -> s1 NP -> Spec2P * N’ | N’ N’ ->  N | N * Adjunct2P N -> n Spec2P -> s2

We can substitute in the Non-Terminal to Terminal rules:

DP -> s1 * D’ | D’ D’ ->  d * NP | d * NP * Adjunct1P   NP -> s2 * N’ | N’ N’ ->  n | n * Adjunct2P We get rid of the remaining rules not beginning with a terminal symbol by substituting (from the least contigent up, but thankfully that doesn’t matter here) rules that are correct up. DP -> s1 * D’ | d * NP | d * NP * Adjunct1P D’ ->  d * NP | d * NP * Adjunct1P   NP -> s2 * N’ | n | n * Adjunct2P N’ ->  n | n * Adjunct2P And so, we’re in Greibach Normal Form now. Goal: “all the dogs in the kitchen” Start: DP I. DP -> s1 * D’ : all D’ II. D’ -> d * NP : all the NP III. NP -> n * Adjunct2P : all the dogs Adjunct2P IV. Adjunct2P -> ... : all the dogs in the kitchen. We can represent these rules as a tree as well:

I realized after doing this that I made a tree that was accidentally binary anyways, but you notice in our GNF rules we have a few that are a terminal symbol followed by two or more rules, which would make binary trees. This is syntactically me being an idiot but let’s just make the prepositional phrase an adjunct of the determiner. We can do that again through Chomsky Normal Form: DP -> Spec1P * D’ | D’ D’ -> D’ * Adjunct1P | D * NP D -> d Spec1P -> s1 NP -> Spec2P * N’ | N’ N’ -> N’ * Adjunct2P | N N -> n Spec2P -> s2 I. DP -> S1P * D’ : S1P * D’ II. D’ -> D’*A1P : S1P*D’*A1P III. D’ -> D*NP : S1P*D*NP*A1P IV. NP -> N’ : S1P*D*N’*A1P V. N’ -> N : S1P*D*N*A1P VI. S1P -> all : all D*N*A1P VII. D -> the : all the N * A1P VIII. N -> dogs : all the dogs A1P IX. A1P -> in the kitchen : all the dogs in the kitchen

GNF DP -> s1 * D’ | d * NP | d * NP * Adjunct1P D’ ->  d * NP | d * NP * Adjunct1P   NP -> s2 * N’ | n | n * Adjunct2P N’ ->  n | n * Adjunct2P I. DP -> s1 * D’ : all D’ II. D’ -> d * NP * A1P : all the NP A1P III. NP -> n : all the dogs A1P IV. A1P -> -> in the kitchen : all the dogs in the kitchen

so since it was just a poor choice of example and we did the same thing in both to get the second examples, if I wasn’t stupid this would have ended up with ternary branching the first time The tree thing is pretty much notation, just as X -> Y is notation, basically. These CFGs can also be translated into finite state machines or regular expressions that all accept the same set of terminal symbols (~words). Maybe it’s not logically equivalent in terms of what to find in the brain but binary and ternary branching (i.e. rules) can make the same things fundamentally Note that at this point I believe that what the brain actually does is a relational grammar kind of like prolog https://swish.swi-prolog.org/example/examples.swinb and trees just happen to work because you can represent things in extremely similar ways, in the same way that you can program a big relational structure like Prolog is really good at using Oz (a teaching language, I had to do this) or other languages (like C, which I think prolog thinks in). Case, agreement, and government I think is taken to mean we actually have context sensitive grammars, or essentially rules of the form Xs -> tY or so on. Relational grammars basically have this built in at every step which is why I think we’re not finding the d-Structure/whatever stuff minimalists propose.

[perfectlytinyworkspace]

branching via if-else statements

basics of if-else branching

branching - method of categorizing objects into groups based on defined characteristic(s)

one branched program statement may contain any or all of the following:

1. if-branch - criterion and corresponding (group → action) for objects that fit into one branch category | “if _____ :”

if-branch is only taken and object placed into group, if criterion is true for given object

criterion is set with sharply specified boundaries for the computer (i.e. branch > 60 does not include the value 60 itself)

2. else-if branch - criterion and corresponding (group → action) for objects do not fit into preceding branch category (or categories) | “elif _____ :”

3. else-branch - (group → action) for objects that do not fit into a branch category specified by any preceding if-branch or else-if branch | “else _____ :”

specific considerations for if-else execution in particular

if-else branching is binary - either the object meets the if-criterion (if-branch is true for object) or the else-counter-criterion (if-branch is false for object)

*once object is placed into a branch, it remains in that branch only - thus order of branches may matter and repeated categorizing of 1 object in branch execution cannot occur

without an ending else-branch, if-else program can still take non-branch-fit objects as inputs - simply spits object out for next portion of code

syntax: like function def headers, if-else branch code lines always finish with a colon ( : ) different from MATLAB (i.e., “if num_people > 10 :”)

syntax: un-indented if/else criterion line is followed by indented (group → action) statement

operators used in if-else branches

<, > do not include limit value within range of true objects

<=, >= include limit value within range of true objects

== is an equalizer that compares two values for true of whether one equals the other, rather than variable-to-value assignment

syntax: for readability, try to use inclusive equalizer statements instead of <, > if including values within branch criterion ranges

variants on if-else branching, to achieve different programming outputs

1. nested if-else statements - beneath a branch within a statement program is a further sub-branch with sub-criterion + (group → action) given true for initial branch criterion

for nested branches, the object remains in the sub-branch once it has tested true for the sub-criterion

object in sub-branch does not continue back out to main if-else statement for further categorization*

2. multiple, separate if-else statements in one program - 1 object is passed through multiple criterion + (group → action) pathways within single program

used so that 1 object can be categorized multiple times and placed in many different branches (i.e., on different trees entirely)*

subsequently differs from both multi-branch if-elseif-else and nested sub-branch if-else statements in that 1 object can simultaneously be true for several criteria

i.e. to run 1 object through car_year >= 1970 AND car_year >= 1990, use multiple if-statements rather than one branch:

conditional expressions - ternary, more boolean/evaluative form of if-else branching

structure of conditional expression: True outcome if evaluation else False outcome 

False outcome does not need to reassign variable, just state the value to be assigned, i.e., y = 0 if (x > 100) else 50

conditional expressions are only able to assign 1 variable to a value

expression can be written out as an if-else statement for better readability | restrict usage of ternary conditional expressions to variable assignment scenarios/intentions

[spooky-raccoon]

Road Trip (Part 1)

Rufo x Female Reader

Part 1 to Road Trip

Tag List: @trig-loves-clowning-around @rottenhearts-and-sharpteeth

          After double checking my list and making sure everything was in place in the car, I was finally able to officially start my vacation.  I had been working my butt off to earn enough vacation time to properly enjoy the trip, so it felt good to finally sit down in the driver seat of my car.  With a wave to a friend who was watching my cat I set on out to see the sights I had planned out.  Town signs passed one after another and then finally state signs as I headed out west. I had been planning on camping in a few national state parks and get some photographs with my new camera that barely got any use these days. Poor thing had been so dusty when I pulled it out to get ready for the trip.  

         However, I guess things don’t always go as planned.  Definitely not according to plan.

          I had wrapped up my campsite at the first of many state parks and decided to take a few last pictures before I drove off. The morning was crisp but once the sun had started to come up the woods came to life with different creatures.  I even had a deer come up to me as I was putting my things away.  After giving it a carrot from the cooler and watching it run off I took off out of the park to head to my next destination on my list.  

         My car dinged a few times, letting me know it needed gas soon or it would leave me stranded at the side of the road.  Thankfully, I had found a gas station nearby that was just off the highway and nested in a grove of trees.  I pulled up to an available pump with my windows down and my Motown playlist playing from my speakers.  It wasn’t too loud, but others could definitely hear it. I looked around to see who else was around in this middle of nowhere.  There was a family sitting outside at the little fast food place attached to the gas station near an RV I guessed was theirs.  A few people at the pumps filling up their cars as well. Finally, against the wall of the building was a man with wavy black hair in a dark brown leather trench coat who had been watching the family until me.  He had looked over to see who the new person at the station was, his head tilting a little with a confused expression.

          I tried to pay him no mind as I turned off my car and went inside, having to walk past him.  I had met his gaze and nearly stopped in my tracks when I saw his face but made myself go inside instead.  As I browsed the snacks I kept thinking about his ice blue colored eyes and his sharp looking jaw that was framed by his curly hair.  He looked so serious yet something solemn was deep in his eyes.  I shook my head as I grabbed a few snacks and a cold drink, also paying to fill up my tank.  The door opened just as I was approaching it.  My hand had gone out to open it, but I could see that the man was keeping it open for me with other arm in a gesture toward my vehicle.  There was even a slight bow in his posture.  I gave him a small smile and a thank you before making my way to the car.

          I leaned against the side of the car as I pumped the gas after putting my snacks and drinks away, humming absentmindedly to the last song I had been listening to.  I was even tapping my fingers a little and I probably would have started bobbing side to side if I didn’t remind myself that I was at a gas station with people still around.  I was sort of lost in my own bubble and I hadn’t noticed that the man and I were the only two people left in the lot.  Or that he had decided to come up to me.

          “Forgive me if I’m wrong but was that Bobby Darin you were listening to when you pulled up?”  A pleasantly soothing voice came from my right and I turned to see the tall man leaning against the side of my car on the hood just a few feet from me, a soft smile toying at the corner of his mouth.  He looked the epitome of charming but there was still something off about him I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  “I haven’t heard anyone listen to Bobby Darin in a while, especially someone of your age.”

          “I love Bobby Darin and a lot of the old timey fellas. Especially Frank Sinatra.  He’s my favorite.”  I couldn’t help but to chuckle at his phrasing.  He didn’t look too old, maybe close to his early to mid-thirties.  “I’m (Y/N) by the way.  Nice to meet you.”

          “The name is Rufo. A pleasure to meet you, (Y/N). Not often I meet someone with good taste in music these days.  Frank’s also a personal of mine.”  He gave a small bow as he introduced himself which I chuckled a little at.  “I was curious if you would help a stranger out just a little bit.  Car broke done quite a way and wouldn’t get it back for some time which puts me in a pickle as I need to get to a job.  I need a ride and the old hitchhiking thumb hasn’t gotten me too far. I have money for gas, food, and hotels for along the way if it comes to having to stay at one.  I need to head pretty far out so if you can’t take me but a couple miles at the most I’d still be grateful.”

          I was a little surprised at the request, my brows raising a little and I couldn’t help but to jump a little when the pump finished as it made a ding along with a loud thud.  I always heard about nightmare stories of hitch hikers turning out to be some sort of crazed murderer but the man beside me didn’t give me any sort of odd vibe.  I put the pump back in its holster and I looked back to Rufo, a smile growing on my own face which only made his grow wider as if he already knew the answer.  The company would be nice to have, and he seemed friendly enough.  Besides, I kept myself protected and had a couple knives and my tire iron just in case.

          “No, no, that would be fine.  It’d be nice to have a passenger along my little road trip. I’m heading pretty far out west too, but I should warn you I’m camping at parks as well as some hotels.  I do have an extra sleeping bag if that’s alright with you.”  I gave him a small shrug, “If not, a hotel most of the way is alright.  Especially if we both need to shower.”

          “I haven’t done much camping in ages so that sounds quite nice actually.”  He grinned, large enough to see his perfect teeth that only made his smile ever more perfect itself.  As he did he adjusted himself so now he was standing at his full height.  He still towered over me.  “Let me go grab some stuff for the road and we can get on out of here.”  

          With that he turned to the gas station, going inside with a pep in his step and I could hear him whistling a jaunty tune. I settled back in the car to get it started and turning down the music in case Rufo wanted to talk during the drive but still listen.  He came back out after a little bit with a plastic bag that I could tell had a few snacks and some drinks.  We put some of the drinks in the cooler and he got cozy in the passenger seat next to me.

           Once he was buckled up I took off back down the road and getting onto the highway.  It didn’t take me long to explain my little ternary and I even showed him the plans in the notebook I had made for the trip so he could take a look over it.  As we chatted back and forth about some of the sights on the map I had marked I couldn’t help but think some questions to myself mentally. As Rufo got to talking more and more about some places he had experience with I couldn’t help but let my mind wonder now and again.  I shouldn’t have let my guard down, but I couldn’t help but curious about this man when he would get so enthusiastic about somewhere with that smile beaming on his face and with the way his eyes lit up.  There were things I really wanted to ask but I thought it would be rude, at least for now.  Maybe later in a few days on the trip I could ask him. There was such a strange air about him, but that only made that curious feeling worse.

           As I was asking myself a few questions about this man and this little adventure I was now starting myself on, but I never thought to ask myself:

           Knowing of what was to come, would I have still said yes?

[mikrokosmos]

Chopin - Nocturne in bb minor, op. 9 no. 1 (1832)

Back when I first got into classical music, the Chopin nocturnes were my favorite pieces. I especially adored the very first published one, which is overshadowed by the more iconic second nocturne. The structure is so simple, ternary form where the B section repeats a few times before returning to A. But it achieves Chopin’s goal of using the nocturne to be like little opera arias for the piano. As a teen, I was quite the “Romantic”, so this piece always made me think of nighttime, the woods under moonlight, fields, stars, etc. The opening section has a melody flowing freely over the left hand pattern, ignoring the rhythm for its own coloratura pacing. This is what makes me think of shadowy trees, walking along in the dark, as if it’s the wind’s music. We then go into the middle section, in a major key but it isn’t really “happy” as it is a quiet contentment. The simple melody in octaves over the repeating left hand. Calmness at night. This music makes me think more of space, like the stars, the moon, without sticking to images on Earth. The melody builds up, gets louder, and we get a second voice in homophonic harmony. Then, it dies off again, the last repeat of the melody is soft, delicate, the two voices playing the simple harmony over the simple pattern in the left hand. And this simplicity has such a quiet beauty to it. We’re only here for a moment before going back to the opening section, the romantic Parisian salon section. We end with a few unexpected modulations, a soft descending pattern, and a rolled chord. I could listen to this over and over again, and never get tired. Even after all these years, the music gives me the same emotions and impressions I felt when I first heard it. I just listened to it again driving through country roads at dusk. There’s something about this time of day, the last glimpse of the world before everything gets dark. Those things are still there, the trees, the buildings, even though you can’t see them. Strange to think about how still it must feel in the most remote parts of the world. This nocturne gives me that strange sense of loneliness and stillness.

Pianist: Vladimir Ashkenazy