I have spent the past weekend at a Jewish get-together at Varberg. This is a picture of our beautiful Havdalah yesterday—a ceremony marking the end of the Sabbath. You don’t need to be overly religious to appreciate a moment like this.
“[W]hat is no longer seriously disputed is that humans are the main agents of climate change,” The Economist reports.
What is refreshing with the new IPCC report is that some of the old hostility towards economic and technological progress has been taken out. It seems the extreme ecofreaks who wanted global warming to prove their socialist mantra about freedom and capitalism being unsustainable are about to lose this fight, too.
“Egypt’s Minister of Religious Endowments has claimed that colonial Zionism is fragmenting society by financing homosexuality,” Pink News reports.
“Spanish MPs will, on Tuesday (4 November), vote on a non-binding motion urging Madrid to recognise Palestinian statehood, following similar moves in Britain, Ireland, and Sweden,” the EU Observer reports.
“Fifty priests have signed a letter criticizing a archbishop in one of Spain’s poorest regions for allegedly converting a floor of the official bishop’s palace into a ‘luxury suite’ with marble floors, walk-in dressing rooms, and a jacuzzi bath,” The Local reports.
“Sweden’s weather agency has warned that a mighty snowfall is on the way for [northern] Sweden, with up to 30 centimetres expected on Tuesday alone,” The Local reports. I’m glad I don’t live in the north.
According to a radical new theory of quantum mechanics published on 23 October in the journal Physical Review X, other universes are real and exist in vast numbers, David Freeman of the Huffington Post reports.
“A truly clean break with the EU involves the so-called WTO-only option,” Michael White, Larry Elliott, and Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian write.
“Austrian Islamist Mohamed Mahmoud, who was released from custody in Turkey in August, has published a photo of himself on the Internet posing in front of several half naked, decapitated corpses,” The Local reports.
“Russia carried out a simulated attack on the Danish island of Bornholm over the summer at the precise time that the island was occupied by countless politicians and journalists for the annual political meeting Folkemødet,” The Local reports.
“A Christian bakery firm which refused to make a cake supporting gay marriage with a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie has been warned it will be taken to court unless it apologises and pays immediate compensation,” John Bingham of the Daily Telegraph reports.
“One of Sweden’s main tourist attractions will be repainted in warm pink,” The Local reports.
As can be seen in this recent picture, the palace is now brown and yellow.
(Photo by Arild Vågen.)
“A federal appeals court just became the first in the country to rule against marriage equality,” the Advocate reports.
“The tabloid—which has been under increasing pressure to ditch the topless section—replaced it today with a two-page naked spread featuring West Ham football club,” Pink News reports.
Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press has written an article suggesting just that.
“A member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses has warned of the perils of tight trousers designed by homosexuals,” Pink News reports.
“In Colorado, which in January became the first place in the world fully to legalise cannabis, buying a joint feels more like visiting a trendy craft-brewery than a drug den,” The Economist reports.
“There are only so many ways to wrap a penis in plastic, but that hasn’t stopped a new crop of prophylactic engineers from trying to exhaust them all,” Samantha Allen of The Daily Beast writes.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that EU citizens who move to another member state “solely in order to obtain social assistance” may be excluded from benefits schemes, the EU Observer reports.
“The one thing that may put the brakes on a brave new cash-free world is Swedes’ sentimentality when it comes to their coins and notes,” Helen Russell of the Guardian reports.
“In addition to banning homosexuality outright, Uganda would also adopt a Russia-style ban on the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality, which can be used to stifle dissent,” Pink News reports.
The homophobia is really perverse in Uganda.
Over at Boing Boing, Simon Singh looks into the deep, dark, and strangely complicated world of Simpsons mathematics.
“I do recognise—reluctantly—that our small island simply cannot absorb the present and projected numbers at the current speed,” John Major has told an audience in Berlin.
“New maritime patrols aimed at stemming the flow of African migrants making the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe are taking over from the Italian navy,” BBC News reports.
“Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven is concerned that a county council in southern Sweden is investigating the possibility of allowing nursing staff the right to refuse to perform abortions on grounds of religious faith,” The Local reports.
The Swedish fear of religion mirrors the religious extremists’ fear of secularism. Respecting individual health-care providers with strongly held religious sentiments against abortion will in no way be a threat to women in need of an abortion. In fact, I would say that it’s in the best interest of everyone involved that hospital staff opposed to abortion do other things within their profession.
“Sweden’s military says it has ‘conclusive evidence’ there was a foreign vessel in Swedish waters last month,” The Local reports.
“The author of St Petersburg’s anti-gay censorship law is preparing a bill to force brides and grooms to wear traditional wedding attire,” Pink News reports.
Heteronormativity gone mad.
“Islamic State to produce own currency for use in self-declared caliphate—as soon as it can locate a mint and enough metal,” the Guardian reports.
“A court in eastern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a homosexual man to three years in jail for engaging in ‘immoral acts’,” Gulf News reports.
(Photo by the European Space Agency.)
| Do you support or oppose the military air strikes by the US-led international coalition against Islamic militant groups in Iraq and Syria? | |
|---|---|
| Strongly Support | 26% |
| Support | 33% |
| Oppose | 25% |
| Strongly Oppose | 12% |
| Don’t Know | 4% |
“Findings from telephone interviews with 5,100 respondents in seven Arab countries and in Syrian refugee camps located Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey show that 85% of the Arab holds negative views,” the Arab Center For Research & Policy Studies reports.
This is good news, but what is still alarming is the high percentage of Arabs opposing airstrikes on the terror organisation.
“A rights group in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar has called on the government to introduce same-sex marriage,” Pink News reports.
“Pope Francis has denounced the right to die movement, saying it’s a ‘false sense of compassion’ to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity when it’s a sin against God and creation,” the Brisbane Times reports.
The Pope is wrong in the same way as opponents to freedom of conscience for health-care providers are wrong. It should be up to the individual doctor to decide what services he or she is prepared to offer patients—and this should be clearly voiced in order for patients or family members to freely choose the doctor that match their need.
Jamie Dettmer of The Daily Beast writes about the Russian mythomaniac.
“France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the country to repeal its same-sex marriage laws,” Pink News reports.
“New ID cards of same-sex couples’ children will include gender appropriate titles for the parents, with ‘Father’s name’ or ‘Mother’s name’ appearing twice,” Ynetnews reports.
“What they [the scientists] don’t understand is that science and theology have the same author: ‘In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth’,” Rick DeLano, writer and producer of The Principle, a new creationist film, World Net Daily reports.
What bothers me about this is not so much that creationists make films and try to persuade people to subscribe to their ideology. No, what bothers me is that their answer to the gaps in scientific theories is a theory with no base in anything but the Bible. Debating questions about the origin of the universe and present a first-cause God as a hypothesis is fine by me, but don’t assume that the lack of proof of other hypothesis make this one sounder.
Watch the official trailer for the film here.
“Vienna’s Saudi School—a private school for Islamic immigrants from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East—is under review by the city council after allegations that it is teaching conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism,” The Local reports.
I just came home after three days in Oslo. It’s been more than thirty years since my latest visit to Norway, and I must admit that I liked its capital. It’s a small city with walking distance to most everything you want to see during a short visit. I got to Oslo by boat and snapped this photo of the downtown area with the opera house at its centre. The next time I go to Oslo, I will make sure to get a ticket to the opera.
“The 53-year-old, identified as an Israeli tourist, was called a ‘dirty bloody Jew’ and a ‘f---ing Jew’ by his assailants, one of which beat him with his own umbrella,” the New York Daily News reports.
“Cosby slipped her a mickey and forced her into oral copulation, after which he tossed her ten bucks for cab fare,” Mark Ebner of The Daily Beast writes.
Pink News reports:
The US Supreme Court has refused to block same-sex marriages in South Carolina.
It has declined a request by Attorney General Alan Wilson to do so.
The Republican prosecutor had wanted the marriages blocked while he challenges a judge’s recent decision in favour of marriage equality.
It seems the tide has turned now. It’s only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in all American states.
“Prince Charles’ intention to become an ‘activist’ king could force the nation’s political class to rethink the role of the monarchy,” the Guardian reports.
A Hamas terrorist cell planned to assassinate Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, Ynetnews reports.
“A study has found that people are more supportive of gay rights than they are of same-sex public displays of affection,” Pink News reports.
From the United States Naval Research Laboratory:
Navy researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Materials Science and Technology Division, demonstrate proof-of-concept of novel NRL technologies developed for the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) from seawater and conversion to a liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange module (E-CEM), both dissolved and bound CO2 are removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency by re-equilibrating carbonate and bicarbonate to CO2 and simultaneously producing H2. The gases are then converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor system.
This might very well be the solution to much of the world’s energy problem.
“Gay rights campaigner and entrepreneur Ivan Massow has announced that he will run for Mayor of London,” Pink News reports.
Griff Witte of the Washington Post has done two separate interviews with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja on Russia’s relationship with Finland and the West.
“U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves on Tuesday handed same-sex couples a victory in their quest to overturn Mississippi’s gay marriage ban,” The Clarion-Ledger reports.
Most members of the European Parliament endorse Jean Claude Juncker’s investment plan based on financial engineering, the EU Observer reports.
I’m no fan of using taxpayers’ money on anything but the things that governments must do, but if this can help Europe combatting unemployment and stagnation, I would welcome it. However, I think the real problem is red tape that hurts entrepreneurship.
From The Mike Report:
These photos were taken in downtown Seattle earlier this evening in the wake of the Ferguson grand jury verdict. Upset with the verdict in Missouri? Then boycotting Israel makes perfect sense.
The banner was carried by members of the Palestine Solidarity Committee. The same group was associated with protests this Summer in downtown Seattle which featured swastikas and comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany.
These people make me sick.
The Intercept has obtained samples of the malware from sources in the security community and is making it available for public download in an effort to encourage further research and analysis, the website reports.
From Pink News:
This list is made for gay men in Britain but is equally relevant to gay men in Sweden and the rest of Europe.
“The Finnish Parliament has approved a bill allowing same-sex marriage,” Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, reports. “The vote was 105 to 92, with one MP absent.”
“Painting yourself as a paternalistic keeper of the nation’s future is a little easier, of course, when you have scrubbed out every potential rival,” Tom Parfitt of the Daily Telegraph writes.
It’s what all modern-day, pseudo-democratic, de facto dictators do. Venezuela’s late ruler Hugo Chávez did this to perfection. He abused his power as leader to have the state demolished all opposition and then he portrayed himself as the only man strong enough to rule. I suspect that his pal in Moscow learned from him.
There has been an awakening—have you felt it?
No, but I’m sure the producers of this new Star Wars film will tell me all about it.
Watch the trailer on iTunes.
“When Lou Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story,” IMDB writes.
I saw this film last night, and I can highly recommend it. It’s a smart film in many ways and my thought went to Drive, another film about a loner LA guy who drives his car in the city streets at night. This film, however, lacks the hypnotic soundtrack of Drive.
I just listened to a radio programme from America where a man who called the show rambled on about the “modern disease” that gay people represent. The man seemed convinced that homosexuality and pornography was invented in the past few decades. This made me think of the erotic artworks found at Pompeii, the ancient Roman town that was buried under several metres of ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 BCE. Above is an example—a bisexual threesome.
“One of the more intriguing aspects of contemporary Russian Jewish life is the close relationship between the Kremlin and Chabad,” Slate reports.
This is worrying for several reasons, not least because Chabad represent some of the most reactionary attitudes towards women and gay people in contemporary Judaism. It’s also an organisation known for its own “Messiah”, a late rabbi the movement think of as the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation.
“The entire nation of Canada has decided to join Twitter,” BuzzFeed reports.
And the trolls are out. Poor Canada.
Inspired by an earlier entry on homoerotic art in Pompeii, here are some more art from the ancient Roman town. It’s fascinating to see images from the distant past like this.
“According to a report in the Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung, the ring-leader of the 13 alleged jihadists who was arrested in a series of raids in the early hours of Friday morning was a major player in a global terror network,” The Local writes in an article portraying the Islamic militant.
One thing I love about the Internet is the extremely niched website. There really is no limit to human imagination. Today I discovered Attack of the Cute, a blog dedicated to the cute, adorable, and fluffy cats and dogs.
In Germany, churches promote the times of their masses on signs at the town entrances, Boing Boing reports. Now, for the first time, the ‘Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’ has been allowed to put up sign there as well.
Gertrude Stein’s (1874–1946) poem Daughter:
Why is the world at peace. This may astonish you a little but when you realise how easily Mrs. Charles Bianco sells the work of American painters to American millionaires you will recognise that authorities are constrained to be relieved. Let me tell you a story. A painter loved a woman. A musician did not sing. A South African loved books. An American was a woman and needed help. Are Americans the same as incubators. But this is the rest of the story. He became an authority.
Painting: Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1906).
