Wednesday, June 24, 2015

This 200,000 Year-Old City in South Africa Could Rewrite Human History | The Mind Unleashed

This 200,000 Year-Old City in South Africa Could Rewrite Human History | The Mind Unleashed: A giant stone city was discovered in South Africa, approximately 150 km west of port Maputo, Mozambique. By calculating the erosion rate of the dolerite, it became possible to assess the age of the site. It was estimated that the 1500 square-kilometer metropolis was constructed between 160,000 and 200,000 years ago!

Monday, June 22, 2015

Dylann Roof’s racist manifesto: ‘I have no choice’ - The Washington Post

Dylann Roof’s racist manifesto: ‘I have no choice’ - The Washington Post: Authorities said Saturday that the man accused of killing nine African Americans in a venerable Charleston, S.C., church left a racist manifesto targeting blacks, Jews and Hispanics on his Web site, a white supremacist broadside that also appears to offer a rationale for the shootings.

The lengthy declaration, loaded with offensive racial characterizations of blacks and others, includes the conclusion that “someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

“I have no choice,” states part of that final section, titled “An Explanation.” “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is [the] most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.”

A Letter From a White South African to White America�|�Bronwyn Lea

A Letter From a White South African to White America�|�Bronwyn Lea: I know there are many differences between America and South Africa's histories: they are complex narratives, woven in blood and ink. I do not write this as an expert analyst, or as a political pundit -- but as one confessing there is so much I don't know and understand. But, I offer the little I've learned living in a country which shed tears and blood over race, and now living in another doing the same:

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

The Usenet Improvement Project - Home

The Usenet Improvement Project - Home: What is the Usenet improvement Project?

The Usenet Improvement Project is an attempt to make Usenet participation a better experience for those who are clued as to what the Usenet medium is and how to use it.
Lamers
Lamer Street Sign

Most of the people who post to Usenet via the clunky Google Groups web interface are lusers or lamers. Because of their use of a clunky Usenet web interface (and all Usenet web interfaces suck - Usenet wasn't designed for webification and does not need webification), they have no idea what Usenet is, how it works, or how to use it properly. And, generally, they don't want to learn.

Don’t stress about us in SA | Opinion & Analysis | BDlive

Don’t stress about us in SA | Opinion & Analysis | BDlive: there have always been people who think SA has five years left before we go over the cliff. No change from when I was at school in the sixties. The five years went down to a few months at times in the eighties!

But it seems the people who are the most worried live far from the cliff in places like Toronto, Auckland, London and other wet and cold places. Also from St Ives and Rose Bay in Sydney, Dallas and Europe and other "safe places" that are in the grip of the global financial crisis, which by the way is quite scary.

Sunday, June 07, 2015

I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me - Vox

I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me - Vox: So it's not just that students refuse to countenance uncomfortable ideas — they refuse to engage them, period. Engagement is considered unnecessary, as the immediate, emotional reactions of students contain all the analysis and judgment that sensitive issues demand. As Judith Shulevitz wrote in the New York Times, these refusals can shut down discussion in genuinely contentious areas, such as when Oxford canceled an abortion debate. More often, they affect surprisingly minor matters, as when Hampshire College disinvited an Afrobeat band because their lineup had too many white people in it.

Friday, June 05, 2015

Priest George Maximov. �Everything that Neo-Pagans said about Christianity was A lie�. Interview with former neo-pagan Ivan Liskov / OrthoChristian.Com

Priest George Maximov. �Everything that Neo-Pagans said about Christianity was A lie�. Interview with former neo-pagan Ivan Liskov / OrthoChristian.Com: Today Father George interviews Ivan Liskov who joined the satanists in his adolescence and whose search for “true religion” later resulted in many years of involvement with neo-paganism (see the video here in Russian).