Over a century before Columbus arrived in the Americas, followers of a now-extinct faith carved the likeness of their prophet into a large boulder on a mountainside in China’s southeastern Fujian province. The figure in stone: Mani, an Iranian man who founded Manichaeism, an early rival to Christianity. Mani’s religion suffered extensive persecution during its tenure, at the hands of Roman, Persian and Chinese leaders, and by the 14th century, the religion had fallen by the wayside.
Despite once counting followers from France to the Pacific Ocean, in 2020, there isn’t much left of Manichaeism in terms of physical ruins. Surprisingly, the last extant Manichaean temple exists not in the modern-day countries that compose what was once Persia and Mesopotamia, but in Jinjiang, an industrial settlement of over two million people that is part of the southern Chinese city of Quanzhou.
In mid-2018, a close friend relayed the story of Jinjiang’s unique shrine to the largely forgotten Persian prophet Mani. A quick and always questionable Wikipedia search offered insight — and questions. According to the popular free online encyclopedia: “In modern China, Manichaean groups are still active in southern provinces, especially in Quanzhou and around Cao’an, the only Manichaean temple that has survived until today.”
This poorly cited Wikipedia entry led to more questions: How did Manichaeism get to China in the first place? Are there still Mani followers in the officially atheist People’s Republic of China, and is the temple at Jinjiang the last Manichaean temple in the world? …
Besides the fact that nobody showed up to Trump’s event, it’s worthy of note that there’s an Israeli flag hanging next to ours. What the fuck.
[Photo: White triangular tent, white floor, white chairs bisected by an aisle, leading to a stage with a guitarist, flanked by hanging flags]
[Photo: “A baptism pool was not on my Great American State Fair bingo card”]
Rando: “I would say this fair looks like one of those creepy, horror-movie sets, but those at least look like someone used them at some point. This looks like a ghost town. Like… why is everything so sterile looking? This is weird in the opposite direction.”
Everyone is talking about Trump’s mock up arch at the Great American State Fair, so I filmed it from top to bottom and front to back for everyone who can’t see it in person. [Video]
Reginald Selkirksays
Archaeological evidence indicates 10th-century Persian settlement in Madagascar
The mysterious archaeological site of Teniky, hidden within the remote rainforests and canyons of Madagascar’s Isalo National Park, has long puzzled scientists with its unique rock-cut niches and stone walls.
A groundbreaking new study now challenges the established narrative that these structures were built by shipwrecked 16th-century Portuguese sailors. Instead, the research posits a far more ancient and extraordinary origin: Teniky was likely constructed between the 10th and 12th centuries by Zoroastrian exiles fleeing persecution in Persia, who sought to establish an isolated religious refuge on this semi-legendary island.
The core evidence for this revised theory lies in the site’s distinctive architecture. Dozens of niches carved into the sandstone cliffs bear a striking resemblance to the astodans used in Zoroastrian funerary practices in the Fars region of Iran. In Zoroastrian tradition, burial was seen as a desecration of the earth; bodies were exposed until only bones remained, which were then interred in such rock niches.
This architectural parallel is unique in Madagascar and East Africa but finds a direct correlate in Persian Zoroastrian sites. Furthermore, carbon-14 dating of charcoal from the settlement confirms occupation centuries before Portuguese explorers arrived in the Indian Ocean, aligning with the period when Zoroastrians faced increasing pressure following the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
chigau @1: I’d guess OP is a screenshot of the video game No Man’s Sky, but there’s no interface or player character. PZ played that years ago.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
StevoR in the previous thread: That YouTuber’s description cites a documentary he was summarizing.
The inspiration behind the so-called “Acali Experiment” derived from two sources. Genovés had been an earlier participant on the Ra (1969) and Ra II (1970) expeditions, Thor Heyerdahl’s ethnohistorical attempts to prove that prehistoric civilizations could have crossed the Atlantic by means of papyrus-constructed boats. As a secondary goal, Heyerdahl had assembled a multinational seven-man crew to demonstrate how a disparate group could congenially live and work together under challenging conditions. Based on his firsthand experience aboard the Ra expeditions, however, Genovés was more intrigued with the incidents of friction that he had witnessed. Most of these, he believed, arose due to differences in personal characteristics and temperament. […]
It was an incident in November 1972 that definitively moved the Acali experiment forward. In circumstances that only Genovés would view as “too good to be true,” he was a passenger on a plane that was hijacked to Cuba. After observing how the behaviours of the other passengers differed dramatically during the hijacking versus afterwards, Genovés was now convinced that moments of crisis and serious danger were needed for individuals to reveal their authentic selves (as opposed to the roles they assumed in everyday life).
[…]
Swedish filmmaker Marcus Lindeen has now re-examined the Acali experiment in an award-winning documentary titled The Raft. Two interweaving narratives—one historical, one contemporary—define the film. The conventional strand relies on 16mm film footage shot on board the raft. These archival clips provide an introduction to Genovés (who passed away in 2013) as well as a clear linear account of the voyage itself. An accompanying voiceover is largely drawn from Genovés’s diary of the journey […] adds an unexpected urgency and desperation to the scientific storyline. […] The innovative strand of the film is the contemporary re-enactment.
[…]
it’s now hard to know which contravention of ethical norms was most egregious. As one appalling example, Genovés acknowledged having continuous sexual interactions with at least one of the other participants. […] There were alarming and consistent breaches of confidentiality and privacy. There was the lack of informed consent. Maria, for instance, participated despite refusing to sign what her boyfriend labelled the “slave contract,” an apparent reference to what served as the experiment’s consent form. As a final glaring example, there was the blatant disregard for participants’ physical and emotional well-being. Indeed, it’s clear that Genovés deliberately underplayed the extent of the risks involved. Numerous research studies are appropriately and abruptly stopped when previously calculated risks escalate or unexpected adverse effects occur. Yet Genovés welcomed such risks, most noticeably and recklessly when the Acali entered the Caribbean at the start of the hurricane season.
When challenged about the ethics […] Genovés was indignant and dismissive. “The most anti-ethical thing I know,” he replied, “is the fact that a man dies every twenty seconds […] in an act of violence. […] it is necessary to be more flexible concerning our concepts of what professional ethics are. The problem concerns our survival.”
* Wikipedia on predecessor Thor Heyerdahl says, “His hyperdiffusionist ideas on ancient cultures had been widely rejected by the scientific community, even before the [Ra] expedition.”
In some subfields of criminology, psychology, and sociology, intergroup contact has been described as one of the best ways to improve relations among groups in conflict. Nonetheless, the effects of intergroup contact vary widely from context to context, and empirical inquiry continues
[…]
four conditions under which intergroup contact will reduce prejudice are: [Equal status. Common goals. Intergroup cooperation. Support of authorities, law, or customs.] […] However, contact fails to cure conflict when contact situations create anxiety […] the situation must include positive contact.
[…]
social scientific reviews of the literature frequently voice skepticism about the likelihood of contact’s optimal conditions occurring in concert, and by extension, about the generalizability of correlational research and lab studies on contact.
Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than face or stature … Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advance one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.
‘The BEAD program was supposed to bring permanent high-speed fiber internet to rural America, but Trump’s Commerce Department rewrote the rules in a way that could steer billions toward Elon Musk’s Starlink instead. The old plan prioritized long-term infrastructure and affordable service, while the new “tech-neutral” version favors the cheapest upfront option, even if rural families end up with slower, spottier, more expensive internet than they were promised. Musk spent hundreds of millions helping Trump win, trashed the broadband program as waste, and now may profit from the very taxpayer money meant to connect communities cable companies ignored for decades. Ring of Fire’s Josh G. explains.’
The federal government intervened Monday in a Clean Air Act lawsuit in which people in Memphis, Tennessee, and Southaven, Mississippi, are suing Elon Musk’s xAI over the health risks posed by the company’s unpermitted gas turbines. […] it submitted an unprecedented motion backing xAI.
The suit, filed by NAACP lawyers, contends that xAI should owe over $100,000 a day in civil penalties for violating the Clean Air Act. DOJ is pushing for the suit to be thrown out—not on the facts of the case, but because, the agency claims, Americans need Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot for our continued safety.
xAI’s massive Colossus 2 data center […] constitutes one of the largest industrial sources of smog-forming nitrogen oxides in the nation
[…] “Grok’s continued operation and availability is a matter of paramount national security,” the filing said, especially “in the event of armed conflict”—adding that the Department of War used Grok to “deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury.”
[…]
If the White House succeeds, […] The administration would have every incentive to intervene in any citizen case against a Trump-aligned polluter and dismiss it. “This is a blatant attempt to let well-connected corporations like xAI unlawfully pollute without any consequences,”
The US needs MechaHitler in particular, to accurately target girls’ schools, defensively.
Currently, upper-grade students [10th/11th] receive instructions in drill formations, wartime first aid, grenade handling and group tactics, while schools across Russia have been directed to install shooting ranges, alongside radiation and chemical reconnaissance labs.
Children as young as seven participate in the military-patriotic game “Zarnitsa 2.0,” where they are trained in roles including drone operator, assault trooper, combat medic and political officer. Reportedly, they practice escaping captivity, countering enemy hackers and storming positions, as well as train with injury simulation mannequins.
Not a video game. One of those events where schools send teams to compete.
programs that physically remove Ukrainian youth from occupied territories, exposing them to Russification programs within Russia. […] A Yale University report found that Russia is holding abducted Ukrainian children in over 200 locations where they are subjected to military training and “re-education.” Ukrainian authorities estimate the number of deported children at almost 20,000, of which only a small portion has been returned.
such individuals are being detained en masse and pressured into signing contracts with the Russian Armed Forces. […] authorities use threats of new criminal cases […] According to locals, military enlistment officers drive around at night in black minibuses, waiting near liquor stores to “pick up drunks who are easy to force to sign something.”
[…]
In late May, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argued that even forced mobilization would not significantly improve Russia’s battlefield position. […] recruitment continues to decline.
he found a job as a cook […] He had joined the ranks of hundreds of Peruvian men allegedly lured into the Russian military by local recruiters and social media ads with promises of lucrative employment in Russia, only to find themselves fighting […] Shortly after Norma’s son joined, he sent his mother images of himself in battle gear, digging trenches
[…]
In February, CNN reported that numerous men from African countries had been pressed into military service in Russia after being offered high-paying civilian jobs as drivers or security guards. […] soon after arriving in Russia, they were forced to sign Russian-language contracts, given minimal training and sent into combat.
[…]
After thousands of Nepalese citizens volunteered to fight for Russia, Nepal banned any travel to Ukraine or Russia for work.
[…]
a lawyer representing the families of recruits, estimates that there are at least 800 Peruvians fighting for Russia right now […] “$20,000 bonus once you signed the contract and very flashy salaries of $3,000 or $4,000.” Most never receive the money promised, the lawyer said. Numerous family members told CNN that their relatives in the Russian army were unable to wire money to them even after they’d started earning a paycheck. […] “This falls under the category of human trafficking[“]
birgerjohanssonsays
John Oliver ; S13 E17: “Trump’s Reflecting Pool, Redistricting & Soaps: 6/28/26: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (39 minutes)
I read it was a Persian, An Shigao, who introduced Buddhism to China. In light of that, it doesn’t seem so strange that Manichaeism was introduced there.
StevoRsays
Hellbenders are special creatures. They are the largest amphibians in all of North America. They live entirely in cold, fast-moving creeks and streams in eastern states. They have unusual loose, folded skin, which allows them to breathe directly from the streams they inhabit. This skin allows them to absorb oxygen. What that means is that their skin is critical to their survival. Contaminating it or disrupting it directly impacts their health.
Most of a hellbender’s respiration happens through this skin. Oxygen diffuses across its surface into the body, while the mucus layer also helps protect the animal from infection and pathogens. For an animal designed in this particular way, contact matters.
… (Snip)…
A single wildlife video can reach hundreds of thousands of people. Among those people will be anglers, hikers, and kids exploring creeks. Any of them may one day turn over a rock and find a hellbender sitting quietly beneath it. They will remember your video and assume that picking the animal up for a quick look — or, more likely these days, for their own social media moment — must be harmless.
Now imagine that decision repeated across thousands of streams by thousands of curious people.
That is why wildlife biologists tend to emphasize a very simple guideline: observe, don’t handle.
#9: I’m a beneficiary of that program — I live in remote, rural Minnesota, but have a fiber optic line straight to my house. It’s hassle-free and reliable, everyone should have that kind of service.
I received a copy of Patrick Moore’s book, Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom from a friend who went down the anti-climate change denialist rabbithole. In this concise work, Moore uses internet news headlines to propagate a series of misleading assertions and flat-out disinformation concerning climate change and related environmental matters. His content is tailored for easy consumption but contains inaccurate information that aims to undermine established scientific principles, particularly when reaching an audience with limited exposure to sound scientific education.
Before we review the book itself, let’s look at the author of this self-published book, and ask ourselves: is this the character of someone who is out to honestly report on complex science subjects?
Patrick Moore Credibility
…(Snip)..
On a French television show, Patrick Moore claimed that Roundup was safe to drink, despite being toxic to humans.
During the interview, Moore dismissed the safety concerns associated with the herbicide, and went through his routine of false claims about glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
But the host of the show surprised Moore and offered him a glass of Roundup to drink. Moore, cornered, refused the glass of Roundup and said, “I’m not an idiot.”
Drinking glyphosate, of course, can be deadly, and there is evidence that Roundup causes cancer.
Moore often makes reckless claims and statements, but rarely was he caught as openly as in this televised story, which has been shared around the world.
… (snip)..
Patrick Moore has long claimed that he is a co-founder or founder of Greenpeace. But this false assertion has been repeatedly dismissed by Greenpeace and its original members. Even in 2023, in his new book, “Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom”, Moore rehashes this false narrative, by opening the back cover with a quote that begins, “Patrick Moore, Cofounder of Greenpeace…”
In reality, Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver, Canada, as the Don’t Make a Wave Committee in 1970 by a group of dedicated activists, including Irving Stowe, Dorothy Stowe, Ben Metcalfe, Marie Bohlen, Paul Cote, and Bob Hunter. Patrick Moore did join Greenpeace around 1971, and he played a role as a member of the crew on one of their early protest voyages, but he was not a founding member.
Moore uses the claim that he founded Greenpeace as a way to bolster his credibility—leading many who follow him to see that as a sort of credential for his extremist views. Moore’s association with Greenpeace was relatively brief, and he later distanced himself from the organization, evolving into a vocal advocate for industries and positions that were almost always directly at odds with Greenpeace’s original environmental mission.
..(snip)..
..Without bothering to supply evidence or make a case for it, Patrick Moore explains why he thinks scientists lie about the threats that climate change and other manmade influences exact on coral reefs. He says, “Unfortunately, the answer is: for academic status and money.”
I have been grateful to have a life of professional experiences that discounts this insane claim.
This video, captured by Registered Maine Guide Tallie Martin of the New England Outdoor Center, showcases an American bittern making its distinctive booming call — a sound that has earned the bird nicknames such as “stake-driver,” “thunder-pumper,” “water-belcher” and “mire-drum.” …
The US Supreme Court will not hear an appeal requested by President Donald Trump to review the civil case that found he defamed and sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll.
…
A federal appeals court agreed with the jury’s verdict last year and said a new trial was not warranted. Trump then asked the highest court to intervene.
A federal appeals court declined to rehear Trump’s challenge to it last June.
The US president has yet to comment on Monday’s decision, which was his final hope of overturning the jury’s unanimous verdict. It means he will have to pay Carroll the damages she had been awarded.
…
Rejecting a Republican National Committee challenge, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that elections officials may count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked beforehand.
The court, divided 5-4, held that the Mississippi law challenged by the RNC does not unlawfully conflict with the federal law that sets Election Day in early November…
The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a setback to President Donald Trump, rejecting his attempt to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, while in a separate case giving him a freer hand to exert control over other hitherto independent federal agencies.
The two decisions, issued at the same time and both authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, together marked another example of the conservative-majority court pushing back on one aspect of Trump’s broad exertion of executive power while giving him the green light on another.
Though Trump may not fire Cook for now, the court allowed him to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. In the latter case, the court overturned a key 1935 Supreme Court ruling called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld restrictions on the president’s power to fire FTC members.
The court was divided differently in each case. In Cook, the vote was 5-4 with the court’s liberals joining the majority, while they dissented in Slaughter, which was 6-3 on ideological lines. Only Roberts and fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh were in the majority in both cases.
In the Cook case, Roberts rejected the Trump administration’s contention that the president’s firing of Cook could not be reviewed in court and that she could not stay in office while contesting the decision…
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’s case alleging CNN defamed him with its coverage of remarks made during President Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial.
…
In rejecting Dershowitz’s appeal, the Supreme Court left untouched a lower court decision in favor of CNN…
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna believes that Ukrainian drones going off course and falling on NATO member states’ territory is an acceptable price for the destruction of Russian oil refineries and military bases.
Source: Tsahkna in an interview with the Financial Times, as reported by European Pravda
Details: As Tsahkna noted, Estonia, which has faced a number of such incidents, is “not happy” about what is happening.
“But we are not saying to Ukraine to stop it. This is hitting the lifeline of Putin,” he added.
The Estonian foreign minister also commented on Russian accusations that the Baltic states were directly involved in the strikes and allowed Ukraine to use their airspace to carry them out.
He said that these claims are “ridiculous” and reflect the Kremlin’s desperation. ..
Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron were sued on June 25th in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where 17 plaintiffs accuse the three memory makers of illegally coordinating to restrict DRAM supply and inflate prices that the complaint says have risen roughly 700% over four years. The class action, filed as Garciaguirre v. Samsung Electronics and assigned to Judge Noel Wise, invokes Section 1 of the Sherman Act and targets companies that together hold around 90% of the global DRAM market. Samsung and SK hynix have pleaded guilty to criminal DRAM price fixing once before, with the latter paying a $185 million fine in April 2005.
The complaint argues that the three companies used a coordinated shift toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked DRAM that feeds AI accelerators, as a cover to curtail production of older DDR3 and DDR4 modules. That contraction in commodity DRAM, the plaintiffs argue, pushed prices to record highs while no rival could step in: building a new DRAM fab costs tens of billions and takes years, leaving the incumbents free to cut output without fear of being undercut…
It is natural that production of older technologies would tail off.
What is that?
Viewpoint with Andrew Brown: What does an atheist do if they witness a miracle?
It’s too bad we will never know. Desperate believers are reduced to calling sportsball outcomes ‘miracles.’
China’s Forgotten Faith: How Did a 3rd Century Religion from Iran Make it to China’s Southeast Coast?
Randos:
https://bsky.app/profile/00kjg.bsky.social/post/3mpevxuj26s2bRando: “I would say this fair looks like one of those creepy, horror-movie sets, but those at least look like someone used them at some point. This looks like a ghost town. Like… why is everything so sterile looking? This is weird in the opposite direction.”
Amanda Moore (Journalist):
Commentary
The fair’s Twitter account announced it was closed then open again two hours later.
Amanda Moore
https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/shaka-zuluhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_IndiansAmanda Moore:
Archaeological evidence indicates 10th-century Persian settlement in Madagascar
chigau @1: I’d guess OP is a screenshot of the video game No Man’s Sky, but there’s no interface or player character. PZ played that years ago.
StevoR in the previous thread: That YouTuber’s description cites a documentary he was summarizing.
Rethinking ‘One of the strangest group experiments of all time’
* Wikipedia on predecessor Thor Heyerdahl says, “His hyperdiffusionist ideas on ancient cultures had been widely rejected by the scientific community, even before the [Ra] expedition.”
Wikipedia – Contact hypothesis
Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia
“Trump Just SOLD Rural America’s Future To Pay Musk Billions”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CNaoqgB5Owk
‘The BEAD program was supposed to bring permanent high-speed fiber internet to rural America, but Trump’s Commerce Department rewrote the rules in a way that could steer billions toward Elon Musk’s Starlink instead. The old plan prioritized long-term infrastructure and affordable service, while the new “tech-neutral” version favors the cheapest upfront option, even if rural families end up with slower, spottier, more expensive internet than they were promised. Musk spent hundreds of millions helping Trump win, trashed the broadband program as waste, and now may profit from the very taxpayer money meant to connect communities cable companies ignored for decades. Ring of Fire’s Josh G. explains.’
Mother Jones – Grok is more important than clean air, DOJ says
The US needs MechaHitler in particular, to accurately target girls’ schools, defensively.
Trump accuses oil companies of gas price ‘gouging,’ calls for DOJ probe
If only they could find the person responsible for rising gas prices. I suggest John Barron and David Dennison should be on the suspect list.
Noah Kahan urges fans to use the bathroom after concertgoer poops on floor during show
Kyiv Post – Russian lawmaker calls for military training starting age 11 (fifth grade) to prepare for war with NATO
Not a video game. One of those events where schools send teams to compete.
* Ukrainian National News – “Zarnitsa 2.0”: Russia deports Ukrainian children under the guise of military-patriotic programs (2025-09)
Kyiv Post – Kremlin detains ex-cons, debtors in raids, impressing vulnerable into war service
CNN – Peruvians say they were promised jobs in Russia, but landed on the front lines in Ukraine
John Oliver ; S13 E17: “Trump’s Reflecting Pool, Redistricting & Soaps: 6/28/26: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (39 minutes)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UGRLw4DSCyk
The $1 Trillion Problem Diamonds Can Solve: Cooling computer chips with synthetic polychrystalline diamond layers created by vapor deposition.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HKJC84RLhyU
Reginald Selkirk #3
I read it was a Persian, An Shigao, who introduced Buddhism to China. In light of that, it doesn’t seem so strange that Manichaeism was introduced there.
Source : https://www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/bob-and-the-hellbender.html
Emphasis added.
#9: I’m a beneficiary of that program — I live in remote, rural Minnesota, but have a fiber optic line straight to my house. It’s hassle-free and reliable, everyone should have that kind of service.
First dinosaur bone from Antarctica found in a drawer
Mislabeled saber-toothed cat fossil spent over 50 years hidden in a drawer
Rediscovery of once-lost super-sized Megalodon vertebrae
This seems to happen often.
Source : https://www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/patrick-moore.html
Plus so very much more there incl on the Baobabs and their leaves and lossses.
No Man’s Sky?
Most people hear this elusive Maine bird but never see it
US Supreme Court rejects Trump’s appeal of E Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse case
Supreme Court allows states to count mail-in ballots that arrive late, rejecting RNC challenge
Supreme Court rules Trump cannot fire Fed member Lisa Cook; grants him more power over other independent agencies
Supreme Court turns away Alan Dershowitz’s defamation case against CNN
Estonia has no objection to Ukrainian drones falling on NATO territory while targeting Russia
Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron sued over alleged DRAM price fixing amid record memory costs — lawsuit claims coordinated HBM shift was cover to curtail DDR3 and DDR4 production
It is natural that production of older technologies would tail off.