RTFA: http://openthefuture.com/2006/12/an_eschatological…

What do we mean when we talk about the “end of the world?”

It’s a term that get thrown around a bit too often among a variety of futurist-types, whether talking about global warming, nanofabrication, or non-friendly artificial intelligence. “Existential risks” is the lingo-du jour, referring to the broad panoply of processes, technologies and events that put our existence at risk. But, still, what does that mean? The destruction of the Earth? The end of humankind? A “Mad Max” world of leather-clad warriors, feral kids, and armed fashion models? All are frightening and horrific, but some are moreso than others. How do we tell them apart?

Here, then, is a first pass at a classification system for the varying types of “end of the world” scenarios.

Nice. I fear I’ve posted this one before, on an old and deleted version of RTFA.

RTFA: http://audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm

The World English Bible is a public domain update of the American Standard Version of 1901 into modern English. This audio Bible can be legally copied and given to others. (non-commercial use)

This site is serving millions of Bible mp3 files per month and using several terabytes of bandwidth.

I didn’t read this anthology - I got the book on tape!

Regarding the Second/New Testament: Jesus was an Arab Jew, and it was the mis-application of Roman law (by a Roman) that got him crucified. It’s right out of the freaking book, people!

I haven’t seen Mel Gibson’s movie, but come on: the best that can be said is that the religious leaders were a powerful lobbying force, and that Jerusalem was a fully occupied territory, at the time. The rule of law was according to Caesar, not according to Jewish tradition.

By analogy, I’m all for blaming companies that focus on lobbying as a means of extending their bottom line, but the greater fault lies with the corrupted republicanism (no, not the party, but the consolidation of power in representatives) that permits such lobbying. Therefore, the lobbying companies are simply opportunists, while the political system itself is corrupt.

So, it was Pontius Pilat that killed Jesus, because:
1. Pilat tried to find a reason to crucify him (i.e. looked for a law that was broken)
2. Pilat failed (i.e. found Jesus innocent). This is where the process usually stops, and the prisoner is released.
3. Pilat granted the mob carte blanche permission to decide life/death for an innocent person. Note for the uninitiated: this is the unjustified part.
4. Based on Pilat’s authority, Jesus is condemned by the mob to be killed. (justified by #3, even if #3 isn’t justified).
5. Based on the mob decision, Jesus is actually killed by Romans. (justified by #4, even if #4 is based on #3, and #3 isn’t justified).

The steps are all fine EXCEPT #3. The process is supposed to end with #2, but it went totally wrong when #3 happened. It’s not legal to ask a mob their opinion about whether or not an innocent person should be killed - that is exactly the problem with mob rule, and is indistinguishable from the complete absence of law. The chain of authority is broken in #3, because that’s where Pilat acts in a manner that is inconsistent with Justice. Pilat’s actions are not predicted by nor are they constrained by Law. Right???

Um, the Roman Catholics seem to agree with my conclusion in their Nostra Aetate.

Basically, Passion Plays are an anti-semitic rendering of the gospel stories. To “blame it on the Jews” is to ignore current religious doctrine as well as the original source material. In fact, Passion Plays, and their embedded anti-semitism, may be one of the oldest conspiracy stories of all time, going back to 1634 and persisting through mainstream culture, even in modern times. By building a story around a Jewish conspiracy to kill Jesus, you end up with an anti-semitic conspiracy theory. Clear?

I’ll say it again: it was the Romans who did it.

Of course, the fact that there’s a Christian country inside downtown Rome indicates that the debt was somewhat repaid…

Enough of this. Let’s just say that I’ve found these MP3s to be a great resource for, ah, critical inquiry.

RTFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine

One of the simplest examples of stellar engine is the Shkadov thruster (named after Dr. Leonid Mikhailovich Shkadov who first proposed it), or a Class A stellar engine.[1] Such an engine is a stellar propulsion system, consisting of an enormous mirror/light sail - actually a massive type of solar statite large enough to classify as a megastructure, probably by an order of magnitude - which would balance gravitational attraction towards and radiation pressure away from the star. Since the radiation pressure of the star would now be asymmetrical, i.e. more radiation is being emitted in one direction as compared to another, the ‘excess’ radiation pressure acts as net thrust, accelerating the star in the direction of the hovering statite.[2] Such thrust and acceleration would be very slight, but such a system could be stable for millennia. Any planetary system attached to the star would be ‘dragged’ along by its parent star. The sun: power = 3.85*1026 W, force = 1.28*1018 N, mass = 1.99*1030 kg, acceleration = 6.45*10-13 m/s2. 1000000 years = 3.16*1013 s, velocity = 20 m/s.

Nice! Barring the current issues with human “death,” this would make it a lot easier to communicate with other life forms. Simply drag your star, and the solar system with it, to a reasonably small light-distance near to the life to communicate with. …Time dilation… The act of taking a long nap - what’s several hundred million years? The sun has a good - what - 2 or 4 billion left before it goes “red giant,” right? “We” can just find another stellar engine when the current one (Sol, “the Sun”) is used up.