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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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This has been a thing since long before I lived in Britain, and continues to be a thing even now.
Big cats, Melanistic Leopards, Pumas or wildcats, supposedly from the 60's when they were kept as pet and then set free...
Amazing to think that a viable population of big cats could survive undetected in a such a highly urbanized area the size of Great Britain, roughly 1/3 the size of Alberta or Saskatchewan.
Links: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/new-dna-evidence-confirms-presence-of-big-cats-in-the-uk & https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/big-cats-in-british-countryside
Maybe Bigfoot is real after all? I need to talk to Mrs. Notkenny Hicks...
And this gives hope for the Thylacine, "Tasmanian Tiger", frequently reported as sighted but no evidence has been forthcoming. That would be a success story.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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This is a curious tale about an AI Influencer who goes by the name of A. Egon Cholakian, who posts inane and misleading videos online, and then leads to a mysterious former Chiropractor Igor Danilo who has styled himself a new Jesus, built a cult, created a following via the "Creative Society" and "AllatRa", has compounds in the Ukraine filled with both pro-Putin and pro-Trump propaganda...
This is the real purpose of AI - to "influence" and further dumb-down an already ignorant public.
It is a fairly deep and dark rabbit hole, and while I'm grateful for the information (basically, we live in an era where all conspiracies are coming true...) - I find the delivery of it, in the standard YouTube podcast format of a little-too-long-in-the drama and suspense department, a little bit - ...
Well, if this is what it takes to bring in the viewers I guess that's it, personally I don’t want for the entertainment, merely the understanding.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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We've all heard of wishing wells, but not all wells are so innocent...
I came across this in Sir Walter Scott's letters on Witchcraft and Demonology. Curious.
Link: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2021/01/06/witch-villages-and-cursing-wells/
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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An interesting read on a lost civilization from China, the Sanxingdui.
Article via the Wall Street Journal - and Internet Archive (otherwise paywall).
Link: https://archive.is/nCYDv
and the Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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Now you see this everywhere out here, people with a few extra acres, on to which they store their used car collection, their bottles, cans, chemicals and pesticides, plastic tarps, tires, etc, etc, and this is largely regarded as a right of ownership. There are often community guidelines regarding the upkeep of property, but in rural areas they're seldom enforced.
This of course is bananas. Cars leak antifreeze, wiper fluid, oil, gas, transmission fluids, plastics break down, all these things saturate the soil and make the property poisonous to future generations. Examples of this are too numerous to list. While corporations are notorious for this approach to the environment, a short drive on the back-roads of Alberta or BC should be enough to inform you that a good many individuals are no better.
There is something inherently wrong with property as "Ownership". Property should be better regarded as "Stewardship", that you have an obligation to upkeep and maintain your property in an environmentally responsible way. You should be required to pay a deposit on any future remediations that need to be done. No further property can be acquired or sold until the property you've tenanted is remediated to the condition you acquired it, and the price paid to acquire it should reflect your track record of looking after things.
Take this one step further and remove ownership entirely. All property is that of the "Crown" - and it to be sold/returned to the crown when the tenant is done.
Property is an obligation, not a right, and one's ability to "own" is contingent on ones ability to look after the property. Similar arguments could and should be made for Pets and Children, but that's a separate diatribe...