Quote:Frank Beard (1842–1905) led many lives before designing hieroglyphic bibles. A successful political cartoonist by the age of seventeen, he drew one of the most widely reproduced Civil War satires, and was hailed as “the father of the American cartoon” by the Los Angeles Times in 1895. Deaf since childhood, he became a sought-after raconteur, famous for delivering “chalk talks”, lectures illustrated by rapidly drawn visuals. Touring the nation, his “sparkling, genial discourse about the mysteries of picture-making” — as a contemporary brochure described the act — entranced audiences almost as much as his lightning-quick pen. As he aged, politics gave way to an interest in religious education, and his belief in the transparency of visual communication led him to illustrate bibles in a pictographic idiom.

Beard’s first foray into this artform was Picture Puzzles, or, How to Read the Bible by Symbols (1899), followed by the more traditionally illustrated One Hundred Sermon Pictures (1902), and several editions of the volume on display above, Bible Symbols (first published in 1904). He did not invent the hieroglyphic bible — rather, Bible Symbols numbers among the last of this type of book to achieve widespread popularity. According to Benjamin Lindquist, who has written the definitive article on Beard’s life, the earliest known specimen dates to 1687, produced in Augsburg, Germany. As Egyptomania increasingly preoccupied the American mind in the nineteenth century, hieroglyphic bibles became one of the most popular forms of religious literature. The texts and images in Bible Symbols work like a rebus, mixing icons and scripture to provide multimedia access to the word of God. There is an impulse toward the universal here — in a corrupt and fallen world, a new visual language might help recover what was lost when Babel crumbled — and a pedagogic aspect, too. Employed in this way, images become mnemonics, and slow down the eye to inspire deeper contemplation, richer access. Despite questing after timeless truths, Beard was also a fallible man of his era. A hieroglyph of Native Americans stands in for “barbarous people”; a tableau that seemingly connotes “belief” shows people of color crouching before a white missionary. Pictures, just like words, bear a trace of their creator.

Through the Eye to the Heart: Bible Symbols (1908 edition)

(06-27-2025, 05:04 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: ...

When was the last time the whole US intelligence apparatus pounded home a narrative so hard into your brain that it bleeds?

....

(06-27-2025, 08:56 AM)Bally002 Wrote: So who the hell is Terry Virst.  Apart from a mouthy astronaut who is no more qualified than Katy Perry.

He wants to be a what?

Bally

Quote:Politically and culturally, Yarvin was a liberal—“a big old hippie,” as Tanner [Yarvin’s ex-girlfriend] put it. He had a ponytail, wore a silver hoop earring, dropped acid at raves, and wrote poetry.

(06-28-2025, 03:08 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote:

(06-27-2025, 08:56 AM)Bally002 Wrote: So who the hell is Terry Virst.  Apart from a mouthy astronaut who is no more qualified than Katy Perry.

He wants to be a what?

Bally

It was the first I ever heard of him. In his campaign clip he sounds like a conservative republican.

*****

(06-28-2025, 06:44 AM)Bally002 Wrote:

(06-28-2025, 03:08 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote:

(06-27-2025, 08:56 AM)Bally002 Wrote: So who the hell is Terry Virst.  Apart from a mouthy astronaut who is no more qualified than Katy Perry.

He wants to be a what?

Bally

It was the first I ever heard of him. In his campaign clip he sounds like a conservative republican.

*****

"Congrats, you won an all expenses paid trip to Ipanema Beach in Rio on Rogue Airlines!"

You flamin ripper mate.  Seat 11A please...!


Bally

(07-04-2025, 03:00 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: Red Pill of the Day: A sequestered Jury deliberates whether Australian woman served deadly mushrooms with intent to kill her in-laws.

Quote:NICAP UFO Report
Extension of Remarks of Hon. Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa in the House of Representatives
Wednesday, August 31, 1960

We are sure you will agree it is imperative to end the risk of accidental war from defense forces' confusion over UFO's. Defense personnel, not merely top-level groups, should be told that the UFO's are real and should be trained to
distinguish them - by their characteristic speeds and maneuvers - from conventional planes and missiles. This is not in effect today.

Second, the American people must be convinced, by documented facts, that the UFO's could not be Soviet machines.

Quote:FOR many years BP have published an annual review of global energy markets. This year the job has been taken over by the Energy Institute, but the analysis of production and consumption of energy by country remains the same.

The latest review published last week confirms what we have known for a long time. Net Zero is further away than ever in the world as a whole. These are the highlights:

- Emissions of CO2 are up by 1.2 per cent in 2024 from the year before;
- Total energy consumption rose by 2.1 per cent;
- Fossil fuel use rose by 1.5 per cent, with its share of total energy dropping only slightly from 87.0 per cent to 86.6 per cent;
- Wind and solar power share barely rose at all – from 2.5 per cent to 2.8 per cent;
- In absolute terms, wind and solar increased by 2.3 exajoules, while fossil fuels went up by 7.6 exajoules between 2023 and 2024.

In other words, despite the trillions invested in renewable energy in recent years, the growth in output last year met only a quarter of the world’s increasing appetite for energy.

The chart below of CO2 emissions shows just what an irrelevant sideshow the richer OECD countries have now become:



While we in the West struggle to pare back emissions at a huge cost to our economies, the developing world, which includes China and India, have been carrying on with business as usual. Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, their annual emissions have increased by 20 per cent.

We all know that China continues to use more and more fossil fuels. Despite the misinformation regularly put out by the legacy media, wind and solar power in that country still sits at only 4 per cent of total energy consumption.

It is exactly the same story in the rest of the developing world. They have the sense to realise that only fossil fuels can provide the energy they need to build their economies and give their citizens the standard of living they deserve.



BBC misinformation

I COULD not resist googling ‘BBC China Renewables’! I used the ‘past year’ filter. You would be forgiven for not believing, having read this lot, that China gets only 4 per cent of its energy from wind and solar, a third less than we do here in the UK!


The climate scaremongers: Net Zero is further away than ever

Quote:Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (March 4, 1932 – April 4, 2001) was a trailblazer in the world of custom car design and a key figure in Southern California's Kustom Kulture movement. Born in Beverly Hills, California, Roth developed a passion for automobiles from a young age. His journey into the automotive world began when he acquired his first car, a 1933 Ford coupe, at the age of 14. This early interest in cars led him to study engineering and later serve in the United States Air Force.

Roth's career as an artist, cartoonist, and illustrator paved the way for his iconic status in the hot rod and custom car scene of the late 1950s and 1960s. He gained widespread recognition for his grotesque caricatures, notably the Rat Fink character, which became synonymous with the rebellious spirit of the era.

18 Phenomenal Custom Cars Designed by Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth

Quote:Entry into Badwater is by invitation only, with an application that requires strict qualifying requirements, and extensive details about a runner’s racing history and personal life. A maximum of 100 people will be accepted into Badwater each year which includes a 50/50 split of rookies and Badwater veterans. Organisers look to represent runners from 20 countries, plus 20 to 25 American states, making entry spots all the more competitive.

One man that can attest to this is 31-year-old Rhys Jenkins. After his first application was rejected in 2016, it has taken him 10 years to craft his running résumé to impress the committee. Finally on July 17, 2019, Rhys became the first Welshman to take part, finishing 57th out of 79 runners.

This is what it takes to get into the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon

Quote:The pilot had ejected safely before the crash, and the other jet made it back to Nellis Air Force Base. Needless to say, there was a lot of activity in town following the crash. Residents converged on the area with shovels and garden hoses to keep the grass fires from spreading to the trailers. Jeff Fallis saw the pilot come down in his parachute near the old mill across the highway, and he drove out in his pickup truck to pick him up. As Fallis approached, the pilot held up his hands and said, "I didn't mean to!" Apart from some bruises, the pilot was unharmed.

An Air Force helicopter arrived within 18 minutes of the crash to take him away, and that was the last folks saw of him, although La Rae and Edith later exchanged letters with him. The area of the crash was cordoned off, and the fire in the plane was allowed to burn itself out. Residents were evacuated to the bar (then known as the Stage Stop Saloon & Kitchen) to protect them from the fumes. The next day, a military clean-up crew combed the desert for debris, and the day after that, the wreckage was trucked away on a big flatbed, leaving only a burn mark to indicate where the crash had been.

No one seemed to blame the Air Force for the nearly disastrous event, and the recovery soon turned into a social occasion. Rachel residents prepared a picnic for the clean-up crew on the front lawn of Ralph and Edith Grover. A month and a half later, on Aug. 28, everyone who participated in the recovery was invited back to Rachel for a barbecue. Although the pilot could not be there, he sent a letter of thanks.

The Norwegian Air Force and the pilot sent the town a molded crest, patches, photos, a small Viking ship and letters of commendation, including this one that came with the crest.

Plane Crashes in Rachel Vicinity

(book review)



1928: March of the Machine Makes Idle Hands

1929: