In Daniel Penny Case, NYC Has Put Batman on Trial

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Matyas Moravec: Most people imagine philosophers as rational thinkers who spend their time developing abstract logical theories and strongly reject superstitious beliefs. But several 20th-century philosophers actively investigated spooky topics such as clairvoyance, telepathy – even ghosts. Many of these philosophers, including Henri Bergson and William James, were interested in what was called “psychical research”. This was the academic study of paranormal phenomena including telepathy, telekinesis and other-worldly spirits. These thinkers attended seances and were attempting to develop theories about ghosts, life after death and the powers exhibited by mediums in trances. My recent archival research has been looking at how these topics shaped 20th-century philosophy. CD Broad (1887-1971) was a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He is now recognised as one of the most important writers on the philosophy of time. He also published on ethics, logic and the history of philosophy. What is less known, though, is that he was an active member of the Society for Psychical Research, a learned society dedicated to the study of paranormal phenomena. The society twice elected him as their president, and he published widely on topics including clairvoyance and poltergeists. In his 1925 book, The Mind and Its Place in Nature, Broad developed what has come to be known as the “compound theory” of ghosts. Broad argued that the human mind was a compound of two components. One of these was the “physical factor,” roughly corresponding to the body. The other one was the “psychic factor,” which carries our mental content like emotions or thoughts. The two of them conjointly form the human mind – just like salt is composed of sodium and chloride. Broad believed that after death, the psychic factor can continue existing for a bit on its own and might enter, like a spirit, a medium during a seance. Images in the ether Another philosopher interested in ghosts and spirits of the dead was HH Price (1899-1984). He was a professor of logic at the University of Oxford and is mostly known for his publications on the philosophy of perception. However, just like Broad, he was heavily involved in the Society for Psychical Research and attended several international conferences dedicated to life after death and telepathy. In his presidential address to the society in 1939, Price tried to offer an explanation of ghosts and hauntings. At any given moment, he argued, your mind is full of “mental images” – the memory of your last holiday, the things you see outside your window, your hopes and expectations for the future. Price theorised that there is a substance, which he called the “psychic ether” that exists halfway between matter and the human mind. He believed that this ether could carry the images that currently exist in your mind even after you die. A bundle of these images and memories can appear as a ghost to some particularly sensitive people. What does ‘ghost’ mean? Casimir Lewy (1919-1991) was one of the most influential philosophical logicians of the 20th century. He spent most of his career at the University of Cambridge – in fact, the philosophy faculty library there is named after him. Lewy is now mostly known for his work on logic, and few people know that he actually wrote his PhD thesis (which was examined by Broad) on life after death. He was primarily interested in language and in the meanings of the terms people use when they talk about ghosts and life after death. What does it mean to say that I might survive the death of my body? What sort of experiences would I need to have as a ghost for the statement “I have survived my death” to be true? Would I have to be able to see myself in the mirror, or to speak to people in the seance room? Lewy insisted that these questions need answering before looking at the empirical “evidence” for ghosts. Following a series of scandalous and widely publicised discoveries of fraudulent mediums faking their supernatural powers and accusations of pseudo-scientific research methods, psychical research eventually moved to the fringes of academia. Lewy, for example, never returned to write on these topics after passing the defence of his PhD in 1943. Nevertheless, despite its brief lifespan, academic psychical research had a significant influence on an entire generation of British philosophers. It shaped their views on time, causation and matter, and gave them an opportunity to think one of life’s most pressing questions: what happens after we die? Matyáš Moravec, Lecturer in Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post How 20th-Century Philosophers Explained Ghosts appeared first on Anomalien.com.

The former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, claims that he was physically attacked by an unknown entity while lying in bed. Carlson recounted his experience in a conversation with John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation for a new documentary project titled Christianities? “In my bed at night… I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled,” Carlson vividly remembered, describing the unexpected and disturbing ordeal. Carlson continued, “I was totally confused; I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I was going to suffocate.” The fear and disorientation he felt were palpable as he described his struggle to understand what was happening to him in those intense moments. According to Carlson, the entity he believes attacked him was no ordinary intruder. Instead, he described his assailant as a “demon” that “left claw marks” on his body. Afterward, he said, “I walked around outside, and then I walked in, and my wife and dogs had not woken up.” The fact that his dogs, known to be light sleepers, were undisturbed by the incident added to his confusion and distress. Following the attack, he noticed significant pain in his rib cage and shoulder. “I was just in my boxer shorts,” he explained, “and I went and flipped on the light in the bathroom, and I had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder.” The wounds he found were fresh, and, as he noted, “they’re bleeding.” The incident, which Carlson estimated took place around a year and a half ago. Describing it as a “transformative experience,” he said it sparked within him an “intense desire to read the Bible.” It was, he hinted, a profound encounter that shaped his spiritual outlook. The post Tucker Carlson alleges he was physically attacked by a ‘demon’ appeared first on Anomalien.com.

It’s hard to say Idaho legislators are anti-technology, seeing as they recently made an elaborate deal with Meta to set up data centers in Kuna. Yet, two recent cryptocurrency bills and hopes for deeper relationships with Bitcoin mining companies were, for the time being, set back in the Gem State when government, private entities, and out-of-state players failed to negotiate mutually beneficial solutions to questions of energy prices.Some have wondered in the fallout if it’s not technology but Bitcoin that is the problem for politicians because the state has indeed made other deals with Big Tech work.Bills 1295 and 585, respectively, sought to expand certain rights related to distributed ledger technology and exempt crypto miners from “discriminatory” local ordinances that also do not apply to data centers.Are free-market advocates seeking to restrict private electric companies' abilities from charging crypto miners what they want? Utilities are concerned about investing in the infrastructure necessary to accommodate mining operations because of the speculative nature of the product. Meta’s deal with the state included $70 million for new water and sewage systems in the city of Kuna, where the proposed operation was established. Additional concessions/promises to the state included various “renewable energy” and jobs commitments.The existing protocols in Idaho grant sales-tax exemption to data centers if they invest $250 million or more and create at least 30 local jobs. The Meta data center in Kuna invested $800 million and foresees adding 100 new jobs.For the moment, Idaho, in conjunction with its Public Utilities Commission, has concluded that cryptocurrency mining operations are subject to price instability and do not warrant the same cooperation or exemption from Idaho regulators.Public Utilities Commission and Idaho Power likely will not strike some deal without third-party intervention. Maybe the push here in Idaho to crack wide the crypto game is just too ambitious now.At the time of this writing, it’s apparent at almost every political and economic level that the game is on pause. We need to see the results of the presidential election, of course, but then we need to see what promises do and do not manifest. The Trump train has of late signaled strong support for Bitcoin and related technologies, but which firms and personalities are tasked with implementation and how the fiat-regime summons out of the dark as countermeasures are legitimate questions.A decentralized movement still needs to operate somewhere along the line in the real world. Electricity for crypto mining must be generated, harnessed, and applied to computational work, but unless there is an entirely autonomous infrastructure, Bitcoin miners, monks, and assorted adherents will persist in their dependence upon the tenuous (and collapsing) webs of finance (read: extant power structure).Some other questions that the Idaho crypto mining legislative situation brings to the fore: Are Bitcoin miners eventually going to acquire land, infrastructure, and expertise enough to generate and distribute their own electricity? Will they be able to defend such efforts by lawfare, one presumes?If not, we know what’s in store from a globalist point of view vis-a-vis crypto. It’s CBDC but centrally controlled and tied into absolutely every possible conceivable monetary leverage point. In this scenario where technology just fails to wriggle out of classic power dynamics, you will live to see Lovecraftian tax and fee horrors heretofore deemed impossible.A visionary, just (state, local, or national) government could balance the public-private equation with some sort of citizen dividend scheme. A price structure scheme for crypto mining in Idaho eschewing typical Randian hyper-libertarian models in favor of public works and local, immediate reinvestments would go a great distance toward effecting the sort of high-minded ideals purported by crypto devotees while also securing again so much of the social capital already squandered in the past century.Is this about establishing a tax on digital property? Section 63-602L seems to imply that Idaho should now commit to not taxing such property. Why stuff that into a bill ostensibly about barring private utility companies from creating and enforcing rate castes for different types of clients?On the other hand, if we’re being realistic — if we do not embrace some sort of Randian path into the future of technology where some bold “founder” type is going to purchase his or her legal solution effectively — is Christianity a viable overlay by which a legislature could see to properly implement or manage such newfangled considerations as a digital, quasi-centralized currency (or is it a store of wealth or neither)?In this case, are free-market advocates seeking to restrict private electric companies' abilities from charging crypto miners what they want? Utilities are concerned about investing in the infrastructure necessary to accommodate mining operations because of the speculative nature of the product. Isn’t that a legitimate concern when we see the stalling, the backroom dealing, and the depth of ignorance with respect to all things crypto from the highest levels?It seems almost that the current tangle of public-private machinations we’ve experimented with may simply be outdated. Idaho is paused on the issue for the moment.

Those of us who grew up laughing at the antics of British comedy troupe Monty Python remember the film “And Now for Something Completely Different,” which compiled some of the best sketches from their hit TV series.The humor throughout “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and their various films was inventive, original, and often unexpectedly off-the-wall.For better or worse, this election season has followed that quirky formula.None of us “of a certain age” has ever witnessed political antics like those unfolding since the disputed close of the 2020 election season. Up until that year, we had never seen anything like what happened leading up to — and beyond — Nov. 3, 2020.But just when it seemed “safe to go back in the political waters” (to borrow a line from a 1978 “Jaws 2” movie poster), something “completely different” would surface.The Democrats, in particular, seemed ready to outdo their last incredible “Gotcha!”How surprised should any of us be if the Democrats, out of total desperation in the waning days of the 2024 election, come up with something ... completely different?These are the same shysters who claimed the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history”; who locked up citizens for peacefully protesting what they saw as an obvious steal; who, by omission or commission, allowed an assassin to target a presidential candidate and former president; who insisted they are the party on the side of good and suggested that if you believe “Jesus is Lord,” you’re “at the wrong rally”; and who repeatedly used "Hitler" to describe the president who once leaned through a McDonald's window and asked, "Would you like fries with that?"Now, with just days to go, the “Hitler candidate” has surged in popularity, like the TV series “Seinfeld” in its prime. Everyone seems to be watching, eagerly awaiting the next episode. It’s a stretch, but imagine Trump as Jerry, with an intriguing new cast: RFK Jr. as George, Tulsi Gabbard as Elaine, and, yes, the wild and unpredictable Elon Musk as Kramer.All and all, this cast of characters is fun to watch.But the other show that just could not quite get it in gear, “Harris” (whose working title was “Build Back Biden”), is now bleeding ratings and is about to be canceled. So what do they do?They go back to what got them on the lineup in the first place. They are the anti-Trump cast. And they trot out old have-beens or never-were “stars” with thread-bared storylines; nefarious characters like Hillary and Obama who badly deliver their never-could-stick lines chalk full of accusations of racism, sexism, and Hitlerism.You can almost see the deep state, which is storyboarding this particular "last episode," calling in the star of the show, Kamala Harris, and laying it on the line with her.[Door opens: Harris ENTERS]D.S.: Ah, Ms. Harris. Come in. Sit down.K.H.: Yes, I will sit down on this chair that was made for sitting and on which I will then sit.[Harris SITS]D.S.: OK, look. Whatever it is you’re doing it’s not working ...K.H.: Yes, working is what we want to work here so I am working to make it work.D.S.: Shut up. Here’s what's going to happen. You are going to keep calling Trump “Hitler.” You are going to keep repeating that since we know you are good at repeating everything.K.H.: Yes, repeating what needs to be repeated —D.S.: Enough! Listen. The last time we repeated “Trump is Hitler,” we had at least two assassination attempts on his life. That means we can gin up more attempts using the same strategy. That way, by Election Day, Trump’s name may still be on the ballot but the man himself will be in the funeral home.K.H.: [Cackles]D.S.: And if Trump is not gone from this planet in the next few days — someone will be taking a shot at you.K.H.: [Stops Cackling]D.S.: You heard us. But don’t worry, we will make sure — fingers crossed — that they just nick you on the arm ... or something. Then, we will blame Trump and his MAGA crazies and say that their hateful rhetoric led to one of their own trying to destroy our Democracy. And to save our Democracy, we will disqualify Trump, jail him and anyone wearing a red hat (whether it says MAGA or not). And while you are recuperating (if you’re lucky) in the hospital, we will declare Hillary our candidate. She will win, and we will continue to fundamentally transform America and finally complete the directive initiated in 2008.K.H.: [Long pause] But ... but ... but ...D.S.: You may go.[Harris STANDS up from the chair she has been sitting in that was made for sitting in and EXITS.]This scenario is a stretch. No doubt about it.But how surprised should any of us be if the Democrats, out of total desperation in the waning days of the 2024 election, come up with something ... completely different?Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared previously at American Thinker.

The Monster Hunter Wilds beta hasn't been going down well on PC. While it's attracted a colossal number of players, there are myriad reports of crashes, bugs, and graphical problems across the board. The full launch is still four months away, though, and Capcom is assuring us that we'll be playing a very different game come 2025. If you've been playing on PC, that might look like a pretty tall order. I wouldn't worry about your beta experience too much, though, because there are already a handful of fixes for all those PS1-looking faces. Continue reading Capcom assures that the Monster Hunter Wilds launch will improve on the beta MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Monster Hunter Wilds monsters, Monster Hunter Wilds system requirements, Monster Hunter Wilds release date

It's Happening? Ron Paul Hints at Joining Elon Musk to Eradicate Government Waste

Image: Motion Twin Some of the most beloved roguelikes are single-player — the likes of Hades, Balatro, and Dead Cells are all solo titles. But Windblown, the new roguelike from Motion Twin, the studio that created Dead Cells, showed me just how cool it can be to play a roguelike with other people. In Windblown, your character, one of a few adorable animal adventurers like an axolotl or a bat, is shot out of a cannon into a mysterious giant tornado to fight your way through various zones. Like Dead Cells, you can equip up to two main weapons. I typically have one for close-range bouts and another for long-distance attacks. But with every weapon, you’re also able to pull off a combo that uses a special move from the other weapon called an “Alterattack.” H... Continue reading…