For once, a book which really lives up to its title.
Hall self-published this massive tome in 1928,
consisting of about 200 legal-sized pages in 8 point type;
it is literally his magnum opus.
Each of the nearly 50 chapters is so dense
with information that it is the equivalent of an entire short book.
If you read this book in its entirety you will be in a good position
to dive into subjects such as the Qabbala, Alchemy, Tarot, Ceremonial Magic,
Neo-Platonic Philosophy, Mystery Religions, and
the theory of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.
Although there are some questionable and controversial parts of the book,
such as the outdated material on Islam,
the portion on the Bacon-Shakespeare hypothesis,
and Hall's conspiracy theory of history
as driven by an elite cabal of roving immortals,
they are far out-weighed by the comprehensive
information here on other subjects.

An excellent book, regarded as one of the most comprehensive occult books ever. Now in the public domain, so enjoy!

Secret Teachings of All Ages Index

Repenomamus giganticus

I’m sure everyone has already heard about the discovery of a dinosaur-eating mammal from the Cretaceous. Here are some photos of the creature from the announcement in Nature.

I’m also sure that the scientifically-literate readers of the Panda’s Thumb and Pharyngula won’t be terribly surprised by this—the mammal-like reptiles are older than the dinosaurs, and mammals were contemporaries of the dinosaurs. The surprise is that what was discovered was a bandy-legged brute that was relatively large (about the size of your average dog) and was so danged uppity that it had been eating dinosaurs. That’s a bit more temerity than had been expected from our long-lost relatives.

Dinosaur-Eating Mammals!

adam wrote:
] very cool resource

Indeed. And something that ought to be memed but isn't.

Wow! I can't believe I've never memed it! I use it frequently.

My favorite area is the "audio" link in the upper navbar. Then follow the link to "Live Music Archive"

http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php

There are free *LEGAL* downloads of live shows by 311, Camper Van Beethoven, Gin Blossoms, Local H, Ekoostik Hookah, and many other bands.

Please try the Hot Buttered Rum String Band - they are a fun bluegrass band who plays on the west coast. Their Jan 04 show from the Bean Scene is especially good.

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=9799

Here are some very strange audio files:
The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations

http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collection=irdial&collectionid=ird059&from=mostViewed

RE: Internet Archive

Many agree- school sucks.

Nobel Prize winners hate school

] Why do people move to suburbia? To have kids! So no wonder
] it seemed boring and sterile. The whole place was a giant
] nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of
] breeding children.
]
] Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and
] nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately
] designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things
] that could endanger children.
...
] Adults can't avoid seeing that teenage kids are
] tormented. So why don't they do something about it?
] Because they blame it on puberty. The reason kids are so
] unhappy, adults tell themselves, is that monstrous new
] chemicals, hormones, are now coursing through their
] bloodstream and messing up everything. There's nothing
] wrong with the system; it's just inevitable that kids
] will be miserable at that age.
]
] This idea is so pervasive that even the kids believe it,
] which probably doesn't help. Someone who thinks his feet
] naturally hurt is not going to stop to consider the
] possibility that he is wearing the wrong size shoes.
]
] I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids
] are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it
] should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at
] thirteen?
. . .
] The mediocrity of American public schools has worse
] consequences than just making kids unhappy for six
] years. It breeds a rebelliousness that actively drives kids
] away from the things they're supposed to be learning.

To a great extent, the sleeping American populace has woken up to the fact that there is a problem with the way that they operate their society. Littleton style mass murders are both new and unique enough to indicate that something has changed, but also common enough to indicate that this change is not an aberration. People want to do something about it. Unfortunately, by all accounts, the dialog even years later is wanting.

People seem to grasp onto oversimplified solutions. They blame access to firearms, violent video games, industrial music, etc... These things are easy to attack, but the people attacking them can never seem to explain why their presence doesn't consistently produce the problems they are concerned with, nor why the problems they are concerned with sometimes exist without the presence of the specific cause they cite. This demonstrates a lack of understanding of the scope of the issue.

I have always felt that these problems were systemic and structural rather then limited and specific, and that we are unlikely to be able to see them, understand them, or address them as a society because we do not want to change the things that we would need to change.

Part of the problem is that we see teenage suicides and mass mur... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Why Nerds are Unpopular (Long, and worth it.)

Insight into where the tax system may actually go (rather than the wet dream of national sales tax replacing income tax)

] Pamela F. Olson, a former Bush Treasury official in close
] contact with administration tax planners, said the
] president will pursue a tax system where all income --
] whether from wages, dividends, capital gains or interest
] -- is taxed only once. That would mean eliminating taxes
] on dividends and capital gains paid out of fully taxed
] corporate profits. Most investment gains are currently
] taxed at 15 percent.

From an idealistic standpoint, that's not necessarily bad...

] The administration will also push hard for large savings
] accounts that could shelter thousands of dollars of
] deposits each year from taxation on investment gains,
] according to White House economic advisers who have been
] involved with the planning.

And these are probably a Good Thing...

] And any tax reform, according to Treasury Department officials,
] would likely eliminate the alternative minimum tax, a parallel
] income tax designed to ensure that the rich pay income taxes
] but one that increasingly ensnares the middle class.

...because the rich play even more exotic games, and the AMT didn't scale up with wage and investment increases...

OK -- but how to pay for these...

] To pay for those large tax cuts, the administration is
] looking at eliminating both the deduction for state and
] local taxes,

Uh oh...
] and the business tax deduction for employer-sponsored health
] insurance.

Oh shit.
] That would raise nearly $926 billion over five years,
] according to White House and congressional documents.

Eliminating state and local deductions has a substantially disproportiate effect on the blue "United Cities of America", because the local and blue states provide a lot of services that cost money -- we pay more in Pittsburgh than rural PA, because Pittsburgh has to spend more (ok, bad example).

Eliminating Health Care benefits means that all the talk of improving healthcare was bullshit, because now whatever government or private program is going to have to take on a great deal more customers; when business gets a tax break, they might have still had an incentive to provide private health care even in the presence of a public option; with no legislation and no break, only the elite employees and non-profits will bother.

I think we saw this coming.

[well, slightly less than half of us saw it coming anyhow!]

Bush Plans Tax Code Overhaul (washingtonpost.com)

Live Shows by the likes of 311, Hot Buttered Rum String Band, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Tenacious D, Gin Blossoms, Ekoostik Hookah and many many more!

Live Music Archive - Free Legal Downloads

Apparently a small majority of the voters have not been paying attention the past 4 years or else in some sort of Harrison-Bergeron-like trance they can look at Bush and say, "I know he's a complete idiot but he's trying so hard."

This is a collection of things hje really said. I remember hearing some of them during the debates. I laughed so hard I cried, then I just cried. :)

] "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They
] never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
] people, and neither do we." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug.
] 5, 2004 (Watch video clip)

How Could Anyone Have Voted for Him? (Bush-isms)

Multiple Intelligences

I scored:

Linguistic: 8
Logical-Mathematical: 10
Spatial: 5
Bodily-Kinesthetic: 7
Musical: 10
Interpersonal: 5
Intrapersonal: 7

that's fairly accurate, but I also consider myself pretty good at spatially-oriented things. I am an avid music collector, but I can't really picture myself doing anything with it other than for my own enjoyment.

Multiple Intelligence Test

] More than 400 people, including many children, have been
] taken hostage by a group of armed militants in the
] southern Russian republic, North Ossetia.

]There are reports of shooting and that the attackers are wearing suicide bomb belts.

This is sad. Hopefully it won't end tragically.

Hostage Situation