In Portuguese, PhotographyLeave a comment

Fé

Fernando Kaskais

© FERNANDO KASKAIS A nossa origem atlântica, remota e autêntica, acaba por colidir com a nossa situação terrestre, recente e construtiva. A simplicidade da água foi sendo progressivamente ultrapassada pela complexidade imposta pela urbe, pelas religiões que em todos os sentidos nos dominam. É na nostalgia real desses tempos primordiais, dos mares batidos e tempestades, que alguém, ainda hoje, pode reencontrar um resto de fé multimilenar, com a natureza distante que nos originou. https://kaskaisphotos.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/fe-2/ Continue reading Fé

Brain, Drugs, Health, History, Media&Culture, PsychologyLeave a comment

Acid media

Fernando Kaskais

Courtesy the DEA . All other images supplied by the author. How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, sometimes podcaster, and popular speaker based in San Francisco, US. His books include Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010), High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the 70s (2019) and Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium (2024). First synthesised in 1938 but not tasted until 1943, acid is essentially a creature of the postwar era. As such, it enters the human world alongside an explosion in consumer advertising, … Continue reading Acid media

Military, Nuclear, Politics, Russia, WarLeave a comment

Russia Is Flexing Its Nuclear Muscles With Unprecedented Drills. So, What Now?

Fernando Kaskais

Anadolu//Getty Images The West is watching with wary eyes… BY SÉBASTIEN ROBLIN On Monday, Russia announced its Southern Military District would hold snap tactical nuclear weapons drills involving its ground, navy, and air forces that will help “iron out” how exactly it might conduct a tactical nuclear strike. While such drills are not unprecedented, announcing them in advance was, as Moscow usually only gives advance warning of its long-range strategic weapons capable of reaching the U.S. soil. “This, to my knowledge, is the first time [Russia] has ordered tactical nuke exercise of forces in a district [bordering] Ukraine with explicit reference to … Continue reading Russia Is Flexing Its Nuclear Muscles With Unprecedented Drills. So, What Now?

Esoteric, Metaphysics, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

CAN AN ATHEIST BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH?

Fernando Kaskais

An atheist philosopher makes the case at Closer to Truth By DENYSE O’LEARY Canadian philosopher J. L. Schellenberg is an atheist but in 2021, he made a case for life after death to Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth (Is Death Final? February 12, 2021, 6:51 min). Schellenberg’s approach is what he calls ultimism. In the words of a team of reviewers of his book on the subject, The Wisdom to Doubt (Cornell 2007), “Ultimism,” the claim — a kind of lowest common denominator of any serious religion — that there exists a reality that is both “ultimate” (of unsurpassable metaphysical greatness) and “salvific” (crucial to our deepest flourishing … Continue reading CAN AN ATHEIST BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH?

Hypocrisy, Manipulation, Middle East, Politics, War, ZionismLeave a comment

How Israel Supported Hamas Against the PLO

Fernando Kaskais

by Jeremy R. Hammond Since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has been executing a devastating assault on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, blocking humanitarian aid, internally displacing 75% of Gaza’s population, systematically destroying civilian infrastructure, and otherwise bombing indiscriminately. To date, over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 9,500 women and over 14,500 children.1 More than 10,000 additional Palestinians are missing under the rubble, and over 77,000 have been injured.2 Children have been dying from hunger and malnutrition due to Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare.3 In a case brought against Israel by the government of South … Continue reading How Israel Supported Hamas Against the PLO

Ásia, Media&Culture, Politics, RacismLeave a comment

India and indigeneity

Fernando Kaskais

Kuki women attending a protest in Churachandpur District in the northeastern state of Manipur, India, 22 July 2023. Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence B y Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati – is a PhD student in socio-legal anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK. In early May 2023, a video surfaced on social media of a mob of young men parading two naked women. With the women’s faces, bosoms and genitalia blurred, the boys could be heard chastising them: ‘Your men raped our women, … Continue reading India and indigeneity

Future, Globalization, History, Philosophy, PoliticsLeave a comment

The Clash Of Civilizations Is The Politics Of The End of History

Fernando Kaskais

Mia Angioy for Noema Magazine Reflections by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek on universality and “worldless places.” BY NATHAN GARDELS – Nathan Gardels is the editor-in-chief of Noema Magazine. For decades, Sam Huntington’s famous thesis of a “clash of civilizations” has been regarded as the opposite of “the end of history” idea posited by Francis Fukuyama. In reality, it turns out that the two go together: One is a condition of the other. As the philosopher Slavoj Žižek insightfully puts it in a paper prepared for an upcoming colloquium of the Berggruen Institute Europe at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, “the … Continue reading The Clash Of Civilizations Is The Politics Of The End of History

In Portuguese, PhotographyLeave a comment

Em Cima da Ponte

Fernando Kaskais

© FERNANDO KASKAIS Na fotografia, se insistirmos nos defeitos estes tornam-se estilo. É também uma forma de descobrir novos padrões, novos ângulos, um gesto artístico diferente, uma nova arrumação para a realidade. Apraz-me pensar que reconhecer o erro é estar aberto a algo novo que se pode tornar essencial. https://kaskaisphotos.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/em-cima-da-ponte/ Continue reading Em Cima da Ponte

Brain, Metaphysics, Money, Philosophy, PsychologyLeave a comment

ECONOMICS ASSUMES HUMAN BEINGS HAVE FREE WILL

Fernando Kaskais

Every waking moment we humans live out a constant fact underlying all economic science: we act. By RICHARD W. STEVENS  “Free will denial is a cornerstone of materialist–determinist ideology,” wrote Dr. Michael Egnor here in February 2024. The deniers say we are “purely physical machines, meat robots.” Dr. Egnor cited well-known people who have prominently denied humans have free will. Dr. Egnor challenged deniers to demonstrate through their own actions that they truly have no free will. They will fail for Dr. Egnor’s stated reasons, plus one more: economics. The science of economics describes the behaviors of individual humans as they pursue their … Continue reading ECONOMICS ASSUMES HUMAN BEINGS HAVE FREE WILL

Planet, Science, Space, UFOLeave a comment

Alien life is no joke

Fernando Kaskais

A starry night and an atmospheric glow. Photo courtesy NASA/Johnson Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific By Adam Frank – is professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester in New York. He is the author of several books, the latest being The Little Book of Aliens (2023). Suddenly, everyone is talking about aliens. After decades on the cultural margins, the question of life in the Universe beyond Earth is having its day in the sun. The next big multibillion-dollar space telescope (the successor to the James Webb) will be tuned to search … Continue reading Alien life is no joke