The hostage crisis has finally been ended and Tupperwaresteam.nl is up again. Fitting that Emporium Vernesque is once again the subject of the first publication. Read the (Dutch) interview with organiser Dick Zwart here.
Then I am working on a simple report on Spiel, the 2014 boardgame convention. I think I'll do a video on that. ANd this week I'll be visting Ciney Militaria in Belgium. Can't wait the see that treasure of gadgets and junk. So expect something on that as well.
Saturday 25 October 2014
Sunday 12 October 2014
A rant on History, Aliens and Alternate History
I will start by apologizing for the rant. You see, I hate(!) Ancient Aliens and all institutions like with a passion. I put them in the same category with creationism, heliocentrism and all pseudosciences like it. Actually I wanted to write something how you could have fun with these about aliens and ancient civilisations. But when you think about it, it's just to insulting and even racist to be used in stories like that.
The same could be said about Stargate which I love, but Stargate, al thou based on similair idea's, presents itself as fiction. Ancient Aliens does not. And they have gotten worse as the serie progressed on our 'alien origins' ignoring evolution and highjacking both scientific and religious texts, like the bible. Pff, never thought I would write bible and scientific in one sentence. Anyway, here's the rant.
Aliens are neat right? They speak to our imagination. Insight both horror and hope, come in an forms and sizes, silly of monstrous and often have neat gadgets to boot. Yeah, perfect to write some alternate history with aliens.
Well for alternate history with aliens you don't have to go much further than the History channel. HISTORY-channel. Someone forget to mention history is an actual science that is subjected to peer-review?
We tend to believe that there is a thin line between between the science and investigation of history and 'popular history'. Popular history being the stories and interpretation we like to hear. In many cases it is harmless, even if it is wrong. But it might inspire people to look more closely to the events of our past. It doesn't stop me from find it irratating having to correct people most of the time, but I learned to ignore some statements in conversation.
Like this titbit. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THE MEDIEVAL PEOPLE WERE CONVINCED THE WORLD WAS FLAT!!! Yes there are some references in the bible to talk about the earth being a flat disk, flooting on water, in a snowglobe like sphere, but this is never found to be the case in medieval literature. Hell, a dutch scribe from the 14th century, Jan van Boendale, actually quotes Aristotles in his Book, Der Leken Spiegel (1325-1330) on the world being a hollow sphere about 250.000 stades... So they weren't right about everything.
This myth however was promoted by some 19th century atheists to make historical people like columbus look more awesome. A man who was a Christian himself and converted and massacred a part of the local population. Appears someone didn't know their history.
Fortunately the old assumption on the medieval world view is disappearing from the dutch school books and is being debunked on Wikipedia. There is even a article on it:
Of course that doesn't mean people don't believe it. F*** no. The 19th century presented us a whole new form of stupid that would make medieval scholars fall over. One of these is, yes, The Flat Earth Society. For those that believe Heliocentrisme is impossible is some many ways, try to include this in a Heliocentric view of the universe.
Now, as presented above, popular history is deeply ingrained into our society. Entire political parties are based on popular histories that don't even come close to what really happend or is happing right now. Yeah, Steamer pretend to live in a 'altered past' but these people modelled there politics on alternate histories. Some are actively rewriting it, like the Institute for Historical Revision, wich I won't link because these people are/or appear to be neonazi's or at best xenophobes and anti-semitics.
So, for those who want to translate Steampunk to a political movement, here are your heroes!
What do these parties and institutes have to do with the History Channel? Well, not only do these 'people' consider our past something that could changed on a whim to suit their agenda and take shortcuts to the media to escape peer review. To them history is something you can make money of. Enter Ancient Aliens.
Ancient Aliens is both insulting as it is deceitful. Not does it just cater to people looking for answers in life outside of religion. They exploit the people that do the actual research by quote-mining (taking statements out of context) interviews and articles by actual scientists. It's so abvious in their documentaries it's sickening.
Also their sentiment appears to be, 'So these structures appear to be build by non-whites with primitive tools one strange locations? Aliens must have done it!' Yeah, I would like to hear them explain how the European Cathedrals were build in simulator conditions. Surly aliens must have helped with that too? Oh, wait those were build by white people. Duh!
I could go in detail why I call Ancient Aliens liesers and not just wrong. However, ancientaliensdebunked.com/. has a wealth of information on this subject and a near three hour long video on it on youtube. Very interesting stuff.
All these examples above have though me one thing. People want to be convince of things they know are far fetched or simply wrong. And nothing can convince them other wise. Only they themselves can do that. All 'we' can do is present our information in a public forum like the internet. That's why atheists call the internet 'were religion comes to die'.
Whoever, the internet is so flooded with BS, actual science and discoveries are drowned or pushed aside by documentaries and websites that present sensational nonsense for money or to promote their agenda. And that is just sad.
The same could be said about Stargate which I love, but Stargate, al thou based on similair idea's, presents itself as fiction. Ancient Aliens does not. And they have gotten worse as the serie progressed on our 'alien origins' ignoring evolution and highjacking both scientific and religious texts, like the bible. Pff, never thought I would write bible and scientific in one sentence. Anyway, here's the rant.
Aliens are neat right? They speak to our imagination. Insight both horror and hope, come in an forms and sizes, silly of monstrous and often have neat gadgets to boot. Yeah, perfect to write some alternate history with aliens.
Well for alternate history with aliens you don't have to go much further than the History channel. HISTORY-channel. Someone forget to mention history is an actual science that is subjected to peer-review?
We tend to believe that there is a thin line between between the science and investigation of history and 'popular history'. Popular history being the stories and interpretation we like to hear. In many cases it is harmless, even if it is wrong. But it might inspire people to look more closely to the events of our past. It doesn't stop me from find it irratating having to correct people most of the time, but I learned to ignore some statements in conversation.
Like this titbit. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THE MEDIEVAL PEOPLE WERE CONVINCED THE WORLD WAS FLAT!!! Yes there are some references in the bible to talk about the earth being a flat disk, flooting on water, in a snowglobe like sphere, but this is never found to be the case in medieval literature. Hell, a dutch scribe from the 14th century, Jan van Boendale, actually quotes Aristotles in his Book, Der Leken Spiegel (1325-1330) on the world being a hollow sphere about 250.000 stades... So they weren't right about everything.
This myth however was promoted by some 19th century atheists to make historical people like columbus look more awesome. A man who was a Christian himself and converted and massacred a part of the local population. Appears someone didn't know their history.
Fortunately the old assumption on the medieval world view is disappearing from the dutch school books and is being debunked on Wikipedia. There is even a article on it:
Of course that doesn't mean people don't believe it. F*** no. The 19th century presented us a whole new form of stupid that would make medieval scholars fall over. One of these is, yes, The Flat Earth Society. For those that believe Heliocentrisme is impossible is some many ways, try to include this in a Heliocentric view of the universe.
Now, as presented above, popular history is deeply ingrained into our society. Entire political parties are based on popular histories that don't even come close to what really happend or is happing right now. Yeah, Steamer pretend to live in a 'altered past' but these people modelled there politics on alternate histories. Some are actively rewriting it, like the Institute for Historical Revision, wich I won't link because these people are/or appear to be neonazi's or at best xenophobes and anti-semitics.
So, for those who want to translate Steampunk to a political movement, here are your heroes!
What do these parties and institutes have to do with the History Channel? Well, not only do these 'people' consider our past something that could changed on a whim to suit their agenda and take shortcuts to the media to escape peer review. To them history is something you can make money of. Enter Ancient Aliens.
Ancient Aliens is both insulting as it is deceitful. Not does it just cater to people looking for answers in life outside of religion. They exploit the people that do the actual research by quote-mining (taking statements out of context) interviews and articles by actual scientists. It's so abvious in their documentaries it's sickening.
Also their sentiment appears to be, 'So these structures appear to be build by non-whites with primitive tools one strange locations? Aliens must have done it!' Yeah, I would like to hear them explain how the European Cathedrals were build in simulator conditions. Surly aliens must have helped with that too? Oh, wait those were build by white people. Duh!
I could go in detail why I call Ancient Aliens liesers and not just wrong. However, ancientaliensdebunked.com/. has a wealth of information on this subject and a near three hour long video on it on youtube. Very interesting stuff.
All these examples above have though me one thing. People want to be convince of things they know are far fetched or simply wrong. And nothing can convince them other wise. Only they themselves can do that. All 'we' can do is present our information in a public forum like the internet. That's why atheists call the internet 'were religion comes to die'.
Whoever, the internet is so flooded with BS, actual science and discoveries are drowned or pushed aside by documentaries and websites that present sensational nonsense for money or to promote their agenda. And that is just sad.
Sunday 5 October 2014
Bits and Pieces 1. And Emporium Vernesque Presale!
Introducing a new segment I like to call Bit and Pieces. This is me ranting in my bedroom about movies, fairs and stuff.
Yeah, didn't feel like writing something today. So until I get around doing some genuin video's I am trying to get used to talking to a piece of plastic. I also need a new webcam that isn't a wideangle. So if anyone has a webcam laying around he or she doesn't use and is compatible with windows 7 I am interested.
Also, For those who are going to Emporium Vernesque. Please help out and buy your tickets in advance. It would be greatly appreciated... I forgot to mention there are Goody Bags for those who do. But only for the first 100. So don't postpone for to long, or it'll be gone. You can find them here.
Yeah, didn't feel like writing something today. So until I get around doing some genuin video's I am trying to get used to talking to a piece of plastic. I also need a new webcam that isn't a wideangle. So if anyone has a webcam laying around he or she doesn't use and is compatible with windows 7 I am interested.
Also, For those who are going to Emporium Vernesque. Please help out and buy your tickets in advance. It would be greatly appreciated... I forgot to mention there are Goody Bags for those who do. But only for the first 100. So don't postpone for to long, or it'll be gone. You can find them here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)