Giant SPIDERS in the Congo, Africa?

1. Arachnophobia (fear of spiders) in the Congo

Dog breeder eaten alive by own dogs: KARMA?

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

I'm cold, alone, and the ASPCA is going to kill me and call it a "euthanizing" favor. Save me.

Compton pit bull breeder mauled to death by his own dogs

(KTLA 5) LOS ANGELES, California - Feb. 16, 2024: A chaotic and gruesome scene unfolded in Compton (a ghetto in Los Angeles made famous by Snoop Dog, et. al.) Friday morning after a man who was breeding pit bulls (a similar breed) was mauled to death in his own backyard.

Get in my bag, Taylor, yer preggers!

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), officials responded to the home on Thorson Ave., just south of Rosecrans Ave., around 7:00 am after a concerned friend visited the property and discovered the man’s mauled body.

"He was feeding the dogs at which point maybe there was an altercation between some of the dogs and [they] ultimately [turned on and] attacked and mauled the victim,” said Michael Gomez with LASD’s Homicide Bureau. KTLA's Chris Wolfe reports on Feb. 16, 2024.

• More details: ktla.com/news/local-news/man...

What kind of karma?

She's as blind as her beloved canine companion. Is it by chance or a life lesson?

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It is popularly believed that karma (intentional action, deed, conduct) means "what comes around goes around." And by this logic, the dog breeder here must have made these impressionable pit bulls vicious, the better to sell them as tough guardians for self-protection.

One sees citizens of South-Central Los Angeles and other parts of the city, such as the Venice Beach Boardwalk, walking vicious looking pit bulls on heavy chains. It's a trope. It's the obverse of West Side females carrying chihuahuas or Shitsus in their purses.

I'll be waiting in the realm of ghosts, Master.

If he did raise them to be vicious killers and they viciously killed him, isn't that karma? It may be karma except for the fact that karma does not work itself out that quickly. Lennon's "Instant Karma" is rare.

What does seem to happen is that we repeat our habitual karma over many lives, and when those deeds catch up with us, ripen and comet to fruition in this life, it may be for something like the thing we're doing now. So people deduce that, "Aha! It must have been that thing he was doing now."

But, in fact, it could, it is much likelier to be something that being did long ago bearing its results. Be nice to animals. Don't eat them. But if you do, will it be a surprise that in the future they will eat you? Not pets, pets rarely eat us, but domesticated livestock when we are reborn on the animal plane, in ghost or hellish realms, or by some good fortune (based on some previous skillful deed) on the human plane again, or wild animals.

IDK Y. I'm driven to eat you alive until you die.

Animals are not here by accident. Animals are not ours to abuse or even to use. They have consciousness, thoughts, feelings, karmic lives, personalities, and futures. The entire section of the Dharma known as the "Rebirth Tales" or Jatakas illustrates how they think and feel, how karma (sowing deeds) bears fruit, how the working out of deeds and results is unimaginably complex but knowable in general terms. Killing humans is worse, particularly moral humans, but killing or inducing (paying butchers) others to kill is also very bad karma.

SUTRA: Let go, Doggy

The Buddha was a Karmavadin: he taught the
importance of deeds (karma) and their results.

There's an amazing Buddhist story, a Jataka Tale, in which a stingy man passes away without having told his wife or eldest son where he buried his treasure. He's still clinging to it in his heart, for all the good money does him as a dog.

The son searches in vain for it because the family needs it to live when he's gone. It comes to pass that he meets the Bodhisattva (the Buddha-to-be), who asks him what the problem is.

The son explains and is advised to feed the dog well and watch where he chooses to go to nap then dig in that spot. He does and finds the stash, becoming a believer in the process:

There is rebirth, there are wise people who know this world and other worlds by their own knowledge-and-vision, there are results of karma (vipaka and phala), there is a life (an afterlife) to come, humans can be reborn as animals based on their actions in this life, and there is something higher to live for than ordinary concerns like making and clinging to worldly riches.

• Get to know how much they’re worth: 49 celebrities and their mouth-watering net worths (thedoctornews.com)
• Lost tropical bird caught on camera

Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky)

Chomsky's Philosophy, Oct. 15, 2015; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Chomsky's Philosophy) This is a summary of MIT Prof. Noam Chomsky's analysis on how the corporate mainstream media functions to "manufacture" consent.

The CIA called it Operation Mockingbird.

This means on behalf of the elite in a society, it sets the agenda, topics, debate parameters, perceptions, and constructs the narratives we are fed.

It is the consent of the ruled in a culture, particularly a nominal democracy, that the media is after. Rather than soliciting our "consent" at the end of a gun (in harsh 1984 style), prodded by a militarized police agent's billy club or threats of violence, we are fed propaganda, deceived, and pacified (smiley face Brave New World Order style).

This is an excerpt from the documentary (based on the book Manufacturing Consent) Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992). Watch it here: • VIDEO

YouTube alternative BitChute: flat earth

BitChute; Eric Dubay (atlanteanconspiracy.com); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly, Wiki edit

BitChute is a video hosting service that uses peer-to-peer WebTorrent technology. It was founded as a way to avoid content rules that are enforced on platforms like YouTube, and some creators who have been banned or had their channels "demonetized" (barred from receiving advertising revenue) on YouTube have migrated to BitChute. The platform accommodates far-right individuals and conspiracy theorists[8]; the Southern Poverty Law Center accuses the site of hosting "hate-fueled material." More

What about Evolution and Darwin and the origins of life on Earth?

Gotta get some Bitcoin! Here's how

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Bitcoin is not physical, like the trick "bit" shown here. It's only digital and a bubble.

If Bitcoin is man in black, woman in white is the new investor trying to get rich quick.

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Cash me outside, bitch, and pay me in Bit!

Get rich schemes are getting harder to come by since Internet search engines allow us to research more sides of the story than just the one that makes scammers money.

But have you seen what Bitcoin (BTC), the hot digital cryptocurrency, has been doing lately? It's volatile and has no future in its present form. But along the way from here to there, one can ride the wave of volatility and cash out ahead of the game. Set a reasonable automatic sell point.
 

I can pay you in bit. Are you on tour soon?

It's a risky game. Be prepared to lose it all. Unlike most things, Bitcoin is not a good thing to hold for the long term. Why? Banks and governments are not going to allow themselves to be undermined by an independent alternative currency. They will subvert it, much as they are currently doing by inflating this bubble.

If Bitcoin is so valuable, why are current owners trying to seduce so many new investors into the market? That's how you make money from a bubble. It's like having a poker game among friends. How are you going to get rich? Invite a bunch of nonfriends to join the "friendly" game and milk them for all their money. In this example, you are the nonfriend about to be milked yet you think you're joining a friendly game to get rich off them.

I so wanna get rich quick, I lose it all.

Ever wonder why it is suddenly so volatile? It's because it's about to be listed in normal stock markets so investors can buy futures. Bitcoin is constantly being remade, reformatted, robbed from electronic vaults (which should be impossible but apparently isn't that hard), and precariously depends on the objective Internet, subjective net access, the bitcoin network, and the WWW. One solar flare or pulse bomb, and it all goes bye bye. An investor will still have it in cyberspace but will have no way to cash it in. Ask Danielle Bregoli.

More suckers needed to join our game

It was once possible to buy one Bitcoin for 8 cents. That was a few years ago. One guy bought $600.00's worth. He forgot about them in his hard drive then threw the hard drive away -- and with it, $122,000,000.00 at current prices, depending at what time of day one sells, of course, because the price is changing hourly by thousands of dollars per coin.

How does one get rich in an investment market? "Buy low, sell high." (The trick is there's no way to know ahead of time what "low" means and when the "high" is hit; that's all guesswork). When are people going to be buying? Right now, which is high. When will they be selling? When it's low, after the bubble bursts.

 

How likely is anyone entering the market right now to get rich with Bitcoin? Not likely at all, zero percent. It violates the fundamental rule.

But then why do ads and agents keep promoting Bitcoin? That's so you can salivate, get in higher praying it'll go higher, then you'll be cleaned out when you try to divest after the plunge. They come in and clean up, you go lick your wounds and wish you hadn't mortgaged the house.

Let dana be your path to gold.

Buy gold or silver, as their value never goes to zero. Bitcoin will be supplanted by another cryptocurrency banks and governments control and regulate and treat just like the fiat currency we live under now. What's that other truism about markets? "A fool and his money are soon parted."

See, this is how they get you: by changing the subject right away. Q: "Should I buy bitcoin?" A: "Digital currencies are the future." No one's arguing whether or not digital and cryptocurrencies are sound. The question is whether the bitcoin brand is sound. There will be, there already are, alternative currencies. Like Napster, bitcoin will not be allowed to succeed or come out on top. Bitcoin is not a sacrificial lamb so much as it is a Judas goat that leads others to slaughter.

Stop making sense! I want to buy BTC anyway

Gold, being real, is the opposite of bitcoin. There is no such tangible thing as a Bitcoin.

• Standard Exchanges (bitcoin.com) Buy bitcoin, create bitcoin wallets, read bitcoin news, and more.
• How to buy bitcoin: A step-by-step Guide (businessinsider.com) Using the app Coinbase, we ventured to buy and sell bitcoin, the popular cryptocurrency whose cost has seen massive spikes in recent weeks.
• How to buy Bitcoin (coinbase.com/buy-bitcoin) Coinbase [according to Coinbase] is a secure online platform [app] for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital currency.
• How to buy bitcoin: A beginner's guide... (independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new...) The value of bitcoin has hit a new record high of $11,850.00 [now much higher, 16-17K per BTC), and mainstream interest in the cryptocurrency has skyrocketed. 
• How To Buy Bitcoins (howtobuybitcoins.info) Quickly discover how to buy and sell bitcoins in your local currency. Find the best rates and get streaming price quotes across bitcoin exchanges everywhere! 
• How to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum (mashable.com)
• Basics for Buying and Investing in Bitcoin (investopedia.com) Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized cryptocurrency payment system designed by Satoshi Nakamoto. The software-based currency was released to the public in 2009. Since then, updates and improvements have been made by a network of developers, partially funded by the Bitcoin Foundation... 
• Buy - Bitcoin (bitcoin.org/en/buy) Discover people selling Bitcoin in your community. "Local Bitcoins" lets you search and browse through various sellers of Bitcoin in your area. Sellers have reviews and feedback scores to help you choose [sucker].

Shamans and scientists in Shangri La (video)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; A. Ruzo, Anna Sussman, G. Washington (Snap)

Glynn Washington outdid himself this week on SnapJudgment.org with Shangri La (#712)

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SHANGRI LA: The Boiling River of Peru: On the most recent Snap, "Shangri La." Some say it doesn't exist; others are already out the door. Featuring stories about a mythical Peruvian boiling river and...

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Graduate student and would-be geologist Andres Ruzo tried to track down a legendary river he heard his grandfather talk about in stories when he was a little boy. He found the stuff of legends and then was faced with the choices and burdens of knowing a valuable secret. More in Ruzo’s book, The Boiling River.

Scientist and Shaman in Shangri La

Scientist Andres Ruzo in the dense, green Amazon jungle searching for a river (F.I.P.)

Adventure and Discover in the Amazon

In this exciting adventure mixed with amazing scientific study, a young, exuberant explorer and geoscientist journeys deep into the Amazon -- where rivers boil and legends come to life.

When Andrés Ruzo was just a small boy in Peru, his grandfather told him the story of a mysterious legend: There is a river deep in the Amazon that boils as if a fire burns below it.

Twelve years later, Ruzo -- now a geoscientist -- hears his aunt mention that she herself had visited this strange river.
 
Determined to discover if the boiling river is real, Ruzo secures the help of the local shaman and sets out on a scientific expedition/journey deep into the Amazon. What he finds astounds him:

Anna Sussman (snapjudgment.org)

In this long, wide, and winding river, the waters run so hot that locals brew tea in them; small animals that fall in are instantly cooked. As he studies the river, Ruzo faces challenges more complex than he had ever imagined.
 
The Boiling River follows this young explorer as he navigates a tangle of competing interests -- local shamans, illegal cattle farmers and loggers, and oil companies.

This true account reads like a modern-day adventure, complete with extraordinary characters, captivating plot twists, and jaw-dropping details -- including stunning photographs and a never-before-published account about this incredible natural wonder.

Ultimately, The Boiling River is about a man trying to understand the moral obligation that comes with scientific discovery -- to protect a sacred site from misuse, neglect, even from his own discovery. More

Boiling River: Snap Judgment "Shangri La" (PRX, Public Radio Exchange, April 30, 2016)

• Legendary river of Amazon is geological anomaly (Forbes) Andrés Ruzo, a PhD candidate in geophysics at SMU, has spent years studying a very peculiar phenomenon in the Amazon. 
• Andrés Ruzo, Geologist info, facts, news, photos (Nat Geo)
• Peruvian immigrant Andres Ruzo: A Serial Entrepreneur...

Finally, Bitcoin EXPLAINED (comedy)

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Conan O'Brien's writers (TBS), March 11, 2014

Bitcoin is not a coin but a virtual, well, a...

(Team Coco) Bitcoin may be too much for puny minds to comprehend; luckily this training video explains all. Bitcoin's COO Marcus Ortmann explains what bitcoin is. Team Coco is the official YouTube channel of late night host Conan O'Brien. More

• Who actually invented bitcoin? It was the son of a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest hiding in California
• Conan O'Brien's bitcoin explanation (BusinessInsider.com)

Son of Buddhist priest invented Bitcoin (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Leah McGrath Goodman (Newsweek); Daily Mail

Bitcoin is formless money, dependent on online networks and trading (technolovia.com)

  

Zen ensō (etsy.com)

According to today's issue of Newsweek, Satoshi Nakamoto is...Satoshi Nakamoto. The anonymous inventor of bitcoin -- an online-only virtual currency independent of any country or government now worth about $600 dollars (US) each -- is a 64-year-old Japanese-American.

Exposed by Leah McGrath Goodman

He is a former defense contractor living with his mother in a modest Temple City, California suburban home. He is worth at least 600 million dollars, but he is our neighbor: Temple City, which is largely Asian, is next to Pasadena in the foothills of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley; it is anything but fancy squeezed as it is between Alhambra and Arcadia (of "Joan of Arcadia" fame), next to one of the toniest places in the country to live: San Marino.

 

(mag.newsweek.com)

According to the article, "He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military." 

"Nakamoto's family describe him as extremely intelligent, moody, and obsessively private -- a man of few words who screens his phone calls, anonymizes his emails and, for most of his life, has been preoccupied with the two things for which bitcoin has now become known: money and secrecy."

Mega corporations serve the US government

The article quotes him as responding when asked about Bitcoin, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it... It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." He may now have to move and hire round-the-clock security for his own protection [assuming he wasn't working for the CIA, a military ("defense") contractor, or other quasi-government agency when he created the currency, in which case they will probably provide him protection free, we imagine].

Bitcoin is virtual not actual "coins"

If he father was Japanese and a "Buddhist priest," that means he was Zen. Like father like eldest son? As a "defense contractor" doing "classified work," we can only assume he is a clandestine operative for the military-industrial complex.

NSA files decoded (Guardian.co.uk)

So good luck with trading those ones and zeros; they should go much higher before settling and crashing, like other secret agent projects -- Google, Facebook, Apple -- which have seen major boosts to and stabilizations of their stock prices (read "elimination of any serious competition") due to their profitable affiliation with the CIA, FBI, NSA/DHS and/or other arms of the secret US government.

• Quora: How will China's bitcoin rules impact its value?
• Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox goes dark after $350 mil theft
• Two Numbers: Bitcoins from heaven
• Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, blames hackers for losses
• Virtual currency bitcoin: anonymous Web shopping
• More tough news for bitcoin doesn't deter believers
• First US bitcoin ATMs to open soon in Seattle, Austin 
• Police: "apparent suicide" of Bitcoin Exchange CEO
• Newsweek becomes first mag to accept bitcoin...PR
• Warning: Mt. Gox bitcoin customers could be out of luck

Man bitten by 2,000 malarial mosquitoes

A mosquito lands on a man's hand Friday, June 26, 2009, in Olmsted Falls, Ohio (AP/Mark Duncan).

Some people will go to extreme lengths to avoid mosquito bites. They'll wear long sleeves and pants in the heat of summer, surround themselves with citronella candles and torches, and spray foul-smelling chemicals all over their bodies -- or simply not set foot outside when they know the bugs are biting.

Stephen Hoffman isn't quite like those people. In fact, he has gone out of his way to get bitten. Years ago, he let 2,000 mosquitoes feast on his arm and inject perhaps 200,000 parasites into his bloodstream. Why? Well, for one thing, it made him immune to malaria.

He's also the CEO of Sanaria, a Rockville, Maryland-based company that aims to develop and commercialize a malaria vaccine. But he doesn't plan on subjecting all of us to as many bites as he has suffered. Receiving the vaccine that Hoffman hopes to create, in fact, wouldn't involve any mosquito bites at all. "It would have to be delivered by needle and syringe," he says. Creating the vaccine is another matter, however, and it calls for more brave volunteers willing to serve as mosquito fodder.

Progress toward a malaria vaccine, including a major new advance that European scientists reported this week, has already demanded a blood sacrifice from hundreds of people. Some, like Hoffman, have had scientific reasons for getting involved. More>>