Fortnightly Editorial
J'accuse Covid 2021
On January 3, 1898, novelist Emile Zola shook the establishment of France, one of the superpowers of that past era when he wrote his colossal J’Accuse in defense of the unjustly accused and incarcerated Captain Dreyfus. Zola lived in a world where communication was slow, education was not accessible to all, and more than courage was needed to challenge the elite. In today’s world we cannot write J’Accuse anymore simply because we no longer have the pretext of no access to communications or news, or to pretend that we have not had basic instruction or in rare cases even education.
How have we let the world change for the worse to that extent? Because it does not matter whether you agree to put a mask on your face or not, it has nothing to do with believing in the wisdom of injecting an experimental concoction into your body. No. Covid has just revealed the excesses of those in positions of power.In this world, we seem to accept that journalists can be imprisoned and treated like the worst criminals -- not in dictatorships -- but in the United Kingdom. We are required to deny what make us human to supposedly keep us ‘safe’. If you do not do as the masses do, you are accused of being selfish. You are simply selfish! We decided to accuse those responsible for this situation. You probably wrongly guess, but we are not accusing any billionaires philanthropists, government organizations, politicians, or religion. We are accusing you who sat down and let them believe they can carry out these atrocities on a whole planet. Yes, you, me we are all responsible…
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Highlights in the United States
On 19/04/2021 NASA announced the successfull maiden flight of the Helicopter Ingenuity that went to Mars with the nuclear powered rover Perserverance. Its singular appearance due to the technological problems faced on Mars still pays homage to the Wright brothers breakthrough for us all. The ability to explore the surface has increased as we start to observe it more fully .
Meanwhile In Africa
Barbarism in Mozambique. The fierce war being waged in the coastal towns in East Africa's Mozambique are leading to a humanitarian crisis which is impacting its neighbours.The civilian population as is usual are bearing the brunt and the condemnation of the world is doing little to help bring about a ceasefire or resolution.
Latest From the New World
From all of us at the International Outsider, an open letter to those who have decided that the global approach to dealing with the problems raised by the pandemic is one of do as we say because we know the answers.This is far from correct and provable as you have not transparently made the facts available to all and sundry.
Is Virtual the New Real?
The idea of what we perceive to be real and what comprises our existence has been cogitated interminably throughout recorded history and most likely at some point, before. Today’s world has a few fundamental differences from the past which blur the lines to the point where it becomes impossible for the layman to confidently state he is sure of his facts.
Fact or fiction has become our new reality as both the dissemination of information and the increase in our ability to subvert, manipulate, falsify or change ‘factual’ information to fit with our agendas makes it an uphill task to find the ‘truth’. Since the ‘democritisation ‘ of society over the last century (or less as the case may be), the population globally has become accustomed to the illusion of freedom of thought, speech and other perceived to be enshrined Human Rights.These included the ability to freely congregate often without prior permission unless legally necessary (Demonstrations etc.) and give as well as have an opinion of ones own contrary or different to the prevailing one taken as the mainstream norm. Travel was pretty much simple, easily arranged and the flow of people, goods, creatures, ideas and all manner of interactions was continual. We were starting to acknowledge that the open exchange of all that comprises’ life’ for us was starting to bear fruit though how we viewed that fruit is another matter.
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Are Institutions (Like the UN) Still Relevant?
In today's world, many of the institutions we grew up with and which formed a large number of the conceptions and views we hold about all matters in life, have become moribund and seemingly purposeless as we perceive them to be ineffectual at best.
This is due to a number of often conflicting reasons, most of which then result in excessive manipulation of the media and what is deemed suitable for public consumption. The Great Institutions were put into place for varied reasons but all had one thing in common: they were there to improve the quality of life for the people of this planet, whether by avoiding war and violent uprisings, ensuring the provision of basic necessities at an acceptable level of quality, or foreseeing and putting into place qualitative plans of action for unforeseen or unavoidable setbacks (from natural disasters to manmade ones).We all slept easier at night. They were looking out for us, or so we believed.The rot set in around the late 60's when counter-culture started not only to question the status quo but challenged it directly by refusing to accept platitudes as answers. Further, they demanded as their right the option of changing the system to benefit more people directly and in the 70's, transparency became a major issue...
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10 Other Human Species Which Could Have Been With Us Today
Homo sapiens: 300,000 years old
- Human beings are an orphan race. Even with all the populations present on the globe, the genetic diversity is minimal but it hasn’t always been like this. Long ago and sometimes not very long ago, different species of human beings shared this planet together. Some of them could have made it to modern times. It is interesting to think that if they were here with us, would we have treated them as equals or inferiors? It is also frightening that we could be partly responsible for their disappearance in certain cases (human beings not having an excellent interspecies or intraspecies relations record). Let's meet those beings belonging to our genus (Homo) and who could have roamed the planet with us up to the present day, had they been a bit more fortunate.
- 1. Homo Naledi: First on our list is Homo naledi, discovered in South Africa in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave in the province of Gauteng. Nominally dated around 1.8 million years before our era, H. naledi is in the Homo genus and figures on our list due to the recent dating in 2017 of partially-fossilized bones. The mind-blowing date that this species might have still roamed the world is around 300,000 or 200,000 years ago. This would make this genre contemporary to early Homo sapiens and other distinctive cousins like Homo ergaster or Homo erectus. However, the facial features of H. naledi are a mix of simian and human characteristics.
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Excerpt from Tianhou Queen of Heaven. Amended version 2021 Chapter 2
Professor Vinod Rajkumar never went anywhere in a hurry. That’s why he felt hard pressed when he was woken in the middle of the night to take a call from the Director of the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California) ordering him to take the next flight to Washington. Most people did not know that the headquarters of NASA were situated in Washington. Raj, as he was known, could not have cared less. He was not part of the decision-making clique and would have hated to be.
Even more, he hated flying with a hundred people in such a small space, yet here he was in a jet which was rolling furiously to reach airborne speed. Raj smiled to himself as he wondered, how could that impress me? After all, he had designed the Space Probes which were capable of freeing themselves from the grip of the home planet at more than twelve kilometers per second. He returned back to his immediate concern, why the hell do they want me in Washington? It could not be to do with PEARL. The space probe was in excellent condition and would place itself in orbit around Uranus in only six months. And flight control was already preparing the procedures to get PEARL out of its hibernation state; this would happen in one week and it made absolutely no sense that NASA would amputate him from his team at such a critical moment. If it had nothing to do with PEARL, then what
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Who is telling the truth about the Pact Ribbentrop Molotov? Tensions are rising between the Federation of Russia and The United States over Ukraine. The old dispute about the pact is resurfacing again. By Anton Komarov.(History WW2)
International Outsider (Society)
This topic always been a point of high focus for us. We will explore alternative societal organizations which some thinkers like the one Jacque Fresco has put in front of our egocentric noses ... By Steven Martin
The National interest (Africa/Progress/Corruption)
Rwanda Should Be the Model to Defeat Corruption.......
BBC Future
If Planet Nine exists, why has no one seen it? Long read BBC future.
Sputnik News (Astronautics)
Only Female Cosmonaut in Russia’s Team Set to Go to ISS Next Year, Source Says
National Geographic (Archeology)
Gobelki Tepe In Turkey, the World's Oldest Temple to Be Restored
Benjamin Franklin
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A polymath, he was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.
Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test.
Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization - a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.
Jacque Fresco.
was an American Structural designer, architectural designer, concept artist, educator, and futurist.
Burning bridges behind you is understandable. It's the bridges before us that we burn, not realizing we may need to cross, that brings regret.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.
“If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!” -- Adolf Hitler
Outstanding Organisations
Worth Checking
Seti
Search for extraterrestial intelligence.
The Venus project
Alternative Society.