Python och hädelse!

Det är ju så man tror att världen blitt aldeles galen. Hittade denna artikel på Yahoo! News och trodde att den kanske var del av en ny Python film. Men nej, BBC har blivit åtalade för hädelse! I England! Världen börjar bli lite farligt galen. Att tro är varje människas rätt, men att inte tro och att driva med andras religioner, är också en rätt. Man kan driva med Jesus och Mohammed om man inte tror, man kan driva med dem om man tror! Preciss som med allting annat. Folk tar så illa upp så lätt för närvarande, varför? Jag önskar mig distans, att alla kunde få det och att folk inte var så dj@vla humorlösa! Sluta!

Blessed Be

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Are vegitarians evil!? ;-)

Who said vegitarians are good people? This video shows the naked truth and horror about vegitarianism, Halloween and Pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

And yes…

I'm still on his side. In fact, I think the 'Manpollo' project should be shared between at least the US and the EU. And it could even be good for the economy. Have everyone forgotten why we have governments with a lot of money in the first place? To spend it when times are hard for the ordinary people of the country. This, I think, would qualify.

Anyway,

May your path be blessed!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Still Compelling!

I still feel his arguments are valid, and I have to say: "Listen people!" Argue with him, argue with me, but for the sake of all things dear to us, listen to what he says. Don't misunderstand him just because you want to, try to waylay him by arguments.

He points out one very crucial point. You should not be looking at what one scientist says, you need to be looking at what the scientific community is saying. It might still be wrong, but you need to at least acknowledge the majority voice on the matter. (Although I do realize new reasearch takes time to trickle through to the majority, I don't think there's much discussion in this matter with regards to new evidence.)

-- Blessed Be --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

P.S. I especially liked the "you don't try to remove your own appendix"-argument. Not very philosophical, but very true. Don't you think?

Compelling argument?

This guy is proposing a compelling argument concerning the existence of global warming. And I think he has a point. His argument is somewhat similar to Pascal's Wager argument for the existence of God. I can't see how any of the criticism of Pascal's Wager would affect this argument since the mostly deal with belief in a more theological sense.

However some responses to this video has been that only one course of action is truly positive, ie. to do nothing and that the theory of global warming turns out to be false. This is not a true counter argument though, since it fails to recognize that we are not talking about each instance as isolated events. We looking at the columns vs. the rows, and thusly they have to be seen in a holistic sense. This means that you must consider the total cost of each column to be able to make your choice. Viewed in that way, both columns will have a possible negative effect on
the global economy. But only the "no" column gives more truly negative costs in terms of lives, food, water, the whole nine yards.

As you may understand I agree with this argument. However I don't mind critique of it, as long as it is done in a civil way.

-- Blessed Be --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Chat!

Det finns som bekant mängder av sätt att kommunicera via Internet, ett av de äldre, men samtidigt mest pålitliga är IRC, eller Internet Relay Chat. Man chattar via en irc-klient,
vilka det finns gott om till alla operativsystem.

Nu är det så att det finns gott om chat rum för paganer via IRC, jag har ingalunda provat många, men man kan 'googla' fram en hel del. För de som saknar salig avsomnade SpiritWeb.org kan jag rekommendera PaganPaths.org, och deras general PaganPaths rum. Många amerikaner, men det får man ta ;-) .

Så ladda ner en klient och gå in på irc.paganpaths.org och börja chatta! Hoppas vi ses där.

-- Merry Part --

/|\ Taran

Lite Paprika?

Det var ett tag sedan jag bloggade. Jag sade att jag skulle börja blogga mer på svenska. Detta lär nu bli en sanning med modifikation, eftersom jag ser mig som mer eller mindre två språkig, jag är gift med en delvis amerikansk tjej, och både tänker och pratar på åtminstone två språk själv, dagligen, alltid. Men, men.

Sen jag senast var här har det hänt mycket, och inget. Min Tech blog är fortfarande på gång så att säga. Den kommer att finnas att tillgå på WordPress när jag blir färdig med den. Men det är just det som är problemet. Har lite personliga issues just nu som måste redas ut innan det kan bli någonting!

Lite till livs tänkte jag dock ge den ende (?) stackars sate som läser denna blog: Paprika! Paprika är en relativt ny anime film från Japan som är helt fantastisk. Den kommer lämna dig med en kännsla av upplyft förbryllning, förvirrad lycka och överväldigad i största allmänhet! Kolla upp den på IMDb.com (kan inte bädda länkar i klienten jag använder just nu…) Jag kan givetvis inte lova att du inte kommer att bli besviken, och jag tänker inte ge dig pengarna tillbaka i vilket fall som helst, men detta är en film med så mycket filosofi, psykologi, funderingar och ett fantastiskt soundtrack, att jag kan med lätthet påstå att detta är något av det bästa jag sett under 2007, om inte större delen av 2000-talet. Inte ens Myasakis mästerverk Spirited Away når lika högt som Paprika, även om också den är mycket sevärd.

Så gå och hyr den nu! Jag tror inte du kommer att bli besviken, men var varnad: du kommer sannolikt att behöva se den mer än en gång!!!

Bless!
Taran

Just a quick update!

We are going down south to meet up with Wopee, have a small ceremony and just hang out in the waning rays of autumnal light. May we be blessed with good weather and interessting sensations!

Blessed be!
Taran

Oh, right

I still don't have any news on the Macintosh/Tech blog I'm planning, nor on the video/netcast reviewing site I'm also contemplating. But, I figured it was some time since my last entry.

I've recently updated theHokusPokus site for my mother, it's now int autumnal fashion with some new things added here and there.

And, I also joined a forum. A forum for the Druids of Scandiae. This is a Druid order I joinded when I was 15 years old, and have stuck with it since. Hopefully we'll see a big Samhain celebration this year. See you there?

Bless
Taran

Time to splitt up!

So, it's time to say good bye… Well, it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds, but I have recently gotten a few other accounts and I'm going to make a few changes. This blog, the Duirstep, will from now on be a more specifically pagan blog. The tech stuff will get moved to another blog, it's under construction. I've also gotten Yahoo! 360º, MySpace and Facebook. Why? Friends! I've got friends on all of these, and now I'm there to. I will come back later and tell you where to find all this.

--- Blessed be! ---

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Maybe some pics eh?

Just thought I'd try and ad some picture from the Luanys festivities. Not that you can get the feelings we did, but hey, it doesn't hurt!

Blessed be!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Luanys

Luanys came and went, and after that summer seems to have begun in Scandinavia. On the 1st we went to a farm an got some eggs, veggies and other things and then had a ceremony under the mighty oak in the light from the happy fire, lit in the name of Ceridwen. It was truly awesome! (No, not like a hot dog, truly awesome)

Blessed be!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Apple to announce new Mac realted…stuff!

On August 7th Apple will be holding a press conference to announce… And that's just the problem, as per usual no one actually knows anything, which is of course setting the rumour industry ablaze. It has been confirmed that Steve Jobs will be attending, but nothing more.

Personally I would go along with Leo Laporte, Adam Christianson and just about everyone else, and that is that we almost certainly will see a new iMac. This is the model most over due, not only in terms of spec, but also in terms of it's design. After all the current iteration started life way back as the iMac G5. Again, according to rumour we will probably see an aluminium iMac, similar in style to the Apple Cinema Displays, and perhaps a new keyboard looking something like this. Needless to say, this would make for decidedly 'droolicious' machines, especially if the 30" screen suggestion turns out to be right!

Other than that, who knows. We could possibly see something about a new iLife, though I would think they'd save that for the release of Leopard in October. Maybe some announcement regarding the Mac Mini. As it stands now, word on the grape vine is that it will be discontinued, but I hope not. An upgraded machine, perhaps merged with the Apple TV? Pure speculation, but it would be a seriously cool computer.

May your computer be blessed, and your keyboard always at your hand,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Back in the game!

So, if you, like me, were born in the 80's and grew up in the 90's, chances are you played, or wanted to play, games like Simon the Sorcerer, Beneath a Steel Sky, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Gobliiins or a host of other point-and-click adventure games, then this is for you. ScummVM!

ScummVM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine. What this little beast does is that it acts as a Virtual Machine for these games. So finaly you can get into these games again, and it doesn't matter if you have the MS-DOS, Apple Macintosh, Commodore Amiga or Atari TOS versions of the games, all will work. If you don't have any of these games you can find some demos here, and the Public Domaine games here. Oh, and did I mension that ScummVM is available for a multitude of platforms: Amiga OS 4, BeOS (and presumably it should run on Haiku OS), Mac OS X, Windows a host of Linux flavours and many more (most notably SEGA DreamCast, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP).

This is a lot of fun and I whole heartedly recommend this. I hope you to find that these old games are still very good, and a lot of fun.

---Happy Gaming---

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

I just have to show this!

--- Blessed be ---

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

A little on Mr Potter

So I did promise to get back with my impressions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and yes, I did like it. But…I still feel it lacked some of that magic you usually get. This probably has something to do with this Potter movie being the shortest one, and at the same time derrived from the thickest book so far. Over at IMDb it gets a 7.9 rating, and Rotten Tomatoes it gets 77%, both very good ratings. And I would agree with them. I certainly don't think it's a bad movie. ut it seems to require you to have read the book to really get the full impact of it, which is a little anoying if you haven't. And also I was surprised that the spectacular scenes in the Department of Mysteries and the Weasley twins leaving Hogwarts weren't more spectacular. The were deffinitivley more fantastic in the book, and could have been done better.

Even so, both J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers are impressed enough to let the same director, David Yates, at it again for the next film: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Also returning is screenwriter Steve Kloves, who has written all the screenplays except the pressent one.

Over all though, it is a great and dark movie, and I think everyone who is even remotley intressted in J.K. Rowlings world of Wichcraft and Wizardry should go see it right now! It does feel a little cramped, but it's still Harry Potter. Now all we have to do is wait for the 7th book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Head on over to Mugglenet, or listen to their PodCast, for more on everything Potteresque!

--- May you be blessed ---

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

P.S. Why not try the new PodCast RowlingCast?

It's a sad thing

One of, well in a sense, my cats has died. He was a very special cat, always helping at meditations and very much of his own mind. His name was Troubadix, and we found him and his brother six years ago at the roadside where someone had just left them to die. A few days ago he met his end at that very roadside. Maybe you can't trick fate, eh?

Last year his brother died, Pytte, and he just wasn't the same cat after that. He was deaf see, and I think that even though he and his brother didn't always get along, they needed eachother to feel safe.

It is with great sorrow that I and my family took farewell of one of the most extraordinary cats we've ever had the pleasure of knowing. And in his honour I'm going to publish the lyrics for a song that I find appropriate, and thus probably violating something. But if I get sued for that, this really is a heartless world. I choose to believe it isn't!

Is it a kind of dream,
Floating out on the tide,
Following the river of death downstream?
Oh, is it a dream?

There's a fog along the horizon,
A strange glow in the sky.
And nobody seems to know where you go.
And what does it mean?
Oh, is it a dream?

Bright eyes,
Burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes.

Is it a kind of shadow,
Reaching into the night,
Wandering over the hills unseen?
Or is it a dream?

There's a high wind in the trees,
A cold sound in the air.
And nobody ever knows when you go.
And where do you start,
Oh, into the dark?

Bright eyes,
Burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes.

Bright eyes,
Burning like fire.
Bright eyes,
How can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes. (Lyrics by Art Garfunkle)

We love you Troubadix, you went first into the great mystery. Let's hope we can meet again some day…

--- May your Gods and Goddesses care for you! ---

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Oh, yet another petition! Sign it too!

Please sign this petition too! It is similar to the other one but may be seen as more of an Irish petition. No matter, we are all Europeans now!!!

-- May the ancients arise again! --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Please sign this!

I will site another page here:

[savetara.com] important request

Hi everyone,

I've an important request.

Can I ask any of you who haven't already signed our petition, could you sign it.
It's from our German based international campaign here, and at the moment we are
about 270 signatures short of 12000. It's very important in a short space of
time to try and reach this number, so the information would have to be passed
around to as many people as you can, and ask them to pass it on etc.
I've asked Muireann's permission to put this email on the CST list, and I'm
hoping you can all work some wonders in a short time, and get the number past
12000.

The link is:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Temair/petition.html

And if you need further information our website is www.protect-tara.org

Thanks to everyone in advance.

I'd just like to add what I've said to a number of people privately, that I
absolutely believe that this is a fight we will eventually win. Lets keep the
vision of Tara being safe and restored to its great beauty clearly in our minds.

Fionnuala


Please, here the call! Sign the petition!

-- May our Gods and Goddesses help us! --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Tara needs us!

There is a cry for help coming from the green shores of Éire, and I think it is only appropriate that the pagan international community, and especially the European one, steps up and helps in any way. The Irish government has proposed, clubbed through and started building a motorway straight through the valley of Gabhra. This would affect a number of historical sites of cultural and religious significance to all of Europe, and of course can't be aloud to happen.

The main sites being affected by the construction of the M3, as the road would be called, is The Hill of Tara and Skryne.

"It [Tara] contains a number of ancient monuments, and, according to tradition, was the seat of the Árd Rí Éireann or High King of Ireland." - Wikipedia

To put it into context, this would be like the British government deciding to build a road straight through Stonehenge or the Swedish one to build houses at Ale's Stenar! But of course
the British government is actually planning just that! Weather or not this will be any good in the end, remains to be seen. One wonders why they built the roads surrounding it in the first place! (The A303 and A344 that is.)



I personally think that this is something the EU should put their hand into and stop. This cannot be aloud, for the sake of our heritage and our pagan ancestors. If ever there was a blasphemous crime in Ireland, this would be it!

you can follow this unfolding circus at SaveTara.com, or have a look in at the Tara-foundation.org. The Tara Foundation also have a Bebo site, a Yahoo! Group and a host of pictures over at PhotoBucket. I implore you, go check it out and do what you can!

-- May your Gods and Goddesses bless you, and may they save Tara! --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Watch this for now!

We're of to see the Wizard…

the wonderful wizard of…well, Hogwarts! I and Neina and some others will be at the Park Theatre tonight. We're all looking forward to it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Well, merry meet

-- May your Gods bless you! --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

More on Druids

Well, ok, some more on the Druid Way?

I've gotten some tips on free courses and an on line book that you can read for free.

First we have some stuff from the DruidNetwork.org in their courses page. My friends Neina and Wynja over at Hyllebær recommends the the Perennial Course in Druidry. I haven't gone through them yet, but both seem very solid. Their section on What Druidry Is is also very good.

Emma Restall Orr's book Principles of Druidry is available under the name What is Druidry? for free on line. Judging by what people say, it is a very good book.

Last, but not least, the New Order of Druids in the Netherlands, offers plenty things for free on the internet. Among other things, you can find some course material, though it does seem it needs more commitment than the DruidNetwork stuff, but hey! They also have NOD TV, No Ordinary Druid TV. Some in Dutch, a lot in English, and interesting non the less.

-- May your Gods bless you!--

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Comedy and Computers

For some of us comedy is as important as air. So, why not enjoy Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. For your viewing pleasure an example can be viewed below:




I recommend a search through YouTube, if the link still works, click here. I do recommend you check out the video with Billy at Michel Parkinson's show, it is hilarious!

Oh, and since we cant watch the Colbert Report on YouTube or such anymore (grumble grumble…), you can at least get this clip from woz.org. It's an interview Stephen Colbert did with Woz (Steve Wozniak for those who doesn't know was one of the co-founders
of Apple). It is very funny, especially when Woz tell of his little jokes on airplanes…

Druids galore!

Hello! (again). Well, that was a Mac reference that most of you probably wont get or find in the least funny, so anyway.
Surfing around on the web can often times be an excruciating experience, unless you know what you are after. As a spiritual person I find that sites that include info on non-abrahamithic religion is plentyfull, but can be difficult to find, and PodCasts can be even more so. I therefor take it upon myself to add a few suggestions to what I've already posted.

I recommend the DruidCast, which is a podcast from the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. This podcast is very well recorded and features music, history and other information on all things Druid.

"Your host is Damh the Bard and each episode he will feature poetry, story and song offered by Bards throughout the world. There will also be interviews with people from the Druid tradition, seasonal thoughts, explorations of Celtic mythology and history, reviews, and competitions."*

What sets it apart is that unlike many other podcasts on the subject, it's produced in Europe and not North America, rendering it more useful over here. For a direct link for iTunes click here, otherwise head on over to the site and choose your preference.

For those music lovers out there, I can recomend The Irish and Celtic Music PodCast, which makes a nice addition to A Darker Shade of Pagan, which I believe I've mentioned before. It isn't strictly pagan, but on the other hand it is folk music, and as we all know, most folk music is more or less pagan, even if they happen to mention themes from other religions from time to time… ;-) The PodCast also has a homepage to be found here.

Well, enjoy that for now,

-- May your Gods bless your path! --

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Summer Time!

So, it's summer, and it is so with a vengeance! It's more or less 30 degrees Celsius in the shade, and that is just a little bit to hot really. Especially since I might have to do some 45 cubic meters of firewood next weekend. Ah, well.

So, there are some really interesting things coming up this month. For Mac fans it's the WWDC on the 11-15 June, so it starts today. We're expecting, I think, to see what Mac OS X Leopard will be all about and more news on the ever popular iPhone and Apple TV. Among the rumours are SDK's for both of them (iPhone SDK rumour). On the Mac side, who knows. The news have been many so far, uprated MacBooks, Eight core MacPro's and improved MacBook Pro's. Hopefully even more kick in the existing line up, a cheaper Mac Mini, even though there are rumbling of it's immediate demise. A new iMac would also be appropriate.

Other than that, I personally hope we'll see a new subnote MacBook, a MacBooklet or something, though memory might still be to hard to come by. And let's hope that they at least hint at new and improved iLife and iWork, the pro apps (Final Cut Studio 2, Aperture, Logic Pro, Shake) have gotten a boosting, so why not us!

As a final note some up-dates. There is FINALLY a new Netscape for the Mac. The skipped version 8 and released Navigator 9, and it is actually really good. But then again, it is just FireFox with some extras from Netscape/AOL. But it looks very nice, and works well. So for those nostalgic persons out there!

More importantly Camino 1.5 is finally here! Newer and betterer in every way, try out the Macs favourite gecko!

May your Mac's grow and flourish!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."

Steve Jobs, Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Steve Jobs

Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

Quotes from The Quotations Page.

I am alive!

And I will prove that soon. Schools finally out!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

How about a little illumination?

Hello out there, it's time to get illuminated! This is a new PodCast from the same friendly aussies that have brought us the Mysterious Universe PodCast. As is with the latter, the quality of the Illumination Project is impeccable. I encourage you to head over to their site or to check themout in the iTunes Store.

Be well, be cool, be pagan!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Hairs on end!

Ok, so it might be considered over the top to be horrified by something in the buissniss world, but hey, I care there to. The latest is this supposed Microsoft/Yahoo! buyout. Analysts seems to think it a good idea, I don't. First of all the respective company cultures are vastly different, and secondly: they will lose a lot of their appeal if they become a Microsoft subsidiary. I for one will deffinatley take my usage of Yahoo! services to a minimum if this comes through. No more Yahoo! Messenger, no more Flickr, no more anything like that. I won't give-up my e-mail, because I like it for sentimental reasons, I've had it since 1997! So ok, Microsoft do make some ok products, like Office, but I still prefere Nisus Writer Pro/Express, Apple Pages or even RedeX Mellel. Especially now SUN is in the game for a proper OpenOffice.org for Mac! And no one I know actualy likes Windows Live!, frankly most people seems to agree that it sucks. And the MSN homepage, please!

I say, hang in there Yahoo!, you can do SO much better than Microsoft if you need a partner, which I don't think you need. You need to start looking at doing crazy things! That's what Google and Apple are doing, and they are both doing great!

The path is rocky, tread with care,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

So back again.

Hello gang, I'm back and I did survive Beltaine . I did, however have a rather big exam two daysafter, but I think it went ok. Beltaine was wonderful, if a bit quiet. It started with us going to a very special place, one I haven't visited since our handfasting. We sat in the sun, sang, and made a few offerings. It was a beautiful day under the oaktrees! Then we had a very nice BBQ with someof the folks from HokusPokus gruppen. Later we sat around the fire talking, drinking and drumming.
No big ceremonies, but still very nice!

Your path be yours, blessings onto it.

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Beltaine

Hi, it's Beltaine again. We have to leave now, but I'll return as soon as I can.

My blessings to you on this fertile day,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Web 2.0 browser?

Yes, ladies and gents, as far as I know it's the only Web 2.0 centered browser out there: Flock. It's based on FireFox and available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows (as if anyone cares…). It integrates nicely with several blog sites (eg. Blogger, WordPress etc.), Flickr for photo sharing, del.icio.us etc. Oh, and GMail of course. It looks rather good and is just as stable as other Mozilla based products. I think we have found a very strong contender for most interesting browser out there. I think such, so far for me, seamless integration with these services can make this browser a real must-have, especially for teens and young people. Mozilla stability, coupled to Web 2.0 services and a reasonably handsome interface, could be a surefire winner!

But isn't it lacking anywhere, you ask. Well, yes actually it is. I would like it to have tabbing more similar to that of Shiira or OmniWeb. I would like full screen capability straight "out of the box" a'la Shiira and Opera and mouse gestures implemented the same way Opera has it. It also feels slower than Safari, and perhaps not quite as clean, GUI wise as Safari either. (Especially the Windows/KDE/Gnome derived buttons, yuck!)

But with a bit of polishing this could definitely be on to something in the same way SongBird might have a real crack at changing how we listen to music by taking on iTunes.

May you road rise up to meet you,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

P.S. This posting is written in Flock, hence the lack of my normal formatting. I guess that could be another porblem, lack of some features every here and there.

Blogged with Flock

Just what kind of problem?

I found this story over at the Beeb, and it got me thinking about the universe and exoplanets again. Always a dangerous thing that… This is the first discovery of a planet that could hold life, as we know it. It seems that only a measly 20 light-years away we could actually have neighbours! So? You might ask, we've had UFOs for decades. Well, to be honest, those are still unproven theories, even though I personally believe that there is more to those stories than what is generally disclosed. Anyway, if this observation turns out to be correct, and we were to find out that this planet holds some form of humanoid creatures, ie. in this case reasoning, thinking beings. What does this mean to us? Well, it will mean great implications not only to the natural sciences, it will also mean a great deal of problems to theology, but perhaps mostly the monotheistic ones.

If we were to find out that this is not the "only" creation, and that they have religions of their own etc, etc. This would not spell the end of Christianity in any way, but I really would like to see the Christian Right wriggle out of it. Believers everywere who believe rather than read fact in what ever book would have no religious problems at all as far as I can see, but if you take the Bible, the Qur'an etc., litteraly, then you are certainly in for a bumpy ride… Wiccans, Druids, Buddists, Hindus, Taoists, Pagans, Asatru etc., would not have religious problems per se with it, although of course they might have problems with ot for other reasons. Me, I find life fascinating, and the Multiverse is really an awsome (in the original sense, for those of you into Eddie Izzard, not like a hotdog…) place.




I couldn't find a good quote on planets, so enjoy thisone on L-space, in connection to the numerous wiki links in this posting…

The study of invisible writings was a new discipline made available by the discovery of the bi-directional nature of Library-space. The thaumic mathematics are complex, but boil down to the fact that all books, everywhere, affect all other books. This is obvious: books inspire other books written in the future, and cite books written in the past. But the General Theory* of L-space suggests that, in that case, the contents of books as yet unwritten can be deduced from books now in existence.

From The Science of the Discworld 2: The Globe, p. 43

Blessings on your path, it is yours alone,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

* There is a Special Theory as well, but no one bothers with it much because it's self-evidently a load of marsh-gas. [This footnote is a footnote in the original quotation. So this is a metafootnote] - Effectivley making this a metametafootnote…

Well, well, well

Today is Earth Day and also the day of the first round of voting in the French
presidential elections.

Earth Day was set up in 1970 and promotes several questions regarding Earth and the environment. This work is important, not least in this day and age where the Christian Right gains momentum and at the same time, at least to a certain extent fights the environmental movement. This position is also evident in the documentary Jesus Camp (2006). Thankfully, not all Christians agree, and for the rest of us: we need to do what we can, pray when we have the possibility to and help mother earth as much as possible. Is this hard? Not really, and we can do it every day without changing that much of our routine!

Concerning the French election it is still early days. The main contenders are Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party, Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement, François Bayrou of the Union for French Democracy, and last but not least, the in Europe infamous Jean-Marie Le Pen of the National Front. So far it seems Sarkozy and Royal are the two strongest candidates, BUT never ever dismiss people and parties like Le Pen and the National Front. It would be a disaster for the whole of Europe if they won, but do not dismiss them. Of the other two, as to which would best for the EU? It is, for me at least, a little early to say. France has been right-wing for a long time now, maybe a shift is in order, and Royal would be the first female president. On the other hand Sarkozy has proven him self capable of action in the face of a crisis. But he might be a little to much on the hard line. Well, we certainly will see. Elections in countries as large as France do not only effect the country in question, but the whole of the EU and in many ways the world. Any way: Vive la France!

For the Great Mother is the nourisher of all that is here,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Ehhh…

This leads me to two conclusions: A. Bush haven't read his own statement, and B. Politics is all about lying in a way so that no one discovers it.

"Olds, thought William, forensically dissecting a sultana. His lordship was right. Not news but olds, telling people that what they think they already know is true…"

From The Truth by Terry Pratchett, p. 238

May yout path be blessed,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

The Sounds of Silence

Music is very important part of life. And good music even more so, but where to find it? Well MG Studios is one place to start. Most well known of the artists from this studio is its founder, Medwyn Goodall. My personal favorites are his Celtic style albums, mainly the Druid trilogy (Druid, Excalibur and Merlin) and the new Clan trilogy (Clan , The Scroll ) which incidentally isn't finished yet. You can even listen to excerpts from the Cd's like Raven from Clan or The Scroll from the Cd with the same name. The new album The Sourcerer's Daughter also sounds very promising.

But of course there's a lot of other musicians at this studio as well. I suggest you try some of the music on for size via their Internet radio channel, which unfortunately is in streaming WMA, it works with Flip4Mac though and probably with VLC or MPlayer as well (you do however have to cut & paste the link into QuickTime and the others as they don't recognise the embedded link), and purchase what you fancy! I will order his book and The Sourcerer's Daughter as soon as I can find the money for it.

Blessed be,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

I just don't know

What is this? What can possibly drive a guy to commit such "unspeakable" acts as the Virginia Tech killer? What if that happened at my Uni? Ok, so I live in Europe, ok we have way better gun control laws and yes, possibly a little fewer psychos running around. But! What of the shootings in Germany a few years back? It could happen right here, is it time to, as a student, start fearing this kind of problem to? My wife's at uni almost every work day and I between three and four times. I feel shocked that anyone can be driven that far, and my heart and my prayers goes out to all who were cut short of life, all those who remain, and not least, the family of the shooter. It wasn't their fault their son went amok.

So in honour of all the victims, including Cho Seung-Hui, the unfortunate victim of him self.

To all of you: May your god and goddesses bless you,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Disclaimer: I do not in any way endorse these actions, but I feel it's important not to blame the family, and to remember that this guy must have had some sort of problem, healthy people don't go around shooting 32 people. That's all.

Long time, no see

Well, I do have an apology to every one: sorry it's been a while. I have been ill for a time, but I'm fine now. So hopefully we can get back to some kind of normality. Uni is taking its toll what with statistical analysis in psychology and me having to apply to a plethora of summer jobs in the hopes of finding even one…

On a more happy note, although a laborious one, I am trying to set up a web server of my own. Yes I know, I could just use a web hotel like everyone else, or something of that sort. But I want the experience of looking after a server. But to tell the truth, in Mac OS 9 and X it doesn't seem all that hard to do, but maybe I'm doing it wrong? I haven't been able to find out wether or not my IP stays the same over time though with modem resets and so forth. So let us conduct a test: let's see for how long the server can be accesed at this adress. The server might be down every now and then though, so check more than once before saying it's broken.

In the spiritual world nothing much has happened except another meeting with my mothers group. The theme was previous lifes and meditation. I found out a few things that I need to check and see if they can be verified or not. Should be intressting and it is a subject I'm hoping to return to. There has been an adition to the HokusPokus page in the form of a blog, that we hope will be up-dated continually. I haven't been able to get the RSS-feed to work yet though, but some day.

Blessed be,

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

The Nemesis of iTunes?

This is probably the first media player I've come a cross that could potentially pose a threat to iTunes. I personally love iTunes, but since the 7.x versions, less convincingly so. But there is hope: SongBird. SongBird is a media player based around Firefox and VLC. It is currently early days but, with promised iPod support, direct links to music blogs, eMusic etc, who knows. At the moment I run it as a complement, but if iTunes gets any heavier and less stable than it already is, I might turne OpenSource on this issue too.



Blessed be,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

For those Gaiman fans out there!

Neil Gaimans book Stardust is coming to the silver screen. Personally I've not read this one, but judging by what I have read, it bodes well. The movies set to come out some time between August and October depending on country. The movie stars such prominent actors as Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter O'Tool, and the voice of Sir Ian McKellen. Click on the title of the post for the homepage, or have a look at the entries on Wikipedia or IMDb.

For your enjoyment, here's the trailer:




Check out other books by Neil Gaiman at Amazon.co.uk, Wikipedia. One of my personal favourites is Good Omens, even though that isn't a Gaiman only book. Be sure to check out the link list to this entry!

Blessed spring!

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Ostara came and went

Hi out there, I'm sorry it's been a while, but exams… Anyway, Ostara didn't turn out the way I thought it would, but a small informal gathering in a stone circle (and a new one at that!) out in the forest with Ann Jönsson (Naturhälsan), wasn't that bad either! It was cold, it was dark, but the response from "the others" was immediate and loving. I just need to meditate on my purpous for being, where am I going, why and what do I want to do until I get there?

Spring is here!

/ | \ Taran MacDuir

Happy Spring Equinox!

Happy Spring Equinox everyone, and may the spring rush to our aide in these cold hours before the sun realy starts to shine. I and my wife are meeting up with some other pagans to have a small informal celebration. It will be wicked! (Pun intended…) Well, have a great Equinox!

May your spring be blessed,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

P.S. If you're having trouble keeping track of all the different dates, all the imortant moon and sun positions etc., go to this page pagancalendar.co.uk, you can use it on-line or download the calendar for iCal (for English version, here) if you use Mac (for English, here) or at least it should work with SunBird for Windows/Linux/Mac. Does it work with anything else? Well, try it. I'm sorry I don't know enough about Amiga/Morph calendars. Feel free to inform me if you find what works.

New Worlds

By the way, there is a new issue of Llewellyn Publishing's formidable magazine/catalogue New Worlds. Just download it as a PDF.

Blessed reading,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

This is the Country Side, yeah!

I found this funny animation at YouTube. It's a little bit funny.

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Movie time!

Well, well, well. Finally I've found out why we haven't seen more Miyazaki movies in Swedish cinema. The company Triangel Film, who owns the rights for Sweden are planing on releasing one movie a year. So I suppose that's all right. Anyway the third movie for Sweden is coming up on the 30th March this year, and it Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro/Min granne Totoro). I'm really looking forward to that. May be I'll use the ticket I've gotten from partaking in a memory test at the psych department in Lund?

Another Triangel Film release you must pick up is Pan's Labyrinth. Possibly one of the best ever "pagan themed" movies made. That said, most other religions feel that it's the best movie ever for their faith as well… It did, at any rate, deserve the three Academy Awards it won. Check out the trailers over at Apple. See it, dream it, live it…

I would also recommend you check out the latest Sandra Bullock movie, Premonition. It seems very interesting questioning time continuum, what reality is etc. In a kind of thriller way, but still… Seems all right too me.

To close this post I would also like to mention The Prestige. This is possibly the best movie I've seen in a very long while. And the cast list… Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Cane, David Bowie and the wonderful Scarlet Johansson… It received two Academy Award nominations and numerous others. Have a look at the trailers over at Apple, or check out the DVD release homepage. It's magic as it has never been seen before…

Enjoy,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Hihi, geek fun

Well so we all know aabout the cheeky but funny Apple Get a Mac adds. But I for one had missed that they have special UK versions. In many ways the comedic timing is better, or maybe it's just those Euroaccents?

/|\ Taran MacDuir

HokusPokus gruppen

Just thought I should say that I and Neina did our small bit to further peoples' knowledge on paganism yesterday. We informed a group of people about good internet sites and some of the missconceptions about paganism. It was kind of fun actually. Well anyhow, if you want to read the slides they can be found here (Neina), and here (Taran). Unfortunatley they are both in Swedish, but you can see the fab images in Neinas and use the links in Tarans slides all the same.

May you road rise up to meet you,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Life, biology and Wired

I found this interessting article over at wired.com, well to be honest the video is what you want. You should really check out this video. It shows the inner workings of cells. It's amazing, it's fantastic, …it's pretty… In the face of the "awsomnity" of this, why is it?

The Inner Life of the Cell, enjoy!



Bless,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

P.S. The full length 8,5 min movie can be found here.

OK, so some resources

I just thought I should let you in on some good sites, whether you're a pagan or not really.

First of we have Plato, an excellent Encyclopedia of Philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Used by professional philosophers no less…

This one you probably know, but if you've managed to miss Wikipedia, then you should head on over to it right now. Supports many languages, containes many topics.

AriadneSpider is a searchengine for pagan, esotheric, occult etc. themes. Users can rate links and sort them into categories as well.

Tolerance is important these days, therefor Religious Tolerance is a very good place to start when researching other religions, as well as your own. It's always a good idea to see what others think you believe in…

The last recomendation this time is Beliefnet, a site promoting interfaith discussions and dialogue. Try their Belief-O-Matic test, it's really fun!

Well, c u soon.
May your path be blessed,

/|\ Taran MacDuir

Hmm…!?!

Are we alone in the multiverse? Maybe its more important to ask: is there anything but the multiverse?

In a word: Tired!

The cirkus concerning Apple, iTunes, DRM and the music industry is in full swing, and I'm lamenting the imminent demise of the record labels. Because they will go under if they don't do something, and soon.

Recently there was a conference in New York for the music industry, where they apparently spent a lot of time lashing out at Apples' CEO Steve Jobs for his "anti-DRM" sympathies. According to them, he is not sincere in his demands:

At the opening of the conference, some of the panel members lashed out at Jobs. Members said Jobs' call three weeks ago for DRM-free music was "insincere" and a "red herring".

Well be that as it may, I still agree with Steve. DRM will not solve anything. And opening up FairPlay to others is not an option. Microsofts' PlaysForSure is going the way of the Dodo, since it is extremly difficult to maintain a system comprising so many different companies.

And now the EU is looking in to trying to force Apple into opening iTunes purchased music to other players than their own iPod. Is this a good thing? Well, no, not if the music industry continues to push for DRM. And if they order Apple to open up, they should go after Sony and Microsoft as well, and all the other as well. Noone should be aloud proprietary technology if that's the case. Ie the Zune should be opened up, downloads in WMA and ATRAC 3 shouldn't be aloud, since they only play on certain players, and not all.

I personaly don't see the problem with iTunes. Sure it only works on iPods without converting the music, but you know what. There are other stores on the net! Why can't non-iPodders use them in stead? This is nothing like the Windows/Explorer monopoly. There you have practicaly no choice in the main stream. Anyway, I digress. Forcing Apple to open iTunes isn't going to help anyone, least of all the other on-line music stores such as Napster.

DRM then? Well, as Jobs has pointed out, the situation as it is can't go on. But the record companies are hell bent on sticking to the traditional theories. The need a new angle if they want to survive. A perfect example is that music and movies usually cost about the same when you download it as when you buy it on discs… Anyone else see the problem here?

Well, those are just some initial thoughts on this iTunes/DRM issue. Is this pagan in any way, I hear you ask! Well, yes. As pagans we need to see to that the world doesn't go too much wrong, especialy not when it comes to something as important as music. Everywhere they try to crack down on "free" listening, in the US they are trying to stop internet radio aswell! Shudder at the thought, no Pagan Radio!

Well, bless for now!

/|\ Taran MacDuir

The rantings of a mad psych student…

Is there a Box?
It is important to think outside the box. You need to think outside it to survive tomorrow, but you need to think inside it to survive in the now. You need to invent the new box. What will the new box be like, what will our future be like, what will your life be like?

So what do we know? We don't know anything about religion, we believe, no matter what. In science we did know, but we learned to much, so we ended up not knowing anything again… The only sure thing seems to be logics, but it on the other hand, says very little indeed about life and reality. If it was up to logics we probably wouldn't be here!

How do we handle existance in a universe mostly made up from nothing, where matter never realy touch, where an unproven theory, the one about our conscious, tries to bring order into what it percieves as more real than its very own existance?

Beliefe seems to be the single most important aspect of conscious life, allowing us to trust in something, be it the gods, our selfs (like the gods, also an unproven theory), science (likewise in most respects…) or what ever. The only demand, I think, is this: your belief has to be your own!

While on the subject of psychology, check out Unconscious, a Spanish independent movie, that seems realy funny. This link is for the iTunes trailer, if you don't use iTunes or have an unsupported platform like Amiga, Morph, Linux etc., head on over to this page instead.

Blessed be,

/ | \

Taran MacDuir

Ok, that didn't work

But I'll figure out a way to post images later. In the mean time, check this out! One of the greatest pagan movies ever made! If this works…