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anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Inscrutable Exhortations
@anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
490 followers 390 following 790 posts
I like Eric Hobsbawm, sparkling water, and Bananagrams

Morality only is eternal. All the rest is balloon and bubble from the cradle to the grave

They/them
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anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
This is one I'm reminded of any time someone asks me questions about why I'm interested in [whatever topic]
Calvin and Hobbes strip. Calvin and Hobbes are in the woods by a lake. Hobbes: Watcha doin'? Calvin: Looking for frogs Hobbes: How come? Calvin: I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul Hobbes: Ah, but of course Calvin: My mandate also includes weird bugs
November 22, 2025 at 8:25 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
For some reason, my Wikipedia app consistently gives me the wrong picture for the article I look at. Instead of showing me the cover image for the article I'm looking at, it shows me the one for the article I looked at last
Wikipedia article for Jawaharlal Nehru attached to the picture of Curtis Yarvin
November 22, 2025 at 8:19 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
I think DBH might not appreciate Google images confusing him with Dennett
Google search for "David Bentley Hart." One of the resulting images is a picture of Daniel Dennett
November 20, 2025 at 10:09 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Was . . . this a concern in the 1920s?
There will be laws requiring a dependable certificate of a successfully passed eugenic examination by both applicants before they can secure a marriage license. These laws will also require that at least five or seven days should elapse between the issuance of a marriage license and the execution of the marriage contract. In this way many an altogether hasty marriage may be prevented. Thus most of the weddings performed during hours of intoxication by either alcohol, passion, infatuation, or a mere fleeting fancy may be avoided.
November 19, 2025 at 4:34 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
WHAT
Random breeding may destroy mental harmony by combining in one individual emotional reflexes which may be, and often are, conflicting. In this sense, the extreme random breeding of to-day is probably not unconnected with the increase in mental instability and possibly,ltoo, with the increase in insanity and mental defectiveness. In fact, it is probable that to-day not one of us knows the supremely exalted and exhilarating feelings of a being who is thoroughly harmonious and healthy because he is inbred.
November 19, 2025 at 1:40 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Huh
EUGENICS AND CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES* By ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI WElivein an age in which science is extremely powerful, almost as powerful as religion once was. But a free-lance scientist like myself is sometimes left wondering whether science is not often a mask behind which the old powers of magic and religion may still be seen grinning. One piece of magic which I propose to divorce from my science is the gratuitous segmentation of the human organism into body and mind (soma and psyche); and contemplating the problem of culture on this basis, I find, a priori, that culture, in so far as it is social harmony and order, must be the product of an ordered, harmonious man. If, moreover, I turn from the social chaos of to-day back to the origins of the most harmonious and orderly cultures, I suspect, without inquiry, that the people who created these cultures must have been unlike us at least in this, that they were harmoniously constituted. INBREEDING INEARLIERCIVILIZATIONS Turning from these a priori conclusions to fact, we find not only that these early cultures were extremely harmonious, but that their power and influence have been so great that our own culture owes what little beauty and harmony it possesses entirely to them. A further interesting fact is that all these early cultures arose in naturally or artificially confined areas-in islands like Crete and Japan, peninsulas like India, Greece, and Italy, naturally enclosed areas like Peru, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and more or less artificially enclosed areas like China and Palestine-where broad-mindedness, the universal brotherhood of man, the love of one's neighbour, and other superior forms of claptrap were unknown. Furthermore, we know that where intercourse with the outside * The substance of a paper read before the Eugenics Society on July i8th, I933. world, with the neighbour, is checked, the secluded people are condemned to inbreeding and close inbreeding; indeed, in the only cultures that have left a perman…
November 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Wait there were eugenicists arguing that cousin marriage had eugenic effects?
1. Consanguineous marriage This is a feature of Arab life much older than Isl4m, but like many other traditions and customs is deemed by the Arabs to have received the sanction of Muhammad. It is well known that among the desert Arabs in particular, a young man had what might be termed “the refusal” of any female cousin. As a general rule, the latter was not betrothed by her parents, until her own male cousins had the opportunity to take her in marriage; and it was quite the custom for cousins to marry. This led to the establishment of the phrase “daughter of ————— my uncle” as an accepted euphemism for “my wife,’’ since delicacy forbade a man to speak too directly, in public, of such a personal matter as his harim. It is not necessary to point out the eugenic effect of consanguineous mar- riage, in the light of researches of the last half century. Ina country where existence was as severe as in desert Arabia, it may be fairly assumed that many of the weaklings were weeded out early in life, and the relatively strong, physically and mentally, left to reach adult life and accompany the tribe on its wanderings. In such a stringently selected people, the practice of cousin marriage could not fail to be useful, by intensifying the desirable traits of the tribal germ-plasm.
November 19, 2025 at 12:29 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Excited
Choosing Down Syndrome: Ethics and New Prenatal Testing Technologies, by Chris Kaposy
November 16, 2025 at 1:15 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
On the other hand, postmortem biochemical changes can significantly affect digestibility of animal-derived proteins (Kim et al. Citation2020). Upon slaughter, muscles in a farm animal undergo a complex biochemical transformation into meat. These changes are influenced by the architecture and integrity of the skeletal muscle cell, as well as by various events that modify these proteins and their interactions. Notably, processes such as protein degradation and oxidation play crucial roles in altering both the proteins themselves and the tenderness of the resulting meat. The intracellular environment emerges as a significant factor governing these processes. As a result, the biochemical nature of meat is vastly different from the pre-slaughter muscle tissues (Huff Lonergan, Zhang, and Lonergan Citation2010). It is fair to expect that, in the absence of such processes and in isolation from other tissues, the cultivated muscle tissues will behave differently. Whether this will be a positive, negative, or neutral change for the nutritional quality of the product is unclear (Kim et al. Citation2020). Further research is required to better understand the quality of CM as a source of protein and to establish its protein quality metrics such as DIAAS and PDCAAS, which will only be possible with the participation of CM companies to supply product for analysis.
November 12, 2025 at 4:39 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
It should be noted that B12 is usually added to the growing media due to its role in enhancing cell proliferation (L. Specht Citation2019), not necessarily for its nutritional benefit. This raises the question of how efficiently the cultivated cells will uptake B12, the optimum B12 concentration in the media and the degree to which the absorbed B12 will be bioavailable to consumers. Similarly, suitability of CM as a fortification vehicle must be evaluated if CM is to be enriched with B12 after harvest.
November 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Well well well
Nutritional challenges facing the cultured meat industry A key tenet in the CM industry is the potential for their products to deliver a nutrient profile comparable to that of conventional meat (Fraeye et al. Citation2020). However, little is known about the nutritional characteristics of CM and to the best of author’s knowledge, there is no publicly available nutritional profile for such products. What is evident though is that the nutritional composition of CM will not inherently be identical to the conventional products without fortification. For example, vitamin B12, which is known to be predominantly found in meat and dairy (Obeid et al. Citation2019), will not be present in the CM products unless added to the culture medium or to the final CM product. This is since vitamin B12 is synthesized by the microorganisms present in the digestive tract of the animals and then translocated to the muscle tissues (Fraeye et al. Citation2020).
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
In the introduction to one book she complains that everyone wants to ask about her childhood but nobody cares about her opinions on the Dreyfus affair. It would seem this issue persisted after her death
Every book is in a sense autobiographical. But while other self-recording creatures are permitted at least to seem to change the subject, apparently nobody cares what I think of the tariff, the conservation of our natural resources, or the conflicts which revolveabout the name of Dreyfus. If I offer to reform the educational system of the world, my editorial friends say, "That is interesting. But will you please tell us what idea you had of goodness and beauty when you were six years old?"
November 12, 2025 at 1:49 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
I learned at some point, and then forgot, and have now just re-learned, that Helen Keller was a socialist. She wrote a eulogy for Lenin:
The Russian Revolution did not originate with Lenin. It had hovered for centuries in the dreams of Russian mystics and patriots, but when the body of Lenin was laid in simple state in the Kremlin,^^ all Russia trembled and wept. The mouths of hungry enemies fed on new hopes, but the spirit of Lenin descended upon the weeping multitude as with cloven tongues of fire, and they spoke one to another and were not afraid. "Let us not follow him with cowering hearts," they said, "let us rather gird ourselves for the task he has left us. Where our dull eyes see only ruin, his clearer sight discovers the road by which we shall gain our liberty. Revolution he sees, yea, and even disintegration which symbolizes disorder is in truth the working of God's undeviating order; and the manner of our government shall be no less wonderful than the manner of our deliverance. If we are steadfast, the world will be quickened to courage by our deeds." Men vanish from earth leaving behind them the furrows they have ploughed. I see the furrow Lenin left sown with the unshatterable seed of a new life for mankind, and cast deep below the rolling tides of storm and lightning, mighty crops for the ages to reap.
November 12, 2025 at 1:41 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
So much in that excellent formula
Picture of a minus sign helpfully labelled "minus"
November 11, 2025 at 3:01 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1951: the state eugenic board of of North Carlina set a new record for sterilizations. About 1/5 were black and there was a single indigenous person
The State Eugenics Board set another record at its meeting last week when it authorized 42 sterilization operations, the largest number of eugenic sterilizations ever to be approved in any one month in this state. Of the 42 operations authorized, 31 were for women and 11 for men. Of this group 25 were mentally ill, 15 feebleminded, and two epileptic. Most of those approved for sterilization were white persons. Eight were Negroes and one was Indian. Only one of the operations, it was said, involved asexualization, the others being authorized only for the prevention of parenthood
November 10, 2025 at 4:12 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1953: Odd to see a someone claim that the eugenic issues with sibling marriage are, in any way, overplayed
Diagnosis: Inbreeding is not hazardous if the ancestries are good! Biblical jacob married his first cousins, abraham married his half-sister. And moses was the offspring of an aunt and nephew marriage. But if deafness or feeblemindedness or diabetes or hemophilia or any other bad recessive traits appear in both ancestries, then the mating of closely related individuals will increase the likelihood that some of their afflicted children may be so afflicted. If the family ancestries even of brother and sister are sound for several generations back, then from the eugenic angle they could much more safely marry than could two total strangers whose respective ancestries both contained recessive defects.
November 10, 2025 at 4:06 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1962: opposing universal healthcare because it might lead to elites enforcing their controversial eugenic decisions on the public
The AMA might well consider the "wolf-wolf" fable. The doctors properly fear socialized medicine and we're quire sure the general American publica has no desire for its high cost, inefficiency or its inherent danger that minority elements in control of a government bureaucracy might be able to force their standards of medical morality in the controverisal area of eugenics which include abortion, artificially induced sterilization, abnormally planned parenthood, human experimentation, artificial insemination, and so-called mercy killings But unfortunately the reactionary opposition of the extreme right might bring to pass the very eugenic fallacies of the extreme left which the average american fears
November 10, 2025 at 3:57 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
involved needs to have good reasons to practice Rhythm. The interesting thing is one of the "good reasons" is: eugenics. Catholics are supposed to be one of the main opposers of eugenics, and so the fact that they would endorse eugenics as a good reason to practice Rhythm is very interesting
"There must also be serious reasons before the practice of Rhythm is permitted. Pope Pius XII mentioned several that would justify its use: economic, medical, **eugenic**, and social. More specifically, these are: a danger of death to the mother or frequent miscarriages or stillbirths or the real probability of mentally defective children, severe illness on the part of the father, or sick children, poor housing or a lack of money to provide a frugal living for future children.
November 10, 2025 at 2:29 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1962: a slightly ambiguous comment from Pius XII:
Q. Is the church changing her stand on birth-control with the new oral contraceptives? I read somewhere that Pope Pius XII said so! A. No. Contraception is a violation of the natural law, of the law of God as imbedded in human nature. It cannot be accepted, no matter what the reason or the method. Pope Pius XII did speak of medical advances which would help solve difficult situations based on "medical, eugenics, economic, and social" problems.
November 9, 2025 at 3:17 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1962: Another anti-eugenic argument from the Catholics (specifically Pius XII)
Article titled "Belgian Bishop's Statement." It is opposed to the killing of an infant because of her "deformity." "Pope Pius XII said "There is no man, no authority, no medical, eugenic, social, economic, or mral reason that may be appealed to and which represents a valid juridical argument to dispose directly and deliberately of the life of an innocent person."
November 9, 2025 at 3:12 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1954, first Nazi reference I've come across. But! It refers to what the nazis did as done "under 'eugenic' pretexts." I take this to mean that the Arizona Post does not take this to be "real eugenics" at least to some degree
"The compulsory sterilization and castrations ordered by the Nazi regime, often under 'eugenic' pretexts in the case of political opponents, were not illegal, according to a decision handed down by the Superior Court in Westphalian city of Hamm, Germany."
November 9, 2025 at 3:05 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1954 article arguing that epileptics should not be included in eugenic sterilization laws
"States must correct laws on epileptics, neurologists declare" 3 recommendations: eugenic sterilization laws should be amended to render them inapplicable to epileptics, motor vehicle licenses should be considered for epileptics. and workman's comp should be amended
November 9, 2025 at 2:52 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
The Catholic Times in 1953 criticized eugenic bans on marriage. No reference to Nazism
"Pope tells geneticists: Some Hereditary Ills Do Not Bar Marriage." Except in a few cases, a ban on marriage for eugenic or genetic reasons is "unjust," his holiness Pope Pius XII told delegates to an International Symposium on Genetics
November 9, 2025 at 2:45 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
Marital advice from 1951 that is explicitly eugenic
Article describing a woman, Sarah, 20, who is asking for marital advice. She is advised to keep in mind that her children will inherit her husband's characteristics
November 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
anorbicleofjasp.bsky.social
1951 article arguing that eugenic sterilizations are saving Virginia money
Article titled "advantages to virginia of sterilization cited," by Associated Press. The article points out the benefits of sterilizing feeble-minded children.
November 9, 2025 at 2:33 AM