Little Rants

[Catoptric]

"Why do some people find it hard to believe in paranormal experiences reported by others?"


Belief is subjective and can be biased due to one’s background and desire to conform to the “status quo” of group disindividuation.

People will forego truth, in favor of conforming to the desire what would seem only “rational,” or “worthwhile,” depending on the subject matter. Much of this can be molded by the environment or what one expects to find, and people also would rather ignore or pretend that you can reverse catastrophe or avoid end of life (hence belief systems perpetuate a desire,) and that leaving a reminder that we exist and existed is tantamount to the meaning of life.

If we can exist vicarious through a group likewise we desire to exist in perpetuity, through our families and their progeny. The desire to have power over other people is inherent to society, which is why things like “pyramid schemes” and “top-down hierarchies,” while being at the top by proxy of “ownership” (and subjugating others to authority,) can be intoxicating to certain people (until they have to pay the piper or face the music, as it were. . .) People would rather claim to have authority and lie about it, before accepting their fate; just as a criminal will lie to others and in turn lie to themselves, that they are a “good boy” and didn’t commit crimes or harm to others, if they willingly thought they were believing in or doing the “right thing.”

People like to be in control or believe they have control which prolongs either denial or the wherewithal of duplicitous behavior.

Imagine the frustration of working for a company or working in a position of government where you have the foresight and conviction to believe impending danger, and have the knowledge and experience to put in place regulations or focus points to prevent complete and utter chaos; either because you know that corruption exists and “drinking the kool-aid” will have dire consequences, or because you know that any attempt to thwart the inevitable is rather pointless, simply because “people don’t care about the consequences” or don’t bother to investigate it themselves. One’s experiences for another might not be the same as one’s own prior experience. If something is not replicable to observe, or one’s observations were contaminated by personal biases, then people are not as likely to agree.

Even with knowing the consequences of a possible outcome, people would rather ignore despite evidence to the contrary based on knowledge of a situation; things like Chornobyl could have had a very different outcome had proper regulations been enforced while not lying to themselves, much as people might ignore the ‘check engine’ light until the car stops completely.

A similar phenomenon with the realization, that people lie constantly. Some do it because it gets them the attention they want, so people gradually stop bothering to listen to those who they would rather stereotype as either confabulators or lunatics; since no one can truly know another person’s mindset and whether they are lying, knowing they are lying, or are too “far gone” to be taken seriously. Vice versa, people are not always capable of understanding another’s perspective, since they don’t possess the knowledge or the abilities to grasp the nuances and semantics of belief.

People can also fool themselves, or convince themselves that what they experienced was a phenomenon other than it was; either because memory can be fickle, or human perception is inherently flawed because any one aspect of what we experience with our senses is prone to “filters” of how we interpret them. Take any number of people and put them in front of a painting/picture/movie and they might interpret something completely different from what the photographer or even the subject itself represents. Perhaps it doesn’t represent anything and it’s entirely in the bias of the observer to pretend to know what they are seeing/hearing/experiencing.

When sitting in a Dentist chair when I was young I had really bad anxiety because of prior experiences with anything hospital-related; so was it simply being in a medical environment or was it the situation of not having control over my physicality and the outcome of what is ultimately a benign or novel experience I had numerous times prior (though due to having to be passed out, the “unknown” and not having experience over our sense of awareness, can render our “rational” processing “out of commission.”)

What draws people to fear and why do people find interest in the horror genre and the subject of the afterlife? Do people “fill in the blanks” of what they don’t see or understand; and by “seeing it” or “hearing it” do people satisfy that sense of objectivity?

How do you become objective unless you are subjecting yourself to an experience or preexisting belief?

Even if one claims they had a shared experience of the paranormal, people will pass scrutiny and assume that the one person they are hearing this from is lying to them, or that even with “shared testimony” you might realize there was an invested interest in lying, as the consequences of being found out in a confirmed lie may well be a very costly mistake. People go their entire life going from one grift to the next trying to dupe the next victim in their con game, and people eventually wise up to it (though too often such people will continue until they die, in which their “aura” and control over the unsuspecting public will continue to entrap people with their cult of personality.)

I had doubted claims of the paranormal for this reason for a long time. I came to understand it in a way that still leaves me with some doubts, and yet having observed numerous aspects of paranormal phenomenon during my own EVP/ITC study which includes photographing what I can only assume is an apparition. I would continue to spend excessive amounts of time looking up into the stars with a telescope and night vision goggles, some years after seeing what I a large triangular craft that was probably too large to hide anywhere on our planet. I believe science can only continue as long as a greater perspective of human limitations as well as technological limitations are addressed, as even with advanced AI, it will become rather difficult to know for certain what might actually be happening within advanced physics, to rationalize the actual truth behind the phenomenon.

Personally, I believe we are still a primitive society that is ill-prepared to understand our own limitations (but you can’t convince the “leaders” of society to come to that realization, so we perpetually destroy ourselves and that ‘Kool-Aid’—or ‘Flavor-Aid laced with something if you want to get really serious—might be the only option for them.)

[HighlyIrregular II]

If you choose to do something it means you're not satisfied as you are, but if you can't move then you can't tell, so you need to be able to move but not be moving to be OK, except sometimes you can be not OK anyway. If you're reading this, you're not OK for sure, that much I know.

[HighlyIrregular]

Lack of buttons on the front of monitors these days.

I have a roll of shock cord that comes in handy for keeping cardboard boxes closed and bundling things. Two days ago I made a loop and put it around my monitor to hold notes. St. Jude sent me free note pads and I didn't want to throw them out so now I use them instead of sticky notes. But the best physical controls on monitors that I found were on BenQ monitors, on the bottom of the rim, where the shock cord is. So when I upgrade my monitor (which I thought would be soon but resetting it fixed a double-image problem) I may not be able to use my shock cord note holding method. I have a low-end 22" monitor from 2012 and I may upgrade when Windows 12 comes out and I get a new computer. Maybe sooner.

Also, heads up: the end of life of Windows 10 is coming this year. No more security updates. I'll either continue with it for a while or switch to my Windows 11 laptop. I don't really want a new desktop until Windows 12.

[Catoptric]

Nozick, Robert - Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism
https://e-lub.net/annuals/wdi1.htm

[HighlyIrregular]

Thing was my favorite superhero as a kid and I decided to look him up. He was wearing a shirt!

When did Thing start wearing a Fantistic Four shirt

ChatGPT said:
Ben Grimm—a.k.a. The Thing—started wearing the Fantastic Four uniform (with the iconic “4” logo) in Fantastic Four #3 (cover‑dated January 1962). That’s when Sue Storm introduced the team’s distinctive blue jumpsuits, complete with the emblem, and Ben initially wore the full costume—until he ripped off the top half before their first mission and kept the pants as his “official” uniform 🪨

You said:
I'm seeing pictures of Thing that are recent and he's wearing a top

ChatGPT said:
Yes—recent appearances of The Thing wearing a top are tied to current merch and MCU previews, not standard comic continuity:

In the MCU / Merch
The Direct reports that in upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps marketing materials and Hasbro action figures, The Thing is depicted wearing the Fantastic Four uniform, including a blue-and-white top. He’s also shown shirtless sometimes in trailers, but official merch gives him a top for consistency

On T-Shirts and Merchandise
Numerous recent T‑shirts feature The Thing wearing full tops or team uniforms, often imprinted with the “4” logo or tagline, like “Clobberin’ Time”

These are artistic/branding choices, not narrative changes in the comics.

In the Comics
Traditionally, The Thing goes shirtless except for the canonical blue “4” pants.

When he appears wearing a top, it’s usually:

For special branding, alternate uniforms, or

Merchandise/artwork (like T-shirts and promo items).

TL;DR
Context Wearing a Top?
Movies/Merch Yes — promotional images, figures, shirts
Comics (mainline) No — typically shirtless with only FF pants

So the recent top-clad Thing you’re seeing is from merch and marketing, not a fundamental change in the character.

[Catoptric]

Musk’s AI Robot Blames Trump and Its Own Creator for Texas Flooding Deaths
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk ... ng-deaths/


It was a combined effort by various people within the "Administration" (from Elon Musk, to Howard Lutnick, to tRump) that have been pointed at by various people (including Grok) as complicit in delayed weather reporting, but also the "FEMA issue." It seems to only bleed and have incontinence--as well as prone to hormone disruption--hence the Emperor might not have any clothes, but they at least wear emergency 'Depends.'


Experts Warned, Now Texas Blames (Howard Lutnick who slashed) NWS for Deadly Storm — NWS personnel cuts impact, faulty weather forecasts Texas, storm prediction accuracy 2025
https://countylocalnews.com/2025/07/05/ ... racy-2025/

[Catoptric]

In addition to the previous post, Trump wants NASA to destroy two satellites used in a project to study global warming. . . Because truth shouldn't exist.


Consumer impulse creates an exploitative capitalism oligarchy

Few people want to admit it, but our society rewards conformity
https://davidmcelroy.org/?p=34266

Is Capitalism Inherently Exploitative?
https://thecharliebrown.com/is-capitali ... loitative/

While Tesla board wants the fluffer in chief to continue propping up their bloated ass shit company, and I hope doing so eats them alive.




All the while in the past few decades, at least 5 billion starfish have died from a bacteria Vibrio pectenicida, which had initially been discovered in samples back in the 1940s (probably at a time when nuclear testing was being conducted, or would it have been environmental pollution from battleships being exploded?)
https://apnews.com/article/sea-star-was ... 566d38e0c5
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science ... rcna223018

**************************

20 Giant U.S. Chains That Are Ditching Self-Checkout in 2025
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... 15#image=3

I'm not surprised that it was mostly as a result of backlash and theft, but it also surprises me because for the longest time it was seen that big corporations could afford to monetize an automated business infrastructure (but the realization that AI is still very stupid or prone to errors, hasn't not been ignored.) Too often the overreliance on technology leads to a lot of stupid people in charge of it that don't know what they are doing.

More than likely it won't completely eliminate it, but they are also probably considering not focusing exclusively on it and expecting people who are bored out of their minds and overextended (basically understaffing to increase profits) to be able to attend to surveillance of theft (most of which they falsely attribute to people who really just want the stupid system to work properly.) It also doesn't help to have geriatric employees who don't understand technology or use common sense to know any better than to accuse people of things. They probably assume that having full control of whether a customer can walk out the store would be better, than to give the benefit of a doubt that someone did finish a transaction (especially when it gives the option to not print out a receipt.)

And then you also are dealing with an automated system that was put in place to prevent stores from lying about inventory, since most of them couldn't get a proper count in the first place (hiding years of issues stemming from grift and padding their own bonuses, which is endemic to modern business practices. . .)