2012
According to an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, British and Japanese scientists created a computer program that turned a set of random noise into melodic sounds with a mechanism that resembles natural selection in nature.
20 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/caricature/20120619/676693956.html
There are going to be many puzzling events in the near future in Church affairs. Keep calm; keep centred in your parish. No matter what happens to this-or-that national structure, your parish is going to be what it’s always been. If we keep our parishes on the up-and-square, trust me, that’s what’s going to pull us through the coming days.
In any case, our existing parishes are what the future new Church is going have its foundation upon. We survived the chaos of the Russian Revolution, we survived the lunacy of Schmemann and Grabbe, we survived the nasty doings of Gleb Podmoshensky and Sam Greene, and we shall survive Storheim and Paffhausen. The heart of Russian Orthodoxy in America is strong. At present, we have the wheat and tares mixed together… the saintly are cheek-to-jowl with parasites; the phonies drown out the spiritual. It looks like “business as usual”, for the indefinite future. Yet, the coming ferment will be useful. We’ll find out who’s naughty and who’s nice… we might even get to the bottom of the Iliff and Ephraim (here and here) affairs.
Our parishes have lived through chaos before. What’s coming up is child’s play… the end of the OCA and the ROCOR as they’re presently constituted will only affect a small number of First Family poseurs. As for the rest of us, Home is a very good place to be… HH and the Mother Church are calling us to be One, after all.
BMD
I’ve been dealing with some seriously disordered rightwingers lately. Truly, they believe that “money makes the world go around” and that “one must be hard in this world”, that those of us on the Left are people without honour, character, courage, or even worth (that’s why we should only receive the least amount that they can pay us, in their lights). I’ve come to the conclusion that ONE VOV vet is worth all the Libertarians, Free Marketers, Anti-Unionists, Rugged Individualists, and Money-Grubbers out there. On the one hand, you have real heroes who fought to put down one of the most evil systems that ever existed. On the other, you have people who defend their above-median incomes on the grounds that “they earned it” and the “race goes to the swiftest”. I seem to notice a difference. You can honour selflessness or you can worship Self. You can’t do both. If you agree with or vote for Willard Romney, you bow down before the Twin Gods of the Unbridled Self and Almighty Mammon.
I do not. You DO have a choice.
BMD
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OMON Nicks Protestors at Pussy Riot Hearing
Tags: Amnesty International, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Christian, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Holy Shit, Kirill I of Moscow, Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, political commentary, politics, Pussy Riot, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Putin
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On Wednesday, police detained several protesters outside a Moscow court during a hearing for three members of the all-female punk group Pussy Riot, who could face lengthy jail sentences over an anti-Putin protest at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Cops arrested at least 12 people as they blew whistles in protest. The court is deciding whether to keep the women in custody ahead of their trial, which still doesn’t have a definite date. The band’s lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, told RIA-Novosti that the court’s likely to prolong custody for a month.
Around 200 people gathered outside the court building to demand freedom for the suspects, in gaol since their arrest in early and mid-March. Several Orthodox demonstrators staged a simultaneous counter-protest. Suspects Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich face up to seven years in jail on hooliganism charges. They’re in remand custody until 24 June. Five masked members of Pussy Riot, clad in brightly-coloured balaclavas, bowed and crossed themselves as they sang an a capella version of a song entitled Holy Shit at the cathedral in February. The lyrics included lines such as, “Holy Mother, Blessed Virgin, chase Putin out!” Pussy Riot said the performance was a response to Patriarch Kirill’s backing of President-elect Vladimir Putin in the run-up to his landslide 4 March election victory. The patriarch called the 12 years of Putin’s rule “a miracle of God” in a televised meeting. Amnesty International recognised the suspects as prisoners of conscience in April, and a number of political and Orthodox figures called for their release.
20 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120620/174143860.html