lördag 11 mars 2023

Terraforming of Mars -- some informal remarks

Mars is the place... I've mentioned it before... now I'm doing it again.




The planet Mars in uninhabitable.

It is a rather sterile desert. It has got some negiligble atmosphere but man can't live there.

Not today. But we can terraform it. Transform the planet into something more hospitable.

We can transmogrify it, transfigurate it... with current scientific means (mutatis mutandum)..

+++

Terraforming: this way we could make the arid Red Planet habitable for man. Making it livable, without the need for space suits or pressurized habitats.

As we all know, Mars is situated in the bio-friendly zone because of its relative proximity to the sun.

Neither too hot (like Mercury) or too cold (like Pluto).

So the plan to transform this desert world into a world of breathable atmosphere and waterways, maybe even seas, is deemed within the scope of possibility.

+++

First, the damaged magnetosphere of Mars must be redressed, this being a prerequisite for any life to sprout, shielding the world from harmful cosmic radiation. This could be done with a network of generators creating a magnetic field, using the principle of holographic immanence. Admitted, this technology is still rather "potential" and unrealized, and not scientifically proved. Re-creating a magnet field for Mars is difficult.

But let us suppose that this problem is solved. Then we have the greening, “gardening” part of it all, making the desert grow and produce its own oxygen. This would take about about fifty to one hundred years. Those “fifty to one hundred years” are a rather long time from a human perspective. The basic wisdom of that is, you can’t hurry nature. Give it time...!

+++

As for details of the process, after having this rather necessary magnetosphere in place, oxygen is needed. Put simply, this can be done by sowing certain algae that would generate it. Then it would be on to sowing fungi, fern, herbs, etc.

For the plants water is needed. For this, the Martian polar ice caps can be covered with dust, spread by crawler robots. This would, with time, melt the ice shields and water the seeds that other robots have spread.

Also, the general temperature of the Martian surface can be raised by drilling holes releasing subsurface heat. Mars already has a thin atmosphere and now it can be thickened by bio-chemical means.

Given the above developments, the planet would be shielded from harmful radiation, it would have water, a budding, breathable atmosphere, and its temperature would have risen.

From then on we could colonize it. More about this in an earlier post.

+++

And when I say "we" can transform Mars into a new paradise... I of course mean Faustian Man, European Man, Northern Man... Absolute Man, Total Man, Magician man...

Of the "Faustian" nature of Mars colonization, I spoke in this post.



Sources (selective)
Anders Palm. Gröna Mars: Nasas planetbyggare skapar en ny värld. Teknikmagasinet 1/1984
Rachel K. Wentz. NASA Hopes to Rely on Algae and Bacteria for Oxygen Production on Mars. 16 May 2016



Related
Target: Mars
Sci fi short: Lessons of War

tisdag 7 mars 2023

Ny podd med mig

In Swedish. -- En ny podd har lagts upp. Den handlar om Wagner.




Kompositören Richard Wagner är king. Det vet ni.

Och nu kommer en podd som understryker det.

Redaktör för podden är Jalle Horn. Jag är gäst. Jag är det i min egenskap av Wagner-expert.

Podden finns här. Mycket nöje.



Relaterat
Min Wagner-biografi
Den heliga flamman (2022)
Andra poddar med mig

onsdag 1 mars 2023

I AM HISTORY

Sûryo yathâ sarvalokasya cakshuh... the sun is like the eye of the world... that's a mantra you need to say to calm down.




Are ye calm now...? Are ye ready for this blog post...?

Now it begins.

And the post says: I Am History.

I write historical books.

In 2018 it was Commanders. About American generals. "Well-written book with excellent information," says an Amazon review.

In 2022 it was Rigorism. With essays covering many subjects related to history.

And in Swedish I have written about WWII... in Trotylstorm i öster.

Buy them all on Amazon.

Then, having read them, you, too, can say: I AM HISTORY. Because they give you an unique grasp of history.

And if you don't feel like buying a book, but still want to hear some historical preachment from me, then read this. It is a series on the blog, delineating history from the so-called dawn of civilization until our times.



Related
Rigorism -- The Influence of Willpower Upon History
Commanders
Trotylstorm i öster
Historical eras

onsdag 22 februari 2023

Fornindisk sed: att hälsa: några anteckningar

In Swedish. -- Det forna Indien hade sina intressanta sidor... som detta med sättet att hälsa.




Forntidens indier kunde hälsa; man välkomnade varandra, man hade gester för detta. Även fiender hälsade varandra hovsamt.

Några exempel på detta är som följer. De är alla ur Mahābhārata och vi tar dem i tur och ordning, från första boken Ādiparvan och så vidare.

+++

Arjuna hade av sin lärare av Droṇa fått vapnet Brahmaśiras. Pandusonen lovade att bara använda det i nödfall, sa ”’Så ska det bli!’ och gav sedan sitt löfte med händerna sammanlagda till en añjali-gest.” (Ādiparvan, Poona-utgåvan, 1.123; Jonsson s. 72)

Añjali kan för sin del beskrivas som ”händer ihop, såsom en kristen ber”. Indiern kan även i sammanhanget låta tummarna vidröra pannan; detta är mycket indiskt. Termen i sig, añjali, är av roten √añj, anbringa (såsom helig olja), dekorera, hedra.

Härmed fler exempel på vördnadsbetygelser ur Mahābhārata.

Ādiparvan, Poona 1.179, Jonsson s. 85; Arjuna, på Draupadīs svayaṃvara, ska utföra ett bågskytteprov – och inför detta hälsar han till och med för pilbågen: ”Han kringvandrade den vördnadsfullt, vändande högra sidan emot den. Han bugade sig för bågen” (Jonsson s. 85) och sedan grep han den, fylld av glädje. (Och när han skjutit och träffat målet lät guden himmelska blommor regna ner över honom som nåderik gest, som gudomlig bekräftan av detta triumfens ögonblick.)

Vidare: lärjungen Upamanyu hade läraren Dhaumya; en gång ”kom han hem till sin lärares hus, infann sig hos honom och betygade honom sin vördnad.” (Charpentier s. 133; Sagan om Dhaumyas lärjungar, Mbh 1.3).

Som vi såg i exemplet med Arjuna och den pilbåge han fick, så var detta att kringvandra någon eller något medsols ett tecken på vördnad. Vi finner fler exempel på detta i Ādiparvan (Bombay 209-212) i sagan om Sunda och Upasunda. Detta demonpar har lagt jorden under sig och kan inte besegras. Då gudarna framfört sitt problem till Brahmā får han idén att be gudarnas mästersmed, Viśvakarman, att skapa en mycket åtråvärd kvinna. När hon skapats ger Brahmā henne namnet Tilottamā, den främsta (uttama) jasminblomman (tila).

Så får vi höra att Tilottama med knäppta händer betygade Brahmā sin vördnad och frågade om sin uppgift. Hon får av Brahmā veta att hon skapats av gudarna för att tända Sunda och Upasundas åtrå. Brahma ger henne en order med denna innebörd, att få detta demonpar att bli upphetsade av henne. Hon lyder: ”under vördnadsbetygelser lovade hon ättefadern detta och gjorde därefter till avsked en rundgång kring gudarna” [Charpentier s. 148].

+++

Vi går vidare till eposets bok 2, Sabhāparvan, Poona 2.1. Där är det så att asuran Maya har räddats till livet av Arjuna och är tacksam; med respektfullt kupade händer betygar han honom upprepade gånger sin vördnad.

I bok 3, Vanaparvan, finer vi Savitrī-sagan, Bombay-utgåvan, 3.293-299. Savitrīs far, kungen Aśvapati, uppsökte en kung som efter några olyckor levde som blind eremit; dock hade han en ståtlig son, Satyavān, som Aśvapatis dotter ville ha som gemål. Aśvapati begav sig alltså till skogen där eremitkungen, Dyumatsena, bodde: ”Han fann den blinde fursten sittande på en hög av offerströ i skugan av ett stort träd. Med tillbörlig vördnad hälsade han honom och föreställde sig med sänkt röst. Den andre mottog honom på övligt sätt ...” (Charpentier s. 210)

+++

Vi avslutar med några exempel ur Bhagavad-gītā, som ingår i bok 6, Bhīṣmaparvan.

I Bhg 11.14 läser vi om hur Arjuna bugar för Kṛṣṇa: praṇamya śirasā devaṃ / kṛtāñjalir abhāṣata: ”han böjde sitt huvud inför guden och sa med vördnadsfull hälsning...” – Och i 11.39 har vi en rad där Arjuna säger till Kṛṣṇa: namo namas te ’stu sahasra-kṛtvaḥ / punaś ca bhūyo ’pi namo namas te: ”Hell dig, hell dig tusenfalt, åter och än åter hell dig, hell dig!”

Det gällde med andra ord att alltid visa de hedersbetygelser som var påkallade, att vördnadsfullt kupa händerna, såsom till bön, añjali; förklaring för denna term gavs ovan. Därtill kunde man kringvandra den tillbedde medsols (termen for detta är pradakśiṇā). Detsamma gör man ju i kyrkor med koromgång, till exempel Uppsala domkyrka.



Litteratur
Charpentier, Jarl. Indiska myter och sagor. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur, 1925
Jonsson, Rolf. Mahābhārata – ett urval. Umeå: H:ström, 2013



Relaterat
Snabbkurs i sanskrit
In English: Kali Yuga is over
In English: A summary of the Mahâbhârata
Bild: "Praying Hands" av Albrecht Dürer

söndag 12 februari 2023

A Story

This is a blog post... the date is 12 February 2023...




As I was going to St Ives... I met Burl Ives...



He pointed the way to a church... a church of red brick... se pic...!



So I went to the entrance... and became entranced...



I was in Wonderland... I felt entreated...

I got on my knees... and began to pray...

Say, say, say what you mean... and mean what you say...

and put a beat to it...

I'm the beat...

Street is neat...

+++

Mean mean mean what you say

mean street machine

+++

I was in the temple... a wondrous place...

I drank and danced all night with Faith and found her a corpse in the morning...

Had to get back to the real world

make a deal with Dick Dale...

so I sang, "Listen to the king of the surf guitar"...



and this transported me back to my harbor haunt...

where I sit and type this down...Type O-negative...



Related
Rigorism (2022)
Target: Mars
SF Seen From the Right
Jack Steelnack: the metal years
In Swedish: Evola -- några reflektioner
In Swedish: Ride the Tiger

fredag 10 februari 2023

Blog post 10 February 2023

Howdy.




You know about this new craze: The Powers That Be trying to persuade us to eat insects...

Gross, man... and they even try to sneak it in surreptitiously.

So I say: in order to avoid insects covertly added into your food, the way it's now becoming fashionable, avoid prepared food... and buy foodstuffs that you know what it is... like real fish, meat, veggies...

You got that...? Fine. Next, go home with your ingredients and place them on the workbench... and cut 'em up, slice 'em up, and boil them...

And what is this...?

It is called COOKING... and I did this before this insects craze and I'm never gonna give it up now.

+++

Finally, as a pay-off, take a look at the guy in the pic above.

Now there's a guy who knows a thing or two... about the alchemy of cooking... yeah it's magic really... mixing diverse proteins and carbs and herbs... boil until it's done... then you have transmogrified the elements into A DISH.

Everything is magic in my life, everything is alchemy, cooking eminently so.



Related
From My Diary
Good Reads, July 2022

söndag 5 februari 2023

Blog Post 5 February 2023

Welcome to my world. In the pic above you see me teaching and preaching at an event. And that's what I am -- a teacher and a preacher.




I teach and I preach... I roam and I rave... I'm constantly active, constantly "at it"... as an Actionist, a Rigorist, and latter-day magician and alchemist.

Let me tell you about it... let me tell you about my world.

So then, this is a picture from one of my travels... one of those places you don't normally take pictures of... anyway, this is from a gas station in the heartland of Sweden... early morning, Nordic midsummer... love it.



That journey was done in this car... the lovely Volvo V40... engineering-wise it was built on a Ford Focus frame... but Volvo gave it a wedge-like form... it oozes "sport, the joy of driving"... V40 was one of the best Volvos ever imho.



This is one of my most popular works... a history of Sweden... as yet, in Swedish only... but who knows, it might come out in an English edition too... the book is presented in this post... in Swedish.



This is another of my bestsellers, the Jünger bio of 2014... still in print after all these years... "a must-read for fans of Jünger" as an Amazon review said... read more about it here.



Burning love...! as Elvis sang... and this is burning magnesium, lighting up the battlefield at night... more about this stunning work here.



Lovely cover, understated... a conceptual essay about the nature of reality... presentation here.



This is a promo pic from 2019, I figure...



And there you go... this is how I see my world as of 2 February 2023.



Related
Jünger bio
Burning Magnesium
My Swedish history

måndag 23 januari 2023

Självporträtt i bilder

In Swedish. -- Det här är ett porträtt av mig genom åren. Man kan säga: om det überhaupt finns något tema så är det min andliga utveckling som här skissas. -- Bilden överst föreställer, föga förvånande, mig, på Galleri Granen i Sundsvall 2017. Tavlan är Roberts "Akvedukt, rosa himmel".








Venedig, 1976. Jag och min bror (bror tv, jag th) vid Canal Grande med Santa Maria della Salute i bakgrunden. Alltså en barockkyrka av vit marmor i en stad full med antika artefakter. Redan då var jag "trad" med andra ord... det ska börjas i tid.



Saltoluokta 1980... jag fjällvandrar... "Meditations on the Peaks" i Evolas anda... Actionismen grundlägs här.



Uppsala 1989... jag och min dåvarande flickvän på Hågahögen... en bronsåldershög, en tämligen stor gravhög i landskapet... vi tycks sitta där och sjunga, ja så hedrar man sitt förflutna allra bäst... "På blomsterklädd kulle satt Hjalmar och kvad" osv.



Uppsala cirka 2009, möte med sf-fans. Platsen är Williams pub i Uppsala. Jag börjar redan då fjärma mig från sf-fandom -- ty jag hade fått ett kall -- att bli guru, Actionist guru. Ni ser det på bilden, ni ser glorian över mitt huvud: "Detta är min enfödde son, i vilken jag funnit behag" liksom.



Bild tagen på Robert Svensson-retrospektiven i Sundsvall, april 2017. (Bilden överst i detta inlägg är från samma tillfälle.)



Här föreläser jag på DFS 2019... bloggreportage här.



Övik, återvinningscentralen Må, mars 2020... urstädning och terminering av dödsbo... detta var sista rycket, hyra av lastbil och bortforslande av sängar och gamla soffor. Vädret var regnigt med isig villagata, men ett tecken från ovan var när jag kom körande på denna ÅVC och på bilradion fick höra "United" med Judas Priest. "Halleluja, Makterna är med mig" kändes det som... senare på dagen tittade även solen fram.



DFS, oktober 2021, Logikdagen... jag är inbjuden för att promota Ernst Jünger -- en biografi.







Relaterat
Logikdagen 2021
Min Jüngerbok
Actionism -- presentation på svenska

söndag 15 januari 2023

France is the past, Germany is the future

Degeneracy and the opposite, a viable culture...




France has Nana, Bel-Ami, Carmen, Emmanuelle... George Sand, Colette, Françoise Sagan, Anaïs Nin... a literature of women, the glorification of the prostitute...

In comparison we have Germany with Wagner at the fore... with Brynhilde, Isolde, Senta... quite different gestalts of womanhood...

In the Wagner opus we also have Tannhäuser, who leaves the domain of Venus in order to shape up and become a man, a plot element which was incomprehensible to the French audience... leave the goddess of love, mais c’est imbecile ça... but he must leave... “I don’t strive for happiness, I strive for my work”... as Zarathustra said...

This is German, this is core Faustian, this is the future... and France is degeneracy, it’s the past... Napoleon was the last French power to reckon with, from then on it’s Germany who rules the roost.



Related
My Wagner book
Faustian Era
Absolute Man

lördag 14 januari 2023

The Coming of the Space Age

I am the messiah of space exploration.




In the 21st century man will venture out into space on a large scale.

The long dreamed about stellar exodus will become a reality.

As the prime endeavour Mars will be colonized and terraformed, making it into the first sizeable space colony.

Thus, the space age will begin.

It can't be stopped.

+++

Space exploration will be a rather natural development. Faustian man, Western man has long dreamed of going to space, going to Mars. Scientists like Schiaparelli and Lowell, and science fiction authors like Burroughs and Bradbury, and countless others, have already claimed the red planet.

Faustian man will go to to Mars. It is the legacy of sea-faring Vikings, Portuguese, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutch, Englishmen. It is the strain of venturing out, claiming new land and shaping it after his image.

+++

The Faustian specificity, what is this...?

It is the “striving for infinity”-strain of Bach and Beethoven, of Leibniz’ infinitesimal calculus, of Dante and Faust going Beyond the Beyond.

It is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra ethos of “O eternal everywhere, O eternal nowhere”.

It is the character expressed in figures like Kepler, Gallileo, Newton, Goddard, Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, von Braun, Koroljov, Gagarin, Glenn, Armstrong – space pioneers in theory and practice, having to go to space as a matter of course.



Related
Target Mars
SF Seen From the Right
Collage by LS

torsdag 12 januari 2023

Four poems by Stefan George

Om namo nârâyanâya...




Let me tell you about Stefan George.

He lived 1868-1933.

He was a conservative German poet.

He was an aesthete, seeing art and beauty as a kind of creed in itself. Kind of like this.

He meant that intuition is superior to intellect.

He admired Nietzsche (as can be seen in this post).

He was an elitist: an elite should rule society, he meant.

+++

Some time ago we gave you George's Nietzsche poem. Now we will give you four other poems -- poems of the same exquisite, aesthetic, uplifting kind.

The first one is "Having Everything".



Having Everything

Essentially this is a nameless George poem from the collection Der Stern des Bundes, 1913; by its first line we can call it “Having Everything”. It is about people ignoring the fact that we live in abundant times. In a more philosophical vein, it can be seen as a text on the theme of how the common man lacks the imagination to see beyond everyday trifles, “the man of the crowd” being unable to seek out Tradition, the treasures of timeless art and wisdom, which still exist even though the everyday reality is filled with MSM nonsense and propaganda. (The following is my own translation.)
Having everything, knowing everything they moan:
“Barren living! Thirst and hunger everywhere!
Abundance lacking!”
I know of attics over every house
full of yellow grain, richly piling up –
no one takes...
Cellars under every house where the wine
leaks out and is absorbed by the sand –
no one drinks...
Tons of pure gold scattered in the dust:
people in rags touching it with the hem –
no one sees.




You Build Criminally

Here is another poem from the same collection, Der Stern des Bundes (which in itself means, “the star of the union”). The theme is the modern world gone astray in materialism and the need for a spiritual resurgence footed in the ethically and aesthetically gifted individual (the below version is my translation):
You build criminally with mass and limit:
“what’s high can get higher...!” But no find,
no support, no mending suffices – the building sways.
And at wisdom’s end you shout to heaven:
“What to do before we suffocate in our own rubble,
before our own spooky image feeds our brains?”
He laughs: too late for rest and medication!
Ten thousand must be struck by divine madness
ten thousand must incur the holy plague
ten thousand infested by the holy war.

Do not talk to me about the Highest Good: before it
blesses you, you will drag it down to your mess.
God is a mere shadow while you ruin yourself.
Do not talk to me about Womanhood: before you do not see all this,
what’s under the fruitful, painful exterior,
it has to grow stronger in lust.
Do not talk to me about People: since no one of you feels
the union of earth and threshing floor,
the right with the coming and going,
the tying up of the split golden thread.

Estimate the danger as nothing but a fanciful image
before which you kneel – at the big fire!
You’re destroying much more when you remain
by your corrosive poison and your grave
as a depletion and a maternal maw.
It may happen that from a few leftovers
saved from the rubble – from the cracked wall,
weathered rock, eroded ore –
gilded letters come to life!
The way you keep it is complete decay.


The world evening was blazing... again the Lord went
into the rich city with gate and temple, laughing
grimly that all this would fall.
He knew: no inserted stone can remain
if the ground – the whole – denies
the power of the whole.
Many hands moved and many grand words
were said and one was need.
The world evening was blazing... everybody was playing and singing.
They all looked right – only he looked left.

Whom the flame always embraces will
always be the companion of the flame!
He may wander and stray: wherever her
sheen reaches him, he never strays too
far from the target.
Only when his look loses her will he
be deceived by his own shimmer:
missing the law of the middle
he is scattered in the abyss.

The new nobility you are looking for
doesn’t issue from shield and crown!
Be forever differentiated,
with the clever look of wisdom,
with the raw look of scorn.
Stemless grow in the chaos
rare sprouts of their own worth
and you know the kindred
in the true glow of the eyes.

ON NEW TABLETS WRITE THE NEW CONDITION:
Let the old people of the estate be happy,
the faraway quarrel doesn’t reach their ear.
But all youth you should call slaves,
deafening themselves with soft sounds,
chained over the abyss in a garland of roses.
You should spit the rotten out of your mouth,
you should wear the dagger in the laurel bouquet
according to rhythm and melody of the near election.




Come to the Park They Say Is Dead

The next poem is also nameless but is usually called by its first line, “Come to the Park They Say Is Dead”. I’ve found the translation on the site PoemHunter.com. The original poem is from the collection Das Jahr der Seele (1898) and it is longer than this, has more stanzas. It is a scene of animated nature, of vivid symbols around us.
Come to the park they say is dead, and view
the shimmer of the smiling shores beyond,
the stainless clouds with unexpected blue
diffuse a light on motley path and pond.

The tender grey, the burning yellow seize
of birch and boxwood, mellow is the breeze.
Not wholly do the tardy roses wane,
so kiss and gather them and wreathe the chain.

The purple on the twists of wilding vine,
the last of asters you shall not forget,
and what of living verdure lingers yet,
around the autumn vision lightly twine.




Hyperion

The last poem in this exposé will be “Hyperion”. It summarizes George’s “ethics-cum-aesthetics” of anti-modernism, hinting at ancient Greece as an alternative to strive for. Part I and II are deciphered with the help of Malmberg’s Swedish translation. Part III is the translation given at PoemHunter. (I have corrected it on line six, made PoemHunter’s reading of “chase” into “chaste,” according to the original’s “scheu”.) – In line nine of Part III, we find the English word guerdon which means “give a reward”.
To the longing a gesture was enough.
And of old, with gestures the gods have spoken.

I.

Whence do I possibly come,
from what distant land,
o ye brothers of my kin?
Though I enjoy wine and bread
of your land, still the stranger
I remain.
I, the firstborn, knowing himself
grander than siblings from
later alliances, knowing he
has a nobler paternity.
O ye trapped in the senses,
flaccid in word and deed:
longing by God knows what waters and
willows for low-down pleasures!
You never learned to dance;
too raw, too soft, unable
to harmony, alone even as
couples: you with your mirror!

II.

A specter draws me to you,
children of the Greek archipelago,
you, having given grace to the deed,
majesty to the works of art,
you, having married the courage of Sparta
to the sweetness of Ionia.
The young dancer of victory
creates heroes as a man,
both leading a state
and a symposium.
The demand of ardent voices
unifying temple and games.
Wisdom never reached
deeper than in this realm.
What a teeming life
on these shores and mains!
In the cypress grove
in purple twilight,
profoundest teachers leading
the steps of noble youth.
The favorites of Tyche
you were ever victorious,
you, having in flesh and bronze
shaped the image of Man;
in reeling dance, you
created gods for us.
A thousand-fold sounds the cry:
Woe! that it must perish!
By the law of necessity,
life destroying life!
Woe! On the command of the Syrian
this world of light fell into night.

III.

I journeyed home: such flood of blossoms never
had welcomed me... a throbbing in the field
and in the grove there was of sleeping powers.
I saw the river, slope and shire enthralled,
and you, my brothers, sun-heirs of the future:
your eyes, still chaste, are harboring a dream,
once yearning thoughts in you, to blood shall alter...
My sorrow-stricken life to slumber leans,
but graciously does heaven’s promise guerdon
the fervent... who may never pace the Realm.
I shall be earth, shall be the grave of heroes,
that sacred sons approach to be fulfilled.
With them the second age comes; love engendered
the world, again shall love engender it.
I spoke the spell, the circle has been woven...
Before the darkness fall, I shall be snatched
aloft and know: through cherished fields shall wander
on weightless soles, aglow and real, the God.




Related
George's Nietzsche poem
Golden Yoga: Life as Art
Fyodor Bronnikov, Pythagoreans Celebrate Sunrise. 1869