[via]
I’ve got a friend who grew up in Pakistan. Decades ago I asked him about the Dervishes, and he was convinced that they were mystical. They could think chickens dead and make ants march in figure eights. He said he saw it with his own eyes.
Yep, there are ways to fool the eyes and the mind, all right. Squeeze enough ants to produce a liquid trail marker, they’ll march and write your name in cursive. Poison a chicken, yep, it’ll die. It’s called magic. The snake charmer knows that a cobra will follow your eyes. It’s a potentially deadly game, but the dervishes are in it for the money as tourist attractions, and they’re poor as dirt.
I don’t blame the dervishes a bit; they’re no different than palm readers or street magicians. If they entertain folks who are willing to toss some coin into the bucket, then they provide a service, in the entertainment business.
All it takes is knowledge and practice. I can beat you at Rock-Paper-Scissors. I can flip a quarter and make it turn up heads (or tails) every time, and I know how to make it land on the edge, too. I can get you to choose the wrong card in a 3-Card Monte game, and make you pick the Ace of Spades from a fresh deck you just opened and shuffled yourself.
And I love to bend spoons on The Overnight Open Thread.
Tags: buskers, dervish, entertainment, hokum, illusions, magic, Overnight Open Thread, snake charmer, spoon bending
When Ehud Barak and other Israeli commandos sneaked into Beirut, Lebanon to kill some terrorists, some of the commandos were dressed like women (including Ehud Barak).
Barak and another commando were on the street guarding the building when other terrorists showed up after receiving some kind of alarm that the building had been breached by Israelis.
Barak and the other commando dressed like a woman engaged in an amazing fire fight on the street and the Israelis were able to escape after their mission.
The eyewitnesses were scared out of their wits when they saw Barak and the other female-dressed commando in the fire fight. They said that two beautiful women were in the middle of the street firing machine guns and twirling through the fire fight like whirling dervishes.
It scared the local people have to death.
Hollyweird loves to produce movies depicting the power of magic and gaia.
I can’t suspend my disbelief on this because I can perceive the difference between technology and magic.
Everything you see on video proported to be magic is actually technology.
Prebanned wrote:
Arther C. Clarke… “Technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic”.
doriangrey wrote:
With our public school system, yes.
Prebanned wrote:
Shit… With our current school system, the technology of the 1940′s is indistinguishable from magic.
doriangrey wrote:
Yep,
@ doriangrey:
I’m only good for one utoobage tonight
doriangrey wrote:
We are still throwing money at the problem, more computers, bigger buildings.
Teaching to the level of the slowest kid in the room is killing us.
A lot of college degrees exist so kids can feel good about going to college.
There are no right or wrong answers, this is about spending your loan and grant money.
@ Prebanned:
Many college degrees exist only to separate fools from their parents money, so “professors” will never actually have to work for a living.
@ Prebanned:
Not to mention folks like Howard Zinn who became multimillionaires by forcing kids to buy their $100 (non-reusable)textbooks to pay for their own indoctrination in “required” courses.
Bordm wrote:
I am hoping that TX universities go the route of some of the TX ISD school districts this year.
No textbooks other than ONE set for the classroom.
All homework/bookwork is online.
This is rich…
Frank is one of the most insulting and patronizing cunts on that fetid site.
Calo wrote:
Not going to happen, college text books (liberal arts) are a huge source of revenue for the “professors” who write them and the universities that sell them. It a closed loop with a captive audience you can rip off every semester. They’ll never give up that revenue stream.
(Cross-post from DoD)
@ Bagua:
I’m enjoying the blow up over OWS over at LGF!
I loved that Brietbart video. That must really hurt Charles that no one knows him.
@ Bagua:
I saw that Bagua.
But, your vocabulary could use a tune up tonight.
DoD idiots or not.
@ Calo:
Sorry sweetie.
@ Bordm:
Heh – I know nothing about printers and revenue streams.
@ Rodan:
That was funny indeed. Brietbart rubbing his nose in his irrelevancy.
@ Bagua:
S’all right.
Just surprised me.
My kid just tweeted she loves Bob Marley
Wondering where that came from.
Bagua wrote:
Charles claims to influence elections.Yet his own side doesn’t even know who he is!
@ Calo:
Ha! Good taste.
Rodan wrote:
They know, some of them anyway.
Just nobody claims to know him.
@ Bagua:
Yep. A blessing for the economy.
@ Calo:
It is bizarre how socialist losers like “wozzablog” fail to realise that the system they are sponging off gives them the highest standard of living in human history.
Also vastly higher than the socialist countries, which have themselves become capitalist once their systems failed. North Korea being a notable holdout.
But yeah… a market bubble corrected, so the economy is “stone dead”. What a fool.
Prebanned wrote:
ROTFLMAO… Which is worse… When lot’s of people don’t have a clue who you are…. Or lot’s of people know who you are and refuse to admit knowing who you are???
@ Bagua:
I was looking at an article on North Korea yesterday.
Two NGO’s with different opinions on the reason for the food shortages in that country.
@ Calo:
Did either of them blame the communist dictatorship lunatic regime as the likely reason?
doriangrey wrote:
Yep, a whole lot worse, I am embarrassed by it myself.
After the LGF site closes down, can the boiler room crew seal the records?
Bagua wrote:
Naw, ’twas Buuuuuush!
@ Bagua:
Bwaaahhh – no.
It’s not a serious problem.
@ Calo:
Linky no worky.
Bagua wrote:
Worked for me
@ Bagua:
Sorry
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5igmGjZMx4uRwiNGRKSWTQ7Yl2t6Q?docId=CNG.ba491593e56407f3b61e1ba743a820a0.321
It’s a quick summary of what I read yesterday.
No harm, no foul if it’s lost.
@ Calo:
Giving aid to the Norks and Pakis while they build up their nuclear arsenals does not make sense.
@ doriangrey:
Any sufficiently advanced linux command is indistinguishable from line noise.
@ Bagua:
That’s probably the saddest part about No Korea and their corrupt leaders.
The kids pay the price.
It’s a sick game.
I’m sleepy.
Night Bagua.
@ Calo:
Always sad to see kids suffer. No doubt.
Night Calo.
@ Calo:
Yeah, I agree. You’re only good for one tonight.
@ Bunk X:
Okay. Calo’s done. Who’s next?
@ Bunk X:
I meant, she’s still dieseling in the private office behind the rec room bar. Who’s next?
@ Bunk X:
I find myself in a quandary now that Calo has passed out.
I hang my head in pride.
@ Bunk X:
I WAS busy.
And, tired.
I was stalking numbers tonight elsewhere trying to figure out which way the wind blows as the year wraps up going into the 4th quarter.
For CW and anybody else following the Rugby World Cup…
Wallabies beat the Springboks? Who would have thought!:)
For Momcat
I am here; I just don’t have anything insightful to say. SS,DD.
I’m just sitting and grooving. Gunnite, y’all.
Mike C. wrote:
Me too.
Learning about OSHA recordkeeping requirements.
Good thing they pay me well…
Well, I did get the office PC conected properly and running again after the move.
‘Course, I followed that by sluicing myself with a cup of coffee, so it’s a 50-50 day right now..
Lost wrote:
hooray aussies!
A United Nations firearms instructor from France accidentally shot himself during recertification training at Smith & Wesson late Thursday morning.
You really cannot make this stuff up. It’s even funnier because it’s true.
@ Buckeye Abroad:
that was good for my morning chuckle!
Shows why French people shouldn’t have guns…
@ coldwarrior:
Hey bud. Glad to hear your girls are home.
I see Pitt and OSU are sharing a similiar season so far. Going to be a lonnnnngggggg one. Hope my team gets their act together before the Game on the 26th of November.
@ Buckeye Abroad:
they are home alright…
we had a rough night last night…everyone is asleep now…hours too late.
pitt has an excuse for a year or 3, new coach, new system, these players are not the right players for the system…i’ll give him a few years to right the ship.
Thank God Texas is getting some much needed and deserved rain.
@ lobo91:
Hey, this Frenchman actually fired his gun. Usually they just drop them…
Buckeye Abroad wrote:
In this situation who did he surrender to, himself ?
John Difool wrote:
Amen to that! We’ve got 60% chance of more rain through tomorrow. However, I’m gonna miss it because I’m about 600 miles west of home right now.
Another entry from the “you can’t make this up” department.
State Department Offers Condolences to Family of al-Qaeda Propagandist. Ain’t that sweet?
huckfunn wrote:
I would have written my condolences on the bill for the missile that took him out.
@ John Difool:
Yessir!
Good morning. FNC just had a piece on about whether or not
Holder should resign over Fast & Furious.
They had a statment by Holder to the effect that he is
offended that the integrity of law enorcement officers who
executed it is being questioned.
Classic misdirection, the issue on table is him.
huckfunn wrote:
Dearest Achmed family,
We regret to inform you that your son seems to have become the latest unfortunate victim of one of our hellfire missiles.
Inside of this shoebox you will find what’s left of his charred remains and personal effects one of which appears to be of his beloved fiance, a goat.
Also included in this package is the bill for the missile which you can make in easy monthly payments of $5000.00, cash, check or money order.
Yours Truly, Uncle Sam
@ John Difool:
P.S.: In the spirit of diversity you can call me Uncle Samir or Uncle Omar if you’d like.
Lost wrote:
Good for the Aussies but I think the Bokkies might be a bit distracted by all the crap going on at home. Julius Malema, leader of the ANC Youth League, is causing trouble again.
The foreign refugees referred to in this article are mostly Zimbabweans fleeing Mugabe. Malema and Mugabe are allies, and Malema has said he wants to do the same thing to white farmers in South Africa that Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe.
The Osprey wrote:
wanna do a guest post on that for us?
it would be rather interesting as we dont get much sub-saharan stuff
@ The Osprey:
“Malema and Mugabe are allies, and Malema has said he wants to do the same thing to white farmers in South Africa that Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe.”
More white farmers have been murdered since 94′ than killed in the Bush Wars from 66´ to 89´. My mate in SA told me the blacks are very up front about planning genocide for the whites and he thinks when Mandela dies, that it begins in full swing.
Have seen him on line of late and will give him a ring tonight.
coldwarrior wrote:
GMTA. I’ve got an outline for one in the works.
Buckeye Abroad wrote:
And the liberal Western media are silent about it.
The Osprey wrote:
excellent.
The Osprey wrote:
accd to the press blacks can do no wrong…especially africans.