Julblog 2024
Not a lot of time for serious abstract thinking this month due to seasonal tribal gatherings with parts of the clan from the Antipodes, the Americas, and the Scottish Highlands, leaving barely enough time for a couple of sculptures. So, in this holiday season, herewith a few oddments in lieu of serious esoteric thought: -
This is Chaos. – The book. The publishers have all the manuscripts from the 15 contributors, and I’ve seen the provisional cover design. Publication date probably July 2025 with pre-orders possible from this September.
Assassination attempt. Will the failed assassination of Donald Trump go down in history as a Sarajevo Level Event and become regarded as the trigger that made WW3 inevitable? I dunno, the UK media delight in interpreting Trump as a narcissistic, sociopathic, machiavellian untrustworthy blaggard who plays populist demagogue to the worst instincts of the American electorate. Have they missed something? If civilisation survives, will historians come to regard Donald Trump as a master of Chaos Magic? See this: -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_Rising
UK Election. As the dust settles from the landslide UK general election it becomes apparent that the old truism still holds, oppositions do not win elections – governments lose them. The Labour party adopted the cunning strategy of saying almost nothing about its intentions and simply let the Conservatives dig an even bigger hole of indecisiveness and incompetence for themselves. Only one in five of the UK electorate actually voted for Labour but the plethora of other parties running, a low turnout, and the peculiarities of our first past the post voting system delivered them a huge majority. This may prove a good thing for a while, Kier Starmer need not feel himself a hostage to the wokeist, anti-Israel, LGBT, Critical Race Theorist and Green factions of the left. I doubt that he has much faith in the Dictatorship of the Proletariat but those with worthwhile assets and descendants may wish to consider dying fairly soon before Punitive Death Duties become announced. Labour seems to have pinned its hopes for economic growth on persuading private finance to invest massively in capital projects, infrastructure, and housebuilding. We tried that before under Tony Blair. It didn’t work for long, the country just ended up with a legacy of massive long term debt to private financial groups, badly built structures, and asset degraded utility companies.
It doesn’t look like Starmer will do much to reduce the UK’s dependency on the vicious circle of trying to prop up a decadent low productivity economy with massive immigration to reduce training and wage costs and to continually inflate property prices. These small islands become insanely overcrowded and the environment continues to degrade as a result.
Sculpture. Firstly, the latest in a long line of sci-fi neo-juvenilia pieces, an over the top Flagship for the Skaron fleet, bristling with improbable armaments, made from the usual recycled vape and scrap metal pieces and another lump of autoclaved aerated concrete that washed up on the beach.
Secondly, a serious item of conceptual post-modernist high art: –
‘Cracked Pedestal’ – The fragility of belief and the absence of absolute truth.
A bold and disturbing masterpiece in hand-marbled recycled antique hardwood.
Death at Chateaux Chaos. We put out kilos of birdseed each week and the number and variety of small birds visiting the feeders has climbed over the years. Then a couple of days ago this happened on the south meadow: -
A Sparrowhawk came for lunch. We just managed to take a pic before it took off carrying something small and feathered, hopefully not one of the rare Nuthatches. I have only ever seen one wild Sparrowhawk before, but it seems that the more we degrade the UK’s rural habitats, the more the wildlife seeks suburban sanctuary.
Frontier Space War, version 8.
FSW8 represents the latest upgrade to this interstellar conflict system. I have used some high quality metallic spray paints on the card discs showing the star systems and the all-metal ships made out of nuts and bolts, ball bearings, plumbing fittings, masonry and plaster anchors, and some two-part epoxy resin as adhesive.
The five factions here represent: -
Imperials (I), Aquarians (A), Goths (G), Capitalists (C), Soviets (S).
Yet they can represent anything from Neo-Feudal Noble Houses to a variety of Alien Races.
The combat powers of units in attack A or defence D, appear as the type of dice used for such attacks or defences. Icosahedron 20, Dodecahedron 12, Pentagonal bipyramid 10, Octahedron 8, Cube 6, Tetrahedron 4. The system requires 3 sets of attack dice and two of defence dice.
b/3 means best of 3 dice rolls. (1/tn) means only one shot per player turn. (8*) means Destroyers engaged in rounds of combat with Capital Ships denoted *, attack or defend at 8. # means craft may jump past enemy craft during movement, but not enemy # craft, otherise all other pieces must halt on encountering enemy pieces.
Unit. ATTACK DEFENCE COST MOVE
Capital City* - 20 - 0
Fortress* - 20 5 1 NR
Battleship* 12 12 5 2
Battlecruiser* 10 10 4 2
Cruiser/Carrier 8 8 3 3#
Destroyer 6 (8*) 6 2 3#
Frigate 4 4 1 3#
Fort - 4 - 0
Monitor* 4 20 3 1 NR
Devastator(I) 12 (1/tn) 4 2 3
Fighter(I) 6 6 1/3 01
Attack Cruiser(G) 10 6 3 3
Heavy Gunship*(ACS) 20 4 5 2
Katusha (S) b/3 10 (1/tn) 6 2 3
Flagships* as below
(I)(S) As for Battleship, but attack at 20 and add +1 to all dice in flotilla A or D.
(C) As for Battleship, but may deploy its 2 fighters in addition to standard attack or defence 3:2 lineup.
(G) As for Battleship, but b/3 to self and one other ship in flotilla, A or D.
(A) As for Destroyer, but b/3 to self and two other ships in flotilla, A or D.
All worlds must be occupied by a Fort for income. Any Fortress can produce units up to a total cost of 5 per turn. Unused income cannot be saved. Any ship costing 3 or more may place a Fort on a world cleared of opposing forces at no cost.
Player turn: - INCOME(connected systems), PRODUCTION(at Fortresses), MOVEMENT, COMBAT(retreat, out of combat), (PLACE FORTS)
COMBAT – Risk Protocols, up to 3 Attack dice and 2 Defence dice. Attacker deploys first in each round, up to 3 pieces if available, defender deploys second, must place 2 pieces if available. Compare highest two dice throws in order, defender wins draws. Each side removes one casualty of choice for each loss. After one or more rounds of combat either side may elect to retreat 1 jump from the territory, if possible. NR means no retreat option for unit.
01 Fighters can only move in Carriers. Only one active producing fortress per system.
Start – 2 Player game - All pieces on board, at least one ship and a fort per system. Imperials pick 1 ally. Remaining 3 factions ally as Rebels. Alternate All Imperials then All Rebels. Combined ops in attack or defence.
3 Player game. Imperials versus 2 alliances of 2 others. No combined operations.
4 Player game. Imperials inactive due to internal collapse, no production, or movement, defence only. 4 other factions fight for supremacy.
5 Player game. All five factions strive for supremacy. Alliances may form and break but no combined operations except for conquered factions.
Victory Conditions. Eliminate enemy Capitals. Any remaining forces then become subsumed into an alliance with combined operations.
Income from star systems, Large 3, Medium 2, Small 1.
Starting incomes. (I) 19 (A) 15 (G) 15 (C) 16 (S) 14
Optional extra: Psi Weapon Tournament Rules.
Psi weapons run on strange esoteric, AI, and quantum principles to modify material and psychological realities. Factions may purchase them during their production phases at a cost denoted by C. Any faction may hold up to one of each type of the eight Psi weapons. The black and red Psi weapons can attack enemy Psi weapons (or other enemy units) at any distance with an attack denoted by A. All Psi weapons have a defence denoted by D. Any vessel may transport or hold a Psi weapon, but if all available vessels become destroyed, so does the weapon.
Local effect weapons. (Within systems only.)
(6) Yellow – Command Enhancement. Confers +2, A or D on a Flotilla. C4 D6
(8) Orange - Navigation – Allows all mobile vessels in a flotilla to move 3, ignoring # pickets. C5 D4
(1) White – Prescience – Allows a vessel or flotilla to move and make an attack but to completely cancel the entire action if it fails, at the cost of the loss of the Psi weapon. Alternatively, an attacking flotilla with Prescience may require a defending flotilla without Prescience to deploy first in each combat round. C4 D6
(7) Green - Diplomacy – Allows a flotilla to delay its move for a combined operation with another faction. C3 D8
Non-Local effect weapons. (Effects anywhere.)
(4) Blue - Production Bonus - increases production of fortresses to 8. C3 D6
(2) Purple - Fecundity Bonus – increases income from all systems by 1. C5 D4
(5) Red – Attack Magic - attack any Psi weapon. C3 A6 D6
(3) Black – Dark Arts – attack any Psi weapon or may attack any unit. C5 A8 D8
The following chart shows the ideological relationships of the five example factions.
(Individualist)
l
Goths l Capitalists
l
(Mystical) ---------Imperials ------------(Rationalist)
l
Aquarians l Soviets
l
(Collectivist)
LaTeX Code \sum \limits_{i=1}^n i = \frac{n(n+1)}{2} renders to
LaTeX code \prod \limits_{i=1}^{n+1}i = 1\cdot 2\cdot\dots\cdot n\cdot (n+1) redners to
LaTeX Code \iint_a^b\) und \(\iiint_a^b renders to
LaTeX code \lim\limits_{n \to \infty}\frac{1}{n}=0 redners to
Herewith the Necronomicom Wand and Pentachoron instruments used to earth the forthcoming Chaos Necronomicon section of EPOCH, the Esotericon and Portals of Chaos.
The Wand
…The Perfect Cosmological Principle.
Copernicus overturned the Ptolemaic astronomical assumption that the earth lay at the centre of the universe, and did, like the other
…Arcanorium College, the Worlds Premier Cyberspace Academy for the Magical Artes, Proudly Presents: -
For Semester 6 beginning on June 24th.
Nikki Wyrd, Transmogrification
Andriehvitimus, An introduction
…Firstly a number of interesting items from some of my friends and colleagues: -
Dave Lee’s new novel, The Road to Thule. A rollicking tale of
…Following some email exchanges I present some further thoughts on the Hyperspin Eight Dimensional hypothesis of fundamental particles. Fundamental particle physics strikes me as important
…http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340170/title/Dark_matter_search_turns_up_empty
Ahem, yes well I did predict that some time ago and wrote it up in The Apophenion and The Octavo.
Half-crazed wizards can take
…Went to a community meeting this evening, largely to oppose the off-license sale of alcohol to the local teenage yobbery till 11pm. The local yobbery has a
…Apophenia’s Official Birthday.
On this little rock circling a nondescript star in an unfashionable spiral arm of our galaxy Apophenia’s Official Birthday happens tomorrow, Thursday
…Quarks.
Our current understanding of the atomic nucleus looks pretty incomplete and messy. In particular the explanations of why u and d quarks with a
…The hunt for the origin of U, the ubiquity constant of about 6 x 10 60 , which relates the Planck mass, length, and time to
…With reference to the previous post, it all gets worse and worse for Rupert, one wonders how much he will have to pay Rebecca to keep
…St George’s Day again and hardly anyone notices, we gave the world Newton, Darwin, and Democracy, plus nearly all of its games and sports, but
…Oops the universe appears to contain something too big, in apparent violation of the Cosmological Principle that it should appear homogenous at this scale.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130111092539.htm
…Habemus Papem , We have another Pope, Francis the 1 st . We send our not entirely cordial greetings from Our Pestilence, Pete the 1 st , Pontiff
…After a hard days slaving over esoteric and scientific texts in search of the secrets and equations of the universe I sometimes like to do
…Following a number of heated debates with my eldest who has gone native after marrying a fine Scot, I've taken a lot more notice of
…Organised Chaos
Imagine that you wished to establish a magical order so that people could come together to practise and explore a new type of
…Hi, Yog-Sothoth here again...
With a bit more on those pesky quarks...
Consider the flowing data in support of the idea that within baryons, u
…Firstly, Hail Dave!
Prime Minister UK, David Cameron, who has always seemed like a decent sort of chap and done nothing stupid so far, displays
…Semester 4 of our 7th glorious year begins TODAY on Arcanorium College. www.arcanoriumcollege.com You can join up for it anytime this week.
Semester 4, 11th
…Two groups have always understood the principle that you can only have one government per currency.
The Synarchist faction of the european political class have
…Screw the EU
UKIP have made a good showing at the local council elections in the UK. Nobody really wants UKIP local councillors as such;
…Electromagnetic and Strong Nuclear ‘unification’ in 3D time?
In particle physics we observe ‘Charge Quantisation’. If particles have electric charges they always exhibit a charge
…Elements.
I recall an old cartoon joke which depicts a pair of ancient Greeks standing before a Doric column on which one had just carved
…A Fistful of Wands.
To celebrate the completion of the Esotericon text I took the three wands used in the creation of the Elemental, Planetary
…Jose Manuel Barroso, head of some apparently important part of the hydra like EU Totalitarian Synarchy has just said that 'Britain will reduce(?) itself to the
…The Pontifical Sexagesimal Nativity Address 2013.
From His Pestilence Stokastikos the First; upon the eve of his 60th birthday.
Fellow earthlings, firstly let me say
…
