Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
Joined October 2009
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aaa (repentant) retweeted
How did I figure out that natron dissolves granite?
With difficulty. First I had to forget what school taught me about stone.
Granite isn't some sacred, eternal material. Roughly three quarters of it is SiO₂, quartz. The rest is metal oxides: aluminium, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron.
(Just like wood ash. Remember that, it matters later.)
A Mohs hardness of 6–7 isn't a verdict, just a physical state. The real question is what breaks down quartz.
Glassmakers have known the answer for centuries: molten natron (Na₂CO₃) takes SiO₂ apart at 851 °C.
SiO₂ + Na₂CO₃ → Na₂SiO₃ + CO₂
What's created in the reaction is a strong glue, called waterglass. The main ingredient of artificial stone. Oops!
I tried dismantling a piece of red granite with charcoal embers, a tin can and washing soda (=natron). The result is in the photo, after removing the dry waterglass with a plastic(!) tooth brush.
Later, in my garden, I etched granite with NaOH and KOH separately, at around 360–400 °C.
This year, with a NaOH–KOH eutectic mix, 168 °C was enough. That's all it takes for the "invincible" stone.
I discovered nothing. Glassmakers, ceramicists and recyclers all know this.
Nobody had just connected it to the scoop marks on ancient stones. Let’s connect the dots, archeologists!
aaa (repentant) retweeted
“What and how many are the steps of sin?
The steps of sin are twelve in number, according to Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, namely:
The first step is when someone does a good deed with an evil purpose: for money, for praise, for honour - that is, mixing good with evil.
The second step is the incomplete fulfilment of a good deed, doing it only halfway.
The third step is temptation, the bait - that is, the temptation that comes from the devil, from the world, and from the flesh, and which tempts a person through the five senses, called by the Holy Fathers “the windows of the soul.”
The fourth step is union - that is, the mixing of the mind with the temptation.
The fifth step of sin is the battle of the mind (or of the soul) with the temptation. Up to this point, sin has not yet been conceived. From here, however, sin begins to be conceived, bringing condemnation upon the person.
The sixth step of sin is the consent of the mind to sin - that is, the mind taking delight in the temptation, in the desire. From this moment, sin is conceived in the mind and heart of the person and makes him worthy of condemnation, as the Holy Apostle James says: “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15).
The seventh step of sin is the sin committed with the mind through imagination. For after a person consents to commit the sin, he strives, at the prompting of the devil, to imprint that sin in his mind as if he had already done it in deed. Through imagination the sin grows and takes root in the person’s heart.
The eighth step of sin is the decision of the will to commit the sin and the actual carrying out of it in deed.
The ninth step is the habit of sin - that is, committing it many times.
The tenth step of sin is passion, the fixed habit - that is, committing it constantly, both willingly and unwillingly.
The eleventh step of sin is despair, when a person loses the hope of forgiveness through repentance, by the grace and mercy of God.
The twelfth step of sin is suicide - that is, the killing of the person who has fallen into despair because of his sins, by his own free will. This is the heaviest step of sin, from which may God protect us all. The one who commits suicide no longer has forgiveness for all eternity, and the Church is no longer permitted to pray for him (according to the Instruction to the Confessor, in A Book Very Beneficial for the Soul, Bucharest, 1928, p. 15).
The Holy Fathers teach us to fight against sin while it is still small, at the moment of its conception, and not when it has grown large and taken root through passion in our heart. We must kill it while it is an ant, and not a lion, otherwise the “ant-lion” will kill us.
In the same way the psalmist David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says: “Blessed is he who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock” (Psalm 136:9 / 137:9), meaning blessed is that Christian who will crush his sins against the Rock which is Christ while they are still small like infants; for if they grow large, they will enslave us in the Babylon of the passions and will themselves kill us.”
Saint Cleopa Ilie
"Thaddeus, can you clearly state the orthodox position on why Christ died?"
So the Bible uses a lot of metaphors for salvation. Ransom, running a race, fighting a fight. This language is biblical and we Orthodox use it. It isn't theories, and I kind of hate that word, because it implies a bunch of "possible" options and then one or a few may turn out to be true. It's atonement metaphors.
St Gregory the Theologian in his Second Paschal Oration (4th century), one of the greatest theologians of all time, says that if you take the ransom language literally, you get heresy. Satan doesn't have that kind of power, and God isn't holding us hostage. It's a metaphor that means what was needed to free us from death was provided. Similarly, imagine reading "run the race" as literal and assuming salvation is a competition. It's absurd to squeeze every possible literal detail out of the words in Scripture.
But the worst is "Penal Substitutionary Atonement" which says that justice = retributive punishment for sins, and thus God is obligated to be merciless, keep records of wrong, and relegates the heart to a secondary issue rather than primary. A person who cannot let any crime go without punishing someone is fundamentally not merciful. And letting guilty people go free because an innocent person volunteered to take their place is not justice. Justice is making things right, and God uses both retribution and mercy to make things right, and is not obligated to punish. (Justification of man means to make man how he should be.)
So what is ACTUALLY going on? A variety of things, not "theories" or even metaphors but a variety of real things.
1. Physical death is defeated. In the time of the Apostles, people weren't worried about going to Hell for breaking God's rules. The enemy that oppressed them was death, and the Gospel centered around Christ trampling down death by death. The Fathers talk of how much death pushed people towards sin, and so a major incentive for sin was defeated along with defeating death itself. And death was defeated by having it filled with Life Himself. Anyone who dies now goes to be with Christ and will be resurrected on the day of judgment. (Being with Christ doesn't mean you like being with Christ or are "saved.") So to know death was defeated was a powerful message.
2. Spiritual death can be defeated. All sin comes from distance from God. He is love itself, beauty, the logos, the source and standard of all that is good. If we distance ourselves from Him, we do what is "right in our own eyes" and eventually we die. The life of the Christian in the Church opens the door to begin living in a way that reflects God, and the sacraments in the Church open a way to actually unite with Him through that transformation. And the death happens through death to the self as Scripture says, through taking up your crosses daily. (If the Cross was a once-for-all payment it would be extremely offensive to say now WE have to take up our crosses. Wasn't Christ's work enough? It was, but we have to participate in it, we have to walk through the door now that it's open.)
3. Union with God is possible. It was already a powerful message to know death was conquered, and even more to know that with God's help, evil within us can be conquered. But a step even above all this was that man is built to be "partakers in the divine nature", that he was made to be even closer to God than husband and wife. This is the message of the Ascension and Pentecost after the Resurrection, that humanity has united with divinity. Part of how we come intimately close to anyone is to have knowledge of them, which is why sexual intercourse is called "knowing" in Scripture. It is by the Cross that we come to know the basis of who God is, that He bears all our sins (not as legal payment but literally we sinned against Him in His Passion), and most of all when, after so much evil has been unjustly done to Him, He looks at them and says "forgive them Father, they know not what they do." That is a revelation of the incredible heart of God, the same heart we all fail in, and it is only by comparing ourselves to that heart do we repent, and by seeking to have that heart (by God's grace) that we can become close to Him and become like Him.
Salvation is to be united with God, which comes through the defeat of physical death, the transformation of the heart into God's likeness, and above all, a deepening encounter with Him.
aaa (repentant) retweeted
Curious if anyone has discovered that Richard Brand who represents GameStop in their M&A pursuit, is a seasoned M&A attorney in Sharia-compliant transactions. If you are going to conduct business with certain countries, you need to know that they have (imo) superior financial transaction requirements that are based on Sharia Law. Sharia law prohibits both receiving and paying interest, known as riba, as it is considered exploitative and unjust. I tend to agree. Banks are the real benefactors in collecting interest, they have conditioned people to feel good about that minuscule interest payment that people gain on their cash.
I also believe that a heavily weighted cash transaction is not superior to rolling equity. RC has only said more than one time, if he were the institutions, he would roll 100% into equity. Why..? Tax. Cash triggers an immediate taxable event. Rolling equity, allows for tax planning. Also, this proposed transaction will be decided by the eBay institutional investors, which the top 5 in eBay and GME, are the same institutions. They do not need or want cash. 50/50 is a good compromise for a starting point.
Richard Brand was also the lead Attorney for the Zero Coupon Bond offerings, the Warrants, and RC's compensation package. It is all connected, imo, and if you look at the news releases on the White & Case web site, and look at the attorneys involved in each, ProjectRocket, ProjectWee, and ProjectGenesis, look at where the White & Case attorneys are located, and their area of expertise. I think it indicates intent for each event, all heavily weighted to M&A.
Search "GameStop" on the White & Case web site, and you'll see, maybe with the right research, an investor can predict the future. And it is all public information, for the entire World to see.
whitecase.com/people/richard…
There is a reason that White & Case, the attorneys for GameStop 0% Convertible Bonds, the Warrants, and Ryan Cohen’s compensation package, included the attorneys that they did.
Not just the NYC attorneys, but California and Texas based attorneys, too.
All with a common theme: M&A
Richard Brand is the lead M&A attorney who is in every group too. He is considered one of the few top M&A attorneys on the planet.
Search up GameStop on the White & Case site.
whitecase.com/news/press-rel…
aaa (repentant) retweeted
The perfectly ripe summer tomato sandwich is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered and let those who hate Him flee from His face. As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish: as wax melts before the fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the sign of the Cross saying joyfully: Hail, most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, for you drive away demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified on you! He descended into hades and trampled on the power of the devil and gave us you, His venerable Cross, to drive away all enemies. O most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, together with the Holy Sovereign Lady, the Virgin Mother of God and all the Saints, help me throughout the ages. Amen.
aaa (repentant) retweeted
Church of Christ the Saviour, Veria 🇬🇷☦️
The mural paintings date back to 1315 and were painted by the famous painter Georgios Kallergis
Elder Thaddeus of Vitivinica
...When the (Divine liturgy) chanting is as beautiful as this, we are freed from all our cares
and our interest for earthly things and we ascend into eternity with the Lord, His
angels, and the saints, where our true Fatherland and our Kingdom is. If our
Fatherland were of this world, then we would live here in a state of well-being,
peace, and joy. However, this life for us Christians is, so to say, an epitimia. In
this life we must prepare ourselves for life in the Heavenly Kingdom and we
must attain Divine peace. No one can give us that peace; only God can give
peace to created beings and to us if we seek Him and long for Him with all our
heart and if we desire to become one with Him. He wants our souls to be united
with Him, with His Divine will. He wants our entire being to become one with
Him in order that we may feel the joy of living. We, on the other hand, get very
involved in this material life and we have no time to think about our soul, about
our inner peace. We are always shattering our inner peace.
money is not that important. ok? ok. it just isn't. "they" want you to think it is "IT" , the "thing" YOU need to LOVE the most. they CONTROL you with it, because.. (get this) THEY control the MONEY.
they also want you to worry about it, plan for it, rationalize with it, basically make your whole time here around serving it. they are very effective in this message.
money is not even worth anything anymore. a cabbage is 5 dollars. I just made that part up I don't know how much they are. last year I tried to grow 2 of my own but slugs got into both of them. this year, assortment of pretty flowers in that same spot.
honestly, this is the matrix? they program it into us with screens and earbuds. the low level anxiety and worry it keeps inside us in the background of our lives generates the energy they're harvesting. everything is so backwards in this age because of it.
aaa (repentant) retweeted
All of the algorithms that operate the U.S. stock market have been published. For years this page has gone over extremely precise market research including real time and threaded calls of market leading movements.
This page has proven that leading banks use ‘SMA outfits’ to effectively game and automate trading protocols ahead of non-public information.
All of the algorithms and leading programs that banks use to manipulate the U.S. stock market have been published on a public front-end portal.
At exactly 1,000 reposts—I’ll be automating the access link through Gleam and sending it by reply/DM only to accounts that follow @UnfairMarket —repost this post, and reply below. There will be an audit trail for every entry, so access only goes to the accounts that actually complete the steps.
All three steps include:
following:UnfairMarket
reposting:this post
reply below:this post
And you will receive the link to access the portal.
This is a front-end portal showing how SMA outfits are core to bank-level positioning, market manipulation, and major price moves before retail is ever told what happened.
I’m so excited to share my life’s work with the world, work that only @SECGov has had any knowledge of until now.
Happy 250th Fourth of July. 🇺🇸
aaa (repentant) retweeted
Christ is the Divine Logos. He is the Word of God. The Holy Scriptures are His words, Divinely inspired through the Holy Spirit, written down by His Disciples. It's not a book that fell from the sky. We still require the Church that He instituted to be the conduit of its meaning.
