(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

“A lion chased me up a tree, and I greatly enjoyed the view from the top.”

― Confucius

Confucius, born Kong Qiu (died 479 B.C), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages, as well as the first teacher in China to advocate mass education. Wikipedia

Hany Farid | TED2025

• April 2025

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How do you know if that shocking photo in your feed is real, or just another AI fake? Digital forensics expert Hany Farid explains how he helps journalists, courts and governments find structural errors in AI-generated images, offering four practical tips everyday individuals can use when facing the internet’s war on reality.

• Technology
• Corruption
• Media
• Future
• Photography
• AI
• Trust

About the speaker

Hany Farid

Digital forensic scientist

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. 

Published: July 3, 2025 (TheOnion.com)

CHICAGO—Emphasizing the constraints of God’s healing hands, a new study published Thursday in the Journal Of The American Medical Association found that the curative power of prayer was limited exclusively to genital warts. “Our data revealed that while people attempt to cure a host of medical conditions by praying, the only ailment it was shown to be effective against was genital warts,” said lead author Dr. Patrick Mercier, explaining that despite prayer being promoted as a remedy for cancer, drug addiction, and mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia, such invocations for divine intervention were utterly useless unless the condition somehow involved viral growths located around the groin and anus. “The ability of prayer to treat sicknesses and disorders was so narrow, in fact, that it could not even heal plantar warts found on the soles of feet. That said, entreaties to our Creator were so efficient at addressing genital warts specifically that patients who held their hands over the affected vulvas and penises and pleaded to a higher power for relief often found their HPV breakouts cleared up within 24 hours.” Mercier added that curing genital warts was actually the only thing prayer was capable of achieving across the board.

Published: July 3, 2025 (TheOnion.com)

President Donald Trump’s budget megabill is in the House of Representatives after being narrowly passed by the Senate. Here are the key items in “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

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Funding for something called “The Facility.”

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Smaller, phone booth–sized detention boxes on every American street corner.

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Coupon for “buy two get one free” 12-packs of Coca-Cola products at ShopRite.

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A few new mean nicknames for Jeb Bush.

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A map of California inside a red circle with a cross through it.

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A glossy centerfold photo of a hot woman who is about to lose her health insurance.

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The end of treatment for those currently receiving CPR.

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s world-famous moose tracks ice cream recipe.

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Moderate cuts to Medicaid compared to what’s coming. 

Melanistic and typically colored jaguars. Photo: Eduardo Estrada / Wikimedia

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

melanism

PRONUNCIATION:

(MEL-uh-niz-uhm) 

MEANING:

noun: An inherited overproduction of melanin leading to unusually dark coloration.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek melano- (black). Earliest documented use: 1842.

NOTES:

Melanism is nature’s “dark mode”. The opposite of albinism (“light mode”). Iconic examples: black panthers, melanistic jaguars, and peppered moths that went goth during the Industrial Revolution.

The Two of Wands The Lord of Dominion is a card about mastery – of life and of ourselves. It indicates the ability to follow through on our personal destiny, to make our dreams into reality, and to realise our strongest desires.Dominion is a word not much used these days – and therefore sometimes misunderstood. It means ‘rulership’… and has almost nothing to do with domination, even though each of them comes from the same root – domain. In the context of the Tarot, we are relating to our personal domain or territory as our own lives, and our potentials.This card has a great deal to do with the application of the True Will. We all have one of these, whether we have worked to discover and understand it or not. One thing that many people don’t understand is the fact that the Will functions at all times, in every second of existence. Every thought, concept, hope, dream, whether positive or negative, creates a piece of our upcoming reality.This is one reason why we have, in the Working With commentaries, concentrated very hard on looking at what we think and feel, how we see ourselves, and how we relate to life. Because, with every thought you think, your Will operates to bring that thought into existence. So if you happen to be thinking negatively and unhappily, your Will trots off and makes a little bit more negativity and unhappiness for you.The Lord of Dominion gives us power over our thoughts, by asking us to take responsibility for the future we are making for ourselves. We must do this by observing (without judgement nor self-recrimination) our thought patterns. And then we must consider where those thought patterns are leading us. And if we don’t like the look of the future – well, we have the opportunity to change it before it’s too late!!Part of your domain is what you think. So on a day ruled by the Lord of Dominion, check out your thoughts on a regular basis. And if you aren’t happy… do the affirmation!! And then decide what you want to invite into your domain which is positive and constructive and rewarding. Then think about that!!On this day, make no easy compromises. Cut straight to the heart of your desires and needs. Discard any thoughts which get in the way of you getting what you want. Make every action and choice a deliberate attempt to get closer to your goal. And enjoy!! Affirmation: “My Will flows effortlessly in perfect acts of creation.”

(Angelpaths.com)

Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract” comparing and contrasting what seems to be truth with what you can syllogistically, axiomatically and mathematically (using word equations) prove is the truth. It is not an effort to change, alter or heal anything.

The claims in a Translation may seem outrageous, but they are always (or should always be) based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week. 

1)    Truth is that which is so.  That which is not truth is not so.  Therefore truth is all that is.  Truth being all is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore complete.  Truth being true is therefore right, therefore correct, therefore perfect.  I think therefore I am.  Since I am and since Truth is all that is, therefore i, being, am Truth.  Since I, being, am Truth, therefore i, being, have all the attributes of Truth.  Therefore I, being, am total, whole, complete, true, right, correct, perfect.  Since I am mind (self-evident) and since I (being) am Truth, therefore Truth is Mind.  (Two things being equal to a third thing are equal to each other.)  Since Truth is Mind, therefore Mind has all the attributes of Truth.  Therefore Mind is total, whole, complete, true, right, correct, perfect.  

2)    Is consciousness equivalent to motion?

Word-tracking:
consciousness:  science, to know, can, being awake, aware, concerned, considered, mind
equivalent:  equal to, same as, not different from
differ:  not divided or able to be divided into different elements, types, etc. (etymology:  carried away from)
motion:  movement, to move, to change, to go
change:  to become different, unlike

3)    Truth being all that is, there is nothing different (or carried away) from Truth, Therefore Truth is undifferentiated, changeless.  Truth being changeless and to change meaning to move, therefore Truth (whatever that is) does not change or move from being one thing to being another.  Therefore Truth is one changeless thing.  And Truth being mind/consciousness, therefore the one changeless thing that truth is is undifferentiated consciousness.

4)    Truth is undifferentiated, changeless. 
        Truth (whatever that is) does not change or move from being one thing to being another.
       Truth is one changeless thing.
       The one changeless thing that truth is is undifferentiated consciousness.

5)    Truth is one changeless thing: individuated Consciousness.

Weekly Invitational Translation Group invites your participation.  If you would like to submit a Translation on any subject, feel free to send your weekly Translation to  zonta1111@aol.com and we will anonymously post it on the Bathtub Bulletin on Friday.

For information about Translation or other Prosperos classes go to: https://www.theprosperos.org/teaching.

New Thinkin Jul 3, 2025 Mary K. Greer has been studying and teaching tarot for the last half century. She is author of eleven books on tarot and on magic. They include Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for Personal Transformation; Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses; The Essence of Magic: Tarot, Ritual, and Aromatherapy; and Mary K. Greer’s 21 Ways to Read a Tarot card. She has taught tarot for 11 years at the New College of California. She has a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Central Florida, where she first taught tarot in 1974. Here she describes the history of tarot cards and the various ways they can be used both for personal growth and to help others. In particular, she focuses on the esoteric tarot system used by the Order of the Golden Dawn. Many examples are illustrated from her personal experience. 00:00 Introduction 04:29 The Order of the Golden Dawn 09:26 History of tarot 19:25 The French tarot tradition 22:31 The major and minor arcana 24:03 Tarot spreads 28:33 Archetypal symbols 31:47 Tarot as a conversation 37:17 Tarot in magical rituals 45:20 Conclusion New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on June 3, 2025)

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jul 2, 2025 Rick Strassman, MD, is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. He is author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule — A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research Into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds Through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies, and DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: a New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible. He has also authored a novel titled Joseph Levy Escapes Death. His website is https://www.rickstrassman.com/ In this interview, rebooted from 2019, he describes how he was an active Buddhist meditator for twenty years while he was also engaged in DMT research. Eventually he left Buddhist practice, and began a deep study of the Hebrew bible. Initially, he thought that the DMT “spirit molecule” might be responsible for spiritual experiences. In retrospect, he now believes that DMT serves as a placebo to amplify that which is already in the mind. He has developed the concept of “theoneurology” — suggesting that the divine acts upon human imagination that then inspires the rational intellect. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on September 27, 2019)