The Logic of Genocide and Incest Within the Bible

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Surprisingly, the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark contains both genocide and incest. In the historical account of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark, God drowns everybody, the wicked, the innocent, even children and animals; this is tantamount to genocide. The story further goes on to recant that this same God then repopulates the world, seemingly through incest, for the second time within the Bible (the first being the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve) as it is only Noah and his wife Naamah (pronounced “nah-ah-mah”), alongside their 3 sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (pronounced “jay-feth”) and their wives Sedeqetelbab (pronounced “seh-dek-eh-tel-bahb”), Ne’elatama’uk (pronounced “neh-eh-la-tah-mah-ohk”), and Adataneses (pronounced “ah-dah-tah-neh-sehz”) who survive the Great Flood. It is from these 3 interrelated families that God repopulated the Earth however this is ambiguous at best because with only 3 male lines and 3 unrelated female lines, the gene pool is far too narrow to avoid recessive disorders and/or avoid reduced fertility as well as a rapid accumulation of harmful mutations within subsequent generations. Total collapse would be expected within 3 – 5 generations because harmful mutations would accumulate faster than they could be removed. In short, the biological failure curve would start at the first generation and become catastrophic virtually instantaneously causing failure to be imminent

The Origin of April Fools’ Day

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April Fools’ Day is believed to be linked to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar within Europe in 1582, as this change officially moved New Year’s Day to January 1st annually. Because some Europeans (primarily non-Catholic) continued to use the Julian calendar to celebrate the antiquated late March New Year of the Indo-European tradition, they were teased as “fools” for being out of date. In France, the custom of affixing paper fish to the backs of others, a tradition referred to as “poisson d’avril” which means “April fish” in French, helped the tradition of pranks and jokes being played upon April 1st spread across Europe and eventually the wider world. The French tradition is to secretly attach paper fish upon the back of another person and then shout “April Fish!” in a playful way once discovered by said victim. Although the true origin of April Fools and its relation to pranks and jokes is still contested during the modern day, the shifting of Catholic European countries to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 remains the most coherent explanation

How Experts Identify a First Edition Book in its First State

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A book can be a first edition without being the first run of print. Errors if caught are corrected, making everything printed up and until that point referred to as the “first state”. Anything printed after this is still considered a first edition, but a second state, first edition. Any further corrections during the first printing run would be considered a third state, first edition, and so on. To determine what state a book is, experts look at a book’s points of issue which include its price point and the flap copy which is commonly referred to as the “blurb”, written upon the inner folds of the dust jacket. These dual points of issue tend to change over time, which is why they are indicative of which state a publication is, and whether or not it’s a true first edition

How Scientists Measure and Calculate Immense Distances Within Space

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150,000,000 (150 million) kilometers is the distance of 1 astronomical unit, which is the distance from the Earth to the Sun and is used as a standard measure for describing distances within our solar system. For larger distances, scientists rely upon the light year which is 9,460,730,472,580 (9.46 trillion) kilometers or 63,241 astronomical units. For even greater distances, scientists rely upon the parsec which is 30,856,775,814,914 (30.9 trillion) kilometers  or 206,265 astronomical units

The Only Celebrity Billionaires Within the U.S.

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As of 2025, only 5 U.S. celebrities have achieved billionaire status in terms of net worth with this list including Shawn Carter, more commonly referred to as “Jay Z”, his spouse Beyoncé Knowles, Rihanna Fenty, Taylor Swift, and finally Bruce Springsteen. It should be noted, Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez reached this milestone as well, however because of how various events unfolded within each of their lives, their individual net worths have both dropped below the $1,000,000,000 ($1 billion) threshold, which effectively means they have reverted back to centimillionaire status, the highest net worth prior to becoming a billionaire

How Japanese Fishers Used Sumi Ink to Document Their Trophy Catches During the 19th Century

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In Japan, there is a traditional art medium referred to as “Gyotaku” (pronounced “gyoo-tah-koo”), which means “fish impression” in Japanese. The art form began in the 1800’s when fishers wanted to record their prized catches before the development of photography. These fishers would coat their most prized catches in sumi ink, press the inked fish onto washi paper, and this create a highly detailed and ornate print which demonstrates the fish’s size and features at a 1:1 scale. The ink relies upon pure collagen, manufactured by simmering raw animal tissue for hours at a temperature range of 60 – 65 degrees Celsius, until such time that the protein of the tissue dissolves into a clear liquid adhesive. Once this occurs, the organic solution is mixed with ultra finely compacted soot pigment, creating a rich and viscous ink to produce prints from

The Syrian Public’s View and Treatment of Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria After Death

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In Syria, it is considered banned within society to properly bury supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. When the bodies of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria supporters are found, they are often cleared away with machinery and placed into dump trucks to be removed to a dumping site alongside the rubble found around them (e.g. collapsed buildings). Civilians are provided proper Islamic burials if possible but supporters of Daesh, the Syrian name for the organization, are not provided this last right and/or dignity. Syrians who participate in this practice justify doing so using the logic that because supporters of the Islamic State directly caused the devastation which Syria is now experiencing, therefore they too deserve to be removed alongside side it in the same mechanistic manner

The Reason Alexander the Great Invaded India in 327 B.C.

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Macedonian king Alexander the III, more commonly referred to as “Alexander the Great”, campaigned into India due to the fact that he was inspired to do so by one of his personal heroes; Dionysus (pronounced “dai-oh-nai-sis”). Dionysus campaigned into India in a Greek epic Alexander was familiar with, and Alexander III believed that if he did this as well, he would return to Macedonia, Greece an immortal, joining Dionysus and the pantheon of the Ancient Greek gods

The Cinematic Films With the Least and the Most Dialog

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There are a myriad of films which are famous in large part due to the cast speaking virtually no dialog at any point throughout the film’s runtime. In opposition to this, other films and film franchisees have become renowned for the inverse reason, dialog heavy films characterized by dense character exchanges and storylines driven by dynamic characters and expressive speech. In terms of films with casts who are rather quiet, All Is Lost created in 2013 with Robert Redford stranded at sea had a script that was a mere 31 pages in length with almost no spoken lines, WALL·E, a children’s animated film from 2008 featured 89 lines of dialog (51 by machines and 38 by humans) throughout the entirety of its screen time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968, relied heavily upon silence to create dramatic tension, and finally Moebius, produced in 2013, contained no dialog whatsoever. In direct contrast to this and on the other side of that same spectrum, dialog heavy films exist in parallel, with the example of Casino, from 1995 which was extremely dialog heavy with a script of approximately 40,000 words, which is nearly double the average script length, with additional examples available as well (e.g. Dogma from 1999 with a 148 page script, A Few Good Men from 1992 with a 162 page script, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) from 1991 with a 183 page script etc.). This contrast demonstrates the principle that cinema can thrive in both environments of near silence with only body language, facial expressions, and set and character visuals to carry the story, as well as in rapid fire, constantly evolving, dialog heavy scenarios in which the script becomes the most important piece (or character) of the film

The Origin of the Weekend for Workers

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The weekend was invented in the 19th century in Marseille, France (pronounced “mar-say”) as part of a broader societal shift during the Industrial Revolution. During the period, workers within factories and shipyards were often laboring 6 – 7 days per week, with little rest in between shifts. Because Marseille had a bustling port with a strong labor movement and  growing working class, reformers and unions began to push for a scheduled rest day for leisure and recovery. By the mid 19th century, experiments of giving workers Saturday afternoons off began to spread rapidly, which permitted workers more time for their families, religious observance(s), and day to day community life. This practice gradually evolved into the 2 day weekend, beginning in France and then being disseminated across Europe and North America. World governments and industries permitted this shift to occur because it became understood that rest improved productivity and overall job satisfaction