Category: Iconography

The Rationale Behind the Iconic Mask of Anonymous

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In 2008, the Anonymous hacktivism group staged mass protests across multiple cities worldwide. Because participating members were in need of adopting a physical disguise as they would be shifting from the online world into the physical world, early members of Anonymous spent the proceeding 48 hours calling comic book retailers, costume retailers, toy retailers etc. looking for identical disguises which could be purchased en masse for a reasonable price point. As it turned out, each one of these retailers had overstock of Guy Fawkes masks, most of them sitting in external storage and heavily discounted as no one wanted them after the release of the V for Vendetta film released in 2006, a rare miscalculation by manufacturers and retailers. Strangely, the iconography of the Anonymous organization was birthed out of an accidental fluke of overstock

The Reason Financial Investment Platform Robinhood Halted the Ability to Trade GameStop Stock in 2021

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On January 28, 2021, soon after the opening bell, Robinhood and several other major trading platforms announced the suspension of the ability to purchase GameStop stock, delivering a devastating blow to the WallStreetBets subreddit community which had been helping to elevate the stocks price point by locking out new investors and causing the stock price to tumble dramatically. The rationale for this decision was that extreme volatility could create unforeseen economic problems in the future (e.g. unsustainable economic bubble etc.) but many retail investors viewed this outcome as professional investors leveraging their authority with the U.S. government and the financial industry to stop the public from continuing to financially annihilate large, established trading firms. In addition to the official reason provided, retail trading platforms are not designed to handle the torrent of transactions related to events like the ascendancy of GameStop which played a factor in why Robinhood and other platforms succame to the pressure to halt all future trading of GameStop stock. Robinhood claimed that the company did not have the liquidity on hand to cover the trades and gains being made. Unsurprisingly, the price of GameStop stock rapidly declined, devastating retail investors and highlighting the fact that the investment market is rigged toward the wealthy and powerful perhaps having a distinct advantage over their counterparts. Experts argue that this intervention unnaturally drove the price point of GameStop stock down, acting to reverse the effects of community based organization and investment. It was the clearing houses however that truly forced Robinhood and other trading platforms into capitulating. When a stock is purchased or sold, the transaction does not settle and finalize until 2 business days after the transaction time stamp, something which is unbeknownst to many investors. During this 2 business day period, due to regulation, brokerages and clearing firms are not permitted to use customer capital to fund the collateral use of those 2 business days, therefore being legally required to leverage the firms own capital. Robinhood argued that it did not possess the corporate capital required to facilitate the enormous volume of GameStop stock trades. It should be noted, Robinhood has repeatedly denied that it was under pressure from hedge fund executives, financial organizations, and the professional financial industry as a whole to stop the short squeeze occurring for those who chose to short sell GameStop stock

The 4 Types of Demonic Activity Recognized by the Catholic Church for Exorcism

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The Catholic Church recognizes 4 distinct types of demonic activity which include Demonic Infestation (e.g. the presence of evil within an object or at a specific location), Demonic Vexation (e.g. person who experiences physical attacks from a demon), Demonic Obsession (e.g. person who experiences mental attacks from by a demon), and Demonic Possession (e.g. person who has had their body hijacked by a demon with the demon utilizing the victim’s body as though it was their own). Cases of formal exorcism in which a person believes they are possessed by a demon are rare with high ranking Catholic clergy typically seeing 1 – 2 dozen during their career, however cases of Demonic Infestation, Demonic Vexation, and Demonic Obsession are quite common with high ranking clergy typically observing thousands of these cases during that same time span. Although exorcisms are portrayed in media as relatively short exercises, it is not uncommon for those who believe they are possessed to have the exorcism ritual last for days, and for the possession believed to be present to last months or years in duration

The Scandinavian Concept of Ragnarök

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In Scandinavian mythology, Ragnarök is composed of a series of events and catastrophes which after having occurred, will ultimately lead to the end of civilization and the world. Ragnarök culminates as a final battle between the gods, demons, and giants, ending in the death of virtually all gods therefore ending in the end of the worlds existence. From this outcome, a new pantheon of deities is created and from this, a new world order. The term “Ragnarök” often stands to represent “the last great battle”

The Origins of Star Wars Day; May 4th

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Star Wars Day, which occurs every year on May 4th, as this date is reminiscent of the phrase, “may the force be with you” (e.g. “May the Fourth be with you”) started on May 4, 1979, the day Margaret Thatcher took office as prime minister of Britain. A large advertisement was published on this date in recognition of Thatchers achievement which read “May The Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations.”

The Reason English Playwright William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is Believed to be a Cursed Play

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It is often believed by thespians that it is bad luck to say the name “Macbeth” within the theater that the play is being performed. This belief stems back to 1606 when a group of witches objected to William Shakespeare using real incantations within his work. As such, these witches claimed to have placed a curse upon the play, in perpetuity. The superstitious tradition caught on as the initial showing of Macbeth in private before King James I at Hampton Court in London, England sometime between August and December of 1606 was laiden with unfortunate errors and mishaps, continuing non-stop, even when performed for the public for the first time at the Globe Theater in London, England in 1611

The First Personal Computer and its Ramifications Upon Technology

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The Altair 8800 from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems is considered to be the first personal computer, although ironically, the system itself did nothing as software had yet to be invented. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak used the Altair 8800 as the basis for the Apple I, the first ever Apple product. Additionally, Bill Gates and his team wrote Basic for the Altair 8800 and created Microsoft from that programming language

The Etymology of the Christian Demon Name “Lucifer”

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The name “Lucifer” in reference to Satan from the Christian faith is derived from the Latin terms, “lucem” and “ferri”, which mean “light” and “bearer”. Lucifer, and from that Satan, holds resemblance to Prometheus, a Greek god who is credited with creating the human race by spawning human beings from clay. Prometheus is also credited with providing civilization with the gift of fire, which resulted in him being punished when caught by having his liver eaten by an eagle by day and then growing back again at night, repeating this cycle ad infinitum

The First Time a Woman and a Queen Illegally Published a Book in England

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Queen Catherine Parr was an outspoken evangelist and believed that God had selected her to marry King Henry VIII so that she could spread the good news of the new religion of Protestantism, even going so far as to publish a book entitled “Prayers or Meditations” in 1545 which consisted of a collection of Latin religious texts translated into English, an unprecedented act as it marked the first time a book was published in English by a woman, compounded by the fact that this was the first time a book was published by an English queen. The book became a best seller instantaneously but the publishing of this book was technically illegal as women were not permitted to spread the word of God, and especially not in the English language

The Rationale as to Why Scientific Fact is Often Referred to as “Scientific Theory”

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The term “theory” placed behind suffixes of large theories like gravity, evolution, and special relativity (e.g. the Theory of Gravity, the Theory of Evolution, the Theory of Special Relativity etc.), doesn’t mean “theory” in the traditional sense. During the 20th century, Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion began to break down within the theories own borderlines as physics progressed further and further to answer continually larger and more complex questions. As a direct result of this, a grander, more encapsulating law was required to explain certain phenomena (e.g. the reason the sun has a corona of light bend around it during a total solar eclipse) which is why Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is so immensely important, as it explains such phenomena after which Newton’s laws begin to break down (e.g. Newton’s ability to predict planetary orbit but not explain why such a function occurs in nature etc.). Eventually the international scientific community unanimously agreed that laws should not be named as such because they may not remain laws in the long term, as there may be concepts outside of them which help explain both the supposed law itself as well broader phenomena outside of the suppositional law. The term “theory” was utilized to replace the term “law” because something scientific which can change over time, is not or was not truly a law to begin with. The term “theory” is used in the connotation of an idea which accurately describes a phenomena and empowers an observer to accurately predict what they have yet to observe. An idea isn’t genuinely a “theory” until it’s supported by empirical evidence, before which time it remains as a “hypothesis”