“Many say it is likely, of course, that our rituals were created to track the stars and planets. This, however, is a grave lie concocted by the unbelievers and apostates. In truth the stars and planets were created for the rituals”

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One thing that worries me about the use of AI is whether or not it can worsen people's dementia and alzheimer's in the future. When my grandmother was first diagnosed, we got her math activity books. Now, my grandmother never had a formal education, but we did our best to keep her sharp, get her to do math and writing activity books, sudokus, playing board games that required some level of strategizing with her. Her family is prone to alzheimer's and dementia (both her siblings had it and deteriorated very very very quickly, which yeah, scares the shit out of me being her granddaughter) but she was the one whose mind lasted the longest, she only passed away two years ago, at 88, ten whole years after her initial diagnosis and sure, she had forgotten things, recipes and where she put her glasses and appointments, but she never forgot any of us, ten whole years in, she still remembered us. Now, this may have been luck, but doctors always said the constant mental work + companionship + medicine helped her a lot. So I'm thinking, these people who are now relying on AI for everything, from email-writing to thinking what's for dinner to casual conversations, I've even seen people rely on it to calculate what time they should leave their house if they need to be at a place at a specific time and their commute lasts X number of minutes. As if that's not... the simplest math operation possible? You shouldn't even need a calculator for that!!! Idk I don't know how long it'll take us to see the effects of this + exposure to brain-rotting short form content that is completely meaningless + people addicted to right-wing conspiracy style media. Idk I'm very worried. Please, read, read complicated books! Take up a book on philosophy and try to decipher it and make your own opinions on it, please buy a maths activity book and relearn how to do math, please get a hobby that involves lots of thinking and concentrating. PLEASE!!!

lol this slaps

HOLD BABY JESUS RANSOM UNTIL ST. ANTHONY RETURNS YOUR FREAKING KEYS

There's an entire category of Catholic folk magic that involves threatening and abusing statues of the saints until they do what you want! A famous example is burying a statue of St Joseph upside down in your yard to sell your house; once it's sold, you dig up the statue and "reward" it. The folklorist Sabina Magliocco talks about how Italian folk magic, in particular, has a strong quid pro quo element: in Sardinia, for example, villagers would throw parades for saints and carry their statues around town to ward off drought, but if the saint failed to come through, they'd dunk it in the well headfirst, and keep doing it until the rains came. So if you buy this statue and Anthony doesn't do his job, you can always waterboard him!

I haven't been active for a while because meat space is demanding a lot of my time and attention. I moved a few months ago, and my new place has an entry to a cemetery right behind it. Between my home and the cemetery there's a lot of plants, including poke and morning glory. I 'lose' my spark a bit during the summer, but it tends to return once things start to die, so I'm sure this will be a pretty sweet setup in a few months.

Today I discovered poison ivy and a blank headstone. I mean blank. The writing has been eroded to the point that it's a perfectly smooth surface. My god, the potential for baneful work.

Witchcraft wasn't working so I showed up with a glock