World – Quick Abacus

February 27, 2024 Political Ideologies / World

Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Vladimir Putin

Carlson’s interview avoided the key confrontational issues. The opening question should have been: “Mr. Putin, why did you order the invasion of a sovereign neighboring country, a UN member state?” Judging from Putin’s other responses he would probably have replied: “Ukraine is not a sovereign country. It has always been part of Russia. Both politically and culturally.” That reply would not have been supported by the historical facts. But what else could Putin have said?

When Carlson asked Putin if he would invade Poland, Putin said he would not do that because it “is not in Russia’s interest”. In other words: Putin deems any action he takes as justified as long as the action reflects the best interest of Russia – or what he thinks that is. This shows clearly that Putin is a “Realpolitiker”: He acts within the limits of what his power allows him to do. Considerations such as the right of a nation to exist as an independent nation state or limitations of international law are irrelevant to him.

October 24, 2023 Culture and Religion / World

Blame Israel

Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist anti-Jewish organization, has attacked Israel and committed numerous incredible atrocities, like decapitating babies and raping and killing women in public. They proclaim to be and fight for the “Palestinian People”. Anti-Jewish hate demonstrations have popped up everywhere in the so-called “civilized” world celebrating this new height of bloody barbarism and blaming Israel for it. These deranged minds have wrapped themselves in the “Palestinian flag” in solidarity with the “Palestinian People” and their alleged fight for freedom.

But is there really a “Palestinian People”? Palestine is not a nation or a nation state or a country. The term refers to a geographic region located in the so-called Middle East that includes parts of modern-day Israel, Jordan, territories of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The term is equivalent to terms like “Rhineland”, “Appalachia”, or the “Western Desert”. The region has a long and complex history.

October 24, 2023 Political Ideologies / World

Ukraine — Again

In recent discussions with TikTok and RT viewers I heard the following arguments against supporting Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression. They are also repeated in Mr. Putin’s argumentation that Ukraine is an integral part of Russia.

Ukraine is not really a genuine separate nation state.
Crimea has Russia’s most important warm water seaport.
The Ukrainians are actually Russians.
The Ukrainian language is only a Russian dialect.
We are pumping billions into Ukraine while our own southern border is overrun.
Ukraine does not deserve to be supported because it is corrupt.

Let us analyze these arguments.

May 18, 2023 Science and Philosophy / World

“Green” — what’s in a word.

People who call themselves “green” typically demand drastic measures to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, which, they claim, are caused by humans. They see themselves as the friends and defenders of the vegetal world against reckless CO2 contaminators.

Earth’s atmosphere contains approximately 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide – yes, only about 400 parts per million – and traces of hydrogen, helium, and other so-called “noble” gases.

March 17, 2023 Culture and Religion / World

The Solutrean Hypothesis

Until recently, the common theory about how North America was populated was that the first humans migrated to Alaska from North East Asia and then moved on into the plains and to the East. The theory also asserted that the Clovis culture was the Neolithic culture of these early immigrants and that the American Indians are offspring of the Clovis people and the “native” population of North America.

However, the “Bering Strait” theory, as some call it, is unable to explain certain facts.

And perhaps therefore, it recently (2012) got competition: the Solutrean hypothesis.

February 13, 2023 Science and Philosophy / World

About Climate Change

Believers of the MMCC (Man-Made Climate Change) religion like Greta Thunberg, AOC, Al Gore and many others want to save “the” climate. One has to wonder, which climate they mean. Do they really believe that today’s or yesterday’s climate is “the” climate, i.e. the one and only climate that is supposed to exist on earth in order to accommodate a specific form of human civilization? Do these people not know that the only thing that is constant about the climate of this planet is that it has been constantly changing for 4.5 billion years?

They claim that recent comparatively minor changes in earth’s climate are caused by human activities. Do they not know that there have been far more dramatic changes in earth’s climate while people did not even exist?

February 4, 2023 World

The Coming Water War between Turkey, Iraq and Syria

The river Tigris is the lifeline connecting the cities of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. In recent years, it has been choked by numerous dams, most of them upstream in Turkey, and by lack of rainfall.
The Tigris has its source in Turkey and its course through Iraq begins in the mountains of northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, near the borders of Turkey and Syria, where local people raise sheep and grow potatoes.
Iraq’s government and Kurdish farmers accuse Turkey of withholding water in its dams, dramatically reducing the flow into Iraq, in particular, the Ilisu dam on the Tigris near the village of Ilisu and along the border of the Mardin and Şirnak provinces in Turkey.

December 3, 2022 Science and Philosophy / World

Tectonic Plates, Continental Drift, Abiotic Methane, and Climate Change

In 1912, the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener developed the theory of continental drift. Wegener postulated the existence of a single supercontinent from about 350 million to 245 million years ago, during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, and named it Pangea, meaning “the all-land.” Pangea was the product of continental drift caused in part by tectonic plate movement. He searched the geologic and paleontological literature for evidence supporting the continuity of geologic features across the Indian and Atlantic oceans during that time period, the Mesozoic, about 252 million to 66 million years ago. He presented the idea of continental drift and some of the supporting evidence in a lecture in 1912, followed by his major published work, The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915).

November 19, 2022 Culture and Religion / World

What is wrong with (wo)mankind?

If countries/nations do not produce enough people, their populations shrink. If they shrink beyond a certain point, they cannot recover, and the population of the country or nation will disappear. So, this is really crucial. If your population disappears, all other problems won’t matter much. Right?

October 22, 2022 Culture and Religion / World

White Men Can Pack

When I lived with the Yebámasa Indians on the Río Piraparaná in South-East Colombia in 1977/78, one day, a group of Indians from Síoro Jáiro, a place directly on the Piraparaná consisting of four palm-leaf malocas, decided that they wanted to travel to the mission town of Mitú by canoe. Mitú was approximately 300 miles by river from Síoro Jáiro.