Well, after the dizziness and nose bleed inducing time travel watching the last Season of LOST, I thought I had enough. Apparently not, I was lured in again curious to get John Locke back. I really think at this point if John Locke is dead for good, LOST will lose viewers. Locke has become the central figure for the show, unless you watch it for the sappy triangle romance between Jack, Kate, and Sawyer…

The black guy, who appeared once in a while, and now has a good part in Fringe was always very interesting also, something about that guy’s face that is unique and intriguing. I notice that just as with Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia and others, LOST, also seems to borrow a lot from Biblical themes and stories….you could see the black smoke monster as the devil, and Jacob as Jesus, in fact at other times, there were other survivors who portrayed some Jesus like role to die to save others….in the last one I watched you could say they borrowed from Revelation, about the devil being thrown into the pit and then he would be let loose again for a while….the black cloud monster found a way to trick Ben by pretending he was John Locke, into betraying Jacob. Now Jacob though, if really dead, may somehow rise again in some way or in a different ’state’, perhaps they borrow again from Bible with idea of glorified bodies etc…it was interesting that the black monster, ie the ‘devil’ wanted to leave the Island, to go out into the world….i still have some catching up to do, I’ve only seen LAX part 1 and part 2 and I think there were one or two more episodes I haven’t seen yet. I hope we haven’t see the last yet of the ‘real’ John Locke, and I think most are tired and bored of the Sawyer and Kate thing and likely feel more empathy for Juliet….Ben probably would be nice to finally find true ‘conversion’ and redemption from all his ’sins’…..otherwise I think we want him to do some more ‘bad’ things and then watch him get his final justice….

You could also try and see the Jacob and the monster thing from a mormon perspective, ie mormons believing that Jesus and the devil/lucifer were brothers and supposedly God chose one over the other and Jesus’ plan for mankind versus Lucifer’s plan. Perhaps the angle will take a diff turn as I watch the next episodes, will be interesting to see what the deal is with that seemingly parallel universe where they are on the island but are in LA also at the same time….or perhaps it isn’t exactly same time…wasn’t clarified yet…looking forward to see if the ‘beast’, the devil, will escape the Island and get out into the rest of the world, and if he does what will happen etc…or will Jacob rise again in some way and defeat/crush the head of the devil having just bruised his heel in the previous betrayal by Ben who had felt too ignored lately by Jacob and was jealous of John Locke…

And I kind of doubt we’ve seen the last of Juliet….at least I hope we haven’t….

Are you tempted to BUY something on EBAY but want reassurance that its legit? Send the link over for analysis!

Here is the new Massachusetts’ Senator’s Victory Speech (transcribed text, video at end):

State Senator Scott Brown: Thank you very much. I’ll bet they can hear all this cheering down in Washington, D.C.

And I hope they’re paying close attention, because tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken.

From the Berkshires to Boston, from Springfield to Cape Cod, the voters of this Commonwealth defied the odds and the experts. And tonight, the independent majority has delivered a great victory.

I thank the people of Massachusetts for electing me as your next United States senator.

Every day I hold this office, I will give all that is in me to serve you well and make you proud.

Most of all, I will remember that while the honor is mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one person and no political party – and as I have said before, and you said loud and clear today, it is the people’s seat.

Interim Senator Paul Kirk has completed his work as a senator by appointment of the governor, and for the work he has done, I thank him. The people, by their votes, have now filled the office themselves, and I am ready to go to Washington without delay.

I also want to thank Martha Coakley for her call of congratulations. A hard contest is now behind us, and now we must come together as a Commonwealth.

This special election came about because we lost someone very dear to Massachusetts, and to America. Senator Ted Kennedy was a tireless and big-hearted public servant, and for most of my lifetime was a force like no other in this state. His name will always command the affection and respect by the people of Massachusetts, and the same goes for his wife Vicki. There’s no replacing a man like that, but tonight I honor his memory, and I pledge my very best to be a worthy successor.

I said at the very beginning, when I sat down at the dinner table with my family, that win or lose we would run a race which would make us all proud. I kept my word and we ran a clean, issues oriented, upbeat campaign – and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

When I first started running, I asked for a lot of help, because I knew it was going to be me against the machine. I was wrong, it was all of us against the machine. And after tonight we have shown everyone that – now – you are the machine.

I’m glad my mom and dad, brothers, sisters, and so many family members are here tonight.

Once again, before I go any further, I want to introduce somebody very special… That is my wife, Gail.

And as you know, my wife Gail couldn’t join me on the campaign trail because of her work as a Boston TV journalist. But I will let you in on a little secret. She didn’t stay neutral today, and she voted for the winner. I rely as always, on Gail’s love and support and that of our beautiful daughters.

Arianna will be returning a day or two late to her pre-med studies at Syracuse, because she’s been giving her all to this campaign. As always, Arianna and her sister Ayla have been a joy to Gail and me, and we’re so grateful to them both. Even before her campaign performances, millions of Americans had already heard Ayla’s amazing voice on “American Idol.” As Boston College basketball fans know, she’s also pretty good on the court.

If the President thinks they’ve got basketball talent at the White House, I ask him to pick his best teammate and find some time to play two-on-two with Ayla and me.

I’m grateful to all those from across Massachusetts who came through for me even when I was a long shot. I especially thank a friend who was there with encouragement from the very beginning, and helped show us the way to victory – former Governor Mitt Romney.

I’ll never forget the help of another man who took the time to meet with me months ago – who told me I could win, and gave me confidence for the fight. It was all so characteristic of a truly great and heroic American, and tonight I thank my new colleague, Senator John McCain.

On a night like this, when so many people mark your name on a statewide ballot, you think back to the first people who gave you a chance and believed. For the trust they placed in me, and for all they have taught me, I thank my neighbors and friends in my Senate district and especially my hometown of Wrentham. The cause and victory that all America has seen tonight started right there with all of you.

Let me tell you when I first got the feeling something big was happening in this campaign. It was when I was driving along and spotted a handmade, Scott Brown yard sign that I hadn’t actually put there myself.

This little campaign of ours was destined for greater things than any of us knew, and the message went far beyond the name on the sign.

It all started with me, my truck, and a few dedicated volunteers. It ended with Air Force One making an emergency run to Logan. I didn’t mind when President Obama came here and criticized me – that happens in campaigns. But when he criticized my truck, that’s where I draw the line.

We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there’s trouble in Massachusetts, there’s trouble everywhere – and now they know it.

In every corner of our state, I met with people, looked them in the eye, shook their hand, and asked them for their vote. I didn’t worry about their party affiliation, and they didn’t worry about mine. It was simply shared conviction that brought us all together.

One thing is clear, voters do not want the trillion-dollar health care bill that is being forced on the American people.

This bill is not being debated openly and fairly. It will raise taxes, hurt Medicare, destroy jobs, and run our nation deeper into debt. It is not in the interest of our state or country – we can do better.

When in Washington, I will work in the Senate with Democrats and Republicans to reform health care in an open and honest way. No more closed-door meetings or back room deals by an out of touch party leadership. No more hiding costs, concealing taxes, collaborating with special interests, and leaving more trillions in debt for our children to pay.

In health care, we need to start fresh, work together, and do the job right. Once again, we can do better.

I will work in the Senate to put government back on the side of people who create jobs, and the millions of people who need jobs – and as President John F. Kennedy taught us, that starts with an across the board tax cut for individuals and businesses that will create jobs and stimulate the economy. It’s that simple!

I will work in the Senate to defend our nation’s interests and to keep our military second to none. As a lieutenant colonel and 30-year member of the Army National Guard, I will keep faith with all who serve, and get our veterans all the benefits they deserve.

And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation – they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.

Raising taxes, taking over our health care, and giving new rights to terrorists is the wrong agenda for our country. What I’ve heard again and again on the campaign trail, is that our political leaders have grown aloof from the people, impatient with dissent, and comfortable in the back room making deals. And we can do better.

They thought you were on board with all of their ambitions. They thought they owned your vote. They thought they couldn’t lose. But tonight, you and you and you have set them straight.

Across this country, we are united by basic convictions that need only to be clearly stated to win a majority. If anyone still doubts that, in the election season just beginning, let them look to Massachusetts.

Fellow citizens, what happened in this election can happen all over America. We are witnesses, you and I, to the truth that ideals, hard work, and strength of heart can overcome any political machine. We ran a campaign never to be forgotten, and led a cause that deserved and received all that we could give it.

And now, because of your independence, and your trust, I will hold for a time the seat once filled by patriots from John Quincy Adams to John F. Kennedy and his brother Ted. As I proudly take up the duty you have given me, I promise to do my best for Massachusetts and America every time the roll is called.

I go to Washington as the representative of no faction or interest, answering only to my conscience and to the people. I’ve got a lot to learn in the Senate, but I know who I am and I know who I serve.

I’m Scott Brown, I’m from Wrentham, I drive a truck, and I am nobody’s senator but yours.

Thank you very much.

Scott Brown Interview:

Now how can any honest to goodness liberal resist such charm? Impossible I tell you If McCain looked like Mitt Romney there probably wouldn’t be an Obama in the Whitehouse right now. The Republicans should just concentrate on holding beauty contests to find their winners. May the best looking party win!

It also doesn’t hurt when your daughter does well on American Idol (Ayla Brown was on Season 5) or on the basketball court when you’re running for office, any good media fanfare helps.

See more pictures at her online gallery here

Click here for more picture albums

And here’s a list of the most viewed pictures in her gallery. MOST VIEWED AYLA BROWN PICS
And a list of the categories of pictures available: Ayla Brown Pictures Categories/Albums
Here’s Ayala with John Legend:

And here’s Ayla Brown in action, singing:

Ayla’s not camera shy, here’s her posing:

American Idol (Fifth Season) Ayla Brown, Scott Brown’s daughter posing:

Ayla Brown singing into microphone:

What happens when you combine the world’s most powerful rendering engine
with the world’s most beloved open source 3D content creation suite? You get V-Ray
for Blender! Artists around the world are salivating at the mere thought
of taking their Blender scenes to the next level with the worlds fastest
photo-realistic rendering system.

Developer: Andrey M. Izrantsev
(aka bdancer)

Image by Bertrand Benoit

Image by Bertrand Benoit

Image by Bertrand Benoit

Image by Bertrand Benoit

Image by Bertrand Benoit

The images presented on this page show a selection of the types of art that can be
created using POV-Ray.

Pebbles
by Jonathan Hunt

This POV-Ray picture of a beach of pebbles was generated entirely using POV code. No modelers were used at all. The image features radiosity and focal blur to give it that realistic feel, and took 4.5 days to render on an Athlon 5600+.

Study in atmospheric media and in different ways of “planting” using the trace command.

A work in progress rendering of an Autobahn.

My lame attempt at a tree macro resulted in some nice bonsais

If I should say a single term which expresses “Spirit of Asia” best, I would take “spirituality”. All today’s world religions date from Asia for example. For my entry I chose a visualisation of Chado, the (japanese) way of tea, a Zen Buddhism concept.

In a place where time stands still, a lonely beast takes guard over the sacred water; it is the last creature of its kind, living proudly within the realm of fantasy and reality.

This image won first place in POVCOMP 2004.

March-April 2001 IRTC Winner.

The average office

Art memories after Jan Vermeer – Girl With A Pearl Earring (1665-1666).

A surreal take on ‘Christina’s World’

Highly reflective multi-colored glass baubles inscribed in gold lettering with the text ‘Season’s Greetings from the POV-Team’. Artwork by Jaime Vives Piqueres and the POV-Team.

Still life featuring pitchers and glasses.

Work-in-progress rendering of a Nissan Micra modelled in Wings 3d (see this newsgroup thread).

Made for the IRTC (topic “future”). The horn is from Renderosity freestuff. Background made with galaxy.inc by Chris Colefax and sunflare made with nkflare.inc by Nathan Kopp.

Xfrog plants, commercial car models, CSG, road modeled in Rhino

Intruders floating around in a bloodstream.

Just a little average kitchen.

Poser zebras and CSG-built room.

Morningtime: a swarm of butterflies is warming up near a small arm of a river. Generally butterflies are only able to fly at a body temperature of 30°c or above. Once they are flying, they can keep up their body temperature. Painted Ladies are the most widely distributed butterflies in the world and can be found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. Occasionally the butterflies make mass migrations in search of a new habitat. And perhaps sometimes a swarm can be seen at a sunlit meadow warming up …

In the middle of the night, they came. Probably the first sign of their arrival was the extra iron nail that Farmer Ged had absentmindedly left in the coop after repairing the chicken wire. Not that the nail was there, but that it was hovering 5 feet off the ground, spinning slowly …

Based on an image by Scott King. PodTree by Webdancer and waterlillies from toucan.co.jp. Rider and horse Poser 4.

For every point on a torus one can draw four different circles through it that all lie on the surface of the torus. Two of these four circles are called Villarceau circles. The four narrow pairs of bands in this image follows such Villarceau circles. All the shapes in this image are made with Constructive Solid Geometry operations with tori only (except for the ground plane of course).

Dragonflies modeled in Rhino and isosurfaces for the water and the twigs. Postprocessed focal blur.

Representative building created from old cooling tower. This image shows top part of main hall containing moving platform for spectators and iris door closing the tower. More images, including exterior ones, are on my website. This is my school project.

A sharp decay in lifetime expectance of the lizard (barely visible on the right) is caused by an eagle. The scene is located within a gorge (a natural decay by itself) and there is a rock wedged between the gorge walls, which hinder the rock from further decay in height.

Wildlife inhabiting the boundary zone between land and sea.

Poser rabbits, commercial car models and CSG

An isosurface shape inspired by M.C. Escher’s “Sphere Spirals” (“Bolspiralen”) woodcut print from 1958. The edges of the four spiraling bands on the sphere can be formed by an inverse stereographic projection of eight infinite logarithmic spirals in a complex plane tangent to a Riemann Sphere onto it’s surface. I found some useful information about this shape here.

Taking advantage of POV-Ray’s clever memory management for copies of meshes, this one has more than 12000 oak trees. The trees are made with Forester Arboretrum by Stephen Dartnall. Sky is scattering media.

An imagined canal in Venice, Italy, enhanced to glow as if constructed of neon lights.

Serious test for the “micronormals + focal_blur” technique

Follow the link above to see how this image was created.

Poser character, Xfrog plants, CSG, props modeled in Rhino

Isosurface landscape

The “hills” and the “tubes” that follows the smooth “grooves” in it are made with 2 isosurfaces. The basis function for the “terrain” in this image is a “sombrero” function that has been displaced vertically by a noise function. The grooves are made by subtracting the function for the “tubes” from the function for the “hills” with the help of a “blobbing” function; the hyperbolic tangent function. The tanh() function has a S-shape that is similar to the shape of the Sigmoid function. Here are two relevant links: [1] [2].

Randomly generated landscape

This image was rendered by Mark Shuttleworth whilst orbiting earth in the International Space Station. If you are interested you can read the full story about how it came to be.

This image won the IRTC competition of November – December 1999, “Gardens” topic.

This image is a memory from my childhood which, casually, happens on the kitchen. This imaginary snapshot is taken few minutes after a “headfirst” fall, many years ago.

Winner of the “First Encounter” round of the IRTC (November-December 1998)

That wasn’t the ventilator. He knew that sound. Automated Patrol Droids? At least two of them. Billy had been avoiding them for days. Through his headache the noise was like a quarter million bees, all gunning for his blood. The sounds continued the increase in volume. He tightened his grip on the wrench, and shifted his body slightly. And knocked over a quarter-filled bottle of booze. It tingled loudly, but not loudly enough to be heard over the droning of the APUs. Mentally cursing his luck, and loss of lubricant, Billy curled into a ball and hoped they wouldn’t find him. A shadow passed over the spilt booze …

This image was created for the IRTC’s Decay round, showing architectural decay using POV-Ray’s multi layered procedural textures and lit with radiosity without using a traditional light source.

M.C. Escher’s “Cubic space division” (“Kubische ruimteverdeling”) lithograph from 1952 inspired me to make this image. The shape of the cross sections of the “bars” in this image is formed by the function for a superellipse. And the cube-like shapes at the intersections of the girders are formed with the function for a superellipsoid. I “disturbed” the 3-dimensional grid by using a function that rotates the shape according to 3 noise functions; one for each of the x-, y-, and z-axes. I wanted all the shapes to be joined smoothly, so I added the functions for the “bars” and the “cubes” with the help of a “blobbing” function; the Sigmoid function. The Sigmoid function has a S-shape that is similar to the shape of the tanh() function. Here are two relevant links: [1] [2].

This image is a result from my early experiments with isosurfaces. It shows a single isosurface shape. The chaotic “forest” in this image is formed by giving 4 different noise functions as arguments to a torus function. The fourth function, which is given as the minor radius to the torus function, also controls the colour of the pigment. (The major radius is set to a constant value.)

Entry for the IRTC, “Fantasy” round.

An algorithmic blob study

Classical stillife with apples and scale

A cube of rhythmical dancing blobed silver spheres. For an animated variation of this scene view my animation pages.

A cellular automatation simulation

The attempt to create 3D version of the painting by William Marlow. This is a collective project initiated in March 2003 and which involved people from different countries.

A jagged desert landscape. This image is used as an illustration in the german computer magazine c’t.

Poser characters, lots of meshes and CSG (including the makepipe macro). Exists also in a night version and as a 360° panorama.

Poser characters, cars and buildings modeled in Wings3D

A silver duo of twisted rings.

A jar filled with metal marbles. Lighting using HDRI.

African Masks: from Zimbabwe (near) and Dem Rep Congo, Songye tribe (far)

A famous (and expensive) tube audio amplifier modeled with Moray and rendered with mlpov using the kitchen HDRI probe.

Xfrog trees and plants.

Spanish patio created from memories of similar places

POV Planet was inspired from the transformers home panet of cybertron and the idea of a totally robotic civilisation.

Some of today’s greatest inventions were just dreams people used to laugh about some time ago.

It’s a detail view of the reflections on a blob hyperboloid.

Poser cat and CSG-built buildings

Entry for the IRTC, topic “Gardens”. I expended about 2 seconds to arrive to the conclusion that more than 2 or 3 of my trees on the same scene, is too much for my RAM and/or patience. So, I needed a good excuse to use only a few… the solution arrived later, when I finished my job and walked to my car, parked some streets away, just in front of a lonely orange tree on the sidewalk. I know it’s not a “real” garden, but what is a garden? Just that but with much more terrain and plants, isn’t?

Poser cows and lots of CSG

High walls with rectangular structured surface surrounding a water pool.

(technical): I used splines for the tubes/wires and media for the glow. High-quality focal blur with low-quality area light. The render took at about 1 month on a powerful FreeBSD machine. I used POV-Ray 3.5 and had it running a lowest priority (nice -19). (non-technical): A blueish glow over several patterned tubes.

Winner of the March-April 1999 round of the IRTC

When you were young, you’ve been told that color screens worked with a lot of little phosphorescent red, green and blue elements, and that a cathodic ray was scanning repeatedly the screen to quickly lighten the little things. You grown up, and it’s time to tell you the truth : let me introduce to you Roger, Gary and Bob …

Made for the IRTC (topic “loneliness”). Trees are made with Forester Arboretrum by Stephen Dartnall, sky with stsky.inc by Jaime Vives Piqueres, bush with maketree.inc by Gilles Tran.

A dollhouse within a dollhouse within a real house… meant to represent the world of a young girl’s imagination that exists within the real world.

Produced for the “Frozen Moment” round of the IRTC, this image depicts the shadow of a young girl emblazed on a wall from the blast of the atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki Japan, August 9th, 1945.

An art gallery where the pictures are a little more real than usual.

The meeting of upward and downward tendencies. Out of the serie of psychedelics op-art.

]]> http://thefullenchilada.com/newstuff/qwest-for-the-most-realistic-renderer-photorealistic-3d-renders.htm/feed 0 http://thefullenchilada.com/newstuff/indigo-photorealistic-3d-physics-renderer-for-blender.htm http://thefullenchilada.com/newstuff/indigo-photorealistic-3d-physics-renderer-for-blender.htm#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:09:02 +0000 Admin http://thefullenchilada.com/newstuff/?p=523 Another great 3D render system similar to V-Ray is Indigo, which is ahead of Vray in its support for Blender.

News outlets are buzzing with “Pat Robertson Blames Earthquake on Pact Haitians Made with Satan”. What is this about? It seems Pat Robertson was referring to the Haiti nation seeing itself as the Voodoo nation. Here’s a quote from wikipedia:

“Bois Caïman (Haitian Creole: Bwa Kayiman) is the site of the Vodou ceremony presided over by Dutty Boukman on August 14, 1791. The purpose of the ritual was to attempt to expel the French occupation, which were using the Haitians as slave labor.[1]

According to the official “History of Haiti and the Haitian Revloution”[2], in 1791 the following events occurred:

A man named Boukman, another houngan, organized on August 14, 1791, a meeting with the slaves in the mountains of the North. This meeting took the form of a Voodoo ceremony in the Bois Caiman in the northern mountains of the island. It was raining and the sky was raging with clouds; the slaves then started confessing their resentment of their condition. A woman started dancing languorously in the crowd, taken by the spirits of the loas. With a knife in her hand, she cut the throat of a pig and distributed the blood to all the participants of the meeting who swore to kill all the whites on the island. On August 22, 1791, the blacks of the North entered into a rebellion, killing all the whites they met and setting the plantations of the colony on fire. However, the French quickly captured the leader of the slaves, Boukman, and beheaded him, bringing the rebellion under control.

It is widely accepted as the starting point for the Haitian Revolution.

The ceremony was first documented in 1814 by Antoine Dalmas in his book History of the Saint-Domingue Revolution.”

Now, most other prominent religious figures such as Franklin Graham have denounced this kind of thinking, they point to Jesus and the healing of the man who was blind from birth. When the Rabbis asked Jesus who sinned, the man or his parents that he was born blind, Jesus answered that neither sinned but that it happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Other religious leaders point out that although it is definitely very possible for something to be divine punishment, it is arrogant for anyone to point fingers because only God knows if it is so or not and because in a sense all have equally fallen short of God’s standard.

Excerpt from Pat Robertson, from the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) 700 Club show:
“And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.

“They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the 3rd and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil.

“They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’

“True story.

“And so the Devil said, ‘Okay, it’s a deal.’

“And, uh, they kicked the French out, you know, with Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

“But ever since they have been cursed by, by one thing after another, desperately poor.

“That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican Republican.

“Dominican Republic is, is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etcetera.

“Haiti is in desperate poverty.

“Same island.

“They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.”

“UPDATE: CBN spokesman Chris Roslan issued a statement Regarding Pat Robertson’s Comments on Haiti, saying “On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.” http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/01/pat-robertson-blames-earthquake-on-pact-haitians-made-with-satan.html

Interesting Excerpt from an article on the web by someone named Tom Barrett (written 03/11/04):
“Government Of The Devil, By The Devil, And For The Devil
By Tom Barrett (03/11/04)

“Haiti is the only country in the entire world that has dedicated its government to Satan. Demonic spirits have been consulted for political decisions, and have shaped the country’s history.” Thus speaks Reverend Doug Anderson, who grew up in Haiti with missionary parents, and served there along with his wife Dawn as a missionary until 1990. The leaders of Haiti make no attempt to hide their allegiance to Satan. Haiti’s government is a government of the devil, by the devil, and for the devil.

It is a matter of well-documented historical fact that the nation of Haiti was dedicated to Satan 200 years ago. On August 14, 1791, a group of houngans (voodoo priests), led by a former slave houngan named Boukman, made a pact with the Devil at a place called Bois-Caiman. All present vowed to exterminate all of the white Frenchmen on the island. They sacrificed a black pig in a voodoo ritual at which hundreds of slaves drank the pig’s blood. In this ritual, Boukman asked Satan for his help in liberating Haiti from the French. In exchange, the voodoo priests offered to give the country to Satan for 200 years and swore to serve him. On January 1, 1804, the nation of Haiti was born and thus began a new demonic tyranny.

At the time of the pact Haiti was France’s richest colony, and was known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” for its singular beauty. But it soon became one of the world’s poorest and most benighted nations. Scoffers may say that there is no connection between the fact that Haiti was the richest nation in the hemisphere, and then became the poorest after selling its national soul to Satan. But the scoffers can’t come up with a better explanation.

Voodoo is a practice based on a mixture of African spiritism and witchcraft. Depending on the source of one’s research, between 75 and 90 percent of Haitians practice voodoo. This seems to fly in the face of the fact that the country is predominantly Catholic. But, like their African ancestors, voodoo practitioners have no problem embracing multiple religions. In fact, most who practice voodoo believe they must be Catholic first.

Until recently, voodoo was practiced in secret. Practitioners would go to the Catholic Church on Sunday, and attend voodoo ceremonies deep in the woods at other times. Voodoo was forbidden during the colonial times, and the 32 Haitian governments that followed independence also suppressed the practice because of world condemnation. But on April 8, 2003, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide approved Voodoo as an officially recognized religion in Haiti (see links below). Voodoo priests can now perform marriages and other ceremonies previously reserved for Christian religions. “An ancestral religion, Voodoo is an essential part of national identity,” Aristide said in the decree recognizing Voodoo.”

VOODOO

Anyway, so everything goes back to that big question: why does s*it happen?
And of course the other big one: Is there a God?

So why is Haiti so poor? Are they all too uneducated? If you replaced the entire Haitian population with affluent educated people (minus ALL their wealth), would they be able to rebuild Haiti into a modern prosperous nation?

If you can’t blame God, or you can’t blame people lack of faith in God, then who do you blame for such misery? Mother Nature? That may work for earthquakes, hurricanes/floods, and the like, but how about crime and poverty? How can you ‘fix’ Haiti and other nations in similar perils and poverty? Is the problem unsustainable population growth? Irresponsible procreation? Deadbeat fathers and promiscuity leading to mouths that can’t be fed? Can anything be learned from case studies of nations that became very ‘productive’ in a short period of time, or barren land/deserts becoming exporters of food? (perhaps Israel might be a good case study for that…) So how can we feed Haiti? Teach them to fish so to speak? What’s the solution?

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