6 ms·

Scottish witchcraft book published online

67 points by Hooke 10y ago

Zikes 10y ago
> "We're delighted to share this insight into the past with a wider audience." No links to the book in the article. There's a branded link to Ancestry.com in the article, though. But no indication of where to go once you get there. Incredibly irritating when the headline of the article is about something being published online. Eventually found it by looking on the Wellcome Library web site: http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19111319#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.4254%2C0%2C1.8508%2C1.1626 http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19111319#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&...
- shmerl 10y ago
  Is the book loading for you? It just shows a spinning circle. UDPATE: I found a working link in the source: https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b19111319/0 https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b19111319/0 Seems to be just a bunch of names. So "Scottish witchcraft book" is a pretty misleading title.
  - Zikes 10y ago
    The linked page is loading for me, but if it's seeing a lot of traffic there may be a lot of factors involved.
- jklinger410 10y ago
  I stupidly thought that this would be readable haha.
rokosbasilisk 10y ago
is this because of that ridiculous spirit cooking rumor?
- Kenji 10y ago
  What do you mean, "ridiculous" "rumour"? Do you not accept the authenticity of DKIM-authenticated Wikileaks e-mails? It is written there, black on white, byte for byte. EDIT: Just to clarify. The e-mail in question specifically contains "spirit cooking" so it is in no way a rumour. What that means exactly - well, yes, that is open to your interpretation and imagination.
  - geofft 10y ago
    The authenticity of the emails is one thing. The meaning of the authenticated words is quite another. What is, apparently, authenticated is that John Podesta's brother invited him to a "Spirit Cooking dinner" (those are the relevant three words that are part of the authenticated email) hosted by a performance artist named Marina Abramovic. What is not authenticated at all is what "Spirit Cooking dinner" means. One possibility is that it is a Satanic orgy ritual. One possibility is that it is a perfectly normal dinner with normal human food, celebrating / related to a performance art project named Spirit Cooking (see, e.g., https://www.moma.org/collection/works/143945 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/143945). The email doesn't rule either of those possibilities out.
    - Joeboy 10y ago
      The Satanic Orgy suggestions are just crazy people crazying, aren't they? I mean there's no sensible reason to think it's anything more sinister than a slightly insalubrious performance art thing.
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      Well, if Abramovic is involved, it ain't gonna be a perfectly normal dinner. It's going to be a very interesting one.
    - taneq 10y ago
      It's not as crazy as someone suggesting (from the same leaked emails) that some amount of money spent on pizza was actually for prostitutes because pizza is a codeword for prostitutes. They need to hurry up and get this election over with because it's making the whole world stupider.
- thisisdallas 10y ago
  > is this because of that ridiculous spirit cooking rumor? 1. Most likely absolutely not. 2. That's...not a rumor but you don't have to accept the reality.
  - dguaraglia 10y ago
    Looks like you might have been reading Scott Adams lately. What "reality" are you describing here? The fact that there's an email regarding "Spirit cooking" (whatever that might mean) or the made up fact that the Clintons take part in blood orgies? Because those are two different things.
    - thisisdallas 10y ago
      The reality that an email exists that mentions spirit cooking and the reality that there are way too many coincidences to "spirit cooking" not being confined to art. Also, you seem pretty offended. What's wrong with blood orgies?
      - dguaraglia 10y ago
        What offends me is people completely turning off their bullshit filter just to fit some facts into a narrative they find compelling. It's literally the opposite of the scientific method, and the last thing I'd like to see in Hacker News. If anything, this election has shown how many people are willing to dismiss reality just so they feel comfortable supporting a particular candidate. Both parties are guilty of it, but one party has perfected the method with decades of anti-intellectualism and pandering to the extreme factions in our society. We are seeing what made America great (evidence-based, pragmatic decision making) dismantled in the altar of team loyalty. We should be extremely worried, not making light of it for some "troll points."
        thisisdallas 10y ago
        You speak highly of pragmatic decision making yet claim roughly 50% of the nation is suffering from anti-intellectualism? Sounds like you yourself are dismissing reality just so you can feel comfortable supporting a particular candidate or political view. I find it very disconcerting that a small violent leftist sect of the democratic party has been able to gain such a voice by bullying and character assassinations.
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
For those expecting a grimoire, nope, this is just a historical document of people accused of witchcraft and such.
macawfish 10y ago
Powerful quote: "It gives us a fleeting view of a world beyond orthodox medicine and expensively trained physicians, in which people in small towns and villages looked for their own routes to understanding the world and came into conflict with the state for doing it" It may be unpopular for me to say this, but I believe that the very same energy behind witchhunts is recapitulated today by overzealous "skeptics".
- GlennS 10y ago
  Well it's an interesting group to single out. Speaking as a moderately zealous skeptic. Yeah, we can gang up on people, and sometimes talk down to them out of exasperation. And those are bad things. But... Unlike a lot of internet public shaming (and probably unlike these witchcraft cases), there's no sexual element or threats of violence. Scientists don't blow up people for not believing in thermodynamics. So, I'd say there are probably better candidates.
  - metaphorm 10y ago
    > Scientists don't blow up people for not believing in thermodynamics. wrong example. you should be thinking about the way a certain particular faction ostracizes people for expressing views containing any content that might be considered "religion" or "spirituality".
    - EdHominem 10y ago
      No, for letting those views pollute otherwise scientific discussion. If you say you know that sugar is bad for rats I expect you to have tested it, not prayed about it. As for ostracizing, if you're on a medical review board you'd better believe I'd try to get you removed.
      - _wmd 10y ago
        What constitutes non-scientific discussion?
      - 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ChuckMcM 10y ago
Great, now ancestry.com com can tell you when you are literally the spawn of an unholy love child?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jboydyhacker 10y ago
Maybe we can use it on this election?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rapsacnz 10y ago
This is an ad for Ancestry.com. Why is this article here?
pjc50 10y ago
- Not very hackerish - May be disguised ad for ancestry.com - Comments here have gone very weird very fast => Flag and move on.

67 points by Hooke 10y ago

Zikes 10y ago

> "We're delighted to share this insight into the past with a wider audience." No links to the book in the article. There's a branded link to Ancestry.com in the article, though. But no indication of where to go once you get there. Incredibly irritating when the headline of the article is about something being published online. Eventually found it by looking on the Wellcome Library web site: http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19111319#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&z=-0.4254%2C0%2C1.8508%2C1.1626 http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b19111319#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&...

shmerl 10y ago
Is the book loading for you? It just shows a spinning circle. UDPATE: I found a working link in the source: https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b19111319/0 https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b19111319/0 Seems to be just a bunch of names. So "Scottish witchcraft book" is a pretty misleading title.
- Zikes 10y ago
  The linked page is loading for me, but if it's seeing a lot of traffic there may be a lot of factors involved.
jklinger410 10y ago
I stupidly thought that this would be readable haha.

rokosbasilisk 10y ago

is this because of that ridiculous spirit cooking rumor?

Kenji 10y ago
What do you mean, "ridiculous" "rumour"? Do you not accept the authenticity of DKIM-authenticated Wikileaks e-mails? It is written there, black on white, byte for byte. EDIT: Just to clarify. The e-mail in question specifically contains "spirit cooking" so it is in no way a rumour. What that means exactly - well, yes, that is open to your interpretation and imagination.
- geofft 10y ago
  The authenticity of the emails is one thing. The meaning of the authenticated words is quite another. What is, apparently, authenticated is that John Podesta's brother invited him to a "Spirit Cooking dinner" (those are the relevant three words that are part of the authenticated email) hosted by a performance artist named Marina Abramovic. What is not authenticated at all is what "Spirit Cooking dinner" means. One possibility is that it is a Satanic orgy ritual. One possibility is that it is a perfectly normal dinner with normal human food, celebrating / related to a performance art project named Spirit Cooking (see, e.g., https://www.moma.org/collection/works/143945 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/143945). The email doesn't rule either of those possibilities out.
  - Joeboy 10y ago
    The Satanic Orgy suggestions are just crazy people crazying, aren't they? I mean there's no sensible reason to think it's anything more sinister than a slightly insalubrious performance art thing.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    Well, if Abramovic is involved, it ain't gonna be a perfectly normal dinner. It's going to be a very interesting one.
  - taneq 10y ago
    It's not as crazy as someone suggesting (from the same leaked emails) that some amount of money spent on pizza was actually for prostitutes because pizza is a codeword for prostitutes. They need to hurry up and get this election over with because it's making the whole world stupider.
thisisdallas 10y ago
> is this because of that ridiculous spirit cooking rumor? 1. Most likely absolutely not. 2. That's...not a rumor but you don't have to accept the reality.
- dguaraglia 10y ago
  Looks like you might have been reading Scott Adams lately. What "reality" are you describing here? The fact that there's an email regarding "Spirit cooking" (whatever that might mean) or the made up fact that the Clintons take part in blood orgies? Because those are two different things.
  - thisisdallas 10y ago
    The reality that an email exists that mentions spirit cooking and the reality that there are way too many coincidences to "spirit cooking" not being confined to art. Also, you seem pretty offended. What's wrong with blood orgies?
    - dguaraglia 10y ago
      What offends me is people completely turning off their bullshit filter just to fit some facts into a narrative they find compelling. It's literally the opposite of the scientific method, and the last thing I'd like to see in Hacker News. If anything, this election has shown how many people are willing to dismiss reality just so they feel comfortable supporting a particular candidate. Both parties are guilty of it, but one party has perfected the method with decades of anti-intellectualism and pandering to the extreme factions in our society. We are seeing what made America great (evidence-based, pragmatic decision making) dismantled in the altar of team loyalty. We should be extremely worried, not making light of it for some "troll points."
      - thisisdallas 10y ago
        You speak highly of pragmatic decision making yet claim roughly 50% of the nation is suffering from anti-intellectualism? Sounds like you yourself are dismissing reality just so you can feel comfortable supporting a particular candidate or political view. I find it very disconcerting that a small violent leftist sect of the democratic party has been able to gain such a voice by bullying and character assassinations.

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

For those expecting a grimoire, nope, this is just a historical document of people accused of witchcraft and such.

macawfish 10y ago

Powerful quote: "It gives us a fleeting view of a world beyond orthodox medicine and expensively trained physicians, in which people in small towns and villages looked for their own routes to understanding the world and came into conflict with the state for doing it" It may be unpopular for me to say this, but I believe that the very same energy behind witchhunts is recapitulated today by overzealous "skeptics".

GlennS 10y ago
Well it's an interesting group to single out. Speaking as a moderately zealous skeptic. Yeah, we can gang up on people, and sometimes talk down to them out of exasperation. And those are bad things. But... Unlike a lot of internet public shaming (and probably unlike these witchcraft cases), there's no sexual element or threats of violence. Scientists don't blow up people for not believing in thermodynamics. So, I'd say there are probably better candidates.
- metaphorm 10y ago
  > Scientists don't blow up people for not believing in thermodynamics. wrong example. you should be thinking about the way a certain particular faction ostracizes people for expressing views containing any content that might be considered "religion" or "spirituality".
  - EdHominem 10y ago
    No, for letting those views pollute otherwise scientific discussion. If you say you know that sugar is bad for rats I expect you to have tested it, not prayed about it. As for ostracizing, if you're on a medical review board you'd better believe I'd try to get you removed.
    - _wmd 10y ago
      What constitutes non-scientific discussion?
    - 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ChuckMcM 10y ago

Great, now ancestry.com com can tell you when you are literally the spawn of an unholy love child?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

jboydyhacker 10y ago

Maybe we can use it on this election?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

rapsacnz 10y ago

This is an ad for Ancestry.com. Why is this article here?

pjc50 10y ago

- Not very hackerish - May be disguised ad for ancestry.com - Comments here have gone very weird very fast => Flag and move on.