iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 08/10/2026

The things I read for this podcast. (That's the proceedings of the 1970 symposium on Engineering with Nuclear Explosives, if you care. LEGO minifigure for scale.)

two volumes of the proceedings of the 1970 Symposium on Nuclear Engineering; each volume is hardbound, about 10" x 13" x 2". the damn things weigh like ten pounds in total.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 03/08/2026

Hey! It's been a few months, but we're back! In the 1940s, while trying to rebut Freud, psychoanalyst Immanuel Velikovsky decided the reason ancient history didn't make any sense was simple: it was all the fault of the planet Venus. order-of-the-jackalope.com/no-heretic-h...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 15/04/2025

Really love this SPAM message that packs itself full of specific details in an attempt to convince me it's not a scam, and then gets every one of those details wrong. Even the name.

Trust me. You don't actually want to read this.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 07/04/2025

The Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich died from an accidental self-inflicted knife wound in 1591... but that didn't stop him from popping up to try and reclaim his throne in 1604. And 1607. And 1611. And 1612. And... order-of-the-jackalope.com/samozvantsy

detail of "The Last Minutes of False Dmitry" (1879) by Carl Wening

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 14/02/2025

Meanwhile, this is what she got me: a custom-quilled rendition of the podcast logo.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 14/02/2025

This is a tale of two Valentines. First, here is what I got my lovely wife #7 @dorothycyborg.bsky.social ... Because I put one in last year's Advent calendar, and she offhandedly mentioned that she "wanted a whole bunch." (She loved it.)

A bunch of LEGO minifigs wearing banana costumes

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 03/02/2025

War! The balance of power in the Cola Wars has been shifting for years. In a stunning move, Coke has swept into NASA and is about to send its signature beverage into orbit... but not if the underdogs at Pepsi have anything to say about it... order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-choice-o...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 23/01/2025

UFO cultist George Hunt WIlliamson's "Other Tongues, Other Flesh" has a picto-dictionary of Solex-Mal, the universal language. The glyphs are fascinating and baffling. Here is the symbol of creation, an eye in a twelve-petaled flower in a four-pointed star. Just don't count the number of petals.

A crudely-drawn picture of a half-lidded eye in blobby cloud, in a four pointed star.

The text reads: "BOOK II: OTHER TONGUES. ISHTAL-MAXIN. In the Solex-Mal, this is the symbol for the 'All-Seeing Eye,' the 'Light of Creation,' the four-pointed start stands for the Four Great Primary Forces of Creation, the flower of twelve petals represents the twelve planets."

The so-called "flower" only has eleven petals.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 23/12/2024

Everybody always asks, "If this is the future, where's my jet pack?" but only Richard Timewell was bold enough to do something about it. And by "do something" I mean "sell jet packs through the mail." order-of-the-jackalope.com/your-eyebrow...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/12/2024

Well, at least they got something right. Always end on a high note, boys!

Your Creator Personality: The Storyteller

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/12/2024

Other shows my listeners like. Some of you have excellent taste. Others do not. @constantpodcast.bsky.social

Other shows my listeners like: The Constant, The Joe Rogan Experience

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/12/2024

Surely this demographic shift won't be a problem in the long run.

Listeners ages 54+ grew the most by 184%

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/12/2024

This episode apparently got 369% more engagement than ususal. Which again sounds great until I pop over to the episode stats and see that barely anyone streamed it.

Your top episode was #102: Rapscallions!

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/12/2024

Well, I suppose any sort of growth seems impressive when you start from a low enough number.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 02/12/2024

Helen Duncan was the last person persecuted in Britain for being a witch. Except she wasn't the last, she wasn't a witch, and she wasn't exactly persecuted either... order-of-the-jackalope.com/deeply-impre...

Helen Duncan "manifesting" a spirit made of "ectoplasm"

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 25/11/2024

#OnThisDay (November 25) in 1899 the Franklin Syndicate collapses. For eighteen months the Syndicate, run by William F. Miller ("the Boy Napoleon of Finance"), has been promising a 10% weekly return on investments. The offer seems too good to be true and thousands of people have taken him up on it.

a Punch cartoon about the Franklin Syndicate

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 11/11/2024

George Gray Barnard's sculptures have been installed in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol since 1911... but the story of their creation is a long and tortured one, featuring the strangest act of self-censorship you'll ever see. order-of-the-jackalope.com/cloud-dongs/

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/11/2024

#OnThisDay (November 4) in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson are elected to be the first women governors in the United States of America.

Miriam ("Ma") Ferguson, left; Nellie Tayloe Ross, right.

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 23/09/2024

The only thing standing between John Yates Beall and the Confederate prisoners-of-war on Johnson's Island was the USS Michigan... Well, that and a terrible con man and the cowardice of his own men. order-of-the-jackalope.com/resist-at-yo...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 16/09/2024

Does this look like the most dangerous anti-war politician in the United States? No, no it does not. Does this look like a moron who shot himself in the stomach? Yes, yes it does. order-of-the-jackalope.com/patience-is-...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 14/09/2024

Rowena Morrill was born #onthisday (September 14) in 1944. Rowena attended the University of Delaware and graduated with a fine arts degree. She eventually became a renowned genre painter whose work graced the cover of hundreds of romance, horror, fantasy, and science fiction novels.

a detail from Rowena Morrill's cover from KING DRAGON, depicting a scantily clad woman chained to a rock, who arches her back as a dragon swoops down on her from above

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 09/09/2024

Thomas Henry Hines had a cunning plan to free Confederate prisoners-of-war and establish a "Northwest Confederacy". All he needed were sixty good men, five hundred soldiers and friends on the inside. Too bad those groups didn't exist. order-of-the-jackalope.com/patience-is-...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 04/09/2024

#OnThisDay (September 4) in 1849, Maria Monk dies in a women's prison on Blackwell's Island in New York.

a woodcut of a nun confessing her sins to another nun

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 02/09/2024

Homely woman, man in a dress, or hero of the Glorious Revolution and Governor-General of New York? You make the call! order-of-the-jackalope.com/universally-...

a portrait of an androgynous person in a blue satin dress, rumored to be Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury in drag

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 26/08/2024

Dude looks like a lady! ...is what I would say if this were a jokey podcast and not a serious podcast. (But seriously, was New York Governor Edward Hyde actually a transvestite? Find out here! order-of-the-jackalope.com/universally-...

A picture of an androgynous person in a blue satin dress, purported to be a portrait of Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 21/08/2024

Well well well... Look what the UPS man dragged in. (Thanks, Gerard!)

"The Adamski Book of UFO/UAP Disclosure" by Gerard Aartsen

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 23/06/2024

Walking through the latest exhibit at The Frick Pittsburgh when who should I spy but an old friend...

"Symphony in Grey and Green" by James McNeill Whistler

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 27/05/2024

For our milestone episode #100 we contemplate one of the most confounding conundrums of our age... How old is Charo, really? order-of-the-jackalope.com/nothing-but-...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 01/04/2024

The Dymaxion House may have failed, but other companies did quite well by referencing it in their advertising... even if some of those ads were more than a little sarcastic.

When you can actually buy a helicopter...

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 25/03/2024

R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House was a marvel of modern technology that promised to create freedom by liberating the mind and curing all of society's problems... so why aren't you living in one right now? order-of-the-jackalope.com/fuller-houses/

the cover of Forbes Magazine, April 1946, depicting workmen marveling at R. Buckminster Fuller's 1946 Dymaxion House prototype

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 12/02/2024

Everyone knows the first battles of the American Revolution were Lexington and Concord... unless, that is, you live in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-first-ba...

Historical marker at Tu-Endie-Wei State Park in Point Pleasant, WV

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 22/01/2024

In which a mysterious lost people living in the mountains of Tennessee turn out to not be so mysterious after all... and maybe not even all that lost, if the Internet can be believed. order-of-the-jackalope.com/neither-here...

"A Typical Malungeon" (drawn from a photograph taken by Will Allen Dromgoole)

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 01/01/2024

In 1837 Canadians tried and failed to overthrow the British government. The revolution seemed to be over... and then the Redcoats seized an American ship, set it on fire, and sent it plunging over Niagara Falls, prolonging the conflict for years. order-of-the-jackalope.com/dangerous-ex...

a (historically inaccurate) woodcut of the SS CAROLINE on fire and plunging over Niagara Falls

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The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope @order-of-the-jackalope.com · 11/12/2023

An instructive little tale where Victorian scholars look back at five centuries of arms and #armor and just start making stuff up, because they're just ever-so-clever. order-of-the-jackalope.com/armor-class-4/

a man wearing an 19th-Century recreation of "banded mail" armor, which looks extremely ridiculous

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