Suspected souvenir hunters broke into Stonehenge and vandalised the ancient monument, English Heritage has said.
A hammer and screwdriver were used to take a small chip the size of a 10p piece from the side of the Heel Stone.
English Heritage said further damage was prevented by security guards who spotted the two men at the 5,000-year-old site in Wiltshire.
Police believe the vandals could be the same two people caught on CCTV acting suspiciously a few days earlier.
BBC article
At one time, chisels would be handed to people visiting Stonehenge, so they could chip away at the ancient monument to get their own souvenirs.
But the practice has been outlawed since 1900, when landowner Sir Edmund Antrobus decided the site needed protecting and introduced charges
Further BBC commentary
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Kosher Imaginary Animals
Evil Monkey’s Guide to Kosher Imaginary Animals
Baku (dream-devouring tapir) - A: “That’s considered a swine. It doesn’t chew its cud.” EM: “What if it was a dream-devouring cow? Would the dream-devouring disqualify it?” A: “No. As long as you don’t consider that scavenging.”
Cornish Owl-Man, Headless Mule (fire-spewing, headless, spectral mule), Mongolian Death Worm, Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, etc.
Full article
Thanks to Making Light.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Juhyo: Japanese Monster Trees
David Weber on the Japundit blog:
They’re out there lurking in the dark, in the desolate wilderness of winter — the beautiful and eerie offspring of Yuki Onna, the Japanese snow woman spirit. They are the Juhyo, or monster trees. Every winter the trees of Mount Zao in the Yamagata Prefecture undergo a shocking transformation. From mild-mannered conifers, these trees become hulking monstrosities of snow and ice.
Full article (many pictures)
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Societas Magica
The Societas Magica is an organization dedicated to furthering communication and exchange among scholars interested in the study of magic, both in the positive contexts of its expression as an area of necessary knowledge or religious practice (as in early modern occultism and contemporary paganism), and in its negative contexts as the substance of an accusation or condemnation (as in sorcery trials, and many philosophical and theological accounts, both early and late). The interests of our membership include, but are not limited to, the history and sociology of magic; theological, and intellectual apprehensions of magic; practices and theories of magic; and objects, artifacts and texts either qualified as magical by their creators, or forming the substance of an accusation of magic by others.
The Society will be holding its first full conference on MAGIC: FRONTIERS AND BOUNDARIES June 11-15 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Keynote Speakers will be Marvin Meyer, Richard Kieckhefer, and T.M. Luhrman.
Online PDFs of the Societas Magica newsletter dating back to 1996 are linked on their website.
Link
The Society will be holding its first full conference on MAGIC: FRONTIERS AND BOUNDARIES June 11-15 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Keynote Speakers will be Marvin Meyer, Richard Kieckhefer, and T.M. Luhrman.
Online PDFs of the Societas Magica newsletter dating back to 1996 are linked on their website.
Link
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
British intelligence agency releases file on WW II astrologer
The British intelligence agency MI5 has released a file from the National Archives on astrologer Louis de Wohl, who was hired during World War II in an effort to second-guess what astrological information Hitler might have been getting and possibly acting upon.
Articles in The Guardian, The Times and in The Independent. A quick glance shows that the Independent article takes De Wohl's being the son of a Hungarian nobleman as fact, though the Guardian quotes an MI5 officer as saying that De Wohl didn't speak a word of Hungarian. The Times' article is the most acerbic of the three.
Articles in The Guardian, The Times and in The Independent. A quick glance shows that the Independent article takes De Wohl's being the son of a Hungarian nobleman as fact, though the Guardian quotes an MI5 officer as saying that De Wohl didn't speak a word of Hungarian. The Times' article is the most acerbic of the three.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Leave No Child Inside
Leave No Child Inside: The growing movement to reconnect children and nature, and to battle "nature deficit disorder"
By Richard Louv
As a boy, I pulled out dozens —perhaps hundreds— of survey stakes in a vain effort to slow the bulldozers that were taking out my woods to make way for a new subdivision. Had I known then what Ive since learned from a developer, that I should have simply moved the stakes around to be more effective, I would surely have done that too. So you might imagine my dubiousness when, a few weeks after the publication of my 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, I received an e-mail from Derek Thomas, who introduced himself as vice chairman and chief investment officer of Newland Communities, one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential development companies. “I have been reading your new book,” he wrote, “and am profoundly disturbed by some of the information you present.”
Thomas said he wanted to do something positive. He invited me to an envisioning session in Phoenix to “explore how Newland can improve or redefine our approach to open space preservation and the interaction between our homebuyers and nature.” A few weeks later, in a conference room filled with about eighty developers, builders, and real estate marketers, I offered my sermonette. The folks in the crowd were partially responsible for the problem, I suggested, because they destroy natural habitat, design communities in ways that discourage any real contact with nature, and include covenants that virtually criminalize outdoor play—outlawing tree-climbing, fort-building, even chalk-drawing on sidewalks.
I was ready to make a fast exit when Thomas, a bearded man with an avuncular demeanor, stood up and said, “I want you all to go into small groups and solve the problem: how are we going to build communities in the future that actually connect kids with nature?” The room filled with noise and excitement. By the time the groups reassembled to report the ideas they had generated, I had glimpsed the primal power of connecting children and nature: it can inspire unexpected advocates and lure unlikely allies to enter an entirely new place. Call it the doorway effect. Once through the door, they can revisualize seemingly intractable problems and produce solutions they might otherwise never have imagined.
A half hour after Thomas’s challenge, the groups reported their ideas. Among them: leave some land and native habitat in place (that’s a good start); employ green design principles; incorporate nature trails and natural waterways; throw out the conventional covenants and restrictions that discourage or prohibit natural play and rewrite the rules to encourage it; allow kids to build forts and tree houses or plant gardens; and create small, on-site nature centers.
“Kids could become guides, using cell phones, along nature trails that lead to schools at the edge of the development,” someone suggested. Were the men and women in this room just blowing smoke? Maybe. Developers exploiting our hunger for nature, I thought, just as they market their subdivisions by naming their streets after the trees and streams that they destroy. But the fact that developers, builders, and real estate marketers would approach Derek Thomas’s question with such apparently heartfelt enthusiasm was revealing. The quality of their ideas mattered less than the fact that they had them. While they may not get there themselves, the people in this room were visualizing a very different future. They were undergoing a process of discovery that has proliferated around the country in the past two years, and not only among developers.
Full article
Check out the 18 pages of comments on the Orion magazine article, there are a lot of useful suggestions and links.
By Richard Louv
As a boy, I pulled out dozens —perhaps hundreds— of survey stakes in a vain effort to slow the bulldozers that were taking out my woods to make way for a new subdivision. Had I known then what Ive since learned from a developer, that I should have simply moved the stakes around to be more effective, I would surely have done that too. So you might imagine my dubiousness when, a few weeks after the publication of my 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, I received an e-mail from Derek Thomas, who introduced himself as vice chairman and chief investment officer of Newland Communities, one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential development companies. “I have been reading your new book,” he wrote, “and am profoundly disturbed by some of the information you present.”
Thomas said he wanted to do something positive. He invited me to an envisioning session in Phoenix to “explore how Newland can improve or redefine our approach to open space preservation and the interaction between our homebuyers and nature.” A few weeks later, in a conference room filled with about eighty developers, builders, and real estate marketers, I offered my sermonette. The folks in the crowd were partially responsible for the problem, I suggested, because they destroy natural habitat, design communities in ways that discourage any real contact with nature, and include covenants that virtually criminalize outdoor play—outlawing tree-climbing, fort-building, even chalk-drawing on sidewalks.
I was ready to make a fast exit when Thomas, a bearded man with an avuncular demeanor, stood up and said, “I want you all to go into small groups and solve the problem: how are we going to build communities in the future that actually connect kids with nature?” The room filled with noise and excitement. By the time the groups reassembled to report the ideas they had generated, I had glimpsed the primal power of connecting children and nature: it can inspire unexpected advocates and lure unlikely allies to enter an entirely new place. Call it the doorway effect. Once through the door, they can revisualize seemingly intractable problems and produce solutions they might otherwise never have imagined.
A half hour after Thomas’s challenge, the groups reported their ideas. Among them: leave some land and native habitat in place (that’s a good start); employ green design principles; incorporate nature trails and natural waterways; throw out the conventional covenants and restrictions that discourage or prohibit natural play and rewrite the rules to encourage it; allow kids to build forts and tree houses or plant gardens; and create small, on-site nature centers.
“Kids could become guides, using cell phones, along nature trails that lead to schools at the edge of the development,” someone suggested. Were the men and women in this room just blowing smoke? Maybe. Developers exploiting our hunger for nature, I thought, just as they market their subdivisions by naming their streets after the trees and streams that they destroy. But the fact that developers, builders, and real estate marketers would approach Derek Thomas’s question with such apparently heartfelt enthusiasm was revealing. The quality of their ideas mattered less than the fact that they had them. While they may not get there themselves, the people in this room were visualizing a very different future. They were undergoing a process of discovery that has proliferated around the country in the past two years, and not only among developers.
Full article
Check out the 18 pages of comments on the Orion magazine article, there are a lot of useful suggestions and links.
Monday, February 11, 2008
White stag spotted in the Highlands
A rare white stag has been observed on the west coast of the Highlands.
The animal has been seen with other red deer by a member of the John Muir Trust, which has kept its location a secret to protect it from poachers.
Full article, with link to short video footage Thanks to The Daily Grail
Where the White Stag Runs: Boundary and Transformation in Deer Myths,Legends, and Songs
by Ari Berk
The White Stag by Mary Jones From Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the four Pevensie children, who have been kings and queens in Narnia for many years, hear from Tumnus the faun that the White Stag has been sighted, the one who will grant your wishes of you catch him. While out hunting for the stag, the Pevensies find themselves returning to their old lives in England.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Brigid Poetry
AVE MATERS
after The Hail Mary
Hail all mothers
graceful or not
God or goddess is with you, believe it or not
Blessed are all women
blessed are the fruits of our wombs
whatever names, ridiculous or not, we choose for them
and even when they're acting rotten.
O mothers
holy human mothers
all our children are divine
Long after they leave us
they will curse us and pray to us
now and in the hour
of our death
now and in the hour of their need.
Elizabeth Cunningham
Grass
Grass is an ancient ancestor.
If you would bless a child, say:
"May this child have the strength
Of grass."
"May this child be as powerful
As grass."
"May this child persist as does
The grass."
Slender greens, golds and browns,
Fox grass, bunch grass, crab grass
Oat grass, wheat grass, rye grass.
Grasses of the great plains.
Grasses of woodland meadows.
Grasses of the mountainside.
Grasses of the marshes.
Grasses crumbling cement in cities.
Grass
Feeding
The world and turning
Every fallen thing
Into waves in the wind.
Penny J. Novack
Maeve
There is silence now by the grey cairn where
the queen is buried:
No one weeps there remembering her beauty.
Only a faint sweet complaining
Of wind and wind-stirred grasses and far-off
murmurous sea-waves
Is making a sleep-heavy sound, a song to deepen
her slumber.
Does quiet weigh on her heart, here on the
desolate mountain?
Or is she content to sleep, the spear-whirr and
sword-clang forgotten?
Nay! She awakes, she comes forth. The gold of
her tresses
Flames through the night -- red flame by a storm-
wind dishevelled:
She has no need to call for her chiefs, or her
bronze-bitted horses,
She rides with the host of the Sidhe, with gods
dream-hearted and secret:
The night is her own, and the wide un-trammelled
ways of the wind.
She is fierce and splendid and pale, Maeve the
battle-awakener,
Maeve of the honey-sweey mouth, Maeve of the
death-bitter kisses.
Ella Young
after The Hail Mary
Hail all mothers
graceful or not
God or goddess is with you, believe it or not
Blessed are all women
blessed are the fruits of our wombs
whatever names, ridiculous or not, we choose for them
and even when they're acting rotten.
O mothers
holy human mothers
all our children are divine
Long after they leave us
they will curse us and pray to us
now and in the hour
of our death
now and in the hour of their need.
Elizabeth Cunningham
Grass
Grass is an ancient ancestor.
If you would bless a child, say:
"May this child have the strength
Of grass."
"May this child be as powerful
As grass."
"May this child persist as does
The grass."
Slender greens, golds and browns,
Fox grass, bunch grass, crab grass
Oat grass, wheat grass, rye grass.
Grasses of the great plains.
Grasses of woodland meadows.
Grasses of the mountainside.
Grasses of the marshes.
Grasses crumbling cement in cities.
Grass
Feeding
The world and turning
Every fallen thing
Into waves in the wind.
Penny J. Novack
Maeve
There is silence now by the grey cairn where
the queen is buried:
No one weeps there remembering her beauty.
Only a faint sweet complaining
Of wind and wind-stirred grasses and far-off
murmurous sea-waves
Is making a sleep-heavy sound, a song to deepen
her slumber.
Does quiet weigh on her heart, here on the
desolate mountain?
Or is she content to sleep, the spear-whirr and
sword-clang forgotten?
Nay! She awakes, she comes forth. The gold of
her tresses
Flames through the night -- red flame by a storm-
wind dishevelled:
She has no need to call for her chiefs, or her
bronze-bitted horses,
She rides with the host of the Sidhe, with gods
dream-hearted and secret:
The night is her own, and the wide un-trammelled
ways of the wind.
She is fierce and splendid and pale, Maeve the
battle-awakener,
Maeve of the honey-sweey mouth, Maeve of the
death-bitter kisses.
Ella Young
Quote of the Day
"Those who refuse to listen to dragons are probably doomed to spend their lives acting out the nightmares of politicians. We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark; and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night."
~~ Ursula K. LeGuin
~~ Ursula K. LeGuin
Third annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading
You are invited to the third annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading
Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2008
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.
Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.
Deborah Oak
Link
Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2008
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.
Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.
Deborah Oak
Link
Up-Helly-Aa Fire Festival in Shetland Islands
During Up-Helly-Aa, hundreds of residents of the Shetland Islands off northern Scotland dressed up as Norsemen -- complete with helmets, chain mail and axes -- or in other fancy dress for a day and night of raucous partying.
The high point of the festivities was an evening parade through Lerwick featuring 900 people brandishing fiery torches which sent a blanket of smoke and sparks over the port town, Shetland's biggest.
At the centre of the procession was a specially crafted Viking longship, which was set on fire at the end of the procession when all the marchers threw their torches into it, creating a giant, intense pyre.
Celebrations were continuing through the night as teams of "guizers" -- the roughly 1,000 locals taking part in the procession -- toured parties performing songs and sketches.
As well as blazing an unforgettable spectacle across the night sky, observers say Up-Helly-Aa, which is largely funded by locals themselves, also highlights Shetland's strong and enduring sense of cohesion.
Full article
Images from the ShetlandTourism.com pages on the festival
Vikings in Postage Stamps
On the Track of the Vikings: Raiders and Traders of the North Described Through Postage Stamps
Ann Mette Heindorff's excellent collection of Viking-themed postage stamps. I'll be featuring some of her other theme stamp collections that would be interest to Stone Circles throughout the year.
Link
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Dorset castle ruins revealed to be 'ancient forest' of rare lichens
By Rosie Walker
Published: 27 December 2007 The Independent
Corfe Castle in Dorset has been revealed as one of the country's most important sites for lichen, housing 102 varieties among its ruins, including four species described as "rare" and 11 described as "scarce".
Experts have compared it to an ancient forest, and say the castle's location, on a hill on the sunny south coast, away from pollution, has allowed such an unusual collection to grow.
Full article
Published: 27 December 2007 The Independent
Corfe Castle in Dorset has been revealed as one of the country's most important sites for lichen, housing 102 varieties among its ruins, including four species described as "rare" and 11 described as "scarce".
Experts have compared it to an ancient forest, and say the castle's location, on a hill on the sunny south coast, away from pollution, has allowed such an unusual collection to grow.
Full article
Monday, December 17, 2007
Newgrange Winter Solstice Webcast
For the first time ever, the 2007 Winter Solstice illumination of the passage and chamber at Newgrange will be streamed live on the internet.
The webcast and an exhibition at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the re-discovery of the Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange by Professor O’Kelly in 1967.
The Winter Solstice event from inside the chamber at Newgrange will be broadcast on the mornings of Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd December 2007. If conditions are good the rising sun will illuminate the passage and chamber between 8:58am and 9:15am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
To view the webcast click on the Heritage Ireland website.
In addition to the webcast the Office of Public Works will be providing a live free to air broadcast of the event for anyone with a satellite dish. The event will be broadcast from 08.30am to 10.00am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) on December 21st and December 22nd.
That will be 3:30 AM Eastern time for those in the US.
Further information
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Central and South American fairy lore being lost?
From the Ask a Mexican column:
We were talking about the concept of fairies the other day — or rather, I was, because my Mexican/Dominican/Guatemalan/Ecuadorian students had never heard about the concept before. In Northern European folklore, there are small magical folk who might help good people (children, specifically) with their chores, and might make it very difficult for bad people to get their work done. Is there anything similar in Mexican folklore? I thought maybe with the Mayan/Aztec influence, there might be something like fairies.
The Mexican responds:
Mexican folklore is vast, varies by region, and dependent a bit too much on the Devil and wailing women, but fairies and other non-midget phantasmagorical little people do enchant the Mexican mind. In the 1932 classic The Magic and Mysteries of Mexico: Arcane Secrets and Occult Lore of the Ancient Mexicans and Maya, famed folklorist Lewis Spence noted in hilariously antiquated fashion, "The fairy and her kind were as familiar to the Red man as to the White, for the excellent reason that throughout all his geographical ventures and peregrinations man has always been accompanied by these invisible playmates as well as by his gods and other more exalted tribal patrons." He identifies two types: the Tepictoton (whom helped farmers with their crops when causing desmadre) and the Cihuateteo, dead women whom cast diseases on children. "Like the fairies of Europe," Spence writes, "they were associated with the moon, and an examination of their pranks throws a strong comparative light upon European fairyhood."
Link
Thanks to Professor Hex
We were talking about the concept of fairies the other day — or rather, I was, because my Mexican/Dominican/Guatemalan/Ecuadorian students had never heard about the concept before. In Northern European folklore, there are small magical folk who might help good people (children, specifically) with their chores, and might make it very difficult for bad people to get their work done. Is there anything similar in Mexican folklore? I thought maybe with the Mayan/Aztec influence, there might be something like fairies.
The Mexican responds:
Mexican folklore is vast, varies by region, and dependent a bit too much on the Devil and wailing women, but fairies and other non-midget phantasmagorical little people do enchant the Mexican mind. In the 1932 classic The Magic and Mysteries of Mexico: Arcane Secrets and Occult Lore of the Ancient Mexicans and Maya, famed folklorist Lewis Spence noted in hilariously antiquated fashion, "The fairy and her kind were as familiar to the Red man as to the White, for the excellent reason that throughout all his geographical ventures and peregrinations man has always been accompanied by these invisible playmates as well as by his gods and other more exalted tribal patrons." He identifies two types: the Tepictoton (whom helped farmers with their crops when causing desmadre) and the Cihuateteo, dead women whom cast diseases on children. "Like the fairies of Europe," Spence writes, "they were associated with the moon, and an examination of their pranks throws a strong comparative light upon European fairyhood."
Link
Thanks to Professor Hex
Holy Prepuce nicked
Fore Shame
Did the Vatican steal Jesus' foreskin so people would shut up about the savior's penis?
By David Farley
Just what the holy foreskin was doing in the priest's house—in a shoebox at the back of his wardrobe, no less—and why and how it disappeared has been debated ever since the relic vanished. Some suspect the village priest sold it for a heavenly sum; others say it was stolen by thieves and ended up on the relics black market; some even suggest Satanists or neo-Nazis are responsible. But the most likely culprit is an unlikely one: the Vatican.
In 1983, as the residents of Calcata, a small town 30 miles north of Rome, prepared for their annual procession honoring a holy relic, a shocking announcement from the parish priest put a damper on festivities. "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home." Not since the Middle Ages, when lopped-off body parts of divine do-gooders were bought, sold, and traded, has relic theft been big news. But the mysterious disappearance of Calcata's beloved curio is different.
This wasn't just the residuum of any holy human—nor was it just any body part. It was the foreskin of Jesus Christ, the snipped-off tip of the savior's penis, the only piece of his body he supposedly left on earth...
Full Slate article
Thanks to Cannonfire blog
Did the Vatican steal Jesus' foreskin so people would shut up about the savior's penis?
By David Farley
Just what the holy foreskin was doing in the priest's house—in a shoebox at the back of his wardrobe, no less—and why and how it disappeared has been debated ever since the relic vanished. Some suspect the village priest sold it for a heavenly sum; others say it was stolen by thieves and ended up on the relics black market; some even suggest Satanists or neo-Nazis are responsible. But the most likely culprit is an unlikely one: the Vatican.
In 1983, as the residents of Calcata, a small town 30 miles north of Rome, prepared for their annual procession honoring a holy relic, a shocking announcement from the parish priest put a damper on festivities. "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home." Not since the Middle Ages, when lopped-off body parts of divine do-gooders were bought, sold, and traded, has relic theft been big news. But the mysterious disappearance of Calcata's beloved curio is different.
This wasn't just the residuum of any holy human—nor was it just any body part. It was the foreskin of Jesus Christ, the snipped-off tip of the savior's penis, the only piece of his body he supposedly left on earth...
Full Slate article
Thanks to Cannonfire blog
Friday, November 30, 2007
Djinn would be tonic for energy industry?
DJINN ENERGY
A leading Pakistani nuclear scientist who was questioned by the Pakistani government last week concerning his ties to the Taliban is known as a proponent of "Islamic science," a weird hybrid of scientific terminology and Islamic lore.
Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood is a pioneer in the development of nuclear technology in Pakistan. But in 1980, as a senior director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, he "recommended that djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy. By this means, a final solution to Pakistan's energy problems would be found."
This episode was recounted by Pakistani physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy in his enlightening book "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality" (Zed Books, 1991).
In a Wall Street Journal article on Islamic science (13 September 1988), Dr. Mehmood noted that King Solomon had harnessed energy from djinns. "I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them," he said.
While the notion of "djinn energy" is ridiculous -- even in Pakistan there are no djinn engines -- ridicule is beside the point. A more important point is that influential figures in the Islamic world are devoted to a view of reality that cannot be readily reconciled with conventional Western thought. This is a "translation" problem that cannot be solved with dictionaries.
The detention of Bashiruddin Mehmood, which is expected to be temporary, was reported in the Pakistan Observer in Islamabad on October 25. See "Nuclear Scientists Picked [Up] By Agencies":
http://pakobservercom.readyhosting.com/old/october/25/main.htm
Thanks Covert History blog
A leading Pakistani nuclear scientist who was questioned by the Pakistani government last week concerning his ties to the Taliban is known as a proponent of "Islamic science," a weird hybrid of scientific terminology and Islamic lore.
Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood is a pioneer in the development of nuclear technology in Pakistan. But in 1980, as a senior director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, he "recommended that djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy. By this means, a final solution to Pakistan's energy problems would be found."
This episode was recounted by Pakistani physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy in his enlightening book "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality" (Zed Books, 1991).
In a Wall Street Journal article on Islamic science (13 September 1988), Dr. Mehmood noted that King Solomon had harnessed energy from djinns. "I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them," he said.
While the notion of "djinn energy" is ridiculous -- even in Pakistan there are no djinn engines -- ridicule is beside the point. A more important point is that influential figures in the Islamic world are devoted to a view of reality that cannot be readily reconciled with conventional Western thought. This is a "translation" problem that cannot be solved with dictionaries.
The detention of Bashiruddin Mehmood, which is expected to be temporary, was reported in the Pakistan Observer in Islamabad on October 25. See "Nuclear Scientists Picked [Up] By Agencies":
http://pakobservercom.readyhosting.com/old/october/25/main.htm
Thanks Covert History blog
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Can this chestnut be saved? Foundation says yes
The American Chestnut Foundation brings its annual meeting to Burlington on Friday amid high hopes that its 20-year breeding program has produced a tree resistant to the fatal chestnut blight.
Full story
Full story
Friday, August 31, 2007
"Gitcher peanuts, popcorn, Heimskringla..."
If a scholar of Norse mythology had been in the stands of Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, he or she probably would have advised Yankees fans to not make too much out of the 5-3 victory against the Red Sox.
The result, after all, still left the Yankees trailing Boston by an imposing seven games in the American League East. But more significant, perhaps, was the pesky and distracting squirrel that scampered up and down the right-field foul pole during the game and that, according to Norse mythology, just might have foretold that the Yankees will not prevail over the Red Sox this season.
Believe it or not, the squirrel’s actions closely resembled those of Ratatosk, or “gnawing tooth,” a squirrel in Norse mythology that climbed up and down a tree that represented the world. Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic scholar and poet, recorded the story in his 13th-century work “Prose Edda.”
As the story goes, Ratatosk carried insults as it traveled to opposite ends of the tree, fueling a rivalry between the evil dragon residing at the bottom of the tree and the eagle perched at the top.
“Oh, that’s perfect,” said Roberta Frank, a professor of Old Norse and Old English at Yale University, when told of the squirrel’s antics at the stadium.
Frank was born in the Bronx and is a Yankees fan. She said in a telephone interview yesterday that in the Bronx version of this myth, the Yankees would probably represent the eagle and the rival Red Sox would represent the dragon. The Yankees, after all, are the home team this week, more or less making them the good guys. And if there were a sports team identified with an eagle, it has to be the Yankees, who have begun any number of postseason games with a visit from Challenger, the bald eagle who swoops in from center field.
By Teddy Kider The New York Times
FULL ARTICLE
Thanks to Cryptomundo
Wikipedia has a selection of modern manifestations of Ratatosk. Image of horned squirrel above is from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript. Will we see Xeni Jardin using it as a "unicorn chaser" on Boing Boing one of these days?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A new mode of nature writing?
Madeleine Bunting writes in The Guardian on what she sees as a new way of writing about nature. She sees this as a visionary movement, where learning to pay attention to particulars has a redemptive quality that benefits both humans and the natural world (though I'm not sure that was a quality absent from previous modes of nature writing).
Bunting argues that books such as Mark Cocker's Crow Country, Kathleen Jamie's Findings, and Roger Deakin's Wildwood are "a new genre of writing. It doesn't quite fit to call it "nature writing", because what makes these books so compelling - and important - is that they put centre stage the interconnections between nature and human beings."
"The floods in Yorkshire last month were a sharp reminder of what happens when we don't understand the land on which we live. The sight of thousands of flooded homes made us realise what many previous generations would never have forgotten about the way in which water has to move through land. Renewing our relationship with the natural world, on which our wellbeing depends, is at the heart of this genre of writing - but it presses its case not with statistics and fear of apocalyptic scenarios of global warming, but with seduction, urging on readers an aesthetic case for the spectacular beauty that lies beyond their windscreen if they can be bothered to stop the car and get out.
It's the British equivalent in the 21st century to John Muir, the legendary writer who founded the US Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, and who in 1901 wrote that "thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home". We may have hills rather than mountains, but that's what summer holidays should be about - going home."
Sounds like a good group of books to add to your reading pile. Bunting mentions that all of the writers she discussses have pebbles to hand, or lined up on their desks. What pebbles do you have lined up on your desk? I'm tending currently toward smooth, water-rounded stones nearest my desk; the fossils are six feet further away.
Bunting argues that books such as Mark Cocker's Crow Country, Kathleen Jamie's Findings, and Roger Deakin's Wildwood are "a new genre of writing. It doesn't quite fit to call it "nature writing", because what makes these books so compelling - and important - is that they put centre stage the interconnections between nature and human beings."
"The floods in Yorkshire last month were a sharp reminder of what happens when we don't understand the land on which we live. The sight of thousands of flooded homes made us realise what many previous generations would never have forgotten about the way in which water has to move through land. Renewing our relationship with the natural world, on which our wellbeing depends, is at the heart of this genre of writing - but it presses its case not with statistics and fear of apocalyptic scenarios of global warming, but with seduction, urging on readers an aesthetic case for the spectacular beauty that lies beyond their windscreen if they can be bothered to stop the car and get out.
It's the British equivalent in the 21st century to John Muir, the legendary writer who founded the US Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, and who in 1901 wrote that "thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home". We may have hills rather than mountains, but that's what summer holidays should be about - going home."
Sounds like a good group of books to add to your reading pile. Bunting mentions that all of the writers she discussses have pebbles to hand, or lined up on their desks. What pebbles do you have lined up on your desk? I'm tending currently toward smooth, water-rounded stones nearest my desk; the fossils are six feet further away.
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