Meet me at the Pas of the Beautiful Pilgrim

I will not be blogging for the next couple of weeks. If you are going to the SCA's Pennsic War, drop by this event and say hello to the Duke of Burgundy: A Recreation of the Pas de la Belle Pelerine To be held at Pennsic in the Green List, August 3rd, 2009 from 2-5 PM, hosted by the Company of S. MichaelThe servants of the Belle Pelerine...

Memories of Catal Huyuk

Not very much like it, but this does make me think of the Neolithic city. And reminds me of Dave Nichols.It's actually a neighborhood on the outskirts of Kandahar.From the Big Picture, In Afghanistan, Part Two. Don't miss Part O...

The humble knights of the Temple

For those who found the conclusion of this post rather cryptic, here is what Bernard of Clairvaux said in his treatise In Praise of the New Knighthood about the new Knights Templar. This was something of a promotional "press release" meant to aid recruiting and fundraising:AND NOW...

Why helicopters -- and other things -- often break and crash in Afghanistan

Fortunately for those aboard, this Chinook just redistributed the dust.From the Big Picture's In Afghanistan, Part Two.And Part One is he...

Our modern world

Don't miss this segment from English Russ...

Rafsanjani's Friday sermon in Tehran: the flexibility of religion and ideology

Juan Cole published this morning a meaty analysis of Friday's sermon in Tehran by former Iranian president Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani in my view is a smart opportunist, not a radical, but the kind of guy who always survives the revolution and makes billions in the process (he is in...

xkcd.com on chivalry

Thanks to the devilish, perceptive loons behind the websi...

The Old Pilgrim says: Knights, do your own sewing, or better yet, somebody else's

Philippe de Mezieres (14th century):The army chief must abstain from overeating and drinking and from public luxury... Remember Godfrey de Bouillon at the siege of Antioch. He was sitting on the ground in a little tent mending a saddle belonging to one of his squires when messengers...

The New York Times finally notices Jack Vance...

...now that he's 92 and blind. A development right out of Vance's fiction, which is always more like "real life" than you might suspect at first blush. To say the least.Carlo Rotella is to be congratulated on an excellent article. Thanks to Brad DeLong for pointing this o...

Here's one for Will McLean

The caption from The Big Picture:Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 mission commander, floats safely to the ground after an accident during a training session on May 6th, 1968. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) exploded only seconds before while Armstrong was rehearsing...

A photo collection celebrating the 40th anniversary of Lunar Landing Day

From The Big Picture. Buzz Aldrin, with Neil Armstrong, photographer, reflected in his visor.Clic the pic for larger versio...

Brilliant

From xkcd.com -- which is often excelle...

Problems and disasters -- and a piece on India's democratic achievement

Sometime in the last few years I came to the conclusion that one's life may usefully be divided into two parts, one where you're beset with a few or many problems which just seemed to soak up all of your time. This is most of your life. Then something really bad happens and that's it.If this is a useful insight, it means you better enjoy the times when you have lots of problems.Right...

Welcome, NSO guests!

Here's a note for y...

Xinhua, China's official news agency, speaks

And says something I, at least, found unexpect...

Some early art history -- in process

It has been a while since I blogged anything on the Stone Age. To remedy this terrible lack, let me link to a post from Judith Weingarten at Zenobia: Empress of the East on some recent research about who created some of the famous Stone Age cave paintings. She likes the idea that...

A note of welcome for those attending tomorrow's New Student Orientation

A number of future History students will be attending the New Student Orientation at Nipissing University tomorrow. If you are one of them let me say that this year I am on sabbatical leave, writing a book, and so you will not see me around the campus before September of 2010. On the off chance that you have stumbled across this blog, I thought I should say hello.The blog shows...

Big trouble in China

Students in last year's Islamic Civilization course may remember a short discussion of the Uighurs in China. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs are not culturally Chinese, and in recent decades they have felt overwhelmed by Han Chinese inmigration. It's not much of a contest numbers-wise,...

Is it rural Russia, or "I survived a Japanese game show?"

I laughed out loud at this video from English Russia, but once again it reminds me of off-the-beaten-track Canada. Especially with all the rain my area has got this ye...

Cosmic truth?

Someone sent me a link to this painting by James Christensen, Michael the Archangel Battles the Dragon While Almost Nobody Pays Attention.That's exactly how it works. Nobody is paying attention to the vital, heroic struggle. One can just hope there is a hero out there, fighting...

On her way to jail?

From the Guardian and every place else:Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former Republican vice-presidential candidate, said today she is resigning from office at the end of the month, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.My speculation, on the other hand, is that a humongous scandal is about to break and that she'll be spending months...

Juan Cole extravaganza

Juan Cole has stated in the past that he gets most of his work done at night; he must have got very little sleep last night putting together on Informed Comment a large collection of material on a variety of subjects. I will particularly point out this video from Al Jazeera, which is as good for showing downtown Tehran as it is for the latest news from that city. It's always...

Fortunate Son

Juan Cole in Informed Comment says this about Dick Cheney and sacrifices in Iraq:Dick Cheney reacted to the cessation of unilateral US patrols of major cities in Iraq, saying that he had concerns that the "insurgents" might launch more attacks and that “I would not want to see the U.S. waste all the tremendous sacrifice that has gotten us to this point."First of all, Cheney didn't...

Tehran: the cats are happy

Juan Cole passes along this "final dispatch from Tehran," which I don't dare summarize. Don't miss ...

Baghdad: 50 degrees C and a sandstorm outside

Just one remarkable picture from the latest installment of The Big Picture.Well there is this shot of the crater left by that bombing in Kirk...

Canada Day thought

From a Globe and Mail comment thread on the Canadian self-image:I am more grateful than I am proud to live in Canada.Lucked out this ti...