Vacation

For the next two weeks I will be away from my computer, specifically at Pennsic War 39, one of the biggest historical re-creations I know of (re-creation rather than re-enactment because it recreates medieval activities but doesn't strictly re-enact some medieval occasion). As a whole, it is like a giant celebration of whatever people feel like celebrating. Like the eternal war...

Minor triumph

Today I heard from the editors of a book I am appearing in that the deadline for first drafts is just two months away.I sent my first draft in last week.Boy, that feels go...

The worst jouster in the whole world in all of history

That is what Jordan Heron calls himself, since he has jousted in North America, Europe and Australasia. Only problem: he's getting go...

Fake Canadian ad agency in Tehran "advises" on "Islamic haircut" policy

A fascinating article in the Toronto Star. Someone of influence in Iran thinks that the new "Islamic haircut" policy will be easier to sell if you stick the Canadian flag on it and tell people a Toronto-based agency headed by a Canadian educated Iranian is "advising" on it.I guess...

If you are Irish...

..is one good generation all you get?Image: Canada's ga...

A one-state solution for Israel/Palestine?

An opinion piece by Ali Abunimah on Al Jazeera's English website reports that is now Israeli settlers and right-wing parties that are considering a one state solution for Israel/Palestine. I strongly suggest you read the entire article, but I will include some excerpts:With no progress...

They just keep finding more Stonehenge

What impresses me is not so much the construction, as the size of the whole complex which rather implies a huge social investment over a large area. A very large area. I am tempted to speculate on the existence of a "Stonehenge civilization." Read all about the new discoveri...

Fight over the Canadian census

...and its mandatory long form.The issue is that the federal government is ending the practice of requiring a certain number of people to fill out a detailed census long form, under pain of law. The government says that a larger number of voluntary forms will be just as good. Anyone...

Flow it, show it: paired posts on hair in Iran

I grew up in the 1960s, and though I didn't wear my hair very long, I took the contempt and coercion laid on those who did very seriously indeed.The battleground of hair is now in Iran. one of the warriors in that battle is human rights activist Fariba Davoodi Mohajer. Here's the beginning of her story as told in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:On a cold winter day, Iranian...

Paired histories: divergent massacres

Two posts I saw the other day have stuck in my mind since. If you're feeling emotionally fragile and pessimistic about human possibilities, maybe you should just skip over this.One is an article from the New York Times which explores a very unpleasant subject, the fact that a certain number of German women actively volunteered to take part in the Final Solution. Here is a bit...

Nicholas of Cusa and Ethan Allen, cosmic speculators

Dr. Beachcombing is impressed with the fact that Nicholas of Cusa,15th century canon lawyer, astronomer, and philosopher, put his intellect to work on the question of the size and habitability of the universe: Nor can place furnish an argument for the earth’s baseness. Life,...

Dogwashers

Otherwise known as "Blissed out in Kabul."Ah, the ex-pat life, behind those 20-foot blast-walls.Was it like this in Beijing or Shanghai before the Boxer Rebellion?Image: Yoga in Kab...

The Antennae galaxies collide

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Lance lengths

Will McLean says:In the 14th and 15th centuries lances were not infrequently used by men at arms fighting on foot, both in massed formations and single combat. The length preferred depended on circumstances and personal preference.If you are interested in this subject, he's got...

Finished

... the crappy first draft of what I hope will be a decent article eventually.Do you have problems writing concluding paragraphs? Of course you do.Image: This is what a corrected first draft looked like in the typewriter era. If you were a good writer, that is (in this case, James...

My kind of gargoyle

Thanks to Ephemeral New Yo...

NGC 6188, 4000 years ago

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Writing: students, listen to the voice of experience

No, I don't mean me. Students never get (or respond to) good advice from their teachers!But they might listen to a more experienced student (one writing a dissertation, perhaps) who has seen it all and is willing to tell uncomfortable truths about her writing life. Meet Tanya L....

Eclipse in Patagonia!

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

A change worth noting?

This afternoon, I was comparing two historical groups and their political experience, and wrote down the phrase "brothers under the skin." Although I liked the way came off the tongue, the phrase made me uncomfortable. After all it rather implies that skin is pretty important and that you would expect differences in skin would reflect differences in a lot of other things. Otherwise...

Dr. Beachcombing contemplates early medieval genocide

Dr. Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog continues to amuse, amaze and educate. See, for instance, what he has to say about scholars downplaying massacres.Beachcombing has noted before the refusal of archaeologists to face up to some of the bloodier customs of our ancestors. And what better example of this than the way that most archaeologists go into denial on coming across...

QMS demo tape (1967)!

The visuals, of course, are later, but reasonably appropriate for a psychedelic ba...

Another nighttime treat

... waiting for Jonathan Jarret's return from Leeds. And for all the rest of my readers.John Cipollina was the phenomenal talent of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Nick Gravenites produced the first QMS album, which was pretty close to perfect. See also: Pride of M...

Walther Rathenau on Soviet Communism, early 1920s

From Wikipedia on Rathenau, Foreign Minister of the early Weimar Republic:In fact, despite his desire for economic and political co-operation between Germany and the Soviet Union, Rathenau remained skeptical of the methods of the Soviets. In his Kritik der dreifachen Revolution (Critique of the triple revolution) he noted that: We cannot use Russia's methods, as they only and...

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Fresh Air - The Fillmore, 1971

Never saw them live, but even on vinyl they were phenomen...

One of the things that's wrong with the world today, 2

A scary guest editorial at Informed Comment by Houshang Asadi, who once shared a cell with Khamenei during the Shah's regime:...Since its inception, the Islamic Revolution has sought to suppress civil society by replacing civil law with sharia law as the legal basis of the Iranian society. But the long-lasting conflict between liberal-minded clergymen and their fundamentalist...

One of the things that's wrong with the world today, 1

From Digby at Hullabaloo:The Village In Full Effectby digbyTweety's [= Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball"] latest promo:I think if you watch our show, you're hearing the American family arguments. It's as if you're sitting at a dinner table with your conservative uncle and your liberal relatives and they're arguing with each other and you're hearing both sides. You're...

This is what a trillion dollar war buys you these days

Read about the golden future of Iraqi-American cooperati...

Modern jousting in the New York Times Magazine

I know some of these people, and once worked as a squire at one of Shane Adams' jousting meets. The Times article rings true -- this is what Adams's bunch were doing seven years ago. And crazy as it is, there is something really medieval about a scene like this:That evening, some...

The Muslim Brotherhood's own version of Facebook

From Arabist.net:The National's Matt Bradley has a story on the Muslim Brotherhood's Facebook clone: IkhwanBook joins a veritable suite of Brotherhood-affiliated (“Ikhwan” is Arabic for “Brotherhood”) websites, such as IkhwanWiki, IkhwanWeb, IkhwanGoogle – a “Cusotmized [sic]...

Oh, MAN! More stumbling

...over marvelous online resources.Namely, the Digital South Asia Library, which contains a complete version of the extraordinary A Historical Atlas of South Asia; and just when I had a use for th...

PBS Newshour

I have said some harsh things about American journalism on this blog, so I feel an obligation to praise it when I find a good example coming out of the USA. I am very impressed by the honesty and hard work that goes into the former Knight-Ridder news service which is now called McClatchy, but some of you already know that. Now I have a second example --the PBS television Newshour.What...

Somewhere, universities remain relevant and important

And that place is called... Iran.A battle over the largest university in Iran, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, also shows the divisions within the Iranian establishment. Here is part of a long article:By Golnaz Esfandiari A dispute over control of one of the world's...

Amerigo, Amerigo

A cool, detailed article on the naming of America. Thanks to Boston.com and Explorator for this one.The expanding horizons began with Vespucci. In his letter, he reported sailing west across the Atlantic, like Columbus. After making landfall, however, he had turned south, in an...

Hickson Compact Group 87

...and galaxies even farther away.From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Plato's Code concealed in his writings!

This sounds nuts doesn't it? Sounds just like old what's his name doesn't it? But it's been in the papers!In fact, if you read the news accounts about this scholarly argument, you might not be very impressed. Prof. John (Jay) Kennedy might end up sounding to you just like old what's...

The mass grave of 51 military horses

The excavated remains of war horses found near Borgharen in the Netherlands. They may have been killed in a Dutch war of the 17th century. Read all about ...

What to the slave is the Fourth of July?

Over at his blog, Brad DeLong republishes Frederick Douglass's famous 1852 speech. I will just link to the full text.Read it.I am in awe of Douglass's moral and physical coura...

City-state cultures: something I just stumbled across

Looking through my library catalog for material on ancient democracies, I stumbled across a relatively new book by Mogens Herman Hansen, Polis: An Introduction to the Ancient Greek City-State. Hansen is a Danish scholar who for a long time now has been ahead of a major research project meant to systematically investigate the entire phenomenon of Greek polis. The project was...

"Half-digested management theory"

...as Magistra et Mater herself says. Nevertheless, I like this:If modern companies want to expand, they have two main routes to take. One is what is often called organic growth, which is the process of gradually expanding your current business: opening up one extra shop, buying...

Casualties of the Afghan War

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