[T]he Christianity of the Angles, the Saxons, and the Franks was rudimentary. They were aggressive and martial people and they wanted an aggressive religion… Soldier saints like St. George, St. Mercury and St. Demetrius figured more than God in their piety and, in practice, differed little from pagan deities. Jesus was seen as the feudal lord of the Crusaders…: he had summoned his nights to recover his patrimony – the Holy Land – from the infidel… In practical terms, their God was still the primitive tribal deity of the early books of the Bible. When they finally conquered Jerusalem in the summer of 1099, they fell on the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants of the city with the zeal of Joshua and massacred them witha brutality that shocked even their contemporaries.
SublimeFemme brought the music of the wonderful Sabrina Chap to my attention this week. I knew about Sabrina Chap through the incredible collection of stories and art, Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction, but had no idea she was a also musician. Her music is very fun, but also clever, and wonderfully queer.
I bought a digital camera 5 years ago in China. A Samsung Digimax U-CA 5, specifically. It’s been a good camera: it survived my clumsiness, held a charge forever, and was easy to use. But now it tends to make all my pictures kind of reddish or yellow and a full battery lasts about 15 minutes. It’s time for a new camera.
I don’t know the first thing about photography and I really don’t want to ever have to focus something by hand. As far as dealing with different kinds of light or situations, I loved the settings on my little Samsung labeled things like “Sunset,” “Landscape,” or “Children.” The one thing I always wanted my camera to do better was closeups – I’m always trying (and failing) to take pictures of small succulents or flowers.
Agricultural subsidies need some serious rethinking: first the government pays to make unhealthy food cheap, then it pays for obesity related disease through health care.
Maybe the problem with Toyota isn’t Toyota, but elderly drivers.
I’m hosting this month’s edition of Berry Go Round, so if you’ve written or read something plant related that you particularly liked, send it my way. You can use the submission form or email me at enchantressofnumbers AT gmail DOT com. I’m planning on getting most of the links together in the next week since I’m on spring break and have a bit more free time than usual, but I won’t be posting the actual carnival until the 28th if you’ve got a last minute submission. Until then, I highly recommend checking out February’s Berry Go Round.
Not everybody was capable of philosophical thought, however, so Falsafah was only for an intellectual elite. It would confuse the masses and lead them into an error that imperiled their eternal salvation. Hence the importance of the esoteric tradition, which kept these dangerous doctrines from those unfitted to receive them. It was just the same with Sufism and the batini studies of the Ismalis; if unsuitable people attempted these mental disciplines they could become seriously ill and develop all kinds of psychological disorders.
To show that I am not hopelessly biased towards fossils, I’ll point you to another favorite at A Digital Botanic Garden on a particularly lovely Arisaema species. Arisaema is in the Araceae family, which I find endlessly fascinating.
Archeopteris:
You've likely seen or heard about Archaeopteryx, a ...
Handwriting: Natt Nightly wrote about handwriting and gender the oth...
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I wish I’d said that
“CAREER OPPORTUNITY!!!” screams an ad for a $6.25 an hour warehouse clerk. Then they mention that they drug test. Who are they kidding? They’re discouraging their target market. Who but a crack head would want an opportunity like that? — Iain Levison
, but had no idea she was a also musician. Her music is very fun, but also clever, and wonderfully queer.
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