Egregores
Myles Badger: Every egregore works like this: when enough people invest enough effort in a shared symbolic system, that system will start to take on a life of its own and develop an internal logic…
Simone Weil's Warning: How Modernity Steals Your Attention
Is the modern world systematically destroying our capacity for deep thought and genuine connection?
A two-sorted logic and the Trinity
For a while this spring I’ve been thinking about ways of avoiding quaternity views of God. The problem is that, first, Father ≠ Son, Son ≠ Spirit and Father ≠ Spirit and, second, we seem to have to…
if i had a time machine, first thing id do is obviously kill hitler. even if germanys fascism was…
anarch0possum:if i had a time machine, first thing id do is obviously kill hitler. even if germanys fascism was caused by complex socioeconomic factors itd still be worth doing for the bit. then id…
New Visitor Centers Open at UNESCO-Listed Hierapolis in Pamukkale
Hierapolis, the ancient city rising beside Pamukkale’s famous white travertines, has entered a new phase in its visitor experience. As part of Türkiye’s Heritage for the Future Project, new visitor…
ROME 26/5– Day 45: Fr. Z gives you the bird
5:55 20:19 20:30 Today one recites the Supplica to Our Lady of Pompeii It is the 1st Anniversary of the election of Leo XIV. Two 7th century Popes have their Feast today, Boniface IV (+615) and…
STEM is not "more autistic" than the humanities
There's an autism stereotype that just won't die, and it never stops bugging me. It's the idea that the "default" autistic person is a STEM person, while an autistic person in the arts or humanities…
8 May – Happy Feast of Mary… under which title?
Today I had options for Mass…. Apparition of St. Michael Mary, Queen of All Saints and Mother of Beautiful Love Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. Guess…
Feminist critical perspective on Islam
I want to first state that I respect all religions. Everyone should have the rights to choose their religious beliefs (if it does not harm others). I do not hate people who follow Islam but a…
Sapiens, pages 16-19: The "Unsetting and Perhaps Thrilling" End of Chapter 1
I'm reviewing Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari one page at a time, sometimes four. Today's post marks the end of Chapter 1. An Animal of No Significance. But first, a…
Dashed Off XVI
Neoplatonism is a philosophy of intelligible experience. Human beings overflow their experiences through story, art, and social connection. Everything Denethor sees and infers is correct at a certain…
Is it possible for a book to be high concept and quiet? If so, what are some examples? Thanks!!!
Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee yet? But to me... not really. "High Concept" means that it's easy to understand from a nutshell, one-line pitch. These are probably very plot-driven stories,…
Opus 1: The Comedy of Errors
Dromio S. Master, shall I be porter at the gate? Adriana Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate. Beginnings can be funny things. Before the Beatles could commence transforming pop and rock…
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER AND ALIENS
Among the many stories that populate America’s long fascination with UFOs, few are as enduring as the claim that President Dwight D. Eisenhower secretly met with extraterrestrial beings during the…
What Is Truth? Technology vs Faith | The Transformation of Value
We look for truth in many places. From Bitcoin and science to AI and technology, but where does truth come from, and what does Christ mean in our always-online digital world?
Considering writing with Þorn and Eð characters. Is that annoying to read?
I’m considering using the þorn & eð characters in my posts, but I do worry that people who aren’t used to seeing them might find their presence annoying or confusing. Like, what it turns away…
The Everything of Orthodoxy
“He can’t see the forest for the trees,” the saying goes. It’s a recognition that attention to detail can obscure an overall pattern. Of course, someone could respond by…
Drawn to our grandparents
A friend recently said that he identifies more with his grandparents than his parents. I agreed, and with some more thought I think I know why. A brief overview of the four turnings model of…
The Price of Food
Lucan, Pharsalia 3.55-56 (tr. J.D. Duff): He knew that the causes of hatred and mainsprings of popularity are determined by the price of food. gnarus et irarum causas et summa favoris annona momenta…
The Dictum of Kenilworth, Part 2
Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, was originally on the side of the rebels during the Second Barons' War. He changed over to the royalist side when Simon de Montfort made an alliance with the…
LIDAR giving a great look at old coastal forts
There were 42 principal masonry forts and dozens of smaller batteries built as part of the U.S. “Third System” of coastal defense between 1816 and 1867 to protect major harbors. You know…
Did Norway’s First Viking King Really Exist?
The post Did Norway’s First Viking King Really Exist? appeared first on Life in Norway.
Mark Wunderlich - On Mary Ruefle
A wonderful essay on Mary Ruefle by someone who is as much of a fan as I. Previous
The peasant home
Patrick Joyce, Remembering Peasants: The dwelling is also a constitutive part of the relationship between past and present generations, between the living and the dead. Something handed on, or hoped…
How Death Becomes Imaginable: Yiyun Li, Suicide Affordance, and the Limits of Literary Mourning
I. Not Causation, but Lowered ProtectionSuicide prevention has a language for contagion. It does not yet have an adequate language for what makes suicide imaginable before any specific crisis…
The Story of the Gnome Fly Part 1 - The American Dwarf; Harvey Leach (1801-1847)
From the February 1954 issue of the US comic 'Nightmare' I believe the name "Hop-Frog" was not that given to the dwarf by his sponsors at baptism, but it was conferred upon him, by general consent of…
Al Shall Be Wele: Chapter 3, "I would that His peynes were my peynes"
"I would that His peynes were my peynes." In Chapter 3 Julian finally tells the story about the origin of her showings, some details of which I've already shared. As Julian recounts, when she was…
May 8: VE Day
It's V.E. Day. On this day in 1945, the Allies accepted Germany's unconditional surrender, essentially ending World War 2 in Europe. Odd or not fact: The leaders of the Axis powers, Hitler, Mussolini…
The Feast Day of Julian of Norwich
May 8 is the feast day of Julian of Norwich in the Anglican and the Lutheran church; in the Catholic church, it's May 13. Is Julian of Norwich as famous now as Hildegard of Bingen or Ireland's St.…
Viking gold bangle hoard found in Denmark
A Viking Age hoard of six solid gold bracelets has been found on the Himmerland peninsula of northeastern Jutland, Denmark. The design of the bracelets identifies them as a Scandinavian type dating…
Touching the Heart of Japan: The Bond Between Nature and Humanity in “The Deer’s Gratitude”
① The Story: The Deer’s Gratitude (Shika no Ongaeshi) Once upon a time, deep in the quiet mountains of J […]
The most pleasant reward
“Oui, la récompense la plus agréable qu’on puisse recevoir des choses que l’on fait, c’est de les voir connues, de les voir caressées d’un applaudissement qui vous honore.” “Yes,…
Physics IV.12: According to Aristotle, are eternal things (that always exist) in time?
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Flosky!
Via Laudator Temporis Acti: Letter of Edward Lear to Evelyn Baring: Thrippsy pillivinx, Inky tinky pobblebockle abblesquabs? — Flosky! beebul trimble flosky! — Okul scratchabibblebongibo, viddle…
Danser avec la machine ou rester sous perfusion
J’ai lu la chronique de Gaspard Koenig sur Sanctuaires d’Abel Quentin, puis le commentaire qu’en a fait Benoît Bergeret. Je voudrais commenter ce commentaire, mais avant cela je…
Sun Tzu: The Highest Victory Is Not Stepping Onto the Battlefield
Two product managers fought head-to-head for two weeks over the same project. The line got cut. Sun Tzu left three retreats 2,500 years ago: don't step onto the field, don't fight head-on, don't drag…
Guidance From Ancient Egypt
Selected maxims and passages from ancient Egyptian compilation of proverbs.
Utopia, by John Lennon
Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace Bullshit. Alas. I remember our teachers from…
The Products of Productive Skill
Richard Dawkins recently got some attention due to having spent a weekend with Claude (which he renamed Claudia) and deciding that it must be conscious. Plenty of people have been making fun of him…
May 8, 1615: The Fall of the Toyotomi Clan & The Turning Point of the Samurai Era
May 8, 1615. This date marks one of the most dramatic and decisive turning points in Japanese history. On this […]
Letting Event-based Forms of Church Die
Recording of live event with Cindy S Lee on the desert elders
Songbook Sequence?
Suggestions for reasons behind the order of the prayers and praises of the final canonical Psalter are legion. While there is much to be gleaned from consideration of various views, is there one that…
The Dangers of Postmillennialism and the Authoritarian Hangover of the Social Gospel Movement in Canada
Eschatology and MarxismOne of the most interesting things about The Communist Manifesto is the literary genre into which it falls. Unlike the other works of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, it is…
‘God’s Poets’ (Psalm 8)
What has the church forgotten that moved and energized Abraham Moses David Paul and the great men and women of the Bible? The answer is closer than you think…
‘The Bible is Not a Self-Help Book’ (Ps.19)
The modern church has reduced the Bible to little more than a self-help book—but nothing could be further from the truth. David understood this and mapped it out for us—even more, Paul understood…
Trevor Royle - Fighting Mac: The Downfall of Major-General Sir Hector Macdonald
Sir Hector Macdonald was an unusual soldier in the British Army in the late 19th and very early 20th century. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Omdurman, being more competent than the…
The Ethics of Dealing With an Author’s Legacy
In the defense of deceased authors, whose name and works are used to support postmodern ideologies. Introduction Recently, I was listening to an interview given by Hermione Lee in 2014, in which she…
One of the most fascinating documents that have survived about bandits/highwaymen is El catecisme…
One of the most fascinating documents that have survived about bandits/highwaymen is El catecisme del bon trabucaire (Catalan for “The Catechism of the Good Bandit”), a 19th-century…
It was summer [1964]; Roger and I had come to spend the day in Paris, and, after visiting a museum,…
It was summer [1964]; Roger and I had come to spend the day in Paris, and, after visiting a museum, had decided to go to the cinema. Suddenly, on the opposite pavement, we saw Blanchot with a woman.…
Said You Liked to Hear Me Talk, Told Me Not to Stop
Do you remember Pat Tillman? He was a former NFL player who famously quit football and joined the military after 9/11, only to die by friendly fire in Afghanistan a few years later. What I’ve…