Traditional Japanese folktales often carry profound life lessons. Today, we share a comical yet meaningful story, “The Battle Between Taro and Tofu.” Through this kitchen clash, we explore the cultural core of harmony that Japan deeply values.
1. The Story of Taro and Tofu One night, a quiet incident unfolded on a kitchen shelf. Resting side by side we […]
Attachments and Suffering
i have experienced the suffering of deep attachment but its totally wrong to say that attachments give us sufferings. infact its the opposite attachments help us thrive "Transformation happens inside…
3rd c. pithos burial found at Hadrianopolis
A pithos burial has been discovered in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis, modern-day Eskipazar in northern Turkey’s Black Sea region. It is the first example of this type of burial found in…
'Sound Well and Go Well When Spoken'
I used to think that everyone knew it -- “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” -- the same way everyone knew “And what is so rare as a day in June?” and “Into the valley of Death / Rode the…
Evening Note for Sunday, June 28
Thought for the Evening: Vicarious Intention There are clearly situations in which people have vicarious intention , i.e., intention on behalf of another. An obvious example is parenting, which often…
And now for something completely different
I spent the summer of 1974 researching my dissertation in London, and a lifelong love affair began. The World Cup started in Germany shortly after I arrived, and I saw at least half of the games. The…
“On Being a Mule of the World: Reflections on Race, Gender, and Species Transition” is the latest…
animalmagazine:ALT“On Being a Mule of the World: Reflections on Race, Gender, and Species Transition” is the latest nonfiction essay from ANIMAL by @liondrakes ☀️“‘Mare’…
820 Speight Ave
820 Speight Ave, Waco, TX Samuel Palmer Brooks (December 4, 1863 – May 14, 1931) served as President of Baylor University from 1902 to 1931. He is one of the most consequential figures in Baylor's…
Where to publish research on lingcomm
I love seeing linguistics communication work, and the wonderful ways people do lingcomm to bring linguistics to new audiences. I do lingcomm as part of my job as an academic, which means that I also…
What happened after the Roman Empire ceased to be in 476?
Fred Kozlowski: My favorite figure in the post-Roman period is Theoderic — ruling 493 to 526, twenty years after the “fall” of Rome. He took over the structure of the Roman Empire and…
June 29 is “Tsukudani Day”: Savoring Japan’s Preserved Food Culture and Edo History
An essential part of the Japanese dining table, “Tsukudani” is a mesmerizing, sweet, and savory si […]
Morson on Bakhtin.
I’ve been a huge fan of Gary Saul Morson for a long time (see my too-brief review of his Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time here) and I’ve been interested in Mikhail Bakhtin for…
Don't mention the Isle of Wight Separatists' 1950s terror campaign
If it weren't for Lord Bonkers, I should have taken this as a charming portrait of an English backwater 70 years ago. In reality, 1956 saw the height of the Isle of Wight Separatists' terror campaign…
A 1,500-Year-Old Mosaic in Smyrna: Loyalty, Protection, and a Floor Reused Centuries Later
A 1,500-year-old mosaic floor uncovered in the ancient city of Smyrna, in modern İzmir, western Türkiye, shows how decoration in Late Antiquity could carry meanings beyond ornament. The mosaic, dated…
Han Shan, 8th century
Han Shan, 8th centuryPigs eat the flesh of dead humans and humans eat dead pigs.Pigs don’t mind the death stink of us, but if a pig just dies, people toss it out.When we die, we’re buried somewhere…
RC Bulletin ~ June 28, 2026
IN THE NEWS … ALSO OF INTEREST … CLASSICISTS AND NEARLY SO … RECEPTIONS AND APPROPRIATIONS … ANCIENT DRAMA … FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE … FRESH PODCASTERY… STREAMING MEDIA … BOOK REVIEWS …
ASK FATHER: If God love us infinitely why does He not speak to us directly?
From a reader… QUAERITUR: At another Catholic site I saw this question and I was wondering how you would answer it. How can it be said that God loves us infinitely when He never speaks to us…
Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 4th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 12th Ordinary) 2026
Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff. Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this 5th…
Wish
Euripides, Heracles 676 (tr. David Kovacs): May I never live a Muse-less life! μὴ ζῴην μετ᾽ ἀμουσίας. The same, tr. Edward P. Coleridge: Never may I live among uneducated boors. Godfrey W. Bond ad…
Open Letter to the Ghost of Richard Dawkins
One can't deny an assertion without a reasonable understanding of what's been asserted. To deny an assertion because "it sounds wrong" would be sheer intellectual arrogance, no? "It's wrong because…
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iv kalendas quinctilias
4 A.D. –the future emperor Tiberius adopts his nephew Germanicus 202 A.D. — martyrdom of Irenaeus at Lugdunum c. 202 A.D. — martyrdom of Potamiaena 1701 — Death of Thomas Creech (translator of…
There is nothing new under the sun, even for encyclicals
In a previous life, i was a history major researching the French-Catholic migration to the Canadian Prairies between 1870 and 1915. Published in 1891, Rerum novarum is the foundational text of the…
The Corporate Farce
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by the American anthropologist David Graeber that postulates the existence of meaningless jobs which cause psychological harm. He contends that over half of…
Christopher Clark - Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849
In January 1848, Francesco Bagnasco, a radical Scilian who believed in the "universal regeneration" of society in the face of inequality, unemployment and hunger, spoke:The time of useless prayers…
Noccalula Falls Back in the Day [1000th post]
Well, here we are at my 1000th posting on this blog since March 2014. Scary. I thought I would devote this one to a bit of family history. In July 2016 I wrote a series of fi
On this day: The Forth and Clyde Canal officially opened
On 28 June 1790, the Forth and Clyde Canal was opened, linking the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. It was the world’s first man-made, sea-to-sea ship canal, and to celebrate the historic…
If the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil causes death…
IDK. What have you got?
Eirenaios
Today is the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Doctor of the Church. From Adversus Haereses, Book III, Chapter 19 : But again, those who assert that He was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph,…
Main / Saving ''Canberra''
On Friday, October 13th, 1944, TF 38 was conducting strikes off the coast of Formosa (now Taiwan). It was the second and final day of an operation to wipe out Japanese air strength on the island in…
The Reality Effect of Technoscience: My Dissertation, Now Free To Read
My 2004 doctoral dissertation, The Reality Effect of Technoscience, is now available as a free PDF from my own site. This is the author-maintained source for the dissertation, its citation metadata,…
🔗 I was obsessed with money… then I found philosophy
They rush through everything. Not because they need to, but because slowing down means confronting an emptiness they’ve been running from.
Weekly Bible Study - June 29, 2026
Welcome to our weekly study! Each week, our reading plan will take us through three different parts of the Bible: a psalm, a passage from Proverbs, and a few chapters from another book as we journey…
Race and Ethnicity: Canon 68
Continuing our look at the final four Canons of the proceedings of the 1215 Fourth Lateran Council, we come to Canon 68, which wanted to make sure everyone knew who a Jew (or Muslim) was, so they…
Translation
While I’m playing with that more-than-hundred-year-old management book…how to reproduce drawings: It occurs to me that most people reading this need one or more terms translated or…
Sermon for Sunday, June 28, 2026
June 28, 2026 By Kristin Berkey-Abbott Matthew 10:40-42 At first, this text seems like a standard hospitality text, and we’re not wrong to read it that way. It’s a familiar lesson that repeats over…
just fruit
here boy here boy its just fruit this is what you want dont be ashamed dont turn it off your daddys nearby theres nothing to fear nobody even to break a law why not come through and come here for me…
To Those Who Live as if the Gospel Were True
Note: this has gone through a series of formal revisions from the original monologue written on October 25, 2025. Six months ago, I wrote this to those whom I lived out the gospel with— today I share…
2,700-year-old Bronze Age sword found in Poland
A Bronze Age sword has been found by a metal detectorist in the woods near Gdańsk, Poland. It is in excellent condition, covered in green patina. Archaeologists with the Provincial Office for the…
My Relationship with God
I've been through a host of ventures finding god. Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, yet, I found home where I was born. Hinduism. For me, Hinduism isn't just a religion. It's philosophy, it's art, it's…
teaser: in this family
We prioritize the usage of the feminine in our everyday grammar. More later.
SPLectrum’s Kind of Aesthetics
Aesthetics is not the philosophy-of-art appendix — it is the dynamics of meaning, the third field beside epistemology and ontology. Why expression of meaning, from the sensory upward, belongs under…
The Black Death - review
I, Agnolo di Tura, called the Fat, buried my five children with my own hands... It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful thing. Indeed, one who did not see such horribleness can…
Link Log 22
Article from Aeon on trauma creep. Yeah, people calling everything "trauma" these days sucks and is stupid. But those same kids who complain about their "trauma" and "anxiety" won't tell you that…
Epistemology
Epistemology, the study of knowledge starts with a leap of faith. Not of the religious kind. But we have to have faith in that we can think properly, that our memory works reliably. A brain with a…
Psychological reactions to Esperanto
Claude Piron wrote a fascinating article about common psychological reactions to Esperanto, and based on my own experience, he is spot-on in his analysis. An English-language PDF of the article can…
Humanity without superiority
I have had far too many conversations lately, and perhaps so have you, in which my interlocutor confidently or desperately attempts to assert what really, truly, and finally sets us humans apart from…
The curious case of the disappearing Polish S
Speaking of remastering (and diacritics ), I grabbed my older Medium deep dive called The curious case of the disappearing Polish S , and put it on the new site. It looks so much better than on…
Animal-Figured Seal Found at Büklükale May Belong to an Early Hittite Tradition
A small handled stamp seal found at Büklükale in central Türkiye may belong to a tradition known from the end of the Karum Period and the Early Hittite Period, according to the excavation director.…
Ellsberg on the Cuban Missile Crisis
If Khrushchev had not, surprisingly, initiated an abrupt, humiliating withdrawal of his missiles Sunday morning—without even waiting for an official American response to his proposal of Saturday…