via Ancient Origins by Sarah P Young
The Battle of Culloden’ 1746 by David Morier. Source: Public Domain
There have been countless significant battles throughout history. Some of them have become infamous – from the Battle of Passchendaele during WWI to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but the majority fade from memory within a generation or two. The Battle of Culloden is one example which has been forgotten by many people today – and yet on just one fateful day in April of 1746 the course of European history was changed.
However, it was the actions of Henry VIII which first set things in motion. In 1534 Henry infamously split the English church from Rome, forming the Church of England and plunging the country into years of religious upheaval. The line of succession after Henry served only to further complicate matters – while Edward VI was Protestant and introduced further reforms, his older sister Mary I was an extremely conservative Catholic, and her aggressive methods of restoring England to Catholicism earned her the nickname ‘ Bloody Mary ’.
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via ResearchBuzz Firehose: unnamed author (could be Sam) in Haute Macabre Newsletter
I had a hard job deciding which of the many images to show you but eventually settled for this innocuous book. If images of pentagrams and other mystic things bother you then please do not continue reading.
Located in Amsterdam, The Ritman Library, aka the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, is a private library housing the world’s largest collection of occult books and manuscripts. This still-growing collection is comprised of 25,000 texts, including 4,500 pre-1800 books and manuscripts, on the subjects of Hermetics, Rosicrucians, Theosophy, alchemy, mysticism, Gnosis and Western Esotericism, Sufism, Kabbalah, Anthroposophy, Catharism, Freemasonry, Manichaeism, Judaica, the Grail, Esotericism, and comparative religion. (Whew) It’s also home to the first illustrated edition of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, printed in 1472.
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via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
In the late 1980s, Woolworths made a training video to help its staff catch shoplifters. Video of actual shoplifters are narrated by a former shoplifter, who says things like, "People do not shop looking back and forth. Watch how people move," and "watch people's hands. We steal with them."
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via Interesting Literature
Previously we’ve offered short and sweet love poems, poems about unrequited love, poems for weddings, and even seduction poems. Now, it’s time to consider ‘desire’ in poetry in all its forms, from erotic and romantic desire to the theme of ‘wants’ and longings more broadly. Here are ten of the very best poems about desire of all kinds.
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via Ancient Origins by Wu Mingren
Phoenician stone sculpture ( disq / Adobe Stock)
The Phoenicians were an ancient people who once ruled the Mediterranean. Despite little being known about them as very few of their inscriptions have survived, their legacy has had an enormous impact on the world, which is still felt today.
The Phoenicians were renowned as excellent mariners and used their expertise to trade all across the Mediterranean. One of the most notable signs of their trade activity is the establishment of Carthage, in present day Tunisia. They were also the inventors of the alphabet.
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posted in 3 Quarks Daily by Morgan Meis: David Parkinson at BFI:
Easy Rider (1969)
For a brief moment, Peter Fonda was one of the most important people in American cinema. Not because he was the son of Hollywood stalwart Henry Fonda or the younger brother of activist actress Jane Fonda. But because he had made $60 million on a $384,000 road movie. Moreover, in producing, co-writing and starring in Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider(1969), Fonda had shattered the studio system’s shackles and made himself a countercultural icon in the process. His performance as Wyatt (aka Captain America) prompted the Village Voice to declare him “a combination of Clint Eastwood and James Dean”. Yet, somehow, to paraphrase his famous campfire line, he blew it.
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via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
This darling denizen of the deep is a Helicocranchia, aka a piglet squid. Scientists on the Ocean Exploration Trust's E/V Nautilus caught footage of the rarely seen creature at a depth of 4,544 feet near Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The commenters' delightful descriptions really make the clip.
(MNN via Kottke)
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via Interesting Litertaure
Are these the greatest poems about the brain? Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle
Poets are often introspective people. ‘Look in thy heart, and write,’ Sir Philip Sidney’s muse commanded him, chiding him for a ‘Fool’ for not thinking of doing this in the first place – and ‘heart’ in Sidney’s time was pretty much synonymous with ‘mind’ in this sense.
Below are ten of the greatest poems written about the mind and mental conflict, introspection, meditation, and other brainy matters. We haven’t included any Wordsworth, controversially, but if you want a ‘bonus ball’ or ‘Easter egg’ by way of suggestions, we’d recommend Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’, which is not so much ‘about’ the mind’ as a fine example of meditation and personal recollection.
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via Ancient Origins by Ed Whelan
Excavation site of fortress in Sinai Source: Ministry of Antiquities
In Egypt, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced a major discovery in Sinai. Dr. Moustafa Waziri has announced that an Egyptian team of archaeologists has unearthed a two towers of a castle or fortified structure that dates from the 26 th Dynasty. The find is important as it will not only enable a greater understanding of the development of Egyptian fortresses but also provide insights into the strategic importance of the Sinai region in ancient times.
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via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Salto is a single-legged, hopping robot that its UC Berkeley inventors compare to a "hyper-aggressive pogo-stick." Previously, Salto was constrained to a highly-structured indoor environment with a motion caption system. Now though, roboticists Justin Yim and Eric Wang have imbued Salto with the onboard smarts to bounce freely through the world albeit still under human control.
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