We travel not for trafficking alone:
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand
Saturday 14 June 2008
Saturday 5 April 2008
Let's have a werewolf hunt
"According to the advertisement made to the sovereign Court of Parliament at Dole, that, in the territories of Espagny, Salvange, Courchapon, and the neighbouring villages, has often been seen and met, for some time past, a were-wolf, who, it is said, has already seized and carried off several little children, so that they have not been seen since, and since he has attacked and done injury in the country to some horsemen, who kept him of only with great difficulty and danger to their persons: the said Court, desiring to prevent any greater danger, has permitted, and does permit, those who are abiding or dwelling in the said places and others, notwithstanding all edicts concerning the chase, to assemble with pikes, halberts, arquebuses, and sticks, to chase and to pursue the said were-wolf in every place where they may find or seize him; to tie and to kill, without incurring any pains or penalties. . . . Given at the meeting of the said Court, on the thirteenth day of the month September, 1573."
This rather extreme call-to-arms was in response to a certain hermit, Gilles Garnier, who had been killing and eating local children. Rumours suggested he had done this many times, and villagers claimed he often preferred to walk on all fours. After the above authorisation was made, he was caught quite literally red-handed after making another kill. When put on trial, Gilles claimed that he had been given an ointment by a man in the forest (classic defence), and this gave him the form of a wolf. He said this was essential, as the new powers made hunting easier and therefore he could feed himself and his wife. Gilles clearly believed he had been a wolf throughout the killings, and detailed many children whom he had devoured in this way. He admitted every charge against him, was found guilty ofthe rare charge of 'lycanthropy' (basically being a werewolf) and burnt to death.
From little acorns...
Thursday 27 March 2008
Space photos
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Nazi Moon of Ice
Who would believe this kind of thing? None other than a certain German chancellor named Adolf. Yes, Hitler was also convinced that the moon was made of ice and made it official Nazi policy to believe it. It was better, he thought, than believing the more advanced theories of Jewish scientists, or crazy sympathisers like Einstein. He also suggested that the rather chilly spell in the early 1940s was also the result of that darn icy moon. I suppose in context it was actually one of the less ridiculous beliefs held within the Third Reich, though a survey apparently suggested that even by the mid 1950s over a million people still believed in Glacial Cosmogeny. Just shows, scientists are often wrong and fascists, always.
Monday 24 March 2008
Last one out, turn off the light
http://www.vhemt.org/
Saturday 22 March 2008
What is Samarkand?
Friday 21 March 2008
Bad elephant
And in a brief round-up of other bad elephant history... in 1826 Chunee was executed in London with 152 musket rounds and a sword, and in 1903 Topsy (pictured) was electrocuted by none other than Thomas Eddison himself. The video's on Youtube.
Hmm. Surprising the number of ways you can execute an elephant.
Thursday 20 March 2008
"Mounted Ape from Hell"
Wednesday 19 March 2008
Curse of the Giants
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Every dog has its day
Monday 17 March 2008
A Flawed Hero
In 1916 the Arabs launched a revolt against the
Following the war,
In 1922
I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars
To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,
that your eyes might be shining for me
When we came.
Death seemed my servant on the road, till we were near and saw you waiting:
When you smiled, and in sorrowful envy he outran me and took you apart:
Into his quietness..
In 1935
Sunday 16 March 2008
Immortal Shoe-Shiner
The photo depicts Boulevard du Temple in central Paris on a busy afternoon. Unfortunately the process still took several minutes of exposure, so the bustling Parisians and horse-drawn carriages are invisible. The only exception happens to be a man having his shoes polished by a street shoe-shiner – obviously the only ones to remain reasonably still throughout. So, the first photo of a person was not of a monarch, photographer or model, but rather an anonymous, oblivious shoe-shiner and his customer. I find it strangely reassuring.
Thursday 13 March 2008
Scalping
32 years later, in an effort to gain a pension, McGee waxed lyrical about the event to the Marshall County Democrat. He claimed that Chief Little Turtle “in a transport of fiendishness” had “knocked (him) to the ground by one blow of his tomahawk… took (his) own pistol and shot him…”, fired two arrows into his back and “others of the band in passing, cut him with their knives and poked holes in him”.
And then he was scalped. He even claimed that he later returned to fight against the Brule Sioux and in a strange coincidence bumped into Little Turtle dead on the battlefield and shot him dead.
Anyway, the point is the guy survived having his scalp cut off, grew a spectacular beard in recompense, and consequently looked like this.
Note: One of the other members of the exclusive “I’ve been Scalped” club, Josiah P. Wilbarger (scalped 1833), said it felt like hearing distant thunder.
Think about that.
Monday 10 March 2008
THE GOLDEN JOURNEY TO SAMARKAND
"We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.
Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.
We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand."
For the full playscript version, see http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poems/SAMARKND