Link Snack: February 23, 2009
February 23, 2009
Strangely, I haven't been in a blogging mood for a few days. I've gotten lots of other things done, though (grin). Here are some recent finds.
Younger son and I have been studying the Middle Ages. He's particularly interested in castles and their defenses so we spent some time today looking up information on the Krak des Chevaliers, a fortress dating from 1031 which was expanded by the Crusaders from 1150 to 1250. It's built in a concentric form, and the outer wall on the most vulnerable side is 80 feet thick. More on it from How Stuff Works and a YouTube video.
[Drawing from the Wikimedia Commons]
- Serious: At Reclusive Leftist, Woman's Right's and Culture. The post is excellent, but my favorite quote comes from a comment by yttik about the difficulties of advocating women's rights in left-wing discourse:
...The problem is you have to make a vegan, environmentally friendly,
culturally respectful, racially supportive argument, every time you
point to a woman’s mutilated body. It’s exhausting. It’s like being
told you must save the planet, the animal kingdom, ancient cultures,
heal race relations, and create world peace. If you have any time left
over, you can talk about the woman’s body lying on the floor.
But see, women are not an “issue” to be prioritized. We’re not a sub-division of a category rated on a list. We are the environment and the culture. We’re half the human race...
But see, women are not an “issue” to be prioritized. We’re not a sub-division of a category rated on a list. We are the environment and the culture. We’re half the human race...
- Botanical Match Game at Fine Gardening: I do much better on this than I usually do on match games. That's probably because I spend lots of time in the garden trying to remember which flower is where so I don't dig up one while trying to plant another! [Hat tip to Soliloquy]
- I've noticed this seeming contradiction while reading about Episcopalian political debates:
...It helps to note that the U.S. Episcopal hierarchy tends to be very
liberal when it comes to traditions about doctrine, but almost
fundamentalist when it comes to traditions about power and
ecclesiastical structure. Meanwhile, the people running the emerging
conservative structures are very strict about ancient doctrines, but
many of them lean to more open, congregational, even megachurch
approaches to church life... (Spilling more Anglican ink at GetReligion)
If anyone can explain why liberal Episcopalians get fundamentalist about "traditions about power and ecclesiastical structure," please comment. I would think that, coming also out of the traditions of the 60's, they would be less authoritarian. My cynical thought is that it's a matter of practicality - being fundamentalist in this area is useful to them.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a book coming out in May and also, eventually, a movie. From an EW interview with co-author, Seth Grahame-Smith:
My editor at Quirk had wanted to do a mash-up of some type for a long
time. He had all these lists of public domain titles and lists of
modern literary devices. The robot phenomenon. The vampire phenomenon.
And zombies. And we arrived at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
because, when you take a look at the original book, it's almost as if,
subconsciously, Jane Austen is laying out the perfect groundwork for an
ultraviolent bone-crushing zombie massacre to take place. For instance,
there's a regiment of soldiers camped out near the Bennett household.
In the book, they're just there for characters to flirt with. But it's
not that big a leap to say, Okay, they're there because the countryside
has been overrun with what they call the "unmentionable menace."...
...there's this zombie onslaught that's been going on for years and Elizabeth Bennett has spent her whole life training to become a highly efficient killer of the undead, as has Darcy. It's more about a love story between two headstrong independent zombie slayers.
...there's this zombie onslaught that's been going on for years and Elizabeth Bennett has spent her whole life training to become a highly efficient killer of the undead, as has Darcy. It's more about a love story between two headstrong independent zombie slayers.
The opening sentence of the new book?
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
(from the Quirk Books website)
[Hat tip to The Awkward Blogger]
(from the Quirk Books website)
[Hat tip to The Awkward Blogger]
- And, a LOLCat:
more animals
Ha! That poor kitty!
How Stuff Works is great, isn't it?
Posted by: Lisa | February 23, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Yes! - and it particularly helps with younger son who has questions about everything (so did the other two at that age).
Posted by: M Light | February 28, 2009 at 05:33 PM