The destruction of the Cities of the Plain in Genesis 19 is one of the most well-known episodes from the Old Testament. Having once destroyed the Earth with the Flood because of the wickedness of men, God now dispenses justice once more for sinful behaviors. How and where it all happened are questions that are still up for debate.

Modern ( Read more... )

2024 went out with a final bit of archaeological news: an ancient silver foil inscribed with Christian prayers was discovered in Frankfurt, Germany. Believed to date from the third century, it is thought that this artifact could be the oldest Christian item ever found north of the Alps. Wrapped up inside of a phylactery, the foil had become too ( Read more... )

January 16th will mark the 375th anniversary of the execution of Charles Stuart, the unfortunate former monarch of England, Ireland, and Scotland. It was a sad affair with about as many legal and moral questions attached as you could care to ask, but the maniacs really did it. Charles defended his God-given rights to the end in a brave and ( Read more... )

I had a rather bizarre holiday week this year in many ways. Christmas Day found my inside of a labyrinth of the oldest sort, which is to say a spiral of rock paths culminating in a nucleic chamber deep within the heart of the thing. They say that the shamans and wizards of the elder days would travel through similar mazes to confuse any spirits ( Read more... )

One curious aspect of the past is the association of the familiar axe with storms, lightning, and heaven. This connection appears to be ancient in the extreme, and was rather widespread in the westernly regions of the Old World from Egypt to ancient Europe. Some of these objects were prehistoric axe-heads that were found by chance and were thought ( Read more... )

I enjoy music as many people do, and I've even tried my hand at playing some instruments in my time. My first serious attempts at learning began with playing the saxophone (now it would be an oboe or flute), and then later a guitar before I realized that I didn't enjoy it partially due to the texture of the strings. Acoustic guitars sound great, ( Read more... )

In keeping with the season, I've been studying the history of the plantation of New England and have made some enjoyable discoveries.

This is First Encounter Beach.


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Hoi, chummer.

Haven't seen you around, but I guess I don't stop by often these days. With the laptop out of my room, its not quite as convenient for me to write as it once was. Never fear, though, as I will only permanently abandon my works here upon death or the extirpation of this site as a whole. All things move according to unseen currents even ( Read more... )

Had a dream that I was hanging around some university doing nothing much of interest. It was around the even time, and there were wooden pathways leading behind the campus that I followed in search of some forgotten object. Each of these halls was framed at each end by thick wooden beams arranged in a perfect square and which seemed to be made of a ( Read more... )

Had an interesting talk with a nun earlier that changed the day's genre from "rural memoir" to "cosmic horror". The big takeaways for my reading audience would be that angels are gigantic creatures and that we don't have much time left [before the Big One]. Quite a pleasure to meet someone so interested in these matters in a workaday environment.