"...therefore, be bold."

explore-blog: This is lovely – Diego Stocco makes music from...

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:26:28 -0700

This is lovely – Diego Stocco makes music from leaves and a turntable.

Some fresh beats

thugkitchen: THERE’S SO MUCH GOD DAMN SPINACH in this shit even...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:23:34 -0700

THERE’S SO MUCH GOD DAMN SPINACH in this shit even Popeye can’t hate. Yeah spinach makes you swoll as fuck, we know that. But did you know just one cup of spinach is over 300% of your daily recommended Vitamin A? Sweet fuck. You worried about acne? Wrinkles? Any other skin shit? Spinach to the mother fucking rescue. That shit keeps your skin looking so fresh and so clean, not to mention helping to prevent skin cancer. Spinach has these plant-based compounds called “flavonoids” that not only repair damaged skin but also fight multiple types of cancer. Everybody knows I ain’t even fucking playing when it comes to dick cancer, I gotta have my shit in tact.

IF YOU SMOKE cigarettes (tumblr crew I’m looking at you), DO NOT take any Vitamin A or beta carotene supplements. Studies have shown that combining those supplements with tobacco drastically increases your risk for lung cancer. But then again, smoking drastically increases your risk for lung cancer. So quit that shit.

You want to make this shit at home and tell Jamba Juice they can go fuck themselves by not paying for their high calorie sugary shit? Recipe below for a Thug Kitchen Original:

SPINACH COOLER
Ectoplasm free and Dr. Venkman approved

2 handfuls of spinach (about 2 cups)

2 frozen bananas

1 cup chopped and skinned cucumber

4 medium chunks of pineapple

1 cup coconut water or tap

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon flax oil (optional)

6-8 mint leaves (optional, but I dig that shit)

yields ~20 ounces

Toss that shit in a blender and zap it. If you prefer it a little sweeter, add some more pineapple to that shit. DRINK UP, CHAMP.

Seriously though, fuck Jamba Juice. Only they could make smoothies as unhealthy as McDonald’s made oatmeal.

Smoothies are the shit, real talk.

controlled-burn: NYTimes article on...

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:57:29 -0700

controlled-burn:

NYTimes article on Perique

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/tobacco-lovers-discover-mystique-of-perique.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

Calvert Watkins, 1933-2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:57:49 -0700

ahdictionary:

We were saddened to learn of the death of Calvert Watkins in late March. Dr. Watkins had been involved with the American Heritage Dictionary since the 1960s; in addition to overseeing our etymological program for many years, he edited the dictionary’s Appendix of Indo-European Roots as well as the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. In his memory, we asked for a few recollections from Patrick Taylor, the Senior Lexicographer for the Fifth Edition, who in his role as staff etymologist had frequent occasion to consult with Dr. Watkins on matters Indo-European.

Read More

Just heard about this… requiescat in pacem with the dragon-slaying heroes of old, and their poets.

therumpus: citycyclops: Miles O’Brien has a job. Miles...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:16:58 -0700

therumpus:

citycyclops:

Miles O’Brien has a job.

Miles O’Brien, dreaming of fricandeau stew and a certain young botanist.

USS Ennui

classicpenguin: Dear Internet, We’ve been hard at work on an...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:14:38 -0700

classicpenguin:

Dear Internet,

We’ve been hard at work on an app that we’ve called Poems by Heart. It’s a fun memorization game that will challenge you with classic poems from the greats: Shakespeare, Poe, Dickinson, Whitman, Keats, Carroll…. You’ll rank, you’ll improve, and you can share your newly perfected recitations online with friends. Oh, and it’s free to download.

Happy Poetry Month!

Love,
Penguin Classics

P.S. Jen Wang, the wonderful illustrator for the app, talks about the process of creating all the art on a blog post here!

ancientpeoples: ancientpeoples: Ancient Gamers – The Games of...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:27:36 -0700

Game Paraphernalia dating from the Roman Empire

Queen Nefertari playing a game of Senet, as depicted in her tomb

A set of glass astragaloi; Late Roman Imperial

The Game of Twenty Squares, as found in the Royal Tombs of Ur

ancientpeoples:

ancientpeoples:

Ancient Gamers – The Games of Old

If there is one thing that transcends time and space, it’s gaming. For tens of thousands of years, children and adults from all over the world have invented, played and mastered thousands of different games. Board games, dice games, games that require only the hands of the participants - someone, somewhere, at some point in time thought of an exciting new game. Some were successful, others fell back into obscurity. Chances are many of the games you played as a child (hopscotch, knucklebones) have been in existence for far longer than you think. In fact, there are quite a few games we play as adults that go back to ancient times. So without further ado, here is a selection of the most interesting games of yore.

Board Games

Despite a plethora of uncovered gaming boards, pieces and other related artefacts, we need to take into account that we’re missing a lot of information on rules, the origins and the geographical distribution. What we do know is that these type of games would have required moving pieces around a board. It seems pretty straightforward, because we’ve all been raised with Ludo and Monopoly, but it needs to be mentioned. Some of these required skill while others were strategy based, and more often than not pure luck played its part.

Senet

The oldest mention of this Egyptian game comes from the third Dynasty tomb of Hesire, Chief of Dentists. It was played by both the elite and the common people, for over three thousand years, until it was rejected in the Late Roman Period because of its then-pagan symbolism. A similar game has been found in Arad, Canaan, but it’s unsure whether Senet has its origins in either one of these countries, or if the games have developed separately.

The board is arranged in three columns of ten squares each. It has two sets of game pieces, usually five of either kind, though there are more extensive games found with more pawns, as well as a few with less. The rules are a question of debate, though there have been made some educated guesses by specialists. Based on these guesses, several companies have made Senet games for sale.

Latrunculi

The Romans were very fond of dice. As such, hardly any of their board games did not feature these. Latrunculi is one of the very few. This game is somewhat alike to modern day chess, as it is played on a square board divided into a grid. The name, which means ‘soldier-game’, gives us an indication on the nature of Latrunculi as a strategy game. We know quite a bit about it thanks to such figures as Varro and Ovid, who have left us a good idea of how the game was played in writing.

The game pieces were coloured glass pawns and called calculi, latrones, or milites. The pieces could be moved both forwards and backwards, and a piece was taken after being surrounded by two enemy pieces in rank or file. Blocking played a big part, and a player with good strategic skill could extract himself from a block. Backwards moves were a strategic retreat, and the entire game of Latrunculi had all aspects of a military battle: the player who took the most enemy pieces won, and was called the imperator.

The Game of Twenty Squares

This game, also known as The Royal Game of Ur, is a board game found in royal tombs dating from the first Dynasty of Ur, around 2600 B.C. The board itself has a peculiar shape: a three by four grid is connected to a two by three grid by a single column of two. It’s decorated with six different patterns. The pawns were two sets of markers, one black and one white, blank on one side and marked on the other. Three tetrahedral dice are also used. We don’t know exactly how the game would be played in the earliest of times, but a reconstruction could be made based on a Babylonian tablet dating from around 177 B.C.

Like Senet, Twenty Squares is a racing game part skill and strategy, and part luck. Also like Senet, modern incarnations of this game are for sale. There are different versions of the modern rules: in one, players race along the inner and outer tracks much like a game of Ludo, and in another the players must occupy all squares of two different patterns before the other does.

Dice Games

Dice games are perhaps more difficult to reconstruct, because in most case we lack a playing board – after all, all you need for a nice game of dice is a handful of dice. Most of these games involved values given to a particular side on the die, then simply rolling the dice and making sure you have the highest total value to win.

Ludus duodecim scriptorum

Other games required an additional playing board, such as the Roman game of Scriptorum. The board for this game existed out of three rows of twelve letters, arranged into two columns, that formed a sentence. Most of the board we have found have symbols, circles or semicircles drawn between each pair of horizontal words. Unfortunately, we don’t know enough about the rules of this game to make an educated guess beyond that it was akin to backgammon.

Children’s Games

One of the most widely played children’s games has been around since time immemorial: knucklebones. It was originally played with five ‘knucklebones’ of a sheep, and the rules are simple. The child throws the bones in the air and catches them, usually on the back of the hand, in a series of prescribed throws and catches. The child that’s the first to manage the full set of throws in a row, wins.

Other names for knucklebones include astragaloi, dibs, and chuckstones. The origin isn’t quite sure, it seems to be one of those games that many cultures came up with on their own. Sophocles, for instance, ascribes the invention to Palamedes during the Trojan War, while in another legend Zeus is said to have presented Ganymede with both a new playmate (Eros) and a set of gold dibs for them to play with. On the other hand, Plato mentions the game as having been invented by the Egyptian god Toth, while Herodotus tells us the Lydians created it during a period of famine.

Whatever the origin, knucklebones is still played by children the world over today, using, now as then, a wide variety of materials, from pebbles to specially fabricated plastic pieces.

Gambling

It is not a big endeavour to make a gambling game out of any old game: you simply bet money on the outcome. That said, there are games that have been designed as gambling games right from the outset (such as most dice games). One of the most famous of these games is:

Mahjong

Perhaps the most extensive game out there, a full game of Mahjong can take up to two days (believe me, I’ve tried!) No, we’re not talking about the online game of playing out pairs: Mahjong as it’s supposed to be played is a cross between domino, rummikub and poker. The rules are many and so elaborate that it’d require an article on its own to even start explaining them all, but the basics are as such: four players, each representing a wind, have a hand full of tiles (14). Each turn, they’ll exchange one tile from either the stack or the discard pile, until they have a strategic hand of pairs, called a Mahjong. While it was a gambling game pur sang, nowadays it’s being played without money changing hands.

The origin of Mahjong is unclear, though myth suggests that it was Confucius who invented it. The name would come from his fondness of birds, because it bears a resemblance to maque (麻雀), sparrow. Historians now believe the game is a fair bit younger than this, and was based on a forty-card game called Mǎdiào (馬吊), Hanging Horse.

Kottabos

Not so much a gambling game as a drinking game, this Greek game originating around the fifth or fourth century B.C., and required players to fling the dregs of wine at a target while uttering the name of the object of their affection. This target was a bronze standard with a small disk on top called a plastinx. When done correctly, the thrown wine would knock the plastinx down and make it hit a larger disk called the manes, which would cause a bell-like sound. This was done without getting up from the table, and the player could only use his right hand. Sometimes objects of value were staked on the outcome of the game, and considering the game required men flinging their leftover wine at a target, it got more difficult as the night progressed.

(Image sources: The British Museum - paraphernalia; Ur & The Metropolitan Museum of Art - astragaloi)

In honour of International Table Top Day today, we bring you an appropriate reblog of one of our earlier articles.

You can find more articles and object posts on gaming here.

Happy gaming!

tobeshelved: harperperennial: hermionejg: RIP Richard...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:13:00 -0700

tobeshelved:

harperperennial:

hermionejg:

RIP Richard Griffiths, a tremendous actor.

Welp, I’m crying.

The most beautiful moments.

classicpenguin: myimaginarybrooklyn: “Poet Wilfred Owen was...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:56:31 -0700

classicpenguin:

myimaginarybrooklyn:

“Poet Wilfred Owen was born on this day in 1893. This is the opening of his poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’. Owen wrote the poem whilst serving as a soldier in the appalling conditions of the trenches.”

A beautiful poem, found in both this collection and this one too.

(via The Nicest Man In History Had A Shocking Secret You Never...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:16:16 -0700

(via The Nicest Man In History Had A Shocking Secret You Never Knew About)

"As soon as Caesar took his seat, the conspirators crowded round him as if to pay their respects...."

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:41:55 -0700

“As soon as Caesar took his seat, the conspirators crowded round him as if to pay their respects. Tillius Cimber, who had taken the lead, came up close, pretending to ask a question. Caesar made a gesture to put off his request to some other time, but Cimber caught hold of his toga at both shoulders. ‘This is outrageous,’ Caesar exclaimed, and at that moment one of the Casca brothers stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar grasped Casca’s arm and ran it through with his stylus. He was leaping up when another dagger caught him in the chest. Confronted by a ring of drawn daggers, he drew the top of his toga over his face, and at the same time with his left hand drew the lap of his toga down to his feet, so that he would die decently, with the lower part of his body covered. Twenty three dagger thrusts went home. Caesar did not utter a sound after the first blow, though some have recorded that when he saw Marcus Brutus coming at him, he said ‘kai su, teknon’ [Greek for ‘you too, child’]”

- Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day in 44 BC. (via explore-blog)

Photo

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:48:37 -0700

sovarious-sobeautiful: Maggie Appleton So true; worth a...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:01:16 -0800

sovarious-sobeautiful:

Maggie Appleton

So true; worth a reminder.

classicpenguin: Researchers who work on the decoding of human...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:42:42 -0800

classicpenguin:

Researchers who work on the decoding of human genetic history by tracking gene mutation have recently discovered the date The Iliad was written: “762 B.C., give or take 50 years,” according to this Inside Science article.

There’s lots more there, too, including how they did it: charting the replication and evolution of the Swadish word list (from mid-century American linguist Morris Swadish), which includes terms apparently found in every language and culture, such as colors and body parts.

Image above comes from The Homer Multitext at The Center for Hellenic Studies, which is absolutely worth more than a few minutes of cruising.

Homer Multitext shout-out!

Channelwood Age from Myst, for serious.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:26:15 -0800

Channelwood Age from Myst, for serious.

tobeshelved: (via TO BE SHELVED: Julieta Felix for The Fox is...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:41:31 -0800

tobeshelved:

(via TO BE SHELVED: Julieta Felix for The Fox is Black)

The most recent addition to The Fox is Black’s Desktop Wallpaper Project (click for more info) is clearly my favorite in the entire series so far. Now close your laptops and go read a book!

"Literature was the first truly verifiable, repeatable and effective form of magic. Picture how it..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:16:06 -0800

“Literature was the first truly verifiable, repeatable and effective form of magic. Picture how it must have impressed ancient people to look at marks – on papyrus or clay – and know they conveyed the words of scribes and kings long dead. Knowledge, wisdom and art could finally accumulate. Death was robbed some of its sting. Writing still is magical. To create strings of black squiggles that millions of others skillfully de-code with just their eyes – into emotions and thoughts, or the struggles of believable characters – or spectacle beyond Hollywood’s wildest dreams.”

- David Brin (via azspot)
Yes.

comaniddy: For education that’s entertainsInformation to feed...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:55:22 -0800

comaniddy:

For education that’s entertains
Information to feed your brain
Science is good for your heart
Subscribe and enjoy It’s Okay to Be Smart!

newyorker: In the next few weeks, the cardinals of the Catholic...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:10:31 -0800

Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, as a lieutenant in the First World War (far left), with his two brothers, Saverio and Giuseppe. Keystone/Getty.

Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, sits at a table, reading a book, with a crucifix and a cap next to him, circa 1922. Fabian Cevallos/Sygma/Corbis.

The young Karol Wojtyla of Poland, the future Pope John Paul II, shaves in the open air, circa 1960. Keystone/Getty.

newyorker:

In the next few weeks, the cardinals of the Catholic Church will prepare for a conclave that will transform one of them into a pope. Early talk encompasses a wide range of candidates, from Milan and Ghana to New York and Argentina, challenging the traditional picture of the pope. But how much of that image is a retrospective one, shaped by the one we already have of the pope in his ceremonial guise? Are we so sure we know what any future pope looks like? Click-through to see the last half-dozen, photographed before they ascended—as a child, a young soldier, a priest shaving outdoors… http://nyr.kr/XxjFXd

That third one, John Paul II: Popes are the Original Hipsters?

"Ladies want a Boethius in the kitchen and a Prometheus in the bedroom."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:03:40 -0800

“Ladies want a Boethius in the kitchen and a Prometheus in the bedroom.”

- We can get on board with this. (via wwnorton)