The World's Craziest Popes Pope Formosus (891-896) Source: Blogspot, While Formosus’ pontifical reign is noted more for its brevity than its breadth, it’s the absolute insanity that defined his afterlife that makes him one of the world’s craziest popes. Pope Sergius III (904-911) Source: All Posters, Beyond ordering the second Cadaver Synod on hapless Pope Formosus, Sergius III is best known for being the harbinger of harlots, transforming the papacy into what many historians dub the ‘pornacracy’, and ordering the murder of at least one of his papal predecessors. In between his bouts of bloodsport, Sergius still found time for love with his 15-year-old mistress Marozia. Pope John XII (955-964) Source: Wikimedia,
What Thomas Kuhn Really Thought about Scientific “Truth” | Cross-Check In 1991, when I was a staff writer for Scientific American, I wrote a letter to Thomas Kuhn, then at MIT. I said I wanted to profile him for Scientific American and “tell readers how you developed your views of the process of science.” When he didn’t respond, I called. Kuhn was reluctant to do the interview. He distrusted journalists, and he was still peeved by an old Scientific American review of his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I finally wore Kuhn down, and in February 1991 I interviewed him for more than three hours in his cluttered office. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Structure, I’m posting an edited version of my write-up of Kuhn in The End of Science (Addison Wesley, 1996), which draws heavily on my meeting with him. The Structure of Thomas Kuhn “Look,” Thomas Kuhn said. “The book” was The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which may be the most influential treatise ever written on how science does (or does not) proceed. Photo credit: Frieze.com
anthropologist: When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite Contrary to myth, Christianity's concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has constantly evolved as a concept and ritual. Prof. John Boswell, the late Chairman of Yale University’s history department, discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient Christian church liturgical documents, there were also ceremonies called the "Office of Same-Sex Union" (10th and 11th century), and the "Order for Uniting Two Men" (11th and 12th century). These church rites had all the symbols of a heterosexual marriage: the whole community gathered in a church, a blessing of the couple before the altar was conducted with their right hands joined, holy vows were exchanged, a priest officiatied in the taking of the Eucharist and a wedding feast for the guests was celebrated afterwards. Original Article or A Kiev art museum contains a curious icon from St. Is the icon suggesting that a gay "wedding" is being sanctified by Christ himself? Prof.
The Greatest Speeches In Modern History I Am Prepared To Die, Nelson Mandela One of the most memorable speeches in modern history comes from Nelson Mandela, the man who fought tirelessly against South African apartheid. His revolutionary work, however, had him wrongfully arrested in 1962 on charges of treason and for inciting the public to strike against the government. Mandela was sentenced to life in prison but delivered this great speech during his trial. One-liner: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. Greatest Modern History Speeches: Quit India, Mahatma Gandhi Suppressed under British rule for almost a century, the Quit India movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s subsequent speech prompted the Indian people to fight for their freedom. “In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all.
What Vikings really looked like The fine decoration of the Oseberg ship in Norway, which was buried in the year 834, provides clues to what Vikings looked like. Inside the ship were two women and the archaeologists believe the ship has served as a sarcophagus. (Photo: Annie Dalbéra) There’s no shortage of myths about the appearance of our notorious Viking ancestors. To find out more about these myths, ScienceNordic’s Danish partner site, videnskab.dk, asked its Facebook readers to list their favourite myths about what the Vikings looked like. We have picked out five myths from the resulting debate and asked researchers to help us confirm or bust these myths. Armed with this information, our graphic designer then took a shot at drawing some examples of our infamous forefathers, which you can see in our picture gallery. The five myths are: MYTH 1: Vikings were dirty and unkempt Unwashed, rough warriors with froth hanging out of the corners of the mouth. But that’s unlikely to be true: It wasn’t enough just to be clean.
Chain Letter Evolution Letter from Heaven (top), 1795. Above title. Send-a-Dime money chain letter, 1935. Lead to section 4.1. Acknowledgments I could not have conducted this study without the assistance and friendship of Dr. Special thanks also go to Alan E. I have received much needed help with foreign language chain letters. Though I am solely responsible for the approach and presentation here, this effort was sustained because a few people expressed interest. A list of those who provided one or more paper chain letters appears on the information page for the archive. 1-1 Introduction. Seeking paper chain letters. Overview. Using a collection of 750 dated paper chain letters, I have identified types and variations that appear and disappear over the years. Subtle methods that increase replication include: The use of ambiguity and obfuscation to deal with such questions as: Does simply passing on the received letter avoid bad luck? Auxiliary Files and Conventions. Religion. Charity. Luck.
The Best Insults In History The Best Insults In History: Winston Churchill The extremely witty and much-loved British Prime Minister Winston Churchill tops the list with his verbal spat with Lady Astor. The conservative dame forever admonished Churchill for his cigars and alcohol habits, and Churchill was not one to take the insults lying down. Of their famous squabbles, the most memorable is when Astor commented, “If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.” Churchill’s riposte? “Madame, if you were my wife, I’d drink it.” Gandhi His vocalization of non-violence doesn’t mean Gandhi wasn’t lethal with his wit.
Who Was Casanova? | Travel Purchased in 2010 for $9.6 million, a new record for a manuscript sale, the original version of Casanova’s erotic memoir has achieved the status of a French sacred relic. At least, gaining access to its famously risqué pages is now a solemn process, heavy with Old World pomp. After a lengthy correspondence to prove my credentials, I made my way on a drizzly afternoon to the oldest wing of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, a grandiose Baroque edifice on rue de Richelieu near the Louvre. Within those hallowed halls, built around a pair of ancien régime aristocratic mansions, I waited by marble statues of the greats of French literature, Rousseau, Molière and Voltaire, before being led through a domed reading room filled with scholars into the private sanctum of the library offices. After traipsing up and down endless stairwells and half-lit corridors, I was eventually seated in a special reading room overlooking a stone courtyard. “Look!”
Noam Chomsky's life in pictures - Image 1 In 1955, Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he still holds a professorship. Two years later, he published his first major book, Syntactic Structures, which laid the foundation for his highly influential work on linguistics and cognitive psychology, including the concept of "universal grammar". Chomsky has since published more than 100 books. In the late 1960s, Chomsky rose to prominence as an activist and dissident, particularly with regard to the Vietnam war. This photo shows him in 1967, marching on the Pentagon, Washington DC, with other intellectuals: the marchers include, from left, political activist Marcus Raskin, Chomsky, writer Norman Mailer, poet Robert Lowell, labour and anti-war activist Sidney Lens, peace protestor Dagmar Wilson, unknown, and paediatrician Benjamin Spock. (Image: Fred W.
The World Without Water “Map of the world, shown as if the oceans were dried up. Thomas Burnet was the first Englishman to attempt a scientific account of the origin of the earth. His treatise, Telluris Thoeoria Sacra, is a curious blend of geography and archaeology, which aroused considerable interest at the time. - Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps The Weirdest Unsolved Mysteries of World War II Just yesterday I saw the Ancient Aliens (credibility plummeting now?) that covered this and the main eyewitness they interviewed had a similar story to your understanding of the issue. I don't know what to believe, but if our military couldn't take out a weather balloon with anti-aircraft fire, that would be bad. I first read everything I could find about the incident some decades ago before the internet. I read about it again perhaps ten years ago. Here's the odd thing; the glib explanation provided here seems to have been generated within the last ten years, because in that time I've seen this simplistic explanation that it was weather balloons and itchy trigger fingers spring up. I mean the reason I focused on it long ago was that it was a genuine inexplicable UFO event with an entire city of witnesses involving major military resources, you can't find a more bona fide example, and yet here we are with this ridiculous obfuscation and muddy bullshit laid over it now.