Dune: An Appreciation at 50 Years :: Monthly Calling Dune a science fiction novel is like calling A Song of Ice and Fire a fantasy series. You’d be correct, but you’d also be running the risk of reductionism. Like George R.R. The novel revolves around a savior, a spice and a bunch of sand. On the surface, there’s enough jargon in that synopsis to convince any sci-fi skeptic to remain skeptical. Every character in the novel has a motive, and, as motives are wont to go, they are tainted as much by noble ambition as they are by greed. This allows Herbert to ask very pointed questions about the ways in which humanity’s desire to control its own destiny impacts every aspect of its existence. This sets Dune apart from the run-of-the-mill space sagas. Fifty years on, Herbert’s magnum opus is still a bizarre work of realism in the midst of its forays into the fantastic.
Xhosa - Introduction, Location, Language, Folklore, Religion, Major holidays, Rites of passage PRONUNCIATION: KOH-suh LOCATION: South Africa (eastern, urban areas) POPULATION: 6 million LANGUAGE: Xhosa (Bantu) RELIGION: Traditional beliefs (supreme being uThixo or uQamata ); Christianity The word Xhosa refers to a people and a language of South Africa. Well before the arrival of Dutch in the 1650s, the Xhosa had settled the southeastern area of South Africa. Christian missionaries established their first outposts among the Xhosa in the 1820s, but met with little success. Under apartheid (a government policy requiring the separation of races), the South African government created separate regions that were described as Bantustans (homelands) for black people of African descent. These regions were proclaimed independent countries by the apartheid government. Before the arrival of the Europeans in the late 1600s, Xhosa-speaking people occupied much of eastern South Africa. The Xhosa language is properly referred to as isiXhosa . Ramphela, Mamphela. Switzer, Les.
World minimum marriage age: Chart shows the lowest age you can legally get married around the world - World - News - The Independent Estonia now has the lowest marriage age in Europe with teenagers able to get hitched at 15 with parental approval. Globally, the average legal age of marriage for boys is 17 and 16 for girls but many countries permit them, particularly girls, to marry much younger. Several places, including the state of Massachusetts in the United States, allow girls as young as 12 to get married in "exceptional circumstances" with the consent of a judge. But in many cases this is a leftover from an earlier age and is rarely tested. Read More:Indian child bride, 13, writes letter begging to stop marriage but father vows to continueForced marriage: How hundreds of terrified British victims of the tradition are being failed every year by the services they need mostThe forgotten girls: By 2020, there will be 50m child brides under the age of 15Isis in Libya: Families forced to marry girls as young as 12 to fighters for protection as clinics see growing number of miscarriages and STDs Loading gallery 1 of 20
The Khoisan Once Were Kings Of The Planet. What Happened? : Goats and Soda In Namibia today, members of the ancient tribe of hunter-gatherers still forage. New genetic research reveals they were once the largest group of humans. Stephan C. Schuster/Penn State University hide caption toggle caption Stephan C. Schuster/Penn State University In Namibia today, members of the ancient tribe of hunter-gatherers still forage. Stephan C. Some 22,000 years ago, they were the largest group of humans on earth: the Khoisan, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Today, only about 100,000 Khoisan, who are also known as Bushmen, remain. How did it happen that a group that was once in the majority is now so small? First of all, the fact that 7 billion people now live on earth makes it almost impossible for us to understand how few people lived in the past. What happened to tip the balance? Changes in the climate. The Bushmen know which plants and herbs are good to eat — and which will heal their ailments. How do the Khoisan maintain their way of living today?
Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture I was halfway through a job interview when I realized I was wrinkling my nose. I couldn't help myself. A full-time freelance position with a long commute, no benefits, and a quarter of my old pay was the best they could do? "Are you interested in permanent jobs instead?" "I could consider a permanent job if it was part-time," I said. She looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language and went right back to her pitch: long commute, full-time, no benefits. Now that I'm back, I'm angry that my own country isn't providing more for its people Before I moved to Switzerland for almost a decade, American Reality was all I knew. In other words, for the hours worked, I was making minimum wage, if that. My husband and I were so accustomed to American Reality that when he was offered an opportunity to work in Switzerland, we both thought about travel and adventure — not about improving our quality of life. But without realizing it, or even asking for it, a better life quality came to us. "No.
The Khoikhoi and the San The Geography of Empathy and Apathy Compassion is tricky. Solidarity is a minefield. Did you add the French tricolour to your Facebook profile picture? If not, are you a heartless bastard, or worse, an apologist for the terrorists who killed over 120 innocent civilians in Paris? But if you did, how long before it is acceptable to remove the unsightly bleu-blanc-rouge from your carefully curated profile pic? And also: Why didn't you festoon your face with a Lebanese flag to show your sympathy for the dozens of victims of the twin suicide blasts in Beirut, just a day before the Paris attacks? As shown by this cartoon map, the crude offensiveness of which is shocking only in so far as it is true. The map details five concentric zones of compassion. The second circle of sympathy comprises most of Latin America (but not Venezuela, nor the Central American states), the part of Eastern Europe squeezed between Russia and the West, Egypt, South Africa, India, and South Korea. There's worse depths our empathy can sink to.
Photographs of the Islamic Tuareg tribe where women embrace sexual freedoms The Tuareg have maintained their way of life for centuries, crossing from one side of the world's largest desertYet beneath the traditional way of life lies a progressive society where women's rights have been embracedFamilies trace their line through the women and not the men, with women owning the tents and animals Pre-nups and divorce are everyday - with parents throwing their recently separated daughters 'divorce parties'But the rise of extremist Islam in the region could put all this under threat as a more conservative lifestyle prevails By Flora Drury For Mailonline Published: 06:55 GMT, 24 June 2015 | Updated: 15:49 GMT, 25 June 2015 For centuries the nomadic Tuareg tribe have crossed the Sahara desert, sometimes being led by the blind who used their heightened sense of smell and taste to pick a safe path across the ever-shifting sands. But behind the ancient way of life is a culture so progressive it would even make some people in liberal western cultures blush.
Norway's "Sorry" monument to 91 dead witches His firm paid a king-sized fine for trying to sell planes to Iran. That same company was a member of the politically connected Clinton Global Initiative. An Iranian businessman accused by the U.S. government of violating sanctions on Iran donated money to the Clinton Foundation, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Vahid Alaghband’s Balli Aviation Ltd., a London-based subsidiary of the commodities trading firm Balli Group PLC, tried to sell 747 airplanes to Iran, despite a federal ban on such sales. Alaghband is one of an array of questionable actors who’ve been found in recent months to give to the Clinton Foundation. But Alaghband stands out from the rest, because the beneficiary of his firm’s deals with Tehran was an Iranian airline accused by the U.S. government of working with the regime’s foreign intelligence operatives and shipping arms and troops to Syria. On the Clinton Foundation website, Alaghband’s company is listed as a donor in the $10,001 to $25,000 bracket.
Home - Africa vernacular architecture Varieties of Scientific Experience: Carl Sagan on Science and God by Maria Popova “If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.” I was recently on NPR’s Science Friday to discuss my favorite science books of the year and a listener called in, asking for a recommendation for a good book on science and religion — an excellent question, given the long history of this polarization, which occupied great minds from Galileo to Einstein to Ada Lovelace to Isaac Asimov, and many more. The best book on the subject, by far, is The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (public library) — a remarkable posthumous collection of essays by Carl Sagan, based on the prestigious Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology he delivered at the university of Glasgow in 1985, following in the footsteps of such celebrated philosophers as James Frazer, Arthur Eddington, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Alfred North Whitehead, Albert Schweitzer, and Hannah Arendt.
Child Brides Learn To Take Portraits Of Each Other — And Gain Insights Into Their Lives : Goats and Soda Eunice, pictured above, is one of the workshop participants: "Today I learned a girl can do anything — that a boy and girl are equal, no one is more special, and I am happy about it. I am happy that the new things I learned today [are] to be confident and be powerful." Mercy/Too Young To Wed/Samburu Girls Foundation hide caption toggle caption Mercy/Too Young To Wed/Samburu Girls Foundation For 15 years, Stephanie Sinclair has taken photos of child brides around the world — from Tahani in Yemen, married at age 6, to 14-year-old Niruta in Nepal, and many more. Now she's given some young women a chance to take their own pictures — a kind of art therapy that she hopes will "help girls deal with their trauma." In January, Sinclair and her team decided to turn the cameras over to a group of 10 girls in Kenya. Nashaki: "Today we shared our stories with each other. Jane/Too Young To Wed/Samburu Girls Foundation "Today I learned a girl can do anything," says Eunice, a 14-year-old participant.
Why We Can Still Learn From a 1970s Sex-Ed Comic Writte by Kat Kucera In a recent Fusion article, writer Sam Meier chronicled the fraught history of a newly re-discovered sex-ed comic from the ’70s called Ten Heavy Facts About Sex. According to Meier’s research, back in the groovy year 1971, Sol Gordon, a professor of child and family studies at Syracuse University, used the comic to deliver honest, far-out facts on safe sex, reproductive health and sexuality for teens in the midst of the sexual revolution. The comic, distributed by universities, youth educators and Planned Parenthood, features several relevant lessons, starting with “All Thoughts Are Normal,” and includes positive information on same-sex relationships, abortion and birth control, all with a flashy, retro art style and bold orange color scheme. The primary goal was to educate and use humor to engage teens in a conversation that has often been riddled with awkward explanations from parents or teachers—if teens get “the talk” at all. And she was not alone. Menstrupedia
Masai People Welcome to Africa, AKA the motherland! Check out African Internet Radio while you're scoping the panoramas.The earliest fossil of the homo sapiens family (human beings) was found in Ethiopia, dating back more than 200,000 years. Compared to this length of time, even the "ancient Sumerians" from 6000 B.C. are drooling toddlers.Let's mention a few African heroes you may have heard of, for inspiration in the face of the continued economic inequality and violence which plague Africa today: Nelson Mandela, first democratically elected President of South Africa, who fought against apartheid and served 27 years in prison while advocating freedom and peace. Haile Salassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, who resisted Mussolini and the fascist Italian invasion of WWII, and who is worshipped as an incarnation of God by the Rastafari movement.