Right now (fall 2024) at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a fabulous exhibit on Tibetian Mandalas, and here is one that is perfect for the current Halloween season.Mandalas in Tibetian Buddhism are artistic representations of the spiritual universe, often comprised of geometric shapes and featuring specific deities that reflect different aspects […]
Historical hoaxes can be so much fun, and certainly the Kensington Runestone ought to count as one of the most whimsical and widely discussed frauds of all time. Google scholar lists 1,010 articles on the subject, and there are numerous books and dissertations about it. The city of Alexandria, Minnesota even has an enormous 28
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“To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.”So go the words of Alexandra David-Néel, who led one of the most best possible lives (IMHO) in human history. She lived to be 100, and her life was so full that this one post cannot
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Here is Pearl Curran, one of the most famous mediums from the great age of American Spiritualism. From 1913 to 1937, Pearl channeled not just a spirit — one Patience Worth, who declared herself to be an American immigrant from 17th-century England — but also an author. In the decades of Patience’s communication with Pearl,
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The Austrian Room is a particularly lovely example of one of the many National Rooms found on the first and third floors of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Each of these thematic classrooms was funded by interested representatives of whatever ethnic or national group planning the room, and Austria’s was formally dedicated in 1996. The walls
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The Cathedral of Learning, aka “Cathy”, is one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic structures. Located in the Oakland neighborhood, the Cathedral forms the central building of the University of Pittsburgh’s campus.The towering skyscraper (535 feet/163 meters) is rendered in Indiana limestone, done in Late Gothic Revival style. You can see it from many parts of the
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_Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror_ is one of the world’s most famous films. Released as a silent movie with a musical soundtrack background, its portrayal of Count Orlok as the rat-faced, hulking vampire who brings death to the fictional village of Wisborg, Germany, is still easily recognized over 100 years later. (In fact, a remake
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Statue of Shiva from West Bengal, 1100. The vertical third eye and matted hair are typical features of the Hindu deity – his face on the right represents benevolence, on the left fierce protectiveness, and in the center his serenity – when this universal aspect of Shiva is emphasized his title is “Sadashiva.” From the
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The scholar-elite class of dynastic China were not always engrossed in studying or affairs of state. This gourd with ivory-carved lid held live crickets, who were set to fight in staged cricket matches for the amusement of the Chinese intelligentsia. From 19th-century Qing China, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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In the environs of modern Iraq the Yazidi peoples have continuously practiced Sharfadin, an ancient and swiftly diminishing (because of horrific religious persecution) religion, for thousands of years. Although elements of the Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism appear in Sharfadin, it it a religion into its own self. It teaches monotheism, but also that seven angels
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In the midst of the Gila National Forest in New Mexico stands this cross-topped mound. It marks the crypt and burial site of Sergeant James Cooney, and the marker besides the grave tells readers that Cooney was killed by Indians in 1880 as he tried to warn settlers about an upcoming Indian raid. What the
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Squint a bit, and you will be able to see things that look like white circles along a horizontal axis in the center of this photo. They are not raindrops, but six of the twenty-seven enormous radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array. Located on a remote plain off Highway 60 in central
Very Large Array Telescopes of New Mexico Read More »
In the very late 19th- and early 20th- centuries, the Spiritualist movement had a strong influence in Western Europe and the United States. Many adherents believed that spiritual mediums could guide listeners in conversations among the living and dead during seances. One of the oddest components of these otherworldly gatherings was a substance called ectoplasm,
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Rapunzel Syndrome gets its name from the fairy tale first published in writing in 1790, although earlier renditions go back to the early 1600s. Whereas the character Rapunzel uses her long hair to let a prince into her tower, in the syndrome, the person with the illness eats their hair. The hairball settles in the
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This first photo is of Francis Scott Key’s original manuscript for the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner,” the American national anthem, written in 1814. The second photo highlights a portion of the lesser-known third stanza, which castigates the “hireling and slave” fighting against the U.S. side, promising them “no refuge.” Drawing attention to these
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Death by hanging was practiced in the UK until the abolition of the death penalty in 1964/5. Those who befell this execution did not all die easily, sometimes gasping for breath for a quarter of an hour before their lives mercifully ended. This is why the contraption invented by a man from Early Modern England,
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This mother chimpanzee is using stones to crack open a nut, as a child watches and learns. The skill-level needed for this operation is difficult (finding the right anvil-shaped stone, using another proper-sized stone to bang, learning how to position the nut, etc), and it will be until the young chimp is about six before
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In 1863, only four and a half months after the tide had turned for the Union armies in the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln gave the iconic “Gettsyburg Address” speech close to where this photo was taken. In just 271 words, he artfully articulated the goal of the United States government as one that
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Fallingwater is the most iconic home of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for good reason. The building was constructed during the Great Depression, and integrates the natural landscape of running water, stone, and woodlands throughout. Windows and walls beckon to rather than barricade from the outside terraces. Fallingwater was created in the middle of
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Great disoveries in mathematics and sciences ought to be celebrated, but a challenge for most of us non-specialists is understanding what exactly it is that we are supposed to be admiring. Amalie “Emmy” Noether (d. 1935) was, according to many great minds (such as Albert Einstein), the most important female mathematician in history. Her accomplishments
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