25 Jan 2005
End Times New Year's Resolutions

Here's a link to a very well done essay on Heathen eschatology over at The Juggler. This piece illustrates perhaps better than anything I've read recently the way that Heathens view myth as metaphor and allegory, rather than literal history/reality/prophecy. Personally, I find these kinds of interpetations to be much better communicators of Truth than dogmatic literalism.

Read the whole thing to see what I mean.

Unlike most in the pagan/heathen communities, we Asatruar spend quite a bit of time thinking about the end of the world. Oh, we're not obsessed with it by any stretch of the imagination. It's not like we're standing on the street corner, Poetic Edda in hand, screaming at passersby, "Axe age, wolf age, Fimbulwinter is upon us! It's not too late to return to your ancestral folkways! Repent!" (Not that such a pastime isn't without a certain perverse appeal, mind you.) Rather, our body of sacred lore has a rich eschatology in the form of the familiar Ragnarok story and discussions of various aspects of this myth are not at all uncommon in heathen circles.

(link) [The Juggler]

via Letter from Hardscrabble Creek

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Prehistoric poultry?

Where does a six foot tall chicken roost? Anywhere it wants to ...

Researchers recently concluded that modern-day chickens and ducks can trace back their lineage to the dinosaur days.

(link)(artist rendering) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

A Movie Quiz

I was checking out the old blogroll today, and followed a link from queen of cups to a movie quiz. The Queen likes quizzes and this one is especially well thought out. And seemingly very accurate. I think my responses must've tied up something, because I got an additional question that seemd to settle the issue. In any event:

You scored as Mindfuck. You've probably seen a lot of movies, and have grown to hate mainstream shit. You're looking for the movie that will leave you breathless, and with 21 questions to think about. Check out: Donnie Darko, Being John Malkovich, Pulp Fiction, Memento.

Artistic

90%

Mindfuck

90%

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

80%

Sadistic Humour

50%

Mindless Action Flick

50%

Drama/Suspense

45%

Romantic Comedy

10%

Movie Recommendation
created with QuizFarm.com

One further note: while the quiz itself is nicely designed, the HTML it generates is not. I had to modify it severely to get it to fit within my parameters here, so be warned.

00:00 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link

An Appalling Statistic

For every box of Wheaties with his picture on it, Tiger Woods earns a dime. For the wheat used to make the cereal in that same box, the producer gets a little less than a nickel.

A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds, and will make about 50 loaves of bread. The current price of a bushel of wheat is around $3. The current price of a loaf of bread is about $2. Do the math, and you'll understand a large part of the frustration producers have with commodities markets, futures trading and large corporate entities controlling the price structure in agriculture.

This info came from several spots on the web, notably futures trading sites, Congressional Agriculture Committee hearings and a report from AAA Livestock.

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

FWD: Trojan Warning

>> FROM: laocoon@doomgloom.edu
>> TO: Trojan Army Listserv
>> RE: WARNING!! BEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS!
>>
>> Hey Hector,
>> This was forwarded to me by Cassandra--it looks legit. Please
>> distribute to Priam, Hecuba, and your 99 siblings.
>> Thanks,
>> Laocoon
>>
>
>>>> WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
>>>> IF YOU RECEIVE A GIFT IN THE SHAPE OF A LARGE WOODEN HORSE DO NOT
>>>> DOWNLOAD IT!!!! It is EXTREMELY DESTRUCTIVE AND WILL OVERWRITE YOUR
>>>> ENTIRE CITY! YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!
>>>> The "gift" is disguised as a large wooden horse about two stories
>>>> tall. It tends to show up outside the city gates and appears to be
>>>> abandoned.
>>>>
>>>> DO NOT let it through the gates! It contains hardware that is
>>>> incompatible with Trojan programming, including a crowd of heavily
>>>> armed Greek warriors that will destroy your army, sack your town,
>>>> and kill your women and children. If you have already received such
>>>> a gift, DO NOT OPEN IT! Take it back out of the city unopened and
>>>> set fire to it by the beach.
>>>>
>>>> FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
>>>>
>>>>Poseidon

FROM: princeh@troy.gov
TO: laocoon@doomgloom.edu
RE: Greeks bearing gifts

Laocoon,
I hate to break to you, but this is one of the oldest hoaxes there is. I've seen variants on this warning come through on other listservs, one involving some kind of fruit that was supposed to kill the people who ate it and one having to do with something called the "Midas Touch." Here are a few tipoffs that this is a hoax:

  1. This "Forward this message to everyone you know" crap. If it were really meant as a warning about the Greek army, why tell anyone to post it to the Phonecians, Sumerians, and Cretans?
  2. Use of exclamation points. Always a giveaway.
  3. It's signed "from Poseidon." Granted he's had his problems with Odysseus but he's one of their guys, isn't he? Besides, the lack of a real header with a detailed address makes me suspicious.
  4. Technically speaking, there is no way for a horse to overwrite your entire city. A horse is just an animal, after all.

Next time you get a message like this, just delete it. I appreciate your concern, but once you've been around the block a couple times you'll realize how annoying this kind of stuff is.

Bye now,
Hector

Just for the record, I didn't write this, and I don't know who did. I got it from a private listserv, but I'm pretty sure it's a hoax. I mean, the Trojans didn't have the Internet! C'mon, how could they? Al Gore hadn't even been born yet, much less invented the blasted thing!

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link