Fasting Against God

Several weeks ago I discovered Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, which describes its content as "the outlandish, the anomalous, and the curious from the last five thousand years."  As expected, it has quite a bit of "TYWK"-type material, so some of you may want to bookmark it.  Here's are some sample excerpts from a post today:

The story recorded in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick claims that the saint went to Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. There he climbed to the top, sat down and told a passing angel that he would not leave the mountain ‘till I am dead or until all my requests are granted’...

Fasting  is typically a religious act; an individual deprives themselves of food to concentrate the mind better on God. However, in ancient Ireland, fasting was not only religious. It also had another purpose. The ancient Irish law books, of which several survive, explain that a person could fast against a man who had injured him in some way and who was of a higher social rank.

The wronged individual went to the wrong-doers house and sat outside from dawn to dusk refusing to eat. By so doing he brought bad luck or ‘pollution’ to his opponent. The one fasted against then had two options. He could either admit his wrong and redress it – the fasting would stop and social harmony would be restored. Or he could counter fast to ward off the curse.

It is an extraordinary custom. Not least because it can be paralleled in ancient, medieval and, indeed, modern India and probably dates back to early Indo-European beliefs, beliefs that have survived at the two ends of the Indo-European continuum...

God, we learn, has, faced with His servant’s fasting, given way and the angel offers Patrick concessions... that those who sing Patrick’s hymn will be saved from torture, and, the promise that has already been mentioned; namely that when the end of the world comes Patrick, not God, will judge the Irish. 

There's more at the link, and many other choice morsels at the blog.

Congratulations to Not Exactly Rocket Science

Ed Yong's accessible-to-the-intelligent-lay-person science blog has been named "Research Blog of the Year."  And his blog has now moved under the umbrella of Discover Magazine.   I've cited his blog on numerous occasions, but I encourage those of you with science interests to bookmark and visit the site on a regular basis because I can't begin to highlight all the good stuff there.

Moqo-Moqo: a Recommended Blog

Most of the blogs I have recommended have been "accumulators," typically without a single theme.  Moqo-Moqo is also an accumulator - of photographs.  I particularly like the fact that Moqo-Moqo is themed to the biological diversity of the natural world.   In recent years he/she seems to have added a bit of commentary or identification of the subject, but for the most part the emphasis is on the visual image.

Another reason I'm offering a recommendation is that unlike many (?most) other photoaccumulators, this one makes a reasonable effort to give credit to the source of the photo, either via text or via a link embedded in the photo.  Sometimes, as with the indigo bunting above, the link goes to the photo itself; other times (and less optimally) it goes to a Flickr photostream's front page or to another accumulator.  But at least the effort and courtesy is made.

Whenever TYWKIWDBI starts becoming dreary from a run of posts about business, politics, ethics, crime etc, I can always lighten the mood with some nature photos from Moqo-Moqo.  If you like that subject matter, give it a browse at the link.

Golden Age Comic Book Stoires - a Recommended Blog

Since the Weblog Awards are not going to be held this year, I'm going to take some time to recommend other blogs that I think should have/would have/might have received awards.

Despite its name, Golden Age Comic Book Stories is not simply about traditional comic books.  As you scroll through the extensive list of labels in the left sidebar, it's apparent that the focus is on art and illustration, be it in comics or other publications such as books and magazines.  I enjoy searching by artist (here are the selections for Arthur Rackham, N.C. Wyeth, Frank Frazetta).  There are also photo compilations, especially of movie stars (Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck).

For a blog that's only entering its third year, there is an immense amount of visual material to explore.  For a sample, just go to the home page and scroll down.

A Prairie Haven - a Recommended Blog

I've been meaning to add to the category of recommended blogs, but haven't done so for over 6 months. I have a French aggregator I want to add, and a Tumblr photoblog - but I'll start with A Prairie Haven.

It was perhaps 30 years ago that I encountered Edwin Way Teale's book A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm, which thoroughly intrigued me. Some time thereafter I did try living on the remnants of an old farm in the semi-rural Kentucky countryside and discovered that doing so while working a 60-hour week wasn't practical.

A Prairie Haven is a blog describing the process of "unfarming" - helping restore a conventional rural farm return to its natural, "wild," state. It's not a laissez-faire process of benign neglect; instead it entails lots of hard work with controlled burns and eradication on nonnative invasive plants.

The blog is presented as a journal, stretching back for nine years (!), with supplemental categories documenting the flora and fauna that have appeared during the restoration process. Photographs are large-format and professionally composed and edited. More importantly, the accompanying text, while brief, shows a deep and broad knowledge of the natural world. One reason I didn't write anything for TYWKIWDBI a few days ago is that I spent hours exploring this site.

The property being "unfarmed" is a beautiful western Wisconsin site with an impressive variety of microhabitats, which the owners are enhancing. Inspired by the blog, I've now requested Teale's book from the library for another reading.

J-Walk - A Recommended Blog

J-Walk becomes the fourth addition to my series of blogs that I highly recommend to those who enjoy TYWKIWDBI. Like Presurfer, Neatorama, and Nothing to do with Arbroath, it is an "old-timer" with a high Technorati authority ranking (415 today, which gives it an impressive rank of 7,243).

The J-Walk title is a logical extrapolation of the name of the blogger, John Walkenbach, who refreshingly allows a bit of his own personality to emerge in the blog (unlike some blogs that are distant and impersonal), so if you monitor the site you will inevitably encounter posts about Excel spreadsheets and banjos.

If you enjoy my blog, J-Walk will almost certainly appeal to you because the range of content is wide and the subject material is sufficiently eclectic to appeal to the typical TYWKIWDBI visitor. I link to J-Walk perhaps once per week, but have bookmarked many more items that I haven't had time to write up, so herewith is a linkdump which you can sample as a taste of what you might encounter after adding J-Walk to your "daily visits" folder:

Video of an impressive trick pool shot.

Pringles proves in court that their product is not potato chips.

Conjoined barn swallows found, and to be sent to the Smithsonian. Joined at the hip and alive (but probably not for long).

Dog receives pension for faithful tending of sheep.

A list of 100 things to eat before you die. (I've only had 25 so far...)

Video of election night coverage in 1960.

A Catholic priest telling parishioners they shouldn't take communion until they do penance for voting for Obama.

Why you should never trust a screencap (you can alter websites on your computer and then take a screencap photo of them to "prove" that's what they showed).

Nothing To Do With Arbroath - a Recommended Blog

This month's installment in the Highly Recommended Blog series is Nothing To Do With Arbroath, one of the stalwarts of the web (since January 2005, which is forever in blog-years), accumulating a Technorati authority rating of 367, placing it in the top 10,000 blogs.

I didn't discover Arbroath until March of this year, and since then have had occasion to link to it about twice a week. The unusual title apparently relates to the blogger's home territory of Arbroath, Scotland. The subtitle "A Daily Mish-mash of Stuff, Fluff, and Nonsense" reasonably reflects the content; the material I link to in Arbroath is typically what I would term "ephemera" - items that pass by and which we may not see again but which are worth noting before they disappear.

Much of the content in Arbroath is harvested from online newspapes and periodicals, especially those of the British Isles. One category of special interest to the blogger is the inanity and insanity of bureaucracy, with stories ranging from the humorous to the horrorshow.

Since I'm in the process of cleaning up my stored links, I'll use this occasion to offer some of the Arbroath links which I bookmarked but haven't had time to use. Browse the list below, and if the material interests you, consider adding Arbroath to your list of regularly visited blogs.

Firefighters were called to rescue a branch which was trapped in a tree.

On a GCSE English exam, one pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully.

A man was arrested on suspicion of assault after he sprayed his next-door neighbour with a garden hose during a minor argument.

An 83-year-old woman's birthday party drew some uninvited firefighting guests after the candles on her cake set off a smoke alarm.

A 78-yo man walking innocently along a road has his walking stick confiscated by police because it could be used as an offensive weapon.

Councillors approve reimbursement to themselves for walking to work.

Neatorama - a Recommended Blog

Anyone who has visited TYWKIWDBI on a regular basis should recognize Neatorama, because I have frequently linked to material there, or used material there as an inspiration for a blog entry (on a quick search now I find 50 mentions of Neatorama in TYWKIWDBI's 1400 blog entries.)

The strength of Neatorama comes from its governance; the blog is the creation of Alex Santoso, but he has assembled a group of several dozen contributing bloggers, so that Neatorama becomes a compendium of their creations and discoveries.

Neatorama also has a significant amount of original material; for an example, look at this fascinating list of idiot savants compiled by Alex. And the amount of material is overwhelming; this is a blog that will reward a daily check.

Technorati ranks Neatorama in their Top 100 (out of I think 12 million blogs). The overall spectrum of content seldom includes politics and current events, but instead leans toward light-hearted and ephemeral items. I think it's fair to say that if you enjoy TYWKIWDBI, you should be monitoring Neatorama.


Previous entry in this series: The Presurfer. In the months to come I'll cover J-Walk and Nothing to do with Arbroath.

Presurfer - a Recommended Blog

I'm starting a series of entries on blogs that I recommend to the TYWKIWDBI community.

The first one I'll feature is The Presurfer. Its mission statement is simply stated and not much different from that of TYWKIWDBI:

The Presurfer is Your Daily Dose of Diversion. A weblog about the weird, unusual, funny, strange and informative sites that can be found on the Internet.

The Presurfer was created by Gerard Vlemmings in the Netherlands in 2000. I discovered the site a couple years later when it began to receive awards and was featured in MacUser or MacWorld or MacSomething. I've visited on a daily basis for years.

The Presurfer's Technorati rating in the blogosphere is 6,360 (out of I think 12,000,000 blogs), which places him in the stratosphere of influence and prestige. By contrast, TYWKIWDBI is ranked at 490,000 or thereabouts.

I offer this recommendation not because I think my comments will improve his traffic (my 200 visitors/day will not impact his several thousand/day), but because if you like the content, tone, and attitude of TYWKIWDBI you will probably enjoy the Presurfer.

I'll offer other recommendations in the weeks/months to come. Those who want a head start can take a peek at Neatorama, J-Walk, and Nothing to do with Arbroath for starters.