@brian_gettler@mas.toI should've known about this already. I dig how the author's clearly having fun: the medieval ass "didn’t have a single or simple meaning: the ass was paradoxical. It was remarkable but unremarkable... It was profane and holy... Its potent sexual reputation... was simultaneously linked to sterility and, to this day, ‘ass’ and ‘arse’ remain culturally-connected homophones."
Kathryn Smithies, Introducing the Medieval Ass (2020)
@cdarwin@c.imFor years, historians thought decimal points emerged when German mathematician Christopher Clavius began using them while writing about astronomy in 1593.
But new evidence suggests the decimal point may be 150 years older than previously thought:
A 15th-century Venetian merchant named Giovanni Bianchini appears to have used the mathematical symbol in documents that date to between 1441 and 1450, according to a paper published this month in the journal Historia Mathematica.
@andycarolan@social.lolEvery once in a while, I have to go to my kitchen and tighten the knob on my Tofu press, like some kind of medieval torture device.
It makes me feel uncomfortable, and a little hungry.
@edintone@mastodon.greenStunned Couple Finds 14th-Century Medieval Gargoyle Hidden Behind Their Toilet https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/stunned-couple-finds-14th-century-medieval-gargoyle-hidden-behind-their-toilet/
@wvmierlo@zirk.usMedieval Manuscripts Take Center Stage in Innovative New Game - Medievalists.net
https://www.medievalists.net/2024/02/inkulinati/
> Inkulinati, a turn-based strategy game, launches today. Gamers on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series X|S …
@paulwermer@sfba.social @PaulWermer@sfba.social
@JorgeStolfi@mas.to/A Critical Bibliography of Totally Blank Medieval Manuscript Books in Croatian Libraries/
#OddDissertationTopics #HashtagGames
@avstockhausen@fedihum.org
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.socialOn this #GoodFriday, let us celebrate with a #medieval fanny from #Milan 👌
#FannyFriday
@drgeraint@glasgow.socialMakes a lot of sense to me. Some sleep, then an hour or two awake (worrying that I should be asleep) followed by a period of better sleep isn't unusual.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep<…
@UP8@mastodon.social⛩️ The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines
https://theconversation.com/the-tools-in-a-medieval-japanese-healers-toolkit-from-for…
@Nathan@social.lostinok.comThrilled to see that all of John Pagonis’ hard work is getting more attention. He may be Guthrie’s busiest man between the haunted house, art gallery and renaissance fair. Great work!
#guthrie
@pixelcode@social.tchncs.deThe #MiddleAges were a dark time when people considered the Earth to be flat, when the church suppressed enlightenment and when science stagnated as a result of conflict with religious beliefs.
If that sounds similar to your own views of history, then you should probably urgently watch this video by
@kcarruthers@mastodon.social
@dkomaran@social.linux.pizza
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialThe handling/interrogation of the terrorists also tells us something about the condition and professionalism of Russian law enforcement, legal system etc. I have no sympathy or compassion whatsoever for those terrorists but alledgly ears were cut off...and forced to eat them...a bit medieval...
#moscow #russia
@drgeraint@glasgow.socialMakes a lot of sense to me. Some sleep, then an hour or two awake (worrying that I should be asleep) followed by a period of better sleep isn't unusual.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep<…
@JorgeStolfi@mas.toThe YouTube video by Common Sense Skeptic about Starship test #3 has just been taken down for "copyright infringement".
Copyright is a medieval institution that exists only to ensure that the market of each immaterial piece of work -- book, music, movie, image -- is the monopoly of a single publisher, which usually had no role in creating that work.
@theDuesentrieb@social.linux.pizzaNachdem ich "Die letzten #Männer des Westens" gelesen hab, dachte ich, ich hätte einen groben Überblick über #Maskulinisten, #Incels,
@cdarwin@c.imTwo decades before the war against Ukraine, a “special operation” was launched against #Russian #historical #memory,
aggressively reshaping the nation’s understanding of its history and identity.
The Kremlin’s
@david@boles.xyzCats in Top Hats!
/
Invention of the top hat is often credited to John Hetherington, an English haberdasher, in 1797. The first silk top hat in England is credited to George Dunnage, a hatter from Middlesex, in 1793.
Fashion historians believe the top hat descended from earlier tall hats like the "sugar loaf hat" worn in medieval times and the capotain or Puritan hat from the late 16th century.
/
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems"""
There's something infantile about these post-Dark Age rulers' relationship with Rome. They seem to have only the sketchiest idea of what the Roman Empire actually was, but a strong sense that it was enormous and official and that the route to looking like you're allowed to be in charge of stuff was via affecting to be extremely Roman.
It's a bit like some nursery-school children trying to dress up as astronauts. There's lots of glue and glitter but it's all a bit crumpled. The whole business of having crowns was borrowed from the later Roman emperors' habit of wearing diadems. The objects were then infused with some handy religious significance when the Eastern Romans invented coronations based on some biblical references to crowns and anointing. What looks to us like an archetypically medieval ceremony caught on across Europe because of its associations with the mystique of classical antiquity – this ancient pagan superpower that was also somehow where Christianity came from.
Then Charlemagne decided he was going to have a bit of that. He had the brilliant idea of announcing he was the Roman emperor — or as the office was later referred to with garish hyperbole "Holy Roman Emperor!" […] So, having put together an extremely large early medieval kingdom (albeit still much smaller than the Western half of the Roman Empire had once been), Charlemagne twigged that a key part of becoming an emperor was saying you were one.
There's a pleasing irony to this. The first actual Roman emperors […] always pretended not to be emperors. They still went along with the notion that Rome was a republic run by elected consuls, sometimes not troubling to become consuls themselves.
In fact, the term "emperor" started as a euphemism. Rome, having become a republic, loathed the notion of kings. "Emperor" derived from imperator, which means a "military commander" — they weren't horrible kings, just trusty commanders, in the same way that Stalin was just a nice reliable general secretary rather than anything showy or threatening like a president or tsar.
"""
(David Mitchell, Unruly)
@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scotWe had a trip out to Hellens in Much Marcle yesterday. It has a fascinating history dating back to Harold Godwinson. While we were out we looked at St Mary's Kempley which has stunning medieval wall paintings and the rest, and Odda's Chapel, a Saxon survival.
https://www.englis…
@DrYohanJohn@FediScience.org"Most carnivals (from the Roman Saturnalia to medieval masquerades to Burning Man) by no means imply a shift in the power structures that organize society; rather, they provide the very catharsis that allows those structures to survive."
So astute.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/bad-reli
@wyliesau@noauthority.socialThe funniest and most original video you will see today.
Not all kids are messed up.
I love it 🥰
https://x.com/thefigen_/status/1769413387103158414?s=61
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org"Were Putin serious that the past determines the present, he should say that the territories of that medieval Viking state, Kyivan Rus -- much of Ukraine, all of Belarus, some of northeastern Russia by today's boundaries -- should belong to Sweden, or Denmark, or Norway, or perhaps Finland. "
#MakeDenmarkGreatAgain
Brilliant piece as ever by
@emarktaylor@thecanadian.socialVia Julia Proofreader @ProofreadJulia
·
11h
Absolutely best #joke, amongst scores of other brilliant jokes, from #MiltonJones last night:
If you Google 'lost medieval servant boy', it comes up with 'this page cannot be found'.
@dkomaran@social.linux.pizza
@stefan@gardenstate.socialThis Medieval absurdist comedy is 100% up my alley.
SEIZE THEM! Trailer (2024) Aimee Lou Wood, Nicola Coughlan
#video …
@smurthys@hachyderm.ioI somehow drifted on to this "medieval Ten Commandments of chivalry".
What a bunch of contradictions. 😵
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry#Ten_Commandments_of_Chivalry
@servelan@newsie.socialMarge going medieval on everybody's ass:
Conspiracy theorists think 2024 solar eclipse is a 'sign from God'
https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/04/08/2024-solar-eclipse-conspiracy-theories/
@simon_lucy@mastodon.socialWe are becoming increasingly late medieval in how we create 'new' laws for very specific cases. Proposing offences for particular professions isn't new, sumptuary laws date from the Romans at least and maintained class distinctions, who could wear which cloth, who could carry a sword in public; and the Guild laws protecting professions, Solicitors still have those protections.
But a specific law for shop workers against their being attacked? Offences already exist, enforcem…
@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyzA Medieval Islamic #Astrolabe with Hebrew Inscriptions in Verona: https://brill.com/view/journals/nun/39/1/article-p163_9.xml -> This rare 11th century Islamic astrolabe is one of the oldest yet discovered / 1,000-Year-Old Astrolabe Illuminates Scientific Exchange Between Muslims, Jews, And Christians: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/this-rare-11th-century-islamic-astrolabe-is-one-of-the-oldest-yet-discovered/ / https://www.iflscience.com/1000-year-old-astrolabe-illuminates-scientific-exchange-between-muslims-jews-and-christians-73220
@soc_i_ety@mstdn.ca"From the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the self-regarding thugs of ancient Rome to the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, in nearly every urbanized society throughout human history, there have been people who have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies are the conservatives."
And now the new fascists...
:mastodon:
@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scotSt Mary's Kempley
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-marys-church-kempley/
Has the oldest timber roof of any building in England and incredible medieval wall paintings.
@DrYohanJohn@FediScience.org"Most carnivals (from the Roman Saturnalia to medieval masquerades to Burning Man) by no means imply a shift in the power structures that organize society; rather, they provide the very catharsis that allows those structures to survive."
So astute.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/bad-reli
@vform@openbiblio.social«Smells Like Teen Spirit» in klassischem Latein | digithek blog
https://blog.digithek.ch/smells-like-teen-spirit-in-klassischem-latein/
... und die Kommentare :D
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org"Were Putin serious that the past determines the present, he should say that the territories of that medieval Viking state, Kyivan Rus -- much of Ukraine, all of Belarus, some of northeastern Russia by today's boundaries -- should belong to Sweden, or Denmark, or Norway, or perhaps Finland. "
#MakeDenmarkGreatAgain
Brilliant piece as ever by
@StephenRees@mas.toGoogle Lens is usually pretty good at finding what is in the picture - but this one stumped it. It is in the Orpheum Theatre in #Vancouver and probably has some civic significance. Or maybe it's just a fanciful decoration.
Anyone?
@losttourist@social.chatty.monsterToday we have mostly been watching medieval knights in shining armour on horseback trying to stab each other in the face with great big lances. Happens every day, right?
France vs Italy vs UK at the Royal Armouries jousting yard in Leeds.
#Jousting #RoyalArmouries #Leeds
@nemobis@mamot.fr
@nuthatch@infosec.exchangeIf you know Shogun is based (very loosely!) on an Englishman who had landed in medieval Japan and, more important, Toranaga is based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, then you know how things are going to play out from the very first.
V jvyy pbagvahr gb jnvg cngvragyl naq bar qnl gubfr gjb hfhecref vafvqr jvyy znxr n zvfgnxr naq gura gurl jvyy or tbar naq fbzrubj Bfnxn Pnfgyr jvyy or tbar, whfg nabgure qernz jvguva n qernz, naq gur erny cevmr bs gur Terng Tnzr gung ortna nf fbba nf V pbhyq guvax, j…
@freegames@mastodon.pnpde.social @AimeeMaroux@mastodon.socialI know I have some erotic models among my mutuals, so: would any of you be interested in posing as the Norse goddess Freyja in a photo for a semi-public post (pay-walled but anyone can sign up) to illustrate one of my stories?
Ideally, you have some feathery accessory to invoke her falcon cloak, i.e. a feather mask.
It is a sapphic story, so a second femme person would be cool if I can afford it.
DM me here or e-mail me at commission@eroticmythology.com 💖
@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scotSt Mary's Kempley
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-marys-church-kempley/
Has the oldest timber roof of any building in England and incredible medieval wall paintings.
@smurthys@hachyderm.ioI somehow drifted on to this "medieval Ten Commandments of chivalry".
What a bunch of contradictions. 😵
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry#Ten_Commandments_of_Chivalry
@compfu@mograph.social @simon_lucy@mastodon.socialI suppose the ability to prescribe and give consultations being widened for pharmacists is a Good Thing as it did so well in Medieval Europe.
#ProgressIsWhatsBehindYou
@freegames@mastodon.pnpde.social @freegames@mastodon.pnpde.social @freegames@mastodon.pnpde.social
