Southern Buddhist

Subtle-joke post? Most of the world's habitable land is above the equator. However, the Mercator map OP used has been attacked as racist for over-emphasizing Europe's land mass. Below is the projection that is apparently the most accurate one in current use:

As just mentioned above, I'm selling off some books on Amazon, thinning my library of books I've read and don't love enough to keep. Lately, I also listed a bunch of books I've owned for years and not gotten around to reading. I figured if they sold, then I'd read them before shipping if I was still interested.Well, in a sudden run, I sold 15 books last week. Thirteen of them were books I decided on the spur of the moment to read after all. Since I'm supposed to ship fairly immediately, that meant I basically dropped everything and read thirteen books in seven days, an unusually intense ru

You will LOVE The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, by Gregory(?) Wilkin. It's not history in the same vein as the History of Rome podcast, which I also love (to mix ancient cultures, it's the Platonic form of podcasts). But it's about how Roman philosophers interacted with this new philosophy in their midst and how the dialogue shaped both sides.You might also like Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games by Roland Auguet; obviously, about the gladiator games, chariot races, tossing of various folks to various beasts, and the Roman culture of fun and games. I used it as a source in writi

Nice job. I think we're managing to thoroughly fuck up the very notion of birthday commemoration.

No leave OT. Genpop big and scary.

I know you were posting about Redgrave, but not everyone clicks on links.

I'm touched that you're so supportive of my book -- thanks! I don't actually know how many copies have sold, but not hugely many, I'm afraid. I've done what I can to promote it, but it hasn't gotten a ton of press. Actually, I spoke at the Virginia Festival of Books and during the Q&A someone asked, "Who's buying it more -- Buddhists or NASCAR fans?" I answered, "Neither." It got a nice chuckle, and after I read an excerpt the bookstore where the event was held sold out in minutes. But on the whole, it was an enjoyable experience that will probably turn out to have no effect on my li

I have discovered that many things that are very funny in this forum are met with a mixture of offense, horror, and disgust outside of this forum.

It's LG's birthday today!Happy birthday, Lady Grey!

Dems are your friends here. I thought you would favor principles over party identification. Don't be a Republican and slander those who have the facts on their side.

Looks like he turned into human jerky.

Lynn Redgrave, and also, a couple days ago, the guy who designed the Greek-looking paper coffee cup so iconic of New York delis.

I'm selling a buttload of books on Amazon, both read and unread, ahead of packing for school. When an unread one sells, I read it in a day, then ship it. I've spent much of this evening reading Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture, a collection of essays by historians that grew out of the UVA conference that announced the DNA connection between Jefferson and the Hemings descendants. And I have discovered four things:1. My dream man: a Sugar Pimp, as defined by Clarence Walker: a man who is gentle, even effeminate, in manner but sexually aggressive. [Eithe

Just putting some of my books up for sale on Amazon and came across Encyclopedia of Sacred Places. Here are three that look like they're on your route, or not very far off. Using Wikipedia links:Ellora CavesKumbh Mela sitesOrissa, featuring the Jagannath Temple of Puri, The Sun Temple of Konark, The Lingaraja Temple of BhubaneshwarI'm also selling From Here to Nirvana: the Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual India. Since it covers the whole subcontinent, it may be more than you need, but either book sounds like it would have ideas for you.

You want to invade Canada? And give the country 33 million more people who would vote Democrat?

I got nothin', unless you're impressed by opossums.

This is exactly what I'm wondering about. It seems people are willing to insist that "others" (to be polite; non-whites, to be blunt) carry ID cards, but ask them to carry one and it's the end times.

Please do yourselves a great favor and rent In Bruges with Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. I started a thread about it when it was in theatres. It's fantastic and one of the tightest scripts ever -- even the tiniest little throwaway bits play into the climax later, in the most delightful way.Also, I just watched the PBS Great Performances show of Hamlet with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. It was outstanding, so record it if you can. I've never understood Ophelia's going mad, but the Ophelia here gave the best performance of her mad scenes of anyone I've ever seen

See, this is why the Misreadings thread was created.My uncle works for the USDA advising farmers in very mountainous SW Virginia (never to be confused with any part of WV, please). Years ago a couple of guys came to him for advice on irrigating hilly terrain for their "pea field." [in retrospect that sounds so incredibly obvious, but he's a really sweet lifelong farmer and this is a very innocent area in many ways.] He guided them not only through irrigation techniques but even getting the right equipment and everything. Only when they were raided with USDA extension office brochures and h

Oh, yeah, wonderful. I took a screenwriting class once, and every time the instructor mentioned a principle, I thought of examples that were always either taken from Shakespeare or a 1940s film. Everyone else seemed to be mentally searching on the Jim Carrey oeuvre or whatever had come out within the past 18 months.I especially love the silent movies that TCM sometimes shows on Sunday nights. Mostly I look at the backgrounds in every shot -- the clothes, furniture, and interiors are just amazing.

So what if this did wind up being the "softening up" for a national identity card required of everyone? It's pretty clear that those of you who are opposed to these IDs would continue your opposition, for the same reasons. But would those of you who now support this ID card also support one that you and your family had to carry?

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, I finally saw two classics I'd never gotten around to: Sunset Boulevard and The Blue Angel. The latter was really depressing.I and the rest of the world of Shakespeare scholars, teachers, students, and theatre are shuddering in horror at the forthcoming "Anonymous." It's by the guy responsible for 2012, and it's about how Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare. Given the ability of movies to influence the opinions of gullible people, it's a disaster movie for us.

Nice image. I like it.I want to make a T-shirt for geeks that says, "Physics -- the laws you can't break." I imagine it's already been done. though.

I'll bet UniLever US crapped their collective pants when they heard this.

That reminds me of something I would blog about except for not wanting to offend my in-laws. They have a house on the Delaware River in a part of northern NJ that actually has a bear population. They're wonderful but incredibly neurotic people, and for the first couple of years they didn't live full-time in the river house, it being a home for their retirement. James's mom was convinced that somehow the water pump would short out and catch the house on fire, so she was paranoid about unplugging it every time they left the house. His dad, on the other hand, was absolutely certain that bears