Taomeow

Long story. This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Gumilev And the "spontaneous discovery of feng shui on a macro scale" I was referring to was how I later interpreted his Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere of Earth -- a rather wild (by accepted scientific standards) theory that links the appearance of distinct ethnicities and nations and their subsequent characteristic behaviors to the geographical landscapes of their places of origin. He also introduced the notion of "passionarity" and the "passionarian" it produces, the type of individual personality that moves and shakes history. It was his way to settle the long-standing problem of "the role of the individual in history" -- and if memory serves, the appearance of such potential and such individuals was also linked to the influences of the landscape and the cosmic radiation as it interacts with it -- in classical feng shui terms, to Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. When I read this work in the late 70s or early 80s, it was still taboo, and I had a samizdat (typewritten-at-home) version someone let me borrow.

I read the book, but never knew about the show. People whose sublimation of our hunters-gatherer instincts causes them to hunt and gather lost, misinterpreted, censored, suppressed, adapted to an agenda or to a preconceived idea etc. information command the highest respect in my eyes. But being human, they are not immune to doing more of the same on occasion. I don't mean the holy grail authors specifically, for all I know they may have been right! Nor would I write off without a second look, e.g., Sitchin just because his theory appears wild... I find the "accepted" views among the wildest on many subjects -- 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Or Lev Gumilev who was a serious influence back in the day. (I think he spontaneously discovered feng shui on a macro scale -- of course he never called it that, and "spontaneously" may not really be the case, considering he was an expert on things Asia...)

LOL, that explains it. Danny boy didn't strike me as a scholarly type (unlike another mass-appeal author, R.R. Martin, behind whose fantasy worlds one can sense rather vast explorations of actual history -- via spending time at the library rather than watching TV shows.) But the show presenter didn't know his Latin either. Those kings were known as reges criniti -- long-haired kings. Had they been hairy they would have been reges hirsuti. The term hisrutism is used in medical jargon today as well, for the condition of being excessively covered with hair (which in many cases is not a "condition" but a genetic/ethnic feature, but in others a symptom, e.g. of some ovarian disorders in women.)

They weren't hairy, they were long-haired! The belief existed that cutting their hair rendered them powerless. Just like Samson. Native Americans were of the same opinion. The Chinese, ditto -- until the Manchurians forced them to shave the front of the head (but the rest was worn as long as it grows, and braided. And that also had to go with westernization in the 20th century -- for men first, and then Communists convinced women to cut their hair as well.)

Maurice Druon, The Accursed Kings historical novels -- read them all as a teenager. For a while they made me an expert in medieval French history. I remember little by now, but I did remember the story of Jacques de Molay and was under the impression, for many years, that the curse concerned not just the Capetian dynasty but all of Europe. I don't remember why I interpreted it this way, but there you have it. The dynasty that went a long time before that one, the Merovingians, I find particularly interesting. In their heyday they established the largest kingdom in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman empire (if there really was such a thing as "the fall" -- to me it seems more like the refurbishing/recalibration). What I find special about them is that to this day, chronicles exist that officially derive their genealogy from a sea monster, a “quinotaur,” who had a relationship with the ancestress and produced Meroveh, the founder of the dynasty. This gave the dynasty sacral pre-Christian legitimacy—a ruler whose authority comes from the sea/chaos/the Other. (Just like Chinese emperors who derive their Mandate to rule from the dragon. Chinese dragons spend the first one thousand years as water creatures, then develop flight and take to the sky, the mountains, and the imperial court, as the case may be.)

Nice looking site! (talking presentation for now, might explore later.) My Grandmaster is also Chen Zhenglei. Which makes you my taiji brother. (Unless of course you mix "creativity" into the traditional style, in which case it makes you my taiji not-my-cup-of-qi. )

The hurricane/tropical storm is a couple hours away from us per latest predictions, but some fire hydrants in downtown decided to help it along ahead of schedule. Video: https://packaged-media.redd.it/k703vjwl1bjb1/pb/m2-res_1280p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1692572400&s=6d053c7ae8deeab4e038fffffacb9f5afa090978#t=0

That Ermakov book was first published in 1995. The 90s were the lawless decade for the freshly collapsed USSR, and there's no end to horror stories I heard and read about those times... but they were unique in that respect, those times I mean. I did take that trip as a toddler, and I could swear I remember stuff -- except my mom told me stories about it later, so it's hard to tell now which ones I really remember and which ones came alive for me based on what she told me. If anything, according to my mom people on the train were afraid of me, because I looked like a much younger child but talked like a much older one -- they thought I was some bewitched infant, and some old ladies discreetly made the sign of the cross...

double

Interesting thread, thank you.

This thread has lake Bikal and lake Bakai but it is Baikal. Buryat-Mongolic languages origin. In Buryat it is pronounced closer to Baygal, the meaning is something like "rich lake" or "nature" -- I guess it was almost the same thing to the folks who named it.

Pushkin Boulevard, Donetsk. It used to be my most stomped stomping ground -- the road from home to school, then to the university, then to work. To two theaters (Drama and Opera/Ballet) and two movie theaters. Also a meeting place when planning stuff with friends (many benches to sit on, wooden and comfortable). A dating launchpad (the monument on the right is to Alexander Pushkin, referred to by the locals as "The Head" -- circa high school years, if undecided in advance where to go or if to go somewhere with this guy at all, agree to meet "under The Head," take it from there). And a walking strip with kids -- in a stroller first, and later on foot. Roughly 15-20 minutes to get anywhere at all from home. No car and screw public transportation. It was a lucky location in that respect.

Do you mean "where is this place" or "why am I not in this picture?"

Ack, I forgot. "There was a study" (got to use this ridiculous phrase that, without further examination, has 0% information validity value in all cases) which asserted that people who live together for a long time use each other as extended memory files, which benefits their individual memory. Perhaps people who post together for a long time also reap those anti-forgetfulness benefits? My favorite lines were, "This octopus, let's give him boots, send him to North Korea" ...and the way they rhymed it with "gonorrhea."

@Nungali This song was probably written by one of those former little catholic kids -- just the way they heard it. I think it's brilliant, phonetically and poetically.

Far on down the track there's a monkey on the train singing a sad song

Yes, that was explained under the story post factum, and redditors also explained that it happened because the newspaper laid off everybody who used to be responsible for these things not happening. (Not its first rodeo with sloppiness.)

Yes, it's a wise saying even thought it's fake Latin. A motto especially apt for a high school teacher to live by. There's a whole bunch of not quite real Latin proverbs I remember, some "almost" the real thing... like, Lingua Latina non est penis canina. And a friend, a med student at the time, once commented in all seriousness when we were planning a picnic in the woods and it started raining, Per aspera ad anus. This one has since become my favorite expression for when things one carefully plans and looks forward to go bust for whatever reason. It's exactly the same idea which Shakespeare expressed in his characteristic, much more flowery way: And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action.

I have some random Latin in my head from the university course, but the last time I was able to read the news in Latin was circa the Bello Gallico time -- which was current events around 50 BC.

Everybody knows paper newspapers are in decline -- but this article appeared last Friday in the San Diego Union Tribune both in its paper version delivered to subscribers and the digital online version. The article itself is in Latin (not the first, second, or 100th most spoken language around here), and its title seems to clash with the editors' attempt at classically educating the readers, if that's what they had in mind.

Very refreshing. In my then-atheistic old country we used to celebrate the New Year with the same gusto that was reserved for Christmas in the non-atheistic parts of the world. This is the picture of the last New Year's tree I saw, located within a short walking distance from where I lived. It wasn't the main one in the city, and therefore not the biggest -- but it was nice, and fully real. Our Grandfather Frost is not unlike Santa, but dresses somewhat differently (the hat especially) and doesn't go down the chimney, nor scrutinizes kids for who's naughty and who's nice, everybody gets a present. Adults didn't exchange presents, those were exclusively for kids -- whereas adults just threw and/or attended a party, usually the biggest party of the year.

I grew up with a song (by a brilliant singing poet) dedicated to musing about the reasons Captain Cook got eaten... though apparently modern revisions deny it. In any event, I am quite foggy on his route so I wouldn't be able to say if he be sailing north before, after, or instead of being eaten. That's a possibility. (Have you read 1421 or 1434 by any chance?)

Looks like it's not south west of anything at all... well, maybe something on that coast that is not as south west as this place. Some stray rock to the northeast of those rocks?.. However, this only concerns Western maps which, for reasons of the West not having had the yin-yang revelation and its relevance to us humans (who have our cold feet below, interfacing the earth, and our hot heads above, interfacing the Sun), counterintuitively place South (yang, the top, overhead stuff, where the Sun is in relation to everything on earth) on the bottom, and North (yin, the below, underfoot, where the sun don't shine) on top. Not so on taoist maps. In the canonical taoist Luoshu layout southwest is not far from where that South West Rocks is... perhaps a feng shui master was the one who named that place? In any event, I feel compelled to insert an interlude depicting a delightful case of a Western influence on a member of an Eastern culture. (They are not all delightful IMO, far from it... but this one is.)

Yes, geography is in the eye of the beholder. The most famous classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West, is about a trip to India. That journey was undertaken by a monk and his travel companions commissioned by the boddhisatva-turned-taoist-goddess, Quan Yin, for the specific purpose of bringing Western influences to China -- to wit, Buddhist sutras, toward a wide dissemination of Buddhism. (An immigrant who wanted to introduce to her new country of allegiance certain values from her native culture... makes sense to me. I've taught many Americans to make real borscht out of a similar sentiment.) The novel was published in the 16th century and depicted the events of the 7th, with a fantastic twist or two. Until modernity Buddhism was the single biggest Western influence on Chinese civilization. I have been less successful so far with real borscht and American cuisine.

Within, lantern warms the scholar's simple study -- books, brushes, inks, cats.