“Therefore strength (is) good (and) in every way the best (thing) in my opinion” —Buddhist sutra in Tocharian

For those interested in debates around the spread of Indo-European languages, I do short thred on this, with some excerpts from Robert Drews' recent (2017) book. The book is itself a revision of the claims he made earlier, principally in The Coming of the Greeks (1988).

Buddhists living in ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan appropriating Heracles as the guardian of the Buddha was pretty wild, not going to lie.

1902 Oxford scholarship exam: tell me, 17-year-old-lad, how and why do nations decline through decadence?

We do wrong by pigeons. Domesticated millennia ago as our helpers we have abandoned the species.

The Greeks had no word for or any concept of innate human dignity.

Sniffing for truffle mushrooms. Dordogne region, France. 1984 | Bruno Barbey

TWIN PEAKS

Thinking about this again in remembrance of david lynch. The best criticism Ive read on him, and why his work, specifically fire walk with me, remains singular.

Living in the present: I enjoy hikes and camping trips in remote areas. No motors, no guns. At the outset, I have a meditation, I accept my fate and pray that my encounters with wildlife are non-existent or benign. But tbh I worry less the more I see awful hospital "straw" deaths

This abused elephant, who has killed 22 Indians and is still at large, is at risk of persecution and meets any reasonable definition of refugee. She should have guaranteed asylum in the USA, or any civilized country

In loving memory of Milo. 🪦 I post this every year at this time as an example, in the hopes it may save some gentle trusting little animal's life. It's a little earlier than usual because the hedgehogs hibernated early last year, so there is more danger of them rising earlier

Scythian policemen in Athens all over again

Riefenstahl

lmao

Love isn't all about roses or grand gestures. At our Nursery in Kenya, it looks like a Keeper dragging a matress onto the lawn so a sleepy (yet playful!) orphaned infant elephant can enjoy a rest. In fact, elephants have a way of working themselves into your heart and this

Octavian and Agrippa were best friends. When the men who murdered Octavian's father threatened to kill Octavian, they refused to accept it. They embarked on a grand adventure to destroy those men. They won and created a new Rome in the process. Friendship can conquer, and

More ancient mysteries: the Piri Reis map. He got it from a copy ...but from who...note it shows the coast of Antarctica WITHOUT ICE! When was the original made...and who made it??