Category: True Stories

Daniil Sihastrul’s Contribution To The World

Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 3Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 1Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 2

From Wiki:

Daniil Sihastrul (Romanian for “Daniel the Hesychast“) was a renowned Romanian Orthodox spiritual guide, advisor of Stephen the Great, and hegumen of Voroneț Monastery. Canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992.
[…]
Daniil Sihastrul ignited a hermit movement in northern Moldova, having many novices in the woods surrounding Voroneț, as well as at the hermitages and monasteries in its surroundings. He encouraged Stephen the Great to fight for the defense of Christendom and to build holy places.

He has been considered a saint ever since his life time, being credited with healing the sick, exorcising demons, and removing suffering.

On first glance, it appears that St. Daniil was an eccentric loner who spent his life exorcising his mind from all thought in pursuit of purity of spirit for personal enlightenment, as that was apparently the aim of the Hesychasts. On the other hand, he was not a hermit full time, and used his stone temple as a place of refuge and contemplation. Given that he advised military strategist Stephen The Great, Daniil was well respected at the time (late 1400s AD).

Now what did Stephen The Great do? He stopped the Ottoman Empire warlords from overrunning Moldova, killing Christians and others indiscriminately, and from instituting islam and shari’ia law.

St. Stephen defeated Mehmet at a famous and decisive battle in a place called Vaslui (not far south of Iaṣi in the province of Moldova). Had he not done so, little would have stood between Mehmet and the Ukraine—and the obliteration of the rest of the Orthodox world. Mehmet met his match shortly after having sacked Constantinople. With the rest of the Balkan peninsula falling to Islam’s sword, Mehmet must have seemed unstoppable to Christians everywhere, yet none of the Western powers nor the Western Church would lift a finger against the Ottomans. Thus, Stephen stood more or less alone in defense of Christianity and his homeland [via].

Interesting times, indeed.

Oh, and here’s a photo of Deniis hawking his CDs. I’m not an historian, but it amazes me what one may find just by searching for the origin of an image.

[Images found here and via here.]

Flatulant Hot Links of The Hoity Toity

Star Trek Farts

Yeah, right.

Do the Madison. Now do the Tighten Up. Now do The Frank Sinatra – eight ball in the side pocket. C’mon people now. It’s Hully Gully Callin’ Time.

I’m guilty of it, and my dad did it to me, too.
This is what Dads are for.

“From Fu Hao to Joan of Arc to Rear Adm. Grace Hopper and beyond, women have played decisive roles in military affairs since the dawn of history.” Who was the greatest woman in military history? USNI wants to know.

I met Myldred Jones. She had been the highest ranking woman in the Navy ( Lt. Commander) but I didn’t know it at the time. All I knew was that she ran a shelter for teens in trouble, was planning to build a 2-story residence for runaways on the adjacent property, and seemed like a nice little old lady. I was just a year or so out of the midwest, so was polite and respectful. I don’t recall exactly what I said, but her response was, “Cut the crap. This is business.”

Check out who’s under cyber attack and from where. Live map.

The Runaways. Yeah, I got it, but I liked this song better.

Please return your seat to its upright position.

Sam Kinison‘s version of Wild Thing was better than the original.

[Top image from here.]

 

November 1912 – Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools

1912 8th_grade_test

This one looks more legit than the ones asking “Do You Know As Much As A Capuchin Monkey Embryo Did In 1846?” type quizzes. Note that you may not check “B” for every answer and hope to get a passing grade.

Bonus Question: Who was Ora L. Roby? (If you have to ask Mr. Google, you fail by default.)

Extra bonus: Note that at that time in U.S. history only one President had been impeached. Name the other one.

Oh, and the last shot fired in the Civil War was off the coast of Alaska, and I’ll stop parsing now.

[Found here.]

Flying Bum Flies

 Flying Bum 2

Flying Bum 3

Flying Bum 1

A vessel said to be the world’s largest aircraft has left its hangar for the first time, in preparation for a test flight.

British company Hybrid Air Vehicles towed the Airlander 10 – nicknamed the Flying Bum – out of its hangar at the UK’s Cardington Airfield in the early hours of Saturday morning [via].

And Iowahawk wins at Twitter again:

Flying Bum 3a

Roll On, My Friend. [Updated]

IRON FIST 1

He’s known around the blogosphere as Iron Fist. He’s been fighting a great battle against esophageal cancer for the past few years, and several blogs are posting tributes before he rolls on.

Prayer Request: Long Time Commenter Iron Fist Is Losing His Fight With Cancer…

Tribute: To Iron Fist!

Here’s To Iron Fist!

Unforgettable

Update: Steve held off until he’d seen all his close friends and family, then drifted off tonight at 11:45PM EST, 11 August 2016.

Clinton’s OmaHaHa

Clinton OmaHaHa

Posted just for fun, from the Believe-It-Or-Don’t Department.

Subcutaneous Hot Links

Corcoran Student Artwork

More women have baby faces on their knees than we thought.

#WhenIWasYourAge is amusing as far as Twitter hashtags go.

Pit bulls in flowers.

Children of Darkness and the institutions they live in. [This program contains language and sequences some viewers may find disturbing.]

Classic clip from The Prisoner: No. 6 chased by “Rover.”

A Rainbomb explained: “When the faucet really flips on, air can blast out of the sky at more than 115 miles per hour.” So there you go.

Canelo, el Mono Aullador más grande de la Senda Verde. Dare you to turn your speakers up and listen to the entire song.

“…rich, expansive and uniquely integrated academic curricula grounded in real-world experiences.” –A Quote from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design Graduate Studies webpage. [Example of a Corcoran student’s work above, with quote, found here.]

Opinionated Hot Links

Brazil 2016

Epic Cat is still epic.

84 year old shows his stuff at Muscle Beach.

Weaponized Victimhood: “This is not a grand battle against institutionalised injustice. This is an addiction to indignation.”

The MiniMoog made music history. Here are Parts 1 & 2 of an interesting (but flat) documentary.

Remember Walter Carlos? He flipped the switch years ago, and nobody cared. Why does anyone care about that Bruce guy?

The Ramones 31 December1977 London. Very cool, but they didn’t play Sheena.

Canadian cities in the 1950s in watercolor.

Cussing in the carnival photobooth.

Incarcerated for his opinions in the United States of America, Dinesh D’Souza has a new film out.

FWIW, The Blogmocracy had trouble migrating their blog. Their new address is http://www.blogmocracy.com so update your bookmarks.

[Top image from here, with the caption:
“Already struggling with an impeachment challenge, the worst recession in a century and the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, the Workers Party leader was given another reason to doubt she will complete her four-year term.”
Something sounds familiar.]

Bigass Ammonite Fossil is not a Bigass Ammonite Fossil

Ammonite

Yep, that looks like a bigass prehistoric ammonite fossil, and it’s not a snail fossil as the caption states.

Ammonites are perhaps the most widely known fossil, possessing the typically ribbed spiral-form shell as pictured above. These creatures lived in the seas between 240 – 65 million years ago, when they became extinct along with the dinosaurs. The name ‘ammonite’ (usually lower-case) originates from the Greek Ram-horned god called Ammon. Ammonites belong to a group of predators known as cephalopods, which includes their living relatives the octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus [via].

I found the top image (with the erroneous caption) in here, and wondered about the story behind it. Since fossils are typically embedded in rock and I didn’t see any hole or excavation, something seemed off.

Ammonite Replica 2

Ammonite fossils are common, but are rarely larger than about 9 inches in diameter. Sure, some larger species have been found, but why wasn’t this one encased in plaster, crated up and shipped to an archeological museum? How could something so heavy and brittle stay in one piece while being tilted up? How could four guys lift it, let alone one?

A Tineye search brought me to the source –  a 2005 documentary filmed in Lyme Regis, England for the BBC series “Journey of Life.”

“This giant ammonite was actually a replica that we used to show how big ammonites could grow. Made of polystyrene it squeaked as we rolled it down the beach. The look of gob-smack on the faces of Jurassic Coast fossil collectors was priceless!”
Paul Williams, 3 September 2013.

This “fossil” was a prop, and it had a cameo role in Episode 1: Seas of Life.

[Full story with photos here.]

Perhaps you’re wondering why I suddenly found an interest in large fabricated ammonite fossils. It’s because I saw that top picture and wanted to do this with it:

Ammonite Beach Spin

Saturday Matinee – NASA 1961, Jason D. Williams, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, & The Yonder Mountain String Band

This magnificent feat was engineered with slide rules, and it amounted to blasting a giant bullet containing a human into the sky, then recovering both it and Alan Shepard intact [via]. Those early astronauts had big brass ones, and the creepy music made it even better. (John Glenn appears at 04:15.)

Speaking of Great Balls of Fire, here’s the next best thing to The Killer. Jason D. Williams pounds the ivories with Sticks McGhee‘s 1947 classic “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-dee-o-dee.”

Spodiodi was street slang for chipping in for a cheap bottle of fortified wine in a brown paper bag and sharing it with your buddies. Urban Dictionary says “Spodiodi” is a glass of wine spiked with bourbon. Nah.

BTW, Sticks McGhee was the brother of Brownie McGhee, who partnered with harmonica player Sonny Terry known for his harmonica whooping. “Key to the Highway” was covered by many, including what’s his name. That famous British guy. You know. That guy.

Here’s some Easy-On-The-Ear-Holes stuff from The Yonder Mountain String Band. They need some authentic whooping in my opinion. Maybe even some eefin.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be glad that you’re not in Turkey.