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Ubar and the Empty Quarter

The interior of the Arabian peninsula is a vast sandy desert. So little is found here that the Arabs refer to it simply as the Empty Quarter or the Rub' al Khali (الربع الخالي). However, this was not always the case. Once Arabia (and the Sahara) was lush and

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

I read an article today from the Smithsonian about Gobekli Tepe, a temple in Turkey that was recently dated to approximately 10,000 B.C. That would make it 6500 years older than the Great Pyramids and 6000 years older than Stonehenge. I am not aware of any similar sites

The Myth of the Renaissance

Michael Flynn recently posted about the Myth of the Renaissance. He links to James Franklin, whom I have also quoted on this subject before. In Europe, essentially nothing of note occurred in any field outside of art during the Renaissance. As Flynn and Franklin point out, this was the period

How big were Mediaevals?

Over at the StraightDope message boards, there is a vigorous thread discussing the size and weight of the plate armor worn by European knights. There is lots of good information there, and some heated dicussion. One of the points of contention is just how big were the knights wearing the

The Tranquility of Order

I find myself pondering politics, but not in the typical sense. This was not prompted by any particular thing in current events, but rather by the reflection that I have a very different manner of looking at things. In fact, I suspect my actual political views are nearly incomprehensible without

St. Patrick's Feast Day

St. Patrick's Feast Day

In honor of St. Patrick's day, I posted a photo of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Bre and I visited Dublin 5 years ago and we went to both Cathedrals in Dublin. They felt lonely. I think they want to go home. St. Patrick's

Badass of the Week

Another humorous link via the Art of Manliness (it is under 7 websites every man should be reading link) is the Badass of the Week. This week's offering is St. Moses the Black. A pretty interesting story of a man who raped and pillaged the countryside, and then