Zodiac, Month, Year: Some Scientific Elementa The word "month" is related to "moon". A genuine month is the time it takes the moon to pass through all its phases once; that is one lunar phase cycle. This "synodic" month is the basis for many calendars. Astronomically and mathematically, there are several ways to calculate a month. It can be Sidereal, Tropical, Draconic, Synodic, and Anomalistic. I don't think we need go into detail about that, but some scientific elementa…
The Attitude to Suicide in some Major Religions – A Brief Survey This article is motivated by two previous articles of mine here at read.cash: ***Suicide is not Painless***, which is a text about health, and, above all, ***Seppuku, Ritual Suicide***, which is a part of my series about Japanese cultural history. https://read.cash/@Mictorrani/suicide-is-not-painless-debdda30 https://read.cash/@Mictorrani/seppuku-ritual-suicide-af10d898 No doubt, the Japanese attitude to…
The Strength of Being an Outsider (by choice) Identity This time I will discuss an often overlooked aspect of ***identity***. Perhaps it's sometimes peripherally mentioned, but it is rarely in focus. This has nothing to do with identity as a name, or your ID card, or how you are recorded in a bureaucratic system. All that is just an imaginary paperworld, not reality. One could say that it is a bureaucratic model of reality, but we must never confuse a model of reality or its…
The Greatest Victory *The Paralympics (or Para-Olympics), always reminds me of when I - some years ago - was asked who had been the greatest man during the last millennium (1000-2000 AD). I always shun such questions. There are too many ways for a man to be great, and they cannot be compared. (Moreover, this could include only publicly known people, many great things are done out of sight from the public.) Finally I was persuaded to think of it - although I had another…
Fleur-de-lis & The Lily of Florence I. Fleur-de-lis We will start with a look at *Fleur-de-lis.* It is a symbol occurring in heraldry and on flags, where it is commonly associated with France or shows some French connection. However, the symbol occurred long before that in the symbology of old cultures as ancient Egypt, India, Babylonia, and Persia, and it was used in Middle Age Balkan and Eastern Europe, where it still can be found in flags and arms of some cities and other…
La Tricolore: What is the Origin of Its Colours and Design? A common pattern of a large number of flags in the world is three coloured vertical or horizontal bands. Strictly, three bands are a revolutionary symbol, a symbol of republic, although there are examples of monarchies using such a flag: namely the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium – that is the so-called Low Countries. There are historical reasons for these exceptions, as we shall see below. But let's start with…
Vexillology & Heraldry *Recently I posted two articles here about symbols related to flags and heraldry:* *Fleur-de-lis & The Lily of Florence* *and* *La Tricolore: What is the Origin of Its Colours and Design?* *Since I will publish more articles in that series, it is justified to make clear some definitions before we continue. This article serves as a somewhat delayed introduction to the topic.* https://read.cash/@Mictorrani/fleur-de-lis-the-lily-of-florence-5ef3a335…
Identity Theft: Its Cause & How to Root it Out Identity Theft and Its Cause The ultimate crime is probably identity theft. It is the fastest growing crime in the world, and maybe it is already by far the most common. It is committed on many levels and most times it is probably undiscovered by the victim. The most simple form of ID theft is when someone is sending out spam and sets your email address as the sender. This is not normally classified as identity theft, but in…
The Star-And-Crescent - A Symbol for Islam? Today, the ***star-and-crescent*** symbol, a symbol consisting of a star and a crescent in combination, is associated with Islam. While in some circles it is a symbol of Islam, analogous to the cross of Christianity, it is blasphemy to others, because its roots do not have anything to do with Islam, and from a strict Islamic point of view, all symbols are *haram*, forbidden, as a form of idolatry. A star-and-crescent was used as a…
Understand How Connectivity Negatively Affects Your Privacy Anonymity can be ***absolute*** or ***relative***. It is important to understand the difference. In the privacy business especially, things advertised as "anonymous", mostly offer only relative anonymity, while the customer can be misled (not necessarily deliberately) to believe the anonymity to be absolute. Absolute anonymity is anonymity in all directions. Relative anonymity is an anonymity covering some…
What Happened in Yekaterinburg? According to records, this dialogue took place in *Popov's house* on the 17th July, at night. Shooting was heard from the house just across the street. *"Did you hear?"* *"Yes."* *"Do you understand?"* *"Yes."* Well, do you understand? What happened in the house across the street that night? It was quite long ago, but the case had some actuality again in 2007, and again in 2008. New results and speculations about this unique event turn up now…
Arsenic – Medicine or Deadly Poison? Arsenic is a deadly toxin, once a favourite among poisoners. Small amounts, however, mainly as arsenic trioxide, are stimulating, and were used to make old and tired horses look young and vigorous when they were to be sold. It has also been used by humans to get a more fair complexion in times and places where paleness were part of the female beauty ideal. Arsenic makes the hair lustrous as well. For some animals arsenic is a dietary…
Nisshōki, Taegeukgi & the Nordic Cross In this article, we will look at the symbols of the flags of Japan, Korea, and the Scandinavian countries. (As of images of flags below, a grey frame or background is not a part of the flag or flags; I added it to create contrast to the white background of the page, so white of the flag(s) is not confused with the white of the page.) Let's first look at the flags of Japan & Korea (South). Two flags being distinct, powerful and…
The Eagle as an Heraldic Symbol of Empire A single eagle, single-headed or double-headed, turns up in the symbology of empires throughout history. As a symbol of a ruler, we find eagles in the Antiquities. For the Greeks it was a symbol of Zeus, for the Romans of Jupiter. It is possible that it all derives from a symbol of Old Egyptian Horus. He is commonly associated with a falcon, but the borderline between the various species of predator birds here is floating. There is a…
We Are All Mortal, Anyone can Die at Any Moment: Who will get Your Bitcoins when You Die? *Consider your mortality and prepare accordingly, death can strike at any time. Who will get your Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency when you die? Who will get your private keys? How do you assure they come to the right person? How do you arrange handing private keys over?* We are all mortal and however much we want to live forever, none of us will. Indeed, ***anyone can die at any…
The Most Powerful Eyes *It is a fact that the power of eyesight in a species is proportional to the size of the eye. Animals with extreme vision have large eyes. And we talk about absolute size, not relative (to the the general size of the animal).* Judging from this criterion and according to the current level of knowledge: ***which terrestrial animal, living or extinct, has or had the best vision in the animal kingdom?*** That is to say, which terrestrial animal had or has…
Symbols of the Knights Templar & Templars in Fiction: Literature and Film *This is the fourth and last article in my series about the Knights Templar.* Symbols How about the Red cross? Can their symbol be derived from that of the Templars? Did the Templars have other visual symbols than the cross?" Henri Dunant who created the Red Cross organisation (la Croix-rouge) was a Swiss; the symbol of the organisation is the inverted Swiss flag. There is no reason to suspect any…
Justice, Law & The State As a Self-Contradiction *In this article I will try to make a distinction between law and justice and show why the state, as we know it, is an absurdity.* *The reference to E-gold in the beginning is about an event in 2007, when E-gold, a digital payment system, was persecuted by US authorities, and gold belonging to their customers was simply stolen and handed over to the US government. This was called confiscation, but is nothing else than plain…
Muslim & Arab Flags and their Symbolism As I mentioned in a previous article, strictly it is *haram* (forbidden) with a symbol of Islam. That doesn't mean that Muslim countries must not have symbols, although the Islamic view has influenced also political symbols of country or nationality. We have previously discussed the Turkish symbol of the ***Star-and-Crescent****,* which occur on many contemporary flags, the ***Eagle of Saladin***, which is found in the centre of the…
Benefits of Walking - Beyond Those of Walking as a Physical Exercise A number of articles have been posted here about the benefits of walking. I wrote one of them myself, *“**Walk or Die**”.* The focus of that article is on the medical benefits and it is still here for those who are interested in reading it. The positive effects of walking on physical health are indisputable. However, there are other benefits, far beyond those of walking as a physical exercise…
The Importance of Contrast In a private letter to a friend many years ago, I wrote “***Contrast gives a clearer view.****”* In a literal sense, it is quite obvious. Contrast enhances visibility of a text or an object in a picture, or an object in visual reality. Today I would take that a step further and say “***Without contrast there is no view****.”* If there is no contrast, you will not distinguish anything. There might be something there, but you will not notice it. Not…
The Inner Clock – Reality or Superstition? The melatonin system determines our pattern of sleep. It defines us as day-active creatures who should sleep at night when it is dark, and be awake and active in the daylight. Yet it is not that simple. https://read.cash/@Mictorrani/blue-light-blindness-sleep-disorder-cancer-c2c94afb#blue-light-amp-sleep-disorder Good sleep is essential; we need it for continuous healing and rejuvenation, consolidation of learning and memory,…
Compulsory Denial of Real Danger Large catastrophes – earthquakes, volcano eruptions, hurricanes and tsunamis, as well as war - all have some things in common: the most important is that they are dangerous, and that to the point of putting lives in danger, or destroying whole cities. Many of these things are possible to at least suspect in advance. A war is not starting overnight. Earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, and hurricanes turn up in specific areas. One cannot…
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