Formosus Viriustus

If it would have been as easy as that, why wouldn't you let your hero just be left-handed ? And if you expect your right-handed hero to learn to do EVERYTHING with his left hand, why wouldn't recruitment officers expect left-handers to be able to learn to handle a sword right-handedly ? But being left-handed myself, I find the subject quite fascinating so I've started a new thread on it here. F rmosus

Sinister Romans Left-handedness in antiquity This subject came up in the 'I don't want to serve in the army' topic. The suggestion being that if you were left-handed this maybe would get you off the hook military service-wise since legionaries had to fight right-handed. If only it were that easy ! That legionaries had to fight right handed, whether they were naturally inclined to do so or not, seems to me self evident. My theory is that this interest in someone being naturally left- or right-handed is rather recent. Until the 1950s everybody simply had to write right-handed, whether they felt like it or not. There was no question about that. Allowing kids to write with their left hand if they felt like it only came en vogue towards the end of that decade. Whether, when left to your own devices, you do something with your left or your right hand is a natural tendency. But whether you are good at anything with your left or your right hand is just a question of practice. Whether we are left-handed or right-handed, we all use a knife and fork the same way, for example. To me, being left-handed, the way we do it seems to be the 'natural' way and right-handed people in my view actually eat left-handed. Is there anything known about this in antiquity ? Did the Romans pay any attention to that at all ? Are there any references to left-handed Romans ? Formosus

Those master swordsmen, the Japanese samurai all fought left-handed. There's only one accepted way to use a katana (or the harmless bamboo shinai they use in kendo) and that is left-handed. It's pretty simple really : either you learn or you die. F rmosus

Once upon a time there was a movie about a woman looking for love. And then there was another one. And another one. And another one .... targetting women - chick flicks F rmosus

If you have read the article you will know at which temperature the Fahrenheit and the Celsius Scales give the same reading : at - 40

Gladiator fights were in their origin religious human sacrifices, I believe. The purpose being to give a fallen hero or king some attendants in the underworld. So, in that sense both the Romans and the Gauls practiced human sacrifice. However, I think that this fate was almost exclusively reserved for criminals, prisoners of wars, slaves, hostages. And it seldom was on a voluntary basis. Unless you could win your freedom maybe. By Caesar's time most gladiator fights in Rome were not fights to the death. Thus you had voluntary, professional gladiators. For them death in the arena was a serious occupational risk but not a certain fate. Regarding the Lindow Man : "According to Brothwell, it is one of the most complex examples of "overkill" in a bog body, and possibly has ritual meaning as it was "extravagant" for a straightforward murder." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindow_man How does this make this a 'religious human sacrifice' ? I think that is pure speculation. Everybody should know that in a significant number of ordinary murders there is 'extravagant overkill'. I'm fairly sure that our real life present day CSI heroes more than once run into cases of 'extravagant overkill' that will make Lindow Man's case seem pretty ordinary. So Lindow Man might very well have been the victim of an ordinary murder. Or a vendetta or honour killing. Those often have a ritual character. Or very likely he was a criminal who was executed. Many if not most executions at the time were pretty 'overkill'. So why should this in this case point to a religious sacrifice ? Was every crucufixion a religious sacrifice ? And there is no contradiction about it being an execution and it being ritual. Executions are very often performed according to a ritual. There is no contradiction even for me between it being an execution of a criminal and there being some kind of 'ritual sacrifice' of the body to some god or gods afterwards. That doesn't have to mean that the purpose of the killing was to please or placate the gods. You can attach some spiritual meaning to the fact that 'here on earth' justice has been done. If your gods are 'just', and they usually are, they will be pleased with that. The Romans themselves pretty much thought like that, I think, and many people today still do. When speaking about 'religious human sacrifice' we usually think about such practices as were rather common in pre-Columbian America. Clearly performed in the context of elaborate religious rituals. Often large-scale on unwilling victims but also on a smaller scale on willing victims, it seems. There is more than abundant evidence for the first and quite some for the second as well, though 'willingness' might also be a very elastic concept. I see no evidence at all for anything comparable in Gaul or Britain around Caesar's time. From what evidence there is, there is probably no way you can prove that Lindow Man was not the victim

" Quod foetet ? "

Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing in 55 B.C., said the native Celts "believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent." This statement, I think, refers to the continental Gauls, not to the Brits. Caesar did establish a beach head in Britain for a short time

Newsflash The EU has announced that it will adopt the Delisle Temperature Scale as its Standard Temperature Scale starting 01/01/2011. This is a major political victory for the European Green Parties as well as for President Sarkozy of France. EU Commisar General N. Enesson has issued the following statement :

Nice video FV, If that's what it takes to get chicks like Carmen Electra dancing for you then I'm never going to shave again!!!! Of course, you're going have to learn to sing and smoke a cigar at the same time without setting your beard on fire. No mean feat that. Yet another of California's finest the mamas & the papas - california dreamin' Now, you would have become an hippie and even worn a fake-bearskin hat too if Michelle had tought that looked kool, wouldn't you ? Be honest. Who cares if everybody else thinks you look like an idiot ? F rmosus

Those Krazy Chermans , h

I'm sure you must have wondered already :

The Ukraine is suffering from a severe hot water shortage at the moment. As we all know worldwide supplies of hot water are rapidly dwindling. Scientists say this is most probably the effect of Global Warming. We here in the West may still have all the hot water we want or need and we are careless and wasteful in its use. Some of us even use hot water to shower. Other parts of the planet are however already being affected by the global hot water shortage. At the moment the Ukraine is suffering from a severe cold wave. Temperatures have dropped to about 90

Maintenance work ? In this day and age ? Who are they trying to fool ? We live in the 21

This all sounds very similar to the Chinese divination method of coin tossing - or stem counting if you're a purist - and consulting the "I Ching" (the famous hexagrams). I found this on Roman dodecahedra on wiki. I don't think they have been mentioned here yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron (also follow the links) Formosus

Has The Large Hadron Collider Destroyed The World Yet ? http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/ Want To Read More Nonsense About The Large Hadron Collider ? http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider Formulosus

Too curious for my own good as I am, I just had to go and look up those guys ages on wiki, didn't I ? They're actually two years older than me ! Would you believe it ? I'll never live down that shame ! Ah, well, as Frankie says :" " F rmosus

Fabius Cunctator's purple mohawk never really caught on though ... (Sorry, just couldn't resist the temptation. This being such a serious topic. I'll shave off my lambchop sideburns as a penance. ) F rmosus

One of Texas' finest They play a gig in Brussels tonight. If I was 35 years younger I would so be there. Now watching a few clips from my comfy chair will do. ( Those guys aren't much younger than me though, I think. Have to admire their energy.) zz top - gimme all your loving zz top - legs ( with carmen electra ) ( for really dedicated male chauvinist pigs only ) F rm zuz

Well, I'm not exactly an expert on present day historical authors, if you don't mind an understatement. But since nobody else has stepped up so far : I found a few long excerpts from

Will certainly do. Love the pedal steel bit.

Maybe I have missed it, but I didn't see a link to the on-line edition of

One of California's many supergroups from the 60s & 70s And here they are at the Kralingen Pop Festival in 1970. That was Europe's answer to Woodstock. It seems there were about 200 000 people there. And yes, of course, I was one of them. Can't remember anything about Jefferson Airplane's gig, though. No wonder, if you see and hear this. The sound system was a complete mess during most of the festival. Much to the frustration of both the artists and the public. The only clear memory from that overall pretty disapointing festival was Pink Floyd's gig. They had brought their own sound system which was excellent and they were the final act. While they played the music from their then recent released double album 'Umma Gumma', dawn broke over the festival ground. A truly magical moment. F rmosus

By the way, that UNESCO treaty is totally ridiculous. And this is clearly a case of selective justice. If you were to enforce that treaty, you'd have to empty half of the ancient history and art musea in the world. What is that treaty based on ? Why should the 21

It might be a matter for the law and those translations may be seized temporarily as evidence in the case. But they are not Italian property. They are the property of the Sisto family. If they are handed over to the Italians I guarantee you years and years of costly law suits. And who's going to pay for those ? You are, partly. Formosus