The Juggling Bus Driver
The Juggling Bus Driver - Things like this restore my faith in humanity.
The Juggling Bus Driver - Things like this restore my faith in humanity.
Zoroastrians in the New York Times - A tertiary yet fascinating overview of Zoroastrians today and how (ironically) their views towards religion are causing their numbers to dwindle. The heart of the article, I think lies here:
Mr. Dastur is a priest in much demand to perform ceremonies because of his melodic chanting of the prayers. He and his wife, Jo Ann, have two grown daughters. Neither married a Zoroastrian.I must only scratch the surface of a tough question, but this seems to point towards the fact that religions, by their nature, must threaten their members with “ours is the one true way” in order to grow.“They’re good human beings,” Mr. Dastur said. “That’s more important to me.”
The very tenets of Zoroastrianism could be feeding its demise, many adherents said in interviews. Zoroastrians believe in free will, so in matters of religion they do not believe in compulsion. They do not proselytize. They can pray at home instead of going to a temple. While there are priests, there is no hierarchy to set policy. And their basic doctrine is a universal ethical precept: “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.”
Regardless, it’s an interesting look at a very very old religion (at least 3000 years old). Login to view the article with BugMeNot, a tool to “bypass compulsory registration.” For a better experience, install the fantastic Firefox extension BugMeNot.
The Bletchley Park British Turing Bombe, used to crack the German Enigma machines - An article outlining the rebuild of this device from blueprints, etc. This is one of the most stunning electromechanical achievements of our time - it is said to have shortened world war II by two years.
More about Bletchley Park here.
The Father of the Bride House - Shown on HGTV, turns out it doesn’t quite look like it did in the movie. Thanks, Mykala!
Hang on, you loyal tumbledry readers - I know it’s been an absurdly long time since my last update … but rest assured that I have something in the pipeline that will make your wait worthwhile. Feel free to speculate what it is exactly that you are waiting for.
Hang in there. Go team.
A great interview with Conan O’Brien - It’s a two-parter, with the second avaliable here.
The Four Yorkshiremen - This classic sketch is the root of a common joke you’ve probably heard before. You’ll know what I mean when you read it.
Or, you can watch it.
I really like this Bob Dylan & iTunes Commercial - I never thought I would use “Bob Dylan” and “iTunes Commercial” in the same sentence … but here we are and really, there’s not much to dislike about this little spot. Great music, cool camera work, and probably better video quality than you get on your TV.
Was I just sucked into a viral marketing scheme?
Bluegrass band from … central Europe? - Yeeup, Druha Trava, from the Czech Republic, plays bluegrass music - fascinating to hear that Kentucky style sung with European accents. Great covers and great original stuff.
Via The World, August 24, 2006 Edition - while you are at that page, check out the interview about Ramses’ statue in Egypt. Funniest interview ever - the Egyptian guy is absolutely irrepresible.
Proms Music Festival - The largest classical music festival in the world. On my life to-do list: see this sometime.
↓ More