Dragon Tails

Basque Coast Geopark in the Bay of Biscay near Bilbao, Spain

My first impression was that this is a very hostile landscape, for humans at least. I suppose all the nooks and crannies among these rocks make fine homes for all kinds of small creatures, some of which may be edible. So if you were careful you might be able to find enough to eat. Or you could if it wasn't some kind of park where almost anything fun is undoubtedly prohibited.

Title from Peapix. Wikipedia page.

Nick Goes Adventuring

Nick with today's bunch of rabbits

Nick has more fun than you and I and a dozen of our friends put together.

Portland General Math

Portland General Math

I get an electric bill every month. I looked at this one and noticed their math doesn't add up. Color me amused.

Hour of the Wolf

Songleikr | Ulvetime (Hour of the Wolf)
Christopher Juul

Via Riders of Skaith

Iceland Spar: the Mineral That Changed Science

Previous posts about the solar compass.

Healthcare in the Early 1900s

Healthcare in the Early 1900s
Doc Schmidt  

I was just going to email this to my family and the lunch bunch on account of we're all up to our ears in the medical-industrial complex, but then I figured that's probably half the country, which means you might appreciate it.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings - Repost

Copybook Headings
Doug Moreland - Topic

Reposting this because I'm in that kind of mood today.

I came across this Bayou Renaissance Man. Color me impressed. Here's the written version:

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Rudyard Kipling

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,

I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.

Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn

That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,

But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come

That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.

They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.

So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.

They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life

(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

 

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—

There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

 Actual copybook headings here.