the boneyard

""""""Medieval and ancient thoughts/stories have always intrigued me.  Some might say that people back then were just stupid, but you can’t remove a person from their time and we have to take into consideration what was known in the world when that person was alive.  That said, there is some fascinating stuff out there and I’m constantly eager to learn more!

Yesterday, a skull was unearthed in Venice, Italy that shows evidence of exorcism against vampires in the 16th century.  Vampires are one of many examples of reasons developed to explain the spread of the plague.  Plague history is interesting and if you haven’t already I suggest reading the Decameron (ca ~1370) by Giovanni Boccaccio, as I think it beautifully reflects the mindset of people who lived during the Black Death–FYI 75% of the population in Florence, Italy were killed by the Black Death in 1348 and 30-60% of all people in Europe died as a result of that plague.  Horiffic!

Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s article on MSNBC, Italy dig unearths female ‘vampire’ in Venice:

Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies, Borrini told The Associated Press by telephone.

During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.

“These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies,” Borrini said. “But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: ‘This guy is alive, he’s drinking blood and eating his shroud.’”

Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by a buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, Borrini said. The shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area, he said.

At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that “shroud-eaters” were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks.""""
note that the entire text above was taken from this site (http://smartasatack.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/shroud-eaters-from-italy/), I did not type it all

My meditations can only be given to you in their raw unadulterated state.

The weighty souls of the dead bring down the walls of my sanity.

To want something i do not have and cannot get is misplaced misery.

I seek knowledge, not pleasure, pain is  a minor inconvince, compared to the sense of accomplishment later.

This spring marks the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan, when more than 86,000 Tibetans were slaughtered by Chinese troops. It also marks one year since protests swept across the Tibetan plateau in 2008, prompting a brutal crackdown. China's determination to avoid similar demonstrations has led to a worsening of the crisis in Tibet, which has been flooded with thousands of additional troops while journalists have been expelled in case of another bloody crackdown. The region is under de facto martial law, but this has failed to deter over 1,000 protesting in Tibet this March.
china doesn't recognize tibet as a nation, its'  just another teritory of china to them. tibet has normally peaceful protests and the situation has become worse because china refuses to allow journalists as mentioned brefore in the quote and the worlds vision of this conflict yes. conflict, as mentioned in the quote above yet agin, well china claims it was only twenty-two and this partictular web site i gained my information said it was 86,000 were slaughtered by chinese troops i don't think that is entirely accurate but i could be wrong.
but anyways why won't this farming nation just let tibet go?it really can't even farm the land is too barren to farm, so like the have for thousands of years along with being buddist monks, they herd cattle. it's really bad when the peace loveing monks get violent MONKS?!
 they're buddists,  buddists! they belive in ahimasa or something or other spelled very similar to that, anyways it means non-violence so what goverment could drive monks who carry around brooms to sweep the bugs off of their path so they don't  hurt them. what could do that? the only nice things china really does are, not tax them, provide 90% of their goverment, and provide a minimal of 500 troops to follow the dali laima around( who by the way has a nobel peace prize, beat that china!)   anyways...this is from an interesting design contest, combining the coke-a-cola sign(by the way that brings me to a lengthy anecdo), with a pro-tibet slogan there were may more just as good as this one but it poped out at me sorry