The real Hittites were, if memory serves (will not Google this) wiped out by the Sea Peoples in 1176BC. Either that or it was a game of Age Of Empires I played about 15 years ago.
Giant idol 'STRUCK DOWN by the Wrath of God' unearthed in Turkey
Top archaeologists are chuffed as ninepence this week to announce that they have unearthed a massive statue - perhaps as tall as 4m when it was erect - which was probably an "idol" tumbled down by a terrible race of warriors referred to in the Bible as "the rod of my [God's] anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath". We …
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Tuesday 31st July 2012 18:26 GMT BlueGreen
Re: Interesting stuff
@Tom7, I don't really get the need for people to have fixed categories. Great discovery, great story, fascinating.
The old testament stuff just nudges me a bit more in the direction of religion. The FSM specifically, a laid back deity I can admire, not a jealous god, happy bedecked in any brand of tomato sauce, or just brew up your own.
Regularly sacrifices his children on my plate, and doesn't demand fear and cowering in return.
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Tuesday 31st July 2012 15:48 GMT Arctic fox
Re: I met a traveller from an antique land
It is a terrific poem. About as evocative as it is possible to write. A timely reminder to all who think that what they know and the times they live in have anything other than a very short (in historical terms) shelf-life.
"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
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Friday 3rd August 2012 08:48 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I met a traveller from an antique land
This is really TRIPPY.... I mean REALLY trippy.
Google Images:
Sudan pyramids island of meroe
This is one of the most tragicaly brilliant pictures I have ever seen...
Of just HOW important, long lasting and significant - you are not.
http://www.sharewonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pyramids-of-Meroe.jpg
Makes a great screen saver image. Good for the humility, a grounded perspective on eternity and firing up the zest for life.
This is probably the best 1/2 dozen videos on the issue of the known universe and wayyyyyyy beyond it.
It's just sort of "mental breakdown" material..... so on one hand - with that poem you really do count for nothing and in a universal sense, your position, in time, size, effect and everything, is so infinitely nothing in a galactically huge everything...
But they are brilliant videos - and they kind of explain it all very well. The issue of other places to go in the universe - and how to navigate it all... Eternity is a big place and a long time - but the universe and it's age is even bigger....
There is also a squillion other really great videos too...
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Cosmology and Astronomy
Videos attempting to grasp a little bit about our Universe (many of the topics associated with "Big History")
Scale of Earth and Sun Scale of Solar System
Scale of Distance to Closest Stars
Scale of the Galaxy
Intergalactic Scale
Hubble Image of Galaxies
LOL now that your grip on reality is rooned.....
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Tuesday 31st July 2012 17:57 GMT brooxta
OT 101
Lewis, loving the Old Testament knowledge here!
As for the IT angle. The Isaiah and Ozymandias references are more than enough to establish a proper sense of perspective on any of our human accomplishments to date, including advances in IT (MS excluded as Windoze clearly doesn't count as an "advance").
PS. Oh how I wish the mobile version of the forums allowed icons.
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Tuesday 31st July 2012 20:08 GMT NomNomNom
Imagine you were in church (no seriously) and you were sitting there all sleepy and bored and the priest was doing his sermon:
"Let us not gloat on profits, When children are hungry.
Let us not be concerned with fashion, When sisters need clothing.
Let us not sit comfortably, When brothers have no shelter.
Let us not waste food,....WOE TO THE ASSYRIAN, The ROD of my ANGER! In whose HAND IS THE CLUB OF MY WRATH! I SEND HIM against a GODLESS NATION! I dispatch him against a people who ANGER ME! to SEIZE loot and SNATCH plunder, and to TRAMPLE THEM DOWN like MUD. In. The. Streets...."
I would go church every Sunday without fail if they preached that kind of Epic shit.
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Wednesday 1st August 2012 04:53 GMT Dozer
Re: Epic Shit
I might give up a few Sunday's for this:
Ezekiel 25:17
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee.
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Wednesday 1st August 2012 12:14 GMT Santa from Exeter
Re: Epic Shit
Know what you mean, I gave up most of last Sunday for this, along with
'With the exception of Eddie and myself, whom you already know, we're going to be using aliases on this job. Under no circumstances do I want any one of you to relate to each other by your Christian names, and I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you been, your wife's name, where you might've done time, or maybe a bank you robbed in St. Petersburg. All I want you guys to talk about, if you have to, is what you're going to do. That should do it. Here are your names... ',
'Because it was a fifty fifty shot on wheter you'd be going left or right. You see we're both going left. You could have just as easily been going left, too. And if that was the case... It would have been a while before you started getting scared. But since you're going the other way, I'm afraid you're gonna have to start getting scared... immediately! '
and
'.I think you show great talent. And I pride myself on having an eye for that kind of talent. But your status as a Nazi killer is still amateur. We all come here to see if you wanna go pro. '
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Wednesday 1st August 2012 10:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
Ozymandias
The Ozymandias quote is spot on for the pyramids. The stone relics remain, surrounded by the sands, while the world-striding power that built them has been defunct for two millenia.
There's still plenty of godly smiting going on, and preachers cheerleading it. You just need to know how to look at it. Trouble is that most of us want to see our own enemies as also being God's enemies. It gets a bit harder when it is us that that is due for a takedown.
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Thursday 2nd August 2012 07:44 GMT Richard Wharram
Re: Ozymandias
Ozymandias is another name for Ramses II who didn't build any pyramids. Pyramids were build in the Old and Middle kingdoms, not the New kingdom. Ramses built a lot of big stuff but not pyramids.
Also, Ramses was more concerned with big impressive looking shit than quality craftsmanship. For example many of his monuments used recessed rather than raised reliefs because it's easier to do.
Err, anyway... no pyramids.
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