Michael Flynn's Blog, page 69

Hypatia III

Continued from Part II

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part III
The Deconstruction of the Serapeum

AD 392.  When Hypatia, at 37, is already a well-known philosopher, and Synesius has just begun his studies in Alexandria, the temple of Serapis was destroyed.  It begins thusly, according to Rufinus of Aquileia, a probable eye-witness to the riot,

“There was a certain basilica belonging to the public domain, very old and quite neglected.  The Emperor Constantius, it was said, had given it...

Hypatia II

Continued from Part I

The Mean Streets of Old Alexandria: Part II
When Hypatia Was a Little Girl

AD 355.  Sometime around AD 355, one year after Augustine of Hippo was born, the well-known mathematician and astrologer, Theon of Alexandria, begat a daughter whom he named Hypatia.  She was to mature into a mathematician and astrologer in her own right, but also a Neoplatonist philosopher of no small repute, one of a small band of female philosophers that graced that period of history in...

Hypatia I

The Life and Times of Hypatia of Alexandria

A movie recently released in Spain, other parts of Europe, and in art houses of the East and West Coasts deals with two signal events in the history of Alexandria: the destruction of the Serapeum and the murder of the philosopher Hypatia.  Although praised by the Usual Suspects, it is clearly inspired by the tendentious account given by Carl Sagan in his series Cosmos.  By this account, Hypatia, the last librarian of the great Library of Alexandria...

Value

Quote of the Day

From a common argument:  “Evolution shows that human life does not have a privileged value”.

Say it’s true that the process of evolution gives no value to human life. It would be odd to think it was supposed to. The process of baking doesn’t set the value or price of chocolate cake either. -- James Chastek

Heritage Day

The Glorious Eighth

comes on the 11th this year. 

On the 8th of July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in public in Philadelphia, Trenton, and in Easton PA.  Easton held a public celebration. 


The Easton Flag.  Said to be the device displayed on 8 July 1776
The flag itself, preserved at the Easton Public Library, can be authenticated only to the War of 1812, when it was carried by Capt. Horne's Company of the City Guard. 

The event is celebrated as Heritage Day , and includes ...

Odds

and Ends

1. Bale Star.  I am writing up a proposal for a fifth Firestar book.  I am leaning toward Bale Star as a title, suggested by a couple of folks.  Captain Rosario will feature.  So will Chase Coughlin's son.  So will Sojourner Truth.  Some chapter titles come to mind:
The Search for Truth
In Panic Town on the Backward Moon

Who knows what they might discover there on Mars or Phobos?  Should it be a short focus on Rosario and young Coughlin?  Or cover more years, extending further into the f...

The Feeders

A Curious Coincidence

The comic strip Non Sequitur currently features a strange flying creature who feasts on sinful thoughts:


Perceptive and faithful readers of Flynn will recognize this as the idea behind the story "The Feeders" in The Forest of Time and Other Stories.  Except that when the flying creatures feasted on the emotions, the person did not suddenly lose them.  And the story was not comic. 

It's that time of year

The Glorious Fourth


To celebrate, let's all sing together the anthem we had unofficially before the Star Spangled Banana; viz., Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean:


and before that, although with no words: the first anthem, the Presidential March, Hail Columbia


and for completeness, the present anthem, 1st and 4th verses.  (What?  You mean there's more than one?)

Lastly, because I like it, America the Beautiful.  Normally, I dislike song stylings, which this singer does be speaking some of the lines; ...

As it yearly does come

3 July 1863, Gettysburg PA

Monument of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteers, "Northampton's Own,"
Maj. John F. Frueauff commanding, vice Col. Charles Glantz (captured at Chancellorsville). 


1st Brigade (von Gilsa), 1st Div../11TH ("Dutch") Corps. 
The Regiment held the flank on "Barlow's Knob" on the afternoon of 1 July 1863 until outflanked by Jubal Early's division.  It took position along the lane at the eastern foot of Cemetery Hill, where it remained until the close of the battle, assisting ...

m_francis @ 2010-06-30T17:30:00

The following is from the Wall Street Journal Online

1. First it notes the following ban. 

A school district in Massachusetts has banned the Pledge of Allegiance from its classrooms, Fox News reports:

Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins--but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped.

Kathleen Bodie, Arlington superintendent of schools...