Sylloge Tacticorum.

A scene of Byzantine warfare from the Madrid Skylitzes.

A scene of Byzantine warfare from the Madrid Skylitzes.

Medievalists has some interesting excerpts from the Sylloge Tacticorum, a Byzantine handbook on military tactics.

Besides noting the standard ways of attacking and defending, the author of this manual also includes several methods to cunningly strike at an enemy, although he does not personally approve of them. He writes:

We compiled this book judging that these stratagems and others of the kind should be recorded not in order to be used by us against the enemy (for I believe that they are unworthy even to be mentioned in a Christian context), but so that our generals may be able to guard against them by knowing exactly the cunning plans of the enemy concerning food and drink, especially when they encamp in enemy territory.

However, it should also be noted that the author usually does not give any defence against these schemes, which might indicate that he added them in so they could be used by the Byzantine generals – and that his moral concerns might have been exaggerated. Readers will note that these methods can be considered a form of chemical warfare, which would be targeted at the enemy when they were not expecting it.

Having read the article, I will agree that all the tactics listed are extraordinarily nasty, some with a propensity to bite the hand of those using them. The seven tactics are:

1) Putting the plague into bread loaves.

2) Poisoning the wine.

3) Sabotaging the water supply.

4) Destroying the land.

5) Withering the trees.

6) Attacking the horses with chemicals.

7) Burning weapons without fire.

For all the details of the text, you’ll need to head over to Medievalists.

Other interesting things at Medievalists:

New Game!

Released on 13 February, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an action role-playing game set in the early fifteenth-century Holy Roman Empire that has striven for historically accurate and highly detailed content.

[…]

This fairly unusual method of gameplay has attracted a lot of attention. As another reviewer said: ‘There’s no heroic swordplay here, no wizards casting fireballs, no clerics raising the dead, no orcs or dragons. This is the story of an actual civil war that raged across Bohemia in the first decade of the 15th century. Your part in it is that of a nobody struggling to survive in a land full of noblemen who couldn’t care less if you lived or died, and fellow peasants who would stab you in the back for a crust of bread.’

You can read about the game in detail, with multiple reviews here.

Collection of 3,000 medieval manuscripts now online.

Valhalla Rising: The Construction of Cultural Identity through Norse Myth in Scandinavian and German Pagan Metal.

Who Doesn’t Love Balloons?

You’ll love these, amazing animals and plants, from Masayoshi Matsumoto!

Head on over to Isopresso_Balloon to see much, much more!

Sunday Facepalm: All Ya Need Is Nice.

thirddrawerdown.com.

Star Parker, yet another conservative idiot, has decided on her defense of guns in the wake of the last school shooting. Those darn students weren’t nice enough to the shooter! We don’t need gun control or any sort of reform, no. What we need is niceness! We are all responsible for every dude walking around with a growing grudge, a tantrum, and a gun. You betcha. As to blaming the students:

“Well, not necessarily one individual student, but we can call for gun control if we want to as a nation, we can call for more federal laws if we want to as a nation, but usually when you’re faced with tragedy, you first check yourself,” Parker said. “We have forgotten how to just look inwardly. We’ve become such a nation of victims that we’ve forgotten to say, ‘Wait a minute, what could I have done?’”

[…]

“Well, perhaps said ‘hello,’ perhaps said ‘I’m sorry to hear your dad died,’” Parker said. “This is a very small community of people we’re talking about. This is not the responsibility of Washington, D.C., or the NRA. This is the responsibility of people that are closest to someone to be able to look them in the eye as an individual. So the challenge of this whole nation of victims is that now it’s not about us anymore, it’s about somebody else, our problems are somebody else’s fault. Well, no, actually, this is a very small community, someone must have saw his sadness, someone must have known his dad died.”

Ms. Parker didn’t listen to the students talking. Ms. Parker certainly didn’t listen to Ms. Emma Gonzalez, who pointed out, strongly, that they knew that kid. They knew what he was like. They knew his desire for violence, his propensity for cruelty. They did speak out, they tried to tell people, they tried to warn people, but no one listened well enough to what they had to say, and now a lot of kids are dead. Sometimes, reaching out to a person can make all the difference in the world, but simply being ‘nice’ isn’t enough to reach anyone. If you’re going to extend ‘nice’, it needs to go further than that; and there are people you can’t reach in any way. The shooter in this case was primed to go off for years, but it was ignored by everyone except the students. The students wanted to know why people like his neighbours ignored him wandering around with a fucking gun. How about you answer that one, Ms. Parker? I would have loved to see you walk up to a kid wandering about with a gun and be ‘nice’ to him.

[…]

“Well, they expelled him probably because he was acting out,” she said, “and he was acting out probably because he didn’t have any friends—you know, whoever sat next to him in class, they’d better not be the ones who are protesting out there today.”

They expelled him because he was a danger to others, you fucking idiot. Sitting next to someone in class does not make you friends, and friendship is not a one way street. Christ, I loathe conservatives.

The whole mess and video is at RWW. In other, depressing news, the Dominionists of the Theocalypse have descended on CPAC, all of them staying at the Trump Hotel to sing their praises to the Tiny Tyrant. You can read the whole sorry thing here.

TNET 15: Fox and the Whale.

Fox And The Whale from robin joseph on Vimeo.

Fox And The Whale is an independently produced and self-financed Animated Short Film. The film was shortlisted for the 90th Oscars and is a nominee for the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. If you are interested in supporting you can buy the Art of book & film package here
gumroad.com/patchoforange

Open Thread. Don’t be an asshole. Thanks. Previous Thread.

All American Boy For America.

Northern Tissue All American Boy Print Frances Hook 1960s.

Northern Tissue All American Boy Print Frances Hook 1960s.

Yet another self-styled “prophet”, one Kat Kerr (with pink hair) has stated that Jehovah took her up to heaven, and told her about the next five presidential elections.

“Even before Trump ran,” Kerr said, “God had been telling me that, ‘I’m going to make America greater than ever, it’s about to step into its destiny, but I can’t start this until I shift the government and there will be a president in the White House one day that will extend their hand to the believers.’”

“He caught me up to heaven, literally, months and months and months before,” Kerr continued, “and He said, ‘I’ve chosen Trump and people won’t like it and they won’t understand it but that doesn’t matter right now because I’m going to change America and I need him. He’s an all-American boy that is all for America, and he is smart, he can’t be bought, he can’t be moved, and he cannot be controlled.’ And He said, ‘He will know me and he will hear my voice.’”

Can’t be bought? The Tiny Tyrant? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Right, the dumbfuck asshole with 30 million filthy NRA bucks sticking out of his pocket, among many others, can’t be bought. As for smart, well, I think we all know well enough that the only person who thinks the Tiny Tyrant is smart is himself and his toady sycophants. Can’t be moved or controlled? Oh please. It’s so damn easy to manipulate his dumb arse, it’s ridiculous. Seems that Jehovah is just as stupid as his ‘all American boy’.

“You better step back, because this is God’s time,” Kerr warned those who oppose Trump, adding that God told her that not only will Trump win reelection in 2020, but that Vice President Mike Pence will then be elected to two terms as president, as will whomever Pence chooses as his vice president.

“The Father is saying this,” she said. “For 24 years, we will have God in that White House.”

There’s a dystopian vision if I ever saw one. I’m pretty sure this one won’t happen. I certainly hope it won’t happen. It’s hard to remember sometimes, but all us sensible types who aren’t afraid to think do outnumber the christian assholes and Trumpholes. That means always voting though, even if you don’t well feel like it, and remaining active in all social justice issues.

The whole thing and video is at RWW.

Speaking of easily bought, there’s Ajit Pai and the NRA, who decided to hail him a hero:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was scheduled to give a speech at the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) today, but instead he was surprised on stage by top brass of the American Conservative Union and the National Rifle Association with an award for his “courage under fire” in repealing net neutrality rules. Carolyn Meadows, a board member of the ACU and the NRA who presented Pai with the award, said that she couldn’t bring the physical award, a handmade rifle, onto the stage—likely because the event banned firearms.

Meadows presented Pai with the NRA’s “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award,” an honor that Meadows explained is only occasionally bestowed at CPAC to people like Vice President Mike Pence, far-right sheriff David Clarke and the late anti-feminist crusader Phyllis Schlafly.

Introducing Pai, the ACU’s Dan Schneider said that Pai had “saved the internet.”

Sigh. And so does the NRA worm its way into every pocket. You can read that whole mess here.

Cancer Decor: Contrast.

Yesterday’s Cancer Chronicle was mostly a &^%$$#fest over the cancer decor in oncology and there’s also the awful decor of the infusion center. Raucous Indignation was nice enough to do a photo walk through of all his oncology work spaces, giving me a chance to see what other oncologists do when it comes to decor. I have to say, for the most part, this is much better than what I get to stare at every two weeks.

The waiting room. Okay, the pictures are fine, if on the bland side. Oh, do I ever recognize those chair colours! No, bad. That awful beige makes the blue look horrible. Black would make the blue pop, and nothing wrong with basic black, goes with everything. In the case of cancer decor, beige is the death colour, not black. Or, a tonal shift could make all the difference. Shade the blue more aqua, and replace the beige with a pale yellow. Right there, you have warmth and light without being obnoxious. And the walls, no, bad walls!

The lav. The painting is lovely, but it would probably be better if it were in front of patients, rather than behind. Cancer patients often have to spend much too long of a time in a lav, so having something to stare at is good.

Beautiful paintings! The carpet? No! There’s that godawful beige and icky brown again. There’s nothing wrong with beautiful, life affirming colours on the floor. You could get a nice multi-colour blue to go with the paintings.

Nice. I don’t worry about exam rooms, there’s always stuff you poke around in.

Very nice! I’m crazy about the photos, those are so fabulous! That sort of thing should be everywhere. The walls – no! Even eggshell white would be an improvement, but I’d go with a pale yellow. The blue chairs are okay, not wild about them, but those um, beige-green ones? Ick, no. Your visitor chairs are nice enough, why not go with blue and black chairs? Again, the black would make the blue pop, and would tie in with the visitor chairs. The curtains are quite nice. And I know this isn’t you, but hospital standard – the floors. Oh, awful.

The triptych is fantastic, beautiful in every way. Those walls, though…