The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Epacris:

In our 3-week tour of the UK, we only had about 1 or 2 hours for Glastonbury, and were dropped off in the middle of the town, not far from the ruined Abbey. I have read a few Marion Zimmer Bradley's, so it was mandatory that if we stopped there, we at least get close to the Tor.

It was a long, hard, walk there and back again, but we actually managed to scale it to look over the old lakelands, and stood near where the abbot was hanged because he disagreed with Henry VIII, plus we were able to draw some water from one of the springs, to go with the bottle I also brought back from Lourdes.

The Danger of Knowing for Sure, written in September 2001, quotes Jacob Bronowski from the episode of The Ascent of Man called "Knowledge and Certainty". Here is my extract of the pertinent message.

"The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited.
... It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false: tragically false ... Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge or error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we *can* know although we are fallible ...
Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers ... And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe [with certainty] that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality -- this is how they behave."

... and NO, I'm not saying the ruddy troops are Nazis; after all, Torquemada and most of his minions, or members of the Khmer Rouge were presumably equally certain of their rectitude.

[My hands shake with excitement as I type, Ascent of Man (USA) and Civilization (USA) are now out in DVD box sets! If we all keep various extremities crossed, perhaps "O!, What a Lovely War will make it to DVD too (start your wish-list below ... )]

Re the polygamy & related issues story: A local version of leader's religio-sexual scandal, somewhat similar has just got into the news again, after simmering along off & on for quite a while.
Little Pebble in court -- "He said he was the New Abraham, in direct communication with the Virgin Mary. His mission was to bring a new race onto the Earth, the children conceived through his "mystical marriages" with 84 designated princesses and queens."
There does seem to be a consistent theme (meme?) where the leader of a religious group will claim special privileges, especially having multiple partners, sometimes initiating all the young girls, or producing many offspring. It's very much what I call baboon behaviour; classic animal drives, mediated through religous forms of control.
Sometimes the leader will bind the other males by divvying up the females among them, forming a heirarchy with increased sexual & other privileges. Other times the leader promotes abstinence for the lower orders. It just recurs so many times.

PS: the individual comments have apparently lost their links. Is this part of the War on Comment Spam?
Sister Stiletto of Subtle Suasion

That's even been reported, in less detail, in the Sydney Morning Herald, headlined Sect expels 1000 boys so men get more wives. Their source is given as The Guardian, and it does look cut down from that story.

I am looking for a reference to something* in the older threads, and ran across a link to a review at the London Review of Books website, which led me to another one in the same issue that I thought the more politically-oriented persons might find interesting in the "framing" debate & related ones.
Tax Breaks for Rich Murderers
David Runciman: Review of Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth by Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro

"Death by a Thousand Cuts... tells the story of the campaign to repeal the estate tax (what we [in the UK] would call inheritance tax [and Aussies call death duties]) in the United States, which culminated in the inclusion of the measure in George Bush's massive tax-cutting legislation of 2001. Don't let that put you off. This is one of the most interesting books about politics, and power, and the way the world is going, that you are ever likely to read.
What makes it so fascinating is that it is a mystery story. The mystery is this: how did the repeal of a tax that applies only to the richest 2 per cent of American families become a cause so popular and so powerful that it steamrollered all the opposition placed in its way?"

[*The story idea where two enemies are thrown together, have to co-operate and learn to respect each other.]

Tipsy Imperial Concubine (well, I am a flower). Perhaps it's the colour of a flushed cheek, or just slightly blowsy? (Hope your browser does ideographs)

"still-unidentified white things with the grasslike foliage that grow from bulbs" -- could they be Zephyranthes - also called Zephyr lily, Fairy lily, Rain lily (because they often flower irregularly, following rain) - Official listing from part of www.efloras.org - a wonderful resource, BTW

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