zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — quoting Emerson next to Arthur Waley on Li Po ]
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[ by Charles Cameron — divine geometry in Japan ]
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The sacred nature of number should not surprise us, though it often does. Here is the Neoplatonist Proclus, as quoted in Dantzig, Number: the Language of Science, p.78:

It is told that those who first brought out the irrationals from concealment into the open perished in shipwreck, to a man. For the unutterable and the formless must needs be concealed. And those who uncovered and touched this image of life were instantly destroyed and shall remain forever exposed to the play of the eternal waves.

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Here are two offerings from a Buddhist shrine in Japan:

and

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I found them in this delightful account of the Soroban or Japanese abacus:

The section on mathematical offerings begins around the 19.40 mark and goes to 20.18 — but the whole video is worth your attention.

[ by Charles Cameron — ]
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It gives me great pleasure to repeat, as first announced by the Assyrian Human Rights Network and then reported by AP:

Activists say IS group releases 37 Syrian Christian captives

Islamic State militants on Saturday released 37 Syrian Christians, mostly women, who were among more than 200 people from the Assyrian minority group abducted in February, activists said. [ .. ]

The Assyrian Human Rights Network posted pictures on its Facebook page of the newly freed Christians arriving in the predominantly ethnic Assyrian village of Tal Tamr, in the northeastern Hassakeh province.

The photos show a woman kissing the hand of an elderly woman in tears, and a priest greeting the former captives in a church ceremony.

[ by Charles Cameron — splash! ]
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Seriously, though, take a look at:

T Greer, Requiem for the Strategy Sphere

T Greer, Editorial vs Coffee House Blogging

click on some of the links, and come join us over coffee..

[ by Charles Cameron — Hagia Sophia and the Mezquita, Cordoba, with a glance at Guadalupe / Tepeyac ]
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Interiors of the Mezquita, Cordoba [left], and Hagia Sophia, Istanbul [right]

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Opening paras of my latest from LapidoMedia:

HERITAGE watchers are waiting to see whether Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Yalcin Topcu, who has called for the reopening of basilica-turned-mosque-turned-museum Hagia Sophia as a mosque, has retained his job.

Topcu, an independent, was given the interim post in the negotiations that followed the AKP’s failure to achieve an absolute majority in an earlier round of elections in June.

Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP or Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory in last Sunday’s elections, but as we went to press, posts still remained to be re-allocated.

You can — should, eh? — read the rest here.

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Exteriors of the Mezquita-Cathedral, Cordoba [left] and of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul [right]