In the popular culture, we afford Christopher Columbus a peculiar degree of reverence. My childhood books and history lessons portrayed him as a visionary, fighting against the ridicule of ignorant, flat-Earth scholars and kings to sail West to India, and who through grit and perseverance achieved both the discovery of the Americas and that the …
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Ullamaliztli: The Mesoamerican Ball Game, and Waging War with Sports
The Aztecs called it ullamaliztli, but the game is older than the Aztecs. Adopted by the Mayans and likely pioneered by the Olmec, today’s historians, in a stroke of un-inspiration, call it the Mesoamerican Ball Game. The game was a blood sport: a brutal contest where two teams kept a ten-pound rubber ball in play …
Monday Links: Mesoamerican Ball Games, Kids Liking Veggies, and Meditations on Space Travel
I found this site while doing research on the ball games played by the Aztecs, Mayans and other Mesoamerican civilizations. It seems to be someone’s personal site, so I’m not sure I’d consider it the final authority on anything, but it gathers a fair amount of interesting material on the Aztecs in one place, as …
This Week on Runicfire: April 8 – 14
Monday’s links include the Aztec ball games, USDA studies on how children in some schools have learned to enjoy and partake in vegetables, and an inspiring essay on space travel. Wednesday has more on the Aztec ball games, with an emphasis on human sacrifice—and its history worldwide. And on Friday, I talk about how much of what …
Friday Fiction – Excerpt from Rosaria of Venice
This weekend, I will be shooting part of the Kickstarter video for my novel, Rosaria of Venice. With that on my mind, I thought I would share an excerpt from the opening with you today. You may read it here. As I am still revising the novel, I’m very interested in hearing feedback anyone might …
The Devil in the Details: How Contact with the Americas Affected World Cuisine
Historical fiction—even alternate history—poses a unique challenge to authors: the ordinary circumstances of the past are not those of the present. In writing my novel, I came to a scene where the protagonist jury-rigs a primitive battery. This being 15th century Italy, this is a fairly impressive feat. I was ready to detail how she …
This Week on Runicfire: April 1 – 7
I hate doing anything important around the first of April. It always makes me feel silly. But with that aside, here’s this week’s schedule. Monday’s links cover a little more on the propaganda model of mass media, the Fermi paradox (or why we haven’t made contact with aliens yet), and the history of food. Wednesday continues the …
Monday Link: More Herman and Chomsky, the Fermi Paradox, and a Timeline of Food
In researching some of last week’s posts, I happened upon this article reprinted on Noam Chomsky’s website. I have yet to read the report in its entirety, but it is an interesting look at both criticisms and defenses of the Herman-Chomsky propaganda model of mass media. The author (who is not Chomsky or Herman) also …
Web Journalism and How a Democratic Media at once Confounds and Saves Us
I confess: looking at Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for Wednesday’s post depressed me. The attached video, which inspired me to dedicate this week to media issues, cinched my melancholy. While I had been familiar with the Herman and Chomsky model since taking media studies in community college, and indeed recognized the role it played …
A Taste of Propaganda in America
Have you seen this video? Shocking, isn’t it? Disturbing, no? Is it not an outrage that Fox would cave to Monsanto in such a fashion? Yet another reason not to watch Fox News. Except it isn’t just Fox. Welcome to the American propaganda machine, my friends. In their 1988 work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy …