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dodongobongo

35 karma · joined May 1, 2024

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dodongobongo··on Angels in Coptic Magic I: Introduction
Disclaimer: This is just a comparison to modern practice for academic interest.

Offering a perspective as an ethnic Copt, it is notable that most of the charms, “spells”, whatever you would call them, shown here, would be considered heretical today by Copts, though with the exception of basic crosses and icons and inscriptions limited to that of protection. The love spells and and such are in many a cautionary tale told to kids growing up to avoid at risk of invoking evil, so to say. Most of those stories come from the period where the “old religion” and Christianity were in flux.

Copts do also maintain a significant amount of syncretism with ancient Egyptian religion as well, both within language (typically, Egyptian Arabic words that are “odd” to middle eastern speakers are pulled from Coptic or earlier stages of Egyptian), and within ceremony (musical scales that do not sound “middle eastern” and are derivations of older Egyptian ceremony), and a belief that the Ankh, Hathor and Horus, etc. were precursors to modern Coptic religion.

dodongobongo··on Lone coder cracks 50-year puzzle to find Boggle's top-scoring board
I love that book. Good choice and congratulations on your find.
dodongobongo··on France Endorses UN Open Source Principles
“Various companies use the US government to bully other countries, but they also use license audits as a reaction to projects that move to open-source software.”:

https://lwn.net/Articles/1013776

I hope this sets a strong precedent for open source public software.

dodongobongo··on Sleep is essential – researchers are trying to work out why
iirc, biphasic sleep is the “usual way” people sleep without the advent of electricity, yes? “the waking hour”, and all that.

I wonder if there was an increase in dementia-related disorders once lightbulbs kept people up longer.

dodongobongo··on Marshall Brain has died
Marshall taught one of my classes at NCSU when I was there ten years ago. He was a little eccentric but super nice. I remember that he said if we made a website, the “natural exploratory pressures” of the internet would find it, so all we had to do was have good content. I wonder how much of that still holds, but it’s a good memory. Hope his family finds peace.