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When Tigers Smoked

Korean Tales

Myth and folklore transfuse our histories into our life blood, and are one of the main defining traits of humans. From our old stories stem adages and epithets that, over the years, become ingrained into our cultural dialogue (and finally, worn down into clichés). With just one line, we can recall or reference an entire body of stories.

Hansen's Disease

“Like the other patients, they caught me at school. It was on the Big Island. I was twelve then. I cried like the dickens for my mother and for my family. But the Board of Health didn’t waste no time in those days. They sent me to Honolulu, to Kalihi Receiving Station, real fast. Then they sent me to Kalaupapa. That’s where they sent most of us. Most came to die.” These were the words of a man who contracted leprosy, and was sent to the remote peninsula of Molokai, Hawaii, to live out his days in exile.

On the Destruction of Libraries

One of the favorite moves of any invading military force, occupying power, or totalitarian dictator is to destroy libraries. While it has often happened on accident or as a byproduct of fighting in and around the city, time and again repressive regimes destroy repositories of information, literature, and history purposefully in order to rein in knowledge and annihilate cultural identity that run counter to the false narratives or ideologies of the regimes in power.

Absurdism

Albert Camus, the French Algerian writer and philosopher born on November 7th, 1913, made his mark on philosophy with his ideas of absurdity. Absurdity speaks of humanity’s quest for clarity in a world where there is none. The idea pervades all writing and is the crux of his essay The Myth of Sisyphus, which compares existence to Sisyphus’ plight of eternally rolling a stone up a hill.

Winter Solstice

Thursday, December 21st marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the day of the year with the shortest amount of daylight and the longest duration of darkness. After the 21st, the days slowly get longer.

Throughout history, many cultures celebrated the winter solstice, specifically the return of the sun and darkness turning into light. Worldwide, interpretations vary, but many regard this as a time of rebirth, marking it with festivals, holidays, rituals, and gatherings. Agrarian cultures relied on the power of the sun to nurture their crops.

Origami

Origami is a traditional paper folding process associated with the Japanese culture. The word arises from the Japanese words “ori” meaning to fold and “kami,” which means paper. A person who creates origami is called an origamist.

It’s a magical and entertaining experience to witness an artist fashion an ordinary piece of paper into a colorful crane, frog, or dragon.

According to PBS Hawaii, the history of Japanese origami began in the sixth century after Buddhist monks brought paper to Japan. Due to the exorbitant cost of paper, origami was reserved for religious purposes.

Shop 'til You Drop

With the holidays quickly approaching, many look forward to to fulfilling the wish lists of their loved ones. A critical time for retailers, the National Retail Federation (NRF) says holiday season shopping represents 20 to 30 percent of annual sales.

When we hear the term “Black Friday,” most of us think about the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, when big box retailers such as Walmart offer extensive bargains. The origins of the term actually go back to 1869.

Exploring the Concept of Basic Income

In the recent decade, salaries that lag behind the cost of living increases and inflation make paying for necessities even more challenging than ever.

A 2017 Global Salary Forecast by management consulting firm Korn Ferry Hay Group predicts a 3 percent salary increase in the U.S. Adjusted for 1.1 percent inflation, the real wage increase is only 1.9 percent. Canadian salaries are forecast to rise by 2.5 percent, but with inflation, real growth stands at 0.9 percent. In the UK, predicted raises will remain flat at 2.5 percent. Adjusted for inflation, real wages are to increase by 1.9 percent.

Celebrating Dad

Trevlig farsdag! Several countries including Sweden, Iceland, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Indonesia celebrate Father’s Day in November. Like other Father’s Day holidays worldwide, this day recognizes the contribution that dads and father figures make to the lives of their children.

An Islamic Happy Birthday

Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, although Christ’s actual day of birth remains shrouded in mystery. Muslims, particularly adherents to the Sufi order, celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah in the third month of the Muslim calendar. The celebrations of the birth of Christ and the birth of Muhammad have much in common: poetry and songs and references to sacred texts. The Qur’anic injunction that Sufis invoke is “O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation.” [33:56]

Guide to Alien Literature

The possibility of alien life fascinates humankind. The earliest recorded references to extraterrestrials occur mainly in religious terms. The earliest known record of alien life in literature can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 B.C.). In these tales, the King of Uruk (Gilgamesh) and Enkidu (originally Gilgamesh’s adversary) defeat occult monsters on epic quests either in defiance or obedience to an assortment of gods and goddesses. In the 2nd century B.C., Assyrian satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote True History, a parody of Greek mythology that involved traveling to outer space, alien life forms, and interplanetary warfare.

Micronations

When asked about past lives, no one claims to have been a tax collector or a scullery maid. No, so-called psychics flatter their customers with glittering visions of past lives as royalty--or at least aristocracy. Royalty populates the legends, myths, and popular literature of every culture. Can it be a surprise that some people with delusions of grandeur and a penchant for making their own rules grew the gumption to start their own countries with themselves as the rulers?

In Celebration of Water

One thing connects all humanity above tradition, religion, or climate. That one thing is critical to all human life: water. Used for hydration, for power, for spiritual and physical cleansing, for cooling, for transportation, and for myriad other purposes, water fills a multitude of human needs, desires, and goals. One can have no doubt that festivals celebrating water must then be magnificent and always apropos. If you’re looking to find a celebration that focuses on water itself, take a look at these events worldwide.

Dragons

Blame Miguel de Cervantes’ epic poem Don Quixote, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, myriad fairy tales, and an entire sub-genre of paranormal romance: dragons are here to stay. Mystical, magical, mythic, dragons capture our imagination. The titan of dragon lore throughout Western civilization, however, is St. George, a Roman soldier of Greek heritage who died a martyr for the Christian faith under Emperor Diocletian and was then christened as Great Britain’s patron saint. Like many Christian saints, St. George comes with a fantastic story, such as related in Saints’ Legends by Gordon Hall Gerould (1916).

On the Divisions of Columbus Day

Time has a habit of sifting through the many facts of history and leaving only a few stark facts. Of Christopher Columbus' landing in the Americas in 1492, common teaching as of the 1970s was that he, in search of the East Indies, instead found the Americas. It was the common rhyme taught in many schools:

In fourteen hundred ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain.
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

Most salient of these points is that Columbus Day represents the spread of Western European culture and politics. The rhyme continues to present Columbus as a great explorer, the Native Americans as benevolent and generous hosts, and a great communion of Western Europeans into the New World.

The Birth of Cosmicism

H. P. Lovecraft crafted a genre of horror that’s more than horror; it’s science and philosophy. It may seem pedantic to say, but imagine, if you will, the stars--all the stars we cannot see with their own pretty, feebleness amid 46 billion light years of a universe. Then see that same universe filled with approximately 99 percent vacuum. Nothing.

Spirit Stones

Mountains are the Earth’s hourglass. Living rocks rising and falling with the years, morphing, congealing, and shaping into one another to create the rocks and sands of the shore.

Storytelling by Smell

Great storytellers create a world without seams in which the suspension of disbelief on the reader's part leads to a mirroring of the real world, and thus to one of the great tenets of art as Pablo Picasso once put it: "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."

Double Ninth

The ninth day of the ninth month is the Double Ninth, and has been an important celebration all over Asia since 25 AD. Nine is a lucky number in China, and bears a similar pronunciation as "forever" or "everlasting." The number nine appears throughout Chinese history, and many Ancient Chinese emperors built temples, walls, and rooms in multiples of nine (for instance, The Forbidden City in Beijing has a total of 9,999 rooms, with number of stairs in staircases being nine or a multiple of nine, and the height of the three great halls were 9 Zhang and 9 Chi). But everyone who has ever played around with luck knows that it is closely tied to danger. The I Ching shows nine as a number of the Yang, being both masculine and in opposition to the feminine yin, and an odd number that signifies danger.

United Nations Day

Tuesday, October 24th marks United Nations Day and the 72nd anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter in 1945. With the ratification of this founding document by most of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the United Nations was established.

Records: 241 - 260 of 391 - Pages:

When Tigers Smoked

Korean Tales

Leprosy

Hansen's Disease

On the Destruction of Libraries

and Albert Camus

Absurdism

Sun Worshiping in Winter

Winter Solstice

Paper Magic