Japanese Fart Scrolls

Check out this site, if you dare!

...something a bit…unusual. It was an old Japanese scroll about farting. The whole scroll, which is called He-Gassen (“The Fart Battle”) is just about people farting. Farting at other people, farting at cats, farting off of horses, farting into bags; just farting everywhere.

I love Japanese culture!

Hitch on the Catholic Church

While listening to two of my friends speak of the indoctrination they were subjected to as children by the Roman Catholic Church - the terrible and graphic fears of hell, as well as their self-hatred as gay people - I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by hatred for that evil institution. Yes,  I shouldn't give in to such feeling, but I don't think it's unreasonable given the huge load of suffering caused by them. And here is Christopher Hitchens to explain further:

Hitch, you are missed...

Recruitment?

A collection of suggestive recruitment posters from the past. Sure, they weren't consciously gay, but they certainly contain a real undertone that I'm sure was picked up by gays at the time. I'm reminded of E.M. Forster's discussion of this topic, where gays have a secret understanding of the world - both the surface and the hidden, gay sensibility.  Check it out.

Here Be Monsters

Over at Slate.com, they have an interesting slideshow of ancient maps that filled in the unknown areas with all sorts of fantastic imaginings. Worth a look...

"The weird bestiary at the edges of maps was in large part an artistic decision, a chance for cartographers to fill in ugly white spaces of the still-unexplored Earth and to stretch their creative wings. (Engraving awesome, foam-spouting behemoths must have been a nice break from tracing the coast of Mexico for the umpteenth time.) But they also served as a reminder of the very real dangers faced by the explorers of the day. No one knew what was out there, and many who left didn't come back."