25/12/14

[Maik]

Magnitude   ML 2.0
Region   ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
Date time   2014-12-24 08:21:02.0 UTC
Location   54.51 N ; 3.05 W
Depth   13 km
Distances   101 km NE of Douglas, Isle of Man / pop: 26,218 / local time: 08:21:02.0 2014-12-24
43 km S of Carlisle, United Kingdom / pop: 72,633 / local time: 08:21:02.0 2014-12-24
10 km NW of Ambleside, United Kingdom / pop: 3,132 / local time: 08:21:02.0 2014-12-24

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=414694

[Maik]

It's Christmas so a topical snippet or two about religion and... Kefalonia. Seems Kef had communism before Karl Marx and orgies before Club 18-30. It's hardly news, but not a lot of people know that.

Carpocrates of Alexandria was the founder of an early Gnostic sect from the first half of the 2nd century.

While the various references to the Carpocratians differ in some details, they agree as to the libertinism of the sect.

Clement of Alexandria in his Stromateis... quotes extensively from On Righteousness which he says was written by Epiphanes, Carpocrates' son.

It claims that differences in class and the ownership of property are unnatural, and argues for property and women to be held in common. Clement confirms the licentiousness of the Carpocratians, claiming that at their Agape (meaning an early Christian gathering) they "have intercourse where they will and with whom they will".

According to Clement, Carpocrates was from Alexandria although his sect was primarily located in Cephallenia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpocrates

Epiphanes is the legendary author of On Righteousness, a notable Gnostic literary work that promotes communist principles, that was published and discussed by Clement of Alexandria, in Stromaties, III.

According to Clement, Epiphanes was born on Cephalonia in the late 1st Century or early 2nd Century to Carpocrates (his father), and Alexandria of Cephalonia (his mother). Epiphanes died at the age of 17. Clement wrote that Epiphanes was "worshipped as a god with the most elaborate and lascivious rites by the Cephalonians, in the great temple of Samē, on the day of the new moon."

A notable belief attributed to Epiphanes and described in On Righteousness was the idea of communal living or communism, including shared property and spouses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphanes_(gnostic)


Of course, it's quite possible Clement had his own agenda, but why let that get in the way of a good story.

[Maik]

Coolest Archaeological Discoveries of 2014

 Thanks to the careful work of archaeologists, we learned more in the past year about Stonehenge's hidden monuments, Richard III's gruesome death and King Tut's mummified erection. From the discovery of an ancient tomb in Greece to the first evidence of Neanderthal art, here are 10 of Live Science's favorite archaeology stories of 2014.

1. An Alexander the Great-era tomb at Amphipolis

http://www.livescience.com/49231-coolest-archaeological-discoveries-2014.html

Some interesting ones via that link, no.9 inc.