The story of Frankenstein has always been one of my favorites.  I love the romanticism and mysticism that surrounds it.  I also love science so it’s really a match made in heaven.  We all probably know the story of Frankenstein, which I won’t go onto here, but as usual I wanted to know more.

There is truly an actual Frankenstein’s Castle.  I am sure you are stunned to find out that there is indeed such a place.  The real castle is located in Germany and was originally a seat of politics and learning built by and maintained by the German Nobles and Lords of the 1200’s through the 1600’s. Connections between the novel bearing the Frankenstein name and this real local are hard to prove and are rather controversial.  One of its former residents bears some hard to overlook semblances to the well known story.  This is the fellow I want to focus on today.

Johann Konrad Dippel was a German Alchemist and Physician who was born at the actual Castle Frankenstein in Germany.  

The facts surrounding Dippel are sketchy due to age and record keeping of the day.  What is known is  that Dippel was both a prolific author, mostly on topics of Theology, and  a medical anatomist.  Records show he experimented quite frequently with dead animals, to which he was said to be an “avid dissector”.  He actually wrote a dissertation called Maladies and Remedies of the Life of the Flesh, in which he claimed to, have discovered both the Elixir of Life and the means to exorcize demons through potions he concocted from boiled animal bones and flesh.   Many of Dippel’s countrymen regarded him as a dark sorcerer and reasoned that he had a pact with the devil to exchange his soul for knowledge of the dark arts.  In any event there is only a tenuous possibility of any connection between Dippel and Mary Shelly who wrote the novel.

 Dippel’s stories and reputation may have traveled to Mary Shelly’s ears via her stepmother, who had a relationship with Jacob Grimm of Grimm’s Fairy tales fame.  It seems Grimm needed his tales translated and the translator chose was from the villages near the now famed Frankenstein’s castle. Rumors about Dippel included stories that he performed gruesome experiments with cadavers in which he attempted to transfer the soul of one cadaver into another. While experiments with cadavers and soul-transference were common among alchemists at the time, thus making it possible that Dippel pursued similar objectives, there is no direct evidence to link him to these specific acts. There is also no evidence to the rumor that he was driven out of town, when word of his activities reached the ears of the townspeople.

All in all I see lots of fun connections here and I thoroughly enjoyed finding out that there may have been a real person at the center of one of my favorite stories.  Happy Halloween!

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http://www.coopernundrums.com/2009/10/something-druid-this-way-comes/

Traditionally fall in general is a time of year when I post more than usual.  This is probably because it’s the time of year when I find myself the least busy. Today I wanted to start of this months posts with something I think you will find interesting related to witches.

Your basic haunted house witch is actually a creation of the commercial machine.  Real “witches” laugh at these images because of their inaccuracy and sheer ridiculousness.  Like all things commercial, these images do have some basis in fact and history.

Some scholars say is it possible that the witch’s hat is an exaggeration of the tall conical “Dunces Hat”, popular in the royal courts during the 15th century.  These pointed hats were a fashion icon seen all around the city of London when it was seen as the fashion capital of Europe. You have probably seen these hast in pastel pinks and blues usually with a flowing sheer cloth hanging from the point.  Since it took much longer for news to issue back in these times, it took a long time for fashion to trickle into the country. Usually by the time these fashion trends landed in the outlying villages they had already become out of fashion in the city.  City folk called Country folk “pagani” which means country dweller. This is a slang term that would be much the same as calling someone a “hick”, today.

As fate would have it, pointed hats soon became considered something only the pagani would wear. These folks were often herbalists or farmers wives who lived in the country and understood the land.  Since they were wise to the ways of nature and could grow and harvest herbs, the pointed hat became associated with the “Wise Woman” or “Witch”.  By Victorian times, the tall black conical hat worn by an old crone became readily identifiable as symbols of wickedness in illustrations of children’s stories and fairy tales.

During this same period the Christian church chipped-in and associated pointed hats with the horns of the Devil, by which time they frowned upon their use.  This served to further demonize this hat style.

Today most contemporary witches go bareheaded or wear ritual headgear such as headbands with a crescent moon or other religious symbols on it.  Normally the symbol is positioned on the forehead.  During rituals in which the Goddess and Horned God are represented, the high priestess may wear a headband or a crown, while the high priest may wear a helmet with horns or antlers.

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It is hard as an atheist not to interject when hearing people proclaim their religious beliefs. This doesn’t offend me personally because I have empirical evidence to back up my version of reality, and someone else’s opinion doesn’t change that.  I often find my self feeling offended myself when I hear people who I believe to be otherwise brilliant people following what I consider odd superstitions and strange rituals.  These days I try hard to rein myself in and not make comments that I feel might upset religious folk because it is important to remember that EVERYONE has a right to believe the way they want to.

This doesn’t work most of the time though because as I try to check my own comments most religious folk don’t have such a verbal or mental filter.  They consider anyone that does not agree with their beliefs an affront to their beliefs.  I think atheism offends the religious because there is no empirical evidence to support their beliefs. Religious people rely on the fact that they are a part of a large and powerful group of people.  Having a such a group of people who agree with them supports their viewpoint, even if that viewpoints has no logical or empirical support.

When an atheist simply proclaims his or her point of view, it erodes the perception that everybody is in agreement about god, and thus constitutes a direct attack on the institution.

My point today is this.  Religious folk, we atheists are not out to get you.  We just don’t believe what you do.  All my atheist friends  out there need to stop viewing religious folk as inferior or stupid people.  It can be an intelligent choice to be a part of such a group, right or wrong.  We all need to remember that the right to believe the way we want to is why we can have blog posts like this on BOTH sides of the aisle.

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    This gentleman seemed immediately like a kindred soul as he was a larger person, like myself, and seemed to be very funny and engaging.  I immediately liked him and we all set about discussing his desired endeavor.  Dealing in web design and graphic development I have heard a lot of fantastic business ideas that just need a “website” to get the thing started.  I listened intently as he spelled out his needs.  It became evident right away that this was more to this joe than just a business venture.  This was a passion.

    After the pitch, I always have a standard barrage of questions that I ask of any prospective client (after getting burned several times in the past).  I always ask a key question.  ”Are you prepared for this investment to fail?”  the normal response that I get is “oh it won’t fail its a sure thing” or it’s greatest thing since sliced bread” and the oft annoying “ its the next wheel”, and so on.  Well not this time.

   My new acquaintance thought for a moment and then casually answered, “Yes I am, but since this means so much to me, it would be worse for me NOT to try than to try and have it fail.  I have never in 14 years of doing this ever received this kind of answer.  It made me feel an immense respect and admiration for his conviction and wisdom.

   You can clearly see that it impacted me.  I don’t always like my job. Hell, who does?  Today I liked my job.  Cheers to you sir.  I look forward to working with you, and I don’t ALWAYS mean that.

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  Ah, the middle finger, also known as the long finger or bird finger, and usually the longest finger, is the third digit of the human hand, located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is also referred to as digitus medius, digitus tertius, “digitus infamous”, or digitus III in anatomy.

    In many Western countries, extending the middle finger (either on its own or along with the index finger in the United Kingdom & Australia) is an offensive and obscene hand gesture, colloquially known as the highway salute, the bird, “flipping the bird”, “flipping someone off”, “giving the finger” (as in giving someone the finger), often meaning the phrase “fuck you” or “up yours.” It is performed by showing the back of the hand, extending the middle finger of the hand upwards while bending the other fingers down into the palm.

    Giving someone “the finger” is one of the basest violations in modern culture, but its origins date back over 2500 years. The first written record of the insult occurred in ancient Greece, where the playwright Aristophanes (the Adam Sandler of his day) made a crude joke in an ancient Greek comedy mixing up the middle finger and the penis. Even back then, the bird was considered an aggressive, phallic put-down.  Greeks began calling upon their substitute wieners by raising their own hands to mock, threaten, and humiliate others.

    The widespread usage of the finger in many cultures is likely due to the geographical influence of the Roman Empire and Greco-Roman civilization.  When the Romans imported the art, music, and culture of the Greeks, the finger came along, too. The Roman Emperor Caligula, a pioneer in perversity, frequently shocked his citizens by forcing them to kiss his middle finger instead of his hand. One of his subjects, Cassius, who Caligula often taunted as being too effeminate, finally had enough humiliation and assassinated him. Clearly, the bird was not to be taken lightly.

     During the Middle Ages, the finger went underground. It was still known, but the Catholic Church frowned upon its use, as the middle finger was supposed to be holy in the Mass. The unholy insult lurked deep within the hearts of filthy- minded folks everywhere, hiding from sight until the 19th century when it began to crop up again thanks to a new invention -photography.

    In 1886, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn slipped his little finger fastball into the Boston Beaneaters team picture. The split-second art of photography could turn the once-boring painted portrait into a spontaneous work of rebellion, humor and spunk. Americans everywhere quickly got into the act.

  The finger is a near universal insult that we can all use.  Men, Women, children, old folks, Farmers, bankers and even computer nerds like me can use the finger with virtually perfect understanding of its meaning.  In this fast paced day and age, who has time to formulate real, meaningful insults?

 We should embrace the finger since it is truly part of our culture and something to be respected.  So here’s to you.  Up yours!

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    “Can you help me with this” usually means “Please do it for me”.  In honor of this depressing thought I would like to draw your attention to my fine philosophical idol Ayn Randand her introduction to objectivism.  Please read this and for the love of family, PLEASE try to think for yourselves people.

A Philosophy For Living

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” –Ayn Rand

Objectivism means :

- Believing in yourself, not in any church, not in society, and not in fellow man.

- Not take things on faith, for reason is man’s greatest attribute.

- Helping yourself to not rely on others;  and not letting others rely on you.

- Realizing that Man is an end in and of himself- not a means to ANY other purpose.

- Understanding that your personal happiness is your PRIMARY moral obligation.

- Always trying to achieve you greatest goals and productivity.

..and in doing sowe becomes a heroic beings.

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