Welcome to the new look, completely experimental Laputan Logic. This site is now running under Lagado technologyand I fully intend to use it as a test bed to explore different formats and approaches to publishing to the web. Currently there's not a whole lot to see here yet. I'm bringing over and reworking material I have in the archive but new material will be starting to be added shortly.

As I mentioned in a post back at the old Laputan Logic, this is about eating my own dog food...



...and loving it.

It now appears that Japanese archaeologists are also on the case to find the missing third Bamiyan Buddha. This looks like it's heating up to be a race to see who finds it first.

My bet is that the only thing left to find will be its stone foundations.

olé. Used to express excited approval. Spanish, perhaps from Arabic wa-llh, by God! (used as an expression of admiration) : wa-, and; see w in Appendix II + allh, God; see Allah. -- American Heritage Dictionary.

When I visited Spain a few years ago, the place that I loved most of all was Cordoba.

This is a city that apart from its relaxed atmosphere, its food and its flamenco exudes history from every corner and leaves you with the impression that it's built like a layer-cake of different historical epochs, one on top of each other, each one just as remarkable and interesting as the next.

This notion is perhaps best exemplified by the magnificent of architecture of the Mesquita, a beautiful former mosque that was once the largest of its kind in the world.

This building recalls a time when Cordoba was the capital of the Caliphate of Cordoba, a western arab emirate that had broken free from the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate based in Bagdad.

Welcome to the new look, completely dog food compliant Laputan Logic.

Currently there's not a whole lot to see here yet. I'm bringing over and reworking material I have in the archive but new material will be starting to be added shortly.

In 550 AD, during the reign of Emperor Justinian, a monk who was cloistered at a remote monastery in the Sinai desert wrote a curious book about the topology of the earth and the universe. In the book the monk, who is know to posterity as Cosmas Indicopleustes, propounded a surprising theory that the world was not spherical as believed by the ancients but, on the contrary, was flat and surrounded by four walls which stretched up to the heavens and formed a curved lid.

Scholarship has not been terribly kind to the work of Cosmas Indicopleustes. Even in his own time he had to staunchly defend his theory against strong criticism. By his own admission he was not well educated in the "learning of schools" and his unfortunate practice of distorting passages of scripture in order to support his argument led to his work being largely dismissed by his contemporaries and then disregarded by later generations. While we too can easily dismiss his eccentric notions which seem to be more the product of pious daydreaming than any kind of scientific investigation or empirical observation, on closer inspection there is another rather more interesting side to Cosmas.

Thirty years before writing his book, Cosmas had led a life very different from the serene austerity of a desert cloister. Cosmas Indicopleustes actually means "Cosmas the India Voyager" and back then the monk was a merchant who had traveled extensively around the coasts of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Buried deep under ten volumes of questionable scholarship which comprises the bulk of his Topology we find a surprising and particularly lucid account of his travels to these countries. This eleventh volume bears little relationship to the earlier parts of the book and it is thought to have been excerpted from another larger work of his on geography which has, sadly, been lost.

While its known that the Roman world engaged in trade with the Indian subcontinent, Cosmas offers us one of the only authentic eyewitness accounts. A close reading indicates that he had considerable local knowledge of the regions he describes and there is little doubt that he actually visited these places rather than merely relating second-hand information.

He begins his geographical treatise by describing the unusual flora and fauna of Africa and Asia. Here are some excerpts:

Rhinoceros
This animal is called the rhinoceros from having horns upon his snout. When he is walking his horns are mobile, but when he sees anything to move his rage, he erects them and they become so rigid that they are strong enough to tear up even trees by the root, those especially which come right before him. His eyes are placed low down near his jaws. He is altogether a fearful animal, and he is somehow hostile to the elephant. His feet and his skin, however, closely resemble those of the elephant. His skin, when dried, is four fingers thick, and this some people put, instead of iron, in the plough, and with it plough the land.


The Ethiopians in their own dialect call the rhinoceros Arou, or Harisi, aspirating the alpha of the latter word, and adding risi. By the arou they designate the beast as such, and by arisi, ploughing, giving him this name from his shape about the nostrils, and also from the use to which his hide is turned. In Ethiopia I once saw a live rhinoceros while I was standing at a far distance, and I saw also the skin of a dead one stuffed with chaff, standing in the royal palace, and so I have been able to draw him accurately.

The accuracy of Cosmas' drawing of the rhinoceros leaves a fair bit to be desired but apparently the word arou that he gives as the name of the two-horned rhinoceros is still used in Ethiopia to this day.

Giraffe
Camelopards [so called because a giraffe has a head like a camel's and the spots of a leopard] are found only in Ethiopia. They also are wild creatures and undomesticated. In the palace one or two that, by command of the King, have been caught when young, are tamed to make a show for the King's amusement. When milk or water to drink is set before these creatures in a pan, as is done in the King's presence, they cannot, by reason of the great length of their legs and the height of their breast and neck, stoop down to the earth and drink, unless by straddling with their forelegs. They must therefore, it is plain, in order to drink, stand with their forelegs wide apart. This animal also I have delineated from my personal knowledge of it.

Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus, however, I have not seen, but I had teeth of it so large as to weigh thirteen pounds, and these I sold here. And I saw many such teeth both in Ethiopia and in Egypt.

Seal, Dolphin and Turtle
The seal, the dolphin, and the turtle we eat at sea if we chance to catch them. When we want to eat the dolphin and turtle we cut their throat. But we do not kill the seal that way, but strike it over the head as is done with the large kinds of fish. The flesh of the turtle, like mutton, is dark-coloured; that of the dolphin is like pork, but dark-coloured and rank; and that of the seal is, like pork, white and free from smell.

Coconut

It differs nothing from the date-palm, except that it is of greater height and thickness and has larger fronds. It bears not more than two or three flower-spathes, each bearing three nuts. Their taste is sweet and very pleasant, like that of green nuts. The nut is at first full of a very sweet water which the Indians drink, using it instead of wine. This delicious drink is called rhongcosura. If the fruit is gathered ripe and kept, then the water gradually turns solid on the shell, while the water left in the middle remains fluid, until of it also there is nothing left over. If however it be kept too long the concretion on the shell becomes rancid and unfit to be eaten.

He also describes in considerable detail the ports, exports and governments of the countries that he visited.

A view of Sri Lanka as imagined in 1295 by Richard de Bello, the creator of the Hereford Mappamundi (Map of the World). Note that the long penisula next to the island is not India but Arabia. India is landmass on the right.

The Island of Sri Lanka
This is a large oceanic island lying in the Indian sea. By, the Indians it is called Sielediba [lion island], but by the Greeks Taprobanê [Tâmraparnî meaning "copper-coloured leaf" a name given to the island by its Indian conqueror Vijaya and also appears in inscriptions by Asok], and therein is found the hyacinth stone [probably sapphire or amethyst].


It lies on the other side of the pepper country. Around it are numerous small islands [the Laccadives] all having fresh water and coconut trees. They nearly all have deep water close up to their shores. The great island, as the natives report, has a length of three hundred gaudia, that is, of nine hundred miles, [in fact it is 271 miles long but the Sri Lankan unit of distance, the gaon, expresses a somewhat indeterminate length and means "the distance which a man can walk in an hour"] and it is of the like extent in breadth [actually it is 137 miles wide].


There are two kings in the island, and they are at feud the one with the other. The one has the hyacinth country, and the other the rest of the country where the harbour is. and the centre of trade. It is a great mart for the people in those parts. The island has also a church of Persian Christians who have settled there, and a Presbyter who is appointed from Persia, and a Deacon and a complete ecclesiastical ritual. But the natives and their kings are heathens.


In this island they have many temples, and on one, which stands on an eminence, there is a hyacinth as large as a great pine-cone, fiery red, and when seen flashing from a distance, especially if the sun's rays are playing round it, a matchless sight.

Writing more than a century later, the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang wrote that at Anaradhapura, the old capital, there was mounted on the spire of one of the temples a ruby with such a transcendent lustre that it illuminated the whole of heaven.

The island being, as it is, in a central position, is much frequented by ships from all parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia, and it likewise sends out many of its own. And from the remotest countries, I mean Tzinista [China] and other trading places, it receives silk, aloes, cloves, sandalwood and other products, and these again are passed on to marts on this side, such as Male [Malabar], where pepper grows, and to Calliana [Kalyâna, near Bombay] which exports copper and sesame-logs, and cloth for making dresses, for it also is a great place of business. And to Sindu [the mouth of the Indus] also where musk and castor is procured and androstachys, and to Persia and the Homerite country, and to Adulé.

And the island receives imports from all these marts which we have mentioned and passes them on to the remoter ports, while, at the same time, exporting its own produce in both directions. Sindu is on the frontier of India, for the river Indus, that is, the Phison, which discharges into the Persian Gulf, forms the boundary between Persia and India [as it did in the time of Alexander]. The most notable places of trade in India are these: Sindu, Orrhotha [Surat], Calliana, Sibor, and then the five marts of Male which export pepper: Parti, Mangarouth [Mangalore], Salopatana, Nalopatana, Poudopatana.

Then out in the ocean, at the distance of about five days and nights from the continent, lies Sielediba, that is Taprobanê. And then again on the continent is Marallo, a mart exporting chank shells, then Caber which exports alabandenum, and then farther away is the clove country, then Tzinista [China] which produces the silk. Beyond this there is no other country, for the ocean surrounds it on the east [Cosmas is credited as being the first Westerner to identify China's eastern coast]. This same Sielediba then, placed as one may say, in the centre of the Indies and possessing the hyacinth receives imports from all the seats of commerce and in turn exports to them, and is thus itself a great seat of commerce.

In describing China as having nothing but ocean to its east, Cosmas is credited with being the first Westerner ever to identify its Eastern coastline. He then goes on to describe India in more detail noting that the lands beyond the Indus river were at the time under the occupation of the White Huns, a war-like people who had swept in from Central Asia and temporarily overthrewn the ruling Guptas between 465 and 470 A.D.

Other things discussed by Cosmas are the differences between Indian and Ethiopian elephant husbandry and (more briefly) the trade in precious stones and ivory. He also shares an amusing, though most likely apocryphal, tale of how one Roman trader really stuck it up his Persian competition.

Now I must here relate what happened to one of our countrymen, a merchant called Sopatrus, who used to go thither on business, but who to our knowledge has now been dead these five and thirty years past. Once on a time he came to this island of [Sri Lanka] on business, and as it chanced a vessel from Persia put into port at the same time with himself. So the men from Adulé with whom Sopatrus was, went ashore, as did likewise the people of Persia, with whom came a person of venerable age and appearance.

Then, as the way there was, the chief men of the place and the custom-house officers received them and brought them to the king. The king having admitted them to an audience and received their salutations, requested them to be seated. Then he asked them

"In what state are your countries, and how go things with them?"

To this they replied, they go well. Afterwards, as the conversation proceeded, the king inquired "Which of your kings is the greater and the more powerful?"

The elderly Persian snatching the word answered "Our king is both the more powerful and the greater and richer, and indeed is King of Kings, and whatsoever he desires, that he is able to do."

Sopatrus on the other hand sat mute. So the king asked:

"Have you, Roman, nothing to say?"

"What have I to say", he rejoined, "when he there has said such things? But if you wish to learn the truth you have the two kings here present. Examine each and you will see which of them is the grander and the more powerful."

The king on hearing this was amazed at his words and asked,

"How say you that I have both the kings here?"

"You have", replied Sopatrus, the money of both —- the nomisma of the one, and the drachma, that is, the miliarision of the other. Examine the image of each, and you will see the truth."

The king thought well of the suggestion, and, nodding his consent, ordered both the coins to be produced. Now the Roman coin had a right good ring, was of bright metal and finely shaped, for pieces of this kind are picked for export to the island. But the miliarision, to say it in one word, was of silver, and not to be compared with the gold coin.

So the king after he had turned them this way and that, and had attentively examined both, highly commended the nomisma, saying that the Romans were certainly a splendid, powerful, and sagacious people. So he ordered great honour to be paid to Sopatrus, causing him to be mounted on an elephant, and conducted round the city with drums beating and high state. These circumstances were told us by Sopatrus himself and his companions, who had accompanied him to that island from Adule; and as they told the story, the Persian was deeply chagrined at what had occurred.

This is actually a fairly sad story but I thought it was interesting that one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the modern Flat Earth Society was an Australian who had gotten sick of the "Down Under" tag (most Antipodeans just think of it as tiresome).

I've just implemented something that works a bit like the nifty timestamps that you see over at the Textism. Now posts will display their age in terms of how long ago they were posted rather than as absolute dates. Somehow I find this more useful when it comes to checking a page for updates.

A remote rainforest in Sulawesi, Indonesia is now at the centre of a study into hundreds of mysterious stone carvings that only a few foreigners in the world have seen. No one knows who built them or why, but the "megaliths" are believed to be built anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years ago.

Astronaut Yang Liwei returned home on Wednesday a national hero after becoming the first Chinese person to enter space.

But the public, and Communist leaders, were left nonplussed after he told state TV he could not see the Great Wall of China from space.

"Is it true you can see the Great Wall of China from space?" asked a TV interviewer.

"Er, no," he replied, a little embarrassed.

The Chinese have been proud of the fact that legend has it the 2,000-year-old wall is the only man-made object that can be seen from space.

Only it can't, according to Nasa.

They say their astronauts have failed to spot it and Liwei's assertion appears to be the final brick in the wall for the claim.

It is thought the myth may have begun during the early days of the space race.

[China's Wall not so Great]

It's always good to see a hoary old myth being finally dispatched.

But wait! Not so fast.

In this case it appears that, in the interests of making good copy, Rupert Murdoch's hacks are trying to perpetrate another one.

Engineers in Canada have discovered a new way to generate electricity. Larry Kostiuk and colleagues at the University of Alberta pumped water through tiny microchannels in a glass disk to directly generate an electrical current.

"This is the first new way to produce sustainable electricity in 160 years," says Kostiuk. "It allows for the direct conversion of energy of moving liquid to electricity with no moving parts and no pollution." [link]

This 10-micron-long guitar, built at Cornell University in 1997, has only now been played for the first time.

Cornell researchers used laser light to set the delicate silicon "strings" (actually slender planks of silicon) of the guitar in motion. The strings vibrated at a frequency of 40 megahertz, some 17 octaves (130,000 times) higher than a normal guitar.

Now all they need is a nano-microphone to hear it.

The Islamic calendar is the only one in use in the world today that can be truly described as a lunar calendar. That is, every month is synchronized to the cycle of the moon and not the solar year.

Others that purport to be lunar-based such as the Hebrew and Chinese ones, while certainly being based on lunar months also contain mechanisms designed to synchronize them with the solar year. Hence they are more properly described as lunisolar calenders.

The Islamic calender on the other hand is never synchronized with the solar year because from its inception, special measures were taken to actually prevent this correction process from taking place. The intention behind this was to remove the need for expert knowledge when it came to determining the times and dates of religious observance, something that in the past had always been associated with the work of priests. This was a conscious decision by the founders of Islam as a way to prevent the rise of a priestly class or Church establishment within Islam, something to set it apart from other religions¹.

In the 9th year after the Hejira (Muhammad's migration to Medina in 622 and the starting date of the Islamic calendar), the Prophet forbade the insertion of leap months which used to occur in the traditional Arabic calender:

The postponing (of a Sacred Month) is indeed an addition to disbelief: thereby the disbelievers are led astray, for they make it lawful one year and forbid it another year in order to adjust the number of months forbidden by Allah, and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their deeds seems pleasing to them. And Allah guides not the people, who disbelieve. This Ayah prohibits such practice.

(Al-Taubah 9, Ayah 37)

Solar calendars, it could be argued, are by the nature of their complexity, the product of either wealthy church establishments or of powerful states and their maintenance has over the centuries taxed the efforts of a great many priests, astronomers and mathematicians. In a way they oblige obedience in worshipers to some authority (i.e. governemtn or church) which could therefore be seen as mediating their relationship with their deity.

The movement of the moon, on the other hand (and by the same argument), has always been owned by the common people who have never needed anyone to tell them what phase the moon was in at any moment. This is seen by the adherents of Islam as a demonstration of its greatest strengths: its simplicity, universality and its fundamentally anti-elitist character.

Ibn 'Umar (Radiya-Allahu 'anhuma) reported that the Messenger said: "We are an illiterate nation. We do not use astronomical writing or computation [in our fasting]. A month is so and so and so (and he pointed with his hands three times, folding the thumb on the third time, meaning twenty nine days) or so and so and so (and he pointed with his hands three times, meaning thirty days).
(Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud and An-Nassa'i)

The Islamic year, as with other calendar systems, is the completion of 12 months. A month is based on the cycle of the moon and can be no shorter than 29 days and no longer than 30. This means that the Islamic year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year and, as a consequence, the lunar months drift backwards through the solar year without paying any heed whatsoever to the season. Before the Islamic calender came into effect, the ancient Arabic month of Ramadan had originally referred to the hottest month of year (from ramda meaning "hot stones"). Now it can fall at any time in the solar year and in any season. It takes lunar 33 years before the Islamic calendar realigns itself with the solar year once again.

While this slippage is predictable and can be calculated many years in advance, another feature of the Islamic calendar is far less deterministic: the exact day on which a month begins. Technically, an Islamic month commences at the time of the first sighting (by two Muslim witnesses) of the crescent moon (the Hilal) which occurs after a new moon. This becomes especially important at the start of the holy month of Ramadan because it marks the beginning of a month of fasting and of other rituals.

“Whoever witnesses the crescent of the month, he must fast the month.”
(Qur'an, 2:185)

“If you see the Hilal, then fast, and if you see it (at the end of Ramadan), then break your fast, and if the sky is overcast, then fast thirty days.” (Muslim/Bukhari)

“A month is either 29 or 30 days long. So if you see the Hilal, then fast, and if you see it again (at the end of Ramadan) then break your fast. And when the sky is overcast, then complete the count (of thirty days).”
(Nasai)

Based on such a simple criteria, you'd think that there would be no difficulty in ensuring automatic unanimity amongst observers of the start of a lunar month. In practice, however, it turns out to be an extraordinarily difficult astronomical problem because unlike other celestial events this one must also take into account the question of human visibility. It's not enough to simply refer to calculations in order to say that something or other has happened, it must also have been observable by someone.

A new moon is the conjunction of the earth, moon and sun, this means that their centres all lie in exactly the same line. Under these conditions the moon becomes invisible when viewed from the earth because the side of the moon that is being illuminated by sunlight does not face the earth. As the moon moves in its orbit away from conjunction, some of sun's light hitting the moon starts to be reflected toward the earth illuminating an edge of the moon which then appears as a crescent. As the month wears on the proportion of moon visibly illuminated increases until the 14th day, otherwise known as the full moon. From then until the end of the month the moon is on the wane with the crescent receding to the other edge of the moon until it finally disappears altogether. This is yet another new moon.

This is a New Moon. It just so happens to be in front of the Sun. Not all new moons pass in front of the sun. Usually the moon passes above or below the sun when it is new or "zero days old". This is an eclipse photo from June 10, 2002 8:49 pm EDT through a 6" f/8 telescope. [Moon Photo Page]

The problem with first spotting the Hilal is that at the time of the conjunction, the moon is located at a point in the sky that is very close to the sun, usually it is just above or below it and very occasionally directly in front of it, as in the case of an eclipse. As it moves out of conjunction, the tiny amount of light coming from the sliver of the new crescent is completely swamped by the glare of daylight and making it invisible to observers on the earth. The earliest time that the crescent can be observed is after sunset and even then only once the twilight has decreased to a point where the crescent light is brighter than it. By the time the moon is finally visible, it is already likely to more than twelve hours "old", that is it would have been at least twelve hours since it left conjunction with the earth and sun. The world record for observing the youngest crescent is 15.4 hours with naked eye, 12.7 hours with binoculars, and 12.2 hours with a telescope.

This is a one day old moon. More precisely, it's 1 day 15 hours and 35 minutes. That's how much time has passed from the moment of New Moon till this picture was taken. One day moons can be difficult to spot. They are very close to the horizon and visible for just a few minutes after sunset. This moon was 39 hours old. This picture was taken with a Nikon Coolpix 885 digital camera held up to the eyepiece of a Celestron C-90 Astro telescope on July 11th 2002 at 10:03 pm EDT in Holt, Michigan. [Moon Photo Page]

Because the moon is still very close to the sun, there's hardly any time to observe the Hilal before it promptly sets as well. Under even the very best conditions the crescent might be visible for up to an hour after sunset but usually this time is much shorter, often only a few minutes. If the moon is younger than 12 hours it is unlikely to be visible at all.

Atmospheric conditions and weather patterns can have a major impact on the observation, of course, but there are many other factors to consider as well: the latitude and longitude of the observer, the position of moon in its orbit (because of moon's orbit is tilted with respect the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun making crescent more or less obvious) and even the lunar mountains can have an effect by casting shadows onto the tips of the crescent! The longitude of the observer matters in the a relative sense that if observers to the East have failed to sight the Hilal, there is still a chance that observers further to the West will manage it. That's because the moon will have had more time to move out of conjunction before sun sets in that part of the world.

Latitude is also important because at the time of the vernal equinox (March in the Northern Hemisphere, September in the Southern) the sun's path is steeply perpendicular to the horizon, i.e. the sun comes straight down when it sets rather than moving down diagonally. This steepness of descent means that the crescent moon will be higher in the sky just after sunset, thereby improving its visibility.

In cases where there has been a failure to sight the Hilal then the old month (Sha'ban in the case of Ramadan) is not considered to have ended yet and it automatically runs to 30 days, potentially creating disagreement amongst observers. The only thing that is certain is that the previous month is never shorter than 29 days and that the Hilal cannot ever be observed before the new moon.

Who claims that he viewed the thin waxing crescent before the New Moon instant, is like the one who claims that he saw the Sun before dawn, or he saw the baby before delivery. (proverb)

This is the back door in which calculation and computation reenter the picture. Web sites like Moonsighting.com run a service not unlike a weather bureau in which they forecast Hilal visibility information based on calculations made by Dr. Monzur Ahmed's MoonCalc program.

Here is the forecast that was issued for the Ramadan of 2003

Ramadan: The moon's conjunction is on Saturday October 25, 2003 at 12:50 UT i.e., 8:50 am Eastern Daylight Time - 5:50 am Pacific Daylight Time. On Oct 25, the moon is going to be less than 13 hours old on West coast of USA, and impossible to see. On Oct 26, the moon can be seen in most of the world, except Japan, Northern Asia, and most of Europe. In England, it may not be seen even on October 26, although it is going to be 28 hours old, because it will be only 3 degrees above horizon at sunset and the glow of sunlight will make it very difficult to see.

The first day of Ramadan will be on October 27, 2003 for Australia, Africa and Americas, and on October 28, 2003 for Japan, Northern Asia, and most of Europe. England is in a situation that moon may or may not be seen on October 26.

This was then followed up by an announcement made about the starting date by the Islamic Shura Council of North America

The Islamic Shura Council of North America and Fiqh Council of North America, of which ISNA is a member, agreed that there were no confirmed moon-sighting reports on the evening of Saturday, October 25, 2003, the 29th of Sha'ban. We will complete 30 days of Sha'ban. Therefore, Monday, October 27 will be the first day of Ramadan in North America. Ramadan Karim

To get a sense of the difficulty of spotting the new crescent moon, you could try your hand at simulating it using Helmer Aslaksen's very nice (and very simple to use) Java applet entitled "What does the waxing or waning Moon look like in different parts of the world in the course of the year?".

First set the month to the one you want to observe (let's say October) and then set the day of the month to 1. Choose your location in the world from the map and then turn the speed down to really slow (the default speed is way too fast). You will probably also want to "freeze" the day so that you can watch it in a loop over and over again because the Hilal happens so quickly.

The program makes some fairly drastic simplifications, especially that the moon and sun orbits are on the same plane but there's still plenty of complexity here to contend with even with such a simple model.

Note 1 : Calendars and Priesthoods - It is no coincidence that the Catholic Church led the way with the reform of the Julian calendar.

The institution of Gregorian calendar in 1582 was made necessary in order to stop seasonal drift in the date of Easter. This date was originally agreed by the First Council at Nicaea to be calculated as falling on the Sunday following the first full moon that follows the Northern Spring equinox. The problem was that with the Julian calendar, the equinox was drifting forward from year to year, even by the time of the First Council in 325 (only 371 years after the Julian calendar had been established) the equinox drifted 4 days from its traditional date of the 21st of March.

By 1582, this drift had grown to ten days which was an intolerable situation and had to be remedied and despite religious schism, even protestant Europe agreed (very gradually) accepting the reforms although without accepting Catholic religious primacy.

"It was so smoky today in So. Cal. and the sun's sunspots so large, that you could see the latter because of the former. Amazing."

via kottke via Sean

Just in case you think those are fly spots on the lens, check out this picture evidently taken a few moments earlier.