Well, It Could Be Mythology

O.K., it is not mythology, but couldn't you see this fitting in a number of Greek myths (or for that matter, Norse, Celtic, __Place your favorite culture here____).

Why Does God Need a Gun?

I've been working hard this summer which is the reason that I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately.  This entry isn't much, but maybe it will tide you over until I can get some quality posts (on the other hand, why start produsing quality posts now?).

Now, read the headline again and look at the picture below!

Watch out you pagans!  He's got a AK-47 and a cloak of invunerability! 

Bummer

This is the symbol of prescriptions.  You see it in every pharmacy (chemists to my over the pond neighbors) and pretty much all prescriptions.  Pretty dull and boring.  Search the Internet and you'll see that it is anything but boring.  Check out this symbol:

This is the Eye of Horus.  Horus, filled with a need to avenge his father Osiris, sets off to defeat his father's brutal murderer, Set.  In the first fight, Horus gets his butt handed to him.  Set beats him badly and then rips his eye out (It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out).  Horus, now with a severe depth perception problem, goes to his buddy Thoth for some help.  Thoth makes him a new eye and Horus is back in business.  This new eye became his symbol.  It also became our Rx symbol seen above.  See, I told you it would be pretty cool. 

Note that I said, "would be."  You see, the Internet likes this story and there are several posts about it.  I was pretty excited about writing this entry about it.  However, in reality, the Rx symbol is a shortened form of the Latin word recipe, which means "to take."  Oh well...   

Swim at Your Own Risk!

I have never liked swimming in lakes.  Oceans - yes. Pools - yes.  I spent my whole life swimming.  I even was captain of my college swim team (go UNCW Sea Hawks!).  However, I have never liked swimming in lakes.  All that mushy mud on the bottom.  The countless number of water moccasins that I am sure are swimming in the water near me ready to bite.  Nope.  No lakes for me.

Yet there is one good thing about lakes.  Lake monsters!  I recently read a cool post by my friend Dani on lake monsters over at Way Past Normal.  Check it out!

Thor vs Superman - The winner is...

It seems our poll has a very low opinion of our Norse god of thunder. Let's see if they are right!

O.K., this is a really cheesy video, but so funny in its cheese factor that you might find it funny.  Who would win in an all out battle between Krypton's Superman and our very own Norse god of thunder - Thor?  You've already cast your vote, so let's see who would win!  (You'll have to get past the first 20 seconds to get to a real (I use that term lightly) video.)



Consider yourself a No Prize winner if you picked the right one!

The Aztec Jaguar

The Aztecs were serious about sacrificing.  They built these large pyramids and would bring in several prisoners to chop off their heads.  The heads would then roll down the steep steps of the pyramid to the glory of all.  To make matters worse, many had their hearts cut out pre-decapitation.  I'm sure, however, you are asking yourself, "Where did they get all these people to sacrifice?"  That's not a bad question.  It was not, as in our earlier post on the Lord of the Universe's case, a mass of volunteers eager to have their hearts ripped out.  Nor was it all prisoners of war.  Instead, the Aztec priests relied on one of the Aztec's greatest warriors - the Jaguar.

No, not the big cat.  This warrior got his name from the cat and wore the cat skins.  Much like the beserker of Norse fame wore nbear skins to freak out their enemies, so the jaguar wore jaguar skins to freak out their victims.  These guys were pretty awesome in war and down right horrifying in sacrifice harvesting.  The jaguar was picked for its fierceness and because it was a symbol of Tezcatlipoca, the god of night.

As you can see in the picture, the head of the jaguar is used as a helmet and they carry a small shield.  Check out that weapon.  That is what truly inspired me to look more into it.  It is not a sword.  It is not a club.  It is a weapon on its own and boy is it tough.

The weapon is called a macuahuitl.  It is made of wood and can be made for one handed use or two handed use.  It is about 4 feet long.  The flat part of the blade was used much like a club would be to knowck someone over the head and immobilize them for transportation back to the pyramid.  The edges of the macuahuitl were pieces of obsidian.  If you don't know what that is, it is a black glass formed in volcanoes.  It is sharper than sharp.  Razor sharp is not as sharp as obsidian.  That's how sharp it is.  Sometimes they used big pieces and sometimes it was several smaller pieces.  Either way, this gave the blade some serioud cutting power.  It was sharp enough to cut the head off a man with ease.  One account by a Spanish warrior said that it could decapitate a horse.  A TV show, Deadliest Warrior put it to the test on a ballistic gel horse and it did cut through much of the head.  Maybe in the right hands it could do wonders.

The power of this blade was such that not only would it slice (but not dice, mind you), but it would also tear as the blade was removed, causing much more damage than a sword.  This could easily be used to kill or to just chop at a victim's leg in order to make them unable to run away.

Either way, the gods will get their sacrifice!