make a list of 43 things i know very little about, and then learn at least 3 things about each of them

• Pilate is one of the few people in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus for whom there is historical evidence

• In Ethiopian Christianity, Pilate is revered en there is actually a holy day for him

• The 3 or 4 versions of the judging of Jesus by Pilate vary. In the first version Pilate’s innosence is mentioned, in the next he offers the choice of Jesus and Barabas and washes his hands, in the last he gets into a lengthy philosophical discussion with Jesus.

I just saw a documentary on Pilate on Nat. Geographic. Not very good (a lot of guessings and maybe’s) but it pointed out that, most likely, the scene of Jesus judging by Pilate was written in a way to clear the Romans of blame. A political move, to indicate to Roman authority that they had no conflict, pointing blame to the jews.

If this is the case (which is quite plausible to me) than the impact of some political grovelling added to the prosecution of the Jewish community for centuries. Sad.

Found this quite shocking:

• Supposedly, in 1897, a group of jews wrote a manifest called the Protocols of Zion. It contained a plot to overthrow christian society and gain control by means of the media, banks and through politics. Fortunately the plot was foiled and the Protocols published. At the start of the 1900’s Europeans readily believed this was true. The rumour was picked up in Germany especially.
• In fact, the protocols were based on a fairly unknown french peace called the ‘Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, written in 1864. ‘Napoleon’ was simply replaced by ‘jews’ and ‘France’ by ‘world’ and there you had it.
• Although the link with the french text was made, the protocols were used in Nazi Germany and, to this day, are still used by Hamas as an example of Jewish treachery.

• The Indians were some of the first to do nosejobs (I don’t know the exact dates, but thing 1700 or something). If the nose was harmed, say during battle or something, What they did was carve a bit out of the forehead, but leave it attached just above the nose. The flap of skin was then twisted and moved down over the nose area.
• The italians had a more complicated way of accomplishing the same thing. Upside was you did’t have a huge scar on your forehead en a twisted nose. Downside was the skin was taekn from the upper arm. So first the skin from the upperarm was cut loose, but still needed to stay connected through the upper arm because of blood circulation. The skin was then also attached to the nose to attach itself to the skin there. You can see how that puts you in somewhat of a weird position. So for at leats 2 weeks you were stuck with your upper arm pressed against your nose. They did invent slings to deal with this, but still… no fun.
• In the 1900’s the british were doing the first bit of botoxing, except there was no botox so they used parafin wax. Hot liquid wax was injected into the skin around the nose for instance and the ‘surgeon’ then had a few seconds to mold the nose until the wax settled. Nasty side effect: the wax started to wander through the body, creating bumps and dips in places they were not intended to be.

Thanks to fantastic BBC documentaire Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery.

• Someone did a test with mice, where they had mice learn the location of a platform in murky water. Then they exposed one group to cannabis at an early age, another group at micy adolecence and finally one group was not exposed. Both the group that was not exposed and the adolescence group could a few days later find the platform again. The group of mice that was exposed in childhood performed far worse. This proved that the use of cannabis at an early age effects the brain far worse than use in puberty or later.

• There is a component in Cannabis called THC which adds to the risk of psychosis. Normally this risk is 1%, with cannabis it increases to 2-6%. There is also a component called CBD which is an antipsychotic. Unfortunately recreational cannabis very often does not contain any CBD.

• There is a cannabis farm somewhere in England where Cannabis is produced legally for medicinal purposes. The cannabis is turned into drops. In Canada Cannabis is used in a spray for multiple sclerosis to alleviate pain.

• Lachrimatory are a class of small vessels of terra-cotta or, more frequently, of glass, found in Roman and late Greek tombs, and supposed to have been bottles into which mourners dropped their tears.
• Lachrymatory were placed in burial tombs as symbols of respect. The more anguish and tears produced, the more important and valued the deceased person was perceived to be.
• Tear bottles reappeared during the Victorian period of the 19th century, when those mourning the loss of loved ones would collect their tears in bottles with special stoppers that allowed the tears to evaporate. When the tears had evaporated, the mourning period would end.

What a pretty symbol that is…

• The bricks for the Aya Sophia were specifically made for this building, probably in Rhodes. There is one brick which was laid upside down, which has Constantinople inscripted into it. Because of a special proces they were far lighter than normal bricks. This was needed to decrease the weight of the gigantic dome.
• Originally, there was a cylindrical ring of columns at the base of the dome. This made the dome far more instable, which was one of the reasons why the dome collapsed in 557. When it was rebuilt, this ring of columns was removed.
• Originally, the pretty mosaics were not present. There were only simple crosses in red paint. Reasons for this (besides there being such a rush to finish) was the images of religious figures were under debate at the time of construction. The mosaics were added later.

• There is a bonobo who understands 3000 words in the english language and comunicates through symbols on a touchpad.
• There is this test with a wooden box, where a human grown up shows how to pull aside two beams, poke at a hole in the top, then move another slide at the bottom which then reveals candy. Both chimps and children then take a try and both get the candy. Then however the same box is shown, but this time it’s made of glass. This reveals that the pulling aside of the beams and the poking is really senseless. The box is then handed over to the chimps and kids again. The chimps now skip the first actions (because they are senseless) andget straight to the candy. The kids however follow the entire procedure, even though hey can see it has no point. Explanation for this is that children learn from adults and see them as their teachers. If an adult does it in a certain way, it must serve a point and therefor will be copied.
• There’s two bowls with treats. One bowl has, say, 2 treats and the other 6. The first bowl that the chimp points to will be given to another chimp behind a fence close by. Chimps can’t resist the urge to point to the bowl with the most treats and therefor continously end up with the least amount of treats. Interestingly enough, if you teach chimps the meaning of certain numbers, and then place these numbers in the bowls, representing the amount of treats the chimps will get, they do learn to point to the lowest number first. This, the researchers say, shows how humans can distance themselves from urges and emotions by symbolizing them.

• Romans were the first to create cement from a mixture of sand and rocks (invented by the Etruscans) to which they added vulcanic ashes. This strengthened the Etruscan mixture about 8 times.
• The word “cement” traces to the Romans, who used the term “opus caementicium” to describe masonry which resembled concrete and was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. The volcanic ash and pulverized brick additives which were added to the burnt lime to obtain a hydraulic binder were later referred to as cementum, cimentum, cäment and cement.
• The invention of cement made it possible to create buildings like the colosseum or the pantheon.