Articles written by Tenebris - Page 2

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About me - Tenebris

With all the flaunting of credentials and pseudo-credentials around the Internet by way of establishing Authority, ought I to start flaunting my own?

I have enough letters after my name to know exactly how little they can mean. I have enough published material

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Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Despair: 6 of 77
Ashes He is young, only twenty-one, but he can cut a piece of sheet metal with a torch in nothing flat, so of course I must envy him, me, the klutz with two wrong hands and eyes that must have agreed only to disagree with whatever's around me. I couldn't cut a straight line to save my life, that's why I'm the one standing he... More..
Celebrations & Holidays > Christmas How the image of Santa Claus has changed in the 20th century: 1 of 12
Until the principles of scientific management ushered in mass production and gave birth to the age of marketing, the figure of Father Christmas was a syncretism of Christian folk saint with nature spirit. The modern North American version of Santa Claus, dressed all in red velvet and white fur, is a triumph of modern marketi... More..
Home & Garden > Weeds & Pests How to attract bees to your garden: 1 of 12
Summertime, and the living is easy, the cicadas are buzzing, and the bees are - where? The domestic bee population has been taking a beating these past several years. First bee mites, now colony collapse disorder: and suddenly in its threatened absence we are faced with the reality that we depend on bees for so much more tha... More..
Sciences > Psychology What your daydreams say about you: 4 of 47
There is dreaming: as the subconscious mind works through new experience and incorporates it to revisit and resolve existing dilemmas. There is daydreaming: creative imagination drawing from deep wellsprings of empathy, or even simply from a wish to temporarily step outside the bounds of the workplace, the schoolroom, the cu... More..
Business > Sales The impact of deceptive advertising: 2 of 22
A few days ago I was woken up one morning - holiday morning! - by a telephone marketing pitch that initially sounded like nothing so much as a creditor call. It was not. That period of my life thankfully remains over. In fact by local law a collection agent would not even have been allowed to call on a holiday. And yet the l... More..
Health & Fitness > Nutrition & Health Issues How to feed your family well on less: 2 of 22
So long as you are willing to cook, feeding a large family is actually much cheaper per person than trying to manage single meals. So many different foods are available more cheaply in larger quantities. At the same time you don't find yourself with the "head of lettuce" dilemma, knowing that to purchase it could well mean t... More..
Sciences > Chemistry Why ice floats on water: 1 of 11
Almost uniquely in the natural world, the coldest forms of water ice float on top of warmer forms of water, because ice is less dense than liquid water. Upon this simple natural law, all life on our planet depends. The ratio of an object's mass to its volume is called its density. Denser objects sink relative to less dense o... More..
Sciences > Medical Technology The future use of maggots in medicine: 1 of 11
The propensity of maggots, or blowfly larvae, to feed on necrotic tissues while leaving healthy tissues untouched, and thus remove dead and dying tissues from infected wounds, has once again attracted the attention of modern medicine. While it might make us squirm today, treating a septic wound by applying maggots was well k... More..
Creative Writing > Short Stories Short stories: Going to the doctor's office: 4 of 41
The Lawnmower "I need a new lawnmower, I tell you," said Sebastian Oberkoch. That's not really what he said, of course, because he said it in a different language and with an emphasis of inflection that is quite impossible in English, but that was the gist of it, more or less. At least, away from the others, he could speak w... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Pagan & Earth-Based Religions Guide to Celtic holidays: 1 of 10
The great wheel of the solar year divides into eight parts along the solstices, equinoxes, and lunar-indicated "halfway" points which became the anchors of the agricultural year. Although the festivals at the divides mourn sun-departure and celebrate the quickening of the earth linked with sun-return, the strictly solar holi... More..