The Hall of Fire

I, too, am very close to Teremia's line of thinking. Consider - those of us who accept the Bible as a Holy Book are told that human beings were created "in the likeness of God". Surely this can't mean a physical likeness, when our bodies are subject to fear, hunger and lust just like those...

Fascinating thread. The short answer is that the [heirs of Isildur] that came before [Aragorn] weren't great enough of do something as daunting as reassert the Kingship over Gondor. There likely would have been a struggle with the House of Stewards and the existing power structure in Gondor, one the...

Ath, it was about a quarter of the way to Hana, in some private owned park-arborethum type thing the name of which I forgot :oops: but can find out if anyone is interested. We were on a guided hike, but it's opened to the public for a day use fee. They have all sorts of tropical plants, including th...

:love: I love the way vison and Pearl speak about nature. It's even better that a photo, because in the words I can see, not just the beauty of a landscape, but the beauty of people who are writing about it. If that made any sense. :oops: About stars. I stepped out on the balcony... excuse me, lanai...

Taken by DH on our nature hike in Maui. Lesson learned - when the guide promises an easy, level, oh-sure-no-problem-at-all hike... he's lying. There were 237 tall, uneven, slippery steps. Cirith Ungol came to mind more than once. And when the guide says water in the waterfall pool is 72F... he's off...

As I've been away for a week, it is not inappropriate to stop here and say hello to the new friends and the old ones I missed. Griffy , how magnificent to see you here! Roccondil , we haven't met, but I see you are a scholar and I look forward to reading your posts. Wilko , I can't remember if I sai...

No spicey bits, vison. Very chaste. I think it's the biggest beef I have with that book - it seemed to me entirely devoid of passion of any kind.

But it was an absorbing plot to read through - once.

Ah, now I know what www stands for in the URL- Whistler, Wilko and Wildwood. Wonderful!

Nin,

eborr, welcome.

Did I miss anybody new?

Anthriel wrote:Gimmee a good, horrific murder and a detective with a logical approach to nailing the oh-so-smug perpetrator anyday.

Elizabeth Peters?

About the only type of book I will NOT read is where the blurb says "a sweeping saga of passion and betrayal, spanning generations and continents".

See, Voronwë? You're a better man than I. :bow: But we knew that already! Of course, but he is not a better woman. Let me know if it's any good. It's not. It's one of those books where you keep turning pages to see what the author will invent next, not to learn what happens to the characters you ca...

And the period sword is not a stabbing weapon, its a slashing and cutting one. When it has been used against armour (particually mail), it blunts and becomes useful for crushing bone, not dainty pokes in the eye. I am not sure whether you refer to the same thing, Din, but I came across the infamous...

Jn, maybe I am, but Gates sure ain't.

Faramond, I'd be curious to know whom you consider a worthy philantropist.

Well, forgive the snarky comment, but who would want to look at Gates, let alone gawk at him?

It's here. Google. Watch them, they're not just a search engine anymore. It won't be long before Google Desktop starts making waves. Gmail is already becoming huge, Google Earth, Google personalised homepages, Google API, Gmail for your mobile, Google Picassa... the list just keeps growing. And mos...

I can't see that without thinking of Star Trek. Why? :scratch: http://www.norcalmovies.com/StarTrek/05TheFinalFrontier/frontier06.jpg http://www.norcalmovies.com/StarTrek/05TheFinalFrontier/x-frontier16.jpg Everybody is posting such stunning images! Whislter, the light on those flowers is just... w...

Jn, your computer may still has the cached picture from the last time you browsed here. When in doubt, Refresh.

Sorry, can't go back. :P I reduced it right in Photobucket, so I can't make it bigger now. But how about this one? I adore this painting, for the colors and textures, for the woman's confident expression, and especially because she is NOT SKINNY! http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/Fre1ga/kustodiev...

Really, V? Photobucket says it's 565x341. All right, I'll reduce it some more.

OK, it's 424x256 now, but you won't see the new size until you hit Refresh.

Hmm, it's supposed to be 75% of the original size. Perhaps you need to refresh page to see the reduction?

Anyway, let me know if I need to recise anything.

All right, I compressed it a bit. Hope this is better.