Conversations on Science, Culture and Time
Recovered Monastic Notes on the Wormwood Incident
The Wormwood Incident, Anno Domini 1257
"It is hereby recorded that on the evening of the Wormwood Experiment, Brother Percival did, with good intent but questionable wisdom, infuse his latest brew with the bitter herb of absinthe. This was done under the belief that it would ‘purge sin from the body and ‘enhance theological clarity.’ It instead led to:
Brother Eustace spontaneously composing a Latin hymn of no known origin (translation attempts are ongoing, as half of it appears to be angelic gibberish).
The Enigmatic Inspirations Behind Ambrose and His Universe
[…] Athanasius Kircher was, to put it bluntly, a man who never met a subject he didn’t want to master. Born in 1602, at a time when science and mysticism still held hands in polite society, he became one of the most prolific, eccentric, and insatiably curious scholars of his era. He wasn’t just dabbling in a field or two—he was attempting to connect all human knowledge into a single, coherent system. The sheer audacity of it is almost endearing.
The book written by John Glassie dives deep into Kircher’s astonishingly broad range of studies. He was a… […]
The Watchman
The town lay quiet beneath a velvet blanket of winter, its snow-covered rooftops glistening under the pale light of a crescent moon. The hour was late, and though a few sounds of merriment escaped from the alehouse near the square—a clatter of mugs, a burst of laughter—even these seemed to be softening, like the sleepy yips of puppies settling down for the night. The cobbled streets wound through the town like frozen veins, silent and unbroken save for the occasional echo of footsteps. Night was creeping in, the kind of deep, impenetrable night that left no room for the lingering warmth of day. The cold had long since bullied the townsfolk into their homes, and chimneys puffed small clouds into the brittle air. Somewhere in the distance, a bell chimed, its notes carried on the icy wind.