Word: ancient
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Then again, the history of protected sex, in the broadest sense, used to be a whole lot yuckier. Take the practice of women in ancient Egypt who resorted to using crocodile dung as a spermicide. Modern research has shown that crocodile dung actually created optimum conditions for sperm because of its alkalinity, but the sheer grossness of the practice might have worked - if only by completely ruining the mood. (See pictures of animal attraction...
...servant, the best kind of servant. I’m looking to be of service, to teach, but sometimes up it comes—a brilliant writer. It’s a thrilling thing to see a young person coming up in this world of writing that is so ancient. It’s fantastic. It just makes me so excited to see. I love young people. 4. FM: How did your love for writing start?JK: People who knew me when I was a child said I have always written. I remember always reading. I just loved books...
...Goldman Sachs’s Jim O’Neil started promoting his dream of the BRICs—developing markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China—in 2001, Brazil has often been considered the ugly duckling of the group. Next to a former superpower and two ancient civilizations boasting over one billion citizens, the South American giant may have seemed Lilliputian. But the global economic crisis has made a huge difference. Brazil’s admirable resistance to the current turmoil vindicates its placement. It also strengthens the judgment that the B-side of the BRIC dream...
...funerary tower is part of the ancient burial practice of Zoroastrianism, the world's oldest monotheistic religion. Zoroastrians (known in India as Parsis) regard sky burials, in which the bodies are exposed to natural elements including vultures in open-topped "Towers of Silence," as an ecologically friendly alternative to cremation, consistent with their religion's reverence for the earth. A Zoroastrian priest clad in a long, cotton robe explains: "Death is considered to be the work of Angra Mainyu, the embodiment of all that is evil, whereas the earth and all that is beautiful is considered to be the pure...
...alabaster prayer room of the Zoroastrian temple in the center of Yazd, a handful of adherents sway to the cadence of ancient Persian prayers recited as a priest feeds sticks of sandalwood and sprinkles of frankincense into a blazing urn. Zoroastrians wear hand-woven wool cords as external symbols of their faith, and almost always pray in front of a fire, which represents purity and sustainability. In Yazd, the holy flame has burned for 1,500 years without ever being extinguished. While Zoroastrianism was once the dominant religion in a swathe of territory spanning from Rome and Greece to India...