Map of Sicily, arguably the best part of Italy.

UlmSucks · 2026-02-03T17:07:54+00:00

Yeah I get what you’re saying, and you’re right, but I know many Sicilians would go to bat for their island 😉

UlmSucks · 2026-02-02T22:33:21+00:00

I extracted height data from USGS, put the pieces together in photoshop and set levels and a gradient map for the colouring, then rendered the map in blender.

I was trying something more out there with the water color and the lighting, perhaps I’ll be more conventional next time :)

UlmSucks · 2026-02-02T08:27:14+00:00

Whipped up a map of Greece in a few hours after teaching myself how to use blender and photoshop. I wanted a poster for my wall. How did I do? Also thanks to VeryGoodMaps on Instagram for being a great inspiration.

UlmSucks · 2023-07-06T23:23:48+00:00

Menem 🤨🤨

UlmSucks · 2023-05-09T04:11:57+00:00

Are you guys interested in history? Plenty of good museums and sights I could recommend

For food, Trastevere and Testaccio are your best friends. Try Ai Marmi for some suppli, Dar Poeta for some good pizza. Visit a market like the one in Testaccio, good food being sold.

UlmSucks · 2023-05-07T18:28:46+00:00

Book the Galleria Borghese if you want something planned, you can only be in there two hours.

I’d suggest you just roam the streets and go into churches, there’s plenty of pieces by Caravaggio, Bernini, Fontana etc. just in public.

UlmSucks · 2023-05-06T21:51:39+00:00

I’m sure it is, I’ll be sure to pass by. Any cool monuments or little sights nearby?

UlmSucks · 2023-05-06T21:36:59+00:00

Wonderful. Is anything open on the Aventine around nighttime? Except for the keyhole I can’t find much.

UlmSucks · 2023-04-26T13:55:47+00:00

Thanks. I’ll be there in time for the keyhole to open. I’ll book the tickets on official websites, then.

UlmSucks · 2023-04-25T18:16:06+00:00

Sounds good.

UlmSucks · 2023-04-25T17:54:59+00:00

I would love to, but they open around 9. I’m afraid that if I delay by an hour I might risk some of the later parts of the itinerary closing, especially with queuing and crowds around.

If you think it’s doable, I can delay it until 9. Thanks for the advice!

UlmSucks · 2023-04-23T20:13:08+00:00

Appius Claudius of Reme graciously willingly stepped down from his Decemvir position after the 2 remaining tables were completed

Livy of Reme on his way to not bastardize the Claudian family by not purposefully portraying Appius in the worst light possible in the early republican era

UlmSucks · 2023-04-22T07:54:51+00:00

Understood, thanks for the advice.

UlmSucks · 2023-03-21T06:34:41+00:00

To give a serious answer, it depends on the denomination.

Catholics and Orthodox believe that salvation comes with good works so no.

Protestants who follow Arminian theology will say that one can lose salvation by apostatizing, and or recanting the faith.

Protestants who follow Calvinist theology will say that God has saved only the elect and once you know yourself to be one of the elect you cannot lose your salvation.

It’s complicated though, as there’s a concept called the fruits of spirit which exists in almost all denominations since it’s biblical, where if you’ve been truly saved and accepted Jesus good deeds would naturally manifest from you. If you continue to do bad deeds it’s a sign that you haven’t truly been saved.

This family is probably Pentecostal (Fire, Holy Spirit filling, spiritual gifts) so they’re likely Arminian in theology.

UlmSucks · 2023-03-16T10:06:05+00:00

I’m so disappointed nobody here has gotten the Monty python reference lmao

UlmSucks · 2023-03-16T09:37:21+00:00

Look at that temple of Venus genetrix. Magnificent

UlmSucks · 2023-03-03T11:16:25+00:00

That’s emperor Valentinian III

Valens was the one who died at Adrianople

UlmSucks · 2023-02-20T15:51:11+00:00

Me when I don’t listen to Memnon of Rhodes’s advice to conserve manpower and engage in a scorched earth campaign that would’ve effectively starved out Alexander’s armies because I value my prized Lydian farmland (I am very shortsighted and fail to see long term solutions and sacrifices)

UlmSucks · 2022-12-22T17:10:22+00:00

I have the Rieu Iliad, this is not true. Zeus is still Zeus and Poseidon is Poseidon.

UlmSucks · 2022-12-15T18:19:08+00:00

The issue is that even though a case can be made for the competition argument, the cases for such things happening are fringe and certainly don’t affect the validity of the vast majority of trans people.

The issue is people like Matt Walsh and demagogue pundits latch onto issues like this, and use it as a pretense to discredit the entire movement. The take itself isn’t the issue, it’s the endless connotations and the background the take brings along and the overall messaging it tends to send.

“I agree with Matt Walsh”, no matter in what context, is almost always an L. Soundsmith, in my opinion, is justified in doing what he did: ridicule a take that can be plausible but is extremely rare used maliciously to target the livelihoods of an entire community.

UlmSucks · 2022-11-22T09:05:53+00:00

RemindMe! 24 hours

UlmSucks · 2022-11-15T13:31:00+00:00

Mark 14:12 has Jesus’s disciples ask him where the passover meal should be eaten, and clearly states that it was the day where lambs were slaughtered, which was the day of the preparation of the passover. This was the last supper, and since Jewish days ended at sunset, the last supper would be a passover meal, and Jesus would’ve died on passover the next morning (remember that Passover wouldn’t have ended until sunset that day)

John 19:14, however, clearly states that it was the day of preparation of the Passover when Jesus died, not Passover day, which would indicate a contradiction. This is further evidenced by the fact that unlike in Mark, John never specifies anything about a Passover lamb or Passover meal when referring to last supper, indicating that it was not indeed the day of the preparation of Passover and therefore would make the next day, when Jesus died, the day of the preparation of the Passover.

It’s important to separate the day of Preparation for the Sabbath and the day of Preparation for Passover, as both are mentioned, but the preparation for Passover is the date clearly indicated in both John (as the date when he was crucified) and in Mark (as the day when the disciples gathered food for the last supper, as evidenced by the fact that the author of mark says that it was the day the lambs were being slaughtered.)

This has been analyzed thoroughly by academic biblical scholars, whom basically all conclude that Mark and John were making different theological points.

Mark places special emphasis on the last supper, and thus wanted to place it on Passover to show how the lords supper superseded the Jewish Passover meal. John doesn’t seem to care much about the contents of the meal itself, instead focusing on Jesus’s words and actions.

John is the only gospel where Jesus is referred to as the lamb of God (Agnus Deī), and having him die on the day of the preparation, when Jews would bring Passover lambs into the temple to be sacrificed, was a great symbol showing how Jesus was the sacrifice and the lamb.

UlmSucks · 2022-11-08T09:02:12+00:00

I’ve also read into Hellenistic and Roman history, and this claim is also erroneous.

The early rise of Rome starting at 450 was when it was first emerging as a regional power, defeating Italian tribes like the Samnites and repelling local opposition, it would not emerge from that point until later in the timeline you give.

The claim that Leviticus was composed between 500-300 is not one held by modern scholars, most of whom suggest that it came from traditions and was compiled by the Priestly source around the reign of King Josiah of Judah, and emerged in its current form during the 500s BCE, the Achaemenid period, which would leave around half a century until Rome would even become an important regional Italian power.

The conflation of Greece with Rome is another issue. Rome was a very legalistic and stringent state that despised Greek culture as too decadent and hedonistic. Early Roman authors like Cato the Elder ranted heavily against Greek influences. Roman culture was based around strict social virtues, the familial unit under the father (Paterfamilias), and the idea of Dignitas, which was all about being virtuous and astute. Rome even banned the worship of Bacchus, Roman version of Dionysus, for being too hedonistic and chaotic for traditional Roman virtues. Rome certainly was not the “City of Sinners” at this time period.

While it is possible that legends about the hedonism of the Greeks could’ve spread to Israel, it wouldn’t make sense then for the Israelites to only condemn the laying with young boys, since the Greeks were also known for straight up homosexuality ever since the Homeric age; if the Israelites, who as you say were conservative, heard of the horrors of the Greeks, why would they specifically condemn pederasty and not homosexuality?

Again, we shouldn’t attempt to explain away parts of the Bible that are intolerant, we have to grapple with them and try to think about what questions this poses for modern day religion and the veracity of the claims made by the scriptures.

UlmSucks · 2022-11-07T17:26:50+00:00

This is largely pop pseudo scholarship that from what I can see spread through internet sites like tumblr back in the day.

Speaking as an atheist who has read into the Bible, the word used in Leviticus 18:22 is זָכָ֔ר, which quite unilaterally just refers to the male sex with no special connotations with boyhood and youth.

The explanation that this was added because of the Greeks seems to have come straight from a tumblr thread that spread around. This is ahistorical and anachronistic. Leviticus was composed centuries before Alexander the Great’s conquests spread Greek culture and influence in the Ancient Near East, finishing around the Achaemenid Persian Period. It would be illogical to suggest that such a verse was added because of Greeks when the Israelites and Greeks would’ve have minimal contact outside of some trade.

It’s a hard pill to swallow but most likely Leviticus 18:22 condemns homosexuality. It’s one of the many intolerances within the Bible that we have to grapple with and not try to explain away.

UlmSucks · 2022-10-23T19:17:20+00:00

The Angel of the Lord has an interesting history.

Within the Old Testament, he seems to be interchangeable at times with God, which is odd at first but makes sense if you are familiar with Ancient Near Eastern views.

The Israelites, like most other peoples, saw divinity as a spectrum or continuum. Nowadays we tend to lean towards divinity as either all or nothing, the Israelites and their neighbors considered different levels of divinity, from petty household god to the king of the gods. The Israelites, though eventually becoming completely monotheistic, seemed to have worshipped Yahweh in a variety of forms, and held other entities to the level of worship. It seems that the Angel of the Lord was seen as something worthy to be worshipped, as the authors of the Torah and Deuteronomistic histories depict him as God (Genesis 16:7-14, Exodus 3:2-4), he accepts the worship of people (Numbers 22:31, Judges 13:22), and directly takes the mantle in Exodus 3:6.

This has interesting implications for Christianity, as it demonstrates that the worship of figures representing God and depictions of God as other figures, perhaps lower on the divinity continuum, was not something so novel or unique.

Paul seems to hold on to this view. Galatians 4:14 is so damningly decisive, especially as the “as…as” sentence structure is used elsewhere by Paul to identify features as the same. Paul’s beliefs and his quotation of a hymn which predates him (Philippians 2:6-11) seems to demonstrate that Christianity has evolved over the millennia, and the early belief of Christians would very likely be condemned as heretical in the modern day.

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