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The embroidery was full of elaborate religious imagery, fantastical beasts and heraldic symbols and was in high demand at papal courts. This particular series was mainly made in London and many of the embroiders of these beautiful pieces were workers from St. Paul’s Cathedral. While most of the works are religious vestments such as copes, shoes, mitres, burses, orphreys, and stockings, there are also beautiful secular objects on display: seal bags, family emblems, guild funeral palls, psalters, and ivory carvings. In the later Middle Ages, the work expanded from predominantly religious attire into the design of chivalric garb, and heraldic crests [sic]. Interesting fact: the position of Royal Armourer was often held by an embroiderer. By the fourteenth century Opus Anglicanum was at its zenith, with kings and queens commissioning expensive and intricate designs to send across to Europe as diplomatic gifts. After the Black Death embroiderers used time saving practices to keep up with demands, such as separates that could be attached on silk and velvets, and reused as patterns. There was also a change in materials as well, elaborate silk fabrics were imported.

I used to do needlework and have done some of this sort — it is a pain in the ass to do but really rewarding once it’s complete.

Read it. And by all means listen to the podcast.

Maj. Gen. Bob Scales (USA ret.), author of Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk, on preparing U.S. ground forces for the coming wars, rather than past conflicts, and repairing a broken Army.

Megan McArdle lays out the options in a field that hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

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More of the inherent totalitarianism of the Left; notice that there are no reports of people spraying ‘Build the Wall’ on any property of Hillary’s. If you’re looking for who’s reading from the Hitler playbook, they all have D on their chests.

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By 2066, linguists are predicting that the “th” sound will vanish completely in the capital because there are so many foreigners who struggle to pronounce interdental consonants – the term for a sound created by pushing the tongue against the upper teeth.

Already Estuary English – a hybrid of Cockney and received pronunciation (RP) which is prevalent in the South East – is being replaced by Multicultural London English (MLE) which is heavily influenced by Caribbean, West African and Asian Communities.

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Since the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of refugees. By the end of 2016 a record 65 million people will be refugees, forced from their homes largely because of civil war or Islamic terrorism. More than half these refugees come from just three countries; Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. In all these of these nations Islamic terrorism is the key cause of violence, in addition to corruption, bad government or no government at all. The civil war in Syria and Islamic terrorism in Iraq and Syria account for most of the increases since 2014. There are also invasions and civil war in Ukraine and South Sudan. There are nearly as many Afghan refugees, some of them displaced since the Russians chased them out in the 1980s. For a long time Pakistan carried the heaviest refugee burden in the world, but since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011 the worst hit countries (in terms of the refugee load per million locals) has been Lebanon and Jordan. There are growing problems caring for all these refugees, especially in obtaining the money needed to pay for it. Despite increases in spending on humanitarian aid worldwide (more than doubling since 2012) it is never enough. That aid is running at over $50 billion a year now with about 75 percent contributed by governments while the rest comes from foundations, corporations and individuals.

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I wouldn’t call the following statement an iron rule, but it’s a good rule of thumb: When congressional Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree on legislation, the legislation is probably bad.

Concur.

Steve Sailer reads the tea leaves for you.

From USA Today, big news in the ongoing Flight from White as more opportunists lobby to get out from under the burden of being considered officially white in contemporary America.

…

Think of how much inconvenience Syrian immigrant Tony Rezko had to go through to qualify for minority set-asides. Barack Obama’s real estate adviser had to recruit African American frontmen, like Black Muslim founder Elijah Muhammad’s son, to qualify for minority set-asides in order to get contracts to run Chicago park hot dog stands and O’Hare Panda Expresses.

…

For example, this federal move could help ease the #OscarsSoWhite crisis. Jerusalem-born Natalie Portman, who won Best Actress in 2011 for The Black Swan, would be officially reclassified as nonwhite, which I’m sure will make Spike Lee and Nate Parker much happier. (Somebody should ask them.)

Black Diamond Telekneesis Kneepad.

Suction-Powered Sinus Decongester.

Spadle.

CakeDozer.

Steel Thumbnail.

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After giving a substantial amount of attention to the case of Keith Lamont Scott being shot and killed by Charlotte police, with his wife disputing police accounts that he was holding a gun when he was shot, CNN this week has barely touched the important revelations that Scott not only was a convicted felon who had a history of gun violence, but that his wife even filed a protective order last year accusing him of threatening her and her son with a gun.

It’s all about the Narrative, Larry.

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Hamed Abdel-Samad is an Egyptian-German writer, and also an apostate from Islam. He lives under a constant threat of death for his writings about his former religion. In the following video from German TV he engages a Muslima about the violent, murderous tenets of her religion.

Read it.

Isn’t it great how electing Barack Obama has improved race relations in America?

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They don’t even bother to pretend any more.

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The police in the southern Swedish city of Malmö have reached the limit of their capabilities. Six murders, twenty shootings, and countless carbecues — and that’s just for this year. It’s a small-town police force facing a Chicago-sized crime wave, but with Islam thrown in, it’s even worse.

Open your country to ‘refugees’ from the Middle East and your country winds up looking like the Middle East.  Funny how that works.