No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.

historical-nonfiction

Did you know Tibet once controlled an empire? It ruled the Himalayan highlands, Bengal, and the modern Chinese provinces of Gansu and Yunnan from 618 CE to about 840 CE. Between the first and third emperor, their territory expanded eventually to the height shown in the map above. But difficulty of transportation and communication, and religious tensions due to the introduction of Buddhism in the early 700s CE, led to infighting which pitted the royal family against ancient noble families and supporters of the new religion.

The last two emperors were assassinated, one by pro-native religionists, one by a Buddhist hermit. Yes, a Buddhist assassinated an emperor. After the death of the tenth emperor, the Tibetan Empire disintegrated into civil war.

historical-nonfiction

cris-yi: We call it “Tubo”

This comment made me go a little deeper, and you are right! The Chinese chroniclers called their western neighbor “Tubo.” This is often mispronounced as Turfan, which westerners may recognize. The Chinese had to call the new Tibetan state something, because the Tibetans established diplomatic relations with the Tang Dynasty, which was in power at the time.

The Tibetans themselves called their empire “Bod.” The Chinese heard this, and somehow derived a more-pronounceable-in-Chinese name, Tubo.

grandtheftautosanandreas

Douglas Adams is the best when it comes to describe characters

the-fandoms-are-valentines

they need to teach classes on Douglas Adams analogies okay

“He leant tensely against the corridor wall and frowned like a man trying to unbend a corkscrew by telekinesis.”

“Stones, then rocks, then boulders which pranced past him like clumsy puppies, only much, much bigger, much, much harder and heavier, and almost infinitely more likely to kill you if they fell on you.”

“He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.”

“It looked only partly like a spaceship with guidance fins, rocket engines and escape hatches and so on, and a great deal like a small upended Italian bistro.”

“If it was an emotion, it was a totally emotionless one. It was hatred, implacable hatred. It was cold, not like ice is cold, but like a wall is cold. It was impersonal, not as a randomly flung fist in a crowd is impersonal, but like a computer-issued parking summons is impersonal. And it was deadly - again, not like a bullet or a knife is deadly, but like a brick wall across a motorway is deadly.”

nudityandnerdery

And, of course:

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”

drinkmasturbatecry

the one that will always stay with me is “Arthur Dent was grappling with his consciousness the way one grapples with a lost bar of soap in the bath,” i feel like that was the first time i really understood what you could do with words.