Slog - Comments on When We Were Kings http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings The current cover of the National Geographic... ...has to be a part of that massive wave of images and words that constitute what the American mind has come to recognize as Obama-mania.... Copyright 2008 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:40:04 -0800 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:30:29 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Mr. Poe I want my Jew to build me one of those pyramids.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940643 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940643 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:52:26 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Uh, right. Because Egypt and Kenya are exactly similar, and 3,000 years ago is exactly like today.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940644 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940644 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:53:46 -0800 Comment by apres_moi I saw this last month when my copy arrived in the mail. I thought one of two things. 1. Since February's Black History Month this is a great piece to give to parents and teachers as one more important thing to teach their kids. 2. NG's for Obama and it was released a couple of weeks before Super Tuesday.

In that article, they basically say that racism is a European thing due to the fact that Egytians didn't see a person's skin color as a factor and how European researchers in the 1800s dismissed the fact that blacks could've built the pyramids in southern Egypt and Sudan.

]]> apres_moi http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940646 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940646 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:00:02 -0800 Comment by ddv well stated Fnarf!

is this the most recent issue of N.G.? i mean it is black history month, so it could just be a coincidence that Obama-mania is still in effect during Feb.

i also get the sense that Charlie is complaining about Obama-mania and the black pharoahs cover. there just is no pleasing some people....

]]> ddv http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940648 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940648 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:06:56 -0800 Comment by Mike in Iowa It's all clear to me now, as foretold by Ben Harper in "I'll Rise."

"You may write me down in history
With your bitter twisted lies
You may trod me down in the very dirt
And still like the dust I'll rise."

Go Obama.

]]> Mike in Iowa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940651 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940651 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:15:44 -0800 Comment by Really Bad Talk about the bling on that black guy.

]]> Really Bad http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940656 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940656 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:25:21 -0800 Comment by DOUG. @5: Those are Maya Angelou's words, not Ben Harper's. Isn't she in Hillary's camp?

And there's a border collie on the cover of my current Nat'l Geographic. It's black and white.

]]> DOUG. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940664 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940664 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:45:45 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV I doubt your Jew will build you a pyramid, poe.

But if you're lucky, you might be able to get him to part the red sea with his staff.

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940677 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940677 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 09:58:09 -0800 Comment by meks Your people were never kings... Jesters maybe... boring ones

]]> meks http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940679 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940679 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:04:04 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe's Jew my staff is busy making pizza and burgers, but i'll see what i can do.

]]> Mr. Poe's Jew http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940685 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940685 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:11:40 -0800 Comment by Christin I'm with the commenters who observed that it's Black History Month. National Geographic continues to be a great classroom resource, and I'd be interested to see past February covers. (I looked for an archive online but couldn't find one.)

What's up with the pyramids in the background? Were there ones so steep? Maybe I'm flaunting my lack of ancient-Egypt knowledge, but I don't remember building those in the computer game Pharaoh.

]]> Christin http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940688 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940688 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:12:16 -0800 Comment by Mike in Iowa oh me oh my. I should have said as Ben Harper fortold in the song "I'll Rise" with lyrics from a poem by Maya Angelou.

Which just gets me to this

"Does my happiness upset you
Why are you best with gloom."


Go Barak

]]> Mike in Iowa http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940690 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940690 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:12:29 -0800 Comment by apres_mois @11. Buy the issue and read the article. You'll learn that there are pyramids in Sudan that were engineered and built by the Nubian pharaohs. The article explains why it's not considered common knowledge thanks to European archeologists/Egyptologists who dismissed the idea that blacks were intelligent to ever build pyramids.

]]> apres_mois http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940708 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940708 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:41:54 -0800 Comment by cochise. or big daddy kane's entrance into the modeling world?

]]> cochise. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940719 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940719 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:59:49 -0800 Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty Yeah, wasting millions of man-hours of slave labor to build something as vain and idiotic as a pyramid sure qualifies as "intelligent" in my book. Not.

]]> Fifty-Two-Eighty http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940728 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940728 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:13:20 -0800 Comment by Greg Those pyramids are super-steep. I'm pretty sure that the maximum angle used was about 54 degrees.

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940742 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940742 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:25:58 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV The nubian pyramids were also a lot smaller--about 30' high.

Egyptian pyramids used an angle of 43 degrees (google the "bent pyramid" for an example of an early engineering attempt...)

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940753 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940753 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:33:44 -0800 Comment by Christin @13 - Awesome!

Heh. In the computer game Pharaoh, from which I draw 90% of my Egypt knowledge, the Nubians were definitely the Other, the savage hordes of mindless attackers set to destroy all the theaters and schools in my peaceful, well-paid, life-loving, pyramid-building monarchy.

]]> Christin http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940754 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940754 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:33:47 -0800 Comment by jane doe So when are the colonizing ancestors of the Pharoahs going to apologize for slavery and pay reparations? It's funny how some people who are still bitter and demanding compensation for European colonizalism/imperialism/ racism say they were once princes in Egypt... which is no different than bragging about being the decendents of slave owners

]]> jane doe http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940765 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940765 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:49:00 -0800 Comment by captainobvious you're way behind-that issue has been out for weeks!

]]> captainobvious http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940779 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940779 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:00:53 -0800 Comment by reparator #19: I guess the only difference is: descendants of American slaves were legally discriminated against in housing and employment and barred from hotels and restaurants about 40 years ago, instead of 4000 years ago.

]]> reparator http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940781 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c940781 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:01:19 -0800 Comment by Jay 21: Ah, but you're assuming the crytpo-racists around here are smart enough to make that distinction.

]]> Jay http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c941028 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/when_we_were_kings#c941028 Media Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:30:29 -0800