Have Richard III's remains been found?

A team of historians and archaeologists may have found the remains of one of the most maligned English monarchs, Richard III. The bones which were discovered in a parking lot in Leicester are thought to be a "prime candidate" for the king. Although not a hunchback, the skeleton shows signs of a curved spine  which "would have made his right shoulder appear visibly higher than his left shoulder."

This story has a Canadian connection. The DNA of the skeleton will be compared to a Canadian man, Michael Ibsen, who is a direct descendent of Richard's sister, Anne of York. 

Read more about the exciting story here:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/bones-unearthed-in-england-may-belong-to-king-richard-iii-1.952676

New School Year

The new school year is starting soon so stay tuned for upcoming MSCU events!

In the meantime, here's an interesting story.

An English family from Plymouth, Devon recently discovered that their living room was on top of a sixteenth-century well. The well measures approximately 30 inches wide, and goes 17 feet underground.  A sword was also found within the well.

Imagine that in your living room?

Photo courtesy of the NY Daily News.

 For more info, check out the story here: 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/british-family-digs-medieval-living-room-article-1.1147901

Also, please comment if you have any ideas for new events.

The Passion of the Chelios?

For those who have not seen either Crank or Crank: High Voltage, these films tell the story of Chev Chelios, a hitman who, for various reasons, must take rather extreme actions to stay alive.

While these films could be written off as bread and circuses for an increasingly desensitized mass audience, they seem to contain hidden depths. Without spoiling the ending for Crank: High Voltage, in the end of the film our hero finds himself in a situation which mirrors the passion of Christ. After being whipped by his prosecutor Chelios ascends a wooden power-line and cruxifies himself between the wires. Chelios, however, does not die. He comes back down to earth bathed in light (albeit light provided from his own burning flesh) and returns to one of his allies, a female prostitute.

Now, I don't mean to imply that the writer of Crank: High Voltage is in any way attempting to convey a spiritual (or even intellectual) message to his audience. The realization that Chelios is a parallel for Christ made the ending to this movie even more amusing. And if you're going to make a sequal to a movie in which the main character falls from an airplane onto cement and lives, how else are you going to top youself?

This does raise an extremely important question, however, how is Crank 3 ever going to top this?

Rome never fell

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that it has an affinity for all things Roman. If you also have an affinity for the glory of ancient Rome, take a look at Pax Romana.

Pax Romana is a comic written by Jonathan Hickman . In a distant future the Catholic Church is dying. Pope Pius XIII uses experimental time-travelling technology to attempt to restore the Church to its former glory. In meddling with history Pius not only restores the power of the Catholic Church but also the power of the Roman Empire. Witness a world in which Rome still rules.

If this sounds interesting, you can read the first issue of the comic here.

I study literature, medieval literature

FUN FACT: The father of Indiana Jones (played by Sir Sean Connery) is a professor of medieval literature.

(Referring to his father) "a teacher of medieval literature. The one the students hope they don't get."

- Last Crusade

So if James Bond studies the Middle Ages, it must be cool.