Now this tickles my fancy in two areas: history and photography. This ridiculously beautiful starfield photo was taken in front of the ruins of Alamut, the fortress of the assassins in Iran.

Every couple years or so I like reading a bit of medieval history so I know a bit about the assassins. The word assassin has a root word in ḥashīsh, which was what this cult used to indulge in before they went forth on missions of murder. The cult of the Assassins (thought to be derived from Hashasheen, or users of Hashish) were feared throughout the medieval Middle East and Europe because their agents were fearless -- through use of hashish -- and because their mountain stronghold was said to be inaccessible and impregnable. Their leader, the Old Man of the Mountains, built their organization up to be a latter day secret network selling their services to the highest bidder yet remaining untouchable. That is, until the Mongols finally laid siege to them and wiped them out. There's always a bigger dog.*

*Yes, I know a lot of this is Orientalist myth. But it's a good story anyway.