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LaserMonks Offer Prayer, Printer Cartridges
Minnesotan writes "According to a Twincities.com article: If you need discounted inkjet- or laser-printer cartridges, Wisconsin's LaserMonks say they'll give you a doozy of a deal while you 'support prayer for the world'. The Cistercian priests - yes, they're actual Catholic monks - oversee a novel e-commerce enterprise out of their rural abbey. Proceeds go to maintain the monastery and finance charitable works around the world."
Refilling your Lexmark cartridge isn't just a DMCA violation -- it's a sin!
This is an updated verson of a very old (middle ages) tradition of monastaries doing some specialized task (and doing it well) and using thier product to sell or barter for needed supplies, food, etc...
This practice kept a lot of trades and information alive that might have otherwise died out. It would take a reel jerk to sue them for DMCA violations too =:-)
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Play Six Pack Man. I
Perlmonks
Elgon
Looking over the page's source, it looks like they borrowed a lot of their JavaScript. Talk about copying scripture...
/rimshot
Not that weird. Trappist monasteries have been brewing beer for centuries. They've been making cheese as well. Perhaps the best known Trappist beer and cheese are from the Scourmont abbey in southern Belgium -- can you say Chimay :-)
"I wonder if slashdoting the website of monks is actually a sin..."
Only if you get modded up for joking about it.
"Derp de derp."
I heard some of these monasteries actually make money off brewing beer!
There is a great and long tradition of Trappist monastaries brewing beer. The Belgian trappist ales are some of the finest in existence. If you like your beer dark, rich and potent then there is nothing finer. The best known are the Chimay ales which are truly excellent, especially the chocolatey Trippel.
Goodness I think its time to leave work and find God at the bottom of a bottle...
Sailing over the event horizon
Could be worse. They might be Shaolin monks, in which case Taco's going to get seven kinds of stuff kicked out of him for putting their bandwidth bill into the stratosphere.
Welcome our new monk overlords, well actually they kinda are if they talk to god and all.
In my prayers tonight: "God, give me strength to put up with my job to take care of my Fiance..."
God: "I can do that for you, but buy some new toner for your HP Laserjet 1100 for only $50 at http://www.lasermonks.com and you'll get a raise and your Fiance will love you forever..."
...in bed
The best alcohol made by monks comes in the form of Chartreuse:
Only three monks know the identity of the 130 plants, how to blend them and how to distill them into this world famous liqueur. They are also the only ones who know which plants they have to macerate to produce the natural green and yellow colours. And they alone supervise the slow ageing in oak casks.
(text from http://www.chartreuse.fr/pa_green&yellow_uk.htm)
Wonderful liquer. Tastes like drinking a Christmas tree, but one made of 55% alcohol.
Actually, copyright did not begin to form as an idea until the 17th - 18th Centuries.
The huge cost of reproducing a book meant that it was not a problem until the movable type printing press became popular at the end of the fifteenth century - which ultimately put the monks out of that kind of business.
Interestingly, the way that reproduction happened in the middle ages (and before) was was very similar the way that people copy music now. Essentially, a monastery would swap works with it's "friends" (other monasteries, generally).
Sources:
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