The Crash of ’45…1345
Does this remind you of anything?:
Venice,” wrote Braudel:
“was the greatest commercial success of the Middle Ages — a city
without industry, except for naval-military construction, which came to bestride
the Mediterranean world and to control an empire through mere trading
enterprise.And most importantly, Frederick Lane writes:
“Venice’s rulers were less concerned with profits from industries than with profits from trade between regions that valued gold and silver differently.”
Also, a warning about the effects of population reduction:
The Black Death in Europe destroyed the Malthusian idea that fewer people would mean better life for the survivors — against it, came the Renaissance idea of the dignity and sanctity of each individual life. The chronicler Matteo Villani wrote in the 1360s:
“It was assumed, on account of the lack of people, that there would be an abundance of everything the law produces. But on the contrary, because of man’s ingratitude, everything was in unusually short supply … and in some countries there were terrible famines. It was thought there would be a profusion of clothing and of everything the human body needs besides life itself, and just the opposite occurred. Most things cost twice as much or more than they did before the plague and wages increased disjointedly to double.”
Long read but worth it.
http://american_almanac.tripod.com/pbgbardi.htm
Ah, if it isn’t the star of this article…
(no comment.)
British artist Emin displays tampons in new show
LONDON — British artist Tracey Emin known for her controversial work said Monday she had shocked even herself after featuring her used tampons in a major new retrospective of her work.
The 47-year-old admitted the display in the show “Love Is What You Want”, which opens at the Hayward Gallery in London on Wednesday, made her feel “queasy.”
“I do feel a little bit embarrassed about the tampons in the corner. When I unpacked them I thought: oh no,” said Emin.
But she said she made the work around 12 years ago and it felt “perfectly natural” at the time.
The tampons are displayed in glass cases next to a pregnancy test in a work titled “The History of Painting Part 1”.
Emin, best known for an installation of her unmade bed and for a tent embroidered with the names of everyone she has ever slept with, said she now believed in keeping some details private in her work.
“I never use names in my work any more. I keep some things to myself,” she said.
“The tent did get me in a little bit of trouble, I must say. I don’t need to use names because it’s just in my head.”
The retrospective which runs until August 29 contains a warning about explicit content and says under-16s must be accompanied by an adult.
It includes Emin’s films, memorabilia, paintings, sculptures, appliqued blankets and drawings such as “Those Who Suffer Love”, an animation created from around 200 drawings to show a woman masturbating.
It also features new work such as a heart-shaped neon sign which reads “Love Is What You Want”.
I found it odd his choice of the four capitals that run the world. No London? I also noted his favouring of Medvedev over Putin, or so it seems. What’s his game? Says “China is about to explode” too. What does he know?
And then, onto these weapons that “nobody knows about…yet. With these weapons we will destroy any part of the planet within 15 minutes. No explosion, no ray burst. Not some kind of a laser, not lightning. It is a calm and quiet weapon with which whole continents will be put to sleep, forever…I say, if you want the tiniest Kuril Island from us you will have to dig in the wreckage and debris of their buildings. And 120 million of you will all die!”
Is he just making trouble for Putin? The impression I get is that he is engaging in what can only be called diplomatic trolling. Either that or he’s just a bit nuts. Maybe both.
Quite an interesting cat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhirinovsky#Controversies
“Racist remarks
Zhirinovsky has been accused of anti-Semitism (for his part, he suggested that Jews were often to blame for anti-Semitism[7]) for statements in which he accused Jews of ruining Russia, sending Russian women to foreign countries as prostitutes, selling children and organs to the Western world, and provoking the Holocaust. He reportedly even praised Adolf Hitler‘s ideology of Nazism[17] and befriended Edwin Neuwirth, an Austrian industrialist and a “proud” former officer of the Waffen-SS who has denied that the Nazis used gas chambers to kill Jews during World War II, leading some of the German media to denounce him as “Russia’s Hitler”.[8][15] Zhirinovsky has expressed admiration for the 1996 United States presidential election contender Pat Buchanan, referring positively to a comment in which Buchanan labeled the United States Congress “Israeli-occupied territory”, and said that both countries were “under occupation” and that “to survive, we could set aside places on US and Russian territories to deport this small but troublesome tribe.” Buchanan strongly rejected this endorsement, saying he would provide safe haven to persecuted minorities if Zhirinovsky were ever elected Russia’s president, eliciting a harsh response by Zhirinovsky: “You soiled your pants as soon as you got my congratulations. Who are you afraid of? Zionists?”[18] Zhirinovsky repeatedly denied his father’s Jewishness until he published Ivan Close Your Soul in July 2001, describing how his father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, changed his surname from Eidelshtein to Zhirinovsky. He rhetorically asked, “Why should I reject Russian blood, Russian culture, Russian land, and fall in love with the Jewish people only because of that single drop of blood that my father left in my mother’s body?”[5]
Besides expressing his hatred for Turks and Caucasians*,[19] Zhirinovsky also called for the deportation of all Chinese from Russian Far East.[20] During the 1992 visit to the United States, Zhirinovsky called on television “for the preservation of the white race” and warned that the white Americans were in danger of turning their country over to black and Hispanic people.”
*(means current inhabitants of the Caucasus in this context, not Europeans/whites)
.
“…Most people fail to realize that your gut is quite literally your second brain, and in addition to digesting your food actually has the ability to significantly influence your:
- Mind
- Mood
- Behavior
It’s not a widely understood or emphasized fact, but studies have repeatedly shown that a healthy gut reinforces a positive outlook and behavior, while depression and a variety of behavioral problems have been linked to an imbalance or lack of gut bacteria.
For example, a recent animal study published in the journal Neurogastroenterology & Motility, found that mice lacking gut bacteria behave differently from normal mice, engaging in what would be referred to as “high-risk behavior.” This altered behavior was accompanied by neurochemical changes in the mouse brain.
According to the authors, microbiota (your gut flora) plays a role in the communication between your gut and your brain, and:
“Acquisition of intestinal microbiota in the immediate postnatal period has a defining impact on the development and function of the gastrointestinal, immune, neuroendocrine and metabolic systems. For example, the presence of gut microbiota regulates the set point for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity.”
So, not only does this finding dovetail nicely with the theory that your gut flora may be a factor of your nutritional type, but it also helps explain how your diet and gut flora can impact your mental health, for better or worse.
Remember, your diet is largely responsible for your gut health, and when you feed your body the fuel it’s designed for, your gut flora will be able to maintain optimal balance, which then supports optimal physical and mental health.
The intrinsic connection between your gut and your brain becomes easier to understand once you know that your brain and gut are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve; the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. This is what connects your two brains together.
Your gut and brain actually work in tandem, each influencing the other.
This is why your intestinal health can have such a profound influence on your mental health, and vice versa…”
Now Fukushima Is Literally Going To Be A Circus Tent
Are they serious? This has to be deliberate ‘incompetence’ just like we saw in the Gulf last year. A high priesthood sabotage operation.
.
(NaturalNews) In a demonstration of the company’s shocking ignorance concerning the nature of
radioactive particles, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced
that it is going to place large polyester domes — yes, you read that right —
around the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in an
alleged attempt to help contain radioactive particles. The polyester domes will
begin appearing next month, and all are expected to be in place by the end of
the year, say reports.
The TEPCO announcement, of course, is an insult to
the intelligence of billions of people worldwide that understand that a thin
layer of polyester fabric will do absolutely nothing to contain radioactive particles.
Nevertheless, the company is moving forward with its plan to tent the facility,
which also happens to conveniently hide from the public the true condition of
the reactors behind a layer of opaque plastic material.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032400_Fukushima_tents.html#ixzz1MRZrOkYJ
CO2phobia is at fever pitch. I mean, if you were going to talk about toxic substances connected to fossil fuel use, you could talk about many plastics that pose a danger to human health, or you could talk about the mercury in coal.
But these things are not a problem apparently.
“The new budget puts the government on target to meet a reduction by 2050 of 80% of carbon emissions compared with 1990 levels. The committee has said that to reach this carbon emissions should be cut by 60% by 2030.
Ministers believe that major companies involved in developing offshore wind technology – such as Siemens, Vestas and General Electric – will now be keener to invest in Britain, knowing it is committed to a huge expansion in renewable energy. It is also hoped that the commitment to renewable energy – the committee says 40% of the UK’s power should come from wind, wave and tide sources by 2030 – will stimulate new industries.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/14/historic-climate-change-deal-agreed-chris-huhne
Plants need CO2. With the possibility of food shortages (predicted by, among other people, Malthusian environmentalists), wouldn’t it make sense to have some CO2 increase that may benefit crop yields? CO2 has been much much higher in history than it is today.
As for the govt’s solutions, wind power is a joke. Maybe solar or geothermal would be better? But, no. Don’t want you to have power when the wind stops. Maybe unleash some of that Tesla technology? Oh, sorry, I didn’t say that. It doesn’t exist does it. ‘My bad’.
Back to the reservation, subject. Your calorie rations are spent. Who do you think you are – Royalty?
both look the same to me. er…
PS Bin Laden’s death certificate will hopefully prove to the world that he died in a hospital in Hawaii. Like, prove it once and for all…
Let’s Hear It For Agriculture
It’s late but I had to pass comment on this. Cannot believe what I am reading.
There’s no doubt that there are and/or were downsides to agriculture. But it’s this love for all things primitive, without really questioning what that entails. It’s a lot like some of the self styled ‘anarchists’ who only call themselves thus because it’s cool not because they have ever actually considered the implications of anarchy or how it may actually work.
Okay so we transition away from agriculture. How? Just kind of…let the cows walk away? I don’t think they want to. But let’s suppose they do. Surely the most efficient way for people to feed themselves is to do some kind of manipulation of nature – you know, farming – otherwise they are dependent on the whims of natural changes, basically wandering through the wilderness, fingers crossed that the next bush will be full of berries.
So agriculture has given us a lot more ‘food security’. Great. This also frees up a lot of time that would otherwise be spent foraging which can now be used for song and games, and for some, philosophy, writing, science, art etc etc. You know, culture? That whole thing? Civilisation?
(Even hemp won’t grow unless you plant seeds. Yes, planting seeds is agriculture.)
What makes me sadder is how some people actually just nod and agree. I mean, it may as well be Malthus right there, and frankly I got the same feeling while reading that, but maybe that is just due to the academic author.
So thank you agriculture for all you have given us. Some of our long ago ancestors toughed it out farming, for century after century, and look where we are now, with a majority of people literate for instance. Some of them even blasted into space. If prehistoric man had stuck with hunter gathering where would we be? Sat in the bush in loin cloths? No way in hell would this post exist. In fact I’d certainly be dead as I only survived birth due to surgery. (Irrelevant supposition as world population wouldn’t even be a tenth of what it is today.) Although maybe that’s me being ‘selfish’ again, huh, ruining the whole planet just for my own gain…
To dismiss the acheivements of the human species via agriculture/civilisation, as some kind of ‘mistake’, is an insult to our ‘primitive’ ancestors. You want primitivism, however, you’re going to get it. We do seem to have been predictive programmed for that.
I don’t think the reality would come close to matching the fantasy painted by the movies and of course by Ray Mears who we all know is superior to Bear Grylls. Cmon at least Ray actually does the stuff for whole days and doesn’t cheat.
Newsflash: Babies Are Supposed To Be Fat, Duh!
Babies given anti-obesity drugs in the womb
Not the story (as absurd as it may be) that concerns me here so much as the picture, designed to mislead. You know how easy it is to worry naive mothers out there. No way is that a genuinely obese baby. I mean, come on, they’re supposed to be chubby. They need the fat. You put your baby on a ‘diet’ and its brain won’t develop properly because, guess what, your brain is in a large part made of fat/cholesterol. In fact the prevalence of this myth that cholesterol is inherently evil could be tied to rising rates of alzheimer’s disease – see here.
The Zion Olympics
London 2012…Brithish Isarel’s work is almost complete…building ‘Jerusalem’ in England’s green and pleasant land…
