#dairy entry 12: random

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

I GOT THE POLLS AFTER I LOGGED OUT OF TUMBLR, BEFORE LOGGING IN AGAIN. @that-was-a-bit-stupid-of-you did you try that?

[jcmarchi]

Seeking our future in the deep past

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/seeking-our-future-in-the-deep-past/

Seeking our future in the deep past

Used to be, societies would recycle building materials. In Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica was made from the stones of the Colosseum. The Inca reused stones from one project to the next. Today we rarely do that.

As MIT associate professor of architecture Brandon Clifford observes, we barely even admit how often we tear down buildings. 

“The architect today designs a building with the false presumption that it’s going to last forever,” Clifford says. “Unfortunately the reality is, some buildings last the length of our mortgages, 30 years. Then they go to landfills.”

He adds: “If an archaeologist looks back at our time, we will be called the mound builders because we’re making enormous landfills all around the world. Those are the things that are going to last. Civilizations will ask, “What were people thinking in the early 2000s, when they were just building these colossal mounds?”

Looking back in time imaginatively is Clifford’s job: He studies ancient structures and building practices, to generate new ones. Recently Clifford’s studio, Matter Design, took discarded concrete chunks — from a dairy barn floor, a Motel 6 wall, and a roadbed — and used digital design and modern cutting tools to assemble them into a new wall. If the ancients could redeploy materials, why can’t we?

“Humans have been reassembling random bits of material from previous incarnations of architecture for millennia, but we just don’t understand the rules today,” says Clifford, who has also designed buildings, written a manifesto about learning from the past, and had his students build a megalithic stone and move it around Killian Court.

Here, we’ve assembled more bits of material about Clifford himself, fitted them together, and built this profile article to last — for a while, anyway.

Leverage the talent

Virtually all architectural work contains a critique of other building forms. Clifford is upfront about this: Construction today is unsustainable, inefficient, and costly.

“The current mode of designing and subsequent construction is not working,” Clifford wrote in 2017.

As a counterpoint, the architectural designs Clifford has produced — like competition entries for the Bamiyan Cultural Center in Afghanistan and the Guggenheim Helsinki — are sensitive to the supply of materials. An award-winning small project of Clifford’s, the Five Fields Play Structure in suburban Massachusetts, cleverly maximizes its square footage.

But Clifford’s career is not really about one style of architecture. It’s about one style of architectural thinking. Today we seem surprised at the architecture of the ancients, but to Clifford, that just means we haven’t thought creatively enough about how they solved problems. Ultimately, Clifford wants to leverage the talent around him to rework our building habits.

“In our lab we find work to be successful if it challenges the way you think about the broader discipline,” says Clifford, who was granted tenure at MIT this year.

Space odyssey

Clifford’s father was an astronaut. Rich Clifford served in the military, joined NASA, and flew on three space shuttle missions in the 1990s.

“I grew up in Houston, surrounded by the space industry,” Clifford says. He lived down the street from astronaut John Young — one of the 12 people to walk on the moon and co-pilot of the first space shuttle flight, in 1981.

Rich Clifford was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease before his last shuttle flight. He died in late 2021. Brandon Clifford has been reflecting about his father’s trajectory, and its influence on his own.

“I work with prehistoric, gravity-laden, human contributions to Earth, while my dad was exploring space,” he says. “But we’re both exploring things, in very different ways.”

In some ways, NASA reminds Clifford of his current employer.

“NASA is such an interesting cross-pollination of ideas,” Clifford observes. “It’s balanced between the military and public-facing images of space. The space industry has always been generating challenging ideas about humanity, while also being very scientifically rigorous. I see MIT as being on equal footing with NASA in that respect.”

Stones and civilization

Clifford graduated from Georgia Tech in 2006, studying architecture with a focus on digital fabrication. He went to graduate school at Princeton University while the housing market crashed. “Every single one of my classmates was losing their job in architecture,” Clifford recalls.

In graduate school, he was studying digital fabrication again. Then one day, MIT architectural historian Mark Jarzombek arrived in Princeton for a lecture.

“He said you can tell a civilization is doing well, if it is carving stone precisely,” Clifford says. “That moment shifted my career, and since then I have been studying stone architecture.” By the way, we don’t do much stone carving today, either.

Clifford started thinking historically and globally. One common narrative is that architecture emerged out of making shelters. Yet, from Egypt to Easter Island, many societies have often advanced their building techniques for other purposes.

“When you look at prehistory, the pyramids, Stonehenge, the moai of Easter Island, the polygonal masonry structure of the Inca, none of them are shelter,” Clifford says.

Digging into these structures reveals how societies maximized what they had. When the Inca recycled stone blocks into walls, they would only cut the top side, to fit each block into the new structure. The Greeks would cut the bottom side. But both were optimizing their resources and labor. Ancient practices contain useful ideas.

What you don’t know can help you

Still, we don’t know everything about ancient buildings. To Clifford, this is a feature, not a bug.

After all, if there are mysteries about the architecture of the past, there is room for us to think creatively about it. Given 12 hypotheses about how Stonehenge was constructed, 11 may be historically inaccurate — but several of those might contain interesting ideas.

“My work is often misunderstood as experimental archaeology,” Clifford says. “But as an architect I’m interested in the future. I’m not trying to prove anything about the past. I’m just trying to extract bits of knowledge or find alternative ways of thinking about past construction that can change the way we think about the future. If any theory changes the way we do something, it’s still useful.”

Make a megalith move

When outsiders reached Easter Island in 1722, an obvious mystery was how the island’s gigantic statues were transported around. The islanders claimed the moai had “walked” to their locations, which sounded like a fanciful myth.

But in 2011, archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo proposed that the Easter Island statues had been transported upright, with people using ropes to sway the statues side to side while pivoting them forward. Thus the statues could have “walked,” although not everyone immediately accepted the hypothesis.

Clifford, who landed at MIT in 2012, co-taught a class with Jarzombek in 2015 that featured a group project: The students built a 16-foot megalith out of glass fiber reinforced concrete, then figured out how to transport it around Killian Court with ropes. They named it the McKnelly Megalith. The course had a teaching assistant, Carrie Lee McKnelly, whose parents had just tragically passed away, so the name was in their honor.

A key to the McKnelly Megalith’s mobility was its curving shape. Because the center of gravity is not in the middle of the structure’s form, it is easier to pivot and swivel around. The Easter Island moai use this design principle too. The MIT class was not the first test of moving a megalith with rope — Hunt and Lipo did that in Hawaii — but it did reinforce the method’s viability.

“That’s the kind of thing that’s celebrated in MIT culture, honestly,” Clifford says. “Let’s make a big megalith move.”

And float

In 2016, Clifford and his students doubled down on megaliths, with the Buoy Stone, a huge, pear-shaped, fiber-reinforced piece of concrete they moored in the Charles River outside of Killian Court for a couple of months.

The Buoy Stone was built for MIT’s “Moving Day,” a celebration of its 100th anniversary of relocating from Boston across the rover to Cambridge. The stone was an exploration of transporting megaliths on water — as many of Stonehenge’s pieces were. In this case, the Buoy Stone was towed on water horizontally, and then when stationary, it partially filled with water and tipped upright. The object also caused a lot of local head-scratching.

Clifford again: “We had no title saying what the Buoy Stone was. With megaliths, that’s part of the mystery: Why is that thing here? A giant stone miles from the nearest quarry is an intriguing artifact. People in Cambridge still tell me, ‘I run along the Charles River and I used to wonder what that weird thing was.’ It was a fun project because it was a celebration of MIT.”

The Buoy Stone didn’t address a historical debate as directly as the McKnelly Megalith had, but it may have contemporary applications, perhaps in barrier-type structures, and was an exercise in creative design.

“At MIT, the students are very open and accepting of challenging ideas,” Clifford says. “They want to think differently.”

Colossus and the cosmos

Clifford is hardly the only MIT faculty member who studies ancient building techniques; others include Jarzombek, John Ochsendorf, Admir Masic, and more. But he has settled into his own niche in the area, and is currently working on a new book project about his explorations, tentatively titled “Colossus and the Cosmos.” He has given a TED Talk and won the American Academy in Rome Prize, among other honors.

This will be Clifford’s second book. His first was his quirky 2017 volume, “The Cannibal’s Cookbook,” with the “Cannibal” term alluding to recycling building materials, while the “Cookbook” part refers to the idea that there are recipes for doing this. 

And while there already exist advocates for “circular construction,” the greater reuse of building materials, Clifford thinks the concept needs greater circulation.

“The way architecture is set up now doesn’t allow for that,” Clifford says. “We don’t have a way of reincorporating materials. Much of the reception to the first book has been from students of architecture, exploring design. I’m hoping the next layer of impact will be with the building industry, finding ways of automating this process.”

Creative company

Tenure can free up professors to pursue independent-minded projects, although Clifford, for one, has never needed much encouragement in that regard. One nuance of Clifford’s career, though, is that while he has pursued his own path, it has involved a lot of collaboration.

“I have the best colleagues I could imagine, and I think of my MIT graduate students as colleagues as well,” Clifford says.

He adds: “I’ve never done a project on my own. I had this idea, before I started studying architecture, that an architect just sat at a drafting table and conceived of buildings, the solitary genius thing. But every project I’ve done is a collaboration with someone that knows something different. I realize there’s so much I don’t know.”

There’s that notion again, that the gaps in our knowledge are an opportunity. We will never know it all about old buildings, but even so, as Clifford notes: “The question is, ‘How much do you need to know about something to change the way you think about the future?’ That’s where the value is.”

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

Haiyaa~

I've been repeating these numbers for the past 15 seconds so 8, 12, 23 and 27 for the ask game <3

heyy! thanks for asking, i was literally dying of boredom here, and you came to the rescue.

8. What’s your favorite band/artist?

My favorite band would be ABBA and my favorite artist is Billie Eilish. Considering that I grew up with my dad's music, it's no surprise that i love ABBA.

12. Who are five (or more) people you want to hug right now? 

My aunt, cause she just gave birth, but I can't go meet her or the baby cause she can't come to london, and i can't go to another country right now due to medical school.

My mother, cause she ordered and send a few books to me. The thing is, when i asked her why she send those, she just said it was cause she knew i've wanted those books for a long time. (It was the Young Elites Series by Marie Lu)

My best friend, cause i still haven't properly thanked her for looking after me when i was sick.

My study buddy at school, cause he took the time to make detailed notes for the lectures i missed, when i had to skip cause i was sick.

You, Ava, for sending me an ask and chasing my boredom away!

23. Do you believe in aliens? 

I mean, as of now, there is no scientific evidence to see if aliens do exist. As long as scientific evidence is not given to prove this, then I don't believe in aliens.

27. What’s your favorite book? Or just one you’ve read a few times? 

There are so many! Butttttt:

The Book Thief

The Hunger Games series

Every Percy Jackson book out there

Harry Potter (Just to confirm, I hate the author. She's a bitch)

The Legend Series

The Hobbit

[daleisgreat]

Inglourious Basterds

I am jumping out of order with the third Quentin Tarantino film I am covering here is not QT’s third film, Jackie Brown, but instead for his 2009 alternate take on World War II, Inglourious Basterds (trailer). Click or press here for my article on Reservoir Dogs, and click or press here for my entry on Pulp Fiction. I have owned the BluRay since it first released well over a decade ago, and it is a shame yet another QT gem has sat in my backlog for so long. This takes place in occupied France with a riveting opening scene where German Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) conducts an interview with a local dairy farmer which eventually leads to questioning about missing Jews. This being a QT film, the dialog is intentionally drawn out, with Hans pausing the interview for a refreshing glass of milk, and digressing on other tangents before eventually getting to the burning question. Once again, QT absolutely nails the art of conversation like very few of his peers can. Every subtle body language flinch and pivot throughout their verbal exchange is not wasted, and it ultimately pays off with a unforgettable impact to close the scene. If it was almost any other filmmaker, my tolerance would have surely been tested, but there is something to QT’s scripts that without fail have me 100% invested in their surplus of verbiage as much as a climactic action scene in the latest summer blockbuster.

Be prepared for some vintage-QT dialog-heavy scenes...I wouldn't want it any other way from him! This being a WWII film, one would think it would be safe to presume there is a fair amount of military combat scenes. While there is a significant body count by the end of the film, the firefights are not of the typical Hollywood WWII fare, so do not expect any all-out tanks, war planes, and massive artillery skirmishes. Most of the action that transpires here involves a team of Jewish American soldiers headed up by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). After the absurd fallout from their latest mission in a basement tavern, they receive intel from undercover operative Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) that Nazi leadership including Hitler (Martin Wuttke) himself will be at the grand opening of the latest military propaganda film, Nation’s Pride.

The theater owner where Nation’s Pride will be premiering, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), has an intriguing arc on how she is roped into debuting the film at her cinema which is caused by the relentless intimate pursuit of German soldier, Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl). Without giving too much away, Shosanna has her own agenda too, and everything builds up splendidly to the big premiere night of Nation’s Pride. I vividly remember going into the theater not clued into the ending which I will not spoil here, and I was instantly stunned at the direction QT went for the final act. There is nearly an hour and a half of bonus material on the BluRay. The standout bonus is a half hour interview with Brad Pitt and QT, conducted by Elvis Mitchell with some highlights of their conversation being how energetic the overall shoot was, and what it was like premiering the film in Germany. Other extra features worth checking out is the full six minute cut of Nation’s Pride, a quick look back with interviews of the cast and crew from the original 1978 Inglorious Bastards, and a pair of interviews with Rod Taylor who has some fun behind-the-scenes stories with QT on how the two have the utmost respect for each other.

Inglourious Basterds did not disappoint with a highly entertaining second viewing where nearly the entire ensemble cast excelled in their performances! For a film that is two and a half hours long, it proved to be a swift viewing after being so engrossed with all the aforementioned dialog-dense scenes. I cannot fairly rank this among QT’s movies as I nearly love them all equally, but it goes without saying if you have made it this far then you know I am giving this the highest of recommendations! Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

VESPER MY LOVE THANKS FOR THE TAG 💖💖

Honestly, my music taste changes every 2 days. My playlist is literally organized in phases, but as of now, these are my favs.

when the party's over - Billie Eilish

Lift me up - Rihanna (yes, i watched the new black panther movie)

Aqua - Sakamoto (vesper suggested this one

Isabella's Lullaby - (😭 idk the composer but it's from 'The Promised Neverland)

Like my Father - Jax

KICK BACK - Kenshi Yonezu

favorite crime - Olivia Rodrigo

Count on me - Bruno Mars

Runaway - AURORA

The Way I Loved You - Taylor Swift

Derniere danse - Indila (the lyrics are absolutely beautiful if you know the meaning)

Tagging (ONLY if you wanna do it) - @exquisitelyhideous @asunflowerana @ceriphina @victusinveritas @nuninho2000 @shoyoist @that-was-a-bit-stupid-of-you @eunoiaaaivy @lamnwar @shakethatsassyass

(vesper already tagged some of y'all and i've barely spoken to some of y'all so im sorry if this is out of nowhere 😭😭)

Tag game

Rules: list 10 songs you really like, each by a different artist, and then tag 10 people to do the same

Tagged By @violetwinters, Thank you for tagging me 🌸🌸

1. Come To Brazil  - Why Don’t We 

2. Blue Hour - TXT 

3. Candy - Doja Cat 

4. Miracle -  Wayv 

5. Heart Of Fire- Black Veil Brides

6. Besitos - Peirce The Veil

7. This Is What Makes Us Girls - Lana Del Rey 

8. Agree To Disagree - Sleeping With Sirens 

9. All In - Stray Kids 

10. Miss Americana & The Heart Break Prince - Taylor Swift

I tag @hear-the-sound: @ego-like-sandwich @hopeticket @simply-elegantly-kai  @shwazzberryswriting @dibidibidismynameisleeknow @thelonelymeow @morningsunandnightsky @sharkie-stay  @ramenlixxie I also tag anyone who also wants to do it. 

[make-it-mavis]

Homesick (Entry #5)

(cw: alcohol) <-Previous | Next-> ----------

12/20/87  1:15 PM

Hey.

It would be weird to say this stuff to you. So it feels weird to write. But here goes.

Would you have wanted me to break into a fit of hysteria right away, begging you not to go? Because I didn’t do that.

I just… kind of... didn’t do anything. Not right away. ‘Cause for a while there, I just kind of felt like nothing happened. I felt like I did shortly before you went nuts, back when you were acting all weird and anxious. You know, back when we both hoped Roadblasters’ hype would die down and it would end up like any other contender for your number-one title.

I never thought the hype could get to your head the way it did. I figured we could wait it out. So I tried that again, I guess. I’d just wait it out, and somehow, things would go back to normal. I didn’t remember what happened, so I thought I could easily pretend nothing did.

But the hacking and coughing was hard to explain away. And I could feel weird things, sort of like a ringing in the ears, but… everywhere.

I couldn’t sleep. Whenever I tried to relax, I’d get this nagging feeling that I’d forgotten something important. And then the moment I’d manage to drift off, the BANG of those fireworks and the screams of the crowd would jolt me awake. Sometimes, I’d even see that bright, blazing light. The incident at the memorial was just tormenting me, and I hated it, because it made no freakin’ sense. Being frightened in the heat of it was bad enough, and now the panic was following me? 

It even bled into when I was awake. I was always shaking at least a little bit. Like the very cores of my bones were vibrating. And I was jumpier than I’d ever been in my life. You would have had a field day with it. Any sudden noise or movement and I’d pop out of my skin. Fix-it saw the dark circles under my eyes eventually and was all, “Drink warm milk before bed, Mavy!” Which is rich, given what dairy does to his guts.

No thanks. Booze worked at the time. Had to drink ‘til I couldn’t think anymore. Not saying that’s always a bad time, but it becomes less of a party when you feel you have no choice. It was either that or live in one extended panic attack. I was not mixing well with reality.

The force of your stunt knocked the whole arcade off-kilter. Everything was the same, but nothing was the same. Trying to resume “routine” was like trying to catch a ball with one eye closed. Everyone was almost as high-strung as me, and the air was always tense and fragile, with everyone walking around like they were on a minefield. 

You really took my name with you, I’d come to find. I stopped being me to basically everybody. I just became some pitiable, suspicious, despicable, controversial part of your story, a story that was just full of glaring holes to me.

Even sprites that’d normally be good for a couple jokes just turned cold. If I came too close, they’d just look down and hurry along. If anyone caught me near their game, they’d call the SP or try to chase me away. Some of them would even throw random crap at me. Better believe I threw stuff back, but of course, I was the one to get in trouble for it. They all acted like I’d made some kind of statement or threat or some BS when I set off those fireworks.

No one could shut up about us. About you. Still can’t. It’s too bad you’re not here to enjoy being the hottest topic since Berzerk got unplugged. Devs, there was nowhere I could go without hearing your name. And everyone was so weird about it to me. Sometimes I’d hear them say your name, and then they’d glance at me to see if I’d heard, kind of like they expected me to have some big dramatic reaction. 

And there was always this aggravating hush whenever I entered a room. Then they all whispered gossip about me like they thought I couldn’t hear them.

Back in the beginning, the juiciest topic was that I’d “somehow survived” whatever put me in Fix-it’s apartment on the 7th. No one ever wanted to talk about it when I asked them. No one wanted to talk to me at all, really. Isn’t that sweet?

Being around other sprites obviously stopped being fun. I was too tired to just put up with their garbage. So I avoided crowds and just wandered aimlessly in the reaches of random games for a while. Y’know, whichever ones I could actually get into. Sprites weren’t too fond of me doing that, and kept annoyingly close eyes on me for the first while, but it was better than Game Central.

And, honestly, I think part of me kind of hoped I’d just… run into you.

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

the last line is such a mood.

Okay so all of my exams are over (midterms and pa 3) and I have taken a short break and now I'm ready to start posting again

So if yall missed me, which you should cuz I'm a delight, rejoice fuckers

[oliveratlanta]

Homage to 9 great, historic Atlanta buildings reborn as restaurants

The seductive interiors of Southern Belle at the 1930s Briarcliff Plaza in Poncey-Highland. | Southern Belle/Georgia Boy

Both old and new, these eatery spaces shine in remarkable settings from Decatur to downtown

News recently broke of the closing of fine dining restaurant Rose & Rye inside the “Castle” building on 15th Street in Midtown. The ambitious eatery made media waves when opening in 2017 for its team of women holding top positions, from management to chef staff, but with the building’s current owners filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November and putting it on the market, there are fair questions to be asked about whether or not building out an eatery inside a historic space is something Atlantans will support as the city changes.

Let’s hope so.

The fact is, restaurants and bars dotted all around Atlanta are not only surviving but thriving in architecturally significant buildings that have stood long enough to claim “historic” status. Here are some of the standouts.

Ponce City Market

Jonathan Phillips/Curbed Atlanta

Walking in from street level to Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall feels like stepping into updated history—only more fun, especially when you’re hungry.

As one of Atlanta’s most iconic and important renovated landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this former Sears & Roebuck Co. distribution center is full of corporate offices, retail shops, and random experiences. But it’s the food and drink that keeps folks coming back.

Chief among PCM attractions for those arriving with appetites are the Italian restaurant and market Bellina Alimentari, Ton Ton ramen bar, Biltong Bar for cocktails you’d hardly expect to be fantastic since they’re served alongside dried cutlets of South African beef jerky, Tasty China Jia (the crispy quail is wildly spicy but worth it), H&F Burger, and casual Mexican restaurant Minero, whose standout chicken wings are shaken in brown bags full of spice before plated in front of you. Also don’t miss the food in other areas of the property, including Root Baking Co. on the second floor, Pancake Social on the outer edge facing North Avenue, and The Roof, where Slater Hospitality runs beer garden 9 Mile Station and the secretive 12 Cocktail Bar, which has its own elevator, security, and boasts the highest public perch in the building, in a space where a historic radio program was once broadcasted.

The Brasserie and Neighborhood Cafe at Parish

Tucked into the side of a sloping hill next to the Beltline, where Inman Park meets Old Fourth Ward, Parish’s presence on Highland Avenue doesn’t just predate the latest round of restaurants and bars to arrive in the past decade. It’s been around since 1890, and the building is (almost) all that’s left of the Atlanta Pipe Factory Terminal Building.

Photo: Lisa C Writes/Eater Atlanta

The two-story restaurant is inspired by New Orleanian cuisine, although the menu has shifted to more tavern-style eats like orange-glazed, pan-seared salmon (but with French lentils). They still serve a good chicken and sausage gumbo, alongside a solid brunch of chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits and corned beef hash, but it’d honestly be nice to get some beignets.

Google/Zagat

Parish’s charming exterior on North Highland Avenue.

By George

Photos courtesy of Curio Collection by Hilton Hotels

The Candler Building’s elaborate lobby.

Hugh Acheson isn’t new to opening a restaurant in or near a historic bank. Take for example his first Atlanta restaurant, Empire State South, which sits across the street from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This time he’s in the Candler Building, completed in 1906 by Coca-Cola co-founder Asa Candler, who also put a financial institution of his own—Central Bank & Trust—on the main lobby floor of the 17-story tower.

By George, which leans into Acheson’s French cuisine aspirations, is the featured restaurant for the building’s new status as the Candler Hotel, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

The dinner menu offerings (the wonderfully tart steak tartare or the expertly prepared steak diane could both turn a vegan into a vampire) remind you that Acheson is clearly comfortable in his Canadian skin, and intends to set a new dining standard in downtown. Breakfast and lunch are also served, and superstar drinks-master Kellie Thorn is behind ingenious sips that make proper use of cognac, armagnac, and other French spirits.

Beyond the food, the space is surrounded by marble to a level you’re not likely to see duplicated in any new restaurant in or outside Atlanta, unless it’s by someone with Coke money.

Exterior detailing at the Candler Building.

Wonderkid

Sean Keenan/Curbed Atlanta

The former milk production facility’s revised facade.

Now that tenants are arriving in this Reynoldstown adaptive-reuse development, Atlanta Dairies is once again ready to milk the benefits of its funky Art Deco, Memorial-Drive-facing facade and prime Beltline location.

Beginning in the 1940s as a dairy co-op, it now houses Wonderkid, a classic diner from the teams behind such successful F&B brands as King of Pops, The Lawrence, and Bon Ton.

Chef Justin Dixon (previously at The Shed at Glenwood) turns out delicious interpretations of classics, such as the falafel waffle and roasted chicken pot pie, served from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. After that, the late night menu goes back to breakfast, and lets anyone that’s always rapped along with OutKast on the chorus of Rosa Parks but never actually tried fish and grits to get their fill. The cocktail program is also a standout, the beers range from wonderfully cheap (but still great), to Atlanta-based crafts, and it also has the distinction of being the first place in the world dishing KoP’s soft-serve, which is obviously apropos for the concept.

Livingston Restaurant + Bar and Edgar’s Proof & Provision

Proof & Provision

A social space with early 1900s origins.

The Georgian Terrace Hotel dates back to 1911, famous for a screening of Gone with the Wind that attracted major stars of the day, including Vivian Leigh, Clark Gable, and Lawrence Olivier.

Today, Livingston, an elegant two-story dining hall named after Atlanta’s 37th mayor Livingston Mims, attracts folks hungry for a Southern meal, from breakfast through dinner and on to brunch, with special pre-show dinner options for Fox Theatre ticketholders. For later-night bites and cocktails, there’s Edgar’s down below Peachtree Street, where bourbon and more is poured until midnight on weekdays, and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, for guests on black leather banquettes between brick columns.

Kimball House

Square Feet Studio

As the former depot was being transitioned from what used to be Depeaux.

While the controversial white paint might make it hard to envision Golden Eagle and Muchacho as a former train station built in 1891 (more on that in a minute), you can immediately tell that’s what Kimball House used to be, as you approach the formerly forest-green Decatur Square restaurant and bar at 303 East Howard Avenue.

Known for serving some of the best and freshest oysters in the city (apparently KH’s partners, who are also behind Krog Street Market’s Watchman’s, are soon to begin farming their own oysters in Alabama), it’s also notable because the details of the interior and exterior retain some of the energy of motion you feel in any transit station. The tiled floors, high ceilings and tall windows give the feeling that you’re passing through a place where people who make moves have been coming for years, and will continue to do the same.

Matthew Wong/Eater Atlanta

Kimball House’s throwback interiors.

Southern Belle and Georgia Boy

Southern Belle/Georgia Boy

There was a bit of a scare when The Plaza on Ponce (or Briarcliff Plaza, depending on whom you ask), was sold in 2017 to Charlotte-based Asana Partners, particularly among Atlantans who’re big fans of watching indie/campy films at The Plaza Theatre, preceded or followed by a sturdy meal at the beloved Majestic Diner, which itself has been serving customers 24 hours a day since the start of the Great Depression. Late last year, two new restaurants opened on the property: Southern Belle and Georgia Boy.

The former is a restaurant homage to the wife of Chef Joey Ward (a talented protégé of chef Kevin Gillespie), while the latter is a hidden entry chef’s kitchen with a mind-blowing tasting menu, which changes at Ward’s whim but has included such inventive items as a fully edible snow globe. And while GB’s aesthetic leans much more steely, Southern Belle’s lofty interior, including a tall, deep-blue-painted archway, exposed brick and original tin ceiling, make it feel like a dining hall that’s been ringing dinner bells much longer.

Krog Street Market

Asana Partners

The pioneering food hall’s main entrance.

It’s only right that Krog Street Market has high-quality restaurants, since the Beltline-adjacent building opened in 1889 as the factory for Atlanta Stove Works, where cast iron was used to make sturdy cooking ranges.

After a few years of operating as an early iteration of Tyler Perry Studios, the factory was purchased and turned into a market food hall, where today you can take almost anyone that’s hungry and be pretty sure they’ll leave satisfied.

From the impressive pizza pies at Varuni Napoli, to the seafood entrees, oysters and fabulous cocktails at Watchman’s (try the pineapple pancakes from their great new Sunday brunch), the top-tier burgers at Fred’s Meat & Bread, the always reliable dumplings at Gu’s, or the burns-so-good hot chicken at Richards’ Southern Fried, the only things that probably don’t taste good are the flowers, dog treats, and soaps from the retail stands.

Golden Eagle/Muchacho

Ansley Atlanta Real Estate

Back more than 80 years ago, when the Beltline was a two-word phrase, this Reynoldstown building was constructed as a train depot. After being abandoned in the mid-20th century, it sat vacant for decades until restaurateur Jerry Slater took it over and opened popular cocktail bar H. Harper Station in 2010.

While H. Harper sadly didn’t last long enough to see the arrival of the renewed, single-word Beltline (it closed on April Fool’s Day 2016), the space was quickly purchased by one of the owners of Ladybird, another Beltline restaurant and bar, and opened as two separate restaurants—Golden Eagle and Muchacho—in 2017.

There was a bit of controversy when the new owner decided to paint the brick building, but things have since calmed down, thanks to favorable opinions of GE/M’s ambiance. What also doesn’t hurt: breakfast tacos and coffee worth eating and drinking at Muchacho, plus Golden Eagle’s respectably delicious tavern food (prime rib specials on Mondays, whole cast-iron-roasted chicken) and very fancy cocktails. Spirits enthusiasts seem to agree that, while Slater’s drinks were stellar, Eagle’s beverages are similarly brag-worthy.

Andrew Thomas Lee/Eater Atlanta

The bar at Golden Eagle.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/1/29/21113875/atlanta-buildings-restaurants-architecture-history

[healthyandfitness-diy]

via HEALTHY AND FITNESS https://ift.tt/2NTMhbm

Improve Memory Power

Tips and Exercises to Sharpen Your Mind and Boost Brainpower

A trip to the grocery store to pick up bread, milk, and eggs could turn into a two-trip ordeal because you forgot to get one of three items listed. Left your phone in the cab? Blanking on names? Or the movie you saw last weekend? Then you're not alone. Everyone loses track occasionally. It kind of feels like as we are ageing, our minds and memories just don't work like they used to. But is that really true, or are there ways to improve memory power? The fact of the matter is that certain aspects of brain function and memory capability are not necessarily linked to getting older. Lifestyle choices and whether or not we implement memory-boosting techniques in our day-to-day lives contribute to the overall health of our brains and our ability to remember both new and old information. So we got to wondering: Is it possible to counteract the memory decline that already seems to be taking place? How can we improve memory power?

Well, we discovered;

 13 Tricks and Mind-sharpening Strategies to Boost your Memory.

1. Get a Good Night Sleep –

A poor sleep takes a toll on everything, from your job performance to your daily chores, and especially your memory. Sleep is a key time for the brain to solidify the connections between neurons, thus helping us remember more of our tasks. Rule of thumb: Get 7-8 hours of sleep everyday. Even a short naps counts for memory. Experts are of the opinion that if you do only one thing to improve your memory, getting more sleep should be it. If you have trouble sleeping get to know How to Get Good Sleep Naturally and Foods That Help You Sleep Better  to get a sound sleep. Yes, this age-old remedy actually works.

2. Jog Your Memory –

Literally. Exercise increases your heart rate which gets blood flowing to your brain, thus keeping your memory sharp. In fact, brain boosting physical activities that require hand-eye coordination or complex motor skills are particularly beneficial for brain building. Running, swimming, biking - any form of exercise - for at least 30 minutes helps enlarge the hippocampus, which is regarded as the 'memory center of the brain'. If you don't have time for a full workout, squeeze in a 10-minute walk around the block in your schedule or a few jumping jacks. It's enough to reboot your brain.

3. Stay Focused and Quit Multitasking –

Can't find your keys? It's probably because you weren't paying attention when you put them down. When you're juggling too many things, you're bound to forget. As it turns out, the brain doesn't actually multitask. Instead, it switches focus from one thing to the other, which is why it is difficult to read a book and hold a conversation at the same time. Multitasking will slow you down, so make it a point to concentrate on the task at hand. It's crucial. Studies suggest to say it out loud: "I left my keys on the dresser", etc. so the brain can process it. Your brain actually need about eight seconds to commit a piece of information to your memory, so if you're talking on the phone and carrying groceries when you put down your car keys, you're unlikely to remember where you left them.

 4. Use Mnemonic Devices –

Mnemonic devices are tools which help you memorize in an easier format - words, lists, concepts, et al.

·         Acronyms: They are basically abbreviations used a word to help you jog your memory. For example: CART can be carrots, apples, raspberries and tomatoes, which can be used to remember your grocery list.

·         Rhymes: If you need to remember a name, get creative. "Mary loves cherry" or "Simon is a fireman".  

·         Acrostics: These are life savers during exams, especially. Whenever you need to mug up a sentence, combine the initial letters and use as a memory cue. For example: How we all remembered the 9 planets during childhood, "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets".

·         Chunking: Chunking breaks a long list of numbers or other types of information into smaller, more manageable chunks. For example: Remembering a 10-digit phone number by breaking it down   into three sets of numbers: 555-867-5309 (as opposed to 5558675309).

5. Meditation is Key –

According to a 2015 study from the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, the brain starts to decline in your 20s and continues to decrease both in size and volume. Meditating and yoga regularly delays cognitive decline and prevents neurodegenerative diseases like Dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Meditation produces a positive charge in the brain's gray matter overtime, which is important for memory, learning and self-awareness. In addition, meditation has been shown to reduce stress, which can do a number on memory.

6. Stay Mentally Active –

Give you brain a workout. Note: Crossword puzzles and Sudoku are your new best friend. Challenge your brain, take a different route to work, learn a new language, read a section of the newspaper you usually skip, do things out of the ordinary. Stay engaged, because mentally stimulating activities help keep your brain in shape - and might even keep memory loss at bay. People who are cognitively active have better memory as they age, it's true. So quiz yourself, flex your brain and improve your memory power.

7. Get Organized –

If your house is in a mess, you're more likely to forget things. Jot down tasks, declutter your home and note down appointments. Set aside a particular place at home to keep your keys, and limit distractions. Live by to-do lists, keep them upto date and check off the items you've completed. Physically writing down new information actually helps reinforce it. A day planner or smart phone calendar can help you keep track of appointments and activities and can also serve as a journal in which you write anything that you would like to remember. Writing down and organizing information reinforces learning.

Try jotting down conversations, thoughts, experiences.

Review current and previous day’s entries at breakfast and dinner.

If you use a planner and not a smart phone, keep it in the same spot at home and take it with you whenever you leave.

8. Write It Down -

Jotting down information will help you remember and visualize your agenda or tasks for the day. It is an easy way to remind yourself of what you have to do or say later during the day. Always keep a "random-thought pad" on hand while you're at the computer or folding laundry can help improve your focus naturally

9. Visualize your memory –

Learning faces and names is a particularly hard task for most people. In addition to repeating a person’s name, you can also associate the name with an image. Visualization strengthens the association you are making between the face and the name. For example:

Link the name Sandy with the image of a beach, and imagine Sandy on the beach or as suggested before "Mary loves cherry" or "Simon is a fireman".

10. Find a Cue –

When you are having difficulty recalling a particular word or fact, you can cue yourself by giving related details or “talking around” the word, name, or fact. Other practical ways to cue include:

Using alarms or a kitchen timer to remind you of tasks or appointments.

Placing an object associated with the task you must do in a prominent place at home. For example, if you want to order tickets to a play, leave a newspaper ad for the play near your telephone or computer.

11. Group them up –

When you’re trying to remember a long list of items, it can help to group the items in sets of three to five, just as you would to remember a phone number. This strategy capitalizes on organization and building associations, and helps to extend the capacity of our short-term memory by chunking information together instead of trying to remember each piece of information independently. For example:

If you have a list of 15 things on your grocery list, you can group the items by category, such as dairy, produce, canned goods, and frozen foods.

 12. Balance Your Stress –

Chronic stress and depression, both contribute to memory loss and the destruction of brain cells. One of the best things you can do is to laugh. Yes, it's that simple. Laughter engaged multiple regions of the brain and simultaneously reduces stress. Social interaction also helps ward off depression and stress, so look for opportunities to get together with family, loved ones, friends and work colleagues. Know the strategies for How to Manage Stress in Life.

 13. Food for Thought –

Did you know that the brain is an energy hungry organ? Despite comprising only 2% of the body's weight, the brain gobbles up more than 20% of daily energy intake. So a healthy diet might be as good for your brain as it is for your overall health, and eating right may in fact be more important than you think. After all, you are what you eat. The brain demands a constant supply of glucose which is obtained from recently eaten carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits and greens. Because when the glucose level drops, it results in confused thinking. No, this does not give you the license to slurp on sugary drinks. Instead eat throughout the day to optimize brain power- not too much, not too little. Memory boosting diet includes antioxidant-rich, colorful fruits, green leafy vegetables and whole grains which protect your brain from harmful free radicals. Choose low-fat protein sources such as fish and drink at least 8 glasses of water daily since dehydration can lead to memory loss and confusion.

The following nutritional tips will help boost your brainpower and reduce your risk of dementia:

Get your omega-3s. Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids are particularly beneficial for brain health. Fish is a particularly rich source of omega-3, especially cold water “fatty fish” such as salmon, tuna, halibut, trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring.

If you’re not a fan of seafood, consider non-fish sources of omega-3s such as seaweed, walnuts, ground flaxseed, flaxseed oil, winter squash, kidney and pinto beans, spinach, broccoli, pumpkin seeds, and soybeans.

Limit calories and saturated fat. Research shows that diets high in saturated fat (from sources such as red meat, whole milk, butter, cheese, cream, and ice cream) increase your risk of dementia and impair concentration and memory.

Eat more fruit and vegetables. Produce is packed with antioxidants, substances that protect your brain cells from damage. Colorful fruits and vegetables are particularly good antioxidant "superfood" sources.

Drink green tea. Green tea contains polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that protect against free radicals that can damage brain cells. Among many other benefits, regular consumption of green tea may enhance memory and mental alertness and slow brain aging.

Drink wine (or grape juice) in moderation. Keeping your alcohol consumption in check is key, since alcohol kills brain cells. But in moderation (around 1 glass a day for women; 2 for men), alcohol may actually improve memory and cognition. Red wine appears to be the best option, as it is rich in resveratrol, a flavonoid that boosts blood flow in the brain and reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Other resveratrol-packed options include grape juice, cranberry juice, fresh grapes and berries, and peanuts.

IDENTIFY AND TREAT HEALTH PROBLEMS

Do you feel that your memory has taken an unexplainable dip? If so, there may be a health or lifestyle problem to blame.

It’s not just dementia or Alzheimer’s disease that causes memory loss. There are many diseases, mental health disorders, and medications that can interfere with memory:

Heart disease and its risk factors. 

Cardiovasculardisease and its risk factors, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, have been linked to mild cognitive impairment.

Diabetes. 

Studies show that people with diabetesexperience far greater cognitive decline than those who don’t suffer from the disease.

Hormone imbalance. 

Women going through menopause often experience memory problems when their estrogen dips. In men, low testosterone can cause issues. Thyroid imbalances can also cause forgetfulness, sluggish thinking, or confusion.

Medications. 

Many prescription and over-the-counter medications can get in the way of memory and clear thinking. Common culprits include cold and allergy medications, sleep aids, and antidepressants. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about possible side effects.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/rakbar-khan-did-cow-vigilantes-lynch-a-muslim-farmer/

Rakbar Khan: Did cow vigilantes lynch a Muslim farmer?

Image copyright Getty Images (Allison Joyce)

Image caption Cow vigilantes in Ramgarh in 2015

A Muslim dairy farmer was stopped late one night last July as he led two cows down a track in rural Rajasthan, south of the Indian capital, Delhi. Within hours he was dead, but who killed him, asks the BBC’s James Clayton – the “cow vigilantes” he met on the road, or the police?

It’s 4am and Dr Hassan Khan, the duty doctor at Ramgarh hospital, is notified of something unusual.

The police have brought in a dead man, a man they claim not to know.

“What were the police like when they brought him in? Were they calm?” I ask him.

“Not calm,” he says. “They were anxious.”

“Are they usually anxious?” I ask.

“Not usually,” he says, laughing nervously.

The dead man is later identified by his father as local farmer Rakbar Khan.

This was not a random murder. The story illustrates some of the social tensions bubbling away under the surface in India, and particularly in the north of the country.

And his case raises questions for the authorities – including the governing Hindu nationalist BJP party.

Cow-related violence – 2012-2019

Image copyright IndiaSpend

Rakbar Khan was a family man. He had seven children.

He kept cows and he also happened to be a Muslim. That can be a dangerous mix in India.

“We have always reared cows, and we are dependent on their milk for our livelihood,” says Rakbar’s father, Suleiman.

“No-one used to say anything when you transported a cow.”

That has changed. Several men have been killed in recent years while transporting cows in the mainly Muslim region of Mewat, not far from Delhi, where Rakbar lived.

“People are afraid. If we go to get a cow they will kill us. They surround our vehicle. So everyone is too scared to get these animals,” says Suleiman.

Everyone I speak to in the village where the Khans live is afraid of gau rakshaks – cow protection gangs.

Image copyright Getty Images (Allison Joyce)

Image caption Nawal Kishore Sharma’s cow protection group in 2015

The gangs often consist of young, hardline Hindus, who believe passionately in defending India’s holy animal.

They believe that laws to protect cows, such as a ban on slaughtering the animals, are not being fully enforced – and they hunt for “cow smugglers”, who they believe are taking cows to be killed for meat.

Often armed, they have been responsible for dozens of attacks on farmers in India over the last five years, according to data analysis organisation IndiaSpend, which monitors reports of hate crimes in the media.

On 21 July 2018, Rakbar Khan met the local gau rakshak.

There are some things we know for certain about what happened that night.

Rakbar was walking down a small road with two cows. It was late and it was raining heavily.

Then, out of the dark, came the lights of motorbikes. We know this, because Rakbar was with a friend, who survived.

Image copyright Getty Images (Enrico Fabian)

At this point the details become a little sketchier. There are three versions of the story.

The gang managed to catch Rakbar, but his friend, Aslam, slipped away. He lay on the ground, in the mud and prayed he wouldn’t be found.

“There was so much fear inside me, my heart was hurting,” he says.

“From there I heard the screams. They were beating him. There wasn’t a single part of his body that wasn’t broken. He was beaten very badly.”

Find out more

Watch James Clayton’s report for Newsnight, on BBC Two

The documentary India’s Cow Vigilantes can be seen on Our World on BBC World News and on the BBC News Channel (click for transmission times)

Aslam says that Rakbar was killed then and there.

But there is evidence that suggests otherwise.

Much of what happened next focuses around the leader of the local cow vigilante group, Nawal Kishore Sharma.

Aslam claims he heard the gang address him by name that night, but when I speak to Sharma, he denies he was there at all.

Image caption Nawal Kishore Sharma

“It was about 00:30 in the morning and I was sleeping in my house… Some of my group phoned me to say they’d caught some cow smugglers,” he says.

According to Nawal Kishore Sharma, he then drove with the police to the spot. “He was alive and he was fine,” he says.

But that’s not what the police say.

In their “first incident report” they say that Rakbar was indeed alive when they found him.

“Nawal Kishore Sharma informed the police at about 00:41 that some men were smuggling two cows on foot,” the report says.

“Then the police met Nawal Kishore outside the police station and they all went to the location.

“There was a man who was injured and covered in mud.

“He told the police his name, his father’s name, his age (28) and the village he was from.

“And as he finished these sentences, he almost immediately passed out. Then he was put in the police vehicle and they left for Ramgarh.

“Then the police reached Ramgarh with Rakbar where the available doctor declared him dead.”

Image copyright Getty Images (Allison Joyce)

Image caption Ramgarh at night

But this version of events is highly dubious.

I go to the hospital in Ramgarh, where Rakbar was taken. Hospital staff are busily going through bound books of hospital records – looking for Rakbar’s admission entry.

And then, there it is. “Unknown dead body” brought in at 04:00 on 21 July 2018.

It’s not a long entry, but it contradicts the police’s story, and raises some serious questions.

For a start, Rakbar was found about 12 minutes’ drive away from the hospital. Why did it take more than three hours for them to take him there?

And if the police say Rakbar gave them his name, why did they tell the hospital they didn’t know who he was?

Nawal Kishore Sharma claims to know why. He paints a very different picture of what happened to Rakbar.

He tells me that after picking up Rakbar, they changed his clothes.

He then claims to have taken two photos of Rakbar – who at this point was with the police.

Sharma says that he went to the police station with the police. He claims that’s when the beating really began.

“The police injured him badly. They even beat him with their shoes,” he says.

“They kicked him powerfully on the left side of his body four times. Then they beat him with sticks. They beat him here (pointing at his ribs) and even on his neck.”

At about 03:00 Nawal Kishore Sharma says he went with some police officers to take the two cows to a local cow shelter. When he returned, he says, the police told him that Rakbar had died.

Rakbar’s death certificate shows that his leg and hand had been broken. He’d been badly beaten and had broken his ribs, which had punctured his lungs.

According to his death certificate he died of “shock… as a result of injuries sustained over body”.

I ask the duty doctor at the hospital whether he remembers what Rakbar’s body was like when the police brought it in.

“It was cold,” he says.

I ask him how long it would take for a body to become cold after death.

“A couple of hours,” he replies.

“I don’t want to talk about Rakbar’s case,” says Rejendra Singh, chief of police of Alwar district, which includes Ramgarh.

Since Rakbar’s murder several police officers have been suspended. I want to know why.

He looks uneasily at me.

“There were lapses on the police side,” he says.

I ask him what those lapses were.

“They had not followed the regular police procedure, which they were supposed to do,” he says. “It was one big lapse.”

Three men from Nawal Kishore Sharma’s vigilante group have been charged with Rakbar’s murder. Sharma himself remains under investigation.

The vigilante group and the police blame each other for Rakbar’s death, but neither denies working together that night.

The way Sharma describes it, the police cannot be everywhere, so the vigilantes help them out. But it’s the police that “take all the action” he says.

Image copyright Getty Images (Enrico Fabian)

Image caption Nawal Kishore Sharma inspects a lorry transporting cows (October 2015)

Much police activity in Rajasthan is focused on stopping cow slaughter.

Across the state there are dozens of formal cow checkpoints, where police stop vehicles looking for smugglers who are taking cows to be killed.

I visited one of the checkpoints. Sure enough police were patiently stopping vehicles and looking for cows.

The night before officers had had a gun battle with a group of men after a truck failed to stop.

These checkpoints have become common in some parts of India. Sometimes they are run by the police, sometimes by the vigilantes, and sometimes by both.

This gets to the heart of Rakbar’s case.

Human rights groups argue that his murder – and others like his – show that in some areas the police have got too close to the gangs.

Image copyright Getty Images (Allison Joyce)

Image caption The vigilantes find what they are looking for (November 2015)

“Unfortunately what we’re finding too often is that the police are complicit,” says Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch, which published a 104-page report on cow-related violence in India this week.

In some areas, police have been reluctant to arrest the perpetrators of violence – and much faster to prosecute people accused of either consuming or trading in beef, he says.

Human Rights Watch has looked into 12 cases where it claims police have been complicit in the death of a suspected cow smuggler or have covered it up. Rakbar’s is one of them.

But this case doesn’t just illustrate police failings. Some would argue that it also illustrates how parts of the governing BJP party have inflamed the problem.

Gyandev Ahuja is a larger-than-life character. As the local member of parliament in Ramgarh at the time when Rakbar was killed he’s an important local figure.

He has also made a series of controversial statements about “cow smugglers”.

After a man was badly beaten in December 2017 Ahuja told local media: “To be straightforward, I will say that if anyone is indulging in cow smuggling, then this is how you will die.”

After Rakbar’s death he said that cow smuggling was worse than terrorism.

Image copyright Getty Images (Enrico Fabian)

Image caption Nails used by the vigilantes to force lorries to stop

Gyandev Ahuja is just one of several BJP politicians who have made statements that are supportive of the accused in so-called “cow lynchings”.

One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ministers was even photographed garlanding the accused murderers in a cow vigilante case. He has since apologised.

Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch says it is “terrifying” that elected officials have defended attackers.

“It is really, at this point of time, something that is a great concern, because it is changing a belief into a political narrative, and a violent one,” he says.

The worry is that supportive messages from some of the governing party’s politicians have emboldened the vigilantes.

No official figures are kept on cow violence, but the data collected by IndiaSpend suggests that it started ramping up in 2015, the year after Narendra Modi was elected.

IndiaSpend says that since then there have been 250 injuries and 46 deaths related to cow violence. This is likely to be an underestimate because farmers who have been beaten may be afraid to go to the police – and when a body is found it may not be clear what spurred the attack. The vast majority of the victims are Muslims.

Image copyright Getty Images (Enrico Fabian)

Image caption A cow shelter in Ramgarh

A BJP spokesman, Nalin Kohli, emphatically rejects any connection between his party and cow violence.

“To say the BJP is responsible is perverse, inaccurate and absolutely false,” he tells me.

“Many people have an interest in building a statement that the BJP is behind it. We won’t tolerate it.”

I ask him about Gyandev Ahuja’s inflammatory statements.

“Firstly that is not the party’s point of view and we have very clearly and unequivocally always said an individual’s point of view is theirs, the point of view of the party is articulated by the party.

“Has the BJP promoted him or protected him? No.”

But a month after this interview, Ahuja was made vice-president of the party in Rajasthan.

Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Rajasthan – publicly slapping Ahuja on the back and waving together at crowds of BJP supporters.

In Mewat I speak to Rakbar’s wife, Asmina.

“Show me how you raise seven children without a husband. How will I be able to raise them?” she says, wiping away tears.

“My youngest daughter says that my father went to God. If you ask her, ‘How did he go to God?’ she says, ‘My father was bringing a cow and people killed him.’

“The life of an animal is so important but that of a human is not.”

The trial of the three men accused of his murder has yet to take place, but perhaps we will never know what really happened to Rakbar.

In November 2015, photographer Allison Joyce spent a night following Nawal Kishore Sharma’s vigilantes in the countryside near Ramgarh. One of her shots shows a police officer embracing Sharma, after his group succeeding in catching some suspected cow smugglers.

Though the police now accuse the cow vigilantes of killing Rakbar Khan, and the vigilantes accuse the police, the photograph illustrates just how closely they worked together.

Image copyright Getty Images (Allison Joyce)

In the Indian media there have been claims that the police took the two cows that Rakbar had been transporting to a cow shelter, as Rakbar lay dead or dying in a police vehicle.

There are also claims that the police stopped and drank tea instead of taking Rakbar to hospital.

Whatever they did, they did not take Rakbar to hospital immediately.

Join the conversation – find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

[kraaks-avant-guardian]

Asmus Tietchens

Asmus Tietchens — a name that popped up about 40 years ago for the first time on an album of ambient music by Cluster&Eno (1977) and can be found in various fields of electronic and experimental music ever since, mostly on the fringes of certain genres like industrial, synth-pop, acousmatic, reductionist electronic music or krautrock. It’s hard to fix his position to a specific scene, instead he seems more like a curious and peculiar mind working his way through all the spheres that catch his curiosity. Although he can be classified as a consistent solo-artist, quite a few collaborations have been exercised with people like the percussionist Jon Mueller, the reductionist electronic composer Richard Chartier, Chrysanthemums’ Terry Burrows or his duo Kon-takt der Jünglinge (a combination of titles of two early Stockhausen pieces) together with media-artist and composer Thomas Koener. He also appears on an album by the ephemeral Krautrock band-project Liliental (one of the few records featuring studio-wizard Conny Plank as a musician), probably the only real band he ever played in, not to mention his general dislike of most Krautrock.

— Marc Matter

But let’s start at the beginning: Asmus Tietchens was born in Hamburg (*1947), has lived there ever since, and works there mostly in the studio of his old friend Okko Bekker—a composer of filmscores and advertisments who also guest-starred on the Cluster & Eno album, but has also produced whole works together with Asmus, most notably a concept-album called E that con­tains succesful imitations of modern classical and avantgarde music. His attachment with the city of Hamburg is close: being a key-figure and a close inspiration to a younger generation of experimental electronic musicians such as Felix Kubin, who admired Tietchens as a kind of chinese master, a laughing monch, an existentialist audio-scientist leaning to impression­ism who produces real science-fiction with his music. He also used to be involved in the infamous Odradek fanzine, has been rumored of being behind the mysterious Werkbund and Mechthild von Leusch projects together with Uli Rehberg aka Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg (Tietchens repeatedly denied his participation) and still co-runs the monthly Hörbar events of experimen­tal music in a small cinema (B-Movie). Even his dayjobs that he once had to execute for the sake of his parents’ peace were typical for Hamburg: trained as a tradesman working in the harbour and later being a copywriter in the advertising business.

Confronted with early german electronic avantgarde music and french musique concrete on the night-programs of germany’s state-radio as a 12-year old kid, because he somewhat felt obliged to follow the development of the arts as a grammar school student due to his vanity, this kind of music caught his curiosity. The idea to make music himself de­veloped, and after giving it a try with guitar-playing which failed due to his left-handedness, he started tinkering around with splicing prerecorded tapes and doing random collages of found sound and music as a young teenager. In the mid-60s he system­atisized his approach and got access to a Revox tape-machine, and his first piece of tape-music dates back to 1965. Making music continued as a hobby for 15 years, before getting the opportunity to make it public. The LP Formen letzter Hausmusik (transl. Last forms of family-music, 1984) that was released by Nurse With Wounds Steven Stapleton for his United Dairies label contained mostly materi­al dating from the mid-70s. His active entry into the music-scene as a com­poser was via the industrial scene, not only releasing on the NWW label but also on Esplendor Geometrico’s later on, but he does not call his own music industrial: “like i have been on the fringes of industrial music in the 80s, i am nowadays working on the fringes of reductionist music” he tells me in a telephone interview. A period in his work as a composer that dates back to the early and mid 80s should not be forgotten—back then the german intellectual pop-magazine Spex (in the July 1985 issue) speculated that “atonal veteran Asmus Tietchens will never lose his reputation as a hippie-electronic (musician) because of his releases on the german Krautrock-label Sky”, although he still respects these records for what they are: synthie-pop.

While also some of his experi­mental pieces work with rhythms and repetitive patterns, his current compositions however are rather abstract, sparse and stern, a music not easy to access but starring an idiosyn­cratic beauty; they explore very subtle differences in tone, texture and sound while not hesitating to use silence as an element. He is more and more interested in nuances: “an unattentive listener could gain the impression when listening to an eight minute piece that nothing is happening here” he remarks. After starting out with tape-collages and going through phas­es of synthesized music and a long pe­riod of mixing both, he is back to pure electronic sound: “nowadays i hardly work with concrete sound-material like field-recordings anymore, but use synthetic sounds”. Nevertheless, two of Tietchens relatively recent radiopieces that he composed for the WDR Ars-Acustica broadcast series exclusively use concentrated field-re­cordings: Trois Dryades is based on microscopic recordings of a tree that is cut, and Sechs Heidelberger Studien on recordings of an old Heidelberger printing-machine. Both were awarded with the Karl-Sczuka Price for Radio- Art in 2003 and 2006. Unlike other artists who start out radical only to become tamed by habit, his musical abstraction and quaintness increased over time and moreover his curiosity lead him into different genres and styles without losing a certain kind of handwriting.

Some of Asmus Tietchens re­cordings display a twisted sort of humor: an LP of seemingly lost tapes by german hardrock band The Scorpions trying out some electronic Krautrock (of course NOT produced by The Scorpions but by Tietchens in collaboration with Felix Kubin aka Knoth and Tim Buhre as Spiders on Phasing), or the Aroma Club series containing bizarre synth-pop with matching artwork are funny though sarcastic examples of his broad approach to electronic music and his playful mocks on musical trends and genres. In some of these projects he uses pseudonyms which happen to be anagrams based on his real name like Tussi Schemante or Achim Stutessen. Artwork and album- or tracktitles (which are, beside a few exceptions, all in german) are further dimen­sions in Tietchens records in which a jejune kind of humor can be found in homeopathic doses, but besides of that, he considers his music to lack humor. It might be a specific critical sensitivity and playfulness within the way he approaches music, art and life, making him more of a dandy-noir (more in a spiritual sense instead of a blasé fashion-attitude) than a tongue-in-cheek ironymonger.

Asmus Tietchens doesnt mind to talk about his music before his perfor­mances, and he is a great talker. He is also a gifted writer of critical essays on experimental music or linernot­es for records by Cluster, Günther Schickert or Institut fuer Feinmotorik that contain remarkable literary qualities. However, he considers his music a music without words, a kind of ‘absolute music’—a concept dating back to mid-19th centuries hardcore romanticism—a music that is abso­lutely self-sufficient, that is not ‘about’ or ‘stands for’ something but for itself, that does not intend to provoke specific thoughts or feelings amongst the listen­ers (he is a diligent listener of his own music by the way)—in that way being as open for interpretation as it can get: “i have no messages to spread, and i dont know to whom i should adress those”. But nevertheless, he can’t help but stick to his habit to include a quota­tion of the thinker of extreme pessi­mism EM Cioran on each record since Seuchengebiete (transl. Pestilence Fields, 1985); thats because he really wants to share those aphorisms—not because he wants to entertain the listener, but to show what intellectual influences he bears. Thus he is not reflecting a worldview or philosophical convic­tions through his art, “there’s still some philosophical background noise that inspires the music”. Therefore it does not surprise that he characterises his music of the last 20 years—without any evaluation—as “an attempt to establish a maximal ‘human-distance’”

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

randomly joining in like popping up in a party uninvited so just ignore me while i have some fun

tagging anyone who wants to join + my moots (*/ω＼*)

make a moodboard with the first nine images on your pinterest feed...

...i be collecting react memes from pintrest

tagged by @watasemasaru tagging: @dejwrites @monirei @majimemegoro @skygayzer @dead-little-robin @heydreamchild @kingzephy @harveydentures and who ever else i suck at tagging- this was my first genuine attempt at tagging people and lost steam immediately lmao

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

im so nosy you should get freaked out by me but since you have given me this wonderful opportunity...

1, 2, 7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 24, 26, 41, 46, 55, 62, 71, 72, 74, 77

(I'd say more but let's see whether you can survive this much first)

you nosy little cutie patootie <33 i freaked out seeing these many numbers i gotta add a read more

1. The last person you kissed screams they love you, you say…

The last person I kissed on the lips was one of my two childhood friends and if she screamed that she loved me, I'd just scream that i love her too because she'd probably be freaking out about that new keychain i gave her. it's completely platonic, no strings attached. we're just really close that we peck each other on the lips when we're excited.

2. Did you get to sleep in today?

I normally wake up at around 8 because morning lectures start at around 10, so I need time for my morning run and breakfast. Today I woke up at 10, because I didn't have to wake up early. So yes, I got to sleep in.

7. Did you stand on your tippy-toes for your last kiss?

Nope! I'm the tallest of my little friend group (I'm not tall, I just have short friends) so that friend i mentioned in the first answer had to stand on her tippy toes, while i had to bend down a little.

9. Last person to talk on the phone?

My mum. She was a little pissed off because of some family problems (which i try to stay out of) but then she gave me this whole summary or smth about what happened and who did what and then asked for my opinion, which is something i never thought would happen, and then i gave her my opinion and she just sighed and said bye to me. honestly, the problem itself is something about my dad and my aunt having this big fight involving my dad's brother in law who decided to do some stupid shit. i dunno the rest.

14. Are you wearing jeans, shorts, sweatpants, or pajama pants?

Jeans. Those little shits who I consider my closest, childhood friends decided to take me to a movie. So one of them, Amy told me "it's the best movie i've EVER seen" and then the second one, Manjita was like "It's only January and this is the second movie you've seen since 2023 started." and Amy is all "Do you want Hannah to come or what?" and Manjita is like "Oh yeah. Change quickly, we're coming to get you in 2 hours" so now i'm all ready and waiting for them to pick me up.

15. Are you a different person now than you were 5 years ago?

I think so. I mean, when I was 14, I was basically the same version of myself but emo-er. I had my goth phase, which my mother discouraged. I'm not THAT goth now, but half my wardrobe is still black and my friends (read: little shits) never lets me forget that phase of mine.

16. What were you doing at 4 am?

I was actually in the bathroom, at 4:17 in the morning, sniffing the candle that sits near the sink while I was peeing.

17. Would you rather write a paper or give a speech?

I would rather give a speech. But, I'm pretty good at writing a paper too. Writing a paper is easier, but speaking actually makes me feel good, for some reason. Especially if I'm speaking about something I'm really passionate about. I give guest speeches at schools sometimes.

21. Ever told your parents you were going somewhere but when somewhere different?

I am what, people might consider, the 'goody two shoes child' but once when I went out with my friend (yk amy from the previous stories) I told my parents I would be going to Cold Stone (a coffeshop/ice cream place) but then I went to Baskin Robbins instead.

24. What did you get your last bruise from?

I hit my hip on my desk cause my desk just decided to move 5 inches forward on its own.

26. Your phone is ringing. It’s the person you fell hardest for. What do you do?

One less question to answer. I was getting tired with all the typing that I switched to my desktop.

41. Have you had your birthday this year?

My birthday's on August 5. So, no, I have not had my birthday this year.

46. Is it hard to make you laugh?

Never! I can laugh at the stupidest of jokes. A person can just look at me and I can laugh. Like, there's this joke in malayalam and its not even supposed to be funny but i still laugh at it. people say that joke whenever they want to say an unfunny joke. i'll translate it the best I can:

"So there's this old man who's really hungry and he stops by this hair saloon and walks in. He sits on one of the chairs there and asks the barber "what do you have?" and the barber says "hair cut and shaving" and the old guy replies "then i'll have two plates of those"

AND Y'ALL DONT KNOW HOW MUCH I LAUGH AT THIS. ONCE I FELL OFF THE CHAIR LAUGHING. ONCE I ALMOST PUKED. ONCE I CHOKED ON MY CHICKEN. (no but this isnt even supposed to be funny. i just laugh at it cause its funny to me idk)

55. How would your parents react if you got a tattoo?

"WHAT IS THIS ABOMINATION ON YOUR SKIN? DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET SKIN CANCER? YOU JUST POKE YOURSELF WITH A NEEDLE MILLION TIMES JUST TO GET THIS PRINTED ON YOUR BODY?"

indian parents smh

62. Would you take $40,000 or a brand new car?

$40,000. I have no need for a car. I would rather buy books or other house essentials.

71. Does it bother you when someone hides things from you?

No. I mean, if someone doesn't want to tell me something, I understand. But if they hide some THING from me, I would pester them until they return what they hid.

72. What’s your favorite color?

I love all pastel colors + black <3

74. Have you ever been looking for something and it was already in your hand?

Another question I don't have to answer cause i've already answered it before.

77. Do you have a person of the opposite sex that you can tell everything to?

Remember Amy and Manjita? There's an addition to that pair of little shits. He is someone I can tell anything to. Literally. These 3 pieces of shit know everything about me. We call eachother pieces of shit. Literally the most affectionate thing ever. He complains about having 3 girl best friends but as he grew older, we all grew more mature. Sometimes i trust him more than the other two because they tend to tease me more if its embarassing.

AND I AM DONE!!! THANKS FOR BEING NOSY I HAD FUN WITH THIS <333

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

omg i'm so excited!!! it's friday and i have loads of free time today! lectures finished early, i reached home at 12, finished reading a book (which was great btw) and now i'm finished making @vespersposts desktop wallpaper for my event!! i'm done with her drabble too! now should i post all the event requests on 25th or just post as i finish??

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

sometimes, when i go out with my friends or something, I always buy coffee if there's a cafe nearby. i drink coffee almost as much as water. and mine is pretty normal, a honey almond milk flat white will do the trick. except, i always add 1 or 2 extra shots of espresso. and AFTER those two shots, I put in 2 more packets of sugar and mix it all up. when i get this, people normally except a very sweet honey almond milk flat white, but sometimes, they don't hear me putting my order. so they dont know i have 2 shots of espresso in it. they come up to me and ask, "can i have a sip?" and i always say "yeah sure" and i never tell them about the espresso part. if they ask me what it is, i just tell them its a honey almond milk flat white with extra sugar and something else. and they drink it, and the face they make when they take a sip is always nice to see.

[the-chronicles-of-a-bookworm]

thanks for the tag, pretty girl <3

1. Are you named after anyone? 

Yes, my mother. Not her whole name tho, just her first name split into 2, and the second part was given to me. The name 'Hannah' is just another way of spelling my actual name. My actual name is actually a much shorter one. My name actually means flower, moon, and gift in different languages.

2. When was the last time you cried?

Today. I just randomly took my book and opened the last chapter where the main character's who family and neighbours and everyone dies in a bombing incident. It's set in WW2 where there was a bombing in an outlying city in Germany. The book is "The Book Thief - Markus Zusak"

3. Do you have kids?

For those who didn't know, I'm ace. So no kids of my own. I'm not looking for adoption either, because 1. I'm 19, 2. I don't want kids, and 3. I already have wonderful nieces and nephews to babysit every other weekend.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Vesper would hate me for this, but I am a sarcastic little bitch. I'm really nice though. It's one thing i admire about myself.

6. What's your eye color? 

Dark brown. (me and vesper are eye twinsies)

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Honestly, I can't choose. Depends on my mood, but right now I'm leaning towards scary movies.

8. Any special talents?

I can memorize things easily. I can actually repeat conversations without changing any words. Normally, I use that to settle down any arguments that take place. Like, if my cousins started arguing and in between, one of them says the opposite of what they said before, I would quote what they said before, and ask them why they changed their opinion. It would go like this:

Cousin 1: No! And then you said that she was a good person.

Cousin 2: I NEVER SAID THAT HOW DARE YOU!

Me: Actually, you said, and I quote "She is a good person, okay? She just needed some time."

Cousin 2: HAH! I WIN!

Cousin 1 *muttering under her breath*: Bitch.

(normally she never means that when she calls me a bitch. I just act really dramatic and go "i thought you loved me")

9. Where were you born? 

UAE (United Arab Emirates)

10. What are your hobbies? 

Reading forever! Or listening to music and thinking about its deeper meaning. (like some maniac psychologist or smth).

11. Have you any pets? 

I had 2 lovebirds called Athena and Artemis (i was and still am obsessed with percy jackson) but they died when i was 12. a cat ate them. (i still love modi and penny tho. they're the cutest.)

12. What sports do you play/have played?

I've tried many but sports aren't my thing. Basketball, tennis, football, and volleyball. Along with swimming, and even cricket. I just go to the gym or for a walk/run, just because i care about my physical health.

13. How tall are you? 

i dunno? 6'0 smth.

14. Favorite subject in school? 

Biology or physical chemistry. I also loved maths before they started algebra and decided to add letters in them.

15. Dream job? 

Oncologist or Gynecologist. Honestly, this answer hasn't changed at all from when I was 8. After a decade or two of this, I want to become an anatomy professor.

tagging (with no pressure ofc)- @that-was-a-bit-stupid-of-you @karma-is-a-queen @ek4t @lamnwar + any moots I missed and those who want to join <33)

15 Questions, 15 Mutuals

Thanks for the tag @sillyliterature !!

1. Are you named after anyone? 

No, my mom suggested naming me after one of her friends but my parents didn't end up picking that name!

2. When was the last time you cried?

This month, can't remember exactly when but definitely this month

3. Do you have kids?

Not at the moment!

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I used to, but I've dropped it as I've gotten older. Now I only use it to make exaggerated jokes.

6. What's your eye color? 

Blue

7. Scary movies or happy endings? 

Happy endings for sure, I've never been a fan of scary movies

8. Any special talents?

Hmmm... I can do voices and (some) accents? Idk if that counts but it's really useful for dnd, haha~

9. Where were you born? 

The Netherlands

10. What are your hobbies? 

The biggest one is writing for sure! I also love playing dnd, playing video games, reading, visiting bookstores, going on walks, singing (not especially good at it but love it anyway), sewing... I'll try just about anything, but those are my favs!

11. Have you any pets? 

If my family's cat counts, then yes, even if he sadly doesn't live at my place. If I could, I'd adopt 2 cats right now.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Right now, none. I don't like sports, generally speaking, though I love dancing and used to do kickboxing.

13. How tall are you? 

like 168cm I think

14. Favorite subject in school? 

English, Spanish, History, and depending on the teacher, Chemistry

15. Dream job? 

Full-time author... that would be so amazing

Tagging: @jillfizzart @megatraven @vespersposts @gehaktbal @jotarowan @flatescardos @nicolasadrabbles @ahhhnorealnamesallowed @shakethatsassyass @youvegottrouble @hauntedgarden95 @gaymergoose @miharu-ojou-sama @chiaki-c and @indoctrinates (if you feel like it, no pressure!)