#there were way too many french ‘people’ in athens today what’s up with that

[valend]

i hate to perpetuate stereotypes but two french guys sat across from me on the subway and they smelled so bad i thought i would puke

[jeannereames]

Hi Dr Reames, I hope you're well! I think I might have asked this before, so sorry if I'm being obnoxious, but do you think there is very much studying left to be done in regards to Alexander/Macedonia? Looking at the field from the outside, it seems a little bit like all that can be said, has been. Would you recommend studying Alexander specifically as a prospective academic path, or would you advocate pursuing other areas of classics?

The problem with studying ANYthing in the ancient world is always a problem of the sources. Unless there’s new material, then we’re all just doing ring-around-the-rosie with what we have. That doesn’t mean new things can’t be said. I’d point to my own work on Hephaistion, or for that matter, Alexander’s bereavement. I wasn’t looking at anything new, just looking differently at what we already had. As someone who’d done bereavement counseling, Alexander’s mourning of Hephaistion didn’t strike me as particular unusual, except in the amount of money he had and power to have his desires put into practice.

Also, scholarship tends to go through “fads,” like anything else. That is, someone makes a splash with a new approach, one that can be applied more broadly, and suddenly, a lot of people jump on board. That’s not necessarily bad, but it can result in oversaturation. Right now, one of the big fads is “reception studies.” So the rise of new directions in the study of old fields can offer alternative approaches to familiar material.

Another thing that can happen is for old fields to give birth to new ones. E.g, Charles Edson, Harry Dell, and then Nick Hammond all started asking questions about the country that produced Philip and Alexander, instead of writing just about them. Edson’s 1939 dissertation at Harvard, “Five Studies in Macedonian History” widened the lens but things really began to churn in the 60s and 70s. In 1972, Nick Hammond published the first volume in that massive A History of Macedonia, after having done Epiros earlier. He got Griffith to work with him on vol. 2, Griffith writing much of the material on Philip (which is still, btw, a pretty damn good summary of Philip’s reign, if you allow for material discovered since), then Walbank, already well-known as a scholar of Philip V, worked with Hammond on Vol. 3, which is the Hellenistic period.

Macedonian Studies was born, and by 1990, 3 different histories had appeared: a short version by Hammond on Macedonian Institutions called The Macedonian State, Gene Borza’s (still) excellent In the Shadow of Olympus, that goes up to Philip II, and Malcolm Errington’s A History of Macedonia that included ATG and the Hellenistic period. What followed (and was in between) involved numerous articles, then companions and conference proceedings. Alexander (and Philip) were still hot property, but many articles had nothing to do with them. New direction had been found.

Yet notice most of those early scholars were English-speakers. Partly, that owed to where it got started: Edson and Dell were Americans. They trained students who were also Americans. So Bill Greenwalt (Dell’s student) would go into Argead Macedonia with an interest in Illyria (and Thrace) because Dell had the same. There were some Greek scholars, such as Miltiades Hatzopoulos and Argyro Tataki doing a lot with epigraphy, and Manolis Andronikos himself, but the field was dominated by English-speakers for a while.

One of the bigger shifts in the last 20-25 years has been an expansion into other languages, plus the Greeks dominating the archaeology. When you take up high-level scholarship, there’s an assumption that you will read material in languages besides your own. When I got my PhD, aside from the ancient languages, common wisdom dictated I learn German and French.

BUT my NUMBER ONE piece of advice to anybody who wants to do ancient Macedonia today is LEARN MODERN GREEK.

Why? Because, as I said, the Greeks have taken back their own archaeology and most of their reports are in Greek. They’re talking to each other, and most (non-Greek) scholars don’t read modern Greek [that well]. That’s not entirely accidental, and some payback for the colonial dominance of the late 1800s and 1900s. (Elgin Marbles anybody?) The best way to keep out “interference” is to write mostly in a language few other scholars read well. That keeps Macedonian history in Greek hands. I would now advise young scholars that modern Greek is more important than French. Just as, if you really want to do Thracian history, learning Bulgarian and/or Russian might be a good idea.

It’s getting increasingly hard, as scholarship expands, to keep up with all the languages one needs. Current work is being done on Macedonia, as well as Alexander and the Hellenistic world in English, Spanish, Italian, German, modern Greek, and even Russian, and that doesn’t look at the wider world outside Europe (and colonial states). We’ve got a ton of talented young scholars on the continent, while jobs are lacking in many English-speaking countries, meaning students just aren’t going into it. English still remains a major language, largely because Americans and Canadians suck at learning other languages while the Europeans might speak 4-5. But English is becoming less relevant. As a grad student, I couldn’t have guessed I’d need Spanish and Italian more than French.

But LEARN MODERN GREEK, as that’s where the NEW stuff is. I doubt we’ll get much (if anything) new in textual evidence. By contrast, archaeology is rewriting what we thought we knew about north Greece. E.g., Methone now vies with Pithokousai for the earliest Greek script. Think about that a minute. Euboian Greeks and Phoenicians weren’t just hanging around off the coast of Cumai in the late 8th century, they were poking about the Thermaic Gulf, too, interacting with whoever the hell was at Pella before the Macedonians moved in (Bottaians, Paionians, somebody else…?). Who [what people] were buried at Archontiko between 650-450 BCE?? What was happening tradewise between Aiani in Elimeia and Corinth? That, to my mind, is where scholarship is going: or it should be. The Early Iron and Archaic Ages…periods before Macedonia even shows up in the written record with Herodotos.

Sure, I love Alexander, and I write about him a lot here, or Hephaistion, but I’m really an Argead specialist. I’m just as curious about how Alexander I used Persian power, then Persian absence to consolidate his own power and create Macedonia as we know it. When I first got to UNO, the Hellenistic Era was the “happenin’” place, but there are now a number of Macedoniasts doing that. Pat Wheatley (Brian Bosworth’s student) and Charlotte Dunn just (2020) published a new (probably definitive) book on Demetrios Poliorketes for instance (I’ve been waiting to see that for years). And there will always be Yet Another book on Alexander or Philip, but the place that is WIDE OPEN for research is the archaeology of Archaic and Early Iron Age Macedonia. That shit is interesting.

Go to Macedonia. Drive around and visit the museums (not just the big ones in Athens and Thessaloniki, or even Vergina). Go to Veroia, go to Pella, go to Aiani, go to Ioannina, go to Florina. See what’s up there. It’s COOL.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: Do the intellectual elites basically set the direction of how society thinks? Over the centuries, the general public has followed philosophical trends in the academic world so how do these beliefs and academic theories filter down into the mainstream? Is there anything we can do to stop it?

It may seem like in our current turbulent times that the elites do the thinking for the masses. And if one stands back to look at the flash points of intellectual history that indeed feels true. But equally one can stand back and ask critically if this is really so? 

Who are you actually talking about? Who are these intellectual elites? I dislike these generalisations because they are unhelpful. How does one define elite? Is it intellect? Is it cachet of social position? I think our so-called university elites - professors etc - are in their own existential crisis because of how commodified a university education is becoming. They are beholden to students as consumers. It’s a worrying trend.

Of course it didn’t use to be like that because then our intellectual elites had both recognised intellectual prowess and a social cachet. In other words they had power. I think the modern day academic is many ways a powerless and even pitiful figure at the mercy of university managers and money men.

Nor do I think one thinker dominates over others as they might have done in the past.

A case van be made that ideas today are democratised. Power resides wherever their is a vacuum. It doesn’t reside in the class room but on social media.

In our more recent times intellectual trends like post-modernism and now social critical theory have been seeping into the mainstream. Even Donald Trump has brought up critical race theory to the wider watching populace as a beating stick over the left.

But many ordinary people would be hard pressed to name the actual thinkers (outside of just lumping people together as an amorphous mass e.g. cultural marxists or far right conservatives). It’s more true to say that all ideas now fight in the market place of ideas as a product for people to consume blindly.

But why one idea takes off and another doesn’t is something I don’t have answer for. Or where is the point where ideas from top down meet reality from bottom up and create some kind of intellectual and social momentum? I don’t have time to get into that here.

Another thing is that like an MP4 download the compression size of the complexity gets eroded the more it is downloaded and passed around. In other words people start arguing over labels and top line arguments than actually grapple with the deeper and more complex ideas contained.

This isn’t to say there are no problems with such theories - e.g. critical race theory - because there are. For the record, I am hostile to such philosophies as a Tory as I am towards many lefty isms plaguing the modern university campus that find their way into the public square.

Rather than attack the messenger (ie people) one should critically examine the arguments from every side. This is true for any theory and wherever it comes from. We engage ideas not people.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record so let me play devil’s advocate and suggest an alternative if only to muse upon on it.

I was having a stimulating series of conversations with a professor of intellectual history and other academic historians and political scientists from prestigious French institutions at a friend’s dinner party not so long ago. Like any French dinner good conversation is expected along with good food and wine. Arguments are meant to be robust and even heated but never personal. Arguments are won as much by charm and wit as it is by intellect. It’s all very convival and civilised.

Anyway, we touched on many things from the sorry state French politics, Brexit, Trump, and Covid of course. The usual stuff I imagine. But because of who was around the table the discussion enjoyably explored much wider issues.

For me it’s always interesting to hear the premise from where people build their arguments. For the left secularist the Enlightenment becomes the cornerstone from which the lens of history is viewed and interpreted. For the conservative it’s anything before the 1789 Revolution. Both actually looked at change and the ideas therein as from top down. The ground up (or the view from below) was given short thrift.

I suggested an alternative premise more from a playful motivation than absolute empirical evidence - if only to liven things up a little as the conversation was becoming stale and even predictable.

Perhaps the direction of influence could also be seen the other way round? That is to say that philosophical theories formalise and develop ideas that are already in circulation in society and culture.

Did you get that? Let me explain.

Remember Hegel's beautiful and profound observation that 'the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk. In the words what Hegel was saying was that philosophical theory comes afterwards, reflectively, when a development of ideas or institutions is complete and (he would add) in decline.

Plato's 'Republic', at least its political portion, was as the late Michael Oakeshott once put it, 'animated by the errors of Athenian democracy'. Any citizen could participate in politics and help determine policies and legislation without any knowledge of the relevant matters. Plato saw democracy as the politics of ignorance. If every other human inquiry or activity recognised expert knowledge - in his famous example, you wouldn't let just anyone, regardless of their lack of specialist skills, navigate a ship - why not politics, too ? Why should politics be special in not requiring knowledge of the proper ends and means of political action as a condition of participation. Think of this what you will, but the 'Republic' was rooted in its contemporary context and was a response to it.

Aristotle's 'Politics' is a theorisation of the Greek polis, which was already passing out of independent existence under the impact of Alexander the Great's conquests. Athens was a city-state, and a democracy (albeit a limited one). Even though Aristotle was not born in Athens his views were accepted until he was shunned after the death of Alexander.

Aquinas' 'Summa' was a response to the recovery of Aristotle's writings and to the ongoing beliefs and practice of the Catholic Church - as well, of course, to movements which he opposed in theology.

Hobbes' 'Leviathan' is clearly a recipe for avoiding the kind of political and social chaos caused by the French Wars of Religion and the English Civil Wars. They were in his rear-view mirror when he wrote his tome.

Hume's 'atomistic' view of the nature of experience as composed of distinct impressions and ideas drew on the model of Newtonian 'corpuscular' physics.

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason asks how knowledge is possible, with the glories of Newtonian physics in the background. His emphasis on the place of reason in ethics is fully in the spirit of the Enlightenment's celebration of reason.

John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty' was a counter-blast to the pressure toward conformity which he thought he saw in the England of his day.

Logical Positivism was a response to the huge, brilliant developments in science - relativity and quantum theory - and took the form of scientism, the view that scientific knowledge is the only form of deep and accurate knowledge (of all real knowledge).

Marxism was a response to the embryonic birth of the modern capitalist system after the industrial revolution in Britain. Both Hegel and Marx formulated their theories by what they observed was happening with the birthing pains of modern industrial capital society. Cultural Marxism is a different beast entirely.

I could go on.

I am not suggesting, of course, that there was anything crude or mechanical in the way these philosophies emerged from their contexts. They all added independent thought of great subtlety. But their problems and the terms of their solutions were set by their times, at least as they understood them. It’s plausible but may not be completely true. But that’s part of the enjoyment of musing upon whimsical thoughts without the conceit of being certain.

Anyway something to think about.

Thanks for your question.

[feelingfolegandros]

Day 2,3,4, - Wednesday, October 28 - Friday, October 30 2020

Apparently I’m a masochist, because I scheduled two client sessions for my second day back. Well, technically they scheduled themselves that day, but I blame myself for opening my calendar up so soon. Oh well, c’est la vie! I am blessed to have work! Especially work that doesn’t really feel like work. And really, the most lovely people somehow want to work with me, so that feels great. 

The first one was at 9:30am, and I thought I’d do it in my bedroom, because I have a little desk setup in here that is something in between a coffee table and a side table with a very loungey chair with pillows to cushion my butt.. I love it. However, the internet in this room doesn’t always love me. The connection in this particular room isn’t so stable, and it was making it difficult to have a flowy conversation with my client. After moving into the main room where B.W. was working away on her laptop (we’ve joked that it’s our coworking space), I couldn’t concentrate... When I have a one-on-one session, I really need total silence and privacy otherwise it kind of all goes to shit haha...I decided to ask my client to reschedule and she happily obliged. Phew! We had our proper session the following morning (Thursday) and it went well. 

On Thursday, I turned on TV in the living room/ coworking space for the first time and someone’s Spanish Netflix account was still logged in. Score! Not because I need to use a Netflix account (My Dad pays for a shared family account, thank you very much), but because I didn’t have the patience to figure out how to log in or type in my Dad’s email with the freaking TV remote. I gleefully watched Season 4 Episode 1 of Keeping Up with The Kardashians while lying down on the couch eating pasteli (I think that’s what they’re called.. It’s these Greek snacks made of sesame seeds and honey). I don’t think I’ve seen this season before… But it takes place c. 2009 or so when Khloé has her whirlwind romance with Lamar Odom and they get married about a month after they first start dating. Honestly… iconic. I found myself drawing parallels between Khloé and myself. The situation with my boyfriend also feels like quite a whirlwind although I’m not expecting a proposal nor a wedding anytime soon. However, I can’t say I haven’t already fantasized about our Big Fat Greek Beach Wedding, possibly held at the same taverna we met at. 

On Wednesday night, I went for a solo walk in the early evening in Chora. I love being alone here. I spent a lot of time alone on Folegandros when I came for the second time from mid-September to early October. Later, Z.X. came over, mostly because he forgot his phone charger. He ate too much and was a bit stressed about some things regarding his house (which he is renovating himself) so I made him a mint tea. The next morning (Thursday), I discovered we had fresh mint in the garden! So lucky! The mint made an appearance later the same day when I brought a bunch of it to my friend C.D.’s house. He is the brother of the bride of the wedding where Z.X. and I met. I met C.D. at the taverna he works at in the summer alongside his sister. They’re both amazing and funny and warmhearted. C.D. basically lives next door to B.W. and I, and we both paid him a visit - bundle of mint in tow. He boiled water in a traditional Greek coffee contraption for our tea, and we all drank our beverages outside, even though it rained earlier that day. He made himself a freddo espresso with milk. 

C.D. worked in IT in Athens for much of his life, but moved here at the end of January for a fresh start, away from city life. The four of us - the two Greeks Z.X., C.D., and the two Berliners B.W. and I all moved here for the same reason this year… Very interesting! It’s nice to be around people that are all still enthusiastic about the island. Some OG locals, ie. those who were born and raised here, are a little more jaded after the decades they’ve been here. Living somewhere, anywhere, long enough, you’re bound to find things about it that irritate you, even if you live on an island where each beach you go to is more beautiful than the next. 

Today is Friday. Z.X. proposed we go to the beach today, so he picked B.W. and I up around 13h. Before that, we put a load of laundry in and I took the garbage we’ve accumulated over the past couple of days to the bins near the bus stop. (It’s important to note that the plumbing here on Folegandros like much of Greece, is not that robust, so you’re not supposed to flush paper down the toilet. So most people put their used toilet paper in a bin. Hence, part of the reason why we had accumulated two medium-sized bags of garbage in a few days.) I realized on my way back home that there were bins much closer to the house. Another too-late realization was that the shortcut I took on the way there cut through a sheep’s / goat’s pasture. I did notice some poop as I was walking through, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. Are goats chill? I have no idea… I won’t take the risk again, and I also noticed two locals taking the official shortcut which doesn’t involve shuffling over two waist-height concrete walls… It involves using makeshift ladders to scale them! 

Back to the beach! This time, we went to Livadi beach near the port. While B.W. was gleefully swimming parallel to the shore, Z.X. and I were standing about ankle-deep in the water. Suddenly, we felt the submerged sand below us slowly, surreally shift. (Too many “s” words, but I’m leaving it… hahahah) I’m not sure who mentioned it first, but we soon concluded it must have been an earthquake. It reminded me of the only other time I felt one - just over a decade ago when I worked in a giant office building one summer. To me, it felt like a strange tear in the time-space continuum, a strange physical and existential headache, and like techtonic plates below were shifting (which I guess they technically are). Anyway, Z.X. and I got out of the water, more in awe than afraid, and he called one of his friends, who also felt it, and experienced it as dizziness. He checked his phone and there was indeed a 6.6 earthquake further north in Greece. On Samos, two teenagers lost their lives, and in neighbouring Turkey, there were more deaths and injuries as part of the country experienced a tsunami. 

Z.X. and I planned to see each other next on Saturday night, but he called me later on Friday saying that Ireni’s Restaurant (my favourite) was serving rabbit tonight, he was going to eat there with a few of his friends, and would I like to join? Hell yes I would… Hell yes I did. Ireni - a Greek grandmother / matriarch / goddess / chef extraordinaire - obviously stewed those rabbits for us like they were the last rabbits she’d ever stew. They were served very simply with French fries, but we also had chorta (bitter greens) and Greek salad before the main event. Everyone drank alcohol… white wine and Raki I believe, probably beer too, while I had my usual neró (water). It was my first time eating at Ireni’s since the summer, and I was so delighted to be back there. Meeting Z.X.’s friends was great too. One of them lives on Folegandros too, and has a lot of common with Z.X. The other two live in Sifinos (either that or Sikinos… so confusing!) and were in town for a month or so. They could all speak varying degrees of English (more than my pathetic amount of Greek) and it was yet another elbow in the side from God or whoever to learn some more of this beautiful language. Photos from that meal below...

That’s all for now. I have a lot of catching up to do on my daily life here… Both in writing and in general (all shall be revealed soon), but I hope you’re enjoying reading all of this, whoever you are....

[melodiouswhite]

Live forever - Ch. 07

He hadn't been in the Ottoman Empire in a while.

Partly, because he'd had business in Europe, but mainly, because he spoke no Turkish or Persian and his Arabic was … unpresentable.

But when he said “get as far away from there as possible”, he meant it!

Perhaps he would take her even further away some day, but leaving their home nation had been hard enough, both physically and emotionally.

Upon their arrival in Athens, they encountered a Middle Eastern traveller, whom he promptly engaged in a conversation (in Greek, as that turned out to be the common language they spoke best).

The man looked a bit befuddled, when the European addressed him with a genial smile and told him that he wanted to refresh his Arabic, as he planned to go there. But he quickly recovered, laughed heartily and told them that he was Persian.

“I speak Arabic and Turkish too, but seriously? Do we all look the same to you Westerners?!”, he snickered.

He apologised awkwardly and told him that he had never been to the East before. “So I'm travelling to fix that.”

“How very wise!”

“Stop laughing!”, he huffed, “You couldn't tell where I'm from either!”

Now the Persian finally stopped laughing and took a closer look at him.

“Hmm … you're from England, right? With your red hair and-”

Now it was his turn to laugh: “Wrong! Try again.”

“France?”

“No. My daughter and I are from the Holy Roman Empire.”

The other man chuckled: “Alright, you win. Hey, what do you think about staying at my hotel with me? I'm sure my fellow travellers will be delighted to meet fellow Europeans.”

“Fellow travellers?”

“A couple from France. Very nice for Christians, no offence.”

“None taken”, he brushed it off graciously, but felt a bad hunch nagging at his guts.

A couple from France?

Gretchen seemed to sense his discomfort and huddled up to him. He smiled fondly and scooped her up in his arms.

“And unlike you, they're fluent in Arabic!”, the Persian added, teasing.

“Well, do you speak German, English or French?!”, he retorted snappishly.

“… Good point. Is that your daughter?”, the Persian asked, “She's so cute!”

“I know, right? The cutest!”, he cooed, while she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

“Is that all your luggage?”, the other inquired and pointed at his medium-sized bag. “It's very little for two people.”

“It's too dangerous to travel with a lot of luggage. Thieves, bandits and plunderers everywhere. I stopped counting how many times we nearly got-”

He stopped himself, when he felt his daughter tremble. He tightened his hold on her and cooed gentle words of comfort, until she stopped shivering.

“Let's not talk about that”, the Persian spoke up, “Come with me. The more the merrier! Like I said, my companions will be delighted to meet you – wait, let me carry that”, he added, when the alchemist tried to pick up his bag, while holding his daughter.

“Thank you”, he nodded gratefully, “By the way, what's your name? I would rather not refer to you as 'the Persian' all the time.”

The Persian stopped dead in his tracks. “By Allah, you're right! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Reza Ibn Aziz. And you are?”

“Dr. Johann Georg Faust. And this is my little daughter Margarete.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you! Now come along!”

Mr. Ibn Aziz chattered merrily all the way about politics, travellers and merchants from all over the world and the beautiful ladies back in Isfahan.

Once they arrived at the hotel, their guide strolled through several rooms to a parlour, where several people were diverting themselves.

“I'm back!”, he cried cheerfully, “And I brought company!”

The alchemist's bad hunch from earlier was confirmed, when a tall, gaunt blond with silvery eyes and a pince-nez and a tiny, chubby brunette with brown eyes looked up and stared at him in recognition.

“By Mother Mary!”, he gasped.

“You?!”, Nicolas Flamel exclaimed.

“Jean?”, Perenelle Flamel cried out in surprise.

Mr. Ibn Aziz blinked: “You know each other?”

“Yes …”, he admitted, “We used to travel around together, but then we parted, after we had a little … disagreement.”

“He's sugarcoating it”, Nicolas clarified to Mr. Ibn Aziz.

“That much is clear”, the Persian deadpanned. “Believe it or not, we do know irony and sarcasm, where I come from.”

The German alchemist nearly jumped, when Gretchen tugged at his collar. “Papa, what is 'irony and sarcasm'? And are these two your friends?”

“I'll explain it later”, he told her. “And they were once.”

Perenelle stood up to greet them properly. She was obviously hurt, when he recoiled from being hugged, but didn't show it.

“It's so good to see you again!”, she said warmly.

“Thank you, Perenelle”, he replied blankly.

“And who is that little mademoiselle?”, she wanted to know.

He smiled: “That's my daughter. Isn't she just the cutest?”

He felt Gretchen's blush more than he saw it and she hid her face in the crook of his neck.

Perenelle laughed sweetly: “Well then, ma petite mignonne¹, how old are you?”

Gretchen mumbled in broken French, that she was seven and buried her face further into his neck.

He melted like butter and so did the Flamels and Mr. Ibn Aziz, because Gretchen was way too adorable for her own good.

In the late evening, when Gretchen was asleep and Mr. Ibn Aziz had retreated (to pray and because alcohol was apparently taboo for Muslims), that he and the Flamels sat together over cups of beer and talked.

“Did you burn Dee's notes?”, he inquired.

Perenelle nodded. “Yes, we did. We burned all the notes on black magic that we could find.”

Nicolas sighed: “And then we had to leave England immediately, because Perenelle had some … disputes with Dee, before he died and …”

“He insulted Nic”, Perenelle huffed. “So I cooked dinner for him in his last months. You know, some people just can't appreciate good food.”

“… You poisoned him.”

She frowned: “Poisoned is such a strong word! I just … mistook a few mushrooms and he was more than eighty years old.”

“… That's really creepy. Alright, I'm not letting either of you near my little Gretchen!”, he suddenly decided.

“Gretchen? Is that her name?” Nicolas totally butchered the pronunciation.

He shrugged: “It's Margarete actually. But Gretchen is shorter.”

“Is she really your daughter? She doesn't look anything like you.”

He sighed: “I adopted her a year ago. We both survived the Sack of Magdeburg. Her parents were both murdered and I found her wandering through a barren wasteland half-starved and disorientated. I … I just couldn't leave her alone. Not her. She was only six.”

Nicolas and Perenelle exchanged a sombre look.

“We heard of the sacking”, the blond Frenchman stated softly. “They talked about it everywhere in Europe. What we heard sounded horrible-”

“Horrible?!”, he echoed with a hollow laugh, “Horrible is not the word. There is no word. What we saw … it cannot be put into words, nor bewailed with tears².”

“So you two were really there? In all the horror?”

“Yes. Gretchen wasn't seriously harmed, when I found her, but she was in shock. My poor little girl saw her parents get mishandled in the worst way possible, before they got murdered. She managed to escape unnoticed, but … Holy Mother Mary, she is just a little child!”

“What about you?”, Perenelle asked gently.

All the traumatic memories returned to the forefront of his conscience. It hurt so much, he almost burst into tears. Instead he bit his lip, until it bled.

“Don't”, he warned, when Perenelle stood up to hug him.

He needed a few minutes to compose himself, before he told them everything – telepathically, just in case Gretchen would wake up.

At some point he gave up trying to appear aloof and strong and cried into his hands.

Normally he wasn't actually that emotional.

But he had nearly been raped and murdered several times, seen that very thing happen to countless people, had committed his first murders, had seen fire and brutally mangled corpses everywhere and so many other horrors, his body still bore the horrific burning scars and it was just all too much!

“Don't!”, he repeated, when the Flamels stood both up, but they didn't listen this time.

He almost screamed, when he felt their arms around him; he knew it was irrational, that he had nothing to fear from them, but he couldn't help it!

Nicolas was the first to notice and retreat. “Perenelle, let go. We're making it worse.”

She looked even more hurt than before, but obeyed her husband.

The younger alchemist soon stopped shivering and panicking and breathed calmly – as calmly as his bandages allowed, that was.

After a while he stopped weeping and glared weakly at them. “Don't ever try to hug me again. I hate body contact even more today than I did back then.”

“I'm sorry”, Perenelle apologised sadly, “We didn't know.”

“Of course you didn't. Unlike me, you have never seen a war zone in your life, despite being so much older than I!”

“We didn't want to see the horrors of war”, Nicolas explained quietly. “Witnessing the Black Death in our youth was terrible enough. What were you doing there anyway?”

The German alchemist lowered his head. “I … I just wanted to help. Civilians have it so hard to find good physicians these days … I didn't mean to stay at the forefront of the war, but there is nowhere to hide from it in the Empire. And when they began to besiege Magdeburg … I did consider leaving, but there were so many sick and I couldn't bring myself to abandon them. Well, and then it was too late.”

Nicolas instinctively took his hand, but retracted it immediately, when the younger man flinched.

“You're a good man”, the blond said gently.

The ginger-haired man sneered: “Ohhh, so you finally acknowledge that I'm a man and not a woman? What ever made you change your mind, Monsieur Nicolas The-Lord-doesn't-make-mistakes Flamel?”

“… You're still angry.”

He sighed and shook his head. “No. I was angry, but not anymore. I got tired of being angry after a while. I am, however, still hurt. And looking back, I'm also seriously disappointed.”

These words made the French couple look at him miserably, which didn't surprise him. He knew that the “Not angry, just disappointed”-phrase was a lot worse for most people, but it was the truth. And he saw no point in sugarcoating it.

“You didn't mind, that I have magical and psychic powers. Not even that I was only a Catholic on paper (I have converted to Protestantism, by the way) and then you fussed over this?!”

He pointed at his chest, that was hidden and flattened by the bandages he was wearing under his clothing.

“That was just hurtful. I thought you would be more understanding than this. That you would be kinder. And wiser.”

These words obviously cut even deeper with the other two, but he didn't care.

“But you were no different from anyone else, who knew. And I felt betrayed. Perenelle failed to understand, but unlike you, Nicolas, she tried. You didn't even bother with that! I'm almost 170 years old now and the only people in my life, who have ever understood and accepted me for who I am were my mother (even though she didn't like it) and now my daughter. My mother was an illiterate serf and Gretchen is only seven. You are two ingenious immortal alchemists. I know you're a product of your time, but that doesn't give you the right to judge m-”

“I'm sorry.”

“… Pardon?”

“I'm sorry”, the French alchemist repeated. “You're right. I have no right to judge you and I never did. I was supposed to be a friend to you and accept you for what you are and instead I pushed you away and treated you like a freak. I'm still not sure, if I understand it. But I do know now, that I was in the wrong and you never deserved any of it. And I'm sorry.”

The apology was followed by silence, broken only by the toll of the church bell. For the split of a second, he was startled that it was midnight already. Then he tore his attention away from the distant tolling, back to his companions.

It was only long after the last toll of the bell had sounded, that he broke the silence: “Took you long enough. I have waited thirty-two years for that apology.”

Then he cried again.

This time he allowed them to at least hold his hands.

“I missed you.”

---

1) Ma petite mignonne - French: My little cute one / my dearie

2) A contemporary’s description of the events of the Sack of Magdeburg, 20th May 1631.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

I love old cranky white Grandpa Publishing, but he needs to change.

This is an analogy I used to use a lot on the Nanowrimo forums when I was on the Nanowrimo forums. I liked to personify both Publishing and the Movie Industry together as grumpy old white men with houses, I suppose in urban centers. I was actually surprised when I saw Up, because I was like, that’s how I imagined Grandpa Publishing.

I’m fond of extended analogies, especially when talking about social justice or concepts that seem too academic to understand. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actress. My mom tried her best to dissuade me. Said I’d have to endure racism. Due to things out of my control, I ended up switching to writing. I still suppose if I grew up in Korea, I’d have been an actress. The adoptee part of me, sometimes fantasizes about meeting her--the other me.

I escaped acting to escape being hurt by the industry I loved. But finding no escape, I wandered around, trying to find an industry that couldn’t be racist. But there is no such thing. There is no place on Earth I wouldn’t be discriminated against. I realized I had to fight. But I was tired of fighting and had no tools to do so. Growing up transracially adopted, doesn’t exactly give you tools to deal with racism. Though, I’ve learned there are no good defenses against systemic oppression, whiteness definitely is the opposite of help. I had to learn.

I chose one of my first loves: Stories. And so went the writing industry. I’ve always been a self-determined type. Wanting to learn everything at my pace. I drive people around me crazy with this. “You need foundational skills first.” But then I’d always want to learn in a different way and in a self-directed way. I’d whine to my Dad constantly about the way I wanted to learn. (Maybe a self-entitled brat.)

Settling on stories on the delusion I could make it without being judged on who I was I set out on that quest.

I absorbed as many worldwide stories as I could, classics I liked and hated. stories in all types of media. I asked to connect to French TV which was blurry at the time. I wanted Latinx stories too, and attempted to ask for that in my schooling. In my quest, I decided to learn as much as I could with anything I could about writing. And so, after about 7 years of knowing I was writing crap--I hated the first story I sent out, but it was for a school assignment and I didn’t get to choose, I kept trying. I wrote a story that was well-liked. I edited it a bunch more times. I had it go through several critiques. I sent it out and got a rejection.

The rejection that sticks out the most to me, is one where it reads, “Maybe because I’m not a woman. :)” A few years later, the concept was made into a TV episode written and staring a white man as the protagonist. I know the two aren’t connected, but I still felt burnt. Why was mine which centered around a woman, less worthy than a man doing it, and a white man at that? The story was 90% concept. I’d had it checked by several people. I’d combed it for mistakes. I felt like it was my fault. Maybe I didn’t edit it enough. Maybe I missed some mistakes.

This was my first taste of Grandpa Publishing. I came to know him as grumpy as Grandpa Hollywood--the grandpa everyone assumed was gay and Jewish, even if the things he likes aren’t anything close to this, in actuality. Grandpa Publishing became “get off my lawn” type when I learned who the top executives were. I’ve never judged people for their labels that much. Maybe because I have so many. I still screw up--no doubt. But I’ve also witnessed old people change. My parents would tell me to not even try. And I refused to believe them. Connecting and respecting the core of the person--I try to do that in respect of their labels, not despite it. At their own pace. I imagined he could change, if I could understand him.

Imagining Grandpa Publishing like this, I also imagined myself trying to win his love and praise. Kill the bad grammar, so he’d read my manuscript. Write a really good blurb. Learn his history. I have his history since the first stories were told out loud. I can recite the beginning of almost all genres and debates about them. I was fine with Grandpa Publishing until I understood what he wanted for me to qualify. “Kill the Korean parts of your manuscript.” “Erase the people of color in your life.” “World Lit, where did you get the idea I would read World Lit?” Stab me in the heart--why do you want to forget your own history, Grandpa Publishing?

I asked Grandpa Publishing why he was this way... and it comes down to Grandpa Education. Equally white, often with a sick fetish for French, Roman and Greek men (as long as they don’t say they are gay) and no, he’s not going to talk like he’s really gay because somehow teaching gay history is evil, even if he worships Plato and Aristotle. The second mostly for his hate of women, because worshipping Athens’ scholars who hated women is better than studying Sparta, that upheld women.

So this leaves me with asking why Grandpa Education is this way while thinking he’s liberal. Digging back through education history in Europe is tricky, but it’s mostly down to the Victorians, who were busy conquering the world at the time under Empire for the US. Grandpa Education is wrong. He forgets the contribution of gay, black, hispanic, etc people that shaped his organs. Jane Addams. Do you know her? She made continued education possible. Do you remember her Grandpa Publishing in your push for more straight people and education?

Can you change Grandpa Publishing without Grandpa Education? A bunch of us tried that. But we’re still left with the same questions, camping out on Grandpa Publishing’s lawn while he’s shaking his cane at us--some of us more than others. How much Trauma Porn does Grandpa Publishing want, and what about the adults? What about other demographics? He’s fine with his grandchildren reading. He wants only stories of our hurt, our pain, but rarely of our daily joy or triumphs or just being normal. The coming out story, the tragic gay. Slavery stories from blacks. Korean War from Koreans. Hiroshima bombing. Indigenous people being erased. Where are the whites? Adoptees--memoirs only. He constantly asks. And he snickers with Grandpa Hollywood all the time about this. Grandpa Hollywood that likes to give out rewards to white people for being anything, but hates on minorities. He will give out money and favor his children to get closer to him by ranking them. But unlike in real life, we don’t have intermediaries, or parents to really tell us how to yell at Grandpa Publishing to get better and stop ranking us.

I keep thinking that we need a three way push on Hollywood, Publishing and Education to make an edge in the creative arts. They are more interconnected than most remember. We’ll need an uprising to get there, though because I’m tired of the stupid excuses people make. How can we pioneer our stories on privileged standards that came before it? Especially when a lot of our story telling traditions are older than the White CIS het orthosexed zedsexual land holding privileged that Grandpa has become? When will he recognize our older story telling traditions just as valid as the younger White European mostly told as Shakespearean, but really shaped by Victorian ideals and Gertrude Stein (though people still want to forget her contributions because, you know, lesbian). Argue to me why these older story telling traditions aren’t as valid when they still are used in those countries today. I’m waiting, Grandpa Publishing. What answer have you that’s not racist?

[newstfionline]

Friday, October 9, 2020

Alarmed by Scope of Wildfires, Officials Turn to Native Americans for Help (NYT) When Belinda Brown was a child, she would rise early in the morning every spring and fall to help her father and grandfather light the fields of the XL Ranch Indian reservation outside of Alturas, Calif. She would take a metal rake to the grasses and watch as flames spread. “Fire was absolutely a part of what we did all the time,” she said. “It wasn’t a fearful thing.” Long before California was California, Native Americans used fire to keep the lands where they lived healthy. That meant intentionally burning excess vegetation at regular intervals, during times of the year when the weather would keep blazes smaller and cooler than the destructive wildfires burning today. The work requires a deep understanding of how winds would spread flames down a particular hillside or when lighting a fire in a forest would foster the growth of certain plants, and that knowledge has been passed down through ceremony and practice. But until recently, it has been mostly dismissed as unscientific. Now, as more Americans are being forced to confront the realities of climate change, firefighting experts and policymakers are increasingly turning to fundamental ecological principles that have long guided Indigenous communities. “I keep saying we’re getting that ‘I told you so’ award,” Ms. Brown, a member of the Kosealekte Band of the Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation in Northern California, said with a weary smile. “My prayer is that ignorance won’t stop us again.”

North Dakota and the pandemic (NYT/Politico) The coronavirus has exploded in North Dakota. In the past week, North Dakota reported more new cases per capita than any other state. Hospitalizations for the virus have risen abruptly, forcing health care officials in some towns to send people to faraway hospitals, even across state lines to Montana and South Dakota. Officials have huddled with hospital leaders in recent days to contemplate ways to free up more hospital beds even as they contend with broader turmoil over virus policy in a state that has seen resignations of three state health officers since the pandemic’s start. The rise in cases and deaths—September was by far the deadliest month for North Dakota since the start of the pandemic—reflects a new phase of the virus in the United States. From Wisconsin to Montana, states in the Midwest and Great Plains, many of which had avoided large outbreaks in earlier months when coastal cities were hard hit, are seeing the brunt. And in rural portions of the states now reeling, medical resources are quickly stretched thin for residents who can live hours from large hospitals.

Louisiana braces for strike from Hurricane Delta on Friday (Washington Post) Hurricane Delta, which blasted Cancun and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula early Wednesday, is poised to slam storm-weary Louisiana on Friday. Although the storm lost considerable strength as it approached and crossed the Yucatán, dropping from a Category 4 to Category 1, it is predicted to regain strength over the balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico through Thursday. Landfall is forecast on Friday afternoon or evening along Louisiana’s central or western coast, parts of which are still recovering from a devastating strike from Category 4 Hurricane Laura in late August. The Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning from the Texas-Louisiana border to Morgan City, La. which includes the zone where Laura made landfall. New Orleans may escape with only low-end tropical-storm-force winds, but any shift in the track eastward could increase storm effects there.

Navigating by mango trees, pink houses in rural Puerto Rico (AP) CAGUAS, Puerto Rico—Firefighters in this city near Puerto Rico’s capital cheered when they recently got updated maps that include rural neighborhoods, confessing they sometimes had to rely on taxi drivers for directions during emergencies. That’s because more than 300,000 homes on the island have no formal address. The absence of street names and numbers across the island has long been a problem for the U.S. territory, where internet map services sometimes fail. Directions can involve a mango tree, or a bakery or a house of a certain color. It’s even a problem in urban areas, like one district of the capital, San Juan, where some people rely on a life-size Bigfoot doll on a balcony as a reference point for directions to a hospital. It’s not unusual to hear something like: “Turn right at kilometer 58 and make a left after a large hole. If you go past the big breadfruit tree, you’ve gone too far.” So getting lost has long been an acceptable and occasional fun part of island life for some, but the coronavirus pandemic, a recent series of earthquakes and increasingly active hurricane seasons are prodding authorities to resolve the problem. Without an address, emergency responders cannot find people quickly or deliver basic supplies or medical care when up to 60% of homes in some municipalities lack one.

Bolivia declares natural disaster due to wildfires (Reuters) Bolivia declared a state of disaster due to wildfires ravaging forested and agricultural areas in the eastern part of the country, President Jeanine Anez said on Thursday. In 2019, wildfires destroyed more than 6 million hectares in the Bolivian Amazon. So far this year 1.1 million hectares [4,240 square miles] have burned, according to the government, while the non-government organization Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) said the area wrecked was twice as large.

Greek Neofascist Party’s Demise (Foreign Policy) The leaders of Greece’s Golden Dawn political party were found guilty on Wednesday of a range of criminal activity, including using the party as cover to run a criminal organization. A court in Athens ruled that acts of violence committed by members of Golden Dawn against migrants and left-wing activists were consciously planned and executed by the party leadership as a way of eliminating perceived threats. The ruling followed a trial that lasted five-and-a-half years. Several dozen party members and associates, including 18 former lawmakers and party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, were found guilty on a variety of charges, including murder, attempted murder, assault, and possession of weapons. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the courthouse to await the verdict. When the news came, the crowds erupted in applause and cheers.

Virus wallops Ukraine (AP) Coronavirus infections in Ukraine began surging in late summer, and the ripples are now hitting towns like Stebnyk in the western part of the country, where Dr. Natalia Stetsik is watching the rising number of patients with alarm and anguish. “It’s incredibly difficult. We are catastrophically short of doctors,” says Stetsik, the chief doctor at the only hospital in the town of 20,000 people. “It’s very hard for a doctor to even see all the patients.” The hospital is supposed to accommodate 100 patients, but it’s already stretched to the limit, treating 106 patients with COVID-19.

Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire (Reuters) Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians fought with artillery and heavy guns on Thursday as the United States, France and Russia stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and avert a wider war in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan said the city of Ganja had come under fire, deep inside its territory. Ethnic Armenians who control the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan said Stepanakert, its main city, had been shelled by Azeri forces. The continued fighting and rising tension underlined the difficulties facing U.S., Russian and French officials meeting in Geneva to try to halt fighting in which at least 400 people have been killed since it broke out on Sept. 27.

Russia surrounded by instability (NYT) In Russia’s self-proclaimed sphere of influence, Russia is losing its influence. Concurrent crises in Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus region have blindsided the Kremlin, leaving it scrambling to shore up Russian interests in former Soviet republics and undermining President Vladimir V. Putin’s image as a master tactician on the world stage. Mr. Putin has spent years building up Russia as a global power, with a hand in hot spots from Latin America to the Middle East. But after working for years to destabilize the West, he suddenly finds himself surrounded by instability. The spate of new challenges to Russian influence strikes at the heart of Mr. Putin’s yearslong effort to cast himself as the leader who restored the great-power status that the nation lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The confluence of crises in Russia’s own neighborhood is such that some pro-Kremlin commentators are already accusing the West of an organized campaign to sow discord in the post-Soviet regions. More balanced analysts, however, have singled out one constant factor in the growing unrest. Both Russia and its neighbors, they say, have been destabilized by the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed distrust in institutions and in out-of-touch leaders across the region.

Trump administration to impose crushing sanctions on Iran in defiance of European humanitarian concerns (Washington Post) The Trump administration has decided to impose new sanctions on Iran’s financial sector in defiance of European allies who warned that the move could have devastating humanitarian consequences on a country reeling from the novel coronavirus and an ongoing currency crisis, three officials familiar with the decision said Wednesday. The measures will target the few remaining banks not currently subject to secondary sanctions in a move European governments say is likely to diminish channels Iran uses to import humanitarian goods, such as food and medicine, officials said. The move represents a major pre-election push on a signature Trump administration policy that has succeeded in devastating the Iranian economy, while failing to moderate Tehran’s behavior or limit its nuclear program. The proposal to blacklist the entire Iranian financial industry has been pushed by Israeli officials and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish U.S. nonprofit organization that has advocated for regime change in Iran.

[architectuul]

From Plečnik To Corb

What did Jože Plečnik, the architect of modern Ljubljana with a critical view on Modernism and Le Corbusier agree on? A new exhhibiton at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) is deliberating the question: Plečnik’s students and other Yugoslav architects in Le Corbusier's atelier is curated by Bogo Zupančič. And here is a hint, the answer lies in Plečnik’s teaching.

Le Corbusier's atelier in Paris. | Source via MAO Collection

Miroslav Oražem, Milan Sever, Hrvoje Brnčić, Marjan Tepina, Jovan Krunić, Edvard Ravnikar and Marko Župančič were seven of Plečnik's students who worked at the atelier of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in 35 Rue de Sevrès in Paris. During the pre-war period students from Slovenia flocked to Corbusier’s atelier. They were almost as numerous as architects from France, Switzerland and the USA. Other architects from Yugoslavia who worked for Corb included Zvonimir Kavurić, Ernest Weissmann, Juraj Neidhardt, Ksenija Grisogono and Krsto Filipović from Croatia and Milorad Pantović and Branko Petričić from Serbia. The Croatian architects were the first to join Le Corbusier’s studio in 1927.

Marjan Tepina and Le Corbusier in the Paris atelier (1939). | Source via the MAO Collection

In Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture in the 1920s students expected their professor Jože Plečnik to teach them contemporary trends . It was after all the period of Functionalism, Bauhaus and the CIAM congresses, but they were wrong. Despite the fact that Plečnik was seen as a pioneer of Modernism, due to his early projects in Vienna and Prague, the Church of the Holy Spirit and Zacherl House, he rejected functionalist architecture, deeming it too rational and cold. After a visit to the Acropolis in Athens (1927) he began to pass on his views of classical elements and principles in architecture to his students. "What Corbusier knows I know as well, but what I know Corbusier doesn't!”, he is famously quoted. He rejected the industrialisation of construction and was more at ease with the crafts and traditional materials. To his students he introduced solutions with practical outcomes through hard work. This might be a reason why up to 15 % of Plečnik's students left and went to work for Le Corbusier. They had the desire to step away from Plečnik's traditional views, unable to satisfy their curiosity for what they deemed to be more contemporary currents in architecture.

Milan Sever (first from left) and Junzo Sakakura (in the middle with glasses) at the Paris party in 1933/34. | Source from private archive

This interest started to grow in 1925 when Plečnik’s students visited the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris . Le Corbusier's Pavillion L'Esprit Nouveau encouraged them to start enquiring soon after graduating about scholarships offered by the French government and travel to Paris. All scholarship recommendation letters were written by Plečnik, demonstrating his openness and broadness. Already in the autumn of 1925, Dušan Grabrijan had left for Paris. He did however not got to Le Corbusier’s studio but attended the advanced study courses offered by the École des Beaux-Arts. The first Slovene in Le Corbusier's atelier was Miroslav Oražem who arrived in April 1929 and stayed there during the academic year 1930/31. 

Marjan Mušič, France Ivanšek (ed.), Anthology of the Department of Architecture of Ljubljana University 1946-1947. | Published by DZS Ljubljana, 1948

The friendship between Dušan Grabrijan and Juraj Neidhardt, who collaborated with Le Corbusier on his most resonant projects from 1933 to 1935, made it possible for Milan Sever to join the studio in 1933/34 thanks to Neidhardt's intervention. The good impression made by the work of Plečnik's first two students in the studio acted like an admission pass for the other Slovenes. A three-year break was followed by a Slovenian "invasion” of the atelier, or the beginning of L'epoque Slovène as Le Corbusier himself called it. From the end of 1937 to June 1939 Tavčar, Bleiweis, Novak, Brnčić, Tepina, Krunić and Ravnikar worked  with Corb. With the war underway in December 1939, Jovan Krunić and Marko Župančič joined the studio to draw up plans for military facilities following the system of Jean Prouvé. At the same time three of Plečnik's students who had already worked with Le Corbusier, Sever, Tepina and Ravnikar, attracted attention with their works presented at urban planning and architectural design competitions. Two held in 1940 are worth mentioning, the architectural competition for a residential care home for the elderly at Bokalce, where Tepina was awarded the first prize, and the competition for developing and regulating the Medlog settlement near Celje, in which Ravnikar was the winner and Tepina was second. As a result of the competition for the regulation plan of Ljubljana in 1941 the projects by the three above mentioned architects were taken on.

Poster “Architecture in FPR Yugoslavia” by Branka Tancig from E. Ravnikar seminar (1951), letterpress printing, Ljudska pravica Ljubljana, 510 mm x 380 mm. | Source from private archive

After the end of the second World War times of reconstruction on the basis of modernist concept prevailed. Le Corbusier's ideas played an important role in modernizing the society. Plečnik's and other Yugoslav students who had worked with Le Corbusier were appointed to important posts in the administration, state offices and at the universities. Their committed professional, pedagogical and public activity marked the late 1940s and 1950s.

After Edvard Ravnikar took up his position at the Department of Architecture of the Technical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, thereby becoming one of the key figures in architecture also across all of Yugoslavia, Plečnik took the back stage and sank into oblivion. Modernism or the International Style became the dominant style. Ravnikar and his collaborators conceived several architectural projects from renovations of villages to designs of new cities like Nova Gorica and Novi Beograd, from residential to prestigious public buildings with traces of Le Corbusier's influence to be found in all of them. The list of works is extensive, yet many valuable designs have been lost. 

Copy of drawing in perspective of a representative building, no signature, no date, 240 mm x 310 mm by Edvard Ravnikar. | Source via the MAO Collection

Model for the architectural competition for a residential care home for the elderly at Bokalce in Ljubljana by Edvard Ravnikar (1941). | Source via the MAO Collection

Although Plečnik's students were enticed by Le Corbusier's ideas as early as the 1920s, they became with the time more critical of them and had, by the mid-1950s, turned away from them. Slovenian architects did not blindly replicate the examples found in Le Corbusier's atelier, they thoughtfully and independently interpreted them, which is why Le Corbusier's influence is often concealed and also undefinable. Thus, as an example, Ravnikar's refined works are known for their hefty constructions which no doubt demonstrate Le Corbusier's influence, yet the facades are designed in his very own way within the historical and spatial context. This is how these former Plečnik students differed from numerous other Slovenian and Yugoslav architects who grew old with the ideas of Modernism. The Slovenian architects' connections with their peers such as, for example, Ernest Weissmann, Juraj Neidhardt, Gyorgy Kepes, Charlotte Perriand, Willy Valeke, Alfred Roth, Josep Lluis Sert, Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura, Max Bill, Ejnar Borg, Tage Nielson, Jean Prouvé and others whom they had (in)directly met in Le Corbusier's atelier, were however valuable when it came to developing their careers and widening their horizons.

Edvard Ravnikar and Le Corbusier, copy of drawing of Algiers skyscraper with a note: "drawn by ER 39", from the book Le Corbusier Oeuvre complete 1938-1946. | Source CTK (Central Technical Library), Ljubljana

The value of Plečnik's works and his approach to architecture was again reassessed in the international professional arena with the decline of the International Style and the start of Postmodernism towards the end of the 1970s. The exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1986 holds a significant merit for this development. The interest in Ravnikar and other representatives of his generation was not as strong as the interest shown in Plečnik, but today the interest in Ravnikar and his peers is resurging. 

Although the positions taken for or against Modernism have marked the architectural debate for quite some time, the force and energy of Plecnik’s teaching approach led to the recognition of his pupils’ works by Le Corbusier who highly valued their craftmanship. Eventually this became a contributing factor when the lines started to blur.

Exhibition in Museum of Architceture and Design (MAO). | Photo Bogo Zupančič

---

Dr. Bogo Zupančič is the curator for the architecture at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana and author of seven books on the history of Slovenian architecture Nebotičnik - the skyscraper of Ljubljana : Money and Architecture, Architect Josip Costaperaria and Ljubljana's bourgeoisie, Chamber of Engineers of Ljubljana 1919-44 and a collection of four books The Stories of Ljubljana Buildings and People. In 2006 he received Plečnik's Medal for his publicist opus. He is co-author of the exhibition of The Neighborhood And The Streets, which was opened in the MAO in memory of the times when the residential neighborhoods were built with the thought of their users.

About the exhibition: Plečnik’s students and other Yugoslav architects in Le Corbusier's atelier. Exhibition runs Thursday, 21 September 2017 to Sunday, 10 December 2017 Monday closed, Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm Thursday from 10 am to 8 pm

Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Ljubljana Pot na Fužine 2 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Phone: +386 (1) 54842 74 for guided tour please contact bogo.zupancic@mao.si

[negahc]

February 11th, 2020

We had a great turn out for our Family Day, The Deerskin Wars, which coincided with free admission to our exhibits to celebrate Super Museum Sunday in Georgia. Many newcomers to the History Center attended and enjoyed hands-on activities, original board games, living history interpretation, weapons demonstrations, and a “factory” where they learned about the deerskin trade between European settlers and Native Americans in 18th-century Georgia.

Glen Kyle interpreting a factor in his factory

Glen Kyle interpreted an English “factor” (a trader) in his “factory” (or store) displaying the goods traded to the Creek and Cherokee. Inside the factory was Lesley Jones who interpreted Mary Musgrove, the invaluable Creek cultural mediator for James Oglethorpe and Yamacraw Chief Tomochichi and a successful businesswoman running a major trading post.

Lesley Grove interprets Mary Musgrove

Ken Johnston interpreted a French Marine (garrisoned just 70 miles from the Georgia border) as the French and Spanish were also traders with the Native Americans during the 18th-century, actively seeking to take over Georgia markets. Matthew House, who has Choctaw ancestry himself, interpreted the Choctaw experience of trade and how European goods improved life for Native Americans (but also led to severe debt or conflict with European powers.)

Ken Johnston (left) interpreting a French Marine trading with a Choctaw hunter interpreted by Matthew House (right)

David French developed a board game to teach visitors how the deerskin trade led to the Native Americans’ debt.

Players of an original board game by David French try to stay out of debt!

Diana Mancilla, Marie Walker, and Ella Murillo interpreted an 18th-century tavern of the type to be found in Augusta in the 1750s - with Marie representing the woman tavern owner/keeper, and with Diana and Ella representing an enslaved Native American servant and an indentured European servant respectively.

Marie Walker stokes the fire in the White Path Cabin

Diana Mancilla samples fresh bread from the “tavern”

Atlanta Historic Dance’s Kat Nagar taught guests a traditional folk dance called the Merry Merry Milkmaids.

Atlanta Historic Dance’s Kat Nagar

It was wonderful to see so many new folks and returning guests experience both our Family Day program and our exhibits. We also appreciate the new Google Reviews and Facebook Reviews we received after the event!

“Everyone was so friendly! We went for family day after the fun snow the day before. It was a cold day, but still many people showed up. We got lucky as the museum was open and free too. Normally there is an admission fee. Family day is the second Sunday of every month. My kids did a scavenger hunt, went through the exhibits, outside to the cabins, watched the live gun show, and enjoyed the family activities in the hall. The staff dressed up and were so fun and nice. My daughter enjoyed the lady who taught them a dance. We loved dressing up in clothes from the colonial times. Plenty of seating at their outdoor amphitheater. Exhibits have many interactive stations for kids. Our visit superceded my expectations. They have their own parking lot as well. Btw, I wasn't sure if they would be open because of the snow, so I sent a message on Instagram, not expecting a reply the day, but I got a reply in less than five minutes. I was over the moon. I was so hesitant to drive the hour while uncertain if they were going to be open or not, so that was a huge relief when I got a response! That's great representation!”

Leaving a review really does help us. If you haven’t reviewed us yet, please take a moment to do so at this link: Review the History Center

You can view even more photos and videos from this Family Day at the links below. We look forward to seeing you at our next Family Day, Women’s Work, on March 8th from 1-4 PM which will explore the work and influence of working women through 300 years of history.

Firing of the Flintlock Military Musket

Learning the Merry Merry Milkmaids Dance

Program Contextualization Clip

Photos from Family Day

Our free reading program, Gainesville Reads, has been in session since January and we are off to a great start! This program provides free one-on-one tutoring to students in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade who struggle with reading. All of our tutors are volunteers, many of whom are current or retired educators. We are so fortunate to have such supportive tutors in this program that excite students about reading. If you are interested in becoming a tutor, we do have two spots available for our 4-5 PM session and 6-7 PM session on Mondays. Email libba.beaucham@brenau.edu if you are interested.

We are accepting new or gently used books for the program. If you would like to donate books, simply bring them to the History Center during our normal operating hours Tues-Sat 10 AM - 4 PM.

We want to thank the generous donors who made this program possible:

Mr. & Mrs. Tommy Bagwell, Mr. & Mrs. John Cleveland, Mrs. Linda Fowler, Mr. & Mrs. Jack Frost, Mr. & Mrs. Rusty Gravitt, Mr. David Haynes, Mr. & Mrs. Lorry Schrage, Dr. Margaret Schutte, Mr. & Mrs. Doug Tollett, Anonymous, Anonymous 

We can’t wait to update you on the progress of our students when we celebrate their achievements in May!

By Museum Services Manager Brandon Cohran

The T.R.R. Cobb House in Athens, Georgia, sits on a side street in downtown Athens, but often draws interest from passersby due to its size and color – pink. Yes, pink is the original exterior color of the house! The house has a unique history all its own, but it is enhanced by the people who lived there too. Today, it is restored to reflect the styles and period from 1852-1862, the last ten years of Thomas Cobb’s life.

Image courtesy of T. R. R. Cobb House

In its earliest years, Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, his wife Marion (daughter of Joseph Henry Lumpkin, the first Chief Justice on the Georgia Supreme Court), their four daughters, and their two sons who died in infancy, lived in the home. There were several enslaved persons who lived on the property as well, including Jesse, who Tom mentioned by name in several letters. T. R. R. Cobb, and his brother Howell Cobb, were both influential citizens in Athens during their lives, with T. R. R. being a lawyer, author, educator, slave owner, politician and Confederate Army Officer.

Portrait of T. R. R. Cobb

When the house was built in the mid-1830s it did not have its lavish front porch, in fact, the house was a different architectural style altogether – a plantation plain. The floorplan was a four over four, meaning four rooms on top of four rooms, and it stayed this way until the mid-1840s when two rooms were added on. By 1852, Thomas Cobb was wealthy enough to adopt more Greek revival architectural elements such as the two-story Doric columns, symmetrical octagon wings, and portico onto the front of the house. The floorboards in the octagon rooms are original!

Image courtesy of T. R. R. Cobb House

Image courtesy of T. R. R. Cobb House

Once T. R. R. Cobb died in 1862 at the Battle of Fredericksburg, his wife Marion lived in the home until 1873 when it was sold. Once the Cobb Family was out of the house, it was a rental property, boarding house, and even a fraternity house before being purchased for use by the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.

Today, the house sits about two blocks from where it originally did, because in the 1980s the house was moved 70 miles from Athens to Stone Mountain, Georgia, in lieu of being destroyed. It sat dormant at Stone Mountain Park for another twenty years before being moved back to Athens. Since the early 2000s, the Watson-Brown Foundation has worked to preserve, staff, and interpret the significance of the house and its inhabitants during the 19th century. The house operates today as a historic house museum and is open to the public for touring and features two exhibits.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Lunch & Learn program with President Abraham Lincoln! Director of Education Ken Johnston portrayed Lincoln and spoke about his life before and during his presidency. The audience had many questions for Lincoln including what his childhood was like, how he was educated, his views on slavery, and what it was like to live in the White House.

Our next Lunch & Learn will feature the story of George Shaw, a slave from Hall County who escaped to freedom by joining the US Navy. Join us on February 20th at noon!

This week From the Archives is a photograph from the TJ Allen and Sons in Harmony Grove, Georgia. Mr. Allen was a photographer in Harmony Grove, now the city of Commerce, from 1889 to 1919. After his 30-year career in North Georgia, he moved to a larger city to expand his business with his children.

A portrait taken by TJ Allen

During his time in Harmony Grove, Mr. Allen also had the first handmade telephone in Jackson County; the line went from his photography studio to his home.

We have a few photographs from the TJ Allen and Sons company in our archives. This one is by far our most pristine, and although there is no identification for the gentlemen in the photograph, the name of the company helps us establish a time period and location for future research.

Lunch & Learn: The Story of George Shaw Thursday, February 20th, 2020 from 12:00-12:45 PM Included in General Admission

From Slavery on the banks of the Chattahoochee River to Freedom as a Sailor in the US Navy, Hall County native George Shaw’s life took quite a journey. Join us to hear about his odyssey and about African Americans in the Civil War Navies.

This event is included in admission. Feel free to bring your lunch as you enjoy the program!

Lunch & Learn: Girl Scouts Founder Juliette Gordon Low Thursday, March 5th, 2020 from 12:00-12:45 Included in General Admission

Meet the Founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low (or "Daisy") during this Lunch & Learn! Daisy will tell the story of how she founded the Girl Scouts, stories from her childhood, her experiences around the world and more.

Family Day: Women’s Work March 8th, 2020 from 1-4 PM Free! Thanks to the Ada Mae Ivester Education Center

In conjunction with National Women’s History Month the History Center take a special look at the role of Women as they work at home and in public through close to 300 years of Georgia history.

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Photograph of the Gainesville Railway Streetcar, 1903. Pictured are motorman John H. Lancaster and conductor Robert L. Gordan. Source: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/hall_hchp_0352

Your donation of any amount makes it possible for us to offer outstanding programming to the community and preserve the precious artifacts we house. To donate, please visit: Make a Difference

[janiedean]

Am I remembering right that you like Kant? Anyways, I just ran into someone on my dash reblogging a post that said "Immanuel Kant was a racist and white supremacist" amongst other things and I immediately thought of you/your reaction to that. Then I looked at who the OP was and IT WAS FUCKING MEDIEVALPOC, I nearly pissed myself from laughing so hard. Anyways, I'm gonna inform the reblogger about medievalpoc being a fraud and based on the response either unfollow them or not.

oh good lord I’ve seen that post too ESPECIALLY from medieval poc let’s just put it here in hopes ppl see it

now kids buckle up aunt janie will explain you why it’s a dumb notion and why it does not matter

now, immanuel kant was born in the year of the lord 1724 and died in the year of the lord 1804 in a small town named konigsberg, which back then was in germany and today is named kalingrad and is in FUCKING RUSSIA:

I can assure you that finding someone not white in konigsberg in the year of the lord 1724 would have been extremely complicated.

now, the farthest immanuel kant went from konigsberg in his entire life was twenty kilometers.

I repeat: this guy has NEVER gone farther than 20 kms from konigsberg. which means that he never, like, met many people who were from outside his city if they didn’t travel. therefore, the likeliness that kant ever met someone nonwhite in his life wasn’t really that high. actually, it was akin to zero.

now, has kant written racist shit? he has, let’s get it out of the way. where? in a book named ANTHROPOLOGY.

now, premise: I have TWO fucking degrees on kant and I’d like to think I know what I’m talking about, AND I read the anthropology thrice for reasons and I also read the critics. now: kant’s famous and studied and central in western thought for three things: CRITIC OF PURE REASON, CRITIC OF PRACTICAL REASON, CRITIC OF JUDGMENT, THE ENLIGHTENMENT ESSAY. PERIOD. THAT’S IT. EVERYTHING ELSE IS RELATIVELY IMPORTANT BUT THOSE WERE THE WORKS WHO MADE HIM FAMOUS AND WHICH REVOLUTIONIZED EUROPEAN/WESTERN THOUGHT/THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, NOT ANYTHING FUCKING ELSE HE WROTE. EVERYTHING ELSE HE WROTE AFTER THAT WAS ADDING TO THE SYSTEM. and the critics are all about intellectual shit, and how our brains and our morality and our sense of aesthetic works, not about racial theory. there isn’t anything in the critics aka HIS INFLUENCING WORKS that has anything to do with white supremacism, since like all of that is about extremely complicated specular philosophy/logic/analytics, not about RACIAL THEORY.

now, what happens in the anthropology: you can guess what it’s about from the title. there’s a section where he discusses ‘types’ of people where categories of individuals are nailed by a fairly questionable system of either nationality or skin color, ie there’s germans and italians and french people and black people and so on, but like... it was 19th century questionable classification, he didn’t come up with it and he wasn’t the first nor the last. but anyway... every type described is basically a mass of stereotypes obviously lifted from anthropology books of the time (which is basically obvious since it’s not like kant had traveled to france or italy or spain and saw A SIZABLE PART OF THE POPULATION WITH HIS OWN EYES), and in the german section there’s still a bunch of less bad stereotypes but like I’m fairly sure there was a part where he said germans were honest but lacked imagination or shit like that - anyway, it was a bunch of crap about ALL categories, both white and black, which was COPIED FROM MANUALS OF THE TIME PRETTY MUCH BECAUSE HE HAD NO IDEA OF THE REAL THING, and calling him white supremacist when he hadn’t ever met a black person nor racism was a problem to him since he didn’t live in a society where he was likely to meet someone who wasn’t white or german/prussian and where the constructions that permit something such as white supremacism did not exist is... like... completely idiotic. I don’t call aristotle a misogyny supremacist because he thought women were incubators for men (or so he wrote) because he lived in a society where women were put at the side, men had all the power and he wasn’t brought up to know otherwise - now, if he hadn’t been a misogynist more power to him, but like in athens women didn’t vote and didn’t even spend most of their time with men and they were excluded from politics and male actors played female roles in theater and so on, I’m not surprised and since the reasons aristotle is important are OTHERS and not the fact that he hated women that is not fucking relevant when it comes to studying him, because his contribution to western culture was NOT that.

same, kant might have been a racist by our standards bc he didn’t and couldn’t know better, or at most he didn’t show himself to be better than society in that instance (and he also thought women were too stupid for philosophy except ONE so XDD), but since when you study kant you DON’T touch that which is, in fact, fucking irrelevant when it comes to the reasons why anyone should need to study kant, going like I DON’T WANT TO READ KANT BECAUSE HE WAS A RACIST is completely fucking idiotic and making him pass as someone who actually INFLUENCED OTHERS TO BE RACISTS is even more asinine because no one gave that much of a fuck about the anthropology.

jfc.

[keywestlou]

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ AWAITS.....MONT BLANC, COURMAYEUR AND CHAMONIX

The wonderful world of Oz awaits.

Today covers Days 35 and 36. Courmayeur and Chamonix. Both sit in the shadow of Mont Blanc. Different. Exciting.

Courmayeur is the last community in northern Italy. Near the French border. On the french side is Chamonix. A 9 mile tunnel through Mont Blanc connects the two.

Courmayeur is an Alpine resort. On the sunny side of Mont Blanc. One of Chamonix’s distinctions is it sits near the junction of France, Italy and Switzerland. A skiing resort in the “French Alps.”

DAYS 35 and 36…..Greece the First Time

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Key West Lou

Between northern Italy and mid eastern France, computer/internet connections have been a disaster. I think it is because I am high up in the Alps. Whatever.

I could not blog yesterday. Today is a double header. Every word worth reading!

If I had been able to do the blog yesterday, my opening comment would have been…..The last 48 hours have been amazing! Absolutely amazing! Hard to believe!

Here it is…..48 hours ago I was in Athens, Greece. Yesterday Novara, Italy. Today Chamonix, France.

How about this…..Athens a boiling 90 degrees. Novara’s humidity a killer. It snowed last night in Chamonix and is presently 29 degrees Fahrenheit.

The trip caught up with me in Novara. The humidity unbearable. Italians have electrical power problems. Ergo, little air conditioning. I slept in Novara the one night with no air.

Fortunately, only one night in Novara. Then to Courmayeur. Courmayeur is the area in northern Italy immediately before France. I am staying a couple of nights in a Swiss chalet designed condo there.

The drive from Novara to Courmayeur took 2 hours. The speed limit was 85. I was the only one doing it. They were passing me at 125 miles per hour. Each time a car went by, I did not see it for long, but heard it loud and clear. A long swishing sound.

I stopped at a super market before going to the condominium. Needed breakfast goodies. The parking lot was an eye opener. The parking spaces were all half the size of those in the U.S. The cars small also. No big cars here. I was driving a Fiat. Stick shift.

Italians pay $12 a gallon for gas. They learned a long time ago to conserve. We have not when it comes to cars. I doubt the American public ever will. The desire is for big and more big.

Courmayeur looks like a Swiss movie. Makes sense. Switzerland is only one hour away. Old stone homes. Hundreds if not a thousand or more years old. Stone with wood trimming. The stone is gray, the wood brown.

There is a lot of renovating going on. Huge cranes all over the hill sides.

Courmayeur is in the Alps. So is Chamonix, France from where I am writing this blog. The Alps are big. No question about it. I had never seen anything so big anywhere. Majestic.

Mont Blanc is huge. As far as the eye can see in any direction. Higher than anything I have ever seen.

Mont Blanc is not one peak jetting upwards. It is a series of peaks. Eleven peaks sitting on top of an already high broad miles long mountain. The whole thing is called Mont Blanc. One of the peaks is specifically named Mont Blanc. The biggest of the big. Four thousand eight hundred ten m. I do not know what the m means. Suffice it to say, I have never seen anything bigger!

Mont Blanc is beautiful. Breathtaking.

The condo I am enjoying has two bedrooms. The building itself all stone. Two private balconies. Balconies and trim wood.

My intent was to drive to Chamonix the first evening and have dinner in France. Only a half hour away. I was too tired. It was bed for me.

Courmayeur is a valley. About two thirds the way up Mont Blanc. I was glad I had jeans. It is cold that far up.

Many power lines run along and on the mountains. Italy has a power shortage. France does not. France has nuclear reactors producing electric power. The Italians buy much of their electricity from France. At a premium price. The Italians voted at one time to ban nuclear reactors in Italy. A costly decision dollar wise. Whether health wise is another question. I make the observation because France and Italy are so close. Any French nuclear disaster would pour down on the Italians.

The drive from Novara to Courmayeur was interesting for a number of reasons. One had to do with castles. So many. Each built high on a hill. A small one. Apparently making it next to impossible for an enemy to scale the walls.

The castles were about a mile apart. I recalled that way back when there were many Italian kingdoms. Each with its own king. They warred constantly. It was easy. They were each a mile distant from each other. One hour’s walking time. Less on a horse.

Churches everywhere. Apparently each castle had its own church. The church was an integral part of each kingdom.

That is the end of Day 35. I had intended to go on to the next day. Day 36. A rendition of my first day in France. However, I am too tired. I apologize. The trip is starting to get to me. I will pick it up here tomorrow. You will love the glacier and snow stories, the dramatic drop in temperature, and the high quality of Italian roads and bridges. And more.

Enjoy your day! I am mine. I know this is the trip of a lifetime and one I will never do again.

—

The Wall Street Journal is a conservative publication. In the past 4 years, the Journal has basically supported Trump.

No more.

Trump spoke Sunday at the CPAC meeting in Orlando. Part of his self-serving speech was his claim that his 4 years as President were the best. Especially year 4 which he described as “fabulous.”

The Wall Street Journal disagreed. An Editorial piece yesterday titled The Grievances of Trump’s Past hit the nail on the head: “If 2020 was so fabulous, why are Republicans shut out of power up and down Pennsylvania Avenue?”

There is insanity on both sides of the aisle in Washington. One example is the Warren and Sanders proposed 3 percent tax on billionaires. In bill form labeled Ultra Millions Tax Act, they propose a 2 percent tax on the $50 million wealthy rising to 3 percent for billionaires over $$1 billion.

Where is the fairness? These people have already paid any taxes due in the years they received the monies. Isn’t what is proposed “double dipping?” Double taxation?

Seems UnAmerican.

Warren and Sanders believe their bill would “close the wealth gap” between the rich and poor.

If I was fortunate to have $50 million or $3 billion, I would take my money and body and move elsewhere.

Joe Manchin is playing “power politics.” The Democratic Senator from West Virginia knows he is one of the swing votes. With an equally divided Senate, the Democrats need his vote on most if not all measures. Our country will never correct itself  if Biden and team cannot get legislation passed which would get the U.S. over the many humps it faces.

Manchin has become a pompous obstructionist. He is nickel dining bills like the present stimulus one. He doesn’t care. He has his fortune. What of those that do not have a fortune to rely on and are having grave difficulties even putting food on the table.

Some of his muscle flexing hard ass tactics include his refusal to vote in support of getting rid of the filibusterer. Without it, Biden will fall far short of what he promised he could do and will do.

Even with the $1,400, Manchin is pushing Biden to give less.

He vocally opposes policy proposals from the progressive wing of his party, including Medicare For All.

One of the biggies today. Manchin is opposed to increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

On this day in 1990, 6,000 drivers went on strike against Greyhound Lines. An impasse was reached in negotiations following the calling of the strike. The union remained adamant. Greyhound fired all 6,000 workers.

Shades of Ronald Reagan and the air controllers a few years earlier.

On this day in 1899, The Court of Inquiry investigating the loss of the Battleship Maine met in the Key West Custom House.

Harry Truman was quick to recognize a good thing. Especially when it came to Key West. The President arrived this date in 1951 for a three week vacation at the Little White House.

Topsy turvy Syracuse basketball. Syracuse beat North Carolina 72-70 over the weekend.

Some sportswriters are now saying Syracuse is back on the bubble and might have a chance to play in the NCAA tournament.

Tonight, tonight will be like every Tuesday night……My blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine my time.

Great topics. Less fire and brimstone now that Trump is no longer President.

Join me for a quick moving half hour. Guaranteed you will enjoy. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

    THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ AWAITS…..MONT BLANC, COURMAYEUR AND CHAMONIX was originally published on Key West Lou

[pete-and-pete]

Paul Rosenfeld: ‘Sortition’ Supporter Charged in Election Day Suicide Bomb Plot

The FBI has arrested a New York man accused of plotting to blow himself up on Election Day in the National Mall in a suicide bombing. Prosecutors said his plan was to draw attention to “sortition,” which is a “political theory that advocates the random selection of government officials.”

Paul Rosenfeld was charged October 10 with unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device and interstate transportation and receipt of an explosive, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release. Rosenfeld told the FBI he was not aiming to injure or kill anyone other than himself, but federal authorities said the bombing would have put others at risk.

“As alleged, Paul M. Rosenfeld concocted a twisted plan to draw attention to his political ideology by killing himself on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.—risking harm to many others in the process,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. “Rosenfeld’s alleged plan for an Election Day detonation cut against our democratic principles. Thanks to outstanding coordination between local and federal law enforcement, Rosenfeld’s alleged plot was thwarted and he is now in federal custody.”

The FBI said in a criminal complaint that agents found, “a functional explosive device weighing approximately 200 pounds,” in the basement of Rosenfeld’s home in Tappan, New York, in Rockland County. In a blog post in 2015, Rosenfeld said, “Those of us who feel that voting (in its current configuration) represents a scam should be agitating outside of the poles [sic] at every election.”

Here’s what you need to know about Paul Rosenfeld, his alleged bombing plot and sortition:

1. Rosenfeld Told a Reporter in Pennsylvania He Planned to Blow Himself Up Because He Is Angry With the Direction the Country & Told the FBI He Had Made Smaller Devices to Conduct Test Detonations

Paul Rosenfeld began communicating with a reporter in Pennsylvania about his plan to blow himself up, leading to the FBI investigation, NBC New York reports. He told the unnamed reporter he was “angry about the country’s direction,” the news station reports.

Rosenfeld sent letters and text messages to the reporter and in those messages, he detailed the plans for the suicide bombing, according to the criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. Rosenfeld also told the reporter about his support for the sortition theory, the FBI said in the complaint.

The FBI served a search warrant at Rosenfeld’s home in Tappan, New York, on October 9, according to court documents. He was then interviewed by agents and told them he had ordered “large quantities of ‘black powder’ over the Internet,” and brought it to his house in New York. Rosenfeld told the agents he made “smaller explosive devices” than the one he planned to use on Election Day and “had conducted test detonations.”

Rosenfeld also used about eight pounds of the “black powder” to build a larger explosive device in his basement, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents he installed “certain components” in the device to ensure he would be killed in the blast. According to the FBI, “black powder” is an explosive substance used as a propellant in firearms, artillery and rockets.

The FBI said they found a plywood box in Rosenfeld’s basement containing “black powder.” According to the criminal complaint, explosive experts X-rayed the device and discovered, “that engaging the firing switch on the explosive device would generate an electrical charge, which would, in turn, spark an ‘e-match’ inside the explosive device, thereby igniting the black powder.”

The FBI agents also found empty canisters of black powder.

He told the FBI he would drive the device to Washington D.C. to detonate the device on the National Mall and draw attention to his political belief in sortition. Rosenfeld told the FBI he acted alone.

You can read the full criminal complaint below:

2. He Wrote an Essay in 2015 on a ‘Kletorian’ Blog in Which He Argued Sortition Is ‘Common Sense,’ but They Must ‘Convince Enough People to Put Our Movement on the Map’

In 2015, Rosenfeld wrote an essay on the blog “Equality by Lot,” a site run by “Kletorians,” the name that supporters of sortition and the “deliberate use of randomness (lottery) in human affairs.” In the blog post, titled “Extinction of Politics,” Rosenfeld argued that they had to work harder to raise awareness of their political theory.

“We aren’t a minority and we aren’t a fringe group (not even a lunatic fringe); from the perspective of politics we simply don’t exist (at least not in the U.S.),” he wrote. “Our sense of things is anything but common, it is exceedingly rare. If we ever hope to see this thinking converted into action that will have to change. Somehow we must convince enough people to put our movement on the map. For this, we will need a highly effective argument, because the people we wish to persuade are living under the thrall of a myth.”

He added:

The average citizen of our globe believes fervently in something which they call “The Democratic Process”. Voting is its central tenet. No matter how often it fails them they rarely waver in their devotion. And like true believers, fundamentalists even, each further obstacle is taken as a sign; the path is righteous but rocky, we must purify our faith and trudge ever onward. When we are finally worthy, the Democratic Process will at last deliver us. The road to true reverence has been long. Following the rise of the Third Estate there came the fall of property qualifications; then the secret ballot; voting by freed slaves; direct election of Senators; the ballot initiative and finally women were included. None of this brought deliverance and so today’s mantra is “corporate cash”. If only we can somehow stay the floodgates of corporate influence which pervert the process of “True” Democracy, then at long long last we will finally enter the promised land.

The origin of this myth is difficult to place. I suspect Christian infused political philosophy from the Enlightenment has played a role. The centuries of demagoguery which followed have probably reinforced this thinking as well. But I also believe it goes deeper than this, or any intellectual history. I think that the faith in “one man, one vote” strikes directly to our core. I believe, quite literally, that it is in our blood. We humans are defined by a set of political behaviors which are transmitted from one generation to the next. The relative importance of genetics vs. culture in this transmission is probably debatable, but either way the behavior is a given (in the short term at least). We’re stuck with it. We may not care for it today but this behavior served our ancestors well for thousands of generations. It won’t change overnight.

He also wrote:

Majority rule represents the the deliberate suppression of violence in favor of political maneuvering. This social truce holds only so long as the various parties each possess a credible threat of violence in the event that politics breaks down. When a faction (such as the peasantry) is disarmed, disorganized, or without military training, they will inevitably lose their political rights and descend to the level of slavery.”

The logical end of majority rule is monarchy. The constant political maneuvering of individuals and factions must inevitably trend towards a winner takes all conclusion. Even today, despite all our “democratic” pretensions in the U.S., one might easily imagine a scenario in which President Jeb Bush (following an act of nuclear terrorism) suspends the electoral process, under the pretext that “terrorists” have infiltrated the Democratic party. A perpetual dynasty of Bush leaders would be a plausible outcome. Most people imagine that democracy and monarchy are different animals, but they are actually cousins.

In the comments of the blog, Rosenfeld said, “I have just always assumed that legislators chosen by lot would be treated like other “civil servants” and subjected to an appropriate examination. Cops and Firefighters take a test, nobody calls this “elitist”. Surely lawmakers must demonstrate some minimum knowledge of history and economics if nothing else. Personally I wouldn’t want to set the bar too high because I do believe much knowledge and wisdom are impossible to measure; but a room full of the ignorant and illiterate!!”

You can read his full blog post here.

According to the Sortition Foundation, a group run by British political scientist Brett Hennig, “Sortition is the use of random selection to populate assemblies or fill political positions. An assembly that uses sortition would be composed of people just like you and me: it would be a representative random sample of people, making decisions in an informed, fair and deliberative setting.”

The foundation says, “Sortition has a long history, going back at least to Ancient Athens, where selection by lot (from among all free, male citizens) was the principal way courts and councils were filled. For hundreds of years it was considered a fundamental aspect of democracy; it wasn’t until long after the French and American revolutions, as universal suffrage slowly became widespread, that the term “democracy” was re-christened to mean electoral democracy.” Hennig and his foundation say their goal is, “to reclaim democracy and demand real democracy now.”

Writer Michael Schulson wrote in 2014 about how sortition could work in America:

Here’s how sortition works: for any given election, you take the names of every eligible citizen, and you put those names in a very, very big hat. (Note: you don’t have to use a hat, and there are many variations on this method). Then you draw a certain number of names out of the pool. Those are your legislators. It’s democracy by lottery.

For the House of Representatives, for example, we could pull 435 names out of a giant lottery of all American citizens 25 and older, and, voilà: legislators!

You may feel that this is an incredibly stupid idea, but keep two things in mind. First, sortition was the main system for choosing political officials in ancient Athens. As you’ll recall from civics class, Athens was the template, muse, and foundational bedrock for the American Republic. And, second, we already use sortition to select an important deliberative body, the trial jury. Those jury summonses that you get in the mail? Blame the Athenians. …

Sortition rests on two rather unique properties of random sampling. The first of these—which I’ve written about more extensively elsewhere—is that chance is essentially incorruptible, at least until someone rigs your lottery machine. No matter how much money the Koch brothers or Tom Steyer spend, they cannot convince a lottery to choose one person over another. What could be more impartial than chance?

And, second, as your random sample gets larger, you tend to get closer and closer to a sample that mirrors, in almost every respect, the qualities of the entire population. More than any other system, random sampling gives you “an exact portrait of the people at large.” It’s the Law of Large Numbers. (This doesn’t work, of course, for small samples, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wants to elect a president by lot).

In 2015, Rosenfeld posted a comment on the Kletorian blog saying that Ted Talk videos and other YouTube presentations on sortition are an important way to spread their message. He wrote, “It’s not perfect, but it is accessible to the masses. There needs to be a lot more of this. Most people, even ‘educated’ people, have an extremely short attention span and zero interest in political theory. Media like this could be our best hope,” he wrote.

Rosenfeld also published a lengthy article on sortition and his political views in 2015. You can read Rosenfeld’s full essay on sortition below:

3. Rosenfeld Could Have ‘Claimed the Lives of Innocent Bystanders & Caused Untold Destruction,’ the FBI Says

The FBI and local police are still on Slocum Avenue in #Tappan. Town officials say they're executing an arrest warrant "based on threats that were made to targets not in the local area." More on @FiOS1NewsLHV. pic.twitter.com/SmAtp9wwmF

— Jonathan Gordon (@JGordonFiOS1) October 10, 2018

The FBI said Paul Rosenfeld’s suicide bombing plot could have put people at risk in the National Mall on Election Day.

“As alleged in the complaint, Paul M. Rosenfeld planned to detonate a large explosive to kill himself and draw attention to his radical political beliefs. Had he been successful, Rosenfeld’s alleged plot could have claimed the lives of innocent bystanders and caused untold destruction,” Assistant FBI Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement. “Fortunately, his plans were thwarted by the quick action of a concerned citizen and the diligent work of a host of our law enforcement partners and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Sweeney added, “I’d like to extend particular thanks to our partners with the Orangetown Police Department, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office, the Rockland County District Attorney, the New York State Police, the New York City Police Department, and the Stony Point Police Department for their respective roles in bring this investigation to a safe conclusion.”

According to the press release, “Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists principally of agents of the FBI and detectives of the New York City Police Department. Mr. Berman also thanked the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office, the Stony Point Police Department, the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, New York State Police, and the Orangetown Police Department for their valuable assistance.

4. He Has Worked as a Painter & in the Visual Department at Lord & Taylor

#Breaking: 56-year-old Rockland County, New York man, Paul Rosenfeld has been arrested by the FBI and charged with building a 200 pound bomb which he would set off on election day to kill himself and draw attention to "#sortition". #CVE pic.twitter.com/MEnntT0BUK

— Parthiban Shanmugam (@hollywoodcurry) October 10, 2018

According to a now-deleted Linkedin profile, Paul Rosenfeld is a painter and has worked in the visual department at Lord & Taylor in the department store’s painting and decorating division. Rosenfeld has also operated an independent painting and decorating company, offering house painting, custom colors and faux finishes.

Little else is known about Rosenfeld, who has lived in Rockland County for several years. He has lived in Tappan, New York, along with Piermont, New York; Berkley Heights, New Jersey; and Manhattan, public records show.

In an argument on the “Equality by Lot” blog, Rosenfeld wrote, “Call me an elitist if you like but my hands are dirty, I live from paycheck to paycheck and I never went to college. My proletarian credentials are firmly intact. But I do not believe there is a snowball’s chance in hell that a large group of humans (however you select them) is capable of managing itself in a manner consistent with social justice or even rational self-preservation UNLESS there are definite conditions laid out in advance for the management of this body. Otherwise, Nature will take its course; I don’t care if the group is composed of janitors, college professors or even a ‘statistically accurate’ cross-section of the population at large. I am certain that it will end badly.”

He added, “Someday perhaps, if our culture evolves, things might be different. But today this is what we’re stuck with. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. There are certainly many more people in your camp than there are in mine. Therefore, presumably, you must be right.”

5. Rosenfeld Faces Up to 20 Years in Prison if Convicted of the Charges

FBI on the scene in Tappan, in connection with threats made to targets in Washington, D.C. pic.twitter.com/Ys8kPYpwKb

— Peter D. Kramer (@PeterKramer) October 10, 2018

Paul Rosenfeld faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of charges against him. Unlawfully manufacturing a destructive device and interstate transportation and receipt of an explosive both carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison, according to federal law.

It is not known if Rosenfeld has hired an attorney. He remains in federal custody after being arrested October 10, according to prosecutors. He appeared in federal court for the first time Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison in White Plains, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said, “This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Michael K. Krouse is in charge of the prosecution.”

It is not clear when Rosenfeld is scheduled to appear in court next.

READ NEXT: These Are the Victims of the New York Limo Crash

source https://heavy.com/news/2018/10/paul-rosenfeld-sortition/

[topmixtrends]

CALL ME A KILLJOY but I am sick to death of hearing about Karl Marx. I am sick of his name, his -isms, his undoubted genius, and his “philosophy.” I am sick of him “having reason,” as the French say, or “being right.” But most of all I am sick of his “relevance.”

As someone whose parents were born and grew up in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and who missed the same fate by the skin of her teeth, I know perfectly well what Marx’s relevance amounts to. Marx gave it a name, even if for him it meant something else than it did for the people of Yugoslavia. I am talking about the oft-quoted and seldom understood “religion of everyday life.”

In post–World War II Yugoslavia, Marx’s “relevance” was to be a member of the ruling communist party. Outside of that supra-religious institution no substantial share in the social wealth was possible. “[T]he life-process of society,” as Marx observes in what turned out to be a weird prediction, “which is based on the process of material production, does not strip off its mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely associated men, and is consciously regulated by them in accordance with a settled plan.”

The constitution that enshrined this religion in law and etched it in the consciousness of Yugoslavs did not survive the county’s horrific civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2001, resulting in the deaths of 150,000 and the displacement of 4,000,000 people; in all, more than one sixth of its total population. And yet remarkably its “religion” survived, despite the fact that today it’s the “freely associated men” — or the freemasonic cabals that rule over the remnants of Yugoslavia like buzzards circling a herd of listless cattle — whose mystical veil is in urgent need of being torn to shreds.

Imagine if Marx had been a theater producer. That was surely far more his style. He certainly knew how to flatter egos, as he did when Ferdinand Lassalle asked him to appraise the manuscript of his dud of a play Franz von Sickingen. “I must applaud both composition and action,” Marx lied, “and that’s more than one can say of any other modern German play.” It might have been his true vocation, putting on dramas and musical comedies at London’s Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, the street where the German Workers Educational Society held its meetings, and where its members could partake of recreational activities, from poetry to fencing. I wonder if Marx ever lamented during those irreproachable sessions the fact that all the world’s a stage, and that he was overseeing the wrong one.

I can’t resist citing that hilarious Mel Brooks film The Producers, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, in which a washed-up theater producer’s accountant persuades his client to deliberately stage a Broadway flop in order to avoid a hefty tax bill. When Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden becomes an unexpected and inexplicable hit, Mostel’s livid reaction is worthy of Marx himself (Karl, not Groucho) for its topsy-turvy contrariety: “I was so careful,” bemoans the producer. “I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast — where did I go right?”

Is it too outlandish to speculate that in Marx’s case the critique of political economy had been the stand-in for a juvenile passion? Poetry was Marx’s Thing (das Ding an sich), the Real that a combination of his father’s bitter chastisement and his encounter with Hegel’s “craggy melody” managed to cure him of during his Berlin student days. The prospect of earning a living to provide for his future wife, the Baron von Westphalen’s daughter, no doubt helped to tear the veil of his metaphysical illusions. Like a restless artist, Marx’s lifelong fanaticism might thus be read as a nostalgic yearning for an irreplaceable fetish-object, “the sensibly super-sensible” (sinnlich übersinnlich) as he calls it in Capital. Nothing could ever compete with art, no amount of critical veil-tearing could ever substitute for Marx’s love of lyrical poetry. And so he took the only career path left open to him. He became a producer instead; an impresario in the art of critique.

We are living in a culture that sees tragedy everywhere: that fetishizes it. It’s something of a neurotic obsession. In mid-19th-century England, around 60,000 people, including many children, would die each year of tuberculosis. When Charles Darwin’s daughter Annie died of the disease in 1851 he wrote in his diary: “We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age. […] Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still & and shall ever love her dear joyous face.” Another child, Mary, died in early infancy. But people don’t refer to Darwin’s life as tragic.

High birth rates were normal for Victorian families irrespective of class. Marx’s wife Jenny gave birth to seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood; the Darwins had 10. There is nothing tragic about this high mortality rate. Indeed, Darwin accounts for it himself in On the Origin of Species, noting that the number of individuals of a given species is governed by natural selection, which determines how each individual’s inherited characteristics aid and abet it in the “struggle for existence.” Only a culture profoundly anesthetised to the causes of human suffering would dare mention tragedy in relation to infant mortality, given that it’s derived from the Greek word for “goat” (tragos), whose blood sacrifice would have been lamented in song at the Theatre of Dionysus in fifth-century Athens. For all their apparent lunacy the producers were clearly carrying on a long tradition.

Although Marx’s favorite poet was the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, his was certainly not a tragic life, at least according to the historical definition of tragedy handed down to us from Aristotle. It was sad. And of course it was defined by struggle. But it was not tragic, since the mere fact of being born, becoming ill, then dying, sooner or later, is a biological fact. In order to be a tragic figure the deaths in question would need to be attributable to an act of hubris on the protagonist’s part. But there is no evidence to suggest Marx committed any such act in the case of any of his four deceased children.

It was arguably Charles Dickens — like Darwin, Marx’s contemporary — who was largely responsible for this perversion of the idea of the tragic or sacrificial death, which he memorialized through his depictions of children and their poor unfortunate souls, to such an extent that the plight of almost any Victorian child is today thought of as “tragic.” But this Dickensian propensity for melodrama is more worthy of a satyr play. As Oscar Wilde put it: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”

To be honest, one knows why Marx is so often portrayed as a tragic hero. It is to humanize him, thus attenuating any controversial aspect of his thought. By depicting Marx as a “19th-century life,” to borrow the title of Jonathan Sperber’s wholly unconvincing biography, one relativizes the man and his ideas. One quarantines it, much like the dangerous animals one locks inside cages at the zoo, so much the better to prod and gawp at the exotic creatures, in clear ignorance of the social context that facilitates such saccharine objectification.

Marx is not a tragic specimen, and I for one am not prepared to let him off the hook so easily. To say that his was a 19th-century life is to forget that his name and ideas only entered into common currency in the 20th. If the specter of communism makes any sense today then it’s because the thing itself was barely stirring when Marx and Engels prophesized it in 1848. It would be another hundred years before Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and their supporting cast succeeded in turning one third of the global population red.

But! his devoted fans insist, Marx cannot be blamed for the crimes carried out by the inheritors of his political legacy! Which is like saying that the makers of gunpowder cannot be blamed for its misuse. That is perfectly true — assuming we can agree on what might constitute “misuse.” Gunpowder isn’t intended for washing the dishes. It’s made for the express purpose of blowing things up.

Let us remind ourselves that Marx was the inventor of historical materialism. And this “science of history” advances the following basic principle: “men” make history in unforeseen circumstances. History takes us for a ride. We are all subject to its petulant whims; slave to its organic rhythms (something akin to being battered by a wave and thrown head over heels — you might say one “adapts” to the experience). Those fortunate enough to gain a foothold on the train of history must hang on as best they can. But ultimately the “natural laws of capitalist production” work with “iron necessity toward inevitable results,” meaning woe betide anyone stupid enough to get in the way, for they shall be steamrolled. Like the Slavs who Marx describes as being “incapable of progress and civilization,” and Engels as “residual fragments of peoples” whose “whole existence in general is itself a protest against a great historical revolution.” Despite being “destined to perish before long in the revolutionary world storm” the Slavs might at least take heart from knowing that their brute existence served some purpose in the long march toward civilization. But then Marxists have been feeding the same message to the Slavs for the last century and a half.

I have a suggestion to make. Given the un-tragic wrongness of Marx’s thought, why not make a case for the great man’s contemporary irrelevance? After all, is there today anything more incongruous, perverse, and patently absurd than the call by self-styled communist philosophers like Slavoj Žižek for a Marxist-communist renaissance or “idea of communism,” which looks suspiciously like the idealism or “German ideology” that Marx spent his youth meticulously taking to pieces?

Experience shows that there are two sides to every contradiction. And one would be stupendously naïve to think that anti-Marxism hasn’t for some years now been an article of faith as robust as the genuine article. “I am not a Marxist,” Marx was alleged to have told his son-in-law Paul Lafargue, when the latter brought news from Paris of French “Marxists.” But there is no reason to believe him. Marx was no less vain and insecure in respect of his own intellectual legacy than most of his rivals and opponents, which explains why so many of the letters people sent him went missing, no doubt destroyed by their correspondent. It is difficult to believe that Marx would have been indifferent to the propagation of his own mythology, and to claim that he wasn’t a Marxist is about as convincing and self-critical as Groucho Marx’s hilarious assertion that he wouldn’t wish to join any club that would have him as a member.

Not quite an irrelevant legacy, then. But without doubt patently absurd. Whenever I watch The Producers I can’t help thinking of Marx, and like Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom I wonder to myself how he could possibly have gone right.

¤

Ana Stankovic graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade in 2013. She is a practicing painter whose work has been exhibited in Serbia and Switzerland. She is currently undertaking research at Kyung Hee University in the Department of British and American Language and Culture.

The post I Am Not a Marxist appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://ift.tt/2GzCoxg

[djgblogger-blog]

It's a turbulent world. Stop stressing and adapt

http://bit.ly/2oOyOXE

Instability is the norm in politics Shutterstock

The American people have been roughed up over the last decade. A sense of vulnerability and danger tinges their view of public affairs.

The 2008 crash made them wary of markets. The last two years exposed the weakness of political institutions. And international politics has turned ugly.

The main question in politics today is how to deal with this fragility.

Some people are escapists, engaged in a futile effort to make fragility go away.

And some are realists. They accept fragility as an unavoidable aspect of political and social life. They see an open society as the only way to manage fragility well.

Some political scientists will say that I am misusing the concept of realism. In their view, realism is strictly about foreign affairs, and realists are people who see global politics as a brawl among power-hungry countries.

These academics identify the ancient scholar Thucydides as a father of realism. Thucydides wrote a history of the war between Sparta and Athens in the fifth century B.C. – a ruthless decades-long struggle for survival. One scholar says that Thucydides wanted to reveal the “unalterable nature” of international relations.

Order is fragile

But Thucydides did more than this. He described an idea that dominated politics within the Greek city-states: that political and social order is fragile.

Thucydides gives us a history of worried peoples. They know that they live in a world suffused with perils.

In the epoch described by Thucydides, the main peril confronting Greek city-states was posed by other states. But people had other worries too. In some places, people lived in “constant fear” of revolution and lawlessness. Elsewhere, they feared drought, famine and disease. Some felt an “undefined fear of the unknown future.”

These were Thucydides’ realists – people who understood that the world was a turbulent and dangerous place.

Thucydides described a turbulent and dangerous world. Shutterstock

Concern about fragility was shared by later writers in the realist tradition. Machiavelli feared that Florence would be attacked by other city-states but also fretted about unrest within its own walls. The French jurist Jean Bodin also fixated on internal disorders as well as external enemies. The English statesman Francis Bacon offered a list of conditions – including inequality, religious disputes and immigration – that could produce “tempests” within the state. A good leader, Bacon said, looked for signs of coming storms.

Early American leaders were realists too. They were not just worried about threats from Europe. They agonized about “domestic factions” and the “vicissitudes of trade” as well.

And they worried about the future.

“To say that there is no danger,” a Maine newspaper editor warned as he appraised the country’s prospects in 1824, “would betray a gross ignorance of the history of nations.”

The feeling of fragility has oscillated throughout American history. In the 20th century, the mood has shifted many times – from confidence in the 1920s to anxiety in the 1930s, to confidence in the 1950s and anxiety in the 1970s.

By 2000, the country was confident again. President Bill Clinton boasted that it had never enjoyed “so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats.”

So much for that. Since 2000, Americans have faced terrorist attacks, wars and threats of war, frayed alliances, market busts, technological and climatic shocks, protests and polarization.

Polls show that Americans are stressed by uncertainty about the nation’s future. Pundits have encouraged despair, speculating about the end of democracy and even the end of the West.

This is hyperbole. Our times are difficult but not unusual. History shows that fragility is the norm. What is unusual are moments of calm in which politicians like Clinton succumb to complacency.

Realist credo: Adapt in the face of change

The central question today is how Americans should deal with fragility.

One response is isolationism. This is the politics of gated communities and Fortress America. The theory is that the country can separate itself from foreign perils.

More often, though, retreat allows those perils to fester. And it forgets the warning of classical writers: There are dangers within city walls, too.

Another response, aimed at internal perils, is authoritarianism. The search is for a strong leader who can purge society of threats and uncertainties.

But the sorry record of state planning shows the folly of this. Society is too complex to be completely disciplined. And big government has its own internal weaknesses. Societal fragility is simply replaced by state fragility.

A more constructive response is to recognize that fragility cannot be avoided. As Machiavelli said, fortune cannot be entirely tamed. The key to survival is adaptability in the face of change. This is the realist credo.

Adaptable societies have three capabilities. First, they are vigilant for dangers. Second, they are open to new ideas. And third, they are ready to abandon outmoded practices and experiment with new ones.

Adaptable societies reject both authoritarianism and isolationism. They prize openness, not just because it promotes freedom, but also because it improves resilience.

The philosopher John Dewey articulated this idea almost a century ago. The state, he said, must be remade constantly to deal with changing conditions. This can only be done through patience, dialogue and experimentation.

John Dewey was a realist too. He was concerned with survival in a turbulent world. His prescription still works today.

Alasdair S. Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

[thedietian]

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And along with that, picture yourself being able to eat a juicy burger, all while enjoying the lean, sexy body you have been working so hard to achieve.

This might sound like a fantasy, but it’s not. In fact, you’re about to discover how this dream can become reality. And yes, you’ll find out how cheeseburgers are better than long, slow cardio on the treadmill when it comes to losing fat and building an amazing body.

It all starts with shocking scientific research.

French-Canadian Researchers Discover a Weird Trick to Boosting Your Fat Loss by 450%

Recently, several new studies revealed that long, slow and boring cardio workouts actually SABOTAGE your natural ability to burn ugly belly fat.

Think about that for a moment. If you’re tired, fed up and disappointed with the results you’ve been getting from your current workout, then I want you to know that this cutting edge research is going to change your life.

You’ll also see exactly how the entire fitness industry – from personal trainers to gym owners to equipment manufacturers – have been lying to you about your weight and exactly what you can do about it.

So-called experts, including many overweight doctors have been telling you for years that you need to do up to an hour of cardio per day in order to lose weight.

Listen, if you spend hours each week running, pedaling or stepping…you’re ruining your ability to burn fat and build a lean, sexy body.

Excessive daily cardio basically says to your body, “Whoa, hold on to this belly fat.  We need it.  Burn this muscle instead!”

In fact, research shows that treadmills, elliptical machines and stairmasters can actually train your body to STORE fat instead of burning it.

Other studies show that cardio not only makes you fatter, it also ages you faster.

However, these serious problems from doing excessive cardio are quickly and easily reversible.

There is one little known way to exercise that commands your body to STOP gaining fat…

And you don’t need to adopt an insane diet, start taking truckloads of expensive pills or use one of those infomercial gimmicks that get peddled on late night TV.

You see, this new form of exercise works for anyone and at any age.  Scientists have shown this unique system helps men and women of all ages to burn fat and build muscle at the same time.  That’s the Holy Grail of Exercise! And that means you can use these methods to look and feel better in your 30’s, 40’s, 50’s or even your 60’s than you did as a teenager.

But you’ll never hear this from the mainstream media.

And not knowing this information can keep you FAT FOREVER.  You’ll be stuck doing the same boring, dangerous and ineffective cardio routine that has not worked for you in the last five years and won’t EVER work for you in the future.

Listen, I don’t want you to feel stuck.  I don’t want you to hate your body and feel ashamed about the way you look.  I don’t want you to hear people talking about your weight behind your back.

But the problem is that the fitness industry is more interested in taking your money than it is in helping you get amazing results.

My 18 years in the fitness world as a writer for Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazines has shown me the dark side of most exercise advice being pitched today.

And worst of all…I’ve seen thousands of people wreck their health by slaving away on treadmills.

I’m going to reveal the BIG LIE about cardio right now.

I’ve helped thousands of people get the body of their dreams.  It all starts with understanding a few simple, but controversial facts that the fitness industry doesn’t want you to know…

If you’re tired of leaving the gym with sore knees, an aching back and foot pain from doing long cardio workouts then pay close attention.

Researchers have the good news you’ve been looking for all these years.

Here are the scientific FACTS:

Here’s a fact:  if you want to GAIN WEIGHT, then you should get on the treadmill.

Most people believe that the key to losing fat and getting in shape is to spend lots of time running on a treadmill.

You see, long, slow and boring cardio actually trains your body to store fat.  It makes your body guard its fat closer than a hungry dog guards his food.

I know you’ve seen that famous button on the treadmill that reads: “Fat Burning Zone” but that button should really be called the “Fat STORING Zone” because that’s the real effect it has on your body.

When you spend 30, 40 or even 50 minutes pounding away on the treadmill, you send your body a powerful signal to start storing fat instead of burning it.

It’s all in your hormones. Here’s what smart scientists know:

(Eur J Appl Physiol. 2003 Jan; 88(4-5):480-4.)

T3 is the hormone produced by your thyroid to burn fat.  When you do cardio, your body reacts to the stress by suppressing this fat burning hormone.  This means your body starts gaining fat immediately.  Why?  Because your body needs the fat to function.

Doing cardio also puts massive amounts of stress on your body.

(Skoluda, N., Dettenborn, L., et al. Elevated Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Endurance Athletes. Psychoneuroendocrinology. September 2011.)

Cortisol is associated with heart disease, cancer and visceral belly fat. That’s the kind of fat that hangs around your waist and gives you that disgusting pear shape.

If cortisol and T3 weren’t bad enough…

During long, slow and boring cardio – your appetite also increases.

Have you ever CRAVED sugary food after you finish a long run?

I’m sure you have and it’s all because your body gets very greedy for food after you finish your cardio session.

In fact, your body overreacts to cardio like a dramatic teenager, causing you to eat more and more food.  Even worse, you always end up eating more fat-gaining calories AFTER you work out which means that you gain more and more weight.

(Sonneville, K.R., et al. (2008) International Journal of Obesity. 32, S19-S27.)

Researchers have even found that people on a long term cardio plan actually GAIN weight instead of losing it.  A 2006 study in the International Journal of Obesity found that runners who ran the same distance or slightly more each week had LARGER waistlines at the end of the 9 year study.

Here’s your second shocking fact:

In 1977, Jim Fixx published The Complete Book of Running.  In 1984, Jim Fixx died of a massive heart after his daily run.

Fixx is the misguided man behind the entire cardio craze.

He’s the guy behind our dangerous obsession with cardio.

Now, scientists realize how insane Fixx’s exercise guidance really was.  If you struggle with your weight and still do cardio…then it’s not your fault.

Even Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the founder of aerobics, recently admitted that he was WRONG about cardio.  In his latest book, he said there is “no correlation between ‘aerobic’ endurance performance and healthy, longevity or protection against heart disease.”

And this lie has put your health in jeopardy.

If you don’t want to suffer the same fate as Jim Fixx, then you need to pay close attention now.

The man who ran the first marathon, the Greek soldier Pheidippides, dropped dead as he arrived in Athens with news of victory.  We weren’t meant to run marathons.

You’ve heard about young, seemingly healthy marathon runners suddenly dying during their races.  And yet people still run to “be healthy.”

Take Normann Stadler for example.  Stadler was a previous Ironman winner and serious cardio enthusiast.  In 2011, he underwent emergency surgery to repair an enormous aortic aneurysm.  He had ruined his heart by doing too much cardio.

John Mandrola, a heart doctor, said “Studies have shown elevated levels of coronary plaque in serial marathoners – a problem that rigorous exercise theoretically could cause. Heart disease comes from inflammation and if you’re constantly, chronically inflaming yourself, never letting your body heal, why wouldn’t there be a relationship between over exercise and heart disease?”

Kelly Barrett, a 43 year old mother of 3 suffered from cardiac arrest during the Chicago Marathon.  She died a few days later.

Carlos Jose Gomes of Brazil collapsed shortly after finishing the New York City Marathon.  Cause of death? Heart attack.

Ryan Shay, an Olympic Marathon hopeful, died suddenly during the early stages of the Olympic Trials Marathon in New York City.

Dr. Matthew Hardy, age 50, died after running the New York City Marathon.

And those are just a few of the people that cardio has killed in recent years.

This saddens and frustrates me because these deaths were completely avoidable.

So not only does cardio damage your heart, it also wrecks your joints.

When running, did you know that every time your foot hits the treadmill it experiences 3 times your bodyweight in impact stress? That means that if you weigh 200 pounds, every stride you take puts 600 pounds of pressure on your legs and back.

What do you think happens next?

Your joints aren’t used to having 600 pounds of pressure on them.  Your cartilage breaks down and you get searing pain in your knees, hips, ankles, feet and back.

Every single step sends a shockwave through your entire lower body which can cripple you.  You’ve seen former runners suffer and limp along.  They need knee replacements at 45 or have chronic overuse injuries that prevent them from walking without pain.

Cardio is a recipe for being crippled – or dead – in middle age.  Yet the fitness industry still tries to convince you that doing this dangerous activity is good for your health.

Did you know that the 2nd most common cause of baby boomer doctor visits are sport’s related injuries?  As people get older, the consequences of their cardio come back to bite them in the butt.  Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital even gave it a catchy name:  “Boomeritis.”

He also said: “Baby boomers are falling apart – developing tendinitis, bursitis, arthritis.”

You could end up spending your “golden years” shuffling around in a walker and look ancient before your time.

I don’t even need to tell you how expensive orthopedic surgery can be.  Your cardio could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgery, rehabilitation and job loss because you can’t work anymore.

And that’s if a heart attack from cardio doesn’t kill you first.

You’ve seen how cardio makes you fat.  You’ve seen how cardio ruins your heart and cripples your joints.  But cardio also ages your entire body…

(Cakir-Atabek, H., Demir, S., Pinarbassili, R., Bunduz, N. Effects of Different Resistance Training Intensity on Indices of Oxidative Stress. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. September 2010. 24(9), 2491-2498.)

Free radicals are molecules that cause rapid aging in your body.  During cardio, your body is filled with free radicals that wander around your bloodstream and attack your cells like a street thug.

Not only do free radicals cause damage to all your organs…doing cardio also damages your skin and makes you look older.

Dr. Laurence Kirwan, a plastic surgeon, claims that cardio can damage facial tissue and cause skin to sag.  You see, cardio actually ages your skin and gives you that leathery, unattractive wrinkled look before your time.

That’s why you see runners who are in their forties with a wrinkled face like a 60-year old sun-worshipper.  Their skin sags down and their face is a wrinkled mess.

That’s exactly why cheeseburgers are better than treadmills for fat loss.  You see, cheeseburgers aren’t the healthiest food choice…but they don’t do all the horrible things to your body that cardio does.

They don’t age you prematurely.

They don’t destroy your joints.

And if you eat cheeseburgers, in moderation, they certainly don’t destroy your body’s natural ability to burn fat and build muscle.

That’s probably why the Wall Street Journal claimed that cardio is as bad as cheeseburgers.  But in reality, cardio is WORSE.

I’m glad you asked.  Right now I’m going to show you exactly what you should be doing instead of cardio.  I’m going to show you a very valuable secret that you can use to work out for only 90 minutes PER WEEK and get an amazing body.

This secret reverses the aging process, turns your body into a fat burning machine and you can do it in the comfort of your own home in just 3 short 30-minute sessions per week.

I’m not going to lie to you: the secret I’m about to reveal isn’t for everyone.  For example:

Here’s the truth: the system I’m going to show you is hard work. 

And it is FAST, EFFECTIVE and SAFE.  You won’t damage your heart, you won’t AGE your body, and you’ll LOSE belly fat faster than ever.

But you must be okay with short bursts of intense exercise.  If you’re not afraid of a little work for remarkable results, then I have the answer to your prayers.

In fact, you’ll finish your new workouts before the cardio crowd even starts sweating.   You’ll rapidly lose fat and build lean, sexy muscle.  And you’ll have a good time doing it.  I promise, because I’ll be right there with you.

If you’re ready to ditch the long, slow, boring and DANGEROUS cardio and you’re ready to see how you can get results in just 90 minutes per week, then keep reading.

My name, by the way, is Craig Ballantyne.

I have a master’s degree in exercise science.  I’m a celebrity in the fitness world and I write for Oxygen, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and other magazines.

You may have found this page by reading one of my groundbreaking workouts in those magazines or perhaps you’ve read one of the many articles that I write for my websites with more than 205,000 happy subscribers.

But I’m not like most fitness experts.

Because a few years ago I discovered an unusual secret about fat loss…

I realized that long, slow and boring cardio was horrible for burning fat and building a lean, sexy body.

Since cardio wasn’t the answer, I went in search of a solution that would help my clients actually lose that stubborn fat.

What I discovered shocked me.

You see, I realized that long distance runners look and train WRONG.  Because they do long, slow and boring cardio they have a scrawny build, a fat stomach, and no definition or tone in their muscles.

They don’t look good…they look sick.

But sprinters and other athletes look like jungle cats.  They’re thin and have lean, sexy muscle.

So I decided to reverse engineer the sprinter’s body by having my clients train using short burst workouts that lasted 30 minutes or less.

The results astonished me.

My clients melted away their fat and build bodies that made their friends and family JEALOUS.

I called this special program Turbulence Training. TT for short.

Now, I’d like to show you exactly why this unique system works so well.

You see, the latest scientific research is catching up to my in-the-gym findings and proving me right and the cardio crowd dead wrong.

Here’s what smart scientists know.

(King, J.W. East Tennessee State University, 2001.)

Then, Australian researchers tested Turbulence Training style workouts against long, slow and boring cardio. The TT group exercised 3 days a week for just 20 minutes.  The long, slow and boring cardio group exercised TWICE as long (40 minutes per workout).

After 15 weeks, the TT-style group lost 6 times more weight than the long, slow and boring cardio group.  In fact, the cardio group actually GAINED a pound of fat over the 15 weeks.  They slaved away on the treadmill for more than 30 hours…and they gained one pound for all their pain.

Think about that for a second, the TT group worked out for HALF the time and lost 6 times the weight of the cardio crowd.

I can hear the nails being hammered into cardio’s coffin right now.

(Tremblay A., et al. Metabolism (1994); 43(7):814-8.)

You see, Turbulence training workouts burn more fat in less time.

Dr. Michele Olson of Auburn University made a presentation at the American College of Sport’s Medicine’s 2013 World Conference that said:

“It would take 5 times the amount of typical cardio exercise…to shed the same number of calories…from a [Turbulence Training] style workout!”

You can work out for HALF the time (or less) and get amazing results.  In fact, my clients have achieved amazing results with just 90 minutes of effort per week.

And there is more research that proves that TT destroys cardio when it comes to fat loss.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper out of lovely Australia, 1 hour of TT training burns as much fat as 7 hours of long, slow and boring cardio.

So if you have embarrassing belly fat that you want to lose, then I have good news for you.

A study published in the Journal of Obesity on April 6, 2012 found that TT-style workouts cut dangerous belly fat by 17% in just 60 minutes per week of exercise.  In one hour per week…you can shrink your waistline and get the sexy, flat stomach you always wanted.

You’ll start to see results fast, just like:

“It was perfect for me because, as a busy mom to four and a part-time personal trainer, finding the time to workout had become so difficult that I couldn’t be consistent with my workouts.”

“Knowing that I could do my workout at home in half the time, only three days a week, got rid of all my excuses. I was able to get rid of “stubborn” fat with fewer workouts than when I was exercising 2 or more hours a day training for triathlons.”

“My body often felt like it was on fire for several hours after the workout was over, and it was almost like I could feel the fat melting off throughout the day.”

“I burned off almost 20 lbs of fat while preserving my lean muscle. I reduced my waist measurement by almost 4 inches without losing much from my chest and shoulders. I reduced my body fat by 5%, and I am getting close to my overall goal of being below 10% body fat.”

“I learned that I can fit in training, and I can get an intense workout in half the time I used to spend working out. I’m no longer tied to the treadmill for grueling sessions of steady state cardio…Blech!”

“I’m a busy, stay at home mom who home schools 4 kids. We have 7 horses, 4 cats, and a puppy… I turned 40 and was in the best shape of my entire life. I had six pack abs for the first time! It was pretty neat. Even my husband joined in this time and did some of the same workouts me. He is now in the best shape he’s ever been in—looking GREAT!”

“My body often felt like it was on fire for several hours after the workout was over, and it was almost like I could feel the fat melting off throughout the day.”

“Looking back, I only wish I had started TT much sooner! Before I started using TT, I had tried numerous supplements and diet pills and they all brought zero results. I wanted to have more energy for my wife and two kids, and to be a role model of health for them to look up to. This has vastly improved my family life, my work ethic, my relationships, and my career.”

Honestly, it’s a shame that the rest of the fitness industry hasn’t caught on to this secret yet.  You’re way ahead of the curve just by reading this.  And if you’ve been disappointed by workout programs before, I want to tell you, it’s not your fault.  Those programs weren’t designed to maximize fat burning and it’s no surprise that they didn’t work.

That’s all going to change today.

Based on all of this new scientific research, Turbulence Training workouts DEMOLISH long, slow and boring cardio when it comes to losing fat and getting an amazing body.

Here’s what you need to know:

I have a simple question for you.

Would you rather slave away on a treadmill for hours and hours to just burn 300 calories and have your metabolism SHUT DOWN as soon as you step off the treadmill…

Would you rather set your metabolism on FIRE to burn calories for almost 40 hours after you STOP working out?�� So that you melt away fat when you work, sleep, relax with your spouse and play with your kids?

I think you know the answer to that question.

If you really want to lose fat and keep it off forever then you need to start putting your body to work FOR YOU instead of AGAINST YOU.

As you know – long, slow and boring cardio turns off your metabolism so you only burn fat while you’re exercising.

But if you exercised in way that boosts your metabolism all day long, so you’re burning fat while you eat, sleep, work and play with your kids, then you’d get remarkable results with much less work.

Let me tell you how this is possible.

EPOC is the scientific term for the fat burning boost you get AFTER you finish exercising.  It’s also called the “afterburn” effect.  In essence, if you exercise the right way, you’ll continue to burn fat once your workout is done.

That’s because you can FORCE your body to burn away nasty belly fat through exercise.  You give your body no choice…it must burn fat or else.

Long, slow and boring cardio doesn’t create the “afterburn” effect.

As you saw earlier, cardio actually LOWERS your metabolism so you burn less fat after you jog, row or pedal.

(LaForgia, J. et al. (2006) Journal of Sports Science, 24(12), 1247-64.)

In a 2006 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found that in just 2 weeks of Turbulence Training style workouts, whole body fat burning increased by 36% AFTER exercise.

That means for every minute of every day you’re burning 36% percent more calories.  That translates into more fat burning while you’re sleeping, working and living your life.  All because you used a workout that turned on your body’s “afterburn” effect.

A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that TT-style workouts kept the “afterburn” effect going for 38 HOURS after the workout ended.

That means for more than a day and half you get FREE fat burning because you exercised the right way.  You’ll melt away extra fat because of your newly elevated metabolism.

Think about it like this: if you use a Turbulence Training workout on a Monday during your lunch break, you’ll burn extra fat all day Tuesday and into early Wednesday morning.

That’s why you only need to work out 3 days per week to get great results.  You’ll train your body to burn fat on the 4 days you’re not working out, so you only need to exercise for 90 minutes to burn fat 24 hours per day 7 days per week.

“I only went to the gym 3 times per week…”

“I have a hormone issue where I have high levels and it’s hard for people to lose weight with this condition. In fact, most people with this condition are considered obese. ”

“People every single day look at me, having known me, and want to know what I am doing in the gym. I literally have people coming up to me in the middle of my workouts and asking me to help them.”

(Stokes, K. Journal of Sports Science. 2002 Jun: 20(6):487-94.)

This “super-hormone” is Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and it’s the key to burning fat and staying lean and sexy all year round.

(Burgomaster, K.A., et al. 2008. Journal of Physiology. 586(1), 151-60.)

That means that the folks who performed TT-style workouts lost 3 times more body fat than the folks who performed long, slow and boring cardio.

That’s how you can slow down or even reverse the aging process by working out.  The problem is that long, slow and boring cardio doesn’t boost HGH.  But TT workouts do.

Dr. Mercola, the famous renegade doctor, says that TT-style training offers a “tremendous boost in…” the “youth hormone.” (HGH)

TT workouts boost this miracle hormone naturally.  So you get all the amazing fat burning and age-defying benefits.

“My cholesterol levels are normal for the first time in 20 years, my waist is smaller than it has ever been as an adult and I feel good. I like the person I have. I finally feel like this part of my life is being managed and it’s up to me to decide where I want to take this.”

“Both outwardly and inwardly, a real and positive transformation has taken place in me. People have been saying that I now look 10 years younger and I like it! Without Turbulence Training, none of this would have been possible.”

(Egan, B. 2012. Cell Metabolism 15(3), 405-411.)

Even though you’ll see rapid fat loss results, another important change will happen in your body…

…you’ll start to feel younger and more energetic.

You’ll be able to work hard at your career.  You’ll feel more satisfied in the office.  You’ll have the energy to tackle big projects and go for the raise you deserve.

You’ll have the energy to enjoy playing with your kids when you get home at night.

You’ll feel happy and excited to be with your spouse again.  And frankly, they’ll be happy and excited to be with the new, thinner and sexier you.  It might even rekindle the fire of your relationship…if you catch my drift.

Not only does Turbulence Training help you burn away your pesky fat, it also causes an important change in your body that will make you feel younger and more energetic.

This is not crazy talk, I’ve seen it happen to many of my clients. 

In just 7 days, you’ll start to feel younger, have more energy and feel more athletic.

Now you’ve seen the proof.

The facts, the science and my clients’ amazing transformations are all here to prove it.

“I can fit into size 8 pants. When I started TT, I wore size 16. Now that is CHANGE!!! I not only look better, I feel better. I have more energy which is good when raising 4 boys.”

“The gains I made in the first two weeks were absolutely amazing and the compliments that I received from my wife didn’t hurt either.”

“I have 7 and 5-year old boys who are very active and love playing with their dad. At my heaviest, I weighed 263 pounds and was getting winded when playing with them. I needed a workout that wouldn’t take up all my time. That is where Turbulence Training and Craig came to the rescue.”

“My starting weight was 242 pounds and now I weigh 214 pounds and my waist size went from a 40 to a 36. I have all the energy I used to have eleven years ago and can go swimming, golfing and the boys favorite…….wrestling!!!”

But in case you’re not convinced, there are two important studies you should know about.

Group 1 did TT-style training.  Group 2 did long, slow and boring cardio.  And Group 3 didn’t exercise at all.

Groups 1 and 2 worked out for 12 weeks.

Then, researchers at Laval University in Quebec wanted to test whether cardio or TT-style workouts were better for fat loss.

Two groups participated.  Group 1 did 45 minutes of long, slow and boring cardio.  Group 2 did short TT-style workouts for just a few minutes per week.

In significantly less time, the TT group got 9 times better results.  And that’s what I want for you.  I want you to lose a ton of fat, get the body of dreams, and I want you to do it all in just 90 minutes per week.  In just a second, I’ll show you how to get started.

If you’re ready to ditch your treadmill and never slave away for hours and hours to get no results…

You can get access to the revolutionary Turbulence Training system for less than a single month’s membership at your gym.

When you invest in the Turbulence Training 2.0 system for burning fat and getting the body of your dreams…

You’ll burn more fat in less time with these proven workouts. Not only that, but you’ll be going through each set and rep under the instruction of one of the best trainers in the world. You even get to see me sweating and burning fat.

It’s like having the entire Turbulence Training Team in your house training with you as your workout partner. The workouts can be watched on your computer, iPad or iPod, for any amazing workout done anywhere, anytime.

Not only will you have 24 done for you workouts, but you’ll also receive a 12-week schedule that will show you exactly what workouts to use on what days. It doesn’t get more done for you than this. All you do is press play and burn fat.

But there’s more to it than just the exercises. Inside this bonus manual, you’ll discover not only the exercise photos and descriptions, but you’ll also learn how you can use these workouts with YOUR favorite workout program.

That’s right. If you have a favorite workout program, you don’t have to give it up. I’ll explain how you can use Turbulence Training to enhance the fat burning effects of your current program for faster results.

It’s not your fault that past nutrition failed you. They were far too complicated and hard to follow.

This simple nutrition plan is so easy to follow that you’ll be able to use it no matter how busy your life is today.

You won’t have to prepare 6 meals each day and haul around a cooler at work. Instead, you’ll discover how to enjoy your favorite foods without the guilt (or the belly fat).

You’ll shed fat fast with a powerful combination of these workouts and this easy-to-follow, but aggressive nutrition plan that will shed even the most stubborn fat.

I think it’s a great deal, considering all of the fat burning, energy boosting workouts and strategies you get – and all the scientifically proven follow-along video workouts you get with the main Turbulence Training program.

The truth is, just a handful of those workout programs and diet tips that I’ll share with you could help you completely transform your life.  With just one or two programs, you could melt off all your stubborn belly fat and get an amazing body that you will proudly show off.

“What I loved best about turbulence training was that I felt incredible after each workout, never drained and tired, but pumped for the rest of the day.”

“The other essential benefit of Turbulence Training was the time spent in the gym. Whereas before I spent at least 1-1.5 hours 5-6 days a week, I was able to cut down that time by working out intensely three days a week.”

“My back pain has gone. I used to get a really bad ache in my lower back but from about week 4-5, I noticed that I wasn’t getting it anymore. This pain has been with me a long time and it’s amazing that it’s pretty much completely gone.”

It’s the real secret behind the amazing bodies you see on the cover of Men’s Health and Women’s Health.  As a writer for both of those publications, I got to see the classified secrets of the hot and ripped folks who strut their stuff on the cover and in the pages of those magazines.

Now this workout isn’t for beginners, the other programs I’m going to give you access to will help you melt away those pesky few pounds and will get you in great shape.

But after you’ve lost your first 10, 20 or even 30 pounds…this top-secret program will take your fitness (and your body) to the next level.

In just a few weeks of very hard work, you’ll see abs and get that lean, sexy look of fitness models.  Your legs will look like they were sculpted out of marble by an Italian Artisan.  And your butt might stop traffic.

Even if you don’t want to look like an amazingly sexy fitness model, you can use this program to give yourself a special boost in your problem areas.  It’s rocket fuel for your fat loss and muscle toning.

And don’t worry girls, it won’t make you bulky…the Hot Chicks part of this program is designed to make you lean and very, very sexy.

Fellas, the Buff Dudes part will make you buff with ripped abs.

You’ll never hear this insider information from anyone else.  It’s really the hidden secret behind the most amazing bodies in the world.  And it’s all yours if you agree to give my program a try.

I’ll give you access to this very special program FREE when you agree to try out Turbulence Training for a 60-day RISK-FREE trial.

 You just push play, work out with me and melt away your pesky body fat.

You’ll never be confused and you’ll always be inspired to stick with the program.  You’ll have my personal coaching to help you succeed.

You can’t get this anywhere else.

Again, you are only agreeing to TRY my work to see if it’s right for you.

If it’s not, you have 90 days (3 months) to let me know and I’ll send you a FULL refund, no questions asked.

I hope to hear from you right away.

Here’s to the body of your dreams,

Craig Ballantyne, CTT Men’s Health and Women’s Health Magazine Contributor

It really is a no-risk proposition, so won’t you let me help you change your life today?

Click here to get started!

PPS – When you order now, I’m also going to give you a simple script for selling your treadmill on Craig’s list.  All you need to do is enter your treadmill model and then paste the prepared text into a Craig’s list ad.  That should more than pay for your entire investment in your new body and new life.

Click here to get Shocking Facts About Fat Loss | Turbulence Training at discounted price while it’s still available…

All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors. Shocking Facts About Fat Loss | Turbulence Training is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.

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[jammixes-blog]

Two to the Power Three

Geometry taught me numbers, not the other way around. By drawing shapes, based on rigorous Grids, of different numbers of sides and angle, it became natural to pay attention to the digits. To draw a Grid, to start with, you need a point 0, the center of your vertical and horizontal axis, and a Unit, 1. Then, you can build up on it, ratios and angles, from the simplest to the most complex shape, with a Pencil, a Compass, and a Square. Nature contains all the Geometric formulas available to Humankind. This one of the reasons you don't kill a Teacher. Of all books, the most precious, in Human History, is the Liber Mundi. It's available to ALL, at all times, and is free of charge. However, it is disappearing from circulation. I need Good news. I got 1, this morning. PM Justin made a heart-felt apology to First Nations with a compassionate speech guaranteeing work and energy towards fairness. That's cool. And Fair. They got fucked, on their ancestral land. They are owed reparation, attention, and help. They should be enabled to dream and live a happy future, too. On the subject of race and blood, this what I want to know about myself: i am 1/72 Native American, 1/64 Scottisch, 1/46 Irish, 1/33 Indian, 1/23 Ethiopian, 1/13 Phenician/Lebanese, 1/11 French from the Templars, 1/5 Syrian, 1/39 Russian for impregnating a Russian woman, 1/4 Chinese or Monghol. By the end of the Minute, who gives a flying poo? I was fucking around, i am not convinced of knowing my DNA. By principle. I don't want it to feed my ego, since it's the only reason I would do it. We are all 100% human and 99.9% of Mixed origins, those who claim the opposite, or make of the colour of skin a factor to judge a human being are jealous evil idiots. Every human being contains the DNA of an adventure that lasted thousands of years, through thousands of people. If we don't start helping each others, we're all going to sink each other. Is that what we want? Is that the Destiny of Humankind, who can blow the whorld the most times? Is violence, in any form, legitimate, to start with? Unfortunately, this my legacy, to future generations, more questions than answers. I trust children, somewhere, I believe that they are already working on the answers. The worst crime against Humankind is to abuse a child, in any way, this includes depriving a child from freedom of expression. Children are the most fragile, but promising Roses, in the garden of Humankind. Let It Grow. L'hiver s'installe, comme une dalle, de pierre et de froid, de peur et d'éfroi. Poetry is the childish amazement at the world of mature Artists. Symbols are as potent as numbers, but, more subtle. They require a proper Initiation, a lot of hard work, and dedication, like all Crafts. You get nothing for nothing, isn't it fair? Bullies are the weak link of an socially organized set. Soon or later, they become the parasite no one can get rid of. Hence, in political terms, the occurence of "Revolutions", all sides united, despite their differences, to bring down the nuisance, so that everybody has a chance to dream again, instead of living a nightmare. The guy in charge of the USA uses Twitter, in which he has shares, to poison the world, daily, with his ego. I use Tumblr, in which I have no shares, to open a dialog, with the Free World, and try to get as deep as possible into all kinds of obscured subjects. My Mind, my Life, my Freedom. Think what you want, about me, but, treat me better than you want to be treated, by others. Then, I will listen to you, body, mind, and soul, be honest with you, and try my best to help you. This is not a question. Plus, I've always loved writing, even 6,000 words essays on Marx, overnight, in Law School, for a Sociology class. I totally brought him down, concluding he was an irresponsible subjective dreamer, claiming to be objective, just like Freud. One had cash problems, the other one sexual ones. This is where I accept to be judged publicly, it's important for me to know when i am wrong, i want to learn, evolve, and better myself. But, i refuse to use telepathy, it's reserved for Gorka. I want direct, simple, and clear communication, what I do myself, to create an easy, common, and fair level. The level of "No Bullshit". If you don't have beyond doubt proofs, sponsored by a carefully chosen and proven panel of expert judges, in any field, do not attempt to inflate your ego, at the expense of an innocent human being. This is going to become a Crime Against Humanity, thanks to the power of children, from Switzerland, France, Denmark, Holland, Canada, Lebanon, Syria, Bangladesh, the Filipines, China, India, Mexico, Bresil, Guatemala, Russia, Spain, Morrocco, Portugal, Germany, Korea, Japan, Nepal, and so many places in Africa and the rest of the world. Did I feel it? I did. It's a lot of energy and responsability on one human being. But it's the most Rewarding Honour human beings can bestow towards one of theirs. What is obvious to the soul, might be invisible, but it is felt and vibrates through, regardless. The transmutation affects Everything. That's why Alchemists were very closely monitored and the Templars feared and deemed dangerous. Alchemy was the invisible and ultimate Religion at the time of the Templars, like nuclear physics, in 1946. The world was not a fair and open place, then. It was dogmatic and ridden by superstitious beliefs. I am hoping that the world, Today, opens a new Door, in the corridor of Life, and enjoy a Great space, filled with Joy, Justice, and Laughter. There is nothing to hide between human beings. Even if evil idiots don't blow up the world, statistically, anything can happen and destroy us, in a jiffy. That's why, we are meant to co-operate, as 1 Team, for the Best, for all, without stupid conspiracy theories or esoteric, behind the curtain, politics, anywhere. It's a shame, as simple as that, an insult towards most people. More than ever I sponsor my own subjective plan for True Democracy, inspired, surprise for a Spartan, by Athens. I build my own religion, belief system, and set of principles. They are all flexible and ready to br changed, if I am taught something new. I give myself bonus points for flexibility. What? You should always look at yourself objectively, from time to time. Otherwise, are you...crazy? Dali copied my Moustache, my perception, it trips people out, therefore, I keep it. Most of the time, I forget about it. I'm waiting for my next girlfriend to decide if I should keep it. I don't care, but she had to be worth the change.