tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75879472217030774232024-03-12T21:55:59.911-07:00No Regrets When The Worms ComeKent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-51919317972956969102020-12-06T10:53:00.002-08:002020-12-06T10:53:34.183-08:00I researched a paper, and it's published.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQKvOM2jt9YFFktqKHRMXs4xAVzxKeHEhnCQ7t6bBwHfZ4oirx9w4XgGz82_Vj1qL3rRr7CUXtNAUSpIGC3aMcnlGrkF7Sy8yCaUoSYMAMiXXSFqwGizdW82fIM_fEY9arrJwyaqQ2XpC/s1500/Zoroaster2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 1em; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1242" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQKvOM2jt9YFFktqKHRMXs4xAVzxKeHEhnCQ7t6bBwHfZ4oirx9w4XgGz82_Vj1qL3rRr7CUXtNAUSpIGC3aMcnlGrkF7Sy8yCaUoSYMAMiXXSFqwGizdW82fIM_fEY9arrJwyaqQ2XpC/s320/Zoroaster2.jpg"/></a></div>It's called <a href="https://tankiedoodle.blogspot.com/p/ziusudra-and-conquering-refugee-nation.html" rel="nofollow">Ziusudra and the Conquering Refugee Nation</a>. This is an in-depth look into prehistory, looking at the post-Ice Age floods, whether the Biblical character Noah really reals and how, the fate of the Neanderthals, and the origins of settler-colonialism. And just for good measure, I threw in some original etymological analysis, <i>as one does</i>. It's the first historical essay I've written since I gave up the ghost on my thesis, so I hope you'll check it out.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-30598750646414064452014-10-24T16:48:00.001-07:002014-10-24T16:48:24.473-07:00More random thoughts.<p dir="ltr">I only seem to use this thing when my computer isn't available and Facebook isn't working. I wish this was an effective FB replacement, but I haven't persuaded enough of my friends to blog. I got an Ello invite, so I'll see what's up with that here soon.</p>
<p dir="ltr">My laptop is doing some Windows updatey noise. It's been 15% complete since I started writing this. One of the things I hate about Windows is that it'll randomly interrupt you to restart and update. Just straight-up mess with your chi. Oh well.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I have a crapload of homework and real job-ish work. Still 15%. I don't go on your seedier goat porn websites, so I don't get computer HIV, but I'm sure you know best, Windows. Continues to be 15%.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Since this is probably a snapshot of my current life and I won't post for another month in all likelihood, I might as well tell you about my life these days. I'm teaching three classes in two days next week. We'll be learning about public opinion polling and primary documents. Not the first classes I've taught, let alone been responsible for. A lot of work all the same. And I have my own classwork to do.</p>
<p dir="ltr">17% now. Sweet Lordy hallelujah amen.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It's almost Halloween. I don't know what I'll wear, probably a couple things for different events, but I plan to be at the premiere of Poe Ballantine's new movie. Almost certainly the first and last time a movie of any note will premiere in Chadron.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Laptop's stopped doing Important Laptop Stuff and started rebooting normally. Gonna wrap this up and get back to work. Have a nice however long it's gonna be, folks.</p>
Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-48020226311318656632014-09-27T22:29:00.002-07:002014-09-27T22:29:46.188-07:00My Alma Mater Is A Banana RepublicThis is a recent op-ed I wrote for the Eagle. They declined to publish it, because they're worried about more political interference from the Student Senate, but I figured I'd post it here because it's important to push back against the hypocritical fascist bastards trying to shut down free speech on campus.<br />
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<blockquote> The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, in part, that "the freedom of the press shall not be abridged." The unifying principle of patriotism in America is not race, nor allegiance to a monarch, but allegiance to the Constitution; this is judged so important to the body politic that the military (including ROTC officers) are made to swear to "uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States." Thomas Jefferson, who knew a thing or two about the Constitution, famously said "I would rather newspapers without government than a government without newspapers."<br />
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Chadron State College's experience with both has proven the sage of Monticello correct once again, as the People In Charge try anew to forget that the Constitution was forged to bind them.<br />
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There was a letter to the editor last week regarding the propriety of a comic that joked about using Eaglecards to take drugs. The people whose job it is to promote Chadron State to prospective students got upset at this article, because apparently a tongue-in-cheek joke that upsets the authorities is going to destroy our enrollment figures. As we all know, the students thinking about coming here are going to see a joke about drugs, clutch their pearls and drop into a fainting couch.<a name='more'></a><br />
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First off, might I point out that if we're paying some bureaucrat real, spendable money to market us in this way, we're getting robbed by amateurs.<br />
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It would be ludicrous to claim that the Eagle's editorial independence is the only factor, or even one of the main factors, affecting admission rates. But insofar as that claim goes, after a year in which the Eagle took the Student Senate to task for breathtaking incompetence, we've had the third-largest incoming freshman class in CSC history. I'm pretty sure anyone looking for a career in journalism will be excited to come here instead of some diploma mill printing the party line. Furthermore, I'm sure that the rest of the student body appreciates a paper that will air their views, whether the administration or the Student Senate likes those views or not, over a paper that lets itself be censored by a marketing department that never took Marketing 101.<br />
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I would love for anyone involved in this decision to explain why they think the First Amendment deserves to be ignored, and furthermore to explain why they deserve to continue to draw a paycheck from our tuition. I'm not holding my breath, though; illiberality hates daylight, and incompetence hates it with a passion.<br />
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You might think this an overreaction to some silly little comic, but this isn't about a comic. This is about upholding and defending the Constitution; about the editorial independence of our student newspaper; about its right to air the views of you, me, and anyone, independent of official censorship. This editorial independence has been under attack over the years; Student Senate routinely threatens to cut the Eagle's budget whenever they expose corruption therein, and that corruption isn't insignificant. Two years ago, with the help of a campus apparatchik that's since mercifully found employment elsewhere, they overruled constitutional procedure in Student Senate. Last year, to reward themselves for that bang-up job, they spent our student activity fees on a "leadership conference" in New Orleans, because God has a sense of humor. <br />
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Even after losing a student presidential election over their malfeasance, one of their number has the temerity to scold the Eagle for a drug joke that's nothing compared to what he surely hears every day in ROTC. Why is someone who's sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States now trying to undermine it? And why are aspects of the college administration ganging up with corrupt student politicians to muzzle the best student newspaper in Nebraska?<br />
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The "State" in "Chadron State College" is Nebraska, not North Korea, and everyone involved in this attempt to silence student voices should be ashamed of their un-American behavior.</blockquote>Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-46876570412739238362014-09-26T21:52:00.001-07:002014-09-26T21:52:33.459-07:00Google, get your shit together.<p dir="ltr">Just spent like ten minutes trying to make Google sign me in with the account I actually use instead of the random account Viaero gave me for my phone. Should not have been this hard.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I'm at a show at the Broker, it's all right but I'm rocking beyond nowhere near enough reality right now. I'm trying to think of some way to be productive since I'm far too sober ATM, but this was the closest thing that came to mind.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I've played a lot of chess tonight, trying out Hikaru Nakamura's hyperdefensive strategy as white and the Sicilian Defense as black. I'm getting good at the former, but I get the impression that the Sicilian is hard to play well. My ranking for live chess has improved though... I'm about 1000-1100, only about 100 points below my non-live ranking.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What else... I've been sick since Labor Day. Wouldn't be out tonight except that my friends and I made plans. This is also why I haven't done a comic in three weeks. Well, that and the thesis.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That's coming along swimmingly, though. I made my first map for the thesis this week; just a map of central Asia before Genghis Khan started breaking shit. My advisor says it's pretty good. I've seen the fairly simplistic maps that predominate the field of Mongol studies; putting out something that's got more information while being prettier and easier to read shouldn't be hard. The background in art and geography is helping me a lot. I'll try to provide a pic for the net here soon.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Speaking of random stuff helping out, it turns out Draya spent her childhood riding a Mongolian horse, which is important because they are different from other warhorses. Not as strong or fast, but they can endure twice as much. Mongol strategy often involved pretending to run away and tiring the enemy cavalry out, and then attacking. Mongol horses aren't very common on this continent, so knowing someone who grew up handling one (and dating her, no less) is incredibly lucky.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Apparently one of Draya's relatives is a translator over in Mongolia, to boot. Which gives me heart about this degree, especially if I go on for the Ph.D. Even if I don't teach, I can almost certainly travel abroad and earn a living translating stuff. My Russian skills will help with that too, as they're next door. If I can somehow learn Chinese, I'd be set.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Anyway, enough rambling for now. Now that I, well, have an app for this, I may post more often.</p>
Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-47840195118589839702014-08-24T18:25:00.000-07:002014-08-24T18:25:55.665-07:00Scottish independence.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoG1vTWQiBCmIXye1xsEBhR6qlatyck2Q4DgGmQgmvaDPHkyDIo4TrtzPwSkvE0eML-Oa7FBGxu0LJs1DHt6mO9xZ06_MeC5NxMY9sG-twRkRv3JceEnv2P9cFhcbsBhB5gVmADzzV-0t_/s1600/Robert+The+Bruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoG1vTWQiBCmIXye1xsEBhR6qlatyck2Q4DgGmQgmvaDPHkyDIo4TrtzPwSkvE0eML-Oa7FBGxu0LJs1DHt6mO9xZ06_MeC5NxMY9sG-twRkRv3JceEnv2P9cFhcbsBhB5gVmADzzV-0t_/s320/Robert+The+Bruce.jpg" /></a></div>My ancestral homeland is debating independence. Here's a Scottish-American historian's take on the whole thing.<br />
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<blockquote>The eve of two great independence referendums are upon the British. There is the referendum of Scottish independence, set for September 2014; and there is the as-yet-undetermined referendum on European Union membership promised by Prime Minister David Cameron in the event of a Conservative majority after the 2015 elections. Both promise to dramatically remake the body politic of the United Kingdom.<br />
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For the layman, a couple basic premises need to be established. First off, the United Kingdom is scarcely older than the United States, having been born of a union of England and Scotland in 1707. Its chief purpose for England seems to have been the facilitation of the pre-existing worldwide English Empire, and for Scotland the creation by proxy of a Scottish Empire that failed to take hold in the jungles of Darien. It should be added that Scotland was bribed and cajoled into the Union; the English actively opposed the Darien scheme and stood by as Scots, fellow-subjects of their King, were harried and killed by the Spanish. In an era where overseas empire was the only guarantee of safety in Europe, England made Union the only way to empire for the Scottish.<a name='more'></a><br />
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It has therefore become accepted in mainstream British historiography that the United Kingdom and the British Empire were inextricably linked. The United Kingdom was the "inner empire" that permitted the "outer" British Empire. The British Empire, in turn, was and possibly is a necessary precondition for the creation of British nationhood, where people associate their nationality with the geographic area of the United Kingdom before England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland. With the comparatively peaceful, enlightened and orderly breakup of the British Empire, that still-embryonic sense of nationhood may not be able to stand on its own. We'll see in September.<br />
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Therefore, the Scottish referendum is not the potential breakup of a nation, but the potential breakup of a multinational state into component nation-states. This happened in other times and places, in much more violent contexts: the dissolution of Habsburg Austria-Hungary, the fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Yugoslavia. Whatever happens in September, widespread interethnic violence is not on the table.<br />
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It should also be mentioned that with the end of the British Empire, Britain has looked to two separate paths for its future at the same time, attempting to follow them both at once. This isn't the first time Britain has done this; the vacillation between Catholicism and Protestantism initiated under Henry VIII and not fully completed until the deposition of my ancestor Charles II quite resembles Britain vacillating between the former Empire and Europe at the same time.<br />
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By "the former Empire" I mean the current Commonwealth of Nations, but especially those countries that still claim Elizabeth II as their Queen; as well as the United States of America. The strongest recent exponent of this ideal was Margaret Thatcher, who plainly stated her view "We have much more in common with the United States than with Europe as has been shown time and again in war and peace. The transatlantic relationship with the United States must remain at the heart of our foreign policy."<br />
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Similarly, at the other end of actual political power, the manifesto of the United Kingdom Independence Party advocates not simply the abandonment of the EU, but also the resumption of a sort of Empire: a free-trade area in the former Dominions, hopefully to include India, as well as a lament for the "abandonment" of what they still refer to as Rhodesia. This assertion not simply of what they're against, but also of what they're for, helps explain the underlying traction UKIP's enjoyed as of late.<br />
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I will summarize this pro-American and pro-Commonwealth outlook as "Anglophonism" because it's the simplest common denominator of the players involved. If it seems concentrated in England and the political right, it is not the exclusive domain of the two. It was Blair's New Labour that took the final decision to stay out of the euro, and it was old Labour that stayed aloof from Europe for so long after World War II. But nonetheless, it has become truer over time that Anglophonism is concentrated in England and the political right, and Europhilia in Scotland and the political left. One of the current tactics of the Better Together campaign in the Scottish referendum is telling Scotland's leftist electorate that EU membership isn't guaranteed to an independent Scotland.<br />
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Another such tactic in the Scottish referendum has been to keep devo max off the ballot, and then for the three main Westminster parties (Labour, Tories, Liberal Democrats) to promise to support it in the event of a "no" vote. Alexander Salmond, Scottish Nationalist leader and First Minister of Scotland, fought to put devo max on the ballot. It would represent a sort of federalization of the United Kingdom, turning Scotland into something politically resembling an American state, responsible for essentially everything not involving currency, immigration or defense. If the behavior of Westminster and Salmond are to be taken as a sign of their wishes, devo max would seem to be a universally-agreed second-best option for everyone involved.<br />
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Now, the other independence referendum, that which would remove the United Kingdom from the European Union, isn't necessarily a given. UKIP supports it. The Tory base supports it, but the Tory establishment, looking to the interests of the British industry that pays its way and conducts 60% of its trade with Europe, has been loathe to agree. Nonetheless, after a remarkable UKIP surge in local elections took a huge chunk out of the Tory vote, the Tory establishment offered a referendum in the next Parliament, should they control it. They would need an absolute majority to deliver, as the strongly Europhilic Lib Dems they currently govern with in coalition would be unlikely to go along. (But if rabidly anti-Tory Scotland were to leave the Union, they may just get that majority.)<br />
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However, if it doesn't happen now, it will certainly happen in the next decade or so. Hostility to Europe seems to be an inherent facet of English nationalism. It began with the Hundred Years' War, when they learned to hate the premier European power of the day, France. It continued with the Protestant Ascendancy, when the English told a different transnational pan-European semi-state, the Catholic Church, to piss off. And as the revival of Scottish and Welsh nationalism has engendered a revival of English nationalism, so too has it engendered a rekindling of this hostility to Europe in England. As a result, sooner or later the Tories will either win a majority, make some sort of electoral deal with UKIP, or need to stave off UKIP badly enough to cut a post-election coalition with some other party that they'll give away major concessions for their referendum.<br />
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This inevitable European referendum is already having an effect in the Scottish referendum; when Better Together says the Scots will leave the EU if they leave the UK, the pro-independence campaign counters that they may well leave the EU against their wishes even if they stay in the UK.<br />
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I cannot tell the future, and my loyalties are conflicted. As an American of Scottish descent I would like my homeland and the nation in which I reside to be close allies. As a Scot I know well the treacherous hand Scotland has been dealt by England over the centuries, that the current Tory-Lib Dem government in Westminster has no mandate in Scotland and heralds a future in which Scotland will only get the government she voted for half the time, and as a leftist I believe that an independent Scotland, free to pursue her leftist inclinations, would probably be more economically and ecologically successful than the present Westminster misrule, as currently constituted. As a Britophile and an admirer of those many aspects of the British Empire which were positive, I share in the fear that Britain's best days are behind her, and hope fervently for those fears to be vigorously disproven.<br />
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However, as a historian, and an avid watcher of both politics and reality, I can say what probably will end up happening, whether it be for the best or not. The American statistician Nate Silver, who called all but one of the five hundred and three American federal races in 2012 accurately, believes that the nays will certainly have it. If limited to the narrow question of Scottish independence alone, and limited to answering only "yes" or "no" as the Scottish electorate is, I would likely vote for independence. But devo max is probably the best possible outcome, and I hope the vote is close enough that the Westminster parties feel compelled to make good their promises to deliver it.<br />
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As for the eventual European referendum, I see it succeeding. UKIP seems like the water held back by a levee - ever climbing until the levee is breached, and once the breach made and its purpose fulfilled, receding back into nothing. Sheer demography guarantees that England's hostility to Europe will have a disproportionate say in the referendum.<br />
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In the short run, it will be a disaster, but not as much of one as may be feared. British influence within the EU has been collapsing ever since the early days of the Cameron ministry, and departure from the EU would only at this point represent the continuation of a process, not an abrupt break.<br />
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The gap this will leave in the British balance of trade could very well be made up by re-engagement with the former Empire. The former Dominions, save for Ireland, India and South Africa, would certainly jump at a chance to reassert the former imperial ties, provided they were done on terms of full equality. Canada wants a counterweight to the United States; Australia and New Zealand want a counterweight to China and Indonesia. The United States, as current world hegemon, takes the same view to free trade that the world hegemon it replaced once did, and would be amenable.<br />
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India and South Africa, together with the former colonies, would be a coin toss. Some would resent the old imperial history more than welcome renewed ties on an equal basis; I suspect the determining factor will be how many of their kinsmen have "reverse-colonized" the United Kingdom. For Black and Asian Britons are not an irrelevancy to these developments; if anything they're the strongest argument one can make for the existence of a "British" nation alongside England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.<br />
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However one cuts it, a new free trade area consisting of the current UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand would represent 110 million First World people, more than live in Germany, and one-fourth of a European Union shorn of the UK. It would be a viable economic and political unit, an outer federation replacing an outer empire. Similarly, a United Kingdom after a "no" vote squeaks through Scotland would almost certainly create an inner federation in place of the inner empire. Scotland would be given devo max; Wales and Northern Ireland would probably get the same just to bolster their loyalty to the UK.<br />
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England, facing the West Lothian question, will get some kind of devo max as well, either in a united English Parliament or, as seems more likely, in regional Parliaments. Greater London already has responsible government that oversees more people than live in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; handing it devo max would simply confirm it for the city-state it already clearly is. The North has threatened that if Scotland leaves, they may well be next; their history has diverged from the so-called "Home Counties" since before the days of Alfred, so a Northern Parliament is a logical step. A Parliament for the Southeast is another logical step, as is the Midlands.<br />
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Add that all up, and you would have devolved Parliaments for London, the Southeast, the Midlands, the North, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: a modern-day Heptarchy. (Funnily, if this prediction holds true, the history of the British Isles could then be described as a progressive bell curve - going forward, but also retracing its steps in order after reaching peak centralization from 1801-1922.) Common issues would continue to be handled by the Parliament in Westminster, but its remit would be drastically reduced overall as the regional Parliaments take over as much as is reasonably possible. Inner federation would combine with outer federation.<br />
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I do consider it the likeliest option, at least in the general, given the facts at hand. I also, upon reflection, consider it the renaissance the United Kingdom has waited for; the recreation of British nationhood that has limped along since the death of the Empire. Without the Empire, the UK has been like a man chained to a corpse. They know they can't operate according to the old manners and ideologies, but they haven't crafted new manners or ideologies to take their place, so they just muddle through glumly. A new British federation would be that new manner, that new ideology. Regionalism, and the struggle to win it, has made Scotland and Wales the only parts of the UK that could be said to be truly optimistic about the future; I believe that regionalism extended to the rest of the UK could infect the rest with that same optimism.</blockquote>Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-63248694173675170492014-08-23T22:33:00.002-07:002014-08-23T22:33:39.977-07:00Observations on the Nature of AwarenessHi all. Long time no blog.<br />
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Anyway, I haven't fallen out of the habit of thinking and doing stuff, I just fell out of the habit of posting about it here. Over the summer I wrote a couple essays; what follows below is one such. I wrote it while non-sober, and the state I was in at the time led me to contemplate the nature of consciousness itself. It's rather stream-of-consciousness, but rereading it sober I concluded there was a germ of an idea in there. See for yourself:<br />
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<blockquote>OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE OF AWARENESS<br />
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In the field of music, pitch is inherently associated with emotion, and different pitches with different emotions. Composers and musicians are taught how to exploit these associations, and thereby to trigger given feelings in people.<br />
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Pitches are essentially mathematical. In the plainest physical terms, they are the average wavelength of a series of sonic vibrations, and they repeat themselves mathematically. (I say "average" because they can be composed of several different pitches; strumming a guitar to play up to six strings is an example of this, as is picking the strings of a chord shape. Progressions are pitches through time, and therefore represent an elaboration of the emotionality of a pitch.) Take the pitch we call "E." An open guitar string that sounds the pitch of E when played, if doubled in length yet with the same tautness and diameter, will sound an E in the next octave up. Similarly, were it to be cut in half, it would sound an E in the next octave down.<br />
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As for octaves: the phrase "octave" is a misnomer. If you have a guitar handy, notice that there are twelve frets to the octave, not eight. However, of those pitches within an octave our modern Western society has socially constructed to divide up into twelve, there are eight chords that seem comparable to our ears. On a guitar fretboard, this is rendered as follows: EF-G-A-BC-D-, with the dashes representing the four pitches that we did not deign to give letters.<a name='more'></a><br />
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Though the repetition of a pitch at the doubling or halving is a rule of mathematics, the choosing of a twelvefold division into eight major pitches is a social construct. There are surely other ways to divide up and describe music than the one our society has chosen.<br />
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The question is, however the description of a pitch may have been socially constructed, do humans associate the same emotions with the same pitches? A pitch, after all, is just an average distance between crests of soundwaves; does that distance correlate with the same emotions in all cultures and societies? The answer to this question would suggest answers to questions about the makeup of human emotion: whether our emotions were an inherently mathematical thing, a law of nature; or whether they too were socially constructed.<br />
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Either answer would have profound implications for the nature of awareness, whether we possess free will or merely the illusion thereof. Physics and science thus far has not discovered any explanation for the appearance of free will. Are we true automatons, fleshy clockwork able to witness our existence but not to change it? Or if we can determine our existence, whence does that ability come?<br />
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Everything observed in our universe thus far has clearly been deterministic. If you throw a rock at a given angle and a given speed in an environment with a given gravity and air density, you will get a given trajectory, every single time. It may be complex mathematics, but it is mathematics, and therefore deterministic, all the same. It does not appear so with us, but in the absence of a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of free will, many have figured that free will is only an illusion; that deterministic forces control even that.<br />
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To summarize their argument, take a simple choice most of us make every morning: what to eat for breakfast. The determinist would say that though we can choose, those choices are determined ahead of time by a chain of causation. Maybe you want to eat out, because it is a weekend, you have money and you don't feel like cooking, or perhaps can't at the moment. Where you eat out will depend on how much money you have and what you're in the mood for. Or perhaps you don't have enough money to eat out, in which case you either make food at home, eat leftovers, or fast. All of these causes are themselves effects determined by earlier causes. There is an unbroken chain of causation. Even though it seems like we're choosing, we are simply links in the chain of causation.<br />
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Say you're moving, your hotel room doesn't have kitchen facilities and they don't offer a continental breakfast. Say you have enough money to eat fast food if you do the dollar menu, and you don't have the time to go to a store and, say, fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or even just buy a bag of fruit. Say the town you stopped in for the night only has one fast food restaurant. It seems like you'll be going through their drive-thru, yes?<br />
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"But wait!" a believer in free will might cry. "I could always choose to fast, just to prove that I do indeed have free will!" And indeed you could. The determinist, however, would rebut "But you very well may have a psychological predilection to contrary emotion, which would compel you to choose to fast!"<br />
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Who is correct? That is what humanity needs to find out. One way, I believe, is by conducting experiments to discover whether pitch is universally related to emotion or is just a social construct. If pitch is universally related to motion, that means the building blocks of our emotions are mathematical, not socially constructed. If they are mathematical, they (and us) are likelier to be deterministic, and if they are socially constructed, they (and us) are likelier to be a function of free will.<br />
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This is not a certain thing; it may indeed be possible that human emotions are expressed in a mathematical language, but derived from a cause that is separate from a deterministic chain of causation: a free will. Or it may also be possible that emotions are socially constructed, but social construct itself is part of a deterministic chain of causation. However, the answer will nonetheless help us narrow our query somewhat.<br />
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Should pitch be universally related to human emotion, we could then enquire to what degree. We could see if it extends to other animals; playing extremely happy or extremely melancholy pitches to various animals and observing whether it changes their behavior, and how. Perfect correlations might not be possible to observe for any but the simplest emotions, but could help us see if these universal understandings evolved over time, whether they changed or merely grew more complex. If, say, an A minor chord has always, for all time, meant "very melancholic," even to other creatures that branched away from us evolutionally, then it suggests something concrete about the nature of awareness itself.<br />
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These investigations could go on forever, and ought to, but it is useless to illustrate the many different branches it could take, because most speculation beyond the first couple possibilities is bound to be wrong. Nonetheless, the research should commence.<br />
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Right now, the closest thing society has to scientific investigation into the nature of awareness is the "ghost hunters" on the late-night cable TV cheese shows your grandmother watches. They're either patent frauds or self-deluded people operating off of pseudoscience, but with the germ of a reasonable (and falsifiable) concept: that awareness is either electromagnetic in nature, or leaves evidence of its activity that is electromagnetic in nature.<br />
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This in and of itself is not controversial; the nerves and brain deal in electromagnetism and chemical processes. The controversy arises when they assert without evidence that these processes continue after death, represent awareness, and that awareness after death in a physical location (being a "ghost") can be measured through spikes in electromagnetic activity. But as it stands, though they are unlikely to appreciate the fact themselves, they are the closest thing free will has to a scientific defender in modern society.<br />
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The only other current investigations into the nature of awareness are being done by neurosurgeons. They do not seek to discover the answer to the question of awareness, but merely an answer to the physical process of our brain's operation. So far, they have found an unspeakably intricate machine with gears made of lightning and chemicals. Determinists argue this proves their case; yet the machine is not fully understood. The first cause (or causes) pushing all the other causes around may yet be our wills, and not a function of the deterministic universe around us.<br />
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One final remark on the subject: it seems apparent from nature that whatever other principles may govern awareness, complexity is a big one.<br />
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We speak of amino acids, the building blocks of life, as chemicals. The first cells are organisms, technically life, but not in any way aware. Multicellular organisms seem to us equally unaware, but they can react to stimuli, the way plants imperceptibly turn and grow towards the light.<br />
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As these multicellular organisms become more complex, we start attributing more and more awareness to them. Insects understand danger and how best to avoid it. Fish can see us, swim towards the top if we sprinkle food in their tanks, and play with one another. Cats and dogs have distinct and obvious personalities. Some scientists want to label dolphins and certain apes "non-human persons," believing them to be as aware or nearly as aware as ourselves, but unable to communicate such awareness to us or to demonstrate the power their awareness brings over their environment as effectively as we.<br />
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And yet, there is one category of multicellular organism that is simultaneously smaller and larger than ourselves: ants, bees, wasps, any sort of hive insect. The question of their awareness is: do they think on the level of the individual insect, or on the level of a colony? In which level is their awareness, such as it be, vested? In broad strokes, each colony's individual insects communicate to each other via pheromones; that is to say chemicals smelled in the air. But are these communications on the level of, say, you telling a joke to your friend, or of a finger telling your brain what your hair feels like as you touch it?<br />
Perhaps that's missing the point. If you dump artificial pheromones into an ant colony, knowing that that particular pheromone might be, say, an order to attack, you could in a sense be the controlling mind behind the colony. But some hypothetical alien intelligence could do the same to your body, should it possess the ability to inject or withhold certain electrical impulses to and from your nerves at will. We consider ourselves the individuals and the insects the cities, but by what measure? We may be physically contiguous the way two ants are not, but we grow and lose cells all the time, the way an ant colony gains new insects and insects die off continually.<br />
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There are suggestions in our history and our psychology that humans, the individuals, can join into greater organisms, and that this process has become more common and sustained over time. We clustered in bands of 100-200 or so people we considered in our in-group from the dawn of man until roughly 11,000 years ago, when the first cities were founded. Then, we created hierarchies among us to prevent unrelated strangers in a society from killing one another, expanding the in-group to anyone under the rule of a particular king, chief or emperor. Those hierarchies grew increasingly complex.<br />
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In this new settled humanity, the most violent individuals would be selected against as they would be more likely to die in wars or from crime. As a result, humans gradually adopted religions and ideologies that spread this in-group-ness to humans in other polities, so long as they had the same or similar ideas and/or beliefs. The dawn of liberalism saw the expansion of the in-group to include everyone, as ideas like free religion, free expression, democracy, and equality under the law societies where everyone was (at least in theory) part of the in-group within a nation or collective of nations under liberal rule. Globalization helped expand that even further, tentatively to the whole planet.<br />
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Merely being part of an in-group may not "count" as being an organism. So the depth of that in-group-ness must be explored, alongside the breadth thereof. There are situations when people seem to lose their individual identity and act as one. Moreover, these situations seem to be pleasurable to most people. Concerts and political rallies help people "lose" themselves in a common experience, be it music or a cause. Religious rallies and experiences can do much the same thing, and indeed, many religions speak of "dying to oneself and living in Christ" or some variant thereof.<br />
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I can even remember a time when, as a teenager, I went to a mall to go meet a professional wrestler named Goldberg. At the time, he was a new star in the WCW with an unblemished winning streak. I was part of a crowd that had come to see him, and been kept waiting. Finally, word got to the crowd that he was behind a security barrier, and someone shouted "Rush the barrier!" And like a single organism, we did, until security regained control of the situation. I recall, at that moment, not feeling like myself, but like I was a part of a greater organism. Our verbal speech was not the communication of individuals to each other, but more akin to pheromones or a nervous system.<br />
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Drugs provide the same experience. One of the great cause celebres of my generation is the legalization of marijuana. At the time of this writing medical marijuana is legal in a majority of states; marijuana is decriminalized in many more, including my very conservative state; it is fully legal in two states, Colorado and Washington, as well as the whole nation of Uruguay; and most political observers consider it a question of "when," not "if," it becomes legal nationwide.<br />
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Why is this, though? Marijuana, while it has not been determined to be completely without negative side effect, is certainly safer than alcohol or tobacco, other fully-legalized recreational drugs. Indeed, the very fact of their legalization tells us only that a drug cannot swiftly kill someone and be legal. Other drugs would pass this test (albeit not as easily as marijuana) but they remain banned, probably indefinitely. Why?<br />
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The proxy reason for this discrepancy is that marijuana is much more popular than all those other drugs. In areas where marijuana is still banned, it accounts for roughly half the illicit drug trade. If the government were to legalize only one drug, marijuana would be it, streamlining the war on drugs and reducing bureaucratic headaches all around. But this is simply a proxy reason. Why is marijuana popular, and therefore on its way to full legalization?<br />
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It is my suspicion that it is for the same reason that concerts and rallies and religions are beloved by humanity. One of marijuana's documented effects is the dissociation of self, the lack of individuation while intoxicated. The stereotype of the stoner feeling "one with the universe" or somesuch exists because this is an actual effect of the drug. Marijuana users are subsequently far more peaceful than, say, alcohol users.<br />
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Indeed, having been both an adherent of a religion, and a user of marijuana, I can attest to the similarity of both things insofar as their attractions go. They both offer a negation of self into a greater whole, or Whole if one prefers. They both are enhanced by music in which to convey the emotions conducive to creating this unindividuated state, and music itself is another unindividuator.<br />
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As a former evangelical Christian, I can attest to this. I went to church as a teenager while my parents slept in, mainly because the praise and worship (performed by what are essentially bands singing simplistic, easily-memorized soft rock songs) engendered this feeling within me. I attributed it to God initially. As I learned more about my given faith and the other branches of Christianity, I discovered The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross, a Catholic theologian.<br />
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St. John of the Cross gave this feeling the term "the day of sense." We felt God with our emotional senses, and it was good. But it ended, inevitably ended, in what St. John termed the "night of the soul," where it seemed that God ceased speaking with us. St. John asserted that there was a yet more sublime manner in which to commune with God, but all my investigations as an amateur mystic never uncovered any.<br />
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St. John, writing in seventeenth-century Spain, would likely not have known enough to compare the "dark night of the soul" to the increasing tolerance for a drug; and indeed both have the same cause in the brain. But the comparison does suggest itself to modern observers, and as I started smoking weed, I felt a similar feeling to what I had attributed to "God" back then, even though I had long ago abandoned evangelicalism.<br />
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This is not to argue against evangelical Christianity, necessarily, but merely to observe that one of the primary enjoyments of humanity is to unindividuate into a greater Whole, to combine our wills into a single Will.<br />
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Similarly, we glory in complexity. One of my favorite games is the Civilization series started by Sid Meier. In it, you can rule a nation from 4000 BC (the dawn of recorded history) to the modern day. I create huge empires, not necessarily to "win" but because doing so is fun and rewarding in itself. I play on Earth maps because I want to see if I can match, and then surpass, the empires that actually came to exist in the real world.<br />
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Another favorite game of mine is Minecraft, which if played in Peaceful and Creative modes is essentially playing Legos on a computer. I build intricate, complex cities and even whole biomes and nations therein. I've even given thought to ways to simulate other planets in Minecraft, as well as spaceflight.<br />
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But why is this fun? As far as I can tell, complexity is fun for the same reason the loss of individuation is fun. Complexity is merely the process of using smaller things to create bigger things. I move blocks to create cities in Minecraft, I move units and found cities to create empires in Civ. I worship and toke to join my simple awareness to a more complex Whole. One day, our descendants will be as joined into a single organism as our eyes are to our feet.<br />
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They will be this way because they, and we, and everyone that came before us sought to be this way, because all of human history has been dedicated to this joining. Societies have grown ever richer throughout history by increasing their trade and communications with one another, and our price signals have put a premium on becoming closer to our fellow humans.<br />
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What does this say about awareness? If the determinists are right, then it must arise spontaneously out of sufficient complexity, and the day we build a computer as sophisticated as the human brain, we can be said to have created self-aware life. If those who espouse free will are right, then there must be some unknown substance, or at least some unknown combination, process or reaction of known substances, that creates awareness. Either possibility is thrilling.<br />
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Though it is the first resort of pseudoscientists, charlatans and anyone else with a theory and no way to prove it, quantum physics is all the same a refuge for believers in free will. Experimentation has proven that a photon of light can act as a particle or a wave, depending on something called the observer effect. It is simultaneously both until someone is watching, then it resolves from a probability into a discrete form. This suggests the existence of awareness in a form that can somehow influence reality.<br />
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Here we fall into another metaphysical detour, this time not strictly into religion but into the semi-magical domain of William Blake. He described what I term "awareness" as Will, and believed it shapes the universe around us. Or, if you believe in something hard enough, it sprouts into being. The observer effect suggests that, at least to a certain degree, it may very well be true. One cannot magically wish or pray away an electricity bill or a flat tire, or at least one cannot at our current primitive understanding of awareness, if indeed this line of theorizing is even correct.<br />
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If that theme seems to be repeated in this writing, it is only because it is prudent. I am merely synthesizing what little knowledge on the subject that I know, in order to emphasize just how much I do not, just how much everyone does not. Our society needs to remove the ghost hunters from the vanguard of inquiry on this subject, and replace them with actual scientists, made respectable by the social construction of an appropriate field of study. Call it "awareness studies" or "sapiology" or whatever you may wish, but it seems prudent to me that society undertake these investigations with all care and gravity. Even if we discover ourselves to be pure deterministic clockwork and thereby confirm the lazy suspicions of modern science, we will at least have cracked scientifically what until now has been the sole domain of metaphysics and superstition.</blockquote>Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-74392032708645583582014-06-08T11:53:00.001-07:002014-06-08T11:53:30.758-07:00Carl Sagan wrote something very unexpected once.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.quickmeme.com/img/64/64beb713f045e61765b15e664e4b307dafb79319eff9fafd7b826f5be2825801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.quickmeme.com/img/64/64beb713f045e61765b15e664e4b307dafb79319eff9fafd7b826f5be2825801.jpg" /></a></div><a href="http://marijuana-uses.com/mr-x/" target="blank">This is pretty impressive</a>.<br />
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Apparently, when he wasn't doing Cosmos, he was writing under a pseudonym about the many intellectual uses of weed. Anyone who's remotely interested in either the subject or the man will probably find that article to be pretty cool.<br />
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Basically, weed seems like an analogue for dreaming. It combines random ideas in ways that wouldn't have been combined while sober, and therefore produces both incredibly stupid ideas, as well as insights.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-53180387938220615122014-05-07T23:32:00.002-07:002014-05-07T23:32:27.471-07:00The Legacy of the Region 23 Complex and Wellnitz Fires.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ouR_rR0b4-0" width="480"></iframe><br />
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A full day of my life later, not counting the interview times.<br />
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Thanks for everyone who helped out, one way or another!Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-78015191394722102422014-04-15T01:06:00.003-07:002014-04-15T01:07:02.869-07:00Lunar Eclipse, 4/15/2014.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH4zttntmhQdYYlUSrnEvuHwA8Mw7BhrkvO4sjvyOLvI1WjiTsQi7UQe4Je8CVE6SBSLPQ9sLYiGO2Ci4Bctr0hZKKyNKxETbq1iR1eRJu2hBXbOJbCvFat0S2dpi_3l9Z-Oy1Ot0V2hwO/s1600/DSC00273.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH4zttntmhQdYYlUSrnEvuHwA8Mw7BhrkvO4sjvyOLvI1WjiTsQi7UQe4Je8CVE6SBSLPQ9sLYiGO2Ci4Bctr0hZKKyNKxETbq1iR1eRJu2hBXbOJbCvFat0S2dpi_3l9Z-Oy1Ot0V2hwO/s400/DSC00273.JPG" /></a></div><br />
^Taken with my Sony Cyber-shot just now, right outside my apartment on campus.<br />
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I would have completely forgotten about the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/tech/innovation/blood-moon/" target="blank">lunar eclipse</a>, except that I needed to dash to my car to get some tax information (yes, I waited until the last minute). On my way back in, I noticed the moon was red. So I woke up Draya, who has to work at 5:30 AM, to come see it. She agreed it was worth it.<br />
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Anyway, I have a friend in Scottsbluff who can't see it through the clouds, and friends in Scotland who can't see it period because it's morning there. So here's the best of the pics I took.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-15577931152329922162014-04-12T23:37:00.001-07:002014-04-12T23:37:37.011-07:00How I Mine For Craft: The al-Ramadi Mosque and Mokattam GardensWelcome back! <a href="http://stuartlrichards.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-i-mine-for-craft.html" target="blank">Last time</a>, we saw the start of an Egyptian city, with ancient and medieval Egyptian characteristics.<br />
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Well, there's more.<br />
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Starting at the entrance to the bazaar and port under Mokattam Mountain, we will explore the al-Ramadi Mosque and Mokattam Gardens.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0xkS4bNkPoNdH1jwsSfWHB2p7nIAhyphenhyphen-eW0oAUQ2b430CJ1HfIVGzhDmBKIwPoxTnrnRHUnvggM58_aqmDydMso2s7Cpc2FgvrZlVV59RjfOJ_6t8dT005igjfMG-NRx-mifRA-WL4i_G/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0xkS4bNkPoNdH1jwsSfWHB2p7nIAhyphenhyphen-eW0oAUQ2b430CJ1HfIVGzhDmBKIwPoxTnrnRHUnvggM58_aqmDydMso2s7Cpc2FgvrZlVV59RjfOJ_6t8dT005igjfMG-NRx-mifRA-WL4i_G/s400/1.jpg" /></a></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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Let's head on out that door and check out the ground floor of al-Ramadi Mosque. (The name means "grey"; I named it that because it's colored that way.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolN5qWzYU74vghQisTizmp8bzC4YD4blfEoQ1oI7jm1LHPRk3Thb03LJ4HzFbRRjAb27LoHcP1f0XTAatnjRBZcUnGYzvh_432N5fCZs4TSZWXch22A5tPyXmwW2WNw5jJ_gFgT2nbnWT/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolN5qWzYU74vghQisTizmp8bzC4YD4blfEoQ1oI7jm1LHPRk3Thb03LJ4HzFbRRjAb27LoHcP1f0XTAatnjRBZcUnGYzvh_432N5fCZs4TSZWXch22A5tPyXmwW2WNw5jJ_gFgT2nbnWT/s400/2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDY-gcdMB4m91DjuOlN8Ou_B3DGkd9Ayar_jnw1-ODrYYBtODhryEBNSLUl3-6-uSMoiRPUGN6Nrt_wcUOyrbuBRkQA5oUwVx8IVIa7GHwzOhs9rqGVq-lnA9HTJlPJcEwnqWnFxhIsXQ/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDY-gcdMB4m91DjuOlN8Ou_B3DGkd9Ayar_jnw1-ODrYYBtODhryEBNSLUl3-6-uSMoiRPUGN6Nrt_wcUOyrbuBRkQA5oUwVx8IVIa7GHwzOhs9rqGVq-lnA9HTJlPJcEwnqWnFxhIsXQ/s400/3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpL6Xh2AIBc0NJRDgu259r1kX4sDnkUZT4ePXe1Xo9htHSbAE6JqXVtZwDBXiMK5L9hjpv29umqLVnvPNPkt8td1vYBIa9uaI-uR9n8_jSdC13tb_dr8i0iMD4MCddOxL0q521pTF5YJ7t/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpL6Xh2AIBc0NJRDgu259r1kX4sDnkUZT4ePXe1Xo9htHSbAE6JqXVtZwDBXiMK5L9hjpv29umqLVnvPNPkt8td1vYBIa9uaI-uR9n8_jSdC13tb_dr8i0iMD4MCddOxL0q521pTF5YJ7t/s400/4.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwZyrib5OZCHQnrzVzF7ldzXqaA92QGADG7kM1JrWbnfaKFsTnRkU7AXxWYgoIhwlBE-YO0KOUYZ6Xj8Eptwdwysv6pSe-gzxnUOKiu50hcyLhixvb2DHI_m4DIOO99ZxTK7ctzZUHhPh/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhwZyrib5OZCHQnrzVzF7ldzXqaA92QGADG7kM1JrWbnfaKFsTnRkU7AXxWYgoIhwlBE-YO0KOUYZ6Xj8Eptwdwysv6pSe-gzxnUOKiu50hcyLhixvb2DHI_m4DIOO99ZxTK7ctzZUHhPh/s400/5.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5HbcdsgRWb40xfKH0WGrfbtV-CwtYror8vgOJqn_DZtN3P5AD1Yp1aCUCEPIw8k2DElXfvZiRN_0qiW3tM9K6rZwQKdu2VTB6UUpV2JY_PfGrWb_PRVxbPR6gBVKkk-mhzqOI9t0TiHv5/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5HbcdsgRWb40xfKH0WGrfbtV-CwtYror8vgOJqn_DZtN3P5AD1Yp1aCUCEPIw8k2DElXfvZiRN_0qiW3tM9K6rZwQKdu2VTB6UUpV2JY_PfGrWb_PRVxbPR6gBVKkk-mhzqOI9t0TiHv5/s400/7.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAfKaNz-wspEYbtGZBT_NDS6p3PCNBrn2cTBH6gbNlrc14j_KxfW-VCGxhLjBtnqEbXCAS8pyrJXB59QfDg-UP13vTSwdkjT_udHUZDEwV0mWAHaybIwJEbvmO7p7MZBsDFRyx7KQ_967/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinAfKaNz-wspEYbtGZBT_NDS6p3PCNBrn2cTBH6gbNlrc14j_KxfW-VCGxhLjBtnqEbXCAS8pyrJXB59QfDg-UP13vTSwdkjT_udHUZDEwV0mWAHaybIwJEbvmO7p7MZBsDFRyx7KQ_967/s400/11.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Like any fancy mosque, it's got minarets, as well as a courtyard with trees and intricately-patterned walls, arches, domes and floors. While I was browsing around in here taking pictures, the sun decided to rise so I got a nice picture of the moon in the west with the minarets in the foreground, as well as a similar picture facing the sunrise:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ey6yl6cyV3Qz2LeGhNKzWrpV1WE0MnyYW43k_dMQeczq-4-URZy9Ss0WsVPjU9F3GE6Xy6cxgUEZxIVXBw9axx5O0RejfjMBwTY0A0PK5SWlFbqBXYQwjFbLb1iP6ATlg8ewluQ0vZfr/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ey6yl6cyV3Qz2LeGhNKzWrpV1WE0MnyYW43k_dMQeczq-4-URZy9Ss0WsVPjU9F3GE6Xy6cxgUEZxIVXBw9axx5O0RejfjMBwTY0A0PK5SWlFbqBXYQwjFbLb1iP6ATlg8ewluQ0vZfr/s400/6.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2f2H1gnktXJOpLevpGYxIqwmJBHmI798l0pg0tI2U6fK3qWsAxoIP2kbWxRFt054CE2ACXeQkClWv2yEF9recXdZvCvqPqXXnnPXbGClk6_4yDsnXxIUD0rfY9DdqJ-PD5nktnVvv8qW/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2f2H1gnktXJOpLevpGYxIqwmJBHmI798l0pg0tI2U6fK3qWsAxoIP2kbWxRFt054CE2ACXeQkClWv2yEF9recXdZvCvqPqXXnnPXbGClk6_4yDsnXxIUD0rfY9DdqJ-PD5nktnVvv8qW/s400/8.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Anyway, entering the grand hall of the mosque, it faces east and has a huge interior dome:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIhKQwes97jc9o9FhjxgCNQ4nkM5aABik-tJu1GgaZaEslyOsbUJFa_fBmeXXxdA81uha4UC3hYmTeuRkelicot43t6FZ1RP1iH63LgwlzqaM9QrhOYMmA8Lf6rQlykGj8LuQNLZiS1qI/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIhKQwes97jc9o9FhjxgCNQ4nkM5aABik-tJu1GgaZaEslyOsbUJFa_fBmeXXxdA81uha4UC3hYmTeuRkelicot43t6FZ1RP1iH63LgwlzqaM9QrhOYMmA8Lf6rQlykGj8LuQNLZiS1qI/s400/9.jpg" /></a></div><br />
But that's not all. Just to the west of the grand hall is the stairs to get up to the roof. Of course we need roof access; how are we going to perform the call to prayer from the minarets if we don't have roof access? Don't be silly, imaginary person I'm talking to.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_keCUWSCZUFEdm-yhdXtQGq9HCCJzm9MuJ_ZlQmUBGPuzNT5KGQN5DapnyRYWJFqE-M8KCXvlvI1Cln5O6QHGbj7KUIifKrkWZ2fbLCvh1t2JZSUJchOY9ob5lhQgB4yxB9_AMKTbS_Fp/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_keCUWSCZUFEdm-yhdXtQGq9HCCJzm9MuJ_ZlQmUBGPuzNT5KGQN5DapnyRYWJFqE-M8KCXvlvI1Cln5O6QHGbj7KUIifKrkWZ2fbLCvh1t2JZSUJchOY9ob5lhQgB4yxB9_AMKTbS_Fp/s400/10.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Up top, we can see the top of the dome of the great hall, as well as the main minaret. It's the thicker one with the crescent moon on top; the other three are thinner. Let's go inside, climb up and look around.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwdTz7cFQ_Xm38Rq9ECihVACPwfTqXQfFbVrcYzLyBM3BrwxZ1GgoB5PWCNeFwdxYasW6iPDseWPSH4lGeKufNupqLaUq8_XfeTPXFE4lV16PCfBKTksnUk6qIDK7kGpLI0j8hSgzUesf/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwdTz7cFQ_Xm38Rq9ECihVACPwfTqXQfFbVrcYzLyBM3BrwxZ1GgoB5PWCNeFwdxYasW6iPDseWPSH4lGeKufNupqLaUq8_XfeTPXFE4lV16PCfBKTksnUk6qIDK7kGpLI0j8hSgzUesf/s400/12.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1C-Rkoa9TFz_XAmx1xt-gcDwNAV5ynx6Q90KcV21onBmJaHjXgHVY-SYV_8SDs3M6Pf-OcsVpAlC8A5Dj-0mBC3GMPElt15c4G3WMLwuzENZLA6ptBqS5_f3GI17jnEkbdK-E8zUsEQbj/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1C-Rkoa9TFz_XAmx1xt-gcDwNAV5ynx6Q90KcV21onBmJaHjXgHVY-SYV_8SDs3M6Pf-OcsVpAlC8A5Dj-0mBC3GMPElt15c4G3WMLwuzENZLA6ptBqS5_f3GI17jnEkbdK-E8zUsEQbj/s400/13.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd84H37NoyrwhkBOI4ymvs1jW19MY569-xI-MCM9bLT0ZCpzHBbFsEDtBttKwbceZtG2AAAnV46TYP1WbiS-X13TXhyphenhyphenx_YS7BrOcpurzb41d9LQjVl1mNpDeVJilcH5TOwqJ3OXArSCJqz/s1600/14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd84H37NoyrwhkBOI4ymvs1jW19MY569-xI-MCM9bLT0ZCpzHBbFsEDtBttKwbceZtG2AAAnV46TYP1WbiS-X13TXhyphenhyphenx_YS7BrOcpurzb41d9LQjVl1mNpDeVJilcH5TOwqJ3OXArSCJqz/s400/14.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOO5e2-c-uEhGK-P5br7zh1Os82sW-Z3aUOxH8-QW-yCwON7-h8yTTPRxRdjK26UfKCVS7COjJJC-LfxQfI4eNXzgiLgCvRbXyqUnnix9-tzymMDFFVM7dDC6gRIpqd2aZW7pXkWYXTQCi/s1600/15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOO5e2-c-uEhGK-P5br7zh1Os82sW-Z3aUOxH8-QW-yCwON7-h8yTTPRxRdjK26UfKCVS7COjJJC-LfxQfI4eNXzgiLgCvRbXyqUnnix9-tzymMDFFVM7dDC6gRIpqd2aZW7pXkWYXTQCi/s400/15.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqqKFBJcoji-WxO2A_r4nyoGCIZ3YKXbCXwYXc1mCK-rjaA2pzayIP_V0Ra3vJbPe5FkwAz0La5k-FRxDS9ImBUtptojgyJzsBkxNPBQXKHC036ii5rwqQPl3cjm7Xso4lfZ8OR-spNyv/s1600/16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqqKFBJcoji-WxO2A_r4nyoGCIZ3YKXbCXwYXc1mCK-rjaA2pzayIP_V0Ra3vJbPe5FkwAz0La5k-FRxDS9ImBUtptojgyJzsBkxNPBQXKHC036ii5rwqQPl3cjm7Xso4lfZ8OR-spNyv/s400/16.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1iM1-TwjqZwmRSPtiWiMeKpnnzljr_NZtvDX2Y7XfMhbK6WVKonURevHMHDsjjNOPW8HR7IU8xemQOd5XvcDCz8-FDi2QrOIPuv0qU9Y6ORqdFJzOU8kuYFugzHPzkk0CTghhgZXGnbot/s1600/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1iM1-TwjqZwmRSPtiWiMeKpnnzljr_NZtvDX2Y7XfMhbK6WVKonURevHMHDsjjNOPW8HR7IU8xemQOd5XvcDCz8-FDi2QrOIPuv0qU9Y6ORqdFJzOU8kuYFugzHPzkk0CTghhgZXGnbot/s400/17.jpg" /></a></div><br />
There's a door there, and a stairway to climb. Once we're at the top, to the east we can see Mokattam Gardens; to the south we can see the ancient Egyptian temple and two of the other minarets, and to the west we can see the mosque as well as the barren desert.<br />
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The other minarets are similar, but they don't have stairs, just a ladder:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqUpPZP-qsS0523PsCDo-ttQvg1053W8h7xTunSCMm7-vsn8YA5UVSTNPKjBpjAsUsA4LvsB9vIpH3qdDDkrRZYR_dmKMAy803WOX8sPcpaR3VdB4_QNMAXq4hxl5DacL62h6cNc_uM0C/s1600/18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqUpPZP-qsS0523PsCDo-ttQvg1053W8h7xTunSCMm7-vsn8YA5UVSTNPKjBpjAsUsA4LvsB9vIpH3qdDDkrRZYR_dmKMAy803WOX8sPcpaR3VdB4_QNMAXq4hxl5DacL62h6cNc_uM0C/s400/18.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Here's the view to the north. Rumor has it that there's an oasis out there, far beyond the horizon... it might be worth it to build a road. Maybe even a railroad. But not until the city's complete.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWQVhZLpBZ2XMKDxIqXf7E3yG3whVme0teHR7X1tjpkRNYQjlPuoVciGSZNt1yxmwZK6DDCt6e7SwQ2SOdVv1O_pakfVIytWramXOaX8zkjQxP8lYPj7rVrRPZ9OGIHMcXRQk9Drk2o9M/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWQVhZLpBZ2XMKDxIqXf7E3yG3whVme0teHR7X1tjpkRNYQjlPuoVciGSZNt1yxmwZK6DDCt6e7SwQ2SOdVv1O_pakfVIytWramXOaX8zkjQxP8lYPj7rVrRPZ9OGIHMcXRQk9Drk2o9M/s400/19.jpg" /></a></div><br />
On to Mokattam Gardens! There's an archway opening onto Bazaar Street, so let's go through it and look around:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMBRzHs5R0D5xTHjYeSCQnbprXfVx-WZqZWlodCKJtuP4QVl3Vk_dzGB2H962FqVCBr_qBV60ZkW_x6mAZlg8eelNKwmyG9M-H6CVAGU7AtbLd7kvbRAClDFCGmoiBrjmz9e9A2j3QTcQ/s1600/20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMBRzHs5R0D5xTHjYeSCQnbprXfVx-WZqZWlodCKJtuP4QVl3Vk_dzGB2H962FqVCBr_qBV60ZkW_x6mAZlg8eelNKwmyG9M-H6CVAGU7AtbLd7kvbRAClDFCGmoiBrjmz9e9A2j3QTcQ/s400/20.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqP4_Ae0Lu2ZOeA-psdyKaibd_zZR7hBQR_Z4y102X-foj1ZSab7k7kD-qx8MWzM2swPYnvHTFb-4f9uL0kTkDDVtafoZpgfAy69w_WMt2iJ-S5iZYF_QGNP3dc4SXgnn3ms2MMCS3-le/s1600/21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqP4_Ae0Lu2ZOeA-psdyKaibd_zZR7hBQR_Z4y102X-foj1ZSab7k7kD-qx8MWzM2swPYnvHTFb-4f9uL0kTkDDVtafoZpgfAy69w_WMt2iJ-S5iZYF_QGNP3dc4SXgnn3ms2MMCS3-le/s400/21.jpg" /></a></div><br />
To the left of us is a patch that seems to have been specifically tended to have semi-arid plants. There's cactus and pine trees. Seems oddly reminiscent of some kind of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_(region)" target="blank">ridge</a> I <a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_dreamed_i_was_a_butterfly-flitting_around_in/202110.html" target="blank">dreamt</a> about... but nevermind that.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA10goQQwhe-FEcSTTbbdBf5wQnfleJYEcSAkt5GuuEnMO17W4biz_CmQngOjgOvtQuhdv38oGnoyQ-FM0ucujIghIC6x2cuwB1sH-eBxSWAHsdd5LRoNty9YVXpWbRjm5F0cLeVFy9CJf/s1600/22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA10goQQwhe-FEcSTTbbdBf5wQnfleJYEcSAkt5GuuEnMO17W4biz_CmQngOjgOvtQuhdv38oGnoyQ-FM0ucujIghIC6x2cuwB1sH-eBxSWAHsdd5LRoNty9YVXpWbRjm5F0cLeVFy9CJf/s400/22.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The rest of the gardens looks similar to the patch of garden on the right, and then let's check out the fountains in the middle:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglyXiOkGhBJLOGJaaM4-x784uUPQaNWw2eKmRkdQb7QYqu2SJ5YgO9SE6BoebbeSICXKNaroc3WSBj9VV3TGFkclW4SBE8Hq-LoINi9lrqfRntZk8DIkKfy4d6yKCbcEJxD7yTlrdEX_ni/s1600/23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglyXiOkGhBJLOGJaaM4-x784uUPQaNWw2eKmRkdQb7QYqu2SJ5YgO9SE6BoebbeSICXKNaroc3WSBj9VV3TGFkclW4SBE8Hq-LoINi9lrqfRntZk8DIkKfy4d6yKCbcEJxD7yTlrdEX_ni/s400/23.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzpYkIz9Kvwwe7o5rN2jO-D4ZvqPr20XRM5KjxyTf6n5PM9-ZQkgMys1Sr2iLG9dbGpR3nqnmXIrl4U-zRnEo_mOsm0M6Wcx42SHpZ5Pi7dkAwBLG3IM2VGJBrD0z4jh0Uv29IckEr3I5/s1600/24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzpYkIz9Kvwwe7o5rN2jO-D4ZvqPr20XRM5KjxyTf6n5PM9-ZQkgMys1Sr2iLG9dbGpR3nqnmXIrl4U-zRnEo_mOsm0M6Wcx42SHpZ5Pi7dkAwBLG3IM2VGJBrD0z4jh0Uv29IckEr3I5/s400/24.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkBD4qlR37c8u3mFiPtyYByS6z_ElS66B4YoSd6qrKl32WneldndzS5EDNesGdSev4pgplRE-8fdnTPZefPbEf-AfvjfNzjppRMfFFOhvq01GtemBFOIKIwugd3Bb6AFFXGinduVIi3S8/s1600/25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkBD4qlR37c8u3mFiPtyYByS6z_ElS66B4YoSd6qrKl32WneldndzS5EDNesGdSev4pgplRE-8fdnTPZefPbEf-AfvjfNzjppRMfFFOhvq01GtemBFOIKIwugd3Bb6AFFXGinduVIi3S8/s400/25.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7uBMyuAE73E-uyUzSx-jn7JJrdKDcGLFcOgNom6HZ_a0qdcQoOPn1VW-FAA94M71wd_bZiSZWxrpeWwf78ubSWj669p0RXKX7oaSXUCCAKHhckbIJ23zoXanUDdlzUkCgH23P3PPjEx4H/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7uBMyuAE73E-uyUzSx-jn7JJrdKDcGLFcOgNom6HZ_a0qdcQoOPn1VW-FAA94M71wd_bZiSZWxrpeWwf78ubSWj669p0RXKX7oaSXUCCAKHhckbIJ23zoXanUDdlzUkCgH23P3PPjEx4H/s400/26.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWSLrnc8jiRsO8atoYNlguROfeDNsI5OUZCHhhOgobdvAXbE_ZqEJiKOfbzoHQaz1ziu7rEOP2wy0ChVg2E0Dsf3exDU7aH4w5o6bmxa91LEwfpbOx4x5l0vTBiWzei2HkISrofiZsU1p/s1600/27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVWSLrnc8jiRsO8atoYNlguROfeDNsI5OUZCHhhOgobdvAXbE_ZqEJiKOfbzoHQaz1ziu7rEOP2wy0ChVg2E0Dsf3exDU7aH4w5o6bmxa91LEwfpbOx4x5l0vTBiWzei2HkISrofiZsU1p/s400/27.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I'm gonna come clean: the fountain at the center of the park (as well as the walls' designs in the background) are inspired by <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Hafezeeyeh_garden1.jpg" target="blank">this picture</a>, and the last picture in the previous set is inspired by <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Golestan_palace_springhouse.JPG" target="blank">this picture</a>.<br />
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Anyway, speaking of the walls, yes, let's check them out, because to the sides of the large dome are stairs providing wall access. I put trees on them! Trees with vines, so it kinda feels like a hanging garden:<br />
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The whole walls are done up like this, so you've got a representative sample. There's two small arches on the north wall, and they have stairs going down. Let's go down:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS0pkVNJQEuj4VPK53vj-6zsv-nMjDw0432LZ4Uycqbd_hcOf0tkVUYD4vE7gSCWkgGJcsPITp147js0Vp2gSr78RrEA47SiPpJdycWkxSmRdE30IUw78Syo1K1KCgPjG5BvXgXRzQ6WN/s1600/33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxS0pkVNJQEuj4VPK53vj-6zsv-nMjDw0432LZ4Uycqbd_hcOf0tkVUYD4vE7gSCWkgGJcsPITp147js0Vp2gSr78RrEA47SiPpJdycWkxSmRdE30IUw78Syo1K1KCgPjG5BvXgXRzQ6WN/s400/33.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsVjTncRhroh0fLgB6d06YufmURTvGyVF69ZviOQ5v_8OwxLAiVuCVkpI6ARHI-UDxJ1AyrxNUuzowBBjO8_6Ys8wHJiKBqrBAOU7Rnkg8SYHawwY936v4NYG_SeuApe2NDfgd5gPqsnf/s1600/34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIsVjTncRhroh0fLgB6d06YufmURTvGyVF69ZviOQ5v_8OwxLAiVuCVkpI6ARHI-UDxJ1AyrxNUuzowBBjO8_6Ys8wHJiKBqrBAOU7Rnkg8SYHawwY936v4NYG_SeuApe2NDfgd5gPqsnf/s400/34.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiryL9iDK4QeZACPioB3fUMcWCnvQi7snJnHPP47_aGS3VEIkFyzlLxgA63A31VZTJ-Ylnw0CFhTpA3ioN71k55XvT6xBmCdXPGxOuAyyxwhtP1RnPWJNHZIUX5J7_ooC9XbFu0A9xWsSdS/s1600/35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiryL9iDK4QeZACPioB3fUMcWCnvQi7snJnHPP47_aGS3VEIkFyzlLxgA63A31VZTJ-Ylnw0CFhTpA3ioN71k55XvT6xBmCdXPGxOuAyyxwhtP1RnPWJNHZIUX5J7_ooC9XbFu0A9xWsSdS/s400/35.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQU7QpOZN4kTcqto3Qy85vk3tqbKG5R6CGIgaoZW89CFwRxc6mcSveCvi2HcR4cZtWTfoWCGbqSM0HjORLEg8hpUL4MbC0KqMQI_qbDw0Q2VC1N2h0ZyvNk6OiTRKEverOxydyxbSpUGd0/s1600/36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQU7QpOZN4kTcqto3Qy85vk3tqbKG5R6CGIgaoZW89CFwRxc6mcSveCvi2HcR4cZtWTfoWCGbqSM0HjORLEg8hpUL4MbC0KqMQI_qbDw0Q2VC1N2h0ZyvNk6OiTRKEverOxydyxbSpUGd0/s400/36.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5dapYUCythuJJKuGUqVHenYWDECr6xgP4WTNs1nmyCC_euYxIILsTOBx_70cEdzGMnLGQqGUT4LZWMV8n3zsUur8jvXBOUUh7gujR3BdnsXhKEPyoTneS7qgHo0ZwW4wgq0B5FLXRS1te/s1600/37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5dapYUCythuJJKuGUqVHenYWDECr6xgP4WTNs1nmyCC_euYxIILsTOBx_70cEdzGMnLGQqGUT4LZWMV8n3zsUur8jvXBOUUh7gujR3BdnsXhKEPyoTneS7qgHo0ZwW4wgq0B5FLXRS1te/s400/37.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70BHHYpnwPghhGlEkVkKJtSGz2ST-5JA8gRcRm1ol0yqwdXQvV1hyQ4dR6_61McrQuVsFPp4B6HeLoXsLv7eRwBt85EDZWfIby0-qnLSUvfyZDgkTOoWfYw5PMLb-zdwpsQ2zmItuNl-N/s1600/38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70BHHYpnwPghhGlEkVkKJtSGz2ST-5JA8gRcRm1ol0yqwdXQvV1hyQ4dR6_61McrQuVsFPp4B6HeLoXsLv7eRwBt85EDZWfIby0-qnLSUvfyZDgkTOoWfYw5PMLb-zdwpsQ2zmItuNl-N/s400/38.jpg" /></a></div><br />
We're spat out at the bottom of the stairs, and there's a path going left. It goes under the walls, interestingly enough, so we can see the detail of the walls up close. The fountain under the southern dome apparently feeds into two ponds to each side of it, and we're skirting one as we walk the wall path. At the very end, on the southern end of the southeastern pond, we see a door leading UNDER the southern fountain. Well, that's interesting, let's check it out:<br />
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It's a subway station! The Mokattam Gardens stop, evidently, with service to al-Ramadi Mosque station, and others as soon as I get done building them. We're going to have a sprawling, bustling city, and it'll be a while before I get done with it, but we'll need subways to navigate it. And since we're on the subject... I made the Blue Line go through the western wall of the Gardens. It just barely fit.<br />
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And while we're talking about the city, I need a name for it. I'm thinking "al-Iskandariya" because it's not immediately familiar to American ears, but it's the Arabic word for "Alexandria," or what actual modern Egyptians call that city. It's mildly relevant to what I'll make here, but I'm also wanting a name because I had a brainstorm: using my Minecraft world to make adventures for D&D. Like, instead of just describing what they see, I'll show them my computer screen.<br />
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Anyway, yeah. That's everything I've built thus far.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-9928050192350590012014-04-05T20:01:00.000-07:002014-04-05T20:01:05.559-07:00How I Mine For Craft?I've taken up Minecraft.<br />
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I actually took up Minecraft a while back, but getting it on my laptop on Thursday night has guaranteed that my academic career is going to be sufficiently imperilled. So I might as well show you guys what's destroying my free time now!<br />
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Back when I was living with Caveman, I tried create this huge underground version of ancient Babylon, complete with artificial sunrise and everything. Making the cavern was really time-consuming, though, so I decided to not start there. Instead, I started in a desert area near a river, so I decided I was gonna rock ancient and medieval Egypt. (I say medieval because I wanna make bazaars and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hanging_Church" target="blank">Hanging Church</a> and such.) It's not gonna be a literal copy; I'm not going to recreate the world map and such because that would be a bitch. But I'm going to make civilizations appropriate to each biome I come across, and I'm starting in Egypt.<br />
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Anyway, pics!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGCiX38g2XWG0fnHCa9wg5pBUDzp2ERVe-0ee38ccSbYTSmPdH3UM_TDvZ3xs6ngHZyB3OLN-BxvrcNBUKtxK4JFm_US2CmKU1_NU1NqsyoTuMoy3IMy-1jLs4XWbT_Gr04ggS_tVpr43/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhGCiX38g2XWG0fnHCa9wg5pBUDzp2ERVe-0ee38ccSbYTSmPdH3UM_TDvZ3xs6ngHZyB3OLN-BxvrcNBUKtxK4JFm_US2CmKU1_NU1NqsyoTuMoy3IMy-1jLs4XWbT_Gr04ggS_tVpr43/s400/1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
We're starting on the Wannabe Nile, looking at large statues of nondescript pharaohs carved into the side of a mountain. They each bear the crook and staff, symbols of royal Egyptian power, and they both have those pharaoh goatees going on.<a name='more'></a><br />
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Now we're outside the temple. There's trees growing outside, the temple pillars have a leafy theme going on and the winged disk motif is on the top of the temple.<br />
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There's a sphinx in the center of the temple. There's also a passageway behind it.<br />
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The passageway has several motifs on it: ankhs, a scene of the pharaohs of Upper and Lower Egypt watching as a peasant in a boat harvests reeds, and the winged disc motif once more.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileoA1igXXPW9WZbeM3nYhiiHpaDnO7xo1o-3_22R74Ctqj8axFkdjiGzhL6xdNkMJ9ba-eX3jEyC7r8zl-26SCYQ5BnRiLsEaEibK7Yw9UVT0xOblpV9sTpnxLSdp-9YpYNU6oRWkKTNu/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileoA1igXXPW9WZbeM3nYhiiHpaDnO7xo1o-3_22R74Ctqj8axFkdjiGzhL6xdNkMJ9ba-eX3jEyC7r8zl-26SCYQ5BnRiLsEaEibK7Yw9UVT0xOblpV9sTpnxLSdp-9YpYNU6oRWkKTNu/s400/8.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7c_XzdNZulnbQgxmjhM0Z5dhyIWfaZoSZXhRB_BbFabpzpqPTZKlMw1cwTOyhmT_jPZP1Z_sCrOYstsVLbjSD54Otc78NSTkEwxJJxlvHWjiHT1NBXW4VQj-hXs0THTRH2-ONSHCROQoO/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7c_XzdNZulnbQgxmjhM0Z5dhyIWfaZoSZXhRB_BbFabpzpqPTZKlMw1cwTOyhmT_jPZP1Z_sCrOYstsVLbjSD54Otc78NSTkEwxJJxlvHWjiHT1NBXW4VQj-hXs0THTRH2-ONSHCROQoO/s400/9.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj54Pc5HUEwofcpnzZVYAeU3lKcyF2NybXmFhxXQNcufLSUSsx7AzrOt7O9DiSHTA4WcIrmbs1mmEg4muRH3sEYsQFXTeVkQfwSp0ovhVGhA4VXPFkUjwYQ_4nZdldwZXdmYRtK1lhs9t/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj54Pc5HUEwofcpnzZVYAeU3lKcyF2NybXmFhxXQNcufLSUSsx7AzrOt7O9DiSHTA4WcIrmbs1mmEg4muRH3sEYsQFXTeVkQfwSp0ovhVGhA4VXPFkUjwYQ_4nZdldwZXdmYRtK1lhs9t/s400/10.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Going up some stairs and further down the corridor, we see a pool with an enchanted altar on the other end, and off to the side appears to be two places where waterfalls pour. Let's go down them!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0xFJqZlAOZTWDvR8J6o7W-H9tIzvmWdIoqfm3ln8xO3Xg4_pikxSTi3xGzChy4KzO-Dtkyk1WsItKDmvASd_dHmfM-TRnTSkmYUNsAfi0F7P09zOo7T1WzolerV4t2TLSEc2pXAlHb8r/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj0xFJqZlAOZTWDvR8J6o7W-H9tIzvmWdIoqfm3ln8xO3Xg4_pikxSTi3xGzChy4KzO-Dtkyk1WsItKDmvASd_dHmfM-TRnTSkmYUNsAfi0F7P09zOo7T1WzolerV4t2TLSEc2pXAlHb8r/s400/11.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC2fGHgK9HRdeWLx6NZTytAVmdfO6p14pG_HRMpa8_92PeVw5NA_82dNsLNG9v-j4IrFvnMARDxfHMMlL_Y0PHQuK1aW6VhvQON13nZTAaiDBQd1AdxjLxynNOhvtIhdZv7CPNB9W1NHtw/s1600/12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC2fGHgK9HRdeWLx6NZTytAVmdfO6p14pG_HRMpa8_92PeVw5NA_82dNsLNG9v-j4IrFvnMARDxfHMMlL_Y0PHQuK1aW6VhvQON13nZTAaiDBQd1AdxjLxynNOhvtIhdZv7CPNB9W1NHtw/s400/12.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHtZp2-YYUf_L0ZIFE8vWhXVrMmTuADEIrjqJX65jyx_rkKCqn-UvhMdElZUIL87dcTeNx4E8HXzJvD2D3nTNC60hBrdVyV1K9Ii9uQYBFD29ELEtaZrkQRAcSv3Q2e3ARVZtlrqQvR4s/s1600/13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHtZp2-YYUf_L0ZIFE8vWhXVrMmTuADEIrjqJX65jyx_rkKCqn-UvhMdElZUIL87dcTeNx4E8HXzJvD2D3nTNC60hBrdVyV1K9Ii9uQYBFD29ELEtaZrkQRAcSv3Q2e3ARVZtlrqQvR4s/s400/13.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpR-tG81DLCzfmq3fjIyaMOGTyNJ-l4_zhNSYvaQ6rRrZmlvuGQuc5ISsT80V7abagIL3cyeP1h7nPKbO-sT-2ZjTED7mBt5nHV2j2Yu7UxtKM8eD4xaxgOvfvHG0idsqDYNcZHyKgz9uS/s1600/14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpR-tG81DLCzfmq3fjIyaMOGTyNJ-l4_zhNSYvaQ6rRrZmlvuGQuc5ISsT80V7abagIL3cyeP1h7nPKbO-sT-2ZjTED7mBt5nHV2j2Yu7UxtKM8eD4xaxgOvfvHG0idsqDYNcZHyKgz9uS/s400/14.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZSeP2tc7jmMInFY9px0kJldQu981Cl23k7GWYNlC_w-9rWJ4Kdaym7ZxpNOxQSjUrAENRuSzLY4V52bZaPw5qHBgi1xmjR-sRxYjle12FuwRjJPTAN1bsUWK1ayVuZCLRLTj50W5YGG0/s1600/15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZSeP2tc7jmMInFY9px0kJldQu981Cl23k7GWYNlC_w-9rWJ4Kdaym7ZxpNOxQSjUrAENRuSzLY4V52bZaPw5qHBgi1xmjR-sRxYjle12FuwRjJPTAN1bsUWK1ayVuZCLRLTj50W5YGG0/s400/15.png" /></a></div><br />
It's a port hidden underneath the mountain! And like any good port in Egypt, it's got a bazaar right nearby for merchants to buy and sell their goods. There's a tavern where you can get a drink, there's a bookseller, there's someone offering some enchanted mushrooms, there's a pumpkin-seller, there's a smithy, there's a vendor of potted plants, there's another mushroom seller, and there's a... door beyond the archway? Let's check that out next.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG7uiQj2zNRnWhjlApvT1v1q9a5rxIETAmsTFpD3iXnzoYHtyxoqBT6I4X5oPBS8kMKepKM-8mm0zNJZsziL4CiSg-YYz8z0d-CacSHm8RLsIHDgLDU7-wUIcWWN3-spzNBTDu5-ePFDl/s1600/16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG7uiQj2zNRnWhjlApvT1v1q9a5rxIETAmsTFpD3iXnzoYHtyxoqBT6I4X5oPBS8kMKepKM-8mm0zNJZsziL4CiSg-YYz8z0d-CacSHm8RLsIHDgLDU7-wUIcWWN3-spzNBTDu5-ePFDl/s400/16.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIX69QWIudxGE8yVTOo4pz3S_HHMXDsq9lsWddDW6_HoNvGinwVVUWBvwmFcgJaHC1TLmfSDIBSjDQ4T1Z20erRBAvxu5lGylORgiDMXd6lVDmwN3aOttg9GZTyr90LjDvg3Ss0lRoUdi/s1600/17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIX69QWIudxGE8yVTOo4pz3S_HHMXDsq9lsWddDW6_HoNvGinwVVUWBvwmFcgJaHC1TLmfSDIBSjDQ4T1Z20erRBAvxu5lGylORgiDMXd6lVDmwN3aOttg9GZTyr90LjDvg3Ss0lRoUdi/s400/17.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dBfuhX5lp4XTLrOxZ47s0iAZdKQ6L68RVreJvPKFKZuNtSMLDVi_16R9pTDe8cUxJkNp6Uw8hJUqKlN0Goh5zel9cT2RyIjusWFCrQ7PgpWT02704f-uMuZJ3OHD1Remy3-LJIwhbvdM/s1600/18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dBfuhX5lp4XTLrOxZ47s0iAZdKQ6L68RVreJvPKFKZuNtSMLDVi_16R9pTDe8cUxJkNp6Uw8hJUqKlN0Goh5zel9cT2RyIjusWFCrQ7PgpWT02704f-uMuZJ3OHD1Remy3-LJIwhbvdM/s400/18.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBn5wERHchaPMWw5h9B5X2KdNGUdQ-ELXiFY7KgvsbY1azx4jYMbLH_d_t8yL-oOufc6a358YyofDh6zCq3d1REK3tccI9EIK9bx21_uwG_jkiRf0BZ7y24EHDt-LeV6i_sGLDgm0bUJyD/s1600/19.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBn5wERHchaPMWw5h9B5X2KdNGUdQ-ELXiFY7KgvsbY1azx4jYMbLH_d_t8yL-oOufc6a358YyofDh6zCq3d1REK3tccI9EIK9bx21_uwG_jkiRf0BZ7y24EHDt-LeV6i_sGLDgm0bUJyD/s400/19.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwCLbigofVr2i_EH1WsHYi240G3ZrEnlarxa9tXpi16uuVFmYbKR0mp35LyPGdyHBj78NmBjIpomchx6m1fg_oYgwckXmBmY4JrvWgPb4ferTW9xZGKQToP2daoOg1eQaihyuB7QvKrgK/s1600/20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwCLbigofVr2i_EH1WsHYi240G3ZrEnlarxa9tXpi16uuVFmYbKR0mp35LyPGdyHBj78NmBjIpomchx6m1fg_oYgwckXmBmY4JrvWgPb4ferTW9xZGKQToP2daoOg1eQaihyuB7QvKrgK/s400/20.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Those are some swanky digs! Just like my real house, bookshelves are walls, dividing a bedroom, a workroom, a bathroom of sorts and an enchanting room... everything the ambitious Minecrafter might need, and protected from entry by monsters and villagers if I ever decide to play in anything besides Peaceful/Creative. And there's even a big window with which to look upon the port below.<br />
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Now, across from the front door was an area with some stairs... let's check that out.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxcbIlXq4P-PFZT2FhJjHvtFb6_FrWVOttzTY33jd-l0KaDiewhJUNkt98hAuv2n8g7xt9GYKVamPfsrig-guOSGEGpOQYWkIZBtFsliTwu-IgqnYOdOnQfTa8hemG4WuS2EpFBLYQUCi/s1600/21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxcbIlXq4P-PFZT2FhJjHvtFb6_FrWVOttzTY33jd-l0KaDiewhJUNkt98hAuv2n8g7xt9GYKVamPfsrig-guOSGEGpOQYWkIZBtFsliTwu-IgqnYOdOnQfTa8hemG4WuS2EpFBLYQUCi/s400/21.png" /></a></div><br />
They look like they go on forever! In point of fact, they go on all the way down to bedrock, but there's nothing down there yet. Eventually I'm going to put in a worldwide subway system, and when I do every place is going to be connected to it through a system like this.<br />
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Anyway, that's what I've spent all day doing. Hope you guys like it! I'll post more when there's more to post.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-38100784137386035042014-04-05T17:51:00.001-07:002014-04-05T17:51:24.616-07:00What I'm listening to today, April 5th 2014 edition.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7rOMGIbY-9s" width="459"></iframe><br />
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I never thought you could get psychedelic with a banjo. I'm suitably impressed.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-53934094533962543442014-04-03T12:12:00.003-07:002014-04-03T14:36:37.910-07:00LA face with a Chadron booty.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZNyQMGzjEWQ" width="459"></iframe><br />
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Nate and I were hanging out last night, rocking beyond reality, and this song came on the radio. I'm a fan of the Dandy Warhols, but I didn't recognize this song. The jangly guitars at the beginning are supes trippy, and were the perfect end to a very odd night.<br />
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Yeah, might as well talk about that night. The Sigma Tau Delta (OMG THAT SPELLS STD!!!) open mics at the Broker have been ongoing since I was an undergrad, but they've been wrecked lately by a particular group of teenagers. We can't actually forbid them from coming, or playing, but we've tried to figure out controls to filter out the worst. Everyone can only do two works now, no sign-ups are allowed after 9:00 PM, and as of last night that seems to have worked. There's a couple people that get up and sing a cappella rather badly, people that read truly shitty stories (," stated James), but it's not as bad as it was two weeks ago.<br />
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This is important, because two weeks ago it was <b>bad</b>. Like, if 75% of all the performers were Creepy Dave bad. It was so bad that Nate, Shanda and I had running MST3K-style commentary on Facebook about how bad it was. We also resolved that at the next one, we were all going to deliberately suck. Nate was going to read the lyrics from Rebecca Black's "Friday" in the style of William Shatner, and Shanda was going to read the lyrics from "Ice, Ice Baby." And I? I was going to perform "Baby Got Back," a la the Jonathan Coulton version:<a name='more'></a><br />
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The idea here was that we were going to, by being deliberately terrible, make fun of these guys. But what actually ended up happening was that I got the loudest cheers I have ever heard in the Bean Broker in my entire life, and two of the bigger girls there flirted with me and made eyes at me all night... as did their glaring boyfriends. Which would've been a great thing to happen two years ago, and if they weren't probably minors.<br />
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It <i>would</i> fucking figure that my most popular performance would be the time I tried to suck on purpose. Maybe that's what I need to do from now on. Maybe next open mic, I'll play a Justin Bieber song and Richard Heule the Third will rub a hate boner out all over the Eagle about it.<br />
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But anyway, the night didn't end there. Half the college kids seemed to accompany Nate, Shanda and I to the hookah lounge afterwards. We had to order two hookahs and extra hoses just to accommodate everyone. At some point both Nick and Shanda crotchground me simultaneously, and we also played Cards Against Humanity. When the place closed at midnight, we all went home, and since Nate's crashing at my place until his brakes are fixed, that meant we hung out and rocked beyond reality. At which point the Dandy Warhols song happened.<br />
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Hell of a night.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-83751063555879003762014-03-29T17:21:00.000-07:002014-03-29T17:21:14.378-07:00An interview with Nickelback's lead singer. It explains everything.<a href="http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/playboy-interview-chad-kroeger" target="blank">Trust me when I say that this is worth fifteen minutes of your life.</a><br />
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Chad Kroeger reminds me a hell of a lot of a former friend of mine: a likeable scumbag that will screw you over one day and then buy your booze the next; someone who thinks trite bullshit is profound and gets upset when everyone rolls their eyes, but is inexplicably good at making a shitload of people enjoy his trite bullshit anyway... at least, for a time. Someone that can't stop smoking weed and figures he'll be dead by 50.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-1457320315974281322014-03-27T22:38:00.001-07:002014-03-27T22:38:33.330-07:00Moments Like These Make Facebook Kinda Worth It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxa_TSsLqqW8ua13tVL-PwoFL_-0J8rk_ytonnMMYc4VB6fO4Aqy9c0ncxwRFm4Q658iu0bKWLP4RJ-45o76jfxSS2p7uKsZDMT08hEWQ9XE4o6OgwKo0tEOE7AWHpHU7TOLUjeyyq59EU/s1600/Chelsea+Marie+Blocked+Me+Edited.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxa_TSsLqqW8ua13tVL-PwoFL_-0J8rk_ytonnMMYc4VB6fO4Aqy9c0ncxwRFm4Q658iu0bKWLP4RJ-45o76jfxSS2p7uKsZDMT08hEWQ9XE4o6OgwKo0tEOE7AWHpHU7TOLUjeyyq59EU/s1600/Chelsea+Marie+Blocked+Me+Edited.gif" /></a></div><br />
The last post wasn't able to post because she blocked me after that. ^_^Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-14783329757083594542014-03-06T13:14:00.001-08:002014-03-06T13:14:19.134-08:00Ancient Levantine ancestor worship, African masks, and the origins of drama and modern Judaism.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8CtT2EM_KBDbtcgCtfGIr1ygWDU6MWxxX6TPOdyjY524Fq_AW4xmjPPOq33K_AQxemkcPp4B2kmG2pp4Vbj8kluXTJsH8c6m1SDHIx_3Ia-SJTLC3dzsk_vctzF4NcIqpuAXTTOaVc0r/s1600/Israeli+Masks.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8CtT2EM_KBDbtcgCtfGIr1ygWDU6MWxxX6TPOdyjY524Fq_AW4xmjPPOq33K_AQxemkcPp4B2kmG2pp4Vbj8kluXTJsH8c6m1SDHIx_3Ia-SJTLC3dzsk_vctzF4NcIqpuAXTTOaVc0r/s320/Israeli+Masks.png" /></a></div><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/eerie-neolithic-masks-to-make-israel-museum-debut/" target="blank">It's nothing like you'd imagine.</a><br />
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Of course, whoever made these masks were not Jews; "Jews" didn't exist yet, and wouldn't for thousands of years. But it's probably appropriate to consider that the religious society that made these masks were a part of the greater religious climate of the Middle East at that time.<br />
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In those days, the Middle East was the center of the world. Civilization started there; the package of crops and domesticated animals that would conquer the world was freshly put together there at that time and place, as wheat had just been deliberately cultivated a few thousand years ago and people started living in villages, towns and then cities. It was also not a desert: most of the Middle East was forested at that time, at least the parts near sources of water, and it hadn't succumbed to the human-led processes of deforestation and desertification yet.<a name='more'></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjyyBke_r4K9V0RG3V5qLIbNOEkK6nVPjGzLEdzU9cAt7F8BUmsdr32tRKiK1zvLsWs_9oBy-WXkoNsVQUDQn6BDrTryTL5RNEpF75gqVM1lNSw4xJZspt3HYudlE6eeo5elzECDZuxTS/s1600/Dogon+Mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjyyBke_r4K9V0RG3V5qLIbNOEkK6nVPjGzLEdzU9cAt7F8BUmsdr32tRKiK1zvLsWs_9oBy-WXkoNsVQUDQn6BDrTryTL5RNEpF75gqVM1lNSw4xJZspt3HYudlE6eeo5elzECDZuxTS/s200/Dogon+Mask.jpg" /></a></div>In that particular context, the religion of this area were probably the most sophisticated cultural system that humanity had yet known. The archaeologists believe that these masks were part of a system of ancestor worship, and I don't know enough about them to say one way or another. I can offer this input, though: they appear to me to resemble two things, as if they were an intermediary step between them: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_African_masks" target="blank">African ritual masks</a> and Greek theatrical masks.<br />
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This is necessarily a generalization, as different African societies use them in different manners, but in much of Africa, masks like these are donned by tribal priests and elders, and while the mask is worn the body is inhabited by a spirit, sometimes a dead ancestor. As Wikipedia notes, the rituals of the Yoruba and Edo resemble Western notions of theatre.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6BO6VpfcSb-1cSdnykThETGRuURgU4aBmtkVFy0MfO-B7XaAwgM58r1HVrKCIYywwbdtl5EOPF8ZuaTkwI33rslJkWRzzL_NW2iHFHhySawAMwaPC8YfqSDg_EMMKG9T6sVnQMWeA8sp/s1600/Greek+Mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir6BO6VpfcSb-1cSdnykThETGRuURgU4aBmtkVFy0MfO-B7XaAwgM58r1HVrKCIYywwbdtl5EOPF8ZuaTkwI33rslJkWRzzL_NW2iHFHhySawAMwaPC8YfqSDg_EMMKG9T6sVnQMWeA8sp/s200/Greek+Mask.jpg" /></a></div>Which brings me to Greece. As best archaeology understands the matter, theatre there came out of the Dionysian cults there. They also used masks for their actors, masks that didn't look too far off from the ones found in Israel.<br />
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We know that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans" target="blank">left there</a> between 125,000 and 60,000 years ago. We know there was cultural contact between those times, and that religion was a part of human experience even for Neanderthals. It seems possible that each of these groups, starting off with the same sort of ancestor-worshipping religion, eventually saw that religion get more stylized and more complex until it gave birth to genuine art forms like drama. They would not have kept in contact for long, but you can see a sort of stylistic evolution as humans leave Africa. In Israel, it still has a lot of the forms of African masks, but they start looking like the later Greek masks. But in both places, the masks serve basically the same functions.<br />
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Furthermore, it suggests a possible antecedent to the Middle Eastern religions that would come later. Perhaps the Middle Eastern pantheon of gods that came to be was simply a series of particularly respected ancestors. It has been postulated, with some reason, that the various Indo-European pantheons are all <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_religion" target="blank">derived</a> from the same starter pantheon. The Middle Eastern pantheon was probably not derived from that, but it is useful to think of the various Middle Eastern religions in the same way. The Judeo-Christian God, Yahweh, was one of many gods in this pantheon, and indeed even the Bible attests that for much of its history, the Israelites and Jews held to this opinion in the polytheistic nature of their Temple ceremonies. Indeed, several parts of the Bible (the creation and flood in Genesis, the entire book of Job) are straight-up lifted from Mesopotamian religious writings.<br />
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It wasn't until the time of Hezekiah that Judaism established for good its monotheistic character. Even during Moses' time, it could be argued that the Jewish faith was merely henotheistic. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" doesn't necessarily mean that no other gods exist, just that Yahweh is supposed to be <i>your</i> god. He might not be, or even intend to be, someone else's. And indeed, Christianity would have remained just another Jewish sect, another theology for the "chosen people," if it weren't for Paul's dream that he interpreted to mean that Yahweh intended Christianity for everyone.<br />
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What really gets me is when you think of Judaism, and by extension Christianity (and even Islam) as just another sect, another branch, of this Mesopotamian polytheism. I mean, even the Bible sorta takes this approach, as it refers to the high priest Melchizedek (a contemporary of Abraham, the father of the Jews) as the high priest of Yahweh in Salem (not yet called Jerusalem). There was no uniquely Jewish religion yet, but there is already a priest who's considered by God and Abraham to be righteous, but he must be performing rites and following rules handed down from this Babylonian polytheism. Perhaps he, like Abraham, was a monotheistic or henotheistic reformer, but he would have nonetheless been rooted in the society around him, a product of Mesopotamian culture and religion.<br />
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And then, in turn, this Mesopotamian religious system that Judaism and Christianity and Islam reformed has its roots in these masks. These simple African-Greek looking ancestor worshipping masks that founded drama and religions that two-thirds of the world obey.<br />
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Really makes you think, doesn't it?Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-17676962838377882092014-03-05T20:30:00.001-08:002014-03-05T20:30:08.612-08:00Open mics.A lady got up at an open mic and said she was going to read a poem she had written a long time ago. It sounded suspiciously like an email forward, especially when I heard her claim that certain folds stood for shit in the Bible, because you're forbidden by law from hitting the "forward" button on an email unless you mistakenly believe that America was founded as a Christian nation. So I Googled it, and sure enough it was an email forward debunked on Snopes.<br />
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<a href="http://www.snopes.com/military/flagfold.asp" target="blank">See for yourself.</a><br />
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She even read the "Share this with your friends" crap. So she not only was full of shit about why an American flag is folded, but she was full of shit about it being something she wrote, and she wasn't even clever about hiding it.<br />
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And then Fish gets up and talks about period sex. I love this place.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-82141793231942609982014-02-28T20:26:00.002-08:002014-02-28T20:26:39.149-08:00An Academic Journey to a New World - Part II.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpuwMfI0goIDILf0r3XQAPxuVpdaXzLnF-is6hGmjPC1tbwYLUgTh7J1lkvfhY8vzrDGD5PNJtaeg3TqvFZ8RhUQ0ebZGg_f4fqsIX8jUFR8Pzq4MIgY_-OiRHqon8ngCAfi5YOyA7qRk/s1600/1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpuwMfI0goIDILf0r3XQAPxuVpdaXzLnF-is6hGmjPC1tbwYLUgTh7J1lkvfhY8vzrDGD5PNJtaeg3TqvFZ8RhUQ0ebZGg_f4fqsIX8jUFR8Pzq4MIgY_-OiRHqon8ngCAfi5YOyA7qRk/s320/1.gif" /></a></div>While writing that <a href="http://stuartlrichards.blogspot.com/2014/02/an-academic-journey-to-new-world-part-i.html" target="blank">last post</a>, I was casting about for some kind of image. I take it as a point of pride that I can usually find some manner of appropriate image for most of the posts I do. While I ended up settling on that drawing of Carthage I made (it's hanging in my bedroom to this day), my first thought was to post an image of one of those Carthaginian coins with the map of the world under it that was cited in the paper.<br />
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I found the <a href="http://phoenicia.org/america.html" target="blank">website</a> of the guy that postulates this particular theory well enough, but what I couldn't find was a clear image of the full coin. (That guy, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_McMenamin" target="blank">Dr. Mark McMenamin</a>, isn't even a historian as it turns out, but a geologist... so he's not speaking in his area of expertise.) Anyway, I saw the coin to your left, and I saw a <a href="http://phoenicia.org/imgs/phoenicianworldmapdtlslow.jpg" target="blank">detailed image</a> with a section of a that coin that looked really detailed as well as an artist's rendering of that coin, but I haven't been able to find any other instances of the coin on the internet.<br />
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However, doing a search for Carthaginian coins wasn't fruitless. These are some examples of what I found, after the jump: <a name='more'></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpSx1-gzddFPqux7yib5PcoENtqFzsnj1AKoXrzznH0Bba1sU6BqPuH6c8cM0SOAVfhcgGHICYf8bzF9spryoAa44DvP6N77P07UcDKn8mBLLMXOTR2AxqYwR3fbKtH5xO6PilvF2sVFP/s1600/2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOpSx1-gzddFPqux7yib5PcoENtqFzsnj1AKoXrzznH0Bba1sU6BqPuH6c8cM0SOAVfhcgGHICYf8bzF9spryoAa44DvP6N77P07UcDKn8mBLLMXOTR2AxqYwR3fbKtH5xO6PilvF2sVFP/s1600/2.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWH0D8z0qUvn5sUI3s2u-kI5x5SrRjUN7ymzmD7eFeGIAM6FKnS-hb85rStFR-0sm2kGuWDN1Xa9xxb7q5Tw4zxvGE3VBDIQbFXxYRG_5OdEsJ_8IHB4LCB3dKV4WVhsvUxhOzFYf1jjC/s1600/3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWH0D8z0qUvn5sUI3s2u-kI5x5SrRjUN7ymzmD7eFeGIAM6FKnS-hb85rStFR-0sm2kGuWDN1Xa9xxb7q5Tw4zxvGE3VBDIQbFXxYRG_5OdEsJ_8IHB4LCB3dKV4WVhsvUxhOzFYf1jjC/s1600/3.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNT4Ub1EISBQy_EuaHm7xHEvyYlapuganlszugn-p_mpo3F4vkuvxXxA3bAc_B5-6imt6dOf_fVBMWMBSEQ6eON4p0M9vTdlVZuH44ZojSEVFyOt29ij2UaufDnply2EeVeMEtCAaeWkgj/s1600/4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNT4Ub1EISBQy_EuaHm7xHEvyYlapuganlszugn-p_mpo3F4vkuvxXxA3bAc_B5-6imt6dOf_fVBMWMBSEQ6eON4p0M9vTdlVZuH44ZojSEVFyOt29ij2UaufDnply2EeVeMEtCAaeWkgj/s1600/4.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-1ZkbXnafLpISWAQbjZpykKGAnV6BymNLPMollBamJjR-q-qgnRcKN3quqeFlmPqy_ZnVYmswO4e96E0juS2oNuQn4iba1lhM7n7BTU5sK0OPJKWVfxswbKB7WEuO4nNxs05gZk2xcWJ/s1600/5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-1ZkbXnafLpISWAQbjZpykKGAnV6BymNLPMollBamJjR-q-qgnRcKN3quqeFlmPqy_ZnVYmswO4e96E0juS2oNuQn4iba1lhM7n7BTU5sK0OPJKWVfxswbKB7WEuO4nNxs05gZk2xcWJ/s1600/5.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBr-BKpXLGQ2IMbvPlghM5AnPsbJ6_lu_mFIEG1dyV3IFZ58CeBt-vnzXI4ZKl9KYmhozygfhTA1wuGQO3DZh7qVjTQfGa_OQvfflKXcQTROle28_1XSd2OmrI0JDX8AC78lUZa-LwBfCq/s1600/6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBr-BKpXLGQ2IMbvPlghM5AnPsbJ6_lu_mFIEG1dyV3IFZ58CeBt-vnzXI4ZKl9KYmhozygfhTA1wuGQO3DZh7qVjTQfGa_OQvfflKXcQTROle28_1XSd2OmrI0JDX8AC78lUZa-LwBfCq/s1600/6.gif" /></a></div><br />
In every case, it's some mythological figure, a god or demigod, with an animal (usually a horse but sometimes a pegasus or lion) and palm tree on the obverse. And on the obverse, under the animal's legs, is some kind of writing.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor" target="blank">Occam's Razor</a> dictates that the simplest explanation is usually the best. It's a whole lot simpler for the bit under the horse on Dr. McMenamin's coin to be eroded Phoenician lettering, and not a map of the world as known by the Phoenicians. If he had been more familiar with the primary documents, he probably would have come to the same conclusion. And so would I as an undergrad, if I had been a little less credulous and a little more willing to Google. But, such is the nature of undergrads. I regularly run across undergrads that spout silly things in the course of my work, and that must have been how I seemed back then. So long as they can make a good argument, that's all that matters for their grade.<br />
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Another place where I got it wrong was the Parahyba Stone. <a href="http://www.badarchaeology.com/?page_id=421" target="blank">Evidently it was a hoax.</a> So were the "Carthaginian" coins scattered around the United States - <a href="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/146812-old-weird-token-horse-farley-coin-any-ideas.html" target="blank">this thread</a> explains that in greater detail.<br />
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In any case, I'm not completely ready to throw in the towel on the theory of Phoenician contact with the Americas. In particular, Diodorus' writings and the question of almug wood in the Jewish Temple are still burning questions. We know the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa, and that the timeframes for a journey to the Americas would have been doable for them. Also, Quetzalcoatl remains a hard phenomenon to explain without some kind of pre-Columbian Old World contact with Mesoamerica.<br />
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But the evidence is circumstantial. We can't come to any firm conclusions yet, nor should we. It remains that the first proven contact between the Old and New Worlds was that of the Vikings. Until we can come up with a Carthaginian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Anse_aux_Meadows" target="blank">L'Anse aux Meadows</a>, or at least a lot more Bat Creek inscription-style finds, we can't make any firm conclusions.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-83873132072610181812014-02-28T18:48:00.000-08:002014-02-28T18:56:11.534-08:00An Academic Journey to a New World - Part I.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHxxNQQNqfiU7QLMlRPD7HH8CP_P2WlpKFoMUWBMAte6tgC-LgzhTbwBgEbldR_kXlRyOTrO9_Y1ZJbkBM4DDJuNQO5nIEU3IvtdGiUFa6pq_94opUYjxg5s8ThoFlQ3_gUeErTHSLOE2/s1600/Carthage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHxxNQQNqfiU7QLMlRPD7HH8CP_P2WlpKFoMUWBMAte6tgC-LgzhTbwBgEbldR_kXlRyOTrO9_Y1ZJbkBM4DDJuNQO5nIEU3IvtdGiUFa6pq_94opUYjxg5s8ThoFlQ3_gUeErTHSLOE2/s320/Carthage.jpg" /></a></div>When I was an undergraduate student, I took a class called "History of the American Indian." It was taught by Dr. Hyer, who at the time was Chadron State's newest history professor, and nowadays is Dean of the School of BEAMSS here.<br />
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Back in those days, the history faculty's approach to homework was mostly no-nonsense. You did a paper, and two tests. Depending on the professor, you might have a couple other minor projects or homework besides that. I like that philosophy - it doesn't waste anyone's time, and at the end of it all, if you paid attention and did your work you had something pretty impressive you could show people. (Which is what I'll be doing shortly.)<br />
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I have my own approach to homework - I don't want to bore my professors. In my World War II class, I wrote my term paper on Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" because I was pretty sure Dr. Rankin had read a million papers about Hitler and the Holocaust and the Battle of Stalingrad already. There was nothing I could say on that score that hadn't already been said by someone a whole lot smarter than me.<br />
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But I could do unique, so I did. In this case, I chose to examine pre-Columbian contacts between the Old and New Worlds. Dr. Hyer suggested I limit my inquiries to only one possible pre-Columbian Old World society, so I chose what seemed the likeliest unproven candidate: the Phoenicians/Carthaginians.<br />
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This is something I'd read up on a bit. I'd always been an avid fan of Phoenician/Carthaginian history. When I was a little kid, I learned the Phoenician alphabet - it was probably my first act as a linguist. When I was in high school, I did a presentation on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae" target="blank">Battle of Cannae</a>, still studied in military colleges and considered one of the most brilliant military victories of all time. Also in high school, I drew that picture up top; it was supposed to be a representation of Carthage. I drew it from written descriptions and not pictures or maps; it has the Bursa and the two harbors connected by canal, and a statue of Dido.<br />
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Point is, I knew a lot about the subject. And I was fairly familiar with the arguments advanced in favor of Phoenician contact with the New World.<br />
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I am reposting my paper for that class, so you can all see what I wrote back then. It's after the jump. <a name='more'></a><br />
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<br />
<blockquote>Stuart Richards<br />
HIST 430<br />
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<div align="center"><b><u>Phoenicians In The New World</u></b></div><br />
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The first Old World "discovery" of the Americas has always been in dispute. Traditional history gave the honor to Christopher Columbus, the Genovese sailor in the service of Spain who found the New World in 1492. While that discovery and interaction was the first in modern times, "fringe scholarship" has held that different Old World peoples knew about America and sometimes even colonized it. Suggestions have included the Vikings, the Celts, the Chinese, but mainly the Phoenicians. All these theories were laughed off until a Viking settlement was discovered in L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland dating to the 10th century. Now scholarship is just beginning the process of looking into these other claims, and entrenched theories are falling into doubt.<br />
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Some of the claims are harder to prove than others, but certainly the strongest claimant to the discovery of the Old World would be the Phoenicians and their descendant civilization the Carthaginians. They knew about the Americas for the longest period of time and conducted the widest operations in the New World of any pre-Columbian Old World power, and they left the most records of their presence.<br />
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Indeed, the theory of pre-Columbian Phoenician contact with the New World was rather prevalent until about 1940 or so, with many scholarly magazines from that time period running articles in support of the theory. It fell into disrepute about that time because of stronger evidence supporting the settlement of America via the Bering Strait. Politics also entered into the equation-most anti-Phoenician contact scholars considered the notion of the Native Americans deriving their culture and accomplishments from a Phoenician model as tantamount to racism. However, the Viking discovery in the 60's reopened the issue for debate, and slowly the evidence has been accumulating.<br />
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With the facts and the evidence at hand, a rough chronology of events can be constructed. The Bible mentions the details of construction of the First Temple under King Solomon, around 900 BC. Solomon contracted with King Hiram of Tyre to supply him with a fleet of ships to purchase gold, silver, ivory, and other valuables for the Temple from foreign lands. Hiram's fleet went out to the land of Ophir in vessels from Tarshish (1) and brought back the necessary materials. Tarshish has been identified as the leading city in Spain at the time, but Ophir has yet to be found. Theories have been offered that it may have been a city in India, as the fleet was constructed at the Israelite port of Elath. However, the fleet returned every three years (1), much too long for a simple trade mission to India but perfectly timed for a trading mission to South America. (2) (3) Also, Israel had trade links already with India at this point, they could have traded there themselves. The only logical reason for bringing Tyrian sailors into the venture would be to reach a land that the Israelite sailors could not.<br />
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The monopoly that Ophir apparently held on the trade of almug wood (4) also suggests an extra reason to consider Ophir's location in South America. Many plants and trees are unique to South America, especially in the Amazon. If Ophir had been located in India, land-based caravans would still have imported the wood, and the same goes for Africa. The possible explanation of an embargo on the wood by a state-run monopoly also falls flat-neither India nor central Africa were at the time unified to the degree necessary to prevent the exportation of almug wood, were it to exist in their territory. Furthermore, they would have had no reason to do so-exports of almug wood would have added to tax revenue.<br />
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It seems that the height of Israel's trade with Ophir was during the reign of King Solomon (5), but knowledge of and interaction with Ophir continued in Israel until at least the time of the prophet Isaiah circa 450 BC. (6)<br />
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The Tyrians did not merely conduct trade between Israel and the Americas, however. A study done at the Munich Museum in the early 1990s discovered that several ancient Egyptian mummies had traces of nicotine and cocaine in their hair and bones. In fact, mummies have been excavated with coca leaves in their mouths and bags of coca leaves in their hands. In these mummies, levels of cocaine were on par with Peruvian mummies. (7) High levels of nicotine were also found in several of the Egyptian mummies, but evidence wasn't as conclusive that they had ingested nicotine. (8) The significance of these findings is, of course, that neither tobacco nor cocaine was grown anywhere in the Old World at this time, giving weight to the possibility of trade between the Old and New Worlds at this time.<br />
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The strongest argument used by establishment Egyptology against the mummies' use of nicotine and cocaine is the lack of a record of tobacco or cocaine use in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Egyptians left significant records of their use of wine, beer, and even opium-if tobacco or cocaine were used, surely there would have been records left. (9) However, there are obvious explanations against this suggestion. First, the evidence of tobacco levels suggests that the plant was not ingested by the ancient Egyptians; at least not in large quantities. Tobacco also acts as a preservative, and may have been used in the embalming process, in which case levels would generally be higher in bones than hair. (10) Indeed, a native Egyptian plant with trace levels of nicotine, compositae, was used in the mummification of Ramses II for precisely that reason. (11) Also, only a third of mummies have tested positive for nicotine on levels high enough to suggest tobacco was the source of nicotine, suggesting that its use as a preservative (which would have required generous use of the leaves) would have been limited to the richest of the rich. Even though mummification was in theory available to rich and poor alike, (12) most mummies known today were rich. (13) Also, tobacco may have been used as a medicine, in which case nothing would have been inscribed about it in a tomb, where scenes of the afterlife were present. In the Egyptian afterlife, bodies were perfect and immune to disease, rendering medicine unnecessary. (14)<br />
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As for cocaine, it was quite obviously used as a recreational drug, so the medicinal reasoning for tobacco falls short. There is the unlikely possibility that the lotus motif common in Egyptian architecture was a reference to the coca leaf, however a comparison of the two items will make this comparison a stretch. More likely is the possibility that only the rich could afford it, and therefore cocaine never entered the popular drug culture of Egypt. Since coca leaves had to be imported by comparatively slow-moving ships with a small cargo hold, the cost of importation would have been prohibitively high for the lower strata of Egyptian society, and therefore its use would not have been well-documented.<br />
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The Old World-New World trade seems to have reached its zenith in the eastern Mediterranean around the time of the Israelite king Solomon, but by necessity would have declined after the fall of Phoenicia to first Assyrian, then Babylonian, and finally Macedonian armies. However, the Phoenician colony city of Carthage seems to have continued its trade with the New World for a little while after the fall of its motherland. In fact, there is significant evidence that Carthage ran a flourishing trade system in both North and South America, a system that incorporated natives and probably ran similarly to the trade empire operated by the French that would antedate them by two millennia.<br />
<br />
There is much direct evidence for this. The official coins minted by the Carthaginian Senate from the years 350-320 BC have a representation of a map of their known world. Central position on the map is, of course, Carthage, with Italy to the north, Mesopotamia on the far right, a little circle in the place where Britain should be, and a blob of landmass past Spain unexplainable by modern views. (15) Plenty of these Carthaginian coins have been found in the Canary Islands and the Azores, as well as in several states of the United States of America; and coins from Rome, Greece, and Judea have also been found. Most of them have been found outside of the context of archaeological digs, leading these finds to be dismissed by archaeologists as hoaxes or merely the discovery of coins dropped by modern-day numismatists. However, the odds of someone finding a dropped Old World coin in the middle of nowhere would be slim to none-if dropped coins were to be found, it'd be in the middle of cities, most predominantly on university campuses that possessed an archaeology department. However, this is not the case-not only that, but no Old World coins have been discovered on the West Coast (except for Chinese coins) (16), and the coins are concentrated in Eastern and Southern states. (17)<br />
<br />
On top of all that, there actually has been an ancient Old World coin discovered in an archaeological dig. A Roman coin was found at the Great Gully site of an Upper Cayuga Iroquois village, during excavations carried out by Harrison Follett and George Selden. The coin, commemorating the reign of Imperator Antonius Pius, was minted about A.D. 165. (18) Epstein comments on the likelihood of missionaries giving the coin to Iroquios in trade, but a Roman coin would have been worthless at that time as a trade item. Inflation had crept in to the point where Roman coins were nearly worthless hunks of bronze, and the Iroquois already had access to all the bronze they needed. As the coin would not have been accepted as legal tender in any French, British or Dutch trading post in the area, it would have been doubly worthless to the Iroquois. However, if Old World traders had been operating in Iroquois territory around the time of the coin's minting, the coin would have held value and thus would be useful for trade. However, this would mean that somehow, the Romans would have maintained a trade link with the Americas after the fall of Carthage, which is unlikely as there would have been records of this surviving to the modern day. More feasible is that Roman explorers or political refugees stumbled upon the North American mainland by accident, using whatever Carthaginian records were left in Alexandria as a guide.<br />
<br />
Many Punic stellae were found on America's East Coast as well, with statements such as "This monument placed by Hanno, do not deface." (19) But the most important stellae discovered in America is by far the Parahyba Stone, a stellae discovered in 1872 but since lost to modern scholarship. Etchings were made of it, with text that read:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"We are Sidonian Canaanites from the city of the Merchant King. We were cast up on this distant island, a land of mountains. We sacrificed a youth to the celestial gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of our mighty King Hiram and embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea. We voyaged with ten ships and were at sea together for two years around Africa. Then we were separated by the hand of Baal and were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, into "Island of Iron." Am I, the Admiral, a man who would flee? Nay! May the celestial gods and goddesses favor us well!" (20)</i></blockquote><br />
This would have most likely been a part of the fleet commissioned by Pharaoh Necho to circumnavigate the African continent, as it seems they were blown off course and had no knowledge as of yet of the land of Brazil. (3) Indeed, the record fits the known facts-a journey around the Cape of Africa would have required two years for Phoenician sailors who weren't familiar yet with the waters of southern Africa, but the remaining distance after reaching the Ivory Coast area of Africa across from Brazil would have only taken a year, with most of the remaining sailing being in familiar waters. <br />
<br />
Even more conclusive is the text by the classical author Diodorus of Sicily, who describes in detail the geographic knowledge of America possessed by the Carthaginians. (21) His texts read:<br />
<br />
"For there lies out in the deep off Libya an island of considerable size, and situated as it is in the ocean it is distant from Libya a voyage of a number of days to the west... and the inhabitants, being well supplied with this game at their feasts, lack of nothing which pertains to luxury and extravagance; for in fact the sea which washes the shore of the island contains a multitude of fish, since the character of the ocean is such that it abounds throughout its extent with fish of every variety."<br />
<br />
The fishing grounds of the North American continent are well-known even today, after centuries of overfishing-they would have been absolutely abundant in those days. Diodorus continues;<br />
<br />
"In ancient times this island remained undiscovered because of its distance from the entire inhabited world, but it was discovered at a later period for the following reason. ...And since their ventures turned out according to their expectations, they amassed great wealth and essayed to voyage beyond the Pillars of Heracles into the sea which men call the ocean. ...The Phoenicians, then, while exploring the coast outside the Pillars for the reasons we have stated and while sailing along the shore of Libya, were driven by strong winds a great distance out into the ocean. And after being storm-tossed for many days they were carried ashore on the island we mentioned above, and when they had observed its felicity and nature they caused it to be known to all men."<br />
<br />
The strong winds mentioned above would be easily explained by the Gulf Stream currents, which were exploited at a later date by Thor Heyerdahl when he crossed the Atlantic along that same route in a papyrus reed boat. (22) A problem is the additional statement "and when they had observed its felicity and nature they caused it to be known to all men," but that could be explained by the Carthaginians making known their discovery of the new land but not revealing how they got there, which would be consistent with later texts describing their Pillars of Hercules policy. The meat of the relevant text by Diodorus concludes:<br />
<br />
"Consequently the Tyrrhenians, at the time when they were masters of the sea, purposed to dispatch a colony to it, but the Carthaginians prevented their doing so, partly out of concern lest many inhabitants of Carthage should remove there because of the excellence of the island, and partly in order to have ready in it a place in which to seek refuge against an incalculable turn of fortune, in case some total disaster should overtake Carthage. For it was their thought that, since they were masters of the sea, they would thus be able to move, households and all, to an island which was unknown to their Conquerors."<br />
<br />
So this illustrates approximately when the discovery was-after the founding of Carthage but before the fall of Tyre, probably during a period of close ties between the two cities. Most likely, it therefore happened in the beginning years of the city of Carthage, circa 1200-700 BC. (23)<br />
<br />
Another indicator of Carthage's concern over the protection of their American trade secret was some of the provisions of their early, pre-Punic War treaties with Rome as well as their actions against the Greeks. Roman sailors were forbidden to sail past the Pillars of Hercules without permission from the Carthaginian Senate and a representative of said body on board (24), and Greek sailors from Massilia were pushed away from the area in a war and kept out by the treaty that ended that war. (25) The main trade routes from Carthage to Gades (modern-day Cadiz) were patrolled, and the patrols were strengthened to enforce the terms of these treaties.<br />
<br />
There is also significant evidence for this contact in the New World itself. In 1889, a Semitic inscription was found in a burial mound in Bat Creek, Tennessee. (26) The inscription has the letters "LYHWD", meaning "for Judea", inscribed on them. As Judean sailors wouldn't have had the wherewithal to attempt to sail to America on their own, it's likely that Tyrian sailors in the service of Judea made the inscription; it would be something akin to Christopher Columbus, a Genovese sailor in the service of Spain, claiming the New World for Spain. It's also possible but less likely that Judean traders or settlers were carried to the New World in Carthaginian boats after the fall of their homeland to the Babylonians. (27) The inscription would also have, by necessity, to been made after the reign of Rehoboam, when the kingdom of Israel split into the rival kingdoms of Israel and Judea, as otherwise it would have been carved "LYSRL", or "for Israel."<br />
<br />
Another stone was found in November 1860 near Newark, Ohio (28), inscribed with the Ten Commandments and a representation of Moses. Its most likely function was as an arm phylactery, or in other words a container, worn on the arm by observant Jews, holding a scroll of the Torah as a reminder of their faith. Once again, it is highly possible that some Jews did come to the New World with the Tyrians who traded for them, and thus possible that they left these artifacts behind on accident. It's also likely that these religious items were used in trade, much as medals of American Presidents and British royalty were used for trade goods with Native Americans in later eras. In any case, the scope of indirect Jewish trade with North America was probably small, given the relative sparseness of an archaeological record. Most trade would have been done, as postulated above, with the gold- and timber-rich South American continent which was closer to Africa in any case.<br />
<br />
There is also some circumstantial evidence of pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds. The Mexica worshipped gods like Quetzalcoatl, said to be a light-skinned traveler from the east. They mistook Hernando Cortez for Quetzalcoatl when he conquered them in the 1500s, but it's possible that, via the Carthaginians, light-skinned travelers may have visited the region in times past, giving occasion for the myth in the first place.<br />
<br />
Overall, it appears from the evidence that Carthage traded in North and South America along the course of navigable rivers. When Carthage fell after the Third Punic War, all contact with the New World was seemingly lost, with traders either blending in with Native American peoples or returning home in disgrace. Rome burned the city of Carthage after the Third Punic War, giving away her massive libraries to their Numidian allies in exchange for their aid. From Numidia, those books were either lost or destroyed, but in any case they were rendered unavailable to modern scholarship yet could have been very illuminating on this subject. Another possible repository of the information they contained, the Library of Alexandria, was burned by Julius Caesar and then later by the Muslims, so any copies of Carthage's books made there would likewise have been lost. But some evidence of trade remains-and it was a trade that appears to have been mutually beneficial to both people. If Europe had had knowledge of that model of interaction available to them when they began their colonization, it's quite possible that they could have avoided the horrific devastations they visited upon Native American peoples.<br />
<br />
<br />
Footnotes<br />
<br />
(1) 1 Kings 10:23, the word translated as "merchant ships" in the King James Version literally means "ships of Tarshish." As Tarshish was the leading city in Celtic Spain at that time, it could be a reference to the deep-hulled Celtic vessels capable of making long voyages that Julius Caesar described in his Gallic Wars.<br />
<br />
(2) Ibid<br />
<br />
(3) Decker, "Able Seamen." The Pharaoh Necho of Egypt commissioned a fleet from Tyre, Sidon and Byblos to sail from the Red Sea to Egyptian ports on the Mediterranean, circumnavigating the African continent, about 700 BC. The feat took three years to complete without a knowledge of the waters off the African coast, making a similar trip later on with a side visit to Brazil feasible in that period of time.<br />
<br />
(4) 1 Kings 10:11-12<br />
<br />
(5) Ibid, the decline of the importation of almug wood after Solomon's time suggests a decline in Israelite trade with Ophir.<br />
<br />
(6) Isaiah 13:12<br />
<br />
(7) Jacobs, "Toke Like An Egyptian." Studies have also been done on mummies recently excavated from an archaeological dig near Cairo that confirmed the results seen in Munich.<br />
<br />
(8) Ibid, the tests on nicotine levels came back conflicting, with one researcher able to find high levels in bone and hair and one unable to find them in bone. Levels of nicotine also weren't on par between the bones and hair, which for mummies of that age should have been 20-25 parts of nicotine in the bones per every part of nicotine found in the hair.<br />
<br />
(9) Ibid<br />
<br />
(10) Ibid<br />
<br />
(11) Ibid<br />
<br />
(12) The Egyptian State Information Service, "Luxor's Mummification Museum, First in the World."<br />
<br />
(13) ThinkQuest.org, "Mummification."<br />
<br />
(14) Jacobs, "Toke Like An Egyptian."<br />
<br />
(15) McCaffrey, a previous view of the pictures on the coins included a Phoenician script as-yet undeciphered, but that theory was largely discounted in the 1960s.<br />
<br />
(16) Belyaev, "Chinese Coins In The California Desert"<br />
<br />
(17) Epstein, p. 5.<br />
<br />
(18) Epstein, p. 19.<br />
<br />
(19) Decker, "Punic Calling Cards."<br />
<br />
(20) Myers, "Phoenicians in the New World: The Parahyba Stone."<br />
<br />
(21) Diodorus, Book V chapters 19-20 (in Volume 3 of the Loeb series).<br />
<br />
(22) Geneves, p. 266<br />
<br />
(23) Sammer, the dates for Carthage's founding are speculative and range anywhere from 1300 B.C. to 700 B.C., depending on the date of Carthaginian founder Dido's flight from the court of Tyre. The historians Appian and Philostos date the founding of Carthage to "fifty years before the capture of Troy", postulated to be circa 1350 B.C. With an older date, it is quite possible that Carthaginian sailors would have discovered the Americas and retained a close enough relationship with Tyre that Tyrian sailors could have likewise exploited this knowledge in the service of King Solomon of Israel.<br />
<br />
(24) Decker, "The New Town."<br />
<br />
(25) Baird, "Punic History."<br />
<br />
(26) Huston, "The Bat Creek Inscription: Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee?"<br />
<br />
(27) Diodorus, Book V chapter 20 (in Volume 3 of the Loeb series), if Carthage had preserved the New World from colonization for the possibility of settlement after a possible defeat of their homeland, it's remotely feasible that the Judean kingdom would have done the same and remnants of the Judean court (who would have had sufficient funds to pay the Carthaginians) would have been able to flee to America. If this was the case, it would have been a very tiny migration indeed, and this particular migration would have been certainly nothing significant enough to manifest itself in the modern world.<br />
<br />
(28) Shanks, "An Interview With Cyrus Gordon."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Bibliography<br />
<br />
Roy Decker, Carthaginians in the New World?<br />
http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/carthage-new-world.htm<br />
<br />
Peter Myers, Phoenicians in the New World: The Parahyba Stone<br />
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing...002/06/0026.php<br />
<br />
Frank M. Cross, "Phoenicians in Brazil?" Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1979<br />
<br />
Hershel M. Shanks, "An Interview With Cyrus Gordon", Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2000<br />
<br />
William Jacobs, "Toke Like An Egyptian", Fortean Times, December 1998<br />
<br />
The Egyptian State Information Service, Luxor's Mummification Museum, First in the World<br />
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html2/o130320d.htm<br />
<br />
ThinkQuest.org, Mummification<br />
http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/an...mmification.htm<br />
<br />
Kevin McCaffrey, Who Discovered the Americas?<br />
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/vista/9606/4.html<br />
<br />
Diodorus of Sicily, tr. C.H. Oldfather, Harvard University Press (Loeb), Cambridge, MA 1968. Written circa 56 B.C.<br />
<br />
Santiago Genoves, "Papyrus Rafts Across the Atlantic", Current Anthropology, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Jun., 1973), pp. 266-267.<br />
<br />
Jan Sammer, The Date of Carthage's Founding<br />
http://www.varchive.org/nldag/carthage.htm<br />
<br />
Rodney E. Baird, Cadiz<br />
http://www.ancientroute.com/cities/Cadiz.htm<br />
<br />
McCulloch, J. Huston, "The Bat Creek Inscription: Did Judean Refugees Escape to Tennessee?" Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1993<br />
<br />
McCulloch, J Huston, The Newark 'Holy Stones'<br />
http://www.econ.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/decalog.html<br />
<br />
Jeremiah F. Epstein, "Pre-Columbian Old World Coins In America: An Examination Of Evidence," Current Anthropology, Vol. 21 No. 1 (1980), pp. 1-20.<br />
<br />
Vladimir Belyaev, Chinese Coins In The California Desert<br />
http://www.charm.ru/library/desert.htm</blockquote><br />
<br />
There's a <a href="http://stuartlrichards.blogspot.com/2014/02/an-academic-journey-to-new-world-part-ii.html">Part II</a> to this in case you're interested in reading on.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-91380661336212820522014-02-24T13:04:00.000-08:002014-02-24T13:04:53.185-08:00Cooking With Stu: Spanish Rice.I never did get around to posting the rest of the recipes I photographed a few weeks ago. Let me get on that.<br />
<br />
Last recipe, I plated up my <a href="http://stuartlrichards.blogspot.com/2014/02/cooking-with-stu-black-bean-and.html" target="blank">black bean and pineapple enchiladas</a> with some Spanish rice, but I never did explain how to make that. Some store-bought mix would be okay, but you can do so much better than that.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09GjZp9MNpQ6KuIWQwHc98Al6D6iEaWXAdvV0TbiBwc9A1UGmeKRft5n0-lYSIweRWcrBLkkErMx-1bo2nzzwN4EI55nASSY8aQTYz7zvf5WSWEHM5mIWPy9PVWFcaIqDUPHi9gewrRv_/s1600/1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09GjZp9MNpQ6KuIWQwHc98Al6D6iEaWXAdvV0TbiBwc9A1UGmeKRft5n0-lYSIweRWcrBLkkErMx-1bo2nzzwN4EI55nASSY8aQTYz7zvf5WSWEHM5mIWPy9PVWFcaIqDUPHi9gewrRv_/s320/1.gif" /></a></div><b><u>WHAT YOU NEED</u></b><br />
<br />
From back to front, top to bottom, left to right: rice (any kind will do, brown rice is healthier for you but I used white because I live dangerously), chimichurri, some kind of butter or butter substitute, pico de gallo, and salsa.<br />
<br />
I made the chimichurri and the pico myself, and I've posted the <a href="http://stuartlrichards.blogspot.com/2014/02/cooking-with-stu-pico-de-gallo.html" target="blank">pico recipe</a> already. I'll post the chimichurri recipe when I make some more, but at this very moment I'm full up. You should definitely make the pico yourself; buying it pre-made is a ripoff and you can make your own super-cheap. The chimichurri is also cheaper to make yourself; you get three times as much for the same price, and it tastes better. But if you don't know how, by all means just buy a jar of it.<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bP4YwGPyZQ584RwI5251DfRNUdprRoTJyMlBACqiv8j4ZMxIlvZUwA8F6E8ac8tOtKS9BhdG3J-XSiNLh9R26EuXS8Vm0_E-UBjOn4otO1vLyBA3nhPLI4_R3MIC1-QugFvGIbvDM1y0/s1600/2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bP4YwGPyZQ584RwI5251DfRNUdprRoTJyMlBACqiv8j4ZMxIlvZUwA8F6E8ac8tOtKS9BhdG3J-XSiNLh9R26EuXS8Vm0_E-UBjOn4otO1vLyBA3nhPLI4_R3MIC1-QugFvGIbvDM1y0/s320/2.gif" /></a></div><b><u>STEP 1: BOIL WATER, MELT BUTTER</u></b><br />
<br />
You should use the amount of each proportionate to the amount of rice you'll be making. Generally, if you put in 1 cup of rice, you need to put in 2 cups of water.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1QHnbGppabnlcHSuUVAjQlcenyJ0o6gWGnanU2H1qTLzhR-YJqaxGqg3Yvjn2XZD6zNXwqSGSAqSfU5chkHZQjrZH_Q0nRQ7K6xUry72WARANHU6ER-q5WXmiIH-YLjp27DGRM94a8wM/s1600/3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1QHnbGppabnlcHSuUVAjQlcenyJ0o6gWGnanU2H1qTLzhR-YJqaxGqg3Yvjn2XZD6zNXwqSGSAqSfU5chkHZQjrZH_Q0nRQ7K6xUry72WARANHU6ER-q5WXmiIH-YLjp27DGRM94a8wM/s320/3.gif" /></a></div><b><u>STEP 2: ADD RICE, BALANCE A WOODEN SPOON OVER THAT NOISE AND WALK AWAY</u></b><br />
<br />
It's like magic. Don't ask me how, it just keeps the pot from boiling over.<br />
<br />
Rice takes a very long time. It's not hard to make, but it's annoying. So do this, set your timer and go do something else. But you have to make your rice first.<br />
<br />
Also, check up on the rice every few minutes, and give it a stir. Walk away, but do be mindful of its continuing existence.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlu024Cg1cOUYszWsV6GHFDQiNXP3qlmv5W3Zm1wKIrq_wunjsqjV606KtaNxA24NSNFuzsIemTwTtVLlehH06OEbBigMZMpmzS6gapAkqYk9kax6XHd0qNVBdoPh22S1BDaBug45CC3H/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMlu024Cg1cOUYszWsV6GHFDQiNXP3qlmv5W3Zm1wKIrq_wunjsqjV606KtaNxA24NSNFuzsIemTwTtVLlehH06OEbBigMZMpmzS6gapAkqYk9kax6XHd0qNVBdoPh22S1BDaBug45CC3H/s320/4.jpg" /></a></div><b><u>STEP 3: ADD ALL THE OTHER STUFF AND MIX</u></b><br />
<br />
It should end up looking something like this.<br />
<br />
Technically, you could just do the salsa and get away with it. If you're super poor, just do that.<br />
<br />
Why I say all three is because when I worked at a college cafeteria, mixing white rice and salsa was what we did for Spanish rice. That seemed too simple, and too boring, so initially I would chop cilantro to throw in there too. That was better, but one day we ran out of fresh cilantro, so I decided I'd make chimichurri to throw in as a substitute. The kids loved the hell out of that, so I kept with it. And one day we had to get rid of some pico that we wouldn't be able to serve, so I decided to throw that in too, and they liked it even more.<br />
<br />
So now I do salsa, chimichurri, and pico. There's plenty of cilantro in the pico I make, so it all works out.<br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9soVfLTmADXfl9p5eiixS8eAqVctJPFybtTurRDbRnIFKd1bJXMC6H45JpaTG2fIIb0s0SiMWsuLNa7DUDat043TNWhvf4bmXd2YWKsDg9JXGVD_zfHKpzQEy6v1XuKpDk6YEV1XbW0t/s1600/9.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9soVfLTmADXfl9p5eiixS8eAqVctJPFybtTurRDbRnIFKd1bJXMC6H45JpaTG2fIIb0s0SiMWsuLNa7DUDat043TNWhvf4bmXd2YWKsDg9JXGVD_zfHKpzQEy6v1XuKpDk6YEV1XbW0t/s320/9.gif" /></a></div><b><u>STEP 4: EAT WITH SOMETHING</u></b><br />
<br />
Spanish rice isn't really something you eat by its lonesome. I mean, I guess you <i>could</i>, but it's so much better with something else. Tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, whatever. If you have a can of refried beans you can heat up, that takes care of your two standard sides at pretty much any Mexican restaurant. And it helps defray the costs of whatever else you made. Those costs might not be very high in the first place, but a pile of rice with a few flavorings is guaranteed to be cheaper.<br />
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As always, if you want an infographic of this to post elsewhere, <a href="http://s2.postimg.org/uulenpfq1/1307630985225.jpg" target="blank">here you go</a>.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-86242341379305409362014-02-21T11:07:00.001-08:002014-02-21T11:07:19.666-08:00HIstory Harvest Ad Final Take And This Time I Mean It.<iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/136036595&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true"></iframe><br />
<br />
After three different recording sessions, this is what we've finally got to broadcast. You'll hear it on the Alleycat and maybe some other stations if we get lucky.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-20714582305574354362014-02-20T10:52:00.002-08:002014-02-20T10:52:55.753-08:00Everyone should see just what Wall Street really thinks of us.<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html" target="blank">You should read this.</a><br />
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I don't have much to add; the article speaks for itself. The same dudes that wrecked the world economy are making fun of their victims. It's unbridled, psychopathic cruelty, and it's just met its bane - sunlight.<br />
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I really hope this story takes off. It needs to.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-59997981585666755232014-02-19T16:54:00.001-08:002014-02-19T16:54:54.591-08:00I both love and hate the Bean Broker.I love the environment, I love both their coffee and their tea, I love the people that come here to hang out, and I love the baristas. It's easily the best coffee shop I've ever been to.<br />
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I hate that sometimes I can't concentrate on what I'm doing. I've been trying to type an email to a professor for the past half an hour while fielding a conversation with someone that doesn't understand that my typing and staring at the computer screen means I'm busy. And I can't just <i>say</i> I need to focus; that'd be rude and for various reasons I can't afford to offend this person. But goddammit, I'm not and never have been one of those people that can multitask, and I can't ever come here anymore without running into this guy, so I have to kiss an hour of productivity goodbye every time I come down here.<br />
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If you see me at the Broker, please say hi. Feel free to challenge me to chess, invite me for a smoke, whatever. I value my friends and don't mind spending a little bit of time with them. But please don't spend an hour talking my ear off about the same stuff we talked about last time you ran into me here if I'm obviously busy. I'm a graduate student with very little free time... please respect that.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-77246959710257027802014-02-18T22:04:00.000-08:002014-02-18T22:04:21.170-08:00Project 86 is looking for funding support for a new album.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGkRRVC_vMg-hmEJgiQIokJOG8t7Oyo61_WcaTNHodgtGH74pys0GIVlDZRCxdUE0Wwz_tUklZin8C_NfwNvYQmgX3nDbFM-0tPeCrAb8AgATWQy0LFmTLNzCTpReErv7RwNXIiM11TUJ/s1600/Andrew+Motherfucking+Schwab.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGkRRVC_vMg-hmEJgiQIokJOG8t7Oyo61_WcaTNHodgtGH74pys0GIVlDZRCxdUE0Wwz_tUklZin8C_NfwNvYQmgX3nDbFM-0tPeCrAb8AgATWQy0LFmTLNzCTpReErv7RwNXIiM11TUJ/s320/Andrew+Motherfucking+Schwab.png" /></a></div><a href="http://igg.me/p/project-86-new-album-and-acoustic-ep/x/6438263" target="blank">It looks sweet as hell too.</a><br />
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They've been one of my favorite bands since high school. <i>The 503</i> is replete with Project 86 references, up to and including putting their frontman Andrew Schwab in the comic for <a href="http://www.the503comic.com/index.php?pageID=330" target="blank">Strip 300</a>. The Project 86 froams (sic) were the second messageboards I ever posted at. They are, all around, a fantastic band whose brilliance hasn't diminished with time. Not only that, but they did it all with very little label support (back when that was a necessity) <i>and</i> in a scene with very little acts that could hold a candle to them. (One of the few that could, Anberlin, recently announced that they're breaking up after a farewell tour.)<br />
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Basically, their music kills, killed and will kill to come. Just about anyone who listens to harder stuff has dug them after I played a few songs of theirs. And their latest crowd-funding project is a fan's dream. For $25, I'm getting a signed limited-edition copy of the album, and a bunch of additional stuff. If you look on the list of perks on the Indiegogo site, it's nuts just how much they're willing to do for their fans.<br />
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I really really hope this thing works, which is why I'm spreading the word. It's got 38 days left to work, and they're over halfway there, but I wanna make sure they reach their goal. I'm currently reading a book for class called <i>Who Owns The Future?</i> by Jaron Lanier, and one of the points he makes is that the digital network economy has hollowed out the middle class, and one of the places it started was the music industry. It's harder than ever before to eke out a living playing music, but I think and hope that Project 86 will be one of the rare acts that manages to not only pull it off, but to do so on their own, without having to rely on a label. The future of the music industry is going to increasingly look like this, and as a multi-medium artist myself, I want to support other artists trying to make it work.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7587947221703077423.post-10276328116983429172014-02-16T10:59:00.001-08:002014-02-16T11:09:04.924-08:00Human Sacrifice to the Gods.(WARNING: the pictures and text below get fairly graphic.)<br />
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A few months ago, my friend Tom made a <a href="notesfromthemadabstractdark.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/america-a-pyramid-of-human-sacrifice/" target="blank">post</a> comparing the modern neoliberal system to the Aztec system of ritual human sacrifice. I don't know why, but last night I had a dream about it. It was troubling, and I couldn't sleep past 7:00 AM on a weekend when normally I sleep in 'til noon. I've been up since then, writing and drawing what comes below.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHedpJw_oPBlcI8tticsc6jxMdivAJTZ0g78JAQRLTXOxPYxE-6mcie6nD4cBviSaOT9B_I6vIjbtl45FQO-wvCfp_WgsfQjMtZ4MORm39OHei2rTD3YOLD5uL7prQvlqgwvYatCIpbyIU/s1600/1-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHedpJw_oPBlcI8tticsc6jxMdivAJTZ0g78JAQRLTXOxPYxE-6mcie6nD4cBviSaOT9B_I6vIjbtl45FQO-wvCfp_WgsfQjMtZ4MORm39OHei2rTD3YOLD5uL7prQvlqgwvYatCIpbyIU/s320/1-1.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>1. I dreamed I was a Tlaxcalan warrior. We fought against the Aztec Empire, and were defeated.<br />
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We were marched to Tenochtitlan, where their priests did worship to the gods. Sweet-smelling smoke billowed from the altars atop the great temples.<br />
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We will be sacrificed, and our bodies fed to Huitzilopochtli in the spirit world so that the end of the earth will be delayed. The people cheer, for they will taste our bodies in this world, and they hunger for it - they need the meat we will provide. We are foreigners to them, and defeated in battle. It is right and just that this should happen to us.<a name='more'></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OhAO00YT_BlnTOY8-UWnpF1L16qKjOFuyMIdKsNlAOuHYnD_GD-cCFIHA7NmQXBuEpagFpqwHAPpVi7ZJe_XH9nGSjAyDPU88gPhJvVYY9R1D8-VJJzJwj6E0Wi0yE_x_U9QSyaQVtxI/s1600/1-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OhAO00YT_BlnTOY8-UWnpF1L16qKjOFuyMIdKsNlAOuHYnD_GD-cCFIHA7NmQXBuEpagFpqwHAPpVi7ZJe_XH9nGSjAyDPU88gPhJvVYY9R1D8-VJJzJwj6E0Wi0yE_x_U9QSyaQVtxI/s320/1-2.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>Rivers of blood poured down the temple stairs as my compatriots were sacrificed. It poured in torrents, to be collected in pools and basins and used for rituals.<br />
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The priests whirled and danced for hours atop the temples, in front of great crowds. I saw the stone knife plunge into my own chest.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4TzqI32rgcva0YugCxkJYZ2AgH6g-BksjU9h8UWSmJfZg6wifzq3P0OIStxzlgdXasWg49YX4Cj5S3MAL5CMdQ5q1Z-WV13syAXrhEFijyTk3kKYcM1ehEUVw-qdDq6CYho-DVFMmWlqc/s1600/1-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4TzqI32rgcva0YugCxkJYZ2AgH6g-BksjU9h8UWSmJfZg6wifzq3P0OIStxzlgdXasWg49YX4Cj5S3MAL5CMdQ5q1Z-WV13syAXrhEFijyTk3kKYcM1ehEUVw-qdDq6CYho-DVFMmWlqc/s320/1-3.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>After the people feasted on our bodies, our skulls were used to build a pyramid... a reminder of the great deeds we did for them, and all humanity, that the sun might still rise in the east tomorrow. In every city, in Cahokia, in Tenochtitlan, in Cuzco, there was something like this.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIfRv7K44W1sjbKdzQgA9IRwtrwmZYWY_ImoJqnPU1GjWUVN3jl6aWCEEWdnA7IvDZ1K2MjFTLHfT7hRUE-sLMk2hTy2zMcn1ZZoPCZrgW1SQ0ECmTnXp9mg_S9nKc9rMpNd9BVkb_2k4/s1600/1-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIfRv7K44W1sjbKdzQgA9IRwtrwmZYWY_ImoJqnPU1GjWUVN3jl6aWCEEWdnA7IvDZ1K2MjFTLHfT7hRUE-sLMk2hTy2zMcn1ZZoPCZrgW1SQ0ECmTnXp9mg_S9nKc9rMpNd9BVkb_2k4/s320/1-4.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>I met Huitzilopochtli. He asked me for tidings of Earth, and I told Him our people were happy. I asked Him to remember Tlaxcala. He nodded and thanked me for my offering.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCM-kJE8zDh2YVzgkO8T4F2s4CVhQz2bY-G32NyXX2KoboblQQ9DLrk7ZMwHDPK2bWsC1K0Hn7PZWPMNMGWJ9AgbqkBYWtxPs3Ct-F9647VRl0JNFpyLWAY2QWZERCOHgWd8LQoprYuHt/s1600/2-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCM-kJE8zDh2YVzgkO8T4F2s4CVhQz2bY-G32NyXX2KoboblQQ9DLrk7ZMwHDPK2bWsC1K0Hn7PZWPMNMGWJ9AgbqkBYWtxPs3Ct-F9647VRl0JNFpyLWAY2QWZERCOHgWd8LQoprYuHt/s320/2-1.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>2. I dreamed I was a Tlaxcalan warrior. We had made an alliance with Quetzalcoatl and his band of pale men, who came in the tall ships from the sunrise, that we might throw off the Aztec yoke.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaU50JibmwsSCrxv_Nl_qpiVSAnY5Mp05lyvyrOAiuGCiiIuJRkTb7f-lAW7XMRzLWXYghPnLCboIopWmPpxiENs6hXDcMsi51HW0kZYOVHSpiHd27ze3LUN-wUQTTWeFdIa_q5biEvPvQ/s1600/2-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaU50JibmwsSCrxv_Nl_qpiVSAnY5Mp05lyvyrOAiuGCiiIuJRkTb7f-lAW7XMRzLWXYghPnLCboIopWmPpxiENs6hXDcMsi51HW0kZYOVHSpiHd27ze3LUN-wUQTTWeFdIa_q5biEvPvQ/s320/2-2.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>They had captured Montezuma and were praying to their gods in a whitewashed temple. The strange incense they burned stung my eyes before they ate their God's flesh and drank His blood. This incense almost overpowered the familiar smoke of a city burning.<br />
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They have come to teach us the ways of Heaven more properly, and to end the sacrifice of men. We will join them in killing the Aztecs, and stopping their barbarity. They are foreign rulers to us no longer. It is right and just that this should happen to them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OmQrI5K8X51_dD3b-u5SW4iZCmP0d-5tPskU7zLbuc8IgIDHUlYPkcGs_qJuilLo1wgYqSvop7azoAMvEiau4XU8qrw85lRNA36DSkf-xyjaNmaqzhWz39vC7A4kLPm9PJs1Ws7vFL7L/s1600/2-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OmQrI5K8X51_dD3b-u5SW4iZCmP0d-5tPskU7zLbuc8IgIDHUlYPkcGs_qJuilLo1wgYqSvop7azoAMvEiau4XU8qrw85lRNA36DSkf-xyjaNmaqzhWz39vC7A4kLPm9PJs1Ws7vFL7L/s320/2-3.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>In the great war we fought throughout Mexico, the rivers flowed with blood. Whatever our swords didn't kill, the pale men's firesticks shot, or their great beasts trampled. The men died in warfare, and the women and children were smote by the pale God's diseases.<br />
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Those who survived disposed of the dead in mass graves. There was no time or manpower for anything else.<br />
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Heaps of the dead littered the countryside, near every major city... Veracruz, Tlaxcala, and Mexico City.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORGIHoCTxE9OPyoKvbamOjwYx3xgTamf4ev7CTb7sO_MI1B9FmceuzNIKf7teQBvkuURCyPM-zKCbiZgpcp6viQAd12zebaKSbV8HE-QefMVFi6aLEZnxrY8WG7oiMrYxdKnc0RE37jK-/s1600/2-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORGIHoCTxE9OPyoKvbamOjwYx3xgTamf4ev7CTb7sO_MI1B9FmceuzNIKf7teQBvkuURCyPM-zKCbiZgpcp6viQAd12zebaKSbV8HE-QefMVFi6aLEZnxrY8WG7oiMrYxdKnc0RE37jK-/s320/2-4.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>I died in battle as we marched on against the northern tribes. I met the pale God. He had wounds in His hands. He thanked me for helping to lead Mexico to salvation, for now His priests could save the land.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTh7Jmo0VJF695qr945usTU-LdKuTTIB4NCwlnsPupNTAcM4P3Kgbja0-aRFGFu3RFb-AVcMzgNXi6NoZtI09A_oJLIBeYrIFQ3y3xkcnMXsmfh4v1UpZzA7uULQ8Tg8NYOv1wg5UppnRl/s1600/3-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTh7Jmo0VJF695qr945usTU-LdKuTTIB4NCwlnsPupNTAcM4P3Kgbja0-aRFGFu3RFb-AVcMzgNXi6NoZtI09A_oJLIBeYrIFQ3y3xkcnMXsmfh4v1UpZzA7uULQ8Tg8NYOv1wg5UppnRl/s320/3-1.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>3. I dreamed I was a junkie. I had just bought my fix of crack off of my dealer, and I loaded another pipe to stave off the demons. I was smoking down by the river, because there was no time to waste.<br />
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Smoke smelling like burning tinfoil filled my lungs. It would be disgusting if it was not also the relief I sought. It billowed out my lungs in great curls.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5iWIH6vx728t6WuWuFTV1H4sCTm_YXSXd6_FfhP82ftjH5qsqSu5XI8i_yvSO5DC9cbHe7DufgGCSbAN4tX62Crb3AH2o2tg6fRb7yyJde2OsCk_fyKz9sjHktVODz1rHgpo-QLTKnZz/s1600/3-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5iWIH6vx728t6WuWuFTV1H4sCTm_YXSXd6_FfhP82ftjH5qsqSu5XI8i_yvSO5DC9cbHe7DufgGCSbAN4tX62Crb3AH2o2tg6fRb7yyJde2OsCk_fyKz9sjHktVODz1rHgpo-QLTKnZz/s320/3-2.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>It is too late for me. I can feel my body starting to rot from the inside out. I will be dead soon, but that is probably for the best. Most of my friends are like me, or becoming like me. They are black, Mexican, Filipino, Native - but I am white. It doesn't matter. We are all the unwanted detritus of human society, and we chose our fate. It is right and just that this should happen to us.<br />
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As the relief started to fade, for the last time, everything began to go dark. I fell into the river, floating alongside dead fish, chemical waste, and God knows what else. My last living memory was feeling cold as my limp body was drug out of the river by the cops.<br />
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The great masses of people like me - the people society does not want to afford to help - are disposed of in great piles. By every major city - New York, Lima, Los Angeles - lies a pyramidal heap of human flesh, sacrificed to the god of the modern age.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBI39rZU-kJLpGXDASBSgQyz8L0qBqA85S9NzKSw-zSTECW0vTS1qyyQrpNh6_W5BA60m9zIjlz2WY34Zz7_u6GtgbnVq2wDzc015p4PFM9tTOaqmBssuMSLJZcp4s3NqkU89PHZwmcV1/s1600/3-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-right: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBI39rZU-kJLpGXDASBSgQyz8L0qBqA85S9NzKSw-zSTECW0vTS1qyyQrpNh6_W5BA60m9zIjlz2WY34Zz7_u6GtgbnVq2wDzc015p4PFM9tTOaqmBssuMSLJZcp4s3NqkU89PHZwmcV1/s320/3-3.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>In these pyramidal heaps are the junkies, the poor, the gays, the homeless. They are more often the descendants of people our ancestors conquered or enslaved, but we live in a post-racial world now, and white trash like me is also an acceptable sacrifice to the modern god. The priestly class on the evening news and the campaign trail tell the people comforting theologies about us, as our rotting stench fills their nostrils, so they will not worry. A handful of people march to stop the pyramids, but they just get shot and added to the pile.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwIZFpG6j4817QuA5q02055_3JcgbsZoPiUROCLPmtIB9J1dlpXNt232zwoFfMGPv24whtG-zSrWJmYNoYE6Ol1cTzYZVILn8PpaQRCiVn7diaHST2Ws4X1mEhWy8W3dsQly220n9bFv-/s1600/3-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 3em; margin-left: 3em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwIZFpG6j4817QuA5q02055_3JcgbsZoPiUROCLPmtIB9J1dlpXNt232zwoFfMGPv24whtG-zSrWJmYNoYE6Ol1cTzYZVILn8PpaQRCiVn7diaHST2Ws4X1mEhWy8W3dsQly220n9bFv-/s320/3-4.png" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>I met the modern god. He sometimes had the head of a bull, sometimes of a bear. Sometimes he had the head of an elephant, other times a donkey. He wore a suit and wouldn't acknowledge my cries. He asked his servants to drag me away so I wouldn't bleed on anything valuable, and so he could happily forget where the money he counted came from.Kent Chamberlainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03601024019392129781noreply@blogger.com0