The link below takes you to a well written and very insightful article in the New York Review of Books about the loony Tea Party activists in America that are holding the Republican negotiator's feet to the fire over the debt ceiling. Well researched and supported with facts it shows that pockets of intelligent life continue to flourish in the wasteland of American zenophobia
Tea Party Jacobins
As a reminder of the danger of the Tea Party lunacy take a read of the bilge below that was added as a comment to a erudite website that examined historical antecedents of the Tea Party name
"We are members of the Christian Constitutional Federalist Party, USA. We condemn & reject Communism, Socialism, Libertarianism, Homosexualism, Feminism, Secular Humanism, Anarchism, Nazism, and all other forms of Fascism. We favour Capital Punishment for Homosexuals, Adulterers, Fornicators, Strippers & Pornographers, Paedophiles, Masturbators, Blasphemers, Illegal Aliens, Anti-Christians & Apostates, Witches, Mohammedans, Unitarians, Atheists, Papists, Liberal “Protestants”, Abortionists, & other Murderers. The Death Penalty should be in the form of decapitation. The Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, & Bill of Rights shall conform & are subordinate to the Holy Bible (KJV) & Orthodox Lutheran Symbols of Faith. Christian Capitalism is the basis for a sound & Godly economy. The Flag of the USA shall be the Grand Union Flag, surmounted by a Latin Cross finial, the Original Flag of the USA, 1775-1777 (aka Washington’s Colours, Congress’ Colours, the Continental Colours).
God Save The USA!
The Rev. & Mrs. Philip Mullen - December 7, 2010 at 6:39 pm
You can read the whole article here as well the strongly worded reply
Medium Historica
Finally one more sensible description of the lunacy of the Tea Party
Progressive America Rising
The horror is that these people walk amongst us and have the vote
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Sunday, 17 July 2011
shakespeare in the park
Last weekend we went and saw Much Ado about Nothing at Streatham Common. It was a gloomy overcast day but the rain held off and we had a lovely time. The play was done in period costumes and much enlivened by watching mums and dads chasing after wayward kids who wandered off from the picnic blankets when mum and dad were distracted
I have become a big fan of Benedick who stridently stands up for what he belives and doesn't trust women as far as he can spit as this wonderful exchange shows. Pity he gets his comeuppance at the end
BENEDICK
Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set
them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted,
and in such great letters as they write 'Here is
good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign
'Here you may see Benedick the married man.'
I have become a big fan of Benedick who stridently stands up for what he belives and doesn't trust women as far as he can spit as this wonderful exchange shows. Pity he gets his comeuppance at the end
BENEDICK
That I neither feel how she should be loved norDON PEDRO
know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that
fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake.
Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despiteCLAUDIO
of beauty.
And never could maintain his part but in the forceBENEDICK
of his will.
That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that sheDON PEDRO
brought me up, I likewise give her most humble
thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my
forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,
all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do
them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the
right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which
I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.
I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.BENEDICK
With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord,DON PEDRO
not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood
with love than I will get again with drinking, pick
out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen and hang me
up at the door of a brothel-house for the sign of
blind Cupid.
Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thouBENEDICK
wilt prove a notable argument.
If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shootDON PEDRO
at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on
the shoulder, and called Adam.
Well, as time shall try: 'In time the savage bullBENEDICK The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible
doth bear the yoke.'
Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set
them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted,
and in such great letters as they write 'Here is
good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign
'Here you may see Benedick the married man.'
Darvaza Gas crater, Turkmenistan
This is just weird and bizarre and other wordly.
Engineers drilling in Turkmenistan in 1971 were startled to find ground collapsing around them. A 200' crater opened up that was filled with methane. Worried about the safety of the nearby village the engineers set it alight thinking it would burn out in a few days. It is still alight 4 decades later!
Engineers drilling in Turkmenistan in 1971 were startled to find ground collapsing around them. A 200' crater opened up that was filled with methane. Worried about the safety of the nearby village the engineers set it alight thinking it would burn out in a few days. It is still alight 4 decades later!
Another mad building story
Just thought I'd amuse you with pictures of the latest tower crane they have erected on the London Shard to finish off the top of the building. Hampered by the sloping geometry of the facade they decided not to cantilever it out sufficiently far to prop off the ground as is normal for most skyscapers. No instead they decided to build a platform 56 stories up in the air and then build the crane off that.
There is no way you would get me up in this crane
There is no way you would get me up in this crane
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Sold Out
Like most of London we missed out on Olympic tickets. Big bummer.
We wanted to go along and enjoy the atmospshere but the whole thing is completely sold out 15 months before the Games! We tried to be strategic and not pick the most popular sessions as soon as the ticket lottery was opened but we still missed out.
Well, all sold out for anything occuring in the Olympic Park that is. We even tried the qualifying round of the mens basketball that are being held in the temporary venue on a Sunday morning session without success.
You can still get tickets for Greco Roman wrestling and womens volleyball both of which are being at secondary venues around London which seemed to us to kind of defeat the purpose of getting in on the atmospshere. And Greco roman wrestling! I mean that sport has a real kerb appeal problem
There are also tickets to the various football stadiums around the country to see the qualifying matches but who wants to go to Newcastle or Cardiff to see a football match when you dont even know who it is you will be seeing!
Apart from the predictable and probably true snipping that too many tickets went to overseas Olympic Committee's and the sponsors I think that is a major achievement. Especially since there isn't yet any sort of palpable build up in the capital.
That means that about 620 out the 649 sessions across 39 sports have been sold out more than a year before the Games begin. In all over 5m tickets have been sold across all price brackets from £20 to £750. Thats £750 for a 3 hour session in the main stadium - you dont even get all day for that price. You just get Usain Bolt competing in the 100m final
Bear in mind they took everyone's money first before they told them what tickets they got. The money's in the bank first and then let everyone fight about whether they are happy with their tickets. They cant loose. Genius system
Guess I will just have to take 2 weeks off and watch it on the box.
Interestingly I have three construction projects in the East End of London that will be underway over the Olympic period and we have had to write in an Olympic clause into their contracts. Although they havenot yet released the routes of the road closures and priority lane closures that will operate during the Olympic; the sites in question are so close to the Olympic park that we are pretty sure that materials deliveries will be severely disrupted during the Games. The chaos and confusion are about to begin!
Good news is that everything seems to be on target. Unlike the Greeks!
These two pictures give you some idea of the size of the Olympic Park site
This pic shows the ugly temporary seating stands added to the new Olympic Pool. The building is by Zahir Hadid for those that care about that sort of thing
This enormous building is the new Media Centre. I thought the Games were about the athletes
This is the new Athletes accomodation well on the way
We wanted to go along and enjoy the atmospshere but the whole thing is completely sold out 15 months before the Games! We tried to be strategic and not pick the most popular sessions as soon as the ticket lottery was opened but we still missed out.
Well, all sold out for anything occuring in the Olympic Park that is. We even tried the qualifying round of the mens basketball that are being held in the temporary venue on a Sunday morning session without success.
You can still get tickets for Greco Roman wrestling and womens volleyball both of which are being at secondary venues around London which seemed to us to kind of defeat the purpose of getting in on the atmospshere. And Greco roman wrestling! I mean that sport has a real kerb appeal problem
There are also tickets to the various football stadiums around the country to see the qualifying matches but who wants to go to Newcastle or Cardiff to see a football match when you dont even know who it is you will be seeing!
Apart from the predictable and probably true snipping that too many tickets went to overseas Olympic Committee's and the sponsors I think that is a major achievement. Especially since there isn't yet any sort of palpable build up in the capital.
That means that about 620 out the 649 sessions across 39 sports have been sold out more than a year before the Games begin. In all over 5m tickets have been sold across all price brackets from £20 to £750. Thats £750 for a 3 hour session in the main stadium - you dont even get all day for that price. You just get Usain Bolt competing in the 100m final
Bear in mind they took everyone's money first before they told them what tickets they got. The money's in the bank first and then let everyone fight about whether they are happy with their tickets. They cant loose. Genius system
Guess I will just have to take 2 weeks off and watch it on the box.
Interestingly I have three construction projects in the East End of London that will be underway over the Olympic period and we have had to write in an Olympic clause into their contracts. Although they havenot yet released the routes of the road closures and priority lane closures that will operate during the Olympic; the sites in question are so close to the Olympic park that we are pretty sure that materials deliveries will be severely disrupted during the Games. The chaos and confusion are about to begin!
Good news is that everything seems to be on target. Unlike the Greeks!
These two pictures give you some idea of the size of the Olympic Park site
This pic shows the ugly temporary seating stands added to the new Olympic Pool. The building is by Zahir Hadid for those that care about that sort of thing
This enormous building is the new Media Centre. I thought the Games were about the athletes
This is the new Athletes accomodation well on the way
Sunday, 26 June 2011
The birth of Religion
The birth of religion
Now there's a big title for you. Nothing small about that. Not to be daunted however I thought I would have a go courtesy of a story I read in a National Geographic about some amazing archaeological discoveries in southern Turkey.
In the last 20 years these discoveries have overturned the accepted theory about the birth of worship. Instead of seeing religion as the cultural culmination of the increasingly sophisticated settlements that arose following the deveopment of farming, the discoveries at Gobekli Tepe suggest that perhaps religion came first and that farming came afterwards - perhaps as a response to feed the pilgrims at sites like Gobekli Tepe or simply just as a way to survive in the harsher conditions that followed the end of the last mini ice age in 9,600BC.
The evidence points to Gobekli Tepe being the world's first temple and therefore perhaps marking the beginning of religion as we know it. Certainly Gobekli Tepe builds on the Natufian settlements discovered nearby to cast doubt of the "Neolithic Revoltion" theory
Previously the "Neolithic Revolution" theory held that hunter gatherers in the Sumerian flood plains of the Tigris and Euphrates at the western end of the "Fertile Crescent" embraced agriculture in a flash of inspiration 8,000 years ago. That discovery led to a population explosion that gave rise to cities and later to writing, art and eventually religion. It was agriculture that came first and then religion. That was the theory anyway.
Even though it is likely that hunter gatherers tended patches of wild grain prior to 6,000BC, the plants they watched over were still wild. It was only the explosion in harvest yields from domesticated grains that allowed cities to grow exponentially. Wild wheat and barley, unlike their domesticated versions, shatter when ripe, spilling the grain onto the ground. True agriculture only began when hunter gatherers planted a mutation of wild wheat that didn't shatter when ripe allowing predictable harvesting - giving rise to fields of ripe wheat waiting, so to speak, for farmers to harvest them.
However in the late 1950's archaeologists working in the Levant or eastern end of the Fertile Crescent discovered settlements that called the Neolithic Theory into question. These Natufian settlements (named after the first site to be discovered), and suggest a different sequence for the growth of large settlements. The Natufian settlements were 5,000 years older than the Sumerian settlements and dated back to 13,000BC. Importantly these villages were much bigger than had previously been thought could be supported by foraging. Their size called into question the idea that larger settlements only came about after man had learned how to domesticate wheat and barley. Although still relatively small - perhaps a few hundred people - they suggested a level of social order higher than had been assumed previously for hunter gatherers. Perhaps man had become more adept at collecting the seeds from wild grains than was previously thought. Perhaps the farming of wild wheat wasn't so inefficient after all.
(The Fertile Crescent being the arc of land bounded by the mountains of Turkey to the North and the Syrian desert to the South that incorporates the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the east and modern day Lebanon and Israel to the West)
The Natufian villages however ran into hard times around 10,800BC when a mini ice age dropped regional temperatures by nearly 7oC. This ice age lasted 1,200 years and turned the landscape into the dry arid region of today. Much more recent archaeological discoveries have also suggested a much earlier date for the domestication of wild grains which was contemporaneous with the end of this ice age.
Perhaps the contraction of the food supply that would have resulted from the onset of these drier conditions was the driver for the domestication of wild grains. Perhaps the domestication of wild wheat was developed as a way to feed the starving Natufian villages - large settlements came first then agriculture. This is however a controversial hypothesis based solely as it is on the evidence of a small number of seeds found in a few sites
Discoveries at a small site at Gobekli Tepe in Southern Turkey however have thrown further doubt on the Neolithic Revolution theory. Working slowly and patiently since 1994 Klaus Schmidt has uncovered an extraordinary series of gigantic carved stone pillars that date from 9,600BC. This makes Gobekli Tepe contemporaneous with the end of the mini ice age that would have devastated the Natufian villages and places it at the start of the pre pottery Neolithic era.
The Gobekli pillars are the oldest manmade monumental structures.
Just think about that statement. The oldest. They predate Stonehenge by 6,300 years. There is in fact more time between Gobekli Tepe and the earliest evidence of writing (the Sumarian clay tablets dating from 3,300BC) than there is between start of writing and now.
They are quite simply inconceivably old
These enormous "T shaped" monoliths that are nearly 5.5m tall and weigh approximately 16 tonnes. They have straight sides, sharp corners and are covered by elaborate carved motifs.
In just about every aspect these pillars are breathtaking, challenging and awe inspiring.
By comparison the most monumental part of the only city that is broadly contemporaneous with Gobekli Tepe is utilitarian and mundane. The Tower of Jericho was only 3.6m tall and was built about the same time as the last of the Gobekli pillars in 8,000BC. Built of stone blocks, its use is unclear - it was possibly a grain store and or a part of the defensive wall around the city. Whatever its use - the structure is squat heavy and crude. The contrast with Gobekli Tepe is extraordinary
Unlike Stonehenge, the sands which buried the Gobekli Tepe pillars have preserved their original form. Their flat sides and sharp corners have been preserved in breathtaking clarity. They were carved using flint axes by stone age hunter gatherers who had not yet discovered metal or pottery.
Perhaps Stonehenge was also covered with carvings like Gobekli Tepe but we will never know. The thousands of years of weathering have eroded any trace.
How did they communicate and describe the vision over the generations it would have taken to build Gobekli Tepe. No plans no drawings; just oral history.
The carvings on the face of monoliths remain clear and distinct. How did such a sophisticated sculptural awareness and visual language appear out of nowhere? The abstract T shape fascinates me. Perhaps they supported a roof structure but some of the pillars are located within a circle in locations that don't appear to be sensible points from which to support a roof. It appears to be just an abstract shape.
Monumental abstract shapes wouldn't arrive for another 5,900 years with the rise of the Egyptian civilisation and their pyramid building. No other examples of contemporaneous abstract sculptural shapes have been found. So where did this awareness spring from. It seems so disproportionately advanced when considered against a society without writing, metal tools or even pottery.
The most sophisticated aspect for me however is the sculptural beast carved on the side of one pillar. The three dimensional sculptural qualities of this creature are extraordinary. Remember these people didn't even have pottery.
What flash of inspiration gave rise to such a powerful expressive figurine. What flash of artistic vision led to carving such a figurine in such a difficult place. I mean they could have picked up any old rock and carved the beast something people had been doing since 20,000BC,
But to carve a figure as part of a monumental sculptural so that it appears on the surface of a flat plane takes a sculptural vision of a wholly different order. To see that possibility when they were looking at a large amorphous lump of limestone is extraordinary. Perhaps it was happenstance that an extra piece of limestone remained on this slab and the carvers decided to show a bit of imagination. But what a bit of imagination!
Gone are the two dimensionality that characterised Paleolithic sculpture like the clay and stone relief bison figures from Le Tuc d'Audobert in Southern France that date from c.15,000 BC
Schmidt has described discovering that hunter gatherers had constructed Gobekli Tepe was like "finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an x-acto knife".
In a further challenge to previous theories, archaeologists have found no sign of habitation at the site. It appears that Gobekli Tepe was not the site of a settlement; it was just some sort of major ritualistic site miles from where people lived or camped. So far no evidence of housing cooking or animal bones have been found at the site.
What led people with no form of writing to spend so much time laboriously carving and erecting such sophisticated pillars away from where they lived? When you consider the utilitarian nature of the Jericho Tower built in the midst of a town, one is struck even more forcefully by the isolated sophistication of Gobekli Tepe.
The "Neolithic Revolution" theory suggested that religion arose after the creation of the new cities that had grown out of the surplus food generated by the discovery of agriculture. The theory goes that, as people began settling in ever larger numbers, religion arose to promote social cohesion.
Gobekli Tepe however suggested a different possibility. The fact that the site does not appear to be connected to a settlement suggests that ritual or sacred sites came first, before the rise of larger settlements. Perhaps a monumental architecture was created to codify the rituals that arose in response to a sense of wonderment at the major changes in the natural world wrought by the end of the mini ice age. Perhaps agriculture and permanent settlements were the outcome of these rituals and arose from the need to grow food for large groups gathering near sacred sites.
MaybeGobekli Tepe represents mankind's first temple and that these structures mark the first evidence of the birth of religion. That is certainly a bold claim. Perhaps we will never know. Certainly the ideas above are just speculations.
So far only 5% of the site has been excavated. Perhaps when more of the site has been excavated the history of Gobekli Tepe will be clearer. Perhaps these pillars are the true monoliths from Arthur C Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" on which Kubrick based his epic film "2001 A Space Odyssey". For the time being they stand as silent sentinels teasing us with their immutability.
If you want to read more here is an article from the Smithsonian Institute
Now there's a big title for you. Nothing small about that. Not to be daunted however I thought I would have a go courtesy of a story I read in a National Geographic about some amazing archaeological discoveries in southern Turkey.
In the last 20 years these discoveries have overturned the accepted theory about the birth of worship. Instead of seeing religion as the cultural culmination of the increasingly sophisticated settlements that arose following the deveopment of farming, the discoveries at Gobekli Tepe suggest that perhaps religion came first and that farming came afterwards - perhaps as a response to feed the pilgrims at sites like Gobekli Tepe or simply just as a way to survive in the harsher conditions that followed the end of the last mini ice age in 9,600BC.
The evidence points to Gobekli Tepe being the world's first temple and therefore perhaps marking the beginning of religion as we know it. Certainly Gobekli Tepe builds on the Natufian settlements discovered nearby to cast doubt of the "Neolithic Revoltion" theory
Previously the "Neolithic Revolution" theory held that hunter gatherers in the Sumerian flood plains of the Tigris and Euphrates at the western end of the "Fertile Crescent" embraced agriculture in a flash of inspiration 8,000 years ago. That discovery led to a population explosion that gave rise to cities and later to writing, art and eventually religion. It was agriculture that came first and then religion. That was the theory anyway.
Even though it is likely that hunter gatherers tended patches of wild grain prior to 6,000BC, the plants they watched over were still wild. It was only the explosion in harvest yields from domesticated grains that allowed cities to grow exponentially. Wild wheat and barley, unlike their domesticated versions, shatter when ripe, spilling the grain onto the ground. True agriculture only began when hunter gatherers planted a mutation of wild wheat that didn't shatter when ripe allowing predictable harvesting - giving rise to fields of ripe wheat waiting, so to speak, for farmers to harvest them.
However in the late 1950's archaeologists working in the Levant or eastern end of the Fertile Crescent discovered settlements that called the Neolithic Theory into question. These Natufian settlements (named after the first site to be discovered), and suggest a different sequence for the growth of large settlements. The Natufian settlements were 5,000 years older than the Sumerian settlements and dated back to 13,000BC. Importantly these villages were much bigger than had previously been thought could be supported by foraging. Their size called into question the idea that larger settlements only came about after man had learned how to domesticate wheat and barley. Although still relatively small - perhaps a few hundred people - they suggested a level of social order higher than had been assumed previously for hunter gatherers. Perhaps man had become more adept at collecting the seeds from wild grains than was previously thought. Perhaps the farming of wild wheat wasn't so inefficient after all.
(The Fertile Crescent being the arc of land bounded by the mountains of Turkey to the North and the Syrian desert to the South that incorporates the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the east and modern day Lebanon and Israel to the West)
The Natufian villages however ran into hard times around 10,800BC when a mini ice age dropped regional temperatures by nearly 7oC. This ice age lasted 1,200 years and turned the landscape into the dry arid region of today. Much more recent archaeological discoveries have also suggested a much earlier date for the domestication of wild grains which was contemporaneous with the end of this ice age.
Perhaps the contraction of the food supply that would have resulted from the onset of these drier conditions was the driver for the domestication of wild grains. Perhaps the domestication of wild wheat was developed as a way to feed the starving Natufian villages - large settlements came first then agriculture. This is however a controversial hypothesis based solely as it is on the evidence of a small number of seeds found in a few sites
Discoveries at a small site at Gobekli Tepe in Southern Turkey however have thrown further doubt on the Neolithic Revolution theory. Working slowly and patiently since 1994 Klaus Schmidt has uncovered an extraordinary series of gigantic carved stone pillars that date from 9,600BC. This makes Gobekli Tepe contemporaneous with the end of the mini ice age that would have devastated the Natufian villages and places it at the start of the pre pottery Neolithic era.
The Gobekli pillars are the oldest manmade monumental structures.
Just think about that statement. The oldest. They predate Stonehenge by 6,300 years. There is in fact more time between Gobekli Tepe and the earliest evidence of writing (the Sumarian clay tablets dating from 3,300BC) than there is between start of writing and now.
They are quite simply inconceivably old
These enormous "T shaped" monoliths that are nearly 5.5m tall and weigh approximately 16 tonnes. They have straight sides, sharp corners and are covered by elaborate carved motifs.
In just about every aspect these pillars are breathtaking, challenging and awe inspiring.
By comparison the most monumental part of the only city that is broadly contemporaneous with Gobekli Tepe is utilitarian and mundane. The Tower of Jericho was only 3.6m tall and was built about the same time as the last of the Gobekli pillars in 8,000BC. Built of stone blocks, its use is unclear - it was possibly a grain store and or a part of the defensive wall around the city. Whatever its use - the structure is squat heavy and crude. The contrast with Gobekli Tepe is extraordinary
The Gobekli pillars are a third taller and built from a single slabs of limestone.
Unlike Stonehenge, the sands which buried the Gobekli Tepe pillars have preserved their original form. Their flat sides and sharp corners have been preserved in breathtaking clarity. They were carved using flint axes by stone age hunter gatherers who had not yet discovered metal or pottery.
Perhaps Stonehenge was also covered with carvings like Gobekli Tepe but we will never know. The thousands of years of weathering have eroded any trace.
How did they communicate and describe the vision over the generations it would have taken to build Gobekli Tepe. No plans no drawings; just oral history.
The carvings on the face of monoliths remain clear and distinct. How did such a sophisticated sculptural awareness and visual language appear out of nowhere? The abstract T shape fascinates me. Perhaps they supported a roof structure but some of the pillars are located within a circle in locations that don't appear to be sensible points from which to support a roof. It appears to be just an abstract shape.
Monumental abstract shapes wouldn't arrive for another 5,900 years with the rise of the Egyptian civilisation and their pyramid building. No other examples of contemporaneous abstract sculptural shapes have been found. So where did this awareness spring from. It seems so disproportionately advanced when considered against a society without writing, metal tools or even pottery.
The most sophisticated aspect for me however is the sculptural beast carved on the side of one pillar. The three dimensional sculptural qualities of this creature are extraordinary. Remember these people didn't even have pottery.
What flash of inspiration gave rise to such a powerful expressive figurine. What flash of artistic vision led to carving such a figurine in such a difficult place. I mean they could have picked up any old rock and carved the beast something people had been doing since 20,000BC,
But to carve a figure as part of a monumental sculptural so that it appears on the surface of a flat plane takes a sculptural vision of a wholly different order. To see that possibility when they were looking at a large amorphous lump of limestone is extraordinary. Perhaps it was happenstance that an extra piece of limestone remained on this slab and the carvers decided to show a bit of imagination. But what a bit of imagination!
Gone are the two dimensionality that characterised Paleolithic sculpture like the clay and stone relief bison figures from Le Tuc d'Audobert in Southern France that date from c.15,000 BC
Schmidt has described discovering that hunter gatherers had constructed Gobekli Tepe was like "finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an x-acto knife".
In a further challenge to previous theories, archaeologists have found no sign of habitation at the site. It appears that Gobekli Tepe was not the site of a settlement; it was just some sort of major ritualistic site miles from where people lived or camped. So far no evidence of housing cooking or animal bones have been found at the site.
What led people with no form of writing to spend so much time laboriously carving and erecting such sophisticated pillars away from where they lived? When you consider the utilitarian nature of the Jericho Tower built in the midst of a town, one is struck even more forcefully by the isolated sophistication of Gobekli Tepe.
The "Neolithic Revolution" theory suggested that religion arose after the creation of the new cities that had grown out of the surplus food generated by the discovery of agriculture. The theory goes that, as people began settling in ever larger numbers, religion arose to promote social cohesion.
Gobekli Tepe however suggested a different possibility. The fact that the site does not appear to be connected to a settlement suggests that ritual or sacred sites came first, before the rise of larger settlements. Perhaps a monumental architecture was created to codify the rituals that arose in response to a sense of wonderment at the major changes in the natural world wrought by the end of the mini ice age. Perhaps agriculture and permanent settlements were the outcome of these rituals and arose from the need to grow food for large groups gathering near sacred sites.
MaybeGobekli Tepe represents mankind's first temple and that these structures mark the first evidence of the birth of religion. That is certainly a bold claim. Perhaps we will never know. Certainly the ideas above are just speculations.
So far only 5% of the site has been excavated. Perhaps when more of the site has been excavated the history of Gobekli Tepe will be clearer. Perhaps these pillars are the true monoliths from Arthur C Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" on which Kubrick based his epic film "2001 A Space Odyssey". For the time being they stand as silent sentinels teasing us with their immutability.
If you want to read more here is an article from the Smithsonian Institute
Life
Just thought I'd do a catch up on life over here
Sonya finishes up her old job this week ending more than 8 years with Orbit Housing Association in various roles. I think she is glad to be moving on. Best of all though for Sonya is that she has a new job. She is looking forward to it on a variety of levels:
Sonya has also joined the Croydon Speakers Club and goes once a fortnight with an old friend of hers. I am very impressed. It is very structured and they really grill the participants. It has done wonders for her confidence
Michael has finished his exams and predictably has got mixed results. He pulled some out of the bag and others were a disappointment. The frustrating thing is that he leaks so many marks from carelessness and rushing. These exams are used to set his classes for his GCSE exams next year (for those not in the UK - these are the ones that start counting towards University entrance marks) so his marks this year are important but the mixed bag of results is not catastrophic. He is drinking at the last chance saloon however. Next year he needs to get his attitude and exam technique under control.
He breaks up for summer in a few weeks time so we figure there is not much point tackling him now as it will all be forgotten by the timehe starts again in September
As always our frustration is focussed on his ongoing addiction to PS3. We are just going to have to tough out more intermitable arguements once he goes back to school as we try and help avoid messing up. Joy of joys
Michael continues to enjoy his tennis and goes to lessons twice a week. I hope he can get to play in some more tournaments and he needs to learn to be a better winner and loser. This is a maturity thing I know but practice makes perfect they say.
Costandina has been back home from Winchester for a couple of weeks now. She is doing so well and is hoping for a 2:1 next year. She is already planning her major piece for her 3rd year. She has decided to drop Drama and just concentrate on the Creative Writing course for her 3rd year. Importantly she has also got herself a job at the Uni bookshop next year to supplement her income from her home waxing business. This hasn't taken off yet so she needs to find ways to makes some money.
For those not on Facebook, her and Sam continue to be an item. Although they are spending a lot the Summer apart doing their own things, I gather they are planning a big holiday together later in the year. Costandina also appears to have sorted out a better mix of flatmates for next year. This year there were 4 boys and 2 girls in her house and I think she found that a bit tedious. Their hygiene habits left a bit to be desired. She will have 4 or 5 girls in the house when she goes back in September so hopefully it will be a happier house
Costandina is off with her Dad for a few weeks in Cyprus to go to two christenings. Michael is going out to Cyprus in mid summer.
We are trying to see if we can book a holiday with both of them in late August. Might be our last holiday as a family. Not sure where we are going yet though.
My work continues to be up and down. The sector is in dire trouble and the company has had a very poor start to the FY (which begins in April for us). More significant redundancies are being made including two equity Directors who have been with the company for more than 12 years. They are having to cut into the DNA of the company now.
Sadly though the whole ethos of the company is changing as certain Directors are using these diffcult time to reshape the company. I dont like how it is changing but as for so many people in my position, there are no real options available for me out there.
I suspect my next career move will involve a complete change - i'm just not sure where to look to find it. I mustn't complain though; i still have a job that is often rewarding in the narrow sense (when I succeed in closing my ears and eyes to the games being played out around me)
Hope you are all well out there
Sonya finishes up her old job this week ending more than 8 years with Orbit Housing Association in various roles. I think she is glad to be moving on. Best of all though for Sonya is that she has a new job. She is looking forward to it on a variety of levels:
- The office is just down the road
- It is a small organisation - 12 people - so she wont be swallowed up in bureaucracy
- It's a different area of work - training clients to use a particular piece of software related to the housing sector
- It still draws on her knowledge of the affordable housing sector
- She will get to travel round the country and see some cities she has never visited before
- Oh yeah and she gets an I Phone
Sonya has also joined the Croydon Speakers Club and goes once a fortnight with an old friend of hers. I am very impressed. It is very structured and they really grill the participants. It has done wonders for her confidence
Michael has finished his exams and predictably has got mixed results. He pulled some out of the bag and others were a disappointment. The frustrating thing is that he leaks so many marks from carelessness and rushing. These exams are used to set his classes for his GCSE exams next year (for those not in the UK - these are the ones that start counting towards University entrance marks) so his marks this year are important but the mixed bag of results is not catastrophic. He is drinking at the last chance saloon however. Next year he needs to get his attitude and exam technique under control.
He breaks up for summer in a few weeks time so we figure there is not much point tackling him now as it will all be forgotten by the timehe starts again in September
As always our frustration is focussed on his ongoing addiction to PS3. We are just going to have to tough out more intermitable arguements once he goes back to school as we try and help avoid messing up. Joy of joys
Michael continues to enjoy his tennis and goes to lessons twice a week. I hope he can get to play in some more tournaments and he needs to learn to be a better winner and loser. This is a maturity thing I know but practice makes perfect they say.
Costandina has been back home from Winchester for a couple of weeks now. She is doing so well and is hoping for a 2:1 next year. She is already planning her major piece for her 3rd year. She has decided to drop Drama and just concentrate on the Creative Writing course for her 3rd year. Importantly she has also got herself a job at the Uni bookshop next year to supplement her income from her home waxing business. This hasn't taken off yet so she needs to find ways to makes some money.
For those not on Facebook, her and Sam continue to be an item. Although they are spending a lot the Summer apart doing their own things, I gather they are planning a big holiday together later in the year. Costandina also appears to have sorted out a better mix of flatmates for next year. This year there were 4 boys and 2 girls in her house and I think she found that a bit tedious. Their hygiene habits left a bit to be desired. She will have 4 or 5 girls in the house when she goes back in September so hopefully it will be a happier house
Costandina is off with her Dad for a few weeks in Cyprus to go to two christenings. Michael is going out to Cyprus in mid summer.
We are trying to see if we can book a holiday with both of them in late August. Might be our last holiday as a family. Not sure where we are going yet though.
My work continues to be up and down. The sector is in dire trouble and the company has had a very poor start to the FY (which begins in April for us). More significant redundancies are being made including two equity Directors who have been with the company for more than 12 years. They are having to cut into the DNA of the company now.
Sadly though the whole ethos of the company is changing as certain Directors are using these diffcult time to reshape the company. I dont like how it is changing but as for so many people in my position, there are no real options available for me out there.
I suspect my next career move will involve a complete change - i'm just not sure where to look to find it. I mustn't complain though; i still have a job that is often rewarding in the narrow sense (when I succeed in closing my ears and eyes to the games being played out around me)
Hope you are all well out there
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
RIP Clarence Clemons
The big man has passed away. Sad day for music. Iconic, great soul, great music and from all accounts a great human being
RIP
RIP
London Sluts
Go girls
Sadly we were otherwise engaged and couldn't attend. Stiil the sluts reigned supreme in London on Sunday 11 June.
Pensioner Slut
Sadly we were otherwise engaged and couldn't attend. Stiil the sluts reigned supreme in London on Sunday 11 June.
Pensioner Slut
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
world wide
Out of interest I looked up the stats for page views of my blog. Seems I have achieved world wide coverage. Seems that including the word "slut" in one of my headlines helped but so did the word "swearing". "Conspiracy" in the Bilderberg headline was also good as was "Plan B" but strangely the blog "Home on the range" also got a lot of hits. Go figure
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Lest we forget
Our trip to France reminded me of the time before when we visited the WW1 cemetary at Etaples
Home to more than 10,000 graves the Lutyens designed cemetary is a quiet and sombre place. So many dead; so many young men. 18, 19 and 20 years old many of them. Row of row quietly marking the needless slaughter
The entrance contains a memorial book which is full of poignant entries from visitors. The most moving for me are the ones from young children who have come to see the graves of the grandfathers they never knew - sad voices reaching out to tell them how proud they are of them.
I cant imagine the horror of the trenches. The fear knowing your day would come. And for what? Not one inch of progress would be made for your sacrifice. Knowing that you joined up full of naivety and now that you know the truth - the lies, the futility - knowing there is nothing you can do about it short of deserting as a coward.
The cemetary helped make WW1 real for me and helped me understand those words from Binyon's poem "For the fallen" that we all just gloss over:
Home to more than 10,000 graves the Lutyens designed cemetary is a quiet and sombre place. So many dead; so many young men. 18, 19 and 20 years old many of them. Row of row quietly marking the needless slaughter
The entrance contains a memorial book which is full of poignant entries from visitors. The most moving for me are the ones from young children who have come to see the graves of the grandfathers they never knew - sad voices reaching out to tell them how proud they are of them.
I cant imagine the horror of the trenches. The fear knowing your day would come. And for what? Not one inch of progress would be made for your sacrifice. Knowing that you joined up full of naivety and now that you know the truth - the lies, the futility - knowing there is nothing you can do about it short of deserting as a coward.
The cemetary helped make WW1 real for me and helped me understand those words from Binyon's poem "For the fallen" that we all just gloss over:
- They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
- Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
- At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
- We will remember them.
Pictures of really big numbers
In the true spirit of the web I am reposting a link to a wonderful website sent to me by Robin and Michael. In it Chris Jordan gives a talk explaining his pictures of really big numbers that we should stop and think about.
One example is his picture of thousands of barbie dolls that represents the number of breast augmentations performed on girls under 21 each year in America
Have a watch
TED: Chris Jordan
In so doing they also introduced me to the TED website. Thank you
One example is his picture of thousands of barbie dolls that represents the number of breast augmentations performed on girls under 21 each year in America
Have a watch
TED: Chris Jordan
In so doing they also introduced me to the TED website. Thank you
The Bilderberg Conspiracy
On the basis that one can never have too much conspiracy theory I thought I would repost this recent BBC article that uses the recent gathering of the Bilderberg Group as its starting point to take a quick canter through many of the more recent conspiracy theories
The Bilderberg Conspiracy
As William S Burough's once said - "Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts!"
The Bilderberg Conspiracy
As William S Burough's once said - "Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts!"
Philip the fool
The media has been genuflecting at the feet of Prince Philip for the last few weeks in celebration of his 90th birthday. Its really quite sickening. The man is a bigotted offensive obnoxious odious fool.
Thankfully its not completely one way traffic. Here is a lone voice trying to set the record straight.
Stop the fawning
Ships and ceiling wax
We just got back last weekend from a few days in France with our friends Don and Caroline. We stayed at their holiday cabin on the north coast of France. Weather was lovely and sunny. Very civilised
I remember an architecture lecturer of mine a long time ago musing that, for a holiday to be good, one should set oneself a task - read a book, finish a jigsaw, learn to scuba dive etc. (He had other criteria as well but this was the one that stuck in my mind) Anyway I decided to read a couple of books over the 5 days we were out. Just switch off and immerse myself.
The first - The Mambo Kings play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos - was a sweeping novel about NY in the 1950's and centred on two Cuban musician brothers who emigrated to find their fame and fortune.
Almost encyclopedic in its detail of NY in the 1950's the novel powerfully evokes the era. It also explores many of the issues of emigration - the loss the nostalgia and the sense of having a foot in two disconected camps - all feelings I could identify with very strongly
I found this review of the book online and think its quite accurate. And yes there is a lot of "pinga" talk (read the review!)
Mambo Kings book review
The other was Amistead Maupins restarted Tales of the City novel - Michael Tolliver Lives. Quick, light and frothy, it lacked some of the pathos of his earlier writing. A bit like white bread it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped.
The main news of the holiday however was my stunningly clever effort in loosing Michael's glasses on our second day there. We had driven to the beach in the afternoon at Hardelot which is long and flat. The day was sunny and windy but not that warm. Michael and I however were determined to get our feet wet so we waded in. We had to go out about 50m just to get up to our knees. We still had t shirts and a hat on and had no intention of getting fully wet. Michael had given me his glasses to hold and I tucked them into my t shirt
As we continued to wade further in the waves got a bit choppier and were now splashing our t shirts. Michael takes off his t shirt for me to hold to stop it getting wet. Brainiac me decides to do the same thing forgetting Michael's glasses are tucked into the collar. Anyway Michael calls out what was that plop as I take the t shirt off over my head. Big sinking feeling. Oh sh*t. Was that my glasses says Michael? Oh f*ck. Quick pat down of the t shirt now in my hands. No glasses. Panic rising quickly. Look down at feet. Sea opaque with sand swirling in the water from the choppy waves. Can't see bottom at all even though less than 3 feet of water. Sh*t.
Give clothes and my glasses to Michael to take back to Sonya. Fairly certain have no hope of finding glasses as I can feel the swirling pull at feet from the ebbing tide. Glasses will be feet away by now. Sea is pretty chilly but decide I owe Michael at least to make an effort to find glasses. So crouch down in chilly water and start feeling around for glasses. Michael makes his forlorn way to beach. Top Dad!
After 20 minutes figure must be respectable effort and can give up. Stand back up see Sonya standing at waters edge. Expression on face suggests better get back under water and keep looking. Isolated words like "f*ck" and "doing" float across water. Pleased there remains a stretch of water separating Sonya from me.
Sometime later finally give up and stand up. No Sonya so make my slow way back up beach to towels. Adopt contrite facial expression and offer observation that this was not my best effort.
Michael spent the rest of the holiday wearing his prescription sunglasses everywhere including indoors and thereby adopting a cool dude appearance - Je Suis un Rock Star!
We didn't do a lot of sighseeing as we have visited the area a couple of times now but did spend one day pottering around looking for an escargot factory we had read about as well as a local chocolate factory. We didn't have any luck with the snail farm which was closed but we did find the chocolate factory.
It turned out to be a tiny little boutique chocolate factory in the small French village of Beussant. Gleaming spotless modern factory churning out yummy uber expensive chocolates. Did you know the cocoa bean is red. Very bizarre
I remember an architecture lecturer of mine a long time ago musing that, for a holiday to be good, one should set oneself a task - read a book, finish a jigsaw, learn to scuba dive etc. (He had other criteria as well but this was the one that stuck in my mind) Anyway I decided to read a couple of books over the 5 days we were out. Just switch off and immerse myself.
The first - The Mambo Kings play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos - was a sweeping novel about NY in the 1950's and centred on two Cuban musician brothers who emigrated to find their fame and fortune.
Almost encyclopedic in its detail of NY in the 1950's the novel powerfully evokes the era. It also explores many of the issues of emigration - the loss the nostalgia and the sense of having a foot in two disconected camps - all feelings I could identify with very strongly
I found this review of the book online and think its quite accurate. And yes there is a lot of "pinga" talk (read the review!)
Mambo Kings book review
The other was Amistead Maupins restarted Tales of the City novel - Michael Tolliver Lives. Quick, light and frothy, it lacked some of the pathos of his earlier writing. A bit like white bread it wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped.
The main news of the holiday however was my stunningly clever effort in loosing Michael's glasses on our second day there. We had driven to the beach in the afternoon at Hardelot which is long and flat. The day was sunny and windy but not that warm. Michael and I however were determined to get our feet wet so we waded in. We had to go out about 50m just to get up to our knees. We still had t shirts and a hat on and had no intention of getting fully wet. Michael had given me his glasses to hold and I tucked them into my t shirt
The beach at Hardelot
Give clothes and my glasses to Michael to take back to Sonya. Fairly certain have no hope of finding glasses as I can feel the swirling pull at feet from the ebbing tide. Glasses will be feet away by now. Sea is pretty chilly but decide I owe Michael at least to make an effort to find glasses. So crouch down in chilly water and start feeling around for glasses. Michael makes his forlorn way to beach. Top Dad!
After 20 minutes figure must be respectable effort and can give up. Stand back up see Sonya standing at waters edge. Expression on face suggests better get back under water and keep looking. Isolated words like "f*ck" and "doing" float across water. Pleased there remains a stretch of water separating Sonya from me.
Sometime later finally give up and stand up. No Sonya so make my slow way back up beach to towels. Adopt contrite facial expression and offer observation that this was not my best effort.
Michael spent the rest of the holiday wearing his prescription sunglasses everywhere including indoors and thereby adopting a cool dude appearance - Je Suis un Rock Star!
We didn't do a lot of sighseeing as we have visited the area a couple of times now but did spend one day pottering around looking for an escargot factory we had read about as well as a local chocolate factory. We didn't have any luck with the snail farm which was closed but we did find the chocolate factory.
It turned out to be a tiny little boutique chocolate factory in the small French village of Beussant. Gleaming spotless modern factory churning out yummy uber expensive chocolates. Did you know the cocoa bean is red. Very bizarre
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
What did I tell you about not swearing
When Los Angeles (Calif.) Loyola High pole vaulter Evan Barr, who you can see pictured in a practice below, failed to clear his final height at the California state track and field meet, he was understandably disappointed. The miss cost him an individual state title and ensured he would finish in third place instead.
Yet, to say that he expressed that disappointment in an inappropriate way is a bit of an understatement. As it turns out, his reaction cost Barr another state title as well.
After falling short of clearing the bar, Barr, whom you can see competing at the 2011 California Relays (not the state championship meet) in this video, let out a loud expletive. According to the Los Angeles Times, the curse word inspired judges to disqualify Barr from the event, with his points taken away from Loyola's team total.
That proved to be incredibly costly, as the adjusted points total cost Loyola a state track and field title. Instead, the Cubs finished second, with 32 points, behind Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High's 35 points.
"He uttered a profanity out of frustration, and the officials thought it was significant to disqualify him," Loyola track and field coach Mike Porterfield told the Times. "He apologized immediately after he said it."
Apologies weren't enough to save Barr or his team from what has to go down as one of the more ignominious and costly setbacks in recent prep track and field history.
If nothing else, the star vaulter has provided a compelling case of the importance of minding ones manners in the heat of competition.
"You can't be profane in a competitive area," California state track and field rules interpreter Hal Harkness told the Times' Eric Sondheimer. "He made an unfortunate lapse in judgment."
Hmmm Mister Popular!
Home on the range
A fortnight ago Sonya turned 36 once again
We had a lovely meal at the Trafalgar Tavern on the banks of the Thames. In addition to having the pleasure of Costandina up from Winchester we also had her brother Philip and his girlfriend Juliet along
We had a lovely meal at the Trafalgar Tavern on the banks of the Thames. In addition to having the pleasure of Costandina up from Winchester we also had her brother Philip and his girlfriend Juliet along
Two other pictures from early that day. One is a lovely pensive snap of Costandina; the other is a gorgeous one of Sonya teasing her Aunty
Saturday, 28 May 2011
No Plan B
All I seem to focussing on lately are American stories. Don't know what it is but it just seems to be such a rich seam lately.
This next one is right up there
As with many of these tales, it doesn't need any embellishment. It is so stupid it can bear being told straight.
Some time back an 89 yr old evangelical preacher in California - Harold Camping - boldly predicted that the world would end at 6pm on May 21 2011. Or to be more precise the Second Coming would arrive and all true believers would be swept up in the "Rapture". I kid you not. look up Rapture on Wikipedia. People are serious about this shit.
He was so confident he and his ministry, Family Radio International, invested millions in a national advertising campaign to alert true believers. Mr Camping said leading up to the 21st that he knew "without any shadow of a doubt" that "judgement day" is arriving. There is no "Plan B", he said
Apparently thousands bought into this hokum, sold up and moved to Califormia to be with Harold for judgement day! The story might just end there - a sad tale of gullible and stupid people taken for a ride that is somewhat enlivened by this great headline on the 22nd:
"Believers baffled as life goes on"
Except for two spinoffs.
The first was the wonderful energetic response of various Aethiest groups in America who organised a range of parties to celebrate the end of the world. Apart from the much needed reality check provided by such sanity, the parties also provided two more great tag lines:
I mean how can a party fail that is called the Rapture After Party fail? And who wouldn't be drawn to party with the tag line - "Countdown to backpeddling"?
The Rapture After Party in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was a two-day event organised by the Central North Carolina Atheists and Humanists.
"Though the absurdity of this claim is obvious to the majority of the world, it's a great opportunity to highlight some of the most bizarre beliefs often put forth by religious fundamentalists and raise awareness of the need for reason," said a posting about the party on the group's website.
Atheists in Tacoma, Washington, have headed their celebration "countdown to back-pedalling".
Events were also due to take place in Texas, Florida and California.
The Rapture After Party
The second even better spinoff from Harold's crazy grandstanding is another shining example to American capitalism. There is a quote somewhere about a fool and his money being parted. It surely applies to this.
An atheist and entrepreneur from New Hampshire, Bart Centre, is enjoying a boost in business for Eternal Earth-bound Pets, which he set up to look after the pets of those who believe they will be raptured.
He has more than 250 clients who are paying up to $135 (£83) to have their pets picked up and cared for after the rapture.They would be disappointed twice, he told the Wall Street Journal. "Once because they weren't raptured and again because I don't do refunds."
Eternal Earth Bound Pets
You cant make up stuff like this. No-one would believe it
This next one is right up there
As with many of these tales, it doesn't need any embellishment. It is so stupid it can bear being told straight.
Some time back an 89 yr old evangelical preacher in California - Harold Camping - boldly predicted that the world would end at 6pm on May 21 2011. Or to be more precise the Second Coming would arrive and all true believers would be swept up in the "Rapture". I kid you not. look up Rapture on Wikipedia. People are serious about this shit.
He was so confident he and his ministry, Family Radio International, invested millions in a national advertising campaign to alert true believers. Mr Camping said leading up to the 21st that he knew "without any shadow of a doubt" that "judgement day" is arriving. There is no "Plan B", he said
Apparently thousands bought into this hokum, sold up and moved to Califormia to be with Harold for judgement day! The story might just end there - a sad tale of gullible and stupid people taken for a ride that is somewhat enlivened by this great headline on the 22nd:
"Believers baffled as life goes on"
Except for two spinoffs.
The first was the wonderful energetic response of various Aethiest groups in America who organised a range of parties to celebrate the end of the world. Apart from the much needed reality check provided by such sanity, the parties also provided two more great tag lines:
I mean how can a party fail that is called the Rapture After Party fail? And who wouldn't be drawn to party with the tag line - "Countdown to backpeddling"?
The Rapture After Party in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was a two-day event organised by the Central North Carolina Atheists and Humanists.
"Though the absurdity of this claim is obvious to the majority of the world, it's a great opportunity to highlight some of the most bizarre beliefs often put forth by religious fundamentalists and raise awareness of the need for reason," said a posting about the party on the group's website.
Atheists in Tacoma, Washington, have headed their celebration "countdown to back-pedalling".
Events were also due to take place in Texas, Florida and California.
The Rapture After Party
The second even better spinoff from Harold's crazy grandstanding is another shining example to American capitalism. There is a quote somewhere about a fool and his money being parted. It surely applies to this.
An atheist and entrepreneur from New Hampshire, Bart Centre, is enjoying a boost in business for Eternal Earth-bound Pets, which he set up to look after the pets of those who believe they will be raptured.
He has more than 250 clients who are paying up to $135 (£83) to have their pets picked up and cared for after the rapture.They would be disappointed twice, he told the Wall Street Journal. "Once because they weren't raptured and again because I don't do refunds."
Eternal Earth Bound Pets
You cant make up stuff like this. No-one would believe it
Saturday, 21 May 2011
There are no words to describe how crazy this is
"There is a pretty strong mental dialogue and engagement with fear"
So says Steph Davis a free climber in a video I found on the web. The clip is at the end of this blog. Read on and bear this quote in mind. At the end of the blog watch the clip and reflect just how much of a monumental understatement her quote is
The May edition of National Geographic had this article of free climbing at Yosemite National Park. In particular they featured a climber called Dean Potter. The article focussed on a rock face known as El Capitan
The prominent leading face is a vertical rock face 891m (2,884 feet) high called the Nose. First climbed in 1957 it took 47 days of patient assault. It includes an overhang called the Great Roof two thirds of the way up. In 1975 two climbers managed to climb the Nose in a single day. But they needed cimbing aids to get past the Great Roof. In 1994 a lady - Lynn Hill - free climbed the nose - including the Great Roof - without ropes or technical aids in 23 hours. According to the National Geographic, climbers rate this effort as one of the greatest climbs of the 20th century
In 2010 Dean Potter climbed the Nose free style in 2 hrs 36 minutes! Think about that. 16 years ealier it took the greatest climb 23 hours. Dean does it is less than a tenth of that. He actually runs up the rock. You dont believe me - then watch the clip
Dean Potter soloing the Nose
And now the clip that I referred to at the start of the blog. If you though Dean running up the Nose was bad enough, the climbs in this clip are even worse. There truly are no words to describe this. (Apologies for the advert at the start - I dont know how to get rid of it)
Touching the Void
So says Steph Davis a free climber in a video I found on the web. The clip is at the end of this blog. Read on and bear this quote in mind. At the end of the blog watch the clip and reflect just how much of a monumental understatement her quote is
The May edition of National Geographic had this article of free climbing at Yosemite National Park. In particular they featured a climber called Dean Potter. The article focussed on a rock face known as El Capitan
The prominent leading face is a vertical rock face 891m (2,884 feet) high called the Nose. First climbed in 1957 it took 47 days of patient assault. It includes an overhang called the Great Roof two thirds of the way up. In 1975 two climbers managed to climb the Nose in a single day. But they needed cimbing aids to get past the Great Roof. In 1994 a lady - Lynn Hill - free climbed the nose - including the Great Roof - without ropes or technical aids in 23 hours. According to the National Geographic, climbers rate this effort as one of the greatest climbs of the 20th century
In 2010 Dean Potter climbed the Nose free style in 2 hrs 36 minutes! Think about that. 16 years ealier it took the greatest climb 23 hours. Dean does it is less than a tenth of that. He actually runs up the rock. You dont believe me - then watch the clip
Dean Potter soloing the Nose
And now the clip that I referred to at the start of the blog. If you though Dean running up the Nose was bad enough, the climbs in this clip are even worse. There truly are no words to describe this. (Apologies for the advert at the start - I dont know how to get rid of it)
Touching the Void
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Threading the needle part deux
An update on Threading the needle
The bridge is now in place!!
My trolley is bigger than your trolley
I dont know if people overseas can see this MPEG on the BBC website but it shows the new bridge being moved into place
No problem guv
The bridge is now in place!!
My trolley is bigger than your trolley
I dont know if people overseas can see this MPEG on the BBC website but it shows the new bridge being moved into place
No problem guv
Slut walk
What a fabulous title and what a fabulous idea in response to Toronto Police Const. Michael Sanguinetti who told a personal security class at York University on 24 January that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized."
He was reprimanded and underwent "further training," Chief Bill Blair said. Blair called Const. Michael Sanguinetti "inexperienced," adding the officer uttered "something stupid and he's apologized."
The constable's comment sparked outrage, prompting more than 1,500 protesters to stage a "SlutWalk" Sunday from Queen's Park to police headquarters on College St.
"I don't think the officer meant any offence," added Blair.
The idea has apparently spread like wildfire with walks held in cities across America and Europe
Go girls
CBC coverage of Toronto slutwalk
Toronto Slutwalk
Boston Slutwalk
(PS Michael is petrified that Sonya will join in if there is a Slut walk in London. I think she should join in just for that reason alone)
He was reprimanded and underwent "further training," Chief Bill Blair said. Blair called Const. Michael Sanguinetti "inexperienced," adding the officer uttered "something stupid and he's apologized."
The constable's comment sparked outrage, prompting more than 1,500 protesters to stage a "SlutWalk" Sunday from Queen's Park to police headquarters on College St.
"I don't think the officer meant any offence," added Blair.
The idea has apparently spread like wildfire with walks held in cities across America and Europe
Go girls
CBC coverage of Toronto slutwalk
Toronto Slutwalk
Boston Slutwalk
(PS Michael is petrified that Sonya will join in if there is a Slut walk in London. I think she should join in just for that reason alone)
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