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I really wasn't sure what to expect when it was announced that an album by The Messthetics was due for release on Dischord records. Obviously, I knew that the formidable rhythm section of Brendan Canty and Joe Lally were involved, alongside guitarist Anthony Pirog, but when you consider the varied projects they've been involved-with since Fugazi were last active, that certainly didn't make any particular sound or direction clear. Additionally, Anthony was coming from a much-more avant-garde, free-jazz background, so would be providing a whole new element to the proceedings. But the one thing I knew for sure was that I could trust that Brendan and Joe would still be the awesome rhythm section that they have always been and that if they were involved, the project was going to be well-worth investigating.
When the album appeared, it certainly didn't disappoint. Entirely instrumental, the band performed in the traditional 'power-trio' format, creating lots of energy and movement, but also allowing plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. On first listen, I can understand that some people have been perplexed by the more jazz-influenced attributes of the record, but the more you hear it, the more it makes sense. There are some parallels to be drawn with Fugazi's later-music, as Joe and Brendan were such an integral part of that sound, but this is also very much its' own beast, with Anthony elaborating on the themes and providing the colour over the rhythmic base. No doubts, he's an incredible guitarist and if you've ever been impressed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Frank Zappa, this is someone you need to check out (NB, this is a very basic comparison, but I hope it will serve to intrigue you…)
Having enjoyed the album, it wasn't until I saw the band play live that things really fell into place. When you see them perform, that's when it really comes together. Watching the interaction between the players and hearing the powerful, emotive sounds that they create, this is where it really enters its' own element. When they played as support to Michael Rother, very few in the audience knew anything about the band, but by the end of the set, they received truly enthusiastic applause and it was well-deserved. I began to hear the same response from other people who saw them over the course of their UK tour… they'd liked the album and it was interesting but it wasn't until hey saw the band live that it really made sense. As with a lot of music that veers towards the more experimental-field, it has to be seen live for the full-effect to work.
Catching up with the band before the last date of the UK tour at the Boston Arms, I'd expected to be interviewing all three band members, until Anthony disappeared having commented that he didn't really know what to say (he lied – I spoke to him later on and, while he is a little understated, proved to be friendly and eloquent. I like the guy !)
So, I end up in the subterranean dressing room with Joe and Brendan and begin by asking how The Messthetics had come together ?
Brendan I first met Anthony just from seeing him around town, playing at different shows. He'd be playing in a kind of rockabilly-jazz band, then he'd be playing a noise-set, or he'd be playing alongside his wife, Janel, who's a cellist… So I soon became aware of his skill-level and his aesthetic. I became a fan of what he was doing and while I was making one of the films in my 'Burn to Shine' series, I thought it would be great to collaborate with him. So he came-in with Janel and I filmed them for that project, during which time I also discovered they were really lovely people. I decided to look for further opportunities to collaborate with them more but nothing really transpired until Joe came back to Washington DC, around four years ago. He had been living in Italy, so when he came back I was really anxious to start playing with him again. He played me a bunch of things he'd been working on while he was in Rome and I really liked them, I thought they were very cool. They were written with really odd time signatures, seven or thirteen time…
Joe I didn't even understand it myself !
Brendan He'd been working with some fantastic guitar players who were more from the jazz spectrum and also very accomplished. So when he played me those recordings, one of the only people I could think of who would be able to add to it and not just emulate what was already there, was Anthony. I suggested him to Joe and arranged for him to come over. So initially, he was just coming over to play on Joe's music…
Joe It gave the three of us an opportunity to play on something together and it became very clear that the level of Anthony's playing was such that that I wouldn't need to sing over this music. Why would we need a singer ? It almost seemed to go without saying as we all just enjoyed playing-together. He was already busy with some other things he was doing at the time, but a little while later he got back in touch, explained that he was working on a new album and asked if we would like to play as the rhythm section. Of course, we both said yes, and then it was just a case of waiting for him to finish writing the material. Then we just came in and did what we do. We know that we can work-out what we need to do very quickly because we know each other so well… So it just came together until, after a while, we knew that we were a band and we weren't just making a record with Anthony. Once we'd completed the recordings, we decided to play live and, after the first show, Ian was there and said, 'I think this would be really good for Dischord !' That solved a problem we had, because Anthony had been concerned that the label he was originally going to approach to release the album might not like what we had made, but once we knew that Dischord wanted to release it, we were on our way.
Was Anthony already familiar with the different musical projects you had been involved in prior to this ?
Brendan Oh, yeah. I don't know how well, but he's certainly familiar with Fugazi and he's also played with a bunch of different musicians in the past who were definitely aware of what we'd done. I'm not so sure if he was familiar with Joe's solo records or the Deathfix stuff…
Joe He probably knows a lot more now, because we've been playing together. He's accompanied me for a couple of 'solo' shows and they've been really easy to do, as well as being a lot of fun. I feel a lot more inclined to play a solo show now, if somebody asks, because I know that Anthony will be involved. That's all I really need to play a show… a fantastic guitarist ! That's all I ask for… the very best !!! But, seriously, he just makes it so much easier, because I don't want to have to get a whole bunch of people together to do things like that. We're also able to improvise and make things up as we go along, which is something I always wanted to do.
Brendan He's a very astute improviser and I think that part of being able to do that is also just being a good bandmate. He understands that you have to be a good collaborator and it's not just about, 'what can you do for me ?' If you want to do this kind of thing well, it has to be about what can we do together ? I think that's what I've found to be most refreshing with this band. There's a lot to learn from each other and you have to be able to keep your ears open so that you can appreciate the direction that the band wants to go in as a collective unit. The only way to get there is by writing and playing together, so that it becomes its' own organic entity and it behaves by its' own rules. A big part of being a good band-mate is understanding the needs of the band itself. That's part of the process for everyone, on a daily basis.
Did you have any particular intentions or ideas when the band first came together ?
Joe I think our only intention was to play music that would be challenging and whilst giving us something that we could learn from. Hopefully, we'd be able to present music to people that they hadn't already heard, at least in this way. We all listen to a lot of different music so I think we were trying to figure-out what we could do that would be different for us. You bring everything in to what you're doing, but you also try to break new ground in some way. Beyond that, I don't think we really had any specific intentions… apart from making enough music so that we could play it to people and then wanting to record it and make an album, so that we could continue to move on. That's just what you do.
Brendan One of the interesting things I've found about this, is trying to find templates that allow us to utilize the freedom of the stage… Finding songs that allow us to improvise or at least elaborate on them live, without getting totally locked-into the original arrangement. Part of the fun of this is not knowing what's going to happen every night and not knowing where every song is going to go in the next few seconds. That's one of the challenges that I wasn't expecting when we started this, but I've really enjoyed
Joe People have assumed that we set-out with the intention of being an instrumental band, but this is just something that went that way as we were playing. I don't think anyone could be in a room while Anthony is playing and then ask, who's going to sing ? It just isn't a question that you have to ask because the space to even try to do that isn't clear at all. How would it even work ? It's just out of the equation and I think that's clear when people come to see us. It's not as if we finish our set and people come up asking if we're going to get a singer… I think it's much less of an issue than some people might try to make it out to be and a lot of people are coming along and finding that they enjoy watching us even though they might not be used to seeing a band without a singer… More than a few people have told me that it might take them a few songs to get used to it, but by the end of the set they're really enjoying the music. I think it's still possible to express the way you feel without vocals or lyrics and if we hadn't felt comfortable with that when we first started to play together with Anthony, then we would have been looking to do things differently or tried to build something else. But I listen to a lot of instrumental music and there's so much of it that I love, so I know it's possible for musicians to express themselves without vocals. In some ways, more can be expressed or imagined in instrumental music because there aren't any vocals defining how you should feel. That's why I've always enjoyed lyrics that are a bit more abstract and don't state everything… they're more likely to keep you thinking for yourself.
Brendan I think the main thing you try to do when you play music is to create a bond with the listeners, but you can also leave a vacuum so that people can supply their own narrative to what you're playing. That, to me, is the big promise of instrumental music.
Joe I also like to think that an audience is pretty intelligent and they can do a lot with their minds that you maybe aren't doing or saying or whatever. They can do a lot with it and I think that was something I tried to do with my solo music. I tried to leave space for the audience to fill-in, to have that interaction there.
As you've been saying, a lot of your live performance is based around the improvisation. Did this make it awkward when you were recording the songs, having to define the songs ?
Brendan Not really… we just continued making recordings of each song until we were all happy with them. One of the more-improvised songs on the album is 'Serpents Tongue' and I don't think that song has been played in the same way at all since then. We basically recorded different versions of the songs until we did one that we all became excited about, and that's what made it onto the record.
Joe I think, in the way that the songs were written for the record, there was more space for Anthony and probably Brendan, whereas I think my parts are pretty clear. Which is fine with me, it's not as if I was trying to find the space to do different things. All the while we've been playing with Anthony, we've been looking for ways to open things up and give us that ability to improvise. I think the longer we play together, the more it's going to be there.'
It's quite funny that the band is set-up in the same way as the classic 'power trio' format and yet the music you're playing is almost at odds with what would usually be expected from such a group…
Brendan In some ways, it is cool that everyone knows what their job is. Everybody has their domain within the band and no-one is expendable, so we all feel utilised and necessary, which is a nice thing to know within a band.
And there's also the way that the music moves… it's not just trying to be clever or experimental for its' own sake, it has a real groove to it, so that audiences can get into it and enjoy themselves…
Brendan Well, there have been some moments, hahaha ! There have definitely been a few shows where we've ended up wondering what we've been doing !
Joe But I think part of it is that Brendan and I also have our own ideas of what we want to express, so it's not as if Anthony has ever been pulling us in directions where we'd feel uncomfortable. There are some things that he's brought-in that we're not yet satisfied with, so they're still sitting there until we are happy with what we can do with them. The idea of it is there, but we haven't all come to grips with what we're doing with it, yet. We may have a good idea of what we want to do, but if we're not yet 100% happy with it, then it'll stay sitting there until we are.
There had been quite a long gap since the two of you had last played together, so how was it when you started playing again. Was there any awkwardness or did things just fall back into place naturally ?
Brendan It had been 15 years since we last played together, but as soon as we started playing again it was all, like, muscle-memory, for sure.
Joe It certainly didn't seem to be a case of having forgotten anything. The way we play together was just there waiting to happen again.
Brendan Joe's like a bass-players' bass player… he just wants to be a bass player and he doesn't need, like four million effects going into his bass. He can play it heavy and really lay it down, which is almost a rarity. There's a lot of bass players who want to be guitar players, so they end-up doing a lot of stuff that just doesn't sound right. But to play with a bass player who just wants to be a bass player is awesome. It's a very solid foundation and it allows us to play the way we play. Not everyone I've played with allows me to play that way.
I think it's good that Anthony has come from a very different background and already has his own style, so he's come to this band as an independent source rather than a musician who might just want to emulate what you two had done in the past…
Joe I think that's been an advantage of the whole situation. He just liked the way that we play together, which he discovered when we first rehearsed. If it hadn't turned out that way, I doubt he would have asked us to do anything else with him. That's really good for us because the last thing we'd want would be somebody who just wanted to play with us because we had been in Fugazi or whatever. Not that something like that would be the end of the world or anything, but it just wouldn't go anywhere. The person would be satisfied as soon as we played together so they wouldn't even be looking to do anything else '
And Joe, you had released three solo albums between 2006 and 2011, as well as playing with various bands and running your own record label, Tolotta…
Joe I think I'd really been waiting to do something else since I made that last album, but I wasn't inspired to go on and make another record on my own… I think I'd said and done a lot of what I wanted to do and I found that what I was writing wasn't leading towards any new ground, lyrically. I was writing new music at home but I wasn't finding that it was something I could really sing on and I realised that what it needed was someone who could really improvise on it. I think that was probably always in the back of mind. I felt that I should be creating a background that other people could come in and play-off. Which is why this band came together so naturally when I moved back to DC. Firstly, I started playing together with Brendan again and then I met Anthony and he was just the kind of person I'd wanted to play with. As for Tolotta, I started moving around too much to be able to make it work. It became too much because we moved several times and it was too difficult to keep moving all of the stock of what I was putting out. So I decided to give all of what was left to the bands and let them sell it for themselves.'
So, to end, I know that you have quite a lot of touring planned for this year. Will you also be working on a new album ?
Joe I think our main intention is to make another album. We already have a ton of ideas for it, but it's just about having the time to put it together. We have some things recorded that I think will go on the record and we have other things that we've left for now, so that we can maybe go back and work on them a bit more. So we do have a lot of things already and hopefully, the new record will be able to come together between these tours. I would hope that will be done sometime this year. There really is no reason why that shouldn't be
The first band, Dealing With Damage, have just started playing their set and we've all known front-man Ed for a long time, so we end here and venture upstairs to watch them. It's a lively start to the evening and while DWD would be the first to admit their influences from the DC punk scene, they add plenty of their own ideas to the mix to keep it interesting (they've all been playing in bands for long enough to know what they're doing.) It's still early and the place is only starting to fill-up, but the band are grabbing people's attention as soon as they come in, which is good to see. Finally, to end their set, they play 'For Want Of', originally by Brendans' former band Rites of Spring, and Ed dedicates it to him. The big smile on his face as he stood by the side of the stage was proof-enough that he approved.
Main support this evening are a female duo from Nottingham called Rattles who perform with only drums and vocals, a little like Map 71 from Brighton or The Classical from San Francisco, although Rattles concentrate more on the percussion with the vocals remaining less prominent and not integral to every song. In fact, it's an instrumental piece towards the end of their set that works best for me, creating hypnotic rhythms that veer towards vintage Krautrock. The set maybe didn't work as well as it could have as their more downbeat sound didn't really build on the momentum that Dealing With Damage had initially set, but they were certainly intriguing.
By the time the Messthetics take to the stage, the venue is pretty full-up and there's a good aymosphere. Much that I'd enjoyed seeing them supporting Michael Rother a few weeks ago, that venue was much bigger, seated and only half-full while they were playing so, even though they had a good response, the place was a little too sparse for the performance to be as effective as it could have been. Tonight, the audience is clearly keen to see them and there's a lot of anticipation as they start the set. As before, this is music that works so much more effectively when you see them live. Obviously, the volume creates part of that, but it's also that you can watch the interaction between the players and see what's going on. Adding that factor is what really makes up for the lack of vocals or a front-man. Instead of seeking out the usual focal point, you find yourself paying attention to the way the music comes together. It's very emotive and also highly effective.
If you were unable to catch the Messthetics during this recent tour, I hope you will be able to do so very soon. Be careful not to be put-off by reviews referring to 'jazz' or 'avant-garde' leanings as, although these are certainly a part of what the band are playing, the total sum is something much more than that and will be appealing to a broader audience than specific genres might suggest. Be sure to listen with open ears !
For more information, check them out here ;
www.facebook.com/themessthetics


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The best way to make a PB&J: Experts weigh in on whether grape or strawberry jelly is the best accompaniment to peanut butter
The average American will eat 3,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in their lifetime, but which flavor of jelly is most popular?
Are you team strawberry or grape? Experts weigh in on which flavor of jelly works best in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Photo: Getty)
Peanut butter and jelly go together as naturally as macaroni and cheese. Yet, nothing is as simple as it seems. PB&J fans are divided over which jelly flavor should be used to make this classic sandwich: Is the best jelly to use in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich grape, strawberry ... or something else altogether?
The history of the PB&J
According to Markita Lewis, a registered dietician who works as a marketing and communications associate for the National Peanut Board, John Harvey Kellogg (of cereal fame) invented peanut butter in 1895. The newly-invented food quickly became a delicacy reserved for the wealthy: Those with the means to purchase peanut butter paired it with pimento cheese, celery, cucumbers and crackers.
Lewis says while no one is sure who first paired peanut butter with jelly, the first known mention of peanut butter and jelly together is in a 1901 culinary magazine. Even after the beloved pairing was first introduced, the peanut butter sandwich remained an expensive treat, usually reserved for teas and fancy affairs. That all changed in 1920, with the introduction of affordable sliced bread. Later, during the Great Depression and World War II, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches skyrocketed in popularity and became forever entrenched in American culture.
According to a 2016 survey conducted by Peter Pan Simply Ground Peanut Butter, the average American will eat almost 3,000 PB&Js in their lifetime. Yet, there still isn't a consensus on whether grape, strawberry or another type of jelly makes the best PB&J.
Lewis tells Yahoo Life there isn't any "scientific evidence to which type of jelly pairs best with peanut butter." Her "go-to is always strawberry jam or preserves," but she stresses this is only a matter of "personal preference."
According to Scott Utke, chief marketing officer at Welch's, the company attempted to "let the internet settle the debate once and for all by asking [their] Instagram followers whether they preferred Welch's Concord Grape or Strawberry spread on their PB&Js."
"Surprisingly, the answers were split down the middle," Utke tells Yahoo Life, "proving there's no right answer to this question."
Is grape best?
Many think grape is the only choice for a true peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the statistics bear that out. According to IRI Worldwide, the company that handles analytics and sales for Welch's, consumers ate 9% more grape jelly than strawberry over the last year. Data from IRI also shows that Welch's sells seven times more grape jelly than strawberry jelly.
"I think, generally speaking, for a classic PB&J, grape jelly is the only jelly," says food blogger Alea Chappell, although she adds that strawberry is better for "just about everything else." Susan Anderson, a writer at The Worthy Goods, is also turned off by strawberry jelly. "Because the taste of strawberry jam is so distinct, I find that the flavor can be overpowering at times," she says. "Grape jelly is not as strong and the tart flavor goes well with almost everything."
Cooking blogger Helen Merritt says grape is the clear choice because it's not as prevalent. "Strawberry flavors are everywhere and grape flavor feels like something fresh and untypical," she tells Yahoo Life. Writer Hebba Gouda says her love of grape jelly is all about memories from her childhood. "I love the nostalgia of a PB&J with grape jelly on Wonder Bread," she says.
Is strawberry better?
It's hard to resist the nostalgia of a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with grape jelly, but overall more prefer strawberry. Samuel Campbell, owner of Indianapolis-based restaurant PB&J Factory sees this in action daily. "Grape is a classic flavor," admits Campbell. "Most people will lean on grape because it's what they know, but once introduced to other jams, many realize that they enjoy strawberry jam."
In fact, Campbell prefers strawberry himself "because of the fruit bits."
"It gives a more natural taste," he explains.
Dee Broughton, a food writer and recipe developer says her love of strawberry jelly came from the grape jelly overkill she experienced as a child. "Growing up, my family only bought grape jelly, so I had no idea about the delicious possibilities out there," she says. "After the first time I had strawberry jam … it was love at first bite." Blogger Kelly Dedeaux also prefers strawberry. "I think strawberry jam is better because it has a stronger flavor and a more pleasant texture than grape jam," she says. "Grape jam tastes kind of like watered down fruit juice, while strawberry jam has a real fruity taste that I really enjoy."
Food blogger Vered DeLeeuw says there's a reason strawberry is superior. "Grape jelly is too sweet," she says. "It has no interesting notes to it. It's just thick, overpowering, sticky sweetness." In contrast DeLeeuw thinks "strawberry jelly is better because it [has] a mild sour note."
"Its flavor profile is more complex than that of grape jelly," she says.
What about other flavors?
Food blogger Jenny Hunter suggests branching out beyond the strawberry-or-grape debate. "If you're looking for something classic, go with grape or strawberry," says Hunter, "but, if you want to try something a bit more adventurous, don't be afraid to explore the world of wild and exotic jams."
Hunter likes "blueberry, fig, peach or something more unusual like watermelon [because] these jams will add a burst of flavor and a touch of sweetness."
DeLeeuw says "orange marmalade or preserves are marvelous," describing the variation as "complex ... and never overwhelmingly sweet." Food blogger Isabella Flint says her favorite jelly is "a little more left-field."
"Jalapeño jelly," she says, "It works brilliantly with any savory sandwich, or even just on its own with a cracker if you're tough enough."
Campbell's experience at PB&J Factory proves that options beyond grape and strawberry are great. "Our biggest signature sammies are the Cookie Monster, [made] with a cookie butter base, and our Pop's Bacon Butter Melt," he says. "[For that], we use our own in-house bacon jam."
US man given medical attention after swallowing banana wrapped in condom
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — A 34-year-old man in Iowa, US, had to be hospitalised after swallowing a banana wrapped in a cond...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Geopolitik: translation
Geopolitik is the branch of uniquely German geostrategy. It developed as a distinct strain of thought after Otto von Bismarck's unification of the German states but began its development in earnest only under Emperor Wilhelm II. Central concepts concerning the German race, and regarding economic space, demonstrate continuity from the German Imperial time up through Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. However, Imperial geostrategist, German geopoliticians, and Nazi strategists did not have extensive contacts with one another, suggesting that German "geopolitik" was not copied or passed on to successive generations, but perhaps reflected the more permanent aspects of German geography, political geography, and cultural geography.
Geopolitik developed from widely varied sources, including the writings of Oswald Spengler, Alexander Humboldt, Karl Ritter, Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf Kjellén, and Karl Haushofer. It was eventually adapted to accommodate the ideology of Adolf Hitler.
Its defining characteristic is the inclusion of organic state theory, informed by Social Darwinism. It was characterized by clash of civilizations-style theorizing. It is perhaps the closest of any school of geostrategy to a purely nationalistic conception of geostrategy, which ended up masking other more universal elements.
Germany acted as a revisionist state within the international system during both World Wars, attempting to overthrow British domination, and counter what it saw as rising American and Russian hegemony. As a latecomer to nationhood proper, lacking colonies or markets for industrial output, but also experiencing rapid population growth, Germany desired a more equitable distribution of wealth and territory within the international system. Modern scholars have begun to treat the two World Wars caused by Germany as one single war, in which the revisionist Germany attempted to bid for hegemonic control with which to reorder the international system.ref|161 While the overt motivations were racial, as was the case with most conflicts in this time period, German foreign policy was largely consistent in both wars. The Nazi foreign policy was unique insofar as it learned from what it saw as past imperial mistakes, but essentially followed the very same designs laid out by German geopolitik and the historical record of the empire.
Wilhelmine geopolitics
The origins of much of the policy later advocated by geopoliticians and implemented by the National Socialists would come out of the pre-WWI German imperial ambitions. They crafted the idea of Mitteleuropa which would provide the foundation for later conceptions of lebensraum and economic domination which would later inform geopolitician's theories on pan-regions.
The accession of Wilhelm II to power released much of the German desire for "a place in the sun," demanding a policy of annexation to increase Germany's resources and prestige in Europe. Having come late to proper nationhood, Germany perceived itself as in a vulnerable position compared to the older and more established colonial nation-states. An anti-liberal and anti-socialist campaign was led to mobilize the petty bourgeois, those who lost the most to industrialization's fluctuations. This movement was linked to anti-Semitism, first on a religious basis, then racial, then fused into a new racial nationalism.ref|132 The effort to create a Central European customs union was justified as an attempt to save German culture from the British, American, Russian and possibly Chinese domination. Not simply economic in motivation, it was had a cultural, will to power dimension.ref|133 Wilhelm himself saw Germany's struggle as a conflict for existence against the races that feared German growth. He fully expected the "Anglo-Saxons" to side with the "Gauls and Slavs" in what he thought would be the last great war between the "Teuton and the Slav."ref|134 He saw no hope in diplomacy—this struggle was not a question of politics but of race.ref|135 The racial mobilization of the petty bourgeois into a racially nationalist movement for expansionism, the conception of international politics as a struggle to save racial culture and values, and Germany's racial conflict being against the Slavs primarily, informed Germany's perception of its own place in Europe.
Germany's justification for seeking world power was based on being a young nation with high population growth, a low average national age, significant immigration and urban expansion. Germany was thus stirred to begin pushing for greater lebensraum and markets to accommodate their industrial expansion. Its borders were perceived to be too small to sustain its rapid growth, leading to a desire to split the entente that was encircling it and preventing expansion.ref|136 The most prominent German academic thought, including that of Friedrich Ratzel, declared dead peaceful competition between European states. Not top-down influences on the population, the academics were serving more as mouthpieces for larger societal forces.ref|137 Mitteleuropa emerged as a concept in an attempt to reassert German power in the European system, and in a sense undo the decision to fall under Prussia's small-Germany solution rather than Austro-Hungary's big-Germany plan.ref|138 To secure Germany's place in Europe, many German people viewed WWI as simply defensive action against the victimization of encirclement and assault waged by the European Great Powers, pushing until the end for safeguards and guarantees for the future of the German Empire.ref|139
German nationalist sentiments were roused in the pre-WWI years by books like General Friedrich von Bernhardi's "Deutschland und der nächste Krieg" clamoring for the elimination of France, the establishment of a Central European federation, and the assumption of world power through colonial acquisitions.ref|140 The core of the Second Reich's program was to create a Mitteleuropa of economic domination under German hegemony safe from France and Russia. This would be augmented by colonies chiefly in Central Africa.ref|141 Not only would fear of French and Russian power drive German imperialism but also growing American power was a further cause to unite Mitteleuropa under Germany, according to Walther Rathenau's 1912 report, augmented by the resources from Mittelafrika and Asia Minor after the disarmament of Britain.ref|142
Germany would display a consistent policy of annexation toward Mitteleuropa, attempting to establish a core comprised of a customs union with Austro-Hungary, to which smaller states would have to adhere. Conceived by Rathenau and Arthur von Gwinner, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg would later adopt it, followed by Hans Delbrück and Johannes Bell under the orders of the Chancellor.ref|143 Mitteleuropa was pushed over the protests of the industrialists for essentially political reasons. Germany needed to be able to effectively compete with larger trading nations, so that this Austro-Hungarian Germany would not be dependent on imports, with the additional benefit that Germany would have a claim to successor status if Austro-Hungary were to disintegrate. This would allow Germany to move away from protectionism in their internal markets, toward aggression in the international markets, according to Delbrück.ref|144 Further, German leaders had a desire to spread their values and cultural cohesion, in effect establishing something like the Anglo-Saxon world, whose culture was viewed as a more important force than their unrivalled fleet.ref|145 What was essentially being pursued was autarky, free from dependence on imports, with political and cultural rather than economic goals.
Poland was the strategic linchpin to German imperial designs in Eastern Europe, much like Belgium in plans in the West.ref|146 Even by 1917, Poland as a German satellite was an undiminished goal, even surpassing the desire for an Austro-Hungary dependent on the German economy.ref|147 Hollweg would bring the frontier-strip policy toward Poland into the political arena by 1914. Poland would become Germany's strategic focus against Russia, serving as a front-line defense against the Slavs once settled with Germanic peoples. More than strategic, the Germans has a "Völkish" mission to settle the land with German nationalists, and deport the Poles and Jews from the land, as a direct continuation of the historical Prusso-German Ostmark policy.ref|148
When no solution to the Polish question could be reached with Austria after the Brest-Litovsk treaty, Germany essentially dropped a pure Mitteleuropa plan in favor of a policy of Ostraum, because Poland was still the key to the Ukraine, Russia and Southeast European states that were the goal of German economic domination.ref|149 When total annexation of the East was denied Germany by Russia, Germany accepted the idea of small, autonomous middle-tier states, free from Russian troops, but associated with Germany economically.ref|150 The Austro-Hungarian problem was solved with a long-term close political, military and economic alliance.ref|151 Instead of a formal Mitteleuropa, Germany pushed for control over resource rich areas on its borders, which would push France, Belgium, Poland and Austro-Hungary into de facto dependency.ref|152 Thus, the central piece of Germany's Mitteleuropa was the desire for economic domination of the Eastern Slavic countries, with a central focus on Poland as the strategic key.
Economically, Imperial Germany would vary between a focus on internal land-based markets, and international trade based on colonialism. Bismarck, from 1867 to 1878 would abandon free trade in favor of nationalist tariff protectionism for heavy industry and large-scale agriculture.ref|153 However, the center of Wilhelm's policy would be the construction of a new fleet—sea power being the key to Great Power status—with a revisionist eye toward existing colonial possessions around the world.ref|154 Still, Germany would pursue a mercantilist economic policy with state support for large industry, intervention into markets, and the nationalization of public goods.ref|155 Rudolph Kjellén would call for an economic federation in Central Europe for the purpose of extending German colonial possessions, a sentiment endorsed by many Germans before 1914.ref|156
However, economic growth would increasingly bring Germany into conflict with England, with two distinct paths open to the empire: naval conflict with England; or land expansion within Europe.ref|157 German industry demanded political independence from British hegemony in world politics, the shattering of Russian influence, and the annexation of weak states on Germany's border for their resources.ref|158 But to break dependency on Britain, Germany required a formidable merchant marine force, which it would not have despite Wilhelm's aims.ref|159 As a kind of half-measure, Germany realized that it should pursue alliance with Italy, and encourage the strengthening of its naval presence in the Mediterranean in order to counter what British influence they could.ref|160
"Geopolitik" rises
German "geopolitik" contributed to Nazi foreign policy chiefly in the strategy and justifications for "lebensraum". "Geopolitik" contributed five ideas to German foreign policy in the interwar period: the organic state; lebensraum; autarky; pan-regions; and the land power/sea power dichotomy.
Geostrategy as a political science is both descriptive and analytical like Political Geography, but adds a normative element in its strategic prescriptions for national policy.ref|68 While it stems from earlier American and British geostrategy, German geopolitik adopts an essentialist outlook toward the national interest, oversimplifying issues and representing itself as a panacea.ref|69 As a new and essentialist ideology, geopolitik found itself in a position to prey upon the post-WWI insecurity of the populace.ref|70
In 1919, General Karl Haushofer would become professor of geography at the University of Munich. This would serve as a platform for the spread of his geopolitical ideas, magazine articles and books. By 1924, as the leader of the German geopolitik school of thought, Haushofer would establish the "Zeitschrift für Geopolitik" monthly devoted to geopolitik. His ideas would reach a wider audience with the publication of "Volk ohne Raum" by Hans Grimm in 1926, popularizing his concept of lebensraum.ref|73 Haushofer exercised influence both through his academic teachings, urging his students to think in terms of continents and emphasizing motion in international politics, and through his political activities.ref|74 While Hitler's speeches would attract the masses, Haushofer's works served to bring the remaining intellectuals into the fold.ref|75
Geopolitik was in essence a consolidation and codification of older ideas, given a scientific gloss:
*"Lebensraum" was a revised colonial imperialism;
*Autarky a new expression of tariff protectionism;
*Strategic control of key geographic territories exhibiting the same thought behind earlier designs on the Suez and Panama canals; and
*Pan-regions based upon the British Empire, and the American Monroe Doctrine, Pan-American Union and hemispheric defense.ref|88The key reorientation in each dyad is that the focus is on land-based empire rather than naval imperialism.
Ostensibly based upon the geopolitical theory of American naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan, and British geographer Halford J. Mackinder, German geopolitik adds older German ideas. Enunciated most forcefully by Friedrich Ratzel and his Swedish student Rudolf Kjellén, they include an organic or anthropomorphized conception of the state, and the need for self-sufficiency through the top-down organization of society.ref|89 The root of uniquely German geopolitik rests in the writings of Karl Ritter who first developed the organic conception of the state that would later by elaborated upon by Ratzel and accepted by Hausfhofer. He justified lebensraum, even at the cost of other nation's existence because conquest was a biological necessity for a state's growth.ref|90
Friedrich Ratzel
Ratzel's writings coincided with the growth of German industrialism after the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent search for markets that brought it into competition with England. His writings served as welcome justification for imperial expansion.ref|91 Influenced by Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that sea power was self-sustaining, as the profit from trade would pay for the merchant marine, unlike land power.ref|92 Haushofer was exposed to Ratzel, who was friends with Haushofer's father, a teacher of economic geography,ref|93 and would integrate Ratzel's ideas on the division between sea and land powers into his theories, saying that only a country with both of those could overcome this conflict.ref|94 Here, Hitler diverged with Haushofer's writings, in consigning Germany to sole pursuit of landpower.
Ratzel's key contribution was the expansion on the biological conception of geography, without a static conception of borders. States are instead organic and growing, with borders representing only a temporary stop in their movement.ref|95 It is not the state proper that is the organism, but the land in its spiritual bond with the people who draw sustenance from it.ref|96 The expanse of a state's borders is a reflection of the health of the nation.ref|97 Haushofer adopts the view that borders are largely insignificant in his writings, especially as the nation ought to be in a frequent state of struggle with those around it.ref|98
Ratzel's idea of "Raum" would grow out of his organic state conception. This early lebensraum was not political or economic, but spiritual and racial nationalist expansion.ref|99 The "Raum-motiv" is a historically driving force, pushing peoples with great "Kultur" to naturally expand.ref|100 Space for Ratzel was a vague concept, theoretically unbounded just as was Hitler's. "Raum" was defined by where German peoples live, where other inferior states could serve to support German peoples economically, and where German culture could fertilize other cultures.ref|101 Haushofer would adopt this conception of "Raum" as the central program for German geopolitik, while Hitler's policy would reflect the spiritual and cultural drive to expansion.
Rudolph Kjellén
Rudolph Kjellén was Ratzel's Swedish student who would further elaborate on organic state theory and first coined the term "geopolitics."ref|102 Kjellén's "State as a Form of Life" would outline five key concepts that would shape German geopolitik.ref|103
*"Reich" was a territorial concept that was comprised of "Raum", Lebensraum, and strategic military shape.ref|104
*"Volk" was a racial conception of the state.ref|105
*"Haushalt" was a call for autarky based on land, formulated in reaction to the vicissitudes of international markets.ref|106
*"Gesellschaft" was the social aspect of a nation's organization and cultural appeal,ref|107 Kjellén going further than Ratzel in his anthropomorphic view of states relative to each other.ref|108 And finally,
*"Regierung" was the form of government whose bureaucracy and army would contribute to the people's pacification and coordination.ref|109
Kjellén disputed the solely legalistic characterization of states, arguing that state and society are not opposites, but rather a synthesis of the two elements. The state did have a responsibility for law and order, but also for social welfare/progress, and economic welfare/progress.ref|110
Autarky, for Kjellén, was a solution to a political problem, not an economic policy proper. Dependence on imports would mean that a country would never be independent. Territory would provide for internal production. For Germany, Central and Southeastern Europe were key, along with the Near East and Africa. Haushofer was not interested in economic policy, but advocated autarky as well; a nation constantly in struggle would demand self-sufficiency.ref|111
Haushofer's contribution
Haushofer's geopolitik expands upon that of Ratzel and Kjellén. While the latter two conceive of geopolitik as the state as an organism in space put to the service of a leader, Haushofer's Munich school specifically studies geography as it relates to war and designs for empire.ref|113 The behavioral rules of previous geopoliticians were thus turned into dynamic normative doctrines for action on lebensraum and world power.ref|114
Haushofer defined geopolitik in 1935 as "the duty to safeguard the right to the soil, to the land in the widest sense, not only the land within the frontiers of the Reich but also the right to the more extensive "Volk" and cultural lands."ref|115 Culture itself was seen as the most conducive element to dynamic special expansion. It provided a guide as to the best areas for expansion, and could make expansion safe, whereas projected military or commercial power could not.ref|116 Haushofer even held that urbanization was a symptom of a nation's decline by giviing evidence a decreasing soil mastery, birthrate, and effectiveness of centralized rule.ref|117
To Haushofer, the existence of a state depended on living space, the pursuit of which must serve as the basis for all policies. Germany had a high population density, whereas the old colonial powers had a much lower density, a virtual mandate for German expansion into resource-rich areas.ref|118 Space was seen as military protection against initial assaults from hostile neighbors with long-range weaponry. A buffer zone of territories or insignificant states on one's borders would serve to protect Germany.ref|119 Closely linked to this need, was Haushofer's assertion that the existence of small states was evidence of political regression and disorder in the international system. The small states surrounding Germany ought to be brought into the vital German order.ref|120 These states were seen as being too small to maintain practical , even if they maintained large colonial possessions, and would be better served by protection and organization within Germany. In Europe, he saw Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, Greece and the "mutilated alliance" of Austro-Hungary as supporting his assertion.ref|121
Haushofer's version of autarky was based on the quasi-Malthusian idea that the earth would become saturated with people and no longer able to provide food for all. There would essentially be no increases in productivity.ref|122
Haushofer and the Munich school of geopolitik would eventually expand their conception of lebensraum and autarky well past the borders of 1914 and "a place in the sun" to a New European Order, then to a New Afro-European Order, and eventually to a Eurasian Order.ref|125 This concept became known as a pan-region, taken from the American Monroe Doctrine, and the idea of national and continental self-sufficiency.ref|126 This was a forward-looking refashioning of the drive for colonies, something that geopoliticians did not see as an economic necessity, but more as a matter of prestige, and putting pressure on older colonial powers. The fundamental motivating force would not be economic, but cultural and spiritual.ref|128
Beyond being an economic concept, pan-regions were a strategic concept as well. Haushofer acknowledges the strategic concept of the Heartland put forward by the British geopolitician Halford Mackinder.ref|129 If Germany could control Eastern Europe and subsequently Russian territory, it could control a strategic area to which hostile seapower could be denied.ref|130 Allying with Italy and Japan would further augment German strategic control of Eurasia, with those states becoming the naval arms protecting Germany's insular position.ref|131
Contacts with Nazi leadership
Evidence points to a disconnect between geopoliticians and the Nazi leadership, although their practical tactical goals were nearly indistinguishable.ref|72
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's secretary who would assist in the writing of "Mein Kampf", was a close student of Haushofer's. While Hess and Hitler were imprisoned after the Munich Putsch in 1923, Haushofer spent six hours visiting the two, bringing along a copy of Friedrich Ratzel's "Political Geography" and Carl von Clausewitz's "Vom Kriege".ref|76 After World War II, Haushofer would deny that he had taught Hitler, and claimed that the National Socialist party perverted Hess's study of geopolitik. He viewed Hitler as a half-educated man who never correctly understood the principles of geopolitik passed onto him by Hess, and Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop as the principle distorter of geopolitik in Hitler's mind.ref|77 While Haushofer accompanies Hess on numerous propaganda missions, and participated in consultations between Nazis and Japanese leaders, he claimed that Hitler and the Nazis only seized upon half-developed ideas and catchwords.ref|78 Furthermore, the Nazi party and government lacked any official organ that was receptive to geopolitik, leading to selective adoption and poor interpretation of Haushofer's theories. Ultimately, Hess and Von Neurath, Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs, were the only officials Haushofer who had a proper understanding of geopolitik.ref|79
Father Edmund A. Walsh S.J., professor of geopolitics and dean at Georgetown University, who interviewed Haushofer after the allied victory in preparation for the Nuremberg trials, disagreed with Haushofer's assessment that geopolitik was terribly distorted by Hitler and the Nazis.ref|80 He cites Hitler's speeches declaring that small states have no right to exist and the Nazi use of Haushofer's maps, language and arguments. Even if distorted somewhat, Fr. Walsh felt that was enough to implicate Haushofer's geopolitik.ref|81
Haushofer also denied assisting Hitler in writing "Mein Kampf", saying that he knew of it only once it was in print and never read it.ref|82 Fr. Walsh found that even if Haushofer did not directly assist Hitler, discernible new elements appeared in "Mein Kampf", as compared to previous speeches made by Hitler. Geopolitical ideas of lebensraum, space for depth of defense, appeals for natural frontiers, balancing land and seapower, and geographic analysis of military strategy entered Hitler's thought between his imprisonment and publishing of "Mein Kampf".ref|83 Chapter XIV, on German policy in Eastern Europe, in particular displays the influence of the materials Haushofer brought Hitler and Hess while they were imprisoned.ref|84
Haushofer was never an ardent Nazi, and did voice disagreements with the party, leading to his brief imprisonment. He did profess loyalty to the Führer and make anti-Semitic remarks on occasion. However, his emphasis was always on space over race.ref|85 He refused to associate himself with anti-Semitism as a policy, especially because his wife was half-Jewish.ref|86 Haushofer admits that after 1933 much of what he wrote was distorted under duress: his wife had to be protected by Hess's influence; his son was murdered by the Gestapo; he himself was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp for eight months; and his son and grandson were imprisoned for two-and-a-half months.ref|87
Hitler's geostrategy
The name "National Socialism" itself describes the fundamental orientation of Hitler's foreign policy. The nation, as a concept, was historically used almost interchangeably with race or ethnicity. Even under the League of Nations' legalistic framework for European state relations, states had been drawn upon ethnically determined boundaries, following the tenets of Wilson's Fourteen Points speech.ref|2 The first priority of the National Socialists was to focus on the racial aspects of foreign policy. Socialism, on the other hand, is focused on the equitable distribution and redistribution of material goods within an economic system. As a latecomer to nationhood proper and industrialization, Germany was far behind other older colonial powers in the acquisition of territory abroad. Burdened with a burgeoning population, Germany had lagging ability to raise agricultural production to meet food demands, compete in markets for industrial goods, obtain cheap sources of raw materials, and find an acceptable outlet for emigration. National Socialist foreign policy thus focused on what they perceived as a more equitable international redistribution of material resources and markets.ref|3
Hitler's foreign policy strategy can be divided into two main concepts: race and space. In 1928, Hitler dictated the text of a follow-up text to "Mein Kampf" focused on the elaboration of the foreign policy concepts he had previously set forth.ref|4 Unedited and unpublished it allows a clearer picture of Hitler's thoughts than the edited and revised Mein Kampf, or his populist and over-simplified speeches. There is a lack of development or major shifts in his worldview between the 1926 volume and his assumption of power in 1933, supporting the idea that Hitler was not a foreign policy opportunist, but that his ideas were specific and formed before he had the power to implement his designs.ref|5
Hitler outlined eight principles and four goals that were to guide his foreign policy. The principles were concerned with the German military, the League of Nations and the situation with France. Hitler's first concern was the reinvigoration of the German military, without which all other aims could not be achieved. The League of Nations was a prohibitive factor in the development and change of Germany because those with influence in the League were the very same states that had demanded Germany's crippling.ref|6 Germany could not hope for allies found outside the League but for only discontent states that would be willing to break away. Those states would not be willing to leave unless Germany established a clear and articulated foreign policy, with clear costs and consequences, which the others could then follow. He cautions, however, that Germany cannot rely upon inferior allies (undesirable either by dint of their race or past military weakness).ref|7 France, and the containment alliance it led against Germany, could not be challenged without the strong military Hitler envisioned and a decisive preemptive strike.ref|8 He recognized that no matter what path Germany takes to regain its strength, France would always assist or even lead a coalition against it.ref|9
Hitler's goals for Nazi foreign policy were more straightforward, focusing on German space, rather than the strictly racial aspects of his policy. His designs are meant to give Germany the focus that it lacked in the previous thirty-five years of "aimlessness."ref|10 He calls for a clear foreign policy of space, not international trade or industry. The concept of lebensraum in the East overrided any perceived need for naval power, which would only bring Germany into conflict with England and Italy. Industrial exports and trade would require a merchant marine force, meeting most directly with the enmity of England, and France its willing ally. Therefore, land expansion was Hitler's primary goal, eschewing the borders of 1914, calling them nationally inadequate, militarily unsatisfactory, ethnically impossible, and insane when considered in light of Germany's opposition in Europe.ref|11
While the goals and principles Hitler enunciated were primarily focused on the redistribution of space, they grew out of his focus on race. By 1923, Hitler had outlined his basic ideas on race. The Jews had betrayed Germany in WWI, a fact that necessitated a domestic revolution to remove them from power. He saw history as governed by the racial aspects of society, both internal and national. In his mind, a vulgarized sort of Social Darwinism determined the rise and fall of civilizations.ref|12 The world was composed not of states, but of competing races of different values,ref|13 and politics was fundamentally a struggle led by those with the greatest capacity for organization, a characteristic held by Germanic peoples more than any other.ref|14 Nations of pure and strong racial makeup would eventually prosper over those with ideas of racial equality—France was condemned in this regard because of its acceptance of blacks, and the use of black units in WWI against German troops. Acceptance of inferior races was intimately connected to the Jewish menace, and its threat to the strength of the Germanic race.ref|15
The vital strength of a race and its will to survive were the most important conditions which would lead to a resurgence of Germany, despite its lack of resources and materiel.ref|16 The reestablishment of a truly nationalist German army, free from the hired mercenaries of the imperial era, was Hitler's first goal.ref|17 With the threat or use of force, Germany would be able to move forward in achieving its goals for space. Thus, he implemented the Four Year Plan in order to overcome internal obstacles to military growth. A German army of considerable size would push its neighbors into conciliation and negotiation without the need for actual military adventures.ref|18 In justifying the need for decisive military action, Hitler cites a lesson from WWI: those who are neutral gain a little in trade, but lose their seat at the victor's table, and thus their right to decide the structure of the peace to follow. He thus renounced neutrality, and committed his country to taking vital risks that would lead to greater gains.ref|19
Hitler's racial ideas were indirectly expressed in his concept of space for German foreign policy.ref|20 Space was not a global concept in the same way that older imperial states conceived of it, with their massive colonial empires carving up the world abroad. Hitler saw value in only adjacent and agriculturally viable land, not in trade and industry outlets that required a maritime orientation. He had no faith in increasing productivity, thus leading to the need to expand within Europe.ref|21 Lebensraum for Germany required moving beyond the "arbitrary" goal of the border of 1914, expanding into the East, and adopting policies toward the Western European nations, Great Powers, and treaty arrangements, which would facilitate this land redistribution.
A lack of space for a race's growth would lead to its decay through degenerate population control methods and dependence upon other nations' imports.ref|22 Expansion is directly correlated to the race's vitality, space allowing for larger families that would repopulate the nation from the losses it incurs fighting wars for territory. Where Hitler's expansionism differed greatly from that of imperial nations was his idea of racial purity, which required driving out or exterminating the native populations of any conquered territory.ref|23 Industry and trade were only transient solutions, subject to the vicissitudes of the market, and likely leading to war as economic competition escalates.ref|24 Lebensraum was thus the only permanent solution for securing the German race's vitality.ref|25 Colonies would take far too long to solve the Reich's agriculture and space problem; furthermore, they constitute a naval and industrial policy rather than a land-based agricultural policy, which is where Germany's strength lies.ref|26 Thus, Hitler committed Germany to a role as a land power rather than a sea power, and focused his foreign policy on attaining the highest possible concentration of land power resources for a future that lay in Europe.ref|27
The racial struggle for space envisioned by Hitler was essentially unlimited, a policy that could only have two results: total defeat or total conquest. Rudolf Hess discovered in 1927, while the two were imprisoned at Landsberg prison, that Hitler believed only one race with total hegemony could bring about world peace.ref|28 Hitler confirmed this attitude, regarding Europe specifically, in August 1943 speaking to his naval advisors, declaring, "Only if all of Europe is united under a strong central power can there be any security for Europe from now on. Small sovereign states no longer have a right to exist."ref|29
Lebensraum as a foreign policy concept was based upon domestic considerations, especially that of population growth and the pressure it placed upon existing German resources. War for lebensraum was justified by this need to reestablish an acceptable ratio between land and people.ref|30 Whereas the Weimar foreign policy was based on borders, the National Socialist foreign policy would be based on space and expansionism, pointing to fundamentally different conceptions of world order—the bourgeois saw in terms of states and law, whereas Hitler maintained an image of ethnic or racially defined nationhood.ref|31 Lebensraum served to create the economic condition of autarky, in which the German people would be self-sufficient, no longer dependent on imports, or subject to demand shifts in international markets, which had been forcing industry to struggle against other nations.ref|32
To achieve Lebensraum, Hitler cautioned against what he saw as a dangerous Weimar policy of demanding a return to the 1914 borders. Foremost, and inexcusable in his mind, those borders would not unite all ethnic Germans under the Reich.ref|33 In order to commit to a nation of all German-speaking peoples, the borders of 1914 must be abandoned as incompatible with racial unity and their arbitrary nature.ref|34 Open advocacy of border restoration would only urge a coalition to form against Germany before it could raise an army to achieve its ends.ref|35 Further, he believed that empty saber-rattling on this issue would shift public opinion against Germany, in support of France's anti-German measures and, even if achieved, would guarantee only instability without achieving the racial goals he sees as so central to German vitality.ref|36
This doctrine of space focused on Eastern Europe, taking territory from the ethnically inferior Slavs.ref|37 While Western European nations were despised for allowing racial impurity, they were still essentially Aryan nations, but the small and weak Slavic nations to the East were legitimate targets. In talking to the Associated Press, Hitler commented that if Germany acquired the Ukraine, Urals and territory into the heartland of Siberia it would be able to have surplus prosperity.ref|38 Thus, Germany would have to be concerned about the newly independent states to the East, sitting between Germany and its goal of Russian territory. These states, especially the reconstituted Poland, were viewed as "Saisonstaat", or states that exist for no enduring reason.ref|39 No alliance with Russia would be possible either, because of German designs on Eastern territory.ref|40 Still, Hitler maintained faith that if Germany were to make clear its aspirations for space in the inferior East, the Great Powers in Europe would not intervene with the possible exception of France.ref|41
Great Power relationships
Because of French opposition, it was crucial for Germany's plans to defeat France before moving against the states in the East and Russia.ref|42 As an ally of Poland and Yugoslavia, a supporter of racial equality, and a constant opponent of German designs, action against France was deemed the highest priority in allowing those designs to come to fruition. By allying with states hostile to France and its coalition, Germany's military first-strike would be quickly successful.ref|43
England was supposed to be Germany's natural ally, according to Hitler. It maintained good relations with Italy, while sharing key German interests, foremost of which was that neither country desired a French continental hegemon.ref|44 Since Hitler had decided to abandon Germany's naval power, trade and colonial ambitions, he believed that they would be likely to ally with Germany against France, which still maintained conflicting interests with England. And because Russia threatened English interests in Middle Eastern oil and India, action against Russia ought to also find German and England on the same side.ref|45
Italy would serve as Germany's other natural ally. Hitler perceived their interests as being far enough apart that they would not come into conflict.ref|46 Germany was concerned primarily with Eastern Europe, while Italy's natural domain was the Mediterranean. Still, their divergent interests both led them into conflict with France. Ideological ties were supposed to ease their relations, providing than something more than simply shared interests to bind them together.ref|47 The major sticking point between the two countries was Alto Adige/South Tyrol. Hitler believed (incorrectly in retrospect) that if he were to cede this territory, then Italy would drop its objections to the Anschluss.ref|48
Hitler repeatedly stressed another long-term fear, apparently driving his desire for German economic domination of European resources, which was the rise of America as a Great Power. Underlining his lack of faith in the ability to increase agricultural or industrial productivity, he cites America's vast size as the reason that economic policy will fail and expansionism can be the only route for Germany.ref|49 He rejects popular conceptions of a Pan-European economic union designed to counter American economic power by saying that life is not measured by quantity of material goods, but by the quality of a nation's race and organization.ref|50 Instead of this Pan-Europe, Hitler desires a free association of superior nations bound by their shared interest in challenging America's domination of the world. In his mind, American economic power is more threatening than English domination of the world.ref|51 Only after defeating France and Russia could Germany establish its Eurasian empire that would lead nations against America, whose power he saw as undermined by its acceptance of Jews and Blacks.ref|52
Bases for Hitler's strategies
In constructing these designs for Europe, Hitler realized that treaties would serve him as only short-term measures. They could be used for immediate space-gaining instruments, partitioning third countries between Germany and another power, or they could function as a means of delaying a problem until it could be dealt with safely. Treaties of alliance were regarded as viable only if both parties clearly gained; otherwise, they could legitimately be dropped. Multilateral treaties were to be strenuously avoided.ref|53 Even among countries that shared interests, alliances could never be planned on being permanent, as the allied state could become the enemy at short notice.ref|54 Still, Hitler realized that Germany would need allies in order to successfully leave the League of Nations and pursue its goals.ref|55
Hitler had not traveled abroad or read extensively, and as such his foreign policy grew out of his domestic concerns.ref|56 Foreign policy's ultimate goal was the sustenance of its people, and so domestic concerns were tightly connected and complimentary to foreign policy initiatives.ref|57 Thus, the traditional separation of domestic and foreign policy do not apply in the same way to German policy under the National Socialists. The domestic situation informed foreign policy goals, and foreign policy requirements demanded certain domestic organization and mobilization.ref|58 It is clear, however, that what appears as opportunism in the conduct of Nazi foreign policy was actually the result of plans conceived well before Hitler assumed power, and in line with his long-term theories of political vitality based on historical experience.ref|59
Hitler idolized Germany in the times of Bismarck's Prussia, before the democratic Reich botched treaties and alliances, ultimately undermining German ethnic goals.ref|60 Bismarck succeeded in giving Germany a suitably "organic" state, such that the German race could realize its "right to life."ref|61 He achieved prestige for Germany by uniting the varied German states into the Reich, but was unable to unite the whole German nation or pursue a truly ethnic foreign policy.ref|62 Hitler perceived the Reich's rallying cry of peace as giving it no goal, consistency or stability in foreign policy, and allowing it no options to take aggressive steps to realize those goals.ref|63 He cites the warning of the Pan-German League against the "disastrous" policy of the Wilheminian period.ref|64 The borders of the Reich were inherently unstable in his opinion, allowing for easy avenues of attack by hostile powers, with no natural geographic barriers for protection, and incapable of feeding the German people.ref|65 His central criticism of the Reich was that it too failed to unify the German people, and failed to pursue a policy that would solve the agricultural problem, in lieu of policies aimed at attaining international prestige and recognition.ref|66
The Weimar government, which could do no good in Hitler's eyes, was centrally responsible for the treasonous act of signing the peace at Versailles, which he held crippled Germany and placed it at the mercy of hostile powers. In fact, Versailles had not significantly weakened Germany, as it still had the largest population in Europe, with skilled workers and substantial resources. Russia, which Bismarck had feared and allied with Austro-Hungary against, had been defeated in WWI and then underwent a destabilizing revolution. Austro-Hungary itself had been divided into a number of small weak states. If not absolutely, Germany was in a relatively better position than most states after WWI.ref|67
Hitler's National Socialist foreign policy contained four broad goals: racial unification, agricultural autarky, lebensraum in the East, culminating in a Eurasian land-based empire. Not justified by strategic or realpolitik considerations, Hitler's ideas stemmed almost exclusively from his conception of racial struggle and the natural consequences of the need for German expansion. The historical record shows that German geopoliticians, chief among them General Karl Haushofer, were in contact with and taught Nazi officials, including Adolph Hitler, Rudolf Hess and Konstantin von Neurath. Furthermore, Nazi leaders used the language of geopolitik, along with Haushofer's maps, and reasoning in their public propaganda. How receptive they were to the true intent of Haushofer's geopolitik, and what that intent was exactly, is unclear. The ideas of racial organic states, lebensraum, and autarky clearly found their way into Hitler's thinking, whereas pan-regions and the landpower-seapower dichotomy did not appear prominently, much less correctly, in National Socialist strategy. Examination of Germany's pre-WWI imperial aims demonstrates that many of the ideas which would later surface in Nazi thought were not novel, but simply continuations of the same revisionist strategic aims. Racially motivated autarky, achieved by annexation, especially in the East, found its way into National Socialist policy as a continuous and coherent whole. However, Hitler along with the geopoliticians would drop the imperial focus on industry, trade and naval power. The practical outcomes of Imperial, geostrategic, and Nazi foreign policy plans were all largely the same.
*Geojurisprudence
*Mitteleuropa
*Mittelafrika
*Beukema, Col. Herman. "Introduction." "The World of General Haushofer." Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York: 1984.
*Dorpalen, Andreas. "The World of General Haushofer." Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., New York: 1984.
*Fischer, Fritz. "Germany's Aims in the First World War." W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York: 1967.
*Gilpin, Robert. "War and Change in World Politics." Cambridge University Press, New York: 1981.
*Hitler, Adolph. ed. Gerhard Weinberg. trans. Krista Smith. "Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf." Enigma Books, New York: 2003.
*Knutsen, Torbjørn L. "The Rise and Fall of World Orders." Manchester University Press, New York: 1999.
*Mackinder, Halford J. "Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction." National Defense University Press, Washington D.C.: 1942.
*Mattern, Johannes. "Geopolitik: Doctrine of National Self-Sufficiency and Empire." The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore: 1942.
*Polish forum about geopolitics: http://www.geopolityka.fora.pl.
*Rasler Karen & William R. Thompson. "The Great Powers and Global Struggle: 1490-1990." The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky: 1994.
*Tammem, Ronald L. et al. "Power Transitions: Strategies for the 21st Century." Chatham House Publishers, New York: 2000.
*Walsh, S.J., Edmund A. "Total Power: A Footnote to History." Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York: 1949.
*Weinberg, Gerhard L. "Introduction." "Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf." Enigma Books, New York: 2003.
*Weinberg, Gerhard L. "The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe 1933-36." The University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1970.
*Wilson, Woodrow. "The Fourteen Points Speech." 8 January 1918. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/51.htm
* Chauprade, Aymeric, "Géopolitique - Constantes et changements dans l'histoire", Ellipses, Parijs, 2003. ISBN 2729811222
* Criekemans, David, "Geopolitiek, 'geografisch geweten' van de buitenlandse politiek?", Garant, Antwerpen/Apeldoorn, 2007.- 848 p.: ill..- ISBN 90-441-1969-9
*Carr, William. "Arms, Autarky and Aggression: A Study in German Foreign Policy, 1933-1939." W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York: 1972.
*Dickenson, Robert E. "The German Lebensraum." Penguin Books, New York: 1943.
*Herb, Guntram Henrik. "Under the Map of Germany: Nationalism & Propaganda, 1918-1945." Routledge, New York: 1997.
*Hitler, Adolph. "Mein Kampf." Munich, Germany: 1927.
*Hoetzsch, Otto. "Germany's Domestic and Foreign Policies." Yale University Press, New Haven, Massachusetts: 1929.
* Maull, Otto. " Das Wesen der Geopolitik" B.G. Taubner,Leipzig: 1941.
*Murphy, David Thomas. "The Heroic Earth: Geopolitical Thought in Weimar Germany, 1918-1933." The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio: 1997.
*Sheenan, James J. et al. "Imperial Germany." New Viewpoints, New York: 1976.
Elvin Bishop
Geopolitik — Als Geopolitik wird die sozial , vor allem aber politikwissenschaftliche Interpretation geographischer Gegebenheiten bezeichnet. Für militärische Erwägungen ist vor allem die Subdisziplin der Geostrategie von Bedeutung. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Geopolitik — Geo|po|li|tik 〈f.; ; unz.〉 Lehre von der Wechselwirkung geografischer u. politischer Gegebenheiten [<grch. ge "Erde" + Politik] * * * Geo|po|li|tik [auch: ge:o…, auch, österr. nur: …tɪk], die; , en: 1. <o. Pl.> Wissenschaft von der… … Universal-Lexikon
Geopolitik — Ge|o|po|li|tik 〈f.; Gen.: ; Pl.: unz.〉 Lehre von der Wechselwirkung geographischer u. politischer Gegebenheiten … Lexikalische Deutsches Wörterbuch
Geopolitik — Geo|po|li|tik [auch ge:o...] die; <zu ↑geo... u. ↑Politik> Wissenschaft von der Einwirkung geografischer Faktoren auf politische Vorgänge u. Kräfte … Das große Fremdwörterbuch
geopolitik — geo·po·li·tik … English syllables
geopolitik — geo|po|li|tik sb., ken (læren om politiske begivenheders afhængighed af geografiske forhold) … Dansk ordbog
geopolitik — s ( en) … Clue 9 Svensk Ordbok
Geopolitik — Geo|po|li|tik [auch ge:o...], die; (Lehre von der Einwirkung geografischer Faktoren auf politische Vorgänge) … Die deutsche Rechtschreibung
geopolitik — ˌgāōˌpōlēˈtēk noun ( s) Usage: usually capitalized Etymology: German, from ge + politik politics more at realpolitik : geopolitics … Useful english dictionary
Politische Geografie — Geopolitik ist eine Mischung aus Geographie, Politik, Geschichte und Sozialwissenschaft. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Ursprung 2 1. 2. Weltkrieg 3 Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg 4 21. Jahrhundert … Deutsch Wikipedia


Update: New music website opened.
I have just opened a new homepage for my music projects. The site will list works that are available, with background information, lyrics and links to downloads.
I have made this website independent of the main site in order to have information available in a clear and concise form for anyone potentially interested in my music, and also in order to better tailor the aesthetics of the site to suit the content.


October 6, 2010 - by InterestingFacts.org - 52 Comments.
It is really unbelievable.If the article is really true then I believe that man is born with some super natural powers otherwise He may belongs to some other planet.
It's only because he ate no food that was preserved. Just rice. Rice rots, unlike almost everything here where no one knows the shelf life of a McDonald's cheese burger. Have a professor from Middle school that has had a twinky on her desk for over twenty years now. It's still moist and fresh. That is if this questionable story is in fact true.
In the Bible, you find many characters lived more than a few hundred years old. We were never created to die in the first place; until sin came in. Death is an enemy.
Also, the belief system in men is that it is unbelievable for one to live far more than a century old and beyond. Whatever we strongly believe, to quite a degree we see it manifest and becomes our reality.
yeah right…..sin also came in very early in your fairy tale.
I thought that he practices some natural methods to kept his life for long years.He may be ate natural food like non cooked food and vegetables.Tension reduces men's life.He may be lived in the world without tension mind.He may not be ate oiled foods and junk foods.
He may be used some powerful herbals to kept his life for long years.
known by some of us.
Can I make a little correction?
In the 7th paragraph, the 3rd line in that paragraph, the work "proof" is suppose to be prove.
I had a hard time reading this due to all the grammatical errors. I was eager to read about it in the beginning but then the writing fell short for me and all I could focus on was how much better this could have been written.
dude…..this is a total fake!!!
Was wondering, if his own herbs helped him extend his life.. Indian yogis are known to have had herbs that helped you to do the nearly impossible.
We must get inspired by this.
SALE GAND PAUN LAI BAITHE NI, MERI UMAR V 788 SALL HAI SALEO…….
Out of a medical perspective – a mutation within a person's chromosomes can really do many changes to people. Most such "mutants" die upon birth. But it's not impossible that one out of a billion is born with such genetic mutations that allow his body to remain functional for longer period of time than it's "normal". It's very, very improbable but not impossible. It's not an "Incredible Hulk" scenario. 100 years + or – can easily be affected by genetic mutations with modern medicine if only we can get the proper funds from either private backers or governments. Unfortunatelly most seem to feel that we are "playing God".
I think he is Still ALIVE!!! He just had to fake his DEATH, for obvious reasons!
Yes lets put playing God in quotes…that makes it less true. People have never made or done something that went completely wrong. I have a dollar coming your way Dr. Obmens.I've got faith in "you".
I have no idea how to respond. I can only assume that you agree. Because it's good for my ego and because I didn't really understand sentence nr 2.
Hello! What are these people talking……i mean how is it possible a 256 year old man…….it can't just be possible……if I'm right these are exaggerations….I agree you need to check the whole fact for lots of grammatical errors…..page is full of them……you know when I was reading I started hiccuping….NOT POSSIBLE!!!!!???????he himself claims he is 197 years old and you make it 256 you raised it by 99 years……he has to be an alien to live that long…..!!!???
I don't think so it is true means nobody can live till 256 years and above that the person is saying that reason behind his long life is peace of mind means if this is true then person having 23 Wives in his life can never be peaceful minded. I have a really serious doubts about his life and age.
They did some studies on rats and found if they gave them like 60% of thier calorie "needs" they would live 30%+ longer.. if his genes would have let him live to 200 (a possibility) the low calorie diet could account for the 56 years easily.
Genetics have been proved medically to change up tp 40% in a lifetime – so mutation is actually a fact of life . But be warned ; you can also mutate the other way too negatively ! Cold weather freezes meat , you too . Eating less calories adds years onto your life , just make sure its the right calories ( blood type ,) then less calories = more than enough ! Atoms spin ; the solar system and stars move , imitate this ; the reason why the Universe still exists ! The brain is a muscle , so keep on studying or atrophy of thoughts occur and the brains health diminishes !!Is it possible to live to 260 years ; of course it is – studies in bio-geometrical shapes in the body prove this and more !
Then you should believe this.
In the bible it says god will let no man surpass the age of 120 years.
Yeah….and the bible is complete bull****.
I think this is very true.He lived in a time of no cars,no fast food,or greed.He lived his live with out being stressed out.You are is what you eat.The herbs have so many great things and many things we don't even know about.He knew what he was doing and he did it.There are others who lived long lives back in those days,but today with all the crap going around and poisons in our food,air,water ect sooner or later our live span will go down farther than it is right now.
Nowhere does the bible say God limited the age of man! in fact it says the opposite. Methuselah was over 800 years old Adam was 940 moses was 150! Ever hear of John the revelator ? He is still alive today and will continue to be until Christ's return! I think you need to read the bible again Tracy !
If it says these things, then don't read it at all. Why read junk literature….the bible, national inquirer of the dark ages.
The oldest verified living person was 123 so apparently "God let her live past 120 years".
This is an early scenario similar to Aubrey De Grey's theories.


text:
Q: virtual function and static_cast Please take a look at this code snippet
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class foo{
    public:
    virtual void v1(){
        std::cout << "In Base this:" << std::hex << this << "\n";
    }
};

class bar:public foo{
    public:
    void v1() {
        std::cout << "In Derived this:" << std::hex << this << "\n";
    }
};

int main() {
    bar a, b, c;
    static_cast<foo*>(&a)->v1();
    static_cast<foo*>(&b)->v1();
    static_cast<foo*>(&c)->v1();
    static_cast<foo>(b).v1();
    static_cast<foo>(b).v1();
    return 0;
}

The output is
In Derived this:0x7ffe8a9e8890
In Derived this:0x7ffe8a9e88a0
In Derived this:0x7ffe8a9e88b0
In Base this:0x7ffe8a9e88c0
In Base this:0x7ffe8a9e88c0

As evident from value of this pointer static_cast<foo>(b) creates a completely new variable.
Moreover, further calls to static_cast<foo>(b) refer to the previously created variable.
Could someone explain this behavior.
EDIT:
From the comments I get why static_cast<foo>(b) would create a new variable. Still what I could not understand is that why multiple calls to static_cast<foo>(b) refer to the same variable. Is is a compiler optimization ?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This very special holy water is blessed water I have retrieved from several sacred holy places on earth! I pour them into these beautiful 2 ounce plastic bottles inscribed with a gold cross and the words "holy water". You have a choice of holy water I brought back from either Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe or Medjugorje.
Please Note: This is authentic holy water from these locations.


text:
Cernégula, denominación de un antiguo municipio, código INE-09099 , hoy corresponde a la localidad y Entidad Local Menor homónima en la comunidad autónoma de Castilla y León, provincia de Burgos (España). Está situada en la comarca de Alfoz de Burgos y en la actualidad depende del Ayuntamiento de Merindad de Río Ubierna.

Situación
Dista 25 km de la capital del municipio, Sotopalacios, en la subida al Páramo de Masa
 Carretera:  En el punto kilométrico 35 de la carretera autonómica  de Sotopalacios  a El Berrón  pasando por Villarcayo y también por el puerto de La Mazorra.

Historia
Lugar que formaba parte, de la Jurisdicción de Río Ubierna en el Partido de Burgos , uno de los catorce que formaban la Intendencia de Burgos, durante el periodo comprendido entre 1785 y 1833, en el Censo de Floridablanca de 1787 , jurisdicción de realengo, alcalde pedáneo.

Demografía

En el Censo de la matrícula catastral contaba con 25 hogares y 96 vecinos.

Entre el Censo de 1857 y el anterior, crece el término del municipio porque incorpora a 095102 Quintanajuar.

Entre el Censo de 1981 y el anterior, este municipio desaparece porque se agrupa en el municipio 09906 Merindad de Río Ubierna, contaba con una extensión superficial de 2.398 hectáreas.

En 2006, la pedanía contaba con 50 habitantes, de los cuales 9 correspondían a Quintanajuar.

Tradiciones
La mítica Charca de la Brujas, también conocida popularmente como 'La Charca' o 'La Pila', es lugar de aquelarres y conciliábulos brujeriles. Se alimenta de aguas pluviales y procedentes del deshielo. En invierno cuenta con una gruesa capa de hielo permite patinar y aunque su nivel disminuye en verano, no se la conoce seca.

En la laguna de Cernégula se reúnen las brujas de Cantabria, gritaban entonces: " Sin Dios y sin María, ¡ Por la chimenea arriba ! ", y se echaban a volar.

"Todos los Sábados las brujas de Cantabria... tras churrar (uuuyyyy!)... en las cenizas del hogar y al grito de... '¡Sin Dios y sin Santa María, por la chimenea arriba!'... parten volando en escobas o transformadas en cárabos... rumbo a Cernégula... donde celebran sus reuniones brujeriles alrededor de un espino... para... luego del bailoteo, chapuzarse en una charca de agua helada...

Se dice que en una gruta cercana a Suances... junto a una bolera de oro soterrada... Allí, las brujas celebran su aquelarre... o parten en humeante enjambre hacia Cernégula... lo que explica el cantar:

'De la cueva de Ongayo salió una bruja con la greña caída y otra 'brujuca'. Al llegar a Cernégula ¡válgame el cielo! un diablo cornudo bailó con ellas. Por el Redentor, por Santa María, con el rabo ardiendo ¡cómo bailarían...!"

Las brujas de la región se reúnen en un claro del bosque, sobre una loma... escoba y con el poder del "unto" que guardan acuden al aquelarre de Cernegula,...

El páramo
El Páramo de Masa es una gran explanada azotada por un vierto norte que corta como una cuchilla afilada. Muy erosionada y con escaso suelo permite solo una vegetación adaptada a estas duras condiciones: brezo, gayuba, tomillo, espliego, enebro y alguna sabina rastrera.

Hábitat ideal para un buen número de aves esteparias: agachadiza, calandria, alguna alondra de Dupont; granívoras como la codorniz y la perdiz; rapaces como el cernícalo, aguilucho cenizo y córvidos como la grajilla, la urraca (picaraza).

La laguna
Desde un punto de vista paisajístico la laguna es lo más llamativo, aún habiendo sido alterada con la construcción de una isla artificial. El suelo calizo propicia, por la erosión del agua, la aparición del típico paisaje kárstico con hundimientos, torcas, y la formación de lagunas endorreicas.

La vista desde la carretera, cuando se desciende del páramo de Villalta, es cambiente cada día del año, e incluso cada hora. La laguna crea reflejos y colores que contrastan con las tierras rojas y los páramos usados como pasto.

Ruta de las lagunas
Con unos siete kilómetros de recorrido y partiendo de la caharca la ruta sigue por los corrales del despoblado de origen medieval conocido como Pozo Rubio , después de dejar la laguna de Pila Vieja a la derecha. La tercera laguna de origen kárstico, conocida como la de Venta Parra.

Vegetación
El moral como árbol singular y los espinos que crecen junto a la laguna. Dos amplios encinares detrás de la laguna, y repoblado de pinar hacia el páramo

Parroquia
Iglesia parroquial, bajo la advocación de Nuestra Señora de la Natividad, portada gótica blasonada, retablo mayor de estilo barroco, patrono San Miguel.

La procesión con el Santo San Miguel por las calles del pueblo. Durante la procesión es tradicional el 'baile al Santo', bailado, al son de la dulzaina y el tamboril, y degustar los frutos del moral.

Referencias

Bibliografía
 Miguel Ángel Moreno Gallo. Burgos, el paisaje. Cajacírculo, Burgos, 2006. ISBN 84-89805-18-0

Enlaces externos
 Pueblos de España
 Merindad Rio Ubierna/CERNÉGULA; EL PUEBLO DE LAS BRUJAS
 Coto de caza
 Dólmenes y túmulos de Burgos

Localidades de la provincia de Burgos
Entidades locales menores de Burgos
Municipios desaparecidos entre 1970 y 1981
Alfoz de Burgos
Brujería en España
Ubierna

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Scribe: A Film by Ruth Cullen.
This film is about the love of politics, about why politics matters and the passion behind the staffer. Join us for the World Premiere of The Scribe, a documentary about the acclaimed author and speechwriter Graham Freudenberg AM. Graham worked for the Australian Labor Party for over 40 years as press secretary and speechwriter to Arthur Calwell, Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran, Bob Hawke, Barrie Unsworth, Bob Carr and Simon Crean. Filmmaker Ruth Cullen will be joined by Carol Summerhayes, Personal Secretary 1972-75 to Gough Whitlam; and Eric Walsh, press secretary to Gough Whitlam from 1972-75. The panel will be moderated by journalist and political historian Troy Bramston.
Ruth Cullen is one of Australia's most acclaimed documentary makers. She is known for her fearless and empathetic character portrayals and her willingness to seek out the untested. Her films have screened at film festivals all over the world. Ruth won the 2010 AFI/AACTA Award for Best Documentary for You Only Live Twice – the incredibly true story of the Hughes family (Producer). Her TV series About Men (Series Dir.& writer) received rave reviews, while Heat In the Kitchen (Series Director & cinematographer) launched the television careers of Luke Nguyen & Matthew Evans. Ruth has worked as an Industry Consultant to Screen Australia and Exec. Producer (Arts & Ent.) for the ABC. She is the former Head of Documentary at Australia's premier film school AFTRS.
Troy Bramston has been a senior writer and columnist with The Australian newspaper, and a contributor to Sky News, since 2011. He was previously a columnist with The Sunday Telegraph. Troy is the author or editor of eight books, including Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader (2016), Rudd, Gillard and Beyond (2014), Looking for the Light on the Hill: Modern Labor's Challenges (2011), and, co-authored with Paul Kelly, The Dismissal: In the Queen's Name (2015). He is a Walkley Award finalist and winner of the Australian Book Industry Award. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001.


Boxing is a genre that in the world of console gaming isn't really that swamped or overridden with at all. I mean there has only been a few games over the recent years that have anything to offer and nothing really, as yet on 360, has managed to beat the reigning champion Fight Night Round 3.
But that being said we do have two contenders this year that might just present a challenge, Facebreaker and Prizefighter. Prizefighter is here and now, but can it hold its own against such a heavyweight as Fight Night?
Prizefighter is 2K Sports amazingly belated return to EA's Fight Night, so really you would have thought that it would have been at least a slight step up on EA's game. Not only because of there being a game there for 2K to base Prizefighter's action on but also the fact that there has been almost two years since the release of Fight Night. Unfortunately this is not the case at all.
With a boxing game there really isn't that much action going on at any one time; well it is only two blokes in a ring isn't it? So having base flaws in the gameplay and animation is a massive no-no, but Prizefighter seems to start off with some flaws that really wouldn't be forgiven in action heavy games like Dynasty Warriors let alone a one-on-one boxing game. Prizefighter has some of the worst collision detection that I have yet witnessed in a next-gen game, with some punches missing their mark even it you're opponent is no more than an inch away from you with his guard down. Or have a missed jab suddenly connecting after you make your counter attack. Things like this really can't be put down to anything but bad programming.
Something that makes Prizefighter a bit harder to get around is the way in which the moves are mapped out. All the standard and combo attacks are equipped to the face buttons which does mean that you have to at times wrap your hand around the controller to hit those combos, along with the right trigger acting as your block combined with the right stick to get the right position to defend with. The left trigger is used to dodge and change your stance slightly, allowing you to move your boxer around on the spot. This does take sometime to get used to but once you've got it down then it's a lot easier to dodge and react to your opponent's attacks.
If there's one thing this generation of consoles has provided, it's sweat.
Movement around the ring also doesn't feel right; it's more blocky and stiff than what you see from the real deals, who seem to move around in some liquid motion. Their virtual counterparts do glide but move on wheels on axes not in multiple dimensions. Going toe-to-toe isn't anything to shout about either, but it does have a better feel. Once you are up close your boxer gains special moves that can only be used by bringing up your adrenaline meter, which is built on by landing punches and blocking incoming ones. If you can land these more powerful moves correctly then it can turn the tide of a fight but sometimes they change the dynamic too much giving the game too much of a feel of a arcade-beater than a measured sport.
Built into the career mode is a documentary that details your time both in and out of the ring quite well, creating some what of a back story and a life to your otherwise voiceless character. This adds to the feel of the game, making it seem like your moving through an interactive documentary rather than just a career of some unknown upstart.
But the best thing about the game is the training; you have five activities to do: shuttle run, heavy bag, focus mitts, jump rope and speed bag. Each one upgrades two out of the four attributes at a time; stamina, strength, agility and dexterity. You only get about two weeks in which to train and with each training exercise taking up a week this means that you need to tailor your picks to the fight coming up. Two of the activities work out in the now age-old fashion of rhythm-based button bashing, the other three work using techniques that you would use when you're in the ring, so if you pick the heavy bag you need to move around the bag hitting a circle that dances around it. I believe one of the standout ideas in the training is that if you are connected to Live you link your score that you achieve in training with a set of leaderboards to add a bit of competition to it.
This must look pretty scary if you're down on the canvas.
The graphics of the arenas do look amazing at times with some nice effects added to the ring if there is a skylight above it or if there are thatch windows. The same goes for the ring, each one looks different and there are some varied styles, unfortunately things are not so true for the character models. While there is a fair amount of detail given to the models a lot of the damage that you see in the fight magically disappears after the round has come to a close.
Online is a pretty standard idea, with a versus mode that allows you to change settings like amount of and length of rounds as well as match rules. There are two other modes: Fighter Club and Tournament, which both work in a similar fashion - Fighter Club is a tournament that tallies up your wins and the winner is the player with the highest tally. The strangest thing about the online modes is that it changes the whole dynamic of the gameplay, where in single-player modes you can hack away at your opponent's life bar taking a small amount away after each round thus leading you to a technical knock-out, online takes that away and leaves you with only a straight knock-out in one round or the judge's decision at the end of the rounds. Which really doesn't make sense!
It all feels nice and official.
Overall Prizefighter really doesn't make the cut, with some interesting ideas that really never seem to get the full evolution that they could have got. It's a shame as if they had used Fight Night as a basis Prizefighter really would have been a much better package of a game.
Great entry music and movie when getting to the bigger fights.
Documentary works well and gives the character a background.
Online gameplay turns single-player gameplay on its head, why?
Unusually high number of decent boxing games provide stiff competition.


text:
Q: How to load image dynamically in apex I am taking one image tag in apex and i want to assign image to it from Static resource.
<apex:image url="{!URLFOR($Resource.ABC, '/{!XYZMap[klmWrapper].wrapItem.item__r.Name__c}')}" width="50" height="50" />

and following part contains image name which is stored in static resource.
'/{!XYZMap[klmWrapper].wrapItem.item__r.Name__c}'

when above link prints it gives me image name but when i put it in apex url it does not replace it with image name. It considers that as String.
Help me with this.