There is no clean war.
The important thing to note is that the cultural effects of the civil war and its aftermath are still felt today in the south and by blacks across the country. As bloody as the civil war was it did not resolve the culture issues. We can't even agree on the underlying motivations that were involved.
Why would we expect Civil War II to result in a better outcome?.
So yes we need to work to change the culture, but I'm not optimistic that will work either.
We may well be the Indians in the next war. The key takeaway is the fighting did not stop when the smoke cleared over the Little Bighorn.
Kick the lid off of hell and there's no telling how long or how bad it will be. World War 2, the "Good War" was long, hard, bloody and hellish, Even for the "winners".
It's not just "civil war" although they are often the bloodiest, nastiest, and have the worst long term effects. Every war in history had someone who thought there would be a quick, relatively painless victory, or that the enemy didn't have the stomach for a prolonged fight and would surrender without bloodshed. Famously, in the American civil war, both sides expected a short war and and an easy victory. Bull Run/Manassas Junction and Later Shilo/Pittsburg Landing managed to dispel that illusion. In 1914, Germany joined Austria against Serbia in order to prevent Russia from attacking Austria, because Russia wouldn't take on both Austria and Germany. France and later England both felt the war would be over by Christmas 1914. Sometimes the fight is worth the cost, sometimes the fight is forced on us by others, but never assume the victory will easy or cheap.
My heart aches for the Tactical Timmy's who think that a civil war will be fought with rifles when the best analysis is that it will be fought with gasoline.
Some keep thinking it will be a civil war. say, urban against rural. but that ignores the fact that its globalist were up against. the next American war will have several sides. none will be pretty. America is a very rich land. with lots to plunder. Once internal turmoil drops our main defences. we will be wide open. and nothing to stop the cartels, the Soro's, the UN, Russia, China, and God know who else. These are the good old days, enjoy a pizza and beer while you can.
Good point. Matthew Bracken described this in the second novel of his "Enemies" trilogy, in which armies from various third world countries occupy parts of the USA at the invitation of its government (of one of the four pieces of the USA, that is).
Probably, at least on the surface, but more likely it will be cultural; urbanites are a different culture than rurals, and within the generic urban culture are several sub-cultures a number of which are, shall we say, anxious to earn their bones (not that rurals are a monlithic culture by any means, but quite a bit more homogeneous and less internally contentious than urbans. Unification of effort around a purpose will be much easier in the boondocks than at 23rd and Maple).
All will be represented, at least for a while, at least through Phase I (very intense, extremely brutal conflict to establish positions, geographic, social and political). What happens in Phases II (score settling) through III (mop-up) and IV (re-establishment of some sort of order) is very cloudy crystal ball stuff.
Ain't gonna be no fun no how for anybody; if it happens it'll be Bosnia on industrial-strength steroids. which should be more than adequate incentive to avoid it. But too many seem to be either champing at the bit for it or stunningly ignorant of what happens during such festivities for it to be ruled out, so water, food, firewood and ammo is the order of the day.
In other words; respond to the socialistic, violence-generating, coercion-based, cleptocrat governments by implementing international, coercive, Redistributive Change.
It always has to be coercive. Go into Somalia or Afghanistan right now, set up a factory, or a true charity outlet, and see what happens. If it's small enough to avoid international radar you may survive for a time, but once you get big enough to change the course of the region's history for the better (toward the perfect law of liberty), you'll be targeted for destruction, either by hook or by crook. Such is the entire history of that part of the world, and the U.S. is playing its part in it too, one way or another.
In other words; when socialism fails, freedom is to blame, and the solution is more socialism. It's the Obama Doctrine, the Vatican Doctrine, the Republican Doctrine, the Democratic Doctrine, and the doctrine of every current Western nation all at the same time. Liberty never seems to be on anyone's table for discussion as a serious option, for how could it be when coercion rules the world? The only options being offered publicly, argued and fought over publicly, are mere variations on global fascism. We can argue global fascism verses local fascism for now, but eventually it'll all be a fake contest between various flavors of global fascism.
Welcome to Babylon. Does anyone have anything to offer besides papal pig-Latin, Jesuit jibber-jabber, and Masonic machinations? Not if they want to keep their jobs, or their heads.
90+% of you excoriating the left and cheering for the right, so far as I can tell, are doing so because you have a "better" form of coercive, Romish system in mind. That would certainly include every single Trump cheerleader.
Given that, how could I possibly care who "wins"? Let's see; do I want destruction by quick strangulation or by slow poison? Some want me to fight passionately for one "side" in that fake dichotomy. Some are saying, "Well at least with the slow poison doctrine you may have a chance to find an antidote, so if you don't fight for the side of destruction by slow poison then you're a traitor, as bad is the quick strangulation side!!" Meh. I'll pass. I really, really do not care.
It is a mistake too, and a fatal one, to even consider this as being an America issue. It is a full-on global war, and the U.S. government is on the wrong side.
Where does that leave us then? I reckon one has two choices; either be a part of Babylon, or come out and be separate from it. Either way you die, of course, but one way you're not a part of the problem.
Being that the solution is not a worldly one, says the Bible, you cannot really be a part of the solution either, other than to accept that solution as your advocate and ally. That's how a strapping young sheepherder with no military training, no armor and no sword took down the enemy's flagship weapon.
David didn't credit himself for beating Goliath, which is the whole point; our own internal strength, as we think of it, our cleverness, willfulness, planning, skill and works are for naught but self destruction unless we're allied with that one solution, which is not worldly and from which all our real strength comes anyway. This message is shouting at us from all throughout history, over and over and over.
I was just listing to Tim Pool (https://www.timcast.com/). Today's report is about an NYT article that asks who are the Democrats? It points out that the very vocal far left only makes up about 8% of the total. The others are moderates and more conservative. Many of them do not have online presence nor do they pay much attention to the news.
So is that the group that we are discussing? If so we too could be being misled.
And if this is the case then 2020 may be a big disappointment to the vocal left.
Yes civil war will be extremely bloody and destructive. Plus we may not win and even if we do, we will have killed the republic. Changing the culture is probably a lost cause. The Left has taken over too many cultural institutions. So I concentrate on the national divorce. We have a chance to preserve and enhance the cultural in the sound parts of the country but not if we are joined to the urban shitholes.
I see the concept of a national divorce a lot, but I believe that's less likely than changing the culture.
We probably won't change the culture because politicians (both sides) won't stop importing foreigners at record levels. A culture is made of its people, change the people, change the culture. It's well known that foreign integration into a host nation's culture takes time, but the more of their original culture is around, the easier it is to fall back on, i.e.- they don't integrate but coexist. And cultures clash.
For the divorce, that'll be impossible. Socialists seek to control and humiliate their opponents. You really think they'll let us go?
tl;dr- buy lots of ammo, practice a lot, and surround yourself with those you trust most. You're gonna need it.
All the time in the world, actually.
"Assimilation" is a myth. It might occur if there were means that kept immigrants from living in the same local area with each other. THAT is what keeps their culture thriving, by living and working in close proximity. When you see immigrants taht have been here for a decade or more and they still don't speak English, that is a bad sign. When you see lots of business signs in other than English, that's a bad sign. When the government prints forms in other than English, that's a bad sign. When lots of vehicles have flag stickers of foreign nations, or are flying a foreign flag, that's a bad sign. When you see vehicles with signs indicating a regional affiliation for a noted trouble zone of a foreign nation, that is a BAD sign.


Grand Opening! Fabulous Prize! My interviews/reviews/con reports/editorials are moving to a new site, where I am joining forces with fellow writer Anthony Sullivan. The other site is much prettier, due to wonderful art contributed by illustrator Joey Jordan and Anthony's website know-how. And with more than one of us working on it, we will be able to put out more content and more consistently than I was able to on my own.
Newly posted: our interview with Joey Jordan, and with Writers of the Future coordinating judge KD Wentworth.
Upcoming interviews: Jordan Lapp, Charles Coleman Finlay, Nancy Kress, Tad Williams, and more!
I hope I don't lose any of you in the transition, but the blog will still be open over here so any stragglers will see this link. and I'll still get notifications if you leave a comment here.
1. Some of the interviews haven't happened as fast as I'd hoped, real life intruding and all that.
2. I'm submitting my nonfiction to markets who haven't published me, such as IRoSF and ASIM, so the time waiting for their reading queues is delaying some of my interviews.
Anyway, on to today's news. Coming soon: an interview with artist and illustrator Joey Jordan Her illustration work has been printed in Jim Baen's Universe, and you can check her work out at http://www.joeysrealm.com She's a very talented artist who I've had the pleasure of collaborating with on more than one occasion.
If you have any questions for her, drop me a line and I'll try to work them in.
Inferno is the modern day telling of Dantes 14th century epic poem. Even for those who have never read The Divine Comedy (such as myself), this tale of a trip to hell is familiar to many. The 1976 Hugo and Nebula nominated novel by Niven and Pournelle has had over twenty reprints over the years. The latest reprint is available on the shelves of bookstores in time for its long awaited sequel Escape from Hell.
The novel opens with Science Fiction writer Allen Carpentier dying in a stunt to impress fans. The agnostic Carpentier finds himself in an astral equivalent of solitary confinement. His world is a bronze haze. He can think, speak and move but cannot feel or see a thing. His very existence challenges Descartes statement I think therefore I am. In a fit of madness, he says the magic words that frees him from his prison (a djinn bottle), only to find himself in the Vestibule of Hell where he meets guide, Benito (a real person in history). Benito informs him where he is and claims to know the way out, through the nine circles of hell to its very center.
The ever-skeptical Carpentier chooses to believe he is elsewhere and theorizes he is in a futuristic amusement park he terms 'Infernoland'. Allen and his guide travel through all the horrors of hell all while he meets people that he knew during his life and famous people throughout history.
Inferno is a visual masterpiece. Each layer of hell is laid out as maze of terror. The souls of the damned suffer as cruelly as the fire and brimstone preachers have claimed, and some, in this book. Carpentier and his companions suffer many of the punishments of the damned as they cross each circle. They endure such cruelty as a boiling lake of blood, a desert of burning sand with snowflakes of fire, and an industrial wasteland patrolled by driverless Corvettes that run down the wasters in life. However, Carpentier's real struggle is with his own agnostic beliefs.
One of the foundations for an agnostic is why would an all powerful being create a supernatural torture chamber like hell? Allen, the Science fiction master prefers to believe he is another prop in a futuristic society than contemplate a possibility that Dante's vision was real. He is constantly reevaluating his theories while witnessing many of the miracles and horrors of hell, such as; never being able to reach the short wall the circles hell, the judge of Hell, Minos, and his impossibly long tail, and the ability to heal despite suffering the worst of injuries.
Carpentier cannot understand the unending punishment souls are forced to face for eternity. The suffering that many endure seem out of balance for the sins they had committed in life. His conscience argues this point throughout the book while he tries to piece together the where and why he and others are there. The ability to make a universe does not presuppose moral superiority, he concludes at one point. By the end of the novel, Allen finds a reason on why god would have a place like hell, one that I found fitting.
As an amateur that writes as hobby, I recommend Inferno as a great template on how to build on a familiar theme (hell) and insert characters that are larger than a wonderful plot. One of the recommendations that many 'How to' books stress is to make your character change from the experience in your story. Allen Carpentier changes like few others that I have read before. Niven and Pournelle create a man who faces down demons and wades through boiling blood very believable to me.
There are very few writers in the industry that are able to work together and produce a publishable story, Niven and Pournelle make it look easy. The two accomplished authors have published several together, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, are just a few. Inferno was their third collaborative novel together, and in my opinion, their best. I was hooked on the first page, followed their journey eagerly as they passed through each circle of hell, and found the ending moving.
Some may find Inferno theologically challenging. I believe it was written to be that way. As reader who loves Science Fiction and Fantasy, Inferno has remained in my top ten favorite stories of all time. I can't recommend highly enough.
Frank Dutkiewicz is every bit as cute and cuddly as his picture suggests. He has nine stories that have been published. His first eight were all flash fiction then he got wise and rode Dave's coattails and sold one to the upcoming Shadows of the Emerald City anthology. The chicks dig Frank and can't keep their hands off him but hate his cold nose.
Frank's owner is a truck driver for a car hauling company. He travels all across the country and may have ran you off the road at one point. He has a lovely wife and two equally as lovely teenage daughters.
I arrived at the con early enough to hit the dealers' room before opening ceremonies. I ran into Maggie Bonham (M H Bonham) before opening ceremonies and invited her to read with me at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading in the morning. All the local Broads had other plans or were getting ready for WorldCon.
Last year, opening ceremonies was very entertaining, with Timothy Zahn and filking by Char MacKay. Of course, the bat flying around the auditorium was a nice touch, although no one could take credit for that but the bat.
This year was ... different. I should probably stop right there before I slam the poor con com. But now you're curious, aren't you? Well, when Dennis Gagaoin said that we were about to reap the benefits of the con com's months of fighting, that was clearly not a good sign. I'm not sure if the program they had originally planned fell through because someone bailed or they never truly spent time organizing the opening ceremonies. What followed was a lot of people standing up and pinch-hitting. It would have been better to just have one person apologize for the lack of any formal opening ceremonies and say, we have a great weekend planned for you filled with this, this and this. Now go have fun. But no one asked me. Luckily, I live two states away so I can't be tempted to sort them out.
Having taken two planes to get there, and having to read at 9AM, I begged off of further con fun for the evening.
I stayed with my writing buddy, Sue Bolich, who lives near Spokane. (Way better than the dorm experience of last year – don't get me started.) I had met Andrea Howe of Blue Falcon Editing last year. It wasn't long before the four of us were the four musketeers for the remainder of the weekend, beginning with a panel Saturday morning. When we weren't paneling, we were eating, talking and laughing our heads off.
My schedule of panels, as I said before, was a perfect fit for me. And my co-panelists were all marvelous, informative, polite and entertaining. My-Twit-Book, Sci-Fi and You Are you kidding me? What do I spend more time doing than writing? The artist guest of honor, John Picacio was on the panel and brought some pointed Twitter questions. I wasn't much help with those since I'm still ignoring the (bird) call to tweet. We did have a lively discussion about posting or tweeting etiquette and how to silence people who fill up our walls or phones with a constant barrage. I met John in the green room (which moved not just once, as it did last year, but twice!). He was asking about the table tents and if his was there. I didn't recognize him and said, "It would help if you told me your name." He's apparently forgiven me.
My next panel was in the same room ten minutes later. Another subject near and dear to my heart (and my writing): grammar. Andrea sat next to me on this one and after she made a Princess Bride and Firefly reference in asides to me, I knew: friends for life. Maggie, Sue and I had made lunch plans already. I invited Andrea and our little band of geeky, literary lasses was born.
I shared a signing with Patty Briggs. Her line was none-stop, a dozen people deep for the whole hour. I didn't get a chance to speak with her, but she has obviously made an impression on a good number of people. I hope I can get to know her at a future con. I signed one copy of Awesome Lavratt.
Sunday was yet another 9AM appearance. Good thing there was no drinking – or at least none that we bothered to find. The panel was on Worldbuilding. What could I possibly say sitting next to L E Modesitt, SpoCon's writer guest of honor? Sue, Maggie and I still managed to look half-way intelligent. I picked up a couple of good book recommendations along the way: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, both by Jared Diamond, and A History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat.
Three of the four musketeers (minus Andrea) had a nice conversation with Lee (Modesitt) in the hall after the panel. Very personable guy. And he redefines dapper. Mark Ferrari asked him how many vests he owns. His reply was something over 80! I had interesting chats with Mark in the (first) green room about publishing and writing. And I lugged Mark's hefty tome, The Book of Joby, up to Washington just to get his autograph.
Mark and I were on a panel last year in which we created a story for the audience on the spot. What fun! He read Awesome Lavratt during the con and praised my sense of humor during the panel – bless him! We've been pen pals ever since. He was the artist guest of honor at SpoCon last year.
Something new this year was a charity thing where people bought little matchboxes with slips of paper in them for a buck. The slips of paper had a name of a guest or pro and a greeting. They had to find the person and offer the greeting. Then they got a donated item from that person's goody bag. It was a nice idea, but will need some fine tuning for next year. I especially enjoyed signing one of my books (out of the goody bag) for an eleven-year-old girl.
Ann Wilkes' stories have appeared in magazines and print anthologies. Awesome Lavratt (2009, Unlimited Publishing) is a tongue-in-cheek space opera with mind control, passion and adventure. If her alien worlds don't hook you, her sense of humor will. Visit www.annwilkes.com, for a full bio, her blog and links to online stories.
The story is titled "The Utility of Love", and it's a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, but the Tin Man is 2 stories tall and... isn't such a nice guy.
Fantasy Magazine has reprinted one of my reviews titled Wicked: Novel vs. Musical.


Large theme park built on the mouth of the River Ystwyth on the west coast of Wales, aimed mainly at the student and tourist markets. Like any other theme park, AberWorld offers an escape from reality to all visitors, some of whom stay many many years in order to avoid accepting real life outside the safetly and confines of the Aber World Unreality Zone. However, eventually all visitors find that once they've ridden all the local rides at least 50 times and completely exhausted all the public house sideshows, they are left with little choice but to surrender their season ticket and return to a semblance of Normal Life elsewhere. This is normally not unrelated to lack of funds (and indeed ever decreasing number of friends) resulting from AberWorld's dire employment market. Some find employment as AberWorld staff, but are doomed to soul crushing bitterness and poor income and don't last for long, especially when they see former visitors to the park Living It Up in other areas of the country.
Not to be confused with GrobbitWorld.
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Wedding place name cards to display on wedding reception tables, so that guests know where you would like them to sit. Choose to have a name printed or to have a space for you to write a name in – ideal if you'd like to add names close to the wedding date. Alternatively, you can order a combination of both.
Each of these name place cards for a wedding reception measures 10 x 10.5 cm. There is a fold halfway, so the card stands on its own. There is a choice of card colour and finish. The design is printed in pigment ink, which is splash proof.
Choose from the following designs for your personalised place names for a wedding. With each design there is a choice of colour scheme, based on two colours.


I like to start by establishing that this article is not about a person or character, but purely a Public Service initiative, and a commitment to add value through service. It is aimed at contributing to a major shift in paradigm, as we seem to see with the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), going by its present activities. The first time I heard of the CPC about three years ago, it happened like a 'discovery', because I was , as at then, one of the over 75 per cent of educated urban/metropolitan population who had no idea there was an institution so-called.
I am yet to physically meet with Mr Babatunde Irukera, the director general of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), but I look forward to a meeting with the DG. The most has been interaction on the social media platform, twitter precisely. From his media habit and usage pattern, as of today, I think he is ready to share his handle freely; he follows-back not minding who comes on, in so far the new entrant adds to the subject of Consumer Rights Protection. He fits in my profile of a certain rating for egalitarian leadership, but certainly a progressive team-player. He seems to be decided on adding value – even if this is outside the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) – as a team leader.
The subject of Consumer Rights Protection should be addressed as an all-inclusive of legal socio-economic subject in an equally inclusive conversational tone; a topical concern, hydra-headed, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional…in our collective responsibility and its implication (on the larger population, The Consumer). Each time I have to single out the mention of the Consumer, I instinctively add the general classification of the consumer, being all of us together. The last part emphasises the all-inclusive nature of the Conversation for Consumer Rights Protection. All-concerned, need to internalise the fact that the issues of concern are for the good of all of us.
There-in lies the need for a shift in the pattern of conversation for Consumer Rights Protection. Firstly, the required change calls for a re-profiling of the target audience for the new conversation, a structural rework of the framework for the conversation, a calibration of the structural dimension of the conversation (that would include choice and use of language in line with the context and essence of its application), structure and stages of public engagement and a careful design of a near-automated feedback mechanism that will be reliable enough to sustain an all-inclusive communication process.
What we have now is a mono-directional information channel, discriminatory in intellectual equipment, language and tone-of voice, communication infrastructure and platform, and open to system abuse. Even as a channel of information, the present model compromises on target audience location, in the sense that it is premium for cosmopolitan followership. Its contents dissemination platform hinges on sophisticated New Media infrastructure, to achieve base-level reach. Those in rural and semi-rural dwellings are left out of the reach-bracket, in absolute terms, albeit that is not the intention.
In what I see as a deliberate effort to implement a paradigm shift. Once again, let us under-pin the basic characteristic value of communication for Consumer Rights Protection…consumer empowerment through education, information and enlightenment. These attendant tools gives fillip to the consumer's capacity and capability to say No in the face of evident rights abuse at the market place. In our edition for next week, we shall drive this conversation for the reason to appropriately articulate the value touch-point for the conversation for Consumer Rights Abuse, from the perspective of Cognitive Dissonance as a theory. The centre-point of every CPC activity, and its support-organisations (including the registered NGOs), is properly situating the essence and (appropriate) pattern of its public communication. Until that is achieved, we shall keep limiting our potentials at delivering on our collective expectations.
Let us quickly add the global dimension of this issue at this point, to help us articulate its importance to us as individual consumers in Nigeria, Nigeria as a member of the committee of nations, the local institutional stakeholders (versus international counterpart institutions), and the implications on our economic growth chart (particularly for commerce). The implications of all the component parts of the broad communication infrastructure for consumer rights protection come down with telling implications on our rating at the various levels listed above. Since we signed-on to the international movement for consumer rights protection, Nigeria as a whole and its integral associates for the same course, are rated in their performance, in contribution to actualising the global objective of consumer rights protection.
I am certain some commercial brands and corporate bodies are not finding the New CPC so-friendly. Firstly, public awareness is broader, concerns from the primary focus group are growing, instances of consumer rights violation are more and more being exposed, the collaboration is growing wider, adding new recruits to the family of empowered consumers. The present communication strategy is adding value. Who would have expected the CPC to be so instant in dealing with issue of altered flight schedule (flight cancellation) involving Air France and her Nigerian passengers, requiring of redress? That the passengers had the confidence in the CPC to address the issue and reported it as such, expecting a proper redress, says so much for the new posture of the CPC; public/consumers' confidence is growing.
The various Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOS) and recently, the health service sector, are piqued by the up-scale in affront at what seems a confrontational engagement by the CPC, on the behalf of consumers (all of us).
Certainly the dynamics are changing. Yet, the evolution has to continue, as what we see presently is only the peripheral. From us at MC&A Digest, the paradigm shift should be more comprehensive, taking into account the specifics mentioned in paragraphs three to five above. As we know, our population is largely rural-based, with literacy level being about 38 per cent (if not less), and poor economy with rising inflation; all of the above clearly show that the larger population of consumers are left out in the Twitter-channel of communication and the premium use of English language as the prime-driver of the present conversation. That is our worry. Whereas one can point to a progressive conversation in terms of scope and pattern that promises to support marginal growth in reach & penetration, it is yet grossly inadequate. We shall submit a proposal on how to engage for a more plausible strategic engagement to the CPC, very soon, for her consideration.


At least 30 homes have been destroyed on Hawaii's Big Island as scalding lava and earthquakes continue to menace communities struck by the natural disaster, officials said.
Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim said Sunday the number of destroyed homes climbed from nine as the threat level also continued to rise on the island.
Roughly 1,700 residents have fled the Leilani Estates section of Big Island since a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Friday, a day after the Kilauea volcano erupted and opened cracks in the ground that emit poisonous gas.
"I have no idea how soon we can get back," resident Todd Corrigan told The Associated Press, adding one vent opened just a few blocks from his home on Friday.
Matters got worse late Saturday when two more vents opened in Leilani Estates, Hawaii's Civil Defense Agency said, bringing the total to as many as 10. Some vents stretched several hundred yards.
Kilauea has continuously erupted for the past 35 years, and scientists are unsure where or when its magma-spewing fissures might tear up the ground.
"Vents continue to open up, so we lost a few more structures," Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County's civil defense administrator, told CNN affiliate KHON on Saturday night.
"I'm pretty happy that we did evacuate the whole neighborhood and unfortunately some people are still in there and we need to get them out. The gases are still high."
Footage showed molten lava and flames spitting out of the fissures and splashing close to homes.
Hundreds of residents have sought refuge throughout the Big Island, sleeping in their cars or finding vacation rentals until they can return to Leilani Estates or the neighboring Lanipuna Gardens area.
Small temblors rattled families initially hesitant to leave their homes in Leilani Estates, in the predominantly rural Puna district.
"I felt like the whole side of our hill was going to explode," said Tesha Montoya. "The earthquake was what made us start running and start throwing (our) guinea pigs and bunnies in the car."
Montoya, her husband and daughter initially wanted to stay in the home they built 20 years ago despite concerns about toxic steam emitted from the vents — which is especially harmful to the elderly.
Residents were first told they might be able to head back into the area late Saturday, when the original eight vents recorded by the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory ebbed.
But they were pulled back once the two new fissures opened.
Resident Shane Turpin, who posted video of what he thought was the eighth fissure, told KGMB the shooting lava poses serious threats to the area.
"Some people are definitely going to be losing some stuff today if this keeps going," he told the channel. "It's moving fast."


ClassicReload » Aliants: The Desperate Battle For Earth!
Commodore 64 ~ Aliants: The Desperate Battle For Earth!
Atari 800 ~ Aliants: The Desperate Battle For Earth!
When Earthlings decided to stop wars and explore the outer space, another menace threaten them. The Aliants species, who came from far space to conquer all and to dominate in universe. And such goal was mostly achieved by them. They conquered Earth, but some human forces were left, and you are one of them.
The game represents the story about humankind savior, you, and is divided on Arcade and Strategical parts. In the start of the game, you should approach hidden Human base "Valley Forge" and land your cruiser. To achieve this, you should in arcade mode keep crosshair in the center of the screen, while it tries to move out of the center.
After landing you should choose your origin and prove yourself in the Simulator, where you in arcade mode should burn with laser gun specific parts of the enemy starship. Completing the goal in Simulator, you will take the rank of Admiral and is ready to the main strategy part of the game.
During strategy, you, sitting in the Lexington Starship, should command your Battle Carriers on the rectangular grid map 10x10, fight with enemy ships, defend your base, and free the base captured by Aliants. It is achieved by giving orders to your units and examining their positions. You should free all captured colonies to win!


text:
Henrik Sandberg, né le  à Copenhague et mort le , est un réalisateur danois.

Biographie
Henrik Sandberg a produit 39 films entre 1955 et 1979. Son père était le réalisateur A. W. Sandberg.

Filmographie

 Charly & Steffen (1979)
 Alt på et bræt (1977)
 Piger i trøjen 2 (1976)
 Piger i trøjen (1975)
 Takt og tone i himmelsengen (1972)
 Guld til præriens skrappe drenge (1971)
 Hvor er liget, Møller? (1971)
 Præriens skrappe drenge (1970)
 Amour (1970)
 Jours tranquilles à Clichy (Stille dage i Clichy) (1970)
 Pigen fra Egborg (1969)
 Mej och dej (1969)
 Dyrlægens plejebørn (1968)
 Soldaterkammerater på bjørnetjeneste (1968)
 Onkel Joakims hemmelighed (1967)
 Cirkusrevyen 67 (1967)
 Elsk... din næste! (1967)
 Jeg - en marki (1967)
 Pigen og greven (1966)
 Der var engang (1966)
 Pigen og millionæren (1965)
 Flådens friske fyre (1965)
 Livgarden i rød galla (1965)
 Hit House (1965)
 Sommer i Tyrol (1964)
 Majorens oppasser (1964)
 Et døgn uden løgn (1963)
 Pigen og pressefotografen (1963)
 Soldaterkammerater på sjov (1962)
 Den rige enke (1962)
 Soldaterkammerater på efterårsmanøvre (1961)
 Sorte Shara (1961)
 To skøre ho'der (1961)
 Soldaterkammerater på vagt (1960)
 Soldaterkammerater rykker ud (1959)
 Soldaterkammerater (1958)
 Vi som går stjernevejen (1956)
 Tre finder en kro (1955)
 Jorden rundt paa 80 minutter (1955)

Notes et références

Liens externes

Naissance à Copenhague
Réalisateur danois
Naissance en mai 1915
Décès en mars 1993
Décès à 77 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
@darjeelingzen
Quigley: Tragedy and Hope A History of the World in Our Time
Tragedy and Hope A History of the World in Our Time By Carroll Quigley (1966)
"...[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. this system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations...."
"It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down. The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called 'international' or 'merchant' bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance which was more private, more powerful, and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks. this dominance of investment bankers was based on their control over the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countries and throughout the world. They could dominate the financial and industrial systems of their own countries by their influence over the flow of current funds though bank loans, the discount rate, and the re-discounting of commercial debts; they could dominate governments by their own control over current government loans and the play of the international exchanges. Almost all of this power was exercised by the personal influence and prestige of men who had demonstrated their ability in the past to bring off successful financial coupes, to keep their word, to remain cool in a crisis, and to share their winning opportunities with their associates."
Part One—Introduction: Western Civilization In Its World Setting Chapter 1—Cultural Evolution in Civilizations
There have always been men who have asked, "Where are we going?" But never, it would seem, have there been so many of them. And surely never before have these myriads of questioners asked their question in such dolorous tones or rephrased their question in such despairing words: "Can man survive?" Even on a less cosmic basis, questioners appear on all sides, seeking "meaning" or "identity," or even, on the most narrowly egocentric basis, "trying to find myself."
One of these persistent questions is typical of the twentieth century rather than of earlier times: Can our way of life survive? Is our civilization doomed to vanish, as did that of the Incas, the Sumerians, and the Romans? From Giovanni Battista Vico in the early eighteenth century to Oswald Spengler in the early twentieth century and Arnold J. Toynbee in our own day, men have been puzzling over the problem whether civilizations have a life cycle and follow a similar pattern of change. From this discussion has emerged a fairly general agreement that men live in separately organized societies, each with its own distinct culture; that some of these societies, having writing and city life, exist on a higher level of culture than the rest, and should be called by the different term "civilizations"; and that these civilizations tend to pass through a common pattern of experience.
From these studies it would seem that civilizations pass through a process of evolution which can be analyzed briefly as follows: each civilization is born in some inexplicable fashion and, after a slow start, enters a period of vigorous expansion, increasing its size and power, both internally and at the expense of its neighbors, until gradually a crisis of organization appears. When this crisis has passed and the civilization has been reorganized, it seems somewhat different. Its vigor and morale have weakened. It becomes stabilized and eventually stagnant. After a Golden Age of peace and prosperity, internal crises again arise. At this point there appears, for the first time, a moral and physical weakness which raises, also for the first time, questions about the civilization's ability to defend itself against external enemies. Racked by internal struggles of a social and constitutional character, weakened by loss of faith in its older ideologies and by the
challenge of newer ideas incompatible with its past nature, the civilization grows steadily weaker until it is submerged by outside enemies, and eventually disappears.
When we come to apply this process, even in this rather vague form, to our own civilization, Western Civilization, we can see that certain modifications are needed. Like other civilizations, our civilization began with a period of mixture of cultural elements from other societies, formed these elements into a culture distinctly its own, began to expand with growing rapidity as others had done, and passed from this period of expansion into a period of crisis. But at that point the pattern changed.
In more than a dozen other civilizations the Age of Expansion was followed by an Age of Crisis, and this, in turn, by a period of Universal Empire in which a single political unit ruled the whole extent of the civilization. Western Civilization, on the contrary, did not pass from the Age of Crisis to the Age of Universal Empire, but instead was able to reform itself and entered upon a new period of expansion. Moreover, Western Civilization did this not once, but several times. It was this ability to reform or reorganize itself again and again which made Western Civilization the dominant factor in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century.
As we look at the three ages forming the central portion of the life cycle of a civilization, we can see a common pattern. The Age of Expansion is generally marked by four kinds of expansion: (1) of population, (2) of geographic area, (3) of production, and (4) of knowledge. The expansion of production and the expansion of knowledge give rise to the expansion of population, and the three of these together give rise to the expansion of geographic extent. This geographic expansion is of some importance because it gives the civilization a kind of nuclear structure made up of an older core area (which had existed as part of the civilization even before the period of expansion) and a newer peripheral area (which became part of the civilization only in the period of expansion and later). If we wish, we can make, as an additional refinement, a third, semi-peripheral area between the core area and the fully peripheral area.
These various areas are readily discernible in various civilizations of the past, and have played a vital role in historic change in these civilizations. In Mesopotamian Civilization (6000 B.C.-300 B.C.) the core area was the lower valley of Mesopotamia; the semi-peripheral area was the middle and upper valley, while the peripheral area included the highlands surrounding this valley, and more remote areas like Iran, Syria, and even Anatolia. The core area of Cretan Civilization (3500 B.C.-1100 B.C.) was the island of Crete, while the peripheral area included the Aegean islands and the Balkan coasts. In Classical Civilization the core area was the shores of the Aegean Sea; the semi- peripheral area was the rest of the northern portion of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, while the peripheral area covered the rest of the Mediterranean shores and ultimately Spain, North Africa, and Gaul. In Canaanite Civilization (2200 B.C.-100 B.C.) the core area was the Levant, while the peripheral area was in the western Mediterranean at Tunis, western Sicily, and eastern Spain. The core area of Western Civilization (A.D. 400 to some time in the future) has been the northern half of Italy, France, the extreme western part of Germany, and England; the semi-peripheral area has been central, eastern, and
southern Europe and the Iberian peninsula, while the peripheral areas have included North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and some other areas.
This distinction of at least two geographic areas in each civilization is of major importance. The process of expansion, which begins in the core area, also begins to slow up in the core at a time when the peripheral area is still expanding. In consequence, by the latter part of the Age of Expansion, the peripheral areas of a civilization tend to become wealthier and more powerful than the core area. Another way of saying this is that the core passes from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict before the periphery does. Eventually, in most civilizations the rate of expansion begins to decline everywhere.
It is this decline in the rate of expansion of a civilization which marks its passage from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict. This latter is the most complex, most interesting, and most critical of all the periods of the life cycle of a civilization. It is marked by four chief characteristics: (a) it is a period of declining rate of expansion; (b) it is a period of growing tensions and class conflicts; (c) it is a period of increasingly frequent and increasingly violent imperialist wars; and (d) it is a period of growing irrationality, pessimism, superstitions, and otherworldliness. All these phenomena appear in the core area of a civilization before they appear in more peripheral portions of the society.
The decreasing rate of expansion of the Age of Conflict gives rise to the other characteristics of the age, in part at least. After the long years of the Age of Expansion, people's minds and their social organizations are adjusted to expansion, and it is a very difficult thing to readjust these to a decreasing rate of expansion. Social classes and political units within the civilization try to compensate for the slowing of expansion through normal growth by the use of violence against other social classes or against other political units. From this come class struggles and imperialist wars. The outcomes of these struggles within the civilization are not of vital significance for the future of the civilization itself. What would be of such significance would be the reorganization of the structure of the civilization so that the process of normal growth would be resumed. Because such a reorganization requires the removal of the causes of the civilization's decline, the triumph of one social class over another or of one political unit over another, within the civilization, will not usually have any major influence on the causes of the decline, and will not (except by accident) result in such a reorganization of structure as will give rise to a new period of expansion. Indeed, the class struggles and imperialist wars of the Age of Conflict will probably serve to increase the speed of the civilization's decline because they dissipate capital and divert wealth and energies from productive to nonproductive activities.
In most civilizations the long-drawn agony of the Age of Conflict finally ends in a new period, the Age of the Universal Empire. As a result of the imperialist wars of the Age of Conflict, the number of political units in the civilization are reduced by conquest. Eventually one emerges triumphant. When this occurs we have one political unit for the whole civilization. Just at the core area passes from the Age of Expansion to the Age of
Conflict earlier than the peripheral areas, sometimes the core area is conquered by a single state before the whole civilization is conquered by the Universal Empire. When this occurs the core empire is generally a semi-peripheral state, while the Universal Empire is generally a peripheral state. Thus, Mesopotamia's core was conquered by semi- peripheral Babylonia about 1700 B.C., while the whole of Mesopotamian civilization was conquered by more peripheral Assyria about 7 2 5 H.C. (replaced by fully peripheral Persia about 525 B.C.). In Classical Civilization the core area was conquered by semi- peripheral Macedonia about 336 B.C., while the whole civilization was conquered by peripheral Rome about 146 B.C. In other civilizations the Universal Empire has consistently been a peripheral state even when there was no earlier conquest of the core area by a semi-peripheral state. In Mayan Civilization (1000 B.C.-A.D. 1550) the core area was apparently in Yucatan and Guatemala, but the Universal Empire of the Aztecs centered in the peripheral highlands of central Mexico. In Andean Civilization (1500 B.C.-A.D. 1600) the core areas were on the lower slopes and valleys of the central and northern Andes, but the Universal Empire of the Incas centered in the highest Andes, a peripheral area. The Canaanite Civilization (2200 B.C.-146 B.C.) had its core area in the Levant, but its Universal Empire, the Punic Empire, centered at Carthage in the western Mediterranean. If we turn to the Far East we see no less than three civilizations. Of these the earliest, Sinic Civilization, rose in the valley of the Yellow River after 2000 B.C., culminated in the Chin and Han empires after 200 B.C., and was largely destroyed by Ural-Altaic invaders after A.D. 400. From this Sinic Civilization, in the same way in which Classical Civilization emerged from Cretan Civilization or Western Civilization emerged from Classical Civilization, there emerged two other civilizations: (a) Chinese Civilization, which began about A.D. 400, culminated in the Manchu Empire after 1644, and was disrupted by European invaders in the period 1790-1930, and (b) Japanese Civilization, which began about the time of Christ, culminated in the Tokugawa Empire after 1600, and may have been completely disrupted by invaders from Western Civilization in the century following 1853.
In India, as in China, two civilizations have followed one another. Although we know relatively little about the earlier of the two, the later (as in China) culminated in a Universal Empire ruled by an alien and peripheral people. Indic Civilization, which began about 3500 B.C., was destroyed by Aryan invaders about 1700 B.C. Hindu Civilization, which emerged from Indic Civilization about 1700 B.C., culminated in the Mogul Empire and was destroyed by invaders from Western Civilization in the period 1500-1900.
Turning to the extremely complicated area of the Near East, we can see a similar pattern. Islamic Civilization, which began about A.D. 500, culminated in the Ottoman Empire in the period 1300-1600 and has been in the process of being destroyed by invaders from Western Civilization since about 1750.
Expressed in this way, these patterns in the life cycles of various civilizations may seem confused. But if we tabulate them, the pattern emerges with some simplicity.
From this table a most extraordinary fact emerges. Of approximately twenty civilizations which have existed in all of human history, we have listed sixteen. Of these sixteen, twelve, possibly fourteen, are already dead or dying, their cultures destroyed by outsiders able to come in with sufficient power to disrupt the civilization, destroy its established modes of thought and action, and eventually wipe it out. Of these twelve dead or dying cultures, six have been destroyed by Europeans bearing the culture of Western Civilization. When we consider the untold numbers of other societies, simpler than civilizations, which Western Civilization has destroyed or is now destroying, societies such as the Hottentots, the Iroquois, the Tasmanians, the Navahos, the Caribs, and countless others, the full frightening power of Western Civilization becomes obvious.
Universal Final Their Civilization Its Dates Empire Invasion Dates
Mesopotamian 6000 B.C.- Assyrian/ Greeks 335 B.C.- 300 B.C. Persian— 300 B.C.
725-333 B.C. Egyptian 5500 B. C.- Egyptian Greeks
300 B. C. 300 B. C.
334 B. C.-
1200 B. C.- 1000 B. C.
1800 B. C.-
264 B. C. -
A. D. 200
Cretan 3500 B. C.- Minoan- 1150 B. C. Mycenaean
Indic 3500 B. C. - 1700 B. C.
Canaanite 2200 B. C. - 100 B. C.
Sinic 2000 B. C. - A. D. 400 Han
Dorian Greeks
Harappa? 1600 B. C.
Punic Romans 146 B. C.
1150 B. C. -
Indo- 1200 B. C. - A. D. 1000
Germanic A. D. 350 -
Chin/
Hittite European
Ural-Altaic 500
Aryans
Europeans 1534
A. D. 500 1500 B. C. -
A. D. 1600 1000 B. C. -
A. D. 1900 400 - Manchu
1900 Europeans 1790 -
1853 - 1750 -
1930 Tokugawa Ottoman
United States? Soviet
Japanese Islamic Western Orthodox 350 - ?
850 B. C. - ? 500 B. C. - ?
Europeans Europeans
Future? ? Future? ?
350 - ?
One cause, although by no means the chief cause, of the ability of Western Civilization to destroy other cultures rests on the fact that it has been expanding for a long time. This fact, in turn, rests on another condition to which we have already alluded, the fact that Western Civilization has passed through three periods of expansion, has entered into an Age of Conflict three times, each time has had its core area conquered almost completely by a single political unit, but has failed to go on to the Age of the Universal Empire because from the confusion of the Age of Conflict there emerged each time a new organization of society capable of expanding by its own organizational powers, with the result that the four phenomena characteristic of the Age of Conflict (decreasing rate of expansion, class conflicts, imperialist wars, irrationality) were gradually replaced once again by the four kinds of expansion typical of an Age of Expansion (demographic, geographic, production, knowledge). From a narrowly technical point of view, this shift from an Age of Conflict to an Age of Expansion is marked by a resumption of the investment of capital and the accumulation of capital on a large scale, just as the earlier shift from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict was marked by a decreasing rate of investment and eventually by a decreasing rate of accumulation of capital.
Western Civilization began, as all civilizations do, in a period of cultural mixture. In this particular case it was a mixture resulting from the barbarian invasions which destroyed Classical Civilization in the period 350-700. By creating a new culture from the various elements offered from the barbarian tribes, the Roman world, the Saracen world, and above all the Jewish world (Christianity), Western Civilization became a new society.
This society became a civilization when it became organized, in the period 700-970, so that there was accumulation of capital and the beginnings of the investment of this capital in new methods of production. These new methods are associated with a change from infantry forces to mounted warriors in defense, from manpower (and thus slavery) to animal power in energy use, from the scratch plow and two-field, fallow agricultural technology of Mediterranean Europe to the eight-oxen, gang plow and three-field system of the Germanic peoples, and from the centralized, state-centered political orientation of the Roman world to the decentralized, private-power feudal network of the medieval world. In the new system a small number of men, equipped and trained to fight, received dues and services from the overwhelming majority of men who were expected to till the soil. From this inequitable but effective defensive system emerged an inequitable distribution of political power and, in turn, an inequitable distribution of the social economic income. This, in time, resulted in an accumulation of capital, which, by giving rise to demand for luxury goods of remote origin, began to shift the whole economic emphasis of the society from its earlier organization in self-sufficient agrarian units (manors) to commercial interchange, economic specialization, and, by the thirteenth century, to an entirely new pattern of society with towns, a bourgeois class, spreading literacy, growing freedom of alternative social choices, and new, often disturbing, thoughts.
From all this came the first period of expansion of Western Civilization, covering the years 970-1270. At the end of this period, the organization of society was becoming a petrified collection of vested interests, investment was decreasing, and the rate of expansion was beginning to fall. Accordingly, Western Civilization, for the first time, entered upon the Age of Conflict. This period, the time of the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, the great heresies, and severe class conflicts, lasted from about 1270 to 1420. By the end of it, efforts were arising from England and Burgundy to conquer the eve of Western Civilization. But, just at that moment, a new Age of Expansion, using a new organization of society which circumvented the old vested interests of the feudal- manorial system, began.
This new Age of Expansion, frequently called the period of commercial capitalism, lasted from about 1440 to about 1680. The real impetus to economic expansion during the period came from efforts to obtain profits by the interchange of goods, especially semi-luxury or luxury goods, over long distances. In time, this system of commercial capitalism became petrified into a structure of vested interests in which profits were sought by imposing restrictions on the production or interchange of goods rather than by encouraging these activities. This new vested-interest structure, usually called mercantilism, became such a burden on economic activities that the rate of expansion of
economic life declined and even gave rise to a period of economic decline in the decades immediately following 1690. The class struggles and imperialist wars engendered by this Age of Conflict are sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War. The wars continued until 1815, and the class struggles even later. As a result of the former, France by 1810 had conquered most of the eve of Western Civilization. But here, just as had occurred in 1420 when England had also conquered part of the core of the civilization toward the latter portion of an Age of Conflict, the victory was made meaningless because a new period of expansion began. Just as commercial capitalism had circumvented the petrified institution of the feudal-manorial system (chivalry) after 1440, so industrial capitalism circumvented the petrified institution of commercial capitalism (mercantilism) after 1820.
The new Age of Expansion which made Napoleon's military-political victory of 1810 impossible to maintain had begun in England long before. It appeared as the Agricultural Revolution about 1725 and as the Industrial Revolution about 1775, but it did not get started as a great burst of expansion until after 1820. Once started, it moved forward with an impetus such as the world had never seen before, and it looked as if Western Civilization might cover the whole globe. The dates of this third Age of Expansion might be fixed at 1770-1929, following upon the second Age of Conflict of 1690-1815. The social organization which was at the center of this new development might be called "industrial capitalism." In the course of the last decade of the nineteenth century, it began to become a structure of vested interests to which we might give the name "monopoly capitalism." As early, perhaps, as 1890, certain aspects of a new Age of Conflict, the third in Western Civilization, began to appear, especially in the core area, with a revival of imperialism, of class struggle, of violent warfare, and of irrationalities.
By 1930 it was clear that Western Civilization was again in an Age of Conflict; by 1942 a semi-peripheral state, Germany, had conquered much of the core of the civilization. That effort was defeated by calling into the fray a peripheral state (the United States) and another, outside civilization (the Soviet society). It is not yet clear whether Western Civilization will continue along the path marked by so many earlier civilizations, or whether it will be able to reorganize itself sufficiently to enter upon a new, fourth, Age of Expansion. If the former occurs, this Age of Conflict will undoubtedly continue with the fourfold characteristics of class struggle, war, irrationality, and declining progress. In this case, we shall undoubtedly get a Universal Empire in which the United States will rule most of Western Civilization. This will be followed, as in other civilizations, by a period of decay and ultimately, as the civilization grows weaker, by invasions and the total destruction of Western culture. On the other hand, if Western Civilization is able to reorganize itself and enters upon a fourth Age of Expansion, the ability of Western Civilization to survive and go on to increasing prosperity and power will be bright. Leaving aside this hypothetical future, it would appear thus that Western Civilization, in approximately fifteen hundred years, has passed through eight periods, thus:
1. Mixture 350-700
2. 3A. 4A.
3B. 4B.
3C. 4C.
Gestation, 700-970 First Expansion, 970-1270 First Conflict, 1270-1440
Core Empire: England, 1420 Second Expansion, 1440-1690 Second Conflict, 1690-1815
Core Empire: France, 1810 Third Expansion, 1770-1929 Third Conflict, 1893-
Core Empire: Germany, 1942 The two possibilities which lie in the future can be listed as follows: Reorganization Continuation of the Process 3D. Fourth Expansion, 1944- 5. Universal Empire (the United States)
6. Decay
7. Invasion (end of the civilization)
From the list of civilizations previously given, it becomes somewhat easier to see how Western Civilization was able to destroy (or is still destroying) the cultures of six other civilizations. In each of these six cases the victim civilization had already passed the period of Universal Empire and was deep in the Age of Decay. In such a situation Western Civilization played a role as invader similar to that played by the Germanic tribes in Classical Civilization, by the Dorians in Cretan Civilization, by the Greeks in Mesopotamian or Egyptian Civilization, by the Romans in Canaanite Civilization, or by the Ayrans in Indic Civilization. The Westerners who burst in upon the Aztecs in 1519, on the Incas in 1534, on the Mogul Empire in the eighteenth century, on the Manchu Empire after 1790, on the Ottoman Empire after 1774, and on the Tokugawa Empire after 1853 were performing the same role as the Visigoths and the other barbarian tribes to the Roman Empire after 377. In each case, the results of the collision of two civilizations, one in the Age of Expansion and the other in the Age of Decay, was a foregone conclusion. Expansion would destroy Decay.
In the course of its various expansions Western Civilization has collided with only one civilization which was not already in the stage of decay. This exception was its half- brother, so to speak, the civilization now represented by the Soviet Empire. It is not clear what stage this "Orthodox" Civilization is in, but it clearly is not in its stage of decay. It would appear that Orthodox Civilization began as a period of mixture (500-1300) and is now in its second period of expansion. The first period of expansion, covering 1500- 1900, had just begun to change into an Age of Conflict (1900-1920) when the vested interests of the society were wiped away by the defeat at the hands of Germany in 1917 and replaced by a new organization of society which gave rise to a second Age of Expansion (since 1921). During much of the last four hundred years culminating in the twentieth century, the fringes of Asia have been occupied by a semicircle of old dying civilizations (Islamic, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese). These have been under pressure from Western Civilization coming in from the oceans and from Orthodox Civilization pushing outward from the heart of the Eurasian land mass. The Oceanic pressure began with Vasco da Gama in India in 1498, culminated aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945, and still continued with the Anglo-French attack on Suez in 1956. The Russian pressure from the continental heartland was applied to the inner frontiers of China, Iran, and Turkey from the seventeenth century to the present. Much of the world's history in the twentieth century has arisen from the interactions of these three factors (the continental heartland of Russian power, the shattered cultures of the Buffer Fringe of Asia, and the oceanic powers of Western Civilization).
Posted by Darjeelingzen at 11:25 PM
A response to @tjslater 8-1-12
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Darjeelingzen
A Radical-Liberal & abolitionist; advocating the consistent ethical treatment of all human beings; the abolition of all domination; Peace, Empathy, Liberty

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ari Hoenig
As a drummer, Ari Hoenig's success has been unprecedented. Few have risen so quickly and deservedly into the upper ranks of jazz. Growing up in Philadelphia PA, his parent's influence led Ari through a variety of alternative musical experiences. His father is a conductor and classical singer, his mother a violinist and pianist. Accordingly, at 6 years old, Ari began studying the violin and piano. He began playing drums at age 12 and by age 14, he was honing his skills with other young jazz musicians at Philly clubs such as Ortliebs Jazz Haus.
Ari attended the prestigious University of North Texas for 3 years, where he studied with Ed Soph while playing with the "One O'clock" jazz band. In 1995 the desire to be closer to New York City led Ari to transfer to William Patterson College in northern New Jersey. He soon found himself playing for legendary Philadelphia organist Shirley Scott, and working regularly in New York City.
For the past 6 years, Ari has been a member of the Jean-Michel Pilc trio and the Kenny Werner trio. He has shared the bandstand with the likes of Joe Lovano, Gerry Mulligan, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland and Wynton Marsalis. Today, Ari can also be found playing in the bands of any number of musicians, including Pat Martino, Joshua Redman, Wayne Krantz, Richard Bona, Chris Potter, Kurt Rosenwinkel, The Jazz Mandolin Project and Mike Stern.
Ari has been featured in interviews and articles for Jazz Times, Modern Drummer, Bateria, Citizen Jazz, Philadelpia City Paper, All About Jazz, Philadelphia Weekly, Rim Shot, Drummer, Jazziz, Relix and Downbeat, which included Ari in the article "13 Drummers for the Future." He has toured the world extensively, and has performed on numerous television and radio broadcasts.
Ari is not the typical sideman. He is also a composer, arranger, and pianist/keyboardist. His compositions and arrangements grace the repertoires and recordings of Werner, Pilc, The Jazz Mandolin Project, the R&B Band "Good Results" and Julien Lourau's group, as well as Ari's own quartet. In affiliation with the National Endowment for the Arts, Ari was awarded a "Meet the Composer" grant to perform his compositions with his own group.
The Ari Hoenig Quartet was formed at the end of 2002. The band features Jacques Schwarz-Bart, on Tenor Sax, Jean Michel Pilc on Piano and Johannes Weidenmueller on Bass. The quartet has a weekly Monday night gig at Fat Cat, where they were recently filmed by Arte (French) television for the Documentary "Jazz in New York" and for a concert to be aired separately from the documentary. They also appeared on the show "After Hours" on MSNBC. With international tours taking them to France, Spain, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington DC, Ari and his band draw strong audiences and critical acclaim wherever they play.
Since 1996, Ari has appeared on nearly sixty recordings as a sideman and three as a leader. 2004 marks the release of his first quartet record "The Painter" on the "Smalls" record Label. Since its release, "The Painter" has received rave reviews in a number of publications including a listing as one of the top 5 records of 2004 by Fanfare magazine. Both of Ari's solo drum CD's, Time Travels (2000), and The Life Of A Day (2002), document his explorative nature; they represent an ambitious tribute to the melodic possibilities of the drum set.
As an educator, Ari teaches at the New School for Social Research and Manhattan School of Music, both in New York. He gives clinics and lectures at music schools and universities worldwide and writes a regular educational column for Modern Drummer magazine. In collaboration with bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, Ari is currently finishing a book about metric modulations (Mel Bay Publishing.)
Other Drum Artists
Gulli Briem
Born in Reykjavik, Iceland. As a child Gulli started banging on pots and pans on the kitchen floor of the family home in Reykjavik. Played guitar for two years and sang in a school band until the original drummer got sick and was forced to leave his chair. Practiced drums in the loft of the Briem family residence, while playing in high school bands and musicals, where he met Johann Asmundsson a co-founding member of Mezzoforte (1977). The pair soon met Eythor Gunnarsson and Fridrik Karlsson in a Reykjavik music store, where Fridrik sold guitars. Recorded and toured with the band internationally from 1982. Their first big worldwide success with the group was in 1983 with the U.K. dance funk hit "Garden Party" and the Surprise, Surprise album. Mezzoforte has been nominated five times as the drummer of the year in Iceland.
Mike Shapiro
Dafnis Prieto
Dafnis Prieto´s arrival in the U.S has been compared by to that of an asteroid hitting New York.


The Daleks from Doctor Who have surrounded the wrong time-traveling phone booth. Bogus! The line art was drawn by hand with pen and ink, color and texture effects were added in Photoshop. The Web Site URL does not appear on the actual print.


Case Analysis : Branch Smith Inc.
Introduction and Overview: Branch-Smith, Inc. is a family owned business that has been in operation for over 100 years. Based out of Fort Worth, Texas, it employs 70 people full time producing small to medium printing solutions for a this niche market. Products produced include publications, magazines, catalogs, directories and books as well as some commercial printing. The company is able to have a competitive advantage over other printing operations by using a sheet-fed press system that produces a higher quality print over common web based printing. This system is also more flexible than larger scale printers who charge exorbitant fees for print batches of the size targeted by Branch-Smith Inc. Vertically integrated and cost effective they are well balanced in serving the customer with a cost effective and timely solution. Despite being a small company they still have multiple reviews on a regular basis to monitor and control the operations of the business. Branch-Smith Inc. uses strategic planning linked to vison, mission and quality operations to ensure that it is able to maintain its advantage. Some of the key elements of the company's strategic operations are long-term partnerships with clients, suppliers and industry associations. Utilizing a formal strategic planning process, the company is able to react to changing market conditions and maintain its long-term goals simultaneously.
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