The Dove World Outreach Center in Florida
It has always been known that only the most enlightened people practice the ancient and honorable art of book-burning. It is the apex of human tolerance and intellectual stability, there is nothing more glorious and noble than a crowd of people gathered around a pile of burning books. It is an activity we always associate with the most enlightened intellectual elite: Khmer Rouge, Taliban, Hitler, Stalin, Spanish Conquistadors and now, of course, the enlightened members of the church Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. My congratulations to them all. Their parents must be so proud.
My invitation must have been lost in the mail, but I hear they've gone all out! Teeth are optional and if you husband Bubah was your cousin Bubah a couple of years back, you get a spot in the front row!!!
Here is a video of their practice run last week.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Morons Run Amuck
Here's the trouble with the internet, it gives every moronic imbecile out there a microphone. Hold the snide remarks, if you please, I'm not excluding myself from the category.
I came across list of the 20 classic movies you thought were overrated, http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20406056,00.html . And I will grant you that a few of them are in deed overrated, others don't belong on the list. To wit Citizen Kane, here is what the moron had to say about the movie:
Citizen Kane (1941)
I totally agree about Citizen Kane. Maybe it was too hyped before I saw it, but I found it a bit dull. Not to mention I have known what Rosebud was since I was 6 years old. — Ari
If you were to ask this Ari person what Rosebud was he would quickly and emphatically rejoin "It was his sled" because that is what a 6 year old would say, and apparently his ideas have not changed over time.
Ari, my new favorite moron, Rosebud wasn't his sled... it was the symbol of the sudden realization that with his last breath of life the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world realized that he had never been as happy as when he was a pauper and unknown. Rosebud is the sudden negation of an entire life. A life envied by all in the world that in a split second had become one not worth living. If you walked away from the movie saying "Rosebud was his sled" you missed the point and you don't have the mental acuity to judge the movie or even profess an opinion.
One more:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Growing up, I loved watching old movies and heard this to be epic. Was never on TV, couldn’t find it to rent. Finally came on PBS, commercial-free. I was so excited. I fell asleep 3 times. Every time I woke up, just more walking on sand. — mlk
I can see someone disagreeing with the political bias in Lawrence of Arabia. If you were to tell me that the historic point of view in the story is one-sided and prejudiced and for that reason the movie is overrated, I might consider you opinion. But "I couldn't stay awake through it" is more of a commentary about your own ineptitude than about the movie. Poor baby, did your playstation joystick not work with the movie? How disappointing...
Morons run amuck. Before the internet you had to go to a frat party with more bongs than people in order to hear such drivel, now you need only go to EW.com.
I came across list of the 20 classic movies you thought were overrated, http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20406056,00.html . And I will grant you that a few of them are in deed overrated, others don't belong on the list. To wit Citizen Kane, here is what the moron had to say about the movie:
Citizen Kane (1941)
I totally agree about Citizen Kane. Maybe it was too hyped before I saw it, but I found it a bit dull. Not to mention I have known what Rosebud was since I was 6 years old. — Ari
If you were to ask this Ari person what Rosebud was he would quickly and emphatically rejoin "It was his sled" because that is what a 6 year old would say, and apparently his ideas have not changed over time.
Ari, my new favorite moron, Rosebud wasn't his sled... it was the symbol of the sudden realization that with his last breath of life the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world realized that he had never been as happy as when he was a pauper and unknown. Rosebud is the sudden negation of an entire life. A life envied by all in the world that in a split second had become one not worth living. If you walked away from the movie saying "Rosebud was his sled" you missed the point and you don't have the mental acuity to judge the movie or even profess an opinion.
One more:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Growing up, I loved watching old movies and heard this to be epic. Was never on TV, couldn’t find it to rent. Finally came on PBS, commercial-free. I was so excited. I fell asleep 3 times. Every time I woke up, just more walking on sand. — mlk
I can see someone disagreeing with the political bias in Lawrence of Arabia. If you were to tell me that the historic point of view in the story is one-sided and prejudiced and for that reason the movie is overrated, I might consider you opinion. But "I couldn't stay awake through it" is more of a commentary about your own ineptitude than about the movie. Poor baby, did your playstation joystick not work with the movie? How disappointing...
Morons run amuck. Before the internet you had to go to a frat party with more bongs than people in order to hear such drivel, now you need only go to EW.com.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Urban traffic in Pompeii
There are so many aspects of Pompeii that fascinate me, it's hard so choose a single one to focus upon. I choose it not because it first or of any great importance, but simply because in opening a folder it was the subject of the picture that caught my eye. Urban traffic.
Two millennia ago the city stopped -forgive the cliché- dead in its tracks. Today it bustles with tourists compelled by the fascination of times past and origins lost. They stroll down streets, past houses, water fountains restaurants and shops that have been uninhabited and in disuse for two thousand years and wonder, a happy few research and speculate. Any original information will be the fruit of their labor, I can only recount what I have learned and remember.
As you walk through the streets of Pompeii one of the most striking features of the city is the very deep grooves left on the paving stones by heavy wheel traffic.
The streets were very narrow and carts, and carriages had very little room to maneuver before hitting one of the cubs or one of the stepping stones in the middle of the road. The wheels left marks on the stones which help determine the way the wheel was traveling and allows us to determine whether the street was one way, two way and which way traffic flowed. Some streets comported two way traffic but most were one way. Here are some typical streets.
Streets wide enough for four stepping stones were often two way.
That traffic was not haphazard is evident, therefore city traffic was a planned activity, and since there are no surviving or obvious traffic signs I guess that traffic laws were probably enforced by the population. People knew which direction traffic flowed and how to get places and if everyone followed the rules traffic would flow. However, there is no reason to believe Italians 2000 years ago were any more sedate than they are today, and I imagine that traffic disputes occurred daily and involved a great deal of gesticulation and shouting.
When trucks drive into the city of Sao Paulo there are numerous individuals camped on the side of the road offering guide services. These people will get into the incoming truck, direct the driver to his destination in the city and help unload the cargo for a fee. I can't help but imagine that similar services may have been offered at the entrance gates to Pompeii.
An uninformed stranger driving into the city to make a delivery could easily drive the wrong way in a major thoroughfare and stall traffic around the city. There is no room to maneuver an ox cart to turn it around, and oncoming traffic would also be hard pressed to back-up. All one could do in this situation, I imagine, is shout loudly and gesticulate grandiosely.
Stepping stones are allover the city. The curbs were high to keep both traffic and water off the sidewalks. The roads arch in the middle directing water to the curb and the city is on a slope towards the ocean. Water from the overflowing fountains probably flowed continuously in the curb and the stepping-stones were necessary for pedestrian traffic to remain dry.
The stepping stones seem high, but ancient carts and carriages cleared them with ease, the curbs were also very high to contain the water flow. Chamber pots and other waste were often dumped in the flow, not to mention the waste from the horses and oxen on the road, if you ask me the curbs and stepping stones were not high enough.
Modern carts require a little ingenuity to move around the ruins.
Roman law included provisions for road construction, road standards and even traffic accidents.
The few two way roads were often wider than one-way roads. This is a one way road and you can see the width of the groove left by the wheels and gauge the width of the street by the umbrella.
Here is a two way street that is about the same width of the one way street.
There are two sets of wheel tracks, one from the left gutter to the wooden end of the umbrella and the other from the right gutter to the umbrella's hook handle. I think there would have been a great deal of shouts and gestures on this street. Unless it was one way in the morning and the opposite way in the afternoon... who knows (but then why not just stay in the middle of the road?)
There are a few clever details that are often overlooked by tourists. The sidewalks and roads leading into the forum are studded with embedded white pebbles that stand out under low lighting conditions. At night someone walking with an oil lamp would have a better sense of where he is by looking at the sidewalk since the frequency of the white pebbles increases a you approach the Forum.
Here similar pebbles were used as a welcome doormat in front of a rather wealthy house. Debate still rages over the "H". OK, fine! Maybe it doesn’t 'rage'...but would you have me say that debate whimpers about the "H"? I thought not.
Throughout the city you will also find holes bored through the curbstones. I was told by a guard that they were used to tie horses. However, some were placed in narrow streets leading into the Forum, these would have been some of the busiest streets in town and rather inconvenient places to run smack-dab into one or more tethered horses. They may have been used to fasten awnings that hung over the sidewalk on storefronts. It's a less likely hypothesis.
If they were indeed used to fasten bridles it only goes to show that traffic in ancient Pompeii was as inconvenient as traffic in major cities today.
Two millennia ago the city stopped -forgive the cliché- dead in its tracks. Today it bustles with tourists compelled by the fascination of times past and origins lost. They stroll down streets, past houses, water fountains restaurants and shops that have been uninhabited and in disuse for two thousand years and wonder, a happy few research and speculate. Any original information will be the fruit of their labor, I can only recount what I have learned and remember.
As you walk through the streets of Pompeii one of the most striking features of the city is the very deep grooves left on the paving stones by heavy wheel traffic.
The streets were very narrow and carts, and carriages had very little room to maneuver before hitting one of the cubs or one of the stepping stones in the middle of the road. The wheels left marks on the stones which help determine the way the wheel was traveling and allows us to determine whether the street was one way, two way and which way traffic flowed. Some streets comported two way traffic but most were one way. Here are some typical streets.
Streets wide enough for four stepping stones were often two way.
That traffic was not haphazard is evident, therefore city traffic was a planned activity, and since there are no surviving or obvious traffic signs I guess that traffic laws were probably enforced by the population. People knew which direction traffic flowed and how to get places and if everyone followed the rules traffic would flow. However, there is no reason to believe Italians 2000 years ago were any more sedate than they are today, and I imagine that traffic disputes occurred daily and involved a great deal of gesticulation and shouting.
When trucks drive into the city of Sao Paulo there are numerous individuals camped on the side of the road offering guide services. These people will get into the incoming truck, direct the driver to his destination in the city and help unload the cargo for a fee. I can't help but imagine that similar services may have been offered at the entrance gates to Pompeii.
An uninformed stranger driving into the city to make a delivery could easily drive the wrong way in a major thoroughfare and stall traffic around the city. There is no room to maneuver an ox cart to turn it around, and oncoming traffic would also be hard pressed to back-up. All one could do in this situation, I imagine, is shout loudly and gesticulate grandiosely.
Stepping stones are allover the city. The curbs were high to keep both traffic and water off the sidewalks. The roads arch in the middle directing water to the curb and the city is on a slope towards the ocean. Water from the overflowing fountains probably flowed continuously in the curb and the stepping-stones were necessary for pedestrian traffic to remain dry.
The stepping stones seem high, but ancient carts and carriages cleared them with ease, the curbs were also very high to contain the water flow. Chamber pots and other waste were often dumped in the flow, not to mention the waste from the horses and oxen on the road, if you ask me the curbs and stepping stones were not high enough.
Modern carts require a little ingenuity to move around the ruins.
Roman law included provisions for road construction, road standards and even traffic accidents.
The few two way roads were often wider than one-way roads. This is a one way road and you can see the width of the groove left by the wheels and gauge the width of the street by the umbrella.
Here is a two way street that is about the same width of the one way street.
There are two sets of wheel tracks, one from the left gutter to the wooden end of the umbrella and the other from the right gutter to the umbrella's hook handle. I think there would have been a great deal of shouts and gestures on this street. Unless it was one way in the morning and the opposite way in the afternoon... who knows (but then why not just stay in the middle of the road?)
There are a few clever details that are often overlooked by tourists. The sidewalks and roads leading into the forum are studded with embedded white pebbles that stand out under low lighting conditions. At night someone walking with an oil lamp would have a better sense of where he is by looking at the sidewalk since the frequency of the white pebbles increases a you approach the Forum.
Here similar pebbles were used as a welcome doormat in front of a rather wealthy house. Debate still rages over the "H". OK, fine! Maybe it doesn’t 'rage'...but would you have me say that debate whimpers about the "H"? I thought not.
Throughout the city you will also find holes bored through the curbstones. I was told by a guard that they were used to tie horses. However, some were placed in narrow streets leading into the Forum, these would have been some of the busiest streets in town and rather inconvenient places to run smack-dab into one or more tethered horses. They may have been used to fasten awnings that hung over the sidewalk on storefronts. It's a less likely hypothesis.
If they were indeed used to fasten bridles it only goes to show that traffic in ancient Pompeii was as inconvenient as traffic in major cities today.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
my new favorite picture
This is in South Africa as you may have seen allover the news. Truly AWESOME! At this exact second the sailor looks unaware of the whale (you can tell 'cause there's no shit in his pants), what a picture! WOW
here is a CNN interview with Paloma Werner who was one of two people in the boat
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2010/07/21/moos.whale.crashes.boat.cnn?hpt=C2
I wish I could give credit to the photographer but his/her name was not mentioned. If you know it, let me know -thanks
here is a CNN interview with Paloma Werner who was one of two people in the boat
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2010/07/21/moos.whale.crashes.boat.cnn?hpt=C2
I wish I could give credit to the photographer but his/her name was not mentioned. If you know it, let me know -thanks
Friday, July 9, 2010
Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan (video)
Extremely rare video of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Keller became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months due to an illness that might have scarlet fever or meningitis. She learned to talk and became a lecturer, political activist and author. She wrote a total of 12 books. She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a BA degree. Her political inclinations were leftist, she was anti war and supported the suffrage movement, workers' rights and socialism. She is also credited with bringing the Akita dog breed from Japan to the US. Her life was portrayed in the movie The Miracle Worker, based on her autobiography.
Keller became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months due to an illness that might have scarlet fever or meningitis. She learned to talk and became a lecturer, political activist and author. She wrote a total of 12 books. She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a BA degree. Her political inclinations were leftist, she was anti war and supported the suffrage movement, workers' rights and socialism. She is also credited with bringing the Akita dog breed from Japan to the US. Her life was portrayed in the movie The Miracle Worker, based on her autobiography.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Eumachia at Pompeii
I was going to write something in my blog this weekend, but lately life has given me very little encouragement to professing my own opinion . Let's see, I've been unfollowed for disagreeing with Brent Spiner's politics and reprimanded for disagreeing with Mel Gibson's ... well pick a problem, he's got an array. So this week I will be foregoing an opinion. Today I will blog about Eumachia. She has been dead for 2000 years now, I doubt anyone still has an opinion about her. Besides I have pictures...
Eumachia was a woman who lived in Pompeii in the first century AD. As you might know Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD, and since her tomb exists one might deduce when she lived. She inherited a fortune from her father and married rather well to become one of the most prominent citizens of Pompeii. (note that I'm not expressing any opinion on feminism in antiquity). Her money and social position elevated her to become the matron of the fullers, a wealthy guild in Pompeii that was responsible for the dyers and clothing makers/cleaners. One of her benefactions to the city was, what is to be assumed an impressive building on one side of the forum (prime real estate). There is nothing left of the building but the doorway which is breathtaking. The building's function is unclear, but there was a public toilet facing the forum with provides clues. Human urine was collected a public toilets, aged and used in the dying/cleaning process. (personally I always thought they would get a better yield at the stables). A statue of Eumachia at the back of the building also survives, as does her tomb.
Eumachia's tomb at the cemetery in front of Herculaneum Gate
The doorway to her building at the forum
Details of the exquisite carving of that enormous doorway
Eumachia watching over the processes in her building.
Eumachia was a woman who lived in Pompeii in the first century AD. As you might know Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD, and since her tomb exists one might deduce when she lived. She inherited a fortune from her father and married rather well to become one of the most prominent citizens of Pompeii. (note that I'm not expressing any opinion on feminism in antiquity). Her money and social position elevated her to become the matron of the fullers, a wealthy guild in Pompeii that was responsible for the dyers and clothing makers/cleaners. One of her benefactions to the city was, what is to be assumed an impressive building on one side of the forum (prime real estate). There is nothing left of the building but the doorway which is breathtaking. The building's function is unclear, but there was a public toilet facing the forum with provides clues. Human urine was collected a public toilets, aged and used in the dying/cleaning process. (personally I always thought they would get a better yield at the stables). A statue of Eumachia at the back of the building also survives, as does her tomb.
Eumachia's tomb at the cemetery in front of Herculaneum Gate
The doorway to her building at the forum
Details of the exquisite carving of that enormous doorway
Eumachia watching over the processes in her building.
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