The rest of the world says that the United States can self-isolate. They are moving forward.

The meeting at the SEO concluded, and the rest of the world are divorcing from the United States led uni-polar order. Its ENDING.

Of course, the USA is going to do everything possible to disrupt the nations of the SEO. Expect it, and the rest of the world is READY for those efforts.

Buckle up.

I’m not sure angry is the right word.

According to the Anglo Saxon press China “furiously slammed”, “vigorously denied”, the report or “lashed out” at the UN human rights office.

But there’s nothing in the report that wasn’t alleged before. No new facts or proof were presented. And China’s response was also just the same as before: “move along please, nothing to see here”.

Of course there’ll be some diplomatic soundbites to show that they don’t agree with the findings, but angry? I don’t think anybody is really surprised by anything in the report.

I think China should react the same as the gas station attendant in one episode of Columbo. There was a scene in the episode where Columbo drives up to a gas station in his old and rusty Peugeot convertible. While the gas station attendant prepares to fill his tank Columbo tells him: “watch the paint will ya”. The attendant looks at the car and replies: “sure, will keep that in mind when I find any paint”.

Similarly China could’ve just said: “thanks for the report and sure, will keep that in mind when we find any issues”.

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Treasure

I have inherited treasure. But my father is the one who actually found it.

Back around 1952, both my parents were still fairly fresh immigrants out of Poland, after WWII. In 1948, my mom, the oldest of 9 kids who survived the war, came over with her parents when she was 16 on this ship, the General A.W. Greely:

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And my dad came over the same year. The 9 kids and my grandmother worked on a vegetable farm for the farmer who sponsored their immigration. They lived in this shack which physically, wasn’t tremendously different than the Nazi labor camp barracks they’d spent years in. But, of course, they weren’t slaves here! They had food. They could come and go. And nobody was beating or murdering them.

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They were part of a Refugee Program for Displaced Persons. They were called DP’s. Right after the war, since they had no homes to go back to in Poland (they were destroyed [not to mention, now under communist control]), they were sponsored by a family of farmers near Buffalo, NY. The deal was, they would all live in this shack with a bunch of other families, and work all year round picking lettuce, strawberries, cucumbers. beans, and other crops, until their debt was paid off. The youngest of the kids was 2-years-old… my aunt. They all worked the fields. Their sponsor was the DeCarlo Family Farm in the town of North Collins. I have everlasting gratitude to the DeCarlos for treating my family well on that farm, as they became Americans.

My Dad and Grandfather both had jobs lined up at the local Ford plant, although they didn’t then know each other. Somehow, through some social function for immigrants, my mom and dad met and were soon married.

So, my dad was the first son-in-law. I don’t know how they did it, but within just three years, with everyone working on the farm or at the Ford plant, and having satisfied the terms of the immigrant sponsorship, both families had saved enough money to buy houses; both my grandfather and his whole family, and my newlywed Mom and Dad. That was crazy fast! But I guess with that large of a family, and everyone working, down to my 2 year-old aunt, saving pennies picking crops for three seasons added up quickly. They all had just survived the horrors of being right in the center of a World War for six years, so living in a safe peaceful place, in a shack, with the opportunity to earn money… they didn’t dawdle.

In 1951, my dad bought a really nice Victorian Era house in the Polish section of Buffalo, NY. And my grandfather bought a bigger one just down the street. So now, everyone worked just as hard cleaning up the houses, to move into. Out of these twelve people, my dad and grandfather were the only two men… the rest being my grandmother and 8 teenage girls (oh… and my 7 year-old uncle). But, of course, my dad was obliged to help out with the bigger house as well (even though he had his own house to work on).

One day, my grandfather wanted him to help clean out the 100 year old basement in the big house. This is the house as it looked in 2010. By this time, the house has gone to ruins, as you can see.

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But in 1951… this was a really grand beautiful house! Built sometime in the 1860s or 1870s, or so. It still had the very old, cast iron, wood-burning, kitchen stove down in the basement. My dad wasn’t all that keen on taking several days away from his own chores, but he helped my grandfather in that basement… under one condition. He got my grandfather to promise that if they found any treasure in that old basement, they would split it 50/50. It was kind of a joke actually, and my grumpy grandfather agreed. They got to work.

Well… of course… they DID find something valuable! And it couldn’t have been more cliché. My dad was poking around on top of the basement ceiling beams, and stuffed in one dark cobwebby corner, he found… a bag of money! An old pouch, full of dozens of very old silver coins! He literally found a bag of treasure! Woohoo!

Now… as fathers and son-in-laws are apt to do… they argued. My grandfather was really pissed off that he had made that silly agreement. He had agreed because he thought that actually finding treasure was a ridiculous hope. But, there it was. One bag of treasure. Now, you have to remember how important money was to these guys. It meant everything, as they’d never had it before; and what they did finally have, came from back-breaking double shifts, for years.

Of course, my grandfather had to abide by the agreement, and each of them took possession of a couple dozen coins, mostly 19th century silver dollars. They had no idea, what was what, so it was a simple matter of… “one for you… one for me… one for you… etc.”

Now, we move forward 18 years. My two sisters and I have by this time been born. I was 6 and my sisters were teenagers. The two families had by this time grown to about nine families, as all the kids grew up and got married off. My mom & dad, and my grandparents continued their hard-working, over-time, penny-pinching ways, during that whole time, and by the late 1960s, they both had saved up enough cash to take the next step in the American Dream. Moving out of the city, and getting a place in the country. In fact, building their own homes. By 1969, both my parents, and my grandparents had built their new beautiful modern houses in the small rural town of Eden, NY. Red-brick ranch style houses with an acre of land each. Fields and forest all around.

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That’s our house in the center, and the surrounding countryside. It’s where I grew up. Those forests are where I became a country boy, forever exploring, for miles & miles in every direction. I am eternally thankful for the hard work and sacrifices my parents undertook to provide me and my sisters an incredibly great place to grow up. My grandparents and us built our houses right across the street from each other.

A few years later… I think I was maybe eleven years old, or so… the story of the buried treasure came out. Of course, I wanted to hear all about it! And my dad was happy to finally tell it, as it was one of his greatest moments of “getting” his father-in-law in a “Gotcha!” They had a constant bitter-sweet relationship, for the last twenty years, always trying to out-do each other. It was often at the level of sit-com absurdity. So… we all heard the story at the dinner table that night. And obviously…. WANTED TO SEE IT!

Dad went to his secret hiding spot, and pulled out a cloth pouch of silver coins, and carefully spread them out on the table. Treasure! My eyes couldn’t get wider. Dad talked about his score, and that my grandparents had the other half. They were always meant to hand down to everyone’s kids. But, you see… my grandfather had to split his share amongst all his kids… who each had a pile of kids. So grandma would give them out at special occasions, to my aunts, uncles, and cousins. My dad, on the other hand, only had my two sisters and I to split them up with, so we clearly had the better situation. I don’t recall if my sisters were as eager as I was at the time, but as far as I was concerned… LET THE SPLITTING UP AND HANDING DOWN BEGIN! It’s TREASURE! Heck, yeah!

It’s clear that my dad was prepared to do so, or he would never have brought them out of hiding in the first place. But… to my dismay… we weren’t then getting our full shares. Just one a piece. My disappointment lasted about three seconds, as I got my first share of inheritance, at 11 years old. We got our own old silver coin, and we each eventually put them in our own secret spots. Apparently, not a single one of us knew a single thing about coin collecting. We just all saw they were old, from the 1800’s.

A couple or three more years went buy, and I eventually started looking into actual coin collecting. I bought a book. Strange that no one else had though to do that yet, but I asked my dad if I could see the remaining coins so I could look them up. He allowed me to do that. This is when I discovered that, for the most part, they were Morgan Silver Dollars. 1878 to 1904. I started to read about and understand what mint marks were all about, and learned that age wasn’t the only thing that mattered. There was mint mark and condition, too. Obvious now, but I knew nothing about this stuff before. Clearly, of most import, was the coin that I had as my own. I checked it out and found out that it was worth some $40 or so. Mine was one of the oldest. I believe it was an 1879 coin. I went through the whole pile, one by one. So I was seeing something like “$18… $20… $8… $75 (ooo!)… $20… $85 (!!!) … $8… $20… $2000 … wait, what?! $2000??!!! WOW!!!

One of the coins had the date of 1889 on the front:

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And more importantly… it had a “CC” mint mark, for Carson City, Nevada, on the back! (at the bottom, above the “DO” of Dollar.

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Holy crap! Being the burgeoning entrepreneur that I was, I immediately asked my dad if I could trade my coin for one of the others. Why? Well, I told him straight up… because it was worth more. He said fine. So… I swapped mine for the CC coin and gave the rest back. Hey… if my sisters had taken the time to read about coin collecting, they could have made the discovery themselves. But they didn’t. So my conscience was clear. My swapped coin went back to my secret hiding spot.

Life went on. We all grew up. Had our traveling, our colleges, our marriages (my divorce), kids, etc.

Close to thirty years passed and I found myself in Arizona, doing wildlife work. I was still kind of emotionally recovering from my marriage debacle in England less than a couple years earlier. And financially recovering. I was all-in on my field studies for various agencies and wildlife groups, getting a lot of great science done. It was just what I needed, as my head wasn’t yet in the game enough to commit myself back to my Engineering career. Unfortunately, half my work was volunteer work (which would pay off later), and the other half was the piddly amount that was usually available in research budgets, for paid field researchers. Emotionally, mentally, I was doing great.

Financially… not so much.

There was a lot of touch & go during those times, trying to make up enough cash to pay basic rent on my 3-room apartment in the “interesting” part of Tucson. Trying to scrape up enough for basic utilities. I cut back on food and went back to my $1/a day/plan that I had developed when I had gotten out of the Army and took on a beach lifeguard job in Florida, almost 20 years earlier. In case you don’t know… beach lifeguards don’t make a whole lot of money. It’s all about the benefits!

So, there I was… starting to love life again, but seriously strained for cash. I kept up selling things and found various ways to get a little here or a little there. But… the time finally came when I simply ran out of resources.

Of course… my coin had already been in the back of my mind for a few months. I really couldn’t consider it, though. I just couldn’t. …. Until I just had to. Okay… my most treasured family heirloom just had to be sacrificed. I was committed. I checked out values again, and noticed it hadn’t changed much. With a liberal estimate of “condition”… I still thought I might be able to get $2000 for it. So… not having internet… I started out to locate every coin buyer, numismatist, collector, and pawn shop I could find. I started making my rounds.

It didn’t start out very well, as I continued to get low-balled on my 1889 CC Morgan Silver Dollar. I was getting offers in the several hundreds, and not even near the $2000 I was holding fast to. I simply could not allow myself to take a desperate price for something that was so valuable to me in every other way.

After a couple of days of this, I found myself having just walked out of another collector’s shop, having been offered $800. Things were looking bleak. I was sitting in my Jeep, clueless, when my phone rang. It was one of the shops I visited the day before.

I guess he thought I would come back for his low-ball. Who knows… in another couple minutes, I may have! But, he said to come on back, and he would give me my $2000 for this coin that we both knew was pretty damn rare! HOLY COW!!! I tried not to act too excited, but I was back there within 15 minutes, and we made the exchange. Wow! I wasn’t going to be homeless after-all! I can’t express how difficult it was to hand over that coin, but I just was at a point of zero options.

So… with the economical way I was living, that was giving me a good three months of breathing room. I could certainly improve my position within three months. And I did.

However… that’s not the end of the story. At that point, Morgans were relatively rare, all over. And that was certainly the case for the really special ones. But fate took a very strange turn just a few weeks after i sold that coin. Turns out that the coin collecting world… at least the Morgan Silver Dollar collecting world… was turned upside down on its head, when an enormous stash of these very coins was found, someplace in America! Like … thousands of them suddenly turned up in the market, and their value steeply plummeted! My $2000 coin took a huge hit and lost well over $1000 in value. If I had waited just another couple weeks, things would have turned out far differently for me that summer in Tucson. Far differently.

I do feel for the unfortunate turn of events for that coin shop that took such a massive loss on his investment. But… what can I say? Collecting is always associated with risk. I got lucky. The coin shop didn’t.

In retrospect, I still see that I had no other options.

Still not the end. Years later, my dad was nearing the end and I was his 24/7 hospice keeper for his final few months. Those coins that he still had, had been given out here and there over the years. But there were still quite a few left. None were ever as valuable as my CC. But, they weren’t worthless, even after the Morgan Crash. So, he gave me the rest of them. I still have heirlooms. Not nearly as valuable, in one sense. But incredibly valuable in another. They are now in my secret hiding spot. And when the time comes… they will be handed down.

They are after all… real and true, found hidden treasure.

A “house cleaning” / purge of DDP membership is taking place

The DDP is the “independence for Taiwan” political party that currently rules Taiwan and is trying hard to work with the United States. I recon that United States pressures, and Chinese pressures are causing a severe rift in the political party leadership. Yet, I do now know what will come of this.

I do not know if the purges will cause the party to lean towards China or strengthen their ties with the United States.

Given what I know we can say the following are true…

  • The USA has ramped up an anti-China effort around Taiwan.
  • The USA is tossing about the Taiwan Act of 2022.
  • China has reacted VERY STRONGLY regarding it.

And now this…

The taiwan ruling party DPP expelled 26 party members who had left the party or violated discipline to run for municipal councillors, including Zheng Baoqing, who was registered to run for mayor of Taoyuan. You Yinglong, chairman of the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, said that the Democratic Progressive Party confiscated the primary election, and factions within the party arranged the right to nominate city councillors, leaving many talents with no way to participate, resulting in behaviors that violate discipline or leave the party to run for elections. If the party led by President Tsai Ing-wen still does not know how to introspect and review, will there be tomorrow?

From HERE

I met an old entrepreneur that had several successful companies. He made millions and stills owns a lot of businesses. He doesn’t brag about the money, he speaks about the people he met (he quoted Steve Jobs) and share knowledge.

When he offered to pay our breakfast (50$ in Paris) he joked about being older and richer than me to not split the bill. He paid with a classic gold mastercard. Not a black card, not a centurion, a simple gold card.

We got out of the brasserie, and was I amazed by my scooter: a small electric Cityscoot moto that any one can rent for 0.2€ per minute in Paris

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When he headed to his office, he went on foot. Not in a uber or expensive car. On foot. He has time, the most valuable thing in the world.

Being discreet wealthy is being able to pay things without showing off and to spend time instead of money.

Black (Live) – MTV Unplugged – Pearl Jam

Europeans talk about their visits to the United States

Here’s the answers.

Answer 1

There were only two things that shocked me when I came to the US.

  • the complete lack of maintenance for the infrastructure. I thought Americans loved to drive? So why not spend some money on maintenance. I’ve seen more potholes in 6 days in the USA, than in my entire life in the Netherlands
  • the way police officers and other other uniformed people behaved. It already started on the airport at border security, all of the guys in uniform acted like they were the most important person in the world and we were just measly worms. Come on, I know you have a job to do, but why can’t you just try to be pollite? If Dutch police officers would behave like that, they would be considered unfit for the job.

Answer 2

Sort of, yes.

The roads, first of all. They were exactly like the horror stories people used to tell from East Germany, pot holes in the highways and no maintenance for decades.

Then, the cheap stuff. The really cheap stuff in shops. All of so low quality that it would be illegal to sell in Europe.

And after a while, the widespread sheer squalor. I had expected the US to be much like Europe in terms of general standard of living, but it’s actually closer to North Africa, with actual slum areas.

Answer 3

As a Finn who visited a few states (CO, UT, AZ, NM) a couple of years ago, and especially as I see a lot of answers having a rather negative tone, I’ll chip in.

While I do agree with some of the points in other answers, they didn’t really shock me. We don’t have the best roads in Finland either, my daily driver is an off roader and I spent quite a lot of time on gravel. Finland also has tenth most guns per capita in the world and I’ve been to a range shooting AR variant just last week. So much for the “Europeans don’t get guns” myth. The US gets quite a news coverage on this side of the pond also, the pop culture has a huge impact and world geography and history are taught since primary school, so many of the differences were already known and expected. Issues are common and everywhere, just different and news are readily available, so they never shock.

What really shocked me was how beautiful everything was, the scenery was insane! I wouldn’t be able to describe it in words. I know many people are in awe visiting Finland, and I guess our nature has its charm, but when you’ve lived here all your life it’s really just flat and full of trees. Your average sightline at any given moment is in meters, not in kilometers, except in the northernmost Lapland. At these latitudes, we also have either sun all the time or snow, but rarely both at the same time. Definitely, the Sun is never straight above when there’s snow. It barely peeks from behind the trees before descending again. Here it’s either six months of twilight and snow, or summer and sun around the clock.

I was in total awe throughout my stay. The snow-covered Rocky Mountains, I70 flowing along the Colorado River, arid vastness of eastern Utah, Colorado National Monument, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde, dinosaur fossils, shallow mountain creeks, conifer, pine and juniper forests… I covered some 2000 miles in a week driving a Challenger and a Cherokee and visited many places. What I really encountered was beautiful nature, smiling people and great hospitality beyond what I, as a naturally introverted Finn, am used to.

Us Europeans like to nitpick and talk down on the US, sometimes very much deservedly so. I also like how we have things here in Finland and wouldn’t have it in any other way. But at the same time, my visit gave me exactly ZERO reasons not to visit again. All the issues encountered in various media around internet vanish to thin air when you are actually in there, in thin air, at the height of 3500 meters, driving a Challenger through a blizzard. Loved the place, loved the car and would love to visit again!

Answer 4

I wouldn’t say ‘shocked’ but certainly, having lived and worked in the US, there are notable differences.

  1. American flags are everywhere. Flags on shops. Flags on cars. Flags outside malls, then flags inside malls. I even saw a cow with a flag sprayed on it. In Europe the only time we see so many flags not on government buildings is during the ‘soccer’ World Cup. Due to the whole rise of facism in the 1930s and 40s, Europeans tend to find this a bit unsettling. The Pledge of Allegiance being recited by kids gives us the creeps. But that’s us, not you! Bovine flags don’t scream facism though to us, just to be clear. That’s something every nation can benefit from.
  2. Federal speak. No one talks of ‘unpatriotic’ behaviour or ‘unIrish’ or ‘unGerman’ acts. But ‘unAmerican’? There’s a language used by American federal institutions and the public that Europeans just find odd. If a European politician referred to their country as ‘this great nation’ we’d be rolling our eyes thinking they were hamming it up. Europeans find this constant ‘bigging up the country’ irritating because when people do it here, it’s usually to avoid talking about substantive issues by giving crowd-pleasing soundbites. Oh wait …
  3. Speaking of waiting … Bureaucracy. This was the single thing I found most different. Americans love forms. And ballpoint pens. Get this form, fill it out, bring it to this desk where you’ll be handed another form to fill out, and bring ID and proof of address to this desk with that precompleted form and we’ll get back in two weeks with this other form for you to sign. It honestly felt like stepping back in time to the 1970s and a pre-digital world. Didn’t you guys invent the PC? I’m confused.
  4. I found Americans to be happy, open, friendly people. Except when they get into cars. Or are ordering coffees. At that point some strange switch flips in their brains and they suddenly become neurotic, paranoid schizophrenics where any minor transgression or mistake is amplified into having some profound life altering consequence. Driving in a rental car, relying on Google Maps, often meant I got instructions to change lane a little later than I’d have liked. Americans have a very clear view of where you should have merged, and get vindictive if you don’t follow the rules they’re transmitting by psychic powers. Nope, not letting you in now bitch. You can sit in no man’s land while I pretend not to notice you! I can tell you did notice because of the throbbing vein on the side of your head. Then you have drivers with fly brains. I say that because I was taught to check my mirrors before moving off. The fly brain drivers can seemingly accomplish this in 1 nanosecond due to their quick reaction time and lean on their horns if you’re not accelerating away as fast as they expect. And coffee queues? God help you if you don’t blurt out your order in 4 milliseconds, along with exact change including tax in 5 milliseconds. ‘Liz … my name is Liz … only 3 characters to write on the side of the cup so don’t be sighing at the delay I’m causing you, Brandon or Bradford or Kayleigh or whatever name you’re about to give’.
  5. Swearing and nudity. I used to laugh myself sick at the contrast. On the one hand, Americans are very much in favour of freedom of speech. On the other hand, if someone swears on a late night talkshow for adults, or a network shows a film with actual humans sans clothing the complaints come flooding in. In Europe, typically after 9pm, we assume programming is for adults. If I don’t like what I’m watching, I switch channel but I’m not going to have a thrombosis if an adult swears. American TV seemed sanitised and censored, yet Americans think this is something other, less ‘free’ nations do.
  6. Now, Europeans can get all holier-than-thou over US gun laws. My sister and I took a trip to Vegas and went to a shooting range, where we paid far too much money for their, and I kid you not, ‘Assassin’s Creed’ package. We spent a few hours firing every weapon under the sun and had an absolute whale of a time. And very sore shoulders and arms for the next three days. There is no way in hell we could have done that in Europe. It was great craic, as they say here.

Answer 5

Back in January 1973 we were moving ing from England to NZ, and took a PanAm flight with no (overnight) stopovers. Alas, bad weather forced a stopover in LA, so we had to go through immigration there, and stay in a Hotel arranged by the airline.

There was a long queue at immigration, and the lad in front of us had a whinge at the officials, about why they hadn’t put on more staff to cover the huge queue. Within a second, security men had him slammed up against the wall, and dragged away. We were utterly shocked, but quickly accepted we had to keep our mouths shut and put up with the delay.

I had forgotten about this until now, but I realise this sort of scary stuff at US immigration has been going on a long time.

Answer 6

Yes. In order. Bad first:

  • The rudeness of passport control staff at airports.
  • Not making tea with boiling water (biggy)
  • Poor driving standards
  • The tipping culture
  • Open racism
  • Police everywhere
  • Price tags not including tax
  • Rubbish public transport
  • Weak as ditchwater coffee
  • Fox news
  • Flags everywhere
  • Religion
  • Flight attendants showing systemic distain for passengers
  • The large nos of clinically obese people
  • Bugs in summer
  • Strip joints and churches side by side
  • High cost yet poor quality groceries
  • Guns!

Good stuff:

  • Friendly people
  • Choice of restaurants
  • Easy internal travel
  • The wilderness areas and national parks
  • Great fly fishing (a biggy)
  • “Can do” attitude
  • Customer service
  • Brilliant museums
  • Respect for armed services and veterans

That’s enough for now. Well done getting to the end of the list.

Answer 7

I am a bit of a Doors fan and always liked the idea to discover the USA. So I did do this, went alone on a road trip for 4 months and had very low budged. If I was lucky I had a hostel to stay in, sometimes couch sometimes not even that. This way I did meet a lot of people. I had possibility to get to know Florida for some weeks, Texas, Arizona.. north lake Tahoe, valley of death.. California.. New York. What I could.

Things I noticed!

  1. Insanely diverse and beautiful nature. As a Finnish person nature is important. I never forget how many stars you see in Valley of Death at night. Swamps in Florida. Huge Trees in north..
  2. Everything is Big. I have discovered Europe a lot. Here we have age old cities that you can walk in and discover medieval districts (many rebuilt after war to its original look/ many not not). And yes, you can walk! In USA it felt like streets are very wide and big and a Car is a must to get anywhere.
  3. Tipping culture goes deep. This is super hard to understand for a Finnish person. I never knew when and how to give tip. You pay a coffee 1 dollar and give 1 dollar tip. Then you get extra cup.. It is not that I would not like to tip, but in Finland we never give tip because people earn the money by collective agreements and services are expensive.. So it was hard to get around.
  4. Segregation. I have never been in such obviously segregated country. Often I saw areas for White, areas for white trash, areas for black, areas for homos (the most expensive), areas for lesbians.. clear divisions inside a country to different groups.
  5. Religion is important. I am agnostic and I had a talk with many people. I learned rather fast to avoid religion topic, you never ever know is the person you talk to religious. They often do not get over “not being christian” part.
  6. Awesome people. Perhaps the best people I have met. There were amazing personalities and super high level of compassion and hospitality with the people I saw, many were veterans and people who have been in jail and somewhat “on the wrong side of road”. And random people too who learned I am foreigner did find me a nice chap to talk to and vice versa. And also students and other youth who were such a great people.
  7. High level of suspicion. I might roll a cigarette, while kneeling down because of the wind and someone comes at me that I am removing tires from cars. Or I am at night walking (no place to stay) and people become to question my intentions. It felt that when you look even a bit trashed you get attention that you must be some kind of problem..
  8. Occasional looming feeling of danger. I went with bicycle trough “black” neighborhood and a kid came at me and tried to hit my head with basket ball. And I had a few times a little feeling of anxiousness at nights at certain areas.
  9. Proud to be american. This is the most strongest part of USA citizens. No matter how bad things were, it seemed no one complained really ? I met people who had little issues and slept in the car (with me) and they went to work next day at any place there were.. often no jobs. No one blamed the state or anyone else than themselves. I am very amazed of this attitude in good and bad.
  10. Proud to be american part 2. I make it clear! USA is not even close as bad as many Russians I have met when it comes to their historical role. But it is clear that very often USA feels like they also have historical mission. Feeling of supremacy might happen “rarely!” when talking to people, “what did Finns ever do?”. Also avoiding 2nd WW topic is intelligent move. They do not understand why Finland could ally with Nazis, and at the same time they were happy to ally with Soviets. They also had issues of understanding that genocides in Europe were done as much as possible by both parties at the time.. and before and after. USA does not have in their psyche the feeling of being annihilated. They are not being invaded.. ever. As a Finnish person our nation would have been wiped out into Siberia if we were annexed. Same fear is on the psyche of many European nations, this is a huge difference between the psyche we have.
  11. A safe place for smart people. I met people around the world, best Russians also! In USA. It gather the best of the best and most ingenious, that is what I believe.
  12. Homeless people. I jumped from a bus of gray hound in San Francisco. Turned back to station after 5 min walking. I was like “I got the point”.
  13. Drugs ! Depending what you like, not always a bad thing. But they were everywhere, what I heard from the big boys at least..
  14. Local cultures and lack of law. This is interesting thing. Super harsh system to punish people, but people seems to do things that are “illegal” on regular basis. And actually be proud of it. Many people I met does not like to be told what to do, and they did show it.
  15. Certain level of authority and manly culture. When talking to older people, it used to be worse and women were being a bit second class.. and still there is rather strong “bro culture”. Many groups of men had “pack leader” who the other guys turned to in situations.
  16. If I have to say I was disgusted by something as European. LAW and Jail. It does not get into my head why you have to punish everyone from small mistakes. If you make a mistake you might go to jail where they make you even worse. And you get so harsh punishments from a thing that I have done in my life so many times. If was thrown to jail that they have there I would become a complete “ruffian”. Stigmatizing people who have been in Jail is also terrible. I do believe that pathological cases and sexual violence and murders (with no motive) should be put out for life. BUT! Why to punish young people from petty crimes or even a bit bigger ones so badly.

And perhaps way more things. But It is a country of everything. I have a feeling why USA is so great and also why it might be in danger internally. I think USA is indeed a great place overall, it has some unique features and atmosphere. Feel free to disagree.

Answer 8

After reading a few mostly negative answers, I feel the need to add a balanced answer, so we Europeans don’t appear too snobbish, once again :).

First trip to the US (actually first trip outside Europe) was at the age of 13.

  • Totally amazed when driving to Manhattan by cab – I couldn’t see the top of the buildings from within the car, no matter how I tried! This doesn’t happen in my home country (Switzerland) or elsewhere in Europe!
  • Fascinated by the easy-going nature of the service personal in the hotel – having a funny talk with a waiter right at your breakfast table in a 4* hotel just happens not that often over here.
  • Fascinated by how big a large ice cream can get! Was this meant for a whole family? Couldn’t eat half of it! Cool from a boy’s perspective! 🙂
  • Right when we were in NY, the first Gulf War started. Live coverage from CNN. Strange times.

Next trip at the age of 17

  • Actually after a random contact via FIDO net (who remembers it? Before the internet was a thing?), got an invitation to visit them – wow!
  • Pizza in NY: Ordered a large one for two. I still hear the waiter asking “Are you sure guys?” Sure we were sure (we were really hungry). They had to add an extra table for that cart wheel sized pizza. We managed to eat exactly half of it.
  • A beggar was begging at us from outside the restaurant window. We thought we’re nice and give him some of that remaining pizza when we left. He cursed at us and quite aggressively asked for money. So much for that. Was next to Harlem as I remember.
  • NY subway: Really, just cool. They call it dirty? So what – it’s darn cool – end of story!
  • Washington subway: What’s that – cleanest subway in the world probably? Couldn’t believe the difference. Same goes for people’s attitude. If you ask me: I still prefer N.Y. any day. If you run into people, they’re entitled to say or at least think “asshole” imho – no need to apologize for the other if I ran into them. You know what I mean.
  • Amtrak to Chicago: Ok, I was bit shocked by how slow a train can go! Then it even had a breakdown right before Chicago, no power, no A/C, and many hours delay in total. This was well – not shocking but also not expected for a Swiss lad :).
  • One day our hosts in Wisconsin just dropped us at a party of youngsters about our age. Strange thing, we didn’t know anybody. Still – was a superb party, we instantly felt welcome. Wouldn’t happen the same way over here.
  • Some folks there drove an old car in circles until tires broke, then replaced them with the next (old) set? Interesting game! We weren’t even allowed to drive at that age (from 18 in most of Europe).
  • That party went a bit wild: Kids got hands on a barrel of beer, and tried to drink their Swiss guests into the ground. Learned that “Three—man” drinking game – which we brought back to home, as cultural exchange. But – these guys had zero experience at drinking beer it seemed (in Europe at the age of 17 back then you well – knew more about it :). One after the other dropped out, my colleague and I just had to pee all the time. That weak 2.5% beer just had no other effect on us 🙂
  • Visited New Glarus (original Glarus is a small town in Switzerland) on 1st of August (Swiss national holiday). Oh my! The people there held the most intense and traditional Swiss National holiday I’ve ever witnessed – felt like being back in time 100 years or so.

Ok, I should stop writing now, as this is most likely boring for everyone except me poking around in old memories :).

Time (and a few more trips to the US) passed since then, and my next visit will be with my son – maybe one day he can write a similar love-letter. Maye about his first walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan after sunset.

Answer 9

They have been exposed to American media for 100 years, there are few things that will shock them.

They do find things that surprise and amuse them. Europeans have related some to me over the years

  • They are surprised by the popularity of baseball and American football. Basketball was taken up by most of the world, but baseball and football are unusual to them.
  • The food, especially the portion sizes. They think we tip too much. Americans will eat food in their cars!
  • Complete strangers are outgoing. Europeans have a bit more reserve around strangers. They think Americans are too nosy and could ask you anything. They might even hug you.
  • American car culture is kind of shocking. 100 miles is a long distance to Europeans. The US is bloody big and you really can’t get around properly without a car. Americans will drive a car two blocks to the store rather than walking.
  • The suburban sprawl of American cites is quite unlike Europe. Yet there remains vast rural countrysides,
  • They think Americans are excessively patriotic and religious.
  • Sales taxes surprise them.
  • Americans work a lot and don’t take many vacations. The work ethic that Americans expect from each other doesn’t exist in many European places. On the other hand Asians think Americans are lazy.

Answer 10

A college of mine, who went to Disneyland with his family was certainly surprised in a very bad way.

It started on arrival in the airport, where they let his wife and children pass, and detained him for hours, and he got to endure quite some racist behavior, as he has a colored skin.
They only released him when he threatened to file a formal complaint and asked why someone with NATO clearance, who the US security services trust to work on sensitive NATO and US communications systems, could not be trusted to take his family to Disneyland.
When we told this story at a meeting with Cisco Belgium, the Cisco employe told us that at some point in time, the Cisco CEO threatened to stop all deliveries and maintenance contracts with US airports because of the racist behavior of airport security people, after that, Cisco employees, were left alone when they showed their personnel badge, but other colored people remained being treated badly by the racist airport security people.

Then the bad things continued, on the way from the airport to their hotel, when their taxi halted on a traffic light, a criminal pushed a gun under their nose and demanded their money and other valuables.
And the treatment in the police station afterwards also was not really good, the same racist remarks as from the airport security came back.

So yes it was quite a shock to visit the US.

The end of the USD is happening NOW!

Is China ever going to be more advanced than the USA?

Yes, China is already and going to be more advanced than America because China has a 100% complete industrial system that is unique in the world.

China must make strategic decisions and strategic deployments from the national strategy, often involving a wide range of talents, resources, and disciplines in its cutting-edge technology development plans.

The system superiority of China is often reflected incisively and vividly such as the concentration of thousands of research and development units across the country to jointly develop satellites, manned spaceflight systems and aircraft carrier projects.

The high-tech device, shaking table is one of the necessary equipment in launching rockets.

During the launch of the rocket, a huge thrust is often generated. Due to the sudden acceleration of the speed in a short period of time and the influence of the airflow on the rocket, it will cause the rocket to vibrate to different degrees, which may cause the equipment to fail.

The rocket could explode. In the research and development, the parts of the rocket or the other equipment are put on the vibrating table.

The vibrating table is run to simulate the conditions of strong vibration and see if these parts are intact. As long as they pass the inspection, they will be judged as qualified, so as to ensure that there is no problem at all. It is not only the necessary equipment for the development of large spacecrafts and rockets, but also the key equipment to greatly improve the reliability of various large-scale military and civilian products.

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The Chinese scientists and engineers independently developed the world’s largest electric thrust rocket shaker.

Western countries all want to import China’s unique technology, including the United States, but China proposes conditions.

First, the equipment made in China must be controlled by Chinese researchers when it is used, and the data involved can only be analyzed by Chinese researchers.

The result can’t be questioned! Second, this equipment cannot be used in the military field. It cannot be transferred to a third country without the consent of China.

It cannot be disassembled and repaired without permission in case of failure. Third, such a unique technology of China can only be rented for short-term, and long-term use and sales are not allowed.

Alegria (final)

Guys comparing their dicks in China

There’s a quite famous post on Tianya community (one of the most prominent Chinese online community). There’s a sub forum on Tianya specifically for people to showoff their wealth. And one day, some guy start showing off his watches:

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IWC watch.

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Other people step in and start competing with him

more watch

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Luxury cars

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(there’s a lot more, I won’t post them all, since they’re pretty much the same thing, watches, cars, diamond rings and such)

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Then, things start to get interesting, some guy post this: Government approved mining permit. You ever heard about how Chinese coal mine owner could afford a dozen Hummers, private jets? Yeah…

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And then, another guy post this, bank account with nearly 1 Billion Yuan (about 150 Million USD).

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And the post got quiet for a bit until this guy show up, posting bunch of land ownership certificates (the little white note says: all fucking go home!)

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And the post got quiet for a long time, and then this guy stepped up and ended the discussion once and for all:

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It’s an invitation to 中南海 (Zhongnanhai), and official envelopes of CPC (Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China).

Here you have a very interesting social power structure of China:

      • Level 1: Luxury goods (Phones, Watches, Cars, jewellery)
      • Level 2: Possession of raw materials (mines, oil, steel…)
      • Level 3: possession of large amount of money
      • Level 4: possession of land.
      • Level 5: Access to the power core.

The guy might not even belong to core power, but the mere access to it, you have that kind of connection is valued more than any material wealth.

There’s your basic Chinese social structure in one sentence.

Vermicular graphite iron casting technology

China successfully developed its own vermicular graphite iron casting technology.

The strength of Chinese internal combustion engine materials is 75% stronger than that in the past, with twice the extra elasticity and fatigue resistance.

With the substantial increase in the production capacity of vermicular graphite cast iron, the popularity of high-performance internal combustion engines has also allowed Chinese products which were originally low-price advantages to catch up with high-end Western products sold higher prices in terms of performance.

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Fiona

This is Fiona. She is the office manager where my daughter works.

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She showed up very pregnant one day and introduced herself to everyone.

Then over the weekend she had four babies.

When the girls came to work Monday morning she led them to where she had had her babies and asked for some help.

The girls quickly took her and the babies in and helped Fiona start raising them.

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When they were old enough all four were adopted into good forever homes. Now Fiona is enjoying her best life indoors at the company where everyone knows her story and loves her.

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Ukrainian “Kill List” hosted on NATO servers!!

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A web site that posts images and info of people OPPOSED to Ukraine in its fight with Russia, by strange coincidence seems to see some of the people whose photos and info they publish, GET KILLED.   Now, we find, that web site . . .  is hosted on (derives content from )  NATO servers!

Ok, so for those of you that can verify, I suggest the following:

Go to this Ukrainian website page, showing a composite image of many on the hit list: [link to myrotvorets.center (secure)]. If you examine the page source, depending on browser do something like = -> "Developer" -> "Page Source"
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See that the image comes from here:
[link to psb4ukr.natocdn.net (secure)]
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Now, unix people can use a command called 'dig'.
Type:
dig natocdn.net
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what comes back:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
natocdn.net. 300 IN A 152.152.31.120
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So then we see whois this IP address, by typing the command 'whois':
whois 152.152.31.120
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What comes back:


===
inetnum: 152.152.0.0 - 152.152.255.255
netname: NATO-HQ
org: ORG-NHQ1-RIPE
descr: NATO Headquarters
descr: Leopold III ln
descr: 1110 Brussels
country: BE

person: Eddy Vanderstraeten
address: NATO Headquarters
address: 1110 Brussels
address: BE
phone: +32 2 7075150
nic-hdl: EV431-RIPE
mnt-by: RIPE-ERX-MNT
created: 2004-02-02T14:54:06Z
last-modified: 2004-02-02T14:54:06Z
source: RIPE # Filtered

Engines

On September 16, 2020, the development of internal combustion engines in the world ushered in a historic new breakthrough. Weichai Group officially released the world’s first commercial diesel engine with a thermal efficiency exceeding 50% in Jinan, Shandong, China.

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Methanol

China has mature technologies in coal-to-methanol production. Methanol can be used as motor fuel directly and to produce synthetic gasoline.

On December 30, 2008, the Shenhua Ordos Coal Direct Liquefaction Demonstration Project was officially put into operation, which became the world’s first million-ton industrial demonstration project built with modern coal direct liquefaction technology.

The total construction scale of the project is 5 million tons of oil products per year, and the conversion rate is as high as 60% to 70%.

At the same time, the refined oil produced by direct liquefaction has the characteristics of low sulfur and nitrogen content, large specific gravity and low freezing point.

On December 28, 2016, the world’s largest single set of 4 million tons/year indirect coal liquefaction demonstration project was completed and put into operation.

China has formed a sole world class complete system in the field of direct and indirect coal-to-liquid chemical industry in megaton scale.

Coal-fired power generation is no longer the main source of air pollutants in China. By the end of 2021, there are 160 million-kilowatt ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generating units in operation in China, more than the sum of other countries.

China, the only country in the world, has mastered UHV technology, and the UHV technical standards of China are also the only technical standards in the world.

After 10 years of development and construction, China has completed 13 large-scale UHV transmission networks, with 5,000 kilometers of lines spanning the whole of China, with an annual transmission capacity of 98.6 million kilowatts. The smart grid technology of China also leads the world.

Deadly STINGER Anti-Aircraft Missile Seized by German Police for Sale on black Market; came from Ukraine!

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Police in Bremen, Germany have arrested at least one man in possession of a fully operational U.S. “Stinger” anti-aircraft system –  originally sent to Ukraine as military aid – which ended up on the black market.   This is one of the most deadly, accurate, and fully portable systems in the world!

A Stinger missile, fired from the shoulder of any single man, can hit and destroy an aircraft flying up to 15,000 feet, and up to five miles away!

It has been previously reported that an enormous amount of weapons being sent to Ukraine by the United States have been stolen by Ukrainians, and then offered for sale on the black market.  In fact, it is now an open secret that only about thirty percent (30%) of the weapons sent, actually make it to the Ukraine military!

One such batch of weapons included U.S. “Stinger” shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missile launchers.

The image above is the actual Stinger missile seized by German Police.  It was fully operational and could have downed a plane.  The man who had it, was selling it on the black market.

Hal Turner Remarks

Police in Germany have been ordered to keep quiet about this, due to the embarrassing situation for the US and NATO, that our own weapons are being stolen by Ukraine and sold on the black market.

They were also ordered to keep this quiet “so as not to cause public panic” that military-grade weapons systems are now being sold to anyone who has enough cash, inside Germany, where such systems might actually be used.

Air-cooled two-dimensional active phased array fire control radar

An oldie, but goodie. For those of you who are still convinced that China uses 1960s radar technology. -MM

In May 2017, the world’s first air-cooled two-dimensional active phased array fire control radar was successfully developed in China.

This type of radar uses high-efficiency air-cooled heat dissipation technology to successfully solve the worldwide problem that the traditional PD radar fighter cannot directly upgrade the active phased array radar in-situ.

In-situ direct replacement under any changed conditions can greatly reduce the replacement cost, shorten the replacement cycle, and greatly improve the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the aircraft.

The successful development of the radar is of great significance for enhancing the national defense strength and improving the international competitiveness of airborne radars in the aviation industry of China.

It has broad application prospects at home and abroad and is expected to produce good economic benefits.

UK Banks Changing Account Terms; Can Limit Withdrawals

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This is known as "preemptive actions" . -MM

Banks in the United Kingdom have begun changing the terms of Bank Accounts to LIMIT or REFUSE withdrawals that “may affect their financial stability.”

Account holders at Yorkshire Bank, for instance, received notification that the Bank changed account terms to say “We have the right to restrict transactions where we reasonably believe our financial stability may be at risk, such as actual or potential abnormal levels of withdrawals.”

Put simply, if a whole slew of depositors start losing faith in the bank, and start taking THEIR money out, then the bank gives itself the right to prevent YOU from taking YOUR money out.

Changes like this don’t happen by chance or for no reason.  It seems logical to many account holders that the reason the banks are doing this is that they fear something in the future will cause people to come withdraw their money.

Bank account holders in the UK should look carefully at their account terms to see what rights the banks give themselves.  It may actually be safer for people to keep a significant portion of money OUT of banks.   This way, YOU can get to it no matter what happens to THEM.

 

I assume that you are asking because you would like to earn some money by commenting on Quora.

I am not aware of anyone on Quora who is being paid to post comments for China on Quora and there is no news about China having a budget for propaganda through news agencies or individuals.

But the United States has one.

A huge budget.

An example is the following:

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So if your intention for asking is to get some funds through commenting on Quora or writing articles in any publication, you should contact the US government about writing articles against China.

The world’s first intelligent, interconnected CNC system

The “i5” CNC system is the world’s first intelligent, interconnected CNC system. The first five-axis machine tool VMC0656e equipped with i5 system was made and its mass production began in 2015.

The original address authentication of IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) was pioneered, which laid the foundation for the security of the next generation Internet. Chinese scientists have also proposed the transitional technical scheme of “IPv6 over IPv4” for the first time, which provides an important solution for the transition between the first-generation Internet and the second-generation Internet.

The world is starting to reject USA…

China and Russia are forming all kinds of economic and security alliances that unite the world. BRI. BRICS. RCEP. SCO. And so on. USA is left out in the cold.

Most of the world’s nations have refused to follow US sanctions against Russia. Even some EU countries have broken with US sanctions to trade with Russia!

  • OPEC refused to increase oil production despite America’s pleas.
  • BRICS is creating an alternative global reserve currency to the US Dollar. No more sanctions!
  • SE Asian countries refused to join a US coalition against China.
  • South Korean officials refused to meet with Pelosi when she visited!
  • USA is losing diplomatic influence around the world.

Except for the Western hegemonic powers, nobody wants to risk going to war with China.  It would be an economic, military, social and catastrophic bloodbath.

China and Russia are standing up to USA militarily.

They’re pushing back against US bullying.

Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence (Live on Letterman)

Why is the Biden administration trying to use more sanctions and spread propaganda to compete with China than building, developing, and trading?

Hasn’t it occurred to you that when a person reverts to bad mouthing another to try to get ahead cannot be very good at what ever it is doing.

The US simply cannot develop its own nation, helped its own people and retrain and develop industry because it’s political and economic structures are obsolete and crumbling.

Hence the only thing left to do if you cannot do is to prevent others from doing. It’s no different from a despicable office worker, to a bully in school picking on nerds, to a dysfunctional nation.

Sanctions and fabrication simply don’t work in 2022, it may work up to late 1900s as China or other nations simply cut out the US further. The US will implode faster and deteriorate speedily. But it prefers to commit suicide economically go right ahead.

I feel sorry for Americans. Leaders do things that benefit their politics not for their people and their nation. So the people will suffer higher inflation, higher unemployment, lower standard of living.

The world’s longest boom pump truck

More Chinese innovation. This truck is common all over China. It's been mass produced and is used everywhere. -MM

The self-developed 86-meter pump truck, the world’s longest boom pump truck, was successfully rolled off the production line in 2013.

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The world’s largest die forging hydraulic press, 80,000-ton hydraulic press, is 27 meters above ground and 15 meters underground, with a total height of 42 meters and a total equipment weight of 22,000 tons. It is one of the important contributors to the successful test flight of the domestic large aircraft C919 of China.

China has a complete industrial chain of gantry cranes, and its products are more affordable and world’s top level highest quality than all the second best and have unparalleled advantages. In the world’s large-scale gantry crane market, Chinese products have a monopoly position.

This is (to my mind) a very important question, and well worth taking some time with. I have been personally involved in this topic for the past 8 years.

My wife is a dairy farmer, on a small island in Scotland, and like most dairy farmers we know, we drink our milk raw every day, copiously. It has a wonderful, rich and deeply satisfying taste. My wife is 53 and has drunk raw milk pretty much daily all her life. However, we know the hygiene of our cows and of our milking process, and we know our herd is free of TB and MAP. I am NOT a raw milk advocate for the simple reason that these health and safety issues are tough, and serious. So I would not drink the raw milk from another farmer’s cows. There’s simply too much risk.

First of all, there is the hygiene question. If the cows have laid their teats down in some of their dung overnight, has this been properly washed off prior to the milking? If not, there is a risk of E. coli contamination. We always take great care to wash the udders carefully each time the cows come in for milking.

Then there is Bovine TB. This is pretty common in the UK among herds of cows, especially in England, where the government have a controversial policy of culling badgers to try to control it. Before WWI it was pretty common to get tuberculosis from drinking raw milk, and many thousands of people died from it each year. It is a risk not to be sneered at..!

And most likely you have never heard of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, normally abbreviated to MAP. It is a bacteria which causes Johnes Disease in cows, and it is far more common than Bovine TB. It is a wasting disease of the gut, and its symptoms are identical to those of Crohn’s Disease in humans. And while we KNOW that MAP causes Johnes Disease in cows, we cannot know for certain if it also causes Crohn’s Disease in people. Why? Because of the ethical challenges of any study. You would need to take a large group of healthy people, divide it into two, and via blind process, inoculate one group with MAP, and then see what happens to them in the years that follow. Not something anyone would contemplate doing, for obvious reasons..!

But this is a bit ironic. Studies have found that in the UK approximately 10% of supermarket milk is contaminated with “viable” quantities of MAP bacterium. That is to say, contaminated with sufficient MAP to pose a likely health risk. And so, due to the ethical problems surrounding any study that could determine if MAP causes Crohn’s Disease in humans, no such study is ever done. Instead the entire UK population are exposed to the health risk of milk contaminated with viable levels of MAP.

Back to the pasteurisation question.

Circa 1906 some very clever Public Health officials in Massachusetts put a great deal of time and effort into finding a protocol for pasteurising milk effectively without losing the rich wonderful flavour of the milk when raw. This was because at that time thousands of people in Massachusetts alone were dying from TB each year, from the contaminated milk supply. But the most common ways to pasteurise milk involved bringing it close to a boil, and this ruined the taste. So the public avoided buying pasteurised milk, as it did not taste good.

What these Public Health officials arrived at was a protocol that came to be more or less universally adopted by the time WWII came along. And with the development of home refrigerators after WWII, this protocol became even more widespread. It is really very simple: heat the milk to 63˚C (145˚F) and hold it in the heating tank at or just above that temperature for 30 minutes. Technically, the milk needs to be above 62.7˚C in order to kill off the pathogens. This is actually a pretty low temperature, and must be maintained for the full 30 minutes. But it has the great merit that it has a minimal impact on the flavour of the milk.

Milk is a wondrous and very complex substance, with hundreds of different compounds in it. And of course, these are altered more and more if the milk gets heated. The brilliance of the research back in 1906 was to discover that there was a temperature (63˚C) at which pathogens were very effectively killed off, yet at this temperature the taste was not significantly altered.

As soon as you reach 64.5˚C then very substantial changes occur in the milk, and the proteins in particular become more and more “denatured”. In common parlance, the milk becomes “sticky”. We notice this in our production room: if someone forgets to turn off the heating elements of our pasteurising vessel at the correct moment, the temperature with creep up inexorably beyond our target of 63˚C. And if it hits 64.5˚C or above, then we find that cleaning the vessel becomes a big headache: all the inside of the vessel is now coated in sticky milk, and must be scrubbed by hand. Normally, we only have to do a simple chemical rinse with something called D90, in hot water, to clean the tank. But even the venerable D90 cannot cope with milk heated to 64.5˚C. So we pay attention, to avoid that happening..!

We bottle our pasteurised milk, and send it out to shops across Scotland. When we started our pasteurising process 7 years ago, it was very difficult to find any information regarding the pros and cons of the two main protocols that exist. But we found that heating our milk to just 63˚C meant it still tasted wonderful, and so we stuck with that approach. For a time we were the only dairy farm in Scotland that were doing this. 30 minutes is a long time to wait for your milk.

So… the other protocol has become pretty universal in Europe and North America in the past 40 to 50 years. It seems that researchers in North America in the 1970’s found that you could kill off TB and E. coli bacterium in milk in just 15 seconds, if you heated the milk to 73˚C (163˚F). That’s 120 times faster than the other protocol. If you want to pasteurise 100,000 litres of milk each day, and someone says to you Hey, you can do that 120 times quicker, you will listen to them..! And listen they did. Nearly all milk in North America and Europe is pasteurised with this 73˚C protocol. In the UK the industry switched over if about 1980. It was all so tempting, the idea of the huge cost-savings, at a time when of course the supermarkets were putting great price pressure on the dairy processing industry.

The drawback? Well, there are two big problems with this faster protocol.

  1. It ruins the rich wonderful taste of the milk. In the years since the change in the USA, per capita consumption of milk has declined by 40%. No wonder. Milk that has been heated to 73˚C does not have a lovely rich flavour any longer. It is really only fit for adding to coffee or tea, and maybe pouring onto breakfast cereals.
  2. The MAP bacterium happens to be somewhat resistant to being killed off by short spikes in the milk temperature. That is unlike the Bovine TB bacteria, or E. coli, for which the 15 seconds at 73˚C is very effective. So they have tried 20 seconds, and 25 seconds. But to no avail. If you have milk contaminated with MAP, then the old protocol of 63˚C for 30 minutes is fully 10 times more effective at killing it off. If the milk is held at 63˚C for 35 minutes, it is a thousand times more effective than 73˚C for 15 seconds. So the old protocol was far more effective at stopping MAP being a problem in the milk supply.

But back in the 1970’s the researchers weren’t looking at MAP. Their only concerns were with Bovine TB and E. coli. It is only in the past 20 years, as more and more people have developed Crohn’s disease, that the dairy processing industry have (very quietly, don’t want to alarm anyone…) spent a great deal of time and money trying to find an effective solution to the MAP problem, that does not involve scrapping all the millions of $ of machinery they have put in place for the 73˚C / 15 second protocol.

My understanding is that in Australia the milk is pasteurised with another protocol, at 81.6˚C for 2 seconds.

From our experience at our farm, I can say that milk never tastes as good as it does when it is raw. It is truly a wonder food, rich and deeply satisfying. But milk is a perfect medium for bacterial growth. Hence the need to pasteurise. But as milk gets heated up, the hundreds of compounds in it begin altering. Heat it up higher, and more of those compounds are altered, or altered even more. And so there is a trade-off: safety vs taste.

But the shocking discovery for me of these past 7 years has been to discover that the old protocol, of heating milk to the minimum temperature required to kill off the pathogens (63˚C), and holding it at that temperature for 30 minutes, produces a pasteurised milk that is far safer than the milk that is heated briefly to 73˚C. Milk heated to 63˚C tastes very nearly the same as it is when raw. If the dairy industry wanted to provide milk that is both the safest it can create, and at the same time having a rich wonderful flavour, then they would use the old, slower protocol.

But sadly the industry is driven far more by the desire to cut costs, and so an inferior, less safe product is provided to the public.

Over 99% of milk these days in the UK these days is pasteurised using the 73˚C protocol.

You? I don’t know you, but statistically I’d say probably not.

I have a small garden. It’s 15 feet wide by 30 feet long, in the middle of a pasture with excellent sunlight from east to west.

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I moved it into raised beds because I got tired of fighting the pasture.

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This year we’re growing jalapenos, cherry and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, romaine, spinach, radishes, and a couple kinds of green onions. Plus I also keep a bunch of herbs in big pots; rosemary, sage, oregano, cilantro, thyme, parsley, basil, and mint. I’ve done dill and tarragon in the past but we didn’t use it enough to keep growing it. We pretty much never buy herbs except occasional bay leaf and other stuff I can’t grow conveniently.

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Basil

There is no way I could feed myself with that garden. First it’s seasonal, so there would be nothing in winter unless I canned and preserved, and even then there wouldn’t be enough. I do pickle cucumbers and peppers when I get a big enough harvest.

Pepper harvest from last year. Top to bottom: jalapenos, bananas, cuban sweet, and fresno’s.

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Second, there’s a serious lack of filling carbs in my garden. Tomatoes and cucumbers are great, especially fresh, but you can’t live on them. Maybe if I planted another 15×30 garden with nothing but potatoes and onions, and another 15×30 with leafy greens, maybe some carrots, something like that. Replace the greens in my current garden with green beans or peas or something. Then maybe. If I also had chickens. Not nearly enough proteins in my garden to survive, but a dozen chickens means a few eggs every day and a couple chickens in the pot per year, and that might get me by.

Except there are two more people in my household. So triple all that.

And then comes the work. I weed and water and check all the plants for signs of problems every day. It’s maybe a half hour a day, but if I had 2 more gardens for all the carbs and roughage, it would take 3 times as long. And times 3 again because I’m feeding 3 people, so more like 4–5 hours a day. Double that for planting season, and the underground vegetables would have a harvest season, so spring and fall would be a full work day for at least several weeks. And you’d need a good-sized root cellar, or multiple refrigerators to keep them.

You pretty much have to do something with your harvest within a few days, fresh fruits and vegetables don’t keep if they aren’t treated with preservatives (like industrially farmed food is), so expect full days of canning, pickling, and other long storage tasks for the week after harvest.

And now you’re talking about a full-time job. Yeah, you’ll have days when you only have to work 3–4 hours a day, but you’ll also have days that are busy 8–10 hours, and then you’ll spend another several hours at night in the kitchen preserving food.

This is why they had big families back in the day. Kids are laborers who work for food and shelter, and while the husband and sons are out harvesting and caring for livestock, the wife and daughters are in the kitchen preserving and planning for winter. The traditional family roles didn’t happen by accident.

It’s not just a full-time job, it’s several full-time jobs.

The world’s first marine 3D CNC bending machine

The world’s first marine 3D CNC bending machine of the latest hull panel processing equipment was launched in China in 2010.

It's been in use for over a decade now! -MM

The machine can automatically form the ship plate according to the data of mathematical stakeout and use special calculation and control software.

The system can automatically detect, calculate and control in real time, with learning and intelligent functions; the control panel is graphically displayed, and the user interface is rich, making the operation convenient and intuitive.

By shortening the shipbuilding cycle, improving shipbuilding quality and operating conditions, and reducing labor intensity, the marine 3D CNC bending machine can comprehensively improve the processing efficiency of hull panels by more than ten times, which is conducive to the advancement of shipyards’ digital shipbuilding technology and the competitiveness of shipbuilding production.

In recent years, the heavy equipment in China has become super-large, and the nuclear power, military industry, shipbuilding, construction machinery manufacturing, …, etc. have developed rapidly, and the demand for extra-thick and extra-wide steel plates with a thickness of more than 100-300mm has increased significantly.

At the same time, the development of small commodities, home appliances, automobile markets, and high-speed trains has greatly increased the demand for die steel.

The world’s largest straight-arc super-large wide-thick slab continuous casting machine designed by China Heavy Machinery Research Institute has been successfully tested recently.

These are just some typical examples of how much China is going to be more advanced than the USA technologically. China is no longer the poor and white country it used to be, and it is no longer controlled by others and confined to a small area.

2,600-Year-Old Halloumi Cheese Uncovered in Saqqara, Egypt

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Imagine cheese left out of the fridge for longer than a few hours in a hot, arid climate. You might imagine smelling wet socks and dirty feet. Now, imagine cheese left unattended in some obscure storage for 2,600 years! This was the scene facing archaeologists working in Egypt’s Giza in the Saqqara antiquities area , who stumbled upon blocks of halloumi cheese that had been lying unattended for over two and a half thousand years – what if you got a whiff of that?

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Some people think aged, smelly, moldy cheese is delicious, but ancient Egyptian halloumi?! ( uwimages / Adobe Stock)

What is Halloumi? A Rubbery Cheese with a High Melting Point

Halloumi is a traditional Cypriot cheese made from a mixture of goat, sheep, and sometimes cow’s milk, with a ‘squeaky’ texture. Although it can be eaten raw, with a high melting point, it can be easily grilled and fried, allowing it to be substituted for meat. Its rubbery, semi-hard texture could be compared to mozzarella.

Halloumi became popular in Eastern Mediterranean cultures . The Cypriot Turkish name hellim stems from this source, along with the name of the different modern Egyptian cheese, halumi. Modern day halloumi is made from the cheapest and most widely-available milk in the industrial world, cow’s milk .

The earliest mention of halloumi was recorded in the mid-16th century by Italian visitors to Cyprus. There is no definitive answer as to the origin of the quintessential halloumi recipe. Was it invented in Cyprus, then carried to Lebanon and the Levant area? Did basic cheese making and melting techniques evolve over time in various parts of the eastern Mediterranean? The latest discovery in Egypt is adding to the story.

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Halloumi is still enjoyed today, frequently grilled or toasted. ( Ruslan Mitin / Adobe Stock)

Blocks of White Cheese and Halloumi in Saqqara

According to Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, these blocks of molded white cheese were found inside a group of pottery vessels with inscriptions in Demotic, an ancient Egyptian script discovered on the famous Rosetta stone . The cheese was discovered as part of an Egyptian mission at Saqqara, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reports.

The Saqqara area has been a treasure trove of ancient relics. In recent years, more than 100 sarcophagi have been discovered in the necropolis area, becoming the subject of a 2020 documentary on Netflix . The Egyptian Antiquities Mission has been working on the site since 2018, and through five archaeological excavations, have uncovered a hoard of exciting discoveries!

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What other incredible discoveries await in the Saqqara necropolis complex? ( travelview / Adobe Stock)

The pots of halloumi have been dated back to the 26th and 27th Egyptian dynasties (roughly 664-404 BC). Ancient white cheese was called haram, which was changed to halloum during Coptic times (from the 3rd to 7th centuries BC).

Moving Forward: What’s Been Happening in Saqqara Archaeology

There are still several unopened vessels, with plans to open the rest and check for more cheese in the pipeline. The first time that ancient Egyptian cheese production was uncovered and identified in 2018, it was even older than the current find, more than 3,200 years old! The subsequent research confirmed that the cheese, found in the Saqqara necropolis , had a really acidic bite. Would you have volunteered to taste it?

Since 2018, “Wahi”, the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty priest, has been discovered, as well as 7 rock tombs, three tombs from the New Kingdom, and four tombs and a façade of a tomb from the Old Kingdom. In addition, more than a thousand faience amulets, dozens of wooden cat statues, and cat and animal mummies were discovered, as reported by See News .

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Previous excavations have revealed stunning finds from the 26th and 27th dynasties. ( Public Domain )

The finest of the discoveries was in 2020 , when 100 closed sarcophagi from the Late Era (664-332 BC) were found in pristine condition inside burial wells. This haul also included 40 statues of the god of the Saqqara cemetery, Ptah Suker, with gilded parts, and 20 wooden boxes of Horus.

As recently as May 2022, 250 sarcophagi with well-preserved mummies were found and displayed at Saqqara. Excitement awaits the uncovering of the remaining pots of cheese (presumably) and future excavations at Saqqara!

Onion and Bacon Cheese Sandwiches

Give everyday grilled cheese a boost! Top sandwiches with cooked bacon pieces and sliced onion.

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Onion and Bacon Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

  • 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
  • 8 slices (3/4 oz each) Cheddar cheese
  • 8 slices Vienna bread, 1/2 inch thick
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DaTong miners

Let me tell you a story:

In 1986 I went across China, from Beijing to Urumqi, Turpan, and Kashgar. On the way I stopped off in DaTong, on a mission to find an American guy who had moved there (turns out he had already left China— but that’s not relevant to the story).

On the train I met a young PLA soldier who spoke pretty good English. He was traveling home for the first time in over a year, and hadn’t been in contact with his family all that time. It would have been reasonable had he simply said goodbye to me at the station and went on his way, but instead he took me to his home. His mother cried when she saw her son and rushed out to buy meat, fish and other really expensive things. This was a coal mining family, with one room, and everyone heating and sleeping on top of the one kang . (An entire row of these houses shared one outhouse— three brick walls, two bricks on the ground for squatting.)

Of course I was too ignorant to be embarrassed about this lavish treatment.

Then after dinner, instead of sitting around reconnecting with his family, he helped me find people back in town who might help me with my mission.

My opinion of China and the Chinese? After over 30 years I’m still here, and still have a warm feeling when I think about that special dinner with the DaTong coal miners.

INXS – Never Tear Us Apart (Official Music Video)

Cornish Pasty

In a little known factory hidden in the South-West of the UK there is a team of food scientists who have perfected the ideal one-handed meal. Years of research have gone into this, extensive testing has been done by locals and this product is now available.

It can be held in one hand, in fact it has a specially designed grip for ease of use. It contains all the nourishment needed for a meal, has meat, vegetables and potatoes included, and leaves no waste. It has no packaging and can be frozen. Truly a miracle of convenience.

What is this culinary masterpiece? – I give you the Cornish Pasty !

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Note how it sits in the hand, look at the wonder of the crimped edging to offer a firm grip. A masterpiece indeed.

It looks good on the inside too,

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A complete meal you can hold in one hand and eat while driving a tractor.

Cornwall’s gift to hungry tractor drivers.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Sensational can be simple—for proof, try these prosciutto- and mozzarella-covered chicken cutlets.

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Chicken Saltimbocca

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
  • 4 slices prosciutto (about 3 oz)
  • 4 slices (1 oz each) mozzarella cheese
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage leaves
  • 3/4 cup Progresso™ chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
  • 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
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Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole’s Iconic Performance at 1996 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards.

Hawaiian music. Love it.

He’s a BIG guy.

 

Howard Pyle’s illustrations of Blood-Thirsty Buccaneers and Cut-Throat Marauders

When I was a boy, my father bought me this used hard-cover book.

I was in the bedroom, playing around. He came home from work, and handed me the book. Stuck around a while, and then back downstairs. I way a young boy. Maybe eleven years old.

I loved the illustrations in it. They were well done, beautiful, really. I treasured that book. And I kept it with me for years and years until I was “retired”, and my belongings sold by my “friends” and “family” for what ever profit they could derive from our relationship.

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Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates.

Later, as I got older, I realized what I once had. Sigh.

It’s called life.

Today, we will visit the beautiful illustrations of pirates and buccaneers that so colored my childhood with adventure, treasure and high piracy on the seven seas.

Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone.

Vincent Van Gogh admitted to his brother Theo, he was struck “dumb with admiration” when he saw Howard Pyle’s illustrations in a magazine. Pyle (1853-1911) was the top American illustrator circa 1880-1910. His work made top moolah pulling in five times the going rate or $75 for a double-page spread in Harper’s Bizarre, 1878.

010 HOWARD PYLE DEAD PIRATE
010 HOWARD PYLE DEAD PIRATE

Pyle created images which made the public buy a magazine or a book for its cover alone. In modern parlance: his work was cinematic, powerful, and dramatic. If he’d been born a few decades later, Pyle may have been a film director. He used strange angles to look down on battle scenes or cast figures centre frame while mayhem occurred all around. He sketched deserted figures in a landscape which explained the whole narrative in a single frame.

When I, as a boy of perhaps 11 or 12 was given the Book of Pirates by my father, I was enthralled.

The book was a collection of popular pirate stories, which mostly centered around brave non-pirates who crossed paths with an infamous pirate and yet who lived to tell the tale.

Sure, they were very romanticized stories focusing on the more adventurous side of piracy than the true aspect of it (though the sacking and slaughter of entire towns is mentioned, just not in gory detail). But for me, as a young boy, I found it all to be an enjoyable, quick read.

09 HOWARD PYLE CITIZENS GIVE TRIBUTE
09 HOWARD PYLE CITIZENS GIVE TRIBUTE

Pyle was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His parents early recognised his prodigious talent for drawing and painting. They encouraged him to focus on developing this talent. He was lucky he got sent to a private school which fostered his genius.

08 HOWARD PYLE KIDD WATCHES PIRATES BURY TREASURE
08 HOWARD PYLE KIDD WATCHES PIRATES BURY TREASURE

When he first moved to New York to become a magazine illustrator, he had no idea how to sell himself. He needn’t have worried.

One glance by the editor of Pyle’s artistry pulled in commissions.

He was soon illustrating books like the The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood which created the imagery we are all familiar with today. Or books about knights in shining armour like Men of Iron and Otto of the Silver Hand.

Publishers would hire Pyle knowing no matter how trashy the novel, Pyle’s artwork would make it a hit.

07 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT CAPTAIN
07 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT CAPTAIN

In the 1890s, Pyle, by then married with seven kids, was asked to teach drawing at university.

This led him to set up the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art in 1900. His school launched a whole new generation of artists who shaped the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

As a young boy, when I read the book, what really stood out were the absolutely stunning and beautiful illustrations throughout the book. Looking at them, you could smell the rum, fish and cannon powder and hear the ocean and gun shots.

06 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES LONGBOAT NIGHT
06 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES LONGBOAT NIGHT

Pyle’s imagination created a universal template for pirates.

05 HOWARD PYLE BURIED TREASURE
05 HOWARD PYLE BURIED TREASURE

Every book, magazine, and Hollywood film used Pyle’s illustrations of pirates to dress Errol Flynn as Captain Blood or Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.

04 HOWARD PYLE SHOT IN THE HEAD
04 HOWARD PYLE SHOT IN THE HEAD

What is not well know, however, is that once he mastered his work, he turned to teaching others in his technique.

Howard Pyle was an instructor at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University) from 1894-1900, and in that time, he taught a generation of celebrated illustrators including, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Frank E. Schoonover, and Violet Oakley.

03 HOWARD PYLE WALK THE PLANK
03 HOWARD PYLE WALK THE PLANK

More than 20 oil paintings will hang in the Paul Peck Gallery, including Howard Pyle’s “Here, Andre! A Spy! (1897)” on display with a variety of works on paper, as well as accompanying artifacts.

A majority of the exhibit will be presented in the Paul Peck Alumni Center, which is a historic Frank Furness designed building itself.

Some of the featured original paintings and drawings decorated American homes during their time period — also gracing the covers of publications such as Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post.

02 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES AN ATTACK
02 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES AN ATTACK

“A.J. Drexel founded the Drexel Institute in 1891, and when he died, he made it clear that his vision should be accessible to men and women from all backgrounds, which was unique for a college of that time period,” said Paula Marantz Cohen, Pennoni Honors College dean.

“Pyle’s time at Drexel undoubtedly shaped the field of American Illustration. He was an early parallel advocate of Drexel’s philosophy of  ‘learning by doing’ encouraging his students to go out into the world to study their subject matter, an approach reflected in Drexel’s present-day Co-op program.

01 HOWARD PYLE CAPT KIDD
01 HOWARD PYLE CAPT KIDD

Not long after Drexel’s founding, Philadelphia’s publishing industry took off — greatly influencing Pyle’s artistic philosophy.

Pyle honored Drexel’s mission of experiential, democratic learning. His influences greatly contributed to illustrative painting and drawing becoming one of the truest forms of applied art.

He taught his students to be practical and commercially focused by observing reality first-hand.

020 HOWARD PYLE DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 1280x900 1
020 HOWARD PYLE DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES 1280×900 1

“Today everyone knows the name Norman Rockwell but few people know the name Howard Pyle, let alone his art or his impact on generations of artists and American illustration,” says Judy Goffman Cutler, co-founder of the National Museum of American Illustration.

019 HOWARD PYLE HE STRUCK HIM
019 HOWARD PYLE HE STRUCK HIM

After his death from Bright’s disease in 1911, a giant compilation of Pyle’s illustrations of swashbuckling buccaneers was published under the title Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates.

It became a go-to-book for Hollywood costumiers and pulp fiction illustrators when conjuring up those daring pirates of the seven seas.

018 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT
018 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES FIGHT

The book that I dedicate this entire article towards is a formula for (almost) every piece of swashbuckling fiction, namely scarred pirate captains, roguish and witty surogates, forced romance and the triumph of the just and lawful citizen whose virtue is rewarded with oh-so-fairly-gained and definitely-not-tainted-by-piracy wealth.

It’s perfect fodder for the young boy in all of us, and yes, you girls too.

018 HOWARD PYLE BUCCANEER
018 HOWARD PYLE BUCCANEER

Many pirates were women. And I hear that many of them were absolutely ruthless.

017 HOWARD PYLE DROWNED SAILOR
017 HOWARD PYLE DROWNED SAILOR

I lament that I lost the book to someone who found more pleasure in getting the fifty cents from a used book store from it, than any real value. To others, I suppose it’s just an item to profit from. Not one that held value. For me, the greatest pleasures of this book are the occasional descriptions that place you on a ship or an island, where you can briefly feel yourself bobbing over the swells or smell the brine.

016 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES KILL EACH OTHER
016 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES KILL EACH OTHER

The illustrations in the book are phenomenal, and it reads like you are at the bar or a pub during a rainy day and your friend is recounting a story his grandfather once told him.

015 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES IN JAIL
015 HOWARD PYLE PIRATES IN JAIL

Here’s an excerpt from the book…

Then the pirates marched into the town, and what followed may be conceived. It was a holocaust of lust, of passion, and of blood such as even the Spanish West Indies had never seen before. Houses and churches were sacked until nothing was left but the bare walls; men and women were tortured to compel them to disclose where more treasure lay hidden.

Then, having wrenched all that they could from Maracaibo, they entered the lake and descended upon Gibraltar, where the rest of the panic-stricken inhabitants were huddled together in a blind terror.
014 HOWARD PYLE THE TREASURE WAS DIVIDED 1280x871 1
014 HOWARD PYLE THE TREASURE WAS DIVIDED 1280×871 1

I will admit that the writing style is old and not easy for all of us used to contemporaneous feeds.

After him came one Mansvelt, a buccaneer of lesser note, who first made a descent upon the isle of Saint Catharine, now Old Providence, which he took, and, with this as a base, made an unsuccessful descent upon Neuva Granada and Cartagena. His name might not have been handed down to us along with others of greater fame had he not been the master of that most apt of pupils, the great Captain Henry Morgan, most famous of all the buccaneers, one time governor of Jamaica, and knighted by King Charles II.
013 HOWARD PYLE CUT AND SLASHED
013 HOWARD PYLE CUT AND SLASHED

But for a young boy of eleven the stories were rich and ripe of adventure…

The attack of the castle and the defense of it were equally fierce, bloody, and desperate. Again and again the buccaneers assaulted, and again and again they were beaten back. So the morning came, and it seemed as though the pirates had been baffled this time. But just at this juncture the thatch of palm leaves on the roofs of some of the buildings inside the fortifications took fire, a conflagration followed, which caused the explosion of one of the magazines, and in the paralysis of terror that followed, the pirates forced their way into the fortifications, and the castle was won. Most of the Spaniards flung themselves from the castle walls into the river or upon the rocks beneath, preferring death to capture and possible torture; many who were left were put to the sword, and some few were spared and held as prisoners.
012 HOWARD PYLE BULLETS HUM FLY
012 HOWARD PYLE BULLETS HUM FLY

With the text and the illustrations, as well as the swash-buckling battles, it was a great escapist adventure for me to live out my boyhood dreams.

011 HOWARD PYLE LED TO THE CAPT
011 HOWARD PYLE LED TO THE CAPT
As for the bulls, as many of them as were shot served as food there and then for the half-famished pirates, for the buccaneers were never more at home than in the slaughter of cattle.

Then they marched toward the city. Three hours' more fighting and they were in the streets, howling, yelling, plundering, gorging, dram-drinking, and giving full vent to all the vile and nameless lusts that burned in their hearts like a hell of fire. And now followed the usual sequence of events—rapine, cruelty, and extortion; only this time there was no town to ransom, for Morgan had given orders that it should be destroyed. The torch was set to it, and Panama, one of the greatest cities in the New World, was swept from the face of the earth. Why the deed was done, no man but Morgan could tell. Perhaps it was that all the secret hiding places for treasure might be brought to light; but whatever the reason was, it lay hidden in the breast of the great buccaneer himself. For three weeks Morgan and his men abode in this dreadful place; and they marched away with one hundred and seventy-five beasts of burden loaded with treasures of gold and silver and jewels, besides great quantities of merchandise, and six hundred prisoners held for ransom.

Whatever became of all that vast wealth, and what it amounted to, no man but Morgan ever knew, for when a division was made it was found that there was only two hundred pieces of eight to each man.
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2022 03 07 210 20
The rest of them sailed away to the East Indies, to try their fortunes in those waters, for our Captain Avary was of a high spirit, and had no mind to fritter away his time in the West Indies, squeezed dry by buccaneer Morgan and others of lesser note. No, he would make a bold stroke for it at once, and make or lose at a single cast.

On his way he picked up a couple of like kind with himself—two sloops off Madagascar. With these he sailed away to the coast of India, and for a time his name was lost in the obscurity of uncertain history. But only for a time, for suddenly it flamed out in a blaze of glory. It was reported that a vessel belonging to the Great Mogul, laden with treasure and bearing the monarch's own daughter upon a holy pilgrimage to Mecca (they being Mohammedans), had fallen in with the pirates, and after a short resistance had been surrendered, with the damsel, her court, and all the diamonds, pearls, silk, silver, and gold aboard. It was rumored that the Great Mogul, raging at the insult offered to him through his own flesh and blood, had threatened to wipe out of existence the few English settlements scattered along the coast; whereat the honorable East India Company was in a pretty state of fuss and feathers. Rumor, growing with the telling, has it that Avary is going to marry the Indian princess, willy-nilly, and will turn rajah, and eschew piracy as indecent. As for the treasure itself, there was no end to the extent to which it grew as it passed from mouth to mouth.
2022 03 07 20 2220
2022 03 07 20 2220
And now Blackbeard, following the plan adopted by so many others of his kind, began to cudgel his brains for means to cheat his fellows out of their share of the booty.

At Topsail Inlet he ran his own vessel aground, as though by accident. Hands, the captain of one of the consorts, pretending to come to his assistance, also grounded his sloop. Nothing now remained but for those who were able to get away in the other craft, which was all that was now left of the little fleet. This did Blackbeard with some forty of his favorites. The rest of the pirates were left on the sand spit to await the return of their companions—which never happened.

As for Blackbeard and those who were with him, they were that much richer, for there were so many the fewer pockets to fill. But even yet there were too many to share the booty, in Blackbeard's opinion, and so he marooned a parcel more of them—some eighteen or twenty—upon a naked sand bank, from which they were afterward mercifully rescued by another freebooter who chanced that way—a certain Major Stede Bonnet, of whom more will presently be said. About that time a royal proclamation had been issued offering pardon to all pirates in arms who would surrender to the king's authority before a given date. So up goes Master Blackbeard to the Governor of North Carolina and makes his neck safe by surrendering to the proclamation—albeit he kept tight clutch upon what he had already gained.
2022 03 07 20 2s0
2022 03 07 20 2s0
It was a glorious thing for our captain, for here were thirteen Yankee crafts at one and the same time. So he took what he wanted, and then sailed away, and it was many a day before Marblehead forgot that visit.

Some time after this he and his consort fell foul of an English sloop of war, the Greyhound, whereby they were so roughly handled that Low was glad enough to slip away, leaving his consort and her crew behind him, as a sop to the powers of law and order. And lucky for them if no worse fate awaited them than to walk the dreadful plank with a bandage around the blinded eyes and a rope around the elbows. So the consort was taken, and the crew tried and hanged in chains, and Low sailed off in as pretty a bit of rage as ever a pirate fell into.

The end of this worthy is lost in the fogs of the past: some say that he died of a yellow fever down in New Orleans; it was not at the end of a hempen cord, more's the pity.
2022 03 07 20 20
2022 03 07 20 20
The cheat was kept up until the fruit of mischief was ripe for the picking; then, when the governor and the guards of the castle were lulled into entire security, and when Davis's band was scattered about wherever each man could do the most good, it was out pistol, up cutlass, and death if a finger moved. They tied the soldiers back to back, and the governor to his own armchair, and then rifled wherever it pleased them. After that they sailed away, and though they had not made the fortune they had hoped to glean, it was a good snug round sum that they shared among them.

Their courage growing high with success, they determined to attempt the island of Del Principe—a prosperous Portuguese settlement on the coast. The plan for taking the place was cleverly laid, and would have succeeded, only that a Portuguese negro among the pirate crew turned traitor and carried the news ashore to the governor of the fort. Accordingly, the next day, when Captain Davis came ashore, he found there a good strong guard drawn up as though to honor his coming. But after he and those with him were fairly out of their boat, and well away from the water side, there was a sudden rattle of musketry, a cloud of smoke, and a dull groan or two. Only one man ran out from under that pungent cloud, jumped into the boat, and rowed away; and when it lifted, there lay Captain Davis and his companions all of a heap, like a pile of old clothes.

Capt. Bartholomew Roberts was the particular and especial pupil of Davis, and when that worthy met his death so suddenly and so unexpectedly in the unfortunate manner above narrated, he was chosen unanimously as the captain of the fleet, and he was a worthy pupil of a worthy master. Many were the poor fluttering merchant ducks that this sea hawk swooped upon and struck; and cleanly and cleverly were they plucked before his savage clutch loosened its hold upon them.
Marooned
Marooned
Not a word was spoken after they had thus left the shore, and presently they might all have been ghosts, for the silence of the party. Barnaby True was too full of his own thoughts to talk—and serious enough thoughts they were by this time, with crimps to trepan a man at every turn, and press gangs to carry a man off so that he might never be heard of again. As for the others, they did not seem to choose to say anything now that they had him fairly embarked upon their enterprise.

And so the crew pulled on in perfect silence for the best part of an hour, the leader of the expedition directing the course of the boat straight across the harbor, as though toward the mouth of the Rio Cobra River. Indeed, this was their destination, as Barnaby could after a while see, by the low point of land with a great long row of coconut palms upon it (the appearance of which he knew very well), which by and by began to loom up out of the milky dimness of the moonlight. As they approached the river they found the tide was running strong out of it, so that some distance away from the stream it gurgled and rippled alongside the boat as the crew of black men pulled strongly against it. Thus they came up under what was either a point of land or an islet covered with a thick growth of mangrove trees. But still no one spoke a single word as to their destination, or what was the business they had in hand.

The night, now that they were close to the shore, was loud with the noise of running tide-water, and the air was heavy with the smell of mud and marsh, and over all the whiteness of the moonlight, with a few stars pricking out here and there in the sky; and all so strange and silent and mysterious that Barnaby could not divest himself of the feeling that it was all a dream.

So, the rowers bending to the oars, the boat came slowly around from under the clump of mangrove bushes and out into the open water again.
2022 03 07 20 19
2022 03 07 20 19
There he lay for I know not how long, staring into the darkness, until by and by, in spite of his suffering and his despair, he dozed off into a loose sleep, that was more like waking than sleep, being possessed continually by the most vivid and distasteful dreams, from which he would awaken only to doze off and to dream again.

It was from the midst of one of these extravagant dreams that he was suddenly aroused by the noise of a pistol shot, and then the noise of another and another, and then a great bump and a grinding jar, and then the sound of many footsteps running across the deck and down into the great cabin. Then came a tremendous uproar of voices in the great cabin, the struggling as of men's bodies being tossed about, striking violently against the partitions and bulkheads. At the same instant arose a screaming of women's voices, and one voice, and that Sir John Malyoe's, crying out as in the greatest extremity: "You villains! You damned villains!" and with the sudden detonation of a pistol fired into the close space of the great cabin.

Barnaby was out in the middle of his cabin in a moment, and taking only time enough to snatch down one of the pistols that hung at the head of his berth, flung out into the great cabin, to find it as black as night, the lantern slung there having been either blown out or dashed out into darkness. The prodigiously dark space was full of uproar, the hubbub and confusion pierced through and through by that keen sound of women's voices screaming, one in the cabin and the other in the stateroom beyond. Almost immediately Barnaby pitched headlong over two or three struggling men scuffling together upon the deck, falling with a great clatter and the loss of his pistol, which, however, he regained almost immediately.

What all the uproar meant he could not tell, but he presently heard Captain Manly's voice from somewhere suddenly calling out, "You bloody pirate, would you choke me to death?" wherewith some notion of what had happened came to him like a flash, and that they had been attacked in the night by pirates.
2022 03 07 20 18
2022 03 07 20 18
The vessel in which they sailed was a brigantine of good size and build, but manned by a considerable crew, the most strange and outlandish in their appearance that Barnaby had ever beheld—some white, some yellow, some black, and all tricked out with gay colors, and gold earrings in their ears, and some with great long mustachios, and others with handkerchiefs tied around their heads, and all talking a language together of which Barnaby True could understand not a single word, but which might have been Portuguese from one or two phrases he caught. Nor did this strange, mysterious crew, of God knows what sort of men, seem to pay any attention whatever to Barnaby or to the young lady. They might now and then have looked at him and her out of the corners of their yellow eyes, but that was all; otherwise they were indeed like the creatures of a nightmare dream. Only he who was the captain of this outlandish crew would maybe speak to Barnaby a few words as to the weather or what not when he would come down into the saloon to mix a glass of grog or to light a pipe of tobacco, and then to go on deck again about his business. Otherwise our hero and the young lady were left to themselves, to do as they pleased, with no one to interfere with them.

As for her, she at no time showed any great sign of terror or of fear, only for a little while was singularly numb and quiet, as though dazed with what had happened to her. Indeed, methinks that wild beast, her grandfather, had so crushed her spirit by his tyranny and his violence that nothing that happened to her might seem sharp and keen, as it does to others of an ordinary sort.
2022 03 07 20 16
2022 03 07 20 16

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Anomalous Metallic Object Discovered Inside a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

Ai! We talk about thousands of year old anomalous objects, and MM introduces millions of years old objects. But what of billions of years old objects? What the fuck is going on?

Well, just today I have a “new” entry in the world of “what the fuck”. And you know these things come and go, and eventually completely disappear. But in reality just realize that our universe is completely populated with intelligence, and we are just infants in the grand scheme of things.

So whoa!

Anomalous Metallic Object Discovered Inside a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

This is a complete reprint from HERE. The usual disclaimers apply. You all know the drill.

As meteorite dealers, my wife Linda and I have continued supplying meteorites and importing new stock throughout lockdown. On Friday, April 17th 2020, I received a parcel of meteorites I had ordered from a dependable regular source. These were twenty examples of a very well-known and popular common chondrite known as NWA 869. One of them was different and appeared to contain a metallic object inside.

For over twenty years we have been the owners of the UK’s only full-time meteorite dealership, Spacerocks UK. We both have university qualifications in astronomy and have lectured widely at many of the country’s most auspicious institutions. At any one moment we have several thousand meteorites of all types in our inventory. We are therefore completely familiar with their appearance.

The origin of meteorites

At this point, it’s worth giving a brief explanation about what meteorites are and where they come from. The solar system (the Sun, planets, asteroids and comets) condensed from a cloud of dust and gas known as the solar nebula around five billion years ago. The first solid objects were millimetric spheres called chondrules. These joined together over a few million years to form increasingly large chunks. Eventually, by collision, these accreted to form planetissimals and finally, around 4.5 billion years ago, the eight large planets and other, smaller bodies that make up the solar system.

The vast gaps between the orbits of the eight major planets are full of debris left over from these early days. Additionally, a region between Mars and Jupiter holds many thousands of smaller planetary objects known as asteroids. These occasionally collide (more so in the past), launching further rocky and metallic debris into the solar  system  .

If one of these fragments collides with the Earth on its passage around the Sun, it will heat up to over 6,000 degrees Celsius because of friction with the atmosphere. This is the cause of the familiar shooting stars, or meteors, we may see at night. If a chunk is large enough, it may survive and reach the surface of the Earth. This residual object is known as a meteorite.

Explaining the types of meteorites

There are, broadly speaking, three types of meteorite:

  • Chondrites: fragments of the original ancient stones that remain from the beginnings of the solar system. These often contain chondrules, the small spheres mentioned earlier. Chondrites are all around 5 billion years old.
  • Achondrites: stony material blasted off the surface of a planet, asteroid or satellite by the impact of another object. Achondrite meteorites have been proven to have originated on many bodies, including Mars, the Moon and asteroids such as Vesta,
  • Irons and stony irons are fragments of the cores of fully-formed small planets that were disrupted during collisions billions of years As the first planets grew in size, heavy elements such as nickel and iron sank to their centers to form metallic cores, like that of the Earth.

Generally speaking, meteorites are named after the place where they fell or were found. That’s why the iron meteorite that made the Arizona Meteor Crater is called Canyon Diablo and that which exploded over Russia in 1947 is known as Sikhote-Alin.

A 1.7kg individual meteorite from the Sikhote Alin meteorite shower (coasrsest octahedrite, class IIAB). This specimen is about 12cm wide. Sikhote Alin meteorite shower fell on 1947 February 12 in the dense forest of eastern Siberia, and over 23 tons of meteoritic material has been recovered. (H. Raab / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The NWA 869 meteorite in question

The meteorite we are discussing here, NWA 869, comes from a large strewn field which was the 869 th such to be discovered in North West Africa: hence its name. Why 869 is so prized by collectors is that most of meteorites  from this field are small, complete examples, rather than fragments of larger bodies that exploded as they passed through the atmosphere (see photos).

The majority have an attractive blue-grey fusion crust (melted surfaced) and their shape reflects their attitude as they streaked downwards. This is known as ‘orientation’: a bit like the way spacecraft enter the atmosphere heat- shield first. OK, that’s the technical stuff out of the way!

This NWA 869 meteorite was like nothing the writer had seen before. (Author supplied)

When I was processing the parcel of newly-arrived 869s, I suddenly noticed a metallic glint from one of them. This isn’t unusual: all chondrites contain nickel-iron and some (see photo) display quite obvious metallic flecks. This was different. In this case, the shiny region could be seen to be a small cylindrical feature around 6 mm (0.2 in) in diameter.

This metallic area was protruding at an angle from a region of glassy fusion crust, which, in places, could be seen to flow away from the object. Another interesting feature is that the cylinder had a small impact crater on its surface, something not uncommonly seen on iron meteorites or, indeed, spacecraft on their return from orbit.

The meteorite and its strange inclusion have been examined both microscopically and spectroscopically by a contact at the University of East Anglia. The preliminary results indicate that the silver cylinder is not composed of any of the usual accessory minerals found in meteorites. Further examination is scheduled.

I have no doubt at all that the object embedded in the NWA 869 meteorite was in place as the stone entered the Earth’s atmosphere some time in the past. Since the meteorite itself was formed several hundred millions of years before the planets, it begs the questions: who made it, and where did it originate before becoming part of the solar nebula? A very real possibility might be that the cylinder originated on a planet orbiting a Population 2 star that exploded as a nova several billion years before our solar system formed.

What does all this mean?

The oldest stars in the universe are, counterintuitively, called Population 3 stars. The “nuclear furnaces” at the heart of these were the origin of some of the elements “heavier” than hydrogen. As these ancient stars ran out of hydrogen, the larger ones would have shrunk, then exploded, releasing gas, dust and some of these heavier elements into the universe. It was this material that condensed to form Population 2 stars ten to fifteen billion years ago. The larger examples of these also underwent cataclysmic supernovae, generating regions of star formation where Population 1 stars like our Sun – and their associated planets – condensed.

The oldest stars in the universe are, counterintuitively, called Population 3 stars. The “nuclear furnaces” at the heart of these were the origin of some of the elements “heavier” than hydrogen. As these ancient stars ran out of hydrogen, the larger ones would have shrunk, then exploded, releasing gas, dust and some of these heavier elements into the universe. It was this material that condensed to form Population 2 stars ten to fifteen billion years.

It is now known that planets are very common. So far astronomers have discovered over 4,000! It is probably the case that most Pop 1 stars have planetary systems. Since the oldest of these stars were formed ten billion years ago – twice as long ago as the Sun – it would seem highly likely that life and ultimately civilizations evolved upon those in suitable locations.

Any that ended their lives as supernovae will have scattered all kinds of stellar, planetary and – possibly – archaeological debris into its galaxy. Either we are alone – unique – in the cosmos, or life occurs wherever there is the slightest possibility of it: in which case, we should expect to find alien artifacts within ancient meteorites.

You can find out more about the world of Meteoritics in David’s book, Spacerocks, available from Amazon.

Conclusion

Amazing stuff.

Most of the stuff that I, MM have dealt with is millions of years old. Not billions. So this is a great find. I really only know about the stuff prior to the formation of the solar system though the chatter of my pilot. And at that its all really limited. I never felt the need to inquire further. Maybe I should have. Never the less it’s interesting stuff. That is for certain.

It might be nice for someone in the UK to visit this person and have a first hand look at the object… of course, once the coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

A billions of year old object is most certainly something worth checking out. Don’t you agree? I mean it’s not everyday that you come across an object that is fabricated by intelligence that predates the solar system.

And finally, I want to provide a RUFUS video.

Remember all this insight in to how our universe really is, is really interesting. But seriously, it is how we live our lives that really matters.

If you have a dear friend on his deathbed, maybe it is the most Rufus thing to do is to defy the rules and conventions and instead to spend time with him in his last moments. Be the Rufus. Anything else is below you. Here’s my video HERE. 13MB.

You know who you are. (wink.)

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The archaeological dilemma of the 250,000 year old Hueyatlaco site remains

According to mainstream understandings, mankind is only around 6,000 years old. And while there is much evidence to support earlier dates going as far back as 30,000 years few will embrace the implications of these discoveries. Thus, we are faced with an enigma. What to make of remains that are dated at over  250,000 years old?

Could it be that everything that we were taught in school is wrong?

My opinion is YES.

Life and Living

There is a strong and significant percentage of the population that wants things; life and relationships, to be “black and white”. Where everything is simple. Where everything is cleanly put inside it’s own box; nicely labeled, categorized and filed away for future use. It certainly looks nice. It’s orderly. It’s easy to index. It’s great to conceptualize.

But…

Life is not that way.

And many people like to describe this key to organization through the understanding of disorganization as “shades of grey” as opposed to “black and white” thinking. But you know, that life isn’t something that is easily cataloged. It is dynamic, complex and endlessly interesting.

To understand things, you shouldn’t have single dedicated articles to only that particular issue. Like a website for a specific type of nail, or a website for how to groom poodles. For while they are easy to look up and search for, and helpful for writing an essay or report for school, they do not convey or transfer information in the same way as an up-front “hands on”, “face to face” discussion with a close friend would have.

If you are with a close friend, you will know them. You will understand their likes, and dislikes, their passions, their biases, and their exaggerations. And knowing that will best help you to understand the conveyance of information at hand.

Which is why you trust your best friend to help get you out of a mess, while you wouldn’t dare ask a colleague. Which is why you would believe a family member who told you not to buy a used car from THAT man, and why you wouldn’t believe Bill Clinton or Donald Trump when they offered to sell you a used car.

Don’t buy a car from this man.

Everything comes with context.

Everything.

Propaganda relies on the lack of full contextual information to control you.

For instance, the “China mishandled the Wuhan virus” narrative relies on the omission that Jon Bolton was the head of the Bio-weapon program for his entire term under the Trump Administration.

There are many such examples of this.

But let’s not digress too deeply.  Instead, let’s recognize that everything [1] comes with context, and that [2] it’s very difficult to provide contextual information inside of any article. Which is why we must assume [3] bias or slant in any information that you read or study.

Noteworthy Website

One of my favorite websites is “Ancient Origins“. They offer up mysteries of the past, exciting discoveries and alternative views of history. Anyone with even a passing interest in history would find this site interesting.

Some of the articles are fantastical, while others are bland and boring and relates to obscure subject matter. But that’s all right. As long as your recognize what the website is, what it’s purpose is, and why it exists that is often enough to provide enough contextual information to understand the relative value of the articles that you are reading there.

In a way, websites with greatly diverse content is the modern day incarnations of periodicals and magazines. And while times have changed. Who we are haven’t.

The early years.

Back in my early teen years, I used to read “Treasure Magazine”. And inside that magazine (and others of a similar genre)  were stories of mysterious objects that people found. Some were found by metal detectors, while others were found in unlikely places, like a hidden room, or up in the rafters of a chicken coop. There were also stores of lost treasure, and the stories that had now become obscure local legends.

As a young boy, I “ate it up”. I literally read those magazines cover to cover, and then put them carefully in a stack (of magazines) that kept on a growing in the bathroom next to my bedroom. There, in that stack were issues of Mad Magazine, National Geographic, Weird Stories comic books, Analog Magazine, “The Good Old Days” and “Men’s” Magazines.

Magazines fit for a boy of 12.

For me, they took me to far off lands, strange adventures and interesting places. I could imagine myself fighting of hordes of hungry otters, discovering buried golden treasure, exploring an abandoned castle dungeon, and finding a book filled with secrets in a long lost attic.

In those days I would hastily make myself a sandwich out of leftover pot roast, slices of cheese, and a sliced tomato from the garden (plus some Miracle Whip brand mayonnaise) and put it on a plate. There, I would go to a quiet spot, eat my sandwich and read my magazines. All away from others so that I wouldn’t get “roped” into doing a new chore or other task.

(Mississippi style) pot roast sandwich.

I found this activity relaxing, fun and enjoyable. And more than a few times, my trusty cat Sedwick would scamper up the tree and let himself in to chill out besides me.

Such was my youth.

Now, you have to take everything into account. At that time, while I was busily attending “middle school”, the subjects (while interesting) were not the same. For it was the subjects that I read at home; the science fiction stories, the poetry, and the adventure stories that tickled my imagination. And that, I believe is critical. You cannot live your entire life believing everything that is taught to you. You have to probe, push and understand things in new and different ways.

And maybe they are bullshit, and don’t make sense.

But maybe they are real and are suggestive of other things. Certainly Erich vonniken greatly influenced me. And while I never (at that time) ever thought that I would some day meet the strange beings that I read about it was nice to have a contextual background that made the introduction of such beings more reasonable and palatable to me.

Now, I know that the past is interesting and colorful. Certainly my exposure to events, changes and things have greatly influenced my thoughts in this matter. And now when I read the fantastical, I judge things through the contextual lens of my background and my experience.

And here is one such story.

I read this story while I had a glass of basic red wine at my side, and a plate of toasted Italian bread with peppers, onions and cheese. And found the following article to be just as tasty as what I was enjoying.

Red wine and Italian bread.

Controversy at Hueyatlaco: When Did Humans First Inhabit the Americas?

Found HERE. Written on 28 April, 2021 - 18:53  Aleksa Vučković All credit to the author, and note that it was edited to fit this venue, and MM comments and thoughts abound.

What happens when an archaeological site is so extraordinary, that it threatens to eclipse everything we knew about history up to that point?

Some discoveries are just too hard to fully grasp, and that makes us question their accuracy.

Hueyatlaco in Mexico is one such archaeological site.

It is forcing us to reconsider the time frame of human habitation in South America.

By a lot.

The finds presented at Hueyatlaco are still a matter of heated debate amongst scholars today, but one thing is certain – there are still many unanswered questions which need to be explored.

The accepted history

Here is the accepted history for how, and when humans arrived to the Americas. Anything that differs from this narrative is rejected out of hand, and certainly enrages statists who have their careers and their reputation entangled with this narrative. The following is from an academic website.

The narrative;

Around 16,000 BP, people migrated from Siberia (Asia) to Alaska (North America) over the Bering Land Bridge (map below).

  • New evidence found in Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico, including tools made from a type of limestone not originating from the cave itself, suggests that humans first arrived in North America possibly as far back as 30,000 BP. At that time, the ice sheets covering North America during the last ice age were still extensive, which would have made cross-continental travel very difficult, and suggests that the Pacific coast was the more probable travel route. This idea is known as the Pacific Coastal Route Hypothesis.
    • This new research indicates that even though people likely reached North America no later than 26,500 to 19,000 BP, occupation did not become widespread until the very end of the last ice age, around 14,700 to 12,900 BP.
    • This new evidence dispels the Clovis-first model, named for evidence of human occupation in Clovis, New Mexico. This model suggests that the first people to reach North America traveled across the Bering Land Bridge and then into North America along an ice-free cross-continental corridor around 16,000 to 10,000 BP. It is likely that  by then North America had already been occupied by people who migrated via the Pacific coastal route.
    • Under the Pacific Coastal Route Hypothesis, people traveled south along the “kelp highway” of the western coast of the Americas because it was mainly ice-free and therefore easier to traverse than the ice-covered inland areas (map below). The coastal waters had common giant kelp species such as Durvillaea antarctica and Macrocystis pyrifera, which supported rich ecosystems that provided food, such as sea bass, cod, rockfish, sea urchins, abalones, and mussels for the migrating people. At the end of the last ice age, glaciers melted and sea levels rose, flooding the “kelp highway.”

  • During the last ice age, which peaked around 21,000 BP and ended around 10,700 BP, global sea levels were up to 100 meters lower than they are today because colder temperatures resulted in large amounts of water becoming frozen in glaciers.
  • The Bering Land Bridge existed during this time of low sea levels. When the glaciers melted and sea levels rose to their present-day position, the land bridge flooded and formed the Bering Strait that now separates Asia from North America. See below for an interactive map of the Bering Land Bridge and the Bering Strait over time.

After the initial migrations to North America, people began moving southward, following the Pacific coast from Alaska to Chile.

Those who made it to northern and central South America were limited to small communities because the cold, harsh climate of the ice age prevented populations from expanding.

A short period of rising temperatures and retreating glaciers followed, which allowed people to migrate further south and establish new settlements in Patagonia, such as in Monte Verde (map below).

Then, around 14,500 BP, in what is known as the Antarctic Climate Reversal, temperatures dropped as much as 6℃ below present-day and remained low for 2 millenia.

When temperatures rose yet again, more glaciers melted, flooding the Strait of Magellan and cutting the southernmost settlements on Tierra del Fuego off from the mainland (map below), leading to a cultural division between mainland and coastal inhabitants.

Anything that differs from this narrative is considered to be suspect or fraudulent.

Such is the archaeological dilemma of the 250,000 year old Hueyatlaco site.

The Valsequillo Basin

The site in question is located in Mexico in an area known as The Valsequillo Basin. It is a depressed area that used to be an enormous lake or series of lakes thousands of years ago.

The Valsequillo Basin is located near the city of Puebla, in Mexico.

Situated in the central part of the country, this basin has been the focus of much interest for geologists, archaeologists and the scientific world as a whole.

This interest was sparked due to the presence of numerous megafaunal remains and evidence of very early human habitation.

Megafauna, as we know, is the term commonly used for large animals that roamed the landscapes of the Pleistocene, such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and cave lions.

What is megafauna?

We’ve all heard stories from the age of the dinosaurs, when giant creatures the size of buses or even buildings roamed the land and the oceans, but their disappearance didn’t mean the end of the giants: In fact, megafauna was predominant in every continent on Earth, through multiple glaciations and climate change periods, until about 50,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene. That is, until humans entered the picture. Our increasing hunting and habitat pressure lead to a great decrease in the numbers and distribution of megafauna, followed by subsequent extinctions.

The decline of megafauna started so early in our history, and its progress was so steady, that only now are we starting to acknowledge and study the effects of megafauna in regulating our ecosystems and the impacts of megafaunal loss across the globe.

-True Nature Foundation

However, although rich in important discoveries, the site has always been the cause of much  controversy, simply because some of the theories surrounding it are very hard to fully grasp.

It has been proposed that the landscapes of the Early Pleistocene period were characterized by many deep lakes, and that this basin might once have been one such lake.

Reconstruction using GIS of the maximum level of the shallow Late Pleistocene lake at the Valsequillo Basin, Puebla, also shown are La Malinche Volcano and Cerro Toluquilla Volcano.

However, no direct proof for this ever surfaced and dating has proven quite difficult for scholars.

Nevertheless, the area is of immense geological interest due to it being dominated by the stratovolcanoes  Popocatépetl and La  Malinche, and its location in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt.

As such, this is a site with a time-worn history, which also helps shed some light on early human habitation of the region, because  geology and archaeology often go hand in hand.

Criticisms Mount Against Claim of Hominins in the Americas Over 100,000 Years Ago

Some of the first excavations at Hueyatlaco were carried out in 1961, when professor Cynthia Irwin-Williams conducted an extensive dig at the site.

Even before she arrived, the region was known as a place rich in animal fossils, which sparked the interest of scholars.

Irwin-Williams was soon joined by other prominent persons of the U.S. Geological Survey, notably Virginia Steen-McIntyre, who was responsible for publicizing the find and the magnificent discoveries it entailed.

Due to the vast numbers of animal fossils, it was commonly believed that this site was a kill site, where ancient humans butchered the animals they  hunted.

The countless animal remains were located in fluviatile deposits commonly known as Valsequillo gravels, which were often plain and exposed in the high cliff sides of the Valsequillo Reservoir.

In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluvioglacial is used. The White River is so named due to the clay it picks up in the Badlands of South Dakota.

-Fluvial processes - Wikipedia

Some of the ancient animal fossils found included  bison, camel, dire wolf, peccary, short-faced bear,  sloth, horse, tapir,  mammoth, saber-toothed cat, mastodon, glyptodon, four-horned antelope, and several other species.

glyptodon

But the really important finds were made in 1962, when Irwin-Williams discovered both animal bones and stone tools, together, in situ.

Indicative of tool-making humanoids that hunted and killed the animals.

The subsequent struggle to positively identify the age of these remains led to much controversy.

The tools that were discovered included some very crude and primitive implements, but also tools that were much more sophisticated, with double edges and detailed flaking construction.

Indicative of multiple societies, or the immensity of age of a singular society.

These tools were diverse and included quite elaborate projectile points, many of which were made from non-local materials.

Indicative of travel, or possibly trade.

This was a clear proof that Hueyatlaco was used by various groups of people for a long period of time.

Either way, these findings were quickly pushing back the previously believed timeline of human habitation in South America, which caused conflicts in the scientific world.

Dating to 250,000 years, when at the time, the earliest human presence was dated to 6,000 years ago.

Unhappy Historians

Very early on in the excavations, attempts were made to discredit the work done at Hueyatlaco, and some turned out to be blatant attacks on the work.

Someone seemingly had a problem with the idea that South America was inhabited so much earlier than was commonly believed.

In 1967, Jose Lorenzo, a member of the Mexican  Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia,  came forth with a controversial claim that the artifacts discovered were deliberately planted at the site, in a way that made it difficult to know whether they were actually discovered.

This gossip was seemingly unmerited and looked a lot like an attempt to disrupt the crew from making further claims at the site.

What is more, the suspicious activities did not stop here.

Irwin-Williams did make a startling discovery of mammoth bone fragments that were carved with intricate images, depicting various megafauna animals such as serpents and saber-toothed cats.

Similar carved images have been discovered all over the world, and are associated with early man.

However, these carved bones disappeared under puzzling circumstances, as if someone didn’t want them to reach the public eye.

Yet, while the evidence has disappeared, the photographs of the carvings survive.

By 1969, Irwin-Williams sought support in the scientific community, and gained support from three renowned scholars who visited the site of the excavations and confirmed that everything was being conducted in a professional manner.

During that same year, the team published their first scientific paper that detailed the excavations and the importance of the site.

And that importance was the age .

Dating the site

Various methods for dating the finds were utilized, many of which were revolutionary for the time.

The usual radiocarbon dating  indicated that the remains were roughly 35,000 years old.

However, dating by uranium suggested the remains to be far older, roughly 260,000 years old.

At the time, these results were considered an anomaly, especially due to the fact that general science proposed a general time of 16,000 years before present for the settling of the Americas.

Radiocarbon dating did not agree with uranium dating; thus creating an anomaly.

Some suggested that the strata (or geological layers) were eroded by ancient waterways, and that might have mixed up the specimens, and causing such differing results.

By 1973, scientists returned to Hueyatlaco, hoping to conduct new excavations and attempt to once more examine the layers and to resolve the oddities of dating the finds.

Their research concluded that the layers were not eroded and that specimens were not mixed up.

What is more, this new team managed to analyze volcanic ash from the site and apply the revolutionary zircon fission track dating method.

Through this geochemistry approach, they determined that the volcanic ash – discovered in the same layer as the tools – was roughly between 370,000 and 240,000 years old.

This confirmed the extremely old age of human habitation at the site, and further deepened the enigma that was Hueyatlaco.

The remote age of the artifacts was confirmed by the geochemistry method.

In time, plenty of friction arose between the team members, as they could not agree on the age, the direction in which the excavation was heading, or the accuracy of the dating methods.

Uranium dating was extremely new at the time, and its reliability not well known, while the fission track dating method had a substantial margin of error.

In time, the excavation team was separated by their views.

Site controversy

Irwin-Williams believed that the probable age was 20,000 years before present, although that view in itself was considered controversial by many.

On the other hand, Harold Malde and Virginia Steen-McIntyre, other team leaders, firmly believed the original dating of 200,000 years before present – which was so revolutionary that it was hard to comprehend.

Some suggested that the 20,000 year theory by Irwin-Williams was “puzzling” and almost a deliberate tactic to discredit the find.

This was believed mainly because no evidence for that age was found in the excavations at all.

Irwin-Williams never went forward to solidify her claims.

In fact, she never published a report on the site whatsoever, which led to questions on the honesty of her claims.

On the other hand, the other part of the team firmly believed in their 200,000 year theory, and were not willing to drop it.

Formal announcement

In 1981, this faction made up of Malde, Fryxell, and Steen-McIntyre published an extensive scientific paper in the  Journal of Quaternary Research , providing a detailed insight and evidence for the extremely old dating of human habitation at the site.

In their paper, they provided the results from four different dating tests: [1] the fission track, [2] the uranium-thorium test, [3] the study of mineral weathering to determine age, and [4] the tephra hydration tests.

All of these tests confirmed the age of the remains to be roughly 250,000 years old which confirmed their theories.

To that end, the authors wrote in their paper:

"The evidence outlined here consistently indicates that the Hueyatlaco site is about 250,000  years old. 

We who have worked on geological aspects of the Valsequillo area are painfully aware that so great an age poses an archaeological dilemma [...] 

In our view, the results reported here widen the window of time in which serious investigation of the age of Man in the New World  would be warranted. 

We continue to cast a critical eye on all the data, including our own."

This was an educated, accurate response that acknowledged that such a radical claim  did seem odd, but was not entirely impossible.

The story of Hueyatlaco continued to look like a deliberate attempt to discredit these finds or hide them under the carpet.

The evidence was there: early humans could have inhabited the so-called New World, the Americas, far earlier than was commonly believed.

Not good enough!

But seemingly, someone did not want that truth to be accepted.

To that end, Irwin-Williams, who was at odds with the rest of the team, raised objections to several aspects of the published paper, seemingly continuing her attacks on the finds.

The team were confident and quickly refuted her attempts to discredit their work.

Further secrets were soon revealed.

Virginia Steen-McIntyre was at one point fired from her job due to her claims, and she also revealed that some of the original team members were harassed, their careers were threatened, and they were proclaimed incompetent – all because of their involvement in the project.

So, we need to wonder, why did these findings cause so much enmity from mainstream science?

Sure, to some, the claims of such an old age might seem radical and hard to believe.

But rather than simply disagreeing with the claims, mainstream scholars went to great lengths to attack, harass, and fully discredit the professional work the team has conducted.

Nevertheless, as time progressed, new tests were conducted, providing new evidence and deepening the controversy related to the site.

Testing, testing and then even more testing!

In 2004, for example, researcher Sam Van Landingham conducted extensive bio- stratigraphic analysis, confirming that the strata that bore the discovered tools was some 250,000 years old.

He re- confirmed these finds once again in 2006.

He states in his papers that the samples can be dated to the so-called Sangamonian stage  (from 80,000 to 220,000 years before present) due to the presence of several diatom species only appearing in that age.

Diatoms are single-celled algae

Diatoms are algae that live in houses made of glass. They are the only organism on the planet with cell walls composed of transparent, opaline silica. Diatom cell walls are ornamented by intricate and striking patterns of silica.

More findings appeared in 2008, when paleomagnetic testing was conducted on the volcanic ash layers from the site, dating them to roughly 780,000 years before present.

The geological time scale is used by geologists and paleontologists to measure the history of the Earth and life. It is based on the fossils found in rocks of different ages and on radiometric dating of the rocks.

Sedimentary rocks (made from mud, sand, gravel or fossil shells) and volcanic lava flows are laid down in layers or beds. They build up over time so that that the layers at the bottom of the pile are older than the ones at the top. Geologists call this simple observation the Principle of Superposition, and it is most important way of working out the order of rocks in time. Ordering of rocks (and the fossils that they contain) in time from oldest to youngest is called relative age dating.

Once the rocks are placed in order from oldest to youngest, we also know the relative ages of the fossils that we collect from them.

Relative age dating tells us which fossils are older and which fossils are younger. It does not tell us the age of the fossils. To get an age in years, we use radiometric dating of the rocks. Not every rock can be dated this way, but volcanic ash deposits are among those that can be dated. The position of the fossils above or below a dated ash layer allows us to work out their ages.

-How paleontologists tell time

Hueyatlaco remains a true scientific anomaly.

It is not at all impossible that early man could have crossed over to the Americas much, much earlier than is currently believed.

In fact, there already is the conundrum of the Solutrean theory , which tells us that the  Clovis people , the proposed ancestors of the Native Americans, were not the first inhabitants of the Americas.

Besides these, there are numerous pieces of evidence across the continent that tell us that it is nigh time that we reconsider the history of human habitation in the Americas.

Some Conclusions

Assuming that the array of scientific evidence is correct, then the Hueyatlaco site is truly ancient and indicates tool-using, and tool-manufacturing humanoids 250,000 years ago. This not only turns conventional evolutionary theories “upside down”, but is pretty much discards the vast number of theories in support of human “land bridge” migration.

In short, for the humans to be in the Americas at this date, one of two things must have happened.

Either;

[A] Early man constructed ocean capable vessels and sailed across the wide oceans.

Or,

[B] Early man evolved independently in the Americas as well as in Africa.

We need to come to grips and accept the idea that there was probably various evolutionary clusters and separate lineages that did not originate from a common “Lucy” humanoid. Many died out, and many adapted and evolved, and many propagated throughout the world.

While not popular at this time, you can rest assured that this understanding will be embraced hundreds of years in the future.

But wait!

This is NOT a lone, isolated find.

Other Ancient Discoveries

There are many reported human skeletal finds which are in discordance with current evolutionary beliefs dating back to anomalously ancient geological periods in the distant past, way before it is accepted that human beings ever existed.

One intriguing report surfaced in an American journal called The Geologist dated December 1862:

“In Macoupin County, Illinois, the bones of a man were recently found on a coal-bed capped with two feet of slate rock, ninety feet below the surface of the earth. . . The bones, when found, were covered with a crust or coating of hard glossy matter, as black as coal itself, but when scraped away left the bones white and natural.” 

The coal in which the remains were found have been dated at between 320 and 286 million years old, which, despite a lack of supporting evidence and little information on the discovery, is certainly worthy of inclusion here.

The Foxhall Jaw

A better documented account of an anomalous find is of a human jaw discovered at Foxhall, England, in 1855 which was dug out of a quarry at a level of sixteen feet (4.88 meters) under ground level, dating the specimen to at least 2.5 million years old.

American physician Robert H. Collyer described the Foxhall jaw as ‘the oldest relic of human existence’.

The problem with this particular fossil was its modern appearance.

A more apelike mandible would have been more acceptable despite its great antiquity, but many dissenters disbelieved the authenticity of the bone ‘probably because the shape of the jaw was not primitive’, according to paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Buenos Aires Skull

A fully modern human skull was found in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in an Early Pliocene formation, revealing the presence of modern humans in South America between 1 and 1.5 million years ago.

But once more, the modern appearance of the skull doesn’t fit with conventional thinking on human origins so was discounted on these grounds alone.

Here we see a clear example of dating by morphology, and a distinct disregard of all other data, no matter how credible.

The thinking is simple; if it looks modern – it must be modern. No modern humans could possibly have existed that far back in time so it must be ruled out.

This approach employs illogical thinking if one considers that the skull was found in a Pre-Ensenadean stratum, which, according to present geological calculations, dates back up to 1.5 million years.

The scientific data, as with a plethora of cases worldwide, does not match the final analogy, and instead of pursuing the matter further until a satisfactory scientific conclusion is arrived upon, the discovery has slipped unsurprisingly into anonymity.

The Clichy Skeleton

In a quarry on the Avenue de Clichy, Paris, parts of a human skull were discovered along with a femur, tibia, and some foot bones by Eugene Bertrand in 1868.

The layer in which the Clichy skeleton was dug out from would make the fossils approximately 330,000 years old.

It wasn’t until Neanderthals became accepted as the Pleistocene ancestors of modern humans that French anthropologists were forced to drop the Clichy skeleton from the human evolutionary line, as a modern type of human could not predate their allegedly older Neanderthal relatives.

Neanderthals are conventionally understood to have existed from 30,000 to 150,000 years ago, and the Clichy skeleton which dated at over 300,000 years ago was simply not an acceptable find despite the evidence to support its authenticity.

The Ipswich Skeleton

In 1911, another anatomically modern human skeleton was discovered beneath a layer of glacial boulder clay near the town of Ipswich, in England, by J. Reid Moir.

Found at a depth of about 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) between a layer of clay and glacial sands, the skeleton could be as much as 400,000 years old.

Naturally, the modern appearance of the skeleton was the cause of strong opposition, but if the find had of been Neanderthal-like, there would have been no questions raised over its position in the glacial sediments.

As Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, Sir Arthur Keith explained,

“Under the presumption that the modern type of man is also modern in origin, a degree of high antiquity is denied to such specimens.”

The deposits in which the Ipswich skeleton was excavated from were recorded by the British Geological Survey as an intact layer of glacial boulder clay which had been laid down between the onset of the Anglian glaciation and the Hoxnian glaciations, a period that stretched between 330,000 and 400,000 years ago.

Some authorities have even put the beginning of the Mindel glaciation (which is equivalent to that of the Anglian) at around 600,000 years ago, which could potentially allow the Ipswich skeleton to also date back that far.

The deposits in which the Ipswich skeleton was excavated from were recorded by the British Geological Survey as an intact layer of glacial boulder clay which had been laid down between the onset of the Anglian glaciation and the Hoxnian glaciations, a period that stretched between 330,000 and 400,000 years ago.

Some authorities have even put the beginning of the Mindel glaciation (which is equivalent to that of the Anglian) at around 600,000 years ago, which could potentially allow the Ipswich skeleton to also date back that far.

The Castenedolo Bones

Situated in the southern slopes of the Alps, at Castenedolo, six miles (9.66 km) southeast of Brescia, lays a low hill called the Colle de Vento, where millions of years ago during the Pliocene period , layers of mollusks and coral were deposited by a warm sea washing in.

In 1860, Professor Giuseppe Ragazzoni traveled to Castenedolo to gather fossil shells in the Pliocene strata exposed in a pit at the base of the Colle de Vento. Reporting on his finds there Ragazzoni wrote:

“Searching along the bank of coral for shells, there came into my hand the top portion of a cranium, completely filled with pieces of coral cemented with blue-green clay characteristics of that formation. 

Astonished, I continued the search, and in addition to the top portion of the cranium I found other bones of the thorax and limbs, which quite apparently belonged to an individual of the human species.” 

Once more, negative reactions ensued by both geologists and scientists who were unwilling to accept the Pliocene age offered by Ragazzoni for the skeletal remains.

It was explained away by an insistence that the bones, due to their clearly modern characteristics, must have come from a recent burial and somehow or other found themselves among the Pliocene strata.

If in doubt, simply explain it away with logical thinking, even if you ignore the facts within plain sight and filter out the parts which do not fit.

Ragazzoni was understandably not pleased with the reception he received and the disregard given to his legitimate discovery of an anomalously ancient human skeleton, so he kept his eye on the site where he had found the relics once the land was sold to Carlo Germani in 1875, (on the advice of Ragazzoni, who had advised that the phosphate-rich clay could be sold to farmers as fertilizer).

Many more discoveries followed from 1879, as Germani kept his word and informed the professor immediately upon finding more bones in the pit.

Jaw fragments, teeth, backbone, ribs, arms, legs and feet were all dug out of the Pliocene formation which modern geologists have placed at around 3-4 million years old.

All of them were completely covered with and penetrated by the clay and small fragments of coral and shells, which removed any suspicion that the bones were those of persons buried in graves, and on the contrary confirmed the fact of their transport by the waves of the sea’, said Ragazzoni.

And on February 16, 1880, Germani informed Ragazzoni that a complete skeleton had been discovered, enveloped in a mass of blue-green clay, remains which turned out to be that of an anatomically modern human female.

“The complete skeleton was found in the middle of the layer of blue clay. . . The stratum of the blue clay, which is over 1 metre thick, has preserved its uniform stratification, and does not show any sign of disturbance” wrote Ragazzoni, adding, “The skeleton was very likely deposited in a kind of marine mud and not buried at a later time.”

After personally examining the Castenedolo skeletons at the Technical Institute of Brescia in 1883, Professor Giuseppe Sergi, an anatomist from the University of Rome, was convinced that they represented the remains of humans who had lived during the Pliocene period of the Tertiary.

Writing of his disdain towards the naysayers within the scientific community Sergi commented,

“The tendency to reject, by reason of theoretical preconceptions, any discoveries that can demonstrate a human presence in the Tertiary is, I believe, a kind of scientific prejudice. 

Natural science should be stripped of this prejudice.”

Anomalous Skeletons Have Their Place Too!

Unfortunately, this prejudice which continues to this day, shows no signs of abating, as Professor Sergi recognized back in the 19th century, ‘By means of a despotic scientific prejudice, call it what you will, every discovery of human remains in the Pliocene has been discredited.’

So why does its modern appearance override the other factors?

It doesn’t seem to be a very scientific approach to disregard an archaeological find simply because it does not conform to contemporary evolutionary theses.

The examples cited in this article are only a small selection which has been rescued from obscurity by vigilant researchers, but how many more cases have suffered similar dismissal due to their anomalistic circumstances ?

If science continues to sweep unusual discoveries under the carpet, how are we supposed to progress as a species if we are intent on denying data which contradicts our rigid paradigms?

It would appear that the knowledge filter has been in place for some time, much to the detriment of humankind and our quest to illuminate our foggy, mysterious ancient past.

Of course we cannot be sure of the validity of the anomalous finds mentioned above, but by ignoring the sheer volume of cases which question current scientific paradigms regarding the evolution of man, we are being denied the whole story – which can only be detrimental to the ongoing study of human evolution .

References

Meltzer, D. 2009.  First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America . University of California Press.

Steen-McIntyre, V. and Fryxell, R. and Malde, H. 1981.  Geologic Evidence for Age of Deposits at Hueyatlaco Archaeological Site . U.S. Geological Survey.

Various, 2016. “Early–Mid Pleistocene environments in the Valsequillo Basin, Central Mexico: a reassessment” in Journal of Quaternary Science .

Zillmer, H. 2010.  The Human History Mistake: The Neanderthals and Other Inventions of the Evolution and Earth Sciences . Trafford Publishing.

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The mystery find of a polished metal part within a geode that’s millions of years old

Here I am going to take a well-deserved break from the insanity of American-led global politics and discuss a curious find. A treasure, if your will. It is a mystery to some, and a curiosity to others. It is a geode with a polished, machined, and finished metal part inside of it.

Which is pretty much an interesting subject, anyways.

Just finding a geode to begin with is an excitement; an adventure. But to find one with a mysterious machined part inside is well… double exciting.

What is a Geode?

A geode is a Greek word that means the shape of the earth. The name originates from their shape, which is earthlike or oblong (like the shape of an egg). Geodes are consequently defined as secondary structures that are usually found in specific volcanic and sedimentary rocks.
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A beautiful quartz geode.

Geologic Occurrence and Formation

Geodes are not found randomly here and there. Instead they are usually found in large numbers in areas where the rocks have formed in a special geochemical environment.

Most geodes localities are in A) stratified volcanic deposits such as basalts and tuffs; or B) stratified sedimentary carbonate deposits such as limestones and dolomites. A diversity of other environments can also occasionally yield a small number of geodes.

The geodes are said to be formed in any hollow or cavity like areas such as in tree roots or animal burrows.

Geodes in sedimentary rocks are usually found in limestones, dolomites, and calcareous shale. In these deposits a gas-filled void can serve as the opening for geode formation.

Shells, tree branches, roots and other organic materials often decay away to leave a void for the formation of mineral materials. These cavities can be filled with quartz, opal, agate or carbonate minerals. They are generally smaller than the geodes formed in volcanic rocks.

The Discovery

An uncommon quartz geode embedded with screw-threaded metal bar was discovered by a geode collector in Lanzhou, China. His name is a Mr. Zhilin Wang. He found this stone on a field research trip to Mazong Mountain area located on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang provinces.

The pear-shaped stone is extremely hard and has an unusual external black color. It is about 8 x 7 cm and weighs 466 grams. It’s interior is filled with quartz crystals. Which seems to suggest a void eventually  causing the creation of the geode over time.

The most surprising part of the stone is the embedded 6 cm long, cone-shaped metal bar which bears clear screw threads.

.

The screw-threaded metal bar – clearly a manufactured item – is tightly enclosed in the black lithical material.

Yet the fact that it was buried in the ground long enough for hard rock to form around it, which rather means that it must be millions of years old.

The screw thread width remains consistent from the thick end to the thin end, instead of varying due to the growth of  rhe quartz crystals.

Truthfully, there is little that we can determine from the information available to us. Personally, I would love to have an analysis performed on the metal. That would tell us something about the part, and a few close up photos of the surface would indicate the manufacturing process and finishing techniques.

But what little we know can tell us a little more than what the rock find suggests.

The Age of the Geode

Using what we know, we can estimate the age of the formation of the geode by the age of the surrounding rock. We know that the geode was discovered by the Mr. Zhilin Wang while on a field research trip to Mazong Mountain area. This area consists of the Mazong mountains and the Jinta basin.

We present results from a multidisciplinary investigation of the Jiujing fault (JJF) system and adjacent Jiujing Basin in the southern Beishan block, western China. 

Structural and geomorphological fieldwork involving fault and landform investigations, remote sensing analysis of satellite and drone imagery, analysis of drill-core data, paleoseismological trench studies, and Quaternary dating of alluvial sediments suggest the JJF is a late Pleistocene to Holocene oblique sinistral-slip normal fault. 

Satellite image analysis indicates that the JJF is a connecting structure between two regional E-W-trending Quaternary left-lateral fault systems. 

The Jiujing Basin is the largest and best developed of three parallel NE-striking transtensional basins within an evolving sinistral transtensional duplex. Sinistral transtension is compatible with the orientation of inherited basement strike belts, NE-directed SHmax, and the modern E-NE-directed geodetic velocity field. Cosmogenic Al/10Be burial dating of the deepest sediments in the Jiujing Basin indicates that the basin began to form at ~5.5 Ma. 

-GeoScience World

It’s a “tough nut to crack”, but we are looking at geology that can date as far ago as 5.5 million years to the Late Pleistocene (129,000 to 11,700 years ago).

That’s a long period.

Never the less, it is unlikely that Anatomically modern humans (AMHs) of the Late Pleistocene were able to machine and thread metal tapered screws and place them inside a container for the geologic forces of heat and pressure over time to create a geode.

The Basic Geometry

The fact that this is a quartz geode indicates that it formed as the result of a stratified sedimentary carbonate deposit that surrounded a void. Over time, the forces of temperature and pressure acted upon the void and compressed it into the egg shaped geode that we see today.

If this speculation is correct, then it is possible that the virgin; pre-compressed void might have resembled something like this…

Of course, it’s really difficult to determine what the actual shape would be, or what the function was. What we only have to “go on” is the understanding on how certain types of geodes form, the dating of the rocky strata surrounding the object, and the observations of what is present.

Yet, even this tells us something.

This was a machined part or element within a subassembly that was buried and over time became a geode.

A Calrod

This polished metal rod like structure looks identical in shape, finish and appearance to an article that we, in the industry, refer to as a “calrod”.

Calrod heating elements generate dispersed heat by electrical energy conversion. Like many other heating elements, Calrod™ heaters also have an electrical supply running through them that gets converted to heat energy. A Calrod heater has a metallic alloy in its heating apparatus, which has resistance characteristics. This impedes the flow of current and transforms a portion of the energy into heat energy. This heat is passed on via radiation, and may be used to heat the surrounding air or water.

Heat can be transferred in a number of ways, through conduction, radiation and convection. In the case of the Calrod heater, heat is at first radiated to the surroundings, but it can be further dissipated through other methods of convection or conduction as well.

-Wattco

It’s a heating element that is used to maintain a temperature within a mechanism or chamber.

Calrod diagram.

Internal Structure Of The Heating Element In The Calrod Heater

The heating element of the Calrod heater is made of an alloy that consists of nickel and chromium. This mixture is said to make up an ideal alloy since it tends to have a minimum amount of resistance against heat generation. It also has a melting point that is quite high. This simply means that it will have higher chances of lasting longer, and this is of significant importance because it will be exposed to long term heating. Another brilliant advantage of using this alloy in the heating element is that it can be shaped to fit almost any kind of structure because it is highly malleable.

Calrod Heater Protection

Wire insulation within the Calrod heater is such that it is wrapped in a ceramic filler-binder. It also has a metal overcoat that conceals the element itself from air contact. With ceramic coating, there is more protection given to the element, as it is protected from the oxygen coming into contact with the surrounding air.

Insulation Calrod Heaters

Ceramic materials are chosen for insulation and protection of the Calrod heating elements due to the fact that they conduct the least amount of heat or electricity. Therefore, these materials are ideal for preventing heat or electrical energy from escaping. With this being most suitable for the outer surface, the metal encapsulation protects the element from any possible damage that might occur through mishandling.

What I would like

I would personally love to have a metallurgical analysis conducted on the metal rod. I would also like to look at the surface finish of the rod under a microscope. Those two items would be remarkably helpful in determining what the purpose of the object could have been.

I would also like to have a Psychometry reading conducted.

Psychometry is a psychic ability in which a person can sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it. Such a person can receive impressions from an object by holding it in his/her hands or, alternatively, touching it to the forehead.

Psychometry is a form of scrying–a psychic way of “seeing” something that is not ordinarily seeable. Some scry using a crystal ball, black glass or even the surface of water. With psychometry, this extraordinary vision is available through touch.

A person who has psychometric abilities–a psychometrist–can hold an antique glove and tell something about the history of that glove, the person who owned it, or about the experiences that person had while in the possession of that glove. The psychic may be able to sense what the person was like, what they did, or how they died. Perhaps most important, the psychic can sense how the person felt at a particular time. Emotions in particular, are most strongly “recorded” in the object.

The psychic may not be able to do this with all objects at all times and, as with all psychic abilities, accuracy can vary.

And here we diverge into psychometry…

A Brief History

“Psychometry” as a term was coined by Joseph R. Buchanan in 1842 (from the Greek words psyche, meaning “soul,” and metron, meaning “measure.”) Buchanan, an American professor of physiology, was one of the first people to experiment with psychometry.

Using his students as subjects, he placed various drugs in glass vials and then asked the students to identify the drugs merely by holding the vials. Their success rate was more than chance, and he published the results in his book, Journal of Man. To explain the phenomenon, Buchanan theorized that all objects have “souls” that retain a memory.

Intrigued and inspired by Buchanan’s work, American professor of geology William F. Denton conducted experiments to see if psychometry would work with his geological specimens. In 1854, he enlisted the help of his sister, Ann Denton Cridge. The professor wrapped his specimens in cloth so Ann could not see even what they were. She then placed the package to her forehead and was able to accurately describe the specimens through vivid mental images she was receiving.

From 1919 to 1922, Gustav Pagenstecher, a German doctor and psychical researcher, discovered psychometric abilities in one of his patients, Maria Reyes de Zierold. While holding an object, Maria could place herself in a trance and state facts about the object’s past and present, describing sights, sounds, smells and other feelings about the object’s “experience” in the world. Pagenstecher’s theory was that a psychometrist could tune into the experiential “vibrations” condensed in the object.

How Does Psychometry Work?

Pagenstecher’s vibration theory is getting the most serious attention from researchers. “Psychics say the information is conveyed to them,” writes Rosemary Ellen Guiley in Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience,

"through vibrations imbued into the objects by emotions and actions in the past."

These vibrations are not just a New Age concept, they have a scientific basis as well. In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot says that psychometric abilities

"suggest that the past is not lost, but still exists in some form accessible to human perception."

With the scientific knowledge that all matter on a subatomic level exists essentially as vibrations, Talbot asserts that consciousness and reality exist in a kind of hologram that contains a record of the past, present, and future; psychometrics may be able to tap into that record.

All actions, Talbot says,

"instead of fading into oblivion, [remain] recorded in the cosmic hologram and can always be accessed once again."

Yet other psychical researchers think the information about an object’s past is recorded in its aura – the field of energy surrounding every object.

According to an article at The Mystica:

"The connection between psychometry and auras is based on the theory that the human mind radiates an aura in all directions, and around the entire body which impresses everything within its orbit.
All objects, no matter how solid they appear, are porous, containing small or even minute holes. These minute crevices in the object's surface collect minute fragments of the mental aura of the person possessing the object. Since the brain generates the aura then something worn near the head would transmit better vibrations."

“Psychometry – Psychic Gifts Explained” likens the ability to a tape recorder, since our bodies give off magnetic energy fields. “If an object has been passed on down the family, it will contain information about its previous owners. The psychic can then be thought of as a tape player, playing back the information stored on the object.”

Mario Varvoglis, Ph.D. at “PSI Explorer” believes that psychometry is a special form of clairvoyance. “The individual performing the psychometry,” he writes, “may gain psychic impressions directly from the person to whom the object belongs (through telepathy) or may clairvoyantly learn about past or present events in the life of the person. The object may simply serve as a kind of focusing device which keeps the mind from wandering off in irrelevant directions.”

How to Do Psychometry

Although some believe that psychometry is controlled by spiritual beings, most researchers suspect that it is a natural ability of the human mind. Michael Talbot agrees, saying that

"the holographic idea suggests that the talent is latent in all of us."

Here’s how you can try it yourself:

      1. Choose a location that is quiet and as free of noises and distractions as possible.
      2. Sit in a relaxed position with your eyes closed. Rest your hands in your lap with your palms facing up.
      3. With your eyes remaining closed, ask someone to place an object in your hands. The person should not say anything; in fact, it’s best if there are several people in the room and you don’t know who the person is giving you the object. The object should be something the person has had in his/her possession for a long time. Many researchers believe that objects made of metal are best, theorizing that they have a better “memory.”
      4. Be still… as images and feelings come into your mind, speak them aloud. Don’t try to process the impressions you get. Say whatever you see, hear, feel or otherwise sense as you hold the object.
      5. Don’t judge your impressions. These impressions may be strange and meaningless to you, but they might be of significance to the owner of the object. Also, some impressions will be vague and others might be quite detailed. Don’t edit–speak them all.
"The more you try, the better you will become,"

Says Psychometry – Psychic Gifts Explained.

"You should start to see better results as your mind becomes used to 'seeing' the information. 

But you can progress; at first, you will be pleased to pick up on things correctly, but the next stage is to follow the pictures or feelings. 

There may a lot more information that you can obtain."

Don’t worry too much about your rate of accuracy, especially at first. Keep in mind that even the most renowned psychometrists have an accuracy rate of 80 to 90 percent; that is, they are inaccurate 10 to 20 percent of the time.

"The important thing is to be confident that you will gain accurate psychic impressions when you handle the object,"

Says Mario Varvoglis at PSI Explorer.

"It's also important not to try to figure out likely histories of the object, not to analyze and interpret your impressions to find if they make sense. 

It's better to simply observe all the impressions that come into your mind and describe them without clinging to them and without trying to control them. 

Often the most unexpected images are likely to be most correct."

Conclusion

Since there is little that we can learn from this object except that it appears to be the fossilized remains of some kind of chamber, the use of Psychometry might be useful in the interpretation of the object.

Barring that, the closest object that I can think of is something that resembles the oxygen tanks about the Apollo spacecraft.

Here is a nice illustration of it…

And, here is a nice diagram of it…

And here is a schematic showing the oxygen tanks where they were located inside the Apollo spacecraft.

You see, in outerspace, it isn’t enough to have a cylinder filled with air. You need to have a system that controls the temperature, and pressure of the vessel that contains the atmosphere that you breathe. Thus we have a vessel, tending to be spherical, with probes and a heater assembly.

Truthfully, this resembles the pre-compressed and aged mechanism that was found as a geode.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my OOPARTS section. Here…

Mysteries Explained

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