Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something/Someone Old
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More about Ollantaytambo!

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This week, as promised, I'm talking about Ollantaytambo's temples and its role in the war against the Spanish conquistadores.

The picture above depicts the very steep terraces, not used for farming, that lead like a giant staircase to Ollantaytambo's Temple Hill. You can see people walking up the actual staircases between the terraces. Looks like a hell of a climb.

This hill resides to the west of Araqhama, which is a spillover of the original settlement across the Patakancha River. Araqhama is to the west of Ollantaytambo proper, and Temple Hill is to the west of that. It's an interesting choice to put one's temples so far out of town. I wonder what that signifies? The Spanish name of the hill is Cerro Bandalista.

When you reach the top of the staircases, you emerge into a ceremonial center divided in three. The imaginatively named Middle Sector is immediately in front of the staircases (I feel fairly sure it was archaeologists, not the Incans, who named it the Middle Sector). To the south is the Temple Sector, and to the north, the Funerary Sector. The Temple Sector is built out of carved stone, where the others are built from fieldstone. This seems to be a common way the Incans showed the relative importance of various built objects.

I believe this is a view of the top of the stairs and the beginning of the Middle Sector. It's hard to tell because very few people seem to put specific labels on their photo, but it looks to me like these people have reached the top of the staircase:

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Given the incredible coolness of the rest of the pretty damned well-preserved Incan ruins, I was very disappointed by Temple Hill. It turns out that the Incans never finished it. Their ceremonial center was under construction.


The unfinished structures at the Temple Hill and the numerous stone blocks that litter the site indicate that it was still undergoing construction at the time of its abandonment. Some of the blocks show evidence of having been removed from finished walls, which provides evidence that a major remodeling effort was also underway. Which event halted construction at the Temple Hill is unknown; likely candidates include the war of succession between Huáscar and Atahualpa, the Spanish Conquest of Peru, and the retreat of Manco Inca from Ollantaytambo to Vilcabamba.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollantaytambo

So you get a half-finished gate leading into the Enclosure of the Ten Niches:

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The Platform of the Carved Seat behind the Ten Niches:

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And the Sun Temple, which I really wish they had finished. I bet it would have been stunning. This is the Wall of Six Monoliths, a part of the temple they did finish:

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To give you a sense of scale, here's some pictures with people next to that wall:

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suntemple3.jpg

I'm not sure those people should really be picnicking on top of 500-year-old monoliths, but it gives you a good idea of scale.

This is the Water Temple, a temple that apparently celebrates the complex irrigation system Pacachuti laid down.

temple-of-ollantaytambo.jpg

There are also fountains in the Middle Sector, but the presence of a fountain in the Temple Sector implies that the Incans were very respectful of their water and perhaps also the technology which enabled them to have easy access to it, rather than having to haul it from the river all the way up the mountain every time they needed some.

Here's one of the current explanations as to why the Temple District isn't, well, more finished. The war with the Spanish resulted in the Incans having to abandon the city. After the Spaniards took Cuzco, the Incans established Ollantaytambo as a temporary capital:

During the Spanish conquest of Peru, Ollantaytambo served as a temporary capital for Manco Inca, leader of the native resistance against the conquistadors. He fortified the town and its approaches in the direction of the former Inca capital of Cusco, which had fallen under Spanish domination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollantaytambo

The Incans soon abandoned Ollantaytambo for a capital city deep in the jungle. But not before they won one of their few victories against the Spanish:

The huge, steep terraces that guard Ollantaytambo’s spectacular Inca ruins mark one of the few places where the Spanish conquistadors lost a major battle.

The rebellious Manco Inca had retreated to this fortress after his defeat at Sacsaywamán. In 1536, Hernando Pizarro, Francisco’s younger half-brother, led a force of 70 cavalrymen to Ollantaytambo, supported by large numbers of indigenous and Spanish foot soldiers, in an attempt to capture Manco Inca.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru/ollantaytambo/attractions/ollantaytamb...

This is nitpicky, but can you be considered "rebellious" when you are fighting off an invading force?

The Incans stood on the high terraces and hurled everything they had down on the Spaniards' heads:

The conquistadors, showered with arrows, spears and boulders from atop the steep terracing, were unable to climb to the fortress. In a brilliant move, Manco Inca flooded the plain below the fortress through previously prepared channels. With Spaniards’ horses bogged down in the water, Pizarro ordered a hasty retreat, chased down by thousands of Manco Inca’s victorious soldiers.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru/ollantaytambo/attractions/ollantaytamb...

OK, I'm sure it wasn't quite like that.

Yet the Inca victory would be short lived. Spanish forces soon returned with a quadrupled cavalry force and Manco fled to his jungle stronghold in Vilcabamba.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru/ollantaytambo/attractions/ollantaytamb...

Something New
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Apparently there's a new pedagogy that wants to use technology for deep learning. "Deep learning" develops what they call the 6 C's: critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, character education, and citizenship.

Here is Dr. Michael Fullan describing how this new pedagogy works:

He also wants to use the appeal, some may say the addictive nature of digital technology, to make learning more attractive.

One way of doing this, supposedly, is to use the "flipped classroom," where students watch lectures at home and do homework in class. I see some value in that, but I have a hard time believing that the lectures listened to at home will not suffer from the same TLDR (too long didn't read) issue that all other online material does.

Collaboration is supposed to be a key part of this new pedagogy. As an educator who has attempted to get students to do group work around their computer terminals, I don't agree that digital technology inherently encourages collaboration. Digital technology can be a tool for collaboration when human beings were going to do that anyway, but there's nothing about sitting in front of a computer that necessarily makes students any more excited about doing group work. In fact, almost nobody is ever excited about doing group work, since one or two people in the group invariably end up doing all the work and resent it while the others dislike the additional burden of having to meet with a bunch of other students outside class.

All in all, what I see here is someone trying to make the best out of a bad thing; digital technology saturates everything and it's too late to say whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, or to discuss what ways digital technology might be applied most beneficially, and what technological advances that would require (including significant advances in digital security, for one). Much less can we have the discussion of what down sides digital technology might have, and what areas of life should be conducted through other technologies. Those were discussions that needed to happen in the 80s and early 90s. Instead of having them, we all mindlessly grabbed for the new set of gadgets, and reinforced the basically religious idea that all technological advancement is good and should be spread everywhere.

I'll keep an eye on Dr. Fullan to see if he proves me wrong. It would be great to be proven wrong, and to see digital technology encouraging critical thinking, good citizenship, clear communication, and creativity, instead of, for the most part, dumbing down thinking, spreading propaganda, encouraging people to trollishly misbehave and abuse others (because there are few consequences when you're behind a screen), and making us a kneejerk nation where, when trollish insults are not on hand, we construe them.

Something Borrowed
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Looks like we borrowed the term "picnic," first from the French, then the English:

‘Picnic’ began life as a 17th-century French word: it wasn’t even close to being an American invention. A 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Françoise de Ménage mentions ‘piquenique’ as being of recent origin and marks the first appearance of the word in print. As for how the French came by this new term, it was likely invented by joining the common form of the verb ‘piquer’ (meaning “to pick” or “peck”) with ‘nique,’ possibly either a Germanic term meaning “worthless thing” or merely a nonsense rhyming syllable coined to fit the first half of this new palate-pleaser...The first documented appearance of the term outside the French language occurred in 1748, but picnic was rarely used in English prior to 1800 or thereabouts.

https://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.asp

But it didn't mean to them what it did to us, at least not at first. It seems likely that to the 17th-century French it meant something more like BYOB--where the diners at a restaurant supplied their own wine. By the time the English were using it, the meaning had expanded to mean something like "potluck;" it wasn't even limited to describing food, but occasionally was used to refer to something like an open mike night! The key concept was of a group where each person contributed something:

Originally, the term described the element of individual contribution each guest was supposed to make towards the repast, as everyone who had been invited to social events styled as “picnics” was expected to turn up bearing a dish to add to the common feast. This element was picked up in other ‘picnic’ terms, such as ‘picnic society,’ which described gatherings of the intelligentsia where everyone was expected to perform or in some other way contribute to the success of the evening.

Sometime in the 19th century, the habit of holding such gatherings outdoors eclipsed the idea that each guest was to contribute something. The central concept became "eating that is done outside a building."

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Something Blue
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My Something Blue today is the sapphire:

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Sapphires and rubies are actually the mineral corundum in different colors. Corundum has not only decorative, but technological applications, partly because of its amazing hardness. It is the third-hardest mineral known to man, right behind diamonds and, well, fake diamonds, or moissonite.

Moissonite was immortalized for me by Guy Ritchie's movie Snatch:

Sapphires are used as infrared optical components, wristwatch crystals, and wafer-thin insulation for some solid-state electronics. They are also, apparently, used in high-durability windows. I never knew windows could be made of sapphires.

Significant sapphire deposits are found in Eastern Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China (Shandong), Madagascar, East Africa, and in North America in a few locations, mostly in Montana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire

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may be the motto on my coat of arms.

Consistent with that shameful motto, I am posting about the vernal equinox, which occurred yesterday at quarter past noon (in the northern hemisphere). Vernal equinox is not even big news on the correct date. A day late, it's a huge yawn, no doubt. I meant to post about the equinox yesterday, but....

This post does tie in a bit in with your something old, except that it's about a Mayan site, not an Incan site. It also ties in with picnics because I pack a picnic when I visit Chichen Itza on the equinox. (As an aside, isn't it odd that tiny ancient peoples all over the world conceived of things on such a vast scale and managed to build on that scale without our technology? What imagination and determination!)

Anyway....For me, few things compare with marking the vernal equinox at Chichén Itzá, in Mexico. I've never been to Stonehenge on the equinox, but both sites remind us that our human forebears were no slouches at astronomy or construction. I guess sunrise is the best time for the Stonehenge equinox experience. However, part of the joy of visiting Chichén Itzá for the equinox is participating (as respectful tourist/observers, from an appropriate distance) in the joyous tradition of the outdoor weddings taking place atop the ancient ruins.

The authentic, real time weddings appeal to me more than the costumed goings on at Stonehenge, but I'm not mad at observing the equinox at either site: Both seem enjoyable. The weddings occur while the warmth of the equinox sun coaxes Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, out of the Temple of Kukulcan, also called Castillo, to make a leisurely descent down the stairs of the pyramid to fertilize the Earth (presumably, including the brides and grooms).

In the photo immediately below, you see the end result of the perfect triangles that form slowly, one at a time. The triangles track the descent of Quetzalcoatl from the temple. When the sun finally hits the head of the serpent, it's as though a human suddenly threw a light switch. At that point, Mexicans typically begin picking up their picnic items and the blankets on which they've been sitting and making their way out of the area, while tourists from all over the world, who have been surrounding the staircase, explore the rest of the site, which is extensive and interesting. BTW, on the autumnal equinox, Quetzalcoatl ascends to the temple, one triangle at a time, signaling the end of planting and growing season. This year's autumnal equinox will occur on September 22 near 10 pm (in the northern hemisphere).

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen - Own work by uploader, http://bjornfree.com/galleries.html

Sapphire--my mom's engagement ring has a sapphire on each side of the center diamond, cut into the shape of a semi-circle. She also got a matching necklace and bracelet. While the diamonds in all three pieces were real, the sapphires were synthetic because the color of real sapphires was not considered as pleasing as the synthetic. The color of the synthetic in her "ensemble" is, if you can picture it, a deep, opaque navy blue version of pigeon-blood red. I don't think the synthetics were used to save money as the settings were platinum and the diamonds were a good size. I absolutely cannot imagine my father buying anything that extravagant, but he did.

On the educational theory: Seems great!

Thank you for another varied, interesting and beautifully-written OT, CStMS.

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Lookout's picture

@HenryAWallace

They project the story of the Maya and the complex on the main temple. Here's a projection of how the temple may have looked with stucco and paint...
IMG_4959.jpg

Uxmal also offers nighttime shows.

Thanks for the interesting OT CStMS!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout That's really freaking cool. I like it better than the dubious installment of white rock on the outside of Newgrange.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Lookout

get re-routed from Cancun to Merida and Uxmal was not a terrible drive from Merida. That's an interesting site, too, though, IIRC, the Chichen Itza site is more varied. I have not been to either at night, though. I have seen "Sound and Light" shows at other sites.

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mhagle's picture

@HenryAWallace

Wonderful info.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace Wow, that's amazing. I don't know why I didn't think of Chichen Itza for Something Old.

How cool it must be to be able to go to Mexico on that regular a basis!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

My post was an addition to your OT only because I never got around to posting yesterday. It was supposed to be more of an equinox post than a Something Old/picnic post.

Lots of "Something Olds" in Mexico: Coba, Tulum, Uxmal (as Lookout mentioned) are the major ones, Chichen Itza is, to me, the most interesting. Tulum is the prettiest, IMO, being on the coast.

Some smaller sites are scattered around. One small, remnant of a once larger structure is even on the grounds of one of the hotels, as accessible as a reproduction, but I've forgotten which hotel. No doubt Mr. Google knows, but I don't feel like consulting him just now.

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Thanks for the OT!

Found some of my cousins in the pix Wink

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orlbucfan's picture

@QMS Great tune. I vividly recall when it came out. Loved the fact that it was written by Jim Pepper, a gifted Native American musician.

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

@orlbucfan Enjoy your version way better. An uplifting tune.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@orlbucfan Good morning, orlbucfan!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@orlbucfan Or, actually, good afternoon!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@QMS Two-footed or four? Smile

Thank you for posting this. In addition to being lovely, it brings up some spiritual issues I'd been avoiding.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal cheers!

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@QMS

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mhagle's picture

I look forward to Wednesday morning to enjoy reading about beautiful and interesting things, as many of our other OTs provide as well.

I must comment on the proposed new technology. I agree with your sentiment . . .

Those were discussions that needed to happen in the 80s and early 90s. Instead of having them, we all mindlessly grabbed for the new set of gadgets, and reinforced the basically religious idea that all technological advancement is good and should be spread everywhere.

Sigh. True that.

Last week I wrote another dyslexia essay, this time including other neurological traits (introverts/extroverts, dysgraphia, and color-blindness, which I have not researched much but my dad and son are color-blind). All of this has been on the forefront of my mind as the federal government slapped up Texas for ignoring students with disabilities. The Texas Education Agency is writing a big proposal for fixing this. I take exception in a couple of areas, but they are basically really going after it. Just read the second draft yesterday and I am impressed.

Back to the proposed software package. Collaboration sucks for introverts. This coming from one who created a collaboration website a couple of months ago. While reading up for my article on the physical neurological structure of an introvert's brain, versus an extrovert's brain, I learned that in the past twenty years researchers discovered that an introvert is more sensitive to outside stimulation = loud noises, crowds, activity, etc. This article explains it pretty well.
https://introvertdear.com/news/introverts-and-extroverts-brains-really-a...

Extroverts are less sensitive to dopamine, so they need more of it to feel happy. The more they talk, move, and seek new faces, the more they feel dopamine’s pleasant effects.

But we introverts are sensitive to dopamine, so too much of it makes us feel overstimulated and anxious, writes Dr. Marti Olsen Laney in her book, The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World.

There is a physiological reason why introverts prefer quiet, and extroverts seek outside stimulation.

Group work, cooperative learning . . . all of those activities are painful for an introvert. They hurt.

****I don't have time to comment more on this now, gotta run and drive an introvert to school. (loves community college but hated high school kid)***

Back now and editing this comment for typos and clarity.

Yes, discussions about how to best use technology should have happened long ago. While there are indeed many ways tech can assist education, the crap accounts for probably at least half of software purchased by schools since the 80s. My teaching experience spanned 1979 - 2014. I started using computers in the classroom in 1981 = a cool music theory game. Some of the horrible big money purchased included:

  1. Worksheets on computers (still used today, but called online learning)
  2. Circle drawing software meant to help children organize ideas
  3. Hypercard - looked cool, but what did it really do?

There are so many more, but it would require that I think back to times best forgotten. Smile

I guess that's it for now. Have a great day everyone!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@mhagle Thanks, Marilyn, for this thoughtful response--and thanks for letting me know about your article, because I am struggling with these issues right now (not dyslexia, but introversion).

If you are both an introvert and depressed, it becomes a tight-wire act: if I spend too much time around other people, or in loud places, I get drained; if I don't spend a certain amount of my time reading or, yes, sitting alone at my computer screen (usually computer gaming), I get drained. For a person dealing with depression, energy drain is a very serious matter, and I've been managing that issue for most of my life.

However, if I spend too much of my time sedentary, in the dark, staring at a screen, or even at a book (which is far different from staring at a screen, for me at least, but more on that later), I get more depressed.

Finding the right balance is difficult, doubly so now that I no longer use the natural world as a way to recharge my emotional and spiritual batteries (that's the spiritual issue I was talking about in my response to QMS). Up till 2010, going out into the natural world, away from large numbers of people, was my best response to being drained.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@mhagle Although I should add that movement--as in pacing, walking, hiking--actually helps relieve me a lot--as long as it's done in a relatively quiet space. I'm one of those people that needs to pace while talking, something that apparently goes back in my family at least four generations. I'm also beginning to realize that I'm a kinetic learner, which translated, in the 90s, into my being a kinetic teacher--I used chalk and blackboard, and continued to do so in the 21st century, although I grudgingly added power point because it was expected.

The digital revolution is not, in my experience, great for kinetic learners. It's fine as long as there's a keyboard I can feel; I hate touch screens, which, I recently realized, is one of the reasons I hate cell phones.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mhagle's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

It definitely has not been given enough attention. But until now, no one knew.

When my husband and I first got married and bought the property in the country, he mowed a mile long path that we would walk every night when we got home. We even did it when our kids were little with jogging baby carriages. I always felt better and energized after those walks.

We are all introverts.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle

For example, this morning, I typed "own" when I intended to type "now" and I've transposed numbers when making phone calls. But, my ADD is quite severe. I seem to have passed it down to my son, although his seems milder. Unfortunately, he also inherited my father-in-law's color blindness, something I somehow did not observe when he was learning colors. Poor kid!

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

How are you all keeping?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

orlbucfan's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Still walking on 2 legs FWIW. Smile

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

enhydra lutris's picture

"HEH" department:

This is nitpicky, but can you be considered "rebellious" when you are fighting off an invading force?

Propaganda abuse of language. Newer version = insurgent, insurgency, etc. Compare to the "right of (to) resistance" and "right of (to) rebellion (revolution)". More widely recognized is the more limited "right of (to) resistance to occupation" As a result, modern occupiers force constitutions and/or governments of their design upon the occupied countries who are then coerced into requesting "military assistance" of some sort. Part of the idea is to acquire an occupiers power without the corresponding responsibilities of an occupying force. Think IRAQ.

One telltale that such a request for assistance is bogus is that it will generally include a clause or clauses to the effect that the assisting (occupying) troops and officials are not subject to local laws and decrees, but only to the military law of the force itself and or the national laws of the nation of origin of the forces in question.

the 6 C's: critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, character education, and citizenship. strikes me as formulaic twaddle, like those who strive mightily to force a clever acronym at the expense of clarity and purpose.
WTF is character education? If it means developing "good character", as in a preference for ethical behavior, then well and good but it needs careful monitoring as toboth content and intent.
Citizenship? Nothing is scarier than folks purporting to teach citizenship. If they are really going to teach ethics, then teaching history will allow the victims students to sort out citizenship by themselves.

However we got there, today's picnic is a wonderful thing. A favorite recreation of my wife and myself. Pack (or procure on the way) some comestibles that can be consumed without needing tables and chairs and such, some wine, some utensils and such, and head for the coast, mountains or desert. For that matter,skip the wine and lunch on the rest in the patio of a winery with a bottle of their product.

One can find micro-sapphires affixed to small files or rasps, which are fabulous for a great many purposes because of their hardness. I've used them, for example. to smooth nicks in pyrex bowls and such so that they cannot develop into cracks.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris I think it would be extremely cool to have a picnic with some of you someday.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
ever get to your neck of the woods,, but anything is possible.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris I just realized that that sounded like a backhanded compliment, much along the lines of "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." Smile

hat tip to JRR Tolkien

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@enhydra lutris

Our feckless media collaborated with Bushco as to the Iraq War. About the only thing they did right was refer to the aftermath as an occupation. I remember Rumsfeld whining about that to a talking head one Sunday. I guess they imagined they'd be referred to only as liberators or something equally altruistic.

Rumsfeld sure had some riffs then, didn't he?

On being asked why troops in Iraq were trying to "armor" their vehicles with things like chewing gum wrappers: "You go to war with the army you have, etc." Yes, moran, if you're attacked. However, you guys choose the time and place of that war.

And that known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns rant was dark comedy gold, wasn't it?

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gulfgal98's picture

Some idiot cut the DSL line that served several houses on our street. The idiot who did it did not lose his own internet, but we did. I was frustrated, but my next door neighbor was livid and wanted to tell the idiot off. I do not know if she did. Also it so happened that yesterday hub had to get out some business work which included significant attachments, so he had to go to the library to use their internet. It was serious enough of an issue that there were four trucks from the internet company working on it. As of 5:30 today, we finally got it back. Tomorrow, we head back to NC after postponing our return several days due to unforeseen issues that came up late last week. It is a long drive, but I am looking forward to getting back there.

Finally, CSTMS, you write some of the most interesting and informative OT's. Today's is no exception. Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy