Welcome to Saturday's Potluck - 6-11-2022

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

History by algorithm. The automatic suggestions and prompts from the invisible guiding hand to increase awareness of the twisting path of civilization beginning in England. Yesterday the journey began with this suggestion.

(approx 10 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPLjg10D2A]

Of course there is an essential Warrior Queen, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians. (warning ad in the middle about 6 min)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C95kW84csg]

a little more scholarly account I found with my own search (about 1 hr 11 min)
[video:https://youtu.be/YJ78whSSo7E?t=207]

________

After watching the videos, I am once again wondering how the name America was used for the New World.

Merriam-Webster's answer

Who Is Amerigo Vespucci?

German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller is credited with first using the name America in 1507 on a large 12-panel map based on traveling accounts of explorers of the New World, and in particular those of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The map, entitled Universalis Cosmographia, was included in the book Cosmographiae Introductio (Introduction of Cosmography) along with a translation to Latin of Quattuor Americi Vespuccij navigations (Four Voyages of Americo Vespucci), which is said to be written by Vespucci but that some historians believe is a forgery.

Waldseemüller labeled the part of the world that he envisioned as explored by Vespucci, America, feminizing the Latin form of Vespucci's given name, Americus. He chose the feminine form to be consistent with the Latinized names of other countries at the time, such as Europa and Asia. It was geographer Gerardus Mercator who extended the name America to include all of the Western Hemisphere.

Beginning in the 17th century, America was used metaphorically by English writers to refer to a place in which one longs to reach.

  • Licence my roaving hands, and let them go
  • Before, behind, between, above, below.
  • O my America! my new-found-land
  • My Kingdom, safeliest when with one man man'd.
  • — John Donne, "To His Mistress Going to Bed," 1654

Wikepedia's Answer

It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years. However, some have suggested other explanations, including being named after a mountain range in Nicaragua, or after Richard Amerike of Bristol.

Or maybe a few letters from the Kingdom of Mercia were moved around.

________

Enough of the musing, back to the algorithms for better understanding of history.

Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History Zerohedge June 10, 2022. where certain text in the article written by Caitlin Johnstone was enhanced with bold formatting.

Twitter has imposed a weeklong suspension on the account of writer and political activist Danny Haiphong for a thread he made on the platform disputing the mainstream Tiananmen Square massacre narrative.
...
The notification Haiphong received informed him that Twitter had locked his account for “Violating our rules against abuse and harassment,” presumably in reference to a rule the platform put in place a year ago which prohibits “content that denies that mass murder or other mass casualty events took place, where we can verify that the event occured, and when the content is shared with abusive intent.”

“This may include references to such an event as a ‘hoax’ or claims that victims or survivors are fake or ‘actors,’” Twitter said of the new rule. “It includes, but is not limited to, events like the Holocaust, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters.”

That we are now seeing this rule applied to protect narratives which support the geostrategic interests of the US-centralized empire is not in the least bit surprising.
...
Haiphong is far from the first to dispute the mainstream western narrative about exactly what happened around Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 as the Soviet Union was crumbling and Washington’s temporary Cold War alignment with Beijing was losing its strategic usefulness. But we can expect more acts of online censorship like this as Silicon Valley continues to expand into its role as guardian of imperial historic records.
...
This idea that anyone can ever be an impartial arbiter of objective reality is logically fallacious and is invalidated by facts in evidence. It is clear that imposing regulations on people’s efforts to understand world events on the platforms where people have come to congregate to share ideas and information will necessarily lead to an information ecosystem that is skewed to the benefit of whatever power structure is imposing those regulations. When that power structure is an alliance of oligarchs and government proxies whose interests are served by the ongoing dominance of the US-centralized empire, the information ecosystem will be biased in favor of that empire.

The most impressive feat of engineering in the 21st century has been of the “social” variety. The social engineering necessary to continually keep people confused and blinkered about what’s going on in the world despite a sudden influx of information availability is one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of civilization, despite its depraved and destructive nature.

The link to Tiananmen: The Massacre that Wasn’t includes an excerpt from an article written by the New Yorker, Nicholas Kristof (who tried to run for Governor in Oregon this year)

“The question of where the shootings occurred has significance because of the Government’s claim that no one was shot on Tiananmen Square. State television has even shown film of students marching peacefully away from the square shortly after dawn as proof that they were not slaughtered. …

The central scene in the [eyewitness] article is of troops beating and machine-gunning unarmed students clustered around the Monument to the People’s Heroes in the middle of Tiananmen Square. Several other witnesses, both Chinese and foreign, say this did not happen. …

There is also no evidence of machine-gun emplacements on the roof of the history museum that were reported in the Wen Wei Po article. This reporter was directly north of the museum and saw no machine guns there. Other reporters and witnesses in the vicinity also failed to see them. …

“The central theme of the Wen Wei Po article was that troops subsequently beat and machine-gunned students in the area around the monument and that a line of armored vehicles cut off their retreat. But the witnesses say that armored vehicles did not surround the monument – they stayed at the north end of the square – and that troops did not attack students clustered around the monument. Several other foreign journalists were near the monument that night as well and none are known to have reported that students were attacked around the monument.”

All I really know is my experience and observations in Beijing and other parts of China, April-May 1989 were dramatically different than the evening news reports my parents were watching in the Untied States. No cell phones or daily calls to reduce their worries from the narrative on the TV.

________

What is on your mind today?

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confused and blinkered about what’s going on in the world despite a sudden influx of information availability is one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of civilization, despite its depraved and destructive nature.

Wow, that is it in a nutshell!

Scary how the gods of silicone valley have been able to manipulate data into bending
acceptable versions of history and current events in cahoots with the government to
something unrecognizable to rational minds.

Hope the doings on the ranch are developing into something positive.

Thanks for the OT!

Almost done with the spring rush with the boats thank Poseidon ..

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studentofearth's picture

@QMS to find and share threads of ancient and modern history well hidden in traditional methods of disappearing nonapproved narratives. Fascinating to watch how fast the overseas activities of Silicon Valley controlling populations now being directed at US citizens are currently being thwarted by truth seekers.

Ah the farm - three steps forward, two steps back is still forward progress. Have at least one more week of cooler weather to speed up work on outside projects. Just need to convince myself I will not melt in the rain.

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Lookout's picture

A nice cool 60 F this AM. Great for the trade day stroll. Been on bush hogging and weedeating this week. Place looks nice and neat...till it goes wild and woolly again. Still have a trail or two and around the pond to mow. Always something.

As to AI history, really nothing new as the saying goes history is written by the victors...and now we just add the victors computers.

Thanks for the articles and OT!

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

studentofearth's picture

@Lookout

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Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

says it is 92 deg., feels like 105 deg. That is why the minor task of taking a long water hose from its' hangar, hooking it up to a faucet, stretching it out to see if it leaks, is a difficult undertaking.
We will have to start watering certain trees and flower beds. There is no rain in the forecast this month. The last 2 summers were mild, and we will remember them fondly as we fight off browning and wilting acreage.
History is fascinating. I look forward to viewing the videos.
Thanks for the OT, and I hope all is well with the farm and those who farm it.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

studentofearth's picture

@on the cusp Thermometer reading is not the full story. Take care of yourself and enjoy the shade from those trees.

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5 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

@studentofearth to work out side on these hot and humid days. Heat exhaustion can happen suddenly. 5 minute increments is about all I can stand.
It is tough getting old!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

on the inception of "England". Every bit of history is good, even if its largely a repeat, which this definitely was not.

Temps dropped from nineties yesterday to eighties today. Got stuff to do in the yard as well as prep for our mini trip tomorrow. It's amazing how little difference there is between packing for 3 days and packing for a week or so. There's always that pile of stuff that you need right up until the last minute, for example. At least Monday is in the queue and I'm not planning on cooking while there.

Be well and have a good one

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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 --

@enhydra lutris does require the intense prep that a 2 week trip requires.
Good that you won't be cooking, although, I prefer cooking to dining out.
My week-plus trip in late July and early August has already kicked off prepping.
I hope you have a wonderful mini-vacay!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

studentofearth's picture

@enhydra lutris Micheal Woods mentions a number of texts when translated will provide a robuster picture of everyday life and biographical information of the major players almost erased into the myst of time.

Enjoy your mini-trip.

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5 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

studentofearth's picture

a little truth makes it funnier, like a feeding a little truth in a con makes it easier for the marks to keep believing.

Click here for the Dilbert strip series on Big Pharma at arcamax through today.

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8 users have voted.

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

shit Hurt! @studentofearth
If that’s gallows humour
the I’m swinging in the breeze

thanks much for
that

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

By 7 pm, it had cooled down enough to experiment. The hose is useless.
Tomorrow, hoses will be purchased!
No person died or was injured in this test.

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4 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

the history of England is important to our history. As is the history of everywhere else.
The Nordics didn't invade for fun, but for treasure. Location, some farm land.
England would have not given a shit about the US but for our location and farm land.
And in this world, in this time, it is oil and lithium. Wars waiting in the wings.
Thanks for your OT, if I haven't said it already.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981