As the millennium approached, the sleepy former mining town of St. Blazey needed a futuristic update. For fifty years, a clay mine on the edge of the English town had slowly been abandoned, until in the late 1990s when a new concept was proposed for the area called Project Eden.
A near polar opposite to the crater left by the old mine, the Eden Project was designed as a massive greenhouse complex, consisting of two biomes bubbling off of the ground and reflecting both a tropical and Mediterranean climate.
After the deep depression left from the mine was filled in with thousands of tons of soil, construction began and the two largest greenhouses in the world were created over two and a half years. Inside the hexagonally-patterned biomes are over one million different plant species, each one reflecting the climates of their respective biomes. The Garden of Eden, according to the Bible, contained “every plant that is pleasant to the eye and good for food.”
The Tropical Biome features rubber plants, bananas, and bamboo stalks towering above visitors in the nearly four-acre dome. The Mediterranean Biome is only 1.6 acres, but is similarly filled to capacity with olive plants and grape vines.
Along with stunning flora, cascading waterfalls and footpaths wind past massive boulders and ponds and even a few statues can be found carefully placed around the Mediterranean biome. Although the greenhouses are the central attraction of the complex, the grounds of the Eden Project are also covered in temperate plants that can grow in an uncovered atmosphere.
Other than the floral attractions of Eden, an educational facility was constructed in 2005 called the Core, where the staff of the complex teaches environmental sustainability and work to improve human’s relationship with nature. The Med Kitchen Restaurant serves Mediterranean offerings on weekends starting midday. Visitors who want a truly fantastic experience should stay until night when the biomes emanate a futuristic and colorful glow.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-eden-project-the-world-s-largest-greenhouse-cornwall-england
It’s not what celebrants want to hear when the champagne is exploding out of shaken bottles of Dom, the confetti is falling, and their stock is up 8.7 percent at the market’s close, but I have an announcement to make: San Francisco is past its prime and the fires of creation have abated.
With all the millionaires newly minted by Lyft’s IPO, and with those set to be minted by Uber’s and Palantir’s and AirBnB’s, you might expect this enclave to become the next Babylon of American capitalism. While our moralists in the media — Nellie Bowles, Emily Chang, et al. — busily tsk-tsk the greed and the lust and the hypocrisy and the hubris, there is a story here they miss: The city’s current concentration of wealth likely doesn’t represent the beginning of a golden-if-sinful era, but the end.
Magnificent in the distance, San Francisco is now shockingly ugly up close. In the decade I have lived here, the city has achieved the seemingly impossible: It has combined the expensive and the bland and the appalling into a new form of decadence. To the untrained eye, it looks magical: a city of the future, a city of gasps. Then, slowly, it reveals itself to be a city of lies, one that dismisses the idea of city living.
The distant future Silicon Valley sells with the zeal of a crusader — all the lip service it pays to making the world a better place — shimmers like fool’s gold, monopolistic surveillance capitalism cloaked in the language of the common good.
Billboards off the highway announce the coming of artificial intelligence as new nonprofits pop up to defend us against HAL and Skynet, but in reality “AI” is machine learning — pattern-recognition software parsing out subtle statistical connections to win board games and show you better ads. With a devilish consistency, this city sets you up for disappointment. Running a venture-capital fund that invests as early as possible in startups, I now see fewer and fewer companies choosing to come launch here.
When we opened our doors in 2015, maybe 80 percent of our investments were in Bay Area companies. Last year, half of them were, and we expect to see that number decrease even more in the years ahead. Andreessen-Horowitz, the famed Silicon Valley VC firm, has announced that it’s becoming more or less a hedge fund, presumably to focus on later-stage opportunities.
Peter Thiel, who had lived here since the mid 90s, has now decamped to Los Angeles, and says there is a less than 50 percent chance the next great tech company will arise in an increasingly expensive, conformist Silicon Valley. “Silicon Valley is now more fashion than opportunity,” Thiel told the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. “The heads are the same.”
Lack of independent thought aside, the Economist has identified the source of the problem: You can’t build a successful startup from a garage if a garage costs a million bucks. The flow of new creations is being choked off first and foremost because there are fewer cheap places for new things to start.
The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco recently hit $3690 per month, 30 percent greater than in New York City. Over the last decade, the Bay Area has added 722,000 jobs but built only 106,000 new homes. Proposition M, passed in the 1980s to avoid “Manhattanization,” limits the supply of office space. The city’s average Class A asking rent has risen 124 percent since 2010 to over $80 per square foot.
The legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs once remarked that new ideas come from old buildings, the types of places you can alter without permission because no one cares about them. This is one reason why so many garage startups and garage bands and artists spilling paint in discarded warehouse lofts have left their mark on the world. The true creative class can’t afford to rent expensive new studios. But in San Francisco, the true creative class can’t afford to rent any space anymore.
The artists have fled. Sadie Valeri, an artist who has been painting and drawing in San Francisco for over 20 years, recently announced that she is closing her famed Potrero Hill atelier. “Our studio lease is ending,” she wrote in an email to her students last month. “And we have been informed that our rent will be increasing significantly to more than we can afford.”
There is no longer a San Francisco music scene, either. The house the Grateful Dead lived in at 710 Ashbury Street during their formative years in the 1960s is surrounded by Victorian townhouses that today sell for $3 million and more. A tourist review of the location puts it well: “Unless you knew who lived there, you wouldn’t know.”
If you can stomach all that blandness, I wish you luck with the appalling. Up and down the city’s disorienting hills, you notice homeless men and women — junkies, winos, the dispossessed — passed out in the vestibules of empty storefronts on otherwise busy streets. Encampments of tents sprout in every shadowy corner: under highway overpasses, down alleys.
Streets are peppered with used syringes. Strolling the sidewalks, you smell the faint malodorous traces of human excrement and soiled clothing. Crowded thoroughfares such as Market Street, even in the light of midday, stage a carnival of indecipherable outbursts and drug-induced thrashings about which the police seem to do nothing.
The confused mumble, the incoherent finger-pointing tirade, the twitch, the cold daemonic stare, the drunken stumble and drool — these are the rhythms of a city on the edge of a schizophrenic explosion. The cause of this blight is codified nostalgia and greed. (Nellie Bowles where are you?) Baby Boomer civil servants act as urban taxidermists stuffing and mounting a dead city so it always resembles the past.
The San Francisco Chronicle tells us that there is indeed a mayor, and maybe even a chief of police, but it is not known who is actually in charge. Housing and zoning committees obscure responsibility for governance. But somewhere in the bureaucratic hierarchy faceless city functionaries administer labyrinthine regulations that benefit the rich over the poor, the old over the young, the here over those to come, the past over the future.
In one of the more comical examples of this sclerosis, a real-estate developer worked for five years and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to show that a proposed housing development wouldn’t cast shadows on a nearby playground or destroy the historic character of the laundromat it sat atop. In another, it took two years for a woman to open an ice-cream shop.
And yet the days pass in a foggy calm. Coit Tower, the Painted Ladies, both bridges, and Alcatraz all stand serene. It is not a city of urgency and restless insomnia, not a city of any discernable power. It never roars like New York or snaps cold like Chicago. It is a pastel city that optimizes its sleep with a device.
I’m not holding my breath for a revolution. San Francisco has been overwhelmingly Democratic since the 1950s. The last Republican mayor won an election in 1956. It is a one-party city touting a civic philosophy with its back to the wall.
From afar city Democrats pay lip service to helping the poor. But up close the facts tell a different story. None of their policies in the last half-century have done much to rescue the poor from poverty. Inflexible limits on the housing supply push marginalized groups even further to the margins.
The stratospheric cost of housing has flung minority families to the outer edges of the Bay Area, reinforcing segregation. A UC Berkeley study found that a 30 percent increase in the median rent led to a 28 percent decrease in the number of minority households in a neighborhood. Whole neighborhoods from the city have decamped to the hinterlands of Antioch and Vallejo. Stories of three-hour commutes from Stockton have become more common.
Alas, the media seems to have never taken an economics class, much less read Paul Krugman. It is quite simply baffling. Housing restrictions have made the situation worse and worse for decades. No one seems to notice that the same debates play out time and again to no positive end.
Instead, for commentary, reporters invariably trot out someone who disguises greed with the piety of a San Franciscan born and raised. Ah, those picturesque locals! Whatever sad story they tell, they shamelessly aim to limit the housing supply, inflating the prices of their own properties.
Meanwhile, the media prints their moralistic scolding of the gentrifiers, i.e. anyone with an urge to build affordable housing. No one seems to care about the unseen: the people who never get to live here because the apartments they would live in aren’t ever built, the bookstores unopened, the dance steps untried, the poetry never recited because the rent’s too damn high.
Cities are nearly immortal; though they decline, they rarely die. But creative clusters can and do bite the dust. They are fragile, fleeting things. Rome survived the fall of a civilization and two world wars; Ancient Athens and Quattrocento Florence dazzled and faded. Now, San Francisco has passed its prime and settled into a sad late-middle age.
“Cities that become dominated by a single industry, cities that reward generation of wealth and financial success over a sense of shared humanity and community have a hard time preserving social capital,” Sam Altman, the president of YCombinator, told the economist Tyler Cowen in a recent interview.
“Where I grew up, no one would walk past a person collapsed on the side of the street on their way to work and not do something about it. I hope I never get used to the fact that that happens in San Francisco.”
True revolution would involve curbing the authority of the San Francisco Planning Commission. If Democrats in the city or in Sacramento actually cared about the poor or the environment (density is green), they would enact a land-value tax and establish a redistributive policy to align the interests of the city, current residents, and future citizens.
Strong government housing policy could spur growth and redistribute the city’s wealth fairly. But most of all, the freedom to build and experiment is the engine of Silicon Valley dynamism.
Allow the experiments of the few to become the prosperity and fulfillment of the many, and the city could thrive once again. This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, of course. But If the dream is lost, the skills and funding remain . . . for now. I’m advising all the startups I meet with to consider staying in other cities. And anyone else who comes here should be aware that most bathrooms require a code to enter.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/san-francisco-decline-failed-government-policies/amp/
Last Friday I asked people if they would rather be a US Navy or a US Air Force pilot. The US Navy itself replied with this video of an F-18 night landing on an aircraft carrier. Hard to argue with that. It's terrifying. Sure, the pilots now have night vision and instrument landing systems, but it is still an incredibly difficult operation.
And those electronic aids can malfunction, so they train to do it old school if needed. And old school is extremely hard. The Navy has been doing night landings for a long time. The first night landings happened aboard the USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3), their first aircraft carrier. That was on April 1925, off the coast of San Diego.
A few years later, in 1929, every pilot had to practice night landings, which were truly terrifying. They had to do four per year, and most of the time the training was under the light of a full moon or with the sun setting. The carriers had landing signal officers on board for both day and night landings. At night, they had to determine the attitude and approach speed of the inbound fighters based only on the lights of the plane and sound of the engine.
Depending on the colors of the lights—which changed from green to yellow to red depending on the plane's altitude—the LSO gave the planes indications like too high, too low, too fast, etc. You can imagine the experience.
Because of their extreme difficulty, during World War II the Navy tried to stay away from night landings as much as possible. There were some night takeoffs just before dawn, but those were straightforward and weren't as dangerous as the landings. Still, sometimes they couldn't be avoided. To give you an idea on how dangerous things were, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Navy lost 20 planes trying to sink the Japanese carrier Hiyo.
After the Hiyo sunk, they lost another 72 trying to land at night. Incidentally, none were lost on the Yorktown because of the work of the Lt. Dick Tripp, the landing signal officer aboard that carrier. Apparently, Tripp was considered the best LSO in the Pacific—and rightly so, according to this incident.
During the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953, night landings became standard, with pilots specializing in night attacks. Still, those landings were terrifying too. Here's a first-person account of one by Lieutenant Bill Raposa, who received two Navy crosses and the Distinguished Flying Cross during his tours of duty in World War II and the Korean War:
One night returning from a mission the weather had deteriorated badly. I had a wingman and two night-fighters with me trying to find the carrier. My aircrewman had the ship on our radar but we could not even see the wake so I had to execute a missed approach to bring the flight lower and break out under 400 feet to see the ship. I broke off the F4U5N's first since they had less fuel, then my wingman, and I gave them a lot of room before I began an approach.
The first Corsair waved off but the second landed, followed by my wingman, Jamie Morris. I let the lead Corsair try again and he hit the ramp and only got half the plane on the flight deck with the tail going into the spud locker on the hangar deck. The engine and cockpit half rolled up the flight deck to be stopped by the barricades.
The pilot, Butch O Hara, was not seriously injured but that ended his Korean tour. It also left me hanging in the air with low state, a fouled deck and bad weather. Tilly took twenty minutes to clear the wreckage. With a clear deck Charlie, I got aboard on the first pass with twenty gallons of fuel to spare.
The aircrewmen in the belly of the AD4N had only one small window on each side and these young men put their life and trust in the fellow up front. They never knew how scared we really were operating at 110% capacity with no margin of error available. Those VC-35 aircrewmen deserved a lot of recognition for their courage. Indeed, those guys had steel balls. As do the Navy pilots today who continue to land small planes on narrow, seaborne runways night after night after night.
https://gizmodo.com/this-night-carrier-landing-is-crazy-but-they-were-even-5949840
Since time immemorial, people have been using angel numbers like angel number 1144 as life guiding principles. Therefore, the numerologists have been harnessing the meanings of such angel numbers. They say that this angels number is the best way to communicate with the divine world. This is because the celestial beings, our guardian angels lack physical form to contacts directly. Also, this concept has been adopted by many religions as a way to know when the angels are talking to us. For example, angel number 1144 will get your attention by making several appearances to you.
Also, the appearance will be random throughout the whole process. When this happens, do not take the number for granted. It merely means that the angels are seeking your attention. Moreover, the messages that they always send are intended to help you out.
However, sometimes they can send you messages as a warning not to do certain things in life. The things that want to do are most likely to lead you astray. Therefore, you should take a lot of care when this angel number appears to you.
Angel number 1144 is one of the angel numbers that has a reasonable relation to a lot of people. Also, it has a good harmony with other angel numbers that it borrows its powers. For example, angel number 1 and number 4. Also, it has two different master number within it that make it more power than most of the different angel numbers. All this means that you are fortunate if this is one of your angel numbers. This is because it has a lot of potential changes that benefit your life.
Moreover, these angel numbers are one of those that ensure that its members are positive thinkers. This is one of the most important roles that can help one to boost their demeanor in life. Also, it discourages you to not think negatively of any situation. Besides, there is nothing that bad or unsalvageable. Also, this angel number vibrates with a lot of potent energy that connects it directly to the spiritual realm. Therefore, members of this angel number have a very close relationship with the divine world.
Angel number 1144 can change your life choices like a career path. Also, it has the powers to elevate the position of anyone. However, this angel number and the blessing are never just enough. In their wisdom, the angels demand that you apply yourself to the task and work hard. Also, they advise you to seek their help whenever you are stuck.
The hidden meaning about angel number 1144 is quite significant too. Therefore, as you work on getting the real purpose of this angel number to remember to get it symbolic meaning as well. The hidden meaning, therefore, in this case, is about finding the easy way out of doing things in your life. Your guardian angels are also reminding you that you are always there for you. Moreover, over you can call on them at any time for help.
Alternatively, this angel number requires you to rely on your instinct to handle some tasks in life. Trust that the angels are guiding you and take the risks that seem untimely. Moreover, no one never knows what they need until they risk it all. If you fail, trust that the heavenly world will offer you chances in life.
Most of all stay positive as you handle these matters of self-growth in life. It is during this period that you go for that new job that you always want. Or, some of you can even go out of their comfort zone to go into business for themselves.
Did you Know that Angel Number 1144 has an Influence on Love? Angel number 1144 will manifest a lot of its energy on the matters of love to people that belong under it. So, if you are one of the people that receive this angel number, then you are quite lucky.
It is time for you to enjoy the little things you have in life if you are single. Also, put aside all the negative thoughts about yourself and go after that lovely person you always admire. Moreover, you will have a better chance due to the presence of this angel number in your life.
Furthermore, it is the manifestation of the angels that you start dating. However, if you are in a relationship, the angels are reminding that it’s time to strengthen it. Show your partner that you love them and care for the same way the angels do you. Some even suggest that you have the will to envision the kind of love that you want. The angels will help to achieve your dreams.
As time goes by, you will have the pleasure of seeing angel number 1144 in your life. Or, you can be the lucky one has the fun of being born under it. Don’t worry about the confusion on how to react to it. The angels through the will guide you on what to do. If not, you can always pray to the supreme beings for help. Remember that this angel number is one that brings you a lot of happiness and lack. So, you cannot afford to ignore its presence in your life.
Angel number 1144 is the number of the cosmos. This means that it has a strong connection to the gods. Also, it has a lot of vibrational energies that help to boost its meaning to us. Moreover, it has a lot of blessings that it can offer to us. So, if you play cards right, it will provide you with endless opportunities in your life.
https://www-zodiacsigns--horoscope-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.zodiacsigns-horoscope.com/angel-numbers/angel-number-1144-meaning/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=prerender&paddingTop=32&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15740126863494&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fwww.zodiacsigns-horoscope.com%2Fangel-numbers%2Fangel-number-1144-meaning%2Famp%2F&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=navigateTo%2Ccid%2CfullReplaceHistory%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl
(Phys.org) -- A levitating light bulb invented by a 19-year-old student from the University of Queensland has been singled out as an exciting industry innovation by an American lighting firm. Chris Rieger's invention LevLight, which hovers below a ceiling while glowing, has been viewed more than 330,000 times on You Tube, spawning features by the UK's Daily Mail and numerous international technology blogs.
Now UQ lighting company Bulb America says they are keen to see how the innovative project might shape up for commercial production here. Mr Rieger's device combines wireless power transfer and magnetic levitation, a combination of the two technologies that is believed to be an industry first.
“This project came to life when I saw Jeff Lieberman's implementation of it a few months before starting my prototype,” he said. “I was fascinated and started research on building my own, reading up on pretty much every project that included wireless power transfer or magnetic levitation.” A second year electrical engineering student, Mr Rieger said he worked on it for about six months while studying at university.
“What I found is that there are many existing projects of both wireless power transfer or magnetic levitation, but only a few have combined both these technologies,” he said. “Once you have both working, it's really just a matter of overlaying them.
The high frequency magnetic field generated from the wireless power transfer circuit does not affect the levitation aspect of the build.” The budding inventor has already begun work on a new and improved prototype of the LevLight, featuring a new levitator, which is designed to have greater strength and a better control system.
https://phys.org/news/2012-08-levlight-student-video.html
The smell of breakfast greets me. The sounds of my people laughing in the kitchen. My eyes are opened to an unfamiliar house. The curtains let a sliver of light into the room and through it; I can see a humming bird hovering beneath the flowers on the tree outside. San Francisco seems to wake up slowly. People walk their dogs up and down the streets, yawning.
The coastal light moves slowly into position in the sky. I have been here for 4 days now. It usually takes me a matter of an hour or less in a place to give my “energy diagnosis”. But I confess that this time it took days. Each area you visit in San Francisco, possesses a different energy and despite the aesthetic coherence of the city, there is little energetic coherence to be found. But the city has revealed itself to me and I have arrived at my diagnosis.
The dominant negative vibration of San Francisco is: Isolation. If you read my blog about Boston, you saw that the “mind your own business” attitude of Boston has created a kind of bubble of containment around the people there and that it creates a kind of isolation.
San Francisco makes Boston look good by comparison. Remembering that this is a generalized diagnosis, let me explain… So many of the people who end up in San Francisco, came here to escape the torment of not fitting in.
But one cannot take an action step without lining up mentally and emotionally with the improvement they wish to see first, and hope to see positive results. So even though many have come here in order to fit in somewhere for once, their dominant vibrations of not belonging and not being seen and not being heard and not being understood and not being accepted have remained.
Even when they fit in on the outside, they do not fit in on the inside and feel deep down that they are one of a kind or set apart.
So many a people in San Francisco have a subconscious expectation that they will always maintain an inner world that will never be known to anyone else, that the social atmosphere is chilly beneath the smiles. And the people always seem to be on the constant lookout for an opportunity or excuse to try to express that individuality to the world. The isolated inner world wants to be seen… so we dress up in costumes, we try to be noticed, we do anything we can to make people pay attention.
The people of San Francisco are desperate for acceptance. But ironically that desire is covered up under the pretense of “I don’t care what you think”. San Francisco is the perfect example of the vibration of “alone in a crowded room”. The subconscious attraction to protests and marches that many in San Francisco share is this: The truly lonely person can only feel a sense of harmony and connection when they are uniting in order to push against something that is unwanted.
Knowing what is unwanted can provide a basis for multiple people agreeing upon something. And in that experience of agreement, a much-desired sense of commonality arises. It is the closest thing to intimacy that many have ever known. This vibration of isolation extends through the city’s noticeably big problem with homelessness.
After having driven around San Francisco, I can officially say that this is the hardest city to drive around out of any city in the US that I’ve been to.
The roads are like a never ending and confusing roller coaster. Amidst the occasional tourist like screams let out by any (or all) of my team members as we approached the top of streets so steep that it literally felt like the brakes would crack and the car would careen backwards, I couldn’t help but feel that San Francisco would be an excellent place to own a car repair business or a chiropractic business.
Also, the city is blanketed by a maze of electric trolleybus wires. To an extrasensory, this is torment. The anxious buzz of the currents radiates down towards you and I found that each time I went out, I was quickly reduced to an agitated, headache tinged daze. I’m so excited for the day that green transportation doesn’t come with any drawbacks.
As for the dominant positive vibration of the city, it is “Niche”. To clarify, niche is a position or activity that particularly suits somebody's talents and personality or that somebody can make his or her own. When people create a city with the intention of fitting in, but they feel too individual or too unique to fit in with anything that already exists, they end up carving out a unique life of their own and a way of life that suits them. They then invite others to join in.
This creates little pockets of unique culture. San Francisco is full of these pockets. I notice that for the people who love San Francisco, even if they don’t fit into anything, they fit in nicely to the unique little lives that they create for themselves here and so they are able to feel a sense of belonging in this city that allows for their full and unrestricted self expression.
This is the vibration of niche. With niche comes all the opportunity in the world to create something unique enough to blow the world away; something that has never been thought of before. I think there will always be room in the world for the revolutionary ideas that could come out of San Francisco.
For someone who admires older architecture, like me, San Francisco is a real treat. I must confess that for years, when people ask me what type of house I’d like to live in the best, my answer has always been Victorian. I love the angles and the embellishments and colors and especially the circular rooms and spires. So San Francisco was glorious to admire. It may as well be the capital of Victorian houses. I am utterly in love with the houses here.
On Sunday, we had a picnic with the workshop volunteers on a beach overlooked by the Golden Gate Bridge. The wind and drizzling rain graced the array of fruits and vegetables that covered the picnic table. The waves crashed on the dark sand of the pacific shore. Being so used to Southern California, I did not pack appropriately for San Francisco.
My feet turned white and went numb in the cold. It was an interesting contrast to be so cold outside as a result of the weather and so warm inside as a result of the intimate connection I had with the people that were there. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to everyone. It doesn’t matter where I am in California, California itself and the people of California feel like home to me.
My parting gift to San Francisco is a message… The biggest reason that our feeling of isolation continues, even when we are technically in a situation where we could belong or do belong is that we have low self esteem. When we are young and we do not fit into our family or society, we develop the idea that something is wrong with us.
Like a slow acting acid, this belief begins a slow corrosion of our ability to feel connected with others or to share ourselves because we fear rejection and ostracization so much. So, instead of rebelling against that belief, we must face it and work with it and change it directly. You will soon come to know that the only thing that is truly wrong with you is that you think something is wrong with you. That there is your key for allowing genuine connection to occur.
https://tealswan.com/teals-blog/san-francisco/
On the Nature of God - Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like. The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would “look” like.
The first blind man touched the elephant leg and reported that it “looked” like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth.
The fourth blind man held the elephant by the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the “appearance” of an elephant. The Buddha asked the citizens: “Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?”
On Really Letting Go - Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up and lifted her to the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.
Hours later, the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, “Sir isn’t it true, as monks, we cannot touch a woman?” The elder monk answered “yes, brother, that is true.” Then the younger monk asks again, “but then, sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside?” The elder monk smiled at him and told him ” I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her.”
On Knowing Yourself - There was once a pair of acrobats. The teacher was a poor widower and the student was a young girl by the name of Meda. These acrobats performed each day on the streets in order to earn enough to eat.
Their act consisted of the teacher balancing a tall bamboo pole on his head while the little girl climbed slowly to the top. Once to the top, she remained there while the teacher walked along the ground. Both performers had to maintain complete focus and balance in order to prevent any injury from occurring and to complete the performance. One day, the teacher said to the pupil:
‘Listen Meda, I will watch you and you watch me, so that we can help each other maintain concentration and balance and prevent an accident. Then we’ll surely earn enough to eat.’ But the little girl was wise, she answered, ‘Dear master, I think it would be better for each of us to watch ourself. To look after oneself means to look after both of us. That way I am sure we will avoid any accidents and earn enough to eat.’
On Heaven and Hell - A soldier named Nobushige came to Hakuin, and asked: “Is there really a paradise and a hell?” “Who are you?” inquired Hakuin. “I am a samurai,” the warrior replied.
“You, a soldier!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar.” Nobushige became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: “So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably much too dull to cut off my head.”
As Nobushige drew his sword Hakuin remarked: “Here open the gates of hell!” At these words the samurai, perceiving the master’s discipline, sheathed his sword and bowed. “Here open the gates of paradise,” said Hakuin.
https://blog.sivanaspirit.com/zen-stories-youve-never-heard/
What makes a colony successful or unsuccessful? Why did the Roanoke colony fail while the Jamestown settlement succeeded?
The greatest factor allowing Europeans to gain a foothold in North America had nothing to do with good planning. The colonization of the Americas by Europeans was built on the aftermath of disease. Old world illnesses such as influenza and smallpox wiped out 90% of the pre-contact population of the Americas within 100 years of Columbus landing in the Caribbean.
In Meso-America, Nahuatl-speaking people remembered that, "Before the Spaniards appeared to us . . . an epidemic broke out, a sickness of pustules. Large bumps spread on people; some were entirely covered. They spread everywhere, on the face, the head, the chest, etc.
The disease brought great desolation; many people died of it . . . And when things were in this state, the Spaniards came". Disease reached the region we now call Virginia long before John Smith, and disease was one reason the Native communities of the area entered into confederation with one another—to protect themselves from incursions by the Spanish, who they knew brought illness with them.
Similarly, when the first Pilgrims reached New England in 1620, they stepped into a world where up to 90% of the local people had recently died, probably from the bubonic plague. The psychic, spiritual, material, and political effects of such staggering losses cannot be overstated.
The indigenous people of the Americas were often in no position to insist that Europeans leave. Alliances with the Native people who remained were, however, essential if colonists hoped to survive the rigors of new environments.
Alliances with the Native people who remained were, however, essential if colonists hoped to survive the rigors of new environments. The Mattaponi people of Virginia recalled that English colonists didn't bring enough food with them to feed themselves, and the ships' manifests reveal that too many of the colonists were gentlemen, and too few were laborers, resulting in a lack of knowledge and skill to adequately plant and bring in a harvest.
The colonists initially knew little about the soil or climate of the places in which they hoped to live. Without Native knowledge—such as the advice to bury dead fish as fertilizer in New England soil—colonists would have starved.
As it was, they faced their own battles with malnutrition and disease, and here the Pilgrims may have done better than the Virginians—the former, at least, had sufficient women in the party to take charge of the washing, cooking, and healing that was necessary to survive the rigors of American life.
Why did Roanoke colony fail? It was, like later English colonies, poorly supplied, and the first colonists were actively hostile toward local Native people. This lack of allies would have made survival as an autonomous community especially difficult—surviving as distinctly Englishmen and women may have been impossible.
Some historians theorize that the colonists left Roanoke and were absorbed into local Native communities in small groups. If we judge success in terms of an individual's survival, this was a successful tactic. If we judge success by the establishment of long-lasting English colonies on American soil, then Roanoke failed.
https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25510
When John White, appointed by Sir Walter Raleigh as governor of Roanoke Colony, returned to England for more supplies in late 1587, he left behind his wife, his daughter and his infant granddaughter—Virginia Dare, the first child born in the New World to English parents—among the other settlers.
Upon White’s return in 1590, he found no trace of his family or the other inhabitants of the abandoned colony. Over the centuries to come, archaeologists, historians and explorers would delve into the mystery of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke, all failing to find definitive answers.
Based on the scant clues left behind, some speculated that Native Americans attacked and killed the English colonists. “Croatoan” was the name of an island south of Roanoke, now Hatteras Island, which at the time was home to a Native American tribe of the same name.
Alternatively, they might have tried to sail back to England on their own and been lost at sea, or been killed by hostile Spaniards who came north from their own settlements in Florida. One enduring theory was that the settlers might have been absorbed into friendly Native American tribes, perhaps after moving further inland into what is now North Carolina.
Now, two independent teams have found archaeological remains suggesting that at least some of the Roanoke colonists might have survived and split into two groups, each of which assimilated itself into a different Native American community. One team is excavating a site near Cape Creek on Hatteras Island, around 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of the Roanoke Island settlement, while the other is based on the mainland about 50 miles to the northwest of the Roanoke site.
Cape Creek, located in a live oak forest near Pamlico Sound, was the site of a major Croatoan town center and trading hub. In 1998, archaeologists from East Carolina University stumbled upon a unique find from early British America: a 10-carat gold signet ring engraved with a lion or horse, believed to date to the 16th century.
The ring’s discovery prompted later excavations at the site led by Mark Horton, an archaeologist at Britain’s Bristol University, who has been directing volunteers with the Croatoan Archaeological Society in annual digs since 2009.
Recently, Horton’s team found a small piece of slate that seems to have been used as a writing tablet and part of the hilt of an iron rapier, a light sword similar to those used in England in the late 16th century, along with other artifacts of European and Native American origin. The slate, a smaller version of a similar one found at Jamestown, bears a small letter “M” still barely visible in one corner; it was found alongside a lead pencil.
In addition to these intriguing objects, the Cape Creek site yielded an iron bar and a large copper ingot (or block), both found buried in layers of earth that appear to date to the late 1500s. Native Americans lacked such metallurgical technology, so they are believed to be European in origin.
Horton told National Geographic that some of the artifacts his team found are trade items, but it appears that others may well have belonged to the Roanoke colonists themselves: “The evidence is that they assimilated with the Native Americans but kept their goods.”
A watercolor map drawn by none other than John White inspired the search at Site X (as it’s known), located on Albemarle Sound near Edenton, North Carolina, some 50 miles inland. Known as La Virginea Pars, the map shows the East Coast of North America from Chesapeake Bay to Cape Lookout; it is housed at the British Museum as part of its permanent collection.
White began drawing the map in 1585, two years before he became governor. In 2012, researchers using X-ray spectroscopy and other imaging techniques spotted a tiny four-pointed star, colored red and blue, concealed under a patch of paper that White used to make corrections to his map.
It was thought to mark the location of a site some 50 miles inland, which White alluded to in testimony given after his attempted return to the colony. If such a site did exist, the theory went, it would have been a reasonable destination for the displaced Roanoke settlers.
According to archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the First Colony Foundation, which is conducting the excavations at Site X, the group has found shards of pottery that they claim may have been used by Roanoke settlers after they left the colony.
Located nearby is a site that archaeologists believe might have been a small Native American town, Mettaquem. After the Roanoke colony met its end, English settlers eventually came south from Virginia into North Carolina, but the first recorded settler in the area did not arrive until about 1655.
But the recently uncovered pottery is in a style called Border Ware, which is typical of the pottery dug up on Roanoke Island, as well as at Jamestown, but was no longer imported to the New World after the early 17th century, when the Virginia Company dissolved.
In addition to the Border Ware pottery, archaeologists at Site X discovered various other items, including a food-storage jar known as a baluster, pieces of early gun flintlocks, a metal hook of the sort used to stretch animal hides or tents and an aglet, a small copper tube used to secure wool fibers before the advent of the hook and eye in the 17th century.
Based on his team’s findings, Luccketti thinks the Roanoke colonists may have moved inland to live with Native American allies sometime after White left, and these artifacts might have been among their belongings. As reported in the New York Times, the First Colony Foundation will reveal more about its findings and theory this week in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Though the newly announced discoveries don’t solve this lingering historical mystery, they do point away from Roanoke Island itself, where researchers have failed to come up with evidence pointing to the Lost Colony’s fate. Archaeologists on both teams are hoping that a detailed study of their new finds will yield more clues, and—of course—that more evidence remains, waiting to be discovered, in the endless layers of dirt that surround them.
https://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-find-new-clues-to-lost-colony-mystery
The success of tobacco as an early cash crop helped Jamestown weather the loss of most early colonists to disease, starvation, and attacks by the resident population of Native Americans. A turning point in Jamestown’s fortunes was in 1619, when a General Assembly met at a church on July 30.
Two representatives from 11 regions of the area debated the qualifications of membership and other matters for six days. A heat wave ended the session of what would be known as the House of Burgesses.
The session established a government that citizens could address to settle grievances and end legal disputes. It was a huge step forward, since numerous European attempts to establish any foothold in North America had failed for almost a century.
Spain has tried to establish at least five colonial settlements in North America during the 16th century. It had established footholds in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Peru. But Spanish efforts failed in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia, in short order.
The settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in what is now Georgia or South Carolina was built in 1526 with the first use of African slaves in North America. It only lasted three months. The colonists dealt with same problems as the Jamestown residents, with the added dimension of a slave revolt. Another Spanish attempt near St. Petersburg, Florida, failed in 1527.
Fort San Juan was another failed Spanish effort in what is now western North Carolina in 1566 and 1567. The fort was abandoned and most other troops at other forts died. The Spanish also tried to set up a Jesuit mission in Virginia in 1570, which failed when it was left unprotected and its priests and brothers were killed. France failed in three attempts, before Jamestown, to set up colonies in the current-day United States in South Carolina, Florida and Maine.
The settlement at Sainte-Croix Island in 1604 quickly moved on to a fort at Port Royal in Nova Scotia, in order to survive. Half the settlers died at Port Royal, and the survivors moved on to what became Quebec. And the English had two notable failures.
The Lost Colony of Roanoke was set up in 1585 and its first settlers lasted almost a year, until they went back to England with Sir Frances Drake. A small force was left to guard a fort. A second expedition returned in 1587 to try again to establish a settlement. The guards were all missing. About 115 people stayed behind. When English ships returned three years later, all the people, and their buildings, were gone.
The Popham Colony in Maine was established at the same time as Jamestown but only lasted for one year. There were some early colonies that did survive from the pre-Jamestown era. The settlement at Saint Augustine in Florida endured since about 600 colonists from Spain established the settlement in September 1565. The town was burned several times by pirates and English forces, but it survived.
https://www-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/10-european-colonies-america-failed-jamestown-103008760.html?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=prerender&paddingTop=32&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15739261430766&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Famphtml%2Fnews%2F10-european-colonies-america-failed-jamestown-103008760.html&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=navigateTo%2Ccid%2CfullReplaceHistory%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl&highlight=%7B%22s%22%3A%5B%22The%20Lost%20Colony%20of%20Roanoke%20was%20set%20up%20in%201585%20and%20its%20first%20settlers%20lasted%20almost%20a%20year%2C%20until%20they%20went%20back%20to%20England%20with%20Sir%20Frances%20Drake.%22%2C%22A%20small%20force%20was%20left%20to%20guard%20a%20fort.%22%2C%22A%20second%20expedition%20returned%20in%201587%20to%20try%20again%20to%20establish%20a%20settlement.%22%2C%22The%20guards%20were%20all%20missing.%22%5D%7D
A vortex ring, also called a toroidal vortex, is a torus-shaped vortex in a fluid or gas; that is, a region where the fluid mostly spins around an imaginary axis line that forms a closed loop. The dominant flow in a vortex ring is said to be toroidal, more precisely poloidal.
Vortex rings are plentiful in turbulent flows of liquids and gases, but are rarely noticed unless the motion of the fluid is revealed by suspended particles—as in the smoke rings which are often produced intentionally or accidentally by smokers. Fiery vortex rings are also a commonly produced trick by fire eaters. Visible vortex rings can also be formed by the firing of certain artillery, in mushroom clouds, and in microbursts.
A vortex ring usually tends to move in a direction that is perpendicular to the plane of the ring and such that the inner edge of the ring moves faster forward than the outer edge. Within a stationary body of fluid, a vortex ring can travel for relatively long distance, carrying the spinning fluid with it.
In a typical vortex ring, the fluid particles move in roughly circular paths around an imaginary circle (the core) that is perpendicular to those paths. As in any vortex, the velocity of the fluid is roughly constant except near the core, so that the angular velocity increases towards the core, and most of the vorticity (and hence most of the energy dissipation) is concentrated near it.
Unlike a sea wave, whose motion is only apparent, a moving vortex ring actually carries the spinning fluid along. Just as a rotating wheel lessens friction between a car and the ground, the poloidal flow of the vortex lessens the friction between the core and the surrounding stationary fluid, allowing it to travel a long distance with relatively little loss of mass and kinetic energy, and little change in size or shape.
Thus, a vortex ring can carry mass much further and with less dispersion than a jet of fluid. That explains, for instance, why a smoke ring keeps traveling long after any extra smoke blown out with it has stopped and dispersed.[3] These properties of vortex rings are exploited in the vortex ring gun for riot control and vortex ring toys such as the air vortex cannons.
One way a vortex ring may be formed is by injecting a compact mass of fast moving fluid (A) into a mass of stationary fluid (B) (which may be the same fluid). Viscous friction at the interface between the two fluids slows down the outer layers of A relative to its core. Those outer layers then slip around the mass A and collect at the rear, where they re-enter the mass in the wake of the faster-moving inner part. The net result is a poloidal flow in A that evolves into a vortex ring.
This mechanism is commonly seen, for example, when a drop of colored liquid falls into a cup of water. It is also often seen at the leading edge of a plume or jet of fluid as it enters a stationary mass; the mushroom-like head ("starting plume") that develops at the tip of the jet has a vortex-ring structure.
Vortex ring of a microburst - A variant of this process may occur when a jet within a fluid hits a flat surface, as in a microburst. In this case the poloidal spinning of the vortex ring is due to viscous friction between the layer of fast outward flow near the surface and the slower-moving fluid above it.
A vortex ring is also formed when a mass of fluid is impulsively pushed from an enclosed space through a narrow opening. In this case the poloidal flow is set in motion, at least in part, by interaction between the outer parts of the fluid mass and the edges of the opening. This is how a smoker expels smoke rings from the mouth, and how most vortex ring toys work.
Vortex rings may also be formed in the wake of a solid object that falls or moves through a fluid at sufficient speed. They may form also ahead of an object that abruptly reverses its motion with the fluid, as when producing smoke rings by shaking an incense stick. A vortex ring can also be created by a spinning propeller, as in a blender.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_ring
Aesop's Fables - A country mouse invited his cousin who lived in the city to come visit him. The city mouse was so disappointed with the sparse meal which was nothing more than a few kernels of corn and a couple of dried berries. "My poor cousin," said the city mouse, "you hardly have anything to eat! I do believe that an ant could eat better! Please do come to the city and visit me, and I will show you such rich feasts, readily available for the taking."
So the country mouse left with his city cousin who brought him to a splendid feast in the city's alley. The country mouse could not believe his eyes. He had never seen so much food in one place. There was bread, cheese, fruit, cereals, and grains of all sorts scattered about in a warm cozy portion of the alley. The two mice settled down to eat their wonderful dinner, but before they barely took their first bites, a cat approached their dining area.
The two mice scampered away and hid in a small uncomfortable hole until the cat left. Finally, it was quiet, and the unwelcome visitor went to prowl somewhere else. The two mice ventured out of the hole and resumed their abundant feast.
Before they could get a proper taste in their mouth, another visitor intruded on their dinner, and the two little mice had to scuttle away quickly. "Goodbye," said the country mouse, "You do, indeed, live in a plentiful city, but I am going home where I can enjoy my dinner in peace." A modest life with peace and quiet is better than a richly one with danger and strife.
https://www.storyit.com/Classics/Stories/citycountrymouse.htm
Few Missouri trees have histories that are more interesting than the Osage orange. These trees are probably most noticeable at this time of year due to the large bright green fruit — called “hedge apples” or “Osage oranges” — that appear on the trees in late summer and early fall.
Also known as hedge, hedge apple or bois d’arc trees, these thorny trees are frequently associated with the overgrown and neglected edges of pastures, fields and old farmsteads. In most settings, hedge trees appear to be little more than scrub vegetation in forgotten corners of the landscape.
Many landowners are aware of the superior quality of this tree’s wood as a source of fence posts. Hedge is also known for the heat it produces when used as firewood. However, this is just scratching the surface of this tree’s story. (Since “Osage orange” and “hedge” are common names for this tree, they’re used interchangeably throughout this article.)
The Osage orange tree, Maclura pomifera, is a close relative of fig trees and breadfruit trees and can attain heights of up to 50 feet. Its heavy, close-grained trunk and branches is made up of one of the densest woods produced by any tree in North America. Although it’s often cited as a native tree of Missouri, Osage orange trees were probably not part of the state’s pre-settlement landscape. Its true native range is thought to have been the Red River basin area of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Osage orange trees very likely came to Missouri through intentional introduction by early settlers (and possibly Native Americans, too), but this tree’s interesting story doesn’t start with purposeful plantings. To start at the beginning of the hedge’s history, take a closer look at those large green hedge balls. Contrary to what’s sometimes said, hedge balls are not toxic to livestock.
Livestock have died from eating them, but that’s likely because a hedge ball became lodged in the animal’s throat, not because the creature was poisoned. It would seem hedge trees are inviting wildlife to eat their fruits by making them big and obvious, but these large green balls generate little interest among present day vegetation-eating animals. A few animals pick at them, but most hedge balls fall to the ground and rot.
However, go back to when woolly mammoths roamed these parts, and you’d find hedge apples weren’t so neglected. It’s thought hedge balls were food for mammoths, mastodons, sloths and other giant prehistoric Ice Age herbivores that browsed the canopies of local trees. This consumption was beneficial to the hedge tree because the tree’s seeds — located in the fruit — were dropped with the animal’s feces and, thus, given a wide means of dispersal.
Just as some flowers have evolved to favor specific pollinating insects and birds, it’s theorized the large size and easy-to-see placement of hedge fruit was a symbiotic relationship the tree forged with large prehistoric tree-browsing mammals to help spread its seed. As humans replaced mammoths on the landscape, the Osage orange remained a tree of prime importance, but the focus shifted from the fruit to its wood.
Native Americans discovered the tree’s sturdy branches made excellent bows, and by the time the first European explorers arrived, Osage orange bows were a highly valued trade item in the Native American commerce that flowed across the central part of the continent.
Osage orange bows were revered by tribes from the forests of Ohio westward to the foothills of the Rockies and from the northern Great Plains to the Southwest. This archery-driven importance of the wood is reflected in the name the French gave to the tree — “bois d’arc,” which means “wood of the bow.”
As American pioneers displaced Native American tribesmen, Osage orange trees continued to hold a place of prominence. In addition to the sturdiness of its wood, the tree began to be appreciated by pioneer farmers for its fencing purposes.
A single row of Osage orange trees planted a foot apart would, in three to four years, produce a fence-like vegetative barrier that served livestock owners well in the years before the invention of barbed wire fences.
Some settlers wove the limbs of the young trees together — a technique known as “plashing” — to create an even more impenetrable barrier. The tree many called “Osage orange” because it was common in the land of the Osage Indian tribe or “bois d’arc” because of its connection with archery now acquired another name.
Many settlers began to call these trees “hedges” because the vegetative barriers their plantings formed were similar to the hedgerows many farmers in Europe utilized.
The popularity of hedge tree field barriers spawned the formation of a number of hedge nurseries in the mid-1800s and created a booming market for the seeds. In the 1860s, the price for Osage orange seeds soared to $50 a bushel.
In one year, 18,000 bushels of hedge seeds — enough, according to one report, “to plant 100,000 miles of hedge rows” — was shipped to the Pacific Northwest. By 1879, it was reported that Monroe and Nodaway counties in north Missouri each had more than 2,000 miles of hedgerows.
https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/outdoors/2016/09/14/osage-orange-trees-purpose-evolved-history-developed/90262216/
Few images scream ‘jungle’ like a scene full of tropical plants. Undoubtedly, this includes large swaths of lush, green moss. Although moss, a bryophyte (non vascular plant), occurs in tropical climes, it’s not an integral part of the typical dart frog environment.
Moss makes a nice accent, but it should never be the focus of a dart frog vivarium. There are four important factors to consider when incorporating moss into a naturalistic vivarium: lighting, water, substrate, and the inhabitants.
Most of the literature will classify moss as needing low or moderate lighting. Keep in mind that this refers to moss outside, under the sun, and not moss grown indoors. It’s much brighter outside in the shade than it is in a typical vivarium. As a general rule, moss in the vivarium will appreciate all the light it can get.
I have had success growing it under HOT5 bulbs, as well as LEDs. In the past, when I used T8s to light my vivarium, most moss would not grow. With upgraded lighting, it’s not difficult to have lush moss growth in most vivaria.
There are 2 primary ways to insure that your moss gets the lighting it needs – using brighter lighting, or reducing the distance between the moss and the light. Depending what your current light setup is, it may be possible just to get a new bulb, or add a reflector (which can greatly increase the light output on many bulbs).
Additionally, placing the moss in the upper reaches of a vivarium can greatly increase the amount of light it gets. Utilizing shorter vivaria to begin with will also go quite a ways in increasing light exposure.
With moss, heavy mineral or chemical content in water spells doom. Generally, if the water is safe to use with darts frogs, it’ll be fine for moss. Spring, distilled, or reverse osmosis water is safe. Some mosses, especially those traditionally used in aquariums such as java or riccia (technically a liverwort), need wet, almost saturated conditions.
Most other mosses, such as sheet moss or mood moss, actually prefer a bit of air movement, and a chance to air out between misting. If you’re not sure what the moss prefers, it’s a good idea to split the moss into several sections and try keeping it in different conditions in the vivarium.
Some mosses will happily grow over almost any surface, while many mosses are are more particular of their growing substrate. As a general rule, if the moss does not appear to have ‘roots’ (moss does not have true roots), the moss will happily grow on almost anything, such as cork or wood.
If the moss appears to have ‘roots’, and grows in a mat-like fashion, such as mood moss, it generally prefers a soil-like substrate, such as ABG mix or sphagnum. Once again, if you’re not sure what your moss likes, split it up and spread it around.
Before purchasing moss, consider what animals will be living in the vivarium. Many animals, such as dart frogs, do not truly benefit from moss. Although it looks great, moss should not be the main ground cover in a vivarium.
Most species of dart frogs kept in captivity appreciate a good layer of leaf litter and all the benefits it entails (hiding places, visual barriers, increased microfauna levels), and moss does nothing for them. Moss should be used as an accent – something that looks nice, but should not ‘take away’ from the needs of the frogs.
Spikemosses, plants of the genus Selaginella, are commonly grouped in with traditional mosses and are sometimes called club mosses. In truth, they are very different plants. Spikemosses do prefer similar conditions, and do quite well in the humid confines of a vivarium. Spikemosses make great ground cover, and generally grow very well from clippings.
In fact, Josh’s Frogs recommends dividing up any spikemosses before putting them in the vivarium, and planting them in different areas. Spikemosses can be tricky to grow in improper conditions, but grow quickly once established.
Mosses will always have a special place in the vivarium. Few other plants can complete with it’s lush growth habit and intense green coloration. Even though moss is widely available, keep in mind that not all mosses thrive in any condition. Considerations must be made to truly be able to grow moss like a boss.
https://www.joshsfrogs.com/catalog/blog/2012/04/growing-moss-like-a-boss/
For small yards, growing fruit trees against a wall, called espalier, is an option. A time-honored technique in Europe, it has been used for centuries to save space and to provide favorable microclimates for fruit trees. It takes time to train a tree, usually three to five years.
Apples (Malus domestica), pears (Pyrus spp.) and plums (Prunus spp.) have supple wood and are easiest to work with. You can espalier many other fruit trees, but the more brittle wood takes additional care in training. Choose dwarf trees for espalier.
When you grow fruit trees against a stone or brick wall, they stay warmer because of the radiated heat. Especially in mild winter areas, this heightens the need to choose an apple variety with low chill hours. Chill hours are the number of hours below 45 degrees Fahrenheit that the tree needs to be able to bloom and produce fruit. Examples include "Dorsett Golden" and "Anna," both of which grow in U.S.
Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9 and have chill hour requirements between 250 and 300 hours. They need cross-pollination so plant a tree of each or get a tree with both varieties grafted onto the rootstock. It's possible to harvest 70 apples from an established espaliered tree.
Both European (Pyrus communis) and Asian pears (Pyrus pyrifolia) are suitable for espalier. The Asian pears "Shinseiki," "Twentieth Century" and "Hosui," which grow in USDA zones 5 through 9, have low chill requirements. European pears grow in USDA zones 5 through 8 and have chill requirements of 900 hours.
For warm winter area espaliers, consider hybrid low-chill requirement pears between European and Asian pears such as "Kieffer" (Pyrus communis x Pyrus pyrifolia "Kieffer"), which grows in USDA zones 4 through 9. In common with other fruit trees in the rose family, such as apple and stone fruits, espaliered pear gives a showy display of spring flowers to brighten a wall.
Fruits with a large, hard central pit, such as plums and peaches (Prunus persica), are called stone fruits. Unlike pear and apple trees, which bear on fruiting spurs that last year after year and take less annual pruning, stone fruits produce on year-old growth and take more maintenance as espaliers. Pruning involves ensuring that a constant supply of new lateral branches grow from the espaliered framework to keep year-old growth available each year.
Plum is an exception, fruiting on both perennial spurs and year-old growth. For a plum, consider Japanese plum cultivar "Beauty" (Prunus salicina "Beauty"), which grows in USDA zones 4 through 10. It needs 250 chill hours and is self-fertile. Peaches grow in USDA zones 5 through 9.
A good choice for a south-facing wall, figs (Ficus carica) thrive on heat. Choose a smaller-growing cultivar to espalier, because most figs have vigorous growth to more than 20 feet tall and are rooted from cuttings rather than grafted to dwarfing rootstock. Try a more informal, open espalier pattern rather than a formal, geometric structure for fig.
One candidate is "Brown Turkey," a smaller tree that accepts pruning well. The large, lobed green leaves and colorful brownish-purple fruit display well against a wall. The even smaller-growing "Black Jack " has a semi-dwarf habit and sweet, dark-purple fruit. Both cultivars grow in USDA zones 7 through 9. Because fig is invasive in some areas, check before planting or make sure you choose a sterile cultivar.
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/there-fruit-trees-can-grow-flat-against-wall-103802.html
One of the most spectacular sights on a night dive in the ocean is to witness the hundreds of tiny star-like bioluminescent phytoplankton scintillating like a starry sky as you move through the dark water. Towards the end of a dive, just shield your underwater flashlight and wave your hands through the water in front of you, and be mesmerized by the tiny glowing specs of plankton.
So what kind of plankton are these? And how do they emit that bluish glow that you see in the below picture of the plankton washed on shore?
Certain creatures both on land and sea can produce light through chemical reactions taking place within their bodies known as Bioluminescence. The bioluminescence results from a light-producing chemical reaction also called chemiluminescence. Certain types of chemicals when mixed together produce energy which ‘excites’ other particles on vibration and generate light which causes the glow.
The group of chemicals involved to make plankton glow are broadly termed luciferins and the light is produced by a series of oxidation reactions set off by a catalyst called luciferase. The bioluminescence in plankton is very high in several forms of Plankton and is a form of cold light or luminescence.
Plankton consists of any drifting organism (plant or animal) that inhabit the oceans and provide a vital source of food to larger aquatic organisms such as fish. A vast range of plankton, both zoo plankton and single-celled animal plankton are known to be bioluminescent.
Bioluminescent phytoplankton occur in all the world’s oceans.The most common of these are Dinoflagellates which are tiny unicellular Bioluminescent Planktonmarine plankton also known as fire plants.
Dinoflagellates are the most common source of bioluminescence in our oceans and the chances are the sparks – not quite as bright as those made by high performance spark plugs for your car, but still bright – flying off your oar, the bow or wake of your boat are billions of tiny dinoflagellates or copeopods. These creatures get their name by their ability to swim by two flagella, which are movable protein strands attached to their bodies.
Bioluminescence is used to evade predators and acts as a defense mechanism in dinoflagellates. Dinoflagelletes produce light when disturbed and will give a light flash lasting a fraction of a second. The flash is meant to attract a predator to the creature disturbing or trying to consume the dinoflagellate.
The light flash also surprises the predator causing it to worry about other predators attacking it, making the predator less likely to prey on the dinoflagellate.
However the experience of swimming in the midst of these amazing creatures is something that must be witnessed at least once by every scuba diver or avid snorkeler.
Several Dive Operators offer special bioluminescent phytoplankton dives or snorkeling expeditions, in seasons when plankton is at its peak brought by ocean currents. These swims would usually be in absolute darkness to witness the both the starry skies above and the starry seas below.
https://www.leisurepro.com/blog/explore-the-blue/bioluminescent-plankton-what-makes-it-glow/
San Diego oceans turned an electric shade of blue this week thanks to the return of an unpredictable "red tide" of tiny glowing organisms. The bright blue light, created by phytoplankton through a process called bioluminescence, can only be spotted from the shoreline on rare occasions and is not yet entirely understood by scientists, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Thursday's bioluminescent glow sent photographers flocking to the shoreline from Solana Beach to Torrey Pines State Beach to capture a glimpse. Scripps said, "While it's hard to know for sure, our scientists predict the event will occur through the weekend." A red tide is created by a massive number of dinoflagellates, a type of algae that moves through the sea, Scripps scientist Michael Latz said.
The organisms have a color that makes the ocean appear red in the daylight, hence the term red tide. But, the organisms glow as a natural defense mechanism that becomes visible in breaking waves or when approached by other swimming organisms, especially at night. "The algae makes a light when a fish or little shrimp tries to eat it, said Scripps researcher Dimitri Deheyn. "That light attracts a bigger fish that can eat whatever is trying to eat the algae."
Dinoflagellates may increase at certain times because of nutrients or hydrographic conditions in the ocean. Though, scientists can't predict when a red tide will occur or how long it will last, Latz said. The last time there was a red tide in San Diego was in May 2018; that occurrence was the first time since Sept. 2013, Latz said.
The best time to capture the dramatic glow is at night. According to Deheyn, the idea time is two hours after sunset in a place with no lights, such as Torrey Pines, Carlsbad or Encinitas. "Here in California these blooms of dinoflagellates are usually not toxic," said Deheyn. "So feel free to go swimming in the bioluminescence, it's an awesome experience. Or you can take the algae and smear it around the sand to watch it glow."
Do not bring a flashlight or shine your camera light because the algae will not bloom. "If you are a parent and you can't get out at night go down to the ocean with a water bottle and scoop up some water near North County," said Deheyn. "Leave it in a completely dark room for a few hours and then swirl the bottle around. You'll be able to see the bioluminescence."
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/2019-red-tide-bioluminescence-lights-up-san-diego-beaches-blue-glow/133349/
Whoever takes a swim along Puerto Rico's shores at night will witness a special show. The water starts to glow in a bright blue and green. The effect is called bioluminescence - it's our natural phenomenon of the week. When people flock to the beaches of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico at night, they do so for a reason: The water immediately surrounding swimmers starts to glow a mystical bluish-green. The light glows stronger with each movement.
Puerto Rico is said to be the place to go to watch the water glow. Nowhere else in the world is the concentration of microscopically small algae greater. And those algae, or plankton, are bioluminescent - meaning, they glow in the dark.
The single-celled organisms are called dinoflagellates. One could also call them the fireflies of the sea. They can be found all over the world. But it is only in a place like Puerto Rico, where there are so many, that you can see them glow so strongly. If some troublemaker appears, the plankton try to scare the intruder away. In the case of fish, this could work - with humans, obviously not.
Light source - The light is produced through a very simple chemical reaction. When oxygen and the biological substances luciferin and luciferase (an enzyme) come together, energy is generated, which is released as light. But the light can be different depending on the bioluminescent species present. Various colors are possible. While aquatic species often glow blue or blue-green - because this color can be seen best underwater - fireflies on land appear yellow.
The black dragonfish has the ablity to produce its own light. This is advantageous because many animals cannot see red light in the depths of the ocean. The light works instead as an invisible searchlight - the creature can locate its prey, but does not attract attention. A pretty slick ability. More from below the surface...
And there can be many, when conditions like water quality and nutrient supply are just right. If colonies reach 100,000 single cells per liter of water and the sun is strong throughout the day, the dinoflagellates can be charged - just like a solar lamp - and glow the night away.
https://www.dw.com/en/bioluminescence-why-plankton-glows/a-40118563
The Tao Te Ching has the distinction of being the most venerated anarchist text in history. And ironically so, since it is written as a guide for rulers. The Tao Te Ching’s graceful, simple philosophy takes its power from the careful observation of natural harmony. The author of the text, Lao Tzu, applies his understanding of primal consciousness and natural phenomena to the spiritual, social, and psychological ills that result from authoritarian rule.
I have only reprinted verses I find to particularly resonate with anarchist dialogue, but I assure you the entire text is precious and reading this article alone is like trying to play a piano with so many missing keyes. I suggest you read the text whole and then dive into the limited comments below. I hope you enjoy these wise words as though they were spoken by an old friend who left long ago and never returned; that’s exactly what they are.
Chapter 5
Heaven and Earth are impartial;
They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
The wise are impartial;
They see the people as straw dogs.
In the olden days, the Chinese made little dogs out of straw and placed them with a lot of respect and reverence onto ceremonial altars, then after a time they would throw them into the road so they could be trampled and destroyed. Such is life.
You stroll through a field, crushing grass stocks and nearly invisible insects with each step, a veritable walking apocalypse—are we favored any more by the clear blue sky, the blazing sun, or the misty earth, which smother each and every life ever ever ever born one by one without exception? All life falls to the coyote teeth of death, but the source of life and that to which it returns are one.
So is this reality of certain death really such a harsh one? Or does it just seem that way because you have been taught to think of death as the most undesireable thing in the universe? Because life is supposed to be an all-or-nothing kind of deal, something you can’t get out of until you kick the bucket.
Whether you like your life or not, you’re stuck with it, unless you kill yourself. But if you originate from the same source which you return to at death, and if this very thing sustains your entire life, if this source is in fact YOU in the truest sense, what dies? What is born? Who cares about a straw dog?
Chapter 6
The valley spirit never dies;
It is the woman, primal mother.
Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth.
It is like a veil barely seen.
Use it; it will never fail.
(Beautiful text, isn’t it?)
Chapter 7
Heaven and Earth last for ever.
Why do Heaven and Earth last for ever?
They are unborn,
So ever living.
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead.
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through selfless action, he attains fulfillment.
What does this mean, that heaven and earth “are unborn, so ever living”?
Well let us ask, what is the shape of the earth? Roughly round, yes, but it is constantly changing. Mountains are growing and falling, the winds erode magnificent patterns into stone, the rains and rivers wear grooves into the landscape…
Despite scientific narratives about “the creation of the world,” in reality the earth has never attained a final form, for it is always changing, and so it can never be said to have passed away. If no-thing has been created, what can possibly meet its end? This is something of the concept of “voidness” so central to Eastern philosophy—the realization that this thing we call existence isn’t really going anywhere. There’s no finale to the universe.
We should see our own lives as such. The sage, Lao Tzu says, gets ahead by staying behind. Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching echoes this in the hexagram of Modesty when it says that the lowliest man is like a mountain in the earth: being so lowly, nothing can pass him by.
All the high mountains which grow up out of the earth, like those who seek fame and greatness, rely on lowliness for their heights. Which will outlast the other? Does the sun remain at its zenith for long? Does it even have a conception of high or low, up or down? Does the sun see day as day and night as night?
Chapter 12
The five colours blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavours dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees. He lets go of that and chooses this. The five colors, tones, and flavors represent the classical Chinese categorization of these senses, much as for colors we have the seven-fold ROY G BIV system (probably invented by Crayola), for tones we have a twelve-note scale, and for flavors we have spicy, sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and sometimes even sandy on bad days. But these categories do the infinite variety and acuity of experience absolutely no justice.
Lao Tzu is dwelling pretty near to John Zerzan’s theoryopolis here. Both see language as an invention just as alienating as virtual reality. What happens when we run a sensual experience through the old language program? Do we experience the event more vividly, with more juicy exhilaration and intimacy, or do we just get a barrage of kind of junky thoughts? Try an experiment or two and get back to me.
Alan Watts says it like this: “The world when looked at without [mental] chatter becomes amazingly interesting. The most ordinary sights and sounds and smells, the texture of shadows on the floor in front of you. All these things, without being named, and saying ‘that’s a shadow, that’s red, that’s brown, that’s somebody’s foot.’
When you don’t name things anymore, you start seeing them. Because say when a person says ‘I see a leaf,’ immediately, one thinks of a spearhead-shaped thing outlined in black and filled in with flat green. No leaf looks like that. No leaves–leaves are not green. That’s why Lao-Tzu said ‘the five colors make a man blind, the five tones make a man deaf,’ because if you can only see five colors, you’re blind, and if you can only hear five tones in music, you’re deaf.
You see, if you force sound into five tones, you force color into five colors, you’re blind and deaf. The world of color is infinite, as is the world of sound. And it is only by stopping fixing conceptions on the world of color and the world of sound that you really begin to hear it and see it.”
Chapter 13
Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things. Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things. Why do we see the world as something separate? Something outside the windows of the eyes, like a fruit dangling too high on a tree? This is not the nature of things. This very world is this very life.
Our breath is the air and our blood is the rain, our bodies are made of the fruits of nature. Have faith that this whole world is your whole self, just as the whole horizon is reflected in a dew drop. Respect it as such, love it as such, and don’t lord yourself over it like a tyrant—only then will the world have faith in you in return.
Chapter 16
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
I include this chapter just because I like it, and I think that there is something of a spiritual rewilding to be divined from its advice. But do not try to use an iron key to unlock a cloud. (Don’t argue with a rainbow!) The phrase “ten thousand things” which keeps popping up was a colloquial Chinese equivalent to “myriad” or “multitude” in Lao Tzu’s day, signifying the sum total of all things in existence.
Chapter 19
Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom,
And it will be a hundred times better for everyone.
Give up kindness, renounce morality,
And men will rediscover filial piety and love.
Give up ingenuity, renounce profit,
And bandits and thieves will disappear.
These three are outward forms alone; they are not sufficient in themselves.
It is more important
To see the simplicity,
To realize one’s true nature,
To cast off selfishness
And temper desire.
...
This chapter brings us back to one of Chuang Tzu and the Primitivist’s major points: that obsessing over virtues, such as sainthood, kindness, and ingenuity, does necessarily make for a good life. The neurotic adherence to these values only sends troublesome ripples through the clear pool of the mind, frustrating our natural, intuitive reaction. It’s better to hold to the simple truths and not get on a high horse. It can be very lonely on a high horse and you have to shout down at people to get them to notice you.
Chapter 30
Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao,
Counsel him not to use force to conquer the universe.
For this would only cause resistance.
Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed.
Lean years follow in the wake of a great war…
Force is followed by loss of strength.
This is not the way of Tao.
That which goes against the Tao
comes to an early end.
Here Lao Tzu is giving us timeless advice: cut with the grain, and your work will be easy. If you insist on changing the world through force, the supple conditions which nourish life are ruined. Only stiff, armored things such as thorn bushes and cockroaches can survive the tumult.
Industrial civilization, with all its bulldozers, ghettoes, and police, is what we get for trying to “use force to conquer the universe,” and compared to the joyous exuberance that nature produces of itself, these are lean times indeed.
But by cultivating peace and plenty instead of ravaging the world into short-sighted scarcity, by turning human hearts to what is good and natural (like eating beans and corn, laughing, and enjoying ourselves), we do a small service to the world by brushing the dirt off of the door to the old way. If we do not keep sight of the light which will carry us through—our humanity, our understanding, the utopia within—we have cut our ties to the Tao, and our efforts will be sure to fail as they are not yet ripe for harvest.
Chapter 34
The great Tao overflows left and right,
The ten thousand things depend on it for their lives, and it never disowns them.
Its work is done, but it has no name.
It clothes and nurtures the ten thousand things, yet it does not lord over them.
It is always free of desire.
It may be called small.
The ten thousand things return to it, yet it does not lord over them.
It may be called great.
Because it never regards itself as great,
It can accomplish its greatness.
Remember, the Tao Te Ching is essentially a manual for rulers and kings. This chapter especially flaunts the stupidity of king-as-god or god-as-king in the face of authority. The Tao “clothes and nourishes the ten thousand things, yet it does not lord over them.” Many religions, and their societies, have a monarchical view of the universe—that the Ultimate of Existence is the Big Boss, the Head Honcho—but the Taoists have a very different opinion. Ask a bird to bow before the glory of God, and it will say, “Tweet?”
Chapter 36
That which shrinks
Must first expand.
That which fails
Must first be strong.
That which is cast down
Must first be raised.
Before receiving
There must be giving.
This is called perception of the nature of things.
Soft and weak overcome hard and strong.
Fish cannot leave deep waters,
And a country’s weapons should not be displayed.
Revolutionary idealists could learn much from this chapter, especially in the first verse. Raising the flag of war brings armies to your doorstep. Wise warriors make their attack so silent and unforeseen that no retribution is possible, for they are like a ghost.
Like fish in deep water, they stay obscure and true to their nature. Like a nation wanting peace, they do not bare their teeth at tyrants. Waste your strength on a fight you’re bound to lose, and the battle will leave you even weaker than when you began. Or it will leave you in jail. Or at the mercy of a street medic. Chapter 69 conveys essentially the same message in more elaborate detail.
Chapter 43
The softest thing on the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.
That without substance can enter where there is no room.
Hence I know the value of non-action.
Teaching without words and work without doing
Are understood by very few.
When Christ said in his Sermon on the Mount, “The meek will inherit the earth,” he meant something very similar to this passage by Lao Tzu. Which will destroy more concrete: a sledgehammer, or the gentle, persistent penetration of wind and wood? Which of these will endure across the eons? Which is made by hand, and which is made by heaven?
Chapter 57
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men’s weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.
People naturally seek to enjoy themselves. We don’t need to be fascists to see that the people enjoy sunshine and the taste of corn. Nor do we need federal laws to decree that plants grow upwards and pine trees produce pinecones. The more force you apply, the more resistance will inevitably follow.
Chapter 74
If men are not afraid to die,
It is of no avail to threaten them with death.
If men live in constant fear of dying,
And if breaking the law means that a man will be killed,
Who will dare to break the law?
Here the fundamental premise of government is exposed for what it is: a process in which an irrational fear of death is forcibly internalized by people, causing them to shut their eyes to the infinite possibility and grandiose enjoyment of life by threatening any funny business with what we might call “an uncertain fate.”
The stark shadow of death is always perched on the borderland where civilization meets nature. It is that invisible raven which embodies the fear of bears and cougars, of the bitter cold with nothing to warm us and eminent hunger with nothing to feed us. Of course anyone who knows better knows these things are really mostly phantoms of our own imaginations.
And that awful anxiety of how you will make money to buy bread and afford a roof and pay the bills is backed up only by a rather enigmatic fear of death, the same which looms over the vast and wild mountains. Thus, the very key to our obedience is the very key to our freedom.
As Alan Watts put it, “By and large the art of government is to fill that void beyond death with threats of a rather unspecified nature, so that we can rule people by saying if you don’t do as I tell you, I’ll kill you. Or you’ll kill yourself. And so long as we can be scared of that, and so long as we can be made to think of death as a bad thing we can be ruled.”
Chapter 76
A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.
Rust is small and delicate, and yet in time it turns even the most monstrous machines into little more than sand. The greatest highways will not outlast a decade of weeds and wind. Will rust ever come to an end? No, it is something of the process of the Tao. Will cars and highways ever come to an end? Yes, they are unyielding in their function. Change is in the nature of things. That which cannot yield to change is quickly done away with.
Chapter 77
The Tao of heaven is to take from those who have too much
and give to those who do not have enough.
Man’s way is different.
He takes from those who do not have enough
to give to those who already have too much.
What man has more than enough and gives it to the world?
Only the man of Tao.
A full moon is on the brink of waning, and the coldest nadir of winter soon gives way to spring. It is not in the way of nature to store things up beyond what is needed, and only those who need little have more than enough. If you could have a heap of gold ten feet high, would this solve all your worries? Or will you be ringing your hands and jumping at every bump in the night, imaginary bandits lurking in every shadow?
A high mountain gathers clouds at its summit so rain will fall across the plains. It keeps only a little snow for itself, and even that melts beneath the sun, filling up the river valleys which fill up the lowest oceans. It disperses the light of heaven and the wandering winds across the lowlands—this is like the “man of Tao.”
It reminds me of Robin Hood. But, “Man’s way is different,” Lao Tzu says. Man’s way is to store up an ocean at the peak of a mountain! Thankfully, “That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end.”
Chapter 80
A small country has fewer people.
Though there are machines that can work ten to a hundred times faster
than man, they are not needed.
The people take death seriously and do not travel far.
Though they have boats and carriages, no on uses them.
Though they have armor and weapons, no one displays them.
Men return to the knotting of rope in place of writing.
Their food is plain and good, their clothes fine but simple,
their homes secure;
They are happy in their ways.
They live within sight of their neighbors,
And crowing cocks and barking dogs are heard across the way,
Yet they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die.
This is the Tao Te Ching’s vision of utopia. Here the laws of the Tao find their reflection in the lives of the people just as the light of the high-up moon is reflected in a little pond. This is not so much a blueprint for a society or a well-dissected political philosophy, but rather Lao Tzu showing his love for what is humble and sustainable.
The contentment of people, the disuse of clever devices, the right to a simple life free of trouble—these are ideals enough. What more could we desire?
Chapter 81
Truthful words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not truthful.
Do not take these or any words as gospel, they are not magic incantations. The heart behind them is what’s important, and only in the heart can they come to fruition. Adhering to beauty for beauty’s sake is frivolous—the paintings don’t hold up the wall. However, let the unspeakable sentiment contained in these words guide your very root, and perhaps you will become the truth. In truth, you are Way. Tao.
https://ouroborosponderosa.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/daoist-writings-primitivist-ideals-pt-4-tao-te-ching/amp/
I'm having a bit of a brainstorming session, nothing has been built or purchased or anything. I'm wondering if I were to build a fallout shelter into the side of a hill, how would the heating be during the winter? Let's say I had to live in there the whole winter, would it get incredibly cold?
I live in a part of the United States where in only snows in December-January, maybe a week total sometime during those two months. At the lowest it gets to 20 degrees F or so. In theory the inside of the hill would be warmer than that, I am just wondering how much warmer.
Obviously a wood stove makes sense for this type of situation, but I'm wondering how cold would it get without one. Odd question I know but if any of you have experience with underground shelters it would be helpful. I admit this is not a nuclear/biological/chemical survival question, but I am asking people who have built a nuclear fallout shelter of their own how the temperature is during the winter.
Location is very important on any shelter under round or other wise . Personally I recomend doing solar passive . If the out side serfaces are exposed to sunlight is black, the sun wil warm it up and either air ducting or liquid plumbing can draw that heat from the serface to the inside of you home .
Study solar you will learn volumes . Water is a great storage bank resource, also are other soild objects such as rock and cement . Water heating pannels can use anti freeze or salt water on the exposed area and use a heat exhanger to heat water for house hold use .
There are any number of ways to discuise your serface area like making fake black rocks or boulders with copper tubing inside , either out of concrete or lava. Some of the plumbing can be hidden among this illusion so that only very close examination might reveal tecnology. Additionally . I just learned of a new tecnology using thermocouples in a solar array making power more effecient than photovoltic solar needing only heat not light.
Literally you can make power on your cook stove, or camp fire . I would do both photo and thermal . Before getting excied about a location, have the soil tested for RADON. and any other gasses present in the soil. Ignoring this can make the project much more expensve,and potentialy hazardous. good luck. it really depends on where you are. i was somewhat shocked to hear that in arizona even 50 ft underground you can find soil temps at 80 degrees.
Here is a good map of the us for soil temps, the second link explains what the legends mean:
http://soils.usda.gov/use/thematic/i...l_temp_reg.jpg
http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informat...xto=13&minto=1
GENERAL rule of thumb through, dig into the hill so that you are covered by at least a few feet of overburden and you will be NOWHERE nearly as cold as you would be outside... in most cases you might want to run a dehumidifier to take care of moisture and that should provide you with enough heat.
The location is in dense forest so unfortunately I doubt sunlight is going to effect much. Not only that, but the idea is that it's underground and it wouldn't get any light and would be underneath 3-4 feet of topsoil. Basically I am wondering about building a concrete bunker in the side of a hill, and if in the winter it would drop to maybe 30 degrees inside of if or if it would be more like 50 degrees inside.
There's a big difference between the two and how I would plan for them. I'll take your advice on getting the site tested for radon. Seems potentially hazardous and not expensive to test for. Better safe than sorry. Having worked in under ground bunker magazines where we stowed pallets of ammunition in the military, I will express my opinions and observations on this topic.
In the winter time it got cold! Not terribly so but it was a kind of cold that was persistent and crept up on you. I would guess in the area of about the mid to high 40's. It took a toll on the hands and the feet after a while. They werent heated due to ammunition being stored in them obviously. It was pretty comfortable inside when out side was 20 plus cooler. Just had to wear thick warm socks and light gloves.
The summer time was great! It was about 90-100 outside but about 60-65 inside. I used to catch the fellas loafing around sleeping during work hours on top of a missile container all the time.
Cant says I blame them too much. Our Magazine bunkers were mainly dome type structures of concrete with 2-3 feet of earth on top of them. Even in the PNW they stayed amazingly dry all though they all had some natural ventilation.
Look at the data i posted and you will get an idea. I doubt you are going to have to worry about it being 30 degrees inside your bunker just about anywhere in CONUS. artic circle alaska maybe... but not anywhere else. These links were very helpful.
For my situation, in the coldest time during the winter it would probably drop below 40 degrees inside the bunker. That's cold. I'd have to prepare for that. If it barely dropped below 50 I could probably just keep a lot of clothing and blankets and be fine. Below 40 is something else. Thanks everyone for your replies.
Where exactly do you want to put this shelter? (Location in country) Do you have a nuclear-exchange concern? Is that concern valid? How many rems or rads do you expect and why? Is that amount accurate? We (I) went through this about 25 years ago when we moved from Kommiefornia (California) to SW Oregon, USA.
Many human tests (including me) have indicated that after a few days (3 to 4) many human bodys HEAT up the average SW Oregon blast and fallout shelter to the point of discomfort and ventilation COOLING becomes the primary need. (like right now) This cooling requirement exceeds the needs for adequate human breathing needs. Average SW OR soil temp about 58 degrees F.
Your 10 foot deep soil temp may vary. Wood stove not needed, nor desired. If the need for a fall out shelter continues (our need dropped off greatly) your need for heating will be literally nothing. You will need to cool instead. One human puts out about 100 watts of heat energy. How many people? Lots of good stuff on the internet regarding blast and fallout shelter construction and requirements...including experimental data regarding long term heating.
What you may need instead is good effective NBC ventilation and some warm clothing...at first, then fans. HB of CJ. No matter where you go, you take it with you. PM if you want. put it below frost line by a good several feet and your heating and cooling needs will be minmal as they geothermal insulation of the earth will keep things pretty stable although i would be inclined to build a large root cellar that can be used in emergencies vs a dedicated fallout shelter.
Based on the two above posts (HB and FarmerJohn) I see maybe 40 degrees is a measure of the outside soil, and perhaps not a measure of the soil 10 feet deep. Coincidentally I do live in Oregon. NW Oregon though. Not necessarily planning on putting the shelter in a decide upon spot yet.
I may end up anywhere from SW Oregon to SW Canada before I actually build one. The whole thing is more of a concept that I'm going do be implementing in the next 6 months to 2 years.
Rather than something I will be doing tomorrow. I do have time to think about it and decide on the best way to go. As for the root cellar comment. I am also considering that way also. It seems like the fallout shelter would last longer. That's my line of thinking at the moment.
I want something that would last my lifetime. one thing to consider is if you are in a locale with a large swing in temps, you could always insulate the hell out of your bunker before you recover it with soil, keeping your temperature much closer to the yearly average.
I have been toying with different shelter materials , one of which is culvert material either in steel or concrete , there are some outfits making under ground bunkers from large culvert pipes PVC or equivelant . That material is designed to be under ground from the beginning so with out a doubt it will with stand the forces and moisture issues as well.
I realize the container is not a good idea seeing the reinforcment necessary to protect it from being crushed ,may as well just use the concrete block an be done with it . But that is what makes the culvert that much more attractive .
Human heat output in a shelter over 14 to 21 days may overwhelm any insulation scheme. You want the shelter very cool or cold. We now use our few NBC blast/fallout shelters left as root cellers with excellent results.
Right now the only one accessible to me is at a stable 58 degrees. (Ain't technology grand?) Great for whatever stable storage. Keep it dry. Late gardening year. HB of CJ (old coot) again...PM if you watta. No matter where you go...there you are...you take it all with you.
And honestly you can contact your local cement company they make those things locally have them give you a quote one near me will put vent holes/pipe in it when they cans so its already ready to go (I said i wa making rood cellar) but the guy said they were rated to be burried under 15-20 feet and you could park a few tractor trailers on top so i think as for worrying about ww3 it would work too:thumb: but id say go square not the round ones you will maximise space that way.
When cresson kearney was designing and building his trench and blast shelters he covered the topic of improvised insulation, the literature supports HB;the greater number of folks present will demand increased ventilation to carry off accumulating body heat/CO2.
If you haven't read Nuclear War Survival Skill a copy is available here;http://oism.org/. You may want to stop by webpal.org, this is the ARK 2 site in canada, they have an extensive bomb shelter complex in place and have probably given some thought to heating and cooling given their northern climate.
As an aside I would invite you to stop by the Oregon Group page here;
https://www.survivalistboards.com/group.php?groupid=253
hope this helps and good luck.
I actually have built an underground shelter in a hillside, which is mainly a good secure locked storage area which could also be a fallout / blast shelter and even bunker. I have slept in it mainly in October when it has gotten down to 10 degrees F.
I have 2 woodstoves down inside the bunker / shelter = one stove at each end. And have gotten the temperature up to 80 degrees although in the middle of the shelter 60 at the highest. But have only had one stove going at a time. Maybe someday If I can live up there in the winter when it can get below zero I will likely use both stoves. Here is a link IF any have missed this long but info packed thread.
Many links and pics throughout this long thread >
https://www.survivalistboards.com/sho...d.php?t=107463
Also here is The Best book that I have owned and used since 1982 and I know of no better info in one book especially concerning nuclear survival >
https://www.survivalistboards.com/dow...o=file&id=1378 which is the downloadable pdf and here is the free online book >
www.oism.org/nwss
Mtnman Mike I've actually already read that thread. It came up in a google search and that's how I found this forum in the first place. I spent the last week or so reading every post in it, and every one of the threads you linked to. I also ordered the $50 and Up Underground House Book you and at least one other person recommended. It should come tomorrow or the next day. I'm looking forward to reading it.
I appreciate the info on the temperature, but unfortunately your climate is very different from mine. You live in Wyoming and your shelter is on top of a mountain. Mine would probably be half the elevation and be in a place that only snows a few inches and only in December and January.
It's a safe bet that mine would stay warmer. I made this thread to see if how realistic it would be to skip having a wood stove. The construction of this shelter would probably not meet building codes and all that, so I'd rather not have smoke coming out from the top of it and attracting any attention.
It seems like it would make it far easier to spot and in many ways that defeats a lot of the purpose. If it was completely necessary I could have one, but I was hoping it wouldn't be. I do have a question for you if you have time. How did you pour so much concrete without it drying too quickly?
You did the entire job yourself. But then the outside of it looks like it was a single pour. I know nearly nothing about construction so there is probably a simple answer but I don't know it. By the way thank you for all the time and effort you put into making that thread. It was a pleasure to read.
Where I live the undergound temp is 53 deg. When I built the underground house that I used to live in, the temp stayed 68 degs all summer, no matter how hot it was outside. Now, I have a 48' X 60' hanger/apartment beside my house that I have insulated under ground outside of the footer down 2' with foam insulation.
The building is well insulated, and with the NG furnice turned off the coldest I have ever seen it inside the building when it was 0 degs outside is 50 degrees. Pops
Thanks for the info and question. Unlike most I do like to answer questions especially about the bunker and mtn retreat. If any don't know, I used at least 250 eighty pound bags of concrete. But it took me around 10 years to use that much. Most of those years I used 20 or more bags each summer.
And some days I only poured a couple bags. I also just used a 5 gallon bucket to mix the concrete then poured it on the roof, adding rocks. If there were a lot of rocks then I used mortar. I also added much chicken wire and even a strong wire fence into some parts of the concrete.
So there was no way the concrete would dry too quickly. I also covered the concrete with a tarp or plastic sheets so it would take at least 2 days to dry out. I am sure you can be warm enough without a wood stove. If you have a lot of electricity then some kind of small electric heater should be ok in mid winter. I hope no one would use a kerosene or oil heater inside a bunker or underground shelter unless they had extremely good ventilation.
My bunker has pretty good ventilation and at least once I had way too much smoke from a woodstove and opened the doors but there is also ventilation like a chimney effect from an opening below the front steel door and a vent by the back trap door. About woodsmoke is that I am not too concerned since my mtn retreat and bunker are quite remote. The neighbors with cabins are usually not even up there except weekends mainly in the summer.
I do burn wood hot and fast since I have an over abundance of firewood and dead trees. Burning wood hot and fast creates little if any smoke. I also put the dead tree on top of the bunker to camoflage the wood stove pipe. Close-up of concrete roof and stovepipe with the dead tree camoflaging the black stovepipe from the dirt road which is 150 feet down the mountain. All those pics are mainly on this long pic thread although I also have pics on a few other threads.
https://www.survivalistboards.com/sho...d.php?t=107463
Btw Otunga, I wish you had known and would have messaged me since I have Mike O's underground house book on a pdf and I have emailed it to several people. I can email it to anyone who messages me although I have to use email to send the pdf since I don't think I can send it thru messages on this board. But the book you ordered should have a bit more than the pdf file since the paper copy of the $50 and Up Underground House book has a couple pages of color pics.
Which is the only thing different from the black and white pdf. And If Anyone has any questions about anything, mainly about my bunker, shelter and bol / retreat then just ask in a message or post. Even a post in any of my pic threads.
I also know or knew little about construction as some like to tell me my bunker etc. are crude and just shacks. Although for "crude shacks" the sheds and especially the bunker - shelter has withstood an average of 12 feet of very heavy snowpack each winter.
I finished building the bunker in 2005 but the 3 layer log roof was put on by Sept. 1996. The bags of concrete which I had to carry up the mountain about 200 feet were put onto the bunker during the summers of 1996 to 2005 and I have added some more concrete the last couple years. well all for now Unless someone asks me more questions. MMMike
The earth should help to insulate your shelter fine. Running water and piping in the shelter could be an issue if you have consistent cold, but your idea of cold and mine vary. 7 days below 32 degrees farenheit and you need to look at a means to heat any running water source so your pipes don't freeze if you can't keep the water moving.
Temp inside the shelter would probably depend more on the number o f people in the shelter and level of activity. If there isn't water and piping you should be able to keep more than warm enough without a wood burning stove.
If you place one inside you need to think about how to cycle the smoke outside and filter the air. If you seal the bunker in the hill without that, you'll probably be in trouble. A pump or electric well might also not need serious heating given your situation if it is inside the bunker.
One way to test would be to dig a test plot hole and use a remote temp sensor to tell what the temp is at various times in the winter. Night will be your toughest time but with a significant number of people inside you may still be ok. Talk to the local health dept.
We used to be able to get small take home radon tests that you could have them test for you. It was basically a clay material that absorbed radon. If they don't have them, they should be able to point you to someone that does.
https://www-survivalistboards-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=265286&=1&_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=prerender&paddingTop=32&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15766991222896&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fwww.survivalistboards.com%2Fshowthread.php%253ft%3D265286%26amp%3D1&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=navigateTo%2Ccid%2CfullReplaceHistory%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl
FREMONT, Mich. -- Michigan is no stranger to crops with things like corn, apples and cherries taking over most fields. But it's also home to a tropical fruit, the Paw Paw. Bananas cannot grow in Michigan's rough climate, but Paw Paws do and they taste a lot like them. Magicland Farms in Fremont has a grove and their Bernadette Fox told us all about the tropical fruit.
"It's banana-like, but it also has hints of pineapple. To me it tastes a little more like pineapple than banana, but sometimes has a little mango as well. And then some vanilla in it, when you get it just right." Paw Paws grow as far south as Florida and far north as Ontario, but Fox says each variety tastes a little different. Perhaps it's the tastiness of the Michigan Paw Paw, that's why entire towns are named after it.
"All the different areas in and around Michigan, like Paw Paw, Michigan, the city, and the Paw Paw River are named after the fruit," Fox explains. So if the pineapple/banana-like fruit is actually a Paw Paw, why call it a Michigan banana?
"Paw Paw is a play on word for Papaya, because it kind of looks like that fruit, but it has nothing to do with it. So I'd rather call it a Michigan banana," Fox says. If you want to get your hands on a Paw Paw, better do so quickly, the season is only two weeks long and they aren't in grocery stores.
https://tribwxmi.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/ever-heard-of-a-michigan-banana/
Wa (倭, "Japan, Japanese", from Chinese 倭 Wō or Wa) is the oldest recorded name of Japan. The Chinese as well as Korean and Japanese scribes regularly wrote it in reference to Yamato (ancient Japanese nation) with the Chinese character 倭 "submissive, distant, dwarf", until the 8th century, when the Japanese replaced it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".
The earliest textual references to Japan are in Chinese classic texts. Within the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories, Japan is mentioned among the so-called Dongyi 東夷 "Eastern Barbarians". The historian Wang Zhenping summarizes Wo contacts with the Han State.
When chieftains of various Wo tribes contacted authorities at Lelang, a Chinese commandery established in northern Korea in 108 B.C. by the Western Han court, they sought to benefit themselves by initiating contact. In A.D. 57, the first Wo ambassador arrived at the capital of the Eastern Han court (25-220); the second came in 107.
Wo diplomats, however, never called on China on a regular basis. A chronology of Japan-China relations from the first to the ninth centuries reveals this irregularity in the visits of Japanese ambassadors to China.
There were periods of frequent contacts as well as of lengthy intervals between contacts. This irregularity clearly indicated that, in its diplomacy with China, Japan set its own agenda and acted on self-interest to satisfy its own needs.
No Wo ambassador, for example, came to China during the second century. This interval continued well past the third century. Then within merely nine years, the female Wo ruler Himiko sent four ambassadors to the Wei court (220-265) in 238, 243, 245, and 247 respectively. After the death of Himiko, diplomatic contacts with China slowed.
Iyoo, the female successor to Himiko, contacted the Wei court only once. The fourth century was another quiet period in China-Wo relations except for the Wo delegation dispatched to the Western Jin court (265-316) in 306.
With the arrival of a Wo ambassador at the Eastern Jin court (317-420) in 413, a new age of frequent diplomatic contacts with China began. Over the next sixty years, ten Wo ambassadors called on the Southern Song court (420-479), and a Wo delegation also visited the Southern Qi court (479-502) in 479. The sixth century, however, saw only one Wo ambassador pay respect to the Southern Liang court (502-557) in 502.
When these ambassadors arrived in China, they acquired official titles, bronze mirrors, and military banners, which their masters could use to bolster their claims to political supremacy, to build a military system, and to exert influence on southern Korea. (Wang 2005:221-222). Possibly the earliest record of Wō 倭 "Japan" occurs in the Shan Hai Jing 山海經 "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
The textual dating of this collection of geographic and mythological legends is uncertain, but estimates range from 300 BCE to 250 CE. The Haineibei jing 海內北經 "Classic of Regions within the North Seas" chapter includes Wō 倭 "Japan" among foreign places both real, such as Korea, and legendary (e.g. Penglai Mountain).
Kai [cover] Land is south of Chü Yen and north of Wo. Wo belongs to Yen. [蓋國在鉅燕南倭北倭屬燕 朝鮮在列陽東海北山南列陽屬燕] Ch’ao-hsien [Chosŏn, Korea] is east of Lieh Yang, south of Hai Pei [sea north] Mountain. Lieh Yang belongs to Yen. (12, tr. Nakagawa 2003:49)
Nakagawa notes that Zhuyan 鉅燕 refers to the (ca. 1000-222 BCE) kingdom of Yan (state), and that Wo ("Japan was first known by this name.") maintained a "possible tributary relationship" with Yan.
Wang Chong's ca. 70-80 CE Lunheng 論衡 "Discourses weighed in the balance" is a compendium of essays on subjects including philosophy, religion, and natural sciences.
The Rŭzēng 儒増 "Exaggerations of the Literati" chapter mentions Wōrén 倭人 "Japanese people" and Yuèshāng 越裳 "an old name for Champa" presenting tributes during the Zhou Dynasty. In disputing legends that ancient Zhou bronze ding tripods had magic powers to ward off evil spirits, Wang says.
During the Chou time there was universal peace. The Yuèshāng offered white pheasants to the court, the Japanese odoriferous plants. [獻白雉倭人貢鬯草] Since by eating these white pheasants or odoriferous plants one cannot keep free from evil influences, why should vessels like bronze tripods have such a power? (26, tr. Forke 1907:505)
Another Lunheng chapter Huiguo 恢國 "Restoring the nation" (58) similarly records that Emperor Cheng of Han (r. 51-7 BCE) was presented tributes of Vietnamese pheasants and Japanese herbs.
The ca. 82 CE Han Shu 漢書 "Book of Han"' covers the Former Han Dynasty (206 BCE-24 CE) period. Near the conclusion of the Yan entry in the Dilizhi 地理志 "Treatise on geography" section, it records that Wo encompassed over 100 guó 國 "communities, nations, countries".
Beyond Lo-lang in the sea, there are the people of Wo. They comprise more than one hundred communities. [樂浪海中有倭人分爲百餘國] It is reported that they have maintained intercourse with China through tributaries and envoys. (28B, tr. Otake Takeo 小竹武夫, cited by Nakagawa 2003:50)
Emperor Wu of Han established this Korean Lelang Commandery in 108 BCE. Historian Endymion Wilkinson (2000:726) says Wo 倭 "dwarf" was used originally in the Hanshu, "probably to refer to the inhabitants of Kyushu and the Korean peninsula. Thereafter to the inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago."
The ca. 297 CE Wei Zhi 魏志 "Records of Wei", comprising the first of the San Guo Zhi 三國志 "Records of the Three Kingdoms", covers history of the Cao Wei kingdom (220-265 CE).
The 東夷伝 "Encounters with Eastern Barbarians" section describes the Wōrén 倭人 "Japanese" based upon detailed reports from Chinese envoys to Japan. It contains the first records of Yamatai-koku, shamaness Queen Himiko, and other Japanese historical topics.
The people of Wa dwell in the middle of the ocean on the mountainous islands southeast of [the prefecture] of Tai-fang. They formerly comprised more than one hundred communities.
During the Han dynasty, [Wa envoys] appeared at the Court; today, thirty of their communities maintain intercourse [with us] through envoys and scribes. [倭人在帯方東南大海之中依山爲國邑舊百餘國漢時有朝見者今使早譯所通三十國] (tr. Tsunoda 1951:8)
This Wei Zhi context describes sailing from Korea to Wa and around the Japanese archipelago. For instance:
A hundred li to the south, one reaches the country of Nu [奴國], the official of which is called shimako, his assistant being termed hinumori. Here there are more than twenty thousand households. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:0)
Tsunoda (1951:5) suggests this ancient Núguó 奴國 (lit. "slave country"), Japanese Nakoku 奴国, was located near present-day Hakata in Kyūshū.
Some 12,000 li to the south of Wa is Gǒunúguó 狗奴國 (lit. "dog slave country"), Japanese Kunakoku, which is identified with the Kumaso tribe that lived around Higo and Ōsumi Provinces in southern Kyūshū. Beyond that, over one thousand li to the east of the Queen's land, there are more countries of the same race as the people of Wa.
To the south, also there is the island of the dwarfs [侏儒國] where the people are three or four feet tall. This is over four thousand li distant from the Queen's land. Then there is the land of the naked men, as well of the black-teethed people. [裸國黒齒國] These places can be reached by boat if one travels southeast for a year. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:13)
One Wei Zhi passage (tr. Tsunoda 1951:14) records that in 238 CE the Queen of Wa sent officials with tribute to the Wei emperor Cao Rui, who reciprocated with lavish gifts including a gold seal with the official title "Queen of Wa Friendly to Wei".
Another passage relates Wa tattooing with legendary King Shao Kang of the Xia Dynasty. Men great and small, all tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with designs.
From olden times envoys who visited the Chinese Court called themselves "grandees" [大夫]. A son of the ruler Shao-k'ang of Hsia, when he was enfeoffed as lord of K'uai-chi, cut his hair and decorated his body with designs in order to avoid the attack of serpents and dragons.
The Wa, who are fond of diving into the water to get fish and shells, also decorated their bodies in order to keep away large fish and waterfowl. Later, however, the designs became merely ornamental. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:10)
"Grandees" translates Chinese dàfū 大夫 (lit. "great man") "senior official; statesman" (cf. modern dàifu 大夫 "physician; doctor"), which mistranslates Japanese imperial taifu 大夫 "5th-rank courtier; head of administrative department; grand tutor" (the Nihongi records that the envoy Imoko was a taifu).
A second Wei history, the ca. 239-265 CE Weilüe 魏略 "Brief account of the Wei dynasty" is no longer extant, but some sections (including descriptions of the Roman Empire) are quoted in the 429 CE San Guo Zhi commentary by Pei Songzhi 裴松之.
He quotes the Weilüe that "Wō people call themselves posterity of Tàibó" (倭人自謂太伯之後). Taibo was the uncle of King Wen of Zhou, who ceded the throne to his nephew and founded the ancient state of Wu (585-473 BCE).
The Records of the Grand Historian has a section titled 吳太伯世家 "Wu Taibo's Noble Family", and his shrine is located in present day Wuxi. Researchers have noted cultural similarities between the ancient Wu state and Wō Japan including ritual tooth-pulling, back child carriers, and tattooing (represented with red paint on Japanese Haniwa statues).
The ca. 432 CE Hou Han Shu 後漢書 "Book of Later/Eastern Han" covers the Later Han Dynasty (25-220 CE) period, but was not compiled until two centuries later. The Wōrén 倭人 "Japanese" are included under the 東夷伝 "Encounters with Eastern Barbarians" section.
The Wa dwell on mountainous islands southeast of Tai-fang in the middle of the ocean, forming more than one hundred communities [倭人在帯方東南大海之中依山爲國邑舊百餘國].
From the time of the overthrow of Chao-hsien [northern Korea] by Emperor Wu (B.C. 140-87), nearly thirty of these communities have held intercourse with the Han [dynasty] court by envoys or scribes. Each community has its king, whose office is hereditary. The King of Great Wa resides in the country of Yamadai [邪馬台国]. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:1)
Comparing the opening descriptions of Wa in the Wei Zhi and Hou Han Shu clearly reveals that the latter is derivative. Their respective accounts of the dwarf, naked, and black-teethed peoples provide another example of copying.
Leaving the queen's land and crossing the sea to the east, after a voyage of one thousand li, the country of Kunu [狗奴國] is reached, the people of which are of the same race as that of the Wa. They are not the queen's subjects, however. Four thousand li away to the south of the queen's land, the dwarf's country [侏儒國] is reached; its inhabitants are three to four feet in height.
After a year's voyage by ship to the southeast of the dwarf's country, one comes to the land of naked men and also to the country of black-teethed people [裸國黑齒國]; here our communication service ends. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:3)
This Hou Han Shu account of Japan contains some historical details not found in the Wei Zhi. In … [57 CE], the Wa country Nu [倭奴國] sent an envoy with tribute who called himself ta-fu [大夫]. This country is located in the southern extremity of the Wa country. Kuang-wu bestowed on him a seal. In … [107 CE], during the reign of An-ti (107-125), the King of Wa presented one hundred sixty slaves, making at the same time a request for an imperial audience. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:2)
Tsunoda (1951:5) notes support for the Hakata location of Nu/Na country in the 1784 discovery at Hakata Bay of a gold seal bearing the inscription 漢委奴國王, usually translated "Han [vassal?] King of the Wa country Nu." Although the name of the King of Wa in AD 107 does not appear in the above translation, his name is Suishō (帥升) according to the original text.
The 488 CE Song Shu 宋書 "Book of Song" covers the brief history of the Liu Song Dynasty (420-479). Under the "Eastern and Southern Barbarians" 夷蠻 section, Japan is called Wōguó 倭國, Japanese Wakoku, and said to be located off Goguryeo. In contrast with the earlier histories that describe the Wa as a 人 "people", this Song history describes them as a 國 "country".
The country of Wa is in the midst of the great ocean, southeast of Koguryŏ. From generation to generation, [the Wa people] carry out their duty of bringing tribute. [倭國在高驪東南大海中世修貢職]
In [421], the first Emperor said in a rescript: "Ts'an [讚, Emperor Nintoku (r. ca. 313-319)] of Wa sends tribute from a distance of tens of thousands of li. The fact that he is loyal, though so far away, deserves appreciation. Let him, therefore, be granted rank and title." …
When Ts'an died and his brother, Chen [珍, Emperor Hanzei (r. ca. 406-411)], came to the throne, the latter sent an envoy to the Court with tribute. Signing himself as King of Wa and General Who Maintains Peace in the East [安東大將軍倭王] Commanding with Battle-Ax All Military Affairs in the Six Countries of Wa, Paekche, Silla, Imna, Chin-han and Mok-han, he presented a memorial requesting that his titles be formally confirmed.
An imperial edict confirmed his title of King of Wa and General Who Maintains Peace in the East. … In the twentieth year [443], Sai [濟, Emperor Ingyō (r. ca. 412-453)], King of Wa, sent an envoy with tribute and was again confirmed as King of Wa and General Who Maintains Peace.
In the twenty-eighth year [451], the additional title was granted of General Who Maintains Peace in the East Commanding with Battle-Ax All Military Affairs in the Six Countries of Wa, Silla, Imna, Kala, Chin-han and Mok-han. (99, tr. Tsunoda 1951:22-23)
The Song Shu gives detailed accounts of relations with Japan, indicating that the Wa kings valued their political legitimization from the Chinese emperors.
The 635 CE Liang Shu 梁書 "Book of Liang", which covers history of the Liang Dynasty (502-557), records the Buddhist monk Hui Shen's trip to Wa and the legendary Fusang. It refers to Japan as Wō 倭 (without "people" or "country" suffixation) under the Dongyi "Eastern Barbarians" section, and begins with the Taibo legend.
The Wa say of themselves that they are posterity of Tàibó. According to custom, the people are all tattooed. Their territory is over 12,000 li from Daifang. It is located approximately east of Kuaiji [on Hangzhou Bay], though at an extremely great distance. [倭者自云太伯之後俗皆文身去帶方萬二千餘里大抵在會稽之東相去絶遠]
Later texts repeat this myth of Japanese descent from Taibo. The 648 CE Jin Shu 晉書 "Book of Jin" about the Jin Dynasty (265-420 CE) uses a different "call" verb, wèi 謂 "say; call; name" instead of yún 云 "say; speak; call", "They call themselves the posterity of Tàibó [自謂太伯之後]".
The 1084 CE Chinese universal history Zizhi Tongjian 資治通鑑 speculates, "The present-day Japan is also said to be posterity of Tàibó of Wu; perhaps when Wu was destroyed, [a member of] a collateral branch of the royal family disappeared at sea and became Wo." [今日本又云吳太伯之後蓋吳亡其支庶入海為倭].
The 636 CE Sui Shu 隋書 "Book of Sui" records the history of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) when China was reunified. Wōguó/Wakoku is entered under "Eastern Barbarians", and said to be located off of Baekje and Silla (see Hogong), two of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
Wa-kuo is situated in the middle of the great ocean southeast of Paekche and Silla, three thousand li away by water and land. The people dwell on mountainous islands. [倭國在百濟新羅東南水陸三千里於大海之中依山島而居] During the Wei dynasty, over thirty countries [of Wa-kuo], each of which boasted a king, held intercourse with China.
These barbarians do not know how to measure distance by li and estimate it by days. Their domain is five months' journey from east to west, and three months' from north to south; and the sea lies on all sides. The land is high in the east and low in the west. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:28)
...
In 607 CE, the Sui Shu records that "King Tarishihoko" (a mistake for Empress Suiko) sent an envoy, Buddhist monks, and tribute to Emperor Yang. Her official message is quoted using the word Tiānzǐ 天子 "Son of Heaven; Chinese Emperor".
"The Son of Heaven in the land where the sun rises addresses a letter to the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun sets. We hope you are in good health." When the Emperor saw this letter, he was displeased and told the chief official of foreign affairs that this letter from the barbarians was discourteous, and that such a letter should not again be brought to his attention. (tr. Tsunoda 1951:32)
In 608, the Emperor dispatched Pei Ching as envoy to Wa, and he returned with a Japanese delegation. The Japanese Nihongi (22, tr. Aston 1972 2:136-9) also records these imperial envoys of 607 and 608, but with a differing Sino-Japanese historical perspective.
It records more details, such as naming the envoy Imoko Wono no Omi and translator Kuratsukuri no Fukuri, but not the offensive Chinese translation. According to the Nihongi, when Imoko returned from China, he apologized to Suiko for losing Yang's letter because Korean men "searched me and took it from me."
When the Empress received Pei, he presented a proclamation (tr. Aston 1972 2:137-8) contrasting Chinese Huángdì 皇帝 "Emperor" with Wōwáng 倭王 "Wa King", "The Emperor [皇帝] greets the Sovereign of Wa [倭王]." According to the Nihongi, Suiko gave Pei a different version of the imperial letter, contrasting Japanese Tennō 天皇 "Japanese Emperor" and Kōtei 皇帝 "Emperor" (Chinese tiānhuáng and huángdì) instead of using "Son of Heaven".
The Emperor [天皇] of the East respectfully addresses the Emperor [皇帝] of the West. Your Envoy, P'ei Shih-ch'ing, Official Entertainer of the Department of foreign receptions, and his suite, having arrived here, my long-harbored cares were dissolved. This last month of autumn is somewhat chilly. How is Your Majesty? We trust well. We are in our usual health. (tr. Aston 1972 2:139)
Aston quotes the 797 CE Shoku Nihongi history that this 607 Japanese mission to China first objected to writing Wa with the Chinese character 倭.
"Wono no Imoko, the Envoy who visited China, (proposed to) alter this term into Nippon, but the Sui Emperor ignored his reasons and would not allow it. The term Nippon was first used in the period … 618-626." Another Chinese authority gives 670 as the date when Nippon began to be officially used in China. (1972 2:137-8)
The custom of writing "Japan" as Wa 倭 ended during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Japanese scribes coined the name Nihon or Nippon 日本 circa 608–645 and replaced Wa 倭 with a more flattering Wa 和 "harmony; peace" around 756–757 CE (Carr 1992:6-7). The linguistic change is recorded in two official Tang histories.
The 945 CE Tang shu "Book of Tang" 唐書 (199A) has the oldest Chinese reference to Rìběn 日本. The "Eastern Barbarian" section lists both Wakoku 倭国 and Nipponkoku 日本国, giving three explanations: Nippon is an alternate name for Wa, or the Japanese disliked Wakoku because it was "inelegant; coarse" 不雅, or Nippon was once a small part of the old Wakoku.
The 1050 CE Xin Tang Shu 新唐書 "New Book of Tang", which has a Riben 日本 heading for Japan under the "Eastern Barbarians", gives more details.
Japan in former times was called Wa-nu. It is 14,000 li distant from our capital, situated to the southeast of Silla in the middle of the ocean. It is five months' journey to cross Japan from east to west, and a three-month journey from south to north. [日本古倭奴也去京師萬四千里直新羅東南在海中島而居東西五月行南北三月行] (145, tr. Tsunoda 1951:38)
Regarding the change in autonyms, the Xin Tang Shu says. In … 670, an embassy came to the Court [from Japan] to offer congratulations on the conquest of Koguryŏ. Around this time, the Japanese who had studied Chinese came to dislike the name Wa and changed it to Nippon. According to the words of the (Japanese) envoy himself, that name was chosen because the country was so close to where the sun rises. [後稍習夏音惡倭名更號日本使者自言國近日所出以為名]
Some say, (on the other hand), that Japan was a small country which had been subjugated by the Wa, and that the latter took over its name. As this envoy was not truthful, doubt still remains.
[或雲日本乃小國為倭所並故冒其號使者不以情故疑焉] [The envoy] was, besides, boastful, and he said that the domains of his country were many thousands of square li and extended to the ocean on the south and on the west. In the northeast, he said, the country was bordered by mountain ranges beyond which lay the land of the hairy men. (145, tr. Tsunoda 1951:40)
Subsequent Chinese histories refer to Japan as Rìběn 日本 and only mention Wō 倭 as an old name. The earliest Korean reference to Japanese Wa (Wae in Korean) is the 414 CE Gwanggaeto Stele that was erected to honor King Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo (r. 391-413 CE).
This memorial stele, which has the oldest usage of Wakō (倭寇, "Japanese pirates", Waegu in Korean), records Wa as a military ally of Baekje in their battles with Goguryeo and Silla. Some scholars interpret these references to mean not only "Japanese" but also "Gaya peoples" in the southern Korean Peninsula. For instance, Lee suggests,
If Kokuryo could not destroy Paekche itself, it wished for someone else to do so. Thus, in another sense, the inscription may have been wishful thinking. At any rate, Wae denoted both the southern Koreans and people who lived on the southwest Japanese islands, the same Kaya people who had ruled both regions in ancient times. Wae did not denote Japan alone, as was the case later. (1997:34)
"It is generally thought that these Wae were from the archipelago," write Lewis and Sesay (2002:104), "but we as yet have no conclusive evidence concerning their origins."
The Japanese endonym Wa 倭 "Japan" derives from the Chinese exonym Wō 倭 "Japan, Japanese", a graphic pejorative Chinese character that had some offensive connotation, possibly "submissive, docile, obedient", "bowing; bent over", or "short person; dwarf".
The Chinese character 倭 combines the 人 or 亻 "human, person" radical and a wěi 委 "bend" phonetic. This wěi phonetic element depicts hé 禾 "grain" over nǚ 女 "woman", which Bernhard Karlgren (1923:368) semantically analyzes as: "bend down, bent, tortuous, crooked; fall down, throw down, throw away, send away, reject; send out, delegate – to bend like a 女 woman working with the 禾 grain."
The oldest written forms of 倭 are in Seal script, and it has not been identified in Bronzeware script or Oracle bone script.
Most characters written with this wěi 委 phonetic are pronounced wei in Standard Chinese. Nara period Japanese scholars believed that Chinese character for Wō 倭 "Japan", which they used to write "Wa" or "Yamato", was graphically pejorative in denoting 委 "bent down" 亻 "people".
Around 757 CE, Japan officially changed its endonym from Wa 倭 to Wa 和 "harmony; peace; sum; total". This replacement Chinese character hé 和 combines a hé 禾 "grain" phonetic (also seen in 倭) and the "mouth" radical 口. Carr explains:
Graphic replacement of the 倭 "dwarf Japanese" Chinese logograph became inevitable. Not long after the Japanese began using 倭 to write Wa ∼ Yamato 'Japan', they realized its 'dwarf; bent back' connotation. In a sense, they had been tricked by Chinese logography; the only written name for 'Japan' was deprecating.
The chosen replacement wa 和 'harmony; peace' had the same Japanese wa pronunciation as 倭 'dwarf', and - most importantly - it was semantically flattering. The notion that Japanese culture is based upon wa 和 'harmony' has become an article of faith among Japanese and Japanologists
In current Japanese usage, Wa 倭 "old name for Japan" is a variant Chinese character for Wa 和 "Japan", excepting a few historical terms like the Five kings of Wa, wakō (Chinese Wōkòu 倭寇 "Japanese pirates"), and Wamyō Ruijushō dictionary.
In marked contrast, Wa 和 is a common adjective in Sino-Japanese compounds like Washoku 和食 "Japanese cuisine", Wafuku 和服 "Japanese clothing", Washitsu 和室 "Japanese-style room", Waka 和歌 "Japanese-style poetry", Washi 和紙 "traditional Japanese paper", Wagyu 和牛 "Japanese cattle".
In Chinese, the character 倭 can be pronounced wēi "winding", wǒ "an ancient hairstyle", or Wō "Japan". The first two pronunciations are restricted to Classical Chinese bisyllabic words. Wēi 倭 occurs in wēichí 倭遲 "winding; sinuous; circuitous; meandering", which has numerous variants including wēiyí 逶迤 and 委蛇.
The oldest recorded usage of 倭 is the Shi Jing (162) description of a wēichí 倭遲 "winding; serpentine; tortuous" road; compare (18) using wēituó 委佗 "compliant; bending, pliable; graceful".
Wǒ 倭 occurs in wǒduòjì 倭墮髻 "a woman's hairstyle with a bun, popular during the Han Dynasty". The third pronunciation Wō 倭 "Japan; Japanese" is more productive than the first two, as evident in Chinese names for "Japanese" things (e.g., Wōkòu 倭寇 "Japanese pirates" above) or "dwarf; pygmy" animals.
Reconstructed pronunciations of wō 倭 in Middle Chinese (ca. 6th-10th centuries CE) include ʼuâ (Bernhard Karlgren), ʼua (Zhou Fagao), and ʼwa (Edwin G. Pulleyblank). Reconstructions in Old Chinese (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE) include *ʼwâ (Karlgren), *ʼwər (Dong Tonghe), and *ʼwər (Zhou).
In Japanese, the Chinese character 倭 has Sinitic on'yomi pronunciations of wa or ka from Chinese wō "Japan" and wǒ "an ancient hairstyle", or wi or i from wēi "winding; obedient", and native kun'yomi pronunciations of yamato "Japan" or shitagau "obey, obedient".
Chinese wō 倭 "an old name for Japan" is a loanword in other East Asian languages including Korean 왜 wae or wa, Cantonese wai1 or wo1, and Taiwanese Hokkien.
Although the etymological origins of Wa remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago (perhaps Kyūshū), named something like *ʼWâ or *ʼWər 倭.
Carr (1992:9-10) surveys prevalent proposals for Wa's etymology ranging from feasible (transcribing Japanese first-person pronouns waga 我が "my; our" and ware 我 "I; oneself; thou") to shameful (writing Japanese Wa as 倭 implying "dwarf barbarians"), and summarizes interpretations for *ʼWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short'."
The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. It defines 倭 as shùnmào 順皃 "obedient/submissive/docile appearance", graphically explains the "person; human' radical with a wěi 委 "bent" phonetic, and quotes the above Shi Jing poem.
According to the (1716) Kangxi Dictionary (倭又人名 魯宣公名倭), 倭 was the name of King Tuyen (魯宣公) of Lu (Chinese: 魯國; pinyin: Lǔ Guó, circa 1042–249 BC). "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr (1992:9) suggests "they transcribed Wa as *ʼWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance.
Bowing is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting" (Hou Han Shu, tr. Tsunoda 1951:2), and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground. This is the way they show respect." (Wei Zhi, tr. Tsunoda 1951:13). Koji Nakayama (linked below) interprets wēi 逶 "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translates Wō 倭 as "separated from the continent."
The second etymology of wō 倭 meaning "dwarf; short person" has possible cognates in ǎi 矮 "short (of stature); midget, dwarf; low", wō 踒 "strain; sprain; bent legs", and wò 臥 "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)".
Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to a Zhūrúguó 侏儒國 "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possibly Okinawa Island or the Ryukyu Islands. Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development.
Since early Chinese information about Wo/Wa peoples was based largely on hearsay, Wang Zhenping (2005:9) says, "Little is certain about the Wo except they were obedient and complaisant."
An article by Michael Carr (1992:1) "compares how Oriental and Occidental lexicographers have treated the fact that Japan's first written name was a Chinese Wō < *ʼWâ 倭 'short/submissive people' insult." It evaluates 92 dictionary definitions of Chinese Wō 倭 to illustrate lexicographical problems with defining ethnically offensive words.
This corpus of monolingual and bilingual Chinese dictionaries includes 29 Chinese-Chinese, 17 Chinese-English, 13 Chinese to other Western Languages, and 33 Chinese-Japanese dictionaries. To analyze how Chinese dictionaries deal with the belittling origins of Wō, Carr divides definitions into four types, abbreviated with Greek alphabet letters Alpha through Delta.
For example, Alpha (A) type includes both overt definitions like "The land of dwarfs; Japan" (Liushi Han-Ying cidian 劉氏漢英辭典 [Liu's Chinese-English Dictionary] 1978) and more sophisticated semantic distinctions like "(1) A dwarf. (2) Formerly, used to refer to Japan" (Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage 1972).
Beta (B) "compliant; Japanese" is illustrated by "demütig [humble; submissive; meek], gehorchen [obey; respond]" (Praktisches zeichenlexikon chinesisch-deutsch-japanisch [A Practical Chinese-German-Japanese Character Dictionary] 1983).
Gamma (Γ) "type definitions such as "depreciatingly Japanese" (e.g., A Beginner's Chinese-English Dictionary of the National Language (Gwoyeu) 1964) include usage labels such as "derogatory," "disparaging," "offensive," or "contemptuous".
Some Γ notations are restricted to subentries like "Wōnú 倭奴 (in modern usage, derogatively) the Japs" (Zuixin shiyong Han-Ying cidian 最新實用和英辭典 [A New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary] 1971). Delta (Δ) "Japanese" is the least informative type of gloss; for instance, "an old name for Japan" (Xin Han-Ying cidian 新漢英詞典 [A New Chinese-English Dictionary] 1979).
Carr evaluates these four typologies for defining the Chinese 倭 "bent people" graphic pejoration. From a theoretical standpoint, A "dwarf" or B "submissive" type definitions are preferable for providing accurate etymological information, even though it may be deemed offensive.
It is no transgression for an abridged Chinese dictionary to give a short Δ "Japan" definition, but adding "an old name for" or "archaic" takes no more space than adding a Γ "derogatory" note. A Δ definition avoids offending the Japanese, but misleads the dictionary user in the same way as the OED2 defining wetback and white trash without usage labels. (1992:12).
Half of the Western language dictionaries note that Chinese Wō 倭 "Japanese" means "little person; dwarf", while most Chinese-Chinese definitions overlook the graphic slur with Δ type "ancient name for Japan" definitions. This demeaning A "dwarf" description is found more often in Occidental language dictionaries than in Oriental ones.
The historically more accurate, and ethnically less insulting, "subservient; compliant" B type is limited to Chinese-Japanese and Chinese-German dictionaries. The Γ type "derogatory" notation occurs most often among Japanese and European language dictionaries.
The least edifying Δ "(old name for) Japan" type definitions are found twice more often in Chinese-Chinese than in Chinese-Japanese dictionaries, and three times more than in Western ones.
Even the modern-day Unicode universal character standard reflects inherent lexicographic problems with this ancient Chinese Wō 倭 "Japan" affront. The Unihan (Unified CJK characters) segment of Unicode largely draws definitions from two online dictionary projects, the Chinese CEDICT and Japanese EDICT.
The former lists Chinese wo1 倭 "Japanese; dwarf", wokou4 倭寇 "(in ancient usage) the dwarf-pirates; the Japs", and wonu2 倭奴 "(used in ancient times) the Japanese; (in modern usage, derogatively) the Japs". The latter lists Japanese yamato 倭 "ancient Japan", wajin 倭人 "(an old word for) a Japanese", and wakou 倭寇 "Japanese pirates."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_(Japan)
Yue (Chinese: 越; Old Chinese: *[ɢ]ʷat), also known as Yuyue (於越), was a state in ancient China which existed during the first millennium BC – the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of China's Zhou dynasty – in the modern provinces of Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Its original capital was Kuaiji (modern Shaoxing); after its conquest of Wu, the Kings of Yue moved their court north to the city of Wu (modern Suzhou).
The name "Baiyue" (百越) was applied indiscriminately to many non-Chinese peoples who had been mentioned in numerous classical texts. A specific kingdom, which had been known as the "Yue Guo" (越國) in modern Zhejiang, was not mentioned until it began a series of wars against its northern Yue neighbor Wu during the late 6th century BC.
According to the Records of the Grand Historian and Discourses of the States, the Yue are descended from Wuyu, the son of Shao Kang which as known as the sixth king of the Xia dynasty. With help from Wu's enemy Chu, Yue was able to be victorious after several decades of conflict. The famous Yue King Goujian destroyed and annexed Wu in 473 BC. During the reign of Wujiang (無彊), six generations after Goujian, Yue was partitioned by Chu and Qi in 306 BC.
During its existence, Yue was famous for the quality of its metalworking, particularly its swords. Examples include the extremely well-preserved Swords of Goujian and Zhougou.
The Yue state appears to have been a largely indigenous political development in the lower Yangtze. This region corresponds with that of the old corded-ware Neolithic, and it continued to be one that shared a number of practices, such as tooth extraction, pile building, and cliff burial, practices that continued until relatively recent times in places such as Taiwan. Austronesian speakers also still lived in the region down to its conquest and sinification beginning about 240 BC.
What set the Yue apart from other Sinitic states of the time was their possession of a navy. Yue culture was distinct from the Chinese in its practice of naming boats and swords. A Chinese text described the Yue as a people who used boats as their carriages and oars as their horses.
After the fall of Yue, the ruling family moved south to what is now northern Fujian and set up the Minyue kingdom. This successor state lasted until around 150 BC, when it miscalculated an alliance with the Han dynasty.
Mingdi, Wujiang's second son, was appointed minister of Wucheng (present-day Huzhou's Wuxing District) by the king of Chu. He was titled Marquis of Ouyang Ting, from a pavilion on the south side of Ouyu Mountain. The first Qin dynasty emperor Qin Shi Huang abolished the title after his conquest of Chu in 223 BC, but descendants and subjects of its former rulers took up the surnames Ou, Ouyang, and Ouhou (歐侯) in remembrance.
Possible languages spoken in the state of Yue may have been of Tai-Kadai and Austronesian origins. Li Hui (2001) identifies 126 Tai-Kadai cognates in Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed.[13] According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of 'old Yue language' (gu Yueyu 古越語).
Wolfgang Behr (2002) points out that some scattered non-Sinitic words found in the two ancient Chinese fictional texts, Mu tianzi zhuan 穆天子傳 (4th c. BC) and Yuejue shu 越絕書 (1st c. AD),[a] can be compared to lexical items in Tai-Kadai languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_(state)
1. Choose your purpose. Need an energy boost or a stress reliever? (You can skip this step and move to the next one if you like, never underestimate the benefits of simply choosing stones intuitively!)
2. Choose your stones. I recommend no more than three different kinds, not including quartz which can be added for amplification if you so choose.
3. Choose your method. Here comes the most important part, you need to find out if one or more of the stones you chose are toxic. If they are not toxic, feel free to get creative with the mixin’s! If they are toxic, you can still create a gem water, but you must use the indirect method. Here’s a list of toxic stones.
2. Choose your stones. I recommend no more than three different kinds, not including quartz which can be added for amplification if you so choose.
3. Choose your method. Here comes the most important part, you need to find out if one or more of the stones you chose are toxic. If they are not toxic, feel free to get creative with the mixin’s! If they are toxic, you can still create a gem water, but you must use the indirect method. Here’s a list of toxic stones.
Crystal Water and Elixirs can be made in two different ways. One is the direct method, this involves placing the crystal directly into the water using a glass container with some kind of glass cover or saran wrap.
Place this in the sun or moon light for a few hours and then it will be done.
You can also infuse the water with healing Reiki energy for added benefits. Using this method can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing because some crystals can put of toxic metals into the water.
Most crystals from the quartz family are alright to use with the direct method. This is a list of crystals you should be aware of when using the direct method.
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Make sure your crystals are cleansed before using them. Crystals have healing properties that can be used for many different things.
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The other method which is safer for a beginner would be the indirect method using double containers. Place clean pure water in a sealed glass container. Place the glass jar of water into a larger bowl of water with the crystals in it.
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You can place as many crystals as you want into the larger bowl, make sure you use just one kind of crystal for each elixir.
Know what they do and the desired outcome you are trying to reach with their use. You can later blend the elixirs together to get your desired healing blend. You can even place terminated quartz crystals around the outside of the bowl to amplify the energy towards the jar.
Place saran wrap over the top of the bowl and the glass jar and set in the sunlight or moonlight for a few hours. After that the water will be infused with the crystalline energy, add Reiki energy for added benefits. For the Crystal Water you can just place the infused crystal water in a dark glass bottle and you are done. This water should be used quickly within a couple of days. For the Crystal Elixir place this crystal infused water into a small dark glass bottle using a dropper, filling it half way. Fill the other half of the bottle with 80 proof vodka or vinegar.
https://crystalsheal.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/what-is-gem-water/
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