text:
Time was, to build a bigger-displacement big-block, you did it mostly through the stroke. That's because the classic, Mark IV big-block is limited to about 0.100-0.125-inch maximum overbores. On a 454ci engine with a stock, 4.00-inch stroke, a 0.100-inch overbore delivers a 476-inch displacement, while a 0.125-inch overbore will give you a 481-inch Rat.
A popular combination is the safer 0.060-inch overbore with a longer, 4.250-inch stroke to make a 496-inch combination. But to take the basic 454 beyond the magical 500-inch mark requires stretching the dimensions considerably with a much longer stroke: 4.350-inch bores (0.100-inch over the stock 4.250 dimensions) and a 4.250-inch stroke delivers 505 ci. Longer strokes deliver bigger cubes, but there's a definite limit to the stock block's bore capability.
As for GM's own big-cube big-blocks-the 502- and 572-inch monsters sold through GM Performance Parts-they use later, Gen V blocks that are designed for much greater bore capacity than the Mark IV blocks of the muscle car era. The 502-inch engine uses 4.47-inch bores with a standard 4.00-inch stroke, while the 572 has big 4.560x4.375 bore and stroke specs. Clearly, there is a range of possibilities when it comes to building large-displacement big-block engines. While additional cubic inches bring a corresponding increase in power, the question has to be asked about where in the rpm band that power is delivered and how it will be used.
Prior to the introduction of the Gen-V block and aftermarket blocks, stroking the big-block was the tried and true method-and what was there to complain about? Stroker engines are all about torque, and presumably, that's what we all love about big-blocks-the spine-tugging, axle-twisting pull that can't be matched in a small-displacement engine, no matter how camshafts or valves per cylinder you give it.
But consider this: Maybe building a big-block with even greater low-end torque isn't the best solution for a street/strip car.
With an already abundant reserve of torque off idle, what does even more give you on the street or strip? You'll be spinning the tires on the street and typically sacrificing high-rpm power on the strip, the venue where it's needed the most. Sure, torque will help launch a heavy car, but big-blocks have inherent low-end pull anyway, so that shouldn't be a huge concern. There's also the parasitic energy penalty of driving a long-stroke rotating assembly.
So, maybe the big-bore, shorter stroke option is one to be explored. With the added rev capability that comes with a shorter stroke, the engine will make more horsepower at the top end, while sacrificing only the torque that would allow a Chevelle with a blade on its front bumper to qualify as an earth mover.
We recently visited the concept of a big-bore, short-stroke big-block with Dart Machinery's Richard Maskin.
"Big-bore engines breathe better," says Maskin. "They make the most of high-flow cylinder heads because less of the valve is shrouded. And there's the unquestionable benefit of quicker, higher revving that builds horsepower where you need it on the track. Unless you want to spend your time doing burnouts at every stop light, there's not much need for a long-stroke engine."
There are a few other points to consider with a large bore/short stroke combination:
Reduced valve shrouding enables the use of larger intake and exhaust valves for greater airflow efficiency.
A shorter stroke reduces the distance the piston travels, which reduces the friction and drag created by the piston rings against the cylinder wall.
The crankshaft rotates in a smaller arc, reducing crankcase windage.


text:
Mar 23, 2008
The Easter Bunny Strikes Back - Happy Easter to everyone!
I've received LEGO's new motorized AT-AT walker and somehow it disguised itself as an Easter Bunny and went down to Hoth:
Happy Easter everyone!
Posted by: Matthias Paul Scholz at 1:56 AM
6 comments:
- snowblader13 said...
Wow, Its amazing how similar the movement between the LEGO one and the ones in the movie are.
Great Movie Matthias!!!
- Mar 23, 2008, 7:34:00 AM
- Thebuilder94 said...
Thats Nice! I like the bunny twist!
Happy Easter to you too and God bless!
- Mar 23, 2008, 2:22:00 PM
- NXTMonger said...
That's a really good video Matthias! What editing software did you use?
- Mar 24, 2008, 2:38:00 AM
- Matthias Paul Scholz said...
Thank you. :-)
I used Windows Movie Maker.
- Mar 24, 2008, 2:52:00 AM
- Andy said...
Haha! That was awsome! It's incredible what you can do in such an easy piece of software as WMM.
Happy eater to y'all! Keep up the good video editing Matthis! :P
- Mar 24, 2008, 6:11:00 AM
I thought the bunny teeth were cute, then I saw the bunny tail! Classic!
- Mar 26, 2008, 1:17:00 AM
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Claremont Graduate University
150 East Tenth Street
Claremont, CA 91711-6160
(909) 621-8025 phone
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Dear Friends and Visitors:
A hearty welcome to Claremont Graduate University. I hope that you will discover here a place that matches your passion to make a difference in the world.
The University is a small institution where students and faculty regularly interact in the exploration of the frontiers of knowledge and together imagine how they can make a significant difference in and for the world and its people.
It is a beautiful place. The campus is well-designed and welcoming. The architecture is interesting, and the climate is wonderful. Excellent libraries and other facilities are readily available, and we are located in one of the more beautiful small cities in the United States.
Set in the academic context of the highly acclaimed Claremont colleges we promote the ideals of our first president, James Blaisdell. He once said that "The center of a college is in great conversation, and out of the talk of college life springs everything else."
Here at Claremont, an outstanding and accomplished faculty is dedicated to promoting great conversations that really matter---in the classroom and at leisure, in research and in social action, within the university and outside it.
We also have a group of the most talented and creative graduate students anywhere, and an unusually competent and caring staff.
Great conversations that matter encourage us to be transdisciplinary. Increasingly, advances in knowledge come from people and teams that blend disciplines. Society's most important challenges refuse to be confined to a single discipline or profession. So, for theory and for practice, we encourage great conversations across fields of study and out into the world.
Throughout the website you will find evidence that Claremont Graduate University's aim is to enable transformative education for those of you who join us as students in our pursuit of excellence in thought and action.
In summary, to enable a strong focus on you as a graduate student, Claremont Graduate University is:
The result, we believe, is that Claremont Graduate University provides an educational experience found nowhere else in the world.
We invite you to learn more by exploring this website. And if you want to see and know more, please come visit and see for yourself how CGU can fuel your passion to make a difference in your life and in the world.
Deborah A. Freund
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Media Contact:Faithe ColasCommunity Relations
Director414-302-4300 x2248414-531-6363 CellLike us on Facebook and follow us on TwitterText
Sarmy to 85944 to make a $10 donationwww.SAmilwaukee.org
COUNTYAssociation's "Building Milwaukee" Award Accepted by
Major Dan Jennings
MILWAUKEE, WIS. — The Milwaukee Chapter of the National Association of
the Remodeling Industry (NARI), the area's leading home improvement and
remodeling industry resource for more than 52 years, presented its annual
"Building Milwaukee Award" to The Salvation Army of Milwaukee
County at the association's monthly membership meeting on Tues., Nov.
The "Building Milwaukee" Award was created to recognize efforts
made by individuals and groups who concentrate on community improvements and
assist in the growth of the home remodeling industry.
Accepting the award was Major Dan Jennings, Divisional Commander of the
Salvation Army's Wisconsin & Upper Michigan Division. Jennings has
been an officer since 1992, having served with the Watertown South Dakota Corps
and the Kansas & Western Missouri Division. He was named to his current
position in February of this year. A graduate from Olivet Nazarene University,
he is an instructor for The Salvation Army Continuing Education Program,
teaching Preaching and Worship.
Over the last three years, Milwaukee/NARI has partnered with The Salvation
Army on its annual Red Kettle Campaign, as well as collected toys for the
organization's Toy Shop that provides gifts to underprivileged Milwaukee
County youth. Milwaukee/NARI has also collected non-perishable food items for
The Salvation Army in conjunction with the Tour of Remodeled Homes held
annually in May.
The Salvation Army, an evangelical part of the universal Christian church
established in London in 1865, has been supporting those in need without
discrimination for 129 years in the United States. Nearly 30 million Americans
receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through the broadest array
of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for
disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill,
clothing and shelter to the homeless, and opportunities for underprivileged
children. Approximately 84 cents of every dollar spent is used to support
those services in 5,000 communities nationwide.
In Milwaukee County during 2012, The Salvation Army served over 300,000
meals to more than 40,000 people and provided shelter for 1,000 individuals,
helped them find jobs, and taught them how to take control of their lives. In
total, more than 723,000 people were assisted by over 3,600 volunteers.
The "Building Milwaukee" Award was previously presented to...
2012 – Kohler Co. (accepted by Jeffrey Mueller, President of Kohler
Co.'s Global Faucets business)2011 – Bob Yamachika, President
and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee
2010 – Gus Gnorski, FOX6 TV personality and well-known Milwaukee
2009 – Sue Black, Director of the Milwaukee County Department of
Parks, Recreation and Culture2008 – William (Willie) G. Davidson,
Senior Vice President and Chief Styling Officer for the Styling Department at
Harley-Davidson, Inc. 2007 – Scott Walker, Milwaukee County
Executive 2006 – Steve Tennies, Habitat for Humanity 2005
– Dr. Darnell Cole, President, Milwaukee Area Technical College
2004 – Dave Luczak and Carole Caine, morning show hosts for WKLH-FM
2003 – Gary Grunau 2002 – Joseph Chudnow 2001
– Members of the Police and Fire Departments of the City of Milwaukee
2000 – Michael Cudahy 1999 – Richard Snow 1998
– Allan H. (Bud) Selig 1997 – Milwaukee Mayor John O.
The Milwaukee/NARI Home Improvement Council was chartered in July 1961, as a
Chapter of the National Home Improvement Council. In May of 1982, the National
Home Improvement Council merged with the National Remodelers Association to
form NARI – the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.
The Council's goals of encouraging ethical conduct, professionalism,
and sound business practices in the remodeling industry have led to the
remodeling industry's growth and made NARI a recognized authority in that
industry. With over 720 members, the Milwaukee Chapter is the nation's
For more information or to receive a free copy of an annual membership
roster listing all members alphabetically and by category, and the booklet,
"Milwaukee/NARI's Remodeling Guide," call
414-771-4071 or visit the Council's website at www.milwaukeenari.org.
About The Salvation ArmyThe Salvation Army, an
evangelical part of the universal Christian church,
has been supporting those in need in His name without discrimination since
1865. Nearly 33 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army
each year through the broadest array of social services that range from
providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the
disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless
and opportunities for underprivileged children. Nationally, approximately 84
cents of every dollar raised is used to support those services in nearly 9,000
communities nationwide. For more information, go to www.SAmilwaukee.org.


text:
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text:
Decision Season
Earlier this week, the Obama administration decided not to ask the whole 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), shortening the timetable for the various cases against the ACA reaching the Supreme Court and, according to some, setting the Court to rule smack-dab in the middle of election season. Earlier this year, a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the law's "individual mandate" -- the provision requiring people to pay a tax if they do not purchase insurance -- unconstitutional. But before we speculate whether and when the Supreme Court will uphold the ACA, we should consider the question of whether it will decide to decide at all.
Unlike the appeals court rulings on the ACA in the Sixth and 11th circuits, the majority opinions in the two cases decided by the Fourth Circuit earlier this month -- Virginia v. Sebelius and Liberty University v. Timothy Geithner -- did not rule explicitly on whether the legislation was constitutional. Instead, both lawsuits were dismissed for a lack of jurisdiction. Under Article III of the Constitution, the power of the federal courts derives from their ability to decide "cases and controversies." Since its inception, the Supreme Court has read this to mean that federal courts cannot decide constitutional cases in the abstract. You can't sue the government because you happen not to like something it does; the party bringing the suit must have "standing" -- that is, some direct stake in the application of the law. The Fourth Circuit essentially held that there was nothing for them to adjudicate.
In Virginia v. Sebelius, the court found that Cuccinelli and the state of Virginia did not have standing. The individual mandate, wrote Judge Diana Motz, "imposes no obligations on the sole plaintiff, Virginia." The state of Virginia is not directly affected by the mandate provision and hence has no standing to challenge its constitutionality, the appeals court reasoned. In Liberty University v. Geithner, Judge Motz held that the suit should be dismissed based on the related doctrine of "ripeness." Because the relevant provisions of the ACA do not go into effect until 2014 and federal law prevents pre-enforcement challenges to revenue collection, the court also lacked jurisdiction in the case of Liberty University's suit, even though Liberty University was directly affected by the ACA's employer mandate and would therefore not have the state of Virginia's standing problem.
Ordinarily, the decision of a three-judge panel composed of Clinton and Obama appointees would not be taken as a sign of what the Republican-dominated Supreme Court will do. But because the Fourth Circuit's ruling rested on jurisdictional grounds, some pundits see them as indicative of how the high court would rule, particularly if a Supreme Court decision comes out during election season. Last term's Arizona Christian School v. Winn was the latest in a lengthy string of cases in which Supreme Court conservatives have used narrow standing rules to limit access to the courts. Given this history, is it possible that the Supreme Court will follow the lead of this Fourth Circuit panel and refuse to rule on the constitutionality of the ACA for the time being?
Perhaps, but I would not advise such optimism. In the words of Yale Law School's Jack Balkin, "standing doctrine is among the most unprincipled and arbitrary parts of American constitutional law." When the Supreme Court declines to hear a case based on lack of standing, it is almost always because they are unsympathetic to the substance of the constitutional claims being pursued. So while the conservatives on the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts have consistently voted to make it more difficult to bring lawsuits regarding the separation of church and state and the environment, they have taken a much more generous view of standing where plaintiffs are challenging affirmative-action laws.
In other words, the fact that the Roberts Court has issued rulings narrowing standing rules does not mean that they will be moved by the particular standing arguments made by the Fourth Circuit. The Court rarely places priority on its self-imposed jurisdictional rules if it clashes with strongly held substantive values.
This is not to deny that, as the Atlantic's Andrew Cohen speculates, "Justice Anthony Kennedy or Chief Justice John Roberts [may] see in the jurisdictional issues a way out, a compromise, that would both dispose of the pending cases and help protect the Court from the inevitable political criticism it will receive no matter how it rules on the merits." Such an outcome is certainly possible, particularly because a ruling issued this term would probably come down right in the middle of what is likely to be the most polarized election campaign since 1964. A majority of the Court could decide that, indeed, discretion is the better part of valor. But it is only likely to do so if at least one of its Republican appointees is dubious about the constitutional challenge on its merits. If a majority of justices are convinced that the ACA violates the Constitution, they won't have any problem taking jurisdiction of the case.
Liberals who see a jurisdictional dodge as a potentially attractive escape may also want to be careful what they wish for. Any reprieve would be temporary. Once the law fully goes into effect in 2014, standing requirements will not provide much of a barrier, at least for cases like the one brought by Liberty University, even to skeptical judges. If Obama is re-elected, the chances of getting a favorable ruling can't be worse and may be better; if Mitt Romney or Rick Perry gets to select a replacement for the ailing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on the other hand, the chances that the Affordable Care Act would survive a Supreme Court review drop precipitously.
Ultimately, the best outcome would be for the Supreme Court to reject the unserious arguments against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and uphold the legislation. But if the Court is going to reject the bill, it is probably better for democracy that it be done during a time of maximum political visibility, rather than by dodging the issue initially and then striking it down with the campaign safely over. Should the Court dodge the issue to avoid a strong public response and then strike the bill down later, this would be the worst of all worlds. The public should be aware that, among other things, presidential elections are contests between competing constitutional visions.
Lamb_H (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 14:19
INTJ (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 15:31
Aside from the merits of the case, or the lack thereof, it should be somewhat disturbing to any American that some courts do not believe individual liberty, and the restriction thereof by the federal government, is not a "direct stake in the application of the law," but merely abstract.
Pkmun (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 15:33
Jack Daniels (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 15:35
Hopefully the SCOTUS will throw out this steaming pile of socialist dung.. If not then the next president (probably GOP) can issue an executive order giving every state, county and business an exemption from Obamacare just like Obama exempted his political friends.
I do hope the SCOTUS has the cojones to take this law and review it.
If the govt can force you to buy Healthcare and tax you if you don't then name something else that they couldn't force on the American people?
Jack Davis (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 15:41
--How I Got Screwed By Obamacare--
Here is what Obama's health-care reform law has done to me. Not FOR me; TO me. BEFORE Obamacare, that is up until December 31, 2010, the family deductible for my company-paid medical coverage was $300…and it had been $300 for years. AFTER Obamacare, that is on January 1, 2011, the family deductible for my company-paid medical coverage went up to $2,800. You can do the math. And because my company is self-insured, it was a take it or leave it situation. Obama LIED when he said that if I liked the plan I currently had, I'd be able to keep it. He was WRONG. Instead, my company canceled the plan I liked and in its place substituted the aforementioned high-deductible plan. Obama LIED when he said his plan would "bend the cost curve downward." What he really meant was: "Bend over and face downward." Thanks, Obama!
johnleehooker (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 15:43
proponents of the bill, and at least one of the judges supporting the bill, claim the "commerce clause" can be used to "regulate 'financial' decisions" and FORCE people to engage in commerce -
buy a product they may NOT want from a company chosen by the govt (see exchanges) at a price determined by the govt (see exchanges) or be fined by the IRS.
that's some really spooky thinking IMHO.
Jeff Capron (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 16:02
The mandate is the side the corporations want: it forces you to buy their product. So if you want it to hurt the corporations, you better hope it is found unconstitutional. Look at it this way, if it is OK for the government to mandate you buy health insurance to protect yourself (and them), then it is perfectly OK for them to mandate you also purchase a firearm, condoms, helmets, you name it..
sdbatboy (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 16:08
Sharon (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 16:26
It should be found UNCONSTITUTIONAL. This should be a "no-brainer" for anyone who values a free and unemcoumbered society. Big Brother has no place telling ANYONE "you will be fined unless you contribute or buy something". This is ridiculous!! What's next-the government know that overweight folks by and large are more costly (medically) then those or normal weight--so they can force those overweight to join a health club or force them onto some diet (after all, these folks can CHOOSE what health club they are being forced to join, or what diet they are FORCED to try.) DO YOU NOW SEE MR. LAMB WHAT I AM GETTING AT??? THOSE WHO DO NOT READ THE CONSTITUTION ARE BOUND TO EXCEED ALL AUTHORITY.
Snidely70448 (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 16:32
"the best outcome would be for the Supreme Court to reject the unserious arguments against the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and uphold the legislation"
Unserious arguments? Only to people who believe that the government can completely control the lives of the people, that we are subjects whose every decision can be controlled "for our own good." If I own my own body, and can do with it what I will, so long as I harm nobody else, then telling me I have to have health insurance whether I want to or not is to say that there is no limit to governmental control of my life.
awt (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 17:29
lunaticllama (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 20:50
lunaticllama (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 20:54
Your decision whether to forego health insurance affects all taxpayers the minute you enter a hospital. Stop free loading and increasing my insurance costs by foregoing coverage.
If you want to live in the woods and not be a part of modern society, you should not have to buy health insurance. If you want to participate in modern society, like the driver who chooses to use an automobile, you should have to buy insurance as to avoid inflicting the huge and expensive negative externalities of your lack of foresight on others.
Snidely70448 (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 21:38
lunaticllama (not verified)
Wed, 2011-09-28 21:54
Well said Peasant. I shall remember that you believe that our tax money should only be used to redistribute to the wealthy and not used for the prosperity of the American people. I am happy to say that I believe that the tax money given by the middle classes should be used for the middle classes and not be given to coddle and subsidize corporate America.
Snidely70448 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 07:01
What does Obamacare have to with tax policy? I am arguing against Obamacare on privacy and liberty grounds, not money. That's an entirely different discussion.
Nobody has done more to refill the coffers of the evil rich - those who caused the financial meltdown of 2008 - than Presidents Bush and Obama, or at least they aided and abetted Treasurry Secretaries Paulson and Geithner, and Fed Chairman Bernanke, in doing it. If you want a discussion of where President Obama really stands on who should benefit from government largess, try reading this article in Politico, not exactly a right wing rag:
jkk1943 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 08:10
I agree with the premise that decision should be made at time of maximum political visability. If the law is overturned the 57% of the American Public that want this administrative and fiscal monstrosity destroyed will be dancing in the streets. I doubt this decision will energize the left because they were not particularly enamored of the bill either.
Steve851 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 08:11
Snidely70448 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 09:13
Follow the money. President Obama talks a good game of looking after the middle class, but he is bought and paid for.
Employees of New York-based JPMorgan gave $808,799 to Obama for his 2008
campaign, second only to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among financial
companies. Dimon was not among the Obama donors.Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...
allouchsit (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 09:25
lunaticllama's response makes no logical sense. First, the federal government is a government of limited powers. Therefore, to argue that its commerce power has "never been restricted in its application to national industries" is just factually false. Second, the individual mandate applies to individual American citizens, not to "industries." Therefore, that power is even more limited.
allouchsit (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 09:31
john werneken (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 09:56
How is forcing a person to give up money anything
other than a tax? Jesus you don't have to DO or NOT DO a damn thing, just
spend. Big deal. Id10ts up in here and in the general public. What a surprise
ROTFFLMFAO that anyone anywhere believes this is litigate-able in the first
place it's like believing in UFOs or Fairies. Courts should be closed entirely
to argument about opinion and idiotology.
That said, it's a terrible law.
First and foremost, no one can tell what it means. Congress does this all the
time, passes a law that contains provisions it believes local majorities
approve, with the cost (fees taxes regulation uncertainty) to be imposed later
by unelected bureaucrats. Second, it neither sticks it to unpopular folks and
steals their money, one approach that definitely works up to a point, nor does
it empower consumers, so all it does to 'control costs' is to jawbone about
technology and to empower bureaucrats, who have never in history reduced a
But it's better than just repealing
it. More have coverage, more have to participate in costs as well as in
benefits, and at least the jawboning is included. The Court indeed should out
to throw the whole CASE out. There is no case just aggrieved special interests.
No constitutional argument either the damn government is authorized by the
constitution to do any imaginable thing whatsoever, it just is supposed to
follow some procedures in doing so, which it has done in this case.
The world view argument matters to
the evil ruling class, which includes the activists of all stripes. To heck
with that argument, both sides, and with those people, both sides. A ruling class
is supposed to first preserve its ability to rule and second defend and expand
the power of what it rules; ours is incompetent to do either. So of course they
only make things worse for the rest of us. Tom Clancy knew what to do with these
people: what Osama did, only successfully. I'm sorry an enemy killed any of us,
but he sure killed the wrong ones, both from his point of view and from ours. A
crises wasted, as the Raminator would say.
We need market forces and modernity
in health care. And it is reasonable to try to inject both, and in the process
to tax the lot of us to expand access. We'd get costs we might survive, medical
care we might survive, and a social; contract we could maintain. This law is
none of those. What do you expect when Congress not only disposes but proposes,
and gets to negotiate with itself and its cronies. I worked for Mr. Obama
before. I am working against him now. He's toast. Perhaps the broadening of
access and of payers will survive from his law; I hope so but I doubt it.
Stupid ways of doing "good" things just are stupid, with no good in them.
roadmouth (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 10:09
Doug (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 10:34
I have to laugh at the use of the moronic Wickard v. Filburn precedent to support your contention about "unserious arguments." That court decision was one of the most ridiculous in the history of Supreme Court decisions. A farmer growing wheat on his own property for his own consumption affected interstate commerce? If you think that decision made sense, you are the one making an "unserious argument."
Jackmorpher (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 10:45
GardenGnomeLF (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 11:08
If this law is upheld we have a constitution in name only. There will be no limit to federal power. Nothing you do can not be twisted into somehow affecting an area of our economy that in some way is unique and somehow is tied to everyone.
If some decision does not affect commerce in some way, a quick federal law can fix that.
Progressives will stop at nothing to rule your life in every way.
GardenGnomeLF (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 11:15
To progressives, if the government does not specifically allow something you can't do it. Progressives want control over everything because they think they are superior to everyone and thus NEED to tell you how to live.
Obviously the laws they make do not apply to themselves. Ruling the people is hard and rulers shouldn't be held back by laws.
kpom (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:34
In the realm of "progressive" thinking, using one ridiculous ruling to support another ridiculous interpretation that suits your purposes is just fine.
I really don't understand why "progressives" are so attached to the ACA. If it is constitutional, so would be a mandate to privatize Social Security. If it is unconstitutional, then their case for implementing a single-payer system becomes stronger (since Medicare's constitutionality is generally accepted).
kpom (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:37
False analogy. I'm only required to purchase liability insurance for driving an automobile. I'm not required to protect myself (just others). If you don't have health insurance and can't afford to pay for healthcare, then you go without it (at least in a rational world). It's as simple as that. If you want to offer subsidies, that's one thing, but don't force people to do it.
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:41
My faith was long ago shaken by Bush v Gore and stopped believing these people ever made consistent opinions on political issues....
or, so I thought, Scalia is bound by Raitch (one would think) and I can't see Kennedy and Roberts relishing the idea of dismantling the New Deal by Judicial fiat. Certainly, people like Thomas and George Will (!) and Randy barnett would love to return to the Lochner days, but I don't see how an institutionally conservative guy like Roberts does.
I still see this law being upheld as 6-3 or 7-2.
I guess, my one hope is that if they uphold the 11th Circuit, they do so in a way which preserves the 11th Circuit ruling. Without the mandate, private insurance companies would wither and die. Hello, single payer.
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:43
There are plenty of limits to Federal power and all the hand-wringing in the world cannot make it less so.
Yes, progressives do seek to rule your life by providing access to health insurance and, in the even you cannot pay, they want to pay for part of it so you can. Those progressives are downright bad people for caring about others
Votocracy (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:46
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:48
So, Doug is not a lawyer. Wickard is precedent, Doug. no Court ever ruled against it. If you want to know why they said what they said, go read it. You might find it fascinating.
BTW, you know who likes Wickard? Scalia in Raitch. Grow dope in your house for your own benefit in a State where it is legal? Sorry, you still violate interstate commerce.
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:52
Adammuceus (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:55
The arguments presented to the constitutionality of the AFA are not only serious, but quite powerful when reading the constitution. The only non serious arguments being presented here is the whole idea the supreme court won't hear this case. The supreme will hear this case and then correctly rule that the mandate is unconstitutional
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:58
Adammuceus (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 12:59
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:00
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:01
Doug (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:02
I have read the case several times. How is growing dope in your own house for your own use fall under the definition of the words "interstate" or "commerce." You don't have to be a lawyer to use a dictionary. Only a lawyer could come up with reasoning as contorted as the Wickard decision. Are you saying that the Supreme Court has never been wrong?
Using the reasoning behind that decision, Congress could constitutionally outlaw all of us from growing vegetables in our back yard.
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:03
This has nothing to do with Obama, dufus, and everything to do with your company being run by assholes who think the sheep they work for are not smart enough to know that the provisions of the law do not take effect until 2014.
Although, I find it cute that every other health plan in America has sky-rocketed over the last 10 years, but yours has been "the same for years).
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:04
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:07
As for the dope, ask Scalia.
As for the wheat, you apparently do not understand the concept: if the farmer grows the wheat, then he does not buy it from someone else and that affects the market.
You realize the decision is from 60 years ago and has never been over-turned? Arguing it makes no sense now is kinda moot, since the Court has based 60 years of jurisprudence on it and others
STEVENS (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:18
Dear Scott:
Please take a minute out of your busy day and READ THE POLLS. This is an unpopular law that was championed by a popular President (until this law) and passed in an unpopular way (remember all the "middle of the night, behind closed doors" rhetoric)by an unpopular Congress (read Pelosi's numbers, review 2010 mid term election results). So for you to make your final point ...
"But if the Court is going to reject the bill, it is probably better for
democracy that it be done during a time of maximum political visibility,
rather than by dodging the issue initially and then striking it down
with the campaign safely over. Should the Court dodge the issue to avoid
a strong public response and then strike the bill down later, this
would be the worst of all worlds. The public should be aware that, among
other things, presidential elections are contests between competing
constitutional visions."
...is either stupid, a lie, or both, ie. stupid lie. The elections will support the will of the people when this Supreme Court strikes this law down.
STEVENS (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:22
Doug (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:28
OK, then by your reasoning, it would be constitutional for Congress to prohibit American citizens from growing vegetables in their back yard. If we are growing vegetables in our back yard, then we are not buying it from someone else thus affecting the market.
By the way, appeal to authority is an argumentative fallacy.
As far as precedent goes, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision stood for 58 years before the court overturned it. The fact that a precedent has been followed for decades doesn't make it right.
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:41
timb116 (not verified)
Thu, 2011-09-29 13:46
The fact, Doug, that the entire administrative state is based upon this interpretation of the Commerce Clause makes it as "right" as the law gets.
And, yes, Congress could pass the law you proposed and it would be Constitutional. Why would Congress pass such a law? And, how can you not see the SCOTUS would uphold it, given Wickard and Raitch?
Bad laws are often Constitutional, but, guess what, they aren't ALL Constitutional. Same for good laws (see Lopez, who the hell wants guns near schools?)
You need to be logged in to comment.
(If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy)


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When resurrecting a vintage car, it's important to have a well thought out game plan. A thorough examination of the car from top to bottom will determine its needs and help determine just where to get started. In the case of Steve McDonough's '56, which you saw in our 2008 issue of Chevy Classics, it was rescued from its past life as a poorly constructed '80s-era Pro Street car and given a chance for a rebirth into the Pro Touring world.
With the talented team at Competition Specialties in Walpole, Massachusetts, having completed the installation of a new trunk and stretched wheelwells, it was time to concentrate on the installation of a new one-piece steel floorpan from Harmon's. The new pan from Harmon's is constructed from heavy weight steel and is the perfect piece to tie the car back together to regain its original rock-solid feel.
Separating a car from its chassis is a major undertaking. Peter Newell and his team at Competition Specialties are veterans at this type of surgery and we followed along as they began the process. In preparing to drop the chassis, the team began by draining and disconnecting all fluid lines, including those for cooling and heating, fuel, braking, and transmission. From there it was on to wiring, making sure harnesses for the engine and lighting were all disconnected, as well as the ground straps and battery cables.
Moving on, the team then addressed the steering column, throttle, emergency brake, speedometer cable, and shift linkage. The final steps included removing the front and rear bumpers, front wheelhouse lower splash pans, and breaking free the body mount bolts from the chassis. Once steps were completed and with all team members keeping a watchful eye at each corner of the car, the body was removed from the chassis using a lift. After separation, the tired old Pro Street chassis was rolled out and the team began evaluating the removal of the original floorpan.
Peter used a bright yellow Markal B paint stick to create a visual path to follow once the Sawzall got fired up. Before starting, it was important that both the floorpan and the body were securely braced while on the lift. This would eliminate any potential accident, or flexing of the body when the support structure was taken away during the procedure. Once pilot holes were drilled to allow access for the Sawzall blade to enter the seams along the pan, the initial cutting went without a hitch.
To then remove the central pan, team members were at each corner to eliminate the support braces and lower it to the ground. Seeing that the new Harmon's pan incorporates fresh bracing and inner rockers, the removal of these areas from the original pan were then addressed. Cleaning up the mounting areas for the new pan was a snap using a disc grinder topped with an 80-grit wheel.
To test fit the pan, Peter first placed it on the new Art Morrison Tri-Five GT Sport Pro-Touring chassis shod with massive P345/25ZR20 rear tires mounted to Boze Fatal wheels. This showed that a bit of trimming would be needed in order for the combination to work. Peter carefully measured and removed 3 inches from each side of the rear of the pan, which would later be reworked and welded in again to give the area a factory-like look. With the trimming completed, the team clamped the pan to the body and lowered the body onto the new rolling chassis to ensure everything would line up perfectly, including the body to chassis mounting points.


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Efed stuff that doesn't matter
1 x IWA World Heavyweight Champion - Malcolm Adonis
Current WWE World Heavyweight Champion - Dean Ambrose
1 x EWNCW Tag Team Champion - Malcolm Adonis w/ Kyojin
Current No 1 Contender to the EWNCW Title - Arthur Lansdale
I lied, it matters.
"Tell me.. what is insane about wanting to create perfection? I'd be crazy not to." - Jarvis Cole
Join the Best e-fed, EWNCW!! Send a PM to Tommy Thunder, Kingstrem, TheJosephBanks, S.E.Zero, TTC or me filling the form you'll find in the Inferno Thread.
Find all the EWNCW links here.
The Jesting Madness: Last EWNCW Tag Team Champions (6/3/12-5-5-12), first ever EWNCW Blacklist Champions (5-5-12/11-12)
Also check TWE!!
Originally Posted by John Cena rapping on Paul Heyman


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Lancer Athletics
On behalf of our outstanding student athletes, coaches, and staff, I want to thank you for your interest in the Lancer Athletics Association (LAA). The LAA is the fundraising arm of Lancer Athletics. Whether you are a long-time supporter or a first-time donor, I want to emphasize the importance of your decision to be a part of "The Team Behind The Team". Every dollar donated directly impacts our student-athletes. The funds raised support capital projects, recruiting efforts, facility improvements and provide needed scholarships.
LAA support has translated to the field of play and the classroom. This past year, our first as an NCAA Division II playoff-eligible program, had Lancer Athletics winning the Commissioner's Cup as the top overall athletic program in our conference. Along the way, our student-athletes won four conference championships and an amazing 12 teams qualified for NCAA postseason play. The Lancers were 133-33 in games on our campus which is a testament to how much our fans mean to our success! Our departing seniorathletes had a 3.2 grade point average and finished their careers with both athletic and academic accolades for their resume. We are excited about the future of our programs and with your help we can continue building on the tradition of success that has been established.
The Team Behind The Team campaign requests the support of alumni, family, and fans. This is a special invitation to join the LAA and partner with Lancer Athletics and the 20 varsity programs on the CBU campus. The mission of our athletic program is to Honor Christ Through Excellence in Athletics. With your support, we will be a model of excellence on the field of play, in the classroom, and in our community.
In Christ,
Micah Parker, Ph.D.
Director of Athletics


text:
Since 1999, Northwest Classic Auto Mall has offered cars from 1989 and older vehicles, both locally and worldwide. Whether you're looking for an older classic, hot rod, rat rod or a vehicle in the 80's, we invite you to browse our listings of vehicles.
1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk If you're interested in this vehicle or have any questions, please call Bruce at 360-297-7845 Rebuilt engine, trans. (1,500 miles) Chevrolet rear end, Tilt wheel. Best... More


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|Steven Raichlen, Grillmaster
The Barbecue Guru
If you were stranded on a desert island and needed to come up with just one person to help you with barbecuing and grilling, we think that there is no question as to who that would be…Grillmaster Steven Raichlen. In conjunction with our weekly Cookbook of the Week feature, we are spotlighting Steven Raichlen, award–-winning author, journalist, cooking teacher, and TV host. He is the best–selling author of 28 cookbooks including The Barbecue Bible, (4 million copies in print). He hosts the informative and entertaining TV shows Primal Grill and Barbecue University, and is considered the "go to" expert on grilling. And then there are his TV guest appearances on many national TV shows, including the Today Show, Good Morning American, CNN, Oprah, The View and more. Raichlen also created the Best of Barbecue line of grilling accessories.
Raichlen's passion for "live fire cooking" began with his book The Barbecue Bible (Workman, 1998), which is a study of global grilling, chronicling his "4-year, 200,000-mile odyssey around the world". In 2000, Workman published How to Grill, a step-by-step guide to live fire cooking, with more than 1000 color photographs, How to Grill won an IACP Award (International Association of Cookbook Professionals) and has more than 1.5 million copies in print. BBQ USA is Raichlen's 780 page, 650 photograph, 425 recipe ode to regional American barbecue. His newest cookbook, Best Ribs Ever (Workman, 2012), celebrates ribs, with many tips and recipes that kosher eaters can enjoy. In all, Raichlen has won five James Beard Awards and three IACP awards, and his books have been translated into 12 languages, including French, Russian, and Japanese. Wow – Raichlen is certainly sizzling!
Raichlen's book, Planet Barbecue! − a grilling journey around the world's barbecue trail − is our current Cookbook of the Week selection. Read about this journey and try some of the grilling recipes of Asia, Brazil, Italy, and more in our Cookbook of the Week feature, and enter to WIN a FREE copy of this global grilling cookbook.
So how is a grilling guru schooled? He holds a degree in French literature from Reed College and trained at both the Cordon Bleu and La Varenne cooking schools in Paris.
A KosherEye Chat with Steven Raichlen
What tools are a MUST have for anyone passionate about grilling? Steven has provided our readers a link to his Best of Barbecue accessories line.
Would you share something about yourself that is little known?
Since most of our readers are kosher, could you comment on substituting veal for pork in your recipes?
Follow Steven Raichlen on his website BarbecueBible.com.
June 25, 2012


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Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern nation of Egypt. The civilization began around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history occurred in a series of stable periods, known as kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. After the end of the last kingdom, known as the New Kingdom, the civilization of ancient Egypt entered a period of slow, steady decline, during which Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers. The rule of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a province.
The civilization of ancient Egypt thrived from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. Controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a divine pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people through an elaborate system of religious beliefs.
The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians included a system of mathematics, quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, obelisks, faience and glass technology, a practical and effective system of medicine, new forms of literature, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, and the earliest known peace treaty. Egypt left a lasting legacy: art and architecture were copied and antiquities paraded around the world, and monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of tourists and writers for centuries. A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy for Egypt and the world.
By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the Nile valley, and since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living in the region during the Pleistocene some 1.8 million years ago, the Nile has been the lifeline of Egypt. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization.
The earliest cultures in southern Egypt, the Badari, were established a few centuries after their northern counterparts. Contemporaneous with the Maadi, Buto and Heliopolitan cultures to the north, the Badari culture was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper. Badarian burials, simple pit graves with signs of social stratification, suggest that the culture was coming under the control of more powerful leaders. In the north, Maadian pottery was occasionally decorated with birds and serekhs bearing the first Horus names, a sign of increasing cultural sophistication. Maadi was also the main source of basalt vessels, whose distribution becomes more widespread in the south after northern Egypt falls under the control of the Upper Egyptian rulers.
The Naqada culture gradually developed into a civilization along the Nile by about 4000 BC. It had power centers at Nekhen and Abydos and it expanded its control of Egypt northwards. The people of Naqada manufactured painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, and jewelry made of gold, lapis, and ivory. They also engaged in trade with Nubia, the oases of the western desert, and the Levant. Naqada developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used far into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last phase of the predynastic, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that evolved into a full system of hieroglyphs for writing the Egyptian language.
The ancient Egyptians chose to begin their official history with a king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek) who they believed had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. The transition to a unified state actually happened more gradually than the ancient Egyptian writers would have us believe, and there is no contemporary record of Menes. Scholars now believe, however, that the mythical Menes may have actually been the pharaoh Narmer, who is depicted wearing royal regalia on the ceremonial Narmer Palette in a symbolic act of unification. The third century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs following Menes into 30 dynasties, a system still in use today.
In the Early Dynastic Period about 3150 BC, the first pharaohs solidified their control over lower Egypt by establishing a capital at Memphis, from which they could control the labor force and agriculture of the fertile delta region as well as the lucrative and critical trade routes to the Levant. The increasing power and wealth of the pharaohs during the early dynastic period was reflected in their elaborate mastaba tombs and mortuary cult structures at Abydos, which were used to celebrate the deified pharaoh after his death. The strong institution of kingship developed by the pharaohs served to legitimize state control over the land, labor, and resources that were essential to the survival and growth of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology were made during the Old Kingdom, fueled by the increased agricultural productivity made possible by a well developed central administration. Under the direction of the vizier, state officials collected taxes, coordinated irrigation projects to improve crop yield, drafted peasants to work on construction projects, and established a justice system to maintain peace and order. With the surplus resources made available by a productive and stable economy, the state was able to sponsor construction of colossal monuments and to commission exceptional works of art from the royal workshops. The pyramids built by Djoser, Khufu, and their descendants are the most memorable symbols of ancient Egyptian civilization, and the power of the pharaohs that controlled it.
Along with the rising importance of a central administration arose a new class of educated scribes and officials who were granted estates by the pharaoh in payment for their services. Pharaohs also made land grants to their mortuary cults and local temples to ensure that these institutions would have the necessary resources to worship the pharaoh after his death. By the end of the Old Kingdom, five centuries of these feudal practices had slowly eroded the economic power of the pharaoh, who could no longer afford to support a large centralized administration. As the power of the pharaoh diminished, regional governors called nomarchs began to challenge the supremacy of the pharaoh. This, coupled with severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC, ultimately caused the country to enter a 140-year period of famine and strife known as the First Intermediate Period.
Free from their loyalties to the pharaoh, local rulers began competing with each other for territorial control and political power. By 2160 BC, rulers in Hierakonpolis controlled Lower Egypt, while a rival clan based in Thebes, the Intef family, took control of Upper Egypt. As the Intefs grew in power and expanded their control northward, a clash between the two rival dynasties became inevitable. Around 2055 BC the Theban forces under Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II finally defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers, reuniting the Two Lands and inaugurating a period of economic and cultural renaissance known as the Middle Kingdom.
The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's prosperity and stability, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art, literature, and monumental building projects. Mentuhotep II and his 11th Dynasty successors ruled from Thebes, but the vizier Amenemhet I, upon assuming kingship at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty around 1985 BC, shifted the nation's capital to the city of Itjtawy located in Faiyum. From Itjtawy, the pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty undertook a far-sighted land reclamation and irrigation scheme to increase agricultural output in the region. Moreover, the military reconquered territory in Nubia rich in quarries and gold mines, while laborers built a defensive structure in the Eastern Delta, called the "Walls-of-the-Ruler", to defend against foreign attack.
Having secured military and political security and vast agricultural and mineral wealth, the nation's population, arts, and religion flourished. In contrast to elitist Old Kingdom attitudes towards the gods, the Middle Kingdom experienced an increase in expressions of personal piety and what could be called a democratization of the afterlife, in which all people possessed a soul and could be welcomed into the company of the gods after death. Middle Kingdom literature featured sophisticated themes and characters written in a confident, eloquent style, and the relief and portrait sculpture of the period captured subtle, individual details that reached new heights of technical perfection.
The last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III, allowed Asiatic settlers into the delta region to provide a sufficient labor force for his especially active mining and building campaigns. These ambitious building and mining activities, however, combined with inadequate Nile floods later in his reign, strained the economy and precipitated the slow decline into the Second Intermediate Period during the later 13th and 14th dynasties. During this decline, the foreign Asiatic settlers began to seize control of the delta region, eventually coming to power in Egypt as the Hyksos.
After their retreat, the Theban kings found themselves trapped between the Hyksos to the north and the Hyksos' Nubian allies, the Kushites, to the south. Nearly 100 years of tenuous inaction followed, and it was not until 1555 BC that the Theban forces gathered enough strength to challenge the Hyksos in a conflict that would last more than 30 years. The pharaohs Seqenenre Tao II and Kamose were ultimately able to defeat the Nubians, but it was Kamose's successor, Ahmose I, who successfully waged a series of campaigns that permanently eradicated the Hyksos' presence in Egypt. In the New Kingdom that followed, the military became a central priority for the pharaohs seeking to expand Egypt's borders and secure her complete dominance of the Near East.
Around 1350 BC, the stability of the New Kingdom was threatened when Amenhotep IV ascended the throne and instituted a series of radical and chaotic reforms. Changing his name to Akhenaten, he touted the previously obscure sun god Aten as the supreme deity, suppressed the worship of other deities, and attacked the power of the priestly establishment. Moving the capital to the new city of Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna), Akhenaten turned a deaf ear to foreign affairs and absorbed himself in his new religion and artistic style. After his death, the cult of the Aten was quickly abandoned, and the subsequent pharaohs Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb erased all mention of Akhenaten's heresy, now known as the Amarna Period.
The 18th Dynasty ended when its last three kings—Tutankhamun, Aye, and Horemheb—each died without an heir. Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended the throne around 1279 BC at the age of 18 and built more temples, erected more statues and obelisks, and sired more children than any other pharaoh in history. A bold military leader, Ramesses II led his army against the Hittites in the Battle of Kadesh and, after fighting to a stalemate, finally agreed to the first recorded peace treaty around 1258 BC. Egypt's wealth, however, made it a tempting target for invasion, particularly by the Libyans and the Sea Peoples. Initially, the military was able to repel these invasions, but Egypt eventually lost control of Syria and Palestine. The impact of external threats was exacerbated by internal problems such as corruption, tomb robbery and civil unrest. The high priests at the temple of Amun in Thebes accumulated vast tracts of land and wealth, and their growing power splintered the country during the Third Intermediate Period.
Following the death of Ramesses XI in 1078 BC, Smendes assumed authority over the northern part of Egypt, ruling from the city of Tanis. The south was effectively controlled by the High Priests of Amun at Thebes, who recognized Smendes in name only. During this time, Libyans had been settling in the western delta, and chieftains of these settlers began increasing their autonomy. Libyan princes took control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945, founding the so-called Libyan or Bubastite dynasty that would rule for some 200 years. Sheshonq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions. Libyan control began to erode as a rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis, and Kushites threatened from the south. Around 727 BC the Kushite king Piye invaded northward, seizing control of Thebes and eventually the Delta.
Egypt's far-reaching prestige declined considerably toward the end of the Third Intermediate Period. Its foreign allies had fallen under the Assyrian sphere of influence, and by 700 BC war between the two states became inevitable. Between 671 and 667 BC the Assyrians began their attack on Egypt. The reigns of both Taharqa and his successor, Tanutamun, were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians, against whom Egypt enjoyed several victories. Ultimately, the Assyrians pushed the Kushites back into Nubia, occupied Memphis, and sacked the temples of Thebes.
Following its annexation by Persia, Egypt was joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. This first period of Persian rule over Egypt, also known as the Twenty-Seventh dynasty, ended in 402 BC, and from 380–343 BC the Thirtieth Dynasty ruled as the last native royal house of dynastic Egypt, which ended with the kingship of Nectanebo II. A brief restoration of Persian rule, sometimes known as the Thirty-First Dynasty, began in 343 BC, but shortly after, in 332 BC, the Persian ruler Mazaces handed Egypt over to Alexander the Great without a fight.
In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt with little resistance from the Persians and was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. The administration established by Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies, was based on an Egyptian model and based in the new capital city of Alexandria. The city was to showcase the power and prestige of Greek rule, and became a seat of learning and culture, centered at the famous Library of Alexandria. The Lighthouse of Alexandria lit the way for the many ships, which kept trade flowing through the city, as the Ptolemies made commerce and revenue-generating enterprises, such as papyrus manufacturing, their top priority.
Greek culture did not supplant native Egyptian culture, as the Ptolemies supported time-honored traditions in an effort to secure the loyalty of the populace. They built new temples in Egyptian style, supported traditional cults, and portrayed themselves as pharaohs. Some traditions merged, as Greek and Egyptian gods were syncretized into composite deities, such as Serapis, and classical Greek forms of sculpture influenced traditional Egyptian motifs. Despite their efforts to appease the Egyptians, the Ptolemies were challenged by native rebellion, bitter family rivalries, and the powerful mob of Alexandria which had formed following the death of Ptolemy IV. In addition, as Rome relied more heavily on imports of grain from Egypt, the Romans took great interest in the political situation in the country. Continued Egyptian revolting, ambitious politicians, and powerful Syrian opponents made this situation unstable, leading Rome to send forces to secure the country as a province of its empire.
Although the Romans had a more hostile attitude than the Greeks towards the Egyptians, some traditions such as mummification and worship of the traditional gods continued. The art of mummy portraiture flourished, and some of the Roman emperors had themselves depicted as pharaohs, though not to the extent that the Ptolemies had. The former lived outside Egypt and did not perform the ceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship. Local administration became Roman in style and closed to native Egyptians.
From the mid-first century AD, Christianity took root in Alexandria and spread. Incompatible with paganism, Christianity sought to win converts and threatened popular religious traditions. This led to persecution of converts to Christianity, culminating in the great purges of Diocletian starting in 303 AD, but eventually Christianity won out. As a consequence, Egypt's pagan culture was continually in decline. While the native population continued to speak their language, the ability to read hieroglyphic writing slowly disappeared as the role of the Egyptian temple priests and priestesses diminished. The temples themselves were sometimes converted to churches or abandoned to the desert.
The pharaoh was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in theory, wielded complete control of the land and its resources. The king was the supreme military commander and head of the government, who relied on a bureaucracy of officials to manage his affairs. In charge of the administration was his second in command, the vizier, who acted as the king's representative and coordinated land surveys, the treasury, building projects, the legal system, and the archives. At a regional level, the country was divided into as many as 42 administrative regions called nomes each governed by a nomarch, who was accountable to the vizier for his jurisdiction. The temples formed the backbone of the economy. Not only were they houses of worship, but were also responsible for collecting and storing the nation's wealth in a system of granaries and treasuries administered by overseers, who redistributed grain and goods.
Much of the economy was centrally organized and strictly controlled. Although the ancient Egyptians did not use coinage until the Late period, they did use a type of money-barter system, with standard sacks of grain and the deben, a weight of roughly of copper or silver, forming a common denominator. Workers were paid in grain; a simple laborer might earn 5½ sacks (200 kg or 400 lb) of grain per month, while a foreman might earn 7½ sacks (250 kg or 550 lb). Prices were fixed across the country and recorded in lists to facilitate trading; for example a shirt cost five copper deben, while a cow cost 140 deben. Grain could be traded for other goods, according to the fixed price list. During the 5th century BC coined money was introduced into Egypt from abroad. At first the coins were used as standardized pieces of precious metal rather than true money, but in the following centuries international traders came to rely on coinage.
The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes except slaves, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated the financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end. Compared with their counterparts in ancient Greece, Rome, and even more modern places around the world, ancient Egyptian women had a greater range of personal choices and opportunities for achievement. Women such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra even became pharaohs, while others wielded power as Divine Wives of Amun. Despite these freedoms, ancient Egyptian women did not take part in official roles in the administration, served only secondary roles in the temples, and were not as likely to be as educated as men.
Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were punished by execution, carried out by decapitation, drowning, or impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to the criminal's family. Beginning in the New Kingdom, oracles played a major role in the legal system, dispensing justice in both civil and criminal cases. The procedure was to ask the god a "yes" or "no" question concerning the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried by a number of priests, rendered judgment by choosing one or the other, moving forward or backward, or pointing to one of the answers written on a piece of papyrus or an ostracon.
A combination of favorable geographical features contributed to the success of ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was the rich fertile soil resulting from annual inundations of the Nile river. The ancient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundance of food, allowing the population to devote more time and resources to cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management was crucial in ancient Egypt because taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a person owned.
Farming in Egypt was dependent on the cycle of the Nile River. The Egyptians recognized three seasons: Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from June to September, depositing on the river's banks a layer of mineral-rich silt ideal for growing crops. After the floodwaters had receded, the growing season lasted from October to February. Farmers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with ditches and canals. Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops. From March to May, farmers used sickles to harvest their crops, which were then threshed with a flail to separate the straw from the grain. Winnowing removed the chaff from the grain, and the grain was then ground into flour, brewed to make beer, or stored for later use.
The ancient Egyptians cultivated emmer and barley, and several other cereal grains, all of which were used to make the two main food staples of bread and beer. Flax plants, uprooted before they started flowering, were grown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were split along their length and spun into thread, which was used to weave sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots, close to habitations and on higher ground, and had to be watered by hand. Vegetables included leeks, garlic, melons, squashes, pulses, lettuce, and other crops, in addition to grapes that were made into wine.
The ancient Egyptians used donkeys and oxen as beasts of burden, and they were responsible for plowing the fields and trampling seed into the soil. The slaughter of a fattened ox was also a central part of an offering ritual. Horses were introduced by the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period, and the camel, although known from the New Kingdom, was not used as a beast of burden until the Late Period. Dogs, cats and monkeys were common family pets, while more exotic pets imported from the heart of Africa, such as lions, were reserved for royalty. Herodotus observed that the Egyptians were the only people to keep their animals with them in their houses. During the Predynastic and Late periods, the worship of the gods in their animal form was extremely popular, such as the cat goddess Bastet and the ibis god Thoth, and these animals were bred in large numbers on farms for the purpose of ritual sacrifice.
The Egyptians worked deposits of the lead ore galena at Gebel Rosas to make net sinkers, plumb bobs, and small figurines. Copper was the most important metal for toolmaking in ancient Egypt and was smelted in furnaces from malachite ore mined in the Sinai. Workers collected gold by washing the nuggets out of sediment in alluvial deposits, or by the more labor-intensive process of grinding and washing gold-bearing quartzite. Iron deposits found in upper Egypt were utilized in the Late Period. High-quality building stones were abundant in Egypt; the ancient Egyptians quarried limestone all along the Nile valley, granite from Aswan, and basalt and sandstone from the wadis of the eastern desert. Deposits of decorative stones such as porphyry, greywacke, alabaster, and carnelian dotted the eastern desert and were collected even before the First Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, miners worked deposits of emeralds in Wadi Sikait and amethyst in Wadi el-Hudi.
The Egyptian language is a northern Afro-Asiatic language closely related to Berber and Semitic. It has the longest documented history of any language, having remained in written use from c. 3200 BC to the Middle Ages and as a spoken language for longer. Two major phases of the language are identified: Earlier Egyptian comprising Old and Middle Egyptian (Classical Egyptian), and Later Egyptian, which includes the Late, Demotic and Coptic stages of the language. While pre-Coptic writing does not convey dialectal differences, it is likely that Egyptian was spoken in several regional dialects centered around Memphis and later Thebes.
The transition from Earlier to Later Egyptian displays a number of innovations, namely a change from synthetic to more analytic patterns that undergo grammaticalization, and the development of different scripts for writing the language. Later Egyptian develops prefixal definite and indefinite articles, which replace the earlier suffix markers of inflectional categories, and undergoes a change from the older VSO word order to SVO. The older Egyptian writing systems, namely the native hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts, eventually give way to the more phonetic Coptic alphabet. The last phase of Egyptian, Coptic, continues to be used in the liturgy of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, and traces of it are found in modern Egyptian Arabic.
Adjectives are formed derivationally from a noun through a process that Egyptologists call nisbation due to its similarity with that of Arabic. The typical order of constituents is PREDICATE-SUBJECT in sentences with verbal and adjectival predicates, and SUBJECT-PREDICATE in sentences in which the predicate is a noun phrase or an adpositional phrase. Verb arguments can be topicalized at the beginning of sentences if they are long noun phrases, and are followed by a coreferential pronoun. Negation in Middle Egyptian is usually expressed through the addition of the particle n before a verb form or a noun phrase, or nn to negate a clause with an adverbial or adjectival predicate. Stress falls on the ultimate or penultimate syllable, which can be open (CV) or closed (CVC).
Hieroglyphic writing dates to c. 3200 BC, and is composed of some 500 symbols. A hieroglyph can represent a word, a phoneme, or a silent determinative; and the same symbol can serve different purposes in different contexts. Hieroglyphs were a formal script, used on stone monuments and in tombs, that could be as detailed as individual works of art. In day-to-day writing, scribes used a cursive form of writing, called hieratic, which was quicker and easier. While formal hieroglyphs may be read in rows or columns in either direction (though typically written from right to left), hieratic was always written from right to left, usually in horizontal rows. A new form of writing, Demotic, became the prevalent writing style, and it is this form of writing—along with formal hieroglyphs—that accompany the Greek text on the Rosetta Stone.
Around the 1st century AD, the native demotic script gave way to the Coptic alphabet, a modified Greek alphabet with the addition of demotic graphemes. Although formal hieroglyphs were used in a ceremonial role until the 4th century AD, towards the end only a small handful of priests could still read them. As the traditional religious establishments were disbanded, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was mostly lost. Attempts to decipher them date to the Byzantine and Islamic periods in Egypt, but only in 1822, after the discovery of the Rosetta stone and years of research by Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion, were hieroglyphs almost fully deciphered.
Writing first appeared in association with kingship on labels and tags for items found in royal tombs. It was primarily an occupation of the scribes, who worked out of the Per Ankh institution or the House of Life. The latter comprised offices, libraries (called House of Books), laboratories and observatories. Some of the best-known pieces of ancient Egyptian literature, such as the Pyramid and Coffin Texts, were written in Classical Egyptian, which continued to be the language of writing until about 1300 BC. Later Egyptian was spoken from the New Kingdom onward and is represented in Ramesside administrative documents, love poetry and tales, as well as in Demotic and Coptic texts. During this period, the tradition of writing had evolved into the tomb autobiography, such as those of Harkhuf and Weni. The genre known as Sebayt (Instructions) was developed to communicate teachings and guidance from famous nobles; the Ipuwer papyrus, a poem of lamentations describing natural disasters and social upheaval, is a famous example.
The Story of Sinuhe, written in Middle Egyptian, might be the classic of Egyptian literature. Also written at this time was the Westcar Papyrus, a set of stories told to Khufu by his sons relating the marvels performed by priests. Towards the end of the New Kingdom, the vernacular language was more often employed to write popular pieces like the Story of Wenamun and the Instructions of Ani. The former tells the story of a noble who is robbed on his way to buy cedar from Lebanon and of his struggle to return to Egypt. From about 700 BC, narrative stories and instructions, such as the popular Instructions of Onchsheshonqy, as well as personal and business documents were written in the demotic script and phase of Egyptian. Many stories written in demotic during the Graeco-Roman period were set in previous historical eras, when Egypt was an independent nation ruled by great pharaohs such as Ramesses II.
Most ancient Egyptians were farmers tied to the land. Their dwellings were restricted to immediate family members, and were constructed of mud-brick designed to remain cool in the heat of the day. Each home had a kitchen with an open roof, which contained a grindstone for milling flour and a small oven for baking bread. Walls were painted white and could be covered with dyed linen wall hangings. Floors were covered with reed mats, while wooden stools, beds raised from the floor and individual tables comprised the furniture.
The ancient Egyptians placed a great value on hygiene and appearance. Most bathed in the Nile and used a pasty soap made from animal fat and chalk. Men shaved their entire bodies for cleanliness, and aromatic perfumes and ointments covered bad odors and soothed skin. Clothing was made from simple linen sheets that were bleached white, and both men and women of the upper classes wore wigs, jewelry, and cosmetics. Children went without clothing until maturity, at about age 12, and at this age males were circumcised and had their heads shaved. Mothers were responsible for taking care of the children, while the father provided the family's income.
The staple diet consisted of bread and beer, supplemented with vegetables such as onions and garlic, and fruit such as dates and figs. Wine and meat were enjoyed by all on feast days while the upper classes indulged on a more regular basis. Fish, meat, and fowl could be salted or dried, and could be cooked in stews or roasted on a grill. Music and dance were popular entertainments for those who could afford them. Early instruments included flutes and harps, while instruments similar to trumpets, oboes, and pipes developed later and became popular. In the New Kingdom, the Egyptians played on bells, cymbals, tambourines, and drums and imported lutes and lyres from Asia. The sistrum was a rattle-like musical instrument that was especially important in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Egyptians enjoyed a variety of leisure activities, including games and music. Senet, a board game where pieces moved according to random chance, was particularly popular from the earliest times; another similar game was mehen, which had a circular gaming board. Juggling and ball games were popular with children, and wrestling is also documented in a tomb at Beni Hasan. The wealthy members of ancient Egyptian society enjoyed hunting and boating as well.
The domestic dwellings of elite and ordinary Egyptians alike were constructed from perishable materials such as mud bricks and wood, and have not survived. Peasants lived in simple homes, while the palaces of the elite were more elaborate structures. A few surviving New Kingdom palaces, such as those in Malkata and Amarna, show richly decorated walls and floors with scenes of people, birds, water pools, deities and geometric designs. Important structures such as temples and tombs that were intended to last forever were constructed of stone instead of bricks. The architectural elements used in the world's first large-scale stone building, Djoser's mortuary complex, include post and lintel supports in the papyrus and lotus motif.
The earliest preserved ancient Egyptian temples, such as those at Giza, consist of single, enclosed halls with roof slabs supported by columns. In the New Kingdom, architects added the pylon, the open courtyard, and the enclosed hypostyle hall to the front of the temple's sanctuary, a style that was standard until the Graeco-Roman period. The earliest and most popular tomb architecture in the Old Kingdom was the mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure of mudbrick or stone built over an underground burial chamber. The step pyramid of Djoser is a series of stone mastabas stacked on top of each other. Pyramids were built during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but later rulers abandoned them in favor of less conspicuous rock-cut tombs.
The ancient Egyptians produced art to serve functional purposes. For over 3500 years, artists adhered to artistic forms and iconography that were developed during the Old Kingdom, following a strict set of principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change. These artistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color combined with the characteristic flat projection of figures with no indication of spatial depth—created a sense of order and balance within a composition. Images and text were intimately interwoven on tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. The Narmer Palette, for example, displays figures which may also be read as hieroglyphs. Because of the rigid rules that governed its highly stylized and symbolic appearance, ancient Egyptian art served its political and religious purposes with precision and clarity.
Ancient Egyptian artisans used stone to carve statues and fine reliefs, but used wood as a cheap and easily carved substitute. Paints were obtained from minerals such as iron ores (red and yellow ochres), copper ores (blue and green), soot or charcoal (black), and limestone (white). Paints could be mixed with gum arabic as a binder and pressed into cakes, which could be moistened with water when needed. Pharaohs used reliefs to record victories in battle, royal decrees, and religious scenes. Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed would protect them in the afterlife. During the Middle Kingdom, wooden or clay models depicting scenes from everyday life became popular additions to the tomb. In an attempt to duplicate the activities of the living in the afterlife, these models show laborers, houses, boats, and even military formations that are scale representations of the ideal ancient Egyptian afterlife.
Despite the homogeneity of ancient Egyptian art, the styles of particular times and places sometimes reflected changing cultural or political attitudes. After the invasion of the Hyksos in the Second Intermediate Period, Minoan-style frescoes were found in Avaris. The most striking example of a politically driven change in artistic forms comes from the Amarna period, where figures were radically altered to conform to Akhenaten's revolutionary religious ideas. This style, known as Amarna art, was quickly and thoroughly erased after Akhenaten's death and replaced by the traditional forms.
Beliefs in the divine and in the afterlife were ingrained in ancient Egyptian civilization from its inception; pharaonic rule was based on the divine right of kings. The Egyptian pantheon was populated by gods who had supernatural powers and were called on for help or protection. However, the gods were not always viewed as benevolent, and Egyptians believed they had to be appeased with offerings and prayers. The structure of this pantheon changed continually as new deities were promoted in the hierarchy, but priests made no effort to organize the diverse and sometimes conflicting creation myths and stories into a coherent system.
Gods were worshiped in cult temples administered by priests acting on the king's behalf. At the center of the temple was the cult statue in a shrine. Temples were not places of public worship or congregation, and only on select feast days and celebrations was a shrine carrying the statue of the god brought out for public worship. Normally, the god's domain was sealed off from the outside world and was only accessible to temple officials. Common citizens could worship private statues in their homes, and amulets offered protection against the forces of chaos. After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's role as a spiritual intermediary was de-emphasized as religious customs shifted to direct worship of the gods. As a result, priests developed a system of oracles to communicate the will of the gods directly to the people. An oracle could be a statue of a god that could be asked a yes or no question, to which it would "respond" by hidden manipulations of a priest, who could also pose questions behind closed doors. Oracles became very popular for appealing legal verdicts or for justifying military actions and political decisions.
The Egyptians believed that every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts or aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba (personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name. The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and become one of the "blessed dead", living on as an akh, or "effective one". In order for this to happen, the deceased had to be judged worthy in a trial, in which the heart was weighed against a "feather of truth". If deemed worthy, the deceased could continue their existence on earth in spiritual form.
By the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians had perfected the art of mummification; the best technique took 70 days and involved removing the internal organs, removing the brain through the nose, and desiccating the body in a mixture of salts called natron. The body was then wrapped in linen with protective amulets inserted between layers and placed in a decorated anthropoid coffin. Mummies of the Late Period were also placed in painted cartonnage mummy cases. Actual preservation practices declined during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, while greater emphasis was placed on the outer appearance of the mummy, which was decorated.
Wealthy Egyptians were buried with larger quantities of luxury items, but all burials, regardless of social status, included goods for the deceased. Beginning in the New Kingdom, books of the dead were included in the grave, along with shabti statues that were believed to perform manual labor for them in the afterlife. Rituals in which the deceased was magically re-animated accompanied burials. After burial, living relatives were expected to occasionally bring food to the tomb and recite prayers on behalf of the deceased.
Egypt relied on trade with Anatolia for essential quantities of tin as well as supplementary supplies of copper, both metals being necessary for the manufacture of bronze. The ancient Egyptians prized the blue stone lapis lazuli, which had to be imported from far-away Afghanistan. Egypt's Mediterranean trade partners also included Greece and Crete, which provided, among other goods, supplies of olive oil. In exchange for its luxury imports and raw materials, Egypt mainly exported grain, gold, linen, and papyrus, in addition to other finished goods including glass and stone objects.
The ancient Egyptian military was responsible for defending Egypt against foreign invasion, and for maintaining Egypt's domination in the ancient Near East. The military protected mining expeditions to the Sinai during the Old Kingdom and fought civil wars during the First and Second Intermediate Periods. The military was responsible for maintaining fortifications along important trade routes, such as those found at the city of Buhen on the way to Nubia. Forts also were constructed to serve as military bases, such as the fortress at Sile, which was a base of operations for expeditions to the Levant. In the New Kingdom, a series of pharaohs used the standing Egyptian army to attack and conquer Kush and parts of the Levant.
Typical military equipment included bows and arrows, spears, and round-topped shields made by stretching animal skin over a wooden frame. In the New Kingdom, the military began using chariots that had earlier been introduced by the Hyksos invaders. Weapons and armor continued to improve after the adoption of bronze: shields were now made from solid wood with a bronze buckle, spears were tipped with a bronze point, and the Khopesh was adopted from Asiatic soldiers. The pharaoh was usually depicted in art and literature riding at the head of the army, and there is evidence that at least a few pharaohs, such as Seqenenre Tao II and his sons, did do so. Soldiers were recruited from the general population, but during, and especially after, the New Kingdom, mercenaries from Nubia, Kush, and Libya were hired to fight for Egypt.
The medical problems of the ancient Egyptians stemmed directly from their environment. Living and working close to the Nile brought hazards from malaria and debilitating schistosomiasis parasites, which caused liver and intestinal damage. Dangerous wildlife such as crocodiles and hippos were also a common threat. The life-long labors of farming and building put stress on the spine and joints, and traumatic injuries from construction and warfare all took a significant toll on the body. The grit and sand from stone-ground flour abraded teeth, leaving them susceptible to abscesses (though caries were rare). The diets of the wealthy were rich in sugars, which promoted periodontal disease. Despite the flattering physiques portrayed on tomb walls, the overweight mummies of many of the upper class show the effects of a life of overindulgence. Adult life expectancy was about 35 for men and 30 for women, but reaching adulthood was difficult as about one-third of the population died in infancy.
Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for their healing skills, and some, like Imhotep, remained famous long after their deaths. Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of specialization among Egyptian physicians, with some treating only the head or the stomach, while others were eye-doctors and dentists. Training of physicians took place at the Per Ankh or "House of Life" institution, most notably those headquartered in Per-Bastet during the New Kingdom and at Abydos and Saïs in the Late period. Medical papyri show empirical knowledge of anatomy, injuries, and practical treatments. Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, white linen, sutures, nets, pads and swabs soaked with honey to prevent infection, while opium was used to relieve pain. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Egyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and amputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that some injuries were so serious that they could only make the patient comfortable until he died.
Mathematical notation was decimal, and based on hieroglyphic signs for each power of ten up to one million. Each of these could be written as many times as necessary to add up to the desired number; so to write the number eighty or eight hundred, the symbol for ten or one hundred was written eight times respectively. Because their methods of calculation could not handle most fractions with a numerator greater than one, ancient Egyptian fractions had to be written as the sum of several fractions. For example, the fraction two-fifths was resolved into the sum of one-third + one-fifteenth; this was facilitated by standard tables of values. Some common fractions, however, were written with a special glyph; the equivalent of the modern two-thirds is shown on the right.
Ancient Egyptian mathematicians had a grasp of the principles underlying the Pythagorean theorem, knowing, for example, that a triangle had a right angle opposite the hypotenuse when its sides were in a 3–4–5 ratio. They were able to estimate the area of a circle by subtracting one-ninth from its diameter and squaring the result:
The golden ratio seems to be reflected in many Egyptian constructions, including the pyramids, but its use may have been an unintended consequence of the ancient Egyptian practice of combining the use of knotted ropes with an intuitive sense of proportion and harmony.
The culture and monuments of ancient Egypt have left a lasting legacy on the world. The cult of the goddess Isis, for example, became popular in the Roman empire, as obelisks and other relics were transported back to Rome. The Romans also imported building materials from Egypt to erect structures in Egyptian style. Early historians such as Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus Siculus studied and wrote about the land which became viewed as a place of mystery. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Egyptian pagan culture was in decline after the rise of Christianity and later Islam, but interest in Egyptian antiquity continued in the writings of medieval scholars such as Dhul-Nun al-Misri and al-Maqrizi.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, European travelers and tourists brought back antiquities and wrote stories of their journeys, leading to a wave of Egyptomania across Europe. This renewed interest sent collectors to Egypt, who took, purchased, or were given many important antiquities. Although the European colonial occupation of Egypt destroyed a significant portion of the country's historical legacy, some foreigners had more positive results. Napoleon, for example, arranged the first studies in Egyptology when he brought some 150 scientists and artists to study and document Egypt's natural history, which was published in the Description de l'Ėgypte. In the 19th century, the Egyptian Government and archaeologists alike recognized the importance of cultural respect and integrity in excavations. The Supreme Council of Antiquities now approves and oversees all excavations, which are aimed at finding information rather than treasure. The council also supervises museums and monument reconstruction programs designed to preserve the historical legacy of Egypt.