text:
Monday, December 23, 2013
A year in polling
Tapping into the Pulse: Political public opinion polling in Canada, 2013 is an eBook I'm working on that was successfully funded on Kickstarter last week. Thanks to those who pledged! The Kickstarter drive ends on December 27, so you still have a few more days to reserve your advance copy (to be delivered one month before the book goes on sale), contribute to this website, and save a little money off the sticker price. It will be a comprehensive record of the year in politics and particularly in polling, and I hope you'll enjoy it!
With the year coming to a close, let's take a look here at how the federal parties have done in the polls over the course of 2013. We'll also compare their performances to how they did in 2011 and 2012 (I did this last year as well). The differences are remarkable.
As you can see from the above, most of the change that has taken place nationwide occurred just after Trudeau became leader. Since then, the three parties have generally been in stasis. But the trends are looking negative for the Conservatives.
What will 2014 hold? We certainly aren't done with the Senate, and the Bloc Québécois will choose a new leader, likely in the spring. Apart from that: events, dear boy, events. With Thomas Mulcair begin to regain the support he lost when Justin Trudeau became Liberal leader? Will Trudeau be able to hold on to that support? What influence will the likely elections in Ontario and Quebec have on the federal scene, particularly if the Parti Québécois is given a majority?
It should be an interesting year. I hope to cover it with the next annual edition of Tapping into the Pulse! This will likely be the last post of 2013, so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy holidays, and all the best in 2014. Thanks for reading, see you next year!
36 comments:
Glad you like my quick-&-dirty 3-poll average graphs from Wikipedia, Éric. ;)ReplyDelete
One of these days I've been meaning to sit down and try to come up with a more sophisticated equation in Excel that takes the polling date into account, which would bring it closer to your own polling averages.
Great work this year; keep it coming. Happy holidays!
I have to admit, they were an inspiration! I wanted to show the regional numbers in a different way than with the monthly averages - gives an indication of the noise as well as the signal, I think!Delete
I was wondering what kind of dedicated fellow would make such graphs and keep them updated like that! Great work! I check that wiki article about as often as I check 308Delete
We've still got almost two years before the election. What's the odds there won't be changes ??ReplyDelete
And of course the other question is "If the numbers continue this bad or even get worse for the CPC will Harper leave??"ReplyDelete
I think its quite unlikely Harper would leave, unless his party was at abysmal numbers in the polls...say sub 20%. Otherwise I am quite sure Harper will lead his party into the next election and try to win by carpet bombing Trudeau with attack adds, and running an top notch get out the vote effort.ReplyDeleteReplies
There is a remarkable amount of speculation Carl in the media. Given the election is two years away it's astonishing. The total mishandling of the Senate scandal and a couple of other issues has almost destroyed Harper. In fact the base may, I say may, force him out if things don't improve.Delete
As to attack ads re Trudeau every time they have tried one his numbers have risen, not fallen !!
IMHO the whole Harper resignation speculation is being driven by the media. There's next to 0 chance it will actually happen.Delete
The CPC's current fundraising efforts are very Trudeau-centric. Presumably that's working, because they've been doing it for months.Delete
While you're correct that the attack ads didn't seem to work this time (though you can see why they tried - they worked with Dion and Ignatieff), it would seem the base really doesn't like the guy. It will be interesting to see what sorts of ads the CPC tries next, given that dichotomy.
We'll see what the Q4 fundraising totals are in the end too. If the Liberals come out ahead of the Tories, then that's bad news bears for the Conservatives in a big way IMHO. My guess is that it will be close but that the Liberals will fall a bit short still (and that the NDP will have an especially unfun time).Delete
It's fascinating to look at the three leaders at year end.Delete
Harper still solid with his slightly less than 30% base.
Mulcair really not part of the mainstream despite his superb House performance
Trudeau way out in front of the other two and in fact his party as well. Despite a less than good House performance once he's outside talking to normal people he's a major force. And with a new baby coming he'll grab even more !!
I'd hardly call Mulcair outside of the mainstream. NDP support isn't THAT far behind the Tories and Liberals. It wasn't so long ago that they were polling in second place, and he is the leader of the opposition after all/.Delete
I don't understand Trudeau's appeal at all. What is it people like about him?Delete
Go and Watch Power Play tonight on CTV News channel Website. Don Martins showDelete
Will give you the answer !
And all of you wait till you see the new Nanos numbers, just out today, that the Cons are sinking rapidly.ReplyDelete
So the next election will be an Lib-NDP battle ?? CPC a distant third !!Replies
Looong way to go before an election. Harper is an incredible well seasoned politician and campaigner at this point and cannot be written off even if they are a little low in the polls right now. We have a balanced budget expected soon least before the election for certain, and they will most certainly shift to giving another set of goodies in a budget before going out on the campaign. As well, shifting support by 10-15% or so during an election is certainly possible, a melt down by Trudeau in the debate, or some other kind of event could easily happen. The Cons have a very well oiled get out the vote machine in many ridings, it is extremely effective, their voter intention lists allows them to be very effective in how they target voters within ridings. This is going to be very difficult for the Liberals to overcome, though not impossible. Many ridings have defunct/non existent or minimal Liberal associations and that leads to a weak get out the vote effort...a significant problem for the Libs. Even if the Cons were at 10% today I wouldn't be celebrating...Delete
Read thisReplyDelete
Don't see how this is any better or worse than any other polling out there lately.Delete
Maybe not but as an "Official" yearender is points a direction.Delete
As to whether that direction will hold only time will tell but it does sort of go along with the "longer in power the lower the approval" that we have seen before.
When one aggregates the "very good" 12%, "good" 14% and "average" 17%= 43% tghings do not look too bad for the Tories. Especially when "very poor" 38% and "poor" 18%=46%.Delete
Arguably, those who responded "very poor" were not going to vote for the Conservatives in any case, so from my reading this poll is more status quo than pointing in a downward direction.
Agreed Bede. More of what we've been seeing in the last few months. Not great polls for the Tories but not dire straights either.Delete
A walk In The Snow ?? RyanDelete
No way in hell will Harper resign. He won't pass up a chance to run against a Trudeau. Anyone in the Conservative caucus who tries to push him out won't be getting their nomination papers signed in 2015.Delete
I tend to completely agree with you Ryan. Be fun to watch it play out though.Delete
I don't think Harper will resign but, I don't know the man personally so who knows if he has an undisclosed malady or conversely in fine health and contemplating a generous job offer.Delete
Harper has won the right to lead the Tories in the next election and I would not expect much caucus dissent at least in public. As the BC NDP demonstrated parties that stage internal coups against the leader tend not to win the subsequent election.
Happy new year readers and Eric. Thanks for a wonderful blog. This has been my go to site for Canadian political polling and analysis over the last year and it is much appreciated.ReplyDelete
Having visited this site for over a year a couple of impressions are left.ReplyDelete
First is the incredible amount of work Eric puts into it. Thank you very, very much Eric !!
Another is the existence here and elsewhere of the Candide school of political commentary.
"Oh nothing wrong here, let's move on" !!
Let's all face facts. All political parties approval and rejection ebbs and flows. What we should be looking at, in order to roughly at least, predict the future is trends. Not absolute numbers but trends.
So when a new poll comes out and shows a significant change and somebody on here basically spews the "party line' to claim, in the face of the poll numbers, that there is no real change we know we are reading a "Candide" and thus can place the comment where it belongs.Replies
Of course one poll does not a trend make Peter!Delete
No bede one poll doesn't but just look at the graphs on here, even Alberta shows a shift.Delete
Yes but, the link you provided was a one-off.Delete
Of course a single poll is done from one link. Your intelligence should be able, where Eric hasn't yet done, to create the trend.Delete
So, you are asking me to imagine a trend?Delete
I went to Nanos' website-the poll is a one-off. At this point it can not speak to trends or describe one. The poll you provided measures government performance, Eric mainly measures support levels of political parties. Whilst such measurements are similar they are not the same. To compose a trend out of fundamentally different metrics is to confuse the situation.
In any case the poll you provided, as I note above, does not conform to to the overall trend 308 has outlined. Other research by Nanos also points to a more fluid and complex situation such as; a poll indicating both the Liberals and NDP are losing potential voters.
"a poll indicating both the Liberals and NDP are losing potential voters. "Delete
Maybe but as Eric's numbers prove not at near the rate the CPC is losing voters.
The real problem with nanos is what do the numbers and power indicators even mean?....how do they relate to voters intentions? Its quite different from asking someone who they would vote for straight up...how do their weight the 4 questions they ask?...and how accurate is the weighting?....none of that shows up in what Nanos puts out.Delete
About nanos showing fluid and complex electorate....that sounds like what Nik Nanos keeps talking about...for the past year...but his numbers change so slightly from poll to poll (party power) they run I really don't understand where they glean that information from
Agreed Carl. It's some interesting information on party brands for sure, but beyond that...?Delete
Actually Peter the poll I refer to had the Liberal losing 15% and the NDP 11% of potential voters whereas the Tories were only down 2%. As Carl mentions it is difficult to discern what it all means since voter consideration of a political party is not the same as voting intention.Delete
COMMENT MODERATION POLICY - Please be respectful when commenting. If choosing to remain anonymous, please sign your comment with some sort of pseudonym to avoid confusion. Please do not use any derogatory terms for fellow commenters, parties, or politicians. Inflammatory and overly partisan comments will not be posted. PLEASE KEEP DISCUSSION ON TOPIC.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.


text:
Rolling Stone has featured the Flying Spaghetti Monster in its latest issue – the one with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger on the cover – the April 17, 2008 issue, pictured to the right. Check out page 39.
RS has a huge circulation; who knows how many converts we gained. It's cool to see the mainstream media picking up on the fastest growing religion in the world.
The article – Investigating Bush – is about Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. More or less, he's the guy calling out the Bush Administration on their bullshit. I could not be more pleased that the FSM was included – I have a lot of respect for Rep. Waxman, as I imagine many Pastafarians do.
I've included a couple scans. Click to enlarge.
The FSM is placed furthest to the left on the "with us – against us" scale. That is awesome.
This is the second time that the FSM has been featured in Rolling Stone. The first was in the November 3, 2005 issue. Hoobastank vocalist Doug Robb was wearing an FSM shirt. He also thanked the the FSM on their last album's cover-art.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Call Us Now
0247 655 1919
Call Us Now
Call Us Now
0247 655 1919
Thanks so much for your persistence and patience with our house sale – we finally moved.
Wishing you all the best for the future.
Many Thanks for your expertise but especially your patience in helping me to sell Park Road
Dear Nick
Just a huge thank you for all what you have done for John and I, we wouldn't have done it without
your help. Sorry if Ive nagged you at all but there again I am a nagger ask Candi. If you're every up
In Skeggy you will have to pop in. Once again Thank You very much for all your hard work.
Nick & Staff
Thanks for all the support, help, professionalism and good humour (and the cups of coffee!)
To Everyone at Alternative Estates
Thank you very much for all your help in selling my house, you stayed with me, gave me no hassle
and advertised. Cant thank you enough!
To Nick & Staff Alternative Estates
Just a small token of appreciate from Lilah, Son-in-Law Bill, Daughter Valerie and her Grandson Gary
For your services regarding Lonscale Drive
Dear Nick
Thanks for your help in selling my Sisters home. We appreciate all you have done for us. Also
Thank Carla and All the other girls who have been very kind to us.
John Maher & Staff
Thanking you for all your support over the years
Best regards Kenton & Carol
To All at Alternative Estates
Thank you for dealing with sale of Mums house in Johnson Road. It took a while but we got there
In the end thro your efforts
To All at Alternative
Thank you for all of your help and support selling our Flat, and for making it as stress free as possible.
Thanks Nick for all your help and support. Couldn't have done it without you.
TO Carla, Nick & Everyone at Alternative Estates
Thank you all for your excellent service and diligent attention in the purchase of my Flat :)
Thank you All very much for your help. We got there in the end.
Thank you Nick
Thank you once again for the professional advice and assistance in dealing with Tenancy agreements. I'm sure I'll be calling you again in the future for more help & assistance, so for now
Good luck for the future and look forward to meeting up with you and your staff again.
With grateful thanks for your kind help! Its much appreciated, Enjoy the Chocs!!
Dear Sue, Carla and all the Team at Alternative Estates
Many thanks for selling Ferndale Road, it's a great relief to know its finally sold, yours faithfully
Thank You So Much
For all your help and support
To Nick & Alternative Estates
Thanks for helping us buy our first home! Sorry for all the questions, most certainly recommend you
To everyone.
Dear Nick
We would like to thank you for all your helpful advice which guided us throughout the purchase
of our first family home! We wish you all the best both professionally and personally. Thank
you again for everything!
To Nick
We've had withdrawal symptoms! Thank you so much for your advice, patience, humour and time whilst we have bought our first house. We've really appreciated everything you have done for us.
To Nick & Team
Thank you for your help
Dear Annette
Thank you
Joanna & Nick
Thank you both so very much for all that you have done for me, and the very quick sale of my home
Dear Nick
A long time coming…. Finally completed, all two weeks before Christmas and with Natalies help,
sorted for New Year. I am sending you my "grateful" thanks for all the help you gave and in
pointing us in the right direct (hopefully). Do hope you had a nice Christmas and wish you and
The Family a very Happy, Healthy and successful New Year. Od Bless again and my grateful
Dear Joanna
Thank you so much for all the hard work you put in to selling my house. I really appreciate it.
Will you also say thanks to Annette & Sue for their work as well. I feel really relaxed now,
And can start looking for a house to buy. (I now know which certificate to ask for Ha Ha)
A big thanks once again!
Nick, Sue and All Staff
Thank you all for your help in selling my house – you're all great
To Alternative Estates (especially Annette)
Thank you for all your help and for dealing with all matters so promptly during my time at
Chaceley Close
Thank You - For all your hard work and encouragement
To Joanna
You're so kind, Kindest regards
Dear Nick
Thanks so much for all your help, much appreciated.
To Nick, Joanna and all at Alternative Estates
'Thank you' for everything that you have done in organising the sale of Mum's bungalow in Beaufort Drive.
To Annette
Thank you for all your help with our new home. I think the boys & I are going to be very happy here.
To Sue, John and Carla,
Thank you for your help and for getting 'results' !
Your mortgage is probably the largest financial transaction and commitment you are likely to undertake. Surely then you should seek mortgage advice which is individually tailored to your needs and requirements...
This type of cover protects you for a given term for a fixed benefit. The amount of life cover chosen at the outset will be paid whether a claim on death is made in the first year of the term or the last year...
Health Insurance is probably one of the most important types of insurance you can own. Without it, an illness or accident can have serious long-term financial implications for you and your family...
If you're over the age of 55, equity release offers you a way to use the value of your home to raise money...
Accident, Sickness & Unemployment insurance (ASU), is also known as mortgage payment protection. It is designed to provide you with an income to meet your outgoings in case of...


text:
Mohamed El-Erian predicts few fireworks from Janet Yellen's confirmation hearing on Thursday. He wrote for CNBC on Wednesday that her testimony should remind us of five things.
First is that she is very qualified, he wrote. "Look for the discussion to highlight in particular her solid academic foundation, extensive policy experience, and sound judgment over many years — all of which speak to a smooth and credible leadership transition at a particularly tricky time for the Federal Reserve."
She is also committed to the current policies coming out of the Fed, and El-Erian wrote that investors should expect "evolution rather than revolution."
Similarly, she's likely to maintain the "collegial approach to decision-making" established by Chairman Ben Bernanke. "This is consequential at a time when conditions on the ground will inevitably call for complex judgment calls, and when markets are likely to take badly signs of material differences within the Federal Open Market Committee," he wrote.
While El-Erian acknowledges that it would be best if lawmakers could agree on policy, he wrote that Yellen "does not consider inaction on the part of other policy-making entities a deal breaker."
Finally, El-Erian believes Yellen is confident that regulatory efforts aren't overreaching to the point that they can hinder monetary stimulus.
"If Thursday's hearing does indeed deliver on these five hypotheses, markets can look to a continuation of the Fed's current policy stance for now," El-Erian wrote. "When the time for taper comes, as it inevitably will, the central bank would partially compensate through more aggressive forward policy guidance. In doing so, it would also specify an additional set of intermediate policy targets."
Austin Goolsbee, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, is expecting a different kind of fireworks. He spoke at The New York Times Dealbook conference on Tuesday, noting that some Republicans and Tea Party members may object to her confirmation and attempt to stop or delay it, CNN reported.
Furthermore, if the confirmation is delayed and the Fed lacks a chairman by the time it begins scaling back its bond buying program or budget debates ramp up again, it could have a significant impact on consumer confidence. "All of that would add a lot of uncertainty. People would be really nervous over whether the Fed can carry out the taper or any other effective monetary policy."
Ultimately, he called a lack of clear leadership at the Fed a "market-disruptive event."
Check out Look Out, Bubble Ahead (Thanks, Fed!): Real Estate Expert on ThinkAdvisor.


text:
In accordance with state regulations, our business is closed until April 10. All online orders placed at this time will not be processed & shipped until April 13, 2020. The re-opening date is contingent upon state regulations and the containment of COVID-19. We will not be able to ship orders until the Stay At Home order in Minnesota has been lifted. Thank you for understanding. Stay safe and well.
United Nations Stamps : United Nations Geneva : 2013 (559-76)1 thru 17 of 17 items


text:
Tell me why you think we'll be better than 8-8 this year with an offensive
line that is an embarassment!
Fan since Bill Austin was a pup
Tell me why you think we'll be better than 8-8 this year with an offensive
line that is an embarassment!
Fan since Bill Austin was a pup
Because our OL is not as offensive as it was shaping up to be before the draft. It's going to take some time for these guys to learn to work with Hartwig so there is going to be some growing pains regardless but if he pans out like we all hope he will then we won't be in that bad of shape this year. Kemoeatu has had a real good camp and has improved a lot since even last year. Marvel is healthy and ready to go. Colon has had a full year at RT and managed to keep Starks off the starting roster ( although how big of a feat that actually was is anybody's guess ). Simmons is serviceable but not fantastic. It all starts and ends with Hartwig, if he can do his job we'll be ok.
we will be better than 8-8 because we will.
#1. the line is not as bad as everybody thinks it is.
#2. the offense, including ben, is one of the most dangerous, if not the MOST dangerous in the league.
#3. we have the sickest LB core in the league.
#4. special teams is better
#5. the entire defense is ready to show WHY it was the best in the league last year and why it will be the best again this year.
side note: losing faneca IS NOT GOING TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE. he did not play inspired at all last year and did nothing special. a lot of people say that losing him was big but regardless of his skill, he did nothing last year. watch the tapes.
RIDICULOUSLY good looking...
The #1 worst thing about our O-Line is..... No thanks to the front office.
overpaid average players.....
Simmons, Hartwig(could prove his worth), Mahan and Starks.
And I'm sure that they feel that Smith is already overpaid for what he's worth or they would have extended his contract.....
Willie Colon is schedule to make $425,000. But, what kind of crazy contract will they offer him after this season.
don't mind me I'm just ranting....
I just think that with Hartwig at center now our line will improve some. Like Top Gun said, they may have some growing pains since Hartwig is the new guy but I think that they will end up being okay.
Proud fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Pittsburgh Steelers, Duke Bluedevils, and San Antonio Spurs.
Here is my take on the OL......The right side is terrible....I think Simmons is average at best and Willie Colon isn't an OT......But Colon has to play RT since there is no other option....I know he has a year under his belt but having have a year of experience won't mask all of Colon's short comings as an OT....Max Starks has to be just so worthless and uninterested in practice to offer no kind of challenge to Willie Colon for the RT spot....
I don't think Hartwig will be that much of an upgrade at center...But he should be some kind of upgrade over Mahan.....But thats not saying much.....lol
I think Big Chris Kemoeatu will be a monster in the run game.....But I do have concerns about his pass protection....
Having a healthy Marvel Smith will help....But I'll say for the 1,0000th time he isn't a LT....Smith is so much better suited for RT......
I was hoping for this OL to be better in 2008.....But really its an average at best OL......
The Steelers really need to upgrade the talent at OT and C next off-season......I would also resign Kemoeatu.......Then ditch Simmons and resign Colon to play OG......I would like to see Smith resigned so the Steelers have an experienced OT next year....But I'm sure his asking price will out of the Steelers range....
Last edited by Black@Gold Forever32; 09-01-2008 at 11:41 AM.
I'm not on the Max Starks band wagon....But I can't help believing there's more than we know going on with Starks. Perhaps the FO is punishing Max(and hurting the team) for not signing a long term deal .
I've watched him play LT last year and would not hesitate to use him there again and there's no way you can tell me he couldn't beat Colon at RT.
It's no fun when the rabbit has the gun
Being an upgrade over Mahan isn't saying too much, Peewee herman could do the same job as he did last year I think Hartwig will be serviceable but not stellar. At this point if he can atleast hold his own we'll "ok".
Simmons is alright, even along side Hartings he wasn't great although most of that time he was injured or dealing with just find out he was diabetic, then he got beside Mahan and it really got bad. Im not totally convinced we've seen the best Simmons can be to this point but maybe we have.
Colon isn't the prototypical RT that you want but he should atleast alittle better this year.
No way we get Marvel back next year man he's going to get a big ole Faneca kind of contract if he wants it. I'd like to see him back because Hills probably won't be ready to step in full time yet.
Oddly enough the one I have the most confidence in for 2008 besides Marvel is Kemoeatu. I think he's going to have a break out year and he looked better in pass protection so far than he ever has.
Average OL in 2008, yeah I'd definitely agree with that. I don't know how much potential these guys have but I guess we'll find out.
Moore with him being such a receiver out of the backfield and his blitz pickup skills...He will help on 3rd downs by picking up the blitz as a blocker or as an outlet receiver.....
My hope with Mendenhall was that he would make defenses respect our running game again....I'm not saying defenses didn't respect Willie Parker...I think they did to a point but it wasn't the same respect that defenses have showed the Steelers running game in years past....I was hoping the combo of Parker/Mendenhall would bring that respect back and put the pass rush on their heels some...
With Mendenhalls early fumbles problems I don't see that happening in the early part of this season...
Bringing in those weapons can certainly help the OL because it gives Ben more options in the passing game and different looks in the running game too. Teams are going to after Mendenhall big time every time he touches the ball and if they start having success stripping it from him it's going to be downhill for his confidence that's for sure.
Ben is going to need to do a lot of quick drops, short passes, and plays that get the ball out of his hands quickly till these 5 guys get sured up, the last thing we need is another year of a billion sacks on our 100+ million dollar investment.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)


text:
VLC media player – the cross-platform media player version 0.9.2 has been released and available for download.
VLC media player is a highly portable open souce multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. This software is DRM free and can play almost any popular media player instantly. From the wiki:
The 0.9 version of VLC media player adds a new interface module for Linux, Unix and Windows, a media library and an improved playlist, many new inputs and codecs support and many new audio and video filters.
The playlist has been improved in many ways, in addition to the new Media Library (very simple so far, but will be extended in the future):
- Live Searching in the playlist,
- Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Video and similar services URL can be scripted in VLC to play directly those URLs,
- last.fm submission support,
- Album art support,
- Better metadata tagging reading and writing support for audio files.
A lot of new decoders, demuxers, and protocols have been added.
There are new codecs support, like Flash video variants, camcorder codecs (M2TS ones), Dirac, Atrac3, H.264 PAFF, APE audio, RealVideo, VC-3, Fraps and others, but also better decoding and better performance. Many thanks to the FFmpeg project which can take most of the credit for these improvements.
There are improvements in the demuxers and new supports (subtitles format rework with many new formats, Tivo2, OMA, MIDI support…).
Tag supports of audio files have vastly been improved(fix of APE, AAC, OGG tags,…)
This version also supports DVB windows devices (BDA), iSight Webcams, v4l2 on Linux and many other ones.
Many new audio and video filters have been added:
- New video filters like puzzle game, color extracting, sharpen, logo erasing, blue-screen and more have been added.
- New audio filters have introduced Replay Gain support, Faster/Slower audio playback with pitch correction and a spatializer.
- Most video filters can now be streamed.
Download VLC Player For Windows, OS X and GNU/Linux
- Visit official project page to grab latest version.


text:
The opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games had many highlights, culminating in the lighting of the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Olympic Cauldron. A major aim of the Olympic committee has been to make the London Games as green as possible, but the iconic copper cauldron—beautiful as it may be—is fueled by a steady stream of natural gas.
The cauldron was designed by London-based Thomas Heatherwick who is well known for his unique architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, and furniture projects. His concept for the Olympic cauldron sees 204 separate copper "petals" coming together to make one enormous flame. Each of the 204 petals represent one of the 204 nations coming together to compete in the 2012 Games. The unique concept was approved by Prime Minister David Cameron and London 2012 chairman Lord Coe.
In order to make the cauldron as green as possible, Heatherwick had to meet the London Organizing Committee's request that the Olympic cauldron be powered by natural gas which is pumped individually through the stems of each petal.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, an Olympic spokesman said: 'The multiple burners means that the burn-rate is flexible. The gas flow can be reduced very significantly—this means we can reduce our gas consumption from 100% down to 15%. We are constantly monitoring the flow rate to ensure the minimum quantity of gas is burned."
While that is fantastic to hear, the London Olympic Games is resorting to bad habits to make the Games as green as possible. Instead of looking at sustainable and renewable alternatives, reports indicate that the Games is merely working with energy company EDF to see that all of the carbon emissions are offset. In essence, they're paying to pollute.
Still the 8.5 meter-high, 16 ton copper cauldron will be recycled once the Games are over—except for its petals, which be given distributed among the competing nations once the cauldron is completely dismantled.
via BangStyle


text:
The Red Sox announced Bobby Valentine as their new manager yesterday, and that's a hell of a thing. Good for them. But Valentine brings with him many unanswered questions. Can he prevent another collapse? Can he get up to speed on innovations in MLB since 2002? And did he really invent the wrap?
We'll let Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal explain:
"Oy, the wrap thing," Valentine said as he shook his head Thursday at his introduction as the new Boston skipper.
It's a story that Valentine has told for years. That in 1980, he was crafting a club sandwich at his Stamford restaurant, Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Café, when the toaster broke. At a loss, Valentine wrapped the sandwich components in a tortilla. The former big leaguer called it a Club Mex, but others took to calling it by a different name, and voilà: The wrap was born.
Well, that sounds plausible enough, right? Wrong:
But Valentine isn't the only claimant.
A California restaurant chain, I Love Juicy, is often credited with popularizing the wrap in the U.S., and a Boston eatery, Sami's Falafel, claims to have been offering the wrapped sandwich since 1979, though they called it a roll-up through most of the 1980s, said current owner Sami Saba, son of the founder.
"I was thinking of that this morning. Every time I hear them say that [Valentine] made it, I start yelling—we've been making wraps in Lebanon forever," Saba said.
But the Lebanese wrap doesn't look entirely like the American wrap. And, complicating things further, a food historian quoted by the Journal says the wrap as we know it may have not even emerged until the 1990s!
Can Bobby Valentine be trusted? Like so many government officials, Bobby Valentine has pulled the wool over our eyes. Difference is, he then shoved a stuffed tortilla in our mouths.
Did This Man Really Invent the Wrap? [Wall Street Journal]


text:
As a Christian liberal arts college, Emmanuel provides educational opportunities that go beyond job training in marketable skills for employment. Studying liberal arts is not synonymous with career preparation. The general education program is designed to help the person develop as a holistic individual in society. In that a liberal arts education seeks to help the student make a life rather than merely a living, and that career goals often change, the general education program is highly valuable for career preparation, and for further work toward a baccalaureate degree.
Communication Skills
EN 101, 102 (Freshman Composition 6 hrs.
CM 130 (Intro to Communication) 3 hrs.
Literature 3 hrs.
Art-Music Appreciation/Philosophy/
Theater/Foreign Language/Literature 6 hrs.
Social and Behavioral Science*
History 3 hrs.
Political Science/Psychology/Sociology/
Economics/Geography/History 6 hrs.
Christian Ministries
BI 111 (Biblical Literature & History) 3 hrs.
BI 112 (Interpreting Biblical Literature) 3 hrs.
Natural Science/Mathematical Reasoning
Science (Lab course) 4 hrs.
Mathematics 3 hrs.
Physical Wellness
PE 105 (Total Fitness) 1 hr.
Electives 17 hrs.
国产偷拍视频FS 101 (Freshman Seminar) 2 hrs.
TOTAL 60 hrs.
*Students who are following curricula which place emphasis on mathematics and science may request at the beginning of the sophomore year to be permitted to make the following substitutions:
国产偷拍视频 A student with a total of 20 hours of math/science (this is 12 hours above the 3-hour math and 4-hour science requirement) may substitute 3 hours of math/science courses for one of the options under humanities or social science. A student with a total of 23 or more hours of math/science (15 or more hours above requirements) may substitute for one option under both humanities and social science. A student may not substitute for two humanities or two social science courses under this provision.


text:
Choose another PM
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin, Australia's second Prime Minister, was also the fifth and the seventh. He was in office three times in the first ten years of Federation.
Often referred to as 'the constructor', his work in building soundly on the nation's constitutional foundations is evident a century later.
Perhaps the finest speaker in the Australian parliament's first century, Deakin's love of learning informed his political life. Handsome and intelligent, his courteous manner earned him the nickname 'Affable Alfred'.
Find records
The researcher's portal to records on Australia's prime ministers
Search for institutions with records on Alfred Deakin


text:
The Mini 1 inch knives are perfect to use as a climax for any knife routine. You get a set of 6 knives (Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue, Green, and Orange). These fully functional knives are perfect in every detail. They are exactly like the standard knives and they are real knives. You can start your routine by showing the Mini Knife and stretching it into a standard 3" knife. This makes a nice opener.....You can also close your routine by changing a standard knife to a Mini.
Do you own this product? Write a review.


text:
Um... my account with them automaticly sets everything to junk unless it's from a contact. As for ads... compaired to what? Seen AO lately? I mean, just look at this bullshit!Hotmail, well, I hate it. I don't like the idea of having to stare at ads and Spam all day, and I get more Spam in my Hotmail then any other account. I report each one to Hotmail to try and help solve that, but it still gets loaded with Spam.
Anything and everything that edits sound sucks compared to Audacity. It's the truth.and it's what I use to make all of my music.


text:
Understatement Definition
What is understatement? Here's a quick and simple definition:
Understatement is a figure of speech in which something is expressed less strongly than would be expected, or in which something is presented as being smaller, worse, or lesser than it really is. Typically, understatement is used to call attention to the very quality it pretends to downplay. For instance, if you had just eaten the most delicious meal of your life and licked the plate clean, you might jokingly tell the chef that "It was edible," making use of understatement to humorously express how much you appreciated the meal.
Some additional key details about understatement:
- Understatement is generally intended to be humorous.
- However, the use of understatement can also be modest or polite, since it can downplay things that it would be boastful or inappropriate to say directly.
- Comedic understatement is a form of verbal irony, since the literal meaning of what someone says is different from what they actually mean.
- The opposite of understatement is overstatement, in which a statement is made with more strength than is actually warranted.
How to Pronounce Understatement
Here's how to pronounce understatement: un-der-state-ment
Ironic and Non-Iron Understatement
There are two main types of understatement: ironic understatement and, well, non-ironic understatement. In order to fully understand understatement in all its forms, it's important to have a good grasp of these two different ways of using it.
Ironic Understatement
Something is ironic when it concerns the gap between how something appears and how it really is. Most of the time when people refer to understatement, they're referring to ironic understatement, which just means that the speaker is using understatement to say one thing with the intention of actually communicating something quite different. For example, when British Airways flight 9 lost all four of its engines, the captain made the following announcement, which has since come to be regarded as a masterpiece of understatement:
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.
This example is ironic because there's a gap between what the captain says and what he obviously means—which is not simply that there is a "small problem" which should not cause the passengers "too much distress," but that everyone's lives are in danger and their distress is presumably overwhelming. Although the humor of his understatement was probably lost on his panicking passengers, understatement that's intended to be comedic (or, as in this case, provide comic relief) is almost always ironic.
Non-ironic Understatement
Non-ironic understatement is pretty easy to understand. It occurs when somebody expresses something less strongly than would be expected, but not with the intention of communicating any alternative meaning. This type of understatement is often used when people are trying to be humble or polite. For instance:
- Someone who won a gold medal in the Olympics might try to downplay their victory by saying it's "not a big deal."
- The world's most preeminent expert on black holes might say to a stranger at a party, "I know a bit about black holes" or "I've studied them."
- Someone who is trying to be polite or avoid conflict when speaking about politics might respond to an offensive or bigoted remark by saying "Well, that's a controversial opinion."
Nobody in the examples above is being ironic; they're simply making an understatement with the intention of downplaying the seriousness or degree of something. They're not trying to be funny or convey any other meaning with what they say. This non-ironic form of understatement often overlaps with the use of euphemism (i.e., mild, indirect, or gentle words substituted for other words that are considered to be too embarrassing, unpleasant, offensive, or harsh to actually say). For example, calling someone's views "controversial" is often just a euphemistic way of saying that their opinions are insulting or backwards.
Understatement vs. Anticlimax
Understatement is often confused with another figure of speech called anticlimax. (In fact, this mistake is even made by many other websites in their coverage of understatement. So this confusion is something to watch out for.)
While these two devices might be thought of as similar because they both involve a reversal of expectations, in all other respects they are quite different. In understatement, the actual meaning of the statement is different from its literal meaning, while in anticlimax, expectations are built up over the course of a sentence or successive sentences, but expectations are reversed at the very end by a relatively disappointing ending. For example, Woody Allen once wrote:
"I have taken to violent choking and fainting. My room is damp and I have perpetual chills and palpitations of the heart. I have noticed, too, that I am out of napkins."
This is an example of anticlimax, not understatement. The inclusion of napkins is a letdown of the expectations built up by Allen's comments about his health, but it isn't in any way an understatement.
Litotes is a specific type of understatement in which an idea or sentiment is expressed ironically by negating a statement to the contrary. For example:
- Saying "It's not the best weather today" during a hurricane would be an example of litotes, because it implies through ironic understatement that the weather is, in fact, horrible.
Litotes works by making its use of understatement obvious. It usually does this by negating a statement that is either extreme or involves words that are superlative, such as "best" or "most." For example:
- The understatement "I'm not starving" uses litotes by negating the extreme word "starving." It communicates that, while you may not be starving, you are in fact pretty hungry. Even though "hungry" and "starving" have similar meanings, it's hard to imagine anyone ever successfully using the sentence "I'm not hungry" as a form of ironic understatement to communicate that they are, in fact, hungry. The presence of the extreme word, or of a superlative like "most" or "best" is usually necessary to make litotes work.
Understatement vs. Litotes
How do you tell the difference between litotes and other forms of understatement?
- Litotes always contains a negation. If the phrase is an understatement, but does not contain negation, then it's not litotes.
- For example, if it was -50° outside and you said "it's a bit chilly," then your assessment would be understatement but not litotes ("I wouldn't say it's hot" would be an example of litotes).
All examples of litotes are also examples of understatement, but not all understatement is litotes.
Understatement Examples
Understatement appears all over the place. The examples below are taken from literature, film, and history. In each case, the use of understatement is highlighted in green.
Understatement in Shakespeare's Hamlet
There's a subtle example of understatement at the very end of this otherwise highly dramatic monologue from Hamlet, in which Hamlet bemoans the fact that his mother has remarried his uncle so soon after his father's death.
Let me not think on 't. Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
By this point in his speech, Hamlet has made it perfectly clear that the situation is far worse than "not good;" he sees it as a complete and utter disaster. Maybe Shakespeare inserted this understatement to make Hamlet's expression of dismay seem a little less melodramatic at just the right moment: when you hear this passage read aloud by a great actor, the understatement is by far the monologue's most impactful line.
Understatement in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man who throws extravagant parties at his waterfront mansion in order to attract the attention and affection of Daisy, the woman he loves. But Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, who is equally as fabulously wealthy. In this passage, Tom uses understatement as he shows the novel's narrator around his house.
"I've got a nice place here," he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.
Turning me around by one arm, he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motor-boat that bumped the tide offshore.
Even the narrator's brief description of Tom's opulent property makes it clear that he can see right through Tom's half-hearted attempt at modesty. It's unclear whether Tom meant the remark ironically or not, which fits with the book's overall portrayal of him as a total jerk.
Understatement in E.E. Cummings's "Since Feeling is First"
This poem by E.E. Cummings uses understatement in its final line to make a convincing argument for living in the moment.
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
and death i think is no parenthesis
The meaning of Cummings's understatement is clear: not only is death not a parenthesis (by which he presumably means something like a momentary pause or digression) but—to follow through on his metaphor—it's a "full stop," a period, "end of telegram." Therefore, Cummings suggests, let's enjoy this moment together, while we're alive! It's worth noting, too, that this use of understatement has two layers (since it's metaphorical): not only is death more like a period than a parenthesis, but even comparing death to a punctuation mark could itself be interpreted as a form of understatement.
Understatement in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
In one particularly famous scene from the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur encounters a knight as he is traveling through the countryside, and the knight challenges him to a duel. The knight quickly proves an easy opponent. First, King Arthur lops off one of the knight's arms, but much to Arthur's surprise, the knight continues fighting, barely seeming to notice. When Arthur points out the the knight's arm is gone, the knight plays it off as nothing: "Tis but a scratch," the knight says. Moments later, when the knight loses his other arm to Arthur's sword, he tells his competitor that it's "just a flesh wound," and that he has "had worse." The scene reaches the height of absurdity when Arthur has finally cut off all the knight's limbs, and the knight, too proud to admit defeat, says "All right, we'll call it a draw." Each of the knight's remarks is an example of understatement. It's ironic because the humor of the understatement comes from the gap between what the knight says and what is actually the case.
Understatement by Watson and Crick
When the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA in the 1950s, they famously reported:
This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.
In retrospect, their statement reads as a profound understatement—as no single discovery has had a greater impact on the field of biology than theirs—but they probably didn't write it with the intention of being ironic, just humble.
Why Do Writers Use Understatement?
A writer might use understatement for a number of different reasons:
- When it's used ironically, understatement can be an effective way of creating humor and adding depth to a text. It can also serve to emphasize exactly the thing being understated, through the juxtaposition of the literal meaning and the actual meaning.
- When it's used non-ironically, understatement can be a good way to sound modest or polite, or to call attention to the way in which a character is modest or polite.
It's more common for writers to have their characters use overt understatement than it is for them to incorporate understatement directly into their own narration, since usually the point is to make a joke, or to show that a character is being modest or polite. Narrators, by contrast, usually aim to be factual—and "factual" is something which understatement is decidedly not. Generally speaking, whether or not an understatement is made ironically, it often has the effect of calling attention to the very thing it seeks to downplay.
Other Helpful Understatement Resources
- The Wikipedia Page on Understatement: A short overview, with a handful of examples.
- The Dictionary Definition of Understatement: A basic definition.
- The 15 Greatest Understatements of All Time: A BuzzFeed listicle that covers some of the most famous uses of understatement.


text:
Goodnight Irene
Irene isn't even here yet but the pending hurricane has created a day-night doubleheader on Saturday, following the movement of Sunday's game to Saturday afternoon. Sunday's forecast is a very soggy one so the Phillies appealed to MLB to move it up a day.
So, the Marlins will face Doc and Cliff in one day. It will be a restless Friday night for the Marlins bats nestled in the visiting clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park.
There is so much made today of pitch count, pitching on three or four or five days, days off and innings accumulated.
Well, back on September 6, 1950, right-hander Don Newcombe started both games for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the first-place Phillies. It was the old-fashioned doubleheader in which the second game immediately followed the first game. The usual time between games in those situations is 25 minutes.
Newcombe pitched a complete game, 2-0 shutout, allowing only three hits. He was lifted after the seventh inning with the Dodgers trailing, 2-0. Brooklyn rallied for a 3-2 win. For the day, Newcombe gave up two runs on 11 hits and two walks in 16 innings. The record shows Newcombe lost his next two starts, allowing a total of 10 earned runs in 13 innings.
Can you imagine the buzz if Doc walked to the bullpen on Saturday night to start that game, too?
Both games Saturday will be televised by PHL . . . Series starts tonight with Roy-O on the mound. Phillies are 9-3 against the Marlins, outscoring them, 64-30 . . . Marlins play better on the road (33-31) than at home (25-41) . . . Since 2005, the Phillies are 118-76 in August, best record in the NL . . . Phillies are scheduled to fly to Cincinnati on Sunday. Monday's game against the Reds will be on ESPN . . . Happy Birthday today: coach Billy DeMars, 86; RH reliever Fred Wenz, 70; RH reliever Jeff Parrett, 50 and RH reliever Ricky Bottalico, 42.
Alumni Views
What changes would you like to see in major league baseball? That question was posed to Phillies Alumni.
John Herrnstein (OF-1B, 1862-65)
"I think baseball should standardize all the playing field dimensions (outfielder distances to fence) so every park is identical: majors, minors, college, etc. Then all the stats would be truly meaningful; an apples to apples comparison."


text:
Last year, I put together a talk called "Invisible Visualization" on making accessible data visualizations. Several people have asked me about it, so I thought I'd write a post about it.
By "accessible", I mean able to be consumed and understood by people with a variety of sensory needs, including people with visual limitations, cognitive impairments, mobility challenges, and other considerations. I provided a few simple ways to expose the data in SVG images, but mostly I described different constraints and suggested ways of thinking about the problems.
I didn't want to lecture people about the need for making their content accessible; I wanted to excite them about the possibilities of doing so. It's great that there are legal regulations addressing the needs of people with disabilities (like the "Section 508" laws here in the US), but that's not going to empower and motivate developers and designers to want to meet these kinds of design constraints and solve these kinds of technical challenges. I sought to avoid the "threat and guilt" trap that I've seen too many accessibility talks fall into.


text:
The following is a final letter from Aileen, 20, of CFCA's Legazpi. Philippines, project. She was sponsored through Walk with the Poor by the Justice League at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo. Aileen graduated in March 2009 with a bachelor's in office administration.
Warm greetings to all of you! I hope that you are happy upon handling this letter of mine.
CFCA is such a big help to me and to my family. Iíve been in this foundation for 12 years. Being one of the CFCA beneficiaries is a very big blessing to us. Everything that I need is supported and assisted by CFCA, from the food assistance, medical and dental check-up, educational supplies, clothing, recreational activities, spiritual support and tuition fees. All of these benefits greatly helped us in coping with our needs in life.
I'm very thankful to God because I belong to this foundation, and I have sponsors like you who are willing to help us without expecting in return. I can say that I'm blessed to be sponsored by you. Thank you so much. You know, I'm sad to say that I have to waive your sponsorship for me. I graduated from college through the help of CFCA, last March 26, 2009, with the degree of bachelor of science in office administration. Because of CFCA, I was given an opportunity to finish my studies. My father is a single parent and he cannot afford to send me to college. Thatís why Iím so grateful and thankful to you and to CFCA. I think I won't able to reach this far without your generous support. Thank you very much!!
Right now, I am clearing all the requirements for me to have the transcript of records. I always pray to God that I could find a good job because I really want to help my family to uplift from poverty. CFCA and you, dearest sponsors, are part of my life. You played a very big role in achieving my dreams. You will be forever in my thoughts and prayers.
My whole family wants to express our regards and sincerest gratitude and thanks to all of you there. You changed and touched our lives. We pray that God will shower you more blessings, and we also wish the success of CFCA.
Thank you very much!!! God bless you all!!
Love always,
Read more: Students' pottery helps Walk with the Poor student finish school


text:
Last updated: 1 August, 1999.
These add-ons to TextPad are made available on an as-is basis. They are free and unsupported, although we will endeavor to fix any bugs.
We gratefully acknowledge these contributions from our users, who are credited below. Please let them know if you find their contributions useful.
If you would like to make your own contributions, please send them to email@example.com.
After you have downloaded one of these files, extract its contents into an empty folder, and see the README.TXT file for further information.


text:
EDITORIAL: iLIBYA: iLibya 1 | Uprising by iPhone
Following the model of the Arab street revolutionaries in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, and fueled by social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, Libyan civilians orchestrated a massive uprising against the 42 year-old reign of strongman Muammar Gaddafi. When a full scale war between Rebels and Loyalists erupted - trading gun and mortar fire across an ever fluctuating frontline - curious civilians began to document their rebel movement with their mobile phones, instantly updating the world on events as they transpired.
While I worked to cover this story in a more traditional sense, I was also drawn to using my iPhone as I have in Afghanistan. Small mobile phone cameras are innocuous and enable a far greater intimacy with a subject. It was a liberating experience; to point and shoot with a small device, unhampered by camera bags full of gear and reacting to the world around me.
As photojournalists our responsibilities include not just communicating content, but also creating an aesthetic, a visual narrative that will capture our audience's attention. The public today is more visually sophisticated than ever before. The overwhelming dearth of information available on the internet tends to weaken the impact of content. Important stories get lost in the fray. So as photographers - as creatives and not just journalists - we have the added task of developing a connection to our audience. We need an image that will engage the viewer, that makes our audience question what they are seeing, that allows them to take a step closer to the image and thus the content.
At the same time, using my iPhone allowed me transmit images from the field updating my blog like many of the Libyan revolutionaries around me. Embracing this new paradigm of journalism - no middle man, no publisher - I posted images from Libya and gained over 500 followers in a week, regular curious people - Libyans, Americans, Europeans - who bypassed traditional traditional news sources.
It is perhaps fitting that the Arab Spring movement across the Middle East has been enabled by social media and embraced mobile devices as content gatherers. Is this the future of journalism?


text:
Blog of Dr. Miland Brown that features different aspects of world history. Not everything can be covered but sites dealing with any historical issue or topic are possible future posts. Also includes sites which discuss teaching history. Dr. Brown is an academic in North America.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
The Capture of Guam
From the site:
On finding the state of the Spanish military on the island consisted only of 54 Spanish soldiers armed with 1896 Mausers, and 54 Chamorros, armed with Remington 45-90's, the two men were paroled, with the requirement that they carry a message to the governor that he should come to the vessel as soon as possible.
The governor, Juan Marina, responded that Spanish law forbade him from coming aboard the vessel, but asked the American captain to come to him instead, guaranteeing the captain's safe return. When the governor's letter arrived, it was getting late in the day. The governor was informed that an officer would be sent ashore the next morning.
At 8:30 a.m., Lt. William Braunersreuther, the CHARLESTON's navigator, went ashore to meet the governor and his party at Piti. Simultaneously, landing forces were formed, placed in landing boats and started for the beach. The lieutenant presented a letter from Captain Glass of the CHARLESTON which demanded the surrender of the island within one half-hour of receiving the note, while verbally reminding the governor that a heavily armed vessel and several transports loaded with troops were awaiting offshore. Twenty-nine minutes later, the governor returned with a reply. The reply was addressed to Lt. Braunersreuther's commanding officer, and the Spanish governor protested as the lieutenant opened it. Braunersreuther responded that he was acting on behalf of his commander.
4 comments:
- Rem870 said...
Nice find. The 'conquest' of Guam is not something I've ever read about.
- Myrtle Beach Dude said...
Great Blog - I am glad you are able to search the world and condens the info for us here. Leading to soem fabulous sites!
I did know about Guam - but found this blog a gateway to adventure!
Have a great Day!
First Week
- Baron Bodissey said...
Miland, if Chesty found his way past the word verification, he must be a real live human comment spammer!
I haven't seen one of them before...
- M said...
Baron Bodissey,
I agree that this looks like a real life human comment spammer. I have actually removed several already I just missed this one.
I guess I'll leave this one up as it has been commented on now. The link will not help him any as comments at Blogspot have a ref nofollow tag on them meaning the search engines will ignore the link.


text:
Site Analysis
Website analysis is an integral part of any SEO campaign. An accurate analysis helps you in determining your position in the market. However, in order to get started with the process, you need to analyze the site you own as well as your competitor's. You also need to delve deep to find out the industry presence of the website and the factors which are important for the success of SEO strategy.
While doing site analysis, you need to look after the following areas:
Search Analytics
Search Analytics is useful in the areas of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Search analytics statistics can help site owners track their performance on various search engines, increase site functionality, efficiency and ultimately map out future strategies. It's a good method to analyze search trends and use the available information to one's own benefit.
Search analytics comprises the following key steps:
Keywords Search
Keywords search or analysis involves exploring keywords history. It enables website owners in bettering their internet marketing strategies and SEO campaigns. Developing a website with relevant keywords is an art and requires keen understanding. A poor keyword selection may fail your internet sales plan, which can result in traffic decline. So, you need to select keywords with care according to your target audience.
In the area of keywords search, you need to focus on following points:
SEO Management
The tasks involved in search engine optimization and SEO management are intricate and complex. The process includes keyword analysis, creating site structure, content management and result analysis. In order to ensure top ranking of a webpage on search engines such as Google, you need to incorporate effective SEO management strategies. Well planned SEO management techniques also help maintain reputation of the brand.
A comprehensive SEO management work includes:
Analysis Tools
Various paid as well as free website analysis tools are available in the market. You can use these analysis tools to know about hits, visits, page views and referrers on the site. It also helps you determine unique visitors, page views, searched keywords and conversion rate on your website. You can track users who have registered with your site using these tools. Besides, several other elements can also be checked with the help of these tools.
Some of the popular free, cheap and premium analysis tools are:


text:
Chronicle 10. AN ARCHAEOLOGIST'S WATERLOO
Χρονικό 10. ΤΟ ΒΑΤΕΡΛΩ ΕΝΟΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΥ
THERE ARE TIMES in these Voyages and Chronicles, as in similar cases when you have to present a thesis and you need documentation, that you know in general terms beforehand what you are looking for while searching for clues. Some other times, however, the clew you have in hand to find your way in the labyrinth of history leads you to unexpected ends, "into harbours seen for the first time"; and then a desire is born to "stop at Phoenician emporia… / and visit many Egyptian cities / to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars", as Cavafy advises in his Ithaca. These are the happiest moments of a research. It happened exactly that when from the Aegean emporia in the historical space of the Mediterranean I ended up following itinerant Minoan artists to distant lands! I felt I needed to set forth more information about these emporia after I had referred to Naucratis in the previous Chronicle, realizing that I already used this term several times in connection with colonies or trading posts; but the emporia were in fact neither colonies nor trading posts, though related to both. Writing in the Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World on Commercial posts and harbours, Elias Petropoulos tried to clear things out:
The term emporion denoting a colony or a type of settlement first appears in ancient literature rather late, during the 5th century BC. According to some scholars, the emporion should be understood as the locale of the emporos (that is, merchant), i.e. the person who travels to buy and sell commodities. The word emporos etymologically originates from the preposition en and the word poros (which means sea route). This word appears in the Odyssey of Homer twice. In both these cases the epic poet obviously means a private individual who travels for professional reasons. So we could suppose that the word emporion originates from the word emporos. This word does not appear on [Mycenaean] Linear B tablets, and this is rather surprising, but it also leads to the obvious conclusion that this word was coined at a later time. Scholarship on the subject argues that the word or the term emporion (in the sense of a colony or settlement and not that of a simple commercial transaction or exchange of products) appears first in writing in the works of Herodotus in the mid-5th century BC. By the 4th century BC the word is found on an inscription known as 'the inscription of Pistiros' which has been unearthed quite recently in a settlement of the modern-day Bulgarian (ancient Thracian) hinterland, close to Philippopolis…
Emporion < Emporos (merchant) < en + poros = one who is on a sea route
According to information coming from Herodotus' fourth book of the Histories [entitled Melpomene], the Black Sea was home to several emporia, which is the precise word the historian uses to define these settlements… There are also more scattered references to emporia in the other eight books of Herodotus' work. These are emporia located outside the Black Sea, and are situated in the Mediterranean. Of all these, the case of Naucratis causes puzzlement: the historian refers to it using both the terms emporion and polis (that is, city). Many studies have dealt with this issue, but unfortunately we still cannot determine the early nature of this settlement with certainty. The term usually understood as the opposite of emporion is apoikia (that is, colony), which is considered as a complete form of settlement in the model of the ancient Greek cities, i.e. a settlement featuring a distinct form of political and social organization. A colony was a settlement obviously established in the context of a predetermined plan of action and was carried out under the auspices of a god (or gods) with every formality on the part of the metropolis, possessing an agricultural hinterland and its own coinage… However, in some cases, the emporion may be characterized as a proto-polis or a proto-settlement, in the sense that it can act as the early stage in the establishment of a colony or a city.
Emporia (sing. emporion, or emporium in Latin), according to Wikipedia, were places which the traders of one people had reserved to their business interests within the territory of another people. Famous emporia in Egypt, except Naucratis, included Avaris and Sais, where the Athenian legislator Solon went in 590 BCE to acquire the knowledge of the Egyptians. Similar emporia were founded in the Levant, such as Al-Mina and Posideion in Syria. Sais (Σάϊς, or Zau in ancient Egyptian) was located in the Western Nile Delta. The city's patron goddess was Neith. The Greeks, such as Herodotus, Plato and Diodorus Siculus, identified her with Athena and hence postulated a primordial link to Athens. Diodorus recounts that Athena built Sais before the deluge that supposedly destroyed Athens and Atlantis. While all Hellenic cities were destroyed during that cataclysm, the Egyptian cities survived. In Plato's Timaeus and Critias (around 395 BCE), a priest in Sais entrusted to Solon the story of Atlantis, its military aggression against Greece and Egypt, and its eventual defeat and destruction by natural catastrophe.(a)
Avaris (Αὔαρις, today's Tell el-Dab'a), the capital of Egypt under the Canaanite Hyksos, was also located in the Nile delta in the northeastern region. Its position at the hub of Egypt's emporia made it a major administrative and commercial centre. Excavations have shown that there was a busy harbour catering to over 300 ships during a trading season. Artifacts inside the precinct of the palace, possibly a temple, have produced goods from all over the Aegean world. Most impressively, there were even Minoan-like wall paintings similar to those found in Crete at the Palace of Knossos. It is speculated that there was close contact with the rulers of Avaris, whoever they were, and the large building representing the frescoes allowed the Minoans to have a ritual life in Egypt. French archaeologist Yves Duhoux also proposed the existence of a Minoan colony on an island in the Nile delta.
Outside of the Aegean, only three sites have an indisputable record of Minoan civilization, one being Avaris in Lower Egypt, the others Kabri and Alalakh in the Levant. Kabri, in Palestine near the Lebanese border, is notable for its Minoan style wall paintings. In the summer of 2009, more Aegean style frescoes were found at the site. Apparently, the Canaanite rulers of the city wished to associate with Mediterranean culture and not adopt Syrian and Mesopotamian styles of art like other cities in Canaan did. Alalakh was a late Bronze Age city-state in the area where Seleucid Antioch was to be founded at the end of the 4th century BCE. It was occupied from before 2000 BCE, when the first palace was built, and likely destroyed in the 12th century by the Sea Peoples, as were many other towns of coastal Anatolia and the Levant. The city was never reoccupied, the nearby port of Al-Mina taking its place during the Iron Age.
Al-Mina ("The Port" in Arabic) is the name given by archaeologist Leonard Woolley to this ancient trading post in the estuary of the Orontes. According to Woolley, it was an early Hellenic trading colony, founded a little before 800 BCE in direct competition with the Phoenicians to the south. Large amounts of Greek pottery established its early Euboean connections, while the Syrian and Phoenician ware reflected a cultural mix typical of an emporium. The controversy whether Al-Mina is to be regarded as a native Syrian site, with local architecture and pots and a Hellenic presence, or as a Greek trading post, has not been resolved. Al-Mina served as an entrepôt for cultural influences that accompanied trade with Urartu and Assyria through the shortest caravan route. Pottery recovered from later levels after 700 BCE shows that a Hellenic presence endured through the 4th century BCE with pottery imported from Miletus and deftly imitated locally, apparently by Greek potters. Al-Mina is a key to understanding the role of early Hellenes in the East at the outset of the Orientalizing period of Greek cultural history. Robin Lane Fox has made a case for the Hellenic name of the site to have been Potamoi Karon mentioned by Diodorus Siculus; he suggestively linked it to karu ("trading post") in an Assyrian inscription, which would give "Rivers of Emporia".
Woolley identified Al-Mina with Herodotus' and Strabo's Posideion, but more recent scholarship places the latter at Ras al-Bassit, located 53 kilometres north of Latakia (the Hellenistic Laodicea) on the Mediterranean Sea. Excavations revealed a small settlement back to the late Bronze Age, when it may have functioned as an outpost of Ugarit to the south. Unlike Ugarit, Bassit survived to the passage of the Sea Peoples and into the Iron Age. It had strong links with Phoenicia and Cyprus, and a Greek presence was attested from the 7th century BCE. Posideion expanded and its acropolis was fortified in the Hellenistic period.
Woolley began work at Al-Mina in 1936, after the excavation at Ur in Mesopotamia, where he discovered Sumerian royal tombs of great wealth. He decided to work by the Mediterranean coast because he was interested in finding ties between the Aegean and the Mesopotamian civilizations, and wished to throw light, as he wrote, "upon the development of Cretan civilization and its connections with the great civilizations of Nearer Asia". Disappointed in not finding a Bronze Age port at Al-Mina, he soon moved his interests to the earlier, more urbane site of Alalakh, where he worked before and after World War II (1937-39 and 1946-49). It seems, however, that his "view" was anything but "impartial", for he, too, was "spectacled" wearing "Asiatic myopic glasses". The clues on the "connections" he was interested in were there, of course; but, having already in mind an elaborate scenario, and possibly a hidden ambition to turn Arthur Evans' work in Crete upside down, he led himself to erroneous conclusions. If Ur had been his Austerlitz, Alalakh turned out to be his Waterloo! His failure to interpret his findings correctly should be taught in every School of Archaeology and help every equally short-sighted scholar learn his/her lesson.(b)
Having already in mind an elaborate scenario, and possibly a hidden ambition to turn Arthur Evans' work in Crete upside down, Woolley led himself to erroneous conclusions. If Ur had been his Austerlitz, Alalakh turned out to be his Waterloo! His failure to interpret his findings correctly should be taught in every School of Archaeology.
In his Minoan Artisans Travelling Overseas: The Alalakh Frescoes and the Painted Plaster Floor at Tel Kabri (Western Galilee), the German archaeologist Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier explained:
The uniqueness and seeming suddenness of the emergence of the Cretan palace system in the Aegean has often been explained by connections with and influences from the older advanced civilizations of the ancient Near East. In Alalakh… Woolley thought to have found what he had looked for: in Yarim-Lim's palace he recognized "unmistakable connections" with Minoan Crete. Similar building techniques… as well as frescoes "identical in colouring, technique and style" at Alalakh and Knossos led him to the conclusion that "there can be no doubt but that Crete owes the best of its architecture, and its frescoes, to the Asiatic mainland" and that "we are bound to believe that trained experts, members of the Architects' and Painters' Guilds, were invited to travel overseas from Asia (possibly from Alalakh) to build and decorate the palaces of the Cretan rulers".
"There can be no doubt but that Crete owes the best of its architecture, and its frescoes, to Asia… Trained experts, members of the Architects' and Painters' Guilds, were invited to travel overseas from Asia to build and decorate the palaces of the Cretan rulers". (Leonard Woolley)
Woolley's main argument for this theory, which has been accepted by eminent scholars[!],(c) was that "Yarim-Lim's palace antedates by more than a century the Cretan examples in the same style"… However, after a long debate on "Alalakh and Chronology", Woolley's date ["between circa 1780 and 1730 BC"] proved to be too high. Yarim-Lim of Alalakh was not – as Woolley had thought – Yarim-Lim I of Yamhad, the contemporary of the great Hammurapi of Babylon, but a younger brother of King Abban of Yamhad who gave Alalakh to him as an appanage principality…(d) The dates recently proposed by different scholars lie between ca. 1650 and 1575 BC. In regard to architecture… the evidence is far from substantiating Woolley's theory of Near Eastern architects working in Crete… The orthostates of Alalakh are ca. 300 years later than the orthostates of the first phase of the Old Palace at Phaistos… Fragments of wall paintings from Yarim-Lim's palace show characteristic Minoan motifs which appear contemporary or even earlier in Crete. Moreover, the sense of movement detectable in the wall-painting fragments from Yarim-Lim's palace is characteristically Minoan and in opposition to Near Eastern tradition.
Woolley's strongest argument for a direct connection between the Alalakh paintings and those in Crete was that they both were executed in true fresco painting on wet lime plaster. But it is exactly this fact which definitely disproves Woolley's theory of the Near Eastern ancestry of Cretan fresco painting. Until most recently the Alalakh frescos formed the only known example of true fresco painting on the ancient Near East. In Crete, true fresco painting is known at least from ca. 1900 BC on. Thus true fresco painting apparently has been first invented on Crete, probably because it was suitable to the temperament of the Minoan artists. Thus, technique, style and iconography of the fresco fragments from the Yarim-Lim palace at Alalakh indicate that their resemblances to the Cretan wall-paintings worked in the reverse direction as that originally thought by Woolley.
"The sense of movement detectable in the wall-painting fragments is characteristically Minoan and in opposition to Near Eastern tradition… Technique, style and iconography indicate that their resemblances to the Cretan wall-paintings worked in the reverse direction as that thought by Woolley… Kabri and Alalakh do not have only single Minoan motifs foreign to 'Greater Canaan' but they show a purely Minoan iconography as well as technique. This can only mean they were executed by travelling Minoan artisans." (Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier)
There is much evidence that Cretan objects of art were highly valued in the ancient Near East. In the Mari tablets Cretan imports are mentioned… The prestige character of the Cretan objects in the Mari texts is indicated by the fact that two of them were presented by King Zimri-Lim of Mari to other Mesopotamian Kings. As finds of Kamares pottery at Ugarit, Qatna, Byblos and Hazor demonstrate, this outstanding pottery was highly esteemed in the Levant. Thus, at least from the 19th century BC on, Crete within its relations to the Levant was not only the receiver but developed into an equal partner producing works of art for which there was a great demand in the Near East.(e) These Cretan works of art arrived by some kind of exchange or trade in the Levant. But, as Woolley has stated, "one cannot export a palace on board of a ship, nor is the 'art and Mystery' of fresco-working a form of merchandise".(f) Do we therefore have to reconstruct just the reverse scenario as that suggested by Woolley, i.e. Cretan artisans travelling to Alalakh for painting the frescoes there?
In "Greater Canaan"… there are two other sites which can contribute to the problem: Qatna and Tel Kabri.(g) Fragments of wall-paintings from the palace at Qatna show [techniques] in the characteristic Aegean manner. Tel Kabri lay on one of the most important trade routes of the ancient Near East, the later so-called Via Maris [Way of the Philistines]…(h) In the palace of the local ruler… a threshold was plastered and painted with… similar floor-techniques and designs of the Minoan palaces but not from the Ancient Near East… There is evidence that the walls of this room were also covered with painted plaster of which unfortunately only tiny fragments have been preserved. The plaster floor has been painted in true fresco technique… found also in Cretan and Theran fresco painting but not in tempera and fresco secco. The colours in the floor's painting are… very similar to those of Cretan and of Theran wall-painting… Originally the floor… imitated the slabs of a stone pavement… ln Crete painted plaster floors imitating slab-paved floors are known from [ca 2000 BCE]. Other parts of the Kabri floor were decorated with floral motifs. Among them are chains of stylized linear iris blossoms of a characteristic Minoan type which occurs first in frescoes and vase-painting [in 1700-1500 BCE]. Such kind of decorative mixture is a characteristic feature of Minoan fresco painting… The Kabri floor and also the fresco fragments from Yarim-Lim's palace at Alalakh do not have only single Minoan motifs foreign to "Greater Canaan" which could be explained as intrusive or incorporated elements arriving by motif transfer, but they show a purely Minoan iconography as well as technique. This can only mean that they were executed by travelling Minoan artisans…
We have evidence for exchange of information on the equipment of the palaces within the ancient Near East (to which Minoan Crete belonged in a certain sense as a westernmost member). That Cretans actually travelled to the Levantine coast is proved by a tablet from the Mari archives mentioning a Cretan who purchases tin at Ugarit from agents of the Mari palace. A tale in the mythological poetry of Ugarit is of highest interest in our context. In it the goddess Anat is sending the divine messenger over the sea to the god of handicrafts, Kothar wa-Khasis, who is brought from his throne in Kptr (almost unanimously identified as Caphtor = Crete)(i) to build a splendid palace for god Baal and to furnish it with precious works of art. As Arvid Schou Kapelrud has stated, Kothar is "the master-builder and the master-smith as he is found in the Near Eastern courts of this time, a highly skilled specialist". In Canaanite mythology the god of handicrafts was called from Crete to furnish the palaces of the deities with precious works of art; in reality the rulers of Tel Kabri (Rehov) and Alalakh (and other cities, possibly Qatna) asked the rulers of Crete for sending artisans to decorate their palaces with fresco painting. As has been demonstrated by Carlo Zaccagnini, the sending of specialized workers is well-attested in the framework of the diplomatic relations between the rulers in the ancient Near East, their transfers are inserted into the dynamics and formal apparatus of the practice of gift-exchange.
After the discoveries in Alalakh and Kabri, the Minoan frescoes in Avaris excavated by Manfred Bietak "instantly created much sensation, since among the scenes depicted on them are spectacular representations of bull leaping so closely identified with Minoan cult and culture", Wolf-Dietrich and Barbara Niemeier commented in another paper on Minoan Frescoes in the Eastern Mediterranean.
"From 1990 on, we suggested that the Kabri and the Alalakh frescoes were painted by travelling Aegean specialists, and [some time later] Bietak and Nanno Marinatos did the same for the Avaris frescoes". There is a minor problem among archaeologists on the date of these frescoes. Wishing perhaps to please everyone, "Bietak and Marinatos came to the conclusion that 'Minoan wall painting existed in Avaris both during the late Hyksos period and the early 18th [Thutmosid] Dynasty'. Bietak himself had regarded as possible that 'trade… links between Avaris and Crete… might have survived a dynastic change and might have carried on into the 18th Dynasty, even after the fall of the Hyksos.' There is indeed enough evidence from history that the kind of diplomatic and economic relations which apparently are behind these fresco paintings can survive the changes of regimes. According to Bietak, 'king Ahmose, the founder of the 18th Dynasty, fits particularly well into the picture of Minoan connections.' He imagines the possibility of a political deal between Ahmose and the 'Minoan Thalassocracy' in which the Minoan fleet helped Ahmose – who had no fleet – against the danger still threatening from the Hyksos harbour bases in southern Palestine. There is no archaeological or textual evidence for the latter hypothesis, and it recalls rather imaginative and today forgotten scenarios connected with the expulsion of the Hyksos, like those according to which Mycenaean mercenaries helped Ahmose in evicting the Hyksos, or according to which fugitive Hyksos princes conquered the Argolid and subsequently were buried in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae. Moreover, Ahmose already had a fleet: he captured Avaris after a series of assaults by both land and water [and then] proceeded to southern Palestine."
Even a pharaoh with a fleet of his own would surely prefer to have the far more experienced Cretan navy by his side than against him allied with the Hyksos! The Avaris paintings indicate an involvement of Egypt in international relations and cultural exchanges with the eastern Mediterranean either through exchange of gifts or even marriage. They additionally point to Minoan authority as being involved in Egyptian affairs possibly because Crete had a strong naval force to offer the pharaoh, and also to Avaris as a place where these cultural exchanges took place, meaning the city was incredibly important to Egypt.
The marriage of a Minoan princess to an Egyptian pharaoh may be one possible scenario. Bietak has suggested that the Avaris frescoes were painted by Minoan artists belonging to the entourage of a Knossian princess married to the pharaoh, whom he first identified as a Hyksos ruler, then as Ahmose, and much later as Thutmose III. Indeed, who was the Cretan girl's groom? The Thera eruption around 1600 BCE happened in the middle of the Hyksos period (1650–1550). Thus, most probably a royal wedding in the final years of the Hyksos in Egypt must be ruled out. There follows Ahmose with his New Kingdom, when the Egyptians considered the Aegean to be part of their "empire". The term must not be understood literally, for in the land of the Nile they misinterpreted even the gifts given to the pharaohs: "The Egyptians, with their characteristic egocentric sense of superiority, would have presented such gifts as tribute" (A. R. Schulman). At any rate, "Ahmose fits particularly well into the picture of Minoan connections". Thutmose could well be the groom, as well. Besides, we know that he had three foreign wives: Menwi, Merti, and Menhet. However, there was a problem: one more dynastic change that took place during his reign, in the middle of the 15th century BCE, not in Egypt but in Crete, when the Minoans were put under the yoke of their own "Hyksos" (foreign rulers), the Mycenaeans. Therefore, if there was a wedding, it should have happened in the beginning of Thutmose's reign, when the real pharaoh was his stepmother, Hatshepsut.
Whatever the motives, these unique wall paintings are of Minoan style, technique, and content. There is a long frieze of bull-leaping and grappling against a maze pattern. Marinatos has made the case that the rosette motif, a prominent feature of the Taureador paintings, reproduces the Knossian rosettes and that it is a distinct Minoan symbol. The frescoes also depict griffins, hunting scenes, felines chasing ungulates, several life-sized figures, and a white female wearing a skirt. Especially important are the emblems of the Minoan palace such as the half rosette frieze and the presence of big griffins which are the same size as the ones in the throne room at Knossos. The technique of the paintings is typically Aegean, while the style is very high quality and compares with some of the best paintings from Crete. According to Bietak, the use of specific Minoan royal motifs in a palace of Avaris indicates "an encounter on the highest level must have taken place between the courts of Knossos and Egypt," while the large representation of the female in the skirt might suggest a political marriage between the pharaoh and a Minoan princess.
"Dynastic intermarriage was a favoured diplomatic tactic in the Bronze Age Near East," the Niemeiers point out. The entourage of a foreign princess, some scholars estimate, "would comprise several hundred people, who until the end of their lives remained in the harem of the pharaoh, and that one can well imagine that at Avaris the rooms of the foreign princess and her entourage were decorated according to her desires. [However], at Alalakh and Tel Kabri, the frescoes probably had been attached to the walls of major ceremonial (and possible ritual) halls of the palace, not of the private rooms of queens or princesses."
The technique of using lime plaster in two layers with a highly polished surface, fresco in combination with stucco, all are techniques that are not Egyptian but are first seen in Minoan paintings. Also, the colours used by the artists are clearly Minoan. Using blue instead of grey e.g. is Minoan, with that colour convention being seen in Egypt later, and due to Aegean influences. Besides, there are no Egyptian hieroglyphs or emblems among any of the fragments discovered. The composition of the paintings and motifs also fit in perfectly with those of the Aegean world. Thus the overwhelming evidence seems to point in the direction of Minoan artists having been at work in Avaris.
"The differences between the styles of Egyptian and Minoan arts have been analyzed by Henriette Antonia Groenewegen-Frankfort and, most recently, by Bietak," the Niemeiers remark. "According to Groenwegen-Frankfort, Minoan art differs from Egyptian (and ancient Near Eastern) art in its 'absolute mobility in organic forms'. Bietak aptly explains this with the different cultural patterns of both civilizations. The Minoan society was not – as the Egyptian one – dominated by writing, listing, and absolute order, and therefore Minoan art was not subjected to hieroglyphic clichés and a rigid canonical order. As to a comparison of Canaanite and Minoan arts, we unfortunately do not have many objects of art from the middle Bronze Age Levant. But those which are extant show a style distinctly different from the Minoan one. For instance, the bird representations on bone inlays from Megiddo and Lachish seem motionless in comparison to the crane on an ivory plaque from Palaikastro. Canaanite female and male metal figurines appear stiff in comparison to the Minoan female and male metal figurines displaying strong inner tension and dynamics."
"Minoan art differs from Egyptian (and ancient Near Eastern) art in its 'absolute mobility in organic forms'." (H.A. Groenewegen-Frankfort)
"The Minoan society was not – as the Egyptian one – dominated by writing, listing, and absolute order, and therefore Minoan art was not subjected to hieroglyphic clichés and a rigid canonical order." (M. Bietak)
As it turned out the wall paintings in Avaris, Alalakh, Kabri, possibly Qatna (17th-16th centuries BCE), were not the older ones.
"Earlier are the painted stone imitations in Zimri-Lim's palace at Mari [18th century BCE]. The excavator of Mari, André Parrot, compared the stone imitations to those at Knossos. He also asked for possible connections between the Mari and the Knossos murals, and, pointing to the evidence for their connections provided by the Minoan precious objects mentioned in the Mari archives, he apparently tended to see some Cretan influence in the murals there."
Located in Mesopotamia, far from the sea, Mari (modern Tell Hariri) was a Sumerian and Amorite city on the Euphrates. It flourished from 2900 until 1759 BCE, when it was sacked by Hammurabi, despite the gifts the king Zimri-Lim had given him. More important was Mari's strategic position as a relay point between lower Mesopotamia and northern Syria. The city came to control the trade lanes between different regions such as Iran, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. The royal palace contained over 300 rooms and was possibly the largest of its time. More than 25,000 tablets were recovered there "bringing about a complete revision of the historical dating of the ancient Near East and providing more than 500 new place names, enough to redraw the geographical map of the ancient world," as Parrot noted. Qatna (modern Tell el-Mishrife), 18 km northeast of Homs, was also one of the largest Bronze Age towns in Syria. In the 2nd Millennium trade routes developed connecting Mesopotamia with Cyprus, Crete and Egypt. Qatna is mentioned in the tin trade, which went from Mari via Qatna to the Mediterranean; Cypriote copper was transported in the other direction; their alloy, bronze, was most valuable especially during the Bronze Age.
As for the ethnic composition of the "Minoan" workshops, there are various possibilities: the frescoes were painted a) by travelling Aegean artisans; b) under the supervision of Aegean artists with the assistance of Levantine painters trained by them; c) by Levantine pupils of Aegean masters. The idea of mixed workshops seems more appealing, probable and realistic. Decorating huge palaces was a great undertaking. However, it would seem unthinkable to imagine Cretan ships full of artists travelling around the Mediterranean for this task. The artistic teams should have been rather small necessarily working with local apprentices.
"It is difficult to decide in each case which of these solutions is the correct one," according to the Niemeiers. "We would agree with Philip P. Betancourt that only a very small percentage of the fresco paintings is known and that 'we are touching the tip of the iceberg of a whole series of interrelated workshops, working in Knossos, the Aegean islands, on the coast of Western Asia and in Egypt, perhaps travelling back and forth, perhaps occasionally exchanging personnel or going back to Knossos to learn the most recent things'… The Alalakh, Tel Kabri, and Avaris frescoes are to be seen 'in terms of the forging of an élite koiné [common 'idiom'] – artistic, iconographical, ideological, technological – in the circumstances of the intense maritime interaction between the coastal Areas of the Eastern Mediterranean'," as S. Sherratt proposed. Marinatos has also argued that these paintings are evidence of a koiné, a visual language of common symbols, which testifies to interactions among the rulers of neighbouring powers. "The Minoan artists involved in the painting of all these frescoes", the Niemeiers agree, "apparently formed an important element in the growth of the so-called 'International Style' of the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean."
And not only of the eastern part of mare nostrum, I would add: according to some fresco experts, similar Minoan-style wall paintings have also been found in Morocco…
There was "a whole series of interrelated workshops, working in Knossos, the Aegean islands, on the coast of Western Asia and in Egypt, perhaps travelling back and forth, perhaps occasionally exchanging personnel or going back to Knossos to learn the most recent things." (P.P. Betancourt)
The frescoes are to be seen "in terms of the forging of an élite koiné – artistic, iconographical, ideological, technological – in the circumstances of the intense maritime interaction between the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean." (S. Sherratt)
Whatever happened to the Avaris wall paintings? One group of them had fallen off the wall of a doorway, and the other group of fragments was found in dumps deposited by the north-east palace. The frescoes seem to have been removed during the later Thutmosid period – when there was no Minoan Crete anymore.
"Minoan fresco painting apparently was a rather short-lived phenomenon in the Levant and Egypt – in Egyptian terms, covering the Hyksos period and the very beginning of the early 18th Dynasty," the Niemeiers sum up. "Later, we find again paintings of nature scenes which appear to breathe a Minoan spirit. They were, however, executed in secco technique and certainly were not painted by Aegean artists. Minoan wall painting was a thing of the past at that time."
Without Minoan Crete there was no room for Minoan art. The Minoan workshops were still busy, of course; but the artistic masters worked for the new political masters, the Mycenaeans; there were no Greek artists at that time to compete with them. However, their new works of art are not typified as "Minoan" anymore; they are called "Mycenaean", sometimes accompanied with a footnote that they were made by Cretan artistic workshops. Would anyone ever think to describe as "Cretan" the masterpieces of another great Cretan master who lived more than three millennia later, namely Doménicos Theotocópoulos, the famous El Greco?
Here we are again at our starting point, having completed the circle that began with Periplus and Minoan thalassocracy and ended with Emporia and Minoan painting. Now we can start anew, going back even before our starting point – before man learned how to work metals, when voyages were made in search of an equally valuable material: the obsidian. Let us go back to the Neolithic era! Let's try at least…
- << Chronicle 9. IBERIA IMPARTIALLY VIEWED