http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1556
Here are some one liners...
The Worst Earthquake in Recorded History -- China takes one right in the shorts. It kills 830,000 people in their beds. I talk about soils engineering and the Earthship® briefly.
'The Troubles' of Ireland Are Just Beginning -- The Queen of England established the Plantation system in Ireland. It is a system to reward her friends and punish complainers. I talk about how difficult it was in the 20th century to pin down why people were fighting in Ireland.
In Several Words: Borough, Ghetto and Divorce -- I go through the history of where the word "ghetto" comes from.
The Worst Earthquake in Recorded History
Yaodongs are dwellings made of packed earth or caves dug out of the side of a hill. They are the primary shelters used in the Shaanxi (shan-zee) Provence, almost smack in the middle of China. It is evening and most people are at home, asleep. Suddenly, an 8.0 earthquake strikes. Mountains move. Rivers change their course. A 500-mile-wide area of destruction wipes out 830,000 people as their homes collapse around them, burying them in earth. In some areas 60% of the population is wiped out in the span of a couple of minutes. It is the worst earthquake in recorded history. [1] [2] [3]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
I used to be a soils technician... babysitting men old enough to be my father while they compacted soil in earthquake-prone Southern California. It had to be done right so that an earthquake would be survivable. Soil conditions vary from place to place. In Austin, Texas, a 5.0 earthquake would be a serious problem. In Los Angeles, a 6.0 would be a heck of a ride, but survivable. (I laughed this morning as I watched a New York news reporter speak in wide-eyed horror of a 3.5 earthquake in Southern California. A 3.5 won't even wake the baby but dutifully, the fire department moved their engines into the parking lot just in case their garage collapsed.) An 8.0 would be "the Big One". If you are worried about how your Earthship® would hold up in your area, seek the advice of a LOCAL soils engineer. Soils engineering is a black art. You can't learn it all from books and every location is different. [4] [5] [6] [7] Amusing Anecdote: In Southern California whenever there is an earthquake greater than 5.0 the local news reporters grab their cameras and rush to the airport. Invariably they will find a few people in their bathrobe and slippers holding a VISA card and screaming "Get me the heck out of this mad house!" It can be quite frightening if one is not used to a world suddenly becoming "terra un-firma" without any warning whatsoever.
I used to be a soils technician... babysitting men old enough to be my father while they compacted soil in earthquake-prone Southern California. It had to be done right so that an earthquake would be survivable. Soil conditions vary from place to place. In Austin, Texas, a 5.0 earthquake would be a serious problem. In Los Angeles, a 6.0 would be a heck of a ride, but survivable. (I laughed this morning as I watched a New York news reporter speak in wide-eyed horror of a 3.5 earthquake in Southern California. A 3.5 won't even wake the baby but dutifully, the fire department moved their engines into the parking lot just in case their garage collapsed.) An 8.0 would be "the Big One". If you are worried about how your Earthship® would hold up in your area, seek the advice of a LOCAL soils engineer. Soils engineering is a black art. You can't learn it all from books and every location is different. [4] [5] [6] [7] Amusing Anecdote: In Southern California whenever there is an earthquake greater than 5.0 the local news reporters grab their cameras and rush to the airport. Invariably they will find a few people in their bathrobe and slippers holding a VISA card and screaming "Get me the heck out of this mad house!" It can be quite frightening if one is not used to a world suddenly becoming "terra un-firma" without any warning whatsoever.
'The Troubles' of Ireland Are Just Beginning
With Queen "Bloody Mary" on the throne of England and Ireland, many Irish Catholics thought they would get a good deal from the new Queen, but no such luck. She has decided to split up Ireland into multiple small plantations and put her own English people on them. She kicks the O'Conners and the O'Mores right in their county seats and creates two new counties called Queens County and Kings County (now Leix and Offaly). The Queen is using this new system to reward her friends and punish those who tend toward rebellion... like those folks who just got kicked off of their land! She doesn't care what religion you are. In 1609 the Ulster Plantation will be established for the Scots-Irish and then you will really see the animal excrement hit the rotating oscillator. It will lead to "The Troubles," in the 20th century... a complex and violent conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. [8] [9] [10] [11]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
It is difficult to explain why, in the 20th century, people were fighting in Northern Ireland because if you had stopped the average Irish terrorist on the street in the 1970s and asked him why he was throwing a bomb... he would NOT mention the Plantation system imposed by England in 1556. It would be because his brother was murdered by the forces of evil or because of the insulting way that the government was treating his mother, or some religious reason but the Plantation system would not be mentioned. We will flesh it out in coming history segments, but in the meantime you can read Tom Clancy's "Patriot Games." It's a thriller that will help you understand some of this conflict. Don't see the movie. It stinks. [12] [13]
It is difficult to explain why, in the 20th century, people were fighting in Northern Ireland because if you had stopped the average Irish terrorist on the street in the 1970s and asked him why he was throwing a bomb... he would NOT mention the Plantation system imposed by England in 1556. It would be because his brother was murdered by the forces of evil or because of the insulting way that the government was treating his mother, or some religious reason but the Plantation system would not be mentioned. We will flesh it out in coming history segments, but in the meantime you can read Tom Clancy's "Patriot Games." It's a thriller that will help you understand some of this conflict. Don't see the movie. It stinks. [12] [13]
In Several Words: Borough, Ghetto and Divorce
The word "borough" comes from the Italian word borgo which means "settlement". A small settlement is a borghetto and this may be the source of the word "ghetto". It's not the only possibility though. The Italian word for "slag" is ghet and Venice dedicated an island to an iron foundry that they called Gheto Island or the Island of Slag. Since 1512 the island served as the Jewish Quarter. Whatever its beginnings the word ghetto became associated with the place where Jews lived. [14] [15] [16] [17]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
The separation of Jews from Christians was common practice. Paris had an Isle of the Jews in the midst of the Seine (sane) River but it was used only to execute Jews and to burn at the stake the last leader of the Knights Templar. The word ghetto also sounds like the Hebrew word for a divorce document called a get. It is a break or separation. Of course, last year the Pope made it a formal separation by canon law that would remain in force until the early 1800s. [18]
The separation of Jews from Christians was common practice. Paris had an Isle of the Jews in the midst of the Seine (sane) River but it was used only to execute Jews and to burn at the stake the last leader of the Knights Templar. The word ghetto also sounds like the Hebrew word for a divorce document called a get. It is a break or separation. Of course, last year the Pope made it a formal separation by canon law that would remain in force until the early 1800s. [18]
No comments:
Post a Comment