Direct Democracy, 2.0 Angelika Warmuth/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Members of the Pirate Party attended a conference in Neumünster, Germany, last month. I FIRST took real notice of the Pirates last summer during the campaign for city elections in Berlin. German electioneering is quaint, even faintly musty by American standards. “Why am I hanging here anyway?” When the Pirates captured a surprising 9 percent of the vote, I ventured out to their election-night party at a scruffy club in the traditional counterculture neighborhood of Kreuzberg. Though the Pirates are mostly known as a one-issue party advocating Internet freedom, Mr. The idea of electing someone as your proxy for two, four or even six long years may have been a necessity in the days of the American Constitutional Convention, when representatives rode to the capital by horseback. “Written language allowed people to communicate over time, the printing press to reach people en masse,” Mr.
How Things Used to Be You are visiting www.rawfoodinfo.com How Things Used To Be Hi friends, I don't know who wrote this article and some of it may not be accurate but it is still interesting musing... Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. When it rained it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. The floor was dirt. They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Source Unknown
Runic calendar A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic Almanac) is a perpetual calendar based on the 19 year long Metonic cycle of the Moon. Runic calendars were written on parchment or carved onto staves of wood, bone, or horn. The oldest one known, and the only one from the Middle Ages, is the Nyköping staff from Sweden, believed to date from the 13th century. Most of the several thousand which survive are wooden calendars dating from the 16th and the 17th centuries. A typical Runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the other. Special days like solstices, equinoxes, and celebrations (including Christian holidays and feasts) were marked with additional lines of symbols. The calendar does not rely on knowledge of the length of the tropical year or of the occurrence of leap years. Marks[edit] On one line, 52 weeks of 7 days were laid out using 52 repetitions of the first seven runes of the Younger Futhark. Additional runes[edit] Primstav[edit] Modern use[edit]
6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain We like to feel superior to the people who lived centuries ago, what with their shitty mud huts and curing colds by drilling a hole in their skulls. But we have to give them credit: They left behind some artifacts that have left the smartest of modern scientists scratching their heads. For instance, you have the following enigmas that we believe were created for no other purpose than to fuck with future generations. The Voynich Manuscript The Mystery: The Voynich manuscript is an ancient book that has thwarted all attempts at deciphering its contents. It appears to be a real language--just one that nobody has seen before. Translation: "...and when you get her to put the tennis racket in her mouth, have her stand in a fountain for a while. There is not even a consensus on who wrote it, or even when it was written. Why Can't They Solve It? Could you? Don't even try. As you can imagine, proposed solutions have been all over the board, from reasonable to completely clownshit. Our Guess:
The US government should cede territory back to Native Americans | Timothy Snyder Does the federal government mean to cede the territory of the United States back to the Native Americans? The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has altered its mission statement, removing the characterization of America as a “nation of immigrants” in order to emphasize the new goal of “securing the homeland”. Some critics made the point that most citizens are immigrants or their descendants, while others noted that most Americans believed that immigration should remain stable or increase. Yet the problem with the change in language lies deeper. According to our own legal tradition, Americans claim sovereignty over the territory of the US as immigrants, precisely because the territories in question were someone else’s homeland: the Native Americans’. Since our country exists, we don’t ask ourselves how or why. Portugal, Spain, France and England claimed territory by planting a flag, a symbolic action known as “discovery”.
6 Insane Coincidences You Won't Believe Actually Happened America's Freak Luck During the Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway may be remembered as one of the most spectacular naval battles in history and one of the huge turning points in the Pacific theater, but it started out as a pure clusterfuck for the Americans. Despite going into battle with most of Japan's game plan in their pocket thanks to American codebreakers/Bothan spies, the U.S. Navy had little to show for it in the early hours of June 4, 1942. Just about every aircraft that took on the Japanese that day was destroyed, and all without delivering any serious damage. In short, the Battle of Midway started off like the Battle of Endor, only with every fighter in the Rebel Fleet crashing into the Death Star's deflector shield. Where it Gets Weird: There was one squadron of American dive bombers lead by Lieutenant Commander C. His squadron started dropping like flies until, in an act of sheer luck that would make even J.K. Where it Gets Even Weirder: ...when he wasn't busy being a pimp.
The Eugenics Crusade | American Experience Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to your Watchlist so you can watch it later. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. You’ll be able to manage videos in your Watchlist, keep track of your favorite shows, watch PBS in high definition, and much more! You've just tried to select this program as one of your favorites. To get you watching PBS in high definition we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. You'll be able to manage videos in your Watchlist, keep track of your favorite shows, watch PBS in high definition, and much more! Don’t have a PBS Account? Creating an account is free and gets you: Access to High-Definition streamingA personal area on the site where you can access: Favorite ShowsWatchlistViewing HistoryEarly access to exciting new features
The Most Incredible Miniature Pencil Art [20 pics] Photograph by Dalton Ghetti / Solent News Dalton Ghetti is a 49-year old carpenter from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he has been carving the most incredible miniature sculptures for over 25 years without the aid of a magnifying glass. His canvas? The tiny tip of a lead pencil. Dalton started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite. It’s second nature now, and for 90 percent of his work, all he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade, a sculpting knife and a carpenter’s or No. 2 pencil. “The pencil tip is great; it’s like a pure, very homogenous material,” he said. Mr. Mr. “I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite. Dalton, who is originally from Brazil, has a box full of more than 100 sculptures that have broken while working on them that he affectionately calls ‘the cemetery collection’. “When September 11 happened I was in tears all day and couldn’t do much for a while.
Native cartography: a bold mapmaking project that challenges Western notions of place ‘More lands have been lost to Native peoples probably through mapping than through physical conflict.’ Maps have been used not only to encroach on Native Americans lands, but to diminish their cultures as well. With every Spanish, French or English placename that eclipses a Native one, a European narrative of place and space becomes further entrenched. In an effort to help reclaim his region for his people, Jim Enote, a Zuni farmer and the director of the {*style:<a href=' A:wan Museum and Heritage Center{*style:</a>*} in New Mexico, has organised a unique project intended to help bring indigenous narratives back to the land.