zn wrote:

Yeah? Well…what about Lenin on Lenin crime.

Given that he shouldn’t be so focused on banks.

——————

I blame Yoko.

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If nothing else, check out the 24 minute mark, and watch a few mins.

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Exactly. I read a book called: Oak The Frame of Civilization.
Its all about that aspect of Oak history. I cant look at Oak the same way i used-to.

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The International Writers Magazine:Book Review

Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan
W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, 336 pp. ISBN: 0-393-04773-3
• A Charlie Dickinson review

At first glance, despite the appealing cover of William Bryant Logan’s nonfiction work OAK: THE FRAME OF CIVILIZATION, I was skeptical a book solely about oak trees could be rewarding. One might be more skeptical, though, of Mr. Logan’s subtitle: THE FRAME OF CIVILIZATION. That promises so much beyond the specificity of tree genus Quercus.

Yet it is oak’s ubiquity–north and south, across continents–that Logan asserts made oak the central player in one of two versions of the world: “the world made with wood and the world made with coal and oil. One lasted twelve to fifteen millennia; the other has lasted about 250 years so far.”

The audience for this book is really anyone interested in the march of humanity for millennia told by the story of one tree’s contributions. Moreover, it is a story enlivened by the domain knowledge of a certified arborist. True, some woodworking joinery discussions get technical, but illustrations are used aptly.

Logan first offers a paleobotanist’s opinion for why Quercus, became a dominant tree genus. Oak owes it success to being “nothing special.” Oak never suffered the misfortune of overspecializing in any one environment, and as Logan details in a later chapter, the plasticity of its DNA has made for a few amazing adaptations.

After two brief chapters establish oak’s prowess at worldwide distribution, Chapter Three, “Balanoculture,” (defined as societies whose diet staple is the oak acorn) discusses evidence the oak tree’s earliest contribution to civilization was to feed people. Recent research suggests not all early humans were big game hunters who eventually converted to farming. Some of our human ancestors were balanophagists. As an example, the archaeological site at Catal Huyuk, a settlement 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent (modern-day Turkey), offers clues its residents ground and ate acorns as their diet staple. Once its tannin is leached out, the acorn is highly nutritious and surprisingly filling. (Logan personally sought out Korean acorn jelly and thought it even an appetite suppressant–Slim*Fast(TM) buyers might soon be trekking to their neighborhood Korean food stores.) The crucial fact for theories about what our ancient ancestors ate is acorns are much easier to harvest and store, for calories spent, than chasing animals.

Interestingly, California is home to some of the finest remnants of balanoculture. As an example, if one travels two and a half hours northeast of, say, the Bay Area, one crosses Highway 49 to reach the town of Volcano, where the Indian Grinding Rock State Historical Park preserves a legacy of those early Californians, the Miwoks: some 1,185 mortar holes, the largest collection of bedrock mortars anywhere in North America. Miwoks used pestles in these mortars to grind acorns and did so for five thousand years until early in the twentieth century.

The bulk of OAK, Chapter Four, “The Age of Oak,” spreads over 117 pages. Logan turns from the more speculative evidence early people used the oak as a food source, to human use of the oak as structure. In an arresting statement, Logan writes “One day in the spring of 3807 B.C.,” a group of people living in the fens of southwestern England decided to do something about travelling more directly to their neighbors. With Neolithic ingenuity they built the “Sweet Track,” a boardwalk or plank road, historically the first of many wooden bridges and highways to follow throughout Northern Europe. How did Logan know when the Sweet Track was built? One Mr. Sweet uncovered the trackway in a peat bog in 1973. The recovered oak wood gave a dendrochronology, whose tree ring dating is far more accurate than carbon-14 techniques.

Other topics covered in “The Age of Oak” include construction of the first ocean-going boats by Vikings, vessels which rode the waves with a dolphin-like flexibility designed into their oak structure; discovery of such joinery as the mortise-and-tenon (which allows strong right-angle joining of boards) in a Dutch structure circa 1475 B.C., which in turn led to timber-framed oak houses for the next 3,000 years; the invention of charcoal, a necessity for the advance of metalworking; and Western Civilization’s preferred permanent ink–what Bach used to write his cantatas–derived from the parasitic galls that form on an oak’s trunk.

Chapter Five, “End of the Age,” recaps the centuries sailing ships, typically 90 percent oak, spanned the globe. The principles of timber-framed buildings were applied to ship building and Logan’s genius is he shows the oak tree superbly suited the various specifications for a sailing ship’s structural timbers. As an arborist, he readily explains how, as an example, a forester charged with picking the right tree to cut for a compass timber might make his selection in a forest. Rounding out the chapter is a compelling account of the USS Constitution’s first battle against a British frigate in The War of 1812, earning the nickname “Old Ironsides.” Finally, Logan marks the end of the age of wooden ships as the Civil War battle between the CSS Virginia (nee USS Merrimack) and the USS Monitor, an inconclusive standoff between two ironclad steamers.

Chapter Six, “Oak Itself,” is a thorough arborist-wise compendium of the virtues of genus Quercus. Diversity (as mentioned at the outset, the oak avers specialization), Cooperation (for millennia, fascinating mutual dependencies have existed between oaks and jays), Flexibility (plasticity of the DNA), Prudence (the oak conserves energy superbly, regulating the release of new growth), Persistence (oaks make lots of roots), Community (oak roots feed other ailing oak trees), and Generosity (the oak hosts countless species, most notably the gall-making wasp). Logan’s argument on behalf of the oak is quite simple: “There is no structure more supple and sustainable than nature’s, and oaks are among the most widely adapted and successful of all plants.” Logan suggests computer modelling as a useful ally for unlocking and deploying the subtle power of nature’s design. In one example, he cites surgical screws for repair of bone fractures, whose design derives from computer analysis of how an oak tree grows.

In the book’s epilogue, Logan compares the Eiffel Tower to an oak tree. The Eiffel Tower, meant as an icon of the Industrial Age, offers little utility, other than making a lasting impression and for those inclined, a vertiginous look-see from up high. In contrast, the oak tree, a “nothing special” structure, has always meant utility. Logan asks the reader which of the two might we emulate, if we had to choose. By the end of OAK, we know his choice. Arborist Logan might be anticipating the day our dinosaur heritage runs out after a brief 250-year run, and we start casting about for less exploitive, more nature-friendly survival strategies. Read OAK: THE FRAME OF CIVILIZATION for an intelligent and heart-felt survey of one tree species that has served humanity well for thousands of years, and which might still have lessons for our future
© Charlie Dickinson October 2005
read “stories & more” @ http://charlied.freeshell.org
email: oak.3.charlied@spamgourmet.com.
link:https://www.hackwriters.com/oak.htm

Billy_T wrote:

On a positive note: Looked up the guest and it sounds like he’s done some good work on economics and public policy, focusing on Austerity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Blyth

Surprised Carlson booked him.

=================

Carlson, like Sagaaar (Krystal Ball’s other half) is not like a regular-ole-Republican.
He’s a demon but he’s not a regular-ole-republican.
There’s more than one kind of Republican these days. Like, say, Pat Buchannon was a Demon, but he wasnt a regular-ole-Republican. He was a different variety of demon.

Tucker Carlson has often come out against the greedy-rich-folks. He sees himself as a type of Right-Populist. Krystal Ball talked about this on the vid where she responds to Nathan Robinson’s critique of her and Sagaar. Krystal said the point of the show ‘The Rising’ is to have two different ‘rising’ versions of populism talk to each other — Leftwing-populism and Rightwing-populism. She noted that their show is absolutely unique (and it is). No other political show has this dynamic. Watch the vid. It relates to who Tucker Carlson is.

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waterfield wrote:

Why is a liberal or centrist Dem NOT a “critical thinker” ? Based on who would be better Sanders or Biden to beat Trump ?

============

OK, fair enough. I’ll change it to Progressive-Thinker. 🙂

How many progressive-thinkers have been elected in the Senate in the last quarter of a century?

You outnumber us, W. By a large margin.

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Zooey wrote:

This one is complicated.

While I don’t think this demonstrates that people “understand the underlying systemic-problem,” it shows that they understand that things are out of whack. This is not the equivalent of the Pussy Hat march, but in black instead of pink. It’s more than that.

Bear in mind that people around the world are protesting because of an American domestic incident. That’s not common.

I think there is unrest that is broader and deeper than just police injustice. I agree with zn and Billy that the Dem machine beat Bernie by successfully scaring voters into believing that Biden was a safer bet to beat Trump. It is plainly obvious, however, that Bernie is vastly more popular than Biden, and his policy positions precisely hit the issues Americans care about. People prefer Bernie. They were simply made to worry that Other People wouldn’t prefer him. They were convinced that they were in the minority.

I think these protests show that they aren’t in the minority…which we already knew. But I think these protests are about more than criminal justice. That’s a big part of it. But people are out there for other, related reasons. They are out there because the system is unjust in many, many ways, and everybody feels it, and everybody feels like Washington is largely corrupt, and unresponsive.

I don’t think many people have an appetite for revolution. But the resistance is growing, and this is not going to be pacified by the usual window dressing, I don’t think. I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. I don’t think that banning choke holds and making Juneteenth a national holiday are going to be sufficient. The government has been put on notice, imo. But they’ve prepared the police for this possibility, so now it gets interesting.

I applied for a passport yesterday.

==============

Cool.

I prettymuch disagree with most of that. And i submit, the evidence is not just Bernie vs Biden. Thats just one example among hundreds. For starters there’s Bernie vs 99 Senators. These radical-progressive-anarchist-antifa-lead uprisers voted over and over and over for Corporate-Dem-Senators and Corporate-Rep-Senators.
Over and over and over. Its not just about Trump or voting for people that might beat Trump, etc.

If this country really had a large segment of progressive, informed, critical thinkers there would be evidence in the Senate. There aint.

Wanna look at the House of Rep? Whats ‘that’ look like. A smattering of progressives here and there.

So, no, I aint buying it. I think the bewildered herd will be baffled and confused and entertained and self-absorbed again, in a few weeks. And the very small number of committed critical-thinkers will be bashing on, relentlessly, as per usual.

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Then there’s this kind of thing:https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/this-megachurch-pastor-actually-tried-to-rebrand-white-privilege-as-white-blessing-gifted-from-slavery/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4804

“….Atlanta megachurch pastor Louie Giglio gave the obligatory apology Tuesday after attempting to repackage the phrase “white privilege” as a “white blessing” during a talk about race and religion. “We understand the curse that was slavery, white people do,” Giglio said Sunday during the conversation. “And we say that was bad. But we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in.”

Giglio, who presides over Passion City Church, provided a bit of context for his rebranding attempt, saying that “white privilege” is striking the wrong nerve and that because he was born in a segregated Southern city in 1958, he is “living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta.”

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

Noam calls the uprising and the popular support for them, ‘unprecedented.’

My own view, is different. The uprising may be unprecedented, but i dont buy into the idea there is great public support for it. My evidence is simple – Bernie vs Biden. The DEMOCRAT voters had a choice. They chose Biden.

I wouldn’t mix those 2 things up.

One, yes, is unprecedented. Unless you can name the last time there were massive protests in 700 towns and cities for 2 weeks.

The other is just machine politics winning.

One marxist term that’s really useful in times like this is “uneven developments” which (briefly) just means that processes are complicated and you don’t expect all things to be going at the same pace at the same time. People are not as attuned to democratic machine politics and tend to normalize it. People are also deeply affected by issues involving human rights and equality before the law–there is a source of raw power and energy to draw on there. In the summer of 2020 that raw energy got tapped by the issue of policing and racial injustice in a way that has never happened before (if you look back at the civil rights era, civil rights demonstrations polled negatively).

The war has many fronts. Some are doing better than others right now. But then–no one could have guessed in advance that what happened this summer would happen.

…

==================

Well, like i said, the uprising may be ‘unprecedented’ but I think a small minority of actual-voters understand the underlying systemic-problem. We can call that uneven development, or we can just call it same ole sorry ass corporotacracy.
I think it translates into mostly cosmetic changes. Democrat-Party type changes.

Thats just my prediction. Hope it plays out better than that. Of course, i might be wrong. Etc.

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zn wrote:

wv wrote:

Well, it would be better if it wasn’t anonymous. How do we know its not fake?

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Well this is just one man’s subjective view, but it doesn’t seem fake to me. Way too much detail for that. You deal with cops at least part of the time. How accurate does it seem to you.

==============
Oh its totally accurate, LoL. But i am wary. I just dont wanna read, a month from now, that it was some bored undergrad in his basement who wanted to trash the cops, etc.

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“I know, Ma. I’m a-tryin’. But them deputies- Did you ever see a deputy that didn’t have a fat ass? An’ they waggle their ass an’ flop their gun aroun’. Ma”, he said, “if it was the law they was workin’ with, why we could take it. But it ain’t the law. They’re a-working away at our spirits. They’re a-tryin’ to make us cringe an’ crawl like a whipped bitch. They’re tryin’ to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on’y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin’ a sock at a cop. They’re working on our decency”.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Cal wrote:

Robinson’s criticism of Taibbi’s article is a perfect illustration of what Taibbi is criticizing. I’ll just use Robinson’s first example of the professor who created a controversy by not censoring MLK’s “Birmingham Jail” that intentionally uses provocative language and by showing disturbing images of a documentary about lynching even though some students objected.

A college history class should include material that does make people uncomfortable. Or if some material is inappropriate, the university should make that decision and share that expectation with the professor.

Robinson’s own solution to this situation seems to be part of the problem that Taibbi is criticizing.

Here’s Robinson:

Today I’m going to read from Letter From Birmingham Jail. The letter contains the n-word. I am considering saying it aloud because I think it’s important to hear exactly what King wrote rather than my censored version of what King wrote, but I know the word is very painful and if anyone would like to object, I will omit it. Also, I plan to screen a video about civil rights today that contains both the word and a graphic depiction of lynching. The video uses these on the theory that it is important for us to see and hear the uncomfortable truth.” I think actually when you present things this way students will feel respected and are less likely to complain. The problem was actually that the professor did not care what the students thought of what he did and said.

Sorry, 18 year olds don’t get to decide what is censored. Again, if the university and professionals want to make that decision, fine.

Here’s the problem with Robinson’s suggestion: What if a racist student or a student who just wants to be an ass objects to seeing a documentary with disturbing images or objects to reading a poem about a lynching? Do you omit an important part of the course because of one objection?

The link that Robinson contains a sentence about protesters calling for the firing of the history professor in this example AND another professor who refused to delay or cancel exams at UCLA because of Floyd’s death.

_________________________________________
Richard Wright–“Between the World and Me”

And then they had me, stripped me, battering my teeth
into my throat till I swallowed my own blood.
My voice was drowned in the roar of their voices, and my
black wet body slipped and rolled in their hands as
they bound me to the sapling.
And my skin clung to the bubbling hot tar, falling from
me in limp patches.
And the down and quills of the white feathers sank into
my raw flesh, and I moaned in my agony.
Then my blood was cooled mercifully, cooled by a
baptism of gasoline.
And in a blaze of red I leaped to the sky as pain rose like water, boiling my limbs
Panting, begging I clutched childlike, clutched to the hot
sides of death.

=====================

Well, I am having trouble focusing in on what the issue is exactly. Maybe i’m just having a pandemic-fuzzy-thinking week, I dunno.

But i can think of all kinds of ‘gray area examples’ that go in various directions. What if a BLM protest representative is being interviewed about how black men are being victimized…and the interviewer says “what about how black men victimize black women?” Well…shit. Men ‘do’ victimize women, so there is something important about the question. But what is the agenda here? And is the timing of the question right? But shouldnt we be able to discuss all tricky issues? Etc, etc, and so forth.

To your professor example — Maybe the kids arent really ‘deciding what gets censored’ — maybe the professor is just being sensitive, or nice, or open to listening and dialogue about stuff. I dunno. It depends on so many factors, and motivations. For me, the issue can unwind in so many directions it just gets….unfocused. Or i get unfocused. I dunno.

Heck Taibbi even brought up Russiagate. Which is a whole can of worms by itself, which i will not open, here. 🙂

I got nuthin.

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———–
“To sum it all up, the [Ayn] Rand belief system looks like this:
1. Facts are facts: things can be absolutely right or absolutely wrong, as determined by reason.
2. According to my reasoning, I am absolutely right.
3. Charity is immoral.
4. Pay for your own fucking schools.”
― Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
———–
“Most people, when they imagine New England, think about old colonial homes, white houses with black shutters, whales, and sexually morbid WASPs with sensible vehicles and polite political opinions. This is incorrect. If you want to get New England right, just imagine a giant mullet in paint-stained pants and a Red Sox hat being pushed into the back of a cruiser after a bar fight.”
― Matt Taibbi, Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season
————
“The basic scam in the Internet age is pretty easy even for the financially illiterate to grasp. It was as if banks like Goldman were wrapping ribbons around watermelons, tossing them out fiftieth-story windows, and opening the phones for bids. In this game you were a winner only if you took your money out before the melon hit the pavement.”
― Matt Taibbi, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
—————-
“Twenty-six billion dollars of fraud: no felony cases. But when the stakes are in the hundreds of dollars, we kick in 26,000 doors a year, in just one county.”
― Matt Taibbi, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
————
“Our prison population, in fact, is now the biggest in the history of human civilization. There are more people in the United States either on parole or in jail today (around 6 million total) than there ever were at any time in Stalin’s gulags. For what it’s worth, there are also more black men in jail right now than there were in slavery at its peak.”
― Matt Taibbi, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
—————

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