Thursday, December 20, 2012

Great Pyramid tombs unearth 'proof' workers were not slaves

Great Pyramid tombs unearth 'proof' workers were not slaves

Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Osiris Pharaoh XVIII dynasties and Isis.



Egypt's leading archaeologist says 4,000-year-old burial plots with skeletons expose myth that builders were slaves
  • The Guardian,
Video no longer available 

Egypt displayed today newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, supporting evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments.

The modest 9ft deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry sand along with jars of beer and bread for the afterlife.
The mud-brick tombs were uncovered last week near the Giza pyramids, stretching beyond a burial site first found in the 1990s and dating to the 4th dynasty (2575BC to 2467BC), on the fringes of the present-day capital, Cairo.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once described the pyramid builders as slaves, creating what Egyptologists say is a myth propagated by Hollywood films.

Graves of the builders were first found nearby in 1990 by a tourist. Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the finds show the workers were paid labourers, rather than slaves.
Hawass told reporters at the site that the find, first announced on Sunday, said the find sheds more light on the lifestyle and origins of the pyramidbuilders. Most importantly, he said the workers were not recruited from slaves commonly found across Egypt during those times. One popular myth that Egyptologists say was perpetrated in part by Hollywood held that Israelite slaves built the pyramids.

Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that myth stemmed from an erroneous claim by the former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, on a visit to Egypt in 1977, that Jews built the pyramids.
"No Jews built the pyramids because Jews didn't exist at the period when the pyramids were built," Mazar said.

Dorothy Resig, an editor of Biblical Archaeology Review in Washington DC, said the idea probably arose from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, which says: "So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with backbreaking labour" and the Pharaoh put them to work to build buildings.
"If the Hebrews built anything, then it was the city of Ramses as mentioned in Exodus," said Mazar.
Dieter Wildung, a former director of Berlin's Egyptian Museum, said it is "common knowledge in serious Egyptology" that the pyramid builders were not slaves. "The myth of the slaves building pyramids is only the stuff of tabloids and Hollywood," Wildung said. "The world simply could not believe the pyramids were build without oppression and forced labour, but out of loyalty to the pharaohs."
Hawass said the builders came from poor families from the north and the south, and were respected for their work – so much so that those who died during construction were bestowed the honour of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs.

Their proximity to the pyramids and the manner of burial in preparation for the afterlife backs this theory, Hawass said. "No way would they have been buried so honourably if they were slaves."
The tombs contained no gold or valuables, which safeguarded them from tomb raiders throughout antiquity, and the bodies were not mummified. The skeletons were found buried in a foetal position – the head pointing to the west and the feet to the east according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, surrounded by jars once filled with supplies for afterlife.

The men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly and worked in three-month shifts, said Hawass. It took 10,000 workers more than 30 years to build a single pyramid, Hawass said, a tenth of the workforce Herodotus wrote about after visiting Egypt around 450BC.
Hawass said and that evidence indicates they the approximately 10,000 labourers working on the pyramids they ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms.
Though they were not slaves, the pyramid builders led a life of hard labour, said Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation. Their skeletons have signs of arthritis, and their lower vertebrae point to a life passed in difficulty, he said. "Their bones tell us the story of how hard they worked," Okasha said.
Wildung said the find reinforces the notion that the pyramid builders were free men, ordinary citizens. "But let's not exaggerate here, they lived a short life and tomography skeletal studies show they suffered from bad health, very much likely because of how hard their work was."

 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Bulworth as Radical Honest Character


Bulworth on Wikipedia 
The movie about a politician 
who started to be a radical honest 
and how awesome he started to feel 
after he was thinking about killing himself by a hit-man
since he started to tell the truth 
things start to go in a hilarious turn of events  





A politician gives an "Honest Speech" for a change!

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Sunday, December 9, 2012

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony

"Bittersweet Symphony"
 

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Try to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet yeah,

No change, I can change
I can change, I can change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
But I'm a million different people
from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no

Well I never pray
But tonight I'm on my knees yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now
But the airways are clean and there's nobody singing to me now

No change, I can change
I can change, I can change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
And I'm a million different people
from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no
I can't change
I can't change

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Try to make ends meet
Try to find some money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the things meet yeah

You know I can change, I can change
I can change, I can change
But I'm here in my mold
I am here in my mold
And I'm a million different people
from one day to the next
I can't change my mold
No, no, no, no, no

I can't change my mold
no, no, no, no, no,
I can't change
Can't change my body,
no, no, no

I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
Been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
Ever been down
Have you ever been down?
Have you've ever been down?

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

50 Cent - My Life ft. Eminem, Adam Levine


50 Cent - My Life ft. Eminem, Adam Levine 

Download MP3 

[Hook: Adam Levine]
My life, my life
Makes you wanna run away
There's no place to go
No place to go
All this confusion
Such an illusion like a movie
Got nowhere to go
Nowhere to run and hide
No matter how hard I try

[Verse 1: 50 Cent]
Yeah, OP, I went from back filthy to filthy rich
Man, the emotions change so I can never trust a bitch
I tried to help niggas get on, they turned around and spit
Right in my face, so Game and Buck, both can suck a dick
Now when you hear 'em it may sound like it's some other shit
Cause I'm not writing anymore, they not making hits
I'm far from perfect, there's so many lessons I done learned
If money is evil look at all the evil I done earned
I'm doing what I'm supposed to, I'm a writer, I'm a fighter
Entrepeneur, fresh out the sewer, watch me manuever
What's it to ya? The track I lace it, it's better than basic
This is my recovery, my comeback, kid

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Eminem]
While you were sipping your own kool-aid getting your buzz heavy
I was in the fucking sheds chopping my box Chevy
Sipping some of of that revenge juice, getting my taste buds ready
To whoop down this spaghetti, or should I say spaget-even?
You fucking meatballs keep on forgetting
Party was finished, motherfucker, it's only the beginning
He's buggin' again, he's drinkin', fuck who he's offending
He'll rip your fucking chords out
With 3000 volts of electricity
Now take the other and dump him (?) in each
(?)
I'll teach you to (?) in me
I done put my blood, my sweat, my tears in this shit
(?)
Feels like I'mma snap in a minute, yeah, it's happening again
Thinking the same shit like everybody else that's up in this bitch, what
Cause this is all I know, this is why so hard I go
I swear to God I put my heart and soul into this more than anybody knows
I'm trapped, all I do is rap, everytime I rap I'm on track
(?) bubble rap
This is like a vicious cycle, my life's in a crisis, crisis
How was I supposed to know you'd turn up like you did
Feels like I'm going psycho again
And I might just burn my lip
I almost wish that I would have never made Recovery, kid
Cause I'm running circles with

[Hook]

[Verse 3: 50 Cent]
I haven't been this fucking confused since I was a kid
Sold like 40 million records, people forgot what I did
Maybe this is for me, maybe
Maybe I'm supposed to go crazy
Maybe I'll do it 3 AM in the morning with Shady
Psycho killer, Michael Myers, I'm on fire like a lighter
Tryna say the same (?) shit, get your ass kicked, magnet
Wrap your head up in plastic
Soon I'm in a casket, dirt nap with the maggots
It's tragic, it's sad it's
Never gonna end, now we number one again
With that frown on your face, and your heart full of hate
Accept it, respect it
This a gift God gave me like an air of lungs
And everything with it

[Hook]

50 Cent ft. Eminem & Adam Levine - My Life
50 Cent ft. Eminem & Adam Levine - My Life
50 Cent ft. Eminem & Adam Levine - My Life
50 Cent ft. Eminem & Adam Levine - My Life
50 Cent ft. Eminem & Adam Levine - My Life

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

My Favorite Sexual Positions

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Atheists have 'better sex lives than followers of religion who are plagued with guilt

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

 
Atheists have far better sex lives than religious people who are plagued with guilt  during intercourse and for weeks afterwards, researchers have found.
A study discovered that non-believers are more willing to discuss sexual fantasies and are more satisfied with their experiences.
Both groups of people admitted that they carried out the same activities such as masturbation, watching pornography, having oral sex and pursuing affairs.

Unrestricted passion: Atheists have better sex lives than followers of religion who are troubled by feelings of guilt, researchers claim
Unrestricted passion: Atheists have better sex lives than followers of religion who are troubled by feelings of guilt, researchers claim

But followers of religion did not enjoy the experiences as much due to the stigma created by their belief systems, the study found. It left them with intense feelings of regret after they had climaxed.
The findings emerged in the 'Sex and Secularism' survey of more than 14,500 people carried out by psychologist Darrel Ray and Amanda Brown from Kansas University.
All of the people who were questioned were found to have sex around the same number of times a week. They also became sexually active at similar ages.
 
But devoutly religious people rated their sex lives far lower than atheists. They also admitted to strong feelings of guilt afterwards.
Strict religions such as Mormons ranked highest on the scale of sexual guilt. Their average score was 8.19 out of 10. They were followed closely behind by Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist, and Baptist.
Catholics rated their levels of sexual guilt at 6.34 while Lutherans came slightly lower at 5.88 . In contrast, atheists and agnostics ranked at 4.71 and 4.81 respectively.

The highs and lows: Religious people had as much sex as non-believers but they felt bad afterwards and often preyed for forgiveness (file picture)
The highs and lows: Religious people had as much sex as non-believers but they felt bad afterwards and often preyed for forgiveness (file picture)

The study found that in individuals, the stronger their religious beliefs were the more powerful their feelings of sexual regret.

RELIGION 'MAY AFFECT HEALTH OF BRAIN'

Followers of certain religions may have healthier brains that are less likely to develop Alzheimer's, scientists have claimed.
Researchers measured changes in the hippocampus are of the brain in a number of patients. The area is responsible for memory and learning.
All human brains shrink slightly with age and reduction in the size of the hippocampus has been linked to Alzheimer's.
But Protestants were found to have significant less atrophy, or wastage, in that area of the brain that Catholics, non-religious groups and born-again Protestants.
Participants who said that they had had life-changing religious experiences were also found to have large hipppocampus regions.
Experts hope that the findings might lead to preventative measures against brain deterioration. 
Researcher Amy from Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, New York, said: 'One interpretation of our finding - that members of majority religious groups seem to have less atrophy compared with minority religious groups - is that when you feel your beliefs and values are somewhat at odds with those of society as a whole, it may contribute to long-term stress that could have implications for the brain.'
Of people raised in very religious homes, 22.5 per cent said they were shamed or ridiculed for masturbating  compared with only 5.5 percent of people brought up in the least religious homes.
Some 79.9 per cent of people raised in very religious homes said they felt guilty about a specific sexual activity or desire while 26.3 per cent of those raised in secular homes did.
Worryingly, children raised in strongly religious homes were more likely to get their sex education from pornography, as they were not confident enough to talk with their parents.
However, there was some good news for religious groups. People who had lost their belief and became atheists reported a significant improvement in sexual satisfaction.
People who had left their beliefs behind said their sex lives were 'much improved' and rated their new experiences on average as 7.81 out of ten.
The finding dispelled conventional wisdom that feelings of guilt can continue  to trouble people after the religion has faded.
'We did think that religion would have residual effects in people after they left but our data did not show this. That was a very pleasant surprise. The vast majority seem to shake it off and get on with their sexual lives pretty well,' Darrel told alternet.org.
He added: 'Our data shows that people feel very guilty about their sexual behaviour when they are religious, but that does not stop them: it just makes them feel bad.
'Of course, they have to return to their religion to get forgiveness. It's like the church gives you the disease, then offers you a fake cure.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1388827/Atheists-better-sex-religious-followers-plagued-guilt.html#ixzz2Cn1eQLQF 
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Justin Currie - Still In Love



Lovers leave their traces like jets across the sky
They find in all those faces, lines they recognize
My keepsakes have there places
At the back of a drawer
Or slipped between pages and stuck on a shelf

But I'm still in love
I'm still in love
I'm still in love
With nothing but myself

Yes, sometimes I remember
The way they signed their names
And always in December, I feel some kind of shame
The heart, it stays so tender
I reminisce like a hangman wishing his prisoners well

But I'm still in love
I'm still in love
I'm still in love
With nothing but myself

And I know their mother's ages
And I know all the stories so well
And I know I'll see their faces in Hell
So wipe away their traces
Blow the dust off of the shelf

Because I'm still in love
I'm still in love
I'm still in love
With nothing but myself

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Anarchism and Violence - Anarcho-pacifism



Anarcho-pacifism  (also pacifist anarchism or anarchist pacifism)
is a tendency within the anarchist movement which rejects the use of violence in the struggle for social change.[1][2] The main early influences were the thought of Henry David Thoreau[2] and Leo Tolstoy while later the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi gained importance.[1][2] It developed "mostly in Holland (sic), Britain, and the United States, before and during the Second World War".[3]


Thought

 

For An Anarchist FAQ "the attraction of pacifism to anarchists is clear. Violence is authoritarian and coercive, and so its use does contradict anarchist principles." "(Errico) Malatesta is even more explicit when he wrote that the "main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations".[16]

Anarcho-pacifism tend to see the state as 'organised violence' and so they see that "it would therefore seem logical that anarchists should reject all violence"[2].. Anarcho-pacifism criticizes the separation between means and ends. "Means,...must not merely be consistent with ends; this principle, though preferable to 'the end justifies the means', is based on a misleading dichotomy. Means are ends, never merely instrumental but also always expressive of values; means are end-creating or ends-in-the making".[2]

An anarcho-pacifist critique of capitalism was provided by Bart de Ligt in his The conquest of Violence. An Anarchist FAQ reports how "all anarchists would agree with de Ligt on, to use the name of one of his book's chapters, "the absurdity of bourgeois pacifism." For de Ligt, and all anarchists, violence is inherent in the capitalist system and any attempt to make capitalism pacifistic is doomed to failure. This is because, on the one hand, war is often just economic competition carried out by other means. Nations often go to war when they face an economic crisis, what they cannot gain in economic struggle they attempt to get by conflict. On the other hand, "violence is indispensable in modern society. . . [because] without it the ruling class would be completely unable to maintain its privileged position with regard to the exploited masses in each country. The army is used first and foremost to hold down the workers. . . when they become discontented." [Bart de Ligt, Op. Cit., p. 62] As long as the state and capitalism exist, violence is inevitable and so, for anarcho-pacifists, the consistent pacifist must be an anarchist just as the consistent anarchist must be a pacifist".[16]


A main component of anarcho-pacifist strategy is civil disobedience as advocated by the early anarchist thinker Henry David Thoreau in the essay of the same name from 1849.[2] 

Leo Tolstoy was influenced by it and he saw that a "great weapon for undermining (rather than overthrowing) the state was the refusal by individuals to cooperate with it and obey its immoral demands".[2] Also the concepts of passive and active resistance have relevance as they were developed later by Mohandas Gandhi.[2]
For anarchist historian George Woodcock "the modern pacifist anarchists,...have tended to concentrate their attention largely on the creation of libertarian communities -- particularly farming communities -- within present society, as a kind of peaceful version of the propaganda by deed. They divide, however, over the question of action.".[1] Anarcho-pacifists can even accept "the principle of resistance and even revolutionary action (Nonviolent revolution), provided it does not incur violence, which they see as a form of power and therefore nonanarchist in nature. This change in attitude has led the pacifist anarchists to veer toward the anarchosyndicalists, since the latter's concept of the general strike as the great revolutionary weapon made an appeal to those pacifists who accepted the need for fundamental social change but did not wish to compromise their ideal by the use of negative (i.e., violent) means."

Monday, October 29, 2012

Post-Anarchism


Post-anarchism or postanarchism  
is an anarchist philosophy that employs post-structuralist andpostmodernist approaches. 
The term post-structuralist anarchism is used as well, so as not to suggest having moved beyond anarchism. 
It is not a single coherent theory, but rather refers to the combined works of any number of post-structuralists such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan; postmodern feministssuch as Judith Butler; and post-Marxists such as Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Rancière
with those of the classical anarchists, with particular concentration on Emma Goldman, Max Stirner, and Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus, the terminology can vary widely in both approach and outcome
 
Common concepts within post-anarchism include: