Youtube Video: Your Ancestors Tried to Kill Each Other!

Matt Easton is not the greatest orator of all time, a lot of tangents upon tangents upon tangents. However this is still  a good point well made and an excellent response to the more and more vocal nationalists and race purists in Europe.

As someone of mixed Germanic/Slavic ancestry who in WW2 had relatives both in SS Waffen* and in Totaleinsatz I can only nod in agreement.

*For the sake of completeness the story as said by my mother:

One of my grandmother’s cousins was conscripted in Wehrmacht and during the war he got transfer order to SS Waffen. That is an offer one cannot refuse, so he has swallowed a bullet, because he just could not follow the orders anymore. However there is no doubt in my mind that I had relatives on that side of the family who fought and slaughtered for the Führer quite happily.

Gingerbread Bonsai

Sorry for the rather poor picture quality, this was before I had money to spare for semi-decent equipment. One of my creations from a few years ago, I think 2011. I cannot say exactly, because in my old camera I had to set up date after every change of battery, so I ended up not setting up the date at all, because it was difficult and annoying.

Gingerbread bonsai.

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Anatomy Atlas Part 6 – Shoulder Skeleton

Shoulder is the most mobile joint in the human body. The ball joint can rotate around 3 axes, so it alone provides our hands with almost 50% of their mobility. This is all the more impressive when one considers that all that movement must not impede blood flow through the appendage.

Shoulder Skeleton

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

One of these bones is not like the others, one of these bones does not belong.

It is clavicle. Clavicle is dermal bone, so it develops by a different process than most other bones. This means it has different internal structure and is therefore more fragile. Broken clavicle is therefore a fairly common injury.

Behind the Iron Curtain part 5 – Environmentalism

These are my recollections of a life behind the iron curtain. I do not aim to give perfect and objective evaluation of anything, but to share my personal experiences and memories. It will explain why I just cannot get misty eyed over some ideas on the political left and why I loathe many ideas on the right.


Today it seems like protecting the nature has become a leftist issue, and raping and pillaging it is the modus operandi of the right. This amuses me slightly, because the “left” that I grew up with was very different.

Unofficial motto of communist regime was “Poručíme větru, dešti.”. Translated into English “We shall take command of the winds and the rain.”. Humans were central to any policy and it was seen as imperative to take total control of nature and shape it to our needs and wants. In retrospect, some of it resembled christian ideas about humans being given dominion over the Earth.

One of the environmental abominations the communists did whose damage pays heavy dividends these last dry years had three steps.
First was connecting the by then relatively small fields divided by boundaries of bushes and small trees into vast fields. Second was to drain as many marshes and wetlands as possible so they can be ploughed by heavy machinery. Third was to straighten as many rivers and creeks as possible.

The negative consequences were visible within a few years but despite that these things were, to my memory, touted as a sucesses to the very end.

And those consequences?

Destroying the bush covered boundaries admittedly reduced slightly the occurrence of some infections affecting crops (especially the grass rust), and some insects. However it also drastically reduced the birds populations by depriving them of nesting places, and it exposed the soil in the spring and fall to heavy wind and water erosion. That took a few decades to be visible with naked eye, but today there are fields in CZ that have patches completely stripped of all topsoil.
Draining marshes and wetlands brought near to nothing to increase crop production. Thusly gained soil when dried was heavy infertile clay that did not want to take in water from rain and where nothing very much grew. The only things that seemed to prosper there were pioneering plants like birches and chamomile. What was lost almost immediately were multiple species of orchids and other wetland plants, many of which became endangered as a result and to this day grow only in few areas.
Straightening the creeks and rivers was perhaps the most damaging of these all. Together with the first two steps it created a landscape where water retention capabilities of the land are damaged beyond repair. Today we are seeing the consequences in the form of droughts and subsequent flash floods when rain water does not seep into soil, but flows away as quickly as possible across the uninterrupted fields and through the straightened water-bed. Oh, and salmon are mostly gone too.

Anther thing to consider is the regime’s contribution to acid rains and global warming, which were both acknowledged as real and both ignored on grand scale. In school we were taught that the success of a state can be measured in the tonnage of coal mined and steel produced. So coal was mined and steel produced even at a time when western European countries already realized that this is not the right way to go. And this was touted as an example of our magnanimous socialist countries outperforming those dumb evil capitalists.

Our (CZ) coal power plants burned sulphur rich coal and made no effort to filter out the sulphur oxides and fly ash even at a time when in neighbouring Germany many, if not all, such plants have been equipped with both sulphur and fly ash capture. Thus when the wind was blowing from the west, the air was fresh, when it was blowing from the east, it was foul. In a rare occurrence these facts were mentioned at school to us and I have asked the teacher why our coal plants are not equipped with the same devices. surprisingly I got what probably was an honest answer – it is expensive and our state cannot afford it. I did not ask further but I do remember the dissonance I felt thinking about it – we are outperforming those evil capitalists yet we cannot afford to protect our environment like they co?

Last thing I want to mention is the protection of animals against abuse. There was none. As a child I have read an article about this in one children magazine my parents were buying to me. The author somehow got through censors very sincere article talking about this problem, and demonstrated how wild as well as domestic animals are being abused and tortured on regular basis. He mentioned an instance where some state representative was asked why the regime does not try to enact such laws which again were common in many western countries at that time. The answer was “Socialist human does not need laws to be kind to animals.”. The author of the article finished with bitter words “Well, it is evident not everyone deserves to be called (not only) socialist.”.

The problem, like with many other things, was that whatever the regime has decided to do or not to do was correct by definition. The regime had all the smartest people, the bestest people, and was in possession of all the answers. Evidence was only acknowledged when it could not be ignored anymore, and even then very reluctantly. Remind you of something/one?

That made me wary of anyone who claims to have all answers.

Knifesharpenophobia

When working in US some twenty years ago I borrowed from the local library in Ketchum (ID) the Ed Fowler’s book Knife Talk: The Art & Science Of Knifemaking. Unfortunately I did not have time to read the whole book so I basically just skimmed most of it and therefore I do not remember all. I can recommend the book with good conscience though, because I did read one chapter in full and remember its title and contents well – “Knifesharpenophobia”. I consider that a sign of good and persuasive writing.

I have remembered about this book and this particular chapter recently when I was obsessing over properly hardening a blade for a knife that in all likelihood will never be used to cut anything harder than a mushroom or perhaps some soft wood during a walk in the forests. And maybe not even that.

In the past I have made knives from improperly hardened steel. Not that I wanted to, I did not have much choice. I did not have high-quality knife steel available just a few mouse clicks away, and even if I had I was so poor I could not afford it. And I lacked a lot of the knowledge I have now so I could not improve the steel I had.

Two of those knives are occasionally still in use (by me) whenever I go to the forest.

A knife

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

A knife

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size

I let you in on a little secret: They cut perfectly well. With the second one, made from low-carbon structural steel, I was able to do even quite a lot of wood carvings and heavy cutting/chopping when I was camping in the past.The first one is made from some unknown martensitic stainless steel that I was not able to harden for unknown reasons.

However the softer than normal blade did not impede work in the slightest. All that was needed to do was to sharpen the blade a bit more often than is perhaps usual and it was much quicker to sharpen than other blades. Just like Ed Fowler says in his book:

…Granted, edge holding is a fine attribute for a knife. The problem is, knives that seldom need sharpening generally are usually too hard to sharpen when the time comes to sharpen them…

I could not agree more.

I think that for anyone who starts to learn the knife making trade it is vitally important to keep in mind the fact that for thousands of years people were perfectly capable of hunting, cooking and fighting with blades made from soft metals like copper, bronze and wrought iron. Sure, steel was the ideal material of choice once discovered, but untill the invention of blast furnaces it was hard to come by in larger amounts and it rarely had consistent properties.

I hate it when I come across some smug knife maker who berates some young beginner for forging or making knives out of the steel they can get their hands on. Some people even feel the need to hurl derogatory epithets at knives made from rail spikes or structural steel. I wish they stopped doing that, because it accomplishes nothing except maybe discouraging a future master from pursuing further the hobby they enjoy. Obsessing about the frequency of sharpening and edge retention is not necessary for a beginner, I would even argue the opposite. And why the aversion to knives that need sharpening? Well, I let Ed Fowler have a say again:

…What is knifesharpenophobia? …I define it as an irrational, excessive and unnecessary fear of sharpening knives. This is a malady that strikes fear in the hearts of all too many knife lovers and users.

And to make the point even finer you can watch this video where it is demonstrated that properly sharpened flat bar from 5,-€ low-carbon structural steel can cut just as well as 100,-€ katana:

 

Wacky Winter and a New Hope

I mentioned already that all three of my fig trees and most of my pomegranates seem to be dead. Today I glimpsed a hint of green at the base of all three fig trees and although most of the pomegranates are indeed dead, a few of them sprouted fresh leaves from their trunks too.

 

Dead fig treeSprouting leavessprouting leaves
sprouting leaves

There is still substantial and irreparable damage that nearly makes me cry, but if the roots are alive and strong, these buds can grow into a meter and half long and on the fig two centimeters thick sticks, so I might have figs again next year. Provided the winter will not be totally wacky again and will not finish what this one has started.

I think this is one of the personally visible consequences of global warming. Frost bellow -20°C would not be a problem for neither of these trees – all of them have survived multiple winters like that. But this year the frost came suddenly in February, after it was abnormally warm from November through to January. So it came when the trees were already preparing to wake up. I will have to think of something to shelter them from such abnormal weather in the future.

I was relieved to see that the grapevines survived without damage and are growing like mad. And a little surprised too – I expected the figs survive without problems and vines suffer damage..

The Daily Bird #694.

This year I finally managed to make a picture of a singing male black redstart. They are always nesting somewhere close, but I never found out where exactly. Possibly in my neighbour’s garden.

They are cheeky and swift builders – one day I forgot to close the barn door for the afternoon and they have built a nest in there, that I found out a few days later (abandoned, of course, since the barn was closed in the meantime). I am trying to provide them with suitable nesting places but they insist on building nests in the most insane places possible, where I only find them when I destroy them by accident at the same time – like in the concrete mixer, or under the cover on the wood chopping block. I have to be careful to close doors and windows in the spring, and to cover any holes where I do not wish to be surprised by a bird’s nest.

I do not mind them nesting here, what I do mind is me accidentaly destroing said nests.

Male Black Redstart

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Youtube Video: FightCamp 2015 Federschwert longsword tournament – HEMA

I normally do not like to watch sports, but I liked this very much. Somehow these fencing matches look interesting and much more real than modern fencing or over-choreographed Star Wars jumping matches.

In the very first minute is a moment of two opponents sizing each other up, both deciding to wait for the other to strike. The tension in there is very intense, palpable even through the screen.

Very interesting is also the match that starts at 12:47 between a very diminutive woman and a huge bulky man. Lesson to be learned here is unfortunately that in these competitions size does matter – to my amateurish eyes she does not seem any less skilled than he does, but she just does not get within striking distance before he does. Longer hands mean longer reach and longer reach means huge advantage. So everything else being equal, the bigger guy wins. I certainly hope she did not feel discouraged. I am not fan of competitions for this very reason – it is not only a test of skill, there is always a lot of variables outside of anyone’s control that can affect the outcome.

And the most memorable point is that in the last match a sword breaks (32:39). What is interesting about this is that it does not break at the striking point, but just near the handle, at the strongest part. Given that this sword was made from modern steel with modern technology one has to wonder how often did swords break in the past?

The Beautiful Town Idstein – Part 4 – Schloss

German, as well as Czech, has two words for a castle. One is “das Schloss” which means a luxurious aristocratic residence. The other one is “die Burg” and means a fortified luxurious aristocratic residence.

Castle in Idstein

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

From what I have been able to decipher on German Wikipedia the castle in Idstein used to be both of those. Originally it started with a lookout tower (the previously mentioned Hexenturm) around which a fortified residence was built. Sometime around the Renaissance period the castle was rebuilt from fortress into purely representative luxurious dwelling.

First picture shows the castle as seen from the town. The castle itself is located uphill and can only be accessed via the gate near Rathaus.

 

Castle in Idstein

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

At the foot of the Hexenturm is this beautiful building connecting the base of the tower with the gatehouse (named “Alte Kanzlei”). This building, at least its lower parts, is what remains of the original fortress. There were some significant damages to be seen, right behind the gatehouse the original stone wall was bulging out and it had markers on it probably to keep an eye on the bulge. Unfortunately in our somewhat chaotic and unguided stroll through the town I did not make more pictures  of the remnants of the original fortifications, because I did not know where to look and for what.

However I did make a picture of the main castle building. With “chemtrails” behind it. Today it serves as a high school, a much better purpose than a demonstration of wealth and power.

Castle in Idstein

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.