decamer

In a recent interview to an Argentine weekly newsletter, the Pope took the time to share ten of his guiding precepts for finding and fostering happiness. All are very tranquil and inspiring but I particularly like how the Pope suggests that families ought to turn off the television during mealtimes, recognising how possessions and possessiveness lead to disquiet and forgetting how to relax, stop being a brat—to paraphrase—and that, remarkably, that one does not earn friends by evangelizing and such behaviour belittles the beliefs of others.

shelf life or slant operation

As Europe and the United States pledge to ratchet-up sanctions on Russia, making the state a pariah after the tragic airline disaster, which Russia appears to bear responsibility for arming pro-Russian rebellion forces in the Ukrainian Don-Bass region—including Germany’s stoppage of armament sales to Russia, there comes along quietly the provocative and shameful revelation that the US government is currently releasing stockpiles of munitions to Israel. The article is evasive and hardly unbiased but suggests that Israel either did not ask or does not need to ask to be re-supplied, since the rounds (stored in country) were due to expire, and rather than dispose of them, sell them to Israel and then re-stock the warehouses with more missiles and bullets—all consistent with US politic and the safekeeping of its interests, according to one source in the story.
There was once a bitter little quip that Israel is the only land in the Middle East not endowed with oil—which seems salient, consider how the West hopes to punish Russia—but there are offshore natural gas fields for both Israel and Gaza. Old animosities may be compounded by a race for treasure—especially if far-eastern petroleum faces an embargo. Israel is facing an energy crunch and its own deposits were not discovered until recently and will not be ready to be exploited for several more years. Russia was negotiating a deal to develop Palestine’s resources in January of this year, after the failure of British and American oil companies to secure an agreement with the Territory’s government—although it is unclear whether Russia would be allowed to manage such a project without the express blessing of the Israeli government

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BoingBoing features a quite nice and circumspect retrospective of William Barker's Schwa or the Alien Autopsy with an interview with the visionary author. His iconic grey aliens personæ, our avatars, first appeared more than twenty years ago—including in the website's own print 'zine, and the story they told certainly enjoyed a following back then, although somewhat dismissed as fringe and conspiratorial. Find out more and remember this variant on the Have Nice Day smiley face at the link. Today, however, the dystopia of consumables-cartels, vanishing and endenturedness seems even more relevant and a fitting short-hand for the state of things.

croatia week: the matter of hvartska

There were relics of past empires scattered all over Croatia, and not as if that rich heritage and string of influences was not something cherished and celebrated, but it was a challenge at times to see the sites without the filter of the past. The land now known as Dalmatia was a part of the Kingdom of the Illyrian’s until this part of the Balkan Peninsula became a Roman protectorate, and the people were fully romanised in language and culture—evidenced by many ruins.

With the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, its successor, the Byzantine Empire, incorporated Croatia. During the Middle Ages, Slavic people (regarded as contemporary Croats) migrated to the area, eventually displacing the romanised Illyrian population.
After a short inter- lude as an independent kingdom (the country had several though not enduring flirtations with soveignty but always quickly fell back into foreign contol), Croatia came under the influence of Italy again with the sale of the country to the thalassocracy of the Republic of Venice.

The Venetians were eager to maintain control of the coastal areas of the Adriatic with the encroachment of the Ottoman Empire to the north and east—with the exception of Dubrovnik and its holdings, which was then known as the city-state of Ragussa and rival maritime power that endured until the Napoleonic Wars.
The icon of the Lion of St. Mark is visible on many old structures, attesting to the Venetians’ presence.
As the incursions of the Ottomans grew bolder, Croatia entered into a personal union with the Empire of the Hapsburgs (Austro-Hungary) surrendering its autonomy in exchange for protection—even allowing vast areas of the country to be governed directly by the Viennese military command, as a buffer-zone in case of attack.

Until the end of WWI, Croatia remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before forming the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with other Balkan states during the interbellum period.  The Treaty of Rapallo ceded much of Istria and the Dalmatian islands to Italy.
The aftermath of WWII saw the creation of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia—with quite a few mementoes of this time as well.  Driving through the mountains near Motovun, we could spy some concrete beams that spelled out TITO to aircraft overhead.
While a part of the Eastern Bloc and governed by an authoritarian figure during this last phase, it was no dictatorship and differed greatly from other satillite states, significantly with the freedom of movement—something which no other residents behind the Iron Curtain enjoyed, and with a progressive industrial and diplomatic stance.  Uniting six disparate states until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the region broke into a violent war for independence following the break-up of Yugoslav into its constituent parts, which lasted from 1991 to 1995.