Quotulatiousness

September 28, 2020

I made this Cabinet, and you can too

Filed under: Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Matt Estlea
Published 20 Sep 2020

Want to learn how to make this yourself? Visit my FREE Online Woodworking School here:
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No sign-up or information required. It’s literally all there waiting for you!
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My name is Matt Estlea, I’m a 24 year old Woodworker from Basingstoke in England and my aim is to make your woodworking less s***.

I come from 5 years tuition at Rycotewood Furniture Centre with a further 1 year working as an Artist in Residence at the Sylva Foundation. I now teach City and Guilds Furniture Making at Rycotewood as of September 2018.

If you’re interested in studying at Rycotewood, view their courses here:
www.mattestlea.com/rycotewood

I also had 5 years of experience working at Axminster Tools and Machinery where I helped customers with purchasing tools, demonstrated in stores and events, and gained extensive knowledge about a variety of tools and brands. I discontinued this at the start of 2019 to focus solely on video creation and teaching.

During the week, I film woodworking projects, tutorials, reviews and a viewer favourite ‘Tool Duel’ where I compare two competitive manufacturers tools against one another to find out which is best. I also have a Free Online Woodworking School which you should definitely check out!

www.mattestlea.com/school

I like to have a laugh and my videos are quite fast paced BUT you will learn a lot, I assure you.

Lets go make a mess.

The Elgin Marbles as oversized bargaining chips

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Greece, History, Politics, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Michael Curtis on the renewed demands that the British government return the Elgin Marbles to Athens:

Some of the sculptures in the Elgin Marbles collection on display in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum.
Photo by Paul Hudson via Wikimedia Commons.

The internecine wars in Washington, D.C., continue over government funding, a coronavirus relief bill, government shutdown, but on September 9, 2020 one form of political truce between Republicans and Democrats on foreign affairs was announced. Eighteen members of the U.S. Congress, bilateral members of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic issues, including the chairs of the House Oversight and Rules committees, and Foreign Affairs subcommittee on issues relating to Europe, had written a letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

It informed him, in case he didn’t know, that the Elgin marbles, EM, had been the source of controversy among allies for many decades. The letter urged the British government, already saddled by labyrinth Brexit discussions, to negotiate with the Greek government in earnest over the return of the Elgin marbles to Greece by 2021, the 200th anniversary of the modern Greek nation. The eighteen Congress people joined other Americans intruding in British affairs. On September 16, 2020 both Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi said there can be no US-UK trade deal if Brexit negotiations undermined the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. However, the letter of the Congress group has raised the problem of the restitution of cultural objects taken from their country of origin.

Prime Minister Johnson does not need reminding that it was Thomas Bruce, Earl Elgin, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which included Greece, who took the marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, 1801-1805. The Parthenon, the central building of the Acropolis of Athens. was built around 488 B.C. to honor a goddess called Athena, and was at different times a Christian church and a mosque. The pillars and sculptures of the Parthenon were made of marble.

Elgin, with a passion for classical antiquities, made the case that the art works in the temples of Greece, then under Ottoman control would be destroyed because of Turkish indifference. Some had been destroyed in 1687 when the Venetians attacked Athens. The Sublime Porte granted Elgin’s request to take away pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures. Perhaps this was gratitude for British action in blocking the advance of Napoleon in Egypt. Elgin took pediment sculptur friezes, metopes, and fragmented pieces from the walls of the Parthenon, and brought them to Britain. In 1816 he sold the sculptures to the British government which then sent them to the British Museum where they have remained.

Though the letter by the 18 members of Congress might be considered impertinent, it contained no threat of any kind but attempted to spark action on a disputed issue which has emotional appeal and symbolic importance, the presence of the Elgin marbles in the British Museum. In recent years the issue has been raised by officials of the European Union as well as by celebrated private citizens such as the actor George Clooney and his wife, and co-stars Bill Murray and Matt Damon, who while working on the 2014 film The Monuments Men, about art stolen by the Nazis, thought return of the Elgin marbles to Greece was the “right thing” to do.

What Happened After The Bronze Age Collapse?

Filed under: Economics, Greece, History, Middle East — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Epimetheus
Published 17 Jun 2020

What Happened After The Bronze Age Collapse?

This video covers the period of time from the Bronze Age collapse through the Near Eastern dark age and to the first Iron Age empire.

This video is sponsored by my Patrons over on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/Epimetheus1776

From the comments:

Epimetheus
3 months ago
Additional info some might find interesting:

Although the Arameans emerged from arid Southern Syria (in a similar manner to the earlier Amorites, taking advantage of a power vacuum) it is debated whether or not they were originally from there, with some believing they came from the Zagros mountains to Syria, before re-entering Mesopotamia. Others believe they were related to the Amorites, essentially they were the Amorites that stayed behind. There is also some debate if Ahlamu (also from the same region) is a synonym for Aramean or if it was a more broad generic term for the nomads, outlaws and ruffians of the region. (For example the Suteans, Chaldeans and Arameans may have all been considered Ahlamu) It is also interesting that many fugitives from authority in previous centuries found refuge in the frontier Ahlamu regions of the south.

All of that more or less got cut out of the video, and I thought some of you would find interesting.

It’s been a while since these stickers occupied pride of place on every Prius bumper, hasn’t it?

Filed under: China, History, Politics, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Arthur Chrenkoff wonders “Whatever happened to ‘Free Tibet’?”

With its heyday probably twenty years ago, it used to be a major cause celebre for artists and activists, with bumper stickers adorning countless cars, including – proverbially – the early Priuses. It was mostly a thing of the left (certainly in Australia it was largely associated with the Greens) and the hippies and New Agers enchanted by the wit and wisdom of the Dalai Lama, spruiking his version of Buddhism from exile. This probably scared many people off, which is a pity because the question of Tibetan independence shouldn’t be judged on the merits of its incense burning Western supporters.

So what happened? Tibet is certainly still not free – if anything the things have gotten worse on the rooftop of the world – but the campaign has largely dropped out of the public consciousness. I don’t quite know the answer myself. Maybe some political causes, like fashion trends, have limited life spans. Maybe the left has learned to stop worrying and live with China as one of the few viable alternatives to the “Western neoliberal world order”. Maybe China has become too rich and powerful to hope that candle-lit vigils for Lhasa will do any good.

So what’s been happening in Tibet lately, just out of interest?

Fixing a “Not so Perfect” Mitered Joint

Filed under: Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

William Ng
Published 26 Dec 2011

Making miter joints are never easy, especially on long cuts. Here is a simple technique that can cover up a multitude of sins. it will also take some of the stress out of cutting perfect miters. This technique saved me a few time when I was making miters for Pantry cabinets and Home Theaters where the length of cuts are close to 8 feet.

QotD: The proper role of men, according to the SCUM Manifesto

Filed under: Books, Media, Politics, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Prior to the institution of automation, to the replacement of males by machines, the male should be of use to the female, wait on her, cater to her slightest whim, obey her every command, be totally subservient to her, exist in perfect obedience to her will, as opposed to the completely warped, degenerate situation we have now of men, not only existing at all, cluttering up the world with their ignominious presence, but being pandered to and groveled before by the mass of females, millions of women piously worshiping the Golden Calf, the dog leading the master on a leash, when in fact the male, short of being a drag queen, is least miserable when his dogginess is recognized — no unrealistic emotional demands are made of him and the completely together female is calling the shots. Rational men want to be squashed, stepped on, crushed and crunched, treated as the curs, the filth that they are, have their repulsiveness confirmed.

Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto, 1967.

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