tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17535349148553455972024-02-02T02:28:17.507-08:00Learning ParisDigging Through the History of A CityCFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-39994782149577494782009-09-06T06:02:00.001-07:002011-08-07T12:44:48.288-07:00Of the fifty-four individuals publicly honored in the Jardin des Plantes, how many are women?<link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><o:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceName" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Two. Anne Vasermanis and Deborah Lifchitz.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">The Jardin des Plantes, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>’ four hundred year old home to some of the West's first scientific steps in ecology, botany and zoology upholds a key tenet of all scholarly institutions; label everything. Visitors will be hard pressed to find an unnamed tree, flower or shrub, though they may be impressed by the fact that even the rocks get identity tags. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And there is a zoo. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Amid the cacophony of categorization, fifty two dead white men are also named. Often honored in statue form, many of these early naturalists are depicted in busts mounted on various museums and buildings of the park. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">The vast majority of the men honored in the Jardin worked during the Enlightenment when <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> started the path to a more secular and rational western civilization. With eight separate dedications, Count Buffon, who wrote many of the first encyclopedic descriptions of the natural world, leads the pack of the park’s honorees. Also publicly recognized are Jean-Baptiste Lamark who promoted a theory of evolution before and not too far removed from Darwin’s, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu an early botanist, Georges Cuvier who founded comparative anatomy and dozens of other great but dead white men.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three of the honored naturalists at the Jardin.<br />
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</tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;">Among the portraits and plaques are allegorical renditions of Mother Nature, muses of learning, anatomically correct wild animals including dinosaurs, a hippo, a pelican, several crocodiles and so on. In two places; by the <st1:place u1:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seine</st1:place></st1:place> entrance to the park and on the side of the <i>Cabinet d’Histoire</i> building are tablets honoring war dead associated with the Jardin. One marble tablet includes a dedication to the 1944 “fallen heroes of the Liberation” given by “neighbors and communist resistance cells”. The word “communist” has been scratched out showing that in Paris, old animosities stay fresh.</span></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">On the outside wall of the <i>Cabinet d’Histoire</i>, the Garden’s history museum, are two marble plaques, one above the other simply listing the seventeen staff members who died during WWI and WWII. Two of the dead, Vasermanis and Lifchitz, were Jewish women rounded up in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> and sent to die in the Holocaust camps to the east.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBs41_0h_F64fA6Bw40nwm6OzXs7lJuR9rhyphenhyphenzMgoTlsgo_350bEjtsBR4GaO0j6IzvNVQCcPIHiwf8dW6ARRwBo8nB27QJM3Q8azVlbBSVAZ349_JSSPItWxKa_lYZ53-qmEK2BFnoJaVB/s1600/plaque+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBs41_0h_F64fA6Bw40nwm6OzXs7lJuR9rhyphenhyphenzMgoTlsgo_350bEjtsBR4GaO0j6IzvNVQCcPIHiwf8dW6ARRwBo8nB27QJM3Q8azVlbBSVAZ349_JSSPItWxKa_lYZ53-qmEK2BFnoJaVB/s320/plaque+women.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honoring France's war dead, these plaques recognize those "who died on the field of honor."</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="color: black;">Deborah Lifchitz was not a practicing Jew. She did not attend services on a regular basis. Her boyfriend, the father of her child, did not wear a yarmulke, and her son was probably not circumcised<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.do" name="_ftnref1">.</a><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="color: black;">She was more than a bit non-conformist for the 1930’s in general and not simply for her religion or lack there-of. As one of the first professionally trained female ethnologists, Lifchitz worked as a trailblazer in a fledgling field, but one dominated by men and old-school ideas about race and gender.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">In 1935, she managed to take part in a research trip to the French colony of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mali</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Focusing on the native Dogon language and oral traditions, Lifchitz wrote three pioneering studies during that trip and was part of an intellectual circle still cited by anthropologists today. From <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Mali</st1:country-region></st1:place>, she brought back two museum worthy pieces of Dogon art currently displayed in the Louvre and the Quai Branly museums. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_57wLsXF-vQ2VU_GXy9es_5uvR8D3BCSoj-Cg0gVv88zHdr5RBNp7bwo5Fx9kLlPwvMzpKccQ8HDmegFnp8ok10gXHFT58ALPy6-as0OIsQIJlfv48NDrppFQTpMbxhLwejr2Z-Iytuj/s1600/Deb.+Lifchitz+statue+in+Louvre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_57wLsXF-vQ2VU_GXy9es_5uvR8D3BCSoj-Cg0gVv88zHdr5RBNp7bwo5Fx9kLlPwvMzpKccQ8HDmegFnp8ok10gXHFT58ALPy6-as0OIsQIJlfv48NDrppFQTpMbxhLwejr2Z-Iytuj/s320/Deb.+Lifchitz+statue+in+Louvre.jpg" width="129" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lifchitz'sstatue in the Louvre today. </td></tr>
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</div></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgCtVGwVUr09igA1yPBg51aGGLZ-LUIMCAWJrKpv4xifok_PEGtnw-jf2WR8chj2u47N6jPgD23K6hhtGNnMVIJZZnprizofp9kDUJb-BT8iRe0mL6wfO5QC1XB3STTq2Z1SoSMuJ6UhO/s1600/L1020134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgCtVGwVUr09igA1yPBg51aGGLZ-LUIMCAWJrKpv4xifok_PEGtnw-jf2WR8chj2u47N6jPgD23K6hhtGNnMVIJZZnprizofp9kDUJb-BT8iRe0mL6wfO5QC1XB3STTq2Z1SoSMuJ6UhO/s200/L1020134.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">The only women publicly mentioned at the Jardin.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Lifchitz died in a gas chamber at <st1:place w:st="on">Auschwitz</st1:place> aged 35.<br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">Little is known of Anne Vasermanis. </span></div><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="color: black;">Deotte, Martine. “Les hommes de bonne volonte” in <u>Etudes sur Roger Bastide</u>. Ed. Claude Ravelet. L'Harmattan: <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city></st1:place>. 2003. p. 26 <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=Fk6V8aUKP1sC&pg=RA1-PA25&lpg=RA1PA25&dq=%22Deborah+Lifchitz%22&source=bl&ots=rAFnlKW_cR&sig=AFBNIGUG6uHNLj5Bex2lAi3B9qg&hl=fr&ei=e1qZSpqFZaNjAfon_CjBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=%22Deborah%20Lifchitz%22&f=false">http://books.google.fr/books?id=Fk6V8aUKP1sC&pg=RA1-PA25&lpg=RA1</a></span></div></div></div>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-23777541578322078232009-08-30T07:36:00.000-07:002011-07-27T04:05:39.345-07:00How does Paris fit into the legend of Friday the 13th?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-194c_Mbg8L5_R4NKddAzugwB20Io4OtxnPCbyLCHWFgTW6jJ2T7VV3V5pfz62iV6poHJWwQu7m-oZELjSJWmlt00iILIjPJbMgHAeOMvYh3Rk92JKVkeAR-6H0Stkp9MHAKrEtsd23XM/s1600-h/molay2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375766468821645266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-194c_Mbg8L5_R4NKddAzugwB20Io4OtxnPCbyLCHWFgTW6jJ2T7VV3V5pfz62iV6poHJWwQu7m-oZELjSJWmlt00iILIjPJbMgHAeOMvYh3Rk92JKVkeAR-6H0Stkp9MHAKrEtsd23XM/s200/molay2.jpg" style="display: block; height: 278px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 275px;" width="197" /></a><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">It depends if you are a conspiracy theorist, Christian or a feminist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, the conspiracy;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As host city to the violent end to the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city> plays a not unimportant role in the making of Friday the 13th. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In 1312, bankrupt King Phillipe le Bel of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> along with the corrupt Pope Clement V in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city> needed lots of money. Willing to work together, they looked around and saw that their own subjects, the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city>, had plenty. However, getting the loot would not be easy as the Knights were one of the strongest and best armed organizations around. In fact, their main fortress served as <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>’ best guarded treasury and even housed, for a fee, the King’s own gold. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fully Catholic, nominally under oath to the papacy and headquartered in <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city>, the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>, also known as the Templars, were soldier-priests originally recruited throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> to spearhead the Crusades. Led by nobility, the rank and file Knights were mostly unemployed second or third sons of European gentry as under western tradition at the time, first sons inherited everything while younger brothers went to war or the church. In the case of the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city>, it was both. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Officially known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Solomon</st1:placename>, the Templars were one of many Christian fighting orders formed to regain <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>. These all-male Catholic fraternities grew at a time when <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>’s population was increasing, and rulers saw a need to occupy the growing demographic of unemployed young men. What better way than to send them off to smite the infidels in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place>. The Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> stood out amongst the other crusading orders for its vow of poverty but also, as the fighting carried on over the centuries, for their success in war and wealth.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3Sbt2Vz3uhM8yy_5vn4kmCUczsCALtaFa8VRFqEywdHL9JDf5Q-H7BfHX4TrEcEtB7wPO7xz4AEDfMkqUvkE3GHMb2Ji9k_sgmBiqtaj_25p1bIljKvl9-DBqaQ32Ps-5ZqPqoiogQl3/s1600/Templars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3Sbt2Vz3uhM8yy_5vn4kmCUczsCALtaFa8VRFqEywdHL9JDf5Q-H7BfHX4TrEcEtB7wPO7xz4AEDfMkqUvkE3GHMb2Ji9k_sgmBiqtaj_25p1bIljKvl9-DBqaQ32Ps-5ZqPqoiogQl3/s200/Templars.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two knights on one horse symbolized their poverty</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">For almost two hundred years starting in 1119, the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> fought Saladin and other potentates while theoretically observing their monastic vows. (Knights swore not just to a life of poverty, but to one of chastity and bravery as well. In fact, they swore to obey so many rules such as eating in silence, never letting the Templar flag fall in battle, owning nothing, praying awfully early in the morning and so on, that there were over 700 different regulations to follow.)<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a> </span></span></span></span><br />
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</span></span></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;">Though ultimately unsuccessful in their conquest for <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>, the order managed several impressive victories and earned a reputation for military prowess and tight efficiency. And wealth. As the Crusades drew to a close, the organization found itself at loose ends as there were no more battles to fight. Fortunately, a lucrative replacement turned up; international banking. In a sense, the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> would come to serve as history's first ATM machines.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">Thanks to more than a century of officially sponsored and religiously sanctioned marauding, the Knights had amassed land holdings, farms, tax rights and most importantly, fortresses scattered through-out the known world. By the end of the 13<sup>th</sup> century, the order was a notable player in Mediterranean politics and economy. Some of their acquired real estate was conquered, but much of it<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span>in mainland <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> came in the form of bequeaths from devout widows and others anxious to donate in the Lord’s name. Where strategically opportune, the Knights built and manned fortresses and often had the rule of the land as the sole local power. Though they did not establish their own sovereign state, the Templar network of forts (‘temples’) ranged from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region> to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cyprus</st1:country-region> to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region> and beyond. Along with these strongholds, the order had plenty of knights to man them and safeguard treasures. They even had a navy to rival all but the largest and richest kingdoms during this era of numerous small principalities and post-Crusades lethargy.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JgMOZMV13emSb7VGJLpyDOYsJFxCV4yZXQiPFXhi4_-oM_imTxcT_OqD_G8HJ4_De5vzYCi2SOHnGRzID3Tnj7nJc8OyM8BR43_U-3QLfa1st0AciztqZC65gFmDLChrmT9DsYS4xq8Y/s1600/templar+fort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JgMOZMV13emSb7VGJLpyDOYsJFxCV4yZXQiPFXhi4_-oM_imTxcT_OqD_G8HJ4_De5vzYCi2SOHnGRzID3Tnj7nJc8OyM8BR43_U-3QLfa1st0AciztqZC65gFmDLChrmT9DsYS4xq8Y/s320/templar+fort.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your friendly neighborhood bank. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">And so, enter the free market. Though in the 13th century no economy was exactly laissez faire, European and Mediterranean trade enjoyed a bit of a peace dividend. <st1:place w:st="on">Silk Road</st1:place> merchants plied their wares from east to west as an end to the Crusades meant a leap forward in global trade. But it was still an age of pirates and thieves, so merchants needed a way to travel safely and, if possible, wire the money ahead rather than risk it in travel. The Knights could, for example, take a merchant’s deposit in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Antioch</st1:place></st1:city> and hand it back, minus a fee, in Marseille. The real money however was not in consumer finance but in central banking. For even larger fees, the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> loaned to kings and guarded in their forts royal treasuries. In fact, in their main fortress on what is now rue de <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> (<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Temple Street</st1:address></st1:street>) in Paris, the Templars safeguarded the dwindling</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">wealth of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s King Phillipe. And in 1312, he was having trouble paying off his debts.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjIzBFZAuWZVnwq_97wmJoYCr0Ft7UeZM-Ac3VQOX8DGb5c3_0OOsyKp67w3E3vP7VaP9TqSeZhTGAxBr-3niFpGyl3ua2P23bs_dO0X6_RCgpahBkmzLcanjiJCibGLHEzFLOrdzRa1l/s1600/200px-Philippe_IV_Le_Bel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjIzBFZAuWZVnwq_97wmJoYCr0Ft7UeZM-Ac3VQOX8DGb5c3_0OOsyKp67w3E3vP7VaP9TqSeZhTGAxBr-3niFpGyl3ua2P23bs_dO0X6_RCgpahBkmzLcanjiJCibGLHEzFLOrdzRa1l/s200/200px-Philippe_IV_Le_Bel.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Handsome but poor.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>So, he did what any medieval monarch would do. He got the Pope’s blessing. Together, Phillipe le Bel (his portraits do show a good looking guy) and Pope Clement V hatched an ingenious and successful plan to get their hands on the Templar booty. First they hired the equivalent of a <st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state> public relations firm to bad mouth the Knights of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place></st1:city> as heretics and homosexuals. Gossip and pamphlets covered Christendom slandering the order. Then, achieving a remarkable feat of coordination in the days before email and cell phones, the King and Pope arranged dozens of different assaults on Templar forts though-out Europe and the <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place>. In order to coordinate such a huge undertaking against such a formidable foe, the royal and papal forces needed a specific date on which to attack. Guess the day.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">Amazingly, the plan worked. The Templars were wiped-out. Fortresses were over-run, Knights arrested or killed, ships seized, treasures taken. Jaques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the order was captured and held by Phillipe for two tortuous years after the Friday the 13th round-up. During his imprisonment, de Molay confessed to kissing the Devil’s behind and plotting<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span>the overthrow of Christianity and decentness. The coup de grace came in 1314 as the French king ordered the hapless de Molay’s execution. In order to watch, Phillipe had the Grand Master burned on the Isle de Juifs or <st1:placename w:st="on">Jew</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype> in the Seine which was visible from his corner window in the Conciergerie palace where he resided when in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>. (It simply would not do for a king to mingle with the commoners thronging to witness yet another burning on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Jew</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>.) Today, the spot is a romantic park at the leafy tip of the Île de la Cité in the shade of Pont Neuf.</div></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDjE56Gv-FoN23BOX0Xn_j2VfBFIPKLy3_IOyNsjh9sJSOhAwClV8J1VrwLp0FROkQ4htT4FAGy8sUOk5yBx70OVLDzZpUPfsbMsr19N_8uAcAKdOXRF1ERah1EMjEAEJZJnb1Aq6DNtR/s1600/pont+neuf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBDjE56Gv-FoN23BOX0Xn_j2VfBFIPKLy3_IOyNsjh9sJSOhAwClV8J1VrwLp0FROkQ4htT4FAGy8sUOk5yBx70OVLDzZpUPfsbMsr19N_8uAcAKdOXRF1ERah1EMjEAEJZJnb1Aq6DNtR/s400/pont+neuf.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The site of the 14th century burning</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-194c_Mbg8L5_R4NKddAzugwB20Io4OtxnPCbyLCHWFgTW6jJ2T7VV3V5pfz62iV6poHJWwQu7m-oZELjSJWmlt00iILIjPJbMgHAeOMvYh3Rk92JKVkeAR-6H0Stkp9MHAKrEtsd23XM/s200/molay2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="197" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">De Molay cursing the powers that be.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">Legend holds that while tied to the stake, de Molay cursed the King and the Pope, saying he would see them both before God with-in a year. Sure enough, with-in a year the King died in a hunting ‘accident’ and the Pope was poisoned.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">Don’t go picking fights on Friday the 13th.<br />
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</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">Other interpretations for the existence of the Friday the 13th myth are thankfully shorter. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">For non-Templar Christians, Friday the 13th is unlucky because Jesus was betrayed after the number of people at the Last Supper went to thirteen once Judas, the betrayer, arrived late. 13 became the number of betrayal. Jesus was then crucified on a Friday. At least in the Middle Ages, few devout Christians considered Friday an auspicious day to get married, open a business or start a trip. They refrained from eating meet on Fridays, and legend claims Louis IX of <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, who was so devout he went on to become <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Saint Louis</st1:place></st1:city>, even tried to ban laughing on Fridays. </div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBSPgtseBWQPlkur9qxhnyvJgELTiwJnryuZzUO3hW52as10pErFubGa6dakHnMJBTc_zlJt2fITkvWvOrseNJhRQog2jdjY_-5bcnW5Z8hqIfbS-V3coS0p4VhYPUwRGU-0RJsdoCqwG/s1600/last+supper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBSPgtseBWQPlkur9qxhnyvJgELTiwJnryuZzUO3hW52as10pErFubGa6dakHnMJBTc_zlJt2fITkvWvOrseNJhRQog2jdjY_-5bcnW5Z8hqIfbS-V3coS0p4VhYPUwRGU-0RJsdoCqwG/s400/last+supper.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thursday the 12th.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">In turn, feminists believe the superstition is a product of repression created by Western male-dominated culture. In northern <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, Friday once belonged to Freya, the Norse mother goddess, as Freya’s Day, while 13 was sacred to women because they have 13 menstrual cycles a year. The moon, often depicted as a female in polytheistic religions, also has 13 cycles in its lunar calendar. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;">The famous Paleolithic carving of the Venus of Laussel supports this view as she holds a cornucopia with 13 notches in it.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1eIs7Ajvk41ms-HgC2gYFSNOg8ikP18ISedf0MtjE9YcdvJPdojA2Mb_ZfjONTW0r6HpspnNSqhpbhp-eJHcDfoz-Es3JuXLbi6vmAUkei6B1Xd423KL2bna6nrzU7MixrNmugxoCWxZo/s1600/Venus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1eIs7Ajvk41ms-HgC2gYFSNOg8ikP18ISedf0MtjE9YcdvJPdojA2Mb_ZfjONTW0r6HpspnNSqhpbhp-eJHcDfoz-Es3JuXLbi6vmAUkei6B1Xd423KL2bna6nrzU7MixrNmugxoCWxZo/s200/Venus.jpg" width="145" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpG2YBTnLPw3we8YBJ0Gt4kGW6I0R_V9G5Lq1qAPhDth8dWA1uXd-9szJ0w1fysjSAZytWTOA4CMhWA9Oo5vTny3WxXZuZ_dnfXrHijQ-EH4dku50Nrk7A7n4ZwbdgA2M3EMSDPEufTtBH/s1600/venus+horn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpG2YBTnLPw3we8YBJ0Gt4kGW6I0R_V9G5Lq1qAPhDth8dWA1uXd-9szJ0w1fysjSAZytWTOA4CMhWA9Oo5vTny3WxXZuZ_dnfXrHijQ-EH4dku50Nrk7A7n4ZwbdgA2M3EMSDPEufTtBH/s200/venus+horn.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Over time, men have co-opted positive female iconography and belittled it through cultural subversion. Making symbols of motherhood like Friday and the number 13 into a message of evil is therefore part of a long and gradual sexism, which could also include tricks such as using the word ‘mankind’ for all humanity or even establishing impossible role models such as the Virgin Mary or Angelina Jolie.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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Though <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city> has little to do with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>’s contemporary version of Friday the 13<sup>th</sup>, the different interpretations for the superstition remain, even if only in moonlight. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">[1]</span></span></span></a> Newman, Sharan. <u>The real History Behind the Templars</u>. <st1:city w:st="on">Berkley</st1:city> Books: <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>. P.51.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div></div></div></div>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-54285481305510491262009-08-29T12:49:00.000-07:002011-07-27T03:39:33.600-07:00Was Louis XIV actually the son of an illiterate Spanish peasant?<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">No, but maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">His mother was Anne of Austria who was actually from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region> and a hottie famous for her delicate hands. His father, maybe, was the homosexual Louis XIII. Louis and Anne were forced into a political marriage when both were fourteen. In 1615, they had a proxy marriage (when two people are in different places but hold matching ceremonies) and were never much more intimate than that as Louis apparently refused to consummate the marriage for years.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwv70ziWwEjV1bz5lF2GVJi9yFafpTvkAe0P1nF5f8AECgP4jKuyqt7oOsknyjsT2ej3hJWSlni_k-a4jkNPzHv2HrLj1PssFKLOuYKMIevIVxNBxEDIAvbDXAgfGym1F5YfV696JXWjLb/s1600/Anne+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwv70ziWwEjV1bz5lF2GVJi9yFafpTvkAe0P1nF5f8AECgP4jKuyqt7oOsknyjsT2ej3hJWSlni_k-a4jkNPzHv2HrLj1PssFKLOuYKMIevIVxNBxEDIAvbDXAgfGym1F5YfV696JXWjLb/s1600/Anne+wedding.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The loving couple</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It got so bad that in 1637 Anne was accused of spying for her brother, the king of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region>, during a war he waged against <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Thirteen angry months later, at the age of 37 and after 23 luckless years, the isolated Queen Ann produced an heir, the future Sun King, Louis XIV. French historians argue there was a specific stormy night in early 1638 during which Louis XII actually slept with his wife. Others speculate that her brother smuggled over a Spanish lover or baby and put one over on the French.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div></div>Another theory for Anne’s barren years is housed in <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city>’ <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cluny</st1:city></st1:place> museum <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">which boasts one of the world’s finer collections of medieval chastity belts. Queen Anne’s very own belt consisted of hinged iron plates hanging off iron waist-straps which were cushioned on the inside with lace. On the front, Adam and Eve are etched in gold above the vaginal opening.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a> </span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLNHmMpkUX4A5ggCMHcJBpe8iUPrPWIs_que0VWxu_-fRB0t5oA2afnMb9W6JsQ8Ji4oo3SSTFvyhGWRUCF4HbO4qhyphenhyphenQgfb3Hg6g4-qysqAZ0G8vtlSpVW3U9XnxCy3rfUsDSes7xZt28/s1600/chastity+belt.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLNHmMpkUX4A5ggCMHcJBpe8iUPrPWIs_que0VWxu_-fRB0t5oA2afnMb9W6JsQ8Ji4oo3SSTFvyhGWRUCF4HbO4qhyphenhyphenQgfb3Hg6g4-qysqAZ0G8vtlSpVW3U9XnxCy3rfUsDSes7xZt28/s320/chastity+belt.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The queen's chastity belt</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/Improved%20Blog.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">[1]</span></span></span></a> “Chastity Belts”. NDA. Slideshow World/Robinson, John. 20/07/2011. <a href="http://www.sideshowworld.com/a/at/atsCB.html">http://www.sideshowworld.com/a/at/atsCB.html</a></span> </div></div></div>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-63375499593296365262009-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:002009-08-29T12:40:09.529-07:00How many almond milk enemas did King Louis XII have in 1536?212.
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<br />Through-out the 16th and 17th century, rectally induced fluids including scented water or almond milk (Louis XIII’s favorite) were quite popular for aristocrats who thought having liquids pumped up their rears would help their complexion, digestion and over-all health. Louis XIV, who likely had up to 2,000 enemas in his lifetime, was occasionally administered one while holding court. Louis XI had them given to his pet dogs.<span style="font-size:78%;">(1)
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<br />(1) </span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">‘<span style="font-size:78%;">The Enema- Heir to the Clyster”.<span style=""> </span>South African Medical Journal.<span style=""> </span>April 26, 1947.<span style=""> </span>p. 278. <a href="http://196.33.159.102/1947%20VOL%20XXI%20Jan-Dec/Articles/04%20April/2.6%20THE%20ENEMA-HEIR%20TO%20THE%20CLYSTER.pdf">http://196.33.159.102/1947%20VOL%20XXI%20Jan-Dec/Articles/04%20April/2.6%20THE%20ENEMA-HEIR%20TO%20THE%20CLYSTER.pdf</a></span></span>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-40895367584751950222009-08-25T14:18:00.000-07:002011-07-27T04:04:29.101-07:00What has modern technology revealed about the Mona Lisa?The sound of her voice, that she had given birth and that there is a drop of modern orange paint on the 16th century masterpiece. <br />
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In 2004, scientists from Canada’s National Research Council used 3-D imaging to scan the famous painting which has darkened immensely since it was painted by Leonardo in 1507. Under layers of varnish which have obscured many details including her eyebrows, the Canadian scans found a lightly painted transparent bodice over her neckline of the type worn by new mothers in Renaissance Italy. Though the scanning cannot say exactly who she was, such information helps support the theory that Mona Lisa is the Florentine Lisa Gherardini who posed after giving birth to her second son. The scientists also found a small cap on the back of her head which is a good thing as loose hair was a sign of an immoral woman.<span style="font-size: 78%;">(1)</span> <br />
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In 2006, French engineer Pascal Cotte and his company Lumiere Technology used multispectral digitization to once again see under the years of grime and varnish on the world’s most famous painting. Their ‘true color’ Mona Lisa has a brilliant blue sky which must have cost Leonardo quite a bit as lapis lazuli pigment was extraordinarily expensive back in the day. The French company also found a single drop of twentieth century orange paint in the clouds above Mona Lisa but cannot confirm how it got there.<span style="font-size: 78%;"> (2) </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Lumiere Technology's scan</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRkRtxeAcdGod-VR_vTHYxr6ueTrkIFCfOs0Wa-naLDOyXjN56HUAxblc_irSrRJIatqBG0sdknr5aPQK6x8z2Av7qTbldOzVG4fQjoa5iRmDdP-bwNlRiF_JT33w69PgUuSkaYucUJ-I0/s1600/Mona-tache-orange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRkRtxeAcdGod-VR_vTHYxr6ueTrkIFCfOs0Wa-naLDOyXjN56HUAxblc_irSrRJIatqBG0sdknr5aPQK6x8z2Av7qTbldOzVG4fQjoa5iRmDdP-bwNlRiF_JT33w69PgUuSkaYucUJ-I0/s320/Mona-tache-orange.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Lumiere Technology's find of orange paint</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Theories include the possibility of a restorer dripping on it by accident while working on the canvas at the Louvre, but it could have been done in 1911 when Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian carpenter who worked in the museum, stole the painting and kept it rolled up under his bed. (He was caught two years later and no harm done. Maybe.)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2ilV0qo9m6JFI82Z4R5rdOwlJpMmAGNxfZPiA2MY4QbDMRVIQ2fa1jOL_-0g5pKthvVDIzfL1muvWTr3lv8epqdbfNlqA-gZ5xdEAiz-glfPPKfg2d36cFdmbTHdlzTkparv8e-yRhA6/s1600/8-mona-lisa-theft-324x205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2ilV0qo9m6JFI82Z4R5rdOwlJpMmAGNxfZPiA2MY4QbDMRVIQ2fa1jOL_-0g5pKthvVDIzfL1muvWTr3lv8epqdbfNlqA-gZ5xdEAiz-glfPPKfg2d36cFdmbTHdlzTkparv8e-yRhA6/s320/8-mona-lisa-theft-324x205.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Vincenzo Perugia. He worked at the Louvre but escaped being caught for the theft by not showing up for his police interview. Despite such behavior, previous arrests for thefts in Paris and inside knowledge of the museum, the Paris Police never suspected the Italian carpenter though they had his fingerprint on the frame of the Mona Lisa which the thief had left behind. Unfortunately, it was a left thumb print. On an earlier arrest, the Paris Police had only taken a print of Perugia's right thumb. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The most intriguing (or hard to believe) finding comes from Dr Matsumi Suzuki, a Japanese forensic scientist who measured Mona Lisa’s features in 2006 to estimate the size of her skull and throat. He put her height at 5 feet 6 inches. These measurements then enabled his team, including an Italian, at the Japan Acoustic Lab to create vocal pitches and timber for how she would have sounded when she talked. They then posted their audio result of Mona Lisa's "voice" on the internet.<span style="font-size: 78%;">(3) </span> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dr. Matsumi Suzuki</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>In 2002 Dr. Suzuki won Harvard University’s satirical Ig Noble Prize (for improbable science that makes one think but probably should not be continued) in honor of his work on Bow-Lingual, an interpretation machine to understand dogs. Bowlingual's dog translation service is now available as an app for cell phones. <link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><style>
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<span style="font-size: 78%;">(1) </span><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><style>
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</style>“<span style="font-size: 78%;">NRC Scientists Discover Mona Lisa Secrets”. </span><span class="timestamp" style="font-size: 78%;">October 25, 2007. </span><span style="font-size: 78%;">CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. Canada.com. 20/08/09. <a href="http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=dd098037-dce6-4a6d-90de-88ccc05c9e57&k=96188">http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=dd098037-dce6-4a6d-90de-88ccc05c9e57&k=96188</a></span><br />
<div class="MsoFootnoteText"></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: 78%;">(2) “True Colors of the Mona Lisa Revealed”. October 19, 2006. Lumiere Technology. 20/08/09. <a href="http://www.lumiere-technology.com/Pages/News/news3.htm">http://www.lumiere-technology.com/Pages/News/news3.htm</a></span> </div><span style="font-size: 78%;">(3) Freire, Carl. "In Japan, Scientists Recreate Mona Lisa's Voice". 2006. Art Info. Associated Press. 20/08/09. <br />
Http:www.artinfo.com/news/story/16972/in-japan-scientist-recreates-mona-lisas-voice/</span> <br />
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</style><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=dd098037-dce6-4a6d-90de-88ccc05c9e57&k=96188"></a></span>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-23907666727603061332009-08-25T12:20:00.000-07:002011-07-27T04:22:09.308-07:00Who won in the famous Bear Cub Hunter statue which stands in the Jardin des Plantes?The hunter. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Z4CX-iRtzPhNjNgxiD2U3A3nL380wYrzOblIlefezMM1swyyydJqFqvAzvNJMCqMIQDL_hzu5AvqfX7yH-3T_9WTqHxuFb_MkNgR3RX-vpXWKal2saTs1LsByanqyhBgkk1mvN25VbMq/s1600/P1020291.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Z4CX-iRtzPhNjNgxiD2U3A3nL380wYrzOblIlefezMM1swyyydJqFqvAzvNJMCqMIQDL_hzu5AvqfX7yH-3T_9WTqHxuFb_MkNgR3RX-vpXWKal2saTs1LsByanqyhBgkk1mvN25VbMq/s320/P1020291.JPG" width="213" /></a></div><br />
The statue depicts a giant mother bear with a knife driven into her heart while she is literally bear-hugging to death the struggling Stone Age hunter responsible for her mortal wound. Though both the hunter and the bear will clearly die within seconds of the statue’s frozen moment, the answer can be found on another statue less than a hundred yards away. By the entrance to the near-by Gallery of Comparative Anatomy and Paleontology, a small monument in honor of Fremiet himself shows the artist at work. However, an engraved plaque on the back of this statue's pedestal portrays another Stone Age hunter -- but this time old and with a long beard. Gaunt and wizened, he is dragging the corpse of a bear cub over the rocky ground. While the Dénicheur d'oursons hunter may have died, his offspring, unlike the mother bear’s, survived and grew old.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIATsG1Df-07X7MyX3Afz6iSCAR2JNRbHEi7A1NSHu6WQryskhKWH6UbKBiH0FHyewehufq-WmASWo9Ov3Hbug-y4on30bzvWYHsnAWgN8GQlo3zNahipve499ylapmoHzA_vYs3gfJk3X/s1600/1970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIATsG1Df-07X7MyX3Afz6iSCAR2JNRbHEi7A1NSHu6WQryskhKWH6UbKBiH0FHyewehufq-WmASWo9Ov3Hbug-y4on30bzvWYHsnAWgN8GQlo3zNahipve499ylapmoHzA_vYs3gfJk3X/s320/1970.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dying bear</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQS4N0okU9O8SCQcVc7nVKHtff-g7wkPHUVJxHFM2pNUOJSJNeprxC_P3aRsFd_4vRcQGnWzGNK-eeST0bxrF-DZi12bP1N4mA0b0FD9CfhKc0Q1v9IbDTFox6lS_oVfjLXPd3QccayiP/s1600/1972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAQS4N0okU9O8SCQcVc7nVKHtff-g7wkPHUVJxHFM2pNUOJSJNeprxC_P3aRsFd_4vRcQGnWzGNK-eeST0bxrF-DZi12bP1N4mA0b0FD9CfhKc0Q1v9IbDTFox6lS_oVfjLXPd3QccayiP/s320/1972.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dying hunter</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwp_2geTO2LaeLttDyg6ABycchqSM0RXD7UwAt4WBrR0LjFwEW4vTJB_XZ6iSMH5BxL-gfy4BknbTrf8xswwRRxF03-SVpCQe5tTsy9UAxKjATOTRPqo6ggDRDUC02d6a_jg36VhK5n50l/s1600/P1020288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwp_2geTO2LaeLttDyg6ABycchqSM0RXD7UwAt4WBrR0LjFwEW4vTJB_XZ6iSMH5BxL-gfy4BknbTrf8xswwRRxF03-SVpCQe5tTsy9UAxKjATOTRPqo6ggDRDUC02d6a_jg36VhK5n50l/s400/P1020288.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The surviving offspring with the rising sun and blessings of civilization. </td></tr>
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One of the most renowned and prolific animal sculptors of the 19th century, Fremiet created an impressive body of work including the famed ‘Gorilla Abducting a Woman’ which strongly influenced the imagery of the film King Kong.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYjs9TJs_3Ce8oweqyQKq609jxLglGNGGzvIic4LO4BrlEmnz2b5hpTRD_jSs_8MEvJHmar4zzGuY5ciot9h3GIbxuMHzZHk_bQfgHi6vVlJHANShWZBKy-wm24ZmdkWbNVAwXKCnHAGR/s1600/Gorilla+Abducting+Woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYjs9TJs_3Ce8oweqyQKq609jxLglGNGGzvIic4LO4BrlEmnz2b5hpTRD_jSs_8MEvJHmar4zzGuY5ciot9h3GIbxuMHzZHk_bQfgHi6vVlJHANShWZBKy-wm24ZmdkWbNVAwXKCnHAGR/s320/Gorilla+Abducting+Woman.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original Kong. </td></tr>
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He is most famous for the gilded equestrian statue of Joan of Arc at the Place des Pyramides which is made of bronze but often referred to as the Iron Maiden of Paris. Responsible for the life-size elephant which stands in front of the Musée d'Orsay, Fremiet also made two bronze replicas of Napoleon III’s favorite basset hounds.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0qckqAbtsayQ_mQjdwKxfiZQvEybMHvCPcgl4niNIFV_LK8g8EGvMB9fQ_pQ2jMcdRFc2Iztqg2Mf7uXkh8vyoJeIED424_MAyFnM8pNopXGeDYbQH0QUdobSj-K5t5bmpVoo3La7gaAF/s1600/joan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0qckqAbtsayQ_mQjdwKxfiZQvEybMHvCPcgl4niNIFV_LK8g8EGvMB9fQ_pQ2jMcdRFc2Iztqg2Mf7uXkh8vyoJeIED424_MAyFnM8pNopXGeDYbQH0QUdobSj-K5t5bmpVoo3La7gaAF/s320/joan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fremiet's Maid</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZ-Pr9AiRDD8geFONpzdbbhdcWWga4VnxjFN15HiYAmbzdMlWQkzgOoqE_ItDpY9ErIdk3bBdsjs05qOwcdYYNvfYhVJMy7AayjaPeABiFSIy4vTht6fbcVCOikm4hR6jXa6qEXBrOA2b/s1600/elephant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZ-Pr9AiRDD8geFONpzdbbhdcWWga4VnxjFN15HiYAmbzdMlWQkzgOoqE_ItDpY9ErIdk3bBdsjs05qOwcdYYNvfYhVJMy7AayjaPeABiFSIy4vTht6fbcVCOikm4hR6jXa6qEXBrOA2b/s320/elephant.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And his trapped elephant</td></tr>
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</div>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-39274851180855580892009-08-23T08:16:00.000-07:002011-07-27T10:04:31.192-07:00What is unique about Paris' roman ampitheater, the Arènes de Lutèce?It is Wi-Fi accessible. <br />
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Thanks to the current municipal government, twenty-first century spectators can download Ultimate Fighting bouts for free where their second century ancestors watched gladiators and animal fights along with some classical theater but also a lot of low-brow comedies. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioevVNgVKy5qhX3UYv8tgfqrDL4KW1Uqfa3dMExS1LL549GpfP-_YQ3RW5AciA8AzSjS_Eih_p1eQTbMlZ1ncImTUWEhIb9e-XACVPK9VdhRCaS6OCRsbio30DkIlkkfv2-MxBBCmYQ8f/s1600/arenes-de-lutece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioevVNgVKy5qhX3UYv8tgfqrDL4KW1Uqfa3dMExS1LL549GpfP-_YQ3RW5AciA8AzSjS_Eih_p1eQTbMlZ1ncImTUWEhIb9e-XACVPK9VdhRCaS6OCRsbio30DkIlkkfv2-MxBBCmYQ8f/s1600/arenes-de-lutece.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bird's eye view of the rebuilt arena</td></tr>
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Built in the 2nd century A.D., the amphitheater was rare in having a stage with a two story backdrop on its eastern end and a retractable canvas roof to shade spectators in bad weather. Estimates for the seating capacity in the arena range from 10,000 up to an implausible 17,000 spectators. At the time, the entire population of Lutece, as Paris was then called, hovered around 10,000 people.<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(1)</span> Roman garrison included. (Like the seating of the arena, the size of Lutece’s over-all population is also a source of historical dispute with some estimates rising as high as 20,000 inhabitants in 2nd century.) <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrwMe1kDiODKN3J2pXrPyu8HUfJQPZ0yet9suFm8pODjPYS9n76xh904T0HyrLzuNRXzNxdpauEcAyHdg3-vlQXd7E5ZDoziSe8ncfpe7kNIt2a00ABBiKD1HKxfoOrSnlmIh9upjlMjE/s1600/arenes1_s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrwMe1kDiODKN3J2pXrPyu8HUfJQPZ0yet9suFm8pODjPYS9n76xh904T0HyrLzuNRXzNxdpauEcAyHdg3-vlQXd7E5ZDoziSe8ncfpe7kNIt2a00ABBiKD1HKxfoOrSnlmIh9upjlMjE/s1600/arenes1_s.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a bad stadium for a provincial town</td></tr>
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To fill all the seats (slaves and women were relegated to the nose bleed sections), major spectacles were needed. Productions likely included fights between bears and dogs, horses versus wolves or whatever beasts the traders brought in which may even have included a lion or two. Large scale gladiator fights like in the movies would be rare as they were expensive, however the arena did host at least one naval battle with water piped in from the near-by Bievre river which today feeds the neighborhood sewer system. Paris’ Cluny Museum which houses the ancient roman baths where spectators could wash up after a good bloodletting, has a small ivory panel depicting one popular show; a man trapped inside a large wooden framework ball rolled out to wild bears who would presumably smash it to pieces to get at the meat inside. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd13T0y5o3wTEdk05whIa1QFpCQOHtoi6Kvi5Hn-kg0-liDddzVyzorWPC7miQb47lm1Xiu2YyqRc-aRK-WMNN2_oVrCcZqmwBvI6XWm8R4iTysxV_TJTOXk_ubwZMWMgddZnEpt72SvsA/s1600/gladiator+ivory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd13T0y5o3wTEdk05whIa1QFpCQOHtoi6Kvi5Hn-kg0-liDddzVyzorWPC7miQb47lm1Xiu2YyqRc-aRK-WMNN2_oVrCcZqmwBvI6XWm8R4iTysxV_TJTOXk_ubwZMWMgddZnEpt72SvsA/s640/gladiator+ivory.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bear with the large size photo (pun intended), to fully make-out the different blood sports. The bear attacking a wooden ball with a man inside is at the top of the arena scene. The hoops being thrown around are a mystery. </td></tr>
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There is a very slight chance that the Christian martyr Saint Denis was decapitated here around 250 A.D. and not a couple miles away on Montmartre (Martyr’s Mountain). Probably some Christians did die here, if not fed to lions then to wild dogs or seasoned gladiators like the one whose helmet adorns the front entrance today. Unfortunately nothing remains of the original arena as it was reduced to rubble by the end of 4th century. The ruins were discovered in the mid-1800s while workers were digging up the plot to make a tram station. Thanks to Victor Hugo’s urging, the city moved the trams and rebuilt arena into the popular and Wi-Fi accessible park it is today. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWUq9laSj9nizVPdyLrinpvp7JrzPR2P4-qZAB7Y68vpNysIRsHwTOqxO5qIoVPS8U4YUhMP4_WDvah4oeVl8pYFejvhwAbA8WBaDC6tZH4FLdoklaqzCInIOI1WTya1z5NCpzTjRAhj0/s1600/bear+eating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWUq9laSj9nizVPdyLrinpvp7JrzPR2P4-qZAB7Y68vpNysIRsHwTOqxO5qIoVPS8U4YUhMP4_WDvah4oeVl8pYFejvhwAbA8WBaDC6tZH4FLdoklaqzCInIOI1WTya1z5NCpzTjRAhj0/s200/bear+eating.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun then</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSKAOA5AV8CX5tZF1dAPA0lDwUxFQaemVGnL8c2yVwLpr0O6wtqP-W2vE3u9LLaFg8cIy5gG71wRa9avagHG1qUeTHLFh-BPjd7VRUWkup0ZS7s0Fu8417b5AAwmJUNslLn9UmWomb_ak/s1600/paris-wifi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuSKAOA5AV8CX5tZF1dAPA0lDwUxFQaemVGnL8c2yVwLpr0O6wtqP-W2vE3u9LLaFg8cIy5gG71wRa9avagHG1qUeTHLFh-BPjd7VRUWkup0ZS7s0Fu8417b5AAwmJUNslLn9UmWomb_ak/s1600/paris-wifi.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">and today</td></tr>
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">(1) L C. “La population de Lutèce avant 275 après J.-C”. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Population, Année 1962, Volume 17, Numéro 2 p.327-328. 2008. Persee Scientific Journals. 21/08/09. <a href="http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/pop_0032-4663_1962_num_17_2_10103">http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/pop_0032-4663_1962_num_17_2_10103</a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-52201924430169298012009-08-22T01:59:00.000-07:002009-08-22T02:06:23.449-07:00How much did a pound of elephant trunk cost during the 1870 siege of Paris?45 francs a pound.
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<br />During the four month German attack on the city which occurred forty years before WWI, residents were reduced to eating pigeons (when they were not being used to deliver messages out of the city), dogs and sometimes rats. (Horses had been an occasional part of Parisian diets for at least twenty years before then. Three horse butchers still have stores in Paris today though none does much business.) During the siege, a savvy butcher bought two elephants from the zoo in the Latin Quarter’s Jardin des Plants and sold what he could at very high prices (though 45 francs a pound is a bit dubious as the French use kilos not pounds.)<span style="font-size:78%;">(1)</span> Monkeys were considered too human to be eaten, but kangaroo stew was relatively cheap. Unlike the elephants, the zoo's hippo was too expensive for anyone to buy. In fact, the zoo animals were butchered more to indulge the rich than feed starving locals. An estimated 3,000 Parisians died a week by January of 1871.
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<br />80 years earlier in 1789, an previous generation of Parisian elephants where used in an experiment at the zoo by scientists testing the effects of chamber music on ‘uncorrupted’ minds. After various symphonies caused various degrees of reaction, the hired musicians played a catchy up-beat love song. Just days after hearing the song <span style="font-style: italic;">Ça Ira</span>, the elephants made love in sight of Western observers for the first time in recorded history.<span style="font-size:78%;">(2)</span>
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<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText {mso-style-noshow:yes; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.MsoFootnoteReference {mso-style-noshow:yes; vertical-align:super;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoFootnoteText">(1) "Castor and Pollux (elephants)." <i>Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia</i>. 15:52 UTC. 18 May 2009 <<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castor_and_Pollux_%28elephants%29&oldid=290734725" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castor_and_Pollux_(elephants)&oldid=290734725">http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castor_and_Pollux_(elephants)&oldid=290734725</a>>.06/08/09. </p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span></span> (2) Johnson, James. <u>Listening in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Paris</st1:city></st1:place>, A Cultural History.</u> <st1:placetype st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename st="on">California</st1:placename> Press: <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Berkeley</st1:place></st1:city>. 1996. p.131. </p> CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-6816922539563755462009-08-20T06:53:00.000-07:002010-12-14T13:03:11.979-08:00Who is not buried in Paris’ famed Pere Lachaise cemetery?Jim Morrison.<br />According to author Gregor Dallas, Morrison's remains were moved to California but no date or reference is given. <span style="font-size:78%;">(1)</span><br /><br />Another popular but likely empty grave is that of Abelard and Heloise.<br /><br />Though an impressive two story monument stands over their tomb and Empress Josephine herself sanctioned the moving of their corpses, it is pretty unlikely that the remains of either the teacher or his younger lover rest as advertised. And it was advertised.<br /><br />Since the mid-1700’s, various kings banned burials with-in Paris’ city limits as the graveyards were literally bursting. (Today’s there are no cemeteries in the first nine of the city’s twenty arrondissements as they were inside the municipal boundaries at the time. The Les Halles subterranean mall and metro stop used to be the noxiously notorious Les Innocents cemetery which is estimated to have held over 1 million corpses before literally bursting at the seams in 1870. Those remains were then transferred to what is now the popular Catacombs of Paris though some shoppers claim the odor of the underground mall still retains a direct link to its decomposing past.)<br /><br />Founded just as Napoleon was crowning himself emperor in 1804, Pere Lachaise was more a novel real estate play than consecrated ground. Seeing a need, city administrators in conjunction with real estate developers turned the hill where Pere Lachaise now sits into not just a graveyard but a high-end, tres chic and therefore tres profitable final resting place.<br /><br />To get the needed cachet, the developers bought the remains of anyone famous they could get their hands on. This included Abelard, a famous teacher in the 12th century Latin Quarter and his landlord’s young but well-educated niece Heloise. In a drama worthy of a prime-time soap opera, Abelard was eventually castrated (as were the two thugs who were later found guilty of the crime), and Heloise went off to write letters from a convent and raise their son.<br /><br />The lovers were supposedly buried together when Heloise died in 1163, but numerous claims cloud the truth. Abelard’s remains were supposedly taken in secret to a monastery he founded in eastern France and there they rest today according to the monastery. However, in 1804, Empress Josephine had what she thought were the bodies brought to Paris for a new shrine dedicated to their endless love. That honor however was short lived as the developers of Pere Lachaise bought what they presumed to be the lovers’ remains in 1817 and had them moved. This was after the developers had already purchased the corpses of famed writers Moliere and La Fontaine for the grand opening of the cemetery.<br /><br />Such brazen marketing worked as the cemetery today is a veritable who’s who of Parisian history. The developers relied on more than just dry bones for advertising though. In his 1862 novel Les Miserables, Victor Hugo pulled off an early version of Hollywood’s product placement when he wrote, “To be buried in Pere Lachaise is like having mahogany furniture. Elegance is understood by that.”<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:78%;">2</span></span><br /><br />Maybe. To be buried in Pere Lachaise today requires a fair amount of money, living and/or dying in Paris and getting on the extensive waiting list. Or; be famous enough to be bought.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">1. Dallas, Gregor. "Metrostop Paris". Hachette: UK. 2008. p. 187.<br />2. Kelley, Austin. "Earthly Kingdoms". Womenontheirway.com 10/12/2010</span>.<span style="font-size:78%;"> http://www.womenontheirway.com/wyndham-wisdom/planning-your-trip/earthly-kingdoms/</span>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-13875705808967842742009-08-20T06:17:00.001-07:002009-08-23T08:33:14.850-07:00Which Parisian founder of the study of anatomy is honored in the city with an anatomically incorrect statue?Georges Cuvier. <br /><br />Credited with founding the science of comparative anatomy among many other achievements, Cuvier is honored with the Fountain Culvier at one entrance to the Jardin des Plantes. Some of his early work during the Enlightenment era included studying if egg size determined gender in chickens and if evolution was based on catastrophes. He was instrumental in using fossils to prove that animals had gone extinct; a fact which did not please 18th century believers in Noah’s Ark. <br /><br />The heavily decorated fountain does not actually feature Cuvier himself but has a bare breasted rendition of Mother Nature surrounded by the plants and animals he studied. Below a carved owl is a crocodile sharply snapping its head to the right. Crocodiles cannot turn their heads as they have no neck and are all body.CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-76328449696565655772009-08-18T11:01:00.000-07:002011-07-19T02:01:13.210-07:00What did Queen Clothilde, the first Christian queen of Paris, answer when asked if her grandchildren should get a haircut or die?‘They should die.’ <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE63NIIGAobGIsp4ucfDBRv3XUtJQptqkOvLuyQe2it1LK-KlXfAUqy-Uewso23KrwjsMj3jivEbphVoaBXFoCjICYXfoCkWyK1bDdAtQX2vQ5waXELyKT8V960fhI7oX37Ukf8g8uwpF4/s1600/Sainte_Clotilde.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE63NIIGAobGIsp4ucfDBRv3XUtJQptqkOvLuyQe2it1LK-KlXfAUqy-Uewso23KrwjsMj3jivEbphVoaBXFoCjICYXfoCkWyK1bDdAtQX2vQ5waXELyKT8V960fhI7oX37Ukf8g8uwpF4/s1600/Sainte_Clotilde.JPG" /></a><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/BLOG.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">Queen Clothilde</span></span></span></div><br />
In the early 500’s, as Paris rose from the ruins of its Roman past into the early Middle Ages and Attila the Hun rampaged across Europe, Clothilde and her husband King Clovis established the Merovingian dynasty. Along with Paris’ patron Saint Genevieve, this royal couple brought official Christianity to the region and started France's monarchy which would last, off and on, for 1,000 years. (Eighteen kings of France, including the two most famous, Louis XIV and XVI, took the royal name Louis which stems from the Latin version of Clovis to validate their hereditary rule.)<br />
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Known as the Long Haired Kings, the Merovingians believed their long hair was sacred and a necessary credential for leadership. Supposedly, the men wore it colored red, mohwak style with a long braid in back.<br />
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In a power struggle among her children after Clovis died, one of Clothilde's sons took three nephews hostage as they were a threat to his rule. He sent a message to the old queen asking if he should use a sword or scissors on them. She chose the sword.<br />
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Queen Clothilde is now Saint Clothilde and the Catholic church does not acknowledge this or other brutal "legends" about her.<br />
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Saint Clothilde is the patron saint against the death of children. <a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/BLOG.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><br />
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<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/BLOG.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a> Katie. “Campionist the Blog”. 10/17/2010. Blogspot. 07/20/2011. <a href="http://campionist.blogspot.com/">http://campionist.blogspot.com/</a></div></div><br />
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Chris/Desktop/BLOG.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[2]</a> "Patron Saints". NDA. Catholic Tradition. 20/07/2011. </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.catholictradition.org/Saints/patrons7.htm">http://www.catholictradition.org/Saints/patrons7.htm</a>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-56061617920346382672009-08-17T11:09:00.000-07:002009-08-19T08:09:07.663-07:00Where in the Latin Quarter is a bookstore started with CIA money across the street from an old KGB safe house?#’s 10 and 11, rue Montagne-Sainte Genevieve.
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<br />At #11, the YMCA Press (pronounced ‘<span style="font-style: italic;">imca</span>’) still sells Russian language literature having set up shop in 1925 as a combined effort between the Young Men’s Christian Association and the CIA’s ‘soft’ strategy to bring down the Soviet Union.<span style="font-size:78%;">(1) </span> Started “with the help of Russian speaking Americans”<span style="font-size:78%;">(2) </span> the bookstore and publisher was responsible for publishing Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gulag Archipelago</span> in Russian.
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<br />Called, “the most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be levied in modern times” by famed U.S. diplomat George Kennan,<span style="font-size:78%;">(3)</span> the book used verifiable first-hand proof, gathered over many years and at great risk, to prove that the Soviet Union, despite its denials, held and abused literally millions of political prisoners. A catholic nun was just one of the many people who helped smuggle the manuscript out of Russia to Paris in 1971. One Moscow typist who worked on Solzhenitsyn’s handwritten manuscript was caught in 1973 and tortured by the KGB before being found dead in her apartment. Another assistant was beaten and almost killed in a staged car crash. At great cost to his career and health, world famous cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich allowed Solzhenitsyn to live and secretly write in his home for years in the 1969.
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<br />Solzhenitsyn was first arrested in 1945 while serving as a 27 year old soldier in the recently victorious Red Army. In a letter to a friend, Solzhenitsyn described Stalin as, “the man with the mustache.” That earned him eight years of manual labor in different prison camps.<span style="font-size:78%;">(4) </span> A journalist tells how Solzhenitsyn was able to record the atrocities he witnessed;
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">“At Ekibastuz,(a prison camp) any writing would be seized as contraband. So he devised a method that enabled him to retain even long sections of prose. After seeing Lithuanian Catholic prisoners fashion rosaries out of beads made from chewed bread, he asked them to make a similar chain for him, but with more beads. In his hands, each bead came to represent a passage that he would repeat to himself until he could say it without hesitation. Only then would he move on to the next bead. He later wrote that by the end of his prison term, he had committed to memory 12,000 lines in this way”</span>.<span style="font-size:78%;">(5)</span>
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<br /> After the YMCA Press published the book in 1973, Solzhenitsyn was exiled from Russia and ended up in rural Vermont where he criticized Americans as shallow and callous. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, he returned to Russia where he died in 2008. Though considered an eccentric and often shunned for holding many unpalatable views, he is still revered as one of the strongest voices of the twentieth century and one who spoke to power.
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<br /> At #10 rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, across the street from the YMCA Press and above the Mexican themed La Lucha Libre bar is an apartment with two windows looking over the street. These windows were used during the Cold War by the KGB to watch the comings and goings at the book store.
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<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:78%;" >(1) Friendly, Alfred. Jr. Personal Interview. <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>. 15/10/08</span>
<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><span style="font-size:78%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText {mso-style-noshow:yes; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.MsoFootnoteReference {mso-style-noshow:yes; vertical-align:super;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size:78%;">(2) “YMCA Press Publishes Soviet Writers’ Press”. UPI. <i style="">The <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Boca Raton</st1:city></st1:place> News. </i>Vol. 19/No. 76.March 17, 1974.<i style=""> </i>p.23 <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19740317&id=bdgPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3825,2161011">http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1291&dat=19740317&id=bdgPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3825,2161011</a>
<br /></span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="font-size:78%;"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--></span></span><span style="font-size:78%;">(3) “Alexander Solzhenitsyn Speaking Truth to Power” Aug 7th 2008 The Economist.com. 08/08/09. <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?STORY_ID=11885318">http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?STORY_ID=11885318</a></span> </p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="font-size:78%;"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><!--[endif]--></span></span><span style="font-size:78%;"> (4) Kaufman, Michael. “Solzhenitsyn Literary Giant who Defied Soviets Dies at 89” August 4,2008. The New York Times. 08/08/09. P. 4</span><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html?pagewanted=1&sq=Elizaveta%20Voronyanskaya&st=cse&scp=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html?pagewanted=1&sq=Elizaveta%20Voronyanskaya&st=cse&scp=1</a></span> </p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="font-size:78%;"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--></span></span><span style="font-size:78%;">(5) Ibid. </span></p>
<br />CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-58730947269133128112009-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:002009-08-17T11:09:15.152-07:00Where in Paris do you get a chill from seeing the Devil?<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><o:p></o:p><span style=""> </span>In the basement of the <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">Cluny</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
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<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The basement is actually the remains of the Ancient Roman baths which existed at the site in the third century A.D. In the <i style="">frigidarium</i> or cold room of the baths, the museum displays The Boatmen’s Pillar. Carved around 10 AD as Celtic Paris was changing into the Roman settlement of Lutetia, this stone monument depicts local animist gods side by side with Roman gods. On one frieze of the pillar, the Celtic deity Cernunnos is shown near the Roman god Jupiter complete with thunderbolt. The Boatmen, a powerful guild through-out <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>’ early years as a trading center, were playing it safe and including everyone on their monument. But Cernunnos would come back to bite.
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<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Just as the druids and spirits of the local Celtic Parissi tribe gave way to colonizer gods such as Jupiter, the Roman era gods gradually gave way as well to Christianity. In the process, Cernunnos underwent a definite makeover. Originally a Celtic god of the forest, and fertility, Cernunoos, as depicted on The Boatmen’s Pillar, has antlers but a man’s head. This imagery would be used by the Christians to represent the Devil who today has other markings of Cernnunoos such as the cloven feet and tail. By incorporating a pagan god into a negative one, the early Christians used what the locals would know and constructed an impressive array of self-serving stories, symbols and practices to interweave their faith into daily lives and common behavior.
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<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Its scary how well they did it. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-45101896392305942492009-08-14T05:47:00.000-07:002009-08-19T08:14:45.758-07:00Where in Paris should you take a potato? Pere Lachaise Cementary.
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<br />The potato is for Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, 1805 Inspector-General of the Health Service and the man most responsible for getting white people to eat potatoes. Visitors to his grave today often leave potatoes (or french fries) as thanks for his introducing this staple crop to France and in doing so, reducing famine and revolution.
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<br />To paraphrase famed Russian anarchist and prince Peter Kropotkin, ‘famine is crucial to any revolution.’ <span style="font-size:78%;">(1) </span>Or in the words of Rage Against the Machine, “Hungry people don’t stay hungry for long.” <span style="font-size:78%;">(2) </span> Parmentier knew this. As the official pharmacist to Louis XVI and a public servant who worked through the turbulent revolution and even under Napoleon, he dedicated a large part of his work and his life to feeding people. (He did a lot with beets too.) Through out the 18th and early 19th century, potatoes were considered by the French to be disgusting and even poisonous. They were low, dirty, misshapen lumps only good for native savages or pigs..) That snobbery, even among French peasants, was unfortunate as wheat harvests in the Middle Ages were habitually unreliable.
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<br />To win over the populace, Parmentier marketed the potato as chic. He encouraged Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to host potato parties, he got Ben Franklin to do an endorsement, and he put a field of potatoes under guard to add to their allure. Though he failed in the short-run (the wheat harvest of 1788 was particularly bad and seen as a major cause for the subsequent overthrow of the monarchy), over time it worked, and we have Parmentier to thank. “The potato is the most nutritious of all the world's starchy food crops with more protein, vitamins and minerals than rice, wheat, sorghum or corn.”<span style="font-size:78%;">(3) </span>
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<br />To envision the 18th century French view of potatoes, it may help to ask if you would eat dog food. No? Not even the dry kind? It’s not poisonous, can be mass produced cheaply and sustainably, and it sure would reduce the carbon footprint for those of us in the northern hemisphere who buy kiwis in February and eat meat daily. Maybe dog food just needs a new marketing campaign.
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<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CChris%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText {mso-style-noshow:yes; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.MsoFootnoteReference {mso-style-noshow:yes; vertical-align:super;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.date {mso-style-name:date;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoFootnoteText">(1) “Famine and Revolution”. The New York Times. July 31, 1921. 08/13/09. <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F00E1DB153AEF33A25752C3A9619C946095D6CF">http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F00E1DB153AEF33A25752C3A9619C946095D6CF</a> </p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10;" ></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span><span style=""> (2) </span>Commerford, Timothy; De La Rocha, Zack; Morello, Thomas; Wilk, Brad<span style=""> </span>“New Millennium Homes”. <i style="">The <st1:city st="on">Battle</st1:city> for <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city></st1:place></i>.<span style=""> </span>RATM.net. Sept. 26,09. 08/12/09. <a href="http://www.ratm.net/lyrics/new.html">http://www.ratm.net/lyrics/new.html</a> </p> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10;" ></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span> (3) Seabrook, Jane and Richard Tarn. Plants that Changed the World: Potato”. <span class="date">2008-12-15. </span>Potato Research Centre, <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Fredericton</st1:city>, <st1:state st="on">NB.</st1:state></st1:place><span class="date"> 8/12/09.<span style=""> </span><a href="http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1166205946362&lang=eng">http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1166205946362&lang=eng</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<br />CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-92028553063575416232009-08-11T04:25:00.000-07:002009-08-13T11:34:01.410-07:00Is there a real unicorn horn in Paris?Yes.<br /><br />The Cluny Museum has the famous tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn, but more importantly, just a couple rooms over is an actual full length unicorn horn from the early Middle Ages. Probably sold to a gullible royal by Danish traders using a narwhal tusk, the counter-clockwise spiraled horn was believed to hold magical protective powers against poison. Ground into powder or cut to be used as a cup, the horn would boil the liquid or sweat upon contact with a toxin. A 1593 medical study carried out on dogs poisoned with arsenic showed that unicorn horn was indeed effective as a curative.<span style="font-size:78%;">(1)</span> Around the same time, Queen Elizabeth of England paid 10,000 pounds for one.<span style="font-size:78%;">(2) </span><br /><br />Don't scoff. In 2008, over fifty percent of adult Americans took vitamins costing up to $23 billion total.<span style="font-size:78%;">(3) </span> There is quite a lot of current debate whether vitamins work as advertised or not. Sort of like unicorn horn.<br /><br />Maybe the question should not be if there is a real unicorn horn in Paris, but if narwhal tusk is a cure for arsenic poisoning?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(1) Goldfrank, Lewis, Neal Flomenbaum, Neal Lewin, and Mary Ann Howland. Goldfrank’s Toxicologic Emergencies. McGraw-Hill Professional: New York. 2002. pg 4.<br />(2) Nweeia, Martin. (Principle Investigator). “”Narwhal Tusk Research”. 2003. Arctic Studies Center. 09/08/09. http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/narwhal.htm#top<br />(3) Parker-Pope, Tara. “Vitamin Pills: A False Hope?”. Feb. 17, 2009. The New York Times. 09/08/09. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/health/17well.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=vitamins&st=cse# </span>CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-11729381235350822242009-08-11T04:07:00.000-07:002009-08-21T12:49:53.694-07:00Where is the most brutally ironic site in Paris?The Pont Saint Michel (Saint Michael’s Bridge). <br /><br />This bridge crosses from the Ile de la Cite to the Left Bank. Near the north end of the bridge is the huge police headquarters (the Prefecture de Police) while across the Seine in the Latin Quarter is the Saint Michel metro stop and the towering fountain of Saint Michael defeating the Devil. Showing the archangel victorious over a sneering Lucifer, the fountain’s statue of Saint Michael serves the city as an allegory of good over evil and the plaza in front of it is often the site for protests such as in May 1968 and the monthly rallies in the 2000’s by Americans Against the War. Just over 200 feet long, the bridge was built in 1857. <br /><br />In 1961 however, France and especially Paris was under attack by freedom-loving terrorists demanding the French leave still-colonized Algeria. Bombings and attacks in the city had been escalating for months. For example, from the end of August to the start of October 1961, eleven police officers in Paris were killed by terrorist bombs and seventeen were wounded. <br /><br />In response, the police imposed a curfew on Algerians in the city. On the 17th of October an estimated 40,000 Algerians in Paris took part in an illegal march which quickly turned bloody as the police and protesters went at it. According to witnesses, the police took truckloads of men to the courtyard of the Prefecture de Police headquarters and beat many of the protesters to death then and there. As a display of force and power, as many as thirty bodies were thrown by the police into the Seine off Saint Michael’s Bridge. Some of the bodies washed up as far away as Rouen. <br /><br />At the time, the city police were under the command of Maurice Papon who, along with other city police officials, would later be tried for crimes against humanity. They were found guilty for their key roles in 1942-44 in rounding-up and deporting Jews to Nazi concentration camps. Much as in the Algerian attack of 1961, the city police and the Prefecture headquarters across the plaza from Notre Dame were instrumental in fulfilling an evil policy. <br /><br />Saint Michael, across the bridge from the Prefecture is the patron saint of police officers.CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1753534914855345597.post-73276068733006893332008-08-17T11:29:00.000-07:002011-07-28T12:28:37.110-07:00Who is “Johnson” and why do they hate the poor people of Paris?Johnson is the pseudonym for each member of a French anti-commercialization group known as The Collective of Debunkers (or Ones Who Knock Down). Aiming to “debunk advertising, remove it from its pedestal and destroy its prestige”, members illegally tear down and deface as many metro billboards and wall posters as possible in order to fight ‘visual-pollution’ and convince the authorities to limit all advertisements to a maximum 20 x 27 inches.<span style="font-size: 78%;">(1)</span> <br />
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In doing so, they cost countless taxpayer Euros for clean-up costs. Their success would undoubtedly raise metro ticket prices in order to make up for the lost advertising revenue. It seems that The Collective is made up of clueless Line 10 Sorbonne kids rather than workers paying for their transportation as they come in from the banlieue (suburbs) each workday. <br />
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</style><span style="font-size: 78%;"><em><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">(1) Collectif des déboulonneurs</span></span></em>. “Manifest (version anglais du manifeste)” 9/16/2005 <a href="http://www.deboulonneurs.org/article348.html">http://www.deboulonneurs.org/article348.html</a></span> CFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15253033971017375811noreply@blogger.com