Ancient power: Tunnels used to concentrate brine spring water to power sugar mills in the Bet She'An valley discovered, once the center of Mamluk sugar production (14th-15th c.). https://www.timesofisrael.com/mamluk-water-tunnels-used-to-feed-powerful-beit-shean-sugar-industry-study-finds/ https://hell.twtr.plus/media/e49c160f0cd23fe68580ebfb8fb8289dd07f52a4662f622884ea8aa0d44fd8d5.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/19c36e85b242e6539fe49265704595af7f5d46af5eff07dede74d9342881663d.file
Is this possibly one of the greatest men alive? The Brazilian accordionist Renato Borghetti revives a local music tradition, uses his fame and income to found and start an accordion factory (a local variant called gaita) and eighteen schools in Brazil and Paraguay, offering classes and instruments for free to anyone 6-15 years old. How is this greatness possible? What is wrong with the rest of us?
Renato Borghetti
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Bloomberg covers the unstoppable Architectural Uprising (founded by @michael_diamant). Politically non-partisan but a hell of a lot more democratic than any political party existing today. To paraphrase: "For a group of people who always claim that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, they sure don't care much about the beholders themselves."
Bloomberg.com
A Nordic Revolt Against ‘Ugly’ Modern Architecture
A movement known as Architectural Uprising is pushing back against Scandinavian design trends — and sometimes forcing architects back to the draw...
RT @CharlestonArchi@twitter.com: The anti-traditional ideology that swept through architecture schools after WW2 has been adopted by preservation schools. Recent preservation grads who publicly advocate for preservation nonprofits and for preservation depts of city planning offices are unknowingly modernist. 🧵
James McCrery is the architect who will design the White House East Wing upgrade, and he has an impeccable and solid track record. Furthermore, the present WH administration has excelled in previous similar work, for example the selection of S.W. Spandle to create the WH Tennis Pavilion, which turned out perfect, on time and on budget. I am fairly confident the result this time too, will be nothing less than excellent. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/50efbafda9d5f3d521e1a105cb2a2eb47896dc0037a4e4ed46ad1d6cc06e8618.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/bb3cca9a5b5be7bdfba36c85a29fc36129742f12d43f8fa5d20c98be0576c163.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/47774baf0463f9d8e65124d66d82365ab91da39f937193c7c423601056262218.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/623a6ffad5bb19d32e0ca3027ad82230363b34b7b8ec29c9a51ac7239164b1a6.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/4d77452952340484153f8e75ce20499b18c43a179cabbf78f54911e8c0a678d7.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/796bd55f5a6ab18dc22572e70d61f7c35a5d1ebe4c4ecf2f13ebe57cd740a7e8.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/a607e40dcd18e751ca371aba7115647a589ffe8f184dd203f676ea2d5d39a840.file
Bloomberg has an interesting article on a failed utopian desert city of 5,000 north of Phoenix, Arcosanti, pop. 38 (sort of). Mentions various SA utopias, and also earthships, @culdesac etc. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-10-23/arcosanti-a-failed-desert-utopia-near-phoenix-has-lessons-about-future-cities
“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at a game from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end: ’Cheat the Prophet.’” — G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill #GreatFirstPages https://hell.twtr.plus/media/53437d544ad6fb18d98d27f2008af4dd382aa97d765c016e4dc70ce13770b4dd.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/6abea1b0c022bbcb3573fe4abd6fe3295163cda4ee02a1725382b52d25311401.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/9138cdf960aeb664f6367fcba151e6117af9a377b7abd1395af6f4ea23f18a5b.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/d8a967f5bc144cea365a9055199bea0f088a06b0b5d059e8b47962fc88c97b38.file
G.K. Chesterton advice to our leaders is as solid in 1927 as it is today: “Do not be in this blind haste to tell them there is no way out of the trap into which your folly has led them.” https://hell.twtr.plus/media/b686b37d19c880b602ab0ac840b6c43fcfe012fd7a5d6e85ad5a4f320c839c62.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/d8a967f5bc144cea365a9055199bea0f088a06b0b5d059e8b47962fc88c97b38.file
Worldwide use of social media coincided with a remarkable increase of social polarization, according to this study. It is doubtful if social media and the growth of online media is compatible with the survival of civilization. Modernity is a centrifugal force, the anchor or gravity of tradition and roots is no longer able to resist its force. 'Polarization has always existed, but what is happening now goes far beyond historical patterns. Greater connectivity has led to the formation of fewer but more tightly-knit groups with strongly differing opinions, between which there is hardly any exchange. “There are few bridges between these ‘bubbles,’ and when they exist, they are often negative or even hostile,” says Korbel. “This is called fragmentation, and it represents a new social phenomenon.”'
Complexity Science Hub
Researchers Find Possible Cause For Increasing Polarization
Between 2008 and 2010, people’s average number of close friends rose from two to over four. At the same time polarization increased.
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