The Alcázar of Segovia is a medieval castle located in the city of Segovia, in Castile and León, Spain. It has existed since at least the 12th century, and is one of the most renowned medieval castles globally and one of the most visited landmarks in Spain.
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Its history begins in the 12th or early 13th century when the royal family of Castile had quarters in the Alcázar, known as the "major palace". In the Homage tower, the treasure of the Crown of Castile was stored, from which funds were secured to finance Christopher Columbus's first voyage.
Betty Boop - The Old Man Of The Mountain - 1933 HD
Betty Boop HD
JMSmith is talking about the Old Man of the Mountain, and that sparks a vague memory of old cartoons and YouTube delivers this one featuring Betty Boop. Here's the intro to JMSmith's post:
“The extirpation of the Assassins or Ismaelians of Persia may be considered as a service to mankind.” - Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)
Ismaleans are the largest branch of Shia Islam. Shia Islam itself is in some respects comparable to Catholic Christianity, at least insofar as it grants great authority to Imams, who are honored as successors to Mohammed, the Prophet, much as Catholic Christians grant great authority to Popes, who are honored as successors to Jesus, the Christ. Sunni Islam on the other hand is in some respects comparable to Protestant Christianity because it is grounded on the scripture of the Koran and hadith.
The Order of Assassins to whom Gibbon refers was an Ismaelian sect that flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth century. Although dispersed throughout Syria and Persia (Iran), the Order of Assassins operated with the discipline and policy of an organized state. Its capital was a mountaintop fortress known as Alamut Castle, located north of Tehran, wherein dwelt a dictator known to West as the Old Man of the Mountain. This Old Man did not, however, give law to a large territory, but rather to a large network that spread through neighboring states, much as veins of blue mold spread through cheese. There were “knots” in this network—minor fortresses subordinate to Alamut—and the whole might be likened without originality to a spider’s web.
The Order of Assassins (or Nizari Ismaili state) is of course best remembered for eschewing open battle and employing the stealthy strategy of targeted assassination, a word that is derived either from the first Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I Sabbah, or from their rumored use of hashish. So, as Gibbon goes on to say,
“Among the hills south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above an hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of mount Libanus [that is to say Mount Lebanon, on the Syrian coast] . . . . With the fanaticism of the Koran, the Ishmaelians had blended the Indian transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets: and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God. The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the Moslems enumerate, and perhaps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment, of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain.”
He goes on to talk about assassination and Israel's recent targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists.
Which reminds me of an old story about a man going to visit a scientist at his home. The scientist is working on building some fearsome new weapon. The man tries to dissuade the scientist from completing his weapon, as the leader to whom the new weapon will be entrusted is seriously deranged. The scientist refuses on the basis that he is not responsible for what fearless leader does. While the scientist is distracted, the man slips into the scientist's imbecile child's room and places a loaded revolver in the kids bed. He then leaves. The scientist discovers the gun and asks 'what kind of lunatic would give a loaded gun to a imbecile?'
Meanwhile, France denied Israel permission to participate in their air show, and here's Israel's response:
Israel Defense Industries
Iran has been stirring up shit in the mideast ever since their last revolution. It's time somebody smacked them down.
Flares into Darkness has posted a selection of paintings of castles. This one caught my eye, I suppose because of its position at the top of the cliff. Wikipedia tells us the site has been occupied since Roman times. The stone castle in the picture dates from the 12th century.
The default setting for this puzzle is 300 pieces, but you can choose from a variety numbers. I've done a couple of puzzles with that many pieces and it just takes forever. 100 to 150 pieces is more comfortable. It was a very challenging puzzle. The only pieces that I could identify by sight were ones for the tower and the large building with the big windows in the lower left corner corner. After that, it was just try and find place where they fit. Once I got maybe 75% done, there were enough restrictions that I could identify pieces by shape and it went much smoother. The title didn't give any clue as to just where this tower is. A little Google got me to Bologna, where it was easy enough to locate the tower.
We were watching an episode of Ertugrul last night and the bad guys kidnap a woman by dosing her with what looked like chloroform. The show generally seems to be historically accurate, so I'm wondering if they could have had such a substance.
I had a video clip from the movie The Train (1964) that had Burt Lancaster pouring a Babbitt bearing for a locomotive connecting rod. Alas, it has vanished, so now we have new guys casting a really big bearing.
A while back I put up a post about Babbitt bearings. Today, Jack points out this scene in The Train where Burt Lancaster is casting a bearing for a locomotive. Watching the movie, I got to wondering about some things, like was Paris really an "open city", and did they really haul a train load of paintings off to Germany? Well, yeah, mostly.
Fifteen masterpieces filled railroad boxcars were sent to Germany with Goering's personal train. - Wikipedia
On June 12 [1940], the French government, in Tours, declared Paris to be an open city, that there would be no resistance. -Wikipedia
So when the French Army was defeated by the Germans at the opening of WW2, France declared Paris to be an open city to prevent its destruction. However, did that declaration transfer when the Germans took over? I don't think so. Germany was still fighting and I'm not finding anything that says they declared Paris to be an open city. So while the Parisians might want it to be an open city, they were infested with vermin that needed to expelled or exterminated. So, yeah, there's going to be collateral damage.
The most terrible bombing raid took place on the night of April 21, 1944 in the area of the Porte de La Chapelle, in the 18th arrondissement. The entire area was destroyed (Anglo-American bombers targetted the La Chapelle marshalling yard, which they largely missed). - brisavoine
Reading about the movie, I follow a chain of links that aren't really connected:
Beckett gets mentioned in the The Pillars of the Earth as something of a villain, being as he is part of the feeble power structure that is doing a sad job of ruling England. He doesn't actually appear in the story. I have almost reached the end of the book, which takes place in the 1100's, and Henry has just invaded England.
I've started reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's not a great book, but it's a good story about building a cathedral in 12th century England. The story is painted in broad brush strokes. The hero is brave, strong and true, the princess is beautiful and the villain is despicable. In this way it is similar to Ertugrul, the Turkish soap opera we've been watching about a tribe of nomads in 13th century Turkey / Syria.
Today I figured out why I like these stories. It's because they include many of the details of everyday life back then. Most scholastic history is all about names and dates. 'So and so went to war against these other people and defeated them at the battle of the slimy swamp', which is all very well if you want to chronicle the power struggles that were going on at the time. But that shit is endless. There is always somebody picking a fight, and someone betraying his allies and somebody getting their ass kicked, but it doesn't really tell you very much about the how or why of something happening.
Now occasionally a small group of motivated, and presumably talented, warriors will score an unexpected victory, but more often it is a matter of training, tactics and superior weaponry. And those come from a society that is rich enough to spend time developing these things. And you get a rich society from free trade, free minds and the rule of law.
The Pillars of the Earth is more nuts and bolts, building a cathedral requires a great many craftsmen making things. The politics, so far, has all been of the local variety. Ertugrul is more like propaganda: the Muslims are good, the Templars are bad, but it does a good job of portraying life in a nomadic encampment, well at least life among the one-percent-ers.
