That title belongs to a book written by a man I met online and by telephone, for the first time, over ten years ago. His “pen name” is Arthur Fixed and the full title of the book is “The Art of Speculation During Civil War” with the byline; “Sun Tsu meets Jesse Livermore” but I know the old man (he’s 72) as Alex.
Alex graduated from Harvard in 1964, with a PhD in Law. It’s important to note that he was an immigrant to the U.S, so English was a new language for him as well, added to that, back in those days the policy was that 33% of Harvard students (each year) did NOT pass (nowadays almost everyone makes the grade). Getting a Harvard degree is still a major accomplishment, but in 1964 to come-out, while in your mid-twenties, with a PhD, is a monumental achievement. Alex would prove again and again that he was an over-achiever. This is an excellent guide I’ve read so far.
Harvard was just the start of what would become an illustrious and highly successful, albeit very diverse career, spanning over five decades. At one point in his journey Alex developed an interest in economics and the stock market. Like everything else with Alex, if there was a point to doing something, then there was a point to over-doing-it, he immersed himself in the academics of money, finance, and stock market trading. What made his approach slightly different was his strict belief in the teachings of the Austrian school of economics by Ludwig Von Mises and even more influenced in his thinking by Mises protégé Murray Rothbard with his famous tome called “Man, Economy and State”.
For sure Alex was not the first trader to have a penchant for Mises and Rothbard, truly it’s probably more the norm, for anyone involved with the stock market to have a strong belief in the Austrian economic doctrine, but not like Alex. This ideology was much more than just ideas to Alex, this was the code for economic law. As clear as physics and as predictable as chemistry. According to him, the way to understand the stock market scientifically is to apply the principles of economic law, create multiple methods of observation and analysis. Then using reason and logic, based on having enough data from observation, to then formulate assumptions, that which when acted upon in the correct manner, will create the same results (in similar market situations), over and over again.
Alex’s hypothesis is that when economic law is applied to the markets, the end-result is as obvious as gravity.
In 1987 Alex had the opportunity to apply his theory and methods, against a market that suffered a full year of decline. Starting with a trading account of $10,000 USD he began his speculation, one year later he had grown the account to $5.5M. The critical factor was the size of the correction in the market because that is the crux of understanding the economic law as it relates to stock prices. See, according to Rothbard, in the aspects of his book that refer to “man”, that all value is subjective and prices of everything will rise and fall, knowing what to do about it and when is the key and that’s where Alex embellished upon Mises and Rothbard to push the science beyond where it stopped.
The year 2016, according to Alex and personified by Arthur Fixed in the “Art of Speculation During Civil War”, has all the hallmarks of a market cycle where the subjective value of the stock market changes (or corrects), as well as the subjective values of all currencies and commodities. To set-up the circumstance, where economic law mimics gravity and when specific option trading methods are applied, a very predictable outcome is recreated, again and again, until the correction is over.
Alex invited me to join him and learn how to make a fortune on speculation by trading options. The account was opened months ago but we had to wait until the science (observation and measurement) told us to start. We’re on!
Digital Color Pencil Drawing of Docked Boats on Martha’s Vineyard
Once upon a time I drove through Massachusetts on my way to New Brunswick, Canada from Ontario but I never made it to Boston, let alone Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard, they’ve been on my bucket list for years but that was as close as I ever got. So what does Martha’s Vineyard Radio (MVYRadio.com) a Blue Lobster and Florianopolis have to do with an Expat Canuck living in Brazil?
In 2014 I went to Floripa for my first time, to meet a man from Cape Cod, called Floripa Bob. Floripa is a region of Santa Catarina, a magnificent state in Southern Brasil. Floripa Bob lived on top of mountain about a 45 minute drive from the Island of Florianopolis. His house perches over the valley and from the top of his property you can see all the way to the Atlantic. In true Cape Cod style, his house is adorned with deep-sea fishing tackle and remnants of Boston and Bob’s life as a seafarer, before he became Floripa Bob.
I stayed a couple of weeks on top of the mountain at Floripa Bob’s and made excursions to parks, waterfalls and tropical beaches and every day returned to Bob’s compound on the mountain. Amongst other things that I will never forget, one is, and it sticks with me to this day, every day, is that we’d listen to MVY Radio. It doesn’t take too long of listening, to realize that this is not just an ordinary station, MVY Radio is more like an institution of Rock and Blues that happens to broadcast choice music 24/7. What’s better is that the MVY Radio website offers live streaming and you’ll soon learn that there are listeners, like me and Floripa Bob, all over the world. It’s not just a local radio station.
It may sound bizarre to say; but my life changed after discovering this radio station, well at least I could say that “my life expanded”, it became better, richer and happier. I’m serious, the amount I was learning about the musicians and the collaborations amongst artists on Martha’s Vineyard, was truly enlightening. The love and knowledge of music and musicians is what makes the difference, from the Dj’s and in the programming. They just seem to play a classic on the back of something brand new and it works. You just never know what you might hear next but one things for sure, you’re going to hear something that you’re going to like, soon enough.
The thing about MVY Radio crew that makes them so unique, is that they actually know, from being so “inside” the hippest song-writing scene, what’s really hot and who really bringing it. They schmooze with the artists, so much so that it’s not un-common for singer/song-writers to come right into the radio station and play live on the air.
I’ve turned a few people on to MVY Radio, they can thank me later but for me it’s nice to know, that friends and family, in other parts of the world, are listening to the same radio station, at the same time, as me.
The Blue Lobster and mvyradio
The Blue Lobster is an extremely rare occurrence in nature. Its cobalt blue color clearly separates it from those dark red lobsters.
As a symbol, we feel it shares the spirit and mission of mvyradio – highlighting the rare, individual approach to music and to our listening community, as well as our common connection to the sea, the past, and our endurance into the future.
Maine Lobsterman Catches Rare Blue Lobster – Read all about it! This lobster was donated to the Maine State aquarium. She is the first blue lobster known to be named Skyler.
MVY Music Philosophy
What makes MVY sound like MVY? There’s no easy answer to that question. But it’s that hard-to-define quality about MVY that makes it so unique, so special.
Our sound comes from a consciousness that we tapped into 33 years ago, when mvyradio first went on the air. When we think about MVY, we don’t think about genres or labels or categories. Our songs – drawn from rock, alternative, singer/songwriter, blues, and roots – are connected by their substance and quality. Our bottom line is the accessibility, the craftsmanship and the strength of the song. We’re eclectic and enthusiastic, wanting to make a personal connection through music and stories. The final piece of the puzzle, the integral component that makes MVY so vital, comes from outside our walls. Our engaged listeners give invaluable dimension to MVY through their interaction and suggestions.
Our Mission is to bring our sound to every like-minded listener in the world who loves music, values artistry, embraces intelligence, revels in
independence and welcomes both the familiar and new.
The actual quote is from Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar (1599). The warning is uttered by a soothsayer who is letting Roman leader Julius Caesar know that his life is in danger, and he should probably stay home and be careful when March 15th, the Ides of March, rolls around.
How much of what a soothsayer tells us should we listen to, how much of our own inner voice should we listen to? Perhaps Julius Caesar should have stayed home that day but then there would have been another day with the same risk, just around the corner. We can’t avoid living our lives because there’s a risk of death outside our door.
I live in a statistically dangerous place, Sao Paulo, Brasil and travel by commuter bike, 10 km every day. I’m acutely aware of my risk and once experienced the bizarre thrill of bounce/rolling up the bonnet (Australian word for “hood” of a car) and shattering (but not going through) the windshield of a sedan belonging to a horrified young woman, who had just run a red light, having not seen me coming. She looked pale and shaken, as for me, just a couple of bruises and scrapes from my handle-bars. The front bike tire was totaled and the handle-bars were toast but the frame and bike parts were fine, so I pushed it home, fixed and was riding again within days, albeit with more caution, since I was speeding the day of the car crash but the rewards of my lifestyle far outweigh the risk I deal with every day.
Riding a bicycle any place (almost) will provide a winning risk/reward ratio. In fact, it may be, that with practice and experience, anything that appears to be extremely dangerous, may be a low-risk activity for a person with an expert skill level. Perception and reality, more often than not, are very different. Our world is filled with dichotomy, everything the media tells us about an important global incident, for example, is most likely something actually totally different than the truth. We’ve now come to expect deception and become complacent about it.
Perception is the point of advertising and marketing too, here again we’re bombarded daily with propaganda. It’s no wonder we’ve become complacent towards all the hypocrisy and deceit, spewed through the mainstream. It’s just become a new form of theater, to amuse the masses, while Rome burns. Besides, as most people suggest to me, there’s nothing we can do about a rigged system and tyrannical ruling elite who’ve taken over the planet (well sort-of) but then one day, I decided there was something I could do, I quit.
Bar do Juarez has long been my second favourite restaurant in Sao Paulo, they serve a steak dish that they’ve become famous for called “Picanha no Réchaud”, which is a cut of beef that arrives at your table un-cooked but thinly sliced and in the accompaniment of an extremely hot brazier, upon which you grill your own dinner, just the way you want it.
The serving of “Picanha no Réchaud” is easily enough food for 3 people, or can be shared amongst 4 with a large salad or the best antipasto I know of in Brazil. However 2 hungry diners can also finish this meal, with some hard-work and patience. The side dishes are coleslaw, vinaigrette, and farofa, which is a popular toasted cassava flour mixture and this tasty ensemble is served with fresh Italian bread. In my opinion this is a really excellent way to eat, it’s a really fun meal to enjoy with a friend.
Bar do Juarez History
Juarez Alves is the owner of the trendy Bar do Juarez, which has four locations in São Paulo: Itaim, Moema, Brooklin and Pinheiros. Originally from Ibitira in the state of Bahia, Juarez came to the city of São Paulo in 1973, at age 12, and from an early age dreamed of setting up his own business. He achieved this goal with a lot of hard work to make the money, then discipline to save the capital: he worked as a cafeteria clerk, fry cook, then a waiter in various establishments. From the beginning Juarez discovered the pleasure of serving the people, contributing towards making it a nice time for family and friends.
In 1986 with his brother and a partner opened the “Restaurant Bier Bier”, serving German food. In 1997, the house was sold and the following year opened the Juarez Moema, the first location of Bar do Juarez. Inspired by the famous pubs of the old center of São Paulo, places where a “good conversation” going through the night and people ended up almost forgetting to return home, the “Juarez Bar” soon became a reference and point meeting to the public that goes to the region for happy hour or to stay in the neighborhood through the night. With the successful establishment, it was opened in the following years the bars in Itaim (2001), Brooklyn and Pinheiros (both in 2008). A success story that has lasted 15 years.
Of the 4 locations, Brooklin is my favourite, which naturally, is the reason I made a video about it. Here’s some photos of the Brooklin Bar do Juarez from their website.
Felt Mountain Bike by the Tomsk River Bridge, Siberia
The bike is a modern day horse, the right bike can be a workhorse, and if you add a skateboard, you now have an urban, tactical ground transport system (your ground game). Bikes sometimes go on buses, and often on trains but many times you don’t want to have to deal with the bike at your destination, like in the case of going into a busy downtown core for a business meeting. Or perhaps you’re going to an airport, or renting a car at the other end of the train ride. These occasions are when you lock your bike in the safest place you can find, extract your skateboard and proceed to the train. The combination of bike and skateboard provides an Expat with a rapid, light weight, transportation strategy, that can’t be matched in it’s diversity of uses and cost to implement vs. benefits.
At 55 years old, it may sound childish (to some), that I’m such an advocate of the bike and board transport system. However, when I was a backpacker in Australia in my early 20’s, I owned 4 surfboards (at a time, sold each), 1 skateboard (lasted me years, then I mailed it to Canada) and a forgotten number of bikes. Once I was living in a youth hostel in Freemantle, Western Australia, up on the hill with a view towards Perth and out to the Indian Ocean. I made a bet with a brash young Dude in a flashy new car, that I could beat him to the train station, where we were catching a train into Perth. The girls rode with him and I set off on my skateboard, knowing that I could use the momentum of the hill we lived on to gain enough speed to cruise down the pedestrian mall, which runs block after block through the very center of Freemantle, all the way to the train station. I won that bet because the car could not go where I could go, however I got lucky and timed the stop light at the bottom of the hill, whereas the car had to wait at more than 1 stop-light.
Skateboard benefits worth their weight in gold, is how a skateboard can be used to move heavy objects like boxes of books. Then, when strapped to your backpack with the wheels facing out, the first roll-aboard was born years before Travelpro patented the design we know today. Plus, have you ever seen how children love them? Everywhere in the world, kids want to ride on skateboards. If the environment is right and there’s a safe place to learn, then it’s almost impossible to damage a skateboard, however you do need to be aware that learning means falling and sometimes falling means pain, which can lead to crying. Always use caution and protective gear when learning to skateboard. It’s also not the best type of sport to take-up if you’re not in decent physical shape, as for me, I’d been riding the bikes and boards for my my entire life. I’d also been around boats and skis since before I could walk, however I’ve never lived anywhere that a boat would be more of an advantage, although many places I lived, like Sydney and Hong Kong where I would have had one if I had more time to get my hands on one.
Getting your hands on a bike is the easiest thing, since there are used bikes in garages everywhere on the planet. Often times a person will give, or lend you there a bike, just because it’s been sitting so long that the tires need replacing. Once an elderly couple in South Florida gave me a perfect-condition Peugeot 10 Speed that had been in the closet of their closet for decades, the only thing I had to do was buy new tires because the old ones had dried out to the point of rotting off the bike. The guy at bike shop was in shock at the condition that this antique road bike was in, as for me I loved it and rode it by the old man’s place after to tell him about all the fun he’d missed out on. Riding home on that bike, down the beach on sunset, after a hot day of swimming and laying-out in the sun with my girl, remain some of my fondest memories.
My current bike, which I just now came back from riding, is a stealth (matte black [dull]) urban mountain bike, I call the Canadian Mongoose (my ground game). The previous bike was a Snake by Caloi (Brazilian bike maker), so the Mongoose followed the Snake, and Canadian because it’s tricked out with kit from my favorite gear store in Vancouver the World (Mountain Equipment Co-op), to be as good or better than my Dad’s mountain bike in Canada (which I mooch while there)
December bike ride (Photo credit: siliconpalms)
, but also I have an awesome street racing, 18 speed Trek that was given to me by my Dad’s best friend, he kept it in excellent condition and it rides beautifully. Having said all that, my passion is urban mountain bike riding here in Sampa (Sao Paulo, Brazil), which is a sport I feel I’m part of pioneering. This city has the most challenging riding of any city I’ve seen, part of the challenge is the danger of crossing major roads and hiways because of potential crime/violence. The risks of urban riding here are much more related to cars, motor-bikes and people, this adds a whole new dimension to the sport of regular mountain bike riding – which btw: where I come from in Western Canada is not only perilously dangerous, if you screw up on some trails, you are dead for sure.
Anyone who doesn’t own a bike, is because they don’t want one and that’s normally because they forgot how much fun they are. Now in every city in the world there are bike rentals, get your gusto back on, improve your ground game and get out there and take a peddle. Also, never go to Amsterdam and not rent a bike (unless it’s snowing), that is the one city in the world where no other transportation system can compare. The bike lanes go towards the on-coming traffic but on the safety of the sidewalk. Dutch people revere the bicycle and it’s the most fun of any city to ride a bike in, although China is no slouch on bike lanes and many other places have more people moving around on 2 wheels, under their own power, than people in cars.
Canadian Mongoose, custom made mountain bike
So i leave this review of one of the best lightweight jogging stroller on sale right now as i promised the other day.
Here in Brazil it’s expensive to buy imported bikes, and although my custom made bike cost me about $500 USD because it was made with KHS frame and imported parts. The Kona I like would set you back $5,000 USD but it’s available because they sell. Sadly though the Brazil government increases prices for a bicycle profile that Brazilian manufacturers are not able to manufacture. Brands like KHS, Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Kona, Scott and others represent no more than 3 percent of the total volume of bicycles sold in Brazil. However, they’ve been selling here for a long time, so there’s always used ones somewhere, that someone wants to unload. Realistically I’d say you just walk into a busy bike shop and buy the best used bike that comes closest to your needs, and ride by the shop every month to see if there’s a used Kona come in for sale. My friend that owns Moema Bikes in Sao Paulo speaks perfect English, can build any type of bike, has every accessory, and sees Gringoes ride up and sell a bike (with tears in their eyes) because they’re going back Stateside, or moving overseas, those bikes sell really fast but there’s always a bike for the right price, ready to ride away on – just make sure you know where you’re going and how to get there, especially in Sampa.
The bike is irrefutably the best method of sight-seeing too, what are you waiting for? Just pick up a local newspaper, or better still, find the classifieds online and search your scene for “used bike for sale”. Or walk into a bike with a MasterCard and ride out on my favorite, a brand new Kona (Deep Cove, BC, Bike Maker). Just remember to buy a bigger lock, and that you can’t leave it parked anywhere for very long – even the big locks get jacked in under 30 seconds. A fancy looking bike attracts the thieves, dull it down and don’t leave it tied-up outside super-busy areas, like at bus stations etc…. Get yourself the best helmet you can find, not some sissy Tour de France looking racing helmet – a full-blown Extreme-sports helmet and the correct gloves. Wear excellent footwear, never flip-flops (unless it’s to the corner store) and always, always “ride to arrive alive”! Click here to learn how to make backup for power cuts.
São Paulo is the dynamic result of the demolition and reconstruction of successive cities in just over a century. In that short time, the citadel with 30 000 inhabitants has become a metropolis with 20 million inhabitants, and its nature has practically disappeared. Originally very rich in biodiversity, São Paulo showed extensive forests of the Atlantic Forest, Araucaria, savannas and wetlands, forming a unique landscape. During the process of urbanization, the ancestral vegetation was being cleared and replaced by species of foreign origin, cultural motivation that led to the mass extinction of native flora and fauna and the current situation of 80% of urban vegetation to be of foreign origin, ie , exotic.
To be a palm tree, or any kind of tree in a city like São Paulo is not easy. It complicates your life – contaminated and compacted soil, the narrow sidewalk and all cemented the overhead wires everywhere, harmful pruning and people who see it as an obstacle or producers of “dirt”. However, they are what make the city livable, breathable and beautiful. We hired a tree care company from https://www.atlantatreeaces.com to help take care of our beautiful trees.
The Organization; SOS Mata Atlântica of São Paulo decorates trees for resistance to uncontrolled urban development, mobilizing the population to create a map to the great trees in town, then tell their stories and to report any mistreatment.
[box type=”info”]Euterpe edulis, commonly known as juçara, jucara (misspell of the former name, of Luso-Tupian origin), jussara (an archaic alternative spelling), açaí-do-sul or palmiteiro, is a palm species in the genus Euterpe. It is now predominantly used for hearts of palm. It is closely related to the açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), a species cultivated for its fruit and superior hearts of palm. The larvae of Caligo brasiliensis are reported to feed on E. edulis.[/box]
Palmeiras do Jardim Botanico – Imperial Palms are a Palm of great beauty and elegance, the palm-juçara is the parent plant of the Atlantic Forest, providing their food with fruit for much of the fauna, the paca the toucan. In São Paulo it occurred in abundance prior to urbanization, but faded to near local extinction by searching for your palm for cooking (heart of palms) and as a construction material. Palmital in the Botanical Garden, around the source of one of the trainers of the famous Riacho Ipiranga, São Paulo is an ancestral landscape, true environmental relic.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Aaron Swartz for the whole “creative commons” movement. I feel that he was somewhat unsung for his part in Wikipedia, so we must strive to always remember him for Wikimedia Commons. Imagine how much music, art, content, media and photography has been licensed and protected for the public to use, all because of Aaron Swartz’s great idea – create a license and make it free!
Often times the media has a license calling for “Attribution” but who would care about that, if someone has created a great image or sound-track (for example) and they license it creative commons, then it’s “fair use” to add value to what your own creative efforts, for free, just attribute the licensor, many of whom are professionals and want to give-away their media and ideas. This platform promotes collaboration in the most subtle and yet obvious way, people working over great distances and yet with instant communication, is creating a new renaissance of sorts. New ground is being broken in every imaginable direction, just like Ray Kurzweil describes in his future trends forecast; we’re expanding exponentially because our minds are connected through devices that enable us tremendous access to ideas and knowledge.
Before Wikimedia Commons private image archives and news media would employ teams of IP (intellectual property) experts and copyright cops yo seek-out web publishers like me, that would often borrow maps, charts, content and images that clearly belonged to someone other than me, someone who had undoubtedly paid some other person to create such media. In others words, it had obvious value and I, in some cases, did not have the express written consent from the owner of said media. One day I learned better….
For years now it’s not been necessary to go anywhere but to huge royalty free archives, none though, came anywhere close to the home page for the Creative Commons, and the doorway into some of the best images and media anywhere. Several months ago I was tipped-off by Robin Good, he’s the guru of good ideas for content collaboration and web marketing, about VisualHunt.com which is the absolute most exciting thing for me, since Yahoo was launched because it’s a search engine of 354,191,553 Creative Commons Photos. Yep, that’s right… if you can’t find an image to express your vision, from amongst 350 million, then maybe it doesn’t exist and you need to create, so you can upload it and give a “creative commons” license. Let’s all put our best something good there.
The last Caipirinha was the best one, exactly because it was the last one. The time had come and past, it was time for me to hit the wagon for good. My romance with the Cachaça had lasted long enough, the magic was gone from the relationship and all that was left was drudgery and boredom but that wasn’t the worst of it, watching my own destruction, as I drank those frozen concoctions, which “yes” I falsely thought they were helping me hang-in, as if I were living in Margaritaville but this is much worse because Cachaça, or “pinga” as it’s called in Brazil slang, is more powerful, more prevalent and can be ridiculously cheap.
[box]For example, imported cheap tequila is at least ten times more expensive here but it’s not just that it’s the formula for a Caipirinha and how they’re constructed, plus with which Cachaça.[/box]
Listen to my love of the Caipirinha (above), see it was totally out-of control. Plus I liked to drink ice cold Heineken of Stella Artois at the same time, which I was always warned against. Brazilian tradition has a huge reverence for Cachaça, a folklore’ish belief in how, where, when and how much is a safe and smart amount. It’s free from small kegs, with little shot glasses, in most decent Minas Geriais (type of cuisine) restaurants. On the beaches they have some of the best hand-made drinks. All that’s needed is lime, sugar, ice and pinga for the absolute perfect beach cocktail.
It was a crazy, impulsive decision to join One Year No Beer and take the 90 challenge. It’s a social network for people like me, who want to win our lives back from booze and in particular beer. I also had respect and reverence for the mighty Cachaça and the oh-so-sweet Caipirinha, so I had a weekend’s only rule but would often break that rule. The thing of it is, beer is the ultimate gateway drug. My Dad gave me my first beer, everyone in Canada drank beer, it’s a national pastime to accompany, for watching hockey during the long cold winters.
Brazil has the best beer culture in the world, just watch some of our programmed Television and you’ll see a ton of sex-appeal selling billions of dollars of beer. There is cold beer everywhere here in Brazil and although I drank mostly imported, partly because it’s $1 or $2 USD cost, whereas I paid up to $10 USD in Europe.
My drinking days are over and I’m glad to say “tchau Cachaça”.
Pay attention to this information. In 1999 something really old and really important was discovered in a forest in Germany, the truth about this find, is just beginning to be told.
The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around 30 cm diameter and a weight of 2.2 kg, with a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These are interpreted generally as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster interpreted as the Pleiades). Two golden arcs along the sides, marking the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes (of uncertain meaning, variously interpreted as a Solar Barge with numerous oars, as the Milky Way, or as a rainbow).
The disk is attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany, and associatively dated to c. 1600 BC. It has been associated with the Bronze Age Unetice culture.
The disk is unlike any known artistic style from the period, and was initially suspected of being a forgery, but is now widely accepted as authentic.
The Nebra sky disk features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos worldwide. In June 2013 it was included in the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and termed
“one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.”
Discovery
The disk, two bronze swords, two hatchets, a chisel, and fragments of spiral bracelets were discovered in 1999 by Henry Westphal and Mario Renner while they were treasure-hunting with a metal detector. Archaeological artifacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt. The hunters were operating without a license and knew their activity constituted looting and was illegal. They damaged the disk with their spade and destroyed parts of the site. The next day, Westphal and Renner sold the entire hoard for 31,000 DM to a dealer in Cologne. The hoard changed hands within Germany over the next two years, being sold for up to a million DM. By 2001 knowledge of its existence became public.
In February 2002 the state archaeologist Harald Meller acquired the disk in a police-led sting operation in Basel from a couple who had put it on the black market for 700,000 DM. The original finders were eventually traced. In a plea bargain, they led police and archaeologists to the discovery site. Archaeologists opened a dig at the site and uncovered evidence that supports the looters’ claims. There are traces of bronze artifacts in the ground, and the soil at the site matches soil samples found clinging to the artifacts. The disk and its accompanying finds are now held at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle.
The two looters received sentences of four months and ten months, respectively, from a Naumburg court in September 2003. They appealed, but the appeals court actually raised their sentences to six and twelve months, respectively.
The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a 252 metres (827 ft) elevation in the Ziegelroda Forest, known as Mittelberg (“central hill”), some 60 km west of Leipzig. The surrounding area is known to have been settled in the Neolithic era, and Ziegelroda Forest contains around 1,000 barrows.
The enclosure is oriented in such a way that the sun seems to set every solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, some 80 km to the north-west. The treasure-hunters claimed the artifacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure.
Dating
The precise dating of the Nebra skydisk depended upon the dating of a number of Bronze Age weapons, which were offered for sale with the disk and said to be from the same site. These axes and swords can be typologically dated to the mid 2nd millennium BC. Radiocarbon dating of a birchbark particle found on one of the swords to between 1600 and 1560 BC confirmed this estimate. This corresponds to the date of burial, at which time the disk had likely been in existence for several generations.
Significance
The disk is possibly an astronomical instrument as well as an item of religious significance. The blue-green patina of the bronze may have been an intentional part of the original artifact.
If authentic, the find reconfirms that the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the European Bronze Age included close observation of the yearly course of the Sun, and the angle between its rising and setting points at summer and winter solstice. While much older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes such as the Goseck circle or Stonehenge had already been used to mark the solstices, the disk is the oldest known “portable instrument” to allow such measurements. Pásztor, however, sees no evidence that the disk was a practical device for solar measurements.
Euan MacKie suggests that the Nebra disk can be linked to the solar calendar reconstructed by Alexander Thom from his analysis of standing stone alignments in Britain.
Every body has an idea. Every day, every single person breathing (that’s over seven billion individuals) has new ideas. Who decides what ideas have value? Why do some ideas manifest into reality and other ideas “die-on-the-vine“? When does a good idea become reality? Where do good ideas come from? What is it about ideas that makes them so valuable? How does a person sell an idea?
These are the two most important questions, you need to ask yourself.
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Assume you’re up to speed, in real-time, today. Let’s assume that your best epilator ain’t that sharp like a razor (IQ 160+) and let’s take it another degree and assume you’re surrounded with contemporaries ( in Oz {Australia}, we called “mates“) and also, for laughs and giggles, imagine that you’re also totally dialed-in too. I mean, you’re connected to Dudes who are bringing-down six-figures for how-smart they are, in the hi-tech-sector. This is a common scenario in today’s world. This is normal. You are asking the right questions….
So you wake-up one morning and you, for some un-known reason, probably because you were getting ripped with one of your inside “mates” and all of a sudden, low and behold, you concoct in your mind, the web-geek equivalent to the cure for cancer. So now what?
Ideas are a dime a dozen. It takes about 2 hours of research to know, that your new mouse-trap is a file for the permanently delete folder, or is it? Or does that stupid idea hold merit? Is that brain-fart worth money? Is it equal to other bad-ideas that flew in the face of reason?
I’m going to be brutally honest here. It’s not that ideas are over-rated, “au contraire”, it’s that so few people have the intention to make them happen. Understand that there’s a giant gap between thinking about something and doing it. The value of ideas get’s completely diluted at this exchange, so much so, that one million-to-one seems like a realistic likelihood. Now we know, ideas are cheap, everybody is selling them and it’s one million to one that your idea has value.
So what’s a poor-boy to do? Lot’s of ideas and no-way to make any of them turn-into money.
Come back soon and I will share some ideas about how but for now, at this point in my mining, there’s an opportunity happening about 15 floors beneath me, which I have access to because of my proximity, so I must take action and put an idea into effect. See you again soon.
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