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bamby0304 · 5 years

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Her Saviours- Ch.24

Series Masterlist

Summary: During an odd case, the Winchesters came across Y/N, a scared young Omega girl who had been used as a lure for a nest of vampires. After rescuing her from the monsters, John and his sons took her in knowing she was in no state to live among ordinary people. But three Alphas and one Omega is a mixture bound for disaster.

Warnings: Explicit language. ABO dynamics. Angst. Violence.

Bamby

The other Omega and Alpha were safe now. Their car had needed a few touch-ups which Dean was able to do while you kept an eye on the orchard you’d still been parked by. Then you and he followed them until they were far away and safe.

Driving back towards the town, the sun rising, Dean had Sam on loudspeaker as he explained everything to his brother.

“The scarecrow climbed off its cross?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I’m tellin’ ya. Burkittsville, Indiana. Fun Town.” The tension in Dean was obvious. Not only in the way he spoke, but you could tell by looking at his grip on the steering wheel.

“It didn’t kill the couple, did it?”

“No. We can cope without you, you know.”

“Y/N… are you okay?”

Smiling down at the phone on the dash, you nodded even though he couldn’t see you. “I’m okay.”

“This thing is after Omegas and the male with them. Dean-”

“I got it,” Dean cut his brother off. “I can keep her safe.”

“I’m not doubting that. I’m just worried.”

The clench of Dean’s jaw made you wonder what was going through his head. Was he worried about you, too? Or did his brother’s words just hit a nerve?

When there was no response, Sam cleared his throat. “So, something must be animating it. A spirit.”

“No, it’s more than a spirit. It’s a god. A Pagan god, anyway,” Dean corrected.

“What makes you say that?”

“The annual cycle of its killings? And the fact that the victims are always an Alpha and unclaimed Omega. Like some kind of fertility right. And you should see the locals.” Dean glanced at you. “They treat Omegas like royalty. Offered Y/N anything she might want or need. The way they treated this couple… fattenin’ ‘em up like a Christmas turkey.”

“The last meal. Given to sacrificial victims.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some Pagan god.”

“So, a god possesses the scarecrow…”

“And the scarecrow takes its sacrifice,” Dean finished his brother’s sentence. “And for another year, the crops won’t wilt, and disease won’t spread.”

“Do you know which god you’re dealing with?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, you figure out what it is, you can figure out a way to kill it.”

“I know. I’m actually on my way to a local community college. I’ve got an appointment with a professor. You know, since I don’t have my trusty sidekick geek boy to do all the research.”

Sam laughed lightly, “You know, if you’re hinting you need my help, just ask.”

“I’m not hinting anything. Y/N and I can handle it,” Dena assured him. “Actually, uh… I want you to know… I mean, don’t think…”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, too.” Sam didn’t need to hear the words to understand.

“Sam. You were right. You gotta do your own thing. You gotta live your own life.”

You looked over at Dean, surprised.

“Are you serious?”

“You’ve always known what you want. And you go after it. You stand up to Dad. And you always have. Hell, I wish I… anyway… I admire that about you. I’m proud of you, Sammy.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Say you’ll take care of yourself.”

“I will.”

“Call me when you find Dad.”

“Okay. Bye, Dean.” There was a pause before Sam added, “Goodbye, Y/N.”

As the line went dead, you turned to look out the window, feeling tears well up in your eyes. Your heart ached as you realised this was it. It was the end. Sam was gone, he was going to do his own thing… and you didn’t think he’d be back again. At least not for a while.

“Hey.” Dean reached over to rest a hand on your knee. “Talk to me.”

Unable to look at him, you kept your eyes on the horizon as you spoke, “Still hurts… losing him. Losing any of you. When you said you’ve had to compete for my attention since we met-”

“I didn’t mean it. Not like that.”

Glancing over your shoulder, you gave him a small smile. “I know, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. You, John, Sam… you all saved me. You all mean so much to me. I hate… I hate feeling like I’m grasping onto the hope of us all being together again when it’s not gonna happen.”

“It will,” he assured you, giving your knee a squeeze. “Sammy will find Dad and they’ll kill the son of a bitch that killed my mum. And then they’ll come find us, and things will go back to the way they used to be. The way they should be.”

Wiping away at the stray tear the rolled down your cheek, you shifted along the seat and snuggled into his side. “I hope you’re right, Dean. I really hope you’re right.”

…

“It’s not every day I get a research question on Pagan ideology.”

You and Dean were walking with a professor through the halls of the community college where he worked. The hope was that he could shed some light on the history behind the town. Perhaps then, you’d be able to understand what you were dealing with and how to kill it.

Dean offered a polite smile. “Yeah, well, call it a hobby.”

“But you said you were interested in local lore?” the professor asked, getting a hummed confirmation from both you and Dean. “I’m afraid Indiana isn’t really known for its Pagan worship.”

“Well, what if it was imported?” Dean suggested. “You know, like the Pilgrims brought their religion over. Wasn’t a lot of this area settled by immigrants?”

The professor shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

“There’s a place nearby, Burkittsville. Do you know where their ancestors would have come from?” you asked, a little tentatively.

The professor was beta, but the place had lingering scents of Alpha everywhere. Campus’ generally meant a wide variety of races, genders, and breeds. It wasn’t the first time you’d been on a campus, but it did feel different. You wondered if it was due to your intensifying fear of strange Alphas.

“Uh, northern Europe, I believe, Scandinavia,” the professor provided.

“What could you tell us about those Pagan gods?” Dean asked.

“Well, there are hundreds of Norse gods and goddesses.”

“We’re actually looking for one. Might live in an orchard.”

…

In the professor’s office, he dropped an old and heavy book onto the table in front of you and Dean. Flicking it open, he started to skim a few pages to find what you were looking for.

“Woods god, hm? Well, let’s see.”

As the pages kept turning, Dean quickly spotted something. “Wait, wait, wait. What’s that one?” He turned back to the page in question where you saw a scarecrow in a field.

“Oh, that’s not a woods god, per se.”

“The V-Vanir?” Dean looked up at the professor for confirmation, seeing him nod. He then turned back to the book and began to read. “‘The Vanir were Norse gods of protection and prosperity, keeping the local settlements safe from harm. Some villages built effigies of the Vanir in their fields. Other villages practised human sacrifice. One Alpha, and one unclaimed Omega.’” Pausing a moment, he eyed the picture before asking, “Kind of looks like a scarecrow, huh?”

The professor shrugged. “I suppose.”

Dean continued to read. “This particular Vanir that’s energy sprung from the sacred tree?”

“Well, Pagans believed all sorts of things were infused with magic.”

“So… what would happen if the tree was damaged?” you asked. “Like cut down…”

“Or torched,” Dean added. “You think it’d kill the god?”

Laughing, the professor looked at you both amused, but also like you might’ve lost your minds. “These are just legends we’re discussing.”

“Oh, of course. Yeah, you’re right.” Dean quickly nodded, pulling back from the book. “Listen, thank you very much.” He reached out for the professor’s hand, which he then shook.

Smiling politely, you then offered your hand. “You’ve been a great help, thank you.

“Glad I could help.” Nodding, the professor walked you to the door.

Neither you or Dean were prepared for what happened next.

As the door opened, you spotted the sheriff standing on the other side. Dean didn’t get the chance to react before the sheriff hit him in the head with the butt of his gun, knocking Dean out.

“Dean!” you cried out, reaching out for him.

“Not so fast.” The sheriff grabbed your arm and spun you around, pressing you against the wall. “Really should have left when you had the chance.”

Pulling you back, he then slammed you forward, against the wall again. This time it was hard enough to knock you clean out.

…

“Sweetheart,” Dean’s voice called to you. “Sweetheart, you gotta wake up. Come on, wake up for me. Please.” The tension in his voice made your heart break. At the same time, you used the pain to draw you back to consciousness. When you made a small squeak of a sound, you could hear the smile in this voice. “That’s it. Come on. Open your eyes for me. Show me your eyes. You can do it.”

It took everything in your power to will yourself to open your eyes. When you did, you found yourself lying on the floor, with Dean hovering above you. His hands were cradling your face as he watched you with eyes so worried you could see tears threatening to form.

“Dean?”

He smiled at you, relief replacing his fears. “Hey.” Helping you sit up, he made sure you were okay. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened?” you asked, squeezing your eyes shut again as you felt a sharp pain throb in your head. “Where are we?”

“The professor was in on it. Called the sheriff. He knocked us out. Must’ve got you bad, ‘cause you’ve been out for a while.” His gaze remained on you, watching your every move carefully. “Had me worried for a moment there, sweetheart.”

“Sorry,” you grunted.

Looking around, you took in your surroundings. Wherever you were, it was cold, dark and dank. It smelt damp and mouldy, and earth. Above you, a few feet away, was what appeared to be a door. Light peeked through the cracks, lighting parts the stairs underneath it.

“We’re in a basement,” you noted, taking another moment to check your surroundings before turning back to Dean.

He looked… defeated. Guilty. Worried. Terrified. The way he was watching your hands as they sat in your lap…

“Dean.” You brought a hand up to cup his face. “This isn’t your fault.”

“You should have gone with Sam,” he muttered. “You should have gone with Sam years ago. When he first left. You should have gone with Sam, and you should have stayed with Sam, and I should have never dragged you into any of this.” There was a crack in his voice that made you want to burst into tears.

Shaking your head, you got on your knees in front of him. “Don’t. Don’t say that.”

“You’re always in danger if you’re with me.”

“Dean… do you really think your father would have let me go with Sam when he first left? Maybe he would have let me go, but do you seriously think he wouldn’t have gone to get me eventually? You Winchesters are pack people. Sam might’ve run away, but he’s still all about pack. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t have dropped everything to come help us. So do you seriously think I would have been able to stay with Sam? Do you really think you would have been able to give up on me so easily?”

There was a moment’s pause as he tried to think of a situation where he would have let you go… but there was none.

“No.” His voice was so soft as he looked up to meet your gaze. “I could never lose you.”

“And you’re not going to.” Leaning in, you pressed your lips to his in a delicate kiss.

The basement door creaked open.

Dean was quick to pull you behind him as he stood, ready to defend you if need be.

It wasn’t needed, though…

“We don’t have much time.” Emily glanced over her shoulder before gesturing for the of you to move. “I’m getting you out of here.”

…

Dean’s grip on your hand was tight as you and he followed Emily through the orchard. You had to be careful, and quiet, keeping low to stay out of sight. Apparently, there were a number of locals around the place, armed and on guard.

Sneaking around, you couldn’t help but notice how different the trees were compared to the first time you’d seen them. They were dying. The townsfolk were running out of time to appease the god.

“How’d you know?” Dean asked in a harsh whisper.

It was obvious he didn’t trust that she was actually trying to help, but you believed her. You also knew it was probably your best chance of getting out of there.

“I heard my aunt and uncle fussing over you two leaving town. And then all your questions, and the weird disappearances every year.” Emily paused and sighed, turning to look at you both. “My mother and father… they weren’t traditionalists. They didn’t believe in claiming. They thought it was barbaric.”

Her story fell into place, then. “Your mother was an unclaimed Omega.”

She nodded. “It was another year like this. The trees were beginning to die… and then the next morning everything was healthy and everyone was happy, and my parents were gone.”

“We’re sorry.” Dean meant it, too. Losing a parent… you all knew what that felt like.

A gun cocked behind you, making you freeze.

“I will shoot,” the sheriff warned. “And it’ll be one of the girls I hit. We only need one of them.”

The three of you all turned, seeing that the sheriff wasn’t alone. Scotty, Harley, and Stacy were all there, too. Armed and aiming their guns at your little group.

“Emily.” Stacy was a mixture of disappointed, shocked, guilty, and scared. “What did you do?”

“They’re people!” Emily exclaimed boldly, even though she was beginning to cry. “Why are you doing this?”

Harley squared his shoulders, doing his best not to show how seeing his niece at the other end of his barrel was affecting him. “It’s for the common good.”

…

Back in the basement, you watched as Dean tried to open the door for the millionth time. Emily was sitting beside you, sobbing lightly. She’d calmed down, but you could tell she was still freaked. You didn’t blame her.

“So… they’re gonna kill us?” she asked.

Having not known what was going on to the full extent when she’d tried to help you and Dean, Emily had only assumed the townsfolk had killed her parents. Explaining that they were offered up as a sacrifice instead was a little difficult.

“Sacrifice us,” Dean corrected. “Which is, I don’t know, classier, I guess?” Giving up on the door, he headed towards the two of you. “You really didn’t know anything about this, did you?”

She shook her head. “I suspected something, but… the scarecrow? I can’t believe this.”

“Well, you better start believing, cause we’re gonna need your help,” Dean told her. “We can destroy the scarecrow, but we gotta find the tree.”

“What tree?”

“The scarecrow’s power has to come from a sacred tree. Something old, that would have come from wherever the town’s founders are from,” you explained. “The townspeople would treat it with a lot of respect.”

Contemplating the thought for a moment, she soon remembered a tree. “There was this one apple tree. The immigrants brought it over with them. They call it the First Tree.”

“Is it in the orchard?” Dean asked.

Emily nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t know where.”

The doors opened again, revealing Scotty, Stacey, Harley, and the sheriff. Dean- once again- stood in front of you and Emily protectively as Stacey stepped forward.

“It’s time.”

…

The rope around your wrists wasn’t something you weren’t familiar with. Being in the hunter life meant you’d been tied up a few times over the years. Before that, however, you’d spent years bound. The memories of the things that you’d been through before the Winchesters always seemed a little more potent when you could feel the tightness of rope biting into your skin.

“How many people have you killed, Sheriff? How much blood is on your hands?” Dean asked, glaring at the man who’d just finished tying him to a tree of his own.

“We don’t kill them.”

“No, but you sure cover up after. I mean, how many cars have you hidden, clothes have you buried?”

“Uncle Harley, please,” Emily cried.

Her uncle couldn’t even look her in the eyes. “I am so sorry, Em. I wish it wasn’t you.”

“Try to understand,” Stacy started. “It’s our responsibility. You… you know too much. You’re a risk.”

“I’m your family.”

“Sweetheart,” Stacy genuinely looked upset, “that’s what sacrifice means. Giving up something you love for the greater good. The town needs to be safe. The good of the many outweighs the good of the one.”

She, Scotty and Harley began to walk away then, though the sheriff remained.

“I hope your apple pie is freakin’ worth it!” Dean called.

Ignoring Dean, the sheriff turned his back to him and then moved towards you. He knelt down, watching as you chewed on your lip, trying to fight the fear that came from the moment you were living in, and the one replaying in your mind.

“Such a shame… you were a pretty Omega. Would’ve made someone happy.”

Lip curling up into a snarl, you spat at him.

Raising a hand to his face, he wiped your spit from his cheek and rose to his feet suddenly. “That fight in you isn’t gonna change anything. You’re his, now.” Turning on his heels, he stalked off.

Your heart was beating hard and fast in your chest. The memories of your past, mixed with the stench of the Alpha sheriff, had your nerves on edge. Everything inside you was screaming to get free and run, but that panic wouldn’t do you any good.

If you tried to get yourself out, you’d only hurt yourself. If you tried to make a break for it, you wouldn’t get far. First, you’d have to free Dean and Emily, and then you’d have to try and sneak out of the orchards… you got the feeling you wouldn’t get far. The townspeople weren’t going to risk losing their sacrifice again.

“So, what’s the plan?” Emily asked Dean expectantly.

“I’m workin’ on it.”

…

The sun had set hours ago. It was cold, your arms ached as they’d remained tied above your head. Your bones hurt, and your anxiety was through the roof. Things were not looking good.

Emily sighed, “You don’t have a plan, do you?”

“I’m workin’ on it,’ Dean assured her, sounding considerably less confident than he had before. “Can you see?”

Shifting as much as you could, you tried to get a look at the scarecrow’s perch behind you. But as much as you tried, and moved, you couldn’t get a good view.

“I can’t see him.”

“Me either,” Emily added.

As you shifted, the ropes bit into your skin more. You hissed and winced as a memory shook you to your bones. Seeing the faces of those who’d killed your parents and taken you… remembering the things they’d done…

“Y/N,” Dean’s voice called you out of your head. “You okay?”

Gritting your teeth, you nodded. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh my God.”

Looking over at Emily, you saw pure fear in her eyes. “What? What is it?”

Whatever had he so scared, though, had her frozen as she stared straight ahead with wide eyes. “Oh my God!”

Leaves in the distance rustled as something moved. You could hear it now, coming closer and closer. The adrenaline pumping through your veins as you tried to use the bark on your tree to cut through your ropes. You had to get out of there. You had to save Dean and Em-

“Dean? Y/N?”

“Sam?” Your head fell back against the tree as you let out a relieved breath.

“Oh!” Dean beamed up at his younger brother as Sam moved towards him. “Oh, I take everything back I said. I’m so happy to see you. Come on.” As Sam started untying him, Dean asked, “How’d you get here?”

“I, uh…” Sam released his brother and shrugged. “I stole a car.”

Dean gave his arm a playful punch. “Haha! That’s my boy!” He moved towards Emily to free her while Sam moved to you. “And keep an eye on that scarecrow. He could come alive any minute.”

Sam stopped untying you to look in the direction where his brother had gestured. “What scarecrow?”

Your eyes went wide. “Oh fuck…”

...

The four of you were running. Being quiet and careful wasn’t going to do any of you good now that the scarecrow was awake. You had to be quick. You had to get the hell out of there before he found you.

“Alright, now, this sacred tree you’re talking about..”

“It’s the source of its power,” Dean explained.

Sam shrugged. “So let’s find it and burn it.”

Dean shook his head. “Nah, in the morning. Let’s just shag ass before Leather Face catches up.”

As the four of you reached a clearing, however, you found your paths were blocked by the townspeople.

Dean put his arms out in front of you and Emily, making you both stop as he started to back up. “This way.”

When you tried to turn to make a break for it, you found more people had gathered around. You were now surrounded.

Sam grabbed your arm and pulled you close to him, as Dean did the same with Emily. The Alphas kept you behind them as they moved back to back, keeping you both safe.

“Please. Let us go,” Emily begged.

Her uncle shook his head. “It’ll be over quickly, I promise.”

Scanning the crowd, you could see how close they were. How they had gathered around so tightly, and everyone’s focus was on your group… no one was watching their surroundings.

“How would you know?” you asked, eyes scanning the crowd. “You hide in the treeline or your homes. You lure people out here or trap them. You feed them to this thing. But you know nothing. You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

“Now is really not the time to piss them off,” Dean mumbled at you.

You had to disagree.

Pulling your arm from Sam’s grasp, you stepped away from the brothers and Emily, moving a little closer to the four townspeople who clearly ran the place. Scotty, Stacy, Harley, and the sheriff.

“You do this because it’s what you were taught to do, but you don’t understand it.” You eyed Scotty’s gun as it remained aimed at you. “You’re not gonna shoot. The fact you haven’t had to kill anyone with your own hands is how you can sleep at night.”

“We will if we have to,” the sheriff argued.

“No… you won’t. You won’t get the chance.”

All of a sudden, Harley let out a garbled gasp as the scarecrow’s sickle stuck out from his chest. Stacey screamed, and everything fell into chaos.

“Run!” you called to the brothers and Emily, before you made a break for it.

The scarecrow was cutting through the townspeople, trying to push through the crowd as they all tried to run away. His eyes were on you and Emily, as he hacked through whoever got in his way.

Sam and Dean grabbed you both, dragging you along as your feet slammed on the dirt ground. None of you let up until you saw the clearing of the orchard, and even then it only made you move faster.

Every breath you sucked in was like breathing in fire, your muscles ached, your heartbeat thrummed in your ears, drowning out the screams behind you.

Reaching the road, Sam and Dean shoved you and Emily across the line. You both stumbled, landing on the harsh asphalt, cutting up your arms and palms. But at that moment, the pain didn’t even register.

Spinning around, you watched the treeline, seeing the scarecrow step up to it and watch your group as you all sat on the road, trying to catch your breaths. People were still screaming, dying in the orchard.

The scarecrow stood there, his eyes on you and Emily for a moment longer before he turned and stalked back into the darkness.

“How… how’d you know?” Emily asked, trying to calm her breathing. “How’d you know he was going to kill them?”

“We were the only unclaimed Omegas. He had to cut through them to get to us.” You shrugged. “And I was kinda banking on him being pissed… they did keep him waiting after all.”

…

Emily had taken you, Dean and Sam to the impala. The four of you had then camped out in the car, on the side of the road by the orchard. You hadn’t been able to sleep, but Emily had crashed as soon as the adrenaline had left her system.

Dean had stayed up for a good long while, but when sleep claimed him, he didn’t fight it. You didn’t think he had it in him to fit. He’d been through a lot lately, and he needed the rest.

Sam had drifted in and out, but he’d mostly fought the urge to sleep. Every time it had won, even for the briefest of moments, he’d look back over at you to make sure you were okay.

It was morning now. The sun had risen, painting the sky in golden hues. The bright lights had stirred the other occupants of the vehicle, alerting them that it was time. With Sam carrying the gasoline, and Dean carrying the lighter, the four of you headed back into the orchard to find the sacred tree.

There wasn’t a single sign of last night’s events. You didn’t see a body… or even a spec of blood. Either remaining townspeople had cleaned up the mess, or the scarecrow had covered its track.

Once the tree had been found, Sam had poured the gasoline over all of it, while Dean had grabbed a large stick to light.

“Let me.” Emily gestured to the burning stick.

Handing it over, Dean stepped back next to you as Sam came over to join. The three of you watched Emily move to the tree.

“You know, the whole town’s gonna die,” Dean told her.

“Good.” With that, she threw the stick onto the gasoline and watched the tree catch fire.

…

Standing between Sam and Dean, you watched Emily get on the bus. None of you moved as she took a seat and waited before the bus then started down the road. You didn’t look away until you couldn’t see it anymore.

“Think she’s gonna be alright?” Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. “I hope so.”

“And the rest of the townspeople, they’ll just get away with it?”

“The power that was keeping the town alive is gone… trust me, they won’t just get away with it. They’ll suffer,” you assured him, not hiding the satisfied tone in your voice.

Those people deserved more than what was coming… but it was the best you could do. There was no proof of foul play, so calling the authorities was out of the question. That left you three dealing with the people, but you weren’t killers. So you were just going to have to settle with letting the town die.

As the three of you headed for the Impala, Dean looked over at his brother. “So, can I drop you off somewhere?”

Reaching his door, Sam leaned on the roof of the car and shook his head. “No, I think you’re stuck with me.”

You couldn’t deny the fact you were happy hearing those words. More than happy, actually. Knowing Sam had changed his mind about leaving… it was the best news you’d heard in a long time.

“What made you change your mind?” Dean asked.

“I didn’t.” Sam shrugged. “I still wanna find Dad. And you’re still a pain in the ass,” he noted, making Dean chuckling a nod. “But, Jess and Mum… they’re both gone. Dad is God knows where. The three of us,” he glanced over at you, we’re all that’s left. So, if we’re gonna see this through, we’re gonna do it together.”

Maybe that was the best thing you’d heard in a long time...

“Hold me, Sam.” Dean pressed a hand to his heart. “That was beautiful.”

Sam rolled his eyes at him. “You should be kissing my ass, you were dead meat, dude.”

“Yeah, right. I had a plan, I’d have gotten out,” Dean insisted as the three of you got in the car.

You couldn’t help but scoff. “You really didn’t.”

Bamby

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Making future transport more climate friendly

https://sciencespies.com/environment/making-future-transport-more-climate-friendly/

Making future transport more climate friendly

The Trøndelag County transport company AtB introduced 36 electric buses to the Trondheim bus system in August. This is one of the projects that researchers will be collecting data on and analysing. Credit: Idun Haugan/NTNU

The world’s transportation network is constantly growing. “Green asphalt” and sustainable bus transportation will ease the environmental impact of future transport routes.

The EU has greenlighted two major transport projects for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF, Scandinavia’s largest independent research institution, in cooperation with Chinese and European universities. “Green asphalt” and sustainable bus transportation will help make future transport routes more climate friendly.

Norway’s largest current road project is the E39 Coastal Highway Route, which stretches from Kristiansand to Trondheim. The ongoing project will make the route ferry-free and shorten the driving time between locations along this route.

China’s giant investment in transport and infrastructure is referred to as the “New Silk Road” and extends transport routes across several continents. We will return to this in more detail later.

These major transport initiatives raise the question of how they will affect both the climate and the environment.

“It’s challenging to facilitate more transportation and reduce climate emissions simultaneously, but transport and trade are bound to increase in the future. What is important now is to make the transport systems as smart and climate-friendly as possible,” says Carl Christian Thodesen.

He has headed the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU for the past six years and has been central to the collaboration with Chinese research groups. He was also instrumental in developing two major EU projects that received the green light from the EU just before the summer.

“We recognize that the world’s infrastructure is growing extremely fast and that we have to think smart and be climate smart. The construction and transport sectors account for 40 percent of CO2 emissions and energy consumption today. We have to drastically lower this rate,” says Thodesen.

“Thinking sustainably also gives us a competitive edge. Climate-smart solutions will be prioritized and preferred in the future,” he says. Thodesen took a position as dean of the Oslo Metropolitan University this autumn.

Cooperation strong in transport sector

The collaboration between Chinese universities, NTNU and SINTEF began in 2017, and took a solid step further during a visit by Norwegian researchers and educators in April 2018.

We had long thought about doing something with China. What’s happening in China when it comes to transport and construction is enormous, and the universities have incredibly good lab facilities,” says Thodesen.

SINTEF Bygg and NTNU transport researchers have now established collaborative efforts with Chinese researchers at universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan.

They are working on issues such as:

The circular economy in the transport sector. For example, industrial waste materials are used for filling potholes in roads

Materials and road surface. How asphalt can be optimized to withstand wear and harsh climate conditions

Bridge structures, including floating bridges and fixed bridges

Tunnels, both through mountains and under water (fjords in Norway and rivers in China)

Driverless vehicles

Electricity transport

Rail transport

Through the eye of the EU needle

SMUrTS and HERMES are acronyms for the two EU projects for which NTNU and SINTEF have won EU research funding. They are being led by NTNU and SINTEF respectively, and are part of The Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas call.

Electrifying the transportation sector is an important step towards making transport more environmentally friendly. Several countries are starting to electrify buses in urban areas. In Norway, the largest cities have started the transition to e-buses.

The SMUrTS project aims to help authorities in different countries develop an approach to improving the electrification of public transport systems and making the transition from conventional buses to electric buses as smooth as possible.

SMUrTS stands for Sustainable Mixed Urban Transit System with electric and conventional buses.

Plenty of obstacles ahead

However, replacing conventional buses with electric buses is no quick fix. As of today, electric buses still face numerous challenges, including:

range limitations

loss of battery capacity

battery charge time

SMUrTS is working to find solutions for electric buses in extreme conditions, such as in the tough Nordic climate and in extremely large cities.

Beijing’s streets are congested with everything that moves — mopeds, bicycles, cars and rickshaws, to name a few — and distances are great. Credit: Idun Haugan/NTNU

“In Norway, the cold climate is a challenge in terms of battery capacity. Tests on Tesla cars in the United States show that battery capacity is reduced by 40 percent in the winter,” says Chaoru Lu at NTNU. Lu is a postdoc at NTNU and was educated at Beijing Jiatong Universtity and Iowa State University. Lu and NTNU associate professor Trude Tørset are the SMUrTS project managers.

In megacities like Beijing, long distances are a challenge in terms of battery capacity.

“During this transitional period, until we overcome the limitations of e-buses, it’s more realistic to develop a city transportation system with a mix of conventional and electric buses. That way you can maintain the service standard of the transportation network,” says Lu.

Research needs to be useful for relevant actors

Since electric buses are relatively new, data collection and information is needed on how e-buses are working and how the transition from conventional buses to electric buses is going.

The researchers will be collecting a variety of data from the public transport company AtB in Trondheim, which this autumn inaugurated 36 electric buses in the transport network.

“Our goal with the research is to make a difference for the actors who are working on public transportation. This means that our research and our analyses need to provide useful information that ATB can use in transitioning to electric buses,” says Lu.

AtB finding research valuable

AtB, the transport company in Trøndelag County, where NTNU is located, thinks that the transition to electric buses has gone well so far.

“Clearly, challenges inevitably come up that you haven’t foreseen or planned for when undertaking something new. But we haven’t faced more challenges than you’d expect when making these kinds of changes,” says Tom Nørbech, division manager of technology and mobility services at AtB.

One challenge of switching over to electric buses, according to Nørbech, is that you no longer get your energy from filling stations but from charging stations, so you have to build a new and completely different type of infrastructure.

He thinks access to the SMUrTS analyses of what AtB does is important in this transition. The project is being conducted at “a high professional level, by people who are at the forefront of this type of research. It’s clear that both the analyses and access to the expertise of the collaborating partners are very valuable to us,” he says.

Models adapted to different cities and countries

This research project plans to collect data on environmental benefits, costs, efficiency, energy consumption on electric buses and on conventional buses, and the influence of the weather and climate on energy consumption.

“We’re looking at the big picture, and data from multiple fields gives us a bigger picture of how best to plan. Based on the data we collect, we’ll create models that we can customize for public transit companies to help solve their challenges,” says Lu.

The researchers also have access to data from Beijing, where large distances are a challenge in terms of battery capacity. For megacities like Beijing, the researchers are developing specific models based on the data and challenges that such cities have.

“We’re finding that the interest and need for electricity-based transport are strong around the world. Technology is evolving rapidly and transportation systems are changing really quickly. That’s why we need a new green transportation policy soon,” he says.

The research will run for three years and has a budget of almost NOK 9 million (€ 877,000). NTNU is leading the project, and the collaborating partners are from China, Sweden and Norway.

Green asphalt

HERMES is the second research project to come through the eye of the EU needle, led by SINTEF.

In Europe alone, more than 275 million tonnes of asphalt are produced each year for road maintenance and rehabilitation. This results in high resource consumption and the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“HERMES is developing a new methodology in order to reduce the climate impact of road maintenance and rehabilitation. The goal is to find and choose the best available technology and strategy with the lowest cost to the environment and society,” says Terje Kristiansen of SINTEF, who is leading the project.

To develop the new method, researchers will study and analyse infrastructure in selected locations in Norway, China and Austria. The project partners come from these three countries.

Analysing the life cycle of asphalt

The main transportation routes envisioned with the new Silk Road. Credit: NTB Scanpix

HERMES aims to develop a practical method for grading “green asphalt,” based on the Principles of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA).

LCA is a life cycle analysis method and a technique for mapping environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life: from raw material extraction through materials, production, use, maintenance and disposal or recycling. The method is used to analyse and assess what can then be done to reduce the environmental impact.

“The new method we’re developing will make it much easier to see how the different elements of road construction contribute to pollution from a life cycle perspective. This insight will enable us to gain a better understanding of the reduction potential by implementing various measures on the material, construction and operation sides,” says Kristensen.

Creating a climate account for asphalt and road maintenance will make it easier to see where environmental benefits can be obtained.

“Being able to have an impact on climate reductions in China will make a big difference worldwide,” Kristensen says.

EU and China

“China has a high level of expertise in technology and research and is a growth market. We’re seeing that China is increasingly important for the EU and that research cooperation between the EU and China is becoming more active. That is why it’s also important to build up our China expertise,” says Kristensen.

Such expertise is created through collaborative projects like HERMES and SMUrTS.

The research project has a budget of just over NOK 11 million (€ 1,117 263) and will also run for three years. The project emphasizes the exchange of personnel between the EU and Chinese partners.

The Silk Road—China’s major transportation project

The Silk Road has its origins many centuries back in time. This was the name for a number of trade routes that ran between Europe, China / Asia and the Middle East. The route network stretched across 6,000 km and derived its name from the lucrative trade in Chinese silk. The trade route was established during the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC—220 AD).

In addition to trade, the Silk Road led to widespread cultural exchange between different countries and continents.

Business traveler and explorer Marco Polo from Venice contributed greatly to making the Silk Road and the East known to Europeans. In the 13th century, he embarked on a lengthy expedition to the Middle East, Mongolia and China with his father and uncle.

After about 20 years abroad, and bearing many experiences and new knowledge, they finally returned home. The East was mysterious and unfamiliar to Europeans at that time, and Marco Polo’s journey along the Silk Road became widely known through the travelogue Livre des merveilles du monde (Book of the marvels of the world, commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo in English), which became very popular.

The new Silk Road

European countries’ desire to trade directly with China was the main motivator for discovering a sea route to China. In the year 1480, Portuguese ships rounded the Horn of Africa for the first time. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom followed in the 17th century.

Until the beginning of the 19th century, China was regarded as the richest and most sophisticated of all civilizations on earth.

Trade and goods transport are also the main reason for China’s new giant transportation concept called “The New Silk Road.” It consists of several routes, on both land and water. The ambition is to create a continuous transport connection—by road, train and ship—between China and the rest of the world.

The project goes by the names One Belt, One Road (OBOR) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The transportation network will consist of:

a continuous transportation route across China from east to west

a tie-in to the original Silk Road route through Central Asia and the Middle East

a link to the Trans-Siberian transportation route through Russia and to the Baltic States

a water way via the Indian Ocean that strengthens the transport route from China to the coast of Africa, where China is starting to establish itself in a big way

a water route via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean countries and Europe

This is being called the world’s largest infrastructure project. China’s powerful leader Xi Jinping launched the worldwide project in 2013, and many steps have already happened since then.

Explore further

Paris orders 800 new electric buses to fight smog

More information: You can read more in the article What is China’s Belt and Road Initiative? from the British newspaper The Guardian.

Provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Citation: Making future transport more climate friendly (2020, January 14) retrieved 14 January 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-01-future-climate-friendly.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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jeanjauthor · 5 years

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Writers? This is the artistic version of a short story.

Artists...?

...WHY??

So...many...questions.

A lot of this breaks what writers call “the willing suspension of disbelief.” It’s where the audience is willing to overlook implausible things in order to keep following the story. At some point their credibility has a limit, a breaking point where their ability to suspend and ignore their disbelief will snap, like hanging a thread from the ceiling, and then putting too much weight on it.

Some of these weighty questions include:

Why is she "standing" like that? She looks like she's sitting on an invisible stool!

Why is her cloak/sheet still bound up like that if she's been fighting long enough to get her sword bloodied?

Why is she so pristine when the wyrm corpse is clearly freshly arterially injured??

Why does she have no shoes and pristine feet when she’s clearly touching a bloody corpse?

Why is the tag end of her cloak/sheet...thing...whipped up under one leg and over the other when she’s been chopping up a monster and now has to fight another one?

Again, why is she so clean??

There are so many WTF questions...

What is she sitting on?

If she’s not sitting on anything, how is she supporting her weight in that position?

She’s not being supported by her feet, that’s for sure--is she seriously en pointe with her left foot (the one on our right, visually)?

And the one on the left (her right foot), if it’s resting at a 45-ish degree angle on a corpse so freshly butchered it’s still spurting, how is it she’s able to keep it in place when it should be slipping out from under her by all the laws of squshy meaty blood-filled things?

Where is the missing V shaped wedge of that tail? Look at the angles on those two cut ends; there is clearly a whole big fat wedge of flesh that is missing! If there wasn’t, that tail would literally have been an L shaped structure with the cut angling on the diagonal down into the corner, and that is just disturbing to contemplate...

...Where are the arm bones in those dragon-wings?? Seriously, that is disturbing, seeing the thin metacarpals and phalanges (the “finger bones” of wings if you look at wings as nothing more than elongated & weirdly angled hands) ...but not the arm bones...so where are they??

...Now this isn’t to say the picture is all bad! The concept is actually a neat idea, looking like a cross of Lord of the Rings meets all those hedonistic Renaissance paintings of the Ancient Greek mythos. And it would be 100% correct to mix mythos like this, as the Renaissance painters were doing that all over the place, mixing Greek mythos symbology into Biblical art, and vice versa (all of which was fan art, btw).

The streaky effect of the Nazgûl is wonderful, though I’d like to see a bit more tattering (along the same diagonal upper left to lower right lines) on that right side of the Ringwraith fellow, there.

The Ringrwraith even seems to be bending the airwaves around and above him, with the effects of the clouds sort of streaking in toward that bright spot in the sky above and behind. It makes it look like the halo is sucking in all the Light before fleeing into the West, or trying to suck the Nazgûl off the face of the planet to hopefully disinterate its evilness out of existence...

The bright part of the sky also kind of looks like dragonbreath fire, even though the Fell Beasts that the Nazgûl rode upon aren’t evern mentioned (as far as I can recall) as being able to breathe fire like dragons. So that’s another point of coolness.

I have no idea what’s going on anatomy-wise of the presumed fallen and chopped up Fell Beast, but at least some effort has been made to provide it with a (weird) internal structure. If it really is a Fell Beast and not meant to be a dragon or a wyrm, then I can accept the odd anatomy and darkness of the...I’m not sure if those are bones, but I’m presuming that it has some bones in its tail, and if it’s a foul abomination style creation, I can accept the creator had no clue.

I do like the crispness of the woman in focus versus the Nazgûl who is equally clearly not in focus.

Certainly the woman definitely looks like a Renaissance painting of a Greek Mythos Action Sequence! She’s in a classic serene, poised action pose that no doubt has some sort of supporting stool & armature behind and under the original model for her to rest her arms upon.

The symbology of Shield Maiden of Rohan certainly gets the first two components of that descriptor down visually: for the first part, she has a shield (lovely round thing, very Classic Greek Hero With Spiffy Expensive Metal Shield), and she definitely is using it to shield herself from something. (Plus the sword.) The other part of the symbology is the “modesty sheet drape” under one thigh (gotta show off them nekkid thighs, Renaissance foiks!!) and up over the other, between the legs, blocking off any view of or access to the mons pubis...aka, shielding her maidenly modesty.

However, there is zero sign she’s from Rohan, because there’s zero symbolism representing Rohirrim culture...and the key element to Renaissance pictures of various cultures’ mythos were that they were rich with symbolism. The Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, were emphasized over and over as horse people.

Tolkienn also cribbed the Scandinavian culture for his descriptions of them (I suspect the Golden Hordes of the Russian Steppes, heavily influenced by the Rus folks who were Scandinavians who had moved east and mingled with the Mongolian Empire remnants who a little earlier had moved west. The Greeks knew of the Scandinavian peoples (no, really, they knew of them! Electricity is actually just the Latin word elektron (which comes from a similar-sounding Greek word I’m not going to bother to spell correctly), which meant amber, as in the petrified pine pitch being shipped down through Europe from the Baltic Sea in the far north, which is surrounded by Scandinavian countries.

Yet there’s no signs or symbols of Scandinavia about her, no knotwork animals, no amber, just pale blonde hair (which frankly could be representative of the British Isles or partial albinoism)... So while there’s a lovely Greek Mythos in Renaissance Paintings feel to her...it falls short of being a true copy/homage, which is unfortunate. It could’ve been so easily fixed, too, with a bit of knotwork braiding painted onto the cloak/sheet thing.

I will say that the folds of that sheet are spectacularly well painted, lovely depth and dimensionality to them!

Same goes for the condours of her body, and the tail of the wyrm. I fully believe these are three dimensional objects!

The lighting is beautifully done. Admittedly if the light is coming from that glowy bit of the sky behind the Nazgûl, she should be in shadow...except he’s a Ringwraith, and it’s 100% acceptable for light to go through him, since according to cannon, they’re not fully corporeal. This is a “plot” point where fans who know the lore are more than willing to suspend disbelief.

I’m not a rabid Tolkienn fan by any means, but I do know enough to accept that Ringwraiths are wraiths, and not fully of the physical realm. Plus, Greek Mythos Heroes in Renaissance paintings are supposed to be Bathed In The Light Of Holy Goodness, sort of an inner aura spiritual goodness radiance-effect, I guess...? Either way, it’s symbolism, it indicates visually that the Light (Good) will shine through upon Heroes (& Heroines) when they are being their Most Heroic...and it’s very well done.

(...Another question if that’s her helm on the ground, where is the rest of her armor? Where are her clothes?? Or is this meant to parody the “sword and magic helmet!!” trope and the helmet was providing all her armor and clothes up until the point she removes it to reveal she’s a nekkid Not A Man? And really, are Nazgûl so far removed from their mortal lives that they need nakedness to be able to tell males from females of their own species...?)

If this were a story, it would be a crossover fanfic with awesome potential...but it falls a little short of what’s needed to successfully suspend the reader/viewer’s disbelief.

Why is it important to do a better job next time, to get these details a little more accurate? Because most Tolkienn fans I know are rabid about it, & willing to nitpick any mistakes or inaccuracies. Cast your minds back to the huge raging fandom debates around the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies about whether or not Peter Jackson & co were “butchering the mythos” of Middle Earth.

Also...I’m trying to figure out how the Nazgûl is standing, and on what if he is indeed standing, though perhaps he’s actually astride the fallen Fell Beast, and simply swung himself around while she was chopping off & somehow disintegrating that V-shaped wedge of wrymtail? I can suspend some of my disbelief for that, though it does add to the overall strain of that willing suspension, and obviously there were too many other issues that ended up snapping it.)

As an editor, if this were a story, I’d be telling the artist to fix the wing bones, to give the woman some shining chain armor with a Rohirrim tabard, or boiled leather armor and tabard--at the very least a tabard with the Rohirrim symbols on it!!. I’d also at the very least slap some Scandinavian knotwork on it, if not the actual Horse of Rohan. (I’d also suggest using the accepted colors for the Rohirrim banner, green and gold, though I might keep the majority of the tabard white and just have a gold-and-green knotwork horse centered on the chest, or something.)

I’d also request there be more chunks of hacked-off tail all over. (Bonus points if one of them looks like The Lonely Mountain! lol...)

Plus, I’d give her at least a tiny bit of blood spatters around her boots and on her thighs & a little on the lower tabard, to show she’s been fighting in battle all along. However, I’d actually hesitate to put the spatters any higher than belt-line at most (and definitely do something different than that cloak/sheet thing).

Why would I hesitate to get the chest area bloody? Because of the symbolism.

Renaissance paintings had blood & gore, but only up to a point. She’s the heroic figure who slays the 3rd Biggest Nasty of the entire trilogy (#1: Sauron, #2 Saruman, #3 chief king of the Ringwraiths, the one she stabs in the face-hole), so she needs the symbolism of still being Clean And Pure Of Heart, aka no muss, mud, tatters, or blood in the torso (chest / heart) area.

In fact, if you just replaced the cloak/sheet thingy with just a tabard (a white one with a little knotwork on it, and put Grecian sandals on her feet...that would seriously fix a lot in this image. You’d still get to paint the glorious three dimensional folds arrowing down between her thighs, “shielding her modesty.” and you could put some of the symbols of Rohan on the tabard (horse, knotwork, etc) to make her more clearly the Shield Maiden of Rohan, and not just a shield maiden, while still retaining that Greek Mythos feel.

(Plus, you could have a bit of Side Boob showing on the side closest to the viewer to make it clear She Is No Man, and still avoid the blasted censorship issues rampant in modern society, particularly on this site these days.)

...Definitely fix the dragon wing armbones with a bit of shadowing to remove the fact they look like they’re translucent with nothing along the upper/leading edge... ‘cause once unseen, I cannot un-see-it, and it’s creepy as-is... >.>*

I love the color palette. It’s very dusky, as in nearing-sunset-dusk, with lots of earth tones. It looks a bit dirty in its hues (as tragically poised battlefields should), and yet it has kind of a “Romanticism golden afternoon light” quality to it. These are all colors that I 100% believe Renaissance painters had access to and would’ve used. Excellent choices!

At a quick glance, it’s a good painting. When you look at it a little closer, however... the contrast between all the high quality stuff (lighting, three-dimensionality, focus versus unfocus, at least half the necessary symbolism is there, etc, etc) and the lower quality stuff (oy that lack of proper dragonwing armbones, etc) means it’s really not quite the artist’s best work, and it could be so, so very much better. Why?

Composition is as important as technical performance.

Seriously, the way she’s painted is gloriously done...except for her positioning. The dragon wings (I haven’t even touched on the odd angles of the metacarpal bones on the left-side one, just the right one, which is well done for the “finger bones” but there’s no way it should be pointing up lke that), those wings are too anatomically implausible, though I’ll admit they’re more about visual framing than being actual key features.

And lastly, if you’re going for a glorious Greek Mythos Renaissance Painting look to the art...go the whole hog. Paint it like it’s Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Dinner, Tiffin, Tea, Supper & Midnight Snack all rolled into one.

Hell, paint a Loyal Dog (a staple of Renaissance symbolism), put it down at her feet (to represent the hobbit Merry, who was with her on her quests), and give it a little Rohirrim helmet and/or tabard! Go the whole distance with this. I truly believe this artist has that kind of quality in them!

If they did, I do believe all the old Renaissance Masters would totally thumbs-up this painting, if those flaws were fixed and the symbolism ramped up to at least a 9, if not necessarily a 10, rather than just doodling around down near a 5 or 6.

If this were a story and I was the editor for it (and presuming this was done on a tablet / computer, since if it’s an actual painting, that’s harder to fix), I’d definitely strongly suggest the revisions and rewrites listed above. And then I’d pimp the hell outta this painting.

(Oh, and to fix the weird positioning of her body, I’d give her a Radiant Aura Of Goodness with some golden streaks of light or something angling out at all directions, so it looks like she’s kinda floating, rather than wondering if she’s “suspended” by secretly sitting on a stick or a tail spike or something. That would help strengthen my suspension...as in the suspension of my disbelief.)

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joyfulballoonbouquetunivers-blog · 5 years

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Social Democracy’(Article)” By:AB.Comm.Arts-1C Class,2018 Social Democracy:

Klaus F. Zimmermann is director of IZA, the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, and president of DIW in Berlin. The idea of social democracy is now used to describe a society the economy of which is predominantly capitalist, but where the state acts to regulate the economy in the general interest, provides welfare services outside of it and attempts to alter the distribution of income and wealth in the name of social justice. Originally ’social democracy’ was more or less equivalent to ’socialism’. But since the mid-twentieth century, those who think of themselves as social democrats have come to believe that the old opposition between capitalism and socialism is outmoded; many of the values upheld by earlier socialists can be promoted by reforming capitalism rather than abolishing it.

Although it bases itself on values like democracy and social justice, social democracy cannot really be described as a political philosophy: there is no systematic statement or great text that can be pointed to as a definitive account of social democratic ideals. In practical politics, however, social democratic ideas have been very influential, guiding the policies of most Western states in the post-war world.The mere suggestion that the United States increasingly displays the characteristics of a European-style social democracy appears like heresy to quite a few Americans and something to be avoided at all costs.

Others argue the opposite, finding that the United States has long had a comfortable social safety net and has therefore been a de facto, undeclared social democracy for some time. Whatever the merits of these contradictory findings, the interesting question is whether U.S. society, in light of the economic challenges it faces and the resulting changes in the country’s socio economic landscape, can escape becoming ever more “social-democratized.”

Such a development would represent a remarkable closing of ranks across the Atlantic. For in Europe, one finds that virtually all political parties embrace social democracy. This is true even for many conservative governments not just in Scandinavia, but also in France and Germany which have embraced the originally German idea of a social market economy in which free market excesses are tempered with support for those who are falling through the cracks.

Many Americans are tempted to describe this as European “socialism” and view it as antithetical to longstanding American business and personal values, including the horror of accepting government hand-outs.It is important to note that the reality in Europe is quite different from how it is often characterized in America. As a result of global economic integration, significant reforms have been made to the comfy welfare state of old. Cutbacks in unemployment benefits, even in countries like Germany Europe’s largest economy have resulted in a considerably less-comfortable safety net and more U.S.-style economic adjustments.

Perhaps the greatest issue involving the global recovery is the change that is in store for the U.S. economic model. In the past, except during the Great Depression, the great American job machine would always kick into action — doing so much faster than in other industrialized countries. In clear contrast to continental Europe, this reliable market mechanism kept U.S. policymakers from having to deal with the scourge of long-term unemployment, and the related challenge of pursuing active labor-market policies, including retraining costs.

Much of the evidence from the current recession suggests that there are real doubts about the U.S. labor market regaining its vigor any time soon. American companies have shed significant numbers of jobs, but are inclined to further maximize the productivity of current staff before adding to their payrolls. With 20 percent of working-age American males currently out of work, the need for more support payments rises.It is misleading to argue that it is only in America, not in Europe, that people see a connection between effort and reward, and prefer low taxes to keep as much of their earnings as possible. The European welfare state spread its wings not because Europeans were soft-headed, but because economic transformations led to job losses in entire sectors, such as coal and steel, and people needed some encouragement for their personal future.Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. In the past, any proposition for the rise of social democracy in the United States was cast aside as unrealistic. And there was a good reason for that, as Americans relied on an innate sense of turning the corner and discovering another frontier on the horizon that would resuscitate their fortunes and reinvigorate the nation’s pursuit of a free market model.

However, that relentless optimism based on the ethos of a culture in continuous global ascendance and always intent on uncovering new horizons may prove hard to rekindle. America’s new normal may well be that it is not so exceptional anymore that it may be discovering the limits of its economic dynamism, just as Europe did decades ago. The net effect is a considerably higher need for social support.

The inclination to avert such an outcome with facile talk about the U.S. federal government turning to “socialism” may be an enticing rhetorical device, but it is not a constructive way to deal with the underlying challenge, which is both human and very real. Nor is the categorical claim that it is fiscally impossible to afford such a structural change in American society. From a European perspective, two easy and probably unavoidable things need to change: First, contrary to popular claim, many of the social benefits being awarded by the U.S. tax code and budget actually accrue not to those in dire straits, but rather to people comfortably situated in the American middle class. The tax deductibility of home mortgage interest is but one example.

The other required change is that, while there has been a consensus for social spending in the United States for some time, the same is not true on the other side of the ledger agreeing to higher taxes to cover the costs of the redistribution measures.

The main reason why the U.S. budget is so out of balance is because the government typically spends several percentage points more each year than what it takes in in revenues, a balance that is bound to worsen significantly over the next decade. That stark fiscal mismatch supports the claim of those who argue that America in many ways has already become a social democracy.

Unlike the other main practitioners around the world, though, in the American case it is an under funded social democracy.

References: Klaus F. Zimmermann is director of IZA, the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, and president of DIW in Berlin Political philosophyDemocracyBy Harrison, Ros Justice https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/opinion/20iht-edzimmermann.html

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sarahsweden-blog · 6 years

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Five Interesting Nonfiction Books

1. The Expedition: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy by Bea Uusma

On July 11th, 1897, three men set out in a hydrogen balloon bound for the North Pole. Led by engineer August Soloman Andrée, they want to make history, but are frighteningly underprepared. Three days into their journey they make a crash landing and disappear into a white nightmare. They never return. 33 years later. The men's bodies and equipment are found buried beneath the snow and ice on a deserted glacier. They had enough food, clothing and ammunition to survive. Why did they die? 100 years later. Artist and doctor Bea Uusma is at a party. Bored, she pulls a books off the shelf. It is about the Andrée Expedition. For the next fifteen years, Bea will think of nothing else... This is her journey to uncover the truth. (Goodreads.com)

2. A History of the Swedish People by Vilhelm Moberg

Beginning in prehistoric times and culminating with the Dacke rebellion of 1542, renowned novelist Vilhelm Moberg's two-volume popular history of the Swedish people approaches its subject from the viewpoint of the common people, documenting peasants' lives as well as those of the royal families. In this first volume Moberg examines Viking raids, the coming of Christianity, and the Folkungs royal dynasty, whose tyrannical reign lasted from 1250 to the 1360s. He vividly describes the arrival of the Black Death from a ship that docked carrying only dead passengers, and he recounts the reign of Queen Margareta who founded the Kalmar Union, comprising all of Scandinavia. In every chapter, Moberg faithfully imparts how history affected "the whole people" of Sweden. (Amazon.com)

3. Fishing in Utopia by Andrew Brown

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Sweden was an affluent, egalitarian country envied around the world. Refugees were welcomed, even misfit young Englishmen could find a place there. Andrew Brown spent part of his childhood in Sweden during the 1960s. In the 1970s he married a Swedish woman and worked in a timber mill raising their small son. Fishing became his passion and his escape. In the mid-1980s his marriage and the country fell apart. The Prime Minister was assassinated. The welfare system crumbled along with the industries that had supported it. 20 years later Andrew Brown traveled the length of Sweden in search of the country he had loved, and then hated, and now found he loved again. (Amazon.com)

4. The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland by Barbara Wilson

A Frequent traveler to Northern Europe, Barbara Sjoholm set off one winter to explore a region that had long intrigued her. Sjoholm first travels to Kiruna, Sweden, to see the Ice Hotel under construction and to meet the ice artists who make its rooms into environmental art. Traveling to the North Cape, she encounters increasing darkness and cold, but also radiant light over the mountains and snow fields. She crosses the Finnmark Plateau by dogsled, attends a Sami film festival (with an outdoor ice screen), and visits Santa's Post Office in Finland. Over the course of three winters, Sjoholm unearths the region's rich history, including the culture of the Sami. As Sjoholm becomes more familiar with Kiruna, she writes of the changes occurring in northern Scandinavia and contemplates the tensions between tourism, the expansion of mining and development of the Ice Hotel, and age-old patterns of land use, the Sami's struggle to maintain their reindeer grazing lands and migration routes. (Amazon.com)

5. Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living by Linnea Dunne

The Swedish concept of Lagom (pronounced "lah-gom") roughly translates to "not too little, not too much, just right." This charming book introduces readers to a new way of balanced living that promises happiness and sustainability in work and in life. Lagom provides simple solutions to juggle everyday priorities, reduce stress, eat well, and save money, with lessons on the importance of downtime, being outdoors, and Sweden's coffee break culture. Tips on removing clutter and creating a capsule wardrobe help readers achieve Sweden's famously clean and functional design aesthetic, while advice on going green and growing food gets their hands dirty. (Goodreads.com)

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imjustthemechanic · 6 years

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The French Mistake

Part 1/? - A Visitor

So I decided to write something ridiculous again. Steve is getting bored of being a guest in Wakanda, so when Natasha offers him some superhero work, he jumps at the chance. Something about the whole situation, however, just doesn’t smell right.

Steve hadn’t been expecting visitors in Wakanda, but if he had, he would have known which ones to look for. Tony probably wouldn’t be ready to talk to him for a while yet, Bruce was missing, Thor was in Asgard, and a lot of the others were hiding, but Natasha – Natasha might well stop by to say hello. So it was a surprise of sorts, and yet not quite, when she did.

They met in the botanical gardens in the Wakandan capital, and Nat smiled as he came up to give her a hug. “Good to see you, Steve,” she said, putting her arms around him.

“Good to see you, too,” he replied. “Another new haircut?”

She’d cut her hair short again, in a chin-length bob but without the curls. “Clint calls this one the Hot Android Chick,” she said.

“That sounds like Clint,” Steve agreed. He sat down on the round bench that encircled the central fountain – there was moving water everywhere here, creating a mist in the air that nourished over two thousand uniquely Wakandan species of plants, and helped cool everybody in the blistering African sun. “Is he…?”

“He’s back home.” Natasha remained standing. “Don’t worry about the others. That’s not what I’m here for.”

That was an ominous phrase. Of course, Steve thought, Natasha wasn’t here on a social visit – she just wasn’t the type. The tone of her voice suggested that it was something serious indeed. Was her new haircut a disguise?

“What happened?” Steve asked.

Nat looked around. There were visitors enjoying the gardens, and botanists working with the flowers, but nobody was close enough to eavesdrop. A few, particularly children, were staring, but that was because Steve and Nat were probably the first white people they’d ever seen in person. The Wakandans were, by and large, a people who respected each other’s privacy.

Even so, Natasha offered Steve a hand to get up, then led him back into a bower where shelves housed at least fifty different types of orchid, from tiny ones that looked more like insects than flowers, to a giant species whose frilly white blooms were nearly eight inches across. She took one more look outside to make sure they wouldn’t be interrupted, then leaned in closer to Steve.

“Thor’s back,” she said quietly.

There was a rustle overhead that made them both look up, but it was only a troupe of colobus monkeys making their way through the trees. Steve lowered his gaze again.

“What’s he found?” he asked Nat. Thor had left after the defeat of Ultron, hoping to learn more about the Infinity Stones. If he’d returned, he must have something important to tell them.

“Not what he expected,” said Natasha. “Loki’s alive. Apparently he was hiding on Asgard pretending to be somebody else, until he found where they’d stashed the tesseract. Once he did, he took it and ran off.”

That was bad. The Battle of New York actually wasn’t even one of the more traumatic things that had ever happened to Steve – but fighting off aliens in the canyons between skyscrapers hadn’t been any fun either. Steve absolutely agreed with Tony Stark in hoping it never happened again, even if he wasn’t so enthusiastic about the other man’s methods of guaranteeing that. “Has he gone back to the Chi’Tauri?” he asked.

Nat shook her head. “As far as Thor can tell, he slipped out by a portal that leads to Earth. He wants us to help bring him back.”

“Why us?” asked Steve. “I’m a wanted criminal, don’t forget.” Steve rarely forgot that – every time he thought he had, something popped up to remind him. “Why not Stark and the rest?”

“Stark’s got a lot on his plate,” said Natasha. “He’s the one who’s having to deal with all the politicians on this, and he’s constantly in the public eye. If Stark gets involved, then the media finds out, and we have to deal with the accords. We’re hoping to keep it low-key. Pun not intended,” she added, the corner of her mouth twitching.

Steve spared her a withering look for the joke, but he did understand her reasoning. “We won’t want anybody panicking when they hear the name Loki,” he said.

“It doesn’t improve our image any to have him back, either,” Nat agreed. The Avengers, or what was left of them, needed all the good PR they could get. “The idea is to recapture him quietly, without fuss. So no Stark.”

“How do we do it, then?” asked Steve. Loki had come quietly in Germany, but only so that he could cause them problems in person. Outside of that, he hadn’t done anything quietly, and the tesseract was not quiet object. If Loki were really on Earth, it was frankly astonishing that the whole world didn’t already know it.

“Thor’s going to help,” said Nat.

Steve snorted. “Because Thor’s all about quiet.”

“He’s asked us to meet him at the Nasjonalgalleriet in Oslo, undercover,” Natasha explained. “I gave him a bit of advice about what ‘undercover’ entails but I don’t know if there was a point. Blending in is not exactly in his nature. But he’s promised to provide a containment unit for the tesseract and some weaponry.”

The situation just didn’t sound right. “Why would Loki be hiding out, though?” Steve asked. “Especially if he’s already got the tesseract. Why isn’t he swaggering around declaring himself king again?”

“Thor’s theory is that he’s looking for something else, probably something that’s in Norway, near where HYDRA found the tesseract in the first place,” Natasha said. “He’s not entirely sure Loki’s got an overarching plan because apparently he often doesn’t, but he’s got to want to use the tesseract for something. It’s not a very good doorstop.”

Steve had a bad feeling about the whole thing, but at the same time, he couldn’t say no. Not when the tesseract was involved. That damned thing he’d already died for once, and now wouldn’t seem to go away – it had been a relief to see it shipped off to another plane and yet here it was again, as if determined to devil Steve until the end of time. If the tesseract were a part of this, then he had to do something.

Although honestly, even if Loki hadn’t had the tesseract, Steve wouldn’t have been able to just sit by. What he’d said to Stark all those months ago was entirely true – when Steve saw a bad situation, he couldn’t just ignore it. Especially when he was sometimes the only person who could do something about it. That just wasn’t the way he worked. There. Two perfectly good reasons to get involved, neither of which in any way involved the fact that just hanging around as a royal guest was driving Steve crazy with boredom.

Overhead, the monkeys rustled again. Steve nodded. “All right,” he said. “Let me talk to T’Challa.”

It was just around sunset the next day when Steve and Natasha boarded a small craft, built to look like an Avro RJ but capable of much greater range, at the city’s airport. Steve had dyed his hair brown and Natasha had bleached hers blonde, and they were dressed in t-shirts and jeans as if they were tourists. It reminded Steve of going undercover at the mall in Washington, though now they’d had slightly more time to prepare. At least this time there weren’t going to be any HYDRA goons looking for them.

Probably. Scandinavia and the secrets hidden there had been on of HYDRA’s primary areas of interest, and might still be. They would have to be on the lookout for surprises.

“So,” Steve said, settling down in his seat. “Two of the only slightly super members of the Avengers against Loki. Remind me how we’re gonna keep this quiet again?” It had taken all of them before… of course, that time, Loki had an army. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a repeat of that, but Steve still had trouble believing that Loki was skulking around keeping his head down. It just didn’t sound right.

“Thor has assured me he has a plan,” said Natasha. “Besides, there’s really nobody else he can ask. I’ve already explained why Stark can’t get involved, Clint wants no part of Loki or the tesseract, and Bruce… yeah.” She shook her head. “We’re it.”

She had a point there. “Did you tell him about our argument?” The media had called it Civil War, which was a ridiculous hyperbole for something that had, at its worst, been a dozen people duking it out in an airport parking lot.

“Of course I did,” said Nat. “If I hadn’t explained about the accords, he would have just marched in with his hammer swinging.”

“What did he say?” asked Steve. He was confident Bruce would have been on his side, because of the trouble government control had caused him in the past, but he’d never been sure about Thor. It seemed most likely he would have found the whole thing silly.

“Not much, but I get the feeling he thinks it’s just humans being petty and tiny again,” Nat replied.

That figured.

The Wakandan aircraft didn’t need a takeoff roll. It lifted smoothly from the ground and ascended to cruising altitude – it would make an approach landing at the airport in Casablanca, where they would transfer to a regular flight bound to Europe, in order to maintain anonymity. Steve sat watching the buildings slowly drop out of sight below them, and wisps of cloud start to appear.

“I should have asked this earlier,” Nat said, “but… how have you been?”

The view outside began to rotate as the craft turned north. “I’m working on it,” Steve said. He felt like he was in limbo, as long as Bucky was frozen. “You?”

“Working on it,” Natasha echoed.

Steve wasn’t sure he should ask, but after a moment’s doubt, he forced himself to. “And Tony?”

“He’s working on a lot of things,” said Natasha. “He said you sent him the world’s douchiest apology letter.”

That was enough to make Steve sit up and look at her instead of out the window. “I sent him an apology letter,” he said. “What was wrong with it?”

“Other than the fact that it said sorry you couldn’t see I was right the whole time?” Nat asked pointedly. “You didn’t even address the main reason he was so mad at you in the first place, or the fact that you used to lecture him for keeping secrets from you. It’s gonna take a lot more than that before he forgives you, Steve.”

Steve sat back again, scowling. “Maybe I don’t care if he forgives me.”

“You asked how he was,” Nat reminded him. “Clearly you care on some level.”

“So you’re still on his side,” Steve observed.

“There are no sides in this, Steve,” said Natasha. “We’re all on the same side, and by letting our enemies play us against each other we’re just falling into their hands. Trust me, I know how that works, intimately. You know it, and Tony knows it, but if you really want me to come down with one or the other? The accords exist and they’re something we’re going to have to work either with or around. You’re going to have to compromise eventually, because they’re not going to go away. I’m on the side of getting shit done.”

“Hence going behind everybody’s backs to catch Loki,” Steve said.

“I’m trying to avoid creating a situation in which anybody needs to invoke them,” said Natasha. “I made Thor promise to at least try this without raining down bolts from above, and if we can do that, the accords will never come up.”

Of course the secrecy had been Natasha’s idea. This was making more and more sense all the time. “So Loki can do whatever he wants, but we have to sneak around.”

“Yes,” said Natasha curtly. “How is your friend?”

She was changing the subject, but Steve was okay with that – he didn’t want to talk about the accords, either. No matter what anybody told him, he couldn’t imagine just working with them. Nobody should be allowed to tell him when or how he was allowed to intervene. Steve followed his own moral compass, and it had always served him perfectly well. Being under anybody’s control just gave them an opportunity to use him as a weapon, and he would not let that happen. He’d rather just sit on his ass in a garden in Wakanda and watch the world go to hell.

Natasha was right, he observed – he was a terrible liar, even to himself.

“Bucky’s… they’re working on it,” he said.

Natasha nodded, and offered him a reassuring smile. “They’ll figure it out,” she said.

“I know they will,” Steve agreed. He had faith in the Wakandan scientists – and he needed something good to have come out of the whole damned mess.

#fanfic #steve rogers #natasha romanoff

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architectnews · 3 years

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Immediate impact of Brexit "quite minor" say architects

The immediate impact of Brexit has been limited according to UK-based architects, but they fear that winning work and recruiting staff in the European Union will now become harder.

The "immediate impact appears to be quite minor," said one of the 14 studios Dezeen approached for comment on how the UK's departure from the EU has affected them now the transition period has ended.

However, many firms believe that the biggest long-term impact will be on recruitment, with several studios reporting a loss of EU staff.

Below, 14 architecture studios discuss how Brexit has affected them and how they are managing the changes.

"We plan to open a new studio in the EU" Andrew Waugh, director, Waugh Thistleton Architects

What impact have you seen so far? Firstly, leaving the EU is incredibly frustrating. It's pointless, narrow-minded, backward jingoistic populism at its cynical worst. It's important to get that off my chest!

Our team used to be about half UK and half from mainland Europe but over the last few years since the vote, this has dwindled to a stalwart few Europeans.

We've managed to keep working with a few of the people that returned home [to Europe] and now have fledgling offices in Madrid and Venice, but we miss the diversity and dynamism that having a more international home office gave us.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We're not sure. About half our work is in the EU and the ambition for sustainable construction is so much higher across the channel. We were certainly appointed with the knowledge that Brexit was going to happen so it hasn't affected our current work, but I'm concerned that as Europe refocuses and inevitably drifts away from the UK it will make those projects harder to come by.

Competing for OJEU projects will still be possible thankfully, although persuading clients that working with a UK practice will be as seamless as working with an EU practice will be a struggle.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet but I'm nervous that some of the high-quality, low-carbon products that we use that are manufactured in Europe may become increasingly unaffordable.

We will have to see what happens to our currency and with import hassles! But when you're designing a building that will be built in a year or so and you want cost certainty then that makes it complex on our UK projects, again stifling innovation.

The only positive I can think of is that with the UK construction workforce vastly reduced by people returning to the EU perhaps this will give the industry the kick toward innovation that is so desperately needed!

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? This year we plan to open a new studio in the EU but we're just not sure where yet: Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Berlin…Thank goodness I'm an Irish citizen!

"Our ability to recruit from a pool of global talent will be greatly restricted" Sarah Wigglesworth, founder, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? As far as I'm aware it hasn't had any impact. We don't work outside the UK.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Our ability to recruit from a pool of global talent will be greatly restricted if they want to work in the UK. Qualifications are not mutually recognised anymore and work permits will be needed if we hire staff from abroad. The additional paperwork will cost us more.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet. One member of staff is considering moving abroad as they dislike the current mood in the UK. They can probably operate as normal from a long distance, as someone is already doing. We'll see how that works out in the long term.

We don't have anything on site at present but everyone is predicting shortages of materials and rising prices. My guess is that this will affect a fair amount of products used in building because we don't manufacture much any more.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We're watching what is happening and seeing how it unfolds. We are reaching out to our contacts in Europe to try and strengthen our ties despite the ‘official' story. We exhibited in Copenhagen in 2019 and I'm visiting professor at Polimi Milan in June.

"EU colleagues feel affronted by the suggestion that they have to justify their presence in the UK" Ben Derbyshire, chair, HTA Design

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? The immediate impact of Brexit on HTA Design's four studios in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol, is dwarfed and completely obscured by the simultaneous effect of the pandemic and the most recent lockdown.

All of our studios are closed and our 230 staff are working from home, many struggling with the return to homeschooling. The implications for these families is grievous and we know from the previous lockdowns that it is so much harder to design collaboratively and deliver efficiently.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Many of our colleagues are from the European Union. They feel affronted by the suggestion that they have to justify their presence in the UK and some have already left to return to their home countries.

We hugely value the competence and diligence of team members trained in the European system and entirely refute the suggestion that the RIBA Part 3 delivers inherently greater competence than our European counterparts. Some of our staff are now working from EU countries – an interesting development we might never have contemplated had not the pandemic taught us that it is possible, though inevitably less productive, for people to work from home – wherever that may be!

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? It's a sad truth that many of the quality products that go into building homes are not made in the UK – most are made in Europe; heating systems from Belgium, windows from Germany and Scandinavia and so on. It may be that one of the arguments for Brexit is to stimulate domestic production but in the meantime, there are bound to be impacts on the supply chain caused by increased friction at the border.

We are already seeing news stories about EU companies refusing to supply the UK. When that happens, the sensitive business plans that support development will be disrupted, costs and programs will increase and projects will be delayed and disrupted.

"The industry is missing out on a large proportion of next-generation talent" Naila Yousuf, partner, Wright & Wright Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? New public projects will be procured in a different way. Things like OJEU are likely to disappear. What will replace it? Regulations across the board will need to be reinterpreted initially and then revised. For example, fire regulations have developed so that British Standards and European standards such as 'Euroclass' broadly align. In particular, Euroclass was originally introduced to harmonise standards across the EU.

Particular products currently specified by architects are manufactured in Europe and only have European certification, which means it is now down to architects and designers to interpret the legislation or change our approach to specifying materials and building systems.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We have had fewer European job applicants since the Brexit vote, though we have three European staff members who all studied in the UK. Students at undergraduate and master's level are suffering; we have received feedback from students that visas granted for study now expire almost as soon as students graduate, which means the industry is missing out on a large proportion of 'next generation' talent, including the top students from schools of architecture.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? On suppliers and materials, lead times on some products have increased. For example, mechanical & electrical systems (M&E), specialist light fittings made by companies like Iguzzini and specialist glazing systems made by companies like Schuco are all made in Europe and are typically architect's favourites due to the quality of product.

Whilst architects and designers can make enquiries on lead times during the design process, these are now prone to a greater degree of unpredictability. Is it likely that British industry will upskill in order to establish a base of expertise for specific types of construction or manufacturing currently done in Europe?

We have received feedback from staff that Brexit has impacted student loan repayments when payments are made from pounds to euros, which means that many architects paying off student loans were out of pocket almost overnight once the Brexit vote came through.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are maintaining our relationships with schools of architecture and continue to offer support where possible. We offer sponsorship to Part I candidates who are not British nationals. We are constantly looking to expand our horizons by exploring new materials, products and methods of construction.

"Brexit will most directly impact us when it comes to recruitment" Directors at AHMM

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? To date, thankfully, no noticeable impact. The majority of our projects are in the UK and the US and our clients for European projects (in the Republic of Ireland in particular) are international organisations.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Brexit will most directly impact us when it comes to recruitment. Approximately 35 per cent of our architectural team is from Europe – a proportion which was sustained throughout a three year period of growth and recruitment despite the referendum result. Following Brexit, we expect it will now be significantly more long-winded and hence more costly to recruit talented people from Europe.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? A small number of European employees have left us in the last six months, but we put this down to the impact of COVID-19 and the understandable impulse to move closer to home for some.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? For the time being our focus has been on seeing our way through the health crisis and preparing ourselves, as much as you ever can, for the economic fallout which may follow.

"The impact will not be immediate but it will lock us out of EU opportunities" Angela Brady, co-founder, Brady Mallalieu Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? It is hard to be positive with the Brexit and Covid double whammy but we try. Things are quiet because of Covid throughout our profession and construction industry.

We are hugely disappointed with Brexit turning UK backs on the biggest market business partner and neighbour. Many of our EU international clients may think twice about working with us due to red tape restrictions.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? The impact will not be immediate but it will lock us out of EU opportunities. It will be harder to work on projects in EU as so much red tape and recognition of qualification – something our RIAI London Forum spent years working on 25 years ago for recognition of our diploma and degrees from Ireland. So a backward step there. Procurement won't be easier or much different as UK adopted the same type of EU rules.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? No problems with staff as we are an SME and all UK-based and don't need visas to work here. I do think in larger offices, where students come to the UK for work experience, it will be difficult with visas and permits and this will in time lead to a lack of diversity and kill off opportunities for EU students to join UK uni experience, and [they] will have difficulties accessing the Erasmus Programme.

Our sites are mostly closed at the moment but the contractors did have issues with supplies to do with Covid delays and the tailbacks of supplies entering the UK in recent weeks. This is likely to be exacerbated and if importing an exhibition or goods there is still no clarity on any import tax/duty. It is too soon to tell about the supply chain. People are still not given enough information on costs of materials – which will go up and could affect the viability of projects from specification of materials to delivery of projects on cost and on time.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are working on some feasibility studies for new housing projects so desperately needed in London, so that when we emerge from Covid and face Brexit at least they can be ready to go to the next stages. It also gives us more time as we are working remotely, to do some more research and development.

We are also seeking more work in Ireland as are also registered there, and there is still a special relationship between UK and Ireland. We have a great new project in Cork at pre-planning stage for a 'Centre of Excellence for Climate Action' being launched in two weeks time. This gives us great joy as it is the direction we as a profession need to go in, to help to mitigate Climate Change and give people the tools to get there. This will be an EU funded project, something not available for UK anymore – sadly.

On the positive side, I have more time to be creative and indulge myself with making fused glass in my home studio, which is more than just a hobby – it keeps me sane too.

"There is far more that brings us together than divides us" James Nelmes, director, Bennetts Associates

What impact have you seen so far? The uncertainty surrounding the potential impacts of Brexit cast a shadow for some time after the referendum. It is too soon to say what the actual impact of the transition on 1 January will be.

However, it is unlikely to make winning work in Europe any easier from the UK. Some potential clients in Europe have expressed concern around the additional cost of working with a UK team. Towards the end of last year, we were interviewed for a theatre project in Delfzijl, and the client's question to us then was – "How will Brexit affect our working relationship?"

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We recently revised our business plan and intend to continue targeting work abroad, building on our recent project for Importex in Athens and work further afield. We have a specific area of Europe for which we have an affinity, we have built relationships with local partners and we feel we can differentiate ourselves.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? We are being told by contractors to expect delays on lead-in times for some products and possible price fluctuations. Most surveyors will tell you any predictions are presently little more than guesswork. One of our large construction sites in London is facing a short-term issue with a number of agency staff being held at customs in France whilst awaiting clearance to return to work in the UK.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? The best mitigation is to keep designing the best architecture at the lowest environmental cost. Most of our European friends and peers share this goal. There is far more that brings us together than divides us. Our shortlisting for the Opera House in Ghent has given us confidence and we will continue to grow relationships, approach clients with targeted communications and be active Europeans.

"[Brexit has] huge number of potential opportunities" Elsie Owusu, principal, Elsie Owusu Architects

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? I have gone from being a complete sceptic of Brexit to seeing it as having a huge number of potential opportunities. We are working in the UK, Nigeria, Ghana and China and before Covid we were trying to work out a way to develop digital ways of working and digital relationships.

When lockdown happened and all the existing systems fell apart, we realised we still had a 19th-century mindset – that to be a “real” architect you have to go into an office every day. Now we know that this is not true. Lockdown proved that we could distance work and this has improved our international relationships. Projects on the back burner have been reignited.

Our development company ArtistConstructor has lodged its first planning applications for eco-homes in Sussex. The original concept was to build live-work homes for artists, architects and creatives. With Covid, working from home has become the norm. With Brexit transition, I believe more successful sole and micro-practices, working locally, will challenge old-fashioned practices.

I think that actually if we get it right, architects in the UK and especially diverse architects can see this as a huge opportunity. Like many BAME architects, we have cultural links with non-European markets and can win work in these areas. Africa is said to be the largest growing market and as the UK turns its attention to the commonwealth and non-European market we can see huge opportunities in focusing on these markets.

We are already seeing an upswing in approaches. We now have a consultancy position with the Ghana museums and monuments board, who we have been talking to since 2000. We were appointed as consultants within 24 hours after the transition ended.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Brexit has helped in that a lot of the young BAME people who weren’t getting work due to discrimination and a ready-to-work white workforce are now being recognised for their talent. People are having to look at the "home" market. Of course with Covid and Brexit is happening at the same time and the situation is so interlocked. A lot of young BAME people are losing their jobs, but these young people are finding their feet as design entrepreneurs.

In response to so many BAME young people losing their jobs I have increased creative collaborations with the smaller studios that are being set up. We are now collaborating with six studios internationally – being digital really helps with these collaborations.

"Impacts of Brexit entirely conflated with those of the pandemic" Ben Marston, director, Jestico +Whiles

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? It's been so long coming, yet still seems too early to tell. The global pandemic creates a perfect storm in the UK. The impacts of Brexit have become entirely conflated with those of the pandemic. We are wrestling with the effects of both and will probably never discern which was which. Covid certainly provides a convenient cover story for the UK Government and the many disruptions and costs caused by Brexit. Nevertheless, our enquiry level has, thus far, remained reassuringly resilient.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? We are a London-based international practice but are fortunate to have also had, for more than 20 years, a European studio in Prague, which, of course, remains inside the EU. This provides us with some reassurance.

That said, in London, a third of our studio are from the EU, a dozen nationalities in all. The cultural diversity of our team brings a richness to our studio and to our work. It is essential to what we do. It is not at all clear if, under the new points-based system, recruiting talented designers will be straightforward. We fear not. This could have a significant impact.

Are you seeing issues with staff and/or suppliers? Some colleagues have commented in recent years that they felt less welcome in the UK as a result of Brexit. But this is not an issue that has suddenly arisen. Our immediate challenges are, once again, the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on our practice rather than specifically Brexit. Creative professions, particularly architecture, thrive on human contact and interaction which has become so limited and constrained.

On our construction sites, we have witnessed many contractors forward-ordering materials in anticipation of disruption. The supply chain has for decades become completely integrated on a pan-European basis, and we have seen everything from windows to flooring being ordered and delivered to site well in advance of when they would normally be to avoid short-term challenges. We are also seeing contractors try to switch to UK-based suppliers, and this places limits on range, material quality and performance of certain products.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We anticipate potentially more EU business running through our Prague studio, but in reality, much of our international work, particularly in hospitality and education, is actually outside of the EU.

"We are concerned that talented potential employees might be dissuaded from applying" Deborah Saunt, director, DSDHA

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? We are an international studio drawn and fortunately, all our European staff have settled status and it seems quite simple to achieve.

However, with more projects in the pipeline and the continual need to attract the brightest and the best, we are concerned that talented potential employees might be dissuaded from applying due to the fundamentally off-putting message that Brexit broadcasts.

Besides the valuable research and ideas exchange that teaching architecture abroad offers, for me teaching at Yale School of Architecture and the University of Navarra in Spain demonstrates my personal commitment to maintaining international discourse as well as hopefully attracting potential future-employees from all over the world.

"We do expect a degree more friction" Nenad Manasijevic, principal director, TP Bennett

What impact has Brexit had on your studio? The real impact of Brexit is yet to be seen. Right now, the biggest impact is psychological: concern about whether the UK will still be able to attract – and employ – the best talent. How do we continue to compete on a global stage?

TP Bennett's projects in Europe are still running and we're not experiencing much slow down as the majority of our international clients are used to working across the globe. There has never been a single "European" working style; working in Paris or Berlin has always been different to working in Rome; but we do expect a degree more friction when it comes to qualification equivalents and the finer details of working visas, for example, as neither were defined succinctly for services in the Brexit agreement.

"Difficult to separate Brexit issue from the impacts of Covid" Katie Atkinson, HR manager, Grimshaw

What impact have you seen so far? It has been difficult to separate out the Brexit issue from the impacts of Covid. We were anticipating a large amount of job applications in the last quarter of 2020 to enable EU citizens to be eligible for settled status. However due to travel restrictions or an unwillingness to travel this never materialised.

We are looking forward to the clarification around rules for working from other countries and hope that with the increasing availability of digital nomad visas, we can still attract and retain staff from all over the world.

"It's early days and we are monitoring it closely" Oliver Bayliss, director, Buckley Gray Yeoman

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had on your studio? Considering we already do a lot of work in Europe, we haven't seen any impact yet. In fact, we have recently been appointed on a large residential scheme in Madrid and have opportunities in Milan and Rome, which is encouraging. That said it's early days and we are monitoring it closely.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? Obviously, there are logistical issues related to travel that we need to overcome, however, it is still unclear how we will be affected in the long term. One implication will no doubt be fewer Europeans applying for jobs or university places in the UK – which will be a great loss not only to our business but also to the industry as a whole.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? Not yet but it's too soon to say.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? We are looking at a variety of ways to mitigate the implications of Brexit. One is to create a European hub, most likely in Spain, that eases the travel issues and allows us to have a more permanent footing there.

"Immediate impact appears to be quite minor" Jerry Tate, partner, Tate Harmer

Now it has happened, what impact has Brexit had your studio? To be completely honest the immediate impact appears to be quite minor, although it is hard to know if we might be pursuing more opportunities in Europe right now under different circumstances.

How do you expect Brexit will impact your studio moving forward? There are two aspects which may impact us, but which I hope we can mitigate against. Firstly, we have an incredibly talented team at Tate Harmer, many of whom come from outside the UK. I hope that, despite Brexit, London remains an international beacon for great architecture and that we can continue to recruit such amazing people.

Secondly, like all ambitious studios, we would like to design work internationally. Europe has a mature and sophisticated architecture scene and I hope that being outside the EU does not create an additional barrier to us working with our immediate international neighbours.

Are you seeing issues with staff and or suppliers? In terms of staff, we have made sure all our team have the correct status in terms of working in the UK. In terms of suppliers, there does seem to be slightly random shortages of materials at the moment which could be related to the pandemic as well as Brexit. For example at one point Larch cladding was in very short supply, and lead-in times for some more sophisticated European items, such as windows, do seem to be increasing.

What steps are you taking to mitigate the impact? In the immediate sense, I think that keeping flexible is the key to working with uncertainty. However, in the long term, I think that the best mitigation strategy is to help ensure London remains a key part of the international architectural community.

This involves working on inclusivity and diversity, being deeply involved with educating the next generation of architects (we love teaching at the Bartlett UCL), and making sure we keep reaching out to our international friends and neighbours.

The post Immediate impact of Brexit "quite minor" say architects appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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dorcasrempel · 5 years

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The permanent struggle for liberty

Where do democratic states with substantial personal liberty come from? Over the years, many grand theories have emphasized one specific factor or another, including culture, climate, geography, technology, or socioeconomic circumstances such as the development of a robust middle class.

Daron Acemoglu has a different view: Political liberty comes from social struggle. We have no universal template for liberty — no conditions that necessarily give rise to it, and no unfolding historical progression that inevitably leads to it. Liberty is not engineered and handed down by elites, and there is no guarantee liberty will remain intact, even when it is enshrined in law.

“True democracy and liberty don’t originate from checks and balances or from clever institutional design,” says Acemoglu, an economist and Institute Professor at MIT. “They originate [and are sustained] in the much more messy process of society mobilizing, people defending their own liberties, and actively setting constraints on how rules and behaviors are imposed on them.”

Now Acemoglu and his longtime collaborator James A. Robinson, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, have a new book out propounding this thesis. “The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty,” published this week by Penguin Random House, examines how some states emerged as beacons of liberty.

The crux of the matter, to Acemoglu and Robinson, is that liberal-democratic states exist in between the alternatives of lawlessness and authoritarianism. The state is needed to protect people from domination at the hands of others in society, but the state can also become an instrument of violence and repression. When social groups contest state power and harness it to help ordinary citizens, liberty expands.

“The conflict between state and society, where the state is represented by elite institutions and leaders, creates a narrow corridor in which liberty flourishes,” Acemoglu says. “You need this conflict to be balanced. An imbalance is detrimental to liberty. If society is too weak, that leads to despotism. But on the other side, if society is too strong, that results in weak states that are unable to protect their citizens.”

From the “Gilgamesh problem” to the “narrow corridor”

Following the English political theorist John Locke, Acemoglu and Robinson define liberty by writing that it “must start with people being free from violence, intimidation, and other demeaning acts. People must be able to make free choices about their lives and have the means to carry them out without the menace of unreasonable punishment or draconian social sanctions.”

This has been a nearly eternal concern, the authors note: Gilgamesh, per the ancient epic, was a king who “exceeded all bounds” in society. The need to curb absolute power is something the authors call the “Gilgamesh problem,” one of several coinages in the book. Another is the “cage of norms,” the condition where society, in absence of a state, organizes itself to avoid extensive violence — but only through restrictive social arrangements.

States, by becoming the guarantors of liberty, can break the repressive cage of norms. But social groups must curb state power before it too stifles freedom. When state capacity and society develop in tandem, the authors call this the “Red Queen effect,” alluding to a race in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.” This “race,” if balanced enough, occurs in the “narrow corridor” where liberty-supporting states can exist.

Acemoglu and Robinson examine ancient cases of political reform from Athens to the Zapotec state, and they locate liberty’s largest direct wellspring in the early Middle Ages. Germanic tribes had quasidemocratic assemblies; meanwhile some leftover administrative structures of the Roman empire still existed alongside those of the Christian church. When the Frankish king Clovis created a “fusion of Roman state structure with the norms and political institutions of the Franks” in 511, the authors write, some parts of Europe were “at the entryway to the corridor” toward liberty.

To be sure, there was a “gradual, painful historical process” to be played out; it was another 700 years before King John of England signed the Magna Carta in 1215, a watershed for the distribution of lawful power beyond the throne.

Still, state structures being grafted onto a mechanism for representing society, through assemblies, meant both state and society could expand their power. As Acemoglu and Robinson put it, this “fortuitous balance” effectively “put Europe into the corridor, setting in motion the Red Queen effect in a relentless process of state‐society competition.” Eventually, European democracies evolved.

“Liberty is fragile”

That Europe took the lead in creating liberty-granting states was not inevitable, Acemoglu and Robinson emphasize. Almost 3,000 years ago, they note, ancient China was organized into city-states, and one influential political advisor of the time wrote that “the people are masters of the deities.” But by the fourth century B.C.E., spurred on by the politician and theorist Shang Yang, Chinese rulers built a much more powerful state, which became the Qin empire. Despite many potential moments of reform, detailed in “The Narrow Corridor,” China’s state has largely remained much more powerful than its social interests.

Moreover, Acemoglu suggests, the longer a despotic state exists, “the more self-reinforcing it becomes.” He adds: “The more it takes root, the more it sets up a hierarchy which is hard to change, and the more it weakens society. … That’s why I think dreams of China smoothly converting to a democratic system have been misplaced — [it’s had] 2,500 years of state despotism.”

The account of the U.S. in “The Narrow Corridor” also takes a long view, albeit over a much shorter period. The U.S. Constitution and the architecture of government developed in the late 18th century, Acemoglu and Robinson write, was a “Faustian bargain” created by Federalists to limit both absolute power and popular power. This structure, they believe, especially its emphasis on states’ rights, “meant that the federal state remained impaired in some important dimensions. For one, it obviously didn’t protect slaves and later its African American citizens from violence, discrimination, poverty, and dominance.”

Acemoglu and Robinson also believe that focusing too much on “the brilliant design of the Constitution” is problematic because it “ignores the critical role that society’s mobilization and the Red Queen [effect] played at every turn. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights … were the result of the tussle between elites and the people.” The expansion of U.S. rights and liberties has emerged intermittently — following the Civil War, the civil rights movement, and the women’s rights movement, among other things. But these liberties can also recede if political counter-movements become effective enough.

“That is the sense in which liberty is fragile,” Acemoglu says. “If you thought liberty depended on clever designs, you’d have thought we would find the perfect design that protects liberty all the time. But if you think it depends on this messy process, then it’s a much more contingent and troubled existence.”

Facing the “urgent challenges for us today”

“The Narrow Corridor” examines many additional cases of state-building in history, from India and Africa to Scandinavia. It also builds on a body of work Acemoglu and Robinson have produced examining the relationships between society, state institutions, and growth. That includes the books “Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy” (2006) and “Why Nations Fail” (2012). The two scholars have also co-authored 36 published papers on these topics (some with additional co-authors).

Acemoglu has also published widely on labor economics, the impact of technology on work and growth, and macroeconomic dynamics. He was named as one of MIT’s 12 Institute Professors this summer and has been on the faculty of the Department of Economics since 1993.

As the authors view it, their account of liberty stands in contrast to many other models. The close of the Cold War helped generate the idea of a geopolitical “end of history,” in which states would converge on a liberal-democratic model. That notion did not closely forecast subsequent developments. Neither did postwar theories of modernization that posited a standardized path to democratic prosperity for the developing world.

“There are multiple destinations countries can be headed to,” Acemoglu says. “There is nothing ephemeral about a despotic state or a weak state, and there is no ineluctable process that’s going to take every country smoothly toward some sort of liberty at all.”

Moreover, Acemoglu says, “Our argument is not a culturally deterministic one.” He adds: “There are views that are very economistic. … Ours is a view that emphasizes the role of agency by individuals and society, and maintains that different social organizations lead to different outcomes. It’s also not geography-based. I think there are a lot of differences from [other] theories.”

Scholars have praised “The Narrow Corridor.” Joel Mokyr, a historian at Northwestern University, has called it “a magisterial book of immense insight and learning,” which “draws a chilling conclusion every thinking person should be aware of: Liberty is as rare as it is fragile, wedged uneasily between tyranny and anarchy.”

Today’s politics have also generated abundant discussion about the future of governance and democracy. In this vein, Acemoglu says, “The Narrow Corridor” is an engagement with the past meant to illuminate the present.

“We need to think about history,” Acemoglu says. “We are writing this book because we think it’s relevant to the urgent challenges for us today. Creating the right sort of political balance, and mobilizing society while not disempowering laws and institutions, are completely first-order challenges we face today. I hope our perspective will shed some light on those issues.”

The permanent struggle for liberty syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

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vikingshub-blog · 6 years

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A brief history of the Vikings

They are regularly depicted simply as one-dimensional warriors whose accomplishments incorporate minimal more than looting and assaulting. However, as Philip Parker clarifies, this was not the full degree of the Viking scene…

In 793, dread plummeted on the bank of Northumbria as equipped bandits assaulted the exposed cloister of St Cuthbert on Lindisfarne. The alarmed priests observed defenselessly as the intruders grabbed a pull of fortune and a grasp of prisoners. It was the principal recorded attack by the Vikings, seaborne privateers from Scandinavia who might go after beach front networks in north-western Europe for over two centuries and make for themselves a notoriety for being savage and merciless warriors.

That picture was amplified by the individuals who expounded on the Viking assaults – at the end of the day, their casualties. The Anglo-Saxon pastor Alcuin of York composed significantly of the Lindisfarne assault that the "congregation was scattered with the blood of the clerics of God, plundered of every one of its decorations… given as a prey to agnostic people groups" and resulting (for the most part Christian) scholars and writers lost couple of chances to slander the (primarily agnostic) Vikings.

However, however they irrefutably did exceptionally dangerous and vicious assaults, from little scale strikes against houses of worship to significant battles including a great many warriors, the Vikings shaped piece of a complex and regularly modern Scandinavian culture. And also plunderers they were brokers, coming to as far east as the streams of Russia and the Caspian Sea; pilgrims, sending ships far over the Atlantic to arrive on the coastline of North America five centuries previously Columbus; artists, forming refrain and exposition adventures of incredible power, and specialists, making works of bewildering excellence.

Viking starting points

The Vikings started in what is presently Denmark, Norway and Sweden (despite the fact that hundreds of years before they wound up bound together nations). Their country was overwhelmingly rustic, with no towns. By far most earned a pitiful living through agribusiness, or along the drift, by angling. Advances in delivery innovation in the seventh and eighth hundreds of years implied that water crafts were fueled by sails as opposed to exclusively by paddles. These were then added to vessels made of covering boards ('clinker-worked') to make longships, quick shallow-drafted pontoons that could explore seaside and inland waters and arrive on shorelines.

Precisely what initially constrained groups of men to take after their neighborhood chieftain over the North Sea in these longships is vague. It might have been confined overpopulation, as plots moved toward becoming subdivided to the point where families could scarcely squeeze out a living; it might have been political shakiness, as chieftains battled for strength; or it might have been news brought home by vendors of the wealth to be found in exchanging settlements advance west. Likely it was a blend of every one of the three. However, in 793 that initially assaulting party hit Lindisfarne and inside a couple of years assist Viking groups had struck Scotland (794), Ireland (795) and France (799).

Their casualties did not allude to them as Vikings. That name came later, getting to be advanced by the eleventh century and potentially getting from the word vik, which in the Old Norse dialect the Vikings talked signifies 'narrows' or 'delta'. Rather they were called Dani ('Danes') – there was no sense at the time this ought to allude just to the occupants of what we currently call Denmark – pagani ('agnostics') or basically Normanni ('Northmen').

Strikes

At first the strikes were little scale issues, a matter of a couple of boatloads of men who might return home once they had gathered adequate loot or if the opposition they experienced was excessively solid. In any case, in the 850s they started to overwinter in southern England, in Ireland and along the Seine in France, building up bases from which they started to command inland regions.

The strikes achieved a crescendo in the second 50% of the ninth century. In Ireland the Vikings built up longphorts – invigorated ports – including at Dublin, from which they commanded a great part of the eastern piece of the island. In France they developed in quality as an isolated Frankish kingdom cracked politically and in 885 a Viking armed force assaulted and nearly caught Paris.

In Scotland they set up an earldom in the Orkneys and overran the Shetlands and the Hebrides. What's more, in England a colossal Viking host, the micel here ('extraordinary armed force') touched base in 865. Driven by a couple of warrior siblings, Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, they picked off the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England one by one. First Northumbria, with its capital at York, tumbled to them in 866, at that point East Anglia, trailed by the focal English kingdom of Mercia. At long last, just Wessex, managed by Alfred, remained. A devout savant, Alfred had just progressed toward becoming lord since his three more military more established siblings had sickened or kicked the bucket fighting in past Viking intrusions.

Toward the beginning of January 878 an area of the Great Army driven by Guthrum crossed the boondocks and got Alfred off guard the illustrious home at Chippenham. Alfred scarcely figured out how to escape and invested months lurking in the Somerset swamps at Athelney. It resembled the autonomy of Wessex – and that of England for the most part – may be at an end. Yet, against the chances Alfred assembled another armed force, crushed the Vikings at Edington and constrained Guthrum to acknowledge absolution as a Christian. For his accomplishment in sparing his kingdom he turned into the main local English ruler to pick up the moniker 'the Great'.

For a long time England was partitioned between the land controlled by the lords of Wessex in the south and south-west and a Viking-controlled territory in the Midlands and the north. Viking rulers managed this area until the remainder of them, Erik Bloodaxe, was ousted and executed in 954 and the rulers of Wessex progressed toward becoming leaders of an assembled England. All things considered, Viking (and particularly Danish) traditions since a long time ago persevered there and hints of Scandinavian DNA can at present be found in a locale that for quite a long time was known as the Danelaw.

By the mid-eleventh century joined kingdoms had showed up in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and the attacks had at last started to die down. There was a last burst of movement in the mid eleventh century when regal supported endeavors prevailing with regards to overcoming England again and putting Danish lords on the position of authority there (counting, most prominently, Canute, who led a domain in England, Denmark and Norway, however who more likely than not did not charge the tide to go out, as a society story affirms). Vikings stayed responsible for huge parts of Scotland (particularly Orkney), a territory around Dublin and Normandy in France (where in 911 King Charles the Simple had conceded land to a Norwegian chieftain, Rollo, the progenitor of William the Conqueror). They additionally controlled a substantial piece of current Ukraine and Russia, where Swedish Vikings had infiltrated in the ninth century and built up states based around Novgorod and Kiev.

Settlements

This was not the full degree of the Viking scene, be that as it may. The same sea animosity that had made them loot (and eventually vanquish) settled grounds additionally drove them to wander looking for obscure shores on which to settle. Vikings likely touched base in the Faroes in the eighth century and they utilized this as a venturing stone to cruise assist west over the Atlantic.

In the mid-ninth century a progression of Viking voyages ran over Iceland and in the year 872 pilgrims driven by Ingólf Arnarson settled on the island. They set up a one of a kind society, savagely autonomous and owing no formal loyalty to the rulers of Norway. It was a republic whose preeminent administering body was, from 930, the Althing, a get together made up of Iceland's central men which met each mid year in a plain alongside a huge separated in a ring of slopes in the focal point of the island. It has a solid claim to be the world's most seasoned parliament.

From Iceland, as well, we have other essential bits of proof of the imaginativeness of Viking social orders. These incorporate the most punctual bits of history composed by Vikings themselves as a twelfth century history of Iceland, the Íslendingabók, and the Landnámabók, a record of the first settlement of the island (with the names of every one of the main pilgrims and the land they took).

However, more critical – and astounding for the individuals who perspective of the Vikings is as one-dimensional warriors – is the accumulation of adventures known as the Íslendingasögur or Icelandic Family Sagas. Their setting is the initial 150 long periods of the Viking state in Iceland and they recount regularly vexed relations between the fundamental Icelandic families. Unions, treacheries, quarrels and murders play out against the setting of a scene in which highlights can at present regularly be distinguished today. Getting it done, in stories, for example, Njál's Saga or Egil's Saga, they are ground-breaking bits of writing in their own particular right, and among the most imperative written work to make due from any European nation in the Middle Ages.

#vikings #viking jewelry #norse mythology #viking history #viking

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nightrainlily · 6 years

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DAY TWO: A KILO OF KöRSBäR/SOME THOUGHTS ON IMMIGRATION POLICY

my last trip to Sweden was such a whirlwind, so shocking and alien, that I’m feeling rather empty and dumb here now. I remember having so much to say in my first few blog posts, so full of epiphanies. now, I’m struck by a sense of familiarity, rather than disbelief and wonder. of course, Sweden is no less wonderful; rather, I am accustomed to its beauty, which is both sad and comforting. every single thing was so new and exciting I felt that I could write paragraphs about each one.

which is exactly what I did, but facts aside, the feeling itself of returning to a place you remember as if from another life is like being in a nice dream. when I woke up this morning to the sun rising, I remembered that I slept better here than anywhere else, because there is no sound—I’ve never experienced such perfect silence as that of Nyhamnsläge. the air smelled like the sea and the branches waved good morning from outside the open window. I saw Celia making coffee in the kitchen and knew there was Oatly jordgubb yoghurt waiting for me in the fridge. literally since the moment I woke up, I’ve found myself smiling at the beautiful scenery, at the people I didn’t realize I missed, at the excitement I’m feeling about being in Sweden again.

a motif: someone will start to tell a story, and I’ll say, I remember that, I remember that fact or story or conversation. since coming to Sweden, I’ve been consistently able to recognize the language when it’s being spoken around me, which is rare, but I picked up very little in my time here. the words I do remember are for strawberry (jordgubbe), raspberry (hallon), blueberry (blåbär), wild strawberry (smultron), cherry (körsbär), and ice cream (glass). you can tell where my priorities were, and are.

of course, I can also say “takk” and “varsågod” like any good houseguest, but I don’t think I can count to eight like I used to. even though I basically gave up on learning swedish when I arrived, I still picked up a few words in my time here. I imagine that if I spent a year here, and dedicated myself to understanding and speaking, I might be able to speak passable swedish. Amalia keeps telling me “you’re a native!” when I say “hej” to every passing neighbor. I told Joelle to try it, because it makes you feel really good when someone says “hej hej” back and thinks you’re a Swede for a half second.

we went for a hike up the mountain where we snorkeled last time. the trees were so green and the ocean was so blue. everything here, from the houses to the sky to the people, is just a little more vibrant. I remember being so pleased with the blue-green hues of Sweden on my last trip, and I’m pleased to report that they haven’t faded one bit.

Joelle and I went for a run this morning along the same path that I ran two summers ago. I took a snapchat video at the same tree-lined stretch. Amalia has been gone for a whole year on exchange in Australia and she said nothing changed while she was away. I have to agree; this place seems untouched by the chaos of the changing political, economic, and societal planes. while of course I have a surface-level view of Sweden, from a single small village for a short period of time, I still hope that this observation holds true—that Sweden can hold out against the pressures of racism and bigotry that grip America and other nations around the world.

but I’m told that Sweden, too, is headed for a more harsh policy on immigration and naturalization of refugees. I’m going to try to get this part right, even though I’m obviously not a native and have a limited view of the laws surrounding this issue. I recently read a New York Times article (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/world/europe/denmark-immigrant-ghettos.html) that detailed the proposed new immigration processes for Danish migrants. the most striking facet of the legislation is the required separation of “ghetto children” from their families for education in Danish culture, traditions, and values. many Danish citizens feel that their culture is being diluted by the heavy influx of refugees, most of them Muslim, due to the language barriers and unwillingness of immigrants to assimilate into mainstream Danish society. their systems, and that of other Nordic nations, crafted for small homogeneous populations, have bent and buckled under the weight of immigrant populations, often seeking asylum from war. while they have previously had more liberal immigration policies, many Nordic countries were struggling with loud dissent as early as 2012 from their right-wing parties, who suggested and then implemented the reduction of immigrants’ rights.

Swedish elections are coming up, and it seems likely that their conservative party, with conservative views on border control, will win either the majority or at least a good amount of seats in the government. if a minor comes to Sweden, it is the right of their family to join them, a loophole which is often abused by immigrant families. refugees cannot work until they obtain a visa, a process that, while incomparable to the states’ nearly impossible and nearly infinite own visa procedure, takes a good amount of time. during that purgatory period, they receive welfare and support from the programs put in place to act as a safety net for Swedish citizens. Swedes who pay into these systems are voicing their concerns about immigrants using this welfare to avoid work and maintain housing, etc. they have also had issues with migrant smugglers, who inflict human rights violations on their charges and pocket their welfare benefits in exchange for safe passage into Sweden. because Denmark and other countries have recently narrowed their policies, Sweden has taken on more immigrants than ever, and the problems have worsened in turn.

these nations are among the world’s richest, happiest, and most stable. but they’re quickly becoming divided over issues of refugee policy, and Sweden faces an upcoming fork in the road. are Nordic countries so successful and copacetic because their populations are bound by ethnic and cultural ties? or do their programs simply need to be retrofitted to serve a growing population? are increases in crime, gang violence, and racial tensions due entirely to the refugee crisis, or is it just one cause among many?

the Swedish welfare state is oft cited as a model for success by democratic parties in western countries. but these systems would have to be modified for larger communities, communities which are extremely diverse and come from wildly disparate backgrounds. if they do indeed depend on the sense of community each member feels with another, it’s unclear if they’re scaleable at all. but I applaud the Swedes for attempting to accommodate the victims of war.

some resources:

1. https://www.government.se/491b2f/contentassets/84c1ec8c729f4be384a5ba6dddeb0606/swedens-migration-and-asylum-policy

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/09/when-it-comes-to-refugees-scandinavia-isnt-quite-the-promised-land/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.14d166335a1f

to switch gears entirely: this afternoon Joelle, Amalia, and I picked black cherries from a tree. we didn’t even make a dent, and we brought home two large brown paper bags (I say “brought home” because we ate about as many as we picked). and today on our hike, we ate wild raspberries growing on the side of the road. if you know me, you know that I worship at the alter of fruit, especially berries. cherries at home are so expensive and so often mealy or not sweet that I never counted them as one of my favorite fruits, but these babies are succulent and juicy and syrupy. I can’t describe how overjoyed I feel when I pluck a cherry off a branch and pop it directly into my mouth. it feels so good. so, so good.

dinner is calling, despite the kilo of cherries I just consumed. wish me luck,

amaya

1. Après Moi - Regina Spektor

2. Hello Cruel World - Dent May

3. Outside of Space and Time - David Byrne and St. Vincent

4. Living in America - The Sounds

5. July Jones - The New Pornographers

#europe2018

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goldeagleprice · 6 years

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Gustav Vasa took charge of Sweden

While more southerly European countries were starting to use larger silver and gold coins up in Scandinavia, it was still mostly pennies and local equivalents. This coin, a half ortug, was struck for Swedish King Charles II (now VIII), made in his seat of power, Abo, now called Turku, in Finland. (Photos courtesy Spink & Son, London, UK, www.spink.com)

By Bob Reis

There is a kind of temper of the times when similar kinds of things happen all over the place. I look at history a lot as part of my job. There are these general tendencies that develop over time and one day, in retrospect, things are obviously different. And then, occasionally, there are these pivotal periods of a few years when something changes, then something else, then more change, sometimes disorder maybe, then afterwards everything is different. Like you’re driving through the mountains in the rain and you come around a bend and there’s the valley with the big city in front of you.

The first years of the 16th century were like that.

I was reading Josephus, the first century historian of the Jewish people. He wrote about how the general concept of governance in the world was absolute personal dictatorship, that the desire for other people’s stuff was a sufficient justification for offensive war. Josephus pointed out that his religion had laws that treated everyone the same, king to beggar, and demanded that people treat each other nicely while other people had actual gods of meanness and cruelty.

Conflict between haves and have-nots has been going on at least as long as the start of the bureaucratic states around 6,000 years ago.

I’m thinking about why/how the European “thing,” maybe the word “outlook” is a reasonable way of thinking about it, came to dominate the world until this very moment. There is the scientific element of course, yielding better weapons, but I am thinking that there was also a political element. I’m going to go out on a limb and call it “me too-ism.” The idea that the boss is not absolute, that his (rarely her) personal will is the only relevant factor, that other people, the general populace, must be considered.

In 16th century Europe, a new power-wielding class had fully emerged and become practically independent of the old military noble structure evolved from Roman times. That was the merchants, united for lobbying purposes into guilds and leagues. Mercantile activity is by nature outwardly directed, where there are more opportunities, the old military noble outlook was defensive/offensive, and reasons for offensive activity were somewhat bound by the laws of the religion they happened to have, which happened to be Christianity, which prohibited predatory wars, wars had to be defensive only. Other religions, some of them, didn’t have that particular moral stricture, and to the Europeans it was often only a formal requirement that the war starter had to come up with a story of how the other side had caused an injury that had to be redressed, rather than just wanting to own that port or something.

Nobles, with their local tolls, were a problem for merchants, who would rather deal with one set of rules. Merchants tended to seek assistance for their enterprises from kings, who had a longer reach than local nobles. The kings, in response to the greater needs and larger budgets required of facilitation of trade, began to dust off the old monarchical concepts of infallibility, divine right, absolute authority. Nobles of course resisted the proposed reduction of their status but the flow of events was going in the direction of larger enterprises. Resistance was futile.

Let’s see some of what was happening in a certain year in the 16th century. How about 1521?

China was inward looking, the emperor was calling his reign Jia Jing. We know his coins but he was a recluse. China was corrupt and inward looking. India was fragmented. Iran, after centuries of foreign occupation, was unified under the Shia shah Ismail I Safavi, who, I found in my research, was a descendant on his mother’s side of Byzantine emperors. He, it turns out, was one of those modernizing absolute monarchs of the time, founder, in a sense, of “modern” Iran. Turkey, or, as known then, the Ottoman Empire, was ruled by Suleiman the Magnificent, another of those larger than life 16th century rulers. Who remembers anything about his father? But we remember Suleiman, if only by name.

In Europe a guy named Charles Hapsburg was simultaneously king of Spain and Holy Roman emperor. Under his auspices Cortez conquered the Aztec emperor in Mexico, acquiring thereby a big pile of gold to send back to Spain. 1521 is the year that Martin Luther came on the world scene. Francis I, in some ways as big a shot as Charles, was king of France, obtained an alliance with the Ottoman Suleiman in his struggles against Hapsburg. And of course in England there was Henry VIII, another of those hyper-famous figures of history. Quick, what did his very active father, Henry VII, do? But you know something about Henry VIII, don’t you?

Two years later, up in Sweden, on the edge of the wilderness, as it were (savage Finland to the east, beyond that darkest Russia), yet another of those great figures of history came to power. His name: Gustav Vasa.

And, before looking more closely at our guy Gustav, a quick note on some developments in social activities of the period:

• world-capable boats

• firearms in general use by organized militaries, in 1521 mostly cannons and special small units of small arms specialists, but in the “civilized” zone, from Ireland to China, there were guns on both sides of most conflicts

• printing

• double entry bookkeeping

• expanded use of credit and interest, leading to an increased need for tokens of trade, and therefore

• bigger coins and more of them

• better visual and plastic arts techniques

• I don’t know, maybe there was something about the change of fashion; European guys showing more leg

• but still, like in ancient Rome, the most popular public entertainment was executions.

OK then, in 1521 there are all these egotistical, talented, visionary, charismatic, ruthless kings in greater Eurasia: English Henry, French Francois, Spanish/Austrian Charles, Swedish Gustav, Ottoman Suleiman, Iranian Ismail, that’s six of them, all of them ruling differently than their predecessors, with larger dreams and new control systems. At least that’s how we’d describe it today. And we’re numismatists. They all made monetary reforms that resulted in new coins in new styles that we can collect.

Gustav Eriksson Vasa was born into a family of high nobility. His family was generally what could be described as anti-Danish and pro-Swedish independence. The king of the three Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) was the Dane, Christian II. Christian was known as a double-crosser in diplomacy, and was cruel. There was war. During a negotiation session Christian kidnapped the Swedish envoys, including Gustav. The story is he flipped all of them save Gustav, who escaped. That was 1518. Gustav would have been about 22 years old. Christian, meanwhile, won the war, for the time being. After the crowning of the Danish king several days of festive merrymaking were concluded with the seizure and execution of about 100 of Christian’s enemies, including Gustav’s father. This being Europe, a legal excuse had to be produced to cover political murders, most were convicted in kangaroo court proceedings of heresy.

Much of Gustav’s reform coinage featured his portrait. This is a silver 2 ore of Stockholm dated 1540. (Images courtesy of The Coin Cabinet Ltd, London, www.thecoincabinet.com)

Gustav pulled together an army and mounted a rebellion. Things went well for him and them. The Danish king was deposed in Denmark. The new Danish king failed to win the war. Gustav was elected king of Sweden in 1523. Further ventures occurred involving negotiations and maneuvers that produced an agreement with Denmark, with the Hansa city of Lubeck, supporter of Gustav, by 1524 the way was cleared, Gustav was crowned in 1524.

Immediately he got into trouble with the pope over naming of archbishops. Funny thing, that. All of a sudden these kings were all having problems with the pope, Henry VIII, etc. In Sweden there was a fair bit of that Renaissance “new thinking” going on. A popular priest got married. The Bible got translated. In the end Gustav told the pope: “Don’t worry about the Church in Sweden, I’ll take care of it.”

Sweden under Gustav went most of the way in reforming the church. But not all the way. They didn’t actually proscribe Catholicism. But church properties were seized, pretty much all of them, and put under crown control.

Some big noble donors were allowed to take their donations back, a team building strategy by the king. In most ways though the new political thinking tended to reduce the power of nobles, so it didn’t hurt to give a few power people a few crumbs. Oh, this is topical: big overhaul of the tax system, mostly taking the nobles out of the collection business and depriving them of one of their tools of oppression of their commoners. It was supposed to be a fairer system but there were winners and losers, and the overall take for most people increased. There was a big external debt to the backers of Gustav’s war of liberation to pay off.

Some armed rebellions grew out of perceived economic inequities, though of course, like everything else during the Reformation, there was a religious element. The peasants, mostly, as always, were conservative, and weren’t interested in being anything other than Catholic. Today we yell about stuff. Back then they stabbed each other. Neighbors, about whether to pray in Latin or Swedish.

Gustav’s big international preoccupations were the German Hansa business conglomerate and Denmark. The Hansa city of Lubeck had been a big backer of Gustav in his insurgent days and they had received in due course such extremely nice business conditions in Sweden as to positively oppress, annoy and keep down the natives. Gustav eventually worked out a deal with Denmark to diplomatically gang up on Lubeck and change its rules of engagement in Sweden, and, more importantly perhaps, its waters. Sweden was fully in control of its borders and economy.

No major foreign wars in Gustav’s time, only a bit of exploratory raiding in Russia late in his reign. Ivan the Terrible was the first “tsar of the Russias,” Gustav thought he smelled a potential adventuring conqueror. But Ivan didn’t do the Alexander the Great kind of thing, rather, he oppressed his people at home and wrecked the economy. Gustav nevertheless sent a few thousand troops into Russia to mess around. Russians tromped around in Finland. Nothing came of it. They signed a treaty agreeing to forget about it.

Gustav died in 1560, kind of in the middle of things, politically speaking. He is a George Washington kind of figure in Swedish history. They have him on the money there, or have until recently. And, like most of us can’t tell you much about what Washington actually accomplished in eight years of presidency, yet his, as it were, moral influence endures, so too with Gustav. His bureaucratic reforms have of course evolved over time, but the government and polity of Sweden trace the way they are back to the foundations he laid.

Gustav’s coinage, typically for the period, was varied. Outside of Scandinavia Europe had moved beyond small silver coins into standard gold coins and different sizes of silvers, including big ones. There was getting to be a lot more business. They needed more coinage to do it with. They were more and more using paper to indicate transfers, an idea they got from the Chinese by way of the Mongols. Gustav believed in progress, immediately started making larger silver coins.

There is a book that is usually quoted as a reference for “modern” Swedish coins: Sveriges Mynt 1521-1977, by Bjarne Ahlstrom. It was published in 1977, apparently hasn’t been reprinted. I found a PDF version online.

There are silver coins, undated, of the Liberation War period, imitating Danish coins, planchets cut with shears and usually squarish, in the name of Gustav Eriksson. They seem to be very rare.

The pre-reform coinage was all billon or silver. The basic denomination was the penning. The period 1523-1531 saw some messing around with exchange rates between billon and silver, essentially the billon kept getting its value lowered which had the effect of incrementally robbing the lower class people who used it. The billon Gustav coins were the fyrk of 4 penningar, and the ortug of 20. Then there were silver coins, the ore, call it a dime if you wish, and the gyllen (gulden) and its half, call it a heavy half dollar. At different times and in different places in Sweden the silver/billon rates varied by more than 100 percent, to the annoyance of businesspeople everywhere.

Pre-reform mints were Stockholm. Vasteras, Uppsala, Arboga, and Abo. The billon types were typically but not exclusively the royal arms of three crowns and a large letter, “G” for instance, for the king, or “S” for Stockholm. Traditional designs. The basic type of the silvers was a standing facing king, various versions of the royal arms on the reverse.

Like most European rulers of his era, Gustav believed in the civilizing power of art and put some of that progressive social vision into the coinage. This daler of Stockholm has a beautiful depiction of Christ as Salvator Mundi. (Photos courtesy Myntkompaniet / AB Philea, Stockholm, http://www.philea.se/)

The coinage reform of 1534 involved the introduction of the mark as a money of account, everything else fixed against it, and the daler. 1 mark = 8 ore = 24 ortugar = 192 penningar. 2-1/2 mark = a daler. Coins of 1, 2, and 4 penningar exist, 2 ore, 1/2 marks, 1 and 2 marks. Various types, most with portraits of the king, Mark coins and ores for use in Sweden. The dalers, halves, and quarters, were made ostensibly for the German trade.

Mints were Stockholm, Vasteras, Svartsjo (notable reverse type of Jesus as Salvator Mundi), and Abo.

There were square “klipping” coins struck in Svartsjo in 1543 and in Abo in 1556 and 1557. What happened in 1543? The Dacke peasant uprising was defeated. How about 1556? That was the middle of the Russo-Swedish war. I wish I had more time to research the klippings, which are usually, in the 16th century, emergency money of some kind. Doesn’t matter from a collecting point of view, they are hardly ever for sale.

I went looking to buy a Gustav Vasa coin for a month. I saw more than a few, many denominations and price levels. The most common were the 4 penningar, 2 ore, 1 mark, but there are expensive dalers showing up in auctions. With the exception of a few surprisingly cheap coins that got away, prices ranged from quite robust to outrageous. Multiple hundreds of dollars will get you some small coin in not too bad shape. Or you could wait to get lucky. I found a portrait 2 ore 1540, fine, not so nice, they wanted $1,000. I offered $250. They told me I could have it for $850, I declined.

What do I think about that? That Sweden in Gustav’s time was still mostly using foreign coins, and was mostly making their own coins as a kind of fiscal flag waving, “Look, we make money too.”

This article was originally printed in World Coin News. >> Subscribe today.

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goldeagleprice · 6 years

Text

Gustav Vasa took charge of Sweden

By Bob Reis

The first years of the 16th century were like that.

Conflict between haves and have-nots has been going on at least as long as the start of the bureaucratic states around 6,000 years ago.

Let’s see some of what was happening in a certain year in the 16th century. How about 1521?

And, before looking more closely at our guy Gustav, a quick note on some developments in social activities of the period:

• world-capable boats

• printing

• double entry bookkeeping

• expanded use of credit and interest, leading to an increased need for tokens of trade, and therefore

• bigger coins and more of them

• better visual and plastic arts techniques

• I don’t know, maybe there was something about the change of fashion; European guys showing more leg

• but still, like in ancient Rome, the most popular public entertainment was executions.

Much of Gustav’s reform coinage featured his portrait. This is a silver 2 ore of Stockholm dated 1540. (Images courtesy of The Coin Cabinet Ltd, London, www.thecoincabinet.com)

There are silver coins, undated, of the Liberation War period, imitating Danish coins, planchets cut with shears and usually squarish, in the name of Gustav Eriksson. They seem to be very rare.

Mints were Stockholm, Vasteras, Svartsjo (notable reverse type of Jesus as Salvator Mundi), and Abo.

What do I think about that? That Sweden in Gustav’s time was still mostly using foreign coins, and was mostly making their own coins as a kind of fiscal flag waving, “Look, we make money too.”

This article was originally printed in World Coin News. >> Subscribe today.

More Collecting Resources

• Are you a U.S. coin collector? Check out the 2018 U.S. Coin Digest for the most recent coin prices.

• Download The Metal Mania Seminar with David Harper to learn more about the metals market.

The post Gustav Vasa took charge of Sweden appeared first on Numismatic News.

#Precious Metals

0 notes