The idea of the continuous and cyclic rise and fall of Civilisations was first penned by Ibn Khaldūn, as I posted about before, but there is perhaps no better illustration of this than ‘The Course of Empire,’ a series of five paintings done by Thomas Cole 500 years later in 1833-1836.

The Savage State

The Arcadian or Pastoral State

The Consummation of Empire

The Destruction of Empire

Desolation

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-rise-and-certain-fall-of-the-american-empire-2010-03-09?pagenumber=2

Had some friends down from Belgium this weekend, and after their 8 hour drive down, they hit the snow jackpot. I hit the Belgian beer jackpot as they brought down a fine selection of Belgium’s finest beer. Took them out to the Belgian bar in Salzburg in the evening for some more Belgian beer (after the local Austrian Brewery of course). Did you know Belgium has over 135 breweries producing more than 700 different beers? Neither did but I like beer so I was impressed. They were impressed with the snow too so we showed them around a couple of the finest Spots for snowboarding in Salzburgland.  Took the GoPro Camera out for a couple of runs and finally got some nice snow and sunshine. Will try to put together an edit this week.

Benny welcoming Kenson to Sportgastein.

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The Sumerians produced the world’s “first high civilization” and were the world’s first urban non-Semitic people with the earliest traces of them found as far back as 5300BC. This ancient culture spanned the fifth to the second millennium BC in and around ancient Mesopotamia (mainly modern day Iraq but also stretching to Turkey, Syria and Iran) and its scientific and literary achievements had lasting influence throughout the ancient world and down through today.

The Sumerians were the first people to have a complex system of metrology which resulted in the creation of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. They referred to themselves as the sag-giga, which literally meant “the black-headed people. The cities of Sumer were the first to practice rigorous, year-round agriculture.

What I find fascinating is that as late as the 19th century, the Sumerian culture was completely unknown.  Sumer had “been erased from the mind and memory of man for more than two thousand years.” That is, up until around a Hundred years ago, we had no idea of where we came from. It is clear that what we dont know is still far greater than we do know about our early histroy,  but a lot of the knowledge we have was brought to light with the discovery of  the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh where 30, 000 clay tablets were found.

Another thing I find fascinating, is that the earliest Leaders of Sumeria, who lived amongst, and ruled over the people, were Deified, that is, they were gods. These were Dumuzi, a deity whose worship would have profound influences in Judaism and in Greek mythology, and Gilgamesh, the “supreme hero of Sumerian myth and legend,” his deeds written and rewritten not only in Sumerian but also in other languages.

Sargon the Great was the conqueror (7000 years later we are still fighting over these lands!) that finally brought about the end of the Sumerian people as “an identifiable political and ethnic entity” and began the “Semitization of Sumer.” He went on to later build babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Sumerians believed that rite and ritual were more important than either personal devotion or piety, and that man was “created for no other purpose than to serve the gods.” Bear in mind, these gods were not some abstract entity, but according to the Sumerians, they created the first people, lived amongst and ruled over them.

I have two fascinating books about the Sumerians. Both of which I would highly recommend, this one and this one.

Image by Raphael Lacoste

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(The mix starts after the first 6 mins of talking)

We live in a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors, so what’s in a wobble? You don’t have to be a smart man to know what love is. LUVSTEP completes you and is programmed for pleasure. It’s music for starry nights and candle light…slow wine and grind time. Dirty South Joe and Flufftronix are your captains for this maiden voyage into the heart of the boom’s cosmic bosom. It’s amazing, the love inside. You take it with you.

Haha, playlist below.

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The world’s most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a “dirty war” by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash.

The bleak warning of social and financial meltdown was delivered today in Tokyo at a gathering of 700 pension and sovereign wealth fund managers.

…One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.

His investment advice, which was the first keynote speech of CLSA’s annual investment forum in Tokyo, included a suggestion that fund managers buy houses in the countryside because it was more likely that violence, biological attack and other acts of a “dirty war” would happen in cities.

He also said that they should consider holding part of their wealth in the form of precious metals “because they can be carried”.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7035913.ece

Bull or Bear? Take your pic. We also have a limited Grey version.

Some more photos of the Kiska designed KTM 125 Stunt and 125 R concept bikes which were shown last year in Milan.

We are a clever, ambitious species who for hundreds of thousands of years (or more depending on the model) lived off of current/recent solar flows. We eventually puzzled out how to access stored sunlight in the form of fossil fuels. The population and growth trajectory that ensued eventually latched on to a series of assumptions/rationales that would fuse into the system a belief that more is better and that there would be unlimited substitutes for finite natural resources like oil and water. The change from using solar flows to the energy gain contained in a barrel of crude oil was and still is, indistinguishable from magic in the larger scheme.

Eventually (1970s), some cracks in the assumptions underlying this model appeared. Real wages then peaked in the early 1970s and have been declining ever since. Globally, though the poorest people in the world earn more than they did a generation ago, the fact that over 2 billion people don’t have a toilet doesn’t really sound like an equitable global playing field. Oil peaked in the world’s largest oil producer (USA) in 1970. In 1971 we discontinued the gold window and the worlds economic system had no natural tether to real assets. Without such a monetary speedbump, debt skyrocketed over recent decades and became every bit as important driver of economic growth as cheap energy.

Continued..

What a brilliant camera the Leica M8 is. Had a quick play around with it today and it is really quite superb. Such a nice change from my usual point and shoot, but kind of tricky to use. It is also hard to get people to stay still for long enough for you get them in focus and sort out the aperture settings! Anyway, few of the test shots below.