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2024.05.18 17:52 Enough_Letterhead778 Leaders Pushback Against Illegal Migration
https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY submitted by Enough_Letterhead778 to u/Enough_Letterhead778 [link] [comments] Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY INTRODUCTIONThe migration crisis, though less frequently headlined in recent years, remains a pivotal issue influencing political discourse across the globe. Leaders and commentators from various countries have articulated their perspectives on how migration impacts national security, cultural integrity, and societal stability. The speeches of Dominik Tarczyński, Eva Vlaardingerbroek, Suella Braverman, Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Hans-Georg Maaßen, and Balázs Hidvéghi provide a comprehensive overview of the conservative stance on migration not only within Europe but also in the United States.Dominik Tarczyński: A Firm Stand from PolandDominik Tarczyński, a Member of the European Parliament from Poland, emphasizes his country’s zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migration. He credits this approach with keeping Poland free from terrorist attacks and other crimes associated with illegal migrants. Tarczyński criticizes Angela Merkel’s quota system for distributing migrants across EU countries and underscores Poland's commitment to rejecting this system. He advocates for the deportation of undocumented migrants, arguing that those destroying their passports and fingerprints are already engaging in criminal behaviour.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Eva Vlaardingerbroek: The Persistent CrisisDutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek highlights that the migrant crisis, although less prominent in the media today, continues to be a significant challenge for Europe. She points to recent electoral victories by right-wing parties in Sweden and Italy as evidence of a growing public backlash against unchecked migration. Vlaardingerbroek suggests that the consequences of the 2015 crisis are still unfolding, impacting the socio-political landscape across the continent.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Suella Braverman: A Call for Sovereignty and SecurityUK Member of Parliament Suella Braverman criticizes the influence of the European Convention on Human Rights, suggesting it hampers national governments' ability to secure borders and maintain public safety. She argues for a conservative approach to governance that prioritizes the will of the people over the decisions of unelected judges and activists. Braverman warns that failing to address issues like illegal migration through democratic means could lead to social unrest and the rise of extremist solutions.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Donald Trump: An American PerspectiveFormer U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech reinforces a hardline stance on migration, reflecting his administration's policies of banning refugees from specific countries deemed high-risk for terrorism. Trump advocates for stringent ideological screening of immigrants and promises a large-scale deportation effort to remove those he considers a threat to national security. His policies aimed to ensure that those entering the United States align with the country’s values and do not pose a risk to its citizens.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Viktor Orbán: Hungary’s Border PolicyHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reiterates his country’s strict immigration policies, which require migrants to apply for entry from outside Hungary. He describes illegal border crossing as a crime rather than a human right and insists that controlling migration is essential for maintaining national sovereignty. Orbán argues that if all European countries adopted similar policies, the migration crisis could be effectively managed.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Hans-Georg Maaßen: Asylum Policies and ProtectionHans-Georg Maaßen, a former head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, challenges the current asylum policies in Germany. He contends that most asylum seekers are not politically persecuted and thus do not qualify for asylum. Maaßen emphasizes the importance of protecting the nearest safe country, rather than allowing migrants to travel to Germany or other distant nations.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY Balázs Hidvéghi: Preserving European IdentityBalázs Hidvéghi, another Member of the European Parliament, frames the migration debate as a struggle to preserve European identity and cultural norms. He argues that mass migration leads to societal disintegration and public safety issues, citing increased violence in Western European cities as evidence. Hidvéghi calls for a rejection of illegal mass migration to protect the social fabric and maintain public order.https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY ConclusionThe conservative leaders and commentators share a common concern: the need to control migration to preserve national security, cultural integrity, and societal stability. From Europe to the United States, they criticize existing policies and call for stricter measures to prevent illegal migration. Their speeches reflect a broader trend towards nationalism and a desire to prioritize the sovereignty and will of their respective nations. As the world continues to grapple with migration challenges, these voices advocate for policies that they believe will safeguard the future of their countries and maintain order in an increasingly interconnected world.Watch our Video here: https://youtu.be/4hENeWfG_DY |
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2024.05.18 00:02 spartachilles Summary of President Charles Edward Merriam's First Term (May 4th, 1948 - February 10th, 1949) A House Divided Alternate Elections
Charles Edward Merriam, the 37th President of the United States, Official Presidential Portrait submitted by spartachilles to Presidentialpoll [link] [comments] The Poisoned Chalice Upon taking the presidential oath of office after the resignation of President Alvin York, Charles Edward Merriam found himself at the helm of a rudderless ship. Civil unrest was at an all-time high due to mass protests against York’s preemptive nuclear strike and large-scale labor strikes, much of the cabinet had been left vacant by a wave of resignations following York’s controversial decision not to consult his own advisors on the decision, and an already uneasy economy had been thrown into chaos by the total obliteration of a major trading partner. Even the sky itself had visibly darkened while global temperatures dropped, bringing about cries of the end times being visited upon Earth for man’s folly. In this moment of national crisis, Merriam took to the airwaves with a radio address to the American people asking them to unite with him in a national effort for the first 100 days of his presidency to right the course of the country amidst the national crisis. Moving with alacrity to fill the vacancies within his cabinet and bring his administration into full gear, Merriam leaned upon his network of academic contacts to appoint a ring of economic, industrial, and social science experts — Jacob Viner, Bessie Louise Pierce, George W. Taylor, and Leo Wolman — into several key cabinet positions. Similarly, rather than appoint a political operative as his Secretary of State or War, he instead chose to elevate career diplomat and acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew into his position permanently while promoting War Department General Counsel William Marbury Jr. to be Secretary of War. Finding both Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal and Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to be highly competent and sufficiently disentangled from the chaos of the York administration, Merriam requested that the pair remain in their positions. However, Postmaster General Thomas Perkins Henderson would not be so lucky, as Merriam distrusted his close ties to President York and felt the office was wracked by cronyism, thus requesting his immediate resignation to be replaced with former Louisiana Governor and highly regarded reformist Sam H. Jones. To round out his cabinet, Merriam appointed California Governor Earl Warren as his Attorney General due to Warren’s wealth of experience in suppressing syndicalist insurrectionists in his home state, as well as Delaware Senator and businessman J. Allen Frear to manage the Department of the Interior with an eye towards economizing a bloated department. Secretary of State Joseph Grew, a defining member of the Merriam administration with his foreign policy expertise during the world’s darkest hour. Calming a Roiling Sea Believing that anxiety surrounding a national economy plagued by boundless problems was at the root of the national malaise that might yet inspire a resurgence of syndicalism, Merriam quickly moved to restore confidence for both consumers and businesses. As a first step to move past the combative relationships that President Hughes and York held with organized labor, Merriam invited newly minted American Federation of Labor President George Meany for a symbolic meeting to discuss labor issues and establish an informal political alliance to raise wages and working standards as a means to settle the persistent labor unrest. Thus, President Merriam and his Secretary of Labor George W. Taylor began applying the National Labor Arbitration Act to settle hundreds of strikes across the country resulting in a moderate nationwide increase in wage levels and the proliferation of employer-provided healthcare as a commonly provided benefit. Taylor even proved successful in earning the begrudging respect of Congress of Industrial Organizations President Walter Reuther’s respect despite the organization’s more explicitly confrontational approach to industrial relations. Despite this success in the application of labor arbitration, Merriam’s ambition of comprehensive legislation to establish a formal system of corporatist economic structures was repeatedly frustrated by the inability to secure enough bipartisan support in the House of Representatives to pass several successive iterations of his proposals. Yet as a longtime proponent of executive power, Merriam was not entirely thwarted by this setback and notably issued an Executive Order forming the Office of National Research headed by MIT President Karl T. Compton and complemented by a number of figures in both the natural and social sciences to direct national research efforts towards answering pressing questions of the new atomic age. Perhaps the most significant of its achievements were the pioneering of new sanitation, public health, and antibiotic techniques to finally stamp out the bubonic plague epidemic that had persisted since the initial Japanese bioweapon attack. Furthermore, Speaker of the House Wright Patman was successful in passing a budget through the House substantially scaling back wartime spending and taxation in light of the transition of the United States military from a combat force to an occupation force abroad. Anticipating a corresponding decrease in inflation, Merriam worked with his Secretary of Commerce Leo Wolman to begin the process of relieving wartime price controls that had remained in place throughout the York administration while encouraging the development of private industrial codes of conduct for businesses to self-regulate prices. A wartime propaganda poster supporting labor arbitration that continued distribution under the Merriam presidency. Sewing A Tattered World America was not the only country suffering in the aftermath of the Second World War. The decade-long war had wreaked havoc upon the entire world and left entire nations virtually leveled by bombs and depleted of their resources. American efforts at international reconstruction had been haphazard and largely left in the hands of private charities during the York administration, much to the consternation of its allies and the occupied peoples. Thus, out of a mixture of humanitarian reasons, a desire to restore America’s international reputation, and a calculation that such destruction could breed communist movements such as the syndicalist revolt that had embroiled the United States, Secretary of State Joseph Grew proposed a much more ambitious plan that would soon bear his name. With the strong support of President Merriam, Congress earmarked a staggering $15 billion with wide bipartisan support to be distributed to European governments for necessary imports of food and basic materials from the United States as well as for industrial investments to rebuild the European economy. An ancillary fund was likewise also established to support the reconstruction of China, which had been ravaged by brutal warfare with Imperial Japan. As a committed supporter of free trade, President Merriam also used the leverage of the Grew Plan to compel the recipients of the funding to lower trade barriers between one another and with the United States in order to stimulate international trade. The sole major holdout would be the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan remained committed to an autarkic system of steep trade barriers outside the Imperial system since the country had suffered far less damage than its peers in the Second World War. Another guiding principle of President Merriam’s approach to international reconstruction would be a wide-ranging program of technical assistance. With the country’s decades-long commitment to widely available public education and a sophisticated network of universities engaged in industrial research, the American economy had come to be regarded as the most technologically advanced in the entire world. Already under President Dewey, the United States had begun programs of sharing its technical expertise in production methods and industrial organization to China and the countries of Latin America. Thus, Merriam’s formalization of an Office for Technical Assistance under the Department of State was an extension of an already well-established practice. With support from personnel and agencies in the Departments of Labor and Commerce, the Office of Technical Assistance undertook a wide-ranging and sophisticated statistical analysis of European industries to identify weaknesses in productivity while arranging for large-scale observation visits by European industrial leaders as well as the collation and distribution of technical literature in order to disseminate best practices across continents. Following the initial success of the program in Europe over the first months of his term, Merriam proceeded with an extension of the program to developing nations in the Middle East and South Asia in order to modernize their economies as well. A meeting of Grew Plan information chiefs in the American Embassy in France. Year Without Summer While atomic weapons had been deployed several times throughout the Second World War to destroy French, Russian, and Japanese cities, they had never been used on the scale ordered by President Alvin York to destroy the German Empire. As a result of the simultaneous destruction of dozens of German cities in fiery infernos, the atmosphere of the planet itself became choked by a layer of ash and soot that demonstrably lowered global temperatures in the following months. With the effect coined as a “nuclear winter” by British chemist Samuel Glasstone, a world food supply already challenged by the disruptions of war experienced a dramatic shortfall in agricultural production sending many war-ravaged areas teetering into famine. However, this presented a unique opportunity for the United States, which had for decades struggled with chronic overproduction of agricultural products causing dim economic prospects for the nation’s farmers. Now, there was a ready market for the surplus in the United States that persisted even through the nuclear winter. Though European governments were already using their Grew Plan funds to import American food products in large amounts, Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones was determined to employ the powers of the federal government in assistance of this shift. Backed by a series of executive orders from President Merriam, Jones vastly expanded the neglected Populist-era Sub-Treasury system to grant easy credit and storage solutions to farmers who lacked sufficient capital to take advantage of the vastly increased demand for their product while also using wartime legislation to purchase eroded land for its rehabilitation and resale for food production by government experts. Much like the rest of the executive branch, at Merriam’s direction the Department of Agriculture also leaned into partnerships with dozens of agricultural colleges spread throughout the United States to collect and publish a corpus of literature on improved farming practices and fertilizer production techniques to further stimulate production. Electrical lines going up on a rural farm as part of a program pioneered by Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to further develop American agriculture. New World Order Having earned widespread popularity among the American public for his statesmanship at home and thus leaving the November elections with a decisive popular mandate, Merriam turned to the pressing issue of foreign affairs in the latter half of his term. In the chaos of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, the powers of the Grand Alliance had failed to conclusively agree on the structures of the post-war world. Even after the destruction of the German Empire, which had been the largest obstacle in the effort to conclude new international agreements, debate raged on what form these would take as the world federalist movement took root across the globe. In order to lay the foundation of future global cooperation, Merriam began by reviving the institutions of the Hague Treaty that had been rendered inoperative by the withdrawal of participation by several countries and subsequent outbreak of the Second World War. While the Permanent Court of International Arbitration would be restored largely unchanged from its original construction, the International Monetary Fund would be greatly transformed due to President Merriam’s influential support for John Maynard Keynes’s proposal to formulate a supranational currency called “bancor” to be the unit of account for an International Clearing Union tasked with regulating international trade. While many nationalists and isolationists decried Merriam’s move towards the internationalization of monetary policy, the circle of Atlanticists within the party led by Vice President Edward J. Meeman was urging him to go even further towards world government. Compelled by a promise made to the Atlanticist faction during his party’s National Convention, President Merriam authorized the summoning of an international conference to discuss the concept of an Atlantic Union between the western democratic countries of the world. However, where many expected that Merriam might appoint a coterie of apathetic diplomats to undermine the movement, the President instead shockingly sent a delegation filled with committed Atlanticists led by New York Senator Grenville Clark, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, and the proposal’s first author Clarence Streit to Brussels for the conference, much to the outrage of opponents of world federalism within his party. After weeks spent deliberating the minutiae of the Atlantic Union, the conference emerged just before the holiday season with a proposed constitution and hundreds of pages of documentation surrounding the historical precedents and contemporary reasoning behind the proposal to electrify the debate surrounding a world government. A Time Magazine feature of Clarence Streit, one of the leading theorists behind the Atlantic Union proposal. God’s Instrument or War Criminal? The most controversial question hanging over the term of President Charles Edward Merriam was the fate of former President Alvin York. To many Americans, York had committed a crime against humanity comparable to those against which they had fought against for a decade and the incident ignited a debate surrounding presidential authority to deploy nuclear weapons. Throughout the initial months of his presidency, Merriam dodged questions surrounding the President and declined to make substantial public comment aside from occasional suggestions that the President had sole command over the United States military. At Merriam’s private urging, Speaker of the House Wright Patman also squashed suggestions that a President could still be impeached after leaving office. Likewise, Merriam directed the Justice Department not to open a federal prosecution against York and thus leaving the ailing former President’s case in legal limbo. Speaking out more strongly after his successful reelection campaign, Merriam clarified that while he found the act personally abhorrent it remained a legal exercise of the President’s powers as commander-in-chief and that as the victims were nationals of another country there was no basis for either a prosecution or a pardon in the name of crimes against the United States. Beyond just the conduct of the President himself, the atomic bombing of Germany brought with it new concern around the governance of nuclear weapons. Believing that tight-lipped military control over nuclear weapons under wartime authority was a large factor in York’s ability to unilaterally strike Germany, the Senate’s sole independent Brien McMahon led the charge to place nuclear weapons and energy development under the control of an independent civilian commission appointed by both the President and the legislative officers. Though his bill died in committee, it inspired the Federalist Reform Party to counter with their own bill introduced by Kentucky Senator Andrew J. May replacing McMahon’s proposed commission with a board to be dominated by military officers exclusively appointed by the President. While the Federalist Reform majority in the Senate quickly passed the May bill over an attempted filibuster by McMahon, the bill came to a screeching halt in the House of Representatives where the opposition parties unified to fiercely oppose its passage. With Congress at an impasse, President Merriam issued executive orders continuing the status quo of the wartime project board that had been initiated by President Howard Hughes. Independent Connecticut Senator Brien McMahon, who took leadership of the fight for civilian control over nuclear energy Note: Not strictly bound by Merriam’s term, the following sections are meant to summarize the state of the world after the conclusion of the Second World War. The Red Stars of Europe Throughout the decade-spanning Second World War, the United Kingdom had been under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Duff Cooper. In order to maintain control against the irascible anti-war opposition led by Labour’s Oswald Mosley, Cooper had resorted to the royal authority of King Edward VIII to unilaterally bring the country into the war and cancel elections throughout its duration. While he had been successful in prosecuting the war to victory and securing the downfall of Mosley’s control over the Labour Party, when Cooper was finally forced to call elections at the war’s end he found voters profoundly unsympathetic to his accomplishments and his Tory government was defeated in a staggering landslide by the Labour Party. Thus, King Edward was reluctantly forced to appoint the Labour Party leader, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, as the Prime Minister of the country. As an ally to former party leader Oswald Mosley, Bevan quickly embarked on the domestic implementation of the “Mosley Memorandum” to nationalize wide stretches of the British economy while also pursuing a massive expansion of the British welfare state. Following the atomic bombing of the German Empire, Bevan forcefully attacked the wanton use of weapons of mass destruction in a surprise attack and relations remained frosty even after York’s resignation as President Merriam cut off the United Kingdom from any knowledge sharing regarding nuclear power and weaponry. Yet even the radicalism of Nye Bevan paled in comparison to that of the Spanish Republic, where a blossoming social and economic revolution was years underway. Following the victory of the leftist Republic against Nationalist forces in the country’s civil war, thanks in no small part to the decisive support of President Frank J. Hayes, agriculture was rapidly collectivized by the Spanish government while a combination of state support and syndicalist initiative led to over 75% of the industrial economy being brought under worker control. Taking inspiration from the writings and political efforts of American President John Dewey, the Spanish also imported many of his principles of progressive child-centric education while undertaking the community construction of centers of adult learning woven into forums of political debate. However, standing in stark contrast to the system of government on the mainland would be the so-called “Spanish State” existing in Spain’s African colonies. With their heavy conservative military presence, the colonies had formed a powerbase for the Spanish Nationalists and thus served as a natural place of refuge after their defeat in the war, while the socialist Republican government held little interest in reconquering a system of colonies that it found morally repugnant. Thus, the colonies became the host of a rival government and ruthless colonial state that came under the leadership of Falangist Agustin Aznar after he successfully orchestrated the murder of his political rivals to become the Jefe Nacional. Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan of the United Kingdom, the sole power offering a serious challenge to American hegemony over the post-war world. Integralism Lives? After the surrenders of the Kingdoms of France and Italy during the Second World War, the Allied powers were too pressed for manpower in their colossal struggle against Russia and Japan in the East to administer a full military occupation. Thus, instead the administration of Howard Hughes accepted the continuation of their governments so long as they cooperated with American occupation authorities. As a result, Italian Integralism and its monarchy would continue under the auspices of General Pietro Badoglio who was vested by King Victor Emmanuel III and the Grand Council of Fascism as Italy’s new prime minister after the downfall of Benito Mussolini. However, Badoglio’s position would become increasingly unstable after the large-scale effort of the German Empire to fund and arm leftist Italian insurgents and increasingly dependent upon the United States occupation forces for support to avert their overthrow. While France would likewise retain its newly crowned King Henri VI, his political strategy would be markedly different from that of the Italians. Believing that the monarchist right would have no choice but to support him, Henri appointed socialist Vincent Auriol as his Prime Minister and issued a new liberal constitution to endear the political left to him as well. Final peace treaties with both countries, forced to be renegotiated after the destruction of the German Empire, would not yet be concluded by the end of President Merriam’s first term though the recognition of separatist movements in Brittany and Corsica was viewed as an implicit precondition by the American government. As the political and military leadership of the German Empire had been devastated by the atomic bombings, the continuance of the Kaiserreich was not only seen as undesirable by President Alvin York but also simply impractical. Although York would not be able to oversee the country past its initial occupation, President Merriam held much the same opinion and negotiated the de jure abolition of the German Empire alongside the British and divided the country into two zones of occupation. Though relying on the expertise of the limited number of German experts who were both still alive and willing to cooperate with the occupation authorities, much of the day-to-day administration of the occupation zones would be carried out by the military forces of the occupying powers. Yet while the occupying forces made great strides in repairing the utterly destroyed nations and stabilizing its food supply, the occupation faced never before seen challenges with enormous incidence rates of cancer and a newly identified “atomic bomb disease” with poorly understood symptoms and little understanding of its treatment. King Henri and Queen Isabelle of France, wearing a more austere style in an appeal to the French working class. Blood Tide of the East After Russia’s humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1934-1935, the country slipped into a dark period of brutal dictatorship at the hands of Anastasy Vonsyatsky and Ivan Solonevich. Yet few could have imagined that the horror could grow worse. The employment of strategic bombing against its crucial oil supply, the nuclear bombing of several of its cities, and worst of all an enormous anthrax attack targeted at its food supply caused the disintegration of Russia into famine and anarchy. As the powers of the Grand Alliance had declared victory and withdrew their troops from active fighting upon the surrender of Andrew Vlasov’s warlord band to western forces, the turmoil in Russia remained raging throughout President Merriam’s term with little outside intervention. Forces ranged from the claimed Romanov regent Mikhail Drozdovsky to the classical Integralist Boris Savinkov to the bloodthirsty racialist Bronislav Kaminski and dozens more in between fighting for the desiccated scraps of the once mighty country. Ever vigilant on the frontier of this anarchy was the Reichskommissariat Muskowien, the former German puppet state instated by the Kaiser to facilitate the colonization of occupied Russian lands by German settlers. After its Reichskommissar was killed during the nuclear attack while visiting Berlin, his secretary Erich Koch seized control alongside a junta of military officers proclaiming the Reichskommissariat as a haven for the German people and embarking on a program of ethnic cleansing of the local Slavic population. Fearing that a military response would not only require another costly and unpopular war in Europe but also embroil the United States in the Russian frontier, President Merriam opted to continue the York administration’s position of withholding recognition from the Reichskommissariat while instead extending American influence in Eastern Europe under the auspices of his newly formed Office of Strategic Services. With the German puppet governments in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine deeply unpopular and dependent on German support, their governments quickly collapsed under American and British influence leading to the establishment of new governments in each of the nations. Taking inspiration from the British program to unify the three Baltic nations under a single Baltic Union, President Merriam undertook a nation-building program of his own to attempt to unify Poland, Ukraine, and Romania into a single federation. However, the project remained stalled throughout his term due to a lack of enthusiasm from the member countries. Meanwhile, in an accord with the countries of the Grand Alliance, President Merriam and Secretary of State Joseph Grew took to settling the geopolitical situation of the Balkans. With the restoration of the Tsardom of Bulgaria already settled and Greece still preoccupied by civil war, the chief question would be the status of the former Triune. Striving for a balance between the competing claims of Austria and Hungary which had spiraled the world into war ten long years before, Grew negotiated the formation of a Danubian Confederation to replace the former Triune with substantial autonomy granted to the Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Croatian, Triestine, and Austrian states composing it but unifying them with a common citizenship and foreign policy. The ruins of what was once a Russian home, a testament to the country’s seemingly interminable anarchy. Self-Determination For Whom? Over the course of the Second World War, British and American forces had come to occupy virtually all of the vast continent of Africa and with the end of the war it fell upon them to oversee its fate. With the recent independence of the United States of the Congo under President Alvin York serving as an example, both President Charles Edward Merriam and British Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan were committed to the eventual decolonization of the African continent but they also agreed that the bulk of the diverse African peoples needed further “instruction” on democratic governance and western culture before being granted independence. Thus, the colonial system of rule remained largely unchanged on the continent, though German colonies would be transferred to the United Kingdom as trust territories and French and Italian colonies remained occupied until the settlement of a final peace treaty. The sole exception came in the German colony of Tanganyika, where former German Ambassador to the United Kingdom Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck escaped the destruction of his home in Bremen through a chance visit to his former Askari soldiers and worked with a group of veterans to proclaim a biracial Republic of Tanganyika in the aftermath of the German Empire’s destruction. Recalling Lettow-Vorbeck’s famous guerilla warfare campaign in the First World War, both the United Kingdom and the United States begrudgingly recognized this new African Republic. Though the British were slow to release their colonies in Africa, the immense pressure building up within India could not be contained any longer as the Indian National Congress refused to tolerate the continuation of the home rule status quo. Thanks in large part to the close personal relationship of Prime Minister Bevan and Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru, negotiations proceeded smoothly albeit without significant consultation of Muslim authorities that Nehru had clashed with previously. In the final agreement, India was granted independent Dominion status within the British Empire as a united polity and quickly forced the remaining princely states to comply. Under pressure of a possibly violent revolt in Burma, Bevan also pressed for an act to give independence to the Union of Burma soon thereafter. Even less consent from the colonizing power was required for the Indochinese Federation under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, which had already successfully cast off both French rule and a later Japanese invasion. Though cautious of Ho Chi Minh’s socialist principles, President Merriam and Secretary Grew remained concerned about the more dangerous Marxist-Hansenist opposition in the country and decided to recognize his leadership to bolster his position against the radicals. This anti-colonialist streak would also extend itself to Indonesia, where American troops were instructed not to turn the country over to the former Dutch colonial administrators and instead support the independence movement to foster a loyal American ally in Southeast Asia. An independence procession in the newly formed Dominion of India. Democracy in the Far East Ever since the fateful day in 1939 when the United States declared war upon Japan, the Tiger of the East had become entrenched in the minds of the American people as their mortal enemy. Yet even despite cries for the execution of Emperor Hirohito and the visitation of revenge upon the Japanese people among the public, cooler heads prevailed in the State Department. The initial stages of Japan’s occupation were overseen by President Alvin York, who magnanimously saw Japan as a country that ought to be reformed rather than punished. Pressing for the shattering of its culture of militarism, the installation of structures of democracy, and even the Christianization of the nation, York’s program for the occupation proved massively influential for the future state of the country. Yet it would be President Charles Edward Merriam, eager to draw down United States military commitments, who would finish the process and finalize the treaty with Japan. Among the provisions of the treaty were the independence of Hawaii as a republic under American influence, the annexation of several Pacific islands including the Ryukyu Islands to serve as American naval installations, the placement of the remaining Pacific islands into trust territories, and the total demilitarization of Japan under a democratic system. The presidency of Tasker H. Bliss had ushered in a special relationship between the United States and China that had persisted for the next twenty years. Yet under President Charles Edward Merriam, it had begun to fray. Upon hearing reports of American aid dollars being embezzled by the Chiang Kai-Shek administration for lavish personal corruption and believing Chiang to be a fundamentally self-interested and unreliable ally, Merriam quickly soured upon the Chinese Premier. Yet with the death of Vice Premier Feng Yuxiang, the opposition to Chiang remained too scattered for there to be any viable alternative. Thus, Merriam began maneuvering to install a set of new East Asian allies to reduce the monolithic power of China in the region. Chief among these was the Republic of Manchuria, which had been declared by a multi-ethnic group of local leaders seeking to avoid Chinese domination and given patronage by both Presidents York and Merriam. A further spite to Chiang would come with President Merriam’s support of the declaration of Taiwanese independence by Lei Chen, as the island had remained occupied by United States Marines after the end of the war. Despite these affronts, tensions between China and the United States were somewhat assuaged by American support for the return of French Yunnan, British Canton, Japanese Fujian, and Japanese Shandong to the Chinese Republic. A woman voting in Japan’s first free and fair elections in decades. World Revolution, of Two Sorts During the Great Depression, the Dominion of Newfoundland found itself in total collapse and was forced to surrender its independence back to its colonial overlord in the United Kingdom. Yet the war years remained hard for the Dominion and its people remained deeply unsatisfied with its governmental arrangement. As the concept of the Atlantic Union spread through the world with the impending end of the Second World War, a local movement under the leadership of Chesley Crosbie began preaching for a declaration of independence and subsequent application for United States statehood as a demonstration of support for the Atlanticist concept. Though initially dismissed as a fringe movement, a rapid growth of support led the Atlantic Union Party to carry independence to victory in a 1948 referendum. A subsequent victory in the first elections of the Dominion brought the Atlantic Union Party into power and it made its application for American statehood shortly thereafter. Once again angering the anti-Atlanticist section of the party, President Merriam urged that statehood be introduced as a joint resolution of the House and Senate, which ensured its passage even despite the opposition of a critical bloc of Senators who may have made a regular treaty ratification impossible. Yet a similar attempt at statehood for the island of Sicily would be blocked by Merriam, who argued that the referendum used for its justification was illegitimate due to an opposition boycott. Long suffering under the neo-colonialism of their former colonial masters in France and a newer clique of German elites dominating the local economy, the nation of Haiti became a hotbed for the ideology of Marxism-Hansenism, which preached a violent and permanent world revolution to secure control of the means of production under the democratic management of the workers. After succeeding in its own revolution to overthrow the capitalist class, Haiti became a haven for Hansenists across the Americas seeking to plot their own revolutions by supporting them with revolutionary praxis, arms, and propaganda. After the outbreak of a revolution in Cuba, President Merriam recognized the threat that Haiti posed to the stability of the Americas and ordered the imposition of trade sanctions to strangle the suspected flow of funds and materiel from American Hansenists to the island. Furthermore, Secretary of State Joseph Grew orchestrated a vote in the International Association of American States to expel revolutionary Haiti from the organization due to its support for world revolution and undermining the government of other member states. Map of the world by the end of President Charles Edward Merriam’s first term in 1949. Credit and many thanks to Some_Pole for helping create the map! How would you rate President Charles Edward Merriam’s first term in office? View Poll |
2024.05.17 14:04 golangprojects [Hiring] Go/Golang job: Backend Software Engineer at SumUp (Berlin, Germany)
You have extensive experience with backend technologies and database technologies You are interested in learning Golang and ideally already have first experience with it You are a pragmatic problem solver and are fearless in taking the lead in finding the right solution to a problem. Provide thoughtful testing for your features before shipping them. You have excellent communication skills, are good at technical writing, are passionate about software design, care about the right abstractions and clean APIs, and radically prioritize simplicity.Nice to have
Previous experience in E-Commerce and some expertise in Typescript/Javascript.Why you should join SumUp
We’re a truly global team of 3000+ people from 60+ countries, spread across 3 continents. We get together regularly for breakfasts, team events, office parties, and sports. You’ll receive a budget for attending conferences and external training. We offer a corporate pension scheme, 28 days’ paid leave, free German and yoga classes, subsidized Urban Sports Club membership, a stock option plan, and other great benefits. We offer visa and relocation support for you, your family, and your pets. You’ll be based in the heart of Berlin, one of Europe’s leading tech hubs and most vibrant cities. You’ll attend global offsites and/or hackathons.About the team
2024.05.16 18:31 Inadequata There's no inbetween
2024.05.16 16:55 Spoke_butsaidnothing An intro to my unfleshed worldbuilding project and elemental magic.
2024.05.16 12:22 book-press-release Empowering Your Message with Global Newswire Distribution
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2024.05.16 04:45 semiurge D20x5 Staristocrats of the Faufreluchean Future
D20 | This staristocrat's badge of office |
---|---|
1 | is a golden diadem which projects a hologram of Old Sol from its highest tine, as well as the rest of Man's Cradle-System orbiting about it. |
2 | is a hideous diamondoid mask made in the image of an alien demi-god from whom their esteemed house claims descent. |
3 | is an auroran magneto-cloth cape which flares with the oscillations of subtle fields. |
4 | is a porous meteoric amulet that echoes with the music of the spheres. |
5 | is a blade of enchained magnetic monopoles channeling ouroboric tangles of plasma - ever-glowing, their patterned glows expressing the cyclical yet self-degrading nature of the cosmos, able to cut through all but the most unnaturally enforced materials. |
6 | is a scepter containing a degenerate micro-verse within its topping globe. |
7 | is a battered helmet pulled from the suit of one of the first humans to reach outer space. |
8 | is a battle standard bearing the heraldry of their family, and topped with the head of a lion, preserved and animated to roaring unlife by cybernetic tubes woven through its flesh and bone. |
9 | is a halo of abstract mathematics, written directly on the fabric of space-time rather than mere matter. |
10 | is a pauldron of fused silicon, the remains of an artificial intelligence which almost overcame humanity. |
11 | is a dilating-lens lantern of an indestructible, orange-green alloy - fully unleashed, its actinic brilliance can guide in a ship from high orbit. |
12 | is a vial of their own, genetically-perfected blood, crystallized into a ruby-like gem. |
13 | is a crown of golden rings hovering about each other, each engraved with the zodiac of a different solar system. |
14 | is a famous artifact of Earth preserved within a temporal stasis-orb. |
15 | is a set of infrasonic pan pipes that can manipulate the minds of men and machine alike. |
16 | is a holy book written by the first settler of their world, in an eclectic script unreadable by anyone yet living. |
17 | is a shield with a brazen, hypercubic boss and a rippling purplish forcefield about. |
18 | is a labrys bearing edges honed to subatomic sharpness with whetstones hewn from the preternaturally dense heart of a collapsed star. |
19 | is a bowl holding a fractal bonzai grafted with branches of every fruit-bearing tree of humanity's homeworld. |
20 | is the head-sized smaragdine egg of some voidborne beast, the inevitable hatching of which is said to herald the end of the universe. |
D20 | This staristocrat's holdings |
---|---|
1 | lie under a dimming sun, weakened by its fusion-harvest which forms the foundation of the staristocrat's wealth. |
2 | contain no life-bearing worlds, its population sustained only by technocratic hydro-pneumatic despotism. |
3 | bear the glassy-green sheen and asymmetrical mutations left by ancient nuclear war. |
4 | are mineral-rich but poor in organics and water, expending most of their export-wealth on life-giving imports just to survive. |
5 | produce a unique and inimitable spice, and are thus coveted by an extra-solar rival. |
6 | are either watery or gaseous, with dry, solid ground an unimaginable luxury - the populace living on great rafts or aerostats. |
7 | have recently absorbed a mass of refugees fleeing a black swan xeno-threat. |
8 | were enclosed from the common space of comet-cowboys, who plague it with their raids to this day. |
9 | are nestled among the ruins of an extinct alien civilization, probed only gently for fear of waking their automatic guardians. |
10 | are slowly but surely having their life-giving atmospheres stripped away by the rapacious solar wind of their red gigantism-suffering sun. |
11 | are deliberately kept ignorant of the wider galactic community to reduce their capacity to revolt, and so that the ruling class can portray themselves as deific through their technological capabilities. |
12 | are undergoing a long and delicate process of terraforming which structures cultural and religious cycles around these artificial seasons and critical thresholds. |
13 | are overgrown with a police state only nominally under the staristocrat's authority, and the computational bureaucracy that's arisen to process all their surveillance. |
14 | are infamous for their permissiveness, and abound in every sort of vice. |
15 | are torn apart on a planetary scale for the sake of resource-harvest and industry, and what unruptured ground exists is blanketed in choking smog outside sealed habitats. |
16 | were recently seized from a treasonous vassal and bestowed upon this staristocrat - the old holder's sympathizers still lurk within the population, evading the claws of inquisition. |
17 | exist mostly fictitiously, as moving shell-games of companies and titles. |
18 | are centered on an ecumenopolis with some roads paved with stones hewn before humanity's ancestors came down from the trees - its corners hide occultic dens of our darkest imaginings. |
19 | are generally scorching, deserts or liquid hells, their structures mirrored and extending tubes of heat exchanges and radiators like a seraphim wings. |
20 | are verdant in all forms of life - none go hungry, yet many are eaten, and a clan of masked physicians go about the populace to rebuke the tides of plague. |
D20 | This staristocrat is attended by |
---|---|
1 | a harem of genetically-engineered Willendorfian Venuses, bearing a continuous stream of heirs who will duel over the matter of their inheritance in the arena of their crèche. |
2 | artful historians hunchbent over data-tablets, preserving every moment and detail of the staristocrat's life in imperishable crystalline records. |
3 | nigh-invisible bodyguards swaddled in light-bending metamaterial cloaks, heat haze auras ready to strike down any offense against their master. |
4 | clanking cyborg-knights - behind their cuirasses are tanks preserving the most loyal and chivalrous parts of their mortal brains. |
5 | slaves bearing explosive collars - the tribute of many conquered worlds. |
6 | a squadron of musclebound eunuch-janissaries raised from childhood with size- and strength-stimulating hormones and non-stop brainwashing. |
7 | clones of themself educated according to various traditions as diverse yet biologically-partial advisors. |
8 | the cryogenically-preserved heads of their forefathers, which sometimes dispense shivering, crackling counsel. |
9 | hovering laser-turrets fitted with targeting algorithms able to anticipate their master's desire to kill before it's consciously felt. |
10 | an enormous parrot with impeccable skill at mimicry, whose mind has been overwritten with every song recorded by humanity up until the time of its creation. |
11 | a pair of titanic wolfdogs, with metallic teeth that could rend apart a tank and hides that have turned aside artillery-shells. |
12 | the plush animatronic companion of their childhood, its digital personality updated to be a competent advisor. |
13 | a caste of butlers who've served their family for generations, bred like pedigreed dogs. |
14 | a choir singing their praises, the choir's lungs replaced with cybernetic jet-intakes slatted between ribs, so that they might sing unceasing. |
15 | a former whipping boy, their oldest friend, bearing the delicate scars of tremendously sophisticated tortures. |
16 | tumbling jesters dressed in patchworks of impossible colours captured from the coronas of half-real suns. |
17 | technotheologic angels dancing through the air on wings of incandescent blazons. |
18 | abductees from primitive worlds fitted with neural implants which make them believe they are simply in an extended dream. |
19 | a team of chefs who can prepare the delicacies of a dozen worlds, never repeating the same twice in their master's lifetime. |
20 | grey masters of anagathic science, whisper-arguing over the injections and ointments that will quicken them a while longer. |
D20 | This staristocrat's court |
---|---|
1 | is entertained by a vapourous alien intelligence which takes possession of lesser courtiers through a fanciful hookah. |
2 | has its lesser members partially memory-wiped when they attend it - able to recall their skills, yet unable to remember much of their own identities, and so how to apply those skills for personal benefit. |
3 | is deliberately, performatively humble, held in barns and suchlike. |
4 | is overlooked by a cine-dome showing stars, moons, and constellations in fortuitous alignments. |
5 | is addicted to novelty, and constantly seeks new performances and grotesques. |
6 | is made up nepotistically of their siblings who did not win the contest to inherit the throne. |
7 | are waited on hand and foot by fragile ceramic robots imprinted with the tightly-enchained engrams of political criminals. |
8 | takes place entirely remotely - members are provided radio-devices with frequencies that trigger voice-like vibrations in great bells this staristocrat is in the constant presence of. |
9 | were at first ironically and now legitimately entranced by a bloody cult of sacrifice and agonies. |
10 | has been forced to accept elected representatives from among the populace by a revolt - to the grumblings of those who attained their positions through inheritance. |
11 | is wracked by a scandal involving mistresses overspending from public coffers. |
12 | is perpetually-wrapped in augmented-reality projections of mythic mimesis. |
13 | is burrowed among the roots of the biggest mountain of their throne-world, so that it could survive all but the most devastating attacks. |
14 | are all accompanied by a member of an order of courtesan-assassins implanted with acid-glands in case their charge shows overt disloyalty. |
15 | solve disputes among themselves with duels, and drill daily with various weapons and fighting styles. |
16 | is held within a hollow pyramid, with this staristocrat at the top point and many stairs and levels filtering petitioners between them and the entrance at the base. |
17 | is largely taken over by a conspiracy to poison this staristocrat, and even the uninvolved have begun to circle like vultures. |
18 | is a ring of stone thrones built to scale with the renown of the one who sits upon them - this staristocrat themself sits like a small child on a throne fit for giants - their seneschal on a stool. |
19 | is held around a colosseum, where gladiators and vicious alien beasts fight for their amusement and haruspexies. |
20 | is itinerant, a grand airship which hovers above the realms of hosting vavasours. |
D20 | This staristocrat's noble flaw |
---|---|
1 | is hubris - they believe they can become like God by funding breakneck scientific process. |
2 | is bravery - they will fight to the last in the face of overwhelming odds, even if better options present themselves. |
3 | is honour - their thinking is rigid and totally un-utilitarian. |
4 | is generousity - they give without thinking, disrupting economies and fostering dependence with their largesse. |
5 | is parental love - they spoil their children on a terrible, cosmic scale. |
6 | is a thirst for justice - a continent has burned due to their need for a punishment fitting a truly awful crime. |
7 | is filial piety - their increasingly-senile dowager-mother has them tied around her bony finger. |
8 | is tolerance - they've cultivated cosmopolitan communities, yet failed to confront division and rising extremism. |
9 | is an aesthetic sense that is souring into decadence. |
10 | is persistence - they are a dogged obsessive. |
11 | is realpolitik - they've alienated possible allies with ruthlessness. |
12 | is faith - they lean often into outright zealotry. |
13 | is cautiousness - they often dive into outright paranoia. |
14 | is competitiveness - they're innovative, but often only in the tortures applied to defeated rivals. |
15 | is cleanliness - they have advanced to a purgative germaphobia. |
16 | is contentment - they have come to peace with all things, even if others demand their action. |
17 | is honesty - they will never lie, even if it benefits them and their people. |
18 | is is humility - they are overly-convinced of their own incapacity. |
19 | is romantic love - their spouse manipulates them to their knowledge yet total acquiescence. |
20 | is imagination - their fancies often end up unproductive or outright destructive. |
2024.05.16 00:36 5h0rgunn The Confused Envoy (1551 – 1552) The Xin-Mei Wars Ch. 3.3
2024.05.14 21:51 CptKeyes123 A "wet" navy in space warfare
2024.05.14 18:08 Mophandel Archaeotherium, the King of the White River Badlands
Art by Bob Nicholls submitted by Mophandel to badassanimals [link] [comments] Nowadays, when we envision the words “prey,” among modern mammalian fauna, few taxa come to mind as quickly as the hoofed mammals, better known as the ungulates. Indeed, for the better part of their entire evolutionary history, the ungulates have become entirely indistinguishable from the term “prey.” Across their two major modern branches, the artiodactyls (the “even-toed ungulates,” such as bovids, pigs, deer, hippos and giraffes) and the perissodactyls (the “odd-toed ungulates,” including horses, rhinos and tapir), the ungulates too have created an empire spanning nearly every continent, establishing themselves as the the dominant herbivores throughout their entire range. However, as a price for such success, their lot as herbivores have forced them into an unenviable position: being the food for the predators. Indeed, throughout the diets of most modern predators, ungulates make up the majority, if not the entirety, of their diet, becoming their counterparts in this evolutionary dance of theirs. They have become the lamb to their wolf, the zebra to their lion, the stag to their tiger. If there is a predator in need of lunch, chances are that there is an ungulate there to provide it. Of course, such a dynamic is not necessarily a recent innovation. For the last 15-20 million years, across much of the world, both new and old, the ungulates have served as prey for these predators through it all. Over the course of whole epochs, these two groups have played into these roles for millions of years, coevolving with each other in an eons-long game of cat-and-mouse. The shoes they fill are not new, but have existed for ages, and within their niches they have cultivated their roles to perfection. Indeed, with such a tenured history, it seems hardly surprising the ungulates are wholly inseparable from the terms “prey,” itself. However, while this is the case now, as it has been for the last 15-20 million years, go back far enough, and we see that this dynamic is not as set in stone as we would think. Indeed, back during the Eocene and Oligocene, during the very earliest days of age of mammals, things were very different for the ungulates. While today they are considered little more than food for modern predators, during these olden days, the ungulates weren’t quite so benign. In fact, far from being fodder for top predators, the ungulates had turned the tables, instead becoming top predators themselves. Indeed, though nearly unheard of today, throughout much of the Eocene and Oligocene, carnivorous ungulates thrived in abundance, developing specializations for catching large prey and establishing themselves as top predators that competed alongside the more traditional carnivores, and even dominating them in some instances. Given such success, it’s no wonder that multiple such clades had arisen during this time. Such predators included the arctocyonids, a lineage of (ironically) hoof-less ungulates with large jaws and sharp teeth for capturing large prey. There were also the mesonychians, a lineage of dog-like ungulates with massive skulls and jaws that allowed them to reign as the top predator across much of the Eocene. However, among these various lineages, one stands stands out among the rest, by far. Arising during the Eocene, this lineage, though superficially resembling modern pigs, hailed from one an ancient lineage of artiodactyls far removed from swine or most other ungulates in general, with few close relatives alive today. Through perhaps not the most predatory of the bunch, it was among the most formidable, as their superficially pig-like appearance came with giant predatory jaws and teeth unlike anything from the modern era. And of course, as if all of that wasn’t enough, this lineage also went on to earn arguably one of the most badass nicknames of any lineage of mammals, period. These predators, of course, were the entelodonts, a.k.a the “hell-pigs.” More so than any other predatory ungulate lineage, these formidable ungulates were the ones to turn the current paradigm upside down, becoming some of the largest and most dominant carnivores in their landscape, even with (and often in spite of) the presence of more traditional predators. Through impressive size, fearsome teeth and sheer tenacity, these animals became the top dogs of their time, ruling as behemoth-kings of their Paleogene kingdoms, domineering all comers, and throughout the ranks, one entelodont in particular demonstrated such dominance the best. Though not the largest or most powerful of their kind, it is one of the most iconic, being among the most well-known members of its lineage to date. Moreover, this enteledont also has some of the most complete life histories ever seen out of this clade, with its brutality and predatory prowess being displayed in the fossil record in a way seen in no other member of its kind. More than anything else, however, it was this predator that best turned the notion of “ungulates being prey” on its head, living in an environment that bore some of the largest carnivoran hypercarnivores to date and still reigning as the undisputed top predator of its domain. This fearsome beast was none other than Archaeotherium, icon of the entelodonts, terror of the Oligocene American west and undisputed king of the White River badlands. The rise of Archaeotherium (and of entelodonts in general) is closely tied to the ascendancy of carnivorous ungulates as a whole, one of the earliest evolutionary success stories of the entire Cenozoic. Having become their own derived clade since the late Cretaceous, the ungulates were remarkably successful during the early Paleogene, as they were among the first mammalian clades to reach large sizes during those early days after the non-avian dinosaurs had gone extinct. As such, it was with incredible swiftness that, as the Paleogene progressed, the ungulates swooped upon the various niches left empty by the K-Pg mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs. This of course included the herbivorous niches we would know them for today, but this also included other, much more carnivore roles. Indeed, early on during the Paleogene, it was the ungulates that first seized the roles of large mammalian predators, becoming some the earliest large mammalian carnivores to ever live, well before even the carnivorans. Such predators included the arctocyonids, a lineage of vaguely dog-like, hoof-less ungulates with robust jaws and sharpened teeth that acted as some of earliest large carnivores of the Paleocene, with genera such as Arctocyon mumak getting up to the size of big cats. Even more prolific were the mesonychids. More so than what pretty much any other lineage of predator, it was the mesonychids that would stand out as the earliest dominant predators of the early Cenozoic. Growing up to the size of bears and with enormous, bone-crushing jaws, the mesonychids were among the most powerful and successful predators on the market at that time, with a near-global range and being capable of subjugating just about any other predator in their environments. Indeed, they, along with other carnivorous ungulates (as well as ungulates in general), were experiencing a golden age during this time, easily being the most prolific predators of the age. Given such prevalence, it should be no surprise that there would be yet another lineage of predatory ungulates would throw their hat into the ring, and by early Eocene, that contender would none other than the entelodonts. The very first entelodonts had arisen from artiodactyl ancestors during the Eocene epoch, at a time when artiodactyls were far more diverse and bizarre than they are now. Through today known from their modern herbivorous representatives such as bovines, deer, and antelope, during the Paleocene and Eocene, the artiodacyls, as with most ungulates of that time, were stronger and far more predaceous, particularly when it came to one such clade of artiodactyls, the cetacodontamorphs. Only known today from hippos and another group of artiodactyls (one which will become relevant later), the cetacodantomorphs emerged out of Asia around 55 million years ago, at around the same time that artiodactyls themselves had made their debut. These animals included the first truly predatory artiodactyls, with many of them possessing large skulls with powerful jaws and sharp, predatory teeth. Among their ranks included animals as puny as Indohyus, a piscivorous artiodactyl the size of a cat, to as formidable as Andrewsarchus, a giant, bison-sized predator often touted as one of the largest predatory mammals to ever live. Given such a predatory disposition, it wouldn’t be long until this clade produced a lineage of truly diverse, truly successful predators, and by around 40 million years ago, that is exactly what they did, as it was at that time that the entelodonts themselves first emerged. From their Asian homeland, the entelodonts spread across the world, spreading through not only most of Eurasia but also colonizing North America as well, with genera such as Brachyhyops being found across both continents. Here, in this North American frontier, the entelodonts began to diversify further, turning into their most successful and formidable forms yet, and it was around the late Eocene and early Oligocene that Archaeotherium itself had entered the scene. Just from a passing glance at Archaeotherium, it is clear how exactly it (as well as the other entelodonts) earned the nickname of “hell-pigs.” It was a bruiser for starters; its body bore a robust, pig-like physique, with prominent neural spines and their associated musculature forming a hump around the shoulder region, similar to the hump of a bison. With such a bulky physique came with it impressive size; the average A. mortoni had a head-body length of roughly 1.6-2.0 m (5.3-6.6 ft), a shoulder height of 1.2 m (4 ft) and a body mass of around 180 kg (396 lb) in weight (Boardman & Secord, 2013; Joeckel, 1990). At such sizes, an adult Archaeotherium the size of a large male black bear. However, they had the potential to get even bigger. While most Archaeotherium specimens were around the size described above, a select few specimens, labeled under the synonymous genus “Megachoerus,” are found to be much larger, with skulls getting up to 66% longer than average A. mortoni specimens (Foss, 2001; Joeckel, 1990). At such sizes and using isometric scaling, such massive Archaeotherium specimens would attained body lengths over 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and would have reached weighs well over 500 kg (1100 lb), or as big as a mature male polar bear. Indeed, at such sizes, it is already abundantly evident that Archaeotherium is a force to be recorded with. However, there was more to these formidable animals than sheer size alone. Behind all that bulk was an astoundingly swift and graceful predator, especially in terms of locomotion. Indeed, the hoofed feet of Archaeotherium, along with other entelodonts, sported several adaptations that gave it incredible locomotive efficiency, essentially turning it into a speed demon of the badlands. Such adaptations include longer distal leg elements (e.g. the radius and tibia) than their proximal counterparts (e.g. the humerus and femur), fusion of the radius and ulna for increased running efficiency, the loss of the clavicle (collar-bone) to allow for greater leg length, the loss of the acromion to enhance leg movement along the fore-and-aft plane, the loss of digits to reduce the mass of the forelimb, the fusion of the ectocuneiform and the mesocuneiform wrist-bones, among many other such traits (Theodore, 1996) . Perhaps most significant of these adaptations is the evolution of the “double-pulley astragalus (ankle-bone),” a specialized modification of the ankle that, while restricting rotation and side-to-side movement at the ankle-joint, allows for greater rotation in the fore-and-aft direction, thus allowing for more more powerful propulsion from the limbs, faster extension and retraction of the limbs and overall greater locomotive efficiency (Foss, 2001). Of course, such a trait was not only found in entelodonts but in artiodactyls as a whole, likely being a response to predatory pressures from incumbent predatory clades arising at the same time as the artiodactyls (Foss, 2001). However, in the case of the entelodonts, such adaptations were not used for merely escaping predators. Rather, they were used to for another, much more lethal effect… Such notions are further reinforced by the entelodonts most formidable aspect, none either than their fearsome jaws, and in this respect, Archaeotherium excelled. Both for its size and in general, the head of Archaeotherium was massive, measuring 40-50 cm (1.3-1.6 ft) in length among average A. mortoni specimens, to up to 78 cm (~2.6 ft) in the larger “Megachoerus” specimens (Joeckel, 1990). Such massive skulls were supported and supplemented by equally massive neck muscles and ligaments, which attached to massive neural spines on the anterior thoracic vertebrae akin to a bisons hump as well as to the sternum, allowing Archaeotherium to keep its head aloft despite the skulls massive size (Effinger, 1998). Of course, with such a massive skull, it should come as no surprise that such skulls housed exceptionally formidable jaws as well, and indeed, the bite of Archaeotherium was an especially deadly one. Its zygomatic arches (cheek-bones) and its temporal fossa were enlarged and expanded, indicative of massive temporalis muscles that afforded Archaeotherium astoundingly powerful bites (Joeckel, 1990). This is further augmented by Archaeotherium’s massive jugal flanges (bony projections of the cheek), which supported powerful masseter muscles which enhanced chewing and mastication, as well as an enlarged postorbital bar that reinforced the skull against torsional stresses (Foss, 2001). Last but not least, powerful jaws are supplemented by an enlarged gape, facilitated by a low coronoid process and enlarged posterior mandibular tubercles (bony projections originating from the lower jaw), which provided an insertion site for sternum-to-mandible jaw abduction muscles, allowing for a more forceful opening of the jaw (Foss, 2001). All together, such traits suggest a massive and incredibly fearsome bite, perhaps the most formidable of any animal in its environment. Of course, none of such traits are especially indicative of a predatory lifestyle. Indeed, many modern non-predatory ungulates, like hippos, pigs and peccaries, also possess large, formidable skulls and jaws. However, in peeling back the layers, it is found there was more to the skull of Archaeotherium that lies in store. Indeed, when inspecting the animal closely, a unique mosaic of features is revealed; traits that make it out to be much more lethal than the average artiodactyl. On one hand, Archaeotherium possessed many traits similar to those of herbivores animals, as is expected of ungulates. For instance, its jaw musculature that allowed the lower jaw of Archaeotherium a full side-to-side chewing motion as in herbivores (whereas most carnivores can only move their lower jaw up and down)(Effinger, 1998). On the other hand, Archaeotherium wielded many other traits far more lethal in their morphology, less akin to a herbivore and far more akin to a bonafide predator. For instance, the aforementioned enlarged gape of Archaeotherium is a bizarre trait on a supposed herbivore, as such animals do not need large gapes to eat vegetation and thus have smaller, more restricted gapes. Conversely, many predatory lineages have comparatively large gapes, as larger gapes allow for the the jaws to grab on to more effectively larger objects, namely large prey animals (Joeckel, 1990). Such a juxtaposition, however, is most evident when discussing the real killing instruments of Archaeotherium — the teeth. More so than any facet of this animal, the teeth of Archaeotherium are the real stars of the show, showing both how alike it was compared to its herbivores counterparts and more importantly, how it couldn’t be more different. For instance, the molars of Archaeotherium were quite similar to modern herbivores ungulates, in that they were robust, bunodont, and were designed for crushing and grinding, similar in form and function to modern ungulates like peccaries (Joeckel, 1990). However, while the molars give the impression that Archaeotherium was a herbivore, the other teeth tell a very different story. The incisors, for example, were enlarged, sharpened, and fully interlocked (as opposed to the flat-topped incisors seen in herbivores ungulates), creating an incisor array that was seemingly ill-suited for cropping vegetation and much more adept at for gripping, puncturing and cutting (Joeckel, 1990). Even more formidable were the canines. Like the modern pigs from which entelodonts derived their nicknames, the canines of Archaeotherium were sharp and enlarged to form prominent tusk-like teeth, but unlike pigs, they were rounded in cross-section (similar to modern carnivores like big cats, indicating more durable canines that can absorb and resist torsional forces, such as those from struggling prey) and were serrated to form a distinct cutting edge (Effinger, 1998; Joeckel, 1990; Ruff & Van Valkenburgh, 1987). These canines, along with the incisors, interlock to stabilize the jaws while biting and dismantling in a carnivore-like fashion. More strikingly, the canines also seem to act as “occlusal guides,” wherein the canines help align the movement and position of the rear teeth as they come together, allowing for a more efficient shearing action by the rear teeth. This function is seen most prevalently modern carnivorous mammals, and is evidenced by the canine tooth-wear, which is also analogous to modern predators like bears and canids (Joeckel, 1990). Indeed, going off such teeth alone, it is clear that Archaeotherium is far more predatory than expected of an ungulate. However, the real stars of the show, the teeth that truly betray the predatory nature of these ungulates, are the premolars. Perhaps the most carnivore-like teeth in the entelodont’s entire tooth row, the premolars of Archaeotherium, particularly the anterior premolars, are laterally compressed, somewhat conical in shape, and are weakly serrated to bear a cutting edge, giving them a somewhat carnivorous form and function of shearing and slicing (Effinger, 1998). Most strikingly of all, the premolars of Archaeotherium bear unique features similar not to modern herbivores, but to durophagous carnivores like hyenas, particularly apical wear patterns, highly thickened enamel, “zigzag-shaped” enamel prism layers (Hunter-Schraeger bands) on the premolars which is also seen in osteophagous animals like hyenas, and an interlocking premolar interface wherein linear objects (such as bones) inserted into jaws from the side would be pinned between the premolars and crushed (Foss, 2001). Taken together, these features do not suggest a diet of grass or vegetation like other ungulates. Rather, they suggest a far more violent diet, one including flesh as well as hard, durable foods, particularly bone. All in all, the evidence is clear. Archaeotherium and other entelodonts, unlike the rest of their artiodactyl kin, were not the passive herbivores as we envision ungulates today. Rather, they were willing, unrepentant meat-eaters that had a taste for flesh as well as foliage. Of course, even with such lines of evidence, its hard to conclude that Archaeotherium was a true predator. After all, its wide gape and durophagous teeth could have just as easily been used for scavenging or even to eat tough plant matter such as seeds or nuts, as in peccaries and pigs, which themselves share many of the same adaptations as Archaeotherium, include the more carnivorous ones (e.g. the wide gape, using the canines as an occlusal guide, etc.). How exactly do we know that these things were veritable predators and not pretenders to the title. To this end, there is yet one last piece of evidence, one that puts on full display the predatory prowess of Archaeotherium —evidence of a kill itself. Found within oligocene-aged sediment in what is now Wyoming, a collection of various fossil remains was found, each belonging to the ancient sheep-sized camel Poebrotherium, with many of the skeletal remains being disarticulated and even missing whole hindlimbs or even entire rear halves of their body. Tellingly, many of the remains bear extensive bite marks and puncture wounds across their surface. Upon close examination, the spacing and size of the punctures leave only one culprit: Archaeotherium. Of course, such an event could still have been scavenging; the entelodonts were consuming the remains of already dead, decomposed camels, explaining the bite marks. What was far more telling, however, was where the bite marks were found. In addition bite marks being found on the torso and lumbar regions of the camels, various puncture wounds were found on the skull and neck, which were otherwise uneaten. Scavengers rarely feast on the head to begin with; there is very little worthwhile meat on it besides the brain, cheek-muscles and eyes, and even if they did feed on the skull and neck, they would still eat it wholesale, not merely bite it and then leave it otherwise untouched. Indeed, it was clear that this was no mere scavenging event. Rather than merely consuming these camels, Archaeotherium was actively preying upon and killing them, dispatching them via a crushing bite to the skull or neck before dismembering and even bisecting the hapless camels with their powerful jaws to preferentially feast on their hindquarters (likely by swallowing the hindquarters whole, as the pelvis of Poebrotherium was coincidentally the perfect width for Archaeotherium to devour whole), eventually discarding the leftovers in meat caches for later consumption (Sundell, 1999). With this finding, such a feat of brutality leaves no doubt in ones mind as to what the true nature of Archaeotherium was. This was no herbivore, nor was it a simple scavenger. This was an active, rapacious predator, the most powerful in its entire ecosystem. Indeed, with such brutal evidence of predation frozen in time, combined with various dental, cranial, and post cranial adaptations of this formidable animal, it’s possible to paint a picture of how this formidable creature lived. Though an omnivore by trade, willing and able to feast on plant matter such as grass, roots and tubers, Archaeotherium was also a wanton predator that took just about any prey it wanted. Upon detecting its prey, it approached its vicim from ambush before launching itself at blazing speed. From there, its cursorial, hoofed legs, used by other ungulates for escape predation, were here employed to capture prey, carrying it at great speeds as it caught up to its quarry. Having closed the distance with its target, it was then that the entelodont brought its jaws to bear, grabbing hold of the victim with powerful jaws and gripping teeth to bring it to a screeching halt. If the victim is lucky, Archaeotherium will then kill it quickly with a crushing bite to the skull or neck, puncturing the brain or spinal cord and killing its target instantly. If not, the victim is eaten alive, torn apart while it’s still kicking, as modern boars will do today. In any case, incapacitated prey are subsequently dismantled, with the entelodont using its entire head and heavily-muscled necks to bite into and pull apart its victim in devastating “puncture-and pull’ bites (Foss, 2001). Prey would then finally be consumed starting at the hindquarters, with not even the bones of its prey being spared. Such brutality, though far from clean, drove home a singular truth: that during this time, ungulates were not just prey, that they were not the mere “predator-fodder” we know them as today. rather, they themselves were the predators themselves, dominating as superb hunters within their domain and even suppressing clades we know as predators today, least of all the carnivorans. Indeed, during this point in time, the age of the carnivorous ungulates had hit their stride, and more specifically, the age of entelodonts had begun. Of course, more so than any other entelodont, Archaeotherium took to this new age with gusto. Archaeotherium lived from 35-28 million years ago during the late Eocene and early Oligocene in a locality known today as the White River Badlands, a fossil locality nestled along the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Though a chalky, barren landscape today, during the time of Archaeotherium, the White River Badlands was a swamp-like floodplain crisscrossed with rivers and interspersed with by a mosaic of forests concentrated around waterways, open woodlands and open plains. As with most ecosystems with such a lush disposition, this locale teemed with life, with ancient hornless rhinos, small horse-like hyracodonts and early camels roaming the open habitats while giant brontotheres, small early horses and strange, sheep-like ungulates called merycoidodonts (also known as “oreodonts”) dwelled within the dense forests. Within this locale, Archaeotherium stalked the open woodlands and riparian forests of its domain. Here, it acted as a dominant predator and scavenger across is territory, filling a niche similar to modern grizzly bears but far more predatory. Among its preferred food items would be plant matter such as roots, foliage and nuts, but also meat in the form of carrion or freshly caught prey. In this respect, smaller ungulates such as the fleet-footed camel Poebrotherium, a known prey item of Archaeotherium, would have made a for choice prey, as its small size would make it easy for Archaeotherium to dispatch with its powerful jaws, while the entelodonts swift legs gave it the speed necessary to keep pace with its agile prey. However, the entelodont didn’t have such a feast all to itself. Just as the badlands teemed with herbivores, so too did it teem with rival predators. Among their ranks included fearsome predators such as Hyaenodon, a powerful, vaguely dog-like predator up to the size of wolves (as in H. horridus) or even lions (as in the Eocene-aged H. megaloides, which was replaced by H. horridus during the Oligocene). Armed with a massive head, fierce jaws and a set of knife-like teeth that could cut down even large prey in seconds, these were some of the most formidable predators on the landscape. There were also the nimravids, cat-like carnivorans that bore saber-teeth to kill large prey in seconds, and included the likes of the lynx-sized Dinictis, the leopard-sized Hoplophoneus and even the jaguar-sized Eusmilus. Furthermore, there were amphicyonids, better known as the bear-dogs. Though known from much larger forms later on in their existence, during the late Eocene and Oligocene, they were much smaller and acted as the “canid-analogues” of the ecosystem, filling a role similar to wolves or coyotes. Last but not least, there were the bathornithid birds, huge cariamiform birds related to modern seriemas but much larger, which filled a niche similar to modern seriemas or secretary birds, albeit on a much larger scale. Given such competition, it would seem that Archaeotherium would have its hands full. However, things are not as they appear. For starters, habitat differences would mitigate high amounts of competition, as both Hyaenodon and the various nimravids occupy more specialized ecological roles (being a plains-specialist and forest-specialist, respectively) than did Archaeotherium, providing a buffer to stave off competition: More importantly, however, none of the aforementioned predators were simply big enough to take Archaeotherium on. During the roughly 7 million years existence of Archaeotherium, the only carnivore that matched it in size was H. megaloides, and even that would have an only applied to average A. mortoni individuals, not to the much larger, bison-sized “Megachoerus” individuals. The next largest predator at that point would be the jaguars-sized Eusmilus (specifically E. adelos) which would have only been a bit more than half the size of even an average A. mortoni. Besides that, virtually every other predator on the landscape was simply outclassed by the much larger entelodont in terms of size and brute strength. As such, within its domain, Archaeotherium had total, unquestioned authority, dominating the other predators in the landscape and likely stealing their kills as well. In fact, just about the only threat Archaeotherium had was other Archaeotherium, as fossil bite marks suggest that this animal regularly and fraglantly engaged in intraspecific combat, usually through face-biting and possibly even jaw-wrestling (Effinger, 1998; Tanke & Currie, 1998). Nevertheless, it was clear that Archaeotherium was the undisputed king of the badlands; in a landscape of hyaenodonts and carnivorans galore, it was a hoofed ungulate that reigned supreme. However, such a reign would not last. As the Eocene transitioned into the Eocene, the planet underwent an abrupt cooling and drying phase known as Eocene-Oligocene Transition or more simply the Grande Coupure. This change in climate would eliminate the sprawling wetlands and river systems that Archaeotherium had been depending on, gradually replacing it with drier and more open habitats. To its credit, Archaeotherium did manage to hang on, persisting well after the Grand-Coupure had taken place, but in the end the damage had been done; Archaeotherium was a dead-man-walking. Eventually, by around 28 million years ago, Archaeotherium would go extinct, perishing due to this change in global climate (Gillham, 2019). Entelodonts as a whole would persist into the Miocene, producing some of their largest forms ever known in the form of the bison-sized Daeodon (which was itself even more carnivorous than Archaeotherium), however they too would meet the same fate as their earlier cousins. By around 15-20 million years ago, entelodonts as a whole would go extinct. However, while the entelodonts may have perished, this was not the end of carnivorous ungulates as a whole. Recall that the cetacodontamorphs, the lineage of artiodactyls that produced the entelodonts, left behind two living descendants. The first among them were the hippos, themselves fairly frequent herbivores. The second of such lineage, however, was a different story. Emerging out of South Asia, this lineage of piscivorous cetacodontamorphs, in a an attempt to further specialize for the fish-hunting lifestyle, began to delve further and further into the water, becoming more and more aquatic and the millennia passed by. At a certain point, these carnivorous artiodactlys had become something completely unrecognizable from their original hoofed forms. Their skin became hairless and their bodies became streamlined for life in water. Their hoofed limbs grew into giant flippers for steering in the water and their previously tiny tails became massive and sported giant tail flukes for aquatic propulsion. Their noses even moved to the tip of their head, becoming a blowhole that would be signature to this clade as a whole. Indeed, this clade was none other than the modern whales, themselves derived, carnivorous ungulates that had specialized for a life in the water, and in doing so, became the some of the most dominant aquatic predators across the globe for millions of years. Indeed, though long gone, the legacy of the entelodonts and of predatory ungulates as a whole, a legacy Archaeotherium itself had helped foster, lives on in these paragons of predatory prowess, showing that the ungulates are more than just the mere “prey” that they are often made out to be. Moreover, given the success that carnivorous ungulates had enjoyed in the past and given how modern omnivorous ungulates like boar dabble in predation themselves, perhaps, in the distant future, this planet may see the rise of carnivorous ungulates once again, following in the footsteps left behind by Archaeotherium and the other predatory ungulates all those millions of years ago. |
2024.05.14 16:25 Mophandel Archaeotherium, the King of the White River Badlands
Art by Bob Nicholls submitted by Mophandel to Naturewasmetal [link] [comments] Nowadays, when we envision the words “prey,” among modern mammalian fauna, few taxa come to mind as quickly as the hoofed mammals, better known as the ungulates. Indeed, for the better part of their entire evolutionary history, the ungulates have become entirely indistinguishable from the term “prey.” Across their two major modern branches, the artiodactyls (the “even-toed ungulates,” such as bovids, pigs, deer, hippos and giraffes) and the perissodactyls (the “odd-toed ungulates,” including horses, rhinos and tapir), the ungulates too have created an empire spanning nearly every continent, establishing themselves as the the dominant herbivores throughout their entire range. However, as a price for such success, their lot as herbivores have forced them into an unenviable position: being the food for the predators. Indeed, throughout the diets of most modern predators, ungulates make up the majority, if not the entirety, of their diet, becoming their counterparts in this evolutionary dance of theirs. They have become the lamb to their wolf, the zebra to their lion, the stag to their tiger. If there is a predator in need of lunch, chances are that there is an ungulate there to provide it. Of course, such a dynamic is not necessarily a recent innovation. For the last 15-20 million years, across much of the world, both new and old, the ungulates have served as prey for these predators through it all. Over the course of whole epochs, these two groups have played into these roles for millions of years, coevolving with each other in an eons-long game of cat-and-mouse. The shoes they fill are not new, but have existed for ages, and within their niches they have cultivated their roles to perfection. Indeed, with such a tenured history, it seems hardly surprising the ungulates are wholly inseparable from the terms “prey,” itself. However, while this is the case now, as it has been for the last 15-20 million years, go back far enough, and we see that this dynamic is not as set in stone as we would think. Indeed, back during the Eocene and Oligocene, during the very earliest days of age of mammals, things were very different for the ungulates. While today they are considered little more than food for modern predators, during these olden days, the ungulates weren’t quite so benign. In fact, far from being fodder for top predators, the ungulates had turned the tables, instead becoming top predators themselves. Indeed, though nearly unheard of today, throughout much of the Eocene and Oligocene, carnivorous ungulates thrived in abundance, developing specializations for catching large prey and establishing themselves as top predators that competed alongside the more traditional carnivores, and even dominating them in some instances. Given such success, it’s no wonder that multiple such clades had arisen during this time. Such predators included the arctocyonids, a lineage of (ironically) hoof-less ungulates with large jaws and sharp teeth for capturing large prey. There were also the mesonychians, a lineage of dog-like ungulates with massive skulls and jaws that allowed them to reign as the top predator across much of the Eocene. However, among these various lineages, one stands stands out among the rest, by far. Arising during the Eocene, this lineage, though superficially resembling modern pigs, hailed from one an ancient lineage of artiodactyls far removed from swine or most other ungulates in general, with few close relatives alive today. Through perhaps not the most predatory of the bunch, it was among the most formidable, as their superficially pig-like appearance came with giant predatory jaws and teeth unlike anything from the modern era. And of course, as if all of that wasn’t enough, this lineage also went on to earn arguably one of the most badass nicknames of any lineage of mammals, period. These predators, of course, were the entelodonts, a.k.a the “hell-pigs.” More so than any other predatory ungulate lineage, these formidable ungulates were the ones to turn the current paradigm upside down, becoming some of the largest and most dominant carnivores in their landscape, even with (and often in spite of) the presence of more traditional predators. Through impressive size, fearsome teeth and sheer tenacity, these animals became the top dogs of their time, ruling as behemoth-kings of their Paleogene kingdoms, domineering all comers, and throughout the ranks, one entelodont in particular demonstrated such dominance the best. Though not the largest or most powerful of their kind, it is one of the most iconic, being among the most well-known members of its lineage to date. Moreover, this enteledont also has some of the most complete life histories ever seen out of this clade, with its brutality and predatory prowess being displayed in the fossil record in a way seen in no other member of its kind. More than anything else, however, it was this predator that best turned the notion of “ungulates being prey” on its head, living in an environment that bore some of the largest carnivoran hypercarnivores to date and still reigning as the undisputed top predator of its domain. This fearsome beast was none other than Archaeotherium, icon of the entelodonts, terror of the Oligocene American west and undisputed king of the White River badlands. The rise of Archaeotherium (and of entelodonts in general) is closely tied to the ascendancy of carnivorous ungulates as a whole, one of the earliest evolutionary success stories of the entire Cenozoic. Having become their own derived clade since the late Cretaceous, the ungulates were remarkably successful during the early Paleogene, as they were among the first mammalian clades to reach large sizes during those early days after the non-avian dinosaurs had gone extinct. As such, it was with incredible swiftness that, as the Paleogene progressed, the ungulates swooped upon the various niches left empty by the K-Pg mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs. This of course included the herbivorous niches we would know them for today, but this also included other, much more carnivore roles. Indeed, early on during the Paleogene, it was the ungulates that first seized the roles of large mammalian predators, becoming some the earliest large mammalian carnivores to ever live, well before even the carnivorans. Such predators included the arctocyonids, a lineage of vaguely dog-like, hoof-less ungulates with robust jaws and sharpened teeth that acted as some of earliest large carnivores of the Paleocene, with genera such as Arctocyon mumak getting up to the size of big cats. Even more prolific were the mesonychids. More so than what pretty much any other lineage of predator, it was the mesonychids that would stand out as the earliest dominant predators of the early Cenozoic. Growing up to the size of bears and with enormous, bone-crushing jaws, the mesonychids were among the most powerful and successful predators on the market at that time, with a near-global range and being capable of subjugating just about any other predator in their environments. Indeed, they, along with other carnivorous ungulates (as well as ungulates in general), were experiencing a golden age during this time, easily being the most prolific predators of the age. Given such prevalence, it should be no surprise that there would be yet another lineage of predatory ungulates would throw their hat into the ring, and by early Eocene, that contender would none other than the entelodonts. The very first entelodonts had arisen from artiodactyl ancestors during the Eocene epoch, at a time when artiodactyls were far more diverse and bizarre than they are now. Through today known from their modern herbivorous representatives such as bovines, deer, and antelope, during the Paleocene and Eocene, the artiodacyls, as with most ungulates of that time, were stronger and far more predaceous, particularly when it came to one such clade of artiodactyls, the cetacodontamorphs. Only known today from hippos and another group of artiodactyls (one which will become relevant later), the cetacodantomorphs emerged out of Asia around 55 million years ago, at around the same time that artiodactyls themselves had made their debut. These animals included the first truly predatory artiodactyls, with many of them possessing large skulls with powerful jaws and sharp, predatory teeth. Among their ranks included animals as puny as Indohyus, a piscivorous artiodactyl the size of a cat, to as formidable as Andrewsarchus, a giant, bison-sized predator often touted as one of the largest predatory mammals to ever live. Given such a predatory disposition, it wouldn’t be long until this clade produced a lineage of truly diverse, truly successful predators, and by around 40 million years ago, that is exactly what they did, as it was at that time that the entelodonts themselves first emerged. From their Asian homeland, the entelodonts spread across the world, spreading through not only most of Eurasia but also colonizing North America as well, with genera such as Brachyhyops being found across both continents. Here, in this North American frontier, the entelodonts began to diversify further, turning into their most successful and formidable forms yet, and it was around the late Eocene and early Oligocene that Archaeotherium itself had entered the scene. Just from a passing glance at Archaeotherium, it is clear how exactly it (as well as the other entelodonts) earned the nickname of “hell-pigs.” It was a bruiser for starters; its body bore a robust, pig-like physique, with prominent neural spines and their associated musculature forming a hump around the shoulder region, similar to the hump of a bison. With such a bulky physique came with it impressive size; the average A. mortoni had a head-body length of roughly 1.6-2.0 m (5.3-6.6 ft), a shoulder height of 1.2 m (4 ft) and a body mass of around 180 kg (396 lb) in weight (Boardman & Secord, 2013; Joeckel, 1990). At such sizes, an adult Archaeotherium the size of a large male black bear. However, they had the potential to get even bigger. While most Archaeotherium specimens were around the size described above, a select few specimens, labeled under the synonymous genus “Megachoerus,” are found to be much larger, with skulls getting up to 66% longer than average A. mortoni specimens (Foss, 2001; Joeckel, 1990). At such sizes and using isometric scaling, such massive Archaeotherium specimens would attained body lengths over 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and would have reached weighs well over 500 kg (1100 lb), or as big as a mature male polar bear. Indeed, at such sizes, it is already abundantly evident that Archaeotherium is a force to be recorded with. However, there was more to these formidable animals than sheer size alone. Behind all that bulk was an astoundingly swift and graceful predator, especially in terms of locomotion. Indeed, the hoofed feet of Archaeotherium, along with other entelodonts, sported several adaptations that gave it incredible locomotive efficiency, essentially turning it into a speed demon of the badlands. Such adaptations include longer distal leg elements (e.g. the radius and tibia) than their proximal counterparts (e.g. the humerus and femur), fusion of the radius and ulna for increased running efficiency, the loss of the clavicle (collar-bone) to allow for greater leg length, the loss of the acromion to enhance leg movement along the fore-and-aft plane, the loss of digits to reduce the mass of the forelimb, the fusion of the ectocuneiform and the mesocuneiform wrist-bones, among many other such traits (Theodore, 1996) . Perhaps most significant of these adaptations is the evolution of the “double-pulley astragalus (ankle-bone),” a specialized modification of the ankle that, while restricting rotation and side-to-side movement at the ankle-joint, allows for greater rotation in the fore-and-aft direction, thus allowing for more more powerful propulsion from the limbs, faster extension and retraction of the limbs and overall greater locomotive efficiency (Foss, 2001). Of course, such a trait was not only found in entelodonts but in artiodactyls as a whole, likely being a response to predatory pressures from incumbent predatory clades arising at the same time as the artiodactyls (Foss, 2001). However, in the case of the entelodonts, such adaptations were not used for merely escaping predators. Rather, they were used to for another, much more lethal effect… Such notions are further reinforced by the entelodonts most formidable aspect, none either than their fearsome jaws, and in this respect, Archaeotherium excelled. Both for its size and in general, the head of Archaeotherium was massive, measuring 40-50 cm (1.3-1.6 ft) in length among average A. mortoni specimens, to up to 78 cm (~2.6 ft) in the larger “Megachoerus” specimens (Joeckel, 1990). Such massive skulls were supported and supplemented by equally massive neck muscles and ligaments, which attached to massive neural spines on the anterior thoracic vertebrae akin to a bisons hump as well as to the sternum, allowing Archaeotherium to keep its head aloft despite the skulls massive size (Effinger, 1998). Of course, with such a massive skull, it should come as no surprise that such skulls housed exceptionally formidable jaws as well, and indeed, the bite of Archaeotherium was an especially deadly one. Its zygomatic arches (cheek-bones) and its temporal fossa were enlarged and expanded, indicative of massive temporalis muscles that afforded Archaeotherium astoundingly powerful bites (Joeckel, 1990). This is further augmented by Archaeotherium’s massive jugal flanges (bony projections of the cheek), which supported powerful masseter muscles which enhanced chewing and mastication, as well as an enlarged postorbital bar that reinforced the skull against torsional stresses (Foss, 2001). Last but not least, powerful jaws are supplemented by an enlarged gape, facilitated by a low coronoid process and enlarged posterior mandibular tubercles (bony projections originating from the lower jaw), which provided an insertion site for sternum-to-mandible jaw abduction muscles, allowing for a more forceful opening of the jaw (Foss, 2001). All together, such traits suggest a massive and incredibly fearsome bite, perhaps the most formidable of any animal in its environment. Of course, none of such traits are especially indicative of a predatory lifestyle. Indeed, many modern non-predatory ungulates, like hippos, pigs and peccaries, also possess large, formidable skulls and jaws. However, in peeling back the layers, it is found there was more to the skull of Archaeotherium that lies in store. Indeed, when inspecting the animal closely, a unique mosaic of features is revealed; traits that make it out to be much more lethal than the average artiodactyl. On one hand, Archaeotherium possessed many traits similar to those of herbivores animals, as is expected of ungulates. For instance, its jaw musculature that allowed the lower jaw of Archaeotherium a full side-to-side chewing motion as in herbivores (whereas most carnivores can only move their lower jaw up and down)(Effinger, 1998). On the other hand, Archaeotherium wielded many other traits far more lethal in their morphology, less akin to a herbivore and far more akin to a bonafide predator. For instance, the aforementioned enlarged gape of Archaeotherium is a bizarre trait on a supposed herbivore, as such animals do not need large gapes to eat vegetation and thus have smaller, more restricted gapes. Conversely, many predatory lineages have comparatively large gapes, as larger gapes allow for the the jaws to grab on to more effectively larger objects, namely large prey animals (Joeckel, 1990). Such a juxtaposition, however, is most evident when discussing the real killing instruments of Archaeotherium — the teeth. More so than any facet of this animal, the teeth of Archaeotherium are the real stars of the show, showing both how alike it was compared to its herbivores counterparts and more importantly, how it couldn’t be more different. For instance, the molars of Archaeotherium were quite similar to modern herbivores ungulates, in that they were robust, bunodont, and were designed for crushing and grinding, similar in form and function to modern ungulates like peccaries (Joeckel, 1990). However, while the molars give the impression that Archaeotherium was a herbivore, the other teeth tell a very different story. The incisors, for example, were enlarged, sharpened, and fully interlocked (as opposed to the flat-topped incisors seen in herbivores ungulates), creating an incisor array that was seemingly ill-suited for cropping vegetation and much more adept at for gripping, puncturing and cutting (Joeckel, 1990). Even more formidable were the canines. Like the modern pigs from which entelodonts derived their nicknames, the canines of Archaeotherium were sharp and enlarged to form prominent tusk-like teeth, but unlike pigs, they were rounded in cross-section (similar to modern carnivores like big cats, indicating more durable canines that can absorb and resist torsional forces, such as those from struggling prey) and were serrated to form a distinct cutting edge (Effinger, 1998; Joeckel, 1990; Ruff & Van Valkenburgh, 1987). These canines, along with the incisors, interlock to stabilize the jaws while biting and dismantling in a carnivore-like fashion. More strikingly, the canines also seem to act as “occlusal guides,” wherein the canines help align the movement and position of the rear teeth as they come together, allowing for a more efficient shearing action by the rear teeth. This function is seen most prevalently modern carnivores mammals, and is evidenced by the canine tooth-wear, which is also analogous to modern predators like bears and canids (Joeckel, 1990). Indeed, going off such teeth alone, it is clear that Archaeotherium is far more predatory than expected of an ungulate. However, the real stars of the show, the teeth that truly betray the predatory nature of these ungulates, are the premolars. Perhaps the most carnivore-like teeth in the entelodont’s entire tooth row, the premolars of Archaeotherium, particularly the anterior premolars, are laterally compressed, somewhat conical in shape, and are weakly serrated to bear a cutting edge, giving them a somewhat carnivorous form and function of shearing and slicing (Effinger, 1998). Most strikingly of all, the premolars of Archaeotherium bear unique features similar not to modern herbivores, but to durophagous carnivores like hyenas, particularly apical wear patterns, highly thickened enamel, “zigzag-shaped” enamel prism layers (Hunter-Schraeger bands) on the premolars which is also seen in osteophagous animals like hyenas, and an interlocking premolar interface wherein linear objects (such as bones) inserted into jaws from the side would be pinned between the premolars and crushed (Foss, 2001). Taken together, these features do not suggest a diet of grass or vegetation like other ungulates. Rather, they suggest a far more violent diet, one including flesh as well as hard, durable foods, particularly bone. All in all, the evidence is clear. Archaeotherium and other entelodonts, unlike the rest of their artiodactyl kin, were not the passive herbivores as we envision ungulates today. Rather, they were willing, unrepentant meat-eaters that had a taste for flesh as well as foliage. Of course, even with such lines of evidence, its hard to conclude that Archaeotherium was a true predator. After all, its wide gape and durophagous teeth could have just as easily been used for scavenging or even to eat tough plant matter such as seeds or nuts, as in peccaries and pigs, which themselves share many of the same adaptations as Archaeotherium, include the more carnivorous ones (e.g. the wide gape, using the canines as an occlusal guide, etc.). How exactly do we know that these things were veritable predators and not pretenders to the title. To this end, there is yet one last piece of evidence, one that puts on full display the predatory prowess of Archaeotherium —evidence of a kill itself. Found within oligocene-aged sediment in what is now Wyoming, a collection of various fossil remains was found, each belonging to the ancient sheep-sized camel Poebrotherium, with many of the skeletal remains being disarticulated and even missing whole hindlimbs or even entire rear halves of their body. Tellingly, many of the remains bear extensive bite marks and puncture wounds across their surface. Upon close examination, the spacing and size of the punctures leave only one culprit: Archaeotherium. Of course, such an event could still have been scavenging; the entelodonts were consuming the remains of already dead, decomposed camels, explaining the bite marks. What was far more telling, however, was where the bite marks were found. In addition bite marks being found on the torso and lumbar regions of the camels, various puncture wounds were found on the skull and neck, which were otherwise uneaten. Scavengers rarely feast on the head to begin with; there is very little worthwhile meat on it besides the brain, cheek-muscles and eyes, and even if they did feed on the skull and neck, they would still eat it wholesale, not merely bite it and then leave it otherwise untouched. Indeed, it was clear that this was no mere scavenging event. Rather than merely consuming these camels, Archaeotherium was actively preying upon and killing them, dispatching them via a crushing bite to the skull or neck before dismembering and even bisecting the hapless camels with their powerful jaws to preferentially feast on their hindquarters (likely by swallowing the hindquarters whole, as the pelvis of Poebrotherium was coincidentally the perfect width for Archaeotherium to devour whole), eventually discarding the leftovers in meat caches for later consumption (Sundell, 1999). With this finding, such a feat of brutality leaves no doubt in ones mind as to what the true nature of Archaeotherium was. This was no herbivore, nor was it a simple scavenger. This was an active, rapacious predator, the most powerful in its entire ecosystem. Indeed, with such brutal evidence of predation frozen in time, combined with various dental, cranial, and post cranial adaptations of this formidable animal, it’s possible to paint a picture of how this formidable creature lived. Though an omnivore by trade, willing and able to feast on plant matter such as grass, roots and tubers, Archaeotherium was also a wanton predator that took just about any prey it wanted. Upon detecting its prey, it approached its vicim from ambush before launching itself at blazing speed. From there, its cursorial, hoofed legs, used by other ungulates for escape predation, were here employed to capture prey, carrying it at great speeds as it caught up to its quarry. Having closed the distance with its target, it was then that the entelodont brought its jaws to bear, grabbing hold of the victim with powerful jaws and gripping teeth to bring it to a screeching halt. If the victim is lucky, Archaeotherium will then kill it quickly with a crushing bite to the skull or neck, puncturing the brain or spinal cord and killing its target instantly. If not, the victim is eaten alive, torn apart while it’s still kicking, as modern boars will do today. In any case, incapacitated prey are subsequently dismantled, with the entelodont using its entire head and heavily-muscled necks to bite into and pull apart its victim in devastating “puncture-and pull’ bites (Foss, 2001). Prey would then finally be consumed starting at the hindquarters, with not even the bones of its prey being spared. Such brutality, though far from clean, drove home a singular truth: that during this time, ungulates were not just prey, that they were not the mere “predator-fodder” we know them as today. rather, they themselves were the predators themselves, dominating as superb hunters within their domain and even suppressing clades we know as predators today, least of all the carnivorans. Indeed, during this point in time, the age of the carnivorous ungulates had hit their stride, and more specifically, the age of entelodonts had begun. Of course, more so than any other ettelodont, Archaeotherium took to this new age with gusto. Archaeotherium lived from 35-28 million years ago during the late Eocene and early Oligocene in a locality known today as the White River Badlands, a fossil locality nestled along the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Though a chalky, barren landscape today, during the time of Archaeotherium, the White River Badlands was a swamp-like floodplain crisscrossed with rivers and interspersed with by a mosaic of forests concentrated around waterways, open woodlands and open plains. As with most ecosystems with such a lush disposition, this locale teemed with life, with ancient hornless rhinos, small horse-like hyracodonts and early camels roaming the open habitats while giant brontotheres, small early horses and strange, sheep-like ungulates called merycoidodonts (also known as “oreodonts”) dwelled within the dense forests. Within this locale, Archaeotherium stalked the open woodlands and riparian forests of its domain. Here, it acted as a dominant predator and scavenger across is territory, filling a niche similar to modern grizzly bears but far more predatory. Among its preferred food items would be plant matter such as roots, foliage and nuts, but also meat in the form of carrion or freshly caught prey. In this respect, smaller ungulates such as the fleet-footed camel Poebrotherium, a known prey item of Archaeotherium, would have made a for choice prey, as its small size would make it easy for Archaeotherium to dispatch with its powerful jaws, while the entelodonts swift legs gave it the speed necessary to keep pace with its agile prey. However, the entelodont didn’t have such a feast all to itself. Just as the badlands teemed with herbivores, so too did it teem with rival predators. Among their ranks included fearsome predators such as Hyaenodon, a powerful, vaguely dog-like predator up to the size of wolves (as in H. horridus) or even lions (as in the Eocene-aged H. megaloides, which was replaced by H. horridus during the Oligocene). Armed with a massive head, fierce jaws and a set of knife-like teeth that could cut down even large prey in seconds, these were some of the most formidable predators on the landscape. There were also the nimravids, cat-like carnivorans that bore saber-teeth to kill large prey in seconds, and included the likes of the lynx-sized Dinictis, the leopard-sized Hoplophoneus and even the jaguar-sized Eusmilus. Furthermore, there were amphicyonids, better known as the bear-dogs. Though known from much larger forms later on in their existence, during the late Eocene and Oligocene, they were much smaller and acted as the “canid-analogues” of the ecosystem, filling a role similar to wolves or coyotes. Last but not least, there were the bathornithid birds, huge cariamiform birds related to modern seriemas but much larger, which filled a niche similar to modern seriemas or secretary birds, albeit on a much larger scale. Given such competition, it would seem that Archaeotherium would have its hands full. However, things are not as they appear. For starters, habitat differences would mitigate high amounts of competition, as both Hyaenodon and the various nimravids occupy more specialized ecological roles (being a plains-specialist and forest-specialist, respectively) than did Archaeotherium, providing a buffer to stave off competition: More importantly, however, none of the aforementioned predators were simply big enough to take Archaeotherium on. During the roughly 7 million years existence of Archaeotherium, the only carnivore that matched it in size was H. megaloides, and even that would have an only applied to average A. mortoni individuals, not to the much larger, bison-sized “Megachoerus” individuals. The next largest predator at that point would be the jaguars-sized Eusmilus (specifically E. adelos) which would have only been a bit more than half the size of even an average A. mortoni. Besides that, virtually every other predator on the landscape was simply outclassed by the much larger entelodont in terms of size and brute strength. As such, within its domain, Archaeotherium had total, unquestioned authority, dominating the other predators in the landscape and likely stealing their kills as well. In fact, just about the only threat Archaeotherium had was other Archaeotherium, as fossil bite marks suggest that this animal regularly and fraglantly engaged in intraspecific combat, usually through face-biting and possibly even jaw-wrestling (Effinger, 1998; Tanke & Currie, 1998). Nevertheless, it was clear that Archaeotherium was the undisputed king of the badlands; in a landscape of hyaenodonts and carnivorans galore, it was a hoofed ungulate that reigned supreme. However, such a reign would not last. As the Eocene transitioned into the Eocene, the planet underwent an abrupt cooling and drying phase known as Eocene-Oligocene Transition or more simply the Grande Coupure. This change in climate would eliminate the sprawling wetlands and river systems that Archaeotherium had been depending on, gradually replacing it with drier and more open habitats. To its credit, Archaeotherium did manage to hang on, persisting well after the Grand-Coupure had taken place, but in the end the damage had been done; Archaeotherium was a dead-man-walking. Eventually, by around 28 million years ago, Archaeotherium would go extinct, perishing due to this change in global climate (Gillham, 2019). Entelodonts as a whole would persist into the Miocene, producing some of their largest forms ever known in the form of the bison-sized Daeodon (which was itself even more carnivorous than Archaeotherium), however they too would meet the same fate as their earlier cousins. By around 15-20 million years ago, entelodonts as a whole would go extinct. However, while the entelodonts may have perished, this was not the end of carnivorous ungulates as a whole. Recall that the cetacodontamorphs, the lineage of artiodactyls that produced the entelodonts, left behind two living descendants. The first among them were the hippos, themselves fairly frequent herbivores. The second of such lineage, however, was a different story. Emerging out of South Asia, this lineage of piscivorous cetacodontamorphs, in a an attempt to further specialize for the fish-hunting lifestyle, began to delve further and further into the water, becoming more and more aquatic and the millennia passed by. At a certain point, these carnivorous artiodactlys had become something completely unrecognizable from their original hoofed forms. Their skin became hairless and their bodies became streamlined for life in water. Their hoofed limbs grew into giant flippers for steering in the water and their previously tiny tails became massive and sported giant tail flukes for aquatic propulsion. Their noses even moved to the tip of their head, becoming a blowhole that would be signature to this clade as a whole. Indeed, this clade was none other than the modern whales, themselves derived, carnivorous ungulates that had specialized for a life in the water, and in doing so, became the some of the most dominant aquatic predators across the globe for millions of years. Indeed, though long gone, the legacy of the entelodonts and of predatory ungulates as a whole, a legacy Archaeotherium itself had helped foster, lives on in these paragons of predatory prowess, showing that the ungulates are more than just the mere “prey” that they are often made out to be. Moreover, given the success that carnivorous ungulates had enjoyed in the past and given how modern omnivorous ungulates like boar dabble in predation themselves, perhaps, in the distant future, this planet may see the rise of carnivorous ungulates once again, following in the footsteps left behind by Archaeotherium and the other predatory ungulates all those millions of years ago. |
2024.05.14 10:10 Diotoiren [MODPOST] [CRISIS] Witch Fall / / Rest Now
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2024.05.13 23:23 Hurlebatte Property & Land
"The same law of nature, that does by this means give us property, does also bound that property too. . . As much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others. . . But the chief matter of property being now not the fruits of the earth, and the beasts that subsist on it, but the earth itself; as that which takes in and carries with it all the rest; I think it is plain, that property in that too is acquired as the former. As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. . . Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough, and as good left; and more than the yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the less left for others because of his enclosure for himself: for he that leaves as much as another can make use of, does as good as take nothing at all. No body could think himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the same water left him to quench his thirst: and the case of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly the same."—John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, book 2 chapter 5)
". . . a right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that no one has a right to obstruct another, exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature. . ."—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1816)
"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, & to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who can not find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state."—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1785)
"It has been pretended by some (and in England especially) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions; & not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. but while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural, and even an hereditary right to inventions. it is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. by an universal law indeed, whatever, whether fixed or moveable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property, for the moment, of him who occupies it; but when he relinquishes the occupation the property goes with it. stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. it would be curious then if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. if nature has made any one thing less susceptible, than all others, of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an Idea; which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the reciever cannot dispossess himself of it. it’s peculiar character too is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. he who recieves an idea from me, recieves instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, recieves light without darkening me. that ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benvolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point; and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. inventions then cannot in nature be a subject of property. society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility. but this may, or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from any body."—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813)
"Establish the principle also in the new law to be passed for protecting copyrights & new inventions, by securing the exclusive right for 19 [years]."—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1789)
"Consequently there is as yet no such thing as a street except adjacent to the lots actually sold or divided; the erection of a house in any part of the ground cannot as yet be a nuisance in law. Mr. Carrol is tenant in common of the soil, with the public, and the erection of a house by a tenant in common on the common property is no nuisance. Mr. Carrol has acted imprudently, intemperately, foolishly; but he has not acted illegally. There must be an establishment of the streets before his house can become a nuisance in the eye of the law. Therefore till that establishment neither Majr. Lenfant, nor the Commissioners would have had a right to demolish his house without his consent."—Thomas Jefferson (Enclosure: Observations on L'Enfant's Letter, 1791)
"It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race. In that state every man would have been born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietor with rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions, vegetable and animal. But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of supporting but a small number of inhabitants compared with what it is capable of doing in a cultivated state. And as it is impossible to separate the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement is made, the idea of landed property arose from that parable connection; but it is nevertheless true, that it is the value of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express the idea) for the land which he holds. . . There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office, from whence the first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the idea of landed property? I answer as before, that when cultivation began the idea of landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separating the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement was made. The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right of the individual. But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of rights, and will continue to be, so long as the earth endures. It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we, discover the boundary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own. . . While, therefore, I advocate the right, and interest myself in the hard case of all those who have been thrown out of their natural inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property, I equally defend the right of the possessor to the part which is his. Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before. . . It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be, and it is necessary that a revolution should be made in it. . . It is the practice of what has unjustly obtained the name of civilization. . . to make some provision for persons becoming poor and wretched only at the time they become so. Would it not, even as a matter of economy, be far better to adopt means to prevent their becoming poor?. . ."—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)
"I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it."—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)
"Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)
"The law which prohibited people's having two inheritances was extremely well adapted for a democracy. It derived its origin from the equal distribution of lands and portions made to each citizen. The law would not permit a single man to possess more than a single portion. . . It is not sufficient in a well regulated democracy that the divisions of land be equal; they ought also to be small, as was customary among the Romans. 'God forbid, said Curius to his soldiers, that a citizen should look upon that as a small piece of land, which is sufficient to support a man.'"—Charles Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, book 5)
"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, part 2)
"In general, to establish the right of the first occupier over a plot of ground, the following conditions are necessary: first, the land must not yet be inhabited; secondly, a man must occupy only the amount he needs for his subsistence; and, in the third place, possession must be taken, not by an empty ceremony, but by labour and cultivation, the only sign of proprietorship that should be respected by others, in default of a legal title."—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)
"In granting the right of first occupancy to necessity and labour, are we not really stretching it as far as it can go? Is it possible to leave such a right unlimited? Is it to be enough to set foot on a plot of common ground, in order to be able to call yourself at once the master of it? Is it to be enough that a man has the strength to expel others for a moment, in order to establish his right to prevent them from ever returning? How can a man or a people seize an immense territory and keep it from the rest of the world except by a punishable usurpation, since all others are being robbed, by such an act, of the place of habitation and the means of subsistence which nature gave them in common? When Nunez Balboa, standing on the sea-shore, took possession of the South Seas and the whole of South America in the name of the crown of Castile, was that enough to dispossess all their actual inhabitants, and to shut out from them all the princes of the world? On such a showing, these ceremonies are idly multiplied, and the Catholic King need only take possession all at once, from his apartment, of the whole universe, merely making a subsequent reservation about what was already in the possession of other princes."—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)
"The like may be said in relation to my house, land, or estate; I may do what I please with them, if I bring no damage upon others. But I must not set fire to my house, by which my neighbour’s house may be burnt. I may not erect forts upon my own lands, or deliver them to a foreign enemy, who may by that means infest my country. I may not cut the banks of the sea, or those of a river, lest my neighbour’s ground be overflown, because the society into which I am incorporated, would by such means receive prejudice. My land is not simply my own, but upon condition that I shall not thereby bring damage upon the publick, by which I am protected in the peaceable enjoyment and innocent use of what I possess."—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 3 section 41)
"The like continued amongst Jacob’s sons; no jurisdiction was given to one above the rest: an equal division of land was made amongst them: Their judges and magistrates were of several tribes and families, without any other preference of one before another, than what did arise from the advantages God had given to any particular person. This I take to be a proof of the utmost extent and certainty, that the equality amongst mankind was then perfect. . ."—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 1 section 12)
"Men can hardly at once foresee all that may happen in many ages, and the changes that accompany them ought to be provided for. Rome in its foundation was subject to these defects, and the inconveniences arising from them were by degrees discover’d and remedi’d. They did not think of regulating usury, till they saw the mischiefs proceeding from the cruelty of usurers; or setting limits to the proportion of land that one man might enjoy, till the avarice of a few had so far succeeded, that their riches were grown formidable, and many by the poverty to which they were reduced became useless to the city."—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 2 section 13)
"That the too long continued shame of this Nation, viz. permission of any to suffer such poverty as to beg their bread, may be forthwith effectually remedied; and to that purpose, that the poor be enabled to chuse their Trustees to discover all Stocks, Houses, Lands, &c. which of right belong to them and their use, that they may speedily receive the benefit thereof, and that some good improvement may be made of waste Grounds for their use. . ."—John Lilburne (An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwel)
"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce."—Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, book 1 chapter 6)
"The thirteenth ORDER. . . every man who is at present possest, or shall hereafter be possest of an estate in land exceeding the revenue of two thousand pounds a year, and having more than one son, shall leave his lands either equally divided among them, in case the lands amount to above 2000 l. a year to each; or so near equally in case they com under, that the greater part or portion of the same remaining to the eldest, excede not the value of two thousand pounds revenue. And no man, not in present possession of lands above the value of two thousand pounds by the year, shall receive, enjoy (except by lawful inheritance) acquire, or purchase to himself lands within the said territorys, amounting, with those already in his possession, above the said revenue."—James Harrington (Oceana)
"All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.— He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it."—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Robert Morris, 1783)
"I think it could never be, that the best of the Proprietaries located uncultivated Lands should be taxed no higher than the worst of those of the People; that being so manifestly unjust. Nor that a Medium Rate should be fix’d on for all that kind of Lands, as this would be too high for some, and too low for others. Nor that the common Rate should be taken from the worst kind; for this would lay the Burthen chiefly on that kind, which is unjust and oppressive to the poorer People."—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Richard Jackson, 1764)
"It gives me Pain my Lord! to observe that the prevailing monopoly of Lands in this Colony has become a Grievance to the lower Class of People in it; and confines the Bounty of our gracious Sovereign to mercenary Land-Jobbers, and Gentlemen who have already shared very largely in the royal Munificence."—John Jay (a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, 1773)
"That the right of the Poor, in their Commons, may be preserved, and freed from the Usurpations, Enclosures, and Encroachments of all manner of Projectors, Undertakers, &c. and that all servile Tenures of Lands, as by Copy-holds, or the like, be abolished and holden for naught."—Leveller tract (The Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of England claimed, asserted, and agreed unto, by severall Peaceable Persons of the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, Hamblets, and Places adjacent; commonly called Levellers.)
"The right to property being inviolable and sacred, no one ought to be deprived of it, except in cases of evident public necessity, legally ascertained, and on condition of a previous just indemnity."—National Assembly of France (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens)
2024.05.13 17:36 icallshogun Bridgebuilder - Chapter 88
2024.05.13 12:38 shrugir Corporate Travel Solutions
Corporate Travel Solutions submitted by shrugir to u/shrugir [link] [comments] Implementing a Modern Corporate Travel Solutions Travelopro is the leading Travel portal Development Company, all over the world and we serve travel companies from 50 countries across four continents. Why Corporate Travel Solution is Important for Business Travelopro platform is powered by 70+ suppliers across flight, hotels, car, sightseeing, vacations and other ground services. We partner with our clients to provide strong distribution capabilities - B2B/ B2C/ B2B2C, automate travel business process, powerful back office system. Travelopro facilitates API/ GDS/XML integration for flight booking, hotel booking, holiday packages, car booking, sightseeing, and transfers. We also provide white label solutions for travel website development. Our team helps you to build a travel platform that can help your business development across the globe. We offer online booking engine, travel booking software to the travel companies. We specialize in providing most comprehensive travel distribution platform which empowers travel intermediaries, travel management companies, aggregators, distributors, OTAs and tour operators globally which helps boost their travel business revenue. We strive to deliver world-class end-to-end travel portal services so that you don't have to worry about anything. Whether you want a user-friendly travel software with GDS (Global Distribution System) or API integration. We also provide customized solutions to clients according to their business needs. Just contact our team of travel industry experts and web developers to get a consultation. We will be happy to help you, whatever may be your requirement. Simplify the corporate travel management experience and control company costs Travelopro is an award-winning provider of innovative and cost-effective business travel management solutions to the corporate market. Travelopro is a global leader in business travel management services. We drive savings, safety, and efficiency to businesses and their travelers around the world. Corporate Travel extensive global buying power drives significant savings across air, hotel, and car rental providers. Travelopro provides one-stop-shop access to the best corporate negotiated deals, alongside last-minute inventory and dynamic supplier content. All travel content is comparable to side-by-side and in one place for maximum productivity. Our best-in-class travel tools drive productivity and compliance across every travel stakeholder, from travel bookers, travel managers, procurement, finance, and business traveler. Travelopro provides a unique blend of customer service, innovative technology, and tailored program development which drives exceptional value at every step of your journey through greater savings, improved efficiencies, and maximum safety. Implementation of your corporate travel policy is key to realizing cost savings through your business travel initiatives. We give your travelers user- friendly access to manage their travels in an online booking tool branded with the look and feel of your client. What is Corporate Travel Management? Corporate travel management (CTM) software is a computer program or system designed to monitor, regulate, and schedule the travel plans and expenses of employees of a corporation. At Travelopro our priority is to make your corporate travel more efficient, deliver maximum savings for your company and ensure you meet your business objectives - both now and over the long-term. Your travel management business needs to fulfil the demand of today's corporate travelers. Our main tool for an extremely productive Corporate travel programme. Our technology solutions are designed to enable your TMC to drive customer satisfaction, optimize operational performance, and tap into new revenue opportunities-delighting business travelers and corporate clients at all time. Travelopro provides Travel Management Software platforms serve as a one-stop-shop for scheduling, managing, and reporting on business travel. Corporate travel implementation and scheduling can be very complex, so agencies hire experienced corporate travel agents who understand the problems and requirements of your travel staff. A corporate travel agency can help analyze travel and expense patterns. Many corporate travel agencies use global distribution systems (GDS) to book flights, hotel rooms, and rental cars simultaneously. To drive more corporate travelers to your hotel, it is important to connect to all major GDS systems. By presenting your property in GDS systems correctly, including real-time availability and rates, hotels increase their chance to gain more corporate travelers and as a result, increase their revenue. Travelopro fastest-growing corporate travel management company; they reduce the cost & complexity of your business travel through driving online booking and helping organizations manage their business travel spend. Corporate travel management is one of the largest global markets that have yet to be completely disrupted in this digital world. Business travel is easier with Travelopro travel management solutions and supportive corporate travel services. Travelopro is a leading travel portal development company that delivers corporate travel portal services to its global clients. The Travel Portal is a comprehensive and effective tool that you can use to make your presence in the travel industry. The ideal CTM platform will make plans such as hotel and airline reservations, handle the flight tickets of individual workers, manage the schedules of all members of the travel department, take advantage of frequent traveler deals, and ensure that employees have all the required visas and other documents while traveling outside the country. Effective CTM system can conduct many of the tasks traditionally done by human travel managers. Corporate travel management is the function of managing a company's strategic approach to travel, the negotiations with all vendors, the day-to- day operation of the corporate travel program, traveler safety and security, credit-card management, and travel and expenses data management. The features of our corporate travel booking system are business travel planning, management, and support across a single central channel. Corporate scheduling systems may help companies with sales control, time management, and comfort management. Our Travel Services and information such as booking costs, itinerary info, travel expenses, and emergency information are all accessible in a single digital platform, making business trips very easy for the traveler. A Corporate Travel Management service establishes contracts with airlines and hotel chains to ensure that employees can find airfares and accommodation irrespective of where or when they travel for business. A Corporate Travel platform that works the way you work is Simple, intuitive, and with you every step of the way, the way travel should be. Travelopro offers a range of travel management solutions designed specifically for small and growing businesses. Our Travel solutions drive savings to your travel budget while delivering efficiency and safety for your traveling workforce - leaving you to take care of your business. Why you should choose Corporate Travel Management? Travel Management Companies (TMCs) are the proven method for corporate travel management. Travelopro provides corporate travel portal development services that aim at offering travel agencies fully automated solutions to market their travel products and services. Travelopro provides corporate travel software, website, and corporate travel booking software, corporate travel management software, travel management systems to travel agents throughout the world. The corporate travel portal saves a lot of time on booking flights and hotels by providing automated approvals. Our corporate travel management system can help to find innovative ways to ease out the business travel challenges and find the right balance for employees and organizations alike. The corporate travel portal is an online booking engine with flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing, and packages modules for employees of corporates. It's also known as IBE, which aggregates and distributes information of flights, hotels, cars, packages to employees of a company to enable them to search and book online. Corporate travel platform applications can be combined with leading GDS systems such as Amadeus, Travelport, Sabre, and third-party APIs / XMLs and LCCS. The corporate travel portal is the system that allows end-users to book flights, hotels, cars, and vacation packages online. We specialize in making custom plans and are actively involved in every stage from planning to implementation. As one of the best corporate travel agencies and corporate travel management companies, Travelopro provides corporate travel solutions including a range of services that include: ticketing and bookings, savings management, and travel service consolidation. Travelopro offers end-to-end corporate travel bookings and solutions, enabling smooth and cost-effective business and corporate executive travel by air. For corporate travelers, the corporate travel agent services must ensure that travelers face no difficulties during the entire duration of their travel. Travelopro experts handle every stage of corporate travel, including bookings, airline tickets, cars, hotels, charter travel services, event management, worldwide package tours, and travel support. A corporate travel policy outlines your organization's protocols for requesting, arranging, and conducting travel. Our corporate travel booking tool should drive adoption with features that save time and enable productivity, create new amenities for your company, and help you achieve more of what's important with less manual work. Travelopro is the leading corporate travel management company providing domestic and international travel tickets, holiday packages, hotels, flights, transfers, and sightseeing. The corporate travel management sector is one of the biggest emerging markets in tech. Travelopro develops corporate travel portal, corporate travel booking, corporate travel solutions to travel agencies, tour operators, and travel companies worldwide. Access corporate discounts, easy travel policies, and advanced travel approvals contribute to the highest savings in the industry. Travelopro delivering superior corporate travel services to our clients. Travelopro incorporate our extensive industry expertise, leading-edge technology, and a thorough understanding of the role of travel in corporate success to bring value and ease to your travel experience. Each customer is provided a designated account manager who will work with you to design and administer your custom corporate travel services package, from strategy to support to meet your objectives. Full-services business travel management system delivering higher levels of corporate travel services. Travelopro will design and administer your custom corporate travel services package to best fit your company's needs. Corporate Travel Portal is a Comprehensive and influencing web-based online booking software, designed for Travel Industry especially for travel and tourism agencies. Travelopro provides services B2B and B2C travel agencies, tour operators, travel management corporations, DMC's, travel aggregators, etc. Travelopro is the best corporate travel management company across the globe. We make it easy for businesses to develop the best business travel experience for their employees. The Corporate Travel Management Companies can streamline corporate travel by deploying user-friendly integrated solutions like digitalized approval workflows and reporting system. They help automate planning, approval and booking processes. As a tool of the Corporate Booking Tool is the ideal solution for both the Corporation and the Travel Offices - TMC (Travel Management Company). Corporate Travel Management Solutions by us are made to simplify the complex traveling process for corporate clients so that travel management companies can focus on their core business. It allows corporate clients to the request of travel, approval, managing itineraries, and generating invoices. Your corporate clients gain complete control within the organization while providing flexibility and convenience for business travel. Benefits of Utilizing A Corporate Travel Management · Reduce corporate travel costs · Save time by streamlining and automating critical workflows in travel management · Easily administer and enforce your corporate travel policy · Process travel documents in a paperless environment with receipt capture and expense platform integration · Deliver phenomenal travel service to employees in the field, with easy-to-use features that encourage adoption and enhance productivity For more details, Pls visit our Website: https://www.travelopro.com/corporate-travel-solutions.php |
2024.05.13 09:53 Spacevisioners Top 10 Architects in Dehradun
https://preview.redd.it/chmy9usbg50d1.png?width=1044&format=png&auto=webp&s=708f9256d8c14e7ce2d7e606c53661426e2869b3 submitted by Spacevisioners to u/Spacevisioners [link] [comments] Dehradun, the richest metropolis, is now a market for new construction and renovation. Since last year, the real estate market in dehradun has grown despite the uncertain pandemic. It also recorded the highest number of homes sold in recent times. This has led to many housing opportunities and requests from people who are looking for many structures. So, if you are looking for the best Architecture Firms in Dehradun Uttarakhand, you have come to the right page! Here, you will find a list of dynamic, flexible and affordable architects to work with the best architects in dehradun. These architects bring out something special and elevate your ordinary work to an extraordinary level. So, in this article, we have covered the top 10 architects in dehradun region, which have the ability to make your dream home or office come true. Emerging from a cluster of seven islands in the Arabian Sea, Dehradun has evolved over centuries into one of the globe's most densely inhabited cities, accommodating around 20 million residents. In this blog, we’ll explore some of the best Architects in dehradun – the Top 10 Architecture Firms in dehradun. We may have overlooked a few businesses. If you think there are people who deserve to be on this list, please don't hesitate to contact us. Work! Spacevisioners: As SPACEVISIONERS, our company offers architectural planning, interior design company in dehradun, landscaping and construction services, offering clients a wide range of services. We pride ourselves on our expertise in creating unique architectural designs for a wide variety of projects. With a focus on residential, commercial and hospitality spaces, we are committed to creating beautiful environments that exceed our clients' expectations. With more than 10 years of experience, we have developed an industry expertise that allows us to understand the unique needs and performance of different businesses. SPACEVISIONERS is a leading multidisciplinary architecture, interior design and project management firm founded in 2014 and located in dehradun The company specializes in architectural and interior design for high-end residential and commercial properties, including hotels and hospitals. Each section of the domain collects one effort to make a hole that is not only creative but also it changes in fact. ABM Architects: ABM Architects is one of the top architecture firms in Dehradun owned by Alfaz Miller and Aahana Miller. They have been recognized for their passion for building, dedication to the job, quick architectural design, extensive design work, and most importantly customer service. The main principle of the company is to mix beauty with practical features. Also, ABM believes that all success is measured by working with customers who are loyal and satisfied with their services. He carefully chooses the right amount of projects for a period and gives the best results. The team can easily carry out large tasks due to the young and efficient team. Abraham John Architects: The firm was founded in 1967. Abraham John Architects' clients range from private companies to corporations and NGOs. Its main principle is to reinvent the house plan. Abraham John Architects design is well known for the methods they follow such as the best use of space, the use of natural materials, the restructuring of light and landscape, the rehabilitation of the environment and the open space. Construction can affect people's lives and society, which is why the company wants to create new plans and approach each project in depth, regardless of its size and shape. Also, customer satisfaction motivates them to do better. Finally, the architect Abraham John has the ability to achieve a balance between functionality and aesthetics. Architecture BRIO: From BRIO Architecture, Ar. It offers different solutions to the conflicting relationships between the city, the interior, the landscape and the interior. This is why it is a successful business in creating a healthy relationship with the natural world. In addition, Architecture BRIO aims to bring modern design to urban and rural areas. Hafeez Contractor: Architect Hafeez Contractor is one of the renowned top construction company in dehradun. It offers unique designs to customers and provides well-designed solutions as per customer requirements. It has an efficient team that plans within time and budget by ensuring quality. Therefore, it has customers both in India and Internationally. Entrepreneur Hafeez was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2016 for his superb architectural design. HOK Architects: Hok Architects is one of the highest and highest Top Architecture Company in Dehradun. It offers a world's design, engineering and planning. HOK Architects has 23 offices on three continents. He understands the world of situations and designs architectural plans accordingly. The designs are technical, imaginatively driven and goal-oriented. This therefore attracted a large number of clients to HOK architects. It is the #1 A/E company according to the construction record, ENR, and its buildings are considered "green." Kapadia Associates: Kapadia Associates was founded in 1991 by Ar. Kiran Kapadia. Since its inception, the company has been working hard to keep exploring the uncharted territory between interior design and design. It is a complete company that does project planning and interior design. The company works with projects regardless of their size and size and provides the best architects in dehradun. Milind Pai Architects: Milind Pai started this business in the first year of graduation with great courage and dedication. The main principle of this company is to create more exciting things. The team is very efficient in turning every project into reality. Milind Pai has created a great work in technology that brings with it the belief of bringing space to life. Morphogenisis: Morphogenisis is one of the most popular companies in India by Manit Rastogi and Sonali Rastogi. It has offices in New Delhi, Dehradun. The company considers support as one of the important factors for any project. It is one of the firms listed in the WA100 of the world's largest architectural firms in dehradun. In addition, Morphogenisis follows a standard process to complete the work. The hard work to reduce the green school. Atelier Design N Domain: Atelier Design N Domain (ADND) is owned by Ar Anand Menon and Ar. Founded by Shobhan Kothari for his love of designing spaces and furniture. It is an architectural and interior design company with a wide range of services spread across many areas of the city. The company believes in treating design as a process, allowing for dialogue and collaboration in different design processes, as well as between clients and designers. Their work philosophy is called "FROGS" - Observation, Analysis, Choice, Greatness, Success. ADND is one of the best architecture firms in Dehradun for internship if you are interested in luxury residential, corporate, hospitality and retail. Conclusion The city of Dehradun is very beautiful, beautiful and functional thanks to the architects and their amazing work. Modern buildings have dominated the suburbs of the city, making the city beautiful and beautiful. Also, the design of modern buildings is the work of architects. So here we have compiled a list of the best construction companies in Dehradun, Uttarakhand who are highly professional and have created exceptional projects not only at the Indian level but also at the international level. These manufacturing companies provide complete solutions for homes, offices, cities, offices, hospitality, etc. We hope that this article has given you enough information about architects in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. |
2024.05.13 07:11 thinkingstranger May11, 2024
2024.05.12 17:22 MassiveShot9 Searching for statistics and documentary about keyboard armies and supposed "Cyberies"
2024.05.11 15:02 Outrageous83 The Irreversible Path of Technological Progress and the Bubbles That Define Our World
2024.05.10 22:57 FrankSanDiego Navigating International Waters: Shipping from China to Los Angeles
Shipping goods from China to Los Angeles is not merely a transaction but a testament to the interconnectedness of our global economy. It requires careful planning, attention to detail, and a thorough understanding of the logistics involved. By leveraging the right resources, technology, and expertise, businesses can navigate this journey with confidence, bridging continents and bringing products to markets thousands of miles away.
2024.05.10 07:45 Doubtfulaboutit The Original Purpose of the Divine Towers and Farum Azula's Doom
Of the 400 hours I have spent in this game, probably 1/2 of that time has been spent on trying to understand the Divine Towers (DT) and Farum Azula (AZ). What was their history? Who built them? Why is FA crumbling? Why do the DT have meteorite's imbedded in them? And the list goes on and on. submitted by Doubtfulaboutit to Eldenring [link] [comments] Now I believe I know enough about their history to determine two things: The reason the DT were created and why Farum Azula is crumbling, and subsequently why it is located to the east and only visible by the Isolated Divine Tower. For those who want the express answer, TL;DR:
1. The Ruins of Farum Azula If you explore Limgrave and Liurnia, you'll notice that both of these regions feature many ruins, but ONLY these regions. That has bothered me for a long time. You won't find the ruins in Caelid, Altus, Gelmir, or the Mountain Top of the Giants. We know these ruins fell from the sky as the Ruin Fragment, which can be found all over these ruins, has a description that says: "Stone fragment found near places where ruins have fallen from the sky. Can be used for crafting, or simply for throwing at enemies. These shards of stone are believed to have once been part of a temple in the sky. They glow with a faint light from within." And the Sanctuary Stone description reads: "A rare piece of stone fragment found near places where ruins have fallen from the sky." There is a small detail that all of these ruins share that help us identify why FA is called Farum AZULA. Azula is a feminine Spanish word/name for Blue. If you look closely at any of the fallen ruins, you'll see this color barely clinging on: https://preview.redd.it/yr8b0t9ddjzc1.jpg?width=2671&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9633d3867ddc0395e32d0c5028add5dee8d24d9c This blue can also be found on beastmen adornments and in their burial statues This Blue appears to be the remnants of a kind of paint that once coated the ruins. We have real world examples of this from multiple ancient civilizations (Greeks, Romans, Egyptians etc) where over the centuries the original color of statues and buildings has faded. So now we have an idea as to why FA is called "Farum Blue" (Additionally, some of the jewelry worn by the beast-men of FA also have blue ornamentation as well as the corpses held in the structures all over FA and the Bestial Sanctum.) So what of there structure? Which part of Farum Azula did these ruins make up? Well I tried to get creative and reconstruct them as best I could. There seem to be about two main types of ruins: Circular and Square. The circular ruins look like the once formed a circular wall or tower and the square pieces look like they might have been the tops of the towers. I took a screenshot of one of the ruins and followed the curvature in an attempt to recreate the structure: https://preview.redd.it/1u0yimwidjzc1.jpg?width=1427&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=73d04d13b7b30be1922366ee6ac1746602dca685 You might have to zoom in on this picture to see the ruin's behind the character. It is possible I am too in the weeds with this, especially since all the ruins are the same: Designs on the top, inside, and outside of the structures with the bottoms and sides indicating they were once connected to other pieces or the ground. That they were all the same height. But there is another option, the structure under the Bestial Sanctum. https://preview.redd.it/9mt2ggfmdjzc1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3666887f24cee07ed08beafcba7fe8b9960237c8 The structure under the sanctum has an incomplete tower like design but based on how it seems partially buried, might be a completed tower. Additionally, the bestial sanctum structure also features the square shapes that we see scattered around Limgrave and Liurnia. As I mentioned above, the ruin fragments and sanctuary stones can both be found on this structure as you climb down, but that I'll touch on that later. Now that we have looked at the ruins themselves in terms of structure, we still need to figure out WHY they are scattered the way they are. Why do they only appear in two regions? The Ruins Greatsword may have the answer: "Originally rubble from a ruin which fell from the sky, this surviving fragment was honed into a weapon. One of the legendary armaments. The ruin it came from crumbled when struck by a meteorite, as such this weapon harbors its destructive power." When something impacted by great force like a bullet, cannon ball, or a meteor, the impact will launch the broken pieces out away from the place of impact. We might be able to use the locations of the ruins to determine where FA was when it was struck: https://preview.redd.it/hgiwbrgpdjzc1.jpg?width=1524&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c9e9ce607926aa65ced637b5e266fde8b97aa086 If you notice where the red arrow points, you might catch onto an idea I am playing with about which meteor struck FA... The yellow lines above creating the farthest the ruins go in each region, we can roughly figure out FA's location when it was struck. It is also possible that the one meteor broke into multiple pieces (as often happens with meteors; literally a meteor shower) just prior to striking FA as we can find multiple meteors throughout the lands between (every tunnel has a meteor in the boss room). So now that we have the potential location of FA when it was struck, you may wonder "what does this have to do with the DTs?" 2. The Intended Purpose of the Divine Towers If you have spent any time researching the inspirations for many of Elden Ring's designs and lore you will have no doubt come across Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky. FA seems to be heavily inspired by Laputa, the literal Castle in the Sky from the movie of the same name. https://preview.redd.it/oswm6x0sdjzc1.jpg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b9904d5b02d99d2e297032017d713da8c30ad67 We can see several inspirations for FA in the Castle of Laputa from the outer ring walls to the giant tree that houses the powering device of the Castle. The underside of the city, where the dome is, is an ancient technology capable of destruction as serves as a kind of control point for the city. And guess which color it is? That's right, Blue. But Laputa does not originate in Castle in the Sky. The story of Laputa goes much further back to the original story that inspired Hayao Miyazaki movie, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. On one of Gulliver's voyages he and his men are attacked by pirates. Gulliver then find himself marooned on an island and while exploring notices a large object in the sky blocks out the sun. The object is the floating city of Laputa. Laputa is a large cicular city with a flat underside. The underside of the city is made of Adamant, which extends up 200 yards from the bottom. Adamant is a blue stone and it covers the entire underside of the city. https://preview.redd.it/laay4ar1ejzc1.jpg?width=932&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3249f092d0dfaa7b65c57828a639befd16786d36 https://preview.redd.it/ownyxd5vdjzc1.jpg?width=170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9aa816102eba2142fda5db23a9574a3d9b345911 Here is the section of the story further describing the construction of the city (fair warning, it's not short) Skip ahead to the next bold text to skip the story: "The flying or floating island is exactly circular, its diameter 7837 yards, or about four miles and a half, and consequently contains ten thousand acres. It is three hundred yards thick. The bottom, or under surface, which appears to those who view it below, is one even regular plate of adamant, shooting up to the height of about two hundred yards. Above it lie the several minerals in their usual order, and over all is a coat of rich mould, ten or twelve feet deep. The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre. From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in the daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing. Besides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the island above the region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling of dews and rain whenever he pleases. For the highest clouds cannot rise above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least they were never known to do so in that country. At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in diameter, whence the astronomers descend into a large dome, which is therefore called flandona gagnole, or the astronomer’s cave, situated at the depth of a hundred yards beneath the upper surface of the adamant. In this cave are twenty lamps continually burning, which, from the reflection of the adamant, cast a strong light into every part. The place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes, astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments. But the greatest curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver’s shuttle. It is in length six yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over. This magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing through its middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly that the weakest hand can turn it. It is hooped round with a hollow cylinder of adamant, four feet deep, as many thick, and twelve yards in diameter, placed horizontally, and supported by eight adamantine feet, each six yards high. In the middle of the concave side, there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occasion. The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because the hoop and its feet are one continued piece with that body of adamant which constitutes the bottom of the island. By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and move from one place to another. For, with respect to that part of the earth over which the monarch presides, the stone is endued at one of its sides with an attractive power, and at the other with a repulsive. Upon placing the magnet erect, with its attracting end towards the earth, the island descends; but when the repelling extremity points downwards, the island mounts directly upwards. When the position of the stone is oblique, the motion of the island is so too. For in this magnet, the forces always act in lines parallel to its direction. By this oblique motion, the island is conveyed to different parts of the monarch’s dominions. To explain the manner of its progress, let A B represent a line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the loadstone, of which let d be the repelling end, and c the attracting end, the island being over C; let the stone be placed in the position c d, with its repelling end downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D. When it is arrived at D, let the stone be turned upon its axle, till its attracting end points towards E, and then the island will be carried obliquely towards E; where, if the stone be again turned upon its axle till it stands in the position E F, with its repelling point downwards, the island will rise obliquely towards F, where, by directing the attracting end towards G, the island may be carried to G, and from G to H, by turning the stone, so as to make its repelling extremity to point directly downward. And thus, by changing the situation of the stone, as often as there is occasion, the island is made to rise and fall by turns in an oblique direction, and by those alternate risings and fallings (the obliquity being not considerable) is conveyed from one part of the dominions to the other. But it must be observed, that this island cannot move beyond the extent of the dominions below, nor can it rise above the height of four miles. For which the astronomers (who have written large systems concerning the stone) assign the following reason: that the magnetic virtue does not extend beyond the distance of four miles, and that the mineral, which acts upon the stone in the bowels of the earth, and in the sea about six leagues distant from the shore, is not diffused through the whole globe, but terminated with the limits of the king’s dominions; and it was easy, from the great advantage of such a superior situation, for a prince to bring under his obedience whatever country lay within the attraction of that magnet. When the stone is put parallel to the plane of the horizon, the island stands still; for in that case the extremities of it, being at equal distance from the earth, act with equal force, the one in drawing downwards, the other in pushing upwards, and consequently no motion can ensue. This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to time, give it such positions as the monarch directs. They spend the greatest part of their lives in observing the celestial bodies, which they do by the assistance of glasses, far excelling ours in goodness. For, although their largest telescopes do not exceed three feet, they magnify much more than those of a hundred with us, and show the stars with greater clearness. This advantage has enabled them to extend their discoveries much further than our astronomers in Europe; for they have made a catalogue of ten thousand fixed stars, whereas the largest of ours do not contain above one third part of that number. They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost, five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies. They have observed ninety-three different comets, and settled their periods with great exactness. If this be true (and they affirm it with great confidence) it is much to be wished, that their observations were made public, whereby the theory of comets, which at present is very lame and defective, might be brought to the same perfection with other arts of astronomy. The king would be the most absolute prince in the universe, if he could but prevail on a ministry to join with him; but these having their estates below on the continent, and considering that the office of a favourite has a very uncertain tenure, would never consent to the enslaving of their country. If any town should engage in rebellion or mutiny, fall into violent factions, or refuse to pay the usual tribute, the king has two methods of reducing them to obedience. The first and the mildest course is, by keeping the island hovering over such a town, and the lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the benefit of the sun and the rain, and consequently afflict the inhabitants with dearth and diseases. And if the crime deserve it, they are at the same time pelted from above with great stones, against which they have no defence but by creeping into cellars or caves, while the roofs of their houses are beaten to pieces. But if they still continue obstinate, or offer to raise insurrections, he proceeds to the last remedy, by letting the island drop directly upon their heads, which makes a universal destruction both of houses and men. However, this is an extremity to which the prince is seldom driven, neither indeed is he willing to put it in execution; nor dare his ministers advise him to an action, which, as it would render them odious to the people, so it would be a great damage to their own estates, which all lie below; for the island is the king’s demesne. But there is still indeed a more weighty reason, why the kings of this country have been always averse from executing so terrible an action, unless upon the utmost necessity. For, if the town intended to be destroyed should have in it any tall rocks, as it generally falls out in the larger cities, a situation probably chosen at first with a view to prevent such a catastrophe; or if it abound in high spires, or pillars of stone, a sudden fall might endanger the bottom or under surface of the island, which, although it consist, as I have said, of one entire adamant, two hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by too great a shock, or burst by approaching too near the fires from the houses below, as the backs, both of iron and stone, will often do in our chimneys. Of all this the people are well apprised, and understand how far to carry their obstinacy, where their liberty or property is concerned. And the king, when he is highest provoked, and most determined to press a city to rubbish, orders the island to descend with great gentleness, out of a pretence of tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their philosophers, that the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would fall to the ground. About three years before my arrival among them, while the king was in his progress over his dominions, there happened an extraordinary accident which had like to have put a period to the fate of that monarchy, at least as it is now instituted. Lindalino, the second city in the kingdom, was the first his majesty visited in his progress. Three days after his departure the inhabitants, who had often complained of great oppressions, shut the town gates, seized on the governor, and with incredible speed and labour erected four large towers, one at every corner of the city (which is an exact square), equal in height to a strong pointed rock that stands directly in the centre of the city. Upon the top of each tower, as well as upon the rock, they fixed a great loadstone, and in case their design should fail, they had provided a vast quantity of the most combustible fuel, hoping to burst therewith the adamantine bottom of the island, if the loadstone project should miscarry. It was eight months before the king had perfect notice that the Lindalinians were in rebellion. He then commanded that the island should be wafted over the city. The people were unanimous, and had laid in store of provisions, and a great river runs through the middle of the town. The king hovered over them several days to deprive them of the sun and the rain. He ordered many packthreads to be let down, yet not a person offered to send up a petition, but instead thereof very bold demands, the redress of all their grievances, great immunities, the choice of their own governor, and other the like exorbitances. Upon which his majesty commanded all the inhabitants of the island to cast great stones from the lower gallery into the town; but the citizens had provided against this mischief by conveying their persons and effects into the four towers, and other strong buildings, and vaults underground. The king being now determined to reduce this proud people, ordered that the island should descend gently within forty yards of the top of the towers and rock. This was accordingly done; but the officers employed in that work found the descent much speedier than usual, and by turning the loadstone could not without great difficulty keep it in a firm position, but found the island inclining to fall. They sent the king immediate intelligence of this astonishing event, and begged his majesty’s permission to raise the island higher; the king consented, a general council was called, and the officers of the loadstone ordered to attend. One of the oldest and expertest among them obtained leave to try an experiment, he took a strong line of an hundred yards, and the island being raised over the town above the attracting power they had felt, he fastened a piece of adamant to the end of his line, which had in it a mixture of iron mineral, of the same nature with that whereof the bottom or lower surface of the island is composed, and from the lower gallery let it down slowly towards the top of the towers. The adamant was not descended four yards, before the officer felt it drawn so strongly downwards that he could hardly pull it back, he then threw down several small pieces of adamant, and observed that they were all violently attracted by the top of the tower. The same experiment was made on the other three towers, and on the rock with the same effect. This incident broke entirely the king’s measures, and (to dwell no longer on other circumstances) he was forced to give the town their own conditions. I was assured by a great minister that if the island had descended so near the town as not to be able to raise itself, the citizens were determined to fix it for ever, to kill the king and all his servants, and entirely change the government. By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king, nor either of his two eldest sons, are permitted to leave the island; nor the queen, till she is past child-bearing." Stop Here There are a couple of things to note from Gulliver's account of Laputa:
https://preview.redd.it/pi8xqdi4ejzc1.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ac691893df418414ed4c96bb42eaa43446c3d15 Now compare that to a picture of picture of the rocks that make up the very foundations of FA: https://preview.redd.it/q5t3yxw6ejzc1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc100b83df5036d28851978205766e78a1405a7f Ok, so the towers have gravitational power and FA is made of lodestone/is magnetized, how does that relate? Well lets look at the symbol for gravitational magic/power in Elden Ring: https://preview.redd.it/q3gkjkmbejzc1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=13ccd12848e9fef2046d12c4ac533e2ec505890d This symbol actually represents how Earth's magnetic poles work in real life. Gravity is literally responsible for Earth's magnetic poles and the effects they have on our planet: https://preview.redd.it/nf2f4m6gejzc1.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=053bb61f25d0720be0b7027050448e1cc3929da2 All that to say, FA does not have a lodestone to direct it's movements like Laputa does, it IS a lodestone. Side note: Since electromagnetism is essentially why lightning exists (a negative charge being attracted to a positive one) I am playing with the idea that dragons can control lightning themselves because the are living lodestones. Additionally, we know that gravity affects time dilation in the real world. It's possible that the dragon's bodies allows them to lightly twist time as well as control lightning. If you examine the bodies, the bodies of the dead ones in the walls of FA and even the damaged body of Placidusax, you'll notice the same rock and mineral vein patterns on them all, that again, look like lodestones from real life: https://preview.redd.it/dvdh6zwkejzc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0722807afe3a6f1c81bdd1d8b8b22e93e45ce81 This would be similar to how the onyx and alabasters lords are living stones and who also have mineral veins on their bodies: https://preview.redd.it/tki6eprnejzc1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=735afd4702e46ae566b43fddda1b0359928126b0 The difference being that one harnesses more of the gravitational aspect and the other lightning or electromagnetism. But I've only just thought of all of this so back to the main subject. FA may have come from the surface of the lands between, but that was "time immemorial". So long ago that the lands likely look nothing like they used to, with only the DT and FA (and a few other ruins) left to indicate the world as they knew it. So the question is, if the towers were meant to pull FA down in hopes of destroying or crippling it, was it a wasted effort? Well, maybe not. The two unique features to the isolated DT is that you can actually FA from the top of the tower and the tower itself is damaged on top. No other tower has these details. I don't think that is a coincidence. https://preview.redd.it/5lbv21jqejzc1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8100e78481e56972dcf6e9498c31eda168fb4f24 Despite the Bestial Sanctum being a few hundred yards away at most and sharing the same architecture, FA is still not visible from that location. Tarnished Archeologist, in his video where he discusses the making of the towers, points out (and I agree) that what may rest underneath the two fingers atop each tower (or Ranni's body), or at least once did, was a central meteor. This would fit with what we see around the rest of the tower. He also posits that it was the giants who built these towers (as the eye of the fell god matches the 8 points, which are meteors, around the center point, which would be another meteor). I speculate that after being damaged, FA was in retreat and proceeded east passing over the Isolated Divine Tower and struck it due to the gravitational force that pulled it down and reducing it to what it is now by essentially shredding what survived. I also speculate that this contact with the DT allows us to see FA from the tower itself when it's not visible from anywhere else. 3. Additional Thoughts/Speculations These speculations don't quite address a few other questions that aren't necessarily related, like why the storm? I have also considered that this storm may have been an attack by the Storm King to attack or confine Placidusax in an act of Rebellion. In Gulliver's Travels the town that built the towers are essentially rebelling against Laputa. This act of defiance and rebellion would line up with the Storm King description: "Ashes of a hawk revered by all others as sovereign back in the days when Stormveil's winds still raged like no other. This ancient monarch is proud however, refusing to answer anyone's summons." In addition to this, we find storm hawks in FA. We also find banished knights in FA and the other place we find both together is Stormveil Castle. It would almost seem like both were part of a rebellious war against the inhabitants of FA. I also think its possible the original inhabitants of FA were the humans we see depicted in the architecture and that the dragons took over. Thus the act of rebellion was a means to fight against the dragons tyrannical rule. After all we know the dragons are not against going to war against the human races of the Lands Between. We know the final resting place of the Great Alexander is FA after we defeat him. Alexandria Egypt is the resting place of Alexander the Great from history. The Pharos of Alexndria is also in this location. Pharos = Farum. Further, Egypt was the only ancient civilization to use heavily use the color blue. The ancient Egyptians held the color blue in very high regard and were eager to present it on many media and in a variety of forms. They also desired to imitate the semiprecious stones turquoise and lapis lazuli which were valued for their rarity and stark blue color. Apart from Egypt, ancient civilizations had no word for the color blue. It was the last color to appear in many languages, including Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. It would seem that in addition to being inspired by Miyazaki and Swift's Laputa, FA was also the Land's Between version of ancient Egypt. Another interesting feature in FA is the boss area where you fight Maliketh. In the boss around, which sits in the massive dome, there are 8 pillars. These are the pillars that Maliketh will jump off of when he attacks you in phase 2. The pillars are in two rows of 4. Now look at the throne room in Laputa from Castle in the Sky: https://preview.redd.it/cz0j8qwvejzc1.jpg?width=3579&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cc4a0522d2f7bbedf7b8018ff1497b450a3b275 There are 8 circles on the floor as if 8 cylindrical objects were positioned there. This throne room in Laputa sits above the core of the castle/city where the lodestone controls the movement. |