The Wood-Burning Stove. The End of the Dark Ages? The Renaissance Stove.

Renaissance stoves.  Tiled. Ceramic.

Did the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Reformation, depend upon the development of this efficient, handsome wood-burning stove. See descriptions at ://www.castle.ckrumlov.cz/docs/en/zamek_oinf_renkac.xml/  These wood-burning stoves are an aesthetic far cry from those of today.  See collections of separate tiles, see ://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/index.php?op=18; then feast upon the great complete ones.

Now, sidle up. Here is a collection of some fine old stoves we have found, some tiled, some enamel, some ceramic, some ceramic tile, some humble, some gloriously excessive.

Renaissance wood-burning stove, Gasthof Maria Plain, near Salzburg, Austria

 Renaissance stove I, Salzburg Castle, Festung, Salzburg, Austria

Renaissance stove II, Salzburg Castle, Festung, Salzburg, Austria

 Renaissance stove I, Kremsmunster Abbey, Kremsmunster, Austria

 Renaissance stove II, Kremsmunster Abbey, Kremsmunster, Austria

 Renaissance stove III, Kremsmunster Abbey, Kremsmunster, Austria

Renaissance stove, Cheb Castle, Cheb, the Czech Republic

Renaissance stove, Wittenberg, Germany, in home of Martin Luther

See Martin Luther's Stove for issues arising from too much warmth. Gravity and whimsy around the heater.

Perhaps the rebirth of great thought did depend on availability of reliable, sustained, even heat. The old fireplaces sent that heat right up the chimney. Consider the effect of sustained, relatively even warmth on talk. Imagine the further difference that ductwork made in cold Europe and its colony appendages, bringing warmth elsewhere in the house. Can you really explore issues when you are shivering. Is warmth the reason civilization bloomed in warm places first.  Of course.

Read Gary Novak's suppositions at this site, that addresses morality issues - but that is not our focus here.  See FN 1 for a fair use quotation. In summary, the snowy parts of Europe specialized in outdoor activities like horses and wars, because they couldn't heat their houses - goes the idea.  Enter the wood stove, and intellectual activity grew, away from the chill, in the nice warm insides. Is that so?  An interesting thought. FN 1.  Finger on chin, tilt head, hmmm.


Missing:  stoves from Goethe's house, Weimar, Germany. We weren't interested at that time, and took no photo. -

In contrast to the fancy ones is this plain one - very plain and we recall elaborate ones, but here is a fair use thumbnail -and consider the gaps between rich and poor, whose lifestyles get touted, and whose do not.

See it at  ://images.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=ref&q=http://flickr.com/photos/your_teacher/147683919/
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FN 1 From Gary Novak's site, Why Thomas Aquinas Was Wrong (the site focuses on different issues not endorsed here, just this interesting notion that does apply to our love of wood-burning stoves)

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The dark ages were caused by an inability to heat houses. In southern climates like Italy and Palestine, houses didn't need to be heated. But the center of activity moved to upper Europe during the dark ages due to the success of the Visigoths in defeating the Romans.
In upper Europe, the inability to heat houses changed the culture from intellectual activities, which had focused on philosophy, to outdoor activities, which focused on riding horses and fighting wars. The renaissance marked the end of the dark ages. It was the result of a new invention for heating buildings, which was the wood stove. A wood stove is nothing like a fireplace. A fireplace cannot heat a dwelling, because it requires that doors and windows be left open before smoke will rise through a chimney. The heat goes out with the smoke. The wood stove is totally enclosed. It allows smoke to go out with almost no air entering the enclosure beyond trace amounts needed for combustion. The exiting smoke creates a vacuum in the wood stove, which prevents smoke from entering the room while it draws in the necessary amount of air. Once the wood stove was invented, it allowed dwellings in upper Europe to be heated, which totally changed the culture and created the renaissance. The first result was scholasticism. What then is scholasticism? It is what theologians produced when they found that they could get together and discuss intellectual subjects. The most available texts were Greek philosophy, which they integrated into their theology.

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Humanity's Humor and Oddities. Crudities, Double Entendres, Small Accidents, Surprise Accommodations, and Necessariess.

 New oddments or notables (barely) here. We are told that figuring out anomalies is good for intelligence. There is creativity in just noting and figuring out anything, making silly connections. Go.

1.  Surnames, Place Names.

My own birth name meant "cormorant" - an ugly bird if there ever was one - but useful - so these other country and language matters are not poking fun at, just enjoying.

Car ad for Buttburner Company, Switzerland

 Store chain, Fuchs, Murten, Switzerland

The f word with its alternate spellings constitute venerable surnames and town names. See ://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t201682-austrian-town-name-warning-dorty-werdz.html/. But no fair looking them up first, and then going.  It has to be spontaneous. See FN 1

Windpassing, Austria

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Find a site of unusual place names, including this Windpassing, at ://infao5501.ag5.mpi-sb.mpg.de:8080/topx/archive?link=Wikipedia-Lip6-2/772930.xml&style/.

 Frankensteiner Strasse, Frankfurt, Germany

The danger of this one, Le Sars, we hope, has passed.

France.  Le Sars. 5 km

3.  The arts. 

Cathedral front portal,  Bern, Switzerland. Cramping someone's style.

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Repent. Bern Cathedral presents the alternative.

 How high the moon? Germany

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For a history of classical and other mooning, peruse Vetting Roots, Michelangelo and History of Mooning

4.  Traffic opportunities, issues.

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 Ultimate Off-Road. San Bernardino Pass, Alps, Switzerland side (no injuries).

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Napoleon crossed the Alps here and also had problems. Here, the motorcycle won. The Grand San Bernardino Pass.

Traffic-calming on a budget, Thal, Austria

Just put out some square planters in the road, add pretty flowers, and make the cars go around; or stop for each other. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger's home town. The idea actually works. Economical, effective, pulchritudinous.
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Here is Poland, telling you to slow down:

Poland. Budget-friendly speed non-trap

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Here is Switzerland, telling you to slow down.

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Switzerland. Budget-friendly speed non-trap.

That fake one aimed at the bikers, at an Altdorf repair shop.

Road Fatigue.  If you tire while driving down the Dalmatian Coast, after the seventh gorgeous walled city on an island or peninsula, here is your armchair rest stop. Sit yourself down and set a spell.

 Croatia. Roadside Armchair Rest Spot

5.  Equal opportunity.  His and her armor.

 His and hers armor. Thun Castle, Switzerland (double-checking which castle)

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Is there precedent for women in combat?  Of course. Clearly a woman's armor.

6.  Environmental matters.
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Pet recycling center, Geneva, Switzerland

Recycle your pet here.

7. Tours for Couch Potatoes. Those who don't get off the bus.

 VegaTour, Geneva, Switzerland. Bus for veggies.

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Vegetable Tour bus. Geneva, Switzerland. Beets me.

 8.  The odd Juxtapose. Posejuxta.

Charlie Chaplin at the Fork, Montreux, Switzerland

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Charlie Chaplin was here first. Then came the fork.
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Climbing the walls.

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This bug on the building needs a metamorphosis.  We are in Prague now.

Prague, CZ. Kafka's building bug. Metamorphosis. 

. A literary refresher course.  Meet Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis (the novella, see ://www.themodernword.com/kafka/kafka_works_novellas.html).

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9.  Royalty

Is half a king as good as a whole?  Here, Romania.

 Romania. Half a king, half a king, half a king. onward.

Is it Mircea the Old? We hope this is a salvage from a whole statue, just with the bottom lost, but have no idea.  Just in a town, looked like somebody's back yard.

10. Ingenuity.

Ingenuity in access.

The faster staircase. Slide to the side. Wolfsberg, Austria.

Far smarter and more fun than we, is that so? Just add 24" for a slide beside the staircase. Wolfsberg.

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Ingenuity in food.  Predictable, but perfect timing. The Dracula Club in Bucharest, on Halloween. Tasty, tasty.

Romania, Bucharest, the Dracula Club on Halloween

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Try the fried rats. Boneless chicken breast in pumpernickel crumbs, stuffed with pureed pimento to ooze out, little feetses and eyes and whiskers and tails and yum. Where is this from? Love to eat them mousies. Mousies what I love to eat. Bite they little heads off. Nibble they tiny feet." Looking.

11.  Oppressives.

Slovakia.

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We found fine, warm people, but

• were not allowed even to take a picture inside the supermarket to show back home how alike theirs are to ours.  No! No! Arms waving. Stop.  And 
• out in the country, across the border about half an hour from Hungary, Sign, in English, Sex Farm. A paved road, but a farmland-unsettled area, flat in all directions, some hedgerows, little woodses, and a dirt road going off to the left. Nowhere to run. Arrow pointing the way off-road. And the road just went on and on until it disappeared. No getting away from there.  And guess the nationality of the clientele. We did not stop. 
• Otherwise great stay. But there are watchers.
• On the other hand, was this one? By mistake, we stopped at a "zimmer" (above a pub, main road) for a room, between Vienna and Bratislava. Had supper, went upstairs, then saw that the room had no curtains. Just turn off the lights and sleep. Slow night. Good food, friendly people but there is a haunt of trafficking.

12.  A lighter touch

Ancient Pompeii, another sign showing you the way to what you think you want. No linguistic barrier.

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Pompeii, Italy; street sign, a house of joy. Or a C Street House?

Don't blame me.  Dan took the picture. I just took the picture of Dan taking the picture of the picture somebody created centuries ago, in better times.

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Then you follow the pavement signs, and the beds are stone in there, with stone pillow raised areas - had to have cushions back in the day. And depressions where lots of feet swung off and swung up and came and went. Very short beds. Teeny windows.  Good thing.  Or an ancient C Street House where all is safe because you are with friends accountable to noone outside, and all justifying each other inside, and not telling. Not a good thing.

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 A house of joy, perhaps appetizers only, Switzerland, hard to know, near Liechtenstein

Switzerland's.  You find out and let us know. Roadside conveniences.

13.  Necessaries.

The Wickeltisch. Language issues. Switzerland

Signs for the necessaries. We all know WC.  Now what? Advanced class: Dusche means shower. Clear enough who goes where.  What is the wickeltisch? Not in babelfish. Look up Wickeltisch, hit the translate this page button, and find that it is a changing table:  In pertinent part, fair use: * Definition of changing table, in concepts understandable by anyone, and that is the point.

"A changing table is a table on the infants to toddlers, the diaper can be changed. The winder can perform while standing the change. The table is either a converted kitchen table or a washing machine or a specially designed table, one of the sides a gang and has various compartments for certain implements such as diapers, baby powder and others. The changing table is uncommon in a changing room. To prevent falls, you can handle babies from the fourth month on the ground."

Original German text:

Ein Wickeltisch ist ein Tisch auf dem Säuglingen bis Kleinkindern die Windel gewechselt werden kann.

Now we know, and this is not to deride translations, but to show that exact grammar is not needed to get points across. You don't need to know the language before you go. One word to know, however, is  DETOUR. In all languages you may encounter, know that one.

When in doubt, follow the sign you know.

And now, the four-square life.

 Facilities for every shape. Milan, Italy

14. Liquid recreation.

And back to Poland.  This Pharaoh in the Field is nameless, as to  identity or function.  Until you drive a few miles to the next one, similarly situated.

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Poland, Pharaoh in the Field

Welcome to the Egyptian Bar, waiting just for you with some nice schnappes, just in the next town.

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FN 1  Translating and its pitfalls; a normal part of a lexicon one place turns into fun in another. The affinity of the German for translation into the Anglo-Sazon four letter word was a product of  WWII, 1945 and on, said one site we found. The homecoming soldiers spoke of words and places, and they and the folks back home picked up the two way streets.  Is that so?  Then why not earlier, at WWI?

Lighten up time. And other happenstance events. Childish adults on board. Here we update from Europe Road Ways, How We Do It - Trip Pending - That trip is now successfully finished - to Austria, Switzerland,  and Northern Italy. As to Northern Italy, that northern portion is now incorporated into our overall Italy site.

* Translaton of wickeltisch is fair use from the whole offering there, from ://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickeltisch&ei=fTnjSoTFNoHZlAeQkOGKBw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBgQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwickeltisch%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DWEQ%26sa%3DG

Carving and Scratching: The Decorative Arts. People Enriching and Recording their Daily Lives

Column capital, Medieval Battle, Malbork Castle, Poland*

Rather than spend tens of thousands a year on institutional public education, do this: somehow surmount the liability issues, and use part of that money to take very small clusters of students to any foreign country locale, with a castle, and live in that area for two solid weeks.

Learn all you can just by first hand observation and personal research. Knights, armor, types, customs, music, art, crops, trade, plague, religion. Malbork, or Marienburg, Poland is rich in all that.

What the students learn they record. What they don't see themselves, you don't tell them. Just steer their observing. Have them play the instruments, try carving. Was this castle later destroyed? By whom and why? See if they don't come back with a vital interest that does not come with all our dumb passive education feedings year after year.

Hradec Kralove, Sgraffito

The Czech Republic. Go to Hradec Kralove, not just Prague.

Sgraffito - decoration design by scraping away top layer of light plaster to reveal darker layer below, here at Hradec Kralove. See ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgraffito

The child diarist, Petr Ginz, World War II, tells us that his mother used to go back to this, the town of her childhood, from Prague. She came to get away, and return refreshed. See Places of Petr Ginz, Hradec Kralove. Young people can identify with one of their own in a war. Try them. Reading about it is not enough for empathy.

Telc, Sgraffito fooling the eye

Some forms of sgraffito are a trompe l'oeil technique - fool the eye - into seeing three dimensions, when there is really a flat surface.

The lower floor here is flat, with sgraffito. This dates from the second half of the 16th Century - a burgess' house. See ://www.discoverczech.com/telc/square.php4.

Exploring. No better way to learn. Bottoms up, kids.



On the way somewhere, see this in Poland.








Have the kids research it.



It is a visual hook to a pub down the road, for the chaperones.


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* Malbork Castle, a/k/a Marienburg. See Poland Road Ways: Malbork as Marienburg, Brick Gothic, Archways, walls with roofs, Reconstruction after 1945, Teutonic Knights, Grand Masters.

Op lopveop yopuop - Language sites

Common ground. The world's languages. Learn some French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese, "Other" - at ://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/. Find some Polish there also, and Urdu.

And from another site:

Op lopveop yopuop
Means "I love you"
In "Op."

As in:

La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la means...

Universal human theme.
See the world saying it at ://www.translatum.gr/etexts/i-love-you.htm

Special Ops. Diplomats, soldiers, tourists. Learn to say the basics wherever you go.

Op. Which way is Op? *
Need to meet
Op Ed.

Portunity knocks.

Testing... testing....

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* Is this Opao, a language in an area near Papua, New Guinea, spoken by some 1116 people? See Ethnologue at //www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=opo

Ethnic group rights or non-rights, migration, immigration and co-existence

Considerations for the world -

1. Which factors more: Equity and fairness, or Time passing since a conquering, and then comes the rule of tough (does England go back to the Saxons, or the Normans, or the Romans or the Celts); and would the US go back to the Native Americans (as a practical matter, hardly); whether the ethnic group now seeking recognition was itself the conquerer or instead followed on the coattails of conquerors since displaced (Kosovo); whether Scotland reverts to the "Scotties" in Ireland, the Basques away on their own from Spain and France, on the lineages cry, let us join with ourselves, and let us be. Then, most recently perhaps, the Tibetans from China.

2. Keep it IYBY. In your back yard.

We have a concept here in the US - NIMBY meaning Not In My Back Yard.That means that a solution to a problem may be fine so long as it does not affect me or my property. Put in the town water tower, but not in my back yard. That also applies to population changes - let them do as they like, so long as I and my lifestyle are not affected.

We look at areas like The Balkans, current borders a far cry from original ethnic borders, given its location as a crossroads for conquerors of religious and military and commercial bents over centuries. And our resolutions may well be too simplistic - these people are not in our back yard, think our officials, so impose a resolution and get on with it.

But would we be so fast to impose that solution in our own country? Doubtful. What criteria would work for multiple separatist situations, not just Kosovo.

3. Get rid. But where or how? And why?

Now, in the US, what to do with immigrants here, without documentation, having crossed open borders like an invitation for years, and the backlash is now against them by many who would like to turn back the clock

The Balkans have dealt with issues of "unwanted" and "uninvited" population groups (like successive conquerors) for centuries. What can we learn from the Balkans?

• The issue moves from the legal or equitable right, of who to what; to a step beyond - what we have now, in 2008, and where to go with it now.
  

4. Dignity. The vital importance of it.

None of the earlier approaches have worked. They all included Rankism - me better than you.
Try the dignitarian approach instead.

We cannot undo history, we can only cope and adjust in a way that reasonably works, while affording full dignity to all groups - a new mindset. See ://www.humiliationstudies.org/news-old/archives/001256.html; rankism and peer to peer studies at .//blog.p2pfoundation.net/dignitarianism-a-p2p-movement/2006/03/08; and rankism at ://www.commondreams.org/views/100700-102.htm.


Ethnic groups worldwide, and how to coexist.

Starting point: Here we are, up there in the top row of 18,000 in Hartford's main city center (listening to Barack Obama).

Background of issue: We were in process of correcting some errors in identifying a certain statue in Zagreb. Croatia - see Croatia Road Ways (our believed Officer Yallatchich turns out to be King Tomas, or Tomislav).

VM, who provided the correct information on Tomislav, asked about another issue common to all countries whose borders include ethnic groups that do not identify with the dominant: what rights attach to the defeated, the conquered, who now seek their own identity in a perhaps more (?) civilized and tolerant world.

Unresolved. But we in the meantime heard candidate Barack Obama here, and we would like to share our thoughts.

Immediate trigger. We heard Senator Barack Obama, with his mixed racial heritage and the claims of blacks and whites, and reds and yellows and blues and the just plain drabs, like me and, as ancestors of all colors and ethnicity we all have somewhere.

Who has what rights to land and identity.

Does power have to mean eradication, or can we get beyond that, for a common good.

Conflicts of laws addresses this in jurisdictional terms, with mixed results in acceptance, so this focuses on how to foster coexistence, so that separatist movements are not needed. People are ok with the arrangement.

• So far in the US, the candidate addressing human issues on a global reference scale, and the dignity of people, is indeed, in our view so far, Barack Obama. He acknowledges all our own weird families and how that plays out in a culture. And uses that commonality to move forward.

• We may well be into new analyses and understandings, as he suggests. We may need to look to the future, while respecting and acknowledging the inequities of the past - move on to consider entire mindsets, and administrations and assimilation, not deportations and population exchanges.

Only so many resources, yet populations at odds.

Can we overcome our fear of each other, that the gain of one group means the diminution of another's opportunities.

This is an open call for comment, because the Balkans have dealt with this for years, and the US is just beginning as a nation, and an identity, and we may yet trip over our own feet.

• A starting point may be that small window of time where Islam in Spain coexisted for so many years with Jews and Christians, with handicaps and taxes to be sure in the "dhimmi" status of the Non Islam population. But it managed, without bloodshed.
  

What models can Europe, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, offer the US. We start with offering a moratorium on acting against undocumented immigrants here, until a new administration can review the situation. See PoseJuxta, Plank, Legal Temporary Immigration Status.

My vote could go here or there because there is time left before decision is needed. But for Obama's speech on race, try this:

http://my.barackobama.com/hisownwords

Is there hope for America? Dare we be audacious? All of us. And hope? Watch the Powers drive it down again. Or try.

For war issues, contemporary, much stemming from missteps and lack of understanding of the dynamics between other countries' ethnic groups or religious divisions, hear his ideas at

http://my.barackobama.com/fiveyearslater.

We are working on ourselves. I may change my mind. But so far, this is the most reasonable, optimistic yet realistic candidate. So there we are.