The printed word reigns supreme: An editorial conclave in 1898

This article, Making a Modern Newspaper, is by Alfred C. Harmsworth, editor of the Daily Mail, and is from The Harmsworth Magazine of 1898. Note the speaking tube to the nether regions. To read, click here.

Thrills and chills from
The Illustrated Police News

Engravings of Palestine in the 1870s, before the Zionist invasion

The engravings are from The Land and the Book (1881), by William M Thomson, a missionary for 45 years in Syria and Palestine. He describes Jerusalem as “the common property of the whole Christian world”, but admits that, “on approaching the Holy City, you enter upon an arena of great uncertainty and endless controversy. Nearly every author who has written about Jerusalem has some special theory in regard to questions Biblical, theological, topographical, or legendary, which he seeks to explain and defend. With the exception of the general outlines of the city, there is scarcely an identification which has not been disputed, and the discussions about them have not only been earnest but long, and often acrimonious.” To enter the gallery of engravings, click here.

The Palestinians were a peaceful, settled people, living in small towns and villages and tilling the land.

Will men ever fly? was the one question everyone asked in 1895

This photograph is from an article entitled Wings or No Wings, published by the “family, social and temperance magazine” Hand and Heart in 1895. Apparently, most people thought flight was impossible. Only balloons could take man into the air. To read the complete article, written by An Amateur Aeronaut, click here.

The defiance of defeated France, captured by Punch in 1870

As France went down to defeat in 1870, in the Franco-Prussian war, Punch was there to record its pain and humiliation — and also to poke fun at its vainglorious emperor, Louis Napoleon. In the history of the world, has a famous name ever promised so much and delivered so little? Never again would France be an empire — or a monar-
chy, for that matter. The caption to the picture on the left quotes from the Marseillaise: “Aux armes, citoyens; formez vos bataillons!” evoking the spirit of the French Revolution of 1789, which led to the formation of the first French republic. But this time, it was the red flag of the Paris Commune, rather than the Tricolor, that would later fly above the city’s walls. To view cartoons from 1870, click here.

Imperial German Army in 1911: Its strength and its weakness

This article by Hilaire Belloc was published in the October 1911 edition of The London Magazine. Need-less to say, the trench warfare of World War I involved a little more than this.

For many years, “there has been growing in England — a country where, as yet, conscription remains un-
tried — a curious and almost superstitious reverence for the conscript army of the German Empire”, the editor writes. “English public opinion has come to regard it as all-powerful. In this article . . . Mr Belloc surveys the actual condition and the cicumstances of its organisation with the direct object of showing that this opini-on should be modified. He brings the best of qualifications to the task, since he has himself studied the work-ing of conscription at first-hand, serving in a conscript army — that of France. His conclusions, set forth here with an admirable clarity of style, will . . . be accorded the most serious consideration.” Click here.

The Seven Ages of the Typical Englishwoman, by M. Mostyn Bird

Whatever the faults and foibles of the modern Englishwoman may be, it is certain that the sparing of the rod of criticism is in no case responsible for the spoiling of the child. From infancy to old age we are now exposed to a running fire of comment and complaint. No one seems able to take us comfortably for granted, as in the good old days. The age is marked by a passion for putting woman under the microscope. We are dissected, analysed, experimented upon; and, curiously enough, instead of resenting, we invite the process. We seem not only willing but eager to spread all our little stock-in-trade on the laboratory-table, and to join with gusto in the work of classification. Click here to read the article.

M. Mostyn Bird is most famous for The Errand of Mercy: A History of Ambulance Work Upon the Battlefield, 1913.

The Good Years: From 1900 to the First World War

These were the years “after plumbing and before taxes”, the blurb to Walter Lord’s book says. “A time of unparalleled optimism when America, with the surge of new prosperity, began to compete with Europe.” The mood of the times was captured by a cartoon in the Houston Post, which shows “1900″ arriving via that clever novelty — the car.

Other resources and historical features at Hourglass era

Pencil sketch of the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912
The last minutes in the life of the Schutte-Lanz 11, shot down on September 3, 1916
What a Young Woman Ought to Know, by Mary Wood-Allen, M.D., Vir Publishing, 1905
The Ladies’ Handbook of Home Treatment, Signs Publishing, 1912. “Secret vice” examined
Prudery & Passion: Sexuality in Victorian America, by Milton Rugoff, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972
Her Royal Highness Woman, by Max O’Rell, Chatto and Windus, 1901. Feminists belittled and ridiculed
The human sandwich: A Victorian mental patient locked in a restraint device
The Queen’s telegram to Mrs Mary Milliken Fletcher on her 100th birthday
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Arnold White (1848-1925) was an English journalist who sat on the council for the Eugenics Education Society. This article, in which smoking chimneys and warships are among the cited signs of the superiority of “British brains”, was published in The London Magazine in 1911. Note that this “superiority” is attri-
buted to “racial and climatic causes”. No doubt White was also into phrenology — one of the prevalent idiocies of the day. To read the article, and to see what passed for profound wisdom in the early 20th century, click here.

Pencil sketch of the sinking of the Titanic, 1912

Steward Leo James Hyland, one of the survivors, later produced this sketch of the liner as it went down. The picture is from A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord, Longmans, Green and Co, 1956. Note the absence of steam from the dummy funnel. For The Evening Sun’s erroneous first report of the tragedy, click here.

Overriding everything else, the Titanic also marked the end of a general feeling of confidence. Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady, orderly, civilized life. For 100 years the Western world had been at peace. For 100 years technology had steadily improved. For 100 years the benefits of peace and industry seemed to be filtering satisfactorialy through society. In retrospect, there may seem less grounds for confidence, but at the time most articulate people felt life was all right.
The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves. In technology especially, the disaster was a terrible blow. Here was the “unsinkable ship” — perhaps man’s greatest engineering achievement — going down the first time it sailed.
But it went beyond that. If this supreme achievement was so terribly fragile, what about everything else? If wealth meant so little on this cold April night, did it mean so much the rest of the year? Scores of ministers preached that the Titanic was a heaven-sent lesson to awaken people from their complacency, to punish them for top-heavy faith in material progress. If it was a lesson, it worked — people have never been sure of anything since.
The unending sequence of disillusionment that has followed can’t be blamed on the Titanic, but she was the first jar. Before the Titanic, all was quiet. Afterwards, all was tumult. That is why, to anybody who lived at the time, the Titanic more than any other single event marks the end of the old days, and the beginning of a new, uneasy era. — Extract from A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord

Last minutes in the life of the Schutte-Lanz 11, Sept 3, 1916

The fragment is, indeed, from the German Navy airship L15. But contrary to the statement on it, the concertina series of photographs is of the final moments in the life of the airship Schutte-Lanz 11. Picture No 3 in series.

The original fragment of the L15 measures 175mm by 105mm.

The German Navy L15, commanded by Joachim Breithaupt, came down in the sea off Margate, largely intact, on March 31, 1916. One crew member, Willy Albrecht, drowned, but the remaining 16 men were rescued. The German Army SL11, commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm, became the first German airship to be shot down over England when it crashed in flames at Cuffley, Hertfordshire, on September 3, 1916. Schramm, who had often been asked whether he would “jump or burn” in such an eventuality, wrapped his wife’s scarf around himself and leapt to his death. There were no survivors. To view the photos, click here.

The human sandwich: A Victorian mental patient

Cruel treatment: If you weren’t insane when they put you into this contraption, you soon would be.

The straitjacket at left is from a surgical instruments catalog published in London in 1930. The text on the page, which is headed Restraint Apparatus, says the straitjacket is “made in stout sailcloth, to lace in front or at the back”. It cost £1.17s.6d. For no additional cost, it was also available with strong “leather straps and buckles” (presumably for tougher customers). In The Anxiety Makers (1967), Dr Alex Comfort reports that restraint, as a means of dealing with “self-abuse”, was advocated in 37.2% of cases in England and the United States, compared with 21.2% of cases in France. The figures for surgical intervention were 19.2% and 10.6% of cases, respectively. These harmful, totally unnecessary procedures continued until World War II.

Submit your URL to Kiwiseek.com
Kiwiseek.com is a subsidiary of my main site, hourglassera.com. It’s a place where you can peruse the Open Directory, or submit your URL to my links page. In keeping with my new policy, I am posting a strictly limited number of affiliate links. Only sites that I have used, where you can be sure of excellent service, will be listed. Among the other links below are links to news sites that I regularly use. — Alan Ireland

adilbookz.com, alanireland.com, blimpdeflator.com, hardcaw.com, hourglassera.com, jameskirkup.com, kiwicrafts.com, kiwidollar.com, kiwiseek.com, nzsf.com, nzsitering.com, pukekopress.com, wenningtonschool.com

NameCheap: Domain names registrar: http://tinyurl.com/cevo84d
The Book Depository: Postage-free books from Britain: http://tinyurl.com/bp6sjkt

Abandon TV: “Turn on, tune in, wake up”: https:abandontv.wordpress.com/
Al-Jazeera: Middle-East perspective: http://english.aljazeera.net/default.html
AlterNet: “Award-winning news magazine”: http://www.alternet.org/
Antiwar.com: “Best source of antiwar news”: http://www.antiwar.com/
Axis of Logic: “Finding clarity in the 21st century mediaplex”: http://axisoflogic.com/
CagePrisoners: “Giving a voice to the voiceless”: http://cageprisoners.com/
Check the Evidence: “Finding the Truth”: http://checktheevidence.com/
Common Dreams: “Building progressive community”: http://www.commondreams.org/
Counterpunch: Edited by Alexander Cockburn: http://www.counterpunch.org/
DesertPeace: Seeking peace between Israel and Palestine: http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/about/
Dissident Voice: “A radical newsletter”: http://dissidentvoice.org/
Drudge Report: World news roundup: http://www.drudgereport.com/
Empire Burlesque: “High crimes and low comedy in the American imperium”: http://www.chris-floyd.com/
Islamophobia Watch: “Documenting anti-Muslim bigotry”: http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/
Information Clearing House: “News you won’t find on CNN”: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Infowars: “Because there is a war on for your mind”: http://www.infowars.com/
Innovative Minds: Boycott Israel Campaign: http://www.inminds.co.uk/index.html
Investigating the Terror: Politics of fear: http://www.investigatingtheterror.com/Secrets__Spies_and_7_7.htm
J7: The July 7th Truth Campaign Information wrapup: http://www.julyseventh.co.uk/index.html
Joe Public: Links to truth news sites: http://www.joepublic.page.tl/TRUTH-NEWS.htm
Just Foreign Policy: “Dedicated to reforming US foreign policy”: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/
Khilafah: “Building a global movement”: http://www.khilafah.com/
Leading to War: The path to war in Iraq: http://www.leadingtowar.com/
Loonwatch: Exposing anti-Muslim loons: http://www.loonwatch.com/
Media Lens: Exposing the propaganda of the mainstream media: http://www.medialens.org/
Muslim Civilization: Yahoo! group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Muslim_Civilization/files/
Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: Principles of combined faiths: http://www.mujca.com/
Muzzle Watch: “Tracking efforts to stifle open debate on Israel: http://www.muzzlewatch.com/
Official Confusion: The July 7, 2005, London bombings: http://www.officialconfusion.com/77/index.html
OpenDemocracy: “Free thinking for the world”: http://www.opendemocracy.net/
Prison Planet: “The truth will set you free”: http://www.prisonplanet.com/
RichPlanet: “The truth is here”: http://www.richplanet.net/
Stop the War Coalition: Demanding an end to the “war on terrorism”: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
The Electronic Intifada: Telling Palestine’s stories: http://electronicintifada.net/articles
The Impious Digest: Homepage: http://impiousdigest.com/
The Impious Digest: “It was Johnson”: http://itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/Intro.html
TheIntelHub: Madeleine Brown’s testimony: http://tinyurl.com/4ymkhqj
Truth Jihad: Kevin Barret’s social network: http://www.truthjihad.com/
UK Uncut: “Alternatives to spending cuts”: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk
Uruknet: Information from the Middle East: http://www.uruknet.info/
Viewzone: LBJ killed JFK: http://www.viewzone.com/lbj/
Viva Palestina: Aid for the besieged people of Gaza: http://www.vivapalestina.org/
Was The Apollo Moon Landing Fake?: Videos and articles: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm
What Really Happened: Exposing the cover-ups: http://whatreallyhappened.com/
Where Did the Towers Go?: Directed free-energy technology on 9/11: http://wheredidthetowersgo.com/
Whole Truth Coalition: “Free minds building a better world”: http://www.wholetruthcoalition.org/
WideShut: “Your eyes are open, but you do not see”: http://wideshut.co.uk/
Zion Crime Factory: “The truth shall set you free”: http://www.zioncrimefactory.com/

Noam Chomsky: Recent updates: http://www.chomsky.info/
Jonathan Cook: Comment on Palestine: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/
Adam Curtis: The Medium and the Message: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/
Chris Floyd: Empire Burlesque: http://chris-floyd.com/
Morris Herman: Videos: http://rense.com/Datapages/morrishermdat.htm
Max Keiser: The Keiser Report: http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/
George Monbiot: “Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable: http://www.monbiot.com/
Muad’Dib: Friends of Muad-Dib: http://mtrial.org/
Craig Murray: Thoughts of a former British ambassador: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
John Pilger: Films and articles: http://www.johnpilger.com/
Paul Craig Roberts: Archive of articles: http://www.vdare.com/users/paul-craig-roberts/
Arthur Silber: Once Upon a Time: http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.co.uk/
Deanna Spingola: Spingola Speaks: http://www.spingola.com/radio_schedule.html
Richard E Sprague: The Taking of America: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ToA/
Christopher Story: The New Underworld Order: http://tinyurl.com/bdk8qd8
Mack White: PsyOp Radio: http://www.mackwhite.com/index.html
Judy Wood: 9/11 research: http://www.drjudywood.com/

7/7: Kollerstrom and Farrell Are Dead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8NZhl-ogoY
7/7: Seeds of Deconstruction (full version): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Vfnn3YZXw
7/7: The Big Picture: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL802AC67005FDE2FC
Crime and Prejudice (7/7): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFllLvhgYm8
TerrorStorm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXgLhkv21Y

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OneLook: Dictionary search: http://www.onelook.com/
Peevish: British slang dictionary: http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm
Trade Me: Online auctions: http://www.trademe.co.nz/

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

Years ago, when my site was at Yahoo! GeoCities, I launched a site ring, which gained a few members before it foundered. Although my neglect was partly responsible for its failure, the inability of members to customize the ring’s panel (below) was the main drag on its development. There was even one prospective member who was unable to see why she had to place the panel somewhere on her website to qualify for membership. So don’t click the “Join” button unless you are willing to make a reasonable effort to maintain the integrity of the ring, which is open to anyone with a site about, or in any way related to, New Zealand/Aotearoa.

	The NZ SiteRing kiwiseek.com Contact me

SiteRing by Bravenet.com

Clicking on the “Join” button will take you to nzsitering.com, where you will find a range of New Zealand flags for the sitering panel. You will then be able to choose the one you like — or opt for one of the buttons I have created. The only other way to sign up is by clicking on “List” and then on “Click here to add your site to New Zealand”. But if you go for the latter option, you will not be presented with any choice of flag.

Robin on Old Boot, watercolor, 2009
Study of Inkcaps, watercolor, 2008

View From Sponge Bay, 2011
Red Zone 4, 2011
Red Zone 3, 2011
Red Zone 2, 2011
Red Zone, 2011
Parihaka Triptych — A Comet Returns to Parihaka, 2011
The Coming Light, 2011
Cathedral Panels, 2011
Pierre, oil, 2007
Sarah, oil, 2007
Kate, oil, 2007
Kate in Blue, oil, 2007

Winter Scene, watercolor, 2008
Sweetcorn, pencil, 2008
Holly and Mistletoe, watercolor, 2008
Ashness Bridge, Borrowdale, watercolor, 2007
Stream in Winter, watercolor, 2006
Pond in Winter, watercolor, 2005
Snowdrops, watercolor, 2004

Peak oil.

We’ve all heard the term, usually in connection with dire predictions of the imminent collapse of “civilization as we know it”. In fact, in those dismal pronouncements that pass for profound analysis, “peak oil” is usually up there with death and taxes as one of the great, inescapable realities of life.

Oil production has reached the top of the bell curve. From now on it’s downhill all the way, to a world of grim subsistence. Better take a crash course in growing carrots, stockpile supplies of double-sided toilet paper, and hightail it to the nearest wilderness with a select group of gun-toting Survivalists.

Then along comes spoilsport Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Energy Research Associates who says that, actually, things aren’t that bad. And to make matters worse, he comes with credentials that suggest, even to the most ardent doomsayer, that he knows what he is talking about. He is the author of two books on energy — The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power and The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World — and the holder of honorary doctoral degrees from Colorado School of Mines, the University of Houston, and the University of Missouri.

The first book won Yergin a Pulitzer Prize, and launched him as a public speaker with the rare ability to make economic issues accessible to the layperson. His message is that Survivalism — the retreat from a complex present to a supposedly simple past — represents a failure of the imagi-
nation, a refusal to respond creatively to changing times. It also reveals a failure to read history aright. For the pattern of the past is one of recurring resource crises, either real or imagined, acting as spurs to innovation and invention. This is especially true in the field of energy, where technology keeps opening new doors in totally unexpected ways. (See The Quest World Energy Timeline.)

Late last year, the International Energy Agency predicted that, thanks to the shale revolution, the US would overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by the second half of this decade. A startling prediction for those long captive to what Yergin calls the “pervasive sentiment that American oil’s days were coming to an end”.

“Instead,” as he writes in an article in the Financial Times, “US oil output has risen 25 per cent since 2008 and the IEA estimates it will increase a further 30 per cent by 2020, to 11.1m barrels per day. US petroleum imports have fallen from 60 per cent of consumption in 2005 to 42 per cent today.” (See US energy is changing the world again.)

What all this means is that the chimera of American energy indepen-
dence could soon take its first tentative steps into the realm of reality. It’s certainly a prospect that takes some getting used to, after decades in which the routine rhetoric from the podium about lessening the nation’s dependence on overseas energy supplies elicited little more than polite yawns. Sure, It was a worthy objective, but it wasn’t going to be achieved. Everyone knew that — or thought they did.

So what caused the turnaround? The answer, of course, is a series of technological developments, facilitated by higher fuel prices. Par-
ticular mention should be made of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling — two developing technologies that were successfully
combined to spark the shale revolution touched on above. “In a decade, shale gas has risen from 2 per cent of US natural gas production to 37 per cent,” Yergin writes. As a result, “the US has overtaken Russia as the world’s largest natural gas producer.”

Even if the reader of Yergin’s books remains unconvinced by some of his arguments, he or she will be forced to admit that The Prize and The Quest are the work of a “master storyteller” (to quote one reviewer) and that the story he tells is epic in scope. The broad perspective he brings to the whole issue of energy production and consumption, as well as his affable optimism, will at least ensure that jeremiads about the collapse of civilization no longer win such easy acceptance. — Alan Ireland, Palmerston North, New Zealand. February 10, 2013