a city in nevada where you can ski and play golf on the same day.

in my opinion.

best cat ever.
(see: #315)

judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

dalai lama

jefferson davis had served as congressman, senator, and secretary of war in the u.s. government. after the 1860 presidential election, he hoped southerners would accept lincoln as their leader. but when his own state of mississippi joined six others in forming the confederacy and chose him as president, davis felt obligated to serve.

no longer last in national public education ranking. education week's latest quality counts report card ranks the silver state 50th among the 50 states and the district of columbia. new mexico dropped to 51st.

norway now requires influencers to declare retouched photos on instagram

ethereum is a solution looking for a problem.

one of the two cities that could not be captured by alexander the great. imageimageimageimage

history of termessos

termessos is primarily known as the city that could not be conquered by the macedonian emperor and warlord, alexander the great. unfortunately, aside from the journals kept during alexander the great's military campaign in asia minor and a few surviving records from the roman empire era, there are few documents that could illuminate the history of termessos. it is still unknown when and by whom termessos was founded.

the city was first mentioned in history during alexander the great's siege. here are a few known facts about the city:

– despite the fact that termessos was a part of the roman empire, it had always been an autonomous city due to its remoteness.

– in 71 b.c, the roman senate unanimously voted for an act allowing termessos to be autonomous and make its own laws.

– the inhabitants of termessos called themselves the solym people, descending from the pamphylian greeks.

– a severe earthquake hit the city at a yet-undetermined date, destroying the aqueducts and cutting off the main water supply. subsequently, the solyms abandoned the city.

termessos hosts the tomb of alcetas who was one of the generals of alexander the great.

communism is a political and economic ideology that is based on the idea of creating a classless society in which all property and wealth are communally owned and controlled. the ultimate goal of communism is to create a system in which all individuals are equal and have access to the resources they need to live a fulfilling life. in a communist society, the state plays a central role in the economy and is responsible for distributing resources and planning production in order to meet the needs of the people. this is in contrast to a capitalist system, in which the economy is based on the private ownership of the means of production and the creation of profit.

"conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."

-john stuart mill

we're caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

why can't you see
what you're doing to me
when you don't believe a word i say?

we can't go on together
with suspicious minds (suspicious minds)
and we can't build our dreams
on suspicious minds

so, if an old friend i know
stops by to say hello
would i still see suspicion in your eyes?

here we go again
asking where i've been
you can't see these tears are real
i'm crying (yes i'm crying)

we can't go on together
with suspicious minds (suspicious minds)
and be can't build our dreams
on suspicious minds

oh let our love survive
or dry the tears from your eyes
let's don't let a good thing die
when honey, you know
i've never lied to you
mmm yeah, yeah

we're caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

why can't you see
what you're doing to me
when you don't believe a word i say?

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap
i can't walk out
because i love you too much baby

don't you know i'm caught in a trap

keith sapsford was a 14-year-old australian boy whose tragic curiosity led to one of the most haunting accidental deaths in aviation history. in 1970, driven by an adventurous spirit and a longing to see the world, he snuck into the wheel well of a japan airlines plane at sydney airport. as the aircraft ascended, the compartment door opened mid-flight, and he fell to his death from 200 feet.

a roman emperor and philosopher once said,
“a person’s worth is measured by what they devote themselves to.”

first, a bit of motivation:
“if something external upsets you, the pain doesn’t come from the thing itself, it comes from the value you’ve placed on it. and you have the power to change that value at any moment.”

cervantes did not grow up dreaming of becoming a writer. his only dream was to become a soldier known for his bravery.

at 24, he achieves that dream. he and his brother join the naval battle of lepanto. the pope declares that all soldiers who fight in the battle will have their sins forgiven. later in life, cervantes will say that using religion for politics is deeply wrong. he will be excommunicated multiple times.

he returns to spain five years later, having lost the use of his left arm in battle. in his pocket he carries a letter praising his courage, written and signed by don john of austria, leader of the holy league.

now his hope is to find work using that letter, even if he only has one functional arm. but as his ship approaches the coast of barcelona, it is captured by algerian pirates.

cervantes is both fortunate and unfortunate. because he is carrying don john’s letter, he is considered a valuable prisoner. a valuable prisoner means a high ransom. but he is also unlucky, because no one back home has the money to pay that ransom.

after several years, just as he is about to be transported to istanbul as a slave (yes, human trafficking is not new), his family manages to gather the ransom by borrowing money from the trinitarian order. after five years as a soldier and five years in captivity, cervantes finally returns to spain.

now his goal is to pay back his family’s debt. he chooses the most promising path: turning the story of his captivity into writing. at the time, theater is the fastest road to fame and income. a playwright with a successful play can make good money. the most successful playwrights even have their scripts printed and sold to growing audiences.

so cervantes’ new dream is to turn the story of his captivity into a dramatic play and make a living. but the theater market is tough. people are tired of heavy dramas, and cervantes cannot succeed there either.

to survive, he takes work as a tax collector. but he’s accused of mismanaging funds, and now he finds himself imprisoned again in his own homeland. prison gives him time to think.

he realizes there is another popular form of entertainment. medieval europe has long adored stories of wandering knights and their adventures: romances.

but cervantes also sees something new happening: printed books are spreading everywhere, and the number of people who look at the world through literature is rising. the world is filling with stories, and in such a world, how people read becomes just as important as what they read.

so he writes don quixote using a completely new literary approach. it is experimental. it does not fit existing genres. it needs a new name. the spanish word novela captures its essence: something new. (this is where the english word novel gets its meaning as both “new” and “a long narrative story.”)

when don quixote becomes successful, cervantes runs into a new enemy: literary pirates. the book is translated into many languages and sent across the ocean to the americas. (it has been about 120 years since europeans began colonizing the continent.) people start dressing like don quixote and sancho panza in the streets. an anonymous writer even publishes a fake sequel, claiming cervantes has no exclusive right to the characters.

cervantes can’t accept this. so he writes his own sequel. the public wants a continuation, and they don’t care who writes it. cervantes makes a clever move: in his sequel, he deliberately contradicts the events of the pirate sequel and even includes a scene where don quixote challenges the “false don quixote.” the fraudulent version fades into obscurity.

but cervantes knows the real enemy is not the pirate writer. the real enemy is the new world created by the printing press. a writer can depend on printers to spread their work, but printers can also reprint a profitable book without the author’s permission and never lose sleep over it. in this new mechanical age, authors are at a disadvantage.

even though cervantes creates a new literary form that surpasses the popularity of romances, he dies poor about ten years after don quixote is published.

today, literature is losing ground to video games and short-form videos. the question is no longer “which book is suitable for children?” but “which websites are safe for children?”

cervantes was the one who began this struggle. don quixote fought windmills; modern writers fight screens.