Thursday, September 30, 2021

Stuck in a Wedge

Gold has been stuck in a wedge formation for more than a year now. After testing resistance at $1830 early this month, gold is set to end the month at about $1750.

The wedge is visible in the weekly and monthly gold chart. A line can be drawn horizontally at the $1670 level, and another line can be drawn as a downward slope from the peak of $2070. This downward sloping line is currently representing upward resistance around $1830.

With only three months to go for the year, we'll have to see gold break out of its wedge formation this month for it to reach my year end target of $2100. My thesis is that a breakout from the wedge will be followed by a strong move up, which makes the target still within reach. However, even if this doesn't happen, the long term prospect for gold remains rosy. There's a handle forming on the ten year old cup formation visible in the monthly chart.

Once we go to $2100, either by the end of this year or early next year, there's clear sailing all the way up to $3000. That makes the current price level ideal for accumulation. Patience is likely to be rewarded over the next couple of years.

Cup and Saucer LACMA 47.35.6a-b (1 of 3).jpg
Rococo Cup with handle

By Vincennes Porcelain (France, circa 1739–1756), Francois Binet (France, active 1750-1775, born 1731) - Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_images/piction/ma-31852871-O3.jpg Gallery: http://collections.lacma.org/node/229367 archive copy, Public Domain, Link

Private Justice

Private justice is simple. It doesn't require law books. It doesn't require court rooms. It doesn't require years of education. All it requires is a sense of justice and an inquisitive and creative mind. Hence, anyone can wield justice if they so wish, and I think we'll see more people realize this as we move forward.

The state run system is corrupt and inefficient. It's rigged, and a private individual is unlikely to achieve anything but trivial victories. Real grievances come to nothing. But this is no reason to give up. Justice doesn't have to come from within the system, and it doesn't have to cost the farm. It can be dished out privately without much fuss.

This is a central point in my book, and something I believe the time has come to implement in practical terms. As a sovereign individual I don't have to register this intent with anybody, and I don't have to make my services known to the system. I don't have to explain anything to anybody. I can simply act out my intent within the community I'm part of.

My conversation with my wife's friend yesterday illustrates how this works. I mentioned natural law and red lines, and I suggested she contact me if she feels that any of this is being violated. I told her I had ideas on what to do. Apart from that, our conversation was centered around practical matters related to her particular problem. It was clear that no special action was warranted. This is not the time to hand out retribution.

As a private individual, I have no laws to protect me. If I make a mistake, it falls on me to pay. Hence, I cannot act with the of arrogance that is common within the system. I'm not above the law. If I make a mistake, I will be subject to the law just as much as anyone.

This is the beauty of natural law. It limits the power of the justice system. Justice can only be dished out where there's a clear case of transgression. Otherwise, the ill informed vigilante becomes the target of the same law that he was trying to uphold. To stay on the safe side, justice must be delivered in such a way that no reasonable person sees it as anything but a just deserve for the culprit.

On the other hand, natural law makes it easy to determine when someone is acting out of line. Culprits may think themselves protected by the laws of the system, but natural law reveals this to be corruption rather than justice. Hence, private arbitrators can give victims advice on how to deal with injustices. Arbitrators can also dish out retribution as part of their services. Private justice doesn't operate with phony distinctions between law and retribution.

Going forward, I'll keep an ear out for cases such as the one experienced by my wife's friend. I'll be more proactive than I have been so far, and I will offer my services for free, at least to start with. This is not about money, but about the need to construct a new order centered around private justice.

My vision of things is that sovereign individuals take up the pursuit of justice as a natural part of their lives. Each of us operate within our community. We assist friends and family in resolving disputes, which is no different from how we normally act. However, we don't stop at that. We recommend bypassing the court system as much as possible. We point out that we can make our own decisions regarding the damage done and what might be a good retribution or strategy for compensation.

In complicated cases, we may know other sovereigns that can help. The trick is to know who these individuals are and to what extent they can be trusted to do whatever seems reasonable in face of the injustice we're up against.

For this to succeed, it's essential that we don't come across as lawless thugs. We must emphasis natural law and our natural right to seek compensation and retribution. Conversations with victims must be level headed and calming. We're not the mafia. We're the good guys, and retribution is only dished out to those who deserve it, and it's done in a manner that fits the crime. Public shaming is the right option in most criminal cases. In cases of accidents and mishaps, a reasonable monetary compensation can be negotiated. The key is to avoid the costly and corrupt court system and sort things out privately instead.

I don't expect to come across many cases. It's not like I'm planning a career around this. However, if the corruption in our courts continues, people will increasingly look for advice outside the courts, and that's when things get interesting. People are ready for a new system, and every sovereign should encourage people to employ private justice rather than pinning their hopes on reforming the courts. A new market driven system will be both cheaper and fairer than the corrupt system we have today.

A local community by the river Douro
A local community by the river Douro

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

About those Ventilators

I was recently made aware of the fact that ventilators mustn't be used to treat people suffering from flu symptoms. Ventilators were never used for this purpose, so it's an error to use them to treat Covid.

I was surprised to learn this, because ventilators featured so prominently in the news at the beginning of the plague. However, I assumed that this error had been remedied by now. I figured the ventilators were used primarily for propaganda purposes, and that they no longer are used now that the vaccine is out. But it appears that ventilators are still part of standard protocol.

This story about a couple who recently died of the virus highlights the fact that they were put on ventilators shortly before they died. Since this is a known error, we can only conclude that this was malpractice. It was murder or manslaughter. Either way it was a crime, because it's no more a defense to follow protocol when this is known to be harmful than it is to follow orders that are known to be unethical.

Ventilators.jpg
Ventilator

By National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH), Public Domain, Link

Face to Face Conversations

I woke up this morning with an urge to talk directly to one of my wife's friends. She had mentioned to my wife that her 15 year old daughter had taken the vaccine without her permission, and I wanted to hear the details of how this could have happened. It was not clear from talking to my wife if something criminal had happened. But if that was the case, I would like to know.

A criminal act would be anything going against natural law, and I'm of the opinion that such acts should be met with retribution handed out privately. Public shaming could be in order, and I wouldn't mind assisting in the implementation of such a response. However, my conversation with my wife's friend revealed no clear culprit. No single person can be held responsible for the girl's action. She acted on her own volition, all be it under considerable peer pressure, and some encouragement from teachers.

The situation is such a convoluted mess that no one individual can be pointed out as deliberately evil. Red lines are transgressed, but never so much that it makes for a clear cut case. I didn't mention my thoughts on justice and retribution, but I told the mother that I would like to hear if anyone crosses a red line in a clear cut manner. I let her know that I had some thoughts on what to do in such a case, and that I would be happy to help if things escalate.

Our conversation was relaxed and enjoyable. We're of the same opinion about things, so we could delve into details, and share experiences. A face to face conversation has the additional advantage of facial expressions and body language that adds to the experience. It was refreshing for us both, and something I intend to do more of. It's time to organize a resistance, and this is best done in private conversations like the one I had this morning.

My advice to the girl's mother was to defuse fear whenever possible, and to leverage her authority over her daughter as a counterweight to peer pressure. This is the best way to make the girl refrain from taking the second shot.

If the situation ever arises that private justice is warranted, it must be done in a way that is both obvious and untraceable. That requires some creativity. But it's not hard to do. The trick is to keep ego at bay and not brag about the deed. Ideally, no-one will know it's me, including the girl's mother. However, a bit of luck may get the episode into the local news, especially if the culprit reacts as intended to my provocation.

Café de Flore.jpg
Café de Flore

People - By Arnaud 25 - Own work, Public Domain, Link

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

The Problem with Goths

Goths appear spontaneously whenever the state fails to secure a normal and peaceful operation of society. When Rome was in decline, merchants on the island of Gotland needed to secure their trade routes, which stretched as far as Persia, Arabia and North Africa. Their solution was to establish armed trading posts along these routes, and to do this in a fashion that did not provoke anger in the local population.

This was achieved by adopting a simple honor code centered around their core business; namely the protection of property, including strict adherence to contract law. Goths were known to always deliver on their words. They could be trusted to deliver goods produced in Sweden to consumers far away, and the proceeds would be returned safely to the producers. This service was efficient, cheap and reliable.

Their honor code extended to all people along their trading routs. Merchants everywhere would use their services. The Goths were well liked. Law and order was established wherever they went. Their successful fight against criminal gangs and raiders made them popular also among established rulers. Kings and emperors would hire the Goths to clamp down on unrest.

What started as a pragmatic solution to a logistics problem morphed into a network of loosely affiliated mercenary armies, each with its own chieftain. In the west, they spoke French. In the east, they spoke German. The only thing they had in common was their honor code, and the precise interpretation of it was changing. The word of honor that was initially meant as a contract between traders and Goths as service providers, became increasingly used to establish loyalty towards the chieftain.

What emerged from this is the classic feudal structure of medieval Europe, with the king supreme at the top of an elaborate hierarchy of power. What had started as a pragmatic solution to the problems associated with centralized power, became itself the very definition of this problem. However, the legacy of the original Goths prevailed. Feudal kings tended to protect free trade, commerce and contract law. Combined with their early adaption of Christianity, the Goths created the West as we know it today, and they did this upon the ashes of the Roman empire.

The West is an extension of the Roman empire into modern times, modified by Christianity and the honor code of the Goths. But the West is now as corrupt as Rome was during its decline. We have come full circle. It took 2000 years to complete the circle, and a lot of good has been achieved. However, the Goths didn't solve the fundamental problem of government, and they won't this time around either unless they more fully adopt the golden rule embedded in Christian doctrine.

If they put hierarchy and loyalty above fairness and equality before the law, modern day Goths will simply recreate the feudal system that emerged during the middle ages. However, if the Goths fully embrace the golden rule, we'll see the emergence of the 5th Empire as outlined in my book. The Goths will continue to provide services on a private basis, and there will be no taxation or similar coercion that violates property rights or our right to self determination.

Andrea del Castagno 004.jpg
Vitality and strength

By Andrea del Castagno - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, Link

Monday, September 27, 2021

Fragility and Strength

The US government is moving ahead with its latest push for universal vaccine compliance. As of today, unvaccinated people will be fired from their jobs. A game of chicken is under way in which the bureaucracy of the US goes up against sovereigns who refuse to submit to their edicts.

The bureaucrats appear convinced that they will emerge victorious in this battle. Their confidence is likely drawn from their hierarchical model of society. Bureaucrats see themselves as the executive branch of the elite. They direct society from above. They are the rulers. The rest of society is but a collection of interchangeable drones, acting out the will of the elite. However, this is not how the world works. Our society is not a hierarchy, but a network. Things are therefore likely to unfold in unexpected ways.

No two workers in our society are identical. No-one can be fired without consequences, and some cannot be fired without grave consequences. There are mini-hierarchies everywhere. If a central figure in one of these mini-hierarchies disappear, the entire sub-structure is compromised. Only dispensable workers can be replaced without much problem, and such people are rare. Almost everyone has some special skill that others depend on. Hence, today's mass firings are likely to produce a great deal more chaos than what the average bureaucrat expects.

Another thing to keep in mind is that society is self organizing. Bureaucrats are not needed for organizational purposes. Unvaccinated doctors and nurses will find ways to practice their professions outside the system if the system becomes sufficiently corrupted. A consequence of this will be the emergence of parallel structures outside the control of bureaucrats. Doctors and nurses may go private in the real sense of that word. They may decide to provide services against cash payments.

If bureaucrats decide to clamp down on such activities, doctors and nurses will find ways to frame their activities in other ways. They will find ways to skirt the rules or go dark. There's nothing bureaucrats can do to stop this. They can make life difficult for us, but they cannot stop us, and their power to mold society is a great deal less than they imagine.

The only way the bureaucrats can win this battle is if the unvaccinated fold within a few days. If that doesn't happen, there will be chaos, followed by a restructuring of society where a large portion of the population goes private. My guess is that those who haven't taken the vaccine by now are determined to stick it out for the foreseeable future. If so, we may soon see the emergence of parallel structures that operate outside the control of bureaucrats.

Liberty
Liberty

Who are the Goths?

I like to frame my world view in terms of history. It's convenient because history has a tendency to repeat itself due to the archetypical nature of historic figures and phenomena. We readily relate to the notion of kings and kingdoms, heroes and villains. They are universally understood, and can therefore be used to explain the mechanisms driving current events. We can even predict the sort of events that are likely to take place in the future based on an honest assessment of where we are today, relative to similar periods of history.

One historic phenomenon that I find particularly interesting is the sudden appearance of the Goths at the time when Rome went into terminal decline. My thesis is that they appeared out of necessity, and that they were a cultural, rather than ethnic phenomenon. As such, they still exist, because culture remains in existence even when no longer in vogue. The culture becomes a subculture that exists among men who do things in certain ways.

Goths are pragmatic men who adhere to a simple set of rules. Their code of honor can be summarized as:

  • Don't break stuff
  • Don't steal
  • Honor your word

This view of justice is particularly strong in Scandinavia where winters are long and supply chains are stretched. Being able to trust people becomes vital in such an environment. If too much energy is wasted through damage, theft or fraud, people die.

When Rome became hopelessly corrupt, there was a sudden need for people who could be trusted, and hence we had the above honor code spreading through Europe. Everyone was suddenly a Goth, because Goths could be relied upon for protection of trade and land. Even the emperor of Rome would employ the Goths, because corruption internal to the Roman administration was so widespread that home grown soldiers could not be trusted.

Seen in this perspective, Goths are any band of men who see it as their mission to uphold the above honor code. Private security companies are typical examples of this. However, Goths can appear in unexpected places, because they appear out of necessity wherever there is corruption.

Ever since the state took control of national health services, there's been a growing problem of corruption which has turned dramatically worse over the past twenty months. The entire system is broken. Money is siphoned off, and no-one can be trusted. The conditions are ripe for the Goths to put order back into the system, and that's precisely what we're seeing. Things are happening behind the scenes, and the main thrust of it appears to be centered in Sweden, the historic origin of Goth culture.

Going forward, we're likely to see more of the Goths. Their austere refusal to put up with corruption will grant them increasing powers, and they will in the end take over control of everything. However, this will also be the end of the Goths. The same will happen to them now as happened to them in the past. Once in charge of the state apparatus, the Goths fell victim to the lure of power. Emphasis was increasingly put on loyalty, and corruption was increasingly tolerated. But for now, the Goths are a force for good. Rome will fall, and there will be a new order of things.

Rome- Ruins of the Forum, Looking towards the Capitol.jpg
Rome

Sunday, September 26, 2021

How to Dish Out Facts

It's hard to read a list of medical errors and deceptions related to the virus like this one without feeling outraged. There's a sense that we have to say something; that this has to be shouted off rooftops and posted on Facebook. However, that's precisely what we shouldn't do, and the reason for this is that the information is too damning. People are barely waking up, and to throw this kind of facts at them will send them right back to sleep. They would rather close their eyes than face this kind of facts.

That's why we should condense this kind of information into a few phrases that we resort to whenever appropriate. These phrases should be toned down so as to produce minimum hostility. We must never come across as the verbally aggressive. But if someone confronts us we can resort to the original list for documents. We can offer to send them the research that proves our point.

If challenged to send documentation, we mustn't send the article. Rather, we must find the sources linked to in the article and phrase our response around that. Any link to ZeroHedge or OffGuardian, etc. must be avoided. The ideal source is the original research paper, and our response should be framed around that. Otherwise, the recipient will simply dismiss the information as fake news.

Done correctly, people will gradually thaw up to the fact that something sinister has been going on. They will know that we speak truth, and they will start seeing it themselves. We can then add further to our repertoire of phrases. We can move closer to the central point, which is the fact that governments are not benevolent institutions with our best interest in mind. They are hotbeds of corruption where manslaughter and murder is seen as acceptable modes of operation. But this insight is not for now, nor for tomorrow. Most people will never accept this, no matter how much evidence is presented. However, it should be possible to persuade many into accepting that government isn't always our friend, and that we shouldn't make ourselves too ready to comply with whatever they have in store for us.

How to Spot Fake News.jpg
Fake news

By IFLA

A Quick Recovery

I've taken extra care of myself these last few days, hoping in that way to get my sniffles under control. So far, it's been a success. My cold is fading. The sore throat I had a few days ago is pretty much completely cured, and I now only have a light cough and some lingering aches in my muscles.

I've followed my usual procedure. No brisk walks or other activities that may cause a sweat. Staying out of drafts. Paying extra attention to my comfort level. Putting on a sweater if at all cold. Taking a nap if at all tired or achy. Plenty of hot drinks, and foods rich in fats and proteins, fruits and fibers, honey and lemon.

Everybody has their favorite ways to deal with colds, and with the flu season upon us, there will be plenty of chatter related to this. This is something we should encourage, because it reflects the old normal, and with the virus now being classified together with the flu and common cold, at least in Scandinavia, there will be an unspoken subliminal message in all the chatter. What is it about the virus that required such drastic measures, when chicken soup or a lamb roast would work just as well?

A roast lamb dinner at Black Horse Inn, Nuthurst, West Sussex England.jpg
A roast lamb dinner

By Acabashi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Making the Most of it

People are partying in the streets of Norway. The same people who were pro-lockdowns a few days ago are now out in force, celebrating the rollback of virus related measures. Never mind that many measures remain in place, everybody is happy that some of their liberties have been returned.

My libertarian friends in Norway are less than impressed. However, there are real reasons for optimism, even for the cynics among us. The fact remains that the virus has been re-classified as mostly harmless. The rollback of measures are real. This represents opportunities in our war of attrition, and the mindless drones out celebrating the rollback are now partially in our camp.

Going forward, we should take full advantage of this. We have official backing for our claim that the virus is largely harmless. This adds to our repertoire of statements that we can toss into conversations. The more we can reduce people's anxieties the better, and this latest turn of events in Norway is giving us plenty of ammunition.

We should also encourage any kind of celebration. We can point out how wonderful the old normal was, especially the way things were back in the 1980s, and earlier. We should take advantage of the situation in every possible way, with the aim of rolling back the state as much as possible. We're not merely looking to get back most of our liberties. We're looking to get them all back. Stalingrad is behind us and it's time to march on Berlin.

Liberty
Liberty

List of Errors

Here's a background article about virus infections and a list of errors and deceptions that have been made over the past twenty months. They are long reads that can be condensed into two key points. One being that nature is arranged in such a way that the natural response to any disease is likely to be the correct response. Another point being that our natural immune system is best left alone unless a vaccine can be shown to be highly effective.

The thing about diseases, especially virus infections, is that they either knock us off our feet, or they let us function with few or no symptoms. If they knock us off our feet, we stay in bed, which equates to self-isolation. If they don't, we go about our daily business, spreading the disease among others. However, this is not a bad thing, because the light version of the disease will produce immunity also for the heavy version. Hence, the spread of the light version ends up killing off the heavy one.

This only works if there's a difference in social behavior between the two categories of people. If everybody self-isolate, regardless of severity, the heavy version is going to spread just as much as the light one. Lockdowns are therefore counterproductive. They help protect the heavy version of a disease from the light version that would otherwise eradicate it.

As for ineffective vaccines, there are two main concerns. One concern is that they may allow versions of a disease to develop that are harmless to the vaccinated but dangerous to the unvaccinated, thereby putting the unvaccinated population at risk. The other concern is that ineffective vaccines can open for situations where the immune system of the vaccinated becomes debilitated. In both cases, a situation arises where people become dependent on vaccines in order to avoid serious illness.

Again we see that trust in nature, aka God, is the best strategy when faced with a new danger. Our natural response has been developed over millions of years and has served us well. New and unknown dangers have always appeared, and they have always been overcome. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today. Hence, to think that we must scrap this age-old wisdom for something new and untried is a great error in judgment.

Mask of the beast
Mask of the beast

What was All that About?

It's been a weird 24 hours in Norwegian politics. First, there was a reclassification of the virus from deadly to largely harmless. Then there was a grand victory lap by politicians. The media was suddenly full of smiling faces, as if some great war had come to an end.

It happened so suddenly, as if someone behind the scene had slipped someone a note calling the whole thing off. But why? If all of Scandinavia suddenly goes full victory lap, how are politicians in other countries going to keep up the pressure? If anybody called, it was certainly not the UN or the Biden administration.

One possibility is that this was all about politics local to Norway. The current administration was defeated in the election that took place earlier this month, and have for this reason decided to declare victory over the virus as a final act of glory before handing the reins over to their adversaries. This will deny the new administration the chance to do this themselves, and it will make it difficult for them to reinstate the sort of draconian measures that the current administration indulged in.

Another possibility is that Norway was pushed by Sweden and Denmark who have already declared victory themselves. With such close neighbors returning to the old normal, Norway couldn't very well remain on their path towards a new normal.

But such local explanations presumes a level of autonomy that we haven't seen much of lately. Every developed nation, with the lone exception of Sweden, have slavishly followed orders coming out of the UN. Why is this no longer the case?

Garthsnaid - SLV H91.250-933.jpg
Navigating a storm

By maybe Allan C. Green or George Schutze or maybe Alexander Harper Turner - This image is available from the Our Collections of the State Library of Victoria under the Accession Number:, Public Domain, Link

Friday, September 24, 2021

Political Circus

Now that the virus has been classified as no more harmful than a regular flu by Norwegian civil servants, Norwegian politicians have declared themselves victorious. They are out in force, congratulating themselves for their victory. Never mind that there are more people in hospital for the virus now than a year ago. The lockdowns, mandates and vaccines have been a great success.

It's time to move on. Norwegian society can reopen. Restrictions can be lifted. Freedom can return. There are smiling faces everywhere. The war is over.

Next thing on the agenda is to save our planet from global manmade warming, and I'm sure the politicians will be as successful in this as they have been with the virus.

Trapeze Artists in Circus.jpg
Trapeze Artists

By Copyright by the Calvert Litho. Co., Detroit, Mich. - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g02091. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, Link

Love of Money

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:10

Many relate this Bible quote to greed. However, there's more to this than that. The first thing to note is that money isn't the root of all evils, as some claim. It's merely one of many sources of evil, and this is only the case when money is highly coveted. Money doesn't lead to evil, it merely has the potential to do so when our love for it becomes unhealthy.

Furthermore, the nature of the evil associated with a love for money is laid out in the text. Such love has a tendency to lead us astray so that we end up hurting ourselves and others instead of benefiting from what money can provide.

This was illustrated to me when I had to stop my wife from getting herself vaccinated a few weeks back. Part of her argument was that she had to do this in order to secure her income. The alternative would be to dig into our savings in the event of further vaccine related restrictions. However, when I pointed out that our savings are there precisely for this kind of events, her argument unraveled, and that's how I ended up stopping her from making a bad decision.

Interestingly, my wife's predicament wasn't due to greed. Rather, it was due to her being too timid. She assumed that my love for our savings exceeded my love for her; and that's where she went astray.

The faith mentioned in the Bible is our faith in God, aka Nature, and the evil is any straying from this in pursuit of something else. My wife was about to stray from the faith, as it were. She was prepared to sacrifice herself for money. However, that didn't happen, and the consequence of this has been very positive. Her confidence and self esteem has improved, as well as her trust in me.

However, this doesn't mean that we should ignore the value of money. I would never spend our life saving on a medical procedure with a small chance of success or minimal utility. Our savings are meant for our son. I'm not going to steal from his inheritance in order to give myself a few extra months of life. There are limits to how much I'm willing to spend on myself at the expense of future generations. But my wife was about to sacrifice herself for mere pennies, and that would have been a monumental error at the other extreme.

The trick is to find the right balance. Money should not be so coveted that we put ourselves at risk, nor should it be so easily spent that future generations become disadvantaged.

Goldeagle.jpg
Gold eagle

Public Domain, Link

Early Start to Flu Season

I woke up with a sore throat this morning. It's the typical start to a cold, and it didn't come unexpectedly. My son and wife have been coughing for a few days now, and my mother in law has had a light cough for several weeks. None of them are very ill, and I hope to be equally lucky.

My wife tested herself the other day and came out negative for the plague, so we can assume that the same is the case for the rest of us. This is nothing more than the common cold or a light flu.

I'm not keen on the whole testing thing, but it came in handy for my wife who was called by her pro-vaccine brother the other day. He wanted to know if her cold could be the plague, and my wife could confidently tell him that it isn't. But he went on nevertheless as if the vaccine is some kind of cure all. He told her to take the vaccine anyway, just in case. However, that narrative is unraveling. He's just slow to pick up on the latest news.

Health officials in Norway and England are telling us that the virus will soon be reclassified as largely harmless. It will be bundled together with colds and flus, and treated accordingly. This comes after Sweden and Denmark have done the same. As has often been the case before, Scandinavia exports pragmatic solutions to the rest of the world, wrapped in language designed to take the sting out of the remedy.

The official wording is typical. Lip service is paid to the vaccine so that policy makers are given a way to save face, but the conclusion is definite. There's no need for any of the measures pushed by totalitarian control freaks.

This is a clear message, similar to how the Goths operated in Roman times. There's a proposed solution on the table. Those who follow it will be able to save face. Those who reject it will reap the consequences. There will be no mercy. They will have to take full responsibility for whatever damage they make from here on out. No-one can any longer claim that they are merely acting out of caution.

It appears that the Goths are about to return, as I've been predicting for some time now.

Andrea del Castagno 004.jpg
Vitality and strength

By Andrea del Castagno - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, Link

Thursday, September 23, 2021

A Persistent Headache

The latest decree from our rulers in Portugal is that vaccine passports will no longer be required for indoor dining. The logic is the same as expressed in the UK. The goal was to scare as many as possible into taking the vaccine out of fear that they would otherwise be left out of everyday activities like dining out and going to supermarkets. Since this worked as intended, there's no need for a full implementation of vaccine passports.

While this reasoning may be true, I'm sure the refusal of the general public to go along with vaccine passports has had something to do with the decision as well. Hardly anyone has used their vaccination papers in order to enter vaccine only areas. Just about everyone has chosen to find alternatives, as witnessed by me and my family last Saturday.

The war of attrition that is waging against the authorities appears to be working. Mandates are being rolled back, and the vacuum is quickly filled by liberty minded people determined to push back on the authoritarian agenda. This happens without central organization. There is no leaders behind this. It's all happening spontaneously through the network effect.

However, the war is not without casualties. Many gave in to the pressure to get vaccinated through the summer. Some 85% of all adults in Portugal are vaccinated, and many of these are already regretting their decision.

The daughter in law of the old man that died the other day, is a friend of my wife, and she's becoming increasingly anxious about her vaccination. She has developed a persistent headache, and she fears that this may be vaccine related.

This is an aspect of the vaccine that few have touched upon; namely the psychological impact that it will have on anyone developing an illness after partaking in the experiment. The uncertainty alone is enough to make people ill from anxiety, and this is what's happening to my wife's friend. Her vaccination status is turning into a nightmare.

A tragic aspect of this story is that she and her husband were warned by the old man. He told them that he would take the vaccine so that they could see for themselves if it was safe or not. Yet, when he developed dementia and pneumonia in the weeks following his vaccination, the couple went ahead and got themselves vaccinated anyway. It was an act of such tremendous stupidity that they have a hard time explaining it.

However, their decision was not without cause. The specter of vaccine passports, combined with peer pressure, prompted them to get themselves vaccinated. Needless to say, none of them are very happy about the advice they received from family, and authority figures in government.

Headache-1557872 960 720.jpg
Headache

By Phee - Pixabay, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Managing China's Train Wreck

It's becoming increasingly clear that Beijing is using Evergrande as a financial weapon. The latest evidence of this is how Evergrande is honoring its debt to local Yuan based debt while defaulting on offshore Dollar denominated debt.

This will have the effect of causing maximum damage abroad, while minimizing damage in China. Beijing is using Evergrande in much the same way it used its virus to strengthen its relative position in the world.

Head shot of Xi Jinping in 2019. He is wearing a black suit jacket, white shirt and a blue necktie.
Xi Jinping

By Palácio do Planalto - https://www.flickr.com/photos/palaciodoplanalto/47945730807/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Electric Volcanos

Earth is a giant capacitor. This is true regardless of its internal makeup, but it's especially true if Earth is hollow, as suggested in my book. Furthermore, Earth appears to have cracked. There are multiple fault lines crossing our planet, all of them teeming with geological activity. This is similar to what happens when a capacitor is too heavily charged. Small ones explode. Big ones deform and crack, with hot dielectric matter oozing out.

Seen in this light, it's reasonable to suggest that volcanos are electric phenomena. Magma is the hot dielectric matter pouring out of an overly charged planet. Volcanos are electrical hotspots, more heavily charged than areas of little to no geological activity.

This in turn ties up to gravity anomalies, with gravity consistently stronger in areas of much geological activity. It is the more heavily charged areas of our planet that have the strongest gravity, indicating that gravity is at least in part due to charge density.

Quake epicenters 1963-98.png
Quake epicenters


Gravity anomalies on Earth.jpg
Gravity anomalies

Public Domain, Link

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Lingering Fear

People are becoming increasingly relaxed about the virus. That's clear from direct observation. The trend is noticeable in the streets. More and more people are dropping the mask.

This is something we need to encourage so that the next wave of propaganda becomes as ineffective as possible, and the most effective way to achieve this is through example. The mere act of walking about, relaxed and happy is contagious. It's a sign of physical and mental health, and therefore something that everyone wants to emulate.

The more people we manage to relieve from their fear, the harder it will be for fear-mongers to reinstate the sort of fear that we've seen over the last 18 months. This will be especially true if we back up our fearless demeanor with the fact that the virus isn't very dangerous.

On the other hand, we need to build on the sense of dread that is starting to spread among the vaccinated. Whenever confronted by a vaccinated person, we need to point out that the vaccines aren't effective against variants, nor are they tested for long term side-effects. But this must be mellowed down with a message of hope. We must point out that the vaccines fade over time. There's little to worry about, provided we don't take any of the boosters.

The overall message should be that the vaccine is a bigger risk than the disease itself, and that the vaccine wears off so that we can all return to the old normal once the hysteria subsides.

With the new normal being a dystopian world of checkpoints, vaccines, and surveillance, it's easy to paint a picture of the old normal as something worth returning to no matter what our vaccine status may be. Who wouldn't rather live in the relative freedom that we had back in the 1980s than under the encroaching tyranny that we are seeing today?

Mask of the beast
Mask of the beast

Monday, September 20, 2021

Gold, Bitcoin and China's Train Wreck

China's grey rhino, in the form of Evergrande, has progressed another ten days since I last wrote about it. As predicted, nothing has been done to stop it. Rather, it has been directed out and away from China. This has led to a drop in real-estate related assets in Hong Kong. China's financial export hub is primed for global distribution of China's financial train wreck. The world will be caught up in this debacle in ways similar to how the virus caused havoc everywhere after its initial outbreak inside China.

The likely outcome of this will be the same as it always is when asset bubbles pop. After an initial drop in price, gold goes up while everything else goes down.

The reason for this is that gold is sold for cash at the beginning by leveraged investors. But this stops relatively soon because few speculators have mush exposure to the yellow metal. They are mainly invested in the bubble. Once they've sold their gold, they continue to sell bubble assets, and whatever cash they get is then put into safe haven assets. The safe haven asset of choice is traditionally gold, and will again be gold because it's far from bubble territory at the moment. Historic data shows it to be underappreciated.

Looking at the daily gold chart, we see that gold is down since September 3. But it bounced on the news out of Hong Kong this morning. The selloff associated with the initial unwind may already be over. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is continuing its decline. It's not behaving like the safe haven asset that many believe it to be. On the contrary, it's behaving like the speculative asset that it actually is.

It's still early days in what looks increasingly likely to become a major sell off in risk assets, but the trend may already have been set. Gold will go up while everything else goes down.

Train wreck at Montparnasse 1895.jpg
Train wreck

By Photo credited to the firm Levy & fils by this site. (It is credited to a photographer "Kuhn" by another publisher [1].) - the source was not disclosed by its uploader., Public Domain, Link

Sunday, September 19, 2021

A Visit to Burger King

We went for a stroll along Matosinhos beach last evening. Hardly anyone seemed very concerned about the virus. There were a few fearful ones wearing their masks, but most people have figured out the scam by now. There's nothing healthy about putting on a mask when out walking, and it's particularly nonsensical to put on a mask when out to catch a breath of fresh sea air.

It was a nice end to the day with temperatures hovering around 20C. Once the sun set, the temperatures dropped a little more. We felt peckish, so we decided to get ourselves some food at Burger King. We put on our masks, headed inside, and placed our orders at the self service machine. With temperatures a little low for sitting outside, we looked for a table inside. However, we were soon reminded that indoors dining is forbidden for the unvaccinated on Saturdays and Sundays. We were therefore instructed to eat our food outside.

We went outdoors where we found a table, and that's when it struck me how strange it was that there weren't anyone sitting inside, because the terrace outside was full of people, despite the relatively cool temperatures and the lack of proper lighting. People were sitting there despite these discomforts. Yet we're told that 85% of people in Portugal are vaccinated by now, so what's going on?

One reason could be that the 85% number does not apply to the complete population of Portugal. It applies to adults above a certain age, and most of the people at Burger King were young. However, even if the 85% number was accurate for the guests at the restaurant, there would be 15% who weren't vaccinated, and if the typical group of customers is 4 individuals, we get that the chance that everybody in a group are vaccinated is a mere 52%.

But if people were forced to sit outside due to a stubborn friend or two, the atmosphere wouldn't have been as upbeat as it was. People seemed content to sit outside; even quite happy. My wife felt this too. She sensed a spirit of defiance, as if sitting outside was an act of righteous rebellion.

We might have witnessed the early stages of of a trend I predicted back in August. Vaccine passports will be seen as a social burden rather than a privilege. Carrying one for everyday affairs indicate a willingness to submit, which is never a cool thing among friends. Hence, even the vaccinated will prefer to avoid the use of their passports.

This will in turn lead to a certain reverence towards the unvaccinated, because we will be perceived as the most committed to the cause of liberty. Our refusal to submit will be seen as strength, rather than insolence.

All that's needed to push this trend further, is to remain calm and unafraid. Pointing out the nonsensical nature of the rules and the relatively harmless nature of the virus will serve this purpose.

This will make people start to actively seek alternatives wherever vaccines are mandated. Once people realize that vaccines have nothing to do with health, and everything to do with control, they will be seen as bureaucratic measures to be avoided as much as possible.

My wife believes that vaccines will be mandated for everyone at some point. But she also expects to see loopholes. Her colleagues will find workarounds, not least because they need her more than she needs them. She too has taken on the mindset of a sovereign, and it's making her decidedly happy about things.

I was right in my assessment when my wife expressed her intention to get vaccinated. She wanted me to put my foot down, which I did. The result of this is that she too sees herself as a sovereign. How could it be any other way? She's married to a sovereign. Becoming a serf for the elite was therefore never an option, and I proved this by saying no to her expressed intention.

Matosinhos beach
Matosinhos beach

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Water, Cloud Formation and Geology

Dr. Gerald Pollack is an engaging speaker with interesting thoughts and observations about water, and how it relates to electricity and light. His lecture on this is well worth a listen. Among other things, he explains how clouds are able to hang in the air without falling down, and how cloud formations stick together to form large structures.

Similarly, Henrik Svensmark's documentary on cloud formation highlights some interesting aspects of weather patterns, especially the importance of cosmic radiation in the formation of clouds.

Clouds aren't merely the result of heat and water vapor. There has to be aerosols in the air for them to form, and these aerosols come about naturally through cosmic radiation. This finding was contested in its time because it suggests that climate change is linked to variations in sun activity rather than human activity. But Svensmark managed to prove his theory, and his findings are now widely acknowledged. The water droplets that make up clouds require cosmic radiation to form.

This finding leads to another puzzle, highlighted by Pollack. How is it that the water droplets stick together to form clouds, and why don't they fall down onto the ground? The answer to this can be found in the way water reacts to electromagnetic radiation, both in the visible and infrared range. Water, it turns out, becomes negatively charged in the presence of light.

With the surface of our planet also negatively charge, we end up with electrostatic repulsion between the ground and water droplets in clouds, and this is how clouds are kept suspended in the air.

Based on this, it seems strange that clouds stick together. Wouldn't the electrostatic repulsion that exists between ground and water droplets also make water droplets separate from each other? The answer to this riddle can be found in the fact that the air between each water droplet is positively charged. Hence, we get an effect similar to what we have in the formation of molecules. The droplets push on each other, but the air that fills the gap between them pull them together. The equilibrium becomes the fluffy structures that we call clouds.

Rain can in turn be explained in terms of charge balancing. If a cloud becomes a lot more negatively charged than the ground, there will come a point where some of the charge in the cloud needs to be shared with the ground. Letting drops fall to the ground is an efficient way to do this. Even more efficient is the production of lightning. Thus we can see rain as a dark mode of electric flow between clouds and air, and lightning as the arc mode of this same electric flow.

An interesting observation in all of this is that storms have an eye in their center. This eye consists of dry positively charged air, and it's this eye that holds the storm together. The negatively charged clouds stick to the eye that is held open through electrostatic repulsion between positively charged air molecules.

This same mechanism is likely to exist at the center of stars and planets. They too are likely to be hollow due to electrostatic repulsion. The negatively charged crust is in turn kept together in large part by this positively charge center.

Cross section of a hollow planet
Cross section of a hollow planet

This type of stability that comes as a consequence of two opposing forces acting together can also explain the stability of orbits. Gravity pulls astronomic objects together from their center. Electrostatic forces act from their surfaces to push them apart.

Stability through gravitational pull and electrostatic push
Stability through gravitational pull and electrostatic push

This can in turn explain why our moon is receding from us. If our planet is expanding, as it seems to have been doing ever since the dinosaurs, then our planet's capacitance is increasing, leading to more surface charge. More surface charge leads to stronger electrostatic repulsion, and hence a receding moon.

Expanding Earth seen from the South Pole
Expanding Earth seen from the South Pole

In the end, everything is following the same pattern. There are opposing forces at all levels of existence, and they act together to form the stable structures that we see everywhere around us.

Dealing with Psychopaths

My wife and I are watching a remarkably well made TV series from Norway. It's about four rich guys who get together to enjoy what they each perceive as the good life. They are all cynics, and believe in hedonism as a lifestyle. However, they also have their own quirks that make them distinctly different from each other. There's the controlling husband. There's the man who refuses to tell a lie. There's the aimless drifter to whom nothing but immediate pleasures hold any value, and there's the suicidal one with money trouble.

I have not seen the end of the series, but I suspect the aimless drifter will end up helping his suicidal friend in some way. We have already been introduced to his sniper rifle and his stack of cash, so this is pretty much a certainty. However, the more interesting sub-plot is the dynamics between the controlling husband and his wife, and how the guy who refuses to tell a lie blows up that relationship.

The controlling husband uses typical psychopath trickeries to control his wife. All troubles in their relationships are ascribed to her. She's too concerned with what he's up to. She's reading too much into things. She's overreacting. Their failure to get kids are due to her being too tense and anxious. Additionally, he makes her financially dependent on him by insisting that she enjoys her life without any worry about money. He's dishing out money in order to control her.

All of this has the effect of making his wife deeply insecure about everything. She internalizes these insecurities, and defends her husband whenever someone points out that he's not as loving towards her as he should be. However, all it takes for the spell to be broken is a few well chosen words from the guy who tells no lies. When she asks him if her husband would be a good father, his reply is no. Not only would her husband be a terrible father, he's sterile. There will be no children, at least not with her husband.

With the spell broken, control is lost, and the final episode will show how quickly everything unravels.

The story is accurate on all levels. I used to live among this kind of people, and the atmosphere and the way they talk and dress is spot on. The dark humor equally so. Many of the details are taken from real events, which further adds to the sense that these people really do exist. But the story is not in the end about the financial elite of Oslo. The plot has a universal angle to it. It shows how money is but a means to an end, and that this can be used constructively or destructively.

The guy that tells no lies is brutally honest because he can afford it. The controlling husband cares not for money but for control. The aimless drifter doesn't care about anything but his own pleasures. The only one obsessing about money is the one in money trouble.

With this in mind, it's a lot easier to understand what's going on in the world of politics. The psychopaths have taken over, and they care not for money because they can print as much of it as they like. What they want is control, and they want it for no other reason than control itself. This is pretty much identical to the dysfunctional relationship between the controlling husband and his wife.

We are encouraged to stop working and depend on the state for money instead. We're constantly blamed for all the faults in the world. Be it the virus or the climate, it's all due to our selfish and narrow minded view of the world.

Those in the grip of the psychopaths go around defending their oppressors in much the same way that the dependent wife defends her psychopath husband. No amount of arguments or logic will make them change their minds. However, a few well chosen words of truth will break the spell, and from what I see around me, it looks like people are waking up to the fact that government is an institution that attracts psychopaths by its very nature.

Government is about control. It's about forcing people into doing things that they would not otherwise do. With free access to money, there's basically no limit to how deranged government will get, and what we've seen over the past years and a half is proof of this.

But the psychopaths have a problem. Once people wake up, they can no longer be controlled, and this appears to be happening everywhere. All it takes to continue the awakening is to speak the truth. No-one has to shout anything from rooftops. If we merely state the obvious whenever appropriate, people will wake from their slumber and realize that the government is not some benevolent father, but a controlling husband of the most abusive kind.

portrait photograph of a 55-year-old Johnson
Boris Johnson

By Ben Shread / Cabinet Office, OGL 3, Link

Friday, September 17, 2021

The Michelson-Morley Experiment

I received an e-mail from a man named Jean de Climont a few days ago. It was about the Michelson-Morley experiment and how it ought to be performed in space. He included a PDF and a YouTube video promoting this idea. The video includes a summary on the history of optics and how it relates to aether theory.

As noted in the video, the Michelson-Morley experiment was designed to test the aether as a motionless solid; a hypothesis that was abandoned soon after the discovery of the photon. The experiment served to disprove the solid aether hypothesis. However, it didn’t disprove the existence of an aether. A fluid aether that’s easily dragged by solid objects would be consistent with the experiment.

My proposed aether is of the highly fluid kind that adopts readily to all reference frames, including boxed compartments and rooms. The Michelson-Morley experiment, which compares the speed of light in one direction to that of another direction should therefore come up with a null result, especially in enclosed spaces. But, as noted in the video, recent measurements based on modern technology has picked up signals indicating drift. The speed of light appears to be dependent on direction, which would suggest the existence of a fluid aether if confirmed.

An experiment carried out in space would be one way to test this further. But if the aether is as fluid as I suspect, it must be carried out in free space, and not inside a spacecraft if it is to fully detect the aether as it relates to the solar system. Furthermore, the equipment must not be contained in a box. The laser beams must travel through space with nothing covering their path. Only then will we be able to detect the full effect of the spacecraft’s motion relative to the solar system.

A spacecraft traveling around the sun in the opposite direction to Earth should register a significant deviation in the speed of light because it will be traveling against the aether as it’s dragged around the sun.

The same experiment, performed inside the spacecraft should register a much smaller deviation. That would verify the fluid nature of the aether, and its tendency to latch onto whatever reference frame there happens to be in a given region of space.

The experiment performed outside the spacecraft should register the aether with the solar system as its reference frame. The experiment performed inside the spacecraft should register the aether with the spacecraft as its reference frame.

MMX with optical resonators.svg
Modern optical resonator

By User:Stigmatella aurantiaca - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Sudden Adult Death Syndrome

It happened in July, but I was only made aware of this story yesterday. A 25 year old society girl died suddenly for no good reason at all. Her illness lasted a mere 16 hours, with no symptoms whatsoever prior to her sudden headache and vomiting.

With no explanation for her sudden illness and death, the event has been noted down as a case of sudden adult death syndrome. A connection to the vaccine has been ruled out due to the fact that she received her second shot in March, four months prior to her death. However, this assumes that vaccines are only deadly for a short while after injection. That seems unlikely, given the active nature of mRNA vaccines.

But there's no surprise in this. When a nurse in Porto died only days after receiving her first shot, that too was put down to sudden adult death syndrome.

If there's no virus, the cause of death is always difficult to establish. That's what we're told. However, if there's evidence of any virus, there's no doubt about the cause, as was evident in the death of aunt Augusta, who died from the virus even though no-one in her family was aware of her having caught the flu. She was morbidly overweight and had one foot in the grave, yet it was the virus that killed her.

This is the state of medical science these days, and the reason we have to rely more on direct observations than the opinion of experts. One thing to look for is any increase in sudden and unexplainable deaths. Another thing to look for is any increase in searches for this phenomenon.

As it turns out, people are dropping dead all over the place for no good reason at all. Searches for sudden adult death syndrome are up 400%. There appears to be an increasing awareness that something sinister is afoot, and that it's related to the vaccines.

Wax plant
Wax plant

Propaganda Wearing Thin

I'm not sure what caused the surge in mask wearing yesterday, because the compliance with this recommendation has dropped back to about 40% where it was two days ago. Whatever propaganda was tossed at the serfs didn't stick, and the reason for this can be found in basic psychology.

The idea was clearly to shame people into submission: Responsible people wear their masks, even if there's no law requiring us to do so. Only the irresponsible and selfish take advantage of their freedom.

This logic explains why there were so many people making a deliberate act of their submission to the mask recommendation. They were making a point of being responsible and caring, and they were trying to shame me into submission. However, an act of submission cannot be used in this way. The submissive is never the master, and this must have become clear to just about everyone over the last 24 hours.

The ones still wearing their masks are the submissive ones. They also display signs of depression. They look down, they avoid eye contact, and their posture is often hunched. Those without a mask hold their heads high, their posture is assertive, and they look confident and happy.

The failed propaganda push has only highlighted this distinction. The ones with no masks were noticeably upbeat this morning. The ones wearing their masks were all the more depressed.

Reeve and Serfs.jpg
Reeve and serfs

By anonymous (Queen Mary Master) - this file: scan dated 2009, uploaded (without identification of the source) 12 May 2010 by Ann Scott (medievalminds.comReeve-and-Serfs.original1.jpg), Public Domain, Link

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Obrigado

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.

- Pericles

This quote is as true today as it was when it was first recorded more than 2000 years ago. We mustn't assume that our desire to be left alone is going to be honored by our fellow men. Hence, we have to keep up our defenses and hit back at anything that might threaten our autonomy. However, this doesn't mean that we must join in the circus that is party politics. There are more effective ways to keep people in their place than casting a vote every four years.

A strategy that I'm using myself is to come up with ways to signal my intention to stay firm in the face of pressure to conform. When people stated to shout at me for not wearing my mask correctly, I adopted a hostile dress code to keep people at a distance.

Dandy thug dress code
Dandy thug dress code

It worked as intended. People stopped shouting at me for exposing my nose.

Things have improved a lot since then, so I've relaxed my style. But I still wear my mask of the beast whenever a mask is required. I don't want anyone to think I'm on board with the nonsense.

Mask of the beast
Mask of the beast

I've been wearing T-shirts with death related themes through the summer to signal my dislike for the vaccine. But I've stopped doing that now. I figure a more positive statement is appropriate now that the mask mandate has been relaxed, so I make a point of dressing exactly the way I used to dress before the hysteria started.

The response to my return to the old normal has been varied. No-one shouts at me, as they would have done a year ago. But many look at me with suspicion. They tuck their masks extra snugly over their noses as they pass me by. It's a deliberate statement on their part, signaling hostility towards the fact that I don't wear my mask as recommended. However, I'm deliberately misinterpreting their signals. I respond with a friendly thank you and have a nice day.

This stunt has two sides to it. One being a reference to pre-hysteria times when a friendly good day was part of normal social interaction whenever two strangers caught each other's eyes. Thank you would also be uttered at any opportunity to signal appreciation for even the smallest of considerations. Bon dia and obrigado was heard everywhere. It's been a central part of Portuguese culture since forever, but now somewhat lost to hysteria. Taking up this habit strengthens my signaled desire to return to the old normal.

The other aspect of this is to make clear that submission to recommended rules does not make anyone superior. The ones adhering to the rules are serfs. Making a deliberate gesture out of it is nothing more than deliberate submission. It merely establishes a hierarchy in which I'm the sovereign and they are the serfs. I'm fine with that. I can even appreciate it, and I acknowledge this with a friendly obrigado and bon dia as I pass them by.

Reeve and Serfs.jpg
Reeve and serfs

By anonymous (Queen Mary Master) - this file: scan dated 2009, uploaded (without identification of the source) 12 May 2010 by Ann Scott (medievalminds.comReeve-and-Serfs.original1.jpg), Public Domain, Link