[Sca-cooks] noncooking topic

[Aruvqan]

*snicker* Probably not too far from the truth. Despite what most people 
want to believe, people are pretty much the same no matter what era they 
are from.

At one point in my youth I was absolutely fascinated by Egypt, then I 
dated an archeologist and learned the ugly truth about the field ... and 
promptly gave up the idea. Making a living as an Egyptologist is pretty 
much impossible [or it was before you could convince a cable network to 
pay for a documentary] and you made a living teaching, working in 
museums or working a real job and being slave labor on your vacations 
... Then in the era of the internet, I seriously shot myself in the foot 
[if I had wanted to go back to school and get a late in life degree] by 
posting in a number of places over the years on what I really felt about 
Zahi Hawass ... and up until recently he was the dictator of everything 
archeological in Egypt and I would bet anybody who wants a dig permit in 
Egypt ended up getting checked in depth enough that my comments 
effectively calling him a corrupt, egotistical jackass would pretty much 
get me barred from any digs ... I think I also had rather nasty things 
to say about his technique [after he popped open a sarcophogus live on 
TV with no respiratory protection] and I believe i also pointed out his 
habit of effectively moving in and taking over digs if it looks like 
they might be getting something good going unless the dig is run by 
someone with some backing or another that keeps Hawass at bay.

On 2/12/2016 7:02 PM, Terry Decker wrote:
> Ah.
>
> Actually, it's god Ramses II wants a couple temples to the glory of 
> him and his consort and says "Build me some temples."  Since, there is 
> no money, the architect says, "Yes, my Pharaoh, but I need the 
> wherewithal."  "Other than your plans (that I may revel in my 
> Greatness while you get this done), don't bother me, bother whoever is 
> the Lord of MY Granaries."  Whereupon, the Royal Architect goes to the 
> Royal Exchequer and they haggle out how may khar of grain, hekat of 
> onions, hinu of beer and warm bodies doing their tax service are going 
> to be needed for the project.  Then they pad the bill, skim the grain 
> and split the take.  The architect gets the bribes to work or not work 
> on the project and the treasurer gets the bribes to actually supply 
> the project.  The artisans inflate their expenses and the tax labor 
> gets overworked to cover the cost overruns.  And whether they get away 
> with it depends on whether the Royal Accountants can be greased or if 
> the blame can be appropriately delegated away from the principals.
>
> The Pharaoh gets what he wants (a couple temples with a façade higher 
> and wider than the faces on Mt. Rushmore), the contractors and 
> government appointees (but not the government employees) get rich and 
> the taxpayers get screwed.  Some where around 700 years later, the 
> process gets easier when they start producing coinage. The descendants 
> of the original taxpayers get a little of their own back when the 
> temples become tourist traps, the government takes their cut by 
> running the tourist traps and TV execs pay for the footage to create 
> conspiracy theory television shows for the ignorant to get their cut 
> of the advertising budget which pays for the advertising industry and 
> can't be quantified as to their actual effectiveness, other than 
> people buy stuff.  Think of it as the eternal cycle of greed and graft.
>
> Bear
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Aruvqan
>
> So connect the dots, dudes. King wants temple. King tells his architect
> Temple, now. Architect builds temple or architect dies. Not really a
> problem, only problem is really how long it is going to take to chip
> stuff out of stone and haul it around. Why they keep claiming "We don't
> know how they <whatever>" with a country as well dug through as Egypt is
> beyond me ... TV version of clickbait.
>
>
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