A fantastic Documentary about an absolute bastard who also happened to be one of the greatest Drummers of all time - GINGER BAKER
BEWARE OF MR. BAKER (2012)
Betore Rome, there was Carthage. Before Carthage, there was Tyre.
Europe, Princess of Tyre, gave her name to the continent of Europe, to those who, today, let Israel destroy her city, Tyre—a city more than 5,000 years old—by European weapons without saying a word.
What you see in this image are not merely ordinary columns; they are the historical columns of Tyre in southern Lebanon are iconic Roman architectural remains. They are part of an ancient Phoenician city-state that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
I could not identify any military targets that would justify striking a UNESCO World Heritage protected site. We are watching history beirg erased in real time by Israel.
Australia’s housing obsession is one of its greatest weaknesses.
Rising house prices are not a sign of prosperity.
What they actually tell you is that more money is being borrowed from the banking sector to buy homes.
The cause of rising house prices is rising household debt, and that is unproductive.
House prices are now five times more expensive than consumer goods compared to 1970. We should never have allowed that to happen.
Housing should not be an asset.
It is not something you should profit out of. It is something you should live in.
The people who really benefit from rising house prices are real estate agents and property developers, not the families who live in them.
We are paupers living inside castles. Paying a fortune on the mortgage, a fortune on private schools, and out of the remainder, just trying to live.
For the more information, check out the comment section,
#SteveKeen #AustraliaProperty #HousingCrisis #MortgageDebt #Economics #HousingAffordability
This isn’t an apocalyptic film.
This is Tyre, South Lebanon, today.
A 5,000-year-old city.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Israel is wiping it out.
Turning one of humanity’s oldest cities into ash.
This is the destruction of civilization itself — unfolding in real time.
Jewish cultural sites are not the only ones with international historical significance…
In 1909, a 21-year-old T.E. Lawrence—long before he became “Lawrence of Arabia”—walked more than 1,000 miles across Ottoman Syria on a solo research trip for his Oxford thesis on Crusader military architecture. One site stopped him in his tracks: Beaufort Castle, known locally as Qala’at al-Shaqif, the soaring 12th-century fortress perched on a dramatic cliff above the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
He wrote home describing it as “a fine fortress (early xiii) well situated… the view was very good.” He sketched its walls, measured its towers, and later wove it into his book Crusader Castles. Popular accounts often quote him calling it one of the finest medieval castles in the entire region—an irreplaceable masterpiece of military engineering that blended strength, beauty, and commanding position like few others.
Fast-forward 117 years. That same “fine fortress”—a globally recognised heritage site granted special protection under international law precisely because of its cultural value—is once again under fire.
In recent weeks Israeli airstrikes and artillery have hammered the Beaufort area, with smoke rising near the ancient walls and explosions shaking the ridge. Lebanon’s culture ministry and heritage experts have warned of direct damage to one of the best-preserved Crusader castles in the Levant.
The IDF says it’s hitting “terror infrastructure” and Hezbollah positions. The ridge has been militarised before, that’s true. But when you pound the immediate vicinity of a 900-year-old UNESCO-level monument with bombs and shells, you don’t get to wave it away as “collateral.” International humanitarian law—the 1954 Hague Convention—exists for exactly this reason: to shield humanity’s shared cultural memory from the chaos of war. Beaufort isn’t a bunker or a legitimate military target; it’s living history that belongs to all of us.
Lawrence saw the castle’s genius as a scholar, not a soldier. He understood its strategic brilliance and its timeless beauty. Today that beauty is being risked—perhaps irreparably—for short-term tactical gains in a grinding border conflict. Destroying or endangering irreplaceable heritage doesn’t defeat an enemy; it erases something priceless that survived Saladin, earthquakes, and centuries of conquest. Crusader castles like this one endured for nearly a millennium. They shouldn’t be reduced to rubble because someone parked a launcher nearby.
Lebanon has appealed to UNESCO for urgent intervention. The world should be paying attention. Qala’at al-Shaqif isn’t just Lebanese or Arab heritage—it’s our heritage. T.E. Lawrence recognised its value more than a century ago. The least we can do is demand it be spared now.
History is watching. So should we.
#BeaufortCastle #CulturalHeritage #Lebanon
@MayneReport I once saw him walking along with a woman in Sydney CBD on Saturday afternoon. Laughing, relaxed, the opposite of how he appears in the Sky circus. Split personality, perhaps?
@nomiprins You could heat and cool a house with geothermal, but the upfront costs are expensive (about AUD30K). I'm fascinated with it as a heating/cooling system.