Magnificent, aren't they. Each V formation is a skein, so you had quite a few of those.
Sorry Brian but I can't find the relevant post - just to say I just saw an enormous flock (skein ?) of cranes flying towards the north-east, probably about one thousand (ish).
Lot of ambiguity possible there. Firstly Boudicca spear, then...
My dad. I wish he was still around as this would give me the opportunity to tell him how much I loved and respected him. You see, I never thought it important to tell him while he was still with us...
I can think of two, Boudicca and Lady Godiva, both of whom made their point in entirely different ways.
The Duke "of" Ellington !
For whom people who need to walk dogs through mud in the rain are eternally grateful.
Wellington.
Thanks Brian, that éclaires my lanterne - I remembered the town but that was IT ;-)
Exactly, VERY misunderstood - massive encourager of craftpeople & science as well as these were sadly lacking on the steppe (so OK he went & pillaged them in Persia, not so good) he had v natty collapsible villages for camping on campaign. He had a fantastically effective postal service too. The Il-Khans who ruled Persia for just over a century were his descendants, Hulagu - the first Il Khan - was Ghengis' grandson. I loved the wonderful & sometimes v funny history of the time written by Iranians in Il-Khanid employment I had to wade through when I was an undergraduate (no translations, obviously). He was miles better than a lot of other warlords of the time. The Mongols really do get a terrible press, so unfair. Timur was MUCH worse, still, look on the bright side Marlowe couldn't have written Tamburlaine without him.
Temüjin, the Genghis Khan who united the Mongol nomadic tribes is so misunderstood. The Mongol invasions that ended with the conquest of most of Eurasia saw wholesale massacres of the civilian populations among rival groups and tribes. He brought the Silk Road under one cohesive political environment. It increased communication and trade from Northeast Asia through to Moslem south west Asia and Christian Europe, also expanding the horizons of all three cultural areas. He also practised meritocracy and encouraged religious tolerance throughout the Mongol Empire while unifying the nomadic tribes of north east Asia. In fact, he did more to create a kind of peaceful, something like democratic empire after the bloody conquests than history ever credits him with.
He bought New Harmony, Indiana, a community founded by the Rappites tfor $135,000, then invited people to apply for the 800 spaces that were available. Owen believed that the community would serve as the model for the 'New Moral World' that would follow New Harmony and transform world society according to enlightenment principles. Progressive experiments in education, communal living and science were attempted. Owen took some of the most progressive European educators and scientists to New Harmony. The community created equality for all inhabitants, male and female. This manifestation of equality was tied to the responsibility of every citizen to contribute to the community's labour force. In order to provide motivation for his workers in this system. He set a system of 'time money' and 'time stores' taking those ideas several steps forward from New Lanark. New Harmony currency was worth the amount of time that a worker had worked and could be exchanged for commodities worth the equivalent amount of labour. Although Owen provided New Harmony with everything he could imagine it would need to succeed, it was missing one component that made other communities, like the Shakers, cohesive. Owen did not believe in God, thus their was no 'central covenant' that committed the residents of New Harmony to the experiment. Although they were united by communal labour and the concept of utopian life, the rational concepts upon which Owen had based the community were antithetical to communal life without a strong central belief that served to unite other utopian groups. They were all Christian. Being influenced by other groups, the members of the community lacked, New Harmony dissolved in less than three years. The principals were good but culturally Owen misread the strong need for a belief that was central to American utopianism. However, in the 19 century there were hundreds of communities in the USA using Owenite models.
Ghengis Kahn.
Didn't he buy a town in the US to be a flagship progressive community? What happened next if so?
Robert Owen the Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. His Owen’s most famous work is the New Lanark Mills and village at New Lanark in Scotland. He bought the mills in 1799, modernised them and improved working and social conditions of workers. His pioneering work there included shortening the working day, fair pay and introducing a minimum age for apprentices. It extended to improving the living conditions of the workers, including improving housing, introducing street cleaning, introducing a system of local government and opening a company store where profits went to fund the free village school in a model village built for the workforce. Owen stands head shoulders above all other social reformers.