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Prague: A Preserved Architectural Treasure
Prague was a surprise for both of us. Will said it was the most beautiful European city he's visited.
I've heard amazing things, but hadn't really looked into it. Honestly, we went because we found competitively priced tickets.
But in hindsight, it seems like such an obvious destination when in central Europe.
The city has grown exponentially in popularity among travelers in the past two years.
It's an attractive city to visit for a litany of reasons. Fairytale castles stand among small breweries touting the best beer in Europe.
And for the penny conscious traveler, it's one of Europe's least expensive capital cities.
We stayed in Praha 2, which was roughly one mile from everything we wanted to see. It was an ideal location for us.
For reference, about a 15 minute walk to the historic Old Town Square.
Prague in warmer months is undoubtedly best experienced outside. The architecture is utterly awe-inspiring.
Primarily due to the unparalled architectural diversity.
Gothic cathedrals and Baroque gardens seem almost intertwined.
And yet it felt uniquely European. More specifically, my preconceived impression an Eastern European city.
Which also made it feel a bit more foreign than from the Western Europe countries we've previously visited. Our barometer has become: Can we find peanut butter? In this case, the answer was no. There were seemingly endless options of chocolate spreads, but no peanut butter.
Perhaps the real reason it felt so unfamiliar was because it may have resembled what any European city looked like centuries ago.
It's deemed one of the best preserved cities in Europe.
However, there's a sobering reason for that.
Prague remains largely in tact due to Hitler's adoration of Prague's architectural history.
It's believed at one point he wanted Prague to be the arts capital of a Nazi Europe.
Therefore, Prague evaded much of the extensive devastation experienced by bordering cities.
Others throughout history admired Prague as well.
Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Einstein taught at Charles University, and Mozart composed some of his most notable opera's in Prague.
Prague is best discovered through walking, even more so in the summer.
To get better oriented with the city, we took a walking tour.
We learned Prague was one of the most significant cities for Cubism, which resulted in rare and lasting Cubist architecture.
We also went by Josefov, or the Jewish quarter.
The Old New Synagogue is considered to be one of Europe's oldest standing medieval synagogues, completed in 1270.
Other than the varied and ornate buildings, we were inspired by the ample green space. Taking a note from our time in Amsterdam, we spent many days in parks.
Our first day we walked along the Vitava River and crossed the Charles Bridge.
We hiked up to the Metronome in Letna Park.
After a monument of Joesph Stalin was destroyed in 1962, the metronome was constructed in its place.
We found a shady spot, and enjoyed our packed picnic lunch.
We also appreciated Havlickovy Sady, also referred to as Grabovka.
My cousin who lived in Prague for a couple of years recommended it. Although it's away from the town center, it's gorgeous in the summer and has a terrific beer garden.
It feels like a not-so hidden secret, as Czechs and foreigners both enjoy the park in the summer.
We sat atop of the hill around sunset, listening to a guy playing his guitar overlooking the sunset. For future reference, everyone else seemed to know to bring a bottle of wine.
Perhaps our favorite green space was Vysehrad, a neo-gothic church and fortress.
It's believed the local settlement was established in the mid-10th century.
We walked around, got soft serve, and read in the lush greenery.
It's located on a rocky area above the Vltava River, with a local vinyard.
Will took some work calls.
But again, could be worse.
We walked around the perimeter of the fortress.
There were incredible windows built into the stone walls.
We stayed in Prague for nearly a week, and it was our host who really helped us cultivate a home.
Most days we would have lunch in the bright apartment, or pack sandwiches for a picnic.
We did have our favorite neighborhood spot for what we considered to be the best doner in Prague. We dined and did takeaway at Doner Kebab Can Bey several times because it was delicious, but also practically across the street from our place.
The city has tons of funky cafes. One afternoon, we went to Kavárna Zanzibar for lunch, but also to read, write, and mostly people watch.
We'd go on nightly walks around the neighborhood.
It was comforting to become so familiar with an area again.
One of my favorite nights was when we went out with our airbnb host for a drink.
It was still during the heat wave and oppressively hot. We went down to the water for some shade and also live music. We started with mugs of Staropramen.
We then went down the the river walk, where there was tons of bars on docked boats and people walking about with beers in hand.
We tried an unfiltered version.
We sat along the edge.
And enjoyed some more live music from one of the bar boats.
And so many swans. Everywhere you look. Swans!
The sun doesn't set until close to 10 p.m., and thus, the days feel never ending.
The warm pastels over the Charles Bridge was beautiful.
It was such a lovely evening.
As an aside, we discovered the Google Translate App. A little late to the game here. But, if you download the dictionary when you have Wifi, the camera translator if fairly accurate.
Which was helpful, because we found Czech to be one of the more difficult languages to decipher.
Prague is easy to explore on foot.
However, it's still a good size, and I was grateful to slow down, and have time to explore at our own pace. It's a city I can see coming back to, if only to step back in time again.


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Tips To Easily Select The Most Suitable Mortgage Refinance Rates
There are many people that have purchased a home of their own, but then they find themselves in need of more help financially. The best way to get the help you need is with mortgage refinance rates and there are some vital tips to help you select the right rates for you.
It is essential that you really take advantage of these tips and use them because they are going to make choosing the most suitable rate simple and less time consuming for you. Here are the tips to utilize for choosing your refinance rates.
One: Learn if you qualify for this loan - You need to talk to the lender you want to utilize so you can find out from them if you are eligible to get a refinance loan. Not every homeowner will be and if you are not, then trying to get this loan is a waste of your time.
So, the first step needs to be making sure that you really do qualify for a refinance loan and then you can move on to the next tip.
Two: Educate yourself - It is never smart to get any type of loan without educating yourself on it. The more information you gain on refinance loans and rates the more informed your final choice is going to be.
This is going to stop you from rushing into getting the loan or choosing a rate so you can make sure that the smartest choice is being made for you and your needs. Talk to the lender you want to use for this loan and learn as much information as you can through them because they have the knowledge and experience to help you make the smartest one for you.
You also want to get online and research refinance loans so you understand exactly what it is and also take time to check out the current rates so you can find out what the average rate.
Three: Ask questions - One mistake that many people make when trying to get a refinance loan is not asking questions of the lender they are using to get it. You need to ask all of the questions that come to mind and really listen to the lender's answers and suggestions.
They have knowledge and experience in the housing market and with this type of loan that will make them valuable to you in making the best decision for your family.
For anyone that utilizes these tips you will not have a difficult time selecting the most suitable mortgage refinance rates for you. Just ensure that you take your time and learn the information you need about this type of loan and the rates so you are confident that your final choice is the wisest move for the help your family needs right away.
by: Jeff Schuman

subset: commoncrawl


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Love to the actual Tufts Area: A Guest Blog
Love to the actual Tufts Area: A Guest Blog
The notification below ended up being written by anyone of excavation, Eddie Lowe, in response to a current firestorm on the Tufts campus over a planned policy modify allowing orlando departures through the non-discrimination insurance plan.
As soon as everyone was in arms, posting and putting your signature petitions, reasoning and arguing for as well as against the issue with passion, Eddie decided to reach out to those who have been completely forgotten, laid to rest in a ascending tide involving anger plus stubborn indictment. He achieved out to individuals who had, start with, been disallowed by the Tufts Christian Fellowship from working for placements on the table; and those like them, who had been told "no" on the grounds of folks they were, not necessarily the choices they'd made.
Which all I can say. I am just doing this due to the fact I was transferred by the notice and have worked the document deserved some sort of wider visitors. The rest is all Eddie:
I would like to offer a sincere and general population apology to some and all of the very LGBT/Allies online community, especially the ones from the Stanford community, on the part of Christian systems and institutions that deny you, exceptleave out you, criticize you, or perhaps make you feel excess and unloved. For extended periods these systems have used different guises to go on and propagate intolerant and also discriminatory worldviews that vindicate the belittlement and intimidation of other individuals, and I make a unique apology in this behavior which can be rampant from the church at this time.
In fact , I believe it was Christ (you know, that person who expired on which will wooden thing) who cooled with all those looked down upon in addition to rejected with the institutional devout empires involving his day.
Jesus is in love with you, is certainly for you, accepts you actually and has simply no desire to adjust you. Virtually all God wants is you to learn and working experience His really enjoy for you. The person does not want to "fix" you actually. Why fails to he choose to fix a person? Because you avoid need repairing. You're quite freaking lovely just the approach you are: ) and He sees you a single billion occasions more fantastic than I realize you (which, in case you don't realize, is incredibly freaking amazing).
I see that many people cure others how they perceive The almighty treats them all. A jesus who requires particular behaviors and also lifestyles outside of his young children does not appear at all such as Jesus I realize and adore. Christian establishments and solutions that require precise behaviors in a roundabout way preach sales messages that are inconsistent with Christ and His communication of 100 % free acceptance, absolutely love and fellowship to all people regardless of love-making orientation.
And also brought elegance, not legislations part minimal payments
I apologize regarding those who still believe Mycket bra requires those to act the specific way or simply follow a ebook of regulations to gain his really like and likability.
This "God" is not the particular God with the New Testament (you realize, that Christ guy).
For these misrepresentations of Christ and His really enjoy for you shomoop, I want to ask for your current forgiveness to the shortcomings, bias, hate, exclusion and splendour rampant on the western church (especially on the more evangelical streams).
Of course , forgiveness should not lead to you stop fighting exclusion and impair. I just ask you forgive those that treat an individual this way, never allow them to continue to treat everyone this way.
Eventually, Christians may wake up for the realization that they're accepted in addition to loved unconditionally by Jesus and will put an end to instutional bar and elegance.
In the meantime, I apologize for the agony they have induced you and wish to ask anyone (like an individual, the one discovering this right now) personally in your forgiveness.
"God has shown everyone that I must not call any specific man impure or unclean"-the Apostle Paul holmes, Acts 20: 28
Jesus will never get you to change on your own. He is in love with you passionately. The flavor of religion is always wanting to force you to ultimately become one thing you're not. The taste of the gospel is Christ showing people exactly how very beautiful you could be. I apologize a growing number of of us aren't tell the difference.
"Men never perform evil so completely along with cheerfully as when they get it done from orlando conviction"-Blaise Pascal
In the words of this is my buddy: "I'm in love with someone and He wants it! "
A year ago now….
Defferement has always been the greatest pal and bassesse. A year ago at present, I was one of the many (few) kids who were labored on their Tufts supplement right up till the very last moment. With my case, the exact distracting capabilities of Y. R. I actually. E. Some remarkable. D. Nasiums. reruns acquired the better associated with me. Genuinely, all I can also remember from this dark time period self-reflections plus euphemisms regarding my problems was the wonderful sense associated with relief that came with over submit just one final occasion on the fact that damned common application website (I however hold certain personal grudges with the website). So , in place of blogging pertaining to more prologue stuff, I thought why not write about something somewhat happier (seeing as it is the modern years and all) and come up with what to do RIGHT AFTER those unconstrained are in in addition to just a couple nights more of crack.
Withstand up, and get seeing that far away from a computer as you can. Yes, I know the attraction of Fb declarations, Skype calls along with tweets tend to be brooding. However , chances are, member procrastinators, you could have just seated in front of the laptop for a 12 hours vertical and for often the sake from your neck, view and other areas of the body, go out of doors. Absorb Vitamin and mineral D together with fresh oxygen (unless you in China like Really, in which case continue being indoors instead) but you obtain the picture. Critically though, launch yourself from that 13′ video display and frolic amongst the dandelions and grass fields or perhaps the inactive twigs for winter.
Whole my approval process, I channeled William from 700 Days of The summer months and I overlooked down our street bobbing along to be able to Hall together with Oates. There's really no such issue as blue skipping. Should you do not believe me personally, try it. I'm going gladly provide a dollar so that you can someone who could skip vertical the mountain without breaking a grin even if you feel slightly ridiculous.
2 .
Sleep. Just as before, going by the fact that most likely pulled a good all-nighter to acquire that app together, the very incredibly-sleep-deprived you will have earned a well-deserved 14-hour nap, what type where you slumber until you're so worn out from resting.
When I accomplished my instance, I hibernated for god-knows-how-long. But I will be pretty sure I used to be something like this….
Purchase to something awesome, simply just try not to down and out your family. To do, I presented myself a good cupcake and also a cappuccino. Obtained worth any cent today.
Genuinely, congratulations so you can get yourself with one of the most difficult things you will have to go through (at least until finally grad school applications plus job interviews). With all the following being explained and undertaken, I am and will eventually forever come to be grateful pertaining to going through this unique experience a year ago today and possesses made me the stronger man or woman, a person who is SLIGHTLY more absolutely clear on herself in comparison with she was a year earlier.
But for right now, don't stress, don't think of what you composed or that the final sentence in your essay could have applied an extra comma. Go out, enjoy the fun and stay like it can your senior citizen year until finally those likability letters consider rolling around the corner.


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To install Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 for Mac on a local computer, follow the steps below:
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Dog Walking
Traveling Preferences
- Available
- Unavailable
Joel is very caring and loving towards the animals that I have seen him with. He has been around animals all his life. He likes to spend time and attention on the animals that I have seen him with. I have seen him around cats, dogs, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and goats... I am sure I am forgetting something. Joel would be a great companion for any pet.
Joel M. loves Dogs of any kind of breed. He was raised with three Boxers and also liked big dogs. He took care of a Dachshund for six months.
About Joel
I'll run or walk with your dog
Most of my life growing up we always had a dog in the family. I now how to take care of dogs since I have been around dogs for most of my life. My most recant dogs that my family has are boxers and they play rough and I can handle them being rough. I would run/walk with dogs almost every day Monday-Friday. I have no experience in walking other peoples dogs this is my ...


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is dedicated to culinary excellence and immaculate service for all catering needs. With an exceptionally harmonious team, we deliver great food and service tailored to the unique needs of each of our clients. With 'Nicolas Audi' signature finesse and style we cater for all events with up to 2500 guests from start to end, consistently devoted to perfection.
We start by sending our industry experts to your venue to gather detailed information that is critical to providing you with cost-efficient options for hosting a flawless event. The menu is then studied and customized for your event under the direct supervision of Nicolas Audi. After designing the perfect meal, he then plans the event layout to ensure the most effective setup of buffets, bars and tables.
With heightened focus on the highest standards of health, hygiene, and workplace safety, we maintain unmatched standards of service, food quality, and client satisfaction.
For Inquiries please contact:
+961 4 525 709
+961 4 407 075
from Monday to Saturday.
With an ambitious team and the existence of opportunities in the private sector, the management at Nicolas Audi took the lead in investing and taking a greater interest in the Corporate Sector such as private companies, banks, schools, and universities, among others.
We strive to balance flavor and health so that the wellbeing of your employees or students becomes our priority.
Our mission is to offer fresh and healthy meals, a variety of salads, packed sandwiches, dessert, and seasonal fruits.
We adopt the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program in all its food handling and cooking disciplines.
Our company received the "Q-Platinum Award": the Leading International Food Safety Certification by Boecker.
Nicolas Audi Le Restaurant caters to all your events in a beautiful atmosphere in the heart of Beirut! From customized breakfast, lunch and dinner to private invitations, baptisms, engagements, corporate events, business or art gatherings, parties and so much more, we make it happen!
Our indoor area fits up to 110 seated or 200 standing and opens to our outdoor terrace overlooking Beirut high-rises which fits up to 80 seated. The space includes the restaurant, bar and lounge which can be booked separately for your parties!
Indulge in our gourmet French and Lebanese cuisine, from select homemade foie gras to Lebanese specialties such as Siyadiyeh, freshly prepared with seasonal ingredients. With its beautifully dressed tables and flowers, the elegance of our gourmet Beirut restaurant is matched by impeccable service. La Verrière is located in the hotel Sofitel Le Gabriel in Beirut.
Spring and summer welcome visitors under the mulberry trees in IXSIR's beautiful garden, while the winter season invites guests to gather around the warmth of the 'big fireplace' in IXSIR's traditional stone house. The restaurant serves traditional Lebanese cuisine from the many different and delightful regions of Lebanon, revisited by Nicolas Audi and paired perfectly with IXSIR wines.


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The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I
- $2.99
- $2.99
Publisher Description
With love, witchcraft, and spellbinding drama, the Secret Circle series is perfect for fans of The Vampire Diaries. This special collection contains the first book in the Secret Circle series, The Initiation, as well as part one of the second book in the series, The Captive; from L.J. Smith, the New York Times bestselling author of The Vampire Diaries.
When Cassie is forced to move from California all the way to the small New England town of New Salem, she's miserable. And yet, she feels a powerful kinship to the town, and to a terrifyingly beautiful group of students who always seem to get their way. Charmed by the Secret Circle, Cassie is initiated into a coven of witches whose power has controlled New Salem for hundreds of years. But when she falls for the mysterious and intriguing Adam, she is faced with the most pressing danger of her life—and one wrong move could ultimately destroy her…
Customer ReviewsSee All
The Secret circle books are awesome
One time I was watching t.v. late in the nite then the secret circle was on. I was instantly hooked on the t.v. series. Then i asked my mom to borrow the books from the library. They are really cool!!
I loved the book!!! Everything I thought it would be
The Secret Circle
I may be an adult reader, but this was a great read. I look forward to the next book.


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The Median Sales Price in Goodyear was $303,000 in January, the first month ever above $300,000 for the city. When you consider the upward trend over the last two years, and the fact that Dec-Jan is typically the low / slow time, we might see big things in Goodyear this year. (Too bad past performance doesn't always forecast future results; we'll have to wait to see what happens…)
- Chris Butterworth
Simple MLS Charts is supported by readers like you. If you find these charts useful, please consider becoming a patron with a small monthly pledge on Patreon.
* All chart data represents single-family detached homes only. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed.


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Motorbike Review
BMW G 310 GS: At last, an affordable adventure bike
You'll still get change from R80,000 when you buy this great all-rounder, writes Mat Durrans
If one type of bike encapsulates the attractions of motorcycling it's the adventure model. Rugged good looks, tall suspension, chunky dual-purpose tyres and bash plates to provide protection against the gnarly terrain that these bikes are designed to tame.
Adventure bikes look like they're ready for anything: poised to embark on an epic life-changing journey of discovery, they somewhat ostentatiously represent the sense of freedom we bikers feel when we're on the road.
By dint of their layout they also happen to make an almost perfect all-round bike, good for long-distance road touring with excellent comfort for rider and pillion, and pretty much ideal for commuting with an upright riding position offering great visibility and effortless steering.
They would undoubtedly be even more popular than they are if they were more affordable; don't expect much change from a cool quarter-million rand for anything with a big engine. Even dropping down to the "middleweight" category where engines tend to be in the 700cc-800cc range the costs can still be eye-watering.
That's all changing though, with a sudden deluge of small-capacity adventure bikes hitting the market for the first time. Now it is possible to get a bike capable of adventuring you wherever your imagination might lead, and you'll have change from R80,000.Leading the charge is the G 310 GS, not because it was the first, but because it's a BMW and the German manufacturer dominates this market with its bigger GS models, and because BMW just doesn't do small bikes.
Or at least it didn't, but in a move that both caught the purists by surprise and opened up vast new markets to the brand, the single-cylinder G 310 R appeared last year.
In 2018 the same platform has been adapted to the adventure role, and an already good bike is now even better in this GS guise. For someone like me with limited off-road riding skills the big adventure bikes are too much of a handful when the going gets genuinely adventurous, so the 310 GS is the perfect partner for my next (first) epic expedition.
The Sunday Times will now be swamped with hate mail from the hardcore elements of the adventure riding community. Having the temerity to suggest something similar on The Bike Show, my colleague Harry Fisher has been in hiding ever since. Should he show his face again it will soon be marked with the knobbly tyre tracks of those proper adventure riders who know that only 100kW a hundred kilowatt and 2m two metres of suspension travel can take you on a real adventure.
Whatever.In the real world where skills, dreams and adventures come in wildly varying shapes and sizes I reckon this is the missing piece of the adventure jigsaw. I've long wanted to ride to some of the more out-of-the-way spots in Africa, but any time I've tried with the existing adventure bikes I always seemed to end up, disappointingly quickly, in a hospital. This has made my adventure rides memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Bikes like the G 310 GS — and there are viable alternatives from the likes of Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda — are less powerful (easier to control), lighter (easier to pick up) and cheaper (easier to repair) than the flagship models.
In the case of the new baby of the GS range there's no denying that 25kW and 28Nm are limp numbers when it comes to bike engines, but I'd also argue that for most situations it's enough. Long-distance touring at 120km/h with a bit in hand for overtaking is acceptable, and if you're prepared to keep the engine spinning with the help of the sweet gearbox it's more than peppy enough for some rapid commuting.
Unlike the bigger models, this GS is definitely a solo pathway to adventure. You can live with the modest power output on your own but add a passenger into the mix and you'll wish you'd bought a bigger bike. No worries — your better half can get his/her own bike and you'll still be saving money.Though certain details remind you that this bike has been built down to a budget (unadjustable levers and suspension), the 310 GS still feels like a quality product. The plastics are good, as is fit and finish and paintwork, and the overall impression is of a bigger, more expensive bike.
This may be a small adventure bike, but that doesn't mean you're only going to have little adventures. Quite the opposite: you will forge new paths to places those overweight behemoths can only dream of exploring. Possibly.
More probably you will be enjoying a great all-round bike that takes you to work and back during the week and enjoys the occasional bite-sized adventure at the weekend, and there's nothing wrong with that.
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Silicified plant tissues (phytoliths) preserved in Late Cretaceous coprolites from India show that at least five taxa from extant grass (Poaceae) subclades were present on the Indian subcontinent during the latest Cretaceous. This taxonomic diversity suggests that crown-group Poaceae had diversified and spread in Gondwana before India became geographically isolated. Other phytoliths extracted from the coprolites (from dicotyledons, conifers, and palms) suggest that the suspected dung producers (titanosaur sauropods) fed indiscriminately on a wide range of plants. These data also make plausible the hypothesis that gondwanatherian mammals with hypsodont cheek teeth were grazers.
Today, grasses (in the family Poaceae) are extant on all continents except Antarctica, and numerous organisms, not least humans, depend on them for food (such as cereals and feed for domesticated animals) and habitat (1). The absence of an early fossil record of grasses has prevented detailed examination of their evolution and coevolution with animals. Presumed grass pollen (Monoporites) in the Maastrichtian to Paleocene [70 to 60 million years ago (Ma)] of South America, India, and North Africa marks the earliest fossil record of Poaceae (1, 2), and unequivocal macrofossils of crown-group Poaceae appear no earlier than the Late Paleocene (∼55 Ma) (2, 3). Rare macrofossils and a phytolith record from North America point to diversification of the two main grass subclades, BEP (Bambusoideae Ehrhartoideae Pooideae) and PACCAD (Panicoideae + Arundinoideae + Chloridoideae + Centothecoideae + Aristidoideae + Danthonioideae), in the Late +Eocene (∼35 Ma) (4). In contrast, recent molecular clock estimates provide substantially older dates for the origin of both crown-group Poaceae (∼83 Ma) (5) and of the BEP and PACCAD subclades (∼55 Ma) (3). Despite these discrepancies, molecules and fossils both support a predominantly Cenozoic radiation of the grass clade (3). The biogeographical history of grasses is equally obscure. However, the distribution of extant Poaceae taxa point to a South American origin for the family (3), an inference that is supported by the aforementioned earliest occurrences of grass pollen (2). Current molecular dating and fossil data (3, 5) also favor long-distance dispersal of all major Poaceae lineages after the Late Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana.
Because grasses were thought to have been rare in pre-Cenozoic ecosystems, they have not been considered as food for Late Cretaceous herbivores (2, 6). Titanosaur sauropods, the most prominent terrestrial plant-eaters in Gondwana, do not display any dental features (such as grinding cheek teeth) that would point to grass-eating (6, 7). Mammals with typical grazing adaptations, particularly high-crowned (hypsodont) teeth, occur mainly during the Oligocene and Miocene, indicating that grasses were not previously present in sufficient abundance to form major parts of an herbivorous diet (2). A striking exception are the enigmatic sudamericid gondwanatherians, known from the Late Cretaceous of South America, Madagascar, possibly Tanzania, and India, as well as the Paleogene of South America and Antarctica [reviewed in (8–10)]. Their highly hypsodont teeth appear decidedly suited for handling abrasive materials, such as grass (11). However, because of the lack of contemporary grass fossils, they have been interpreted as an adaptation to a semiaquatic or burrowing lifestyle, reminiscent of that of modern beavers (11).
Here we provide fossil data on Late Cretaceous grasses that shed light on the early evolution of grasses and grass-eaters. The grass fossils, in the form of phytoliths, are preserved in coprolites from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Intertrappean beds of the fluvio-lacustrine Lameta Formation, at Pisdura in central India (Fig. 1). The coprolites are found in abundance weathering out on surface exposures (12). The four types (A, B, Ba, and C) of coprolites have all been ascribed to titanosaur sauropods, based on their common association with titanosaur skeletal remains (13–15). Previous work on type A coprolites shows that they contain remains of predominantly C3 plants, including conifers and cycads, but also bacterial colonies, fungal spores, and algal remains (14, 15).
We extracted bio-opal (phytoliths, diatoms, etc.) from all types (A, B, Ba, and C) of coprolites (16). The recovered organic and silicified plant fossils include cells and tissue from what were likely (i) dicotyledons [polyhedral and anticlinal epidermis, often with vesicular infillings, helical tracheary elements, honeycomb mesophyll, cystoliths, and nongrass trichomes (17)]; (ii) large pieces of silicified parenchymatous tissue probably referable to conifers; (iii) rare globular echinate phytoliths diagnostic of palms; and (iv) numerous silica phytoliths of certain-to-likely grass origin. The range of grass morphotypes is similar to that found in phytolith assemblages extracted from the leaves of modern grasses. To taxonomically place the fossil phytoliths, we collected information on Poaceae epidermal anatomy and grass silica short cell (GSSC) morphology from the literature and a phytolith reference collection (table S1) (17) and mapped these data onto a cladogram of the grass family (1) (fig. S1).
The phytolith data from the coprolites reveal a diversity of phytolith morphotypes (expressed as new phytolith morphotype genera and species; see supporting online text), suggesting that several grass taxa representing different Poaceae subclades were extant in India during the Late Cretaceous (Figs. 2 and 3). These include: (i) a derived ehrhartoid (Matleyites indium), (ii) possibly another grass within the [Bambusoideae + Ehrhartoideae] clade (Vonhueneites papillosum), (iii) a grass within the [Bambusoideae + Ehrhartoideae] clade or the Puelioideae (Pipernoa pearsalla), (iv) a grass of the PACCAD clade or with affinity to Pooideae (Chitaleya deccana), (v) an ingroup pooid (or PACCAD grass) (Thomassonites sinuatum), and (vi) another grass with affinity to PACCADs (Eliasundo lameti). Several other grass morphotypes (Jainium pisdurensis and Stebbinsana intertrappea) attest to the morphological diversity of GSSCs, but their systematic position within Poaceae cannot be ascertained. Although some of the phytolith morphotypes may derive from the same grass, a minimum of five different taxa from the [Bambusoideae + Ehrhartoideae] clade and the PACCAD or Pooideae clades are represented (supporting online text). Thus, most of the morphotypes observed appear to be more derived than the basal-most grass taxa (Anomochloa, Streptochaeta, and Pharus), based on GSSC morphology and the assumption that these ingroup taxa can confidently be used to inform plesiomorphic character states within Poaceae. The existence of crown-group Poaceae in Late Cretaceous India is consistent with the presence there of Intertrappean macrofossils described as pooids (18–20) (Fig. 1) and the occurrence of grass pollen (Graminidites) in the Lameta Formation of the Nand-Dongargaon Area (21).
The presence of ehrhartoids and possible ingroup pooids in the Late Cretaceous shows that the BEP clade had diversified substantially by this time (Fig. 3), much earlier than had been thought on the basis of fossils and molecular clock dating (1, 3, 4). An early radiation of both the Pooideae and the PACCAD clade is also suggested by the occurrence of GSSCs typical of pooids and PACCAD grasses, respectively. It is not yet clear whether the ecomorphologies that allow extant pooids and PACCADs to inhabit open, arid habitats had evolved by the Late Cretaceous.
The hypothesis that extant grass subgroups arose in Asia and subsequently spread to Gondwana by way of India by the Late Cretaceous is highly improbable in light of the data pointing to a collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia in the Paleogene (55 to 50 Ma), with no compelling support for an earlier connection (22, 23). The diversification of the BEP and PACCAD clades could have occurred on the Indian subcontinent, after which grass taxa dispersed globally via Asia and North America, starting in the Paleocene. This option is unlikely, given the paucity of grass pollen in Paleocene-Eocene floras of the Northern Hemisphere as compared to the Southern Hemisphere (2). Our preferred hypothesis is that the various Poaceae subclades had spread in Gondwana by the Late Cretaceous, as a result of either vicariance or dispersal [for example, via the Kerguelen Plateau or the Gunnerus Ridge (24, 25)]. This scenario does not necessitate a Gondwanan origin of Poaceae or any of its subclades; the initial diversification of extant lineages could have occurred in India, in another Gondwanan continent, or in the Northern Hemisphere [compare to discussion in (10)]. However, it postulates that BEP and PACCAD grasses ranged across at least part of Gondwana by the time India lost its biogeographic connections with other southern continents; that is, by ∼80 Ma (22, 24, 25).
The examined phytoliths show variable preservation, implying that some phytoliths (such as large pieces of tissue) were incorporated into the coprolites as part of foodstuffs, whereas others (such as rare palm phytoliths) may have derived from soil stuck to ingested plant material. Previous studies of coprolite and enterolite material from Late Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaurs have suggested that these animals fed mainly on conifers but also consumed cycads and angiosperms (14, 26, 27). Phytolith data show that their diet must have been very mixed, including conifers, cycads (14), dicotyledons, and grasses. Because phytolith production in extant grasses is magnitudes higher than in dicotyledons and conifers, the relatively low abundance of grass phytoliths in the coprolites may indicate that grasses did not form a major part of the animals' diet.
There is as yet no direct evidence for mammalian grazing in the Late Cretaceous. However, the presence of both diverse silica-rich grasses and sudamericid gondwanatherians in the Intertrappean beds of India makes it plausible that hypsodonty in these animals was an adaptation to feeding on abrasive grasses. Moreover, the phytolith data suggest that silica production in grasses comparable with that observed in extant taxa appeared to have evolved by the Late Cretaceous. This rejects the view that modern levels of phytolith production were an evolutionary response to grazing during the Cenozoic (28) and suggests that the high silica levels of grasses are the result of coevolution with Late Cretaceous herbivores (such as gondwanatherians or insects) or of a process unrelated to plant/herbivore interaction.
Supporting Online Material
Materials and Methods
SOM Text
Fig. S1
Table S1


text:
The Years of Rice and Salt
With the same unique vision that brought his now classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. . . .
"A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction's most important writers."—The New York Times Book Review
It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe's population was destroyed. But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.
Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World.
"Exceptional and engrossing."—New York Post
"Ambitious . . . ingenious."—Newsday
Product Details
|Random House Publishing Group
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|6.74(w) x 10.96(h) x 1.25(d)
|Age Range:
|14 - 18 Years
About the Author
Kim Stanley Robinson is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting, The Years of Rice and Salt, and Galileo's Dream. In 2008 he was named one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment." He serves on the board of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. He lives in Davis, California.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
Another journey west, Bold and Psin find an empty land; Temur is displeased, and the chapter has a stormy end.
Monkey never dies. He keeps coming back to help us in times of trouble, just as he helped Tripitaka through the dangers of the first journey to the west, to bring Buddhism from India to China.
Now he had taken on the form of a small Mongol named Bold Bardash, horseman in the army of Temur the Lame. Son of a Tibetan salt trader and a Mongol innkeeper and spirit woman, and thus a traveler from before the day of his birth, up and down and back and forth, over mountains and rivers, across deserts and steppes, crisscrossing always the heartland of the world. At the time of our story he was already old: square face, bent nose, gray plaited hair, four chin whiskers for a beard. He knew this would be Temur's last campaign, and wondered if it would be his too.
One day scouting ahead of the army, a small group of them rode out of dark hills at dusk. Bold was getting skittish at the quiet. Of course it was not truly quiet, forests were always noisy compared to the steppe; there was a big river ahead, spilling its sounds through the wind in the trees; but something was missing. Birdsong perhaps, or some other sound Bold could not quite identify. The horses snickered as the men kneed them on. It did not help that the weather was changing, long mare's tails wisping orange in the highest part of the sky, wind gusting up, air dampa storm rolling in from the west. Under the big sky of the steppe it would have been obvious. Here in the forested hills there was less sky to be seen, and the winds were fluky, but the signs were still there.
They ride by fields that lay rank with unharvested crops.
Barley fallen over itself,
Apple trees with apples dry in the branches,
Or black on the ground.
No cart tracks or hoofprints or footprints
In the dust of the road. Sun sets,
The gibbous moon misshapen overhead.
Owl dips over field. A sudden gust:
How big the world seems in a wind.
Horses are tense, Monkey too.
They came to an empty bridge and crossed it, hooves thwocking the planks. Now they came on some wooden buildings with thatched roofs. But no fires, no lantern light. They moved on. More buildings appeared through the trees, but still no people. The dark land was empty.
Psin urged them on, and more buildings stood on each side of the widening road. They followed a turn out of the hills onto a plain, and before them lay a black silent city. No lights, no voices; only the wind, rubbing branches together over sheeting surfaces of the big black flowing river. The city was empty.
Of course we are reborn many times. We fill our bodies like air in bubbles, and when the bubbles pop we puff away into the bardo, wandering until we are blown into some new life, somewhere back in the world. This knowledge had often been a comfort to Bold as he stumbled exhausted over battlefields in the aftermath, the ground littered with broken bodies like empty coats.
But it was different to come on a town where there had been no battle, and find everyone there already dead. Long dead; bodies dried; in the dusk and moonlight they could see the gleam of exposed bones, scattered by wolves and crows. Bold repeated the Heart Sutra to himself. "Form is emptiness, emptiness form. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. O, what an Awakening! All hail!"
The horses stalled on the outskirts of the town. Aside from the cluck and hiss of the river, all was still. The squinted eye of the moon gleamed on dressed stone, there in the middle of all the wooden buildings. A very big stone building, among smaller stone buildings.
Psin ordered them to put clothes over their faces, to avoid touching anything, to stay on their horses, and to keep the horses from touching anything but the ground with their hooves. Slowly they rode through narrow streets, walled by wooden buildings two or three stories high, leaning together as in Chinese cities. The horses were unhappy but did not refuse outright.
They came into a paved central square near the river, and stopped before the great stone building. It was huge. Many of the local people had come to it to die. Their lamasery, no doubt, but roofless, open to the skyunfinished business. As if these people had only come to religion in their last days; but too late; the place was a boneyard. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. Nothing moved, and it occurred to Bold that the pass in the mountains they had ridden through had perhaps been the wrong one, the one to that other west which is the land of the dead. For an instant he remembered something, a brief glimpse of another lifea town much smaller than this one, a village wiped out by some great rush over their heads, sending them all to the bardo together. Hours in a room, waiting for death; this was why he so often felt he recognized the people he met. Their existences were a shared fate.
"Plague," Psin said. "Let's get out of here."
His eyes glinted as he looked at Bold, his face was hard; he looked like one of the stone officers in the imperial tombs.
Bold shuddered. "I wonder why they didn't leave," he said.
"Maybe there was nowhere to go."
Plague had struck in India a few years before. Mongols rarely caught it, only a baby now and then. Turks and Indians were more susceptible, and of course Temur had all kinds in his army, Persians, Turks, Mongols, Tibetans, Indians, Tajiks, Arabs, Georgians. Plague could kill them, any of them, or all of them. If that was truly what had felled these people. There was no way to be sure.
"Let's get back and tell them," Psin said.
The others nodded, pleased that it was Psin's decision. Temur had told them to scout the Magyar plain and what lay beyond, west for four days' ride. He didn't like it when scouting detachments returned without fulfilling orders, even if they were composed of his oldest qa'uchin. But Psin could face him.
Back through moonlight they rode, camping briefly when the horses got tired. On again at dawn, back through the broad gap in the mountains the earlier scouts had called the Moravian Gate. No smoke from any village or hut they passed. They kicked the horses to their fastest long trot, rode hard all that day.
As they came down the long eastern slope of the range back onto the steppe, an enormous wall of cloud reared up in the western half of the sky.
Like Kali's black blanket pulling over them,
The Goddess of Death chasing them out of her land.
Solid black underside fluted and rippled,
Black pigs' tails and fishhooks swirling into the air below.
A portent so bleak the horses bow their heads,
The men can no longer look at each other.
They approached Temur's great encampment, and the black stormcloud covered the rest of the day, causing a darkness like night. Hair rose on the back of Bold's neck. A few huge raindrops splashed down, and thunder rolled out of the west like giant iron cartwheels overhead. They hunkered down in their saddles and kicked the horses on, reluctant to return in such a storm, with such news. Temur would take it as a portent, just as they did. Temur often said that he owed all his success to an asura that visited him and gave him guidance. Bold had witnessed one of these visitations, had seen Temur engage in conversation with an invisible being, and afterward tell people what they were thinking and what would happen to them. A cloud this black could only be a sign. Evil in the west. Something bad had happened back there, something worse even than plague, maybe, and Temur's plan to conquer the Magyars and the Franks would have to be abandoned; he had been beaten to it by the goddess of skulls herself. It was hard to imagine him accepting any such preemption, but there they were, under a storm like none of them had ever seen, and all the Magyars were dead.
Smoke rose from the vast camp's cooking fires, looking like a great sacrifice, the smell familiar and yet distant, as if from a home they had already left forever. Psin looked at the men around him. "Camp here," he ordered. He thought things over. "Bold."
Bold felt the fear shoot through him.
"Come on."
Bold swallowed and nodded. He was not courageous, but he had the stoic manner of the qa'uchin, Temur's oldest warriors. Psin also would know that Bold was aware they had entered a different realm, that everything that happened from this point onward was freakish, something preordained and being lived through inexorably, a karma they could not escape.
Psin also was no doubt remembering a certain incident from their youth, when the two of them had been captured by a tribe of taiga hunters north of the Kama River. Together they had staged a very successful escape, knifing the hunters' headman and running through a bonfire into the night.
The two men rode by the outer sentries and through the camp to the khan's tent. To the west and north lightning bolts crazed the black air. Neither man had seen such a storm in all their lives. The few little hairs on Bold's forearms stood up like pig bristles, and he felt the air crackling with hungry ghosts, pretas crowding in to witness Temur emerge from his tent. He had killed so many.
The two men dismounted and stood there. Guards came out of the tent, drawing aside the flaps of the doorway and standing at attention, ready with drawn bows. Bold's throat was too dry to swallow, and it seemed to him a blue light glowed from within the great yurt of the khan.
Temur appeared high in the air, seated on the litter his carriers had already hefted on their shoulders. He was pale-faced and sweating, the whites of his eyes visible all the way around. He stared down at Psin.
"Why are you back?"
"Khan, a plague has struck the Magyars. They're all dead."
Temur regarded his unloved general. "Why are you back?"
"To tell you, Khan."
Psin's voice was steady, and he met Temur's fierce gaze without fear. But Temur was not pleased. Bold swallowed; nothing here was the same as that time he and Psin had escaped the hunters, there wasn't a single feature of that effort that could be repeated. Only the idea that they could do it remained.
Something inside Temur snapped, Bold saw ithis asura was speaking through him now, and it looked like it was wreaking great harm in him as it did. Not an asura, perhaps, but his nafs, the spirit animal that lived inside him. He rasped, "They cannot get away as easily as that! They will suffer for this, no matter how they try to escape." He waved an arm weakly. "Go back to your detachment."
Then to his guards he said in a calmer voice, "Take these two back and kill them and their men, and their horses. Make a bonfire and burn everything. Then move our camp two days' ride east."
He raised up his hand.
The world burst asunder.
A bolt of lightning had exploded among them. Bold sat deaf on the ground. Looking around stunned, he saw that all the others there had been flattened as well, that the khan's tent was burning, Temur's litter tipped over, his carriers scrambling, the khan himself on one knee, clutching his chest. Some of his men rushed to him. Again lightning blasted down among them.
Blindly Bold picked himself up and fled. He looked over his shoulder through pulsing green afterimages, and saw Temur's black nafs fly out of his mouth into the night. Temur-i-Lang, Iron the Lame, abandoned by asura and nafs both. The emptied body collapsed to the ground, and rain bucketed onto it. Bold ran into the dark to the west. We do not know which way Psin went, or what happened to him; but as for Bold, you can find out in the next chapter.
Chapter 2
Through the realm of hungry ghosts
A monkey wanders, lonely as a cloud.
Bold ran or walked west all that night, scrambling through the growing forest in the pouring rain, climbing into the steepest hills he could find, to evade any horsemen who might follow. No one would be too zealous in pursuit of a potential plague carrier, but he could be shot down from a good distance away, and he wanted to disappear from their world as if he had never existed. If it had not been for the uncanny storm he would certainly be dead, already embarked on another existence: now he was anyway. Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond . . .
He walked the next day and all the second night. Dawn of the second day found him hurrying back through the Moravian Gate, feeling that no one would dare follow him there. Once onto the Magyar plain he headed south, into trees. In the morning's wet light he found a fallen tree and slipped deep under its exposed roots, to sleep for the rest of the day in hidden dryness.
That night the rain stopped, and on the third morning he emerged ravenous. In short order he found, pulled, and ate meadow onions, then hunted for more substantial food. It was possible that dried meat still hung in the empty villages' storehouses, or grain in their granaries. He might also be able to find a bow and some arrows. He didn't want to go near the dead settlements, but it seemed the best way to find food, and that took precedence over everything else.
That night he slept poorly, his stomach full and gassy with onions. At dawn he made his way south, following the big river. All the villages and settlements were empty. Any people he saw were dead on the ground. It was disturbing, but there was nothing to be done. He too was in some kind of posthumous existence, a very hungry ghost indeed. Living on from one found bite to the next, with no name or fellows, he began to close in on himself, as during the hardest campaigns on the steppes, becoming more and more an animal, his mind shrinking in like the horns of a touched snail. For many watches at a time he thought little but the Heart Sutra. Form is emptiness, emptiness form. Not for nothing had he been named Sun Wu-kong, Awake to Emptiness, in an earlier incarnation. Monkey in the void.
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In the 14th Century CE, the Black Death wiped out roughly 1/3 of the world population -- and up to 60% of all people in Western Europe -- and changed world history. But what might have happened to the world had the Plague been more severe? In The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson posits a world in which some 90% or more of the population is dead, Europe is utterly depopulated, and the survivors are concentrated in Eastern Asia. It's an ingenious and startling premise. Seriously, think about it. Christianity and Judaism, gone as practiced religions, and scarcely even mentioned except as footnotes in a history book. No Shakespeare, no Queen Elizabeth, no daVinci, no Van Gogh, no Mozart, Columbus, Magellan, Rembrandt, Dumas, Jefferson, Franklin, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler.... the list of never-to-exist Eurocentric artists, authors, explorers, and other world shapers is virtually endless. Instead, Robinson introduces us to a world gradually explored and settled by Asian peoples. In keeping with a common theme of Eastern religions, he uses the plot device of reincarnation to tell his story. From a primitive village on the steppes of Mongolia to a 100-story highrise in Burma, centuries later, each character returns in the next cycle, to learn more, to grow more, to be reunited with each other time and again, and to gradually learn to recognize each other, at least a little. It's a fabulous premise. I wish I had liked its execution more. Robinson's style is bone-dry and stultifying. Even his romance and battle scenes are presented at an objective distance, lacking all blood and passion. I plodded through this book, one sere paragraph after another, and only finished it out of sheer stubbornness, as in: "By God, I've spent three weeks reading this thing, I'll be damned if I give up on it now.") In the end, what kept me going was drawing parallels between the book's characters and our world's key historical figures. ("Okay, this woman would be Marie Curie in our world," and so forth.) This isn't to say it's badly written. It isn't. It's beautifully written; it had to be to make me stick with it for nearly 700 pages. Deserts are beautiful, too. I'm still awfully glad when I leave the desert and am free to travel somewhere else.
Mr. Robinson has a fairly clear understanding of the religions he is dealing with and the history he is altering by the 'what if' he has used. The european whites/Christians aren't 'evil' just outnumbered having been killed off by the plague which in the book had a 90% kill rate. Origionally only about 30%+/- of the european population died of the plague. Reincarnation within certain familial groups &/or tribes is part of some eastern religous beliefs. I really enjoyed this book for several reasons,one- I like Mr. Robinsons writings two- I lived some of the areas that are included in this book and areas governed by four of the religions in this book. I also have read extensivly books concerning these religions such as the Bible '& Apocrypha', the Koran, Tibetian Book of the Dead, ect. In short, A good book.
This is a compelling 'What If...' novel. Kim Stanley Robinson covers over 700 years of an alternate history dominated by the Chinese and Islam. The novel is made up of a number of short stories at various points in time dating from the Great European Plague to modern times and beyond. Using a simple naming convention, the lives of the characters are somewhat easily connected by the reader from story to story, as they are reincarnated, and we follow their journey through the 'bardo' into future lives on Earth. Kim Stanley Robinson draws the reader into the epoch by using the writing style of the era or culture. The interludes in the bardo are humorous while also thought provoking as the characters attempt to understand their lives just ended and set goals for the ones to come. Indeed Buddhist philosophy and reincarnation feature prominently in these stories, and are a counterbalance in some sense to the extremism of Islamic beliefs, although Robinson goes to lengths to show that pure Islamic tenants are not in tune with the corruptions wrought upon it by the religious zealots. Scientific advances and discoveries progress at a different pace in this alternate history, and references are made to many familiar technologies, but what is not mentioned is also as telling. As a hard science writer I suspect Robinson especially enjoyed brainstorming in this area. Certainly Islamic cultures that dominate Robinson's world are less curious than Western civilizations have been, and this has a profound impact on the path of history, and provides the Chinese with an edge enhanced by their great numbers. Robinson also introduces us to other cultures and people that emerge as primary players in the new world order he creates. We see how Indian and native American cultures evolve and influence the political and scientific balance. Certainly Robinson has his own thoughts about these things, and a liking for utopian societies and Buddhism, yet he is not heavy handed with his views, and allows for the reader to formulate his or her own. All in all, this is an ambitious undertaking and one that is very well done and researched. Those familiar with Robinson's past novels will find much that is familiar, while he tells a story that goes in directions he has not ventured before. Those new to Robinson will hopefully also look to discover more from one of the best writers in Science Fiction today.
It's so awful. It's really, really awful. The author started out with a lot of good ideas, but tried to cram them all into one book. The result: a badly written, unfocused, and often annoying novel. A handful of characters managed to invent every technology and think of every philosophy! Everything is on such a huge scale it's laughable. If this were just an alternative history or if this were just a novel about the reincarnations of soul-mates it could be really good. But his combo of the two is awful. The alternative history is too full of a couple of these characters who keep coming back to perfect the world. The soul-mates are too worried about writing history to develop likable personas.
Maybe this book was beyond me. I could not follow the plot or chararacters. Put it down half way through.
I'm not a reader of sci fi, and knew nothing of Robinson when I came upon a NYT review of this book. My only regret is that it's too lengthy to teach to high school students. The scope of its vision of world history, the depth of its philosophical concerns, and the writer's skill in handling literary elements make this a most absorbing and thought-provoking work. Beautifully written (clever central conceit, lively episodes, serious themes, effective language, if--understandably--weak characterization), and highly accurate insofar as I (an amateur world history buff) can judge, Robinson's novel engages the reader on many levels. It ends with a meditation on the nature of history itself. Rewarding on the narrative plane alone, this book entirely repays one's investment of time and thought. I certainly hope that the publisher will put out a trade paperback edition: Robinson should be a mainstream name.
When I had the time to read this book I really enjoyed it. I originally started to read it because I like the idea of an alternate history with Buddhist civilization. In the beginning of the book the use of reincarnation with the characters really grabbed my attention. However by the middle of the book the story line bogged down and the momentum of the character reincarnation slowed down. I do like this book enough to hang on to it and read it again when I have larger blocks of time to devote to it.
The Years of Rice and Salt is one of my favorite books of all time. Interestingly, I found my way to it by reading Jameson's Archeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions in a "course" for my dissertation prospectus. I was initially doubtful, for I used to pride myself on "not being a science fiction fan," mainly to criticize my mother's choices of reading during my lengthy (and infamous) career as a bratty know-nothing literary snob and pawn of twentieth century literary canon-builders. But this book sounded so cool! A world in which Europe was all but wiped out by the black plague and the survivors enslaved by the Africans and Chinese?!The Years of Rice and Salt is gloriously long and oh-so wonderful! Interestingly, I was getting into it at the same time that I was really delving into formal Buddhism, and the book is so rewarding in that sense. Regardless of one's Buddhist strand, (or unaffiliation with Buddhism altogether) the idea of the "bardo" - a space beyond this plane of existence where we meet with people in our band of world wanderers (a group or team of spirits that move through existence together)is a beautiful idea. Its also a great way to tie characters together through their various manifestations and do some serious development beyond our unnecessarily limited Western concepts of traditional "personality" and "identity."Case in point: You know when you meet someone and you are SURE you've known them before...the way that they do the things they do, the way they talk, a certain look in the eyes...fantastic. They respond to you in kind. Creepy, right? Nope! At least in this book, it all goes down in the bardo. Sometimes, even long before reading this book, I felt that my mother, significant other, and some other random friends and acquaintances from across the continent (and around the world) are people with whom I am somehow connected, and I doubt it's the drugs. This book uses this idea (masterfully and beautifully) to connect characters together across eras. You may not always be a man, you could also be a woman, a eunuch, a tiger, etc,.Awesome book. It was a fabulous introduction to the one living writer I would do almost anything to meet - I've given up on you Pynchon, and Salinger...adieu - and on whose work I'm about to start writing an article (Three Californias trilogy). Robinson rocks my world!
Upon reading the back cover of the book I picked it up to read. An interesting premise in which most of Europe is wiped out by the black death and the Chinese, Buddhists, Muslims and Native Americans are left to create their own history.The book starts off well enough, you find yourself following a "family" of souls through their various incarnations as history pursues its course. Some of the lives the souls live are quite interesting but I found my interest in the book flagging a little more than halfway through the book.I managed to read the first half of the book in a few days... the last 100 or so pages took me three weeks. I dutifully slogged through to the finish but I just didn't enjoy it. Perhaps I'm just not cerebral enough for all of the philosophizing that goes on.
I guess it's well written. I couldn't get into it. The place names and character names and references were all 'non-Western' so were very difficult to keep track of. The story is 'spiritual' but not in the Judeo-Christian manner so even that was beyond familiarity. That... and the story follows a series of spirits, or perhaps, spirits through a series of 'lifetimes'... so you get a short glimpse at an individual's life, then he dies (or she from time to time) and, I guess, is the spirit in a new form in the next chapter of the book. But, really, I didn't care about any of them, or any of the environments or any of the "history"...It's just too... foreign for me.
I read this a few years, and it took me two attempts.I found the book hard to get into, initially. It was a bit wordy, and I found the plot a bit difficult to follow, but the second time I read it, I persevered, and found it quite rewarding.The basic premise is that in medieval times, the black plaque took 99 out 100 people, rather than 1 out of 10, leaving Asia and the Middle East mostly Affected. The story follows two souls, as they get reincarnated into different bodies as time progresses, and alternates between a Chinese Dominated Asia, and Muslim Dominated Europe.
I couldn't get into it, in spite of the fact that I made it two thirds of the way through. I didn't like Robinson's device for moving forward through history.
This is a book that will take your breathe away. What if instead of the Plague killing 33% of the population in the 14th century, 99% are killed? The entirety of Europe, and all of Christianity, is decimated, leaving Buddhism and Islam as the most influential of the practiced religions. I have to say I loved this book, every step of the way Robinson created a believable, possible history with the same family of souls telling their collective story again and again, each time with a little more progress on their journey. The end was a disappointment to me at first, yet, the more I have time to dwell on it, the more appropriate it is.
One of the the most complex, multi-layered and absorbing novels I¿ve read, which would definitely benefit from multiple rereadings.Set in an alternate history where the Plague wiped out 99 percent of Europe¿s population instead of just one-third ¿ effectively decimating white, Christian culture ¿ the novel follows 700 years of history as Arab, Asian and Native American cultures flourish and the religions of Buddhism and Islam spread throughout the world. One assumption the novel makes is that reincarnation is real, so the same set of characters (a jati, or group of souls linked by fate) come together in life after life and either witness or instigate the great events, scientific discoveries, political movements and philosophical writings of human history.This novel is more than just an entertaining series of adventures, though. It has a lot to say about the human condition, religion, philosophy and history itself. How do cultures rise and fall? What small events can create or destroy empires? The section that tells the story of the earth¿s world war ¿ called the Long War and lasting more than 70 years ¿ is one of the most harrowing depictions of war and its aftermath I have ever read. This is a weighty book, with a lot of big ideas to captivate and absorb the reader through many visits to this alternate ¿ but very realistic ¿ history of humankind.
This is going off my memory of a book I read at least 4 years ago, but something about this book makes it stand out in my mind and makes me suggest it to friends if they're looking for an intelligent read.The whole idea of reincarnation isn't one I subscribe to, so it doesn't exactly make sense that I think this was the perfect vehicle to carry forward Robinson's story, but there you have it! And the starting point, the idea "what if Christianity HADN'T been the dominant force shaping the Western world", is vaguely offense because it implies that everything that's wrong with the world (but not also everything that's right) is due to organized, monotheistic religion.Yet Kim Stanley Robinson - and I'll be so bold as to refer to the author as KSR from now on for brevity's sake - is so non-judgemental and fair-minded, that I couldn't take offense. He doesn't seem to hate the idea of God, as most religious oponents do, just that perhaps human failings made the Church into a tool of error and selfishness, instead of the Church improving people and teaching them about God.This band of souls didn't exactly appeal to me - most of the characters were a bit annoying (to me) in how dense or cruel or self-centred they were. But perhaps this was the point. I loved that at one point, a soul lived as a tiger (am I remembering correctly?), which many readers would consider to be a "better" creature than man, yet KSR never implies or says that just because humans sin, that we are unworthy and lower than animals.I find KSR to be a bit wordy and dry, especially when dealing with politics (the Mars trilogy comes to mind here), but I love how he examines human motivation. And he's so bang-on with his knowledge of history and science, and the speculative possibilites involving these. This book was a more enjoyable read for me, because it wasn't so dry (due to politics) than his earlier books.The plot was intriguing, too. It was almost like a series of steps or plateaus rather than a clear path from point A to point B. Each "life" was a discreet story unto itself, yet it tied into the whole, which was the evolution of this group of linked souls and the examination of how the world might be a completely different place if one event had had different results. This idea reminds me of Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch novel, but KSR tackles the concept in a completely different way.Not my top favourite book of all time, but definitely up there, and definitely my favourite of KSR's novels. A must-read for anyone, no matter their preference of style or genre.
Its not that I don't like Kim Stanley Robinson books... Gold Coast was a good read and entertaining (not as Dystantopian as I'd hoped.. but still really good). With this book... the main characters learn life lessons as they go through many incarnations (re-incarnations) as different people throughout the centuries. Sometimes their lives are quick.. sometimes long. Most of the time they're not entertaining. I'll admit I found myself skimming when it talked of religious principles (nothing against religion.. just not interested in reading a bunch about 'how it works'). I keep all the books I like... this one I didn't even finish (which I usually try to do, even if I don't like it), and immediately got rid of the copy. I'd suggest some of the other works by the author first.
Round and round and round we go, from this life to another through the bardo. I suspect those who believe in reincarnation may enjoy this book more than those who don't, for whom the whole reincarnation thing is just a literary device to allow the author to follow an alternate history down through the centuries using the same characters. Some of my favorite bits were in the bardo with regard to the characters' experience of "Oh no! Not again!". Funny on a simply comic level, but also inviting deeper reflection on the question of just what are the mistakes the characters make in their lives again and again that keep them so stubbornly stuck in the eternal cycle of birth and death. Ultimately they represent us, and their mistakes are ours.
I really enjoyed this novel of an alternate history. All the Europeans are killed by the Plague (or some other disease) leaving the world to the Chinese and Muslims. How is it changed? How is it the same? The book contains about ten episodes, each one concerning a different set of characters at a different place along the timeline. All but the final episode were fascinating to me. The last chapter had too much speculation and philosophy and not enough plot.
The Years of Rice and Salt is a departure for Kim Stanley Robinson. His near-future, hard science fiction writing has won disciples who believe that he has prophesied how it will be. This novel is a reflection of how it might have been. In it Robinson posits a Western Europe that lost 90% of its population in the fourteenth century plague. Rushing to fill the vacuum are the Chinese, the Islamic and the Indian cultures. The novel moves from the fourteenth century to the very early years of the twenty first. At the heart of Robinson¿s story is the concept of reincarnation. The first character we meet is identified as ¿Monkey,¿ who keeps returning to nurture, comfort, urge the other characters toward virtue. The characters, whatever their incarnation of the moment, are a jati of eight souls who are born again and again, die, find themselves in the bardo to discuss their past lives briefly, and then are born yet again. The main characters are those with B names, (Monkey); K¿s, who are charismatic leaders, and whose contributions are crucial; and I¿s, who are the theorists whose ideas the K¿s promulgate. These and the others who are born with them change sexes, nationalities, and religions - all those things that we use to define ourselves - from incarnation to incarnation. For a person whose general interest lies in the author¿s ability to create memorable characters and create a memorable sense of place, this shift from incarnation to incarnation becomes somewhat frustrating. I prefer a novel¿s leisurely development to a short story¿s, and these are somewhat like a selection of loosely linked short stories. The K character often complains on return to the bardo that they are not making progress at all. However, this is a book that has to be long enough to involve the reader in a seemingly endless series of returns. On the one hand, the idea of a personality¿s not disappearing forever is reassuring. On the other hand, an eternity of making the same mistakes begins to feel like the tortures of Hell. When the characters decide not to drink the drug of forgetfulness, I began to read with more enthusiasm. In the last incarnations, even though they involve The Long War, they finally seem to begin to ¿get it.¿ They realize, for instance, that societies that are good to women are societies that do not fail. They realize that there were no winners in the war, that the whole world has to work together, that people with plenty are inextricably bound to people that are starving. These are all lessons for our times that Mr. Robinson is able to convey without preaching. (I wrote this review several years ago for a now-defunct website.)
I really wanted to like this book. I tried very hard to like this book. I made it through several of the lifetimes before I finally just gave up on it and couldn't go any further.
A book about our place in the world and the eternal question of how to live well, disguised as a novel. It's a long read, best savoured slowly over a stretch of time. It's too easy to become impatient and rush through to the "good bits" of action and excitement, and miss the thought-provoking substance.It is less a fantasy or science fiction work than a tribute to our potential as a species, seen through an Eastern lens that is not often considered in Robinson's English-speaking target audience.
This novel wasn't what I thought it would be, but that's a compliment in my book. I thought it would be a sort of medieval version of The Stand, with hoary images of Black Death ravaged cities all over Europe. Instead Robinson uses the big "What If" gimmick (what if the Black Death was 99% fatal all over Europe, causing white Christian European civilization to become a mere historical footnote) as a jumping board to write a wholly different narrative. It is rare to read a novel with such insight into Asian and Middle Eastern thought and culture that is written by a Westerner. Robinson's' characters are well thought out and interesting, throughout their various reincarnations. Yes, a hand full of characters live many lives in this book. That is one of Robinson's weaknesses as an author; he loves his characters almost too much, and he is loth to part with them after their natural life span has run out. In his Mars trilogy books he created a genetic treatment to solve this problem. In "The Years of Rice and Salt" he merges Islamic, Hindu, and Tibetan Buddhist thought to create a narrative of lifetimes intertwining in the underworld. The effect is quite intriguing, but like his previous works I sometimes got tired of the characters. In "Salt" they at least change genders, nationalities, cultures, and outlook so there is much more character development than with his dusty Mars troupe. While he shows great insight into Asian and Islamic cultures, I feel his grasp on the Native American characters was a bit more flimsy. They seemed a little too idealized. It is hard to imagine what would have become of the fate of the indigenous had Columbus never existed, perhaps as an American, Robinson has a hard time facing this particular Dharma.
First read this when originally published and have just finished rereading it; happy to find it's even better than I remembered. There is simply no writer, that I've read, who balances scale -- individual to society, a single lifetime to a millenium of history, observation of a single event to a whole science, the simplest feeling to a religion or philosophy -- as Kim Stanley Robinson. If Mr. Robinson will ultimately be remembered for his Mars trilogy, that's not such a bad thing; however, I think a case could be made for The Years of Rice and Salt being more important, for dealing with so many themes around history and human progress, so concisely, so beautifully. This book is such an engaging plea to look at history, to look at our lives, as something to learn from, something to use to make the world better, more just, more compassionate ... it's a shame I don't know the right way to say 'everyone should read this' without sounding preachy. I guess the sentiment is preachy, and it'd be arrogant of me to think I know what's best for anyone; but, I can't help but think if people challenged themselves to imagine a better world, and then strove for it, we might take baby steps towards getting there.
Ultimately Disappointing: I have to admit that I was disappointed by "The Years of Rice and Salt." Ironically, much of my disappointment was due to the book's failure to follow through on its excellent premise and beginning chapters. The book follows (through a long series of incarnations) a small cast of characters struggling to create a just and peaceful world. The angry and aggressive K____, the more spiritual tagalong B_____, the studious and intellectual I_____ and some others reappear throughout the book, each exhibiting the same fundamental character, with differences of culture and situation flavoring their actions."The Years of Rice and Salt" is technically an alternate history in which disease wipes out all of Europe and most of Christendom in the late middle ages. Unlike writers such as Turtledove, Robinson doesn't feel compelled to relate everything that happens, but focuses only on certain incarnations of the main characters. This is refreshing, but sometimes makes it difficult to figure out what happened in the world and when (since he uses mainly the lunar Islamic calendar). In the end, this world is remarkably similar to our own, which is somewhat implausible but not fatally so.Problems begin to appear roughly halfway through the book, however, at which point the plot stalls and seems to lose focus. The characters' quest for justice in buried beneath the details of their lives and geopolitical developments. In one incarnation, K_____ joins an underground organization conspiring to free Japan from Chinese rule. Nothing else happens during that incarnation - he simply joins the organization. In another, all three characters fight in a devastating World War and talk about how it all went wrong. While I can appreciate the Robinson's apparent desire to illustrate the difficulty and contradictions inherent in changing the world by force, I wish he could have done so without halting plot development. The several hundred pages in which little progress is made (in the plot or the world) eventually became downright tedious, despite decent writing throughout.And so ultimately I was disappointed by "The Years of Rice and Salt," which got off to a wonderful start but then seemed to fall apart. Although the last couple of chapters tried to get the story back on track, it was too little, too late. I was also left cold by the ending: there wasn't one; the cycle of reincarnations just continued. If this book seems interesting, I encourage you to read it, but suggest you consider checking it out from the library.
A Typical Post-9/11 Book I was looking for a cool alternate history novel about the world through the eyes of Asia and what I got was instead a "Americo-Centric" view of Asia and too much philosophizing by the author against everything Muslim. Literally, you will spend pages upon pages reading his personal views. The author's choice of winners and losers exactly align with American geopolitics. 1. India- Best relation with America and comes out on top. No mention of how they overcame Caste, misogyny, and a lazy portrayal of them inventing European technology exactly how we imagine it today instead of a reimagining of technology in the eyes of a different civilization. 2. Native Americans- By far the least well thought out faction. Where a relative few Europeans decimate them in real life, the author includes a mediocre anime-esque store that breaks suspension of disbelief where a samurai ends up uniting every single native American tribe. Immune to disease they fend of Asian invaders who apparently can't do by the thousands what Europeans did by the hundreds. 3. China- Third place, still a winner, but ends up with political instability mirroring US disapproval of the Chinese government 4. Muslims: Fractured and disunified unlike every other faction. Backward technologically. Women hating. Oh and mysogynist with a healthy dose of the author going to great lengths beating this dead horse. It gets to the point where they are painted as so primitive and incompetent, one is left wondering how there's any conflict at all here. I don't care about politics, I wanted a good believable story and all I got was a lazy story, political messages and an unimaginative portrayal of Eastern civilizations along with page upon page of the author's personal views.


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Time and space were once curled together to the extent that neither of them existed, but nevertheless, suddenly, somehow, a bubble appeared; an explosion occurred simultaneously everywhere and every single particle of matter dispersed as the void separated them all. As the universe continued to expand, the temperature fell sufficiently in order for the first elements to form, which they swiftly did, and thus set off a chain of metamorphoses that has continued ever since. Consequently it can be argued that all matter has always been in existence, although in various states and degrees of organization, and has, on a cosmic scale, always amounted to the same quantity; nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted. The universe is in possession of such immense quantities of matter, space and time, it is possible, through changes caused by transformations, to try out endless combinations, resulting in the current huge number of structures ranging from amino acids to galaxy clusters. The story of a specific speck of matter is thus the story of these spontaneous structures and their altered states.
"Machine". Peter Adolphsen.
Dummy. Six copies edition, 26,5 x 20 cm, 106 pages. 2018.
It all started with a chance finding of the text "We originated in the Belly of a Star" by Segio Toporek and as well as that, the fact that I discovered a test tube where my mother had saved the milk teeth that my brother and I had lost as children. These two factors, the text and the teeth, triggered the creative process that has lasted about three years and in which, on the one hand, I began taking photographic notes and, on the other hand, I started to collect materials that came off of my body: hairs, skin, nails, and the record of my body's acidity level. An extensive collection, bidirectionally focused that continued to grow; I didn't know where it would take me and it has since made me question myself about the reality that surrounds us.
Consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not "you." The atoms in your body are 99.99% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato. The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don't just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Sergio Toporek
Test tube with my brothers' milk teeth and mine.
With all the material that I was generating, certain formal and conceptual parallels began to establish themselves. For example, when I inverted one of the milk teeth in a photographic enlarger, the negative portrayed a nebula, a fact which brought to my mind the idea that the Cosmos is hidden within each of us.
From top to bottom, direct negative of four of my milk teeth and a photograph belonging to the European Space Agency Gaia mission, in which, for the first time, they were able to portray the complete Milky Way.
Through the collection of and engagement with the amassed materials, I've worked to show the existing metaphoric possibilities between marco and micro, human and cosmic.
Fragment of the file of my detached body hair.
Flysch Zumaia; geological formation of 13 kilometres (approx. 8 miles) along the Basque coastline, where approximately 50 million years of planet Earth's history has accumulated.
Test tube containing peeled skin from my body, assembled in layers throughout a period of a year and a half.
Fleeting, brief, expired, durable, long-lasting, transient, indelible, enduring, never-ending, unfading, instantaneous, mortal, ineradicable, passing, perishable, perennial, perpetual, transitory, eternal... Some photographic notes.
Ph Skyline
; formed from the daily record of my body's acidity. Giclée print: 250 x 38 cm. 2018.
(From the French fractal, voice invented by the French mathematician B. Mandelbrot in 1975, originating from the Latin: Fractus meaning 'broken'.)
1. m. Mat. Iterative structure whose aspect and statistical distribution do not change no matter with which scale it is observed.
Cardioid: hair, entomological needles, ethyl vinyl acetate. 15 x 15 x 7 cm. 2018.
+34 609633992 // firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Suppose you heard that a vacation town had built a first-class theater and people attended in droves because the productions were that good.
Suppose you paid your $66 dollars for tickets to a comedic, farcical adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and drove an hour to get there.
Suppose you arrived early enough to attend the "Pre-Show Chat"--a presentation that focused on how Austen liked to challenge the rigidity of Victorian social, class and gender divisions. And "true to her spirit," this production would champion diversity in gender roles so that you could "look beyond superficial gender distinctions to better see and appreciate the inner character" of the players.
If we could sit down for coffee I'd ask some questions...


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The old woman could not remember her daughter's name, only remembered her surname, so the teacher could not do anything and could only call the police for help.
After the police investigated, they found out that the elderly woman suffered from Alzheimer's disease and her memory was unstable. Her daughter had attended this kindergarten 30 years ago, and her memory was disordered, thinking that her daughter was still studying at this school. That day, when everyone in the house did not pay attention, she went out of the house and boarded a bus, went to kindergarten to pick up her daughter.
Because her family moved to the other place, she was soon lost. And she had to ask a lot of people along the way to find a familiar kindergarten. The family found the old woman lost, hurriedly went to the police and searched everywhere. They did not expect her purpose was turned out to be this place.
When the daughter received the notice, she came to pick her up. She asked why her mother came to kindergarten. The old mother answered, "Let me pick you up." After hearing the answer, the daughter could not hold back her tears. She used to study at this kindergarten. The mother forgot a lot of things, but still remembered to pick up her daughter after school. She thanked the police for taking care of her mother and then took her mother home.
Source: DKN.TV
Minh Chi
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High Blood Pressure Support Group
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a medical condition wherein the blood pressure is chronically elevated. Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a leading cause of chronic renal failure. Doctors recommend weight loss and regular exercise as the first steps in treating mild to moderate...
2 Online
ringing in the ears and tiredness..
I was diagnosed with high blood pressure 3 weeks ago...when a friend took me into ER...I had such awful ringing in my ears...and was very dizzy...Dr kept me...I had a reading of 200/125...they gave me something to bring it down..and even did a cat scan...because of the awful headache that I had...saw my regular Dr who put me on Atenolol...at 50 mg...once a day...BUT...I am STILL tired all the time and the ringing in my ears is still there...tho not as bad...my blood pressure is still high also...averaging about 150/85...I am new to this..but it's very annoying...I have NO energy at all...and I am working full time...I did have heart surgery as a child...so getting my fast heartbeat under control is another issue..
is this how everyone is on these meds for high blood pressure ?...tired and out of it ?
is this how everyone is on these meds for high blood pressure ?...tired and out of it ?
Yes, it was one of the side effects I had from Atenolol. The headaches and the fatigue were bad enough for my doc to try another drug. It is early days for you yet but I would suggest that you return to your doc and ask him to try another drug. You might have to do this several times. I went through three or four before I found one that I could tolerate (but only just - still looking for a more natural treatment that works). The ringing in the ears may or may not be from the BP. I know that it is side effect of NSAID and I think that is what is causing mine right now (had a ruptured disc). I am also looking for some way of keeping my heart beat down. I don't know why it is so high, at rest, as it can range from 80-100 doing nothing. Hate to think what it is when I actually do something - guess I am reluctant to actually test it to find out.
I have constant ringing in my ears. You get use to it I guess as it has been over 3 months now. I take Hydrochlorothiazide 25MG 1/2 a pill a day. The ringing in my ears has not stopped but my blood pressure has gotten much better. I go to the doctors again on Friday to see how I am doing. I do not get tired but two months ago I was also getting heart flutters or fast heartbeats every once in awhile. I was prescribed Bisoprolol Fumarate 5mg and this fixed it within weeks. This medication did make me feel just a little off but now I do not have to take it as the fast heartbeat has gone away.
Hope this helps and hoping you get better soon too All the best
Hope this helps and hoping you get better soon too All the best
Wow!! the ringing in the ears dosn't sound right....doesn't sound good.....:(
Gosh, have you told the doc???
don't think this is something any of us needs to get used to.......:(
High Blood Pressure is nothing to play with....
Good Luck!!
Gosh, have you told the doc???
don't think this is something any of us needs to get used to.......:(
High Blood Pressure is nothing to play with....
Good Luck!!
I did get very tired when I was on Atenolol - have been taken off it now due to the diabetes risk for me......I due sometimes get ringing in the ears but not all the time..............it is so tedious getting it right with the bp, you may need a couple of combinations, just hang on in there with your doc, goof :)
Go see your dr. your pressure is still too high. Go see a different dr if necessary but the new guidelines for a healthy bp is that it should be less than 120/80. Go see a dr, maybe a cardiologist and get your pressure under control. Tell him/her about the fatigue. Good Luck.
Ringing in the ears is a sign of the bp being high. Sometimes after the bp is undercontrol the med. can cause dehy. I had talked to my doctor and found that the bp was under control and that the ringing in my ears,(bee hive in head)was from other problems. Check with the doctor and ask if it could be the med or what it could be. My bp was at 220/130 and now at 110/120. I have a long way to go to get better.
I have had ringing in my ears for several years. I've had high blood pressure for about 8 yrs. I think that the meds for high b/p do make you tired because I've been on enough different ones to know that it was always the same with me. Good luck finding out what's causing the ringing. If you do get an answer from a doctor please let me know.
Yes, this all is relatively normal with high BP such as yours. Do you have problems with fluid retenion in your arms, face, legs, feet ect...? Sometimes ringing is due to the increased fluid retention. I experienced the same thing a couple weeks ago and had my Bp checked which was 164/104 . Doctor told me it was up because the fluid was up. I am now on three meds for the Bp. I guess doctors are now using multiple meds to counter act Bp problems when they need too.
After 3 weeks it is now 116/68
Hang in there
Metal Mom
After 3 weeks it is now 116/68
Hang in there
Metal Mom
I was on atenolol for 6 years. sometimes it takes a little while to work. I didn't have any problems with it while I was on it. There are so many different bp meds that if this one doesn't bring your bp down or if it has side affects that are botherson you should talk to your docter about switching. Just dont take yourself off of it on your own. Atenolol needs to be weaned off of or it can cause rebound hypertension.
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