{"id":28973,"date":"2019-01-11T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/?p=28973"},"modified":"2019-01-11T12:01:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:01:50","slug":"walls-and-other-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/11\/walls-and-other-distractions\/","title":{"rendered":"Walls and other distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A news article popped up in my feed today about the recent theory as to why the famous huge statues on Easter Island were placed where they are. According to a recent study<\/a>,\u00a0the theory goes that the people of Rapa Nui positioned them near sources of fresh water. Essentially these were a territorial display protecting the island’s limited water – at the border where enemies might consider invading this precious land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statues? Really? That’s going to protect them? One could argue that these were mystical times, people believed in evil spirits, gods with a small g and other fantastic things. But perhaps its just another example of placating and occupying the huddled masses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it – it took an enormous amount of time and investment to build these things. It also took a lot of time and investment to stay in charge. Whoever was running things, likely priests or kings needed to show that they were protecting the people, and to keep them occupied with things that didn’t involve wealth and resources – more for the king! Pyramids, the great walls of the past, crazy castles and cathedrals. This is the way the powerful control the ignorant masses. Fear, grandeur, power, and organizing around an often irrelevant but incredibly appealing effort. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A news article popped up in my feed today about the recent theory as to why the famous huge statues on Easter Island were placed where they are. According to a recent study,\u00a0the theory goes that the people of Rapa… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,58,73],"class_list":["post-28973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-easter-island","tag-politics","tag-wall"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3mX8K-7xj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23507,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/21\/hanukah\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":0},"title":"Hanukah","author":"Jimmyc","date":"December 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my Christian friends sent an email asking about Hanukah. He is a fraternity brother and I jokingly replied that it was like all holidays \"they tried to kill us, we won, let's eat\" He incorrectly thought it was about an 8 day siege but I gave him the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4286.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4286.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4286.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4286.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4286.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/10\/ribs-and-shrimp-blended-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":1},"title":"Ribs and Shrimp – Blended Family","author":"Jimmyc","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Soul food for dinner tonight. If you ask me what my two favorite fun foods are it's a split from childhood and adult life. Spiced steamed shrimp and smoked spare ribs. I'm allergic to crabs so this is what I munched on in MD. I took the easy route this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/20131010-200052.jpg?fit=225%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/23\/birthday-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":2},"title":"Birthday Thoughts","author":"Jimmyc","date":"July 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"New Year's is the time most people resolve to change their lives. I tend to do it on my birthday. This year's a big year for change. Here is what I'm considering for the next twelve months: Family - I'm really a lucky man and far from perfect, but somehow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"My Family","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jim-family-2013-469-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19926,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/22\/finovate\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":3},"title":"Finovate – Before the Show","author":"Jimmyc","date":"September 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I just had to post because I haven't posted in so long. Some of you will undoubtably find this weblog after seeing me present at Finovate. At this point I have no idea how I did, I went first at 9:00am and after weeks of preparation it all came down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile Tech","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/mobile-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29032,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/08\/why-and-how-we-went-from-saas-to-cloud-services-to-apis-its-just-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":4},"title":"Why and How we went from SaaS to Cloud, Services to APIs – It’s just Business!","author":"Jimmyc","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Just how does Amazon or Google scale to such a huge number of transactions or inquiries? How are these companies able to afford to serve so many customers every day, with new services, nonstop again and again? The economics behind the lift and shift from operating environments as physical servers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Banking Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Banking Tech","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/banking-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"reach up and get your APIs like legos","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/jim-cloudsAPI-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/jim-cloudsAPI-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/jim-cloudsAPI-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/jim-cloudsAPI-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/jim-cloudsAPI-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30973,"url":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/09\/rome-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":28973,"position":5},"title":"Rome 2021","author":"Jimmyc","date":"August 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"After a bit of a start stop in 2020 we had to change our trip from Jim\u2019s DNA trip of Sicily and Greece to Rome and Greece for flexibility. I reached out to our BNB host from several years back when Stephanie and I were able to visit Rome, Florence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/jac_4644.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/jac_4644.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/jac_4644.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/jac_4644.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/jac_4644.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28973"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28976,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28973\/revisions\/28976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charanis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}