Naples

On our trip to Italy we had decided to stay in Naples and make a day trip to Pompeii. A bit of a mistake that as it turns out we should have done things the other way around - stay near Pompeii and take a day trip to Naples.

Why? Naples is a dirty, grubby city, full of crime. It's not a nice place. We took a taxi ride once, from the outside the car looked like a taxi, but inside the cab it was just managing to hang together. The seatbelts didn't work and literally every surface was bashed, dinged, completely worn out. I've never seen any car like it and certainly no taxi. The driver was a happy enough chap, like most Italians he'd learned to accept his fate.

We didn't get to see Herculaneum. A decision had to be made as we ran out of time and I read somewhere that Herculaneum had been stripped of anything interesting. That must be right as our visit to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples seemed to confirm it. What we could read in English often provided the note 'from Herculaneum' or some such. And that English is sporadic at best, at some point all English just evaporated. Everywhere was like that in Italy, they make a half-baked attempt to explain things (and please don't email me saying I should learn Italian, I'm quite happy to learn some, but I'll make a concerted effort when Italy start winning wars <insert sound of crickets chirping>).

The museum in Naples is really the only place worth visiting. We saw the Alexander Mosaic. Kind of Yay, it's not that impressive really. The Numismatics room was closed so we couldn't see the Augustus gold coin or medallion. I believe that these random shut-downs occur all the time and so be warned, the very thing you went to see may be unavailable on that day. Good luck trying to find out if it is (available that is).

Verdict on Naples: it is hard to believe this place is the third largest city in Italy. Its much vaunted pizza is worse than all other pizza in Italy. The world heritage inner city is a dark featureless place and presents an ideal location for muggings. I'm sure you'll be mugged at some point if you stay there too long as criminality appears widespread. And I'm not talking about refugees and migrants. They're mostly well behaved and clean, they're too concentrated on surviving to be worried about committing crime. No, the lowlifes will be locals I'm sure.

Some areas of Naples are complete no-goes after dark. You wade almost ankle deep in blood, vomit, broken teeth, and animal and human faeces (intentional exaggeration to make the point). These places are really bad and they're everywhere. The best thing that could happen to Naples is it gets bulldozed quick smart and then rebuilt modern and fresh.

Naples has a sort-of Chinatown, but they serve up spaghetti as noodle. So that wonton noodle soup is wonton spaghetti soup. Just so you know, you know?

Pompeii

For most of January 2019 I have been in Italy travelling around. Over the next few days and weeks I'll report on my experiences and the impressions I formed of the people and places. Not all of this is going to be positive, be warned.

I was travelling with my wife and youngest daughter. This was going to be a rail trip, travelling between cities on the Italian rail system which I must say functions quite adequately as a fairly fast system, but nothing like that of Japan. Few can match the speed and efficiency of Japan.

For me, the ruins at Pompeii were near the top of my list of places to visit. I ended up disappointed and I can safely say this is a place to avoid unless you are absolutely obsessed with everything Roman and just have to go there.

We stayed in Naples, which is another city worth avoiding, but more about that place later. Getting to Pompeii turned out to be a mission. We wanted to get to Pompeii by rail and set out in the morning, we found out the hard way how to do this: go to Napoli Garribaldi station which is on a lower level of the central railway station, and take the heavily tagged, ugly and uncomfortable trains called the Circumvesuviana Napoli to Sorrento line. Make sure to get on the train indicated on the electronic signboard - (Pompei Scavi), in parentheses after the displayed final destination. This train will take you to the excavations themselves, and right at the entrance gate to the site, and not to Pompei city which is farther away. You can see the city from the hill Pompeii sits on, so it's not that far away but make every effort to be on the right train. Here's what that view looks like:

Our story about this is somewhat convoluted. Leaving our hotel thinking it would be easy to just walk to the train station (okay, it was me who thought this, I'll never live it down), I got us badly lost. Unbeknownst to us at the time we ended up at a station on the correct line, one stop closer to Pompeii (the station was called via Gianturco), but not knowing this we headed on a train back to Napoli Garribaldi. Note, at this stage we hadn't bought a ticket as this via Gianturco place had no ticketing at all. Strange indeed. We were soon joined on the platform by a group of young Spanish people, apparently they'd got off the train they were on as they'd found it wasn't going to Pompeii, so now they were on our platform looking to head back to Naples in order to start their journey again. You'd be right in thinking that a lot of people get lost on their way to Pompeii (as an aside, maybe it's best to stay at modern Pompei city or its surrounds, don't try to stay in Naples and make the day trip to Pompeii Scavi, just saying).

At Naples we approached an attendant and were promptly given some kind of fine for not having a ticket but being within the system. After much gesticulation he found out we were trying to get to Pompeii, and weren't coming from Pompeii. He refunded our money and waved us away. After some wandering around we found ourselves on the platform for Pompeii Scavi.

This didn't go as planned as an Englishman who thought he knew everything informed us the very next train was going to Pompeii Scavi. It turned out he only had half the information he needed, at best. We got on this train, and just past via Gianturco (that one again, we'd just come from there with the young Spanish speakers) a very nice Italian gentleman started telling us where we needed to be. We didn't understand a word of what he said but someone else on the train knew English and interpreted, telling us we needed to get off at the next station and take the train coming after this one, that would get us to Pompeii Scavi. On our travels we found Italians to be very helpful like this.

So we got off the train at the next station to see the Englishman there too, I avoided talking to him as I didn't want a Commonwealth incident in Italy, we were meant to be Allies after all.

So at last we were on the train to Pompeii. Yay. Then some hustlers boarded the train and began playing loud music, beating drums and shaking tambourines. I guessed they wanted us to pay to make them go away, but at the next station they were thrown off. Given the patience the locals had toward this din, my guess is they're used to it. The locals seemed amused at my appalled reaction. Do not pay these so-called entertainers anything (the noise-making hustlers that is).

Arriving at the site, there was no ticket check at the station exit and so we had just managed to travel to Pompei Scavi for free (going home at the end of the day we bought tickets at the ticket window and paid about 50% more for the privilege, the price displayed on the actual ticket showed less than we'd just paid). We were then constantly berated by more hustlers and swindlers just outside the main gates. Very low class and not a good first impression.

The cost to get in to Pompeii? 30 Euro, my wife and I had to pay, the child was free. Was this a good deal? No it wasn't, that was way too expensive. We collected our free map, which turned out to be useless as it contained such little information and virtually no English. Once on site, there is very little English and next to no information about what is what. So we wandered around all day, me being guide as it turns out I actually know what I'm talking about.

Were there highlights of this day exploring Pompeii? Yes, I enjoyed the Villa dei Misteri. I've looked around for a good map of the site to indicate where this house sits and found this link:
http://www.tourpompei.com/alex/sites/default/files/Itinerary_3_forkids_0.jpg

The Villa is illustrated at the top left of the above map, outside the city walls. What is good about this place is it is intact and you can see the art still on the inside walls of the house. No-one knew about this place until the twentieth century, so it hasn't been looted.

My suggestion; do not leave it too late to visit the Villa dei Misteri. It's a walk away from the main site, and knowing this I had it first on my list. When approaching the house which is a walk up and then down a small hill adjacent to Pompeii, a nice man called out from the house, were we English? No, I replied, New Zealand. He knew where this was; we found Italians generally knew where New Zealand was and they also knew Italy always lost to the All Blacks. They tell us that, we would never mention it of course.

Here are some pics from inside the Villa:

It turned out this nice gentleman was touting for his neighbouring family restaurant run by his mother. He proudly informed us that Morgan Freeman had eaten there. The place is called Bacco e Arianna. Yes, another hustle, but a good one as he sold us custom made takeaway sandwiches that were too big for us to finish, half the price of sandwiches selling on site that are a third the size.

A couple of photo's, what the restaurant looks inside the courtyard, and what those sandwiches looked like:

(This is the street view of the establishment:
 https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@40.7531859,14.4773121,3a,60y,13.6h,86.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sL_Ai38goZ0ytz31kVWqBZg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 )

See the white hut at the end there? That's some kind of backdoor entry to Pompeii, and the turnstile was always open. The two guards just waved us through, one saying he'd remember us when coming back from the restaurant, but they didn't notice or check when we returned. Very Italian all this, as was the Mum making those sandwiches. Like some kind of scene from a movie. I must say they had a brilliant crop of Mandarins coming on there, diners can sit outdoors underneath the trees while they eat.

You may have picked up on my thinking here. If you're clever and scout around, you could easily get into Pompeii for free. They deserve to have this happen as the site is so badly managed. One of the major secrets is the museum up the back and next door to the amphitheatre, it appears devoted to Etruscan and Samnite stuff. There was nothing promoting this museum earlier, and by the time we found it we were running out of time. The amphitheatre was a waste of time and polluted with Pink Floyd blaring from below. As the young one pointed out, those vibrations are probably breaking down the structure. Message: leave Pink Floyd out, I don't care if they played there, they're irrelevant, pretentious twits.

While the Villa dei Misteri is very impressive, it's not where I could picture myself living. No, my favourite house was the sunken garden place, which funnily enough is toward the Villa in terms of direction (to the left of the Forum as you look at it upon entering from the main gate). This is the sunken garden house:

Walking back to the main gate my daughter asked if the pavement we were walking on was 2,000 years old. No, I could safely say, it was probably laid last week. A lot of the site was like that, new plaster, recent pavement, new roofs. Give the place to Disney to manage, they'd do the job properly.

Oh and one last thing; the Romans weren't stupid. Stupid people would have rutted roads impossible to use. Those stones in the surface of the city streets, those cracks would have been filled with sand. How do I know this? Very few of the stones were broken at the edges. Wagon wheels get stuck in cracks and break, or they break off the edges of the paver. But more prevalent were wheel ruts in the stone itself., meaning the wheels were running over an even surface.

Fill those cracks with sand and make the site easy to walk around, like it would've been back in the day. The other benefit (which the Romans knew about) is the sand locks up the paving stones, and they're less likely to move around plus the sand soaks up animal waste and also glues everything together. The site management have gone out of their way to make the site difficult to navigate, the streets could put your back out they're that bad.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Look at the road itself, nicely worn stones, those cracks would have been filled with sand to make the road surface flush. If they didn't do this all those stones would be broken away at the edges, and back in the day wagons would be breaking axles and wheels, and they'd possibly hit stepping stones used for crossing the street by failing to make clearance.

This looks better, more like this:

The Queen's Christmas Message 2018

I  thought the rather gently implied message from The Queen's Christmas Message this year was that we are stronger together. I believe evidence of this is found in her mention of the Battle of Jutland, the size of the Commonwealth, and her call for respect and understanding. Yes, the latter is clearly a Brexit reference but I think the imagery of the message is broader. She's calling for Empire 2.0 and about time too.

New Zealand National Party Incompetence

It's not just New Zealand Labour and the New Zealand First party that are incompetent. It's the National Party as well, which makes NZ vulnerable to say the least as the country lacks effective governance. The parties just mentioned have no right to exist, that's how incompetent they are. But they do exist and the reasons for that are many and varied, but one reason that stands out is the failure of the media and industry groups to hold them to account.

The list of how these parties have failed their country is a long one. The most recent example was Labour/NZ First's oil and gas exploration ban. Sheer incompetence that one. But National did even worse during their previous stint in office. That's what this blog post is about.

I'm talking about cement. Readers may recall the recent outage at Golden Bay Cement's facility near Whangarei and how that impacted NZ's cement supply (Golden Bay Cement is owned by Fletcher Building, their woes continue). This cement plant is the only cement production plant left in NZ. If it goes down as it did this year, the economy is in jeopardy.

Well, the predicament NZ found itself in is because of the inaction of the previous National government, it had nothing to do with Labour as it turns out. 

What National did is it looked the other way, put its fingers in its ears and went 'nah nah nah can't hear a thing' when Holcim announced they were ceasing manufacturing in NZ. That was despite Holcim having the resource and all the consents in place to continue. 

I wrote to the government about this situation, contacted the Manufacturers Association, you name it. Well, the Manufacturers Association understood, they were already on it. But do you think the National government wanted to know? Not likely and I'll tell you why:

They were too thick to understand the importance of cement to an industrialised economy. They're dumb shits. And that's an understatement.

So what happened? Holcim were allowed to close their plant at Westport, and were not required to open a new one. They're allowed to import from Japan or somewhere. Like that makes sense - NOT. Any basic student of microeconmics would know, shipping cement from the other side of the planet when it can come from just down the road is lamebrain. Note, I use the word 'allowed' in this paragraph a lot. That's because cement is a strategic resource and treated that way by sensible countries like the USA and UK. They don't allow any company to just shut down a third of all cement production. They just don't, in the USA or UK any company proposing it would find their assets seized. I'm not kidding.

Why does this cement shut-down impact NZ? Well, it's because the numbers look like this; NZ consumes only about a million tonnes of cement a year. LafargeHolcim has about 2,300 cement facilities producing 280 million tonnes a year. You may notice the size differential (sarcasm). One of their large plants can produce 1-1.3 million tonnes a year, more than all of NZ consumes from all sources whether manufactured locally, imported as clinker and crushed and just imported ready to use.

And this is where it gets really bad. When things are going gang busters, all of this capacity is taken up. That's right, when things recover, NZ will be left swinging in the breeze. And it takes 10 years or so to get another plant up and running properly. What I'm talking about is a potential shut-down of Aotearoa/New Zealand and it's the National party that left NZ so badly exposed. 

UN Compact on Migration

People have just woken up. They've discovered there's a move to take all their money, here's how:

I remember reading academic papers 13 years ago (count them), that called for the removal of national boundaries when it came to migration. Now this thought process has got to the United Nations stage, and the final step will be each country implementing the ideas within their own legislation.

This is a form of theft. That's right, theft. The idea is to flood the western world with migrants and once they're established in their new countries, they can change the laws at will once they're the majority.

The problem is partly of the West's own making. They didn't make babies. So there is that. But the other part of the equation is to do with the fall of the Iron Curtain and the failure of communism, socialism, anarchism, call it what you will. This failure meant the old game plan wouldn't work, the enemy of capitalism needed a new game and they came up with a twofold approach.

The first was to ditch the colour red, for the colour green. Communists became green overnight, they were instant ecologists. But they are anything but, they are still communists. From the pocket of those who earnt it, to the pockets of those who haven't earnt it but control the distribution of it. Control the resources, the means of production, distribution and exchange and you own everything. It's got nothing to do with freeing the proletariat from the hegemony of the capitalist monster, but everything to do with greed.

The debate around global climate change (GCC) has been hijacked by these wolves in sheep's clothing. These days you hardly hear from a hard scientist on this important topic, instead it's all about the politics of GCC, and how to hobble the west while profiting the favoured few (who seem to always be the Greens - no surprise there).

Then the second approach was to use humanitarian crises to launch invasions and to make this mandated. That's what the UN Compact on Migration is about.

Think about this over Xmas folks, have a nice Saturnalia.

The Musk Prayer

Read this brilliant Musk prayer following the revelation just announced that Elon Musk has invented the subway. Not the sandwich, the underground people conveyor. All hail Musk. I wonder if he's apologised to Azealia Banks yet, my guess is he hasn't.

Our Musk in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as on mars. Give us today our daily feed. Forgive us our incredulity as we forgive those who still don't believe you. Save us from climate change. For the space,the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.

Merry Saturnalia

It's December and that time of year again folks.

Saturnalia >>> https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia

"Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas."

That's right, Christmas is actually Saturnalia. Face it, we don't actually know when Jesus Christ was born.

Giving gifts, feasting, lighting candles, singing of songs, looking after the poor are all Saturnalia. When you wear that crown at the Christmas meal, blow a whistle, tell jokes, that's also Saturnalia. In Rome, within each household a slave would be appointed king for the day, and he would issue orders, the owner waiting on him and the household family would provide food for the other slaves as well. Boxing Day, the day after Christmas may also trace its origins to the latter practise.

David Icke: Wrong But Close

Fans of David Icke's books will know about his various conspiracy theories and his idea that the Moon is a satellite transmitting mind altering transmissions and that Earth has been hijacked by a reptilian species that effectively control everything. No doubt this is very entertaining to read.

He's wrong but he was making good guesses. His idea that the World is heading into an Orwellian future is accurate.

What is the truth? Earth was invaded or colonised 75,000 years ago by people from Hercules. Local Hominins (Homo Erectus) were bred with to create the distinctive species, Homo Sapiens. Over the following years, humans evolved into species almost indistinguishable from Herculeans.

Why did Hercules come to Earth? What is their culture like? Are they coming back and when? All these questions are dealt with in my book, Dana Point.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FP5DLJ1/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i3  

Why Quora Will Fail

I've written one or two answers on Quora, and have already blogged about its failings; the questions soon become tiresome and an alternative reality takes over, certain opinions are tolerated while others are not. I'm not even convinced the quality of answers are better than Yahoo Answers.

But that doesn't mean it will fail. Why then do I think it will soon fail? The writers who take time to provide the content have no way of earning anything from the work they do, that's why. Compare this with Amazon; there you write an article and can then sell it on Kindle. Or maybe write several articles and call it a book. Jeff Bezos is onto a winner, he has all this content being provided. Most don't earn that much but they do provide it. Quora on the other hand must run out of puff, why write for no reward when you could be writing and earning on Amazon? See?

Rocket Lab Launch 13 Nasa CubeSats

Rocket Lab has launched another rocket, this time putting 13 Nasa satellites into orbit:

https://www.rocketlabusa.com/news/updates/rocket-lab-successfully-launches-nasa-cubesats-to-orbit-on-first-ever-venture-class-launch-services-mission/

We can now safely say that New Zealand has a fully fledged space program.

From Rocket Lab:

"Until now, launch opportunities for small satellites have mostly been limited to rideshare-type arrangements, flying only when space is available on large launch vehicles. This mission, awarded under a Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) Agreement, marks the first time NASA CubeSats received a dedicated ride to orbit on a commercial launch vehicle."

Azealia Banks: Treasure Island

More from Azealia Banks

Bunnings Pointless Exercise

Bunnings Hardware - hardly anywhere. I don't know why I do it to myself, every time I end up at Bunnings I find they haven't got what I'm looking for. Their website will say yes, their shelf says no. I'm not going back, write this outfit off, they're hopeless.

NZ: Education Shake-up

Finally, an admission that Tomorrow's Schools was a disaster. That's the way I read the proposed changes to the way schools in New Zealand are organised.

Read about it here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12172927

What is proposed is essentially reinventing the wheel, putting in place the framework that existed before Labour destroyed education in NZ. I note the media are avoiding attaching blame. They're such suck-ups.

However, I'm not convinced scrapping Intermediate schools is a good idea. Many Intermediates do an amazing job. Likewise, year 1 through 8 primary schools already exist and they're often fine too. Where things could go badly wrong is having year 1 through 13 at the one school in urban areas. That's fine in Area Schools in the rural areas but it's misguided to allow it in urban areas. There are some schools already set up like this, we are yet to see if they work. I'm not holding my breath.

It comes down to how these changes are implemented. Given Labour's poor record on Education, I remain doubtful.

Jacinda Ardern and 2019

That was interesting, in just a couple of days since posting my prediction and why I think the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern will step down to move on, the post has become my number 1 most popular post of 2018. There must be something in this then!

My thinking, in short is that Jacinda Ardern must use the Xmas/New Year period to look for another job. If she misses out then the outlook is all downhill, being propped up by a ragtag bunch of minor parties and an often incompetent Labour party behind her. Who wants a former PM dumped by the electorate on their payroll? Surely it is far wiser to jump before the slide really kicks in. Watch this space.

Prediction for 2019: Jacinda Ardern

Don't be surprised if New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern decides to step down and takes up a UN job. It could happen and becomes highly likely if the Greens, Labour's partner on confidence and supply, start polling below the 5% threshold.

Think of it like this; Ardern has already finished the race in first. It was close but she got there. But she only gets the prize because two very minor parties support her and one of them has now dropped below that critical 5%. If the Greens go the same way, that means come the next election she's looking at being Leader of the Opposition and a former Prime Minister. That doesn't have quite the same cachet now does it. And then her record will be closely examined. Then finally, to have her leadership challenged would be very unbecoming.

So the way I see it, she has to step down and go out on top. To overseas markets she's much more valuable now. The future for her lies in cashing in overseas, if she sticks around in NZ, all that offers is uncertainty and a slide.

Back in 2017 I was the first to predict a Labour victory. Everyone else thought it couldn't happen. After I noticed a wave of people all saying they were voting Labour, and pointed it out, a few commentators and bloggers jumped on board. When the inevitable happened, they all claimed to have been first (surprise surprise). Well, note this prediction and if you use it and I'm right, kindly have the good grace to apply credit where it is due, and that would be me.

Film Industry: Geoff Murphy

New Zealand film director, Geoff Murphy has died. His most important movie Utu, was set during the frontier days of NZ. His wife, Merata Mita predeceased him, she made NZ's most important documentary, Patu! which was about the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand.

Snob's Guide to New Zealand ranks Utu second on its list of important New Zealand films, with Patu! third and the most important documentary. 

NZ U-17 Women Win Bronze

The New Zealand U-17 women did very well, finishing with the bronze medal in Montevideo after defeating Canada in the 3rd/4th place play-off, 2-1. The eventual winner of the tournament was Spain, the team that knocked NZ out.

https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018673906/young-football-ferns-take-bronze-at-fifa-under-17-world-cup

Labour on the Slide

The latest opinion polls have New Zealand's Labour government falling in the polls and their coalition partner has slipped below the 5% threshold. Not only that but the Greens who support the coalition on confidence and supply are right on the threshold.

But here's where it gets interesting: only a few hundred votes stand between Labour and electoral oblivion. If the Greens fall below the 5%, then Labour are no longer government, instead national would be. Watch for signs of desperation as Labour look to move the threshold down.

Time to start getting very nervous Labour, and you deserve to be nervous. These are the reasons:

1. Oil and gas exploration ban,
2. Being held captive by Greens,
3. Giving up the centre ground,
4. Not paying teachers enough,
5. Grandstanding around the world instead of looking after the knitting,
6. Incompetent ministers,
7. Shane Jones Bank.

And that's just for starters.

Olympics

I noticed boxing is coming under the spotlight and may be frozen out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This is no surprise, boxing is rigged. But at least it is possible to win by knocking your opponent out. The same cannot be said for other sports subject to judging. Examples include race walking, diving, snowboarding and gymnastics.

Let's face it, if the contest does not involve transparent scoring, timing or distance measured, forget it as they shouldn't be at the event. This judging behind the scenes has to stop.

Walking would be easy to fix. Instead of issuing warnings, have a sin bin with the walker having to wait in place for a specified time when caught running. Make it 1 minute standing still on the first infraction, then 2, 4, 8 and so on. This way the audience gets to see what is happening and the race may end up being a head to head contest at the finish line.

Quick! Save the Planet: Stuff's Campaign

New Zealand media group, Fairfax are promoting the Quick! Save the Planet series through its newspapers and Stuff.co.nz website. It's meant to awaken concern and inform about climate change, and offer ways to effect change. In so doing, I assume they expect this will result in saving the planet from its imminent demise.

It won't do anything of the sort and campaigns like this are misguided at best, and at worst extremely foolish or even stupid. Okay, I accept they have to sell newspapers, they're largely failing and they'll all have to shut up shop within my lifetime, but the desperate will do anything to survive.

The problem with this campaign is twofold; the first is with the hysterical nature of the title. Any solution is certainly not quick, and the planet doesn't need saving. Most people intuitively know this and so when reading they're likely to skip. Only the converted will read, and so no progress is made at all.

The second problem is more serious and lies at the root. This sort of scaremongering results in polarisation of opinions and climate change extremism. Any not fully on board with the most extreme climate alarmists are instantly labelled 'climate change deniers.' Heretics in other words.

Of course there is no real debate about climate change being real, no-one with half a brain is debating it. What is up for debate is the extent to it and whether the effects are adverse at all. And if they are adverse, how bad exactly and can it be managed? What doesn't help is when someone enters the debate talking practical matters, and they're shouted down and accused of being a 'denier.'

What we are witnessing folks, is the development of a new religion; in my book Snob's Guide to New Zealand, I call the religion Eco. I describe how this new religion functions. It seems Stuff and Fairfax have adopted the faith.