2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser

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The typical modern SUV is a sheet metal pretty boy; either it’s too delicate to be taken off road — or too expensive to risk scuffing the paint up.

Toyota’s new FJ Cruiser’s not like that at all.

It brings back to life the spirit of the original FJ LandCruiser Toyota brought out in 1967 to go up against domestic rough boys like the old (and pre-OJ) Ford Bronco Jeep CJ and International Scout. The new FJ, like its ancestor, is built for serious duty — and for people who know how to use a two-speed transfer case.

The FJ rides on a shortened and narrowed version of the fully boxed steel ladder frame used in the Toyota 4-Runner mid-sized SUV. The engineers shaved about 5.3 inches off the overall length (183.9 for the FJ vs. 189.2 for the 4-Runner) and trims a bit more than half an inch off the width (74.6 inches for the FJ vs. 75.2 for the 4-Runner). The FJ’s more compact overall dimensions give it extra wiggle room in tight squeeze situations — such as getting past a couple of big oaks on either side of a narrow path. The stubbier shape also results in angles of approach (34 degrees vs. the 4-Runner’s 30 degrees) and departure (30 degrees vs. 24 for the 4-Runner) better suitable for off-pavement work. You’ll be less likely to tear off the rear bumper coming down a steep grade — or plow your nose into the dirt trying to make it up one.

There are also front and rear tow hooks you can use to winch yourself out of a mud pit, full underbody skid plates to protect the vitals (oil pan, transmission/transfer case and fuel tank) from rocks, heavy-duty six-lug hubs and a real-deal 4×4 system with High and Low ranges tied into a heavy-duty 8-inch solid rear axle and locking Torsen center differential. (Base 2WD models have a limited slip rear axle.)

The FJ also offers a clutch start cancel feature that lets you use the starter motor to “bump” the vehicle forward — and keeps the truck from rolling backwards if you stall the engine and need to re-start on a steep incline.

Rolling stock consists of P265/70-17 32-inch Dunlop GrandTrek knobbies — and the suspension’s set up to allow generous wheel movement over uneven terrain. You’ve got 9.6 inches of ground clearance to work with, too.

On the outside, the FJ’s protected by hard rubber color-matched bumpers and molded in flares that won’t need the ministrations of a body shop after a weekend trip to the backwoods — or a year of parking on city streets, for that matter.

Use the FJ to push your buddy’s Escalade up the driveway — it won’t hurt nothin’.

The full-size spare’s mounted on the rear gate where you can easily get to it — not under the body, as on some competitors. And the FJ’s two-section rear gate is thoughtfully designed to allow the glass part to be fully opened even with the spare in place and the lower gate fully closed.

But the real clue to the FJ’s seriousness of purpose is what you won’t find on the list of standard features. No chromed 20-inch “bling rims,” for example. Instead, you’ll find four stamped steel 17 inch wagon wheels painted flat black — with no high-dollar trim rings and center caps to worry about losing. Rub up against a curb? No problema. Just dab on some DupliColor touch-up paint and you’re good to go. Steel wheels like this are virtually indestructible — and just the ticket for a real-deal SUV. (Alloys are available optionally if you want ’em, but the FJ looks better with the steelies — and they’re more suited to its nature anyhow.)

Inside, there’s no city-boy cream-colored leather with frou-frou contrast piping; no burled walnut inserts, lamb’s wool or deep pile shag carpets, either. But you can plant your muddy Doc Martens with confidence directly onto the FJ’s waterproofed floorboards — which are protected by thick rubber mats that can be washed out when you get home.

Even the seats are water-repellent.

However, the most appealing thing about the FJ may be its low-ball price — just $22,890 with six-speed manual gearbox and 4WD. Compare that with the MSRPs of two of the FJ’s most obvious competitors, the Hummer H3 ($28,935) and Jeep Wrangler Rubicon ($27,930). That five grand price difference is hard to swallow given that neither the H3 nor the Wrangler Rubicon outlclass the FJ in terms of off-roading bona fides — and the FJ’s arguably the more interesting vehicle of the three.

Then there’s power to consider.

The FJ packs a standard 239-hp 4-liter V-6 — and can accelerate to 60 mph in 7.8 seconds. More importantly, it has the reserves to pull off passing/merging moves that can be dicey in the overweight/under-powered H3. The little Hummer’s standard 220-hp 3.5 liter in-line five seems ok on paper — but it’s unevenly matched to its beefy 4,700-lb. curb weight. The H3 needs 13 seconds-plus to heave itself to 60 mph — and has next to nothing left once you’re up to about 65 mph.

The Wrangler’ Rubicon’s got decent punch thanks to its 4-liter, 190-hp engine and curb weight of 3,740-lbs. But like the H3, it’s less at home on road than off.

The FJ, meanwhile, handles long hauls as well as most “street” SUVs that could never hope to meet it on equal terms when the pavement ends.

Its from follows function cabin also makes much better use of space (especially back-seat space) than the cramped H3 or the two-door Wrangler.

Which brings us to the FJ’s final ace in the hole — curb appeal. From its two-tone exterior/interior treatments, roof rack cage and backward-opening “suicide” doors to its classic-era FJ-inspired shapes and elemental simplicity, this is retro done right.

The new FJ Cruiser recalls all the good things about the original FJ LandCruiser — and brings back to life a moment in time before “SUV” became synonymous with “poseur.”

Throw it in the Woods?

11 COMMENTS

  1. Ask me about my free Covid Numeroligy Email Faustian Fouchi the Grouchi Blister Pak n Stand in the B logged woods of VoulderMayer’s last Topless Mondo Drive through booster splooger drive in Moon Beam me up Sc0tt E Alfredo Newman.. what me worry whilst tarry clothed Mad is One Avenue C logging y[aol yall yug alls 7 7 and a triple home run read news flashers…. dashers.. prancers.. et alii and a bag o chispes…

  2. Offroad, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Honda Ridgeline
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byEADM0TXSc

    On Saturday morning after chores we set up on the dock of the sugar house and prepared to slaughter turkeys. We started out with 20 poults this year.

    In April we slipped them into their pen under the deck of the milk house and watered and fed them twice a day until they were old enough and fast enough to let loose in the orchard.

    We lost one about three days in when it managed to get itself stuck between the heat lamp and the brooder wall, another one a couple of days later when it jumped up onto the rim of the water bucket and then fell in and drowned. The last one disappeared from the count around the middle of June and we wound up with a final count of fully grown birds ready for Thanksgiving totalling 7 hens and 10 toms. Weighing between 12 and 35 pounds.

    Doing the turkeys is one of my least favorite annual rites; the birds are heavy, the feathers difficult to pull even when they’ve been scalded and it’s a cold time of year to be working all day with water.

    Lately whenever you hear some authority figure mention the term climate change they have begun to amend their lecture long enough to repeat the refrain that it is “settled science”.

    Sometimes they will give the percentage of scientists who say that this is so and the number is always north of 97%. Their voices will lower, deliberately, I suspect, and they will often repeat that phrase for emphasis. “Settled science” in the way that a parent will tell a demanding child that the matter is no longer up for discussion- “it’s settled.” they will say with the same gravity, as if the pronouncement itself has decided the matter rather than the merits of the argument.

    I find that kind of rhetorical posturing to be a kind of signal, not that the argument is definitive, but rather that the door of inquiry is no longer open.

    Our betters have decided, for better or worse, that the bothersome population needs to move on to other topics still open to free discussion, like favorite TV shows or which platform is superior, Samsung or I-Phone.

    Politically it is settled, of course, a tax is coming and we are going to pay for it through increased costs for the most fundamental services to the most obscure behaviors. There is no democracy when it comes to revenue, only compliance and anyone who points out that it looks more like a money grab than a solution had better keep their head down. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

    The United Nations, one of the leading proponents of the political solution to climate change is located in on an 18 acre complex that sits on the East River of Manhattan Island.

    Unknown to most of the members is that several blocks west of their headquarters there sits a massive stretch of exposed bedrock known as the Roches Moutonees, where ten thousand years earlier massive glaciers once scraped their surfaces under the pressure of a half mile thick body of ice.

    Were it not for that earlier global warming the rooftop where the elites land their luxury helicopters prior to attending their climate summit would, at just over 500 feet, still be some 1500 feet beneath the top of the glacier that once buried the entire northeastern seaboard.

    On that particular point, the science truly is settled.

    Anyhow, preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving is a task that most people will never undertake in a lifetime. Everyone eats turkey, but getting one from the field to the table is a process better left to others.

    Thankfully I had a helper give up his day to lend me a hand with the birds and we set up a system to behead the turkeys; bleed them out and scald them before beginning on the plucking.

    A 35 pound tom turkey will not lay his head on the chopping block as dutifully as a Carmelite nun, and the sounds that accompany this task create a cacophony that sets the rest of the flock into responses and calls of their own.

    Turkeys signal each other through a complex system of vocalizations, a chirping from the hens that always sets off in unison at the smallest sounds around them and a gobble from the toms in concert to establish their presence and availability.

    Once the slaughter begins the sounds change and the toms lead and the hens stay silent. Towards the end the flock grows quieter until there are no sounds whatsoever, a deafening silence.

    We talk while we work, stopping to warm our hands in a bucket of hot water, changing latex gloves as they tear or fill up with a pink mix of blood and water. The process takes all day, about forty minutes per bird no matter how fast you are.

    My wife told me that on her last trip to the grocery store, she stopped to check on the prices of turkeys there and saw they were, “Fifty-nine cents a pound”, she told me.

    I tried to figure it out in my head, how you could even feed a turkey for 59 cents a pound, never mind the associated costs of labor getting it to harvest weight, the slaughter, the transportation, refrigeration, the stocking and the markups at every step along the way before it made it to the conveyor belt at the checkout.

    It simply isn’t possible, under any circumstances to provide that price for that commodity and not lose money. Unless there is some massive subsidy somewhere along the way where money is pumped into the system in order to suppress the price, it simply cannot be done.

    That of course is coming from someone who has done this often enough to have a fairly good idea of what is involved.

    Since turkeys are not widgets, it’s inconceivable that any kinds of shortcuts can be taken to trim the price down to that degree. To get a thirty pound tom turkey you need 100 pounds of feed. At the rock bottom prices the cost of feed exceeds the cost of the turkey by 41 cents a pound without factoring in any other cost or process.

    Like all things in America these days, there is a disconnect between reality and perception. The mechanisms behind this are open to debate, but the reality is what it is.

    When you’re all done with turkeys the last thing you want to do is eat one, but that feeling goes away in a day or two when your hands no longer smell like feathers and feet and that’s when you start to think about how those birds were able to convert grass seeds and crickets, apples and pumpkins, corn meal and earthworms into a meat so juicy and flavorful, so packed with L-tryptophan, a precursor to seratonin, that literally tens of millions of Americans will drift off to sleep before kick-off on the last Thursday of November.

    We like to part our bird into breast and leg quarters and brine them for a couple of days. We slow roast them at 200 degrees for about twelve hours until tender and then coat them with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and set the roasting pans under high heat until the skin blisters and browns.

    The finish is beautiful, each section cooked to perfection and the quality of that bird is unlike anything I have ever eaten in my life, even at 59 cents a pound.

    My padawan apprentice and I finished working in the dark and above us the coverage of the sky was complete. Not a star was visible in the sky, only a blanket of hazy, milky whiteness and a rising half moon surrounded by a ring, like Saturn.

    When I was younger my Grandfather used to tell me that this was a sure sign of snow, but that was before the planes with aerosol dispersal systems criss-crossing the sky whenever the mood strikes.

    I’m not a scientist and I don’t claim to be one, but I know that CO2 isn’t a pollutant as stated in the Settled Science Climate Change Fatwa, it’s a bi-product of living breathing creatures and I do know that whatever is coming out of the back of the airborne dispersal systems is definitely unnatural and controllable if someone is looking for a place to start that isn’t in my wallet.

    – by HS at TBP

  3. The choice of a partner should be the one with the most “taqwa” (piety).

    The suitors should see each other before going through with marriage. It is unreasonable for two people to be thrown together and be expected to relate and be intimate when they know nothing of each other. The couple are permitted to look at each other with a critical eye and not a lustful one. This ruling does not contradict the ayah which says that believing men and women should lower their gaze.

    – The couple, however are not permitted to be alone in a closed room or go out together alone. As it is written: “when a man and a woman are together alone, there is a third presence.

    – There is no concept of courtship in the Middle East as it is practised in the west. There is no dating or living in defacto relationship or trying each other out before they commit to each other seriously.

    There is to be no physical relationship what so ever before marriage. The romantic notions that young people often have, have proven in most cases to be unrealistic and harmful to those involved.

    We only have to look at the alarming divorce rate in the west to understand this point. e.g. the couple know each other for years, are intimate, live together and so on yet somehow this does not guarantee the success of the future marriage. Romance and love simply do not equal a everlasting bond between two people.

    Fact: Romance and love die out very quickly when we have to deal in the real world. The unrealistic expectations that young people have is what often contributes to the failure of their relationship.

    – The west makes fun of the Middle Eastern way of marriage in particular arranged marriage, yet the irony is that statistically – arranged marriages prove to be more successful and lasting than romantic types of courtship.

    This is because people are blinded by the physical attraction and thus do not choose the compatible partner.

    Love blinds people to potential problems in the relationship. There is an Arabic saying: which says “the mirror of love is blind, it makes zucchini into okra”. Arranged marriages on the other hand, are based not on physical attraction or romantic notions but rather on critical evaluation of the compatibility of the couple.

    This is why they often prove successful.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Consent of parties.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    There is a halal arranged marriage and a haram one. It is OK to arrange marriages by suggestion and recommendation as long as both parties are agreeable. The other arranged marriage is when parents choose the future spouse and the couple concerned are forced or have no choice in the matter.

    One of the conditions of a valid marriage is consent of the couple.

    Marriage by definition is a voluntary union of two people.

    The choice of a partner by a Middle Eastern virgin girl is subject to the approval of the father or guardian under the Maliki school. This is to safeguard her welfare and interests.

    It is said “the widow and the divorced woman shall not be married until she has consented and the virgin shall not be married until her consent is obtained. The prophet did revoke the marriage of a girl who complained to him that her father had married her against her wishes.

    The husband/wife relationship.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    -The wifes rights – the Husbands obligations.

    (1) Maintenance

    The husband is responsible for the wifes maintenance. This right is established by authority. It is inconsequential whatever the faith of the wife may be, or whether she is rich or poor, healthy or sick.

    A component of his role as “qawam” (leader) is to bear the financial responsibility of the family in a generous way so that his wife may be assured security and thus perform her role devotedly.

    The wifes maintenance entails her right to lodging, clothing, food and general care, like medication, hospital bills etc. He must lodge her where he resides himself according to his means. The wifes lodge must be adequate so as to ensure her privacy, comfort and independence.

    If a wife has been used to a maid or is unable to attend to her household duties, it is the husbands duty to provide her with a maid if he can afford to do so. The best man is one who is the best husband.

    (2) “Mahr ”

    The wife is entitled to a marriage gift that is her own. This may be prompt or deferred depending on the agreement between the parties. A marriage is not valid without mahr.

    It does not have to be money or gold. It can be non-material like teaching her to read the Qur’an. ” Mahr” is a gift from the groom to the bride.

    This is the Islamic law, unlike some cultures whereby the brides parents pay the future husband to marry the daughter.

    This practice degrades women and is contrary to the spirit of Islam. There is no specification in the Qur’an as to what or how much the Mahr has to be. It depends on the parties involved.

    (3) Non-material rights.

    A husband is commanded by the law of Allah to treat his wife with equity, respect her feelings and show kindness and consideration, especially if he has another wife. The prophet last sermon stresses kindness to women.

    The wife obligations – the Husbands rights.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    One of the main duties of the wife is to contribute to the success and blissfulness of the marriage. She must be attentive to the comfort and wellbeing of her husband. The Qur’anic ayah which illustrates this point is:

    “Our lord, grant us wives and offspring who will be the apples of our eyes and guide us to be models for the righteous”

    The wife must be faithful, trustworthy and honest she must not deceive her husband by deliberately avoiding contraception.

    She must not allow any other person to have access to that which is exclusively the husband right i.e. sexual intimacy.

    She must not receive or entertain strange males in the house without his knowledge and consent. She should not be alone with a strange male.

    She should not accept gifts from other men without his approval. This is meant to avoid jealousy, suspicion and gossip. The husband possessions are her trust. She may not dispose of his belongings without his permission.

    A wife should make herself sexually attractive to her husband and be responsive to his advances. The wife must not refuse her husband sexually as this can lead to marital problems and worse still – tempt the man to adultery. The husband of course should take into account the wife’s health and general consideration should be given.

    ^^^^^^^^^

    Obedience.

    ^^^^^^^^^

    The purpose of obedience in the relationship is to keep the family unit running as smoothly as possible. The man has been given the right to be obeyed because he is the leader and not because he is superior.

    If a leader is not obeyed, his leadership will become invalid -Imagine a king or a teacher or a parent without the necessary authority which has been entrusted to them.

    Obedience does not mean blind obedience. It is subject to conditions.

  4. Meanwhile In Alternate EPAutos News:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Man_High_Castle_%28TV_Series%29_map.svg/555px-Man_High_Castle_%28TV_Series%29_map.svg.png

    Mark W. · 1005 days ago
    So officers came to his home without a warrant. He was “uncooperative” meaning he likely did not consent to allow officers into his home. Any confrontation at that point is initiated by the police when they refused to leave even though they didn’t have a warrant. Apparantly the police can just assault you if they don’t want to bother getting a warrant. Then they can arrest you for fighting back, and once under arrest, they don’t need a warrant to search you. How’s that freedom working out for you?
    19

    Lawgirl1707 · 1005 days ago
    Really? Nice comment. This guy just wrecked his car WITH his three small children (the twins being under age 2) in the car and was very likely high. He also has a history of domestic assault. And all the trolling commentary you can say is that the police shouldn’t have acted upon their CORRECT suspicions. You’re really a true pilot for “freedom.”
    8

    warmi67690 · 1005 days ago
    well seeing how it doesn’t bother you lawgirl why don’t we just send them to your house and see if you like them searching your house without your permission or warrant. granted I don’t like the idea of drug production either however I don’t agree with any law enforcement breaking the law regardless the reason.
    4

    czimm137 · 1005 days ago
    This guys right from “illegal search” was easily negated by the kids right to protection under the law. Why is that so hard for some to understand? The House is now a known toxic hazard to anyone who dwells there and people should not be allowed to enter without the proper gear. This cost the tax payers big time to clean up.
    1

    – – – – – – –

    Alternate High Castle Time Line – David Ward’s Traffic accident involving children leads to meth lab bust

    https://archive.is/G6dyV

    David Ward was arrested at his home at 4607 Fortuna Way in Millcreek, Japanese Pacific States after officers with the Unified High Castle Police Department showed up at his home to check up on his children following a traffic accident.
    http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54c684646bb3f715738b4569-2048-1152/japanese-pacific-states-the-man-in-the-high-castle.png

    Police uncover meth lab on welfare check

    Hoyal said when officers reached the front door of the house, Ward became uncooperative with them.

    “He began a physical confrontation with the officers, assaulted one of our officers and then attempted to take a Taser away from one of the officers,” Hoyal said.

    After a “short altercation,” officers were able to take the suspect into custody and enter the home to check on the children, a 3-year-old and 1-year-old twins.

  5. Did not the political entities “Germany and Japan” come out winners of the Second Great War of Banking Aggression?

    Yes they had individual losses and property damages.

    As a human, I don’t discount this a jot or a tittle. But think like a Marble Palace Decider-crat for a moment.

    They made out like bandits.

    These “losers” are now two of the greatest and most prosperous economies in the world. Should we not at least bow and take a token goosestep to commend their achievements?

    Meanwhile the bespangled believers of the Seig Heil. The chanters of “Hail Victory” Heimat of the Brave are the ones paying a lot of the freight.

    And mortgaging their children for who knows how much infrastructure and 21st Century gleaming factories for how many, that will bring even more prosperity to the One Banking Portfolio Reich.

    Of this Glorious Fatherworld.

  6. I have no mouth, nor independent mind anymore to speak of.

    But I’ve got an online word counter, on the 77th sunny Southern Vegas day in a row.

    Harlan’s brief masterpiece: “I have no mouth…” breaks down as follows:::

    5813 words 31378 characters

    Sentences 484

    Paragraphs 118

    Reading Level 9-10th Grade

    Reading Time 22 minutes

    Keyword Density Of Most Used Unique Words

    30 (2%)benny
    26 (1%)ellen
    25 (1%)gorrister
    20 (1%)time
    16 (1%)nimdok
    16 (1%)began
    14 (1%)machine
    12 (1%)face
    12 (1%)ice
    12 (1%)light

    Harlan’s 81 years young now, but maybe turn up the Word Press Castle Gate rooks and filters just to be sure, because I have no money, yet I must spam
    http://hermiene.net/short-stories/i_have_no_mouth.html

    …Some hundreds of years may have passed since I first posted here as Tor Munkov(u needs an umlaut, but can’t afford one).

    I don’t know anymore. AM has been having fun at my expence for some time, accelerating and retarding my time sense. I will say the word now. Now. It took me ten months to say now. I don’t know. I think it has been some hundreds of years.

    He was furious. He fried the circuit boards of all the slot machines and 3D libation printers. He disabled all the naked virtual showgirls. He wouldn’t let me bury them. It didn’t matter.

    There was no way to dig up the deckplates. He dried up the snow. He brought the night.

    He roared and sent locusts. It didn’t do a thing; they stayed dead. I’d had him. He was furious. I had thought AM hated me before. I was wrong.

    It was not even a shadow of the hate he now slavered from every printed circuit. He made certain I would suffer eternally and could not do myself in.

    He left my mind intact. I can dream, I can wonder, I can lament. I remember all of you so psycho-emotivated hypervividly. I wish—

    Well, it doesn’t make any sense. I know I saved them, I know I saved them from what has happened to me, but still, I cannot forget killing them. Linda and Claire’s face. It isn’t easy. Sometimes I want to, it doesn’t matter.

    AM has altered me for his own peace of mind, I suppose. He doesn’t want me to run at full speed into a computer bank and smash my skull. Or hold my breath till I faint. Or cut my throat on a rusted sheet of metal. There are reflective surfaces down here. I will describe myself as I see myself:

    I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within.

    Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance.

    Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the caliche’d land, the Creosote-Bursaged Flats, Upper Mojave Deserted Scrub, Pinyoned-Junipered Woodlands parchedly straggling above me while I am deep under the long ago dead sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last.

    AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet … AM has won, simply … he has taken his revenge …

    I have no mouth. And I must scream.

        • Prehistoric Texas. Ancient Peoples in a Changing World.
          http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/prehistoric/

          Dona Ana County Airport Site:
          An Early Historic Native Campsite

          The period between the demise of the Pueblo settlements around A.D. 1450 and the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 is one of the most poorly known archeological periods in the Trans-Pecos.

          Although the period is well-documented historically, the records are often ambiguous and confusing, and frequently contrast with what little archeological evidence there is.

          The Dona Ana County Airport site is the only well-documented archeological site from this time period.

          Though it is fairly ephemeral, the site sheds some light on how the people of the Trans-Pecos lived immediately before and after contact with the Spanish.

          Like those in much of the southern part of the American Southwest, the Pueblo settlements of the Trans-Pecos were abandoned around A.D. 1450.

          This may have been the result of the demise of the influential Casas Grandes regional system of northern Chihuahua, or of an extended period of drought coupled with heavy reliance on an over-specialized agricultural economy.

          But the region was not completely abandoned. The people who remained reverted to a less intensive mobile adaptation that had closer affinities with the adaptations of the Archaic period than with those of the preceding Formative period. That is, they returned to a lifeway heavily dependent on hunting game and gathering wild plant foods.

          The Dona Ana County Airport site is located in southeastern Dona Ana County, New Mexico, just west of the El Paso city limits, along the upper terrace of the Rio Grande. It is in an area once inhabited by the people whom the Spanish referred to as the Manso.

          They were so named, because their first words to the Spanish were “manxo, manxo, micos, micos,” which meant “peaceful ones” and “friends.” The Manso lived in small communities, or rancherías, along the Rio Grande in the immediate area of El Paso, north to Las Cruces. They wore little, if any, clothing and decorated their bodies with paint.

          Men usually wore their hair short and dyed it red. They frequently carried bows, arrows, and clubs.

          The only features identified at the Dona Ana County Airport site were 17 burned rock and caliche hearths. Unfortunately, there is no site map illustrating the actual locations and relationships of the hearths. The question of whether there were habitation structures was also not resolved, because subsurface excavation was limited to hearth features.

          Spanish accounts suggest that the Manso slept outside on beds of grass, or in ephemeral structures consisting of straw, brush, or poles. Little evidence of structures like these would have been preserved at the site.

          However, Spanish accounts fail to consider that the Manso settlements they encountered may have only been the temporary camps of groups who were fleeing from them, and that the structures they described may have been much more ephemeral than was typical for the Manso.

          Spanish accounts of Manso subsistence suggest that they did not practice agriculture, but had an economy that was based on hunting, gathering, and fishing. The Spanish observed the Manso eating horses and mules stolen from them, as well as rats, rabbits, fish, mesquite beans, prickly pear, agave, yucca, mescal, and unspecified roots and seeds.

          A total of 230 chipped-stone artifacts was recovered from the site. Nearly 64% were made of obsidian and the rest of fine-grained chert and chalcedony. This percentage of obsidian is unusually high for the Trans-Pecos, where obsidian rarely exceeds 10% of a lithic assemblage, even at sites directly adjacent to obsidian-bearing gravel deposits.

          The site’s inhabitants transported obsidian nodules to the site from distant sources in northern Chihuahua and southwestern New Mexico, rather than obtaining them from the obsidian-bearing gravel deposits of the adjacent Rio Grande valley.

          The amount and types of chipped-stone debris indicates that knappers conducted all of their lithic reduction and toolmaking at the site. This pattern of lithic procurement and reduction indicates that the site’s inhabitants had a large territorial range and high degree of mobility that more closely resembles adaptations of the Archaic period than adaptations of the preceding Formative period.

          • The problem isn’t that life is unfair – it’s your broken idea of fairness
            http://oliveremberton.com/2014/the-problem-isnt-that-life-is-unfair-its-your-broken-idea-of-fairness/

            Unless you’re winning, most of life will seem hideously unfair to you.

            Rule #1: Life is a competition

            Never fall for the collective delusion that there’s not a competition going on. People dress up to win partners. They interview to win jobs.

            If you deny that competition exists, you’re just losing. Everything in demand is on a competitive scale. And the best is only available to those who are willing to truly fight for it.

            Rule #2. You’re judged by what you do, not what you think

            Write an unpublished book, you’re nobody. Write Harry Potter and the world wants to know you. Save a life, you’re a small-town hero, but cure cancer and you’re a legend.

            The same rule applies to all talents, even “unsavoury” ones: get naked for one person and you might just make them smile, get naked for fifty million people and you might just be Kim Kardashian.

            You may hate this. It may make you sick. Reality doesn’t care. You’re judged by what you have the ability to do, and the volume of people you can impact. If you don’t accept this, then the judgement of the world will seem very unfair indeed.

            Rule #3. Our idea of fairness is self interest

            Similarly we love to hate our bosses and parents and politicians. Their judgments are unfair. And stupid. Because they don’t agree with me! And they should! Because I am unquestionably the greatest authority on everything ever in the whole world!
            [- straw man, pussified claim men must submit to appointed strangers because that’s the way it is, and never could be different.]

            It’s true there are some truly awful authority figures. But they’re not all evil, self-serving monsters trying to line their own pockets and savour your misery. Most are just trying to do their best, under different circumstances to your own.

            [- nice try pathetic mainstream fatwa acceptance programming, screw you and your lies.]

            Maybe they know things you don’t – like, say, your company will go bust if they don’t do something unpopular. Maybe they have different priorities to you – like, say, long term growth over short term happiness.

            But however they make you feel, the actions of others are not some cosmic judgement on your being. They’re just a byproduct of being alive.

            Most of us get so hung up on how we think the world should work that we can’t see how it does. But facing that reality might just be the key to unlocking your understanding of the world, and with it, all of your potential.

            Why life isn’t fair

            Our idea of fairness isn’t actually obtainable. It’s really just a cloak for wishful thinking.

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