A YEAR IN GREECE.

      Most countries across the globe 2012, was a year of protest and mass demonstrations, in some cases, extremely violent confrontations with the protectors of the powers that be, have accompanied these events. In Europe, no more so than Greece. No matter how violent and brutal these confrontations become, life goes on in some form or other, people go about trying to get by, trying to get a life.

     In this slide show of a year in Greece, I think Teacher Dude has captured that fact, a year of love and hate, tranquility and anger, spectacular and ordinary.

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CHILDREN OF THE RIOTS.

       I have posted this video before, but I think it is worth viewing again. It is fascinating to watch young people with courage and determination, try to create a decent life in a ruthless system that reacts brutally to their every complaint. A society that doesn't give a shit about their future. that offers them no hope, they have to bring their dreams to fruition in spite of the system, not through the system. It also seems that in Greece the lines are more clearly drawn, more easily visible and better known by the vast majority of the people.

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A VOICE FROM SNIPER'S TOWER.

      Not the type of comment we got from that babbling brook of bullshit known as the media, while they were supposed to be reporting the violence during that period in the 90's. The inscription makes you wonder, who wrote it, and why was he there, up in sniper's tower, how did he see the struggle that was being written in blood, what were his hopes and dreams up there at that time? When was it written, before, during or after the violence?
A recent comment on Reddit:

Hi there!

This last summer I went to the Balkans for a couple of weeks. While there, being in Mostar (Bosnia i Herzegovina), I found this text written on a wall of the so called "Sniper's tower".

The text reads:

Oppressed people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated and everything else to change the global power structure which is strengthening up the strong ones and taking away the power from the already poor people. All these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit and hypocrite vicious police. tear-gas, water cannons, restrictive border control; familiar sights of the new world order. We have got to find new ways how to break these structures otherwise this phenomenon of oppression will repeat itself again+again. Build up your own opinion, don't let yourself be led by national, supranational or any kind of leaders.

It got me thinking, to be honest. After all, Bosnia has recently (90s) seen quite a bit of war and I guess that these kind of situations trigger quite radical viewpoints. We're seeing how, for example in Europe, the economic crisis is leading to the "empowerment" of what used to be radical parties (by radical I understand those that preach for something utterly different of what we have now), be it right or left-wing.

So, what all this was about, do you think that more people will start to realize how oppressive capitalism really is and look up for "isms" like anarchism? This situation is really hard on many people but I think that if, after all this, we can set up a completely free society, it will be worth it.

And that's me rambling about one picture, thanks for reading 

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CENSORSHIP?

      A Star Trek clip that was never released in America! I wonder why??

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ONE WORLD, ONE CLASS.

Thought for today:

"While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. While there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

Eugene V. Debs, November 5, 1855 - October 20, 1926.

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WHEN IT'S A CRIME TO BE HUMAN.

     All states are authoritarian, in the so called "good times" they wear gloves, but as they squeeze the citizens and the citizens start to resist, the gloves come off and we have bare-knuckle fascist brutality. That is what we have in Greece, that is what is coming our way, it's all a matter of time.

This from Petro Kapetanopoulos protest site:

      In Greece, being a citizen and a human being is a felony!

*We sign– share and demonstrate for citizen Petros Kapetanopoulos,  for democracy, for justice and against all kinds of fascism, whatever its disguise!

     On July 21st, Petros Kapetanopoulos heard shouting in his neighbourhood, in Kolonos (Athens). He had just put his young son in bed and told his wife he would go out to check what was going on. As he went down the stairs, he saw five officers of DIAS squad that had arrested an immigrant. One of them had his foot on the arrested man’s stomach. “Why are you doing this? You’ve arrested him, there is no need for violence!” said Petros Kapetanopoulos. Then, they explained Petros that they were not walking on the man and demonstrated strong violence again, by hittin the man, again “This is walking on the man”, they said.  Petros repeated that this was all about torturing a man that is already arrested.  The end result? Petros was also arrested!

    After that, the immigrant is accused (and, later, admits) he had stolen the bag of a young girl, because he was hungry.  Petros Kapetanopoulos, on the other hand, is charged with the following:

Α. «resisting arrest»,

Β. «false  testimony»,

C. «attempt of  liberating a prisoner» while there is not a single evidence on this, not even from the testimony of the officer (the only accusation witness),

D. and, finally,  not only the Public Prosecutor drafts a common file charging Petros Kapetanopoulos and the immigrant man, also accusing Petros of  «simple complicity in robbery», which is a felony!

       After all this, among others, Petros Kapetanopoulos –being a public servant- is at risk of being deprived from his income for four years and is ex officio temporarily laid off as he is indicted for felony.

At the same time, the same charges may mean lots of years in prison, if he is not proclaimed innocent in Court.

     At the Press conference that was given, after Petros Kapetanopoulos’ attorney explained the legal situation of his client, party representatives, organizations, unions and others have expressed their solidarity and support, speaking of a “State that wants none to care about their fellow people”**

Read the full article HERE:
Also sign the petition HERE:

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THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES.

        As austerity bites, the ingenuity of the ordinary people find alternatives to this corporate driven insanity that attempts to control every aspect of our lives. Which, of course, proves that there are alternatives, there is a better way. Let's hope what is happening in Greece, with their alternative economy, catches on and does what they say it won't do, replace the Euro and develops enough to undermine the present system. You have eggs, I fix washing machines, let's talk??

This from The Guardian:

       It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.
But not a single euro has changed hands – none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.
     "It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."
       In this bustling port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success. Organisers say some 1,300 people have signed up to the informal bartering network.
       For users such as Ioanitou, the currency – a form of community banking monitored exclusively online – is not only an effective antidote to wage cuts and soaring taxes but the "best kind of shopping therapy". "One Tem is the equivalent of one euro. My oil and soap came to 70 Tem and with that I bought oranges, pies, napkins, cleaning products and Christmas decorations," said the mother-of-five. "I've got 30 Tem left over. For women, who are worst affected by unemployment, and don't have kafeneia [coffeehouses] to go to like men, it's like belonging to a hugely supportive association."
      Greece's deepening economic crisis has brought new users. With ever more families plunging into poverty and despair, shops, cafes, factories and businesses have also resorted to the system under which goods and services – everything from yoga sessions to healthcare, babysitting to computer support – are traded in lieu of credits.

Read the full article HERE:

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HOW IN THE HELL.

Thought for the day.

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NUCLEAR SAVAGE.

      I believe it is always important to draw attention to how any state will inflict unbelievable cruelties on any people if it suits its purpose. We in the West get information on some of the vile and cruel actions by foreign states on their own and other people. However information of Western states brutal and inhumane treatment of people is a little harder to uncover. We are well aware of the brutality of the former USSR, that information was freely available, as they were the enemy of Western corporatism, so it was trumpeted in that babbling brook of bullshit, the media. The cold clinical brutality of the German Nazi regime is well documented and publicised. After all they were an emerging competing power.  However, the US using the Marshall Islands as a laboratory to study the effects of radiation, inflicted by the US, on human beings, between June 30, 1946, to August 18, 1958, must rate as one of the most callous, cruel, cold blooded, state experiments of that century. It may have happened a long time ago, but still in my life time, 

This from One Big Torrent:

     "John is a savage, but a happy, amenable savage." Thus intones the voice on a '50s-era newsreel clip in the documentary, showing footage of seven male Marshall Islanders who have been brought to the United States for radiation testing. "John is mayor of Rongelap Atoll. John reads, knows about God and is a pretty good mayor."The film does a stunning job juxtaposing examples of the smug ignorance of South Sea culture with the reality of what the US did to it.
       In "Nuclear Savage" Adam Horowitz exposes American hubris and the horrors of nuclear testing visited on the Marshallese people in one of the darkest chapters of human history. The United States conducted nuclear tests and deliberately exposed the Marshallese people to radiation and studied the effects it had on them in a secret project called Project 4.1.
      The Marshallese people were treated like guinea pigs and less than human. After studying the immediate effects of the fallout the islanders of Rongelap were transported back to their contaminated homelands for further long-term tests!!.Merril Eisenbud, the first health and safety chief of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission said in a secret 1956 meeting: "That island is by far the most contaminated place on earth and it would be very interesting to get a measure of human uptake when people live in a contaminated environment. . . . While it is true that these people do not live the way Westerners do, civilized people, it is also true that these people are more like us than the mice."
        At The Nuremberg trials the Nazis were hauled up for conducting experiments on human beings.The same rigorous standards does not seem to apply to the United States which flouts all laws with impunity and gives lectures to the rest of the world .Who is going to prosecute the US for their criminal actions??
       In a recent talk anthropologist Holly Barker pointed out that after all that nuclear poisoning there isn't a single oncologist in the entire Marshall Islands to treat cancer?-NOT-A-SINGLE-ONE.What this means is that anyone suffering from cancer caused by nuclear fallout is in effect handed a DEATH SENTENCE.The US has decided that 150 million$ is all that is needed to pay for the cancers,loss of homeland and livelihood and the environmental cleanup.150 million$ for 67 nuclear explosions whose total yield is equivalent to 1.6 Hiroshima bombs everyday for 12 years!
     Absolutely shameless!-Watch this and decide -WHO REALLY IS THE SAVAGE??

Further information

      During the period from June 30, 1946, to August 18, 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, all of which were considered atmospheric. The most powerful of those tests was the "Bravo" shot, a 15 megaton device detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini atoll. That test alone was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

       While the Bravo test is well known, it should be acknowledged that 17 other tests in the Marshall Islands were in the megaton range and the total yield of the 67 tests was 108 megatons, the equivalent of more than 7,000 Hiroshima bombs.

      For the sake of comparison, it may be noted that from 1945 to 1988, the U.S. conducted a total of 930 known nuclear tests with a combined yield estimated to be 174 megatons. Approximately 137 megatons of that total was detonated in the atmosphere. In other words, while the number of tests conducted in the Marshall Islands represents only about 14% of all U.S. tests, the yield of the tests in the Marshalls comprised nearly 80% of the atmospheric total detonated by the U.S.

Read the full report HERE:

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THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT.

       The Spirit of Revolt is a group that are attempting to archive as much material as possible of anarchist, libertarian socialist, grass-roots activities, from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. To date we have met with considerable success and have now acquired and catalogued a fair volume of material, which we will make available to the general public through the medium of our website, still under construction, and the Mitchell Library catalogue.

      We have also planned to have a series of exhibitions highlighting certain aspects of the collection. The first of these exhibitions will be held from the 14th. to the 19th. of January, 2013, in the foyer of the Mitchell Library. It is called Radical Presses Clydeside it's free and should prove to be fascinating to all those interested in working class struggle. I hope you can all come along, have a chat with members of the group and find out how you can get involved.

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WE ARE THE MAKERS OF HISTORY.

     Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children and grandchildren could read history like the following article? Well only this generation can make that possible, it is up to us to decide what history will look like to our following generations. Will it be a history of leaders and billionaires, of war and poverty shattering the lives of millions, of corporate greed still running rampant while raping and pillaging the planet for the gain of the parasitical few? Or will it be a history of peace, and an economic system that sees to the needs of all our people?  What we do in the coming year will shape our history, will we continue to allow the financial Mafia to pillage the public purse creating deprivation and death, or do we, with one united voice, cry out, enough is enough?

This from A World to Win:

When people decided that enough was enough.

New Year's message

society was being overwhelmed by a series of catastrophes to which there seemed no answers. Unemployment, poverty and inequality were rife as a global crisis took hold. The old capitalist economic system had run its course and was unsustainable.
The world was choked with products, many of them out of date as soon as they came off the production lines. Huge dumps and rubbish piles accumulated and overwhelmed parts of the planet. Waste, some of it lethal, became big business as it was shipped across the globe.
People became poorer as they lost jobs and services were cut by undemocratic governments in the pockets of the corporations. Increasing numbers depended on charity food banks just to survive. Obesity and diabetes epidemics affected the poor – due to the marketing of junk food by agribusiness and supermarkets.

Read the full article HERE:

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FAIR MINDED MR. SMITH.

        So Ian Duncan Smith thinks it is not fair that benefits have increased more than wages, and believes that benefit increases should be capped below the rate of inflation. Of course, in his drive for fairness, the fact that wages have increased less than the rate of inflation doesn't mean that he will call for an increase in wage settlements. What fair minded Ian Duncan Smith fails to mention, is that those on benefit, as a rule, tend to be living near, at, or below the poverty level, and any increase below the rate of inflation will most certainly push them further down that depressing pit. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of those who are working are also at, near, or below the poverty level, any wage increase that is below the rate of inflation is in fact a wage cut, adding more pressure to the endless struggle just to get by. Which is the situation that the ordinary working population of this country have been suffering for more than two years. Will our righteous Mr Smith, in his crusade for fairness, call on employers to make all wage increase at least equal to or greater than inflation. Most certainly not, that is not the direction to go if your are trying to create a UK sweatshop economy. Make no mistake about it, that is the grand plan, not just for the UK, but for the whole of Europe. Bit by bit we are being squeezed, bit by bit our standard of living is being lower. We are not at the level of the people of Greece, yet, but we are going in that direction, it is just a matter of time. Unless of course we decide that we have had enough of being screwed by millionaires, for the benefit of millionaires, and start to take control and change the system to one that sees to the needs of all our people.

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TO GOD, IT'S ALL IN A DAYS WORK.

      To those of us who sometimes wonder why America is the undisputed leader in mass killings by individuals, the article "Newtown Indian Massacre" on Anarchist News, comes up with a plausible line of thought.

        How do we know this? Because among hundreds of other tragic events going back to its origins, this country was founded on a two century long wave of massive institutionalized gun violence, the merciless annihilation of Native Americans who, because they resisted the imposition of the market and private property, were destroyed in a holocaust of unprecedented proportions. We question how the German people could accept the destruction of the Jewish people, but never ask the same question of 19th century Americans. Largely, Americans believed that they were doing God’s work. Manifest destiny is the destiny of money ordained by the spirit of Puritanism, and pity those who stood in the way. When it came to expansion, God led the Cavalry charge.

Read the full article HERE:

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A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

      America is seen as the dominant capitalist country in the world, and it follows that, by being the prison capital of the world. America had, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2,266,800 adults incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2010 – about 0.7% of adults in the U.S. resident population. This is way more than Russia and more than China, which is a country with a quarter of the earth's population.  The American prison population really started to rocket into stratospheric regions from the 1980's onward. It now has more people caged up than all of the other developed countries put together. It is also supposed to be a country based on justice and freedom but still manages to pass sentences 100 years or more on people. Though violent crime had fallen in America between 1992 and 2003, life sentences have risen dramatically by 83% during the same period. The year 2012 saw 43 executions in America, a total of 1,320 since 1976. The prison system has been called a crime against humanity, the death penalty is no more and no less than authoritarian state murder.

     Land of Freedom, leader of the free democratic world? Cage capital of the world!!! 

This from Anarchist News:

      On December 31st, at least 60 people responded to the call for a noise demo outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in downtown Manhattan. The crowd easily filled the street in front of the institution and an aural ruckus filled the air from noisemakers, voices, air horns, a variety of drums, and even a proper brass trumpet.

      Anti-prison and anti-police chants from the crowd accompanied a banner reading "BURN THE PRISON SOCIETY." Rebels in the street cheered on the caged and excluded as they banged on their windows, flicked lights on and off, and gave other signals of life from within an otherwise deadening, lifeless building. We moved back and forth around the building to be sure everyone could hear our screams and tried to be as close as possible to the cell of anarchist hacker Jeremy Hammond as we chanted his name.
     Let's make 2013 a terrifying year for capitalists and state operatives the world over and a joyous year for those seeking the triumph of life over death.
OUR PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS STRONGER THAN THEIR PRISONS
FOR THE ANNIHILATION OF PRISON AND THE PRISON-SOCIETY

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WORKERS, REMEMBER YOUR HISTORY, ATTICA PRISON.

      An event that shocked all sane people that heard of it, now drifts into mist of history, but we should never forget how brutal the state can react, any state, not just those far away despot regimes, but our own Western, so called civilised democratic states. In 1971 in Attica Prison New York the American state unleashed its fury at those who would attempt to defy its authority and a blood bath resulted.

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THE MASKING OF DEPRIVATION.

        While the media was spewing out images of everybody having a great time over the last week or so, we should remember that nothing has changed, austerity is still the plan. With fireworks, tinsel and an array of nicely wrapped boxes, it is easy to forget the misery inflicted the poor on a daily basis by this austerity and it is still there. Christmas has done nothing for the people of Greece who are still being rapidly pushed down the slope to the pit of deprivation. The media would have you think otherwise, with glowing reports of how the financial Mafia have agreed the terms for the next slice of bailout. Which in fact will never go anywhere near the ordinary people of Greece, it is merely to help out the Greek banksters. Just remember, Greece's today is our tomorrow, unless, of course, we change the system.

This from LibCom:

      As more loans have been released to the Greek state a combination of recent surveys and reports show the true effects of years of austerity. There has been across the board reductions in conditions and living standards for large parts of the Greek population.
       The political and financial worlds have been feeling pretty pleased with themselves recently. The next instalment of loans to the Greek state have been released and the country's credit rating has even improved. The Prime Minister and his government tell us that this means Greece is on the road to recovery. The government and it's international lenders have saved Greece, just in time for Christmas.
In contrast to the official optimism(or delusion) a recent round of reports and surveys shows that the situation is in fact getting worse. Unemployment, corruption, suicide and homeless rates continue to rise as living standards and wages fall.
      The latest unemployment rate is around 26% and is expected to rise further still. 26% of the Greek working population comes to over one million people without work. In addition to this it's also possible that up to 500,000 more are unemployed but not included in official statistics. As the economy is expected to contract further in 2013 we should expect this rate to keep rising.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE CORPORATE VIEW OF HAPPINESS???

       Well the greed, gluttony, over consumption, festival of massive waste is all but over, for the time being. However this is capitalism and over consumption is the name of the game. Even although the illusion that this is happiness is soon dulled by the weight of debt left behind, it seems to repeat itself again and again. This system creates a world of obscene contrasts. Where we have this multitude gorging on all things material, we have millions dying of starvation, where we have millions titillating phony material desires created by advertising propaganda, on the other side of the coin we have millions desperately seeking material things simply for their survival. Surely even an idiot can see that there is something wrong with the system.

This from The Situation:

Thoughts on Christmas, and the Battle Between Materialism and Anti Materialism within Consumption Culture.
       The circus has once again come to town, hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands upon millions of feet are marching up and down streets all over the country (indeed all of the world) on a multitude of separate quests- chasing something, a dream, an image, an impossible reality sold to each and every one of us on our t.v’s, on billboards and in magazines. Like the children of Hamelin running blissfully towards their unhappy [1]ending all of us march glazed eyed and dozy footed through rows of lights and tinsel, eyes shining towards that unattainable moment, that glorious realization that can never quite be reached; because each time we get close to reaching material satisfaction, the advertiser, the store owner, the profiteer, our peers, and even ourselves snatch it away and raise the bar a little higher.
     Yet doggedly we keep on, believing somewhere somehow perhaps that in material we will find salvation, that among the cess pit of new toys, lingerie, and Christmas fucking pudding we might find something that will bring daylight streaming into the underside of the hill[2]- but we won’t. Shopping, the quest for material enlightenment is like masturbation without the orgasm[3]. Yet, when Christmas is done and put away and we go back to working overtime at our nine to fives to pay back the money we owe to loan sharks and credit card companies; we will if nothing else have once again achieved one giant cum stain of waste, broken toys, and half eaten food in the landfill of post consumer commodities.

Read the full article HERE:

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RED AND BLACK.

       There is nothing like a bit of emotion to get you all fired up. I've seen this show three times and if it comes round my way again, I'll probably go and see it once more. Enjoy.

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ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.

        New year, new year resolutions, great hopes, a time when we aim for our dreams. What is the dream of the ordinary people of this world, and what is the dream of the corporate power of this world? Will your dream be on the right side of history, will you make history and help that dream become a reality.

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WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

    For all those anarchists with an imagination and a vision of their utopian better world, you know, the one that we are all working so hard to achieve. Could you put it into words, what is the anarchist world you're struggling so hard to create, what would it look like? I have no doubt we will all come up with a different picture, but I have no doubt there will be some basics that will be universal, a deep respect for the other, co-operation and mutual aid, will be the basic building blocks.

A wee challenge from Combustion Books:

Introducing the Anarchist Imagination

     Everyone knows the world is a mess. There’s starvation and ecocide, racism and sexism. The rich get richer and the poor get dead, all while species go extinct and carbon warms up the air. It’s not surprising that so much of our fiction is as bleak as our future threatens to be.

      But we can imagine other worlds. We can imagine better ways to organize ourselves, better ways to treat one another, better ways to treat the earth. And specifically, we can imagine worlds without the authoritarianism of the state and capitalism. The question, then, is: what would those worlds look like?

     Combustion Books, a worker-run publisher of genre fiction, is looking to publish a new line of books: The Anarchist Imagination. We are looking for novella-length (15,000-40,000 words) anarchist utopias.

       Our intention is not, of course, to put down blueprints that must be followed line by line. We offer no prescription for future society. Instead, the utopia is a form we can use to explore our revolutionary desires, to showcase ideas we might put into practice, to give us glimpses of what we fight for.

     The utopia is a peculiar form of fiction to write, to be sure, and we’re looking for stories that balance the exposition of society with compelling narrative and character. The stories can be set in our own world–past, present, or future–or in fantasy. The politics can be anything anti-state, the economics anything that isn’t capitalism. As this series goes on, we hope to showcase just how wide this terrain can be.

Submissions can be sent to submissions@combustionbooks.org.
You can also view our regular submission guidelines.

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